High Stakes For The Vampire Bingo? I Need Some Stabby Time And A Distraught Beck

Raphael study

ao3 writers staring at their inboxes 0.2 seconds after posting a new fic

Cat Cafe AU Part 3

I can't stop shipping this two. Anyway, please enjoy!

Hector wakes up with his heart beating fast in his chest. It’s wrong, he shouldn’t think about him like that. It’s creepy. No, bad Idea. Charlie is sure a virus, making him can’t think properly, like a glitch in his computer. Or he is more likely an addiction, just like how he is addicted to caffeine and he can't function properly without him, can't stop craving for more. If Charlie could just stay with him, that would be ideal. How could someone as ordinary as Charlie, a mere barista from a small cat café invade his mind like this? What makes him so special to Hector? Is it because of his looks? Sure, he looks cute, with his sweet smile, bright eyes, thin lips and blushed cheeks but Hector has met other attractive people and they don't entice him like Charlie does. Is it because of how he takes care of the cats? How he always treats them gently, very attentively and talks to them even though he knows they won't talk back to him, just like Hector does? 

Is Hector so lonely he fell in love with a person who doesn't find his silence rude and keep talking to him? Is he so deprived from social contact he lets other people get into his heart? Hector spends his morning analyzing his feelings, letting his breakfast get cold for being neglected as he thinks. His own mother didn't even like him, despised him even. Is it possible that other people could love him? He gets on with his morning routine with the thought of Charlie popping in his mind out of nowhere. He truly is a computer virus and it only makes his obsession of him grow. Hector looks at the time and prepares to go to the cat cafe. Ah, the blue towel, he needs to iron it for a bit. When he is done, he takes the towel and sniffs it, a little bit disappointed it doesn't smell like Charlie anymore. Hector sighs and puts it inside a paper bag, an idea of spraying his perfume on it crosses his mind but he shrugs it off. Charlie wouldn't care if it smells like him or not anyway. 

As he opens the cafe's door, Charlie greets him with high enthusiasm, as if he looks happy to see him. He is a barista, of course he is happy to see his customer, Hector pouts in his mind. He wants to be special, not just like a customer to him, but who is he to hope for something like that?

"Good morning, Hector!" How could someone shine brighter than the sun? How could his presence and his interaction make Hector's life become so colorful and when he leaves this cafe, it becomes dull again? "Double espresso as usual, yes?" 

Hector nods, his usual seat on the corner doesn't look much appealing to him after he finds how comfortable it is to be closer to Charlie yesterday. Hector sits at the table near the bar, slowly so as to not wake up the cat that sleeps beside him, remembering how he made the chair damp when he sat there yesterday because of the rain. Thinking about the rain, Hector fishes the towel and gives it to Charlie after the barista comes up to him and places the coffee on the table. 

"Oh, thank you! I hope you don't get sick yesterday because of the rain."

Even if I get sick, I will still come here. Hector smiles thinly and shakes his head.

"Thank god, looks like the lemon-honey candy works, eh? If only I could give it to my cats.” Charlie chuckles, “sometimes they can get the flu even though I have kept this cafe at a stable temperature. They are all vaccinated of course, but the kittens are still at risk and it can progress to cause serious damage to the eye. Just like Snowy there, my boss found him near her apartment with his eyes partially closed, meowing his heart out, looking for his mom. Fortunately, we took him to the Vet in time and here he is, looking as healthy as ever."

One thing that Hector notices when Charlie monologues is he also speaks with his hands, as if the sounds from his mouth are not enough to express what he wants to say.  His expression is easy to read, like an open book. But it is not an open book that Hector could just pick anytime he likes, it was like a book in a museum, where it was put inside of transparent glass. Hector could read it, see it in every angle but he couldn't touch it, couldn't own it. 

"I'm rambling again, sorry about that." Charlie smiles apologetically to him but Hector just shakes his head and gives an OK sign, he doesn't mind. He never does, he could listen to his stories all day long. Hector goes to the cafe so much to the point he needs to buy a portable monitor to code comfortably in the cafe. Charlie, upon seeing the new device, intuitively gives him a terminal contact for its power supply, even without Hector’s asking. After he gets it on, Charlie comments, “Are you a hacker? You know, with those jumbles of words and numbers?”

Hector snorts but he doesn’t shake his head, only shrugs. Just let him figure out that hacker is not the only job that works with code. Charlie chats some more and only gets back to the bar when he realizes he babbles again, fearing he is interrupting his work.While Hector doesn’t mind, he still needs to get his job done.  Hector tries to concentrate on his work, something that he easily does before he has this feeling in his chest that urges him to glance at the barista. But even then, he still gets his work done just before the cafe is closed. He can just go home right now, but a little more time he spends here won't hurt. Besides, how can he go when a chonky cat is purring on his lap? It would be an unforgivable sin. 

Suddenly the bells on the door jingles, indicating another customer has come in. He orders some drinks and food and sits on one of the couches. Hector doesn't mind him and continues to pet the cat on his lap, although he finds it weird that people come up to a cat cafe at this hour. 

Suddenly, the customer harshly grips the scruff of Mr. Holmes' neck who steps on his expensive bag and the cat, surprised by the sudden movement reacts by biting him until drawing blood. 

"Son of a bitch!" The man exclaims and hits the cat's face until he lets go of his hand. The black cat hides under the table and hisses. "Who the fuck let an aggressive cat here? He got rabies, didn’t he?!"

Charlie hurriedly comes up to him, looking at him worriedly. "No, sir, we always vaccinate our cats and I can assure you, they are all healthy. Please, let me take a look at your hand."

The man only slaps Charlie's hand and Hector glares at him. 

"Fucking bullshit!" He kicks one of the chairs until it falls, making the cats all hide in the corner and even get into their hiding place. "I'll fucking sue you! That cat ruined my bag and now bite me.you think you can get away from this?"

"Sir, I'm sorry it happens to you, we will take full responsibility for your wounds but please don't damage our facilities."

"You think you can persuade me, huh? Not only I'll sue you, I'll write bad reviews of this place so no one won't come over here ever again."

"Sir, you are disrupting our customers and cats, and I wish we can discuss this in a calm manner or… or I need you to leave, sir."

The man glares at him and pulls Charlie's collar, and Charlie can smell he is drunk, "Or what, you son of a bitch? You'll drag me out, huh?"

That's it. Hector can't let him touch him any further. He grabs the alcoholic's shoulder and drags him outside to the alley, punching his face until he is unconscious. He can feel the skin on his knuckles torn and bleed but it doesn't bother him. Right now, his only objective is to make Charlie and his cats safe. The body sags as he presses it to the wall, a primal instinct inside him wish he is dead but he stops himself and  chooses to hail a cab. He throws the man on the backside seat, gives a couple of bucks to the driver and instructs him to take the drunkard to hospital, saying he found the man on the outside of the bar, probably lost in the bar fight. 

After he watches the cab go into the night, he gets inside and sees Charlie looks so shocked. The black cat rubbed its body to his leg back and forth, looking just as anxious. The cat hisses when Hector approaches them but he ignores him to sits beside the barista and types some words on his phone, then he shows it to Charlie. 

"He won't come back, you are safe now."

The cat hops on his lap and Charlie unconsciously pets it, feeling comfort both from the black cat and the black-haired man in front of him who hesitantly touches his shoulder and rubs it gently. After a while, Hector takes a mineral bottle from the bar and gives it to Charlie after he opens the bottle caps first. At least he looks relaxed now as he mutters a soft thank you to him. He looks like a scared kitten and all Hector wants to do is to wrap him with a thick blanket, pet his head  and take him home. Of course he can’t do that, but he wants to do something for him, help him a little bit. He looks around and chooses to tidy up the chair on the floor instead. At least the café won’t look like a mess and the action bring some satisfying feeling in his chest. Everything in its place, so the only mess he had is just in his head. It is not until he feels a touch on his arm and flinches by the sudden touch. 

“Oh, Hector, you are a customer. You don’t have to do this! I’m just shocked, really… It’s nothing.” The barista bites his lips, “You know how Chicago is, yeah?”

Hector’s snort, Well, It doesn’t look like nothing. 

“Thank you for helping me back there, though. I couldn’t imagine if he hurt my cats and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

Hector tightens his jaw. Should’ve killed him when I had the chance. But he just heavily sighs and types his phone: 

“Shocked, just like what I said and kinda relieved that he is not here anymore.” Charlie picks up the black cat and hugs him to his chest, stroking his head lightly... Hector can read “Mr. Holmes” on his nametag. “I’m worried about Mr. Holmes, he got an abusive owner before I got him and he has been really anxious. I need to separate him from other cats before he starts to attack them.” 

“How do you feel?” 

Hector tilts his head, the story sounds familiar or maybe he is just imagining things. Projecting himself as the cat who is being comforted. He sighs again then points to himself, points to the floor, then points to Charlie with the cat and the room upstairs. 

“Okay, okay. I’ll be back,” then he looks down at Hector’s hand, dirtied by blood. He swallows, “I need to take care of your hand too,”

As Charlie goes upstairs, he assesses the damage the drunkard has caused. Nothing serious and nothing breaks at least, although the fallen chairs scratched the wooden floor. The cats had left their hiding place and roamed freely inside the café. Some groom themselves as if they already forget what happened. A couple of moments later, Charlie brings a medical kit and a bowl filled with water. As they sit, Charlie opens his palm up, now covered in latex gloves and waits for Hector to give his hand. Hector looks at him and hesitantly puts his hand on Charlie's. He wipes the blood from his hand with the wet towel, rubbing it softly against his skin. Hector freezes, as if he is afraid he is going to make the wrong movement. Ever since he was a child, he always tended to his wounds and bruises alone, usually with cold water since it was the only thing his mother had. And now, a man touches him so softly, cleaning his wounds and putting so much attention to him. It's strange, it feels alien and yet, not unwelcome. He wants to feel his skin, pity, his hands are covered with latex. As Charlie treats him, he doesn’t feel hurt on his hand, he doesn’t even realize it was bleeding, a result of having so much worse than that. It won’t be a big issue if he doesn’t take care of it but Charlie treats him as if he broke his hand. Charlie is so close… If he leans further, his nose may touch his hair. 

“Okay, It’s done!” Charlie straightens up again and Hector praises the Lord he doesn’t let his intrusive thoughts win or their heads would collide. “You need your hand for work, right? The cut is not deep so I think It won’t be an issue. Might sting a bit if you flex your hand, though.” 

Hector sighs quietly at the loss of contact as Charlie withdraws his hand from his and nods. He takes a look at the clock and realizes it’s past closing time. After he decides it’s already safe now to leave Charlie, he walks to the bar, fishing his card to pay. 

“Oh no-no-no! You don’t have to pay, you protected and helped me a lot today. Take it as my gratitude. My treat, really.”

“Take it or I won’t leave.”

Hector shakes his head and frowns. Any logical man would do it so it’s nothing special. He pushes his card to him and when the barista refuses again, Hector huffs and hastily types on his phone.

“Well, you can just stay with me upstairs with Mr. Holmes,” Charlie blurts. 

Hector frowns get deeper and he stares down at him. What does it mean? Does Charlie really want him to spend the night with him? Is he serious?

Charlie looks at him in fright, "I'm sorry! That's really inappropriate, I'm just kidding, it's-it's... I'm sorry."

Of course he is not serious. What do you expect, Munday? 

Hector only nods and gives an OK sign with his fingers. Charlie takes his card and lets him pay, with a guilty puppy look on his face. Hector only sees the glimpse of it and forces himself to look away. He leaves with a gloomy face and walks briskly to his apartment, feeling stupid. He shouldn't feel this disappointed, it's not like he dares to hope he can be with him after the cafe is closed. Of course it's just a joke, someone like Charlie can be too friendly, doesn't really mean what he says. Besides, Charlie deserves someone better than him, someone who can communicate with him like a normal person. Hector clenches his fist in frustration and sleep doesn’t come easily to him that night.

With Du’Mets obsession I’m pretty sure he’d be a service top 😅 Giving Charlie all the attention~ ❤️

Im only finding out about the ask submissions notifications on settings omg 💀 anyways

I'd like to think of an AU where theres a complicit ending where Du'met took pity on Charlie betrayed by his own crew...such a missed opportunity from supermassive games smh

Practice sketch of Jason~ I have a need to draw some Slade/Jay 🔥

Happy September -- let's go in guns blazing!

First of all, I am very sorry for the delay; real life is kicking my ass a little But, we prevail! And this month's prompts might be my favorite so far -- they have such a Slade/Jason vibe that I can't get enough of. Right now the AO3 collection has 49 fics!!! That's almost 50 written in less than a year for a ship that, just a few years ago, was a bonafied rare pair. So thank you to everyone who's been contributing, kudos-ing, commenting, and inspiring this kickass content with two of DC's hottest and most badass tragic anti-heroes <3 September's prompts are: borrowing each other's weapons or armor, BDSM AU, courting, kidnapping, enemies/rivals with benefits, clothed man/naked man

Raise your hand if you love these cuties. //raise hand

If you got enough money to live happily and comfortably for the rest of your life, but everyone who saw you immediately knew what fandom you are in and understood what that means, would you take it?

Unmasked Du’Met! I can’t decide between a mustache or not, so I made both versions~