#maybe it's my own bias as a bisexual showing
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Everyone who’s touched grief knows it’s bigger than two hands can hold. The inexperienced try to string together the right words to lighten the load and those who grieve wear a momentary mask of comfort, feeling instead heavier. Those who’ve experienced grief know there are not enough words in the world to replace something as simple as a small action.
You don’t remember the platitudes and false virtues strangers assign to the dead, but after a long day when you find your fridge full of precooked meals, you’ll remember who dropped off the potato salad. Max was sick of people who didn’t know her, telling her how kind her brother was. How funny he could be. How talented he was.
No one, save the rare few, know what to do with complex grief. Max didn’t know how to unpick her thoughts, let alone put them into words and hold them up for someone else to see and understand. That didn’t mean she didn’t want to be understood.
She didn’t know how she could miss someone so deeply while being in some small part, glad they were dead. No one tells you what to do when your thoughts betray you.
By the time Max and her mother moved into the trailer park, people had stopped telling her how much they missed Billy, which was a small blessing. They’d also stopped dropping off food or offering to do their laundry. Max and her mother had been too proud to take anyone up on that offer, but she missed the thought.
Two months had passed, and it felt like everyone forgot Billy existed, that anything had happened. Lucas and the other boys had started asking her to hang out again. The unspoken grace period given to her and her mother for mourning had ended. Now it was back to business as usual. Her mother returned to work, and Max was left alone in an empty trailer full of boxes.
That was when Steve arrived with a Tupperware container under one arm and a fancy untouched toolbox under the other.
“Figured you’d need some help,” the boy muttered, kicking off his shoes, not waiting to be invited in.
He knew better. If he’d asked, Max would’ve told him to piss off. She couldn’t understand why Steve of all people was able to read her moods so well.
Steve hadn’t been much help rebuilding the furniture, but he’d supplied the Allen key and screwdriver so she couldn’t complain. He was good at unpacking boxes. With the two of them working, the task had taken a day, as opposed to the week it would’ve if she’d done it on her own. She was meant to be in school that day, but she couldn’t bring herself to go. She’d expected that to be the last she saw of the older boy but instead, he made a habit of checking in on her.
Steve kept dropping off meals. After a week he started driving Max around on the days the mere mention of school threatened to topple her. Sometimes she’d hang around the back of the video store. On other days he’d drop her off at the arcade and she’d play Dig Dug until her eyes burnt and her fingers cramped.
She didn’t know exactly when it’d happened but somewhere along the way, she found herself getting strangely attached to the guy. She’d lost one brother but gained another.
That was why when Steve stopped driving home at night, she’d sent Eddie to get him.
Max didn’t know much about Eddie Munson. His uncle and Max’s mother infrequently drank coffee together at the communal picnic tables. Nothing ever happened. Max knew her mother and how she acted around her boyfriends. This was different. They just sat together, mostly in silence, watching the sun go down. It kept her mother from drinking so much or so early. What Max did know about Eddie Munson was that he owed her.
One night when her mother was out, the cops came poking around the trailer park, asking her if she’d seen anything suspicious. Max wasn’t dumb, quite the opposite. She knew Eddie sold drugs. She also knew the cops wanted to pin something on him. She wasn’t altogether sure why, maybe there was some pressure to put someone behind bars from the kinds of places that had neighbourhood watches.
It was only when crime started to leak into the suburbs that people went searching for the culprits. Some rich kid spikes a girl’s drink in Loch Nora and the next thing you know, they’re looking for drug dealers in trailer parks. The guy will get a smack on the wrist, while Eddie? He’ll get thrown in jail and the people of Hawkins will sleep a little better at night, knowing all is right and just in the world. Until the same guy does it again. Then another trailer park kid is marched off to the stocks.
Max had learnt how the world worked young. It’d been out of some strange sense of solidarity that she’d kept her mouth shut about Eddie. When the cops split, she’d given him the heads up to keep his nose clean while there was blood in the water. She hadn’t done it for a favour. But if nothing else, she was opportunistic.
Steve wasn’t driving home most nights. Max knew because she’d take note when the Beamer shot past the trailer park. Some days it was in the dead of night, others, the early hour of the morning. He wasn’t staying over at girls’ places like she’d first thought. Even if he wasn’t the golden boy he’d once been if someone slept with Steve Harrington, the whole town knew within the week.
She’d followed him one afternoon, riding her skateboard at a safe distance. He’d drive around, past their houses, as though on his own neighbourhood watch. He’d finish his patrol and pull up at any number of odd locations, the train tracks, the junkyard, the woods. At first, she’d worried he, like Billy, was possessed. After long days of silent observation, she realised the kind of ghosts that possessed Steve were of his own making.
Max didn’t know what to do until she saw the light on in the Munson’s trailer past midnight. She stalked across the way, pounded her fists on the fly screen, and called in a favour. She asked Eddie to check on Steve. He’d looked at her like she’d grown a third head but agreed.
Eddie Munson didn’t do favours but Red was a good kid, so he’d made an exception. He began his quest by driving past the Harrington’s manor, hoping for his own sake to find the BMW parked in the drive but Max had been right, Steve wasn’t home, nobody was.
Eddie was tempted to check all the usual spots he’d go if he were a meathead jock with ample time and money. There was skull rock, the notorious Harrington make-out spot and a has-been jock party was going on in the next suburb over from Loch Nora, but Red’s instructions had been clear. If Steve wasn’t at home, she’d rattled off a list of places he might be, each one growing stranger.
That was how Eddie Munson ended up in the junkyard. The place was surprisingly well-lit, despite the late hour. He worked his way through an overgrown thicket, cursing himself for wearing his white Reeboks. He’d be scrubbing out grass stains with a toothbrush for the next week.
Mounds of trash and scrap metal shot out of the dried grass like rocks rising from the ocean. Amongst it all, burning bright as a lighthouse was a rusting yellow school bus. It stood in stark contrast against the blue, black night. A dull glow bled out of the vehicle’s shattered windows.
Eddie found himself drawn to the little island of light as a moth flocks to a flame. His feet moved swiftly, eager as a young child at the prospect of adventure. He slipped in through the half-open door of the bus and was greeted by another body slamming into his.
Eddie’s head cracked against the metal bus frame, making him groan. It wasn’t until he tried to move that he realised there was something sharp pressed against his neck. Against all his better judgment Eddie swallowed, feeling a broken bottle nip at his skin.
Eddie’s eyes flickered to the wielder of the weapon. A once mighty king had fallen like his surrounding kingdom, into a state of disrepair. Steve Harrington. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
“Harrington,” Eddie spoke, keeping his voice soft and even, as though speaking to a wild animal that could startle.
There was a manic look in Steve’s eyes Eddie knew well. He’d never thought he’d see the ghost of himself dance across such a pretty and foreign face. The days before Eddie moved in with Wayne were better left alone. He knew the wide-eyed vigilance of people who’d grown used to fending for their lives. It was a look he’d never imagine Steve Harrington capable of.
A glint of recognition shifted over Steve’s face and the eyes of years long past were gone as though a trick of the light. The bottle disappeared from his neck, shattering as it dropped against the floor of the bus.
“Shit, Munson. Sorry,” Steve uttered, moving out of Eddie’s space.
Eddie was surprised Steve remembered his name. Across the six-odd years the two had gone to school together, Harrington had spoken to him a grand total of three times. The first, to ask for a pencil in Spanish. The second had been a disgruntled ‘hey, man’ as Eddie sidestepped his lunch tray on one of his biweekly jaunts across the jock table and the third, which Eddie only now recalled, had surprised him.
He’d gotten a D in history. It’d been the final nail in the coffin, solidifying the fact that he’d once again have to repeat his senior year. Eddie spent the rest of the class carving his name into the underside of his desk with his thumbnail until it was bloody and covered in splinters.
He’d almost lasted until the end of class before he had to excuse himself with little plan of where he was going or what he was doing. He knew he wanted to get away, that he needed to be anywhere but there. He wasn’t sure what’d tipped Harrington off but as he shuffled past the former king’s desk, his eyes downcast, a hand shot out to snag Eddie’s forearm.
“Hey, Munson? There’s always next year,” Steve muttered under his breath.
From anyone else, it would’ve sounded condescending, but Steve genuinely meant it. Eddie hadn’t known what to say. He’d felt a sudden lump rise in his throat. He took off, thinking it’d be the last time he’d see Steve Harrington. He’d wished he’d been so lucky.
“So, Harrington, what’s someone like you doing in a place like this?” Eddie asked when his heart rate returned to a regular rhythm. He heard a snort escape Steve’s throat as he leaned back against the opposite wall of the bus.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Eddie wanted to know when Steve had started to sound so world-wearied. Nineteen-year-olds shouldn’t sound so worn thin. The closer he looked at Steve, the more he saw. His eyes were chaliced with the kind of purple, blue bruises that came from weeks of sleeplessness. There was a pale pink scar, slicing a line from his bottom lip to his jaw. In time, it’d fade into obscurity, but for now, in the cold of the night, it stood out like a crack in fine china.
“What are you doing here?” Steve asked, sliding down the wall to a seated position, as though once again settling in for the night. Eddie heard glass tinkle and grind under Steve’s body.
Had his parents kicked him out? Was he hiding from someone? Eddie knew fuck all about Steve Harrington and he’d liked it that way. Screw not doing favours. Red owed him one after all this was said and done.
“Finding a new place to pedal goods. New chief of police has been riding my ass,” Eddie lied. It wasn’t as though he was going to tell Steve he was sent on a fetch quest by a fourteen-year-old.
A flicker of pain shifted across Steve’s face before disappearing. It was a moon sinking below the horizon line, leaving no trace of the momentary night as a false smile painted his face the colour of a sunrise.
“Can’t say I’d recommend this old rust bucket. Isn’t drug dealing in a junkyard a little cliche?” Eddie rolled his eyes and sank to the floor of the bus, nudging Steve’s foot with his.
“Keep giving me lip and you’ll have to pay double.”
Harrington never brought from him. The freckled asshat, he used to hang around with would buy weed once in a blue moon, but never Steve.
“You got anything on you?” He asked to Eddie’s surprise. He hadn’t exactly come prepared. He searched the depths of his pockets, finding two small ziplock bags and half a pack of rolling paper. He threw them Steve’s way.
“On the house. Looks like you need it,” He mused and watched as Steve’s fingers worked, quick and methodical. Hagan had obviously shared his stash with Harrington.
“Got a light?”
Eddie fetched his Zippo from his back pocket and leaned over to light Steve’s joint. The guy looked surprised. He should’ve handed the lighter over. Too late now.
Steve’s lips were poised so close to Eddie’s fingers. His face illuminated by flame, caused Eddie to shift closer. He lifted a hand to Steve’s cheek, acting under the guise of trying to shield the flame from the breeze filtering in through the broken windows and half-open door.
“You got anything stronger?” Steve spoke, breathing a plume of smoke into the night air. Eddie wasn’t sure it was wise, but he’d never counted wisdom as his strong suit.
“Back at my place.” Steve snorted, smoke billowing from his half-pursed lips, his eyes beginning to haze over.
“People’ll talk.”
People always talked when it came to Steve, but surely not in the way the boy was implying. Ramrod straight, Steve Harrington couldn’t make a gay quip, not about himself. Maybe he was embarrassed about what being seen with Eddie could do to his dwindling reputation.
“I’m pretty good at keeping a low profile,” Eddie supplied, and Steve nodded stoically.
“Stealthy, like a ninja,” Steve replied.
It was Eddie’s turn to choke out a laugh. Goofy had never been a quality he’d assigned to Steve Harrington. He supposed the trait had its charm. It worked on Eddie.
“Like a ninja,” Eddie echoed.
When he’d said yes to Red, he’d assumed he’d drag Steve’s likely-intoxicated, ex-jock ass home and call it a night, but looking at the boy across from him with the joint tucked between his lips and the thousand-yard-stare, Eddie had to admit there was a change of plans.
“Have you heard about the world’s best ninja?” Eddie asked, his once pristine shoes nudged themselves beneath Steve’s Born in the USA style blue jeans.
Steve shook his head, a flicker of curiosity dancing over his face, his stupid floppy hair, falling in his eyes.
“That’s why he’s the best,” Eddie insisted and felt his insides grow warm when Steve cackled. He was pretty when he laughed. He looked more like the guy he’d been back in high school, more carefree.
Eddie wasn’t a stranger to sitting with people and talking them down on their worst nights, but a relative stranger was new.
Eddie stood and extended a hand to Steve. The boy clasped onto his ringed fingers and pulled himself up.
“My van’s parked half a mile up the way, you coming?” Steve shrugged and followed close at Eddie’s side.
The two walked in relative silence, standing so close their hips played the role of balls in a Newton’s cradle, knocking against one another in a rhythmic pattern.
Back in the familiar landscape of his van, Eddie was once again hit with the strangeness of the situation as he watched Steve slide into his passenger seat, snubbing out the remains of the joint in the ashtray. He thought of their spit mingling in the little petri dish and pushed that thought aside. He’d always been good at holding back those kinds of thoughts. It came with the territory.
“Why do you need something strong?” Eddie asked as he turned the ignition.
If he’d learnt anything from his uncle, it was that hard conversations were best had behind the wheel. That way no one could storm out. He’d admitted to his uncle he’d failed his first senior year as the two sat at the juncture between Maple and Main. He’d come out to Wayne along Lakeside Dr.
“Why did you really come to the junkyard?” Steve countered. He was smarter than he looked, or at least, smarted than Eddie had assumed.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Eddie quipped after a second, watching as a bemused smirk twitched onto Steve’s face.
“It’s been a hard year, man. Hard couple of years,” Steve confessed. Eddie wasn’t going to let him get off that easy.
“Is this to do with you getting unceremoniously shunted off the top of the Hawkins’ High totem pole?” Eddie asked.
He had a feeling whatever it was ran far deeper than just popularity, but this was Steve Harrington. Steve was pretty and popular. He wasn’t allowed to have real problems. That’s not how the rich and stuck-up operated.
“Honestly? No. Think that might’ve been a good thing.” Steve drummed his fingers against the passenger door.
“Then was it the thing with Wheeler?” Eddie asked, watching Steve cringe. Maybe he should leave it alone.
“Part of it. I don’t know.” What followed was a loaded silence.
Eddie kept casting glimpses from Steve to the road, watching as his face screwed in concentration as he searched for words.
“I feel like it’s my job to protect everybody,” He admitted, his voice barely raising above a whisper.
“And I don’t know how. I feel like I’m supposed to have all the answers but I just... I feel like a kid, who’s in way over his head.” Steve pulled his knees up to his chest, and settled his chin on them, not daring to look in Eddie’s direction.
He was a year older than Steve and he felt like a lost kid most of the time, as though he was an imposter masquerading as someone who knew what the hell he was doing. He wondered if that feeling ever went away.
“Red sent me to check up on you. The kid’s worried,” Eddie confessed watching as Steve’s head snapped to look in his direction.
“She’s got enough on her plate without worrying about me.”
Steve didn’t need to say what Max was dealing with. Eddie knew. Hawkins was a small town, and Billy Hargreaves was infamous. Eddie had a bad feeling about the guy from day one, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel sorry for him, dying in a mall fire. Hell of a way to go. He’d heard rumours Max had been there when it happened. Then again, he’d also heard talk of Steve slinging ice cream at the mall. Eddie could see a picture beginning to form. He didn’t like it.
The two didn’t speak for the rest of the drive back to Eddie’s trailer. There was nothing left to say. Steve continued to tap his fingers absentmindedly, so Eddie leaned over, turning on the radio. The tape deck played the thrashing guitar and pounding beats of the latest Slayer album. Eddie liked it well enough, but he cringed, preparing for Steve to chew it up and spit it out. He didn’t. He shut his eyes, rested his head against the passenger window and promptly fell asleep. Eddie would be damned.
Unsure of what to do with the sleeping boy and the blaring music, Eddie drove in circles around all the familiar back roads of Hawkins, steering clear of the potholes and dirt tracks. It wasn’t until Eddie’s eyes started to droop that he called it a night, pulling up outside his trailer, flicking his floodlights twice in the direction of the Mayfield’s, letting Max know he’d gotten Steve home safe. Well, he’d gotten Steve to his home safely.
Eddie was contemplating the logistics of getting Steve out of the car when the boy began to stir. His eyes fluttered open for a second to meet Eddie’s before he groaned and turned to bury his face into the car seat. Damn it all. Eddie had managed to go for years without developing a crush on Steve, it wasn’t goddamn fair he was about to do it now.
“Good morning, Starshine,” Eddie teased, walking around to open the passenger door for Steve.
“Welcome to my humble abode. I have drugs or you know... a comfortable bed. Pick your poison,” Eddie spoke as the two made their way to his trailer.
As they stepped into the main room, Eddie watched as Steve’s eyes scanned the place, lingering on Wayne’s collection of mugs and novelty hats, a ghost of a smile on his face. Eddie grabbed onto Steve’s wrist and led him down the hall.
“The drugs and the bed are in my room,” Eddie explained as they went.
Eddie nudged the door to his room open with a flourish of his hands.
“This is where the magic happens,” Eddie explained and watched as Steve quirked a brow.
“Mind out of the gutter, Harrington. I was talking about literal magic.” Eddie smirked gesturing to his stack of Dungeons and Dragons’ manuals, handbooks, and campaign notes.
“You’re such a nerd,” Steve grumbled flopping onto Eddie’s bed.
Maybe it was the high that’d made him seem looser, but Eddie liked a Steve who took charge. He crawled under the covers, making himself at home in Eddie’s bed.
“Demogorgons suck ass,” Steve uttered after a moment, his face muffled by Eddie’s pillow. He wondered if he’d fallen asleep on the ride home and driven them into a ditch, because there was no way Steve was in his bed, talking about D&D. Eddie liked demogorgons, something he elegantly articulated by muttering,
“You suck ass.” As he flopped beside Steve in bed. Steve snorted.
“That’s one thing I haven’t tried,” he confessed. Yes, he was high. Eddie couldn’t imagine a sober Steve making that confession openly.
Eddie settled on top of the covers, hyperaware a sober Steve might not be as receptive to waking up beside Eddie. He was in over his head.
“Are you okay with this?” Eddie questioned as he rolled over to lay on his side, propping his head up to get a better look at Steve, half smothered in his sheets. As much as people talked about Steve’s love life, they also talked less favourably about Eddie’s, or his lack thereof.
“You’re not going to punch me in the face in the morning?” Eddie concluded, voicing his concerns. His heart was tugging him closer to Steve, but he wasn’t willing to do anything they’d both regret.
He’d been shockingly open to letting the boy into his innermost sanctum. Maybe he had a saviour complex, but he wanted to know how much of a commitment the two would have, how long was the piece of rope that tied them together? Was it a momentary truce or the start of something?
“No,” Steve breathed after a beat, seeming equal parts understanding and offended Eddie had asked.
The two lapsed into silence. Eddie was left wondering if Steve had fallen asleep again, but the rise and fall of the boy’s chest was too shallow. Steve eventually let out a groan and rolled to face Eddie. Whatever momentary reprieve had allowed him to sleep in the car had passed.
Eddie’s gaze was once again drawn to the growing blue beneath Steve’s eyes. He had stuff that could help Steve sleep, but he knew from experience, drugs could only do so much. They were numbing jell on a knife wound, a momentary relief from pain without fixing the real problem.
“Can’t sleep?” Eddie spoke, trying to get inside Steve’s head, to unpick what was going on with him. Steve nodded miserably.
“Anything I can do to help?” Eddie wondered.
There were no guidelines for the strange turn the night had taken. Steve opened and shut his mouth, gaping like a fish on dry land. He had some thoughts, it appeared, but none he was willing to voice right away. Eddie felt strangely endeared to the boy in his bed. He’d give him anything he asked, even if he didn’t think it was smart.
“Is it true, what people say about you?” Steve asked after a long pause.
That wasn’t what Eddie had expected. He blanched and watched as Steve’s eyes swelled, his panic rolling off him in waves, crashing head-on into Steve.
“Never mind, don’t answer that. Christ, that was invasive. Sorry,” Steve fumbled, sinking further beneath Eddie’s sheets to hide his face. It appeared it was a night for confessions.
“Were you asking about the satanic shit or the gay thing?” Eddie spoke candidly, his fingers knotting in the covers.
You didn’t come out to just anyone. You sure as hell didn’t come out to someone like Steve unless you had a death wish, though Eddie was quickly learning the Steve Harrington that existed in his head and the one lying in his bed were two different creatures.
“Forget I asked,” Steve repeated, rolling over to turn away from Eddie, a faint flush dusting his cheeks.
“I don’t worship the devil and I’m not gay,” Eddie found himself confiding.
He watched as Steve’s body went still. Eddie couldn’t see his face, but he could tell his mind had kicked into overdrive.
“Oh, cool,” Steve spoke sounding suddenly distant, as though that hadn’t been the answer he was looking for. Eddie didn’t know Steve Harrington at all.
“But I’d be lyin’ if I said you were the first guy I’ve had in here, Steve,” Eddie continued, giving away more than he’d intended.
Steve peered over his shoulder and quirked a brow. He didn’t look shocked or disgusted as Eddie had anticipated. He looked relieved.
“Like Bowie?” He wondered aloud. Eddie couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
“Yeah, like Bowie- I mean, I have a preference. Guys suit me better, I guess. But sometimes a girl’ll surprise me.”
The conversation felt intimate, surprisingly more so than when he’d admitted it to the guys in Corroded Coffin. With them, there hadn’t been follow-up questions. The guys had been supportive, but they hadn’t known what to say. It’d been another fact about Eddie they’d taken in their stride without much acknowledgement. He hadn’t felt the need to explain himself. He didn’t know why, but when it came to Steve, he felt like he needed to explain the whole thing in intimate detail.
“Me too,” Steve muttered, sounding entirely unlike himself. He was quiet and unsure; two traits Eddie had never assigned to the Steve that lived in his head.
“I mean... for me, girls are easy. Guys are... new?” Once more, Steve sounded unsure.
“Maybe not new because it’s always been there but I just left it alone.” Eddie wondered what’d spurred on the change, whether it was a near-death experience or something else entirely. Eddie was good at reading between the lines.
“Steve, I’m going to ask you again, okay? What do you want me to do?”
Steve sucked air in through his teeth, gripped the sheets and finally let his shoulders sag.
“Can you just... hold me, for a bit?” Steve asked at last, sounding as though Eddie had placed a loaded gun to his head. Of all the things Eddie had been expecting, that wasn’t it.
Eddie moved closer, lining up his hips and Steve’s back, throwing an arm around the boy’s waist. It was different. Eddie was used to closeted guys wanting to have sex with him, but they didn’t hang around long after.
He thought back to Steve’s words. The guy wanted to protect everybody, from god knows what, but who was looking out for him? He hooked his chin on Steve’s shoulder. He smelled faintly of cologne and something chemical, hairspray.
“This okay?” Eddie clarified. Steve’s body felt stiff and unresponsive in his arms.
Steve hummed. It took him a moment to relax but when he did, he practically melted into Eddie. The boy pushed back, fitting their knees together. Eddie was thankful they’d decided to keep their jeans on, fearful of what any more skin-to-skin contact would do. Steve cradled Eddie’s palm to his heart and dropped his chin to his chest, so Eddie could feel the ghost of the boy’s breath dance across his fingertips. Steve was a renowned good lay, but the Harrington charm went deeper than that. The guy was good at cuddling, something Eddie hadn’t thought was possible until he had every inch of Steve pressed and curled against him.
“This okay for you?” Steve asked after a moment, his breath tickled against Eddie’s knuckles.
“Great for me,” Eddie confirmed sounding as breathless as he felt.
Steve’s heart beneath his hand thundered, letting Eddie know the boy wasn’t as cool and collected as he was pretending to be. He didn’t point it out. He did two things very out of character for Eddie Munson. He remained still and silent. Steve’s breath grew deep and even. Eddie leaned closer, pressing his face into the nape of Steve’s neck as the boy began to whimper in his sleep.
“I got you,” He assured.
“You’re safe. M’not going to let anything happen to you.” Eddie promised.
It took time, but Steve settled and at last, Eddie let the long night swallow him whole.
Max decided Eddie Munson was useless. She’d watched him pull up outside his trailer around three and she hadn’t heard from him since. She’d thought the idiot would at least give her a heads up on how things had gone with Steve, but it appeared she had to do everything for herself.
At 10 a.m. when there was still no sign of life from the Munson’s trailer, save for Eddie’s uncle pulling in around six, Max stalked over and wrapped her knuckles against Eddie’s bedroom window. After a moment a mop of curly brown hair popped into view.
“Wha?” The boy grumbled, still half asleep.
“How did things go last night?” Max asked, taking the tone of a scolding mother, talking to a very small, very dumb child.
“Good,” Eddie confided a goofy grin crossing his face. It confirmed Max’s suspicions. Everyone else, save her, was useless.
“Well, where the hell was he? Did you talk to him? Did he seem weird? Is he okay?” Max rattled off a list of rapid-fire questions only to be hushed by Eddie.
“He’s sleeping, Red. Keep the volume down.”
Max opened her mouth to ask what the hell Eddie was talking about when she caught a familiar glimpse of styled, sandy hair peeking out from beneath the sheets. Max, unlike most people, wasn’t an idiot. She’d grown up in California, she knew the way the world worked. She didn’t need anyone to spell it out for her.
“Gross,” She grumbled. Not because Steve and Eddie were both men but because Steve was like her older brother and Eddie was- she didn’t want to think about it.
Max let out an elongated sigh, squared her shoulders and spoke.
“You like scary movies, right Munson?” He seemed like the type.
Eddie nodded.
“Michael Myers hasn’t got a thing on Max Mayfield. You do anything stupid with Steve and I’ll show you how I got the nickname Mad Max.”
Eddie swallowed thickly and nodded. It was all for show, but someone had to say it. Someone should always be in Steve’s corner. Max had the feeling Steve wasn’t used to people looking out for him. She knew the feeling.
“Sir yes sir,” He breathed, faking a salute. Max rolled her eyes.
She had a feeling she was going to regret bringing Steve and Eddie together but when hours later, Steve showed up at her house with a Tupperware container full of spaghetti and a secret smile on his lips, she had to admit, for once she might be wrong.
#steddie#steve harrington#eddie munson#steddie ficlet#ficlet#stranger things#bi steve harrington#bi eddie munson#Fluff and angst#sharing a bed#Pre season 4#post season 3#alternative 'first' meeting#max mayfield#honestly bi 4 bi is my steddie headcanon#I know it's not as popular#maybe it's my own bias as a bisexual showing#but I feel like bi rep#it is always either someone who is generally#into someone of the opposite sex#who has an 'oh I like this person' moment and realises they are bi#or someone who 50/50 likes both genders#give me more 'well I knew I was into the same sex'#but wow every once in a blue moon I'm smacked in the face#with opposite sex attraction and thrown for a loop#because that's closer to my personal experience#anyway that's my rant#also Max and Steve's relationship is cool#so I wanted to explore it more#metalhoops writes
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I finished Volume 3 of SVSSS, which encompasses the main story, and currently have my bookmark sitting at the first chapter of the Airplane Extras in Volume 4. I took a bunch of quote pics but have yet to review them and add thoughts.
Every time I read SVSSS, I forget how... incredible... the inside of Shen Yuan's head is. He's fascinating.
Like, he's misogynistic (even while criticizing Airplane's own misogynistic writing), he's homophobic, AND he's transphobic. Not in a way where I think he thinks anyone deserves fewer rights than anyone else (I think he's generally a nice person, although, holy shit, I would not trust this man to craft policy of any kind) or would prevent anyone from living however they chose to live, a lot of his problematic bullshit stays inside his own head as he tries to understand the world around him using the stallion novel formulas he was given, but he's carrying around SO MUCH unexamined bias that supports his refusal to examine himself and his own desires.
Some of it reads (presumably intentionally) a LOT like the kind of conflicting, problematic bullshit a lot of queer people carry around inside their heads as they struggle to untangle themselves and their beliefs.
And while I do wish that Shen Yuan had been forced to confront and address his misogyny and transmisogyny even further than it does come up (in part because it is DEFINITELY affecting the way he thinks about gay men as well, including and especially Binghe), I do kind of... appreciate on some level that he thinks this way? From a character standpoint? Because I think it's probably realistic for a privileged young man spending a lot of time on the internet reading shit like PIDW to look at the world this way. And it's clear even through his own narration that his blindness in certain areas is causing him a lot of trouble. While I do have criticisms and personal wishes, I do appreciate the depiction of personal character development that is just... a cringeworthy mess of internalized bullshit the whole fucking time.
Also, it's SO funny to me that he reads as SO aro-ace-spectrum to me (probably gay, but generally detached from sexuality and possibly also partially from gender) AND he actually knows... the word asexual, I don't think he has a very broad understanding of asexuality... but he knows the word and yet doesn't personally identify that way. He mentally accuses both Luo Binghe (main story, before finding out Binghe is into him) and Liu Qingge (Succubus Extra) of being asexual for showing no interest in women, only to fail to reflect on how he ALSO demonstrably has no lasting personal interest in the women around them, which doesn't read as very genuine to me.
(EDIT: Again, I am not against a bisexual Shen Yuan interpretation either! I am willing to be persuaded by any author who wishes to tell a particular story. But Shen Yuan's attraction towards women often reads personally to me as very shallow and possibly insincere.)
"I willingly read PIDW, that proves I'm straight!" he sincerely thinks to himself, even though his favorite wife is the one without explicit sex scenes and he also admits to skipping over a lot of them.
"I'm able to tell when women are beautiful, that makes me straight!" thinks the guy who mentally censors nudity whenever demon women lose their clothes, and keeps telling us how "the average reader" of PIDW would react to these beautiful women instead of conveying his own attracted reactions. His actual reactions are generally centered on a woman's narrative significance. The only people he personally seems to find attractive are Luo Binghe and maybe Liu Qingge.
Though my interpretation was that he does probably experience sexual arousal and have a sex drive (see his username), which probably helps with his conviction of straightness, I'm not sure that there's any mention of Shen Yuan even masturbating at all in the entire main story of SVSSS? He never tried to hook up with anyone. Sex is apparently not a priority for him.
(EDIT: He does seem to enjoy sex with Binghe in the "Bing-mei vs. Bing-ge" Extra. He loves Binghe and likes the closeness and the physical pleasure. I appreciate the indication that they're working on moving on from the AWFUL intercourse pushed by Xin Mo's possession and possibly also the System's Scenario Pusher.)
And Shen Yuan seems to view women as being and behaving Fundamentally Differently from men and gay men as behaving Fundamentally Differently from straight men (as soon as he learns Binghe is into him, he thinks about how Binghe isn't behaving like the characters in his sister's gay, non-con, BDSM erotica novels), seeing everything through the lens of novel tropes, such that he seems to view sex and sexuality and gender as being deeply mixed with a person's personality. So he can't be a gay man, because he's too "Normal", in his mind at first, because he doesn't behave like his own mental image of "How Gay Men Behave" (or "How Women Behave / A PIDW Wife Behaves"), while also demonstrably not being anything like "the average reader" of PIDW and also apparently not caring too much about his own masculinity? Like, I do think he likes being the gentleman scholar of Qing Jing Peak, he does like appearing dignified and strong and cool, he doesn't like losing, he doesn't really like playing "damsel in distress" roles, and I do think he likes being gallant towards women, but he's not too concerned about seriously competing with figures like Luo Binghe or Liu Qingge? He's happy enough to back down and let someone else take the lead if necessary. He puts up with being put into the roles of female leads even if it embarrasses him and he rolls with the punches to his pride easily enough. He seems to have decided his Sexuality By Default, so it does make me have a lot of thoughts about whether or not he's potentially going with Gender By Default / Convenience as well.
Someone get this man some amateur and academic literature on gender and sexuality (and a lot of other stuff), stat, so he can ignore it, probably.
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Hi my ask is unhinged and nosy. So many readers agree Hyunjin is a relationship now and happy very deeply into the relationship... Is see many people read the relationship as straight some read it as gay. Why do different readers see different genders? Now Hyunjin himself has said and done things over the years the show me he isn't straight...but some not straight men still actively date women esp in Korea but who know what truly happens behind the scenes He's also feminine and a water sign does this play a role in how people perceive thing?
I don't really care whether he's gay or straight or anything else, I don't think fans should care that much either. Other readers say he's happy in this relationship, so just support him and his relationship from afar. And different readers pick up different things, maybe due to him being bisexual or their own wish for him to be gay. It gets complicated, especially when readers bias get in the mix of the reading. That's why I prefer to do readings on people I don't know nor follow, less biasness on my part. After the sports series, I will consider doing an ideal type reading on him and the gender, personality etc....will show up.
Not judging, but the question does seem a bit unhinged. Why do you wish to know this?
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Some pjms are immature and let their own desires and assumptions overtake. A lot of them need to remember jimin is a grown man and not their friend. They create ideas of him based on their own interpretations and run with it. It starts with his career. Jimin is not a clueless person. Yes he can get screwed over and he has by his label during his solo era but he's not a child that has no idea what choices to make and he's not miserable. Some solos love playing managers or think they know better than him. Even the art cover for closer than this, which is usual hybe work they were ranting about it but how about letting jimin decide what he wants to do? Idk but I feel like out of all pjms nitpick so much while other solos just eat everything up. Of course we aren't a cult and we don't have to like everything but let's have boundaries and respect him. Also, people need to know the difference between art interpretation and a real person. Saying Jimin's art is queer coded or even interpreting things in that way to is one thing but it's another to make statements on his life using that. We don't know him and it's unfair to speak on someone's private life without their consent. I say this as a queer person. However one express themselves isn't a sign to state things for them. And no I'm not saying he's straight and I'm aware of the bisexual coding. But that still isn't enough for me to speak on the life of a man I don't know. And using the he can't come out argument for me also doesn't work because not everyone even wants to come out or even tries to. As a queer person myself maybe my expression shows in ways I'm queer because it happens for some and it doesn't for others so once again not denying anything but I'm not asking people to speak on it without my consent just because of the way I express myself. That's the thing consent is a big thing with things like this. I know people are curious and I'm not saying this to come at harmless queer fans. But it's not all of us and too many are overstepping and treating him like a fictional character. I'll say it's especially white queer fans and it reeks of racism and western centric ideas targeting East-asian men. And the confirmation bias is a big thing. If you look for something you will find it. Like jimin himself said in his doc filter wasn't about himself personally and just a concept while some were asserting it is to make statements about him personally. I wouldn't care if it wasn't becoming risky for him. Some of the things people were saying on Jimin's behalf regarding his sexuality and private life he never disclosed to us ahead of his enlistment were disappointing to see because it's all projection and some move like they want it to have negative repercussions for him in real life just to validate their ideas. Let me not get into the fetishizing and overly sexual lens with which all of his interactions with men are seen it's like they can't see jimin in a normal lens or let him have male friends or interactions without legit sexually harassing him over it. And I single out pjms because that's his solo fandom and I expect them to be better but this is heavily on armys/shippers too. I hope everyone takes a step back and stop being so invested in Jimin's life while he's enlisted. Because stanning should be a hobby. It's not trying to live through someone else's life. I forgot to add: there's so much biphobia it's awful to see. Because it's really both queer/gay and straight people never acknowledging bi people. It's not lost on me how people react at the idea of jimin being with a woman or even reinforcing mlm stereotypes on him based on his appearance. All because he's a pretty man. Anyways this ended up being too long but I hope for a fandom cleaning in these 18 months and for everyone to get in touch with reality. For everyone's sake and for Jimin's especially. He deserves better and respectful fans and I know he has to talent and potential to have a long and thriving career as a soloist-the best out of korea - when he comes back. I hope fans can support him the right way.
.💯
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══✿══╡ ABOUT ME!! ╞══✿══
Basic Knowledge:
➙ my name is yoko (you can call me yoks, koko, taeyeonschild really anything else you want idc)
➙ i am from canada (proudly ✊)
➙ i am bisexual (MAYBE????), and my pronouns are she/her
➙ i am currently a minor, but i am not yet comfortable disclosing my age. however, non-minors are completely welcome on this blog.
➙ i am an entp (hardly…people scare me 😰)
➙ my star sign is cancer
➙ i have adhd, and anxiety
➙ i’m actually really funny when i try hard enough
Interests:
➙ i have been into k-pop since december 2022, so I am still decently new to the community
groups I stan:
-stray kids {bias: the love of my life lee felix}
-girls generation {bias: my mother taeyeon}
-itzy {bias: lia/changes every comeback}
-txt {bias: ot5}
-(g)i-dle {bias: ot6…}🙁
➙ i am currently addicted to sims 4, and i haven’t turned off my laptop in a week. (i’m on the grind 😛)
➙ outside of k-pop my hobbies include; poetry, watching netflix, reality shifting, video games, architecture…. idk what else, i’m honestly quite boring
➙ my favourite show is “My Name”
➙ my favourite song is “WHO?” by Stray Kids
Writing:
➙ ill write drabbles, imagines, headcannons, and reactions, but i’m not yet ready to write any longer fics atm. (i actually don’t know the difference between any of those, i’m just writing random terms i’ve heard 🥶)
who will i write for?:
-by my own free will = stray kids. mainly felix.
(i am extremely hyper fixed on them, and they are all that lives in my brain)
who will i write for if asked?:
-txt
-itzy
what will i not write?:
-NO NSFW CONTENT (!!i am a minor!!)
-no member x member (that’s icky)
———————
i am a skinny white girl, so i will not write anything from the specific pov of anything else,
since i haven’t experienced those issues myself
(ex: member x poc!reader. member x chubby!reader)
i will try my best to not include any race, or character specifics in my writings, to keep the mc as neutral as possible (everyone is wanted, and included here)
i have been writing since i was young, and it has always been a passion of mine, but I have never had the confidence to share it online,
until now.
i hope to begin writing on this blog, and i hope you follow along, and enjoy my work!!
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Nahhh because when I started doing my own little dig and went “okay I think he’s gay, LET ME LOOK AT COMPILED BY THE OTHER SIDE” trying to be objective and real about a potential bias…all I got was a bunch of “this is just how I feel” and “I think he doesn’t understand himself” and “maybe he could be gay but I like him being bi (like me) better,” which…I’m sorry but. That’s not analysis??
I was floored by the fact that people act like they’re equally weighed options months ago…and still find myself confused by it being controversial to think Mike liking girls is being undercut so hard it’s difficult to believe he’s bisexual in any way. Like you and everybody has said before: headcanon him how you want. But I have yet to see Bi Mike evidence as compelling as gay Mike, to the point where “evidence” for Mike liking girls I see feels like bringing a plastic fork to a gunfight as someone who looks at the show analytically LMAOOO
SO FUCKING REAL ANON THIS IS SO DAMN REAL HUGE HUGE MOOD 🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝 ITS NOT ANALYSIS BUT AOSOSOSOSO MANY PEOPLE CONFLATE HEADCANON WITH ANALYSIS AND IT MAKES ME INSANE
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Hello! Since you are a Claude fan I wanted to ask something that maybe you could better explain from your own perspective. When I first played VW, I was confused by Claude saying he felt like an outsider because he doesn't belong in either Fodlan or Almyra. Like, I get that life sucked in Almyra cuz he's mixed race. But, like, nobody in Fodlan is capable of realizing that he's half Almyran. And he doesn't face any prejudice against him in Fodlan because nobody thinks of him as Almyran. (1/2)
Because the game treats his Almyran prince status as this huge, stupid secret, it robs Claude of the opportunity to actually face, well, any negative reaction in Fodlan at all. Only Lorenz and his dad don't trust Claude, but that's because he's the heir of house Riegan. The Golden Deer love Claude and never show prejudice or bias at him. And Claude never suffers prejudice like Dedue, Petra, Cyril and even Shamir discuss from being known foreigners. It feels like a dissonance for Claude (2/2)
I've been knighted as a Claude fan fkdhskal. My day has come! But on to the ask:
I think it's important to remember one very crucial thing: in Fódlan (and the real world, but sometimes fantasy games are Bad), race ≠ nationality. Claude doesn't get flack for being of a mixed heritage, or Almyran, because no one...knows he is. He doesn't face the same hardships as the other foreign students/occupants of the monastery because he just looks different than the majority, rather than admitting to being from over yonder.
Claude feels like an outsider because to maintain his status as Just Your Average Fódlan Denizen, he can't be honest about who he is. His secrets, in this case the ones that are keeping him alive, exacerbate his difference from others. It's like--have you ever been a part of a conversation where you don't really know what's being discussed, but you stick around and play along as if you do, because you don't want to admit you don't know? It's along the lines of the isolation that's wrought from that; you certainly know you don't fit with this discussion, and sooner or later everyone else is going to catch on too. Maybe a better example, and one I can personally speak to, is sexual orientation. I can pretend just fine that I'm only attracted to men, and if I Behave Accordingly, no one will ever be the wiser as to my bisexuality. I won't earn a side eye or face any displeasure brought on by my existence. But it would still be a lie. I'm still one wrong move from garnering the reaction I would have gotten if I'd just flat-out admitted to being queer. I'm not free from prejudice; I'm lying to evade it. And the latter is fucking exhausting, and isolating, and awful.
Claude is much the same. It's less that he doesn't face the same hardships as others and more that he's been put in the (un)fortunate position to lie about it. Because there is nothing good to be had about hiding away certain parts of you in a corner, knowing if someone peeks around your shoulder, they'll see something they might not like. And seeing as things like that are the very fabric of one's existence, that's easier said than done.
We end the game (sans epilogue/ending cards) without Claude being able to admit to who he is and where he comes from, because Fódlan isn't quite ready for that yet. Because he's pedalled as hard as he could on this side of the border, and it wasn't enough; his ideal world of no prejudice/xenophobia is still out of reach, which means he can't be completely honest yet. He calls on the Almyran army easily enough in two routes, but that's just a step up from his usual allusions to Not Being From These Parts; there is no room for him yet, and that takes a toll on a person.
TL;DR: Claude's lack of obstacles created by prejudice is a result not of dissonance/his uniqueness, but rather his creating a whole new path paved with untruths, to the detriment of his feeling like he belongs. To anyone who could make his life here hard, he's not an Almyran that gets special treatment; he's a quirky Fódlan noble who has his finger in several pies, and one of them seems to be Almyran.
#i hope this makes sense ???")$+#fe#fe3h#fe16#fire emblem: three houses#s responds#claude von riegan#anonymous metropolis
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DCLA SONGS THAT FITS FOR PRIDEMONTH
Note: Even if I have listened to Bia songs, I haven't analyzed them as much and therefore, I can't include them. If you know some Bia songs that fits for pride month, you're welcome to reblog and include them. The same goes for songs I forgot to mention from Violetta and SL.
So, let's begin!
Si es por amor - I mean, obviously. Not only does the music video give off... very not-straight vibes (and I have interacted with people who legit kind of realized their sexual orientation thanks to that mv!), but it's the lyrics too. It's about love - what you do for love, what kind of love you want... You get it!
Underneath it all - I have written a whole post about this before, and it's all in the lyrics. In "canon" we know what this song is about, but when we look at the lyrics on it's own... so much subtext! Hiding who you are, wanting to come out but finding it out, hoping that one day people will accept who you are "underneath it all"... just listen to the song! Every single line can be subtext if you want it to!
A rodar mi vida - This is only because it's Jim and Yam's favorite song and they are lesbians /hj But ok... this song has been used in the show, not only as a fun little tune they perform, but also as a literal love dedication from one girl to her "best friend". A song about how life just keeps rolling, rolling, rolling on, my love. I don't know where, but I don't think you know either. This does not HAVE to mean something queer, but none of the songs HAVE to mean that, so shut up.
Junto a ti - This song is about best friends and how they stick together with each other no matter what. It was written by a girl dedicated to her best friend - said best friend she had known for like 5 months at that point. Of course, it's often sung in a platonic way, but there has been times it has been used in more romantic ways - like the time Marco sang it to Francesca at the karaoke.
Though really, if I am being honest, it's here because I'm a Franletta shipper and Fran wrote this for Vilu. So.
Claroscuro - A song about how someone isn't the perfect person people think - they're poisonous, bad, there is only darkness. Could be interpreted as someone having a bad coming out and singing about how they weren’t the perfect person people expected them to be. At the same time, they are proud of it. ”Yeah, i’m the darkness, i’m bad, i’m out of control. That’s me!”
Yes, I do - This is neither a Violetta or SL song really, but it’s a song that has been sung in both shows (and I do listen to Yam's cover on Spotify a lot) so it’s def a DCLA song u know. It's a love song, and you can sing it to anyone who you love. Also every time Yam sang it in SL, which was like 2-3 times, all the girls in the room melted. So. Queer vibez.
Soy mi mejor momento - This is my best moment! The song is about growing up, becoming an adult. It can also work as a sort of coming out song :)
Catch me if you can - This one's kind of interesting, because it can be interpreted in many ways. For this, we can interpret it as someone who wasn't themselves and needed help by someone who was their parachute and let them out of the dark. Basically a "thanks to you, I found myself". There's also the part with "maybe I should hit the ground, maybe I misspelled a bound, but i'm not afraid at all" - the singer is scared that, perhaps they should just forget about coming out or showing their true self, but they aren't afraid to show who they are. And with the person they love, they can accomplish anything.
Entre dos mundos - Come on. How is this not about bisexuality. It's a very underrated song and sometimes I forget it exists, but the SUBTEXT of that song. Mwah.
Valiente - I feel like it's a power anthem, you know? "You're brave", "You will grow", etc. Perfect song to sing in Pride month to give people some confidence and power boosts.
Como me ves - The song feels very much like someone coming out to themselves. It's about the reflection talking to itself. "I can be how I want, how do you see me?", "I'll come out of your mirror, your voice that in the distance found me, words that wrap up my heart". Why is most of Ámbar's solo songs like this lmao
Codigo Amistad - "But this is about friendship, it's in the title" Yes - it's about female friendships to be exact, but 1. This is my favorite song not only from Violetta but like in general. Like this is the song you need to play to save me from Vecna's curse. And 2. I say it's a bi anthem. Why? Well, it's about the planet of the girls - the girls in the song have the key and code to get there, and one topic they discuss at the planet exclusively for girls is boys. So it's GIRL POWER but also, boys are a topic. Maybe it's a bad explanation but MY FAVORITE SONG so MY RULES
Peligrosamente bellas - The girls. Singing about how hot they are. Luty's anthem. Have to include it.
On Beat - No this absolutely have nothing to do with anything, it's just that 11yo me got a bi awakening from the performance so now I have to include it.
Chicas asi - Idk girl power. Queens singing about how they are diamonds. I think it fits.
Enceder nuestra luz - ABBA-inspired girl power song! We need to turn on our light! This one is hard to explain why it's on the list, it just... is. It's the vibes. Also Francesca's wink she did at one point... just... <33
Yo soy asi - I AM LIKE THIS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN TOO BAD. This is really a "get used to it" attitude if we put it into a pride perspective.
Como Quieres - "How do you want me to love you?" Love song about how someone cannot be loved in the way they want to. Like they aren't accepted to being... themselves. Also, the 2x40 performance has the most bi energy ever, it has the bi colors in the background and everything.
Mano a mano - Honestly this doesn't really have much of a meaning, I just love the song and I wanted to include it
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Eden's Favorite Fic's (BTS Fic Recs)
Updated Version: Here!
Note: In the past I haven't indulged in tumblr fics often but I recently (past 3 months) have been reading quite regularly & am planning on branching out a bit. To keep track of the ones that I have enjoyed & the ones that I have even came back to I'm making this list. Again, I haven't been digging into the tumblr fics world for long so for right now its a very short list. I'm hoping with time I can get more fics of different types on here (btsxbts, some gender neutral xreader ones, & more ones that I genuinely like)
About me to understand what's going to be on here:
Age: 21 (99' liner)
Sexuality: Bisexual
Pronouns: She/Her
Ult Bias: Yoongi
Trio: Rap Line
I am OT7. I do enjoy smut but don't think it is necessary to FF. Overall I just want a well-crafted plot that makes sense. I read for entertainment & to escape. But I still need some form of realism (just me personally) to follow the trail of events. PSA: I'm trying to find a broader scope of writers I like but for right now I don't have many. There are gonna be some repetitive writers for now.
______________________________________________________________
Kim Namjoon:
- Librarian Namjoon Universe by @jungshookz
Beauty & the Bookworm (I love this concept SO MUCH)
Pairing: Cute, Good Boy, Nerdy, University Librarian Namjoon x Bratty, Semi-Popular, Procrastinator, University Student Reader
Word count: 20.8k
Summary: You're a procrastinator big time and you may or may not be failing. To get some extra credit you begrudgingly take the library assistant opening where you work under strict dorky Namjoon. Passive aggressiveness, cuteness, fluff, & some smuttiness arises.
Jealous-Boyfriend-Librarian Namjoon (Drabble)
Pairing: Jealous Boyfriend Librarian Namjoon x Oblivious Cute Girlfriend Uni Student Reader
Word count: 3.4k
Summary: You take an Art History Course and end up needing a tutor. Joon offers to tutor you but he doesn't know shit about Art History so you end up getting tutored by an ArtHoe Taehyung that may or may not like you but you are oblivious to this and Joon gets super jealous.
Kim Seokjin:
- Hockey Player Jin by @ve1vetyoongi
HEART OF GOLD (BLADES OF ICE)
Pairing: Sweet Hot New Hockey Player in Town Jin x Ex-Figure Skater (who has a history with jin) Reader
Word count: 20k
Summary: After a fall during figure skating practice dashes your dreams of competing at nationals, you vow to hang up your skates for good. That is until you cross paths with Kim Seokjin, captain of the ice hockey team, who is determined to get you back out on the rink and melt the ice in your heart. (Jimin is a bully in this and their other k-pop idols as characters. Very Very Fluffy and Hallmark Christmas Movie-ish so be aware of that. Overall, it's just cute :) )
Min Yoongi:
Note: these are all but one by the same writer @jungshookz & are written from the pov of a female reader. I'm gonna try to find some gender-neutral fics but for now, if you are female-identifying I really enjoyed these! :)
- Mechanic Yoongi Universe by @jungshookz
Baby, You Can Drive My Car (My favorite AU Fics I've read so far on Tumblr!!)
Pairing: Tatted, Mic Drop Era, Mechanic Min Yoongi x Spoiled Rich, Inexperienced, University Student Reader
Word count: 24.6k
Summary: Welcome to Min Mechanics - What can I do for you today, doll?
Maybe She Can Drive His Car
Pairing: Oblivious, Hot, Boyfriend, Mechanic Min Yoongi x Adorable, Spoiled, University Student, Jealous Girlfriend Reader
Word count: 11.6k
Summary: Yoongi's ex is back in town for a visit and you would be lying if you said you weren't slightly envious of a) how knowledgeable she is about stupid cars and b) how well she gets along with literally everyone.
- Uni Yoongi x Nerdy Reader (mini series) by @jungshookz
Note: these are all drabbles I'm gonna link my favorites in the series. I'll probably add more later.
Cocky Uni Student Yoongi x Nerdy Reader:
^^This is the start of the mini-series, recommend you read it first!^^
The One with the Scrunchie:
Contains: smut, a super cute scrunchie turning into a kink of sorts, slightly insecure Yoongi, experienced Yoongi, slightly inexperienced reader, shy about their own body reader.
Yoongi always had an Overactive Imagination:
Contains: talking about sex, implied smut, reader trying to be productive while also being horny, Yoongi being super distracted and horny.
"I'm gonna need you to shut up now please"
- CEO Yoongi Universe by @jungshookz
Suit&Tie (First Fic in the series)
Pairing: CEO Min Yoongi x Secretary Reader
Wordcount: 21k+
Summary: Young Intimidating Hot CEO Yoongi, Clumsy Secretary Y/N who loves Sugar, Best Friend Jimin. Funny Awkward Meeting that sets up the whole plot, was like reading a Kdrama in book form.
The One Where Augst D makes a Comeback (Favorite Fic in the series)
SPOILERS READ PRIOR DRABBLES TO CATCH UP!! (I recommend The First Date, The One Where Yoongi is Just a Little Jealous, The Proposal, The Wedding, Baby Makes Three, Baby Min's Timeline, The Birth of Baby Min, Daddy's Little Girl, Who the Hell is Augst D.
Pairing: CEO Min Yoongi x Secretary Reader
Word count: 6.5k
Summary: Yoongi finds out you faked an orgasm and he's going to gi-give it to you more ways than one.
- Demon Yoongi by @jungshookz
Hellish (I got some feelings for incubus Yoongi not gonna lie)
Pairing: Bratty, Super Sexy, Sex Demon, Mint Min Yoongi x University Student, Non-Supernatural Believer Reader
Word count: 22.1k
Summary: Jungkook is your clueless, energetic best friend. Wonho is a character in this fic, You are dragged into summoning a demon one night by your overly excited to be summoning a demon? best friend Jungkook. Spooky but Kind of Sexy Shit Happens! (This is probably my second favorite Yoongi Fic I've read!)
- Basketball Captain Yoongi by @jungshookz
Basketball Captain Yoongi
Pairing: Cocky, Popular, Charming Captain of the Basketball Team Min Yoongi x Water girl University Student Reader (who has been crushing on Yoongi hard for some time)
Word count: 18.4k
Summary: Jungkook is your athletic bro of a best friend that signs you up to be his replacement as the water boy (girl in this case) after he makes the team. You have had a pathetic schoolgirl crush on Yoongi for a while and is basically the only reason you agreed to be the water girl aside from spending time with Jungkook. It's fluffy & smutty!
- Android Yoongi @jungshookz
Technologically in love (..I cried! but I also smiled a lot so you know this is well written)
Pairing: Personal Assistant Prototype but SUPER Lifelike Android Min Yoongi x Messy, Junkfood, & Cartoons Loving Reader (basically your early 20s living alone kind of vibe)
Word count: 24k+
Summary: You live in a Detroit Becoming Human type universe but prior to a lot of the advancements. Androids are already a thing but not to the level the M1N Y00NG1 is yet. You are best friends with all the boys and they happen to be engineers which is how you ended up with Yoongi in the first place. Namjoon created Yoongi as a personal assistant prototype android & you are told to live with him. Things get fluffy, SUPER ANGSTY, and super smutty!
- Listen Closely by @avveh
Listen Closely ( sexiest Yoongi fic I have read so far, I kept wanting to go back and read again)
Pairing: Tsundere Office Worker Min Yoongi x Hardworking Office Worker Reader
Word count: 12.2k
Summary: Unintentionally, you stumble upon something that makes you view your coworker Min Yoongi in a whole new light. (SMUT 18+: Masturbation, voyeurism, exhibitionism, breathplay, spanking, degrading names.)
Jung Hoseok:
- Secret Boyfriend Hoseok by @kpopfanfictrash
Keeping a Secret (this took me places...Idk about you but I have trouble finding really good Hoseok fics and this one was perfect. One of my favorite fics on this website)
Pairing: New Relationship Dom Hoseok x New Relationship Tease Reader
Word count: 3.7k
Summary: You and Hoseok have been hooking up for a few weeks now. No one in your friend group knows. What happens then, when he shows up at movie night looking better than anticipated? SMUT!
- Studio Sex Hoseok by @joonbird
Studio:
Pairing: Boyfriend BTS Hoseok x Girlfriend Reader
Word Count: 5k
Summary: Hoseok is stressed about his upcoming mixtape, so you decide to swing by his studio and help him relax. (Hobi being the beautiful glorious sexy man he is and putting those ungodly hips to use!)
Park Jimin:
- Jimin and His Pregnancy Kink by @boymeetsweevil
ME, YOU, AND THIS THING WE HAVE BETWEEN US (NSFW)
Pairing: Sweet Caring Domestic but Horny Jimin x Pregnant Hormonal Reader
Word count:~3.7k
Warnings (aka what to prepare for): everything is graphic and gross lmao, blowjobs (face f*cking), boob job (not the one w/ silicon inserts), cunnilingus, dom!jimin if u squint, cumplay if u squint again, dirty talk/degrading language, penetrative sex (doggy style), unprotected sex, PREGNANCY KINK that’s a big one
Summary: You’re pregnant and Jimin is…happy about it (If I remember correctly this one is 25% cute domestic Jimin trying to calm his hormonal pregnant partner and 75% pure filth aka Jimin having a pregnancy kink and trying to hide it but not well at all. This is however my ultimate fav Jimin smut I have ever read!)
- Crush/Neighbor Jimin by @sketchguk
Lover to Lean On: (I absolutely adore this fic. Overall it's just really well written and I felt like I was watching a show in my head rather than reading a short Tumblr fic. Highly recommend it!)
Pairing: Cute Customer & Neighbor Jimin x Florist Reader
Word Count: 19.9k
Summary: For months, you can hear your no-face neighbor and his ‘girlfriend’ singing and dancing and laughing and falling in love. Above all, you can hear their bed banging against your shared wall, and they won’t ever let you sleep. You’d much rather stay up at night worrying about your own problems, like the weight of an unrequited crush, so of course, you’re bitterly single. But one day, the apartment is radio silent. And one day slowly turns into one week and then into an immeasurable amount of time since you’ve heard his laugh. So on Valentine’s Day, when you’re missing it the most, you beg your neighbor to open up to you with cookies in one hand and two broken hearts in the other.
Kim Taehyung:
-Roommate Taehyung Universe by @jungshookz
Stuck with You
Pairing: Frat Bro bit of an asshole Roommate Kim Taehyung x Clean Organized bit of a Pushover Reader
Word count: 37k
Summary: Kim Taehyung becoming your new roommate is definitely up there on the list of the worst things to ever happen to you. Librarian Namjoon is your Best friend and ex-roommate. Frat bro Jeon Jungkook makes an appearance. There is so smut and implied smut.
The One with the One Year Anniversary (Drabble)
Pairing: The cutest domestic boyfriend Kim Taehyung x girlfriend reader
Word count: 4.6k
Summary: NO SPOILERS! so I'm going to give you a quote: "well, um, look! I made breakfast for you. f-for us!" Also, SFW
Jeon Jungkook:
- Gamer Jungkook by @softyoongiionly
PRESS START (this is the cutest fucking smut type fic I have ever read! it is so pure and is the exact type of relationship I want! IT MADE ME SIMP SO HARD!) gender-neutral I believe!
Pairing: Night owl Gamer Domestic Boyfriend Jeon Jungkook x Witty Domestic Cutesy Relationship Reader
Word count: 5.5k
Summary: A night in with your boyfriend Jungkook includes all kinds of things: anime, witty banter, snacks from 7-Eleven and, you know, sex. (GREAT READ!! I AM A SIMP FOR THIS FIC!!)
#bts smut#bts fic#bts jungkook#bts jhope#bts yoongi#bts jimin#bts taehyung#bangtan#bangtan sonyeondan#namjoon#jimin#seokjin#jungkook#jin#bts army#jjk smut#smut#kth smut#ksj smut#pjm fanfic#pjm smut#pjm oneshot#pjm fluff#pjm angst#pjm ff#pjm x reader#kth oneshot#kth x reader#kth angst#kth bts
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And now I’ve watched episode 3 of Walker because of reasons. (You guys asked, that’s reasons.) #1
My review of episode 1 got a lot of positive feedback and a lot of you asked me to cover more episodes! But my review of episode 2 didn’t get much feedback at all. Possibly because episode 2 was boring and you can only make so many funny jokes about the glowy wife before it gets stale, so I get it, it’s fine. It was boring for me too. Hopefully this gets funnier! I actually have high expectations for this episode, since apparently it introduces NotDean. You know, the childhood friend who Walker loves like a brother and is the Han Solo to Walker’s Luke Skywalker. Like, what. Stop comparing Jared Padalecki characters to Like Skywalker 2021 challenge. *insert you keep using that word...*
Anyway, in case you missed it - here are all my reviews of Walker episodes, in chronological order.
EDIT: *screeching* GUYS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS. YOU CANNOT IMAGINE WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS. Read to the end, don’t stop at the padalacting. I’m begging you asdfghjkl
Alright. Let’s start this. Actually I have a thought before we start. You know, I was thinking that episode 3 of Supernatural is when Dean gets genuinely introduced as a person. Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker were the first to give Dean the personality that stuck and developed into the character that we love. Dead In The Water is, not coincidetally, the episode that sold Supernatural to me. The first couple of episodes were weirdly compelling, without which I wouldn’t have continued watching, but you must understand that I’d never watched horror before. It really wasn’t my genre. I was just watching on the assumption that it would get better at some point, and if it didn’t I’d stop. But Dead In The Water got me. Because that’s when we’re really shown Dean for the first time. The rest is history and now we’re here.
So I wonder what will happen in episode 3 of Walker. Is it going to magically pull a Dean out of the hat and get me?
Let’s start. The Texan countryside. The yellow, glowy light tells us this is a flashback. Closeups of Jared and Gen. He is somewhat concerned. He’s at the wheel of a car, still on the street - a red Mustang. Unlike the red Mustang of the horseman War, it is a convertible. Fun fact: a Mustang was Kripke’s original idea for the Winchesters’ car, but then switched to the Impala for body-in-the-trunk reasons. I am the 😬 emoji.
Actually guys I need to show you a couple Jared faces. I think they’re supposed to be purposely comedic faces, but honestly this is just how he acts normally. I promise I am not coming in this with a bias towards Jared’s acting. I just observe, with my eyes. He was actually good in many Supernatural episodes.
I just can’t see Cordell Walker. I’m just seeing Jared and Gen Padalecki delivering what is a somewhat padalecki acting in front of my eyes and I swear I had to close the video in the middle of this scene and start over because of a sudden attack of second-hand embarrassment.
Let’s continue
Basically, Walker is trying to drive the Mustang, but he is not good at it and the car stops after two meters. He feels exactly how I feel when I watch Walker.
“Damn it!” Jared exclaims, jaredly. I think that this scene is supposed to be set Many Years Ago, because Walker is wearing a backwards cap and Emily has her hair styled like Bad Janet but straighter, which actually says a lot about this show somehow.
God, I wish I could gif the entire scene to show you guys the padalacting. I mean, I could, but ain’t nobody got time for that. Have a bit of the scene.
For some reason she puts this thing on the dashboard, because he “puts your mind at ease”.
He makes more Jared faces, which we’ll skip because I don’t want to spend 7 hours on this.
Wait look at this shot of the car (with some bonus Jared face).
Why does this look filmed by your dad with a videocamera on Christmas afternoon after you received a toy car as a present? I suddenly have a newfound admiration for the directors who did Impala shots on Supernatural because it would seem car shots are not that easy to make. Maybe this is why Supernatural always filmed at night with a black car.
Guys I am telling you, if you need to watch one scene of Walker in your life, watch this scene. It’s so embarrassing. I almost decided to gif the moment of the car going and commenting “nyoom” but the Impala does not deserve this.
Anyway.
Listen, if I have to see thing thing over and over, you have to see it too.
He’s brought the damn thing onto a new cop truck while on a stakeout with Ramirez, who is just as happy about it as any normal person would.
I think they’re outside a strip club, judging from the posters outside.
He keeps quoting lines from the scene with his wife, which is sort of weird since Ramirez is not his love interest. Yet. Oh no. Don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t even thinking of doing that. Ramirez has a perfectly fine boyfriend.
Walker says that since they’re sitting there just waiting for the suspect’s movements or whatever, they should use that time to get to know each other, like “favorite movies, the teams you root for, middle names”.
Ramirez is me.
He’s like ~let’s bond~ and Ramirez goes immediately for the jugular and asks how Stella (his daughter) is doing. “Wow” he says. He says he and Stella are “in a good place, I think”. You’re not and we’re definitely not. This is the bad place.
Basically, they’re trying to live in a bubble of ignoring her upcoming court date for the marijuana thing. Ramirez says that the easy route is not a good idea. He’s like, are you speaking from experience? Basically they keep implying Ramirez also has a ~bad girl past, which I can absolutely live without.
Aaand now we see the inside of the strip club. The suspect is there, a lady with a Latinoamerican name, apparently bisexual because she’s surrounded by a woman and a man in underwear, the woman is touching her, it leaves no doubt about it. 😬 Enter the stripper on stage, who captures the lady’s attention.
The stripper is a man. Dressed as a slutty cowboy. There’s glitter.
Yeah, you read it right.
Oh no. No I absolutely change my mind. If you have to watch one scene of Walter, it must be the slutty glitter cowboy stripper.
There’s. There’s a. There’s a slutty glitter cowboy stripper.
The CW could do slutty glitter cowboy strippers and Dean Winchester is not there?!
I repeat, they killed Dean Winchester and then did slutty glitter cowboy strippers in Walker?!
This is a travesty. This is an outrage.
Crime. Pure crime.
Listen, I’m not optimizing these gifs, take these super quick gifs, I can’t possibly spend my night optimizing glitter cowboy stripper gifs. But you need to see.
What’s the target demographic of this show? Texan housewives? The gays? Are they trying to test all the waters and see what happens? Is Walker going to become about gay people and Jared’s character a secondary character in his own show?
Wait
*sweats* Are they really trying to replicate Supernatural in everything after all?
The bisexual lighting is there and all.
The guy in skimpy underwear is distracting. I can’t believe yesterday I saw a Jared interview where he said he couldn’t watch Supernatural with his kids because of all the violence but Walker is a show you can watch with kids. I mean, aside from this scene, Walker is definitely more kid-friendly than Supernatural for obvious reasons. But hey, since Supernatural already was non-kid-friendly, they could have at least put more dudes in skimpy underwear.
You know what, I think they’re just aiming for Texan housewives.
“You’re hotter than Austin asphalt” suspect lady tells the stripper. You know. Something normal people say.
(If Texan people actually speak like this, do NOT tell me.)
Guys, we’re only four minutes in. It’s midnight. I will continue tomorrow...
*screams into the void* These have been the four wildest minutes of my life.
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Hi could you maybe write tendou's reaction to his S/O mentioning they wanted to 😉😉do the do😉😉 with him for the first timee? Esp since they love him so much. Not actually NSFW necessarily just their conversation thank youuuu
I HAVE BEEN OUT OF COMMISSION FOR WAY TOO FUCKING LONG SO LETS KICK START THIS WITH SOME SOFT HORNY
i interpreted this as asking him to take your virginity, not as if you guys fucked for the first time but you had prior experience! lmk if you want that instead babe 🥺
ASKING TENDOU TO TAKE YOUR VIRGINITY (under the cut is very nsft)
okay!! so no 1. tendou is not a fucking virgin. im sorry but theres no way hes NOT fucked.
hes a pretty approachable guy when hes not doin his creepy court shit, and he just. radiates 'hey i have a FAT fucking cock' so hes kinda popular with girls (and a few guys, this man is bisexual no you cant change my mind)
if you bring up sex too early in the relationship, he wont go through with it! nothing to do with you, but he does still kinda have some internalised insecurity and the idea that youre willing to be so vulnerable to him? WACK
be patient with him, assure him that you trust him fully and that you dont think hed do anything to hurt you (unless u asked 👀)
he wants to fuck you. so bad. so PLEASE dont misinterpret his reluctance as him thinking youre undesirable! he knows how much virginity can mean to someone and how in some experiences can shape and warp that persons relationship with sex as a whole.
he asks you if theres any kinks youre interested in, he wont indulge you in any hardcore stuff for a while, wanting you to get used to normal vanilla sex first so you guys can build up and you can compare the comfort and pleasure between normal and WILD
most of these talks happen late at night, after a makeout, both of you are horny but ten isnt willing to possibly hurt you in a less than sexy way and you dont wanna push him into just doing it already
he asks if youve ever watched porn! and the two of you have a discussion that is basically about how porn commonly does not accurately represent sex, and he is very open about how losing your virginity can sometimes be a lot less pleasurable than youre expected to believe, and that you will need to be prepared and that tendou is NOT going to make your very first time having sex a traumatic experience, he is ensuring your comfort and safety even at the expense of his own pleasure (and maybe yours, if you expected to do a head dive first into the world of bdsm)
you guys start off SLOW. he wants to spend at least a month just learning you and how you react to things!! he will ask you to masturbate for him (id be so embarrassed zznbxn)
SEVERLY NSFT PART!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!
hes very comforting through the whole thing! he assures you as he watches that he thinks youre beautiful, and at one point slips out his cock and starts.. you know ;)
once you show him how you get yourself off, this bitch corrects your technique?? TEN??
at first, he just holds your wrists and maneuvers your hands around, or stimulates your uh ///nipples/// while you continue doing your thing
then hes using his own long ass fingers and long ass hands and it is HEAVEN
the whole time this is going on, hes experimenting with hickies and learning where your sweet spots are, leaving little love bites everywhere his long ass neck can reach
once the masturbation/fingering phase is over, you two move on to dry humping
theres nothing this man loves more than seeing you get yourself off on his thigh no you cant change my mind.
this is like week 2 of preparing you for dodos fucking SCHLONG
and really, he was gonna move onto toys next and try to open you up with those a lot more
instead, youre practising the fingering phase again, and his mouth is there biting and sucking at your thighs
he cant help himself and after asking if you wanted to try something else and implementing a tap-out system for if you dont like it
he dives into that pussy/dick, he is eating you out/sucking you off with animalistic fervour
all while still continuing with his blessed hands
youre shaking after your orgasm, your legs are twitching and your mind is way too fucked out to give a single shit about the sheets on your bed being stained with sweat and cum (tendous, as he shamefully admits, turns out he really likes the sight of you begging and writhing around, not a drop of your own can be found because rest assured, despite having one of the smallest appetites in the whole haikyuu universe he wasnt letting a DROP escape from him)
he doesnt fuck you straight after, he cleans you up and gives his dick and whatever you have some time to rest
he doesnt want to overdo it on your first time, also a really sadistic part of him wants you to feel the burn of him stretching you open entirely, he wants to see your pretty little face contorted and tear stricken
he doesnt hurt you (on purpose) when he finally does take your virginity, probably a day or two after that
but when you start shuddering and whining about him slowing down and crying because hes so damn big, he gets off on it far more than hed ever like to admit
his aftercare is fantastic
cleaning you up, kissing away your tears and very gently picking you up so he can change the bed sheets
he spends a while after it talking you to sleep, telling you about how beautiful you are and that he couldnt be more thankful for you
once you wake up, he orders takeout and you guys snuggle up together and watch gnomeo and juliet with your chow mein
hes so perfect you can really feel my bias for him lol
#tendou satori#tendou satori x reader#tendou x reader#haikyuu smut#tendou smut#haikyuu x reader#nsft#haikyuu imagines#haikyuu tendou#haikyuu!!#haikyuu!! x reader#hq x reader
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To all Guys a Chat Loved Before
Okay, this is it. I’ve been working on this story for over a week. It’s seventy pages and twenty thousand words. I basically wrote you a short story. Enjoy it. Review.
I’m not fond of Rom-Coms and rarely if ever watch Romantic movies. But there are a few that i’ve liked. So THROUGH OUT THIS i’ve sprinkled some of my favorite lines from my favorite romantic movies over the years. Some also came from tv shows. See if you can point them out.
This is Adrien-centered fic. It’s also slash.
Don’t you wish that people came with warning labels?
Adrien did. He wished more than anything because his life would be so much easier if everyone could see each other’s warning labels.
Bustier: Terrible teacher. Needs to please everyone. Hates confrontation.
Lila: Waring massive Liar, manipulative shrew.
His father: Workaholic, possible sociopath. Might be allergic to hugs and any affection whatsoever.
Adrien: A little needy. Emotionally scarred. Touch starved. Famous. Trust issues. Lacks some basic social skills. Probably going to be in therapy for the rest of his life. Likes to run around in a skintight leather bodysuit.
You know? The basics.
Okay, maybe that’s too much. Too personal. Fine. Whatever.
But at the very least, if he could meet someone and just know, you know?
Know that this is the one.
This is it.
This one.
They’re the one that’s gonna break your heart.
Adrien’s life would be so much easier if he could at least get that one warning.
Maybe he’d run the other way. But maybe he wouldn’t. Adrien had a terrible habit of always making the stupid choice.
Still, it would be nice to know before he gets into deep.
Before his heart isn’t just broken…
It's shattered beyond repair.
Iron’s Kid: When did you realize you weren’t like other guys?
Chat Galore: I was twelve. You?
The first time Adrien realized he might not be like other guys his age came AFTER he put on a magic ring and ran around Paris as a superhero in black spandex. And yes, that statement alone makes him realize how insane he sounds.
But in his defense…
Okay, there was no defense. He didn’t need to defend himself. There was nothing wrong with him. He knew that. There was nothing wrong with…
Iron’s Kid: Fourteen. And it took me completely by surprise. Like a bite in the neck.
Adrien always really liked his penpal. It had been Chloe’s idea. Adrien signed up when he was thirteen, anonymously, through a program at school and was given an American penpal the same age as him. The schools vetted all participants in the program for authenticity. They’ve never told each other their real names, never seen so much as a picture of one another, but still, Iron’s kid became one of the few people who knew him best.
The blond knew a lot about Iron’s Kid too. He even had a list.
Iron’s kid:
A year older than Adrien.
Huge geek like Adrien.
He was a guy.
He loved Legos
Said he had brown hair and eyes.
He was bisexual.
He was really funny.
Really smart. Like Genius smart.
He was an intern at Stark Industries.
He was a huge iron man fan and adored Spiderman a bit as any New Yorker did.
He loved superheroes and memes (like a lot) and stayed up late a lot.
He made as many puns as Adrien did as Chat Noir.
. They got along really well. They texted constantly. And, Iron’s Kid slowly became one of Adrien’s dearest friends. After the first year of being Penpals, Adrien asked if Iron’s Kid wanted to meet. The answer was no. Adrien asked Iron’s Kid at least once a year if they could meet up (or skype or trade pictures); the answer was always No. It was only after Adrien revealed that he was a supermodel, that Iron’s Kid revealed he had a famous face too and just wanted to be treated normally.
That did stop Adrien from still asking once a year. Iron’s Kid was one of the few people, outside of being Chat Noir that Adrien could just be himself with.
But unlike Iron’s Kid…
Honestly, Adrien always kind of knew, ya know?
He was always as into Harry Styles as Chloe was. Maybe a bit more.
When he binged watched Stranger Things with Marinette; he noticed Finn Wolfhard as much as the bluenette did.
Maybe, he noticed Kim’s biceps just a bit too much.
So he started to suspect early on.
He didn’t know for sure until…
Luka.
And that’s the worst (and craziest) part because knew Luka. He had been sort of, kind of, friends with the guitarist for quite some time. He had never even thought of the blue-haired boy like that.
Until one day, Adrien, Marinette, and Luka were playing video games after school. They were just laughing and chilling out like they always do. It was perfectly ordinary.
Then out of nowhere, Adrien noticed just how blue Luka’s eyes were. Then that was it. Suddenly the blond couldn’t help but think how cool Luka was, how funny he was, how artistic. And Adrien was really self-conscious. When Luka was in the same room as him, Adrien was hyper-aware of everything his own body was doing and everything he was saying.
It was like he existed outside it for a few seconds and was just watching the chaos.
How does my hair look?
Why did I JUST say that? No, don’t say that THAT’s even worse.
What is wrong with you?
Don’t stand like that! Who stands like that?
Does it look weird?
Am I being weird?
He totally thinks I’m weird.
Iron’s Kid: How could you NOT have seen Princess Bride?!!!!!?!!
Chat Galore: It doesn’t look like not my type of movie
Iron’s Kid: But you’ve seen the Labyrinth???!!! WTF
Chat Galore: It was my mom’s favorite movie!!! You haven’t seen vampire diaries yet!!!
Iron’s Kid: That is BESIDES the point. Princess Bride is a classic!!!!
Chat Galore: Oh just shut up
Iron’s Kid; As you wish.
Adrien slowly became a blushing, stuttering mess.
And he didn’t know how but somehow this was how Marinette figured it out what was going on.
“…You have a crush on Luka,” Marinette said slowly and quietly, one day after school as they sat in Marinette’s living room as if the words were as hard for her to get out as they were for him to hear.
The two had gotten closer as friends as a result of the Lila situation at school worsening. Once most of the class made it clear how quickly they were willing to drop Marinette for a shiny golden ticket; the blond and bluenette quickly washed their hands of the situation. They decided to let their ex-friends sink or swim on their own.
Adrien did not need fair-weather friends. Marinette was tired of being everyone’s doormat. They decided to sit in the back together and wait for the fireworks. Surprisingly, not long after Nino joined them. The glasses-wearing boy hadn’t cared if Lila was lying or not (though Adrien and Marinette would provide him with enough evidence to convince him later), he just knew that Marinette was his childhood friend and Adrien was his best friend. Nino trusted them, and sure wasn’t going to abandon them.
That was over a year ago. Marinette, Nino, and Adrien were best friends. Then the bluenette and the blond found out they were really Ladybug and Chat Noir effectively ending their crushes on each other. (Though Marinette took a bit longer)
“No!” Adrien said quickly. “I mean, I can’t, I, uh. I used to love Ladybug, remember!”
Marinette shrugged, “So? I dated Kagami for like three months last year, and I’d still wouldn’t say no to seven minutes in heaven with Luka. Or longer,” She smirked. “I used to like you. I’m bisexual; lots of people are.” She then tilted her head. “It’s okay if you like boys.”
Adrien glanced down shyly. At that point, He hadn’t thought too much about his sexuality. He always figured he was straight. It was the standard some people would say. But… Did he? Did he like-like other guys like that?
…He definitely liked Luka like that. But was it just Luka? Maybe Luka was special. And dreamy. And nice to look at. And he made Adrien’s stomach feel a little weird when he was around, “…I have a crush on Luka.”
“Everyone does,” Marinette nodded. “It’s a fact of life. He gets Kagami to blush. Chloe says he not completely awful. Hell, even Nino said, and I quote, ‘if I ever I had to pick a dude.’” She said but then her eyes widened as she looked at Adrien. “Wait! I just realized have you ever had a crush on a girl besides Ladybug? I never heard you talk about any. This is the first crush besides Ladybug.”
Adrien blinked and then blinked again. “I went out with Kagami once,” He offered, and then gave Marinette a playful glare. “Before you stole her away from me.”
“It’s not stealing if she practically jumped into my arms,” Marinette defended with a laugh. “Don’t hate the playa!”
The blond snorted.
“I mean, what did you like about Ladybug?” Marinette asked. “Not me! Not now. But before you knew that I was Ladybug. What did you like about her?”
Adrien bit his lip as he thought, “She was always fun to be around. When I was with her I never had to worry, you know? I could do what I wanted, say what I wanted. There was no pressure or anything. I was just me… but more. And I liked that. It was easy being around her.”
Marinette nodded, “Ladybug used to be the only one you could be free around,” She said. “As Chat Noir, you never had to censor yourself for fear of what your father would do. It was freedom. A type of freedom you always wanted; to be wild and carefree. You got to do that whenever you are Chat Noir, and whenever you were Chat Noir, Ladybug was there. Did you ever… you might’ve… I think you,” She sighed. “…Adrien, I don’t think you ever loved Ladybug. I think you loved how you got to feel when she was around. You might have equated the two.”
It went quiet as Adrien thought about what his friend said. It helped that his crush had been long gone so he could view it without the bias he used to have. And yeah, the more he thought about it, the more he realized Marinette was right. Adrien had been more infatuated with the fun and freedom of being a superhero, being Chat Noir that he ever was with Ladybug.
He also comprehended that His crush had ended it rather instantly the second he found out who was behind the mask. Marinette was amazing; the girl of most guys’ dreams. Yet Adrien just didn’t see her like that. He didn’t have romantic feelings for her. It was then he realized that no matter who was behind the mask, what girl, Adrien wouldn’t have been happy. “She wasn’t real to me,” He admitted. “Not really. Ladybug was this unattainable dream. Anything was possible with her. I got to think up outlandish fantasies all the time of what our future could be and nothing was too extreme or impossible. The second she became real, the fantasy ended, and… I didn’t want her anymore; not like that.” He told Marinette. “Don’t get me wrong, I love you! You’re practically my sister. You’re the best! But… It is strange, I know.”
Marinette shook her head, “It’s not!” She would know better than most what it was like when the fantasy ended and you had faced reality. “We’re kids. Feelings are all haywire.”
“It’ll get easier.” He asked. “I mean it has to. Soon, right?”
“No!” Sabine, Marinette’s mom, called from the kitchen. “Try in about a decade. If you’re lucky!”
“Mama!” Marinette yelled as she face-palmed. “Private conversation.”
“In our very public family room,” Sabine sassed back. “Adrien, honey, besides Luka, have you ever thought about any boys like that?”
Marinette just sighed.
Adrien turned bright red. He had more or less been adopted by the Dupain-chengs, and he was still getting used to having an involved parent. “I, uh, like Kim’s arms.”
“Who doesn’t?” Marinette asked. “Drool-worthy.”
“Harry Styles,” Adrien offered. “I like his face.” The bluenette snorted, earning herself a face full of the pillow. “Oh, you are so helpful!” After that, they erupted into a pillow fight.
Chat Galore: I’m late
Iron’s Kid: For what?
Chat Galore: Reality.
Iron’s Kid: Oooh someone’s feeling deep today. What’s up?
Chat Galore: I’m
Adrien paused writing.
Iron’s Kid: You’re…
Iron’s kid: Chat? You still there?
Chat Galore: I’m gay.
Chat Galore: You’re the first person I’ve told.
Iron’s Kid: I’m honored. And proud of you man.
Chat Galore: TY!!
Iron’s Kid: So who made you realize you were finally into Luka?
Chat Galore: …I hate you. GO AWAY!
Iron’s Kid: As you wish.
It took another month, and a lot of introspection but Adrien finally came to terms with it, and while getting ice cream with his friends, he said, “So, yeah, I’m gay.”
“And the sky’s blue,” Chloe shrugged.
Marinette elbowed, “That’s not how we’re supposed to react.”
The blonde huffed, “What? We’re supposed to pretend to be surprised. I’ve known him since we were in diapers. I was there through OUR One Direction phase. We were just little kids but just because he blocked it out or whatever doesn’t mean I forgot he called dips on marrying Harry.”
“All good, dude,” Nino told Adrien. “Still my boy.” He told him. “Does this mean you’re finally gonna ask out Luka?”
“NINO!” Marinette groaned. “I didn’t tell them. I swear!”
“What?” Nino licked his ice cream. “It was obvious Sunshine digs Luka.”
Adrien’s froze. “…How obvious?” Dread slowly crept onto his face.
His friends quickly went to assure him.
“It’s barely noticeable!” Marinette said.
“Everyone wants Luka; he probably doesn’t even realize it at this point!” Went, Nino.
“It’s not as obvious as the crush Marinette had on you!”
“Chloe! Seriously?!”
“What!”
Chat Galore: My friends suck as much as you!
Iron’s kid: Ahh, they call you out on the Luka thing too?
Chat Galore: Fuck off
Iron’s Kid: lol
Iron’s Kid: As you wish.
Adrien just groaned, seriously wishing the earth would just swallow him up. It was official all of his friends were completely awful.
Not long after he came out to his father, Nathalie, and Gorilla. His father barely blinked twice and told him not to make a fool of himself. Nathalie scheduled when he’ll announce it officially on twitter. Gorilla at least hugged him.
Lila attempted to convince the class that Adrien was just confused and hiding his feelings for her. But even that was a bit too much to buy. Instead, the class shot the Italian girl pitying looks for being in love with an unreachable guy. Lila seethed with fury as what she thought was her ticket to fame and fortune going up in flame.
Pretty much everything stayed normal though. There were no big fireworks. Adrien never confessed to Luka about his crush; instead joined his dozens of other admirers in mooning from a distance.
Adrien was fine with that. He wasn’t looking for anything for his life to radically change. Or to completely lose his mind over some guy (though he did come close with Luka). In fact, he was rather happy if that never happened.
But since when does he ever get what he wants?
Iron’s Kid: If you could punch anyone in the face, who would it be?
Chat Galore: What did Flash do now?
Chat Galore: And the answer’s: Lila. But Marinette has dips. And then Chloe. Then Kagami for some reason. I’m also after Nino, which doesn’t seem fair.
Chat Galore: …There’s a line to punch Lila.
Iron’s Kid: lol.
Iron’s Kid: Flash embarrassed me in front of Liz. He got everyone at this party chanting the stupid nickname he gave me.
Chat Galore: What a jerk? I vote revenge!
Iron’s Kid: What happened to the high road?
Chat Galore: It went nowhere. Time to light someone’s car on fire now.
Chat Galore: OOOOHHH!!!! Get MJ to put a porn virus on his computer! Let it hit during that school project you guys got next week.
Iron’s Kid: You’re a cruel man. And you and MJ are never allowed meet!
Chat Galore: Lol
Iron’s Kid: I can’t do that. Revenge isn’t my thing. I wouldn’t even care if Liz wasn’t there.
Chat Galore: You really like her, huh?
Iron’s Kid: Yeah I do
Adrien grinned at his phone. Iron had fallen hard for Liz a while back, and it was the cutest thing when he gushed over her. Plus it gave the blond some relief to know that there was someone as bad as him when it came to romance.
Iron’s Kid: So my dads suck
Chat Galore: We should start a club!
Iron’s kid: Lol.
Chat Galore: Your dad or your pops?
Iron’s Kid: Both. They totally freaked out on me! They’re so overprotective it is insane.
Chat Galore: Been there. Am there.
Iron’s Kid: Me and dad totally got into it. He thinks I’m reckless and stupid. Like I don’t know what I’m doing. I just wish he’d trust me
Chat Galore: Stop treating you like you’re a little kid?
Iron’s Kid: Exactly!!!!! I can do this! I know I can! If he just trusts me!
Iron’s Kid: Instead I’m grounded.
Chat Galore: What are you going to do?
Iron’s Kid: Whatever I have to!
Chat Galore: just be safe, ok? I don’t know what’s going on. And I know you can’t tell me. But just Be. Careful. I’d miss you.
Iron’s Kid: I’d miss you too.
Chat Galore: Goodnight!!
Iron’s Kid: As you wish.
It was Christmas. Adrien was staying with Marinette’s family while his father was away on business and avoiding all things happiness. Marinette told him that her Uncle was coming. Her dad’s great uncle from New York. He broke up with his boyfriend not too long ago and wanted to get out and see more of the world.
Adrien had expectations of what Marinette’s great uncle would look like – like any Uncle. Old, kind of fat, who made way to many dad jokes, and smelled like mothballs. And he definitely wore tacky clothes.
The guy who walked into the Dupain-Cheng home, following a laughing Tom Dupain, was NOT that guy!!
First of all, he was young; like two or three years older than Adrien and Marinette. He wore was pale with dark eyes and hair. He was dressed in all black and wore an old black leather bomber jacket. He was unnaturally handsome.
“Who is that?” Adrien hissed.
“My uncle,” Marinette said. “I told you he was coming.”
“How is that your great Uncle?”
Marinette shrugged, “Magic. Demigod. Prince of the Underworld. What can you do?” She said. “His name’s Nico.”
Adrien’s life was already so bizarre he didn’t even question the demigod part. All he could see what Nico. His mind turned to mush. “Boing!” He pointed.
“That’s my Uncle, Adrien,” Mariette reminded him
“Sweet! I would be your Aunt,” Adrien said. “Uncle. I don’t care. I’ll be whatever he wants me to be.”
Marinette laughed and got off the couch to greet the newcomer, “Uncle Nico!”
“Marinette!” Nico smiled as he hugged his niece. “I told you to call me Nico.”
“Uncle is a bit weird,” Marinette nodded in agreement as she let go.
As soon Nico let go, he found his arms full of again but this time by a blond, “Uncle Nico.”
“Adrien, right,” Nico said as he hugged the smaller boy, “I’m not your Uncle.”
“Even better!”
Marinette snorted and pulled her friend away.
Nico looked them up and down. “Aww, it’s good you two are still so close. I still got that picture your dad sent me of you two in Halloween costumes; Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.” He said. “Adorable. You two must have been, what eleven?” He shrugged and smiled at Adrien. “It’s been a while. You grew up gorgeous.” And then walked off to say hello to Sabine.
Adrien turned bright red and a big grin spread across his face.
Marinette crossed her arms, and gave him a serious look, “You are not going to be my Aunt.”
“I can’t hear you!” Adrien sang. “Buh dah Bu da da Da!”
“He’s almost eighteen; physically and mentally anyway!” Marinette said. “We’re fifteen.”
“Almost sixteen,” Adrien snapped quickly. “Which is practically seventeen. Which is a skip away from eighteen. Two plus Two, you know?”
Marinette rolled her eyes, “I know Two plus two equals four. But with your logic, two plus two is three with a wig on.”
He hissed at her.
Chat Galore: I think I found my Liz
Iron’s Kid: Someone Completely unattainable, and probably a bad idea?
Chat Galore: MJ or Ned?
Iron’s Kid: …
Chat Galore: Seriously? Give Iron back his phone!
Iron’s Kid:
Chat Galore: WAIT! What do you mean about Liz? What’s going on? Why is she a bad idea?
He would get a response an hour later. It was just after dark.
Iron’s Kid: Sorry! MJ took my phone!
Chat Galore: NP. What’s this about Liz?
Iron’s Kid: A good friend will ignore whatever MJ told you!
Chat Galore: A best friend’s gonna get answers out of you!
Adrien’s phone remained silent as he waited for Iron’s reply.
Iron’s Kid: ‘sigh’ Liz’s dad a supervillain. He tried to kill me.
Chat Galore: Shit. I’m sorry. Are you okay?
Iron’s Kid: It sucks. Liz’s dad in prison. She had to move.
Chat Galore: that blows
Iron’s Kid: Yep
Then Adrien did something daring; something he thought about doing before but just stops short of being brave enough.
He called Iron’s kid. It rang a few times before finally answering?
“Hello?”
“Iron’s kid?” Adrien whispered.
“Chat Galore?” Was said. “You called?”
“I thought you might need someone to talk to,” Adrien said. “Really talk to. It is fine if you don’t want to. I just thought…”
“No!” Was quickly said. “This is great. I mean, yeah. I’m cool with this if you are.”
They ended up talking to each other for hours like they always did. But this time it went on even longer; to the point where Adrien was genuinely surprised to see the sun starting to rise.
It was the first Adrien began to suspect he might be falling a little bit in love with Iron’s Kid.
It didn’t end there. As the weeks went on Iron Kid and Chat Galore kept texting and talking. Iron Kid was going through a hard time and Adrien just wanted to be there for him.
Iron’s Kid: It’s never been easy being me. I love my parents. But normal doesn’t exactly coincide with our last name
Chat Galore: It is like no one can look past it, right? They don’t see you, they see your name. It’s all they care about.
Iron’s kid: Exactly!!!!! Who I am doesn’t matter. Its who my dad is, who my pop’s is. Hell sometimes who my grandfather was, and he died way before I was even born. It’s not fair!
Chat Galore: And you never know if anyone likes you for you. Or if they just want something from you. Or from your dad. You just want people to see YOU for who you are!
Iron’s Kid: Makes it really hard to trust people. My parents always did their best to give me a normal life but
Iron’s Kid: it’s whatever I guess.
Chat Galore: It’s not whatever. And its okay to feel like this.
Iron’s Kid: It’s sometimes I feel a little lost. Or maybe just…
Iron’s Kid: I mean, I can be surrounded by a sea of people and still feel all alone. Like no one really knows me or sees me. Then I think of you. I think of talking to you. And I don���t feel so alone anymore.
Chat Galore: I see you.
Iron’s Kid: I see you too.
Then once more Adrien asked Iron’s Kid if he wanted to meet, even though he knew he’d be turned down. That was fine. Adrien would wait.
If Marinette thought it was over when the holidays ended, she was dead wrong. Nico got an apartment to stay in Paris and to spend time with his family.
And Adrien got used to his brain going all gooey when Nico was around. He always said goofy things; things that made him wish he’d never learned to speak in the first place. He read books that Nico casually mentioned just so they’d have something to talk about. He did ridiculous things try to get the older guy’s attention. And whenever, Nico asked the gang if anyone wanted to hang out, Adrien would be the first to shoot up and practically yell yes.
And all Adrien would get from Nico would be a placating smirk; the same type Nino would give his younger brothers’ when they did something outlandish to impress him.
The weird thing was when Adrien was going all googly-eyes at Nico, they got along really, really well. They both loved art and classic noir films like Gun For hire and Laura. The two once spent an entire afternoon in the museum just talking about the pieces, ignoring the whines of Marinette and Nino who got dragged along.
Still no matter what Adrien did Nico never took the hint to ask Adrien out. Or even hint that he was open to Adrien possibly asking him out.
His friends got used to Adrien sighing wistfully.
“Gods’ he so handsome, it makes my face hurt,” Adrien whined.
Marinette giggled, “You’re young, you’re dumb.”
“Just so we’re clear,” Chloe pointed a fork at him that still had a bit of salad on it, “That those are not necessarily correlated. You’re just an idiot.”
Nino leaned forward, “Bro, just ask him out!” He said with his mouth half full of pizza.
“I can’t do that!”
“Why not?” Marinette, Chloe, and Nino asked/yelled at him.
“What if he says no?” Adrien asked, because duh, why else wouldn’t he have asked Nico out already.
Chloe glared at him, “Then you look in the mirror and remind yourself that you’re the second hottest dude, around our age, in Paris?”
“Ahh, Luka’s first,” Marinette put in.
Nino raised his hand, “Just so we’re clear, I’m at least in the top ten, yeah?” Silence. “Guys? Top fifteen?” Nothing. “Top twenty?”
“Eehh,” Chloe offered as she flipped her hand side to side rapidly.
Nino grinned, “I’ll take it!”
It all came to a head during the Dupain-Cheng family game. Marinette invited Chloe, Nino, and Adrien, who had become Tom and Sabine’s additional adopted children, when Tom walked in, with Nico trailing behind him. “Family game night to the max!” Tom cheered.
Nico chuckled and gave everyone their hellos.
Marinette holding a hat on her lap, “Time to pick the games tonight: Mom, Chloe, and Nico’s turn to draw from the hat.
Sabine drew Uno.
Chloe drew Pictionary.
Nico drew dungeons and dragons which caused everyone in the room to groaned, “What?”
“That game always takes forever,” Nino whined.
Marinette flopped on the couch dramatically, “Mom’s always the dungeon master and she never lets us win. Dad always dies before anything good starts.”
“We always get frustrated,” Chloe added with an eye-roll. “And snap and try to kill each other!”
“In the game?” Nico asked.
Nino glared at his friends, “Not. Always. Marinette!” He called her out, and she had the decency to blush. “Some people walk with scars.”
“Mental and emotional ones,” Adrien winced. “Marinette.”
Chloe caught Nico’s confused look, and explained, “Marinette’s a bit competitive.”
“A bit!” Everyone else in the room said.
“Let’s just play!” Marinette gave them a playful glare.
Uno was fast. Marinette won, of course.
Pictionary resulted in tears. (Sabine was just as competitive as her daughter, and Tom was a bit sensitive.)
The Dungeons and Dragons came took hours. Tom died right away and was content to watch the show. The kids turned on each other by the second hour, and it took Nico’s taking leadership and forcing them all to work together to achieve victory, for the suffering to stop.
By the end, nearly everyone in the room was dead asleep, their characters long since dead, apart from Marinette, Sabine, Adrien, and Nico. Until the die was rolled for the final time and Marinette raised her tired arms in victory, “Finally. Six hours, friends came together on a harrowing quest; the longest game of my life. And we finally, finally won!”
Seconds after she was cuddled against her mother, both having fallen asleep.
Adrien gave them a sleepy smile from where he sat on the floor before every cell in his body suddenly felt like it was hit by lightning when he caught Nico’s dark eyes staring at him. It was then that Adrien realized that, with the others all asleep, this was the first time Nico and he were ever technically alone together.
Be cool, he thought. Just be cool, damn you.
It was all for naught as Nico got up off the couch and went to sit next to Adrien, who let out a small happy squeak.
“Let’s talk,” Nico told Adrien, who fought to stop his entire body from shaking. “We’re sort of friends, right?”
Adrien winced a little but nodded eagerly, “Yep, friends, totally. I’m happy being friends. Yeah, friendship!” He waved his fist around in a small cheer and died a little inside as soon as he did it.
Why am I such a loser, he asked himself.
“Can I tell you something?”
“Yes, sure,” Adrien said. “Anything. Whatever you want. You can ask me anything too. I’ll probably say yes. I’ll defiantly say yes. Yes!”
Nico just gave him a small smile, “When I was just about your age, maybe a bit younger, I had a crush on this older guy Percy. I was ten when I met him. He was fourteen, almost fifteen. In my eyes, he was all my dreams come to life; a real-life Greek demi-god hero. He fought monsters, saved lives. I had the biggest crush on him instantly,” He told Adrien. “Not that I knew it then. I was too young. I was from a completely different time where things like a man liking a man just were okay, or… Or Legal. I didn’t handle it well. Even worse after my sister died and wrongly placed at least part of the blame of unfairly on him. It took me a long time to realize I never hated him, I hated myself. I only stopped hating myself when I realized and accepted I was gay. And a little bit in love with Percy.”
Adrien had no idea where this was going but he listened intensely. He always enjoyed listening to Nico whenever he told tales about his life as a demigod.
“Still I ended up doing a lot of stupid things,” Nico said. “Just to get his attention, to help him; to get him to fall for me back. A lot of stupid things.” He chuckled. “When I found out he was Bi, I thought I had a chance. But I didn’t. I never would’ve. Percy just saw me as a brother. I was too young for him. Way too young. There was no way Percy could’ve ever seen me like that. I accepted that. I moved on. I got over him. I even admitted to him about my crush; after telling him that he wasn’t my type. Asshole fell down laughing.”
Adrien laughed a bit.
“We’re still friends,” Nico added. “Great friends actually. And I’m glad. Do you know why I’m telling you this?”
The blond frowned and suddenly found the game board very interesting. Because, yes he did know why Nico was telling him this.
“You know I’m too told for you, right?” Nico asked quietly as to not wake up the others.
“Yeah,” Adrien nodded slowly, his throat felt a little dry, and his eyes stung. “I know. I kind of always knew.” He glanced at the Dungeons and Dragons, and a strange sense of hope-filled him. The blond shot the older dark-haired boy a smirk, “But I’m playing the long game.”
Adrien tried to be hopeful about it. Or least pretend to but…
Chat Galore: I just got my heartbroken.
Iron’s Kid: That Douchebag. I knew that weird death kid was no good!
Chat Galore: He’s not that bad. He said I’m too young for him. I get he’s trying to be a good guy but…
Iron’s Kid: It still hurts.
Chat Galore: Yep
Iron’s Kid: I get that. How about we watch Star Wars and make fun of Kylo Ren, that’ll make you feel better!
Chat Galore: I’ve seen less teen angst in my high school. The dude has problems!
And that’s what they did. They texted each other while watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens; sending each other stupid memes and jokes. And Adrien felt a lot better by the end it of it.
Chat Galore: Thanks for this btw. I think I really need this.
Iron’s Kid: No Problem
Iron’s Kid: And for what it’s worth, I’d never turn you down.
Adrien stared at that message for an hour, mentally screaming. Because… What. The. Hell.
Chat Galore: Oh be quiet! Lol
Iron’s Kid: As you wish.
The next day, Adrien sent Iron’s Kid another request to meet. The answer was a simple: Not Yet. That was Fine. Adrien would wait.`
“You are not playing the long game, Adrien Agreste,” Chloe glared at him. “Do you hear me? I will not take this into my twenties.”
They had talked Adrien into ditching one of his many lessons and were hanging out downtown. Eating ice cream.
“But!”
“No!”
“I agree with her man,” Nino said, and Adrien gave him big green puppy dog eyes. “You can spend your life swooning over some guy. There’s other fish in the sea.”
“I don’t want fish,” Adrien complained. “I just someone to ride the Ferris Wheel with me!”
“Ferris Wheel?” Nino asked confused.
“Gay culture,” Chloe explained.
Marinette nodded, “We just mean that… You need to Get some more life skills. Learn how to talk to guys. Get cool!”
“I’m cool!” Adrien defended and was met with multiple snorts. “I am. I got my dad to let me have more freedom. I paint. I went to comic con last year. I ride the metro now. And I can talk guys. I’ve successfully learned how to be cool.”
Chloe smirked, “Okay, let's see how you react when you see him,” She looked over his shoulder. “Guy’s been checking you out since we got here.”
“I’m cool,” Adrien said as he casually glanced over his shoulder and saw just who was checking him out, he let out a series of nervous chuckles. And couldn’t stop.
The guy looked about his age, with dark hair and blue eyes, a jawline that was similar to ones Adrien’s had seen on Greek statues; and he had muscles, so many muscles. He sat on a park bench and was writing or sketching in a red notebook.
Nino shook his head, “Yeah you still need some lessons in cool.”
“Lesson one: go talk to him,” Chloe demanded.
Adrien’s eyes went wide, and he let out a squeak. “Nope! Can’t do it. Won’t do it!”
His friends shared a look, and Adrien suddenly fears for his life. He found himself all but pushed/carried over to the guy on the park bench. He struggled a bit. Suddenly when they got close enough, Adrien was pushed (By gleeful and vindictive looking Chloe, his official witch of an ex-best friend), right into park bench guy, who caught him at the last second. And Adrien found himself sitting in the lap of a virtual stranger.
“Hi?” Adrien offered weakly. “Me and my friends were just talking about you.”
The guy gave him a big smile, “I know,” He said. “I figured. I’m Jon.” He said with a southern American accent. “Jon Kent. And you can talk about me any time you want.”
“Adrien,” The blond laughed. “Adrien Agreste.”
“I like your laugh, Adrien.”
“I like your smile, Jon.”
Then Adrien’s phone started ringing. It was Nathalie and Adrien had to rush home. Mourning his chances of ever seeing Jon again. He was probably a tourist who’d be gone the next day, the blond figured.
Chat Galore: I have the worst luck with guys!
Iron’s Kid: I don’t know. I think you have better luck than you think.
Chat Galore: Lol. What’s up with you lately.
Iron’s Kid: Flash finally left me alone. All it took was a school field trip to my job. Suddenly I’m not a liar anymore!
Chat Galore: Oh I would’ve killed to his face, lol.
Iron’s Kid: It was basically the crying emoji.
Iron’s Kid: Oh yeah, I met this guy named Johnny; totally gorgeous, rides a motorcycle, and my dads’ hate him
Chat Galore: Last ones’s the best part, right?
Iron’s Kid: YES!!
The next morning Adrien and his friends were happily sitting in the back of the class. The other kids in the class ignored them as usual. Even Lila more or less pretended they didn’t exist. (Though she had been reluctant to let Adrien go and had made several attempts to get him under her thumb. Until Adrien got his dad to fire her under threat of dying his hair neon green, and wearing plaid, the one pattern his father hated above all others.)
They had entered a cold war with her. As long as she stopped trying to make their lives hell, they’d stop exposing trying to expose her.
Bustier was once again proving she had no control over her classroom as she struggled to teach a simple history lesson about the French Revolution. It didn’t make a lick of sense and Bustier tried way to hard to get the kids to relate on a personal level.
“History shows that bad things happen when you don’t know who you are,” Bustier said just as the classroom door opened and in walked two boys and a girl.
Adrien’s eyes went wide, and leaned over to Chloe, “Park bench guy!” He whispered.
“Foreign exchange students,” One of the boys said. He had dark hair, green eyes, olive skin, and a thoroughly unimpressed look on his handsome face. He wore a black turtle neck and slacks. “Damian Wayne, Gotham.”
“Lian Nguyen-Harper-Queen,” Said the girl. She had Auburn hair and gray eyes. Lian wore a pink headband, a pink cardigan over a white top and blue shorts.
“Hi I’m Jon Kent,” He said. Jon wore a red plaid shirt over a simple t-shirt and blue jeans. “I split my time between the Farm in Smallville and Metropolis.” He looked at the back of the classroom straight at Adrien. “And I’m happy to be here.”
Bustier nodded, “Welcome. Always happy to get new students! Let's find you some seats…” She looked around the room.
“OH! Damian can sit with me!” Lila waved her hand. “I’ll be happy to show him around.”
“Declined,” Damian simply said. “We’ll sit in the back.”
Alya leaned forward, “But Lila’s goes to Gotham and Metropolis all the time!” She said and didn’t notice the way Lila paled. She seemed to have forgotten Damian Wayne was apart of her many, many lies. “Damian, you showed her around last time she was there. You guys became such a good friend. She just wants to return the favor.”
Damian scoffed, “I’ve never seen this girl before in my life.”
Marinette smirked at Adrien, “You’re going to need to move. I have a new best friend.”
“Mean,” Adrien said. “But understandable. Still not moving.”
Jon and Damian sat in empty seats in front of Adrien and Marinette.
Jon turned around in his seat, “Hi.”
Adrien smiled shyly, “Hi.”
Then they just stared at each other.
Chloe let out a long-suffering sigh, “Oh this gonna be exhausting.”
Iron’s Kid: Best day EVER!!!
Chat Galore: SAME! What happened?
Iron’s Kid: Johnny asked me out!
Chat Galore: AWESOME!!!
Chat Galore: Park Bench Guy is in my class NOW!!!
Iron’s Kid: ‘High Five’ Maybe fate DOESN’T hate us.
Chat Galore: …
Chat Galore: …I swear to the Gods if you jinxed us
The two guys in class quickly joined the Adrien’s friends’ group. They blended in seamlessly like they were always there as the weeks went on. Before anyone knew it, they were pretty much attached to hips. Even going as far as joining family game night.
Through them; Damian, Lian, and Jon were able to get all the information they needed to survive Paris. The three had heard whispers of Hawkmoth but had been a little shocked when the Akuma alert went off and everyone had to duck for cover. After the third or fourth time, the new kids got used to it and easily swallowed the excuses Marinette, Adrien, Chloe, and Nino made about having to run off and go home during alerts.
Around the same time as the fourth akuma of the new semester hit, three new heroes arrived in Paris.
Well, new wouldn’t necessarily be the right word. They weren’t new heroes, they were just new to Paris.
Robin, Superboy, and Arrowette. They assisted in fighting back akuma that turned people into candy; a toddler whose mother refused to buy him sweets. Afterward, they explained that they would be in the city for quite some time, and would assist when they are able.
They didn’t reveal why they were there though. All Robin said was, “Justice League business.” And the Parisian heroes decided to leave it at that after offering to help if needed.
Paris went nuts over the arrival of the new heroes.
Alya cried in class when she found out Ladybug gave Aurore the exclusive interview about what was going on. Ladybug also publically endorsed Bugout, Aurore’s website, as the only reliable main source for credible information on the Parisian heroes. She didn’t say a word about Ladyblog, which was pretty much all anyone needed to know what they had already expected.
Ladybug hadn’t given an exclusive on the Ladybug blog in almost two years but now it was official…
The Ladyblog was out. Alya was out.
Time went on. The kids grew closer as friends. Jon and Adrien got closer as… Well, Adrien didn’t know.
He did know that his dad despised Jon because of time he picked Adrien up wearing a green plaid shirt but Gabriel wouldn’t admit it. Jon was the son of famous reporters Lois Lane and Clark Kent, godson to Lex Luther. And Gabriel Agreste was anything but stupid.
“I miss my family,” Jon told Adrien one day while they were studying in the library. “All the time. But I guess also miss the pets I have.”
“I always wanted a dog,” Adrien said.
“In Smallville, I have twelve chickens,” Jon said. “Three horses, four pigs, two cows, and a dog.”
The blond nodded, “You win. Tell me about them.”
And Jon did. He told all about his life in Smallville and metropolis. And Adrien told him what it was like growing up in Paris and being a supermodel.
Adrien grinned, “I want to be a lawyer when I get older,” he told Jon. “I want to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. Like I read about this law firm called Nelson and Murdock who take all these pro bono cases to help people who usually have no chance of winning against bigger, bad-er, and richer people. It gets really dangerous for them but they just keep helping. Because it’s the right thing to do. I want to do that too!”
“I think when I grow up…” Jon said slowly. “I want to be like my mom. She goes above and beyond to get her story; to find out what’s really going on in the world and reports it honestly. I want to do that too. I want to be an investigative journalist. I want to hunt down the truth. Because people deserve the truth, even if they don’t like it. I know the truth can be scary sometimes, and a bit sad. But They deserve to hear it. But I’ve probably said too much.” He laughed.
“No,” Adrien shook his head, and smiled, “Tell me more.”
Still the more their friendship and bonds of trust grew, the more Lila became frustrated. As far as she was concerned things just weren’t going her way. First, she lost her future as the world-famous fashion model Lila Rossi/Mrs. Adrien Agreste. Then Damian Waynes comes to town and won’t even look twice at her; too busy trailing after Miss Goody two-shoes. Then she finds out that Jon Kent is the son of Lois Lane and Clark Kent, godson of Lex Luther, only AFTER she privately threatened to make his life hell for siding with Marinette. She didn’t bother to try to get close to Lian Queen, granddaughter of Oliver Queen, the girl had been glaring at her since the second she heard Lila tell her first lie.
So instead of The Italian girl, once again, tried to sow dissension in the class, tried to force Damian to sit next to her; loudly bragged about her trips and famous people she knew to get attention. Damian ignored her. Then she tried making Marinette look bad again; lied about how the bluenette was bullying her. It didn’t work. Damian was quick to point out inconsistencies in her tales.
That didn’t stop the class from believing them.
“Morons,” Damian called them one day after school.
“They’re not that bad,” Marinette tried.
“They kinda are, dudette,” Nino said. “I really expected Alya to catch on by now. But it’s like she doesn’t want to.”
Chloe scoffed, “Of course she doesn’t!” The blond sneered. “She betrayed her best friend, ditched her best friend, broke up with her boyfriend, pretty much led the charge in exiling us, spread Lila’s lies on her blog which included Lies about Ladybug. It’s not just admitting she was wrong.”
“It’s having to deal with consequences,” Lian agreed. “That Alya got herself into this mess. If Marinette and all us aren’t the bad guys in this, that means she is. That’s a hard pill to swallow.”
Jon shook his head, “I don’t understand why Lila lies so much,” he said. “Dad’s always told me honesty is the best policy.”
“You’re a long way from the farm, boy scout,” Damian tsk’d.
“Damian,” Marinette sighed and grabbed the boy’s hand and pulled him away.
Adrien snickered, “Those two are so into each other, it’s not even funny!”
“I know,” Jon laughed in agreement. “I’ve never seen Damian be so nice to anyone before. I’ve known him since we were in the sandbox, and he just stopped calling me Kent last year.”
“Yeah…” Chloe drawled. “Watching two people dance around each other for months, neither making a move. It’s the worst.”
“Waiting for one of them to finally make a move,” Nino said, “Literally. Kill. You. Inside.”
Lian nodded, “They like each other. Everyone knows they like each other. And Yet nothing. And we'll have no choice but watch and wait for them to pull their heads out of their asses,” She told them. “When all you want to scream is: hey, you two! Just freaking kiss already!”
“Yep the absolute worst,” Nino repeated.
Then Lian, Chloe, and Nino stared blatantly at Jon and Adrien who merely shrugged.
“Damian will make a move soon,” Jon assured.
“I’ll try to get Marinette to say something,” Adrien promised.
“…I hate you,” Chloe said.
Adrien gave her another confused look. Because what did he do wrong now?
Chat Galore: Dude!
Iron’s Kid: Dude!
Chat Galore: I need Hufflepuff support now!
Iron’s Kid: …Crap, I never told you Pottermore sorted me into Gryffindor, did i?
Chat Galore: WHAT!
Chat Galore: Traitor. Never talk to me again
Iron’s Kid: As you wish.
“How do I look?” Marinette asked as she twirled around in the living room. She wore a soft pink dress. Her hair was down and slightly curved. She looked like a princess from a fairytale.
“Flawless,” Adrien said, for the tenth time. “Why am I here?”
Marinette narrowed her eyes at him, “Because!” She said. “You’re my bestie. I have my first real date. Chloe’s shopping with Lian. Nino won’t answer my calls. I need you here!”
“Take a deep breath, Mari!” Adrien told her. “You look absolutely beautiful. Damian’s already head over heels for you, and the way you look is gonna make his purpose.”
The bluenette blushed a lovely pink, “Shut up!”
The door opened, and in walked Nico, “Looking lovely, niece,” He said. “Big date tonight, huh?”
“Yes,” Marinette sighed dreamily. “He’ll be here soon.”
Nico smirked, “Good. Don’t worry, I’ll only threaten him a little.”
“Nico!”
The dark-haired boy chuckled before flopping down on the couch. “Hey, Adrien.”
Adrien felt his mind go a little mushy. He never quite got over his crush on the older boy. At least not yet.
The two still hung out every now and then, still always with Marinette. Nico frequently split his time between New York and Paris. So Adrien didn’t see him that often, though Nico had been around to wish Adrien a happy 16th birthday.
Adrien tried to play it cool, but ended up sitting in awkwardly in the recliner, “Hey Nico!” His voice squeaked, and once more Adrien wanted to die.
The doorbell rang.
Damian brought Marinette a dozen red roses, let himself be mildly threatened by Nico, endured the massive amount of pictures Tom and Sabine took and ignored Adrien’s snickering in the background. Then the two love birds were gone. Sabine and Tom went to go finish closing the bakery for the night. And then it was just Adrien and Nico.
“So,” Nico said as he put his feet on the couch. “What are you doing tonight, Blond Wonder? Any plans?”
Adrien shook his head, “Not really,” Jon was visiting his parents. Nino was watching his siblings. “I’ll just go home and watch Bleach. Or something.” Stuff his mouth with the hidden box of Oreos he had.
“Why don’t you hang out with me?” Nico offered. “The Maltese Falcon at the old theater on 3rd street. It’s your favorite right?”
Adrien nodded eagerly, “Me and my Mom used to watch it all the time.”
The two had a great time at the movie theater and ended up staying to watch another movie. They laughed. They ate lots of overpriced junk food. They talked. And Adrien finally managed to have a non-blushing, stammering, mind mushed, conversation with Nico. It was still just a bit awkward but it was not the cause of something either of them did.
At the end, Nico walked Adrien to the front door of his house.
“It’s weird,” Nico said, “But I kind of always forget how great it is hanging out with you.”
Adrien shrugged, “You’re not too bad yourself,” Then he smirked, “Though you’d probably be happier if you add some color to your wardrobe. Do own anything that’s not the color of sadness?”
Nico barked a laugh, “I am the son of Hades,” He defended himself. “It’s our aesthetic, okay. And we all can’t be made from rainbows and sunshine.”
“Excuses.”
The dark-haired boy shook his head, and smirked at Adrien, “This was fun. We should do it again sometime.” He said as he backed away.
“Yeah,” Adrien smiled. “Go to the beach, see what happens when you go out in the daylight. Even money, you burst into flames.
Nico chuckled as he turned around, “Goodnight, Sunshine.”
“Night, Twilight!”
“You’re dead to me!” Nico called back.
Ladybug and Chat Noir and the other Parisian heroes got used to the Three Justice League sidekicks appearing out of nowhere and assisting in battle. It had been strange at first; a little tense. Mostly due to Robin interrogating them every chance he got. Arrowette glaring menacingly at them. Even Superboy was a bit intimidating. Still, they never revealed why there in Paris.
During this time, Adrien and Jon became much better friends. And the blond started to suspect that Jon would prefer to just stay friends with him.
Iron’s Kid: Johnny and Me are over.
Chat Galore: Ouch. What happened?
Iron’s Kid: ‘Dramatic Sigh’ we’re just too different, you know?
Chat Galore: Different is not always bad. You really liked him, right?
Chat Galore: And did you actually type ‘Dramatic Sigh’, you dramatic bitch?
Iron’s Kid: I like that he was different at first. But we barely had anything in common. We were fire in and ice. Sure it is steamy at first but when the steam is gone…
Iron’s Kid: And yes I did
Chat Galore: You okay?
Iron’s Kid: I’m fine. I just realized I want someone I can talk to about everything and nothing.
Chat Galore: Someone to geek out over Star Trek with, and go to when you need a shoulder to lean on.
Iron’s Kid: Someone who’d stay up all night talking just because he wants to be there for me.
Chat Galore: Dating shouldn’t be this hard
Iron’s Kid: It’ll only get harder.
Chat Galore: Shut. Up.
Iron’s Kid: As you wish.
For Marinette’s sixteenth birthday, she had a party. It was much bigger than she wanted, but not smaller than her friends tried to make it. The bluenette was always there for them, and they wanted to remind her how special was.
However, for the first time, Adrien was pleased to say, he was not the one trying to overdue everything to the extreme. Chloe was pleased that she wasn’t the one making the party planner cry whenever she called them. Nino was pleased that he wasn’t the one to be overly critical of the musical entertainment for being just a bit subpar.
No! That was Damian Wayne.
And unlike Marinette’s best friends, Marinette’s boyfriend’s craziness could not be contained.
The party was huge. There were hundreds of balloons. Everyone was wearing fanciest party clothes. There were hundreds of balloons. Gourmet food. All of Marinette’s friends, close acquaintances, and anyone who loved and or adored her had shown up. Jagged had come. Cara Nightingale did a surprise performance.
Adrien had a blast. His friends found out that while the blond boy had lessons in practically everything, dance wasn’t one of them. He was a terrible dancer. Laughably bad. Still, everyone had fun. Nino danced in a giant glow in the dark dinosaur costume.
Then Marinette, Adrien, Nino, Chloe got on stage and sang Born to Brave from High School Musical: The Series. Damian, Jon, and Lian joined them. The crowd sang with. Bubbles filled the air. It was exhilarating.
So much so that Adrien stepped out to take a small break. He sat on a white wood bench outside, looking up at the stars, and let the cool brisk night air relax him. Even from where he sat, he could still hear music playing from the party.
“Needed a breather,” Jon asked as he sat down next to Adrien.
“Parties,” Adrien shrugged. “They can be a bit much.”
Jon shifted in his seat, “Yeah. Yeah, I guess.”
Then Blue eyes met green…
And then everything suddenly felt really the world was holdings breath. Adrien had no idea where the tension came from but it was there. And it was like he was waiting for some imaginary bubble to burst. And Adrien just… Ugh!
He glanced down at his hands, suddenly not knowing what to do with them. He was also intensely aware of every millimeter Jon so much as moved. In fact, Adrien was aware of everything, including how many times he was blinking.
“This kind of reminds me of how we met,” Adrien finally blurted.
Jon cast him a curious look but nodded, “Yeah, the park bench, right?”
“Mmhmm.”
There it went quiet.
“Why are parties a bit much?” Jon asked.
“Not all parties,” Adrien said. “Just the ones my dad usually drags me to. Everyone is always overly polite while giving backhanded compliments; they pretend to be nice but they don’t mean it. No one’s straight forward. I don’t know why it is so hard.”
“It’s not!” Jon turned to him. “Let’s try it now. Hi, I’m Jon and…” He took two plugs out of his ears, “…I wear earplugs because I can’t handle loud noises sometimes.”
Adrien chuckled, “Hi. I’m Adrien. And apparently, I’m a terrible dancer.”
“God Awful!”
“Hey!”
Jon laughed, “My little Pony is one my favorite shows.
“I once had an imaginary friend named Phineas!”
“I like fried broccoli!”
“I like fried Oreos.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“Oh because fried broccoli so much better.”
“Hey, being straight forward here!” Jon defended. “I like raining days over sunny.”
Adrien smiled, “I like you,” he took a deep breath. “Like really like you.” He glanced down and then back up at Jon and tried to be brave. “Like I the way I thought you might’ve used to like me but don’t anymore.”
“Really?” Jon asked looking just a bit stunned. “How very straight forward of you.”
Adrien stood up quickly, slightly panicked, “That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say. If you don’t like me anymore, I get it.” He said. “I… I just really wanted you to tell you. Even if you change your mind.”
“Adrien,” Jon said, standing up too, facing the blond. “I’ve never changed my mind.” Then he leaned forward and kissed Adrien. “I really like you too.”
Adrien and Jon held hands as they walked back into the party.
Later, after the party ended, Adrien would tell Marinette, Chloe, and Nino about his first kiss, and go partially death from Marinette and Chloe’s screams.
Chat Galore: You know what I like?
Chat Galore: Life!
Iron’s Kid: Things going good then?
Chat Galore: Jon kissed me. My grades are perfect. My dad’s letting me cut back on modeling.
Iron’s Kid: Awesome! You’ve need a break.
Chat Galore: We need a happy song!
Iron’s Kid: We. Do. Not.
Chat Galore: We need a happy song so when we can sing the happy song when we’re happy.
Iron’s Kid: We will never have a happy song.
Iron’s Kid: That’s more of a Hufflepuff thing
Chat Galore: I’d be offended if it wasn’t true!
Adrien’s life really was going great. He became good friends with Nico. Lila’s lies in the class were starting to unravel, and she was quickly losing her supporters. Jon and him were sort of, kind of, officially dating. The sun was shining. Rainbows were everywhere.
…He should’ve known it wouldn’t last forever.
Adrien got a 911 group text from Chloe; with like a dozen exclamation points and several frowny faces so he knew it was serious.
When he got to Chloe’s place, he found Marinette and Nino already waiting on the couch, while Chloe paced the floor. Adrien joined on the couch.
“Okay,” Marinette said. “We’re all here. What’s up? What’s the emergency?”
“They’re spies,” Chloe hissed, rage clear on her face. “Lian, Jon, Damian; they’ve been spying on us all this time.”
“What? Dude, no way!” Nino shook his head. “They’re our friends. Lian hates traitors!”
“Damian would never!” Marinette denied. “He loves me. I love him.”
Adrien agreed, “They’d never do that us. Jon couldn’t. He’s like the most honest kid ever.”
Chloe picked up a nearby face and smashed against the wall, “They’re two-faced lying little creeps.” She yelled. Though it was clear she was angry, they could also see the hurt clear in the blonde’s eyes.
“Chloe…” Marinette started slowly but was cut off.”
“Lian is Arrowette!” Chloe growled. “Jon’s Superboy. And I’ll give you one big fat guess who Damian is. And for the record he is not as wonderful as his nickname implies.”
Pollen flew out from wherever she was hiding, “It’s true!” She said. “I saw them myself. They are the American heroes.”
“Pollen followed them,” Chloe explained. “She saw everything. They’ve been following us. Reporting intel to the Justice League all about us. That’s why they’re here. That’s why they got close to us. They know we’re heroes!”
Horror and understandingly slowly crept over Nino, Marinette, and Adrien’s faces.
Pollen nodded eagerly, “They have reports all about your lives in and out of the mask. It's very detailed.”
Adrien was glad he was sitting down because he felt like the floor has disappeared under his feet. Shakily, he stood up, “I need too…” He shook his head. “I have too…” He couldn’t finish his sentence instead he just ran from the room.
And kept running and running.
Until he found himself standing in front of the apartment where Jon, Lian, and Damian lived. He stared at the olive green door as if he didn’t recognize it. As if he hadn’t been there, in that same spot, standing in front of that door, a hundred times before.
He closed his eyes and he knocked.
Jon opened the door, “Adrien!” He had a large grin on his face that slowly disappeared when he saw the look on the blond boy’s face.
“Can I come in?”
“Sure, yeah!” Jon moved out of the way to let Adrien pass. “Is everything okay?”
Adrien walked into the living room and saw Damian and Lian sitting on the couch, “Go see Marinette,” He ordered Damian. “If you want any chance of saving your relationship, if you ever really loved her like you said you; you will go see Her. Right. Now.”
That was all Damian needed to here to fly out of the room.
Adrien turned to Lian, “I need to speak with Jon alone, please,” He said as politely as possible. “I would suggest going to go speak with Nino and Chloe.”
Lian frowned but nodded and left the room.
“Adrien, what’s going on?” Jon asked again. “You’re scaring me.”
Adrien let out a shorter bitter laugh, “I’m going to ask you three questions, and I need to be honest with me, okay? Is your name Jon Kent?
“Yes,” Jon stated firmly. “Jonathan Kent Lane.”
“Are we friends?”
“Of course!”
Adrien nodded and swallowed the lump that was building in his throat, “Why did you really come to Paris?”
Jon frowned, “I’m here on a foreign exchange-” Adrien cut him off.
“Don’t lie to me, Superboy!”
The boy of Steel flinched back.
“Tell me it isn’t true!” Adrien all but begged. “Tell me you didn’t come here to spy on Chat Noir and Ladybug and everyone else. Tell me this wasn’t all a big lie. Tell me you weren’t using me for information. Tell me! Tell me wrong I’m, please.”
“Adrien…” Jon whispered, pain on his face. “I’m sorry.”
That was Adrien needed to here. “All this time. You… I thought… Was any of it real? Was anything you ever told me real? Do I even know you?” He asked. “
“The Justice League was concerned about Hawkmoth,” Jon tried to explain. “They received intelligence that Ladybug and Chat Noir were teenagers, and wanted to know more. They sent us.”
Adrien just stared at him, “I like you,” He said. “I really liked you. You were my friend, Did you do all just because you were ordered to?”
“No!” Jon nodded, “I swear. I’d never do that to you, to anyone.”
“But you thought it was okay to kiss me,” Adrien said “To date me! When I had no idea who you are really?”
Jon tossed his hands in the air, “You know who I am. Nothing’s changed. I’m still the same guy. I’m still me!”
“Everything’s changed!” Adrien yelled. “I’m questioning everything. Everything I’ve ever said to you, everything we ever did together!” His entire body shook. “You were sent to get close to us. You were sent to get close to me. To. Get. Information.”
It went quiet. Neither knowing what to say.
“…That day in the park,” Adrien whispered. “You were on the bench and Chloe thought you were checking me out. You weren’t, were you? You were watching me, us. Gathering intel. Weren’t you?”
Jon looked away, “…Yeah, I was.”
You knew I was Chat Noir even then?”
“I did.”
Adrien nodded, “It’s been a lie since the beginning,” He clenched his fists. “In the library, you told me that people deserve the truth. I believed in you. I trusted you. I told you things I’ve haven’t even told people who’ve known my entire life. Because I trusted you. I trusted you were honest and good and you would tell me the truth. Why didn’t I deserve the truth?”
He looked up at the mantle that was covered in pictures of people that Adrien knew as friends and family of Jon, Damian, and Lian, and at all of the pictures of Chloe, Nino, Adrien, and Marinette together with the three; laughing and smiling. And it hurt to look at it. “You’ve been here for almost a year. You three pretended to be our friends, to care, for almost a year.”
“It wasn’t pretend. Or a lie,” Jon looked ready to cry. “You are our friends!”
Adrien ran a hand through his hair, “Then Why? If we were your friends, why?”
Jon shrugged, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. Everything was so complicated. We were never supposed to be here this long. It was our first big mission. The first mission JL trusted us to handle alone. I could give you a thousand excuses but I know they wouldn’t be good enough.”
“They wouldn’t be,” Adrien agreed. “They aren’t. They never will be.”
It went silent again. Jon and Adrien just stared at each other.
“You weren’t sent to get close us,” Adrien repeated. “Not just learn about Hawkmoth. But you were specifically sent to get close us; learn who we are as heroes and as civilians. Hawkmoth was a bonus. But you were sent for Ladybug and Chat Noir and Queen Bee and Carapace. Right?”
Jon looked down, away from Adrien’s soul-piercing gaze, and admitted, “You were the mission.”
Adrien closed his eyes, stood up straight, and with every ounce of control he could muster, he calmly said, “Goodbye, Jon.”
“I never meant to hurt you,” Jon said.
“That doesn’t really matter, because, in the end, it all hurts the same,” Adrien replied and left.
For the next few hours, Jon saying, “You were the mission,” Kept echoing in Adrien’s head on a loop.
Not long after leaving Jon’s place, Adrien would find himself in Marinette’s room, letting the bluenette cry her eyes out into his shoulder, shedding his own tears too. Chloe would arrive next with bloodshot eyes, and cuddle next to them. Nino, just after her, looking like a wreck and would take the spot next to Adrien.
It would be hours before they’d calm themselves down. But it wouldn’t be until the next day that any of them managed to ask what they should next.
Chloe spitefully suggested kicking them out of Paris.
Nino agreed halfheartedly.
Adrien was fine with just ignoring them. At least he hoped that he could. He would try really, really hard to.
Marinette didn’t say a word. Instead, she just let them talk with a faraway look on her face.
In the end, it wouldn’t matter.
By Monday, Jon, Damian, and Lian would be gone. Bustier would announce that the exchange program ended.
And Adrien would find himself frequently staring at Jon’s empty seat.
Chat Galore: So it turns out… Jon’s a big jerk
Chat Galore: He wasn’t who I thought he was.
Chat Galore: It’s complicated but to summarize he’s a jerk.
Iron’s Kid: Screw Prince Charming if he turned out to be a warty, jerky frog.
Iron’s Kid: You deserve better.
Chat Galore: To quote Gabriella Montez: Now I know you're not a fairy tale And dreams were meant for sleeping And wishes on a star Just don't come true
Iron’s Kid: Crap, you're quoting high school musical. You're really hurting, aren’t you.
Iron’s Kids: Want to watch shitty Disney Channel movies and talk?
Chat Galore: …Yes.
Three months, two weeks, six days, nine hours, and twelve minutes. That was how long it took for Adrien to move on. For all of them to move on from the sense of betrayal.
Iron’s Kid: YOU STILL HAVEN’T WATCHED PRINCESS BRIDE
Chat Galore: It doesn’t seem like that good of a movie
Iron’s Kid: ‘Insulted Gasp’ How. Dare. YOU!
Chat Galore: You still have watched Vampire Diaries!
Iron’s Kid: I have taste!
It took almost three weeks for Chloe to stop growling whenever someone mentioned Damian, Jon, or Lian’s name.
Iron’s Kid: I might need to hide out in Paris for a while
Chat Galore: Did you blow up your dad’s lab again?
Iron’s Kid: Worse!
Chat Galore: You superglue legos to your Pop’s shield again.
Iron’s Kid: That was an accident. They were supposed to come right off. And it's worse.
Chat Galore: Melt another hole in your living room floor?
Iron’s Kid: So. SO much worse.
Chat Galore: You didn’t call Natasha fat did you?
Iron’s Kid: Never that bad
Iron’s Kid: I may or may not have caused MJ’s laptop to crash
Chat Galore: … Shit
Chat Galore: Not even the gods could save you.
A month for Marinette to not look like she wanted to cry when she thought about Damian.
Chat Galore: I’ve decided to learn to cook
Iron’s Kid: Sweet
Chat Galore: Just think One day you will try my cooking.
Iron’s Kid: Sorry, Can’t I’m on a new diet.
Chat Galore: WHAT DIET?
Iron’s Kid: Photosynthesis
Two months for Nino to redownload all the songs he deleted because Lian recommended them.
Iron’s Kid: Archie is one of my best friends
Chat Galore: *doing the Fortnite dance*
Iron’s Kid: I lied I don’t know you
Three months for Adrien to be able to sit in the park and not think about Jon.
Iron’s Kid: I think are MJ and Shure are laughing at me
Chat Galore: Don't be so paranoid
Iron’s Kid: They're pointing at me and laughing.
In the fourth month, things are pretty much the same as they ever were. Though everyone picked up the habit of pretending they didn’t know Marinette started texting Damian again. Eventually, the gang was okay when Marinette announced she was seeing Damian again; even if they, themselves, decided not to deal with the American heroes.
Chat Galore: I really thought 2020 would be a great year!!!
Iron’s Kid: …WWIII was trending in the first week of January.
Time went on. Adrien went on dates, had fun, had a boyfriend or two. He grew up a bit, and kind of understood the position Jon had been in better. And then he wasn’t so angry. Still, a bit hurt though.
Iron’s Kid: I’m sending good vibes your way, they’re coming and there is nothing you can do to stop the
Chat Galore: that is the most threatening way I’ve ever been cheered up.
By the time summer hit, Adrien decided to take a step back from love and romance and just focus on himself. He finally told his dad his wanted to be a Lawyer, and to his surprise, his dad helped him get a summer internship at a prestigious law firm.
Chat Galore: I’ve decided if I kill Lila, I’ll make it look like an accident.
Chat Galore: Unlike Chloe who has plans to mount her head on the balcony like a warning to the next that may come
Iron’s Kid: How will you make it look like an accident?
Chat Galore: I have a crowbar and a banana.
Iron’s Kid: Quick request: Go look up accident in the dictionary.
He quit modeling because he never really liked it. He found out he liked to paint and was pretty good at it. He tried and failed to learn how to dance.
He did learn to surf.
Adrien hung out a lot with Nico, who had become a good friend.
By the time summer ended, the gang was back on speaking terms with Damian, Lian, and Job. Mostly at Marinette’s behest. She and Damian were going strong. And she really wanted everyone to forgive and forget and be friends.
Chloe just agreed to be civil.
Nino agreed to try being friends again after the three apologized.
�� Adrien, mostly out of love for his all but sister Marnette, put his best foot forward and start over with them – even Jon. They agreed to be friends. Just friends.
Iron’s Kid: I don’t have a nervous system.
Iron’s Kid: I am a nervous system.
Chat Galore: I’m a Scorpio!
Their final year of school started with a bang. Next year they would all be off at University. And by Bang, Adrien meant Alya knocking Lila the fuck out during the first week.
Lila had told the one lie Alya couldn’t just live in denial with.
“I told Ladybug, I just couldn’t do it anymore,” Lila sighed, “I already have so many medical issues. I couldn’t be Rene Rouge anymore. Ladybug was devasted.”
Then the entire class heard Lila scream, and the thing they knew Alya was on top of Lila beating the hell out of her, screaming, “You lying little WITCH!!”
Chat Galore: ‘Video Sent’
Iron’s Kid: Lila’s the girl on the floor right?
Chat Galore: Alya SNAPPED
Lila transferred out of the school Alya transferred out of class. No one got an apology. Adrien didn’t know why he was still a little surprised.
Outside of school, Adrien was pleased to say the gang’s friendship with Jon, Lian, and Damian was back to full force. Even Chloe greeted the three warmly.
Once Adrien decided to move passed any lingering romantic feelings for Jon, they managed to have a pretty good friendship. Even the Superboy and Chat Noir team-ups were going well.
Chat Galore: what should I be for Halloween this year?
Iron’s Kid: a vampire, Batman, my boyfriend, Superman
Adrien laughs until everything processed in his mind.
Chat Galore: What?
He didn’t get a reply. And Adrien figured it was just autocorrected. But still… his mind couldn’t help but wonder. Just a bit… What if?
A while ago, he had vaguely considered that maybe him and Iron’s Kid had something, could possibly be…
In the middle of Winter break, Adrien got the best gift he could’ve ever asked for.
Iron’s Kid: I’ve been thinking
Chat Galore: Well that can’t end well
Iron’s Kid: Have you and MJ been talking behind my back
Iron’s Kid: Wait don’t answer that. I’m afraid to know
Iron’s Kid: Ned made a point the today
Adrien waited for Iron’s Kid to elaborate more, because what?
Iron’s Kid: I’ve been stupid.
Chat Galore: Ned makes a good point, lol
Iron’s Kid: WHAT I’m TRYING TO say is; I trust you
Adrien smiled as his phone.
Iron’s Kid: We’ve been friends since we were like 11
Iron’s Kid: I want to meet
Iron’s Kid: I want to know what you look like.
Adrien agreed instantly. Because he’s been waiting for like six years. They agreed to meet up that spring. Iron’s Kid’s was going on a trip to Europe for his spring break. It was just going to be him and a few classmates who were in the same club as him. Iron’s Kid said everyone else in their grade was looking forward to the Big Senior Ski Trip at the Brown Bear Ski Lodge that happened every year.
Adrien had family in England. They would meet at six pm at the London’s Eye.
Chat Galore: I always figured you were secretly a werewolf and knew we’d automatically be enemies.
Iron’s Kid: Wait, why would we be enemies?
Iron’s Kid: Oh You’re a Cat!
Chat Galore: And You’re supposed to be a genius.
Iron’s Kid: Meow!
Adrien’s seventeenth birthday came and went without any fireworks; metaphorical ones anyway. His party was huge.
He also met the Justice League and got to watch Chloe cuss out the greatest heroes in the world for the invasion of privacy. Marinette, Adrien, and Nino just watched with smiles on their faces.
He was counting down the days. Until he and Iron’s Kid finally met. It was strange to think it was really going to happen.
Chat Galore: Would you say you’re an independent person?
Iron’s Kid: MJ told me to say to yes.
Chat Galore: Stop being weird.
Iron’s Kid: As you wish.
Adrien chuckled.
“What?” Marinette asked. He showed her the text. “It kind of funny.
“Not the Mj thing,” Adrien shook his head. “Iron’s Kid always says ‘As You wish’ whenever I tell him to do something. It’s weird.”
“…Like in Princess Bride,” Marinette asked.
Adrien shrugged, “Never seen it. It’s one of Iron’s favorite though. Irritates him that I refuse to watch it. But I won’t until he watches the Vampire Diaries.”
Marinette stared at him, “And Iron’s Kid says ‘As you Wish’ every time.”
“Yep.”
“Adrien, WATCH. THAT. MOVIE,” Marinette ordered a firm look on her face.
Adrien pointed at her, “No!” He said firmly. “It goes against my principles.” She shot him a curious look. “I have a duty to annoying Iron’s Kid in any way I can.”
The bluenette nodded understandingly, a small smile on her face, “Makes sense,” She said. “I totally accept your reasoning.”
Adrien smiled happily… Like a fool.
In retrospect, he should’ve known Marinette would never back down that easily.
And that was how he ended up literally hogtied on the couch, the Princess Bride playing on the TV, with a smug Chloe and a gleeful Marinette next to him. Nino watched from the recliner with an easy grin on his face.
“You’ve could’ve helped!” Adrien complained to his friend.
Nino shrugged, “I did help!” He defended. “…Them.”
Adrien sighed and allowed himself to watch the movie; he fully knows two things.
One; there was no way he was getting out of this
Two; Iron’s Kid was never going to let him live this down.
The movie was actually pretty good. But then…
The scene played…
Grandpa: Nothing gave Buttercup as much pleasure as ordering Westley around.
Buttercup: Farm boy, polish my horse's saddle. I want to see my face shining in it by morning.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: "As you wish" was all he ever said to her.
Buttercup: Farm boy, fill these with water - please.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish," what he meant was, "I love you." And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.
Buttercup: Farm boy ... fetch me that pitcher.
Westley: As you wish.
Adrien’s mind went blank. His heart started beating faster than it ever had before. It couldn’t mean…
Iron’s kid didn’t mean…
Right?
But what if he did.
Adrien always sort of held a small torch for his penpal. And he never had any concrete evidence that said he felt the same. And he was waiting until he did.
But what if Iron’s Kid was waiting too. What if he was waiting for Adrien to finally say something; to finally get his message.
Chat Galore: So…
Iron’s Kid: So… Did we agree to stop sending cryptic messages
Chat Galore: We did not
Chat Galore: So I finally watched Princess Bride
Iron’s Kid: YES!!!!!!!!! Finally!!! Fuck yeah! Tell you me loved it.
Chat Galore: It was good, you freaking loser
Iron’s Kid: It’s amazing. It’s a classic you asshat
Chat Galore: Learned something interesting though
Chat Galore: ‘As you wish’, huh? You say a lot
Chat Galore: To me.
Adrien stared as his phone waiting for a reply. It came after ten minutes.
Iron’s Kid: I do.
Chat Galore: Does it mean what it's supposed to.
Another five minutes, and it felt agony.
Iron’s Kid: It does
Adrien screamed a little
Chat Galore: Are you seriously just going to give me two-word answers? Why didn’t just you tell me
Iron’s Kid: In a way I sort of did
Adrien glared at the phone.
Chat Galore: You are the most frustrating person to ever exist!!!!!!
Iron’s Kid: Thank you
Adrien took a deep breath before dialing, “You suck!” He said as soon as it answered.
“I told you to watch the movie,” Iron’s kid defended.
Adrien gripped his hair, “You don’t tell someone you love them by using some obscure 80s movie reference!” He snapped. “How hard would it be to say: Iron’s Kid, I’m pretty sure I’ve been in love with you since we were twelve-years-old.”
It went quiet as both processed what Adrien just said.
“…That’s oddly specific,” Iron’s kid whispered.
Adrien took a deep breath, “Yeah it is.” He said. He was forcing himself to be brave, braver than he ever had before. “But its how I feel. And I can’t help that.”
“I love you too,” Iron’s kid said. “And I’ve loved you since the first time stayed up talking while Binge-watching Harry Potter. It was the first time I realized you know me best in the entire world, and you don’t even know my real name. I could be honest with you in a way I can’t be with anyone. If I could dream up the perfect guy, he wouldn’t even come close to you.”
“Boys meets world,” Adrien let out a small laugh, that sounded a bit more like a sob. “Most of my life I felt alone, even when I was with people. That was until I met you.”
“Pretty little liars,” Iron’s Kid stated.
“In a few weeks, we’re finally gonna meet.”
“I’ll be there,” Iron’s kid said. “I swear.”
Adrien smiled, “Good because I’ve been waiting for six years. And I know this is scary, but I will be there. Don’t let me down.”
“I won’t,” He promised.
Valentine’s day came and went.
Adrien was literally marking off the days on the calendar. The trip was all planned already; Nino, Chloe, and Marinette were tagging along.
Iron’s Kid and Adrien talked every day.
“Okay if you sigh dreamily one more...” Nico teased.
Adrien flushed a bright pink, “I’m finally gonna meet Iron’s Kid.”
“Ahh,” Nico nodded understandingly. “The mysterious penpal. It’s been what seven years?”\
“Six,” Adrien corrected. “Feels like twice that. We like each other,” He admitted. “Like really, really each other. We told each other a few weeks ago.’
Nico frowned, “Just before meeting each other. Sounds like a lot of pressure. You ready for that?”
The blond took a deep breath, “Yeah, I think so. It’s time. It’s going to be perfect. We’re gonna meet at London’s eyes, under the stars; it’ll be like a movie.”
“Your Ferris wheel moment,” Nico concluded. “Marinette told me,” The older boy explained. “Just… be careful okay.”
“I will be.”
Nico gave him a hard look, “I’m serious. I know you. You’re all in. You always are,” he said. “Just don’t build this some more than you should. Don’t go in thinking it’ll be this picture-perfect movie moment. I don’t want to see you let down.” He told Adrien. “You’re my friend. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Adrien gave him a small smile, “I don’t care if the Ferris wheel is broken when I get there. Or its raining cats and dogs. It’ll be perfect.”
“Just be careful,” Nico repeated.
The big day came. Adrien arrived in England on late Thursday with a stomach full of butterflies. Iron’s Kid had texted that he had been in London with his friends for a few days and that he couldn’t wait to see Adrien.
Iron’s Kid: I have brown hair. I’ll be wearing black slacks, and a rose lapel flower pin.
It wasn’t the first time the blond had been to England; he had more than a few photoshoots there. Yet somehow it all felt different. It all felt new. And it was like he was looking at everything again for the first time.
He was to meet Iron’s Kid on Saturday at 6 pm. And he could barely contain himself
He spent most of the Friday touring with his friends. They went to Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The British Museum; standard tourist spots. And eating really, really British cuisine.
Adrien woke up bright and early on Saturday and pretty much had a panic attack. It took Nino twenty minutes to calm him down. However, even when he was breathing normally again, Adrien was adamant about running back to Paris. That was when Nino called in Marinette and Chloe as reinforcements.
“If I have to drag to London’s Eye by your tacky boyband haircut,” Chloe growled. “I will.”
Marinette tried the nice route, “Everything’s going to be fine,” She assured.
Chloe huffed, “I didn’t come all the way to London so you can be a little bitch.”
“You are so hostile,” Nino complained.
“What if this a mistake?” Adrien asked. “What if he’s disappointed? What if he takes one look at me, and is ‘You? I waited six years, and I get you. Waste of time.”
“That won’t happen!” Marinette said. “He’s gonna love you. He already does!”
Nino nodded, “Yeah. You two are practically soulmates.”
“No!” Chloe held up a finger. “Listen to me clearly, Adrien Agreste; Just because he likes the same nerdy crap you do doesn't mean he's your soul mate. And if it doesn’t work out, not that it won’t, you will be just fine.”
Marinette sighed, “No matter what happens everything is going to be okay.” She said firmly. “But you should really change that blazer. It’s not doing you any favors. Then we’re going to get breakfast and go to the museum. You have 11 hours until you have to be at the London’s eye. You’re going to relax until.”
“While we stop you from fleeing the country,” Nino yawned tiredly.
That had to stop Adrien at least three times. One time Ladybug actually had appeared to pick Adrien up when he was halfway to the airport. This was all before one pm.
The blond boy managed to calm down after that. Then he went back to bursting with excitement. He was still afraid but he couldn’t let that stop him. Adrien has been waiting six years to meet Iron’s Kid, to meet Iron’s Kid.
He arrived at the London’s eye, half an hour before six. He wore a silver suit Marinette had designed for him.
Adrien took calming breaths. Marinette rolled her eyes as she fixed his tie, “See? This isn't so bad. You look amazing.”
“Are you kidding?” He gave her a nervous smile, “He traveled over three thousand miles to me. Any second now he's gonna get here, look at me and go, "Ha. Yeah, right, you're so not worth this.”
Marinette gave him a hard look, “Yes, you are.” She patted his chest. “Take a lot of pictures. Text if you need anything.”
And then she was gone.
Adrien texted Iron’s Kid.
Chat Galore: I’m here. Blond; silver suit.
The blond looked up at the London’s eyes, the biggest Ferris wheel had ever seen, and knew this was it. This was the moment Adrien had been waiting for. He smiled.
When six pm came, Adrien was practically bursting at the seams. He was literally shaking in excitement. He watched the people go by and held his breath every time he saw a guy his age with brown hair but would frown when he didn’t see the rose lapel pin.
Chat Galore: You here yet?
Six turned into seven. The sun had gone down. The stars were shining. Everything looked so perfect. Adrien was sure Iron’s Kid was on his way.
Chat Galore: If your running late it’s cool. I’ll wait.
Seven turned into eight. Adrien refused to give up hope. He would wait no matter how long it took.
Iron’s Kid was worth it.
Chat Galore: Still here.
Chat Galore: Did something come up?
Eight turned into nine. The London’s eye closed. People started leaving. Adrien texted his friends that he was fine.
He wasn’t feeling as hopeful as he did a few hours ago. But he’d wait.
Chat Galore: Still waiting.
Chat Galore: Well past feeling just a little pathetic.
Nine turned into ten. Hope kind of then.
Chat Galore: Still here. Still waiting.
Chat Galore: What happened?
Chat Galore: Just say something!
Ten turned to eleven. Adrien didn’t even know why he was still waiting.
Chat Galore: Anything! Please!
A quarter to midnight, Adrien finally got an answer.
Iron’s Kid: I’m sorry.
That was it. That was all he said.
Adrien got back to his hotel room a little after midnight; feeling numb. His throat burned a little. His eyes were a little red.
Nino greeted him with a big grin, “Back late, huh? Must’ve had a good time…” He trailed off when he saw the look on Adrien’s face. “Oh god, what happened?”
Adrien shoved his hands in his pockets, “He, uh, he never showed up,” he said and swallowed the lump that had been building in his throat. “It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s okay.” Adrien nodded. “I need to, I have to, uh. I got to the bathroom.” And then he fled into the bathroom, locking the door behind him; willing the world to just stop existing for just a few moments.
“Dude, it’s okay,” Nino said through the door. “I know this has to be rough. But you’ll get through it. I’m here. I called Chloe and Marinette, they’re on their way.”
Adrien didn’t say anything. He just wiped the tears off his face, and then gripped the bathroom sink.
“They’ll probably be banging on the door any sec,” Nino added. “Unless, Marinette’s trying to stop Chloe from committing murder,” He joked. “Which would be way rude by the way. I’d have liked an invitation. I thought our friendship was stronger.”
Adrien heard loud knocking and the sweet voice of Marinette asking where he was, and the furious voice of Chloe already talking about how she knew how t to hide a body.
The blond boy figured it was only a matter of time before Nino or Marinette convinced him to open up the door. Or Chloe broke it down.
However, surprisingly after twenty or so minutes of his friends pleading with him to open the door, the door would gently swing open to reveal Marinette kneeling with a lockpick set in her hands.
That got a smile out of Adrien. After all these years, the bluenette was still full of surprises.
Adrien spent the rest of the night letting his friends comfort him. They left England the next morning.
When they got back to Paris, and Adrien was back in the comfort of his room, he finally texted Iron’s Kid back.
Chat Galore: Why didn’t you show?
He’d wait for a reply all day but wouldn’t get one.
The next day, Adrien texted again.
Chat Galore: I’m not mad.
Chat Galore: I promise
Chat Galore: just a little hurt.
Again, he’d wait for a reply all day, but it didn’t come.
Though his friends tried to get him to talk about it, Adrien wouldn’t budge. He just couldn’t…
It just stung too much. It burned too much.
Chat Galore: I get it if you were afraid or something
Chat Galore: It’s okay.
And was the truth; it was fine.
He would be fine. Everything was good. It was okay.
Adrien would be fine.
That was what he told everyone.
Chat Galore: We can pretend this never happened if you want
Chat Galore: Just be friends.
Adrien still didn’t get a reply. That didn’t stop him from waiting for one. He figured Iron’s Kid was just embarrassed that he didn’t show or something. Everything would go back to normal after a few days.
Chat Galore: I’m going to see Onward. Heard its pretty good.
But a few days became a week. A week became two. Two weeks a became a month of radio silence. And a seed of worrying starting to grow in Adrien’s stomach. Nevertheless, Adrien wrote Iron’s Kid once a day. He refused to give up hope.
Adrien kept a smile on his face to stop his friends from being concerned. There was no reason to. He would be fine. It was okay. It wasn’t the first time he got his heart broken; probably would even be his last.
His days were split between studying and fight Hawkmoth. The villain was getting bolder and more desperate. Every Akuma seemed worse and stronger than the last. The kids got used to the feeling of always being dead on their feet.
Marinette finally decided they needed a break and ordered a family game night. She got the newly permanent heroes Luka, Kagami, and Aurore to cover for them.
Adrien tried to give all his attention to the monopoly game they played; laughed when he was supposed to. Tried to ignore that in the back of his mind, his attention was still a bit focused on his phone, and that fact that it's been a month since he heard from Iron’s Kid.
A month since London.
He barely even blinked twice when Marinette successfully bankrupted him, even though he was the first one out. Instead, as soon as the game got more intense, Adrien stuck away. He found himself on the roof the bakery, staring at the stars, clutching his phone in his hand.
Chat Galore: I’m running out of things to say
Chat Galore: Hard to have a one-sided conversation.
Chat Galore: I’m not even sure you’re reading this.
Chat Galore: Maybe I’ll just you send you movie quotes until you respond
Adrien looked back up at the stars and wished. He wished never agreed to meet Iron’s Kid. He wished he never told him he loved him. He wished he could take it all back because at least he’d still have his friend.
He wrapped his arms around himself. Adrien blinked back the tears that were building.
He heard the door open behind him and figured it was Chloe or Nino coming to check on him; whoever got kicked out of the game firsts. Because Marinette was going to win.
“Beautiful night,” A voice said. “Nothing quite like Paris in the springtime.”
Adrien cast a quick smile at Nico, “I always preferred it during Winter. A Snowy wonderland.” He went back to looking up at the stars.
“You know someday someone will walk into your life,” Nico said as he walked to stand next to the blond, “And make you realize why he never worked out with anyone else.”
“Go ahead,” Adrien laughed bitterly. “Tell me I told you so.”
Nico shrugged, ‘Iron’s Kid’s a kid. And an idiot.”
“Yeah,” The blond sobbed. “That doesn’t mean much coming from you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nico crossed his arms.
“Nothing,” Adrien rolled his eyes. “I’m just tired… I'm so tired of falling for guys that don't fall back. It hurts.”
“Adrien, I…”
Adrien cut him off, “It’s the same thing every time. I’m all in, and they’re not. I’m the one left out in the cold. I’m waiting, looking like a total idiot. Because I was stupid enough to give all my heart when no one else ever does. So you wanna help me, Nico? Tell me what I do wrong.
“Nothing!” Nico gripped Adrien’s shoulders. “There is nothing wrong with you. You’re smart and talented. You’re caring and you’re funny. You look at this world like everything is possible, and you make me believe it too. You’re not the problem.”
“Tell me why I'm so easy to give up then,” The blond asked. “And maybe I can fix it”
“You’re asking the wrong guy, Sunshine,” Nico whispered, his forehead against Adrien’s, their lips inches apart. “There is no time or place or world, where it would ever be easy to give you up.”
Nico moved closer; so did Adrien…
“Hey!!” A voice called from downstairs. “New games starting. It’s Poker! Hurry your butts up!”
The two guys snapped back to reality and away from each other.
“You should go,” Nico said dryly, looking away from the other boy. “I’m going to stay here for a bit.”
“Nico…” Adrien said, looking a bit confused.
The older boy shook his head.
The blond nodded and started for the door.
“For what it’s worth,” Nico called. “He made the wrong choice.”.
A small smile spread over Adrien’s face, “I know.”
“I wonder what would’ve happened if we met when we were older,” Nico asked.
Adrien shrugged, “Someday we will be.”
“Long game?”
“Long game.”
He went back to the living room where everyone was waiting, with the cards and poker chips already dealt.
Adrien settled in the seat next to Marinette.
The bluenette shot him a concerned look, “You okay?”
“I’ll be…” Adrien sighed. “Eventually.”
The blond boy decided to chalk up whatever happened on the roof with Nico as… Just the two of them being caught in the moment. Emotions were high.
…That didn’t stop Adrien from smiling every time someone mentioned Nico’s name.
Chat Galore: Everything is possible.
Chat Galore: Even the impossible.
He still wrote Iron’s Kid once every day. Adrien didn’t say much. He just sent a movie quote he liked, just to let Iron’s Kid know he was still there. He was still waiting… if Iron’s Kid ever changed his mind.
Chat Galore: When you can’t look on the Brightside, I will sit with you in the dark.
A month became two.
Chat Galore: In the garden of memory, in the palace of Dreams, that is where you and I shall meet.
Two became three. They figured out who Hawkmoth was. The battle had been epic. Adrien’s father had hesitated when he realized Adrien was Chat Noir, long enough for Ladybug to make the killing shot.
Figuratively anyway.
Ladybug blasted Hawkmoth into a wall. The heroes banded together to remove his miraculous. Then they erased his memory. And then Natalie’s. Of any and all knowledge of magic permanently; defeating Hawkmoth once and for all.
As far as Gabriel knew he was just a recluse workaholic with what barely passed as a decent relationship with his only child.
Adrien was devastated to learn who his father really was. Even so when he discovered the reason behind Hawkmoth’s villainous pursuit; his comatose mother and learned from Fu there was no way to save her; not even with a wish.
The blond boy had long ago mourned his mother and moved on but that it didn’t hurt.
Emilie Agreste was officially declared dead and buried on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in the middle of Spring.
Chat Galore: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it
Three months became four.
At this point, he knows Iron’s Kid’s never going to write him back. And that was okay. Adrien was okay.
People move on. And while Adrien would always wonder why Iron’s Kid never showed, he could live without knowing.
If anyone asked why he was still writing, Adrien would say he didn’t know.
But that was a lie.
He did know.
Iron’s Kid had been a really big part of his life, had been one greatest friend he ever had; had been his first love in a way.
So yes, Adrien knew exactly why he was still writing.
He could live without Iron’s Kid in his life but he couldn’t live without one thing.
Chat Galore: Here's looking at you kid
Adrien officially graduated from school. He was accepted into Columbia. He’d be living in New York. And so, would Chloe, Marinette, and Nino. They decided they wanted to stick together and keep being heroes.
Chloe would be going to Columbia with him to study business and public relations. Marinette would study business and fashion. Nino decided to dedicate his life to being the next great movie director. Adrien would study Law.
They decided to get two apartments across from each other like in F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Because that was pretty much all they knew about New York.
Damian would be attending Columbia; he was gearing up to take over Wayne Industries one day. Him and Marinette were still going strong. Lian would be going to Princeton, as Oliver Queen would be damned if his granddaughter went anywhere else. Jon would take a year off to explore the world before attending Metropolis University; he still wanted to Major in Journalism.
Damian kept hinting hard that the Titans, not the Teen Titans, were looking for new members. And as he was the current leader of the Titans, it was less of a hint and more like being actively headhunted by the most aggressive Robin to ever walk the earth.
It was official, they weren’t kids anymore.
Chat Galore: You know that place between sleep and awake where you’re always dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you. That’s where I’ll be waiting.
They had a few months before they had to move completely to New York, and decided to do something special. Or rather Tom and Sabine did.
And mostly because they just wanted to see where their kids would be living from now on.
Sabine and Tom claimed to find this great deal on a ski resort near New York. Everyone was invited; Nico, Kagami, Luka, Aurore, Lian, Jon, and Damian.
They did the whole tourist thing, led by Nico who was excited his cousin would be living in the same city as him and explored the great New York City, and Tom and Sabine got to see the penthouses, Gabriel and Audrey had bought each their perspective children and were assured their kids would be living in a safe location.
Chat Galore: So maybe it won’t look like you thought it would in high school, but it’s important to remember that love is possible. Anything is possible. This is New York
The Brown Bear Ski Lodge was packed, apparently, some class from a school called Midtown had booked a trip at the same time they did. So the entire lodge was filled with graduating seniors, between the ages of seventeen and eighteen years old.
To say it was wild was an understatement. Sabine vocally wondered why the school though three chaperones to watch over an entire class of students were enough. Tom just comforted Mr. Harrison when he started to cry.
Adrien got to meet loads of kids his age, a few that would even be starting at Columbia the same time as the French kids. It turned out most of the kids from Midtown were insanely smart.
The blond boy ended up spraining his ankle while skiing and ended up spending most of the time on sitting on the lodge’s bay window watching nature and relaxing. He ended up sitting there long after nearly everyone else had gone off to bed.
“Having fun,” A boy his age asked, one of the few people left in the room. He was handsome with light brown hair and kind brown eyes.
“As close as I can get,” Adrien answered.
The brown-haired boy smiled, “Well if you get bored out of your mind, I got some movies on my tablet if you want to watch. I know some pretty good ones.”
“I’m good,” Adrien said. “You can join me if you want. I wouldn’t say no to company.”
The boy did, “Name’s Peter.”
“Adrien.”
“By your accent, I’m guessing your not with the Midtown group,” Peter asked. “Also, because I’m from the Midtown group.”
Adrien snorted, “France. I’ll be living full time in New York come autumn.”
“Is that right?” Peter looked excited by the news. “You’re gonna love it.”
“Yeah, and why’s that?”
And then Peter went on to tell Adrien all about the places and people he loved in New York. They talked for hours until morning rays hit them through the window.
Over the next week of the vacation, the two ended up finding themselves repeating that; talking and letting time disappear.
Chat Galore: I wish I knew how to quit you.
Adrien introduced Peter to Marinette, Chloe, Nino, and the others. Peter introduced him to his friends Michelle, Ned, and Gwen. Like Adrien and his friends, Peter and his friends were pretty much attached at the hip.
“He pissed me off, so I put a porn virus into his computer,” Michelle answered the Marinette’s question as to why a Eugene kept running from her.
Marinette and Adrien had decided to enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate by the fire, only to be joined by Peter’s friends: Michelle and Ned. Another would’ve joined them but he scampered away the second he saw the girl.
“He deserved it,” Michelle added.
“He totally did,” The large Asian boy nodded in agreement. “But MJ you might’ve taken it too far when you made it happen during class.”
Marinette giggled. “Harsh!”
“No mercy, Ned!”
Adrien laughed until his brain processed what was said, “Wait, I thought your name was Michelle?”
Michelle and Ned froze like deer caught in the headlights.
“MJ’s my nickname,” Mj explained cooly. “And we should really be going…”
“Geniuses,” Adrien suddenly recalled; his mind finishing a calculation, he didn’t even realize he was trying to figure out. “Who goes to a school for super-smart kids. MJ, scary queen who could rule the universe,” He pointed at her. “Ned; loveable teddy bear nerd with a fixation on Legos. A bully named Eugene who I’m guessing goes by Flash.” He swallowed hard, and fixed hard green eyes on the two kids in front of him. “Did you take a class trip to Europe in Spring? Keep in mind I would really like you to say no.”
Ned and MJ paled.
“Ned and MJ,” Adrien repeated. “Iron’s Kid’s best friends…” He whispered. “Peter’s best friends. Peter is Iron’s Kid, isn’t he?”
MJ narrowed her eyes at him, “Chat Galore: Adrien Agreste.”
Adrien’s entire body froze. He tried to remain calm, “This can’t be happening.”
Marinette glared at them, “Your friends with Iron’s Kid!” She growled. “Peter is Iron’s Kid. What was he thinking? How could he just stand Adrien up? I’ll kill him!”
“I never told you my last name!” Adrien realized. “How did you?”
“We hacked into Peter’s phone a few months ago,” MJ shrugged. “And traced your Ip address.”
Adrien glared, “And Peter knew? When I got here, he knew who I was didn’t?” He accused. “He lied right to my face!”
“It’s complicated!” Ned looked at Adrien with wide eyes. “Yeah, he knew who you were when he saw you. He just wanted a do-over. It’s weird I know. I told him not to do it!”
MJ looked at Marinette, “You should kill him. It was a bitch move,” She said. “But if it means anything, he regrets not showing up at London’s eye.” This part she told Adrien.
“Like super regrets it!” Ned added. “You can’t beat him up half as much as he does himself.”
“I can try,” Marinette crossed her arms.
“He reads your texts every day,” Mj said.
Adrien stood up angrily, “Then why doesn’t he text back?” He demanded to know. “Why didn’t he show up at the London’s eye. I waited! I’ve been waiting!”
MJ shrugged, “I can’t answer that,” She said. “Only he can. I can only tell you he was stupid. And he overreacted. You deserve to hear everything from him.”
Ned nodded eagerly, “He really likes you. He nearly dropped dead when he saw you were here. Just let him explain!”
“No!” Adrien snapped. “I don’t want to see him. Ever.” He clenched his fists. “I… I just can’t.”
And he stumped away.
He went to his room and packed his bags. He was getting out of there. He was leaving he had nothing to say to Iron’s Kid. Or Peter. Or whoever he was.
There was a knock on his door.
“Go. Away!” Adrien snapped.
“I can’t do that!” It was Jon that surprisingly said that.
“Come in!” The door opened. “What do you want?” Adrien asked. “Sorry, I’m just a bit busy right now.”
Jon wore a red plaid shirt over a white t-shirt and blue jeans, “Don’t leave,” He told Adrien.
“I have to,” The blond said he snuffed his suitcase.
“You can’t!”
Adrien all but snarled, “Look you don’t understand. You don’t get it.” He said. “I have to leave.”
“Yeah I do,” Jon said and shut the door behind him. “Super hearing, remember? I know everything that’s going on. You can’t go, not like this.”
“Yes, I-” The blond started but was cut off.
Jon grabbed his shoulders and sat him on the bed, “You deserve an answer. You’ve been waiting for an answer,” He stated. “You deserve to know why he didn’t show up.”
“And why he decided to mess with me for the last week?!!”
“That I understand!” Jon said. “He wanted to start over. Second chances are hard to come by. And once upon a time, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done for one.”
“And you think he deserves one?”
“Just talk to him,” Superboy said. “Or scream at him. Whatever.”
Adrien ran a hand through his hair, “I haven’t been waiting for an answer,” He admitted. “I would’ve liked one, but I wasn’t waiting for it.”
“You love him,” Jon said. “You did. Or do. I know. Because I remember how you used to look when he texted you. I know… Because you used to look like that around me.”
“Jon…”
“I saw you two together,” Jon said. “You’re good together. Leaving now would be a big mistake. I’m saying that as your friend. Meet him, talk to him. Even nothing happens. Or everything does.”
Adrien hid his face in his hands and groaned, “Even if it’s just to reject him?” He crossed his arms. “Wouldn’t it be better to just leave?”
“Not for you,” Jon shook his head. “Look, if you reject him now, he's gonna make it his life's mission to go out there and meet the most perfect, beautiful guy or girl in the world just to try and get over you. And he'll end up marrying this other person and spending the rest of his life with them. And you know, he'll tell himself that they're perfect and... He really must be happy, but they won't be you, you know? And that’s the worst thing that will happen.”
It went quiet.
“Follow your heart, Adrien,” Jon added. “It’s what you do best. And it’s the best thing about you.”
Then the boy of steel left.
And Adrien was alone with his thoughts.
Chat Galore: Relationships are messy and people’s feelings get hurt. Who needs it?
Adrien left. It wasn’t his finest moment and not his bravest. But he left. Because he wasn’t ready to see Peter. Not yet. He texted his friends and tom and Sabine that he was leaving and that he’d okay… eventually.
He’d go back to New York City, leave on the next flight out. He’d back to the big Apple two months later, move into his apartment with Nino, Marinette, and Chloe and start his life there.
Two weeks after that Chloe would get the opportunity of a lifetime, a PR internship for college credit at Stark Industries. The blonde girl invited them all to go on her tour with her; apparently, she was told she could bring friends.
Adrien would frown when he heard but not say anything. Peter wasn’t the only one with friends that could track an IP address.
It was time. No more running.
Stark Tower was everything, the kids all dreamed it would be. A scientist, futuristic wonderland. They oohhh’ed and awed. And Adrien tried to enjoy himself and keep his mouth closed.
Even when the most advanced elevator in the entire world “mysteriously” malfunctioned and took them to the very top floor; otherwise known as the place the Avengers lived.
“Sorry about that,” Tony Stark, himself, gave them his most charming grin when the doors opened and he was standing right there. “We’ll get that fixed right away.” He promised. “Come on kiddies, let me show you where the big kids play.”
He led them to the living room where Captain America was watching TV.
“Hey, babe!” Tony grinned. “This is Chloe, Pepper’s newest intern. Marinette, Nino, and… Adrien.”
“Tony…” Steve Roger gave his husband a chastising look.
“Cap…”
Adrien huffed and glared at the occupants in the room, “Cut the crap,” He ordered them, drawing surprised looks from his friends. “Where’s Peter?” He asked. “Iron’s Kid,” Tony smirked at the name. “Is Peter. Peter Stark-Rogers.”
His friends turned fierce glares at the Avengers.
“It’s a setup!” Chloe accused.
“Heroes are supposed, to be honest,” Marinette chided.
Nino crossed his arms, “What a letdown.”
“Where’s Peter?” Adrien asked again.
“He’s coming,” Tony said. “You three and my hotter than the sun husband come with me; I’ll show you the training room that you can use full time If Ladybug, Queen Bee, Carapace, and Chat Noir decides they wanted to ditch the Justice League and hang with the Major Leagues.”
His friends paled at the fact that Tony Stark and probably all the Avengers knew their superhero identities and followed Iron Man out of the room. Steve just sighed at his husband’s antics and follow him out.
Adrien crossed his arms and waited.
The elevator would ping, and five minutes later Peter would walk into the living room. They just at each other for a few moments.
“I’m sorry,” Peter finally said.
Adrien shook his head, “I don’t want your apologies. I came here… I waited here… for the same reason I’ve waited the last seven months,” He said. “I only waited to say goodbye.”
“Goodbye?” Peter gave him half a smile. “We’ve only just met.”
Adrien pointed him, “Don’t!” He said. “Don’t quote movies at me.” He snapped. “Why?” Adrien asked. “Why weren’t you there? How could you not be there?!”
“I was!” Peter said. “I was there. I saw you. I was terrified. And I left.”
“I was afraid too!” Adrien said. “The difference is I still showed up. I waited six years to meet you. And I waited at the London’s eye for almost seven hours, and you just left me. You blew me off.”
“I’m sorry!” Peter yelled. “I’m so sorry. It was the biggest mistake of my life.”
Adrien clenched his fists. “Why didn’t you write me back? Why did you pretend at the lodge?”
“I don’t know,” Peter admitted. “I really don’t. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just saw you and my mind just went blank. I thought it was like fate giving me a second chance. I didn’t do it right. I screw up. Again!”
“A second chance?” Adrien glared at him. “You think that was your second chance? No. Your second chance was I texted asking what happened. You got another chance every time I texted you. I texted you every day for six months. Those were your chances!” He yelled. “If it was over for you, you could have told me. Said something. But you left me in the dark. If you didn’t feel the same about me, you could’ve told me. I just wanted my friend back!”
“Adrien, I…”
“Why didn’t you write me back?” Adrien asked, tears burning in his eyes. “Why? It wasn’t over for me. Six months, that’s one hundred and eighty-two days. I wrote you one hundred and eighty-two times. I waited for you! It’s too late now. It’s over!”
Peter looked ready to cry, “I wrote you over three hundred emails. I have them saved on my computer I never sent them. I didn’t think they’d be enough. They’re still not enough. It’s wasn’t over for me. It’s still not over.”
“Why?” Adrien asked again. “Why didn’t Iron’s Kid show up? Why was he so afraid?”
Peter just looked at the blond boy for a moment, before taking a deep breath, “Iron’s Kid thinks about that moment every day. He used to think he didn’t show up because he was afraid of what would happen; that it wouldn’t work out. That he’d lose one his best friends.” He said. “That them being together would ruin everything. Because they were just kids; they were stupid and young. But that was just a lie he told himself because he was afraid. The truth is, He was at the London’s eye that night, he saw Chat Galore: the most perfect person he’d ever seen and got scared for a completely different reason.”
“Why?”
Peter stepped towards Adrien, “Once he figured that out, and he figured that out really quick but only when it was just too late, Iron’s Kid didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know what to say to make it right. So he said nothing. And it killed him every day. Iron’s Kid would give anything to go back to that night at the London’s eye, to back to that moment when they were supposed to meet. Before everything went wrong. Iron’s kid would tell Chat Galore everything he always wanted. But he couldn’t. Because doesn’t work like that. Instead, he was so sorry for what he had done.”
Adrien just listened.
“Because Iron’s Kid realized,” Peter said, “That he wasn’t afraid that night because he thought it wouldn’t work out; that Chat Galore wasn’t the one. He was absolutely terrified because he knew he was. And if Adrien could just give him one more chance. Just one more chance, he’d spend the rest of his making it up to him.”
“Peter…”
“I love you,” Peter said. “I’m totally and completely in love with you. And I don’t care if you think its too late. I’m telling you anyway. Because if I don’t, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. Because I know in my heart, you’re the one for me.”
Adrien just sighed and looked away, wondering what he should do.
“I don’t what’s going to happen in the future,” Peter said. “I don’t if in the time I was an idiot if Jon or Nico or Luka,” He chuckled, and so did Adrien. “Won your heart. I just know… I may not be your first love, but I intend to be your last. However long it takes.”
A smile spread across Adrien’s face, “You watched it,” He said. “You finally watched the Vampire diaries. It only took you, what? Seven years.”
“Six and a half,” Peter corrected. “Sorry I made you wait.”
“I know,” Adrien nodded. “I need some time, okay. I need to get my head on straight. Before I decide anything.”
“I understand,” Peter agreed eagerly. “I get it. I’ll wait.”
Adrien would take two weeks to decide what he was feeling and what he wanted to do. And when the two weeks were over, he knew exactly what he wanted, and who he wanted. So he made a call.
And then ended up a Coney island, next to The Wonder Wheel, one of the most famous Ferris wheels in the world. He waited in line and happily got on the ride. The seats next to him were quickly filled by Marinette, Chloe, and Nino.
“Finally getting your Ferris wheel moment?” Nino asked as the ride started.
Adrien smiled, “Yeah. Except I wanted the people I love the most with me.”
“Awww,” Marinette hugged him. “We love you too.”
“That’s a dollar for the overly sentimental jar,” Chloe glared at him. “And no more rom-com for you.”
Adrien snorted.
The kids enjoyed the ride, and when it was over, and they got off, Marinette asked, “So you didn’t choose anyone?”
“Well…” He motioned to the guy waiting at the exit of the ride. “I wouldn’t say that. I’m done. No more waiting, no more long game, no more… anything. Its time I get a little more proactive.”
Chloe smirked, “About time. Get it, Agreste!”
“Just remember you have a roommate,” Nino smirked.
The three walked off to enjoy the rest of the amusement park.
Adrien smiled at them, and then smirked at the guy waiting for him, “Wait long?”
“I’d wait forever.”
#ml fic#ml salt#adrien agreste#ADRIEN DESERVES BETTER#marinette dupain cheng#Marinette deserves better#adrien sugar#gaydrien#chloe bourgeois#Nino lahiffe#daminette#Damian Wayne#Jon Kent#peter parker#tony stark#alya bashing#lila bashing#alya salt#class salt#nico di angelo#pjo
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eehee here it is the long awaited results of my chaotic ass survey about our hornies it’s so long holy heck, but I have seperated it into a couple sections to make sense of it all (omg if you read all of it lemme give you a kith teehee) ahhhh lol its SO nerdy haha but i hope that ya enjoy nonetheless! ✨
In this essay, I will....(hahah jk jk this is just all for fun)
1. Demographics Analysis
2. Polls on Fic Content
3. Member Specific Analysis
4. Deep Dive into the Juicy Questions (Confessions)
5. General Thoughts and Conclusion
6. Cute shit that ya’ll said that made me giggle
*Unpopular opinions will be made into their own post to give them ample space and analysis!
Other Notes:
Out of 100 individuals surveyed, 44 were readers, 2 were only writers, and 54 were both readers and writers.
Statistical significance can be effected by sampling, selection, and response bias (yeah i took a stats class teehee) and personal biases
All the the opinions and other analysis presented by me (Ro/binniesthighs) are purely my own oponion and are not factual. you are entitled to interpret all of this information however you like! Anything that i analyze is not definitive!
while this survey is mostly about stay smutblr, i hope that it can also maybe serve as a template for other fandoms as well with the more general questions! this is a survey for everyone!
i’d love to hear about what you think about anything presented in this analysis! feel free to send me an ask or comment! reposting is permitted within tumblr or on other platforms if proper credit is given! ❤️ (uwu hehe if you could please help me spread this i would appreciate it so much! i worked really hard on her 🥺)
1. Demographics Analysis:
Gender Identities of those Surveyed
~My thoughts: this really came as no surprise to me considering how the majority of kpop fans (especially boy group fans) identify as female! Seeing as I am a Stray Kids/Seventeen blog (both of them boy groups) it makes sense to me that my readers would mostly identify as female!
Another important thing to note (from a writer standpoint at least) is the wide array of identities that we still have present within the general audience of stay smut blur (SSB)! I’ll get into this later when i discuss favorite pairings to read, however i think that this gives us one more reason to write for a diverse audience of readers who can identify with different types of self-insert fics!
Top Five:
Female (81%)
Non-binary/gender non-conforming (13%)
Changes by the day (6%)
Male (4%)
Demiboy/Demigirl (3%)
Sexual Orientation of those Surveyed
Other identities mentioned:
????, unlabeled, aromatic bisexual, bicurious, demisexual, “just liking who i like”, experimenting, heteroflexible, sapiosexual, depends day by day, “i just like anyone”
~My thoughts: okkkkk i see us gays of SSB 😏 these demographics were really exciting for me to see! i think that it’s super cool that we have such representation across the board when it comes to sexual orientations present in our community! As someone who personally identifies as pan, this was super comforting to see that there are so many others like me in this little space of the internet! I think it’s safe to say at least from my lil survey that all the bi cuties out here own SSB 💗💜💙
From a literal standpoint, it also makes sense to me that heterosexuality is strongly present as well considering that often the pairs that we read are male idol x female reader so this is the perfect niche!
Top Five:
Bisexual (40.8%)
Heterosexual (26.5)
Pansexual (17.3%)
Queer (7.1%)
Asexual (4.1%)
Stay Creators!!
~My thoughts: this one i was THRILLED at seeing oml hahaha and i was so interested to see that this was nearly an even split!
I think that there’s something to be said about how sometimes we can take our hobbies: (movies, videogames, books, kpop, anime etc)--all things which we really like in totally normal and healthy ways but also kinda like....get hornies about them too? if that makes sense? for example, i have a friend who really likes certain video games/characters from these games as a fan and he’s shared with me that he also doesn’t mind watching porn containing those same characters! (ahahah ya all know what i mean don’t even lie haha)
what this question proved to me as that there are stays out there who practice “being a stay/being a stay creator” who also are interested in the more...horny side of this hobby/interest 😂
what is even more interesting to me is who i wonder if i’ve have consumed any of ya’ll’s content while you have consumed mine??? this i am DYING to know aha but it think its best for all of us to stay anonymous teehee ;)
either way, good on ya for doing what ya do!! you are so so treasured in this community too!! <3
2. Polls on Fic Content (a long section lol)
Favorite Pairing to Read
*other options selected were rankings of favorite pairings so i just added each of them as an entry to the respective category mentioned.
Top Five:
Idol x female reader (69%)
Idol x gender neutral reader (19%)
Idol x reader x Idol (poly r/ship) (14%)
Idol x reader, Idol x reader (threesome, not much interaction between the two idols) (8%)
~My thoughts: once again, this category was pretty self explanatory to me considering that the majority of readers are female identifying, so it would make sense that they would prefer to read smut that aligns with their identity! This is also super present anyway of SSB as i do feel like the majority of writing pieces that I do come along are idol x female reader, and most authors too often disclaim that they are the most comfortable writing this type of pairing as well.
What’s signficant as well is the interest in reading fics with gender neutral reader self inserts as well! this is my personal philosophy when it comes to writing (specifically with requests) but i think that writing gn!reader is always the safest bet to go as to not make assumptions about readers! for writers i think that seeing this 19% is something important to take into consideration!
An outlier to me with this demographic was the “poly r-ship” poll garnering a notable 14% in comparison to the idol x idol option which got 10 less votes (4%). what is a little confusing to me about this is how poly r/ships often (but not always) contain idol x idol content, however there is discrepancy with the amount of readers outright saying that they enjoy reading it alone. I’ll get into poly fics later with the unpopular opinions section--however i wanted to plant the seed here hehe. One other caveat to this is the fact that on SSB i feel like idol x idol content is really in the minority and is much more present on a platform like AO3 so this could be another explaination!
What is kinda cute to me is the fact that readers do really like poly r-ship dynamics more than a threesome (as i defined it, “with less interaction”) so this makes me feel like we are all saps for the fluff that comes with poly r-ship fics ;)
Favorite Kind of Smut to Read
male idol smut (67%)
i read both! (female and male idol smut) (25%)
depends on my mood (7%)
female idol smut (1%)
~My thoughts: Again, this is super expected to me as well considering the above statistics. Since i am a skz blog (a boy group) --as are my moots-- it really makes sense that those who filled out this survey would be into male idol smut!
what was cool for me to see as well was the number of readers who also read female idol smut as well as male idol smut! personally, i more predominately a fan of boy groups compared to the amount of girl group content that I consume (note: i do also consume gg content). because of this, i think that its really up to personal preferences and the content that you consume that can be reflective of the smut content that you consume as well and ya know, whoever gets your hornies going ;)
Favorite Genres...Ranked!
*so this was my fault lol i totally formatted this question poorly in google forms so i’ll try to summarize the most popular rankings with my words haha
*bc of the way that i miffed it (lol) i wasn’t able to get exact measurements, but rough ones!
Top Five:
Smut, fluff, angst
smut n’ fluff (with specific emphasis angst is not desired)
smut, angst, fluff,
fluff, smut, angst,
angst, fluff, smut
~My thoughts: by far, the most popular ranking that i saw was as follows: smut, fluff, angst. i saw this sososos many times haha also...ya’ll got really creative with your rankings and it made me giggle hehe. So! seeing as this is stay smutblr haha makes total sense that the three most popular rankings that we have were lead by smut! since we’re here for the hornies, i totally get this.
as for the “smut n’ fluff” or “fluffy smut” category, there was a decent amount of readers that expressed that this mixture is their fave! i’m kinda looping this with the “mixture” option that i also provided for this question since this was the most popular mixture that i was able to observe along with angst + smut. interestingly, i saw a couple mentions of “hurt/comfort” fics with this question too so this went well with this preference. as for number three on this list, we dip into that smut + angst category that I just mentioned as well. there were several individuals who said that they really really enjoy reading smut with angst!
lastly we get to the four and five on the list: four being fluff, smut and angst. i think this category can also properly represent the folx who tend to like more fluffy fics over the smutty ones, but that can also have suggestive themes too! in five, we have angst, fluff and smut which also is representative of another theme that i saw: as far as plot goes, several people mentioned that they liked fics that start with angst, get fluffier, and then end up in smut, so i think that this could be easily compared!
*there were also several readers who simply said “all of them” or opted not to rank, (lol me) so this really shows the variability in results!
Cute stuff ya’ll said (kind of out of context too LOL)
“... hehE I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE.”
“...I KNOW IT [my ranking] LOOKS TERRIBLY SPECIFIC AND IM SO SORRY and I guess the better way to describe that was one that has all 3 with a happy ending lol my b my b.”
“ ...it just depends on the mood my dude.”
“... (the smut doesn’t have to be soft i just want the relationship to be soft and i want aftercare and general affection).”
“(but almost no angst oops)”
“angst honestly makes me so sad.”
“... but long fics with angst and slow burn smut/fluff is just WOW.”
“ my favourite thing is when it's fluffy smut tbh with a little bit of angsty backstory. that is *chefs kiss*”
“(I'm a sucker for good angsty fics but I cant seem to find them???)”
“Smut, Fluff, Angst (I tend to be a bit of a purist so no mixture here).”
“(i can't read pure angst lol) “
“(I love how much plot there is in angsty fics but I personally can't read anything without a happy ending, i just can't take it)”
“ i literally couldn't rank them bc my mood is always changing lmaooo.”
“ smut, fluff, angst. i know what i’m about.”
Favorite Length of Fics
Top Five:
5k-8k words (27%)
2k-4k words (25%)
1k-2k words (20%)
10k-20k words (15%)
20k words (12%)
~My thoughts: this one was super helpful for me to see!! and writers i hope that this is helpful for you too! as someone who tends to rambles (lol) it was very comforting for me to see that long-ish fics are actually preferred! what is really cool about this data too is that it is all super well balanced for the most part and nearly edqual in some parts! how i see this, i think that when it comes to preferences of length, its really reader specific so anyone could like anything! this goes into a little bit the slow burn question that i asked as well too, but it’s really cool to see that when readers do read, they kinda like something to sink their teeth into!
i wanted to look into how long it takes you to read these words, and it appears that on average, a 5-8k fic can take someone 30 mins to read whereas a 2-4k fic takes about 15mins! idk if this says something about attention spans, but as a writer it warms my heart to know that you’re willing to spend 30 minutes of your time reading something that i wrote! 🥺
another thing i wanted to bring up is the “hard and fast” smut readers--those who like to get straight to the point, get right to business and to the juice! they are also a decently large group too! as for readers who like a nice long fic or a chaptered fic, they are super close in numbers! from this, it’s safe for me to assume that maybe those who like reading longer fics are more inclined to strap in for the long haul with chaptered fics too!
Favorite AUs to Read
*the top category that got cut off (thank you google forms lol) is friends to lovers! the one that says “...love” at 48% is enemies to lovers, and the one that has a blanked out title at 35% is strangers to lovers!
Top Five:
friends to lovers (65%)
enemies to lovers (48%)
high school/college au (40%)
roommates/neighbors to lovers (38%)
strangers to lovers (35%)
Other AUs mentioned by you!
office au, royal au, vampire au, fake date, idol au, slice of life, boarding school au, childhood friends, soulmate au
~My thoughts: ok ok so this was RAD to see! i often wonder myself the kinds of aus that my readers would like to see so this was really helpful! circling back on how readers tend to favor fluff n’ smut (friends to lovers) and angst n’ smut (enemies to lovers) i think that we’re seeing some more themes here teehee.
i like to think that since most of us are of the college age, the college au is super relatable therefore we really like to read it! not to mention that college and high school au’s are super duper cute as well! this is also relatable to the roommates/neighbors to lovers category which is also relatable to us who may or may not have experienced having a roommate or crush on the cutie next door ;) as a couple readers mentioned, they liked more “slice of life” au’s--which both of these categories fall into! i think we as readers like scenarios that feel the most real to us, bc they are the easiest to insert ourselves into :)
fantasy and thriller, action, more “fiction” tropes are in the minority, however i think that this can be for the exact same reason as i mentioned above where readers like more relatable scenarios.
Opinions on Slow Burn Fics
~My thoughts: during polling of this category, this pie cart stayed basically the same the whole time!! that was pretty cute to see! the important take aways from this survey for me is the fact that slow burn fics are generally really loved! again, lol as someone who writes big ol’ long slow burn fics this made me feel a lot better hahaha basically, the general consensus is that slow burn fics are welcome most of the time, however some readers might need to invest a little more time into them! this is also very easily comparable to the above statistics on the length of fics preferred (longer ones being the ones more popular) so here’s a lil more supporting evidence!
3. Member Specific Analysis
Bias Survey
Top Five:
Chan (19%)
Changbin (18%)
Hyunjin (16%)
Jisung (15%)
Minho (14%)
~My thoughts: ok ok ok so this is where it starts getting JUICY hehe (also i apologize once more for making you pick LOL)
the reason why i asked this question was because i wanted to see if there was a correlation with biases and if there was a probability that members who had more people biasing them (or popularity I guess) were more likely to be read more in smut fics! AND I WAS RIGHT haha isn’t this so fkn cool??? (see more in the next section!)
for comparison, i went to kprofiles to see their little survey on bias popularity and their top five.
Kprofiles Top Five:
Hyunjin (15%)
Felix (14%)
Chan (12%)
Minho (11%)
Jisung (11%)
SO oh my god my nerd brain is loosing it over this REE so, what i should note that is those who took this survey on my blog are likely generally different based off of the fact that they are here to read smut specifically, rather than the general holistic popularity survey. It is for this reason that we see Felix much higher on this list and Changbin much lower too (as we know Felix is really well known generally and globally and there are *generally* fewer Bin biased fans). What was really interesting to see what that with Hyunjin, Chan, Jisung and Minho, they still all stayed within the top five! Soooo what i’m saying is.... all of you Hyunjin, Chan, Jisung and Minho fans really must like your smut 😏 and I think that it’s safe to assume that the majority of hard stans come from these four members too ooP (and of course our Binnie too! ;) i see all of ya’ll 👀)
Members That Get Our Hornies Going
~My thoughts: AHH DOESN’T THIS LOOK SO SATISFYING? I’M SO PROUD OF HER!!!
First off, i would like to acknowledge the all mighty power of Bang Christopher Chan for pooling this most hornies god DAMN while i kind of expected this, it is also evidenced in the fics that i write! recently i’ve been tracking the number of notes that my Chan hard thoughts get in comparison to other members and the differences are usually ASTRONOMICAL. He is most def the most popular member for smut for several different reasons, lowkey bc i think that it’s kind of part of his brand?? hahaha if ya know what i mean?
As for preference from Minho on, we can see a super obvious trend that as age order decreases, we get less and less interest for reading for the member. I’m fairly inclined to believe that this has to do with the fact that most often fans (especially fans older than skz) have a harder time seeing the younger members in a sexual way, so the lack of interest totally makes sense here! As referenced above too, we found that the oldest five members (Chan --> Jisung) are the favorites for smut reading which we can see here as well when the numbers really drop after Felix (Felix coming in at 6th place on my “popularity” survey).
Bc of these statistics, i do really feel like as a reader, i tend to see much, much more fics involving our top five! As for Seungmin and Jeongin, I’ve also seen people state that they do not read or write content for these two members bc they do not feel as comfortable, so this can also explain the lack of content. Also as we have heard many times, Jeongin is a bit of a hot topic lol within the SSB community, so this makes sense that his readership would be low as well.
4. Deep Dive into the Juicy Questions (aka confessions)
Is the fact that you read smut a seggsy secret?
~My thoughts: JUICE TIME JUICE TIME
Before I say anything, i wanted to tell you all how all of the juicy questions were totally optional, but i got 100% participation for every single one of them which if find HILARIOUS i guess you all are just as curious as i am?? ;)
So! for this question, we have an overwhelming amount of readers who said that only their closest friends know which is so cute to me! i love how we can trust our friends with this hehe. i also fall into this category bc like, it’s lowkey kinda fun to talk about? maybe also the fact that i run a smut acct makes me care a little less about it all hahah
secondly, we have the rather large group of people who said that they wouldn’t dare to tell anyone which is also sooo cute haha idk how to explain it but this was the category that i started out in too until i found the right people! But i totally get ya, reading smut--especially-- kpop smut-- can be embarrassing or cringey to share (not to mention that it is somewhat morally grey LOL) so this is really understandable!
also my fkn hats off to all of you who said that you didn’t care about who knows that you read smut. here, you dropped this: 👑 you’re much braver than i could ever be.
When you read smut, do you really feel the hornies?
~My thoughts: ok, so this one to me was also very interesting for me to see as well! (also if you get uncomfy reading about personal masturbation habits you can skip this one lol)
the reason why i asked this question was because i wanted to see if people “get off” by reading smut (whether reading it turns you on, or if you choose to use it for “material” to get off on however this might look, might be more of a mental simulation without any real like, physical getting off) candidly, I use smut to get myself off every once and a while, so i wanted to see who else might be in the same group! since becoming a writer however, i read much less and reading it doesn’t hit the same when i was just a reader bc i have a different perspective of being the one writing the smut so i look at it more analytically--i digress.
it was exciting (teehee get the pun?) for me to see that others also “get off” on smut too--and that they are the majority! teehee it is an honor for me to provide you with the hornies LOL. at the same time, we still have a large group in the “don’t take to seriously” category which was interesting to me too! i can’t speak for these readers, but i interpreted these kind of readers to be the kind who read smut to imagine the scenes and are like “hm, that’s hot, i like thinking about this.” but it doesn’t extend much outside of these thoughts.
What is the most popular position pairing we like to read?
*smaller slices of the pie represent multiple favorites which i also seperated back into the categories corresponding to get the best count into what was the most preferred.
Actual Breakdown:
dom!idol // sub!reader (51 votes)
switch!idol // switch!reader (32 votes)
subidol! // dom!reader (11 votes)
all of the above (5 votes)
depends on my mood (2 votes)
~My thoughts: i feel as if there is a bit of a conflict between which position really is “the best” and while we really can’t know the answer to this question since everyone has different preferences, we can at least find out which one is the most popular to be consumed!
again, going off of the content that I also see as a reader, i see TONS of dom!idol fics, like, left and right. also, if i may come for all of our necks, 👀 but...there’s really something to be said about the fact that the majority of readers are female and historically and socially, women are typically socialized to be submissive, so i can see why this would be why we would favor this among fics--this is even further evidenced by the fact that male idol smut is also preferred, thus further perpetuating the fact that women have been socialized to be submissive to men specifically. i’m not saying that this is the end all be all reason that this trend is present, but i merely offer it as a possible explaination. this is a much larger sociological conversation, but i think that this trend also showed itself in the types of smut that readers seek out as well--according to demographics.
sub!idol fics are few and far in-between, and i think that this can also be for the exact same reason as i talked about above!
When you read smut, do you pick faves to read for?
~My thoughts: what’s cool about this question is the fact that the “half and half” nature of it also resembles what we saw in the section for favorite members to read! As we see in that chart, 41 out of 100 people said that they read everyone, similar to this question where 48 out of 100 people said that they read for everyone. What this proves to me once more is that when it comes for reading fics, there's a 50/50 chance that the reader will look at, and read it based off of who it is about alone. This is a really powerful statistic, meaning that the members who that a writer might write for really dictates their readership! At the same time, it’s super comforting to know that regardless of what you as a writer might write, there’s always someone out there who is willing to read it! (as evidenced by the 52% of people who read for anyone! this is still a large number)
Readers: Do you only use Tumblr for smut?
~My thoughts: when i first started out reading smut, i was in the “i just look up skz smut” group LOL so i wanted to see again if there was anyone like me--which there is! This was more of my interest in seeing if some people view tumblr as “their smut dealer” AHA so that my initial motivation. I was surprised to see that this is not the case! out of 100 readers, 39 of them have their own non-smut blogs and the second largest group of 26 people use tumblr for smut exclusively.
idk why, but when thinking of this question, it really got me thinking back to the question where i asked if reading smut is a seggsy secret, and there was the group of people who said that it is for them--i’m assuming that these people might be part of the group have non-smut blogs and read on the side teehee.
at the same time, there is a combined 40 people who said that they use tumblr for smut purposes only which makes sense to me, as those who filled out my survey are readers of my smut blog if you catch my drift haha
Writers: Do you read smut, or just write it?
*56 responses correlate with those polled who identified as writers/both as mentioned above
~My thoughts: this survey is really really cute for me to see bc it means that there is a whole support network or writers out there reading, supporting and here to hype other writers work!! if anything, as a writer because it takes so much time to write, it can become hard to find time to read, hence the “when i have time option lollll (*cough cough* me LOL) thank you all for your honesty with this question!
5. General Thoughts and Conclusion
Survey on Exposure
~My thoughts: i kinda wanna close off this survey by getting on my soapbox for a sec lol. At least for me, the most common ways that readers found my blog were: looking up a tag, and from a repost. i think that this really goes to show the power of exposure and certain tactics that you can use to increate readership of your account! new readers, if you’re reading this and you’re just starting out, tagging your stuff is so so important!
also, as i have said and so so, many other content creators have said countless times before, reposting is so crucial and it takes little to no effort to repost a creators work so that it might reach others! as a writers, we spend hours, and i mean hours creating content, editing, drafting, creating headers all out own time to publish something that we are proud of and for you to enjoy! it means the world to authors when you reblog their work and even more when you give feedback too because this is our passion! we write for free in the middle of our busy lives so the validation makes it all worth it!!
Conclusion
~phew! so that’s it! once again, i wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart from participating in this lil study! i really hope that it is helpful to writers and readers alike! i wanna give ya all the biiiiiigest Ro huggies!! 💕💕
as i mentioned above, the answers for the unpopular opinions will be made into their own post bc there is a ton of them and i didn’t want to clutter up this doc lol
don’t ya ever forget that you are important, loved, and special! happy hornies my cuties ;)
~R 🌹
6. Cute shit that ya’ll said that made me giggle (and hopefully makes you giggle too)
~you all are the light of my life!! each of these comments brought me so much happiness and i love you all so fkn much for that!! also, to those of you who said, “Ro date me” PLZ haha i will date you too!!! too all of the super sweet comments about my writing, thank you so so very much and thank you for reading! it means so much to me!! to all of the i love yous, ahhhh i love you toooooo 💕
“I DUNNO IM BAD AT FUNNY STUFF BUT KNOCK KNOCK I GUESS? -whos there
RO
-ro who
Me, in chan voice: RObber ducky you're the one
yeah...
yeah
bYE”
“ I didn’t know changbin’s thighs were of such importance until I saw your username but now?? 👀 I am looking respectfully.”
“ every time chan doesn’t reply to my bubble message i hold my breath and try to die💆♀️”
“ here are my favorite emoji combos: 😐☝️ 😫🖐️ 😂🤏 (i use that one when i get a dick pick and it's rlly small but the person thinks its big-) “
“ you are EVIL for making me choose just ONE bias OT8 EXISTS OK!?”
“ I hope this survey provides you with a lot of useful feedback! -sincerely a big tiddie committee member (you know the one)” [hehe yes i do hai M ;)]
“ chan’s tiddies... that’s it.”
“jeogiyo noona hokshi namjachingu isseoyo?“
“ Jeongin is appropriately baby bread because his face is puffy in the morning so it's kinda like yeast rising 👉👉 “
“ someone needs to tell hyunjin to put some vaseline or something on his cuticles like I love him a lot but his recent live made me scream sir your cuticles are hanging on for dear life please I'm literally begging you “
“ I squeal whenever I get a notification from you and my family think I’m secretly dating someone. It’s nice knowing that they think I can get someone during a pandemic 😁 “ [this one had me SENT]
“i hope ur dreams are blessed with skz thighs.”
“ HS Bin supremacy!!”
“Sta”
“Ro(ses) are red, violets are blue - DaVinci painted Mona, cause he couldn't find you :') “
“✨ dInG dOnG ✨ “
“You're doing God's work as a changbin stan xD “ [thank you so much aHA]
“damn gorl, are you a wifi signal? cause i’m tryna connect 🤔🥴✌🏾 “
“Good luck with your survey! I hope you get a big response! You know what else is big..?
Chan's feet. (I'm sorry, that was my attempt to make you giggle but I'm clearly not a comedian)”
“What's the internal temperature of a taun taun? Luke warm! (Haha sorry star wars joke) “
“egg“
“just because you’re garbage, doesn’t mean you can’t do great things. It’s called garbage can, not garbage cannot <3 “
“Soft-Dom Minho Agenda is the best agenda. I have spoken. Sincerely yours, Javi (@itsapapisongo) “ [this is the way javi]
“Bang chan daddy supremacy”
“ro, ro, ro your boat gently down skz’ dick hell yea.” [this also had me SENT]
“stay smut writers should take “maknae on top” literally“
“idk man i’m just vibing. hope ur day is going well. (changbin voice) da DA da”
Fin.
~🌹~
Bunch of (Ro)ses!
@minaamhh @dazzlehoseok @synnocence @jjewibeans @hyunsluvv @unexceptional-h @bobawithchaitea @lechanters @sailorhyunjinz @silencefavarchive @lunarskzzz @yourdaddychan @bubblelixie @spnobsessedmemes @chaangbin @lmhmins @eunaeiekim
#PHEW#haha this was so fun!!#binniesthighs helpdesk#skz smut#stray kids smut#kpop smut#bang chan smut#lee minho smut#changbin smut#hyunjin smut#han jisung smut#felix smut#seungmin smut#jeongin smut
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Hey so I can't stop thinking about Loki kiss as in why was Kang the conqueror included? This was weird enough for me that I measured the time of the kiss (about 9 seconds) and I measured the time that Kang was included (about 3 seconds). During about one third of the sylki kiss we could watch kang watch them kiss. Sylvie kisses Loki, they move and the camera moves with them but then, instead of stopping on them front and center, it includes blurry Kang. Who's just sitting there. Watching them. Was that supposed to be awkward/funny? Or dramatic bc Kang is so dangerous (even if he really doesn't seem to be)? Or make the whole thing just this bit weirder? Like it just makes no sense to me?? What was that about? (im asking here bc i genuinely would like to know the reason but anyway feel free to ignore me and release yourself of this ughh)
inatshej asked: Okay um I'm sorry about my previous ask about loki kissing scene. I just realised that kang was visible to foreshadow the ending where Sylvie still decided to kill him. That even if things seem to be going in the right direction (LOL if you ship sylki MAYBE), something bad can still happen, and happens. So yeah sorry xD took me a few hours to figure it out by myself tho xD
(just an heads up, if anyone is wondering why this question interests me, is because I was posting about LOKI during its runtime, in case you missed it) [FINAL THOUGHTS HERE]
** SPOILERS FOR LOKI **
Hey Lovely!
Hahahah no worries at all!
Here's my thing about Si1ki: I have no problem with the ship (I mean, I ship Sherlock with himself sometimes, so I would be a hypocrite if I shat on the ship), but I JUST DON'T SEE IT; it felt REALLY forced. I understand the metaphor they were trying to go for (you need to love yourself before others) but like.... the WHOLE "romance" felt weird. Mobius, ON SCREEN, even said it was "sick and twisted", so like, once he said that, I couldn't unsee it, and I think that was the problem: You on screen still acknowledge it, yet you still go with it.
Almost like Disney is more okay with anything else than they are with queer relationships. But I digress.
Please note I am speaking from a Loki X Mobius bias, so take what you will from my thoughts. It felt like they really were gonna go there. But I'm the clown in believing Disney, after canonically confirming Loki's bisexuality, would go there. It's performative activism, and Disney, heaven forbid, have a story with a male and female lead and NOT make them romantic interests... It's SO TIRING. Because up until the weird... THING in Episode 4, I had high hopes they were gonna go the BFF's / sibling dynamic, but yeah, the romance felt REALLY forced and weird, and the kiss even moreso.
I don't think she really liked Loki "That Way", and used Loki's confused feelings against him. I say that because she REALLY showed NO interest in the whole thing they had in Episode 5, and he's just SO desperate for love and companionship that I think he is will take what he can get. The Lokius Hug in E5 felt REALLY genuine, like two people who care and understand each other, and two people who – if nothing else – share a platonic Philia love for each other. AND they had a chemistry that shined on screen. I don't FEEL that with Loki and Sylvie. They care about each other, that's all I really got out of it.
If they were writing a romance, I PERSONALLY thought it was poorly written and executed even worse. The kiss was cringe, didn't make the romance "more real" and didn't give me the same vibes that the hug did, and it SHOULDN'T do that if it was well written. BUT I've never been in any serious relationship ever, so what do I know. Maybe I'm just too ace to "get the clues" but even movies where I KNOW that the main characters are supposed to be together, I feel the chemistry. I love both Tom and Sophia as their characters, but the "romantic" chemistry wasn't there.
Anyway, just my own gripe about it all.
BUT YES, your second ask in regards to Kang being there is also how I took it, and the kiss was a distraction. He knew what she was going to do; he studied her character all his life, he KNEW she wasn't going to just NOT do it. She never had the love of her family, and bitterness and resentment is all she knew. She didn't get to go through the character arc / development that our 2012 Loki got to, and HONESTLY? I think it's because she didn't HAVE someone like Mobius who believed in her. And Loki knew that, and unfortunately, his verbal trust in her came too late.
That said, I think we'll see her again, but I don't think she's gonna ever be a "good guy"; she'll be a morally grey character like MCU Loki was, and will probably go out in the same way, somehow.
I do like her, I just REALLY felt like the whole romance was shoehorned in by some top exec at Disney who thought it wouldn't be successful without one.
#steph replies#loki spoilers#spoilers#loki#loki meta#chatting with lovelies#my thoughts#shitposting steph
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isn’t afraid to show it to the world -> I realise these books are full of implicit bias against closeted folks but maybe it’s time to stop reproducing it? It’s very privileged and entitled and yes homophobic to see gay people who are not out as lesser or less deserving
I didn’t mean to imply that people who are not out yet are lesser than those who are and I apologize if it sounded like that
I am bisexual and I’m not out to my family or friends because I feel that I’m not ready to tell them, and that’s 100% my right, so I’m literally as closeted as these characters are atm. I genuinely didn’t mean it like that
Charles is free to do as he wants with his life and his sexuality of course, I am not implying he deserves less than anyone else because he’s not out. Also because thomas and alastair aren’t out either. Math and anna are confident with their sexuality but both tom and alastair are only out to certain people, alastair is only out to cordelia because she eavesdropped on him and charles and tom is literally only out with alastair for now. And I know the 1903 society definitely isn’t the best place for someone to live freely, I get that charles wants a political career and to do that he can’t ever come out as gay, considering how we know the nephilim treated alec when he came out and it was already the 21st century. And again, it is his right not to come out. I don’t like charles at all but it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s closeted and will probably choose to remain so.
But alastair doesn’t want to remain closeted, what I said was related to what alastair wants. When he breaks up with charles he does that exactly because he wants to be with someone who isn’t afraid to love him and let people know. I’m not saying it’s easy, especially in 1903. People still get hate and worse today for being who they are and in fact I don’t think alastair and thomas are gonna have the chance to live the life alec can get to live in 2007. I don’t think they’ll be ever allowed to legally marry or have children, I think people in the clave are gonna be awful and not take them seriously and I also think that’s why they’re both unmarried in the family tree (and both seem to die pretty young, same as anna, if I remember correctly; I think this has to do with their sexualities as a way to kinda cover everything up). I don’t even think alastair cares to be out to the entire world actually, and thomas too in my opinion, they have very different personalities from anna and math, but I think what alastair implies when he sais he wants someone to choose him and not be afraid to love him is that he wants to be true to himself with the people he cares about. And I think thomas wants the same. The way I see it they just want to stop lying to their friends and families and stop hiding themselves, also because they know the people they care about will love them just the same. Then of course the clave would get to know like they know about anna and matthew, but I think it will just end up the same as it did with them: anna and math aren’t taken seriously by most of the clave but they don’t really care about it. And that’s a way it all can go. But again, people don’t always want to come out, or they can’t, or they don’t feel ready yet, and it’s just as fine.
What I said was related to alastair and his own words, it wasn’t a genenral statement and I definitely didn’t mean to imply I think any less of people who aren’t out.
Also I don’t think the books are full of bias against closeted people. Half the fandom hates charles but it’s not because he’s not out. He’s been using people forever just to get the career he wants and that’s why I don’t like him and, as far as I’ve seen, why many people don’t like him. In tlh we do see the struggle of living in 1903 and being gay, bisexual, non-binary and lesbian. Anna feels like she doesn’t belong and is afraid to show people her true self, also because there was no word for how she felt in 1903 and that’s not easy to deal with. Matthew is shattered when oscar wilde is punished for his sexuality. Charles can’t come out if he wants a career, and so on. But I feel that giving these stories a happy ending, an ending where they are out, is actually a way of sending the best message possible. Alec was closeted all his life and had to face a lot to be accepted, but he was eventually and he is happy because he can finally be himself. Anna faced a lot, Matthew faced a lot, Magnus faced a lot, and they are all still struggling because society sucks most of the times, but they are happier this way. I think giving these stories a happy ending is a way of telling people like me and tons of others that are not out yet that it takes time and it’s never easy, but it can get better, there’s a place for us too.
And that’s not hate against people who are closeted, in tsc there’s never shaming for people who don’t want to come out, for whatever reason that may be, there’s just a wish to show happiness and to show that the world is full of struggles but sometimes they also lead to something different.
#asks#asks answered#coi spoilers#mild but still#tsc#charles fairchild#alastair carstairs#thomas lighwood#anna lightwood#matthew fairchild#alec lightwood#magnus bane#tlh#tmi
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Hi I just want to ask something. Do you think Jungkook has been always like/love Jimin the way he is before or just when he started to glow up. I'm just asking this bc you know Jungkook has been always rank Jimin last on looks or said he look different without makeup before. I know he didn't meant harm to Jimin but do you think Jimin has been trying to look good and go on extreme diet to be loved by Jungkook or Jungkook has been always trying to hide his feelings for him but act tough
Huh?...
What an interesting question....
For a moment there I thought I had already discussed this in my blog posts? Chileee.
Now you'd have to specify which period in time you consider a glow up point for Jimin. Do you mean the period of 2014/15 when he was starving himself, passing out on stage and bleeding through his nose to stay anorexic? *Side eyeing you.
To me, Jimin's 'glow up' coincided with their debut in 2013. Those fine abs, sculpted muscles yet soft toned feminized features- sorry Jimin, you weren't fooling no one.
This was also the period I noticed JK showing overt signs of sexual and emotional attraction towards Jimin. Jimin just seemed oblivious to it. And he would begin his own whipped journey around 2015/16 in my opinion.
Personally, I believe JK fell first for Jimin and 'turned' him- turned for lack of a better word. I don't buy into this whole Jimin fell first JK fell harder rhetoric.
But I think JK's interest in Jimin began long before this period. I don't think Jk had fully grasped the concept of his own sexuality much less to have come to terms with it in any time before 2012- before Jimin arrived in Bangtan- ok maybe he had a vague idea of it, but I do believe Jimin was his sexual and romantic awakening.
Jk and Jimin have two very distinct and opposite idol personas. I keep saying this.
Since we don't know them in person, I think it's safe to assume every aspect of them we experience on screen is a persona.
That persona is a facade, a curated wall on which they project bits and pieces of their true self and often put up a performance of this identity for our consumption.
In Jk's persona, he likes to retract and conceal aspects of his true personality and censor himself a lot while JM likes to amplify and exaggerate his true personality and put up a performance of it.
As I've said, it's mainly due to their backgrounds. JK was given a lot of leeway in his upbringing which he feels puts him at a disadvantage because he ends up exposing himself too much. Thus he likes to retract and hold himself back.
Jimin coming from a conservative background with many rules and what not revels in the new found freedom Idol life gives him so often he doesn't hold back as much as JK does. But that doesn't mean that who they really are in real life.
So often you'd hear people say Jimin looks more serious in person than he does on camera while JK is said to be more expressive than he usually is on camera.
But here is the thing, concealing his feelings is not JK's nature it's his choice. And this is very important to note. He chooses not to do certain things on camera while Jimin chooses to do certain things on camera.
So when JK is not showing his feelings for Jimin it's not because he can't show those feelings, it's more like he doesn't want to show those feelings.
Thus when people say he wasn't showing his feelings for Jimin because he was shy I raise my brows- Shy my ass. Lol
Was he acting tough then? Hmmmm. He likes to act tough no two ways about that. I've said he has a good poker face between him and Jimin. If you are not careful you might think he doesn't like Jimin. But trust me, that man is whipped on god.
But I don't think that's what he was doing in those early dynamics.
I think he was hesitant in pursuing Jimin openly at the time because he wasn't sure about Jimin's sexual orientation much less whether or not Jimin reciprocated the feelings he had for him.
And you could tell not knowing these about Jimin terrified JK a lot, hence his hesitation.
But later when he was certain of both he became more confident in the way he expressed himself and his feelings for Jimin.
Prior to this you could see him fishing and testing the waters with Jimin, slowly pushing Jimin's boundaries- a gentle touch here, a lingering stare there.
He would often pay attention to the things Jimin would say but especially about his romantic and sexual preferences. Like when Tae said he felt Jimin liked men and when Jimin was asked about why he liked JK and JK seemed like he wanted to know.
Then he went through that phase where he seemed obsessed with Jimin's reaction to when other guys sexualised him and expressed interest in him. He seemed very attentive to these little details in a way that seemed to me as if he was fishing for confirmation that Jimin actually liked men and liked him- in a nonplatonic manner.
I feel Jimin noticed these things too in JK but was mostly fascinated by it. So often he would go out of his way to express his sexuality, exaggerate it and perform it as if to let JK know he was ok with JK liking him in that kind of way. Often, you'd see him egging JK on to touch him where JK seemed hesitant, reassuring JK- I think y'all know the bit I'm talking about. I feel JM wanted JK to feel comfortable expressing his interest in him- he ain't slick.
I've said Jimin's persona is a performance. I can see how to JK that could be very confusing. Hell, half of the fandom still read Jimin wrong to this day. Is he gay, bi, straight, a woman, a man, bigender- it's a lot of questions. Legitimate questions.
And I think for JK, seeing Jimin behave like the rest of BTS with the skinship towards him was equally confusing. So often he would shy away from it. Jk was going through puberty, everything was heightened for him.
It's also important to consider the possibility that, if JK was LGBTQ plus that he was going to hide it and not come out to his bandmates for as long as he worked with them- because it's none of their business first and foremost but also because it would have affected their attitudes towards him.
I mean look at the fear and panic with which they greet Jikook when Jikook breath anywhere near eachother in public spaces- not to call them out or anything but I don't think if they were straight that they were going to treat them same. I mean Taejin is as wild as Jikook but.... sigh.
So then going on to catch feelings for one of such said band mates who gives off queer vibes, he had better be sure about him before coming out to him and confessing to him lest he risked his career and friendship with him.
If Jimin wasn't LGBTQ plus it would have been cruel of him to act the way he does with JK honestly. For instance Joking about marriage knowing full well the fight LGBTG plus couple have to put up to have this basic human right- of course JK would yeet himself out of that conversation. I'm talking about that Jikook Vlive and all the time JK has squeezed his face disgruntledly when Jimin has asked him to have his kids- like why Jimin!
Jimin I feel because he is Bi whatever doesn't take this gay business seriously at all. If you've ever dated a bisexual you'd know the feeling. He is my bias and I love him but God he frustrates me for Jk honestly.
What annoys me most is I know how deep he is into JK. Like I've never seen a man so in love with another man in my entire queer life! Like shut up whippidy whipped ass we saw your face at Manila. You like that man. You like him.
Let JK put up a front and you'll see this tactless homegirl descending into that space we all hate so much and embarrassing himself left right left clinging on to JK seeking validation and reassurance- like can you be serious in your life for once Park Jimin. 😒
Anywho, I went off on a tangent there. Sorry.
But yes, this is another aspect of their dynamic I feel most people get twisted. Jimin enjoys JK's expressions of interest in him- however way he does it. Jk enjoys it too when Jimin shows him he wants him. Remember magic shop? Show me, I'll show you? And that line JK sang to Jimin that made Jimin nervous on Live with VMin? Yea...
They love each other and they love when the other is showing and expressing their love. Hell, isn't that why they are constantly trying to find creative ways to communicate their love? 5/8, love letters punctuated with sorries? Chileee.
Could Jimin's look be a contributing factor to JK liking him? Let me put it this way. People are attracted to people for a plethora of reasons, physical appearance being one of them.
Looks attract people, emotional connection binds them and make them stay. I have said this time and again JK is attracted to all of Jimin-looks, everything. When asked which part of of Jimin he liked most he put all of Jimin as the answer.
With regards to JM's weight, I think the tears he shed on stage during the performance of I Need You says it all. Jimin was killing himself and it was killing JK. Jimin wasn't doing all that out of self love much less for the love of JK.
He was doing all that because he wanted to be an Idol in every sense of the word. He was killing himself for his career. A career JK was once willing to walk away from and JM advised him to stay.
Jk defies the dictates of his career with the piercings and tattoos and gay pubs- the emphasis is mine. Y'all think he is about to be demanding of his life partner to look like what now? Chileee.
And when JK was starving himself and losing weight who was it that brought him down that ledge? Jimin. If it was a positive thing I thing he would have encouraged him.
Jk allegedly called Jimin his Mochi in that infamous graduation night track video. Did you see his reaction to when James Corden called Jimin Mochi? Baby fat cheeked Jimin was cute not ugly. And even if you think he was, JK still found that attractive. Jimin could be looking like my Aunt Becky and Jk would still fuck him.
Have you seen JK freeze frame to take snapshot photos of Jimin? It's almost always pictures of Jimin looking like the wicked witch of the west. He loves him some park Jimin memes. Loves that man to death.
How many times have he said Jimin looks beautiful without makeup? Remember the Vlive Jimin didn't want to be on camera because he didn't have makeup on? What did JK say?
Jk isn't a shallow person you know. He really isn't. He doesn't strike me as the kind at all. Questions like these presupposes that JK is a vain shallow person who only likes people for their looks. Don't get me wrong, it's a valid question, one that I'm happy to discuss but it also exposes the biases against JK and indirectly, Jimin.
Do you feel JK is shallow? I find a lot of people do and it breaks my heart.
Have you heard any of his songs? His GCFs?
He barely idolizes his subject matter's looks and appearances. You gave me the best of you, so I'll give you the best of me. What I found in you is real. That's doesn't sound shallow to me.
They work in a highly competitive and highly vainglorious environment. I think they know more than anything the dangers of vanity- it's fleeting. They put themselves through so much to appease the vanity matrics, to subject people they love through the same.
I've talked about how because JM comes from a demanding home and work environment that acceptance is one key aspect of his love language. He wants a person who loves him for who he is and accepts him without placing expectations on him.
If JK was this shallow JM wouldn't honestly have found him attractive much less love him to begin with. He wouldn't have found fulfillment and nourishment from JK. He loves JK because JK's values and upbringing makes him the perfect person for him to trust himself fully to.
Besides, for JK to be only attracted to JM because he glowed up, he himself must have been a ten from the onset which he wasn't let's be honest- no shade to him but he wasn't exactly packing now was he?
BTS are pretty but they've all undergone hefty transformations throughout the years, magic foreheads and all. So if you wonder if Jimin's glow up contributes to JK liking him, then you'd have to wonder if Jk glowing up also contributed to Jimin finding him attractive- it's a vicious cycle.
As for JK ranking Jimin last... did he ever rank himself first? No. He ranked Jimin last and himself second to last consistently. If he found Jimin unattractive he certainly found himself as equally unattractive only one step above Jimin.
I honestly think he was just teasing Jimin. He loves teasing Jimin because it's how he flirts with him. It's just the masculine energy in him I guess. V does this too when he flirts with Jimin. He teases him about his pinky, his Mochi cheeks and his glow up- Iland anyone?
Why y'all think JK looked away sharp when JM dropped to the floor?? He recognized what V was doing- don't mind me. I'm trolling. Lol. But deadass.
Jimin teases JK too by acting like he is available most times. It's the feminine energy in him. Girls like to tease their crush by amplifying their sex appeal. What better way to amp up your sex appeal than by having other people show interest in you? Jimin is a tease. Bless him.
Besides, when JK ranked Jimin first in looks he ranked himself last. I hope y'all don't think it's because he has low self esteem?
He ranked himself and Jimin last because he wanted to humble himself and by extension Jimin because he sees himself as Jimin's equal and as such recognizes their place as the youngest within the group. As he has explained, as the youngest, he places everyone else above him.
I honestly don't think Jungkook had always been interested in Jimin. But somewhere along the line while he came to terms with his own sexuality he began developing feelings for Jimin. His glow up had nothing to do with it. In my opinion.
I think Jimin caught him off guard? It's that red string serendipity destiny voodoo working its magic that orchestrating their love. In my opinion.
I don't think either of Jikook went searching for this love thingy either as I keep saying. It wasn't planned, it wasn't foreseen, it just happened to both of them but at a different pace.
I hope this helps?
Signed,
GOLDY
#jikook#jikook theories#kookmin analysis#kookmin#kookmintheories#jikook analysis#jikook scenarios#jikooktheories#Ask response#ask goldy#GOLDY#nightswithkookmin
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