[Video transcript begin]

[It begins as it always does, camera at upper torso height, the phone tucked into Edgar’s shirt pocket. Edgar’s hand can be seen shakily reaching for the door handle, he turns back to Carter. He’s wearing a plaid dress-ish shirt, a tie, dress shoes, and dark jeans. He beams at Edgar as he turns, giving him a thumbs up.]

Edgar: Carter, are you sure you’re ready?

[Carter giggles.]

Carter: Yeah, but it sounds like you aren’t!

E: Hm, yeah. No. Let’s do this.

[Edgar leans down and grabs his gutted mask. Lifting it up to his face. He clears his throat and grabs Carter’s hand, then turns to the door and opens it. The two walk out into the brightly lit mall together.]

E: Okay, stay close, everything is going to be okay, Carter. Just follow my directions carefully.

C: Yep! Got it, mister Edgar!

[The two continue on, they wave to passing employees to blend in. The scenery of the mall passes by, every worker happily doing their job. At first glance, this looks like a perfect place to work. But once you look closer, it is more and more apparent that this place is not normal. On the left of the recording, there’s a janitor cleaning up a puddle of blood. To the right, there’s a filming of a horror movie happening. Screams echo through the building as the film reaches its climax, Edgar veers off to the side to keep Carter from seeing too much. Up ahead, there’s a large group of employees, one of them has a coffee in hand, they bring it up to their mask, and it pours down the smooth plastic onto the floor, they don’t seem to notice. Edgar tries to veer away again, but he’s called over by the employees.]

??: Ay! You’re one of the mechanics, right?

[Edgar flinches at the comment, but shouts back cheerily.]

E: Yup! What about it? 

??: Nice! Uh, one of the things on a set nearby broke, can ya fix it for us?

E: Ah… Sorry, not right now. I’ve got an urgent repair job to get to.

??: Oh, apologies! Didn’t mean to– who’s that?

E: Wh– huh?

??: Who’s the kid? They don’t look like a mechanic… Not even an apprentice. 

E: Oh, just some kid in a show, don't really care, honestly. He just needed an escort to the bathroom. 

[He nudges Carter, who speaks up in his most whiney voice that he can muster.]

C: I need to go! Come on! 

E: Kids, am I right? I’m never havin’ any.

??: Ha! Yeah, see you later, mechanic. 

E: Mhm!

[The two sprint away from the employee, slowing down after a minute or two.]

E: You’re good, kid! That was really convincing!

C: Thank you, mister! 

[Someone clearing their throat off to the left. The camera slowly turns to face them.]

!: I’ll be taking little Carter here back to his set now, mechanic.

E: Oh, fuck. Uh, Carter, I’m going to pick you up, because we’re going to be doing some really fast running, is that okay?

!: Don’t ignore me, mechanic. Hand him over.

C: Yep. Please. 

[Edgar swiftly picks Carter up in a fireman's carry and makes a break for it. Very obviously being pursued by several employees, the one who stopped him shouting from behind. He runs at full speed through the mall and makes his way back to the offices he had started out at. He sprints towards the window, and skids to a stop. Placing Carter down.]

E: Okay, Carter, I’m going to help you climb down. I’m going to need you to trust me completely here. 

C: Um, actually. I already trust you. So you don’t need to tell me again because I already do.

[The camera stays still for a few seconds, before Edgar continues.]

E: Cover your ears, Carter, this might be loud.

[He turns to the window, and punches it with his left arm. It shatters. He turns back to Carter, who takes a few steps forward, and begins to carefully climb out the window, with help from Edgar. Edgar stops before letting him down fully.]

E: Carter, I’ll be out right behind you, don’t make too much noise, I’ll only be a minute.

[Carter nods, and Edgar lets him fall the short distance to the grass below. Almost immediately, there is a shout from behind him. He turns around to see an employee charging at him with a knife. The turn was fast enough to make his phone fly out of his pocket. The phone lands camera down, but is somehow moved onto a nearby table to show the fight in full detail, a few tiny mechanical legs can be seen darting away as a few spiders escape the scene.]

E: Shit–

[Moments after, he is tackled to the ground, the knife hitting the floor beside his ear. Edgar rolls over to be on top of his attacker, and attempts to stand. The other doing the same.]

[After a few seconds, they charge again, Edgar tries to sidestep it, but the employee is slightly faster on the draw. They grab him by his shirt collar and shove him into a wall, placing the knife at his throat. Edgar coughs on impact, and the employee takes his mask off and tosses it to the side, revealing Edgars face. His expression one of a man determined not to let this be his end, his jaw is clenched, and his eyes are laser focused on the other. The employee pauses for a few seconds. giving Edgar the upper hand. But instead of ducking and weaving like he should've done, he grabs the employee’s mask, tearing it off their face. They scream, and stumble back, hands flying up to cover their face. Edgar stares at the person underneath in shock as they regain control over their mind. He manages to say something after a small while.]

E: Leon!?

[The employee, now re-identified as 'Leon' stares back at Edgar. Frozen in place.]

L: Holy fuck– Where– who– wait, you’re– You’re the guy I kissed at that party! Like, 13 years ago!

E: Yeah I– You don’t even remember my name? Dude, come on!

L: I’ll… give me a minute! I’m a little… it’s a bit fuzzy! Hold on!

[Footsteps approach from down the hallway.]

E: Fuck. No time! Jump out the window, quickly!

L: WHAT?!? ARE YOU CRAZY? ABSOLUTELY THE FUCK NOT!

[Edgar slumps over slightly out of frustration.]

E: Oh for the love of–

[Edgar looks down the hallway, then snatches his mask off the floor. He picks up his phone as well, before grabbing Leon’s arm and shoving him out the window. He follows soon after, yelling on his way down.]

[Transcript end]

Hi!! Could you please write something for Sirius where he and the reader had a big fight and weren't on speaking terms anymore, but the marauders pulled a prank and she covered for them, wanting to save Sirius from yet another detention? And she gets caught and is assigned to do something horrible in detention, so when she gets back to the common room the marauders see her and Sirius feels bad because she looked like she'd been crying and talks to her and they make up? Thank you!!

“Oh I see, you can’t resist me, can you?”

Summary: While you and Sirius are in the middle of an argument, you take the blame on a prank he and his friends pulled which leaves you with a detention

Paring: Sirius Black x Gryffindor!reader (little mentions of the common room)

Warnings: Talk of burns, fire, and a little angst I suppose

A/N: Hey hey hey, I wrote this as like 3 am when I couldn’t sleep, so please enjoy <3 And thank you for the request! Also there’s a nice ending (I apologize for the angsty ending on that last fic lolll) Ooo and if you’re interested, you can send me an ask to be added onto my taglist :))

Word Count: 1325

Masterlist + Characters and ships I write for

Requests are always open <3

Reminder that I do not support jkr. Do not interact if you do.

“How many times are you going to apologize for missing our date?!”

Sirius began to defend himself. “You know I—”

“Yes Sirius! I know that Slughorn caught you again! But you could’ve at least told me you were going to have another detention.”

“I asked James to let you know but—”

“Sere, it’s not James’s job! You need to be the one in the first place to stay out of trouble.”

You hadn’t expected to be arguing with Sirius right now. You were the last two left in the common room and it was far too late for anyone to be thinking properly. His eyes were filled with exhaustion and misery as he met yours.

He lowered his voice. “Please just listen to me, y/n.”

Your voice broke as you walked up to your dorm. “I can’t do that right now. I’m sorry.”

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

“You can’t ignore him forever.”

Lily’s whispers were a stab to the chest as it was going on almost a day without talking to him. “C’mon, you two practically never leave each other’s sides.”

She had agreed to a last minute library trip before curfew, just to help you avoid the common room.

“I don’t plan on ignoring him forever, I just— I don’t know,” you closed your book and quietly stood up from the table.

Lily did the same, though she was slower in gathering her stuff, allowing you to get a head start back to the common room. “Lily, I’m just going to go to bed, tell them all I said hi.”

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

“Now would anyone like to claim this wrongdoing as their own?”

Slughorn’s voice echoed through the room as he paced through the aisle down the middle of his class. “If nobody is willing to confess, I could go off of my suspicions,” his voice got higher, giddy with the excitement of giving your friends another detention as he looked their way. “Keep in mind, students, five detetnions means—”

“It was me.”

You hadn’t even realized what you blurted out until Sirius sat up straight in his chair, muttering your name under his breath. You didn’t mean to listen for such a quiet whisper of words, but it was nice to hear his voice again.

You met his eyes for only a brief moment before Slughorn stood directly in your point of view.

His voice was suspicious. “Really?”

“Yep, yes, yeah I um— I did it.”

You didn’t know what five detentions meant, and you didn’t want to hear any longer of what it could be seeing as Sirius would have reached that number. Knowing your professor, it was probably something cruel.

“Well, please see me in my office after dinner for details on your detention.”

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

“Good evening,” Slughorn started as you walked into his classroom. Did you have a good dinner?”

“Mhm,” you hummed, taking your eyes off the floor to find an eager looking room of children.

“I, um, have a group of first years that need a great deal of help in class. Which brings me to your detention,” he spoke to you discreetly off to the side. “You’ll be assisting first years in the basics of potions and brewing. They never seemed to quite grasp my subject, so I thought a review would be best for them.”

You glanced around the room of now very talkative students. One had already filled their cauldron with water. You let out a sigh, agreeing to everything he was assigning you as if you had a choice anyways

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

“Mr. HigGINS!” Slughorn's voice grew louder as fire shot up around the cauldron in front of you, dispersing itself in the air around you. The flame had died out within seconds, though effectively left burns on your hands and soot across your front. “No, no, it was an accident, Melvin!”

The poor boy that caused the little mishap had at this point disappeared, tears in his eyes.

Your professor looked at you, opening his mouth to say something. You turned around, excusing yourself from the room.

“Oh my, y/n, I’m sorry. You’re excused. Please see Madam Pomfrey if needed,” he called out with fake serenity.

You were on your way back to the common room, not even willing to bother with the nurse, afraid she’d keep you overnight to ‘monitor’ you.

“Hey y/n!” What happened?”

As you turned around to see who had called, you were barely able to catch your reflection in the armor stand.

James arrived at your side. “Are you alright? Tell me what happened.”

You shook your head, wiping the black substance off your lips and eyes with the back of your sleeve.

“No, no, it’s nothing really. Small accident is all it was.”

You walked away silently with James struggling to stay at your side, questioning you more about it.

“James! Please. I’m sorry for how I’m coming across but I need to be alone. Just a quiet night in the common room is all I ask. I’m fine, really.”

He nodded, offering you an understanding smile as he spoke the password to the portrait and climbed through.

James hurried upstairs and your shoulders relaxed upon seeing the room completely empty.

You muttered an incantation, igniting the fireplace while you reached your hand under the couch, pulling your book that you keep there out.

Opening the book had left little black specks falling onto the pages. You groaned, taking time to shake your clothes off entirely, next moving onto your face, avoiding the lump in your throat telling you to cry.

“Y/n?”

You didn’t have to look to know who was talking.

“Hm?”

“I-”

Sirius appeared on the couch beside you, crossing his legs. “I just wanna talk.”

“Me too, Sere.”

The feeling of tears gathering in your eyes dissolved as you scooted closer to him, leaning your head on his shoulder.

“I really am sorry about not being there for our date.”

You slipped your arm under his, hugging it. “It’s alright, really. I just—I needed some time to think about things.”

“But it’s not alright and I’m going to make it up to you.”

You laughed at him, not out of disbelief, but out of the fact that you’d probably wake up to a mountain of flowers around your bed and him sneaking food from the Great Hall to give you breakfast in the comfort of your dorm.

“How do you feel about dogs?” he teased, the cheeky smile present in his voice.

“Oh godric, whatever you’re planning, find something that doesn’t involve getting us expelled.”

The both of you laughed out at that, having a moment of normality, joking with each other until he brought up what brought him down here.

“Hey, what happened to you? James said you came out of Slughorn's— Oh, which reminds me, thank you—”

“Sirius, don’t apologize. I'd rather have my first detention with that idiot, then you getting your fifth one.”

He grabbed your hand, holding it a little too tight in his lap, causing you to hiss, pulling away.

Sirius sat up straighter with a look in his eyes that gave off the impression he was going to go assault someone far too dangerous. “That Melvin kid— the really clumsy first year, he um, caused a little accident.”

You finally got a chance to examine your hands, as did Sirius.

“Do you want to go to the hospital wing? I think you should go see Madam Pompfrey, we can go together.”

Sirius mumbled off his words, starting to get up from his spot.

“I’d rather stay here.” You situated yourself closer next to him.

“C’mon the burns don’t look good.”

“Sere, it’s fine we can just stay here. I haven’t had— I just miss talking with you and that’s honestly all I want to do right now.”

“Oh I see, you can’t resist me, can you?”

“Shut up,” you slapped his leg, the both of you disturbing the once peaceful common room.

Peter Parker x Reader :Journey: (2/2)

(Y/n) stood sideways in front of the mirror, a frown etched deep in her features.

“If you keep frowning like that your face is going to get stuck.”

She jumped and turned, watching her husband walk over to her. “Haha, very funny.”

“What’re you doing anyway?” Peter asked with a chuckle.

“Pete, look, the baby bump is already showing! They’re going to see right through me!” (Y/n) said, looking back at the mirror and placing her hands on her stomach.

While she was right, there was a bump, that’s also all it was. A bump. Barely even that, to be honest.

“Honey, I don’t think they’ll notice it,” Peter said, wrapping his arms around his wife from behind. His hands landed on her stomach and she smiled.

“What time is dinner again?” (Y/n) asked.

“Pepper said to be there at 6, but Tony said 7 so I have no idea,” Peter said, earning a laugh from (Y/n).

“May and Happy are coming too, right?” (Y/n) asked.

“Yep. How do you think we should tell everyone about the baby?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know. There’s so many options!” (Y/n) had been watching YouTube videos all day in preparation. She figured this is something they should’ve planned beforehand, but time had gotten away from her and before she knew it it was the day of the dinner and they still had no plan.

“We could do the picture thing,” Peter suggested.

“But who would take it?” (Y/n) asked as she went back to getting ready.

Peter plopped down on their bed with a bounce. “Oh yeah… Why don’t we do the onesie thing? Where it says ‘coming soon’ or something like that.”

“I think you have to have those custom made,” (Y/n) said.

The couple sat in silence, each racking their brains to think of something.

“What do you think of the ultrasound idea?” (Y/n) asked.

“Nah, it needs to be more creative,” Peter said, making his wife smirk.

“What’s that look for?” Peter asked, grinning.

“You’re just adorable,” (Y/n) said.

Peter’s grin widened before it slowly started to fade. “Have you.. have you thought anymore about telling your parents?”

His wife’s smile faded as well. After (Y/n) had gotten engaged to Peter, she and her family had gotten into a huge argument with her family. Her parents highly disapproved of Peter and wanted (Y/n) to go back to school instead of settling down so quickly.

They’d been invited to the wedding but no one had shown up. When Tony found out about that, he had offered to walk (Y/n) down the aisle and give her away. To say that she had started crying was an understatement.

Anyway, she hadn’t heard from her family since before the wedding so she hadn’t planned on telling them about the baby.

“I’ve thought about it. I just don’t know, Peter. There’s only two ways this could go and neither of them are good.”

“It’s completely up to you, (N/n). I’ll support whatever you choose,” Peter said. (Y/n) gave him a small smile.

She finished getting ready, but couldn’t shake that thought out of her head. If she did try to call them they could either ignore her or answer and give her a lecture about how she’s too young to be a mom and yada yada yada.

Her and Peter discussed how to surprise the rest of the family during the whole ride to the compound and came up with the perfect plan.

(Y/n) began shaking with nervous excitement as they pulled up to the compound.

“You ok?” Peter asked, frowning a little bit.

“Mhm,” she replied, climbing out of the car as May came to greet them.

“Hi guys!” she said happily. She ran over to (Y/n) and squeezed her in a hug. “I’ve missed you both!”

(Y/n) laughed as she hugged May. “We’ve missed you too!”

“Are you ok? You look… different. Not bad different, just different. Like you’re… glowing almost.”

(Y/n) froze for a split second. Peter saved her from having to answer as he walked over and squeezed his aunt in a hug.

May eyed (Y/n) suspiciously as the trio headed inside, but she didn’t say anything else about it.

“Hey, lovebirds,” Tony said with a grin.

Peter rolled his eyes but (Y/n) just smirked. The night continued on with (Y/n) on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was sure they saw right through her. What if they weren’t happy about it? What if they thought they were too young to be parents? Her mom had been in her life, but she wasn’t exactly the best mom in the world. What if she wasn’t a good mom? What if-

“Hey.”

(Y/n) pulled herself out of her spiral of worry and looked up to find her husband watching her with a frown. “You ok?” he whispered, giving her hand a squeeze.

She forced a smile and nodded. “I’m ok. Just… tired I guess.”

Peter didn’t look like he believed her, but they didn’t have the chance to talk about it before FRIDAY announced the takeout they ordered had arrived.

As they sat around the living room and munched on the food, (Y/n) caught her husband’s eye and nodded, biting her lip in a smile. Her hands trembled as she handed May and Happy and Tony and Pepper a small gift as the conversation died down.

“What’s this?” May asked suspiciously, eyeing the small rectangle box with a little smile.

“A present,” (Y/n) replied, sitting next to Peter and taking his hand.

The couple’s opened their respective boxes, pulling out a sandwich baggie with ‘Spider-baby coming soon!’ written on it and a positive pregnancy stick in it.

Pepper was the first to catch on. She let out a happy little scream and jumped up, throwing the baggie at Tony in the process.

(Y/n) stood as Pepper practically bounced over and threw her arms around her and Peter. (Y/n) laughed as May caught on next, having about the same reaction as Pepper. Happy and Tony caught on shortly after that. They were excited but their reaction was a bit calmer than the women.

The months seemed to fly by after that. The first trimester had been rough. Morning sickness had hit (Y/n) like a brick wall. Most of the time she could only eat a couple saltines and drink some chicken broth.

There had been one point where they’d almost had to go see Helen, but thankfully everything worked itself out. They did call Dr. Cho a couple times, but without being able to actually see (Y/n), she had to guess it was from the radiation that changed Peter’s DNA.

“But-but he or she isn’t going to be an actual spider-baby, right?” (Y/n) had asked, having gone pale.

“No, I don't think so, (Y/n). He or she might have some powers, but I highly doubt it,” Helen had replied.

During the second trimester, the morning sickness gradually left and (Y/n) was hit with a whole bunch of cravings. The second trimester became (Y/n)’s favorite part of the pregnancy. She was able to actually eat normal food without puking her guts out ten minutes later and she felt great!

“(Y/n), are you sure you should be up there?”

“Ned, relax, it’s just a ladder.”

“Exactly, it’s a ladder! It could topple over at any second!”

“It won’t if you’re holding it.”

Ned tightened his grip on the metal ladder as he watched one of his best friends attempt to paint the wall in front of her. They were keeping the baby’s gender a surprise until he or she was born, so they had been a pretty sage green for the walls.

Peter was returning tomorrow night from a  business trip with Stark Industries, so (Y/n) had called Ned and MJ to come help her decorate the nursery to surprise Peter.

The puking from the first trimester had taken its toll on (Y/n). She was a lot thinner now, except for the growing bump, and got dizzy pretty easily.

(Y/n) inched closer to the wall, much to Ned’s dismay. “(Y/n), do I need to call MJ?”

“No, I’m perfectly capable of doing this,” (Y/n) said, tongue poking out the side of her mouth as she concentrated on not hitting the ceiling.

“Capable of doing what?” MJ asked as she walked in. She carried bags from various baby stores, which she set in a pile in the middle of the room.

“(Y/n)’s trying to give me a heart attack,” Ned replied.

Said woman glared at him. “Am not.”

“(Y/n), do you really think you should be up there? What if you have a dizzy spell?” MJ asked, crossing her arms.

“I’ll be fine. Just let me get this last part then I’ll - oh!”

MJ and Ned raced over, but (Y/n) didn’t fall. Instead, she dropped the roller as her hand flew to her bump.

“What? What’s wrong?” Ned asked.

“He or she kicked!” (Y/n) said, grinning. She got down from the ladder and grabbed her friend’s hands, placing them on her belly. The baby kicked again, making grins pull at Ned and MJ’s lips.

“I wish Peter was here!” (Y/n) said, smiling bigger than she had  in a while.

“(Y/n)?” someone called, making all three heads turn to the living room.

“Peter!” (Y/n) said happily, running to the doorway. She planted a kiss on his lips before grabbing his hand and putting it on her belly.

“(Y/n), what-?”

“Shh! Just watch!”

Sure enough, the baby kicked Peter’s hand. “Whoa!”

He grinned and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

The third trimester brought cramps, swollen feet, and weekly checkups. As the baby grew bigger, (Y/n)’s body began having a hard time adjusting. She became iron deficient and was confined to bed rest within the last couple weeks of her pregnancy due to other complications.

“Peter, I swear, I’ll be ok. Go be Spider-man for a little bit. I’ll call you if anything happens,” (Y/n) said, giving her husband’s hand a squeeze.

“But-”

“No buts. Baby and I will be ok, I promise.”

“What if you have to go to the bathroom? Or what if you get hungry?” Peter asked.

“I called MJ. We’re going to have a girls night,” (Y/n) said, one hand rubbing her large stomach while the other held her husband’s hand tightly.

Peter hesitated. “You swear you’ll call me if anything happens?”

“Yes,” (Y/n) said with a loving smile.

“Fine. I’ll only be gone for a few hours though, ok?”

“Ok. Stay safe, love,” (Y/n) said, pecking his lips before he got up.

“You too,” Peter said. He gave her belly a kiss before suiting up and jumping out the window.

“I will never get used to that,” (Y/n) sighed.

MJ showed up half an hour later and the girls filled up with junk food and cheesy rom-coms.

“So when are you due?” MJ asked as she left to refill the popcorn bucket.

“Two more weeks. But we don’t even know if it’ll actually happen on that day,” (Y/n) said, resting her head on the pillow behind her as she scrolled through Instagram.

A sharp pain shot through her body, making her wince. She didn’t think much of it, it’s been happening a lot lately. Then water began pooling under her thighs. She paled and muttered a curse.

“Uh.. Michelle?”

“I’m coming! Don’t play the movie yet!” MJ called back.

“MJ, my water broke!”

A crash came from the kitchen as MJ ran back into the bedroom. “Are you ok? Does anything hurt?”

“No-no, I’m ok. What-what should I do?” (Y/n) said as the situation began to set in.

“Call Peter. I’ll get your bag and your shoes,” MJ said.

(Y/n) had never been more thankful for her friend’s calmness before now. She tried her husband five times before giving up and leaving a message. She then tried Tony, who answered on the third ring.

“Hey, (Y/n), what’s up?”

“Tony, my water just broke and I can’t get a hold of my husband. I sent him out to be Spider-man for a little bit, but now he’s not answering!”

“OK, stay calm, (N/n). I’ll go look for him and make sure everything’s ok. Are you by yourself?”

“No, MJ is here with me. Call me when you find him!” (Y/n) said as MJ ran back in with (Y/n)’s sandals and hospital bag.

“Will do, kid.”

They hung up and called the hospital. Due to all of her complications so far, they told her to come in right away.

So MJ hailed a cab and helped her very pregnant friend down the stairs and into said cab. ON the way, they call Ned who met them at the hospital.

(Y/n) was called back into a room almost immediately with her friends by her side.

“Anything from Tony?” (Y/n) asked MJ.

As if on cue, her phone began ringing. MJ put it on speaker and said, “Tony? Did you find him?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. We’re on our way now. How’s she doing?”

“I’m fine, just get here quickly please!” (Y/n) said.

“We’re almost there!” Tony said before they hung up.

Well, after that phone call things rapidly went downhill. They gave her an epidural, and shortly after that (Y/n)’s blood pressure began dropping drastically, resulting in some panicked nurses and doctors.

(Y/n) began having trouble staying awake and the epidural wasn’t even working, which meant she was still in pain.

“MJ!”

MJ and Ned looked up from the seat they’d claimed as Peter and Tony ran in. Peter had a black eye and a cut on his cheek, but other than that he looked ok.

“Where is she? Is she ok?” Peter asked.

“Her blood pressure is dropping. They kicked us out,” Ned said.

“She’s in that room,” MJ said, pointing discreetly to the room across from them.

Peter raced in to find his pregnant wife pale and asleep while a doctor and nurse talked next to her. They both looked up when Peter walked in.

“I’m Peter, I’m her husband. What’s going on?” he said quickly.

“We’re going to have to do an emergency c-section, it’s not healthy for your wife or your baby if we try to wait,” the doctor said.

So that’s what happened. Almost three hours later, the Spider-baby was brought into the world and (Y/n)’s blood pressure started rising back to normal. She woke up almost thirty minutes after the baby was born to find Peter sitting next to her bed and holding her hand.

“Is the baby ok? Where-what happened?” she asked weakly.

“The baby is great. They have her in the NICU just to be safe for a couple days, but they said as soon as you feel like it we can go visit  her,” Peter said, a soft smile on his face.

“Her? It’s a girl?” (Y/n) asked, smiling.

“We have a daughter, (N/n),” Peter said.

They found (Y/n) a wheelchair then went straight to the NICU.

“You must be Baby Parker’s parents. She’s doing great, she should be able to leave in a few days,” a nurse said with a kind smile.

“Thank you,” Peter said.

“Pete, she’s so beautiful,” (Y/n) said with tears in her eyes.

“What should we name her?” Peter asked.

“You pick the first name and I’ll pick the middle name,” (Y/n) said.

“Clara,” Peter said almost instantly.

“May,” (Y/n) said, just as quickly.

They smiled. “Clara May Parker.”

——

A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for reading! I know I brought up the parent thing, then never did anything with it so I was thinking of doing a little spinoff oneshot of this later on. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these twoshots!

Izuku Helping You Do Your Natural Hair

Warning: Mild language

(an: Okay sooo, this is my first time writing a hc and I was a little nervous to begin with, so please leave me feedback and let me know what I can improve! :) ♡ )

“I’ll never understand what I’ve done to become so lucky.”

•You had been dating pro-hero Deku for a year now, and the two of you couldn’t be happier.

•You were not a pro-hero, so relating to the pro-hero lifestyle wasn’t something that you were easily able to do. 

•Nonetheless, you sympathized with your boyfriend when he came home exhausted from a hard day’s work, giving him as many hugs, praises, and kisses as his flustered heart could take. Izuku was entranced by your beauty, inside and out. 

•However, on this day, the hugs, praises, and kisses would have to wait. 

You groaned as you opened your phone and checked the calendar. Yup. It was wash day. The day you absolutely adored and dreaded at the exact same time. Now don’t be confused. You absolutely loved your hair. It was without a doubt one of your own favorite features. The way it bounced in your hand as you skillfully detangled? The way your coils and curls absolutely popped after a good day of deep conditioning and moisturizing? The intense shine that adorned it afterwards? It was enough to make a hairdresser cry. However, with great bad bitch power came great bad bitch responsibilities.

Thankfully, it was your day off. You spent majority of it doing some cleaning, shopping, and lounging around your apartment. Per usual, your pro-hero boyfriend Izuku had quietly slipped out much earlier that morning having spent the night at your place, planting soft kisses on your cheek and forehead. He always did his best not to wake you before he left, and sometimes, it worked. However, most mornings, you liked to pretend to be asleep, somewhat to keep him from flying into a fit of apologies for waking you, but mostly to listen to him as he whispers sweet nothings into your ear. 

Every day, you two grew more and more grateful to be in each other’s lives. 

Thought the first half of your day was spent productively, you were secretly digging up more and more tasks to keep yourself occupied from taking care of what should have been done earlier. It was 11 PM at this point. Were you seriously about to start your wash “day” now??

 After relaxing on the sofa for a few more minutes, and weighting out your options, you groan and finally decide to get up and get started. Your favorite bluetooth speaker was fully charged and ready to go. “With a battery life of 12 hours, I’m damn sure going to need it,” you thought to yourself as you grabbed the speaker and headed to the bathroom. You started with your favorite pre-poo treatment, carefully detangling your hair in the process. After allowing the solution to sit for a bit, you grab your shampoo, conditioner, and scalp massager, turn on your speaker, put on your favorite wash day playlist, and immediately get to work.

 Gently scrubbing the shampoo onto each section of your scalp, working to get off all of the build up from the previous week. After taking a break to respectfully bounce your ass to the music bumping through your speaker, you decide that your scalp has finally had enough and decide to rinse. Next, you begin working your conditioner into your hair, first using your fingers to rake the product through, then a small detangling brush. Once each section was complete, you throw on your shower cap and step out of the shower. You could’ve shaved today, but considering that you had skipped breakfast that morning, it became more important that you ate. You grabbed a some snacks, plugged in your heat cap, and set your 30 minute timer. 

You noticed a text from Izuku amidst the flood of uninteresting notifs that you had received from other apps. You had told him repeatedly that texting you while he was at work was not a priority, but regardless, he always managed to ‘forget’ ever having that conversation. However, he never meant any harm. Hearing from you while he was away for hours upon hours gave him comfort. He just wanted to know that you were okay. He wanted to protect you. 

‘Izuku♡: “Hey babe! ♡ I’m just checking in on you to make sure you’re doing okay. I’ll be home soon! :)” 

You couldn’t help but smile at his text. Although you were well aware that Izuku loved you, it still made your heart swell to see him show just how much he cares. Just as you were about to reply, your timer began to ring. With your smile still on your face, you sigh and remove the cap from your head, placing your phone face down on the couch. 

After rinsing your hair with the removable shower head, you grab a chair from the kitchen and waddle back into your bathroom, ready to tackle phase two of the process. You grab a towel and begin to gently squeeze your dripping ends. 

Thus begins the detangling process. 

Sectioning your hair off into fours, you begin getting to work. It was going on 12 AM at this point, and you silently cursed yourself for even allowing an 11 PM wash “day” to be an option for you. Your arms slowly began to burn as you forced yourself to continue, eager to be done as quickly as possible. As you sigh and drop your arms in defeat, you hear a soft knock at the door. You stood in silence. You weren’t expecting anyone over, and Izuku normally called you before he was on his way...

The phone. 

You walk to the couch and pick up your phone. Yep. ‘Izuku♡ (2 Missed Calls)’.

“Fuck.” You quickly tighten your robe and head towards the door, peeking through the hole to see your tired-looking boyfriend on the other side. You unlock the door to see Izuku smiling, still wearing his hero costume and holding a white grocery bag. You quickly gesture for him to come inside. Despite seeing him smile, his eyes gave away truly how tired he was. After a small shower of kisses and some small talk about his day, you notice that the white bag on the counter is full of food. “Babe, what’s this?” you ask, tilting your head slightly and smiling. He shyly rubs the back of his neck, “Well, it’s pretty late, and I thought that you might be hungry... so I stopped to get us some meat buns to eat! It’s not really anything special, but..” You walk over to him and cut him off, planting a soft kiss on his lips. “Thank you, Izuku.” 

His cheeks turned a deep crimson as a sweet smile spread across his face. “...it’s nothing.” You look back over at the bag of food and sigh. “I really wish I could take a break right now, but I’ve really god to finish up with my hair,” you groan. “I’ve been tussling with it all day, and I really want to finish things up so I can go to bed.” Izuku stares at you for a moment before smiling and taking your hand. “Huh? Where are you-?” He walks right into your shared bathroom and grabs your seat, slowly easing you into it. “Well since you’ve been working with that all day, how about you take a break and I can give you a hand.” You thought it over for a second, wondering if this would be a bad idea. Nonetheless, you trusted Izuku, and knew that he would never do anything to intentionally upset you. “Okay. Do you know what to do?” “Mhm!” You had not noticed in the past, the way his eyes glistened as he would watch you in the mirror, working product into each strand on your head. He paid attention to the order of the products, the way you worked the detangling brush along your strands. He had never admitted it, but to see your beautiful curls bounce and move with such body kept him absolutely mesmerized. 

Picking up your brush, Izuku held gently touched a section of your hair, removing the clip and gently gliding the brush against your ends. You watched him as he worked his way up, eyes focused on his task. A smile spread across your face and you sighed contently, watching him. The fact that your boyfriend was being so gentle and careful with your hair, for some reason, meant a lot. It touched your heart. You both sat in silence as he worked. 

 After a while more of detangling and moisturizing, Izuku was finished. “Well, how did I do?” You looked in the mirror at your healthy curls and grinned. “You did great! Thank you, baby.” You wrapped your arms around his neck and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. “It was nothing! Besides, your hair is absolutely beautiful. I love everything about it. It will never be a chore for me to help you,” His hands on your waist gently spun you around to face the mirror. You both looked at each other through the glass as he placed a gentle kiss on your shoulder and rested his head. “...I’ll never understand what I’ve done to become so lucky to have you in my life.” 

Hello! I’m super nervous to ask something since i’ve never asked or requested anything yet.. but maybe something of Namjoon or Hoseok? Maybe they get stuck in something aksjdkdjd I don’t really have a preference honestly just whatever you’re comfortable with🥺

Hi !! I’m super sorry I took so long to write this but here it is. I hope you like it 💜

Being an idol wasn't easy and Namjoon knew that for sure. They have a lot of pressure for their comebacks and strict diets, it all stresses him that it worries the rest of the members. He had tried so many ways to cope with the stress but none of them worked. Until thanks to the pandemic, the management decided that this year would be more relaxed for them and make them stop having such a strict diet, all of them were happy to eat whatever they want without being scolded and Namjoon discovered that food helped him to cope with stress. And obviously, after all those months of indulgence, it started to show some changes. His once toned and slim body was now chubby and soft, most of his clothes barely fit anymore. His tummy pressed against his skin-tight t-shirts, love handles oozing over the sides of his jeans, and his cheeks were chubbier. He was a bit worried about what the other members thought of his weight gain but all of them seem to be ok with his added weight saying that he looked healthier now 

With their comeback so near, all of them were stressed and busy. That morning after having a large breakfast he was locked in his studio, working on one of their new album’s songs. An hour had passed when he unconsciously opened one of the drawers of his desk taking out a big package of cookies, eating one by one until it was all gone. He squirmed uncomfortably on his chair as the armrest were digging a bit painfully on his plush hips and love handles. Once he was comfortable again, he grabs some chips from the cabinet and started eating them while correcting somethings in the songs lyrics 

He continued eating and eating for at least 2 more until when his hand reached the cabinet, his fingers touched the bottom of it. It was empty. He looks down at his belly realizing how full he feels, pressed his hand on the hard swell rubbing circles on it, and pressed his finger on the hard spots, belching loudly not caring to cover his mouth since he was alone 

After eating a lot of salty and sweet snacks, he started to feel thirsty and some soda really sounded nice. Unluckily he didn't have any in his studio, he sighed tiredly as he rubs his belly, belching as he did so. When his belly stopped hurting, he decided to get up and go to the bending machine to get some soda 

But he realized he couldn't get up, his belly and love handles were squeezed by the armrest of the chair making it impossible for him to get up no matter how much he was trying. 

He tried 3 times more but nothing happened. Fuck he was really stuck there. He tried to think how would he got up from there, maybe he should call one of the members 

After thinking about it for a while he decided to call taehyung since he was free after his vocal lessons 

" hey Hyung! What's up?"  he asked a bit worried because namjoon normally doesn't call them, he always sends them a message 

" hi, taehyung-ah. I need your help, are you free right now ? " he mumbled softly as he hears a door creak from the phone assuming that taehyung was already coming 

" Yes, I finished my vocal lessons some minutes ago. You're in your studio, right ? " he says as he walked there 

" yes, I’m he-" he was cut back by a knock on his studio door and he heard taehyung voice saying that he was there " its open taehyung." he says 

The younger man entered, smiling softly at him " so Hyung, what do you need me for ? " he asks, chuckling 

" Uhm well, I’m stuck." he says shyly, blushing madly 

There was a pregnant silence between them until taehyung finally spoke 

He chuckled softly " so you need me to help you up ? " he asked softly as he gives a glance over the older's desk which was full of wrappers, he smirked softly at the older making him blush 

" yeah, I have tried but I really can't " he giggled softly 

The younger got closer to him grabbing the older's arms and pulled him using all his force which didn't seem to work. He tried for a bit but it didn't work. He groans as he throws himself on the small couch there 

"Fuck Hyung, you're really stuck there " he mumbled softly as he rests for a bit as his arms were aching a bit for using so much force 

" God what am I gonna do ? " he groans loudly as he massaged his temple 

" Uhm maybe we can call jungkookie? He is stronger than me I’m sure he would be able to get you out of there " he suggested already taking his phone to call jungkook 

He sighed softly feeling so embarrassed to have to ask for help to their maknae " mhm, okay please call him tae" he finally said 

" okay Hyung ~ " he chuckled as he looks for the maknae number on his phone and presses the call button, waiting for jungkook to answer 

Jungkook answered the phone after some minutes and Taehyung put him on speaker “ hi Hyung, what happened ? “ the younger asked softly as they both hear the keyboard in the background 

“ hey jungkookie~ Well I’m in namjoon’s Hyung studio and he needs your help, can you come please ? “ taehyung asked softly as he watched namjoon cheeks started to heat up more 

“ Uhm yeah, Hyung don't worry. I’m going “ the younger replies quietly before hanging up

-----------

It didn't take so long before they heard a knock on the door. Namjoon glanced at Taehyung, he chuckled softly before getting up to open the door 

“Uhm soo what do you need help with ? “ the younger asked as he enters the studio looking at his Hyungs

“ I’m stuck ….  I need you to help me out of here “ Namjoon says softly, feeling completely embarrassed. He saw the way the younger’s cheeks tinted pink and taehyung let out a soft smirk  

Jungkook stay still with blushed cheeks before he stutters

" stuck? Y-you're stuck? " Jungkook asked softly 

" yep, would you be a good boy and help Hyung, kookie ?'' Taehyung was the one who answers this time

The younger nodded eagerly as soon as his brain processed taehyung’s words 

bounding over to namjoon, grabbing the older’s arms and pulling him hard.

Namjoon could see the maknae’s struggle to help him up as he heard taehyung chuckling softly, he must feel embarrassed but the situation was hot and luckily none of them could see his semi-hard dick under his massive belly 

After some minutes of struggles, he finally pulled him hard enough to free him from the chair. Jungkook yelled softly as they both fell down on the couch in the older’s studio, when Namjoon opened his eyes he realized he was on top of Jungkook. His plush belly was pressed against the younger’s toned and flat one 

He looked at jungkook’s face when he let out a breathy whine, the younger’s cheeks were flushed and he was avoiding the older’s eyes. He chuckled softly as he asked softly as he got off of jungkook 

“Ow, are you okay kookie ?” he says in a soft teasing tone, laughing softly as he saw jungkook nodded eagerly 

“Y-yeah, I’m fine Hyung “ jungkook shutters softly 

Taehyung coughed fakely as he smiled when he got their attention 

“ It’s kinda late tho, I’m pretty sure you’re hungry Hyung. Maybe we can order some food don't you think so ggukie ?” taehyung asked with a low tone 

Namjoon saw jungkook nodding softly 

“ Oh I eat a lot of snacks so I’m not that hungry “ the older mumbled softly 

“ b-but Hyung snacking it’s not actually eating. We can order some fast food from that place you like! “ Jungkook says softly as he gives him a small bunny smile

He sighs softly as he saw Jungkook's soft glance and Taehyung's sharp one on him. He just nodded 

“Well some more food sounds nice “ he shrugs as he saw taehyung smirk grow bigger as he grabs his phone and starts ordering some food as jungkook fondled the older’s thick thighs with a shy smile 

Sometime after, the food had finally arrived. Taehyung pays for the food and places it on a small table near there. When namjoon bend over to grab, taehyung grabs his wrist softly making the older look at him with a frown 

“Let us feed you Hyung  ~ we can take care of you “ Taehyung’s voice was soft even tho his low tone showing a bit of arousal on it 

“Yeah, Hyung you have been working a lot for the new album. You deserve to rest “ Jungkook says right after the older maknae with his doe eyes looking at Namjoon as he just nodded softly making both of the maknae’s smile 

Jungkook grabbed a huge and greasy hamburger as namjoon opens his mouth letting the younger shove it into his mouth, taking a big bite. Taehyung sits next to namjoon with a proud smirk as he feeds him some fries.

The air in the room was hot, the youngers keep feeding him as taehyung rubs his tight-packed belly. He could hear the maknae’s small whimpers when namjoon feel the maknaes boner against his soft body, making his own dick harden but one of them could see it because his huge belly 

Namjoon places his hand on jungkook’s small and slim waist, feeling him tremble at his touch. Jungkook bit his bottom lip as he started bucking his hips back and forward, practically riding the older’s thigh and taehyung dick digging into his back roll, hearing him groan into his ear 

They continue like that until all the burger was gone, he squeezes jungkook’s waist. Jungkook let out a whine as he looks at the older 

Namjoon clears his throat “Come on kookie, I thought you say you would feed me “  he says with his voice an octave lower, Jungkook quickly grabs another burger and feed it to the older 

“ Kookie come on ~ Show Hyung you’re such a good boy and keep feeding him “ taehyung voice was calm yet demanding, running a hand down jungkook’s back 

Jungkook started to feed the older again with blushed cheeks, taehyung bit his lip enjoying the erotic sight

Namjoon take a big bite shallowing it quickly as he looks at Jungkook with a soft smirk 

“Mhm, you’re being a good boy for me ggukie  ~  maybe I should reward you later, don’t you think so tae ? “ he asked playfully 

“Of course Hyung, good boys get reward, “ he says softly as he caresses the younger’s waist as Jungkook nodded eagerly, feeding the older  

Namjoon arched his back when he finished all the food the maknaes had order for him, he let a loud belch as jungkook hands started to rub his distended stomach, making him groan softly

“Come on Hyung, you’re almost done. Just finish the coke or are you full already? “ taehyung’s tone was sweet but teasing him softly 

“Give me it, tae “ he mumbled with a smirk as taehyung grabbed the big cup of soda and bring it to the older’s lips. Namjoon began to drink it quickly as Jungkook rubs the older’s belly feeling it getting harder and harder under his hand 

Namjoon keeps burping loudly until the uncomfortable feeling was gone, Taehyung smiled playfully at him and kiss him. The kiss was messy and sloppy both of them groaning and moaning on it. They pull away when they heard a whimper coming from the maknae, Namjoon chuckled softly as he cupped jungkook’s cheeks and kiss him too.  He smirked when he pulled away, watching the younger’s blushed cheeks 

He feels a hand on his crotch making him moan loudly as he looks up to Taehyung

“Hyung, don’t you want some help with that. Ggukie and I could help you if you want “ he hummed, biting his lip 

“Come on, help Hyung with this “ he said in a lower tone as he squeezes taehyung’s thighs and jungkook’s waist 

game night → pjm

✳ pairing: jimin x reader

✳ genre: fluff, best friends to lovers au, (kind of a) college au

✳ warnings: mentions of alcohol, drinking, some light swearing

✳ words: 2.9k

✳ synopsis: in which you and your best friend jimin play a game of monopoly with a twist, and you find yourself spilling every thought and secret kept in your head.

✳ a/n: missed playing board games with my friends and i thought a game night scenario with jimin would be really cute. hope u enjoy reading!!

It was tradition for you and Jimin to come over at your place every week to bond and hang out. Originally you'd hang out multiple times a week, but that was back in high school. Once college started, you both decided it would no longer be realistic and possible to meet thrice a week with all the deadlines and requirements to prioritize, so you settled with once or twice every weekend. This was one of the activities neither of you ever missed or skipped out on, especially because it was the most quality time you'd ever get with your long time best friend.

Tonight was game night. As Jimin requested over text, he decided to bring Monopoly even though you begged him not to. You've never won against him even with others around, and so playing against just him wouldn't grant you lower odds. Unfortunately, you had no choice to say no because it was his turn to make plans this week.

In the span of six years you've known Jimin, you've seen each other grow into different people. Changes here and there were becoming much more prominent over time, it was hard to ignore how his body had become more defined, how his jaw had sharpened and how he'd grown inches taller than you. Back then, you were certain nothing would be able to change your friendship and that it would stay that way forever.

You hadn’t known it back then, but these gradual changes were made to rewire that sort of thinking.

For the past three years, you've developed a small crush on him which you often had to hide because you were afraid of telling him the truth. When you both started to drink, you made sure not to get too drunk around him as to not spill your secret. Jimin always thought you just hated drinks.

It was almost four in the afternoon, and Jimin would be arriving in an hour. You quickly decide to shower first and fix up before he came but avoided fixing up too much for him to question why you looked so dressed up. You didn't want him thinking you dolled yourself up for him.

It was just a casual night with your best friend.

Later on, the doorbell rang and you rushed to get the door. Jimin came in holding the box of Monopoly in one hand while carrying a paper bag in the other.

"Hey," he greeted. You took the box from his hand to help him out as he pulled you in for a side hug.

"Hi," you smiled, being completely engulfed in the familiar delicate musk of his perfume that brought you comfort.

He took his shoes off and walked into your kitchen to grab himself a glass of water. You set the board game down on your coffee table and followed him.

"What's in the bag?" You asked curiously, eyeing the paper bag he was holding.

"I thought maybe we'd play Monopoly," a playful smile crept up on his lips before bringing out three bottles of soju and placing it on your counter, "With a twist."

"Jimin! You know I don't drink much," You whined as he stepped closer to you, holding the bottle up closer to your eyes.

"These are flavored! You wouldn't even feel like you're drinking alcohol, they taste like juice, I swear," he smiled innocently, his beaming eyes were almost enough to convince you.

"I can't be hungover the next morning, I have a paper to write," You argued.

"I've never seen you hungover, how could you know how bad it is?" He laughed and placed the bottle of grapefruit soju back on the table.

"I just know they suck, because of how you deal with them." When Jimin first started drinking and would wake up with a hangover, he'd call to let you know how much his head hurt and how badly he'd throw up, so you'd come over to his place and take care of him. Over time he's gotten used to it and they're no longer as bad, but you'd still come over and cook soup for him just to help.

He always loved it when you did. When he began to notice how nurturing you've become, sometimes he'd call for the simplest of reasons just for you to spend time with him.

"I promise I'll stop you when you drink too much," he offers, to which you sigh. You could never really say no to him, anyway.

"Fine."

 "Is your cash complete?" Jimin asks you while he fixes the pile of money on the side. He was playing the banker tonight as well. 

"Yep," you told him, placing your money aside, "You done fixing that?"

"Mhm," he hums, "Wait! Almost forgot." He stands up and takes walks to your kitchen cabinet, "Where are your shot glasses?"

"Cabinet on your right," you told him while you looked through the chance cards. There was absolutely no way you were winning against him, you thought.

You both sat on the floor with the game spread on your coffee table. Grinning, he places the glasses next to the game board and opened the bottle of soju.

"So here's how we're gonna play," Jimin says excitedly, "You drink every time you land on someone's property, when you roll doubles, when you land on GO, when you go to jail, if you're in jail and I visit, whenever the other player buys a house, if you go bankrupt, and when you land on utilities and railroads."

You sat up straight with wide eyes, shocked at how smoothly he pointed out each time you had to drink. At this rate, you wondered how long it would take before you took a shot for each rule.

"Are you serious?" You asked.

"Yup," he smiles.

"We might as well have gone to a club, if you're gonna make me drink that much."

"I already altered the rules, you're supposed to drink for a lot of other stuff," he laughs, "I altered it for you." He proceeds to ruffle your hair which makes you blush. Thankfully the dim lights made it easy to hide the color on your face.

"Well, then, thank you very much," You bowed your head in sarcasm, "Why don't we start?"

"Confident you can win against me?" He smirks.

"Most of the time, yeah. But at this game I never am."

Jimin was good. And he was extremely smart. He knew how to quickly acquire properties and utilities and leave you feeling like you didn't properly know how to play the game even though you did. The rules were made for him while you were just a rookie made to watch.

"Y/n, you can buy a house, you know!" He laughs, "Babe, here." Your cheeks turn red at the nickname. You've been calling each other that for years albeit platonic, but these days it bothered you even more than it did. You cleared your throat to wipe your thoughts away.

You'd taken about five shots now. Normally, you'd have a pretty high tolerance but you could tell it wasn't going to take long before five shots turned to ten, and ten shots turned to twenty. Jimin so far has only had two.

It was hard to keep track with how much you were drinking because the alcohol was so sweet, if you weren't with Jimin you could gulp it all down in one go. The moment you could no longer count how many shots you've downed; the vision of delay was your only tell with how much you've drank so far.

Though you weren't completely drunk, you knew a couple more would be enough to make you intoxicated.

"I hate you," you muttered, cheeks feeling warm because of the alcohol kicking in, "You wanted this because I would lose."

Jimin laughs. His cheeks were also red now because of the alcohol, "I wanted this because I thought you would talk about how much you love counting the money."

"Clearly, I can't do that. I'm bankrupt," you whined as you handed him all your money for landing on his blue property with a hotel, "Oh shit."

Jimin started laughing really hard, he fell back onto the floor. When he got up, he was still laughing as he poured you another shot. Possibly your last one.

"I can't believe how bad you are at this," He chuckles as you took the glass and gulped it down in one go, "Should we stop? I feel like you've drank enough."

"The game? Hell yeah. Let's stop, I'm terrible at it," You sighed in defeat. The alcohol was definitely getting to you now. Jimin smiled to himself, clearly amused at the way you were acting. He began cleaning and packed up the board before sitting next to you on the floor, assuring you that you’d play a game you were better at the next time you had game night.

You took another shot of soju.

"Hey, hey," He takes the glass from your hands, "Babe, you're drinking way too much."

"This really does taste like juice," You were slurring now, "It's okay, I can handle it."

Jimin raises a brow and watches you carefully, "You sure?"

"Yeah I've got it," You nodded. You've forgotten all about not drinking too much around Jimin and just enjoyed the sweet taste of the alcohol in your mouth, sending you this wonderful sensation in your head.

Suddenly, as if your mouth had a mind of its own, you began talking about everything and anything. You talked about how you got annoyed whenever people would leave without closing the door, you talked about how this video of a cat made you cry the other day, how your hair hasn't been cooperating with the styles you want lately…

Jimin listened, watching the way your lips moved as it lost its filter. Even when you complained about a useless group mate, he found you magnetizing.

"I mean, I think I should've just left her name out of the paper, but teamwork was part of the criteria…" you mumbled. You looked over at Jimin, who's elbow was resting on the coffee table while his head rested on his hand. He was staring at you with this fond look and warm smile, you almost wanted to throw yourself onto him.

At least you still had restraint. Barely.

"I've never seen you drunk before," He says with crinkled eyes, "You talk more."

"Do I?"

"Mhm," He moves in closer, placing his hand on your head to play with your hair, "It feels like you're telling me everything. Like you're trying to empty all your words out."

"I've still got some reserved in my head," you told him, completely unaware of the coy smile on your face. This was new to Jimin, and it sent him a lot of mixed signals in his brain.

"Oh, yeah? Care to let them out?" He spoke, almost like he was challenging you to. 

"Alright, sure," You cleared your throat and stared up at the ceiling, "I really want a cat. I really like ice cream..." He watched you carefully, hanging on your every word.

"And I think I'm in love with you," you said, looking at him. You could tell he was startled by the look in his eyes, but all you wanted to do right now was to kiss him there on the spot.

A smile was beginning to creep up on Jimin's lips as he searched your eyes for any sign of lies. His eyes remained on yours as you slowly went nearer, and nearer. He stayed in place, clearly knowing what was to come.

And you kissed him. Even while you were intoxicated you could feel how soft his plump, pink lips were. Time had stopped and you could only hear your own heart beat now as Jimin's hands found their way to your cheeks while you held onto his wrist. No amount of alcohol could beat the feeling of elation his lips gave you.

When you both pulled away, Jimin immediately wanted to tell you everything. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night of conversations filled with confessions and soft kisses, completely different from the times you've spent together before. He was wrong, of course.

Maybe it was your body dropping from the high, but the moment your lips detached from one another, you fell asleep. Just like that. Jimin was worried at first, wondering maybe you've really had too much alcohol, but when he started hearing your small, quiet snores, he felt relieved. He laughed at how easily you dozed off and carried you to bed, admiring you for a while before proceeding to clean up the mess. When he was done cleaning, he freshened up a bit, changed into his extra clothes and got into bed with you.

He allowed himself to play with your hair (he always loved doing that) and observe your facial features which he always admired before holding you in his arms until he fell asleep.

When you woke up the next day, you felt the sun hit your eyes followed by the smell of breakfast perking you up. The moment you sat up, you could feel a grave headache coming in as this weird feeling in your stomach began to stir.

You had this unbelievable urge to vomit. You rushed out of bed to puke in the toilet, not realizing Jimin had seen you and followed you to hold your hair up and rub your back. When you were done, you wiped the vomit off of your mouth and gargled some water, preparing to brush your teeth. You looked at the mirror in disgust. Your face looked awful and worn out and extra tired, it was obvious you were drinking last night. You almost screamed when you saw Jimin standing behind you through the mirror.

"Jimin, oh my God," You breathed out, "You scared me."

He laughed a bit before moving his hands to your waist, hugging you a bit before kissing your cheek, "I made breakfast. You should come join me." He leaves the bathroom to give you some privacy, allowing to do whatever you needed to do. You were a bit embarrassed at the gesture because you had just vomited, but it still made you feel butterflies.

When you were done brushing your teeth and washing your face, you went to join Jimin for breakfast. 

Looking at him now, you could clearly remember the stuff that happened last night before you knocked yourself out. You kissed him, you told him how you felt, you came onto him first— there was no turning back from that.

"Last night was my first time seeing you drunk," Jimin chuckles softly, "Did you know you talk a lot more when you drink?"

"Yeah…" you laughed nervously, "It's annoying."

"It was amusing," he grins, "I could get used to it."

You couldn't help but smile. After you finished eating breakfast, Jimin handed you a glass of water and ibuprofen and insisted that you stay in bed while he washed the dishes. You tried to tell him you could help, but he said it was his job to take care of you this time and you couldn't refuse.

When he was done washing the dishes, he sat beside you on your bed.

"Do you need anything? I could make you some food. Carbs are good for hangovers," he offers.

"No, I think I'm okay," you smiled, trying to muster up the courage to talk about what happened, "Jimin, about last night."

Should you say sorry? No, it would sound like you regretted it. He kissed you back, didn't he? What did you need to talk about? What did you need to hear? What would make you stop worrying?

"Before you say anything else," Jimin gently holds your hand, "I'm in love with you, too."

Just like that, the storm in your head had stopped.

"You are?" You sat up, but sort of regretted it because of the throbbing pain that intensified in your head.

"Yeah, always have been," he smiles sheepishly.

"Since when?" You asked.

"Since our third year in high school. I don't really know what sparked it, I just remember noticing how much prettier you got and how smart you sounded."

You laughed, "Really? I never knew."

"I’ve tried flirting with you countless times, you know," he admitted, a shy smile on his face, "I don't think you ever got the message."

"I guess now you know," you smiled, "Message received."

He smiles really wide and squeezes your hand. You pat the empty side of the bed and Jimin understands as he begins to lie down next to you, holding you in his arms.

"Get some rest, I'll wake you up later for your paper," he says softly while caressing your hair. You could feel his chest rising up and down, calming your senses. Being with him right now made you feel like you were in the safest place on Earth.

"Thank you," you spoke quietly, the smile never leaving your lips. Before you knew it, your eyes began to flutter shut but you didn't miss the way Jimin kissed your head.

"I love you," he whispered. Little did Jimin know that the perfect cure to your hangover wasn't ibuprofen or cooking up food with carbs. 

It was being here, held up safe in his arms.

a/n: hope u guys liked it :’( here are links to my other works if you’d like to check them out:

let’s fall in love for the night (taehyung x reader)

welcome to my youtube channel (taehyung x reader)

all an act (seokjin x reader)

and my ongoing social media au, fan identity (jungkook x reader) in which the taglist is open! just send an ask :-)

i should make a masterlist soon ;-;

see you in my next fic/edit!

Long Night in the Valley chapter 7

Oof, this chapter kept getting longer.

.

It was times like this that really drove home the fact that Eri had been raised by yakuza.  

Normally, it was easy to forget.  Eri was an angel, almost too well behaved at times, and Mirio loved spending time with her.  Being asked to look after her while her foster parents were away was a privilege, not a chore.

Right now, though?

Now, Eri was in the middle of total meltdown and screaming threats at the news anchor who had just… reported something totally unbelievable and, if he was being honest, incredibly aggravating, even for him.  

Mirio hoped Eri didn’t know the meanings of half the words she was shouting but, Chisaki Kai being the utter horror that he was, she’d probably seen at least some of them done to people in front of her.  

Once again, Mirio was filled with the totally reasonable, if unheroic, desire to punch Chisaki until his legs came off like his arms did. As this was not, in the moment, a helpful impulse, he pushed it aside.  

“I’m gonna kill you!” screamed Eri, throwing another marker at the TV screen, tears streaming down her face and horn sparking dangerously.

On one hand, it was great that Eri felt safe enough here at UA and around Mirio to have this outburst.  On the other, Mirio really, really did not want to get de-aged out of existence.  

It would be really great to have his quirk right now. Or Tamaki.  If only he and Hado hadn’t been at their internships today, maybe they could have solved this together.

He was currently alternating between trying to verbally calm Eri down and serially dialing every teacher involved in Eri’s care.  

Aizawa-sensei’s phone just rang and rang.  

Yamada-sensei’s went straight to a completely unhelpful voicemail.  

Kayama-sensei’s went to an even less helpful voicemail that also had the side-effect of making Mirio feel incredibly embarrassed.  

All Might-sensei was supposedly “kidnapped.”

Recovery Girl had her ‘medical emergency�� message on.  

This left a single, terrifying recourse.  

Nezu.  

With shaking hands, he pressed the call button and prepared to pray to the Rat God.

“Hi, Principal Nezu!” he said, loudly and brightly as soon as he heard the phone pick up.

“Hello, Togata-kun!  I take it that Eri-chan has seen the news?”

“I’m going to tear out your eyes and sew them to your a—”

Hoooo, boy.  

“Yeah,” said Mirio, “and she’s not taking it well.  I’m really sorry, but I need help.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for!” chirped Nezu.  “Knowing when to call for backup is something we try to instill in all our students.  I’ll be over right away.”

There was a beep as the line went dead.  Mirio put his phone back in his pocket and winced as Eri took a deep breath and let out another round of invective.  

“Eri,” he said, deciding to make one more attempt to calm her down before Nezu came, “don’t you think that’s a bit much?  She’s probably only saying what she’s been told.”

Eri whirled, incensed.  “But that’sa lie!  Deku isn’t a villain!”

“I know, but—”

“It’s the news!” she said, stomping her foot.  “They’re not supposed to say things that aren’t true! That’s what Yagi-san says!”

“She might not know it isn’t true,” said Mirio, smiling consolingly (he knew this particular smile was consoling, because he’d practiced extensively).  “Sometimes, people believe lies.  Even good people.”

This was something Eri knew well, so Mirio hoped this reasoning got through to her.  

It did not.  

“But,” said Eri, incredulously, “it’s Deku.”

Mirio agreed with that sentiment, he really did.  But the sheer level of fury currently concentrated into Eri’s tiny body was too much for him to handle.  

Still, she seemed to be thinking instead of yelling or crying, so that was good.  

“I’m going to bite them,” she said, dreadfully calm.  

“Who?” asked Mirio, dreading the answer and knowing the storm had only stopped momentarily.  

“The people who come to interrogate me,” said Eri, as if it were a given that she’d be interrogated.  He was impressed she knew the word, right up until how she must have known it hit him.

“Why are you going to bite them?”

“Deku said that if a stranger tried to make me go with them or do something I didn’t want I should bite them and scream.  And also…”  She proceeded to describe a series of actions that would probably have the average assailant lying on the ground in a fetal position, defeated.  “And you, and Amajiki-san, and Hado-san said I should…”  Mirio vaguely recalled being consulted for and contributing certain portions of this but combined with Midoriya’s contributions and Eri’s anger it became significantly more sinister.  “And ‘Zawa agreed and he told me I should…”  Ah.  That was worse.  Much worse. And knowing Aizawa, he’d probably taught her how to do at least some of it.

Mirio abruptly realized that, out of all the people Eri knew, he was most likely the second sanest.  He, as a person who saw no issue with appearing nude on national television multiple times, was not used to having such a position.  

If the commission were wise, they wouldn’t send any of their people anywhere near Eri.  They’d die.  

The door burst open.  “Am I a dog, a mouse, or a bear?  One thing’s for sure, I’m the principal!”

Mirio now understood why Tamaki spent so much time hiding in corners.

.

His students screamed alongside him as he fell.  He twisted, surprised and uncontrolled, in the air, flashes of skyscraper windows passing in and out of his vision.  Above him, the woman, Nana, stood on the air, looking down.  

Uraraka had reflexively stopped herself fairly quickly with her quirk, but she was now too far away to reach himself, Iida, or Todoroki. Todoroki was trying to copy one of his father’s moves and fly with the flames produced by his left side, but obviously trying to do something like that with no practice wasn’t going to work well.

Suzuki was there, too, but Aizawa’s first responsibility was to his kids, not the idiot that got them into this mess.  

He swung his capture weapon upwards, trying to reach Uraraka, but the tumbling threw his aim off.  

Green lightning flashed in the corner of his eye, and he found himself wrapped in black tentacles and moving sideways at great speed.  They crashed through one of the windows into an oddly blurry and muted office space.  

Midoriya released Aizawa and set down his classmates carefully. “Can you get Ochako down?  Blackwhip is still… difficult.”

Aizawa looked Midoriya over quickly.  He was wearing his hero costume.  It had the same tears in it as it did after the aerial battle with Chisaki Kai.  

There was a pattern here.  

He nodded and walked to the window.  Now that they were no longer falling, his aim was true, and Uraraka, who had been inching closer by deactivating then reactivating her quirk, caught the end of the capture weapon easily.  He reeled her in.  

“Izuku!” she said bouncing over to him and hugging him.  “You’re okay!”

“Haha,” said Midoriya, “yep.”

“You let Suzuki fall,” said Aizawa, who had been contemplating much the same thing.  

“I would have done something different,” said Midoriya, “but it wasn’t entirely up to me.  Nana would just drop him again.  It’s a dream, besides.  Worst that will happen is that he’ll wake up and then we can use that to wake you guys up.” He turned away.  “Come on, Six is this way.”

“Six, not seven?”

“Nana’s taking care of,” he waved his hand in the direction of the broken window, “that.”

Uraraka glanced that way.  “I wasn’t sure before, but that’s Skyrunner, isn’t it?  I didn’t think she was still alive.”

“She isn’t,” said Midoriya, shortly, before beginning to stride across the room.  “We really don’t have time to stand around.  Six will explain things better than me.”

“Who’s Skyrunner?” asked Todoroki.

Aizawa kept his eyes on Midoriya.  He seemed distracted, his movements were lower energy than usual, as if his mind was miles away.

“She was a hero ages ago.  She’d be in her eighties, I think, but that was her.  I found her when I was doing research on quirks similar to mine.”

“They aren’t really the same,” said Midoriya.  “Float is an at-will telekinetic type quirk with a personal range.  Yours is a five-point touch physical property alteration quirk.”

“Application-wise,” said Uraraka.  “But how can we be in her head if she’s dead?  You said before, we were in All Might’s head, so…”

“Wait, what?”  How the heck were they supposed to have gotten into Yagi’s head?  Was this something Midoriya’s dreaming subconscious came up with?  Or was there a massive problem about to smack him in the face as soon as he woke up?

More massive than the Hero Commission feeling justified in running a quirk-assisted interrogation on a minor.   A minor who was unconscious and may have been moved to another facility, away from any adults who might be on their side.  

Midoriya had stopped to lean against a doorway, pinching the bridge of his nose.  “I’m sorry,” he said, “I’m not completely here.  I can’t—I’m busy, it’s hard to process.”

“Busy doing what?” asked Todoroki.  

“Being awake,” said Midoriya.

“You’re awake?” repeated Aizawa.

“Halfway.  It’s just—Unexpected quirk interaction.  When I was shot—” He broke off and shuddered.  “Six will be able to explain it better.  I’m on the run, sensei, I’m sorry.”

“You’re awake and on the run from the Hero Commission.”

“Mhm,” said Midoriya.  “Six will explain.  Probably. I haven’t directly met Six yet.”

There were so many concerning things about that statement that Aizawa didn’t know where to start.  Midoriya pushed off the doorway and kept walking.  

“We need a contact point,” he said, “so we can cross over to Six.  I don’t know where they’d be for Nana and Six, though.”

As they walked, the building slowly changed from a generic office space to something that, at least to Aizawa, resembled a hero agency.  An old, dated hero agency.  

“Does this have something to do with ‘first contact?’”

“It doesn’t need to be first contact,” said Midoriya, waving over his shoulder.  “Just contact.  The rules are weird, apparently?  I think they’re different, normally.  I’m not sure where to go…”

“I’ll show you.”

Aizawa was incredibly tired of people showing up out of nowhere. And Nana really had shown up out of nowhere, suddenly materializing in the hallway, not even having the courtesy to step out of a doorway or from around a corner and pretend this world operated on anything approaching hard and fast rules.

“Hey, hey,” said Nana, “you guys are all really tense, aren’t you?”

“You did drop us from fifty stories up.”

“Haha, yeah, I did,” said Nana, grinning and ruffling Midoriya’s hair.  “I’m still dropping that jerkface back there.  Hopefully, he’ll decide to nope out before too long and we can get the rest of you out of here without the whole Journey to the West reenactment.”

Midoriya squinted up at her, listing slightly to one side. “Every time you use slang it’s so weird.”  

“Come on, kid, I’m not that old.”  She sighed.  “I’d give you Float now, but given present circumstances, you’ll probably want Six’s or Two’s.”

Midoriya straightened—And was it just Aizawa or did his outline become clearer?

“You can do that?” he asked.  He brought his hand up to his chin, index finger resting beneath his lower lip.  “It could be possible, depending on the mechanism,” he mumbled.  “But then would getting out be…?  No, it can’t be something like that, or it wouldn’t even be mentioned, and it didn’t work with Suzuki…  But it’s worth testing—Aizawa-sensei, can you use your quirk on Todoroki? Todoroki, think really hard about waking up while you do it.”

They tried this.  Nothing happened, other than Todoroki not being able to use his quirk. Aizawa had the sinking suspicion that this conversation was about Midoriya’s quirk gaining yet another, bizarre manifestation.  Did his quirk have something to do with split personalities?  Loading other peoples’ personalities and quirks into his head?

“It isn’t that, then,” said Midoriya.  “Saito’s quirk could still have a mechanism like that.”

“Or it could be the interaction between your quirk and hers,” said Nana.

Midoriya was silent for a moment.  “I guess,” he said finally.  “But we have to test—”

“We don’t want to overload you.  Like I said, I think you’ll want Six’s or Two’s more than mine.  Or even Four’s.”

Midoriya shook his head.  “No, considering what we’re up against, Float would be very useful.  Can we try?”

Nana nodded, put her hands on his shoulders, and bent at the waist to whisper something in Midoriya’s ear.  The room briefly flickered into sky, a sunset or sunrise throwing brilliant color from horizon to horizon.  The sound of wings presaged a flock of birds.  Aizawa braced for a fall.  Nana stood back up.  The room returned.  “Did you get it?”

Aizawa checked to make sure all of his (shaken) students were still there.

“I think so,” said Midoriya.   He took a deep breath.  “Yes.  I have it.” He looked back at Aizawa.  “I’m sorry, I really have to go, now.”

Aizawa was also getting really tired of people disappearing, he decided.

Nana sighed.  “Anyway, come on, we have to get going.”

They all looked to Aizawa before following.  Aizawa sighed.  They didn’t have any other leads on what to do, and if they didn’t, they might get dragged along anyway.  “Might as well,” he said.  “This had better be a great explanation.  And I’d like it before we get to this ‘Six.’”

“Yes,” said Todoroki.  “Does Midoriya have multiple personality disorder?”

“It’s Dissociative Identity Disorder, and no,” said Nana.  “Not as such.  For now…  We’re part of Nine’s—Izuku’s—quirk.”

“Funnily enough, I had put that together.  Why you?”

“I used to ask myself that, you know.  Six is the one who can answer.  In the meantime… consider this a quirk history field trip.  Here we are.”  They stepped into a conference room, a projector springing to life along with the faint murmur of phantom voices.  “I was just a sidekick back then,” she said.  “Not his, though.  It’s funny. Toshinori was mine, you know. Before his debut.  He didn’t even go by All Might back then.”  The room glitched.  

Aizawa managed to get the impression of a surreal, almost Lovecraftian, landscape, rubble, and the words ‘You’re next.’

Aizawa could have gone his entire life without knowing that All Might had cribbed his last words as a hero from his teacher.  

Nana laughed.  “To be fair,” she said, patting his arm (patting his arm), “he’s not the only one. Come on, I want you four worlds away from Suzuki.  Let’s get this show on the road.”

The lighting in the room shifted, and it filled with ghosts much like in Izuku’s school.  Another, younger, version of Nana sat among them, looking up at the projector.  

The underground hero Fidelity is here today to discuss a possible smuggling ring based out of Musutafu…

As the young man walked in, the whispers arrived… But there seemed to be fewer whisperers.

First contact.  

.

Izuku managed to levitate a centimeter off the ground before settling himself again.  Enough not to be noticed by anyone but Toshinori.  

Toshinori who was close to tears.  Izuku blinked back a few of his own.  

This was good.  With Float and the right planning, they could possibly break their trail even without the more complicated maze-path he and Toshinori had planned out. Some of the words in Trace’s file seemed to indicate her quirk only worked over solid objects, and she didn’t work with the Coast Guard, even though her quirk would, otherwise, be quite useful there.  The conclusion couldn’t be trusted, of course, but if he could manage to stay floating, and get Toshinori to float as well, it would be well worth it.  

He almost laughed at himself.  Mastering a quirk in so little time, worth it.

“If anyone could do it,” said Toshinori, “it would be you, my boy.”

Izuku’s heart filled with warmth as the others agreed. He could almost feel Nana ruffle his hair again.  

.

In theory, the plan to acquire the keys to the testing center’s off-limits areas was very simple.  

In practice…  It was also very simple, shockingly enough.  Maybe it was because the human explosive and the deceptively destructive sunshine child weren’t involved.  No, that couldn’t be it.  

Hitoshi walked up to a security guard, said excuse me, used his quirk, and asked for the keys.  Then he handed them to Yaoyorozu so she could make copies.  She gave the guard back the keys, and Hitoshi told the guard to forget him.  That order didn’t always work, but they weren’t having the guard move, and the whole operation had taken under five minutes.  There wasn’t much to remember in the first place.

“What now?” asked Hitoshi.  

“Now,” said Yaoyorozu, making more copies of keys.  “We get lost.”

.

The benefit to having a blunt and straightforward demeanor was that people rarely thought Tsuyu was lying.  

Well.  The UA uniform helped, too.  Even among heroes, UA was known to take only the best of the best.  The most trustworthy.

“Excuse me, kero,” Tsuyu said, sidling up to a young hero in civilian clothing.  “I was told to tell everyone to go into the back—They want us to spread out, for when the police arrive to question us?  The doors are already unlocked.”  She pointed.  “But our teachers have come to pick us up, and we’re going with them, so can you help?”

“Oh, of course.  That’s what heroes do, right?”  Bubble Girl shot her a pair of finger guns.  “Hey, you’re one of Deku-kun’s friends, right?  This is so weird.  Have you seen the news?”

“Yes, kero.”  

“Sorry, sorry, I know that’s probably not something you want to talk about.  I hope everything works out for him.”

So did Tsuyu.

.

The plan to flood the relatively empty back hallways with people and unleash a dance of chaos the Hero Commission, false warriors of light, could not hope to contain, went… Interestingly, in Fumikage’s opinion.  

There were several different entrances to the back that people were directed to, and, predictably, some of them were turned back, even though they had unlocked the doors.  There were commission people back there, albeit relatively few of them.  

The class slipped in among the others.  He led the way, as the sneakiest person after Hagakure.  Well.  Sort of.

It was hard to figure out who was in the lead with all these people everywhere.  

Plus, he got… Ahem.  

He was swept away on the tide of darkness, with no beacon to guide his way.  

Dark Shadow cackled in his ear.  “Just admit you’re lost, Fumi,” she said.  

“I am not!” he hissed back.

“Besides there are fire escape maps over there.”

Oh, that was helpful.

.

When Chiyo woke up this morning, she had not expected to face the fact that Toshinori had finally lost his mind, and the entirely baseless accusation that Midoriya of all people had kidnapped him (the reverse was much more likely, in her opinion).  And yet.

When Chiyo had been asked to organize and accompany the fleet of ambulances to pick up their unconscious students and staff members (something she had done many times) she had not expected to be point blank refused by the Hero Commission.  And yet.

When Hizashi and Nemuri had asked the fleet to pull around to the back of the testing center, near a loading dock ‘to make room for other traffic,’ she had not expected her coworkers and eleven students to slam up the rolling overhead door of the loading dock and run out at full tilt while carrying ten unconscious bodies.  

And yet.

Maybe, after everything, she should have.  

She grabbed the radio from the dash and started rolling down the window.  “Open the doors!”

The students knew what they were doing, at least with regards to casualty transport.  They should.  They’d passed the licensing test.  Hizashi and Nemuri had better hope this nonsense didn’t get any of those licenses stripped, or, oh, she’d have words with them.

“Hey!” shouted a hero with a prominent commission badge pinned to his costume.  He extended his arm and delicate rays of light shot forth.  He was aiming mostly at Hizashi and Nemuri.  Typical.  One of the rays of light hit Hizashi’s heel, and his shoe turned to stone, causing him to stumble.  

Chiyo calmly stuck the end of her syringe-shaped cane out the window and depressed the well-hidden trigger.  A small sedative filled dart his the hero in the neck, where he was not protected by his costume.  He dropped.

One or two of the students did a double take.  Chiyo rolled her eyes.  

Really.  She was a licensed Pro Hero.  Pros had to be able to act, regardless of how many of their expectations were being subverted.  

The students could stand to learn that.  

.

Large public TV screen at the intersection caught Izuku’s attention, despite how he was keeping his gaze on his feet, the better to monitor his use of Float.  

But, then, Izuku had practically trained himself to notice any screen with All Might on it.  That this one also had his picture on it was just frosting on the cake.  

They’re moving fast.  

Of course they are.  We’re a threat.  

We weren’t!

We’ve always been.  Do you remember—?

They aren’t putting quirk users into concentration camps.

No, just training camps.

Not the time.  We’ll have to deal with the Hawks problem later.

… We were hoping for more time.

“The Hawks problem?” asked Toshinori.

“I have no idea,” said Izuku.  “Come on, we have to keep going.”

.

Trace was very good at what she did, and Hawks was genuinely hoping that she would be the one to find Midoriya and All Might, not him.  He didn’t want to be responsible for what was going to happen to the kid, spy or no. He didn’t want to get on All Might’s bad side, either, retired or not.  

Really.  The commission should have taken the hint when All Might left of his own accord. Hawks didn’t know how he’d found out about the commission’s plan to psychically interrogate Midoriya, but obviously he did.  And he objected.  Strenuously.

It might have been better for him to go public, though, rather than spirit the kid away.  

On the other hand…  It had only been a couple hours at this point.  Maybe he hadn’t had the chance.  Getting the kid out of commission hands might have been his priority, depending on how much he heard.  

What Hawks had heard…  Yeah.  Not great. One guy in particular had seemed overly enthusiastic about Midoriya’s possible rehabilitation.  

He sighed and took off his goggles, so he had a better view of the city below him.  Hawks had lucked out in the color receptor department.  Like most birds, he had four, as opposed to the baseline human three. If anyone could pick out Midoriya’s green mop and All Might’s eye-watering blonde in these crowds, it would be him.  

And if they had changed their appearances?

Well.  Their heights were distinctive enough on their own, especially when paired.  

Hawks genuinely hoped Trace would find them first.  But he wasn’t counting on it.  

Well.  This was far from the worst thing the commission had asked him to do.  

.

Samson and Delilah were a relatively new duo. Samson had a gorilla mutation. Delilah had a ‘conditional status ailment’ quirk that doubled as a boost to herself.  Kind of annoying to activate, though, honestly.  Who else had a quirk that made them eat hair?

Anyway, this was their first assignment from the commission. All they had to do was pick up a potential witness.  

“Or colluder,” said Samson.  

“Come on, have you seen her face?”  Delilah gestured with the photo in her hand.  

“She’s his mother.  Mothers know everything.”

“Your mom, maybe,” said Delilah.  “I think this is it.”  She checked the door number.  Yep.  “You knock.”

Samson’s knock was loud and intimidating.  It got no response.  

“Again?” suggested Delilah.

But no matter how many times Samson knocked, he would get no answer.  Midoriya Inko was not home.  

.

Inko checked the piece of paper with Dr. Tsubasa’s current address on it again.  Hisashi had always told her that if anything happened, and he couldn’t be there, she should go to Dr. Tsubasa.  She never had.  The wound he had given her son when he was five had never completely faded, and she couldn’t help but hate him for that.  

But Hisashi wasn’t picking up his phone, and this, this was bigger than she could hope to deal with.  

Dr. Tsubasa had better be able to.  Or else.  

(Inko did not know if the ‘or else’ was for herself, Izuku, Hisashi, or Dr. Tsubasa himself, but it was most certainly there.)

(Incidentally, Hisashi was going to get a lot of ‘else’ from her regardless, for not picking up his phone.)

.

Once, when he was young and stupid, Tomura had thought of life as a single-player game.  First person. A shooter, maybe.  First person RPG.  

Before he’d turned twenty, though, he’d realized that to get anywhere, he’d need a party.  Obviously, he was still the only player, other than Sensei, and Sensei didn’t count.  Sensei was different.  Everyone else was NPCs.  Interesting ones, maybe.  But just look at Twice!  He could turn everyone into infinitely respawning mobs.  As things were meant to be.  

But the USJ, Hosu, and everything that happened that summer had taught him better.  This was a co-op, and when someone got a permanent game over, when they were logged off forever… It made something burn inside him because those were his party members.  

He’d found Magne annoying.  But when she declared herself everyone’s big sis…

Even so, he’d hung on to the notion that they were fighting the CPU.  No intelligence on the other side.  Just violence, power, and an assortment of unfair, programmed-in cheat codes.  

This, too, was a false impression of the world.  This revelation hadn’t come as quickly as the last. In fact, if he were to be honest with himself (a despicable practice) he’d have to admit the realization had been building, percolating, since the USJ.  It was something he’d acknowledged, even, although he hadn’t realized it at the time.  

This game had a Player 2.  And the noob had just finished the tutorial.  

He smiled wide enough to make his lips crack and sting in the dusty air of the current hideout.  The pinging news alerts on his phone faded into the background as he made his plans.  

Tomura was supposed to be following the main questline, gathering party members, and powering up, but what was multiplayer without griefing?  What was an open sandbox without distractions?

“Hey, guys,” said Tomura, lazily, not even looking over his shoulder.  “You up for a side quest?”

Official Accounts Part 37 (Bakugo Route)- Loves Platonic and Romantic

Summary: (y/n) was perfectly happy remaining anonymous, even if her best friends were all pro heroes and she worked under THE Hawks. Handling the technical aspects of hero work from the background suited her just fine, thank you very much. That goes out the window when suddenly her twitter blows up thanks Denki and the famed no. 2 hero is asking her to run his own official twitter as a result

If you don’t want to see Official Accounts content blacklist #hopelessoa

Masterlist

“Will you stop glaring at me? I said I was sorry!” Denki whines. “You couldn’t even keep your mouth shut for 24 hours,” Bakugo fires back immediately. “Babe leave him alone, you know Denki can’t keep a secret to save his life,” you say in an attempt to vouch for your friend. Bakugo looks like he doesn’t want to let it go so you slip your arms around his middle and give him the best puppy dog eyes you can muster. “Please ‘Suki? He didn’t mean it,” you pout at him and he folds immediately. “Fine,” Katsuki gives in with a roll of his eyes and immediately your pout morphs into a shit eating grin. “Thanks baby,” you chirp before pressing a kiss to his cheek, which earns you an eye roll. “Such a simp Bakugo,” Hawks teases as he wanders into the kitchen from the living room. “Oh yea, (y/n) has him wrapped aaaall the way around his finger,” Shinso adds. “Didn’t you once sneak out of the dorms at 2am to go see her just because she texted you she was bored and couldn’t sleep?” Mina points out with a smirk. “Oh he did it more than once,” Kirishima chimes in. “I am not wrapped around her finger,” Bakugo scowls. “Aww guys he’s in denial, that’s so cute,” Hawks grins which only makes Bakugo’s scowl deepen. “C’mon Bakubro relax! We’re just glad you’re done pining!” Kirishima laughs as he claps Katsuki on the back. “Whatever are we playing pong or not? It’s your fucking game right?” Bakugo asks to finally redirect the conversation elsewhere. “Yep! Hawks, Denki you two still in?” Kirishima asks the other two men. They nod their affirmation and all four men head to the living room where a table’s been set up, Denki dragging Shinso out as well “for good luck”, leaving just you and Mina in the kitchen.

“It’s good to see you and Bakugo together again to be honest,” Mina admits as the two of you watch the boys go out to the living room and set up the table. “Really? Part of me wondered if you guys would be worried,” you admit. “Nah, it’s nice to have our parents back together again. And you even adopted another kid,” Mina teases. You can’t help but laugh at the comparison, turning to watch Hawks and Bakugo trash talking each other across the table. “I guess so,” you chuckle.

You’d been worried how Hawks would react when you realized your relationship with him was getting more platonic and yours with Katsuki less so, but you were pleasantly surprised he hadn’t skipped a beat. Watching Keigo integrate so seamlessly into your friend group warms your heart and now it almost feels like he’s always been a part of the squad. You’ve been especially happy watching he and Bakugo’s friendship bloom. In spite of Hawks’ initial romantic feelings, Bakugo hasn’t once questioned Hawks’ intentions since the two of you got back together. In fact Bakugo, Kirishima, and Hawks are practically the three musketeers most days, not that Katsuki appreciates the nickname whenever you bring it up. Regardless, you’re glad that Keigo has so effortlessly slotted himself into your squad dynamic and is finally surrounded by the kind of love he deserves.

As you and Mina continue to chatter away in the kitchen, Bakugo sinks his ball into Denki and Hawks’ final cup with a smirk. He and Kirishima high five as Denki and Hawks groan in frustration. “Better luck next time,” he gloats as he feels his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulls it out and sees a notification from Midoriya. Hawks and Denki are in the middle of requesting a rematch but he tells Shinso to tap in for him. He promises to be right back as he steps out onto the balcony and dials Midoriya’s number. “Hey Kacchan,” Midoriya’s voice chimes down the line. “Hey Deku,” he greets. “You’re kind of the worst you know that?” Midoriya says next, although there’s no heat behind the words. “What are you on about you damn nerd?” Bakugo asks, the words similarly lacking the bite they used to when the two of them were younger. “It’s been like a month and a half since I bumped into you at the HPSC gala and despite my overwhelming curiosity you haven’t bothered to let me know how things went with (y/n),” Midoriya elaborates and it draws a surprised laugh out of Bakugo. “Right, sorry, I guess I never told you but I did confess that night,” Bakugo admits with a smile. “And?” “We’ve been back together ever since.” “I’m really happy for you. Although I’m going to miss our phone calls a bit to be honest.” “I mean we could call and talk about things other than (y/n) too.” “Kacchan are you admitting you enjoy talking to me?” “Alright nerd, don’t let it go to your head too much.” “I know Kirishima has best man on lock but I expect to be a groomsman at the wedding.” “And on that note I’m hanging up now.” “Hey wait! Promise we’ll do a double date soon.” “Sure.” “Great! I’ll text you tomorrow to iron out details. Goodnight Kacchan!” “Night Deku.”

“Was that Midoriya?” you ask as you join Bakugo on the balcony. “Mhm,” he hums as he wraps one arm around you and pulls you closer into his side. “What did he want?” “A double date.” “Aww, that’s sweet. I didn’t realize you guys still talked much.” “On and off over the years. I’ll explain some other time.” “Sounds good,” you tell him as the two of you turn to look up at the stars. The two of you stare off into the silent night for a moment, just basking in the light of the moon and each other’s presence. Eventually though you make as if to head back inside but Bakugo stops you before you get far. “I wanted to ask you something actually,” he explains, slightly flustered. You tilt your head in confusion but return to his side. “What is it?” you ask as your curiosity starts to grow. “Your lease runs out on this place soon right?” “In about a month yea.” “What if you didn’t renew it and moved in with me instead?” “Really?” “Well yea. I’ve spent enough time apart from you for a lifetime and it would be nice to know that even when work gets slammed and I don’t have much time for other things you’ll be there when I go home.” You heart swells with fondness and love for the man beside you. He normally acts so confident, it’s a bit endearing whenever you get to see this shyer side of him. “I’d love to move in with you,” you tell him, a wide grin stretching across your face. “Good,” he replies with a soft smile before pressing a kiss to your lips.

“Hey lovebirds you done?” Kirishima calls from inside the living room. You and Bakugo turn to look back inside where all your friends are waiting. “Don’t be selfish Bakugo, share (y/n) with the rest of us,” Shinso teases. “Fuck off Fuzzyhead,” Bakugo fires back rolling his eyes. “Let him stay outside, he’s worried now that Denki and I have found our rhythm that we’d kick his ass in pong,” Hawks quips. “I mean I don’t blame him, we are a scary combination,” Denki chimes in. “Like hell I am,” Bakugo scoffs, immediately storming back inside at the jabs. “Men are so predictable,” Mina comments with a roll of her eyes although she still makes to watch the game anyway. You sit back and watch your boyfriend and friends for a moment from the balcony, marveling at the good fortune you’ve had to have such amazing people around you. Eventually you rejoin the party, heart filled with the knowledge that whatever comes next, no matter how crazy, you’ll always have friends you cherish and a man you adore by your side.

Author’s Note: There you have it folks! The end of the line. This is officially the last post I’ll write for Official Accounts with both routes completed. I am so incredibly grateful to you all for reading along. Whether you’ve read both routes or just this one, I notice each and every like, reply, and reblog and I appreciate them so much.

Thanks for taking this journey with me! ❤️❤️❤️

Taglist [closed]: @maltese-sparrow @someweirdshitman @oliviasslut @captaincyberqueen @ladyzayismultifandom @pixelwisp @cathy8taffy @itskindofafairything @larkspyrr @thatonegeekchick @thesleepysphinx

Jerza fanfiction(fluff)

title: Periods

summary: Erza and Jellal spend an evening together in bed discussing the marvels of a female body aka periods!

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13787058/1/Periods

Disclaimer: These characters are owned by Hiro Mashima.

PERIODS

‘You okay, cupcake?’

‘yep’

‘Okay, there you go’, Jellal stepped in her bedroom completely and handled over the sweets she requested him to buy.

‘Thank you! ’Erza squealed, like a baby, at the sight of her favorite strawberry sponge cake.

‘I am sorry though, we had to cancel our date abruptly. I swear I don’t get cramps on my periods usually, I- ‘

‘it’s okay Erza. You really don’t have to apologize for that. I don’t mind staying in bed and snuggling with you. Its cold outside anyways.’

‘You are so sweet’, Erza replied bashfully and sincerely smiled at him. She proceeded to divert her attention towards the package in her hand, eyeing it ravenously. Jellal chuckled at her excitement and went to the kitchen counter to fetch her a plate and a fork.

‘There’, he said as he handed her the supplies and lifted the warm quilt to make some room for himself, settling beside her.

‘ah, Erza! Your feet are so cold!’, he exclaimed when she deliberately touched her cold feet with his warm ones.

‘Mhm, you really are warm Jellal’, she snorted unapologetically, tucking herself cheekily to his side.

‘How’s the pain?’, he asked curiously.

‘its fine now. Most of it has subdued. Just a slight pain remains in my lower back.’

‘Are period cramps always this hurtful? I remember seeing Meredy cry from them. She couldn’t get up for 3 days at least.  It was painful to watch her like that.’

‘Mhm, That’s pretty subjective actually. Some women have it worse. Some don’t. I, for example, don’t experience much pain except for my lower back. And sometimes in my lower abdomen as well. However, their occurrence is extremely intermittent.’

‘I see. If I remember correctly, Ultear didn’t experience much pain during her periods as well, she was mostly fine.’

Erza looked at him intently. Reminiscing about Ultear was a sensitive topic for him and Meredy. She knew he missed his friend, whom he spent seven years with, even if he wasn’t vocal about that. Ultear and Meredy were like his support unit in those years when she was absent. Erza would be eternally grateful to Ultear for that. However, she was pleased to know that Jellal felt comfortable enough to talk about Ultear in her presence.

‘She sure was a strong woman’, Erza remarked.

‘Indeed, she was.’ Jellal responded with a sad smile as he nuzzled his nose against her crown. ‘Though I am ashamed, I must admit.’

‘Why?’, she inquired as her eyebrows knitted themselves into a slight frown.

‘I am ashamed of the fact that I may have spent seven years in the accompany of two women, my knowledge regarding periods is extremely limited. Would… you tell me about it in detail, I mean I do have an idea about its mechanism but I just want to be sure, if you are okay with it?’, Jellal asked tentatively.

Erza was taken back from his proposition. She never expected him to ask her regarding periods. She was of the notion that boys generally strayed away from this topic altogether. Ah, but Jellal wasn’t exactly a boy, right? He was a man. A mature man. Who knew how to treat a woman with chivalry.

‘I don’t have a problem in telling you about periods but I am curious. Why do you want to know about them all of a sudden?’

‘So, I can treat you even better, I guess? I heard woman want to cuddle and eat chocolates during this time of the month. If you yearn for sweets, I’ll be happy to bring you some. If you experience cramps, I’ll help you apply some heat pads. Or bring you tampons if you run out of them. I mean… I just want to take care of you’, he replied timidly with a light blush on his face. She was his queen after all and he was determined to treat her like one.

Can this guy get any better? She pondered. She definitely found herself a keeper, she mused as her heart swelled with love. She leaned forward and gave him a passionate kiss exhibiting her gratefulness, cupping his face in her hands tenderly.

‘Alright but may I ask if you have any previous knowledge about periods?’, Erza asked, brimming with absolute affection for her beau.

‘mhmm, all I know is periods are painful for women.’, he answered as he curled the end of her scarlet locks within his fingers reverently.

‘uh-huh’

‘They occur once a month and are necessary for pregnancy. Women get cravings and want cuddles during this time, I guess?’

‘Well, who wouldn’t want snuggles when someone like you is offering them?’, Erza smirked as she laced her hand with his.

‘I’ll provide you all the snuggles you want’, he whispered, inclining towards her to gently touch his forehead with hers.

‘You’re so sappy’, She grinned.

She leaned back and thought pensively for a moment. She adjusted her peach-colored quilt ,adorned with some floral patterns ,around herself before replying, ‘You are correct actually, let me elaborate further.’

‘Please do’

‘Well, Every…. woman, basically experiences periods every month or every 21-35 days. Okay?’

‘Okay’

‘Woman have two ovaries and one of them releases an egg every month and this process is called ovulation.’ She explained slowly so that her words would imbibe in his mind easily. ‘Now listen closely. The uterus, in its preparation for pregnancy, forms a thickened lining, where the fertilized egg would further develop into a baby.’

‘that would be a womb, right?’, he asked.

‘Yes. That’s the womb.’ She continued, ‘When the egg fails to fertilize with sperm, the entire lining sheds, accompanied by bleeding, mucus, blood clots, etc., causing a period. That’s how this process would revolve in a female body.’

Jellal listened each of her word keenly. ‘I have a question’

‘Go ahead’

‘How long do they exactly last?’

‘Varies, it can range between 3-8 days for a normal healthy woman’

‘What about you?’

‘mhm, 4 days, I guess. 5 maximum,’

‘Do they occur at the same time in each month?’

‘No. They occur around the same date they happened during last month. They can occur a day or two before their previous date or a few days after. Timing can differ slightly.’

‘I see’

There was an imperturbable silence that followed. Neither of them spoke a word for a while as they snuggled next to each other under the warm quilt. The rain pellets that fell against her bedroom window roused her from her thoughts. Her eyes searched his. He appeared completely inscrutable. Did she creep him out with her meticulous narration?

‘Do you find it gross?’, she asked quietly.

‘What? No. Why would you say that?’

‘So, you don’t find periods gross?’

‘No. Why would someone find it gross in the first place?’

‘I heard some guys do’

‘Well, I don’t.’ he smiled in a reassuring manner. ‘You women basically harbor the ability to nurture a new life within yourself and bring them into this world, I think that’s beautiful.’

She paused for a moment to take his words in.

‘You know, women are exceptionally horny during this time, if you continue to spill such sweet words, I’ll have to jump upon you myself’

Jellal erupted into a hearty laugh as he swung his arm around her shoulders to bring her closer to his chest. He placed his chin carefully upon her fussy head and nuzzled his nose in her soft scarlet tresses. ‘I won’t mind if you do’, he whispered softly.

 A/N: I apologize if anyone from the readers found this unsettling but I think every healthy couple should have an open communication with each other and talking about periods shouldn’t be considered a taboo. Also, Jellal is a total gentleman which is thoroughly depicted in the manga. Do you want me to make a part 2 version of it? Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

AN ABUNDANCE OF PINING.

SUMMARY : bucky accidentally comes across fanfiction you wrote about him on tumblr. instead of being freaked out, he’s actually quite flattered, and asks to see more of your writing. he finds that there’s a common theme with almost everything you’ve written about him, but he’s too dense to realize why that is. PAIRING : bucky barnes x reader ( implied female, kind of ? ) WARNINGS : lots of pining, as that is a given. not really angst. FLUFF ! WORD COUNT : 5.2k. this now holds the title of ‘longest fic sophie’s written’ A/N : my first bucky barnes fic !! i hope you guys like it ! inifinity war and endgame ? never saw them, didn’t happen. the avengers are all happily alive and living in the complex together (but steve is retired so sam is still the new cap) and that’s final.

"bucky, can you grab my phone from my room?” you called out from the kitchen. “i need to check my texts again to make sure i didn’t ruin this first batch of muffins!”

"sure thing, doll!” he called back from the living room. you shivered at the nickname, which you scolded yourself for immediately after. he used it all the time; you should have been used to it by now. you weren’t.

you paused your stirring, listening for the squeak of leather that indicated that bucky had pushed himself up off the couch to go retrieve your phone for you. you heard it, followed by the so-faint-it-was-barely-audible padding of his feet on the hardwood, and went back to whipping up more batter for the next batch.

you were pretty certain that you hadn’t, in fact, completely ruined your first batch of muffins. you were a better baker than that! but the new recipe you’d just gotten for killer chocolate chip muffins came straight from your aunt, a downright marvelous baker, and you didn’t want to mess anything up; they had to be perfect.

which was precisely why your first batch, which you’d popped into the oven almost twenty minutes ago, consisted of only six muffins.

you hadn’t wanted to risk wasting all your ingredients only to find out that you’d forgotten one of the tips your aunt had given you and subsequently made your muffins taste subpar in comparison to hers.

you hummed to yourself as you stirred in more chocolate chips and waited for bucky to come back. your humming stretched on for what felt like forever, and yet still no bucky.

looking up at the timer above the stove, you found that it’d already been three minutes since you’d sent bucky to get your phone, which was strange. he knew where your room was because you lived on the same floor, which was only two floors above where you were now; it wasn’t like it was hard to get there and back. besides, he had super long legs and didn’t run out of breath quickly. what the hell was taking him so long?

you took the rubber spatula you were using to smooth the batter out and set it on top of the bowl before peaking your head out into the living room from the kitchen. what you found surprised you: bucky, standing in the middle of the room, scrolling through your phone and staring down at whatever he was doing intently.

it wasn’t the simple act of him going through your phone that surprised - and confused - you. you were best friends (a title he’d been quick to assure you had more than enough room for both you and steve), after all; he knew your passcode by heart, and you his, though you generally didn’t fiddle with his phone, seeing as he still wasn’t very familiar with modern day technology and wouldn’t know how to undo anything you changed. no, you were surprised because he hadn’t come into the kitchen to make sure you checked what you needed to before stealing your phone away from you. he always made sure you checked your phone before stealing it away from you. something about this didn’t add up. 

“bucky?” you asked, and his head snapped up so quickly it gave you the impression that you’d startled him. “whatchya doin’? i need my phone to check the recipe.”

he rolled his eyes. “please, doll, i’m sure you got the recipe right. when have you not gotten a recipe right?”

you chose not to bring up the time you’d made oatmeal cookies for the team. no one needed to relive that experience.

“my phone, buck,” you whined instead, walking out into the living room.

“well, you see,” he started, and you raised an eyebrow, unsure where this was going. it was never good when bucky barnes started off a sentence with ‘well, you see’. “i actually found something pretty interesting on your phone when i opened it, y/n.”

“oh?” you said, trying to keep your voice steady, even as your lungs fell into your stomach and your heart jumped up into your throat. you hoped he wasn’t talking about what you thought he was talking about. you tried to think back to what app you’d been using before coming down to bake, if you’d closed it, if you’d clicked out of it at all or not. you didn’t remember closing it or clicking out of it, but you sure did remember what app you’d been on: tumblr.

bucky hummed in affirmation. “yep. you were open to some wonderful writing, doll.”

you gulped. oh god, he found it. “really?”

bucky tried to suppress a smile as he said, “mhm. really wonderful writing. about me.” you wanted to die. he knew. god, this was a mess. “and i know i don’t really know anythin’ about the internet, but i know enough to’ve figured out that the account it was on is yours, huh, doll?”

you knew that you weren’t really bright red right now, but you definitely felt bright red. your face was burning, and your fingers were throbbing with the force of the heat rolling down your neck and into your arms. this was a mess. bucky had found the fanfiction you’d written about him. he probably figured out that you were in love with him just from reading it, too, and was bringing it up with you now to tell you that he was both utterly creeped out and didn’t love you the way he’d discovered you desperately wanted him to.

“i, i, uh - erm -” you stammered, blinking up at him rapidly to keep the tears that were pricking at the backs of your eyes at bay. “i . . . i’m really sorry, bucky.”

you lowered your head and cast your eyes downward, feeling like a child who had just been severely scolded - except this was worse, because bucky, your best friend and the man you were in love with, had just found the one thing you never wanted him to find.

“why’re you sorry, doll? the writing’s good!” you snapped your head up immediately at that, wincing from the force of the movement.

“it’s what?” you asked, incredulous.

“it’s good, doll,” he repeated. he seemed sincere. “though i don’t remember secretly pining over anyone named ‘whyenn’.”

despite the horrifying situation you were in, you couldn’t help but laugh at how he pronounced ‘y/n’. bucky let a grin slowly take over his face at the sound of your laughter.

“that’s because it’s fanfiction, buck. nothing i wrote about in whatever piece of mine you read actually happened,” you told him. you knew he knew what fanfiction was because of the time he’d caught you crying over a deamus fic and you’d had to explain what it was to him. you’d never told him anything about reader insert fanfiction, though - for a very good reason. that reason being, of course, because it was the kind of fanfiction you wrote.

“i figured,” he said. “but i had no idea that anyone would want to write fanfiction about me. or that you were such a great writer, y/n.”

the panic that was tearing at the inside of your chest subsided a bit, both because of his compliment and because he was taking this whole thing very well considering he clearly knew how you felt about him now and clearly didn’t feel the same way.

“a lot of people want to write fanfiction about you, bucky,” you told him. “you’re kind of a big thing on sites that are popular for fanfiction. so’s the rest of the team.” why were you telling him this? oh, that’s right: because you just never knew when to shut up.

both of bucky’s eyebrow’s raised at that. “oh really?” he was still grinning. “do you write stuff about the rest of the team, too?”

you looked away. “sometimes, yeah. but you can’t tell them!” you conveniently failed to mention that it was generally only when your readers sent in requests for something with another member of the team that you wrote for them.

“i mostly write stuff about you, though,” you added, before you could stop yourself. god, how you wanted the floor to tear open and swallow you whole right then.

“yeah?” the amusement was plain in bucky’s voice. “i won’t tell them, but am i your favorite member of the team, doll?”

you moved your eyes back to his before saying earnestly, “you are, bucky. really. it’s easiest to write things about you. because you’re my best friend,” you added quickly. maybe if you said it enough, you could distract him from the fact he’d discovered that you saw him as much, much more than just a best friend.

“easier to write about me?” he echoed, cocking his head to right like an adorable puppy.

“well, yeah,” you said, avoiding his eyes again. “i know you. i know how you talk and how you react to things and how sweet and caring and lovable you are. i know how much time it took for you to get to where you are now, to be in a place where you’re not constantly sad and . . . and terrified. i know everything about you, buck. it’s easy to translate that into writing.”

your eyes met again as you finished, and for a terribly drawn out moment, it appeared as if you’d rendered him speechless.

“wow, doll,” he breathed finally, his eyes soft. “i don’t know what to say other than i love you.”

now it was your turn to be left speechless. “i, you - what? do you really?” you tried not to get your hopes up, but it was hard when bucky was standing in front of you, looking so at ease and so, so breathtakingly beautiful.

for a second you thought you’d seen bucky’s eyes widen ever so slightly, but you blinked and they were normally sized once again, and bucky’s brow had furrowed. “well yeah,” he said. “you’re my best friend - of course i love you.”

you swallowed all that hope and let it sink miserably down to the pit of your stomach. of course. of course that was what he meant. you knew that you’d just said the same thing, but how could he say that he loved you when he clearly knew how you felt. unless . . .

no. you couldn’t entertain the thought that maybe he hadn’t realized just how much you loved him. it was glaringly obvious in everything you wrote about him. bucky was smart; there was no way he hadn’t figured it out.

you opened your mouth as if to speak, though you had no idea what to say. luckily, though, bucky cut in before it could become obvious to him that you weren’t, in fact, going to say anything. “do you mind if i read some more?”

“you - if you . . . what?”

“read more, doll,” he said again, smiling. “your writing’s good! i want to read more of it.”

“you want to read more . . . of my fanfiction . . . about you?” you asked, disbelieving. he laughed at the look on your face.

“yes, doll. that’s exactly what i want.”

you shifted your weight from one leg to the other uneasily. did you really want to let him read more of your writing? you knew if you said no, he’d respect your decision and leave it alone. but where was the harm, really? he’d already read one piece of yours, a one shot, probably. bucky was always sweet and kind, and thankfully hadn’t mentioned the painfully obvious: that you were very, incredibly, wholeheartedly in love with him. what else did you have to lose?

“sure, buck,” you said hesitantly. you couldn’t believe you were agreeing to this. “you can read more of what i wrote.”

bucky gave a cheerful shout, and you couldn’t help but smile; his happiness was contagious, even in the most minute of ways.

“BUT,” you added, matching his volume momentarily before taking it back down. “i need my phone back to check on this recipe first.”

bucky rolled his eyes, but handed you your phone anyway. “fine,” he said, a mock pout gracing his lips.

you unlocked your phone and quickly clicked out of tumblr before you could rethink your decision. you opened your texts as you turned around and made your way back to the kitchen, bucky following close behind. you scrolled through the conversation with your aunt to find the tips she’d given you, and mentally checked off the ones you’d done as you went down the list.

when you were finished, all the tips had been mentally checked off, and you smiled, pleased with yourself. you turned to face bucky, who was already looking at you expectantly, and handed him back your phone.

though he looked like he wanted to run off right then and there with the device, he stayed a moment to ask, “so? did you do everything right?”

you nodded, the little proud smile still on your face. he grinned at you. “see, what’d i tell you, doll?” he said. “now if you’ll excuse me, i’ll be in the living room, reading.” he turned on his heel and walked briskly out of the kitchen.

you sighed and let yourself lean against the counter. hopefully this wouldn’t blow up in your face.

twenty minutes later and your first batch of muffins were cooling on top of the stove as you popped two more full sheets into the oven.

when you were finished, you wiped your hands on a dish towel and inhaled a deep, deep breath, before letting the air out in a heavy sigh. your next batch of muffins wouldn’t be done for another 40 minutes, and there was no need to make more batter, because you already had plenty ready for the third batch (because lord knows the team wouldn’t be satisfied with just twenty-four chocolate chip muffins).

your only other option was to go out into the living room and face bucky.

setting the dish towel down and steeling yourself, you walked out into the living room, where you found bucky sitting on one of the couches, fully engrossed in whatever he was reading on your phone (or rather, which of your fanfictions he was reading on your phone, you reminded yourself).

as you drew closer, you were able to make out fading tear tracks on bucky’s cheeks, and you nearly choked on your own spit. had he found the rest of your writing so horrible that he’d cried over it?

bucky tore his eyes away from the screen like it was the hardest thing he had ever had to do and looked up at you, his wide eyes full of a peculiar mix of heartbreak and wonder, with a dash of something you couldn’t quite place.

“how could you kill her, y/n?” was the first thing he said to you, his voice very close to a whimper. he looked absolutely devastated.

while you knew he had to be talking about something you’d written, you couldn’t help but say, “what?” in response.

“you killed her,” bucky said, as if that cleared everything up. “you killed her when i’d just gotten her back and, and - and i promised to marry her, y/n! marry her! and you still killed her! how could you do this to me, y/n?”

you blinked. “bucky,” you said, very slowly, “are you talking about 'good grief’?”

“‘am i talking about ‘good grief’’,” bucky mimicked. “of course i’m talking about ‘good grief’! what else would i be talking about?”

‘good grief’ was a series you were in the middle of working on, with a central plot point - and the series title - coming from bastille’s song of the same name. it was an au in which bucky hadn’t been taken by hydra, and it was one of your best-written pieces in your own opinion. it appeared that bucky thought so, too, if he was getting this worked up about the reader insert’s apparent death.

“so i take it you like it, then?”

bucky straightened up. “like it?” he asked. “no, i don’t like it. i absolutely hate it!”

hearing that immediately made you feel sick. god, how stupid to were you to think that bucky would actually like what you’d written, whether he thought whatever he’d read first had been good or not. before you could say anything, bucky continued.

“my heart is broken! utterly and entirely shattered, doll. how could you do this to me? your writing is so, so, so . . .” he appeared as if he were struggling to find the right words. “gut-wrenchingly beautiful and my heart is real fuckin’ hurt, doll.”

you were startled by his outburst. “i - what? you think my writing’s beautiful?”

bucky rolled his eyes, suddenly exasperated. “yes, doll, i think your writing’s beautiful. it’s wonderful. how many times do i have to tell you that?”

“as many times as you’d like,” you said before you could stop yourself. you were rewarded by the quirking down of the corners of bucky’s lips that indicated he was trying to suppress a smile.

“then i’ll tell you all the time, y/n/n.”

“how . . . how much did you read?” you asked fiddling with your fingers as an excuse to not make eye contact.

“everything,” he said immediately, and you looked up, shocked. you hadn’t expected him to want to read your writing that much.

“er, everything about me,” he clarified. somehow, that was infinitely worse.

“oh,” was all you said as you went back to avoiding eye contact.

“actually, i had a question about your writing, doll.”

you looked up at that. “oh?” you gulped, preparing for the worst.

“yeah,” bucky said. “why is everything you write about me full of longing?”

you were stunned. “i - what?”

“well it’s just,” bucky continued, “that while i was reading, i noticed that the topic of pining is really prevalent in what you write about me. even when it’s not central to the plot, like in those - what are they called? ‘one shots’? yeah - one shots, you always mention pining and longing.”

you didn’t know what to say. you knew bucky, and you knew when he was genuinely asking a question he didn’t know the answer to (he wasn’t a very good actor). which was why you knew that his question was sincere, that he really had no idea why you included near-excessive pining in everything you wrote about him. had no idea that you included it because you were pining after him just as hopelessly as your reader inserts were.

and that meant . . . that meant that he really didn’t know that you were in love with him. he hadn’t been avoiding bringing it up to spare you the embarrassment; he hadn’t realized in the first place!

a huge wave of relief built up inside you, washing away the panic that was still tucked into your chest, but with it came an equally sized wave of disappointment. part of you, you supposed, had hoped that bucky would take you in his arms after reading the rest of your fanfiction and kiss you senseless before telling you that he’d always loved you just the same way you loved him. that he’d always been in love with you.

but of course, that was just a fantasy, too much like fanfiction to ever have a hope of becoming a reality.

you didn’t know what to say, but there bucky was, blinking up at you oh so innocently from his seat on the couch as he patiently waited for an answer, and so you said the only thing you could say: the truth.

“there’s so much . . . pining and longing because . . . i have a lot of experience with pining.”

well, as much of the truth as you could bear to reveal to him, anyway.

“but um, unlike . . . in my writing, the person i’m pining after doesn’t love me back.”

maybe it was a trick of the light, but you could have sworn something dark and hurting passed over bucky’s eyes when you said that, but a second later the look was gone. instead, bucky was cocking his head to the side as his brow furrowed. “what do you mean, doll?”

you sighed. “i mean,” you started as you sat down next to him on the couch, “exactly what i said. i love someone, but they don’t love me back.” you paused and thought for a moment before continuing. “well, i shouldn’t say that. i know he loves me. but just . . . not the way i want him to.”

when you’d sat down, your eyes had focused themselves on the edge of the accent rug that lay in front of the couch, and as you lifted them to meet bucky’s after your pseudo-confession, you found his whole body turned towards you.

bucky was still sporting that confused look on his face when he said, “how could anyone not love you like that?” so soft and breathless, as if he hadn’t meant to say it out loud at all. his eyes searched your face as if he were looking for an answer to his question and all you could do was stare at him, silent and frozen.

god, if he kept this stuff up, you were going to explode from all the yearning that was building up inside of you.

bucky’s gaze connected with yours again, and it was as if something in your eyes had snapped him out of whatever haze he’d been in, because a millisecond later he was looking away and clearing his throat.

“so that’s why -” he said, as if whatever had just happened hadn’t happened, “- you write in so much pining when you’re writing about me?”

god, he was so clueless. and as much as you wanted to tell him that the person you were in love with was him, that it would always be him because he was strong and brave and kind and so, so breathtakingly beautiful, you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. you didn’t think you could stand to be in the same room with him ever again if you told him and he smiled that pretty smile at you, all soft and sweet and pitiful, right before letting you down gently and saying that he’d always want you as his best friend no matter what happened. which really fucking sucked, because you didn’t know what you’d do without bucky.

“yeah,” you said. “like i said, it’s just . . . so much easier to write things when they’re about you. easier to . . . transfer my feelings to someone else when that someone else is . . . you.” you winced at the lie, but if bucky noticed, he didn’t mention it.

in fact, he was quiet for what felt like a long, long time before looking up at you and saying, “well, doll, whoever this guy is, he’s an idiot for not loving you. for not being in love with you.”

you gave him a soft smile that was tinged with melancholy. “thanks, buck.”

he nodded. “who is he?”

“what?” you hadn’t expected that. you probably should have, though, given how much bucky cared about your life and your feelings, but the extent to which he cared still surprised you sometimes; you didn’t really think you deserved it.

“who is he?” bucky repeated, eyes alight with curiosity and that other emotion you still couldn’t name. “i want to know who the guy is that’s got my best friend all hopelessly in love.”

“i . . . don’t know, buck . . .”

“you don’t want to tell me?”

“it’s not that i . . . don’t want to tell you, i just . . .” you were lost, searching for anything to say that would get bucky to lay off. “i don’t like thinking about it, is all.”

for some reason, that seemed to anger bucky. “oh, so you can think about it when you use it for writing inspiration all you want, but when your best friend wants to know, you suddenly can’t bring yourself to think about it? is that it?” he asked, eyes suddenly cold.

“no, that’s not it,” you tried to assure him, though you knew that that was exactly what you were implying. “bucky, it’s alright. it’s just a friend. you don’t know him.”

this just angered him all the more.

“i know all your friends, though, y/n. are you telling me you’re hiding this fella away from me, doll?” he asked with furrowed eyebrows and that cold, hard stare. “too afraid he won’t like me? or too afraid he won’t like you when he finds out just how well you really know me?”

you were shocked by bucky’s questions. where had this come from?

“what? absolutely not. i’m not ashamed of you, bucky.”

“oh, aren’t you?” he snapped.

you stared at him from where you were on the edge of the couch, incredulous. how could he think that you were ashamed of him?

“no, i’m NOT, bucky. and besides, it’s none of your business! you don’t have to know all of my friends!”

“as your best friend, it is my business! but haha, right, i can’t really be your best friend if you’re ashamed of me!”

“bucky barnes, i AM NOT ASHAMED OF YOU! how could i ever be ashamed of you? i love you!” you were barely containing yourself then, and had to force your voice down after it’d gotten far louder than you’d wanted it to.

bucky, though, it seemed, either didn’t have the same control that you did or simply didn’t care, because the next thing you knew he was shouting, “then TELL ME WHO HE IS!”

“LEAVE IT ALONE, BUCKY,” you yelled back, propelling yourself off the couch so you could match his volume.

a second later and bucky was on his own feet, too, right in front of you. “NO! I WANT TO KNOW!”

“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LEAVE IT ALONE, JAMES?”

“BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!” he roared.

as quickly as it had come, your anger vanished. and suddenly, as if it had been the only thing keeping you up, your whole body sagged. all of the anger that had been overflowing inside of you had left you thoroughly exhausted, and your outrage at bucky’s own outrage was quickly replaced by a growing sense of disbelief. he’d told you he loved you before, of course - he’d said it near the beginning of your conversation! - but there was something in his voice, something in the way he said it, that made you think he meant it differently this time. that he meant it the way you did.

“wha - what?”

“i love you. i’m in love with you.”

there were tears stinging the backs of your eyes as you said, in a voice barely above a whisper, “don’t play with me, bucky.” you were looking up at him, eyes wide and equal parts hopeful and horrified.

“i’m not playing with you,” came bucky’s reply, his own voice soft. “i would never play with you like that, doll.”

you searched his eyes, which were glossed over with unshed tears the same way you knew yours were, and found only sincerity in his intense stare. sincerity, and that something else you’d seen before, which you were recognizing now as . . . adoration. still, you couldn’t believe what you were hearing.

“but, bucky, i’m . . .”

“in love with someone else? i know. i figured as much when i read everything you wrote.” he looked away and stepped back.

“you what?” it seemed that all you’d been asking today was ‘what?’

“knew you were in love with someone else when i was reading all that stuff you wrote about me. there’s no way you would’ve been writing all that yearning crap with me originally in mind, doll. i know that. and yet, i . . . i couldn’t stop thinking about that whyenn character being you.”

you stared at him. and stared, and stared, and stared. you felt the tears dripping down your face, but didn’t move to wipe them away. instead, you continued to stare, until finally bucky looked up at you, looking as devastated as you’d ever seen him.

“you’re so dense, bucky. oblivious. a moron. an absolute imbecile,” you whispered.

for a moment, anger flashed across bucky’s face as his eyebrows furrowed, before being replaced by an even deeper hurt. “god, doll, i know you don’t feel that way about me, but you don’t have to -”

“i lied,” you said quickly, cutting him off. “i lied. it’s not someone you don’t know. i’m not in love with someone you don’t know, buck.”

bucky blinked. “listen, doll, i really don’t want to hear about how you’re actually in love with steve or sam and just wrote stuff about me in case they -”

“jesus, bucky, i’m talking about you!” you cried. “i’m in love with you!”

bucky’s mouth dropped open, and all he could do is stare at you. “i - you - what?”

“i’m in love with you, and i have been for so, so long. else c’mon, buck. why else would i write all that ‘yearning crap' about you?”

bucky, still gaping like a fish, said, “i don’t . . . i mean, it never occurred to me that you could . . . actually think of me like that . . .”

“and i thought you knew! i thought you’d figured it out the second i realized what you were reading! it was so obvious!”

bucky huffed. “clearly not obvious enough.”

a huffed laugh spilled past your lips. “you’re so oblivious.”

bucky gave you a small, sweet smile as he took a step closer to you. “so you’ve said, doll.”

you stood there, silently staring into each others eyes until: “can i kiss you, doll?” bucky’s voice was cautious and impossibly soft, and positively it made you melt.

“of course,” you whispered, and as soon as the words had left your lips he was there, his lips on yours as his hands came up to cradle your face gently. your eyes slid closed, and you moved your hands up to get a grip his shirt and pull him closer. you could hardly think straight because of how good finally getting to kiss bucky felt, but one thought kept running through your head as if on loop: his lips felt absolutely perfect on yours. like he was made for you.

the two of you broke away for air, and as your eyes fluttered open and met his, something else was clear in your jumbled brain: bucky barnes had effectively ruined you for anyone else.

the spell that you were under was broken, though, when bucky wrapped his arms around your waist and said, “all those feelings you wrote into your fanfiction were about me. that sure is a lot of pining and longing for one person, doll.”

“oh, shut up!”

Cabur

Chapter Sixteen

Pairing: Din Djarin x OFC (Aili Verdella) Warnings: pining, good ol’ teasing about past mess-ups, star wars cursing, that’s about it for this chapter Word Count: 3.4k Also on AO3

Masterlist

Summary: Mando continues to secretly pine after his travel companion, Aili pretends nothing happened between them and continues to make fun of Mando as often as possible. Then they receive a message that's going to change everything for them, for better or for worse. Might as well pick up a few friends, just in case. 

Note: So the story is coming to an end very soon and I have an announcement to make but I’ll keep it for the last chapter. Just wanted anyone reading this to know to be on the lookout for that. 

Mando leaned against the ladder, watching as Aili played with...Little Green as she had called him. They were playing with the stuffed animals that they had each bought the kid for Life Day. He almost didn’t want to interrupt, seeing her actually smile after the prison ship debacle was a welcome sight. It had been about a solar week since that and...the other thing that had happened but true to her word, nothing had changed between them. The following day Aili had treated him like nothing had happened, like she hadn’t told him things she probably hadn’t ever told anyone else. Like they hadn’t screwed each other against the ship wall.

No, she woke up, shook him awake and bluntly told him to move so she could take the kid up to the cockpit to eat. Now things had gone back to mostly normal on the Crest. Well except for Mando’s growing feelings that he tried to keep stamped down when he was around the woman he had let in without knowing. Clearly Aili didn’t feel the same otherwise she would tell him...probably. He still barely understood what went on in her mind. 

Mando shook his thoughts away, that wasn’t why he had come down from the cockpit. He cleared his throat and waited for Aili to look up at him with a single raised eyebrow. Even the kid looked up at him like he was wondering why Mando had interrupted their play time.  “I got a transmission. From Karga.”

Aili stared up at Mando for a long and silent moment, processing what he had just said. Mando tried not to notice how her mouth had fallen open a little, focusing more on the growing incredulity in her eyes. 

“How did I know that you hadn’t killed him back when we left Nevarro?” She finally asked, shaking her head as she picked up Little Green and stood up. 

“There wasn’t time to check,” Mando defended himself, throwing his hands out to the side in annoyance. There had been more pressing matters that day like trying to leave before anyone else in the Guild got past the rest of the Covert like Aili had. Although he had gotten his answer on that one once they left atmo, didn’t mean he wanted to take chances. 

“There’s always time to check a kill. Have you listened to it yet?” Aili asked before Mando could even try to keep making excuses. She was just messing with him anyway because it was still so incredibly easy. More so now because he clearly...she pushed the thoughts out of her mind for now. No need to go down that path of thought any time soon. 

“Just the beginning to make sure it was really him,” Mando answered, the tone in his voice still sounded a little peeved which made a small smile cross Aili’s face. 

“Well then let’s go see what he wants because for him to contact us, he must be desperate.”

They headed up to the cockpit, Mando going up first followed by Aili handing the kid up to him so she could climb up the ladder easier. As soon as she was up in the cockpit, she took Little Green back from Mando. She chose to stand beside Mando’s seat, rocking the kid to sleep since he had been up for a while now without a nap.

"Okay let’s hear it," Aili said, giving Mando the go ahead to play the transmission Karga had sent them. When Mando didn’t make a move to play the vidcall, she glanced over to him and was slightly taken aback to see his helmet facing her. “What?”

“Nothing,” Mando said, turning to toggle the switch that would play the transmission. Aili narrowed her eyes at the Mandalorian before putting her full attention on the hologram of Greef Karga that appeared before them. 

“My friends if you are receiving this transmission that means you are, hopefully both, alive. You might be surprised to hear this, but so am I.”

“Best in the parsec,” Aili muttered from beside Mando. Little Green had already fallen asleep in her arms but she chose to keep slightly rocking from side to side to make sure he was deep asleep before she put him in his cradle. There had been too many times one of them had thought he was fully asleep only to put him down and have him immediately start crying. 

“I guess we can call it even. A lot has happened since we last saw each other. The man who hired you, Mando, is still here, and his ranks of ex-Imperial guards have increased.

“They have imposed despotic rule over my city which has impeded the livelihood of the Guild.” Aili couldn’t stop herself from reaching forward to pause the holo before looking down at Mando with a raised eyebrow. 

“He does know we’re not technically Guild anymore, right?” she asked as she walked over to where Mando had placed Little Green’s cradle. She placed the child in it, tucking him in with his blanket and missing the way Mando stared at her again. Even if she had turned to look at him all she would have seen was his blank t-visor. 

He snapped out of his thoughts as soon as Aili stood up straight again. “Can you just let it finish before making comments?”

“Fine.” Aili said, walking back over to Mando's side and gesturing for him to hit play again.

“We consider him an enemy, but we cannot get close enough to take him out. If you two would consider one last commission, I will very much make it worth your while.

“You both have been successful so far in staving off their hunters but they will not stop until they have their prize.”

Aili opened her mouth to say something but at her intake of breath, Mando turned his helmet to look at her once more. Even with the helmet covering his facial expression, Aili could imagine the look he was giving her. She rolled her eyes and pursed her lips together without saying anything. 

“So, here is my proposition. Return to Nevarro, bring the Child as bait. I will arrange an exchange and provide loyal Guild members as protection. Once you get near the Client, you kill him, and we both get what we want.

“If you succeed, you keep the Child and I will have your names cleared with the Guild, for a man of honor and a woman of immeasurable skill should not be forced to live in exile. I await your arrival with optimism.”

The hologram of Karga disappeared and Mando toggled the switch to completely turn off the receiver. 

Aili waited about a full second before opening her mouth. “Am I allowed to comment now?”

“Yes.”

“You know this is a trap, right?” Aili asked, arms crossed as she looked down at Mando with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yes.”

“Well as long as you’re aware,” Aili shrugged her shoulders. 

Mando quickly turned his seat to look at Aili, barely having to raise his head up to look at her face. “That’s all you want to say?”

“Mhm, yep, definitely not going to comment on Karga implying I don’t have honor or calling Little Green a “prize” and absolutely not going to make another comment on how you were considered the best bounty hunter in the parsec despite not knowing how to check if the enemy is actually dead before taking off.” That was more like what Mando had been expecting her to say. 

“Anything else?”

“I think that just about covered it,” Aili still paused, thinking about the whole transmission again. Mando absolutely did not notice when her lips moved into a small pout as she thought. “Oh, actually, I absolutely do not like the idea of using Little Green as bait.”

"I don't like it either but if it gets the Imps off of us," Mando trailed off. 

"I know that. You really think I want Imps knowing where I am? That doesn't mean I have to like this plan," Aili said shortly. She knew it was the only real plan they had at the moment. But the thought of using a child as bait caused nausea to settle in her stomach like a poison. She glanced over to where Little Green was sleeping, Mando doing the same. 

"It'll be fine."

Aili let out a snort of laughter at Mando’s statement. "You mean like the prison break?”

"Okay, that was--”

"Or the time you decided to help an asshole take on Fennec Shand and I ended up with a concussion?”

"That's not--”

"Oh, or maybe you mean the time you were going to ditch me and Little Green on Sorgan right as a bounty hunter was about to shoot him until Cara killed him?”

"Are you done yet?"

"Now I am.”

“Good because as stupid as you think I am, we’re going to get help.” 

“I never said you were stupid, I don't generally sleep with stupid people. So, Cara?” Aili asked before Mando even had a chance to comment on what she said. She wasn't about to give him that opportunity. 

“Yes and one more person.”

Aili paused at that, a single thought going through her mind. She understood asking Cara to help but who else could Mando mean? Surely he wasn’t thinking of asking Omera to join them when she had her own child to take care of? She pushed down the ugly feeling trying to claw its way through her chest, she didn’t care, why would she care if he asked Omera to come with them? She swallowed harshly before casually asking, “Who?”

“He helped me when I first...rescued the kid.”

“Oh is that what we’re calling it?” Aili asked, raising a single eyebrow. She may not have been there when Mando first got Little Green but she knew about the job. She had turned down even the thought of taking the job from Karga after all. 

"Yes that's what we're calling it."

"Okay, Mando, but I want to meet him before he gets on the ship. Not that I don’t trust your judgement,” Aili stated, looking down at Mando and waiting to see if he would argue. 

“Fine with me.” Was all he said before turning to put the coordinates for Sorgan into the hyperspace controls and then they were off to their destination. Aili settled into her usual seat and momentarily wondered how many looks they were going to get from Cara by the time they reached Nevarro. Hopefully the other woman would be too distracted by how ancient the Razor Crest was to make any comments like she had back when they were all on Sorgan. 

*Run away to a place where you can breathe*

They landed in the same spot as last time which wasn’t surprising since Sorgan obviously still didn’t see any more action than before they left. It was still a backwater skug hole despite the people being more than accommodating. 

“What do you think? Common house?” Mando asked as soon as the three of them stepped out of the Crest. 

“All the spotchka you can drink? Of course that’s where she’ll be,” Aili let out a small huff of laughter. She was carrying Little Green in her arms remembering how he had struggled to keep up with them last time and right now time was of the essence. 

There was shouting coming from the common house but it didn’t sound like the usual sounds of a bar fight. They walked in and neither was very surprised to see Cara in the middle of a boxing match with a Zabrak. They were attached by a laser tether and Aili raised an eyebrow in interest as Cara got the upperhand, wrapping the laser around the Zabrak’s throat. It wouldn’t do much to him but he still hit the button on his belt to concede. 

The crowd cleared out, more than half giving the bets they had made to Cara including the Zabrak. Aili let out a small scoff at that, honestly who bet on their own match? That was a surefire way to make sure you got cocky and lost the match. 

“Looking for some work?” Mando asked without any preamble. 

“Ignore his crap manners, we were going to offer to buy you a drink first,” Aili interrupted before anyone could say anything else. “Impressive fight, by the way.”

“See, this is why you’re the brains to his brawn and thank you, it was an easy fight once he got cocky,” Cara said before nodding over to one of the tables that was clear of anyone nearby. AIli signaled for someone to bring over some spotchka to the table. Mando let out a sigh as he followed from behind the two women, knowing it was better to not argue with either of them.

Mando went over the plan with Cara who listened even as she kept drinking. Aili’s attention was mostly on Little Green, keeping him occupied so he wouldn’t try to grab anything on the table or make a mess. “It’s a straightforward operation. They’re providing the plan and the firepower. We’re the snare.”

“With the kid? And you’re okay with that?” Cara asked, turning to look at Aili with a surprised look on her face. 

“Not especially but that’s why we’re coming to you,” Aili replied. She still didn’t like this plan, too many unknown variables for her. She didn’t know who Karga was bringing or if this was all one big trap like she thought it was. 

“I don’t know, I’ve been advised to lay low. If anyone runs my chain code, I’ll rot in a cell for the rest of my life.” Cara actually sounded a little apologetic as she spoke and Aili couldn’t find it in herself to be completely upset about it. She understood more than Mando ever probably would.

“I thought you were a veteren,” Mando trailed off, not understanding what the problem was. Aili was tempted to reach over and pat him on the shoulder for being so dumb sometimes. How this was someone who had chosen to become a bounty hunter was beyond her.

“I’ve been a lot of things since and most of them carry a life sentence. If I so much as get on a ship that’s New Republic…”

“Trust me, his ship is anything but New Republic.” 

Mando kept talking before Cara could ask or Aili could elaborate on how old the Crest was. He already knew everything Aili could possibly say about the ship and they would be there for hours if he let her even start. “Look you help us and we’ll bring you back with a handsome reward and you can live a life free of worry.”

“I’m already free of worry and I’m not interested in playing soldier anymore. Especially not against some local warlord.”

“It’s not a local warlord,” Aili looked up at Cara and something about the look in the shorter woman’s eyes made Cara pause. “He’s Imperial. That should tell you the risk I’m taking, now are you in?”

“So you finally told him?” Cara asked, looking back and forth from Aili to Mando with slightly narrowed eyes. She had partially expected Aili to never tell Mando the truth so this was a surprise to her. Almost more than the offer to take down an Imp. 

“Yes,” Aili answered, still staring straight at Cara and ignoring the eyes she could feel on her coming from Mando’s side of the table. 

Cara downed her cup in one shot before giving the two of them a smile, “I’m in.”

They paid for the drinks, well Mando paid after Aili gave him a look, and Cara went to grab her bag before they were off for the Crest. And just like Aili had expected, Cara let out a low whistle when she finally laid her eyes on the ship. “Wow you weren’t kidding, does this thing really still fly?”

“It does now, you should have seen the gen room when Mando broke it a month or so ago,” Aili said, only partially joking. She’d had nightmares for a good week, waking up mid-sleep cycle worried that she hadn’t fixed a specific wire.

“I didn’t-”

“Yes, you did.”

Neither of them noticed the look Cara gave them, a slow smile appearing on her face as she wondered when it would be best to make her comments. It was too bad she hadn’t made any bets with either of them but then again, she didn’t think either of them would’ve taken her up on a losing bet anyway. 

*Run away to a place without painful tears*

“Does your contact need to vet me?” Cara asked Mando. It was just the two of them and the kid up in the cockpit. Aili had said something about double checking something in the cargo hold but Cara assumed she just didn’t want to catch another almost smug look from her. 

“Doesn’t know you’re coming,” Mando answered, toggling in another set of coordinates but Cara didn’t pay much attention to them. She figured they were going straight to Nevarro next since the ship was stocked up as it could be already. 

“Really? That could be a problem.”

“It won’t,” Mando said, finally turning around to get up from his seat. “But if it is, that’s his problem.”

The Mandalorian walked past Cara and went down the ladder to the cargo hold. He glanced around and let out a quiet sigh of either annoyance or something else when he caught sight of Aili dozing off, sitting up in the cot with her head leaning against the side of the opening. Cara slid down the ladder, dropping down beside him and he was quick to look away. Instead he opened the weapons locker. 

“Is he gonna be okay up there alone?” Cara questioned, looking around for Aili and easily spotting her. 

“He’ll be fine.” Mando said shortly knowing that if Aili was actually awake, she’d be giving him a look before heading up to get Little Green before he caused trouble. He turned to Cara who was admiring all of the weapons. “Pick one.”

Cara let out a small laugh before immediately grabbing a grenade. “You trust the contact?”

“Not really,” Aili sleepily said as she picked her head up from against the cot wall, wincing a little from the awkward angle. “Mando shot him last time he was there.”

“So then why are we going?” Cara questioned, raising her brow in confusion

“Don’t have a choice, you saw what happened on Sorgan. They’ll keep sending hunters.” Mando shrugged a little though it was barely visible through the layers of clothing and armor. 

“Kid won’t be safe until the Imp is gone,” Aili hid the small yawn behind her hand. None of them noticed Little Green watching them from the top of the ladder before he disappeared back up into the cockpit. 

“And you’re both okay with bringing him back there?” Cara finally picked out the repeating blaster rifle and weighed it in her hands before deciding she liked it best. 

“No,” Aili said bluntly, scooting out of the still uncomfortable cot and moving to stand near Mando. She still wasn’t awake or aware enough to realize that Little Green was nowhere to be seen. 

“That’s why we’re bringing you,” Mando said, making to say more when the ship lurched to the side and sent them all sideways. Another lurch sent Cara into the wall across from the ladder while Mando went sideways and bumped into Aili which sent them both against the cot hatch. They barely avoided falling into it which was a good thing because it was not big enough for the both of them to fit. 

“Dank farrik, did you leave Little Green up there by himself?” Aili exclaimed, pushing Mando away from her. The Crest never stopped lurching from side to side as Aili scrambled up the ladder, Mando and Cara right behind her. She picked the kid up and away from the pilot’s seat easily and moved to let Mando fix the mess he inadvertently caused. 

“We need someone to watch him,” Cara said once the alarms stopped ringing and Mando had untoggled all of the switches the kid had flipped. 

“Yeah, that was already our next stop,” Mando said, letting out a small sigh once the ship regained stable readings. 

“I cannot believe you would leave him up here by himself,” Aili stated, staring at the back of Mando’s head with a look of disbelief. For once he didn’t have anything to say to defend himself because he knew Aili was right but he wasn’t about to let her know that so he kept quiet. He simply re-input the coordinates for Arvala-7 and hoped the kid wouldn’t cause any more trouble.

I know it’s probably way too late, but let’s have Loki eat the entire turkey that you struggled so hard to cook 😬

a very quick thanksgiving-ish fic with you two dating lovebirds to say thank you thank you thank you to all you lovely readers :’)

―   ―   ―   ―

“Loki!”

He drops his fork.

“What’s the matter, darling?”

“You—you…the turkey!”

Well, now it’s pretty much only bones. Oh, and all the stuffing, which apparently is a disgrace to the good name of “meat,” and has been consequently avoided.

“It was positively delicious,” Loki offers, a sure look on his face that he nailed the compliment. “You cooked it to perfection, I could tell no difference from the dining halls of Asgard—”

“That wasn’t just for us.” Your head drops to your hands, and with a defeated groan, you slump into one of the chairs around the table.

Loki hurries over, slightly concerned now.

“What do you mean, love?”

“Remember how we’re going to my parents in a couple hours? And we’re supposed to bring the turkey?”

“Oh, dear.”

“…yeah.” You slump forward onto the table, head in your arms. “I’ll call and cancel, say something came up, I guess…unless you can magic another turkey?”

A pained grimace crosses his face and you sigh.

“Never mind, I know, I know. Food is draining to conjure, it’s fine.”

“I’m so…sorry,” Loki says quietly, kneeling next to you and wrapping an arm around your waist. “I completely forgot. I thought you must have multiple birds, one can’t possibly be enough for a whole family, but—”

“It’s plenty,” you cut in, sitting back up with a huff to rub your tired eyes. “Normally it’s plenty. We don’t eat like you do, Lokes, and—wait. Did you do this to get out of meeting my family?”

His eyes go wide. “No! Of course not, I-I am ready to meet them. 

You raise a disbelieving eyebrow.

“Can’t wait,” he weakly offers.

You grab his hand from its place resting over your hip and cradle it in yours.

“Don’t lie to me, Loki.”

“I didn’t,” he promises, snatching back control of your hand and bringing it to his lips. “I am so sorry. Let me make a new one. Sure to impress the family, and hopefully distract from anything else you, ah…bring to the table…”

“Loki, sunshine,” you sigh, leaning down to rest your lips against his forehead. “This has to happen one way or the other. I have hope that they’ll be understanding, but even if the worst happens, I’m ready to fight for you.”

“It would be easier if I just leave, or don’t go in the first place.”

“Please don’t leave me,” you whisper, squeezing his hand and giving him another kiss on the forehead. “Let’s do this together, okay?”

“But I ate the turkey.”

You can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I know.”

—    —    —    —

Loki does like grocery stores, for one reason or another, and doesn’t complain in the slightest when you send him out to get another turkey while you get ready.

It’s pouring rain this lovely Thursday, but Loki doesn’t seem to mind one bit, pulling his hair into a knot and piling grocery bags onto his arms to lug back to your apartment.

“All in one trip,” he proudly announces when he kicks the door open, slightly dripping. “Another bird, more spices, more of that cloth, and—oh, sweetheart.”

Your amused little grin falls when his voice falters and he catches a glimpse of you.

“What?”

“You…oh, my love, you…” he gives up on words, drops the bags on the counter, and sweeps you into his arms before you have a chance to stop him.

“Loki!” You laugh, halfheartedly pushing at his shoulders as he buries his face in your neck, holding you tighter than ever. “Loki, calm down, sheesh, we’ve got a turkey to cook…”

“I’ve never seen warmth personified,” he whispers, pulling back only to cradle your face in his hands. “Yet here you are. May I kiss you, beautiful?”

Must’ve been the loose sweater and cute pants that set him off, maybe with a little help from your boots…either way, you grab the ends of his scarf and yank him in for a kiss.

“You don’t have to ask, cutie.”

So he kisses you, molding his lips to yours and holding your face to keep you close. His fingers ghost along your jaw, cold in the stuffy kitchen, fogging up the windows against the rain and you kiss him just as hard, your hand wound tight in his scarf to pull him closer.

“I love you,” he whispers somewhere between kisses, lips bumping and noses brushing. “I love you, I love you…”

Your hands float to his face, one finding purchase in his hair as the other strokes over his cheek. “You’re distracting me, aren’t you.”

“No,” he purrs, and his lips leave yours to pepper quick kisses along your jaw. “I would never.”

“Subtle—mm…okay, okay, that’s enough,” you laugh, pushing him off of you. “We’re still going. And we’re going with a turkey in hand, okay?”

Hair a wet, tousled mess, his scarf out of place and coat slightly hanging off one shoulder, Loki pouts.

“But we could just stay here. Kissing.”

“Tempting,” you assure him with a grin. “Really, it’s tempting. But I really want my family to meet you, Loki, please.”

“They won’t like me,” he groans, coming up behind you as you get started on turkey number two. “I’ll tell you right now. They won’t like me and you’ll lose all credibility you had with them. Do you really want to risk that?”

“Yep.”

Loki doesn’t quite know what to say.

“Beg your pardon?”

“Yes, I want to risk that,” you repeat, reaching across the counter for some rosemary. “I’m at your side, sunshine. I’ll fight for you.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

He says it simply, the statement already accepted and known.

“Nor I, you,” you reply with a giggle, slipping into an awful upper-class accent.

“I wasn’t joking, my love.”

“Nor I,” you whisper, and spin around to find yourself face to face, chest to chest with your beautiful prince.

“I’ll go, just for you.” He rests his forehead against yours, a small smile playing at his oh-so-kissable lips. “Because I love you, and I will do anything for you.”

“I have some good news for you, then,” you giggle, arms winding around his neck, brushing some raindrops off his coat. “This turkey’s gotta cook for a couple hours, so we have to pass the time somehow. Any ideas?”

“Mm, maybe.”

He lifts a hand by your head, the other on your waist keeping you close, and snaps his fingers—right away, the turkey is prepped and in the oven, and you quirk an eyebrow at him.

“I thought you couldn’t do that, mister.”

“I can’t finish it,” he corrects, pulling you back towards your living room. “But I can certainly speed along the process.”

“Can’t complain,” you grin and tug him by the scarf up against you. “I’m thankful for you, Loki.”

“And I, you.”

“And for your magic, so helpful…”

Loki zaps you in the side with a glowing finger, sneaking a quick kiss.

“And for your otherworldly kissing skills,” you finish, turning your head with a laugh when he aims for your lips again.

“Mhm, yes, yes, and I’m thankful for every little thing about you,” he huffs, trying for another proper kiss. “Can’t I just kiss you until that’s clear?”

“Might take a while…”

Heart as warm as the little apartment, you push Loki onto the couch with a grin and straddle his lap, pulling his head tight to your chest for a hug.

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Loki tells you, voice muffled in your hug.

You push him back against the couch and plant a kiss on the tip of his nose, already breathless and giggling as your forehead rests against his.

“Thanks for everything, Loki.”

He just kisses you firmly on the mouth.

“Thank you.”

And you let him.

―   ―   ―   ―

fuel the writer?

feel free to send me ideas!!

~ masterlist link in my bio ~

taglists will now be done through reblogs right after it’s posted!

frame the halves and call them a whole

also on ao3

--

“Alright, I’ve got a bad one.”

“Oh, lord.”

“Brace yourself.”

“I’m bracing!” Sasha made a show of gripping the short carpet on her living room floor and Tim grinned, leaning back against her coffee table.

“Would you rather… date a spider with the head of a human, or a human with the head of a spider?”

“Jesus. I see someone has been reading the discredited statements.”

“Guilty.” Tim shrugged cheekily. 

The two of them were sitting on the floor in Sasha’s flat, and she’d long since lost track of what time it was. Ever since they’d been moved to the Archives, they’d made an agreement to go out and do something together once a week. Sometimes that meant getting sloshed and losing at pub trivia, sometimes that meant dragging each other to whatever new film had made it to theaters that week, and sometimes that meant playing sleepover games in the middle of the night, as if they were twelve year olds and not thirty-somethings with 9-to-5’s. Neither of them had the energy to go out drinking and there wasn’t anything good in the theaters that week, so the third option had won out. They’d ended up on the floor when Sasha made an ill-advised comment about not being ticklish and Tim called her bluff. She’d dissolved into hysterical giggles and he’d said something about how being an oldest sibling meant having a sixth sense for someone’s ticklish spots, and then he’d gone very still and quiet. She’d taken his hand and squeezed and initiated the game of would-you-rather they found themselves in now.

“Okay. Let me think about this.” She drummed her fingers on her lips contemplatively. Tim smiled in that fond way he did when he didn’t want to outright laugh at her. “Are the human and spider bits proportional?”

“Ooh, very good question, Sash. Let’s say they’re the normal sizes for your average spiders and humans.”

“So my options are a human head scuttling around on spider legs or a human with an absolutely microscopic spider head?”

“Yep!” Tim said, popping the ‘p.’

“I’m going to go with option A. I mean, if it’s a human head, I could still hold a conversation with it, right? And I don’t think spiders would make good kissers.”

“I think some of our statement givers would disagree with that judgment.”

“Please don’t tell me we have a statement about a human body with a spider head. I don’t think I could take it.”

“Sure do! Statement number 9170108, or something like that. Some freaked out old coot convinced his neighbor’s head was fake and he was keeping a tiny little spider underneath the fake head.”

“Christ. I’m glad Jon didn’t ask me to look into that one. I might have quit on the spot.” Sasha laughed.

“Aw, and then leave me and Martin to deal with Jon? You know how he gets with the spider ones.” 

“Hm, fair. The Archives need someone sensible around.”

“Hey, you’re not the sole voice of reason down there!”

“You’re right. Martin can be fairly practical when he wants.” She failed to bite back her smirk when Tim clutched his chest, feigning pain.

“Oh, how you wound me, Ms. James! Here I was, thinking it was Tim and Sasha versus the world, but you’ve betrayed me for Martin!”

“Is that your proposal for a Scott Pilgrim reboot? Am I Ramona in this scenario?”

“No, we’re both Scott Pilgrim because combined, we can equal the pure sexual energy of one Michael Cera.”

“Eugh! Gross!” She retched and kicked at him, making him laugh. 

“I’m kidding!”

“You better be! Any and all horniness for Michael Cera is banned in this flat!”

“That’s fair.” He caught her foot and shoved it back at her. “Knives and Ramona were both way too good for him, anyway. They should’ve ended up together at the end.”

“That’s the first intelligent thing you’ve said all night.”

“You’re really not pulling any punches tonight, huh?”

“Nope. My turn. Would you rather...” She crossed her arms and stared him down long enough to make him squirm, “get stoned with Jon or Elias?”

Tim groaned so loud she worried her neighbors would complain. “No. Absolutely not. You cannot make me choose that.”

“Hey, you asked about spider people!”

“Yeah, and I’d argue that dealing with my bosses while stoned is worse than a human head skittering around on the walls!”

“Oh, come on. Jon isn’t that bad.”

“Sasha. You were friends with him in Research. I was friends with him in Research. Last time we got drinks, he talked about South American moths for forty minutes. I’m getting a headache just thinking about listening to him while he’s stoned.”

“Maybe it’ll calm him down.”

“Maybe.” Tim pouted, and Sasha did her best not to giggle. “Alright fine. I choose Jon, but only because I cannot imagine Elias getting within eyesight of anything as fun as weed without shriveling up and acting like an affronted Victorian gentleman.”

“Okay, first of all, the Victorians loved drugs, they were high on opiates all the time-"

"Like hell am I doing opiates with Elias."

"Second of all, I may have looked into what Elias was like before he got promoted…” She trailed off and bit back a laugh when Tim's jaw dropped.

“No.” 

“And he was a major stoner.”

“You can’t just say these things. I refuse to accept it.”

“I’m serious!”

“Are we talking about the same Elias? The Elias Bouchard that uses words like grandiloquent and apropos? The Elias Bouchard that gets pissy if you round up on your time card?”

“You know what’s even worse?”

“Please don’t make it worse.”

“I’ve seen him wear those socks with weed patterns on them.”

“I told you not to make it worse.” Tim wailed and covered his face. “I swear, if I saw that, I would gouge my eyes out without hesitation.” Sasha patted his leg sympathetically. 

“Well, good thing you chose Jon, then.”

“I guess so! Fuck’s sake.” He sighed and flopped over onto his side to lie on the floor. Sasha laughed at him goodnaturedly, and then joined him on the floor. She expected him to be thinking of his next would-you-rather prompt, but after a long minute of him silently running his fingers through the carpet, he surprised her by asking, “Do you ever miss Jon?”

“Sorry?” She said, confused. “We see him every day, Tim.”

“No, I…” He huffed, “You know what I mean. Do you miss the Jon we knew in Research?”

“Oh…” Sasha caught onto his drift and fell silent, unsure what to say. Tim was clearly brimming with emotions that he was struggling to get out, so she let him take a minute.

“Not saying he’s a completely different person now, but… I don’t know. We used to get drinks with him. He used to laugh at our jokes. He used to make jokes. Weird, dark jokes, but still jokes, you know? But these days, it’s all business, all the time. I don’t think I’ve seen him smile in months. All… All snappish comments and ‘research this, call this statement giver, stop goofing off during work hours.’ Never mind that just a year ago, he was the one using work hours to show us cat videos because he got distracted during his lunch break.” The side of Tim’s face was smushed into the floor and his one free eye was focused on the whorls he was creating with his fingers in the carpet. Up close as they were, Sasha could see the light scar on his chin that he’d once told her was the result of an ill-advised dare as a child, when his brother had challenged him to see if they could jump off the back deck of their house. She touched it, and he leaned into her hand, eyes distant and sad. “I just…” He spoke softly, “I miss my friend.”

“I miss him too.” Sasha said honestly, though she knew Tim was taking it harder than she was. “You know it’s not your fault, right?”

“I know that.” Tim said, and she believed him. “It’s this stupid job. The stupid Archives. I miss being in Research, where I could make fun of the weirdos in the Archives, but now we’re the weirdos in the Archives.”

“We work at an institute that studies the supernatural. I think we’re the weirdos no matter which department we’re in.” She said, aiming for some levity and feeling relieved when Tim let out a soft huff of laughter.

“Fair. Still. The vibes in there are…”

“Bad.” She finished for him.

“You can say that again.” He finally shifted to look at her again. “If you were the Head Archivist-”

“Tim-” She warned, not wanting to dig up an old sore point. 

“I’m serious. If you were the Archivist, do you think you’d act like this?”

“Would I push you away, you mean.” She said. He shrugged and nodded. “I don’t know. I really don’t, Tim. I’d like to say I wouldn’t, but who knows what kind of pressure it involves. I can be just as intense as Jon when I feel pressured.”

“Yeah, but you’d be way nicer than him.”

“You don’t know that.” Sasha said, firm but gentle. 

“...Guess I don’t.” Tim sighed and shut his eyes. She reached down and squeezed his hand. He squeezed back.

“Next time you’re missing Jon, call me instead, okay? Or Martin, he’d love that.” She ran her thumb over his and gave him a small smile. “You can always count on me.”

His gaze is impossibly soft as he looks up at her, and he seems to almost forget to respond at first. “Yeah.” He finally says. “I can always count on you, Sash.” A cheeky grin spread across his face, breaking the tender moment. “The Pilgrim to my Scott.”

She laughed and let go of his hand to push his shoulder into the leg of the coffee table playfully. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes perfect sense!” He protested despite his own laughter. “Okay, maybe it doesn’t make sense, but it’s the thought that counts. I’m poetic.”

“No, you’re sleep-deprived.” She sat up enough to eye the microwave from her vantage point in the kitchen. “Oh lord, it’s 2am, no wonder. You always get sappy at 2am.”

“I do not!”

“You do. Big sap.” She patted his cheek playfully and stood. “Want me to get you some extra blankets for the couch?”

“That’d be great.” He hauled himself to his feet, groaning all the way. She snickered.

“You sound like an old man.”

“I’ll have you know, I’m young and spry.” He complained, stretching.

“Mhm.” She rolled her eyes and went to the closet.

“At the prime of my life.”

“And yet you make dad noises getting out of a chair.”

“Hey, lying on the floor isn’t good for your back! Aren’t you older than me anyway?”

“Maybe, but I’m not the one complaining about my back.” She cut off whatever complaint he had prepared by throwing a quilt at him. He caught it and stuck his tongue out at her. She returned the gesture and grabbed another blanket. “Are two blankets good?”

“That’s perfect.” He took the blanket gratefully and settled on the couch. “Should I make breakfast as thanks?”

“You don’t have to,” Sasha immediately said out of politeness, but then added, “But if you want to make pancakes…”

“Understood. I’ll see you bright and early with some pancakes, then.” Tim smiled up at her and made himself comfortable on the couch.

“See you in the morning, Tim.” She turned to walk to her room, but stopped at the doorway when Tim piped up again.

“Sasha?”

“Hm?” She looked back at him and saw his best flirty grin on his face. He winked and blew a kiss at her. More than used to his nonsense, she gasped and pretended to catch the invisible kiss, then promptly put her hand to mouth and pretended to eat the kiss. Tim clutched his heart and fell back onto the couch, trying to act like he wasn’t holding back laughter. “No, you’re so cruel!”

“Good night, Tim.” She said, closing the door behind herself before her poker face could break.

“Good night, Sasha.” She heard through the door, full of fondness and amusement in equal parts. 

Sasha rolled out of bed the next morning to find Tim making pancakes, as promised. They sat at her kitchen table and bickered playfully about movies; Tim listened patiently as she infodumped about the history of science fiction as a genre, and she let him rant for the fiftieth time about Indiana Jones. Tim insisted on washing the dishes like a gentleman, and Sasha insisted on squirting bubbles out of the dish detergent bottle at him. They didn’t speak a word about work or their conversation from the night before, but she hugged him very tightly before he left, as if conveying all the emotion she could through touch alone. From the way he squished his face into her shoulder, it seemed the message came across. 

“I’ll make sure to get you the spider guy’s number.” He said when they finally pulled apart, and she snorted.

“You’re insufferable, you know that?” She said, shoving him out the door.

“So I’ve heard.” He winked and walked backwards down the hall outside her flat. She sighed and waved, a smile on her face as she shut the door.

If he bugged her and Martin more than usual after talking to Jon the following week, she didn’t mention it.

Just Medicine || Erin & Skylar

Location: Nic & Skylar’s Home

Timing: June 14th

Tagging: @corpse--diem & @theskyeandsea

Description: Concerned by their troubling conversation online, Erin comes to check in on Skylar and the answers she finds are only more alarming.

Warnings: Addiction TW

If there was one person in town Erin never thought she had to worry about, it was the very one she found herself using the speed limit as a suggestion to get to right now. God damn it, Skylar. Sweet, innocent Skylar. The same young woman who taught ASL, who helped throw a gator-theme birthday bash. The woman was a seal, for Christ’s sake. It was an unfair pedestal to put her on, Erin knew that, and felt guilty when her frustrations drew those quick-fire judgments. People slipped up, lost their footing while trying to balance their worlds on their shoulders. Seal or not, Skylar was as susceptible as anyone. She didn’t know how to help, or if she could, but she’d be there even for a night to maybe help her keep her footing. Judging by the way she spoke earlier, that was very possibly a literal predicament. And with Nic fucking off into the woods, her own worry needed an outlet. And Skylar needed someone. “Skylar!” Erin hollered, nice and loud as she banged in the door. Jabbed the doorbell a few times for good measure. “Don’t even think about ignoring me, kid! I know where you hide your spare key!” 

For the past twenty four hours, Skylar had felt as though she was on cloud nine. Untouchable, nothing could stop her, nothing could hold her down. There was no pain, there wasn’t anything other than the euphoria that came with feeling completely, entirely good. The world was wonderful and bright and the sun was shining, eyeball free. Between that and her random spurts of energy that had driven her to run around in the backyard until she was dizzy, Skylar was feeling great. She’d never felt this way before. Never, ever, ever. Right now, she was lying in the middle of the living room, watching the fan whirl overhead, her eyes tracking one of the blades. Around and around and around and around and-- Skylar sat upright when she heard a loud pounding at the door. Glancing at her phone, she tilted her head. Erin? Listening closer, she nodded. Erin. Walking to the door, Skylar opened it, a dazed grin still on her face. “Hey, Erin!”

The longer Erin stood there waiting, the higher her blood pressure climbed. Tried not to think hard about why it was taking her so long to get to the damn door but it was hard when those enthusiastic, muddled messages kept replaying in her head. Then finally, footsteps. Skylar greeted her with a smile that wasn’t quite right, dark circles underlining nearly nonexistent pupils. “Skylar—“ she started but that concern returned, sharper than before as it trickled down her throat like barbed wire. Did she even remember Erin was coming over? It seemed like Skylar’s initial resistance to her company had disappeared like the rest of her good sense. “Hi,” she finally breathed out. “Can I come in?” It was framed as a question but Erin was already crossing the threshold to let herself in. There was no way she was leaving now. 

Erin was standing right in front of her and then she wasn’t, she was already inside. Skylar nodded all the same, happy to let the woman inside. “Nic’s not here right now, but,” She frowned, trying to piece together things. Time was strange. It felt both incredibly fast and slow at the same time-- like every moment went for infinity, but every hour felt like a second. Which didn’t make sense, even to her. “I think I already told you that.” Shutting the door behind her, Skylar wandered back over to the couch, where Dundee was still curled up. What she really wanted to do was lie on the floor like she had been doing before, the feeling of the wood cool compared to the rug. But, instead, she sat on the couch next to Dundee, staring at the dog as it wagged its tail once at her before going back to sleep. Running her hands against the material of the couch, Skylar tilted her head at Erin. “Why are you here again? Not that I’m not happy that you’re here, it’s always nice when you are! Nic smiles a lot when you say you’re coming by. But he’s not here right now.”

All Erin could do was follow silently, observing Skylar’s sporadic train of thought—when she wasn’t veering off course or colliding with other thoughts, anyway. It was all still jumbled and worrisome, even if she was being as sweet as she always was. “Yeah, I know he’s not,” she nodded. Her eyes flickered around the large room anyway, like he’d changed his mind and come home. Part of her was hoping that he had, that she’d answer the door and see him standing there. But the moment she saw Skylar’s state, it was likely for the best. One mess at a time. Couldn’t help smiling, even briefly, at her words, dropping her gaze to stare at the floor. “I didn’t come to see him,” Erin said, take great care to speak softly as she joined her on the couch. “I came to see you.” She bit her lip, Skylar’s bloodshot eyes more vibrant ever in the better lighting. “You said you were feeling better and I just—“ she paused, shrugging. “I was hoping you could help me with something?”

As Erin continued to speak, Skylar blinked-- it was harder for her to hear, harder for her to pick up the words that she was saying. And, as she tried to focus on the woman’s lips in an attempt to lip read, she was only able to pick up bits and pieces. Not much, just little hints here and there that managed to make it through the wonderfully light feeling that had encompassed her. It felt like there were bubbles in her, like she was floating up and up and up and there was nothing that could bring her down. “Mhm! I’m better!” She said with a vigorous nod as she pieced together the last of the woman’s words. “Help you? What do you need?” She asked, wanting to do whatever she could to help Erin. She liked Erin, even if she had initially been a little creeped out to find out that she worked with dead people all the time.

Erin wasn’t entirely convinced Skylar was following what she was saying, her eyes roaming like they were a little lost when she spoke. Right. Slow it down. Ugh, this was painful. “I’m really happy that you’re so happy.  Honestly, I am,” she nodded, taking her time, giving her a warmer smile. “But I gotta say, I’m not having the greatest day myself, you know? Like it’s been a really, really rough one.” Her brows narrowed in her direction, hoping Skylar was still out of it enough to roll with her impromptu plan. That part at least wasn’t a blatant lie? “I was hoping you could... show me what you did. To make yourself feel better.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “We’re friends, right? You’d help me out with something like that? Oh—just between us, too, of course,” she added, running her fingers along her lips like a zipper. 

The slower Erin spoke, the harder it was for Skylar to track what she was saying. The lip movements didn’t make as much sense, the pauses made it harder for her to latch onto what was being said. But, she did her best to parse through the words. Not… greatest… rough. “Oh, no! I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry, that’s awful.” She said, her head lolling back against the soft cushion of the couch as she stared up at Erin. She didn’t want Erin to have a bad day and she wanted to help! She really, really did. But, a look of confusion spread across her face at her words. “Are you hurt?” She asked, confused. Because the stuff making her feel better, it was only if she was hurting. Looking at Erin, she tilted her head. “Did someone hurt you?”

This was going to be difficult no matter which way she spliced it, huh? Erin willed her patience to persevere and worked her jaw, then nodded. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault,” she assured her, pausing briefly as she tried to navigate a believable lie. “Yep,” she answered when it felt like she was taking too long. “I, uh—got into an argument the other day with a real jerk. You don’t know him, and I took care of it so don’t worry about that either, but he gave me a heck of a shiner.” She pointed to the very faint purpled and yellowed bruise that still lingered near her eye and down her cheek. Cringed first show, then pointed to the back of her head. “Hit my head too, been killing me ever since. So if you’ve got anything to help—I’d really appreciate it.”

As Erin showed her the marks on the side of her head, Skylar’s eyes widened in shock. “And he hit you? Does Nic know?” She asked, a thin trickle of concern managing to seep through the buoyant lightness that kept her spirits aloft, that kept her from feeling the pain that she normally would. At the other woman’s words, Skylar bit the inside of her cheek, though the gesture lacked the normal dull pressure that it usually did. The stuff Felix gave to her, it was strong. Really, really strong. How else could it have worked on her? It would probably be super bad for Erin. So she wasn’t going to show her the bliss. Nope, that would probably knock her out really bad. But, she still had a pill or two left from when she’d gotten shot by the river. “I’ve got something that could help!” She said, standing up on slightly unsteady feet before walking to her room. 

Erin shook her head softly, waving off Skylar’s concern. “Nic knows. It’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine, but—I hit him back,” she assured her, the sound of the metal baseball back smacking against skull thundering in her mind. “Got him sent to a place where he can’t hurt anyone again.” She shifted slightly. Was this actually working? Hopefully she wouldn’t remember why Erin needed whatever it was that had gotten Skylar so completely fucked up in the first place. Erin was on her feet, following behind her—partially to make sure she made it to her room in one piece. But she hung back by the doorway, crossing her arms as she watched her. As glad as she was that this was actually about to work, her insides twisted at the reality here. Skylar wasn’t fucking okay. “And this helped?” She asked, peering into her room

“Oh, okay.” Skylar nodded, her concerns disappearing with the wave of Erin’s hand. If she said it was fine, if she said that the guy who hurt her was gone, then there wasn’t anything for her to worry about. As she entered her room, she made her way to her desk, opening the drawer and rummaging around among the papers, pens, and the random odds and ends that rolled around inside. Her fingers brushed against the small box Felix had sent her, that she’d taped to the underside of the desk to hide it from anyone who might try and find it. Instead of taking the box, her fingers curled around the pill bottle he’d sent her over a month ago. A few loose pills rattled around and she showed it to Erin. “I don’t know if it would be safe for you, though. It’s very, very strong. Medicine doesn’t work on me very well, so I need a lot of it.” She said, holding out the bottle.

Erin bit the inside of her lip as she eyed the pill bottle, torn between being infuriated and heartbroken right now. “I’m not taking these,” she answered honestly, grabbing the bottle. So this was it, huh? There only a few left, which made sense considering Skylar’s current state. Erin held it up before giving it a little shake at her,  then met her bloodshot eyes. “And neither are you,” she added, the softness in her tone slipping, giving way to a mix of concern and disappointment. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but this shit isn’t the answer. I know you feel good now but it’s temporary.” Skylar was a grown ass woman and Erin knew she wasn’t saying anything every after school special had to offer, but she had to try right? She handed the bottle back to her “I want you to toss those. Right now.”

Blinking in confusion, Skylar was too out of it to react quickly enough to stop Erin from pulling the pill bottle from her hand. Before she could wrap her head around what was going on, the bottle was back in her hand and she was staring at Erin with a confused expression on her face. “I... Why? I’ve never felt good, in my entire life. Never, ever.” She shook her head vigorously. Even if these weren’t the right pills, what she was saying about the medicine… “It’s medicine. It’s helping me. It’s helping me not feel bad and not be stuck,” Skylar pointed at her bed, “Stuck in bed all day because, because everything is too much.” And she didn’t need to change. And that was the most important thing. 

Erin felt another crack in her chest give way while Skylar spoke. “Skylar…” she shook her head. “It’s not. I swear to you that it’s not. What you’re feeling, right now? It’s not real. There are other ways—better ways—to cope. I promise. I’m not just staying that either. I understand… that,” she said, gesturing to the bed now too. That heavy exhaustion that could trap a person down like a leaded blanket was a battle she knew all too well. It was hell. Turning to this was tempting on so many levels that she couldn’t blame Skylar at all for wanting that escape. But God did this ever feel a minefield. “Way better than you’d think, okay? And we can talk about all of that, as little or as much as you want.” Her eyes dropped to the bottle with the pills again. “After you flush those.”

Skylar did her best to muddle through Erin’s words. Not real? No, this was the only thing that felt real and right and good. Shaking her head, she looked at Erin, her blue eyes earnest, “I don’t think you do, though. No one really does. I hate what I am. It’s hurt me. It hurt my family, the people I care about. It still hurts me. And I don’t want to hurt anymore. I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I just want,” She let out a puff of air, blowing loose strands of hair from her face, “to be normal. And this is normal!” Skylar gestured to herself. “I feel good! I love how I am! I’m happy and better like this.” She nodded with renewed vigor.

Of all the nonsense Skylar had been blabbering on about, this threw Erin for a loop. It wasn’t nonsense at all, of course, if you focused on the direction this skewed train headed toward. It was very real. And very concerning. “Because you’re a selkie?” She asked, if only just to clarify. “What’s wrong with that?” Erin had her secrets, no question, but this specifically wasn’t an area she could dole out sage advice. And unless selkies were also some sort of man eating version of a seal she wasn’t aware of, she genuinely didn’t understand. She shook her head slowly. “Skylar—there is no normal. It doesn’t exist. And if there ever was one, it’s not you doped up on painkillers. It’s temporary because it’s not you. You will crash, and you will feel even more like shit than you did before.”

“Everything’s wrong with me.” Skylar said, her voice still even and upbeat as she spoke. She’d lost everything by being what she was. Her family had cut her out of their lives entirely. She’d tried and failed to gain control over this side of her, tried to figure out how to love what she was. She’d lost Ricky, lost the one person who had reassured her that he would be there to help her figure out what it meant to be a selkie. She’d only ever failed and lost and been hurt by what she was. So, what was wrong with this? What was wrong with feeling good? Even if it was only for now… maybe she could keep it going. If she just took a little more, took a little bit to make sure that she was good, that she was okay, maybe then she’d never need to turn. Maybe she could be human. “It’s okay. It’ll all be okay.” She said with a blissful smile.

Skylar was convinced this was the better way and Erin was realizing nothing she said was going to penetrate the iron-clad armor of serotonin that kept her grinning like an idiot. What little energy she had was depleting fast and what Erin could do right now was make sure she didn’t do anything stupid in this state. “It’ll be okay,” she echoed with a long sigh. Everything would be okay. It had to. Nic would come home and they’d work this all out. Squids and seal self-loathing be damned. She’d accept nothing less. “Come here,” she stepped forward, a temporary defeat in her voice as she wrapped her arms around the young woman. “I happen to think you’re pretty awesome just the way you are, you know. So I’m gonna stay here tonight and hang out. That alright with you?”

When Erin reached out and pulled her into a tight hug, Skylar wasn’t sure how to react. Hadn’t she been mad at her? But now she was hugging her. Whatever confusion she had was pushed out of her mind as she leaned into the embrace, burrowing her head into the woman’s shoulders. Skylar hugged Erin back, though her limbs felt limp and rubbery as she did so. “Okay. That sounds good to me.” She said, her voice muffled. This was good. Everything was right and good. Even if the house was empty, even if Nic was nowhere to be found, even if Shiloh hadn’t messaged her in days, even if Remmy had been torn into pieces before her eyes, even if Morgan was still trying to figure out her new life as a zombie, even if Deirdre had murdered people, even if White Crest was awful and cruel and terrible… Right now, things were good. And that’s what mattered.

Treat from Anonymous!

Treat for @synthesizeher!  Your gifter wanted to remain anonymous but they really hope you enjoy this!

Prompt: "G1 Dinobots and the Technobots, Halloween Fun, Grimlock tries to take the Technobots out for their first trick or treat, cue disastrous costumes and jumpscares and candy trading" for @synthesizeher on Tumblr.

"They're asleep," Grimlock said, coming to sit beside his conjunx. Misfire sighed and draped himself across the Dinobot's lap, wings twitching with exhaustion. Grimlock rumbled in amusement and started rubbing his back. "I've been thinking…," he said softly. "Mhm?" Misfire asked, optics closed in bliss, giving him however much time he needed to order his words. "I want them to have more Earth culture. I am from there." "Did you have anything specific in mind?" Grimlock tilted his head, considering. "There are so many festivals." "You could ask the Witwickys." Grimlock grinned behind his mask and leaned down to nuzzle the back of his conjunx' neck. "You have the best ideas." "Halloween!" Daniel cheered. "I'm going to be Lance from Voltron." Grimlock made an inquisitive noise. "Halloween is when you dress up as other people and go knock on people's doors and ask for candy by saying 'trick or treat!'," Daniel explained, grinning. "The better your costume, the more candy you get." Lightspeed shared an excited look with Afterburner. "I call Buzz Lightyear!" Wheeljack laughed and stood from the seat where he had been lounging. "Guess I'll be dusting off the old tools of the trade." "You don't have to do that, Ri," Grimlock protested. Misfire nodded. "We'll just use temp paint." Wheeljack spluttered. "Nonsense! You have to really get into the spirit of the holiday! Alright, kiddos, give me your requests!" The Technobots all started babbling over each other in excitement. Very carefully, Scattershot approached his grandcreator and tugged on his arm. Wheeljack leaned down, tilting his audial as the Technobot leader whispered. His optics crinkled at the corners as he grinned. "You got it, kiddo." "Okay, hold still," Wheeljack said, as he carefully pinned the steel wool he had lovingly spun and woven into the kind of fabric Cybertron hadn't seen since the Golden Age. "How come you know all this stuff?" Nosecone asked, staying indeed extremely still. "I used to live on a cybersheep farm," Wheeljack said, his fins flashing cheerfully. "It was my great-great-great-grandsire's farm. We had sheep and zap-ponies and mineral fields and an energon distillery." "Can you teach me?" "Maybe. I don't know, I still like science better. But I am the only one who still knows this stuff, as far as I'm aware, so I probably should pass it on." "It's okay," Nosecone said. "You don't have to decide right now." Wheeljack chuckled and patted his hand. "I appreciate that, kiddo. Alright," he said, rocking back, "that ought to do it. Just gotta get it all sewn together, and then all the costumes are ready." Nosecone grinned as Wheeljack helped him out of his costume. "Did you get to make the visor?" "Yep, but no lasers, okay? It's a safety risk." Nosecone nodded solemnly. "I understand." Grimlock chuckled as he watched his creations file out of Wheeljack's back room. Lightspeed zoomed out the door, shouting "To infinity - and beyond!" Strafe followed at a slightly more sedate speed, but that was due to the long "mustache" that reached almost to his feet and the giant oversized hat that was nearly as tall as he was than anything else. He swung toy pistols from his hips. "Pew, pew, pew! I'm the fastest gun north, south, east, and west of Ibex! Pew, pew!" Grimlock smiled and nudged Misfire over their bond. He's a better shot than you. Misfire collapsed into giggles, losing it even more as a suction cupped foam dart hit him between the optics. Strafe grinned sheepishly. "Oops." "Raaaarrrr!" Afterburner screeched, jumping out, completely enclosed in some kind of monster costume. "Radiation breath! Radiation breath!" Grimlock laughed. "See, I told you the radiation breath could be invisible and still work!" Nosecone called, adjusting the yellow sash over his blue jumpsuit. "I don't have any eye lasers cause that would be a safety risk." Misfire and Grimlock nodded solemnly, then waited for Scattershot to make his appearance. There was a crash from the workshop. "Everything alright?" Grimlock shouted. "Fine!" Wheeljack called back. "Just forgot a very important costume element!" Another few minutes passed, and then Scattershot burst out of the door, dressed in silver, red, and yellow, and waving an orange sword in the air. "Me Grimlock, King!" Grimlock's jaw nearly hit the floor, and Misfire's optics just about bulged out of his faceplates. Scattershot yelped as the Tyrannosaurus Rex head on top of his helm slid down, covering his vision. He pushed it back up and grinned sheepishly. "Do you like it?" Grimlock laughed and scooped his creation up into his arms. "I love it!" He looked up as his creator walked out, hands still covered in various shades of orange paint. "You did a good job, Ri. What do we say, sparklings?" "Thank you, Grand-carrier!" the Technobots chorused. "Are we ready to go trick or treating?" Grimlock asked. The excited yells that earned him were nearly deafening. They met the Witwickys outside the Earth embassy. "Here!" Daniel called, waving. "I made a list of everybody I know for sure will give us candy. We've got to get these guys first so we have something to snack on." Nosecone rushed over to review the list and come up with a plan of attack. "Are you ready for your first Halloween as parents?" Carly asked, eyes sparkling. Grimlock crouched down to greet her and made a non-committal hum. "As much as we can be." Carly laughed. "Sounds about right." "How long are we staying out for?" Misfire asked, putting a hand on Grimlock's back as he straightened. Spike shrugged. "A joor maybe? We want the kids to have fun but not get overtired. At the very least, we'll be able to hit everyone on Daniel's list. First I think is Rodimus." He raised his voice to carry over the sound of excited younglings. "Everyone ready to go?" A chorus of affirmatives rang out, and the party slowly moved down the broad street that ran in front of the embassy. They didn't head to the Primal Palace or the Senate Hall like most would to meet the Prime, instead with the privilege granted to them as friends, they strolled leisurely to a nondescript apartment in what was decidedly a middle-class neighborhood. Bluestreak answered the door and promptly fell over himself laughing. "Radiation breath!" Afterburner yelled, pointing at the giggling Praxian. "No!" Bluestreak yelled, clutching his spark. "Not radiation breath! I'm dying - I'm melting - tell Rodimus… I love him. Blergh!" Afterburner stared in shock, then glanced at his creators, completely out of his depth. "Trick - Trick or treat?" "A trick!" Bluestreak sat up with a shout and grabbed Afterburner, fingers diving for ticklish seams. The Technobot collapsed in fits of laughter, pouring sheer delight down the bond with his brothers. Rodimus stepped out into the doorway and laughed at what he found. "Alright, alright," he said, patting his Conjunx Potentia on the head. "Who wants candy?" He made quick work of passing out energon goodies, chocolate, and compliments on the children's costumes and then dragged Bluestreak back inside. "They're trying to have a baby," Daniel said when everyone looked confused at the normally affable Prime's hurry. "Rodimus told me cause he wants me to be an uncle." The parents exchanged knowing glances. "Oh," Scattershot said, as if that explained everything. "Well who's next on the list?" Ultra Magnus turned out to be next, peering out at the Technobots through a comically large door. He gave each sparkling precisely two goodies, and Daniel precisely two goodie-sized chocolate bars. "An excellent choice of costume," he congratulated Lightspeed and Nosecone. "Peacekeepers are always noteworthy." "Especially when they're corrupt," Misfire interjected, smiling saccharinely. "Then you have to watch them to make sure they don't hurt you or your friends." Ultra Magnus stared at him for a moment, then wisely chose not to engage any further. "As you say," he said, and then closed the door. "Why don't you hurry on ahead?" Grimlock asked, putting a hand on his conjunx' lower back. Carly nodded and she and Spike gathered the children together and started walking. Grimlock waited until they were out of sight before dragging him into an alley. "We will never let what happened to Cybertron before happen to our children," he promised. "You weren't there," Misfire snapped, attempting a rare dig at his partner's age. "Stop that," Grimlock chided him. "That doesn't mean I don't know it was wrong. It just means I don't know what it was like to live it." Misfire sighed and shuttered his optics, burying his face in Grimlock's chestplates. They caught up to the others just outside of Jazz and Prowl's hab, and the Technobots immediately swarmed Misfire with hugs. Grimlock eyed the walkway suspiciously, something off about the serene look to it - tall crystal trees and soft tingrass, a path made of Earthen bricks that cracked beneath Cybertronian feet. "Everything alright?" Spike asked. Grimlock huffed and shook his head. "Yes," he answered. But he couldn't help but be on edge as they walked up to the door. He did have to admit the brick was an effective early warning system. Out of curiosity, he started counting the number of footsteps he could hear, tapping out the number on his fingertips. One, two, three, five, seven, the humans made barely a sound but they were there, and eleven. Wait. He stopped, turned around, sword drawn. With a yell, Scattershot ran back and started attacking something with his own little sword, leaving streaks of orange paint on - "Argh! I have been vanquished by a ferocious beast!" Mirage's electrodisruptor cut out as he fell to the path, pretending at a mortal wound. Scattershot huffed and pushed up the slipping dinosaur head. "I'm not a ferocious beast! I'm sa! Afterburner's a ferocious beast!" "Radiation breath!" the sparkling in question screeched as he pounced on the former spy, followed quickly by the rest of his brothers. "What are you doing?" a voice called from the door. Mirage was too busy wrestling the sparklings to answer, so Misfire opened his mouth to step in. "It was my idea, Prowler." Misfire shrieked and turned around, unsubspacing a gun to shoot the enemy that had appeared out of thin air. True to form, he missed, the bolt being absorbed by a crystal instead. Prowl surveyed the disheveled party and sighed. "Well, come get your candy." The Technobots shouted with joy and quickly abandoned Mirage for the treats. Jazz reached down to help his former second to his feet and grinned. "You look good covered in younglings." Mirage smiled and put his haughty airs back on like a cloak, patting Jazz' cheek affectionately. "You're getting ahead of yourself, darling." The human adults stared open-mouthed as Mirage sauntered up to the door and greeted Prowl with a kiss before sashaying inside, then turned to Jazz for an explanation, much more shocked at the idea of him and Prowl and Mirage than the idea of three. Jazz simply grinned and shrugged. "Towers courting. What can you do?" "Look!" Lightspeed called, running up with a small toy car. "We get one of these, too!" "Did you say thank you?" Grimlock asked. Lightspeed darted back away to do exactly that. Jazz patted Misfire's arm sheepishly. "Sorry about the scare, man." Misfire did what any Scavenger in their right mind would do and bolted for the goodie bowl. Grimlock chuckled at his conjunx, glad to see he was back to himself. Kup was next on Daniel's list, and he laughed at Scattershot's costume, patting the dino head. "You're gonna grow up to be just like your creator, huh?" "I hope so!" Scattershot said, grabbing handfuls of goodies out of Kup's bowl. Grimlock beamed at his eldest and leaned down for helm pats from Kup for himself, sneaking a goodie or two for himself while he was at it. Springer and Arcee were last on the list, and the Amica pair were waiting out on the stoop of their townhouse, dressed up in costumes themselves, though not as well-made as the ones from Wheeljack. Springer leapt to his feet and pointed imperiously at Afterburner as they walked up. "There can be only one!" Afterburner gave a mighty battle cry, and then the two Godzillas were dueling for supremacy. Grimlock was pleased to notice Afterburner was winning. Arcee laughed as she bounded over, spinning so her skirts flared out. "Isn't this fun, Grim?" Grimlock beamed under his mask at his friend. "What's this?" he asked, pointing to the gauzy fabric. "Just some princess," Arcee said, waving her hand. "She routinely gets captured by a giant lizard, but Springer didn't want to be that giant lizard." She grinned. "She kicks aft in the PVP games, though." Grimlock nodded, not having a clue what she was on about. "Suits you." Misfire grinned at her, bowing playfully. "You do look excellent, m'lady." Arcee giggled. It was disturbingly similar to the slightly maniacal cackle she gave in the middle of combat. "Radiation breath!" Afterburner yelled at the very top of his volume threshold. Springer cried out in mock pain and fell to the ground, defeated. Afterburner put a foot on his back and put his arms up in victory. "I am the one true Godzilla-aaaaa!" Grimlock chuckled, but then gestured the Technobots nearer. "Last stop," he said, "get your candy and give Auntie hugs, and then it's time for bed." There was a chorus of disappointed groans. "That's okay, guys!" Daniel said. "We still get to do this again next year!" Mollified, the Technobots formed an orderly line for goodies and hugs from Arcee, and then trooped on home. "Can I keep my costume on?" Scattershot asked. "Me, too!" Afterburner piped up from where he was trading candy with Nosecone and Lightspeed. Strafe had already shucked off his giant mustache and was working on the boots. Grimlock and Misfire shared a look and then shrugged in unison. "Sure, why not?" Scattershot bounded over to wrap his arms around Grimlock's knees. "Love you." Grimlock smiled and squeezed his creation back before tapping him gently on the shoulder. "Two goodies and then time for recharge." The Technobots rushed to consume their chosen treats and finish up their trading, and then they filed orderly into berth, already pleasantly exhausted by the outing. Grimlock and Misfire each took an end of the row of berths and started giving last hugs and kisses of the night. Meeting back at the door, they looked back over their creations. Grimlock turned off the light and closed the door, and then he pulled his conjunx close for a kiss. "Thank you."

Costumes: Scattershot - Grimlock Strafe - Yosemite Sam Lightspeed - Buzz Lightyear Afterburner - Godzilla Nosecone - Cyclops (X-MEN) Arcee - Princess Peach Springer - Godzilla

Are there any lights on in the room you’re in? just turned the lights on 

Do you ever have to do yard work? yes

Is your school close to your house? besides high school 

Did/do you listen to Britney Spears songs? nah

Is it a windy day? nope

In the past week, have you ridden in a taxi? nooooo

What album is the current song you’re listening to off of? Progress

In your opinion, what song is the most overplayed right now? some tik tok songs

How clean is your bedroom? :x

Is there a pen within reaching distance of you? there is indeed

Are you sitting at a desk? I am

Do you normally shut your bedroom door before you go to sleep? yep

Have you seen the movie Moulin Rouge? just fragments, I know what it’s about :(

Do you prefer group or individual work? dunno, depends?

Do you have a key to anything besides your house? I am the key :P

Are you wearing anything with stripes? not currently

What time did you go to sleep last night? ugh...

Do you think you’ll do anymore surveys today? possibly

Could you ever complete a 500-piece puzzle? I did

If you could run a red light and not get caught, would you? it’s not about getting caught!

Do you like to listen to music as you do your homework? I did sometimes

Do any bands annoy you? obvi, slightly

Do you still make Christmas lists? mhm

Do you watch the show Dexter? hell no

What’s the background on your phone? jigsaw puzzles

Are you scared of any animals? mostly sloths and dead bugs, also maggots, I find kangaroos creepy too

Which song did you last listen to on repeat? KIDZ by Take That

Are you currently using a blanket? no

Are there any songs that make you cry? of course

What are you doing this weekend? we shall see ;)

When was the last time you had a haircut? oh well... I chopped my hair at night few days ago or smth because I was annoyed

Do you know what you want for Christmas? yasss

Do you watch fireworks on New Year’s Eve? always <3

Is your birthday within the next three months? it’s in February

How long is the song you’re listening to? 4.54

Is your mom or dad the older parent? mom is older than my father

Are you going to get off the computer now that you’ve finished this? ha ha ha...

Do you feel guilty? if yes, why so? many reasons :(

Does your tongue hurt? it did in the morning 

Are you sad? that’s just who I am

Does your tummy hurt? kinda

Who do you sit with at lunch? in school I was alone, home - parents if they’re home and hungry at the same time

Were you wrong all along? about what? don’t feed my paranoia 

I fucking hate Rihanna, do you? why?

Are you the only person awake right now? my mother is awake as well

Do you feel alone? I like to be 

Are you itchy? sorta

Do you need to wash your face? meh

Do you want animals when you grow up? . doubt it

Do you have an annoying old grandmother? no comment

Do you like llamas? I LOVE LLAMAS! yeah

How would you like to kill someone? oh my

Do you like to wear clothes? yep

When’s the last time you pooped? today

Pencils or markers? markers

What’s your favorite pattern? can’t decide

How long is your penis? I don’t have one lol

Do your boobs hang low? getting old

Do you ever replace the lyrics in songs to make them inappropriate? what for?

What’s your opinion on Miley Cyrus? I don’t care about her

Can i have your number? you can’t

What’s your gender? ... my brain got blank and I wanted to type my name lmfao - female tho 

What did you call your privates when you were little? I don’t recall

Do you cut yourself? nothing deep

What’s your favorite name? I like several

What’s your current mood? not good enough 

Are you awkward? very

Can you joke about rape? no way

Do you have good eye sight? it seems, for now

Are you good at English? pretty good

Have you ever seen a penis? not that I wanted to

Do you have dandruff? sadly

When your watching a video, does it bother if you can see the cursor? not really?

is your computer slow? : it’s shit

Do you want to puke? tiny bit

Are what age did you realize that knees was spelt with a k? when I learned the world

Do you live with your grandparents? parents

Do you hate your family? some of the members 

Do you use smiley faces? yeah

Do you like to see it snowing outside? no thx

Whoever you are dating, could you see yourself being with them forever? it’s complicated

Do you like eating soup in the winter? season doesn’t matter

Do you like getting jewelry or do you not wear any? not wear any usually

Did/Do you get school cancellations because of snow? not even when we had massive snow days

Have you ever used the word ‘lame’? yes

Do you eat dinner with your family every night? not every single night

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to have a baby right now? ewwww

Do you like Taylor Swift, or do you think she’s overrated? overrated but don’t hate her

Do you like to draw? rarely

Do you take long walks very often? maybe

What would you do if you heard pebbles being tossed at your window at 3 AM? no idea :o

Do you read books that are ‘for little kids’? might

Are fingerless gloves awesome? :3

Would you rather be cannibalistic or die in the wilderness? die, yuk

How many middle names do you have? 0

What color is your favorite pair of shoes? black?

Does your best friend have a driver’s license? they don’t

Is ice cream one of your favorite desserts? could say so

What size drink do you usually get at fast food restaurants? I don’t get drinks there 

How many syllables does your name have? 3 + 4

How often do you actually wake up in a good mood? pfft

What is the funniest thing a child has ever said to you? I don’t remember, can’t choose

Do you let your pets on your furniture? no

Can you usually tell when someone has feelings for you? I assume they lie to gain

Do you believe in fairies, gnomes, or elves? gnomes, maybe fairies, elves could exist in the past like medieval times

What is your favorite thing to cook for someone else? I hate cooking

Have you ever bought underwear simply because it made your underwear drawer look nice? wait what?

Opinions on cold pizza? yum

What’s been on your mind lately? lots

When you drive - if you do - how do you hold the wheel? not applicable

Who was the last person to turn you on? my gf