#the way they smile like that it's so andy and andre

[grammatically-incoherent]

thank you mr. braugher. you did it right. and it was perfect.

#b99 #b99daily #jokeperalta #youngsambergs #userbbelcher #tvandfilm #this one hurt to make #the way they smile like that it's so andy and andre #goddamn it #if this gifset makes you cry GOOD bc i cried making it #andre braugher #andy samberg #captain holt #jake peralta #ohheycool #250 #500 #1k

[richonnelvr218]

What Makes Richonne Special

Throughout the day, mostly when things calm down at work or out of the blue at home, Richonne will come to my mind.  I might see an apple or the weather reporter might say East, and I will smile and my heart will swell, and I will feel happy.  Richonne make me happy. Why do I react to them in this way?  Why are they so special?  I have many couples that I love to pieces, but none like Richonne.  I don’t think of my other couples out the blue.  The other couples are not a daily part of my life, but my Richonne are always with me.  I watch Richonne scenes every single day.  I have not stopped watching The Ones Who Live since the first episode aired.  I am a true blue down in the deep Richonne fan, and I knew they were special from the moment they met at the fence.  

Why were they special from that moment? 

Because Danai and Andy have amazing chemistry? It is that.  They certainly do have insanely intense chemistry.  But, it was also more.

A few days ago, I saw a clip, one I hadn't seen before, of Danai talking about how Richonne got together and when they were filming Clear she thought it could happen. Clear was big for Richonne, but their meeting at the end of Hounded, S3x6, was when Richonne truly started because that’s the moment that changed them. That was the moment they saw each other. 

Think of the word “hounded”.  It means to pursue with or as if with hounds.  To pursue. I like that.  Was hounded not what they were by people or ghosts all episode? Indeed they were.  But at the end of this episode their pursuits end.  They found something they needed. Their safest place.  Their person. 

Both Danai and Andy, as well as others, have said Richonne finally saw each other on the couch and it clicked.  I can accept that.  They saw each other in that “It’s Always Been You” light.  But guess what? That's always been the case.

Why are Richonne so special?  I;m talking about infinitely more special than any couple I have shipped and loved prior to and after discovering them?  Again, I love my other couples, but when I compare them to Richonne, there is no comparison. It’s like comparing a pack of crackers to a five course meal.  It's all food, but not at all the same.

The truth is when Richonne met they truly saw each other.  They saw in each other that something inside themselves they didn't see, maybe didn't want to see, but knew was there.  Inside them. Hounding them.  Danger, fear, and determination to live and protect those they love at any cost. To not go back to that dark, isolating place they enter when they cannot protect those they love. The place each were when they met. They looked at one another and saw themselves. Someone frightening but not. Someone dangerous, but not.  Someone hurting with a hurt they each recognized.  Rick had been shot and Michonne was newly shot. Rick had just lost Lori and Michonne had lost Andre and Mike.  

Grief and Pain.  Physical and emotional trauma. And they saw that and more in each other. I go so far as to say they saw their future, too.

In Clear, Rick allowed Carl, his baby boy, to go off with Michonne.  A woman he had known all of  about five days. A woman who carried a katana and had no hesitation in using it.  Yet, Rick trusted her with his most precious thing.  His first born. His son.  In Clear, Richonne bonded.  Michonne opened herself to Rick, shared some of herself, and Rick appreciated that. Even made an attempt at a joke by saying he saw things. 

In Clear, Rick already trusted her, because he knew her. He saw her.  He saw her at the fence.  He saw himself inside her at the fence.  

He saw himself inside her at the fence.  

There was no pun intended with that sentence, but there is double truth in it.  Richonne were connected at the fence.  Roughly nine months later, they were connected in body.  Rick was truly inside Michonne in all ways, and that connection solidified, melded their soulmate bond.  That heat, that passion, that love sealed their forever fate. 

Richonne saw each other at the fence.  All the hurts, pains, fears, every unspeakable thing they don't need to speak, they see everything in each other.  More, they accept it without question, and make no attempts to change it.  They are each other.  He is her and she is him.  They are indeed one half of a whole.  Two pieces that make one. They are a perfect fit. 

Richonne love each other. They truly love every single thing about each other, and there's nothing either could ever do to change that.  It's fact, truth, gospel, it's everything.  That's why Richonne are so special.  They are the definition of ride or die. Through any and everything, they are there for each other.  They are an unbreakable bond. 

That's why they are like no other couple.  They understand each other on a level no one else could ever understand.  They accept each other without question.  They speak their own language.  They speak without words. They see each other.  They are connected. They are love. They are Richonne.

#Richonne #rick #michonne #towl #twd the ones who live #twd #Richonne Special

[optimistic-dinosaur-nacho]

As a taller girlie, I’m wondering... how would Chris and his characters react to their S/O being taller than them?

I honestly have nothing to do so how bout I treat you guys for a comeback. Its a little short just for a small comeback but if you want me to do a part two for this let me know :) Happy Friday yall.

Requests closed for now until I catch up on people's past requests if they still want them.

Characters Listed: Chris Evans, Steve Rogers, Ransom Drysdale, Andy Barber, Johnny Storm, Jake Jensen

How Chris' Characters Would React To A Tall S/O

Chris Evans

Chris doesn't mind a tall s/o, he might make jokes here and there, you make fun of him. You and Hemsworth are both tall so it's fun when you're in the same rook together. Chris loves when you wear heels though, it makes it more funnier to him on the carpet when his lover is towering over him. If he had a dime every time someone asked, "How does it feel to be the short lover?" He'd be richer than he normally was.

Whether you're taller or not, he still treats you like you're the small spoon. But to be clear, you're definitely not Andre the Giant to him. You're not Shaq to him either, you're the love of his life and he will love you no matter what. Honestly, you probably got a lot of comments of being the pick of the relationship since most loves tall women.

.

Steve Rogers

Intimidated the first moment he saw you. It was at a party. Whether you had superpowers or not, he thought you were another supersoldier. "Nah, she's just the front desk receptionist," Tony says. It was a lie, you were in SHIELD as an agent, you actually were Tony Stark's secret bodyguard but also chaperone.

That was also a lie told by Tony. But you were an agent. Steve and Sam were both afraid to step up and ask how the hell you were tall. Thor was even impressed that she managed to be the same height as him and taller than Sif. Thor was fond of you and believed you were a God trying to be an undercover agent.

Years after, Steve asked you out and ever since people never shut up about the height (Tony himself) Natasha was the support but joked every once in a while. Steve always like the height, it was never seen a lot where he saw how strong and confident a tall woman could be. You literally looked like you'd kick ass even if you didn't know hoe to fight. His pre-serum self would be jealous. But he loved you and enjoyed how you looked at him with a smile.

Ransom Drysdale

There's a chance some things can get spicy. Not inna sexual way of course. There's challenges. Ransom doesn't like being downgraded by tall people but when it comes to his s/o. You're in bit of a tough ride. Ransom never knew how the hell he got you, but he thought you were a model at first.

He didn't plan on dating you, until he actually put effort into something more and eventually asked you out. Now he's gotten cocky. When with family, you've become almost as tall as his uncle, Walt. The family never has filters, especially Walt.

There's always going to be one person who picks on you and Ransom's height differences. "Have you grown taller, Y/N?" Walt asks, "Figured you'd stop by now, one day, it's gonna hurt Ransom's ego."

Being taller only made you the center attention but also help for the kids.

.

Andy Barber

Surprising enough, Andy didn't know how he got you and how you got so tall. You just happened to grow faster than him in Law School. Andy doesn't mind having tall wife but Jacob finds that shit cool. There's kids always talking about you with Jacob. Even you became an officer, you'd stop by and scare anyone.

Andy jokes here and there but he loves you no matter what. Sometimes the niegbors gossip on how a tall woman should be with a man taller than her but you didn't give a dang and married someone just a couple inches shorter. Who cares? Tall people are cool.

"How's the weather down there?"

"I'm a lawyer, not a Weather Forecaster."

Johnny Storm

There's two things, Johnny being mentally and physically bigger but in reality, he's neither. With a tall woman, he's shocked to see a tall glass of water (he says) roam in the building with Reed. There's a lot of moments where he's going to flirt almost any chance he gets.

"I know the air is pretty thin up there," Johnny began, he smirk, "Why don't you lay in my bed and catch your breath?"

"Uh... no?"

Rejected? Oh no, he doesn't take that for an answer. He's going to try.

"Do you play basketball? Maybe volleyball?"

"..."

"No?"

Johnny tries again. "You would totally be worth the climb!" Disgust received from you. "You're a tall drink of water. And I'm thirsty!"

"Just ask me out already and stop talking about my height." Johnny didn't need to be told twice as he happily gave you his number.

Jake Jensen

Oh, you two aren't the ones talking about height differences. It's your friends you guys work with. Yeah, Pooch out of the rest was a pain in the ass about your height. But you happened to be the most powerful person in the group.

Jensen loved your height, he liked being the smaller one (secretly). He liked it when people were watching you. Even though you weren't that overly tall than him, he liked it when you placed your hand on his head or shoulder. He likes looking up at you too. There's always a point where he gets on one knee to dramatically request help or anything.

#chris evans #chris evans x reader #steve rogers x reader #drabbles #chris evans drabbles #chris evans headcanons #dino writes #dino returns #i rarely might write but fear not ill try my best #requests closed

[frilly2023]

🥹 😰 Frilly's Fright - Part 1 💘 🫅🏼 🥀

Genre: Fantasy Horror

Chapter 1 - Finding Land

This is a story centered for Frilly and Andy [Ryoo,] or Andre Rieu the classical musical conductor, who is French from the Netherlands.

Frilly is 20 years old, well out of school and old enough to consider teaching herself. Andy is 50.  He had her when he was 30, but she still feels like she’s just starting out as his little baby, usually.

She is sitting on the plane with the rest of his orchestra, choir, and solo singers. She is sitting on his lap and feeling anxious today.  She has with her a little MP3 player to listen to Brandenburg Concerto 1, 3, and 5, especially today, but it’s in her cute drawstring bag which is pretty big and can be strapped onto her.  She would rather talk, to him.

“Here, my little honey,” he said to her, tenderly holding the back of her hair, “You need to eat, now, so you don’t fall asleep, hungry!!”

He feeds her some beef sticks, as she crosses her eyes in the end and he pats her to sleep in him.

When they land, he carries her out with her bag and pretty clothes that say a lot on her.  He rubs her and tells her to go back to sleep and holds onto her head since she doesn’t kiss in public.  He hugs her legs into him with her shoes dangling.  She has strapped on her wrist a stuffed animal that’s made up that’s so cute with a long nose that points up and a long tail.  It’s light brown with beautiful blue eyes like her.

“Can I buy something to eat in the airport?” she asked, as he held her, standing and walking around.

“Yes,” he said, firmly to her looking at her crossing their eyes, for her.

“I can get down, thanks so much!” she said and ran off and bought her food, the little girl she was for a young adult at 20.

She ran back soon after squealing and cried, “Ah! There’s some aliens coming.”  Everyone stood still as they saw the approaching smoke or steam and flashing lights.

Suddenly, all were in a land sweet as candy and light and happy like butterflies and flowers and fish floating around the ocean.  The plane appeared and all ran over to it and got inside.  Someone said, “Let’s try to fly this thing, now!”  The aliens were not far behind.

“It’s our only chance,” someone else said, another man.

“Can anyone fly?” someone shouted, to which no one responded.  Anyway, the aliens could not get in.

Finally, the aliens left.  More people from the airport came and more planes appeared.  Someone came around and taught people what to do and assigned pilots.

Chapter 2

Alas, the dusk was coming in, and all the planes connected and took off at once and for hours they were hovering in air over lands of unseen beauty as all looked out in awe feeling wonderful.  Some of them hugged and smiled looking so happy together with one another and waved at each other with beaming faces.

Frilly came over and sat on Andy who hugged her and put her to sleep in his lap rubbing her as she slept and stroking her hair lovingly and with his strong hands and grip.

Suddenly, it gets all dark blue, sparkling and with twinkling lights like the dust of a fairy’s world up in the sky, stuck and shimmering, moving and shifting around some.

There were pink wisps of wind flying by and you could hear the breeze whistling it was so loud outside and without the motor of the plane interfering like interference.

Sometimes, it got very dark and deep blue, and you could see things glowing against it very brightly, some very small and sometimes clouds or formations almost of water swirling around, warbling and bouncing, making you hungry like you just wanna go into it yourself and live there and figure it out forever if you can.  You wanna be you forever.

They flew over distant lands and saw cottages of many happy dainty people with animals that live in the forest.  They talked to each other asking where to land.  They decided to settle in the Netherlands.

They all landed a little ways away from the edge of the shore, that way they could at least take off if anything happened or for convenience even just to return home in time for the next concert for the orchestra.

[atlafan]

Office Neighbors - Part Six

a/n: here we are, and it certainly won’t be over after this! didn’t have time to proof read sorry, hope you enjoy! (reblogs and feedback are super helpful!)

warnings: fluff, smut, minor character death

words: 15K

masterpost

The semester was in full swing, and you were counting down the days until Thanksgiving break. It was time you could dedicate to grading, and your brother always cooked this gourmet meal for your family, so all in all, you were just ready to for the little time away. You just needed to get through another two weeks.

It was also time off for Harry. Andy always spent his Thanksgiving break with Paige since Harry got him for Christmas in London. Typically, you ate at Harry’s house for dinner twice a week, and then when Andy was at Paige’s for a weekend, Harry would either sleep at your place, or you would sleep at his. Sometimes you would go to the library together to work. He really helped you find a work-life balance. Now, Harry usually went to Lisa’s for Thanksgiving, but he wasn’t sure if those plans were set to change. He was sort of hoping to go to Boston with you, but he didn’t want to invite himself.

“I think you should just ask her.” Andy says as he helps Harry set the table.

“I don’t want to impose, it’s rude.”

“But you’re her boyfriend, she should want you to spend Thanksgiving with her.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that.”

“You say that all the time.” He rolls his eyes.

“It is! It’s not just her and I having dinner, I’d be meeting her whole family, that’s a big deal.”

“Why?”

“Because…well…it’s one thing for her to like me, but I’d want her family to like me too.”

“Dad, literally who has ever met you ever likes you. Even Noah’s parents like you.”

“Thanks.” Harry chuckles. The doorbell rings and he smiles. “Go open that for her, will you?”

Andy races over to the door, and opens it for you.

“Hi, Y/N.” He smiles.

“Hi, Andy, how was school?” You smile as you come in and kick your boots off. “Getting cold out there.” You shiver as you take your jacket off.

“School was good.” He shrugs. “My health class just started and it’s really awkward.”

“Oh, I bet.” You walk in with him and the dessert your brought. “I brought cookies, couldn’t help myself.” You say to Harry, kissing his cheek.

“Thank you.” He smiles and takes it to put on the counter. “We’re having chili tonight, thought it would be nice for a cold evening.”

“Definitely, it smells amazing.”

Everyone makes a bowl, and adds what they want. After chatting about something funny one of Harry’s students says, Andy jumps into the conversation.

“Man, I cannot wait for Thanksgiving break. I know it’s only a few days, but I can’t wait.”

Harry slowly turns his head to look at his son, knowing exactly what he was doing.

“Yeah? You go to your mom’s right?” You say.

“Mhm, my grandparents and aunt come, and so does Noah’s family. It’s actually pretty fun. My mum and aunt cook everything together. What do you usually do for Thanksgiving, Y/N?”

“Well, when I was growing up we always hosted at my parent’s house, but my brother tends to host now since he’s the one that does that cooking.”

“He’s a chef, right?”

“A sous chef, but yeah.” You smile. “Although, he doesn’t cook everything. I tend to make the more Jewish dishes, and then he makes the more traditional Thanksgiving things.”

“Noah’s mum makes a brisket, do you guys have that too?”

“Mhm! My brother makes it, although I don’t eat it anymore.” You shrug and take another bite of the chili.

“Dad goes to Auntie Lisa’s.”

“Oh, you do?”

“Yeah…”

“That must be so much fun! Her husband is such a good cook. At the last game night there he made this spinach puff things, and I think I ate the whole tray.” You laugh.

“It’s usually a good time, yeah.”

“I’m surprised you don’t do Thanksgiving at Paige’s.”

“Nah, we tend to keep holidays separate. Her family doesn’t really understand the co-parenting.”

“Gram and Gramp are kind of snooty.” Andy says. “I love them, but I usually cap the convo at five minutes, and then I find an excuse to walk away.”

You burst out laughing and so does Harry, and Andy ends up laughing too. After dinner, and the cookies, Andy goes off to start his homework, which leaves you and Harry to clean up in the kitchen.

“He’s a lot like you, you know? He’s very smooth.”

“What do you mean?”

“Bringing up what we all do for Thanksgiving, almost seemed like he was hinting at something.” You smirk. “It’s cute you talk to him about me, honestly.”

“What…I wasn’t-“

“Did you really think I wasn’t going to invite you?”

“I…well, it’s a couple of weeks away and you haven’t mentioned it, so I just figured you weren’t ready for me to meet your family.” He runs a hand through his hair.

“I was going to run it by you tomorrow…I took me a minute to work up the courage to tell my family I was going to invite you, I’m sorry.”

“No! It’s okay, so, you want me to come?”

“I do, would you?”

“Yes.” He puts his hands on your hips and kisses you. “I’d love to.”

“Great!” You wrap your arms around his neck. “I was thinking we could drive down Thursday, and then spend the night at a hotel in the city, and then Friday we could, like, do a ton of touristy Boston things before driving back up.”

“That sounds amazing. Um, let me pay for the hotel though.”

“Oh, please.” You scoff.  

“Come on, it’s gonna be really expensive because of the holiday.”

“Julian, Phil’s partner, manages a hotel in the city, he said he could cut me a deal. It’s really no problem.”

“Oh…well, alright then.” He smiles. “I’m excited.”

“Me too.”

“Do you think they’ll like me?”

“I think so, yeah, but I have to warn you…when I first told you about them they had a lot of concern that I was getting involved with someone who has a kid, so they may ask a lot of personal questions. I told them not to, but they tend not to listen to me.”

“Guess it sort of comes with the territory. Nothing I can’t handle.”

You kiss goodbye before you leave, and Harry nearly squeals. He goes down to Andy’s room.

“Guess who got invited to Thanksgiving?”

“Are you serious?!” Andy stands up and gives Harry a high five. “That’s great! You should bake a pumpkin pie, you make the best pumpkin pie.”

“I do, don’t I?” He smirks. “I’ll ask her what I can bring. We’re gonna be going over night together, wow.”

“Is it that big of a deal? You have sleepovers all the time.”

“Andy…”

“I’m not stupid, Dad, she leaves…girly things here.”

“Okay, so we have sleepovers a lot, but going away with someone overnight is, like, next level.”

“You went camping together before you were even together, and then you went to that conference.”

“We didn’t share a room at the conference. It’s…it’s just different, okay? A good different. It’s gonna be great.”

“How come she doesn’t stay over when I’m here?”

“We haven’t really been together long enough for that. I don’t think she really feels comfortable just yet.”

“Why? You’re just sleeping.”

“Right…”

Andy gives Harry a weird look, and then his eyes widen.

“Oh, Jesus, Dad, don’t be gross!”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You’re so annoying, get out!”

Harry puts his hands up in defense and walks away. He really didn’t mean anything by his response, but Andy was smart, and sex was still an awkward topic. He wouldn’t even watch a movie with Harry now if there was a kissing scene in it. Things were okay with Brandon, and that was all Harry cared about. He was sort of hoping health class would help.

//

Andy had a half day at school on Wednesday, so Harry had to pick him up and bring him back to the university. When he was picking him up he noticed him saying goodbye to Brandon. They were hugging…for a while.

“See you Monday, have fun at your mom’s.” Brandon smiles as he lets go of Andy.

“Thanks, have a good time in Connecticut.”

“Text me if you need me…I know it’s a lot for you over there for so long.”

“I will, I’ll probably need to call you Thursday night.”

“Works for me, it’ll give me an excuse to get away from cousins. I really don’t feel like staying up to play Barbie’s with them.” He rolls his eyes.

“You’re the best.” He looks over and sees Harry’s car. “My dad’s here…bye.”

“Bye.”

They hug one more time and then Andy walks over to Harry’s car, getting in the back seat.

“Hey, how was the half day.”

“Good.” Andy shrugs. “We just ate food and watched a movie.”

“Are you still hungry? I brought some extra snacks to my office this morning.”

“Yeah, I’m hungry. Did you bring anything good?”

“Cheese sticks and grapes.”

“Guess that’s fine.”

“You’re gonna eat a lot of junk this weekend, couldn’t letcha eat a bad snack with me before Mum comes to get you.”

When Harry gets back to his office with Andy, he sees you laughing with Andre. Now, Harry knew he had nothing to worry about with Andre, but he was definitely curious to see what was so funny.

“Hi, Y/N!” Andy says, hugging you.

“Oh! Hi, Andy.” You smile and hug him back.

“What’s so funny?” Harry asks coolly.

“Oh, Y/N was just pointing out how students just skip class all week to beat the traffic, but we don’t have that luxury.”

“I mean, I know all classes after three are cancelled, so we can sort of leave early, but come on. At least let me know you’re not gonna be there.” You say. “Whatever, just need to teach one more class.”

“Can I go?” Andy asks.

“Andy…Y/N’s teaching a class about rhetoric, it’s a little high level for you.”

“I don’t have any homework or anything to do, and I don’t feel like just sitting around.”

“He can come if he wants.” You shrug. “Gotta go now though.”

“Okay!” Andy runs into Harry’s office to grab his snack and then joins you.

“He really likes her, huh?” Andre says to Harry.

“Yeah, he does.”

//

What you were talking about in class was way over Andy’s head, but what he did understand was when you put an episode of The Office. You wanted to show different persuasion tactics used while making a sale, and you thought it would be relatable for the students. Andy thought you were the coolest person in the world for showing it.

“Alright, I hope you all have a great few days off, I’ll see you Monday.” You say at the end of class. Andy gets up from the back of the class and comes towards you. “So, what did you think?”

“I liked the part where you put on The Office.” He giggles.

“I thought so.”

“I didn’t understand a word you said, but I sort of got some of it when you put the show on. It’s sort of cool how, like, a sow you could watch just for fun could have a deeper meaning.”

“It’s very cool.” You smile and walk with him back down to Harry’s office.

You stop short when you see Paige sitting on the edge of his desk.

“Mum?”

“Hi, honey! I came to surprise you. I had a half day today too.” She smiles and hugs him. “Hi, Y/N.”

“Hi, how are you?”

“I’m good, thanks. Dad already helped me put your things in my car, so we’re good to go.”

“Oh…alright.” Andy gives Harry a hug goodbye. “Have in Boston.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Harry stands up and puts his hands in his pockets.

“Boston?” Paige raises an eyebrow with a smile.

“He’s coming home with me.” You say.

“That’s great! Well, safe travels.”

“Bye, Y/N.” Andy hugs you and out the door they go.

“Did you know she was coming here to get him?”

“No, she texted me, like, two seconds after you went to class, sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, I just wasn’t expecting to see her.”

“You know, she mentioned a while back that she’d like to get together with you sometime…I think it might be a good idea for you to get to know her better.”

“Harry, no offense, but I don’t need to be best friends with your ex.”

“I’m not asking you to be, but you’re in Andy’s life, she wants to get to know you better.”

“Just a one on one thing?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll think about it.” You say and leave his office. He follows you into yours and you sigh.

“Do you have a problem with Paige?”

“No, of course not. I just don’t feel super comfortable getting together with her so she can grill me.”

“That’s not why she wants to meet up with you.”

“So, it wouldn’t be a couple of hours of her asking me a bunch of questions?”

“Well, you’d ask her questions too. I did the same with Noah, and I get along great with him.”

“I get along just fine with her.”

“You’ve been around her, like, four times.”

“And it’s been great every time, why rock the boat?” You shrug.

“Y/N…she’s the mother of my kid, she’s not going anywhere, and it would mean a lot to me if you got to know her better, alright?”

“Alright…maybe once the semester is over she and I could get together for lunch or something.”

He smiles at you and kisses your cheek.

“You’re the best.”

“Someone has to be.” You sigh and it makes him laugh. “Did you want to just stay at my place tonight so we can leave from there tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sounds good. What time do you want me over?”

“Seven?”

“I’ll be there.”

//

Harry: what should I pack for clothes, how fancy is dinner?

You: I’ll just be in jeans a blouse, wear what makes you comfortable

You thought it was sweet that Harry was a little nervous to meet your family. They weren’t scary people, but you were the baby, and you knew that came with a lot of questions. Harry comes over a little after seven in some joggers and a long sleeve shirt, and a couple of bags.

“Mm, smells good in here.” He says, kissing your cheek.

“I just finished baking what I need to bring.”

“I made a pumpkin pie to bring, could I stick it in the fridge?”

“That’s so sweet! Of course, go right ahead.”

You take his bags and bring them into your disaster of a room. You hadn’t been very good at putting your laundry away once it was folded, nor were you good about getting your dirty laundry in the hamper. You sigh and start running around to tidy it up.

“I thought you did chores once a week?” Harry chuckles as he stands in the doorway.

“I…haven’t been making much time for it with all the work I need to do. And then I come in here and it’s just too overwhelming. Everywhere else is fine though.”

“You know, having a messy room can cause just as much anxiety before you go to bed because you get reminded of the stress-“

“Har?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t need a lecture from you on my messy bedroom, okay?”

“Wasn’t giving you one.” He raises his hands in defense. “Don’t feel like you need to clean it just because I’m here either.”

“No, I don’t wanna come back to a mess, just…go watch TV until I’m done in here, it’s mostly just laundry.”

“I can help if you want.” You make a face at him. “What? I could throw a load in for you, or help you put things away.”

“You can help by just giving me a minute. I’ve been trying to reconfigure things, I may buy a larger dresser soon.”

“Why? You could just go through get rid of what you don’t need. Perfect time of year to do it.”

“I did that already…” You bite your bottom lip. “I was thinking…well…you come over a lot, and I’ve been trying to clean out a couple of drawers for you so you could just leave some weekend clothes here if you wanted.”

“R-really?” He looks at you like a wide eyed puppy.

“Yeah, we’ve been together five months, I think it makes sense to give you a drawer, I even made room in my bathroom for you, come look.” You tug him into the bathroom “I put up this rack so you could leave some shaving stuff or whatever you usually bring. If you’re comfortable with it.”

“You won’t mind my stuff crowding you?”

“No, if anything it’ll be like you’re here when you’re not here.” You say quietly and look at him. “I leave things at your place, I want you to leave things here.”

Harry tilts your chin up to look at him and he kisses you. He never had a relationship like this before. Well, he sort of did this with Paige, but it was different. He thought it was so sweet that you wanted these pieces of him around, and he knows he should do the same for you.

“Next time you’re at my place, there will be a drawer and some closet space for you.” He smiles. “I’ll go watch some TV while you do your thing.”

“Thanks.”

Around forty-five minutes later you plop down onto the couch next to Harry, and sigh. He throws an arm around you and kisses your temple.

“What are you watching?”

“SNL’s Thanksgiving clip show.”

“Oh fun!”

“What time do we need to be on the road tomorrow?”

“Not terribly early. Today’s the big travel day, I didn’t hit any traffic last year. We can leave around eleven.”

“Amazing. I don’t mind getting up early, but it’s nice to not have to sleep in on our days off.”

“I agree.”

You both shift so you can lay on top of him. He rubs your back, and you both giggle over the funny sketches. You pull a blanket over the two of you, and just get really cozy.

“I’m excited to be going overnight with you in the city. Where are we going Friday?”

“I thought we could take the T to Faneuil Hall and do some shopping, and then we could go to the North End for food.”

“Sounds good to me. Is there anything specific I need to know about your family before I meet them?”

“Not really…my parents can be sort of abrasive, but they mean well. Phil and Julian are pretty chill.”

“How long have they been together for?”

“God, like…six years I think.”

“That’s nice.”

“They’re a great couple. I think everyone will like you, Harry, nothing to worry about.” You lean up and kiss his forehead.

He cups your cheeks and pulls you closer to kiss your lips. You skootch up his body, and his hands slide down to your ass. You bite down on his bottom lip briefly before pulling away.

“Can we be lame and just go get really cozy in bed?” You say.

“Not lame at all, I’m pretty tired from all the grading I did this afternoon.”

You get off him and you both do your nightly routines before getting into bed.

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Why is your bed so warm already?”

“Oh! I turned my heated blanket on before I came out to watch TV with you. Nice and toasty, right?”

“Very.” He chuckles. “Now turn over so I can have that booty.”

“Harry.” You laugh, but do as he says, and adjust right into him. His leg goes right over your hip like always, and he holds you nice and close.

“I’m so glad you like sleeping like this, I don’t know what I’d do.” He chuckles into the back of your head.

“I know, could you imagine if I wasn’t to feel crushed while I’m sleeping?”

“Y/N.” He laughs.

“For real, I sleep so well with you.”

“Me too.” He nuzzles in closer. “Maybe when I get back from London you could try sleeping over on school nights.” You turn over to face him immediately.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah…wouldn’t be so weird, would it?”

“How would Andy feel about it?”

“He asks all the time why you don’t just spend the night when you have dinner with us. We could try it out and see how it goes.”

“With you in London for a few weeks, what does he do for school?”

“Oh, Paige just drives him back and forth.”

“That’s not annoying?”

“She really doesn’t mind it, it’s just extra time to spend together. It’s only two weeks for him to deal with it.”

“I could…help with rides if need be…or if he misses the house at all I could always stay over there with him.”

“Oh, so you’ll have sleepover with him without me?”

“I’m just saying, I can be helpful.”

“I appreciate that.” He kisses you. “So, will you try sleeping over some night when I get back?”

“Yeah, as long as he’s okay with it, we can give it a try. I wouldn’t mind carpooling.”

You kiss again, and you turn back over so he can spoon you. Five months together, and things were going so well.

//

The next morning your alarm goes off at 8:30. You turn it off quickly, and when you try to get up Harry clings to you tighter.

“Harry.” You giggle. “I need to shower.”

“But you’re so cozy.” He groans.

“You know how long it takes me to blow dry and curl my hair, please let me get up.”

“Alright.” He sighs. “But I’m going in there with you.”

“Oh, you are?” You raise an eyebrow at him.

“Mhm, gonna fuck you in there.” He grins at you. “If you want.”

“Hmmm.” You pretend to mull it over, but you grin back at him and nod.

Now, typically, you wouldn’t just let a guy stick it in, and trust his pullout game, but condoms in the shower never felt good, so you and Harry may have agreed that shower sex was the one time he didn’t need a condom. The first time you did it like this, not too long ago, you nearly cried from how good it felt it really feel him inside you.

“Oh, fuck, right there, Harry!” You moan out as he thrusts into you from behind, his skin slapping against yours. You reach back to squeeze at his arm as you come undone, and he pulls out shortly after to come on your ass. You both sigh with relief.

“Feel like horny teenager with you sometimes.” He chuckles as he starts to lather up his body.

“Me too.” You start washing your hair.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“I know you said you got off the pill because it didn’t make you feel good, but…are there other birth controls out there that don’t fuck with you?”

“Yeah, they’re called condoms.” You say as you put some conditioner in.

“Y/N.” He rolls his eyes and steps into the water once you’re done rinsing your hair.

“I mean…I know there’s an IUD that doesn’t mess with your hormones, but the procedure is a tad invasive, and it probably wouldn’t even be in there that long.”

“Why’s that?” He scrubs his own head so he doesn’t see your face flush.

“I just mean, like, I don’t know, what’s wrong with what we’re doing?”

“Nothing…I guess selfishly it would be nice to do it like this all the time, and not have to worry.” He looks at you. “You done?” He asks as he reaches to turn the water off.

“Yeah.” You pull the curtain and get toweled up, and hand him his. “I get where you’re coming from with that…I just…selfishly I don’t wanna compromise on it. If you’re worried about pulling out, then we don’t need to fuck in the shower like this. We can just go back to what we were before.”

“But I like fucking you in the shower like this.” He pouts and puts his hands on your hips. “You won’t even think about going on something?”

“I’m sorry, Harry…I don’t want to.”

“Alright.” He sighs. “I get it, I suppose. Condoms it is.” He kisses your forehead and leaves you to do your hair.

When you finish with your hair, you don’t see Harry in your bedroom. You go into the kitchen and see him fully dressed, getting some peanut butter on toast.

“Here, a light breakfast.” He smiles.

“Thank you.” You kiss his cheek, and take a bite of the toast. “You look handsome.” You smile at him and he smiles back.

“I’m gonna go call Andy while you’re finishing up. Do you mind if I use your office?”

“Not at all! Go right ahead.”

You finish up the toast and then go back into your room to finish getting ready. You put on a pair of black jeans, and a blue long sleeve blouse, and then go into the bathroom to put a little makeup on.

“Y/N?” Harry pops his head into the bathroom.

“Yeah?” You giggle.

“Andy wants to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.”

“Oh!” You reach out for the phone. “Hello?”

“Hi, Y/N!”

“Hi, Andy, happy turkey day.” You smile.

“You too! You and Dad are going to Boston for a couple of days, huh?”

“That’s right! Want us to bring you back anything special?”

“That depends…where are you going?”

“We’re going to be where a ton of Italian restaurants are, which means Italian bakeries. Would you like a fresh cannoli brought back to you?”

“I think I’d like you forever if you did that.” He laughs and so do you.

“Then I think that can be arranged.”

“Okay! Sorry, Mum wants to talk to Dad…”

“Oh! That’s fine, it was nice talking to you.” You hand the phone back to Harry. He was smiling ear to ear.

“Hey, yeah, he is polite isn’t he?” Harry chuckles and steps out of the bathroom. When you come out to the living room he’s sitting on the couch reading.

“All set?”

“Yeah, was just waiting for you. You’re good to go?”

“Mhm, would you carry the food down to the car for me?” You say, putting your jacket on.

“Yup, I’ll grab our bags too.”

“Thank you.” You give him a quick kiss and out the door you go.

You didn’t have an automatic start on your car and you wanted to warm it up a bit. Harry brings everything down to the car, and off you go towards the highway. He keeps a hand on your thigh as his other hand’s fingers drum along to whatever music you’ve put on. You liked that even when you were the one driving he still had a hand on you.

“I can drive us back tomorrow if you’d like.” He speaks up.

“That’s okay, it’s really not that long of a drive. Hour and twenty, max.”

“Takes me two hours to get to Boston…”

“You, my darling, drive like a grandma, that’s why.” You smirk.

“I do not!” He laughs. “I’m careful.”

“You don’t go over seventy…”

“That’s the speed limit! And you know as well as I do the state police up here pull everyone over.”

“You know what’s funny? I got pulled over before I got my NH plates, now I never get pulled over. I do eighty on the highway up here, and that’s perfect.”

“It’s too fast.”

“No, going ninety would be too fast. Just wait until we’re really driving in the city, you’ll be amazed at my swiftness.”

“You mean at your aggressiveness.”

“It’s called being a defensive driver. Maybe when Andy gets older I should be the one to teach him how to drive, or else we’ll have two grannies on our hands.” You throw him a cheeky grin and he just rolls his eyes at you.

“He’s never going driving with you unless I’m there too.”

Harry would never admit it, but he really liked it when you’d drop little hints that you were in this for the long haul. It would be years until Andy would be able to get his permit, and yet, here you are, thinking ahead about it. It was something you did once in a while, even this morning, Harry picked up on it when you mentioned how pointless an IUD would be. It was too soon to talk about kids and stuff, but he knew that was where your head was at, and it made him feel really good.

“You teach him how to park a car, you’re way better at that. I’m such a nervous parker.” You laugh. “One time I had to drive my boss to a conference we were both going to, and I had to park in a garage, and you know how narrow those spots can be. I told him I was nervous at parking, and he covered his eyes so I could park the car. He was such a sweet man, had kids my age at the time.”

“Would you like for me to do that from now on? Cover my eyes so you can park your car?” He chuckles.

“I wouldn’t hate it.”

“Why do you get so nervous?”

“I have my dad to thank for that. He’d watch me back out of the driveway just to make sure I didn’t run over the grass, it was so annoying.”

“Ah, a very dad thing to do. Grass is really important to us, you know? If you’ve got a shitty lawn it reflects poorly on you.” He smirks.

“Oh, shut up.” You roll your eyes. “You both can bond about going to Lowe’s on the weekends and looking at planks of wood.”

Harry bursts out laughing because that is definitely something he’s done before.

“I don’t just look at planks of wood, I also often go and look at the different types of mulch.”

“Do you ever bring a tape measure with you?”

“Keep one in my trunk, actually. Never know when you’ll need to take measurements for something.”

“Jesus.” You laugh and shake your head. “When you become a dad is there like an initiation ceremony where you get a bunch of that stuff?”

“Oh, sure, but it’s top secret. I’ve said too much already.”

You giggle at him. You were happy long car rides were never awkward with Harry. You could joke around, and then also sit in a comfortable silence. Today was going to be a good day.

//

Phil lived in a really nice condominium in the newly renovated areas of Southie. Harry was impressed that a sous chef could afford such a nice neighborhood.

“It’s kind of sad because this used to be where more of the affordable housing was, and then it got really gentrified. In their spare time, Phil and Julian try to help out and volunteer their time to help the people that got pushed out.”

“Wow, good for them.”

Harry helps carry the food as you key into the building, and lead him towards the elevator. You knock on the door before going in.

“Hello!” You say brightly as you both walk in.

“Hey!” Julian says, giving you a hug and kiss. “Come on in, Phil’s just basting the turkey. Hello.” He smiles at Harry.

“Hi, nice to meet you.” They shake hands, and Julian takes the food from him.

“Oh! A pumpkin pie, just what we needed, thank you.”

“No problem.” Harry smiles. You hook your arm around his waist as you walk further into the home.

“Hey!” Phil says coming over to the two of you. He gives you a hug and shakes Harry’s hand.

“This is Harry.” You say.

“Nice to meet you, man. Heard a lot of good things.” Phil smiles.

“Nice to meet you too. This is a great place.”

“Thanks! Been here for, like, what…three years?” He asks Julian.

“Yup! Almost three and a half. Got for a steal at the time.”

“Are Mum and Dad here?” You ask.

“Yeah, in the living room. Go and get comfortable, everything’s still cooking. They’re watching the parade.”

You nod and lead Harry into the living room.

“Mum, Dad, we’re here.” You say and they both get up to say hello. “Harry, this is my mum, Rebecca, and my dad, Richard.”

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you both.” He shakes both of their hands.

“Finally!” Your mom nearly squeals and throws her arms around Harry, and gives him a nice, wet kiss on the cheek. “It’s so good to meet you, Harry. We were starting to think you were made up!”

“Mum…I’ve shown you pictures.”

“You’re awfully good at that photoshop nonsense, could have just been edited.” She scoffs. “You’re very handsome.”

“Um…thank you.” His cheeks were incredibly red.

“Where’s your son today?” Your dad asks and you want to smack him for diving right in.

“Oh, he’s with his mum and her family today. She’s not from the U.K. like I am, so she actually celebrates Thanksgiving, I just observe.” He jokes, but it doesn’t land, so he clears his throat. “It’s just part of our custody agreement, I get him for Christmas.”

Your parents share a look, and then both smile at Harry.

“Your brother put out some munchies until dinner’s ready.” Your mom says. “Come, sit, I know the drive was long.”

“It wasn’t too bad, not much traffic to complain about.” You say as you stick a carrot into some dip. “Can I get you a drink, Har? Phil’s got beer and wine.”

“Just a beer would be great, thank you.”

You smile and go into the kitchen. He almost wishes he followed you because your parents stay looking at him. He was wearing a nice button up, so his tattoos weren’t overly exposed, so it couldn’t be that.

“So, how old is your son?” Your mom asks.

“Eleven, he’ll be twelve in May. His name is Andy.”

“Is it short for Andrew, or is it just Andy?” Your dad asks.

“It’s short for Andrew.” Harry smiled. “Andrew Jacob Styles.”

“What a lovely name.” You mom smiles. “Is he named after anyone?”

“Um, Jacob is a family name on his mum’s side, and Andrew was just a name with both really liked.” He shrugs. “Nothing more to it than that.”

“You’re still close with her, his mum…” Your dad notes.

“Sort of. We do the co-parenting to the best of our ability. Living close by helps with that.”

“I think it’s nice you can get along so well. We have some friends who have divorced, and they can’t stand each other. I feel terrible for the kids, they get caught in the middle, unfortunately.”

“Well, my ex and I were never ma-“

“Here were are.” You say, handing Harry a beer, a glass of red in your other hand. “How’s the parade?” You ask sitting down next to Harry.

“Y/N, you interrupted our conversation.” Your dad says. “Harry was just explaining to us how his co-parenting works.”

“Dad…I don’t think Harry really wants to talk about that right now, okay?”

“It’s alright.” Harry says. “I know it must be a tad odd for your daughter to be dating someone with so much baggage, I get it.” He takes a sip of his beer. “I was young, accidents happen, but I wouldn’t change a thing.” He puts his arm around you and sits a little more comfortably.

“Well, we hope to meet little Andy at some point.” Your mom says. “Maybe this summer we can come up for a little visit, Y/N.”

“Yeah, maybe.” You smile and lean into Harry. “He’s so sweet, and funny. He’s a really talented painter too. He’s decorated some things in my office for me.”

“Wow, that’s a big deal. You wouldn’t even let me help decorate.” Your mom chuckles.

“Because your taste is terrible, Mum, no offense.” You grimace.

“She’s right, Becky.” Your dad laughs.

“Oh, what do you two know?” She stands up. “I’m going to see if Phil needs help.”

You and your dad laugh a little.

“Good, now I can switch it to football. I actually don’t give a fuck about the parade.” Richard says. “Pardon my French.”

“No worries.” Harry says. “I don’t give a fuck either.” He grins and it makes your dad laugh.

Okay, despite the bit of awkwardness at the beginning, this was actually going pretty well. You knew your parents had their reservations with Harry, but they didn’t seem too put off. After an hour or so of watching football, everyone is called to the dining area for dinner. The spread looked incredible, your brother outdid himself. He and Julian sit at the heads of the table, and then you and Harry sit across from your parents.

“Before we dig in, I just want to say how thankful I am that we could all be together today.” Phil says. “This is the first year I didn’t have to work, so we were able to do this at a normal hour like other families. It’s nice having to wait until nearly eight o’clock.” He smiles. “Two is much better. Enjoy!”

Everyone hums in agreement, and take what they want. Phil made plenty of veggies and other meatless options for you and Harry.

“Harry, how long have you been a professor for?” Julian asks once everyone has what they want.

“Um, like, ten years I’d say. I taught while I was getting my master’s, so I count that. Got my PhD a little over four years ago, though.”

“Very cool, and did you know you always wanted to be a teacher or…?”

“Honestly, no.” He chuckles. “But I really liked what I was studying and researching, and I knew I wanted to keep doing that, and so when I was getting my master’s and became a TA, I fell in love with teaching. I don’t think I could do it at a K-12 level, but I really like teaching at a collegiate level.”

“That’s exactly what Y/N always says.” Phil says.

“It’s true! I don’t think I could teach young kids, but I really like the college kids. Especially the upperclassmen, they’re a tad more mature.”

“Harry, how did you end up over here in the states?” Your mom asks.

“Ah, well, I was looking to study abroad. I went to a school in London my freshman year, and I liked it, but I really wanted to branch out, so I ended up in New York for school. I loved it.”

“And…now you live in New Hampshire?” Your dad asks.

“Yeah, so, when I was looking for master’s programs I was looking for schools in that area because, um, my ex’s grandparents lived in the lakes region, and we needed a bit of help. Her parents live in Connecticut, and there weren’t any schools I wanted to go to out there, so I ended up at UNH for that. The drive to Manchester every day wasn’t fun, but it made things easier to have her family closer by. It was a decent compromise. I almost moved to that area full time, but her grandparents passed away, and she had to take their home over, so I ended up at our university for my doctoral program so I could stay close to my son.” He takes a sip of his drink. “I fell in love with area. I got into hiking and some of the other outdoorsy stuff there is to do. It’s home now.”

“And your family, they’re in the U.K.?” Phil asks.

“Yeah, my mum and sister both live in London. Mum’s retired and lives with my sister. She’s married with a couple of kids, so she may as well be a live in nanny.” He chuckles. “I bring Andy home to see them for Christmas, and sometimes they come to visit in the summer.”

“So, do you have dual citizenship or just a work visa?” Julian asks.

“He wouldn’t need that since he married a U.S. citizen.” Your dad says.

“See, I was trying to explain earlier, we never got married.” Harry explains. “Um…so, yeah, I have dual citizenship. I was here on a school visa for a bit, and then I got the work visa, but I knew I was stayed so I went through the citizenship process. It was a real bitch, I have to say.”

The table laughs and agrees. The conversation turns to politics, only briefly, and then goes back to light chatter. Once dessert is out and eaten, everyone is stuffed. You and Harry help clean up, and then your parents leave shortly after. Everyone feels like they can take a deep breath now.

“So you two are staying at Julian’s hotel, yeah?” Phil asks.

“Yup, why?” You raise an eyebrow.

“How about we meet you guys in the city, and we go to that bar we all like?”

“That sounds great! Meet us there around eight?”

“Works for me.”

“That work for you?” You ask Harry.

“Yeah, sounds like fun.” He smiles.

//

Once you’re checking into the hotel, you head to the elevator, and go up to your room. Harry notes how nice the hotel is, and you agree. Julian was a really good manager, and did well to make sure that the place ran smoothly. You key into the room, and you both plop down on the bed with a big sigh.

“I’m stuffed.” Harry says with a slight chuckle.

“Same here.” You look over to your bag and tug it towards you, rummaging through it and pulling out a small purple bottle. “Um…so…usually we each have two different bathrooms to use when we have sleepovers, or maybe…we don’t tend to use the bathroom in a certain way, but that’ll be different tonight so I brought this.” You show him the small bottle. “So…we can just use the bathroom and not feel embarrassed.”

Harry smirks and takes the small bottle to read it.

“Poo-perize…” He looks at you.

“You just spray it before you go, and it’s like you never went at all.”  

“Ah, well, good thinking. I wouldn’t want you knowing that I took a shit.”

“Harry.” You groan and snatch the bottle from him.

“Are you telling me you’ve never shit at my house in the five months we’ve been together?”

“I…have…just not a lot. I don’t know, I’m not good with other people’s bathrooms. I’m just gonna go stick this in there.”

You get up while he shakes his head and laughs at you. You come back out and lay down next to him on the bed.

“I’m gonna tell you something I told Andy when he was about two years old.” He says to you.

“What’s that?”

“Everybody poops.”

“Gah!” You exasperate. “I know that, obviously, I just don’t want you thinking about me doing it…”

“It’s not like my ear’s gonna be pressed up against the door!” He laughs. “Lighten up.” He pulls you to rest your head on his chest and he kisses you on the top of your head.

“Did you have fun earlier? I hope my parents weren’t too invasive.”

“They were fine, I totally understood why they were asking what they were asking. I know it’s odd for someone my age to have a kid in middle school.”

“I just don’t want you to think they were judging. I actually think they really liked you.”

“I’m glad to hear it. It’ll be nice for them to come visit in the summer. Maybe we could all go to the cabin.”

“God, they would love that, babe.” You snuggle further into him.

After resting for a while, and using the bathroom, you both head down to meet Phil and Julian at a bar down the street. You all grab a booth and start a tab for drinks.

“So, this is where you all go when you visit?” Harry asks you once the drinks are on the table.

“Sort of, this is where I come with them.”

“Y/N has probably been to every bar in this city.” Phil laughs.

“You’re gonna make me sound like an alcoholic!” You laugh. “When you go to school in the city, you gotta find the good places to go. All trial and error.”

“You also had a really good fake ID.” Julian smirks. “Remember when we took her out for her twenty-first, and the bartender practically scolded her?” He laughs.

“Oh my god, he was so mad at me.” You take a sip of your drink. “There was this one place I had been sneaking into for years, and I wanted my twenty-first birthday party to be there, and I had been pretty friendly with the bartender, right? So I had him my new ID, and he, oh my god, I thought he was gonna flip his shit.”

“He gave you free shots though, so he couldn’t have been too mad.” Phil winks at you and you just shake your head.

“Yeah.” You roll your eyes.

The reason the bartender had not flipped out, thrown you out was because you promised a very a good blow job in the bathroom on his break. You had delivered, and then he gave you free shots all night, and you ended up going home with him to further explore after said blow job, but you weren’t about to expose yourself to Harry like that. You didn’t want him to think you were immature, even if it was something that happened years ago.

“Must be nice to have grown up in a place where the legal drinking age is eighteen.” Julian says to Harry.

“Yeah, it was pretty sweet that last year before going to uni. My friends and I would go to the clubs, get in a bit of trouble.” He chuckles after taking a sip of his drink. “I’m kind of glad I came to America for the rest of school, I think it helped me settle down a bit.”

“I studied abroad for culinary school,” Phil starts, “mostly in France, but when I would go out with my friends it would definitely get wild. It was a culture shock to start the evenings so late! We wouldn’t leave until midnight sometimes.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly how it is, and we’d stay out until after four in the morning most times.”

“That was the first time I saw hard drugs being used so casually. People just doing lines in the bathroom and stuff. It happens here too, but it was way less taboo over there.”

“Phil, did you ever…?” You ask him.

“God no, I mean, I smoked share of weed, but I never did anything more than that. I was too afraid of being fucked up while chopping something in the kitchen.”

“Did you?” You ask Harry. You were more curious than anything.

“Yeah.” He says casually with a shrug. “Like I said, I’m glad I came here to finish school.”

“Holy shit, what did it feel like?” You gaze up at him. “I’ve never done anything like that, I’ve never even gotten high…”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He gives your hand a squeeze. “It was so long ago, I don’t really remember, honestly. You just sort of feel happy and out of it.”

“Y/N, you never smoked or did an edible or anything?” Phil asks, almost shocked.

“I mean, I’ve been hot boxed before, but that’s it. I just stuck to drinking.” You laugh. “I was too scared, I didn’t know if I would be one of those people that would freak out or have a bad trip or something.” You finish your drink and so does everyone else.

“Does everyone want the same thing? I can go up and get the next round.” Harry offers.

“That’d be great.” Julian says, and you and Phil nod. Harry gives you a quick kiss before getting up to go to the bar. “He’s dreamy, Y/N, I don’t know how you get any work done.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what type of guy I was expecting, but I’d let him leave marks on me too.”

“Phil!” You giggle. “I’m glad you both like him so far. He’s amazing.”

“And things are still good between you and his kid?”

“Yeah! Andy really likes me. I think it helps that he had time to get used to me a little when Harry and I were just friends. Something tells me Harry had mentioned he had a little crush on me to him though because there was this one time Andy texted me from Harry’s phone to ask me to come get ice cream with them.” You giggle again. “It was so cute.”

“Little wing man, that’s sweet.” Phil nods.

“Sometimes I feel bad because you can tell he prefers to be with me and Harry, as opposed to his mum and soon to be step-dad…I don’t really get it.”

“He’s eleven, right?” Julian asks and you nod. “I get it. I was a total momma’s boy, and then when I started middle school, I wanted nothing to do with my mom, and it killed her. We fought all the time, and I found myself wanting to be with my dad more. Not even to talk, just being in his presence, you know? I think it’s puberty. I have a great relationship with my mom now. It’s just a phase.”

“Yeah, plus, it must be weird to have two father figures in your life. One’s telling you what to do, but you also wanna respect your actual father. Must be confusing.”

“Alright.” Harry says as he sits down with the four drinks. “What I miss?”

“Nothing, babe.” You smile and kiss his cheek. “These two were just swooning over you, that’s all.” You grin at your brother and his partner.

“Really? Well, I’m flattered.” Harry jokes.

“I have to know, do students, like, throw themselves at you?” Phil asks.

“Um, not so much anymore, when I was younger they did. A lot of them also know I’m spoken for now, so that helps.”

“It’s so awkward! Some of the senior boys I advise have tried flirting with me in our meetings, and I’m like…you’re kidding right? Keep your shrimp dick to yourself.” You take a large sip of your drink and sway your head to the music in the bar.

“I’d love to know what some kid could possibly even say to you in that setting.” Phil chuckles.

“They think they’re so adult, you know? It’s all in the body language. They adjust themselves, trying to get me to look down, and they’ll bite their bottom lips to be sexy, it’s repulsive really. But my problem is I bite my lip when I feel nervous so then they think it’s working, and then they’re shocked when I’m like actually you deserved a D on this.”

Phil and Julian laugh, but Harry doesn’t really like the sound of anyone flirting with you.

“You know, you can report that if it gets aggressive.” He says.

“Oh, it’s fine. They realize when I don’t give in that it doesn’t work, and they should just put the work in.” You see the concern on his face. “Don’t worry, if it was that aggressive I’d call H.R. right away.” You put your hand on his thigh and give it a squeeze.

“You know what I think we should after this? Go to an actual club. I feel like dancing and working off all that food.” Julian says.

“Ugh, I knew you were going to say that.” Phil groans. “I’m exhausted.”

“Can’t help it.” He shrugs and looks at you. “Y/N?”

“Fuck yeah.” You look up at Harry. “What do you say? You’ve never really seen me dance before.”

“That’s true, I could be up for that, although, I probably won’t do much dancing.”

“Good, I’ll have someone to hang back with while these two pop their asses.” Phil says and it makes everyone laugh.

//

Phil and Julian order an uber to take you and Harry to one of the lgbtq+ friendly clubs they knew of in a different part of the city. You had been there with them before so you were excited. You were also excited that Harry was being such a good sport.

You get into the club easily since the bouncer knew Phil and Julian well, and you all go up to the bar to get drinks. You decide on something fun and fruity while Harry opts for a gin and tonic. Wannabe by the Spice Girls comes on and Julian yanks you onto the dance floor.

“It’ll be hours before we see them again.” Phil chuckles and takes a sip of drink.

“You never dance?”

“Sometimes I do, but it’s not my favorite. I’m not very coordinated.”

“Neither am I! I look like an idiot whenever I dance.” Harry laughs. “But I suppose that’s half the fun.”

Harry peers into the crowd and smiles when he sees you and Julian shouting the words to the song to each other, and giggling. He watches as the two of you dance together and it makes him smile more.

“You two have been together a long time then?” Harry asks. “If you both took her out for her twenty-first?”

“Yeah! That was around the time we made things official. We met right before I went to Italy to do some more studying, and then when I came back we decided to really be together. He’s amazing, an incredible partner. He’s brilliant, honestly.”

“Are you two married, or…?”

“We’re in a civil union.” Phil shrugs. “We’ve talked openly about it, and neither of us really feel the need to get married, you know? We know we wanna be together, we don’t need a court or a piece of paper to lock it in. We each wear these rings.” Phil holds up his left hand. “See the one on my middle finger? That’s a promise ring he gave to me, and I gave one to him. That’s enough.”

“That’s really sweet.” Harry smiles.

“You have a lot of cool rings.” Phil takes one of Harry’s hands to look them over.

“Thanks! Started collecting them basically when I was nineteen. I’ve always really liked rings and bracelets.”

“And perfectly manicured nails?” Phil raises an eyebrow at him.

“Started doing that in uni. The crowd I hung out with was into black nail polish, I got into it too. It’s actually what helped me snag my ex.” He rubs the back of his neck with his free hand.

“Really?”

“Yeah, we were friends for a bit, and one night she got really drunk and she started crying because her nail ripped and she just wanted to take all the polish off and start over, and I told her I had stuff back at my room to do that, so I took her back with me and basically did her nails. I let her sleep in my bed and I slept on the floor, and then the next morning before I could even say anything she kissed me.”

“Oh my god, that’s like out of a movie.” Phil swoons, letting go of Harry’s hand. “But I think I like the story of the camping trip with my sister better.” He takes a sip of his drink. “Actually, I think I like that you casually brought her to a family party, and then brought her back to your place to watch the sunset.”

“Told her I liked her that night too, but I back peddled.” Harry chuckles.

“She picked up on that, but I think she chose to ignore it at the time. I’m glad she came to her senses.”

“Me too.” Harry smiles.

After a few songs, you come back to Harry, throwing your arms around his neck. Your fruity drink hitting you much faster than your others.

“Maybe just one more.” You slur.

“Or, and here me out, you could start drinking some water.” He tucks some hair behind your hair to keep it from your sweaty forehead.

“But-“

He dips his mouth to your ear to whisper.

“I’d like to have a little fun when we get back, and we can’t do that if you’re sloshed, babe.” He moves back to look at you with raises eyebrows and you nod. “Great, I’ll go get you some ice water.”

He returns shortly and you guzzle it down. Once you’re all set you make your way back to Julian. Harry taps his foot along with the beat of the song.

“Hey, handsome, can I buy you a drink?” A guy slightly shorter than Harry says to him brightly.

“Um, I’m so sorry, I’m here with someone.” He points over to you.

“Why aren’t you dancing with her then?!”

“He’s got a point, Harry.” Phil teases him.

“You’re not dancing with Julian!”

“Fair enough.” Phil finishes the rest of his drink and strolls over to join you and Julian. You both hoot and holler with excitement.

“Go on, pretty boy, go show your girl a good time.” The man winks and then walks away.

Harry sighs and makes his way over to you. Your eyes light up and your smile says it all. You’re absolutely delighted that he’s come over to you. You wrap your arms around his torso and press your cheek to his chest, swaying back and forth with him. His arms go around you and he rests his chin on the top of your head. It didn’t matter that the song was fast paced, you were happy to just be pressed up against him the way you were. You look up at him, smiling.

“What?” He smiles down at you.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

//

It was a wonderful night out with Phil and Julian, but it had to end sometime, so you and Harry uber back to the hotel around one in the morning. You didn’t want to be too tired for whatever fun he wanted have with you.

“That was fun.” He says to you in the back of the car. “I like them, they were really welcoming.”

“I’m so glad! I figured you’d get along well since you’re around the same age.” You shrug.

“That club was fun too, got hit on by a guy.”

“You did?!”

“Yup.” He says proudly. “Called me handsome and asked me if I wanted a drink, but don’t worry, I told him I was there with someone.”

“Well, thank god, otherwise you’d be in an uber with someone else right now.” You say facetiously and he laughs.

“Should I be offended that you think I could so easily be swayed to leave with someone else?” He nudges you playfully.

“Nah, I’m just teasing. I know you wouldn’t do that.”

“Besides,” he leans in closer to your ear so the driver won’t hear, “the only tight, little hole I wanna fuck is yours.”

Your eyes grow wide and you feel a shiver go down your spine. You know that he’s referring to your other hole. His mouth had been on it enough times now for you to know he definitely wanted to have anal with you, but you weren’t sure of how you felt about it exactly. You could see him maybe using a finger or something, but his entire prick? Your thoughts are broken when you feel his lips on your temple.

You get to the hotel and head up to your room, hand in hand.

“Oh!” You say as you get inside the room. “I brought something to wear to bed, and I really wanna put it on for you.”

“You never wear anything to bed, though.” He chuckles.

“I know! I brought it special for the trip. I didn’t think we’d be out as late as we were. Please? It’s really cute.” You pout.

“It’s just gonna come off a minute after you put it on, but sure.” He smiles and sits on the edge of the bed. “I’ll humor you.”

You grab your bag and bring it into the bathroom with you. This also gives you a chance to just freshen up since you were sweating on the dance floor. You touch up your makeup, apply some fresh deodorant, and spritz a little bit of perfume onto your wrists, and dab a bit behind your neck. Next you take out the garments you wanted to wear for him. It wasn’t incredibly special, but cute nonetheless. It was a pastel purple set of silk pajamas. The top was tank top style with a little bit of lace where you cleavage would sit, and the bottoms were shorts that just show your under-bum. Class, but sexy. You brush your hair out so it looks less frizzy, and then peak your head out of the bathroom door.

“Ready for me?”

“Ready, babe.”

“Close your eyes.”

Harry sighs and closes his eyes. He had already taken his glasses off and put them away. His palms are pressed behind him on the mattress. You tip toe out of the bathroom and come to stand in front of him.

“Okay, open.”

His eyes flutter closed and then they widen when he looks you up and down. You twirl around for him and giggle.

“What do you think?”

“You look…lovely, Y/N.” His hands come up to rest on your hips. “When did you get these?”

“Not too long ago. I’ve been saving it for a night away where I’d maybe have excuse to change into something else.”

“S’very pretty. I love the color on you.”

You smile down at him and get yourself situated so that you’re straddling him. His hands slide down to your ass and he squeezes you. His hands then move up under the back of the top and then he drags his nails down your soft skin and your head rolls back. He takes the opportunity to sponge wet kisses up your jugular, and around to the crook of your neck. He licks up to just under your earlobe, and sinks his teeth into your skin. You gasp from the sensation, loving the way it feels. Your hands move to clutch at his shoulders as he creates a nice, purple mark on your neck.

“Fuck, Harry.” You breathe after he detaches himself from you.

“To match your pj’s.” He smirks.

A slight whimper leaves your lips, and then you start unbuttoning his shirt furiously. He helps you get it off him, and then you run your hands up and down his torso, making scratch marks of your own. You loved the way his stomach would tighten from the feeling of your nails. Your fingers work next to undo his belt and button on his jeans.

“Need you naked.” You kiss him. “Now.”

He nods quickly and you stand up to help him get his pants off. He kicks them to the floor as he works to get his boxers off as well. Once they’re throw somewhere you kiss him again, and work your way down his body. He opens his legs up more you and you plant kisses up and down his hard dick. You move to tease him a little, nipping at his inner thigh the way he would do to you. He cards his fingers through your hair, and makes a makeshift ponytail for you with his fist. You lick up his shaft with the flat of your tongue and the moan his lets out just eggs you on further. You kiss his tip before taking it into your mouth and you sink down on him, taking him as deep as you can before popping back off him.

Not that he ever thought of her while he was with you, but times like this Harry couldn’t help but compare you to Paige. She never did things like this for him. He always had to ask her to do it, and she’d only do it for a couple of minutes. She’d give him a hand job no problem, but she rarely would put her mouth on him, which made him sad because he had no problem doing it for her. You, on the other hand, would often initiate with him, and he loved that about you. Sometimes you’d be lounging on the couch or even just reading in bed together, and you’d look at him. He knew the look very well now, and he would just nod, and all of a sudden your mouth would be on him. Times like this it was just more confirmation that he was with the right person.

Blow jobs were things you didn’t particularly enjoy unless you really liked a guy, which is exactly what you told him when you first gave him one. If you were going to make a guy feel good, you wanted to make sure that guy was going to make you feel just as good, and Harry passed that test. Now, you loved pleasuring him like this no problem. Even when you were on your period, you didn’t care that you couldn’t have much in return unless you got in the shower.

You lick over his slit and moan from the taste, which you didn’t particularly love, but just the fact that he was already leaking for you was enough for you to make the noise. You smear your bottom lip along his tip because you know he likes it sloppy, and you know his precome his bound to dribble down your chin. You look up at him and see he’s already watching you, chest heaving. You bring your face away, a string of spit keeping you attached to him before you lick over your lip and smirk.

“What?”

“Well…it’s just…I’m a little tired.” You look away and then back up to him, your grin growing. “So, what if I just put my mouth over you and you do the work?”

“Are you asking me to fuck your mouth?” He was being very serious.

“Yes, Harry.”

“Are you comfortable on the floor or do you want to get on the bed?”

“Maybe just hand me a pillow for my knees?”

He nods and quickly grabs a pillow from the head of for you. You get it situated to get yourself more comfortable, and you nod. He tightens his grip on your hair as you lower your mouth back around him. He starts by just easing you on and off, up and down. Your eyes flutter closed so you can focus on breathing through your nose. He bucks his hips up carefully to get a little further down your throat, and to help you adjust. You widen your throat as much as you can. You keep one hand on his thigh, and the other you keep in a fist, squeezing your thumb. An old trick you learned in college to help suppress your gag reflex. A placebo at best, but it worked.

“Oh my god, baby.” He groans as he really gets a rhythm going, bobbing your head up and down for you as he moves his hips. “You’re so fucking perfect.”

Your eyes flutter open and you do your best to look at him through your lashes, but all you can see are the ferns on his hips and love handles. You had drool and precome dripping down your chin, and you knew he had to be loving it. He was panting as he looks down at you, biting furiously into his bottom lip as to not disturb whatever neighbors were on either sides of the walls.

He was being extremely careful of you, which just turned you on more. It showed how much self-control he truly had to not just be ramming and thrusting his dick down your throat. Your nails are digging into his thigh, and you do choke on him at one point, but you’re okay. Eventually he has you come fully off of him.

“Don’t wanna come in my mouth?” You ask as you catch your breath and wipe your chin with the back of your hand.

“Not if you want me to fuck your cunt later.”

“Oh.” You blush. “Yeah, I want that.”

“Alright then.” He chuckles and helps you up. “Felt so good, baby.” He kisses your now swollen lips.

He lays you down on the bed, your head comfy on the pillows. He reaches between your legs and groans when he feels how wet you are through the silk shorts.

“Christ.” He breathes. “Taking this all off now.”

You nod and lift your arms up. He gets you fully naked and spreads your legs open. Just as you did with him, he kisses down your body, nipping where he pleases, and starts leaving more love bites on your inner thighs, causing you to squirm.

“Stay still for me, baby.”

“M’trying, sorry.”

You give him a soft smile and he gives you one back before he licks around your folds. You feel yourself almost go cross-eyed from the sensation. His teeth nip at your clit before he sucks on it, and he has to use one of his arms to hold you down because you’re just extremely sensitive tonight for whatever reason. His thumb replaces his mouth on your clit so he lick into you.

“Oh, god.” You moan. Your hands fly to his hair to tug on. “Harry.” You whimper and it’s music to his ears. It just makes him fuck you harder with his tongue. His thumb rubs perfect circles into where you need it most, and you feel your legs shaking around him. “Fucking, Christ!” You cry out as you start panting. You could feel your orgasm already approaching. He just knew exactly what to do, and it was incredible.

He pops up briefly to get some air, and then he looks at you, furrowing your brows.

“Wh-what is it?” You ask innocently.

“Would you…” He holds up his index and middle finger.

“Oh! Mhm.” You smile and open your mouth for him. He smiles back at you and brings his fingers to your mouth to suck on. You make eye contact as you lap and suck around him.

“Thank you, darling.”

Your heart flutters as he works his way back down between your legs. His fingers slide inside you while his mouth finds your clit again. His fingers curl up inside you, and you grip at the comforter on the bed. They pump and twist and pet you, and it’s all too much along with his tongue flicking at your clit.

“Ah! Fuck, Harry!” Your back arches off the bed, and your eyes roll into the back of your head. When he retracts his finger from you, you look at him, your eyes growing dark with lust. “Get the condoms.”

He nods and rummages through his bag for them, tearing one of them open, and sliding it onto his hard, throbbing dick. You put your hands onto his shoulders to brace yourself as he thrusts inside you. He buries his face into the crook of your neck as he rocks in and out. You get a fist full of his hair and rock your hips along with his.

“Fuck, Y/N.” He groans and looks at you, peaking his tongue out. You take the signal and let your mouth fall open so he can kiss you. It’s a searing kiss, needy, like he hadn’t kissed you in weeks. That was the thing with Harry, he always kissed you like he hadn’t seen you in ages, like he hadn’t touched you in ages. It was fucking fantastic.

“Harry, I’m gonna come again.” You whine. It was from the way you were grinding against him, otherwise you don’t think you would have had one again so quickly, not that you were complaining. He keeps everything the same so you can get there, and boy do you get there. He puts his hand over your mouth so you can cry out how you need to. You catch your breath and then you look up at him. “Let me ride you.”

He nods and pulls out, flipping on his back. You grip him to line yourself up once you’ve swung your leg over his lap. You sigh with relief once he’s inside you again. His hands work their way up your body to knead your breasts as move around on him in large circles. He looks up at you and starts chuckling.

“What could possibly be funny?” You ask, giggling.

“Nothing, I just like you a lot.” You pout at that. Since you said your I love yous, neither of you had made your like you a lot statement, and it filled your heart.

“I like you a lot too, Harry.” You lean down to kiss him, sucking on his bottom lip before returning up right.

“Gonna fuck me, baby?”

“Mhm, gonna fuck you so good.”

You start to raise and lower on him, his hands coming down to squeeze at your hips. Usually he would even up taking over, but he wanted to let you do it. He knew you wanted to do it, and you were so kind as to let him fuck your mouth earlier the least he could do was let you control the pace just this once. It also inflated his ego immensely to look up and watch your face like this. The joy you were getting from riding him was so delicious to him.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous like this, Y/N.” he squeezes harder at your hips, sure to leave bruises later, but you don’t care.

Your hands plant onto his thighs behind you as you continue to bounce up and down on him.

“Rub my clit, Harry, please.” You nearly whine.

He does so without question and you let out a loud moan. He could feel you squeezing around him and it was bringing him nearly over the edge. He could feel the ecstasy bubbling at the base of his spine.

“Baby, I’m not gonna last much longer.” He groans.

“Good, want you to come, let go, Harry.”

You feel his warm come fill up the condom, and the sensation along with his fingers rubbing on you guide you to your third release, causing you to collapse onto his heaving chest. He tilts your chin up and he smears his lips over yours.

//

After the long day and night you both had, neither of you were upset to have woke up at 10:15. You shower together, without any funny business, and get ready for the day. Harry furrows his brows at the booties you put on.

“What?” You ask him. “Don’t like ‘em?”

“No, they’re cute, it’s just…won’t your feet hurt walking around in them all day? I know you lived here and everything, but-“

“I promise, Daddy, if my feet hurt I won’t complain and if I do, you can say I told you so.”

“Y/N.” He sighs. “I hate it when you call me that so condescendingly, my express of concern isn’t me being fatherly, it’s me being your boyfriend who would feel terrible if your feet got all blistered.”

Your features soften, you didn’t realize how much your little joked bothered him.

“Oh…I’m sorry, um, these are actually pretty good for walking in. I wouldn’t wear them if I knew they’d hurt, but I appreciate you looking out for me.”

You give him a kiss on the cheek, and he grabs the bags. You check out, and grab a coffee from the complimentary section of the breakfast area, and put everything in the car.

“Julian said we could park here for the day no problem. We just need to talk to the green line stop, and we’ll be good to go.” You explain after locking the car back up.

You make your way to the green line station, and you just use your Charlie Card to get the both of you through, and onto the train that would get you Government Center. You were happy to be traveling with Harry. Sometimes when you were in town with people who didn’t understand the hustle and bustle of the T it could be frustrating, but Harry had the tube back in London, so this was second nature to him.

You almost feel giddy after coming off the train, and see The Quincy Market sign come into view. You tug at Harry’s hand to get him to walk faster towards the shops.

“There’s a Ray-Bans store here I wanna go to. They’re bound to have a sale right now. Oh! And there’s this store that sells really hot sauces I think you’ll like. Does Andy like graphic T’s? There’s a Newbury Comics here and I’d like to get him a gift from there.”

“For what? Thought you only promised a cannoli?”

“I did, but it would be for Christmas. Is that alright if I wanna-mph!” His lips were on yours, his hands cupping your cheeks. He was just overwhelmed with how much you cared about his son.

“Yeah, he likes graphic T’s.” He says it like he didn’t just shove his tongue down your throat, gently intertwining your fingers as you continue to walk.

You clear your throat and nod, giving his hand a squeeze. You go in and out of the shops. You note the sunglasses that Harry pays special attention to so you know which ones to get him for the holidays. You go into Sephora for a bit to look at the expensive makeup on one end of the store, and he looks at the foundation and concealer he would typically use. So much was on sale, you end up buying a ton of new brushes and sponges, and he gets the remover wipes he likes using. You go into spicy sauce store, and pick out a couple of bottles of things you’d each like to try, and then off to Newbury Comics.

“Do you shop at any of these clothing stores?” He asks subtly.

“Not really, I do StitchFix, why?”

“No reason.” He shrugs. Damn. He literally had no idea what to get you for the holidays. You bought yourself a new pair of sunglasses, and pretty much whatever else you needed. He was at a loss.

“So, what shows does he watch? I’d like to get him a shirt that’s relevant.” You say as you both make your way to the clothing section of the store.

“He’s really into Spongebob reruns at the moment, it’s been driving me nuts.”

“Seriously? That show is over twenty years old…”

“I know! He discovered it a few months ago, and he thinks it’s hilarious.” Harry sighs. “He also likes The Simpons, The Office, oh! He’s really into Malcom in the Middle right now.”

“How does even know about that show?”

“He found it on Hulu one night and he asked if he could watch it and I said okay. He loves it.”

“Hmm.” You tap your chin for a second. “I may need to go on Etsy then. I think I know of a shirt he would like, but I doubt they have it here.”

“You don’t have to go to so much trouble, Y/N. He’ll like whatever you give him.”

“That’s just it, I don’t want him to like it, I want him to love it.”

Harry thought his heart was going to burst as you looked around. You come to the section of the store with all of the different card games.

“Is he too young for Cards Against Humanity? Could be fun for him and Brandon.”

“Wee bit.”

“Alright…oh, what about What Do You Meme? That’s age appropriate, no?”

“Oh, he’s actually been asking for something like that. It’s a good stocking stuffer.”

“Perfect!” You snatch a pack. “This will also be from me.” You wink at him and keep looking around.

“What do you usually do for the holidays, anyways?”

“Well, whenever Hanukkah falls, I usually do something with my family, and then I lay low on Christmas.”

“Maybe during one of the nights of Hanukkah you could come over and the three of us could do something traditional with you.”

“I’d love that, Har.” You smile at him. “I could show you how to make homemade potato pancakes.”

“That would be a lot of fun.” He kisses your cheek.

Eventually you both walk over to the North End to get some Italian food for a late lunch/early dinner. You each enjoy raviolis and lots of bread. You make sure to stop off at one of the bakeries to grab some cannolis.

“You can just put these in your freezer, they should still be good when he gets home.”

“Sounds good, he’s gonna be so excited.”

You make your way back to the hotel garage and get into the car.

“Babe, let me drive, you’re tired.”

“No, I can do it.”

“Y/N.”

“Let me just get us through the city, and then I’ll pull over at the rest stop in Londonderry.”

“Fine.” He rolls his eyes.

You end up doing just that. You zip through the city, staying in the left lane the whole time, and then you pull over at the rest area. You let Harry drive the rest of the way, and he drives back to your place.

“Did you wanna stay over tonight? I could come to yours tomorrow, or if you’re sick of me we can-“

“Why do you always say that?” He chuckles. “I could never be sick of you.”

You beam at him, and you both get up inside your apartment. After you unpack your things, you both get into bed, and fall asleep quickly. It was the perfect Thanksgiving.

//

“Dad, these are so good.” Andy says, mouth full of cannoli Sunday night. “Y/N is the best.”

“I’ll pass the message on to her.” Harry smiles. “Listen, uh, how would you feel if she started staying over sometimes when you’re here?”

“I’d be okay with that, I don’t really care.”

“I just wanna make sure you feel comfortable with it. It’s okay if you don’t.”

“Dad, I really don’t care. I’d like it if she stayed here. I feel bad that she thinks she can’t. Then we could all have breakfast together in the mornings, that would be fun.”

“Yeah, it would. I’ll let her know you’re cool with it, thanks.”

“Thanks for asking first.”

“It’s your house too, not gonna make any big changes without consulting you.”

Later that night, as he’s crawling into bed, Harry texts you.

Harry: got the okay from the head of the house, you’re good to spend the night any time you feel comfortable doing so…he loved the cannolis btw

You: oh well, glad I was able to butter him up with those, lol why don’t we give it a try tomorrow?

Harry: are you just saying that because you know Mondays are baked ziti night????

You: what?! I’m offended! I want to come spend the night with you, it in no way has anything to do with your delicious, amazing, incredible, mouth watering baked ziti

Harry: god, you know what complimenting my food does to me 😈 😈 😈

You: goodnight, Harry

Harry: no!

You: yes

Harry: don’t do this

You: I’m so tired! You barely let me leave your bed this morning…need to catch up on sleep

Harry: everything we did today you wanted. I know because I asked and you said yes

You: very true! And now I’m telling you I’m going to sleep, I love you, I’ll see you tomorrow

Harry: alright, I love you too, sweet dreams, baby

//

The next morning, Harry gets up at 5AM to do his yoga in his bedroom, and then goes into the kitchen to get zome ziti boiled. It wasn’t a difficult dish to make, especially since there wasn’t meat in it, but Harry did use three types of shredded cheese, and he had a homemade marinara sauce. Once the ziti is cooked, he layers it all in a glass dish and sticks it in the fridge. It’ll go in the over to bake when he gets home later.

His next task is to shower, and get dressed before waking Andy up.

“Buddy, time to get up.” Harry comes in and sits on the edge of Andy’s bed. “Come on, sun’s up and everything.”

Andy groans like he does most mornings.

“Don’t gimme that. What do you want for breakfast?”

“Scrambled eggs, please.” He mumbles.

“Can do, now get up.” He takes the top blanket away and Andy groans louder, but it wakes him up enough to get out of bed.

Harry whips up some eggs for Andy and some peanut butter toast for himself, and sets it on the table. Andy comes out in jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt.

“Basketball’s gonna be starting in a bit, you must be excited.”

“Yup.” Andy smiles. “And winter program starts this Friday, I’m really excited for that. Do you think you’ll chaperone?”

“Probably. I’ll find a Friday to come out and help.”

“Y/N should come too.”

“I don’t know if she skiis…”

“How could she not in this area?”

“It’s not for everyone.” He shrugs. “I’ll ask her if she wants to come up to the cabin some weekend or something before having her help out with a bunch of kids.”

“Okay, fair point. Oh! You could teach her to ski, you’re a good teacher.”

“I’d have her take a professional lesson, Andy. It’s not as easy for adults to learn this kind of stuff as it is for kids.”

“You could still show her the basics.”

“Eat your eggs.” Harry rolls his eyes. “By the way, she’s coming for dinner tonight.”

“Of course she is.” Andy giggles. “It’s baked ziti night.”

“That’s what I said! Anyways, she’s gonna try staying over with us. Want you on your best behavior.”

“When am I not?” Andy scoffs.

“Hmm, let’s see…” Harry holds his hand up to start counting on his fingers.

“Okay, okay, I promise I’ll be good.”

“Thank you.”

//

It was a busy work day since it was the Monday after a short holiday break. You barely saw Harry, but you decide to leave him a little love note on his desk while he was teaching. You notice he left his phone on his desk. Something he rarely does, but it happens once in a while. You see it light up with a news notification, and you do a double take. His lock screen was a picture of the two of you. You pick it up and hold it closer.

“When did he…?” You trail off as you smile. It was a picture of you from one of your hikes. You’re looking up at him, smiling and sweaty, but smiling nonetheless.

“Y/N?” Harry says coming into his office. “What are you doing with my phone?”

“I…I was just leaving you a note, and it lit up…and…I didn’t realize I was your lock screen…” You hand him his phone.

“Of course you’re my lock screen, you have been for a while…”

“I guess I never noticed.” You look away. “I have a picture of the two of us as mine, see.” You show him your phone. “It’s from when we made that mess making waffles from scratch. Makes me smile every time I look at it.”

“Can’t believe I never noticed either…” He looks at the screen and then to you. He steps towards you. “You were leaving me a note?”

“Yeah, I…we barely saw each other today, and I know you need to get home soon, so I was just leaving you a little love note.”

“Oh.” He sets his things down on his desk and comes even closer to you. He tucks some hair behind your ear, his tell for wanting a kiss.

You lean up and he leans down and your lips press against each other. It doesn’t last long, you’re at work after all.

“Okay, well, I have some work to do.” You blush. “Um, I’ll be over by 6:30, does that work?”

“Works great.”

He watches you leave and he sighs dreamily as he gathers his things. He zips home and helps Andy with his homework before getting the ziti in the oven. You get over there around 6:30, with your overnight bag slung over your shoulder.

“Hi, boys.” You say as come inside after Andy answers the door.

“Y/N, those cannolis you got were so good. Thanks again.”

“Oh! I’m so glad you liked them, Andy.” You ruffle the hair on the top of his head and go to put your things down in Harry’s room before coming into the kitchen to give him a kiss. “It smells so good in here.”

“Just took it out of the oven, sit.” He smiles.

After dinner you’re itching to change into come comfier clothes, so you do. You put on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt, one Harry gave to you, and you come out with your laptop to the living room.

“You don’t mind, do you?”

“Nope, Andy?”

“Do your thing.” He shrugs as he flips the TV to Hulu to put Malcom in the Middle.

“Remember, two episodes and then you can go read before bed.” Harry reminds him.

“I’m fully aware, thanks.” He rolls his eyes.

“When I was your age, my bed time was 9:30, but CSI, the Las Vegas one, was on at nine, and I used to watch TV with my mom in bed every night, and CSI was on Thursdays, and so every Thursday we’d have the same fight because I had to see how the episode ended, you know? And then my mom would get so tired that she’d just let me stay up and finish it.”

The boys both look at you with wide eyes. You had a tendency to talk really fast when you had a story to tell.

“Dad says I can’t watch TV right before bed because then I won’t sleep well.”

“He’s right about that! I could never sleep after watching TV with my mom. She’d watch Date Line and scary shows like that.”

“If you were scared, then why would watch with her?” Andy asks.

“Well, my mom worked until eight most nights and I just wanted to spend time with her, so getting into bed and watching TV with her was my way of doing that.”

“That’s sweet.” Harry says, putting his arm around you.

After Andy goes to bed around nine, making sure to give you and Harry a hug, you both decide to get ready for bed as well. You do your routine, and chew on your bottom lip.

“What is it?” He asks he slides into bed with his book.

“Can I still sleep naked? Does he ever come in here?”

“Hmm, how about just a t-shirt? Grab any one of mine from my dresser.”

“Okay, fair enough compromise.”

You change quickly, and get into bed with a book of your own.

“This is nice.” He says, smiling at you. “Having you here on a Monday night.”

“Yeah, feels right.” You kiss his cheek and open your book to the page you dog-eared.

Even though Harry just wanted to ravage you, he knew that would probably have to wait until you showered in the morning. You did look awfully cute when you passed out with your book still in your hand. Harry takes it, saved your place, and sets it on the night table closest to you. He takes his glasses off and turns off the lights, then kisses your forehead before wrapping himself around you. You adjust into him and drift off fully.

You’re woken up abruptly around midnight by Harry’s phone buzzing. It goes off a few times so he finally turns over and grabs it.

“Oh, shit.” He says.

“What?” You mumble.

“Paige called three times, hold on.” He swipes his phone to call her back.

“Harry?!”

“Hey, what’s going on, is everything alright?”

“No…everything’s not alright.” She sobs.

“What happened?” Harry sits up fully. “What’s wrong, darling?” When he says that it makes you sit up. He was clearly trying to calm her down, but you didn’t like him using the term of endearment.

“My…my father died.”

#harry styles #office neighbors #harry styles imagine #harry styles fic #harry styles fanfic #harry styles series #harry styles x reader #harry styles x y/n #harry styles y/n #harry styles fluff #harry styles smut #harry styles angst #singledad!harry #professor!harry

[kota-bee]

I can’t tell pt. 2

Pairing: Spencer Reid x OC

Chapter summary: Andrea and Spencer come up with their undercover backstory.

Warnings: some case descriptions, our lovely unsub is a necrophiliac so yeah. Keep that in mind

A/N: loved this chapter. I love making my characters blatantly ND. Andrea stimming gives me life

Requests: open! I absolutely need requests currently. I need ideas

Part one so you know what’s going on

The walk down to the car was an awkward one. Both Andrea and Spencer processing what the hell just happened. Undercover? Undercover as a couple? It was way too much. Andrea felt like her head was spinning. When she finally slid into the drivers seat she flapped her hands around a bit to try and get her emotions under control. Spencer chuckled softly at the sight. “You alright?”

“Yeah. Just a little overwhelmed. Never done undercover before.” She replied, shaking her hands one last time before starting the car. “I get it. You were an on scene psychiatrist before you came here right? Just picture it like that… just more complicated” Spencer rambled. He tapped his fingers against his thighs, his own little way of getting his anxiety out.

“More complicated?” Andi muttered to herself sarcastically. “Who’s apartment do you wanna go too to figure this out?” She continued. “Yours” Spencer answered immediately. Andrea smiled to herself, knowing exactly why he preferred her place. Andrea was a very artsy person. She made a deal with her land lord that she could paint her apartment all she wanted as long as she covered it before she left.

In the past 2 years she’s painted a mural on every wall in her living room. She’s currently working on her office but with how often she’s working it’s hard to get done. Spencer’s favorite was the wall of swirling colours in her living room, it was mesmerizing. He had asked what inspired that one and that’s when he learned Andi could see colours with sounds, that mural was just a representation of that.

Andi pushed the door open and stepped into the living room, Spencer following close behind. “I’m gonna change. Can you get some notebooks from my office and start brainstorming?” Andrea asked softly as she dropped her bag on the floor. Spencer hummed softly, b lining for the office.

Spencer has been here a hundred times. He loved her apartment, it was so soothing and calm. She always kept it cold and bright, giving off a comforting feel. Her office was messy, papers and books scattered around, an occasional paint can stacked here or there. Andrea and Spencer were exact answers when it came to organizing, Spencer needed direct order and Andrea? Andre needed chaos to succeed.

Spencer gathered some notebooks, pencils, and some sticky notes and strolled back into the living room. Andi was already there sitting on the floor rocking slightly. The sight made Spencer’s heart swirl, she only seemed to do that around him and always with a soft smile on her face.

“Did you grab my big pencil? And you’re sticky notes?” She asked sticking a hand out to take things from him. “Of course. So… we’re supposed to put together a dynamic of um-“ Spencer trailed off, his face heating up, finally realizing what was happening

“A married couple” Andre finished flatly. The young woman knew her friend was nervous but just couldn’t understand why. Just a second ago he was fine and now he was fidgeting and squirming. She wanted to ask why but decided against it, not even knowing what to ask.

“Right that. We should probably start with a backstory. When we met, when we got married, that stuff. Garcia will deal with fake names so we don’t have to worry about that.” Spencer explained, scribbling quickly with furrowed eyebrows. Andi hummed and leaned back onto her elbows, starting at the colourful wall. She was imaginative, more so than most but, now she was drawing blanks.

“You’re from Vegas and I’m from St. Louis, what’s a good middle ground?” Andi asked after a moment of silence. They couldn’t give out their homestates, a mid ground sounded like the easiest most realistic option. “Colorado or Utah are probably our best options. We could pick some middle of no where place to make it seem less suspicious we would move to another place like that” Spencer explained swiftly, jotting down his thoughts sloppily. Andi hummed again and resumed staring at the wall.

This case is complex. A serial killer that targets couples, purely to make the men watch him kill their wives. But he was also a necrophiliac, grave robbing and violating corpses. He had mixed things that generally stayed separate. Catching him in theory should be easy but, without the aid of local police it became much more complicated. Out in the middle of no where, anyone can be he unsub and we couldn’t risk messing up.

“So what if we met at university. We were both nerds with little to no friends and found solace in the other. We eventually started dating after you invite me to a study date. We get married 2 years later in a Vegas style wedding with no party or family present. Just to tie up loose ends on why family doesn’t call or visit I guess.” Spencer’s words brought Andrea out of her trance.

The story sound legitimate and very true. It could’ve actually happened had they known eachother at uni. “Sounds plausible. What are our majors and such? I mean I’ll be working as a medical examiner and you’ll probably have a desk job close by. It’s gotta match up. Your degrees don’t point to a desk job unfortunately” andi rambled slightly, trying to poke holes in her own logic.

“We can just exclude your degree in psychology and keep your chemistry and medical practises degrees. I went to college for pathology, got my degree, but decided it’s not my career path and got a desk job instead.” Spencer was piecing together a puzzle at this point. Andi provided him questions and he provided the answers. The perfect pair.

“So that’s our backstory made mostly. What made us move?” Andi quirked her head to the side as she thought.

“family issues?” Spencer offered

“No that requires another back story that’s too easy to poke holes in. Downsizing is the easiest answer I guess” andi huffed out, looking down at her notebook for answers. Spencer hummed in affirmation.

They spent the next few hours bouncing ideas off of each other and eventually settled on a definitive narrative. The rest of the night passes by calmly.

“Do you want tea? I still have your favorite” andi offered sweetly, wandering towards her kitchen. Spencer grumbled a soft yes as he rubbed at his tired eyes. Andi chuckled to herself softly as she gathered the ingredients and kettle. She didn’t really get Spencer’s little mannerisms, like him scrunching his face up when he was thinking but she thought they were sweet. She was never good with understanding those things but Spencer never cared.

“Do you think hotch will be happy with this?” Spencer called from his place on the couch. “He better be. There’s 8 pages of notes for him to look over.” Andi grunted back. Hotch would poke holes in their story no matter what but that was ok. He just wanted them safe. Safety wasn’t guaranteed when you were being bait though.

#spencer fluff #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x original female character #Spencer Reid #criminal minds #criminal minds smut

[hozner]

Ok my feelings about the episodes (8-7 and 8-8) in no particular order:

we’re boiling down the reason Holt and Kevin split to Holt being obsessive about work and being way too competitive. Okay, on the one hand I kind of get it because this is a sitcom and we don’t have time and need to be funny. On the other hand I’m like in the first episode Holt’s short monologue is “It’s been a tough year to be a black man and a police captain and a human. I’ve been pushed to the brink emotionally and physically. I went into survival mode, I neglected my personal life.” And, yeah, I am sad that we didn’t get to see THAT. Because that is so much more complicated than what we’ve seen of their conflict.

It was difficult for me to figure out why Holt was so stubborn in 8-7 beyond, you know, sitcom reasons. In episode one he flat out admits that he neglected Kevin. He knows what’s up. He’s petty, he’s competitive as fuck, but his ultimate goal is to get Kevin back, right? It’s also like if their relationship was Holt always wanting to win everything, how the hell did Kev stay with him for so long?

Todd? Not that hot. But also lol at Holt being his judgmental self. Holt weirdly always going for white guys (except for that one 8 year boyfriend he had at some point). I loved Todd talking about Queen’s gambit, the way he delivered that line was great.

But also poor Todd, the true victim of this episode (Pappy Boyle had it coming, drinking that rat milk all day for 93 years). This is a guy who just wanted to go on a date with a hot middle-aged cop. He did not sign up for this.

Man, that moment when Andre delivers that whole thing about real life versus movies and people don’t run to each other in the rain thing. I have rewatched this so many times. It’s so good. It’s just so good.

Kevin takes the leap again. I mean contrast this: Holt sends dick pic - Kevin runs through the rain to say I love you. Hard to tell which one of them is more romantic, right?

Holt is such an over-corrector. It’s like that time he went from saying “Does anyone else feel warm?” to throwing himself down the stairs. You get nothing! No, wait actually, I will compromise on everything and also decide to retire for you next episode!”

Kevin fretting about their vow renewal is adorable.

I’m gonna be honest, I love the porn joke.

To be honest, thought the BONE reference was a little much on the third BOOooOne. You can hate me now. “Cheddar’s not some street rat!” Though his tatse in vases is questionable.

We went from “Cheddar is a dog, he has no concept of happiness.” to he prefers the other vase, he thinks shrimp are bougie... but that just might be Kevin being all my fluffy boy is so special! I think in anyone else Holt wouldn’t tolerate this kind of anthromorphism, but with Kevin he’s like yes, our fluffy boy is so special :D

Andy Samberg when he tries to bring himself to say yes about the porn is hilarious, but why would they all hang out when Jake is watching porn? I still think Kevin should have questioned this more lol. Love his I wish I could say I was surprised though.

MEJ is so handsome in this ep. wtf.

love that the Charles - Peanutbutter grudge is alive and well.

Seductive Holt is so seductive. Andre is hotttt.

I love Amy and Terry’s outfits and their whole interaction this episode. Terry carrying her like furniture is gold.

You had it so easy growing up gay! Gold.

Jake talking about Amy, always a blessing.

wonder if Kevin flat out cancelled the renewal ceremony when he found out Holt was on a case and sent everyone home. Though he does say that family is still there at the end, but we don’t see them, so... The whole convo with Rosa and Charles where Kevin must have insisted to come on the rescue mission might be something I might want to throw into a fic... maybe

Kevin is Holt’s knight in shining armor, always. And I am here for it.

WTF is Kevin’s cop voice omg. You just know that the only acting he’s ever done was strutting around in a toga voice projecting like crazy in some Greek tragedy. Cop!Kevin is such chaotic energy

Hmmm, how much should I say about how I feel about the whole Kevin does not want Holt to retire thing? I mean it is a good thing that Kevin does not want Ray to give up this huge part of his life which he is passionate about. But also I’m not a hundred percent behind the way the show is handling the NYPD and police violence. I think personally I would have preferred Holt retiring from the NYPD and going into politics or activism or even becoming a PI like Rosa. I get that he pretty much dedicated his life to the NYPD, but I feel like the show is riding a little on the “a few bad apples” excuse.

I’m going to say that I would have preferred if they had gotten their planned ceremony in suits and with everything to that impromptu thing with Kevin in the cop uniform, though I’m aware of the significance of Holt insisting they do this before finishing the mission. Andre’s smile lights up the entire universe. He has the MOST beautiful smile.

Okay, I wonder if I’m coming off super negative. I’m not though. I really liked the episodes! I’m just very nitpicky (and thinking about stuff I want to work into fic). Aaaaalso, not ready for this show to be over! NBC has been slamming out these episodes like it’s a chore they just want to get through, which makes me sad. But I am still happy that we got all this.

THAT KISS IN THE RAIN IS EVERYTHING.

#spoilers #season 8 #long ass rant #that kiss in the rain you guys #Kevin cozner #Ray Holt #I'm writing a little bit #but not sure if I want to post anything

[minniemixe]

Beauty And The Beast

Gangster AU

Stray Kids Fanfic

Chan x Reader

Other Appearances: GOT7 BTS

Genre: Smut, Fluff, Angst

Warnings: Mention of rape, family drama

Beauty and the Beast Masterlist

Chapter 6

“What happened to your hand?” Moon’s mother asked pointing towards her bandaged hand as the two sat in the lounge, Moon cuddled up next to her mom “Oh this, nothing big, I was walking down the stairs and slipped, there was glass in my hand, it broke and I cut myself” she told. “I can bet you were running down the stairs. Sweetheart how many times have I told you to be careful on stairs, huh?” the older lady dotted “I’m fine mom, it’s just a cut” she looked up at her mom smiling, the mother kissed her daughter’s head, hugging her tighter, “MMhhmm, I missed my baby so much” she said repeatedly kissing her cheeks   “I missed you guys too, sorry for not contacting you much and visiting sooner” Moon replied, snuggling closer in her mom’s chest. “I’m still surprised you visited. I thought you’d be busy with your work, we’d have been happy even if you just frequently contacted us telling us you’re okay” she spoke “You’re not wrong, I am quite busy with my work, I was also surprised when my colleague asked me if I wanted to visit” she replied “Colleague?” her mother asked “Ah yeah, he had some work in this area so he asked me to tag along, saying I could visit you guys while he ran his errand” Moon replied “When is he returning? Why don’t you ask him to stay for dinner?” her mother said “He said he wa-” Moon was cut off by the doorbell “Is that him?” “I don’t think so, he said it would take him two or more hours. It hasn’t even been an hour yet” Moon replied, getting up to check. When she opened the door, Chan stood there with a bouquet of roses and a gift bag in his hands.

“Oh hey. Back so early?” Moon asked letting him in “Ahh yeah, I got done earlier than expected, so thought why not visit your parents” he said “Ofcourse, I’m glad you did, Mom was asking about you. Oh by the way, introduce yourself as my colleague, that’s what I told my mom” Moon said as the two made their way to the living room “Hello ma’am, I’m Chris, a colleague of your daughter's. These are for you” Chan introduced himself, handing the roses to her. “And this is for- where’s your dad?” he asked, looking around “Oh he’s not home, I’ll take that” Moon replied, taking the brown gift bag from him “Oh My God, this is so sweet of you, you didn’t have to do this” her mother smiled at Chan. "I couldn't visit empty handed for the first time" Chan reasoned, bowing politely "You didn't come empty handed, you brought my daughter with you" Moon's mother smiled patting Chan's back who smiled sheepishly in return. “So, Chris, I hope you’ll be staying for dinner” Moon’s mother asked “Ofcourse, I’d love to” he replied politely “Well, make yourself comfortable, I’ll go make dinner” her mother said walking out of the living room. “Wait mom!” Moon called out running after the older lady “Yes hunny?” she asked turning around “Can we have pizza? I really missed homemade pizza” Moon said playing with her fingers “Sure baby, anything you want.” the older lady replied kissing Moon’s forehead. Moon jumped up and down excitedly hugging her mother, “Thank you Thank you Thank you” she said repeatedly. Her mother laughed, cooing at her daughter affectionately “C’mon, lets make you some pizza”, walking towards the kitchen, with Moon skipping behind. Chan saw the whole interaction, smiling to himself about how cute and happy Moon looked. Her whole aura had changed, Chan loved every second of it and hoped that he’d get to see it more often. Chan too followed the two ladies, to the kitchen, opting to help the two. “Can I help with anything?” Chan asked entering the kitchen “Oh no honey, make yourself comfortable.” Moon’s mom answered “Please ma’am, I insist” he said “You can cut the vegetables, I’ll stir fry them” Moon said before her mother could say anything “I’ll make the dough, you guys get started on the topping” her mother said “Should I make the sauce?” Moon asked “No, I made pasta yesterday, so there’s plenty of sauce. I made extra yesterday” the mother replied, disappearing into the pantry. “Where is your father though?” Chan asked, folding his sleeves, Moon’s eyes focused on his veiny arms “Earth to Moon. Are you still here?” Chan snapped his fingers in front of her eyes, snapping her out of her thoughts “Oh huh? What?” Moon said “I asked, where is your father?” Chan laughed at her bewildered expression “Don’t know, don’t care. He left the moment he saw me” Moon shrugged. Chan didn’t know what to say so he just began at his task, glancing at Moon who was taking out the pots and pans. “You okay?” he asked, not being able to control the urge “Why wouldn’t I be. This isn’t the first time. I’m used to it. I don’t give a shit anymore” Moon said “What about your mom? Does she never confront him?” Chan asked “As if he’d listen. Besides, I don’t want mom to get involved, the man is unpredictable. The last thing I want is my mom to get hurt at the hands of that monster” Moon said washing the chicken “I’m -” he stopped mid sentence seeing her mother return to the kitchen “Sweetheart, please grate the cheese after you’re done with the topping” her mom said, getting started on the dough “Sure Mom” she smiled "So Chris. What line of work are you in?" Moon's mother initiated a conversation "I'm on the management side ma'am" Chan replied "Oh but isn't that different from hers, last I talked to her, she was in the web developing department” she asked pointing towards Moon “Ahh yes, but it’s a small system so there isn’t much with departments and stuff” Chan said “Oh I see” “Yeah, there are like 13, now 14 of us, each of us with a different role” “Mom, remember the client I had to meet out of town, that’s him, I edited a few things for him, and since it was up to his satisfaction he offered me a job” Moon played along “That’s nice. What is it that you guys do, like as a group?” the mother questioned “Well, it’s a lot of different things, we design websites, we do shipping for different online shopping mediums, photography, videography and event planning and management” Chan answered. Moon was impressed with how quickly he came up with something so believable “Well that’s nice” the older lady smiled. The conversation went on with random topics. “Oh I almost forgot. Baby your friend has been visiting a lot lately. He asked where you lived but I didn’t know where, but he kept coming back saying, he just wants to see you since it’s been so long. He even came yesterday” Moon’s mom told “Mark? But I met him a few weeks back” Moon said confused “No, not Mark, I think his name was something like Alan?” Moon’s mom said “I don’t know any Alans” she replied brows furrowed “No, I think it was something like Andrew or Andy?” the mother said “Andre?” Moon said grimacing “Yeah yeah, that was it” her mom’s face lit up “If he comes again, tell him I have nothing to do with him, never did, never will” Moon scowled “Why, was he a bu-” her mom started when the doorbell rang “Mavis?” Moon asked looking at her mom “But she’s in UK and she’s not returning until late tonight” her mother answered going out of the kitchen to check “Who’s Mavis?” Chan asked “My little sister” Moon answered. Moon’s mom walked in with a man beside him, who’s face instantly lit up seeing Moon. “Princess!!” he exclaimed, running towards her hugging her tight. Moon harshly pushed him away, slapping him hard across the face. “I’m not your fucking princess. Get lost. I never want to see your face ever again. Stay away from me, stay away from my parents.” To say Chan and Moon’s mom were confused about everything would be an understatement, their faces were contorted in utter confusion, looking from each other to the two, expressions bewildered. “Wha-” the man started “NO, NO Andre, I don’t want to hear it. And don’t even try to play dumb, you completely ruined my life, and I’m not exaggerating and you know that very well. I don’t want any explanation, I don’t want an apology either, I just want you out of here.” Moon said, her voice cracking “Please give me a second chance” Andre pleaded “Get lost before I kill you. Don’t test me, I really will kill you” Moon gritted “Hunny what is this about. At least hear the kid out.” her mother said “No mom, I can’t stand him” “Excuse me, Mr Andre, I think you should leave. I’ve never seen my girlfriend this stressed. I trust she has a very valid reason for it, so leave with respect while you can” Chan smirked “You may not want to hear this, but I really like you, I have, ever since highschool. And I’m not saying this because I want you to break up with him, but because I want you to be safe. He’s not what you think he is, he’s a gang leader” Andre said, the three’s eyes went wide and Moon’s mother let out a loud gasp. Moon wasn’t having any of it and his remark only angered her more. Grabbing the knife from the kitchen top, she lunged forward, “THIS AGAIN. YOU FUCKING BASTARD. I’M GONNA KILL YOU”. Chan quickly moved forward to stop her while her mother just stood there rooted to the ground, completely shook. Andre laughed maniacally, smirking at her. “What do you mean again?” Moon’s mother asked “Oh she doesn’t know?” Andre smiled like a lunatic “I SAID LEAVE” Moon shouted “But I think she deserves to know, look at her, are you really going to keep it from her?” Moon thrashed around trying to get out of his hold, but to no avail. What was supposed to be a nice reunion between Moon and her family, turned into something unimaginable. “If you’re not going to talk. Let me, your mother seems really confused and she deserves to know.” Andre spoke again “There is nothing to know about, get lost” Moon said through gritted teeth “Aww, are you really going to make your parents think you died in a car crash when in reality someone slit your throat or shot you in the head?” Andre questioned “What is he talking about?” her mother asked “Nothing mom, he’s just blabbering, this is what he does. This is exactly what he did in highschool” Moon answered “It was to protect you” Andre said “Protect me? You twisted sick creature. You completely turned my life upside down and you have the audacity to say that. Get out before I kill you” Moon said, Throwing a knife at him, he moved to the side and dodged it. “You’re going to regret this.” Andre said, turning around to leave. Moon released a breath and leaned on the kitchen top, burying her head in her arms while her mother rubbed her back. “Sorry mom, the whole day is ruined” Moon said lifting her head “No, no Sweetheart, don’t apologize, it isn’t your fault” her mother said “Here take this” Chan said, handing Moon a glass of cold water “Thank you” she said taking it from him “What was all that about? And what does he mean by Chris being in a gang, and is he your boyfriend? Were you really going to kill him?” Moon’s mother bombarded her with questions “Hey hey Mom, calm down, let me explain, he’s just getting in your head, take a deep breath, everything is alright” Moon said rubbing her mom’s arm to calm her down “Okay, but you better be honest about every single detail” her mom said “Yes, let's put the pizza in the oven first, we’ll talk while it bakes” Moon replied After putting the pizzas in the oven, the three gathered in the living room. Moon took a deep breath before speaking. “Back in highschool, he was my classmate. An annoying one at that. He would follow me around, complimenting me, giving me flowers and all that stuff. He confessed to me numerous times and I’d turn him down everytime, saying I wasn’t interested. He was a delusional psychopath, he’d always tell me I didn’t give him a chance because of Mark, seeing how close I was with him. He’d always try to pull stupid stunts to ruin what Mark and I had. And one time he took it too far, I have no idea what he had planned but whatever it was, it backfired, it didn’t affect him as much as it affected me. He went abroad two weeks after the incident while I suffered. The only explanation he gave was ‘I just wanted to keep you safe’ because apparently Mark was also in a ‘gang’. He ruined my entire life and for that I’ll never forgive him” Moon explained “What could he have possibly done to make you hate him this much, and if this is about your highschool life being difficult, don’t you think you might be exaggerating” Moon’s mom reasoned “I really didn’t think I’d ever have to tell you this” she sighed “It’s already out of the bag, might as well tell the whole thing” her mom said “Remember the sports day? The one that determined whether I got the scholarship to the college or not?” Moon asked “The one you couldn’t play in because of the mishap?” her mom questioned “Yes that one. But everything that happened that day was a lie” Moon replied “What?” she asked confused “I did go to the locker room to change into my uniform, but everything that happened inside was different from what I told you, or anyone for that matter. The only people who know what actually happened inside were Andre, Mark, Jaebum, Jinyoung, even I don't know. And the event that lead to what happened in that room, that only Mark, Andre and I know” she spoke “If it was something this big, why would you keep it from us?” her mom said. Moon took a deep breath before she started explaining "It's complicated, I was 15 and everything happened so quickly I couldn't handle it. When I did finally get around to telling you, well you know what happened" Moon said looking into her mother’s eyes. The older lady sighed, knowing exactly what her daughter was talking about

5 Years Ago

"I have practice after school today. I can see you tonight if you want" Moon spoke into the phone "When are you gonna get free from that?" Mark asked on the other line "Not sure, probably by 5:00 or 5:30, maybe after, maybe before. Why, something important?" She replied "Nah, just wanted to hang out, we can go out tomorrow as well, you'll be tired anyways" he shrugged "You're not wrong, I'm not even gonna bother walking back home, just gonna call an Uber" she laughed "Why? Isn't your mom picking you up?" He questioned "Not today. She said she and dad have some work so they won't be able to pick me up. It's no biggie anyways, I understand, especially with renovations going on, they have a lot on their plate already" she answered "I'll pick you. I'm free, plus it's safer" he said "Is that supposed to be a pun?" Moon laughed "How?" He asked confused "Free? And safe" Moon quoted the words "Oh, totally unintentional. And I want you to be safe" Mark laughed catching on to what she was insinuating "Well, no need, who knows when I'll get free anyways" she said, heart fluttering at his words "Too late, I'm already on my way" he said "Dude, my practice hasn't even started yet" she laughed "Yeah well, I haven't got much to do so might as well watch you practice. See you in 5 Bitty" Mark said "See you. Bye" she said ending the call. "Who was that" Andre asked, suddenly appearing out of nowhere "What the hell! Stop sneaking up on me and it's none of your business" Moon replied walking away

"Mrs Smith, can I talk to you privately" Moon asked her coach, who was currently instructing a few girls "Of course, girls would you please excuse us" the coach replied "It's about the application" Moon started "Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry about that, I mixed up the applications. Yours was perfectly fine and congratulations, it got accepted. Now all you have to do is pass the audition. Coaches from the top colleges will be here on the final day. Practice hard, I know you can do it. Good luck" Mrs Smith patted Moon's shoulder "Are you serious. The application for scholarship was accepted? Oh my God, I'm so excited. I didn't think I'd get accepted" Moon said enthusiastically "Don't underestimate yourself. You've got great potential, give yourself more credit. Now get to practice, you have a scholarship to win" the coach cheered Moon giggled and walked away thanking the older lady. On her way back from the lockers she spotted Mark, Moon ran up to him and hugged him tight shouting enthusiastically. "Woah there little lady, why so hyper. Did you eat chocolate again?" Mark laughed "Okay so, oh my God, I'm so happy right now" she kept jumping up and down. "I can see that. So tell me, what's the good news" he laughed "Remember the application I told you about, the one which had some problems with it, guess what, my coach accidentally mixed mine with someone else's. I just found out mine got accepted. Now all I have to do is get a perfect score in my games and I'll get the sports scholarship" Moon told enthusiastically. "Bitty, that's amazing. See I told you everything will work out, you were stressing for no reason. I'm so proud of you, I knew you could do it" Mark exclaimed hugging her tightly, swinging right to left. "Not just yet, I still have to play in the finals and then pass the entrance test. The competition is tough, so I'm kinda nervous" Moon said "You. Are. Going. To. Do. Great." He said shaking her with every word. Moon laughed at his actions, smiling brightly at him. "Now get to practice, I'll cheer for you" he said turning her around and pushing her forward, Moon laughed running towards the ground with Mark following behind. "Alright girls, take 5" the coach called out. The team walked towards their benches to get a rest for a few minutes. “That was a good game. But you girls can do better. Nattalie, you have to work on your goal blocking strategy. Ruth and June practice on your kicks. The rest of you, you’re still lacking good positioning” the coach said. The girls nodding along to what they were being told “In the next game I want you all to change the positions, understood” the couch asked “Yes coach” the girls shouted in sync

“Weren’t you playing badminton?” Mark asked Moon, handing her a bottle of water, after another football game “I am, I’m playing both” she replied, gulping down the entire bottle “One game doesn’t scratch your itch?” he asked folding his arms “Nope, you know me. Need to play every single game. Life’s too short to play just one.” she replied “Why didn’t you try out for all of em?” he said sarcastically “According to rules, one person can participate in only two sports, otherwise, I would’ve” she replied “You are one of a kind Bitty” he laughed, patting her head

“Number 5, I need you to come with me, we need balls for the dodge ball” the coach called out to Moon. “Yes coach” she called out, walking towards the older woman. “Have you decided on any majors yet?” the coach asked Moon as the two entered the storage room “I haven’t got anything planned to be honest, I want to be an athlete so this scholarship would be a great boost for me. I guess I’ll see as I go along” she replied placing the needed stuff inside a basket “That is great. From the years of watching you grow, I know you have great potential. I wish you all the luck in your career.” she smiled at her student “Thank you ma’am” Moon smiled as the two exited the room “It’s stuck” Moon said pulling on the door “That’s weird, maybe something is stuck from the inside” the coach said. Moon went inside to check but saw nothing near the door that could be causing it to jam. “There’s nothing here” she replied. She tried opening it further but it wouldn’t budge. Pushing the door harshly, it moved a little, making a creaking noise. “It’s easier from the inside since I have to push, I’ll close as much I can from the inside, slip out and then pull the rest” Moon said “Let me help you, I’ll pull from the outside and you push” the coach said “No no, it’s alright. You go ahead, I’ll lock up and come back” Moon said “Are you sure?” the coach asked “Yes, it’s all good” she replied “Here are the keys.” she said, handing the keys to Moon and walked away. After 5 minutes of pushing the door, she was able to close it enough for her to easily slip out. She put a foot outside but before she could get out, someone shoved her inside and slipped in right after her. He harshly pushed the door and closed it from the inside. Moon looked up to see Andre standing right above her. “Finally. I have you all to myself” he said and leaned over her, Moon’s breath hitched as she tried to think about ways to escape. Kicking him in the leg as hard as she could, she ran towards the door, she tried to open in but it was jammed after opening just a little bit. Before she could pull on it more, Andre grabbed her by her hair and yanked her back, making her fall on the ground. “HELP!!! SOMEBODY HELP!!!! MARK!!!!” she screamed out. Pushing the door and closing it once again, he moved towards her and spoke “No one can hear you. We’re on the other side. Your precious Mark isn't coming to save you.” he said straddling her waist and pinning her arms above her head “STOP!! PLEASE STOP!! AAAHHHH” Moon sobbed “And when I’m done with you, he won’t even want to look at you, he’ll be so disgusted” he said kissing down her jaw to her neck. “PLEASE STOP, ANdRE, STOP IT” “Just like that, keep screaming my name” he said groping her.

“Okay boys team, you’re up.” the coach announced. The team got up from their benches and walked towards their coach. “1, 2, 3, 4 - where’s Andre?” the coach asked as she was counting the members “He said he was going to the toilet, it’s been five minutes now” one of the team members replied “HAS ANYONE SEEN ANDRE?” the coach turned around and announced. Hearing the announcement, Mark started looking around, having an uneasy feeling when he didn’t see Moon or Andre. Getting up from his spot he went towards the coach and asked about her “She and I went to get some sports equipment from the storage room, the door was stuck so she stayed back saying she’ll close up and get back. Why? She isn’t back?” the coach asked “No” Mark replied “Could you go check on her, see if she needs help with the door, and if doesn’t close, just tell someone from the admin and bring her here” the coach said Mark nodded his head and ran towards the storage area. Being an alumni, he was quite familiar with the building and didn’t have much difficulty getting to the storage room.  As he got closer he could hear Moon screaming, assuming she was stuck inside he fastened his pace, but what he heard next made his blood oil with anger and started running. Kicking open the door his fists clenched in anger at the scene in front of him. Moon was sprawled on the ground, her shorts halfway down, shirt riding up her chest and Andre on top of her groping her in the most inappropriate of ways. “You fucking bastard” Mark gritted and pushed him off her. Moon quickly scrambled to the side, fixing her clothes she curled in the corner sobbing harshly, her body shaking uncontrollably. Mark grabbed Andre from the collar of his shirt and pulled him up. Throwing him against the wall, Mark threw a punch to his face, making him stumble. Mark kept throwing punch after punch until Andre was lying on the ground. Mark was about to kick him when he kicked his foot under Mark’s, sending Mark stumbling back. Taking the opportunity Andre got up and ran out of the room. Mark wanted to follow after him but decided against it taking a look at Moon’s figure.   Getting closer to her curled up figure, he gently touched her shoulder. “AAHH, NO PLEASE, NO-” she started thrashing around, “hey, hey, hey, it’s me, it’s just Mark” he spoke soothingly “M...Ma….Maa…” she stuttered, eyes glossy, cheeks tear stained, face completely red and body shaking uncontrollably. “Yeah it’s just me, I’m here, I’m not gonna hurt you. I got you now, everything’s alright” he said wiping away her tears. Letting out a sob, Moon threw herself at Mark, wrapping her arms and legs around him, clutching onto him for dear life. “I...I..di...didn’t..th...thi….think...an...anyone wa..was gonna co..come” She spoke trying to calm herself “It’s okay, I’m here now. I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you” He said, rubbing her back, trying to get her to stop shaking. The two sat there in silence, Moon releasing deep breaths occasionally. “You better?” Mark asked as Moon loosened her hold on him and pulled away “Mhhmm” she nodded getting off of him and standing up, her legs still feeling wobbly “C’mon, we have to tell your coach.” Mark said, grabbing her hand, and pulling her out of the storage room but Moon stood there rooted to the ground “It’s no use” she said pulling him back “What do you mean? You’re not walking away without taking action, I’m not gonna let you. The bastard needs to be punished” Mark said harshly “You think I don’t know that. We’re gonna tell the coach, then what?” she retorted “The school admin takes action, that’s what” “How do you plan on proving him guilty? There are no security cameras in this room.” she folded her arms “What about the hallways? If we can catch him going in th-” “Come with me” she cut him off, dragging him with her. “Look at that” she said pointing towards the broken security camera “Ho-” he started “It broke this morning, A bunch of boys were throwing around balls and ended up kitting the camera, It’s supposed to be fixed tomorrow. Andre knew this too and took the opportunity. There's no point in telling anyone” she sighed hanging her head low, tears streaming down her face “I’m sorry. We’ll get him back, I’ll make him pay for ever laying a finger on you. I promise you that” Mark said hugging her small figure closer to him “Teach me, teach me how to protect myself. What if he does it again, and you’re not there” Moon said, lifting her head “I’m not leaving your side, ever. You don’t ever have to worry about me not being there” he said wiping her tears “But I still want you to teach me, I don’t want to depend on anyone” she said, taking in a deep breath, finally calming down “Okay, whatever you want. But what are you going to tell your coach. You look horrible” Mark questioned “Let’s go, I know what I have to say” she said walking away, with him following behind

“Number 5. What happened, you were gone for more than 20 minutes” the coach asked when Moon handed her the keys “I was trying to close it from the inside, when it closed and got stuck, I kept banging on the door since I didn’t have my phone, Mark opened it from outside” she lied “You look sick, your face is all red, are you sure you’re alright” the coach asked concerned “Yes, I just get claustrophobic in tight spaces, that’s all” “Oh, explains a lot. Leave the practice early today. Get some rest” the said “No ma’am I’m fine, I can practice” she said “Don’t tire yourself out, get some rest, There is a week till the final day, you’ll have plenty of time to practice. Go home today, rest up, get better and we’ll practice tomorrow. I don’t want one of my top athletes to pass out from exhaustion.” the coach said sternly “Yes ma’am” she replied and walked away to gather her things

“You’re coach is right you know, you don’t have to tire yourself” Mark said, starting the car “It’s just, you know how it is. This scholarship may be my only chance to get out, and I don’t want to risk losing it. Being completely honest with you, one of the reasons I didn’t want to tell anyone about what happened with Andre is because I don’t want it to hinder my scholarship. Yeah it’s because there isn’t sufficient proof to prove it was him. I could pursue it, but that would just take my focus away. I don’t want that” Moon explained “I wish you weren’t so hard on yourself all the time” he said “I wish the world wasn’t so cruel to me” she whispered looking out the window. Mark didn’t have much to say to her, knowing she indeed went through a lot on a daily basis. He just sighed and kept driving in silence.

The next went smoothly, Moon would practice after school, and after practice she would learn self defence with Mark. As promised, he didn’t leave her side.  It was the final day and everything was going smoothly. Moon’s football team won with a good score, and she was really ecstatic especially since she kicked the winning goal. Going into the girls locker room she began to change into her badminton uniform. After getting changed, she sat on the benches to put her shoes on. Halfway through Andre entered the locker room. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? THIS THE GIRLS LOCKER ROOM, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED HERE” Moon shouted at him “Relax girl, I’m just here to grab something for June from her locker. I asked coach before coming inside” he replied “Where’s coach?” she asked “In the ground” he smirked at her. “But don’t worry. I’m not gonna do anything” he added before walking away. Moon quickly took out her phone, texting Mark, who immediately replied

Moon: Mark please come to my locker room Mark: Why? Everything okay? Moon: Andre, he’s here. He says he’s here to get something, but I don’t trust him Mark: Take a deep breath Bitty, I’m on my way. Moon: Please hurry

Putting her phone aside she quickly got to putting on her shoes. Chugging down her water, Moon quickly got up to run out. But as soon as she stood up, she started feeling dizzy and light headed. She looked down at the water bottle and cursed, realizing it was drugged. Releasing a laugh, Andre walked over to her. “Staaayyyyy awaaayy” Moon slurred, pushing him away. All the self defence tricks she learned now useless as her movements were very delayed “C’mon we have to get out of here before your boyfriend shows up” Andre said, dragging Moon’s intoxicated self with him. “Booyfrieend, I wiiiiish~” Moon giggled, completely drunk “As if that matters anyway. You’re mine now” Andre whispered. Reaching for the door. Mark was quick and smart. Knowing Andre was going to do something, he didn’t come alone. Pulling Moon towards himself, he pushed Andre towards Jaebum. “Take care of him, I’ll take her out”. Nodding his head Jaebum dragged Andre away. Picking Moon up, Mark walked inside. Sitting her down on the benches, he went to her locker and started rummaging through it. Silently thanking the Gods when he found a juicebox in her locker, he went to her and took her phone and texted himself

Moon: Hey could you bring me a juice box, I don’t feel so good

After sending the text he removed the previous conversation and manipulated the text time to make seem as if it was sent 10 minutes ago. Taking out his phone, he texted Jinyoung.

Mark: Bring Bitty’s coach here in 5 minutes Jinyoung: Why? I thought you’ll keep it under control Mark: Shit went down big time. We can’t get her out quietly now Jinyoung: Fuck Mark: Just text me when you reach near the locker room

“You look hot” Moon suddenly said. This caught Mark off guard as she was simply giggling to herself all this time “Say what now” he asked bewildered “Don’t act like you don’t know. You’ve always known how I liked you. I never said anything. But for some reason I feel like confronting you about it” she said walking up to him. Mark sighed “Bitty, this really isn’t the time. You’re intoxicated. Let’s talk when you’re sober” he said “No, I wanna talk right now. I’m completely sober. You’re the one who needs to man up. You never tell me you like me but your actions say otherwise. Either tell me you don’t feel the same and that your actions are platonic or be honest with me. Stop leading me on” she slurred stumbling. He grabbed her shoulders to steady her, before he could say anything his phone went off

Jinyoung: On our way, two minutes max Mark: Stall her till I come out. I have a situation Jinyoung: You’re kidding? What even is going on? Mark: Don’t have time to explain

“You’re being a real jerk here” she poked him “Gosh I can’t believe I’m gonna do this”  he whispered before kissing Moon. she was caught off guard but nonetheless kissed back. He felt horrible for taking advantage of her like this but he knew he didn’t have much time. Putting two fingers on her neck, he pressed on her pressure point until she fainted in his arms. Lying her on the ground, he took out his pocket knife. Apologizing to the unconscious figure he made a small cut on her temple. Letting a little blood pool on the floor he dipped his fingers in it before smearing it on the side of the bench. Once he made sure everything was in place. He picked her up princess style and walked out of the locker room. “Oh my lord. What happened?” Moon’s coach asked looking at her unconcious figure in Mark’s arms “I’m not sure. She texted me she wasn’t feeling well and that she wanted me to bring her juice. I did as told, but when I called her she didn’t pick up so I went inside the locker room. She was unconscious when I got there. I think she hit her head on the benches because there was blood on the bench’s corner.” He lied “Coach, we should tell everyone she won’t be playing. Mark will take her to the hospital” Jinyoung said catching on to Mark’s lie “Oh yeah yeah, please call me as soon as she wakes up, Jinyoung, you tell her parents, I’ll make the announcement” the coach said walking away “Tell aunt and uncle what I told the coach. I’ll take her to your apartment. Make something up and make sure they don’t ask to go to the hospital.” Mark warned “If she hit her head, she needs a CT scan” JInyoung said “No, she didn’t hit her head, she was drugged, I had to make her faint to get her out, made a little cut just to make up a story” he explained “It’s 2:00 right now, I can stall them until 6:00, 7:00 max” Jinyoung sighed “That’s plenty of time.” Mark said, turning around and walking away from him.

Head bent over the toilet bowl, Moon threw up. Her stomach emptied and the more she hurled the more her throat burned. Mark returned with a glass of water, he kneeled down next to her and rubbed her back. “Any better?” he asked as she looked at him “Water.” she told him. Mark handed her the glass and she chugged the whole thing down in one go. Handing him the glass back she stood up. “Do you have a spare toothbrush?” She asked flushing the toilet “Yeah, here” he handed her the new brush from the cupboard. Moon started brushing her teeth and Mark left the toilet giving her privacy.

“I made some hangover soup,”  Mark said as Moon walked into the kitchen. “Can I get something for a headache? I feel like someone is hammering my head” Moon said clutching her head “Yeah, here you go” he said handing her a glass of water and two pills “Thanks” she said popping the pills “So, what happened? All I remember is drinking water which happened to be drugged. After that, it’s like I blacked out. And what happened to my head?” she asked, touching the bandage on her temple. Mark was internally relieved that she didn’t remember anything. He really didn’t want to talk about the kiss “When I got there, you were totally wasted and were being dragged out by Andre. Thankfully we got to you in time. JB took care of Andre, while I got you out.” Mark said “Wait. I was wasted, please tell me I didn’t say anything stupid” she asked “You were just a giggly mess. Drunk you is like a 3 year old kid with candy” he laughed, handing her the bowl of soup. “Oh. how’d you get me out without anyone noticing? And what about my parents?” she asked taking a spoonful of the soup “Well, I strangled you until you passed out and then took you out” he shrugged. Moon’s mouth went wide open as she dropped her spoon in the bowl. Mark laughed at her expression before continuing “You have pressure points in your neck, I pressed on it and you were out cold. I made a little cut on your head, made your coach think you fell and hit your head. Voila perfect escape plan. Although I am really sorry about your head” “Nah, it’s cool, it’s better than being seen drunk. Especially since i’m a minor and it was an important day” she casually waved him off. Mark and Moon went over the plan one more time, before he dropped her back at home. “Wanna come inside, I’m sure they’ll wanna see you” Moon said unbuckling her seat belt “Yeah sure, let’s just get it over with” he said exiting the car with her.

The following week became a living hell for Moon. She lost her scholarship and her coach referred her to the school psychologist. After a few sessions, it was concluded that Moon was mentally unstable and should avoid extra curricular until she was better. Moon knew very well that she was mentally disturbed and knew exactly why, but her coping mechanism was different and she hated talking about her problems. So to avoid confrontation, she did everything she was told by the psychologist. The problem got bigger and bigger and Moon decided it would be better to just drop college altogether. After graduating from high school, Moon became interested in online games and started developing love for computers. Starting with freelancing she built up her skills with time and forgot about her highschool life and dreams.

End Of Flashback

By the time Moon finished explaining, the pizza was cooked and now the three sat there in silence and ate the pizza. “Did you really hate us that much to not bring up such a big thing?” Moons mother asked “At first I felt it wasn’t important and I just wanted to forget it, so I avoided talking about it. After the sports day, I wanted to tell you but I needed some time to accept it. Then the whole thing with the psychologist took place and when I tried to talk to you about it, I knew it was too late, Andre was gone and I couldn’t really do anything. You know how I can get, just like dad I too can get hot headed, and when I bought it up things didn’t exactly go as planned so I gave up” Moon casually answered “I’m sorry. We couldn’t be there when you needed us the most and you had to go through that all by yourself” her mom said “Why are you apologizing? You did nothing wrong” Moon said “I was hard on you sometimes. I couldn't protect you like I should’ve” “You did more than you could, I’ll always be thankful for that.” she said tightly hugging the older lady. “This must be really awkward for you. First time meeting your girlfriend's parents and all you get is drama” her mom said looking at Chan “Girlfriend?” Moon questioned “He did say he was your boyfriend” “I was planning to tell you after some time, we just started going out” Moon blushed “It’s completely alright ma’am. I was somewhat aware of Moon’s relation with her father, so you don’t have to worry about that.” he smiled politely.

“Thank you so much for having me ma’am. It was really nice to meet you. You’re an amazing chef. Thank you once again, I really enjoyed your company.” Chan said as the two were now getting ready to leave. “Oh you flatter me Chris. It was amazing to meet you too. And please, don’t call me ma’am, just call my Aunt” her mother said patting his back “Thank you” he smiled shyly, his ears turning red. “Bye mom” Moon said, hugging mom one last time for the day. “Bye sweetheart, visit again soon” her mother said “I will, ba-bye” she said waving at her, getting inside the car

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The next morning Moon woke up earlier than expected. Finishing her morning routine, she went downstairs to the kitchen to whip something up for herself. Entering the kitchen, she was met with Bree and El preparing breakfast. “What’s for breakfast today?” she asked the older girls “Toast and egg. You want orange juice or mango?” Bree answered “Mango” she smiled, getting herself a glass of water “Hey guys” an unfamiliar yet recognizable voice spoke “NAY!!” Moon shouted turning around “SUNNY” Nay said with the same enthusiasm and  embraced Moon tightly “What are you doing here?” Moon asked as the two pulled apart “I should be asking you. No contact for a year and you’re in a gang.” Nay said “Yeah, long story” Moon smiled sheepishly “Your dad?” she raised a brow “Something along the lines yeah. What about you?” Moon questioned “Well you know my hoe-ish tendencies. Gotta sell my drugs somehow” she shrugged “Why am I not surprised” Moon laughed “Because you know me so well” Nay said swinging her arm around Moon’s shoulder “You girls seem close” Bree said “Been besties since high school” Nay replied “Speaking of highschool. How’s Madzi, what’s she been upto lately?” Moon asked, the two girls taking a seat on the bar stool near the counter top “Oh you don’t know?” Nay said “Oh no, I don’t like that tone. What’s going on?” Moon said “Well, it’s a long story. She was in a relationship an-” Nay started “Woah, I’m gonna stop you right there, was it an abusive relationship. Tell me where she is, I swear to God I’m about to kill someone” Moon cut her off “Slow down tiger. I like how you’re so feisty yet the tiniest of us three. Where do you store all that anger” Nay said, causing Bree and El to laugh “Ha ha, but for real, you know how I get protective over her, she’s the youngest amongst us” “Yeah yeah I know. Anywho. She was in a committed and happy relationship, but her parents found out.  Being homophobic, they were completely against their daughter being in a relationship with a woman. Things did not end well. She was forced to marry someone and break up with Didi. A month into her marriage, she found out that her husband is in a gang. And the last time I talked to her she didn’t sound really good” Nay explained “Didi from computer class? The cute shawty.” Moon asked “Yeah her. They made such a cute couple” “Literally everyone knew the two were whipped for each other, but neither of them said anything” “They were meant to be. The two met in a nightclub a few months after highschool. Both were drunk, guess it was the perfect opportunity.” Nay told “Can’t we do something about it? I mean you’re probably involved with more than one gang, maybe team up and get her out” Moon said “I checked. But her Gang has very strong alliances, so we can’t do anything” “Well, let’s just hope the universe has mercy on her” “Yeah well, there's not much we can do anyway” “So you tell. How’d you get into the whole drug business?” Moon asked “Well, Madzi, Didi and I started it about two years ago. We wanted to ask you but you were having issues of your own with your father, so we thought best to give you space. We didn’t think we’d succeed but damn was it fun once we got there. Didi and I are still in the business, Madzi however, well I just told you” Nay answered “What did you guys call yourselves?” “Stonewhores” she grinned “I- I’m not even gonna ask” moon said making her laugh “Alright girls breakfast is ready. Moon, go upstairs and get everyone”  Bree told “Yep” the younger girl replied and went up the stairs Knocking on everyone's door she did as she was told. “Hey, Min have you seen Innie? He’s not in his room” Moon asked Seungmin “I think he went to Channie’s office.” he replied “Oh okay, I’ll check, thanks” she smiled at him walking towards Chan’s office She knocked twice, waiting for someone to open the door “It’s open” Chan called from the inside. She opened the door and stepped inside. Chan and Jeongin seemed to be in the middle of some serious discussion. “Am I interrupting something?” she asked looking at their serious expressions. “No, it’s okay, we’re done. What brings you here?” Jeongin asked “Oh, Bree’s calling everyone downstairs for breakfast,” Moon said. Jeongin moved closer to Chan and hugged him “Thank you.” he said pulling away “I trust you, Don’t let me down” he said patting his back “I won’t” he said walking out of the office “What was that about?” Moon asked confused, looking at Jeongin’s disappearing figure. “He came to tell me about Him and Anessa. He said they like like each other and want to go out, came to ask for my permission” Chan answered “That’s so sweet and cute of him. You know he looks up to you a lot” Moon replied “Yeah I know. He’s a good kid, that’s why I didn’t object” Chan said, the two walking out of his office. “It’s cute, he even asked me to talk to Felix” Chan chuckled “What for?” “Seungmin and Liv also have a thing for each other, but they’re both afraid to tell Felix because of what happened when El and Woojin started going out. It’s like Romeo and Juliet” Chan answered “I don’t think so, in my defense Romeo and Juliet were dumb and dumber” “It’s a classical romance novel, what even woman” “I think if Seungmin ever came across liv’s unconscious figure, lying next to sleeping pills, his first instinct would be to try to wake her up or take her to the infirmary, not take the pills and kill himself. Whereas Romeo was a dumbass who thought that Juliet was dead, he didn’t even try to wake her up, just straight up took the poison and comitted suicide.” “I never knew you were into reading classical romance” he teased her “Oh please, it was compulsory in high school. I’m more into violent, gore, kinky, bloody kind of shit” “Kinky you say” “From the whole list, that’s what you picked up?” “I only hear what I wanna hear” he laughed As the two reached the kitchen Moon grimaced when she saw Hyunjin slap Nay’s ass. “Get your dirty hands off my baby” Moon said slapping Hyunjins back “What’s your problem?” he said “You just harassed my best friend, I’m not gonna stand here and watch” “Uhh babe, he didn’t harass me” Nay said “WHAT!?!?! Him? Seriously of all people, why him? Girl you could do so much better than him” Moon made a disgusted face “Well I’m offended” Hyunjin said overdramatically “Oh boi, she’s the best” Han laughed “What’s wrong with him?” Nay asked “Everything” Moon replied, everyone now seated on the dining table “But he has a nice dick and he knows how to use it” Nay shrugged “Ewww Nay, I’m eating” Moon pretended to throw up. Everyone just watching the two with amused expressions “I’m sure he’d be delighted to show you” Nay smirked “No thank you, I’d rather get stabbed by him again” Moon said “I can stab you with my  dick” Hyunjin chirped “Oh boi, bad move” El whistled “Why?” Hyunjin asked “Her boyfriend does not seem happy” Woojin said looking at Chan who had an unreadable expression “You do that and I chop it off” Chan said “Wait what? When did you two happen” Felix asked “Yesterday” Bree answered “Who confessed?” Han asked “Chan made the first move” Moon replied “Yess. Hwang, pay up.” Hyunjin grumbled and took out a $50 note from his wallet and handed it to Han “Come to papa” Han said kissing the note “You guys were betting on us?” Moon exclaimed “Only about who was gonna confess first” Han shrugged “Well, nobody confessed, which means both of you lost. So thank you very much for the money” Moon said reaching forward and took the money from his hand “But-” Han pouted “Too bad for you” Minho laughed “So Moon, How was your visit to your parents house” Liv said changing the topic “Oh it was great” she replied “Your mom and sister must’ve been happy to see you” Anna chirped “Well my sister was out of country so I couldn’t see her, but I met my mom and it was amazing” Moon smiled “When is she returning, I’ll take you to visit her” Chan said “Last night. Can we go this afternoon” Moon replied “I have some work this afternoon. You can take my car, but if you want to go with me, we can go tomorrow” Chan said “Oh it’s okay, I can go by myself” she replied “You sure?” “Yeah”

Moon rang the bell about three times but there was no answer. It was 4:00 in the evening and a Sunday so she couldn’t be at work. Not wanting to wait anymore she took out the spare key she always kept with her and unlocked the door. “I’m coming, I’m coming” her sister called out when Moon walked inside her apartment “Sis!!” her sister ran towards Moon and hugged her tight “What the pleasant surprise, and I see you still have the key” she giggled “And I see you still haven’t given up on your habit of sleeping around” Moon said taking in her appearance “C’mon sis, stop being such a party pooper” she said walking into the kitchen “Mavis. You know I don’t have any problem with the way you live your life, but please, this isn’t exactly safe. There are so many dangers, what if someone creepy takes advantage of you while drunk, or what about an STD. you have to be careful” Moon sighed “Sis, I understand your concern but don’t worry, I’ve gotten out of the habit of sleeping around with anyone. It’s just one person now. And no strings attached” “Well that’s good to hear, and I hope you use protection, because God knows where he’s been” Moon said “He too only sleeps with me, and yes, we do use protection if that’s what your worried about” Mavis said “Babe, should we order takeout?” a voice called out “He’s still here?” Moon asked “You’re the one who came unannounced” Mavis shrugged “Babe, I aske-” he stopped mid sentence when he saw Moon “YOU!?!” Moon’s eyes went wide wide

#bang chan stray kids #stray kids scenarios #stray kids chan #stray kids imagines #stray kids #stray kids au #stray kids chan fluff #stray kids chan scenarios #stray kids chan smuts #stray kids fanfics #stray kids fic #stray kids fluff #stray kids smuts #bang chan imagines #bang chan scenarios #bang chan smut #bang chan #kim woojin #lee know #seo changbin #hwang hyunjin #han jisung #lee felix #kim seungmin #yang jeongin #chan #chan smut #skz chan

[spoiler1001]

The Pinelands was a country with a history that no one seemed to care to remember. It was once a proud land with many city-states, but pride overtook them and they betrayed each other, legging the skeletons of the buildings to rot. The society's fall gave way to people banding together under one country with a name. No one can remember the name, so they call it The Pinelands, just a network of communities. There were borders for the network, they weren't enforced, sure there were guards but creatures callosum through sometimes. It was extremely sandy and dry to the east and west, with mountains breaking the desert and leafing to a river in the south. The communities were settled on flatlands and forests.

Inns and bars made plenty of money, due to constant traveling between communes. That also led to beer and spirit related mischief.

Dawn made her way by each empty cell, she was one of fiendish blood. Her eyes were solid black, harsh against her red skin. She wore her black hair in a bun, with bangs. She was wearing a dress made from hides, with the front of the skirt cut away, exposing pants underneath, while mimicking a long coat closed around the chest. She finally stopped in front of a cell with someone in it.

"Hello there." She sighed. The man smiled. He was very tall for the cell, having to duck to not hit the ceiling. He had gray thick, curly hair. His eyes were bright, with white-gray irises. He wore dusty leather armor with brass trimming.

"What exactly are you here for?" Dawn whispered to him.

"He got busted for pickpocketing. Do keep your distance." A deep feminine voice rang out. Dawn turned to face a woman of similarly fiendish descent. Her horns grew close to her face, looping to form spirals over her cheeks. She wore thin chain mail armor, stopping above her knees. She had an obvious dagger stapled to her thigh, an axe strapped to her waist, along with a whip.

Her skin was a faded gray, almost blue or violet. Her eyes were solid gold. Her hair was a pixie cut. It was white, with no hints of curls. She had a friendly smile on her face. Fangs peeked over her bottom lip.

Dawn looked back over the tall leather-clad man and took a step away from him.

"Oh."

"So what brings you here?" The other woman asked.

"I was here to ask if the people doomed to the gallows have anything to confess. Maybe I can soothe their souls." Dawn whispered.

"No one is due for that today." The man in the cell whispered.

"But it is a nice thing to do. I'm Merias." She shook Dawn's hand.

Opening the cell, Merias gestured towards the tall guy.

"Andrea. Pleased to meet you." He bowed in greeting.

"I'm Dawn," The red tiefling nodded.

"Well, it's lovely to meet you, Dawn. Andy and I have oranges to eat as payment for a job well done." Merias grinned and walked away.

Andrea and Merias made their way to the inn where two yellow, not at all ripe oranges.

"Wonderful." Merias scoffed, grabbing one of the fruits."

"I mean I did get caught." Andrea sighed.

"But you grabbing the note from that guy's pocket stopped a poisoning." Merias pouted.

"Which is why I had to only spend a night there." Andrea shrugged.

A moment of silence passed between the two. They peeled the fruit, causing the smell to feel the air. Purple looked over at them, jealousy running cold in their veins. They took a bite of the fruit, a second passed, then two. Merias spit it out, groaning. Andrea frowned at the flavor but kept eating.

"My Jaw is hurting now." She complained, grabbing another slice. Andrea grabbed her hand.

"Don't put yourself through this. We can put it in our water." He sighed.

"You say that now, but as soon as we're halfway to the next community…" Merias sighed.

"That's it? You do a job and you're gone by the next day?" A voice rang out. The two of them liked over to see a half-elven guard. He had white hair and solid white eyes, showing off a Drow heritage, but so do alot of people in the Pinelands.

"That is how I can get paid. Do you have another job lined up for me?" She looked up at him.

"Not me, but my captain. We're short-staffed and creatures are… leaking through the southern river. They're attacking the fish and fishermen." The guard looked at Merias. 

She just smirked and leaned forward. "And you want us to… what? Kill them?" She asked. 

"These kinds of creatures are your specialty." The guard scoffed. "For some reason, these things seem to fall to you more easily." 

"I got it. We'll take care of it." She nodded and the guard walked away. 

"I couldn't get a read on him." Andrea sighed. 

"He's bullshitting." Merias sighed. "I'll call our friend in the shadows." 

"Think she'll have something on the guard?" Andre raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe she can help us deal with the monsters. Invite that girl from jail. Maybe she'll want in as well." Merias ran her fingers over her hair. 

"Why me?" 

"You're charming and she seems lost right now." Merias shrugged. 

"I'll talk to Penny. You ask Dawn if she's interested in monster hunting." Andrea chuckled. 

"Alright. Maybe she'll find me charming." Merias sighed.

"Sounds like a plan." 

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

Dawn was at a bar, easing congealed wheat with spices in it. She was fiddling with a small metal object. It was engraved with a language of… somewhere. It was not of this region. 

"So, I'm leaving for the southern river. There are some monsters. Maybe you want to help?" Merias asked, appearing next to her. 

"What kind of monsters?" Dawn asked. 

"Probably undead." 

"That's one of the worst kinds." Dawn nodded. "Why me though?" 

"Because you seem like you have nowhere to go and it's safer to be in a group while figuring that out." Merias shrugged. 

"What do you get out of me joining your duo?" 

Merias laughed. "It's gonna be a whole team. I get someone new to travel with. You'll be great." 

"I could be a killer." 

"Not a dealbreaker." 

"And pay?" Dawn slipped her token back into her pocket. 

"Split evenly between all of us." Merias smiled. 

"One job to see how it works out, then we'll see." Dawn nodded. 

"Great. Pack your bags." Merias smile and walked away.

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

Andrea made his way to a dark alleyway. He was out of sight. There was a smell of smoke and bile in the air, making every breath burned. He could see very well, but there was something about the area. 

"Who do you want to laden about?" A low voice asked. It was rough, more rasp than voice. 

"Penny." Andrea smiled and turned around. 

Penny was thin with the skin tone of a cadaver. Her eyes were bright blue, seeming to glow against her skin tone. 

"Merias and I are building a team for-" 

"Ah… Hell beasts in the South." Penny smiled. It was a happy and excited smile. "I do want in." 

"That makes it seem like you're already packed." Andrea straightened his armor. 

"I am. I will see you when it's time to leave." Penny skipped back into the shadows.

"Oh. Alright then." Andrea nodded and went to pack.

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

Dawn looked down at her bag. She was ready to go. She played with her token. The wind blew despite no moving air. If she closed her eyes she could feel something run down her arm and wrap between her fingers. She opened her eyes and the air stilled. She took a deep breath and left the room.

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

Penny sat next to her bag, wrapping herself in furs. She felt off in the furs. They were warm, and that's what mattered. Maybe she'll try skins and leathers next. 

She stood up and made her way to the meeting point, her ear to the chatter around her.

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

Andrea read over his old school books. He missed teaching in that village. It was fulfilling to teach children how to spell and read. When the plague hit…

He strapped his weapons to himself. He was this now. Bounty hunting is something new. Maybe he can retire and teach again. 

He sighed… maybe this will be the last mission. He needed to retire anyway. He steadied himself for a moment, before leaving to meet the others to go. 

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

Merias put her best armor on. It shone brightly. She looked over her dagger. There was an engraving on it. Overcoming. Merias smiled. The last thing her mother gave her. It was the last thing anyone gave her. 

Merits sheathed her blade. It was time to go. She stood up, taking a deep breath. She made her way to the group. The new adventure began.

#dnd campaign #pinelands campaign #origional character #tw alcohol #tw war mention #tw war

[andremarshallwhite]

Fallout OC Interview!

thank you @robobrainmurdermysterytheatre​ for making this interview and also for tagging me in it! :D

i’ve done an interview for andre before, but he’s my baby so as much as he dislikes it, he’s going to answer more questions about himself lol he’s gotten a little more comfortable doing so!

-

What is your name?

“Andre.”

How old are you?

“Two hundred thirty-nine.” He smiles cheekily, then frowns when that doesn’t get a laugh. “Fine. I’m 29.”

What do you look like?

He blinks a couple times. “Uh, well, I’m a 6′3″ black man with lots of tattoos and locs. I need glasses, so I’ve got a couple of pairs of those in case I lose them out in the wasteland, and I’ve got a prosthetic on my right leg.”

“...It’s a long story.”

Where are you from? Where do you live now?

“I was born in Brooklyn, New York. Now, I live in a post-war, destroyed Boston. There’s... more to it than that, but, yeah.”

What was your childhood like?

He’s quiet for a few minutes, brows furrowed. “Overall, I think it was good. My dad was... kind of absent most of the time, but I don’t fault him for that. He worked a lot. My mom and I were really close, though.” He smiles at the memory of her and sniffles quietly. “I have-- had, two older sisters, and we were really close.”

What groups are you friendly with? Are you allied with any factions?

“I like Preston Garvey quiet a lot. He’s a great guy,” he smiles. “Anytime the Minutemen need any help, I’m there, but being the General really isn’t my speed. Aksel does a great job at that. And I used to be a part of the Brotherhood of Steel, but well, let’s just say that didn’t really work out when their “leader” tried to kill one of their best men and my partner,” he frowns.

Tell me about your best friend.

“Danse and I are really close, I definitely consider him my best friend, but realistically... He’s a lot more than that to me. I could talk about Danse for hours,” he smiles, looking down nervously. “But, uh, the only other person that means that much to me is Preston. He’s always there to listen when I need him, but also when Danse needs him. I can’t ask anymore than that, really.”

Do you have a family? Tell me about them!

He looks away and blinks a few times, taking a deep breath. “I uh, I have more of a found family now. Danse is the one I’m closest to, obviously, but beyond that, Preston, Sturges, and Curie are great friends. Oh, and Dogmeat. Such a good dog.”

What about a partner or partners? 

He smiles softly. “I’m still in love with Lily, my wife. I think I always will be, but she wouldn’t want me to be alone, and I think she’d like Danse quite a lot. They both have a lot in common, like putting up with my bullshit,” he laughs softly.

Who are your enemies, and why?

“Probably the same as anyone in the Commonwealth; raiders, Gunners, the Institute... and the Brotherhood, but that’s more of a personal one.”

Have you ever heard of The Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them?

He rolls his eyes and leans back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “God, next question please.”

What about The Enclave?

“Hmm, no, never have.”

(op hasn’t played any other fallout games bc they’re poor oops)

How do you feel about Super Mutants?

“On one hand I feel kinda bad because they were experimented on against their will, therefore the way they are isn’t really their fault? On the other, they try to kill me on an almost daily basis, so... Not a fan.”

What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in?

“Oh man, where do I start?” he chuckles and adjusts how he’s sitting to get comfortable. “There was this one time when Danse and I were down in Quincy and we were taking out all the Gunners that took over, right? I can laugh now because it’s been a couple months, but at the time Danse and I got cornered behind a barrier they had set up. I only had a few magazines of ammo left and a couple frags, so I threw a grenade over the barrier and I shit you not, one of the fucker’s legs shot up into the air and landed right in front of us,” he laughs, running his hands through his locs. “Danse and I looked at it for a second, but couldn’t really react because we still had a bunch of Gunners to take out, y’know? Anyway, we found an abandoned house and camped there for the night and laughed about it over a couple of beers, it was great.”

Have you ever fought a Deathclaw?

“Yeah, that’s how I got the scar on my forehead. I was out of commission for a couple of months after that.”

Do you like fighting?

“Not at all. I do it because I have to, but it’s fucking exhausting and really dangerous.”

What’s your weapon of choice?

“My sniper rifle. I’ve had it since my army days and I’ve been modifying it since. It’s a... little different now,” he chuckles.

How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, some combination?(a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L?)

“I like to think charm has something to do with it? Maybe it’s intimidation, but it gets the job done. And skills.”

S - 10 P - 13 E - 8 C - 12 I - 9 A - 10 L - 7

Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think about them? 

“Yeah, I don’t really like to talk about that.”

How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it affected you?

“Typically, I’ll wear a gas mask when it gets really bad.”

What’s your favorite wasteland critter?

“Probably brahmin. They’re usually really sweet. Danse and I have been talking about starting a farm in the future and we both want a couple of brahmin.”

What’s your least favorite wasteland critter?

“They’re in Nuka World, but I fucking hate the crickets there.” He shivers and frowns. “Blegh.”

How do you feel about robots?

“I like Mr. Handys and Protectrons best. They just try and help most of the time. Plus, Codsworth is a great friend of mine.”

How many caps do you have on you right now?

“Around... 450? I don’t really spend my money much. Never know when you might need it, y’know? I have more at my home base, though.”

Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla?

“Nuka Dark.”

Do you do chems? 

“No, but I smoke and drink more than I probably should.”

Do you ever think about the Pre-War world?

He looks away, like he’s looking at someone for comfort, before answering. “Yeah, all the time.”

What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently?

“Not asking if there was a couple’s cryo. There probably wasn’t because Vault-Tec were corrupt as shit, but if there was a way for me to know that I’d lose her, I’d do anything I could to prevent it.” 

Danse comes in and puts his hand on Andre’s shoulder. “We’ve talked about this, Andy. She wouldn’t want you to worry about this all the time.” He leans down and kisses Andre’s forehead. “It’s not your fault.”

Andre nods, eyes closed, and grabs Danse’s hand. “I know.”

What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve?

“Convincing Danse to stay in the Commonwealth. I’m not sure what I would have done if he left, or worse.” He squeezes Danse’s hand a little.

What do you want for the future? For yourself? Your friends? The world?

“Normalcy. I just want to be able to go to sleep without worrying if a raider is going to come in, steal my shit, and kill me and my family.”

#fallout oc #fallout 4 #falloutedit #andre white #mine #i like fleshing out his character #and answering as him is really fun! #also if you get thru this whole thing #ur a trooper

[princess-of-france]

Also- since Love's Labour's Lost has been on the brain, and you are such a cool theatre person: dreamcast for LLL? Thank you so much!

OMFG MY FAVORITE COMEDY YES YES YES 

*blows kazoo*

(Also, I’m cracking up at you thinking I’m a “cool theater person,” because I promise that’s a wonderfully accidental illusion; in reality, I’m just a cryptid who’s entire genetic makeup consists of triple-espresso lattes, Gmail push notifications, Shakespeare plays, and tears. But you’re very kind!)

Before I answer this amazing Ask, I think I should clarify that my dreamcast for LLL already exists — or, at least, it existed in 2018 — and I had the dazzling, life-affirming pleasure of seeing them perform my beloved plotless comedy at my favorite theater festival on the planet: the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

So here’s to Amanda Dennart and her IMPECCABLE Love’s Labour’s Lost:

^^^ Yes, that is King Ferdinand of Navarre, played by the once and future Daniel José Molina, meeting the Princess of France — the fabulous Alejandra Escalante — with a paper bag over his motherfucking head so that he doesn’t break his kingly oath of Not Looking At Female For 3 Years. (Fun fact: these two are now married!)

[Photo credit: Jenny Graham.]

BUT NOW TO THE MAIN EVENT:

Critically, I think LLL is a play about eight young people experiencing love for the first time and struggling to reconcile that love with their desire to be the Cleverest Person in the Room. Like so many whip-smart young people, the Crazy Eight equate cavalier carelessness with power, but the problem is: true love requires radical, wholehearted, unbearable vulnerability. It demands chaos and madness and mess and mistakes. True love asks us to be willing to look like an idiot. And most young people just aren’t ready for that, the first time it happens. It’s why the ending of this play is so goddam devastating.

And it’s why it’s so important to me that my cast list for the Crazy Eight reflects the youth, innocence, and inexperience I see baked into every one of their lines. Love has to seem like a first-time visitor to all of them. Love has to shake up their worldview like a snow globe, bowl them over, and then leave them impermeably altered. Love has to be the thing that makes them grow up. 

So, with that, I am proud to present...

~THE NAVARRE NERDS~

1. KING FERDINAND OF NAVARRE — Paapa Essiedu

Love of my complete life. I don’t know if there’s a better actor with a bigger heart anywhere on earth. His Henry VI was utterly inspired, so I know he can be Kingly. Plus, he’s a passionate advocate for decolonizing Shakespeare and making classical theater accessible to all and...yeah. I adore him. 

2. BEROWNE — Anthony Boyle

THIS IDIOT. I had to find a picture of him laughing, because he’s played a lot of Moody Broody Types, but OMG when he cracks a grin... Anthony is just a jewel of an actor: versatile, intense, thoughtful, emotionally articulate. He’ll keep Paapa’s Ferdie laughing, but also bring out the big guns for Berowne’s gorgeous character arc from horny cynic to lovesick wooer to chastened fool.

3. DUMAINE — Alfred Enoch

Perfect angel darling. There’s no doubt in my mind that Alfie can do Smug, Suave, Would-Be-James Bond Dumaine as well as Dorky, Clumsy, Foot-Constantly-in-Mouth Dumaine with equal flair. Also, I love him. <3

4. LONGAVILLE — George MacKay

Apparently, this sweetheart is playing Hamlet soon in the new Ophelia movie, which is HILARIOUS, because he looks like the most Innocent Innocent to ever Innocent. I suppose this is what makes him a good actor. And he is very good.

~LES FILLES~

5. PRINCESS OF FRANCE — Lily James

This goddess is always getting cast as ingenues who fall in love with their eyes and hearts wide open, which is all fine and good. But I wanna see her fall in love against her will, against her better judgment, and with stubborn denial attending her every step of the way...partly because Lily is up to the challenge, and partly because it would be precious af.

6. ROSALINE — Karla Crome

BAMF. Berowne won’t know what hit him. Karla is talented in a way most of us can only dream about, but even more importantly, she is whip-smart, self-possessed, and in love with herself. Get it, girl.

7. KATHARINE — Shay Mitchell

It’s hard to beat Shay for Sleek, Feline Intelligence. I like to imagine Katharine as the ultimate duchess: rich, spoiled, overeducated, overprivileged, dressed to the nines every minute of every day. But she carries so much pain behind the mask. Being fabulous is no substitute for losing your big sister. And I think Shay can do justice to all those layers.

8. MARIA — Francesca Mills

I had the honor of seeing Francesca in Rachel Chavkin’s epic production of American Clock at the Old Vic this past winter. In a cast of over 20 brilliant actors, she emerged as the brightest star. I have never fallen in love with an actress so quickly. Sweet, inquisitive, sassy, and smart, with a crystalline voice, Francesca is the ultimate heroine. Her Maria will be the most adorable in human history, I think.

9. BOYET — Tamsin Greig

Imho, no one does Blustery Spinster Energy better than Tamsin. (See her performance as Miss Bates in the 2009 BBC miniseries, Emma.) My favorite version of Boyet is the adult female chaperone that the Princess and her ladies gleefully dress up as a man to stymie Ferdinand’s guards. It makes 5.2 all the more giddy and revelatory, and also it just makes narrative sense. Tamsin will play the beleaguered and increasingly exasperated Wine Mom to perfection.

~THE PSEUDO-SCHOLARS~

10. DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO — Riz Ahmed

I just can’t even express how much I love Riz. He dissolves completely into every single role he plays, no matter how absurd the character may seem on paper. And that is a very pertinent qualification for playing Armado, because he has the hard-fought distinction of being the most Abjectly Batshit Character in this bonkers play. Also I just really wanna get his autograph help

11. MOTE — Kiernan Shipka

THIS GIRL. Oh man, I don’t even know where to begin. She’s so flipping good at her craft, and at such a young age!! Honestly, I’d hate her if she weren’t so damn precious. All she needs to do is learn how to do a Scottish accent and then she’ll be 100% ready to play the wee snickering Watson to Armado’s pirate-Holmes. I’ve always read Mote as Armado’s platonic life partner slash surrogate daughter. She’s probably the only person in the world who knows Armado’s social security number. (Plus, Riz is a sweetheart, so you just know they’ll become great friends!)

12. DR. HOLOFERNES — Olivia Colman

What can I say? She’ll play the broad, slapstick comic relief stock character of Il Dottore to perfection...right up until the moment she doesn’t. Then she’ll make us all sob. “This is not generous, not gentle, not humble!” (V.ii.2570)

13. NATHANIEL — Cyril Nri

Can’t you just see this angel loving the crap out of Olivia’s Holofernes?? Like, he probably built an extension onto his rectory home JUST to give the famous visiting Italian academic a place to stay during her time in Navarre. Great actor, great human, great smile. 11/10

~BELOW-STAIRS~

14. COSTARD — Andy Samberg

My only Costard. I mean, he’s the only white boy I know who could play such a cowardly fuckboi of a character without turning him into a 2-D caricature. Not to mention the fact that Andy is a spectacular improv actor, so he can invent a lot of new lines and jokes for the hallboy! Win-win!

15. JAQUENETTA — Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Because I want the oft-disregarded Jaquenetta to be the Narrator of this whole wild shebang, I need an actor who can foster a deliciously familiar, non-4th-wall relationship with the audience and/or camera. Phoebe is the undisputed Queen of this. She’ll be STELLAR. And she and Andy will make people cry from laughing so hard.

16. CONSTABLE ANTHONY DULL — Andre Braugher

I love the idea of this Juilliard-trained classical actor sitting quietly with his crossword puzzle in the back of the polished oak Navarre library, watching a group of the Dumbest Smart People in human history talking themselves into a tizzy over false Latin and prickets and excrement and bad, mis-delivered iambic hexametric sonnets and just chuckling to himself. (Also: BB99 reunion!)

17. MERCADÉ — Randall Park

Tbh, I feel bad giving such a small part to such a phenomenal actor, but the thing about Mercadé is that he is like the BIGGEST small part in all of Shakespeare. He’s right up there with the First Servant in Lear in terms of the sheer narrative punch he packs into just a few short lines. And I think the best Mercadé is the one who has a personal relationship to the Princess. Maybe he was a personal aide to her father, the King? Maybe he helped raise her? Regardless, I think their conversation at the end of 5.2 is more than just the delivery of a sad message. It’s a communion between two grieving patriots of France. I want an actor whose warm heart will shine through that brief interchange. Randall can obviously do that, tenfold.

Aaaaaaand I think that’s it! Thanks again for the Ask, Lauren!! This was an absolute treat. xx Claire

[takaraphoenix]

80. “Why did I marry you?” - “It took a lot of convincing.” for Christian/Mason

Advent Calendar: Day 11

“Babe? Come on, we gotta return to the party.”

“I don’t need to do anything. This is my school. I can just sit in my office in the dark.”

Mason smiled fondly and rolled his eyes as he approached his husband. “It’s the Winter Gala, Chris. The most influential parents of our students are here. And you are the headmaster of Saint Vlad’s Academy. You not being here is just… disrespectful.”

“Don’t call me Chris. And I was already there”, grunted Christian stubbornly.

“Babe, you were there for like five minutes before you bailed”, sighed Mason and wrapped his arms around Christian’s neck from behind, resting his head on his husband’s. “Come o—on. Good food. A few people you actually like. Don’t give me that look, Christian! Lissa and Rose will be there.”

“That makes one person I actually like”, countered Christian and rolled his eyes.

“At least four”, argued Mason with a slight pout. “I am there. Andy and Lily are there.”

Christian faltered a little at the mention of their kids. Lily had been very excited about the ball and she had proudly shown off her dress earlier today. She looked so pretty in the fire-red dress, cheeks flushed in excitement. She was… nothing like Christian. Then again, she was the biological child of Rose and Mason and that showed in her social interactions. She was always the center of attention, she knew exactly how to make friends with everyone. She was just like Mason with that. When she saw someone she wanted to befriend, she just… did.

“You haven’t seen Andy yet”, noted Mason very slowly, deliberately.

Christian grumbled. Andre Eric Dragomir, he lived with Rose and Lissa. Heir to Queen Dragomir. And biologically, Christian’s son. That also showed in his fire-powers. And in his dark glare whenever he was forced to be social. It was a great source of entertainment for the rest of their family that Christian and Andy would just gloomily sulk in a corner together at social events.

“I don’t want to go”, sighed Christian frustrated. “Mia Rinaldi has been giving me a headache within five minutes of this gala. Never imagined her to be such a damn mother hen…”

“But you like her kid, right?”, argued Mason with a grin, nudging Christian.

“It’s hardly his fault who his mother is”, muttered Christian beneath his breath.

Mason smiled gently and leaned down to kiss Christian’s temple. “My cute softie.”

“I am not a softie”, growled Christian, shoving Mason a little. “Why did I marry you?”

“It took a lot of convincing”, grinned Mason and grabbed Christian’s hand.

He linked fingers with Christian, so their golden wedding-bands lined up and sparkled in the faint light of the desk-lamp. The grin on Mason’s lips grew into a proper smile. It really had taken Mason some convincing to get Christian to say ‘yes’. They had been dating for five years, Christian had been a teacher at Saint Vlad’s back then – teaching the Moroi kids magic – and Mason had been the teacher of the dhampirs. Well, Mason still was doing that, he loved his job. Christian however, he had worked his way up to becoming headmaster and fundamentally changing Saint Vlad’s. Mason was mighty proud of his husband, which never failed to make Christian blush an endearing pink.

“Come on, husband mine, let’s face the literal and figurative music”, prompted Mason.

“For the record, I am only going with you because I want to see our son”, grumbled Christian.

Mason smiled softly to himself as he pulled his husband up and along, out of the office. Christian loved hiding himself away in his office a lot. Which was fine, for the most part, but a parent teacher night gala was most definitely one of those opportunities. With an ever-growing smile did Mason lean in to properly kiss his husband before they made their way down the hall.

“Keep your best friend away from me”, warned Christian. “I am in enough of a bad mood, I do not need Rose’s teasing tonight. You’re on distract-Rose-duty.”

“Seems Lissa took over that part for me”, hummed Mason and paused.

Frowning, Christian turned to follow his husband’s line of sight. The ball room and in the center of it, Queen Dragomir and her royal consort, dancing away. Christian’s eyes softened as he spotted their kids not far behind them, dancing with the Dashkov-kids.

“Andy cleans up nice”, grinned Mason. “He really does look a lot like you, Chris.”

“Don’t call me Chris”, sighed Christian. “…But you’re right.”

At age sixteen, in his dark-red-nearly-black suit, Andy really did look a lot like Christian had back in the day. Smiling to himself, Christian leaned back against his husband.

“Now I remember why I married you”, whispered Christian softly.

“Mh? Oh yeah? Share with me?”, asked Mason curiously, wrapping his arms around Christian.

“Mh… no. Your ego does not need any more feeding, Mister Ozera”, smirked Christian. “Come on now, let’s get to that stupid banquet so we can leave again.”

He had married Mason, because Mason made him smile. Mason made him happy. Mason had made him leave his dark, gloomy corner and even though Christian liked to complain about it and even though most social events did annoy him, there were occasions where Christian was glad Mason dragged him along. Mason was kind and sweet and gentle and loving and Mason had given Christian the one thing Christian had been craving for so many years. A family.

Read this here on FFNet & here on AO3!

#Ashzera #Mason x Christian #Mason Ashford #Christian Ozera #Vampire Academy #Fanfiction #Phoe's Tumblr Drabbles #Phoe's Advent Calendar Project #kimmyhunter

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1242

Monday, December 24, 2018

 I was hit by a spasm of back pain on Saturday like the ghost of Christmas Past. That'll teach me for being such a Scrooge this time of year. I try not to be naughty but being nice is such a pain in the pants. I am slowly recovering under the gentle ministrations of Santa's Helper. Being around family and friends is better medicine than any pain pills I could take. My brother and sister-in-law hosted a brunch yesterday and seeing everyone together laughing and happy soothed me greatly. Just holding baby Oliver and making him smile eased my back pain.

 I saw the Ottawa premiere of Aquaman thanks to my Jee-Riz partner Chris, who won passes from the comic book store Myths, Legends and Heroes. I can sum up how I felt about the movie in one word; wigs. I wish they had spent some of the Atlantis special effects budget on better wigs for the actors. Arthur's dad's toupee was glaringly obvious. I've seen better hair on Cosplayers than Nicole Kidman's wigs. It looked like Amber Heard/Mera was wearing a wig at times but even when it looked like her real hair the colour red they chose was too unnatural looking. The movie's saving grace for me was Jason Momoa. He makes a great Arthur/Aquaman. I'm glad I didn't pay to see this one.

 Ugh. Stan Lee tribute covers. Terrible marketing idea.

 Dead Man Logan #2 - Ed Brisson (writer) Mike Henderson (art) Nolan Woodard (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). A couple of things really annoyed me this issue. Sin, the Red Skull's daughter, acted like a spoiled brat. It's not a stretch to foresee the villains losing at the end of this 12-issue story. Then we have Forge repairing a machine that can get Old Man Logan back home. They actually go there and he doesn't stay. I'm for super heroics as much as the next nerd and maybe I'm selfish, but that irked me to no end. Old Man Logan has been whining about getting home ever since he showed up in this timeline and now he wants to stay to prevent all the super heroes from being killed by all the super villains. There isn't even a guarantee that is what happens in the future. And why don't they use the machine to fix things? Man I hate time travel. I really like Mike Henderson's art but this looks like another travelling super heroes versus super villains battle every issue, and that's not very interesting to me.

 Defenders: The Best Defense #1 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (pencils) Belardino Brabo (inks) Dono Sanchez Almara (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). It's the big Defenders reunion to save Earth. Old Man Dr. Strange, Hulk, Namor and the Silver Surfer have to sidetrack The Train in order for Earth to survive. It's a bit complicated and I'm surprised that you didn't really need to read all the one-shots to get what's going on. I mean all those scenes where the stabby killer in the bed sheet is killing aliens isn't even mentioned in this story. So what was up with that?

 Marvel Knights #4 - Vita Ayala & Donny Cates (writers) Joshua Cassara (art) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Here's where they explain why all the super heroes have forgotten who they are. T'Challa/Black Panther is featured in this issue that ends with him discovering the lair of villains. I'm wondering how the bad guys retained their memories.

 Old Man Hawkeye #12 - Ethan Sacks (writer) Francesco Mobili (art) Andres Mossa (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). That was a very satisfying ending. What a great prequel to the Old Man Logan story where Clint and Logan go on a road trip. This is where Clint loses his sight for good. I loved the last page epilogue showing Clint tracking down someone who will help him to continue to fight the bad guys despite his blindness.

 Runaways #16 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Kris Anka (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Reading this Christmas special is better than getting a lump of coal. Having Doombot as a dinner guest made this a treat. I wish he was a regular member of the team.

 West Coast Avengers #6 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Daniele Di Nicuolo (art) Triona Farrell (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The good guys have been captured by the bad guys: Satana Hellstrom, M.O.D.O.K., The Eel and Madame Masque. Kate is still free however and she's not going to abandon her team mates. Too bad she gets waylaid on her way to rescue them. Her captor is a complete surprise, which will make the next issue a hoot.

 Thor #8 - Jason Aaron (writer) Mike del Mundo (art) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This is an awesome issue with Thor fighting the Angelus. It ends with an ex-Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. being paid a visit by the Black Panther. I like how this book is being tied into The Avengers.

 Season's Beatings #1 - Jason Latour (writer) Greg Hinkle, Chris Brunner, Veronica Fish & Mario Del Pennino (art) Rico Renzi, Jim Campbell & Veronica Fish (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I should have realized from the cover that this was a Deadpool Christmas Special. If I had known, I would have bought a pair of socks from the Dollar Store with the $4.99 US that this comic book costs. Unless of course, you're a big Deadpool fan or West Coast Avengers fan or even an X-Force fan. They're all in here too. Plus Squirrel Girl and Doctor Doom. Come to think of it, this is an everything but the kitchen sink gift for a Marvel Comics fan who will get a few chuckles out of it.

 Freedom Fighters #1 - Robert Venditti (writer) Eddy Barrows (pencils) Eber Ferreira (inks) Adriano Lucas (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). This is some heavy duty patriotic poop right here. We start this 12-issue story in 1963 America that is ruled by Adolf Hitler and his "ratzi" party. The original Freedom Fighters meet to plot a resistance attack on a war robot factory. Things don't go well for the good guys. Jump forward to 2018 and the surprise appearance of the New Freedom Fighters; Black Condor, Doll Woman, the Human Bomb and Phantom Lady. All we need is Uncle Sam. Robert Venditti holds nothing back showing the Germans as ruthless racists. The art is really well done so I will give these Golden Age heroes a chance to see how they fare in modern times.

 Middlewest #2 - Skottie Young (writer) Jorge Corona (art) Jean Francois Beaulieu (colours) Nate Piekos (letters). A new character named Jeb is introduced who helps Abel get out of a bind. Jeb reminds me of the first time we meet Gandalf. Abel's quest continues and we find out a bit more about the symbol on his chest. I predict he'll meet his mother down the road but unlike the talking fox, I won't be travelling down it with him.

 Cover #4 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) David Mack (art) Michael Avon Oeming (Owen art) Zu Orzu (colours) Carlos Mangual (letters). This issue is a great example of how a comic book can tell a story with words and pictures. I felt like I was watching a TV show or a short film. Brian, David and Michael work together seamlessly

 Hardcore 1 - Robert Kirkman & Andy Diggle (writers) Alessandro Vitti (art) Adriano Lucas (colours) Thomas Mauer (letters). Yeah man, it is. Agent Drake is a drone pilot but what he controls are other human beings. A new nanotechnology allows him to take over and move a remote body for 72 hours so he can complete wetwork missions. It's really cool. The big problem arises when the guy who invented the tech comes back to reclaim it from the government. That guy is not asking nicely. I like this concept and the predicament that Agent Drake finds himself in at the end of this issue. Therefore, this goes on to my "must read" list.

 Klaus and the Crying Snowman #1 - Grant Morrison (writer) Dan Mora (art) Ed Dukeshire (letters). This $7.99 US one-shot tells the tale of how Sam the snowman helps Klaus save the Earth from murderous aliens. I loved how they wove in Norse mythology. You'd think a crying snowman would be doomed in the end and you'd be right, but fear not, 'tis a happy ending.

 Betty & Veronica #1 - Jamie Lee Rotante (writer) Sandra Lanz (art) Kelly Fitzpatrick (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). The BFFs are back with a 5-issue mini that starts off their senior year of high school. I know that these slightly more mature Archie Comics want to draw in a new audience but Betty dating Reggie? Sacrilege. A few other things bothered me storywise that turned me off even more. Betty drinking a spiked punch without noticing? C'mon. Then there's the art. I didn't like the interiors compared to the nice cover that Sandra drew. I expected my girl Betty to be treated better than this.

 Catwoman #6 - Joelle Jones (story & art) Laura Allred (colours) Josh Reed (letters). The finale of "Copycats" is a quick read so I read it twice. The first time was to see how Catwoman deals with the evil Mrs. Creel and her pumped up on drugs son. The second time was to see Catwoman in action and to savour the beautiful art and layouts. I wish Joelle Jones would do a Betty & Veronica mini.

 Extermination #5 - Ed Brisson (writer) Pepe Larraz (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I tolerated this time travel tale because of the amazing art. I wish Pepe Larraz would do a Betty & Veronica mini. If you thought that the mutants being exterminated was a real threat then you haven't been reading X-Men comic books for very long. This story puts the young X-Men back in their own time and all is well again. The big surprise comes on the last page and I'm thinking "oh geez, here we go again".

 Domino #9 - Gail Simone (writer) David Baldeon & Michael Shelfer (art) Roberto Poggi (ink assist) Guru-eFX (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Soldier of Fortune part 3. The ladies are asked to kill Longshot. Haven't seen him in a while. Might not see him for long though, since he's supposed to bring about the end of the world. This is interesting because both Domino and Longshot have the same super power. Who's luck is going to run out first?

 Firefly #2 - Greg Pak (writer) Dan McDaid (art) Marcelo Costa (colours) Jim Campbell (letters). Mal and Zoe are being hunted by a gang of thieves and the Alliance. Darn tootin' there's going to be shootin'. I have been watching Nathan Fillion's new cop show The Rookie and I quite like it.

 Batman #61 - Tom King (writer) Travis Moore (art) Tamra Bonvillain (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). Knightmares part 1. The "what the!?" appearance on the last page of #60 is explained here as a new story starts. I knew something was hinky when I saw the string of pearls around the dead body of Martha Wayne in the alley. I thought we were in an alternate universe and we sort of are but it came as a complete shock when what was going on was explained. Arkham Asylum is getting a new inmate. At least he's new to me unless I want to go back and read Batman #38.

[kota-writes]

i cant tell pt. 2

Pairing: Spencer Reid x OC

Chapter summary: Andrea and Spencer come up with their undercover backstory.

Warnings: some case descriptions, our lovely unsub is a necrophiliac so yeah. Keep that in mind

A/N: loved this chapter. I love making my characters blatantly ND. Andrea stimming gives me life

Requests: open! I absolutely need requests currently. I need ideas

Part one so you know what’s going on

The walk down to the car was an awkward one. Both Andrea and Spencer processing what the hell just happened. Undercover? Undercover as a couple? It was way too much. Andrea felt like her head was spinning. When she finally slid into the drivers seat she flapped her hands around a bit to try and get her emotions under control. Spencer chuckled softly at the sight. “You alright?”

“Yeah. Just a little overwhelmed. Never done undercover before.” She replied, shaking her hands one last time before starting the car. “I get it. You were an on scene psychiatrist before you came here right? Just picture it like that… just more complicated” Spencer rambled. He tapped his fingers against his thighs, his own little way of getting his anxiety out.

“More complicated?” Andi muttered to herself sarcastically. “Who’s apartment do you wanna go too to figure this out?” She continued. “Yours” Spencer answered immediately. Andrea smiled to herself, knowing exactly why he preferred her place. Andrea was a very artsy person. She made a deal with her land lord that she could paint her apartment all she wanted as long as she covered it before she left.

In the past 2 years she’s painted a mural on every wall in her living room. She’s currently working on her office but with how often she’s working it’s hard to get done. Spencer’s favorite was the wall of swirling colours in her living room, it was mesmerizing. He had asked what inspired that one and that’s when he learned Andi could see colours with sounds, that mural was just a representation of that.

Andi pushed the door open and stepped into the living room, Spencer following close behind. “I’m gonna change. Can you get some notebooks from my office and start brainstorming?” Andrea asked softly as she dropped her bag on the floor. Spencer hummed softly, b lining for the office.

Spencer has been here a hundred times. He loved her apartment, it was so soothing and calm. She always kept it cold and bright, giving off a comforting feel. Her office was messy, papers and books scattered around, an occasional paint can stacked here or there. Andrea and Spencer were exact answers when it came to organizing, Spencer needed direct order and Andrea? Andre needed chaos to succeed.

Spencer gathered some notebooks, pencils, and some sticky notes and strolled back into the living room. Andi was already there sitting on the floor rocking slightly. The sight made Spencer’s heart swirl, she only seemed to do that around him and always with a soft smile on her face.

“Did you grab my big pencil? And you’re sticky notes?” She asked sticking a hand out to take things from him. “Of course. So… we’re supposed to put together a dynamic of um-“ Spencer trailed off, his face heating up, finally realizing what was happening

“A married couple” Andre finished flatly. The young woman knew her friend was nervous but just couldn’t understand why. Just a second ago he was fine and now he was fidgeting and squirming. She wanted to ask why but decided against it, not even knowing what to ask.

“Right that. We should probably start with a backstory. When we met, when we got married, that stuff. Garcia will deal with fake names so we don’t have to worry about that.” Spencer explained, scribbling quickly with furrowed eyebrows. Andi hummed and leaned back onto her elbows, starting at the colourful wall. She was imaginative, more so than most but, now she was drawing blanks.

“You’re from Vegas and I’m from St. Louis, what’s a good middle ground?” Andi asked after a moment of silence. They couldn’t give out their homestates, a mid ground sounded like the easiest most realistic option. “Colorado or Utah are probably our best options. We could pick some middle of no where place to make it seem less suspicious we would move to another place like that” Spencer explained swiftly, jotting down his thoughts sloppily. Andi hummed again and resumed staring at the wall.

This case is complex. A serial killer that targets couples, purely to make the men watch him kill their wives. But he was also a necrophiliac, grave robbing and violating corpses. He had mixed things that generally stayed separate. Catching him in theory should be easy but, without the aid of local police it became much more complicated. Out in the middle of no where, anyone can be he unsub and we couldn’t risk messing up.

“So what if we met at university. We were both nerds with little to no friends and found solace in the other. We eventually started dating after you invite me to a study date. We get married 2 years later in a Vegas style wedding with no party or family present. Just to tie up loose ends on why family doesn’t call or visit I guess.” Spencer’s words brought Andrea out of her trance.

The story sound legitimate and very true. It could’ve actually happened had they known eachother at uni. “Sounds plausible. What are our majors and such? I mean I’ll be working as a medical examiner and you’ll probably have a desk job close by. It’s gotta match up. Your degrees don’t point to a desk job unfortunately” andi rambled slightly, trying to poke holes in her own logic.

“We can just exclude your degree in psychology and keep your chemistry and medical practises degrees. I went to college for pathology, got my degree, but decided it’s not my career path and got a desk job instead.” Spencer was piecing together a puzzle at this point. Andi provided him questions and he provided the answers. The perfect pair.

“So that’s our backstory made mostly. What made us move?” Andi quirked her head to the side as she thought.

“family issues?” Spencer offered

“No that requires another back story that’s too easy to poke holes in. Downsizing is the easiest answer I guess” andi huffed out, looking down at her notebook for answers. Spencer hummed in affirmation.

They spent the next few hours bouncing ideas off of each other and eventually settled on a definitive narrative. The rest of the night passes by calmly.

“Do you want tea? I still have your favorite” andi offered sweetly, wandering towards her kitchen. Spencer grumbled a soft yes as he rubbed at his tired eyes. Andi chuckled to herself softly as she gathered the ingredients and kettle. She didn’t really get Spencer’s little mannerisms, like him scrunching his face up when he was thinking but she thought they were sweet. She was never good with understanding those things but Spencer never cared.

“Do you think hotch will be happy with this?” Spencer called from his place on the couch. “He better be. There’s 8 pages of notes for him to look over.” Andi grunted back. Hotch would poke holes in their story no matter what but that was ok. He just wanted them safe. Safety wasn’t guaranteed when you were being bait though.

#spencer reid series #spencer reid x oc #spencer reid x original female character

[your-dietician]

'You have to just love it'

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/sports/you-have-to-just-love-it/

'You have to just love it'

Jazz Chisholm knows that baseball is difficult, that there remains a significant gulf he must cross to match his significant talent and overwhelming charisma to his production.

Right now, this is who Jazz is: A rookie infielder for the Miami Marlins whose stat line says his production is just above league average, but his swag suggests he’s anything but.

This is who Jazz could be: A dynamic, powerful, five-tool force, whose desire to disrupt the game could vault him atop the short list of burgeoning baseball stars with ever-elusive crossover appeal.

This is how he plans to get there: By sacrificing nothing – certainly not the vicious bat speed from his swing that ensures the home runs he does hit go very, very far. And certainly not the exuberance that vaulted him from the Bahamas to the big leagues, endearing him to fans and perhaps enabling him to join some of his athletic heroes – Kobe, LeBron, KD – as a wonder known only by one name.

And what’s the tune Jazz lives by?

“To this day,” he says, “I just always try to tell kids to be themselves. Don’t let nobody change you. You go out there and play the way you want to go play.

“That’s why I always do the crazy hair colors, I do my dances and I just have fun out there because I just want everybody to know, it’s OK to have fun on the baseball field.

“You know?”

If you don’t, you probably will soon.

Jazz Chisholm looks on before a game against the Braves.

Mark Brown, Getty Images

‘Why not bring it into the game?’

Perhaps you found out on Opening Day, when Chisholm fulfilled a promise made to Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara. Chisholm, whose hair changes color with the ease of South Florida weather patterns, was planning a platinum blonde look.

Yet as spring training wound down and Chisholm – who debuted on Sept. 1 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 – had a shot to make his first Opening Day roster, Alcantara had a suggestion.

Make the team, he said, and you dye your hair blue.

“I said, ‘I got you,’” Chisholm recalls. “It was history from there.”

Chisholm came through, breaking camp with the squad and showing up for the opener with a tone resembling a Louie-Bloo Raspberry Otter Pop.

Perhaps you noticed a couple weeks later, when Chisholm hit his second home run of the season, a towering shot off Atlanta’s Charlie Morton, and then, befitting his significant basketball skills, debuted a euro step as he crossed home plate.

Contrived?

Nope. Just a part of his personality, reflexive as a fist bump or handshake.

“I will walk around the clubhouse euro-stepping on people,” he says. “I’ll be in front of someone and last second, I’ll give ‘em a euro, you know, like, ‘Get out of the way.’ It’s something I do all day, every day.

“So why not bring it into the game? Why not misdirect it going into home, and then step on it?”

Chisholm has nine homers and 10 steals in 51 games.

Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports

It’s not like Chisholm is pimping home runs that scraped the top of the wall.

He is the only player this season to go deep on pitches of at least 100 mph, doing it first off the great Jacob deGrom on April 18 and then the Phillies’ Jose Alvarado a month later. He is, in fact, the only player with two such homers since pitch-tracking began in 2008.

Listed at 5-11 and 184 pounds, Chisholm – full name Jasrado Hermis Arrington Chisholm – seemingly manifested his skills by watching his grandmother play softball.

Yeah, Grandma could turn on one.

“The small person with the pop? Yeah, I think I got that from her, too,” he says.

Patricia Coakley, now 77, played on the Bahamian national softball team, and played the sport long enough for Jazz to see her compete both in slow- and fastpitch formats. He saw himself in her, from the aforementioned quick bat to the tenacious baserunning approach to her play at shortstop.

And so when Chisholm was barely old enough to hold a bat, he called dibs on the position, fully intending to never leave.

“I just loved seeing her play shortstop. I fell in love with watching her, too,” he says. “It was always like that from when I was probably 4 and 5 – just run straight to shortstop.

“Grandma’s a shortstop, I’m a shortstop.”

 Clearly, he picked an excellent role model, though there weren’t many others locally. Just eight players from the Bahamas preceded Chisholm to the majors, with infielder Andre Rodgers – who played from 1967 to ’77 – the only one to hold down anything resembling a full-time role. Antoan Richardson was the most recent, serving largely as a pinch runner from 2011 to 2014, and he’s now a coach for the San Francisco Giants.

Young Jazz focused on his grandmother’s exploits and fixated on televised games featuring Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds and Derek Jeter.

And was convinced he’d play on their level.

“I always told myself that I was going to be a big leaguer, from a very young age,” he says. “It was not really tough believing I was going to be a big leaguer.”

Chisholm played plenty of ball stateside as a child, often in Miami, and attended a prep school in Kansas for a spell, eventually signing with Arizona as an international free agent. While he’s sanguine about his own rise, he’s humbled when he ponders his impact back home.

“Every time I go to the Bahamas I see a little kid telling me, ‘Hey, you made me start playing baseball,’” he says. “It makes me smile nonstop when I hear that.”

They have a dynamic hero to follow, even if he’s an unfinished product. Chisholm is on pace to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases this season; he clubbed his ninth home run of the season Thursday night in a loss to the Washington Nationals, pushing his batting average to .258 and his OPS to .766.

With just 276 plate appearances behind him, Chisholm has room to grow. That makes him a good match for Miami, which acquired him from Arizona for pitcher Zac Gallen in 2019. “I love the people out here,” he says. “This is just the life that I feel like I was here to live. My kind of place.”

Chisholm celebrates a home run against the Mets.

Andy Marlin, USA TODAY Sports

Fresh fish

The Marlins are 31-43 and lagging in the NL East, a pitching-centric club with a lineup that looks emaciated even within this season’s historically grim league environment.

Yet for a franchise dogged for decades by ham-handed ownership, they have a decidedly fresh feel.

They have a quietly beautiful ballpark still not yet a decade old, yet new owner Bruce Sherman bears none of the blame for bamboozling the city into a hideously bad stadium deal. In Jeter they have a CEO with star power but also patience, and the forward-thinking mentality to hire the first woman as a major league GM, the highly-regarded Kim Ng.

Alcantara and rookie lefty Trevor Rogers are worthy aces, with the injured Sixto Sanchez also capable of holding that role. At Class AA Jacksonville, pitching prospects Max Meyer and Edward Cabrera join outfielder J.J. Bleday, all consensus top 100 prospects nearing the big leagues.  

In Miami, Chisholm defers to veterans such as Jesus Aguilar and Miguel Rojas, who when healthy nudges Chisholm to second base. From a baseball standpoint, Chisholm says he goes to great lengths not to “get cocky with the veterans.”

Yet they share a desire to keep things loose, from the clubhouse to the kicks; Rojas has long used social media to amplify his shoe game, while Chisholm has donned footwear celebrating concepts as disparate as Miami Vice and Oreo cookies.

Earlier this week, he debuted a gold chain that commemorated a remarkable leaping catch against the Tampa Bay Rays.

“The Miami Marlins’ whole roster right now – you look at what they’re wearing on their feet, even down to the coaches sometimes, it’s just straight heat, I’m not going to lie,” says Chisholm. “Everybody is just into that stuff – having the swag, having fun on the field.”

 It all may seem a bit excessive for a second-division club, yet the Marlins also made the playoffs in 2020 and swept the Chicago Cubs out of them. Manager Don Mattingly says the veteran tone set by the likes of Aguilar and Rojas “helps your club create an atmosphere that guys like playing in.” He is confident Chisholm will develop greater consistency both in routine and performance, calling his development arc “pretty normal” for a first-year player.

As for Chisholm, he’s prepared for the roller-coaster the game provides. His homer Thursday broke a 15-day streak without a dinger, a period filled with too many weak ground balls. It is a hallmark of the game he chose that he might go days without making an impact, when instead of euro stepping over the plate he’s making an abrupt right turn back to the dugout.

He cannot control his fate in a manner that LeBron can or Kobe could, and if he’s given just one pitch to turn and burn on, he may very well miss it.

Chisholm knows this well and chooses not to dwell on it. Like the island kid who just knew he’d be a big leaguer some day, Chisholm may be right when he believes this game will reward his undying love for it.

“It’s not frustrating,” he says of failure, “because you know how hard the game is. It’s just like, ‘Man, I’m just praying I get another one. Give me another one.’ It’s not really like, ‘Man, I missed my only chance.’ No, because you still got two more strikes to play with. And you might get the worst swing of your life off, but it can be a hit.

“This game can really mess with your mind – because you could be hitting the ball as hard as you want every day and not get a hit. And then you can go break four bats in one day and have four hits. That’s why you have to just love it. Because even though it takes away, it gives back.

“And it gives back big.”

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[52murders]

5 - One In, One Out

On the 1st of January at 12:02 AM, the following took place at The Wash nightclub in Dalston. 

On the roof terrace:

Graham shuddered to the first orgasm he had ever shared with another person and thought that this was going to be the best year ever.

Florence suddenly wondered if she had remembered to take her pill. She was pretty sure she had. Almost definitely.

Paul was one of many people who were pretending they couldn’t see the couple shagging behind the azalea bushes.

Simone was wondering why there weren’t any fireworks.  Weren’t there supposed to be fireworks on New Years Eve? Where were the fireworks?

Fergus was considering throwing Simone off the roof if she didn’t shut up about fireworks.

Tammy was having her last cigarette before quitting.

Keith was trying to discreetly roll a spliff without attracting too much attention.

Georgina thought Keith looked like a young Jeremy Vine. Apart from the dreadlocks, obviously.

Maria was trying to get people singing and didn’t understand why no one was joining in.

Claudette was one of several people wondering why Maria was singing “How Much is That Doggy In The Window?”

Hadley wanted to go back inside.

Sandeep was wondering who his ex-girlfriend had kissed at midnight.

Tara thought she and Sandeep had a future together.

Harry was wondering who the fuck invited their dad out for New Year’s Eve.

Ron was talking about the pills back in the day and how you just had to take one and you were on one for the rest of the night.

Chas hadn’t felt old until he’d seen the expressions of amused contempt on the faces of those kids as they took the piss out of his brother.

Billy looked at the skyline and wondered what the year ahead would bring.

 On the upper staircase:

Caroline was crying.

Julianne had her arm around Caroline, was rubbing her shoulder and said “there, there” but wasn’t really in the mood to be going through these dramas so early in the evening.

Nicholas stood around awkwardly, wondering what – if anything – he could do.

Genovese was knocking on the office door, so Ken could reset the credit card terminal.

In the office:

Ken was busy racking up lines of coke. 

DJ Dan Diamond was promising himself that he would stop taking crappy bookings in these shitty two-bit clubs.

Chantelle was wondering if Ken expected her to shag DJ Dan Diamond.

Vicki wished she’d been able to get tickets for Ministry.

Pete was fairly sure he’d once had a handjob from DJ Dan Diamond at a festival in Berlin.

 In the stock cupboard:

A mouse was nibbling on a pistachio nut.

 In the first floor bar:

Sam was ignoring his boss’s previous warnings about drug use and necked two pills behind the bar.

Georgia thought that if Sam wanted to keep his job, he should either be more discreet or learn how to share.

Hamish still couldn’t get served, even when there was nobody else standing there.

Chris wasn’t sure whether to say Happy New Year to Pauline or Sabrina, so just stood there with his arms half outstretched to the room in general.

Sabrina was hugging Pauline and telling her that it was going to be their year. THEIR YEAR.

Pauline wished that Sabrina hadn’t eaten so much garlic before coming out.

Freddie was waiting for Sabrina to shut up so he could say Happy New Year to Pauline.

Tim was putting something in Pauline’s drink.

Kenneth wasn’t sure he wanted to hang around with Tim any more.

Michelle was wishing that she had stayed at home.

Tom was wishing that Michelle would take that look off her face and at least pretend to have a good time.

Carol hoped that she and Julius didn’t end up like Tom and Michelle.

Julius felt homesick.

Maxine was sick, but kept her mouth shut and was doing her best to swallow it without anyone noticing.

Jack tried to make a move on Maxine and didn’t understand why she wouldn’t kiss him.

Sharon watched Jack make a fool of himself and knew that she would be the one he went home with at the end of the night.

Andy thought he definitely was in with Sharon.

Penelope suddenly felt a sharp pain under her chin, like she’d been punched by an iron fist. She fell to the floor and was dead before reached it.

Kevin thought that Penelope was just staggering because she was drunk and was about to laugh at her. Then he saw the blood.

Jocasta was about to slap that fucking bitch that was bumping into her.

Coralina wished she’d worn better shoes. That heel was just about to snap.

Patti wasn’t going to be able to take her top back tomorrow. Not with Bacardi spilled down the back and sweat in the pits.

Carl had his hands on the skinny arse of some girl he had been introduced to twice, but whose name he had forgotten.

Jemima wondered if wanting to get off with a black guy - any black guy - was racist.

Callie had never seen what happened to Jemima when she drank and now understood why she generally only had lemonade at their works do’s.

Samson wanted to know why this one wasn’t as much fun as her friend.

Roxanne wondered what the point of wearing makeup and putting on nice clothes when guys went for scruffy old tarts.

Jack thought seventy-five a gram was extortionate, even for New Year’s Eve.

Toby would have given the gear away for free if it meant he could go home and be with Joy and the baby, but Ansell needed his money and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Sandra watched the deal go down and reminded herself that she was off-duty.

Bea was only pretending to be drunk. It was the only way she could justify acting the way she did.

Kayleigh wondered why Bea had to get so wankered every time they went out.

 On the lower staircase:

Kyle was explaining this theory about a universal consciousness and how we are all different vibrational frequencies of the same energy.

Sharon had no fucking idea what this guy was on about.

Pauline was just pleased that she had found somewhere to sit down. 

Derek had surreptitiously bombed a load of speed and wanted to head back to the dancefloor.

Rose made a joke about ants in the pants, then blushed furiously for no discernible reason.

Luke had no idea that the woman he was snogging would be his wife by this time next year.

Cora was glad she had brought mints and condoms out with her.

Dave skipped down the stairs two at a time, keen to get back to the serious business of strutting his stuff.

 In the gents toilet:

Bill was completely missing the target and pissing all over his shoes.

Kamal couldn’t go.

Wendall was thinking that if he didn’t pull tonight, he might try being gay for a bit.

Nigel was remembering the time he ate a urinal cake for a bet and had to go and have his stomach pumped. Why didn’t he have nights like that any more?

David didn’t notice that there was blood in his piss, but could feel the stinging sensation.

Pete was trying not to be rude as he knocked on the cubicle door, but he was about twelve seconds away from shitting his pants.

Clyde told whoever it was outside knocking to fuck off and die.

Jacques was tapping his arm, trying to find a vein.

Andre hated toilet men and tried not to make eye contact.

Keith smiled as he held out a towel to the guy washing his hands.

Idris waited patiently for his turn and was careful not to make eye contact with anyone or any thing.

In the main room:

DJ Cheddar didn’t care if it made him a sellout - this year he was definitely going to produce a mash-up version of “Auld Lang Syne” and make a fortune.

Cheryl had dropped a contact lens and was weighing up the pros and cons of trying to find it versus spending the rest of the night winking like a pirate.

Liz wished she wasn’t on her period.

Kevin thought Liz smelled funny.

Theresa had dropped six pills and didn’t feel a thing. If she saw that scrawny fucker that had ripped her off, she was going to rip his tits off.

Dreamer was just there for the music. He didn’t hold with this new years shit.

Christos had been dancing for over and hour and hadn’t moved his feet once.

Sami thought house was for poofs and hairdressers, but these girls seemed to be into it, so… 

Hector made the box.

Charlene liked to dance, but preferred it if guys were a bit clumsy. For some reason, she found it reassuring.

Veronica had been saving the last few drops of her vodka and coke for twenty minutes, waiting for someone to buy her a drink.

Bettina wondered why she was getting funny looks.

Lewis didn’t want to stare, but couldn’t help but notice that girl’s dress had gone totally see-through.

Bernard didn’t mind staring at all.

Francis thought they didn’t make tunes like this any more, even though the song had, in fact, only been released three weeks ago.

Indigo would rather have been in Bali.

Karl couldn’t work out what that guy was so upset about.

Frank knew trouble when he saw it and was pushing Karl and Dayton away from the dance floor.

Dayton was pissed off they had to leave. That girl in the see through dress was hot.

Fiona saw the flash above the crowd and thought it was a firecracker.

Ben did his best to aim Stephan’s hand way from the crowd, but couldn’t stop him from pulling the trigger.

Stephen had got the gun from his uncle and would have used it on that pussyhole motherfucker, if Ben hadn’t smacked his hand upwards and sent the shot into the ceiling.

Jason felt his eardrum burst as something loud exploded near his head.

Isaac knew what that pop meant and started running for the door.

Jen wanted to know where the fuck Isaac was going.

Freya didn’t know what the fight was about, but felt certain that her stupid little brother had been the cause of it.

Gemini thought it was typical. You couldn’t go for a dance without stupid men ruining everything.

Inga wanted chips.

Marco was feeling self conscious, but didn’t want anyone to know it.

Heidi was never drinking Jagermeister again.

Delores was considering a round of Aftershocks.

Jacqui thought she might go blonde this year.

Krystof kept one eye on his rucksack, which was in the corner of the room.

 In the ladies toilet:

Kirsty had noticed that one of her pupils was larger than the other and couldn’t stop staring at them.

Petra was wondering if her top made her look too slutty… or not slutty enough.

Christine was systematically washing every square centimeter of her hands while counting to five hundred and fifty five.

Jessie was using her lipstick to write “Cora is a big fat slag” on the cubicle wall.

Verity was wondering whether she could ask the girl in the next cubicle if there was any loo roll in hers.

Kat thought she felt something snap in her nose as she took that last bump.

Gina didn’t like the way Kat was scratching.

Louise had totally emptied her stomach, but still had the dry heaves.

Clair was holding back Louise’s hair and wondering whether putting her in a cab and sending her home alone made her a bad person.

Joe was having his first night out as a woman and apart from a couple of odd looks here and there, was actually starting to have a good time.

In the cloakroom:

Petra realised that she’d forgotten to put any tickets on hangers and was looking intently at items of clothing to see if she could remember to whom they belonged.

Paolo slid an iPhone out of a coat pocket and put it in his bag.

 On the door:

Ansell was telling a pissed student to fuck off home.

Miguel was laughing.

Donald didn’t know why these guards were outside his hall of residence and wouldn’t let him go to his room.

Tania was one minute into the New Year and had already broken her resolution to stop smoking.

Heidi was wishing she’d worn tights. It was freezing out there.

Donna thought that drunk guy went to her university and might be on her Introduction to Economic Theory course.

Marie was trying to get a signal on her phone to send messages to all her friends.

Penny had a signal, but no messages.