#also shoutout to that person who made a gif set to this song and these boys like years ago i couldnt find it again but i remember it. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deadratio · 2 years

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Tough Love- Chapter 1

Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x fem!OC

Summary: Avis Mitchell isn't all sunshine and flowers when her father reveals that he's remarrying. In fact, she's furious. After cutting him off, she pursues her future with love and passion while avoiding her father at all costs. Their paths cross unexpectedly, and she's forced to face the music.

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: Angst towards a parental figure, mentions of oral sex as a favor/bribe (no actual actions), intoxicants, cursing, being untruthful

A/N: FINALLY! Inspiration struck when I listened to this song. Huge shoutout to @callsignthirsty for proofreading and giving me additions and corrections! I also highly suggest reading the prologue for some context! I hope you enjoy, happy reading!

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Masterlist Prologue

1 year, 4 months later

Avis wasn’t surprised when her fiancé received a “save the date” to the Benjamin-Mitchell wedding several months ago. It made sense, Jake was also a fighter pilot. Knowing the date, Avis was able to avoid being his plus one at all costs. Working for a large firm kept her busy and she thanked her lucky stars for it. When she found a conference the same weekend as the wedding, she sent her boss a pitch to present, and when she got the thumbs up, she only felt a little bad about lying to Jake about why she couldn’t attend the wedding with him.

It would also ensure that she kept Jake in the dark about who her father is. After multiple other spats between the two of them, she blocked Pete and Penny on all social media platforms and removed both of their numbers from her phone. If he wanted to make irrational decisions, then so could she. Jake believed her when she told him she was estranged from her family; she didn’t like to speak about them and shut down all efforts to broach the topic. The only person close to her father who knew about their relationship was Bradley, and she had enough sisterly dirt on him to make sure he remained tight-lipped.

Avis feels for her dad, she really does. But it’s difficult to get over her feelings of betrayal. Her heart hurts for their now non-existent relationship, and on particularly hard nights she’s almost tempted to reach back out. She misses the comfort her father used to bring her in her many times of need, but the trust was gone. He had made a promise to her all those years ago, and he had broken it.

The week of the wedding comes quickly, and it takes all of Avis’s energy at the conference not to think about it to the point where she isn’t even sure she’s absorbing what the other presenters are talking about anymore. While she’s suffering, at least Jake is enjoying himself, even if it’s with bachelor activities. He even sent her a few pictures here and there, including one with the groom. Her father. The pangs of hurt roil in her chest when she sees it in her camera roll. Yes, her camera roll. Because despite her best efforts, she couldn’t help but save the picture to her phone.

The ceremony and reception are set to happen the evening she flies home from the conference, so she has a perfectly reasonable excuse to not be able to attend, aside from being out of town in the first place.

The red-eye flight Avis catches gives her no down time between the conference and having to rush to the airport. She texts Jake that she’s about to board and leaves it at that. She doesn’t expect Jake to be home when she gets there. Although the wedding venue is local, everyone has decided to stay at a hotel close to the venue to avoid driving home late at night. The next day, there’s supposed to be an afterparty at the Hard Deck, so Avis knows that Jake will be out of the house for a majority of that day as well.

There’s something about flying, though, that has always helped Avis clear her head — blame her dad for that one. Her flight home allows her time to decompress and think about her situation. By the time the plane has entered its final descent, Avis isn’t entirely sure she’ll ever be able to reconcile with her dad. She tries not to care, but sometimes it eats away at her soul more than she’s willing to admit. And all of it is made worse by the simple fact that she wishes she could tell Jake the truth about it all, but she knows it’s best kept under wraps.

Arriving home the next morning, the bags under Avis’ eyes are a sign that she needs at least a week of sleep, if not more. In the year or so that she’s been with Jake, though, she’s found that she sleeps significantly better when he’s next to her, so she knows that at best, all she can do is take a nap and wait for him to come home. She wastes no time in setting her bags in their shared bedroom, changing into a pair of leggings and one of Jake’s old shirts before crawling between the sheets.

A loud ringing wakes Avis several hours later, the mid-day sun shimmering through the window and casting long shadows. Groggy-eyed and sore with tiredness, Avis does a quick search for her phone, finding it on the nightstand where she must have dropped it at some point before closing her eyes. She doesn’t check the caller ID, although she probably should have.

“Hello?” Her voice is deep and low, the clearest evidence to the caller that she hadn’t been entirely awake when they called.

“You need to come get your man, Nicole.”

“Bradley?” He was the only person who ever called her by her middle name. It used to bother her, but she grew to understand Bradley’s attachment to it somewhere along the line as they grew up together.

A soft groan escapes Avis’ lips, her free hand coming to swipe down the length of her face. “What did he do, Bradshaw?”

The chuckle on the other side should tell her exactly what Jake has been up to. “He’s drunk as hell. He’s got to get home somehow.”

“Why can’t you drive him?”

“Nobody here is entirely sober.”

Avis is about to reach for her keys when the realization hits her. If she goes to get Jake, it’s extremely likely that she’ll run into her father or his bride. More awake now, she sits up in the bed, gritting her teeth. “If this is a ploy, Bradshaw, I will never let you live this down.”

The other end of the line crackles with hoots and hollers, and she almost thinks that he’s forgotten he’s on the phone in the first place. Not sober, indeed. “Look, I promise I’ll do my best to make sure you aren’t seen, Nic. But if Jake doesn’t come out — and you know how he gets when he’s playing darts— you’ll have to come in and get him.” His voice becomes somber at the notion that Avis actually didn’t come to the wedding, and that she really didn’t want to be involved.

Sighing heavily, Avis flips the sheets from her body. What she’s wearing will suffice, although she needs to throw on a bra and some shoes. “I’ll be there in a few. Don’t let him get any drunker.” Bradley knows that this isn’t a request, especially from the tone of her voice.

“Yes ma'am. I’ll see you soon.” With that, the call ends.

Avis isn’t in a rush to find the two items she needs to put on. She knows that, at any rate, Bradley will do his damnedest to get Jake outside to the parking lot and into her car. At the same time, she knows how stubborn Jake is, and that him being drunk will likely only make it worse. She pulls a different shirt from one of her dresser drawers, deciding that she should probably look at least somewhat decent if she was going to possibly interact with others. She slips on her sandals before heading out the door, car keys in hand.

The drive to the Hard Deck isn’t very familiar for her. Avis avoided the area at all costs, and had only been there a handful of times when she was younger, before Penny ever owned it. Pulling into the parking lot, Avis isn’t surprised to find it nearly full. Her dad knows a lot of people, and she’s sure a popular girl like Penny does, too. Finding a spot, another sigh travels through her lungs before she texts Bradley that she’s outside and waiting.

The chat bubbles pop up but quickly go away, and Avis isn’t sure if he’s going to reply or not. She sits in the car for what feels like an eternity, staring out at the azure hued waves washing away the sand on the beach. Moments later, a loud ping from her phone alerts her to Bradley’s reply.

Bradley: Sorry, Nic. He’s not coming out without a fight

Avis: Tell him I’m not wearing a bra

Bradley: Eeeeewww!

Bradley: Nope. Not gonna happen.

Avis: Please?

Bradley: Man-up and come get him before he does something stupid(er). I’ll try to distract Mav

Avis: Did you just call me a man?

Bradley: We call Phoenix a MAN!

Avis: Wat?

Bradley: Phoenix is the manliest man of all of us

Bradley: I’m genuinely surprised Mav didn’t ask her to be his best man

Bradley: Because she is

Bradley: THE best man

Avis: I’m showing this to her when you’re all sober.

Bradley: You would not!

Avis: Too late. I’m screenshotting it as we speak

Bradley: …

Bradley: Stop stalling

Bradley: Come get your mans

Avis: Noooo

Avis: Just drag him out here. You know I don’t want to go in there

Bradley: Aids

Bradley: AVIS*

Bradley: FUCCK

Bradley: I’m going to walk across this bar and distract Mav so you can do your covert fiancé retrieval shit. Whether you use that to your advantage or not is on you

Avis: Wow

Avis: Big words for a drunk guy

Bradley: Fuck you

Bradley: You coming or not?

Avis: No thanks, I’m good on that first one. I’ll be in there in a sec, gonna throw up out of anxiety real quick

Avis’ dentist was going to hate her by the time this entire ordeal was over with. Her teeth ground tightly against each other as she exited the vehicle, slamming the door so hard someone else would have thought she really, really, hated the car. Her feet scrape against the gravel, the soft breeze coming in from the ocean doing nothing to cool her down. Avis didn’t have a chance to brace herself for this. She isn’t prepared to any extent, and doesn’t know if she ever could have been were this to occur at a later point in life.

She wants to swing the door open with all the force only possessed by a mad woman, but she’s trying to fly under the radar. Instead, she slips through the door and finds the bar only mildly packed with people. Some have converged outside on the patio at the back of the building, and she guesses that’s where Jake must be, since she can’t find his golden hair amongst the inside crowd. The worst part of it is that she doesn’t see her dad or Penny, either, which means they’re also likely outside.

Avis pulls her phone from her pocket, sending Bradley another message.

Avis: I’m inside. If you can get him in here, I’ll handle the rest.

The read receipt comes seconds later. She doesn’t want to go any further than she has to, so she glues herself to the bar, leaning against it coolly. Her attire doesn’t exactly match everyone else’s but it hardly matters since she isn’t going to be there for long. Another ping brings the worst case scenario:

Bradley: He literally will not budge even though I told him you were here. I’ll try to distract Mav and Penny, but you need to be quick. Sorry <3

Making her way towards the patio door, Avis peeks out the window. She can see the group of Jake’s aviator friends, with him standing at the edge. He’s laughing up a storm, gripping Coyote’s shoulder hard enough he could probably break it. There are empty beer bottles and shot glasses scattered throughout the high-top tables, which helps explain why he’s so intoxicated. Avis’s eyes avert to the corner of the window, revealing Bradley having a very animated conversation with her father and Penny, both of them facing away from the group. They seemed engrossed in whatever he was talking to them about, so this is it. Her opportunity to grab Jake and run.

Slipping past the door, Avis beelines it to Jake, her hand landing gently on his bicep, but it takes a conscious effort. Jake immediately looks down at her, a bright, goofy smile adorning his handsome features when he realizes it’s her. “What are you doing here baby?” His words are slurred a bit, and Avis can tell that he wasn’t exactly expecting her to walk through the doors, no matter how much Bradley had tried to convince him she was coming to pick him up.

Giggling softly, Avis gives his arm a gentle tug. “I came to pick you up, you big lush. We need to go, though. I've still got some things to handle at the house.”

Jake scoffs playfully, fully turning towards Avis and wrapping her in his arms. “Why don’t you stick around, baby? Hang around a little bit, talk to some of my friends? I’m sure they’d all love to meet you,” Jake asks, laughing. “Oh!” It’s like a switch flips. “The bride and groom! I need to introduce you to them too!”

A rush of absolute fear encompasses Avis, and the anxiety of having to face her father sets in. It’s everything she’s trying to avoid. She shakes her head, ignoring the curious looks that Coyote and a couple of the other guests give her. “Maybe another day, honey. You’re drunk, and we have work tomorrow. It’s best we get you home.”

Jake’s smile turns into a child-like frown, feigning a sourness. “Since when’re you an introvert, Avi?”

A soft groan moves past Avis’ lips. “Jake, we can talk about this later. Get in the car.”

“Why'd you wanna go home so bad?”

Avis drops her hand from Jake’s arm, her fingers now balling into fists. “I can meet them another time, Jake. They’re busy with their guests, and I’m not adding another person to their roster.”

“Please, baby?” he asks, grabbing Avis’s hand. “I promise I’ll go without a fight if we just go and say goodbye.”

Time for evasive maneuvers. “I wanna suck your dick.” Jake’s eyes go wide. “Get in the car.”

“Gross,” Coyote says to Jake’s side.

Jake shoots him a cheeky grin. “You’re just jealous.”

“So jealous,” Avis says, trying to hurry the conversation along. “Baby, get in the car.”

When arms wrap tight around her waist and Jake burrows into the crook of her neck, Avis is sure she’s won. “God, I love you,” Jake mumbles, his lips brushing over sensitive skin. “Almost as much as the bride and groom love each other. C’mon. I’m not leaving until you meet ‘em.”

Avis tries to wriggle out of his hold, glowering at him. “I’m not arguing with you about this. We need to leave. Now.”

“Avi,” Jake whines. Unfortunately for Avis, Jake is more stubborn than any mule on the planet. Which meant it was time to take out the big guns — well, big for drunk Jake.

“I’m taking the blowjob off the table at the count of three, Jacob.”

“Baby, don’t be like that.”

“Three…”

He pouts. “You’ll love them.”

“Two…”

“I just want you to meet my friends.”

“Jus’ go home Bagman,” Bradley’s trying to help, but it washes over Avis like cold water. If Bradley is here, he isn’t distracting the bride and groom.

“Fuck off, Roo. Y’can’t tell me what to do.” Jake’s voice is louder than it was a minute ago and worry lances straight to Avis’ gut as she tries to hush him.

“Jake, honey-” Avis shifts from trying to get Jake out of the bar to trying to diffuse the situation, but he’s faster than she anticipates. Before she can even finish her sentence, he’s got her arm in his grip, tugging her towards them. The sandals that she’d slipped onto her feet when she left the house have next to no grip on the concrete, and he’s practically hauling her over to her father and Penny who, by some miracle, still haven’t caught sight of her.

“Jacob Seresin, you fucking unhand me right this moment!” Avis whisper-shouts, pulling against him.

Stopping in his tracks, Jake turns to her. He’s barely sobered up from their drinking games during brunch, but it’s the look on Avis’ face that tells him he’s crossed a line. Looking around, he sees that some of the others are watching them, seeing him practically manhandle his fiancée in public.

“Sorry, I-” His face is somber, like he really is realizing what he’s done. Any words he’s going to say are halted by someone patting his shoulder, standing next to him.

“What’s going on here?” Maverick peeks around Jake’s shoulder, his stomach dropping to his feet at the sight before him. His daughter, his pride and joy, standing in front of him, a death glare sent in the direction of one of his students. He had been on the receiving end of that same stare multiple times, and he did not envy Jake Seresin. But what confused him the most was her actual presence. They hadn’t spoken in over a year, and she purposely didn’t come to his wedding. What was she doing here? “Avis?”

Avis redirects her glare toward her father, her jaw set in stone. A low anger boils in the pits of her stomach, and it takes everything in her not to say words she might regret. In the corner of the patio, Bradley rakes a hand down his face, his head thrown back a bit and curls a drunken mess. This is exactly what they had been trying to avoid.

Her fiancé and father are both staring at her, each of them experiencing different emotions. The clicking of heels jolts her from her stupor, and when Penny comes from behind her father, Avis can’t help but let the anger rise higher. Bradley comes up behind her, grabbing her shoulders, steering her gently away from the group. Jake unfreezes then, following closely behind them.

“Rooster? What’s going on?” The sequence of events seems to have knocked some sobriety back to Jake’s senses, and he can tell that Avis is mad. But it’s more than that. He’s never seen her just stop working before. He can’t tell if she’s mad that he wouldn’t come with her, or if it’s the fact that he practically manhandled her through a crowd of strangers.

Avis only stops glaring at both men when Bradley has her turned far enough to make the angle weird, then she takes long strides toward the crashing waves. She huffs. This isn’t how she wanted to see her father again, nor reveal to him that she’s living in the area. Rooster stops halfway behind her, holding his arm in front of Jake to stop him as well. He turns to face his friend, and he almost feels sorry for him.

“Avis has a complicated relationship with her family. You know that, right?” Bradley asks Jake, turning back to watch Avis’ figure grow smaller in the distance.

Nodding, Jake looks over to his mustached friend. “Yeah, why?”

Sighing deeply, Rooster hates to be the one to tell Jake the truth, but he knows that Avis would have an even harder time telling him. “Mav’s her dad.”

A brick wall hits Jake. He nearly gives himself whiplash looking back towards the Hard Deck to see Mav, Penny and the others gathered, having a quiet conversation, no doubt about the situation at hand. He knew her last name, he just hadn’t associated it with Maverick’s. It makes sense now, the sleek, black hair and captivating, fiery green eyes. The devilish smile when they were play-fighting on the couch about what to have for dinner or what to watch for the evening. The toothy grin she gives him when she laughs really hard at his dumb jokes.

The salt water is almost licking at Avis’ toes when she finally stops walking. Hot tears streak down her cheeks, arms crossed over her chest as she hugs herself. She doesn’t know what to do. Everything is happening all at once. The realization that she really did give up her relationship with her dad over this. His love for another woman. But why? What had Penny ever done to her besides make her dad happy? She was happy with Jake. It was love, written into two different stories for two all-too-similar people. She can’t fathom herself, her decisions, or her mentality around it all.

Strong arms are suddenly encasing her in a warmth she’s familiar with, and Avis isn’t quite sure where she wants to be anymore. Jake rests his chin on her shoulder, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek. They share a moment of silence before Jake speaks up. “Why don’t we go home, rest up, and we can talk about this after we both get home from work tomorrow?” It’s a kind suggestion, one that Avis is grateful for. Jake always knows what to do to bring her back down from the clouds.

Nodding, she pulls away from him, running a shaky hand down his arm, her fingers slipping between his own. The ring on her left hand feels heavy now, as though it holds the weight of the world on her finger. The careful balance she’d had between her past and future had been shattered.

The journey to the car feels too long for Avis’ preference, but she’s glad when she slides into the driver's seat. She steadies herself, attempting to brace for the coming days she knows will be fueled with truths revealed and secrets exposed. Jake thinks that he knows her like the back of his hand, but he’s not ready for what’s coming for him.

Tag List:

@dempy / @hedeviloffics / @luckyladycreator2

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kreideprinzalby · 9 months

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Genshin 4.0 Thoughts

So I finished the Chapter IV Archon Quests (And some of the major World Quests) for 4.0 a while back and like very other long-time Genshin fan whose been playing since it's launch in 2020, it's been a joy just going through the new nation and for the first time in so long I finally felt like I'm having fun in Genshin again. To the point me, someone who will admit never 100% completed any Genshin area or region, 100% COMPLETED THE FONTAINE 4.0 AREA IN A WEEK, it think that says something about how far we've come from the early days.

There will be talk of 4.0 spoilers under the cut so be warned!!

Funny enough, I've never made a post like this since 2021 when Inazuma went live. Mostly for a lot of personal reasons (college courses, moving away from home, etc.) and how i felt about the game post-Inazuma / pre-Sumeru wasn't exactly positive. Plus the initial backlash Sumeru had soured my mood to the point i was just playing through the game just for the sake of it. But that was before the Archon quest finished, and while I'm not going to talk about Sumeru's exploration aspect (no one mention tunnels in the desert to me ever again), The Archon quest was a MASSIVE improvement and showed how the story of Genshin can be good when they take their time. It did make me hope the next region would take a page from how Sumeru handles it's characters. Besides that tangent, So what is it about Fontaine that's making it so fun?

Well for starters, the water exploration is VERY fun. Even without Fontaine characters the atmosphere and just overall game-play feels smooth and easy to control. I found myself mindlessly swimming around just taking it all in. It's probably also why I felt motivated to 100% the area since 4.0's area is small and feasible to do.

Surprising no one, Genshin's soundtrack for Fontaine is fantastic as always. I could pinpoint some songs the 4.0 livestream played but the rest are still beautiful to listen too. Especially the vocals in the underwater tracks or even just the songs that play in Fontaine's countryside.

Staking a page out of Sumeru's Archon Quest, the first two acts of Chapter 4 really set a new high bar. Mostly because they mystery of why the Nation of Justice treats trials like a spectacle plus the the looming threat of the entire nation being flooded and dissolved away with only Focalors remaining makes for a chilling mystery.

As a fan of Ace Attorney (and Danganronpa unfortunately/lh) the trials section are so much fun to play thru. The way we get to piece it all together, granted with not much penalty, felt like we were uncovering a case before our eyes. And hey! the traveler got to talk some more! also shoutout to Paimon's Groucho glasses staying for that 1st half.

Even though Genshin is no strangers to killing off NPC's at this point, something about how the methods of murder are done here feel eerie. From the jumpscare of the Box being crushed with someone inside to the fact PEOPLE IN FONTIANE JUST, DISSOLVE? so there was a Serial Killer going out murdering girls in a way that leaves nothing behind is very scary to think about even with the lack of blood and gore onscreen.

Of course the real stars of the show are the Fontaine characters we have already met. It's nice to finally see Lyney & Lynette after the Teyvat Trailer showed them nearly 3 years ago, and their dynamic is so nice to see (even if Lyney is rizzing us up lmao). I also love the direction they're going with Navia, Clorinde, and even Neuvillette with how they came across from the teasers.

As the 5th Archon we've met, I already love Furina's personality and dynamic she's got with the traveler. We haven't had an Archon whose been an outright rival to us since they've either been helpful to us from the get-go (Venti, Zhongli, & Nahida) or or straight up tried to kill us for exisiting (Raiden Shogun / Ei). Furina not only is committed to acting al high and mighty every chance she gets, but also really seems to want to show off how grand she is. I also love how we get to see a lil' bit into her psyche and how underneath that bravado she's really just scared her people will judge her if she didn't act like a god fit for the land of Justice. which makes me really excited how were going to convince her to devolve info about the traveler's twin.

Less serious but i love that Arlecchino is called the "Father" and is King in her home we love a GNC queen <3. That being said I am a bit excited to how they portray her since the way Lyney and Lynette talk of her is very much rose-colored since she saved them from horrific circumstances and they trust her with their life, but that remains to be seen

But if that's what I think is good, whats some stuff I think could have been better?

Even though the water exploration is fun, I wouldn't say the puzzles and some of the underwater power are balanced. The Bullet Barnacles took me way to long to figure out before i took too much damage and since underwater you done have access to hearing other than specific areas your characters are just dead until you revive them. Plus the Sonar you get from the Seals feels weaker to use then say the Crab or Manta Ray power-ups. Plus the time trials and such are just your normal fair for genshin 'secrets'

The Pneuma and Ousia mechanic for the Meka enemies feels a little janky in combat. Maybe because from the start we only have Lyney & Lynette (and the Hydro Traveler) that can use this system right now make be why, but the targeting on certain Meka enemies looks like they hit them with the correct energy but doesn't stun them. Maybe it'll get better once we have more Fontaine characters but for now it's just another combat mechanic.

This is more of a nitpick, but there's one story moment that has one of the worse timing in Genshin. You've prob seen how people reacted to the Traveler seemingly random hostility towards finding out Lyney & Lynette are Fatui (or at least part of a Fatui household since House of Hearth raises Fatuus Soldiers), and normally that would make sense since they spent an entire trial trying to defend them but that omission of crucial info almost cost them the case. BUT, from the players perspective not only hours before were they JUST friendly to Childe, a Fatui Harbringer that despite being friends they are still wary of and now suddenly is willing to treat him like any old friend now in Fontaine makes it come across as cruel to the twins and weird in context. Why would the traveler, whose a twin themselves, show a lack of compassion two twins that opened their heart about their (surprisingly dark) backstory? It's not a horrible choice but it's definitely a weird writing choice in this instance. Especially since you have to finish Act's I & II to seen Lyney's Story Quest, and the traveler is somehow okay with them now? It's just weirdly timed is all.

I need more Freminet PLEASE I JUST WANNA SEE THE BOY!!

That's pretty much all I got. Hopefully I'm more hopeful of Fontaine's hype to the end, especially with how great Sumeru's story quest went. So we'll just have to wait & see what 4.1 and 4.2 gives us!

#sib rambles #genshin 4.0 #spoilers #4.0 spoilers #long post #txt post #yae publishing (txt)

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houmannhebert10 · 1 year

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Living The Dreams The Dreams

Living the Dream SMP

Inside the massive fandom making Dream SMP YouTube’s biggest hit

By Julia Alexander

Ollie was asleep at three in the morning when the Discord app on his phone started blowing up. He panicked; many of his friends lived in different time zones, but they knew how late it was for him. The only reason they’d be frantically messaging him in the middle of the night is if something terrible happened. Bolting awake, he checked his messages.

“OLLIE, DREAM JUST GAVE YOU A SHOUTOUT ON TWITTER!”

“DREAM SHOUTED YOU OUT!”

A high school student and artist, Ollie spends much of his free time making fan art about his favorite Minecraft streamers. Dream, arguably the main character in his Minecraft universe, known as Dream SMP, has more than 2.7 million followers on Twitter and nearly 20 million subscribers on YouTube. So when Ollie saw Dream tell his followers to check out the art on his account, Ollie burst into tears. His own Twitter account went from around 8,000 followers to more than 13,000 followers in one night.

“In that moment, I felt so valued in the community.”

“In that moment, I felt so valued in the community,” Ollie told The Verge over Discord. “Not because of the numbers that were coming through with the shoutout, but because of how many people I realized were around me, supporting me, and being such amazing friends.”

Describing the story of Dream SMP to anyone not paying attention to every stream or YouTube upload can sound like a made-up language. Dream SMP (SMP stands for “survival multiplayer,” a type of Minecraft server) was created by a YouTuber who goes by Dream. Over the last 18 months, Dream has invited other Twitch streamers and YouTube personalities - including TommyInnit, Tubbo, GeorgeNotFound, Punz, and several more - to join in. Together, they get into hijinxes, stage lengthy feuds, and pal around for a combined audience of tens of millions of people. Dream went from 1 million to 15 million subscribers in one year alone. Some of it is scripted and planned out, driving a larger story, but many of the reactions and circumstances are totally improvised.

On the Dream SMP, there’s always something big brewing

Like a television show or cinematic universe, Dream SMP found its audience through a series of never-ending epic battles. The “Disc Saga” played out over countless hours, turning a game of capture the flag (essentially) into a dramatic tale of good versus evil, as Dream and TommyInnit fought for dominance of the server. Once Wilbur Soot, a 24-year-old YouTuber from Britain and one of the main Dream SMP writers, joined in, he set up L’Manberg and created a space for a specific batch of creators. This eventually led to an all-out battle for independence with Dream that enraptured YouTube’s Minecraft audience. On the Dream SMP, there’s always something big brewing, but it’s also the tiny, funny, and sweet moments that transform each streamer into a character worth rooting for - not unlike comic book heroes and villains.

The only thing more impressive than the elaborate world they’ve created is the fan base that’s sprung up around it. Dream SMP fanfiction writers dominate websites like Archive of Our Own, Dream SMP fan art can be found all over Tumblr and Twitter, and Dream SMP fan songs (including an entire in-the-works musical) get uploaded to YouTube. There is also a plethora of clip accounts that track Dream SMP stories for people who can’t tune in to each stream, full-blown fan-made animated episodes paying tribute to Dream SMP’s ongoing stories that air weekly on YouTube, and even a 24/7 news network devoted to tracking the universe’s story and hijinks. Dream SMP may exist on a tiny Minecraft server, but thanks to a fan network stretching across the globe, it’s become a worldwide phenomenon.

Being a member of the Dream SMP community can sometimes feel like a full-time job. For Evan, it’s practically become one. At 16, he juggles attending school and working on documentary-style videos for his channel, he told The Verge. Each video is designed to provide an entertaining and accurate summary of the various lore that comes out of Dream SMP storylines, and a growing audience tunes in. Evan has nearly 400,000 subscribers, and his Dream SMP videos collect millions of views. Those videos can take Evan more than a month to complete; his last video took more than 120 hours alone.

“Homework is essentially keeping me from working”

“I’m trying to balance videos and homework right now, but it’s weird because I find myself having to work on homework even when the videos make me significantly more money,” Evan told The Verge on a phone call one night. “Obviously, I’m not making anything from school - I wish we got paid to go to school - but it’s like homework is essentially keeping me from working.”

Since the Dream SMP lore is constantly growing, a big part of Evan’s job is trying to piece it all together for newcomers who find his videos, hoping to catch up. In one video, Evan tries to keep track of each time Tommy and Dream stole discs (think CD-ROMs with music on them) from each other and hid said discs far within the block earth that makes up a Minecraft server. Evan makes it easy to follow, hitting just the right dramatic notes as the story progresses, but he says the work can be exhausting. Oc cities

As Evan describes it, trying to summarize Dream SMP plots in the simplest way possible is like “trying to explain a movie to someone who’s never seen a movie before.” Evan has also run into newfound challenges that make the job harder. When the Dream SMP creators started streaming more on Twitch, it became more difficult to track down videos to watch after the fact. He, too, has to rely on WikiGuides from devoted fans and popular clips on Reddit to figure out what video he should focus on next.

“The toughest parts to understand are what’s happening now,” Evan said. “Now, there will be points where there will be multiple streams happening at the exact same time, and both of them have really important stuff being added to the main story.”

With the Dream SMP creators posting fewer YouTube videos and documentarians like Evan taking additional time to get the videos just right, a need has developed for daily updates.

Sam, Claire, Kenzie, Mae, Alex, Lilja, and Boston make up a group of mostly teens who run DreamSMP Updates, a Twitter account dedicated to updating fans on “who’s live, who’s on each other’s streams, when the members release something, an explanation on the storyline for when people miss live streams,” and more. Basically, it’s a one-stop shop for anyone looking to find up-to-the-minute information about their favorite streamers or check in on the big things that happened on stream if they weren’t able to watch. Sam started it in December, asking friends she met through the community to help out with the project.

“We have a lot of responsibility”

The group told The Verge over a Discord chat that it takes some coordination, but they’ve gotten to the point over the last several months where everyone knows what their role is within the team. It’s a huge responsibility, one that every member takes on without asking for any kind of payment in return. People expect everything to be right 100 percent of the time, Claire said, adding, “We have a lot of responsibility to be the person that people need.”

Work is divided into sections (often grouped by platforms), and those can change day to day, Alex said. Someone handles keeping up with YouTube uploads, merchandise updates from each creator, ensuring the Twitch bot doesn’t flail when streamers go live, keeping fans updated with creator appearances in separate streamers, etc. Claire and Boston mostly handle tweeting explanations of what happened on the stream and how it pertains to ongoing lore. (“Puffy says she does believe Dream is wrong, that its good he’s in Prison, that he deserves the punishment,” one recent update reads.) Boston keeps an eye on what’s happening, tweeting updates when needed, while also jotting down live notes about every new lore development. It’s a complicated operation - one the team does because of their love for Dream SMP creators and the community in which they found one another as friends.

“One of my favorite things to do on the account is look at DMs and talk to people in DMs,” Kenzie said. “When I see people thanking us for the account, it makes me feel good that I’m helping people out and doing something for the community. That’s probably what motivates me to continue running the account. ”

Even after the 30 or so Dream SMP members have signed off, fans keep expanding its world. Archive of Our Own, one of the biggest fanfiction sites, is home to nearly 106,000 works listed under Video Blogging RPF (fanfiction about real streamers and vloggers). The biggest fandom under that umbrella is Minecraft. Wattpad has just under 34,000 works listed under “Dream SMP,” and Tumblr is full of many more.

At one point, fans of the saga “Heat Waves,” one of the most viral Dream SMP fan stories, thought they crashed Archive of Our Own when rushing to read a new chapter. The site’s downtime was just a coincidence, but “Heat Waves” at the time was the “third most kudosed fic on the site,” an administrator told The Verge’s Adi Robertson. (Kudos are equivalent to a like on Facebook.) The story became so popular that the Glass Animals song “Heat Waves,” which inspired the name of the story, crept into the Hottest 100 tracks in Australia last year, partially thanks to the fanfiction.

The Dream SMP narrative isn’t fan service; it’s “collaborative storytelling”

What’s helped to propel that community is the way Dream SMP has incorporated it into the stories that actually play out on their server. During one arc, fans started using the phrase “welcome home, Theseus” in their art, essays, and songs, comparing Tommy to the Greek hero who was exiled. Eventually, the Dream SMP streamer Technoblade actually used the line. “I screamed so loudly I probably did permanent damage to the hearing of the brother sitting next to me,” as one fan, who goes by Teahound, wrote on Tumblr.

“I decided to write about how the Dream SMP is a brilliant example of how to do fan service properly,” Teahound continued. “But actually, what is happening on the SMP cannot be described as fanservice. It’s collaborative storytelling in it’s best form.”

The community wouldn’t continue to thrive if there wasn’t a plethora of fans celebrating and boosting people’s work. “Usually, big fandoms are kind of toxic in some aspects. But this community genuinely respects the content creators, and we all genuinely support each other,” Ali Tyler, a college student who has helped create an entire musical based on the Dream SMP, said in a phone interview with The Verge.

“When people do listen and are respectful, the community is at its best.”

Fan creations are mostly positive, but there are more controversial sectors where critics argue a line is crossed. Because the streamers are real people, the stories have faced criticism for sexual depictions of everyday people. “Heat Waves” focuses on Dream and GeorgeNotFound, two prominent members of the Dream SMP world, as they dance around their feelings for each other. In real life, they’re just good friends. But in fanfiction, they often become much more.

The majority of writers contributing to the Dream SMP fanfiction community “hate to see real people’s boundaries being crossed as well,” says Xetera, who writes real-person fiction within the Dream SMP universe. Newer writers “tend to ask for forgiveness rather than permission,” and that’s something the community tries to push back against.

“I believe people fight over boundaries more than trying to listen when creators speak,” Xetera said over Discord, noting that “when people do listen and are respectful, the community is at its best.”

At the center of all of these stories - the artists, writers, YouTube editors, and musical producers - is the community. Beyond the creators they watch, it’s the friends they make, feeling like they’re a part of this rapidly expanding and immersive moment in internet culture. It’s a world all their own, and they want to contribute their little section to the overarching narrative in any way that they can. For Ollie, the first artist that Dream ever gave a shoutout to on Twitter from his dedicated Dream fan art account and who wants to pay it forward by giving new artists their chance in the spotlight, that’s everything.

“If it weren’t for the community that we’ve built, the Dream SMP wouldn’t have the same charm that it does,” Ollie said. “And I think the creators know that, too.”

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sauernymann61 · 1 year

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Living The DreamsLiving The Dreams

Living the Dream SMP

Inside the massive fandom making Dream SMP YouTube’s biggest hit

By Julia Alexander

“OLLIE, DREAM JUST GAVE YOU A SHOUTOUT ON TWITTER!”

“DREAM SHOUTED YOU OUT!”

“In that moment, I felt so valued in the community.”

On the Dream SMP, there’s always something big brewing

Being a member of the Dream SMP community can sometimes feel like a full-time job. For Evan, it’s practically become one. At 16, he juggles attending school and working on documentary-style videos for his channel, he told The Verge. Each video is designed to provide an entertaining and accurate summary of the various lore that comes out of Dream SMP storylines, and a growing audience tunes in. Evan has nearly 400,000 subscribers, and his Dream SMP videos collect millions of views. DOWN WITH DESTRUCTION Those videos can take Evan more than a month to complete; his last video took more than 120 hours alone.

“Homework is essentially keeping me from working”

With the Dream SMP creators posting fewer YouTube videos and documentarians like Evan taking additional time to get the videos just right, a need has developed for daily updates.

“We have a lot of responsibility”

The Dream SMP narrative isn’t fan service; it’s “collaborative storytelling”

“When people do listen and are respectful, the community is at its best.”

“If it weren’t for the community that we’ve built, the Dream SMP wouldn’t have the same charm that it does,” Ollie said. “And I think the creators know that, too.”

WhatsApp is back online after a major two-hour outage

Microsoft’s new $599 Mac Mini-like PC is designed to improve Windows on Arm

Kids who play video games score higher on brain function tests

iPadOS 16’s Stage Manager is not the future of multitasking you were hoping for

Apple iPad (10th gen) review: stuck in the middle

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#DOWN WITH DESTRUCTION #DOWNWITHDESTRUCTION

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bqstqnbruin · 3 years

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Minefield

Hi I wrote a Tito fic so here it is.

This is inspired by this clip from Good Trouble and the song Minefield, originally by Faouzia and John Legend, but the version by Emma Hunton and Josh Pence

Shoutout to @starshine-hockey-girl for being an angel and sending in some suggestions for whatever questions I asked, @fuckyeahmattytkachuk for everything because I ranted to her about this for too long trying to figure out who to write this for, @stfukie so you'd feel included (jk you gave a suggestion to something), @josthours because you said you wanted Tito angst, my chapped lipped menace anon for being you, and then I'm forgetting people I'm sorry

There are probably typos in this but I feel like y'all should expect that by now I'm not sorry

Flashbacks are in italics

Warnings: Swearing

Word Count: 7250

___________________________

Cleaning out your closet turned out to be more time and effort than you initially anticipated, trying to consolidate everything into a few boxes and donating as much as you could that you no longer had a use for. You were moving in with your boyfriend, excited to get a new place with the guy you were in love with. The things in your room, your clothing and other trinkets and shit, were the only things you really had to move, thankful that he already owned everything else you would have needed.

For the most part, sorting through everything was easy; keep the clothing you knew you wore, donate the things that haven’t come out of your closet in the last year or two, and then keep anything in a box that was too sentimental to give away.

You weren’t expected to find the blue box at the back of your closet, though. The one you thought you threw away when you first started dating your boyfriend, the one with everything from your ex that you didn’t want to see laying around your room and the rest of your apartment. The top had a sticky note taped to it, the classic pale yellow Post-It tapes down, Anthony written on it in your handwriting, a stark contrast to the navy blue box it was on. You remembered when you bought the box like it was yesterday, something you were planning on giving him if you ever got married.

It was full of little trinkets and stuff from your relationship, memories, and symbols as the two of you fell in love with each other that you were supposed to be able to look back at fondly later in life.

You pull out a receipt, dated five years ago. It was from what had become your go to restaurant with Anthony, the place you went to celebrate everything; a big win, a birthday, your anniversary. This was from your very first date.

You were nervous, honestly. It was one of your first dates with a guy that was an actual date, not something that was understood and confirmed to turn into a hookup, something you had done a few times before. Your friend had set you up with her friend, Anthony, neither of you really knowing what to expect out of tonight. Aili knew both of you really well and was convinced you two were made for each other.

You were ‘twin flames’ as she put it, meant to be together and that he was the person you were meant to be with.

Aili was a little out there, though, the friend who you went to when you needed convincing to do something stupid despite knowing it was a bad idea, so you weren’t really sure that you should be trusting her as much as you did.

Anthony had asked you if you wanted him to pick you up to take you to the restaurant Aili had suggested, but you told him you would be leaving right from work so you would meet him there. It wasn’t totally true, but you figured that way, if Aili was wrong, you wouldn’t also have to sit through an awkward car ride back to your place or having to pay for an Uber.

You hadn’t been this nervous for a date in a while, Aili’s pressure about you two being made for each other finally starting to get to you when you pulled up to the restaurant. You felt like your knees were about to buckle under you out of nerves when the host showed you to your table where Anthony was already waiting.

His face lit up when he saw you, his own nerves due to Aili’s hype about you melting away when he brought you in for a hug to greet you. You didn’t remember ever meeting this man before, but his hug was weirdly comforting. You felt like you belonged in the arms of this stranger in front of you.

You two fell into easy conversation, the rest of the noise and bustle of the restaurant melting away around you, like you two were the only people there. He was so easy to talk to. From the outside, you looked like people who had known each other for their entire lives, two friends catching up after a long time apart.

The waiter eventually comes over to tell you that they were closing soon, neither of you realizing you had spent so long sitting at that table when both of you were initially worried about potential disaster. You hurriedly pay your bill and start walking in the opposite direction of your car, Anthony’s hand finding yours as you strolled through the night.

“I want to see you again,” he told you, stopping and pulling you close to the building. His back was pressed against the brick, the cool material nothing compared to what he felt when you put your hand on his chest, his arms snaking around your waist.

“You think you’re gonna have time for me?” you teased him.

“I’d make time,” Anthony said, pulling you in for a kiss.

He always did, too. Anthony was good for keeping the promises he made to you, no matter how unrealistic they seemed to be when he made them. You thought that with hockey, he would never be able to have you and his career in his life, but no matter what, he was there for you every single time.

You turn the receipt over in your hands, the paper turning yellow with time, Anthony’s handwriting on the back, “this is going to last.”

You take in a deep breath, shifting through the box to see what else there was. The heaviest item, somehow still near the top, was your favorite book.

Before Anthony left for the summer after the season ended, you two decided that you were going to see other people. You didn’t want to tie each other down when it was going to be nearly four months before you could be with each other again, not long enough into your relationship to justify the distance.

You still promised to talk to each other as often as you could.

One of your parting gifts, as weird as it might have been, was a new copy of your favorite book.

“So you’re in the same place I am?” Anthony asked you over Facetime one night, the first call you had with each other since he went back home for the summer. He was holding the book up near his face as he lied in his bed, a cheesy grin on his face, posing with it like a child on their first day of school waiting for the bus.

“Yeah, you have my new copy.”

“And, tell me again why you have two copies of it?” he asked, propping his phone so he could flip through the book with both hands. His sheets slid down, revealing more of his bare chest, you for a moment wanting nothing more than to be right there with him.

“Uh,” you started, trying to collect yourself, a stupid smirk covering his face since he knew you were unable to stop staring. “I wore the other copy down after reading it so many times, so I got a new one.”

Anthony looked up at the camera, the smirk now a full smile. “That’s cute,” he said, picking up the phone again. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too. When do you come back down?”

“End of August, not sure the date yet.” You nod, trying to figure out how long that would be from his ballpark. “What are you doing in the meantime?”

You shrugged, “same shit, different days.” You had no plans. You agreed that if you wanted to take the time to see other people it would be ok. He made it seem like he almost expected you to have guys knocking down your door to take you out. “What about you?”

“Uh, I have a date, actually,” he told you, looking back down at the book. Another condition of the separation, or whatever it was: tell the other if you went out with someone else. He couldn’t bear to look at you when he told you, though. “She’s someone I know from high school. She hit me up when she saw I was home.”

“Oh,” you said, swallowing hard. You didn’t expect to hear that, and you definitely did not expect it to have the effect that it did on you, either. “That sounds great. I hope you have a good time.”

Anthony knew you were faking the niceness you were giving him. He could tell the way your voice was wavering. “Um, what if you asked Aili to set you up with someone? Like she did us,” he suggested, immediately regretting bringing it up.

You let out an awkward laugh, pretending like what he just said didn’t hurt you in the slightest. “Oh, come on,” you tried to joke, “You think I can’t get a guy on my own?”

He smiled at you, lying back down on his pillow, one arm over his head. “I know you could get any guy you wanted.”

“Yeah, well,” you let your sentence trail off, not wanting to tell him what you were thinking out loud. ‘The guy I want is in Quebec right now.’

A few days passed before you heard from him again, letting you know that he thought the date was fine but he didn’t think he would see her again. He was typing as you were walking up to your door, a package sitting outside with your name on it.

Inside was the book you sent him, an envelope sticking out of it. Inside, an undated plane ticket to Quebec, and a note in Anthony’s handwriting, ‘I didn’t want you to go four months without your book, and I don’t want to go four months without you. Come see me when you can.’

Before you could call him, he finally sent his text, ‘my next date is with this girl I’m crazy about, whenever she can get up here from New York.’

You hadn’t even looked at that book since you came back from that summer with him, all but forgetting you even had that second copy. You used that plane ticket a week later, somehow managing to get two weeks off work to spend with Anthony back in his hometown, him leading you around all of his favorite places, telling you that he didn’t want to spend that long without you, that he didn’t want to see other people. You only wanted to see each other.

It’s amazing how times could change things, though.

You shake off those thoughts, digging deeper into what seemed like a never-ending box of tangible emotions when you came across a wristband from a carnival ride at the Hebron Fairgrounds.

“We’ve been driving for almost four hours for this?” you asked him, your legs stiff as you tried to get out of his car. He brought to the Hebron Fairgrounds in Hebron, Connecticut, a ride from the island that should have taken three hours, but your Magellan boyfriend took a wrong turn and ended up heading towards New York State instead of central Connecticut. “What’s so special about this?”

He came around to you, his arm resting on your shoulder as he guided you towards the entrance. “This is one of the only times before the season starts that we can travel together where I don’t have to worry about a game. And this is close enough that it should have been a day trip.”

“So we’re going home after this?”

“Ahh,” he hummed, kissing the top of your head and pulling out his wallet with his other hand, “I have a reservation at a bed and breakfast not far from here, and may or may not have a bag packed for you already in the trunk of my car.”

You looked at him, unable to contain your smile despite the fact that you were confused as to how he managed to plan this without you. He had only been back in New York for about a week, and you had spent every moment he wasn’t on the rink together. “You sneaky boy,” you teased as he paid for the two of you. “There’s no way you got everything if you did it on your own.”

The person behind the ticket counter gave you two wristbands, Anthony taking your hand and putting it on you, his fingers lingering as he wants to take your hand in his. His cheeks turned pink, looking down at your hand as you two moved out of the way. “Ok, Aili might have helped.”

“There it is,” you laughed, the two of you walking through the Fairgrounds together. You had to admit, the four hour drive was worth it. You couldn’t remember going to a fair like this one ever, none of the ones when you were growing upcoming close to this one, and definitely not in New York.

Anthony guided you around the grounds, taking you from booth to booth, buying you anything that you told him you thought was nice from the different vendors, finding a booth that had the most amazing bison burgers and apple cider shakes.

“Jesus, these taste good,” you said with your mouth full, Anthony laughing and reaching over to you to wipe the aioli off the corner of your lips.

He pulled you in for a kiss, laughing as he had to wipe off more food from your face, crumbs from the bun of the burger this time. “I can’t take you anywhere, can I?” he asked.

The day turned into night, the two of you playing the various carnival games, you not afraid to make fun of him as he sucked at every single one of them, winning you nothing. You did win a small teddy bear, however, making sure to gloat to him and even going as far as naming it Anthony after him.

“Oh, come on,” you whined as you stood in line for the Ferris wheel, shoving the bear in his face, “He’s so cute, just like you.”

Anthony smiled at you as he swatted your hand out of his face, wrapping his arms around your waist. “Am I only cute? Nothing more?”

“No, the bear is better.” He pouted at you, his bottom lip jutting out. “Oh come on, what do you have that Bear Anthony doesn’t?”

“So many things!” he argued as the two of you got into the pod. “I have so many things that the bear does not. And I know for a fact that you enjoy all of them.”

You laughed, the bear sitting in your lap as you rested your head on his shoulder. The ride started, bringing you two up to see the entire Fairgrounds. It stopped at the top, giving you a moment to see everything below you; the rides lighting up everything down below, adults and children, the booths, everything.

“It’s,” you started, trying to find the words when you looked up at the sky, the stars somehow still visible and bright despite the lights, “I love this.”

“I love you,” you heard Anthony say.

“What?” you looked at him, both of you slightly shocked. Aili had banked on you being the first person to say those words, not him.

“I love you,” he told you more confidently. “I know we haven’t been seeing each other for that long, but I do. I think I have been for a while now.”

You could tell he was nervous to say this to you by the way his cheeks were turning bright pink. You rested your head on his shoulder, Anthony putting his arm around you and kissing the top of your head. “I love you, too.”

You weren’t sure where that bear was now though, the little Anthony you won that ended up being a piece of him by your side whenever the real one was gone. But the first time he told you he loved you was, of course, always going to be something special, something worth remembering.

You put the wristband back in the box, now playing a claw game with the contents of the box and pulling out a strip from a photo booth, the two of you looking so happy, you lucky enough to have it captured on film.

One of your friends from college was getting married, and naturally, Anthony was your plus one. Aili was there somewhere, probably already drunk and looking to hook up with a member of the bridal party despite your protests over it.

“There she is,” you pointed to your lilac-haired friend, her back towards you and Anthony dancing together. “How close do you think she is to closing?”

The two of you had been playing sort of a Where’s Waldo type game with your mutual friend, seeing as she had been bouncing from groomsman to bridesmaid in hopes that one of them was both single and interested. It seemed like she hadn’t had luck until she found the man standing in front of her.

“His hand is already on her ass, so I think they’re going home together,” Anthony pointed out, pulling you closer to him. “I could do that to you, you know,” he flirted, his grip tightening around you.

“Not in public,” you whispered to him, “But we have a room upstairs for after.”

He dipped down to kiss you, hearing him hum against your lips as the DJ announced that the bride and one of her parents were going to share a dance together. The two of you moved off the floor, Anthony’s hands never leaving your body.

The two of you watched the bride and one of her parents dance together, Anthony’s arm around you as you rested your head on his shoulder. The song ended as the groom approached his new bride, the two of them sharing another dance together while the guests watched.

They looked at each other like there was no one else in the world, nothing that could break them apart. “I can’t wait for that to be us,” Anthony whispers in your ear, planting a kiss on your jaw.

“You think we’re going to get married?”

“If everything goes the way I would like it to, then hopefully.”

You looked over to him, something about the soft smile on his face made you believe him and want the same. You could see yourself marrying Anthony. Not right now, you didn’t even live together, but eventually. “I like that.”

The night went on, the two of you continuously tracking down Aili as she made her way through the bridal party to find one person to go home with, the guy from before apparently not working out since he had also moved on to another girl.

“Hey, guys,” Aili finally came over, one of the bridesmaids not far behind her, “Scarlett wants to go up to the room she has, so can you watch my stuff until I’m back?” Before you could answer, she handed you her bag and her jacket, not giving you the chance to object while she ran hand in hand with the girl.

“When will you be back?”

“Hopefully tomorrow morning,” she called before disappearing. You couldn’t help but laugh, setting her stuff down with yours. You were sure she would show up at your door, sometime tomorrow afternoon, probably with her hair and makeup in utter disarray but extremely happy with herself.

“Hey, there’s a photo booth, want to take some pictures?” Anthony asked you.

“You think Aili’s stuff will be alright unattended?” you joked, following Anthony’s lead to the booth.

The booth was small, Anthony having to hold you in his lap just to fit both of you in it. He closes the curtain, his arms around your waist. He nuzzles his head on your shoulder, both of you staring at the camera in front of you. “How about a regular smile to start?”

You go through the four photos, a regular smile, two with silly faces, and the last one where you two kiss, a generic, cliche, couple in a photobooth strip.

You knew you had taken a lot of photos like the ones you were holding in your hands, this strip was apparently one of the only ones that you still had. You didn’t even think you had any left on your phone.

You continue the claw game, your phone buzzing with a message from your boyfriend telling you he would be there soon to start loading some stuff into the truck to move to your new place. You should have been packing, but something about the Anthony box made you forget about that. You found the keyring next, his team’s logo now faded, but you knew exactly what it was from.

You couldn’t believe it had two years of dating Anthony. It didn’t feel like two years, simultaneously feeling like you had been together forever but had only known each other for such an insignificant amount of time in the grand scheme of things.

You didn’t realize, however, that you were together for that long when you had called him in a panic, your floor soaking wet from a pipe that burst under the sink in your kitchen.

“My landlord is a dick and said he won’t be able to get anyone out here for three days, please, please, please?” you begged him, hoping that he could figure out what you had to do, or at the very least could bring some tool that you didn’t have that would help you fix it while watching a Youtube video.

“I’ll be over in ten minutes,” he sighed, hanging up on you before you could say anything else. He got there sooner than he should have, a wrench in hand and you hoping it was enough to fix whatever was wrong. “You owe me.”

“You’re my favorite person in the world and I will do anything for you,” you said, dragging him into the kitchen. “Fix,” you say, pointing to the sink, the water still leaking out from behind the cabinets.

The two of you sat down on the towels you had laid out before he got there, Anthony cringing at the feeling against his shorts. He opened the cabinet, getting under there and trying to fidget with the washers that were there to see if he could make anything of it.

“What do you think you need to do?” you asked him, holding a flashlight for him. Before he could answer, more water was spraying at you, soaking your already damp shirt, definitely getting Anthony everywhere, as well. “A towel?”

“Very funny,” he said, weaseling his way out from the sink once he managed to get the water shut off, taking the towel from your hands to dry his face off. “You know, if you wanted me with a wet T-shirt, you could have just asked,” he told you, causing the heat to rush to your cheeks.

“Yeah, that’s why I called you over,” you told him, getting off the ground. “God, I hate living here.”

“You could always move in with me.” You turned around in shock, Anthony rubbing the towel on his head to dry his hair as if what he just asked you wasn’t a major step in your relationship. “What?”

“Move in with you?”

“Well, yeah. Most of your stuff is already at my place anyway, your lease is ending soon thankfully, you have a jackass for a landlord, and I love you,” he told you, pulling you close to him. “Why wouldn’t I want you to live with me?”

You smiled at him, curling your fingers in the belt loops of his jeans, getting on your toes to kiss him. “You really want me to live with you?”

He let go of you to reach into his back pocket and fidgeted with his key ring. He pulled off a key, already attached to a charm with his team’s logo. “I had this made for you about three months ago. I’ve just been waiting for the right moment to give it to you.”

You loved living with him, forgetting that you still had this stupid blue and orange charm still in your possession. The next thing you pulled out was what finally started to break you, physically feeling like holding this in your hand was ripping you apart piece by piece. The first full season you and Anthony lived together, he got you a postcard for every city he went to on an away game, lists on the back of each one, every city, every away game.

“Anthony, what is this?” you yelled to him when you came back to your place with the mail. It was his writing, a picture of the Liberty Bell on one side of the postcard, his messy script covering the back. “Did you really mail something from Philly to me?”

“Yeah, why?”

“It’s dated five days ago, you came back from Philly four days ago. You could have just given me this and saved the cost of the stamp.”

“That would have been too easy,” he blushed. You knew him well enough to know that that thought hadn’t crossed his mind, not thinking about how it would have been easier to probably slip it in with the mail instead of waiting for it to make the trip from Philly to the island.

You flip it over, trying to figure out why he would send it to you in the first place. Anthony had written on the back

The Liberty Bell

The Rocky Steps

The inside of the Philadelphia Art Museum

A Game at the Palestra

Rolled ice cream at the Franklin Fountain

Walk Boathouse Row and the Schuylkill

Explore around the Main Line

Have brunch at Sabrina’s

“What is all this?”

Anthony came up behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist and resting his head on your shoulder. “That’s some of the stuff the guys and I did when we had some downtime. And some stuff we didn’t do that I want to.”

“So, what, you’re just gloating that you get to do fun things when you aren’t working your literal dream job?” you teased him.

“No, no,” he laughed. “This is all the stuff I want to do with you. You know, if we ever get the chance to explore that city.”

Every trip he went on, he came home with a new postcard

Boston

Go into Cambridge and see Harvard

Walk the Freedom Trail

Eat in the North End at an Italian restaurant

Get pastry from Mike’s

Spend the day in the Commons

See a game at Fenway

Calgary

Go to the Stampede

Go to Banff and Lake Louise

Go to the top of Calgary Tower

Walk to Prince’s Island Park

Take the Rocky Mountaineer Rail Journey

Get doughnuts from the Dapper Doughnuts Calgary

Eat at Native Tongues Taqueria

Every city with a list of things you never got to do with him

You weren’t ready for the postcards, tying them back up with the bow that had held them together for however many years the box had been sitting in your closet. It was like the bow that held your relationship together until everything started to unravel

“You know you have to tell him,” Aili said, earning a groan from you.

“Really?” you snapped. “You mean I shouldn’t just disappear on my boyfriend and avoid him so that he doesn’t find out?”

Aili scowled at you. “Ok, you’re stressed, so I’ll let that slide. But he just won the last game at the Coliseum. Do you think now is a good time to do it?”

“Is any time a good time to do it?” Your friend shrugged, falling back into the cushions of the couch. There was nothing left to say until Anthony got home. You sat in silence, the only noise coming from the TV despite you having no idea what you were watching. “I can’t sit here, talk to me about something. How are things going with Scarlett?”

Aili lit up at the chance to talk about her girlfriend, the bridesmaid from the wedding a few years back. Aili did in fact return the next morning to your place for her stuff, but with Scarlett in tow, insisting that the three of you go out for brunch to start what turned into what was probably Aili’s most successful relationship so far. Listening to her talk about Scarlett, for a second, made you forget what you had to tell Anthony.

Until she mentioned that morning after at the brunch place, relaying that she remembered Scarlett telling her how excited she was to go on a double date with you and Anthony when you broke down crying.

“Hey, babe, no, come here,” Aili cooed, pulling you into her arms.

“This is going to break us,” you let out through your sobs. You knew it was going to end your relationship; there was no way you could do this and stay with him.

“It might not last forever,” she told you. “You could always come back.”

Before you can respond, Anthony came bursting through the door, bursting with joy over winning the game, pushing the series to the seventh game. He knew he potentially scored the last goal for his team at Nassau, but, shit, you were about to break him. “We’re celebrating, babe!” he yelled before he saw you and Aili sitting there on the couch, your mood clearly the opposite of his. He was sure you had been watching the game, so he thought you would be as happy as he was when he got home. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Aili looked between the two of you before getting up. “I’m going to leave you two alone.”

Anthony took Aili’s seat, the concern in his eyes bringing you that much closer to tears again. “Hey, talk to me.”

“I got a promotion at work,” you told him.

His face lit up, bouncing on the couch a little bit as he yelled again, “That’s amazing!”

“But,” you started, watching his face drop as he repeated your word while he waited for you to continue. “I have to transfer.”

“To where?” he asked, his voice small.

“Seattle.”

“Don’t go,” he said to you.

“What?” you asked him, shocked by the seriousness on his face. “I can’t-”

“Don’t go. I don’t want you to go.”

“This is my job, Anthony, I can’t not go.”

“No,” he said, fighting back the tears. He knew just as well as you did what it meant for your relationship if you moved to the other side of the country. “I don’t want you to go.”

“Anthony, you don’t get to decide that for me.”

He huffed as he got up from the couch, clearly upset with you for telling him you had to leave. “But what about us? Are you really telling me that this job is more important than us?”

“I never said that.”

“If you take this job then that’s what you’re saying to me.”

You stood there in front of him, both of you now angry at the other. “If that’s what you think of me then I’m glad I’m leaving,” you spit at him, pushing past him to go to your room.

Anthony stood there in shock, watching you go down the hall, jumping again at the sound of the bedroom door slamming. His phone buzzed in his pocket, one of his teammates asking him where the two of you were. He shook his head, going towards your bedroom door. Standing outside, his fist ready to knock to try to talk to you.

His phone buzzed again, another teammate. He couldn’t hear any noise coming from the other side; he didn’t know you were sitting there waiting for him to come and talk to him. You weren’t sure if you had wanted the promotion in the first place. Moving across the country was a lot, and leaving Anthony wasn’t something you were ready for. But his outburst, for whatever reason, made you think that you were supposed to go. If he had come back, you might have listened to him about staying.

Instead, he turned around, leaving the puck he had scored the game-winning goal with. The tape around it said, “For Y/F/I Y/L/I”. You heard the front door close, Anthony leaving to go out with his teammates. You came out, finding the puck sitting on the couch where the two of you were earlier.

The box seemed never-ending, every item in there bringing back emotions and memories that you hadn’t thought of in a while, for good reason, too. You didn’t know how much more you could take, how much longer before you had to load the truck. You were pulling out items and feeling as if you were tiptoeing around a minefield, one stupid artifact from your past away from breaking you altogether.

“Are you really leaving?” Anthony asked you the day you booked your ticket and made arrangements for your stuff to be shipped.

“Yep,” you answered, short. Since the night you told him, things were off between the two of you. You were barely speaking, barely even looking at each other or acknowledging the presence of the other. He was mad you chose your career over him, you were mad he wasn’t being supportive.

He sighed as he sat down next to you on the couch. Even that was different; he would have put his arm around you, cuddled with you, and watched whatever you had on, at that point, he was like you two were strangers who were meeting for the first time. “I’m gonna miss you,” you heard him say, his voice shaking slightly.

Anthony wasn’t one to cry in front of you, but you were almost sure he was about to in that moment. “I’m going to miss you, too.”

Neither of you said anything, sitting on the couch, your arms crossed over your chests.

A knock at your door startled you out of the silence, you and Anthony exchanging confused looks before he got up to find a package sitting there. “It’s for both of us?”

You were definitely curious, the return address indicating that it was from someone’s Etsy shop. Inside were two mugs, outlines of New York and Washington with one of those cheesy ‘we’ll always be together’ lines written in cursive.

“It’s from Aili,” Anthony said, holding a slip of paper. “You’ll always be together, even when you’re apart. You’re two souls of the same, two pieces of the same heart.”

You held the mug in your hand, looking up at Anthony, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

Seattle quickly felt like home, you falling into a comfortable rhythm, finding friends, liking your new job, everything was going right. You checked your phone, your boyfriend telling you that he was only a few minutes away. There was only one last thing that you knew was in this box, the last thing you were sure you would be able to look at.

Your phone buzzed to remind you that you were supposed to leave the office five minutes ago and head down to the arena. You were seeing the Kraken play, the hockey jersey you wore every game was folded neatly in the backseat of your car. All you had to do was leave.

“Hey, Vera,” you called to your coworker. “I’ve gotta head out.”

“Are you seeing-” she started, only to be cut off by you.

“Yes, of course I am,” you sang, leaving before she could ask you any more questions. You had rushed to your car, getting to the arena and throwing on your jersey as fast as you could.

“I thought you weren’t going to make it!” Lauren said when you sat down next to her. “I thought you didn’t want to come.”

You knew why she was saying that: the Kraken were playing the Islanders for the first time at home that season.

It was also the first time you were going to see Anthony in person since you broke up.

You shook your head, trying to play it off as if seeing him in warm-ups at that moment was no big deal. “I come to every home game, why would I miss this one?”

Lauren shrugged, the game starting as the two of you sat there and watched in silence. “Does he know about Jamie?” she asked you.

When Anthony told his teammates you were moving to Seattle, Jordan sort of took you under his wing since he and Lauren were moving, too. Anthony thought it was a good idea that you have someone there who you knew while you were getting settled, and it wasn’t like you were going to object to having a familiar face around in an unfamiliar city. What he hadn’t seen coming was Jordan introducing you to one of his teammates. He hadn’t thought about the possibility of you and Jamie getting close when you and Anthony officially broke up.

He didn’t see you falling in love with Jamie.

You told Lauren you had no idea. You weren’t sure if Anthony still followed you on social media, and you definitely didn’t think he followed Jamie, either. Until you saw Anthony coming up behind Jamie, skating faster than you had ever seen him skate and check Jamie from behind. Despite the size difference between the two, Jamie not expecting Anthony and Anthony coming from behind threw Jamie to the ice. He sprung back up, the two of them getting ready to fight despite the uneven matchup, the refs getting between the two of them and throwing Anthony from the game.

“I think he knows,” Lauren said, you sinking back into your seat.

You didn’t pay attention the rest of the game, thinking about Anthony instead. Lauren nudged you at the end, the Kraken beating the Islanders 4-1. The two of you went down to wait outside the locker rooms for your partners, you praying that you wouldn’t bump into Anthony.

“Hey,” you heard a familiar voice say, a pain in your chest hitting you immediately. “I thought I would see you here.”

Anthony was standing in front of you, looking just as nervous as you were. “Yeah. I’m at every home game.” The two of you stood there awkwardly, that comfort you once felt with him gone. “So, uh, how have you been?”

“Good, good,” he nodded, looking down at his feet.

You figured out why when you felt Jamie’s hand snake around your waist, your current boyfriend placing a gentle kiss on your cheek. “Hey, babe.”

“You were amazing,” you beamed at him, forgetting for a moment that Anthony was standing there.

“It helped knowing you were cheering me on,” he said, dipping down to kiss you. Anthony cleared his throat, whether voluntary or not, causing the two of you to pull apart. “I’m gonna wait for you outside, sound good?” He kissed you again before running off, not wanting to see anything happen between you and your ex.

“Does he make you happy?” Anthony asked you, catching you off guard.

You show him a soft smile, thinking of everything Jamie did for you on a daily basis. Like your relationship with Anthony, you fell in love with him quickly, despite taking it much slower than you did with the boy in front of you. “Yeah. He does.”

Anthony swallowed, the words bringing him joy but crushing him at the same time. “That’s all I want for you.” You heard one of his teammates calling his name to get on the bus to head to the hotel, Anthony reaching into his coat to give you something. “You left it when you moved. I didn’t know if it was on purpose or not, so I figured I would bring it and give it to you. If you wanted it.”

He held a gold heart necklace in front of you, the one he got you for the first birthday you celebrated with him. You did leave it there on purpose. You knew it was expensive, and you didn’t feel right taking it from him.

“Uh, yeah, I did. Thanks for this,” you lied to him, taking it from him. The two of you stood there for a moment, neither of you sure what to say. “I should go meet Jamie.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, running his hand through his hair as you turned on your heels to leave. “Actually, wait. You,” he started, taking in a deep breath. “You loved me, right?”

“Anthony, of course I did.”

“Then why did you leave?”

“Sometimes, love just isn’t enough.”

That memory, out of all of them, finally broke you. You missed him. You missed the way he looked at you, the way he held you, how he knew everything about you and how to make you happy.

You pull out your phone, his contact still there as one of your favorites. You never changed it, the same stupid emojis by his name that were there since he had asked you out. Your finger hovered over his contact name, knowing that you shouldn’t call him. You hadn’t heard his voice since that night you broke up, even though you told each other you would try to work things out. You could call Anthony, hear his voice. At the very least, get his voice mail.

But you couldn’t bring yourself to hit that call button, instead deleting his contact altogether. You were done with him, moving on to something different. Moving on, and in, with Jamie. That simple action shouldn’t have broken you further than you already were just looking at this floodgate of what should have been good times for you, for whatever reason tears falling down your face no matter how hard you tried not to cry, already having used those tears when you first stopped seeing Anthony. You put your phone down, shuffling through other things in the box, more small pieces of paper, tickets, receipts, photos from while you were together with the dates and events written on the back, reliving every instance as you stared at everything that was supposed to still have significance and that you were supposed to still be adding to.

“Hey, babe, the truck’s downstairs,” Jamie knocks on your door, tearing you away from the contents of that box. He studies your face, probably able to pick up on the tear stains down your cheeks as he gets to your level, sitting beside you on the floor. He gently brushes a lock of your hair behind your ear, cupping your face. “What’s wrong?”

You sniffle, closing the box in your lap. “Nothing.”

“What is that?”

“Might as well be part of a minefield,” you tell him, a confused look on his face. You shake your head, clarifying, “A box of old memories.”

He nods at you, his thumb tracing a pattern on your cheek, you reaching up to kiss the palm of his hand as he asks, “Are they worth keeping?”

You look down at the box in your lap, the one whose contents brought back four years of happiness to you. “No,” you tell him, putting it in the pile of things to throw away. “We’re moving in together. We’re going to make memories of our own.”

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farfromtommy · 4 years

Text

black and white (tom holland x singer!reader)

request: all too well part two? Maybe happy ending

a/n: this is a continuation of all too well! i left this one with kind of an open ending. not angsty like the previous fic. i really loved writing this and i’ve been thinking about making this sort of a mini series with different songs. please let me know what you think! based off of the song black and white by niall horan

requests are open!

word count: 2,200

warnings: quick allusion to sex

masterlist social media au masterlist taglist form

part 1

You walked calmly off stage wiping the few tears off your face. You kept your head down as you walked towards your dressing room to get ready to leave, moving as quickly as you could to avoid any familiar faces. With the last of your things packed, you grabbed your bag and followed your assistant out of the building. Right as you rounded a corner you heard chatter and Tom’s voice right ahead of you. He spotted you immediately and said ‘if you’ll excuse me for just one second’ before walking towards you.

“Hey, Y/N. It’s uh.. It’s really good to see you.” Tom mumbled quietly, rubbing the back of his neck. Your assistant looked at you questioningly. “I’ll be out in a minute, just have the car pull around.” You said to her and she walked off.

“Yeah it’s good to see you, too.” You rubbed the side of your arm and met his gaze. “They didn’t tell me who was going to be on the show tonight. I probably wouldn’t have put us in this position if I would’ve known you were here with everyone.” You told him truthfully. Regardless of how things ended for you and Tom, the last thing you wanted to do was put him in an uncomfortable situation.

He had an unreadable expression on his face. It was uncommon for you to be unable to know what Tom was feeling, it had become a sort of superpower of yours.

“It was an amazing performance, I’m glad I was able to see it. You know I always loved watching you perform.” He said, gesturing his hand to the entrance to the stage. He was nervous, you knew it. You saw movement from behind him and saw your manager waving you to hurry up the conversation.

“T-Thank you. Uh, look. I need to go. Tonight is the last show on tour at O2 and I need to get to rehearsals. Um. If you want to go, I’ll have my assistant put you on the guest list. Bring whomever you’d like, there won’t be a guest limit. We can talk more after the show, if you’d like.” You moved to start walking towards the door, nodding towards your assistant.

“Yeah, I’d really enjoy that. I’ll be there.” He said, saying his goodbyes as you said yours and he watched you jog off. You looked over your shoulder as you walked out the door and saw him still staring at you.

Tom walked into the VIP section, nerves radiating off of him. He was recognized by a few other celebrities there and by the fans sitting close by. Flashes started going off in the stands and screams were heard as he looked around and waved. He was wearing a lanyard with your new album cover and ‘special guest’ written along the bottom.

He greeted the handful of people he knew and took a few pictures as well. He ran into a few of your friends who seemed shocked and a bit skeptical to see him, knowing the history. He shot them a tightlipped smile and a polite nod before grabbing a beer and heading to a spot where you could see him from the stage.

He had been in this spot like this many, many times before. Him and Harrison had often gone to your shows as special guests for support. This was the opening night of you opening for Harry Styles. He did his first musical feature on your latest album and you had been really good friends for a while, so it made sense to have you open for him. It was a dream of yours to perform in O2 stadium alongside an amazing artist like him. He knew one day it’d be your name in big letters all over the stadium.

The lights dimmed and the thousands of people screamed as they heard the beat to one of your songs. You walked out with a huge grin on your face and started singing the lyrics. All the fans joined in and even Tom caught himself singing along. The song ended and the screams of the crowd made Tom’s whole body vibrate. He looked around and saw the pure joy spread across the faces of the fans at the mere sight of you.

“London, how are we doing tonight?!” You screamed into the mic and pointed it towards the crowd.

“I’m so overwhelmed with joy, excitement, and a little bit of nervousness to be here tonight. This is the biggest crowd I think I have ever performed in front of. Everyone give yourselves a round of applause for selling out all 20,000 seats!” You giggled into the mic as the crowd continued to go crazy.

“I just want to give a quick shoutout to my amazing friend for allowing me to join him on tour this year. Travelling the world with such an amazing group of people has been the adventure of a lifetime and I’m so grateful to have been a part of this. Let’s give it up for Harry Styles!” The crowd went nuts at the mention of the headliner and Tom politely clapped and cheered.

One of Tom’s favorite things in the world was watching you perform. He loved the energy that came out of every pore in your body, and the crowd loved it too. His favorite moments were hearing the crowd singing along to your songs and watching your reactions to it. Your time on stage seemed to go so quick. He hadn’t realized it was almost time for you to wrap up your set.

“I’m having a blast with you all tonight, but unfortunately our time together is coming to a close. I have a few more songs for you tonight. I wrote this next one a few years ago, kind of as a personal message for me and someone really special to me and I never recorded it and only performed it for one person.” You paused, grabbing your favorite guitar and clearing your throat.

“This song means a lot to me, personally. I performed on the Graham Norton show today and while I was there, something reminded me of it and I had to dig it up so I could share it with you all tonight.” You looked around the VIP section until your eyes landed on Tom. His heart sped up as you shot him a smile and he sent you a small wave.

That first night we were standing at your door Fumbling for your keys, then I kissed you Ask me if I want to come inside 'Cause we didn't want to end the night Then you took my hand, and I followed you

He remembers the lyrics to this song vaguely. You wrote this song for him. You would spend hours with your guitar on the couch humming along to lyrics you came up with. You had performed it for him once, when you finished it. He remembers the smile on your face as you sang to him and the blush that spread across your cheeks as he got emotional listening to you sing.

Yeah, I see us in black and white Crystal clear on a star lit night In all your gorgeous colors I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life See me standing in my dress Swear in front of all our friends There'll never be another I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life

This is the song I’m dedicating to you on my album. We’re gonna tell the whole world about us, Tommy. I want everyone to know how much I love you. This is how I want to do it, is what you told him when you set your guitar down after you finished singing the song. He told you he was finally ready to tell the world about your relationship. It had been over a year already, and he was getting tired of sneaking around. He was ready to show you off to everyone.

Now, we're sitting here in your living room Telling stories while we share a drink or two And there's a vision I've been holding in my mind We're 65 and you ask "When did I first know?" I always knew

You always knew Tom was it for you. Even after the breakup, you knew you’d never love anyone the way you love him. Even after meeting Harry and falling into his arms and into his bed, you both were aware of the deep love you still had for Tom. You thanked him for those intimate moments you had with each other and swore it never had to come up again. He stuck by your side and helped you heal from the heartbreak. The friendships you developed with him and his band were the reason you managed to stay afloat and allowed yourself to enjoy life again.

The fans could sense the emotion through your words and stayed silent as your voice filled every corner of the arena. Flashlights were out and hands were in the air as they moved in sync with the people around them. Tom could feel the eyes of your friends burning into his skin as he kept his eyes glued to you. All he wanted to do was jump on stage and tell you everything he wished he could’ve told you after you ran out of his house. He reached out to you handfuls of times after the breakup, wanting to apologize to you and to try and fix what he had broken.

I want the world to witness When we finally say I do It's the way you love I gotta give it back to you I can't promise picket fences Or sunny afternoons But, at night when I close my eyes

Your silence spoke volumes to him. You never returned any of his texts or his calls. The only thing he had heard from you was a message that had been passed onto him by a mutual friend. Y/N said she needs to find out who she is without you. She said that maybe one day your paths will cross again and maybe take another shot at it, but for now she wants to be alone and hopes you understand why. She also wanted me to tell you that she’s never going to stop loving you and if you find someone who makes you happy, she hopes you’ll love them the way you did her. I’m sorry, Tom. I wish I could’ve passed along a better message. Take care of yourself.

I see us in black and white Crystal clear on a star lit night There'll never be another I promise that I'll love ya

Your eyes scanned the crowd and you watched them as they felt every word of what you were singing. You continued your scan to the VIP area and smiled as you saw your friends and they blew kisses to you. Tom’s gaze never broke even as you met his eyes. He felt the emotion bubbling in his gut as he continued to listen and watch you. Your eyes never left his as you kept singing.

I see us in black and white Crystal clear on a star lit night In all your gorgeous colors I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life See me standing in my dress Swear in front of all our friends There'll never be another I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life

He mouthed the words with you as you sang them so powerfully. He let a few tears fall and wiped them away. Your voice wavered a bit as you started to get emotional as well and the crowd heard the slight dip in your voice. Some fans followed your gaze that landed on Tom and went crazy as they saw him in a similar state as you. A few noticed him mouthing the words to the song you had said you only performed for one person. You smirked as you watched the handful of fans put the pieces together and whisper to the people around them. You winked at Tom and he blew you a kiss.

There'll never be another I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life

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