I feel like you can sort of tell how long (or not) someone has existed in fannish spaces by how outraged they get about things like this. Like rings in a tree trunk lol. I've been in so many fandoms. At least one, but often multiple at the same time, since I was a teenager. I've seen just. Everything.

Sex pollen. Mpreg. Incest. Monster fucking. Tentacles. Pairings like Snape/Hermione that would be crazy abusive and illegal if they were real. Wild kinks. The babygirlification of all kinds of villains. So much RPF (the 'I sincerely believe they are secretly a couple' kind and the 'this is fictional but it's fun to imagine they're in love' kind.)

You pause before reacting, even if it’s just for a second.

You notice your thoughts instead of immediately believing all of them.

You have moments, small, quiet ones where things feel a little lighter, even if they don’t last long.

You are starting to recognize what hurts you, even if you don’t know how to fix it yet.

You come back to yourself a little faster than you used to.

You let yourself rest sometimes, without as much guilt.

You are more aware of what you need, even if you struggle to give it to yourself.

You are trying. Even on the days where it feels like you are failing, you are still here, still moving through it.

You have days that feel okay, and instead of them feeling impossible, they feel… real, even if unfamiliar.

You are learning that not every thought deserves your attention.

You are still hurting sometimes, but it doesn’t feel exactly the same as before.

Healing doesn’t always look like big changes.

Sometimes it looks like this, small shifts, quiet awareness, softer moments that come and go.

And even if it doesn’t feel like progress, it is.

You are not stuck in the exact same place you were before.

Something in you is changing.

Even if it’s slow. Even if it’s subtle.

Price: *groans*

Ghost: Shut up. Between me and Soap, who is winning a fight

Price, without hesitation: Soap

Ghost: Seriously? You didn't even think about it-

Price: No, I have. That man is 25% spite, 25% rage, 25% genus, and 25% crazy. That's the four ingredients needed for him to kill you, make sure you're dead, burying you, and then dying so he can rub it in your face in hell

Ghost:

Price: Did I stutter?

Of course they mistake it for their own fleshlight, too busy swapping spit and messily grinding against eachother.

"Fuck– tighter than usual–" gaz groans, one hand firmly around the fleshlight and the other keeping his prick snug against soaps, sliding in slow. He has to rock it a bit, encouraging the silicone to give.

"Mhh–! Warm, too." Soap moan, tucking his forehead into gazs shoulder, trying to be good and not buck his hips. He absently kneads the fat of kyles thigh, whining.

Gaz offers him a kiss, knowing if he takes too long soap will end up fucking his mouth instead. He blindly works the fleshlight down, forcing it to give until warm silicone kisses the base of their cocks "did you get a new one?" Gaz mumbles around an appreciative moan "other one was shallow."

"Ahh– feels good–" soap's lost any interest in conversation, hand wrapping over kyles to move the fleshlight. They both shudder in tandem at the first drag up and down, slicked with what must be soap's precum, he's always leaked plenty.

He works the toy fast and rough, just like he and gaz like it, going back to keep kissing kyle. They swallow eachothers moans, hands wandering over happy trails and well-developed muscles.

Like always, soap cums embarrassingly fast when drunk, filling the toy so much it drips down their balls. Gaz isn't far behind with the way the new toy feels on his dick, almost as if it were squeezing him too. He bites into soaps shoulder with a moan.

"Christ, mate..." they both take a moment to bask in the feeling, how damn good that was. When kyle looks up at soap, he already knows the answer when he asks "got enough for another round?"

===

Meanwhile, you're groaning in the backseat of prices car, having left the bar while you still had some semblance of dignity. You gasp when you feel the cocks still in you slowly harden again "goddammit...they're going third time! You'd think they'd settle down!"