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whoslai · 1 year

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Off The Menu - Lee Heeseung (Chapter 2)

genre: angst, fluff, slow-ish burn, eventual smut!! (you’re responsible for what you consume, read at your own risk)

warnings: lowkey suggestive texts, heeseung is sooooo into y/n (trust me), unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it), breast play??, oral ( fem receiving), sad goodbyes :(((

send me an ask if you’d like to be tagged! thank you to all my new followers, you guys are amazing for supporting me. please interact and give me as much feedback as you’d like (don’t be an ass tho, no need to spread negativity.

not proof read, sorry for any typos in advance.

word count: 5.4k

link to series masterlist or whatever

next chapter

Chapter 2: “Oh my God.”

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As quickly as you had read his text, you placed your phone down; Oh my God, he was flirting with you. Maybe the attraction had been reciprocated. How could you be so oblivious to the multitude of hints he had been throwing at you all night? Calling you smart? Beautiful? Jesus. Ningning was right.

However, you plugged your phone up and turned the screen face down. You didn’t want to continue the conversation until after you woke up as you were unsure of how to respond. Hmm, I’m intrigued. How shall I find out? You replayed his text over and over in your mind. Why’d you flirt with his ass? He was bold, you weren’t. Anywho, you spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, your mind racing with thoughts of Heeseung. You couldn't believe how much he had managed to charm you in such a short amount of time, but you were thrilled at the prospect of getting to know him better.

But at the same time, you were also filled with self-doubt and insecurity. You couldn't help but wonder if the waiter was really interested in you, or if he was just looking for a quick fling. You'd been hurt in the past, and your worst fear was getting hurt again.

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The next morning, you woke up feeling a mix of excitement and anxiety. You knew you wanted to talk to Heeseung, but you were still unsure of how to respond to his flirtatious text. Finally, you decided to take a deep breath and replied to him, informing him that you had fallen asleep.

His lack of immediate response was expected, however of course, you could only hope that he wouldn’t hold it against you that you needed time to sleep on the entire situation. You noticed how early it was, seeing that Ningning was still fast asleep. You got up and showered, throwing on a top and some pants as you checked your phone to see if he had replied. To your relief, he had merely replied, “Gotchu, don’t worry about it. Maybe we can meet up sometime soon before you go back to school.”

You felt a sense of relief wash over you as you read Heeseung's message. You were glad that he wasn't upset with you for taking some time to respond, and you were excited at the prospect of seeing him again soon. You soon replied that you could meet for breakfast, to which he simply sent a location and “10 AM. Be there or be square.”

You checked the clock. You only had about an hour to get ready so you quickly stripped yourself of your casual clothing and put on a pair of jeans and a tee. Ningning poked her head up at you, staring through half lidded eyes, “What time is it?”

“Time for me…to go…meet Heeseung for breakfast.” You told her, awkwardly smiling.

“Who the fuck is Heeseung?” She laughed, rubbed her eyes.

“The waiter from last night. He texted me really late…” You explained.

“Oh?” She questioned, “What’d he say?”

You took your phone out and showed her. As she read it, a smile slowly crept on her face, “Can I say something inappropriate?”

Your eyes widened at her comment, but you slowly nodded, “Sure…go ahead.”

“He wants you so bad.” She giggled, pushing you away.

You rolled your eyes at Ningning's comment, feeling a mix of embarrassment and amusement. You knew that she meant well, but sometimes her sense of humor could be a little off-color.

"Stop it, Ningning," you said, trying to keep a straight face. "He's a stranger.”

Ningning nodded, still grinning. "Sure, just a stranger who texts you in the middle of the night and wants to take you out to breakfast."

You couldn't help but smile at her teasing, feeling grateful for her lightheartedness. Despite the challenges you were facing in your life, it was moments like these that reminded you of the importance of friendship and laughter.

As you got ready to leave, Ningning gave you a hug. "Have fun, and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

“Pff, that’s not saying much…” You said.

She scoffed, hitting your shoulder as you left the hotel room with her keys. You chuckled at Ningning's response, feeling grateful for her ability to make light of any situation. As you left the hotel room with her keys, you couldn't help but feel a sense of nervousness. Meeting up with a stranger for breakfast wasn't something you did every day, and you weren't sure what to expect.

As you made your way to the breakfast spot where the stranger had suggested you meet, you couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive. But as you arrived and saw him sitting at a booth in the corner, you felt a sense of relief wash over you. He stood up as you approached and gave you a smile.

“Well, well, well. We will meet again.” He joked,�� greeting you with a warm hug.

You smiled at his kind gesture, hugging him back. “Indeed we do.” You felt a sense of comfort in his embrace, grateful for his friendly gesture. As you pulled away from the hug, you couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude towards him for taking the time to meet with you.

As you sat down at the booth and ordered breakfast, you found yourself feeling more at ease in his presence; He was easy to talk to, kind, all of the above. He was an amazing listener and genuinely might have been one of the funniest people you’d known. He effortlessly made you laugh.

You found yourself enjoying the conversation with him more and more as you talked over breakfast. He had a way of putting you at ease, making you feel like you could be yourself without any judgment. He listened attentively to everything you had to say and offered thoughtful insights and advice.

But what really stood out to you was his sense of humor. He had a way of making even the most mundane things seem funny and interesting. You found yourself laughing more than you had in a long time, feeling grateful for the lightheartedness and joy he brought to the conversation.

“Heeseung, can I ask you a personal question?” You asked, sipping your orange juice.

His eyebrows raised, “Uh oh, how personal are we getting?”

“Very personal.” You emphasized, smiling.

Heeseung's eyebrows raised even higher at your response, but he couldn't help but smile back at you. "Alright, shoot. I'm an open book."

You took a deep breath, feeling a little nervous about asking such a personal question. “Promise you won’t get offended.”

Heeseung's smile softened as he sensed your nervousness. "I promise I won't get offended," he said reassuringly. "You can ask me anything."

You felt a sense of relief wash over you at his words, grateful for his understanding and empathy. You took a deep breath, gathering your thoughts before asking your question. “Do you normally take customers out to breakfast the morning after you meet them?”

Heeseung's smile faded slightly as he considered your question. "No, I don't usually take customers out to breakfast," his voice softened, “Is it wrong for me to want to get to know such a pretty girl as yourself?”

You couldn't help but feel flattered by Heeseung's comment. Despite your initial hesitation, you found yourself warming up to him and his easy going personality. You had to admit that you were intrigued by the idea of getting to know him better as a person, not just as a waiter.

"I don't think it's wrong at all," you said, smiling back at Heeseung. "In fact, I'm flattered that you want to get to know me better."

Heeseung's smile returned, and he seemed to relax. "That's great to hear," he said. You sighed, glancing down at your hands that rested in your lap. “Now, since you’ve asked me a question…can I ask you a question as well?” he asked.

"Of course," you said, returning his smile. "Ask me anything."

“Pinky promise you won’t run away once I ask.” he said, holding out his pinky.

You smiled at Heeseung's playful gesture and interlocked your pinky with his. "I pinky promise," you said, feeling a sense of lightheartedness.

Heeseung grinned at your response. "Alright, here's my question," he said, his voice teasing. “Are you single?”

You couldn't help but feel a little flustered at Heeseung's question, but at the same time, you found yourself drawn to him and his easygoing personality. You had to admit that you were interested in him, and you wondered if he felt the same way. "I am single, actually," you said, offering him a small smile. “Never had a boyfriend before, actually.”

“When you say never…do you mean that you’ve never dated seriously or have you really never dated…ever?” He asked, tilting his head to the side a bit.

You felt a little embarrassed by Heeseung's question, but you appreciated his curiosity and openness. "I've never really dated," you admitted, your voice soft. "I've always been focused on my work and my studies, so I haven't had a lot of time for relationships."

“Then that leads me to my next question.” He said.

“What would that be?” You asked.

Heeseung leaned forward slightly, his expression curious. You couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation as Heeseung leaned forward with a curious expression. You wondered what his next question would be.

“Are you considering this breakfast meetup a ‘date’?” He asked.

You felt a flutter in your stomach at Heeseung's question, and you couldn't help but wonder if he felt the same way you did. "I hadn't really thought about it like that," you admitted, your voice soft. "But if you're asking if I'm interested in you...then yes, I am.”

He clicked his tongue, drinking the rest of his water, a mischievous glint in his eye as he said, “Do you know what I'm thinking?" he asked, his voice low and playful.

You shook your head, feeling a little shy and uncertain. "No, what are you thinking?" you asked, trying to keep your voice steady.

“I’m thinking…that we should get out of here…and go somewhere else. Somewhere more fun.”

You couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation at Heeseung's suggestion. While you were a little shy and uncertain, you found yourself drawn to his playful and flirty personality.

"That sounds like a great idea," you said, feeling a smile spread across your face. "Where do you have in mind?"

He leaned back, a small smile on his face as he said, “Oh, you know…maybe my place…anywhere.”

You couldn't help but feel a sense of intrigue and excitement at Heeseung's suggestion. While you were a little shy and uncertain, you found yourself drawn to his playful and flirty personality.

"Your place, huh?" you said, a hint of playfulness in your voice. "Are you trying to seduce me, Heeseung?"

Heeseung chuckled, seeming to enjoy your banter. "Maybe," he said, his voice smooth and confident. "But seriously, how about we go for a drive up the coast? We can stop at some scenic overlooks and take in the views."

You felt a sense of happiness and anticipation at the thought of a romantic drive with Heeseung. "That sounds amazing," you said, smiling at him.

He nodded, taking his wallet out as he threw money down on the table and held his hand out. You held onto his hand, following him out of the restaurant.

As you walked out of the restaurant hand in hand with Heeseung, you couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation for your upcoming drive. You felt a newfound connection with him, and the thought of spending more time together filled you with happiness. It was finally your turn to experience something with a boy after all these years. All this time of telling every man around you “no”, shying away from going on dates and so much more.

As Heeseung led you towards his car, you took a moment to take in his features. He was tall with a lean build, and his dark hair was styled in a trendy yet effortless way. You found yourself drawn to his easy confidence and playful personality, and you couldn't wait to see where the day would take you.

As Heeseung opened the car door for you and helped you get in, you felt a sense of appreciation towards him. He seemed to value your comfort and well-being, and you found yourself feeling even more attracted to him.

As he started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, you felt a sense of adventure and excitement.

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As he drove, soft tunes emitted from his radio. He made small talk here and there about small things from places to visit in Malibu to asking you questions about your college life.

Once you two reached a nearby beach, he held the door open for you as you both got out. He offered to hold your shoes for you, to which you declined, preferring to keep your shoes on in the sand.

“You mustn't be from Cali if you’re genuinely going to wear your tennis shoes in the sand.” He said.

“You’re right, I’m not from Cali. I’m all the way from Virginia.” You said.

“West Virginia?” He asked. “Yes sir.” You told him, settling down beside him in the sand.

As you settled down beside Heeseung in the sand, you couldn't help but feel a sense of comfort and ease around him. Despite your initial nervousness, he had a way of putting you at ease and making you feel at home.

"So you're from Virginia, huh?" he said, his voice curious. "What brought you all the way out to California? Just school?"

You smiled at Heeseung, appreciating his interest in your background. "School was definitely part of it," you said, nodding your head. "But I was also looking for a change of scenery and a chance to explore new opportunities."

Heeseung nodded, seeming to understand your perspective. "I get that," he said, his voice thoughtful. "California is definitely a place of opportunity and adventure, if you know where to look."

You laughed, feeling a sense of warmth towards Heeseung's positive outlook on life. "That's exactly what I was thinking," you said, smiling at him.

As you both sat in the sand, watching the waves crash against the shore, you felt a sense of connection and ease with Heeseung. Despite your different backgrounds and experiences, you shared a common sense of curiosity and adventure that drew you together.

“Thank you for buying me breakfast, by the way. It was really good, I had a lot of fun talking to you.” You told him.

Heeseung turned his head towards you, a soft smile on his face. "Of course," he said, his voice warm. "I had a great time too. It's not often I meet someone who's as adventurous and curious as you are."

You felt a sense of happiness and appreciation at Heeseung's compliment. "Thank you," you said, feeling a blush rise to your cheeks. "I guess I just like to explore and try new things."

Heeseung nodded, seeming to understand your perspective. "I can definitely relate to that," he said. "Did I ever tell you that I studied music in college?

You felt a sense of surprise and curiosity at Heeseung's revelation. "No, you didn't," you said, your voice intrigued. "That's really interesting. What kind of music did you study?"

Heeseung smiled, seeming to enjoy your interest. "I studied contemporary guitar performance," he said. "It was a really intense program, but I learned a lot about discipline and hard work."

You felt a sense of admiration towards Heeseung's dedication and commitment to his craft. "That's really impressive," you said, smiling at him. "I can tell you're really passionate about music."

Heeseung nodded, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. "Definitely," he said. "Music is my life. It's a way to express myself and connect with others in a meaningful way."

You nodded, feeling a sense of appreciation towards Heeseung's outlook on life. "That's really beautiful," you said. "I think it's amazing when people can find something they're truly passionate about and pursue it with all their heart."

Heeseung grinned, seeming to share in your enthusiasm. "I agree," he said. "I think it's important to follow your dreams and passions, no matter what anyone else says. Life is too short to not do what makes you happy."

“You have an amazing outlook on life. I wish I were more like you…” You told him, turning your attention to the waves.

“More like me?” he asked.

“Yeah…I feel like I’m so…dull and pessimistic. I’m always a future person rather than a present person. You know what I mean?” You told him.

"I don't think you're dull or pessimistic at all," he said, his voice reassuring. "In fact, I think you're one of the most interesting and curious people I've met."

You felt a sense of warmth and comfort at Heeseung's words. "Really?" you said.

Heeseung nodded, seeming to understand your uncertainty. "Definitely," he said. "I think it's great that you're always thinking about the future and striving to improve yourself. But at the same time, it's important to enjoy the present moment and appreciate the little things in life."

You nodded at his comment, “True…”

“Like now…I’m enjoying my time with you. I am taking in everything you say and relishing in the moment.” He told you.

“Oh…wow…um..” You trailed off, “That’s nice…”

He laughed at your words, “You’re so cute and awkward.”

You felt a sense of embarrassment and amusement at Heeseung's comment. "I'm not that awkward," you said, trying to sound indignant.

Heeseung chuckled, seeming to find your reaction amusing. "I think you're adorable," he said, his voice warm. "Your awkwardness is part of your charm."

“Shut up, Heeseung. Like actually, zip your mouth shut.” You sarcastically told him, pushing him away from you.

Heeseung laughed, seeming to enjoy your playful banter. "Hey, I'm just telling the truth," he said, his voice still warm. "You're cute when you're flustered."

"Fine, fine," you said, trying to sound annoyed. "I guess I'll just have to accept that I'm adorable."

Heeseung grinned, seeming to appreciate your good humor. "That's the spirit," he said. "Embrace your inner adorableness."

As the sun continued to set over the beach, casting a warm glow over the sand, you felt a sense of happiness and contentment settle over you. The warmth of Heeseung’s body bounced off of your skin, creating an energetic connection between the both of you.

You could feel his kindness, his easy-goingness, him. And he felt good. You didn’t want this feeling to end.

Watching the sunset and feeling the warmth of his presence, you felt a sense of peace and contentment settle over you. It was as if all the stresses and worries of everyday life had melted away, leaving you with nothing but the present moment and the person sitting beside you.

You turned to look at Heeseung, feeling a sense of appreciation and gratitude towards him. "Thank you for bringing me here," you said, your voice soft. "This is really beautiful."

Heeseung smiled, seeming to understand your sentiment. "I'm glad you like it," he said, his voice warm. "It's one of my favorite places to come and just relax."

You nodded, feeling a sense of connection and ease with Heeseung. There was something about him that made you feel more comfortable and at ease than you had with anyone else in a long time. It was a feeling you didn't want to let go of.

The sun dipped below the horizon, casting the beach into a soft orange glow, you felt a sense of both excitement and apprehension about what the future held.

You checked your phone, noticing that it was getting a bit late. You didn’t want to have to drive back to campus so late at night so you knew you’d have to leave soon.

Reluctantly, you said, “I’ve got to head back to the hotel. We only planned on staying for a night.”

Heeseung nodded, seeming to understand your situation. "I understand," he said, his voice warm. "I had a great time with you today. Thank you for spending time with me."

You smiled at him, feeling a sense of appreciation and warmth towards him. "Thank you for showing me this beautiful place," you said. "I had a great time too."

As you began to gather your things, you felt a sense of both excitement and sadness at the prospect of leaving. You had enjoyed your time with Heeseung so much that you didn't want it to end, but you knew that you had to return to your everyday life.

You two walked back to his car and began your journey back to the hotel.

“So you say you’ve neverrrrr had a boyfriend, yeah?” He asked, turning the music down.

“Never.” You told him. “Why are you so interested in my failed love life, Heeseung?” you teased, turning to look at him.

Heeseung chuckled, seeming to enjoy your playful banter. "I'm not interested in your failed love life," he said, his voice warm. "I'm interested in you.

"Well, I'm glad you're interested in me," you said, your voice laced with playfulness. "I think you're pretty interesting too."

Heeseung grinned, seeming to appreciate your flirtatious tone. "Oh really?" he said, his voice low and husky. "I have a feeling we could be pretty interesting together."

You felt a sense of electricity pass between the two of you, the chemistry palpable. "I think you might be right," you said, your voice soft and seductive.

As you drove back to the hotel, the tension between you and Heeseung continued to build, the air charged with anticipation and desire. Of course, you hadn’t had the intention of doing anything with him…not this soon. But, there was a lot of “want” behind your feelings for him.

He pulled into the front of the hotel, putting his car into park, not saying anything. As the silence between you and Heeseung lingered, you couldn't help but feel the intensity of the attraction between the two of you. You had never felt this kind of desire before, and it both excited and scared you.

You turned to look at Heeseung, him doing the same. You noticed the way his eyes lingered on your lips; The desire was mutual, and it was clear that neither of you could ignore it any longer.

Without thinking, you leaned in towards him, feeling the warmth of his breath on your skin. Heeseung met you halfway, his lips meeting yours in a fiery kiss that left you breathless.

In that moment, everything else melted away, and all that mattered was the two of you and your desire for each other. As the kiss deepened, you felt a sense of electricity pass between the two of you, the passion building with every passing moment.

His hand slid up to rest against your cheek as he pulled your face closer to his own, lifting the arm rest up that separated the two of you. His lips dominated your own, leading to him taking over and guiding you through the kiss. You’d never EVER gone this far with a man before…but it all felt so right.

You felt a sense of surrender as Heeseung deepened the kiss, his touch igniting a fire within you that you had never felt before. As he pulled you even closer, you let yourself be consumed by the passion of the moment, giving yourself over to the desire that had been building between the two of you.

His touch was electric, sending shivers down your spine as he explored your mouth with his tongue, teasing and tasting you with a hunger that matched your own. You had never felt so alive, so consumed by the desire for another person.

“Shit…” He huffed out, pulling his lips away. The only thing left connecting you both was a small string of saliva coming from your mouth. “I forgot we were parked in the front.”

Feeling overwhelmingly confident, you replied, “So then let’s go somewhere else.”

Heeseung's eyes widened in surprise, clearly taken aback by your boldness. But as he looked at you, he saw the desire and passion in your eyes and he knew that he couldn't resist.

"Okay," he said, his voice husky with desire. "Somewhere else it is."

Just as quickly as he had said that, he drove off. As you drove through the dark streets, you could feel the excitement and anticipation building within you, the desire for Heeseung overwhelming.

Finally, Heeseung pulled into a secluded spot and turned off the car, turning to look at you with a hunger that matched your own. As he leaned in to kiss you, you felt a sense of electricity pass between the two of you, the passion growing more and more strong.

He unbuckled your seatbelt and pulled you closer to him as he settled you both in the back. You situated yourself on top of his lap as his hands gripped onto your waist.

His fingers hovered over your top, stopping as he looked up at you, “When you say you’ve never had a boyfriend….does that mean you’re a virgin?”

You felt a rush of heat spread through your body at Heeseung's question, feeling a mix of nervousness and excitement. You had never been with a man before, and the thought of exploring your sexuality with Heeseung was both overwhelming and enticing.

"Y-yes," you said, your voice barely above a whisper. "I am a virgin."

Heeseung nodded, seeming to understand your hesitation. "It's okay," he said, his voice soft and reassuring. “Are you sure you want to do this? With me?”

You looked into Heeseung's eyes, seeing the genuine concern and care in them. You took a deep breath, feeling the nerves building within you, but also feeling a sense of trust in him.

"I'm sure," you said, your voice steady and firm. "I want to be with you.”

With that, Heeseung leaned in and kissed you again. The passion between you two was undeniable, and as you explored each other's bodies, you felt a sense of liberation and excitement wash over you.

He’d eventually stripped you of your clothing, laying you down on your back as he hovered over you.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yes,” You told him, “I’m okay.”

You were drunk off of his kisses, feeling nothing very pure ecstasy as his eyes sparkled underneath the moonlight.

He kissed down from your lips to your collarbone, soon attaching his lips around one of your nipples, threading the other between his index and thumb.

He sucked around the surrounding area, sending sparks throughout your body. You bit your lip, attempting to contain the explicit noises that so desperately wanted to escape.

He kept at this for a while before his free hand slid down your stomach atop your panties. Your breath hitched as you felt his body heat radiating down onto your pussy.

“Oh shit, Heeseung…” You moaned as he removed his mouth from your breast and lifted your legs up and apart.

“Nervous?” He asked.

You nodded, “So nervous…”

“Don’t worry…I’ll take good care of you.” He whispered, slipping your panties to the side and pressing his thumb down against your clit.

“Oh!” You gasped, his thumb pressing down harder and harder to see how much you could take.

“Feels good?” He asked. You shyed away from answering him and looked down at your legs. “Y/N…”

You shook your head, covering your face as you noticed your confidence slowly diminishing.

His thumb withdrew from you and was replaced by his mouth. His tongue lapped up your sensitive flaps and you couldn’t help but let out a loud string of moans. His mouth felt so good against you, your fingers were nothing compared to how good he felt.

You took your arms down and ran your fingers through his hair, urging him to go faster as you could feel a knot growing in your lower belly.

He sucked on your clit, allowing spit to dribble out of his mouth onto you, adding more pleasure.

Before you knew it, you were coming undone on his tongue. He happily lapped your release up, licking his lips clean of your juices.

He looked up at you, and you looked down at him as you came down from your high.

“You look so pretty like this,” He said, slipping his shirt off, “All laid out. Just for me.”

Once his pants were off, you could see his print in his briefs. You should’ve known that he’d be big, how could a man like him be anything but big?

“I don’t have any condoms…” He said, caressing your thighs, “Sure you still wanna continue?”

“I’m sure.” You told him, allowing him to pull your panties completely off.

He did away with his briefs and you took him all in. He was big. He was perfect. He was everything and above.

He opened your legs some more to accommodate for himself and placed his hand on your pelvis, holding himself within his hand.

“If it hurts, tell me.” He said.

He slowly lined himself up with your entrance and pushed in, looking up at your face as it contorted up from the stretch. You held onto his hand and he intertwined his fingers with your own.

“Fuck…” He groaned, tightly holding onto you. “You’re so tight, y/n…”

You looked down at where you both had connected, taking a few deep breaths before urging him to continue.

He slowly started to thirst inside of you, starting off gentle before you told him he could speed up. Soon he went from gentle and unsteady to hard and controlled.

His stomach brushed against your clit with each thrust, adding on to the pure bliss you were feeling. You thought you’d last much longer than you did, but with the combination of you being stimulated in more ways than one, you came within minutes. Tears fell from your eyes as moans ripped through your throat and your hand tightened within him as your nails dug in.

His thirsts staggered and he quickly stopped, pulling out and finishing on your stomach. Your head fell back and you closed your legs, feeling your body sink into his seat from exhaustion.

For a while, he didn’t say anything. But eventually, he slipped his clothing back on and opened the glove compartment, wiping your stomach with some few napkins he had.

You were too tired to do anything, and being the sweetheart he appeared to be, he put your clothes back on for you and held you against him as you grounded yourself.

Eventually, you recovered from the intense first time you had with him and hugged him, “Thank you…”

He took a deep breath, “Are you going to call me when you make it back to campus?”

“Yes…” You smiled.

“And are you going to text me every single day until we see each other again?” He asked.

“I will.” You told him.

He kissed your cheek and helped you back into the front seat, driving you back to the hotel and walking you into the lobby.

As you stood in the lobby, you turned to face Heeseung, feeling a sense of sadness wash over you. You didn't want this night to end, didn't want to say goodbye to him just yet.

Heeseung seemed to sense your hesitation, and he pulled you into a tight embrace, holding you close.

"It's not goodbye," he whispered. "It's just see you later."

You nodded, feeling a sense of comfort in his words. You hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go.

"Thank you for tonight," you said, your voice barely above a whisper.

"Thank you for being here with me," he replied, his voice just as soft.

With one last kiss, he pulled away, and you watched as he walked out of the hotel, feeling a sense of sadness and longing in your heart.

But as you made your way back to your room, you knew that this was just the beginning of something special between you and Heeseung. And you couldn't wait to see where it would lead.

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taglist: @jungwo-nnie @voidbeomgyu

#enhypen smut #enhypen ff #heeseung angst #heeseung fluff #heeseung smut #heeseung x reader #enhypen fluff #enhypen angst #enhypen x reader #heeseung ff

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aquaquadrant · 9 months

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do you have any idea how excited i am for the next chapter. Bursting right now. Every time I see you or lunarcrown post I am here in an instant. I am so in love with the htp au I am going insane. Literally biting and throwing it around like a feral dog rn. I also just hope that Bravo doesn't bully Timmy too much, he deserves some love.. He needs something good in his life. Honestly I think that Tango would appreciate him more, and not just because he's a version of Jimmy, but because he is beautiful and his special little rabbit <3 he's also my special little rabbit. I love Timmy a lot btw. He's so dear to me. My pathetic little paper bag rat of a man, I will hold him up to a heating lamp and comb through his tiny little hairs. He's baby. To me specifically. I hope he gets to have a nice meal one day, and a place to call home. And that he never has to worry about starving again. I also hope that Atlas gets punched in the face again because he deserves it. No, he needs it. He needs to be punched repeatedly until he is a little brown stain. On the floor. And then I will burn that floor.

Anyway keep up the good work yaaaaa sorry for ranting haha I just ramble a bit. I love htp it's my favorite hehe

I LOVE ALL THE TIMMY LOVE. it’s so great especially considering the super limited role he’s had in the actual text. like “yes king give us nothing!!”

fr tho thanks so much for sending this in, i never mind ranting or rambling. it’s actually really helpful and motivating for me cuz seeing u guys get excited makes me even more excited. i added probably another 2k words to chapter nine after u sent this in.

#hels to pay au #HTP ask

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campbyler · 3 months

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THEA!!!

they r so boyfriends! 😭😭😭😭😭😭 it should be illegal to read acswy while being single CAUSE I WANT TO BITE SOMEBODY SO BAD. so im gonna bite u guys. as a revenge for my poor heart. sorry.

first of all will with tote bag!!! mike with long sleeves and shorts!!! yes!! their fits r literally so perfect. i just have to say it.

the fact that will didn’t even bring his car key with him. he doesn’t hate mustang as much as he pretends 😭 and he definitely changed his mind after mikes explanation. can’t wait till will break his stupid rule and they’ll make out senselessly in it.

i got mikes reasoning for buying that car (and ted is an asshole in every universe. sorry that it happened to u thea) but he could choose less pretentious one 🙄 sorry i have a with aversion towards expensive cars. their drivers always think that they better than traffic regulations. anyway.

manual transmission is a crime against humanity and im glad that i never have to use it again. it wasn’t that bad on the road and changing gears doesn’t take much time but traffic lights became my arch enemies cause i always managed to stall on them 😭 i hope ur lessons were better btw. i feel that will will shake like chihuahua😭 plus it like one extra leg on the clutch and i have no idea how to not forget about it if u only drive automatic.

their not-date date cause they definitely aren’t dating they’re barely friends who love kiss each other on the mouth and hold hands and spend time together and tell each other their deepest secrets.

the things i felt when mike dropped wills hand in the car. i Know it was was a reason. and he totally recovered himself by holding wills pinky the entire way to the mall. i know their pinkies Hurt cause where’s no other way.

when they’ll find out that smooches at the center of the cafe is not really platonic. isn’t really platonic with kissing if we’re judging be their standards. The Kiss in the changing room though…. they literally obsessed with each other i can believe guys used to pretend they enemies 😭

someone brought up dwoht on relation to the thrift store and i can’t stop thinking about it

“u (authors) said there was nothing in the world that could stop it

i (i) had a bad feeling”

i loveeee noticing how their humor changed. will doesn’t want to hurt mike anymore he wants to laugh with him instead 💔 and he thinks mikes password is cute and loserish (it is) but he charmed by it omgggg!!!

im so glad that i spent this year with u guys (im finishing my comment in 2024!!!! happy new year!!!) and im excited to follow the story next year too. days if the updates became my favorite and brought me so much joy!!

thea, suni and andi thank u so much for ur talent and passion!! ily!! happy new year 🎉🎄🥳🎊🤶❄️

ALYAAAA i am SO sorry that i am the worst and it takes me forever to answer things but just know i have been holding this ask so close to my chest for the past million weeks bc it is so special to meeee 💗💗💗💗💗

i will accept the biting bc i am also biting someone. it is hard to WRITE it while being single wtf. every time i write a kiss scene i'm like gd who wants to kiss me..............i am here and kissless...........

that and also i think he was so eepy he didn't even Think abt bringing his keys but also lbr he knew mike was going to insist on driving lol. mike fr could have chosen a less pretentious car But i think mustangs are universally cool cars for sure and i think it's very important to mike to have a cool car so even tho it's not necessarily something he would have picked out himself i do also think that he loves it. a little bit. (<- a lot bit)

i've ended up not actually learning how to drive a manual bc me and my sister have both been busy so all of my knowledge for the next chapter is going to be thru research and osmosis so pls call me out if anything is incorrect 😭

sometimes you have to kiss your friends on the mouth!!!!! and go on a not-date date w them!!!!!!!!!! that is so totally normal!!!!!!!!!!!!! their pinkies definitely hurt so bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they are obsessed w each other fr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dwoht is not on the ch9.2 playlist but it is for suuuuure very will-coded for this stretch of the story if you even care.

we are so glad WEEE spent this year w YOUUU alya ty for supporting us and always leaving the sweetest most thoughtful comments 💗 i hope tht ch9.2 is everything you've ever dreamed of!!!!

#asks #ch09 #acswy spoilers

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enchantedflameandflower · 2 months

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Glimmer 29/? Billy Butcher fic

Tag List: @2dead2function @secretdreamlandmentality

Chapter 1

Previous Chapter (28)

Notes: Thank you so much for reading! I did recently receive an anon ask and I'm excited to work on it (tho I know I am so slow!) Thank you!

_____

Chapter 29

It was well into the middle of the day before they could leave the site. Addison sat with her legs curled up in the backseat of Butcher’s car with the door open while he spoke with Mallory.

When he finished, Addison noticed Mallory shoot her a concerned look as he walked back to her from across the parking lot, but to be honest Addison didn’t feel much of anything except exhaustion. She wasn’t scared of that piece of shit and he hadn’t really hurt her. Whatever knockout gas he’d used had done a fine job of keeping her loopy and out of it.

“They won’t stop until they find the cunt,” Billy rumbled as he came up, leaning against the car door. “And she swore to call us as soon as she did.”

Addison nodded, and finally took a deep breath. As much as she wanted to track the bastard down herself, she could hardly keep her eyes open except for the fact that she was still covered in soot and dirt and blood, sticky and gross.

Billy let his gaze soften as he looked her over. “Don’t think it’s safe to go back to either of our places right now,” he said, rubbing at his jaw.

“I’ll get a hotel room,” Addison replied, and she turned to her bag without waiting for him to answer. An agent had gone by her apartment earlier for her to grab clothes and her phone and a few other important things she didn’t want left there.

Fuck the moral high ground, she thought as she plucked her cell from her bag. She’d use her black card to get a fucking suite on the top floor of one of those hotels uptown with as much security as the White House. They’d earned it.

As Billy drove them across the city, Addison reserved a room on her phone, making sure it was a place where you could check in and get a digital key card on the app without having to talk to anyone at the front desk. When they pulled into the parking garage, she scrubbed at her face in the mirror on the sun visor then pulled a loose sweater on over her bloody tank top. With Billy’s duster and a pair of sunglasses added, she thought they could probably get through the lobby without being arrested.

She was right and they made it inside. Her key code was needed not only to get into the elevator but to get to the floor their room was on as well and Addison gave a quiet sigh of relief. She needed to rest, and she could not bear it if anything else happened to Billy because of her. They double locked the door of the room with a deadbolt and the thick metal door guard.

The room had a small sitting area and a huge bed, with a bathroom to the side. For a moment Addison stood there, not even able to think what she was supposed to do next. She tossed her bag on a chair then looked up to find Billy watching her.

Once more, when she met his intense hazel eyes they were drawn to each other by something outside of themselves - or maybe by something deep, deep inside. Billy took one step forward and wrapped her up in his arms, pulling her hard against his broad chest.

“I’m so sorry, Addi. I was such a prick, it was my fault…”

She shook her head against his shoulder, sliding her fingers into his hair and pulling back to look at him. “I wasn’t any better,” she murmured. “I’m not hurt but I shouldn’t have put you through that…”

“He’s after me, Addi, he’s using you to hurt me, I can’t…” his voice was thick and gruff. “I can’t let -“

Addison shook her head again, and pulled Billy to her. “Fuck him. We’ll get him.”

“If something happens to you because of me I couldn’t live with myself, Addison, I won’t…” he broke off, his eyes dark and intense. “You’re better off -“

“Nothing’s going to happen to me. I’m here. I’m okay. I’m going to fucking kick that guy’s ass.”

Billy smirked, but Addison knew he was still struggling with the guilt. She could sense this was not something he was going to let drop but exhaustion was weighing her mind and her body down. “We’ll talk about it more later.”

Billy finally nodded and turned to kiss her temple again. “Let me start the shower for you, eh?” he murmured.

Addison nodded gratefully. “You too. I need to patch you up after.”

He sighed, but didn’t argue. He knew just as well as she did that her cuts had long healed but his injuries would not.

She pulled her sweater off and tossed it over a chair then threw the rest of her clothes in the trash in the bathroom. She felt disgusting and looked just as bad but it was Billy she was worried about. After he adjusted the shower spray, she watched him as he undressed, cataloguing every bruise and patch of raw red skin she could see and desperately wishing there was some way she could just make them disappear.

Billy wasn’t bothered at all though. He held the shower door open for her and she stepped under the warm water, groaning in utter relief as everything immediately started to wash away.

Billy stepped in behind her, reaching for one of the little hotel bottles of soap and pouring it into his palm before he started gently rubbing his hands over her body. He started at her shoulders, smoothing and kneading, then urged her to turn around. The grotesque, disfigured B was still visible above her heart, and he ran the tip of his thumb over the dried blood with dark eyes before he washed it away along with everything else.

Addison closed her eyes, reveling in the feeling of the spray of water on her back and Billy’s touch washing away everything that had happened. He ran his soapy hands carefully over her breasts, then her stomach and her hips, before turning her around again to wash her back. Addison felt her body filling with warmth, her muscles relaxing one by one like magic as he took care of her.

After he helped her wash her hair she twisted it into a knot on top of her head and turned to him. “My turn,” she murmured in a tone that brokered no discussion.

She did the same for him, but was especially careful over each burn and cut she came across, not all of them new. She made a note to herself of which ones needed to be tended when they got out whether he liked it or not, she savored the bits of him that were unmarred, lines of hard muscle and firm skin, and she reverently stroked the scars left over from god knows what horrible things.

The water was still warm when she finished, so she whispered “just a few more minutes” and Billy made a low noise of agreement in response. He sat on the wide tile bench in the shower and gathered in his lap and he held her there in the water until she started to fall asleep against his chest.

Finally Billy reached out to turn off the water and they dried off with thick towels. Addison pulled on a clean oversized tank top but Billy didn’t bother with anything. “Bed,” she directed him and he did as he was told. She pulled her first aid kit out of her bag and started to dab a little salve on the worst of the burns, adding bandages to ones that needed it, but trying not to be overly attentive.

“How did you get through the explosion?” she asked as she gently prodded at a patch of red skin on his arm, reaching for the burn gel again.

“When I saw the bomb I legged it for the back of the place but I knew I weren’t gonna make it out. Shut myself up in a walk-in freezer just in time and then I found a way out that weren’t totally in flames yet.”

She put her stuff away then reached up to slide her hand along his jaw. “Thank you for coming for me…” She had to let him know, she had to tell him what it meant for him to never give up the way he did.

He nodded then moved her kit off the bed. “‘Nough playin’ doctor, sunshine. Ya need sleep.”

He pushed the heavy blankets away and helped her lay down before pulling them back up and gathering her close. He nestled in close to her, slipping his arm around her waist and she wrapped her arms around him as he lay along side her settling with his head on her shoulder.

She thanked the universe over and over in her head that she still had him. After a moment she realized she could tell he was still thinking, not falling asleep.

“What are you doing?” she hummed, carding her fingers through his hair as he tightened his arm around her waist, his ear pressed to the flat of her chest. “Not that I’m complaining…”

“Listenin’ to your heartbeat,” he murmured gruffly. “Go to sleep.”

Addison smiled, closing her eyes, and she did the same, listening to his.

They were woken up hours later by Billy’s phone ringing from the nightstand. He jerked awake, moving his free arm to reach for it before he’d even fully opened his eyes.

“Yeah,” he answered, his voice hoarse.

“We found him,” Mallory replied in her customary clipped tone. Billy sat up so fast from where they were tangled together on the bed Addison tumbled out of his arms.

“Who is it,” he growled.

“It took some digging but we traced the phone to a company called Dynamite Consulting, which is a subsidiary of Atlas Group, owned by NovaStar. Which is owned by James Stillwell.”

“Stillwell? The fuck?!”

“Madelyn Stillwell’s brother.”

_____

Please let me know what you think of this chapter! Thanks!

Chapter 30

#the boys #karl urban #billy butcher #the boys fanfic #billy butcher fanfic #billy butcher fic #billy butcher smut #fluff #whump #the boys fanfiction #billy butcher x ofc #billy butcher fanfiction

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seeingivy · 3 months

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method acting asks!

first of all, you guys ate the style chapter so bad EEK im so glad you guys loved it. more where that's coming from! been having the worst week but watching people react as they read has been super fun and I thank you all for that :')

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMM2wqGJV/ oh bestie...oh you're SO RIGHT. like y/n's nickname is princess but I definitely think as time goes on historia fits more of the princess vibe and y/n as the popstar. also some part of their friendship is loosely based on olivia rodrigo and sabrina carpenter, just like solely as vibes so

https://x.com/erjgrs/status/1765732630643851685?s=46&t=Uk-oZnZapecdEA4wRzncKw real. a picture lana would post and the quote tweet would be y/n.

(this isn't a method acting ask but it's eren and legit the only eren thing i've written since july so it counts)

hi!!!! thank you so much for the love :') i'm so excited to share it with everyone!

the opening and ending songs are the same! I make a shinzo sasageyo joke in the next set of tweets....I agree with you, I do think that they would write all the music that was included in the actual show and that certain songs are for ceertain characters

table scenes twitter reactions coming...your wish is my command...

vampire by olivia rodrigo, ding ding! one of my fav songs that I get to include i'm so excited eek. I def think lana would cover the song but I think the main like song she would write about ricky would be something like would've could've should've by taylor swift/goddess by laufey/ or history of man by maisie peters

I hope you have a lovely day too!!!! thank you so much for supporting me :')

I actually considered going with heavenly bodies as the theme for this met gala in the fic (just bc that was litearlly the best met gala) but I ended up deciding against it. but I totally get what you mean,,, they would serve....

also a slight hint, but I did end up giving lana marilyn monroe kim kardashian controversy dress because that is something that lana would do. also in general, lana/clarkson's are based off of kardashians (if you couldn't tell) so....it fit

HARD AGREE. I think whatever they bond over is something that eren just...can't do. like if they're watching a reality tv show and really invested, he'd sit there being like....it's fake just to get mad glares fro zeke/carla/and i'm adding colt to the mix. eren's cool with the kiddos (falco and gabi) but y/ns cool with the big brothers (zeke and colt)

@najaemism omg I'VE ACTUALLY NEVER HEARD THSI SONG BEFORE but actually you're so right. also very mikasa during jeankasa meltdown.....also historia (more on that later)

@leave-rae-alone HI POOKIE! don't worry...I disappear off the face of my blog like every other week. I hope you're doing well and take time to rest!

am I allowed to say megan thee stallion bc I am in love with megan thee stallion? but actually though, I think her style fits the character, she likes anime and this is an anime fanfic, and her using like stuff from tokyo ghoul as references during the nicki drama is actually something that I think y/n would do. also I just love this outfit i would include it as a red carpet outfit or something

hm. there are a few that @/bsenpai and I mention bc we actually talk about method acting everyday like its an illness. I think y/n and eren would do she's the man (that's the movie they've promised ethan cole btw), eren and y/n also do pride and prejudice 2005, I also think she would act as the daughter as interstellar. those are the ones that come to mind rn!

no comment. you did ask this before I posted the chapter tho but you like manifested that one hard so.

LMFAOOOO. wait can I tell you the funniest thing....is that I actually think young gojo in method acting would be like young justin bieber. like i had this thought the other day when i was listening to somebody to love and i was like....ok chill out gojo damn. like I naturally think he would have that charisma and be one of the first people to pop off on youtube....but he would not flop like current justin bieber.

that's all for today. here are the songs + some hints for the next chapter:

see you again by tyler the creator ft. kali uchis, end game by taylor swift, and vampire by olivia rodrigo

an award wrapped in a ribbon

a red lipstick mark

smashing a crown

sukuna splashing a glass of wine in someone's face...soulmateism if you ask me

there are some of these i think you could technically figure out. but oh well, I will see you then!

#asks!#method acting

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yourlocalartsonist · 9 months

Text

ROTTMNT Moths Fly In Packs - Chapter Eight

A/N: I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG OH MY GOD. I genuinely didn’t expect it to, chapter 8 was supposed to be way shorter but uh yk my brain didn’t like that apparatnly. So now it’s uh 10K words. I think it’s genuinely worth the wait and read tho so hey, alls well that ends well or something. I’m gonna try to be faster with updates now. I’m FAIRLY CERTAIN chapter nine will be much shorter or at least nothing crazy like 8 or 10k. But what I can guarantee is chapters 10-13 will most definitely be short and lead up to the grand arc finale of chapter 14. We’re getting pretty close to it and I’m literally vibrating from excitement but no spoilers. Anyway enjoy the chapter! :D

Credit to: @sweaterrat @sleepdeprivedbagels and @yosajaeofficial for being my beloved beta readers! This story wouldn’t be able to have the quality it does without them so please give them some love and check out their ROTTMNT stories too!

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Chapter One

Disclaimer: Chapter involves depressive thoughts, mentions of bullying, depressed behavior, mentions of Kr*ng, PTSD behavior, violence, very lightly graphic description of injuries, blood, and curse words. If you’re sensitive to that stuff, scroll past and stay safe!

Outside the window, you can make out a bird’s nest sat in one of the trees. It’s been here for a week now, perfectly timed with when I got back to a consistent school life. But lately, the mother’s been staying at the nest more often. I’m guessing they’ve got babies on the way, she’s probably incubating her eggs right now. I think I’ve gotten attached to them, that small family of robins. The parents are so dedicated, aren’t they? The mother especially, never leaving the nest unless absolutely necessary.

On the contrary to my peaceful view, the classroom is noisy, hectic, and cluttered. No real science work for today so everyone’s just doing their own thing. Very loudly. Jaiden and Zane are chatting and laughing with each other next to me. I think things are better between us, I still don’t really know where Jaiden and I stand right now but at least Zane seems fine with me. Though I won’t lie, I’ve been feeling more and more like a third wheel around them.

“Dude! I’m telling you, we have to play this game together! We’d have so much fun!”

“I already said I would, Jaiden! Man, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh like this. Shame you’re letting such a pretty smile go to waste.”

“Yeah? Let’s hang out more often then and maybe I won’t do that.”

Like right now.

Lowkey, I’ve been feeling invisible around those two. Jaiden barely pays any attention to me, it’s as if Zane was their best friend instead of me! I mean, I know friends can drift apart, I definitely know. But still, I never imagined it would happen to us. I still don’t wanna believe that’s what’s happening. I wanna keep hope.

“And ironically, you’re being pretty quiet today, Salena. Did you two switch personalities or something?”

“You are weirdly quiet, actually. What’s up?”

Oh lookie, I’ve been acknowledged. “Nah, you guys don’t have to worry about me. Just lower on energy than usual.”

I went back to my routine of staring out the window like the main character in a music video. In the reflection, Zane was still watching me. With the way his eyes lingered, I had a feeling he’s not falling for my excuse.

Seems like Jaiden’s not too worried, though. “Oh, Zane! You wanna hear about this new skate park I found?” Just went right back at it with Zane. Who’s weirdly still staring at me.

“…Actually, I’m kinda hungry. Jaiden, you mind getting me a snack from the vending machine?”

“Huh? But I wouldn’t know what to get you. N-not that I don’t pay attention to what you like! But, you know… Salena has better taste in these things! She should go-”

“She always goes.”

“‘Cause she knows what she’s doing.”

“Jaiden.”

“Guys, it’s fine! It’s fine. I’ve got this.” I didn’t want them to fight again so I got up from my seat. “Be back soon.”

Jaiden gave me their most gleeful smile I’ve seen them make in a while. I think seeing them smile makes this gesture worthwhile. Even if it’s just for a little bit.

The walk to the vending machine shouldn’t have been long, it’s not super far away. But my legs dragged on forcing each step to be slower than the last. I feel guilty thinking like this but a part of me wants this dumb walk to go on forever. I can’t stand being near them and I don’t know why! It’s not like we’ve got bad blood, they’ve both been normal towards me since I came back. So why am I acting like this? I’m seriously starting to doubt Splinter’s theory of me not being the problem here…

I approached the machine, stopping as I heard a struggling voice in front of me.

“Argh! How’d she say these things worked again?”

His finger pressed against the glass, tracing the code for the snack he wanted. He tapped the buttons on the screen. Nothing happened. Scratching his head, he leaned forward to read the next instructions. Finally, he pulled out a dollar bill.

…Before proceeding to insert it in the wrong way. And taking it out. And inserting it back in. And repeating the process. I can feel my soul exiting my body from second-hand embarrassment.

I recognized the fluffy black hair. With a crooked smile, I pulled out my own wallet.

“You’re supposed to put it in this way.” I slid my bill into the slot, the granola bar he selected successfully being pushed down soon after. “Good to see you again.”

“Woah, cool!” He stared at the giant food box almost with a childlike wonder, pausing for a few minutes before turning to me. “And hey! Yeah, it’s really nice seeing you again, too.” His eyes remained locked for a while before he scrambled to hand me the bill he had. “Here! Let me pay you back-“

“No, no, no, don’t worry about it! Really! Consider it my apology for, um, last time.”

“Apology? I mean, you weren’t the one doing anything weird so I don’t think you’ve gotta apologize.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Casey Jones Jr. I was gonna introduce myself the first time we met but, you know.”

“Salena Moni! So, how’s everything holding up? You joined pretty late in the year so if you need any help reviewing stuff I’m more than happy to.”

“Oh, don’t worry! It’s actually going alright. Still technically my first time going to a real school, so it’s a little bit of a challenge but I already knew most of the material anyways. I didn’t have to catch up on much.”

“Wow, that is… remarkably impressive.” If only I handled transferring as well as this guy. “Wait, hold up, real school? Were you homeschooled?”

“You could… say that. My uncle taught me everything, he was the smartest person I knew! Just turns out it was literally everything.”

“Cool! I guess we can check grades off the box, then! So, is everyone being nice? Made any friends?”

I bit my lip as I received my answer in the form of his face freezing mid-speech. “W-well uh…”

Oh, you poor thing…

I guess he could read my face since he immediately tried reassuring me, as if he wasn’t the victim in this scenario. “I-I mean it’s not awful! A couple people were nice to me, including you! Sure, some are a little… hostile. But it’ll get better eventually.”

“Y-yeah! It definitely… definitely will.”

And cue the classic awkward silence that stars in any first conversation. A little overdue for this one now that I’m thinking about it.

I’m so conflicted. I know damn well he’s not gonna have the high school dream he’s probably imagining right now. No one does. I may not have been at this school for long, but I’ve been here long enough to know how the people are. April told me it gets even worse every year as cliques start getting established and people grow past the initial politeness. I’m glad she did, she never kept anything about high school from me no matter how bad it was. Nothing was in my control but at least I knew it was coming.

And here I am playing the exact opposite role for Casey. I hate giving people false hope, I hate it with a passion! But I’m supposed to, I think. In a situation like this I’m supposed to hype him up. Ignorance is bliss! Wouldn’t it just ruin his spirits if I broke the glass?

“Anyway, it was nice to meet you! I guess I’ll see you around?”

“Y-yep! Hope things get better for you soon!”

“Me too.”

Ugh, the guilt is eating me up! I’m acting like I’ve never told a lie in my life but it’s not that. It’s his pure mindset that’s completely fucking with my morality!

I know to keep my mouth shut, I do. I don’t want him to hate me like everyone else does. I haven’t met someone who’s been so nice to me in this stupid ass school before, I don’t want to ruin this chance now that I finally got it. Plus, he might not even believe me…

I watched him turn to walk away.

Fuck it, social norms are for losers!

“W-wait! Casey?” He turned back around and I nearly shit myself from fear. “So, don’t be mad but I may have um… lied about something?”

“Uh, sorry?”

I took a deep breath, bracing myself. “Well, here’s the deal. Things aren’t really gonna get better, sorry. Or, actually! I don’t mean that extremely literally, I guess...”

Focus on your hands, it’ll be okay. “Just… People here are mean. Really, really mean. You’re homeschooled, you’re new, and you’re nice. It’s a recipe for disaster here whether it’s today or even a year after you’ve settled in!”

I can’t even read his expression and get an idea of his reaction. He’s got a scary good poker face, I’m curious which relative taught him that one.

“Casey, please don’t take this the wrong way. I-I’m not saying any of it is your fault! Or that you need to change or do anything. I’m only saying this so you don’t have any… unrealistic expectations so to speak.”

God, his silence is more terrifying than anticipated.

So much so I couldn’t help letting out a quiet breath of relief when he finally did speak. “You know, you’re the first person here who’s told me that.”

“…Is that bad?”

“Not at all. All my family, they never got the chance to go to school. Hell, I didn’t think I’d have the opportunity. But here I am! First time in a new building with weird people and absolutely no clue what to expect. I’m usually good with surprises but this one is just so… different. Different is scary, you know?”

I nodded. I most definitely did know.

“Anyway, you’re right that people are just mean here. I don’t even know why, I mean, I’ve met my fair share of dicks before but at least they had good reasons! We were under so much stress… But that’s not what I hate. It’s the fact that any time I tell an adult, they say the same thing over and over again!”

“Let me guess.” I cleared my throat and enhanced the performance with my intoxicated Mrs. Doubtfire voice. “Just ignore them and give it time and it’ll magically fix itself ‘cause boredom beats bullies or some shit, right?”

“Yeah, exactly!” His laugh is like holding your parent’s hand when you’re getting the flu shot, it’s magical! “They say that to everyone, don’t they? God, what’s up with that? I’m so not used to adults lying to me.”

“Dude, what? You’re kidding, your whole community’s gotta be amazing if you’ve never been lied to by an adult.”

“Eh, more or less… Anyway, um, thank you. For telling me the truth. And the granola bar. I seriously owe you for this.”

…I take it back, Splinter might’ve actually been onto something.

I mean, he’s a little strange, I won’t lie about that. This is the first time I’ve heard someone actually be grateful for me telling the truth. In the past it either got me isolated or in huge trouble, depending on who I was honest with. Maybe this is why I’m so used to lying. I hate it but I’ve had to do it so much. I’ve never met someone who finally lets me relax about it, not until Casey Jr it seems.

Maybe he deserves me being a little braver for a change.

“Well, here’s a way you can repay me. By us being friends!”

…

This was a lot more epic in my head without his speechless pause. Maybe I got the vibe wrong-

“REALLY!? OMIGOSH! That would be so cool! I’ve literally been thinking about asking you the same thing ‘cause I keep wanting to talk to you but never run into you but now we can talk whenever we want, IT’LL BE GREAT!!!” Spoke too soon, he is literally shaking me by the shoulders. It feels unnatural not being on the other side of this scenario.

“Casey, my stomach doesn’t approve of this-“

“Sorry, sorry!” He finally stopped and allowed me to remember the pleasant feeling of absolute stillness. “I just can’t believe you actually wanna be friends with me!”

Still, his surprising enthusiasm gave me a good laugh. “Dude, it’s alright! It’s kinda more surprising you wanna be friends with me.”

“Why wouldn’t I? You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met in my entire life, anyone who’s friends with you is lucky to have you!”

Lucky to have me?

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, unexpected compliments go burn in a fire but also don’t leave, it actually feels really nice.

“Salena, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

“N-no, I mean, all I did was buy you a snack and tell you people are jerks. I’m not too sure I should be receiving the title of the ‘kindest person you’ve ever met’ and stuff.”

“O-oh yeah, you have a point.” He got a little flustered at that, despite it really being my fault for not being able to take compliments. “I don’t know, I mean, I still think you’re really cool. I’m just so happy you wanna be friends with me!”

He looked like a child on Christmas morning as I tippy-tapped my number into his phone. Come to think of it, I know I’ve definitely reacted excitedly towards certain people - or turtles, I should say - but having someone do it to me? Feels kinda nice.

I looked up at the clock. “Shit. We should probably head back to class before we get in trouble.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. But hey,” his eyes closed as the corners delightfully wrinkled “it was great running into you again! Fate really wants us to be friends.”

He has a really nice smile.

“Funny how life works, ay?”

I skipped my way back to class, mind too deep in thought to realize how fast I went.

This guy, Casey Jones, he’s giving me certain vibes. I don’t mean the creepy, stalkerish, "I need to get the hell outta here” vibes. More like deja-vu. I can’t pin what exactly, but something about him feels so… foreign yet familiar. Homey, if you may. Like a nice, warm fire in mid-winter night. It’s really soothing.

And immediately I’m thrown into emotional whiplash as I went back inside the annoying ass classroom of teenage chaos. So much for soothing vibes. I plopped back in my desk as Zane slowly scanned me.

“You took a while. Did you get my snack?…”

…Fuck. “Sorry! I completely forgot!”

“How did you forget when it’s the literal reason you even left?” Jaiden doesn’t seem as chipper as before.

“I know, I’m so sorry. I got a bit distracted. Gimmie a sec, I’ll be right back-”

“No, wait! It’s fine, I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Really? Okay, suit yourself.” I shrugged, getting settled in again. He leaned closer to me, both confused and concerned.

“You seem happier right now. Did something good happen?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess! Just ran into a new friend.”

His face scrunched up, going back to chatting with Jaiden. I have no clue why he glared when I said that, I don’t think I said anything wrong or alarming. Honestly, bro has worse mood swings than I do. It's seriously annoying sometimes but whatever, they’ve gone back to their little bubble now so I shall go back to mine.

I pulled out my phone, greeted with Casey’s excited text already.

CJ: Hey! Not really doing anything in class so if you’re free too, text me back :D

Smiling, I let myself get engrossed in my phone, happily typing away. He’s a fun guy to talk to. His enthusiasm and bubbliness is a little surprising considering how borderline timid he seemed at first. Goes to show, never judge a book by its cover! I felt my mood lifting, less gloomier than before.

Until I remembered something he said.

“My uncle taught me everything, he was the smartest person I knew!”

Was?...

***

Ah, midnight. A time when the mentally sane and emotionally stable would be sleeping. Turns out I’m neither of those folks, I’ve got better things to do. I have weapons now but I’ve gotta actually practice using them if I don’t wanna render them useless. Besides, in bed or out here, I’m not falling asleep either way. At least this serves as a good distraction! And won’t give me a headache like my phone will.

The blades cut through the air as I twirled them, striking at an imaginary enemy soon after.

I try not to think about life when I’m training, it distracts me too much. Sometimes I feel like Casey’s the only thing making school bearable anymore. We don’t share any classes so we text more than talk but I don’t have to do any mental gymnastics to figure out how he views me. I’m still confused as hell if Jaiden likes me or hates me and have no damn clue what Zane’s deal is anymore. He keeps staring at me. More than usual. Sure, I could always sit there and ponder for hours on end what the fuck is going on, but I doubt even that’d get any results.

The sickles, however, do show results. They feel lighter, smoother, easier to duel. I’m getting faster with them and my arms don’t feel as broken after training anymore! It’s something I can lose myself in, track the improvement. It’s so much simpler than everything else.

It keeps my mind occupied. If I focus on them, I don’t think about anyone from school or anything bad that’s happening! Or at least, I usually don't. I guess I’m thinking about it now, though…

“Someone’s training hard.”

“AHH!!!”

Immediately I jerked to turn and held up a blade in defense. However, it turned out to be a false alarm as instead of some midnight mugger I expected to see, I’m greeted with a smirking blue idiot standing in front of me.

“Woah, hey! I come in peace!” The stupid bitch held his hands up, mocking me with his fake fear. “Been a while, huh?”

“Leo? Oh god, you scared me! Where did you even come from?”

“The better question would be: Where did you disappear to? We haven’t gone out in like a week! You kept leaving me on read when I texted you but seemed fine in the group chat. What gives?”

“…I forgor?”

“Really?” I could tell he wasn’t satisfied by my answer. “You just forgot to respond to me? Every single time?”

“W-well sorta. I mean, it’s nothing you did so please don’t take it personally! It’s with everyone. I’ve just been a little bad at responding to dms…” My social battery’s been so low lately I question if it’s even charged at all. “That’s entirely on me, though! I’m so sorry.”

He crossed his arms and looked me up and down. He’s doing that nonchalant poker face again, the one he does when he doesn’t wanna be read, otherwise he’s an open book.

“You know you can tell me if something’s up, right?”

I guess he also does that face when he’s trying to read someone else. “Yeah, I know. I’m alright. It’s just… I dunno, things are a little weird but it’s fine. It’s really nothing to worry about.”

He hummed in response. I don’t really think he bought it but his eyes eventually drifted to my weapons, dropping the topic regardless. He must not wanna push it.

“Sooo, sick weapons! Where’d you get ‘em?”

“Oh, these? Draxum gave them to me!”

He gagged, interrupting me. “You met Draxum? The sheep guy? Oh, poor you! Was he awful to deal with? I bet he was! You know, like always.”

“Oh come on, he wasn’t that bad! A little grouchy at first but in his defense, I caught him in the middle of his shift, so.”

“Please, sheep bitch doesn’t need a reason to be a jerk! He’s just an old cranky loser who spends his days yelling at kids and smuggling whatever mystic bullshit of the week he found from the Hidden City! It’s giving Oscar the Grouch, just missing the lemon. Oh wait, that’s ‘cause unlike Oscar, he doesn’t even have one single thing that makes him uncharacteristically happy!”

“Wow, angry aren’t we?” It’s rude to laugh, but I can’t help myself around this dork. He looks like a kid who got denied an Xbox when he crosses his arms like that. “Leo, be real. This is because he threw you off a roof, isn’t it?”

“You know!? I mean-“ He laughed, trying to hide his poorly made lie. “What? Of course not… Maybe just a little but that’s not important.”

Leo grumbled on with some incoherent noises for a minute, before cooling down and moving on from the “sheep bitch”.

“Ugh, well anyway, if you got it from that moron, they’re definitely mystic or something, right?”

“Oh, absolutely! They’re actually super cool, I mean-“ For a good five minutes I kept blabbering on and on about the sickles and how they function and all my progress that I didn’t notice Leo - bless his heart - trying and horrifically failing to pay attention. He doesn’t really hide it well when he spaces out.

“And they- Uh, Leo, you good?”

“…Would you be mad if I said I got like, none of that?”

I sighed but gave a gentle smile. I knew he had a short attention span so I can’t really act like it’s his fault I forgot about that.

“Actually, do you want me to just like… act it out instead? I think I’ve gotten pretty good at using these so I don’t mind showing instead of telling!”

He shrugged “Nothin’s stopping you. Go on, impress me!”

Well, nothing except my nerves. But hey, it’s just Leo. If I mess up, he’ll laugh with me a bit and then I’ll just retry. No real pressure around him. I could use a progress check right now, anyway.

“Aight, so we only know two out of who knows how many powers for these things, they’re the only two I’ve been practicing. First up!”

I spun them around, careful to not mess up my handling. My goal is to form blades strong enough to crack a dent through the concrete edge of this building. So the sickles need to be made out of metal or steel. I usually go with metal but I do actually wanna impress him and steel’s stronger. I aimed at the edge and swung my arm forward, the sickle shot through the air and sliced through the concrete like a knife to a cake.

“OH SHIT!”

“I got it!” He teleported to catch the flying solo sickle and came right back within a matter of seconds. Oh, what I’d give to experience never having to walk again.

“Sorry about that! They’ve never broken the edge like that before!”

“Sorry!? You’re not allowed to be sorry, that was so cool! It went clean through!” I’ve never seen him gush about something this way. I’ve gotta admit, it’s kind of adorable. “Okay, I’m hooked! What’s the other thing it can do?”

“Invisibility! But I can’t do it for long, at least not yet. I made progress, though! Went from only three seconds to five!”

“Wait, actually, back up a bit. I get that Baron Ass told you how the sickles work and blah blah blah, but how’d you learn how to fight with ‘em? Ya know, the non-mystic aspects.”

“Oh, YouTube tutorials at first. But honestly, sickle fighting is mid so I did a lot of improv, really.”

He chuckled and eventually lost to his giggles as if me saying that wasn’t completely justified. “Did you just call an ancient form of martial arts mid?”

“Stop judging me, I’m right! Sickles were improvised weapons. They’re good for the last resort, not the first choice!”

“I’m not judging, I’m not judging! Promise! I respect it, even!” He leaned against the roof’s edge, gradually collecting himself. “But if they’re that bad, why didn’t you ask for a different weapon? One that’s cooler and not ‘the last resort’?”

Oh boy, where to begin?

I then explained how I essentially found myself wrapped in some “chosen one” bullshit through the sickles. They still don’t work any time Barry touches them but are perfectly fine in my hands. It’d be pretty dumb to pass up these weapons for a different one, even if sickles aren’t the coolest thing to own. Although, he’s definitely acting like they are judging by how intensely his eyes are staring at them. They’re sparkling brighter than I thought eyes realistically could.

“Well, now I’m offended! Mystic mystery sickles that do all kinds of glowy stuff for you specifically? How could you not tell me about these sooner!? They’re so amazing!”

“I know, I’m real sorry, Leon.” He’s joking around, his tone’s too light to be mad. But I do still feel bad for accidentally ignoring him like that. “Anything I can do for you as an apology?”

“Well…” His smirk revealed that thing was the main reason he came here in the first place. “We could make up for the lost time and go on a run together tonight. It is a weekend so you’d still have tomorrow and the day after to rest up. But hey, that’s just an idea…”

It's Friday again. Just like the first time we did this.

He held out his hand as an offer and I took it with a grin. “You make a convincing argument.”

And off we went, dashing through the night. It’s a bit humid today so the wind from sprinting so fast is greatly appreciated. Not to mention my speed is so much better than before!

The daily restrictions of civil life can go suck my dick and feed my liver to their uncles ‘cause oh my god nothing beats this feeling! No one else is here, no one who could stop us! Sure, jumping off roofs isn’t the safest way to have fun, but everything else in my life is already so safe! I’m allowed to have this one thing, this one moment to be free.

I’m so distracted that I didn’t realize I’m actually giving Leo a run for his money this time! Hehe, run. God, I’m so funny.

“Looks like you can actually keep up with me now!”

“I know, right!? It feels fucking amazing!”

Judging from his mischievous ass face, I probably should’ve kept my mouth shut. “I don’t mean to burst your bubble but…”

A blue light appeared as a hole ripped in the sky and the lovely piece of shit went right through, appearing again somewhere way ahead of me. “I’m still faster!~”

“Hey! No portals allowed!”

“Uh, last time I checked, portalling is totally allowed.”

“Says who!?”

“Says me and I’m leader! Whatever leader says goes!”

To add insult to injury, he doesn’t just portal himself. As I’m trying to catch up to him mid-jump, the jackass opens a portal right under me, sending me back even further than I already was with no time to recover.

“Leo, you cheat!”

Bro’s giggling his ass off as he blinked in and out of sight. I’m no different with how sore my face is, so I can’t even pretend to be mad.

Instead, all I can do is try my best to speed up and catch up, plotting my revenge in the meantime. Easier said than done, that dude’s faster than the Flash right now since he’s, ya know, portalling. Doesn’t help that he keeps appearing right next to me every few minutes just to taunt me and disappear again.

A few minutes into our little cat and mouse game though, I lost track of him and he hadn’t shown up in a while to pester me. So, I started calling out his name, trying to look for him. You’d think it’d be easier to find a 5’5” giant, green turtle man but I guess they wouldn’t be ninjas if that were the case.

“Leo? Leo!? Le- Huh?”

I finally found him. But instead of the shit-eating grin he gave me earlier, he’s silent and still behind the edge of a roof, his back facing me. It’s starting to freak me out a little, he looks like he’s going fucking Blair Witch mode. No words, no witty remarks, nothing. Just ghostly staring at whatever the view is. Only thing I can see from here is a museum.

“Hey, Leon, you okay?”

“Shh!”

With his eyes still fixed up ahead, Leo took my hand and guided me forward. He eventually looked at me and nodded towards the street below us. Gazing in that direction, I saw a large purple truck with the logo of that one weird shoe store I browsed a few years ago. From what I’ve gathered these past few weeks, big trucks mean bad news.

But maybe that’s not what I should be focused on. Standing near the truck were two people, their skin an unnatural shade of purple. One’s large and brutish, the other tall and slender. They’ve got foot marks on their faces and flames on their bald heads. Exactly how Mikey described…

“The Foot Clan.”

He nodded. “I don’t understand, those guys were all turned into Krang during the invasion.”

Sorry, what? “You’re sure it was those two specifically? I haven’t heard about any cures or vaccines for the Krang victims on the news. It’d make headlines if there were.” I haven’t heard anything about them for a while now that I think about it.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” He leaned closer to the edge, as close as he could get without getting caught. “They’re parked a street away from a museum, the hell are they up to now?”

I mimicked his actions, trying to hear the Foot people better. The slender one’s on the phone, sounding frustrated. He’s doing that whisper-yelling thing people do when they wanna be mad quietly to avoid societal shame.

“Yeesh, someone’s having a bad day.”

“You can hear them?” Why does he look so confused?

“Yeah, can’t you?”

Leo shook his head. “Whatever, what are they saying?”

I cocked my head to the side, spying in on their conversation.

His voice is scratchy, a little sore on my ears. “What do you mean you can’t get it off? Just bring the whole thing and hurry! We can’t risk alerting anyone!” Neither of us can tell what he’s referring to, unfortunately. The Foot dude avoids naming it.

I looked back at Leo scanning around for any clues. He stared at the back of the museum for a minute before his eyes widened. “I know where we are. It’s the Historical Society Museum. Donnie mentioned wanting to come here once.”

“I think I’ve heard of it. Isn’t there a lot of ancient stuff in there? Like, from centuries back?”

Nodded again. He’s being unnervingly quiet, considering it’s Leo. He stared at the clan, then at the museum, then back at the clan. He looked… scared. Scared in a way I’ve never seen him before. I felt my hand being subconsciously squeezed. I didn’t even notice he hadn’t let go in the first place.

…I have to help him.

I readied myself for whatever his idea was, no matter how outlandish or risky it may seem. “Alrighty, what’s the plan?”

“Right.” He hesitated, before gripping his katanas and turning back. “…The plan is for me to portal you home, kick some Foot ass, and pick you up so we can continue our run.”

WHAT!?

“What do you mean ‘portal me home!? I’m not leaving!” I was prepared for anything, but this!? “We just stumbled across the Foot Clan who are for some reason not freaky alien zombies and messing with ancient artifacts that do who knows what!”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m sending you home before your adrenaline junkie ass can do something stupid.”

“And what makes you think I’d do that!?”

He held up my scarred left arm and stared at me unimpressed.

“…Okay, that’s a low blow even for you.”

Though as much as I hate to admit it, he kind of has a point. I sighed. “Alright, tell me. If I leave, will you at least call your brothers to help you out?”

“Yes!”

“Leo.”

“Fine, I lied.” The steel fucking balls of- “But still! I’ll be okay! I’ve gone against them plenty of times before.”

“Doesn’t mean you’re invincible!”

Before I could say anything more, I heard the sound of a truck starting up. I looked down and Leo followed my line of sight to see the Foot getting ready to drive.

Shit, they’re getting away!

“Okay, okay! Listen, I promise, I promise I won’t run off on my own and do something dumb this time. Anything the leader says goes! Just please let me join!” I can’t leave him alone!

I could sense him debating on what to do. His eyes look so conflicted, there’s definitely more than what he’s telling me. Nevertheless, I’m not budging. I don’t wanna sit at home being useless and worry the entire time.

He took a deep breath in, and let out a loud sigh. He looked at me with a defeated smile. “I’m not getting rid of you, am I?”

“Nope.”

“Alright, fine, but you’re sticking close.”

Before I could celebrate too much, I felt the ground beneath me disappear into bright blue light. Not anything sudden, more gentle really. Even then, I felt disoriented with my feet going from firmly grounded to touching the air! Not to mention how light my whole body felt. Gravity did a complete 180 and I got flipped around, landing under the truck.

I nearly lost my grip but a hand on my back kept me in place long enough for me to recollect myself. Leo portalled us here.Well, obviously he did, it just caught me off guard again. It’s not really too bad going through his portals but it sure is a fucking trip when it’s unexpected. Either way, it got the job done.

They drove for quite a damn while. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience having to cling on to the bottom of a moving truck as the only scents to breathe in were that of oil and gasoline, but we probably looked super cool! My ears disagreed but oh well. They parked in front of a mall this time. Not just any mall, the fucking World Trade Center! We’re literally on the other side of the city, what on Earth could they need here?

I wanted to follow them in but Leo was against it. He said it’d be safer for us to spy from a distance for now so we went to the roof of a neighboring building, looking in at them. The Foot are on one of the higher floors, almost seeming like they’re scavenging for something.

Leo’s trying to figure out another way in for us. I still don’t understand why we didn’t just follow them. I know Leo’s not a total reckless nutcase or anything, but being this cautious felt a little unlike him.

“Hey, look, I don’t mean to shoot your own words back at you or anything. But you know you can tell me if something’s up, right?”

For a split second, he looked different. His eyes were dead, his lips shut and neutral. He stared at me but he looked so… lost. Empty.

And then his smile returned, face back to normal. Or at least what he convinced me was normal. I’m not so sure anymore. He flicked my forehead again. Even softer than the first time he did it. “Stop worrying so much! You’re gonna give yourself a chasm worse than Raph’s.”

I didn’t know how to take it from there. So I just watched him.

He eventually decided on portalling us into the building’s vent system. It’s a little cramped but was the only place we can eavesdrop without being immediately spotted. Though honestly, I don’t mind this one bit! I’m controlling the impulsive adrenaline ,however, he didn’t say shit about internal adrenaline! I can’t help it if stealth makes me giddy!

“Hehe! It’s like we’re in a movie!”

“Love your enthusiasm as always but remember to not get too caught up in it.”

I momentarily shoved my excitement to the side as we both tried listening in on the Foot Clan. The skinny dude, who I now know to be the Lieutenant, is barking orders at the rest of the soldiers scouting around while talking to the giant Brute.

“You disabled the cameras, correct? You know we can’t make it any harder for them!”

“Of course I did, it’s a no-brainer! Why’d ya have to ask it like that?” Woah, villain or not, his New Yorker accent is one to admire! “You know, sometimes I feel like you think I’m just stupid and nothin’ more.”

“Oh, don’t start now. Focus on finding good metal. The sooner we finish this the better.”

Hearing his raspy voice makes my own throat itch a little. I lightly clawed at it, trying to not make too much noise as I moved.

I leaned a little closer to Leo “What do you think they need metal for?”

“Not sure. Could be to make more soldiers or something? It’d be a cool upgrade from their paper soldiers.”

Leo’s tone seems a little lighter than before, I’m glad to hear him joke around again. “They could make paper soldiers?”

“Yeah! And they’re completely sentient, one of them even became besties with Raph! Anyway,” he pointed down at a handful of soldiers collecting metal artifacts “they’re probably trying to make those origami soldiers again with something stronger.”

“But how would you fold metal?”

“Beats me, Mikey would know more on this. He’s figuring out how to recreate whatever spell they used so we could get some help with patrolling. Word of advice though, salami origami does not work as a substitute.”

“No shit. Who’s bright idea was that?”

“...You don’t know him.” His guilty face says it all.

We were giggling a little too loudly, I suppose. One of the Foot dudes stopped and started listening for our voices again. He shrugged and moved on soon enough. I didn’t realize I was covering my mouth till I let myself breathe again.

“We should probably be a little quieter and take this stealth thing more seriously.”

I nodded in agreement. He’s not upset, honestly he’s struggling just as much as I am to choke down more giggles. It’s like we’re hiding under a blanket during a sleepover pretending we’re not awake in front of the parents and not in a likely life or death situation spying on the black-magic cult. I’m trying my best but it’s already hard enough to keep my adrenaline addiction in check and Leo being here makes it worse in the best ways possible.

Still, I don’t wanna know what happens if we get cau- What was that creaking sound?

CLANG!

It would seem those were not really sturdy vents.

You know that moment from the Ice Age sequel when the vultures surround the main cast with hungry, devilish eyes ready to feast on them at any given moment? Yeah, let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if the Foot Clan randomly bursts into song about “glorious food” full on broadway musical style.

“Uh… Hey, fellas! Long time no see, am I right?” Despite his demeanor, I caught the real reason he raised his hands. I reached back for mine as well.

A sheath of metal filled the air as Leo took his katanas out their case, perfectly timed with the Lieutenant’s new orders.

“GET THEM!”

“Run, hide first then get the stolen thingie if you can. I’ll keep ‘em busy!” Leo charged into the fight, holding them off to make sure they couldn’t get to me.

Unfortunately, there’s like a bajillion of them that can easily outnumber us. I’ve learned to be quite a slippery sprinter but even then two already managed to block my path.

Now would be a good time to turn invisible!

“Come on, come on!” I could barely get the sparks to even start spreading. Turns out stress is a huge fucking factor I neglected in my training.

I wouldn’t have minded if it just took a few seconds to work but the real issue was I couldn’t keep it working. I didn’t even really go invisible, just sorta flashed in and out of transparency for a few seconds! The only reason I haven’t gotten caught yet is ‘cause these two morons are too busy laughing at me.

“Is that really the best you can do!? Whoever you are, little girl, you’ve got your work cut out for you!”

“Oh no! She’s… she’s… blinking like an old flashlight!! We’re so scared!”

…BITC-

Resorted to traditional methods. I made the sickles the consistency of a metal pot and threw it at one of their heads, knocking them down. The other I kicked straight in the chest while they were distracted by their idiot teammate, also knocking them down. I’d love nothing more than to give some extra special attention to them but this old flashlight’s gotta run for the shadows while they’ve got an open chance.

A blue portal opened in front of me. “Hey Salena, so this fight’s a little more intense than I expected and I wanted to quickly check if you’re really sure about-”

“Leo, I’m fine! I’m not leaving mid-battle!”

“No, no, that’s fine! That’s great! Just a reminder there’s no shame in calling it- DUCK!”

Without hesitance, I dropped to the ground right as his sword swung above me to block one of the soldier’s attacks. Maybe I should let Leo handle this guy since I can’t really do much while laying on the floor. Then again, doesn't mean I can’t do anything. And also I don’t have good impulse control.

“OW!!! WHAT THE FUCK!?”

I bit on to his ankle as hard as I desired despite his pleading cries. I didn’t let go until Leo broke out of his shock and finally punched him unconscious. Fighting might actually be a really good way to get out my urges.

“Why-“

“Don’t. If it works, it works.”

I flashed a grin, got back on my feet, and bounced away. I need a better vantage point if I wanna find the stolen item, especially with the chaos over here. I quickly made my way up to the indoor balcony thingie. Terrance? The second floor? Whatever the fuck it is. I’ll have to admit, despite how absolutely pumped I’m feeling right now, it kinda feels nice getting away from the clusterfuck for a bit. I heard Leo still spamming all his dialogue options to keep the main two creeps occupied. Actually, I’m pretty sure I can see them from up here, too.

“So, you guys are looking great! Never thought I’d say this, but I am loving the old look making a return.” His hands did more tricks than usual, keeping his swords flowing like an intricate dance. There are multiple soldiers practically hounding him yet he’s fending them off almost gracefully.

“Can’t you stupid children stay out of our way for one night! There’s great evil being put on the hold right now for your antics!”

“Hey, speaking of evil, what’s with the normal amount of eyes? Not that I’m missing the other option but- GAH!”

And yet, even with Leo’s skilled moves, he’s struggling to keep up with the two leaders specifically. I deadass would’ve been slaughtered by now if I didn’t listen to him about hiding.

“We got some outside help. Now, stop askin’ annoying questions and maybe we’ll go easier on ya!” He swung his axe again, thankfully missing Leo.

I gotta wonder, from Mikey’s stories, they’ve fought the Foot Clan with ease several times in the past. Leo was doing fine just now, too. So why does it look like this could be his first time facing off the Lieutenant and Brute? Nobody’s perfect but I don’t think either of us expected him to lose his grace and become borderline clumsy against them.

Wait, no! Distractions! Leo can handle himself, I need to focus on my own task. Stolen thingie! But where the hell is it?

Just as I was about to think they left it in the truck like common sense would dictate, a soft, reflective red glow caught my eye. The moon was on my side tonight.

“There she is!”

Or maybe I was being too optimistic. In fairness, I should’ve known I couldn’t stay here for long.

It would be really fucking nice to turn invisible now. Sickles? No? Oh, okay, fuck me then I guess.

I hopped off the edge before they could reach me and slinked to the other side of the room, following the red gleam. Despite the sickles betraying me with horrific timing twice tonight, I got them to cover me long enough to reach the ruby ring the glow came from. The light bled past the folds of the drape covering their stolen prize. I lifted it to find a… weird mannequin bust? With arms. Decorated with several ornaments and jewelry including the ring. What the fuck are they using this for, a fashion show?

I flinched to the sound of a loud thud paired with Leo’s groan. Flipping my head behind me, I saw him cornered against a wall, swords shielding him from the Brute’s axes.

“Okay, either you two got a lot stronger or my body isn’t what it used to be.”

I gotta calm myself down, Leo’s a trained ninja and will likely be completely and totally fine! A tiny slip doesn’t mean inevitable doom!

…I hope.

I turned my attention back to the mannequin thing to mentally measure its size. I’m fairly certain it’ll fit inside my backpack, it’s not too big. Just gotta get it in now.

Another sound interrupted me. This time, it was loud metallic clanking off the floor. Leo’s katanas…

“On second thought, maybe it’s both.” His weapons were away from him, too far out of reach. His voice sounded weaker, arms wrapped around his torso.

Oh no.

Neither of them were holding back. As soon as he was down, they were practically hammering at him. His arms were up, defensively blocking his head. I’m supposed to stay away from this. I’m supposed to listen and focus on my task. But I can’t stop my body from turning when I see something like this happening.

He’s in the air now. I need to move. He’s being swung. I need to be faster.

“Let this be a lesson, turtle. Our battles have drastically changed.”

The window shattered from the force of his body.

“LEO!”

I don’t remember ever sprinting this fast, but I was out the window right after through the very hole he created. The height couldn’t scare me if it tried. My arm outstretched, I caught him with one hand and had my sickle in the other. Careful to not dare mess up my timing, it snatched onto a power line just as my blades turned to rubber, thick enough to not get us shocked from the voltage.

“N-nice… nice catch.”

“Thanks.” It’s harder to talk when I’m panting like a dog and trying to limit my shaking limbs.

His weight felt like it would rip my arms apart. I didn’t expect a giant muscular turtle to be light but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. Still, some-fucking-how, I’m able to keep us both hanging from the wire, comprehending the fact that we’re not dead. Thank fuck for Raph forcing me to work out sessions.

“You, uh, you doing good up there? You’re breathing kinda heavily. Hey, heavily! Didn’t even mean to make that one!”

“Leo I will drop you.”

He convinced me to suffer a little longer and try to swing him, giving enough momentum for him to catch onto the side of the neighboring building. Then, I swung myself, Leo catching me to soften the landing. We scampered up to the roof, coincidentally the same one we were on a while ago.

“And literally back to square one. Fantastic.” He sighed, clearly annoyed by our failure. His attention quickly shifted once he noticed me rubbing my sore arms. “Hey, you okay? Want me to take a look at you?”

“Me? Take a look at yourself first, idiot!”

I’m not gonna pretend I’m not in pain, but it’s nothing close to the tragedies on his body currently. His arms are bruised and cut from the fight. One was actively bleeding with bits of glass still stuck in some places. Luckily it was the only fleshy place he took damage on, everything else was protected, albeit a little cracked.

“It’s… It’s fine. My shell took most of the hit, anyway.” This bitch. “Besides, I’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

Despite his condition, he started walking to the edge of the roof, heading back towards the WTC.

“Where the hell are you going?”

“To get my katanas back.”

“Oh, no, no, no, you are not going back in there! Can’t you just make new swords or something?”

“And help the foot by practically gifting them Hamato weapons?”

“You said they’re made from your magic! Shouldn’t that protect them from other people trying to use them?”

“I don’t know, we only learned about this ninpo stuff, like, last year! I don’t know enough to be sure nothing will happen if I leave them with the Foot. I’m not doing that.”

“Well, I can’t let you go back.” I stood in front of him to block his path. “We can figure something else out but you are not going back in there! Look at you, it’d be crazy!”

“I was crazy once-” My hand shut his stupid, smug mouth before he could complete the ritual.

“Leo, you were thrown out a window! You’re hurt!”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay! I’ve been through worse! I’m just gonna get my swords back, that’s all.” He put a hand on my shoulder and threw on a fake smile to comfort me. The blood is literally dripping down his arm as he did, defeating the point. I looked back at his eyes, not bothering to hide how furiously concerned I am. If I’m reading him right, he’s not oblivious to reality. He’s a medic, he knows it better than I do.

He took a shaky breath in. “Fine, you’re right that I’m a little hurt. But we can’t waste time patching me up, I need to get my swords! Rule number one of basic survival is never let the Foot come into possession with highly mystic material ever.”

“Then I’ll go while you take care of yourself.”

“NO!” His head perked up as his eyes grew wider. He tried saving his initial reaction. “No way, not happening. It’s a safer plan if I go in, I’m more used to them” Safer for us or for just me.

“And yet, you got beaten to a pulp, isolated from your weapons, thrown out a window, and are now bleeding with shards of glass sticking out your body. Did I miss anything?” He’s neglected himself all night being overly cocky and confident nothing bad would happen to him. That’s what’s led to him turning out like this! “They didn’t exactly go easy on you, Leo-”

“Then imagine what they’d do to you!”

His brows knit together, staring at me, not blinking. I guess my wish was granted since he finally stopped disguising his true fear.

“Salena, please. Stay here, I’m going in.”

I almost let him go. Almost.

Too bad for him, I yanked him by the mask tails and pulled his stunned face back to face me.

“Hey, wh-”

“Alright, listen. I know whoever these guys are, they’re dangerous as fuck. I know I’m nowhere near as skilled of a fighter as you and I probably never will be. And I know I am way in over my head about this. But none of that matters to me.”

He kept quiet. So I continued. “What matters is that I’m your friend. Friends don’t let each other jump into losing battles, okay? You’re hurt, Leo. Please, just let me help you.”

I looked up at the sky. The clouds are covering the moon now and should stay that way for a little while. I could take advantage of the newfound darkness.

I stood on the ledge, mentally preparing myself to reignite the flames. Sure, I talked big about being able to handle myself and whatnot but I’m just trying to fool myself into thinking I’m not scared. If I can keep myself level-headed and use my sickles, I’ll be able to stay invisible for a short bit. If I play my cards right, that should be all I need.

I felt a hand grab my wrist. Turning around, I readied myself to once again reassure Leo I’d be fine but stopped when he put something in my palm. I recognize them, they’re tanto knives.

“Hey.” His smile is forced but not disingenuous.

“You’ve got this.”

So off I went with the last little push I needed. The cool night air feels fantastically refreshing on my skin. Every leap leaves me more confident I’ll succeed. I have to. He needs someone he knows he can depend on.

I scouted around and found an open window to sneak back in through. Judging by how crazy strong these guys are, my best bet is the element of surprise and for these oversized lethal boomerangs to actually work in my favor. Which they hadn’t before. But nothing’s ever hopeless. The reflection off the moon was their main source of light, with the clouds hiding it now and my knowledge of the floor’s layout, I think I might have a working plan this time.

I rushed over to the balcony I was at previously, this time being more cautious of any look-outs. There were three of them up here so I’m glad I didn’t choose the reckless route. I took my sickles out my backpack, breathed in, and turned invisible. A little harder to do since my nerves haven’t completely disappeared but it’s going smoother than before.

I snuck up to the soldier at the back of the trio, covering his mouth and dragging him to the dark, knocking him out shortly after. His two buddies were a piece of cake after that, hit one with a blunt-force sickle and take the other by hand at the same time. No one noticed a thing.

With the balcony cleared, I reclaimed my little sighting spot and looked over the entire floor, making note of every nook and cranny I could hide in. The clan’s focus changed since last time, they’re trying to get out as fast as possible. Seems like they’re taking Leo’s katanas with them since Lieutenant Itchy McSore-Throat was holding onto them.

“All of you hurry up! We must get out of here!”

I spotted the stolen mannequin in the distance. It’s actually not too far and surprisingly not removed. The two leaders seem distracted by someone. Perfect timing. I crept down and started taking out some more soldiers, listening in to the conversation at the same time.

“What about getting all the mystic metal we can?” That’s a new voice.

“Forget the metal, we’ve got enough for today. We need to leave or that turtle will bring reinforcements!”

“Yeah, sure, whatever makes ya happy, boss.”

“You better not be questioning my authority.”

“Our authority, he means. We’ve had your type before, and they grew to be traitors. I suggest you don’t test the patience of the Foot ‘cause it’s growin’ thin.”

“Nice phrasing! Even if you shouldn’t have interrupted me.” I can’t tell if these two have workplace tension or workplace bromance anymore. “But he’s right. You’d do well to remember your place, rookie.”

“Hey, I wasn’t tryna question anything guys. Just sayin’ maybe we should’ve planned this better in case we got caught.”

“So you may be right. We’ll keep it in mind but work on your delivery when it comes to criticism. Now quickly, go join the others.”

“Can I at least hold the magic swords?”

“No.”

She grumbled and left through the door, likely exiting the building. Her attitude was a pleasant surprise. I’ll admit, I kinda assumed all the Foot soldiers had brain-numbing levels of obedience.

The clouds were clearing up, though. The moonlight brightened the room back up, I can’t use the darkness for cover much longer. Alas, if only I knew how to use my literal invisibility powers for longer than a few seconds but you know what? This is genuinely perfectly okay. I’ve taken out enough of them to only leave a few left standing, not to mention the majority of them are already out the building. I gotta take these freaks head on if I wanna get Leo’s swords. No more hide and seek.

I let the light illuminate me.

“Hey guys!~” I waved gleefully as the Foot idiots finally noticed my presence. “Remember me? Hope it hasn’t been too long.”

“You!” The Brute turned to me first. “You’re the Hamato ally from earlier!”

“What are you doing here! Why have you returned!”

“You sure have a way of asking questions that makes them feel like statements. Anyway, I’m here to collect something you stole from my friend.”

He gripped the swords as he scowled at me. I held my own sickles tighter.

“You foolish child! You leave us no choice but take you out permanently.”

“Oh, really now? You and what army.”

I scoffed when I caught his expression change. Everyone looked at each other, noting how very few of them are suddenly in the room. So distracted they barely noticed me going for my first blow.

He quickly got ready to block me with Leo’s weapon, absolutely bewildered when I only zoomed past him and sliced at the leg of another soldier behind him. It wasn’t too deep but poor guy was still rendered useless. I dashed to my left at another soldier, dodging his attack and punching right up his chin.

“What’s going on!? Those sickles were dull the last time she used ‘em!”

“They must be mystic…”

“Right you are, Lieutenant! I kept them dull on purpose, my mistake.”

I threw a tanto at a cultist’s shoulder.

“You threw Leo out a window. I think you can bear to see some blood.”

One by one, I went around the room, sprinting past anyone chasing after me and immobilizing anyone with their guard down. I got in a groove good enough to keep myself progressing along while getting out my rage. I wasn’t kidding before, I would’ve kept my blades dull again. I’m still careful to not do anything fatal but I’m not gonna be exactly merciful, either. They deserve this.

Fighting felt like dancing, gliding across the room in an energetic fashion. I’m not crazy enough to go for the Lieutenant or Brute which ended up being a plus for me. They was more than ready to protect themselves, but not their team. At last, I got them all exactly where I needed them.

Alright, stay calm. Turn invisible no matter what.

My sickles shone with a pink glow, allowing me to disappear from their sight. I scampered past them, reaching the bejeweled mannequin behind them. It feels a little different? But there isn’t any concrete proof for this so my brain’s just tricking me. Whatever, no time to lose. I shoved it in my bag, getting myself used to the weight, and aimed a sickle at his arm.

“Where’d she go!?”

“Stay alert! Don’t let her catch you off guard!”

A bit late for that buddy.

My blade sliced through, leaving a massive gash on his arm. He screamed and dropped Leo’s sword. I ran through, catching it just as I became visible again. I snatched the other one as quickly as possible and sprinted to create some distance.

I held my arm up to my face, making good use of the wraps’ built-in comms. “Leo! Heads up!”

I threw a katana out the window, smashing the glass as it flew outside. I stopped in my tracks with a smirk. I knew we won.

I dodged the last attacks of the night, accelerating faster than I realized I could go. “Well folks, this was quite a fun match! Hope to never see you again!” Blue light sparked across my body. I leapt in the air, gave a quick peace sign purely to piss ‘em off, and bid my farewell.

“Toodles~”

Teleportation isn’t actually too bad if you know it’s coming.

The cool night air returned on my skin. I was floating for a few seconds before crashing to the roof on my knees. I didn’t even care about the pain, I was too busy enjoying the hug I received for my success!

“I DID IT! I FUCKING DID IT! WOOHOO!!!”

“Celebrations later, escaping now! Come on!”

Leo dragged me up and pulled us through another portal.

***

“We are the champions!~

“Gone with the losers ‘cause we are the champions!”

I handed another slice of pizza to Leo, half the box pepperoni for him and the other half plain cheese for me. We already dropped off the mannequin back to the museum and I gave an anonymous tip to 911 so now we’re simply chilling on the roof singing to celebrate our victorious night. I’m honestly still hyper as hell over it.

“I can’t believe we actually did it! I can’t believe I actually did it! Salena one, Foot Clan NONE BABY, FUCK YEA!”

“Man, I am so happy you came out okay. You have no idea how relieved I was when I saw you again.” He bit into the cheese, the least stressed I’ve seen him all night.

I couldn’t realize it earlier but that hug he gave wasn’t for my success. It’s clear to me now.

“Leo?”

“Hm?” He looked towards me as he bit into the cheese.

“Thanks for trusting me.”

He mirrored my smile. “Hey, we’re friends, right? That’s what I’m here for.”

The spring breeze feels so sweet. The view of the city is rewarding as always. A safe city, a safe night. I can see why they’re so into this whole hero gig. Everything about this moment feels absolutely perfect.

Buzz! Buzz!

I swear to god if my fucking phone’s gonna ruin it again. I quickly checked the notif to see if it was anything important. To my surprise, it’s Jaiden.

They sent me a text. The first one in weeks. It’s a dumb meme I saw earlier today.

We used to do this a lot in the past. Whenever we got into a fight, it’d be our way of ending it. We could never stay mad at each other for more than a day. In the past at least.

I guess this means they’re not mad at me anymore.

“Everything okay?” Leo stared at me, probably concerned by my change in demeanor.

I double tapped to like Jaiden’s meme and put my phone away, going back to normal.

“It’s nothing important. Just, uh, highschool stuff. You wouldn’t get it.”

He laughed “Oh, okay, well. I know I’m too fabulous to be the average, uncool, normal teen guy doing normal teen things like going to highschool that you want right now but…”

“If you ever need someone to lend a shoulder, you know who to call.”

He’s an idiot, but a very sweet one when he wants to be.

“Thanks, Leo, but I mean it this time. It’s nothing.” I raised up my slice to request a toast of some sorts. “Let’s go back to celebrating, shall we?”

He let out a satisfied chuckle, returning my toast. I didn’t wanna let anything ruin the way I felt tonight, even if their text tainted the vibe a bit. But hey, it’s technically a win, too! I got my confirmation that Jaiden and I are indeed still friends.

Though I gotta admit, I’m not as happy as I thought I’d be.

Next Chapter

#save rottmnt #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #unpause rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt season 3 #rise of the turtles #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt x oc #oc x canon #rottmnt oc x canon #nickelodeon #rottmnt moths fly in packs

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tadpolesonalgae · 12 days

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“You made more than a mistake, Az. Now we’re all hurting because you—”

i am so glad it's finally been said out loud. And that it was Mor who said it because immediately I understood how she was feeling about the entire situation, which made me feel better about her being an asshat at the end of the last chapter. It's strangely therapeutic. As soon as Mor tells Az to shut up though, I couldn't help but start crying a little bit because you really perfected how I thought Mor would've perceived reader going to Eris-

“She could have come to any of us. It’s more than we ever had, and yet she ignored it. Then tries to pretend it away? I’m not immune to that. If she can’t even be bothered to care about my pain why should I give a damn about hers?”

-this line in particular ruined me (not to be too personal n emotional lol), as someone who grew up in a not so great home i can really empathize with Mor here. It's not healthy behavior but I can say that there have been times where I've resented the people in my life who didn't accept help after i had been desperate for it for years. I'm more emotionally aware now and have unpacked those resentments (THANK GOD), but it was such a visceral response to reading that line because it mirrored unhealed me.

The next scene with madja was the perfect balance to mor and azriel's...argument? discussion? idk. You really guide us well through the world which is something I really admire in your writing, it flows very naturally and it always feels like a very natural progression of events. (its just something i've noticed i struggle with in my own wips lol).

compliments aside, it was also really sweet to see reader's peace in this chapter. Madja herself being a very peaceful motherly figure for reader who we know desperately needs that kind of care right now, her sisters are doing great right now but she needs someone who's not family to prove that they do care about her and it will not change over a few mistakes. Which is something that Cassian embodies very well later in the chapter too.

Bas.... sweet guy :( i hope reader gives him the truth. Imo, i think he deserves at least a bit of the truth when she is in a better place to give it (she fr could've said she was at a friend's in autumn. bas doesn't need to know WHO). But Bas held up his own boundaries very well with reader as well and I'm glad that we got a little of his feelings on the situation as well as reader acknowledging she hasn't been a great friend recently. (it's valid tho she's been goin THROUGH IT)

Tabbatha... you keep saying you don't know how to portray cassian but i personally think you do him such a great service ESPECIALLY after some instances of cass's behavior towards nesta's struggles in her own healing journey. I really feel like he actually cares about reader herself compared to rhys who cared about feyre and her only. He makes an effort to get her to relax, which is something acomaf cass would've done and is the version of him i miss the most. And him calling reader out for keeping things to herself? I personally think she needs to be called out and take accountability for her own role in the healing process. He was the perfect person to push her in this scene.

The dinner scene also really resonated with me and my own childhood. As a kid growing up we NEVER ate dinner together, so reader's apprehension to going to dinner is so real, and Mor sitting across from her?

oh myyyy goodness, ik this chapter just came out but im already rereading hehehe im so excited for the next one

-🤠

If I’m honest with you, I wanted Mor to tear into Az a little more than she did? For her to fairly obviously and kind of viciously defend reader but I felt it would be weird for her to go that far, considering Mor is supposed to be feeling very betrayed and hurt by reader? I did have fun with writing Mor telling Az to shut up though 🫣 I even nearly italicised it 🫢😳

‘The next scene with madja was the perfect balance to mor and azriel's...argument? discussion?’

Oh I really liked writing the Madja scene!! I mean, kind of scary obviously, but I enjoy her character and it’s so nice getting to write someone being kind to reader? 😭 Particularly since a fair amount of scenes in cbmthy aren’t particularly lighthearted/high-spirited? I’m hoping to continue dropping scenes with Madja in here and there since it would be weird if reader’s checkups suddenly stopped out of nowhere? Also so she has someone to keep an eye on her who might know a little more about what’s going on with her physically and mentally from experience and studying other people/medicine?

‘(its just something i've noticed i struggle with in my own wips lol).’

This might be totally unsolicited/unhelpful, but usually for me if a scene isn’t working or I’m struggling to write it, I’ll either change the perspective or switch to something else entirely? Like the scene just after reader’s entered the kitchen with Cassian I was struggling with, which is why there’s that snippet from Rhys’ pov to section them up? I don’t know if that’ll work for other people, but it’s something I fall back on quite regularly so it might help you too? 🫂🧡💛

‘but she needs someone who's not family to prove that they do care about her and it will not change over a few mistakes. Which is something that Cassian embodies very well later in the chapter too.’

I’m so glad you feel Cassian read that way!! 😭 I’m kind of of the mind that Nesta’s still protective over her sisters and so that might occasionally stretch across to Cassian at times? Also I just feel like Cassian genuinely cares about people in a more (this might sound strange) innocent way? Like more carefully and tenderly?

I would have loved to write Cassian and reader as being good friends but because Cassian’s friends with Feyre I think reader would still always feel in second place and unfortunately it might hinder her more than help 😭

‘Tabbatha... you keep saying you don't know how to portray cassian but i personally think you do him such a great service’

I’m literally refusing to respond to this because I’m so embarrassed and flustered from the compliment 😶‍🌫️

‘As a kid growing up we NEVER ate dinner together, so reader's apprehension to going to dinner is so real, and Mor sitting across from her?’

Yes! And especially after she’s done something that so obviously puts her in a vulnerable position too? Now they all know that she was in a place like that I can’t imagine reader will feel particularly comfortable over dinner 😭

As for Mor, I think I’m actually going to be writing this scene tonight, so I’ll be interested to see what happens? (Because honestly I don’t 100% know how it’s going to go either 😭🫣)

‘oh myyyy goodness, ik this chapter just came out but im already rereading hehehe im so excited for the next one’

Babes oh my gosh I was struggling to start chapter 18 so did a change 🫢🫣

I had so much fun writing the opening scene to the next part and I’ll be so excited to hear some thoughts on it—if you or anyone has any thoughts on it, of course 🧡💛

#🤠 anon <3 #🤠#cbmthy #cbmthy chapter 17 #cbmthy chapter 18

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surr3al1sm · 2 months

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MLYID Update

Decided to post this today bc well why not, it's porbably going to become the posting day lol. For anyone unaware: "Maybe Loving You is Dangerous" (aka MLYID which is the shortened name until I think of a better one) is a Wanderrose one shot I wrote and posted like a solid week ago. If you haven't read it yet and like the ship, I would highly appreciate it.

I'm officially going to continue the story (yippie!) and I know how I want to format it now!

☆ I am going to be posting it as a chapter based story on AO3 but the chapters are going to be more like seperate stories that follow a similair main goal/plot (The boys being gay for eachother) and a funky little subplot to keep things intresting. This means that the chapters won't always line up with each other- but them sneaking off during parties to be gay seems way more fun to write than just a day by day type of thing. ☆ ☆ Every chapter will have it's own title based on a song lyric from the song that gave me the inspiration for that chapter :) You don't have to lisent to the songs during reading but I will link them to the chapter updates ☆ ☆ I'm going to try my best to post a new chapter every saturday but I have no idea how life will treat me during the postings so you might get some chapters earlier and some later. Who really knows. I can almost certainly say that Chapter 2 is coming out next saturday! Also the chapters might be looonnngggg so writing that takes a lot of time. I don't have a set amount of chapters yet though, that'll come later (I do already have the end figured out somehow tho) ☆ ☆ A lot more coaches will be included, including an OC, so keep an eye out you might see one of your favourites pass by (maybe I'll include them if you ask nicely) ☆ ☆ The ao3 tags will be edited if nessecairy per new chapter that comes it because sometimes shit just happens, so keep an eye on those aswell! ☆

I really do hope that you are even a slither as excited to read this story unfold as I am to write it. I am so immensely for all the positive reactions it has gotten so far. I am so happy you guys enjoyed chapter one and I hope the rest live up to its standarts.

If you haven't yet and would like to before chapter 2 is posted, here's the link

☆ Sorry that this is such a wordy post, I have no idea how to explain it otherwise. Thank you so much for reading lol ☆

#I cannot wait for them to actually kiss LMAO #I cannot thank you guys enough for reading my little gay fanfic #and actually liking it #jd #just dance #just dance fanfic #jd wanderlust #wanderlust #jack rose jd #jack rose #wanderrose #just dance 2024 #just dance 2023 edition #just dance fandom

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asleep-in-the-keep-sideblog · 3 months

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Announcement: Anniversary

Just me talking about the future of the fic :)

First off, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Wow a whole year (plus extra) WITH (near) constant updates, that's crazy. More than I can say for my other fic... (it haunts me. I still plan to finish it but ouch).

First things first!

I wanted to update sooner (since I've had this written for a month now) but I was also working on a one shot to post at the same time. I was making great progress but then finals came round and I got burned out. They're finished now but I'm still burned out. I'll give a brief hint about it though since I'm a little excited and just wanna talk about it. So its a Dadzawa fic that's actually happy and ends with them as a family (unlike how it was in the last chapter lol). It was supposed to cheer people up and also be practice for writing them as a family and stuff. The Danny is very different from the main fic tho. The fic was also supposed to serve as an anniversary present for all you guys too, to thank you for reading and being here. I really wanted to finish in time but it kept getting bigger as I wrote. I do hope to post it this month tho, so keep an eye out for that!

Next thing!

On AO3 it shows that the fic is now apart of a series and has a chapter count. I talked about this in the notes of a previous chapter, but I had been wanting to do that for a while now. I want to have the next part of the series out by next year. I know I have been updating monthly now, but I'm gonna try to do twice a month if I can. I'm really excited and It want it done soon! I might do 2 chapters this month or will just count the one shot if I get lazy.

I also added the tags "full ghost Danny." Sorry to burst anyone's bubble that held on hope for Danny. Tbh the original plan was that his human half was still hiding inside him, just healing and small, but it was gonna show up in one of the chapters. The longer the fic went on, the more I started to rethink that. The human reveal, while good in the short run, would crumble some of the plot lines I had set up while also not contributing much to the rest of the plot. I am debating maybe doing a short series of "what if" where that is the case tho, just so people can get a taste. If I like it enough I might make it a full thing. Who knows.

Final thing!

(this paragraph is referencing the support on AO3)

Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! Guys! This fic has 2k kudos????????!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP! WTF?!

That is so huge! Gahhhh! Man, I am always critical of my writing (I've gotten better) but wow to have that kind of support just in my face! Literally speechless. I always had the thought in the back of my mind that once the fic goes on for long enough people will start to see its flaws or get bored. That's true for some, but I keep seeing a lot of the same names again and again and I am grateful to you guys so much. That was also one of the reasons I wanted to do the one shot. I just want to keep giving you guys more content that you'll enjoy.

Thank you so much for being here, truly 💚

Good luck on finals if you got them!

#asleep in the keep #asleep in the keep extra #dp fic

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summercourtship · 11 months

Text

stay to burn (only to drown instead): chapter four: thirteen floors [part I]

masterpost | ao3 link

jonathan crane x reader; bruce wayne x reader; edward nashton x reader | warnings: canon typical violence, sexual content | word count: 6063 words

DISCLAIMER: these chapters are not meant to be read alone. not every chapter has content for one of the three pairings listed. this is an ongoing fanfiction that I am cross-posting here on tumblr, not a series of one-shots.

chapter one

November fifth. Gotham Square Garden.

You held a notepad- the kind that detectives in movies used, the flip kind. You’d felt so cool and professional when you picked it up at a stationery store in the Midtown, so ready to take on this project.

You couldn’t remember, now, if you had gotten the notebook before or after the Riddler showed up in the city. You can’t imagine having been excited for the assignment otherwise, just some boring paper on the current mayoral race.

No, the Riddler made it important. So you must have bought it after he killed the Mayor. Maybe after he killed the Police Commissioner, when he was fully revealed to the public.

Even though it had only been a week since the murders began, it felt like a year had passed. You’d traveled all over downtown Gotham, going to events you normally wouldn’t have bothered with.

Your excitement for the assignment had dwindled a bit since the mayor’s funeral, since witnessing the large SUV crash through the wall of City Hall, since seeing Gil Coulson stumble out with a collar bomb strapped around his neck. You’d been escorted out in a hurry, but you craned your neck over the railing anyway, trying to get a better view before they took you out.

Your phone buzzed from inside your pocket, a notification from your friend’s group chat popping up on your screen. You scrolled back through the conversation, returning to the last message you’d read.

Gotham Girlies Marie: Hey what are you guys doing your final project on for the History of Gotham class? I need to have my proposal in by like last week and I’ve been obvi putting it off. Lisa: I’m doing mine of the history of women’s rights in the city Bridgit: Sick Bridgit: I’m doing some light research into the history of the mob in the city Bridgit: Gotta be careful tho, you know? Bridgit: can’t let them know im looking into them lol

You began typing out your response, tucking your notebook under your arm.

I guess mine is more current events but I’m doing it on the current election.

You paused, staring at the message, realizing that saying it was about the current election was kinda a misnomer. Because it wasn’t really about that anymore, was it?

Tho I guess it’s more about the Riddler now, right? Kinda changed the trajectory of the paper but oh well.

You hit send before sliding your phone back into your pocket. The reception wasn’t good at all in the Garden, and you didn't want to bother watching the message try to send for the next minute before it gave up and said it would try again later.

Instead, you looked around the space, your eyes eventually landing on the lighting fixture in the middle of the room. The large screens replayed the same few slides of messages, congratulating Bella for her win (as they should), advertising a pizza place, showing events coming to the Garden. Then your eyes slid upwards from the screen, attention caught by a small flicker of movement. Narrowing your eyes, you tried to figure out what you were seeing.

Huh.

Interesting.

There were people up there.

You couldn’t really make out their features, just their silhouettes and a glint as their outfits reflected the lights in the way that wet waterproof material does.

You remembered wondering if they were part of some maintenance crew, but what kind of maintenance crew would do work on election night or any other big event at the Garden? Shouldn’t that work be reserved for the times where the venue was empty? How unfortunate for them, to need to be all the way up there and doing god-knows-what when there’s a huge crowd below them-

You forget exactly when it truly began. You knew that you were looking up at them, trying to figure out what they were doing, but you had no idea what was going on down below at that moment. What you did remember next was the anarchy after the sharp pop-pop-popping sound began.

The first gunshot, aimed at Real herself, set off the expected chain reaction in the crowd.

Pushing, shoving. The very definition of chaos.

Bodies shoving themselves against you, everyone in FLIGHT mode and making a break for the exits. There was no way to fight it.

Everyone was trying to leave, trying desperately to blend in with the crowd, like they could meld their bodies together and become indestructible. Or at least unnoticeable. The goal was now to not make yourself an easy target to the shooters but there were so many men up there with so few places for you to hide.

You were fish in a barrel.

Glass shattered somewhere above you and you snapped your head backwards, trying to keep an eye on the gunmen while doing your best to remain safe, two seemingly impossible tasks. The large windows at the top of the venue had broken, shards of glass raining down like glittering meteors, but you couldn’t see how it had shattered. Maybe a bullet had ricocheted through the window. Why not, what else could make the night more terrifying?

“Get out of the way!” A man pushed you out of his path, causing you to lose your balance and stagger down a few steps before you completely fell down when you were pushed again by someone else. You caught yourself on your hands, rising up to a kneeling position.

People surrounded you on all sides, yet no one stopped to help you get back up. No one even looked at you on the floor, trying to find a way to stand in the claustrophobic conditions that refused to give way. Whenever you grabbed someone to try and pull yourself up, they yanked their hand back like your touch was a bullet from above.

A horrifying thought crossed your mind, then: what if you didn’t even die due to a gunshot but instead suffocated under the weight of all these bodies?

Somehow, through all of the chaos, you still held your stupid notebook, like it was your lifeline, like it would stop a bullet from piercing through your skin. But what good would a stack of paper do in a human crush? You didn’t know much about them so you had no idea if the crowd was too dense yet. Either way, you didn’t want to find out.

You’ve heard that in an emergency situation your body goes into autopilot, the primal instincts in your brain bypassing any logic and control you had, taking over to take you where you needed to go.

You didn’t feel that here. You felt completely in control and with that you felt completely powerless. You couldn’t pierce through the crowd of panicked people (an emergency pro-tip no one followed: stay calm) and you couldn’t squeeze yourself away from the crowd either (another emergency pro-tip: don’t make yourself an easy target).

You were stuck, kneeling on the floor as the crowd moved around you like a fluid. Eyes sliding closed, you figured that it wouldn’t be that bad to just stay here, right? Maybe you should just drown in the crowd, get it over with. You could allow your breath to be taken away from you, not worry about being shot anymore. Just keep your eyes closed and-

Two hands hooked under your armpits, yanking you back to your feet. Your eyes snapped open and you tried to look around you but whoever deemed you worthy of helping was gone, whisked away by the crowd.

You’d been on the floor for maybe a maximum of thirty seconds but it had seemed like an eternity and now you were back in the sea, moving where you were moved, jostling where you were jostled.

You were able to advance only a few steps when a low groaning reverberated through the Garden.

“Shit, it’s coming down!” A panicked voice hissed from behind you, and you spun around to look back up to the giant display screens. Which were now hanging on by a few (figurative) threads. But it was teetering, hanging at an angle that was certainly not meant to be. A few bodies were hanging from the catwalk, but distantly you could see the silhouette of someone… fighting.

The last thing you really remembered from the night was finally escaping the Garden, bursting through the doors and gasping in the chilly night air, gulping down breaths of it. Emergency vehicles lined the streets around the Garden, their swiveling lights casting blue and red shadows over the street. Blockades had been set up on every intersection around the Garden, crowds of worried citizens and shouting reporters huddled behind them. Police were shouting back, trying to maintain some sense of order.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket. Swiping past the few Breaking News notifications and campus alerts about the situation you’d just escaped were more texts from your group chat.

Gotham Girlies Marie: Yeah, this riddle shit is too much right now. Marie: *riddle Marie: *RIDDLER damn it Bridgit: omg Bridgit: there’s a shooting down at the garden rn Lisa: No way (Lisa tagged you in a text.) Lisa: Wait aren’t you down there right now?!

You closed the notifications after that, the blaise way Bridgit had delivered the news rubbing you the wrong way. Yeah, it had been a weird week, crime wise. At least Lisa remembered you’d been there in the first place. But you could respond in a few minutes, once you’d started to feel more like yourself again. They could handle that if their reaction to the news was equivalent to seeing a minor celebrity from a distance.

You managed to slip away from the Garden without being seen by any of the medics called to the scene. From later pictures of the exterior, you saw that Batman had helped some of the victims, but he mostly helped with hauling the perpetrators out. And they were all dressed eerily similar.

The news the next day confirmed what you had already suspected. The Riddler had planned the attack in Gotham Square Garden. Not just that, but he’d planned to flood the city- and he almost did it. But the Batman had stopped it, and had kept the bombs from blowing up the sea-wall and drowning Gotham.

The image your mind supplied you of water rushing through the streets, overpowering everything in its wake, chilled you to your core.

You had your first nightmare that night- you had none the night it had actually happened. Your body was floating in murky water, the flood pressing against you on all sides, a constant overwhelming pressure. You tried to breathe but the water filled your lungs instead and now you couldn’t even scream out for help.

And you were drowning

By the time the EMTs had cleared you to be taken home and the police were done with whatever needed to be done, it was well into the next morning, the sun hidden behind the clouds as it rose, starting to color the sky a dull gray. Snow had started to accumulate on the ground but it hadn’t even lasted until the morning without being trodden on, the once white sheet mussed and colored gray from dirt. A snow plow had clearly already been through here.

The cop driving looked at you through the rearview mirror, his warm brown eyes concerned.

“You sure you don’t want to talk about what happened? It would be helpful-”

“You got the guys, right?” You asked, your voice like sandpaper after using it all night. But it wasn’t like you had anything new to say, just answering the same questions that every victim is asked. Are you okay? Are you sure? Do you need anything? Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? How many fingers am I holding up?

The only person who seemed content to allow you to sit in silence unless it was absolutely necessary for you to talk was the Batman. His cape had remained wrapped around you, heavy and comforter over your shoulders, until twenty minutes ago, when he took his leave. You’d been the one to hand it back to him, not allowing him to use it as an excuse to come find you to get it back later. He accepted it wordlessly, giving you over to the Police Commissioner, whose face you recognized from the news. He’d mentioned earlier that the cop would give you a ride home once everything was taken care of. He’d assured you, in his own way, that the Commissioner could be trusted.

And you trusted his judgment, at least.

“Yeah, but-”

“Then I’m good. I just want to get home and go to sleep.” The cop sighed, watching you as you leaned against the window, closing your eyes at the sensation of the cold glass on your skin. It would numb your forehead, soon, but for now it was blissful.

“How do you know the Batman?”

“I don’t, not really. He’s just… found his way into my life a few times.” That’s one way of putting it.

“I understand that feeling.” He smiled. You returned it, though your smile was strained.

Small talk filled the rest of your ride, and you found that the police officer wasn’t bad company, all things considered. You certainly could’ve been put with a much more awkward conversation partner. But he laughed at the right moments, seemed morose at others. He mentioned that his daughter was a few years younger than you herself, just started college, which explained it to you.

“Maybe you should meet her sometime, you’d probably like her.”

“Yeah, maybe.” You didn’t have the heart to tell him it most likely wouldn’t happen, but the offer was nice anyway.

Morning traffic hadn’t begun to congest the streets yet (even though it was Sunday, it still got pretty bad in certain parts of the city) and the Commissioner pulled up in front of your building within twenty minutes. You thanked him quietly before climbing out, wincing as you put weight on your sore feet again.

You were definitely throwing these shoes in the back of your closet later.

With a final wave behind you, you made your way to the front door, knowing that he was going to watch and make sure you entered the building safely. Maybe after this he would head to wherever the Bat Signal was to share information with Batman. Or maybe he was just going home to his wife and daughter after a long night dealing with Gotham City.

An average Saturday night in the city, really.

If there was one thing you were satisfied with in your building, it was the heating system. Walking through the front door was like walking into a warm hug, the yellow lights of the hallway adding to the illusion of stepping into a toaster oven. But a nice toaster oven. One that evenly toasted both sides of the bread.

As you walked up the stairs, you pulled your phone out (which had been kicked under a table during the scuffle of the night, miraculously intact with the exception of a single crack along the top of the screen but that was fine, as long as it worked), finding Dr. Crane’s contact information and hitting the CALL button before you could chicken out and tell yourself you’d do it later. By the time it finished ringing and told you to leave a message, you were at your door.

You tried calling again as you unlocked your apartment. Your door stuck, because of course it did, but with a single slam of your body against the wood it broke free, swinging open into your dim apartment.

Putting the phone to your cheek, you shrugged your heels off and sighed in relief when your bare feet touched the hardwood floor. How you couldn’t wait to climb into bed. The phone rang and rang until the automated response played again, telling you to leave a message. Maybe he’s asleep.

Sighing, you waited for the message tone to begin speaking. Although, the moment it chimed you froze, all of the things you had been planning to say leaving your mind. It took you a solid second to regain your thoughts, blinking into the darkness as you began speaking.

“Hey, it’s me. I just got home, I’m all good! Just a few scrapes and bruises and maybe some trauma but it’s okay. Um, I just thought I’d call because it felt really weird to say over text! Okay, text me or call when you get this. I wanna make sure you got home safe too… Okay, bye!”

Did you always say okay this much?

As you left the message to Dr. Crane, you stripped yourself of your dress and underwear, moving through your apartment and not caring about the trail of clothes you left all the way to the bathroom. Turning the shower all the way to the hottest setting, you faced the mirror to take care of your hair. You yanked every single one of the pins out, letting them clatter onto the floor when they missed the sink. You could pick them up later, when you didn’t feel like your skin was covered in grime or like your head was going to fall off your head from exhaustion.

That’s a job for future-you to worry about. Present-you just wanted to be blissfully clean, not worrying about anything else except when to rinse your hair.

You gently clambered into the shower, your muscles aching and ready to rest. But you needed to clean the stink of the night off.

You’d scrub your skin raw if you had to.

The water burned your skin but you sighed in relief anyway, the scalding water bringing blood back to your veins. You could worry about how hot it was and how long the shower you were planning to take was going to be when your water bill arrived.

And then… you started to crave another form of relief. Like it hadn’t gone away but had instead been hibernating through the last few hours, your body started to remember Dr. Crane’s touch, the way he had whispered into your ear. How close he had been to reaching your core, how he knew that you weren’t very experienced and how that didn’t seem to deter him in his pursuit.

If you hadn’t heard those footsteps, if you hadn't freaked out and pushed him away, how far would it have gone until you stopped it? Would you have let him go all the way, there in that hallway?

You ducked your head back under the spray of water, rubbing your hands over your face and groaning, the tell tale twinge of a headache forming in your temple.

Standing in the shower, you couldn’t fathom any realistic way that your heavy petting session with Dr. Crane could’ve escalated into… if not sex, at least an orgasm for one of you. No, all of the scenarios you thought about while washing your body were too fake, too scripted. Like something out of a bad pornographic video.

Oh, yes, Dr. Crane, please- ah- fuck me so hard right here in this hallway where anyone can see us! Let them enjoy the show, ahh.

Yeah, no.

You rolled your eyes at yourself for even thinking that up. It was decidedly un-sexy. Dr. Crane was not the kind of man to elicit such a response. Even in the brief touches he’d bestowed upon you, he was an all-consuming presence, a hurricane that causes you to take shelter within yourself instead of crying out for others to enjoy the sight of your drowning.

Besides, you had been way too drunk to properly consent to anything. And he was, at least, a good enough man to not take advantage of your obvious inebriated state, right? Even though he had said that he was taking advantage of you, that was just tongue in cheek, right? A callback to your conversation in the cafe?

(But, thinking back on the moment now that you were sober, you couldn’t find it in yourself to care either way. Sure, in a few years maybe you’d say this was all a mistake but everyone needs to have a messy relationship once in their life. Yours might just end up being with your psychology professor. Super messy. You’re in your twenties, you’re allowed to be reckless!)

(But, in the same vein, you did have a desire for it to not be a messy relationship at all. For him to sweep you away, invite you to a world you’d never seen before and not leave you stranded. Not marriage, of course, but a happy moment in your life that you could look back on with fondness when you’re older. The kind of reckless relationship that defines your life for a season and becomes nothing more than a hazy memory of joy later on.)

You shut the shower off, yanking the curtains back a bit too forcefully, staring at your bathroom as you dried off. The tiles on the floor and walls could use a deep clean, their grout dark with grime. You’d done your best to cover a portion of the floor with a brightly colored rug, fluffy under your feet as you stepped out of the shower. The steam had clouded the mirror, a steamy haze lingering in the air until you opened the door and it spilled out into the rest of your apartment. It wasn’t like the building didn’t have water damage already, a few droplets from the steam wouldn’t hurt it.

You crossed the small hall right into your bedroom, immediately shutting the door behind you and dropping the towel. You didn’t even bother finding any pajamas, simply throwing on the nearest oversized t-shirt that was laying on the floor. Digging through your underwear drawer (you really needed to do laundry) you found a pair you rarely wore and pulled it over your legs.

And then you promptly collapsed onto your bed, climbing under your duvet cover. You could worry about putting your dirty clothes into your overflowing hamper tomorrow (maybe you should also do laundry tomorrow). Right now, what you wanted to do was sleep.

But as you closed your eyes, taking a few deep breaths while trying to calm your mind down, you found that sleep was evading you. Despite the exhaustion in your bones, you could not lull yourself into sleep.

Turning onto your other side, you squeezed your eyes shut, shifting your legs around to find the position that your body would decide was good enough to sleep in.

Nothing.

No arrangement of your limbs was good enough.

Sighing, you fell onto your back, staring up at the street light’s shadows on the ceiling.

“And what do you think about, when you touch yourself?” Dr. Crane’s voice rang in your ears, the lingering echoes of his touch burning on your skin.

Slowly, like you couldn’t decide if you actually wanted to yet, your hand moved down your body, skimming over your t-shirt and the skin underneath it, toying with the hem of your shirt before lifting it. You didn’t want to bother with anything fancy, your body simply craving release after being wound up and left unsatisfied earlier. You slipped into your underwear, your fingers parting your lower lips with ease.

You began circling your clit gently with your fingers at first, the sensitive nerves responding like they were set on fire by your touch. You couldn’t remember the last time you had taken time to relieve yourself in this way, your schedule was so busy with TA’ing and your normal work that sometimes it was all you could do to remember to eat and drink water.

Naturally, as it often did when you did take the time to indulge yourself, your mind stumbled its way back to Dr. Crane.

His eyes, following you as you moved through a room with you only becoming aware of it when you catch him in the act.

His fingers, brushing against your skin last night and lingering there, pulling you towards him with a single touch like he’d sunk a hook into your flesh.

His lips, parted in surprise and quirking in a smile, moving against your skin and whispering in your ear.

But most of all, you think about how he was able to get straight to the crux of your problems, solving them with ease and guiding you to the correct answer with a gentle but firm and (sometimes) intimidating hand. How he saw right through you, even before you knew you were being untruthful.

And how, for some reason, he wanted you, as carnally as you wanted him.

You didn’t even feel guilty anymore about touching yourself to thoughts of Dr. Crane. You couldn’t, not after he touched you like that, when he’d talked to you like that.

Pretty, he’d called you, his voice growling against your neck.

You thought back to his breath fanning over your skin, his touch dragging itself to your underwear and resting there, hovering over the place you needed him the most.

Slowly, you began to construct a continuation of the scene, choppy scenes flitting through your mind, disconnected from one another as you chased your climax. But these weren’t like the ones you had conjured earlier, the ones that were out of some harlequin novel or X-rated film they showed in the back of those sketchy shops you passed by on the way home from work.

His fingers slipped under the hem of your dress, pressing against your skin. Touching your clit with no barriers between his skin and the bundle of nerves, his movements in your mind mimicking the movements you made now in real life with your eyes closed.

Now you were pressed against the wall with your legs wrapped around his hips as he thrust into you. His cock was filling you completely even though you didn’t like to imagine what it looked like (that, evidently, was a step too far for your fantasy, too much of a breach of his privacy).

And then his mouth was open against your own, a sloppy kiss that resembled breathing against one another more than actually kissing. With a few last thrusts, he finished inside of you, your combined spend spilling out of you when he finally pulled out.

It was this final image that pushed you over the edge, your mouth open in a silent gasp as you came.

Legs shaking you pulled your hand out of your underwear, the exhaustion you had pushed away to deal with your other needs returning with a vengeance. You kicked the offending panties off and tossed them across the room, adding them to the pile of clothes strewn about your apartment.

You’re not sure exactly when you fell asleep (as is the nature of falling asleep) but when you woke up halfway through the next afternoon, you immediately checked your phone, your thoughts only on Dr. Crane.

Nothing.

No calls, not even a text acknowledging that he’d received your voicemail. In fact, your only notification was an automated text from your bank informing you that your balance was low.

Sighing, you threw your phone down onto the duvet, watching as the fabric poofed up and deflated. Much like you at this moment.

Through the rest of your day, you continued checking your phone even though you had your sound on and it certainly would’ve chimed loud enough for you to hear if someone called or texted you. For the few brief moments where you were switching your laundry around or putting it away, you worried constantly that he was going to try to call while you were temporarily away from your phone. You even took to obsessively checking your email, because maybe Dr. Crane forgot you had his phone number.

The first explanation you thought of for his radio silence was that he was dead and no one thought to inform you. It would make sense, you were just a TA and no one else knew about your moment in the hallway. But it also seemed highly unlikely. You’re certain that you would’ve found out somehow and it would be very unfair of the world for Dr. Crane to die so suddenly when he’d just reciprocated your attraction.

The second explanation was that he, too, had become embroiled in a hostage situation. But you definitely would’ve heard about that.

So, the next most likely explanation was that he was simply… not calling you. Or texting. Not even a simple “ok” to let you know that he was alive and not a captive. But then the question turned from what happened into why was he not calling?

And for that, there were only two options and both sucked. Either he forgot about you or he was… ignoring you. But unless he had been struck by a sudden, unexplained bout of amnesia, it wasn’t likely he had forgotten about you.

You looked back down at your phone, frowning when no texts popped up from the man your thoughts had been on all day. He couldn’t be ignoring you, right? Even though it was the most plausible option, you refused to consider it.

It would be much easier to think he was dead.

Unlike the last time you’d been attacked, you had little to no physical evidence of it on your body. Which was good, because before, you’d hated how long it had taken everyone- professors, peers, coworkers, strangers- to get used to your swollen face and stop asking stupid questions. This time, you were able to walk through the crowds and keep your head low, feeling everyone’s eyes gloss over you like you were just another street sign to ignore.

Were you nervous to get to Psychology of Fear? Absolutely. But you had a job to do and couldn’t just call out when you felt like it.

Especially not when you had at least six texts in a row that Dr. Crane had left unresponded. And he, of course, didn’t have read receipts on so you didn’t even know if he’d seen your messages at all. Maybe you’d been texting out into a void the entire weekend, maybe his number had changed itself without your permission.

Gotham was cold, overcast clouds drizzling onto the snow that had accumulated over the past day. Winter in Gotham was generally miserable, the snow always lingering too long after it had turned from pristine white to dusty gray before turning into a slush that swirled on the streets and froze over at night into black ice.

Your winter boots (not cute at all but simply a necessity) were heavy on your feet and you couldn’t help but picture Frankenstein lumbering about in his own clunky shoes. (Of course, you’d prefer to compare yourself to the creature in the book but no. You were the avocado green bolt monster today.) Stomping down the front steps of your building, you wrapped your scarf tighter around your neck, tucking it further into your coat.

Your earphones were snug in your ears and you couldn’t even be bothered to leave one out in the name of safety. The anxiety stuffing itself into your throat needed to be relieved through loud music and fast walking.

Lucky for you, you were really into the playlist you’d made yesterday while trying to ignore your texting app. It was angry but you’re not sure if you were more angry at Dr. Crane or Gotham itself when you picked the songs.

Probably both.

The song that started playing was an old familiar favorite, a steady beat in the background to keep pace with.

You crossed into campus, sighing as you passed a tour group. How many of them were from the city? The university was lucky enough to have a few renowned programs (not yours, of course). They were the ones that would lead to careers at Wayne Enterprises, the ones funded by Bruce Wayne and his company. All the other programs had to constantly gasp for breath as they drowned in the sea of low budgets.

You wondered how often the tour guides had to answer questions about the crime rate from out-of-towners. Or maybe about the Batman.

You turned your music up even louder, until you’re sure your eardrums would throb in pain later.

Every step closer to the Psychology building built up a new layer of anxiety. It was bottled up in your chest and you’d never missed your old friends as much as you did in that moment. You needed someone to reassure you that everything would be fine but you had no one. Your mom, maybe, but anytime you brought up your mental health she asked you to return home. Dr. Crane, you supposed, was the closest person you had to talk about.

But you couldn’t exactly tell him about it when he was the reason you were so anxious.

Stepping back into the classroom after the whirlwind of a weekend was like landing back on Earth after a year in space.

You settled in for the class, pulling out the book Dr. Crane had assigned for that week’s reading. You’d read it back in late December, but your notes were thorough and you didn't exactly need to contribute to the discussion. In fact, your job was to just note down who was contributing and how much to make sure they got credit for the discussion.

You thumbed through it, skimming over a few of the passages that Dr. Crane had mentioned he would point out, ignoring the students as they streamed into the classroom. You still had an earphone in one ear, but you were only really listening for one thing: Dr. Crane’s entrance into the room, his confident yet hurried gait, the slight hush that would sweep over the room when he entered.

And when you heard it, you snapped your head up to watch him, yanking the earphone out of your ear. Ready for him to give you his usual nod and slight smile of greeting before getting his lecture prepared, ready for him to prove to you that everything was normal.

But he didn’t spare you a glance. Didn’t even look your way.

He walked in, started up his presentation, and began his lecture without even acknowledging your presence in the room. Did anyone else notice this? Probably not. The other students could barely spare you the time of day.

He left almost as soon as class was done, not even staying behind to speak to the few students who were sticking behind, leaving you to handle it on your own. Which you did, perhaps a bit more distracted than you normally would be, answering questions in a haze.

At least you knew Dr. Crane was alive.

But now you had devastating confirmation that he was, in fact, ignoring you.

You left the building dazed, taking slow steps down the street as you tried to wrap your mind around the revelation.

You desperately wanted to follow him, find where he went, and beg him to talk to you, tell you why he hadn’t responded, why he didn’t look your way.

A fat raindrop splattered on your head, icy cold and shocking you back into your body.

As you walked to your next class, you didn’t bother putting your hood up. Who cared, right? Maybe if you were wet enough, you could stand outside of Dr. Crane’s office and garner some sympathy, just so he would speak to you.

At the same time, your cheeks were hot with embarrassment. He’d felt you up at a formal event and probably would’ve gone farther but you’d chickened out and ran away. You couldn’t help but think he was right to just drop you after that. You had shown you had no use to him.

Wait, no. That’s stupid. If that’s what he wanted from you, you were better off without him. If he didn’t want to respect your boundaries, he would have to deal with it himself.

It didn’t make the cold shoulder sting any less, though.

That night, you sit staring outside at your balcony, hoping that someone would come save you from this torture.

No one did.

part II

#stbotdi #jonathan crane x reader #jonathan crane #batman x reader #bruce wayne x reader #batman fanfiction #my writing #my fanfic

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luvt0kki · 5 months

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HIIII!

HERES ME DROPPING THOUGHTS‼️

i want to say first that i'm actually a bit shy when sending asks, which is a bit funny considering that i was being very much loudly insane in the tags but OH WELL‼️

i just wanna say that i'm overall loving sway with me so much. YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW THAT BUT IM SAYING IT ANYWAYS. it's genuinely so good written, and the plot is like effing amazing??? like, i am invested in EVERYTHING. i want to know more about the whole au in general, like the world there and everything, it is honestly so interesting and PERFECT. and i love how the smut is literally top tier, toe curling, mouth watering. BUT ALSO THEY ARE SO IN LOVE AND THERES SO MANY CUTE SCENES THAT I JUST GO 🥹🥹. because if there's one thing about me, is that i am slutty for smut but i am a 24/7 available whore for fluff. I LOVE ROMANCE. MAYBE A BIT TOO MUCH FOR MY OWN SANITY.

AND SWAY WITH ME JUST HITS EVERYYY SINGLE SPOT. like if there was a checklist for the perfect fic for user littlestarwoo, sway with me has it all.

this is so long im sorry, BUT LAST THING IS!! i saw the preview the next chapter...

MATZ AODNAOXNANXJSNXNZMZMZMA ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

I AM GOING TO GO CRAZY I JUST KNOW THAT I WONT BE ABLE TO SURVIVE. I AM FEARING FOR MY SANITY.

I AM SO READY THO! I AM SO EXCITED.

and also, you mentioned that @songmingisthighs helped you with the ideas of 004. SO THANK YOU SONG MINGIS THIGHS‼️ I ALSO WANT TO KISS YOUR BRAIN‼️‼️‼️ THANK YOU‼️‼️‼️WE LOVE YOU SONG MINGIS THIGHS‼️

AND I THINK THATS ALL I HAD TO SAY (for now.) IM SO SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG.

YEHDJDKGKWIF I LOVE UR ENERGY SO MUCH 😭💕 I appreciate all the love you have for this fic 🥹💕 like. I write these fics for myself too like cause it’s in my head and I share with you guys. And when I do I ALSO WANT TO FANGURL ABOUT IT AHDJJSHFHAUS I appreciate all the love and long messages you have AHHHH IT REALLY MAKES ME HAPPY AND LESS ANXIOUS about my fics

I honestly feel chapter 005 will be the longest one yet , I’m 5k in and it’s all build up and no smut yet HSJKDKSJFJW

(Let’s be moots? If u want? IM SUPER SHY SHFJKEF BUT LIKE YEAH :< idk how to maintain moots because I’m a very low maintenance messager 😭 BUT YUH if you’re open to being moots 🥹✨👯 I’m an INFP and I emphasis the introvert in the I. Feel free to shoot an ask anytime or dm, I’m just a little awkward with DMs hshfjdjgf it’s the introvert in me )

#tokki;💌#tokki;moots #💌;littlestarwoo #THANK U SO MUCH

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be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie · 1 year

Note

Hiii me again. I failed economics but i think i can get my grade up

Anywho, how are you?? Im great, working on another fic, even though the others still arent finished,,,,,,i am almost finished w this one tho. It deals w some darker themes later, but that's only because there's a super fancy rich people only school involved. Major downside, i dont know anything abt universities! Do they teach theather and robotics in the same place?? They should, i think it could lead to some great innovations. Hamilton but w roombas.

Happy to report that Spider only gets tortured once this time! And also hes not w quaritch or the recoms most of the time but whether or not thats a good thing is up for debate. Also reporting that chapter 3 of ghost spider is coming along and boy oh boy is spider being spooky!

Anyhow, see ya on the next chapter!!

HI BESTIE! You definitely can, please don't stress. I failed a class in college after I first transferred, you can really get past it! It happens to more people than you'd think, it's hard!

I'm so good thank you for asking, just exhausted from my move and all my unpacking, and I'm excited to be done with unpacking and have time to invest into my work and you guys again!

I'm very intrigued by this fic idea!! It depends on the school, but most big ones definitely teach both those things but they'd likely be in different buildings. In my experience, it means that the robotics will be in a state of the art new building and theater will be in the shittiest, oldest building you've ever laid eyes on. This was true at both my colleges.

Great, I am reaching a level of insanity with Spider angst. I'm gonna have to start pumping out positive Spider headcanons, I can't handle it. Even if we create an angsty au, just know I'm sure that it can be fixed and the comfort will be insane and that's why I'm entertaining it. Guys, I literally think we can come back from the nocorro ghost au just trust me on this one. I know it might not happen in your fic but I think it can happen!!

Also it's not up for debate, fuck those hoes. I refuse to believe they would be a good time even a little bit. Their idea of fun is who can kidnap the most innocent children the fastest.

I will see you there and I will be FERAL in the comments, babe.

#love this ask just checking in and updating me on your life it made me smile so hard when i got it #and i was busy as shit at the time #miles spider socorro #spider socorro #neteyam sully #nocorro #miles quaritch #recoms #avatar #avatar the way of water #james cameron avatar #melissa's asks #melissa on avatar (cameron)

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ferallester · 6 months

Text

hoo boy good morning everybody!

I saw the video title a few hours ago when I first woke up, and immediately went back to sleep bc I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle it at that hour LMAO

I just saw the thumbnail properly too

this is… this is gonna be an absolute trip huh

live reaction under the cut bc I’m Terrified!

first of all: THOSE ARE THE SAME FUCKING SHIRTS

second of all: ‘nostalgia cannon to the face’

correction: that is in fact a different shirt that Phil is wearing, but it is ridiculously similar, what the hell

‘quintessential emo’ ‘I was serving twink Karen’

‘it’s just… us’ ‘it’s just us being stupid’

‘you’re giving us full sphincter on YouTube’

‘ass and foot baiting’

‘quite restrained’ it’s 2012 of course you’re being restrained

HEART EYES HOWELL COMING IN FULL FORCE WHILE PHIL ATTEMPTS TO TOUCH HIS NECK

I think I found their favourite part of pinof 4 (the cursed Justin Bieber and HMS QEII masks) (lmao imagine if they made actual masks of the boat)

wow those are some really ugly glasses phil

why DO you boys have bugspray in here

‘unless they pressed their noses TOGETHER’ *a sound that normal humans make*

why aren’t they reacting to the blooper videos you guys do know you have bloopers available right

official rating: mid

THE CURSED DAN FACE WAS ON THE SUNDAY TIMES—

oh that is so incredibly unfortunate, why did they use that particular video as a photo reference LMAOOOOO

also who scanned this particular copy what the hell happened to that page

thank you Dan for a recreation

either they don’t want to talk about it or they forgot about 2012

ah. ah that explains a lot about why pinof 5 Looks Like That

PHIL— DAN—

THEY HAD TO REFILM PINOF 5–

the wrecking ball

Dan is fucking relentless with his past self

‘tit tackle’

oh that’s mildly horrifying how low they can go, I think I found an ick

YOU MOTHERFUCKERS— NOT THE REAL VOICES—

I hate them

weirdly the vibes of pinof 5, at least with these idiots reacting to themselves, have gotten. so much worse

Dan able to predict what his past self would do next…

‘crack protected’

oh Phil

a gingerphobic goose…

‘I feel like you’ve recovered from that’ ‘:|’ ‘no?’ ‘A—’

I really hope someone makes a gif of them arguing over the old handshake from pinof 6 and this video

‘assigned mother’ y’know that makes sense actually

successful monkfish backwards!

Phil looks at the camera and Dan just looks at Phil at the end, STOP

they literally JUST used fireside.caf for the shoulder thing actually

the sexy end screen dance also like… horrifically iconic

I always forget about their weird noises they make at the end AND THE BOYS ARE AMUSED

Phil… Phil there’s 8 billion people… on earth… XD

this is the pinof that came out just before I got into them :0

Dan’s hair is. Awful

MOTHERFUCKER DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE SHOW US FESTIVE DITL

shoutout to the vyous tho

love that Phil actively remembers that Dan complained about the thickness of the whiskers

‘I AM BECOME YOU’ also cheese umbrella is still awful (affectionate) to this day

THEY BOTH USED THE SUNGLASSES EMOJI MOST RECENTLY

also hello lobster emoji I know exactly why you’re here

pæch

THEY MOSTLY REMEMBERED THE LIZARD SONG—

rip that peace lily

the anaconda scene…

the game does indeed still work

‘TIMMY LIKES IT’

WHAT THE FUCK DID DAN SAY— also I think I found the most iconic moment of this video so far, they’re just DYING—

TATINOF reference

shut the FUCK UP boys we KNOW you’re touching

as someone who once ate a lemon near-whole bc fruit and who regularly eats lemon and lime slices, their flinching is a fail

existential crisis :(

boys isn’t the time for the merch outdated???? anyway moving on

SLUTTY CATBOY

my calendar and sweater are FINALLY shipping btw and I’m so excited!!!!

THEY’RE GONNA DO A TIERLIST :D

PINOF 7!!!! NEXT EPISODE IS PINOF 7, FINALLY I’LL BE ABLE TO RELATE AGAIN

THEY FINISHED RECORDING POPPY PLAYTIME CHAPTER 2 AT FOUR????

‘danisshowinghole’ ‘amazingtimmy’ thanks!

oh my god I can’t wait for part three actually

#the feral speaketh #dan and phil #phan #mass-reblog time!

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once-upon-an-imagine · 2 years

Text

(500 Miles) (Chapter One) - Argyle

A/N: I think my mojo’s back xD at least I hope so! soo, I loved this request and I am really excited to write for Argyle sooooooo yes, I decided to make another series (as if I don’t have enough ongoing series already but... oh well) I hope you like it xD

Request - Anonymous asked: i got an idea for argyle! what about a hopper!reader where he could be your dad/uncle who you lived with and when he “died” you also moved to california with the byers. we’d be there while everything is going down and then finally arrive at hawkins where you see everyone for the first time in forever. maybe steve could be an ex 👀 you guys broke up before the move because of how much of a bitch long distance would be, so when he sees you with argyle he can’t help but feel a bit jealous on the inside to see you move on. everyone gets to meet argyle, steve tells you that he’s happy for you, we get a happy ending even tho hawkins is literally falling apart 😁

Warnings: smoking weed with Argyle; also, this starts in California so, the actual request of them arriving at Hawkins will be in the later chapters :D no spoilers or anything on this chapter it’s more of a prologue

Disclaimer: I don’t own Stranger things :D gif isn’t mine :)

Your name: submit What is this?

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

(500) Miles

When I wake up, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you

You threw yourself on your bed letting out a loud sigh and staring at the ceiling. You felt a few tears running down your cheeks and you quickly wiped them away, sitting up and composing yourself. You knew it was for the best. You kept telling yourself that everything you had done in the past month was for the best. For you. For El. And for the Byers who had lovingly taken you into their home. You got up and walked over to your dresser grabbing the picture of you, Steve, Nancy, Jonathan, and Robin and you smiled sadly. You then put it down and saw the other picture of you with your dad, and El. You shook your head, took a deep breath, and walked out of your room over to the basement. You could hear the music and you slowly opened the door. You heard Jonathan freaking out as you walked down the stairs.

"Relax, it's just me" you chuckled as you reached the bottom of the stairs while Jonathan and Argyle let out a sigh of relief. "Your mom is still out with Will and Jane" you told them.

"Fuck, dude, you scared the shit out of me" Jonathan said with a nervous laugh.

"What's going on, my dude?" Argyle smiled at you.

"Wait, are you off the phone?" Jonathan asked and you couldn't tell if he was being serious so you nodded.

"Uh... yeah" you said and he got up quickly.

"Shit! Then I have to go call Nancy" he said, running up the stairs and leaving you and Argyle behind. You took Jonathan's place, sitting next to Argyle, and sighed.

"Can I have some of that?"

He turned to look back at you, frowning his eyebrows in confusion. "Some of what?"

"The... uh... Purple Palm Tree Delight?" you smiled up at him.

"You-" he said, choking a little. "You want some of this?" he asked, holding the joint in his hand.

"Yeah" you nodded. "I mean if that's okay with you-"

"N-no, yeah of course" he said, still not believing his ears. "It's just... well, you never do this kind of stuff... am I corrupting you, petal?" he smiled as you grabbed the joint from him and took a drag.

"Don't flatter yourself, Argyle" you laughed. "It's not like this is the first time I've tried weed" you informed him.

"It's not?" he asked, almost sounding disappointed and you shook your head no, resting it on the back of the couch. "So... what's the occasion? I thought you were gonna be on the phone for like three hours like always" he mocked you as you returned the joint.

"Are you stalking me, man?" you smirked at him.

"No, but when your boyfriend calls, you usually disappear for the rest of the day" he said in an accusing tone.

"Actually... I don't have a boyfriend" you muttered quietly as you took the joint from him again.

"Wait, what?" he asked, sitting up and looking at you. "What are you talking about? Did you guys break up?"

"Well, to be completely honest, Steve and I broke up before we moved here" you explained. After a moment of silence, Argyle spoke again.

"But you still talk on the phone a lot" he said confused.

"Yeah, we're still friends" you explained.

"So how come Byers doesn't know about this? I mean, they all still think he's your boyfriend" he asked, confused.

"I don't know" you sighed. "I love the Byers, but they're all about feelings and hugging and shit and I'm just... not like that" you chuckled. "So, I knew that if I told them it would be another thing to add and I didn't really want to have that conversation. "That would have been a lot of hugs" you said.

"You hug Will and Jane all the time" he laughed.

"Yeah, because they're worthy of my hugs" you mocked him.

"Shit, Hopper, that hurts" he said, placing his hands over his heart. "You also hug Mrs. Byers a lot-"

"Correction, Mrs. Byers hugs me a lot, and would you ever refuse a hug from Mrs. Byers?"

"Fair point" he smiled, taking another drag. "So, when did you guys break up?"

"About two months ago, I guess" you explained. "I wanted to try the whole distance thing because it was supposed to be only for a year but I know Steve didn't want to" you said. "I am sure he would have tried for me if I asked but... I felt like he wanted to call things off. He just didn't want to hurt my feelings" you told him. "So, I did it for him" you said.

"Why do you think that? I mean, why wouldn't he just break it off?"

"Because he hates hurting people" you shrugged. "That's how Steve is. I've known Steve my whole life, even if we grew apart when we started high school but then he changed again and I didn't want to drag him in on something he didn't want to do and that might have ended up making us resent the other so... I don't know, I guess it was only a matter of time" you said, smoking again. "Don't tell Jonathan though, I think he and Nancy will do better than us" you said.

"Shit... I'm sorry, man. That's intense" he said sympathetically. "So, what happened today that made you upset?"

"I'm not upset" you complained but he raised his eyebrows at you, looking at the joint in your hand.

"Fine. He's dating again" you sighed.

"Shit! He told you that?"

"Well, we're still friends and when we started dating we promised that we wouldn't let anything ruin that. I mean, is not like we hate each other, we broke up because I was moving and he was staying in Hawkins so... we still talk, a lot-"

"Are you still... like in love with him?"

"Not really" you said, sitting up and handing him the joint. It was true. You still loved Steve but as a friend, like you did your whole life. Maybe if you would have stayed in Hawkins things would be different but you weren't in Hawkins. You were in California smoking pot with Argyle. "I care about him a lot as a friend but he's dating like a different girl every week and I don't know. It just kinda felt like I was one of those girls, which I know is not true because we were together for a while and I know he cares about me but... I guess, I didn't expect him to move on so quickly and be this happy so soon, you know?" you smiled sadly at him.

Argyle felt his heart aching a little. This was probably the first serious conversation the two of you had and he definitely didn't like seeing you upset.

"Are you okay?"

"I guess" you said, letting the smoke out. "I mean, it is what it is" you told him.

"I'm sorry, dude" he said, placing his hand on your shoulder. "Breakups suck, man" he said, taking another drag.

"Thanks" you smiled at him. "This helps" you said, grabbing the joint.

"Oh no, young lady-"

"I'm the same age as you-"

"Still! Don't think you get a pass after today" he said, trying to be serious. "This is a one-time deal" he told you.

"But I'm heartbroken" you said, dramatically. "You wouldn't deny a poor girl in pain a small piece of happiness-"

"Nice try, petal" he chuckled. "That won't work on me" he assured you.

"Oh, we'll see" you smirked, giving the joint back to him.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

"Alright, dude, you ready?"

"Why do I have to cook it?"

"Because then you can spend more time in the back with me and not at the register" Argyle insisted, starting to prepare the dough for the pizza.

"But I am horrible at cooking!"

The two of you were the only ones left at Surfer Boy Pizza, having the closing shift and it was pretty much dead since it was a Monday.

"I know, that's why I'm teaching you" he laughed.

"Hey! You were supposed to say I'm not that bad" you scoffed, trying to sound offended.

"Do I need to remind you that you almost burn down the whole place, petal?" he laughed.

"Hey! That only happened once and nothing was on fire-"

"Because I put it out" he laughed.

"Okay, fine, let's get this over with" you said, rolling your eyes.

The two of you had become closer friends in the past couple of weeks since you told the truth to Argyle about you and Steve. You even got to ride the Purple Palm Tree delight on occasion because you knew how to wear Argyle down. You could honestly say he was becoming one of your favorite people and maybe, just maybe, you were starting to develop a small crush on him. Which is why your Monday shift was your favorite because it was just the two of you.

"That's the spirit, man" he said, excitedly. "C'mon, let's go, señorita" he said, pulling you with him as you groaned dramatically. "Okay, first you have to get the dough ready" he told you and you were about to take it but he stopped you, grabbing your hand. "Hold on" he said. "You don't want it to get all sticky so, first, we put flour" he said grabbing a bag of flour and spreading it around the table.

"Well, this is fun" you said, getting flour on your hands. "Okay, now what?" you asked smiling, showing him your floured hands.

"Now the dough" he said, grabbing it and he started spreading it on the table.

"Can I throw it in the air like you do?" you asked, excitedly.

"I don't know petal, I've seen you throw things-"

"You know, sometimes I don't even know why I'm your friend" you glared at him.

"Well, it's not like you have many friends here-"

"Many? You're literally my only friend here" you laughed. "Jonathan complains about it every day, how I stole you from him" you rolled your eyes.

"Not gonna lie, pretty flattered that you two fight over me" he smiled as he started throwing the pizza in the air and you watched him in awe. It was always your favorite part whenever he was in charge of making the pies.

"It's not my fault I'm your favorite" you smirked at him.

"Yeah?" he said, placing the pizza back on the table. "How'd you figure that out?" he asked, poking your nose and leaving a spot of flour.

"Well, because you let me sit on the front more than Jonathan" you started, hopping back on the counter. "And you sometimes let me pick the music" you continued. "And you always bring an extra banana muffin for me when your mom bakes them" you smiled triumphantly.

"And yet, you're letting me make this pizza by myself" he complained.

"Well, you didn't let me do anything fun!" you said, grabbing a little bit of flour and tossing it at him.

"Dude!" he said, looking at you. "I wasn't going to let you drop our pie" he complained, throwing some flour at you and you laughed but then pretended to be offended again.

"I wasn't going to drop it!" you said throwing more flour at him.

"Okay, stop that" he said, trying to grab the gab from you but you were quicker and you climbed off the counter and ran away from him, but as you did, you tripped and fell flat on your butt, dropping all of the flour over yourself.

"Shit" you complained as Argyle started laughing.

"You were saying, petal?" he laughed, kneeling to offer you his hand. You glared at him a little but took it and he helped you up, pulling you a little too hard and bringing you really close and he wrapped his arms around you so you wouldn't fall again. "Seriously, you have to be one of the clumsiest people I've ever met" he laughed.

You had never been this close to Argyle. You weren't someone who was particularly physical. Argyle had noticed it. You didn't really like to hug people, with a few exceptions. But you didn't mind with Argyle. In fact, you had actually been wanting to be this close to him for a while now.

"Sorry, I didn't want you to fall again" he said, starting to unwrap his arms from your waist but you quickly placed your hands on his arms so he wouldn't.

"N-no" you said a bit too quickly. "I m-mean, it's fine" you said, feeling your cheeks burning.

"It... it is?" he asked, feeling his heartbeat racing. "I thought you didn't like hugs-"

"I like yours" you blurted out. "I m-mean- uh- I like you-" you said, widening your eyes when you realized what you just said. "I m-mean- fuck! I'm such an idiot" you muttered looking down.

"You're not" he said, placing his hand on your cheek to make you look up at him. "I like your hugs too" he smiled.

You saw him start to lean in and you quickly stepped on your toes and wrapped your arms around his neck before he placed his lips against yours. He tightened his grip around you and you felt him smile against your lips.

"I knew I was your favorite" you smiled when you pulled away, making him laugh.

"Wanna help me finish your pizza?" he asked brushing a little flour you still had on your cheek.

"Oh, it's my pizza now?" you smirked.

"Let's clean you up, clutz" he said, kissing you again. You could definitely get used to this.

"Okay" you smiled brightly at him.

You cleaned your mess up while Argyle finished cooking the pizza. You both decided it would be best with your regular 'accidents'.

"Order up" he said, bringing the pizza over to you.

"I'm not eating that" you said, sitting on the counter.

"What? Why not?" Argyle complained, placing the pizza on the counter and standing in front of you.

"Why would you put pineapple on a pizza?"

"Hey, petal! Try before you deny" he said, offering you a piece.

"I don't mind the pineapple, the question I ask is why is it on my pizza?" you complained.

"Because it's delicious" he insisted.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you make the pizza by yourself" you complained as you took the slice in your hand.

"Come on, give it a try" he insisted before hearing your stomach growl. "I know you want to" he said, raising his eyebrows and you rolled your eyes.

"Fine, only because I'm starving" you gave in. "And because you made it" you smiled, making him flush a little.

You took a bite and even if you would have tried to deny it, Argyle could see in your face that you had actually liked it.

"So?" he asked, waiting for your review. "What's the report, petal?"

"It's okay" you shrugged, taking another bite.

"Okay?" he smirked. "Just okay?"

"Fine, it's actually pretty good" you admitted.

"I knew it!" he smiled happily. "What?" he asked when he saw you smiling at him.

"Nothing" you quickly said, pulling him a little closer. "You still have a little bit of flour here" you said, brushing it away from his cheek.

"Your entire face is still filled with flour" he smiled brightly at you and leaned closer to kiss you again. "Do, do you like... want to uh- go out on a date or- um, something?" he stuttered when you broke apart.

"I'd really like that" you said, smiling.

"Does this mean that I get to hug you now?" he asked, placing his hands on your hips.

"Only if you admit that I'm your favorite" you said, making him laugh a little.

"Of course you're my favorite, petal" he said, kissing you again.

The End

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

[Ch.2]

A/N: soooo, part 2? let me know what you think :D

#(500 miles)#stranger thing #stranger things imagine #argyle #argyle imagine #argyle x reader #argyle series

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