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storiesofsvu · 1 year

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A Dangerous Game Ch 19

Emily Prentiss x reader warnings: language, usual BAU case work/crime. mentions of smut. i am more than well aware that half of this technology doesn't work like this in real life, we're not gonna talk about it. for the sake of the fic, this is how it works LOL. part of me feels like this is a filler chapter but it was needed for how things are going to progress.

When you landed back in Quantico Derek was quick to say he’d be the one to swing through the BAU to pass off paperwork to Emily. You thanked him, but said you had to pick up a couple things from your desk and pop in to say hi to Penelope. Luckily the bull pen was empty, you were able to snag what you needed without being seen, swinging your go bag over your shoulder again you wandered through the halls until you reached Garcia’s office, softly knocking on the open door as you stepped through it.

“Hey you.” She greeted with a warm smile and you gratefully accepted the tight hug as she stood, wrapping you into her arms and pressing a kiss to your cheek. “How was Seattle?”

“Shit.” You mumbled back, slipping out of her embrace and dropping down into a spare chair, “very unfortunately ran into a not so good ex, but at least Morgan was there to counter balance the crap.”

“He is very good at that.” She smiled.

“And don’t worry.” You reached into your bag, “I was not too distracted to forget your present.” You gently set the box down on her desk and she beamed across at you. It had started pretty early on, that whenever you went somewhere new, you’d pick something up for Garcia, it was usually some kind of coffee mug, and this time it was exactly that, from the original Starbucks.

“You are an angel.” She leant forward, kissing your temple and you smiled, squeezing at her hand before you glanced toward her computer screen.

“What’s got you working late?”

“They raided a warehouse Dewald was hiding out at, found a bunch of his electronics, I’ve been working my way through them.”

“Rat bastard.” You grumbled, “deserves to be behind bars.”

“He is.”

“What?” You sat up straight at that.

“Well, I guess he’s not technically behind bars, but he’s in cuffs. They picked him up this morning, he’s been in interrogation all day.”

“Why did no one tell me?!”

“Well, you haven’t really been picking up your phone this week.”

“I— okay. Fair.” You let out a small sigh, twirling your chair slightly to face the desk, “you found anything good yet?”

“I’m honestly not sure, after decoding a bunch I got into his hard drive and I’ve kinda just been poking around. There’s a ton of these audio files, some of them are date stamped and there’s a ton that aren’t.”

“Just audio? I mean we already knew he was big in surveillance.”

“Yeah.” Penelope leant forward, clicking on one, “and look at this, like, it’s just static for hours, sometimes even days at a time.”

“Weird.”

“Right? I’ve just been fast forwarding through basically silence. If I listen carefully or separate off background noises I can kinda hear traffic, or distant noises and I’m pretty sure there’s an animal somewhere but why would Dewald have this?”

“I mean, he’s a psychopathic killer, we may never be able to figure out his motives.”

“Oh! Oh!” She nearly jumped suddenly, “that was a door closing.” Her hand shot out, hitting the play button so the two of you could actually hear the recording rather than skimming through it. Her head tilted as her eyes widened slightly, “and that… sounds like two people who are very eager to get to the bedroom.”

“Dewald never had any sexual motivations or crimes.” Your brow furrowed, but she was correct, you could hear the sound of shoes being kicked off, clothing and belts hitting the floor, the very clear sound of two people kissing, breathy moans and gasps coming through the speakers.

“That is definitely two people getting busy.”

“It’s two women….” Your head tilted as you listened.

“Are you sure?”

“Pen..” You cast her a look and she laughed.

“Right.”

A dark chuckle rang through the speaker and it sent a shiver down your spine before an all too familiar voice followed it,

“Oh princess… I never said you weren’t allowed to come. Poor thing. You must be incredibly pent up.” A small thud, “go ahead, make a mess of daddy’s pants.”

Your eyes widened at the same time Penelope’s did, however it was only your heart that began to race in your chest.

“Oh.. my god.” She gasped, “that is Emily…”

“Turn it off!” You smacked her hand, “Pen, turn it off, turn it”—

It was too late to save your own humility as your voice was the next to very clearly come through the speaker.

“Oh fuck…. Oh god daddy!”

“That’s it princess. Let everyone know just how good daddy fucks you.”

It was Penelope’s turn to smack your arm with her hand, latching on as she turned to you with a gasp, her eyes wide before the grin took over her cheeks.

“Oh my god! You guys are kinky!” She laughed, “I knew it! I knew there was something going on with you but I did not realize it had progressed this far.”

“Can you turn it off please!”

“Oh, yes. Sorry.” Her hand left your arm, darting out to pause the recording. “Jeeze. No wonder Emily’s so smitten with you.”

You’d dropped your face into your hands in an attempt to hide your complete and utter humiliation, letting out a heavy groan before you glanced back up at the other woman.

“I would definitely not call it that, and it is very much past tense.”

“Oh come on.”

“Can we not talk about this please!” You begged, it had been a long enough week as is and to be completely honest, you were still feeling the hangover.

“Why?” She nearly whined back and you could see the glee etched across her face, and not in the way that she was going to tease you about.

“You really wanna know?”

“Yes please.” She nodded with a wild grin and you let out a heavy sigh, rolling your chair closer to her computer.

“You said some of these were dated?” She nodded, watching you scroll through the pages until you found what you were looking for, “put an earphone in, I don’t need or want to hear this again.”

You watched as Penelope’s face fell, glancing over to you before she reached out and squeezed your hand. A few minutes later she paused the recording and pulled out her earphone, having heard enough,

“When was this?”

“About two weeks ago.” You sighed, “same day I got kicked off the case. Still have no clue why the fuck she would send me flowers right before pulling that.”

“She sent you flowers?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“There wasn’t a note or anything but it was the only thing that made sense.”

“Hold on.” She wheeled her chair over to another computer where she was quick to pull up traffic cams and find the right time and date. “That little weasel.”

“Is that Dewald?” Your brow furrowed, watching as he placed the bouquet down on your doorstep before turning and heading back down the steps, “but… she texted me about them.”

“When?”

“When I got home from the verbal lashing.” You rolled your eyes and Penelope’s eyes narrowed.

“Do you still have the texts?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Phone please.” She extended her hand and you gave her the device after unlocking it, watching as she hooked it up to the computer and swiped through various screens. “Does Em still have that iPad?”

“Yeah, usually on the coffee table.”

“Look, these texts,” her cursor highlighted a handful, “all from Emily. But the one about the flowers… he cloned her phone. Well, iPad in this case but thanks to the cloud and all that fancy stuff, he’s got access to her texts. This guy is almost too good.”

“You’ve lost me.” You rubbed a hand over your face, “and why do you have surveillance outside my house?”

“It’s how we managed to track him down. We knew he was targeting you, easiest place to start was your home.”

“Targeting, no. Pen you’re going down the wrong road here.”

“You know that’s why Emily took you off the case, right?”

“What?” You laughed, “no, it was cause I went rogue without her permission.”

“No sweet cheeks, Dewald was going after you.”

“What are you talking about? Because I was the original agent on the case?” Your brow furrowed as your tired hungover brain tried to unscramble what she was saying. It certainly wasn’t helping that she was piecing things together, beginning to talk a million miles a minute between clicking through random screens on multiple computers.

“No. Well, that is what I originally thought, but look at this.” She had pulled up a video from the field in Florida and you nearly winced at the sight of Emily kissing your temple, “he witnessed that. He was peeved she killed his partner and wanted to get back at her in a similar way. He managed to get out of Florida, get to DC and now we know he had something recording in Emily’s apartment. You were the target because he thought the two of you were together. Ten bucks says that after cloning her phone his plan was to lure you out, making you think you were meeting her for a romantic date night and do… unspeakable things instead… the flowers were the start of the seduction. Until you replied like that and he realized that this route wasn’t the route to go.” She paused to glance up at you and you were looking at her like she had two heads, “did you not know any of this? She really didn’t tell you about the cat?”

“What cat?!” You asked, groaning, “that conversation you just heard was the last time we spoke outside of this office.”

“Man, she really did keep you in the dark on this one.” Her voice was softer when she began to come back to earth, realizing how much she had just info dumped on you at the end of a very long week.

“Penelope, I love you to bits and pieces.” You sighed, standing from your chair, leaning forward to kiss the top of her head, “but my brain is too hungover for this. Enjoy your conspiracy theories and if you listen to any more of that, for the love of god fast forward please.”

“Oh, oh don’t worry. I will be zooming past all of that.” She chuckled softly before her voice softened, “and hey… just think about it, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Across the building, Derek was waiting in Emily’s office while he was filling out some last minute paperwork on the case from Seattle. He heard a small shuffling behind him before her blazer came swinging into view, being tossed onto a spare chair.

“You coulda just left the files.” She greeted.

“Had to finish up a couple of things.” He shrugged, “and I wanted to see how it went with Dewald.”

“He won’t say much but he also didn’t lawyer up. Now it’s Saturday, so he gets to spend the rest of the weekend in the tombs.”

“At least you got him.”

“Yeah.” She sighed, dropping down into the chair behind her desk, “I take it Wilson didn’t come in from the jet.”

“I told her I could handle it.” He replied, Emily tired enough she didn’t pick up on the shift in his tone, the coolness of his voice the second you were brought up.

“How’s she holding up?”

“Better.” He sighed, flipping a file closed, “think a night out helped.”

“Oh?” She raised a brow, feeling her stomach begin to churn, “I didn’t expect that drink to go well….”

“I didn’t ask.” He shrugged as he moved to stand, “but she got in pretty late.” He dropped the file onto her desk, “anyways, I’ll see ya Monday.”

“Yeah.”

Emily’s lips pursed as she watched him leave the office, she knew that she technically had no right to be jealous or upset right now, but it didn’t matter, she still very much was. Instead she tried to push it to the back of her mind, picking up the files Derek had left to go over them before submitting them. She still had a bunch of her own to go through as well, making sure Dewald would be ready to be processed out on Monday. It was a few hours later by the time she heard Penelope’s heels making their way toward her office, pausing right as she crossed the doorway.

“Hi…” she greeted, her boldness suddenly vanishing from her body.

“Hi…?” Emily raised a brow in her direction.

“Uh.. I… uh…”

“What?” She laughed, “spit it out Garcia.” She took in the expression on the other woman’s face, worry taking over her, “oh god… what did you do?”

“You know, this time… I actually didn’t do anything. But I do have a bone to pick with you and honestly, I’m more than a little mad at you right now. Because you did do something.”

“What are you on about?” She laughed once more, placing down her pen to fully tune into the blonde.

“You and Wilson.” She finally spat it out and she definitely caught the way Emily tensed.

“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.” She bluffed, though she could feel her heart rate spike.

“Oh come on Emily! Cut the crap! It’s been the unspoken topic all week. I know I’m not a profiler but I’m not dumb. Not to mention I’ve been going through Dewald’s computer, and now I know you know about the bug in your apartment.”

“Oh god…” Emily dropped her face into her hands, more than a little embarrassed as she realized what Penelope was talking about and just how much she must have heard.

“Also, Wilson knows that I know. But she did swear me to secrecy.”

“As she should have!”

“You need to talk to her!”

“Why?” She looked up at her with an exasperated sigh. It was Saturday, she shouldn’t have even been working in the first place and now everything was coming out of the woodwork.

“For starters you owe her one hell of an apology.”

“What?”

“Two days before you kicked her off the case you found the bug, didn’t you? Sergio broke something, and the apartment gets really quiet from then on in. Until you ended things with her. Which, for the record, I don’t believe one bit. I know you Emily, you wouldn’t be that cruel unless there was a reason. You would have let her down easily, especially knowing that you still have to work together and instead you tore a strip off her, crushed her heart. After all those weeks of sickeningly cute date nights, spending the entire weekend together? And don’t even get me started on how much sex you two were having, my god, good on you guys! After all of that, to rip the rug out from under her, it’s gotta be about the case. You need to talk to her because you care about her, and you hurt her…”

“Are you done?” Emily asked softly, her voice meek, her gaze directed down at the desk in front of her as Penelope let out a huff and she felt the tears misting into her eyes.

“I think so.”

“I broke her heart Pen…” She finally glanced up at the other woman who winced at the look of sheer pain written across her expressions and she finally fully came clean about everything, not that it mattered, Penelope had clearly already heard basically everything.

“So you go and apologize.”

“What? Right now? She just got back from Seattle; I think I can give her a little breathing room.”

“That’s honestly probably a good idea, she’s pretty hungover.”

“She mention anything about Skylar?” Emily raised a cautious brow.

“No. And hey! Even if she did, I wouldn’t tell you because you don’t get the privilege of knowing until you’ve apologized and begged for forgiveness that I really, really hope she gives you because you guys are so stinkin’ cute and honestly I just really need you to kiss and make up and be together.”

“I honestly don’t know if she’ll ever forgive me.”

“Oh c’mon.”

“Pen, you don’t understand, she’s been hurt so badly before, walked out on, abandoned and now I’ve done the exact same thing to her.”

“Yeah but it was to keep her safe. She’s gotta at least understand that.”

“How is she supposed to trust me again?”

“Well you start with an apology and an explanation, and then give it time.” Penelope’s voice was softer this time, “you really care about her don’t you?” When Emily looked up at her, her eyes were blurred with tears and she let out a shaky sigh, finally fucking saying the words out loud.

“She was the first person I let myself fall in love with in a very long time.”

“Well then tell her that!” The last three words were enunciated by Garcia smacking the file folder in her hand against Emily’s arm.

“Hey!”

“Idiots.” The blonde muttered under her breath, turning to leave the room. “Promise me?”

“I will!” Emily groaned, “once we know Dewald’s in actual prison, I’ll explain everything.”

“Good!” Penelope called as she disappeared out of the office.

When you got home that night you realized just how fucking exhausted you were, grabbing the mail from the mail box as you unlocked the front door. The first thing you noticed was that you kicked something small, shooting it across the floor before it clinked against the bottom stair. The second was the beeping coming from the now working and active alarm system.

Dropping the mail onto the entry way table you padded over to the security system and punched in the code you’d chosen when Derek was attempting to set it up and the beeping stopped. Brow furrowed, you moved back to the stairs, picking up what was glinting in the sunlight and realized it was your spare key, pocketing it you flipped through the pile of mail. Nestled in between the folds of a Whole Foods flyer was the blue lanyard the key had been on the last time you’d seen it.

You glanced between it and the alarm box a few times. Emily had been in your house. Emily had made sure that the security system was properly up and running by the time you got home and had slipped the key under the door rather than stashing it on the lanyard somewhere. Two big things that would contribute to your continued safety.

Maybe there was something to Penelope’s findings after all.

__________________

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#emily prentiss #emily prentiss x reader #criminal minds #a dangerous game

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munson-blurbs · 1 year

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Ghostin' (Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader): Chapter 6

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

Summary: A plan needs to be put in place to defeat Vecna, but the situation may be more dire than anyone realizes. You and Steve take your relationship to the next level.

Warnings: smut--finally! (18+ only, minors DNI) language, S4 is canon, pregnancy, blood, it's a little bit of filler but the smut is worth it

WC: 4k

Divider credit to @firefly-graphics

@kaybee87 @sidthedollface2 @chelebelletx @livsters @atombombbibunny @tattooedkiss13 @manda-panda-monium @charming-winchester @corroded-hellfire @trashmouth-richie @sweet-villain @slightlyvicked @hxllfired @yogizzz @tlclick73 @thefreakofhawkins86 @sheisjoeschateau @harrypotteranna23-blog @harringr0ve @josie955 @luna-munson83 @blhemmings @lxvesickreality @palmtreesx3 @stephierro

It’s been a month since you’d first heard Vecna’s chimes, the night when you’d almost had sex with Steve. You wish you could say that it was also the last time the horrendous sound reverberated in your mind, but that would be a lie.

You hadn’t told anyone, especially not Steve. The man already approached everything with an abundance of caution; if he knew about how close Vecna was to invading your consciousness, he wouldn’t let you leave the house. And with Little Bean’s arrival only eight weeks away, you can’t afford to start maternity leave early.

Work is busier than usual, with people trying to book their appointments before the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. You’re collecting a copay from a patient when the door swings open, smacking into the wall with a thwack.

“What the–” you stand up as quickly as your new center of gravity allows you, peering over the counter as Will Byers and Dustin Henderson storm into the office. They’re clearly on a mission, though you don’t know whether you want to be involved. The last time you joined them, you’d watched those bats go after Eddie…

“Y/N!” Dustin’s shrill voice rings through the waiting room, much to the patients’ irritation, abruptly interrupting your train of thought. “Oh, thank God you’re here. We have to talk to you.”

“Can I help you boys?” you ask through gritted teeth, trying to hide your annoyance at their outburst in your place of work. “Maybe quietly?”

“Sorry,” Will says sheepishly, shoving his hands in his pockets. “It’s just that…we need to plan our next Vecna attack.”

“Like, now,” Dustin adds, urgency prevalent in his voice. “Will told me that he’s gaining strength more rapidly.”

You look back at Will, who shrugs and nods, touching the back of his neck. “This morning, I…I felt him. And he’s almost ready to fight like…like he was before.” Before the attack that killed Eddie, blinded Max, and destroyed the town. You shake the memory from your head like an Etch-a-Sketch.

“Okay,” you breathe out, regaining your composure. “I finish work in an hour–”

“We don’t have that kind of time!” Dustin blurts out forcefully, slamming his palms on the counter.

Will just rolls his eyes. “We have an hour,” he amends his friend’s statement. “We’ll all be at my house if you can meet us there after you’re done.” His brown eyes drift down to your bump. “Oh, how are you feeling, by the way? And how’s the baby doing?”

Your posture softens at his thoughtfulness; leave it to Will to be concerned about you and Little Bean in the midst of Vecna’s return. “We’re good,” you say, placing a protective hand over your belly. “It’s been nice having Steve around, helping out…”

Will offers a kind smile, which you easily return. Dustin, meanwhile, is less interested in having a nice conversation. “Now that we’re all caught up, can we get back to, I dunno, saving the world?!”

“I’ll see you boys in an hour,” you say, ushering them out the door before Dustin can cause more of a scene. Eddie’d always said that the kid was, um, enthusiastic, but you’re really getting to witness it firsthand.

Before you join the group at the Byers’ house, you have a pitstop to make. Forest Hills Trailer Park has been a second home to you, though you haven’t visited Wayne as much as you should be. You often think about going to see him, but the reminders of Eddie are too painful to bear. The mugs and caps hanging on the wall, all gifts from Eddie to Wayne for various Father’s Days, birthdays, and Christmases. After the earthquake, Wayne used the insurance money to fix up the trailer, but he still slept on a cot in the living room. Eddie’s room remained unused, as though he was waiting for him to return.

“If it isn’t my two favorite people!” Wayne smiles, wiping some crumbs from his beard. “How’s it goin’? Got any new pictures for me?”

You muster up a smile in return, fishing through your bag. “Actually, yes!” You hand him the sonogram pictures, blinking back tears as you watch the older man’s eyes fill up with his own.

“Well, I’ll be,” he says softly, dragging his forefinger over the shiny film. “That’s my grandbaby.”

“Sure is,” you choke out, trying to brush away the tear that slips down your cheek before he can notice.

“Startin’ to look like a real person now,” he continues, head snapping up when he hears your sniffling. “Shit, ‘m sorry. Didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“‘S okay,” you manage. “I mean, I’m seven months pregnant. Grass growing could make me cry at this point.”

Wayne chuckles, pressing a fatherly kiss to the top of your head. “Come in, have a seat,” he offers, and you find yourself sitting next to him on the worn sofa. “How’re you hangin’ in there? Little Bean giving you too much trouble?”

You shake your head. “Just the usual aches and pains. They’re kicking a lot lately, especially while I’m trying to sleep.” Right on cue, Little Bean delivers a roundhouse kick right above your navel. “Wanna feel?”

His eyes widen, unsure of the proper etiquette when touching a pregnant woman’s stomach. You take his cracked, calloused hand and place it where Little Bean’s foot just was. The faint fluttering of a kick brushes against his palm, and he jerks back instinctively before laughing and returning it back to your bump.

“All right there, Karate Kid!” His gray eyes twinkle with joy as he speaks directly to the baby. “Y’know, your dad kicked up a storm when he was in his mama’s belly, too. I have a feeling you’ll be just like him, for better or for worse.” He places his hand back in his lap. “God, I miss that kid so much.”

“Me, too,” you say quietly. “I don’t know how I’m gonna do this without him.” You look up at the older man and choke back a sob. “How am I gonna get up every morning and see a child who looks like Eddie without getting depressed?”

Wayne lets out a long sigh, rubbing the scruff along his cheeks. “I wish I could say it gets easier. I really do. I keep expecting him to barge through the door, rantin’ and ravin’ about Dungeons & Dragons or his music. Shit, I kept tellin’ him I’d go to one of his concerts…”

“You had to work,” you reassure him. “Eddie knew that. He understood.”

“Thanks, darlin’.” Wayne swipes at his cheeks. “I think about him all the time. I’m sure you do, too.” You nod in agreement, and he continues. “I think about everything he could’ve been if he was alive. All these possibilities—gone.

“But you,” he manages a small smile, “you and Little Bean are like a glimmer of hope in the darkness. I don’t want you to forget that.”

The two of you sit in a comfortable silence until you work up the nerve to ask, “What if I can’t keep them safe? What if something…happens to them?” Like it happened to Eddie, you say silently. Like it happened to Chrissy and Fred and Patrick. Like it happened to Max. Like it could happen to Steve. Or to me.

“There’s no easy answer to that,” Wayne muses. “We can’t control our kids or the situations they find themselves in. I keep wonderin’ what would’ve happened if I was home when that cheerleader was here. Maybe things could’ve been different.” He looks up towards the ceiling, unknowingly glancing where a gate to the Upside Down once was. “We just do the best we can, and we hope that they learn.”

You start to stand up, stopping when Wayne says, “You’re gonna be an amazing mom. And, uh, I don’t know that Harrington kid too well, but I heard he’s a decent guy.”

“You—you know about me and Steve?”

A blush creeps into Wayne’s cheeks. “‘S a small town. People talk and, uh, there’s not too many expectin’ teenagers who lost their baby’s father in the earthquake.”

You swallow thickly. “Are you mad at me for being with him?” The last thing you need right now is Wayne’s disapproval.

He shakes his head. “Absolutely not. No one expects you to do this alone. Eddie wouldn’t want that. He would want you to find someone who loves you and loves Little Bean.” His gaze meets yours. “Does Steve love you and the baby?”

“Yeah,” you smile, thinking about how patient, sensitive, and kind he’s been to you. “Yeah, he really does.”

“Good.” Wayne nods, helping you to your feet. “Get some sleep. And if you need anything, you know where to find me.”

You drive over to the Byers’ place after your shift, stifling a yawn as you knock on the front door. Everyone else is already there, and you feel a pang of embarrassment at being the last to arrive. The insecurity dissipates as Steve practically tramples over his friends to be by your side.

“Hi, my love,” he murmurs into your scalp as he kisses the top of your head. His arms wrap around your shoulders so he can pull you as close as your belly allows. “How was work?”

“Good. Weirdest thing happened today, though,” you tell him, laughing at the puzzled look on his face. “I was just minding my own business when these two hooligans came in, ranting and raving about some monster from this place called the Upside Down?”

Dustin, who’s well within earshot, scoffs at your remark. “Two hooligans? I take offense to that statement!”

“You’re right,” you concede, “it was just one. Will was perfectly behaved.”

The curly-haired boy shows off both of his middle fingers, only to be met with a thwap to the back of the head from Chief Hopper. “Don’t be an ass, kid,” he warns, pulling out a chair for you to sit on. “How’s life treating you, sweetie?” he asks, plopping down next to you.

“It’s exhausting,” you admit with a tired laugh.

“I can’t imagine,” Joyce says, handing you a cold glass of water. “Pregnancy was hard enough for me without all this.” She gestures wildly, mimicking the chaos that brings you all together now.

You drink the water, feeling the condensation on your fingers. Steve’s arms snake out from behind you, hands crossed over your chest. “You can go home and rest, baby,” he whispers in your ear. “We’ve got this covered.”

“M’fine,” you fib, because nothing about this is fine, but you know you can manage to sit and participate in the planning. “Besides, I…I wanna help.”

Steve opens his mouth to protest, but he’s cut off by a balding man with glasses, who stands on a chair to call everyone to attention. His bushy eyebrows pinch together when he sees you, extending his hand and offering a toothy grin. “Murray Bauman: karate expert, Soviet ass-kicker, and matchmaker.” He winks in Joyce and Hopper’s direction. “Now,” he continues, raising his voice. “We need to come up with an idea to defeat this Vecna fucker–sorry, kids–once and for all. We have an advantage that we didn't have before–time to plan.”

“But not too long,” Will jumps in nervously, explaining how he can feel the monster gaining strength.

Murray’s booming voice takes over again. “So, what do we know?” He taps a pen to his bearded chin.

“For starters,” Robin pipes up, “we know that everything’s a hive mind. So if we draw all of the creatures in, we can bring them all down at once.”

“That means we’ll need a lot of manpower,” Murray muses, writing down hivemind on a notepad. He looks up suddenly as Erica grunts out an ahem. “And womenpower, sorry. Jeez, with the semantics.”

“El, Max, and I have a connection to him,” Will says. “If we go into the Upside Down, we can lead you to him easily.”

Lucas places a gentle hand on Max’s shoulder. “Should she be back in there? I guess it’s not safe for any of us, but…”

“We’ll need bait,” Steve says, biting his lower lip nervously. “And he’s only been coming after me so far, so I guess we know who it’s gonna be.” He crosses his arms over his chest, scratching at the stubble that’s formed on his jawline.

“No!” you cry out before you can stop yourself, feeling your cheeks heat up at your outburst. “Steve, what if…” You can’t watch anything happen to him. You’re flooded with the image of demobats swarming towards Eddie, tearing at his flesh as he screams in agonizing pain. Blood seeping between his teeth as he lay there dying. You and Dustin watching helplessly, begging him to stay alive as he took his final breath. “What if he gets you?”

“Sweetie,” Joyce breaks in, rubbing your upper back tenderly, “if this is too much…”

“It just can’t be Steve,” you murmur. “I already lost Eddie; I can’t lose Steve, too.”

Steve shakes his head solemnly. “It has to be me. I’m the one who’s heard—”

“I hear them,” you blurt out. A hushed silence falls over the room. “I hear the chimes. I haven’t had a—a dream yet, but I hear the chimes.”

No one says a word until Steve manages to find his voice. “Why—why didn’t you say anything?” His tone is a mix of sadness, concern, and anger. “How long has this been happening?”

“A month,” you admit sheepishly, and his cheeks flash red.

“A month? A fu—freaking month?!” This comes from Dustin. Hopper shoots him another dirty look, which he ignores. “What, were you gonna wait until Vecna ripped your eyeballs from your head before telling anyone?”

You can’t help it; tears stream down your face and you get up and walk out of the house. Dustin yelps out an ouch, which you can only assume is from another back-of-the-head slap.

“Good going, Henderson,” Steve hisses as he chases after you. He catches up to you easily, taking your hand in his. “You gotta talk to me,” he says, gently but firmly. “Tell me everything.”

The malicious, degrading voice inside your head tells you to keep it a secret, that telling him the truth will only make you seem more pathetic, that you’re already enough of a burden.

But as you look into Steve’s big, brown eyes, you remember the promise you made to him. “It started the night that we almost had sex. I haven’t been hearing it a lot, but it’s enough that I know I’m not just imagining it.”

Steve exhales. “I mean, I know that can’t be a coincidence,” he says. “But I still don’t understand why you wouldn’t say something. Why keep it to yourself?”

“Because people already treat me like I’m fragile,” you explain. “And, I dunno, maybe I am. I mean, I’m pregnant, the baby’s father died…but I wanted to handle this on my own.”

“Baby,” Steve murmurs, gazing into your eyes. “I know you’re new to this whole alternate-dimension, giant-scary-monsters scene, so I’m asking you to believe me.” He takes your hands in his, squeezing gently. “Vecna is the worst one we’ve dealt with so far. None of us, not even Hopper, can do this alone.”

You think for a moment, biting your lower lip in concentration. “Can you fill me in on the plan?” you ask. “I’m gonna go home and rest.”

“Of course.”

“And, Steve?” you continue, and he nods. “Promise me two things.”

“What?”

“One, you won’t put yourself in extra danger,” you say, “and, two, you let me be part of it. Not going into the Upside Down or anything, but I need to help.”

Steve pauses before responding. You know that he wants to protest, to tell you that there’s no way in hell he’s letting his pregnant girlfriend fight. But he knows that it’s beyond him, beyond you. This is something you need to do to avenge Eddie’s death.

“Okay,” he reluctantly agrees. “Do you want me to come with you? I don’t mind; Robin or Henderson can fill me in–”

“No,” you shake your head. “I mean, thank you. But I’ll be fine. I can even put on some music, think of some happy memories. Like the time I kissed you at Family Video.” You smile, leaning on him as you press your lips to his. “I think it went something like that?”

Steve furrows his brows teasingly. “Hmm, I’m not quite sure. Show me again?” He leans in and kisses you, soft and slow and sweet. His hands cup your cheeks, sending tingles down your spine. “And you promise me you’ll call the Byers if you need anything. I’ll come running home, okay?”

You nod, heading towards your car. “I promise.”

When Steve arrives home a few hours later, you’re sleeping soundly in your bed. You’d barely managed to change into your pajamas before passing out, radio tuned to your favorite rock station. You don’t wake until you hear the apartment door close, with Steve muttering, “shit,” when it slams louder than he’d intended.

“Steve? That you?” you call out sleepily.

“Yeah, ‘m sorry, babe. Didn’t mean to wake you.” He slowly walks into the bedroom, hands plunged deep into his jean pockets. “We, uh, we made the plan, if you wanna hear it.”

“Maybe later,” you say, sitting up and beckoning him over to sit next to you on the bed. “Can I tell you about a good dream I just had?”

He raises his eyebrows. “No Vecna?”

“No Vecna.”

He breathes a sigh of relief. “I’d love to hear it.”

“Well,” you begin, kissing his neck, “it involved you…and me…making each other feel really good.” You let your hand drift to the seam of his pants, and he immediately stiffens, whimpering at your touch. “I want you, Steve.”

“Baby, b-baby,” he stammers, palming himself. “Are you sure? I know today’s…it’s been a lot.”

You shift so that you’re straddling his thighs, sucking a bruise at his collarbone. “So fucking sure.”

Steve slips his middle finger into your cotton panties and runs it along your folds, making you moan. He finds your clit and rubs slow, methodical circles. “Wanna make you feel good, beautiful girl,” he murmurs, using his free hand to grip your thigh. “You take whatever you need, okay?”

“Mhm,” you hum, slowly rocking your hips and increasing the pressure on your sensitive bundle. “‘S perfect…so perfect. Your hands are like magic.” You bring your arms to his shoulders, steadying yourself. He blushes at your praise before sliding the finger into your pussy, pumping it in and out. He starts at a slow pace, gradually increasing it as you clench around him. “R-Right there, Steve.” You start to bring your own hand to your clit, now aching with need, but he stops you, using his thumb to continue where he’d left off.

“Sorry, baby; just got distracted,” he admits sheepishly. He removes his finger from you, and you whine at the loss of contact. He chuckles as he tugs off your panties. “Poor thing. Don’t worry, love; just need to get myself ready.” He shimmies out of his jeans and his briefs, with much more ease than you got out of your panties–thanks, pregnancy–and brings you to the edge of the bed. You wrap your legs around his lithe waist as he lines himself up with your entrance.

Steve pushes inside of you, stretching you deliciously. The moan that escapes your mouth is downright filthy, and you cover your face in embarrassment. He lifts your hands away, saying nothing but peppering your face with kisses.

You pull him closer so he has to rest his palms on the mattress as he thrusts into you, chanting your name and I love you over and over.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” he says, eyes rolling backwards as he bottoms out inside you. “Can’t believe you’re mine. Can’t believe you’re my girl, holy shit.”

“K-Keep touching me,” you instruct him, and he continues rubbing your clit as he pistons his hips. You feel yourself inching towards the finish, though you can’t move your body as like you used to. “Little more pressure, baby. Please.”

“Don’t have to beg me,” he groans, “although I can’t say I hate it.”

“Please, please, please,” you cry, “need all of you, Steve. Your hands, your cock, everything.” Your pussy clenches around his length as you come, shivering with pleasure.

Steve’s orgasm doesn’t happen quite as easily. As soon as he gets you off, something changes. It’s as though you can see the cogs turning in his head; he’s clearly overthinking something.

“You okay?” you ask. “If something’s wrong, you can tell me the truth.”

“Nothing wrong with you,” he says, still thrusting into you, desperate to stay hard. “Just keep worrying that we’re doing something we shouldn’t be.” He tries to avert his gaze from your bump, the bump that’s growing Eddie’s baby, but you catch him.

You shake your head. “We can stop if you want,” you assure him, though you’d be lying if you said you weren’t dreading the moment he was no longer inside you, “but you and I…we’re so right.”

“I know. I just wonder if he’d be mad at me, y’know?” Steve admits, pulling out slowly, much to your dismay.

You think back to what Wayne told you earlier in the evening. “Eddie would want me to be with someone who loves me and Little Bean. He would want me to be happy.” You bring your hand to Steve’s. “And you’re that person, Steve. You’re my person.”

Steve smiles at this, pumping himself with breathy grunts. “Keep talking, babe. Keep telling me how bad you need me.”

“Can’t you feel it?” you taunt. “‘M so wet for you, Stevie. All for you. Just need you back inside me.” He presses the tip of his cock into your needing pussy, hissing as your walls envelop him. “Want you nice and deep.”

“Gonna give it to you,” he moans, dragging himself in and out. “Gonna fill up this pretty little pussy till I’m dripping out of you. Everyone’s gonna know you’re mine.”

“All yours, Stevie,” you echo, and no sooner do you say it is he spilling his hot load into you, sputtering and swearing.

He slows down his pace, withdrawing with a sigh before helping you fully onto the bed and cleaning you up.

“I love you, Steve,” you murmur into the crook of his neck, belly resting on his stomach and arm draped over his hairy chest.

“I love you more.” He kisses your temple, and the two of you fall asleep naked in each other’s arms.

“I’m all yours, Stevie.”

You sit up quickly at the sound of a condescending voice, tone pinched and mocking. “Who’s there?”

“Oh, Stevie, I belong to you. Even though I’m having Eddie’s baby, I’ll forget all about him. Like he never existed.”

Steve wakes up at that. “Did you say something?”

You shake your head, trying to speak, but you’re interrupted by the same voice. This time, it’s dramatically deeper.

“Everyone’s gonna know you’re mine. You’re King Steve’s, baby. King FUCKING Steve’s! Wooooo!”

Eddie appears at the doorway, covered in mud and dust. His curly hair is matted with blood. “What a nice show, huh? My girlfriend and my friend fucking each other while she’s knocked up with my kid. Real classy.”

“He’s not real,” Steve mutters. “It’s not really him.”

Not-Eddie chuckles meanly. “I bet you’re waiting for him. Waiting for me to turn into him. But it ain’t gonna happen. Because he’s not here.”

“Go away!” you feebly yell. “You’re not Eddie!”

“Of course not,” he sneers. “Because I’m dead. And you left my body here to rot. So he’s using it, using me to command his army. And we’ll destroy you and this stupid fuckin’ town.”

“Wh-What are you saying?” Steve stammers, grabbing your hand. “You’re like his…his puppet?”

Not-Eddie flashes a bloody grin. “Ironic, isn’t it? He’s my puppet master. My source of self-destruction.” Suddenly, something flashes behind his eyes. The coldness dissipates, and fear sets in. “Help me. He has my soul. Please, someone help–”

And then he’s gone.

#ghostin #steve harrington x y/n smut #steve harrington x you #steve harrington smut #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #steve harrington stranger things #eddie munson #eddie stranger things #eddie x reader #eddie x you #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x female reader #stranger things fanfic #eddie munson fanfic #steve harrington fanfic #fanfic

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berriesandjunnie · 2 years

Text

❝ the stylist chair ❞

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° synopsis the job description didn’t mention meeting an angel in person. ┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° genre & tags fluff / idol!jeonghan / stylist!reader / mutual pining / hannie is a little flirty / perhaps light swearing as usual / does breaking out of your shell around someone count as character development? / feelings are difficult ┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° pairing jeonghan x afab!reader ┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° w.c 4.9k words

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° author’s note this was requested by anon! thank you for requesting (: // i’m not a make-up artist nor do i do make-up at all on myself so don’t come for me if stuff is wrong

˚ ༘♡ ·˚꒰ now loading… enjoy! ꒱ ₊˚ˑ༄

“You start your new job today, right?” Your mother chirped up on the other end of the phone, ignorant to the fact you were trying to multitask - and failing miserably. It wasn’t supposed to be difficult, not exactly anyway but for some reason you always found ways to make the simplest things harder for yourself. Gathering paperwork, your portfolio and also choosing an outfit for your first day? Perhaps you’d given yourself too many tasks.

“Uhh - yeah, some boy group...” you mumbled, sifting through your files case to find the right paperwork, not really paying attention to the conversation, “they recently had a stylist go on maternity leave... needed a filler.”

Your mother laughed softly through the phone speaker and you could picture her shaking her head as you swore quietly, completely in your own world.

“I’ll leave you be, call me later! Good luck sweetie, they’ll love you!” You weren’t sure how your mother was so cheerful this early in the morning as you barely had wiped the sleep from your eyes. You hummed, acknowledging her absence as the call ended. Throwing your phone onto your bed, freshly made, you took a deep breath.

It wasn’t a good idea to get so worked up before your first day at a new job, you couldn’t turn up in a foul mood - and what if things went wrong during the day? You didn’t need the added stress on top of that. This whole paperwork stuff wasn’t that important for your first day anyway, just some bank information that they could receive another day. Standing from your kneeling position next to your bed, your eyes turned towards the state of your wardrobe on the far side of the wall - there was more pressing matters to attend to.

Dressed in the comfiest clothes you could pick up without sifting through your dirty washing, you turned up to the Pledis building with minutes to spare. You were met by another young woman, dressed just as slack as you - a sigh of relief, if you say so yourself. You hadn’t underdressed nor overdressed for the occasion. You wasn’t too sure what was too little here, after all you were now a stylist for a multi-million dollar earning boy group, topping the charts worldwide. They could be specific about their stylists and how they look, you didn’t know otherwise. This was the first big job you’d landed.

Her name was Sooyeon, she gave you a big beaming smile when you walked into the reception, her hands clasped in front of her and a few tattoos sneaking out from under her sleeves. She had dyed her hair following the split hair trend, proudly wearing pink and black on her hair.

“You must be y/n?” She spoke softly as you approached, her eyes disappearing into creases with her smile, “it’s lovely to meet you.”

“You too.” You responded politely, not interested in making enemies on your first day. Yet as Sooyeon gestured her head for you to follow, you couldn’t dream of ever wanting to make enemies with her.

“Perfect timing, by the way,” Sooyeon hummed as you both stepped into the elevator, your eyes watching her press the buttons, “they have a schedule today so we’ll be leaving soon. You can help us finish packing our things while we wait for them all.”

You’d prepped everything well at the makeshift vanity the recording show had shoved into the dressing room. You’d lined up his make-up perfectly and you’d stared over the descriptive sheet of the desired look for today’s schedule over fifty times. Yet you still hadn’t met him, let alone seen his face. Sooyeon said his name was Jeonghan - apparently mischievous and you should be aware of his pranks. Cringing slightly, you wondered why he had to be the member who was filling in the stylist for.

A soft tap sounded on the open door behind you, causing you to whip around startled by the sudden sound in your silence. There was a gentle chuckle, almost angelic and you paused, staring the man in the face. Was that an angel? He gifted you a small smile, glimpsing his white teeth.

“You’re Hana’s temporary then?” He spoke up, respectful as he lingered by the open door, “my name is Jeonghan - what’s yours?”

The words made you freeze as you stuttered your words a little, unable to find the will to speak as you looked down at your feet.

“Y/n,” you uttered barely and Jeonghan still seemed to catch it, nodding, “I-uh, come in - I can’t do your make-up standing.”

Jeonghan chuckled once more, sauntering to the chair you’d been provided and sitting quietly. You admired the black shade of dye the staff had used on him and how well it complimented him and his skin tone before you turned to your things, humming to yourself as you got started on his make-up. He sat quietly, not battering an eyelid nor speaking to distract you. This was supposed to be the mischievous man? The one you was supposed to be careful of his pranks? You almost scoffed jokingly but you held it in, letting it crack a small smile onto your lips instead. Jeonghan didn’t miss it as you worked carefully on his eyeshadow.

“Thinking of anything interesting?” He mused, causing you to tense before you mentally shook the feeling from your body. You might as well small talk with him, you weren’t sure if you could manage if you made things awkward with him.

“Sooyeon told me to be careful of your pranks,” you admitted quietly as you paused his make-up to move your hair behind your ears, “but I can’t picture you being the type to prank people.”

He was quiet and you wondered if you’d said something wrong. With a beating heart, you chewed the inside of your cheek. How could you be so stupid this soon into the job? But moments later, he laughed once more - that sweet, angelic laugh.

“With my members, maybe,” Jeonghan hummed, closing his eyelid for you obediently when you gave the command with your hand, “they call me the mother of the group. I don’t think I could prank my stylists, you guys work too hard already.”

“Mother of the group?” You quirked a brow and Jeonghan’s laugh turned nervous, “are you the oldest?”

“No, second oldest,” his lips curved into a smile, “Seungcheol is our eldest.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” You quickly stepped back, staring at him in panic as he stared up at you - perhaps just as shocked by your sudden raise of your voice, “I’ve been speaking informally this whole time!”

His shoulders relaxed from where he had tensed up, his head hanging momentarily as he let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t ever do that to me again holy fuck...” He was quick to laugh again, shaking his head before looking back up at you. You furrowed your brows, glancing amongst his expression to try read his emotions.

“You’re not mad?” You asked quietly, blinking. It was Jeonghan’s turn to furrow his brows, shaking his head.

“Did you think I’d get you fired or something?” He taunted, a smile curving his lips again, “relax, Sooyeon got you tense with that huh.”

You pursed your lips, too stubborn to announce he was in fact correct. Jeonghan saw it in your face, especially with the way your eyes darted away from him and towards the make-up products you had littered in front of him. He was quick to notice your bad habit of chewing your lip, something you’d been trying to work on for years. Your mother advised you to chew ice but was what you supposed to do, carry a bag of ice around with you?

He looked down at his hands, an amused smile tugging his lips as he held back a chuckle, fiddling with the rings adorning his fingers instead.

You shoved some rice into your mouth, followed closely by some vegetables as you sat once more with Sooyeon at the small table. Seventeen were currently in the midst of their schedule, busy in front of the cameras. It felt wrong to be behind the scenes, watching them in person as you ate your lunch but you soon realised this was your reality - like a front row seat. No matter how much you tried to distract yourself, perhaps by thinking of what you’d be having for dinner that night or what time you should ring your mother later, you couldn’t get over your interaction with Jeonghan prior to this moment - your first interaction at that.

And no matter how hard you tried to hide the tingly butterfly feeling in your tummy you got whenever you looked in Jeonghan’s direction, Sooyeon could see right through you like a window - on your first day at the job nonetheless. Your eyes fell back to Jeonghan before they slowly made their way down to your lunch. Sooyeon ran her tongue over her teeth, a cheeky grin growing on her face.

“That bad, huh?” Sooyeon teased, her voice low to stop any involvement from other staff. You blinked, confused as you stared at her. If you did say so yourself, your act was brilliant. Sooyeon wished she could snap a photo of your face on the other hand.

“What do you mean?” You mumbled, turning your face back towards your food as gradual embarrassment loomed over your figure like a thundering black cloud. You could try shove your face with rice as much as you wanted but it wouldn’t hide the fact that you should have paid more attention in drama class and the thought made you squeeze your eyes shut.

“You won’t stop looking at him, y/n,” Sooyeon began again, basically whispering as she shuffled her things closer to you so your arms were touching. In your personal bubble, Sooyeon had all the control as her eyes glossed over the red hues in your cheeks, she knew it, “I know you don’t care about him ruining the make-up.”

Puffing your cheeks, you leaned back in your chair to try escape Sooyeon’s suffocating presence by your side but alas it was all for nothing. The wide grin on her face, the way she kept glancing between Jeonghan and yourself - it was all over. Raising your bottle of water to your lips, you figured the only way out of this was to play it cool.

“Script says they’ll be eating bibimbap in approximately ten minutes, not to mention the heat in here with no air conditioning? I can see his forehead shining from here,” you sighed, chopsticks back in your hand as you proceeded to ignore the way Sooyeon huffed and pouted, “I don’t know what you’re insinuating Sooyeon on my first day?”

Sooyeon grumbled under her breath, playing with her food before the room erupted into conversation and staff yelling commands - not to mention Seventeen’s own loud presence approaching their make-up artists. Jeonghan wore a smile as he approached, his aura radiating light-heartedness with a hint of tired. You stood from your seat within moments of noticing him, causing him to tut.

“Sit down, will you?” He laughed, shaking his head as he pulled out the empty chair beside you, his eyes glancing at how close Sooyeon was sitting next to you, “finish your lunch first, there’s no need to rush.”

Your tongue poked your cheek, hands a little shaky at the situation as you lowered yourself back into the chair. Your initial plan was to shuffle away from Sooyeon once you’d finished Jeonghan’s touch up but now you were stuck in the midst of either being too close to Jeonghan or being too close to Sooyeon - neither of which you fancied right now.

“Alright, okay.” You muttered, picking your chopsticks up once again as you quietly began to eat once more. Jeonghan leaned back in his chair, thumbing through his phone as he waited patiently for you to finish your lunch. Despite him saying there was no rush, you had in fact rushed what was left of your rice and vegetables, cleaning up your mess quickly so that you could get to work.

Jeonghan didn’t fail to notice, his eyes borderline rolling into the back of his head as you leaned to reapply his lip tint, your finger dabbing his lips ever so gently. You couldn’t deny you needed to look into this brand, the lip tint did an amazing job of somehow making his lips look so plump. You paused. What the hell was you thinking? Jeonghan watched as you blinked, a little frozen before moving away from him again, fetching a clean applicating cushion and gently tapping away at his skin, removing the drops of sticky sweat he’d gathered on his forehead.

“How are you feeling?” Jeonghan asked suddenly as you was cleaning up what you’d used, causing you to glance at him.

“Hm?” You hummed, raising a brow as you sat back in your chair. Heat rushed to your cheeks but it seemed to affect your whole body, suffocating you in a tight hug.

“We’re suffering in these loose outfits, how are you feeling in a hoodie?” Jeonghan reiterated, his eyes glancing you once over in your hoodie and jeans, “I can ask the staff to get you a fan.”

“It’s fine, I promise,” you laughed, shaking your head as you waved him off. Jeonghan scowled, “you guys haven’t got long left, I’ll live.”

Kicking off your sneakers that night, you’d never flopped onto your bed so quickly. Admittedly, you’d long shrugged off the hoodie you’d worn all day in a sweaty environment, leaving you in your sports bra as you laid beneath your air conditioning, soaking in the cool atmosphere in comparison to what you’d be in all day. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before you found yourself in the shower but for a moment, all your aching legs and sticky skin wanted to do was lay there and bask in what you’d been waiting for all day - the comfort of your own apartment.

In the midst of poor clothing choices, no air conditioning and stuffy rooms full of staff, you also had your tricky dilemma involving Sooyeon’s awful invasion of privacy and Jeonghan’s teasing nature. Swallowing the tough lump in your throat, you debated admitting your sins to Sooyeon - specifically the one about Jeonghan’s lips but you gathered you’d never hear the end of it, especially with the whole “first day on the job” shit.

The dilemma faded perhaps after two days. Sooyeon brought all the lies you’d tattled, which you thought was odd considering it was like she was looking through a window when she looked at you but you didn’t complain - at least she was no longer grinning like the Cheshire cat in your ear about looking at Jeonghan. It was peace of mind that you could go about your job without dating scandals, you figured his fans would pull that for you let alone without Sooyeon’s help.

“Something on your mind today?” Jeonghan perked up from where he sat with his eyes shut, your finger dusting a shimmery powder onto your eyelids. He hadn’t missed how quiet you’d been since you’d started his make-up for today’s photoshoot. Of course, you’d uttered your hellos and how are yous but nothing more extensive like you had on your first day. He’d never admit it but Jeonghan was slightly concerned he’d said something wrong or put you in an awkward position.

“Not really,” the lie slipped from your mouth instantly without a second thought, “I feel like I have no interesting conversation topics for you, is all.”

Jeonghan chuckled a little, opening his eyes the moment you mumbled to say you were done with his eye make-up. They followed you and your every movement as you packed away the make-up you’d just used and instead got out the lip tint you’d be using that day. Your hands were gentle, never roughly grabbing anything and always putting things away neatly like it was jenga. He hadn’t failed to miss the small things you did like the way you stuck your tongue out of the corner of your mouth when you concentrated or the way you’d twizzle the ring your mother gifted you as a graduation present while you were bored behind the scenes.

“What, have we spoke about everything in the world in two days?” Jeonghan scoffed lightly, amused nonetheless that you’d avoided speaking to him, “tell me about you.”

Your finger froze, hovering just above his lips as you once more found yourself in a predicament with this man. Clicking your tongue, you shook your head and continued applying the lip tint.

“What’s there to know? I work as a make-up artist and my name is y/n.” The words were a little sharp but you were getting defensive over Jeonghan’s need to know about you and Jeonghan was finding it ever so amusing as he watched the tiny little flame flicker in your eyes.

“Do you have any siblings? Where’s your mom and dad? Do you own any pets?” Jeonghan blurted out a series of questions, ones you should have known was coming but you couldn’t help but sigh as you turned away to put the lip tint in your case.

“Are you writing my biography?” You quirked a brow as you found yourself looking at him behind you in the mirror. Jeonghan stared back confidently, a sly smirk on his face.

“Maybe,” he shrugged, “the extravagant life of y/n l/n.” His hands acted as if he was reading it on a billboard in New York City, chuckling as you scoffed and rolled your eyes.

“Extravagant? You mean boring.” You uttered, taking a baby wipe out of a packet to rub off the make-up on your hands. Jeonghan jutted out his lower lip that you wasn’t finding his biography act amusing.

“Well, I’m the one writing the biography and you never answered my questions,” he huffed in a slight tantrum, “so how am I supposed to know whether I can title it extravagant or not?”

“We don’t have the time for-” Jeonghan broke you off, grabbing your wrist as you attempted to walk past him. Your eyes met as he stared up at you, “we have ten minutes until I have to go.”

He was a pain in more than one location, you thought as you swallowed a painkiller to cope with your cramps. You were waiting for him to turn up but today you weren’t so sure if you wanted to cope with his personality whilst it felt like a knife was being turned in your stomach. Yet the door opened wide before it shut again, his lanky figure sauntering over to the chair you’d set out for him. Your hand reached to shove the packet of painkillers back into your bag but Jeonghan caught sight of them sooner than you thought.

“Is everything okay?” His brows furrowed as he stood before you, suddenly refusing to sit down as your knees almost buckled beneath you, “why didn’t you call in sick?”

“Because I’m not sick now sit down,” you mumbled, turning to gather your things as usual but Jeonghan hadn’t seated himself, “it’s just cramps - you know, that monthly stuff you guys hate.”

“Oh come on,” Jeonghan chuckled with a shake of his head, bringing over another chair, “I’d hardly call those types guys, take a seat.”

“I can’t sit down I have to do your make-up.” You argued and Jeonghan rolled his eyes, finally sitting in his seat.

“Duh that’s your job but not today,” he hummed, looking over the stuff you’d laid out as he tucked his chair closer to the mirror, “sit down and talk me through it, I’ll do it today.”

You opened your mouth to speak but suddenly you buckled, falling back into the chair Jeonghan had fetched as another sharp jabbing pain hit you in the abdomen. Jeonghan glanced at you in the mirror, “that’s why.”

Frowning, you watched his pale fingers drift among the products you used on him, clicking his tongue.

“There’s so many,” Jeonghan laughed a little at this and you couldn’t help but crack a smile, “you start with something on my face, right? Which one is it?”

“That bottle on the far left, it’s a little messy because it spills in my case,” your voice was meek as you grimaced at the pains kicking your ass, “why are you caring for me?”

“You forget that you’re Hana’s temporary because she’s on maternity leave - right? I’ve cared for a pregnant lady up until she was too far gone to keep working, I know what you guys’ bodies is like,” Jeonghan hummed, his eyes watching his hands as he carefully applied the liquid like you’d told him, “Hana always said these times of the month were your bodies being angry you didn’t give them a child - so I told her it must be happy now she’s pregnant.”

The realisation hit you once more than you were only with Jeonghan a temporary amount of time, like a sand timer as you watched his movements carefully.

“Do you miss Hana?” You asked quietly and Jeonghan glanced at you in the mirror, pausing your actions.

“What, think I don’t like you and I prefer Hana or something?” Jeonghan mused, not answering your question. You pouted and he rolled his eyes, turning his attention back to his make-up.

Jeonghan had almost became a friend in the midst of you standing over him applying weird feeling liquids and powders to his face practically daily. Yet somehow you’d both managed to carry the most tense, awkward aura when you were together and it was always ten times worse when you had to be in his face and touching his lips - your mother called it sexual tension but you brushed her off saying there was nothing happening between the two of you. You could basically see her smiling through the phone when you said that.

Today was like every other day with you sat in your chair devouring your lunch while Jeonghan was hard at work across the room. Today was an interview, mainly for promoting Seventeen’s latest comeback but you didn’t miss how weird the questions were - specifically when the MC asked “where’s your favourite place?” but you shrugged it off as wanting to get a vibe of what each member was like off camera.

But as you scooped rice into your mouth - sort of like a vaccuum - it became Jeonghan’s turn and you listened carefully to the angelic laugh he let out from across the room before he admitted his ‘favourite place’ was in fact the stylist chair. The words caused you to freeze on the spot, like you had turned to stone in Medusa’s presence and Sooyeon caught it all with her eyes like a high definition camera.

“Y/n?” She whispered, her voice for once not teasing you as her eyes fell to the way you’d become a statue. She waved her hand in front of your face, watching as you blinked your now dry eyes and slowly turned to her.

“Did he say that?” You mumbled and Sooyeon slowly nod, her eyes glancing across the large warehouse-like room to where Jeonghan sat.

“Girl...” Sooyeon cracked a small smile, nudging you with her elbow, “and he’s looking this way right now.”

The next day you couldn’t even utter a word in his direction let alone look at him as he walked into the room, whistling a tune as if nothing had happened - to him maybe it hadn’t. He’d perhaps admitted he found the stylist chair comforting because you allowed him to be a human with no cameras for some time or because you shared jokes and acted like a friend. Definitely not for the reasons you’d been listing in your head ever since he said it.

Jeonghan glanced at you before glossing his eyes over your outfit choice - you were wearing the hoodie you’d worn weeks ago on your first day, the one that suffocated you with no air conditioning. His tongue reached out to wet his lips as he sat in the chair you stood beside, a smile growing on his face at your stubbornness when it regarded this hoodie.

“Any specific reason I’m getting silent treatment? Or is there a lack of content for the biography again?” He hadn’t let go of that stupid biography skit and he used it consistently when he was in the stylist chair to make you spew information about yourself. He loved it, he loved listening to you speak about yourself. Sometimes when you gossiped over little details, he would watch the sparkle in your eyes and he’d never miss how excited you got to discuss certain topics - one of these was your childhood pets.

“Are you ignoring what you said yesterday or was it a fever dream?” You finally spoke, your throat a little raspy because you’d spent the last night screaming into your pillow crying out of stress that you didn’t know what his intentions were with that interview. Jeonghan let out a small “aaaah..”

“Is that bothering you so much?” He taunted, turning to face your beet red face stood beside him, “is there a problem with me liking this chair so much? Sitting in your company and enjoying you as a person?”

“Stop saying that shit,” you scoffed, folding your arms across your chest, “I’m your make-up artist for fucks sake.”

“So?” Jeonghan mumbled, mimicking your attitude by folding his arms across his chest - you narrowed your eyes at this, “maybe I don’t want you to just be my make-up artist, y/n but your stubborn ass is going to throw a fit about that, isn’t it?”

It didn’t go straight over your head but boy, you wanted it to. You stared at him, the muscles of your arms relaxing involuntarily as the room went silent between you. It was thick with a tense atmosphere that you could slice with a knife like cake. Jeonghan chewed at his tongue, already regretting his words when you took longer than a few seconds to respond. There’s no way he meant it like that, right? Maybe he just wanted to exchange instagram usernames so you could be friends outside of work - but that felt like a crime in itself.

“What?” You whispered, unsure how to feel but maybe that was because there was a million thoughts bouncing around in your head that you couldn’t even focus on the way Jeonghan had made his lower lip bleed under the pressure of his teeth. He rubbed his clammy hands onto his jeans, trying to dry them as if he wasn’t physically sweating from announcing a workplace crush.

“You know exactly what I was doing with the biography bullshit y/n,” Jeonghan sighed as if he was annoyed with himself that he’d been caught in the act, “I wanted to know so much about you because every time you spoke about yourself, I could admire your actions and the way you reacted. I got to watch you lick your lips when you’d made them dry from talking so much about your favourite vinyl record. All the tiny little things about you I learnt in this chair - because you wouldn’t open up to me without some jokey skit covering my curiosity and I fell in love with everything.”

There was that thick suffocating silence again, sending both Jeonghan and your own mind racing as you stared at each other again. Your eyes were going dry and the stinging pain caused you to sharply turn away, blinking furiously as your eyes began to water in response to your stupid actions.

“I think maybe we need to speak about this outside of work?”

The front door opened and you furrowed your brows from where you stood in the kitchen, slicing up celery and numerous other vegetables for the dinner you were preparing. There was only one person who had a key to your apartment and it certainly wasn’t your mother because you’d left your front door locked after you came home from work that morning. You’d been at work prior to do Jeonghan’s make-up as usual and then after shooting, you’d come home early - this was one of the much rarer days where you had such a freedom. Jeonghan had dance practise after the photoshoot and you knew damn well he didn’t need make-up for that.

Lanky arms wrapped around your waist and the grin grew on your face almost immediately at the sickening sweet smell of his cologne washing over you.

“I see you’ve taken to letting yourself into my apartment,” you mused teasingly, focusing on the vegetables, “how was practise?”

He chuckled, his chest vibrating against your back as he leaned down to press a kiss to your head.

“Well, you did give me a key,” Jeonghan taunted and you admit, you scowled despite the fact he was very correct, “Hana visited us to show us her little newborn, he was so cute!”

“I bet he was loud too.” You hummed, scooping the sliced vegetables into the saucepan on your right. Jeonghan made a soft noise as if he was thinking.

“I think Seungkwan and Soonyoung might have been louder...”

#berriesandjunnie #m: yoon jeonghan #yoon jeonghan #Seventeen #seventeen fanfic #seventeen fluff #Seventeen Jeonghan #Svt #svt scenarios #svt fluff #svt jeonghan #Requested Fanfic #Idol!AU #afab!reader

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vamossainz55 · 2 years

Text

Moonlight Ch. 5 | Carlos Sainz Jr. x Reader

hi everybodyyy, a bit late (is it becoming a trend? maybe) but i hope you enjoy it. a lot happens in the chapter but it is a bit of a filler to get the story moving. i tried adding as much carlos x reader as much as possible but the season is starting soon so im excited to get into that!! i think i was able to focus more on writing this one so i think it's also better written but im not too sure tbh! i hope you enjoy and as always please feel free to leave constructive criticism! enjoy <3<3

warnings: nothing just a bit of angst at the end. maybe a bit of swearing.

moonlight masterlist and summary here

short summary: exes to friends to lovers

read chapter four here.

Chapter Five (5k words)

“I am so sorry babe,” You sigh out as you slip on your McLaren shirt to go to the office. It had been a week since you had gone out with Ana and Carlos and it had been really hectic to say the least. The livery announcement date had finally settled and promptly announced which only meant working overtime with the team to make sure everything would happen. Most nights you found yourself coming home very late and in the mornings you were leaving as early as you could. Tom had made it clear that you didn’t need to come earlier and stay later than required (especially since you were on an intern salary) but you really couldn’t help it. You tried your best to get involved in every single thing possible, because what if you never got the opportunity again?

Bastien though was a little less happy about your arrangement. Working longer hours only meant less time to call with him and there was a clear disconnect between you both. A part of you was worried but he was also going to visit you soon so you hoped the tension would disperse then. All worries are gone until you’re telling Bastien about the livery date announcement and there’s a clear frown on his face.

“So what am I going to do on Valentine’s day in London by myself?” Bastien asks with a hint of annoyance in his voice and you let out a small sigh, shifting to look at your phone where your boyfriend was facetiming you. Bastien had planned a surprise trip to visit you for Valentine’s, wanting to stay with you for a few days, but with your news on the announcement date Bastien was not amused.

“I was planning on asking if you can join? Tom really likes me, I’m sure he’ll say yes.” You say, sitting in front of where your phone had been perched. You look at yourself through the small view on your phone screen as you clip some parts of your hair to the back to clear up your face. “If not Carlos or Lando can try asking for me I think they could have more influence than me.” You offer up as you adjust your bracelet.

Bastien looks over the screen and sighs. “I don’t care about these things, you know that.” Bastien says and you frown a little bit at his comment.

“I know it really isn’t your thing… but it’s my thing.” You say with a small smile. “Please? I’m sure you’ll love it. You’ll get to see the car in person and its really cool.” It looks like Bastien wants to argue but a notification comes on your phone that quickly catches your attention.

“Carlos is here, I’m gonna go yeah?” You say softly, looking over the screen. You hear Bastien sigh a little bit before nodding.

“Yeah, yeah. I find it weird that he’s driving you to work almost every day now but whatever.” Bastien mumbles and it’s your turn to feel a bit annoyed since he hadn’t made it an issue the days before.

“It’s not like that. When I went out with Ana and him we realised I’m practically on the way to the office for him. It saves me money from using public transport.” You justify for the third time already, although you understood where he was coming from. “I can stop going with him if you want.” You say again because as much as it didn’t mean anything you understood how it could be uncomfortable for your boyfriend that your ex was driving you almost every morning and evening. There is a moment of silence before Bastien speaks up again.

“No, no. I rather you go with him, it’s safer too.” There’s a part of you that doesn’t really believe him but you decide that it’s better not to say anything. “Just text me when you get home and stuff yeah?” He asks and you give him a nod just as a phone call is coming in.

“I’m gonna go babe, I love you.” You promise, waiting for him to say it back before you’re picking up Carlos’ call, swinging your bag over your shoulder.

“Ay, ay, vamos. We’re gonna be late again.” Carlos says as soon as the line connects. You roll your eyes, walking to the elevator.

“Piss off, we were only late once. I’ll be down in less than five.” You promise, hanging up before he says anything else. By the time you get to the lobby Carlos is not even there, which only makes you scoff in feigned annoyance and disbelief.

As soon as Carlos pulls up you open the back door to drop your bag there before you’re slipping in the passenger seat.

“You were definitely not here yet.” You tell the Spanish driver as you pull the seat belt on. He seems unfazed as he grins at you, tapping his steering wheel with his fingers before looking over you. You can’t help but smile at the way he’s looking at you, getting you to playfully roll his eyes, the sudden annoyance you felt towards Bastien gone.

“Buenos dias,” Good morning, Carlos says with a grin, and he’s like this every morning, obnoxiously happy and filled with too much energy. Your eyelids are still heavy, but in your defence Carlos’ mornings started much earlier than yours as he was usually packed with workouts, training, and other things.

“Morning,” You say, letting out a sigh as you lean back on the chair. “Thanks for picking me up.” You say with a smile. Carlos nods, humming as he changes gears.

“No worries. I got you coffee.” He says nodding to the Starbucks cup in the cupholder. You look over it sceptically, always being overly picky about your coffee. Before you say anything though Carlos is chipping in, pulling out of the driveway as he speaks. “Don’t worry- it has almond milk with cinnamon and less sugar.” He says, not even glancing over at you as he focuses on turning into the main road. You’re a bit surprised that he remembers your order but you simply murmur a thanks and take a sip, hoping it would help your morning become a little bit more bearable.

“Are you excited for the unveiling?” You ask Carlos, setting your cup of coffee back on the cup holder. He’s focused on the road, humming softly as he thinks about the question.

“Yeah, yeah. I am really excited to be honest. It’s always cool to have something that you’ve worked on announced- and we’re so close to testing and for the season to start.” he says quickly glancing over to you before looking back at the road. “What about you? It’s your first time.” He chuckles, slowly stopping the car as you reach a red light. He turns his body slightly towards you, waiting for your answer and you give him a nod.

“I’m really excited actually.” You laugh softly. “I find it so cool that I’m finally on the other side of it. I remember waiting and having countdowns on my phone for all the unveilings.” You say smiling at him. “I am a bit bummed that we chose valentine’s day though.” You say a bit sheepishly. “My boyfriend’s coming over and I was supposed to take the day off.” Carlos shifts his attention to the road again as the light switches to green and there is a short silence as the car starts to move.

“You can always take the day off.” Carlos suggests with a smirk, knowing you wouldn’t and you shake your head, just proving his point.

“No way in hell I am missing seeing the whole thing in person. What if I never get to see it again?” You ask but Carlos just chuckles.

“Oh please, this definitely won’t be your last one.” He says it with conviction which makes you smile. “But, you can always invite him. Think you might be able to bring a guest no?” Carlos says and you give him a small shrug.

“I’m gonna ask but I don’t think he wants to go. He doesn’t care about these things.” You echo your boyfriend’s words from earlier and you can see Carlos stop himself from frowning too deeply and you fiddle with your bracelet.

“What do you mean? It’s important to you ” He states plainly, “He should care that you care about it no?”

You don’t really have an answer to that so you decide to just shrug, this time shifting your attention to the street, suddenly uncomfortable with the shift of the conversation. Carlos seems to pick up on this because he quickly changes the topic about how he had gone golfing with Lando the day before and how the younger boy was still horrible at it still. You appreciate the change and you easily go with it, leaving the thought of Bastien behind.

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

Bastien arrives the night before the unveiling and you’re ecstatic to see him again as you hadn’t seen him in almost two months which is the longest you both had been apart. The moment you see him exit the arrival gate you’re rushing to him and giving him the biggest hug. You can’t stop smiling until you get to your apartment with him, and it’s all good until you wake up the next morning.

“Where are you going?” You’re already half dressed when Bastien wakes up, but you had already woken up late from staying up with Bastien.

“Sorry babe. I told you I had to go to work this morning.” You say softly, coming close to give him a quick kiss. You pull away to see Bastien frowning still. “I was going to wake you up right before I left to say goodbye. Carlos is already waiting for me downstairs.” You explain, giving him another kiss.

Bastien gives you a nod, looking over you. “We’re still going to the showcasing?” Bastien asks and you nod as you put on your shirt properly.

“I thought we agreed to go last night.” You say, eyes meeting his. It’s clear that he wants to argue, already sitting up.

“I just think it’s nicer if we do something else.” He says and you let out a small sigh.

“I told you I took the day off tomorrow.” You say softly, looking over him.

“Well, tomorrow isn’t Valentine’s day.” He says and it's killing you how inflexible he was being. Of course valentine’s day was a nice day to celebrate but for you what mattered is that you both were together.

“Bastien, I have to go. I don’t have time to argue” You say, pocketing your phone, feeling slightly annoyed that you were having the same argument for what felt like the hundredth time. You’re turning to take your things when Bastien butts in again.

“Never pegged you to be the one to put work before relationships.” He says which stops you at your tracks.

“You’re joking.” You murmur, starting to feel your patience draw thin. “I’ve joined so many of your work things even though it’s not really my thing, and you used to postpone our dates all the time.” You say, remembering all the business events you joined during your last year of university. It was nice, and you got free food, but you could care less about all the finance speakers you had to sit through.

“It’s different.” Bastien argues which makes you roll your eyes. Your phone is vibrating as a call comes in, a reminder that Carlos was waiting downstairs.

“It really isn’t.” You say, already done with the conversation.

“What time do you need me to show up later?” Bastien asks, more annoyed than anything else. There’s this tone in his voice that you suddenly find aggravating, and you’re unsure if you even want him there anymore.

“I’ll come home first and then we can go together, ” You’re already grabbing your bags, your phone is vibrating once more, Carlos calling you for the second time already. “I really need to go.” You don’t even sound apologetic this time. “Have fun and keep me updated with what you do. I really need to go. I love you.”

The day is busy and you don’t even realise Bastien hadn’t texted you until you text him to let him know you’re on the way home. You don’t think much of it as you’d talk to him when you got home. You’re tired from running around so the argument from the earlier morning is at the back of your mind. Only until you find yourself home by yourself, Bastien nowhere to be seen.

You text him thrice before you call him countless times after. Hours pass and you need to get ready to go to the venue and you’re starting to feel sick. You had no clue where Bastien was, and you were starting to get worried, not even getting ready as you waited on your couch with your legs pressed against your chest. It’s only half an hour before the event when you get a response from him and the words leave you stunned.

‘Bumped into a friend, i’ll see you later tonight. Enjoy the event. Xxx’

You’re out of it when you arrive at the unveiling. Thankfully you’re not late as the doors had opened before the unveiling. You ask your taxi to drop you off at the front of the gates, not minding much to have to walk a bit once you notice the slight traffic. Tom had managed to get you a guest seat but you’re dreading going in to sit by yourself, but something in the corner of your vision catches your eyes. There are several fans there, clearly there in hopes to catch quick glimpses of anybody coming or leaving. You can’t help but walk up to them.

“Hey, are you here for the announcement?” You’re almost by the entrance and the girl is by herself, clearly nervous. She’s dressed up with a McLaren shirt and she’s holding a hat too. There are others around but most seem to be in groups.

“Yeah, are you too?” She asks before she’s looking over you. You were dressed up quite nicely, wanting to show the part of being a guest. For a second you doubt if it's okay or not but you’re wanting to do a nice gesture.

“Actually I am, what’s your name?” You ask softly. The introductions are quick and you learn that she’s been following McLaren for years and that she had been supporting Carlos since his Renault years too. You’re endeared, seeing a bit of you in her and you even feel a bit excited as you speak. “I wanted to ask if you wanted to join inside?” You offer. The girl’s eyes go wide and she looks at you in disbelief.

“My boyfriend couldn’t make it, so I have an extra ticket.” You smile and she’s quickly nodding, speechless.

“Thank you so much.” She says as you both start walking. When you get to the entrance you’re flashing your tickets and there is a slight hesitation from the security guard until you show him your company badge too and before you know it you’re in.

Tom was a gem but he wasn’t a miracle worker so you both had to sit somewhere in the back, but the excitement was buzzing from you both. A big part of you was disappointed that Bastien wasn’t there but seeing somebody else as excited as you warmed a small part in your chest.

The unveiling goes smoothly, and you can’t help but smile when Carlos and Lando come into the light, soon sharing some words as well. The car looks beautiful and the thought of seeing it on track soon and racing had you buzzing. Everybody seemed just as excited, most people leaning on the edge of their seats. All your work felt more real now and the season was starting soon, and you felt impatient for the season to kick off.

You chat softly with Jess the whole time, soon explaining a bit what you did and explaining to her that you were part of the team. Once everybody starts to disperse and get out of their seats you offer her to walk up to Lando and Carlos, giving her a warning that it might take a bit of time to be able to get to them since they were probably going to be busy with all the sponsors and guests. It’s when you’re both getting up for your seats when you notice that Carlos and Lando are actually walking up to you both. They both look a bit confused when they spot Jess next to you but they smile at her anyways, greeting and introducing themselves.

“Oh my god. Hi- it’s really cool to finally meet you both. I’ve always been the biggest McLaren fan.” She says with a wide smile before explaining that you had invited her in. The boys simply grin and nod, you give them both a nudge with a marker and soon they’re signing her things.

“It was nice meeting you and thanks for following us! I hope we can make this an exciting season.” Carlos grins at her before turning to you. “We gotta run to Zak before he tells us off for sneaking off but we’ll meet a bit later yeah?” Carlos asks, already nudging Lando to follow along as they both begin to walk off. You give them a quick smile and nod before you turn to Jess who’s again thanking you profusely.

You hang around with Jess up until the end of the event, introducing her to some other colleagues that you bumped along the way. You might have said a white lie or two that Jess was your friend and a big fan, just in case you’d get in trouble for technically bringing a stranger, but thankfully nobody questions it too much.

You end up exchanging your contact information with her before you’re heading off to the back, deciding to help with some things since you had the time anyways. Tom catches you just as you’re slipping into the back of the auditorium.

“What are you doing here hm? You’re not supposed to work.” he scolds playfully and you can’t help but give a sheepish laugh.

“I wanted to help out and Lando and Carlos told me to meet up with them after.” You explain before telling Tom a lie about how your boyfriend wasn’t feeling well to come. “But I brought a friend, I hope that’s okay.” You say with a smile and Tom rolls his eyes, saying of course. You hear a door from down the hall open and you look over when you hear somebody speak up.

“Ah, there you are.” Lando says, still in his racing suit as he walks towards you with a grin. Tom is soon excusing himself, saying that he had to work on something. “Where’s your boyfriend?” Lando asks once Tom’s out. You shrug with a small smile just as Carlos peaks into the hallway, he’s also still in his racing suit. As soon as he comes up to you both he’s echoing the same question as Lando.

“He wasn’t in the mood to join.” You shrug, “Don’t know where he is.” You say, trying your best to hide the annoyance wash over you at the reminder that he had ditched you. Carlos is looking at you like he wants to say something but he stays silent, and your eyes linger a bit on him but Lando is soon speaking up.

“Carlos and I were planning to grab food. Do you wanna join?” Lando offers.

The Spanish driver is quick to butt in. “You don’t have plans after with your boyfriend?” He asks sceptically and you shake your head. Carlos raises his brow slightly before nodding, “Okay, you’re joining then. And I’m not taking no for an answer.”

You wait for both guys to change into their clothes before you’re heading to the parking space with them. They’re rattling on about having to talk to too many sponsors and guests and you can’t help but smile, shaking your head in amusement.

“So who am I hitching a ride from?” You ask when you realise they both had driven to the office. Lando is quick to take the responsibility, wanting to prove that he was a better driver than Carlos.

“Not true, but I’ll drop you off later, yeah?” Carlos says as he’s going to his car. You give him a nod before you’re heading to Lando, already teasing him to not crash the car and to make sure you both made it to dinner.

Funnily enough dinner ends up in the park. The guys had not thought about the date so they hadn’t reserved any table and of course Valentine’s day only meant one thing, most places were packed to the brim. You had suggested McDonalds and the two had grinned, looking at each other and agreeing that it was a good evening to have a cheat day.

“Can’t believe every single restaurant we called and drove to was full.” Lando says as he sits on the table’s bench, swinging his leg over it to settle down next to you. Carlos is sitting across you both, already digging through his McDonald’s bag.

“I mean, it is valentine’s day. It’s one of the busiest days.” You chuckle, “You two should’ve thought it through.” you jokingly tease, already grabbing one of your fries.

“I’m sorry- last time I celebrated valentine’s day I think I just spent it at home with my ex.” Lando says defensively, his hands are up and you can’t help but roll your eyes at him. “Do you always reserve for valentine’s?” he asks you and you give him a smirk.

“Never had to do the reservation. One of the only privileges of being a girl.” You joke, sticking your tongue out. Lando scoffs but murmurs a makes sense before he’s turning to Carlos.

“When’s the last time you celebrated Valentine’s?” He asks Carlos in between bites of his food. Carlos looks at him before instinctively looking at you.

“Really? That’s the last time?” You ask quite surprised, not managing to bite back your tongue, Carlos scowls at your reaction. You bite the inside of your cheek but that doesn’t stop you from letting out a laugh, “Sorry, I’m just surprised, really.” You laugh softly.

“What’s so surprising about that?” Carlos groans and Lando is stifling a laugh too. You shake your head but Carlos nudges you under the table with his foot. “Come on now. Tell me!” He insists and you’re laughing again.

“I don’t know. You’re an F1 driver now, you’re good looking, funny, why wouldn’t you be going out on Valentine’s day?” You question, smiling at him. You hold eye contact for a second before Carlos is looking down at his food. The lights in the park are quite dimmed and a part of you wonders whether Carlos was blushing or not, but you don’t play around with that thought too much.

“You weren’t surprised when I said I haven’t been on a Valentine’s date in a while.” Lando says, clearly too offended to notice Carlos’ change in demeanour. You laugh at his comment and you’re shaking your head.

“I didn’t mean it that way and you know it.” You state with a smile before focusing back on your food.

“So,” Lando starts off after a beat of silence. “What did you guys do for valentine’s? Apart from Carlos making the reservations?” he asks, still not letting the topic go. You think Carlos is about to tell him to shut up but Carlos looks at you with furrowed eyebrows.

“Which one was the last one?” He asks, thinking as he scratches his chin. “Was it when we went on that boat dinner?” Carlos asks curiously and you need to think for a second before you’re nodding.

“Yeah- it was after your announcement in Toro Rosso.” You say, resting your chin on your hand. It was nice, you both had taken a trip to the caribbean and spent a few days there.

“I booked that dinner like two months in advance just to be sure.” Carlos chuckles before looking at Lando. “It was nice, but expensive.” He says before thinking a bit more. “It was worth it though, we stayed the night in the boat no?.” Carlos says and you give him a nod as confirmation.

The rest of the dinner is nice, but there is a small nagging voice inside your head, wondering where Bastien was. You check your phone a bit too many times in hopes to get a text but it’s radio silent, you find yourself talking a lot, wanting to distract yourself and to push Bastien to the back of your mind and it kind of works. Time passes and before you know it you’re getting into Carlos’ car, putting on your seatbelt as you shift a bit. You had thanked Lando for asking you to join and told him to drive safely before he had headed off to his own car.

“God I am so full. I always eat too much.” You say, resting your hands on your belly, you’re trying to fill the silence, it was late and you didn’t want to let your mind wander. Carlos on the other hand is quiet and you look over him, curious about his silence. “Thanks for driving me home” You say just as he is starting the car. The lack of answer makes you nervous and you shift a bit in your seat.

“Are you okay?” Carlos finally replies and the question catches you a bit off guard. You look back at him, tilting your head slightly.

“What do you mean?” You ask.

“I mean, you told me Bastien had agreed to join and he didn’t” He says, not making a move to pull out the car. You feel a bit nervous now, having thought that the conversation had been left behind in the office.

“He wasn’t in the mood so he texted me that he changed his mind.” You say, hoping it was truthful enough. You’re waiting for Carlos to pull out of the parking spot but he doesn’t. Instead he takes the opportunity to turn to you a bit more, wanting to face you properly.

“He texted you?” Carlos asks, a bit confused. You shift a bit in your seat, looking at him properly as well.

“He wasn’t home when I got there to get ready so,” Your voice is a bit softer this time and Carlos looks more than unimpressed.

“Okay.” he says before turning to look ahead of him again, this time changing gears to pull out from parking. “I’m here if you wanna talk about it, or if you’re not comfortable, talk to Lando, or any of your friends.” Carlos murmurs, glancing over to you again. “Don’t keep things to yourself too much. I know you tend to do that.” Carlos says with a small smile before he’s driving you home.

It’s not that you don’t want to answer but you don’t really have the words. The silence in the car is ringing in your ears and you can’t help but finally let the bitterness and hurt settle in your chest. You blame it on being tired, or on Carlos’ words but you feel your eyes get glossy as he reaches the road. You look up, wanting to stop your eyes from overflowing. It’s embarrassing really (and a bit pathetic, you think), crying over your boyfriend in front of your ex.

You’re frustrated more than anything, not knowing why Bastien had decided to ditch at the last minute. It was understandable that he wasn’t into motorsports or racing but you couldn’t comprehend why he couldn’t make a small effort to go for you. You had supported him in everything and it was starting to hurt that you didn’t feel like the effort was returned. Were you doing something wrong?

Carlos doesn’t say anything for a while, simply putting on the radio as you quietly wipe your cheeks.“I’m sorry,” You murmur after a bit, trying your best to recollect yourself.

“You’re okay. Did you forget how much you used to cry in front of me?” Carlos teasigly says and you roll your eyes, wiping your cheeks.

To be fair he was right. Even before you two had dated he had been your closest friend. The amount of times he had seen you cry about boys, your family, school (or anything really) were endless. You hated crying by yourself and the moment Carlos had discovered this he had always tried to be there.

He would always take you on drives, following the road as long as he could to let you cry it out. Most times he was quiet, whilst other times he was cursing off whoever had upset you with you.

You don’t remember the last time you’ve cried like this. You had been so busy after moving and as always your family barely had time to catch up with you. Bastien was always busy and your calls were usually catch ups about the day, but it was hard to talk to him about your feelings as he was quick to say that it was going to be okay and to dwell on things too much. All your friends were also busy with their own internships or work so hadn’t had any time to properly speak or think about how you were feeling.

There’s a weird new feeling mixing in your chest and it takes you a moment to realise what it is.

You’re watching Carlos drive as you let out sniffles and continue wiping your cheeks. You missed your best friend.

The thought of it only makes you tear up more so recollecting yourself doesn’t really happen and you’re dreading having to go home to a probably empty apartment like this. “How far are we?” You ask quietly and Carlos simply shrugs.

“As far as you need us to be.” he says and you look at him quietly before nodding and looking back at the road.

You don’t really say anything back but you know you don’t need to.

fin.

read chapter six here

a/n: helloooo hope you enjoyed. what do you guys think? did bastien have the right to be upset? did that mean it was okay for him to ditch? are we happy to see carlos and reader connecting again?? also please feel free to leave constructive criticism and your thoughts, it really helps <3 i'll try my best to update by next week.

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robskaschedulearchive · 1 year

Photo

Here’s the Cartoon Network schedule for Monday, January 24 to Sunday, January 30, 2011.

First thing, 9PM was gone. This was when people thought that Adult Swim didn’t really need 9PM, as they were only using it to air episodes of King of the Hill. I remember when I first saw KOTH (around this time, or a little bit before or after), I thought it was weird, given the theme was instrumental and the intro just had stone-faced Hank Hill drinking in front of that fence with Bill, Dale and Boomhauer. Grew to like the show, though.

Anyways, SCHEDULE CHANGES! The mid-morning lineup (after 9am and before 12pm) has a mix of the Canadian toons (Johnny Test, Total Drama Island) and retro CN classics (Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls [the original 1998 series]). Definitely a great mix for any Teletoon/CN fan.

And also, in the early-evening, at 6pm, a Great combo came to exist. 6teen and Total Drama World Tour. I’m pretty sure a lot of people know why it’s a great mix (Fresh TV produced both shows, a lot of the voices worked on both shows, both feel like the early-mid 2000s, etc.). Too bad CN replaced the 6pm half-hour slot with more KND the next month, this week was also one of the last times 6teen aired on United States cable television. (it still airs on Teletoon [now Cartoon Network Canada]).

Also, this was around the time when Pokemon Black and White was about to come out in the states, so the Diamond and Pearl anime was about to end, this week was when the second-to-last episode of the DP anime aired. The next episode was the one where Piplup was crying that he is leaving his best friend, Pikachu (he cried as well). No, really, here’s the clip.

Speaking of sad news, Robotomy was ending this week. That sucks, given the show was really great, I could have seen that show as CN’s third wheel, if MAD never was really successful and CN trusted Thrasher and Blastus for a second season. Good thing they got Gumball shortly therafter.

Friday Action block was just new Young Justice (a show that lasted through a cancellation and ended up on streaming) and Star Wars: the Clone Wars (another show that lasted through a cancellation and ended up on streaming). the Ben 10: Alien Force hour-long episodes were airing as time-filler between the two shows. Ultimate Alien and Generator Rex would return the next week.

Flicks movie was a rerun of Underdog. Aired Saturday at 7pm and again 23 hours later.

Anyways, the schedules after this one were more notable, only because Johnny Test was shrunk from its 52 reruns on the channel. Remember back when the most aired show was only on for 12% of the channel’s runtime? Nowadays, CN’s most aired show is about 31% of the airtime. Still better than Nick’s airtime of SpongeBob and Paw Patrol nowadays.

Here’s what was new that week:

Adventure Time - Monday at 8p

Regular Show - Monday at 8:15p

Robotomy - SERIES FINALE - Monday at 8:45p

Young Justice - Friday at 7p

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Friday at 8:30p

The Super Hero Squad Show - Saturday at 6:30a

Beyblade: Metal Fusion - Saturday at 7:30a

Pokemon DP: Sinnoh League Victors - Saturday at 8a

Hot Wheels Battle Force 5: Fused - Saturday at 10:30a

Run it Back (NBA Recap show) - Sunday at 8a

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samseabxrn · 12 days

Note

Happy DADWC! Can I get "An Inquisition banner, mended many times over"?

Happy Friday! Little bit of a filler episode with some Inquisition members for @dadrunkwriting

WC: 1400

There are Inquisition banners everywhere in the Hinterlands. One sits in the center of the Redcliffe Square, and Linnea watches it flutter in the breeze, the cloth snapping tightly each time the wind picks up. The stitching has come loose near the edge, a thin ribbon of fabric jerked around violently by the wind, but no one comes to fix it. Linnea feels a strange kinship with this banner, pulled this way and that each day. The Inquisition is not going to help them. Especially not with Ashna Trevelyan at its head.

Free allies, indeed. They’re going to be under their watch with no freedom at all, she’s sure of it.

Trevelyan is sitting in the shade of a tarp, pulled between two rotting floorboards, as she works at the stitches, her lips pressed together tight. Lady Trevelyan, that’s always what they called her when she was acting up. Linnea refused; it went against the whole point of the Circles, although it doesn’t really matter now. And she looks like a lady now, hard at work at her needlepoint.

Or not. Trevelyan frowns at the fabric and forces the thread through like she’s stitching up a patient, no real art to it. There’s a tension in her limbs that feels uncomfortably familiar. She’s about to leave when the woman looks up, and she fights the urge to groan.

“Hey,” Trevelyan offers, fidgeting with the needle between her fingers. Linnea nods back neutrally. She tries her best, anyway.

“So, you’re going back soon?”

She adds another stitch to the stark black line appearing across the cloth, a visible scar. “We’ll go back with you all. There’s time.”

“We can pack it up on our own,” she says lightly.

“I know. But Cassandra insisted. And it

“That cozy with her, huh?”

Trevelyan sets the needle down, glancing up at her fully for the first time. “She’s kind.”

“If you say so. Comfy little Chantry job, I guess you get used to it.” Now that she has the chance to size the older girl up, it’s like she’s got no control over it. If only things could be easy for once.

Trevelyan blinks. “Yeah. It’s great. Did you need something, or…”

Didn’t even want to come over here, she thinks, but she smiles thinly. “Just catching up. Herald,” she says slowly, and when she leaves, she’s sure both of them are breathing sighs of relief.

Three days later, they’re all set to leave—but Linnea catches the banner out in the square, dark line of stitches down the edge, but unfinished, one small flap still loose. She huffs. Really. Not her problem, they’ve got an early start in the morning.

But in the morning, the banner is mended, and Trevelyan’s lightly fingering the edge with a furrowed brow.

///

Cullen sits in the middle of his cot, frowning down at the cloth as he pushes the needle in and pulls it out. His hands shake most at the end of the day, and he pricks his finger on the next stitch. A drop of blood wells up against his pale skin. He lets it bead up for a second, watching it bloom. He slips his finger into his mouth then, thinking of the Inquisitor. He doesn’t know why he makes these connections, but he wishes they would stop. Or not. It is much more pleasant to think of Lady Trevelyan than other things.

She’d like Griffon Wing; he’s not really sure why, but he’s sure she’d find something enjoyable about the place. Cullen himself has been struggling to see past the sand that winds up in every crevice of the world and the insects that have gotten very creative about sneaking into the keep.

But in the morning, the sunrise is like nothing he’s seen before. Like he’s waking up to a whole new world every morning.

“Knock, knock,” Rylen calls out, his hand hovering over the open door. Cullen snorts.

“Yeah?”

“You want me to get one of the recruits to work on that?”

Cullen blinks down at the banner. Is there really any point left in working away at it until all his fingers go numb?

“No,” he says. “I’ve got it.”

“Yes, sir.” He narrows his eyes at Rylen, who grins shamelessly. “What?”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on. Not used to the respect, are you?”

“Not from you,” he drawls. Rylen scoffs.

“Shove off mate, I respect you plenty. Don’t go fishing for compliments, now.” He comes closer to sit on the stool by the cot, which Cullen quickly clears of stray needles. “I, uh. Wanted to check in about it.” He gestures to the door, and Cullen hesitates, before shaking his head. It’s not so much a good day as an average one. There’s not much to hide.

“I’m okay. Today’s a good day.” It’s a stretch, and Rylen’s unimpressed look tells him he feels it too, but he doesn’t press.

“Alright, then.” He leans back, watching as Cullen threads the needle that’s slipped. It’s harder with him watching, but he doesn’t look too closely at his shaking hands or offer to help. “I was wondering,” he asks suddenly, and Cullen nearly drops the needle with a sigh. “Do you still think it’s possible? For anyone to quit?’

That stills him. He looks at Rylen, somewhat avoiding his gaze, eyes tracing the flaming sword with a gash through it, lined with red thread.

“I do,” he says firmly, surprising the both of them. He clears his throat. “Do you think you…”

“Not yet,” he says. “Too many Venatori around here, and—I don’t think I’m ready. Yet.” He scratches at his jaw, stubble overgrown. “But someday. Maybe.”

Someday has gotten Cullen through more than he knows.

///

“Seeker, what do you have there?” The satisfied lilt to Varric’s voice tells Cassandra that she’s not going to live this down for at least a week. Not for the first time, she wonders, why did it have to be Varric?

“The banner was torn.” It lies in her lap, along with a spool of green thread that is wholly unsuited and really only serves as a reminder of the Breach. But it was all Ashna had, and Cassandra cannot pretend to care enough to make the girl search out something else.

“Sure, but it adds character, doesn’t it?” Again, to be caught in one of these practices that is a remnant of her former life is bad enough. For it to be Varric who catches her is intolerable. “Sometimes I forget you’re a princess.”

“There is no version of events in which I am a princess, Varric.”

“That’s cause you’re not thinking creatively, Seeker. You could be a princess if you spun it the right way.”

“No thank you. Princesses lead horrible lives,” she says flatly. They are forced to marry, and they have to deal with politicians, and often, they die, violently and pathetically, this last point of which haunts her more than it should. Varric shrugs.

“Suit yourself.” Cassandra snags the thread on some edge, and it snaps. She growls under her breath. “Though you look like you could use some help with that, at least.”

She blinks. “You sew?”

“Hawke couldn’t keep a pair of trousers intact for the life of her,” he says mournfully. “Perfectly good clothes, gone in a week.”

Cassandra smooths the edge of the banner, trying not to let her curiosity show. “And you were the one to fix these things.”

“I had people for that.” He sighs. “But not enough people to keep up with that woman. You know, she once nearly split her shirt open and flashed the whole of Hightown? Now that was a story!” He shoves his hands back in his pockets and rocks back on his heels, the picture of innocence. “But I’m sure you don’t have the time for it.”

Infuriating man. Infuriating thread. Why does the Inquisition need banners at all? They will hear of their deeds in Varric’s stories, to be certain.

“Until I finish this, I have nothing but time. I would… like to hear this story.”

“One one condition.” He holds up one finger in the air, taunting. “You agree that the statute of limitations has run out. It did all happen five years ago, of course.”

Cassandra looks down at the fabric, where the thread has gotten hopelessly tangled. It’s a lost cause.

But she does want to hear about Hawke.

#dadwc #my writing #thank you for the prompt!

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missathlete31 · 1 year

Text

Nowhere to Run Chapter 5

The Prequel to the Wedding of the Season

Notes:

Okay, so first I owe you all an apology for not getting this chapter out in a timely manner and then I owe you another because unfortunately you are stuck with this little teaser filler chapter. I am posting another dramatic chapter today which features a huge Hangman-Maverick confrontation so I hope you’ll stay tuned for that!

Also I did make a OC for this story. Her name is Naomi, she is Javy’s pregnant wife and her role is important in future chapters for the wedding so I hope you like her!

Despite their last conversation ending on good terms, Jake was still hoping he would be deployed when Payback's wedding came around. It wasn't that he didn't want to go per say but given how things had escalated with him and Bradley before he had left Miramar that last time, Jake was a little nervous to see the mustached pilot again. The last thing he needed or wanted was to cause a scene during Reuben's big day, a sentiment shared by Mickey when he left Jake no less than four messages begging him to keep his distance from Bradshaw. Jake had rolled his eyes seeing that it was him being warned when each time Rooster was the one who started it, but that sounded immature in his head, much less written back in a text message so Jake just promised Fanboy he would behave.

In spite of his concerns about potential fights, Jake was a little excited to see the team again. He had been on his carrier non-stop for almost seven months at this point and unfortunately his contact with the rest of the world had been basically non-existent. They were running stealth recon so the carrier's communications were mostly blacked out and besides a few calls to Coyote over the first few early weeks, Jake was literally in the dark. It didn't help that half way through his stint, Hangman dropped and broke his phone, not allowing him to fix it until he docked back in California yesterday morning.

As everyone else on his team hugged and reunited with their family members, Jake left the docks and headed to a Verizon store, getting a new phone in time to see that despite being away for all that time he barely had any calls or texts to come home to. There were a few from Coyote of course, until Jake had borrowed a buddy's phone to let his best friend know about the loss of his, and check in's from some of the others in the Machado clan, but nothing from Jake's own parents or family. Some of the Daggers had reached out, funny memes sent or just a general 'how's it hanging' but those were few and far between, the most dedicated being Fanboy and that was only to give Jake warnings about the wedding, nothing really asking about how he was in general.

It shouldn't have been surprising, he had left them first after all but Jake would be lying if he said it didn't hurt. Things had felt different during those weeks in North Island, and even though he had blown it all up spectacularly in the hangars that day, Jake had selfishly hoped some relationships could survive the blast. Jake couldn't help wondering, as he sat in his hotel room on the night before Payback's wedding, if maybe the team did stay together and just alienated him. Hangman was a hard person to be around, he knew that, and the others might have felt he wasn't worth the effort. He couldn't blame them and he certainly couldn't hate them for it but it still hurt just the same.

The conundrum of Jake Hangman Seresin: constantly pushing people away to avoid being hurt, only to be hurt all alone instead.

But Hangman was trying to fix that.

Jake had learned a lot during the Uranium mission and not just in the air. Hangman softened himself, smoothed some of those rough edges that he was known for and rejoined the Vigilantes almost seamlessly. He took back his spot as unofficial leader, still with his same cavalier attitude but a little less condescendingly. When he showcased some of the moves he had learned from Maverick, he didn't tease the rest of the team when they watched wide eye and in awe but taught them, showing off like he loved to do but with more of a purpose. Of course Hangman was still Hangman, and he smirked and winked and proclaimed loudly for all to hear about how he had swooped in and came to the rescue of two pilots, ultimately saving the day but he also swallowed some humility when it leaked he was only chosen as spare. The news of his second air-to-air to kill had reached his old team's ears, and Hangman had first played his part with flaunts and bragging until a few of his good friends on the team noticed the nightmares he started having again, the winces when the topic was brought up and the loss of the usual glint in his green eyes. The others in the squad noticed too and soon everyone on the team, his team, ended up supporting him in his struggles, helping him to work through his thoughts, feelings, and most importantly his guilt. It was foreign to a man like Jake Seresin to show such emotions and self-proclaimed weakness to anyone, let alone to men and women he was flying with but to his immense surprise, instead of being chastised or ridiculed, it earned him friendships. He was looked at beyond his call-signs and his accomplishments for once and just looked at like a teammate and friend.

It just hurt that it took so much time before Jake had learned such a rewarding lesson. He had missed so many opportunities of having similar relationships and interactions with the others, too hardheaded and stubborn to let his mask down and be genuine.

But he wasn't giving up.

Jake naively hoped this wedding could fix things that were broken, could fix the Daggers. They might not be able to be a team, but they could be friends again. Jake missed Phoenix's teasing, Fanboy's impressions, Omaha and Fritz's impromptu songs. He missed Bob's stealthy entrances, Halo's ballerina twirls on the way to her plane, the Ivies crazy conspiracy theories. Hell Jake even missed Rooster's piano playing; he could never hear "Great Balls of Fire" without thinking of Bradshaw and how many nights throughout both their careers that a bar of strangers came together to sing the notes of that damn catchy song.

Maybe this wedding could be the start of better times.

Jake planned on taking an uber to the wedding, not knowing much about the Florida town that Payback and his soon to be wife Jacqueline lived to rent a car, but that was immediately nixed when Coyote and his wife Naomi arrived at the hotel. Javy and Naomi had been married for three years already and Jake had found out the day that Coyote had succumbed to G-Loc that the young family of two were soon to be a family of three.

Hangman had never hugged his best friend harder than when he heard the news.

Now Naomi was due in just a few short weeks, waddling into the hotel lobby to envelope Jake in the biggest hug she could with her swollen belly. There were very few people in the world as sweet as Javy's wife; Javy's mother being the only other one that came to the blonde's mind. Jake was forever teasing his best friend that he was spoiled by getting the two nicest people in the world as such prominent figures in his life. To which Coyote mocked back that that meant Jake was just as spoiled since they were a part of his life as well, loving him just as much and perhaps in the elder Mrs. Machado's sake more than Javy. If Jake's eyes happened to look a little watery after his best friend's words, Javy was a saint for ignoring it.

"Look at you" Jake smiled, pulling out of Naomi's hug to take a look at the woman. She was still as beautiful as ever, even more so with that pregnancy glow, though Jake could see some exhaustion in her brown eyes. She wore a simply black dress that flaunted her bump, but it was classy just like the woman always was, "You looked beautiful" he told her.

"I look like a whale-"

"But a beautiful whale-"

"Hey" she laughed in faux outrage, smacking Hangman lightly on the arm, "you were supposed to say I look slim" she chastised playfully, a smile on her face.

"You're carrying my godson, you need to be huge so he can be big and strong and the greatest Quarterback in Texas University history."

Naomi shook her head with an eye roll, "Wrong football" she warned the blonde, "his Abuelo already got him a soccer net and goal."

"Yeah well wait until Jakey Jr. starts tossing that pigskin, he's going to fall in love." Jake tilted his head mischievously, "Jake Jr. is still on the top of the baby name list right?"

"It was never on the list" a voice came from his right and Jake turned to see his best friend striding towards them. Javy looked good, happier than Jake had ever seen him, and the blonde couldn't help the grin that widened on his face as the two best friends shared an embrace. "Welcome back man" Javy spoke, a touch of emotion in his tone, "we missed you."

"Missed you guys too, can't believe how much has happened since I left, look how far along you guys have gotten."

Coyote beamed as he looked over at his wife, "t-minus 41 days" he shares giddily, overjoyed at the impending arrival of his new addition.

"Jesus" Jake looked at his two oldest friends with a scrutinizing gaze though it held nothing but true fondness, " you're actually going to let him be a Daddy Naomi?"

Javy's face scrunched up indignant, "Hey screw you, I've been raising you for the past decade."

"That does not help your case-"

"Okay children" Naomi cut in as the boys moved in to play fight, "we should head out if we don't want to be late."

"You got it DD."

"DD?" Jake questioned, his eye brow raised. Coyote met his gaze with a wide grin, "DD- Designated Driver."

"Nice" the two pilots high-fived as Naomi rolled her eyes, "yes, yes, now you both can act like the dumb frat boys you are."

"Awww baby" Javy wrapped his arms around his wife from behind, "you know you found my frat boy ways irresistible, it's what made you fall in love with me!"

"No that was tequila-"

Jake chuckled as the couple continued to squabble, taking a moment to fix his hair in the mirror before they departed. Behind him he heard Javy groan, "oh my God, it's fine" he moaned as though he found his friend's actions insufferable, "God, you're like a woman- ow" Jake looked up to see his friend nursing his arm that his wife clearly just smacked. "Sorry some of us want to look good tonight," the blonde winked through the mirror, "you never know what single ladies could be in attendance."

"They will take one whiff of you and run in the other direction."

Jake offered up a stealthly middle finger as the trio headed towards the parking lot, "just because you're fully embracing the Dad bod" Jake motioned towards Coyote's midsection jokingly, as it clearly looked as trim as ever in his dress uniform.

Javy gave a teasing shriek, "don't tell me I look fat?" he asked in a high pitch voice, "I thought this dress was slimming?"

"I mean how do you think I feel" Hangman deadpanned, "I chose the same one."

"As long as I wear it better."

"Well then prepare for disappointment-"

"Wow now I really feel like one of your dates-"

"That's not what your mother said."

Naomi, watching and waiting at the rental car, sighed loudly, "I swear if you guys are going to be like this all night, I'm ditching you both for a hot army ranger."

"But then who will be our DD?" Javy asked cheekily.

She squinted her eyes, "oh you think you're so funny and charming Javier Machado but you are not Sir."

"Oh I'm not am I?" Coyote reached for his wife and pulled her gently to his chest pressing a tiny kiss to the tip of her nose, "are you sure about that mi amor?"

"Positive" Naomi's smile widened though, "but that hot army rang" but she cut off as Javy leaned down for a more passionate kiss, his hand coming up and cuffing his wife's cheek as he leaned in. Jake felt like he was intruding on the moment but finally, seeing the time, he cleared his throat, "okay kids you're already pregnant so let's save some of that for later okay?" When he was rewarded with not one but two pairs of middle fingers the blonde laughed and snuck the car keys from his best friend's grip, "now I get to drive."

"Knock yourself out man" Javy moved to open the door for Naomi.

Once they were all settled Jake started the short drive to the wedding venue, not even bothered by the traffic on the roads. "God I miss driving" he told the others, "once I get back to base I'm taking a long drive in my truck to Texas."

"Your ass better be in New Orleans for the birth Godfather."

"Of course" he grinned over at Naomi in the passenger seat, "someone has to catch Javy when he faints."

"Ha-Ha" the other man mocked.

"I'm serious" Naomi continued, "I know you get a few months off now so come stay with us for a bit. You know we'd love to have you and Javy has a ton of furniture that he was supposed to have built already."

Jake's heart warmed at the offer, he truly was blessed to have Javy and Naomi in his life. Refusing to let his emotions get the better of him though he gave the others his trademark smirk instead. "For the sake of Jake Jr," he told them, "I'll have to help, I've seen Javy try to put together a bookshelf and it fell apart the next day-"

"THE INSTRUCTIONS WERE IN SWEDISH!" Javy cried out in indignation, "and what is this, make fun of Javy day?"

"It's always make fun of Javy day" Jake countered smugly, "you make it so easy."

The other man grumbled in his seat, "I prefer make fun of Jake day better" he complained, earning easy laughs from his companions.

The car fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes until Jake caught Naomi's face discreetly turning to glare at Javy. He watched his best friend meet his wife's eyes before mouthing, 'I know, I know' back at her. Jake felt a bit of unease in his stomach, "everything okay?" he ventured carefully.

Javy jumped like he was caught with his hand in a cookie jar, "uh, yeah, totally. Just um, was wondering how much you heard from some of the others recently?"

The blonde's brow furrowed, "like who?"

"Oh you know, " Javy answered carefully, gauging his best friend's response, "some of the Daggers."

"No" Jake shook his head, looking up and making eye contact with Coyote through the rear-view mirror, "I only got my phone back a day ago, why? What's up?"

"Nothing, nothing, I was just curious."

"Javy" Naomi warned sternly, "tell him."

"Tell me what?" Hangman cut in immediately, "what is it?" When he received no reply he waited until a red light to see the married couple having another silent argument. Jake frowned, "come on guys just spit it out already. I can take it, I swear."

"It's Mav" Javy finally relented.

Jake couldn't contain his confusion, "Mav? What about him?"

"He’s out" the dark haired man explained softly.

“Out?" Hangman was ready to kill his best friend for his indistinct answers, "Out where? What happened?”

Javy finally stopped his vagueness, “Out of the Navy," he informed Jake, "he was up in the air with two other planes and there was some sort of training accident. One plane went down bad, a fire and everything. There was supposed to be an inquest but he officially ‘retired’ and then they called it off. I heard they drove him out."

Hangman blanched in surprise, “No shit really?" he questioned, watching as his best friend nodded in conformation. "Well who was in the training accident?" the blonde asked desperately, thinking of the four teammates he knew of that still was serving under Maverick and feeling his heart constrict at the thought of it being any of them, "Was it one of the Daggers?”

“No" Javy immediately moved to put his friend at ease, recognizing the concern on Jake's face, "it was some new guys," he explained. "But it's already been a few weeks and none of them are back in the cockpit.”

“Who told you all this?”

“Fritz," the dark haired man shared, "he’s still there with them." Javy's face fell a bit further, "he um," the man rubbed the back of his neck nervously, clearly not sure how to say the rest of what he wanted to say, "Fritz said things were bad before the mid air crash but ever since Mav left, the team is in shambles. Rooster is apparently taking it the worst, like one more outburst from real disciplinary action."

Jake couldn't contain his frustrated huff of annoyance, "not surprising."

"That's what I said" Javy concurred, "but I wanted to warn you since well, since everyone is going to be there and according to Fritz the Daggers aren't going to last much longer."

"What's that mean?"

"Group is finished, getting new assignments by the end of the month."

Hangman's eyes darted back up, "You serious?"

Coyote nodded, "it's all over man."

"Maybe it's for the best" Naomi interjected diplomatically, "they gave it a try and it didn't work out. Some things are just not meant to be."

"Yeah" her husband joked, "try telling that to Bradshaw-"

"Or his fists" Jake grimaced.

Naomi sighed wearily, "there better not be a fight tonight" she warned.

Coyote turned back to the window, his brows raised, "no promises" he murmured but the rest of the car heard.

"Jesus," Jake moaned, his mind still reeling. He couldn't help but worry about what this meant for the unsteady foundation he was on already with the others. He had come into today with the hope of fixing things with his old squad but it seemed that the Curse of Jake Hangman Seresin was still on and he was once more too late. Though it wasn't entirely fair, Hangman did have a role in everything that had happened to Mav and the others and that he was certainly going to get some flack and guilt thrown his way; if Bradshaw was pissed, maybe even some fists thrown his way. This was not how the blonde wanted this night to go and he wondered if it were too late to turn around and head back to California, telling Payback he actually got stuck on duty and couldn't make it after all. It was probably preferable to an altercation at his wedding reception. As though reading his mind, Jake felt a gentle hand reach for his arm, Naomi offering a tight smile, "we're on your side" she told him and Jake gave a short nod in return.

"Thank you" he whispered.

From the back seat Javy let out a low moan, "it's going to be a long night isn't it" he asked.

Jake and Naomi shared another glance, "Damn straight" they chorused but the car continued on. Whatever they would face tonight, at least they would do so together.

#top gun maverick #glen powell #jake seresin #top gun hangman #top gun #top gun fanfiction #bradley rooster bradshaw #maverick #top gun movie #tom cruise #jake seresin fanfiction #pete mitchell #dagger squad #jake hangman seresin #jake seresin fic #natasha phoenix trace #javy coyote machado #greg tarzan davis #coyote is the best

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liahswriting · 1 year

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Call Sign: Sweetheart: Part 2

Relationship(s): Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace/Original Female Character

Words: 16,398 (I am so sorry)

Warnings: None

Summary: Due to popular demand (really, I only needed 1 person to ask for this lmao) here is a part 2 to Call Sign: Sweetheart. Sorry it's so long. I had trouble trying to come up with a plot and connecting it to the previous fic. I didn't intent to make a part two so I had a lot of filler. Anyway, enjoy.

Phoenix had set her alarm on her phone the night before. She needed to be up early so she could head back to her hotel, get herself cleaned up, straighten out her uniform, and make it to base on time. It was day one of whatever TOPGUN had in store for her. Plus she had to walk back to her hotel. So it was imperative she woke up early enough to give herself the time she needed to get presentable. But she was also considerate of her bed mate beside her. She set her alarm for the early hours, but kept the volume down low enough to not disturb Sweetheart.

But when the alarm went off, despite its soft tone chiming in her ear, Phoenix woke to see Sweetheart up and at 'em as well. Sweetheart rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned wide while she scratched her tangled hair, seemingly forgetting for a moment that she wasn't alone in bed. Once Phoenix squirmed into an upright position, it was when Sweetheart realized her presence.

"Morning." Sweetheart smiled.

"Morning. Did I wake you? I tried to keep the volume down." she said apologetically.

"You can pull the girl out of the Navy, but the training sticks with you. I haven't slept through an alarm since I was fifteen."

"I figured you would've adjusted back to civvy life over the last two years." commented Phoenix.

"I wish." laughed Sweetheart. "Do you know how much easier my life would be if I could go a single day without connecting anything to the Navy? And being able to sleep consistently for more than three hours?"

"But that's what makes life fun!" the other woman taunted. They shared a smile with each other, watching as the life in each other's eyes take over their color. Sweetheart loved Phoenix's eyes.

"You getting ready to head out?" Sweetheart suddenly broke the moment. Phoenix realized her mission and sprung into action, grabbing her forgotten uniform and putting it on.

"I have to walk back to my hotel and finish getting ready. I might do a dry bath if I can."

"I'll drive you back. That'll give you some more time to get ready." she said, jumping from the bed and grabbing her shoes.

"You don't have to-" Phoenix went to go dismiss the woman. Her timeliness wasn't Sweetheart's problem to deal with. Phoenix knew she'd be in this predicament when she agreed to stay the night.

"I wouldn't be happy knowing I was the reason you missed your report time. I had you for the night, I can say goodbye for the day."

"Seriously, you don't have to-"

"Shut up." Sweetheart smirked and then placed a gentle kiss on her cheek to keep her quiet. "No room for arguing. Come on. If we leave now, you can take an actual shower."

Phoenix just huffed out a laugh. Sweetheart didn't take no for an answer. Neither did Phoenix, honestly, but Sweetheart always won the fight. So she stopped trying to deny the offer of a ride, and laced up her boots. Once Sweetheart had her shoes on, she grabbed a jacket to cover herself up, and then both women left the hotel, got in her car, and drove off to Phoenix's hotel.

"Let me know what's going on, yeah? If you guys need anything, I'm happy to make a food run." Sweetheart tossed out through the window as Phoenix exited the car.

"I have a feeling we're gonna need it." laughed Phoenix.

"I got a new phone, but Rooster has my number. Just shoot me a text."

"Will do." and Phoenix turned to walk off.

"Tasha!"

"Yeah?" she turned around and quirked and eyebrow.

"It was good seeing you again." Phoenix's eyebrow dropped and a genuine smile replaced it.

"You too. I'll talk to you later."

And then she disappeared into her hotel. Sweetheart sat behind the steering wheel for a moment, letting everything from the past 24 hours sink in. It hit her all at once, that it happened. It was real. And then she squealed and did a happy dance in her seat like she was in high school and just got asked to the prom.

"Holy shit." she murmured to herself. "Okay, get yourself together."

She should go out and buy something pretty to wear. And take Tasha out on a date. Yeah. She put her car in drive and almost sped her way back to her hotel so she could put on some real clothes. Clothes that wouldn't make people grimace at her and dare to ask her why on Earth she decided to go out in public in them.

She dolled up a little bit: dressed in some decent clothes, ran a brush through her hair, brushed her teeth. And then she headed out again. It was early. Not many places would be open at this hour. If the sun wasn't up, neither were people. But there was always a boutique open somewhere in California. Heavy tourism practically demanded it. And she was determined to find it. A simple Google search told her what stores were open and where they were located. There weren't many, but it was a start.

Today was a day for pampering. She deserved it after everything she's been through. And now she has Tasha back in her life. Who, by the way, hasn't sent a single message yet. Sweetheart kept looking at her phone as she shopped around, hoping either she or Rooster would pop in with an update.

"It's only been an hour. Calm down." she told herself and then stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

She rummaged through another rack of clothes. Nothing popped out at her. She wanted something nice that Phoenix would like. Phoenix once made a comment about a shirt Sweetheart had -a dark navy blue shirt that Sweetheart had dubbed her 'I don't have anything to wear' shirt. Phoenix said she looked good in it. Sweetheart hadn't ever taken a second look at her shirt until then. After that, it was her favorite shirt to wear and would find as many opportunities to wear it as possible. Until it got bleach on it. It was a sad farewell.

Sweetheart felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Excitedly, she pulled it out. Her smile fell when the notification ended up being the daily weather forecast. Sunny. Gee, who would've taken a guess at that. She put her phone away again...... After looking at it one more time in hopes Phoenix or Rooster would say something.

Sweetheart spent a few hours shopping around. She managed to find something nice to wear. Even bought a pair of shoes to go with it since she only brought her sneakers and her sandals. After that, she grabbed a quick brunch and a drink. All the while still staring at her damn phone. Seriously? Not a single text from either of them?! Her mom sent her a text though asking for a check-in. Making sure she's still alive and whatnot.

After brunch, she decided to walk along the pier. Anything to keep her mind off of the fact that TASHA ISN'T TEXTING! LIKE SHE SAID SHE WOULD!

It was warm outside. Not hot, just warm. It felt nice. Reminds Sweetheart of the time she and Phoenix went to the beach when they had an off day from work. Off days were few and far between, so they made sure to do anything and everything they could cram into those 24 hours. Sweetheart remembers one time when she got attacked by an entire grouping of seagulls because they saw she had a pretzel. Instead of helping, Phoenix was laughing her ass off and video taping it. And then Sweetheart tripped in the sand the seagulls covered over her fallen body as they attacked the pretzel that had been tossed from her hand.

"You should've just let it go." Phoenix hardly got the words out because she was laughing too damn hard.

"I paid ten-fucking-dollars for it! I wasn't gonna waste it!"

Sweetheart laughed as she thought back on it. She didn't laugh then, but now it was hilarious. She wonders if Phoenix still has that video?

There were a lot of memories here from when they were first at TOPGUN all those years ago. Like here on the pier, where they watched the sun set and then kissed like they were in a movie. And over there by the shops where Phoenix almost accidentally stole something because it got caught on her foot as she was walking out and the staff practically chased her down for it. And there by the ice cream parlor where they had their first official date. They had been together for months on base before they could actually go out and do something. At the time they were in a rush and could only spare a few moments. So they grabbed ice cream here, got some drinks at the Hard Deck, then went back to base. It wasn't much, but it was the beginning of something good.

Soon enough, the day had come and gone, the sun was setting, and Sweetheart was ready to head back to her hotel. Still no sign from Phoenix or Rooster. She had half a mind to send a text out just to make sure they were all good. She was sure they were just held up with training, or whatever it is they're doing. At this point, she probably wouldn't hear from either one of them until tomorrow after they had gotten some sleep. So she just ordered a late dinner, put her phone on the charger, and decided to shower while she waited for her food to arrive.

The hot water felt nice. The type of nice after a long day when you're just so worn out. Where you've spent hours upon hours just working yourself to death. Sweetheart remembers one time during training when she was just pushed well past her limits. It had several days of testing her mental capabilities in the air, as well as working her physical body to peak perfection. She had been ready to collapse, but held out because Rooster was going to throw Phoenix a birthday party at his place, and Sweetheart wanted to be there.

The party started off fine. There were some drinks, lots of music, games, and whatnot. Tasha was living it up, as she should seeing that she was the birthday girl. When presents started passing around, Sweetheart just felt something inside her shut down. She got dizzy and the room started to spin. The last thing she remembered was Tasha and Rooster rushing to her side, and then it just went black. When she woke up, she found herself in Rooster's bed with a worried Tasha wiping at her forehead with a wet cloth.

"You had me so worried!" she practically screeched, throwing her arms around Sweetheart in a tight hug.

"I guess I was just overworked. It's been a long week, Tasha. I'm sorry I ruined your birthday."

After getting some cold fluids in her from an equally worried Rooster, Sweetheart was then taken to the bathroom with promises of relaxation. Tasha had filled the tub with warm water and some of Rooster's bath soap. She then stripped the both of them of their clothes and they stepped into the steaming water. Tasha sat behind Sweetheart, keeping her arms around the tired frame of her girlfriend. She peppered kisses to her clammy shoulder and all Sweetheart could do was melt against her touch. They stayed like that for what felt like forever. But it was Sweetheart's favorite place to be.

Sweetheart heard her phone beep from the other room, pulling her out of her memory and excitedly peeking her head behind the shower curtain. It was either Phoenix or Rooster, or her food. And while she hoped it was the first option, she wouldn't be upset if her food was almost here.

She quickly scrubbed the last of the conditioner out of her hair, rinsed off the last of the body wash, turned off the water, stepped out of the shower, and wrapped a towel around her as she entered the bedroom. She grabbed her phone to see a new text message from an unknown phone number. All it said was her name followed by a question mark. It was Tasha!

"Hey, how was first day of TOPGUN?" she replied back. A second later, a new text message came through.

"A lot has happened. Free to talk?"

"Yeah, just one second. Just got out of the shower."

"Without me? :)"

Sweetheart had to contain herself from squealing again. But a blush was heavy on her cheeks. She could feel it. Quickly she got dressed in some pajamas and then dialed Phoenix's number.

"Took you long enough." Phoenix joked.

"Sorry. Been lost in thought for awhile."

"Thinking about?"

"You." Sweetheart gave the one-worded answer easily. She heard the other woman hitch her breath through the phone.

"And? Care to share with the class what's got you all distracted?" Phoenix urged with a teasing lust.

"Hmm. We'll save that conversation for another day. As much as I love phone sex, I'm really interested in what happened today." she said and Phoenix huffed.

"Where do I begin?" she asked rhetorically. "Hangman was being his usual asshole self, for starters."

"I don't even want to imagine how arrogant he was."

"He gets one air-to-air kill and makes it his entire personality, and then thinks that will single-handedly make him qualified for this mission."

"Mission? You guys got called back for a mission?" Sweetheart interrupted, a worried glower in her eyes as she stared at nothing.

"Yeah. Not really sure how much I'm allowed to share, but basically we've all been asked back to take down an enemy plant. And Hangman seems to think he's the only one qualified for the job. Him and Rooster kept butting heads during BFM training. Which, ultimately, cost me."

"Whatdyu mean? Hangman didn't kill your chances, did he?"

"No. Not yet, at least. But my arms are still sore from having to do 200 pushups thanks to Payback's stupid gamble."

"Why the fuck would Payback gamble out 200 pushups?!" Sweetheart asked in surprise. That was stupid, even for him. "I hope he had to join you in that punishment."

"Oh he did, don't you worry. Although it's making me wish you were here, ya know. With you as my partner, we've never lost."

"I wasn't sure with myself if I could stomach being back here." she admitted solemnly. This wasn't the time to get into the topic, but something had to be said. "I wasn't positive that I could handle the memories of what happened. Or having to face you on the off chance you wouldn't forgive me. I figured this was the safest course of action for me."

"Listen, I'm not blaming you for your decision. I get it. And I want you to do what's best for yourself. But that doesn't stop me from missing you behind me."

"Funny, usually you're behind me. Quite honestly, I prefer it that way." Sweetheart changed the conversation to something more light-hearted. And the innuendo was not lost on Phoenix. The brunette practically snorted with laughter.

"Well, keep sweet-talking me like that and we'll see what happens."

"Is that a promise, Lieutenant?"

"Oh it absolutely is."

"What's the time-frame for the mission? Is there any room for me to wiggle in at some point?"

"The entire thing is gonna be a few weeks. And based on what the Captain outlined, it's gonna be pretty loaded and hard-hitting until we set out for the actual mission." explained Phoenix.

"Damn." Sweetheart huffed. "You'll have to keep me updated."

"I will." Phoenix promised. "Oh! And speaking of the Captain, does the name Captain Pete Mitchell ring a bell at all? Call sign: Maverick?"

The question threw Sweetheart for a loop. What that had to do with anything, she wasn't sure. But she thought on it anyway. It took her a minute to rack through her brain for the name. It rang a bell. A small, quiet bell. But a bell nonetheless.

"Uh. Yeah. Kind of. He's another TOPGUN graduate, right? Supposed to be one of the best in the entire Navy. Why?"

"Rooster's got beef with him. Serious beef. And it manifested in training today -almost cost him his life. I tried to talk to him about it, but Rooster shut me out. I was wondering if you knew anything. He's got me worried."

Hearing the confession made her choke on air. Rooster was her friend, and just the thought of him being so careless like that and almost dying had her worried beyond belief. Rooster was not one to be so reckless. Hell, that's how he got the call sign Rooster. He waits. He's calculated. He's safe. What's going on?

"I haven't talked to Rooster, like actually talked, in at least a year. Maybe more." Sweetheart admitted. "But, even still, he never brought up the name Maverick before."

"It was worth a shot...." Phoenix trailed off. "Maybe you can talk to him. See what's going on. Because not only is he putting his life in danger, he's putting the rest of ours as well. If he gets kicked off this mission, we're left with Bagman. And, at that point, we might as well just say game over for us all."

"I'll talk to him. You're right; if Hangman is in charge, no one is gonna be coming home."

Sweetheart and Phoenix chatted for a bit more. Sweetheart's dinner arrive shortly and Phoenix had bid her a goodnight so she could eat in peace. Plus Phoenix had to be up early again tomorrow and she needed the sleep after the day she had today.

The following day panned out similar to the previous day. Sweetheart spent most of her time alone, just aimlessly walking about as she tried to pass the time until she could call Rooster and talk to him. She worried for her friend. Rooster had always been there for her, even when she shut him out, so the least she could do was lend an ear to him.

Her phone was silent all day as both Phoenix and Rooster were occupied with their training. It had to be brutal. She wondered just what they were up to. She remembered her time at TOPGUN -it wasn't fun at first. You were put through the ringer and tested on not only the things you knew but also the things you didn't know. But it wasn't all bad. There were good times at TOPGUN. The friends you make, the gratifying feeling of accomplishing something, and plus you get to fly fighter jets. Like, who wouldn't want to do that?!

Being in the backseat was a great feeling. Having Phoenix be her wingman in the sky was what made everything fun and worth it. Sweetheart missed it, and she somewhat started to question her decision to turn down the call. No one would ever be able to fly a plan smoother than Phoenix. No one would ever make Sweetheart feel as safe in a flying weapon as Phoenix did. They were a team. And she felt like she let her teammate down. Who did Phoenix even get paired up with? She didn't ask.

After dinner, Sweetheart spent a few hours at The Hard Deck just talking with Penny to keep herself occupied. Penny was a sweet woman and coming back here felt like coming back home. Penny asked her how she was doing, what she was up to, and all that good stuff. They talked as the older woman handed out drinks. Sweetheart suddenly had a thought, and decided to try her luck with it.

"What can you tell me about Pete Mitchell?" Sweetheart asked, taking a sip of her rum and coke.

"Maverick? What about him?" questioned the woman.

"Just wondering. I'm told him and Rooster aren't getting along."

"Oh. That." Penny said, sparking Sweetheart's interest. She leaned against the bar top trying to get closer for the details. "Listen, it's not really my place to talk about it. Have you talked to Rooster?"

Sweetheart sat back, dejected at not having any gossip to invest in. She took another sip of her drink.

"Waiting for him to be dismissed. Phoenix told me she tried to get something out of him, but he kept quiet. It's got me worried."

"Rooster is a grown man. You can't make him talk if he doesn't want to. But at least he's got a friend like you to go to if he does want to talk."

"Well, I owe him that much. I'm gonna go try him, see if he's done for the day."

She left her half finished drink on the bar and walked outside where it was quieter. She pulled out her phone and dialed Rooster's number. As expected, the call got forwarded to his voicemail. She left the standard message: hey, it's me, just calling to check in on ya. Call me back. Ya know, that spiel. But less than 60 seconds later, he called her right back.

"Rooster?"

"Hey, what's up."

"Nothing. Just calling to get my daily report." she chuckled lightly. "I got the basic run down from Tasha yesterday. Anything new today?"

"Not really. It's tough out here but we're all managing." Rooster replied easily, yet the tone of his voice was curt.

"Yeah? Even with Hangman on your ass?"

"He's not helping, but it could be worse."

"Hey, can I ask you a personal question?" Sweetheart gingerly steered the topic.

"Uh, sure?"

"Can I ask you what your history is with Maverick?" she asked him, and Rooster was silent for several seconds. Sweetheart could just see the veins in his neck twitching as he clenched his jaw.

"And what do you know about Maverick?" he clipped.

"Just asking. Phoenix told me you scared her yesterday with some dangerous stunt you pulled. That's not like you, and it's got me worried."

"It's none of your business!"

"Come on, Bradshaw. You've always been there for me. Let me be there for you." she begged of him. "Tell me what's going on."

"Maverick is the reason my dad is dead....." she heard him spit through the phone. "And then he had the audacity to pull my papers from the Naval Academy and set my career back four fucking years!"

Sweetheart stood silent. The conversation went quiet. The only sounds she could hear were from the bar behind her and from Rooster trying to calm himself with some breathing. Her mouth ran dry as she tried to think of something to say to that. What does she say?

"I'm so sorry, Rooster."

"Listen, I don't wanna fucking get into this right now. I'm tired, okay?"

"Rooster, you gotta promise me you'll keep a level head through this." she pleaded with him. "Whatever's between you and Maverick, it's not worth dying over. It's not worth putting the rest of the team at risk. I care about you and I want you to come home from whatever mission you're on, okay? And afterwards we'll hang out together. You and me. Like old times."

"Yeah, whatever." he tried to play it off. But it wasn't a promise.

"Promise me, Bradley Bradshaw!"

"Okay! I promise."

"Good."

"Listen, I gotta go."

"Call me if you need anything. I'm just twenty minutes away."

And then the call died. And Sweetheart was left standing in the sand, staring at her phone, looking like an idiot that got stood up on a date. She worried about him.

Many days passed and Rooster hadn't called her again. Phoenix did though, and she offered any updates that she could when asked about it. But the updates were very few considering the only thing the team is focused on is mastering their aircrafts. Rooster seemed to calm down over the days based on Phoenix's lack of reporting on out-of-character actions from him. At least that was a good sign.

"So when can I take you out?" she asked the brunette during another one of their phone calls. Sweetheart laid on her hotel bed on her stomach, phone pressed to her ear, and kicking her feet in the air like a teenager.

"How about now?" Phoenix surprised her with her answer.

"Now?"

"Grab a bathing suit. We're going to the beach!"

"What? Beach? You're actually serious."

"Listen, I'm not gonna question it. We've got a free day, and I intend on taking it. So get your cute butt in a bathing suit and get to the beach! Or else I'll drag you from your hotel room myself."

"Actually, I kinda like that sound of that. You gonna bring some rope?" teased Sweetheart. She wiggled her eyebrows as if Phoenix was in front of her. Even thought Phoenix couldn't see it, she sensed it.

"I'll wipe that look off your face. If you follow orders and come to the beach, I'll bring some rope."

"Promise?"

"Promise. Now come on. We're all heading out soon."

Sweetheart excitedly threw herself off the bed and rummaged through her bag for her bathing suit. She knew packing it was a good idea, and now she had the chance to wear it. And it was a cute one too. She got it right before she came to San Diego, hoping to impress Phoenix if their reunion yielded a positive result -which it did.

She tossed on a loose shirt over top of it, put on her sandals, grabbed a towel, and packed a small carry-on of essentials, and then headed to the beach. The ocean wasn't far from her hotel. A bit of a walk, yes, but given the heavy tourism traffic it was much more efficient to walk than to drive.

Today couldn't have been a better day for the beach. The sun was high in the sky, it was hot out, it was just perfect for the water. Sweetheart found a somewhat empty patch of sand and laid out her towel. She waited for Phoenix to text her telling her when they arrived. In the meantime, she covered herself in some sunscreen, flipped down her aviators, and lounged back to bask in the sun's rays. She hoped Tasha would like her bathing suit. What would Tasha be wearing? She's seen the brunette in nothing but a bra and panties before -if you don't count completely naked- and she is a sight to behold. Everything about her was just perfect...... Oh those were some dangerous thoughts to be having in public. Sweetheart looked around as if she could catch if people could read her mind.

Impatiently, Sweetheart watched the clock on her phone tick the minutes. Just waiting for a text, a call, something. And then.....

"We're here. You?"

"Kept me waiting long enough <3 Where are you?"

"We came in through the entrance by the hotel."

"I'll come find you."

Sweetheart quickly grabbed her stuff and practically ran down the beach towards them. She pushed through crowds of people, all of them watching her with irritated expressions as she pretty much gave no second thought to the people she pushed aside. But to hell with it. She didn't care. All she could think about was Tasha.... And maybe Rooster.... But mostly Tasha.

It was easy picking out the group of pilots on the beach. They were the only group where everyone was wearing aviators and had the physique of a military man (or woman). None of them spotted her approaching them, so she took the opportunity to do something cute. Carefully, she set her stuff down just a little ways away from theirs and snuck up behind Tasha, throwing her arms around the woman and yelling 'boo' in her ear. Tasha jumped and quickly whirled around, ready to punch whoever invaded her personal space. But she relaxed when she saw Sweetheart.

"Hey! You made it!" the pilot hugged her tightly.

"Was I not supposed to?" Sweetheart cheekily replied, which prompted a flick on her forehead.

"Hey there, Sweetheart!" Rooster greeted much happier than he did on the phone call. He came and gave her a hug, which caused the others to come give her a hug too. Fanboy hugged her so tightly and picked her up off the sand, making her squeal a bit.

"Didn't realize you were still here, Sweetheart!" he happily cheered.

"Can't get rid of me that easily, Garcia."

"Come on, girl. You gotta stop with the last name." he waved her off.

"Technically not Navy anymore." she reminded him.

"That means nothing. You'll always be one of us!"

"Yeah, Sweetheart. Once a pilot, always a pilot." Payback chimed in.

"Come on, enough talk. Let's play." said Coyote, holding up a football in his hand.

"Later, I'm stealing this cutie for a little bit." Phoenix said, giving a shoulder bump to Sweetheart as she spoke, making said woman conceal a grin. This garnered attention towards her, and she could hear Rooster whistle playfully.

Phoenix took her hand, intertwining their fingers, and pulled her down the shore away from everyone. But Sweetheart could feel eyes on them as they walked away. Everyone was watching them lean against each other and act all lovey dovey. But she didn't care. All she cared about was the woman beside her.

"I didn't realize so many people had been called back." Sweetheart randomly spoke. "Who are the others?"

"Well you already know most of them. The others you've probably heard of. Like Logan 'Yale' Lee and his WSO Brigham 'Harvard' Lennox are part of the Red Rippers. And Callie 'Halo' Bassett is part of the Redcocks." she said, pointing to each person she spoke of. "She's Neil 'Omaha' Vikander's WSO who is part of the Nighthawks."

"And that guy?" Sweetheart asked, pointing to the guy who refused to take his shirt off for whatever reason.

"Robert 'Bob' Floyd. He's my WSO. Comes from Lemoore. He's part of the Screaming Eagles."

"WSO huh? How does he hold up?" Sweetheart wiggled her eyebrow teasingly.

"He's not you, that's for sure." she replied. "But he stands alright. A bit awkward but nice."

"Well not everyone is brave enough to handle you."

"You've never complained before." Phoenix teased back, throwing her arm over Sweetheart's shoulders and pulling her into her side. She pressed a kiss to Sweetheart's cheek.

"I'm not complaining now. Although you did promise to bring some rope." she reminded.

"Later." Phoenix teased. "Right now, I just want to enjoy spending some time with you. It's been so long since it was just the two of us."

"It's not really just the two of us considering we've got those guys watching our every move." she pointed to the gaggle of pilots that seemed to be miles away. They were immersed into their game of football, tackling each other into the sand and cheering each other on. It didn't appear that anyone was on any sort of 'team'.

"Hangman's just upset you won't suck his dick." laughed the brunette. "Rooster just misses you. And the others? Well you let's just say Fanboy had a bet going seeing how long it takes us before we get back together."

"Have you given any thought of us getting back together?"

"I've thought about it a lot." she admitted.

"And?"

"And..... I want to. It's just, I feel really guilty for the things I've said to you. I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for treating you like dog shit when you were suffering really bad."

"I don't hate you for it." soothed Sweetheart. "I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the fact that we had to come to this."

"You could've come to me. I would've done whatever I could to help you."

"I know that. I was just afraid. But not anymore. I'm tired of hiding, and letting this ruin my life. I miss being with you in a fighter jet, traveling the world, taking down the bad guys."

"It's not too late. It could still be you and me." Phoenix turned to her, cupping her face in her hands and stroking her cheeks. "We're a team. We've always been a team. I can't remember a time where it wasn't you in the jet behind me. I don't trust anyone else at my six."

"I already got my discharge. I've been dismissed. It's done."

"But you were called back. That's gotta count for something! Maybe we can get you your RE code, and you can come back. TOPGUN wanted you back, maybe you can reenlist through that and bypass all that paperwork bullshit."

"It's been too long, Tasha." Sweetheart said solemnly. "I'm way too rusty to be in the sky again."

"So you'll have to spend a few weeks back in basics again. So what? It's not the end of the world."

"I don't know, Tasha."

"Please? It's not the same without you."

The two women stood at the edge of the water, staring into each other's eyes as if the rest of the world didn't exist. And, to Sweetheart, it didn't. All she saw was Natasha Trace, the woman she's loved for years. The woman she wanted to marry one day. And the way Phoenix was stroking her cheeks with her thumbs was a comfort that brought back memories of the times she used to caress her face as they lay in bed together, basking in the afterglow of sex, when the endorphins were high and they were drunk on love. Life was boring without Natasha Trace. The transition back to civilian life was an adjustment that Sweetheart never got used to. She missed the Navy. She missed being a pilot. And she was angry that her life was stolen from her by a man who got his kicks abusing his power.

"I'll have to think about it. At the very least, it's too late to come back to TOPGUN. The mission is already underway and you have a new WSO. I won't have a place to fit in."

"After this mission, you and I are gonna spend some time together. And then maybe the Captain will let you do some training to get your wings all polished."

"If he even cares. Speaking of, how's Rooster holding out with Maverick?"

"Rooster's still closing himself off. He's not getting along with the Captain, but at least he hasn't almost killed himself again."

"Well that's good at least."

"Did he tell you what's going on?"

"Yeah, but I don't know if it's my place to share it. It runs deep, Tasha. And, quite frankly, I'm on Rooster's side. If what he says is true, I think his anger is justified. I worry where his head is at, but I don't think he's in the wrong here."

"As long as he doesn't ruin his chances for being on this mission. If I end up with Hangman, I might just drop out of this mission altogether." Phoenix sighed heavily.

"Enough talk about this. Now's not the time to be upset about work. Let's have some fun." Sweetheart attempted to cheer the woman up.

"We could go play football with the guys. Let's go beat their asses. Some of them deserve it."

"I'm always down to beat the shit outta Hangman." she said and both women laughed.

They intertwined their fingers again and turned around to walk back to the group. When they approached, Rooster and Fritz were celebrating triumphantly over something. Rooster flexed his muscles to show off the definition, getting into a muscle show-off with Hangman. But it seemed to be all in good fun as both men laughed and playfully pushed at each other.

"Hey boys." greeted Sweetheart. "Got room?"

"Hey hey, Sweetheart! Come on, girl. You and me!" hollered Fanboy.

"Nah, she's with me. Get your own partner." Phoenix defended.

"Come on, Nat. Don't be like that. We can share!"

"Phoenix? Share? Ha!" Rooster roared out a laugh, stabilizing himself on his knees.

"Phoenix doesn't share, but Sweetheart loves sharing. Ain't that right, darlin?" winked Hangman. Sweetheart wanted to throw up in her mouth. Phoenix was in offense mode, ready to defend her, but she held the brunette back.

"Come on, Hangman. I'll kick your ass no problem. Pick your team and let's fight."

"Ohhoooo, Sweetheart. I'll take that bet. Alright, pretty girl. I'll go easy on you. You can have Rooster and whoever else you pick. You can even pick first."

"Careful, Bagman. I don't think your reputation could sink any further by losing than it already has."

"Then put your money where your mouth is, honey. Make your bet."

"I'm not sucking your dick."

"Come on, guys. Stop fighting and let's play." Fanboy begged with a roll of his eyes.

"Yeah, we're here to have fun. It's not that big 'a deal." Fritz followed behind Fanboy, also annoyed at the fight that was brewing.

Both Hangman and Sweetheart dropped the argument for now, but both of them knew it wasn't over. However, Fanboy and Fritz were right. Today was a fun day, and they were all determined to kick back and relax. Everyone split into two teams: Sweetheart, Phoenix, Rooster, Halo, Fanboy, and Bob on one team. Hangman, Coyote, Fritz, Yale, Harvard, and Payback on another. The game was simple -first team to break through the other's defense three times, or whoever got three tackles first would be the winner.

The first round started off with Rooster holding the football, eventually passing it off to Fanboy when he started getting boxed in by Hangman, Fritz, and Yale. Fanboy ended up getting tackled by Harvard and Coyote. The second round had Coyote taking the ball, passing it off to Payback, who passed it off to Harvard. Harvard got to running, ready to elbow through the barricade that Bob, Phoenix, and Halo formed. Sweetheart and Rooster chased after him, reaching out to grasp at him and yank him back until he fell to the ground.

Round three was quick. Sweetheart had the ball and she told Rooster to go long. Rooster ran past everyone, getting to the fake end zone where Sweetheart threw the ball as far as she could. He ended up catching it, scoring the touchdown. And then round four was where it all went wrong. Payback took the ball. He decided to hog it and just brute force his way through the defense. Sweetheart ran behind him, attempting to get a tackle. But she was side swiped by Hangman who just bull slammed her to the ground. She fell onto her shoulder, and she felt something pop.

"FUCK! FUCK GOD DAMN IT!" she wailed out, getting a mouthful of sand as she writhed on the ground.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, dude?!" Rooster angrily slapped at Hangman before rushing to his friend's side. Phoenix knelt to the ground beside her, quickly assessing the damage. And then Captain Mitchell rushed to aid.

"Something popped! Holy shit it hurts!" Sweetheart hissed out.

"Come on, let's get you sitting." Maverick said and both Rooster and Phoenix carefully helped Sweetheart to her butt. She cried out through clenched teeth as the pain radiated down her entire left side.

"Oooooh that doesn't look good." Sweetheart heard Bob whisper out.

"Damn, Hangman. Someone needs anger management classes." Payback had said, and whether or not that was meant to be a joke, Sweetheart didn't take kindly to it.

"Everyone shut the fuck up!"

"You'll be alright." Maverick tried to calm her. "Easy fix. Just take a deep breath." he instructed her as he splayed his palm against her shoulder blade.

Sweetheart braced herself, taking a deep breath like he said, and giving her free hand to Rooster so she could hold onto something in case she passes out. Maverick counted to three, and then shoved the bone back into its socket. Sweetheart cursed to the high heavens when he did that. Pain engulfed her and nausea threatened to consume her. When he told her that everything was back in place, she fell to her back to try and ground herself so she didn't black out.

"That was not cool, man." she heard Coyote say. And when Coyote goes against his own friend, you know Hangman really fucked up. But Hangman didn't seem to think so.

"I'm just playing the game." he chuckled out arrogantly. "Maybe it's best she left the Navy. She can't handle a little tackle football, how is she gonna handle a fighter jet?"

"Bite me, asshole!" she spit at him, wobbling as she got to her feet and readied herself for an actual physical fight.

"Only because you asked oh so nicely, darlin."

"You're real conceited for someone who got one achievement and made it your entire personality! You're just a shit pilot and are trying to cover it up!"

"Between the two of us, which one is still a pilot?" he calmly responded, an ugly smirk plastering his fucking face.

Sweetheart lunged at him, only getting millimeters from him as Rooster held her back. But Phoenix was ready to back her up as she too swiped a fist at him. But Fanboy held her back as well.

"I'll take you outta the sky any day! You're garbage! You couldn't keep up even if we gave you a head start!" claimed Sweetheart.

"Alright! Everyone! Calm down!" yelled Maverick. "That's an order!"

Everyone halted their motions, one by one taking a deep breath and relaxing themselves until the threat of physical violence was no longer a main concern. Rooster still had a hold on her, and Fanboy on Phoenix, but they got shrugged off as the two women made their way into each other's space. And then Maverick caught everyone's attention, but his focus was only on Sweetheart.

"You're a pilot?" he merely asked her. Sweetheart straightened up when he addressed her. Call it force of habit. She ignored the thumping of pain in her shoulder.

"Yes, Sir. I was, Sir."

"Name?" he asked her, and she freely gave it. Former rank, call sign, all of it. "And your service record?"

"I am a TOPGUN graduate. Former WSO for Lieutenant Trace and The Black Aces in Afghanistan. Been stationed all over the East Coast since I was eighteen."

"WSO?" he eyed between the two women curiously. "Are you supposed to be here, Lieutenant."

"I'm not a Lieutenant anymore, Sir. But I did get the call back. I declined it."

"Why?"

"Personal reasons."

"She didn't make the cut. She just won't admit it." taunted Hangman, which riled her up once more. She tried to take a swing at him but was intercepted once more by Rooster.

"I'll leave you in the dust, Bagman! Phoenix and I could take you down before you could finish saying goodbye to your mommy!"

"You wanna bet?!" he spat back.

"I said that's enough!" yelled Maverick once more. He stepped between to two of them, acting as a barrier to prevent any more fighting. "If you really want to take each other on, do it in the air!"

"With pleasure, Sir." Hangman grinned sickeningly. "I will happily take them down."

"I second the motion." chimed Phoenix with an equally sickening tone.

"Alright, everyone calm down." Rooster tried to be the middle man. "We'll talk about this later."

He began to pull both Sweetheart and Phoenix away from the scene, attempting to calm them down as much as he could. Once the three of them were far enough away, they all let out an exasperated sigh and relaxed the tense muscles they hadn't realized were knotted up.

"I really wanna punch him in the face." Sweetheart muttered.

"Trust me, I do too." replied Phoenix.

"Why'd you have to make that stupid bet with him?" asked Rooster. "You do realize that if you don't actually take him up in the air, he's never going to let it go."

"Relax. I doubt the Captain will allow me on base to actually fight him."

"I dunno. Maverick seemed pretty serious about it." said Phoenix.

"Oh please. I'm not even part of the mission. I'm pretty sure unauthorized personnel on sight would be literally kicked out." she tried to wave them off, but her shoulder was still throbbing so she dropped her hand.

"Can we just forget about it? I don't wanna think about Bagman anymore. Not when we have this day to ourselves." begged the brunette pilot.

She was right, so the three of them agreed to put the last ten minutes behind them and continue on with their day like it didn't happen. Sweetheart's recent injury put a stop to any plans they may have had to go swimming, so they opted to just wade in the water for a little while before heading up the beach to grab something to eat. After a quick lunch, Rooster split to give the two women some alone time, which was greatly appreciated.

They enjoyed being able to actually have time with each other after all these years. It made Sweetheart realize that she didn't give Phoenix enough credit as a girlfriend. Being without her the last two years was miserable. And she was positive that had she just been honest about what happened, the present day would be completely different. Maybe she would've stayed in the Navy. Maybe she would've gone back to The Black Aces with Phoenix after graduation.

There was no point in dwelling on the past. The only thing they could do now was rebuild what they lost. And, so far, it was working out perfectly. They walked down memory lane for a little while, revisiting old spots. Then they went back to the water to cool off as the sun got even hotter throughout the afternoon. One game of water tag, a few sandcastles, and a deep tan later, they called it a day and went to go grab dinner at a little seafood diner spot not too far off from the beach. They shared some shrimp, had a few drinks, and Sweetheart even treated her girl to some cheesecake for dessert.

And then Phoenix got the dreaded text message from Rooster that let her know everyone was heading back to base and to meet up with them.

"You gotta go?"

"Yeah." she sighed reluctantly.

"I'll walk you back to the beach. I don't wanna say goodbye yet."

"Awe, you're cute." Phoenix lovingly pinched at her cheek like a mother would her child. Despite Sweetheart slapping her hand away, she couldn't help the blush that painted her face.

They walked back down the beach hand-in-hand. Fingers entwined just a little bit tighter as the shore came into view. Today was a good day, and Sweetheart was already discussing plans on the next time they can get together, much to Phoenix's enjoyment. The brunette kept saying how adorable she was when she was excited.

The group of pilots were visible now. All huddled together around their Captain as he talked to them about something. Hangman responded back, his arrogance clear on his face even from all the way back here. Rooster was annoyed and rolled his eyes. As the two women got closer, they captured the others' attention.

"Didn't think you'd have the balls to show up." Hangman was first to speak. Sweetheart took a deep breath to prevent herself from literally spitting in his face.

"Enough, Lieutenant." Maverick put a stop to it before it could start. "Phoenix, we're heading back. Sweetheart? I'll be seeing you tomorrow morning. Eight am sharp."

"Wait, what?" Sweetheart uttered in surprise and confusion.

"You can back out now if you wanna. I won't hold it against you, swear it." Hangman faux promised, holding his hand up in a scout's honor that everyone knew he wouldn't abide by even if his life depended on it.

"Wait, you're actually serious about letting us fight it out? I'm not a pilot anymore. Surely that breaks some sort of code?" Sweetheart tried to reason with the older man.

"I don't care if you're still active or not. Once a pilot, always a pilot. Besides, it'll be good training for everyone." he responded confidently. "Tomorrow. Eight am. Don't be late."

The Captain walked away, signalling for everyone to follow. They did, but Phoenix stayed back a moment to give Sweetheart a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"It'll be alright." she soothed. "I'll see you tomorrow. And we'll give Hangman a good beating. You and me." Another hug, and she was off, leaving Sweetheart alone to process what just happened.

Sweetheart had a hard time sleeping that night. She was up tossing and turning, picturing what the day ahead was going to consist of. A huge part of her was a bit terrified. It's been two years since she was in a fighter jet. And on top of it, they bet against Hangman of all people. If this didn't go right, he will use it to abuse both her and Phoenix for the rest of their lives. Why did she have to make that stupid bet? It was the heat of the moment, she didn't mean it!

But when the alarm went off at 06:30 am, she couldn't hide any more. She had an hour and a half to get presentable and make it to base or else..... She didn't have her uniform with her -but then again why would she? She didn't expect to go back to TOPGUN. She was just here for Tasha. And Bradley. She hoped a pair of jeans and a plain shirt would suffice. Besides, she'd be putting on a pilot's suit anyway.

She made sure to pay extra attention to her appearance: she gelled her hair a little bit more, parted it in that way she used to when she was still active, pinned back the stragglers she keeps saying she'll get taken care of but never does. Then she brushed her teeth a little bit longer than usual, straightened her shoe laces before tying them up, and flattened down any wrinkles in her clothes. And then she grabbed her car keys and phone, and headed out of the hotel.

She knew the drive to base very well. She hadn't forgotten it at all. It felt like yesterday she was first here with Tasha. Seeing the gates as she pulled up felt like the first time too.

"Can I help you?" a man stopped her. His name badge said Coleman on it.

"Um, hi. I've been called here by Captain Mitchell." Sweetheart responded.

"You must be Sweetheart, then."

"Yes, Sir."

"He's waiting for you. Go on in."

The gates opened, allowing her in. Coleman told her where to park her car and where to meet Maverick, but she already knew that, and she was able to get her shit together fairly quickly despite panicking hardcore on the inside. Walking towards the hangar didn't help one bit, and seeing everyone anxiously huddled and looking around didn't help either. She caught Phoenix's eyes -the woman smiling widely at her appearance- and found herself relaxing slightly. Tasha always calmed her.

Phoenix ran her way, meeting her in the middle, and throwing her arms around her shoulders.

"I was afraid you'd back out." she whispered in her ear.

"I almost did. Honestly? I feel like puking." Sweetheart responded back.

"You'll be fine. There's nothing you and I can't do."

"It's not about not being able to do it. It's more like if we don't beat Hangman, it'll be the end of our careers. Or, well, your career and my life."

"No. Don't act like that." she sternly pointed a finger. "We'll kick his ass and make him cry. He deserves it."

"I'll do my best, Lieutenant." Sweetheart playfully saluted, making the brunette laugh. They then walked back to the group, ready to face the music.

Hangman didn't even try to hide his arrogance. He was twirling that ugly toothpick like he always does, the whites of his teeth shining behind his lips as he smiled over the wood. Sweetheart hated when he did that. The toothpick was a stupid signature trademark of his. It didn't make sense to her. He probably thought it made him look tough, but really it just made him look like even more of an asshole than he already was.

"You ready to lose, darlin'?"

Exhibit A.

"I hope we get your defeat on camera, Bagman. I want to replay it every night before I go to sleep." Phoenix was quick to retort. Her comment did little, if any, to deter him.

"Alright, everyone take a seat. We'll do a quick rundown on the course and then you'll get in your jets.." Maverick interrupted.

No one argued against him and took their seats in the makeshift classroom in the center of the hangar. Everyone appeared to be sitting with their wingman -as evident by the fact that Phoenix was sandwiched in between Bob and Sweetheart. Sweetheart, her former WSO. Bob, her current one.

"Alright. You guys have had your practice with dogfighting. But that skill is reserved for an as-needed situation. Your main goal is to simply navigate." Maverick began to explain, bringing up a holographic layout of a mountainous terrain. "The terrain is hidden in a canyon range, guarded by surface-to-air missiles. Your task will be to navigate below these SAMs along the canyon with a max ceiling of one hundred feet." he said so casually, but both Sweetheart and Phoenix shared an oh shit look with each other. No way this guy was serious. One hundred feet? In an F-18? That was suicide!

"He's not serious?" Sweetheart muttered to Phoenix, but her doubt was heard loud and clear.

"Oh, I'm very serious." said Maverick, looking directly at her. "But because this is just a training session, I'll go easy on you. You will not exceed a max ceiling of three hundred feet. You will not have to worry about dodging any missiles. All you have to do it navigate this canyon and take out a marked target on the ground. You'll have three minutes to complete this course. Exceed three minutes, you lose. Go above three hundred feet, you lose. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I don't have a WSO. A little unfair, don't ya think?" Hangman quipped with a hand raised like he was in grade school again. Maverick didn't answer, instead passing the reins to the two women who merely exchanged a silent look. Phoenix shrugged. Sweetheart quirked an eyebrow. Phoenix twitched her lips. And then Sweetheart shrugged.

"We'll be nice and let you choose your own WSO." answered Phoenix.

"Alright.... Fanboy."

"Dude, really?" whined said WSO. He pouted like a child.

"Shut up, dude. You'll have nothing to worry about because we'll win. Easily."

"Yeah, I just don't like you." Fanboy rolled his eyes.

"Are we all in agreement?" spoke Maverick. Another round of glances was exchanged, and everyone nodded. "Good. Go suit up."

At the dismissal, everyone stood from their seats. Phoenix led Sweetheart to a set of lockers, pulling out a couple of flight suits and handing her one. Sweetheart eyed it cautiously. She couldn't help but remember the last time she wore one of these, and the reason why she stopped.

"Hey, look at me." Phoenix cooed, using a finger under her chin to raise her eyes. "What's going on?"

"I've been gone for two years. And my first time back I'm having to fight against Hangman over a stupid bet."

"You doubt yourself?"

"Is it shameful to say a little bit?" she questioned guiltily.

"No. But I know you. And I know you're the best damn WSO I've ever had. You've taken down targets half blind. You've taken down targets without a targeting system. If there's anyone that could do this with me, it'd be you." she soothed. The finger under her chin had migrated to her hair, plucking a stray that Sweetheart somehow missed with the gel.

"But it's been years. What if I mess up?"

"You won't. It's like riding a bike, once you get up in the air, it'll come back to you. And if we lose this bet, so what? It's not the end of the world. Who cares if Hangman makes fun of us for losing?"

"But what if this ruins your chances for being on this mission? What if I screw it up for you?"

"If it does, it does. I don't wanna be on this mission if you won't be with me anyway." the woman claimed. Sweetheart doubted her words, knowing full well that Lieutenant Natasha Trace lived and breathed for the skies. Being grounded was like clipping a bird's wings -cruel. But, even still, the words comforted her. And maybe for a moment she could believe that this woman would risk a job for her.

"So you won't be mad at me if I miss the target?" Sweetheart smiled softly.

"I promise. Now come on. Suit up." she tossed the flight suit at her and then began to pull her own on.

Sweetheart followed her lead and dressed. Then she took her hand and followed her outside where the F-18s were. Hangman and Fanboy were outside already dressed, standing by Hangman's engraved fighter jet. Phoenix's -and Bob's- were beside his. Everyone was gathered around, ready for the fight.

"How about we make this bet worthwhile?" came Hangman's grating voice. It rattled Sweetheart's ears and made her grimmace.

"What'chu got?" prompted Phoenix.

"Double the pushups." spoke Fanboy. Sweetheart had to rack her brain for what that meant. Double the pushups? And then she remembered what Phoenix told her when they first talked. Payback had bet two hundred pushups for whatever reason, and everyone had to do them. Now double them? Fanboy officially took first place for being the dumbest idiot alive.

"No. That's too easy. Let's spice it up a little bit." Phoenix waved it off. Hangman silently urged her to go on. Sweetheart was also curious as to what the woman had up her sleeve. "If we win, we get to dress you up and parade you around like a showgirl."

"What?!" both Sweetheart and Fanboy cried out incredulously.

"No way! I don't want any part of this!" said Fanboy.

"Relax!" yelled Hangman. "We've got nothing to worry about."

"Dude, I'm not risking my reputation like that."

"Don't worry, Fanboy. This punishment only applies to Bagman." said Phoenix. This made Hangman scoff out.

"That's not fair! What's to stop him from sabotaging me? He's gotta take it too."

"You picked him yourself. You saying you can't trust your own WSO?" challenged Rooster with a shit-eating grin.

"Not when he has nothing at stake!"

"You can back out of this bet now if you want, dick-head." pushed the brunette pilot. She crossed her arms over her chest, seemingly confident that they already won without even trying. It was silent for a moment as Hangman pondered it.

"If we lose, we both take the punishment." he reiterated. Fanboy's eyes bugged, unbelieving at what he was hearing. He threw a look at Sweetheart, hoping that she'd speak up and say something to save him

Fanboy was a good friend to Sweetheart. He's never done anything to her to warrant that type of embarrassment. She didn't want to punish him. She tried to tell him as such without actually saying any words. She used her fingers to cross over her heart, letting him know that she held him in good graces and wouldn't punish him. He seemed to understand and nod along.

"Fine. I'm in." he relented.

"Good." Hangman sighed with relief. "But, when we win, we get to dress you up and you have to be our personal showgirls."

This made Sweetheart reel with worry. No way Phoenix would actually agree to that! She wouldn't put Sweetheart in that position! Not after all the harassment Hangman has been directing at her for her entire military career. Not after the actual sexual assault she had to deal with. No, she wouldn't do that.

"Deal." Phoenix spoke.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Sweetheart angrily directed towards the woman. "You did not just agree to that?"

"It'll be okay. Do you trust me?"

"You just sold us out to Hangman!"

"We're not gonna lose. Why am I the only one that believes that?"

"She's right." came Rooster, idling up beside them. "I know you'll win. And maybe this will knock Hangman down a few pegs. It's about time someone shows him up."

"I don't like this." muttered Sweetheart.

"Hangman and Fanboy will run the course first. We'll all be keeping watch and monitoring your flight path. Remember, your ceiling is three hundred feet, and your time limit is three minutes." reminded Maverick.

"Might as well stay out here, because we'll be back before you know it." taunted Hangman. He spit his stupid toothpick to the ground and then ordered Fanboy to the jet. They got in, got all buckled up, and did a quick rundown on the equipment to make sure everything worked. When they gave the okay signal, the runway was cleared in preparation for takeoff.

Maverick ordered everyone else back in the hangar where their jet was pinged on the holographic map. Maverick pulled out a mic, speaking into it to test the two-way communication. When that was all good, Maverick gave full control over to Hangman.

"Once you're in the air and hit one hundred feet, your timer will start." he spoke. "Runway is all clear for takeoff. Comms are all yours."

"Noted. Fanboy, how we looking on the weapons systems?"

"Targeting system up and active." he replied.

"Copy. Let's get this over with. I can't wait for this to all be over with." Sweetheart could hear the smirk painting his lips and it made her roll her eyes. But, secretly, her heart was thumping.

She watched as Hangman navigated the jet towards the end of the runway and then make a smooth takeoff into the air. Immediately, all eyes were watching the monitor. the F-18 reached one hundred feet in a span of seconds, and the timer at the top began counting. The makeshift terrain had spawned around the marker meant to be Hangman and Fanboy.

Hangman and Fanboy kept each other updated every few seconds. Their communication was heard loud and clear in the hangar. Hangman was so confident in himself, claiming they were making great time, that he cracked a few jokes. Sweetheart wanted to laugh at him, but he was in fact making great time. She looked at the timer and saw they've only been in the air for a minute, and they were pretty much halfway through the course.

Sweetheart chewed on her thumb, wanting desperately to cry. She hoped their aircraft would suffer some sort of failure, making them drop from the course and get eliminated. But then she remembered Garcia was in the jet as well, and she didn't want any harm to come to him. She felt bad for thinking like that and reprimanded herself in her head. Even still, the bad thoughts did nothing to quell her fear of losing.

Two minutes. They were in the air for two minutes and Hangman was already claiming that they were approaching the target and for Fanboy to ready the missile strike.

"Targeting system engaged." he spoke, just rambling off the updates. "I've got a lock. Bring us in closer." he instructed his pilot.

"We've got one shot at this. Don't screw it up." he spat back.

"Gee, I was thinking how I could fuck us over. But now that you mention it, I've changed my ways!" he sarcastically replied. If there was room in the aircraft, and time for him to do so, Sweetheart was positive he would've dramatically shrugged his shoulders and slapped his forehead for emphasis.

"Just drop the missile!" Hangman was tired of the jokes.

"Bring us in closer and I will."

"Fucking drop it!"

"The targeting system needs us to be closer if we want to make direct contact!"

"Fine! I'll get closer! But if you miss the window and overshoot, it'll be your own fault!"

"I won't overshoot!"

The marker for the jet rapidly approached the target. Just as they were about to fly overhead of it, Fanboy dropped the missile. A new marker on the monitor appeared as it tracked the missile. It landed just short of the target, but at least it wasn't an overshot. Fanboy was close. He had waited just half a second longer, he might've been dead on.

Once the missile was dropped, Maverick ordered them back to the runway. They had landed just a moment later. Despite missing the target, both men were rather happy with their run. And as Sweetheart and Phoenix passed him while they made their way to their jet, he shouldered Sweetheart and knocked her to the side. She caught herself before she tripped over her feet, but bit her tongue. Now was not the time to focus on him. She needed to focus on the course.

The two of them got in the jet, buckled in, and went over their equipment. Sweetheart was using a loner helmet from Halo. The other WSO had told her to kick Hangman's ass as she handed it off, claiming she's only known the male pilot for a couple of days but already hated his guts.

"Comm test. You copy?" she heard Phoenix's voice in her ear.

"Copy. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear. How's the weapons system functioning?" she asked and Sweetheart took a moment to fiddle with the multitude of buttons surrounding her. It took a second for her to remember what button did what, but she managed and she flicked the system to life.

"Up and functional."

"How are you feeling about this?" the brunette asked, a little less Lieutenant-y and a little more girlfriend-y. Sweetheart took an audible deep breath.

"Nervous."

"Hey, look at me." Phoenix turned to peer behind the seat. "No matter what happens, I still love you, okay? If we lose this bet, and Hangman turns us into his sick fantasy, I won't blame you. But we won't lose, because I'll fly us faster than the speed of light, and you'll hit that target dead on. You and I haven't failed a mission yet, and we're not gonna start now."

"Can I least have a moment to re-familiarize myself with the buttons? It's been two fucking years, Tasha. And I'm a little scared."

"Our timer doesn't start until we hit a hundred feet and Maverick didn't say we had to takeoff immediately. I'm not moving until you tell me to."

"Okay."

Feeling a little better knowing Phoenix was giving her all the time she needed, Sweetheart began pressing buttons she was confident wouldn't just drop the missile on the runway. Okay, what does this button do? And this one? she asked herself as she pressed stuff and watched to see what they did. One button brought up the course. Another button activated the target lock. She knew for a fact that this button was to drop the missile, so she left it alone.

"Alright. Let's get this over with." Sweetheart muttered.

"You ready?" Phoenix asked for confirmation.

"As ready as I can be."

"Alright, ladies. The runway is clear. Comms are all yours." spoke Maverick.

"Copied." said Phoenix.

"Copied." repeated Sweetheart.

"Tell me when the timer starts." was Phoenix's only order. When Sweetheart agreed, Phoenix took off down the runway.

Feeling the rush of gravity as the aircraft actually pulled off the asphalt and skyrocketed into the sun made Sweetheart's stomach drop to her feet. But in a good way. It was a feeling that took her months to recondition her body to forget when she went civilian. She'd go to bed every night, feeling herself sinking against the imaginary force of gravity that ingrained itself into her brain. And now that she was experiencing it again, she wouldn't be able to forget it a second time.

"We've got countdown!" Sweetheart was brought back to the present when the altitude flashed one hundred feet on her screen.

Phoenix straightened out the nose, keeping it level and underneath the hard ceiling. Seeing the course displayed on a holographic monitor was one thing, but actually being thrown against the sides of the aircraft as Phoenix sharply took each turn was another thing. This wasn't anything new; their time with the Black Aces had prepared her for every fast-paced situation one could think of. But it still took her by surprise when they went through the first turn.

"Skies clear. Course on par with time. You've got another turn in four decimal seven seconds." Sweetheart rattled off. It was second nature to just talk, even if the information wasn't all that important. Phoenix liked being talked to. She hated having a quiet wingman.

She took the turn effortlessly, and Sweetheart watched her monitor ahead of their location, making sure the course was still clear of obstruction and that their pathing was matching up with their marker on the course. She made sure Phoenix was aware of the information.

Sweetheart tried not to look at the timer that was flashing in front of her eyes. She looked at it once, and they had already gone past a minute. She panicked for a moment, because it felt like they were only in the air for ten seconds. She told herself not to look at it again, because it would just make her freeze up and ruin everything. And she was already on edge.

"How far until we reach the target?" Phoenix asked. Sweetheart knew she was aware of where the target was in proximity to their location, but she wanted Sweetheart to talk.

"We've just reached the halfway mark on the course."

"I'm gonna drop us lower, give you a better chance at hitting the target."

"Are you crazy?! Three hundred feet is already pushing it! I don't want us to die for this stupid bet!"

"The mission will have us lower anyway. Might as well give it a shot now."

"Tasha, it's not worth it. Just keep your altitude. I can hit the target from this height."

"Well you better get ready because it's coming up any second now."

"Copy that. Maintain speed. Targeting system up and running. Target locked and-" Sweetheart began to say. Her sentence was cut short when her screen flashed a warning that her targeting system was nonfunctional. Sweetheart messed with the buttons, trying to diagnose the issue, but every time, the screen kept saying the auto-lock wasn't working.

"Talk to me, Sweetheart. What's going on?"

"Targeting system is down! I repeat, targeting system is down!"

"What?! You said it was operational!"

"It was! I can't fix it! I'll have to manually target but you gotta slow down and give me time!"

"I can't slow down! If I drop speed we won't make it in time!" claimed Phoenix, forcing the other woman to look back at the flashing timer. She was right; their time was rapidly approaching the three minute mark and they still hadn't reached the actual target yet.

"I can't hit the target unless you slow down!" Sweetheart repeated the problem.

"You can do it! Just drop the missile!"

"I can't! You need to slow down!"

"We won't make it! You can do it! I believe in you!"

Both women began screaming at each other, both of them giving differing opinions. Sweetheart was adamant that she wasn't skilled for such a low-altitude drop at this speed. Her expertise was dropping bombs from high in the sky. There was too much room for error here. Too much math that needed to be precise for it to work out in their favor. But Phoenix kept saying how there wasn't enough time to slow down. She needed to maintain her speed in order to stay under the three minute mark, which was now almost up and caused Sweetheart's hands to get sweaty and her brain to get foggy on the equations.

"Slow down!" Sweetheart said.

"I can't!" Phoenix replied back just as quickly. "DROP IT!!!" she cried.

"ALRIGHT!!!!"

Sweetheart practically slammed her fist into the button, releasing the missile and sending it hurdling towards Earth. Phoenix took the jet higher into the sky, breaching the three hundred feet ceiling to protect them from the blast. Sweetheart turned as far as she could in their cramped aircraft to watch the explosion cloud up the atmosphere with dust and smoke.

"Holy shit!" she found herself yelling out, like it was the first time she was witnessing this despite that being further from the truth.

"Runway clear for landing. Make your way back immediately." Maverick's voice brought her back to the present.

"Over and out. Runway in sight. Attempting a landing." Phoenix replied. She maneuvered the aircraft back to the runway, smoothly resting the landing gear on the asphalt like she was resting a sleeping baby in its crib. Not a hiccup in the landing. Not so much as a scuff on the wheels. But, then again, Sweetheart never doubted her skills.

Once on the ground, and the F-18 turned off, and the canopy open, Phoenix happily jumped out and got to her feet. Sweetheart on the other hand was still strapped in, eyes glazed over as she mentally tried to bring herself back to Earth. Her head was still in the clouds. She was still reminiscing the feeling of being in the sky. It almost felt like a dream, like she was watching herself in third person and the last three minutes wasn't her actually doing it, but rather controlling a video game character.

"Hey, you okay?" Phoenix asked through the comms, approaching the side of the aircraft and holding out a hand as if she could pull the woman out.

"What? Yeah. Yeah I'm good." Sweetheart shook her head to clear it.

"Come on. Let's get your feet back on the ground."

Phoenix helped Sweetheart out, keeping hands on her waist to hold her steady as she swayed. When she was confident her partner wasn't going to collapse, she helped remove the helmet and smoothed down the hair that pulled out of its neat bun.

"You did it." she whispered, a loving smile breaking out on her face. "You fucking did it."

"I did?"

"Yeah! I told you you would!"

"Haha! You two are fucking insane!" Rooster ran up to the two women, enveloping them in his arms and laughing out his happiness as she shook them. "Holy shit you dropped it without a lock! And hit it! I knew you were good but god damn!"

"I actually hit it?!" Sweetheart's eyes went wide with disbelief.

"Hell yeah you did!"

"Come on, guys. Let's go over the results." ordered Maverick with a wave of his hand.

"Help me walk. My legs feel like jelly." said Sweetheart, making both of her friends laugh.

Phoenix had one arm around her waist, Rooster had one arm linked with hers. The both of them guided her back inside the hangar where she was assaulted with more hugs from everyone else. Including Fanboy. Not really knowing what to do, she handed the helmet back to Halo, muttering a thanks. This made Halo laugh a hearty laugh like it was the funniest joke she's ever heard of in her entire life.

"Alright, everyone. Come on. We'll celebrate later. First let's go over the replays and see who won." repeated the Captain.

Everyone took their seats again, acting like kids in class who were excited for the teachers to bring in pizza for a pizza party. Everyone was leaning forward on their elbows, eagerly awaiting Maverick to say something again. But Sweetheart hid her shaking hands in her lap, trying to hide the fact that she was still pumping with adrenaline. But Tasha noticed. She always does. And she took a hand in hers, intertwining their fingers and giving her palm a squeeze. Sweetheart smiled at her gratefully.

"Alright. Let's make it quick and simple." started Maverick, pulling up replays of both their pathings. "You both stayed below the three hundred foot ceiling. You both made it to the target. Hangman and Fanboy: your time to target was two decimal seventeen decimal forty-seven." he said, making both men cheer with delight. "Phoenix and Sweetheart: time to target was two decimal fifty-three decimal twenty-one."

Hearing the recorded times made the air in Sweetheart's lungs disappear. They barely made it. Had Phoenix sneezed they would've been late........ they lost. Hangman was faster than them. But of fucking course he was. He's known for being one of the fastest pilots in the Navy. That skill is what gave him that air-to-air kill. He was just faster.

Sweetheart and Phoenix turned to each other, their faces solemn and disappointed. They knew that this bet was a mistake, and now they were paying the price for it. Sweetheart shuddered at the image of what Hangman could possibly dress them up in.

"Phoenix and Sweetheart won." said Maverick, and everyone's heads snapped up to look at him with bugged eyes.

"What?!" Hangman jumped to his feet, making the desk screech across the flooring. "We were almost a minute faster! What do you mean they fucking won?!"

"Your only two agreed upon stipulations was one: stay below three hundred feet altitude, and two: reach the target in no more than three minutes. You both met both of those parameters, but it was Sweetheart's dead-on missile drop that pushed them ahead of you. Fanboy was off almost a hundred feet. Had this been the mission, you would've alerted the enemy at the airstrike, giving them time to fight back. And then it's a dogfight."

"And she did it without a targeting system!" reminded Rooster with a shit-eating grin.

"I knew she would do it. I never doubted her for a second." Phoenix prided herself, giving Sweetheart a one-armed hug and holding her into her side.

"You're fucking kidding me!"

"Sit down, pretty boy. You'll need your energy for the show you're gonna be putting on for everyone tonight." taunted the brunette pilot. Hangman wanted to sneer at her. He wanted to curse her out, fist fight her right here right now. But everyone was witness to the bet. Everyone heard them agree on the conditions. He couldn't get out of it.

"Screw this!" he yelled, storming out of the hangar and head hung low in shame.

Rooster coughed out a 'loser' behind his back. Whether or not Hangman heard it was irrelevant as everyone else heard it and they all laughed. Maybe seeing Maverick crack a smile and try to hide it was what Sweetheart needed to see. Once Hangman was gone from sight, that was when the celebration started. Everyone once again jumped to their feet to circle around the women.

"About time Hangman got a taste of his own medicine." Bob happily rocked on the balls of his feet.

"He was seriously starting to piss me off." commented Halo again. "Bet he'll keep his ego in check from now on."

"Not yet. First we have to get him all nice and pretty." reminded Phoenix, elbowing Sweetheart with a knowing smirk. She grinned back.

"Oh yeah, don't remind me...." Fanboy grimaced and shuddered. "Please be nice to me. I'm a good friend to you guys." he dramatically begged.

"Relax, Garcia. The punishment still stands for just Jake. You're clear." Sweetheart consoled, a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh thank god!" he huffed out.

"Don't let him hear that. He'll throw another tantrum." chuckled Rooster. "Actually, now that I think about it, get it tattooed on his forehead. That way he's always reminded of it."

"Now that's an idea!" agreed Phoenix.

"Nope. That was not the agreed upon punishment." spoke Maverick, acting like a parent scolding their child.

"You're no fun." said Phoenix.

"I let you guys do this, didn't I?"

Sweetheart and Phoenix shared a look that said he wasn't wrong. They shrugged and rolled their eyes. They'll punish Hangman one way or another. All they have to do is brainstorm how badly they want him to hurt. Phoenix was thinking an old-school Rockette or maybe a Pinup Girl. Sweetheart had the idea of finding the ugliest, trashiest Halloween costume and putting it on him.

"Everyone take a quick break. Let Lieutenant Seresin calm down. We'll pick up training later."

With everyone in agreement, they all split off to go do whatever they wanted for the next few minutes. Sweetheart took the free time to head back out onto the runway and inspect the F-18. She wanted to know why the targeting system failed on her. But, also, she couldn't help but feel drawn to the aircraft. All she ever wanted to do was fly. She remembered seeing the military recruiters come to her high school on career day. She was only fourteen years old at the time, and before that she had never given the military a single thought. But for some reason, she wanted to talk to them, get more information.

Of course the recruiters glorified what they actually did, making it seem like you're not actually risking your life for it. But she wasn't stupid. She knew the Army was tough. The Marines as well. Hell, she couldn't even do a pull up when they told her to get on the bar. It was embarrassing as all hell. And even though they didn't laugh and instead just told her to work on it and she could do anything, she couldn't help but walk away from them in shame. When she walked by the Navy booth, they stopped her to talk to her.

Her ignorance of what the Navy actually did made her try to weasel her way out of it. 'Sorry, I don't like water' she said. They told her they do more than station on boats. They fly aircrafts. They fight in the skies. She thought that was what the Air Force did. The Air Force does fly planes, they said, but unlike the Air Force, when they're in the skies they're fighting. Whereas the Air Force will do a lot of basic cargo transportation.

Transporting cargo didn't seem like fun. Dropping bombs from a plane did. She talked with the Navy recruiters some more. They had already seen her fail at the pullups, but they asked her to do some other physical tests like pushups and stretches. She didn't completely make a fool out of herself, so they handed her some pamphlets that detailed salaries and benefits and outlined the tasks they did, and she carried on with her day.

Something inside her clicked. 'This is what I want to do' she said and she began to work on herself so she could get there. Her high school didn't have a Naval ROTC, just an Army one, so she just took a lot of physical education classes to bulk up and get her strength. She studied hardcore for the ACT and SAT so she could pass with flying colors and get accepted into an NROTC college. Once she got there, she applied for a Navy scholarship and focused her concentration on an aviation career.

Graduating with a job as a pilot was the happiest day of her life. And now here she was: a TOPGUN graduate with over ten years of experience under her belt. She was the best of the best. She was a decorated pilot with highly ambitious recognition. She loved it. Being gone for the last two years was heartbreaking. She missed the skies. But her fear of what happened to her overruled her love for aviation. It wasn't fair. And she was no longer going to let it overrule her life.

"You're thinking hard about something." she heard Phoenix approach her.

"I'm thinking about how I got here. It feels like just yesterday I was training to join the Navy. And then I blinked and now I'm a TOPGUN graduate." she replied.

"Time just races when you've got a good wingman by your side." Phoenix nudged her.

"True, but I've also been thinking about the last two years I was gone. When my situation finally dawned on me and I made the decision to leave the Navy, I was angry with myself. I was angry that I let my fear ruin my life and my career. I worked so hard to get where I was and I just gave it up."

"You didn't just give it up." consoled Phoenix. "You had every reason to leave. You were taken advantage of. Our XO had a rope around you. You did what you had to do."

"I keep asking myself if I could've done something differently." she spoke, finally turning to face the other woman. Phoenix stayed calm, but her eyes showed her pity. Sweetheart hated it.

"What's done is done. There's no changing what happened. You can only go forward, and I'll be here to help you. I miss you, a lot. I miss having you as my wingman, I miss being up in the air with you behind me, I miss being able to hold your hand whenever I want." on queue, she took Sweetheart's hand. "You and I were meant to be a team. We work so well together. I want you to come back. Maybe it's too late for this mission, but it's not too late to re-enlist."

"I don't even know where to begin with that. I begged to be let go. When we graduated TOPGUN, it was expected that I would go back to work and apply for a promotion. I had stipulations attached to me. I had to jump through hoops to drop them and go home." she explained, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. But she wouldn't let them. No more crying. She's done enough crying.

"We'll figure it out. Maybe Maverick can put in a good word for you."

"Maybe Maverick will." speak of the devil. Both women turned to see him approaching them. "I looked into your service record. You've got quite the list of accomplishments."

"Thank you, Sir. But I can't take all the credit; Lieutenant Trace and I have been a team for so long, that our service records are almost identical." she motioned to the woman in question, happy to share the glory.

"Can I ask again why you decided to retire so early?"

"Personal reasons, Sir." she repeated. "I was being coerced by a higher up. He took advantage of me and I couldn't handle it anymore."

"I see....." he trailed off. "You impressed me today. If I could get you a way back in, would you accept it?"

"I would need to go back to training...."

"That can be arranged."

"And, if it's not pushing my luck, I would like to be Phoenix's WSO again."

"I'm sure The Black Aces would accept you back without issue. But that would be up to them. I can only promise a good word."

"Come on, take it!" Phoenix urged her quietly. "We'll figure everything else out later!"

Sweetheart and Phoenix stared at each other for a moment, having a silent conversation. Well, it wasn't much of a conversation -more so Phoenix telling her what to do.

"What would I have to do, Sir?"

"Do you have a uniform?"

"Not with me. All my stuff is back home. I didn't plan on re-enlisting when I came here."

"Go home, get your stuff, and get back here ASAP. We'll get you started on some of the basics and work our way from there."

"Yes, SIr!" she gaped. "Thank you!"

Maverick smiled at her and walked away, leaving the women there with their jaws halfway to the floor. And then they jumped and squealed like school girls.

"I told you!" claimed Phoenix, throwing her arms around sweetheart.

"I can't believe this is actually happening." muttered Sweetheart. "I gotta get home. I gotta get my stuff!"

"Not yet, first we have to punish Hangman." she reminded. "We'll let that be your send off."

"I have to thank you for pushing me to do this. If it wasn't for this stupid bet, I wouldn't be standing here with the opportunity to get back in. And we wouldn't be punishing Hangman."

"Well, truthfully, I did it for me." she admitted. "I can't stand the new WSO I was given in The Black Aces. He annoys the shit outta me. And Bob is nice, but he's not you. His spot should've been for you. It was for you. He was probably called in last minute when you declined."

"I'm sorry I left you hanging. And forced you to adapt to a new wingman."

"It's alright. It's all fixed now. Because Maverick is gonna help you get back out there. And I'm gonna be your advocate however I can." she promised.

Phoenix loosely wrapped her arms around Sweetheart's neck, locking her in and holding her close. Sweetheart instinctively held onto her waist in kind. They looked at each other, slowly pacing themselves as they tested the waters. But they both desperately wanted to jump each other right here right now. The two years apart did nothing to quench their desire for each other. Despite the anger that Phoenix held over those two years, not knowing the truth, she still thought about Sweetheart. It was hard to forget her.

As if they could read each other's mind, they leaned in slowly until their lips finally connected. They fit together like puzzle pieces. They molded against each other like no time had passed since their last kiss. Phoenix stuck her tongue out, parting Sweetheart's lips and allowing her entrance. Their tongues danced around each other in the familiar way they always did. It was sweet. It was soft and slow. Despite the deep longing they had for each other, they were conscious enough to remember their environment and not do something they'll end up regretting.

The kiss felt like it lasted a lifetime. By the time they pulled away, it felt like they had stopped breathing ages ago. They both huffed, trying to get the air back in their lungs.

"God I've missed you." Sweetheart found herself saying. It wasn't meant to be funny, but Phoenix laughed anyway.

"You do realize that I'm never letting you slip through my fingers again, right?"

"I wouldn't put it past you to handcuff me."

"Only if you ask nicely." she winked. This time, Sweetheart laughed out.

"Is that a promise? You already let me down by not bringing rope to the beach."

"I couldn't fit it in my bag." she joked. Maybe.

"Get a bigger bag."

"Or I could just tie you up right now."

"Hmmm. As much as I would love that, you've got more training. And I don't think it's a good idea to miss that after the Captain was so gracious to help us out." she hummed, making Phoenix groan.

"I hate that you're right."

"We'll have time later. You go on. I've got a plane to book." Sweetheart pecked her lips once more, then pushed her back into the hangar. Sweetheart pulled out her cell phone and checked for the earliest flight out of California.

Sweetheart was ready for her send off. After training for the day was complete, Phoenix and Sweetheart ordered everyone to The Hard Deck for Hangman's punishment. Maverick left with a threat that he better honor the bet, and Hangman reluctantly agreed to it.

Phoenix and Sweetheart had grabbed all of the supplies they needed to make him the prettiest girl they ever did see. They did his makeup, put a wig on him, and forced his fat ass into a pair of booty shorts. The entire time, the women were laughing. Hangman was trying to fight against it, but they forced him regardless. With their masterpiece complete, they drug him to The Hard Deck. Phoenix waited outside with him while Sweetheart entered the busy establishment and gathered everyone's attention. She stood on a table and whistled out so everyone could turn their gaze to her. The gaggle of pilots in one corner of the bar were eager to see what was to come next. The other patrons in the bar, and Penny, were just confused.

"Allow me to present tonight's entertainment, courtesy of the United States Navy, Lieutenant Jasmine Seresin!" she announced, and Phoenix yanked on Hangman's arm to bring him in full view of everyone.

Everyone, and she means everyone had cheered him on. They caught onto the joke fairly quickly, people already pulling out dollar bills and handing it to him as he was pulled center 'stage' and forced onto a table. Rooster messed with the jukebox to put on a raunchy song for Hangman to shake his ass to. And shake it he did. Despite the rage evident on his face, he put his all into his impromptu table dance.

People gathered around him, trying to shove dollar bills into his way-too-small jean booty shorts. What couldn't fit, was just left on the table. Sweetheart could see from the corner of her eye Penny resting her face in her hands on the bar top. Did anyone even tell her what was happening? Or was she just as surprised as the patrons when Jake Seresin entered her bar looking like this?

The older woman was too embarrassed to raise her head, but Sweetheart didn't pay her much attention, instead focusing on the lovely dancer she and Phoenix put together. Fanboy came to hand them some beers.

"Thanks for sparing me from this!" he thanked, giving them a one-armed hug.

"Remember this, though. Don't piss us off or else you'll be the next one on the table." threatened Sweetheart.

"I give a Scout's Honor I will never double cross you." he held up his hand in said honor and crossed his heart.

At the end of the song, Hangman was ready to jump down and end his punishment, but the other aviators weren't ready to let him go so soon. Rooster played another song on the jukebox, and the gaggle of pilots circled around him, whooping and hollering for him to dance some more.

This was the send off Sweetheart needed: a good laugh, some beers, and a girlfriend by her side. She didn't expect any of this to happen when she risked it all to face the woman she abandoned two years ago. She was fully prepared to be yelled at, maybe slapped a few times, and told to never show her face ever again. But she got the opposite. Everything worked out in her favor. And maybe it was just dumb luck, or maybe it was the universe trying to tell her something, but she wasn't going to let this go to waste. She was going to take full advantage of it. Like Tasha said, when they're together, they can face the world.

#top gun #top gun: maverick #lieutenant natasha trace #original female character #phoenix #ofc #natasha “phoenix” trace #fanfiction #oneshot #imagine #drabble

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marvinswriting · 2 years

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ménage, chapter five

previous chapter, masterpost this reads like a filler but when you look back youll see it sets up for so so so much riley pov

Riley couldn't remember a time when Sunday mornings were calm. All mornings in the home were hectic and loud. Nobody could really sleep in unless they were Megan, who trained herself to. But Sundays were the day when Rebeckah went to town to run errands. Sometimes one of the younger kids tagged along with her but they typically found it boring, and the older kids stayed home to keep the house from falling apart.

Riley didn’t mind. She liked watching over Kenny and Lenna. But recently Sundays had become tense. Because Sunday was when Evan and Matteo couldn’t avoid each other. They couldn't dance around each other like they did the rest of the week. They had to interact and talk to watch over the young ones and help dish out chores. And if they refused? Then the work fell on Riley’s shoulders. Judging by the sound she woke up to, it might be one of the latter days. “He’s insufferable!” Evan stormed into their room as Riley finished making her bed. “He won’t even listen to me! My name's Matteo and I’m right, screw everyone else's opinions!” “Rough morning?” “Loud enough to wake Meggie.” Riley hummed. “I doubt it.” She didn’t sleep well the night before. Her mind never quite shut off after Megan amped her up. Every creak felt too loud, and Evan snored a bit. But the boy didn’t seem put off by her lack of emotions in the response, he just kept on talking. “He’s all, this is my life not yours! So screw you and how you feel!” “He’s not entirely wrong, you know.” Riley yawned. “I mean, the second part no- but it is Matteo’s future. Ultimately what he wants is what he will do.” Matteo wanted to move out and far away, distancing himself from his life in their town. Even from a young age, he hated being orphaned. He hated the lack of a biological family. He wanted nothing more than to leave. The small home, small town, small circle lifestyle made him restless. But Evan saw the people living in the home as more than housemates. Biology meant nothing to him. Family is family. And Matteo was his older brother. That’s not to say Matteo didn’t see Evan as a younger brother. Riley was sure he did. Matteo just didn’t verbally declare it like Evan did. “Besides,” She continued, “No matter what Matteo does, he’ll still keep in contact. We won’t lose him just because he wants to see the world.” “You don’t get it.” “Sure I do.” “Then why are you siding with him?” “Ev, I’m not. I just see both sides. I think Matteo could handle distributing the news a lot better, but it’s not our decision to make for him.” “Are you even sad about it?” “Yeah, of course I am,” “Yeah because you look really torn up.” “Evan, it is eight am and I did not sleep well. Pardon me for not being a weeping mess over something we knew would happen.” “I came for you for comfort, you know.” Evan crossed his arms, “I am always there for you and the one time I need you to side with me you just shoot me down and make me feel dramatic.” “I wasn’t trying to- I just,” Riley sighed. “He’s not dying y’know.” “You don’t get it. You and him and the oldests. You get to leave and not look back.” “I’m only four weeks older than you-” “And half the home looks up to you! You can’t just leave once you're bored and leave us all here!” “Evan, I’m not the one leaving!” Great, now Riley was part of the yelling. “Of course you’re not. I know that. I just-” Evan bit his lip. “Whatever, Rye. Thanks for trying to make me feel better.” He didn’t sound thankful. Megan was, shockingly, still asleep as Riley walked past her room. Most of the home got up around seven on Sundays, but it wasn’t an official rule set by Rebeckah, just the time most of the home naturally got up. So Riley slept in until eight or nine, and Megan would sleep well into the afternoon if nobody woke her up. The only night owl in a home of early birds. Matteo was already in the kitchen by the time Riley walked past. He nodded to her briefly before continuing to prep breakfast. Lenna and Kenny were keeping eachtoher nicely entertained in the livingroom, so she sat on the sofa to keep an eye over them. There was thirty seconds of peace as Riley got comfy before Lenna noticed her arrival. “Riley! Guess what? Guess what?!” “What?” “No, guess!” Lenna clambered over the back of the sofa, leaning half on top of Riley with excited eyes. “Uhhh, I don’t know!” “I saw the tiny people!” It took Riley’s tired brain a moment to realize what she was talking about before smiling.“A borrower?” “Mhm! A girl! Not a boy like the stories.” “Was she friendly?” Lenna deflated. “I dunno she ran away.” “Aw” Riley ruffled her hair, “Maybe next time.” “You don’t believe me.” Lenna frowned. “Of course I believe you!” “Why aren’t you more excited?” “I am very excited, Lenna. I’m just tired, too.” “Oh.” The nine year old seemed momentarily stumped perking up. “Then you need coffee. Let’s go!” Lenna grabbed Riley’s arm before leaning all her weight backwards to pull the girl off the sofa and drag her into the kitchen. “Good morning.” Matteo says, still at the stovetop. “Morning.” Riley smiled as Lenna rushed around the kitchen, shoving an empty mug and spoon into her hands. .”Get coffee!” “Alright, alright!” Riley laughed, stepping over to the coffee maker. “Lenna, while I do this will you wake up Meg for me?” “Okay!” Riley could hear her bounding up the stairs as she stirred her cup. “She really looks up to you, y’know.” Matteo says, leaning against the counter. “Meg too.” “We’re the three girls of the house. We gotta stick together.” “You say that like you’re outnumbered or something.” Matteo rolled his eyes. “But that’s not what I mean. They don’t listen to Evan or I like they do to you. I’ve been trying to get Lenna to wake up Meg for the past hour. She refused until you waltz in.” Riley grinned. “Maybe I’m simply better.” It was almost deja vu, to be told the younger kids looked up to her twice in the same hour. It wasn't new news, Riley could tell she was admired. For Lenna and Kenny the bar wasn’t exactly high. But nobody ever really said it to her face before. And now she was going on twice before noon. It was almost hyporticical too, at least to hear it from Matteo. He was not one to talk. “You really should try talking to Evan in a calm manner.” She was brought up. “Not by fighting. Just- explain to him why you want to leave. He thinks you hate him.” “He knows that’s not true.” Matteo rolled his eyes, shutting off the stove top. “No, he genuinely is blaming himself.” “Well he shouldn’t.” “I’m not telling you how to feel, don’t get defensive. I’m just-” “Literally telling me how to feel.” “No?” “Yes, you are. I’m Riley and I know what is best for everyone so I’m gonna interfere in topics that have nothing to do with me. You think I don’t know how Evan feels? He’s screamed at me like a dozen times in the past four days. Stay out of it.” It appears this is a sensitive topic. Great, not both older kids were mad at her. Breakfast was- Tense. Lanna and Kenny were too young to tell what was going on, but even they could tell something was wrong. The only conversation longer than a couple sentences at the table was Lanna telling Megan about the tiny person she saw. Megan finally got her taste of revenge by shutting Lanna down with the same thing Matteo told her. The difference was Lanna was nine and started to cry. “Megan!” Riley hissed as Lanna ran away from the table. “I’ll get her,” Evan sighed. “What!” Megan was exasperated. “You don’t have to be right every time, Megan. If Lanna wants to believe in borrowers, why's that so bad?” Matteo said. Megan blinked, her mouth slightly open like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. “Matteo, you are so hypocritical!” Riley didn’t disagree. Today was a mess.

Breakfast didn’t last long after that. Megan stormed off to her room, Kenny grew bored of scrambled eggs, and Matteo just cleaned up in a huff. The day was already hell, so Riley began to clean the living room in an attempt to cross off some chores from Rebeckah’s list. She could already see Rebekah’s reaction to ‘sorry, we did nothing today besides learn to hate each other’. A stressed, sad, smile. Rebeckah did so much for all of them. The least Riley could do was clean the house if peace maker wasn’t going well. “Hey.” Megan stepped into the room as Riley began cleaning up Lanna and Kenny’s toys. “Feel any better?” Megan ignored the question. “Let’s hang out.” “Not today, Meg. I’m sorry, I’ve got chores.” “I can help.” “It’s really a one person job. Why don’t you hang with somebody else? We can go to the shops in town tomorrow together. I’ll pay to make up for it.” “I can’t hang with somebody else.” Megan crosses her arms. “Evan and Matteo look ready to cry or go into another screaming match and Kenny and Lenna are babies.” “Careful- don’t let Lenna catch you saying that, she’ll take it personally.” “I dont care.” Megan crossed her arms. “I’m stuck in the middle. Too young for the older kids and too old for the younger kids. I don’t want to play princess but I don’t want to talk about college.” “I’m sorry.” Riley mumbled, not looking up from where she was tidying up. “Yeah, I can tell you feel horrible about it.” She sighed, turning to the younger girl. “Megan, I do feel bad, honestly. You’ve just- picked a bad time. Today has been a lot so far and it’s not even noon yet.” “Right. Of course. Sorry to be a bother.” “I didn’t say that.” “It was implied.” Megan sunk into the sofa, crossing her arms over her chest without giving Riley a chance to defend herself to correct her poor choice of phrasing. Riley stood with a frown. Everyone was fighting today. “Meg-” The other girl turned away. Kenny was crying a couple rooms over. Evan was yelling at Matteo to help him. Matteo was MIA. There was no telling if Evan was still with Lanna or if she was unsupervised. Rebeckah wouldn't be home for another couple hours and at this rate they were not lasting that long. Megan was sniffling and Riley just stood there. Everything that could go wrong in a day went wrong. She didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t quite sure where it all went wrong either. Everyone seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed except for Lanna, who was instantly shot down everytime she brought up the borrower she saw.

That’s it.

Riley was lucky that Rebeckah’s office was opened. She made her way to the back of the room, running her fingers along the familiar book spines until she found the one she was looking for. Megan was still at the opposite end of the sofa, curled into herself, when Riley sat down in the center of the sofa. The younger girl noticed Rebeckah’s storybook quickly, but she didn’t mention it, only stealing glances at Riley through the corner of her eye. Riley flicked open to a random story, staring at the page. She didn’t even begin to read, just counting in her head. One… Two… Three… “-Wait.” Megan crawled closer to her. “Can you-” She hesitated. “Can you read it out loud?” “Why of course.” Riley smiled. “It was another midnight adventure when the young girl learned about Audwin’s past.” Megan rested her chin on Riley’s shoulder to read it too, a soft smile on her face. “The young girl didn’t know much of Audwin’s family, but she assumed he at the very least had one. But when he said he didn’t, he asked her not to be sad for him. That it was just how things were for him. The young girl said that was how things were for her too. For she was an orphan.” “Wait!!” Lanna bolted into the room, Evan close behind. “Are we missing a storytime!” Riley shushed her. “No more yelling at each other if you’re gonna listen. Inside voices okay?” “Start from the beginning!” Lanna did not use her inside voice. Evan sat down next to Riley, hooking his arm over the back of the sofa to also touch Megan. His was contrite, and Riley could tell in the way he smiled softly, but it was a conversation for later. It was a start. “Okay, okay, are we ready now? Riley asked as Lanna sprawled over her and Evan to see the pages too. “No!” Kenny’s voice came from the stairs. “We heard Lanna say storytime and came as fast as we could.” Matteo explained as he leaned on the back of the sofa and Kenny sat next to Megan. Unlike the other two older kids, he didn’t seem too remorseful for earlier- but he was no longer yelling at everyone to Riley would take it. “Now are we ready?” She asked for the final time. “Yes! Go already!” Lanna said. “It was another midnight adventure when the young girl learned about Audwin’s past.”

wc:2296 taglist!: @smallsoysauce @musicallygt

#g/t #g/t writing #giant tiny #giant/tiny #marvinswriting: ménage #g/t writer #gt #borrowers #tiny #giant #gt writing

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inpursuitofmeaning · 2 months

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March 16, 2024

This morning, I went cycling by myself. 6 30 am, free from preying eyes, I still obeyed traffic laws. I truly am a saint. Oh - by the way - I did it! I biked across the border into Gatineau Park - just like I promised myself! It has been 2 years of avoiding that route (and granted, the new bridge opening that connects to the bike paths made it easier than it would have been in the past) - but I am still so proud. First ride out ~check-mark noise~, and did a route that scared me ~check-mark noise~. It was scary, and I was nervous, but as soon as I got to the bridge, I saw the sunset rising above Parliament, saw the reflection of pink and orange on the water, and, truth be told, was very grateful to be alive. At that moment, I felt like I could accomplish anything, including handling the problems that made my yesterday shit and dissuaded me from writing my daily log.

I look a bid disheveled in this picture for obvious reasons.

To be honest, I didn't really feel like writing about how I messed up hydrating my primers in the lab, or how I dropped some on the floor (shhh, it's a secret), or how I got really overwhelmed when learning qPCR, or how my specimens didn't even have latent viruses after all. That sounds like a good thing - and it is, I suppose - however, now I might need to pivot my entire PhD. I also did some critical thinking (for once, shocker) and realized I might not be going in the right direction with my project. I might need to object to a direction that my supervisors are pushing me, and overall am feeling really defeated. I also am unsure where to even begin studying for my committee meeting. But before we get all down about that - let's be in the moment just a little longer. I did the scary bike, and in that moment of bliss, I was at peace.

To be honest, the shit day was what gave me the courage to actually go for the ride. Instead of staying up late working, like I often do, I was so sad that I couldn't bring myself to work. Instead, I set an early alarm and distracted myself with the idea of a romantic early morning bike ride. It worked, and I feel a little calmer.

After the bike ride, Hunter, my wonderful partner, took me on such a lovely cafe date. I got a tea, and he got a hot chocolate. Everything was warm, and everything was right. And in that moment, I was very happy to be alive.

Émile, my French lab mate, and Sophie, blond Godess of the cattle, also gave me some great advice about my project.

"I also messed up making my primers today so I'm lying on the floor in my living room staring into the void" I texted them. "No void staring! The primers got what was coming to them" Sophie responded. I sent a close up of me starting at the camera "POV: Youre the void" I responded. "Qpcr sucks anyways" Émile chimed. "Agreed, made up black magic" I responded. "I'm going to go back to my farming simulator game and farm some REAL crops", I continued. [insert filler discussion between Emile, Sophie and I about the new species maybe not having viruses". "Also if this species done have latent viruses my entire PhD is à la poubelle", I complained. "You will pivot if that is the case! No worry! Forget all that before your exam", Émile assured. "Émile, you are an oracle of wisdom". I worshiped.

Then we started talking about crows, and I felt much better.

#the life and times of emily #nothing new

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mnovenia · 9 months

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DAY 3 in Korea - 29 July 2023

Today I woke up early as Yoora needs to go to church for translating. I woke up and SooYi was next to me: Imooooo~~ and they were being goofy since early in the morning. I can't believe how Yoora managed to wake up cheerfully with only 4 hours of sleep. I then woke up slowly, the kids are heading to church first for performance with TaeKyun Oppa. I was left with Eonnie to listen to WRC message slowly though youtube.

Then we were heading to have lunch at the place where Yoora was also heading. It was so nice, we ate a lot, Eonnie took pictures of me, bought us a lot of pasta, sandwich, soup, everything. Eonnie did a lot for us really. She really cares about me, wants me to have the best time in Korea, and despite of that I found out that she was struggling herself in her business. She didn't even know how to pay her employee's salary for that month :''''''''' That's why on the following Sunday, Eonnie plan to do live shopping to sell furniture, hoping that she can make ends meet. After Eonnie shared that, my heart breaks so much, I couldn't think of anything else than helping out Eonnie. She shed tears as well as the shared and what she gained from the WRC message in the morning. She said even God allows her to hit the rock bottom, she is ok and perhaps she can just close everything and move to Indonesia, etc. But i'm glad God works in everybody's life, and I believe, family like EunJung Eonnie and TaeKyun Oppa will be used deeply by God and will be blessed through every journey. I can only pray God's blessing upon them, I wish they know how much I've blessed by them and I couldn't think of anything else apart from God's continual protection over Oppa, Eonnie, Yui, SeoYi, SooYi. I love you so much.

Then Yoora went home, I join Eonnie to see the kids' performance. I was a bit tired and down but I met a familiar face that energized me: YENEUNG!!!! She was ike: Marshella!! hehe i'm so happy at least there's someone I know. Then I saw the kids, moms, how teachers volunteered so hard for these many kids, and I got to know Sharon (Jei Kwonsanim). Seoyi always gave me extra energy with her acts. She fed me ice cream, she was so happy with a baloon and play around and made me smile.

After many conversation, we headed to swimming pool that I thought for fun. Turned out we went to KBS's professional pool and booked for 2,5 hours!! I was not impressed in the beginning since I couldnt remember when my last time swimming. The place reminded be me of 2521 drama HAHAAH. Then of course I the pisces enjoyed swimming like a fish. There Eonnie Oppa found my new talent and hobby. I think it's a perfect way to escape and be on my own for a bit. It was tiring though.. At that day I was also taking care of Hayoung that is so cute, I sacrificed my (eonnies gogles) but then the sensitive Eonnie realized and directly bought me new ones and Taekyun oppa catch the gogles for me, thank you so much I will never forget even the most detail attention like this.

I love the warm pool as well, i'm just afraid my nose filler will melt HAHAH. Then not long after Oppa's sister came with her husband and Eunchan, so cuteee. They all were so good at sport. My impression were like: these koreans are so kiasu that they didn't want to waste any time and yeolshimi swim from here and there. I was back and forth to toilet, drink from innovative paper cup, and amaze how everybody is literally naked without anything OMG I still cannot tolerate it.

Afterwards we're cleaning up, Yuseosoo were so grown up that they took care of everything on their own. I helped Hayong, dried our hair, put on lotion, uncomfortably shower naked that everybody realize that i'm not korean hahaha..

We then heading to Korean BBQ place, we're so hungry and the place was so impressive, nice, all you can eat and Taekyun oppa paid for everyone. I mean there were 12 people perhaps. I'm so thankful and FULL, it was the best korbek and oppa gave tips to eat a lot of yangpa when we're begah. But tbh i really love their kimchi and meat and gimary and tteok everything. Thank you so much Oppa.. So funny that afterwards Eunchan throw a lot of question if I came to Korea with airplane and stuff. There I found out that Eunchan's family don't go to church, but Eonnie said it's time because Eunchan's fathers mom was passed away so sudden and he was still so sad about it. I will be praying for God to speak clearly to two of you Eonnie Oppa and you finally realized how precious our Father's love, and its for everyone.

We're home and Eunchan wants to sleep over and made drama, but I think after play for a bit, I went to sleep early. But not only that, I was confused what to wear because we're going to meet Pastor Chung, so Eonnie helped to pick up my outfit, gave me more options, clean noda on my shirt, even steam at late night and after tiring day, she's truly act as the best older sister that I always dream to have, even more than what I can think of. I don't think any of my family ever treated me this special apart from my late beloved mom :''''''')))) At that night, Oppa was also checking.

Aduh Tuhan aku paling gak bisa diperhatiin gini, aku sayang banget, terharu banget sama Eonnie Oppa, I wish I could repay what they have been doing to me.. I promise myself one day I'd love to have opportunity to return their kindness.. In the meantime, please bless and protect them always.. Saranghaeyo Eunjung Eonnie, Taekyun Oppa too :'')

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mali121216 · 2 years

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Tuesday 15th November @ 0103h

It's been months since I wrote to you. An hour ago I watched the final minute of my 26th birthday slip away. I worked a 10 hour shift, and even though my manager was sweet enough to get me a balloon bouqet, nothing about the majority of the day felt like my birthday. I miss the childish excitement of waking up that morning, or the way any activity felt like a special adventure, or how I was so eager to advance in age. The only thing that remains is the small joy I feel in not feeling like a burden when my friends openly offer their affection, its the one day I feel content with allowing them to show me attention, but now that we're all adults with busy lives and more important responsibilities, that one luxury isn't really available either because people are too distracted to talk to me or see me.

Tonight the family tried their best to make a big fuss. Luke picked me up from work and let me drive for a section of backroad Fullerton Cove, Mum made my favorite dinner and got out the fine china at Nan and Pop's. We all ate dinner and had drinks together. Luke got me roses and chocolates, Mum got me a candle, massage voucher, and golden snitch cookie jar, and Nan got me champagne and a cheque. It was really beautiful. Being with the 4 people I love most in this world was perfect, but I still felt empty and incomplete.

I hid silent tears multiple times as the crushing weight of your absence weighed on my soul. This is my first birthday without you since I was 19. The whole day I was waiting to hear from you, secretly wishing you'd call me to wish me happy birthday properly. But instead I got a text at 9pm, friendly and endearing enough, but oh god it felt wrong.

I haven't noticed your absence in my life like this since the early days of the break up. But its been 11 months separated now and for the most part I can fool myself into thinking these filler days of work or basic socialising are just our days of doing our own thing before we inevitably come back together, because we're always drawn together. But it wasn't until today being a special day, a day where you let your love shine for me brighter and more radiantly than usual, that I really felt the sinking feeling of despair that we're never going to find each other again.

Driving home I saw a shooting star and without hesitation the thing I wished for was to be with you. There was no time for even a split second of contemplation. I want us to consume one another again.

I know since August I've had the distract of Josh. The blossoming hope that maybe I could be in love again. He showed me I was capable of falling, given the time to develop the connection, I could have found that belonging sensation again in another person. But in the past few weeks that he's been out of the picture and my mind has been clear, I think I've realized that I don't want it to be anyone else. I fell for you and discovered what it meant to find a home in a person instead of a place, wherever you were is where I was meant to be, I uprooted my life for you and I worked every day for 5 years to nurture our relationship. Such a big part of me holds on to this fantasy that I'll get into med school at Deakin and I'll move to Geelong and we'll start hanging out again and you'll realize how much we're meant to be together.

I've talked to plenty of new people, but no one even comes close to you, or the way we fell hard and fast.

Logically I know I need to move on, and I suppose I somewhat have, I let myself feel things for other people, but I'm still defaulting back to you, and not just because its easy or familiar, I want it to be you. I want our story to be epic in that we went completely separate ways but still made it back to one another.

The unfortunate reality is that I am 99% certain that your switch remains flipped, you don't love me anymore, or you've at least convinced yourself that because you don't feel those strong honeymoon period sensations it means you don't love me, and living how we're living now, there is no way to reignite the flame.

I just wish you'd been here for my birthday Ali.

Our anniversary is coming in a few weeks and I have no idea how I'm going to manage that one.

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genshinluvr · 2 years

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First Crush and First Love

Pairings: Various Genshin Men x Isekai'd!Reader

Summary: Everyone has a first crush and their first love! Whether it's a real person or a fictional character, the fifteen men (specifically Childe) are curious about who was the first one to have stolen your heart.

Note: Hello! Another late-ish update since I did have some things to do at my university. I didn't have much time to add some stuff to this week's story because of that and I did have essays to turn in for my sociology class and it took up a lot of time. Anyway, I don't know when I'll be able to get back to typing out a story that is around 6k words, it'll probably be a while because I am approaching the end of the semester very soon and more exams are popping up again. Unfortunately... ;v; This is a short-ish story, it's more of a filler. Anywho! To my new and returning readers, I post on AO3 as well, so, if you have an AO3 and see a work similar to this, it’s me (Aaliah_exo on AO3). I don’t post anywhere else but on Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and on AO3 (Aaliah_exo).

Warnings: None? Slightly sad on the reader's end, depending on how you view it. Maybe slightly angsty, but it's not too bad!

Word Count: 4.5k

Poke.

“Psst!”

You scrunched your face up and snuggled closer to your pillow, ignoring the light poke on your cheek.

Poke.

“Wake up!”

You pull your blanket closer to your face and turn on your side, still fast asleep. But unfortunately, that did not last as long as you’d hope it would. It was still early in the morning (it was 6 AM), and you were finally getting the entire night of rest that you very much needed.

“Psst! [Y/N]! Wake up!”

Poke.

Your eyelashes fluttered as you were slowly coming into consciousness. Your eyelids still felt heavy, so you let your eyelids close to get more sleep. Seeing that you weren’t going to wake up any time soon, the person groans softly before continuing what they were doing.

Poke.

“Wake up, [Y/N]!” The person whispers loudly, continuing to poke you repeatedly until you let out a mix of a groan and a whine. You cracked your eyes opened and rubbed your eyes with the heel of your palm.

“What is it, Childe?” You mumble, looking up at the man that was hovering above you. His arms were caging you against your bed as he stared down at you with his eyebrows knitted together with concentration as he watched you reluctantly wake up.

“I have something important to ask you, and I demand that you answer them!” Childe states, pouting down at you. You stared up at Childe, completely ignoring his declaration while your eyes scanned his features. His ginger locks were disheveled, sticking all over the place, and he had a prominent pout on his face; he was also wearing nothing but sweat pants that hung very low on his hips. Dangerously low. You feel heat rush to your cheeks when you feel Childe poke you on the cheeks once more to grab your attention.

“Hey! Look at me and answer my question, will you?” He whines, tilting your face up with a small pout on his face. You could tell that Childe was fighting back a teasing grin.

You huffed, “I am looking at you!” Childe cocks an eyebrow at your comment.

“You were looking at my body, not my handsome face, snookums!” Childe teases, poking you lightly once more.

“Well, you wanted me to answer a question you never asked?” You questioned, crossing your arms over your chest.

“I did ask you a question! But it seems like you were too busy drooling over me to hear what I had asked you.” Childe smirks.

You stared up at Childe blankly and blinked at him owlishly. Wait, did he really ask you something, or was he saying that just to mess with you? Knowing Childe, he wouldn’t tell you the truth on whether he did ask you something or not, just to mess with you. You huffed and looked away from Childe’s teasing stare, cheeks bright red. Childe chuckles and leans down, pressing a big sloppy kiss on your cheeks, making you squeak.

“Oh, snookums! You’re too cute!” Childe coos. He leans down and nuzzles the tip of his nose against your cheeks, arms still caging you against your bed.

“You’re quite affectionate today.” You sighed, too tired to push him off of you. “Now, can you please repeat the question that you asked me?” You scrunched your face up as Childe continued to shower you with kisses.

Before Childe could reply to your question, your bedroom door slams open, revealing fourteen men gathered at your bedroom door. Childe was immediately yanked off of you by both Xiao and Scaramouche. Electricity crackles in Scaramouche’s hands, threatening to zap Childe. Xiao’s hands were itching and twitching to get his polearm to shove it up of Childe’s ass for waking you up so early in the morning. And for touching you and putting his disgusting chapped lips all over you. Xiao wants to do nothing more than smack Childe.

“Why’d you wake them up!?” Xiao demands, glaring at the smug Harbinger. Childe crossed his arms over his bare chest with a shit-eating grin, ignoring the subtle and not-so-subtle glares that were shot in his direction.

“I had to ask them the question that you guys were too scared to ask them!” Childe huffs, pouting at them Childe-ishly.

“And you decided to rouse them from their slumber just to ask them a silly question?” Dainsleif asks, glaring at the Harbinger. Childe nods his head; the pout on Childe’s face is replaced with a proud grin.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! It wasn’t a silly question! It was a question that we were all wondering about and needed answers for!” Itto spoke up, breaking through the crowd of men. Now that you have gotten a better look at all fifteen men, they were all still wearing their pajamas. Some were just almost naked (Itto).

“And what would those questions be? Childe wouldn’t tell me what it is!” You groaned, forcing yourself to sit up on your bed.

“I did tell you what my question was! You were just distracted by my sexy physique!” Childe shoots a wink in your direction. You covered your face with your hands, internally groaning at Childe’s constant teasing. You plopped back down on your bed and pulled the blanket over your head.

“It’s too early for this. Either ask me the question or let me continue my sleep in peace.” Your voice was muffled underneath the mountain of blankets you have on your bed.

Don’t you get overheated from the number of blankets you have on your bed? Does the amount of blankets make it hard for you to move around when you sleep? The men never understood as to why you needed so many blankets. Not to mention the number of plushies that were given to you by the men themselves.

Your first-ever plush in Teyvat was given to you by Itto. It was a cute stuffed onikabuto, and it can also be a pillow! Seeing the look on your face when you were given a cute giant onikabuto plush, the others have decided to get you a plush as well that resembles them in a way. It was really cute! But the number of plushies in your collection continued to grow until it got to the point where you didn’t have much space on your bed to sleep.

So, Albedo and Gorou have taken into account to build you a chest and shelf where you can place your ever-growing plushie collection. One plushie you have decided to keep on your bed was the damn jumbo-sized Rex Lapis exuvia plushie that you were gushing over a couple of months ago. Although the colossal Rex Lapis exuvia plushie wasn’t the only one you kept on your bed, it was also the onikabuto that Itto had given you. Strangely enough, you were pretty attached to these stuffed animals. Emotionally attached, might I add— much to the men’s dismay. Why couldn’t you be emotionally attached to them instead of being emotionally attached to a bunch of punchable stuffed animals that can’t fight back?

“We wanted to know who was your first crush and your first love!” Gorou says, his tail swishing from side to side with both excitement and anticipation.

“My first crush and my first love?” You popped up from underneath your blankets and quickly came out from under the blankets.

“That’s right! We were curious about who was the first one to steal your heart.” Kazuha nods his head as he leans against your bedroom wall.

“What started this conversation exactly?” You raised your eyebrows at them, quickly fixing your bedhead.

“We were just curious about who this person might be,” Albedo says, shrugging his shoulders. You stared at Albedo and at the others. They seem to be at the edge of their seats, waiting for you to answer their burning questions regarding your first crush and first love.

An hour before you were woken up from your sleep by Childe, the men were lounging around in the kitchen, sipping on their tea and coffee. It was a quiet morning, everyone had woken up from their sleep earlier than usual, but that didn’t stop them from wondering about your private life before you appeared in their world.

“Do you think that [Y/N] has a boyfriend in their world?” Venti asks, blowing on the steaming hot coffee (thankfully, it wasn’t alcohol because who drinks alcohol at 5 AM?). Everyone in the kitchen paused at Venti’s question and looked over at him blankly; some were deep in thought, thinking about the answer to Venti’s question.

“Do you mean by [Y/N] being currently in a relationship or their past relationship?” Ayato asks, sipping his tea while sitting between Thoma and Zhongli.

“Hmmm… both!” Venti replies, placing his cup of coffee down on the wooden table in front of him.

“Well, [Y/N] hasn’t mentioned anything about a boyfriend or relationship when they’ve arrived in our world,” Thoma replies, crossing his arms over his chest as he gnaws on his bottom lip.

“I believe we never asked them about their relationship status when we first met them,” Zhongli spoke up, clearing his throat as he looked over at the others around him with his amber eyes. “Quite frankly, I believe that the topic has yet to emerge when we have a conversation with [Y/N].”

“Well, now I am curious about who could be this mysterious man that has stolen our precious [Y/N]’s heart.” Kaeya hums, stroking his chin.

Diluc sighs softly, “I believe that it’s best that we don’t touch on this topic. After all, if [Y/N] wants to talk about their relationship, they should do it on their own terms.” Diluc leans back in his seat.

Baizhu chuckles softly, “Oh? Are you not at least a little bit curious about who was the first one to steal [Y/N]’s heart?” He raises his eyebrows at Diluc with a small smirk on his face. Diluc sighs and looks away from Baizhu, lifting his cup from the table before taking a sip from it.

“It’s their personal life; I’d rather not intrude,” Diluc mutters, rolling his eyes.

The others muttered to themselves, debating on whether they should agree to Diluc’s comment or pester you about your love life. Was there someone that stole your heart in your world? Did that person make you as happy as they did? There were so many questions that they wanted to ask you, but you were sleeping peacefully in your bedroom. They didn’t want to disturb your sleep just to ask you about your love life.

“Do you think [Y/N] had all of their firsts with that person?” Kaeya asks, tapping on his chin while squinting his eye at the thought.

“Firsts? What do you mean by firsts?” Scaramouche asks, leaning against the table, intrigued with what Kaeya was asking about.

“Oh, you know, first kiss, first date, first argument, first time…” Kaeya trails off.

“First time?” Dainsleif looks at Kaeya skeptically.

“Sex, he’s talking about sex!” Thoma comments, his cheeks and the tips of his ears turning redder than his t-shirt.

Thoma’s comment woke everyone up; suddenly, they were more alert and awake. They began talking to one another, trying to figure out whether you had had all of your firsts with some other man in your world or not. Just the thought of you experiencing all of your firsts with another man that wasn’t them made them feel on edge.

“No way! [Y/N]’s not the type to have sex with someone they don’t know!” Itto exclaims, huffing loudly with a childish pout on his face. The men around him wince at the sheer volume of Itto’s exclamation, hoping that it didn’t wake you up from your slumber.

“And how do you know that exactly? [Y/N] could have been with that person for a few years before coming into our world, and they could have done many things with their potential partner.” Ayato sighs softly, shaking his head at Itto’s outburst.

“What if [Y/N] and their lover made plans to get married!?” Gorou panics, his eyes widening in fear.

“And what if [Y/N] was supposed to get married to their lover but didn’t get to because they were sucked into our world!?” Itto asks, tightening his grip around the mug so tightly that the glass mug shattered.

“My mug!” Thoma whines, getting up from his seat to grab a broom and a dustpan to sweep the shards of glass from the ground.

Zhongli looks over at Childe, who was oddly silent the entire time. Childe sat in his seat across from Zhongli, staring down at his now cold cup of coffee; his jaws were clenched shut. Childe crossed his arms over his bare chest, his index finger lightly tapping on his biceps. Childe looked tensed, almost jealous. Zhongli can see faint steam coming from Childe’s ears.

“Childe, you’re oddly quiet today. Mora for your thoughts?” Zhongli speaks up, looking at Childe with an eyebrow raised. Childe sighs to himself and shakes his head, looking away from Zhongli. “What’s the matter, Childe? Are you upset?” Zhongli asks, lifting his teacup before taking a small sip from the porcelain teacup. Again, Childe doesn’t respond to Zhongli’s question. Ayato sighs softly and shakes his head at Childe’s attitude.

“It seems like the topic of [Y/N]’s intimate life upsets him,” Ayato murmurs to Zhongli, looking over at the former archon from the corner of his eyes.

“It seems so.” Zhongli hums softly. “The topic does irk me a little bit, but it seems like it irks Childe way more than it does with the rest of us,” Zhongli added, shaking his head.

“Does he think he has the chance with [Y/N]? He can wait in line like the rest of us.” Xiao muttered, huffing to himself.

Scaramouche scoffs, “As if he’d get a chance with [Y/N]. He’s insufferable, and I believe that [Y/N] wouldn’t even breathe in his direction. Let alone look at him.” Scaramouche rolls his eyes.

“Well, we’re not too sure about that. [Y/N] is a little unpredictable.” Albedo spoke up, stirring his coffee with the metal spoon, deep in his thoughts.

“Out of all fifteen of us, who do you think [Y/N] would choose?” Kazuha asks.

“My, my. Why ask a difficult question?” Baizhu chuckles, shaking his head.

“Everyone here would choose themselves instead of choosing who they think [Y/N] would end up with,” Dainsleif muttered, shaking his head.

“Oh? Then out of fifteen of us, who do you think [Y/N] would choose?” Kaeya asks, propping himself up on the table, looking at Dainsleif curiously. “And don’t say yourself,” Kaeya adds, tapping his fingers against his cheeks. Dainsleif sighs and closes his eyes, leaning back in his seat, and takes a moment to think for himself.

Dainsleif opens his eyes before stating, “Zhongli.” Everyone falls silent, stares at Dainsleif, and then glances over at the ex archon.

“Zhongli?” Kazuha blinks at Dainsleif, unsure of how he should react to Dainsleif’s answer. Heck, the others feel the same way as Kazuha! Other than feeling hurt and a little offended that Dainsleif didn’t choose him.

“Why Zhongli?” Venti pouts, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Huh, is that so? What does Zhongli have that I don’t have?” Diluc’s eyebrows were furrowed as he tried to contemplate over what Zhongli could possibly have that Diluc doesn’t have. Was it the glowing amber eyes? The unlimited knowledge of the history of Teyvat?

“Why choose Zhongli when you can choose me instead? I got muscles and horns!” Itto huffs; his bottom lip was jutting out, forming a pout.

“Care to explain as to why you’ve chosen Zhongli out of all of us?” Albedo asks, tilting his head to the side as he strokes his chin.

Dainsleif sighs, rolling his eyes. “Do I need to have a reason why I’ve chosen Zhongli?”

“Yes,” Xiao replies immediately, staring at Dainsleif intensely as he waits for the blond male to give a good reason on why he chose the former archon.

Dainsleif sighs, “I’ve seen the way [Y/N] looks at Zhongli. If [Y/N] had to choose someone, they will most likely pick Zhongli.” He crosses his arms over his chest before continuing, “Out of everyone, it seems like Zhongli cares about [Y/N] the most. Yes, we all care about them, but Zhongli does it in a subtle way every time he sees [Y/N] or when he’s with [Y/N].”

“Is it because he’s a former archon?” Scaramouche sighs.

“He’s an archon!?!” Itto screeches, looking at Scaramouche and Zhongli with eyes the size of dinner plates.

“I’m really curious if anyone had stolen [Y/N]’s heart before they were brought into our world,” Albedo mutters, squinting his eyes.

“Well, why don’t we ask [Y/N] ourselves?” Gorou offers, crossing his arms over his chest.

“[Y/N] is sleeping right now. We can’t wake them up just because we wanted to know about their love life.” Baizhu sighs, shaking his head in disapproval.

“It’s also still five in the morning. [Y/N] doesn’t get up until seven or eight in the morning.” Thoma commented, dumping the shattered mug into the trash bin in the kitchen with a small huff of breath.

“It’s best we let [Y/N] sleep and not disturb their rest with a bunch of questions,” Diluc speaks up, sipping on his cup of coffee.

“I agree.” Kazuha nods his head.

Unbeknownst to the men, Childe slipped away from his seat and crept up the stairs towards your bedroom as they were having a small discussion on how it’s best to let you sleep in and not disturb your rest. Childe approaches your bedroom door and grabs onto the doorknob; he gently twists the knob before peeking his head into your bedroom. Your room was dark; the only light that was illuminating your bedroom was the small shell lamp on your desk. It was cute and endearing. Have you always slept with a light on? Were you afraid of sleeping in complete darkness? Childe can see faint light shining into your bedroom through the crack of the window curtains.

Childe looks behind to make sure that no one is around to see him walk into your bedroom while you’re asleep. Satisfied, Childe walks further into your bedroom and quietly closes the door behind him. He hears the soft click of the bedroom door shutting entirely behind him. Childe walks towards your bed and slowly climbs onto your bed, careful not to wake you up. Usually, you were a light sleeper, but it seems like you were exhausted because you didn’t wake up to the feeling of the bed dipping as he caged you to your bed with his arms.

“How cute!” Childe coos internally, snickering silently to himself when he caught the sight of you slightly drooling in your sleep. Thinking of a way to wake you up from your slumber, an idea pops up in his mind. Childe pokes you in the cheek with his index finger, waiting to get a reaction out of you.

Poke.

Childe pouts and pokes you on your cheek once more. You didn’t react. Instead, you continued to sleep. Your chest rises and falls with each gentle breath, still fast asleep. Totally oblivious to Childe’s intent on disturbing your sleep to pester you about your love life. He was not going to stop poking you until you woke up and answered his (and the others) burning questions!

“And that’s how we’re here!” Venti smiles innocently. You run your hands through your hair with a sigh.

“Childe only woke me up at six in the morning just to find out who my first crush and first love was?” You cocked your eyebrow at the ginger Harbinger in front of you. Childe smiles at you innocently and nods his head.

“We didn’t think he would sneak off and rouse you from your sleep.” Zhongli shakes his head in disapproval, shooting a look at Childe, who ignored the look that Zhongli shot in his direction.

“Well, now I’m awake!” You sighed, tossing the blanket off of your body as you grabbed the onikabuto plush, hugging it close to your chest. “Guess that means I should answer the question now, huh?” You rubbed your eyes with a small yawn.

“Yes.” Xiao nods his head.

“Indeed.” Ayato hums.

“I need answers!” Gorou pipes up, looking at you with anticipation.

“We need answers!” Scaramouche corrects Gorou, looking at the male from the corner of his eyes with a tiny frown on his face.

“No pressure, of course!” Thoma quickly adds, giving you a small reassuring smile.

“Everyone is quite curious about what your answer is, might I add.” Baizhu gives you a smile.

“Oh, I know!” You snorted. “I can see it on all of their faces.” The men can feel heat rise on their faces at your comment. Each and every single one of their faces turned bright red and bright pink. You cleared your throat and scanned through your brain, trying to recall a memory of this so-called first crush and first love. The men watch your face closely, on the edge of their seats, waiting for you to say who was the first one to claim your heart.

“To be really honest, I don’t remember who was my first ever crush…” You scratch your cheek, your eyebrow furrowing as you try to think back to the earliest time of your life. “It was probably a fictional character instead of a real person.” You muttered, stroking your chin.

“A fictional character?!” The men exclaim simultaneously, giving you an incredulous look. You giggled at their reaction and nodded your head.

“Yes, a fictional character! In my world, all of you are just fictional characters as well. But since I am in your world, you’re all pretty real to me.” You give them a tiny smile.

“Okay, so, a fictional character is your first crush…” Scaramouche gives you a weird look.

“Hey! If I was in my world, you’re all fictional characters. Therefore, I do have crushes on fictional characters!” You huffed, looking away from them with a pout on your face.

“Oh? So you have a crush on all of us?” Kaeya teases you, wiggling his eyebrows at you suggestively. You feel your face heat up at Kaeya’s comment and don’t reply, continuing to look away from them.

“Well, I’m not denying anything.” You muttered.

“Okay, then what about first love?” Diluc asks.

You let out a sheepish laugh as you scratched the back of your neck awkwardly. How were you going to explain this to them? Would they make fun of you for it? Could this change their perspective of you if you were to reveal this information? Regardless of that, it’s too late to go back now.

“I… never had a first love.” You said softly.

“What?” Itto looks at you quizically.

“What do you mean you never had a first love?” Xiao asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Surely, you’ve been in a relationship before, correct?” Albedo asks. You snorted and shook your head at Albedo’s question.

“I’ve never been in a relationship before.” You answered, crossing your legs under you as you pulled the blanket into your lap.

“How?! You’re so cute, loveable, sweet, and everything I want in a lover!” Thoma exclaims; his cheeks were ablaze. His face was almost as red as his shirt after his exclamation. You give Thoma a small smile, trying your best to hold back a snort.

“In my world, people have this standard of beauty and what they want in a lover. I never reach these said requirements.” You sighed, leaning up against the wooden headboard of your bed. “I did have crushes, sure, but the feelings were never mutual.” You start fiddling with the onikabuto plush. Great. How were you going to explain all of this without bursting into tears over how pathetic your love life was? Or your lack of love life, to be more specific.

“I’m not considered desirable in my world. I’m not shaped a certain way, my skin tone is either too dark too light, my hair isn’t a certain texture or length, and I’m either too tall or too short.” You chuckled bitterly, shaking your head with frustration. “People don’t consider me to be attractive or desirable because I don’t fit the standard of beauty in my world’s society.” Your shoulders slump as you hug your knees to your chest.

Recalling these old memories and your insecurities made your heart clench in your chest. Even though strangers didn’t want you, your family didn’t even want you either. All they do is compare you to your cousins or siblings.

“Why can’t you be more like your brother?”

“Why can’t you be more like your sister?”

“Your cousin just graduated from a prestigious university today! When will you go to college and be useful for once?”

“Do you really think that people would want to date someone as undesirable and useless as you?”

You shake the thoughts away from your head, avoiding their intense gaze. You tighten your grip around your knees as you swallow the lump in your throat. Your throat and eyes began to sting with tears that were threatening to fall.

“I never had a decent relationship. All of these relationships meant nothing to them while I put so much energy into it while they did nothing at all.” You sniffled, biting down on your bottom lip. “From my “relationships,” I learned that I fall for people too easily and that I get taken advantage of very easily.” You whispered, gently tugging on the onikabuto’s antlers. “It’s easy to replace me and take advantage of me.” You hummed. Everything around you fell silent as you continued to stare at the purple onikabuto plush in front of you.

“Now you have your answer. My first crush is most likely a fictional character, and my first love is nonexistent.” You commented. You looked up at the fifteen men. Before you could blink, Venti, Itto, Gorou, and Childe tackles you down on your bed.

“Oi! Don’t you dare talk down on yourself!” Xiao hollers, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah! Don’t you dare say anything bad about yourself!” Itto buries his face into your stomach, tightening his grip around you.

“Those people don’t deserve you at all! They don’t deserve any of your love and kindness!” Gorou speaks up, gently cupping your face in his hands. He gazed down at you with puppy dog eyes as he wiped away the stray tear that made its way down your cheeks. You feel your bottom lip quiver at Gorou’s comment, tears blurring your vision.

“Stooooop! You’re going to make me cry! It’s too early!” You whined, gently hitting Gorou’s chest with your fist.

Gorou pulls you into his chest and pats your head gently. “I will be your first love.” Was the last thing the fifteen men think before they all surround you on your bed to comfort you, wiping your tears away while trying to cheer you up. The people in your world truly did not deserve you at all.

Note: Yea, so, it got a little depressing in the end, but that's okay! I know this is posted at like, midnight, but pretend this was posted on Saturday instead! I'm just hoping that I can type out something much longer next time! Even though I have a criminology exam coming up in like a day or two. I will start accepting requests very soon! I'm not sure when exactly. I got like two requests already on AO3 and on Tumblr, so I'm going to try to get something started for them very soon and we'll see what happens from there! For some reason, I can't tag a lot of people in the new beta editor... Anyway, I ONLY post on my Tumblr (Genshinluvr) and my AO3 (Aaliah_exo)! Nowhere else except Tumblr and AO3!

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