#love girl scout cookie season <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

egcdeath · 4 months

Text

how the cookie crumbles

summary: when you come back home to austin to help your sister with her bakery, you end up in an arrangement with your high school crush that ends up being far more than you bargained for.

word count: 11.5k

warnings: FAKE DATING, au: no outbreak, pining. so much pining and a touch of yearning, idiots to lovers, high school crushes to lovers, very hallmark-romcom esque, fluff, a touch of angst, more fluff, the reader has a sister but the sister doesn’t have a name, joel’s ex is kinda rude, alcohol consumption, cuddling, miscommunication kinda, unrequited love that’s actually requited love, no use of y/n, not beta read.

author’s note: this is my first fic back after taking my several month long break!! i want to give a big shoutout to my texas consultant and biggest cheerleader @cowgurrrl, who encouraged me to write, gave me helpful ideas, and let me dump my brain and my silly little ideas on her whenever <3

For as long as you could remember, you and your sister had been total opposites. As girls, your sister spent her time playing with dolls, experimenting with whatever new hairstyle on your scalp, and eagerly shadowing your mother in the kitchen, while you preferred to spend your time exploring the city on your bike, reading books in your hammock, and doodling whatever had caught your interest in your hourly. As you entered young adulthood, you were unsurprised as your sister married her high school sweetheart just months after graduating college before setting off to start her own business in Austin, while you moved as far as you could out of Texas and began a prosperous career in New York City.

Regardless of the different paths your lives had taken, the minute your sister had even suggested that she might’ve needed help at her bakery, you were booking a flight back home. The holidays were a notoriously busy time for her business, with people wanting cakes and pies to display as their own labors of love at their family gatherings, or to have their children wake up to a dozen expertly decorated cookies under the guise that that was what their Elf on the Shelf had been up to that night.

Given that you had no holiday plans other than drinking Bailey’s-spiked hot chocolate and watching reruns of your favorite season of The Bachelor, it seemed like a no-brainer to come back to Austin. Part of you was excited for your homecoming, to return to the vibrant personality of the city that was a far cry from the east coast city you’d grown to know and love over the years. The other part of you dreaded your return, not feeling particularly excited to have to run into peers from your adolescence while you were trying to peruse the shelves of your local Costco.

You were welcomed with warm arms the moment that you walked through the door of your sister’s home—metaphorically and literally. She practically hugged you the entire way as you dropped your items off in her guest bedroom, then even more so as she directed you to her car, giving you all sorts of updates about your parents and her husband, but not allowing you to forget the whole reason that you’d come home in the first place.

“You’re not hungry or anything, right?” she asked as she hopped into the driver's seat next to you.

“I think I’m good. I ate at the airport,” you replied, slightly amused by your sister’s eagerness to get you to work immediately. Then again, you couldn’t exactly blame her when you thought about how busy she must’ve been.

“Good! I’m gonna put you right to work then. How does frosting cupcakes sound?”

It sounded fine, and it was fine for the first few hours, until the angle of the piping bag started to make the newfound cramping in your hands unbearable, and your sister had to give you an impromptu tutorial on how not to make your rosettes look so… depressing.

“Look, the Girl Scouts need this order in like, an hour, and my cashier is going home in a bit. Give yourself a little break to shake your hand out, or pee, or do whatever it is you have to do, then you can ring customers up. How does that sound?” she finally huffed, clearly just as frustrated with you for your inability to do a task that was practically second nature to her.

“Anything’s better than frosting these damn cupcakes,” you commented as you tossed your gloves into the trash. “If I never have to frost a cupcake again, it’ll be too soon.”

“I love you, which is why I have to tell you that you will be frosting so many more cupcakes in the next few days,” she laughed aloud, looking down at the army of baked goods in front of her that she was still working on meticulously frosting. “But you’ll get used to it. I’ll have Ben give you better instructions. He’s really good at this, for some reason. I’m convinced it’s because he went to art school.”

You groaned dramatically as you exited the kitchen, only to bother your sister if nothing else. After all, wasn’t it your job as a younger sibling to annoy your older sibling?

As much as you enjoyed doing random tasks that your sister needed done in the back, working in the front was definitely one of the better aspects of working at the bakery. There was far less technique involved in doing anything, and when there was downtime in the storefront, you got to passively scroll on social media, turning your brightness down so you could secretly cyberstalk people from your high school in peace.

Being that you were distracted by the phone in your hand, you paid no mind to the shrill sound of the door’s bell as it opened. As you finished up looking at someone’s engagement pictures, you glanced up once before doing a complete double take.

“Hey, I’m just here to pick up the Girl Scout order-”

There was no way.

You hadn’t seen that face in years. Hell, you hadn’t thought about that face in years, despite your mild obsession with him as a teenager.

Joel had been the definition of so close, yet so far. You seemed to always be in his orbit, butterflies in your stomach every time he leaned over his desk to ask you a question about the material or to poke fun at one of the weirder quirks your teacher had. Yet, just as you’d finally worked up the nerve to confess your feelings to him, word got around the school that he was becoming a father. After many pints of ice cream and late nights of your older sister comforting an inconsolable teenage you, you’d finally gotten over the man, letting his memory become a funny anecdote you shared to friends to display your terrible luck in love.

As much as you hated to admit it, he looked good. Obviously, he was much older now, but much to your dismay, he’d aged more like wine than like milk. Donning a new beard that somehow managed to make him even more handsome and biceps that strained against the sleeves of his shirt, he looked far more attractive than you could ever even remember him, his mature look a good one. You were sure his wife loved looking at that striking face in the morning, before she set off to take care of their adorable young daughter. Their perfect little family, still holding up despite the test of time.

You had gotten so caught up in your thoughts, you’d barely registered the fact that Joel had said your name in a tone that held a mixture of excitement and disbelief.

“I haven’t seen you in years! Since high school?” he asked, despite already knowing the answer. The surprise of seeing him, let alone seeing him looking so good led you to smile dumbly and shrug. “Wow!” he remarked.

“It has been a really long time,” you grinned involuntarily, practically feeling yourself revert back to your younger, immature self simply at the sight of the man standing across from you. “How are you? How’s the family?”

“We’re good. Sarah’s turning 13 soon, which is really exciting,” Joel explained, setting a hand on his hip as he did so. You swore you could see the fondness for his daughter as he spoke. “It feels like just yesterday I was feeding her bottles and carrying her around in a sling.”

“I know, they just grow up so fast,” you agreed, as if you’d had any sort of experience in the field. The fact that Joel still had this effect on you, one that made you want to follow him around like a lost puppy and agree with every word that came out of his mouth was mildly concerning to you—particularly because he clearly had a wife and a child.

“They really do. You have any of your own?” Joel asked, looking deep into your eyes and making you want to melt into a puddle on the floor.

“Me? No,” you dismissed before following it up with,. “I’ve been pretty focused on my career, so it’s not exactly the best time for a family. To be quite honest, I think my cats do the trick plenty well.”

“You’re still so responsible,” Joel complimented, stirring something up deep inside of you that you promptly wanted to push right back down. “Clearly, I didn’t do any family planning. I’d say it worked out pretty well, if you don’t count having to get divorced just a few years after getting married.”

This piqued your interest. You could almost feel the teenage version of yourself cheering internally at the news that Joel and the mother of his child had split. She’d always been a bit of a bitch to you, so to hear that the two of them had split had sounded like music to your ears.

“Man, that’s too bad. I always thought you two would be the one couple from our school to make it,” you lied through your teeth, hoping that your entertainment wasn’t too obvious.

Joel chuckled and shook his head, smile lines appearing seemingly out of thin air, and unfortunately making you melt on the inside, just the slightest bit.

“That’s really too bad. I mean, what happened with you guys? If you don’t mind me asking,” you were definitely taking a risk with this question, but you were hoping that the reward of the answer would be worth every bit of boldness you put together to ask.

“We just had… different ideas for our futures,” Joel explained what you could only assume was a very condensed version of what had actually occurred. “You know, she’s actually in town right now.”

“I hadn’t realized she’d left town. Should we keep our voices down then?” you asked jokingly, although it would be quite awkward if his ex wife walked in while the two of you were talking about her.

“No, we’re good,” Joel chuckled. “Sarah really wanted to see her for the holidays, and it wasn’t like I could say no to that request. Although, getting Naomi to actually come was a bit like pulling teeth. I’m sorry, this is way too much information. What about you? Any special people in your life?”

“No, Joel, you’re all good. You know how much of a gossip I was,” you offered him a genuine smile. “Unfortunately, no. Funnily enough, the thing I was dreading most about coming home is having my mom constantly on my ass about bringing home a good man.”

“I get it. It’s exhausting seeing all the PDA whenever Naomi and Henry come back. It’s like they’re rubbing in that we’re so happy together and you’re still all alone.”

“Assholes,” you remarked, rolling your eyes to show Joel just how on his side you were. “I’m sure you’ll find someone someday. I mean, both of us will. Then maybe my mom will stop bothering me and your ex will finally stop acting all high and mighty for being in a relationship.”

“I can only hope,” Joel sighed. “Well, I apologize for dumping all of my holiday woes on you when I really should just be picking up some cupcakes.”

“Oh no, I apologize for holding you up. I’ll go grab that order for you,” you said before walking off to the back, where your sister had just finished putting the final touches on the order.

“Perfect timing,” she remarked, stepping back and running her arm against her slightly damp forehead. “Who were you talking to back there?”

“Oh, no one,” you dismissed, not ready to hear her reaction. “Just giving good customer service.”

The look she gave you told you loud and clear that she didn’t believe you, but it would be a conversation for another time. Since she didn’t seem interested in pressing, you took it as your opportunity to grab the large, pink box, and bring it out to Joel.

“Here’s that order for you,” you said politely. “It was good seeing you today.”

“Yeah, you too,” he said, happily taking the slightly heavy box when you offered it to him. “How long will you be in town?”

“Into the New Year, I think? Maybe earlier, maybe later,” you shrugged.

“We should get together sometime. Maybe get a coffee or something and properly catch up? I would love for you to meet Sarah, too.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” you grinned, begging yourself not to revert back to your younger, naive self, but not exactly being able to fight it at the same time. “Well, if you ever need me, I’ll probably be here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said as he headed to the door. “See ya!”

As soon as the door jingled, announcing Joel’s departure, you let out a deep breath that you hadn’t even realized you’d been holding.

Fuck. You could not be feeling this way about a man you had a crush on in high school.

Your sister always seemed to have a sixth sense for when you were getting antsy, so one evening as the two of you worked on closing the storefront, she pulled you from the monotony of sweeping the floors while listening to the sound of her new favorite pop artist to send you to the grocery store and retrieve a few items that she needed more of.

With her company card safely secured in your wallet, a short list scribbled out on a pink post-it note, and your hands closely grasping the handlebars of the cart, you amaturely navigated the grocery store, unfamiliar with the locations of the items that lined the shelves after years of not visiting Austin.

The evening in the grocery store brought you a sense of serenity, with the rush of urgent people looking to pick up the one ingredient they forgot for dinner mostly gone. After packing your cart full of sticks of butter and bags of sugar, you headed off to the get your final item, relieved to have had a mostly successful trip without running into anyone you knew in your youth.

But just as you had this thought, you caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of your eye. Dark hair and beard imprinted in your mind after your brief interaction with him just one day ago. You did your absolute best to pretend you didn’t see him as you inspected a bag of flour, keeping your head lowered, and gaze averted. Yet, your efforts were futile, as just moments later, you heard your name called aloud as the man approached you.

“Hey!” he said cheerily, blissfully unaware that you were attempting to use the ‘if I can’t see you, you can’t see me’ method on him just moments ago. “Long time no see.”

“Yeah, it’s been like forever,” you added on, looking into his eyes and almost immediately regretting your decision as your gut was immediately consumed with a swarm of rabid butterflies. “What’re you doing here?”

“Grabbing some groceries,” he answered sweetly, despite that being the obvious answer to your not-so-great question.

Duh. What else did people come to the grocery store for? What a stupid question. See? Joel just made you so… stupid! Even after all of the years you’d spent apart.

“Sarah wanted to try making some Christmas cookies to bring to her mom, so…” he trailed off, gesturing down at the flour that was now in his hand. “Got any tips on the best flour to get?”

“That’s definitely more of my sister’s wheelhouse. I just do whatever she needs me to do, like go and get,” you glanced down at your list before continuing for comedic effect, “White miso paste.”

Joel smiled fondly at your joke, only making your insides melt further.

“Remind me to stop by and try whatever has that white miso paste in it. Sounds interesting,” Joel grabbed a package of all-purpose flour and tossed it into his cart, before leaning on his cart.

Fuck. Why did he have to be so endearing, with his smile lines and his kind eyes, and his insistence on treating you like you were the only other woman in the world, despite the other woman customer just standing feet away from you two.

“I definitely will. Has your number changed in the past thirteen years?” you asked, not sure what had gotten into you with the slightly flirty move.

He shook his head, his eye briefly catching on something and causing him to pause in his movements before he returned to the conversation, now looking slightly off in a way that he hadn’t looked just a moment ago. You were so stupid. Of course you trying to flirt back would’ve backfired. You needed to excuse yourself before you managed to embarrass yourself any more than you already had.

“It has not,” he confirmed, smiling at you once more, but not looking like his heart was completely into it. “Any chance you’re checking out?”

“I am!” you said a little too enthusiastically, which Joel responded to by somewhat urgently beginning to walk to the check-out lane. Given that he hadn’t told you goodbye, you followed him like the lost puppy that you were around him.

Just as the two of you stopped in line and had mostly finished checking out, Joel finally seemed to unclench from whatever he’d seen (or whatever you’d said) that had bothered him before. Yet, as soon as it was over, you noticed that same tension washed over him once more.

“Oh, Naomi. Henry,” Joel said, his tone taking a complete 180 from what he had just had with you moments ago, and his change in demeanor suddenly made sense to you. “Didn’t realize you two were in town yet.”

You glanced over to the woman who had seemingly appeared out of thin air to ruin your moment with Joel, just like she had done in high school a million times over. Who you hadn’t recognized was the man next to her, looking a little too put together for someone who had likely just gotten off a flight and was headed to the grocery store.

“Joel,” she said artificially sweetly, the one singular word drenched in annoyance. “We just got in. We’re grabbing groceries for the hotel.”

“I didn’t realize chocolate chips were groceries,” Joel muttered to himself as he evaluated their basket. You were slightly surprised by the sass he had seemed to equip out of nowhere, a far cry from the southern charm he had displayed with you in your past interactions. You desperately wanted to leave the situation, which was clearly none of your business.

“Surely, you remember your ex-wife having a sweet tooth,” the man on her side replied defensively, wrapping an arm around her protectively.

“Something like that,” he replied, glancing over at you with an expression that you couldn’t quite read.

With tensions boiling over with just a few words stated, you finally decided to step in, impulse and instinct guiding you.

“Hey honey, I think we need to get going,” you said, internally cringing as the words left your mouth. Joel’s now wide eyes made contact with your unsure ones and your furrowed brows as you attempted to tell him to just go with it without a single word.

The good thing for you was that Joel was a quick learner, and his hand quickly found the small of your back. Something in Naomi’s expression changed, just for a moment, before she went back to her stone cold facade. You hoped that Joel caught it, the same way that you did.

“Yeah, we don’t want to keep you too long, since we’ll be seeing you plenty this holiday season,” Naomi replied, flashing you a fake smile. “I didn’t realize you two were together. I’ve never heard Joel say anything about you.”

You were sure the sentiment was supposed to hurt your feelings, but you were more unsurprised by the sentiment than anything else.

“Some of us like to leave our personal lives personal,” he shot back, glancing at you before bringing his glare back to his ex-wife.

“Well, that’s cute. I remember, you had the biggest crush on Joel back in the day. Glad you two ended up together,” she laughed and your stomach dropped. Were you that obvious in the past? “Anyway, we’re gonna go to a less busy lane. See you at dinner, Joel. And maybe you, too?” She looked you up and down, and for a second you felt like you were in the hallways of your high school once again, trying your best to avoid the passive aggression of a particularly mean girl.

“Right. Bye,” he said simply, watching the pair walk away as if he were scared that they would turn back around at some point and bother Joel some more.

“Fuck,” he muttered aloud as soon as they were out of earshot, his hand falling away from your back and back to his side.

You immediately launched yourself into a rambling apology, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep or anything, they just looked like they wanted to eat you alive and-“

“No, no, don’t apologize. I appreciate what you did back here. I mean, you saw the look on her face when she thought we were together?”

“Oh yeah,” you laughed out, which also acted as a cover for the deep sigh of relief you needed to let out. “Is she always so shocked when she thinks you’re dating someone new?”

“Well, I haven’t dated much since the divorce,” he explained as the two of you began exiting the building. “So I guess I didn’t really know what to expect. But it totally delivered.”

You couldn’t help but smile as the two of you walked out to your cars together and Joel confessed that not only was he single, but that he hadn’t really seen anyone. Not that it really mattered to you, considering that the two of you had absolutely no shot together.

You weren’t exactly sure where Joel had parked, but he’d offered to help unload your groceries into your car, and you weren’t exactly going to decline that offer.

“Thank you, again for helping me out tonight,” Joel said as he helped place bags in the trunk of the car. “Is there anything I can do to repay you?”

“Actually, there is one thing.”

—

Every year, you absolutely dreaded your family’s holiday celebrations. Specifically, the celebrations where you showed up without a date, and had to spend the night downing eggnog to drown out the sound of your family asking you when you were going to settle down and bring a grandchild, or niece, or nephew into the family.

But this year, you didn’t have to worry about that issue. After running into Joel at the grocery store and briefly pretending to be his partner, he’d agreed to do the same for you at a family holiday party, and to be completely honest, you couldn’t be more excited.

“Again, thank you,” you said to Joel as he opened the passenger door to his truck for you, politely standing at the side of it as you got in.

“It was really the least I could do after you saved my ass back there in the store,” he dismissed, closing the door behind you before getting back into the car.

“I mean, I couldn’t just stand there and let you suffer,” you explained, glancing over at the man as he settled into the seat and started the car. He’d certainly dressed up more than usual for the event, a nice red sweater nicely complimenting your green sweater, and his hair styled nicely. For a second, you thought about your younger self, and how she probably would’ve given anything for a night like this—to just play pretend with Joel just for a moment, since he clearly didn’t see you the way you saw him.

“Well, I appreciate it,” he dismissed, sending you a quick, charming smile before beginning to pull out of the driveway. “Anything I need to know about your family?”

“Oh my god,” you laughed. “Where do I start?”

You more or less talked Joel’s ear off on the drive over, filling him in on family members to avoid; overbearing aunts who would attempt to examine him like a lab specimen, uncles who would try to quiz him on his knowledge of local sports teams, and the occasional family friend, who seemed to be just as crazy as your actual kin. Joel listened politely, taking in all of the information, and throwing in some commentary every now and then, but surely making mental notes on who to try to avoid.

Once you finally arrived at the car-lined street, Joel once again opened the door for you like the gentleman he was, before allowing you to lead the way to the christmas-light adorned house that was clearly bustling on the inside. As the two of you walked up to the porch, Joel looked at you rather earnestly.

“Did I scare you in the car? I promise they’re not all that bad,” you began to attempt to explain, nerves bubbling in your stomach as you thought about how Joel surely wanted to go home.

“No, no, you didn’t scare me,” he assured you, reaching over to brush a stray hair out of your face. “I just… I never got the chance to tell you how good you look. I wanted to say something when you first got in my car, but I guess I got scared. You always look good, but you kinda took my breath away.”

Fuck, you internally groaned. Why did he have to tell you that? Was he just trying to get into character or something? You couldn’t even gather the words for how it made you feel before the front door was swinging open with one of your favorite aunts at the door greeting you.

“Hello, my love!” she practically squealed as she pulled you into a hug. “And who is this?”

“This is my boyfriend, Joel,” you introduced, only slightly alarmed at how easily the word rolled off your tongue.

“Hello, ma’am,” Joel said warmly, setting out a hand for her to shake, which was rejected in favor of a hug. He was clearly a bit caught off guard by it, but also clearly a little into it.

“Sorry,” you whispered to him once she let go and the two of you were ushered inside. “We’re a hug family. I probably should’ve warned you about that on the ride over.”

“I don’t mind, I promise,” he assured you, gently grabbing your hand and looking to you for some sort of assurance. You smiled at him then subtly nodded, lacing your fingers in between his in an act that you hoped would be as practical as it was performative.

As the two of you navigated through the house, you made pleasant small talk with all who you encountered, with you proudly introducing Joel as your boyfriend, and him taking the lead in introducing himself from time to time. After an exhausting hello tour, you had finally made it to the kitchen for drinks, something you’d surely need if you were going to keep up at this rate of socialization.

As you grabbed Joel the beer he’d requested and began to spoon out ladles of the bowl that was tape-labeled ‘ADULT Punch’ into your own cup, you were slightly surprised that you’d finally ran into your mother.

“Hi honey,” she squealed, pulling you into a hug. “How long have you been here? You avoiding me?”

While past experiences of being single during the holiday season and having to interact with your mother often ended up with you suffering for the entirety of the night–or an entire week, like the time she tried to set you up with a coworker’s son–you felt a newfound confidence with the knowledge that Joel was just a few feet away from you, diligently playing the perfect boyfriend.

“We just got here,” you giggled at her typical overbearing self. For once, your guard was down, knowing that she would not be attempting to set you up with anyone, or hounding you about coming home and settling down with a nice local.

“We?” she asked dramatically, brows raised in surprise. “Is your sister somewhere around here, or something?”

“Don’t act so surprised,” you feigned offense as she stepped back to look at the two drinks in your hands. “I brought my boyfriend,” you glanced back at Joel, who was right where you left him, making enthusiastic smalltalk with one of your cousins about the Cowboys game. Like a good little fake boyfriend, upon catching your eye he excused himself from his conversation and walked over to you and your mother.

“Mom, this is Joel, my partner,” you explained, as your gentlemanly fake boyfriend grabbed your mother’s hand and gave it a polite kiss. You certainly hadn’t forgotten about his charm back in the day, but to watch it up close and personal after so much time had passed was undoubtedly having a bit of an effect on you.

“I’ve heard all about you. Pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” he gushed. You had to give credit where credit was due, Joel was a great actor. You’d given him a bit of backstory on your mom on the ride over to the house, and you’d certainly discussed her while the two of you were students, but definitely not to the extent that he was playing up.

“So nice to meet you,” she replied, her cheeks warming at her interactions with the man. Joel was laying it on thick, but it seemed to be working for her. “Miller, right?”

“Indeed,” he confirmed, flashing a pearly white smile at your mother. As you watched the interaction, you were doing your best to keep it together, partially wanting to laugh out loud at Joel’s overdramatic chivalrous act, and partially wanting to melt into a puddle over just how alluring he was.

“Then I’ve also heard a lot about you. My daughter had the biggest crush on you in high school! It’s so funny that you’ve ended up together now. I suppose God’s timing is always right?”

Your eyes grew wide and your mouth gaped open for a second as your mother reinforced your little secret that Joel had heard from someone else just a few days ago. Suddenly, you were feeling a lot less like a liquidy puddle, and more like the bark of a firm tree–if that tree could experience mortification. If you didn’t need it before, now you really needed that drink. He glanced at you and smiled cheekily before looking back at your mother.

“So I’ve heard,” he said with a smirk, clearly biting back a laugh. You were going to kill your mother. And maybe Naomi too, while you were at it. In fact, you might just add yourself into the mix. It certainly couldn’t hurt. Or at least, it would hurt less than the discomfiture of your fake boyfriend hearing from everyone about the huge crush you had on him.

“Mom! I think your other daughter just got here. Why don’t you go say hi to her and Ben?” you suggested, knowing that the best way to prevent her from embarrassing you any further was to distract her with the idea of embarrassing her other child in front of her significant other.

You clearly knew your mother well, because the strategy worked well enough to get her off your tail. You passed Joel his beer as he watched you closely, the same mischievous smirk lingering on his face long after your mother had left.

“Crush, huh?” he teased you, causing you to shake your head as you took a healthy sip from a deceptively strong punch.

“Shut up,” you groaned. “Please.”

As the night went on, you realized that you couldn’t have picked a better candidate to pretend to be your boyfriend at a family gathering. Joel was quite sociable and polite, even more so with a beer in his system. He didn’t even mind entertaining your family members on his own as you went off and caught up with the few members of your family that you could tolerate for more than a few minutes at a time.

Following a rather chaotic series of discussions including when you and Joel were getting engaged (never, I mean, in the next few years. Probably.), the most romantic thing you’d done (backpacking through Europe, according to Joel), and what it was like reconnecting with your high school crush (fucking fantastic), you’d finally lost track of Joel. You did a quick lap around the house before bumping into your sister and cousin, the latter of which desperately described her need for air.

The three of you huddled together outside on the deck, the spot where you seemed to find yourselves at almost every family function regardless of how fun or stressful it ended up being. While you were enjoying the mayhem of the party and enjoying your time with Joel even more, it was nice to have a little break from it all.

“I can’t believe you’ve been home for just a few days and you’ve already gotten your childhood crush wrapped around your finger,” your sister laughed, comfortably leaning against the railing of the deck.

“That’s the power of working for a Fortune 500. All of the men in your hometown just want a sugar mommy for a little bit. Get some presents for the kids and wife for free,” you joked.

“You’re kidding?” your cousin asked, her brows furrowed in a mixture of confusion and intrigue.

“I’m kidding,” you confirmed. “You know, we aren’t even actually dating,” you confessed, lips and tongue loose from your second glass of punch.

“What?” your cousin and sister exclaimed at the same time, the two of them suddenly very alert.

Even in your not-completely-there state of mind, you could tell that you had made a mistake telling your secret. It was now very likely that the entire house would know the truth within the next hour, or that you would not be hearing the end of how terrible an idea the whole ordeal was for months on end.

“I figured you two just hit it off, or had some long distance thing going on?” your sister questioned, peering at you curiously as if your face would reveal some sort of information about your arrangement.

“Nope. It’s kinda a long story, but I guess the short of it all is that we’re pretending to be together for the holidays so certain people get off our asses,” you said casually, finishing off your drink and looking out into the backyard rather than making eye contact with either of your kin.

“Fair enough,” your cousin sighed, finally relaxing once more. “If I wasn’t already seeing Will, I’d probably do the same.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea? He really broke your heart,” your sister asked, grabbing your arm to attempt to force you to look at her, and staring at you with concern.

You were sure you could imagine what was going through her head in the moment, the vision of your heartbroken teenage self and the sound of your prolonged sobs as you questioned what your crush saw in her that he couldn’t see in you. You really couldn’t blame her for being worried. She was your older sister, after all, the task of protecting you instilled in her from the day you left the womb, and clearly not gone now. But things were different now. You were all adults, you had more life experience and perspective, and most importantly, whatever was going on between you and Joel wasn’t real, regardless of how much you might have wanted it to be.

“Yeah, when we were eighteen. I think it’ll be fine,” you dismissed, as if anything was ever that simple.

“And he seems like a sweetie now. I think my own parents were wishing I brought him home for the holidays,” your cousin, ever the peacekeeper, added as she attempted to diffuse the quickly escalating tension between you and your sibling.

“He was also a sweetie thirteen years ago when he led you on, then got someone pregnant,” your sister snapped back with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest and turning her back to you.

“Okay, that’s enough,” you declared, watching your breath float away in a cold puff of air. “Can we go inside now? I think my toes are gonna fall off.”

After a side eye from your sister and a nod of agreement from your cousin, the three of you headed back inside, where you made quick work of grabbing yet another drink and finding the fireplace.

A few couches were arranged by the fireplace, some filled from edge to edge with sleeping, snuggling children who were exhausted by the excitement of a holiday party, others with some of the older members of your family who simply needed a break from it all. Among them all, you were surprised to find Joel, enthusiastically talking to none other than your father.

Your father was probably one of the most difficult people in your life to impress. He’d maybe told you that he was proud of you a total of five times in your life. Yet, he looked content, hell, happy as he spoke to your fake boyfriend.

Part of you felt bad as you found your way to the empty spot on the couch next to Joel, but you were cold, and you weren’t going to pass up on the opportunity to warm up by the fire and the man that you had found was a bit of a human furnace.

When Joel caught sight of you, he smiled and beckoned you over, and you made quick work of maneuvering yourself past the coffee table between the couch. Once you sat down, Joel surprised you by greeting you with a gentle peck on the lips. The action temporarily shocked you, and you desperately hoped that the feeling was not reflected on your face. The naturalness of it all almost felt as if you’d done it a thousand times, and you tried your best to suppress the part of you that wanted to do it a thousand more.

“Hi honey,” Joel greeted you sweetly, his hand almost immediately finding yours. It all felt so right, and if you weren’t so endeared by him in the moment, you certainly would’ve been mildly panicking.

“It was nice meeting you, Joel, but I’m old and I’m tired, so I’m gonna head out,” your father explained, giving you a half nod as he began to stand up.

“Bye, dad. I’ll see you on Christmas?” you asked him, ignoring the panicked look that Joel was certainly sending your way.

“Sounds like a plan. Love you. Get home safe,” he bid the two of you farewell before leaving without much other fanfare.

“Why didn’t you tell me that was your dad?” Joel asked you, looking at you with wide eyes. You laughed a little bit at his panic, finding the dumbfounded look on his face more adorable than you’d like to admit.

“Thought it might’ve come up in conversation, or something,” you shrugged, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the day, mixed with the criminally strong punch set in. “Why do you care so much? Trying to make a good impression, Miller?” you teased.

“You’re the worst,” he groaned, then laughed as you snuggled up to his side. You weren’t exactly sure whether the laugh was coming from discomfort or relief, but with the bone-deep cold you were feeling and alcohol in your system, you couldn’t exactly bring yourself to care. “You’re also really cold. Are you okay?”

“Mmm, you’re really warm,” you replied, settling against his warm body unconsciously.

“Someone’s feeling the punch,” he replied, wrapping an arm around you as you closed your eyes.

“It was way stronger than it needed to be,” you agreed in a murmur against his sweater. “Thank you for being such a good fake boyfriend tonight.”

“It was actually pretty fun. I like your family a lot,” he confessed, trying his best to maintain eye contact with you despite the fact that you were in the express lane to dreamland and your blinks were beginning to turn into miniature naps.

“Everyone liked you too. I owe you,” you yawned, dropping your head from the soft fabric of his sweater to the denim of his jeans.

“Mhm. Wanna head home?” he asked.

“How’d you know?” you responded as Joel chuckled above you.

The ride back home was a mostly quiet one, with Christmas music playing softly on the radio and you dozing off in the passenger seat. Every now and then Joel glanced over at you, and the few times that your eyes were actually open, you wondered what it was that he was thinking. Was he checking up on you to make sure you were still alive? Probably. But you just swore there was something else in his eyes, something you’d seen when Ben looked at your sister, or when your parents looked at each other.

But that was probably just the exhaustion speaking.

Once you arrived at your sister’s place, Joel made quick work of helping you get inside safely, even helping you get to bed at your own insistence. Even in your not sober and exhausted state, you knew that you didn’t want the night to end. Even in your less than ideal state of mind, you knew that the way you were feeling about Joel was unsustainable.

—

The soft, dim lighting of a restaurant that felt fancy even for you seemed to beam down on you, encouraging little beads of sweat to collect at your forehead and the creases of your arms. As much as you were desperately trying to maintain the appearance of being cool and collected, your staccato breaths, wobbly smile, and the rapidly appearing perspiration were quite clearly selling you out. You couldn’t help but to stare down at your menu like it was the most interesting thing in the world, the intimidation of sitting across from your fake partner’s ex-wife’s heated glare far more intense than what you’d expected. Far worse than sharing a brief, yet artificial moment of PDA in a grocery store, and far more than you expected to be able to handle. Yet, Joel had done the same for you, and really, it was only fair that you would do the same.

After the Christmas party, you hadn’t really expected to hear anything else from your date. As far as you knew, Joel had only agreed to play pretend with you for one night, and as fun as that night was, it was all fake.

As much as you hated to admit it, your sister was maybe, just a little bit right about the whole ordeal not being your best idea. You couldn’t help but think about the two of you at the party—how he’d held your hand like your hands were two pieces of a puzzle that were made for each other, how he cuddled with you on the couch and looked at you with such genuine concern when he thought you might not be well, but above all, you were stuck on his confession to you, about how beautiful you looked and how scared he was to tell you.

You couldn’t believe that you were still making these kinds of stupid decisions, the type of decisions that made you want to lay in bed all day with a pint of ice cream and a soap opera playing on the revision, and not do work—the very work that you came back to Austin to do.

But despite your urge to shut down, you tried your absolute best to do what you set out to do. You spent hours tossing ingredients in mixers, whipping egg whites into stiff peaks, and narrowly avoiding burning yourself as you took trays out of the oven. Only at the end of the day, as you wiped your forehead with a flour-covered arm and checked your phone did you realize that you’d missed a call from Joel.

After a quick call-back and an explanation to your sister that you would no longer be third wheeling the night’s tree-lighting ceremony with her, you had somehow managed to renew your little agreement with Joel. Your task being a performance of being the perfect, dream girlfriend to Joel Miller, a task that you hoped you would be up for.

But as you sat at the table next to Joel, nearly sweating your mascara off, you began to question the extent of your capabilities within this particular role.

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Naomi began, the sharp wing of her eyeliner and the depths of her eyes feeling like they were poking and prodding into you, searching for any weakness or insecurity to be exploited. “What are you up to these days?”

“Well, apart from making the most of my time with Joel,” you looked over at him with what you hoped appeared to be adoration, but probably came across more accurately as the fear you were experiencing, and grabbed his bicep–what you hoped to appear like a fond move, but was something more like you bracing onto him for dear life. “I’m a consultant in New York City. It definitely takes up a lot of my time, but it also feels like every second of free time I have, I’m spending it on the phone with this one.”

You and Joel chuckled, your choked out laugh feeling far more artificial than his. You hoped to whatever powers above that you would somehow manage to convince the couple across from you to believe a story that you could barely even believe yourself, although, with the way that Naomi was still glaring at you, you doubted that being the case.

“That sounds fun,” she replied, leaning forward slightly as if she was ready to sink her teeth into you two and absolutely tear you apart. “So how’d you two reconnect?”

Joel, clearly sensing your discomfort, came to your rescue with a quick, preplanned answer. “Remember when I took Sarah to Manhattan earlier this year?” Joel began, averting his gaze from you and onto his ex, who now shot Joel a pleasant, yet, rehearsed smile.

“Mhm,” she replied, seemingly already entertained by where the story might end up going.

“Well, we ran into each other at a coffee shop a few blocks away from her workplace and really just hit it off. The rest is history,” he said, turning his attention back towards you.

“You two were hitting it off in front of our daughter?” Naomi asked, the slight tilt to her head and hint of smirk on her face revealing that her question was less out of concern for their child, and more out of taking an opportunity to antagonize the two of you.

“It was more like reconnecting. I swear, Joel is the only person in the world to think that recommending my favorite bagel shop in the city is flirting,” you attempted to save, not wanting to be labeled as a threat to their child just a few minutes into dinner.

“To my credit, you were selling it pretty hard. You were practically saying, ‘come with me to get bagels tomorrow,’” Joel added on, seemingly lighting up as the two of you added more and more to your fake meet-cute.

“Next time you visit we’ll get all the bagels you want, my love. We can even split them Lady and The Tramp style,” you giggled, feeling your cheeks warm as you imagined you and Joel at the opposite ends of one cream cheese filled bagel.

“Okay, yeah, I get it. I was just joking, anyway,” she replied, clearly fed up with the two of you.

“Sorry,” you apologized, actually feeling a little bad about how long your little bit had gone on. “What about you two? How’d you and Henry meet?”

“It’s actually a pretty cute story,” Henry spoke up after being a passive spectator for an uncomfortable period of time. “Noms had just moved out west a little bit after the divorce, and the two of us met in a yoga class. I accidentally took her yoga mat, and it was… what did you say earlier? The rest was history?”

The two of them shared an intimate laugh, one that indicated that they were referencing some sort of inside joke, just as you and Joel had earlier after you’d shared what you’d been doing with your life since high school. You glanced over at Joel, his pressed smile and slightly furrowed brows a clear indicator that he was not impressed by the two of them. Thankfully, before the tension could go any further, a kind waitress interrupted the conversation with the simple question of whether or not your table was ready to order.

Shortly after ordering, the conversation picked up once again. While you occasionally were able to ask a question or two about the couple sitting across from you, it above all felt like you and Joel were being interrogated about the nature of your relationship. Lies easily flowed from both of your tongues, sandwiched between fond looks shared between the two of you as if there was no one else in the room, and stolen moments of physical affection that seemed to warm you from the inside-out.

As the two of you added more and more onto your story, the more you began to yearn for the more intricate details of it all to be true.

You wanted to receive a bouquet of flowers on your doorstep from someone almost two-thousand miles from you, just because he’d been thinking about you. You wanted to have a reason to come back and visit the city you grew up in, and to learn about every new hole-in-the-wall shop that had come to mean a lot to him. You wanted to take on his hobbies, and have him take on some of yours despite you both being terrible at them, solely because you knew that the other cared about it. The longer the night went on, the clearer everything became: you wanted all of this and more with Joel, but you’d clearly never be able to have him.

It was no longer a question to you of if your arrangement should end, and had clearly become a matter of when it was going to end. No matter how much fun you were having holding Joel’s hand under the table and feeding the man next to you bites of scallop, you knew it wasn’t sustainable to be feeling so strongly about a situation that had been doomed from the start.

You were undoubtedly treading a very thin line between getting your hopes up for what wasn’t, but could be, and savoring every last second you had with Joel, pretending to be something that the two of you were very obviously not. With the arrival and passing of dessert, and the final spoonfuls of a split chocolate cake, you’d realized that your time with Joel had ended; a conclusion as bitter as the dark chocolate garnish on your shared plate.

The two of you held hands once more as you walked out to his car, fingers lingering together even after the couple you’d been putting a show on were safely tucked away in their own vehicle. You didn’t talk much on your ride back home, the air thick with a tension that made you wonder if Joel had come to a similar conclusion of his own during dinner. The radio filled in the silence where words lacked, covers of Christmas songs filling in for the conversation that surely should’ve been occurring.

After a ride that felt like it had lasted forever and no time at all, you had finally arrived at your sister’s place, the final resting ground for whatever your relationship had been.

“Thanks,” you said as you unclipped your seatbelt, wanting to rip the bandaid off and leave as quickly as humanly possible, while also lingering in his car forever. “Have a good night.”

“Yeah,” he looked at you for a moment as if he had something more to say, but was holding his tongue. Taking one long look at your face, then offering you a weak half smile, he spoke once more. “You too.”

Though you were mildly disappointed when you didn’t hear back from Joel, you couldn’t say that you were particularly surprised. Everything about your final encounter in his truck indicated that the very brief chapter in both of your lives of pretending to be what you both were not was over. Still, you couldn’t deny the remnant ache in your chest when your father asked where your boyfriend was over Christmas dinner, or the pathetic way that you secretly hoped every ring of the bakery door would deliver you Joel Miller, much like your first day back in Austin did.

Once again, you attempted to drown yourself in your work, working from open to close at your sister’s bakery and ending the day with sore legs, flour in your hair, and an intense desire to never consume anything sweet ever again. You somehow even managed to convince your boss to let you clock a few virtual hours at your actual job, spending all of the time that you were not at the bakery in your temporary bedroom, doing whatever tasks would set you ahead by the time you returned to work.

You realized you weren’t being particularly subtle with the fact that you were trying to distract yourself from something, and while your sister did her best to be whatever it was that you needed during such a bizarre time, she didn’t exactly press, though you were sure she had a bit of an idea of what was making you feel so down.

“Hey, I have a catering job for us,” she informed you one morning as the two of you worked side-by-side.

“When? You remember I’m leaving tomorrow, right?” you sighed, hoping your sister recognized your mild annoyance as less with her, and more with your time in Austin as a whole. You desperately wanted to leave, but you’d promised to stay until the new year began, when orders typically began to slow down. (“Resolutions,” she told you over the phone as you prepared to come back home.)

“Of course I remember,” she shook her head playfully as she spoke to you. “It’s tonight. At the Spoke. They’re doing some New Year’s Eve thing, and I think it’ll be fun.”

“I think maybe we have two different definitions of fun,” you commented, continuing to roll out the piece of dough in front of you.

“Oh, come on. What were you going to be doing anyway?” she pressed you, her attempt to get you to get out of the house clear as day now. “Working in your bedroom during your break? Sulking for reasons you refuse to share with me? Watching episodes of The Bachelor that you’ve seen a hundred times already?”

“Ugh, okay, okay. I’ll do it. We’ll do it,” you finally conceded.

“Good! Now, do you want a coffee? We’re gonna have a lot of trays to finish today.”

You couldn’t deny that it made you feel a little bit better knowing that you had somewhere fun to go that night. Despite living in Texas for the first portion of your life, you’d never had the opportunity to go to any sort of dance hall, and though you’d probably be spending the majority of your time distributing cupcakes to people, you were excited to be doing something fun regardless.

After your longest and final shift at the bakery, your sister hugged you as tight as she could manage and thanked you for everything you’d helped her accomplish this holiday season, before sending you back home to get dressed up for the dance hall. After deciding to go full cowgirl with your attire, you peered in your sibling’s closet for any article of clothing that you could borrow for the night, and ultimately left her closet with a completely different wardrobe.

Even as you and your sister arrived at the dance hall early to set up, patrons were already beginning to flood into the venue. Their excited energy was contagious, and you couldn’t help but feel invigorated, your downtrodden feelings being replaced with much more positive ones.

As the night went on, you found yourself having more and more fun, whether it was from distributing pastries to rosy-cheeked dancers who paused to take a break from the floor, or flirty gentlemen who took the brief moment of your fingers touching over a distributed cupcake to ask to buy you a drink. While you were sure that you would’ve had a decent time doing nothing at home, then popping a bottle of champagne at midnight, the night was certainly shaping up to be a memorable one.

Time seemed to be flying by as you stood by the table, offering cupcakes to whoever passed you by. It wasn’t long before Ben arrived, and your sister was excusing herself from the table to share a dance with her partner. You watched the two of them with adoration, thinking of how you would love to have someone to come sweep you off your feet and offer to dance with you–well, someone other than a sweaty patron. As much as you’d tried to convince yourself over the years that you weren’t cut out for relationships, your trip and weird fake dating arrangement with Joel had made you realize something of the opposite. Maybe you’d be ringing in the New Year with a Hinge download.

After passing out the final cupcake you had, you began to break down boxes and put away some of the other items you’d brought to help the distribution process go more smoothly. With your back turned to the dance floor as you dropped leftover napkins into a plastic bag, you were surprised as you heard a familiar voice greet you from behind.

“Joel?” you said as you looked up at the patiently waiting person, surprised to see his face after such an abrupt ending and a period of radio silence between the two of you.

“Hi,” he said, almost shyly.

“Hi. Sorry, we just ran out of cupcakes” you stated, trying to pretend that things were business as usual between the two of you–whatever business as usual meant now.

“I don’t…” Joel trailed off before ditching the idea altogether, surely figuring that whatever he had to say was more important than an explanation of how he was uninterested in the treats you were serving. “Can we talk?”

“I mean,” you hesitated for a moment, wondering if it would be better to avoid everything altogether and simply move on with your life. You could simply tell him no, hop on a plane the following afternoon, then never think about Joel again. It would all be so simple and easy–the exact opposite of what your relationship had spiraled into during your time back in Austin. “Yeah. Sure. Let’s talk.”

The truth was, as easy as you would’ve liked it to be, you were intrigued by Joel’s nervous body language. As he shifted from foot to foot and subtly picked at his hand, you imagined him walking into the hall with his friends, or whoever it was that he came with, seeing you, and immediately going to leave the venue, only staying from the coercion and peer pressure of his peers. You imagined him spending the night working up the nerve to come say to you what was left unspoken the last time the two of you talked, hoping that the beers in his system and all of the dancing would finally get enough jitters out of him to finally address you.

“I’m all ears,” you shrugged, crossing your arms over your chest in a subconscious protective measure. Even though he could do no physical harm to you, your brain was all too aware of the damage he’d done to your heart in the past.

“I’m sorry. For everything. For not reaching out to you after our dinner, and for being an oblivious idiot in high school. And I guess, for being an oblivious idiot now,” he began to blather, glancing down nervously at his shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

You were surprised by his words and slightly unsure of what to say, or even think in response. Now that you had heard his apology, you were beginning to have an idea of the direction that this confession was likely going to take, and you couldn’t tell if you should be leaping for joy or finding the nearest exit. Maybe you could figure out a way to do both, jumping and skipping as you left through the fire exit.

Joel began to search for his next words and you tried to ignore the racing heartbeat in your chest as you attempted to search for your own. Just when you were thinking that it would be impossible for your situation to get any more uncomfortable, a man slightly shorter than Joel and who oddly resembled him sauntered up to the table where the two of you were attempting to speak.

“It’s gonna be twelve soon! Come dance!” the man shouted at Joel, his accent heavy and his words slurred as he grabbed onto Joel’s flannel sleeve. Joel shot him a dirty look, one that clearly communicated his annoyance, but didn’t exactly scream surprised.

“Not now, Tommy,” Joel reprimanded, his gritted teeth and tense demeanor making you want to laugh–if not for his reaction, then over the surrealistic nature of the scene. Mere moments into some sort of apology or confession, the two of you had been interrupted by his intoxicated acquaintance asking him to dance.

“Yes now, Joel. C’mon, lighten up!” the man practically whined, eliciting an exasperated eye roll from Joel. He looked back at you with tense shoulders and worry in his eyes, and you couldn’t exactly tell if he was looking for backup or sympathy. Instead of responding to him with either, you gave him a shy shrug of approval.

“We can talk while we dance?” you suggested, part of you hoping that maybe the distraction of doing something else while you spoke would make your conversation a little less difficult.

Taking Joel’s hand, you followed the men out to the dance floor, where Tommy had disappeared just as quickly as he had appeared to interrupt Joel’s confession. Part of you wondered if this had been premeditated, or if Joel’s drunk friend was simply not able to read the room.

“Before we start, I have a confession of my own,” you began, hoping that what you were about to say would at least lighten up the mood of your conversation. Clearly, the two of you struggled with communicating your feelings, and you hoped sharing what you were prepared to share would at least be helpful in opening up a line of communication.

“Yeah?” he said hopefully. You tried your best to fight the smile that was threatening to appear on your face at the sound of his tone, but ultimately failed.

“I don’t have a damn clue how to do this,” you confessed, glancing over at the pairings around you moving together as if they had done these steps a million times–and knowing your town, they probably had.

“It’s fine,” he said without an ounce of judgment in his voice. “I’ll teach you how.”

And he did, his mouth pressed closely to your ear as he counted off numbers in time with the live band just a few feet away from you, and directed your body left, right, back, and forward until you finally seemed to get the hang of the dance. Though there was still an elephant remaining in the room, dancing seemed to be successful in alleviating some of the tension that lingered.

“Is it okay if we continue our conversation?” Joel asked as the two of you took a synchronized step back. Your eyes were trained on your nearly matching boots, and the thought of having to face your feelings–or the lack thereof–made your stomach churn. Once again, you began to consider the most efficient exit routes.

“Of course,” you replied, doing your best to mask the nerves that had bubbled right back up as you finally met his eye.

“I was so excited to see you, when I found out you were back in town. I guess there was still part of me that wondered what things might have been like if things were different. Then I saw you in the store, and we started doing… whatever we were doing, and I just kept wanting more. It just felt so real, too real, and I started wanting more than what I could have. I mean, you live so far away, and even if you didn’t, I’m sure you have romantic prospects all over the place. Why would you settle for me?”

You almost couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Joel still thought about you? He had begun to want more in the same way that you did the more your fake relationship progressed? He thought he wasn’t good enough for you?

“Joel-” you began, his name slipping off your tongue involuntarily. You desperately wanted to dispute his claims, but he didn't let you finish.

“I guess I just wanted to apologize for how I acted. I didn’t want you to assume that things ended how they ended for any other reason other than me making terrible decisions as usual.” Once again, it was Joel’s turn to look uncomfortable, and you couldn’t exactly blame him after what he shared with you.

“I accept your apology, but it wasn’t all your fault. And you’re not an idiot,” you clarified in between a spin, finishing your sentence as Joel pulled you back to him. “I was disappointed, but I understood. Honestly, I was starting to feel the same way with you. Our fake dating was starting to feel a little too much like real dating, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up when you were clearly uninterested.”

“But I’m not uninterested,” Joel looked at you with a glimmer of hope in his eyes, which only seemed to be highlighted by the fact that his arm was draped across your torso, a welcome result of the spinning move. “I want to try, if you want to try. The distance is a hurdle, but we can give it a shot, at the very least. We can visit each other when we get the chance. We can watch the same episodes of The Bachelor, then discuss it afterward.”

“Oh my god, who told you about that?” you remarked, interrupting his big speech.

“Your sister. At the Christmas party,” Joel replied, his cheeks flush with the adrenaline of sharing his feelings with you and the excitement of dreaming of a future with you.

“She’s unbelievable,” you murmured, shaking your head the slightest bit before Joel continued.

“But that’s besides the point. We can send each other delivered gifts, and can talk to each other every day, like what you told Naomi.”

“What I told her when I was lying?” you asked with a laugh, reminiscing on your dinner.

“Well, yeah… But it doesn’t have to be a lie. I can come visit you, and you can come visit me. We can get bagels at your favorite shop when I come to the city. I can teach you how to dance when you come to Austin. Maybe it’s crazy, but I think we can try. Should try.”

“I would like nothing more than that,” you confessed, an honest truth that seemed to light you up from the inside. Hearing Joel’s almost crazed rant about how passionate he was about trying made you a little less afraid of your possible future together, and a whole lot more sure about your feelings for the man.

“Then let’s do it. Let’s do it right this time,” he said as the music finally came to a conclusion, being swapped out for none other than the chant of a countdown.

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

As cheers of ‘Happy New Years’ rang out, Joel gently directed your face towards his, your noses and foreheads pleasantly bumping into each other. As your lips finally touched, it felt as if two puzzle pieces designed for each other and meant to be together had finally fallen into place, the rumble of fireworks outside celebrating the long-awaited union between the two of your bodies.

In the past, the affection the two of you had shared had felt real, but deep down you were aware that it was nothing more than a farce. A façade to trick judgmental exes and prying family members. But this time, the affection was different.

The growing warm feeling in your chest, the electric sparks on your skin where Joel was touching you, and the look of admiration in his eyes once you’d finally pulled away told you everything you needed to know.

This was real.

#joel miller x reader #joel miller fluff #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller x f!reader #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal fanfiction #the last of us fanfiction #tlou fanfiction #tlou

855 notes · View notes

bronx-bomber87 · 8 months

Text

Happy Tuesday :) Ep been wanting to get to. Anytime we get little more depth to them and Tim as a character I’m a happy girl. I forgot s2 only has 20 not 22 eps HA We’re almost done which is insane to me. Feel like we just started s2. So after this one we have 3 left in this season. What a trip. Let’s delve in shall we?

2x17 Control

Thanks to Nolan our couple starts their day off with some foot patrol. Grey wants them more engaged with the community. Tim lets her know that while he finds foot patrol annoying he agrees this is important to do. That it creates trust and likability therefore they get more help. Lucy seems real impressed with his answer. I always love when Tim impresses Lucy with his insight. Also when she makes sure he knows how enlightened she finds him. She's hot for Tim in these moments haha

Lucy loves when he shows her his moral compass about this stuff. I said it last review Tim as a person is very attractive. It's definitely huge part of her draw to him. A random guy comes up to them asking for legal advice. They stop and address him. Lucy fully expects Tim to answer this man’s question. I’m rolling when he tells this guy they’re movie extras’. Lucy’s double take is too damn funny. How she kept a straight face idk. He’s such a grumpy old man sometimesI love it. Or as Aaron says in s5 he’s like the old dude from 'UP' LMFAO I love you Timothy Bradford haha

Lucy's smile when he tells her they’re not google is too cute. We all know she loves her grump of a man. She’s enjoying him cracking a joke with a side of heart eyes to go with that smile. Look at him cracking jokes. So proud. Their comfortability level at this point is off the charts. His sense of humor is so fun to see. (He cracked me up too. I laugh every time.)This came out all on its own. I love him so easily making one around her. Lucy is quite amused and enjoying it herself.

Side notes I love about this scene. The ever wonderful height difference I legit can’t get enough. How damn in-sync they are as they’re walking together. Honestly the entire scene. Look at them. Lastly a fan favorite the the lack of personal space. Within inches of each other at all times. Like moths drawn to a flame. Always gravitating back to one another. Their physical chemistry without touching always floors me.

We rejoin them still on foot patrol. Lucy asking Tim if Rachel was disappointed she canceled on her last night? Trying to justify to Tim why she ended up bailing on their bar plans. Clearly residual PTSD from Caleb manifesting into her doing this. She’s clearly wanting to be relieved of the guilt she feels for canceling on her.

Tim is usually that person for her with his insight and telling her like it is. Not this time...She doesn’t get the reply she wants unfortunately. Just Tim being a lying liar who lies, when he says they don’t ever talk about her. Ok honey we believe you…I’m sure he actually talks about her more than Rachel would like. Lucy is offended with his cavalier answer LOL

Their convo gets interrupted by a dope stealing Girl Scout cookies. He runs and ends up in someone’s windshield. One of the little girls shows up from the troop to help them. Tells them they can use her scarf and pen as a tourniquet. Even tells Lucy where to apply it. Pretty impressive composure for a kid haha

Tim’s face is my favorite part when she asks if she can get a badge for this? He’s not sure what shocks him more. Her knowing how to do this or asking for a badge for it haha Lucy’s smile back at Tim is pretty cute. I feel like this will be them as parents when their kid does something that shocks them haha

The fire dept. arrives and so does Emmett Lang. Not gonna lie everyone he is smokin. I remember first time I watched this episode, I was thinking holy hell this man is attractive. Lucy deserved someone on this level of hotness to re-enter the dating world with. He is instantly flirty with Lucy. Telling her his condolences for Tim being her T.O. (good thing Tim misses this part ha) Lucy has zero problems flirting right back with him.

Honestly good for her. This is so needed post-Caleb. She’s crashing Jackson’s date plans and canceling on Rachel. She needed something to get her back on her feet. Just like Rachel was the perfect person for Tim post-Isabel. Emmett was for Lucy in the aftermath of 2x11. Girl needed a win and to feel it was ok to re-integrate back into the world of dating. Quite the score to start back up with if I do say so myself ha

They flirt some more at the hospital. Emmett basically asks her out and Lucy panics. Lies says she has something going on. Oh my girl. That PTSD is showing and I can’t blame her. Just hate seeing it affect her. Tim comes up and says it’s time to go. He says bye to Emmett and Lucy makes the connection they know each other. So she leans on her lifeline since she’s having doubts.

Tries to ask Tim about Emmett. Says he seems nice. Trying to get a beat on him through Tim’s eyes. Tim doesn't understand her line of questioning at first. Just giving short answers that give her no depth. He's thinking nothing of it until she gives him that look above. Then he quickly pieces together what this is.

He instantly disengages about it. Telling her 'No.' Not S1 Tim 'I could care less about your life.' disengaged. More 'I don’t trust myself to give you the right advice.' kind of distance. He wants no part of this. Lucy seems so upset he won’t talk to her about this. This scene is funny in how he cuts it off. How upset she seems. The pointing of his finger. Sadly we know the deep kernel of truth he feels to that final line of the scene.

The weight he’s still carrying around about her abduction. He doesn’t trust himself to vet Emmett for her. Since in his mind he failed so spectacularly with Caleb. He’d rather pass that emotional responsibility off to someone else. The weight that’s already on his soul is crushing...he can’t add to the load. Oh my broken boy. I wanna give you the biggest hug.

Lucy breaks my heart when Jackson tells her he needs alone time with Sterling. Lucy realizes she’s a third wheel. Has been for awhile now. She is horrified by this. Luckily Tim saves her with an OT opportunity. Joining the DEA operation Nolan and Harper are running. Lucy instantly jumps on it. She looks so upset walking away from Jackson. My poor girl. I want to give her a hug. I wanna hug them both in this one. This OP was blessing in disguise for her to do though. We get the best part of the episode during the stakeout.

Lucy is "on the phone" with Rachel saying all the things she wishes Tim would engage her on. He’s shaking his head as she rambles on. It’s so funny. Telling “Rachel” she’s been using Jackson and Sterling as a crutch. That together they make the perfect BF. Saying how they’re safe and that's why she keeps choosing them. My heart. Tim interjects 'Who are you talking to? 'Cause he knows it’s not Rachel.

John interrupts asking if they want coffee? He is going on a run. Lucy is her adorable self and asks for a chai tea latte all excited. Tim cuts her off saying this is a stakeout he's not going to Starbucks LOL Lucy rolls her eyes at him. He’s such an ass sometimes but I love him dearly rough edges and all. John is so sweet tells her he’ll see if he can find her some vanilla creamer LMAO

Lucy returns instantly to her fake convo and Tim can’t take it any longer. Has to call her out in the most Tim Bradford way he can. By calling her and proving she isn’t on the phone…Lucy is mortified but answers LOL Poor girl she just wants to talk it out with her person. I’m a lot like Lucy in the way that I need to talk things out. If I don’t they’ll eat me alive. I have a compulsive need to confront things and not let them fester.

It’s good to have that person you can talk it out with. If you don’t you start to self advise and that’s never good. Tim is that for her. Her sounding board. To her she has a problem she reaches for the lifeline that is Tim to sort it out. So him denying her that catharsis is messing with her. Why she created this fake convo. It got his attention so in the end it worked.

What kills me the most with this scene is both their reactions honestly. Lucy for being utterly shocked Tim would think his opinion had lost any value post-Caleb. To her it never ever occurred to place any blame on him. To trust his gut or opinion any less because of her DOD trauma. Breaks my heart Tim doesn’t see this before they have this conversation. That he truly believes his opinion has lost its value in her eyes after Caleb.

Lucy is astonished he would think she doesn't want his POV. She lives for it. Its the most important one in her life. Tim is so very vulnerable with her with his follow up answer. So proud of him for this vulnerability BTW. Nothing scarier than being emotionally exposed with another person. You can see it written all his face. That guard is down. We see the toll this guilt has taken on him. He unburdens his soul to her. Tells what has been eating at him for months.

That his advice pushed her towards something that could’ve ended her life. Since then he has devalued his place in her life. Doesn’t find himself worthy to advise her in personal matters. He fought against it for so long. Then he gave in and Caleb happened. In his mind proving why he never should’ve gotten involved in the first place. Chiding himself for getting close to her and having that closeness which put her in danger.

Lucy truly had no idea the guilt he'd been carrying since 2x11. It’s six episodes later. At the earliest that's 6 weeks at the most its a little over 2 months if we include her recovery time. The latter is the more likely timeline. That’s a long time to be carrying a burden she never placed on him. She can't stand that he's done this to himself. Lucy immediately wants to put him at ease. Trying to offload that burden and chuck it far away. It never once crossed her mind he would take the sole responsibility. Because not for one second did she ever blame him for it.

She vehemently reassures him it wasn’t his fault. He could be told by everyone under the sun it wasn’t his fault. He wasn’t going to stop mentally flogging himself till Lucy forgave him. She is all the things he needs in this moment. Letting him know she thinks it’s ridiculous he would blame himself, that no one had any reason to suspect Caleb for what he was, and overall what happened wasn’t on him. Lucy is taking that weight off his shoulders and throwing it away. Never allowing him to pick it back up again.

He looks so damn relieved and honestly very vulnerable after she absolves him. It helps him start to close a self inflicted wound. Eric the king of facial expressions killing me softly in this scene. His eyes and the way he looks at her when she said wasn’t his fault. *heart clutch* He couldn’t even look at her till she said that. Then when he does he's in awe of her. Like he can't believe she doesn't blame him but is so grateful for her saying as such.

I love her also sharing it wasn’t hers either. It was not at all. (Growth for her too.) Looks like he's biting back his emotions when she lets Tim know how valued his opinion is. It's so sweet. He needed his sunshine human to apply some balm to his wounds. No one does it better than Lucy. She’s complimenting him while also reliving him of the guilt he’s been harboring for much longer than she would’ve liked.

Had she known this she would’ve absolved him the day after honestly. No way she would've wanted him carrying this guilt day in and day out. Her opinion matters so much to him. He NEEDED to hear her say these words. It had to come straight from Lucy or he’d never let it go. She reassured him that not only did she not blame him but his opinion was one that matters most to her. Two things that were in question for him. Quelled the storm in his soul.

It’s scenes like this that are the true building blocks to their foundation. Why they end up working so well in s5. I will die on this hill of loving every single moment of this slow burn. I’m so glad we had 4 seasons to truly make them rock solid. It was so necessary for them as a couple. I don’t regret the wait at all. Because piece by piece they were building toward ‘The Really Beautiful Place’ Lucy calls their relationship in 5x18. Everything happens for a reason for them before we get there. This is just another wonderful facet of it.

The minute he’s granted access and allowance to give her advice he doesn’t hold back. His way of showing he cares too. I love them so much for their ability to just bounce back like they do. After a deeply emotional and vulnerable chat they're right back to the banter. Easily fall back into teasing one another. Tim basically says in not so many words Emmett isn’t good enough for her.(I mean no one is but Tim lets be honest.)

Lucy probes and asks why he thinks that? Tim doesn't hesitate in the slightest. Saying he’s a firefighter for god sakes LMFAO. Clearly has a prejudice against them. For whatever Tim reason that may be. Lucy being all cute saying 'Yeah that’s what makes him so hot.' ha She’s not wrong the man is fine af.

Tim gets defensive and says he doesn’t want to talk about this if she gonna be contrarian about it. Which is Tim speak for being jealous let’s be real honest. Lucy doesn’t hesitate to call him out on it. God I love her. Jokes he’s just threatened by his ‘hunkiness’ I mean he is….his reaction alone proves that he is. It’s ok Tim she still thinks you’re smokin too. She just can’t have you just yet haha

I love them ending this scene on a funny bantery note. Shows how much Tim cares about her. The fact that he is allowing this conversation to even take place proves that. Indulging her in this. They’re so married with their banter. I Iove them sfm. Soulmate behavior the way she teases him about everything and he allows (and loves) it. We leave the scene smiling and laughing at these blissfully unaware idiots in love.

Harper has Lucy and Tim chase what they think is the decoy vehicle once their stakeout is made. They soon realize the decoy vehicle has their target and Nolan’s CI. They end up getting T-Boned in the pursuit of it. Hurts to watch. They're both knocked out cold. I adore how the first thing Tim asks when he comes to is if she’s alright. Always puts her first. The soft way he says ‘Chen’ then asks if she’s ok. It’s the little things I love so very much. ❤️

Emmett arrives on scene flirty as ever with Lucy. She decides to be honest with him. Tells him why she declined his date offer. That her social life is complicated right now. He is smooth af with his reply. Tells her once it’s not he’ll still be interested. Their scene ends pretty cute. This is so good for her. I’m really happy to see her get back out there. She really needed him to help her get over her DOD hump. Just like it’s nice to see Tim happy the same goes for Lucy. I love them both individually as as much as I do together. This cute flirt session is well deserved after all the trauma she’s been through.

Thus ends our episode for them. Such a damn good one for them. I love their building block episodes. They do depth and growth like no other. How I love them so.

Side Notes-Non Chenford

Nice to see Angela get her foot back in the door for Detective. Well earned after her fallout in S1.

Harper SL's and her backstory. Getting to watch her in UC action always fun to watch.

Thank you to those who take the time to like/comment and reblog. Means the world to me. Fuels me to do each review.

See you all in 2x18 :)

#Caitlin Rewatches The Rookie #chenford #chenford hiatus #summer rewatch #s2 #2x17 Control #The Rookie 2x17 #waiting on s6 #otp: doing my job #otp: you know me so well. too well.#otp: some things matter more #tim bradford #lucy chen #tim x lucy #lucy x tim #the rookie #eric winter #melissa o'neil #tim bradford x lucy chen

43 notes · View notes

minniiaa · 3 months

Text

GET TO KNOW ME

shoutout to @kuroashims for the tag <3

Three favorite ships: Law x Luffy, Zoro x Sanji, Zoro x Luffy (no surprise here) and sanji x literally anyone he's a whore. outside of OP though probably Kuroo x Kenma, Levi x Eren (don't judge), and Nagi x Reo. (idk my hyper fixations go brrr so i can't even remember who i ship outside of op)

Last song: this entire album on repeat living rent free in my head but specifically kerosene

Last movie: ngl I have no idea the last time I sat down and watched a movie but according to netflix it was Our Planet II. (what can I say I love a good nature documentary.) Next ones i'm watching are def the monsters movie or Suzume

Currently craving: pov you live a somewhat seasonal coastal town and you just want fucking five guys but they're closed until march

Currently reading: the song of achilles and fourth wing. i have a stack of other half read books but we don't talk about them

Fave color: black as my soul and blue as the sea

Fave flavor: sweet. i could live off sweets. pastries, cakes, cookies, brownies, chocolate, GIVE ME ALL THE DESSERTSSSS

Relationship status: alone forever fuck love give me diamonds. i am living my best life and thriving solo

Last thing i googled: can you buy girl scout cookies online (you cannot and i am so sad because this means i will have to venture out into the wild to get some damn peanut butter patties)

Current obsessions: writing fanfiction, one piece, trafalgar law, my favorite bakery's chocolate roulade, palworld, soon to be persona 3 remake when i get tired of palworld

tagging whoever wants to do this because i can't be assed to go look through my mutuals love you all tho <3

#i am a deranged lunatic pretending to be normal #don't mind me #get to know me #one piece brain rot is so real it's invading every part of my life #Spotify

10 notes · View notes

aces-drew · 6 months

Note

Hi! I just wanted to drop in and say that I adore your two Nace fics so much to the point that I have probably reread them about 20 millions and if you ever want to write for them again I would be more than WILLING (and to tell my soul) to supply you with a slew of ideas because I have plenty <3 your writing is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!

hi anon, you have no idea how often i think of your ask and how much i've come back to it since you've written to me. i hope you're still around and still somewhat part of the nd fandom, and that the series finale was something you could enjoy and be satisfied w! truth be told i fell out of the fandom at the end of the third season, it was for a lot of reasons - personal and just the time passing, and with it also came half-baked word docs of nace fics i started but never really got around to finishing. and i never wanted to answer your high compliments with the answer of never considering to write for them again, and in all honesty i forgot my written drabbles in a folder on my laptop for the better part of the last two years. but i went through it on a whim today and actually found something i think is worth sharing, and since your message has stayed with me, i'm going to post it for you and you only, as both a thank you and im sorry i couldnt really give you more. writing for nace was one of my greatest joys in a truthfully very difficult time in my life, and im so glad it was as special for you as it was for me! so here's almost 5k of nace being in their pre-relationship, best friends in tension phase dated to the 21st of dec 2021 - it's certainly not my best work and may seem a bit half-baked, but there is so much love in it, and its happy and sad and hopeful all at once, and reading it again with fresher eyes, it would've been a shame for it to rot in my gdrive with no audience, so yeah thank you for reading this my dear anon. i hope you like it, take care!!

***

Ace let out a soft mumble of a curse under his breath.

‘Florence, this is not the time girl.’

The exasperation in his tone was refreshing to Nancy. Rarely was Ace ever off-centre; he was always the one who held down the fort, who grounded everyone, and especially her, to whatever it was they were working through at any given time. So the fact that car trouble was what got Ace ticking made her chuckle.

And among other things, she had to admit how adorable it was – his brows creased in annoyance, hands resting on his steering wheel, fingers drumming on the small surface in agitation. (Nancy tried to force herself to look away when her mind started to focus on how long and sturdy his fingers were in comparison to the lining of the steering wheel, ignoring the unnatural hike in her pulse).

Nancy observes his leg start to bounce restlessly in its place, his growing frustration rivalling Nancy’s ease. He looks at her through the rear-view mirror, sparkly blue eyes that seem to brace for her remark knowingly, ‘You’re not allowed to say I told you so.’

Nancy playfully clicks her tongue, ‘I told you so.’

He groans in response, but there’s only levity in his tone. When she looks at him amidst her unhelpful giggle, for the briefest of seconds, she sees a ghost of a smile on his lips.

‘Okay I’ve got Earnie on speed-dial, he should be here in like 45 minutes.’

He looks at her readily, waiting for her to take a jab at the fact that he’s on a first-name basis with the Horseshoe Bay’s finest mechanic and tower of cars, but she chooses not to indulge him.

With a small smile, she pulls out a pack of skittles and crinkles it open, offering him a hand-full of carelessly assorted yellow skittles in ceasefire. He looks at her in mocking question, ‘You think giving me my favourite colour of skittles is going to convince me into giving you a pass on the next 45 minutes where you tease me about this incessantly?’

Nancy smiles the brightest smile she can manage, teeth barred like a girl scout selling her cookies door to door, ‘Yep.’

He concedes, nonchalantly shaking his head and turning over the skittles from her hand to his, ‘You know me too well.’

(Nancy ignores the way he touches the pulse point on her wrist when he transfers the candy onto his own hand, how his fingers ever-so gently wrap around her entire wrist, electrifying the skin under his touch).

They sit there chewing in comfortable silence - on the candy as well as their thoughts; it had been a long day. They were heading back from another dead-end lead on de-tangling George’s soul from Odette’s, and though it had been a long shot, the sting of failure extinguishing the little hope that had slipped through to everyone in the group at the beginning of the day was subtly unrelenting. Nancy tried to keep the fear at bay, closing her eyes to refocus away from the painful pulses lightly throbbing at her temple. She couldn’t even think about reliving George’s death again, but the image of her bloodied body on the floor of the Claw re-emerges without permission, and along with it comes bile up Nancy’s throat.

In an attempt for comfort, she reminds herself of what George had to said to them when they regrouped at their cars to drive back to Horseshoe Bay, ‘I’m a fighter guys, and I live every day with intention, I’m happy and in love and I have no regrets. We’ll figure this out.’

She recalls George’s soft smile at Nick, her smirk at Bess when Addy asks for the two of them to carpool back alone together, her hugs for Nancy and Ace – she reminds herself how good it feels to relish in the warmth of her best friend. Taking a few deep breaths, Nancy wills for it to make her feel a bit better.

A gentle tap on her shoulder gets her to open her eyes again, and before she can turn to face Ace in question, she finds herself enamoured by the starry night sky looking down on her through the upper windshield. She wonders how she hadn’t yet noticed the glimmering specks of silver tattered against a canvas of cloudless navy blue, both beautifully and terrifyingly spanning the expanse of her entire eyeline, nestled between tall, dark oaks and pine trees on either side of the road they were currently grounded to.

‘You have to stop worrying about her, we’ll solve this too, we always do.’

That snaps her focus right back onto Ace, and she realises that despite the fairly long drive in darkness, the reason her attention had been obscured from the remarkable night sky was because it had been elsewhere, particularly on a concerning distraction that had been sat next to her this whole time.

She studies him, not rushing her response. She registers the way his lips have come into a fine line in resolve, starkly different to the smile lines that had lifted the plane of his cheeks just a few minutes ago, how the flecks of grey within his clear, sky-blue eyes zap like lightning, reflecting the twinkle of the stars above him – confident, persevering, determined. Her chest expands at how his expression still emanates warmth, a still of comfort when her mind is too convoluted to function, to find the gravity below her. Looking at him, she doesn’t necessarily blame herself for not noticing the night sky.

‘I hate that you can read me.’

She finds the grin in his eyes before his lips, ‘You have to stop being so predictable.’

She mock-scoffs at him, ‘Says the guy who knew his car was going to break down but was too stubborn to back down from subjecting it to a long road trip anyways.’

He takes his turn feigning hurt, ‘Touché.’ He chuckles, ‘Nancy – 1, Ace – 0.’

She sobers up at his still subtly insistent stare, he doesn’t want her to drop the subject just yet but he doesn’t ask again; his delicate push gets her primed enough to voice her thoughts, ‘I can’t watch her die again.’

She hates how her voice fails her, vulnerability and fear lulling her to a whisper, as if she’s afraid the universe will hear her. Ace responds with a shaky breath, returning to her gaze with the truths she’s been trying to convince herself with, ‘We’re trying our best. We’ll get there, and we’ll find what she needs.’

His eyes don’t waver from hers, ‘We can’t live in how her death is something we can’t avoid just yet, you heard what she said Nance, she’s living her best life day after day, and we owe it to her to do the same.’

He says his words with such conviction that Nancy lets out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding, (she tries not to melt at how his nickname for her drapes itself so softly on his tongue). ‘None of us will ever give up on her, on any of us.’

She lets out a small smile in understanding, a tear escaping to her cheek before she’s able to get a hold of her glossy eyes. For a spilt-second Nancy sees his fingers reach out for her, possibly to wipe the tear away, but he stops himself, and Nancy tries to ignore the way her stomach hollows out at his reluctance. Instead, he gives a genuine smile in return.

Before the slight awkwardness can stew between the two of them, Ace speaks up softly, clearing his throat, ‘Alright, come on.’

He gestures to the trunk of the car as he gets out of the driver’s seat, and open’s the passenger door for her to follow him; she wordlessly steps out despite her confusion. The cold wind hits her skin immediately, passing through the soft sleeves of her sweater as if they weren’t even there. She hugs herself, tracing her hands up and down her upper arms to create some insulation.

Ace opens up the trunk and unzips a large duffel bag, pulling out three blankets and two cushion pillows. Taking the especially woolly chocolate and cream checkered throw, he swings it over Nancy’s back and gently swaddles her, ‘Better?’

‘Better.’ She responds, warmth immediately encapsulating her. Before she can ask why they’re outside his car in uncomfortably cold weather, he explains, ‘The stars are out tonight,’ he says looking up, ‘I thought we could kill some time while we wait for Earnie, and a distraction wouldn’t hurt the both of us. Two birds, one stone.’

Nancy follows his eye-line and stares at the sky, ‘Definitely.’

Within five minutes, he lays out the largest blanket he has onto the hood of Florence and sets down the two pillows for them. Forgetting the added weight of the throw, she grabs his hand to get onto the surface, and predictably, loses balance almost immediately, tripping to fall face first right onto Ace’s chest.

Before Nancy settles into how mortifying it is, Ace’s arms instinctually wrap around her waist and secure them in place, his chest reverberating the chuckle he adds to the night air.

Her shoulders loosen, and Ace looks down at her with a smirk, a glint of mischief within those blue eyes Nancy adores, ‘Comfortable?’

‘Shut up.’ Nancy groans, and Ace readily manoeuvres her waist to help her rest next to him, the two of them fully laughing now. (She ignores the way his fingers come into contact with some bare skin on her hips when it happens, a result of her sweater hiking and the blanket falling on top of the both of them when she fell; she tries not to focus on the imperceptible movement of his thumbs against her exposed skin).

As they recover from their laughing fit and Nancy settles more comfortably onto her cushion, shoulder to shoulder with Ace, they both find themselves looking up at the incredible vastness above them. Away from the other’s gaze, and suddenly incredibly aware of how small they were in this expanse of time and space, Nancy feels almost blindingly comfortable with Ace, willing to tell him anything if he asked.

Ace seems to get the same idea, ‘Okay, game time. I give you a story and you give me one in return, could be prompted by a question if either of us have something specific to ask, but otherwise it’s free rein.’

Nancy considers the proposition – she supposes it is dangerous territory, and that she would be tiptoeing between everything she wants to disclose and keep hidden, especially because she was already so comfortable leaving her heart at her sleeve with Ace, but ultimately the urge to get to know Ace better wins her over.

‘Okay,’ she agrees, slightly hesitant, ‘But you start, since you clearly have something in mind.’

She sees him nod in her periphery.

‘My mom used to take me star-gazing to help with my anxiety,’ Ace says, his eyes focused on the sky. ‘I couldn’t sleep after what happened with my dad, and there were a good few weeks where he was comatose in the hospital, and I couldn’t get that image of him out of my head every time I closed my eyes.’

‘I stayed up for like four days straight after the accident, hopped up on energy drinks and just gaming or coding night after night, getting by on twenty minute naps that would just happen because my body was so exhausted,’ he sighs, seemingly disappointed in his younger self, ‘It wasn’t long before my mom noticed the bags under my eyes and asked me to explain myself - I just broke down, told her how his limp body was all I could see if I let my mind rest for even a second. That’s when she invested in Florence, a seemingly temporary rental at the time,’ he chuckles fondly, ‘and every night my dad stayed in the hospital after that, she took me up to the bluffs so that we could see the stars as clear as they were in Maine.’

She imagines a young Ace, so scared of his father not coming home that he wills himself to become his own problem, shielding himself the only way he knows how, and finding himself unwilling to depend on anyone, even as a child. Even though the irony of how similar they are is not lost on her, it hollows out Nancy’s chest.

She can’t also help but find small comfort in the karmic coincidence that the bluffs were somehow similarly significant in both their lives – a place rooted in contentment equally as much as trauma. Nancy wonders why fate sometimes writes in intricately entwining strings so cruel when it comes to her.

‘She pointed out all the constellations, and eventually I learnt them too, and her explaining everything would send me to sleep. It was a lot easier to close my eyes to the stars instead of a dark ceiling, and she always said ‘It’s okay to be afraid, but when you are, just look up, and you’ll be reminded of how vast and complicated this universe is. And if you can believe in that, you can believe that things will work out for the best’. And that hope? That hope has weirdly never really left me, no matter what’s happened since then.’ He finishes.

Nancy can tell that his voice is thicker, and she doesn’t push to ask him why he thought she should know something so intrinsic about him. She breathes it in nevertheless, savouring a piece of his past that has been delicately placed in her hands, an olive branch for her to know him better.

She decides to take him up on it and share something that’s been kept in the dustiest shelves of her own heart, ‘That day the Aglaeca came to claim us, I actually fell off the bluffs.’

Nancy feels him turn his face to her in surprise, the only thing she’d told them was that she’d almost tripped over - she’d never considered talking about the truth till now; she pushes on, talking at the stars, ‘I kept screaming for help, but obviously nobody came. I was meant to die there, just like my mother, and for a second, before my survival instinct kicked in, I almost let go… almost wanted to let go,’ she feels her voice wobble, unable to carry the weight of her words, ‘I felt my own weight on my fingers, felt them give, and I was so tired, so I almost let go… instead of choosing to try and climb up.’

She had never admitted that to anybody, least of all herself, but it felt liberating to do so, to be overwhelmed in how enormous all her trauma seemed at the time, ‘I think it’s because I’d felt helpless for a long time, I didn’t know how to be somebody that other people couldn’t depend on, and I couldn’t get the conversation, or fight, we all had out of my head,’ she adds quickly, with a hollow, humourless chuckle, ‘but I did, I did climb up, and when I looked over at the sea, sitting there, all alone, I wasn’t necessarily glad that I had. I still felt empty, even when I knew we survived.’

Verbalising the last admission felt like a tonne of bricks on her shoulders, but it all came out in a few short breaths – like domino after domino falling in a way she couldn’t really stop once it started. She’d felt so small in the face of everything she’d been through, and even though she knew that life is always the right choice, and she’s convicted of that that definitively now more than any other time in her life, it wasn’t something that came intuitively to her that day. Her introspection is cut short when she realises that Ace has fully turned to face her now, and she struggles finding the courage to look at him.

When she does, the pain in his glassy eyes knocks the wind out of her, ‘Nance, I-I-, shit. I’m so fucking sorry Nancy.’

His voice breaks, faltering as he sits upright with his apology. She follows, sitting up cross-legged next to him, ‘Hey, hey,’ she insists, resting her arm on his bicep, willing him to look at her, ‘I wasn’t done… You know what helped me through that? What made me realise that it had obviously been the right choice?’

Ace’s stormy blue eyes look back at her, and he seems to recognise her desperation for levity, ‘Therapy?’

They both chuckle, cutting through a little bit of the tension, ‘Yes, of course therapy,’ she agrees, ‘but unlike therapy, this isn’t something I’ve had since I was eight.’

She takes a deep breath, hoping her persistent eye contact conveys the principle she that she grounds herself to, ‘It was all of you. Seeing you that day when I walked into the Claw that night? With Bess, and Nick and George? With your relieved smiles, and hugs that were insistent on making sure I knew how glad you all were that I was alive? That’s what rushed all that relief into my body. For a spilt second, the Aglaeca highlighted all of my trauma so that I couldn’t see through to the love I was given, and yes, it didn’t help that we were our worst selves that day, fuelled by fear and regret, but when I’d gotten back into my car and drove back to the Claw, I knew. I-’ she drew another breath, trying to gain coherence; there was so much she had to say about that night, so much she’d packed away into a tiny little box in her mind, ‘when I walked in that night, I knew that I’d made the right call, that from then on, whatever near-death experience I was going to get catapulted into, I would always choose to stick around.’

She could feel her throat closing up a little, her voice thickening, ‘The love that I’ve gotten from all of you, and now even Ryan, has changed my life, and it has forever changed the trajectory of who I am, and I whoever I’ll be, and that’s something I’m only grateful for. I know I don’t tell you all that enough, but seriously, I am so, so grateful.’

The tears fall down Ace’s cheeks freely now, and in the vortex of them under a beautiful night sky with their hearts strung out in the open and them alone in between the woods, his reservations seem to lower just enough. His other hand comes over the hand of hers that’s still resting on his bicep, and he intertwines his fingers with hers, a soft whisper following, ‘Still, I’m sorry, what we said was really fucked up, there really isn’t an excuse for it. We all made the decisions that got us to being prophesied to die that night, and it wasn’t you. Nance, you didn’t bring us to our deaths like lambs to slaughter, it was on us, we chose to be there.’

It’s his turn to pierce right through to her heart through his gaze, conviction steady in his words, ‘You are not a cause, and you are not an omen. You are anything but that. And honestly Nancy, I don’t even fucking know what I’d do with myself if we lost you that night.’

Nancy feels relieved in a weird way, the vindication is anything but hollow and ingenuine, it feels good. She laughs lightly, trying to mask a little bit of the subtle discomfort she feels; she knows the sentiment would be undeniably the same the other way around (except Nancy knows that’s partly also because she can’t really comprehend the enormity of what Ace means to her, how he was somehow so much more than a friend), the heaviness in his tone makes the implications of the statement much more intimate that she’s ready to decrypt. ‘Well at least George wouldn’t have died.’

And there it comes, that exasperated ‘Nancy, using humour to cope with your trauma is not funny’ face comfortably settling on Ace’s expression before she’s even done with her sentence. She chooses to laugh it off again (and pretends not to notice how Ace’s fingers tighten around hers perceptibly more).

Neither of them lets go of the other’s hand, and Nancy eventually lays back down on her cushion, with Ace following suite, ‘Okay on a lighter note,’ she refreshes, ‘where do you see yourself in 10 years?’

He hums in thought, ‘Uh, I don’t really know, haven’t thought much about it really.’

There’s an awkward hitch to his voice, and Nancy knows he’s picked up on her picking up on it, and he concedes into a slightly more nuanced response, ‘I’d like to have the standard stuff y’know?’

She looks at him pointedly, ‘The standard stuff?’

He avoids her gaze, ‘Yeah, the standard stuff. I’d like to be in love, and if I’m lucky, possibly even married. And yeah, eventually something like two kids, a white picket fence, y’know, the whole thing.’

The response surprises Nancy for some reason; it’s such an open admission of domesticity, and she unintentionally pictures herself with him in his ideal.

‘You think it’s dumb.’

She’s frayed from her thoughts, and registers that she’d been quietly daydreaming for embarrassingly longer than acceptable, and that Ace perceived it as the opposite of what she was currently thinking.

‘What?’ Nancy tries to steady her heart beating frantically in her chest, the enormity of mapping her entire future with Ace now settling swiftly on her shoulders.

‘Oh my god, you totally think it’s dumb.’

Nancy tries to think through what feels like her brain is melting, ‘I do not think it’s stupid Ace, come on. It’s endearing!’

He looks at her unconvinced. She tries to centre herself, refocusing from the image of two toddlers with his wonderful hair and her fiery eyes, she looks up and away from him again, ‘I’ve always wanted at least two kids too, I never had any siblings, and I’ve always thought that companionship is really important when you’re young. A boy and a girl… would be nice to have someday.’

When she meets his gaze, there’s something indecipherable about them. She tries to not to let how intensely he’s looking at her waver her in staring back at him (but it’s hard, she feels her stomach jump to her throat).

The finally, he speaks, ‘At least two huh? Never pegged Nancy Drew for the big house, big family type.’

There’s a hint of an endearing tease that laces his tone, and she knows it’s meant to annoy her; she chooses instead to be honest, ‘Yeah, actually.’

A small smile of satisfaction finds her lips as Ace’s eyes widen for just a second, ‘You’re not the only one who wants the standard stuff y’know,’ she says, imitating the tone he’d used, ‘I would also really like to be in love, married even, and settle down. Maybe here, maybe somewhere else. Either way, I definitely do want a legacy. And what better legacy to leave than to love the people you love, maybe even slip into a life with that one special person I love and work to be with, and hopefully they’re a best friend and someone I completely depend on, and I’ll get to create a family with them someday.’

She places intentionality in her last sentence, letting Ace know that maybe this person she hopes to have all that with isn’t some far away concept, but the wonderful friend and companion she’s been able to completely trust and depend on these last few months. His eyes seem to darken as he processes her words, blue pushed to the edges of his irises; she gets the feeling that he might’ve picked up on the implication.

There was no doubt that they’d been recently tip-toeing around what their friendship was evolving into; between Nancy recovering from the Wraith, Ace getting kicked out and Amanda breaking up with him, they’d both changed into such different people in just a few weeks. They’d both seemed to realise that though their entire worlds had shifted axes, the two of them were the same – they were Nancy and Ace, detective and hacker, a mind racing a hundred miles per hour paired with a rational, calm decision maker, a comet free orbiting in space and the sun’s gravity that grounded it, two best friends. They were comfortable here, safe in the boundaries of their friendship that was a little more than friendship, in confessions through glances and grazes, where the fear of having to figure out how they fit with each other, who they were and what they wanted was too scary for them to consider. For now, the implication was enough.

‘Yeah,’ Ace seemed to agree, his voice a little dreamy, ‘someday.’

#nace #nancy drew cw #nancy drew x ace hardy #nancy drew #user:alexjatp #cwnd #nancy x ace #ace hardy

10 notes · View notes

impossibletruths · 1 year

Text

tagged by @grimweathers (ty!!)

3 ships: also quentin/eliot (rip), chengqing (I have Feelings unfortunately), can I put daichi/zaref on here? (I have Feelings about them too)

first ship ever: I'm pretty sure it was aragon/arwen

last movie: I watched Up The Yangtze (dir. Yung Chang) last night and it was. really good.

last song: Tidal by Noah Kahan

currently reading: Circe by Madeline Miller. also Babel by R.F. Kuang and The Marvelous Clouds by John Durham Peters ("reading" is a strong word tbh)

currently watching: I'd been watching d20's Unsleeping City but honestly kind of fell off it. I just finished TLOU which was. really fucking good actually. considering going back to Kingdom?

currently consuming: thin mints! I love girl scout cookie season

currently craving: nothing I am happy and fulfilled. sleep, I guess?

I'm tagging: @basket-of-epiphanies @lokiindistress @mischiefseven @serenity-the-firefly @aceofwonders @thewildmother @forcekenobi @krshush @in-maidjan (if you feel like it no pressure etc etc)

#tag game

9 notes · View notes

share-the-skye · 1 year

Text

9 People You Would Like To Know Better

I was tagged by @xyrnys awhile ago! Thank you! 🫶

Three Ships: 1)SoRiKai (Kingdom Hearts) obviously lol 2)Lura/McKay (OC’s that my fiancée and I made together when we first become friends! We stopped writing stuff down for them awhile ago because just talking through scenarios is faster but they are a big part of what drew us together.) 3)MariChat (Miraculous Ladybug) I’ve been introducing a friend to the show so it’s been on my mind a lot lately. This is my favorite side of the love square! There is no escape from this hell (affectionate).

First Ship: Toss up between Kataang (atla) and RobStar (Teen Titans Cartoon Network) I was big into both of these shows at around the same time so I don’t remember which came first. I wrote Atla fanfic on the Nickelodeon forums waaaaay back in the day (and got several chapters banned for being too graphic when I gave Aang an injury pretty much identical to how he’s hurt in the season 2 finale…) so Kataang I guess has a little more weight? But I honestly was way more emotionally invested in RobStar. Shoutout also to Terra/Beast Boy, I suppose. I wrote an edgy pre-teen poem about them 😂😂😂

Last Song Listened To: Had the Suzume soundtrack on shuffle while making stuff, and I don’t have the track names memorized yet. But it was one of the instrumental score, not the few with lyrics.

Last Movie Watched: Suzume and by god was it good! I wish it had been in theaters longer so I could have gone twice.

Currently Reading: The Storm of Echoes by Christelle Dabos. It’s the fourth book in The Mirror Visitor quartet. Annnnnnnd I’m gonna have to restart it again, because I keep setting it down for too long and forgetting what’s happening and it is not a book you can do that with. Beautifully written and translated, though. I love this series.

Currently Watching: Technically Shadow and Bone s2 and whatever fucking season of Grey’s Anatomy is new. But I don’t really care about either of them. I just binged all of Li Speak’s content on YouTube and that was delightful.

Currently Consuming: Still slowly but surely making my way through Neo:TWEWY. Also Girl Scout Cookies 😂

Currently Craving: time for all my creative pursuits. I have too many hobbies and not enough time management skills

This was fun! If anyone else wants to participate please feel free but zero pressure. Gonna tag @transpanda-1 @thesmolcryptid @storm-driver @alphascorpiixx @vanibear @caitas-cooing @miraculorum @sirathurheit @elizabeth-dicewielder

#I know I tagged some of you in both this and the banner one hopefully that’s not too annoying #I don’t have a ton of mutuals to pick from 😅😅😅😅😅😅#tag game #not kingdom hearts

6 notes · View notes

justhere4thevibez · 1 year

Text

Taggity tag!

I was tagged by @slumped-in-the-arms-of-fiction - thanks, friend! Appreciate the tag! I've answered some similarish ones recently, so I'll try to diversify my answers a lil.

Favorite colors: blues of all shades, though I'm learning to embrace soft pinks (12-year-old me would be appalled)

Relationship status: very single (social anxiety + demi-ace = dating as my worst nightmare)

3 favorite foods: mac & cheese, mixed berry pie, potato soup

Top 3 shows: The Mentalist, Fleabag, MASH (my parents loved old tv shows, so I grew up on this)

Top 3 characters: Mulan, The Eleventh Doctor, Marguerite St. Just from the Scarlet Pimpernel

Song stuck in my head: Peace of Mind by Blue Cheer

Last movie watched: Michael Clayton (yesterday was a Ghibli marathon)

Last thing I googled: Girl Scout cookie locations in my area lol

Last Song I Listened To: Zombie by Dionysia (listen to it, it's a banger)

Dream trip: London, definitely, but also New Zealand is supposed to be gorgeous!

Currently watching: The Last of Us, but I think I might have to hold off until all of season 1 is released because I can't handle the weekly dread lol

Currently reading: Me vs. Brain by Hayley Morris

Current obsession: writing fanfic haha

I tag @hangon-silvergirl @hellcheersmovingcastle @outlandishwhalesharks @http-starboy anddddd anyone else. If you've already gotten tagged for this one, feel free to ignore!

#tag game

3 notes · View notes

queen-ofsunflowers · 1 year

Note

I want to see what you can come up with for WitchNight for domestic bliss: 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 23, 27, 39, 40

OTP Asks - Domestic Bliss Edition!

so that's why you asked about the ship name...

for those who don't recall, WitchNight is My Hero's Midnight and RWBY's Glynda Goodwitch! As such, these answers will be set in the RWBY in My Hero-verse since that's where the pair originated from. Also please note that I use Midnight's real name as opposed to her hero one here. so let's go!

3. What’s one book/DVD/CD they both owned a copy of before meeting each other?

This is gonna sound a bit cheesy, but both of them owned the same book, and this is what actually got them to become friends before becoming more than that. It was the first in a whole series, so the pair started talking about the books before talking about other topics and finding they had more in common than they thought. As for the book series, it was a copy of Howl's Moving Castle, something that had been recommended to both of them. They got a little too into it, though Gylnda refuses to admit it. go read the books if you haven't, they're really good.

4. Do they wash their clothes in the same load or separately?

Separately, mostly because the fabrics of their clothing are different materials that need to be treated differently. Found that out the hard way when they tried to wash their clothes together in one load shortly after moving in together.

6. Who picks what colour bed linen they buy? What does it look like?

Nemuri does! She knows which sheets are the good kind, so Glynda left it to her. Their bedsheets are durable and soft. Nemuri buys them in two separate colors: a dark, satiny purple and an off-white color that has a purple tint to it. She feels that it matches both their aesthetics perfectly. They usually switch them out depending on which ones are currently being washed.

9. Who will buy Girl Scout Cookies when they knock on the door?

This is once again, Nemuri's thing. She usually only does it when Gylnda isn't home, though. Girl Scout Cookies are definitely some of her guilty pleasures, and she gets a bit embarrassed by how many she stocks up on when cookie-selling season comes around.

11. Do they play music in the background while they’re just hanging out at home?

Usually not while hanging out around the house. It's some low, jazz, a classic piece or a random song that one of Nemuri's students recommended she listen to. It will be playing while the pair are working -- either doing housework or paperwork (or in Nemuri's case, also grading papers and setting up lesson plans). When the students' recommendations pop up, it always catches Glynda off-guard.

14. Which partner snores more loudly? How does the other person cope?

She doesn't look like it, but it's Nemuri. It's not often, but there are moments when she does. It's usually when her nose is clogged -- either by allergies or because she's under the weather. Glynda will usually cope by going into another room and sleep on the couch or in the guest room until Nemuri can breathe properly again.

23. Which partner writes love notes in the steam on the mirror?

This is surprisingly a thing that both of them do. Primarily because they know that the other has a rough time with work, so whoever gets home first will usually leave a message in the mirror when they know it's going to be a long day for the other. It's just a sweet little pick-me-up. Nemuri's notes are usually longer (and depending on her mood, more explicit) that Gylnda's short and sweet ones. Nemuri takes pictures of all of Gylnda's notes for when she needs a little encouragement to get through the day.

27. How do they organize their books/DVDs/CDs? Are they kept separate, or together? Alphabetically? By genre?

The moment that they moved in together, Gylnda took charge of that whole thing. She is very meticulous in the way things are organized. Dishes by size and color, soap bottles in the bathroom by whose is whose and when they're used -- same thing for any other hair product or skin care product that they have. Makeup is by type, color and owner. So, their books, DVDs and CDs (if the latter two are still a thing in the future that this takes place in) are organized by her. All are sorted by genre. Book series are usually kept together because it would drive her crazy otherwise.

39. Who’s more likely to lock themselves out?

Nemuri has forgotten her keys more than once, simply because a lot of her clothes do not have pockets. This is the reason that they had to put a spare key kept under the mat.

40. Who’s more likely to invite other people over?

Once again, this is Nemuri's doing. Though, it's usually just Mic or Aizawa crashing on their couch because their apartment is too far away and they're too tired. Ozpin, Qrow and Winter Schnee have all done this, too. There is also instances where Jaune has spent the night, and that was because he had been too overwhelmed at home, couldn't get his schoolwork done there and his grades had begun to slip. As his homeroom teacher, Nemuri did what she could to help him by letting her use her own place to study and get work done peacefully. He's only stayed when he's missed the last train home. Gylnda thought this was odd at first, but over time came to accept it when she realized how much her partner cares about her students.

#rwby #my hero academia #rwby in bnha au #witchnight #glynda goodwitch #midnight #nemuri kayama #queen answers #queen plays ask games #ladyofthebluelight

6 notes · View notes

veliseraptor · 2 years

Note

Top 5 sweet treats

I could answer a specific flavor of ice cream for every one of these spots if I let myself. I'm going to refrain so I can try to diversify a little, but I just want that to be clear.

1. Still putting ice cream on here, though. It just only gets one spot. In all seriousness, if I had to pick one dessert to eat for the rest of my life I'd probably go with ice cream and feel pretty okay with it.

2. Girl Scout Thin Mints. Apex dessert is truly the Thin Mint ice cream that comes out seasonally sometimes if I can find it, but in terms of cookie forms? Thin Mints are so choice. Would buy three boxes of them and then hoard them for six months because if I eat them they're going to be gone.

3. Cadbury Mini Eggs. I'm not claiming that I necessarily have good taste in chocolate but I love these stupid things. They only show up twice a year (used to be once but now they put out "Cadbury Snowballs" around Christmas) and I always buy like three bags so I can stock up for a little longer past when they stop selling them. Landmark day when they show up in the store, though, let me tell you. One time I bought a bag that was straight up like two pounds of them. Great purchase choice on my part.

4. Hot chocolate. I'm going to put this also probably on a different top five ask about beverages but I think it can go here too. Hot chocolate is straight up one of my most comfort beverages. Starting to get into the time of year when I can't have it any more because it's too hot and that is, let me tell you, a tragic time.

5. For my birthday this year @ameliarating made me this mint-and-chocolate cream pie with an Oreo cookie crust and crushed Andes mints on the top and it was so good, you guys, so good, miss the time I had that in the fridge actually.

#conversating #avantegarda #top five meme

13 notes · View notes

dracosaurusrex · 4 years

Text

Chasing His Sun

Part 4 to Notebook!

Summary: Where Y/N tries to take her mind off of a certain Slytherin, only to have it backfire.

Pairing: Draco x Gryffindor!reader

A/N: Doesn’t a day spent in Hogsmeade sound fun? I got cravings for chocolate while writing this. Honestly tho, I threw up this entire chapter. I certainly hope you enjoy it, pero lyke I’m just going to let my imagination roam free at this point. I would really appreciate your feedback!! <3

Your eyes opened upon the feeling of sunlight hitting your face. Hints of orange and yellow that scattered through a blanketed, cloudy sky indicated to you that it was still early. You took in the peace that emitted through the sounds of birds chirping and felt at ease. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. You looked around your room, feeling groggy, as you recalled the incident that occured the night before. Piercing eyes, a teasing smile--a blush rose to your face as the embarrassment filled you up once again. You had no time to process what happened, because as soon as you met your bed, you knocked out. With the scenario now settling in, all you wanted to do was bury yourself in your grave.

‘The notebook. Oh shoot. Where’s the notebook?’ Your eyes widened when you realized that you had fallen asleep with it in your grasp, out in the open, where Hermione and Ginny could see it easily. With your heart racing and hands moving in a panic, you frantically shot up from your sheets, hoping that you haven’t been caught. You locate the notebook under your pillow and release a huge breath of relief as you hold it near to your chest. Not wanting to suffer another scare, you placed it into your bag.

“Y/N, are you up already?” Hermione asks. She must’ve woken up from the commotion that you just caused. Sleep was still visible from her eyes.

You chuckled nervously, “Yes I am. It’s a beautiful morning and I can’t seem to go back to sleep.”

“We’re going to Hogsmeade today…” She starts off, “Would you like to join us? We leave at 10.” She lifts herself slightly from her bed to look at you with eyes half opened.

“Yea, I’d love to. I need to pick up a few things also.” You reply. In response, she gives you a tired thumbs up and drops herself back into her pillow.

Since there wasn’t much sleep left inside of you, you decided to get ready. The cold air from your window prompted you to bundle up. As you dress into something comfortable, your mind drifts back to the incident with Draco. Warmth took over after remembering what he had said in response to your little incantations.

‘Why did he say that?’ Yesterday was a whirlwind for your heart. How was it possible to keep your emotions in check when everything that happened gave you sparks of hope and longing? You thought back to potions, to the notebook, and to the encounter. There was no way, right? Would a guy, who held much pride for his house, develop feelings for a random girl in Gryffindor? You weren’t sure. Your heart leaned toward that possibility, but your mind wanted to set itself on the opposing side. All you knew now was that you had to avoid him at all costs.

You glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall. It was now 8:30AM, and your two roommates were beginning to stir from their sleep. Having been done preparing for about ten minutes now, you decide to gather your things and pick up breakfast, ready to start the day ahead of you.

--------------------------------------------------

You, Hermione, and Ginny stepped foot into Hogsmeade. Despite the grey clouds that covered the skies, you took delight in the small peaks of sunshine, which was joint with the cool breezes that blew through your hair. The cold, although nipping on your nose, evoked a warm feeling in your chest. Autumn was the best season.

The small town was filled with numerous shops. It wasn’t as plentiful as Diagon Alley, but its coziness added to its charm. You followed your friends as they explored Zonko’s Joke Shop and Honeydukes. The prior was too loud for your taste, so you opted to wait outside for the two girls. However, time spent in latter was always good fun. You admired the confections from the window, and excitedly went inside. The sweet aromas that flitted the shop draw a memory from the back of your mind.

In connection to the interactions that you had with Draco the day before, you can’t help but recall the first time you ever had a real conversation with him. How his affections caught you off guard. How it caused your heart rate to speed up numerously within one sitting. How you realized that he wasn’t as bad as others make him out to be. He was actually quite sweet in contrast to his typical personality. There weren’t chocolate chip cookies available in Honeydukes, but the goods made you think of him with much fondness as the coziness that you initially felt in your heart spread even more.

You examined the sweets that were arranged neatly on their respective racks, picking out several bags of chocolate frogs in contentment. ‘I wonder if Draco likes chocolate frogs.’ you thought. After scanning the shelves for a few more minutes, you came across peppermint toads. ‘Draco, oddly enough, smells like mint. His behavior also reminds me of a toad.’ You laugh at the thought and keep an inward smile stuck to your face. He wasn’t around you, yet the thought of him weighed a huge deal in your heart. Not that you didn’t mind it.

You added the packs of toads into your little basket. ‘Maybe he’d like some too.’ You thought.

Happy with your selections, you bounded to the front counter to pay. You weren’t aware of how much time you spent in the store, because you totally lost track of Hermione and Ginny. They were nowhere in sight, and now you were left alone. You stashed your purchases in your bag and waved the shop owner goodbye. Once you stepped outside of the shop you scouted out for your friends. You stared at your surroundings with your eyebrows furrowed, only to have your attention to be stolen by the sound of a very shrill laughter.

Off in a distance, you see a mop of platinum blonde hair. Draco stood with his hands wrapped around his waist. He sported a sleek outfit, clad in black, which was emphasized by the rings that adorned his fingers. The cold air made the flush of red more apparent on his cheeks. Furthermore, the way his laughter escaped his lips gave life to the butterflies in your stomach. You made it firm to yourself that you were trying to avoid him, and yet the universe decided against that.

Draco felt your eyes burrow into the back of his head, causing him to turn to your direction. He had stopped laughing at this point when you came into his sight. The way the sun seemed to act as a spot light to you caused his heart to flutter. You weren’t even dressed in clothes that would be considered eye-catching, but to him, you were just that: The apple of his eye. He remembered the way you called his name, how you emphasized every syllable. Your voice seemed to give his name meaning and it made him genuinely happy.

You on the other hand still couldn’t bear the thought of him catching you swooning over his name. It was embarrassing to have been caught in your own feels--a moment that was only meant for you. You broke off the eye contact that was held between the both of you and walked in the other direction. Hoping that he wouldn’t attempt to follow you, you made your way to Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop, your ultimate favorite.

Draco’s line of sight followed you. He was driven by the thought of seeing you again. The way the sun hit you, the way you smiled warmly at him, the image of you so focused and wrapped up in your own affairs elicited such a huge surplus of emotions from him. You didn’t have to do much to get his attention. He was extremely enamored by the thought of you.

“Hey you guys. I have to run some errands. I’ll go meet you at Three Broomsticks.” He announced.

“Let me go with you!” Exclaimed an excited Pansy.

Draco sternly gazed at her, “No. I want to be left alone.” Coldness was laced within his words with efforts of pushing her away. It worked as she was seen dejectedly turning to Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise. The boy continued to make his way through a crowd of people, his head turning from side to side with hopes to catch you alone once again. He peered carefully into a number of stores, often throwing a second glance just to make sure he didn’t miss you. His heart was beginning to pick up its pace as his concentration solely focused on finding you.

As if the sun was listening to his thoughts, light was casted to your figure in the small stationary shop the same way it had the first time you spoke in the library. Draco stopped dead in his tracks, breath hitched once he saw you. He couldn’t describe the reason why you made him feel the way he did. You looked so unreal. You seemed so unreal. You weren’t even aware of how beautiful you looked at this very moment, and you didn’t even need to make an effort to do so.

From the very first moment you shared up until now, interactions were limited and minimal, but Draco couldn’t deny the pull no matter how much he tried. The image of you smiling under the sun was something he knew he wanted in his life. If the ambitious traits of Slytherin took form, it would embody this very moment: Not wanting to lose you again, he stepped forth into the shop.

He delicately pushed the door forward. The shop itself was quite inside and smelled of parchment and old books. He didn’t want to catch your attention right away, so he roamed through the aisles quietly, keeping close sight of you. You were excitedly examining quills on display, testing them out with a satisfied expression on your face. You thought it might’ve been weird to others, but you absolutely loved stationary.

Draco witnessed as your eyes glimmered at the sight of shelves filled with journals that resembled his. They were neatly arranged by color, starting from shades of reds and blues on the bottom shelves, and greens and yellows on the top. You ran your fingers across the spines, and stopped once you were met with the green journals. The top shelves were a little bit beyond your reach, requiring you to step on your tiptoes in order to snag one. Proving to have a tough time, you placed your items on the side so that you’d have more access. However, the struggle to obtain a green journal remained. Your body was stretched, your arms were extended to its full length, and your calves were starting to burn. Having enough of a delight in seeing your effort, Draco quietly made his way to you without you noticing.

Your focus was still extremely concentrated on the object until it was broken by the feeling of a warm breath hitting the back of your neck. Your eyes widened. You saw a black arm extend from behind you, grabbing the green notebook with ease. Startled, you jolt backwards, hitting Draco’s chest with your back. As you turned to see who your mystery helper was, a free hand held your arm, stabilizing you and preventing you from falling over. Your eyes were met with Draco’s silvery orbs, the distance between your bodies was minimal. His gaze was intense, and it excited you inside. Suddenly, a child came passing through the aisles, causing you to push your back against the shelf and enclosing you between Draco’s arms.

Realizing the position you were in, you couldn’t help but draw your stare away from his eyes. The closeness made it all the more intimate, and a blush threatened to grace your face. Hearts were racing at a hundred miles per hour at this point.

You heard Draco curse under his breath, “Idiotic child.”

You chuckled, still trapped against the wall. The sound of your laughter garnered the attention of the boy as he turned his head to your direction. You didn’t realize how tall he was until this moment. You looked up, sucking your lips in to hide the smile that had already formed.

You grinned at him, “Nice seeing you here, Malfoy.”

Draco cleared his throat and straightened his posture. After taking a good look at your small figure beneath him, he spoke, “Pleasure’s all mine, darling.” His face was graced with a smirk. You felt heat rise within you as the unfamiliar nickname--that directed towards you--rolled off his tongue.

“Is this the journal you were looking for? It looks awfully similar to mine.” With a huff, you tried reaching out for it, only for it to be raised well above your head.

“Damn you and your long arms!” He only laughed. You tried to create a mad expression, but you couldn’t hide your smile. Draco’s actions kept taunting you as you jumped desperately to take the notebook out of his grasp.

“What do you want from me!?” Your blush was already so apparent, and your hair was disheveled.

“‘What do I want?’ You ask?” Draco stopped moving and dropped his arms to his sides. Noticing how some hair strands covered your face, he reached out to you and pulled them behind your ear. Your eyes followed his movements and went back to his face. His expression turned serious as he handed the notebook to you. He began to scan your face before leaning into you. You subconsciously pressed yourself further into the shelf. You could feel his breath tease your ear.

He whispered, “Spend this day with me.”

You were so flustered at this point, you didn’t even bother to say no. The intention of avoiding him was thrown out the window as your attempts to do so were ultimately deemed futile. The effect this boy had on you was indescribable.

Draco bent down to your level and smirked, “I’ll wait for you outside.”

A/N: I’m really grateful for all the support you all have given me! Seeing you all happy makes me happy also. I hope you have a great day!

PS. Feel free to talk to me! With that being said, should I open up requests?

Taglist: @m-winchester-67 @bbeauttyybbx @un-limit-edd @poetontheblock @tttyrus @stretchyice @vaeonshi

Here’s Part 3!

#draco malfoy #draco malfoy imagines #draco x reader #draco x y/n #draco malfoy x you #draco malfoy x y/n #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy x oc #harry potter #harry potter fanfic #draco malfoy fanfiction #slytherdor #gryffinrin #slytherin #gryffindor #hogwarts

184 notes · View notes

hoodharlow · 4 years

Text

Las Cuñadas

AN: everyone thank Cal's trainer for not posting him bc now I'm back on schedule. One of the characters introduced is dedicated to my bby @cherryxwildflower as thank you for always being down to hear me ramble about Cal and Claudia whether its a 3am or 2pm, ily. Another shout out to @karajaynetoday for sharing her Australian knowledge with me. And thank you to @d-oaks for always finding time to beta read and edit <3

Requested?: Yes by my girl @myloverboyash [AND BECAUSE IM GREEDY AF... “This movie is really scary, but you’re into it so I’m trying not to cover my face the whole time, but- WHAT IS THAT?” with Calum 👀🥺]

Warnings: smut, deadass wasn't gonna write it, pos ni modos

Word Count: 4.2k words

Calum checked his phone again. Claudia and Ashton were supposed to be back at her house an hour ago. The night before the tour bus dropped them off in LA, Ashton hitched a ride with Calum to San Diego because Claudia invited him to an outdoor yoga class in Chicano Park. The two had insisted Calum join them, but he stayed behind with Claudia’s brother, Danny.

“They were supposed to be back an hour ago,” Calum told Danny.

“They’re probably at Por Vida. Claudia never misses the chance to get an horchata latte,” Danny said; his eyes never left his phone. Then he lifted his head and looked at Calum for a few seconds. “Or she’s pestering Ashton for some details about your sister, so she doesn’t fuck up.”

“I told her thousands of times not to worry. My sister is going to love her,” Calum said.

Danny shrugged and got up from where he was sitting.

Calum watched Danny continue to text with one hand while he made a grilled cheese. He quietly placed one in front of Calum and leaned against the sink texting. He cursed to himself and placed his phone face down next to him.

“Okay, so I’m seeing someone and Claudia hates them?” Danny told Calum.

“Paco?” Calum asked, unsure who else Claudia hated.

“What?— No!” Danny said flustered. “This girl from high school. They were rivals in almost every aspect from what clubs they ran to soccer."

"Is she the one that tripped Claudia when the scouts were there?"

"It was an accident," Danny defended. Calum raised his hands in the air, not wanting to get into it. Danny dropped his shoulders. "Sorry, Claudia is just really you know Claudia. When someone crosses her, they're her enemy for life… except for Ashton. Anyways, I'm bringing her over for Thanksgiving dinner and since your sister is going to be here, she'll have to be nice to her. Right?"

Calum shrugged and bit into his sandwich. They ate in silence. At some point Danny placed a bowl of fruit and a glass of agua de jamaica in front of him. Calum saw how similar Danny and Claudia were. Sure she may look like their mom while he looks like their dad, but their actions spoke louder.

They both are very nurturing and protective of people they cared about. They see the best in people even when others don’t. It was amusing to watch them both act like they weren't similar when they were.

Danny excused himself to make a phone call, leaving Calum to catch up on the first few seasons of Holiday Baking Championship. Claudia got him hooked on all the Food Network Baking Censorship shows. At the start of tour they had binged the Halloween Baking Championship.

The front door opened. Claudia quickly came in followed by Ashton. She walked past Calum and called after Danny. He looked at her walk around long enough to notice she wasn't wearing panties under her leggings.

"I'm so glad Claudia doesn't hate me," Ashton said, taking a seat next to Calum. He sipped his iced coffee. Then he started playing with the sticker on the coffee cup. "We were at the coffee shop, and she bumped into this girl. They chatted a bit, but as we were driving back she went in. Something about how that girl ruined her chances of getting a full ride to UCLA only to get pregnant."

"She's pregnant!" Calum whisper-yelled. He turned to Claudia where she was talking to Danny in a hushed voice. She was gesturing to her stomach, motioning a pregnant belly. Danny's face paled as he listened to her. If Calum connected the dots properly, then thanksgiving was going to be messy.

***

Calum pulled up to Claudia's house after the show. Diego had originally driven Claudia to the show, but he ended up leaving early because he was going back to LA to film another episode of Guy's Grocery Games. Calum had been ecstatic to find out Diego was one of the judges. He even posted how much he was a fan of Diego to his Instagram stories. While he waited for their turn to go on stage with the Chainsmokers, Calum posted a series of pictures of him and Diego. He even managed to sneak one in with Claudia in the ten slides.

There were mixed comments. Some sent Claudia virtual glares because her and Calum looked like a couple in the picture. Some recognized her as one of the radio hosts from their LA show at the Meet You There Tour. Some were just happy for him to be meeting Diego. His favorite comment was from Guy Fieri, which earned him a follow back. He was one step closer to meeting him.

"He cropped me out," Claudia gasped. She showed him her phone. It was a picture of him, Diego and Claudia's arm.

"You think he'll follow me back now?" Calum asked before chuckling.

"Maybe, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Took him three years to follow me back, and I'm his daughter. You're just some guy who raws his daughter." Claudia leaned over and kissed his cheek. She tugged him closer to her kiss his lips. "We should go inside. I'm getting cold."

"Is that why your nipples are poking through your shirt?" Calum joked as he playfully tugged one of them.

"No, it was because you parallel parked." She smirked.

They made their way inside the house. Claudia checked in with her parents to let them know they're home and are gonna watch a movie down stairs. She went to her room and slipped into one of Calum's sweats and some fuzzy socks before going back down. Calum was coming out of the guest bathroom clad in Claudia's greatest weakness, grey sweats and his Sensations shirt.

Not even fifteen minutes into the movie and Claudia and Calum were devouring each other. Her hand lazily stroked his length through his sweats as Calum's hands ran over her thighs and ass.

They hadn't had the chance to enjoy each other. It had been almost a month since Claudia's birthday, the last time they saw each other. Even then Diego was with them, so they couldn't sneak off into a secluded hallway or Calum's car.

"Here let me save this shirt of yours." Calum told her when he pulled away. "We wouldn't want you to poke holes through it. Plus I wanna love on them.” He smirked as he pulled down her shirt, releasing her breasts. He ran his thumb on her sensitive nipples.

Claudia leaned back, giving him better access, and quietly moaned out as he gently nipped under her breasts. Both of his hands were on her nipples, twisting and rubbing them. His tongue traced the pert peaks.

She pulled his lips back to hers as she slowly grinded on his hardened cock. His hands went to her ass, letting her control their kiss as he guided her against him.

"Want you, Cal," she said against his lips.

"But I'm going to need you to be quiet… like not even a peep." Calum warned her. “Don’t wanna get caught like last time.”

"Pinky." She held out her pinky to him. He lazily wrapped his with hers before lifting her up just enough for him to pull down his sweats.

Claudia greedily got on her knees and got a quick taste. "You're coming in my mouth," she whispered to him as she slipped off their sweats.

She climbed onto his lap. She bit into his shoulder as Calum coated himself with her arousal before lowering her down his length. He pulled her arms around his shoulders. Then his hands controlled her hips at the pace he wanted her.

After a few minutes, Calum's hands wandered away from her hips. He lazily made figure eights on her with his middle finger while his other hand was toying with her breasts.

Claudia pushed herself against his chest and quickened the pace she rode him. She dug her nails into his biceps as her climax neared.

Then the front door slammed shut. Calum pushed her off him and pulled him sweats on while Claudia scrambled to get dressed. They both sat on opposite ends of the couch when Danny came by.

"What movie are you two watching?" He asked them. He turned on the lights and watched them carefully.

"Watching a movie." Claudia shrugged as she looked onto the movie. She had no idea what they were watching until she saw Harry Styles in the water.

"Guess I'll leave you to it." He said shutting off the light. "Oh and Calum, pick up your shirt. Don't think I don't know what you were doing. Mom and dad don't need more grandkids, Claudia."

***

Claudia checked the oven after letting the pavlova cool. She snapped off a little piece from the middle and went to the living room where her dad was watching Charlie Brown with his grandkids.

"Can you try it?" Claudia asked him.

"Claudia, ya te dije que esta bueno." He told her.

"Please." She said, extending the 'e' sound.

He took the piece and ate it. He nodded, instantly loving how it tasted.

Claudia clapped her hands and went back to the kitchen. She quickly whipped up some pomegranate curd from the leftover yolks.

Her family left her alone in the kitchen, so she could make all of the desserts ranging from sugar cookies to pavlova; she even made chocoflan for Calum. They knew she was nervous that Calum's sister was coming over. She knew how much Mali meant to Calum, so she needed to make a good impression.

On top of that Danny was bringing his girlfriend, which gave her a weird tug in her stomach because he always gave her vague responses when she asked about her. He didn't even tell her what her name was, so she couldn’t make her a name card.

"¿No te has cambiado?" Soni, Claudia's mom, asked her when she walked in. The older woman was dressed like she was going to mass with her sky high heels, soft cashmere sweater and silk pants. Claudia couldn't compare in her Long Beach State t-shirt and Calum's sweats.

"I'm almost done. I just need to make some more whipped cream. Hay nomás para los pies y ocupo para esto." Claudia said, shrugging her off.

"Vete a cambiar. I'll make it." Her mom shooed her out of the kitchen

Claudi rushed upstairs and struggled to choose what to wear. She sighed and went with a grey plaid overall dress and a long sleeve turtleneck under it. She undid her bun, letting loose her curls and clipped it with a ribbon hair tie. Lastly she did a simple makeup look. She slipped her phone in her pocket and made her way back downstairs.

"Tía, is the poopyhead coming?" Damian asked her when she came down.

"Yes, but can you not call him that? Just for today?"

"Cookie and we'll see," he said in a negotiation tone.

"I'm gonna tell your mom," she said, crossing her arms.

"Fine, but I want a cookie."

"Nomás una."

Claudia made sure no one saw her snatch a cookie from the dessert cart. She handed it to him and waited for him to eat it, so Paloma and Guito didn't see her and asked for one too. They went back to the living room and watched the Cantinflas marathon Telemundo did every Thanksgiving. She took a seat by the window, checking every so often for Calum. A few minutes passed and Claudia watched Calum's Range Rover pull up.

Claudia squeezed her eyes shut when she heard the doorbell. She felt like she was back at school on AP test day. The hollow ache in her stomach as it churned. She wasn't sure if she was going to throw up or pass out.

Junior gave her knee a gentle squeeze and went to open the door. She heard Calum's laugh followed by hushed voices.

Then she saw him. Dressed in all black as usual. He guided Mali to the living room and everyone greeted her. Damian immediately glued himself to her side and started making conversation with her. Lastly it was Claudia's turn to be introduced.

"And this is Claudia." Calum told Mali, gesturing to her.

"Hi." They both said at the same time.

Mali gave her the warmest smile and reached over to hug her. The ice had melted with that gesture, and they clicked. They dove right into conversation while Calum was talking to Diego and Junior. They were waiting for Danny and his girlfriend to show up.

Fifteen minutes passed, and the front door opened. There were hushed voices. Danny popped his head through the doorway and waved. "Hey, sorry we're late, traffic," he said. He pulled his girlfriend forward by the hand, revealing her to his family. "This is Medelyn."

Calum's eyes were on Claudia as hers were on Medelyn's belly. He couldn't read her face at all. He watched her hands ball up into fists before she stood up and left the room.

"I'm going to talk to Claudia," Danny announced after everyone greeted him and Medelyn.

"It was nice knowing you, carnal," Junior called to him as he left for the kitchen.

***

Claudia was on the floor eating carne asada fries and sipping on sparkling cider when Danny came in. He grabbed a fork and sat next to her. They ate for a bit, passing the bottle until Claudia worked up the courage. "I guess you finally made a move on your high school crush."

"You knew about that?" Danny asked.

"Everyone and their grandma knew, dude." Claudia snorted. She remembered how Paco would tease him about it. "And I saw y'all being all couply and shit at Eileen's 21st. Just didn't think much of it."

"Really? I thought you were too busy throwing drinks at Paulina to notice." He joked.

"It was one drink!" she said defensively. "Do you remember that one Halloween when she forced you to be Danny Phantom so she could be Paulina?"

"I try not to. Mede was there, and I had asked her out before hand only for Paulina to fuck it up."

They both laughed and continued eating. They caught up. Claudia learned that him and Medelyn have been dating for almost a year. They started talking when he ran into her the tattoo shop he worked at when she was with her sorority sisters. Things got serious between then as the months progressed. A few months ago they found out Medelyn was pregnant.

Part of Claudia felt bad. Her and Danny used to talk about everything, but ever since her and Paco broke up, they just stopped. They’d only occasionally check in on each other. It was around May when she worked up the courage to tell him about Calum. They spent hours talking about him. He even joked that it wouldn't have happened if he didn't hack her Facebook. The two of them looked up when they heard someone approaching the kitchen.

"He's not dead," Junior yelled into the hallway. He sat next to them and grabbed Claudia's fork. "Why do I always find you both eating carne asada fries and sharing sparkling cider?"

"Tradition." Claudia shrugged. She took a sip and passed it to him.

"Are you guys done with your heart to heart? Because Damian can only be cute-hungry for so long before he starts fighting."

"Yeah, we're good," Danny said. He got up and pulled Claudia up. He picked up the locket around her neck. "I thought you lost it."

"Cal gave it to me for my birthday," Claudia said. She tucked it in her dress.

"He's so whipped," Junior joked.

"Says the one that bends over backwards at whatever Marlene wants," Danny responded.

Claudia left them and went to the dining room. She grabbed the empty place card next to Danny and wrote Medelyn's name. She wandered back into the living room and called everyone to eat. Calum gave her hand a squeeze and went to his seat next to Mali only to get pushed by Damian because he wanted to sit next to her.

"Oi mate, that says Calum," Calum said, pointing to his place card.

Damian grabbed it and went to where his place card was and swapped them. "No it doesn't."

***

“Are they always like that?” Mali asked Claudia’s family, gesturing to the couple.

Calum and Claudia were against the kitchen island in their own little world. Calum was toying with the hem of her dress, smiling at Claudia while she deseeded some pomegranates. She made him open his mouth so she could explode some seeds in his mouth, giggling as he playfully tried to bite her.

“Yeah and they’re so predictable,” Danny said. He pointed at them. “Watch him whisper something into her ear, followed by Claudia getting all shy and tucking her hair behind her ears.”

“I doubt that’s—”

As Danny predicted, Calum got up and towered over Claudia. His hand was on her shoulder as he whispered sweet nothings into her ear. Claudia stepped back, clearly smitten at what he said and tucked her hair back, giving him a sheepish smile. She turned away and poured the pomegranate seeds in a large plate with mixed berries.

“I think that’s enough of that.” Diego grumbled, getting up to break up the lovers' gaze between Claudia and Calum.

“Déjalos, they haven’t seen each other in a month.” Soni said, placing her hand on his chest. She turned to everyone else. “Let’s go to the living room.”

“I’m just going to get a quick picture to show my mum how whipped her son is” Mali pulled out her phone. She snapped the picture and sent it to her mom. She laughed at her mom’s response and made her way back to the rest of the family.

***

Calum grabbed a bunch of pomegranate seeds and popped them in his mouth. He reached for some more only to get his hand smacked away.

"Stop, I need them." Claudia said sternly. She went over to the fridge, looking for the whipped cream her mom made. "Did I take out the whipped cream? I can't find it."

"Maybe lower?" Calum suggested to her. He dipped a finger in the whipped cream as he watched Claudia. He had a great view of her ass. Her dress bunched up enough that he got a peek of her black lace panties.

"I swear she made it. I heard the mixer when I was chang— I fucking swear if you're making me bend down to see my ass, I'm gonna eat your chocoflan."

"Oh, look I found it."

Claudia pulled her head out from the fridge and grabbed the bowl from him. Calum rested his elbows on the counter, placing his chin on his hands as he watched her decorate the pavlova. Her hands delicately sprinkled pomegranate seeds. Then she grabbed the pomegranate coulis and drizzled it over the pavlova in circular motion.

Calum pulled out and discreetly took a picture of her and made it his new lockscreen. He loved watching Claudia in her element. Her personality always showed in her baking. Fearless and precise.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Claudia asked, breaking him from the trance he was in. She walked over to him and sat on his lap. His arm instinctively went around her waist.

"I love watching bake and decorate." He shrugged. "Gives me a glimpse of how your mind works."

"Really?" She sounded surprised. She wasn't expecting to hear that from him.

"Yeah, you're very calculating and aren't afraid of trying new things. It's one of the things I love about you."

Claudia was taken back at his confession. Comments like those always seem to find a way to surprise her. Mostly because no one's ever told her things of that sort. People usually just give her surface level comments. Calum always found a way to be sincere and deep.

"You're sweet, Cal," Claudia said.

She leaned over and kissed him. Calum's hand held the back of her head and kissed her back. Her hand was on his cheek letting him deepen the kiss. There were no intentions to go any further. They just wanted to kiss each other.

Soft piano filled the house, making them pull away.

"Oh god, they made Mali play." Claudia sighed. She pulled away and placed the pavlova on the cart with the pies and cookies.

"You have a piano?" He asked. He got up and followed her out to the living room.

By the time they got there, Mali was finishing up her song. Damian was the first to clap. He leaned over and hugged her, sticking his tongue out to Felix.

Claudia furrowed her eyebrows at Felix. She could've sworn he said wasn't coming down for Thanksgiving. He greeted Calum with a hug, joking about Mali being the talented sibling before he reached her.

"I thought you weren't coming." Claudia exclaimed, wrapping her arms around him.

"I wasn't, but since I'm moving to London over Christmas, I decided to come visit. Then my mom sent me over to bring your parents tamales," Felix said. He leaned and whispered. "Ya vi que llegaron todas las cuñadas."

"I know, there's so much to unpack with that," She whispered back. "Also London?"

***

The night wore on. Junior and his family left. Damian gave Mali extra hugs and made her promise to visit soon. Claudia's parents retired to their room while everyone stayed downstairs to watch Pan's Labyrinth. Mali and Felix were off to the side discussing London and all the good things there.

“This movie is really scary, but you’re into it. So I’m trying not to cover my face the whole time, but- WHAT IS THAT?” Calum blurted out to Claudia as he hid his face into her chest.

“There’s more to it than some monster with eyes on his hands," Danny piped up. "Memo explores good versus evil versus innocence. We have a kid being forced to do 'courageous' grown up shit, but it's even scary for most adults, stripping her from her innocence. Ofelia only wants to be the princess of the underworld, but she can't because of the shit she has to do. Saving her brother from Pan and the general, then impedes her from going back to the underworld and then she dies. Don't get me started on Aragorn because that's a whole different conversation. Basically Memo is saying that in a world torn by war, there is no room for innocence."

"My baby is gonna be so smart what the fuck," Medelyn cooed. She shifted and kissed him.

"Since when are you smart?" Claudia asked.

"Mensa, we were in the same Spanish class when we saw it." Danny scoffed at her.

"Yeah and?"

"What does that say about you, mensa?"

Claudia stayed quiet, unsure how to respond.

Danny smirked and rubbed Medelyn's belly. "Your tía is being stupid as always. Sorry you had to hear that, baby."

"Well, I'm gonna get going before the twins fight, and Danny makes Claudia cry." Felix announced. He went around hugging everyone. Calum eyed him as he and Mali talked in hushed voices. He gently squeezed her arm and left.

"What do you think they talked about?" Calum whispered to Claudia. She shrugged and sniffled. She turned away and Calum caught a glimpse of tears streaming down her cheeks. "You okay?"

She shrugged once more, and got up, wiping her tears.

"Ah, fuck." Danny mumbled. Whispering to Medelyn, he got up and went after Clauida. Seconds later Claudia's blubbering cries were heard followed by steps retreating up the stairs. Danny came back and sat with Medelyn. Calum was quick to get up, but Danny grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"She's gonna be okay." He told Calum, "Let her process. Today was a lot for her."

The movie finished and everyone settled into bed. It took a lot of convincing from Claudia for her parents to allow Calum to sleep with her, so that Mali could have the guest room to herself.

Calum emerged from her bathroom and climbed into bed. Claudia rolled over and hugged him. He rubbed her arm.

"You okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I'm just tired." She sighed.

"I would be if I baked as much as you did." He said. He felt her smile against him.

"Did you like the pavlova?"

"Yeah, it was fucking good. It was nice to see something from my culture and stuff. To be honest, I was surprised to see American food."

"Thanksgiving is the only time we eat like white people. My mom goes all out with the turkey and green bean casserole."

The loud knock on her door followed by a struggle with the door knob startled them.

"You locked the door?" Claudia whisper-yelled to him, climbing off the bed to open it.

"¿Qué dije? Que la puerta sin seguro y a dormir. No que le pusieras seguro a la puerta y que estén platicando," Diego scolded her.

"I know, I'm sorry. We're going to sleep right now," Claudia mumbled.

Diego peeked into her room and held up two fingers at Calum. "Strike two."

"What was the first one?" Calum asked, confused.

"That little bathroom break you both had when we were in the living room. I already have one grandkid on the way. I don't need more."

"And you won't; we use many forms of protection." Calum smiled innocently.

"That's three."

#calum hood #el novio series #calum hood imagine #calum hood fanfic #calum hood one shot #calum hood smut #cscslum hood series

141 notes · View notes

knives-out20 · 4 years

Text

The One With Chandler’s Boyfriend - Chandler Bing x Male!Reader - FRIENDS - Part 1

Fandom: FRIENDS (1994-2004)

Pairing: Chandler Bing x Male!Reader

Word Count: 2494

Warnings: Spoilers For Season 3 Episode 10, Fluff

Notes: More Chandler x Male, As Requested! This One’s Long, So Enjoy!

Chandler put his arm around your shoulder, all eyes on Ross as he explained the Brown Bird Scout cookies.

"And these come in the shapes of your favourite Christmas characters- Santa, Rudolph, and Baby Jesus" he explained, holding up two of the boxes.

Joey smiled, chuckling as he turned to Monica, then Chandler and you."Alright, I'll take a box of the cream-filled Jesuses" he told, pointing over at one of them.

You snorted, mind wandering at the 'cream-filled Jesuses'.

Chandler caught on and mumbled your name, grinning as he told Ross to go on.

"Wait a minute, one box? C'mon, man, I'm trying to send a poor little girl to space camp. I'm putting you down for five boxes" he told, pointing at Joey then writing him down."Chandler, (Y/n), what about you two?".

Chandler and you exchanged glances."Uh, alright, do you have any coconut-flavoured deities?" He jokingly asked, arms now crossed, one leg crossed over the other.

"Yea, any coconut-flavoured Chandlers?" You added, innocently looking over at Ross. You smiled sweetly and turned back to Chandler, who looked at you with this cute look of surprise on his face.

"I genuinely don't deserve you, man" he breathed, the ghost of a smile on his face.

You quickly kissed him, turning back to Ross."I'll take as many boxes of Rudolph as I can".

"Okay, but Chandler, there's no deities. There's coconut in the Hanukkah menoreos" Ross replied, glancing at the two of you."Tell you what, I'll put you each down for eight boxes, one for each night" he nodded."Mon?".

"Alright, I'll take one box of the mint treasures- one, and that's it" she held up one finger, a timid smile on her face."I- I started gaining weight after I joined the Brown Birds. Remember?" She pointed at Ross, "Dad bought every one of my boxes and I ate them all".

"Uh, no, Mon, dad had to buy every one of your boxes because you ate them all" Ross corrected, pursing his lips.

You looked over at Mon, eyebrows jumping, then quickly turned back to Ross.

"But, uh, I'm sure that's not gonna happen this time. Why don't I just put you down for three of the mint treasures and just a couple of the Rudolphs?" He asked.

"Don't give her all of 'em, though, I love the Rudolphs" you pointed at Ross, eyebrows raising.

He smiled and nodded, turning back to Monica.

"You like the Rudolph cookies, huh?" Chandler mumbled, turning back to you.

"Yea, but mostly because I like the Rudolph story itself. It talks about how people don't like you until they need you for something. Took that with me my entire life, Chan" you explained shrugging.

Chandler opened his mouth to say something, turning away in thought."Huh," he started, raising an eyebrow, "y'know, I never thought about it like that. I mean, I never looked at it as anything other than a Christmas movie, but still".

You giggled, kissing his cheek."You're so stupid".

"Stupid for you" Chandler hummed, winking at you playfully.

"No." Monica replied to Ross, shaking her head.

"Oh, come on now, you know you want 'em" Ross teased, gripping a box in his hand.

"Don't..." Monica got up, pointing at him again."Don't- Don't- Don't do this".

"I'll tell you what, Mon, I'll give you the first box for free" Ross got up and walked over to Monica, waving the box in her face.

You and Chandler had badly-hidden, amused grins on your faces, while Joey looked like he was still trying to understand why you laughed at 'cream-filled Jesuses'.

Monica slowly reached out for the box Ross offered her, but snapped out of it last second, running for the door of Central Perk."Oh, god, I gotta go!" She exclaimed, already out the door.

Chandler and you laughed as you watched, clapping like an encore when Ross called "come on, all the cool kids are eating 'em!" as he ran after her, out the door.

After a few moments, Rachel came around to join Joey, Chandler, and you."I'm retraining to be better at a job I hate. My life officially sucks" she growled, sitting beside you as you leaned on Chandler's shoulder, his arm around you again, pulling you close."What was that about?" Rachel asked, pointing at the door.

"Ross is trying to get Monica to buy more than one box of the Brown Bird cookies" you giggled, catching Chandler smile lovingly down at you.

"Uh, Rach, wasn't this supposed to be a temporary thing? I thought you wanted to do fashion stuff" Joey spoke up.

"Well, yea," Rachel shifted in her seat, "I'm still pursuing that".

Chandler furrowed his eyebrows, spitting out "how, exactly are you pursuing that?". When Rachel turned to him, he then said "you know, other than sending out resumes like, uh, what, two years ago?" He reminded, a cocky smile on his face.

You chuckled, lightly slapping him.

"Well, I'm also...sending out...good thoughts" Rachel thought up, as you tried not to laugh at Chandler nodding in fake-understanding, looking up wistfully. His eyes are so pretty...

"If you ask me, as long as you got this job, you got nothing pushing you to get another one" Joey told, moving to where Monica sat."You need the fear".

"The fear?" Rachel repeated, Joey nodding at that.

"He's right, if you quit this job, you then have motivation to go after a job you really want" Chandler agreed.

"Well then how come you're still at a job that you hate?" You asked."I mean, why don't you quit and get 'the fear'?" Rachel nodded in agreement from behind you as he shot back at Chandler.

"Your boyfriend has a point" she nodded, gesturing both hands at you.

Joey and Chandler laughed softly, turning to one another."Because I'm too afraid" Chandler replied, turning back to you and raising an eyebrow at 'too'.

"Oh, god" Rachel hid her face behind her hands."I don't know, I mean, I would give anything to work for a designer, you know? Or a buyer. Ugh, I just don't want to be thirty and still work here".

"Yea, that'd be much worse than being twenty-eight and still, working, here" Chandler enunciated, chuckling in amusement when you lightly punched his arm, as you then gently rubbed Rachel's back.

"Rachel?" "Yea?" Rachel opened her eyes, looking over at Gunther."Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf and whit pot is regular" Gunther ordered, Rachel ignoring the look on Chandler's face as she said "Can't I just look at the handles on them?".

You held back a laugh when you heard Gunther say "you would think", so you hid it by turning and burying your face into the crook of Chandler's neck, Chandler wrapping both arms around you and smiling as he rubbed your back."You would think" you repeated softly against his check, snickering as you heard Chandler let out a few stifled laughs.

"Okay, fine" Rachel got up."Gunther, you know what?" She asked, walking around the couch and standing, facing Gunther."I am a terrible waitress, do you know why I am a terrible waitress?" Rachel asked, hands on the counter.

You pulled away from Chandler, but held his hand in yours when he whined. You giggled, turning to look at Rachel, for whatever show she was bound to put on.

"Because I don't care. I don't care. I don't care which pot is regular, and which one is decaf, I don't care where the tray spot is" she continued, with Chandler's and Joey's eyes on her as well."I just don't care, this is not what I wanna do" Rachel put a hand on her hip, "so I don't think I should do it anymore. I'm gonna give you my week's notice".

"What?" Gunther asked.

"Gunther, I quit" Rachel pulled away, having Gunther, Joey, Chandler, and you all look away from her.

"Does this mean we're gonna have to start paying for coffee?" Chandler whispered, having you whisper "Chandler!" with him returning "what? Serious question, babe".

***

Ross, Chandler and you sat around the kitchen table in Monica's apartment, Chandler having a calculator in his hands as he helped Ross do the math on his cookie selling.

You just sat and watched because you really had nothing else to do, and you liked the cute look of concentration on Chandler's face.

"Okay, twelve, twenty-two, eighteen..." Ross called, expecting Chandler to do something with those numbers on his calculator.

Chandler stopped tapping at the numbers and turned his calculator upside down, showing what he typed out to you in a fit of giggles, you joining along.

Ross looked up at him, "what?".

Chandler showed him his calculator as you kept giggling, "I spelled out 'boobies'" he told, having you laugh some more.

"Wh- (Y/n), why are you laughing? You're gay" Ross asked, groaning.

"Hey, I may be gay, but I do have a sense of humor" you told, nudging Chandler's elbow and mumbling "boobies".

Ross took the calculator out of Chandler's hands when Monica walked over, looking into the boxes of cookies.

"Ross, put me down for another box of the mint treasures, okay?" She asked, looking into another box."W-Where are the mint treasures?" Monica asked hurriedly, as if she was in some sort of rush to go anywhere with the cookies.

"Uh, we're out" you spoke up, scooting your chair closer to Chandler's.

"I sold them all" Ross explained.

"What?" Monica turned to him.

"Monica, I'm cutting you off" he announced, like he was at her intervention.

Monica's jaw dropped."No, no" she shook her head."J-Just a couple more boxes”.

Chandler kept his eyes on her as he pulled your chair closer, wrapping his arms around you protectively.

"It's no big deal, right? I-I'm cool" Monica told, Chandler raising his eyebrows and giving a 'yea, sure' smile to Ross."You gotta help me out with a couple more boxes!" She pleaded, shaking the two boxes in her hands.

"Mon, look at yourself" Ross instructed, "you have cookie on your neck".

"Oh, god!" Monica yelped, reaching a hand to her neck as she ran for the bathroom, leaving the three of you alone again.

"You alright?" Chandler asked, turning to you. He smiled when you nodded, slowly letting go of you."So, how many y'sold so far?" Chandler asked Ross, turning back over to him.

"Check it out- five hundred 'n' seventeen boxes" Ross answered, a proud smile on his face.

"Oh my god," "how did you do that?" You asked, finishing Chandler's sentence.

Ross cleared his throat."Okay, the other night, I was, uh, leaving the museum, just as 'Laser Floyd' was letting out of the planetarium?" He chuckled."Without even trying, I sold fifty boxes. That's when it occurred to me, the key to my success: the munchies!"."So I, uh, I started hitting the NYU dorms around midnight...I am selling cookies by the case".

You cackled at that, asking "Did they call you 'cookie dude'?", squinting your eyes and saying 'cookie dude' like you're high.

"Yes, actually!" Ross excitedly nodded.

"Hey" Rachel greeted, walking into the apartment and landing a fat sack of papers on the kitchen table."Okay, everyone stop what you're doing. I need envelope stuffers, I need stamp lickers-" she rushed into the living room area.

"Oh, hey, who did these resumes for you?" Ross asked, holding one in his hands.

"Me," Chandler claimed proudly, "on my computer".

"Well, you sure used a large font".

"Uh, yea, well, uh, 'waitress at a coffee house' and, uh, 'cheer squad co-captain' only took up so much room" Chandler joked, getting up and leading Ross and you over to where Rachel was.

You chuckled and wrapped your arms around Chandler's shoulders from behind, resting your chin on his shoulder as you watched Rachel.

"Ha-ha hey, that's funny" Rachel fake-laughed, looking up at Chandler."You're funny, Chandler, you're a funny guy! You know what else is really funny?" Rachel asked, standing up straight when Monica came over.

You and Chandler exchanged glances, taking a step back as he suggested "something else I might have said?" in a scared tone.

"I don't know, I don't know, weren't you the guy that told me to quit my job when I had absolutely nothing else to do?" She asked, aggressively pointing around with papers in her hands."Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha?" Rachel forced out some laughs, Chandler looking near terrified as you let go of him, now standing at his side and holding his hand.

"Sweetie, calm down, it's gonna be okay" Ross soothed, turning Rachel's attention off of Chandler and onto him.

"Jeez, now I should ask- are you okay?" You asked, turning to Chandler, who still looked spooked.

"U-Uh-huh" Chandler nodded slightly, relaxing in your touch when you gave him a quick hug to hide the smile you were fighting back.

"No, it's not going to be okay, Ross, tomorrow is my last day and I don't have a lead" Rachel refused, Chandler flinching when she said "okay, you know what?". Rachel walked over to the phone, "I'm just gonna- I'm just gonna call Gunther and I'm gonna tell him I'm not quitting".

Chandler stepped behind her, turning to face Rachel."But you- you don't want to give in to the fear?" He asked, glancing at you when you mumbled "oh no", joining him at his side.

Rachel glared at Chandler, pointing at him."You, and your stupid fear. I hate your fear! I would like to take you, your boyfriend and your fear-" before Rachel could complete making the already-cowering Chandler into a pile of scared-shitless goo on the floor, Joey, your lord and savior, walked in.

"Hey! I got great news!" He cheered, closing the door behind him.

Chandler grabbed your hand."Run, Joey, run for your life!" He called, running past Rachel, Joey, and out the door with you, slamming it shut."Whew," Chandler put a hand on his chest, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes.

You laughed softly, "Rachel would've torn us apart, right there, in Monnie's apartment if Joey hadn't come. What a god" you praised. You helped Chandler up, leading him into his own apartment. You hopped up on the counter, lightly swinging your feet back and forth.

Chandler walked over, caging you where you sat."Thanks for being by my side through that, though- I'm sure I would've been dead meat if you weren't there" he smiled, leaning in and softly kissing you.

You cupped Chandler's cheek, smiling into the kiss as you used your other hand to pull him closer."No problem," you pulled away to mumble, kissing his nose."I love you, Chandler".

"I love you too, (Y/n)".

#friends #chandler #chandler bing #chandler x male #chandler x male!reader #chandler bing x male!reader #male x male #male x reader #male!reader #male reader #x male reader

157 notes · View notes