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munsonkitten · 10 months

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Steve gets Eddie out of the Upside Down. He doesn’t know how he does it, but he does. He holds his organs in with his own body, carrying him pressed front to front, one arm cradled under his thighs and the other wrapped around his back, Eddie’s head lolling on his shoulder. He has Eddie’s face on his bad side. If Eddie were to say anything to him, it would be lost to the constant ringing in that ear, but he hopes it’s nothing too important — Steve understands the situation. Either Eddie’s going to survive, or he isn’t and nothing he tells Steve now will be any help without a hospital.

All he cares about is keeping Eddie awake and keeping him alive.

Each heavy footstep as Steve runs jostles Eddie back into wakefulness, thank god. Steve doesn’t know what he would do to keep Eddie awake otherwise, seeing as his own voice is gone, unable to make its way through his throat because how the fuck could anyone talk after seeing the shit he’s seen?

They can’t get through the gate in the ceiling of Eddie’s trailer like this, that much was obvious from the moment Steve found Dustin cradling Eddie’s limp body to his chest.

Steve gets him out. He doesn’t really remember how. He doesn’t really remember what gate they went through. He just remembers running. He just remembers Eddie in his arms, weak and dying.

He doesn’t really know how he managed to carry him that long or that far with injuries of his own.

They get him into a car, Nancy behind the wheel because Steve won’t let go of Eddie in the backseat, cradling him to his chest. They get him to a hospital, they see an ambulance unloading a mangled, broken body with a shock of fiery red hair.

Max. It’s Max. Max is hurt — bad.

They take Eddie away from him. They take Max away.

Steve fights off nurses that try to help him, too. He’s fine. He needs to get to his kids. He needs to get to Lucas who is fighting his way over into the hectic emergency room, to Erica who keeps a hand gripping the back of her brother’s shirt so she doesn’t lose him.

He wraps the kids up in his arms, pulling them close, not caring that he’s getting blood all over their clothes. Nancy and Robin help a limping Dustin over to a seat. He gets taken back to get looked at. Steve can’t go with him despite his protests. That’s my kid! he thinks he screams. His ears are ringing so bad at this point, and he doesn’t think it has anything to do with the constant buzz he usually hears. His head feels like it’s full of static as he watches Dustin get taken away. That’s my fucking kid! he screams again, and now his voice is hoarse and he has no idea how long he’s been yelling, but he gets pulled into a chair and his head is pulled into Robin’s lap as he lays down, shaking and sobbing into her stomach.

Steve is woken up by a firm hand on his shoulder. He hadn’t even realized he fell asleep, really. Not this time. He’s been so in and out for what feels like days (but was more like hours), that it’s hard to tell when he’s awake or not.

He looks up to see an older man standing in front of him. He’s balding, and has a gray goatee. He looks like he has permanent worry etched into his features, like something has been going wrong for every day of his entire life. His eyes are soft, though, in such a familiar way.

“Mr. Munson?” Steve croaks. His throat is dry, his neck hurts from sleeping sitting up, and he’s still covered in blood and gore.

“You must be the Harrington boy,” the man says without answering. His voice is gruff, and he has a Southern accent, but Steve wouldn’t be able to place where. He still looks at Steve with those kind eyes, though, despite the shortness of his words.

“Yeah. Yes, sir,” Steve nods, standing up. He immediately regrets that, feeling a wave of lightheadedness was from the blood loss he’s experienced in the last several days— several years, really. He holds out his hand to shake, but draws it back when he sees the red stain covering the entirety of it. “Steve Harrington.”

“You saved my boy,” Mr Munson says. He pulls Steve into a bone-crushing hug and releases a sob. “You saved my Eddie. Thank you. And call me Wayne.”

“H-have you heard anything?” Steve asks him. “They won’t tell me.”

“He’s stable,” Wayne says, pulling away. “He’s… he’s in a lot of trouble. They think he did it; they have him strapped down and cuffed to the bed, but there's a good chance he’s going to make it.”

Steve breathes out a sigh of relief. He has no idea how they’re going to get Eddie out of this mess, but fuck, it’s better than him being gone. Steve was really scared there for a while.

“I don’t know what the state of your home is, but considering you’ve been here instead of going home and washing all that shit off you, I figure… I have a motel room outside of town,” Wayne says after a minute. “Unaffected by the earthquake. I can take you there if you want to get cleaned up and get some rest. Ed will still be here when you get back.”

Steve finds himself agreeing.

The water pressure in the motel sucks, and Steve finds himself washing blood away for what feels like hours. The water just won’t run clean no matter how much he scrubs and scrubs. He thinks his wounds might have reopened, but he won’t remove the bandages on his own. He doesn’t think he can stomach it. Plus, he didn’t want to rip open the wounds when peeling them off, so he figured soaking them would be the best option.

So much for not reopening the wounds, he thinks as blood continues to pour down the drain, and he feels less and less like he’s going to stay standing.

Feeling defeated and not at all clean, he steps out and grabs a towel from the rack. The white towel turns pink in an instant, then saturates deeper and deeper as more blood soaks into it.

A soft knock at the door nearly makes Steve slip in his haste to cover himself up. He opens the door to see Wayne standing on the other side with a pile of clothes in his hands.

“These are Ed’s. I grabbed them when I left home just in case he found me, but… Well, anyway, they should fit you,” Wayne says. He pushes them into Steve’s hands and stands there awkwardly. It seems like both of them have been feeling a bit awkward. They don’t know each other. Steve barely knows Eddie. But they’re in this together now, it seems, so they’re both trying.

Steve nods, looking down at the soft shirt and sweatpants in his hands. There’s a small hole in the neckline of the shirt, clearly worn and well-loved by Eddie.

“I don’t mean to overstep,” Wayne says. “But those bandages need to be changed.”

“Y-yeah,” Steve stutters. “Yeah, but I don’t have extras and I can’t r-really do it myself.”

“Alright,” Wayne says. He walks back into the main room, leaving Steve in the bathroom doorway. He picks up his car keys and his wallet from a table, shoving his wallet into the pocket of his jeans. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Steve ends up sitting on the bed in nothing but the underwear Wayne had given him. He doesn’t think too hard about it being Eddie’s. There’s a towel beneath him, catching the blood that runs down his torso and his back. There are a few chunks taken out of his thighs that he didn’t notice before, too caught up in, well, everything to really care.

Wayne comes back not too much later, a bag full of gauze and bandages and antiseptic and Tylenol. He begins laying everything out on the bed beside Steve.

He works in silence, disinfecting Steve’s wounds and bandaging them up. Steve, on the other hand, makes a myriad of embarrassing noises, laced with pain.

“Eddie’s come home beaten up more than once,” Wayne says as he finishes up bandaging Steve’s thighs. “I’ve had to fix that boy up plenty of times.”

Steve can tell, too. Wayne is gentle and practiced in the way he does this, like it’s definitely happened way too many times to count. He doesn’t even think between each step, just does them carefully without speaking a word or hesitating.

“I don’t… I don’t know if Eddie’s ever told you about me,” Steve says, swallowing down the guilt rising in his throat. “But if he has… Thank you for helping me, anyway.”

“Oh, sure,” Wayne shrugs. “Not that Eddie didn’t come home crying, saying Steve Harrington called him a queer and tripped him so he fell into a locker and busted his nose, or anything.”

“No, yeah, I — I know,” Steve whispers. “I’m sorry, and… I’m going to make it up to him, I promise.”

“You saved him, Steve,” Wayne says. He starts packing up the supplies and shoves the bottle of Tylenol into Steve’s hands. “And last year, I asked if you were still giving him any trouble, and he said you weren’t friends with that Hagan boy anymore and you were leaving him alone, even if the other boys weren’t. He said you’d changed and I’ll be honest, I didn’t believe him, but I see it now.”

“He said that?” Steve asks.

“Uh huh,” Wayne nods. “And that Henderson boy would come around to talking with Ed about that game they play. He always had good things to say about you… Never quite understood why. It’s like he was trying to set you two up on a date, or something.”

“What?” Steve asks.

Wayne just chuckles in response, and says, “Don’t worry about it, kid.”

Steve ends up falling asleep on one side of the bed, warm in one of Eddie’s sweatshirts and a pair of pajama pants. He wakes up at some point, sweating and feverish. He rips the sweatshirt off, kicks off his blankets. Wayne is there a minute later with a cold washcloth that he places on Steve’s forehead.

He falls back asleep, but it’s fitful. He knows he should probably see a doctor about his injuries, he knows he’s fighting off an infection as he sleeps. He’s just so tired. He just wants to keep sleeping.

Wayne leaves a few times, comes back, forces water and pills down Steve’s throat, replaces the washcloth, checks his bandages. He doesn’t think his own parents ever cared this much for him when he was sick. He has no idea why a man he barely knows is showing him so much kindness.

Steve wakes up to the shrill sound of the hotel room phone ringing. It’s just a few short rings, a swear from Wayne, and then the ringing stops. Steve thinks about falling back to sleep when he sees tears fill Wayne’s eyes, and hears a very quiet, ‘Thank you.’

He assumes the worst with the way Wayne gets emotional, but then he hangs up and breaks out into a huge smile.

“We can visit him, kid,” Wayne tells him. He goes over to a duffel bag in the corner of the room — Steve knows it’s the one full of Eddie’s clothes. He digs through it until he finds something, and tosses it over to Steve, who, in his fevered state, can’t even think about doing anything besides letting them hit him in the face.

In the end, Wayne has to help Steve get dressed, and it’s awkward, and the pants don’t quite fit right and the outfit is nothing Steve would wear in a million years — Black jeans with holes in the knees, a black shirt with the sleeves cut off and ‘Iron Maiden’ emblazoned on it in red. Wayne picks up Eddie’s vest from the chair Steve carefully laid it down on. He had been wearing it under his jacket that he wore into the Upside Down. Eddie hadn’t asked for it back.

“You know something?” Wayne says, holding the vest in his hands.

Steve just shakes his head.

“He wears this every single day. Won’t leave the damn house without it,” Wayne smiles. He turns it over in his hands, running his fingers over a fraying edge of the back patch. “This patch on the back here was a t-shirt at one point. I took him to St Louis to see Dio in ‘84… It was supposed to be a graduation present, but I couldn’t take it back when he didn’t graduate, not when I saw how excited he was. Anyway, I bought him a shirt because I had saved up as much as I could to go all out for this. It was his favorite shirt, wore it every day until the neckline was falling apart and the sleeves were just about coming off. He asked me one day if it would be okay to turn it into a patch, you know. He knows it cost money, so he thought he’d ask. I just laughed and told him he better before it’s completely ruined.”

Steve finds himself smiling as Wayne tells him.

“Anyway,” Wayne says, passing the vest over to Steve. “For him to give this to you — I don’t know if you know what that means. He’s put hours into sewing these patches on, he made some of these pins by himself, you know. Made the design, pressed it with one of those button presses the school has, or whatever, he spent his own money on others. It’s all the things he likes most… What I’m saying is that this vest is Eddie. It’s everything he is. You better keep that safe and understand how much trust he has in you. That’s why I’ve been helping you, even knowing you were a dick to him in school.”

Steve feels like he’s going to burst into tears. He hugs the vest to his chest, and then quickly slips it on to wrap himself up in it. It’s covered in blood, it smells, but it’s Eddie’s.

Eddie isn’t strapped down to the bed when they walk into his room. He isn’t cuffed. There are no police officers sitting guard outside his room, stopping everyone but hospital personnel from going in. Steve is just about to ask how when the answer walks into the room.

“Hey, kid.”

Steve turns around and can’t believe what he’s seeing. Jim Hopper is standing there, his head shaved, his clothes hanging loosely off his body, deep bags under his eyes. But alive. He’s alive and standing right in front of Steve, and he’s the reason Eddie isn’t being carted away to prison while he’s still in a coma. Eleven steps into the room behind him, and her head is shaved again, too. She’s taller now, her face is so much older. Like she’s aged five years in the eight months since Starcourt. Steve imagines she’s seeing the same thing when she looks back at him.

She walks right in and wraps Steve up in her arms, her head pressed into his chest. She lifts her head and presses in close to his good ear before speaking again, and Steve — well, Steve figures of course El would know. She has always been far too observant.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“For what?” Steve asks, returning the embrace.

“You have kept my friends alive,” El whispers. “You have taken care of everyone. Dustin says they would have had no chance if you did not drive them around.”

Steve laughs. That’s true, but he doesn’t feel like he’s all that important in the grand scheme of things.

Hopper pulls him into a hug next, and it’s weird because Hopper and Steve were never all that close, but it’s nice, too because Steve still mourned Hopper, and now he’s here. He’s here and he’s likely the reason Eddie isn’t cuffed to his bed rails, and he’s going to make all of the Upside Down bullshit better because he isn’t afraid to go in headfirst to anything.

“What are you wearing?” Hopper asks, taking a step back to look at him.

Steve feels even more heat rush into his face, even when he’s already feverish. “They’re not mine.”

Hopper barks out a laugh, then grabs Steve’s arm to pull him into the hallway.

“You need to get fixed up, kid,” Hopper says with no room for argument. “I got Eddie’s charges dropped, and now you’re going to do this for me, alright?”

“Or what?” Steve asks. “You’re going to re-arrest him?”

“I just might,” Hopper says, amused.

There’s a doctor at the end of the hallway that Hopper passes Steve off to, and he spends the next few hours being sewn up and pumped full of antibiotics. He spends that time worrying and wondering if Eddie is going to wake up anytime soon. He’s worried that he won’t be there when he does.

Steve doesn’t really know why that matters so much to him.

Read more on AO3

#this is chapter 1 so go ahead onto chapter 2!#mind the tags #sorry i’m just trying to promo all my recent fics bear with me #steddie #steve x eddie #eddie munson #steve harrington x eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie fic #my fics #steve/eddie #wayne munson

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wishingstarinajar · 8 months

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Chapter two of the fic "Kill Or Be Killed" is finally done and up on AO3 for registered users.

If you give it a read, I hope you'll enjoy learning about Rewind's very first venture into the multiverse and the origins of his name.

#undertale au #rewind sans #underewind au #underfell au #figured i'd doodle a promo for the completion of chapter 2 #it's a bit messy sorry #wish art #wish writing

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syrupyyyart · 1 year

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cherrys

#cherry pit #motley #oc #original character #ok hi im back to post for consistently again #at least 1 oc post a week + among other stuff #motely is in overdrive. gonna have chapters ready to post in june or july. watch out #i gotta go full promo mode. ohhhhhhhhh i hope people like it lol

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taio-kyo · 3 months

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I normally don't self promo fanfic but umm umm look guys its juice

Not finished + mind the tags with later chapters!! I have a few silly ideas for this :]

Also thank u @/eyebaus for being a big source of inspo without your works this probably would NOT even be a thing hii hiiiii hello o/

#self promo #may delete later #depends.#ferryv2 #ultrakill #look i usually do not do this but i am going to pour my heart and soul into this #i will take this in a mature route in the next chapters so like. just be careful ok? ok #i will give you guys hot choco and tea after tho prommy #i am so silly #:33 #i may be cringe but i am free ((sobbing

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scuderiahoney · 3 months

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Blackbird // Daniel Ricciardo x Reader

Coming 2/1/24 @ 8pm EST

#not gonna lie guys this one is LONG #longest fic I’ve ever written if we’re not counting multi chapter #idk what happened to me tbh I fell into a trance and came out with 10k of Danny Ric in the mountains #fic promo #formula one fic #formula 1 fic

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kgproductions-tmblr · 9 months

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What's in a staff? What's in a name?

[PROMO ART]

Made this yesterday but forgot to post it here on tumblr whoops

#the owl house #toh au #concealed kingdom au #my art #toh fanart #hunter toh #gonna be posting one of these every day until my bday 👁👁#so keep an eye out for that #chapter 2 isn't out yet btw #just promo art!

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astro-b-o-y-d · 3 months

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Not what I meant to work on today, but it turned out better than I imagined! Anyway, fun little poster for chapter two of Triangulum...

...which won't be out for several weeks, haha. In the meantime, go on over to the chapter index and check out the prologue~! And get ready for chapter 1 to drop next Tuesday!

#Hayley Speaks #Gravity Falls #Stanley Pines #Stanford Pines #My Art #Not gonna tag Bill because the one in the background is more representative of bad memories than anything #But here's still chilling back there in the tank if you squint~!#Anyway art's a fun way to keep the fic promo going without reblogging the chapter index B)

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onetoomanyyy · 3 months

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he’s back…the reel swim shady…

wanted to draw some new shady art but it wasn’t arting so older shady art bc I rlly like this one

#v excited to see him next chapter 🙏#Guess who’s back..back again #Shady’s back!!!#coroika #shady coroika #toomanydrawings #splatoon #splatoon 3 #C4L4M4R #splatoon promo kids #splatoon manga

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fruitybashir · 13 days

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The Holidate (Spet me k tebi vleče)

Fandom: Joker Out Relationship: Bojan Cvjetićanin/Kris Guštin (background Nace Jordan/Jan Peteh) Rating: Explicit Word count: 75,793 Status: Completed - 16 chapters Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Annoyances to Friends to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Slow Burn, Eventual Happy Ending, Blow Jobs, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Not an actual christmas fic just trust the process

Excerpt:

“I could be your holidate.” Bojan says then and Kris pauses. He turns to look at Bojan, who keeps his eyes fixed on the ceiling. “My what?” “Your holidate.” Bojan repeats. “Your Holiday Date.” “I'm not going to date you, Bojan.” Kris deadpans. Bojan finally turns his head to him and rolls his eyes “It's not a real date date, it's like-” He waves his hands. “Like a date, but no strings attached and only for the holiday, to have someone to show off to your family and stuff.”

Kris blinks. Bojan shrugs. “I saw it in a movie once.”

Read it here!

#okayyyy slay i just wanted a like. post for the completed thing hehehe official full completed work holidate post 🫶🏻✨️#ive seen my mutual do posts with like the full word count and tags and everything and it just looks so official so i wanted that hehe #joker out #bokris #new chapter #<- its not a new chapter obv but i used this tag for the like. promo announcement posts etc so there it goes

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serpentarius · 2 months

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“Do you know the story of Scylla and Charybdis, Daniel?”

Daniel scoffs. “'Course. Any writer worth his salt knows Homer.”

Armand gives him an expectant nod.

The human sighs. “Odysseus faced Scylla and Charybdis on his way home," he continues. "Scylla’s the multi-headed demon, and Charybdis - y'know, the whirlpool, or whatever."

The vampire hums. “And what is your interpretation of the story?”

Daniel simply shrugs. But a glint of excitement flickers in his eyes. "I mean. There’s the obvious, ‘lesser of two evils’ thing everyone takes away from it. But it ain't just about picking your poison, you know? It's about - I dunno, the messiness of life choices."

As he speaks, Daniel's voice gains a subtle enthusiasm, betraying his initial feigned indifference. "It's like, you're not just flipping a coin and hoping for the best. You gotta dive deep into the consequences, face 'em head-on with some guts and smarts. And you can’t just pat yourself on the back for dodging the bigger disaster, either. I mean, he still lost guys, right, so he has to own up to the fallout. Wade through it with some goddamn backbone. There's gotta be a lesson learned from the whole ordeal. Otherwise he's setting himself up for more trouble down the line."

"That's all well and good," Armand retorts. "But survival is the thing that matters most, in the end. Sometimes there's no time for overthinking or philosophical musings. You've got to act swiftly, to prioritize pragmatism over philosophy, in order to get out alive. So, Daniel, I ask you - who do you think is the lesser evil?"

"Between a man-eating monster and a ship-eating vortex?" Daniel huffs. "Odysseus chose the monster. I choose the monster."

Armand shakes his head disapprovingly. "A naïve decision. But then again, you are just a naïve boy."

Daniel bristles. His agitation is evident when he spits out, “Don’t fucking belittle me. You're probably just saying that because I'm actually making some good points, and you don't like being outsmarted.” He presses on, “Odysseus only lost six men that way. They all would’ve died in the whirlpool.”

Armand meets Daniel's gaze evenly. "Odysseus was selfish. He only opted out of the whirlpool due to self-serving motives. There was a chance, however slim, that they might have survived it. But by choosing the monster, he risked the lives of his men for his own gain."

"It wasn't selfish if the odds were stacked against them!" Daniel argues. "You can't convince me it wasn't the best option they had. 'Prioritize pragmatism over philosophy', eh? What a fucking joke, coming from you."

Armand stands firm. "He should have gambled everything for a chance at survival," he asserts, his eyes fixed on Daniel's now. Despite Daniel's defiant posture, Armand can see the telltale signs of uncertainty flickering on his face; the creases on his forehead, the slight dilation of his pupils. It betrays his wavering resolve. "You should know by now, Daniel, that the watery abyss may spare you its grasp…”

He makes his way towards the door. Daniel's gaze follows, helplessly reverent.

“But the predator of men knows no mercy.”

#armand x daniel #armandaniel #daniel molloy #armand the vampire #snippet #my writing #my fics #will be included in “as long as I find you interesting” chapter 4 #yes I am working on it #and yes I will try and get it published before s2 airs #devil's minion #all the season 2 promo has me fucked up #amc iwtv #interview with the vampire #amc interview with the vampire

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gentil-minou · 8 months

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once upon a time, 很久很久以前

Once upon a time, there lived a magical boy who was lost far, far away from home… Wei Wuxian is perfectly ready to celebrate another mediocre birthday alone when a ten-year-old shows up on his doorstep claiming to be his son. This kid is convinced everyone in his town has been dragged away from their xianxia world and cursed to live as ordinary citizens in a mundane small town, and he's certain that Wei Wuxian is the key to saving them, his other dad, and their entire world. He sounds insane, but, well, Wei Wuxian likes him. Besides, what else can he do but follow him back home? (A Wangxian AU based on the show Once Upon a Time, no prior knowledge of said show necessary)

Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Transmigration, of the townwide variety, Amnesia, of the nearly everyone variety, Mystery, of the shenanigans variety, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn Has Self-Esteem Issues, wwx is sad and down bad, Single Parent Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, except a-yuan runs away to find his other dad, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Minor Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending

Wangxian + A-Yuan + Minor Characters | WIP 4/? | 52K | Rated M

Preview under the cut

Once upon a time, there was a boy who believed he loved the world more than it could ever love him.

He would be proven very wrong.

Everyone loves the birthday boy.

They especially love him several shots in on Halloween night, wearing an outfit that’s little more than a couple scraps of fabric hastily sewn together in some approximation of a “Sexy Whatever”. Privately, Wei Wuxian calls it Dealer’s Choice, letting whoever he’s currently flirting with decide what it is.

It doesn’t matter; that’s never been the point of the night. Sure a birthday is meant to be spent celebrating, but that’s a bit harder to do when he doesn’t have anyone to celebrate with. It would be fine, as long as he could have as many free drinks as he could score and at least a passably decent fuck, he’d consider it a good night.

Really, when it comes down to it, it’s just another day. Halloween, yes, which makes it a moderately better one. But beyond that bit of fun that comes with picking up a pretty stranger at a bar, there really isn’t much else to look forward to. This is how Wei Wuxian expects to celebrate his birthday:

He’d saunter into how ever many establishments it takes until he finds a pretty enough stranger he can stand being around. The pretty stranger would look him up and down, dragging their eyes over his toned long legs and resting far too long at the slope between his narrow waist and wide hips. And for that one moment, he’d be the most important boy in the world.

He’d get a few free cheap drinks and eventually, they’d find their way to some back alley with its familiar stench of overripe garbage and piss. He’d let himself be pressed up against the brick wall, rough against his back; the perfect distraction from everything else. Then the pretty stranger would stick their tongue far enough down his throat so that he could pretend this day is just like any other.

In between sloppy kisses and sub-par groping attempts, they’d get his name wrong while he’d have already forgotten theirs. They’d mutter a “Happy Halloween, Birthday Boy” like so many one-night stands before them, and he’d giggle and laugh like it’s the very first time. It’s never difficult to plaster a patented smile and play pretend. Then he’d drop to his knees and let the world fall away.

Finally, after however many drinks and strangers it would take to make him forget, he’d stumble back to his basement studio with just enough awareness to take off his shoes before passing out on his secondhand stained mattress. His dreams would be fast and incomprehensible, a mosaic of imaginary maybes and a dream of a life he’d never had.

This is how he’s celebrated the last several years, and it’s how he expects to celebrate this year as well.

Because it’s not just Halloween and it’s not just his birthday. It’s the anniversary of his parents leaving their son behind in a dingy alley, wedged between a dumpster and a pile of soggy cardboard. Not even the barest hint of an afterthought, like maybe we shouldn’t leave this small defenseless child asleep and at the mercy of sewer rats?

But if the liquor is strong enough and the haze is just right he wouldn’t remember that until the next morning. That’s what the night is really for. Not a celebration or anything like that, but a desperate attempt at some peace away from this life of his.

Tonight will be his twenty-fifth birthday, and it might as well not be at all.

And then it will end, and November 1st will come around, and the world will keep turning like it always does.

But somehow, not one of those things goes according to plan. In fact, the universe has a completely different plan for him this year, it seems.