#pre-transition

“I will not.”

“Everything gets cold when I stay somewhere for too long,” Uraume insists. “When I sleep, it gets even worse, and then everyone nearby goes cold.”

“I'm not everyone. I don't get cold.”

“But that’s—”

Sukuna squats his giant form down to look Uraume in the face. “Look at me,” he orders.

Uraume anxiously pulls his sleeves around his arms a little tighter and tries to work up the nerve to obey, but he apparently takes too long, because a hand the size of his head is grabbing his jaw and forcing him to look up. His big fingers smush Uraume's face slightly.

“Do you get cold?” Sukuna asks.

“Yeush,” Uraume manages through his squished mouth.

Sukuna rolls all four of his eyes. “Has the cold ever hurt you the way it hurts others?”

Ah, that's what he meant. “Nouh.”

“The cold doesn't hurt me, either,” Sukuna states firmly, giving Uraume's face a little shake. “Neither does the heat. Lying is for cowards and weaklings who can't meet anything head-on, so when I say something, I mean it. Do you understand?”

Uraume nods as best he can.

“Good.” Sukuna lets go, and then heavily drops himself the rest of the way down onto the ground at Uraume's side. He rests one of his upper arms on his folded up knee, rests his lower arm and other upper hand on the ground to hold himself upright, and then uses the lower arm on that side, the one closest to Uraume, to hold out one end of his robe.

Confused, Uraume blinks up at Sukuna. Context suggests the man is offering Uraume a spot under the fabric, but no one has ever…

Once again, Uraume takes too long, and once again, impatient, Sukuna reaches out to grab him rather than wait. A very large, very warm arm holding a handful of fabric wraps around Uraume's shoulders, and the hand attached to it tugs him inwards so he's held against Sukuna's side. It's… comfortable, but almost painful, too. Uraume is used to the cold. It feels like the sensation of his own perpetually frigid hands being dunked in hot water, except for his whole body. Sukuna himself is like a blazing hearth, and when was the last time Uraume felt this warm?

Boys aren't supposed to cry.

alt

CW: blood, liquefied guts, more and more blood (gore), multiple eyes, religious imagery

Lockwood is going THROUGH IT

@thepromptfoundry prompt: Hunting and Fishing

Teen Wolf | Trans Male Stiles | Pre-Transition

Some things don't change. The same fire pit, the same fishing poles, the same murky water, the same folding chairs her dad refuses to replace. It's their first time back since her mom passed. The campsite feels different without her. Stiles feels different too — though that's nothing new. High school is coming and with it the exhausting performance of being someone she isn't sure she is. Her dad has always seen her more clearly than most. Maybe more clearly than she sees herself.

"I don't know how to do it," she said quietly. "Be what they expect."

Noah was quiet for a moment. "Then don't."

"This is high school, Dad. It’s not that easy."

"No," he agreed. "It’s never easy to go against the grain." He adjusted his grip on his pole. "But forcing yourself into a shape that doesn't fit is worse. And you’ve never been one to do things because they are easy."

Read on AO3

I didn't have one before, but I logically deduced that it was Autumn because it was cold enough to wear the baggy and concealing clothes that I wore all the time without suffering from the heat.

Now, though, I'm seeing how beautiful everything is for the first time in my life, and I think Spring is my favorite season. The rain, the colors, the summer wildlife starting to wake up again...

I just find it poetic that my "favorite season" was apathetically chosen as the one where everything seems to die, back when I wanted to die myself. But now that I want to live, my favorite season is the one where everything else feels like it's coming back to life as well.

I don't know how I want to finish this post, but I know I spend a lot of time all-but-bating TERFs and engaging in The Discourse. And that might make it seem like anger and controversy is the only thing pervading my thoughts, so I just wanted to say something a bit more positive.