#to let each group have their own space and land and let each other live in peace
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I want to reblog things that support Palestine but every time I see someone write "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" I think of what people have told me about people using that statement as a call for genocide of Israeli people... and as much as I want Palestinian people to be free, I don't think massacring another group of people, many of which have been in Israel their entire lives, is the answer either
#shut up jay#I just want people to stop dying#it's so heartbreaking to watch#I was heartbroken when I heard about the Hamas attack and I'm heartbroken over what is happening in Gaza#please stop killing each other#what I know about a two state solution sounds like the only peaceful resolution to this#to let each group have their own space and land and let each other live in peace#for fucks sake just let there be peace#ceasefire now#call for a ceasefire#israel#palestine#israeli palestinian war
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Nazi dumbfuck
Being against murder and genocide is not a nazi ideology but go off I guess.
If anyone is nazi, it’s zionists.
Lets take a look:
In particular, the Nazis embraced the false idea that Jews were a separate and inferior race. - Israeli politicians have called palestinian children the “children off darkness” and israelis “the children of light”. Also, they’ve called Palestinians animals and not humans and therefore should be treated as such.
the Nazis referred to Jews as a “parasitic race.” - there is posters around Israel and on the internet created by Israelis where they compare palestinians to parasites - saying that they’re parasites to the israeli soil and needs to be removed.
Nazis wanted to separate Jews and Aryan Germans. They tried to force Jews to leave Germany. Not only do Israelis see Palestinians as animals, they’ve displaced 2 million Palestinians. Do you have any idea of what’s going on in Rafah rn?
Those whom the Nazis identified as non-Aryans (including Jews) were persecuted and discriminated against. Israelis have murdered 700.000 palestinians and removed their access to water, food and medical care. Israelis have been protesting by sitting in front of vehicles with medical equipment so gazans don’t get help. Israel have been dropping white phosphorus for 10 years so Palestinians either 1. Get burned. 2. Get killed by the water they drink that contains that white phosphorus. PS! White phosphorus is illegal but not when israelis do it🤡
the Nazis carried out forced sterilizations of certain groups whom they considered inferior.. lets swich our focus from Palestinians and lets take a look at the black people in Israel, lot of them ethiopians, that have been forced to sterilize themselves because israelis don’t want “black” in their jewish line. They want to keep it “clean” and not let black genes, especially not when those black people have converted and aren’t “real” jews. Do you remember who also wanted to keep their race clean? Does it sound familiar?
The Nazis believed that races were destined to wage war against each other. For them, war was a way for the Aryan race to gain land and resources. Specifically, the Nazis wanted to conquer territory in eastern Europe. They planned to remove, dominate, or murder the people who lived there. They believed that Aryan Germans should control this land because they were the supposed master race. Israelis believe that they are Gods chosen people and therefore owns that land. They have removed, dominated and murderer Palestinians who live there to take that land from them, claiming they are the superior race because God chose them. Therefore, they have every right to take that territory from the indigenous people.
Nazis also falsely claimed that all Jews were an existential threat to Germany and that they had to be destroyed. Israelis claim that this “war” will not be over until total victory - meaning until every Palestinian is dead or removed. They celebrated when north gaza looked like a desert, because the “parasites” who was a threath to Israel is now gone. And now Netanyahu is telling these parasites to leave Rafah, the claimed “safe space” or else they get murdered there too. And lets remember that Israelis don’t discriminate. They murder all Palestinians! Muslims, Christians, jews. All of them. And anyone who supports them.
And don’t even dare to say the Hamas because Israel never cared about Hamas nor did Hamas exist when this started. They have claimed that they need to murder children in order to prevent them from growing up and joining hamas. Children. Women. Elderly.
Bold of you to ask this anonymously, though.
#palestine#free palestine#free gaza#israel#from the river to the sea palestine will be free#ellie williams#the last of us#free israel#Ew but it needs to find them#tlou#ellie williams x reader#i’m just putting lots of tags#genocide#antisemitism
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BL Premiering in April
01/04 | 🇰🇷🇹🇭 Love is Like a Cat MDL
When global superstar Piuno is threatened by those who wish to see him brought low, there’s only one thing he can do to save his reputation and his career: work at a pet daycare. Pushing aside his severe dislike for animals, Piuno begins working alongside the daycare’s director, Dae Byeol, who helps him find ways to overcome the trauma that first inspired his hatred of animals. As his heart begins to soften, unexpected feelings for Dae Byeol begin to arise. Could their current working relationship grow into something more?
03/04 | 🇹🇭 We Are MDL
For this friend group, no matter how hard their university studies are, there's always something more to do their head in; the chaos of life and love won't let anyone rest. We are... friends, but we fight each other and like each other so much we might hit on each other.
11/4 | 🇯🇵 Living with Him MDL
With his parents frequently away for work, Natsukawa Ryota had been the main caretaker for his younger sisters and the housework, but now he’s finally about to go to University, he’s looking forward to being able to live freely on his own! However, in a surprising turn of events, he’s surprised to discover his roommate will be his childhood friend Tanaka Kazuhito. Despite his picture-perfect looks and pleasant personality, Kazuhito doesn’t have a girlfriend. Curious, Ryota accompanies him in searching for the reason why, but is unable to find any flaws and finds his heart fluttering over Kazuhito’s kind words and actions. As he gets to know more about Kazuhito, their relationship develops. Thus begins their cohabitation life where they’re mutually self-aware of each others presence!
11/4 | 🇰🇷 Gray Shelter MDL
With no dream aside from to survive, Soohyuk reunites with his friend, Yoondae, who has no place to go. The two end up sharing space together; will this cohabitation spark something?
18/4 🇯🇵 At 25:00, in Akasaka MDL
Shirasaki Yuki, a rookie actor, finally lands an audition and is chosen to star in a BL drama alongside current superstar Hayama Asami, who was also his senior at university. Feeling anxious and troubled before his first major role, Shirasaki is approached by Hayama with the proposal to form a “romantic relationship for the sake of character development” until the filming concludes. Their pseudo-romantic involvement off-screen leads to a moving and beautifully crafted love story exploring the intricacies of relationships within the entertainment industry and among actors.
26/4 🇹🇭 My Stand-In MDL
Joe, the stunt man of famous actor Tong, happened to meet Ming. Having developed a deep relationship, Joe didn't realise that Ming had always seen him as Tong's replacement. When the truth is revealed, Joe has to take work on a foreign set where an accident takes his life. When he wakes, Joe's in the body of a young man likewise named Joe who'd met with an accident on the same day. With help, he's soon living the same life as he was before—with the same people—and he meets Ming once more. In this life, Ming wants Joe back at his side as before and Joe doesn't know why. Ming, who's kept all memories of the old Joe, tries to find the truth about Joe's continued life in order to return Joe to his side and give him the explanation he never had the chance to.
?/4 | 🇰🇷 Boys Be Brave! MDL
Jung Ki Sub is Kim Jin Woo's slacker friend - and secret crush. So when Ki Sub asks to crash at his place, his heart tingles to be near him everyday. But as the short stay turns into permanent mooch, how long can Jin Woo keep his true feelings under wraps and hold back from confessing?
?/4 | 🇯🇵 A Man Who Defies the World of BL 3 MDL
Mob realizes he’s trapped in a world straight out of a boys’ love comic, complete with typical love story scenes. Determined to remain a background character and avoid becoming the main focus, Mob tries to keep a low profile. However, in this sequel, the love and comedy intensify! In an ultimate BL world surrounded by extremely handsome men, will Mobu be able to avoid the situation where B becomes L? The main cast will return, with Inukai playing Mob, who fends off advances from handsome men tossing out “BL love flags.” Yutaro will return as his younger brother, Ayato, while Akihisa Shiono will be Tojo, Ayato’s lover. Asahi Ito will come back as Kikuchi, a college student who has a crush on Mob.
Also couldn't find definite info on 🇹🇭 Knock Knock, Boys! to be sure it will premiere this month or not.
#upcoming bl#love is like a cat#we are the series#living with him#grey shelter#at 25:00 in akasaka#my stand in#a man who defies the world of bl 3#boys be brave#rose reports#there are a lot so I was getting lost#these are the ones announced#still no int release info on some of them
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bringing him home
complete fluff, sad lando, and not proofread so apologies x
Not to be dramatic but Lando was done. He’d had a crappy weekend of bad luck, damage, bad strategy and also (he would admit) a bad performance. It was the second last race before summer break, which couldn’t possibly come soon enough.
He felt guilty. Felt guilty he couldn’t of performed more for the team; guilty he let his frustatration show on radio; guilty he’d been in a crap mood and not let the team even try to pick; guilty that he couldn’t let himself sleep on the plane.
It was a form of self torture. But he couldn’t stop.
He had been short with everyone, but especially Jon- who he knew was only ever trying to look out for him. All he really wanted to do was to get home and crash in bed for some more self loathing.
Mumbling a few quick goodbyes to the part of the team on the same flight as him, Lando swiftly turned his back on his friends to make his usual route.
Landing at Heathrow meant he had his usual, lone wolf routine to get back home. A guy he had known for years - Waleed- would pick him up.
Back when Lando lived in Woking, Waleed had been hired by mclaren to drive him to all the events his calendar was packed with. They had a mutual respect for each other but Waleed was a man of few words. Which right now Lando felt like he needed, a familiar face asking how he was might be enough to send the young man over the edge.
Car park 2, floor 4, bay number 168.
That’s where he was off to.
Waleed always came to pick him up from Heathrow. When it was good, Lando would invite a few team members of the preorganised coach to join him. And when it was like it was today, Lando would have only his own company to deal with.
It wasn’t even home anymore, the young driver lived in Monaco and purely came back for mclaren and for social reasons. And right now he fancied neither.
But duty called.
Cautiously, not to bring about any attention, Lando peeled off from the large group of mclaren workers who were on their way to the coach stop. With his hood up, shoulders hunched and staring at the ground as much as possible he thankfully didn’t garner any attention. He knew this route like clockwork- down the elevators and across the walkway to the multi-storey; get the lift up four floors and walk left to the back corner.
Everything felt heavy as he dragged his notoriously over packed suitcase across the smooth tarmac. He just wanted bed.
But as he rounded the corner his mood only got stormier. Waleeds car was definetely not around. Instead parked in his space was a beat up black small car. Grumbling to no one in particular, Lando got out his phone to question Waleed - who was normally very prompt and reliable.
Before he could though, the slam of a car door shutting directed his attention back to the space he was wishing Waleed was in.
“Car park 2, go to level four , park in bay 168. You don’t make this easy do you?”
Yes it was sarcastic, but I’m the softest,caring and most gentle way. And Lando felt everything in his body and mind sag, with a familiar sigh.
“I got the afternoon off work, so I guess I turned up.” Lando still stood still, a confused look demonstrating to Y/n she needed to explain. “Max texted me and I think Jon told him you weren’t feeling great. Unfortunately, Max said you were now my problem so…”
Of course, Jon had told on him. And of course, especially after their little ‘manly’ heart to heart a week or so ago, Max had decieded Y/n was actually the greatest comfort to him.
“is…is it ok that I’m here? I didn’t want to presume but Max-“ she was inturrupted as Lando started taking great strides and threw his arms round her shoulders.
He didn’t verbally reply, instead nodding into her neck and then pulling her impossibly closer, which she assumed to be a sign he were getting a bit emotional. So she just stayed, hugging him tightly back in return.
Her insecurity was not without reason. Lando and y/n had known each other for years, but only got close and started dating 3 months ago. It had been an immediate perfect fit and felt like the most natural thing in the world.
But this was the first time she was being exposed to his incredibly vulnerable side, and Y/n did not take this lightly. Especially given the fact he hadn’t really had a choice.
After what was probably not more than 30 seconds, Lando muttered a ‘thankyou’ and pulled away so they were face to face. Only then did y/n really see just how exhausted he looked. The normally glowing, tanned skin was abnormally pale and almost clammy. Unsurprisingly his eyes were sunken in- but worse was sort of dullness of his usually brilliant green eyes. He was more than just tired, he was mentally checked out too.
“Get inside, left the heater on” she smiled warmly before pressing a quick peck to his lips. Following the instructions almost too well, Lando completely failed to remember his suitcase, which still stood aimlessly in the middle of the car park - from where he had first seen his girlfriend. With a sad sigh Y/n walked back to grab it - placing it in the boot before rounding the car to the drivers side.
“So, we can go wherever you like. Max said Bristol, said your mums keen to see you.” Lando looked motionless at that, so Y/n attempted another option. “ Or you’re welcome at mine, or we could just got the hotel mclaren booked for you?” Impossibly, Y/n saw his face fall further at the last option, which she quickly crossed off her mental list.
“‘m just really glad you’re here… wanna be with you.” He kind of looked embarrassed, fiddling with his fingers as he muttered those words - not appreciating the way Y/n started glowing with warmth to it.
“I’m by your side no matter what… you deciede where you want us to be for these few days.”
Admittedly Y/n hadn’t planned such a sad way for her to meet Landos family, but they were serious enough that it was only a matter of time, so why not in hsi hour of need? She also firmly believed being around more people who knew him and could comfort him through it all. And, by the way he talked about them, Y/n wasn’t particularly scared to meet them - they all sounded lovely. She just wanted them to like her.
“You’ll come to my parents?”
“If thats where you want to be then yes, of course I will. “ Lando nodded and tears started to water, just from how overwhelming the weekend had been compared to how impossibly calm he felt now just because Y/n was with him.
She’d been prepared for this eventuality after Max described just how bad a state Lando appeared to be in, a little overnight bag and Max’s ‘shortcut’ way to get to the Norris family house avoiding the rush hour traffic. When Y/n held Landos eye contact long enough for him to know she was sincere, Lando leaned over the centre console to hug her tightly once again.
“I’m really really glad its you here.” He wasn’t evn sure if she coulf hear it- but of course Y/n heard.
“I’m telling Waleed you said that”
Even when he felt thihs exhausted, self-defeated and shitty, Y/n could make him laugh. He pulled back and just watched as Y/n turned the key in car, then started fiddling with her phone.
“Right my playlist cos i’m driving and I want no complaints ok?” She shot him a fake serious scowl, before reversing out of the space.
Lando just watched, watched the way she darted her eyes to the rear view mirror every two seconds as thought she was taking her driving test again. And the way she bit the right side of her lip as she wound her way through the tighter exit ramps of the car park. And the way her fourth finger tapped to the beat of the Bruno Major song playing - such a small movement even Y/n probably hadn’t noticed she was doing it. Even to her crappy music.
He was only caught out in his staring later, when her little 11 year old vw polo merged onto the motorway towards his childhood home. Predictably she blushed, rolling her eyes at him, whilst remaining lazar-like focus on the road in front.
“Stop staring creep.” He didn’t to that statement, choosing to start his own conversation.
“I really love you, you know that?”
“Of course I do, and I love you more.” Uncharacteristically for her normal driving to the rule book, Y/n took one hand off the wheel and rested it on the centre console - holding out for her boyfriends back. “Now, try get some rest hey? I promisse to try and not crash the car while you sleep.”
“I’ve never felt less relaxed.”
But, of course, he was joking and after an 18 hour journey of the equivalent of tossing and turning in an airplane seat, it took all of 5 mins in the safe and warm atmosphere of his girlfriends car to nod off.
Because for the first time in a couple of weeks Lando was truly comfortable squeezed into the miniature car to the tune of an artist he normally hated.
#lando norris#lando norris x reader#lando norris x you#lando norris fluff#lando norris imagine#f1 fluff#f1 x you#f1 angst#max fewtrell#lando norris angst
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The Co-Host (Alastor x FemReader) VII
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Summary: You are Alastors Co host in life, perhaps more. But are separated by a sudden death. When you are finally reunited in the under world, it is up to Alastor to figure out why you don’t remember him.
Warnings ! ! Mentions of Death and Bl00D
@cannibalcoyote @kahlan170 @sugxryratz @multifandom-superlover
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Satan had left a very clear message, a warning that slacking will kill those that y/n cares for. The two had sat there for close to an hour, holding each other. Not knowing how to move forward. At some point they moved off the floor, and Alastor had pulled up a chair for y/n. Taking it upon himself to clean the messes of corpses littering the once lively office. Documents of clients stray everywhere and desks turned over, laid out over pools of crimson. Alastor waved his hand and in spawned a group of little demons from the pits below, rushing around like a cleaning crew to restore the building to it's former glory. Covering the scene of the crime like it had never happened.
Y/n sat there, staring out into space and clutching at her arms. Nails digging into her skin. "Miss l/n" Alastors hand carefully placed on her shoulder. "Maybe we should get you home?"
She looked up at him, wide eyed, for the first time since this happened. Rage slowly filling the bloodshot whites in her face, almost scaring the deer. "This is my fault" she scanned the room around her, reliving the first time she had walked in. " This is all because i sold my stupid soul to the devil. I never should have let that green eyed bitch into my life" She mumbled to herself.
Alastor remained silent, forcing her up by her shoulders. "Lets get you out of here, today is a sick day"
"If i don't start getting those souls to him, he will do worse. Alastor, i can't leave" Her voice was pleading, desperate. She fell to her knees, grabbing at any documents she could. Scanning through the files like a computer. "I need to catch up. I can't lose anyone else"
Alastor sensed that sentence came from a deeper place, one she wasn't conscious of. He had also realized there was no convincing her out of this. Her only escape was to be ridded of her owner, but that was another impossible task. Before he had the chance to get another word in, he was suffocated by a mass of purple mist. When it cleared, she was gone. Evaporated into the atoms of the air. He let out a gentle sigh, frustrated with his lack of options or ideas.
Perhaps there was information he could gather on her, find out why she had erased her own memory. There must be some way he can help. It was a good starting point nonetheless.
Her home was relatively far from the constrictions of her job, way outside of the city. Living life similarly to a cowboy. Her home had links to her passed life, radios scattered in every room and a record player as the mantle piece above her familiar fire. Life was littered around her home, perfectly displaying her as a person. Trinkets she had collected on display, colorful art work painting the walls. And hundreds and hundreds of diaries hidden around her room like subconscious clues to who she used to be. In most of the journals, little doodles. From when she was bored, to when she first landed in hell. A good way to pass the time. And in others, entries about little encounters she had. Like an inanimate therapist. Interesting, he thought.
He made his way through the house slowly, taking in every little detail he could find. Like a detective. But nothing seemed to give him a clue as to why she erased everything, even her entries. They were so simple and innocent, describing silly things like her funny looking regulars at her first job at the night club.
Above her bed sat a delicately painted picture of a small buck, being hunted by a man. It caught his eye, the colours bold. Unlike everything else in the house, it was crookedly placed. Intrigued, he pulled the frame from the wall, revealing a small hole carved into the wood. There, sat a small mahogany box. Hand carved with intricate patterns and smelling like an old furniture store. Obviously, he opened it. Sat on the bed with it in his lap. Inside was well kept documents, leaflets and a tiny journal stuffed at the bottom.
Again, pages and pages of doodles and innocent entries. Mostly about her first experiences in hell. This must mean something to be this well hidden. No one apart from her usually enters this home, so who was she hiding it from if it wasn't herself. Then his fingers stopped at a page, eyes glimmering with hope as he read the first few words.
"I was finally haunted with the presence of satan today" he mumbled to himself, reading the curved handwriting. Finger following the line he was on. "He found me. I knew this day would come but not this soon. I was a stupid teen, once upon a time. I only with i could say i was like every other stupid teen but i was worse. Life was hard, and instead of working for what i wanted, i cheated. I made a deal with the devil. My soul in return for power, for fame. And now, because of my greed, i will be stuck for eternity in this ses pit. Doing to others what he did to me. I cannot hate myself enough for it. What would he think of you, y/n? What would your mother think of you." The entry went on for another three pages, cursing herself out for the damned deal she made. Alastor had enough, setting aside the box. Holding back tears for the first time since he had lost her.
Part of him was relieved that it wasn't because of him. But a part of him was eating away, telling him everything was a lie. Everything was set up, it was never supposed to happen. She forced her hand and got everything she wished for, while he worked for it. But he could care less about that, if he was honest. Everyone did what they needed to during that time, to survive. She wasn't a bad person, she was a human.
But what made it worse, she never knew of the atrocities he had committed. She died believing he was a good man, and forgot about his existence before she could find out who he was. How would he ever break that to her. How could he break her curse, and wake her up to the painful truth. The truth that he was a monster through and through. The old y/n died, believing in her heart, that he would be up there protecting her mother. How would he ever come back from that.
Tears welled in his eyes, refusing to let the, spill onto his cheek as he looked up. His shadow by his side, attempting to offer a sincere hand to his shoulder with a sad look in his face.
"What have I done, old friend?"
Over a hundred souls claimed in less than an hour must have been a new record for y/n, poofing in and out of existence like a gene. She was exhausted, black rings circling her eyes as her body began to slow. Not properly grieving anything that she had lost, ever. A voice in the back of her head screaming at her to slow down, but she ignored it. Making up the numbers as best as she could. Hours passed by before she knew it, managing to break a daily number. If only she had a team to celebrate with. She never realized it at the time, but she truly cared about a vast majority of her staff. Regretting how poorly she treated them at times, she had to stop. She needed to think. Just a second to gather her thoughts.
The door to her empty home slammed behind her, everything as she left it. Her body fell to her bed like a brick. legs flying up like a cartoon before landing on the bed. Finally being able to breath. Blood had hardened around the tips of her nails from the morning, not being able to shake that feeling of loss. So many thoughts and feelings suffocating the demon, till her eyes hit something stray on her floor. Tucked under her bed as if to hide. Something she didn't recognize. A small leaflet. On the front, a photo of her with a younger gentle man. His eyes matching the brown on his hair, and his slim nose supporting a pair of hand crafter glasses. She didn't remember ever taking this photo, so why was it here. What made it stranger, her skin had colour to it and her hair looked alive. This was not in hell.
The title read "Tune in to 'Alastor and his Co-host, speak easy night!". 'Alastor' she thought, picturing the tall red deer. Then looking again at the handsome man in the photo, how uncanny it was. They looked far to similar. She gripped her head as if in pain, as if she was trying to suppress what she had been keeping a secret from herself for far too long. Her mind went back years, to when she first obtained power. Just before she had forced herself into amnesia.
There was a night where her heart missed him too much to go on. She needed to see him. Y/n figured that with her new ability to form on earth, it wouldn't hurt to check in on him. His home was empty in the night, strange. But it wasn't uncommon for him to visit the radio tower when he was thinking. Her body materialized into his room, falling into the trap of crying uncontrollably when his scent hit her nose for the first time in a long time. Suffocated with her need for his touch. But he couldn't see her. She didn't want to scare him.
Wondering around the empty house, she reveled in their memories together. Collecting some trinkets to keep with her in the afterlife. Like a few of his jumpers, he wouldn't notice, a small polaroid photo of the two which she would later lose; and a leaflet. She was surprised to find it casually lying on his dining room table. Since it was an advertisement for one of their first broadcasts years ago. She spent her time staring at his face, missing that darling smile, when the door slammed in the distance. His familiar footsteps crawling closer and closer. Y/n was desperate to see him one more time, hiding behind the pantry door. Leaving a small crack to get a good view of her love.
In he walked, brown hair glowing with specks of red, which trailed down and had stained his once white shirt. Sleeves rolled up like he had been sweating, but his body shaking as if he was cold. That look of glee and innocence was gone, replaced with a psychotic charm. His smile one of a killer, not a idol. Y/n stood, confused and frightened. As if she was going to be a victim. Forgetting she could disappear whenever she pleased.
"What have I done?" The man laughed, visually pleading with himself internally to stop. He was conflicted with his own mind. Like jekyl and hyde. This wasn't Alastor anymore. She didn't know who he was. But she knew she wished she never found out.
Y/n sat in her bed, holding the leaflet. Hands shaking like they did that night. There was so many holes in her memories. She still didn't fully believe this was of her own memory, but something made up to scare her. What was her relationship to him, why does she feel so compelled to be by him. But so frightened of his name, of that image of him in her mind. Were they destined to meet in hell?
"I need to find him"
#fanfiction#alastor x reader#x reader#hazbin angel dust#hazbin hotel x reader#hazbin husk#hazbin hotel charlie#hazbin alastor#alastor fluff#alastor angst#romance#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel fandom#hazbin lucifer#vivziepop#hazbin hotel theory#the co host
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Hey Steven....
steve harrington x fem!reader
word count: [14.3k] im sorry....not lol
warnings: underage alcohol consumption, reader 18 (senior in hs) + Steve 19 (graduated), reader being a tipsy mess, cursing, mutual pinning, little bit of angst, happy ending :D! -- all credits to taylor swift for writing “hey stephen” and sparking the inspiration for this fic!!!
_
“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet, sweetheart.” Eddie’s voice causes you to snap back, tugging the flimsy stage curtains shut as you turned to face him. A devious smirk on his face and his arms crossed over his chest, reading you like an open book.
“I am not Munson…and how many times am I going to need to tell you to stop sneaking up on me like that!” One of your hands that rested on your sides came up and jabbed at his shoulder aggressively but still he barely shifted.
He only snickered a bit, reaching over to take his own peek at the small crowd that had assembled in front of the stage.
“Don’t be nervous, there’s only like fifty people out there.” He assured you before his eyes caught their small group of friends. He twiddled his fingers at them, getting a wave and thumbs up for encouragement by Robin and Nancy.
Your voice is what caught the older teens’ attention, sighed and shutting the curtains back to closed, “What if he doesn’t show?”
“Trust me, Harrington will be here, especially if you invited him…you know he never says no to you.”
—
“Robin, I really feel like I’d be invading! I wasn’t even invited!” You protested, fingers stiffening around the steering wheel as your friend sat in the passenger seat giving you directions to the house party.
“Don’t be ridiculous! It’s a party and all of Hawkins is invited—oh! park on the curb!” she babbled rapidly, pointing at an open spot on the sidewalk.
You turned the key, shutting your car off, and peered out the window. It was unmistakable which house it was throwing the enormous party as people lingered outside, music was blasting, and you could hear the loud cheering and laughter of everyone inside.
Still while it looked like a blast, you grumbled turning to Robin, “Parties aren’t even our thing.”
“It’s senior year honey, let’s live it up before college inevitably turns us into nerds forever.” She shrugged nonchalantly, opening the car door and leaving you back.
“Fine! But I’m not drinking since I’m driving is home.” You jumped out of the drivers seat and locked the car, catching up to her.
“No complaints here!”
You and Robin walked side by side up the pavement and towards the home of the one and only Steve Harrington who allegedly was best friends with Robin, who claimed that both you and Steve were her best friends despite you and Steve ever crossing paths with each other. Like ever.
She had met him through her new job at Scoops Ahoy that she landed two months ago. On the other side, you and Robin had been friends since sophomore year of high school when you first moved to Hawkins. It should’ve made you jealous when Robin had told you Steve was one of her best friends other than you, but you didn’t mind.
Stumbling, drunk bodies bumped into you and Robin as you stepped through the double doors into the expanse of Harrington’s lavish home. You let Robin lead you into the home that too was foreign to her, and that where you found yourself wedged between hallways trying to figure out which way to go.
“Didn’t think you’d really show up, Robs.” You could feel the presence of the unknown behind you while his laughter filled the air.
“Well, your offer of free alcohol and a good time seemed rather convincing, so I had to come…plus I know you don’t have too many real friends, so I really had to come.”
“Again with the damn sarcasm Buckley, I swear you never get….who’s this?”
His eyes faltered to the figure standing beside Robin. Arms crossed behind your back and shoulders stiffly shrugged up and you look awkwardly around the space that you weren’t used to.
“This is my lovely best friend” Robin’s arms draped around your shoulders, making you loosen up a bit and finally meet the gaze of Steve’s, “We met in sophomore year biology and have been connected at the hip ever since.”
“Hi Steven.” You smiled gently, palms undoing themselves from one another to wave at him.
“Hey, nice to meet you! Steve is fine.” He returned your hello with his even more excited response pair with a pleasant smile.
Robin unwinded herself from you, curling arms with Steve, “Well, come on! Show me to the drinks!”
You were left bracing yourself up against the living room wall, nursing a lukewarm plastic cup of lemonade while Robin and her crush, Vickie, danced the night away. While it wasn’t your ideal Friday night, seeing your best friend blissfully in love with her crush made it all worth it realizing that they were having a good time and you’d be able to get her home safe and sound at the end of the night.
So despite the ruckus of loud chattering and mediocre music, you continued to sip on your drink, waiting for the clock to hit midnight so you’d be able to get Robin back home.
“Fancy seeing you here, nerd.”
You nearly jumped, almost spilling your cup all over the floorboards, but thankfully the suspect steadied you, “You’re insufferable, Munson!”
“It’s kinda my thing—what’re you doing here?”
“Babysitting.” You replied with a nod, tilting your cup in the direction of the two giggling ladies who twirled each other around to the music.
He scoffed jokingly, “Jesus Christ, they’re going to have a gnarly hangover in the morning.”
“What about you?” You rose your brows, following as he yanked open his leather jacket stuffed with drugs and other junk.
“Parties are the perfect place to sell. Usually only come to these for deals. Interested in partaking in some purple palm tree delight?” He winked, pulling out a blunt from one of his compartments and twirling it in his fingers.
You turned your nose up at the smell. He knew you didn’t smoke, but he liked to mess around with you to see if you’d ever give it a try. But not tonight, so he snickered, cramming it back into his pocket, closing his jacket and leaning up the wall, continuing to make small talk with you to pass the time.
Soon you were joined by King Steve, who cleared his throat beside you, “He bothering you?” He questioned with raised brows, taking a sip of his own drink.
“Seriously, does she look that uncomfortable?” Eddie tried to look offended at the statement, placing his hands over his heart while Steve rolled his eyes and you laughed, pushing Eddie away.
“Eddie and I are friends, actually. I know that’s kinda hard to believe, considering his satanic worshipping.” You mocked, feeling a cheeky smile coming onto Eddie’s face as you heard him let out a snicker while you continued to keep eye contact with Steve.
He simply nodded, peering down to look into your cup as he frowned a bit, “Not drinking tonight?”
“I usually don’t anyway, plus I’m babysitting Buckley over there.”
He searched the room, finding the dancing teenagers who were stumbling around his living room to the genetic radio music that was playing in the background.
“Look, I know that I’m only here for dealing, but Jesus Christ Harrington, the music is absolute shit!” Eddie declared, making you nod your head in agreement while Steve rolled his eyes, hands on his hips.
“Yea, well, we’ve been through this, Munson. You deal and I graciously provide the people and music, plus I don’t want to hear any of that heavy metal shit alright. Sounds like damn pots and pans banging around.”
You laughed at that reply, cheeks hurting from the constant bickering the two had, almost like brothers’ to be honest with you.
“Can I play something?” You requested, floating over to the sound system, checking out the different cassettes that cluttered the piece of equipment, fingers shuffling through, expecting you’d find something that was more of your tune.
Eddie puffed noisily, crossing his arms over his chest, looking at you then to Steve, “Harrington has a strict “no changing music” rule, never lets anyone—“
“Sure.” Steve retorted, with a smile widely covering his face, cutting Eddie’s sentence short and leaving him in confusion.
You screeched and quickly shuffled through the tapes, finally finding one that you knew everyone had to love. Sticking it in, hitting play and then the synth rattled throughout the house while your body followed the beat, hips swaying and your feet drawing you towards Robin and Vickie, who engulfed you in their arms as the three of you giggled and glittered.
“I wear my sunglasses at night!” You sang vociferously, chin up in the air as your eyes closed, savoring the song wrap you in this bubble of sweetness and fun, despite being perfectly sober.
Vickie and Robin cheerfully sung along, “So I can, so I caaannnnn.”
Eddie rocked his head, biting back another huff of disapproval as he watched his friends have a great time, while Steve ooggled at you—without a doubt — the beginning of the fall for you.
“Fucking hell, you bend the rules for a chick you just met a few hours ago, but not for the guy who's been supplying you with the goods for the last three months?” Eddie nudged Steve, who rolled his eyes and tsked away the accusation.
He honestly only said yes to spite Eddie and get him to shut up, but you looked like you knew your stuff so he could bend the rules for you, just this once.
“She has good taste. What can I say?” Steve held back a cheeky smile, eyes never withdrawing from your dancing figure as he sipped his wine cooler.
_
“Dude…hello…you’ve got to be kidding me.”
You snapped out of the brief recollection as Eddie flapped his hands in front of your face, stooping down to your height to somehow capture your attention that Steve stole.
“Sorry…you were saying?” You swung your head from side to side, and Eddie groaned, taking your shoulders in his grip, giving you a comforting squeeze.
“We’re on in five.” You felt your throat tighten and your heartbeat speed up at the thought of you performing a confessional love song out in public like this.
Sure, it was one thing to daydream about a perfect moment where you confessed your undying love and admiration for Steve, but standing here in the small space concealed from your friends, all of Hawkins, and the muse of your song was scary. You had balls writing this song and actually working with the band to make the music, but to perform it live took another risk.
Regret. You were feeling instant regret for considering doing this, and you needed to find a way out before you made an embarrassment out of yourself.
“Maybe you and the guys should just perform your usual stuff tonight, just totally forget about my whole—“ You were rambling swiftly, a bunch of rubbish shooting out of your mouth.
Something Eddie was accustomed to, but he was not going to let you get away so easily. Especially not after the long hours he and the band spent with you trying to write the goddamn music for the past week.
“Hey, listen to me alright.” His voice was genuine, needing you to truly understand the situation. Your mouth sealed closed, looking up at him as you tried to regulate your rapid pulse, knowing that time was ticking and you’d be up anytime now.
“We’re going to go out there and you’re going to sing your heart out to that boy and who knows maybe he’ll finally muster up the courage to finally ask you out on a proper date and you guys can go and be the love birds that you were destined to be.”
Your cheeks were heating a vivid red just imagining that act. Hoping. Praying. Wishing that would be the outcome for tonight, nevertheless, you let your fears get the best of you.
“A-and if he doesn’t?” You sought quiet, voice wobbly, trying to balance itself.
Eddie shook his head, not wanting you to keep that thought in your head, messing you up even more. So instead he bopped your nose with his ringed finger, “Then we say, “Screw Harrington” and we’ll all go out and get pizza’s and milkshakes, then we can watch those stupid romance movies you, Robin, and Nance watch.”
Laughter finally burst from you, easing your spirits, knowing that you could always count on your friends to make you feel better no matter what.
“Yeah, that sounds good.” You folded your arms around his lanky frame, giving him a small hug he returned before walking a short distance away, hauling over the rest of the boys who were ready giving you a smile and words of encouragement as they got ready to head out on the stage.
Gareth, Kevin, and Jeff stepped out through the curtains, waving hello to the crowd and Eddie was last, looking at back at you once more, “See you out there, and hey, it helps to thinking about happy times, makes you feel more at ease.”
You nodded warmly, watching as he picked up his guitar, slinging it over his body, “Thanks, Munson.”
“Evening everyone, I’m Eddie from Corroded Coffin…” He went on introducing the band as you listened, squeezing your arms around yourself while you waited for your cue to head out and join them.
Dustin apologized profusely as he dragged himself and Steve by the arm through the crowd that seemed to get bigger, knowing that they couldn’t miss Corroded Coffin’s set but somehow they got caught up at the basketball booth trying to win a giant stuffed animal for Dustin to gift to Suzie but failing.
Finally, they spotted their friends in a small group within the crowd. Dustin headed over to sit with the younger teens while Steve hung back a length bit with the older crew.
“Well look who finally decides to show up!” Robin scolded, elbowing Steve who shrugged it off, too busy searching for you in the crowed, thinking you got separated from the bunch. He had really only agreed to come to the fair after you invited him two weeks ago and seeing as you were nowhere to be found, he was disappointed.
“She’s not here?” He leaned over towards Nancy, who stifled her giggle and shrugged unconvincingly. Even though she and Robin knew that you’d be performing with the band tonight, they didn’t know that you wrote a love song for the event. But obviously, the girls had their suspicions and theories.
“And please welcome our special guest for tonight!” Eddie announced proudly, gesturing his hand to the side of the stage where you timidly came in, waving a small hello to the audience as you stepped up to the mic stand.
Steve was still looking between Robin and Nance trying to get answers about your whereabouts and suddenly the sweet sound of your voice hit his ears.
“What the—”
“Umm…hi everyone, first I really want to thank Eddie and the rest of Corroded Coffin for doing this for me.” Your fingers were tightly gripping the microphone at this point, and you haven’t even got to the most nerve-wracking part.
“… I wrote a song for a special person and usually sappy love songs aren’t Corroded Coffin’s thing, but they are so kind to drop their metal personas for the next four minutes so that I can make sure that this person hears this song…” Your eyes searched the crowd and finally landed on Steve’s he looked surprised, but in a good way.
Steve smiled, whispered a quiet “hey” to you and you swore you could see his eyes twinkling and the halo above his head…he was an absolute—
Eddie strategically coughed, causing you to snap out of the goddamn daydream once again and say your final peace.
“I hope you like it.” You spoke honestly, separating your eyes away from Steve’s as the sentence left your mouth and you nodded towards the band and the music begun.
While you waited for your moment to start singing, your inner self was freaking out, “Think about the happy times” your brain kept repeating Eddie’s words, concentrating on the moments you and Steve shared that made you fall for him and inspired the song. Then it was showtime as you took a breath and your voice carried it away.
“Hey Steven, I know looks can be deceiving
But I know I saw a light in you
And as we walked, we would talk
And I didn’t say half the things I wanted to”
“And so we meet again.” Steve announced merrily, making his way down the basement stairs, staring right at you where you were seated on the couch reading a magazine while the rest of the gang did their own thing in the cozy area and in other parts of the Wheeler home.
You looked up from the pages and smiled softly, “Hey, what’re you doing here?” closing the material and pushing it off to the side, you offered him the seat next to you, which he gladly took.
“Dustin invited me,” He pointed to the curly-headed boy sitting crossed legged on the floor, entranced by a video game that he and Mike were occupied with.
You let out a laugh and a flashed him an apologetic smile, “They haven’t put that thing down for the last hour and a half, Lucas and Will got tired of waiting for their turn so they went with Jonathan and Nancy to pick up some takeout.”
Steve glanced at the youngsters, shaking his head disapprovingly, realizing he was called to be Dustin’s ride home in who knows how many goddamn hours, but at least he had his new friend to keep him company for the time being.
“Little dipshit.” Steve murmured quietly, but still your ears caught it, a small giggle spewing from you that led to him shifting his attention. Watching as your chest faintly moved up and down while you continued to laugh and your smile was wide as day. You knew the kids were always up to something and somehow seemed to trick Steve countless amount of times.
“Wanna go on a walk around the block? Who knows how long you’ve been sitting here.” He stood up, holding his hand out for you to take and you nodded without hesitation, taking it to help you up before making your way up the basement steps, through the living room, and out the front door where you slid your sandals on.
The walk started off silent, taking in the afternoon sky that would soon fall dark in the next hour. Despite basically sharing the same, if not all, friends, you and Steve had never run into each other, let alone hung out like this before. The only other interaction you had with him was his house party last week and seeing him through the window at Scoops when you’d pick Robin up from work. So at this point, you still had a lot to learn about Steve, and so you started talking first.
“So, how do you like working at Scoops with Robin?” You inquired, interlacing your hands behind your back as you glanced at him, then back to the path in front of you.
He let out a half wistful sigh, making your eyebrows furrow together. “It’s not bad, don’t get me wrong. I love Robin and working with her. It’s just that…I don’t know, I thought that I’d be in college—I mean, it’s been a year since I graduated and still I feel lost.” He confessed, hands gesturing in the air as he worked on telling you about his ongoing issue.
Your bottom lip pouted sadly, softening your eyes at the older guy beside you and shooting him a sympathetic gaze.
“I’m really sorry to hear you feel that way, Steve,” he was slightly surprised as your hand came in contact with his shoulder, but quickly got used it. Sadly, as soon as that comfort came, your hand withdrew itself, placing it back behind your back.
“I just hope you know that you’re not the only one who feels lost,” You paused mid walk giving him an encouraging expression before proceeding, “I mean trust me, I feel like half the population who claims they have their life together are just lying out of their ass,” your voice held nothing but truth as you rolled your eyes jokingly just thinking about the many adults who were lying to themselves on a daily basis.
It was his turn to chuckle, head nodding in agreement with your statement before he spoke again, “I applied but just didn’t have the grades to get into any of the schools I wanted to attend.”
Steve had spent a lot of time in high school focused on popularity and status and while it was a fun run, it ultimately came back to haunt him when he received three back-to-back letters from his top schools sadly rejecting him due to his failing grades. Not only was his parents disturbed, but regularly brought it up whenever they could, which is why he wanted to keep working so that he could save up and get his own place away from his parents and hopefully with a new itch to pursue a career he’d actually enjoy.
“You could always go to a community college, then transfer.” You pointed out with high spirits as Steve shook his head ferociously with his hand held out as if he was declining the very thought.
“My parents would lose their shit knowing their boy was going to a community college. They think it’s for broke kids, and I can’t damage the Harrington name.”
He looked sad. A little crushed, to be honest. Maybe it was because he didn’t agree with his parents’ views on the different school choice. Or maybe it was because he didn’t want to disappoint them. At this point, there was a big possibility that it could be both.
“Fuck what they think.” You blurted out with no second thought, taking yourself aback as well as Steve, who snapped his eyes at you, filled with trouble and a bit of intrigue to see where this was going.
“Why should I?” He challenged, standing in the middle of the empty sidewalk, turning his entire body to face you as you did the same, staring into his eyes, thinking of all the right and true things to say.
Because you don’t give yourself enough credit, Steve Harrington. You’ve changed since a year ago and you have got so much to offer to this world besides living up to your family name. You have an enormous heart that you’ve opened up to these kids who look at you like an older brother who they feel safe with. You’re not the jock jerk from high school that bullied others and that’s because you changed and you hold yourself accountable and make efforts to apologize to the people you hurt. You’re funny, charming, charismatic, handsome, and—
“You’ll only get so far if you keep trying to live up to other people’s standards and one day you’ll realize your unfulfilled because all you ever did was make the people around you accept you rather than doing something that makes you truly happy.”
You said it so quickly, you weren’t even entirely sure if Steve was able to understand any of that, but your suspicions were proved incorrect as he grinned broadly, nodding his head as his eyes trailed to the pavement unsure if he could look at you without feeling something strong inside him.
“Thanks.” He replied sincerely, finally catching your face that held a smile,
“Always.”
_
Steve’s eyes widened when the first two words left your mouth, his name included, “Holy shit,” his voice faltered, watching the words leave your lips beautifully, accompanied by the music and your nervous stare.
“She wrote you a song?!” Dustin turned behind him to look at Steve, the rest of the kids following as he ignored them, never letting his eyes leave you.
Steve swallowed thickly, continuing to listen to the words you’ve been dying to say as your mind and his seemed to be united, replaying specific moments in your complicated…friendship?….almost relationship?…but not really?
Whatever it was, it just wasn’t set in stone.
“Of all the girls tossing rocks at your window
I’ll be the one waiting there even when it’s cold
Hey Steven, boy, you might have me believing
I don’t always have to be alone”
Your fingers held the straps of your backpack that laid over your shoulders while you walked through the crowded mall on this Friday evening, making your way to Scoops Ahoy.
“Ahoy Steven.” You called out, approaching the register where his back was turned to you, sorting out papers before finally turning around and meeting your saluting figure.
He beamed walking up to the front counter, resting both palms on the surface, “Hey you, did you come by for some ice cream?” He queried, eyeing the plethora of flavors that were sitting in the deep freezer.
You shook your head with a tight smile and peeped behind him, trying to see if Robin was in the back, busy or on her break. “Is Robin here? We’re supposed to see a movie tonight and have her mom pick us up.”
Steve shook his head and frowned, causing you to be confused since she specifically said that it was this Friday. You couldn’t have mistaken it for next Friday since you knew she had band practice that week and—
“Robin left like two hours ago. Didn’t tell me where she was going, just that it was a super duper important emergency that had to be tended to immediately.” He quoted, trying to replicate Robin’s character as you let out a sad laugh and nodded.
“Well shit, guess it’s just one of those nights again…anyway, thanks Steve!” You were turning on your heel, prepared to walk out of the establishment and figure out how you were getting home tonight as you got dropped off to the mall and didn’t have your car.
But his voice called out to you and you spun back around to face him, “You have a ride home?” somehow he ended up outside the vicinity of the counter and was now standing face to face in front of you.
“Not tonight, my mom had to use my car for work today.” You gave him a tight smile as your weight shifted from one foot to the other, nervously, “…but it’s no worries, I can take the bus.” he narrowed his eyes, shaking his head and checking the time on his watch.
His eyes met yours again when he finished getting the hour. “I get off in fifteen minutes. What do you say I give you a ride back to your place?”
Your heart raced, mouth not knowing how to answer, but apparently your body did as your head nodded upon instinct, and Steve displayed a radiant smile.
“Great! You want to hang out in the back room? It’s much more comfortable than out here.” He gestured towards the back and you nodded, following him as he led you behind the counter and opened the back door, motioning you to take a seat at the desk.
You removed your bag, resting it on your lap as you sat and looked around, “Are you sure I’m allowed back here?” You raised your brows, pointing at the “Employee’s Only” sign that hung on the back of the door.
Steve waved it off, giving you a reassuring look, “Just there for decoration…I bring girls back here allllll the time.”
Your eyes enlarged and a pink flush covered your cheeks at what just escaped his mouth and Steve, who seemed to be confused at your expression, immediately caught onto his mistake.
“No, no, no, no! That’s not what I meant!” He panicked, not wanting you to think he was some douche bringing random girls back here during his breaks.
You attempted to make him feel less embarrassed, “Steve it’s ok—“
“I meant like El and Max, they come here all the time and nag me to stay in the back since they don’t want their classmates to see them.” He corrected himself, hands on his hips as you laughed and nodded your head.
“Steve, really you don’t have to explain yourself to me, i’s not a big deal if you have girls back here or not.” You soothed him, but there was a slight pang in your chest. You thought Steve had changed from high school and dropped the player's title.
“No, really, I’m serious.” He made his way over, standing on the other side of the desk where his hands now rested, “You’re the only girl….besides, Robin, Max, and El that has been in here…just came out wrong and weird the first time.”
Why was Harrington trying so hard to get you to believe him?
“I believe you.” You assured him, patting his hand as he let out a breath of alleviation before his attention was taken away from you as the bell dinged from the other side of the wall.
“Steve, I want my ice cream!” The small voice belonging to the one and only Erica Sinclair.
He rolled his eyes, yelling out a curt reply as he gave you another one of those famous smiles before telling you to relax back here for a couple of more minutes before he’d close up shop. So you did, pulling out your recent library borrow and reading a couple pages before you heard some ruckus coming from the front of the store, followed by your name.
Standing up from your seat, you stuffed your book back into your back, slinging over your one shoulder as you walked back out to the front, “Steve?”
A quirky smile sprawled out on his face as he held up his ice cream scoop and a bowl. “Any ice cream for your liking, M’lady.”
It caught you so off guard that you couldn’t help the snort that came with your laugh, throwing your head back at how ridiculously cute he looked, especially with the uniform that you came to love every time you came to see Robin at work.
“W-what? Do I look stupid?” He asked, grimacing sadly at his attempt to pull off something sweet for his new friend.
“No! No! I think it’s sweet actually, it’s just the whole getup really tops it all off.” Your fingers rounded the air as you pointed at his outfit, stepping closer to him so that you could pluck off his hat and place it on your own head.
He watched as you skimmed over glass, observing the flavors, letting out a small squeak when you saw your go-to, “peanut butter cup, please.”
Steve got to scooping you a substantial amount in your bowl, stopping only when you shrieked and told him you wouldn’t be able to finish the monstrous pile of creamy peanut butter ice cream and Reeses’ mix-ins.
“Toppings?” He asked, watching you scrunch your face, instead happily taking your plain old ice cream from his hands and taking a bite.
“Toppings ruin’s the flavor.” You said with a full mouth, attempting to chew the ice cream that was too cold for your teeth making him chuckle, going back and scooping himself his own bowl of ice cream.
“I have to disagree. Toppings are amazing.”
“On vanilla ice cream, sure, but if you’re piling on heaps of candy on an already sweet treat, then you’re just messing with the flavor profile.”
Steve rolled his eyes, topping off his mint chip with even more chocolate chips and sprinkles, before tossing the scooper into the sink. He took a bite, letting out an excessively loud hum, attempting to convince you that his ice cream masterpiece topped off a plain bowl of peanut butter cup anyday.
“Vanilla ice cream. Sprinkles. Chocolate sauce, but only two small squeezes. And a little dollop of whipped cream.” You said it so specifically, leaning against the counter as you two enjoyed your sweet treat together.
He seemed to like your order, filing it in his brain for whenever he would see you next time, “Not too bad…no cherries?”
You gagged in disgust and shook your head, “Hate ‘em. Reminds me of the dentists.”
He filed that in the “she hates this” folder.
The two of you finished up your ice cream, you even helping him with cleaning up the last bits of Scoops before heading out the back entrance and making your way to his car.
“Can’t believe Robin would ditch you for a date.” Steve said, stuffing his hands in his pockets as you walked through the parking lot.
You brushed it off and opted to smile instead, “I can’t be too mad…Vickie is great and her and Robin seem happy whenever they’re with each other,” you remembered his missing hat that rested on your head now and you smiled, pulling it off and placing it back onto his.
He grinned, thanking you, and pushing it down securely before going back to conversing, “I just don’t understand why she didn’t tell me. I mean, I am her best friend too.”
Footsteps halting and you looked at him, biting your lip as he finally stopped, realizing you were behind him, “What? Why are you stopping—“
“Super duper important emergency that had to be tended to immediately is code for “date” Steve.”
He looked a little puzzled, not entirely processing what you had said until he repeated it in his brain again, “What! How come I didn’t know about this?”
You giggled shrugging your shoulders and finally catching up to his spot, “It’s been me and Robin’s thing since Sophomore year…my parents used to be really strict with dating so when I had to come up with an excuse I used that phrase and said I was going over to Robin’s study for a last-minute test. It’s just been a thing that stuck, I guess.”
“Are your parents still strict with dating?” He wondered, peering over at you, shaking your head.
“Thank god,” he thought secretly, wanting to fist bump into the sky but hold himself back.
“Not really. They trust that I make good decisions so they aren’t too concerned, but they also know that I don’t get out much besides the Wheelers and Robin’s so they don’t have to worry about me getting knocked up either.” You joked, making him snicker a bit before another voice interrupted your conversation.
“Steve! Hey, Steve!”
You both turned around, watching as a girl ran up to the both of you and practically flung her arms around Steve’s neck, making you visibly embarrassed, as if you stormed the occasion even when it was her.
“Hey….hey Marissa, what’s up?” He was unsure, untying her arms from his body and placing it back at her sides, as she sulked and trudged her foot on the asphalt.
“Christian is having a party tonight. Do you wanna go?” She asked sweetly, rubbing her arms up and down his biceps as you wanted to shrink yourself into a puddle on the ground and evaporate.
Again, Steve removed her hands from him and shot her a look, “I’m not really feeling the whole party thing tonight, plus I’m actually dropping my friend off to her house so my schedule is a little booked,” He pointed over at you, who stood stiffly on the sidelines, keeping your eyes on the sky to avoid her harsh glare.
The girl frowned again, letting out a frustrated sigh, turning to you and shooting daggers at your face before heading back to her car. You and Steve continued the walk to his car in silence, but not before he gave you an apologetic smile.
“You really didn’t have to turn her down for me.” You muttered, eventually getting to Steve’s car as he unlocked the passenger door for you, waiting as you got buckled in.
“I really didn’t want to go out with her, anyway.” He answered, shutting your door and jogging over to the driver’s side where he got in.
A thought lingered, but you didn’t let yourself voice it to him, just fidgeting with in the passenger seat as he looked through the radio stations, finally settling on one until he started up the car and began the drive.
But you still couldn’t help but ask, “Why?”
“Hmmm?” He hummed, peering over at you, then back to the road, then back at you again for a few seconds.
“Why didn’t you want to go out with her?”
He let out a chortle, almost expecting you to laugh along with him, but you were dead serious. Stone faced as your body veered towards the left of you, getting closer to observe Steve.
“Oh, you’re actually being serious?” His laughter came to a screeching halt when he saw your deep stare.
His fingers remained tapping on the steering wheel and the music flooded out the brief silence between the two of you and he spoke without a seconds hesitation.
“I don’t want to waste my time, especially when I know that I don’t see a future with her. Kinda just grew away from the whole hookup scene, you know. I graduated. I had my time to fuck around already, but I just want to settle. Find a great girl and adore her….forever. ”
Shit, he really is charming.
“And plus…why go to a boring party when I could give my friend here a ride back home, knowing she’s safe and sound from the evil that lingers in Hawkins?”
You exhaled, closing your eyes at the answer and nodding before opening them back up, staring at his side profile that illuminated in the moonlight, “Thanks again, Steve…but I should’ve told you to take the last right two minutes ago.”
_
“‘Cause I can’t help it if you look like an angel
Can’t help it if I wanna kiss you in the rain, so
Come feel this magic I’ve been feeling since I met you
Can’t help it if there’s no one else
Mmm, I can’t help myself”
“And whose bright idea was it to go swimming during a storm watch again?” Nancy heaved, setting down her things by a nearby tree as you and Robin elbowed her slightly.
“It’ll be fun, Nance, cheer up!” You argued enthusiastically, throwing off your shirt and pants, leaving you in a black two piece stumbling your way through the rough ground and into the cool lake.
“Wait up, dingus!” Robin yelled after you, ripping off her own clothing and racing in, practically splashing you while you squealed and hands driving the water towards her in payback.
The two of you eventually settled and got used to the temperature, looking up at Nancy, who was considering her choices of either watching from her spot and being the conscientious friend she was, or joining in on the fun.
“Come on Nancy! It’s senior year, have some fun!” Robin screeched, which set something off in the girl, the two of you howling and whistling while she shrugged off her coat and began making her way in the shallow end with you two.
Nancy and you never were never exceptionally close, but the two of you found comfort in each other and began getting closer when she and Robin starting hanging out more. You tagged along, assuming you’d be third wheeling, but Nancy was a sweetheart, always making sure you were included and inviting you over to her home whenever her nose wasn’t stuffed into a textbook or newspaper club.
“Ok I’ll admit this isn’t too bad, it’s actually really peaceful out here, even when it’s about to storm,” Nancy admitted, swaying around in the water as you all marveled at the grey sky and the clouds that hovered your small town.
“And you finally get some time away from Jonathan.” Robin teased and Nancy rolled her eyes faintly, “Oh, and I suppose you and Vickie aren’t together all. the. time?”
Robin stayed hushed, as you and Nance looked at each other and smirked, “You two are sooooo in love with each other, it’s cute.” you complimented watching as her face lit up hearing about how her and her lover were so clearly into one another.
“What about you? Any guys in your love life?” Nancy relaxed her hand on top of yours beneath the water and you shook your head, “nope, no guys as of right now.”
“Bullshit. You and Steve?” Robin rose her brows suspiciously as you gasped and shook your head immediately.
Nancy was your friend, and she was also Steve’s ex and you’d be damned if you broke girl code just for a guy.
“Steve and I are friends. All he did was give me a ride home after you ditched me to go on a date.” You lovingly scowled at Robin, who mouthed a “sorry.”
“He isn’t bad, you know. He actually changed from a year ago, which is telling.” Her voice trailed distantly swimming deeper, Robin following, leaving you behind.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” You called out, paddling your arms to catch up to them.
“Means that if you like him, then take a chance on him.” Nancy said, turning to face you, nervousness covering your expression, not knowing if this was some sort of trick she was playing on you to see if you would break the girl code.
Nancy could read your mind. She was good at that kind of stuff.
She smiled sincerely as she reached out, pulling her arms around you in a hug, “You’re my friend and I want you to be happy, and don’t ever worry about the history me and Steve have. It was a good run, but I really feel that Jonathan is my soulmate and you deserve to find yours, too.”
That was the compassion that you were talking about.
“Yeah, and Steve wouldn’t shut up at work yesterday. He kept lecturing me that if he wasn’t there that you’d be stranded at a bus stop and something bad could’ve happened to you. Told me to never ditch you for a stupid date again….not unless he was working and could be your emergency ride home. He was real concerned, if you ask me.”
Robin’s confession made the butterflies in your stomach swarm wildly just at the thought of Steve being so concerned with you. You could literally feel your cheeks burning up and you so badly wanted to let out the highest pitch scream of your life feeling like a damn third grader all over again. You were sure that Nancy could feel your heart beating out of your chest since she was still hugging you, but this feeling didn’t last long as you heard tires screeching coming from a short distance away.
“Shit! We’ve been swarmed.” Robin muttered annoyingly, eyes trailing up the small hill seeing Eddie’s van parked while the older teens and kids filed out of the car dressed in their own swimwear.
Nancy squeezed you in her arms lovingly, “Go get him, tiger!” she released you, swimming back up to the shallow and running into Jonathan’s arm as she pulled him into a kiss.
“Definitely soulmates,” you thought to yourself.
Little by little, the lake was filled with your friends, basking in the peacefulness of their very own private space without needing to worry about nagging adults and bullies. You certainly didn’t want to make the first move to approach Steve, so instead you hung out by yourself, taking in everything all at once.
“Sorry to crash your girl time.” Steve floated up behind you, alarming you as you lost your balance on the uneven lake floor.
“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” He sprang into action, clutching your arm gently, keeping you up until you gained some sort of stability.
You let out a relieved breath and finally grinned, getting to meet his eyes. “Don’t be sorry…about crashing…and the jump scare.”
He returned the smile, nodding his head forward, signaling you to swim with him, and you did, “Max and El complained ten minutes after you guys left and begged Eddie to drive us all here. It wasn’t working up until El threatened she’d rat on Eddie’s drug deals.”
You giggled, a little water filling your mouth as you swam deeper, feet now unable to touch the ground beneath you, so instantaneously you grabbed the closest thing…or you should say person near you and that was Steve’s wrist.
“I got you, don’t worry.” He assured you comfortingly, remaining in your spot in the middle of the body of water. The sky grew darker and you could hear the rumbling of thunder that would soon come closer any minute now.
“Do you guys come out here often?” Steve asked, examining your face while you gawked up at the sky, watching the tiny tiny drops of rain that began to plummet.
You turned slightly, nodding your head, “Just to get away, but this is the first time we’re here during a storm,”
“There’s a first time for everything, right?” He replied softly, giving your hand a squeeze with his free hand,
“r-right.” your voice shook, melting into his touch.
It was as if you traded positions now. Him staring up at the sky, rain beginning to fall down quicker in bigger drops. He squinted and cursed under his breath, whipping away at his eyes when a raindrop plunged straight into his orbs, making you stifle a cackle.
You drew him closer by the shoulder to face you fully, “Here, let me see,” your hands letting go of his arm that you gripped on, counting on him to hold you in place to keep you from sinking. Thumbing around his eyes smoothly, you wiped away whatever water particles that were dropped, letting your fingers rest at the high points of his cheeks when you were done.
“He looks like an angel,” you thought to yourself
He blushed, more rain tumbling down and coating your skins, practically blessing you in the cold kiss, “Thanks”
���I said that out loud?!”
He bowed, smirking now, realizing that you didn’t even intend for him to hear you say that. Now he knew that you felt it. The magic. And it was about to be sealed, the two of you leaning closer until Robin’s voice echoed and thunder struck.
“Get your asses back up here! Storms coming in!”
_
“Hey Steven, I’ve been holding back this feeling
So I’ve got some things to say to you
I’ve seen it all, so I thought
But I never seen nobody shine the way you do”
You bit on finger nails, trotting the front of the Byers-Hopper resident, as it was your last resort at getting some advice without risking running into Steve. It had been two weeks. Two entire weeks since the lake incident and even when you ran into Steve, you made sure the interaction was short and quick. A “hello, how are you doing? That sounds good! I have to go, bye!” was the normal conversation now as you couldn’t bear to face him after almost kissing him.
Your knuckles were about to knock on the door again, but halted midway when Mrs. Byers opened up the door with a sparkling smile on her face, welcoming you in, “Hey sweetie! Come in, come on.”
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Byers.” You said hastily toeing off your shoes and entering her home.
She led you into the living room, gesturing you to sit on the couch. “Are you looking for El? Or Nancy? They’re at the arcade with the kids, honey. I could give you a ride if—“
You shook your head, cutting her sentence off as she oh’d and waited for you to speak. “I like this boy. And I really need advice, but I can’t really go to Nance or Robin about it ‘cause they’re with the guy right now. And I really can’t talk to my own mother about it since, I don’t know, I don’t want it to be awkward or anything. And I most definitely can’t talk to Mrs. Wheeler about it since the guy and—“
She snickered, slowing you down, taking a seat beside you, and pulling your arms into her lap as she smiled, “Take it easy, sweetheart, I’m all ears alright? You can tell me everything you feel comfortable telling me, and I’ll try to give you the best advice I can.”
You needed that more than anything, so you hugged her, and you hugged her tightly. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Byers—“
“Joyce.” She corrected rubbing your back then drawing away as she pushed the stray hairs away from your face.
“Thank you, Joyce…I just really like this guy, but I don’t know how to tell him or if I even should.” Your head rested in your hands now, mind racing with a million “what if’s” all going in the right and wrong direction, depending on how you would approach this situation.
Joyce rested a hand on your back, rubbing up and down soothingly like a mother would, “Honey, why don’t we start off with what you like about the boy?”
Your list went on for the next fifteen minutes as she sat there, beaming with pride at how enamored you were over this guy. I mean, you just kept going on and on about how kind and hardworking he was. How he had this entire character development, and it wasn’t some sort of phase in order to be liked by other people, but how he genuinely changed to be a better person.
“He’s just wonderful…everything about him, he’s practically perfect.” Your hands crossed over one another in the air, finishing up your spiel and taking a deep breath before looking at Joyce, who was still smiling from ear to ear.
“He sounds like it, sweetheart. I just don’t understand why you’re scared to confess how you feel.” Her forehead creased, and you exhaled sadly.
“I hate rejection. I fear it. And, Steve, he’s amazing and I don’t know if I’ll be able to live with myself knowing that I ruined a perfectly good friendship, all because I couldn’t look past some feelings.”
She hummed when you mentioned his name for the first time since for the past twenty minutes you were referring to the mystery guy as “him or he.” Steve was a good kid. She knew that for sure. He had apologized to Jonathan for some poor behavior in the past, but made the effort to change and actually stuck to his guns.
He was good. Good for you.
“Honey, there is no doubt in my mind that Steve may share these romantic feelings for you after what you told me, but you’ll never know if you don’t say anything. The worst that will happen is that he says he just doesn’t feel the same. And if that’s the case, just know that there is someone out there who will care and adore you unconditionally.”
Joyce was right, and you hated to admit that, partly because you just didn’t want to hear Steve utter the words, “I don’t like you back” but because you had been so good at not getting swept off your feet. The last relationship you had was back in sophomore year, and the guy was a total jerk—like the old Steve. It wasn’t the fact that you were scared of old Steve coming back, but more so the idea that you weren’t good enough for the new Steve, and how were you going to be able to keep up with a catch like him?
But fuck it. Here goes nothing.
“Does that ride to the arcade still stand?”
Joyce screeched, kissing your cheek excitedly as she stood up grabbing her car keys, and hurrying you out to the car where she drove you to the whole ten minutes down the arcade where she gave you a hug in the parking lot and again pushed you to get the man of your dreams.
“The way you walk, way you talk, way you say my name
It’s beautiful, wonderful, don’t you ever change
Hey Stephen, why are people always leaving?
I think you and I should stay the same”
Wrapping your fingers around the door, you pulled it open, swarmed by the chatter and sound effects coming from the machines in the arcade. Your eyes trailed around, trying to find him or any of your friends…but there he was. Playing PacMan, of course, with Dustin and Eddie practically breathing down his neck trying to knock him off his game so that he wouldn’t beat his high score. The others were doing there own thing to keep themselves entertained on this weekend.
You smiled at the scene, sneaking a few feet behind them in order to conceal yourself as you listened closely to their conversation, even if it felt a little wrong to do so.
“Stevie you suck!” Eddie rocked out, making up his own tune and lyrics to distract a very focused Steve.
Dustin played air guitar on the right side of Steve as Eddie continued, “You’ll never beat my score, you’re just bad luck!”
“Would you two please just…shut…up.” Steve exhaled, evidently agitated, just wanting to beat Eddie’s goddamn high score on this thing without being tormented by the two boys who were making up insults to get him fired up.
“He’s getting angry, knuckles clenched, about to blow…here we gooooo, but noooooooo!” Eddie erratically drummed his fingers on Steve’s shoulders just a few points away from beating the high score then—
“Hi guys!” Your voice peeped happily as you finally approached them. Steve quickly rotating, totally ignoring the stupid game and taking in all of you. Your oversized pullover and shorts. Beautifully messy hair. And even more beautiful face.
“Hey look who decided to show up and hang with the cool kids!” Eddie teased, reaching over to give you a quick hug, followed by Dustin, who did the same.
“H-hey!” Steve rubbed the back of his neck, awkwardly giving you a warm smile since the last time you two properly talked was at the lake and since then he hasn’t gotten the chance to catch up with you.
“Hi Steve,” you grinned, eyes never learning his the second you made eye contact.
“Mrs. Byers actually gave me a ride here. I know I turned down Eddie’s invitation, but I just needed to talk to her about something first.”
It should’ve been weird, the way you and Steve were just staring at each other, but it wasn’t, not until Dustin quirked up, “Well, what was it?”
Both sets of eyes snapped away from one another, turning to the youngest who smiled like a maniac, and Eddie, who was sensing the tension between you and Steve but not thinking anything of it.
“Y’know, just boy advice, that’s all.”
You didn’t see Steve’s eyes as they glimmered, but there was a sense of worry behind them. Had you found someone else?
Eddie and Dustin gasped, “You like a boy!?”
“Shut up, you guys!” You reached over, pinching their arms, finally getting them to stop acting like toddlers, especially in front of the guy you had a huge crush on.
They apologized halfheartedly, still snorting to themselves, “Soooo this guy…” Steve’s voice started catching your attention.
“Do we know him?” He crossed his arms over his chest, staring at you skeptically. And you built up a new sense of confidence after the pep talk Joyce gave you and you nodded your head, “Very, well actually.”
I mean, it was pretty obvious who you were talking about, right? You were practically eyeing Steve the entire conversation, so he had to know. He was just playing coy…right?
“Well, I mean, I’m having a party at my place tomorrow. You think he’ll be there?”
Your smile widened, and you nodded quickly, “He’ll be there. Absolutely.”
A hand patting your back roughly caused you to turn your head, “This is great! Can’t wait to meet the mystery guy! I’ll pick you and Robin up tomorrow, and we’ll head to Steve’s and meet your guy there.” Eddie wiggled his brow as you rolled your eyes.
“Can I come too? Please!” Dustin clasped his hands together, whining as the three of you shook your heads, the kids were never invited to Steve’s parties when there was alcohol present and tomorrow would be no different.
It could wait one more day. Tomorrow you’d be the first to admit your feelings.
_
“They’re dimming the street lights
You’re perfect for me
Why aren’t you here tonight?
I’m waiting alone now
So come on and come out
And pull me near
And shine, shine, shine”
Smoothing out the wrinkles on your jeans, you looked in the mirror, appreciating the way you cleaned up for tonight. Deciding to go for the simple casual look with a cropped white tee and your favorite pair of jeans that fit perfectly, paired with your beat up chucks. Today was the day. Operation, get the man of your dreams, as Joyce liked to call it.
A honking of the car horn startled you, your feet speedily taking you to your bedroom window to see Eddie waving his hand out his window while Robin shouted your name from the passenger seat.
“I’m coming!” You hollered, sealing your blinds shut and frantically grabbing your purse before jogging down the stairs and shouting a goodbye to your parents who sat on the couch watching late night television.
When you approached the van, passing Eddie’s window, he sighed, “Finally, you took foreverrrr.” Eddie says sarcastically, looking into the backseat of the van as you got in and shut the door loudly, rolling your eyes, “It was like thirty seconds, Munson, and seriously, one day you’re going to give me a heart attack.”
“You’ll live.”
Robin shifted around his her seat, “Munson tells me your crush is going to be at the party tonight.” She plays along, already knowing who the guy is, especially after you confided in her and Nancy after the *almost* kiss in the lake.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to come clean to him tonight….tell him how I really feel.”
She squealed, clapping her hands excitedly as you finally gathered up the courage to tell Steve that you liked him and no matter the outcome, she was going to be proud of you. It had been a good year and a half since you met someone who swept you off your feet, like Steve did. And it didn’t help the fact that she could read Steve like the back of her hand and she knew that it was mutually pining between you and him.
“Have you told Nancy?!” you shook your head, “I’ll tell her as soon as we see her.” you responded as she squealed again while Eddie just listened in, anticipating meeting this special guy.
When the three of you finally arrived, you all made your way into the residence. Eddie parting ways to do a couple of deals while you and Robin headed towards the drink table where you found Nancy and Jonathan cuddled up with red solo cups in their hands. It was nice knowing you had full support from Robin and especially Nance with the whole Steve situation. You knew that they wouldn’t let you do this if they didn’t think Steve was good enough for you and you definitely trusted their advice, considering your two best friends were in healthy relationships now.
Time ticked. About an hour went by and you had yet to come across, let alone find Steve. You, Robin, and Nancy split up, checking every room and area of the damn house, hoping to find him and lead him to you. I mean, it was his own goddamn party, so where the hell could he be?
“Don’t stress, cupcake, he’s probably just late.” Eddie declared with a cigarette in his mouth, watching your figure pace the porch with what was your third drink of the night in your hand.
You shook your head and glanced up at him through your lashes, evidently not satisfied with that excuse, “You don’t understand, Eddie, he’s supposed to be here.”
“Maybe he ran out to get beers or something?” Robin suggested from where she sat on the garden bench, head on Nancy’s shoulder while Jonathan kept quiet to himself, not really understanding what was going on thanks to the palm tree delight he bought from Eddie half an hour ago.
You weren’t content with that either, instead you tipped your cup of spiked punch to your lips, letting the liquid flow down your throat, assuming it would ease some of the stress and worry you were feeling in his very moment.
Your friends couldn’t stand seeing you like this. I mean, you must have had to be head over heels over this guy, especially he had you resorting to drinking when you usually, didn’t,
“Gosh, come here.” Nancy’s arm sprang out, pulling you mid walk into the last empty spot on the bench.
She and Robin both wrapped their arms around you in a soothing hold, knowing you needed this. Whenever you were anxious, a good ole’ hug always made you feel safe and secure.
“He’s going to be here alright, then you can talk to him in private and tell him how you feel.” Robin murmured against your neck, hand rubbing comforting circles on your back as your breathing calmed down.
Nancy hummed in accord, pushing away the strays of your hair behind your ear, “And we’re going to be here if anything goes wrong. We’re not leaving without you.”
At that moment, your eyes caught the maroon BMW that you rode in a couple of times since the two of you became friends. It came to a stop, parking just a few feet away from you in the driveway, then the driver’s door opened and there he was.
Your breathing hitched, watching his every move in slow motion, and then your friends gave you a strengthening pat on the back before they pulled away. “It’s now or never,” you sighed, standing up, your grip on your solo cup tightening as some sort of comfort fidget.
But the comfort was soon ripped away from you when the cup and its remnants splattered onto the concrete when you saw Marissa get out of his passenger seat.
“Oh, my god,” lips quivering and your voice barely a whisper anymore
Your heart was breaking, and the tears were beginning to form. You should’ve known that he would pick her, let alone any other girl, over you any day. She was beautiful, popular, and well liked. She’d been throwing rocks at his window while you were waiting around, doing nothing but crushing on a boy you knew you couldn’t have.
“Hey…woah are you ok?” Steve approached you, just as your drink fell and you nodded, stuck in the place in front of him as your feet couldn’t bear to move right now.
“Stevie, wanna go in and dance?” Marissa’s voice was like nails on a chalkboard, eating you and all the happy moments you and Steve shared up.
You cringed, shutting your eyes tightly, causing two tears to leak from each eye, Steve obviously noticing it thanks to the streetlights that lit up the neighborhood.
He turned his head, shaking his head at the girl, “No, no, you just head inside, alright?” she wailed again, before heading inside all by herself.
You felt a pair of hands come up to hold your shoulders and you flinched, forcing your teary eyes to snap open and stare into Steve’s, “What’s going on? Why’re you crying? Did your guy do something?”
Was this a sick joke the world was playing on you? The lump in your throat was supposed to stop you from speaking a single word from him, but it didn’t as you muttered a low, “forget about it,” shrugging his hands off of you roughly and walking away from his home, needing to get away from him and everything that reminding you of him.
“Holy shit.” Eddie and Jonathan muttered to themselves quietly as they watched the scene unfold. The realization hitting them that Steve was mystery guy all along. Jesus, they were slow.
The girls grimaced, instantly standing up and grabbing the two men to go after you.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Steve snagged onto Robin’s arm as she passed him swiftly, frowning as she pushed it away from her.
“I need to go after my best friend, alright?” She left it at that, her, Nancy, and Jonathan running after you down the street.
Eddie shook his head, standing face to face with Harrington, “You just made the biggest mistake of your life, dude.” he threw his cigarette onto the ground, stomping it out before going after you and leaving Steve a confused mess on the porch.
Was it a poor choice for a buzzed you to show up at Joyce’s home on a Friday night?
Sure, but you had no other place to go, and you definitely didn’t want your parents to worry over seeing you crying hysterically over a boy who wasn’t yours. So you begged Jonathan to let you stay at his home, and usually he wouldn’t mind, but at this point you were sad-drunk, a hot mess with a mascara tear soaked face and extremely messy hair. The last thing he wanted was a lecture from Joyce and Hop about parties, but he knew you needed a place to stay so he opened up the doors for you.
“I hate him! I never wanna see his stupid…dumb…perfect….handsome face….ever…again!”
Your fists pounded into Eddie’s chest as you drunkenly continued to break down while he held you up and Nancy and Robin, rushed Jonathan to get the door open with his spare key that he just so happened forgot in his other pair of jeans—
“What the hell—” The front door whipped open, and there was Hopper, standing in his pajamas, staring at the teens who tried to explain themselves.
Thankfully, Joyce came to the rescue, immediately pulling you into her arms once she saw your state, “Girls’ only!” she called out, stopping the moments of the guys who were following. She led your crying body into the guest bedroom where you plopped down onto the mattress, letting the sheets soak in your tears.
Joyce listened as Robin and Nancy explained the entire situation. How you were supposed to come clean to Steve and tell him how much the romantic feelings for him have grown over the past two months, but instead you were met with the harsh reality that Steve had already found someone.
“Oh honey, I’m so sorry.” She rubbed your back kindly, as you continued to sob, feeling so pathetic for even thinking that Steve would feel the same for you.
Maybe he was just leading you on. Maybe he didn’t change at all. He was still the same player from high school who broke the hearts of girls who actually liked him.
“You’ll get over him, sweetheart…you’re a good girl who deserves someone who doesn’t think you’re the second choice.” Joyce continued to console you through the tears, while Robin and Nancy excused themselves, going to get some water and tissues for you.
There they found the boys. Eddie, Jonathan, and Hopper, sitting on the couch in uncomfortable silence as your cries from the hallway filled the home. The situation would’ve been ever more pressing if they had to explain to the kids that their hero babysitter was actually a prick, but thankfully, they were spending the night at the Wheelers.
“Is she ok?” Eddie stood up quickly. He could kill Steve, to be honest, but he didn’t need Hooper on his ass for another reason other than his drug dealing.
The two girls shook their heads, “She’s a wreck—umm Jonathan, do you’ve got any tissues around?” Nancy proposed, and he coughed stiffly, nodding as he led her into one of the closets, passing her a fresh box of unopened tissues.
“I think she’s going to crash here tonight, so Nance and I will make sure she gets home safe tomorrow morning. In the meantime, just keep it hush, alright? She already feels terrible.” Robin told them, as they all nodded their heads.
That night, you laid in the middle of the queen sized bed, as the girls did their very best to comfort you through this heartache. Cracking jokes at Steve’s expense to make you laugh a little. Putting on some tunes that would lift your spirits. And even having an impromptu movie night, scarfing down popcorn, chips, and soda to make you feel better.
_
“We should totally go!” Robin gleefully threw an arm around your shoulders as the three of you walked down the school’s halls. Nancy had picked off a flyer from the school’s bulletin board about the upcoming Hawkins’ fair that would feature a few booths from school to help raise money for this year’s extra-curricular activities like the sports team and the news writing club.
You shrugged and sighed. “I’m not really in the mood to go out.”
You really weren’t in the mood for anything these days. Instead, you opted to stay locked in your room, journaling about how you felt, knowing it was your safest bet on not looking like a lovesick fool in front of your friends. Plus, hanging out with the whole gang meant risking running into Steve, and that was the last thing you wanted. If you had to throw away your social life for the rest of senior year in order to avoid him, then you would.
And you weren’t kidding either.
“It’ll be fun…we’ll play a bunch of stupid fair games, then eat a bunch of stupid fair food, and maybe we’ll even win one of those ridiculously stupid teddy bears.” Nancy tries to convince you, poking your side gently, making a small smile break out on your face.
The fair was a week away, so you had plenty of time to decide if you wanted to go or not. You didn’t know if you’d be in the right head space when the date came closer, so just to be safe, you left the plans up in the air. Nancy and Robin gave you a comforting hug as they went off to their last period of the day, but since you were waaay caught up on credits, you had a free period to either stay back at school or head home. Today you decided to stay back, heading into the empty music room to get some peace, knowing that no one spent their free period there and you’d have it all to yourself.
“Finally.” You murmured, tossing down your backpack as you took a seat in one of the chairs, before reaching in and pulling out your journal and jotting down the thoughts that lingered in your head today.
It was nice being able to have some peace and quiet, especially after being surrounded by noisy classrooms and students. You hummed softly, as you wrote freely, not noticing the door to the music room opening and the figures coming closer to you.
“What’re you doing here?”
“Holy shit!” You jumped in your chair, notebook flying out of your hand and landing with a smack on the floor as you looked up and saw Eddie and some of his friends from Corroded Coffin.
You groaned, reaching over and slapping Eddie on the arm harshly. “Eddie, you can’t just sneak up on me like that! I could’ve punched you or something!”
He and the guys laughed, apologizing before Eddie bent down, picking up your book. His eyes didn’t mean to read the contents, but he really couldn’t miss the name that was written about five times, followed by some catchy and corny phrases. He smiled as he passed it back to you.
“You wrote a song about Steve?” He pulled a chair out, remaining in front of you as you furrowed your eyebrows and shook your head.
“It’s just some stupid writing.” You clarified, looking back down into your book and rereading them in your head.
His bandmates took a seat as well, giving you a smile and hello, “Do you guys want me to leave? I didn’t know you had band practice.”
“What was that tune that you were humming?” Eddie waved off your question as you peered at him, perplexed.
He motioned his hands at you, telling you to repeat the melody, and you sighed, rolling your eyes as you did.
Eddie repeated it and laughed, pulling your notebook to him, reading the lyrics in his head. You were a goddamn genius without even knowing it.
“Do you hum this every time you write?” He asked curiously, and you shrugged, pulling your precious notebook full of your secrets to your chest.
“I hum all the time…but that specific tune only for this entry.” You told him as he sat back in his chair and looked over at you, “I’m gonna hum that melody and I want you to sing those lines. Just whatever feels right, sing it that way.”
“Eddie, it’s not a song, it’s just a—“
He placed a hand over yours, giving you those eyes followed by a “trust me.”
You sighed, rolling your eyes as you opened up the book to those pages, singing quietly enough for Eddie to hear as he hummed the melody over and over, putting his little twist on it as you got further into the sweet lyrics…and bam!
You were a goddamn song writer.
“Holy shit.” Gareth smirked, clapping his hands as you finished up the first chorus.
Soon, the rest of the guys; Jeff, Kevin, and Eddie followed. “You need to perform this song,” his fingers dug into the table, basically demanding you to do this outrage thing that was totally out of your comfort zone.
“No! Are you insane!” You argued, shutting the notebook close and stuffing it back into your backpack, hiding it away from ever being seen again.
“At the fair…we have a set, but we can give you like five minutes and you can open and perform this song!” Eddie rubbed his hands together excitedly, already planning it, as you shook your head with wide eyes in panic.
“You know I absolutely cannot go and do that! You expect me to just name drop Steve out in the open like that? Especially after he practically ripped my heart into shreds!“
Eddie shushed you, gripping your shoulders in his hands. “I know that your heart still feels broken, but it’s going to stay that way if you never get those things you’ve been wanting to say off your chest. You wrote this for a reason, believe it or not. You deserve to tell him how you feel, and the least he can do is listen.”
You swallowed, not wanting to admit that Eddie was finally right about something. You had avoided Steve for the past few days and there was still so much you wanted to say to him, even after the incident that happened on that Friday night. You wanted him to know that you really did have true and deep feelings for him. That he messed up overlooking a gem of a girl who was ready and willing to give the world to him because you liked the real Steve.
Not the one that threw drunken weekend parties, but….
The one who wasn’t scared to swim in the middle of god knows where during a storm.
The one who wore that stupid Scoops Ahoy uniform and ripped off the stupid hat, breaking company policy.
The one who babysat freshman since he didn’t have anything better to do.
The one who would offer you rides when you and Robin would spend the entire night at the theaters with no one left to take you home.
The one and only Steven Harrington.
“Fine. But you promise I won’t make a fool out of myself?”
You held your pinky finger out between the two of you and he chuckled, nodding his head, hooking his with yours.
“And I want a ride after this. To the mall.”
It was like it was supposed to happen, and everything felt so right. The guys had sprung into action, pitching ideas as they strummed and hit their instruments, coming up with a harmony that would compliment the melody and lyrics. It definitely wasn’t close to metal, more like country pop, but by god it sounded great and they were not going to miss out on this type of talent. When the last bell of the day rang, you thanked each of the guys with a smile and hug before practically dragging Eddie to his van, demanding he drive quickly to StarCourt.
And now you were here. Maneuvering through the crowded mall with Eddie trailing quickly behind you, trying to get you to slow down, but it only made you want to walk faster until you pulled the doors open.
“What are we doing here?”
“Steve!” you shouted, quickly grabbing his attention, dropping the scooper and hopping over the counter to stand in front of you.
He had tried to call your home phone, but you never picked up seeing his caller ID. And when he asked Robin, or Nancy, or anyone about you, they’d tell him you weren’t feeling well and were avoiding everyone. But he didn’t believe any of it. Not even for a second. You wouldn’t do that.
“H-hey, hey, I’ve been worried sick about you—I mean, I haven’t seen you for like five days and that’s a while. You usually come around to hang out with Robin or just to talk…and you haven’t been around, at least when I’m around…did I do something?”
His voice was unsteady and rapid, trying his best to act relaxed about it, but he wasn’t going to let you run away this easily. He wanted answers. Why were you avoiding him? He needed to know so he could make it all better. Or at least try to.
“Come to the fair…the one happening in a week.” You told him instantly, standing up straight and not letting your guard down for even a second.
He stared blankly at you, confused, but still he nodded, “Y-yeah, sure. Of course. I’ll be there.”
You smiled, getting the answer you wanted, “I’ll see you then,” you turned on your heels, about to walk out, but he grabbed onto your arm gently.
“Wait, just…just give me a second, alright. I want you to have something.”
He gave you a hopeful smile, as you sighed, nodding your head as you watch him rush to the backroom. You could hear Eddie making some joking comments from behind you, but you ignored him, watching Steve step back out with a bowl of ice cream in his hands, quickly bringing it to you and placing it in your hands.
Vanilla ice cream topped off with sprinkles, two lines of chocolate sauce, and a little dollop of whipped cream.
“I make one every day…..in case you come in.” He said, as you eyed the treat and your heart began to race a little.
You wanted to jump into his arms and tell him how much you liked him, but instead you settled for a thank you and a smile. Walking out of the store with Eddie smiling behind you like an idiot and Steve left standing, wondering why you were acting so casual when he was clearly into you.
_
For the past four minutes, you had been immersed in the story of you and Steve. Not paying attention to the large crowd that formed, swaying and cheering along to your singing frame that waltzes around the stage without a care in the world.
And Steve. He was beside himself, feeling so dumb for not making a move quick enough. How you liked him so much that you wrote him a song, but the only thing he did was give you a damn bowl of ice cream that just so happened to be your new go-to and favorite.
But as the last set of lyrics from the bridge left your mouth, you slowed down your dancing. Placing the mic back onto the stand as you beamed at Steve, wanting him to know that in this moment you were only seeing him, and this was for him.
“Hey Steven, I could give you 50 reasons
Why I should be the one you choose
All those other girls, well, they’re beautiful
But would they write a song for you?”
He smirked, shaking his head and mouthing you a “no!” as you finally laughed. Actually, let out a laugh that perfectly went with the song before getting pulled into the chorus one last time.
“I can’t help it if you look like an angel
Can’t help it if I wanna kiss you in the rain, so
Come feel this magic I’ve been feeling since I met you
Can’t help it if there’s no one else
Mmm, I can’t help myself”
You took a deep breath as your song finished up. Totally surprised by the overwhelming applause you received from the town and your friends, but especially Steve, who shouted out a, “you rock!” making you giggle. You quickly bowed, gesturing towards the band who made it all possible, walking over to give Eddie a giant hug.
“Killed it, sweetheart.” He whispered into your hair as you grinned, pulling away, “All thanks to you…and hey, thanks for encouraging me to do this.”
“Don’t mention it…now go get your Steven.” His voice teasing, finger pointed at Steve in the crowd, who waved at you, gesturing over to the side of the stage, wanting to meet you there.
“Wish me luck.” You sighed, giving him a smile as he nodded.
You gave the crowd one last wave before Corroded Coffin went back to their regular programming, heavy metal and punk as you jogging off to the side of the stage where Steve was already waiting. Hands in his jean pockets, staring down at the grass before you cleared your throat, coming closer to him, just inches away.
“H-hey.” You said quietly, with a smile, hoping this wasn’t too awkward.
He let out a relieved sigh and smiled too, “Hey yourself…I….I’m stupid for not chasing after you that night.”
You nodded, remaining quiet as you tucked your hands behind your back, digging your nails into your palms anxiously,
“I know it looked bad, but it really wasn’t what it seemed. She is nothing but a stranger, I swear. I don’t feel anything for her...at all. I just gave her a ride since I didn’t want her to be stranded after her friends left her on the side of the road.”
He tried his best to explain it to you, and you listened, heart still stinging a bit,
“All this time, it’s been you…and I meant it when I said I didn’t want to waste any time on another empty relationship. I don’t want to waste any time with another girl because I want you and only you. These past couple of days, I’ve been feeling unfulfilled, and that’s because you’re not around.”
Your mouth hung open and your heart raced a million times over the speed limit, he removed his hands from his pockets, gently reaching to grab yours from behind your back and holding each of them in his, “I like you and I like you a lot…i know I messed up, but I can make it up to you if you let—“
Without a second thought, you drove your head forward, connecting your lips together in the most electrifying kiss of your life. The sparks flew, and you felt the magic coursing around the two of you. His lips moved against yours, arms moving to pull you tighter, basically hugging your bodies together as you gripped onto his shoulders, deepening the kiss, only pulling away when you felt droplets of rain coming down slowly.
You giggled, blinking up at the sky, both of you realizing how ironic the situation was, especially after the lyrics you had just sung out for him.
“That’s means I like you too.” You grinned softly, resting your forehead against his as you two dorks gawked at each other, filled with so much lust and affection.
“How does it go again?” He rose his brows, swaying your body in his cages, “I can’t help it if I wanna kiss you in the raaaainnnn sooooooo!” He sang it loud and proudly as you threw your head back, giggling uncontrollably as you playfully tried to push him away, but he wasn’t going to let you go this easily.
Not this time. Not ever again.
You shut him up with a kiss and he returned it, still mumbling the lyrics against you, making the laugher never stop.
He finally pulled away, your face in his hands now as he took in your features and those bright eyes, “Let’s go win you one of those stupid teddy bears, I want you to write another song about me!”
“Of course you do, Steven.” You rolled your eyes jokingly, squealing as he kissed you again, feeling your smile against his lips, which he was sure was ear to ear, and now he was certain he was never letting you go.
And you never looked back as he dragged you into a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment that you never thought was possible.
He was your Steven and many more love songs that you marvelously wrote.
A/N: I know it was long, but I hope you guys enjoyed it! This is my first fic I am ever publishing on tumblr so I really appreciate all comments you guys leave <3 I’m also planning to write a bunch of Steve and Eddie (maybe even Robin) fics based on taylor swift songs!!!
#MunsonsReputation#steve harrington x you#steve harrington x fem!reader#steve harrington x reader#steve harrington fluff#steve harrington imagine#steve harrington fic#steve harrington#steve stranger things#stranger things fluff#stranger things fic
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Ghosts Among Us - Freefall, Chapter 1 | The Bad Batch x Jedi!Reader
Summary: What happens when a team loses a part of themselves? What happens when the storm dies out and theres only wreckage left?
a/n: The chapters in this series are split into sections, Before and After. The before chapters are set during the Clone Wars, before TBB, with a slight AU.
I want to say a big thank you to @mylifeisactuallyamess for majorly boosting my Clone fixation, and encouraging me to write this. Thank you so so much, i am so grateful for this🥹
Warnings: Battles, fighting, threatening, mention of loss, all of my work is 18+. so do not read if you're a minor
I do not allow any of my work to be republished without my consent, that being said, reblogs and comments are much appreciated if you liked it!✨
Words: 2.6k
Series Masterlist | Series Playlist | Masterlist
Before
Once again, The Bad Batch were in a situation that was risky, even by their standards.
Thrown deep in a fight with a group of Weequay pirates, mere minutes after crash landing in their ship… which they may have the cause of. There was still the possible threat of concussion lingering about each of them, but they’d fought with much worse injuries against much greater opponents.
Except, they weren’t usually this outnumbered. There was the initial group in front of them, firing relentlessly but some seconds ago, another group had appeared from nowhere and they were now being attacked from both angles in a pincer movement – like newbies. Like regs.
Hunter ducked behind a battered container, counting the blaster fire before he popped back up and fired off rounds of his own, working seamlessly with Echo beside him, “So, I say this went as well as everything else we do.”
Echo snorted softly, keen eyes tracking their opponents even as smoke began billowing across the small stretch of no man’s land, courtesy of the flaming debris all around them. “You’d think by this point we would stop making plans and just start acting on instinct.”
Wrecker's laugh echoed from behind them as he launched a handful of grenades through the air, punctuated by their explosions.
Hunter shook his head as the sounds echoed outside his helmet, “Isn’t that what we always do?”
Something suddenly danced along the back of Hunter’s neck, a whisper to those senses of his, the ones that felt things in the air, the ones that knew what was going to happen seconds before it did. Those senses which had saved their lives more times than he could count.
And now, those senses lifted their heads, almost purring when they felt the call coming in the air, the crackle of electricity before the sky exploded.
“Brother, you might want to recalculate that assessment.” Hunter slid his blasters back into the holsters on his thighs, taking a moment to roll his shoulders and crack his neck, all the while his skin tingled, and his instincts were becoming aware of something other.
To his left, Tech dodged a shot, quickly dropping to one knee to return fire with his own twin blasters, still drinking in the information that his goggles and visor provided to him, “I do not need to recalculate my assessment, Hunter. Based on the pincer movement we have somehow allowed ourselves to fall into, not to mention the advancement of our opposition, even Wrecker can tell you that we are outnumbered.” A flash of irritation lined his words, hackles raised at the insinuation his knowledge was incorrect.
Hunter opened his mouth to explain, but Wrecker had beaten him to it with a lot of indignation, “Hey! What’s that ‘sposed to mean?!” He picked up a discarded container, one they had been previously using for cover and launched it across the open space – to then be met with a solid, resounding thunk as it wiped out several pirates.
With a shake of his head, he turned away, letting the sounds of his brothers bickering fade into the background as he looked out across the battle, head ticking over escape routes, constantly reworking them, weak points, their weak points – even though he knew he didn’t need to. Not for much longer.
The smoke was still flooding the clearing, obscuring everything to the point where he doubted even Crosshair would have managed a clear shot.
The air went still. Silent. A single beat of nothingness, of waiting and anticipation. A held breath, a paused heartbeat.
And then the smoke exploded into light and chaos and vengeance.
Ghost.
Two gleaming arcs of white light cut through the haze, seemingly dropping to the ground in front of them from nowhere. They were all that could be seen, one held in front, one behind, in that trademark grip.
“Boys, must I rescue you all the time?” Your voice danced through the smoke, light and teasing, that undercurrent of affectionate laughter that you always had when you were with them – and yet, Hunter knew you were three seconds away from turning into the fierce, untouchable warrior you were renowned for being.
“I am going to give you three seconds to take your bottom-feeding scum out of this clearing whilst you still have some semblance of dignity left. If you can even call it that.” You scoffed, still just a phantom voice in the wind, just like the nickname they had given you when you wished to shed the pain of your old life, “You may believe that I’ll simply disarm you and ship you off for a trial, but that is not my way.” Those sabers lifted higher, as if signifying just why they gleamed as white as the stars, carrying no colour or loyalty to a side.
Neither light, nor dark, but the in-between.
The very air itself seemed to hold, even as his brothers lowered their weapons, knowing this fight was pretty much over, that the tables had turned and they were about to watch something magnificent and deadly.
“Not only did you hurt the lives of innocents and were willing to trade them… You tried to hurt my friends.” Now your voice changed, the laughter slipping from it only to be replaced with something sharper than the edge of his vibro-knife, “And no-one hurts my friends.”
Three.
There was a near-silent whisper in the air before the smoke folded in on itself from the middle, sweeping outwards toward the trees like a parting sea. It left the clearing free of obstruction, revealing scorched ground, smoking remains of the downed cargo ship and the amount of pirates surrounding them.
Tech had been right, they were outnumbered.
Two.
Standing before the Batch, your posture was almost that of a dancer, one foot poised in front of the other, weight centered, energy coiled and ready to spring for the throats of any who dared hurt your boys.
Your eyes were fixed solidly on the leader across the way, lips tilted up in a challenging smile that was all teeth and smoke, white light dancing across your face. Something other. Something beautiful.
One.
~~
“You think we can salvage any of this to take back to Cid?” Wrecker trudged through the debris and rubble, his helmet resting on the top of his head like always. He kicked aside some still smouldering piles of metal, making a curious noise at something gleaming in the ashes.
Echo was next to him, surveying the mess around them, “It could take some time to comb through the rubble. Besides, Cid didn’t even tell us what we were meant to be looking for anyway.” He huffed, carrying his helmet under his arm.
The conversations were a gentle hum in the background as you breathed out slowly through parted lips, trying to soothe that cracking energy still wild in your blood.
Whenever you indulged it, it was always an effort to wrangle back under control. It had spent so many years having to be restrained, years after being ripped from you and manipulated - it wanted out, it wanted freedom.
You could hardly blame it, it was only the words and memories that forced you to take these moments, these breathers to try and calm the sparks in your blood. Really, you’d much rather let it be free, let yourself feel. Your boys had tried to encourage as much, but when you let that side go… people got hurt. Badly.
“I am reading that your heart rate and breathing levels are spiking rather than settling down. Can I assume that your meditation isn’t having the desired effect?” Tech’s calm voice filtered through the impending panic, encouraging you to open your eyes and look up at him from your spot on the grass. He looked down at you through his goggles, trusty datapad dangling from his hand and his helmet tucked under the other.
You chuckled a little, letting out a soft sigh afterwards, “That would be a very correct assumption, Tech.” Looking between his eyes, you allowed your Force connection to instead reach for him, cocking its head like a curious Loth cat, purring in response to a familiar companion, “I think it’s because they always used meditation as a way to keep me still, calm. I’m not… I’ve never been able to be still. I have to move in some way or I’ll go insane.” Reaching out, you patted the floor next to you as an invite.
Tech hesitated for a moment, his hand coming up to push his goggles up before he seemed to decide it was okay. He dropped gracefully down beside you, crossing his legs. There was still some space between you both, but you were closeted all the same, and hoped he was too.
No part of you touched, but you felt his closeness as if you were, “I understand what you mean. I have been told that I always move, too. Apparently I have a twitch in my leg whenever I have to be still, I’ve been to medical centres to get it assessed but there is nothing wrong with me. It’s just… part of me, I suppose you could say.” He shrugged lightly, even as he toyed with his datapad, uncomfortable with the idea that there was no solid answer.
You looked over at him for a moment, nodding lightly, “I always got told the same thing when we were being taught how to meditate. I needed to stop tapping, needing to stop counting the patterns on the walls and close my eyes.” With a soft shake of your head, you returned to looking out at the landscape.
Tech watched you, goggles flickering with the usual information;
Your heart rate, calm, if slightly elevated. Breathing, easy. Body temperature, between the appropriate levels for someone of your genetic makeup - Jedi. You were healthy. Unhurt, aside from some minor bruising.
His keen honey-ringed eyes noted how you picked at the grass, pulling the strands and winding them around your fingers, like you weren’t even aware you were doing it. He’d always noticed this behaviour, of course he had, but it never clicked that you both shared that subconscious action. A stim, he’d once heard it called.
You were both quiet for a moment, listening to the sounds of the others a little ways behind you both. Then Tech spoke up again, “In some ways, you are defective. Like us. You don’t fit the mould of what a Jedi is meant to be, the typical behaviours they expect.” His voice was even, definitive. He wasn’t being rude, he was just being factual and straightforward.
It was one of the things you respected in him, the ability to always tell it the way it is, no sugarcoating, no half-truths. And this was the truth.
You chuckled a little again, a soft hum in your throat, “You’re right, Tech. Of course you are.” A slight shrug lifted your shoulders, “I never followed exactly what they expected from me… I guess I was a lot like Anakin in that way. They often didn’t know what to do with me.” Your smile fell at the mention of your old friend, someone you cherished as closely as a brother. The pain never grew any easier, and if anything it just burrowed deeper.
You took a deep breath, trying to clear it and keep your mind light, “Sometimes I wonder if Rex saw my… defectiveness. And that’s why he pushed so hard for me to be on that mission on Anaxes.”
“He knew you needed us.” Tech spoke almost before you finished talking, taking a second before looking over at you through his goggles, “And that… we needed you.”
That resonated deep in you, hitting something that was broken but mending. They needed you. Of course you might have joked about it but… for them to say it, for Tech to say it… it made your throat close up, even just a little.
You took a second, let that comment settle inside you before saying softly, but not weakly, “Thank you, Tech. I do need you.” Carefully, slowly so he could move away, you bumped your knee to his.
Tech looked down at the movement, blinking those big brown eyes. You saw him tense just a fraction, just a little but he didn’t move.
The two of you sat in a peaceful silence together, watching the birds fly in the distance, the smoke dissipating through the sky and dissolving in the clouds.
Some time later, when the hum of the Marauders engines broke the peaceful ambience, Tech got to his feet smoothly, brushing down his armour.
You watched him, waiting for him to rise before you moved yourself in case you startled him but then…
Then he extended his hand to you, almost without thinking, “Come, Ghost. I believe it’s time to head home.” He was looking at you with a smile playing about his lips, his helmet now under the same arm as he was holding his datapad.
Okay.
You knew not to make a fuss over it, not to bring attention to the fact he was offering you a hand up. Because it wasn’t that he didn’t like touch, it was more he didn’t like it with no warning or permission, not after all those years on Kamino.
So, instead, you slide your hand into his, allowing him to pull you easily to your feet, before brushing off your own clothes. “Thank you.” You looked back toward the Marauder, “I hope Cid has food, I’m starving.”
Tech laughed slightly, letting go of your hand when you were safely up, “Oh, I think she knows to have it ready, especially when Wrecker comes back.”
“Hey!!!”
Stars, it was good to be home.
After
People always talk about the calm after the storm. The moment where everything settles down, where the wind stops raging, the clouds stop churning, the sky stops turning to fire. They talk about peace and serenity.
What they don’t talk about, is the absence of everything. The absence of that ferocious beauty.
The silence. The desolation.
The Marauder felt like it had the soul sucked out of it. The parlour felt darker, dimmer than before.
Tech’s infodumps about his research were stinted, cut off.
Wrecker didn’t smile as much, didn’t play around like he used to.
Hunter was even more stoic than usual, jaw permanently wound tight enough to snap. He pushed them harder, faster, took any job Cid threw their way, no matter the danger or the risk. He didn’t care anymore.
Echo was even more silent, eyes heavy, head full of memories that your peace couldn’t chase away. His nightmares were back too.
All of them were struggling to sleep.
The Bad Batch had lost that wild storm, the living, breathing energy that wove between them all, brought them closer, made them fiercer, stronger.
They had let you slip from right under their hands, like blood from a wound that would never heal.
You were gone, taken, lost.
They’d searched high and low, every corner of every dark pit of the planets you’d frequented - and ones you hadn’t.
Gone, without a trace. Like you’d never been there at all, like you’d been erased the way history had dictated you and everyone else like you should have been.
But you were a fighter, like them. You clung to life with all the determination and wicked strength you showed everyday.
You would never give up on them. You’d tear the galaxy to shreds to look for them.
And they would do the same. Every last scrap of the galaxy, every last molecule.
They’d burn it all to find you. And that is exactly what they were going to do.
#the bad batch#the bad batch x reader#the bad batch hunter#tbb hunter#the bad batch tech#tbb tech#the bad batch crosshair#tbb crosshair#the bad batch wrecker#tbb wrecker#the bad batch echo#tbb echo#tbb hunter x reader#tbb crosshair x reader#series masterlist#the clone wars#star wars
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Desynced
So I really like Desynced.
Strictly speaking, it doesn't 100% fit what I was talking about in my Homestuck manifesto, since it's technically a Homestuck fan adventure rather than a brand new work.
However…for a fanwork, it feels more like a new piece of Homestuckian art than many others I've seen?
I'm reminded of an old Hussie formspring response, where the question was about what would happen if siblings living in the same house played SBURB. Hussie's response was that one shouldn't try to solve this with the rules of Homestuck, but instead imagine the kind of story and plot that would suit such a scenario.
Desynced is like that - playing by its own rules. A lot of other fan adventures feel too stuck (ha) in adhering to the rules of SBURB and Paradox Space. Desynced is quite literally playing an entirely different game. It lets go of so much about the way a fan story is traditionally conceived, and brings in its own set of laws and ideas that fit its own story better.
Some things I like, in no particular order:
-The depiction of parents and children - Desynced knocks this out of the park by splitting the difference between faceless authority figures and relatable kids by playing with perception and letting the parents talk to each other as adults, even when they're faceless to their kids. There is some really phenomenal parent-child content here. The relationship between Kate and her father, for instance, is fraught and filled with missed conversations that break my heart
-That in 2024, everybody in the main group gets to be queer and trans from the very start
-That the protagonist kids are Zoomers, and we see that their interests tend not toward 80s movies but things like Minecraft and Discord chats
-That we seem to be building towards a "war in heaven" theme, where different members of the future gods and Carapacians will take different sides in a cosmic struggle
-The music, which is full of bangers and feels like the sequel to the Homestuck bandcamp page that I never knew I needed
-The total reimagining of Jack Noir, which seems like it shouldn't work, but totally does
-The genius way that the game's equivalent of Denizens tie into weird cosmic mysteries
-Alien kids who appear at first glance to be trolls but are quickly revealed to not be trolls at all (maybe they're tieflings)
-The way in this universe, Trollsonas only exist in connection to an obscure game called Hiveswap
-The fact that the fantasy land inhabitants, the equivalent of consorts, are more fleshed out and have their own lives going on instead of just being silly animals - which hints that we're taking 'their existence more seriously and sincerely.
-That when Desynced does "play the Homestuck hits," it reminds you of how good those narrative structures are. Examples include:
Ordinary internet friend group discovers they are all interconnected and inveigled in a vast conspiracy
Making sense of the rules of a confusing alternate gamey-reality that suggests a sense of purpose but doesn't give you instructions for achieving it
Oh, and also, you have to do this while the world is ending and you're about to die
Villain narrator makes fun of you, the reader
Alien kids interrupt your game session to ramble at you about how they know much more about the game than you do, but it turns out they're just a tiny bit ahead and they're as confused about most things as you are
Ascending to godhood helps you redefine your identity but also causes as many problems as it solves
It's like, woah, Homestuck was really cooking, wasn't it?
We're all so used to the Homestuck plot structures and conventions that I think it's very easy to lose sight of why we fell in love with it in the first place. Reading Desynced made me remember how much I love the premise of Homestuck. Desynced achieves this by detaching from convention and focusing on Homestuck's themes: parent-child relationships, the limitations of one's ideology, the double-edged sword of finding identity in fantasy, and more.
So yes, Desynced is a Homestuck fanwork. But if we're asking where a Homestuck literary movement might go in the future, Desynched offers us a really neat glimpse of part of the answer.
I highly recommend checking it out, if you're interested.
-Ari
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Unrequited
Part Two
Warning(s): Implied smut, angst
Pairing(s): Azriel x Reader, Lucien x Reader
Word Count: 2374
Azriel’s POV
Azriel woke up at the first glimpse of the sun and instinctively patted the space next to him in bed. It was empty. He knew it would be, but he still checked each time. The sheets were still warm- he knew she didn’t leave too long ago. The Shadowsinger dragged himself out of bed with a sigh and stretched - his arms first, then his wings.
He quickly bathed and dressed, before making his way to the dining room. When he arrived, he found Cassian and Nesta already at the table and bickering about gods-know-what. Azriel grunted a quiet greeting to the couple and sat down at the table. As soon as his backside hit the chair, a bowl of porridge appeared in front of him. He mumbled a ‘thank you’ to the house and twirled his spoon around the bowl. Nesta and Cassian continued their chatter, occasionally trying to coax Azriel into the conversation.
“Are you actually going to eat any of that, Az?” Cassian asked him, nodding at his still-full bowl. Before Azriel could reply, (Y/N) flitted into the room, smiling brightly.
“Morning, Nes! Morning, Cass!” she chirped brightly. Her eyes landed on him and he felt his shoulders tense under her gaze. “Good morning, Azriel,” she said as she shot him a sheepish smile. This was the game they played. None of their family knew the extent of their relationship, of the passionate nights they’ve shared. They would meet up in the middle of the night, bring each other to the heights of pleasure, then pretend it never happened in the morning.
He nodded at her stiffly in acknowledgement and turned back to his porridge. He was quick to notice that all trace of his scent was gone from her. She must have scrubbed up in the bath this morning too. Nesta and Cassian greeted her with friendly smiles and bid her a good morning in return.
She sat next to him at the table and grinned when her own breakfast appeared in front of her. She let out a contented sigh and dug into her meal.
“I love this house,” she said in between bites of her breakfast. At the praise, a plate of freshly sliced fruit appeared at the table. (Y/N) laughed, before thanking the house. She even made the damn house happy.
(Y/N) and Nesta launched into a conversation about a new romance book coming out from their favorite author. Cassian rolled his eyes, not an ounce of malice behind the gesture.
“You females and your romance novels,” he huffed, feigning annoying. (Y/N) scowled at the General.
“You know, you might want to pick one up. You might learn a thing or two,” She teased.
“Hey! I know plenty!” He countered, “Right, Nes?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively and Nesta only snorted in response, her cheeks flushing.
(Y/N) laughed, “Cassian, Lord of Bloodshed and Lord of Lovemaking,” she joked, playful sarcasm dripping from her lips. Nesta cackled at the nickname and even Azriel had to crack a smile at that.
“Well, the Lord of Lovemaking says it’s time for training,” Cassian said, grinning as he stood from the table. (Y/N) shook her head as she finished the rest of her breakfast.
“I won’t be joining today. I have other plans,” she told the group and Cassian frowned.
“What plans are more important than training?”
She shrugged in response, “I promised Mor that I would pick out a new dress for Starfall. I wore the same dress the last two years. She still hasn’t let me live that down.”
Cassian said something in response, but Azriel didn’t catch it. He stared at (Y/N) intently. She was lying. She may have had plans, but it wasn’t dress shopping.
The freshly mated couple left their exit after settling whatever discussion they’d been having with (Y/N), leaving Azriel at the table with her. He’d only then failed to realize that he barely ate two bites of his food. He sighed and pushed the bowl away from him before standing to join his brother outside for training.
Before he could make his exit, (Y/N) reached out and circled her hand around his wrist. He jerked it back away from her but stayed planted where he was. She frowned.
“Hey,” she said softly, “Are you okay?” And what a loaded question it was. How was he supposed to feel okay? The female he was in love with was fucking someone else. And the guilt of his own bond weighed heavy on his shoulders.
Before, when he thought he might have had feelings for Elain, he thought the cauldron got things wrong. And now - now he knew - that the cauldron had a royally fucked up way of picking mates. He suspected that Lucien and Elain were wrong, but he was certain that he and Gwyn weren’t a match. He looked up into (Y/N)’s impossibility beautiful eyes and silently cursed The Mother for not making her his mate. Not making it easy for them. But nothing ever was easy for Azriel.
He swallowed thickly, “(Y/N) …” He knew what he had to do. He had to end things before it destroyed him.
“What is it, Az? You can tell me anything.”
His resolve completely crumbled, and he knew he couldn’t do. He would accept her any way he can have her. Even if that meant sharing her body with the Emissary. Even if it meant loving her for a lifetime and enduring her never loving him back.
He shook his head, “Never mind. I hope you find a dress you like,” he said, before quickly making an exit to join his brother and the Valkyries for training. She stared after him, frowning at his abrupt exit.
(Y/N)’s POV
Your eyes fluttered open at the glint of sunlight peaking in from your sheer curtains. You squinted up at the ceiling and groaned at the headache pounding in your temples. Making a silent reminder to never go drinking with Mor ever again, you sat up in the plush bed. You suddenly realized three things simultaneously.
1. You had no clothes on.
2. You were not in your own bed.
3. There was snoring coming from the blankets next to you.
The male figure next you had his arm thrown over his eyes, blocking out the sunlight as he snoozed peacefully. All you could make out was his long, tangled red hair and his bare torso. You silently prayed to the cauldron that the rest of him that hid under the blankets was clothed as the realization hit you.
Lucien Vanserra.
You were in Lucien’s bed. You had gone to his apartment the night before to check on the male, per Azriel’s request. He still didn’t trust the newly appointed Night Court Emissary and wanted to make sure that he wasn’t planning any sort of retribution after Elain rejected their mating bond.
When you arrived, you realized that he was not vengeful - he was downright depressed. He needed a friend, not to be spied on. The two of you sat on his couch and talked for hours over wine. You shared your own rejection- the secret love you harbored for Azriel. Lucien shared with you how he felt like he had no home; no one that cared for him. The mutual display of vulnerability had drawn you to him. You felt some sort of connection with the redhead. Another bottle of wine later, and clearly that connection turned physical. A distraction for each other.
You cursed Azriel for sending you here. You cursed yourself for you lapse of judgement. You cursed Lucien for being so easy to talk to. You cursed the gods-damned world for things never being easy for you.
“Son of a bitch!” You hissed.
Lucien stirred beside you, his voice thick with sleep, and he smirked, “Don’t talk about my mother that way.”
“Actually, I was referring to your father,” you huffed, sufficiently annoyed now.
His arm flew down from his eyes and he blinked at you, incredulous. It was quiet for a beat, then laughter erupted from his chest. You couldn’t help but laugh along with him, tears springing into your eyes with the ridiculousness of the entire situation.
“What the fuck happened last night?”
He shrugged, grinning at you, “Two bottles of wine happened, (Y/N).”
You sighed as the realization of what you’d done weighed heavily on you, “This was a mistake.” You shielded your body with the bedsheet and stood up.
You ignored the flash of hurt behind his eyes.
“Why?” He asked, cocking his head at you.
“Because we’re both in love with other people.”
“Other people who don’t love us back,” he reminded you. “Why shouldn’t we have fun. I enjoy your company. And hopefully you enjoy mine.” You paused for a moment to mull over his words.
“I… I guess you’re right. We’re two consenting adults. It’s not like we’re hurting anyone.”
A wicked, sly grin adorned his full lips, “Does that mean you’ll come back to bed? Because I’m not done with you yet.”
You felt the heat rise to your face, and you grinned right back at him.
“You’re trouble, Lucien Vanserra.”
He only smiled wider as his fingers gently circled your wrist and tugged you back into the bed. You laughed, feeling at ease for the first time in a long time as he pulled you in for a kiss.
You shook the memory of your first encounter with Lucien from your head as you made your way through the streets of Velaris. Taking a breath of the balmy spring air, you allowed your shoulders to relax with each step. After feeling the tension rolling off Azriel at breakfast, you decided to skip out on training for the day, in favor of a walk along the Sidra.
You hadn’t been in Velaris for long; you were originally from the Dawn Court. A healer. It was during the war that you met Azriel. His wings had been shredded while he and Feyre rescued Elain from the King of Hybern. You worked tirelessly to repair the Illyrian’s wings. That was when Thesan came into the tent to tell you that your brothers had been killed in battle. Both of them. Azriel, bleeding out and broken, held as you sobbed. Comforted you when he himself nearly died.
It had felt too wrong to go back to the Dawn Court when the war was over. You couldn’t go home, not without your brothers. Azriel offered you a position working for him as a spy, and you’d agreed immediately. That was when you fell in love with him. And then you came to Velaris and fell in love with the city, too.
Everything was going swimmingly until 6 months ago. That’s when you started sleeping with Azriel. You knew it was a dangerous game to agree to no-strings-attached sex with the man you loved. But it wasn’t supposed to happen like that. It started as a joke, really.
You and Azriel had just gotten back to camp from a particularly dangerous mission. Tensions were running high and Azriel ordered you to your tent to get some rest. You’d tried for hours, but sleep evaded you. You wandered back out to the campfire and found him still sitting there, watching the flames dance. He looked so handsome in the glow of the fire.
“Can’t sleep either?” You asked, taking a seat next to him.
He shook his head, “Not really.”
You sighed, “Every muscle in my body is tense. I can’t relax. Any tips?”
Azriel snorted out a laugh, “An orgasm usually does the trick.”
Even his shadows froze at his words. He’d made those jokes with Cassian before, but he’d never ventured into that territory with you. His eyes flickered to yours and he eased at the clear amusement on your face.
“Yeah?” You asked, “That helps?” A small smirk played on your lips.
Azriel shrugged, “It relaxes your muscles.”
You turned to him and bit your lip, rolling your tense shoulders out, searching for relief.
“We could… help each other relax?” You suggested. You weren’t used to being so forward. The sentence felt strange on your lips. His head snapped up and he stared at you, his hazel eyes wide.
“Is that what you want?” He asked, swallowing hard. You nodded in response, not daring to drag your eyes away from his, searching for any flicker of emotion in them.
“Yeah,” You breathed out. Azriel stood wordlessly and motioned for you to join him. He held out his hand to you and you took it. He led you into his tent. Azriel had laid you down on the cot and straddled your hips. He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to your lips.
“You’re sure you want this, (Y/N)?” Your heart thrummed in your chest and the sound of your name on his lips,
“Yes.”
Azriel dipped his head and kissed you deeply.
“Are you okay, (Y/N)?”
Rhys.
You turned around to face the High Lord.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” You flashed him a convincing smile. He shrugged, the picture of ease.
“Cassian told me you skipped training to shop for a dress.” He quirked up a brow, “You haven’t been in a single shop.”
You frowned at him, “You’ve been following me.” It wasn’t a question. He hesitated for a moment.
“No. Not quite.”
Azriel. His shadows.
Anger flared in your eyes, and you mumbled, “Busybody.”
Rhys sighed, “He’s worried about you. He- …We think it’s best if you take a break from going on missions. Madja could use some assistance and you would be of great help to her.”
You felt something in your chest crack.
Azriel didn’t want to be around you. Or he didn’t trust you. Either way, he sent Rhysand to keep you at arm’s length. That must’ve been what he wanted to tell you that morning. He didn’t have the courage to do it himself.
“Understood.” You said, your voice icy.
Rhys winced, “(Y/N) …”
You held up a dismissive hand, “What time does Madja need me at the infirmary?”
“9am.”
You nodded and winnowed back to your bedroom before he could say another word.
#acotar#a court of thorns and roses#acotar fanfiction#azriel acotar#azriel#azriel shadowsinger#azriel spymaster#azriel/reader#lucien acotar#lucien vanserra#lucien#lucien/reader#azriel x reade#azrielxreader#lucienxreader#lucien x reader#azriel x reader
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THEME: Ironsworn/Starforged Hacks
This week’s recommendations are all inspired by Ironsworn, by Shawn Tomkin, or Starforged, its science-fantasy successor.
Inspired by PbtA games, Ironsworn stands out because it can be played solo, GM-less, or as a traditional roleplaying game - and the PDF of the rulebook, a work of stellar quality, is free. It uses unique mechanics such as Vows, Momentum, and Supply to support play - Vows being personal goals that drive the character’s story and generate progression, Momentum being an asset that can be used to track your character’s general level level of success, and Supply being a representation of how prepared or energetic your characters are.
While Ironsworn is a game of fantasy adventuring, Starforged takes cues from space fiction and science fantasy, and comes with unique character pieces and a planet generator.
Let’s take a look at some of the hacks created out of these games!
Iron Valley, by M. Kirin.
Iron Valley is a cozy solo ttrpg hack for Ironsworn and Starforged.
In this game you take the role of someone moving into a small community and starting their life anew. Maybe you’ll restore your family’s farm. Maybe you’ll explore the mysterious forest just beyond town. Maybe you’ll fall in love and get married! This is a game about living a cozy life with good company, one day at a time.
As a farming simulation, this is a great example of a cozy game. Follow the course of a year, making a new home for yourself using a simplified version of Ironsworn. Fundamentally, the game revolves around the promises you make to your friends, losing track of time instead of hit points.
This is a chunky game that takes some set-up, that a single can play over many days or weeks. It’s something that requires a bit of work to put together, but you can pick it up a little bit at a time if you’re looking for sustained play, and you don’t have to work with a group to try and schedule game time.
Stonebound, by S0ra.
The Dawnlands are filled with various groups of palaeolithic humans, all trying their best to survive in this prehistoric world, where they are far from the top of the food chain.
You are not like them.
You will venture forth from your home, rise up and challenge the monstrous creatures who roam this land, discover secrets better left forgotten, protect your people from the feral horrors that rise in the night, bind your will and your word to the sacred stone of this land and become Stonebound.
This isn’t much of a departure from the original Ironsworn: the author describes it as a re-skin, with new assets and foes to make the system fit in a stone-and-sorcery kind of setting. The game is still in development, so changes might continue being added, but the game is Pay What You Want for now! In Stonebound, stone replaces iron as the way by which you make vows, and as a result stone becomes a vital part of the landscape. If you really like the way Ironsworn plays but are interested to see how it looks in a new setting, you might want to check this game out.
Cybersworn, by Homebrewster, and Hyper City, by Thomas Manuel.
You’ll need to know how Ironsworn or Starforged works in order to play these hacks. Cybersworn is meant to fit a number of different flavours of cyberpunk; from high-magic settings, to low-magic settings, to settings with cyborgs or a virtual other space. It provides new pieces to slot into the basic ruleset to make the game neon and gritty. And just like Ironsworn, this game is free!
Hyper City is a specific corporate dystopia that you build based on a real city that you’re interested in. It uses Burning Questions rather than Iron Vows, it provides a mode of play that focuses on investigation and exploration, rather than action and adventure. Hyper City is also designed to be played “solo together,” as described by the designer. Each player is playing their own solo journey, but their characters can interact with each-other via messaging apps or something similar to trade information and give each-other updates.
These games aren’t designed to necessarily be played together, but since they’re built for the same system, it’s likely easy to steal a little from one to place into the other. If you’re into cyberpunk and building your own city, these might be worth checking out!
Silversworn, by fyret.
This is a hack about being a werewolf (possibly in space). It is a hack about rage and trying your best to hide it. It is a hack about finding what lengths you'll go to keep the beast inside, and what carnage you'll bring when it is unleashed.
This game specifically alters the rules of Ironsworn to allow you to play as a werewolf character. One of the basic moves, Face Desolation, is replaced by Face Rampage, which is meant to replicate your struggle to keep your human form. Apart from mechanical changes, this hack comes with some tips about playing as a werewolf, especially when you’ve transformed. The game also comes with a new series of Truths and Assets, to help you build the world you want, whether you want to tell a story within the fantasy world of Ironsworn, or the galaxy of Starforged.
--
If you want to see more genre hacks of these games, I’d recommend checking out the Starforged 2023 Jam on Itch.io.
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He loves me, She loves me not
Chapter 2
Warnings ⚠️- mentions of suicide, profane language, cheating, physical assault
It had been a full week since the unexpected cafe encounter. You haven’t shown up to the university, for said full week hoping immaturely that if you waited it out, Rika and her little boy toy would be gone. Maki had been sending text after text asking why you hadn’t been at school and when were you coming back. You just blew her off with your low-of-the-mill excuse of being sick.
It was Stupid, stupid how you let them control your emotions after all these years, stupid how they make you cower in fear at their mere presence after all this time. Stupid how you still refuse to accept it happened and that it was real, Stupid that it felt as though you have to keep it to yourself or people would judge you all over again. Stupid how you felt alone..and it was stupid Stupid how you know your feelings are valid yet... you won’t accept them.
Pupils dilated as your gaze remained focused on the plain painted ceiling that had a wave-like pattern. Your eyes slowly followed each wave-like line that was seemingly never-ending. You were torn from your empty pit of thoughts and restless concentration by a knock on your dorm's front door. Blinking rapidly, returning to reality you got out of bed and went to the front door.
Calling out a short ‘who is it’ not waiting for a response assuming it was your neighbor asking to borrow something again. Unlocking the door you open it more than slightly, enough for your head to fit through. Eyes meeting the hand knocking instant dread filtered through your body, your body acted before you could think and you tried to close the door quickly but they were quicker.
A foot was stuck in the gap between the door and the door frame and a large hand gripped at the door forcing it open and pushing you back. You landed on your reer with a soft thud, then a person you never wished to see again stepped through your door….Naoya Zenin.
“Well well, wouldn’t you know” he huffed out with a chuckle closing the door quietly as he stepped into the dorm. You stood up quickly and took a few steps back. He then took some to replace the ones you just took. “What’s the matter, sweetheart?” He had a smug smile on his face.
“Wha-“ your voice fell flat, it was quiet, squeaky like a mouse. “What do you want? Why are you here? How did you find me?” His gaze only darkened, cowering as the feeling of eyes rake your body. “Just stopping by to see if you were really here…Ya know, didn’t believe Yuuta when he said he thought he’d seen you the other day…” he licked his lips maliciously “so thought I’d confirm it by stopping by and getting a story outta ya.”
Your eyes never left him not even as he inched closer to you until he invaded your space. “It’s like you get prettier and prettier every time I see you” he whispered, caressing your cheek. You tilt your head away. Big mistake, a large hand took your jaw between its fingers with a firm grip.
Fuck, how could you forget about him? You were too worried about Rika and Yuuta, you forgot he’s in their little group too. You whimpered out pleas to be released yet his grip on you only increased. “I won’t be letting you go until I make you pay for embarrassing me at my party...I mean I invite you into my home and you repay me with what!? Deny me then run away!?”
The grip on your face was released then the same hand came and hit your cheek harshly leaving a sensation that burned. Your head hung low not willing to fight knowing what he was capable of. Memories of what happened to your friend a couple of years back flashed in your mind. She had taken her own life because of what he had done to her. She said she wasn’t able to live with herself after that day….
Your throat felt tight trying to stop yourself from crying, face scrunched tightly. He’d stepped behind you crouching down to your level. “I really loved your hair..” if he hadn’t said it so condescendingly you’d think he was being sarcastic. His hand grabbed a fist full of your braids as he was doing this you heard shuffling from behind you. “Be a good girl and smile for the Camera” You gave a pitiful smile not allowing your eyes to meet the camera. He quickly snapped the photo with a flash and pushed you forcefully into the carpeted floor.
When you heard the front door open and close you broke down. Tears fell from your face like a dam that just broke. Laying on the floor you curl into a ball hugging your knees tightly you let the tears fall.
—--------------------------------------------
*ring…ring…ring* Your eyes flutter open as you rise, panicking from your unanticipated slumber. You quickly calmed down when you realized where you were. What time is it? You thought t to yourself as you got up from the floor and headed to your room where the ringing sound got louder and louder the closer you got. Picking up the phone you look at the time and who was calling. 4:43 a.m, before you could answer the phone the number disappeared and became a banner.
Unknown caller…weird. You didn’t think too much on it since you had just woken up and were still tired. Ridding your body of your bra, you slip off your pants and lay in your bed. Snuggled into your stuffies, drifting off into another blank dream.
—-------------------------------------------------
“Make sure you all finish up the three-page essay by the end of this week, I will be available today for questions during office hours. If you have questions please take advantage of the opportunity.” you pack your things up and head for the door. Walking down the hall you pull out your phone and text Nobara asking her what you missed in your fashion class.
She responded by saying she’d send you an email of what we did. After sending a ‘ty’ you put your phone away. You didn’t have another class until 5:40p.m it’s currently 3:51p.m. Humming a tune in the seemingly never ending hallway you stopped when you heard voices talking. Curiosity being a persons worst enemy you went to where the sounds of voices were coming from.
Following the sounds as swiftly as possible, each stepped filled with determination of finding out what they were talking about. Because boy did they sound angry. As you neared the door you could hear the voices, one sounded familiar you couldn’t put your finger in it until you turned into an empty hallway with the only thing filling it up was voices.
You made it to a hollow classroom occupying two people. You set you stuff down as quietly as you could and peeked in the classroom crossing your fingers that they couldn’t see you. To your surprise one of the voices belong to..Rika. But the male voice didn’t belong to Yuta but rather a different man. He was taller than Yuta and had pink hair…and wait..is that Sukuna!? The unidentified male was Yuji’s twin brother.
You silently gasped, you knew of him from his brother while you ran track with. You listened in on the conversation. “UGH I already told you not to pull a stunt like that again. Especially not in front of Yuta.” Rika spoke irritatedly about something clueless to you. It was silent a moment before Sukuna spoke “whatever I was just getting what I promised.” He rolled his eyes, annoyance clear on his face.
Her expression changed to one you could quite place. She stepped closer to him, putting her hand on his knee and running her hands up and down his chest hypnotically. It made you uncomfortable. “You’ll get to have me real soon ok?” She looked up at him. “Just be patient with me.”. You don’t know what it was but something told you to pull out your phone and record so you did.
Pulling your phone quickly out of its resting place in your back pocket you opened the camera app and pressed record. The camera captured Sukuna and Rika in all their impure glory. Including a make out session. It gave the ick, you stopped the recording and out your phone back in your pocket, grabbing your stuff you quietly slipped away.
While slipping away, unbeknownst to you, you passed a familiar dark hair boy who’d been seemingly clueless to the activities of his girlfriend. Followed along with the same white haire
#writers on tumblr#fanfic#inumaki toge#inumaki x reader#jjk#jjk x reader#maki zenin#rika#yuta okkotsu#inumaki x you#sukuna#jjk nobara
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Take more chances, dance more dances 1/2
~12k EXPLICIT Hangster AU Meet!Cute with Jake as the best man at Natasha and Javy's wedding and Bradley is the instructor teaching them how to dance...
CHAPTER ONE
Bradley’s expecting the group of four for a private lesson, the first of ten lessons and it’s a hell of a gift. He recognizes the name of the person who gave the gift obviously, but Cheryl isn’t ever going to tell a paying customer no, no matter how often he argues with Mav about not needing the extra business. Cheryl is running them through the standard health and safety but he’s pretty sure it’s unnecessary, they’re all likely super fit naval aviators and unlikely to keel over from a little samba. He runs his eyes over them through the one-way mirror, three guys and one woman, which makes the bride easy enough to identify.
She’s leaning into the space of a guy with glasses, laughing at something he says, too quiet for Bradley to hear. The black guy is rolling his eyes, shoving the other white guy on the shoulder, he’s got a toothpick in his teeth; before stepping in close to the woman and she turns, her body arching ever so slightly and that’s the groom then. The guy in glasses smiles at them, looks pleased for them but makes no effort to move out of their space. Interesting. While the other guy –
“I just don’t understand why the whole wedding party needs to learn how to dance…”
“Dude, you’re my back-up dancer!” The groom exclaims.
“No, I’m your wingman, and you’ve landed the hottest woman ever and therefore my job is done.”
“You didn’t help him land me at all. In fact you were something of a handicap to his efforts.”
“Hey! I take offence to that!”
“You were meant to,” the guy in glasses says dryly and Bradley has to bite back a laugh at the look the other guy gives him. They’re all familiar with each other at least, although getting them to loosen up enough to dance will be annoying, when they’re all going to have that naval bearing which is drilled into them. Ah well, no time like the present to start, he pushes open the door.
“Hi, I’m Bradley… and you’re here because you got given dance lessons as an engagement-slash-wedding present right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“So, are we expecting anyone else or are we working with a male couple to dance?”
“My sister lives in New York, she’s actually a dancer so I don’t have any issues with her. Javy’s sister is taking classes, so we’ve just got the four of us to get up to speed!”
“Okay, so what are you after and when is the wedding?”
“Four weeks. We kind of… uh, had reasons to bring the date forward.”
Bradley raises an eyebrow, because that usually implies that the bride is pregnant, but the angry look the bride is giving her husband-to-be makes Bradley doubt that is the case. And he wonders if the guy is going to be getting laid any time between now and the wedding.
“Javy! You make it sound like you’ve knocked me up!”
“Not for lack of trying, I’m sure,” toothpick twiddler says, and the bride then slaps his arm so hard he winces and Bradley hasn’t been amused in a long time. This might actually be fun.
He reads through the information on the tablet, looking at past dance experience. He knows they’ll all be fine counting out to a beat, but making them look like they can dance and are enjoying themselves while doing it is a completely different matter. If they look like they’re being tortured it sort of defeats the purpose.
“Jake?”
“That’s me darlin’,” the toothpick twiddler says and he gives Bradley a grin, lets his eyes drag up Bradley’s body in clear interest and Bradley lets him, feels equal parts amused and flattered, lets his own eyes sweep down Jake’s body. Nice. Most of the guys checking him out are already partnered up when they enter his dance studio and it always makes him feel a little uncomfortable. If the guy is available and interested Bradley definitely wouldn’t turn him down. He doesn’t have any rules about not sleeping with any of his clients/students/customers/dance partners… Everyone just needs to be onboard and consenting.
“Says here you have line dancing experience.”
“Sure do.”
“Okay, then I might not need to beat the stiffness out of all of you. Did you have something in mind for your first dance?” Bradley asks, looking up at who he assumes is Natasha Trace. He’s also going to assume that the black man is Javier Machado and the other man is Robert Floyd. No doubt they’ll have callsigns they’ll throw around once they loosen up, but he’ll pick those up easily enough.
“So we were thinking of going with a waltz for everyone. That seemed easy enough for us to all learn when we were watching videos…”
Bradley nods, because she’s right. Nothing wrong with classic and traditional. Better to have everyone master one dance and look good for the video. Also the waltz will likely suit them better than some of the more fluid Latin American styles given they’ve only got four weeks. It’s really not long enough but he’ll make it work. He’s glad they’ve got realistic expectations though.
“And do you have a song? Were you thinking traditional instrumental or more modern. I’ve got playlists you can go through and find something you like. As long as we have at least four weeks to practice to it should be fine. How often were you wanting to have these lessons? Because if you’re interested in general classes as well these can happen every week, although I’m thinking four weeks… that’s already a tight time crunch.”
He hashes out a timeframe and times that work for them, and the fact that they’re all on leave makes his intuition ping with the idea that they’ve probably been part of whatever bullshit mission Mav just got back from.
“You guys part of the Dagger Squadron?”
That has them all looking at him sharply and he shakes his head slightly, forces himself to remain relaxed and not get immediately defensive because they’re all looking like they’re about to attack him. Huh. There’s definitely a story there and he’s not sure if he wants to know it.
“And what if we are?”
“Captain Mitchell was the giftee. He’s a family friend,” Bradley says, and it’s not a lie, really, just a little misdirection. Mav is the only family he has, not counting the distant cousins he knows exist somewhere in his family tree.
“Oh, that’s cool man.”
“Come on, let’s see what we’re working with and not waste the rest of the hour.”
… … …
“Look at the legs on him… Jesus.”
“You want a towel there Bagman?”
“What?”
“To mop up the drool…”
“Trace, Natasha, do you see those legs?”
“He’s a dancer, of course his legs look good. He’s probably got better legs than me. Bet he’s super flexible too.”
Jake’s brain glitches as he tries to imagine all the potentials of a flexible partner in bed at the same time. So many positions. Those legs wrapped around him. Or those hips thrusting his cock into Jake. He’s not fussy.
“Fuck…”
“You definitely look like you want to. You going to ask him out?”
“That okay with you?”
“That you want to fuck our dance instructor? Yes. I just met the guy. I mean, I figure you’re somehow an adult enough to not let it fuck up all our future dance lessons…”
“Could make it more than a one-off.”
“Well, regular sex does have a lot going for it for those of us who like it…”
“I definitely like it. Think I’d like it a lot with him.”
“Just don’t get all sulky if he rejects you.”
Jake immediately goes to make some quip about how he never gets rejected but then realizes he really doesn’t want to get rejected. He’s pretty sure he won’t be, judging from the way Bradley had checked Jake out in response to being checked out. It’d been reciprocal. He hopes that means there’s more that can be reciprocal.
As they get taken through the basics it’s all pretty straight forward, just focusing on footwork, which Jake vaguely remembers from his mom teaching him years ago. They’re not trying anything with a partner yet, so it gives him plenty of opportunities to watch him and he grows more confident and time passes, because he’s pretty sure he’s being watched. Assessed. For something other than his dancing ability that is.
“Okay, that’s us done for the day. We’ll build on that next time, so feel free to practice between now and then. And if any of you guys are wanting to do something different, or more difficult you can book more lessons. However if you just want to practice and become more confident you can come along to any of our beginner group classes. They’re multiple times a week with different styles and levels, usually ninety minutes long. I’ll get Cheryl to email you out the timetable.”
Everyone thanks him, Jake included and he gives a little jerk of his head to Javy, mutters that he’ll catch up with them if he has to and Bradley is watching him not leave with his friends and is approaching him and Jake can’t take his eyes off him.
“Did you want something?”
“Yeah… Just wondering if you’d be interested in a drink?”
“A drink or a fuck?”
Oh, Jake likes him. No bullshit, just cutting right down to it.
“Both. Not fussy about the order either…”
“Great.”
“Now?”
There’s a look of brief regret and slight shake of the head and Jake tamps down on the immediate flash of disappointment in his gut.
“I’m actually teaching until eight-thirty tonight. That work for you?”
“Can I watch the class?”
“I man… Yeah, sure. Starts at seven.”
“I’ll see you then.”
He gives Bradley a little salute and hurries to catch up with the others, his blood thrumming.
“You get shot down already?” Javy asks and Jake punches him in the arm.
“Opposite in fact. I’ve got to go back later. He’s teaching until eight-thirty.”
“Well, at least you’ll stop complaining about being horny all the time.”
“I don’t complain all the time!”
All three just look at him and he sighs.
Maybe he does.
… … …
Cheryl won’t stop snickering every time she looks at him and Bradley is a little embarrassed that she was there to witness everything, although she tells Bradley it’s about time he put himself out there. He thinks that’s a little on the nose seeing as she’s been married to her wife for over ten years and hasn’t had to put herself anywhere for a long time. He helps with some of the basic admin, emails the four from earlier with the promised information with links to playlists and video tutorials; hopes that Natasha and Javier don’t suddenly watch something and decide to change it up.
He’s got a private session with some younger kids preparing for an upcoming competition so he doesn’t have time to dwell on what might be happening later. Time passes quickly and he manages to scoff down his salad and cold chicken and brush his teeth in the half-hour break before the start of his last class. It’s an advance swing and jive class, definitely one of his favorites and he changes from his long-sleeve black shirt to a white tank, knows he’s going to work up a sweat. Clips a microphone to his tank and grabs a fresh battery pack, wiring it up with practiced ease. Then he goes back into the studio, there’s already about a third of the class waiting and he waves in greeting.
“He’s here,” Cheryl sing-songs as she walks past, her three inch heels making her almost as tall as him and Bradley forces himself to not immediately look around. He doesn’t wait too long though and walks over to where Jake is leaning against the wall and watching the other dancers arrive, and he’s getting a few speculative looks from several people and Bradley leans into him, feeling a little proprietary.
“The class is ninety minutes. You sure you want to just… sit and wait?”
“I don’t mind just sitting and watching the scenery.”
“Okay then, hope it’s worth your while.”
“Already is.”
Bradley licks his lips slowly and damn he wants to just… leave now. Take this guy home and lay him out and just go to town. God. He might get more than one chance to do it to, if he’s hanging around for a few weeks, then they could have sex a few times. He’ll have to ask and see if he’s amenable.
“Evening, sorry I couldn’t be here last week. Work was crazy.”
… … …
Jake freezes, because he recognizes that voice and he turns to it, his back straightening automatically.
“Admiral.”
“Lieutenant.”
“What’s he doing here?” Admiral Simpson asks Bradley and Jake takes a tiny step back. He knows Bradley knows Maverick, but knowing Admiral Simpson is another thing. Are they family somehow?
“Calm down Beau, you’re not being stalked. Jake’s getting lessons for the upcoming wedding.”
“I wasn’t aware you were engaged Lieutenant.”
“Not me sir, Trace and Machado.”
“Ah. That makes more sense. Good job last week.”
“Uh. Thank you sir.”
“Hmm,” Admiral Simpson nods, then turns away. “Bradshaw, can I have the first dance?”
“Certainly Admiral…”
“I told you not to call me that.”
“But it’s such an easy way to annoy you… I’ll see you after,” he says and Jake watches as Admiral Simpson spins Bradshaw (Jake could have sworn his name was Bradley?) out onto the dance floor to Walking on Sunshine, and then pulls him back into him. They both know how to dance and Jake’s still getting used to the idea of Admiral Simpson in denim that the fact he’s dancing is a separate mindfuck.
“Okay everyone, we’re going to start warming up while we wait for everyone to get here. Partner up and we’re going to move Jive style and then change partners every count of twenty. I’ll call it.”
Jake watches and people all know what the hell they’re doing, moving fluidly with each other as well as around all the other dancers. He hadn’t considered how they’d not bump into each other when everyone is moving all over the place. It’s generally not a problem that comes up with line dancing unless someone fucks up royally.
“And change!”
At the call everyone moves to a different partner but it looks seamless, like everyone is doing one big practiced dance that they all know and it’s more fascinating than he thought it would be. He’d assumed he’d just spend ninety minutes watching Bradley (he’s going to assume his name is Bradley), but this class is advanced and it’s enjoyable to watch. Every time Bradley crosses his line of sight though his eyes follow him, transfixed until he’s lost in the sea of other dancers. The call for change comes regularly and Jake counts it out, wonders how the hell Bradley is managing to keep track of the count, dance and call it out for everyone else.
“And change!”
“Prepare to switch!”
“Switch the lead!”
Jake doesn’t quite understand what that call means and he watches, realizing that instead of the men doing the lead moves the women are, and Bradley is back dancing with Admiral Simpson and is dipping him.
… … …
He’s a little distracted watching Jake watch everyone dance, but he’s lucky he’s got years of muscle memory to rely on. Once everyone is warmed up and having drinks of water he catches Jake’s eye and he’s got his undivided attention. Fuck he wishes Jake could dance, has always considered dancing on par with sex, the music and movement of his body always freeing in a different way. Sharing that experience with someone has always felt intimate, especially when it’s a prelude to sex. The rest of the class goes quickly, the focus being an armjive tangle and a sway choker, which some of the class already know which always helps. Beau keeps smirking at him each time he catches his eye but he ignores it. He takes off the mic and battery, wipes it clean and puts it onto charge, answers questions and takes a few of the students through some moves slowly until they get it. Cheryl gets the lights in the office, tells him she’ll lock the front door and then he’s alone with Jake.
“Hey.”
“Hey. Still want to get a drink?”
“No.”
“Want to come home with me? Not for a drink?”
“Yes.”
“Great. Come with me.”
He hadn’t bothered mentioning it earlier, but his apartment is above the studio. Not many people want to live above a dance studio that is playing music constantly, people thumping around with varying degrees of light-footedness. He leads Jake up the stairs and pushes the door to his apartment open. He hardly ever locks it. He doesn’t pause anywhere long enough to allow Jake time to look around, he has one destination in mind, and unfortunately it’s not his bedroom.
“I really need a shower, I’ve been dancing all day.”
“That an invitation for me to join you?”
Bradley hadn’t meant it as one, but –
“Fuck yes. Come on.”
He strips off methodically, tossing his clothes toward the basket in the corner, appreciates the fact that Jake is doing the same, although his clothes get carefully folded and placed on the side dresser in a careful pile but he’s soon standing there as naked as Bradley. He jerks his head in the direction of the bathroom, feels a little awkward being naked when they haven’t even kissed yet and they both move towards it and he flicks the water on.
“I need to ask you something, it’s been bugging me all night,” Jake says, and he’s in Bradley’s personal space, mouth now within kissing distance and Bradley watches his lips as he talks.
“Sure, what?”
“What’s your name?”
“Were you really that distracted this afternoon?”
“You are pretty distracting, but I was also pretty sure your name was Bradley up until Admiral Simpson called you Bradshaw and I thought maybe I’d misheard.”
Their bodies have shifted, swayed closer together and he rests his hands on the naked expanse of skin on Jake’s hip, squeezes slightly and shifts closer. Hearing Beau called Admiral makes him snicker, because he’s seen the man in a variety of states, some of them very embarrassing for him and he’s glad he didn’t know of Bradley’s relationship to Mav before they knew each other well.
“Nope. You heard right. Both times.”
“They’re both your names?”
“Unfortunately,” Bradley says, pressing a small kiss just beneath the hinge of Jake’s jaw. “Bradley Bradshaw.” Kisses his cheekbone. “My parents didn’t think it through until after they’d already submitted the paperwork and I’ve been lumped with it my whole life.”
“Yeah, you look like you’ve really suffered.”
Jake’s voice is satisfyingly breathy sounding. Bradley doesn’t agree with him, but he’s grateful for what he has now, definitely doesn’t want to get into his whole life story with a guy he’s hooking up with. He slides his mouth over Jake’s, nothing more than a hello kiss but their bodies brush against each other and their cocks bump and yeah, he’s pretty confident this is going to be good. Really good.
“Water’s warm…”
He pushes gently, follows him into the spray of water but doesn’t let the contact he has with Jake’s body end, tries to leave a hand on him, or presses a leg against him, kisses him as water sluices over their bodies.
“You look really fucking good when you’re dancing…” Jake mumbles, and Bradley grins against the skin of his neck where he’d just been licking.
“Well, you look good all the time, so we’re pretty even huh?”
“I am good…”
“Yeah? Going to show me how much?”
He doesn’t know yet what Jake is angling for, sometimes guys are really upfront and clear that they want to fuck him, or be fucked. This little encounter hasn’t given any clues yet and Bradley finds himself not really knowing what he wants himself, would be okay with anything… everything. Their kissing is more intense, hands moving with purpose and he jerks at the fingers wrapping around his erection; thrusts into them.
“Fuck…”
He goes to return the favor but he’s deftly directed to one of Jake’s ass cheeks and he gives it a firm squeeze, rubs his hand in in a firm circle and squeezes again and he feels Jake pushing into his hand. Okay then. He runs a finger down the crack of his ass, feels the gasp pull the breath from his own mouth. He does it again and this time he feels slick, slicker than the water would allow for and he presses down and fuck he hopes that’s lube. He looks at his clear shiny finger and that’s definitely lube being washed away.
“Fucking hell… what did you do? Go back to base and finger yourself?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck…”
“Yeah. Didn’t want to waste time. And you’ve got to dance and I’ve got to be a lay about for a few weeks…”
“What if I wanted to take my time with you?”
“Later. You can. Later. Just… this first time, just need it a bit harder. A grateful to be alive kind of fuck.”
His skin prickles at that but he ignores it.
“You want to have fuck I’m glad to be alive type sex…”
“Yeah, that. Exactly that.”
“Okay then, pretty sure I can help with that.”
… … …
Jake is so so grateful that he got dragged along to dance lessons. This is karmic reward for trying to be a good person, surely has to be.
“I don’t keep condoms in my shower…”
“Poor planning on your part,” Jake gasps, Bradley’s fingers playing with his rim making his brain fizz.
“Put your thighs together, make it nice and tight for me… going to slide my dick between them.”
Jake’s breath stutters and then he sucks in a deep breath and does as he’s told, bracing his forearms against the shower wall. Fingers slick with something that is definitely not lube and smells like mint and citrus and he shoves back; feels teeth dig in ever so slightly on his shoulder before it’s being soothed away to a kiss. This isn’t what he wants, what he needs. But he’ll go along with it for now, wants to feel it, the promise of more to come. Bradley is slightly taller, slightly broader and he feels enveloped, the heat of the shower accompanied by the heat of Bradley’s chest against his back as he slides his cock between Jake’s thighs in one smooth glide.
“Going to this properly soon if you’ll let me, and I think you’ll let me, think you want me to. Think you fingered yourself and stretched yourself open and got yourself ready for me thinking about this…”
Jake groans, can’t even think of anything to say in reply because it’s all true. Mostly. He also got himself off, not wanting to embarrass himself from coming too fast as soon as Bradley touched him, although he’s starting to think he could have gone with that; that Bradley would have just moved on to wringing another one out of him. Bradley’s moving his body in a slow rolling grind, rhythmic like his dancing is, his hand wrapped around Jake’s cock and moving in unison and Jake wonders if he’s keeping count in his head. It’s not fast enough or hard enough to get him close, but he’s getting the impression that that isn’t the purpose here, instead it’s to ratchet up the whole thing further and he’s okay with that. For now.
Time draws out, losing meaning, he’s not sure if they’ve been there for five minutes or fifteen or longer, but the water is still hot, his cock is starting to feel hotter, his thighs starting to tremble from the concerted effort to keep them tightly clenched together. Bradley’s body starts to move ever slightly so faster against him and he really needs to get fucked. Wants Bradley fucking him and hopefully leaving some bruises, although he won’t ask for them. Too much to ask a guy he may or may not fuck again.
“More. Come on Bradley, please, need more… come on.”
He feels Bradley draw away and clenches his jaw at the immediate whine that wants to escape his mouth. He feels hands moving over him, the detachable shower head rinsing off whatever he’d been using to slick his way and he groans again.
“Okay, come on. Bed.”
“Thank fuck.”
The water is shut off and Bradley is rubbing him down with a towel, only wiping away the worst of the water and when Bradley licks his neck the contrast of his warm mouth against the cooling water makes him shiver, it feels so good, his entire body alight with sensation and he’s becoming more and more desperate. Bradley moves him firmly but gently, using his entire body to guide him back to the bedroom. He encouraged onto his stomach, a pillow shoved under his hips and he can’t help but grind his cock into the soft cotton.
“Uh uh, none of that, I’ll take care of you. Okay?”
“Oh fuck…” Jake gasps, because it’s the deep promise of those words and he shifts, spreads his legs. Then there’s fingers stroking over in his hole again, two of them, generously lubed up and he’s obviously missed where the fuck that came from. He pushes back, wants the burn and stretch. Bradley doesn’t second guess anything and Jake’s grateful, not sure he could be coherent right now. The stretch is good, not at all painful and he desperately wants to grind back and forward at the same time. Then there’s another finger and oh god yes, he’s sure he says it out loud as well.
“You look so good like this… feel so good.”
“Come on, more…”
“Just a little longer…”
He has a vision then of kicking back, forcing Bradley onto his back so Jake could simply ride his cock until he came. Except he’s not in the position, isn’t even sure he’d be able to shift Bradley if he didn’t want to be shifted like that. There’s a little more lube and for the briefest of moment four fingers and he pushes back harder but they disappear quickly.
“You okay?”
“God yes… so good.”
“Good.”
Then he hears the quiet tear of foil, the soft unmistakable sounds of a condom being put on and his brain and body are both internally shouting yes yes yes and he groans in anticipation. Then there is a hand on his ass, holding him open and he’s feeling the press of Bradley’s cock and he bears down, pushing himself back onto it and it doesn’t make it any faster but it does make it easier and he sighs at the sensation, of finally getting filled in the way he was after.
“Tell me if it gets too much.”
“You’re not that big…”
Bradley’s soft laugh tickles at the hair on his neck, then he’s pulling back not even an inch before pushing back in, fully sheathed inside him, his hips working a slow circular grind like he’s still trying to work Jake open with his cock. After a few moments he shifts, pulling Jake back to be almost sitting in Bradley’s lap, thighs spread on either side, ass tight on his cock. It pushes him that little bit deeper and Jake lets himself sag against down into it, letting gravity have it’s way pushing him down onto Bradley.
“Yeah, that’s it… want to get you all pliant so I can fuck you like you want…”
Oh. Jake’s pretty sure he’s being read like a book right now. Bradley flexes his hips in a way Jake isn’t sure he could mimic with a full-grown man in his lap but he’s grateful for Bradley’s talents and feels the sparks hit his spine like a sparkler lit on the fourth of July.
“You into edging?” Bradley asks, and he’s moving the same way he was when he was fucking Jake’s thighs, starting off deep, only pulling back the smallest amount before grinding back in. Doing that over and over and he’s not going to get more leverage with how they’re sitting and Jake needs him to have more leverage. He shakes his head, thinks about the questions Bradley’s just asked.
“No. No. Not right now…”
“I don’t mean right now…” Bradley says, and he’s leaning forward, arm around Jake’s chest as he encourages him back onto the bed and Jake moves his arms to help, to support his own weight, feels Bradley’s other hand holding his hip firm, like he doesn’t want to shift too much and pull out. Holy shit his core strength must be insane. Then he’s being shifted and he’s glad for the assist, now on his hands and knees, legs spread and Bradley kneeling between them.
“Going to fuck you now…”
“Thank fuck…finally.”
“Was just thinking about getting you to the edge over and over and over until you’re begging and crying for it… not right now. But maybe you’d let me?”
Jake would for sure as hell let him. Fucking hell. The mouth on this man.
“Yeah? What’s in it for me?”
“Well, hopefully a mind melting orgasm, but you could do whatever you liked to me too you know…”
“God you’re chatty…”
That. That is what has Bradley pulling out and fucking into him harder and he doesn’t cry out but it’s a close thing. He braces himself on an arm, shoves his ass back and grunts yeah c’mon harder and there are fingers digging into his hips and maybe he’ll get the bruises he wanted after all. He fully expects the pace to remain faster, harder, he definitely makes it known that that’s what he wants and it goes his way few a few minutes but then it starts slowing down and no no no…
“Shh… shh… I got you. Just want to get my hand on your cock again.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah…”
Then he’s gone, the added stimulation of being fucked, harder and faster than before somehow, or maybe it’s just the mirrored movement on his cock playing mind tricks, making him think everything is harder and faster. He’s got fingertips digging into his hip, a hand on his cock doing it’s best to give him the hand job of a lifetime all while he’s getting fucked by a guy who knows what the he’s doing. It’s taken him over thirty years, but he’s finally found the best sex he’s had, and it is lightyears over and above what previously held first place.
“Think you have an oral fixation. Saw what you were doing to that toothpick. Want to see you choking on my cock…”
Jake doesn’t whimper, he swears he doesn’t, but it’s pretty much moot because he does come, his body lighting up like the fuse finally burned all the way down and he shudders through it, feels over-stimulated in all the best possible ways but is grateful that Bradley slows and pulls out of gently as he can. He can barely move, slumps down and looks over his shoulder as best he can. Sees Bradley taking the condom off and then he’s stripping his own cock, his hand a solid blur of movement as he jerks himself off. Jake feels the splatter of come across his ass and lower back and just hums in approval.
He doesn’t want to move but neither does he want to withstand the awkward chitchat of post-hookup etiquette so he stretches, is touched Bradley is apparently enough of a gentleman to clean up after himself, the damp towel from the shower being used to wipe his back before being offered to clean up the smears on his own stomach. He dresses quickly, grateful Bradley pulls on underwear and ignores the urge to just want to curl up in bed naked with him. That isn’t what this is.
“I’ve got to get back to base…”
“Sure. Thanks.”
“Thank you. This was… exactly what I needed.”
“Well, I’m happy to help. If you need it again, you know where to find me.”
“You’d be down for that?” Jake asks, because things said in the heat of the moment aren’t always the most reliable.
“Did I somehow give you the impression I wouldn’t be?”
“Fair.”
“I’ll see you in a couple of days at the next lesson.”
“Not if I see you first.”
“Well, as I said. You know where to find me.”
CHAPTER TWO
#Hangster#Sereshaw#rooster x hangman#I wrote 2.5 of this rather than It's all academic darlin' sorry!#there is a second part because this Jake and Bradley have a story to tell apparently#Along with Cyclone and Mav getting their shit together as well because WHO KNEW??#I certainly had NO IDEA#Take more chances - Dance more dances
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Across Lands and Seas
( Reposted from @armands-sanctum )
Summary: Headcanons for Hobie Brown and Afro-Latine!Reader
Author's Notes: More like an analysis on colonization with Hobie in it im sorry....
CW: political language and ideas, mentions of white supremacy, mentions of racial hierarchies.
Masterlist
I talked a bit with ellie anon about this, and this is for them so <3
Hobie is a culturally literate man, he absorbs history like a sponge, constantly learning and engaging with new material that intrigues him about things he already knows or new information brought to him, that being said I think that Hobie is extremely culturally intelligent ESPECIALLY as a black man, there is no room for arguments about colorism, or privilege around him, and he shuts down someone with vile opinions quickly.
“Mate you don’t really know what you’re talking about yeah?”
Hobie with an Afro Latine significant other is like having a living encyclopedia, he knows so much not just from what he’s read but lived experience with people in his communities.
If you’re estranged from your culture due to the diaspora and colonization Hobie make it his personal goal to help you build a found family with the Afro Latinxs in his punk circles, taking you to festivals and markets with them, they excitedly talk about their country specific dishes, who makes the better variants of food, linguistic similarities between each other, conversations about gender expression within each country and how indigenous beliefs shaped the land and it’s people even when colonization has deemed them eradicated and nonexistent.
You know how people say “Show me your friends and it’ll show me who you are”? Hobie is that kind of person, he holds his friends in high regard and holds them to standards he knows they are capable of, his Latino friends are amazing, they hold no judgement if you can’t speak Spanish, reminding you that the language was enforced on you all as a means of control and to diminish the histories of the indigenous tribes who lived in tandem with the earth, they are all gender diverse, all sorts of familial backgrounds. They sit and help you navigate your culture like a family would, and after a year of being with Hobie and adopted into his friend group, they are your family.
On certain weekends, even when Hobie is gone off being Spiderman, his friends crowd your space, or host in their own homes, spending all the light hours of the day prepping all sorts of dishes, and walking your through the preparation, the ingredients and the cooking, the place fills with laughter and chatter like a home filled with love and care.
Hobie is the kind of person who knows everyone, so don’t be shocked when you’re going about your day and by the time the evening hits your arms are filled with treats old women give you just because Hobie showed them a picture of you in passing and has been flooding them with all sorts of conversations about you, and like any good maternal figure that comes with all kinds of tasty snacks, elotes, small servings of baked chicken with rice and peas, fresh tortillas and empanadas, so much that when you do return home and Hobie sees the mountain of food you obtain all he can say is, “We better get to eatin’ huh? Can’t let ‘his all go to waste”
On one summer afternoon while downtown he sees another elderly woman he enjoys helping serving icees on the corner, he’s already scrounged up a few dollars to purchase, but she INSISTS on giving you both a large cup of lemon and mango icee just because Hobie had repaired helped repair her cart, and intimidate some cops who were pressing her about a ‘food license’ which makes a small child whine about how they wanted a cup that big, Hobie would kneel to the child and offer to buy them as many cones they want, even to their parents displeasure.
Culture has a symbiotic relationship to the land and it’s people, you can displace the people from the land but the culture doesn’t die, it simmers and brews in the belly of the people, forced to uproot themselves due to the violent nature of colonization and white supremacy, and Hobie helps you navigate these circumstances everyday like a lighthouse leads sailors through turbulent stormy waters.
Hobie shares with you information about the anti-colonial pro-indigenous movements in Latin America, reminding you that there are people fighting every day for reparations and liberation, when your blackness is seen as a contested subject amongst other Latinos especially those who are anti-black or colorist Hobie has no issue leaping up from his spot to go on the defensive.
“Black people exist everywhere bruv, that don’t make them any less Latine.”
He brings you all kinds of gifts, I like to think his favorite is jewelry, beaded ornamentation he acquired as payments for odd jobs and favors around the neighborhood, some of them are more alternative, and others are just crafts made with expert precision from their indigenous crafters, he even brings you to these shops so you can learn beadwork, or just to watch them work in a somber calmness.
As a Jamaican one of the things you two share in common is a taste for plantain, he buys plantain chips in bulk, but sometimes maybe after a day of spending time with Grandma Brown (who often complains about the youth losing touch with their roots) he’ll take you to the Caribbean market to buy sweet and ripe plantains, you spend all day frying them and eating them freshly hot and crunchy out the oil, until there isn’t much left after you’re done cooking.
On especially hard nights while you reminisce about family, Hobie will rest your head on his chest, stroking your head softly, conversing with you in hushed tones about how hard it is to be an immigrant, living in a diaspora and feeling disconnected from your traditions, or not feeling acclimated to your culture, he's quick to remind you about how you're living proof of your ancestors determination, that years of slavery and colonization couldn't keep you from being alive, that you existing is revolutionary enough, he traces your facial features, kissing your lips, your eyes your nose, reminding you that you're the product of their resilience.
My last headcanon is that Hobie goes only to queer people of color for tattoos and piercings, they are indigenous arts after all! He doesn’t get cultural tattoos but he loves showing off their work to other people of color, especially considering how white alt dominated body modification has become especially in the west. He pushes you to try and get some, he doesn’t press you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with but he does support you, and if getting a body modification can help you feel a bit closer to your roots, he’s your number 1 supporter.
#hobie brown x reader#hobie headcanons#hobie brown#hobie brown x black!reader#across the spiderverse#miguel o’hara x reader#atsv#atsv hobie
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PLEASE SAY MORE ON THE SAW FIGHT CLUB AU
Your wish is my command!!
So, in terms of character placements I believe narrator is Amanda, Tyler is John and Marla is Lynn. John and Amanda's father-daughter dynamic would be thoroughly disregarded in this au and replaced with Jack and Tyler's original tension from fight club, with the only remnants of the parental angle being the "our fathers were models for god" and "a generation of men raised by women" kind of stuff Tyler harps on about. This version of Tyler is as if project mayhem is the jigsaw murders, I'm honestly not sure what would kick-start it, but when he meets Jack he has got a few kills under his belt, but it would be him solo rather than in an organised group. Speaking of, the space monkeys would be jigsaw apprentices, I doubt there would be as many of them as there were in fight club, but instead of their signifier being bald heads it would probably be grevious injuries/scars from their own saw traps, as well as the more obvious stuff like the coats and the pig heads. Paper Street serves as Kramers strange little warehouse, he would have the space monkeys working on making traps like we see Amanda do in saw 3, but I don't think they would sell anything in this au given the nature of what they're making, so the plane meeting would probably centre around another topic like machinery, Tyler being more familiar with how to make a machine would give him a common ground with Jack's car recall knowledge.
Marla gets changed around quite a bit here, I think her being in the place of Lynn fits in the way that Tyler is trying to convince Jack that she's important to him, but the way Tyler would get her involved is a bit up in the air. If I had to come up with something on the spot I'd say that she could be an trap survivor and meets Jack through a jigsaw survivors support group that he would most definitely attend to see who hadn't learnt their lesson [Tyler doesnt send him to do this, its his own side thing but it does help choose who should be double trapped], then he complains about her to a point that Tyler brings her in to convince him she's made her choice about life or something like that. Her philosophy of life is probably why she got tangled up with jigsaw in the first place. Also she wouldn't have a husband or any children, so the events of saw 3 would be purely focused on our main trio. The saw 3 ending would have Tyler dead, Jack with the neck bullet hole and marla alive, probably having Jack remove the shotgun collar at Tyler's request before they would murder-suicide each other with Tyler missing the shot and hitting Jack's throat, the end to some grand test Tyler was putting Jack through to see if he could survive without him. After this Marla might end up an apprentice herself, or more likely she would keep in contact with Jack and desperately try to get him to turn himself in.
Tyler's whole "the ability to let that which does not matter truly slide" would be cranked up to 11, in the way that someone kramer sees someone squandering their opportunities gets trapped, Tyler would much the same way find people who aren't living their lives to the fullest and trap them in order to 'save them', much in the way he blew up Jack's condo or gave him the lye kiss, it's all in order to get them to reach rock bottom. As previously mentioned, I think support groups would be a big part of it, maybe the reason Jack gets beartrapped is a combination of hating his perfectly good condo life and hanging around jigsaw support groups despite never being trapped, perking Tyler's ears and putting him in the beartrap, just to end up keeping him around as the first apprentice, which would lead perfectly into Jack's jealousy as the saw monkeys increase, he would argue that he was the first apprentice, he should know everything that goes on, which would probably land him in the saw 2 trap for being a bit of a whiny bitch [in Tyler's eyes]. A reason I put Jack in Amanda's place is the obsessive devotion to the mentor figure, but also because I think their scars weirdly match. Book Jack ends up with scars on either side of his mouth, which in this au would be caused by the beartrap, and Amanda has the bullet wound for saw 3, which coincides with the placement of movie Jack's bullet wound.
I haven't thought about who I would put in the other major character's shoes, such as Adam, Lawrence, Hoffman and Strahm, but I like the placements I've got now which puts a strangely heavy emphasis on saw 3 despite how much more I like saw 1. If you have any thing to add do not hesitate to do so!!! I'd love to discuss how this could go further :3
#jake speaks into the void#fight club#saw#saw 3#soapshipping#the narrator#tyler durden#marla singer#saw au#john kramer#amanda young#lynn denlon#saw posting#txt
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Unforsaken, 12a
(All sections on tumblr)
(AO3, lagging behind but more polished)
Alphsîr and Alphlîn say farewell for the moment in the morning; they mean to go fly with the Geese for the day.
(Celeborn is not hung over, or at least not hung over enough to show it.)
As they set off, Glorfindel waves for Elladan and Elrohir to join him. "I want to come up with a list of all the Ainur-power-related things I did or Elrond did that might be teachable."
They also need to figure out how they're going to adjust group combat strategy to account for big magic swans in the middle of everything — and make sure they don't reflexively attack the orcs.
They also also need to demonstrate the Wizard's Clay again.
Gimli was hoping to demonstrate placing it in rock anyway.
And they still need to come up with those hand signals.
******
Maglor falls in beside Sharlinnu's wagon.
"Oh, good," she says.
"Let's talk about noise."
Sharlinnu has a lot to say about the noise — how pervasive it is, how wrong, how noxious, how exhausting. The ebb and flow of it according to the Dark Lord's moods and fortunes. She tries to mimic it so Maglor can get a better idea of it — he gets how she feels about it, but that's about it.
She talks about seeing the effects of the noise in others, how it manifests in their hearts rather than their heads and twists them up.
She talks about the loneliness of being cut off from the Song, of not being able to hear the trees and the earth and the sky and the Sea, what should be familiar and comfortable made alien and strange.
Then she screws up her face and says, "I have spent more orc childhoods aware than any of the others. But you'll have to bear with me while I… extract the memories from where I put them."
(An incomplete list of aspects of orc childhood Sharlinnu usually works very hard not to remember:
The hunger, overwhelming all reason and feeling and impulse control until you will eat. Anything.
(Dead Men, dead elves, dead dwarves, dead orcs, live prisoners, smaller orclings if the minders get careless, wounded orcs, wounded wargs, orcs who got careless around a large group of orclings, half-rotted carrion, leather clothing, dirt that had blood soaked into it.)
(After relating all those, she struggles for a few minutes before haltingly relating a time when the orc den was overrun and the few escaped orclings scattered each alone in a desolate land, and… she died. Of blood loss. After one of the bites she took out of her own arms hit an artery.)
The horror of maturation inevitably accompanied by pain and deformation.
The complete lack of, of…
Usazila of the Hirnedhrim spent her childhood alone in a pit and came out biting everyone and not knowing how to be a person. Orclings were not left in pits — together in pits they would have killed each other and there really was not the space for a pit each — but that's the comparison that feels right, as far as being raised. Orclings aren't raised. They're fed and guarded and kept from dying until they can figure out how to be a person from whatever shreds of their past lives they can find.
There are a few exceptions, probably. But not many.
"Treating Mist like that would have killed him, probably. But I'm pretty sure it never crossed anyone's mind. Mist was— Even before we realized Mist was an elf — which I thought was obvious from fairly early on, but not everyone did — even before we knew he was an elf, we all thought of him as a child. Children are to be cared for and treasured." She shrugs. "Orclings aren't— No one sees orclings as children. Not orcs, not orclings, not anyone."
"…Are they, though?" Maglor asks.
"No, because they have entire lives of experience available to them and they grow up immediately," Sharlinnu says. "…And yes, because not all of them know that, and…" She holds a hand a foot or so from the wagon seat. "When you're about so tall and can't stand or focus your eyes properly, I think — I think you should probably get to call yourself a child even if you can remember a dozen lifetimes perfectly."
It's probably still easier than talking to Celegorm will be.)
******
Dyn and Gimli, with intermittent assistance from Turgon, Whiterot, Risyind, Zena, and Legolas (they can't all gather at once because there are eight wagons to drive here), come up with hand signals for the following concepts:
"We're ready"
"We need more time"
"Can we get some technical assistance over here"
"Please hurry up"
"Watch out, we're being attacked"
"We need backup for being attacked"
"DRAGON"
"STOP ABORT ABORT WHAT ARE YOU DOING"
"IT'S GOING TO BLOW GO RUN NOW NOW NOW"
"Curse the Dark Lord(s)"
That last one is not expected to be very relevant to the Wizard's Clay-laying; Risyind invents it just to see if it gets around whatever stops the orcs from cursing the Dark Lord(s) generally. It does! At least for the moment.
(Cover your eyes with your hands briefly, then point down with both thumbs, then both pointer fingers, then both middle fingers, etc. — when you've gone through all the fingers, mime retching. Curse the Dark Lord(s)!)
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OMG I just came across your page and read your Tallahassee fics and had to come say that they are so spicy, fun & amazing!!!! Please tell me you have plans to write more because you’re the best writer I’ve read for him 💕
I wanted to ask if I can request a bit of a comfort fluffy one if you like it where like in the first movie he reveals to everyone that Buck was actually his son so the reader ends up comforting him later and they make love telling him they won’t replace his baby but maybe it’s time they can make a new family of their own together.
Hello 😁, thank you, I'm glad you like my stories. I am in the middle of another one atm but I got multiple ideas on how to end it and I sometimes can't make decision to save my life 😂. I rewrote this a couple of times, trying to get it perfect. I hope it's somewhat close to what you were thinking x😊
𝐿𝑜𝓈𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐿𝑜𝓋𝑒
Summary: During a game of Monopoly, you find out that your boyfriend lost the most important thing in his life. His son
Warnings: none
Word count: 1950
“Hey guys, look what I found,” you announced cheerfully as you skipped into the living room, where the group was gathered around the fire, their faces illuminated by the flickering flames. The room is dim, but the fireplace casts a gentle glow. You held up a box with a hopeful smile plastered on your face, revealing the game you had stumbled upon, “Wanna play?”
“Oh, Monopoly,” Columbus said, reaching up for the box with a smile. "Cool." He quickly opened the box to admire all of the little pieces, game tokens, Chance cards, Community Chest cards, and the big stack of Monopoly Money. He placed the box in the middle of the group and began unpacking the pieces.
"Wow," Wichita exclaimed, "I haven't played that in years."
“Dibs on the top hat,” you called out, shooting your hand in the air as if you were asking your teacher for permission to talk. Tallahassee smiled at your childlike enthusiasm, and you could feel his gaze on you as you eagerly awaited his response. After a few seconds, he silently handed you the top hat, and you took it with an excited expression. You quickly took the spot next to him, and his arm immediately wrapped around your waist. You felt the warmth of his body pressing against you, and you smiled as you settled into the spot that you would come to think of as yours. You had been searching for this feeling for a long time, and now that you had it, you felt happy and content. Tallahassee smiled as he kissed your head.
You each roll the dice, aiming to get the highest number that you can and to be the first to get to the fun and exciting places on the board. Wichita lands on Park Place and wastes no time, quickly buying it up and planning to build some houses. Little Rock, meanwhile, rolls a double, is thrilled to land on Boardwalk, and is lucky enough to be able to buy it before anyone else. On the other side of the table, Tallahassee gets sent to the 'Go' spot, collecting two hundred dollars and reminiscing on all the times that she has mistakenly ended up there before. Columbus, however, rolls snake eyes, revealing that it’s time to pay taxes.
Little Rock rolled the dice again and got a seven. She moved her token and landed on the Free Parking space on the game board.
“Oh, free parking, which coincidentally is the best thing about Zombieland,” Wichita points out, and you laugh before bringing your drink to your lips to take a sip.
“That’s a good one, but I think the best thing about Z-Land is no speed limit,” you replied, smirking. The statement echoed through the group, eliciting knowing chuckles. You were no stranger to the thrill of the open road, though your reckless driving had earned you a fair share of speeding tickets in the pre-apocalyptic world, which the group was not surprised about. Tallahassee rarely lets you drive anymore.
“Of course, you’d say that,” Tallahassee said with a chuckle. Columbus shook his head and Wichita was suppressing a giggle. Little Rock sat with a straight face, although you could tell she was amused. You grinned at them all.
“No, best thing about Z-land No Facebook status updates. You know "Rob Curtis is gearing up for Friday". Who cares.” Columbus added, rolling his eyes.
“Or ‘Already on my third cup of joe this morning!” You chimed in.
Tallahassee, with a playful twirl of the fork in his fingers, added, "The best thing is no more flushing, epic." His statement elicited a collective chuckle from you.
You shook your head at him and smirked. “Of course, you’d sat that,” you mimicked. You squeal as he brings his hand to your waist, giving it a light pinch.
"And the worst thing? About Z-land?” Wichita asked, her eyes grazing over the group.
“You mean other than the fact that I shot Bill Murray?” Columbus asked sadly, looking down at the board, looking for something to occupy his hands.
Tallahassee's gaze remained fixed on the floor as he spoke, “That's easy. Losing Buck,”
“That's his puppy.” Columbus told the girls, gesturing towards him.
“I tell you, I never thought I could love anything like Buck. The day he was born, I just lost my mind.”
“Sorry.” Wichita whispered, her voice heavy with regret at asking the question.
“He had my personality, my laugh, and my appetite,” he continued, the strain in his voice becoming more obvious as he was on the verge of crying. Then it hit you. The pain that was swimming in tears in his eyes, his actions, and his hatred towards the zombies It wasn’t a puppy they took from him. It was his son. Why did it take you so long to realize this?
His soft sobs that he fought to contain drifted through the air, reaching your ears. You felt helpless. You didn’t know how to make him feel better. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out something: “We made this wallet together out of duct tape."
He handed the wallet to you, and in it, you saw two pictures of a young blonde boy. You smiled. He’s adorable, or he was. Asshole zombies. You wanted kids. At least you did before the apocalypse started. Now it seemed like a bad idea. Even though you would love to have a family with Tallahassee. But you weren't sure if he'd want one with you.
“I haven't cried like that since Titanic,” he said, picking up a pile of money to wipe his tears. Tallahassee excused himself from the game and headed upstairs. You then excused yourself and followed him.
You softly knocked on the door before entering. “It’s only me,” you said. When you walked in, he was lying on the bed, hugging the pillow. You went to the other side and lay down beside him, facing him. “I’m sorry, baby."
You wished you could take away his pain, but all you could do was be there for him. You kissed his forehead, whispering words of love and comfort. You looked into his eyes, wet with tears, and saw the depth of his grief. You knew he had lost a part of himself—a part that could never be replaced. You wanted him to know that he was not alone and that you loved him more than anything in the world.
“I know nothing I can do can ever make up for that, but I love you, and you have me forever,” you whispered. Tears welled up in your eyes as you stroked his cheek, wiping away the trail of water left behind by his tears. You wished you could kill them all and wipe them off the face of the earth. You wished you could end this nightmare, this hell.
But you knew that was impossible. You knew that you were outnumbered and outmatched. You knew that you had to keep fighting, keep living, and keep hoping.
You tightened your grip on him, trying to convey your love. You kissed his cheek, his neck, and his shoulder. You whispered words of comfort. You told him that you were sorry, letting him know that you were there for him and you would be through anything.
He smiled weakly at you, squeezing your hand. He thanked you for being there for him, for being his rock and his anchor. He told you that he loved you too and that you were his everything.
He leaned in and kissed you softly and gently. He wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer to him. He rested his head on your chest, listening to your heartbeat. He closed his eyes and sighed. He felt a flicker of hope in his heart.
You continued to stroke his cheek softly, basking in the warmth of his skin. His eyes fluttered shut, and his breathing was slow and steady. You couldn't help but smile at the sight of him, completely relaxed.
However, your mind was racing with questions and doubts. You had been through so much together, surviving in a world that had been torn apart by a deadly virus. The two of you had formed a bond that was unbreakable.
After a few minutes of internal debate, you decided to voice the question that had been weighing on your mind since you got together. "If the world wasn't the way it was, would you have a family with me?" you asked softly.
There was a moment of silence, and you felt your heart sink.
But then he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. "Yes, I would," he said. "If we can find a safe place to set up camp and live, maybe we still can."
You couldn't believe what you were hearing, but it seemed impossible in a world where survival was the only goal.
"Do you really think we can?" you asked as his hand moving to rest on your stomach as if something was already growing in there.
He nodded with a determined look in his eyes. "I'll make sure of it," he said, pulling you close and kissing you softly.
As your kiss grew more passionate, you felt like the whole world around you had stopped. His hands slowly left your face and tangled into your hair. As our kiss grew more passionate and desperate, it felt as though time had stopped. Your lips intertwined, speaking what words could never express.
You knew that the future was uncertain, but with him by your side, anything was possible. Tallahassee had become your home, and no matter where you were, as long as you were with him, you knew that you would be okay.
***
9 months later.
You writhed in pain as you lay on your bed, clutching the sheets tightly in your hands. Tallahassee was kneeling by your side, offering words of comfort and support as he guided you through each painful wave. But despite your best efforts, you couldn't help but feel a seething anger building within you. As the minutes turned into hours, your frustration grew with each passing moment.
“God, I hate you!” You screamed at him, squeezing his hand as hard as you could, your nails digging into the rough flesh.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the moment arrived. With one final push, you gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Tears streamed down your face as you held your newborn in your arms, your eyes glistening with tears of joy, exhaustion, and overwhelming love. The tiny, fragile life you cradled in your arms represented a glimmer of hope in a world tainted by chaos and uncertainty.
You both gaze down at your newborn daughter, her fragile fingers clutching one of Tallahassee’s. You turned to him, his eyes reflecting a mixture of pride and tenderness, and asked, "What shall we name her?"
Tallahassee, who had been deep in thought, looked up at you with a twinkle in his eye. "I have the perfect name," he said, as his thumb gently stroked the back of your daughter's tiny hand. "Let's call her Dove."
A warm smile graced your lips as your eyes lovingly met those of your beautiful baby girl. "Dove," you whispered softly, "I love it."
And Dove it was. The name suited your little angel perfectly, with her delicate features and pure innocence. You both vowed to love and protect her with everything you had and to give her the best life possible.
With your precious newborn cradled between you, he gently leaned in, pressing a tender kiss to your forehead. “Thank you,”
You took his hand in yours and looked him in the eyes. “We’re not replacing him,” you told him seriously. He squeezed your hand and brought it to his lips, placing a soft kiss on the back.
[You can change the name if you want guys ❤]
#reader insert#female reader#tallahassee#zombieland#tallahassee x reader#zombieland fanfiction#zombieland x reader
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