* SO BELOW

I wish there weren't a wall . . .

the way smoke curls in the air as jughead exhales, contemplating argyle’s words from his position nestled against him. it must be... quite the sight, he thinks to himself and then he turns his gaze fully to argyle’s face. he takes in his features, finds himself only slightly distracted by a rebellious strand of hair as sways wildly with even the slightest provocation, and wonders if the other knows that it’d be easy to drown in his eyes.

he’s not supposed to think those things though, is he?

“ So apparently my mom thinks I should go to law school? And, like, run for office or something one day. Absolutely bonkers shit, I’m telling you. ”  Kimberly’s infamously-absent parents had finally made their once-a-trimester trip back home, and it was the same as always. They argued over what she should be doing with her life, they argued over whether or not they should put her in a different school, they argued over who worked more and how one of them really should be home more. Neither would buckle, and nothing would change, but it always made for interesting conversation the next day.

it feels like being stalked by an apex predator, the way rose circles around him slowly, the intensity of her scrutiny sending shivers racing down steve’s spine.  he tries not to shudder, though his shoulders do start crawling toward his ears, as though hunching against the heavy weight of her gaze.  it’s a relief when she finally looks away.  steve debates on leaving his baseball bat out here, propped up against one of the dummies, but ultimately decides against it  —  the damn thing has his initials on it.  wouldn’t be hard to figure out who it belonged to if someone were to find it.  so, his weapon of choice is firmly in hand as he jogs after rose, glad to be rid of the persistent stinging of the sun.

steve’s been to the dhampir dorms a few times  —  well.  he’s sneaked in a few times, to… visit a friend.  it’ll be nice to actually be able to use the door for once.  he can’t but scoff quietly to himself once rose has wrapped up what sounds like a regurgitation of everything her instructors have ever taught her.  “it’s not like they’re actually gonna let me out into the field to protect anyone, hathaway.  don’t even know why i bothered setting all that shit up, or doing all that working out  —  do you have any idea how hard it is putting on muscle mass when your own physiology is fighting you, by the way… it’s a bitch.”  he’s rambling, the way robin does when she’s anxious, and steve finds himself fighting a smile, small and sad though it may be.  “it’s pointless, right?  gonna have my very own shadow for the next six weeks and then… oh, only for the rest of my life after that.”

there’s always something a little weird about the dorms at night, everything’s too quiet and even the attendant who keeps an eye on everything seems half asleep --- which works in rose’s favor anyway. so she takes special care as she leads steve to one of the upstairs common rooms not to make too much noise, her voice a low murmur,  “ I mean, yeah, obviously it’s hard to work against your biology but does that mean you’re gonna give up on it? didn’t take you for a quitter, harrington. ”

an amused, wolfish, grin splits rose’s face as steve struggles for some kind of reason as to why the hell he had some kind of a makeshift training ground set up. definitely not baseball season, and. . .  “ if I’m being honest here, harrington, the day baseball practice looks like this, ”  she gestures widely to the dummies,  “ is the day I start giving a shit about it. well, okay, the pants are intriguing but that’s a different conversation. ”  without even fully realizing what she’s doing, rose circles steve and his set up, looking it all over. if she could see herself she might have winced at just how much dimitri and his ethos is rubbing off on her.

annoying ass russian know-it-all.

“ come on, dude, you look like you’re suffering. and I’m, like, not supposed to let that happen. my dorm’s closer, and we can talk on the way. ”  she nods her head towards the dhampir dorm, a clear indicator that steve is to follow her if he doesn’t want her snitching to alberta or whoever else might be wandering around in the middle of the vampiric night.  “ look I don’t totally know what you’re up to, ”  she has a fairly decent idea, rose only plays dumb, after all,  “ but I do know that if you want to train effectively you’ve gotta act like you’re out in the field. in the real world. pretty much all the time --- it’s why none of us are allowed to work out with music. ”  well, she can, but only when she’s in the gym with dimitri and he allows her the privilege of his catalogue of 80s pop. it’s usually so quiet someone without her enhanced hearing would barely be able to notice it, but it breaks up the monotony.  “ you’ve got to know if a threat’s coming so you can throw yourself between it and your moroi. ”

all things considered, the last few months eddie’s had?  simon’s lucky it had been a blender flying his way and not something a little more deadly.  heart still racing, eddie drops himself onto the couch with a grunt, legs thrown over the arm  —  and tries not to wince when the stitches that still haven’t dissolved tug painfully.  he really needs to start being more careful with himself, because his aches and pains are not thanking him right now.  “so you’re skipping out on family time, lewis?  for shame!” 

already regretting his decision to sprawl out on the couch, because there’s no way he’s hauling himself up again if it’s gonna hurt, eddie’s fingers twitch with the urge to light up a smoke, or a joint, hell, even a beer would do right now.  he’d had a helluva day at work, and he’s still gotta make dinner for wayne, clean up around the trailer, and probably put on a couple loads of laundry.  “methinks you should help me finish my housework as punishment…  or we could just smoke and talk shit and avoid my responsibilities for a little longer.  the choice is yours.”

it’s probably not actually simon’s choice.  there is a distinct possibility eddie’s just going to make himself some popcorn, put on a scary movie, and self-medicate with some mary jane.  simon’s welcome to join him, obviously, eddie’s not going to kick him out, but if he doesn’t want to smoke, he’s free to hang out in eddie’s room with the door closed.  “actually, while you’re deciding, can you go collect my lunchbox from my room?  you know the one…  the one with the dru  —  yeah, you know the one.” 

simon’s already on the move by the time eddie’s asking him to go grab his lunch box. he absolutely knows the one --- and his mother can never know that her good jewish boy is, well, a good jewish boy who smokes pot and has sex and and sometimes thinks about getting a cool tattoo.  “ I can multitask, y’know! ”  he calls before he’s reemerging from eddie’s room, as always pretending it doesn’t scare him a little bit.

mystery stains definitely don’t send shivers up his spine, no sir.

she needs to be more careful, kimberly knows as much, but there’s no accounting for particularly investigative fifteen year old boys. there’s no way in hell she’s teaching dustin how to use her bow, but kim can’t deny he’s got her charmed. he’s good at that, she knows, it’s how he keeps winning over her peers. she also knows almost instantly that she’s going to take this kid out to the range and let him play with a bow. not hers, but a better one than dustin claims to have used before. steve harrington is going to kill her.

scrubs sentence starters || @luminavii

" unless you're going to follow that up with a hundred, speak for yourself my darling. "   to an outsider, magnus is sure this must look quite. . . peculiar. but doesn't everything, as it relates to the demon prince, high warlock of brooklyn himself? he's perched in one of his favorite chairs, one he vaguely recalls ragnor having made for him centuries ago, peering out into the loft from his office where he's been slowly but surely getting through the requests of everyone seeking his help only to see his ragtag group of nephilim and downworlders arguing over what exactly they're going to watch for the movie nights simon insists they have every week.

unglamored eyes watch as clary and simon team up to fight for yet another star wars viewing, jace looks like he wants to run himself through with a sword at the idea, while maia and lily are looking through magnus' expansive movie collection. he's not sure what conclusion they'll come to but there's something very familiar about it all, he'd had similar nights with catarina, ragnor, raphael and even sometimes malcolm over the decades.

ragnor would usually argue his side best and they'd all cave, and magnus would loudly demand he be in the middle of the couch so he could be cuddled from all sides by his oldest friends. raphael would sulk in one of the arm chairs, for an hour at most before he'd slowly sneak his way over to the rest of them. they'd all pretend not to notice, of course . . .

scrubs sentence starters || @luminavii

" wait wait wait, hold up, back that train up --- " it's wild, something so totally mundane sending simon spluttering. life as a daylighter, and now a shadowhunter, has been wild. " what janitor? when did we get a janitor? I always thought that was, like, basically one of alec's unofficial titles and that's --- " it clicks in that moment and simon bursts into a fit of absolutely hysterical laughter.

" I think my life just flashed before my eyes . . . "  and simon's not sure he's fully satisfied with that life, as it stands. he's gonna have to go digging for that receipt so he can get it exchanged, or refunded, or something. death by blender is not how he intends to go out. no sir, simon lewis is going to die peacefully surrounded by loved ones --- or at a concert maybe. unclear.

shaking the thought off, simon offers eddie a sheepish smile and half a laugh.  “ my mom’s doing the groceries for rosh hashanah today and I didn’t wanna get roped in. and I’m pretty sure my house is about to turn into a challah factory --- I’m not good at braiding challah, man, I’m just not and she never believes me! ”  small potatoes, in the grand scheme of things, but enough to have simon wandering to --- he hadn’t actually known where he was going until he ended up at eddie’s, if he was being honest. would he have made a different decision if he’d known blenders are reasonably considered projectiles to some people? definitely possible.