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andipxndy-writes · 2 months

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How To Make Your Own Fanfiction Archive, In Just Ten Easy Steps

As the go-to "person who knows about AO3" for quite a few people who read fanfic but aren't really linked-in to wider fandom culture, I've fielded a lot of questions about how to do certain things on AO3 to which my best answer is "you should really start your own archive!" I think, in general, more fans starting their own small archives would be a net good for fandom. AO3 was never meant to be the only archive for all fandom, or even the main archive, and the more spread out and backed up we are the more resilient we are.

But of course I have to be reminded that a lot of fans these days don't really have any idea how little "you should start your own archive!" really involves. (Also, that I should practice what I preach.) So I am now making my own fanfiction archive, and writing up this post as I do it to tell people how to make theirs!

Go to https://neocities.org/ and sign up for an account. It only needs a username (which will also be your website address), password, and email. Pick a username that will be related to your archive's title!

Choose the free account option (if you ever need more than what the free account offers for a text-only archive, you should probably look into graduating from neocities.) This should take you to a menu of "how to make a website" tutorials. You should do them! They're useful skills. But let's get your archive running first.

Hit the big red Edit Site button, or open the menu under your username and select "Edit Site".

Select the "Index.html" file to edit. You're now in an HTML Editor. Congrats, you're a web developer c. 1999!

Find where it has text between the < title> tags. Delete the filler text, and put in the title of your new archive. This text will be what shows on the tab when people go to your archive.

Find where it has text between the < h1 > tags. This will be big header text at the top of your page. Put the title of your archive here again. If you have no experience with HTML, you should read over the other sample text. It covers the basic basics very well! Once you've done that, you can delete everything else between the < /h1> tag and the < /body> tag. Save your index.html file.

Get an HTML file for a fanfic you would like to add to your archive. If it's on AO3, you can use the html download option built into AO3. If you have it as a word processor/google docs file, you should have the option to save as an html file. Save that html file to your computer.

Go back to Edit Site on Neocities and go to "upload". Find the html file you saved and upload it. (You can also drag and drop files to upload.)

The file you uploaded should now be showing with your other neocities files. Right-click on the title and select "copy link".

Go in to edit index.html again. Under where you put your header text, type < br> < a href=" . Then paste in the link you copied. Then type "> Then put in the title of the fic. Then type < /a> . Then save the index page again when you're done. You can do this for every fanfic you have.

Congratulations! You now have your very own personal private fanfiction archive that you are 100% in charge of and make all the rules for. It's at least as good as half the ones I was reading on when I started reading fanfiction and will serve its function well as a way to let people read your fic. You can link to it from anywhere you want! (Including your AO3 profile.)

Blogpost version, with FAQs and discussion

Anyway, here's my beautiful new fanfiction archive made using this tutorial:

Melannen's Fanfiction Archive

(I am honestly way more disproportionately proud of finally making that than I expected to be. It's nice to have your own archive.)

If you make one, share it here ! I want to see!

#not writing #aj: reference

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andipxndy-writes · 2 months

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#not writing #i am actually not writing

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andipxndy-writes · 2 months

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#not writing

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andipxndy-writes · 2 months

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will you be my maybe

fandom: abbott elementary warnings: tw: injury; tw: blood; tw: hospital (in earlier parts) requested by: anon 1 & anon 2 word count: 2.6k

cross-posted to ao3

chapter summary: “Come on!” she called back, almost excitedly. Maybe she could have waited a little bit for him to actually get out of the car, but she didn’t turn around to check on him until she was a good few feet away and he was calling to her. He was leaning on the top of his car, his forearms resting there with his sleeves rolled up slightly. He wasn’t the kind of person to roll his sleeves up like that, not usually, so it was kind of… anyway, he was leaning on the top of the car. “Shouldn’t we get our bags?” he called out to her. “We can grab them later!” she called back, holding her hand out as though he was close enough for her to grab and pull along with her. “Come on!”

They're finally heading to Janine's cousin's house for the family barbecue… and Gregory is given the chance to meet all of Janine's family. All of them.

will you be my maybe? chapter 4: reunion

This time, everything did indeed go off without a hitch.

Janine managed to finish packing and got everything that she’d wanted to and more, and Gregory didn’t just stop at cleaning the kitchen. He migrated to the living room, which was actually incredibly dusty, and Janine was very sure that the room thoroughly appreciated the hoover being dragged along the carpet and dredging out dirt that she herself hadn’t had the time to get out since Tariq had left. Well, maybe even before then, since he never really hoovered whenever it was his turn to clean the living room, but she was moving past that now. Tariq was gone, and his chores were here job now. She’d had the chance to clean her own house.

Well, really, between keeping every other room clean, keeping on top of the bills, keeping on top of her car payments, preparing for the new school term, and at least trying to have a life, she hadn’t really had the chance to clean her own house. Home. Apartment. That she was renting.

God, was rent due soon?

Anyway, as already stated, she managed to finish all her packing without a hitch, actually taking the chance to ask Gregory to help her get to things on high shelves once he was done with his cleaning so that she didn’t fall off anything and injure herself again. And he looked pleased enough that she’d had the wherewithal to ask him instead of trying to do it by herself again. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she’d asked him to do all of the packing for her, he would have. Except for maybe the underwear. She didn’t think he was the kind of person to go rifling through her underwear to pack it. (Plus, there was specific underwear she had to wear at specific times and— maybe she was thinking too much on this, actually…)

By the time they got to Gregory’s car with both of their bags, both of them fully packed and ready for a whole weekend full of fun with her family, she was more than ready to get going, bouncing on the balls of her feet excitedly.

She was actually getting to go. Yes, Gregory was driving, which wasn’t exactly ideal considering she’d wanted to drive and he would have to use a GPS to get to the exact location, but she was getting to go. She couldn’t wait to see her family — her cousins, her aunts and uncles, even her cute little nieces and nephews. And, obviously, her mom.

“God, I can’t wait for you to taste the food,” she said as Gregory unlocked his car, the two of them getting in. “It’s so good! You’ll love it! There isn’t a single person who can’t cook in my family. Well… my mom isn’t the best cook, but everyone else is amazing. And I’m so sure that they’ll love you.” She was grinning at him as they shut the doors. “Oh my god, I can show you all the places I grew up around on the way! It’ll be great! I’ll show you the park we used to play at, which was a derelict building, and the skate park my cousin used to skateboard at, also a derelict building… oh, and the library, which might be a derelict building now—”

When Janine next opened her eyes and looked out of the window, she realised that they were three blocks away. Three blocks away from her cousin’s place.

“Wha…?”

Last she recalled, they were only a couple of streets away from her apartment.

She didn’t know when she’d closed her eyes, or how she’d even fallen asleep, but the next thing she knew was that she and Gregory were about three blocks away from where they were heading — three blocks from where her family were gathering for a barbecue, from where her aunts and uncles and cousins and mom and sister—

Oh god, she’d forgotten to tell her mom that she was on her way with a friend before they left the apartment. And that, of course, she was coming late because she’d had an accident.

Some small part of her hoped she’d guessed that something had happened from how she’d texted her from the hospital the night before, telling her about how she wouldn’t be able to pick her up on the way over so she’d have to find another ride or a way to her cousin’s, but she hadn’t asked anything. She hadn’t even responded (unsurprisingly).

“We’re not far off,” Gregory explained, as though she couldn’t see it, and then he glanced over at her. “You have a good nap?” The confusion on her face probably told Gregory enough to get him to explain as he started looking around for parking. “You somehow knocked yourself out talking about five minutes into the journey. I don’t know how it happened, but I do know why.” As he slowed the car to a stop, he gave her a look.

She scowled at him. A light scowl, but it was still a scowl. She was definitely sure that she’d got enough sleep, and now he was talking as though she hadn’t got enough and that was why she’d dozed off. (It absolutely wasn’t the reason why she’d dozed off, she was sure of it.)

He sighed. “Alright then.” A few minutes later, the car was parked a block away. A block away, but Janine could hear the music already. The music that reminded her of home, which made her smile.

If she closed her eyes, she could smell the food, she was sure of it.

“Let’s go!” She didn’t even realise the car had just about stopped and her seatbelt was still on when she tried to open the door, but Gregory reached across her, stopping her.

“At least wait for me to switch off the engine.”

“You could switch it off faster.”

“You could wait five more seconds.”

She stared at him as he moved to switch of the engine, and somehow, he looked like he was moving way slower than he needed to. Her eyes were just about narrowing at him when his finger turned the key, and then the engine was off, and they were left in a silent car.

And that was when she snapped off her seatbelt and jumped out of the car. “Come on!” she called back, almost excitedly. Maybe she could have waited a little bit for him to actually get out of the car, but she didn’t turn around to check on him until she was a good few feet away and he was calling to her.

He was leaning on the top of his car, his forearms resting there with his sleeves rolled up slightly. He wasn’t the kind of person to roll his sleeves up like that, not usually, so it was kind of… anyway, he was leaning on the top of the car. “Shouldn’t we get our bags?” he called out to her.

“We can grab them later!” she called back, holding her hand out as though he was close enough for her to grab and pull along with her. “Come on!”

He seemed to hesitate for a few moments, as though he was really wondering whether her confidence in getting the bags later was really okay, before he finally gave in and moved away from his car, shutting the driver’s door and locking it behind him before walking over to her.

She didn’t realise he hadn’t expected her to take his hand until she looked up and saw that he was looking at her strangely. At least, it looked strange to her. Maybe it was normal to him. Maybe this was how he reacted to everyone taking his hand. After all, she didn’t really take his hand a lot — it was usually the kids that did that.

“Hey, are you good?” she asked, letting go of his hand with a small frown on her own face — one of genuine concern. As a side note, she hadn’t realised just how soft his hands were—

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded with a smile. They were just reaching the front door, so in her head she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t want to take him in if he felt uncomfortable for any reason, or he might get more uncomfortable and that was not her aim right then.

“Great!” She smiled at him widely before turning towards the door, raising her hand and knocking.

***

To be honest, Gregory should have expected to be at least a little bit overwhelmed by the welcome he got. After all, there were a lot of people there, and at the front door he was greeted by at least four different women whose names he definitely didn’t catch. He was pretty sure two of them were cousins of Janine’s, but he couldn’t remember.

And of course, once he got into the house fully, there were many more people whose names he didn’t catch at all. Mostly women, many of them cousins, all of them smiling at him and grabbing Janine and trying to pull her to help them out. So much laughter and shouting and there were kids running about, playing with each other. He was very sure there was someone’s grandma yelling at them to slow down or sit down or something.

This was so much louder than his family.

He needed a break, and he’d barely been there.

Despite that, his eyes kept flitting over to Janine, to where she was being pulled out through the back door to the barbecue — something about her being some sort of taste testing queen (and he was very sure that was where her ferocity with ribs came from). They’d replaced the band-aid before they left her place, cleaning the wound beneath it. It still looked ugly as all hell, something he hoped healed soon so that they could take the stitches out and Janine would go back to looking like her regular self all over. But he couldn’t help remaining worried about her, about that head injury and whether she was really coping. She was really good at brushing things off and acting as though it was all alright, but then there’d be something so seriously wrong that you wonder how she could’ve even considered keeping it secret. He hoped dearly that she wasn’t doing the same thing again and putting her health at risk to please people.

“So, Gregory, right?”

The sudden question made Gregory jump a little, pulling his attention from watching over Janine from a distance and onto someone he knew had to be one of Janine’s many cousins. Of course, he couldn’t remember her name, and he was getting the feeling that he’d passed the awkward point of no return. It was also too late to worry about that, really. He offered the woman what he hoped looked like a comfortable smile. “Yes, Gregory. Gregory Eddie.”

The woman crossed her arms. “You a friend of Janine’s?”

“Yeah I, uh…” He glanced in Janine’s direction to see if she was watching the interaction. She was not. “I’m just a colleague,” was the safe answer he opted for. After all, he didn’t know whether Janine had spoken to her family about him, about the people she worked with, and even if she had… how had she described them? Did she say they were friends, like she did to their faces, or just colleagues? He knew she wouldn’t say anything mean about them, that wasn’t the kind of thing Janine did, but he still couldn’t be sure exactly who she’d told them about, or what she’d told them.

“Just a colleague, huh?” The look she was giving him made Gregory more than a little uncomfortable. “You must be some colleague if she’s bringing you instead of Tariq.” Before Gregory could even open his mouth to say anything in response, though, she was turning and calling out to someone.

Gregory had to bite his tongue to stop himself from talking. Didn’t they know Janine had broken up with Tariq? Or maybe they had, and they thought Janine had moved on? Or maybe they were in denial about it? Either way, soon enough there was someone else walking over. Someone else that made Gregory realise he absolutely wanted to run away and clear his head for, like, five minutes, at least. Just to feel a little less overwhelmed by this whole room of very loud people.

But also because this woman looked too much like Janine to be anyone but her mother.

“Auntie Van!” The cousin was calling her aunt over and being so friendly that Gregory absolutely could not run. Not when the older woman, Janine’s mother, walked over with a cigarette between her fingers, makeup a little on the overdone side, looking very much like Janine would if she were taller, bustier, and had a very different sense of fashion.

“Tanishe,” the woman greeted, except without a smile because she was focused on Gregory. “Who’s this boy?”

The way she looked him up and down made his skin crawl.

“It’s the guy Janine brought with her. You know, instead of Tariq?”

“Mmmm.” She was still looking him up and down, even as she took a drag. “I wonder why.”

Gregory had to try very hard not to cough when she breathed into his face (it was intentional, he was very sure that it was intentional), but then she was turning away without even saying anything, swaying her hips in a way that Janine definitely wouldn’t. Janine was so different to her mother that it was… a surprise that they were even related, really.

“Well.” Gregory’s attention was brought back to Tanishe, the cousin who had apparently tried to introduce him to Janine’s mother. She was looking him up and down just as ‘Auntie Van’ had, but the look in her eyes was a whole lot less predatory. (That, of course, was the point he realised the look in Janine’s mother’s eyes was predatory.) “That’s Auntie Van. She’s practically in charge here.” Tanishe folded her arms. “If she don’t like you, you’re gonna have to go.”

Gregory wanted to ask if she’d liked Tariq, and then realised that she had to have. She had to have liked the guy for him to be with Janine for so long. It was a stupid question.

“You’re just lucky she hasn’t made a decision on you yet.” And with that, Tanishe turned and walked away, following Auntie Van into the kitchen or wherever that woman had headed off to.

Gregory let out a breath that he hadn’t realised he’d even been holding. That was before she’d made a decision on him? That felt a whole lot like her making a decision already and deciding to hide it until he gave her a reason to say it and get rid of him. Which, of course, would be difficult considering he was Janine’s ride. They’d agreed to be there together for the whole weekend. Maybe he’d find a cheap hotel or something, somewhere to stay for the weekend if she kicked him out.

The smell of cigarettes lingered, though, and he glanced towards the kitchen to see Janine being fussed over by a couple of her cousins.

She was fine… right?

That was all that was on his mind as he turned and headed for the back door to get some fresh air. He had to get the smell of cigarettes out of his nose, and even with the limited grass space outside? It was better than the smell of tobacco.

As he stepped outside though, he couldn’t help but think, ‘This space… could use a lot of work.’ But, of course, he wasn’t going to say that out loud.

#writing: mine #abbott elementary fanfiction #fandom: abbott elementary #abbott elementary #writing: fanfic writings #gregory x janine #gregory eddie #janine teagues #multichap: will you be my maybe

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andipxndy-writes · 2 months

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I LOVE IT WHEN ENDINGS CIRCLE BACK TO THE BEGINNING!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS MIRROR EACH OTHER!!!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS SEAL THEIR FATES IN THEIR FIRST SCENES!!!!

I LOVE IT WHEN CHARACTERS' GREATEST TRAITS ARE ALSO WHAT DOOM THEM IN THE END!!!!!

#not writing

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andipxndy-writes · 3 months

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The thing is, when people interact with me about my stories, it gives me the drive to work on them. Even if it’s just a sentence, or a bit of editing. It’s putting enough fuel in the tank to get to the next gas station, so to speak.

#not writing #v tru

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andipxndy-writes · 3 months

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#not writing #me rn #i am actually not writing

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andipxndy-writes · 3 months

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tfw you make a very, very british mistake in your writing and every american reader you know points it out

#not writing #i am so sorry abbott readers #*ugly sobbing*#WHY DID I NOT THINK THIS THROUGH

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andipxndy-writes · 3 months

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Hi! Could I request a Janine/Gregory fake dating + first kiss fic? At a Christmas party, at a wedding, at a high school reunion, ANYWHERE really!! Love all your fics for them so much❤️

hiya there, nonnie!! thank you so much for this, and i'm so sorry that it took so long to get back to!!

this request is actually part of a multichap fic!! the first two chaps were focused on a different request, but now that i've moved on to chapter 3 i'll be trying to capture this request in all its essence because i love fake dating!!!

chapter 3 of "will you be my maybe" can be found here!! hopefully i get more of it written soon, but i hope you enjoy the starts of it!!

#anon #asks #requests #abbott elementary fanfiction

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andipxndy-writes · 3 months

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will you be my maybe

fandom: abbott elementary warnings: tw: injury; tw: blood; tw: hospital requested by: anon 1 & anon 2 word count: 2.4k

cross-posted to ao3

chapter summary: “Gregory, there hasn’t been a single year when I haven’t made it,” Janine pointed out, rolling her eyes a little at him. As though he was supposed to know that. “Not even when my car broke down and I had to pay, like, a thousand dollars to get it fixed up on the same day.” She decided to conveniently ignore the look of slight horror he was giving her. “Look, I’ll rest. I’ll get some sleep. But when I wake up, I’m gonna clean that carpet, and then we’re going.” He definitely looked like he wanted to argue, like he wasn’t happy at all with that ultimatum, but then he sighed. He sighed and closed his eyes and gestured for her to lie down. “Fine, but only if I’ve decided you’ve slept enough.”

Janine is finally on her way home from hospital, but Gregory isn't happy with her determination to keep going.

will you be my maybe? chapter 3: recovery

It took a few more hours before the doctors discharged her, and even then, they conducted more tests and made sure she was actually starting to recover and not getting worse. Janine, obviously, was getting a little impatient in this time, but she tried not to let it show.

All she wanted to do was get home and pack and probably convince Gregory that it would still be a good idea to head for that family barbecue this weekend — it wasn’t as though it would involve anything strenuous, and she would be so much better off seeing people she hadn’t seen in ages instead of just… sitting in bed and sleeping or whatever her doctor wanted to do.

And not just that, but she’d already agreed to going. She couldn’t cancel now. Not the night before, and certainly not when her mother and sister were going to be there. Someone had to act as the mediator. Or, at least, someone had to be there that would talk to them both when they were in the same room. And they were expecting two mouths to feed, and people would be calling her non-stop if she didn’t turn up.

She loved her family, but she didn’t want that.

When the nurse finally came by with the discharge papers, Janine was literally ready to jump off the bed and grab them from her, get everything signed so that she could go home. It was only because Gregory was still there that she didn’t, because she got the feeling that he would have plopped her back onto the bed to make sure she stayed there until all the papers were signed.

Or maybe she wanted him to do that.

Anyway, soon enough the discharge papers were signed (by Janine, not Gregory, and she did them efficiently and correctly so that he didn’t have to do them over for her so she could go home faster but anyway) and she was heading out of the hospital with Gregory slightly behind her. She didn’t know why he was walking slightly behind her, and she could imagine that his hand was hovering at the base of her back as they walked out of the hospital.

Only imagined, because his hand wasn’t actually there.

Eventually they reached the exit, and Gregory called her a cab to head back to her apartment.

Well, he called them a cab. (And she texted her mother to say that she wouldn’t be heading to the barbecue tonight.)

She leaned back in the seat when they sat down, closing her eyes briefly. “God, it’s nice to sit somewhere comfortable again. That hospital bed was the most uncomfy thing I’ve ever sat on, and my couch is hard as a rock.” She turned to Gregory with a smile. She wasn’t sure he’d even sat on her couch, or maybe he had and didn’t want to talk about it, but he only gave her a smile in return.

In fact, he was pretty quiet for the whole ride back to her apartment, not saying much of anything. Whenever she looked over at him, he was looking out of the window — or he was quickly turning away from her, as though he’d been looking at her just before she’d turned to look at him. It wasn’t exactly an awkward silence, not really, but Janine sort of wished that they spoke at least a little bit on the ride back to her place.

When the cab arrived, though, Gregory practically leapt out of the car, heading around to open the door for her before she could even get her seatbelt off. Pulling herself out of the car, she realised she shouldn’t have been surprised when Gregory held a hand out to help her out of the vehicle. She took the offered hand and used it to leverage herself out of the car, moving aside as Gregory shut the door behind her. It wasn’t long before he’d paid the driver and the two of them were heading back up to her apartment.

Stepping back in, she didn’t know what to expect. She supposed she shouldn’t have expected the place to look any different from the way it had been when she’d left it the last time, but it still surprised her that everything was in its place.

Well, until she got to her bedroom.

She stopped short at the door when she saw the mess that was her bedroom. Her suitcase on the bed, open with her clothes either folded inside or sitting on the bed. That didn’t surprise her, considering she hadn’t finished packing before everything had happened.

No, what surprised her was the blood that was now soaked into her carpet, and was probably dry by now. Blood that would be near impossible to get out.

She wanted to cry. Her landlord was going to kill her, she was so sure of it.

She didn’t know whether Gregory sensed her horror, or maybe she looked like she was about to cry or something, but he was putting his hands on her shoulders and slowly steering her away from her bedroom door and back towards the couch. She wanted to turn back around and head back to her room, look at the mess and try to start cleaning it because she couldn’t have her landlord finding out about that when he would absolutely charge her extra for not only cleaning it but probably replacing the whole carpet, but Gregory’s hands were firm, and soon enough he was turning her around and sitting her on the couch. She opened her mouth to say something — she wasn’t exactly sure what — but then he picked up her knitted throw and held it up, looking at her expectantly.

She pursed her lips. She knew what he wanted her to do.

“You should get some rest,” he told her, predictably. She didn’t know how she could have thought he’d say anything else, really. “You’ve got a concussion, you’ve had a long day, and your body needs rest to recover. And you can’t do that by standing at your bedroom door and staring at the carpet.”

She huffed out through her nose, even though she knew that he was right. He was very right. She couldn’t just stand there at her bedroom door and stare at the carpet, otherwise she’d just worry and worry and worry… and she needed to rest.

“We’re still going to my family’s barbecue this weekend, right?” Even if she’d planned on those words coming out of her mouth, she wouldn’t have stopped them. She’d planned to go — she’d told her family that she’d be there. She wasn’t going to skip out on it because of a little bump to the head. That was a minor inconvenience. She could get over the concussion in like a day, right?

The look on Gregory’s face told her that he absolutely was not going to give her the answer she wanted.

“You need to recover, Janine.”

“No, what I need to do is go to see my family and show them that I’m okay,” she responded simply, “and eat some killer ribs.”

“They don’t even know you’re injured.”

“But they will when they call asking why I haven’t turned up.” And she knew that they would. They all pried like that. Especially her mother. (And she’d already texted her to say that she wouldn’t be turning up tonight.)

Gregory sighed through his nose. “Then you can just tell them you’re busy. That you can’t make it this year.”

“Gregory, there hasn’t been a single year when I haven’t made it,” Janine pointed out, rolling her eyes a little at him. As though he was supposed to know that. “Not even when my car broke down and I had to pay, like, a thousand dollars to get it fixed up on the same day.” She decided to conveniently ignore the look of slight horror he was giving her. “Look, I’ll rest. I’ll get some sleep. But when I wake up, I’m gonna clean that carpet, and then we’re going.”

He definitely looked like he wanted to argue, like he wasn’t happy at all with that ultimatum, but then he sighed. He sighed and closed his eyes and gestured for her to lie down.

“Fine, but only if I’ve decided you’ve slept enough.”

She scoffed with a smirk as she lay down. “What, are you going to knock me out if I wake up too early?” It was only a tease, words that she didn’t really mean.

But the look on Gregory’s face at the suggestion made her wish that it wasn’t the last thing she saw before closing her eyes to get some rest.

***

As much as Gregory hated the smell of bleach, he knew for a fact that it was necessary. It was clean, yes, but it was strong and it hurt his nose.

The bleach had not been for the carpet.

In fact, the bleach had been for Janine’s sink, and the majority of her kitchen counters, which were far dirtier than he had expected. He’d only come in there for some dish soap and water to clean the blood out of the carpet (which was now gone, thank goodness) but coming back to the filth had made his skin crawl. He’d had to clean it.

And he didn’t blame Janine for being dirty. In fact, he didn’t think she was a dirty or messy person at all. She was just busy, someone who always like to be doing something, and had a lot on her mind. Some things just slipped through the cracks. Maybe she’d planned on cleaning the kitchen later. And if anything, the dirtiest part of the kitchen was on top of the kitchen cupboards, which she couldn’t reach anyway, so he couldn’t really blame her for that. The kitchen window was as open as he could get it, to let some fresh air into the apartment, but it didn’t really do much to get the smell out of his nose. It didn’t do anything at all, really.

Now that the kitchen was clean, though, he was just tidying it up, putting everything back where he found it. He hadn’t known how long it would take to clean the place, but it had taken quite a while longer than he’d anticipated, really. Maybe once he was done putting everything away, he could get some rest—

“Gregory?”

His head turned when he heard Janine’s sleepy voice by the kitchen archway, and he smiled a little at her. She was still wrapped up in the blanket, her eyes bleary and the band-aid still on her head, with her curls all over the place. And she looked absolutely adorable like that.

“Hey,” he greeted softly, turning to put away the last of the mugs and shutting the cupboard door before turning to her fully. He gave her a small smile. “You look rested.”

“I am.” Her voice was croaky and full of sleep, and he was almost tempted to tell her to go back to bed, but then her eyes were wide as she looked around the kitchen like she was suddenly fully awake. “Did you clean in here?”

He scratched the back of his neck, letting out a small laugh. He didn’t know why. It wasn’t as though he was embarrassed about cleaning her kitchen — it wasn’t like it was her bedroom or anything. “Uh, yeah. It was a bit of a mess and I needed something to do whilst keeping an eye on you…”

“And you used bleach?” He couldn’t quite register the tone in her voice as she blanket dropped from her shoulders, and she wandered around the room, looking at everything. “The counters look spotless! Like, cleaner than I could make them!” This time, when she turned to him, her eyes were wide and full of wonder. “Can I hire you? To do this for me? Like, regularly?”

This time he laughed genuinely. “Janine, I already have a job.”

“Extra cash wouldn’t hurt though, right?”

He pretended to think about it. “Yeah, you’ve got a point about that…”

Her laugh was cute. It wasn’t even something that Gregory had to try particularly hard to admit. He just thought it was cute, the way she giggled at his comment. And it led them into a few moments of contentment, just standing there, in her kitchen. Her kitchen that was now a whole lot cleaner than it had been just that morning.

The contentment only lasted until Janine spoke again.

“Anyway, I need to get back to packing—”

“I haven’t decided whether you’ve slept enough, yet.” The call back to their earlier conversation earned him a small scowl from Janine, but he was serious. He didn’t want her going if she couldn’t take care of herself. And he knew that if he refused to go with her, she would just go on her own — and that would be even worse. He took one good look at her face.

She still hadn’t slept enough. He could see it in her eyes, she clearly needed more rest. But he also saw the determination in her eyes that absolutely meant she wasn’t going to be backing down anytime soon. The band-aid on her head clearly needed replacing, and the wound probably needed cleaning as well. She, overall, did not look completely ready to be meeting people, especially her family.

“Gregory, I’ve slept enough,” Janine said, as though her saying it would convince him of what his eyes weren’t seeing. “Trust me, I really have. I feel awake, and refreshed, and ready to go. Just let me go. It’s only for the weekend.”

He let out a sigh through his nose, regretting it when the smell of bleach from the kitchen replaced the breath he’d let out. She had a point, though — it was only for the weekend, and then they’d be coming back and returning to their normal lives. Aside from the very obvious head injury, would it really be so bad to let her go and see her family?

“You can go,” he relented, and then held up a finger when she started cheering, “but I’m driving. The whole way. And the whole way back.” So that she could sleep in the car.

She visibly deflated. “Can I at least pick the music?” she asked quietly.

Driver picks. Driver always picks. Gregory pushed that thought aside. If that was the only way that Janine was going to be cooperative for this whole thing, then so be it. “Fine.”

That got enough of a little cheer from her to make Gregory smile, and he could only watch her as she ran off to start packing again, continuing from where she’d left off.

He could only hope that this time, everything went off without a hitch.

#writing: mine #abbott elementary fanfiction #fandom: abbott elementary #abbott elementary #gregory x janine #writing: fanfic writings #gregory eddie #janine teagues #tw: injury #tw: hospital #multichap: will you be my maybe #i semi-lied #there's mention of the hospital and the injury in this chap too #but only at the beginning #i promise

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