#My first interaction with one of my friends is how a cockroach fell not only into my pants but also in my underwear

[honestnoa]

I'm like a wild animal in the sense I try to hide and not be perceived and if I do choose to approach you it is either cautiously and slowly or I'm storming towards you at full speeds making threatening noises

#This is both irl and online #I am a social disaster #I have gotten into relationships by accident on multiple occasions #Someone asked how I was doing and I told them I don't know thne had an emotional crisis on them #My first interaction with one of my friends is how a cockroach fell not only into my pants but also in my underwear

[heyheyloki]

U&I

Summary: The reader begins to realize his feelings for Saiki.

Saiki x M!Reader

Word Count: 8711

1. The Best Friends

Being friends with a psychic definitely had its ups and downs. At first, you didn’t notice a thing out of the ordinary with Saiki, well, granted you were kids when the both of you met so naturally you just wanted to be friends and thought nothing more. However, he noticed something odd with you the moment you two met.

He couldn’t read your mind.

Actually forget being about to read your mind, none of his psychic abilities worked on you. He couldn’t see through you and when he touched you without his super thin transparent gloves on nothing happened. You were basically immune to him.

At first, he thought something was wrong with you, or that maybe you had some psychic powers as well. That wasn’t the case at all. In reality, you were a normal human without any powers or tricks. That stumped Saiki even more, but it also became the soul reason he wanted to be your friend as well.

For one, he didn’t have to deal with your thoughts. Two, his image of you wasn’t ruined because he can’t see under your skin. Three, your calmer personality made him relax. And of course all those other things like your kindness and stuff, but those were irrelevant the moment he knew he couldn’t read your mind.

It’s been years since he met you in the park during recess, and now here you guys were, 16 years later and still friends. Oh, there was one thing that bothered him about you.

“What to hang out today?” You asked as you slung your bag over your shoulder.

“Sure.” Saiki said. Yep. That’s right, since he can’t get in your mind, he actually has to move his mouth when he talks to you.

It was a bit weird to others that he never did it with anyone else other than you, but he didn’t care.

On the way home he couldn’t help but notice you eyeing his antennas, the things that keep his powers stable. He turned his head towards you and gave you a curiosity look.

“Do those things poke at your head at all?” You asked, moving you hand up to poke at the top of the pink ball. “Like, does it make your head ichy?”

Saiki shook his head. He knew he had to talk to you at some points, but times like these he didn’t. He enjoyed that about you too, that you don’t force him to talk all the time. You knew it was a bit weird for him to talk, he explained it to you when he told you all about his powers.

“Hm,” you hummed out. Your hands going back at your side and into your pant pockets. “It would for me, if I was you. They just look painful, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do if you don’t wanna blow up the world.”

Saiki nodded his head, his eyes continuing to linger on you. It was one days like these when he saw you thinking so hard about something that he wished he could just take a peak. At some points, he loved the silence, especially when the both of you were watching movies, but right now, especially in this moment, he’d give anything to know. It was mostly prominent when he’d stare at you during class and you’d have this far out look in your orbs, you drew him in, and perhaps that’s why he fell for you.

Though, there were other factors that won his favor. Mostly the fact that, unlike everyone else, he can’t stare right through you and just see your raw muscles and pumping organs. Instead, he was able to focus on your handsome face and not get side tracked about your racing thoughts. You were the only person in the world that make him feel somewhat normal. That was a love-hate relationship at times.

“Think I could sleep over tonight?” You suddenly asked, “we don’t have school tomorrow.”

Saiki stared at you for a moment just to relish in that fact that nothing worked on you. No telekinesis, mind control, no nothing. He was going to have to win your favor just like everyone else. To him, it wasn’t normal, but looking at you, he didn’t seem to mind the extra work.

“Sure,” Saiki said. He still had trouble talking aloud, hell, sometimes he will actually use telekinesis and wait for your response only to have pure silence. “My parents are leaving for a wedding, so the house should be free for a while.”

When the two of you got to Saiki’s house, it was a bit peaceful until his parents had to head out. You liked his mom and dad a lot, they were like your second family, so you wanted to wish them a good time. It was for one Saiki’s dad’s coworkers.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna come with us?” Saiki’s dad asked his son. “You’ve met Kirishima before, and you can bring [Name] as your plus one date.”

You knew Saiki wasn’t going to be interested in a wedding. He always told you normal happy events for others is misery for him since he can hear the jealousy and pity that the crowd is thinking. You felt sorry that he couldn’t turn it off, but you were glad that you were the only person he could catch a break with. However, when you looking over at Saiki, he seemed to entertain the thought.

It was a new side to Saiki, one that made you confused. It was always either you or no one. You could tell the way he wanted to get away from many of the people in his class that seemed to have declared themselves his friends from a small interaction. Sure, you felt their interest, but it was just a bit sad to you that Saiki could never actually enjoy friends unless they were pure. Otherwise, he could hear all the backstabbing thoughts or otherwise stupid comments that go around in their brain that was thought to be private to them.

“I’m going to have to pass,” you commented. “I don’t have a suit, besides, you two should enjoy the night. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you both go out alone.”

Saiki’s mom smiled widely at you. Her eyes clouding over with a wet film before wrapping her arms around you for a tight hug. “Ah, thank you, [Name]! What would we do without you?”

You chuckled softy at the comment before saying, “Who knows, I rather not think about that.”

When she finally let you go, you and Saiki waved the both of them off as they left. Honestly, you weren’t sure if they’d even make it back at a reasonable time. It was a wedding, after all. Oh well, as long as they make it back drunk and safe rather than drunk and not safe, you didn’t mind. You were sleeping over anyway, so right now, you just wanted to hang out with your childhood best friend.

“What do you wanna do?” You asked with a calming tone.

Saiki turned his head to you. “TV?”

“Sure,” you smiled. However, as soon as you turned to the living room, you noticed the absolute mess his parents left behind. So, out of the goodness of your heart, you said, “How about you find something and all clean up this in the meantime. Sound good?”

Saiki nodded once more. He truly thought your actions were kind, but he rather have you watching TV with him than picking up his dad’s dirty clothes. He knew his father tended to be sloppy, but this was just a mess.

As you were about to pick up a pair of jeans, all the clothes that were strewn about the floor suddenly started to float in the air and shoot into the open washing machine. The trash floated itself into the garage while everything else was moved around to make it look clean until otherwise.

You pressed your lips together as your brows furrowed in annoyance. Once you turned to Saiki and saw his innocence face, you knew you couldn’t be angry but you had to ask, “Do you really want me to watch TV with you that bad?”

“Yes,” Saiki stated.

You sighed, your lips parting as you left the oxygen leave your lungs. “Fine, but let’s both clean up a bit before than. It’ll be a nice surprise and a way to thank your parents for letting me stay the night.”

Saiki nodded. “Okay.”

It took a bit of convincing on your end to let him let you help out. You may not have powers, but you didn’t want to take advantage of his. You knew it was effortless and he made it seem like it didn’t affect him whatsoever, but you knew every time he does something it takes a toll. His powers aren’t perfect.

You both ended up cleaning the living room, Saiki’s room, and now you were in the kitchen sorting the trash. Saiki was using his powers to sort while you whipped down the countertops.

“Good grief,” Saiki said aloud, his voice drawing your eyes to him. He was crouched down with two bags in front of him and the garage floating upside down, it’s contents was either going in the first or second bag.

“What?” You asked curiosity. It wasn’t all the time that he speaks from his mouth without you talking first.

“How could anyone have let it get this dirty in here?” He asked aloud. “I mean, really it’s a wonder we don’t have bugs.”

You were going to respond. That was until he suddenly shut his mouth, a chest deep grunt leaving him as you notice him stare at something on the furniture next to him.

It was a cockroach.

Mind you, the moment you realized what it was you weren’t the least bit surprised when he suddenly teleported. Saiki hates bugs. He could read the minds of humans, as well as animals, but he couldn’t with bugs. He thought they were small minded icky things. Hell, he couldn’t even let his powers touch the thing.

You counted down the seconds before he came back. It was around ten, maybe fifteen. He also teleported right behind you.

“Welcome back,” you greeted and watched as his eyes dart towards the floor.

“Sorry, I may have overreacted.” He muttered. “I just hate them.”

“I know,” you hummed out before looking around and grabbing a cup and piece of paper. Saiki watched you as you let the roach crawl on the piece of paper before placing the cup over it so it didn’t run away. You were quick to put it outside and close the window after so Saiki didn’t worry about it coming back in.

“All gone,” you cheered with a smile. “Now, let’s watch TV, ya?”

2. Saiki’s Pushy Friends

PK Academy was a school were many different personalities and people collided. It was always fun to meet new people in this school, yet on the other side of the coin, sometimes they were more than a little odd. Not like you can speak, your best friend was a psychic. Though, he wasn’t delusional like this one guy in your class that declared himself Saiki’s friend. His name was Kaido. He thinks he has powers and has an evil organization following him around.

Then, you have Nendou. Basically, he’s stupid. Not that you minded, but sometimes being stupid isn’t the best thing in the world, especially now.

It was the sports festival at PK and Saiki and you had to participate in it. You both were on the same team since all the teams were decided by class. This also gave you a good idea of the friends Saiki has made. It was safe to say that Kaido was growing on you. You felt a little bad for the guy, what can you say.

Let’s not forget about Hairo as well. You knew him a bit more from hearsay than the others, plus he was class rep. Though, you had to say, he was a little too overly enthusiastic.

It was kind of a surprise to see Teruhashi, the most popular girl in school, try and interact with Saiki. Though, it was a bit amusing since to him, she’s nothing more than walking muscle. However, you did think he would swoon over her like all the other guys in your school if she was like you. However, you knew Saiki had no interest in romance so you don’t care either way.

Finally, Nendou. You were originally going to say that you didn’t mind the guy that much and thought maybe he would be a good thing for Saiki. However, after just watching him take out one of the antennas from Saiki’s head, you started to wonder how much of a danger his stupidity is to Saiki.

You watched that pink haired friend of yours collapse to the ground with a hard thud as soon as Nendou pull the thing out of his head. You were quick to rush over to him and sit by his side. When you flipped him over, since he fell face forward, worry grew about your body and infected your bloodstream.

You heard protests about turning him over, but at this point all the worried voices drowned before they were even audible to you. His lips were parted as drool leaked from his mouth and went down his chin, his eyes dead and without life as darkness surrounded them. It didn’t take you long to recover and swipe the antenna Nendou was holding and pop it back in its rightful place in his pink locks.

You didn’t know how long it would take for him to wake up, or if he’d wake up at all. All you knew was to sit and wait for him to wake up. To your surprise, he woke up rather quickly. Maybe a mere minute or so after you fixed him up. When his eyes opened, you felt yourself suddenly get surrounded as Saiki’s friends crowed over him to ask how he was.

You noticed him using telepathy to talk to everyone when Hairo said, “You passed out after Nendou took that think out of your head, lucky for you, [Name] put it back right away!”

“Yeah, he saved your life!” Kaido spit out next, their hands placing on my shoulder out of respect and gratitude. 

Saiki’s eye then direct to you, his voice never leaving his lips for a moment before you noticed him flinch.

‘Ah,’ you thought. ‘He tried to use telepathy with me again.’

When he noticed, Saiki just nodded in your direction. You knew he was thanking you, he didn’t need to word it out to you. The look in his eyes was enough.

Lunch came immediately after Saiki ended up waking up, and it was understatement to say he didn’t want to be bother with anyone else besides you. He was quick to drag you to the roof of the school to eat.

The both of you sat against the railing, lunch in your laps. You wanted I just forget about the scare that Saiki gave you, but the after effects he was having wasn’t making that easy. He was having trouble, and it was easy to see when his hands were shaking so much that he couldn’t even pick up his food without it falling back in the box.

You side eyed him, his expression one of concentration as he tried to pick up his food again. Though, he dropped it again.

He sighed quickly after that, only looking down at his food as you saw his mind wonder off.

Once you finished chewing whatever food you had in your mouth, you placed your food to the side and moved so that you weren’t side to side, but rather across from Saiki’s body now. He didn’t register your movements until he saw a hand come into his view and pick up an item of food with his chopsticks.

When he turned to you, you had the chopsticks in your dominant hand and your other under the food so it didn’t drop to the filthy ground.

“C’mon, lemme help,” you said. It was easy for Saiki to pick up the worry in your tone, however he knew not to address it or else you’ll just either deny it or baby him. “Open up.”

He obeyed your command after a moment, opening his mouth wide enough for you to place his food in his mouth. The hand that was meant to catch the food if it fell made sure Saiki closed his mouth, his fingers placed a bit of pressure under his chin to shut his jaws before slowly trailing away. The food wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the chill that ran down his spine at your lingering touch that crawled on his skin.

“I could hurt you.” He suddenly spit out. It was pained. “Having my antenna taken out messed up my powers.”

You leaned your head to the side, your eyes never falling from his. “Yeah, I kinda figured.”

“You should go.” He stated.

“Why?”

“I just told you.”

You smiled. “Saiki, you could never hurt me.”

He looked at you like you had something stuck in your teeth. “You don’t know that, I may not be able to read your mind, but I don’t know how my other powers react to you.”

You remained quiet for a moment before shuffling your body side by side again, your head falling to rest of Saiki’s shoulder. You felt him flinch at the contact, his muscles even began to tighten just out of fear.

“Yanno,” you started out saying, your hand coming up to play the antenna that you could reach. “It’s odd to me how these things are the only thing keeping you stable.”

“Is it?”

You chuckled and nodded. “Small things like these verses your powers. The thing that gets me is that these things actually win in that fight. Though, I suppose it does complete the look you have.”

“And what look is that?” Saiki asked as he gazed down at you to see your eyes already on him. He could feel his fingers twitch as he watched you say shamelessly, “The cute, mysterious loner type.”

Saiki’s lips parted as he gazed at you. He quickly recomposed himself when he noticed you waiting patiently for him to respond. He sighed before asking, “Mysterious loner? Where’d you get that?”

You laughed before sarcastically questioning, “yep, I wonder where.”

3. Your friends are my friends

You don’t know how you got wrapped into this, but perhaps it’ll allow you to know Saiki’s friends better.

Currently, you were walking with Kaido, Nendou, and Saiki to a good ramen shop Nendou suggested. You were dragged along when Nendou remembered you from the Sports Festival and as Saiki’s friend. They never really got the chance to speak to you since you’re usually out the door as soon as the bell rings, but today they finally caught you.

At some point Teruhashi joined the group, though you feel like she kinda took over since now the boys, except for Saiki and you, were fawning over her. Saiki and you took it upon yourselves to give them all room to talk to her, so you both sorts trailed behind.

It was silent for a while, the only noise was Nendou or Kaido talking to Teruhashi. However, you caught the, “what does that even mean,” that Saiki mumbled under his breath.

“Hm?” You hummed. “What does what mean?”

It was obvious to you he didn’t realize he said that aloud. But he just seemed to be glad that only you heard that.

“Teruhashi wants me to go ‘oh wow’ or something to her.” Saiki revealed. “I don’t even know what that means.”

You kept your gaze on Saiki for a moment. “So, she likes you?”

“I guess,” he muttered. “I think it’s more that I’m the only guy that isn’t kissing her feet.”

You watched Teruhashi interact with Nendou and Kaido. You know that, normally, she wouldn’t take time to hang out with these guys. However, because of her crush on Saiki, she bares with them. In all honesty, she seems a bit perfect. Being able to deal with them just for the person she adores. It’s easy for anyone to do, and not a lot of people would even bother.

“She seems like a good fit for you.” You suddenly uttered out.

When Saiki heard that, he felt his hands twitch. He didn’t like that, not one bit. What irked him the most was that it seemed natural, like you actually meant it. And, of course, he had no way of knowing if those words were genuine or actually forced.

“No way,” Saiki stated coldly. “Never in a million years.”

“Damn, that’s cold, Saiki.” He heard you say, a teasing tone wedged in your voice.

“Why do you keep calling me Saiki, anyway? We aren’t acquaintances.”

“Hm?” You questioned. “I thought you don’t like me calling you by your first name in public?”

Saiki sighed. “Well now I’m telling you I don’t care.”

Saiki knew this way of showing that you were closer to him than anyone would ever be may have been childish on his part, but when he heard his first name come from your lips in front of his other ‘friends’, he felt more than satisfied. 

4. Friendship Can Bring Romance

Being able to rest during class was one of your guilty pleasures. Even if you got called out by your teacher, you didn’t mind. It was better when it was raining outside, the patter of rain when it hit the window made you want to nap.

“Hey,” a voice called out to you. You didn’t listen though, it wasn’t important.

“Hey, [Name],” it called out again. Okay, maybe you should wake up. Then again, sleep. You could always sleep later though.

You fluttered your eyes open as you felt your body being pushed around. When your sight became focused, the blurry figure in front of you showed a blue hair kid. You knew him, but from where?

“Saiki asked me to wake you up, sorry,” he confessed.

Oh, right. That’s Kaido, Saiki’s friend.

“Hm? Where is Kusuo?” You asked in a groggy voice, your hand coming up to wipe your eyes.

“Oh, he went home.” Kaido informed you. “Something just came up, I guess.”

“Alright,” you hummed before the end of your lips pulled upward. “Thank you, Kaido.”

It wasn’t easy for Kaido to wake up the quiet kid. Kaido only met the guy once or twice, and when he was hanging with him, you only stayed close to Saiki. It was kinda odd, but Kaido understood your attachment to the pink haired man. Saiki was Kaido’s first friend, after all, so he knew how awesome the guy was.

Though, he’s never got the chance to speak to you. He knows Saiki never really goes anywhere with you, and somehow you always end up by his side. He just always seemed to miss you when it came to getting the chance to introduce himself so Kaido was pretty glad when you came along the trip to that ramen place, even if it was a dumb and he got distracted by Teruhashi.

Kaido knew you were the closest person to Saiki. He’s pretty sure that not even Nendou is as close to Saiki as you are. And those two are best friends. Kaido didn’t know the extend of how long you two have been friends, but he does know from watching that Saiki has respect for you. So, it was critical that he makes a great impression with you so that he can become closer to Saiki and maybe you as well.

“S-Sure, no problem!” He stuttered, his bandaged hand retracting from your shoulder and holding them up in the air in a surrendered notion.

“Do you live around here at all? I’ll walk you home as a thank you.” You said as you stood from your seat and began to search for your bag.

“What? You don’t have to do that, really, it isn’t necessary!” Kaido spit out quickly, his words jumping all over the place.

“It’s really no trouble at all,” you stated as you put your bag over your shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get going before the rain gets worse.”

The rain eventually stopped when both teens got closer to your house. Kaido’s was further ahead, so he thought it would be better if he just walked you home instead so you didn’t have to walk more than you have to already.

“So, you’ve been friends with Saiki since he was little, huh?” Kaido asked as you explained why Saiki trusts you so much. “That’s pretty awesome! What was he like back then?”

“Pretty much the same.” You answered. “Though he did get more handsome throughout the years, and he used to be kinda sweet. Now, not so much.”

“I see, so you guys have been through it all together.” Kaido replied.

“Basically, though, he did start to worry me a bit since I was his only friend for a really long time,” you confessed. You paused as you looked up at Kaido and gave him a smile, “But I’m glad he finally made a friend like you.”

Kaido could feel his heart beat a million miles an hour just at the words you strung together. He never heard kinder words than those, and he was even more thrilled that he succeeded in making a good impression on Saiki’s childhood friend!

“It’s, uh, n-no problem, really!” Kaido muttered out as his whole face began to fluster, his hands going everywhere.

“Oh,” you hummed out.

“Hm?” Kaido questioned. His nerves going down. “What is it?”

“Did you know you were dragging your scarf the whole time?” You asked curiosity as your hands started to real in the extra fabric.

“What?” He asked out of pure shock. Though, realizing that he doesn’t make a fool out of himself he said, “O-Of course I did! It’s a fashion choice.”

“Not the best one,” you stated as you stepped closer to the blue haired male.

Kaido’s eyes widened as he stated directly into your colored orbs, watching them dance solely for him. It was like getting attention from a loved one, but this attention make him nervous to the point where he thought his face was going to explode with red. Kaido’s lips slowly started to disappear as the scarf started to build up around his shoulders and neck.

“There you go,” you said, “much better. Now your scarf doesn’t get more dirty and you look even better.”

‘Even better? What’s that supposed to mean? Does it.. does it mean he thought I looked good before?!’ Kaido thought.

Kaido let out an awkward laugh as he played with the end of the scarf. “O-Oh, haha, thank you.”

“Sure,” you hummed. “Now let’s get going.”

5. Blessing Turned On Jealousy

What’s that saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? Yeah, that’s it. See, that could apply to this yet at the same time it would go a little different.

More like, the enemy of my best friend is my friend. At least for your situation. You see, walking home with Saiki has now turned into walking home with Saiki, Nendou, and Kaido. Not that you mind, but sometimes you really do wish it was back to when Saiki and you got to spend time alone together. However, being friends with Saiki and then having his friends automatically become your friends may have some perks.

Like now. Bumping into Kaido’s mom was totally accidental. But, in the end it payed off. Why?

Because coffee jelly.

“I know it’s not easy being friends with my son because he’s so shy, but please be patient.” Kaido’s mom announced as she placed the coffee jelly down in front of Saiki and you.

“Please don’t say that mama—I mean—mother.” Kaido pleased, his voice cracking as it got higher with embarrassment.

Overall, the beginning was a very nice. Hell, it was damn near perfect. Although, you just had to snoop around. Well, it was more like exploring Kaido’s room.

Your fingertips brushed along the spines of the many books Kaido had stacked up in his bookcase. It was seriously amazing how many books he had, he even had some original copies of some famous old books.

“This is pretty awesome,” you muttered to yourself before your eyes spotted something that didn’t quite match with the others. In all honesty, you were simply curious. However, curiosity did kill the cat. In your case, more like awakened the Saiki K.

“Hey, Kaido, what is the Jet Black Wings?” You asked aloud as the group sat down eating whatever snacks were about. You would always hear either chewing or at least some conversation, but after that question left your mouth it was dead silent. You felt like you killed something, but when you looked over you noticed Kaido’s face beat red. Seriously, his entire face was as red as a blood moon.

“P-Put that back!” He stuttered out, the blue haired boy suddenly running up to you to snatch the book from your hand.

As he reached for it, you held it higher. Even if he was about the same height or maybe a inch or so taller, you just needed to make him miss his hand from grabbing it.

“Don’t be embarrassed, I’m just curious.” You calmly said. “Is it bad or something?”

“N-No! It’s nothing, uh, bad! Just give me it back!” Kaido begged this time around, his hands trying desperately to grab it from you. Okay, maybe you were being a little mean at this point, but it was kinda fun to tease him.

You began to back up as Kaido trying to nab the book in your hand. “Just explain it!”

“No! Never!” He shouted.

You couldn’t help but laugh a little, though, that was your fatal mistake. Having yourself distracted by your own humor, your mind didn’t take into account the pile of prep books scattered about until it was too late. You quickly lost your voice, as well as your balance before slamming your head hard against the wood floors.

“Woah! You guys okay?” Nendou asked out of genuine concern.

As much as you would have liked to answer him, you were too concerned with the pain pounding into your skull like a jackhammer. Seriously, this is gonna give you one massive headache.

You scrunched your nose as your finally gave effort to open your eyes, though, they permanently remained open when you noticed a face staring down at you, a body on top of yours. You guessed that during the fall Kaido tried to save you, but only got dragged along instead.

“H-Hey, um, are you okay?” He asked under his shaky breath.

You only nodded before trying to avoid his gaze in any possible way. The position you were in didn’t help whatsoever in that department. Instead, you hoped that Kaido would take the hint and get off. That plan wasn’t looking too good cause all that was running through his mind was how you looked under him. Let’s say, the thoughts he had left a distaste in Saiki’s mouth.

Originally, he was just gonna let you handle it, but after hearing Kaido’s perverted thoughts about you, that plan blew up.

Saiki stood up, leaving his coffee jelly half eaten before grabbing Kaido by the back of his shirt and yanking him off of you. Saiki gave some strength into that but not enough to launch him into the bookshelf like he wanted too. He knelt down to come to your level and help you up, your massive headache being noticeable when you held onto the back of your head.

“Damnit, that really hurt,” you muttered to yourself but Saiki heard it clear as day.

It wasn’t long after that he took you home as well as the left over coffee jelly. Saiki advised you to stay home a day just to let the pain die down a bit before going back to school, so, the pink haired boy was all alone today. And all alone to everyone else meant to bother him more than usual.

Teruhashi, Nendou, Hairo. All of them. Though, it was a bit weird that Kaido wasn’t bothering with him today. Not that he was complaining, but he couldn’t pinpoint the answer until he heard Kaido’s thoughts, ‘I need to ask Saiki for permission. They’re best friends, it would be rude if I didn’t ask permission to ask out [Name].’

Never mind. He didn’t need to know that.

It was around lunch time that Kaido walked up to Saiki for the first one, the blush that littered his cheeks made Saiki want to gag for a moment.

“So, uh, Saiki, I have to ask you something.” Kaido uttered out lowly. Clearly, this was nerve wracking for him.

“What is it?” Saiki asked telepathically.

“Well, it’s about [Name], yanno, our [Name]?”

‘What other person has that name?’ Saiki thought. ‘And don’t say our, it’s creepy.’

“You see, I, well, I think I like him and I’d like your blessing to ask him out!” Kaido shouted, his body bowing at an almost 90 degree angle.

Normally, Saiki would just say to do whatever since he could read [Name]’s thoughts and see that he doesn’t like Kaido in that way. However, the one person in the world that Saiki actually wants is immune to his powers. He knew he needed to shut this down fast.

‘No way.’ Saiki responded.

“Thank you so much, Saiki, you won’t—wait—why not?” Kaido asked aloud, his voice getting higher the more he freaked out. He thought this would be easy, he means, it was Saiki. The most chill guy ever actually gave him a hard ‘no’ to asking out his best friend. Kaido shouldn’t be surprised, even though he is.

‘Because I said so,’ Saiki strictly put. He knew it was wrong to say this, who was he to say no to something that isn’t his business. Though, the feeling of relief that he still had a chance was more satisfying in the end.

By the time Saiki got to your house it was basically as soon as school ended. He used teleportation to get here as fast as he could, as well as just appear in your room. He wasn’t expecting you to still be asleep, though, he supposed this wasn’t too bad.

The pink haired male carefully walking up to the bedside of his best friend. It was odd to see your hair going in one direction instead of all over the place like normal, and don’t even get him started on the soft snores that came from your nose. Snoring isn’t usually the most attractive thing in the world, but this light snores from you made him think of the habit as cute.

Now, he would normally wake you up. But, just allowing himself to look at you for a moment longer without any consequences never hurt anybody. Saiki sat himself down on your floor, his eyes keeping to your closed ones as they slowly began to travel down to your lips. He doesn’t know what came over him, but it seriously began to freak him out when he started think about Kaido touching his lips with yours. After the freak out, jealousy was spiraling around in the psychic. He never knew that Kaido, of all people, would actually develop romantic feelings for you. If he did, he would have never allowed the both of you to interact the way you did at his house the other day.

Saiki let out a sigh before standing up once more, his hand came up to your shoulder slowly and began to shake it. It wasn’t long after that your eyes fluttered open and gave him that soft smile that caused his heart to skip a beat.

6. School Trip

The school trip was always the most looked forward to activity in high school. This year it was a three day trip to Okinawa. While you were excited to spend some time at a gorgeous place like Okinawa, Saiki was definitely less excited.

As kids talked with their friends in a group or just at their desks, you were currently sitting on top of Saiki’s desk with the pink haired boy sitting in the chair. This wasn’t something you always do, especially since at times Saiki has pushed you off out of retaliation, but after a moment or two of still being there, you knew he didn’t mind today.

“You excited?” You asked him.

“No. I don’t get the appeal.” He spit out, his eyes closing as he moved his head down. “I could get to Okinawa in three minutes.”

“Kusuo, not everyone is like you.” You explained. “So don’t go getting moody on this trip, I’m not letting you ruin it for me.”

“I won’t, I’m just saying a fact.” He replied.

You were about to continue with things you’re excited to do during the trip before Hairo came around to the both of you with a clip board in hand. He was responsible for dividing rooms.

“Saiki, [Name], did you guys decide on your group for the class trip?” He asked politely. “You should have three boys and three girls in your group.”

Saiki didn’t say anything, instead he just rested his head against your forearm. Perhaps he wanted Hairo to think he fell asleep and leave it to you, or maybe he was actually saying that he didn’t care as long as he was with you. Either way, you smiled at the contact and said to Hairo, “Kusuo and I will be rooming, it doesn’t matter who else is in our group.”

“Okay, great!” Hairo exclaimed as he wrote it down. “Kaido and Nendou are still available so I’ll just place Kaido with your group, and then randomly place you guys with a girls group.”

“Thanks, Hairo,” you hummed out as he walked away to probably inform Kaido about the rooming.

You never minded contact with Saiki, in fact, you sort of enjoyed it. However, seeing him still like this, even with Hario now gone, you worried.

“Hey, Kusuo,” you called out.

No answer.

“Kusuo?” You asked this time. And when he didn’t answer again you unconsciously moved your hand up to his head and moved it back to where you could look him in the eyes. Saiki’s face was still without expression, though, those eyes worried you. He seemed, almost, upset.

“Kusuo?” You asked. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, signaling that nothing was wrong. You knew he was lying.

You tilted your head, some of your hair moving with gravity to expose part of your forehead. “Why are you lying to me?”

“I’m not.” He said, his voice was steady and yet, that look in his eyes still bothered you.

You knew he wasn’t going to budge but still, just because you’re going to let it go now doesn’t mean that you weren’t about to keep an eye on him.

Throughout the beginning and the first day of the trip, you kept an eye on Saiki. He seemed way more tired than usual, but that didn’t startle you. Instead, it was how he was by your side more often now when Kaido was around. You weren’t an idiot, it was pretty obvious. You didn’t mind Saiki’s attention, but you didn’t want him to think just because you were friends with Kaido that he’d be put second.

“Kusuo, can we talk?” You asked him as the two of you had the room to yourselves. The others were out and about, but the two of you decided on an early night.

“About what?” He asked as he set up his sleeping area.

“Today.” You started out. “You’ve been acting weird around Kaido. Did something happen?”

You watched Saiki carefully, so carefully that you noticed his fingers lightly curl around the blanket. You didn’t want to push him, so instead of pushing him to speak, you allowed yourself to be silent and let him take his time. You don’t remember how many minutes pasted, but you swear it felt like decades.

“Nothing happened.” He informed you. “His thoughts just aren’t for my taste at the moment.”

“His thoughts?” You questioned as you slowly approached Saiki on his blanket until you were right in front of him. “Okay, then, what’s got you all bothered? Let me guess, he’s thinking dirty things, right?”

“Sort of.” He replied.

“I bet it’s about Teruhashi,” you theorized. “Is that why you don’t like it?”

“No, it’s not about Teruhashi.”

“Really? Then who?”

Saiki went quiet once more.

You sighed. Your head moving down to get a glimpse at his face. It wasn’t until you moved your hand over by his, your finger tips brushing with his accidentally to get more stability as you leaned in did you hear him finally confess.

“It was about you.”

To say that you needed a minute to take that in was an understatement. Kaido was a good guy and all, but it was kinda startling to realize he liked guys, as well as girls, since you didn’t suspect that even for a minute with him.

“Seriously?” You asked once more.

Saiki nodded. “He asked me if he could ask you out.”

“And what did you say?”

“No.”

You couldn’t help a smile crawl upon your face with that one. You knew it was a bit hard to read Saiki, especially when it came to you, but you were just beyond happy to hear that.

“Good,” you suddenly shot out. Saiki’s head moving back up in an instant to see your happy features. “I don’t like Kaido like that anyway, saves me from breaking his heart.”

“You don’t?”

“Nope.” You hummed out. You knew this may backfire on you in more ways than one, but right now, you didn’t care. The happiness you felt told you to take a chance and throw out the bait. “I know you can’t read my mind, but I actually do have someone I like.”

Saiki aimlessly stared at you for a moment and took in the words you confessed to him. It was an odd feeling, the rapid beating of his heart, but perhaps this was finally the start of things going his way for once.

On the second day of the trip, everyone went to Emerald Beach. It was one of the many places were people could stare at others and no one would think anything of it. A perverts dream. Though, for Saiki, he just wanted to hang out with you.

“Where’s [Name]?” Kaido asked Nendou as Saiki stood behind the two.

“He said he had to go buy a swimsuit. The one he brought apparently went missing.” Nendou told the blue haired boy.

Now, that want a mistake. Sure, it may have been a dirty trick but Saiki rather die than see you in the swimsuit you brought. After all, you bought a shirt with it. He knew you didn’t take off your shirt often, even at the beach, but he was determined to see you with just a pair of shorts.

Much like how all the guys that crowded around the girls changing house waited patiently to see Teruhashi in a two piece swim suit.

It was a while after Teruhashi came out, and when everyone was in the water that you made your appearance. You had your hands wedged into your swim shirt pockets as you allowed your feet to take in the hot sand that felt magical between your toes. You gazed around for a moment before noticing pink hair sitting under an umbrella.

A devilish smirk crawled on your features as you began to slowly approach the male. This may give Saiki a heart attack, but it was worth it. As you stood over him from behind, you attacked. Your body shot down as your arms wrapped aruund his neck and pushed your chest into his bare back.

“Hey, what’s a cute guy like you doing all alone at a place like this?” You teased, allowing your voice to go on for some time so that he realized it was just you.

Saiki immediately flinched at the contact before noticing it was just you. However, when he noticed the touch of your skin against his, he could feel his entire body heat up. The sensation was new, he’s felt his face go hot before, but his entire body was a new one.

“What took you so long?” Saiki tried to play off.

You just sighed and got a tighter grip on the male, your chest pushing more into his back. “Someone stole my swimsuit. Sadly, I didn’t have enough money to replace the whole thing, so I had to go by some swim shorts.”

“Hm, as least you’re here.” Saiki stated, making sure not to comment on the ‘stolen swimsuit’.

“Yeah,” you uttered as you released Saiki from your grasp and sat down next to him. You gazed out at the beautiful ocean that was filled with laughing people with this loving look in your eyes, all the while not realizing Saiki’s held that same gaze as he stared at you.

When you did turn to him, he completely lost himself in his mind as his eyes wondered about your figure. You weren’t the most fit guy in the world, but you did have these subtle yet enchanting muscle lines along your upper body that made Saiki lose himself.

“I saw that.” You suddenly said. Saiki’s eyes now darting back to yours. “You just checked me out.”

Saiki saw no way out of this one. So, he just confessed it. “So what if I was?”

In all honesty, he just expected you to laugh and tell him that it’s only fair if he does the same. However, the twist was unexpected and, well, definitely appreciated. He watched as you gazed down, this bashful look in your eyes as you did everything to avoid his gaze. Your body language wasn’t helping either. Your fingers were tapping against the towel and the heel of your foot was moving back and forth.

Maybe this trip wasn’t totally for nothing.

7. All That Was A Secret

Spring break. It was one of those weeks that Saiki went to go visit his grandparents all the way in the middle fo nowhere. So, for the most of this break, you were home alone. 

It was kind of boring. This break was definitely not one that you looked forward to, more now then before, especially after the beach during the class trip. Those words always ended up repeating in your mind, way too much then you thought they would. Then again, you shouldn’t be surprised. All those days that you’d try to subtly touch him, tease him, it was just a way to relieve yourself of the pent up emotions you’ve had for him for a few years now. 

Currently, you were in your room upon your bed, hugging one of your pillows close to your chest. You never tried to dwell on if Saiki felt the same or not, but recently, it’s been clawing at you more and more. It wasn’t like you didn’t think you had a chance, but more if Saiki was more comfortable just staying friends. You would understand, even if it would hurt, you’d do it for him. You’d do anything for that guy. 

You sighed before slowly lifting your body off the bed. Today wasn’t a good day for being sad, it was summer break, after all. You knew you had to get your mind off Saiki, and him being away made it a bit easier. So, you grabbed some clothes from your closet and laid them on the bed. You weren’t sure what you were going to do, but you were determined to fine something to take your mind off him. 

You let your pants drop to the ground before taking the ones on your bed and letting your legs slip through each of the pant legs. Next, you stripped your shirt off and took in a deep breath. You paused for a moment before dropping the dirty shirt on the ground and grabbing the new one. In all honestly, you never really pay attention to your surroundings when changing. But, does anyone? It wasn’t until your head went through the hole on the top of the shirt did you realize that the bed in front of you was now missing and the wall you were staring at was not the wall of your bed room. When you turned your head, you locked eyes with Saiki in an unfamiliar room. 

“Huh?” You uttered under your breath before your eyes widened, your face felling hotter than usual before frantically pulling your shirt all the way down. Once down, you opened your mouth and said, “You can’t do that without me knowing! What if I was in the middle of a shower or something and not just changing?”

“I would have given you some of my clothes.” He replied nonchalantly.

You bit the inside of your cheek before crossing your arms over your chest. “Why did you teleport me anyway?”

“I can’t stand it here.” Saiki confessed. Of course, you knew he didn’t exactly enjoying visiting his grandparents but he has never done this before. “Just hang out with me. I’ll send you back after.”

You sighed. You can’t exactly say no after that, so, with that Saiki and you began to watch a movie. It wasn’t one you two watched before so it was easy to get lost in it. Though, it was also easy to focus on Saiki when he suddenly placed his hand on top of yours as you guys watched. You weren’t too sure if he thought you wouldn’t notice, but there was no way you were going to pull away. After all, it’s not like he placed his fingers between yours, if he did that, you don’t know if you could handle it. 

After a half an hour into the movie you finally got the plot of it, and you weren’t amused at all. It was a best friends to lovers troupe. More specifically, childhood friends that drifted apart only to be brought back together by work and now slowly are developing feelings for one another. Let’s just say now, you were a little more than nervous. 

Thank god Saiki couldn’t read your mind, because now, you feel like you’d give him a headache. You couldn’t help but ask yourself if he knows and is only doing this to taunt you, or maybe this was all just a big coincident. Yeah, one massive coincident. In reality though, Saiki was just teasing you. He had no idea of your feelings but he wanted to watch the movie with you to implant the idea in his mind of the possibility.

Well, his plan was working. Maybe a little too much. Though, as you were about to spit something out, your eyes suddenly shot down to the floor in embarrassment. Yep, a make out scene. Of course, Saiki had no idea about that, but it was better than just the sappy stuff cause now it was really ingrained in your head. 

Once it was over and you had somewhat of your cool back you couldn’t help it. You needed to ask. If it blew up in flames, then so be it. 

“Hey, Saiki,” you uttered out lowly. Saiki caught it immediately and turned his gaze on you. “I have a.. question.”

“What?” He asked.

“Well,” your voice trailed off as you moved your eyes down to where both of your hands connected. “We’ve been best friends for a long time now but, have you ever, um, thought about doing...that?

Saiki remained quiet for a moment, his thoughts going everywhere before thinking to himself, ‘All the time, actually.’

As much as he wish he could have said that telepathically, he could never try to say that vocally. So, he just opted for a nod and watched your body flinch. The hand he touched growing warm.

“You’re hot.” Saiki suddenly spit out. This time, you brought your hand back to your body so he couldn’t tell anymore. 

“S-So what?” You stuttered out.

To say that Saiki didn’t like this side of you was an understatement. He’s never never seen you so flustered before, and it was really adorable to look at.

“It’s cute.” Saiki commented, his body leaning in just to see your face closer.

You turned your head to the side, eyes darting to the tv just to look away for a moment to compose yourself. You knew that there wasn’t gonna be another perfect moment like this so, you slowly reached over to place your hand on the back of Saiki’s neck. It was warm. When he noticed what you wanted as you started to lean back and gently pull him with you, he complied quickly until he gazed at you from above. Suddenly, he was jealous at the fact that Kaido got to see this view before him. 

He stared at you for a moment before watching you bite down on your bottom lip, his mind doing backflips at the want to read your mind, but also at how good you looked under him. 

“Kiss me.” You whispered under your breath, just loud enough for him to hear. 

“If I do,” Saiki uttered lowly. “I might not be able to stop.”

“That’s okay.”

#male reader #saiki k #kusou saiki #the disaster of psi kusuo saiki #saiki k x reader #saiki k x male reader #saiki x reader #saiki x male reader #the disastrous life of saiki k. #the disastrous life of Saiki k x reader #x reader #saiki k headcanons

[90spumkin]

A Case of the Supernatural

Next

Summary: Can Spencer move past your death? What happens when he starts to see your ghost?

A/N: Not me starting another series when I haven’t finished the first. This is a crossover between Criminal Minds and Supernatural. I wrote this mainly because I am denial that either show ended. This will be a slow updated series because of finals next week and it took me four days to write this because I want it to be perfect. I hope you all enjoy and please leave your thoughts in the comments. Don’t forget to like and reblog! Also thanks @criminalmindzjunkie for the banner inspiration!

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem! Ghost! Reader

Warnings: criminal minds talk, supernatural talk, swearing, some angst... I think that’s it

Word Count: 3028

Numb. That is all Spencer felt as they lowered your casket into the ground. With every shovel of dirt tossed into the whole in the ground was like stab to his heart. He accepted every pat on the shoulder and heard every ‘I’m sorry for your loss’, but he couldn’t feel any of it.

You were never going to be a mom, you were never going to have the chance to finish all those crazy art projects that scattered your shared apartment, and you were never going to hear Spencer tell you how much he loves you ever again. Hot tears stung his eyes and began to run down his cheeks.

“Reid it’s time to go.” JJ’s voice brought him out of the spiral his mind had started to descend into. He looked around and realized everyone was gone and your final resting place was now filled with compacted earth. He nodded in agreement but could not seem to move his feet.

You were really gone, and Spencer blamed himself.

-----

The BAU team was taking the loss of a valued team member and a precious friend extremely hard so Emily gave everyone a few days off to mourn. Spencer was a different case; it had been almost three weeks since your funeral and he had yet to leave the apartment.

He looked around at all the carry out containers and laughed to himself as he imagined what you would say: Spencer you’re living like a damn cockroach. At least you’re cute.

Spencer began to clean the three weeks’ worth of mess when he saw the bag containing your items from the coroner. He had been wallowing in mourning and self-pity that he completely forgot JJ had dropped it off.

Spencer disposed of the trash and sat down at on at the bar in the kitchen. The bag laid in front of him and all he could do was stare down at it. He took a deep breath: Okay Spencer you can do this.

Spencer slowly opened the bag taking deep breaths as he did so. He pulled out your phone, your set of keys, your… Spencer’s breath caught in his throat. In his hand on a silver chain was the engagement ring he had given to you three months ago. He smiled at the memory of you explaining why you wore it on a chain to work. You simply shrugged your shoulders I don’t want to lose it while chasing down psychopaths. Plus, this way it’s closer to my heart. You kissed him on the cheek ending the discussion there.

He placed a hand on his cheek while he wished he could feel the softness of your lips one more time. Spencer took a ragged breath and clasped the chain around his nick. He smiled at the thought of having something that was once close to your heart now close to his.

The good doctor decided then that he should probably put your things away and get some rest before his first day back at the BAU. As he was going through the apartment turning out lights, that he had not realized he had even left on, Spencer could have sworn he saw someone walked into the hall.

Spencer grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and crept towards the hall. With his back pressed against the wall, he turned the corner quickly ready to take down the intruder. But what Spencer was faced with was nothing but his empty hallway. Spencer ran a hand through his hair and thought to himself: Well genius you are officially losing your mind.

He made his way into his bedroom and laid the kitchen knife on his dresser deciding he’ll just put it away in the morning. He walked to his window admiring the lights from the height of his apartment when he heard a laugh. He spun around so quickly he was sure he’d give himself whiplash.

There you were. You looked exactly the same as the last time he saw you, the moment you both decided to split up out in the field. Spencer was in absolute shock.

“I honestly doubt the knife would have worked. I am kind of already dead. It would’ve been funny to see what happened though.” Y/n joked as though this was all completely normal.

Spencer just screamed. Once he ran out of breath and gasped. There was stomping from the apartment above and very unpolite things directed towards Spencer. But he could care less, you were here. You were… a ghost?

Y/n looked bored and asked, “Are you done?” Spencer didn’t trust his voice, so he just nodded. “Good because I was expected a little more class from you Mr. 187.”

Spencer tripped over his words as he tried to run every logical explanation through his mind, “How the actual hell are you here? Am I dead? I’ve lost my mind, haven’t I?” Spencer began to pace the floor, running his hands through his hair.

“I think the term is ghost and no you are still perfectly sane. For the ‘how am I here part’ I am not quite sure. I can’t remember anything past the last 5 minutes.” Y/n shrugged her shoulders at that.

Spencer’s mind seemed to stop trying to apply logic to the situation and just except it. Because he began to relax, and tears brimmed his eyes. “Y/n I’ve missed you so much. I am so sorry. I should never have left you. If I would have stayed with you then maybe you’d still be alive.” Spencer choked on a sob which caused y/n’s no longer beating heart to break.

“Oh Reid. My death was not your fault at all.” She reached out a hand to caress his face, but it was like putting your hand through water. Her whole body glitched as if she was part of a malfunctioning video game.

“What was that? What’s happening?” Spencer’s face was pinched in confusion and worry.

Y/n seemed almost frantic, “I’m not sure. I feel like I’m being pulled away.” And with a blink of an eye she was gone. It all happened so quickly Spencer could almost say it was a dream, but it had been so real. Had felt so real.

-------

To say Spencer was tired was an understatement. He could barely sleep with the hope you would appear going through his heart and mind. It was around 4 am when exhaustion won, and he fell asleep gripping the ring that lay against his chest.

He was on is fourth cup of coffee for the day and he had only been there for one hour fifteen minutes and thirty-six seconds to be precise. He was stirring his mountain of sugar into the dark liquid when he felt a heavy hand clasp his shoulder and the smell of expensive cologne filled his nose.

“Kid you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Rossi told the young doctor as he leaned against the counter. Spencer snorted at that comment and just took a sip of his coffee, accepting the burn in his throat.

Before Spencer could even attempt to continue a conversation there was a loud gasp and the clicking of heels as his favorite human rainbow rushed towards him. He was instantly pulled into a bone crushing hug and it took every ounce of the little coordination he had not to spill his coffee all over his friend.

“Hi Penelope.” He simply said with a chuckle at the woman’s urge to always show her love in the most dramatic way.

She pulled away and started on one of her fast-spoken rants, “Oh my God you’re here! I missed you! I know I just saw you a couple of days ago when I visited your apartment, but this is different. Why didn’t anyone tell me you were coming back today? I should know these things!” Penelope slapped Spencer’s arm at that last part which drew an ‘ow’ from him and a light chuckle from Rossi who was watching the whole interaction.

“I’m sorry Penelope. When I got here, I went straight to Emily’s office and then dove into the paperwork required for my return.” Spencer explained.

Penelope smiled and let out a little huff, “Oh the love of paperwork. I will let this slide boy wonder, but it will not be forgotten.” Penelope gave Spencer’s arm a squeeze before making her way to her bat cave.

Spencer turned to Rossi, “I honestly expected that to be kind of worse.”

Rossi chuckled, “Luck my friend, luck.”

Spencer was about to launch into a rant about the statistics of how much of something good happening has anything to do with luck. That was stopped short when Spencer saw you perched on his desk like you use to do every morning waiting for him to bring you a cup of coffee. He gasped which wasn’t missed by the profiler who had been keeping an eye on him since he walked through those glass doors.

“Kid you alright?” Rossi asked with his voice laced with confusion.

Spencer didn’t take his eyes off you or the spot you had been when you glitched and disappeared just like the night before. “Huh? Oh. Uhh... yeah, I’m fine. I’ll be right back.”

Spencer sat his half drunken coffee down and walked as fast as he could towards the bathroom hoping not to draw any attention towards him.

Once he was safely in the bathroom and the door was locked behind him. He stood in front of the mirror and took a deep breath.

“Well that was interesting.” Spencer jumped and whirled around to only be met with an empty bathroom. He turned to splash water on his face and when he looked up again, and saw you behind him through the mirror.

H returned to look at you and whispered, “What the actual hell y/n? Where have you been?”

“I’m not quite sure. There were times I could see you, but you couldn’t see me which was very aggravating may I add. The rest is just blank.” Y/n seemed very unphased by everything as she spoke. This made Spencer feel uneasy.

“Why couldn’t anyone else in the bullpen see you?” Spencer’s brain was still trying to put science behind it all.

“I’m not quite sure. I don’t exactly have this whole ghost thing figured out. Being a ghost is hard.” Y/n pouted, and it made Spencer’s heart twist into a what felt like a knot.

“I- “Spencer was cut off by a knock on the door. When he looked back at y/n she was once again gone, and Spencer had an overwhelming need to try and understand a part of the world his brain rejected every day. He needed to understand the supernatural.

------

Spencer had been to three different libraries and five different bookstores, all within a week. He would read any chance he got. The concerned looks he got from his team didn’t go unnoticed, and any time y/n would appear she would let her opinion be known that she believed no one could really understand the supernatural of the world.

Emily pulled up a seat next to his desk causing Spencer to glance up from his book that was only repeating what the last three books had said but in a different language. The look Emily was giving him convinced him it would be a good idea to put the book down. So, he closed the book and placed it on his desk, giving Emily his full attention.

“Spencer what has came over you? You’ve been nose deep in this folk lore and demonic looking books for days now. It’s just unlike you.” Emily’s voice was soft, and Spencer could hear the worry in her voice.

Spencer thought of a lie when he first started digging into all this for this exact reason, “I’m writing a paper on how science and physics can prove that the supernatural does not exist. I’m reading all of this so I don’t miss anything in my paper”

That simple explanation made the tension in Emily’s shoulders completely disappear. She huffed a sigh of relief before saying, “               Ahhhh I see. Well Rossi invited us all to dinner at his place. He’s going to attempt to show us all a new recipe.” This mad both Emily and Spencer giggle.

Spencer knew if he turned down the offer it would only cause suspicion to arise once again. “Yeah sure I’ll be there.”

Emily smiled and patted his shoulder as she stood, “Great I’ll see you there.”

Spencer hadn’t realized it was the end of the workday till Emily said that. He hadn’t seen y/n all day so maybe he could get through this dinner with little to no awkwardness… well more than usual.

He was the last to arrive at Rossi’s. He sat in his car and took a deep breath. He had to convince his team that nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Just when he was about to get out of his car all the lights came on and the alarm started blaring.

“What the he- “Spencer was cut off by the appearance of y/n in his passenger seat. She looked so sad and before Spencer could say anything else, he heard her say a quiet “sorry” and she was gone. The alarm and the lights stopped all at once, just in time for his team to come out to see what all the commotion was about.

Spencer got out of the car and quickly made his way to them, “Sorry about that. I really hate cars.”

This made his friends laugh and usher him inside. Once they were all in the kitchen surrounding Rossi and all his steaming pots and pans Spencer relaxed slightly.

Rossi tends to talk with his hands when he is demonstrating what to do while cooking. So, when he accidentally knocks over the saltshaker it’s not a surprise to anyone.

“Ah don’t want any bad luck.” Rossi says as he tosses some salt over his left shoulder. Spencer was about to launch into a spill of how salt was once believed to ward off evil spirits, but he didn’t get the chance. He was caught off by the appearance of y/n and her yelling, “What the actual fuck Rossi!” The salt seemed to arm y/n, but Spencer wasn’t able to dwell on that fact long due to the chorus of gasp throughout the kitchen. Luke was the first to speak, “Y/n? Is that really you?”

“In the fl-… well spirit?” Y/n laughed at her joke; she was the only one. Everyone just stood there staring until Rossi yelled “My pasta!” and rushed to save their dinner.

Everyone turned to Spencer, they all started talking over each other. He could make out a few questions and a few other statement. They all came to the same realization though: Spencer was definitely was not writing a paper.

It took Spencer ten minutes to get everyone quiet enough to even attempt to talk and then fifteen minutes to explain everything while they all stared at y/n dumb founded. Y/n just stood there smiling the whole time Spencer talked.

“So, what does this mean exactly?” JJ asked tears in her eyes and a sad smile playing on her lips. Your death hit her hard, not as hard as Spencer or Penelope but still hard. He saw you move closer to her but stop knowing that you wouldn’t be able to show her any physical comfort.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Is all Spencer was able to say.

-----

It took a few weeks for the initial shock of y/n being a ghost to ware off. Spencer would sometimes see members of his team jump at the sudden appearance of her. It was hard for them not to talk to her while in the office. Especially since she seemed to finally have gotten better at the ‘whole ghost thing’.

Spencer was nose deep in another book on folk lore when y/n appeared sitting on his desk. He looked around to make sure no one was paying him any attention.

“Hello love. Who’ve you been haunting today?” They always joked and laughed about how easy it was for her to scare Luke. Spencer was pretty sure JJ, Emily, and Tara had a bet going on about it.

Y/n didn’t laugh though instead she looked more ghost like then ever and said, “Spence, somethings wrong.” Then she was gone.

About that same time two men walked in the bull pen. He saw them ask Matt something and then made their way to Emily’s office.

Spencer watched through the window as Emily and the two men talked for a few minutes and then shook hands. She led them back out to the bull pen to introduce them to everyone.

“Everyone this is Agent Smith and Agent Jones from the New York branch. They have asked for our assistance on a case that has brought them here.” Emily explained.

The shorter gruff man spoke first, “You all can call me Dean and him Sam.” The taller one gave a tight-lipped smile and a wave that matched Spencer’s own very similarly.

“It’s an honor to work with you all.” The taller one, Sam, said.

After a few more greetings and polite conversations they all started to make their way to the round table room for debriefing. Spencer was just about to get up from his desk when words started to appear across the paper scattered on his desk: ‘They’re not FBI.”

Spencer looked up to see the two new agents whispering quietly. They noticed him staring and gave him a nod and smile. Spencer had an unsettling feeling in his stomach as he made his way towards them.

He debated between bombarding them with questions till they broke or just watching them knowing their behavior would tell eventually. He decided on the later because he knows he’ll do anything to make sure he can keep y/n around and if these two men were a threat to that then they wouldn’t be able to conceal that truth for long.

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Taglist: @criminalmindzjunkie​ @brooklynxnicole​ @hendersonsshadow​ 

#criminal minds #spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #supernatural #dean whinchester #sam winchester #crossover #spencer reid fic #fanfiction

[fablesrose]

Tell Me a Story 2

Description: With the first interaction with Chuck almost over and done with, Dean and Y/n have to figure out how the heck this is going to work. Some mafia business goes awry, but when has anything gone to plan?

Word count: 4,581 (guys this is over twice as long as the first part, this is ridiculous)

Pairing: cop!Dean x mafia!reader

Square filled: Moodboard

Warnings: knives, pain, a little blood

Masterlist ~ Bingo Masterlist

A/n: Part two also goes with @girl-next-door-writes​ Bingo challenge! Btw this whole fic is based on me wanting to write the first part of this chapter so there's that too.

“I don’t know sir, I’m not much of a story teller.”

“Come on Dean.”

“Tell me a story.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well I’ll do my best.” Dean glanced at me, trying to decide how this would go. “If I remember right sweetheart, you called me?”

“Yeah!” I wracked my brain as quick as I could, “It was a wrong number call. I think I was trying to order take out.” Oh my gosh that was so stupid.

“But with me in a new city, a new job, I wanted to talk for a bit,” Dean squeezed my hand, “we decided to keep in touch and the rest is history!”

Chuck just looked at us for a bit, an unamused look on his face, “You’re right, you aren’t much of a story teller.”

Dean’s finger twitched against my hand, and I had to admit, that in this moment it was comforting. At least I was going to die next to a pretty nice dude.

“But whatever. You guys go claim some territory or something.”

Chuck seemed so complacent that it made a spark of anger ignite inside of me.

“Chuck, we’re not some teenage boy gang that spray paints wall-”

He had advanced towards me and had his hand roughly grabbing the base of my jaw, a few of his fingers pressing into my neck. He was just enough taller than me to wretch my face up painfully. I let out a grunt, but otherwise shut up.

“You are whatever I damn well tell you you are, Starling. Now go claim some territory.” He roughly shoved my face to let go. He quickly fixed his sleeves and patted Dean on the arm, “Sorry for touching the merchandise. You kids have fun now.” He turned on his heel and walked out of the building without a second thought.

There was a moment were nobody moved from the room. In the last few minutes it made it easy to forget that there were more than just Dean and I there. I wasn’t the highest ranking person in the room, but the list got messy sometimes.

“Alright, you heard the man,” I sighed. But still nobody moved, “I said let’s go!”

The members surrounding me rushed from their stationary positions to exit the building. I moved to follow but the tug on my arm reminded me that I was still holding Dean’s hand. I couldn’t decipher the look he had on his face, but it wasn’t a good one.

I gave him a soft nod with a squeeze of the hand before letting go and following the group. I heard his heavy footsteps behind me, but he made no effort in catching up to walk by my side.

“What a guy you got.”

I huffed, “Hello to you too Meg.”

“He’s hot. Ask if he’s got any hot friends he can hook me up with alright? Or you can just let me have him.” She nudged me a little in jest.

“Any other requests, Cockroach?”

She shoved me a bit harder, “Just don’t get in the way of my spray paint.”

I laughed as she ran up to the front of the pack, wanting to pick the spot to throw some paint.

I stuffed my hands in my pockets, slouching a bit as I followed the pack, wanting to be in my own thoughts.

A hand wrapping around my shoulders caused me to stiffen and straightened my back. I glanced to my side to find that Dean was the one walking next to me now. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, maybe trying to keep up the front that Chuck gave us. I relaxed a little bit, loosened my jaw, but my posture remained straight.

“You expect someone else?” Dean kept his eyes facing forward, not even glancing in my direction.

I mimicked his expression, “The boys tend to try and get handsy.”

He hummed and patted my shoulder, “So that didn’t go to plan.”

I turned to look at him and waited until he looked at me. I shook my head softly as if to say, “Not now, not here.”

He nodded, just as softly, as if to tell me that he understood.

We walked silently down the streets, just far enough behind the group to be separate, but close enough to see where they were going. I know I said we weren’t a teenage boy gang, but sometimes I did wonder. By their behavior alone, you would think they were some stupid seventeen year olds, roughing each other up, looking for trouble. Fortunately to some, they were intimidating enough from experience for people to not try and mess with them.

By the time Dean and I caught up, Meg had already gotten the spray paint out. She would never admit it to anyone out loud, but she enjoyed this. And she was good at it too. She ordered some of the boys around, some to help her with the graffiti, others to keep watch and to keep people away.

I took a second to think, I was lousy at painting (not that I didn’t try), and I figured this was as good a time as any to talk to Dean. Now the question was how to get alone.

The answer was I had to swallow my pride.

I turned my body towards Dean, one hand at the small of his back, the other gripping the front of his shirt, “Hey guys...” That got their attention. “You’ve got this covered, right?” I bit my lip a little, trying to sell it.

“If you don’t get out of here with him right now, I will shoot you myself,” Benny was leaning against a wall with a bemused smile on his face.

I shot him a wink and grabbed Dean’s hand to pull him away, “Duly noted Gaterson.”

“You sure do know how to pick ‘em lover boy!”

Dean let out a single laugh in response as I dragged him a block away into a secluded ally way.

We walked into a shadowy area to get as much seclusion as possible. I let go of his hand and leaned against the wall. I rubbed the heels of my hands into my eyes which pushed my head against the bricks behind me.

“Starling?”

I sighed, “Please don’t call me that.”

“Sorry, I just meant what does it mean, why do you have it?”

I lowered my hands to see him leaning on the wall across from me, “Maybe some other time. All you need to know is everyone has nicknames around here.”

He crossed his arms, “So is lover boy my nickname now?”

I huffed out a laugh, “Nah, they’ll call you all sorts of things until something sticks.”

There was a pause. We both knew we were dancing around the real subject I pulled us away for, but I wasn’t sure I knew what to do with it.

“So that didn’t go to plan.” Dean was braver than I was.

“Yeah no shit.” I banged my head against the bricks hard enough to make a sound and tried to dig into the cement with my shoe out of frustration. “To look on the bright side—which I loathe doing by the way—we’re not dead...So there’s that.”

“There is that… Got any suggestions?”

“Why is it that you’re supposed to be the professional and I’m making all the decisions?”

“I don’t know, with your performance and cool composure, I’d say that you’re the professional in this situation.”

I sighed and closed my eyes, “The only thing I can think to do is play along. If it gets too much we can fake a breakup...” This was getting so complicated.

“Fake a breakup? As far as I’m concerned, we’re not actually dating.” I could nearly hear the smirk on his face.

“Really Dean? Really?” He chuckled in response. “Since Chuck already knows that you’re a cop I think the best thing to do is for you to go to work. Be a police officer that’s on the payroll, but be a little more involved.”

“Whatever you say sweetheart.”

I heard voices approaching the ally way that sounded familiar. Then there was a harsh shh to quiet them down.

“Shit,” I looked at Dean, grabbed his jacket and pulled him closer, “You’re gonna have to kiss me.”

I stared at me dumbfoundedly, “What?”

“Look, they think we came over here to make out, if we don’t at least look like we’re making out they’re gonna be suspicious.”

He still looked shocked.

“Shit.” I didn’t want to kiss him on the spot either, so I did the next best thing to make it look like we were making out. I grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled his face down next to my neck slightly angling his body to cover me. The sudden motion caused him to catch himself with his hands against the wall on either side of me.

He wasn’t touching me, but I could feel his startled breathing against my neck. I ran my hand along the back of his neck and through his hair. It was extremely soft. I started making little noises and muttering Dean’s name. To sell the act, naturally.

Dean, once he recovered from his freezing shock started to brush the tip of his nose against my skin which startled me.

I heard a whistle from the end of the ally, “Yeah Ms. Starling! Get some!” The group rounded the corner to see us there. I flipped them off, making them laugh.

I gently tugged at the back of his collar to say it was okay to part now. As he straightened himself I caught his face and left a soft kiss on his cheek.

The group had started to disperse and go their separate ways since we were done putting on a show because they “caught” us.

Dean and I walked side by side out of the ally, by the time we got to the entrance our previous companions had all gone their separate ways.

“Sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” I started to walk the way we came, back towards the wall Meg was working on.

“No, uh, that was smart of you,” he jogged to catch up with me and shoved his hands into his pockets.

The walk was silent around the block.

Eventually we arrived to see what Meg had done. She had out done herself once again. The wall was covered with a silhouette of an angel. It’s wings were burning as the figure fell. It was intricate as only Meg could be. There were a few lone charred feathers across the wall as well. In the bottom corner an F was painted as if it had fallen over.

“It’s beautiful. How’d she get if done so fast?” Dean stared at the wall in awe.

I nodded, agreeing with him, “I’m pretty sure she made a demon deal, but I don’t know.” I pointed at the painting, “This is just street art, but this,” I pointed at the F, “makes it Fallen territory. Watch for it.” I patted the wall where there wasn’t any paint, “Alright, I’ll call you if something comes up you need to be at. Any questions?”

“Nope, I guess I’ll see you around Miss Y/n.”

I side-eyed him with a smirk before I started to walk towards my apartment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Something like a week passed. It was relatively quiet, me minding my own business. I thought it was almost too quiet when I got a call from Meg.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Letterboys are causing some trouble on 5th Avenue. You wanna bring your boy toy to help sort this out?”

I hummed, “I was just thinking that it was getting boring around here. I’ll give him a call and head over.”

“See you, Starling.”

“Uh huh.” I hung up on her and dialed up Dean. I was redirected to his voicemail.

“This is Dean, you know what to do.”

“Hey, we’ve got a territory dispute over on 5th Ave, if you’ve got time you can stop by.”

I left it at that and headed out to show some mafia wannabes that territories aren’t to be messed with. It didn’t take long to see Meg standing off against a guy, maybe twenty-three years old.

“Everyone paired off already?”

“Yeah, I think there’s a straggler that headed west though, you wanna pick him up?”

I slapped her shoulder, “Yeah, I got it.”

I heard her start to make small talk with her challenger, he didn’t stand a chance, “So, how’s the other side of town?”

I chuckled as I started heading West, checking all the nooks and crannies. I eventually came up on a kid walking down an ally, his hood was up, head down.

“Hey kid, you lookin’ for something?”

He looked up at me, “Just heading home ma’am.”

I nodded, “Alright, just, have you happened to see anyone running around with a pointy triangle-ish mark on their wrist?”

He didn’t respond, he just pulled out a switchblade. How cute.

“Look kid, you look too young for this, and I’m too old for this, so why don’t you head back where you came from.” As I spoke I pulled out my own, slightly larger, switchblade.

It seemed like he didn’t want to talk anymore because he started to charge at me.

I smiled, “Alright, have it your way.”

I dodged him at first, but then I started to cut him just enough to sting. That seemed to make him angry to the point where he caught me a couple times too. I started cutting a little bit deeper, hoping he would give up.

“Okay, you’re obviously out of your league, why don’t you go home?”

He made a jab at me, to which I grabbed his wrist to stop him. What I didn’t expect was for him to toss the blade into his other hand and slice a fairly deep cut into my side.

“Dammit!” I shoved him away onto the ground and pulled out my gun from the back of my waistband. I pointed it at him and stepped on the hand with the switchblade, “That’s enough of that.”

He spit some blood onto the cement from the split lip I gave him at some point, “Cheater!”

“Hey, you’re the idiot that brought a knife to a gun fight.”

A single bleep from a siren sounded off behind me. I turned my head to see an unmarked police vehicle  on the street.

“Ah, Detective Castiel, nice to see you!” I kept the gun pointed at the kid on the ground. He may not have been the smartest, but he was smart enough to not move.

“Y/n, if you shoot that kid I’m going to have to arrest you.” He didn’t sound amused as he walked around the car.

“I’m only going to shoot him if he tries to stab me again,” I stared at the kid pointedly, “got it?”

He nodded sadly.

I looked back at Cas, “You know, this kid was looking to cause some trouble, so really I’m doing your job for you.”

“Sure.”

“Is that a new trench coat? It looks nice.”

“It is, thank you. Are you going to let him go now?”

“I don’t know,” I looked back at the kid, “are you going to go home and not cause any trouble if I let you go?”

He nodded again.

I stopped pointing my gun at him and stepped off of his hand. He scrambled up and ran back the way he came.

I put my gun back into the back of my waistband, “Kids these days.” I popped my hip as I turned to fully face Cas for the first time tonight, “Chuck still wants you on the payroll, by the way.”

“And you already know what my answer is, Y/n,” he leaned back against the car behind him.

I sighed, “Yeah I do. You’re a good man and a good cop, Cas.”

He smiled, a rare occurrence, but I didn’t mention it. “You’re a good person too, Y/n.”

I laugh halfheartedly, “If you say so… If you say so.” I crossed my arms and felt the wet stickiness from my side, reminding me of my injury. “Anyway, Meg should be about a block east of here if you want to go say hi.”

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah I should see if you guys are causing any other trouble.”

I turned on my heel to head home and clean myself up, “Love you too Cas!”

I heard the car start and drive off behind me. I finally looked down at the cut to see how bad it was. I was wearing a black shirt, so the blood didn’t show, making it difficult to see just how bad it was. From what I could tell, it was a few inches across. I couldn’t tell just how deep it was, but the cut was positioned over my ribs, so it didn’t damage anything important. Luckily the kid’s knife was sharp, so it would heal faster as it didn’t tear the skin, unfortunately the kid’s knife was sharp, so it went deeper.

I pressed one hand against the wound while I walked back to my apartment. On the way my phone buzzed from a text.

Dean: Hey, sorry, I was called out. Did you still need some help over on 5th?

Me: No, it’s taken care of. I’m heading home now.

Dean: Okay.

I put my phone away and continued home. Eventually I was able to unlock my apartment, careful not to get blood anywhere. I headed straight to the bathroom, stripping off my shirt and tossing my phone on my table on the way. I held it to the cut while I dug around for the first aid kit and once I found it I tossed the soaked shirt into the sink.

I turned the water on, getting a washcloth wet. I started cleaning around the cut to get a better look at it, having to rinse out the washcloth a couple of times to prevent just smearing blood around.

It was still bleeding, but the pressure I put on it caused it to slow down. Once I got a good look at it I could tell it wasn’t going to cause too many problems other than taking a while to heal and being sore.

A knock came to the door. I was obviously not prepared for visitors, so I left it be. It was probably one of the neighbors, they liked to check in every once in a while. I hoped they would just move on. They knocked one more time before my phone rang in the other room. I really should have just turned it off.

Finally the phone stopped ringing, but not a moment later I heard the creek of my front door opening. I reached for my gun the was still in my pants.

“Y/n? It’s Dean, I’m coming in okay? Your door is open.”

I sighed in relief and placed my gun on the counter, “Okay.”

I heard some rustling of what I assumed was him taking his coat off and the click of the lock sliding into place.

I pulled out some cotton pads and soaked one in rubbing alcohol. I just looked at it for a second, not wanting to clean the wound, but knowing I had to. I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, preparing myself for the sting.

“I thought you said everything was taken care of.” I looked up to see Dean in the doorway. He had a hard look on his face.

“No, I said the problem was taken care of.” I relaxed against the back of the toilet, knowing that I had a second before I was going to clean my side.

He walked in and took the saturated cotton pad from my hand, “That looks like a problem to me.”

I tensed up in preparation for him to clean it once he started to approach me, “Something like that.”

He hesitated, “You want something to numb it?”

I let go of the breath I was holding, “Yeah, uh, whiskey’s in the kitchen.”

He stood up to go get it, leaving the cotton pad on the counter. He came back with the glass bottle and handed it to me. I took a couple of swigs before placing it on the counter next to the rest of the first aid supplies. I felt myself relax a little bit. I heard a clatter as I knocked something to the floor in the process though. I bent to pick it up, my body protesting a little bit, but I picked it up all the same.

“What’s that? On your back?”

I instantly knew he was talking about the black tattoo that was at the base of my neck, in a spot that my shirt would cover.

I turned so he could see them better, “They’re wings.”

He traced them for a moment before I turned back around, “You wanna get started on this please?”

He grabbed the cotton, “Yeah, of course. They’re beautiful.”

I hissed in response as he started to brush the alcohol along the wound. I clenched my jaw so hard it started to ache, I whimpered before biting down on my fist.

Dean paused and pulled on my hand, taking it from my mouth, “Hey, hey, focus on me. Why don’t you tell me a story, huh? Focus on something else.”

I was breathing heavily, “Like what.”

“What does Starling mean? Why’d you get that tattoo?”

“And why would you want to know that?”

He squeezed my hand, “Because you’re supposed to be my girlfriend, and I think I would know these things.” He smirked because he knew he backed me into a corner.

I groaned as he touched my side again, “Fine.” I took a deep breath, “As you already know everyone needs a nickname. I was called a lot of different things, some more… savory, appropriate than others. I don’t know why, but I always seemed to be favored by Nick, by Crowley. I got my name under Nick, but that doesn’t matter.”

I gasped as Dean pressed particularly deep to which he apologized.

“I was being bossy one day. Nobody was listening, I had just got back from an infiltration job. Someone, they’re not around anymore, they called me a stupid Starling, and it stuck.  Starlings in North America are considered an invasive species, terribly annoying, and unwanted.” Dean gave me a break to get a new cotton pad to finish up, “Tattoo means the same once something is solidified, you get a tattoo representing your name and a Fallen symbol.” I pulled my ear forward and showed Dean the fallen F tattooed behind it, just like the one next to the angel Meg painted.

“Well, I think they look like angel wings.” Dean came back and started cleaning the last little corner and around the edge.

“Really? Black angel wings?” I tried not to flinch as he caught the edge a little roughly.

“Yeah, I do, Angel.” He threw away the cotton with a small smile on his face.

I laughed, “Okay, yeah, sure.”

Dean looked at the wound closely, “I think I’m gonna have to stitch it up, just so it’ll heal faster.”

“You know how to do that?” I gestured to the first aid kit, knowing that stitching supplies were there, I had to do some myself every once in a while.

“I’m decent.” He started sterilizing the needle with a lighter he had in his pocket before cooling it off with the rubbing alcohol. “So how’d you get this in the first place?”

The stitching process was still painful, but not as bad as the cleaning. “Letterboys were roaming our side of town, looking for trouble.”

“Letterboys?”

I snorted, “They call themselves Lettermen, don’t ask me why, I have no idea. Really, they’re gang wannabes, so we call them Letterboys.”

Dean tugged at the needle to tighten a stitch, “Uh, huh. And if they’re so pathetic why’d you get this thing?”

I huffed out a laugh, “This idiot brought a knife to a gun fight and I played along for a little too long.”

“Ah, makes total sense.”

“So, how was work in a new city?” I wiped around my eyes to make sure I didn’t have any tears showing.

“Uh, it was alright,” he tied off the last stitch, “transfer information is still being worked out, but they’re thinking about pairing me up with this Detective Castiel or whatever.”

I smiled, “That’ll be good. Cas is a good guy. I actually saw him tonight.”

“Was that before or after you got injured?”

“After.”

Dean looked at me skeptically, “If he’s such a good guy, why didn’t he take you to the doctor or something? Is he in with Chuck?”

“Nah, it was dark, I was wearing that black shirt, I didn’t let him notice. And no, he’s the farthest person from Chuck you could get. He’s tried to take Chuck down a couple of times actually, gotten close too. That’s why Chuck desperately wants him to join, but Cas has the same answer every time, not in his right mind would he ever join.”

“So he’s trustworthy,” Dean nodded, satisfied.

“To an extent, yes.” I examined his handiwork, I was impressed. “You can’t tell him you’re into this though, not that you’re undercover, not that you know me. He’s already too deep into this and if he changes his behavior, thinking there’s a chance he can help you take Chuck down? Chuck will get suspicious and everything will fall apart, okay?”

“Understood.”

I stood up, testing the stitches, “Good.” I started cleaning up the counter and putting stuff away when Dean stopped me and started cleaning up himself. “Thanks,” I headed towards my bedroom and grabbed a new shirt to throw on. I groaned involuntarily when my stitches stretched as I pulled it over my head.

“You okay in there?” Dean asked from the bathroom.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I changed into some sweatpants while I was there.

“Do you wanna keep this or...” He trailed off as I walked out in a shirt that looked very similar to the one in the sink.

“Nah, I’ll just toss it,” I pulled at the hem of my shirt, “these are pretty cheap.” I wrung out the shirt as best I could and walked into the kitchen to throw it away, “The bathroom was just in the opposite direction of my gross trash.” I washed my hands, “Thank you, can I get you anything?”

“Another fake make-out session?”

I snorted, “And why would you ever want that?”

“Because it was hot.” Dean had a teasing smirk on his face as he followed my example. “But for real, do you have a beer Angel?”

I reached into the fridge to grab us some, “You’re serious about calling me that?”

He popped it open easily, “Yeah, I think it’s cute.”

I shook my head and walked to my couch with a beer in hand and curled up into the side, “So.” I gestured for Dean to join me, “What was so important that you knocked on my door twice, called me, and then walked into my apartment anyway?”

He groaned in embarrassment, “Well, it’s not important anymore…”

I laughed, “Oh come on Dean, tell me a story.”

Best Buds: @kitkatd7​ @snarky--starky​ @confetti-its-an-imagine-blog @kaogasm ​

Dean: @akshi8278​ @msmarvelouswinchester

#dean x reader #cop au #mafia au #cop!dean #spncreatorsdaily #mafia!reader #Girl Next Door's Make Me Feel Bingo #make me feel bingo #tell me a story 2 #dean winchester #moodboard

[exoxobsession]

Storm || One-Shot

Pairing: Kyungsoo x You

Genre: Fluff, HogwartsAU! (forgive me!)

Warnings: None! (The only warning is that it’s bad)

Word Count: 2k

A/N: I’m not very good at writing fluff so i kept it to a bare minimum. Sorry for the terrible fic. I just wanted a Kyungsoo one and was in Harry Potter mood so...here goes nothing.

You took a deep breath as you walked through the grand doors of the castle along with many others. Being a muggle-born, you didn’t know what the Wizarding World was like. Professor McGonagall led the group up to where a hat sat on a chair. “When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool, to be sorted,” Professor McGonagall says.

Everything was a blur until they called your name. You walked up nervously, hands sweating as you rubbed them together. “Hm, a muggle-born I see. You’re intelligent, you have a lot of wisdom, yes. But you’re very brave too. RAVENCLAW!” the hat decides.

You make your way to the table filled with blue and bronze.

That was how your Hogwarts adventure started. You were a Ravenclaw, who was supposed to be intelligent and have a lot of wisdom. ‘That stupid sorting hat got it wrong’ you thought. You weren’t as intelligent as the other Ravenclaws. You were average. But what you were good at and enjoyed was Quidditch. You were the seeker for Ravenclaw. Some even say that you were their good luck charm. No, you didn’t win every match, but the average increased.

Today you were late to practice because of Professor Snape. Running through hallways as you bumped into people, you turned back and shouted a sorry as you sprint across. Before you could turn back, you bumped into someone making you fall on the person. You were about to curse at the person before you saw him Do Kyungsoo. Your crush for three years. Panic settled in you as you scrambled yourself away from the boy. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I was in a rush and, sorry!” you babbled as you bowed to him furiously.

He laughed it off; you swear you’ve never seen this boy laugh in the four years of you attending Hogwarts. He was serious and looked like he would kill someone every time you saw him. “It’s fine, but you seem to be in a hurry. You should go,” he said as you just stared at his beautiful face. His features were perfect, his beautiful owl eyes, his heart-shaped lips, his soft hair, and his- a cough brought you back to reality as you Kyungsoo’s flushed cheeks. You must’ve been staring for too long. “Right, I should go, and um, sorry again,” you said awkwardly and hurried away from him.

You finally reached the Quidditch pitch, panting. You never ran that fast in your entire life, not even when a bulldog chased you for a whole seven minutes. “Are you okay, Y/N?” Jongin came up to you and asked. “All fine.” was your response. Then the Gryffindor team left.

The Golden Snitch was thrown into the air, your eyes not leaving it for a second at all. Then it moved away from you, going behind you. You tried your hardest to look out for it, but if you couldn’t see it and it was harder when grey clouds started forming. You flew higher, thinking it would be easier to spot it. Finally, you saw a tiny shimmer of gold; you took off, going at a higher pace. Finally,  catching that snitch.

As soon as you caught the snitch, the rain started pouring. You all hurried back to the castle, though everyone was wet.  Back in the dorms, some opting to play wizard chess, some homework, and others just talking, you wanted to get some sleep.

You were down as soon as you hit the bed.

In the morning you weren’t awoken by the sounds of birds singing, no, but the rumble of the thunder outside. But the thunder was outside. Not inside, so the classes must go on. Yay. Still sleepy as ever, you went to the washroom to freshen up.

You checked your timetable, seeing that Potions was the first class today. You tagged along with your friends instead of going like a loner. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Kyungsoo and his friends pass by. Chanyeol and Jongdae? You weren’t sure of the names, but you knew they loved annoying him.

You remember the first time you met him. It was the day you were first attending Hogwarts. You got on the train and was awe the ancient feeling; you didn’t see his suitcase there, and being the klutz you are, you tripped. Being the kind human being he is, he offered you his Licorice Wand and some Chocolate Frogs, though you kept refusing; saying he had to make it up to you.

Every interaction you had with him was mostly you tripping, either physically or with words. Professor Snape’s voice rang through the class, startling you. “Today, you’ll be making Amortentia, and I expect none of you to mess up cauldrons, understood?”

You knew you would get partnered. But not with Kyungsoo. What would happen if you messed up? Or maybe you were staring at his face too long? Amid you worrying, he came over and guided you to one cauldron at the back. “You make it while I read out the ingredients,” you said without stuttering or getting distracted by his face. He just smiled. You started reading the ingredients to you both were done in no time.

“Done already, Mr. Do?” Professor Snape asked as he moved to us. “Now, tell me what it smells like,” he said to both of us. Kyungsoo went first, bending so he could smell it properly, “It smells like the woody scent of a broomstick handle, licorice wands, and the smell after rain, sir.” he said, as he straightened up.

“You, Ms. Y/N.,” he said, his gaze hardening more than it was. “I smell chocolate frogs, the smell of old books and…” you could smell his cologne. You weren’t sure if it was because he was beside you or if it was from the cauldron. “Great job, you can leave now.” he walked away.

You quickly got out in case he decides to changes his mind. “That was like something that happens only in a lifetime,” he chuckled. “Yeah.” you smiled, but the booming sound of the thunder caught you off guard, making you visibly flinch. Haven’t you embarrassed yourself enough already?

Awkwardness soon settled in. Just the sound of your footsteps echoing through the hallways. You tried to think of something to talk to about when he spoke, “You were in a hurry yesterday. Did you get wherever you were going?” he asked as he cutely tilted his head. This boy was going to be the end of you. “Yeah, I was late to Quidditch practice because of Snape, no it was because of that stupid Baekhyun.” his face hardened at the end of your sentence. “You know Baekhyun? But he’s a Gryffindor, and he’s 5th year, right?” he questioned.

“Yeah, he is and isn’t your friend, Chanyeol, was it? He’s in Gryffindor too and, he’s 4th year.” you retorted. “Touché.” he gave up to which you smiled. “But we aren’t even friends, even though we’re from the same house,” he grumbled under his breath. It was inaudible to you, to you who was way up in the clouds.

There was only one more class, but you were beyond drained, exhausted, to even hear Baekhyun and his nonsense. “Are you even listening?” he frowned. “I love you and all, Baek but, I’m tired.” you groaned. “When are you not?” he rolled his eyes. “I heard you and Kyungsoo were partners in Potions.” he grinned stupidly while raising his eyebrows up and down. “Oh, shut up, you cockroach, plus he has a girlfriend.”

“What did you call me? A cockroach? This beautiful face and body looks like a cockroach to you?” he said in disbelief as he started chasing you around. You ran to your next class, but before you could even make it in, he grabbed you by the waist and started tickling you. “Take it back!” he shouted, still not stopping. “Fine! Fine…” you exclaimed, still trying to catch your breath. He let go of you at last.

“But your still a cockroach!” you said, sticking your tongue out and entering the classroom because you knew he wouldn’t come in here. “Yah!” was all you heard after you came in. That idiot can put a smile on your face no matter what. You felt someone staring at you, so you turned back, seeing the only Do Kyungsoo looking at you with a stony stare that sent chills up your spine.

Throughout the class, you felt his eyes on you. But when you looked back, he would look at the front or talking to the pretty Hufflepuff girl. When he was doing the latter, jealously built up in the pit of your stomach. It was his girlfriend.

Class ended quickly, but all you could hear through the class was his deep laugh. But you weren’t the reason. You’ve never seen him laugh that much. Or smile. You make your way to the Great Hall. Finishing your meal quickly, you walk back to go to bed.

Soon everyone started filling in, changing, and sleeping. You were about to head to dreamland when you heard the thunder roaring. You flinched, again and again, every time there was a noise. After a good few minutes, you sat up to see if anyone of your friends were awake, but no luck there. You heard the fireplace cackle, and you went to see if anyone was in the common room.

As you reached the bottom step, you stubbed your toe, which made you yelp, and the person on the couch turn. It was Kyungsoo. “You okay?” he asked, worry flashing in his eyes. Nodding, you ambled to the couch. Opting for the other side rather than anywhere closer.

“Can’t sleep?” he questioned, turning to look at you as the shades of red of the fire fell on his face. “The storm and the noises are keeping me up,” you answered. Then silence, just the fire burning, and the lightning clapping. “You could smell Baekhyun in the potion, right?” he decided to break the ice once again. You couldn’t help but laugh at that. Baekhyun was your best friend and nothing more.

“What’s so funny?” he frowned. “It’s… it’s so funny you think I like Baekhyun. He’s nothing more than my best friend, Kyungsoo.” you said, his name rolling off your tongue beautifully. “Then who did you smell?” this question caught you off guard.

“W-What?” you stuttered. “I don’t know if I’m being too straightforward here, but…” you waited for him to continue, raising your eyebrows as to tell him to go on. “It was you, Y/N. I’ve liked you ever since that day where-”

“You like me too?” you asked in a low voice. “Wait, what? ” he asked,  confused. “I’ve liked you since 1st year,” you said, feeling your face go hot. “What about your girlfriend then?” you asked quickly remembering. “I broke up with her, but we decided to stay friends.” he chuckled lightly. “For me?” you looked down at your hands.

He put his hand under your chin lifting your head, and softly landed his plump lips on yours.

You thanked the storm out there because without it he wouldn’t be yours.

#kyungsoo #exosnet #exowritersnet #do kyungsoo #exo d.o #d.o #d.o one shot #hogwartsau #exo #baekhyun #chanyeol #ravenclaw #exo fanfiction #exo fanfics #exo hogwarts au!

[legumelupin]

Cake Week!

here it is! the first chapter of this story that i love so much but is ruining my life! and here it is on ao3! it’s over 11k so please enjoy

WEEK 1 — CAKE

“It’s the moment every dessert lover, every pastry lover, really any kind of bake lover has been waiting for. The tent is staked and there are 12 new bright-eyed and bushy-tailed amateur bakers ready to battle it out. These bakers are some of the finest in the United Kingdom and were hand-selected out of thousands of applicants. 

“They practiced for months and months to perfect new and old skills to take on a new set of challenges. Original signatures, grueling technicals, and spectacular showstoppers that are all made to push the baker's creativity and determination to the edge. Who will come out victorious? And who will collapse under a soggy bottom? 

“This season, the bakers will be judged by none other than the lovely baking queen of Scotland, Minerva McGonagall. She’s hard to impress and incredibly blunt but boy does she make spectacular ginger biscuits. Her co-judge is the man who looks great for his age and who’s palate ranges from lemon sherbert to cockroach cookies. That’s right, it’s the ever-serene Albus Dumbledore. But the bakers had better watch out, our dear Dumbly isn’t afraid to shatter hopes and dreams. And as always, this season will be hosted by myself, Horace “Sluggy” Slughorn, and the large and in charge, Rubeus Hagrid.

“For their first week, our brand new bakers will have to overcome the woes of cake week. That means avoiding dry sponges, merengues that aren’t whipped properly, and batter that is over’werked’ as our dear Minerva would say.

“Welcome to Season 7 of the Great British Bake Off!”

~

Remus tied the apron around his waist, his hands shaking uncontrollably as he was still processing where exactly he was. He was in The Tent! The people in charge of the Great British Bake Off chose his application as one of the ones to be a part of the next season. Him! Remus John Lupin! What the fuck? What were they thinking? What was he thinking? He had let his mother convince him into applying, citing his bread and his knack for precision as qualities that could help him. He just never thought he would be here, ever. But he was! 

He took a look around, noting all the cameras and feeling his stomach start to twist itself into a knot a bit. Oh gods, what in the world was he thinking? He’d be on TV and chances are he’d make a fool of himself for everyone to see! He thought of the day the camera crew had shown up to his family’s small cottage just outside of Cardiff. He had been maybe even more nervous then than he was now considering how intimate the whole ordeal was. They just followed him around for a few hours and had him hang in the kitchen with his mother while his father sat at the counter reading the paper. They followed him to his job at a bookshop just inside of town and he talked about his dream to go to university to study literature. If he didn’t think too hard about it, being in The Tent didn’t seem so bad anymore. 

And then one of the Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore walked in. Gods, he wished he packed a joint in his bag for after. Or even his pack of cigs. He was going to need it afterward judging by how hard his legs were shaking. He looked to the workstation across from him and found a woman with long, red hair and he remembered her vaguely from the little mingling session the producers of the show hosted for contestants the day before. Remus did his best to socialize but he mostly kept to himself, thinking about the book that was waiting for him on his train ride home. But looking at her now, she was hard not to remember with hair like that and green eyes that pierce him even from the distance he’s at. 

She caught his eye and offered him a kind smile that he returned easily, feeling a bit better. He could see the worry lines etched on the side of her mouth. Honestly, Remus should have been paying more attention to the competition if he wanted to win but he’d been so inside his head that he didn’t even remember any of their names let alone what they looked like. All he remembered from the night before was the piercing blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore and the raucous laughter of Rubeus Hagrid. He was so shell-shocked that all he could do was tell himself not to panic and have a drink with a few of the other contestants that he didn’t remember the names of. 

But now, here he was, smiling at the girl with flaming red hair, waiting for the camera crew to give the cue for them to start. They’d gotten the opening shots with all the new bakers lined up outside the tent and all of them walking into the tent for the first time. Remus was almost positive that his gaze was downcast the entire time. It was almost like he was asking to leave on the first episode but in reality, he did really want to win. He was terrified and an anxious disaster. But he was a terrified and anxious disaster with a passion to win.

“Psst, hey!” a voice whispered behind him and Remus raised an eyebrow, turning his head to find the most gorgeous man his bisexual eyes have ever seen. Remus suppresses a groan. Why did Gorgeous-Man have to get his attention before the first task? As if it wasn’t going to be hard enough before, all Remus would be able to think about now were those stormy grey eyes and long, very soft-looking black hair. He would definitely overbake his sponge. 

~

Sirius Black was very nervous. He was incredibly proud of himself for making it onto the show but he was also still in disbelief. Even when he was standing at his workstation for their first bake of cake week, he didn’t believe he was actually going to be on his favorite TV show. The night before hadn’t done anything to soothe his nerves or let him know that this was actually real but he did meet a really wonderful bloke by the name of James Potter who was also a contestant on the show. They hit off on their first interaction and hit the pub right after the little event had ended. Sirius felt he’d made a friend forever in the guy.

“Hey man, this is crazy right?” a brown-skinned guy with unruly black hair and kind, hazel eyes said, gesturing to the large white tent that was just down the hill from the little area of the grounds the newest contestants were all gathered in. He looked to be around Sirius’s age. “Never thought I’d be here but I guess they liked my application enough even though I made a complete fool of myself,” the guy snorted and Sirius raised an eyebrow. 

“I suppose they just wanted a village fool and they thought you’d do the best job,” Sirius snarked and the guy looked affronted but to the point of mocking him.

“You say that as if it isn’t a high honor, young sir!” the man proclaimed and Sirius cracked a grin. 

“I have to say, kind fellow, I’m going to put up a hell of a fight to be crowned the title of fool before you,” Sirius jested back and the guy laughed heartily. 

“I’m James Potter,” he extended his hand and Sirius took it in his own. 

“Sirius,” the pale male answered and James quirked an eyebrow but didn’t let go of his hand. 

“Course I’m serious, why would I lie about my name?” James asked and Sirius snorted.

“No, I’m Sirius,” he replied and James just leveled him with a small glare. 

“About what, mate? You haven’t even said anything,” James shot back and Sirius rolled his eyes. 

“No, you oaf. My fucking name is Sirius,” he laughed and James’s face fell for a second before it broke out into a large grin. 

“That’s right funny, Sirius. You can make a lot of jokes with that,” James smiled and Sirius laughed. 

“Just did, mate,” Sirius remarked and James didn’t stop grinning. 

“Wanna grab a pint after this?” James asked and Sirius knew. He just knew. This guy was gonna be his best friend after this night. 

“Sounds like a plan to me. I’d get out of here right now if it weren’t the set of fucking Bake Off,” Sirius murmured and James grinned at him again. 

“Is someone nervous?”

“As if you aren’t. Or I suppose you’re too daft to feel nervous.”

“Oi! Now that’s just rude!”

“You didn’t even understand when I introduced myself!”

“Your name is fucking Sirius! Pardon me for not knowing very many people named after celestial bodies!”

“Well, you’re pardoned! Happy?”

“Incredibly, good sir!”

They hit the pub together after the party as promised and got properly shitfaced and Sirius was sure that he would want to remember that night forever. Bake Off was already getting his mind off his shit life but this bloke, this James Potter, seemed to be a forever friend. 

James was sat at the station on Sirius’s right and they kept glancing at each other. Both would be lying if they said they weren’t nursing a bit of a hangover which is not ideal considering it was their first day on the set of a baking TV show that would be broadcasted all over England. James pointed to the woman who sat in front of him and made a face at Sirius that indicated that he was absolutely smitten with this woman. He’d never even talked to her. Sirius rolled his eyes and shook his head. James glared at him and stuck out his tongue, and then feigned absolute hurt when Sirius didn’t change the look on his face.

Sirius could only roll his eyes again but with a smile this time. He turned his attention to the guy sitting in front of him who was wearing a sweater that was definitely not appropriate for this fucking disgusting weather. Sirius knew it wasn’t his place to say shit to the guy but holy fucking hell it was as hot as Satan’s balls out! So, like a typical Black (and he was well aware of his cousin’s presence in the tent which was kind of crazy but he tried not to think too hard about it), he said something. 

“Psst, hey!” he whispered loudly and thankfully, the guy heard him and turned around briefly. Sirius’s gay panic went haywire at that moment. He forgot about the sweater all at once and was stuck between a sea of honey brown and a forest of glorious summer green and freckled cheeks with a couple of faint scars running across a beautiful nose. He had fucking freckles and heterochromia. Oh gods, he was toast. Pun intended. 

“Yeah?” the guy asked, his voice sounded strained. How had Sirius not seen him last night? Or this morning? Was he seriously so far up James’s ass and happy to have a friend that he didn’t even notice this hot string bean amongst the ten other contestants? Yes, yes he was. But that wasn’t an excuse!

“Oh, um, I was just… Mate, how the hell are you wearing that thing right now?” Sirius asked incredulously and the man’s face fell to be quickly unimpressed. 

“I've been cold on the inside since I’ve been ten,” he deadpanned and Sirius raised an eyebrow at him. “Basically I’m depressed,” he continued after before making to turn back front. 

“Wait, you’re not even gonna tell me your name Mr. I- Wear -a -Sweater -in -the -Dead -of -Summer?” Sirius quipped and the guy actually managed a smile. Sirius groaned internally. No one should be allowed to look that hot!! And he was just fucking smiling!! At this rate, Sirius couldn’t even bring himself to think about fucking cake (unless it was this guy’s cake, if you know what he’s saying. Wink wink).

“Remus Lupin. Care to tell me yours? Mr. I-Have-No-Manners-and-Can’t-Recognized-a-Depressed-Bastard?” the guy snarked back, not losing the amused look on his beautiful face.

Sirius barked out a laugh causing the other contestants to look over to them and Sirius feared of being shushed so he quickly said, “Sirius Black.”

Remus nodded at him, a small smile still piquing on his lips before turning back around. And finally, the set fucking called for action. Now, what was the cake he’d been practicing for weeks?

~

Marlene McKinnon was an absolute ball of nerves and it was obvious to everyone around them, too. They couldn’t sit still. One minute they were bouncing their leg up and down, another they were wringing their hands, another their fingers were twisting around their long chestnut brown ponytail, and another minute they were braiding that ponytail. But before they knew it, Sluggy and Hagrid were welcoming all of them to Cake Week and giving the prompt, which they already knew, before the legendary send-off:

“On your marks,” said Hagrid.

“Get set!” Sluggy cheered.

“BAKE!” they both rang out together and it was like Marlene blacked out. 

Their adrenaline took over and they raced around her work station, grabbing sugar, eggs, and flour for their orange zest angel food cake. Their workstation was one of the first two from the tent’s entrance which they were honestly thankful for because that meant the judging and hosting teams came to them first. And they wanted as little distractions as possible. 

“Marlene, what kind of angel food cake are you making for us today?” Sluggy asked, peering around her workstation. They looked up and saw the calculating gaze of Albus Dumbledore on their batter in the mixer and the stern eyes of Minerva McGonagall boring into their own. Their knees wobbled and they fought to keep themself upright. Minerva was an inspiration for them and now the woman was going to be judging their bakes. 

“Oh, um.. I’m going to be making an orange zest angel food cake with chocolate glaze and fresh whipped cream,” they said while trying to keep their voice from shaking. 

“Sounds quite lovely,” Albus said serenely. 

“Yes, I expect a strong orange flavor in your cake,” Minerva insisted curtly but with a small peak of a smile. 

“Of course! I hope it comes through,” Marlene smiled and they knew that this was where her little introduction would be placed in post-production of the show. The production crew followed them around Cambridge and talked about how they worked as a physician's assistant for a nephrologist and lived with their two cats. 

 They were quite happy with their life at the moment, they kept up with their family who didn’t live that far away and their job was fulfilling. But they were a hopeless romantic and were on the lookout for a lovely lady to woo or for one to woo them. 

They glanced around their station once the judges and hosts moved on and caught the eye of a dark-skinned girl named Dorcas Meadowes that they met yesterday along with a red-head named Lily Evans and another woman with mousy brown hair named Alice. Dorcas gave them a small smile before turning back to her own bake and Marlene felt their cheeks heat up a bit and really hoped no cameras were pointed at them. 

The bakers had two hours for the first bake of the season and Marlene thought everything was going well. Their egg whites whipped up well, they zested many oranges, everything seemed to be going alright. They couldn’t say the same for the man across from them. He had long blond hair and a permanent sneer on his face that said he thought he was better than everyone. Marlene remembered him from the night before and rolled their eyes then just like they were rolling them now. 

He fucked up his egg whites it seemed like and was obviously disgruntled as the camera crew moved to his station for what kind of angel cake he was making. Marlene marked him as a weak link in their head but they didn’t dwell on it too long as their egg whites weren’t yet stiff peaks. They kept beating them. 

Marlene was a whirlwind of movements for the next hour and a half until Hagrid announced they all had a half-hour left and they felt absolutely overwhelmed despite actually being in a pretty good place in their bake. Their sponge was cooling and it looked well-baked but not over baked, their chocolate glaze was almost ready and all they had left was their whipped cream and to slice some oranges as a garnish. 

“Looks like he broke your focus,” the woman behind Marlene’s station smirked but not unkindly. 

“Oh, uh yeah,” Marlene answered with a breathy laugh. 

“Sorry if that was weird, you’re just in front of me and you’ve been in the zone the entire time. It’s admirable, I hope it’s all going well for you,” the woman smiled sweetly and Marlene smiled back at her. They noticed all around the tent, bakers were conserving and bantering with each other and they hadn’t said a word since the very beginning. 

“No, it’s not weird and thank you. I hope it’s going well for you too, this is all so scary,” Marlene answered and the woman smiled at them more. She didn’t seem too much older but she was definitely on the older side of the contestants. Almost everyone else looked to be Marlene’s age. 

“Yeah but think about it, if you didn’t deserve to be here, you wouldn’t be,” she reminded Marlene and the person nodded. “I’m Andromeda, by the way. It’s nice to meet you and hopefully, there’ll be a friendly face around here over the next few weeks, assuming I make it through,” she said softly and Marlene nodded again.

“I’m Marlene, it’s good to meet you too,” they answered before turning back to their bake, making sure their chocolate glaze wasn’t burning or anything. 

There was a minute left before they could even realize and their cake was glazed, their whipped cream was cold and sitting like a cloud atop the cake, and they were just finishing slicing their oranges. They chanced a glance up and around and saw the blond man across from them struggling. His sponge looked overdone and his lemon glazed looked too runny. They could only hope that the orange was strong enough in their cake to compete with their chocolate glaze and cut through it. 

“Bakers, time is up! Please step away from your bakes and move your Angel Food cakes to the end of your table!” Sluggy called out to the group and almost simultaneously, everyone out down what they were doing and stepped back. Marlene was satisfied with how their cake looked, they really only wanted it to taste good now. They took a look around at everyone else’s.

~

Sirius had dried batter on his face and his usually pristine hair was rather disheveled but his angel food cake looked delicious, at least in his eyes. It was a vanilla sponge with a sweet cranberry sauce running down the sides with strawberries on top. He looked forward at Mr. Remus Lupin’s cake and groaned. His looked fucking delicious and it looked like he made a chocolate angel cake sponge? The fucking drama of this guy! He looked over at James who looked very proud of his key lime pie inspired back and he had to admit it was impressive. 

“We got this in the bag,” the man whispered-shouted across the way, his arms crossed proudly over his chest. The girl in front of him who he was gaping at two hours ago turned and gave him a slightly disgusted look and he noticed and grinned at her. “Like what you see?”

“Aha, you wish,” she sneered and Sirius decided she wasn’t his favorite person. What was her deal? Sure James was a little cocky but so what? 

“Oh come on, Red. You don’t think my sponge looks good?” he asked with an easy grin and the girl rolled her eyes before facing forward. Judging was starting. 

~

Remus’s internal panic alarms were ablaze. He was proud of his bake for sure but it wasn’t up to his usual standard in his opinion. There was a good chance the sponge was dry on his vanilla one and his chocolate one had a very good chance of being underbaked. His pastry cream was set well enough but he was nervous all the same. All he could hope for was that it tasted better than how he imagined it did. 

He watched Albus and Minerva make the rounds with Hagrid by their side from behind him. They were tasting a greasy-haired guy’s cake and they seemed kind of meh with it like it didn’t do anything special for them and from what he could tell, it was just a normal sponge with some powdered sugar and strawberries on top.

“I’d like to see more,” Minerva said, a tone of disappointment in her voice. The guy just gritted his teeth and nodded shortly before turning to look forward. 

The judges moved onto the guy in front of the one they just judged who’d been talking to Sirius just a minute ago. He looked very proud and boastful of his bake and with good reason it seemed as the judges loved it and the guy who was judged first seethed very visibly, glaring daggers at the back of Sirius’s friend’s head. But Remus’s view was obscured when the judges crossed over to Sirius’s station. He could hear everything they were saying. 

��Right, Sirius my boy, this is vanilla angel food cake with cranberry sauce, right?” Albus asked and Sirius nodded while chewing his lip. He was fucking hot when he chewed his lip. Gods, Remus was so fucking bent for this guy and he had one conversation with him if it could’ve even been counted as a conversation. And he was a dick during the whole thing! How could he be a dick to the one attractive guy who’s talked to him in months? Remus held back a sigh as Minerva and Albus tasted Sirius’s cake. 

“Hm, that is scrummy. The cranberry is sharp and tart which is an excellent contrast to the sweetness of your sponge,” Minerva attested and Sirius’s face broke out into a smile. It was radiant and Remus never wanted him to stop. 

“Yes this is delicious, thank you,” Albus commented, giving a slow nod to Sirius. 

“Thank you,” he said softly, the smile never melting off his face. 

As Minerva and Dumbledore moved onto the person behind Sirius with Hagrid, Remus caught Sirius’s attention. “Nice one! Looks great,” he smiled and if it were possible, Sirius’s smile grew even bigger. Remus’s heart clenched because he made that happen. 

“Thanks, mate! Yours looks really good, a chocolate angel food cake is impressive,” Sirius whispered back and Remus flashed him a smile this time. 

“Thanks!” 

Remus faced forward again and waited for the judges to come to his station with a large amount of anxiety that grew with every second. He resisted the urge to bite his fingernails to shreds as he knew the cameras were still around and taking shots of people other than those who had the judges at their table. But Remus needn’t wait very long as the next person they came to was him. He sat up straighter when Hagrid addressed him. 

“Remus, what have you made fer the judges t’day?” he asked and Remus swallowed loudly. 

“Uh, it’s alternating chocolate and vanilla angel food cake with pastry cream in between the layers, topped with fresh whipped cream,” he said quickly but his voice didn’t waver thankfully. He was a mess. 

“It looks very neat and your pastry cream seems to have set very nicely. Quite ambitious for the first bake of the season, let’s just hope you pulled it off,” Minerva remarked but there was a shine in her eyes. 

“Yes, I hope I did too,” he said softly as they cut into his sponges and took a piece onto the plate set in front. 

“The vanilla sponge looks well baked,” Albus commented, tapping his fork lightly over it. “But I fear you may have misjudged the timing for your chocolate sponge, it appears a bit underdone,” he remarked and Remus nodded. He figured. “Best to try it.”

The two judges put a piece of his cake into their mouths and looked thoughtful for a moment. “These flavors are wonderful. And it’s quite a feat that you got your chocolate sponge to rise and still have such a profound flavor. The pastry cream is a nice texture too,” Minerva commented and Remus smiled at her. 

“Yes, this is very good indeed however your chocolate sponge is underbaked,” Albus continued and Remus nodded. 

“Right, sorry about that,” he murmured. 

“This is a very fine cake you have, Remus,” Albus finished and Remus tipped his head in thanks. 

“I’ll jus’ be taking a piece o’ that,” Hagrid said sneakily, taking a piece of chocolate sponge with him and Remus snickered, gesturing for him to take as much as he pleased. 

“Oi, mate, that’s amazing!” Sirius whispered from behind him and Remus turned to face him, both of them wearing dazed and happy smiles. Honestly, it went better than Remus had expected it to go for their first bake and he felt ready for the technical, though he didn’t want to be too cocky just yet. 

~ 

When the judges got around to that bloke Lucius, the one across from Marlene, they couldn’t help but roll their eyes despite the large number of nerves setting their entire body on fire. Oh gods, they were the last to be judged and from what they were hearing, the majority of the others had done really well. The bar was too high!! Too high!! Marlene wished they were high right about now but instead they had to listen to Minerva and Albus be disappointed with the blond git’s bake. At least that was something positive for them. They had heard high praises for Lily and Dorcas’ bakes and they really enjoyed Alice’s flavors. Marlene thought for a second that Andromeda was going to get a Minerva McGonagall handshake and here they were with just a plain old orange-flavored sponge and some chocolate sauce. 

They barely even registered when Hagrid addressed them due to never-ending nerves but stood up straight once they realized, watching Minerva and Albus inspect their sponge. 

“Looks to be a very good bake and the chocolate has a beautiful shine to it,” Albus remarked and Marlene smiled a bit. 

“Yeah let’s just hope the orange came through,” Minerva replied before putting her fork in her mouth. “And it does,” she added immediately after. “Beautifully, too,” she continued and Marlene’s shoulders sagged in relief. 

“That’s a very lovely sponge you have there,” Albus praised and Marlene grinned at him. 

“Thank you,” they said quietly and the group moved away. 

There was a flurry of movements but they were told to leave the tent so they could prepare for the technical and so the camera crew could get a few testimonials from the contestants. They called out a few names of who they wanted. 

“Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, and Alice Fortesque,” one of the crew members shouted. “Everyone else, please exit the tent. You may wonder the grounds and enjoy something from the buffet but you are due back in a half-hour for the next bake!”

Marlene hurried out of the tent and into the fresh air, feeling as though they were able to breathe for the first time that morning. Gods, if that was what it was going to be like for the next ten weeks, they didn’t know if they could make it! That was one bake and they were already knackered! They would really need to pack a joint with them for their travels back home if that’s what it was going to be like.

“Hey, Marls! Where’re you headed?” a voice that she recognized as Dorcas shouted from a few meters away. They looked up and saw the dark-skinned girl with pale-skinned Lily by her side, both with wide smiles and welcoming hand gestures. 

“Nowhere in particular!” they called back as they headed to join them on their walk. 

They talked and gossiped about the first challenge. Lily ranted about the guy behind her, James Potter, being an absolute git who was too cocky for his own good. And while she did sound truly exasperated by this man, Marlene could also tell she fancied him even if it was just a bit. Lily didn’t seem like the type to appreciate being told this though so Marlene kept a tight-lip and settled for exchanging knowing glances with Dorcas who couldn’t hold back the smirk from her face. Gods, Marlene was absolutely smitten with that look and they couldn't even admit to themself. They wouldn’t be surprised if the word hypocrite was emboldened on their tanned forehead. 

~

Sirius was a bit bummed that Remus got called for a testimonial. Not that he wanted to give one or anything but he was hoping he could drag the guy along with him and James during their break. James was great company though, he always had something to say and it was usually hysterical. It’s only been 24 hours since meeting the guy but it felt like they’d been friends since secondary school, if not before. 

“Hey, mate, you there?” James’ voice filtered into Sirius’s thoughts and he snapped his head towards the man. 

“Huh?” he managed gracefully. 

“I said that bloke sitting in front of you seemed pretty cool,” James repeated, not letting on if he noticed Sirius blatantly ignoring him for a minute. 

“Oh, Remus?” Sirius perked up causing James’s eyebrows to raise by a fraction before shrugging. 

“I suppose if that’s his name,” he jabbed and Sirius laughed a laugh that sounded to be that of a bark. James quite enjoyed it and thought it fit Sirius’s persona perfectly. 

“It is. And yeah, he’s very cool. Talked with him for a bit before we started,” Sirius insisted and James quirked a smile. 

“Wanna grab a nightcap tonight? We can invite this Remus character as well,” James offered and Sirius’s eyes shone brightly. He couldn’t help it. Remus was cute. 

“Yeah, sure! Sounds great to me, honestly anything to stay away from home for the night is good for me,” Sirius grinned. 

“Well if that’s the case, then you’ll just have to get too drunk to go home Mr. Black, causing me to insist you stay the night at my place so I can be sure you don’t sick up in your mouth and choke on it,” James grinned and Sirius grinned back. They looked like a right pair of scoundrels right then even if they had no intention of getting drunk enough to even feel their cheeks grow warm. They had the blasted show-stopper tomorrow! They couldn’t make fools of themselves just because they had a pint too many!

“Is that a challenge Mr. Potter?” Sirius poked and James laughed.

“Is that how you see it?” 

“Perhaps.”

“I think you mean mayhaps,” James corrected and Sirius snorted. 

“You’re fucking weird, Potter. That something you learned in Godric’s Hollow, some posh lingo or whatever?” Sirius taunted playfully and James scoffed. 

“You’re one to talk about bloody posh, mate. Sirius Black, named after a fucking star and grew up in rich London. I look like a right plebeian standing next to you. I might as well get down on my knees and kiss your—“

“Alright, alright, you can shut it now.”

“Eh, didn’t go too far did I?”

“Absolutely not, you prick. I’m just annoyed you refuse to acknowledge your own poshness, even if it’s more eccentric and fucking loony.”

“I’m not loony.”

“You just told me to say mayhaps.”

“As a joke!”

“Uh-huh, I’m sure.”

“You better watch your tongue, Sirius Black, I’m not afraid to tell on you to Minerva McGonagall! We’re close personal friends!” Sirius erupted into laughter and James followed suit. The break didn’t seem to last long enough. 

~ 

Remus stood back at his station rather disgruntled despite having gotten high remarks from the judges. But the attitudes of the two other guys chosen were just abysmal and Remus did not feed well off of negative energy. Thankfully, the girl Alice was an absolute sweetheart and he managed to occupy his waiting time talking with her and ignoring the two other assholes. However, when Alice went to give her shpiel on the first bake, he was left alone with Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, neither of which displayed any kindness. 

“That old bat doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Lucius had snarled. 

“Neither of them can appreciate true artistry,” Severus had implored and Remus rolled his eyes but his ears burned as the man continued, “Praising an underbaked chocolate sponge. How very soft. I suppose they feel bad with all those scars. Paints a very interesting picture.”

“Hmph, I have to agree. And with all the praise for that brown skin and that black girl,” Lucius had sneered. Remus could tolerate slander directed at him but he drew the line at any kind of racism. 

“Hey, you better shut the fuck up,” Remus snarled as he turned around. “To be quite honest I couldn’t give a damn about your bitterness towards the judging but don’t go blaming it on others and don’t you dare bring anyone’s race into this. They have just as much of a right as you or I do and the fact they’re better than you makes you feel inferior. Well, I got news for you mate. You are inferior. And if I ever hear you badmouthing anyone for their race, I will fucking slug you where you stand,” he bit out quietly and without wavering. “Fucking trash,” he gritted out, spitting at Lucius’s feet and glaring at Severus before turning back to ignore them.

The pair behind him continued their conversation much more quietly then and Remus failed to hear any of it but it wasn’t too much longer before Alice came back and Lucius left. She could sense his anger but didn’t ask him about, choosing instead to ask about what he did for a living. 

So there he stood, his arms tightly crossed over his chest, glaring daggers into the back of Lucius Malfoy’s head, waiting for the hosts and the judges to arrive, signaling the start of their first technical challenge. 

“Psst, Remus,”.said a voice behind him and he really thought about ignoring the guy just because he was in a foul mood. But he relented anyway because he had a feeling that Sirius wouldn’t stop calling out to him until he answered. He turned. 

“What?”

“Wanna grab a pint with me and James after we wrap up for the day?” he asked with a brilliant smile and expectant eyes. His heart melted a bit at the sight and he smiled softly. It took him a minute to register what the guy had asked him and then he felt his cheeks flush. He was asking him to hang out after? Him? Remus Lupin?

“James?” Remus asked without thinking or hesitating and Sirius pointed his thumb over to the guy at the station across the way. The man called James smiled a brilliant smile and waved enthusiastically. Remus snorted. 

“Sure,” he answered with an easy smile before turning back forward to hide his burning cheeks. He managed to catch a glimpse of Sirius’s own burning cheeks though and the thought made him warm inside. 

~

The technical was a disaster. At least it was for Sirius. He couldn’t be sure about anyone else but he was sure he fucked up his bake beyond repair. All his good graces from the signature challenge would go out the window because he would surely be crowned twelfth place and he would have to claw his way through the ashes during the showstopper just to stay in the competition past the first week. He was embarrassed and he was annoyed with himself for cracking under pressure. Surely he could’ve handled twelve miniature tres leches cakes, right? But no, not at all apparently! His whipped cream was running, his sponges well weak and didn’t hold well after being doused in milk and to top it off, he cut his finger when slicing the strawberries! No one was having a worse time than him, surely.

Except for maybe Marlene McKinnon who was almost in tears at how everything was turning out. How could it be that only an hour ago they were making perfect whipped cream and now it just wouldn’t stiffen? They were on their third attempt and there was only five minutes left in the challenge so if it didn’t work then, they would be serving naked, milky sponges and they absolutely loathed the sound of that. They beat their whipping cream and sugar harder. 

Remus Lupin felt oddly calm during the technical. His sponge came out well or so it appeared and he had no way of testing it, his milk concoction was mixed well and his whipped cream wasn’t grainy. All was well at station Remus and he was quite proud of himself although he doesn’t have the self-confidence to believe he’d place even in the top three. But he was still proud of himself. 

“Alright bakers, that’s the end of your first technical, if you could, please bring your tres leches up to the Gingham altar and place them behind your visage!” Sluggy proclaimed and everyone seemed to take a collective breath as they stepped back for the first time since starting. Thankfully, Remus had just finished setting his last strawberry atop his cakes and couldn’t help but be pleased as he brought up his platter to the front. He was seventh in the judging so he’d have to wait for Albus and Minerva to get to his bake but he didn’t seem to mind actually was a nice change of events from this morning. He began to fear that his lack of anxiety would be his downfall though and that he’d be taken by surprise and his tres leches would actually be terrible and his sponge would be cracked and dry. 

He sat in an odd mixture of fear and calm. But he was sat next to Sirius so that was nice. Sirius looked upset and Remus searched for his photo which was second from the start and frowned. They certainly weren’t the prettiest but they didn’t look awful and as long as they tasted good, he would be fine. 

“It’ll be alright, mate,” Remus whispered, trying to sound encouraging and Sirius just shrugged. Remus risked it. He took Sirius’s hand and held it. Yes, he was attracted to the man but also they were in this together. As much as Bake Off was a competition, they were still fighting the same battles and Remus would hate to see Sirius feel alone during this. Luckily, Sirius held on. 

“Right,” Minerva said, catching their attention and looking over the bakes with scrutiny. “Let’s see how they did, shall we?” she asked, gesturing to the first bake which was behind the photo of a man Remus had never talked to. 

They seemed to enjoy it enough but remarked that the cakes weren’t milky enough and Remus had to stop from blanching at the term used. Milky. Ew. Gross. But they moved onto Sirius’s and the man held Remus’s hand tighter. 

“These look a little… disordered,” Albus said serenely. “But hopefully the flavor is good,” he continued as he and Minerva put a piece in their mouths and immediately hummed in delight. 

“Quite delicious,” Minerva remarked and Albus nodded in agreement as they moved onto the next bake which was Severus fucking Snape’s. 

They didn’t like it. Good. 

Next was the red-headed woman across from Remus and they really seemed to like it, stating it almost near perfection. Next came a brown-haired woman that Sirius’s hand tensed at when they got to it, causing Remus to frown. He hadn’t seen the man interact with that woman at all. Interesting. 

After the brown-haired woman (Remus should really learn all their names), they moved onto the black woman who was stationed in front of Remus and they also really enjoyed hers, and then it was Remus. He gripped Sirius’s hand a bit tighter. 

“They all look very neat which is good, let’s just hope they taste as good,” Minerva remarked as she put a bite in her mouth, Albus following suit. They hummed in approval. 

“Quite delicious,” Albus remarked. “This one is going to be hard to judge I can see,” he continued and Remus had to school his face from beaming. But Sirius gripped his hand tighter which made Remus squeeze back. 

James was after Remus and he did well but he had thirteen inside of twelve. (Sirius thought James would say something like ‘Well I should get extra points, right? It could’ve been eleven instead of thirteen.’ Sirius would have replied, ‘I think you’re just shit at maths, mate.’) A tanned girl with chestnut brown hair was after James and like Sirius, they looked very messy but the flavor was good. 

“The cream is a bit too runny for my taste,” Albus commented and Remus sighed. This is not easy for anyone and it was only going to get harder. Minerva and Albus were picky. 

They moved onto Lucius’s which weren’t even topped with whipped cream which made Remus smirk, and then they headed onto Alice who’s were satisfactory it seemed. And they ended with another guy who appeared slightly mousy and even his picture on the altar conveyed a strong sense of panic. He did what Remus would describe as a ‘meh’ job. 

And then the judging. Remus kept waiting for his name and he held onto Sirius’s hand tightly and he couldn’t tell who was sweating more. Unsurprisingly, Lucius was last, then Severus, the mousy-looking boy, named Peter, was tenth, followed by the person with the chestnut brown hair, named Marlene, was ninth, followed by the first guy, Frank, then Alice, the woman that made Sirius tense up was named Andromeda and she was sixth. Sirius tensed up again and stayed that way when he was announced to be fifth. 

“Sirius, overall a good set of bakes, just a bit of a mess,” Albus noted and Sirius smiled with a nod. 

James was fourth and then came the top three which hadn't registered yet that Remus was in. But he quickly realized as Sirius squeezed his hand tightly and Remus held his breath. 

“In third, is this one,” Minerva said, gesturing to the bake with the photo of the redhead who’s station was across from Remus’s. “Lily, a really good bake the sponge could be just a bit wetter.”

“These two were really hard to decide between, it was a really a toss up but in second is this one,” Albus stated and Remus raised his hand. Second in the technical! What the fuck! Is this the same Remus he woke up as this morning?

“So that means Dorcas, you are first,” Minerva smiled at the woman’s who station was in front of Remus and Lily leant forward to congratulate her and so did the guy named Frank. She was shocked. 

Remus, Dorcas, Snape, and Lucius all got called for testimonials and again, Sirius was bitter. They had a few more things to film just to wrap up the day but either way, he was going to get a pint with Remus and James. But gods, what a day! He had a pretty good signature and he did well in the technical! And he made friends with the hot guy who sat in front of him! Maybe Bake Off is exactly what Sirius needed to turn his life around and to start actually living happily and not in his family’s shadow. It’s only been two days and he already feels like a different person and as long as he doesn’t muck everything up with the showstopper, he feels pretty confident he’ll make it to the next week. 

He was packing up his things and also taking out some things he would be using for biscuit week next week just as preparation when Remus finally came back over. “Hey, mate! You did bloody amazing!” Sirius said happily and Remus beamed at him. 

“Thanks, Sirius! You did really well, too!” he answered and Sirius grinned. 

“Oi, Remus! Remus Lupin!” shouted a voice from across the tent. It was the redhead Lily that James was absolutely smitten with already. 

“What?” he asked, his face neutral as she stomped over to him, an unreadable expression clouding her face. 

“You and Dorcas, are you two some kind of wizards or something?” she asked, sniffing afterward and Remus grinned at her. 

“What, jealous?” he asked, poking a bit of fun but the reddening of his cheeks was absolutely noticeable and Sirius smiled carefully to himself as he watched the exchange. 

“Jealous? Me? Absolutely not,” she scoffed. But she smiled after. “Congratulations, you and her seem really fantastic at baking.”

“Hey, you do too,” he answered softly and she smiled at him. 

“Yeah well, I was only complimenting you to make you more comfortable so you’d let your guard down,” she shrugged and Sirius watched Remus roll his eyes. 

The two of them almost seemed like him and James in the sense that they immediately hit it off. There was no bite behind their words or actions, they were just banting with each other. Sirius felt a green ugly monster want to rear its head in the back of his mind but he quickly shut the door on it. He did not know Remus and he certainly did not know if he was even into blokes. Sure they held hands during the judging of the technical but it was just a high stakes situation. It didn’t mean anything. 

“You’re Welsh, aren’t you?” she asked him and Sirius saw the honey-haired man nod out of the corner of his eye. “Could tell from the accent, eh. Well, I’m from Cokeworth, you know in the midlands. I reckon the train comes by both our stops so if you want a friendly face to sit by tomorrow, just shoot me a text. And maybe we could grab a quick cuppa in town before shooting in the morning,” she offered and Remus seemed to light up at the suggestion. It left a warm feeling spreading in his chest. 

“That’d be nice! Here, let me give you my number,” Remus answered and both of them pulled out their phones, exchanging numbers and laughed. 

“I’m gonna name you Wolf McWolf in my phone,” Lily snorted and Remus playfully glared at her. 

“Uncalled for, ginger,” Remus shot back. “Just for that, you will be Little Red to me,” he grinned deviously and she scoffed back at him. 

“Hey, there chums!” James’s booming voice interrupted and Sirius was grateful. He was growing tired of watching the two of them flirt or whatever. Yes, he was bitter. Yes, he was a petulant child sometimes. It came with the territory, he was used to getting what he wanted and he wanted Remus. Gods, he’s a mess. 

“Ugh, you,” Lily sneered but there was no real malice behind it, Sirius noted. “What is it that you want?” 

“The lads and I were going to grab a pint when we wrapped up here. I suppose you wouldn’t want to join us, Evans?” James inquired, his eyes shining brightly and when she snorted, his face fell a bit. 

“Not tonight, we have the showstopper tomorrow. It’s rather immature of you to get a drink after today, you couldn’t wait till tomorrow?” she pointed out and James shrugged. 

“We could also go tomorrow if you wanted to join then,” the brown-skinned boy offered eagerly and Lily tried to stop the smile from growing on her face. 

“Well, we’ll see four eyes. If the three of you make it through tomorrow, then I will think about grabbing a drink with you lot,” she snorted and James was back to full-on grinning. 

“Oh I think she’s challenging us, mate,” Sirius finally remarked, glancing over at his new friend who nodded solemnly. 

“It would appear so, perhaps tonight we should practice one more time at my place,” James offered and Sirius couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking. 

“Alright, everyone! That’s a wrap! See you all bright and early tomorrow! 8 am sharp!” Sluggy called and all of the contestants broke apart and finished getting everything ready for tomorrow. And then he headed out with his new best friend and his new crush. Bake Off was getting interesting.

~

Remus woke up the next morning with a fond smile already on his lips despite the ungodly hour of the morning he was awake at. The night before had been really fun for him and they hadn’t gotten drunk at all really, just enough to feel a slight buzz but with the promise that no matter what happened today, they would go out again after the showstopper and get properly smashed. Remus was looking forward to it. 

He changed quickly and headed downstairs, kissing his mum on the cheek as he entered the kitchen. “Toast for my boy,” she said sweetly and Remus gave her a quick smile before stuffing a piece in his mouth. 

“Nervous, fab?” (Nervous, son?) his dad asked from his usual seat at the table, the morning paper open in front of him. 

“Ddim mewn gwirionedd, yn ddideimlad yn bennaf,” (Not really, mostly just numb.) Remus answered easily, being completely truthful. His nerves felt fried from yesterday and he knew he practiced as much as possible the weeks following up to the competition. He wouldn’t say he was ready and he also wouldn’t say it would turn out well or he was super confident. But he’d made as much peace as he possibly could with the weekend. Whatever happened would happen and he wouldn’t be able to change. (That’s not to say he wouldn’t be a mess during the actual competition, he figured it was kind of calm before the storm.)

He finished off his toast, grabbed his bag and rushed to the door so he could hurry to the train station. He couldn’t afford to be late. 

“Let us know if you’ll be home late,” his mom called and he called back an acknowledgment. 

“Hey Little Red, hopping on the train right now, second cart from the front,” Remus sent the message as the train pulled up to the station. He had only arrived a mere 30 seconds before. 

Lily texted back immediately. “Sounds good, Wolfie. See u in a few.” Remus smiled and settled into a seat, taking out his headphones and shuffling his guilty pleasure playlist that’s filled with Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. 

Lily joined him at the Cokeworth station and he quickly hid away his phone with the incriminating playlist and struck up a conversation. “So, you’re from Wales,” Lily stated and Remus raised an eyebrow. 

“So I am,” Remus agreed.

“Speak Welsh?” she asked, light in her eyes and Remus snorted. 

“Siarad Saesneg?” (Speak English?) he shot back and Lily grinned. 

“Wicked,” she gasped. “What’s it like? Wales, I mean. I’ve never been despite it being just across the way,” she asked and Remus shrugged. 

“Green, small, Welsh. I live just outside of Cardiff and the city’s rather nice. If I’m being honest I do love it, I just wish I could get out for a little,” he sighed. 

“Like, uni or something? I mean I get it though, Cokeworth is small and everyone knows everyone. It’d be nice to get away but I can’t exactly afford uni,” Lily revealed and Remus looked at her for a second before nodding. 

“Me too,” he answered. “I’ve always wanted to go, I love learning, I love studying, I love reading but, uh, we can’t afford it either,” he finished with a mumble and Lily gave him a piercing look. He felt uncomfortable. He knew his scars were noticeable and he knew people would always have questions but it wasn’t their business. 

“I say go for it. We both should, money be damned,” Lily retorted finally and Remus raised an eyebrow. “You’re what? 21? I am too, it’s not too late, it’s never to late,” she continued and Remus smiled. 

“How’d you guess my age?” he asked and she snorted. 

“Didn’t you know? I’m a Seer,” she joked and Remus laughed. “By the way, did you know that Severus lives just over the tracks from me in Spinner’s End?” she added on and Remus tried not to let his mood turn sour. He didn’t want to talk about that dickhead.

“Oh how interesting,” he mused carefully and Lily’s face turned hard. 

“The guy is a prick. We used to be friends, you know. When we tykes, inseparable and all that. But he changed and I tried hard to forgive him and help him but he’s just a slimy git,” she huffed and Remus glanced over at her. 

“I’m sorry,” he said sincerely and she shrugged. 

“Past is past, it’s just crazy to see him here after a couple of years of not seeing him and knowing he’s still the same twat he’s always been,” she sneered and Remus nodded.

“I had… a… friend like that,” Remus bit out, trying to keep himself under control as he thought about Fenrir fucking Greyback. 

“I’m sorry, too then,” Lily said softly and Remus smiled at her. 

“Eh, you know, past is past. A guy tries to rape, permanently disables you as a result, and then you beat the shit out of him. Casual, right?” he offered with a flimsy smile and Lily laughed. He was glad she did. 

“You’re a right riot, mate,” she said. “At least you got him back and gave him what’s coming. Fuck that guy,” she continued and Remus scrunched his nose. 

“Yeah well, now we’re on fucking Bake Off and Snape may be here too but there’s no way he’s winning. Not with you on the show too,” he offered and Lily rolled her eyes. 

“Yeah I think you’re more of the threat to be completely honest,” she answered and Remus smiled a toothy grin. 

“We’ll both give him a run of it,” he compromised and she smiled back at him. 

“Deal.” 

Remus was sure he and Lily would take the train to the tent together every morning they could. He was sure he’d just found a friend forever considering they’d just had a heart-to-heart at 7 in the morning on the way to a baking competition. Plus she shared part of her chocolate scone with him and he’d always been a sucker for chocolate.

~

Marlene got to the Bake Off grounds earlier than most, the only other person there was Frank Longbottom and they had a very brief but friendly exchange of hellos. Marlene just wanted to get there early to clear their head a bit and focus on the task at hand. They’d practiced their cake sculpture for weeks and they knew exactly what they needed to do in order for it to succeed. As long as there weren’t any major catastrophes, they’d be fine. 

They were sat on a tree stomp only a small distance away from the tent when Dorcas Meadowed showed up out of nowhere and plopped down right next to them. “Morning,” Dorcas drawled out with too much pep in her step for 7:41 in the morning. 

“Hullo,” Marlene answered with a very small smile. “Lovely day innit?” they asked and Dorcas scrunched her nose. 

“Yeah, it is. But it got even better with you in it,” she answered and Marlene immediately blushed. Was this flirting or was she like this with everyone. 

“I could say the same for you,” they answered cheekily. “But maybe if you brought me a coffee next time, it would be even better.”

Dorcas smiled. “Oh so, I’m not enough? Need coffee too? Alright, fine. How’d you take it? Black? Cream? Sugar?”

“Black,” Marlene answered back with a playful grin. “One sugar.”

“Oh that sounds gods awful,” Dorcas gagged and Marlene giggled. 

“Hey, to each their own,” they snarked and Dorcas rolled her eyes. 

“You nervous for today?” she asked and Marlene shrugged. 

“Yeah, I mean I think it’d be weird if I weren’t,” they replied and Dorcas nodded.

“Me too, but also. Not really? I don’t know I guess I just feel confident,” she continued on and they nodded along. 

“Yeah, I think that’s a good way to describe it,” Marlene concluded, smiling at Dorcas who smiled back. 

“Wanna get a drink after today?” Dorcas asked and Marlene snorted but nodded at the same time. 

“Yeah, I really do,” they answered. “If you’re interested I packed a joint in my bag, we could share if you want,” they continued and Dorcas lit up at the suggestion. 

“Sneaky little thing, aren’t you?” she laughed before saying, “Yeah, that’d be nice. Need something to take the edge off with this competition.”

“Precisely my thoughts,” Marlene smiled and Dorcas smiled right back. Gods, they wanted to kiss her so badly but it’s been less than two days of knowing each other and that was way too forward. But still, the want was there.

~

James and Sirius showed up to the tent together as Sirius really did spend the night at James’s place. James was oddly kind and perceptive to Sirius’s weird moods when his home life was brought up and he had made a genuine offer for him to stay the night. 

“That is if you don’t mind the lunacy of Godric’s Hollow,” James had snorted and Sirius grinned.

“No, I very much welcome lunacy,” he had replied and that was that. Sirius met Fleamont and Euphemia Potter and spent the night in the bedroom next to James. They hadn’t practiced the showstopper challenge like James had suggested earlier in the day but even if they wanted to, they would’ve been able to, considering the size of the Potter’s kitchen. It would send Wahlburga Black on a fucking rampage.  

They took their stations easily and Sirius admired Remus from behind as the guy took a spot at the station in front of him, just like the day before. “Still on for tonight?” Sirius asked quickly and Remus turned around to smile and nod. 

Sirius took a glance over to find James trying to chat up Lily again and he held back an eye roll. The guy was an absolute disaster but he seemed to thrive on being that way which made Sirius appreciate him even more. He, too, was an absolute disaster. 

They settled in quickly after that and the cameras started rolling as Minerva, Albus, Sluggy, and Hagrid all walked in. 

“Welcome to your very first showstopper!” Sluggy called out and Sirius leaned forward on his station, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear that fell loose from his bun. “Albus and Minerva would very much like you to make a sculpture of your favorite world monument out of cake. It can be the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, anything you want but it must be made entirely out of cake and your landmark must be decorated to the highest degree,” he explained and everyone stared at him.

“Yeh have three and a half hours! So on yer marks!” Hagrid boomed. 

“Get set!” Sluggy chimed.

“Bake!” the two hosts called together and Sirius rushed to start his bake. 

Sirius ran through the process of making his batters very quickly, double-checking that his oven was preheating. He was briefly aware at some point that the judges were making their rounds and they were standing in front of Remus who was explaining his sculpture. He caught words like ‘Northern Wales’ and ‘Devil’s Bridge Fall’ but he was too focused on pouring his batter evenly to be able to entirely hear the explanation. 

Just as he was ensuring the pans of batter were even and ready to go in the oven, he was interrupted. “Sirius! How are you today?” Sluggy asked cheerfully and the man smiled at the two judges and the host. 

“Hello Minerva, Albus, Sluggy. I’m well today, a bit nervous, but okay,” he answered and they smiled back at him. He bent down to put his sponge batter into the oven. He needed them in as soon as possible. 

“What are you preparing for the judges today? Where are you taking us?” Sluggy asked and Sirius held back an eye roll.

“Calais, France. I’ll be sculpting the Calais Lighttower out of raspberry and vanilla elderflower sponge with chocolate buttercream holding it together and fresh-made fondant covering the outside,” he explained and they nodded, obviously wanting more about why he chose the Lighttower. “My family, they have strong roots in France and I used to go there at least twice a year with them. I always loved Calais and the Lighttower is so beautiful, I hope I pay it homage well,” he continued and they seemed satisfied.

“That sounds lovely and you seem to have a lot to do so we’ll let you be,” Albus conferred and Sirius nodded his thanks before running to start his buttercream icing. 

Before he knew it, there were five minutes left and Sirius was honestly not very pressed for time. He’d had some banter with the bloke behind him, Peter, as well as Remus which kept the mood light and calm (despite Peter’s obvious nerves and lack of time management; he seemed to be a good artist though). He didn’t have any trouble constructing the tower thankfully and the hardest part of covering it in fondant went better than it did when he’d practiced. All that was left was to imprint the brickwork of the tower with a toothpick and paint on some cracks with black dyed buttercream. 

“Bakers, your time is up! Please step away from your bakes!” Sluggy called from the front and Sirius took a deep breath, taking in his full creation and feeling rather proud of it. It looked like a Lighttower and it was standing upright. He just hoped it tastes good. Sirius looked past his own bake and saw Remus’s and was astonished. It was amazing, it looked like he’d painted all the colors of the waterfall and greenery onto the buttercream. And there was a bridge made out of chocolate work that was spectacular. Unless it tasted like horse shit, Sirius was positive that Remus would be Star Baker. The guy was bloody brilliant. 

“That looks amazing, Rem,” Sirius gushed and he saw him blush while muttering a quiet thank you as they settled in for the judging to start. 

They started with Marlene and went up her row. Sirius watched as Andromeda displayed a beautiful Eiffel Tower and tried not to seethe as she got glowing reviews. He liked Andromeda, she was always his favorite cousin but she was still part of his family and he did not do well with family. Thankfully, neither of them had tried to make contact with each other and that’s how he really preferred it. 

James had a beautiful Taj Mahal but apparently, his flavors were a little lacking and Severus’s looked pretty terrible but apparently tasted great. It was a shoddy Big Ben and Sirius thought him to be a prick. He’d never had a conversation with the guy but he just seemed like a fucking douchenozzle. 

They went down Sirius’s row and that bloke Lucius who’d been mucking everything up had a lackluster showstopper and Sirius couldn’t even make out a church building let alone the Norte Dame, Alice’s was average it seemed to be, Dorcas’ received rave reviews and Remus’s received glowing remarks about design (as it should’ve). They liked the taste of it and Remus was absolutely blushing on his walk back. It was a great look on him. 

“Sirius, would you please bring up your monument,” Sluggy encouraged and he stood for his moment of truth. Honestly, if anyone besides Lucius was booted this weekend, Sirius would be shocked but needless to say, he didn’t feel too particularly nervous about judging. He didn’t know if that was good or bad.

“Well it certainly looks fantastic,” Albus remarked. “Very tall.”

“Yes, the fondant looks well made and it’s homemade?” Minerva asked and Sirius nodded. 

“Yes, it is.”

They sliced through it and the whole thing remained standing, thankfully. They inspected his sponge thoroughly. 

“Both looked to be well baked and the buttercream is nice and smooth,” Minerva inspected. The raspberry sponge is a brilliant pink and the vanilla elderflower sponge looks quite airy. Let’s just hope we actually get the elderflower flavor along with the vanilla,” she continued and Sirius watched as they put a piece in their mouths. 

Albus hummed. “That raspberry is quite lovely with the chocolate buttercream, sharpness and sweetness both come through really well,” he said simply. 

“Yes, I quite agree and it’s a beautiful texture, a wonderful bake on this one. Now for elderflower and vanilla,” Minvera remarked, taking a bite onto her fork, Albus following her lead. 

After a second she sighed, “Pity. The elderflower doesn’t come through at all really and the vanilla flavor is very overpowering.” Sirius nodded. 

“It’s a bit dry too,” Albus added and he nodded again. 

“Thank you,” he murmured, waking forward to receive his bake and head back to his station. 

Peter was last and he did fine but not good and that was that. They had a quick break while the judges deliberated, all of them gave small testimonials and then they convened back in the tent for the final judging of the week. All of this was a whirlwind for Sirius, he was dead on his feet but he was still ready to go out for the night with Remus and James.

“This week, I have the pleasure of announcing Star Baker. This baker seems to have an eye for chocolate and a hand for design. Remus, you are this week’s Star Baker,” Sluggy announced and Sirius leaned over the person named Marlene and patted his thigh, congratulating him as he sat there absolutely awestruck. Lily patted his head in congratulations and Sirius sat back in his seat. 

“Now I ‘ave the very, very, very sad job of telling yeh who’s leavin’ us this week. I tell yeh, I don’ wanna see any of yeh go and I barely even know yeh!” Hagrid exclaimed, almost crying it seemed like. “This week, the one who’ll be leavin’ us is…” Everyone held their breath but Sirius felt as though it was more for show rather than actual nerves. It could only be one person. “… Lucius.”

Lucius stood up and gave a curt nod and sneered a little but everyone still stood and gave hugs for the week as was tradition on the show. Albus and Minerva went around and congratulated everyone, gave advice to those who seemed to need it, praises to those who deserved it, all while Remus was bombarded with hugs and Lucius was not approached at all very much.

~

It took too long for the camera crew to call cut on the day in Remus’s opinion but he did cry when he called his mom to tell her he got Star Baker. He honestly couldn’t believe it, he really thought Dorcas deserved it more than him and told her so. She told him to shut up and be more confident in his abilities. 

But now, he was heading into the nearby town with James and Sirius to grab a quick drink and maybe get drunk. He was going to get drunk. For sure. Especially with Sirius and James, they seemed to be the types to get absolutely hammered when possible. Lily had in fact tagged along like she said she would and she brought Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice with her. 

Remus got progressively more drunk and closer to Sirius throughout the night. Alice left rather early, Marlene and Dorcas spent the entire time talking with each other and Remus almost asked why they hadn’t started making out yet. (Honestly, he might’ve said it later in the night but he was a bit too drunk to fully remember.) James and Lily were talking almost the entire time and she had a hard time pretending to be annoyed by him, even when he really was annoying. 

Sirius and Remus spent the entire night talking and he’s pretty sure Sirius told him his whole life story and Remus was also sure he told Sirius his but he was even more sure neither of them would remember in the morning.

Near the end of the night, Remus sent his mum a text that he wasn’t coming home because he was staying the night at one of the other contestant’s houses with a few other people. Lily made sure Marlene and Dorcas got home safe, promising that all three of them would text in the giant group chat they started at the bar. And then he settled in bed with Sirius and James, all three of them muttering drunken nonsense. 

“Guys, I have work tomorrow,” Remus murmured, his cheek pressed against Sirius’s arm. 

“You can’t go Moony, you’re Star Baker,” Sirius slurred and Remus laughed a very drunk laugh that was all deep and stomach-ish. 

“Moony?” he asked.

“Awhooo! Wolf Wolf,” Sirius murmured back. “Moony.”

“Doggy,” James drawled and Sirius pushed him a bit. “Sirius star, Canis Major,” he explained weakly. 

“Not Doggy,” Sirius huffed. 

“Toebeans,” Remus said flatly. James snorted loudly. 

“Absolutely not,” Sirius growled. 

“Padfoot,” James stated easily and Sirius huffed as Remus cheered. 

“Padfoot!”

“Wha bout me?” James slurred. 

“‘Ou got big ears and you get tha-.. tha-.. you know…. ahh-face like that… thing,” Sirius said in an extremely unhelpful manner. 

“Oh, I know like the uh… animal.. that..” Remus added trailing off and James let out a noise of impatience.

“What?” he whined, drawing it out as his new friends were being extremely unhelpful. “Moony, Padfoot,” he cried and both other men laughed but Sirius hiccuped loudly causing Remus and James to laugh again. 

“Hm, Prongs,” Sirius said, snuffling further into the pillow of James’s bed, perfectly content between his two friends. 

“Hm yeah,” Remus agreed. “I have work tomorrow,” he said again and James reached over and pushed on his arm. 

“Shu up, Star Baker,” he grumbled. “Tell them no. We have bacon here and you live in fucking Welsh,” James murmured, pressing his face into his pillow. 

“Wales,” Remus corrected. “Bachgen ceirw mud,” (Dumb deer boy.) he muttered. James said something absolutely unintelligible 

“Hmm quiet, sleepy time,” Sirius yawned and neither of the other two boys said anything as they both thoroughly agreed. It was indeed time for bed. 

And Remus did not end up going to work the next day, instead, he spent the day extremely hungover with his two newest and best friends: Padfoot and Prongs. He loved Bake Off before, but now he absolutely adored it. 

#james potter #lily evans #sirius black #remus lupin #dorcas meadowes #marlene mckinnon #peter pettigrew #severus snape #lucius malfoy #andromeda tonks #frank longbottom #alice longbottom #will be alice forteseque #harry potter fanfiction #jily #wolfstar #dorlene #marauders era #marauders au #marauders #the maruaders

[parisian-nicole]

Amends (Bamon Fic)

Summary: What would you do differently if you got the chance to go back in time to relive life all over again, well read on and find out what the folks on Mystic Falls will do

Continue to read on FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13488758/2/Amends

**

He opened his eyes with a start. His wide eyes quickly scanned the room before settling onto the fire blazing in the fireplace. It took him a few seconds to take in his surroundings before he realized he was home, in his study. But it had been the pressure on his chest that had made him snap his eyes down to the face of a sleeping Elena Gilbert, who was curled on the huge leather couch wrapped around him. He jerked a little and as if she were waking from a fright-filled dream, Elena's eyes shot open and she abruptly rose up and stared down into familiar eyes.

"Stefan, what happened?" She spoke out as she sat more upright upon the couch along with Stefan.

"Elena," He replied. "How did you get here?"

"Uhm … you invited me over," She replied confusion clear on her face as she tucked a lock of her long hair behind her ear. "For movie night, don't you remember?" She self-consciously rubbed her hand along her bare arm.

"This doesn't feel dead," He spoke lowly as his brow furrowed. "And I know because I was dead for a long time, here waiting for… Wait, where's Damon?" Stefan questioned as he slowly stood from the couch and stepped towards the doorway. And as if the sound of his name had conjured him, Damon suddenly flashed into the room.

"Okay, little brother, what's going on?" Damon asked as he looked between his brother and Elena whom he didn't feel as overjoyed at seeing as he would have thought. "Weren't we just hugging at the front door? Then it was like I blacked out, woke up, and I found myself at the Grille with a drank in my hand."

"So, you felt it too and remembered what happened?" Stefan questioned and Damon nodded his head a bit as he looked at his little brother with enlarged blue eyes.

"If you mean dying, and I mean the dead and buried kind. Not the undead with a need for blood, kind. Yeah, I remember it," He then turned a little and looked around the room as if he were expecting to see something out of place. "This doesn't feel like death to me and if this is my afterlife, you shouldn't be here," He pointed to Elena who stood from the couch and took steps closer to the Salvatore brothers. She frowned at the brother's interaction and conversation.

"What are you two talking about?" Elena questioned as she looked from one brother to the other for an explanation.

"I think I can explain," A female voice interrupted them. Stefan, Damon, and Elena all turned surprised eyes to the woman now standing at the entrance to the study.

"Sheila?" Stefan said and he and the others watched as Sheila Bennett entered the room, moved to the bar, and began to fix herself a shot of whiskey, which she quickly downed and then started to pour herself another.

"Okay, this might be the afterlife because I know for a fact, she's dead," Damon said as he pointed to the woman standing at the bar.

"Grams?" Another female voice called out from the foyer and Damon shot excited eyes to the entrance just as Bonnie Bennett appeared through the door.

"Bon-Bon?" He spoke out joyfully and she looked at him with her face scowled up.

"Don't start with me, Damon, this day is already weird enough without your mind games," Bonnie huffed out as she rolled her eyes from Damon's confused ones over to land on her grandmother. "Grams why are we here and oh my God, are you getting drunk?" Bonnie questioned the older Bennett witch who was finishing her third shot.

"Child please," Sheila Bennett replied as she rolled her eyes slightly. "I don't even start to feel a buzz until after 10 shots," She declared and Damon arched an impressed brow as he regarded her words briefly before focusing back on Bonnie.

"Okay, wait," Stefan ever the voice of reason cut in. "What is going on, Bonnie, how did we get here?"

"I don't know," She sighed out and she hugged her arms around herself. "One moment I'm standing in Grams' kitchen making us breakfast and she rushes in panicked and saying we had to leave, then we were here … like I blinked and then we were here. How did that happen exactly?"

"It's like the projection spell I've been having you practice, but next level," Sheila began to explain as she stepped away from the bar to face them. "You're not skilled enough to do teleportation yet, but he is, which is why we're all here now. I never should have sent you to that prison world," She spoke the last part lowly but Damon and Stefan both heard her clearly and knew what she was referring to.

"Kai," Damon hissed out.

"But how, I thought Bonnie locked him away in some other prison hell world," Stefan interjected.

"Wait, what?" Bonnie exclaimed as she looked at Stefan and then to her Grams.

"She did, but she used Gemini magic from children who were too young and weren't powerful enough at the time to make the spell powerful enough. The magic likely degraded in time and allowed him to break free. And, Bonnie, I know this is all confusing for you, babygirl," Grams spoke out as she moved to her granddaughter and grasped her hand. "I wish we had more time where we could sit down and I could explain things in more detail, but we don't have the time. Just know this, none of us are supposed to be here, we're all dead," She began and Elena and Bonnie's eyes enlarged in fright. "Don't worry, you both lived a long and happy life before you died," Sheila assured them both. "Bonnie, you and Damon died once before and I cast a spell that would stop 'you' from being blinked into oblivion when the other side collapsed, sent you 'both' to an alternate world where I thought you would be able to live the life, I always wanted for you. I didn't know then that where I was sending you was actually some prison hell world, a place designed to keep a very dangerous man. I know it all sounds unbelievable but just trust me and go with it," She said and Bonnie silently nodded as she waited for her Grandmother to continue. "This bad guy is named Kai, and you were able to stop him by trapping him in another prison world, but he was able to escape that too. Then Damon killed him…"

"So, we thought, I mean one would think decapitation would do the trick, but noooo. He's like a cockroach," Damon tossed in and Sheila nodded in agreement.

"True, so he was able to get out that time too, but Bonnie, you were able to defeat him and trap him once more, but now he's managed to get out again," Sheila continued. "This time he's decided to come to the past and try to change things before they happened. This world has already been affected by the things he's done. He's already found his twin sister Josette and killed her, but then his family's coven was able to stop him before he could claim any more of them. They're now in hiding and won't be able to help us. So, we won't be able to trap him again with any Gemini magic."

"This all sounds crazy," Elena spoke.

"You're dating a vampire sweetie, but you didn't find that crazy?" Sheila questioned and Elena clamped her mouth closed quickly.

"How do you know this, if these things happened in all of our futures? How could you remember it when I don't?" Bonnie asked.

"I don't either," Elena added.

"You're not a vampire yet," She said as she looked at Elena who instantly paled from fright at her words. "And now you may never become one. And as for you," She then turned to Bonnie. "You're not a powerful enough witch yet, I think that's why you weren't affected. It seems that only true supernatural beings retained their memories. I've already gotten plenty of calls from some witch friends of mine asking me if I knew what was going on, but I played dumb to protect you, Bonnie. Witches, vampires, werewolves, whatever, we all remember everything we've experienced 'before'. That is also why things are being changed now, some are doing things differently than they did before, which is changing the outcome of the future that was."

"Is that a good or bad thing?" Stefan asked.

"I don't know and I don't think it matters, we already lived that other future life and we know how it ends. At least as far as how it ends for ourselves. This is all a redo. A chance to do things differently, live another life if we want to. And I can tell you right now I don't plan to die the way I did before, using my powers to the point it completely drains me. I've already taken care of that problem to make sure it never happens."

"What? Grams?" Bonnie's hold on her grandmother's arm tightened as her fears heightened and worry etched across her face.

"Don't you worry, baby. Like I said, 'that' death is not gonna happen again," Sheila assured her. I don't plan to leave you now, especially not while there's danger out there looking for you. And you," She then turned to Damon. "I know you and Bonnie developed a very strong and loving bond between you, but don't think any of that wins you any favors with me," Bonnie's mouth fell open a bit at this news as she shot stunned eyes onto Damon. "That was then and this is now. So, if you want to get on my good side 'now', you protect her and help me to keep her safe," She declared.

"With my last breath," Damon promised not that it has ever been a question in his mind. He always protected his family and those he held dear. He had deemed Bonnie family long ago and through all the trials and tribulations of their long relationship she had become the one most-dearest to him.

"Good," Sheila said with a nod. "Because I will need your help to stop Malachai."

"Oh, I insist on first dibs at killing him," Damon said as a deadly gleam flashed in his eyes. "This time I won't just decapitate him, I'll also rip out his heart, set him on fire, and then I'll scatter his ashes in the wind," Damon spoke it as a promise. "I won't let him get the chance to hurt you ever again, Bon-Bon, I swear," He added and she continued to stare at him with a stunned look as her face scrunched up in more confusion. She thought his words and definitely the way he was looking at her held endearment. When just the day before those same eyes held contempt and murderous intent towards her

"And I'm gonna hold you to that, Damon. You keep her safe no matter what," Sheila declared and Damon nodded. "Because he is coming for you, Bonnie."

"But why me?" Bonnie said as a new fear filled her. "If he's out now and I have no way to send him back again why would he even bother with me?"

"Probably because you've already imprisoned him twice, so he wants to take you out and make sure there's no threat to ever sending him back," It was Stefan that answered.

"No, I'm betting it's because she destroyed hell, with a little help from her ancestors," Sheila said as she smiled proudly, as Bonnie's eyes bulged out of her head and her mouth fell open in shock. "What you did elevated you to levels of power I never even knew existed. You might just be the most powerful witch to have ever lived. So, Kai is probably very scared of you and the power you will one day wield."

"Both good guesses, but both wrong," Damon stated and all eyes fell to him. "He's coming for you, Bonnie, because he's in love with you. He's demented and a complete sociopath, so his idea of love is warped and twisted, I'm sure, but he does love you in his own way. He'll probably first start to woo you to try to get you to come over to the dark side with him and when you refuse, 'then' he'll try to kill you."

"Okay, that's creepy as hell," Bonnie said as she instinctively wrapped her arms around herself.

"You don't have to worry, Bonnie, we're going to protect you," Sheila proclaimed. "That's why we're gonna need to stay here until we can find Kai and stop him once and for all. I've already put a Kai proof spell over this house. He shouldn't be able to break it, and if he tries it will siphon his power and energy for a short time," She said as she looked to Damon and then to Stefan as she spoke this.

"Of Course, you're both welcome to stay here as long as it takes," Stefan replied as he folded his arms across his chest. "But do, you know how to find him and stop him?"

"I haven't been able to find where he's hiding out, I started looking the second I was rebirthed here back in the past," She answered. "He's got help or he's siphoned from a very powerful witch and attained their powers and skills. He's cloaking himself, but he's not so good at it. I can catch glimpses of him from time to time, but before I can fully locate him, he discovers my spell and moves again," Sheila replied and then again focused onto Bonnie. "So, you and I will have to do a lot more practicing. We need to get your magic skills up. You turn out to be the most powerful Bennett witch, babygirl. It took some time for you to get there, time we don't have now. So, with a little magical persuasion from me and a lot of practicing from you, I think we can get you there more quickly."

"But I thought you always said that I can't rush my magic," Bonnie questioned.

"That was before I learned that some evil guy would come back across time just to get to you. All the rules I told you before will not apply now. Now, it is all about keeping you safe."

"And we will keep you safe," Damon declared. The words and the look on his face convinced Bonnie that he believed what he was saying to her, though she didn't trust him at all.

"If you wouldn't mind, Stefan, could you take me back to my place so I can pack up some things for Bonnie and myself?" Sheila asked and Stefan hurriedly nodded. "When I realized what was happening I panicked and we left in such a hurry I couldn't grab what we'll need."

"Of course," He unfolded his arms.

"Yeah, and could you take me home on the way," Elena spoke out. "I don't fully understand what all is happening but I need to check on Ric and Jeremy. Make sure they're okay."

"I think you need to stay here to be safe," Damon said and Elena scowled at him, but he directed his gaze to Stefan. "He used her as bait before, she may not remember why but Kai does," He added and Stefan nodded in agreement.

"He's right, Elena," Stefan said. "But I don't know if we should even tell you why…"

"In the original timeline, in a couple of years from now you get turned into a vampire," Sheila quickly started to explain and both Damon and Stefan looked at her in confusion. "Yes, I was dead by then but I still kept an eye on all things going on here, particularly when it came to Bonnie." She answered their unasked question. "Anyway," She focused back onto Elena. "You break up with this brother," She pointed to Stefan who stood quiet with a stoic look on his face. Elena turned to stare at Stefan as she listened. "Then you get with this brother, and you two lived happily ever after, more or less," Disgust fell across both Elena and Bonnie's faces at hearing this. Elena shook her head in disbelief. "Look, I already told you we don't have time to be delicate about things. Also, none of that has to happen now, we in particular," She pointed to Stefan, to Damon, and then to herself. "We know all that will happen and so we have the power to change things and prevent things," Both of the Salvatore brothers nodded their understanding. "Kai learned how obsessed Damon was with you and that you were Bonnie's oldest friend and he used you before to get to them," She continued to explain to Elena. "And there's no reason for him not to try that same tactic, because it worked really well the first time. So, you would be safer here with all of us, Elena."

"Wait, she really goes from one brother to the other?" Bonnie interjected as her face screwed up in horrific disgust.

"Geez, thanks Bonnie, but allow me a moment to take in the fact that I will apparently become a slut before you rub it in my face," Elena huffed out as she settled hurt eyes upon one of her closest friends.

"Oh no, Elena, I didn't mean it like that, though that is kind of skanky … But I just meant, well, it seems you have a thing for vampires," Bonnie corrected. "And that's kind of ewww,"She said as she made a twisted up face.

"Oh, baby, so do you," Sheila said to which both Damon and Stefan nodded their heads. Bonnie looked to each of them in shock. "So, don't be so quick to toss around rocks when the house you will live in someday is made of glass."

"What, who? No, I don't want to know," Bonnie held up a hand and shook her head. "Because it will never happen, not now, not ever … Well, ever again. Now that I know, I can and I will stop it from ever happening," She proclaimed as she folded her arms across her chest.

"Sure, you will baby," Sheila replied with a knowing smile that suggested she didn't fully believe what Bonnie had said. "Let's go, Stefan, I want to get back before nightfall."

"I … I still need to make sure my family is safe," Elena stated.

"We'll stop by and check on them, make up some excuse as to why you need to stay here for a bit," Stefan said as he reached out and grasped her hand to reassure her.

"Thank you, Stefan, and I…" She felt the need to apologize if she had hurt him in some future that she had no knowledge of and which now just might never happen.

"It's all right Elena, I forgave you a long time ago and I even found love again," He confessed. "We both got a happily ever after with other people," He added a lie to help set her mind at ease, but his words only made her a bit jealous.

"All right, let's do this mushy stuff later," Sheila cut in. "I need to get my Grimoire and other things, we'll need all the help we can get to fight Kai," She then moved to the exit. Stefan gave Elena's hand a slight squeeze, tossed her a kind smile, and then followed Sheila out. After a few moments of silence Damon spoke out.

"Can I get you ladies something to drink or eat?" He offered courteously.

"Do you even have food?" Bonnie asked as she scowled at him, he simply gave her a kind smile as he regarded her.

"Yes, we keep food in the house in case we have guests," He answered honestly. "It's easier to keep up the pretense that we're human if we live that way for the most part. Also, we can still eat human food. I quite enjoy food actually. Yes, we need blood to live and not desiccate but there's nothing to prevent us from eating like you do."

"You know, I did wonder about that. I've seen Stefan eat but how do you digest it, I mean, technically you're dead or undead, right?" Elena asked and in reply Damon flashed to Bonnie and grasped her hand before she could react. He placed her hand right inside the top of his unbuttoned shirt and against his left breast. She looked up at him in slight fright before she realized what his intentions were.

"You have a heartbeat," She gasped out as he removed his hand from hers, but she kept her hand against his warm flesh.

"Yeah, human blood keeps our bodies working pretty much the same as it did when we were alive. Our hearts beat and our digestive system still works. Just another way we can blend in better."

"Except no matter how you might pretend, you're still just a murdering vampire," Bonnie spat out at him as she snatched her hand back and Damon flinched as the hate, he could see in her eyes and hear in her tone struck him. It had been a lifetime since he had felt that from Bonnie and it cut him deeply.

"That was in the past," He began but she cut him off.

"Actually, that was a week ago when you nearly killed me," She hissed back at him. He looked at her in confusion as he tried to recall a time so long ago to his recollection when he had harmed Bonnie. "Thankfully, Stefan was there and he saved me."

"When you destroyed the Bennett Talisman," He finally recalled as he averted his eyes to the floor in shame and nodded his head slightly.

"Right, it technically wasn't even me that did it, but that didn't stop you from nearly ripping my throat out."

"I'm sorry," Damon said softly to her.

"Apology not accepted," She replied gruffly back to him.

"Okay, you two," Elena finally spoke as she wanted to end the growing tension in the room. She could never understand why Bonnie always felt the need to antagonize a vampire-like Damon. "If what Sheila said is true-"

"Every word of it is the truth and you two need to accept that," Damon said as he looked at the brunette in the room.

"All right, then we need to work together to stop this Kai guy. So, you two need to call a truce. At least until this is over."

"Not, likely," Bonnie mumbled under her breath and Damon quietly chuckled as he recalled the time, he had asked her for a truce and she flat out told him no.

"And it's not necessary," Damon spoke out again. "You only know the old version of an angry, vengeful Damon Salvatore. The me before I changed, before 'you' helped me change. Before we grew to become friends, very best friends," He said this while he looked directly at Bonnie. "I can only recall you as my best friend. Someone I love dearly and for who I'd do anything to protect, as you've done countless times for me," These words made her feel uncomfortable as she fidgeted a little in the spot where she stood gazing into his dazzling blue eyes. "I haven't had the Judgey, 'I hate you Damon', Bonnie Bennett around for a long while, so long I had forgotten how much I actually enjoyed that side of you. Man, I used to do stupid things just to rile you up, even when I knew you'd end up giving me an aneurysm. It was worth it though because when you are that angry and full of power, you're intoxicating to behold," He ended and both Bonnie and Elena were stunned quiet at his words, which sounded a lot like a come on.

"You're ridiculous," Bonnie finally said as she dropped her head a bit and tried to shake off the feelings his words had invoked in her. Warm feelings she didn't even want to acknowledge and never wanted to examine. Damon's robust laughter made her jump a little as she raised her wide eyes back up at him.

"I've missed you, Bon-Bon," He spoke this softly as he reached up and cupped at her face. Bonnie stood there too stunned by his words to even swat away his hand. "I'll go make us some drinks and snacks while we wait for Stefan and Sheila to return. You ladies make yourselves at home," He spoke over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

"Okay, that was super weird," Elena stated as she moved to stand right before Bonnie who nodded her head in reply. "And you and Damon becoming besties in the future…"

"A future that won't ever happen," Bonnie quickly added as she shook her head to the idea. "I don't know what kind of fucked up things happen to me in his version of the future, that would ever cause us to become besties, but I don't plan to relive it. I'll find out what happened and then, I don't know. I'll do the complete opposite."

"And exactly how do you plan to find out what happened between you and Damon?"

"I'll ask my Grams, she seems okay with letting it all out anyway, to hell with what consequences it might have on the future."

"Or, you could just ask me," Damon offered as he flashed back into the room carrying a tray with a couple of canned sodas and a plate of assortments of meats, cheeses, and crackers. He settled the tray on the table closest to the couch. "I think I can tell you about 'our' relationship much better than Sheila can."

"Okay, but me first," Elena began and Damon sighed softly as the offer had only been for Bonnie. He then inwardly laughed because he should have known Elena would be Elena and find a way to make it about herself. "Did you turn me to make me choose you over Stefan?" She asked in an accusatory tone as she crossed her arms and glared at him.

"No, but my blood, which had been stolen unbeknownst to me was used on you and then you died sometime afterward. That's how you were turned. I didn't personally do it," He answered. "And yes, your being turned, maybe even being sired from my blood, it did cause your feelings for me to be heighten. But those feelings were already there, Elena."

"And I just bet you used that fact to manipulate me and the situation," She added as she glowered at him and he nodded.

"Yup, I was a selfish bastard back then, and I was determined that I would get the girl that time, instead of Stefan. I believed I loved you so much that I was willing to do anything to have you," He spoke these words as he regarded her, subconsciously eyeing her from top to bottom before settling on her outraged face. "Oh, don't worry, been there done that, and I assure you it won't happen this time around," She blinked and looked if his cold and calloused words had literally smacked her across the face and knocked the air from her.

"Now, what about you, Bon-Bon," Damon then turned and gave the young witch his full attention. "What would you like to ask me?

"To please stop calling me that?" She asked irritated at the tingles stirred in her at hearing that nickname fall from his mouth.

"Nope," He answered with a smirk. "I started calling you that because I knew how much it irked you, then over the years it became a true term of endearment. Honestly, I don't think I could stop myself from saying it even if I really wanted to, which I don't. Next question?" He moved to the bar and poured himself a glass of bourbon.

"What exactly happened between us that made us so close, that I stopped detesting you and we became such good friends?"

"We died together, holding hands as we faced down death together," He replied and then took a sip of his drink be for continuing. "Except, instead of blinking into nothingness your Grams sent us, well it was intended for only you, to Kai's prison world. Though I don't think she knew that's what it was. Hell, I wouldn't put it passed that motherfucker to have had something to do with us ending up in his world," Damon growled out a little as his grip on the glass in his hand tightened some. He took in a deep breath to calm himself. "Anyway, we were there for months repeating the same day over and over, May 10th 1994. That day may have been a great day for someone but for us it was literal hell. As time went by, we gained a comradery, trust, and eventually friendship. At the time we thought that world was all we would ever see and all we had in that world was each other. Yeah, we still fought like we always did and one of us would storm off promising never to return, but we always did. And you and I created a moderately happy little life right here in this house together. That is until you noticed that we weren't alone. Soon after Kai made his presence finally known saying he knew how to get us out and back to our real world alive. In the end, we discovered he was a sadistic asshole who murdered several of his family members because he was power-hungry, and the remaining family sent him to that prison world."

"Knowing that we still helped him escape?" Bonnie asked in disbelief.

"That was mostly me," Damon confessed and Bonnie rolled her eyes slightly not at all surprised by this news. "I was more than willing because like I said before, I would do anything for the love of Miss. Elena Gilbert, and I wanted to get back to her," He said around a humorless laugh as he locked his eyes to the fire still roaring in the fireplace. He then gulped down the rest of his drink. "In the end, the plan got shot to hell. While working on the escape plan where you were determined to get us out and leave Kai behind, you were hurt, stabbed by Kai. But you had enough strength to send me back. I didn't want to leave you, I told you to stop but you, always the sacrificial lamb when it comes to people you care about. You sent me anyway because 'I' had become someone you cared about. And probably because you got tired of all the moaning I was doing about Elena, Elena, Elena," He added on with a smirk that widened into a smile when he noticed Bonnie trying to keep in the laugh that wanted out.

"Screw you Damon," Elena threw at him unamused. His dismissive attitude regarding her had started to irk her.

"Yeah, been there done that too," He mumbled out knowing they both could still hear him, and got the result he had intended which was an embarrassed Elena shutting her mouth. "Anyway, I was so angry with you for sending me back, because for all of my moaning about coming back to Elena I realized that I didn't want to be back without you here. I spent every waking moment trying to find a way to get you out of there. Knowing that you were there with Kai gave me nightmares. Then when I learned that he got out and left you there that just made it all the worse for me."

"So, how did you finally get me out?" Bonnie asked, her toned a bit softer than it was before.

"Oh, not me, that was all you baby," He said as he raised his fresh glass of bourbon in a toast to her. Bonnie found herself now being flattered by the endearing term he used, and she side-eyed Elena who seemed visibly bothered by it. "It may be hard for you to believe right now, Bonnie, but someday you will become one helluva witch. The likes I've never seen before and I've been alive for a very long time and have dealt with my share of witches. None could hold a candle to your powers not even those in your own bloodline, like Emily or even your Grams."

"Now, 'that' is hard to believe," She huffed out as she took in a deep cleansing breath, raked her hands through her hair, and then wrapped her arms around herself in a comforting manner as she walked over to the fireplace. Damon followed her with his eyes and made it a point to ignore the questioning gaze Elena had locked onto him. He knew he would have to deal with her at some point but right now keeping Bonnie safe was all he would allow himself to focus on. "This Kai guy, you say he's in love with me," Bonnie spoke out again as she let her eyes lift from the crimson blaze up to Damon's ice-blue eyes. "So, when you and I were locked in that isolated world with him did he and I have a romantic relationship?" Damon's face frowned up in a disgusted mask.

"God, no," He groaned out. "Oh, he flirted a lot and I know that was where his mind was most of the times. I mean, he was trapped there as a teenager and probably never got any experience with girls before then. But I was never gonna let that happen," He started and both Bonnie and Elena regarded those words curiously.

"Well, what about after you got out and I was stuck there alone with him?"

"No," Damon shook his head and clenched his jaws as he recalled the time, she physically shared all the pain she experienced at the hands of Kai. "You shared with me what he did do to you, but it was never anything sexual or romantic. He tormented you and tortured you. Then once he figured out that he could use your blood to get out, he stabbed you and left you for dead. Had I'd known he done those things to you before I decapitated him, I would have taken my time and killed him slowly. Even let you get some licks in."

"No thanks, not my thing," Bonnie said as she frowned up at the thought of it.

"You may not think so now, but what he did to you in that world changed you, and you had no issues with giving him his comeuppance, a couple of times. Unfortunately, neither lasted and here we are."

"Well, I have Grams to help me now," Bonnie said as she rubbed her arms again. "She'll figure it out and find a way to stop him once and for all."

"And you have me too," Damon tossed in and she once again locked her eyes with his. She could clearly see his sincerity. "I won't let Kai or anyone else harm you, Bonnie. You're my witch and no one will ever touch you."

"I am not your anything," She spat back at him. "I don't know what head damage happens to me in the future that would cause such a huge lapse in judgment to make me think of you as a friend…"

"Your very best friend," Damon interjected cutting off her words. "You told me once that I was at the top of the totem pole with Caroline in second and Elena third," This made Elena instantly cast disbelieving and hurt eyes to her friend. "It didn't happen overnight, and I admit I did a lot of shitty un-best-friend-like things, but you never once gave up on me. Not once. And I never got the chance to tell you or show you just how much I appreciated your friendship and loyalty to me, Bonnie. Now, I have a second chance and I won't blow it this time. And it doesn't matter that you don't trust me now, that you dislike what I am and how I've behaved thus far. It doesn't even matter if you make it your life's mission to hate me forever, just to spite me. I'll still love you, you'll still be 'my' very best friend, and I will always be there for you whether you want me to or not," Bonnie stood silently staring at him in slight awe. She had to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat at his words of love and devotion towards her. Though she doubted she'd ever admit it out loud, what he had said made her feel safe and terrified her all at once.

"But I thought 'we' were married," Elena said as her brows furrowed in confusion.

"We were for 40 relatively happy years," He confirmed.

"Well, the way you sound it's as if you wished you had married to Bonnie."

"You're right, sometimes I wished I had married Bonnie," He confirmed calmly as he stared directly back at Elena. He had heard the gasp of surprise fall from Bonnie's mouth but found that he was just as cowardly now as he was then at her ever learning that truth. But At least now he had said it to them both, which had been something he never had the courage to confess before. "I loved you, Elena. I always loved you even when I wasn't in love with you anymore. We built a wonderful life together and even raised a daughter together," Her eyes widened at hearing they had a daughter.

"Wait, we're going to have a daughter, but how?"

"No, we raised a daughter together, past tense," He corrected. "That's not going to happen now. But you can still go on to have a litter of children if you want to, and I hope you do. You were an amazing mother. It just won't be with me."

"But…"

"No, we have already lived that life," He continued cutting off her words while he shook his head. "It's done and there's no reason to try to do it again. Besides, at this point in our relationship, you are falling for my brother and you don't like me at all. And I don't plan to obsess, stalk, and impose myself upon you as I did before. You're free to fully explore things with Stefan, but it will save you a lot of heartache and headaches if you find yourself a nice human guy to settle down with."

"Right," Elena mumbled out as she bowed her head a bit and averted her eyes from his. It was obvious to both Damon and Bonnie that Elena's feelings were hurt. "Excuse me, I need to use the restroom," She announced and moved to the exit. Bonnie waited until her friend had disappeared before she moved her hard eyes to Damon.

"That was harsh," She hissed at him in a lowered voice. "How can you be so cold towards her and so easy to dismiss that life you shared with her. You two had a daughter, what about her? Doesn't she deserve a future?"

"She wasn't my biological daughter, Bonnie," Damon said with a sad sigh. She could see that this was something that pained him. "I loved her dearly and I never treated her as anything other than my flesh and blood."

"Right, sorry, you're a vampire so of course, she wouldn't be yours biologically," She stated with a nod.

"No, I was human and Elena told me she was mine," He continued and Bonnies eyes enlarged at this. "In that other future things happened, things that I can safely say will not happen this time if I can help it. But I end up becoming human again as does Elena and we live a normal 'human' existence. But one day she will start an affair with one of the doctors she works with and she will get pregnant by him. She'll lie and tell me it's mine but I will find out when our daughter is 5 years old and breaks her arm, that she's not actually mine. I do some digging and that's when I learn of Elena's infidelity. I also discover when I confront the guy that he knew from the start that our daughter was really his, Elena had told him the truth when she found out she was pregnant. But he and Elena had decided it was best to pass her off as mine. He told me that as he had told Elena he didn't want to marry her or have any kids. So, she settled and stayed with me."

"My God, I'm sorry, Damon," Bonnie spoke gently to him, genuinely sympathetic to his plight and disturbed to learn of her friend's conniving behavior.

"Don't be, I wasn't always available when Elena needed me to be," He said dismissively. "I got involved in some charity work that I found very fulfilling and which took me away from home a lot."

"That's no excuse for Elena to cheat and then knowingly pass another man's child off as yours. That's despicable actually," She shook her head as she said this. "You never told her you knew the truth, did you?"

"No, what would have been the point? It had already been years and in that time, from the time our daughter was born she had sparked a renewed love between Elena and I. We grew close again. I handed over the work of the charity to someone else and I stayed home more. I started loving my life again."

"Because of your daughter."

"Yes, she was amazing and she was my everything. She was also your goddaughter and you loved her and spoiled her rotten. In fact, you often gave me a lot of competition in the whole spoiling department," He added with a smile which Bonnie returned.

"Well, you could still have a happy life and a daughter…"

"Yes, I could and really hope I will," Damon interjected. "But it won't be with Elena," He said and the way he stared at Bonnie made her shiver a bit. His eyes alone told her that she was going to play some part in a future with Damon whether she wanted it or not. Her mouth became suddenly dry as she tried to muster up words to reply, and was saved as Elena reentered the room.

"What did I miss?" Elena asked as she looked between Damon and Bonnie, who stood on opposite sides of the room silently staring at each other.

***

Continue Reading Here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13488758/2/Amends

#Bamon #bamon fanfic #bamon fic #bamonators #bamon shippers club #bonnie bennett #damon salvatore #damon and bonnie #bonnie and damon #Damon x Bonnie #Bonnie x Damon #the vampire diaries #TVD #tvd fanfiction #tvd fic

[johnnydoe69]

Old Wars, New Faces Part 4

It had been several weeks since Odysseus/Kevin had started working on the farm. Kevin for his part had never felt more relaxed, his insecurities melted away by the day as confidence and strength coursed through him. Things were changing so drastically and so fast, he was quickly losing sight of who he was. At one point, he had called his parents and told them that he was gay and never coming back to Boston and right as they started screaming, he just hung up the phone. The old Kevin never would have been able to tell his parents off, let alone be in a relationship with another man, but he had done both.

A few days after they got together, Dryas offered to let Odysseus stay with him until he got back on his feet. Odysseus at first was content with finding a solitary cave or a canopy of trees to sleep under, rather than intrude too far into Dryas’s life but Dryas quickly convinced him out of it. It was during this time that Odysseus learned of the primary way Dryas made his money and kept his job on the farm, sex. Dryas was fucking one of the overseer’s sons and in return, if he didn’t piss Markos off too much, he was forgiven for mistakes that would have gotten others fired. Odysseus was fine with this; on his voyages across the Mediterranean his crew would sleep with a prostitute or two if they were in port and Odysseus would have gladly joined in if not for his devotion to his wife. Yet, there was still jealousy in Odysseus’s heart. He didn’t understand why he kept getting rejected by other men and sought Dryas’s insight.

He decided to ask Dryas this, after a passionate night of cuddling and making out. They were both sweaty and satisfied, their naked bodies curled up around each other, as the cool sea air licked their skin.

“Dryas, you always tell me that I’m more attractive than you and yet, you are the one who has men waiting for you. Whenever I flirt with a man they ignore me or threaten to kill me. I know things are different on Kefalonia compared to Ithaki, but I never expected so much hatred and disgust.”

Dryas rested his chin on Odysseus’s shoulder and sighed, “I don’t know what kind of crazy shit they do on Ithaki, but the rest of Greece is simply like this. With how open you’ve been, it’s a miracle you’re not dead. Granted these big muscles are probably a big help.” Dryas gave one of Odysseus’s biceps a tight squeeze.

“A lot of the men I sleep with are closeted. They only meet me through group chats or word of mouth. Most of my business takes place during the Spring and Summer months, when businessmen from the mainland come to escape their wives and gay tourists arrive after not being able to afford the big parties on Mykonos and Santorini. It helps that tourist season is when all the gay bars are open, but for the rest of the year nothing is.”

“Surely, there are other gay meeting spots on Kefalonia than what’s open for tourists?” Odysseus asked.

“Well, there is one place, but its kind of pricey and seedy. I’d probably just stick to online hookups instead,” Dryas said with a yawn.  

“No. That’s too much of a risk. I would rather meet the man in-person first,” Odysseus said firmly. Despite, the time of bliss he spent with Dryas he couldn’t risk being caught off guard by a servant of Paris.

“Alright old man,” Dryas said, rolling his eyes. “There's a small hotel called Odysseus’s Palace, its right off the beach, you can’t miss it. Inside the main lounge is a bar where some of the more well off and older gay Kefalonians like to meet up. I only go when I’m desperate for cash, they tend to be douchebags.” Dryas furrowed his brow and bit his lip, “On second thought, maybe you shouldn’t go to a place like that, Arsenios.

Odysseus moved his meaty arm behind his head to use as a headrest, “I’ve handled far more dangerous places in my lifetime, I’ll be fine.”

Several nights later, Odysseus decided to make his move. He left work late in the evening, took a shower, dressed casually, and texted Dryas letting him know he’d be out. 

There were only a few men at the bar. All of them much older and less attractive than Odysseus hoped. They gawked at his presence like dogs to a piece of meat. Odysseus ordered a round of tequila and was quickly joined by the other men at the bar.

Dryas had been right, the men were wealthy professional types, mostly lawyers and doctors with a handful of retired landowners thrown in. They laughed warmly at Odysseus’s stories of prior hookup attempts and admired both his physical beauty and youth, but then one man asked what he did for a living. When he answered honestly, saying he was a farmhand, the mood in the room suddenly shifted.

They started asking him if he would suck their cocks in the bathroom for 50 euros, or bark like a dog for 70. They asked if he had a pimp or if he was freelance. In another time Odysseus would have stomped their bodies into dust for badgering him about his sex life, but Odysseus feared that the control over his body was only temporary and a massive fist fight could awaken Kevin to the truth.

So instead, he took to ignoring them and slowly they melted away to their own separate corners, grumbling to themselves about how he was being a tease before Odysseus was left alone again.

It was then that Odysseus noticed another young man come to the bar. He was as big as he was, yet far more agile and light on his feet. The man drifted in and out of conversations with ease, his voice shifting so quickly to appeal to a different audience he sounded like a brand new person with every man he interacted with. 

 As the night wore on and most of the men had drifted home the stranger sat next to Odysseus at the bar. “How about a cup of Ouzo for this generous man and a cup for me as well,” the man said to the bartender. A minute later the bartender poured out two cups of white wine.

They both thanked the bartender and the stranger took a sip from his drink.

The man’s twinkling brown eyes glanced into Odysseus's, “From what I’ve heard from the regulars you are quite an interesting man Arsenios. A strongman who can’t get laid, a farm worker who spends his earnings on men who wouldn’t put a euro in a beggar’s cup. Just when I thought I’d be stuck with dull pretentious bastards until the day I died,” the man said with a laugh.

“Funny, I thought the same about you. Coming in two hours before closing, you moved like Hermes himself from one man to another, and despite seeming to not like the men you drink with they seem to trust you very well” Odysseus said, sipping his ouzo. “Though I still don’t have a name to your face.”

The stranger smiled warmly, “My name is Diomedes of Argolis. I'm here on business, not pleasure. This hotel has water damage and I was brought in to access the situation. I came to the bar out of boredom. Not much to do here, but fish and drink is there?

Odysseus cracked a smile, “You’re not completely wrong in that. I’m not from this island either. I’m actually from an island next door, Ithaki.”

“Hmm, I once knew a man who lived on Ithaki. Looked a lot like you actually,” Diomedes said curiously.

“What do you know of this man from Ithaki,” Odysseus asked leaning forward.

“He was a stubborn, arrogant, pain in the ass. Loyal to his friends, cruel to his enemies. He had a massive muscular body just like yours, though I usually remember that egomaniac smeared with olive oil to show off his figure.” Diomedes took a swig of his wine, savoring the taste before continuing.  

“He was a good friend, even when I wanted to kick the fucker’s teeth in. I only wished I did more with him when he was still alive.” Diomedes said with a sigh.

Odysseus nodded. “I’m sorry for your loss. He sounded like a good man.”

Diomedes smiled sadly, “Would you like to come up with me to my room? The neon lights of the bar are starting to give me a splitting headache and my place is only the floor above us.”

Odysseus nodded and they both got up from their stools. Odysseus tried to pay off the combined tab from everyone at the bar, but Diomedes wouldn’t hear a word of it. He simply plopped down his credit card and paid it off before Odysseus could refuse.

Afterwards they walked down the twisting corridors of the hotel to Diomedes’s room. It was a simple hotel room, similar to the motel room Odysseus had been living in with less filth. It was pristine, no swarms of cockroaches or lingering black mold anywhere in sight. When they crossed the threshold, they started making out.

They peeled off their clothes like second skins and embraced on Diomedes’s bed. As Odysseus felt Diomedes's warm tongue down his throat, he recognized the similar buzz of energy that ricocheted from Diomedes’s muscular frame, a buzz very similar to his own. Odysseus didn’t mind this and kept going, pushing Diomedes flat on the bed, and squatting on Diomedes' hard dick. He wheezed at the pain, they hadn’t used lube and there was no substitute in sight, but Odysseus made do.

It was Kevin, who was nearly pushed to the edge of oblivion by Odysseus, who was truly becoming aware of what was happening. His eyes widened at the warm glow that emitted from Diomedes' skin and became aware of the glow that came from his own. When Diomedes opened his eyes, it was full of an ancient knowledge Kevin couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Fear gripped him, sending waves of adrenaline up and down his spine, and yet this only made him grind deeper and faster on Diomedes’s dick, moaning harder and louder with every panicked thought.

Eventually, Diomedes came hard inside Odysseus/Kevin coating their insides with cum. Odysseus slowly raised himself off Diomedes’s dick, while furiously pulling at his own. Diomedes after taking a short breath, took Odysseus’s hand off his dick and massaged himself, using his thick fingers to coax the semen out of Odysseus’s hard dick and onto Diomedes’s flat stomach.

Then Odysseus collapsed onto the bed, both men panting heavily. After a few minutes of rest, they wiped themselves off and fell asleep. Both slept well into the night, even as Kevin’s brain raced at the possibilities at what was happening. Had the glowing been an illusion? A trick of the light? Did this man have something to do with the drastic changes to his body and attitude?

When Odysseus finally woke up the next morning, Diomedes was already out of bed and in the bathroom. Still exhausted from the night before, Odysseus staid in bed and stared out at Diomedes. If it was one of his enemies, Odysseus would have been dead already, but the stranger hadn’t revealed his identity divine to him earlier.

Diomedes caught him staring from his reflection in the mirror, “Before we had sex, did you really think I was some silly young twunk working a simple insurance claim?”

Odysseus laughed. “I suspected, but I wasn’t sure. Now who are you really?”

“I wasn’t lying when I told you I was Diomedes of Argolis,” Diomedes said turning on the faucet and washing his face.

“And that friend of yours that you spent all night insulting was supposed to me, right?” Odysseus asked, rolling his eyes. Diomedes didn’t answer so Odysseus continued, “Everyone in this country names their children after heroes and gods. Is Diomedes the name of the body you inhabit or was that by choice?”

Kevin squirmed internally, confused and terrified at the strange words leaving his lips. He tried to exert control over his own body, only to find he had none. Odysseus sighed.

“This is my own form, Odysseus. Purely immortal. Though, not enough to enjoy on Mt. Olympus it seems.” He said, taking out a toothbrush and cleaning his teeth.

“Your worship did fade out when the Romans lost interest in you” Odysseus said, trying to ignore Kevin twisting against his will.

“And my name was never as venerated as yours, hero of the Odyssey,” Diomedes said spitefully. 

Diomedes was the wisest of the men fighting Troy and yet strangely to Odysseus one of the heroes least mentioned in the mortal world. It was strange that such a hero could be largely forgotten. 

“Why didn’t you reveal yourself earlier to me at the bar?” Odysseus asked, sitting upright in the bed, arms crossed over his powerful chest.

“You were never as sly as people seemed to think you were. Or have you picked up the manners of your American body?” Diomedes asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know. It's strange being in another man’s body like this. It feels like mine and yet, completely alien to me.” Odysseus said looking at his hands. They were big, but nowhere as large as the mitts he had used to string a bow with. 

“But you didn’t answer my question.” Odysseus said. Diomedes gave his arms a casual flex in the mirror before returning to his bed and sitting next to Odysseus. 

 “Well, since you were honest, I have to say that as blissful as the Isle of Pleasure was, I was bored. My worship never recovered when my hero cult fell into obscurity and who knew how much time was left before my soul faded as well. Might as well come back and make a name for myself.” Diomedes got back off the bed and went to a dresser, pulling on a long-sleeved shirt and undoing the wrapped towel, letting it fall to his ankles.

“Besides, where would you lot be without me? Probably pissing yourselves outside the walls of Paris’s villa,” Diomedes said, pulling out a jock strap and a pair of jeans.

“Lot? There are more of us coming?” Odysseus asked, leaning on his side.

“Yep. Not much of a war with only 2 people, is it?” Diomedes asked, putting on his jock strap.

“You know where Paris is?” Odysseus asked. 

“Yeah, that guy does not keep a low profile. Here’s his Instagram account,” Diomedes said, tossing Odysseus his phone. Odysseus caught it with one hand and had a look.

 “He’s utterly defenseless,” Odysseus said, getting up from the bed.

“What you don't see is all the security cameras, bulletproof windows, and the fact that he is constantly surrounded by people who would die to defend him. You don't need to wear armor as obviously as we dod in the old days,” Diomedes said, pulling a tight pair of jeans over his legs and ass.

Odysseus paced around Diomedes' bedroom; his dick stuck hard to his thigh. “You’re right, we need allies and weapons. It would help if we could locate some of the other heroes back from the Underworld to aid us. Then we’d have a chance.”

“Well, I found you dumbass. It shouldn’t be hard to find some of the others. Not that I’ve been looking very hard,” Diomedes said, sitting back on the bed.

“Hey,” Odysseus said, dropping his phone back in Diomedes’s lap.

“Oh what? Don’t act like you haven’t been enjoying your time with mortals either,” Diomedes said. Kevin continue to struggle against Odysseus’s power, exhausting him to the point that after a few minutes of pacing Odysseus had to already sit back down.

“Yeah, I think the mortal whose body I picked up is becoming aware of my presence,” Odysseus said, panting.

Diomedes nodded. “Give yourself time to readjust. If you haven’t already, try giving the man whose body you inhabit a different personality to enjoy.”

“What does that mean?” Odysseus asked.

“You already call yourself, Arsenios. I’m guessing different than the body’s original name, try creating a persona for that. In that way you can cross into autopilot when you need, without worrying about internal resistance. It will be hard, but I know you can manage it.” Diomedes said, “Now get up, I have work in a few hours and I’m sure you have other places to be as well.”

Odysseus nodded and got out of bed, giving Kevin an internal kick, quieting him enough so Odysseus would have enough strength to get home. Things would be hard, Odysseus grimaced, but he could manage. A thought that made Kevin internally scream with rage.

#Possession #male transformation

[commanders-sole-braincell]

Well, you're a step ahead of me, I made an Old Soldier but then I lost him before I could even enter the crypt so there's that. I at LEAST know of Uncle Iroh (it's in my watch pile). The Warband would be a mix of ages too, form the oldest being OS and their sparing partner (who grew up along side OS, who has suffered and survived the same trials OS has all up until they step between OS and Kralk) then there's a few who are around Rytlocks age and from different Legions 1/ -Numbered Anon

Then there's the new bloods, a couple of Charr they just picked up from the Black Citadel before the alarm sounded for the attack on Smokestead. The Warband has gone through a number of members. Members who have died in battle. Members who fell to illness. Members who betrayed and turned to Flame. Members who had enough and retried from the front line. It's a 'band name well known across the Legions. A 'band name the newest Cubs either dream about joining or mutter the name in fear 2/ -Numbered

In front of the Crypt, OS looks between the entrance and the waves of ghosts that may as well be cockroaches because they know Rytlock is down there, but they also have a duty to stop the ghosts here. And that's when OS's Sparing partner gives them a shove, a smile on their lips as the rest start digging at OS's relationship with Rytlock and the newbies hold an air of confusion and OS heads off down into the Crypt with a sarcastic remark thrown over their shoulder. 3/ -Numbered Anon

Side ideas, OS has a catchphrase of "Look alive Cubs!" as they enter battle. Charr of all ages try to guess what age OS is, no ones been brave enough to simply ask OS. Tybalt is the cub of one of the past warband members. OS needs glasses to read but refuses 'cause "I'm not THAT old." OS keeps the dogtags of all dead warband members. OS brings their Cubs first teddy bear with them everywhere. 4/ (I have more to talk about, but I need to do a few things - Numbered Anon

(and back) When OS picks an Order, their Sparing partner joins them, effectively leaving the Warband to the younger generation. One of Rox's dead band mate is a Cub of a Warband Member. Rytlock refuses to tell OS what happened to DE -mainly that Logan, someone Rytlock gave his Blood Legion Emblem to, effectively making them brothers, abandoned them- OS would've jumped into the Mist after Rytlock if not for Sparring partner and Smodur jumping them. 5/ -Numbered Anon

I ADORE the idea that OS looks at fighting the Dragons as their last fight, only OS and their Sparring Partner think this, to Rytlock and everyone else this thought doesn't cross their minds -or if it does, it pushed way to the back of the line. ...Oh...Balthazar...that'll be a mess and a half. Rytlock is running through the stages of grief before he gets off of the air ship, he snarls orders at OS /to get up! You're not done here!/ all while ignoring the tears that sting his eyes 6/ -Numbered

I wonder how much OS would interact with Ryland and what impact would they have on Ryland, I mean, OS can't say anything against how Rytlock interacts (or lack there of) with Ryland because that's just how Charr /work/ but OS feels the hole in their being where their Cub and mate once were. And then there's Bangar. OS coaching Trahearne through being a leader and a Soldier, if they use a GS they teach Trahearne how to use one cause burn me you're going to take my tail off! 7/ -Numbered anon

as for the olmakhohan, and maybe this is because they confuse me, but I think OS would find them odd, not in the fact they hate violence or that they use magic but in the way they've somehow removed the idea that Charr are beings of War (and I think there might have been mentions of them not understand that there are Charr outside of their tribe or something, not sure on that) in a mere 200 years. 8/8 -Numbered Anon

JDHIGHBIFHD ah the ol’ ‘I no longer vibe with you  BEGONE’ mid tutorial xDDD

and yes! I keep trying to mentally think what Legion they could be from and honestly any could work! They just pick up and move between legions practically all the time - maybe they stick to the black Citadel because they’re an old friend of Smodur - they fight the frontlines there, but every warband has stories of their warbands heroics - doing the impossible, breaking the front lines. They live for the thrill of the vanguard, even if they’re Ash or Iron. Cubs playing make-believe all argue over which Legion they’re in. Truthfully even they’ve forgotten at this point. 

If pressed they laugh and say “anything but Flame”, but still respectfully ask how the Flame Legion are doing at Bangar’s meeting, and welcome any to their band who want to join (bonus if they’re a female or nonbinary Old Soldier)

and HOOHOHO I DIDN’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BALTHAZAR - they’re ready, they’ve accepted death, but then they remember Aurene, the cub they never got to see grow, and the fury drives them back into the fray - the Judge can collected them later, this needs to be done. They come to, to Rytlock crying over their body, head bowed, and muttering a wobbly mantra for the dead. They swear they hear Canach laugh when they place their hand on Rytlock’s face and he jolts in shock as they joke they’re “not that old cub”, despite the blood and stiffness to them now

and the dogstags and teddy bear got me good ngl - they’re their most prized possessions, and ones they show Aurene, or Cre when she’s feeling upset about Ryland - reminds them of what hey fight for, what they fight to leave a better world for.

Their fury when Taimi is taken? Incomprehensible. Dragon’s Watch is apart of their band as much as any of it’s members, they’re family. You don’t mess with the Commander’s family.

OOOOH what if that’s why Bangar kept Rytlock away as much as he did (not saying Ryltock wasn’t at least partially responsible for not going to see Ryland but what if the majority of his attempts are blocked by Bangar), because Bangar knows at least a bit of OS has rubbed onto Rytlock, and he’ll try to pass that down onto Ryland. Bangar can’t wait another generation (how fukkin old can charr get anyway??)

edit: forgot the feckin olmakhan!

Yeha I think it could go either way, like they adore their concepts of family and living for their tribe but also themselves (they like to imagine having a ranch like that with their mate and cub), but also, where’s the warbands?? What do you mean they don’t have them?? Can I retire here?? Can my warband come??

#OldSoldier!Commander #OldSolider!Charr #Numbered Anon #Anonymous #me staring at OldSoldier I dont need it I dont need it I dont need it

[takingcourage]

Cold Feet

Pairing: Jaime x MC

Word Count: 2,100

Summary: To cope with a challenging day at work, Arden retreats to the one place she can be alone. The quiet doesn’t last for long, of course... 

Note: I haven’t written anything for Choices in ages, but Wishful Thinking came out of nowhere and finally sucked me back in. While I’m still not sure how I feel about the book overall, I’m a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope and Jaime is just too sweet for words. 

I hope you enjoy!

Arden’s toes were killing her. If she’d had more confidence going into today’s interview, she might have been able to resist Alec’s insistent charge that she needed something more television-worthy than her trusty ballet flats. It’s not like anyone could see my feet through that coffee table anyway. She rolled her eyes at the thought, slamming the car door shut in belated protest.

Even if people had been able to see her shoes, she couldn’t imagine that they would have held anyone’s attention against what was likely to go down as one of the most uncomfortable television segments in Northbridge history. She didn’t harbor any animosity toward Ellen, but she knew that the other woman’s stress probably read as rivalry on camera. No matter how Arden had forced a smile, the awkwardness on set had been palpable.

It had been all she could do to make it through the interview with Charlie Carmichael, much less the rest of the afternoon. When she’d finally left the studio, she’d been on autopilot. It wasn’t until she’d parked in front of her father’s house that she realized she hadn’t even taken the time to change back into her normal shoes.

Deciding that she’d rather take her chances barefoot than turn her ankle in those ridiculous heels, her walk to the lake was a cautious one. By time her feet reached the dock, they were well covered in grass clippings and dust, but her toes were no longer throbbing from poor circulation. Arden came to the end, dangling her legs over the water as she dropped the offensive shoes beside her. They fell noisily, thick soles smacking against the smooth wood.

“And I’ve probably scared all of the fish away,” she grumbled under her breath. A glance into the water beneath her seemed to support the theory.

As good as it had felt to take her feet out of the shoes, plunging them into the coolness of the lake was so much better. Contented, she propped an arm behind her and lifted her face to soak in the warmth of the sun. The water lapped around her ankles in a steadily uneven tattoo. Aided by the relative quiet of the lake, her mind wandered.

This new power was going to take a lot of getting used to. As fun as it was to pop into various heads in Waffle Hut, that initial charm was wearing off quickly. She wasn’t sure just how much longer she’d be able to bite her tongue through Alec’s insults or her father’s silent criticisms. And then there was Jaime.

Goodness knew very few of his thoughts had ever been secrets to her -- even before the accident. She’d learned to read his expressions long before she could read his mind. But she could no longer deny knowing how he felt. That small detail had the potential to make their relationship tenuous.

It was going to make deflecting nearly impossible.

She’d been dancing around the issue for years, alternating between flirty banter and changing the subject as soon as anything serious came up. It wasn’t that she thought things wouldn’t work out between the two of them -- if she was honest, it was actually the exact opposite. They’d been best friends for so long that she knew they would make an eminently suitable couple. She just wasn’t sure she was ready for it.

Her father had always warned her that her stubborn streak was going to get her hurt one day. Was this another case of her just being too set in her ways? Would there really be any harm in taking things further?

In spite of the breeze, warmth stole over her at the thought of actually moving out of the clearly-defined lines of friendship they’d established over the years. Aside from her late mother, Jaime understood her better than anyone she’d ever known. That depth of familiarity certainly had its appeal.

But her feelings toward him had been extending beyond the familiar, especially lately. For one, Arden wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to deny the physical attraction. They hadn’t actually kissed since they were kids, but they’d come close on a handful of occasions. At the time, she’d chalked those moments up to innocent flirtation, but that night on the yacht had made her want to kiss him for real. As had his suggestion that she use her powers to help other people. And his pride in seeing her work at the library fundraiser. Now that she thought about it, a lot of their recent interactions had produced a similar effect.

Maybe she should act on the impulse later that night. They were sure to get at least a few moments alone. She could lean in close and test the waters. Then, if he was receptive, they could have their first real kiss. 

Arden banished the notion almost as quickly as it came. If she made a move now, some part of him might always wonder if her powers had anything to do with it. If she ever did decide to take the plunge, it wasn’t going to be because supernatural forces were at play.

Besides, dating anyone at the moment just didn’t seem fair. Her stomach churned at the thought of what this one-sided transparency could do to a relationship. As many times as she might have wished for the ability to read the minds of the guys she’d dated in college, reason told her that it wouldn’t be a recipe for healthy communication. Until she found some way of controlling this power, it was best not to pursue anything. Or anyone. She needed to sort things out for herself first -- especially when there was any risk of hurting Jaime in the process.

Giant worms! It’s been so long since I’ve had juicy worms…

Arden started at the voice, her eyes instinctively going to the water. At the sight of the large turtle moving toward her, she sprang to her feet, a shriek breaking through the still evening air. The quickness of her motion frightened the creature, who soon swam back to the depths and out of sight.

Pulse thundering, Arden eased back onto the dock, this time sitting cross legged and keeping out of the water entirely. “If these critter conversations keep up,  I’ll have gone full vegan before the week is out. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but…” her soliloquizing came to an end as her eyes fell to a dragonfly resting at the end of a nearby plank. 

She straightened her back and trained her mind on the insect, willing herself to pick up on some train of thought. Closing her eyes, she tuned out the rhythmic course of the water and the sounds of the wind through the leaves.

In return, she heard only the frenzied rustle of wings. With a sigh of relief, she slumped back down. At least I don’t have to worry the next time there’s a cockroach in my apartment. Although it might be nice for defending myself against mosquitoes…

...And there she is.

Arden craned her neck toward the shore to see Jaime emerging from the line of trees. He looked tired, but the smile on his face was unmistakeable. She waved in greeting, struck by just how glad she was to see him. You’re always glad to see him, moron. He’s your best friend. Arden’s cheeks warmed in spite of herself. 

“I thought I’d find you out here,” he called out upon reaching the dock. “Is everything okay?”

His footfalls sent gentle vibrations through the wood and Arden shivered involuntarily. “I’m fine. Just came out to get some quiet.”

Jaime’s brow morphed from concern to uncertainty. “I can leave if you --”

She shook her head decidedly. “Nah, you’re good. Besides, I prefer your thoughts to the snapping turtle that had it out for my toes a few minutes ago.”

He squatted next to her, meeting her eyes easily. Arden’s gaze flicked toward the water, but it made no difference. There was no point even trying to get the sight of those deep brown eyes out of her mind. She liked them best just as they were now, slightly narrowed, but sparkling with laughter  -- brow creased with amusement as it was whenever there was some inside joke that only the two of them could understand.

Damn! She chided herself for allowing her thoughts to run away with her again. When she risked a glance back at Jaime, his lips tugged to the side, entertained by her apparent inner turmoil. Nevertheless, he let the moment pass, sparing her the embarrassment of confession.

“So turtles too, huh? Please tell me you’re not planning to adopt any of them. The ones out here are ferocious.”

“I remember from that fishing expedition back when we were twelve,” she mused, smiling warmly. “Besides, I think Jinx would actually start plotting murder if I brought home any more strays.”

“She has a point, you know. Two animals in less than a week starts to sound like a trend.” Jinx probably thinks I’m a stray too. 

“She’ll come around to you eventually. I’ll just let you handle the catnip next time you’re over.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that,” he commented wryly as he rubbed at a stiff spot on his neck. 

The motion caused her to catch a trace of his spicy deodorant. Stifling her groan with a deep breath, she tried to return to the subject at hand. “What? My cat’s alarming drug habit?” Why did he have to smell so good?

The pointed glance he shot her was much deserved. “You being able to hear what I’m thinking.”

“Trust me -- you’re not the only one. But if it helps, I still can’t hear everything. It’s just little fragments.”

“Probably just the little fragments that people don’t want you to hear too.” I definitely shouldn’t think about how kissable she looks right now.

“Probably so.” Arden picked a bit of lint from her skirt to distract from the blush that she knew was rising over her cheeks. She opened her mouth to say more, but all of the witty rejoinders at the tip of her tongue felt flat and stupid. 

Someday he was going to find out exactly how much she knew and their days of pretending would be over. The prospect was a little frightening, but there was something else there too -- some sense of calm that came with the acknowledgement.

Jaime cleared his throat and her fingers halted their exploration at her skirt’s hem. “Anyway, we should probably head back for dinner before your dad starts to worry about us. He saw your car and asked me to find where you’d wandered off to.”

“Of course he did.”

“And I think he said something about making his specialty.”

She rose to her feet with a groan -- this time audible. “You know what that means…”

“It means we should probably hurry back before the sandwiches get cold and he ruins your precious tomato soup.”

“He tries to make it with water! No one deserves that.”

“We’d better get going then.” Jaime laughed, shifting his weight as he waited for her to put on her shoes.

Arden eyed him incredulously. “There is no way I’m putting these things back on. I don’t know what wardrobe was thinking even having them in the building!” She looked with disdain toward the objects dangling from her hooked fingers.

“Very impractical,” Jaime agreed, lagging behind for a moment to allow her to set the pace.

“I’m wearing my flats tomorrow. I don’t care what Alec says.”

“He’s not going to fire you over shoes. C’mon, I’ll give you a piggyback to the house.”

Arden stopped short, the heels swinging wildly at the abrupt cessation of motion. “No thanks, I’m good to walk.” Even if she’d been inclined to presume upon him for the half-mile trudge back to the house, she would have been put off by the idea of touching him -- especially touching so much of him. In her current frame of mind, such contact would probably lead to her abandoning her earlier resolution not to complicate things. 

Gosh, she’s stubborn.

“You wouldn’t have me any other way,” she bantered as they continued walking.

His step faltered. The foible was barely noticeable, but she caught it out of the corner of her eye. “Of course not,” he agreed with a smile. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Blessedly, her powers didn’t pick up on any thoughts that may have followed his admission. But even so, they both knew his words weren’t entirely true.

#playchoices #playchoices fanfiction #wishful thinking #wishful thinking jaime #wt jaime #jaime x mc

[frost-queen]

Am I losing you? (Reader x Gilbert)

Requested by: @mrs-blythe72, Forever tag: @hanbinwsrt, @alex--awesome--22

Only love can hurt like this!

Gilbert and you were best friends for as long as you could remember. He was the moon to your sun, the leaves to your tree, the air to your lungs. You couldn’t imagine life without him, it was no surprise that you started to fall in love with him. Gilbert was a wonderful person who constantly putted you before himself, he would always check first if you were alright before checking up on himself.

You were the one thing in his life he couldn’t life without, if he would ever lose you, he knew he would break apart and probably cry his eyes out and slowly die. Gilbert and you had found a special place deep in the forest, hidden from others. There was a magical place by the left end of the forest where a huge willow tree stood. It’s low hanging leaves almost touching the ground as you and Gilbert spent many hours hiding behind the leafy curtain.

It had become your meeting spot and if you couldn’t find each other you knew that was the place the one would be. The two of you were glad that you found that magical place as it felt you were on a different place, sometimes far away from your life troubles. You were waiting patiently behind the leafy curtain of the willow tree as your hair blew gently with the wind.

You let your hang back as you listened to the leaves moving from the wind, for a moment everything was perfect. It was quite warm underneath the leaves and the wold around you moved peacefully. You heard some branches snap and it disturb the harmony in your ears, you tilted your head back to the front as branches kept being snapped.

You heard some distant mutter and seated yourself better as you expected Gilbert to arrive, it was only when you heard another voice you started to feel nervous. The other sound was softer than Gilbert’s that you could recognise anywhere but this… this new voice made you curious to why Gilbert would bring someone else to your special place.

You tried to look between the low hanging leaves of the willow tree as you saw Gilbert’s shoes with next to him a new pair of … girls shoes? You frowned deep as it showed wrinkles on your face as you didn’t expect a girl. You noticed a hand moving towards the leaves as it moved it out of the way, to make an opening. – “Y/n?” – you heard Gilbert say confused as the girl came standing next to him, peering through the curtain of leaves.

You ignored his look as you turned your gaze to the girl in seconds, - “Ruby!” – you almost shouted. – “What the hell are you doing here?” – Gilbert ignored your question and gestured to Ruby to enter, she walked in and stood in front of you as you looked up to her. – “I think I asked you a question?” – you said slightly judgemental.

Gilbert also walked in and smiled at Ruby who looked confused at him. – “I thought you said you wanted to show me YOUR special place!” – Ruby emphasized as she let her eyes go quickly to you. You were still confused to why Ruby would be here with Gilbert as he casually continued the conversation like you weren’t there. – “I didn’t think she would be here?” – he said to her as he took her hand.

You gasped loud as you saw Gilbert take her hand and Ruby stroking it soft, - “Gillie can’t you make her go away, I wanted to be alone with you so we can …” – at the last part she winked at him as you felt your jaw drop to the floor, you were offended that they talked about you like you weren’t there and that Gilbert might have something with Ruby.

Gilbert couldn’t supress a dirty smile as he squeezed her hand, he then sighed and lowered himself to the same height as you.  – “Y/n uhm can you maybe leave?” – you were totally blown away by the way he said it, he said it like you weren’t important anymore. – “Why? I was here first!” – you snapped back as you weren’t going to let Gilbert talk to you like that. He sighed again as he looked brief over his shoulder up to Ruby who was tapping her foot impatient against the ground.

“Y/n come on… just this ones go home!” – Gilbert slightly raised his voice as you got up to your feet, furious that he would chose her over you. – “Are you really kicking me out, for her? What are you dating or what?” – Gilbert also got to his feet and wanted to react, but Ruby beat him to it, - “Yes, so you better be gone in a few seconds or Gillie here will have to use force.

You gasped in an unbelievable tone as you gave her a mean glare, - “For your information! This is MY special place and not yours so, you can’t tell me what to do!” – you had moved closer to Ruby as you pointed her back with your stern finger. – “Enough!” – Gilbert shouted, - “Y/n just go home!” – you felt powerless that Gilbert chose his new girlfriends side instead of yours.

The realisation started to kick in as you had to hold back your tears, you swallowed the knot in your throat down as you held your head high and walked out but not before bumping hard against their shoulders. You threw the curtain of leaves open and walked out like you could care less but inside you were crying.

They both rubbed the pain area as they both seated themselves down and enjoyed each other’s company. You tried to stay strong but half way your lip started to tremble and your knees shaking, you fell to the ground as you grasped the dirt tight. – “How could he do this to me?” – you looked away angry as you pressed your lips together preventing you from crying.

You felt betrayed, abandoned, empty and rejected. The one person that you loved with all your heart had just send you away from your special place and wanted to spend it rather with Ruby than with you. Your lip was trembling so hard that you couldn’t control the tears that started to roll down your cheek like a water fountain. You started to cry out loud as your body moved up and down in shocks from the intensity.

“Gilbert! You stupid… stupid… Gilbert!” – you cried out loud between your breaths as you tried to gasp for air. You felt frustration come up again as you pulled yourself to your knees and just started to scream as you pushed your fists deeper into the dirt. You heard several birds fly up from their hiding place as they were startled by your screams.

Your body started to shake again, and you let yourself fall on the ground again as you pulled your knees close to you, laying in a foetus position. You felt saver as soon as you were crawled up, you kept sobbing as you felt your heart go dozy and cold. You wanted to hate Gilbert for what he did but that huge part of you that still loved it, wouldn’t allow you to hate him. Your heart didn’t mind turning your hatred towards Ruby as she was the cause for everything.

“I hate that blonde tiny cockroach!” – you cursed loud as you got up to your feet, you didn’t want them to find you like this. You started to move towards your house again as you kept cursing underneath your breath several hateful things about Ruby. You didn’t know how you got home but somehow you were laying in your bed. You kept staring at the ceiling as a black mist pulled itself over your heart, making you all feel cold and sad.

It was the final drop! Your heart couldn’t take anymore as it had shut itself down from every happy feeling in your life. It made you all dreary and sad, you barely smiled or interacted with others. At school you avoided everyone as you hated everyone for being so happy when your heart was smashing in by Gilbert’s words.

Hate followed you gently as you saw Gilbert and Ruby in the distance being all sweet, you couldn’t bear to look at them as you turned your head to the ground. The ground was more fascinated than to watch your heart tear more open. You let yourself slide against the school building as you noticed Gilbert tried to break himself from Ruby’s grip.

Ruby kept trying to grab his arm as he kept pulling it up until she couldn’t reach it anymore, you didn’t give it much attention. Gilbert came walking in your direction as Ruby kept trying to stop him, - “Ruby let go! I’m just going to talk to Y/n…” – Gilbert kept saying as he kept moving his arm, so she couldn’t take it. – “No! you’re not! Gillie please stay with me…” – she kept begging him as he got slightly annoyed by the nickname ‘Gillie’, it made his name sound like a girl’s name and a variant of her last name.

Gilbert could finally escape Ruby’s constant calling for attention as he made his way over to you with his head low. He was running several conversations in his mind as he wanted to apologize for last night. – “Y/n?” – you slowly lifted your head at the mention of your name, but you quickly rolled your eyes at the sight of Gilbert. Gilbert wanted to sit himself down in front of you as you replied in a cold tone. – “Don’t bother!” – you got up yourself and started to turn your body, ready to leave as Gilbert paused you by stepping in front of you.

“I have a feeling you are still mad… and … and you have every right to be…” – Gilbert started as you looked at him with dull, sad eyes. – “Clearly!” – you snapped back and pushed him aside, he watched you walk past him as he grabbed your hand. – “Y/n I just want you to listen to me?” – “and I want you to leave me alone!” – you snapped at him as you pulled your hand out of his grip. – “Besides I think your Girlfriend is calling for your attention!” – you said with a look as you flipped your hair back and walked away from him.

Gilbert didn’t know what else he could do so, he let you walk away as he felt his heart break. He never meant to hurt you and now your relationship seemed beyond repair. He took a deep breath as he started to make his way back over to Ruby. – “Gillie!” – she squealed as she jumped into his arms, covering his face with soft kisses. Gilbert just let her be as his thought were drifting away towards you.

For the rest of the day you avoided Gilbert and his attempts to mend things with you. Gilbert felt you slip through his fingers as he tried to desperately hold on to you. He had never felt so lonely in his life no matter how many times Ruby overwhelmed him with kisses on his face or held his hand. He closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to hold himself from crying, - “Gillie?” – her voice pulled him back from his silent moment as he pressed his lips hard together at the mention of that stupid nickname.

He rather heard you call him ‘Gil’, that always seemed to light up his heart whenever you called him that. He turned his head slowly towards her as she started to play with his hair, - “Is everything alright Gillie?” – he felt a punch in his stomach as he heard that nickname again, - “I’m fine Ruby… I just …” – Gilbert looked up and noticed you walking inside as he found his opportunity to say he’s sorry for his behaviour. Ruby kept gazing at him as she waited for the rest of his sentence, - “I just… need to … do something…” – and without a warning, he got up and ran inside to talk to you.

He saw you near the blackboard as you were about to grab the blackboard cleaners to dust them off as you suddenly felt someone pull you to the teacher’s room close to the blackboard as you were being pulled by your arm. You were being pushed inside as you turned around angry that someone dared to grab you like that, Gilbert had closed the door behind him and stood his ground before the door.

You turned your head away at the look of Gilbert as you had no interest into talking to him. Gilbert moved a bit closer as he started his apologize, - “Look Y/n… I’m sorry for how I reacted yesterday. I should have never make you leave with pressure and force…” – you pressed your lips hard together as you hoped he would say something else. – “Can you please forgive me?” – he begged you as he tried to grab your hand.

You pulled your hand back at the touch of his as he was completely clueless, - “Y/n I said I was sorry why are you still angry at me?” – you had to press your lips harder together as they almost started to look white but you knew if you didn’t do it, your lip would started to tremble and you didn’t want to cry in front of him. – “I thought we could be friends again?” – he said soft as he hoped an apology would do it. You moved away from him as he offered you his warm hand, Gilbert scoffed loud as you ignored all his attempts to mend things.

“What is wrong with you? How long can you hold a grudge? I said I was sorry why can’t you accept it like a normal human being?” – Gilbert yelled at you as he kept waving his hands angry around, you tried to hold back your tears, but it was getting harder and harder as you could already feel your lip tremble soft. – “Y/n! do you want me to beg more? Am I supposed to get on my knees and beg for your forgiveness? Is that it? – he snapped at you as you couldn’t control your tears anymore.

Tears started to roll down your face as Gilbert hardly noticed and kept going, - “You are the one that is being distant and all? I want to be your friend again, but you seemed to not want it anymore? Why are you shutting me out!” – his yelling echoed in your ears as you started to cry harder, Gilbert suddenly paused as he noticed you crying.

You wiped some tears away, but it was no use as they kept streaming down your face, you ran past Gilbert and swung the door open, rushing outside. Gilbert called out your name, but you were too far gone to hear it. Gilbert let his head fall back against the wall as he pushed his fist against him, he had no idea why you were reacting like that, but he wasn’t going to up that easily.

He rushed outside and when he didn’t notice you on the school perimeter first he started to slightly panic. He felt arms go around his back as he looked down and saw the red sleeves of Ruby around him. – “Is everything alright Gillie? You have been acting strange?” – he cringed at that nickname again as Ruby moved in front of him. – “I thought it was…” – he said soft as he looked over Ruby’s shortness, - “but now I’m not so sure…”

You kept running blindly toward the only place you felt save, the willow tree. You forgot for a moment that Ruby had invaded your sanctuary with her presence as you needed to support of the willow tree. You arrived at the willow tree and moved the leafy curtain aside as you rushed inside and crawled up against the bark. The wind was making the low hanging leaves move gently back and forth as you couldn’t take it anymore, you wanted Gilbert to stop loving Ruby and love you, but he kept thinking you were still mad about how he behaved.

It did still bother you, but it wasn’t the big issue, seeing him happy with Ruby was as you had hoped many months that it maybe could be you. You started to cry even more at those thought as you knew he could never be yours. Your heart had fallen to pieces as you felt like you had lost everything, you didn’t hear the approaching footsteps as you could only hear your own crying.

You suddenly heard your name and saw a vulnerable Gilbert in the leafy curtain, you quickly wiped your tears aggressively away as you didn’t want to talk to him. You wanted to get up and leave as Gilbert noticed it so, he quickly walked in and pulled you back to sit down as he held your wrists. You tried to pull your hands back as Gilbert kept holding them.

“Y/n… stop I… I … just want to know what is going on with you?” – he called out as you heard some desperation in his voice, you turned your head away from him as you didn’t want to look at him, it hurt too much. – “Y/n… let me help you… whatever is bothering you, we can overcome it together?”

“Not this time…” – you said soft as you slowly dared to look at him with your puffy, red eyes. – “Tell me? Y/n I get the feeling I’m losing you and that there is nothing I can do about it?” – you let your eyes go down to your wrists as he was still holding them. – “Please, tell me?” – he lowered his head, trying to look in your eyes as you heard his voice break.

You took a deep breath as you had to tell him eventually, you kept looking down as you were afraid of his reaction. – “I … I … I’m acting like this because of …” – you paused for a moment as Gilbert squeezed your hand soft, letting you know it was alright to continue. – “Ruby…” – you said soft and Gilbert stopped squeezing your hand and looked at you with big eyes. – “Ruby?” – he repeated.

You felt stupid for ever telling him this as you knew he was going to laugh at you. – “I know Ruby was a little harsh yesterday but normally she isn’t like that.” – Gilbert said soft as he tried to justify her actions. – “I don’t think you understand Gil… bert!” – you snapped back at him, - “Ruby is the problem! Because… because…” – “How can Ruby be the problem, I know she acted harsh yesterday but that doesn’t mean she is responsible for your behaviour?” – Gilbert still didn’t seem to get it as you now wished you had kept your stupid mouth shut.

“Just forget it!” – you replied harsh as you pulled your hands back and crossed your arms, so he couldn’t grab them anymore. – “No, Y/n we are going to get to the bottom of this because I won’t lose you over some indifference.” – Gilbert called out loud as he started to get frustrated. – “Indifference?” – you spitted at him, - “This isn’t about that!” – “then what is it about?” – Gilbert called out frustrated as he moved his hands in the air.

“Because I love you!” – you suddenly shouted at him, Gilbert’s jaw dropped to the floor as you got up furious. – “It’s about you being with Ruby! I can’t stand to look at the two of you while my heart Is breaking into a million pieces but what should you know?” – you started to pace angry around as Gilbert still couldn’t believe that you said that you loved him.

“And yes, yesterday’s action was the final drop for me as I didn’t know who you were anymore!” – you were on a roll as you wanted to let out all those frustrations and anger. – “I don’t think we can be friends anymore as you and Ruby are together it’s too painful for me!” – Gilbert suddenly awoke from his trance as he also got up and was wide awake, - “What? No, … no, you are not ending our friendship over this!” – he called out at you.

“So, you don’t care how much it breaks me?” – you raised your eyebrow in a sceptic way as you couldn’t be friends with him while he was dating Ruby, it was just too painful for you. – “Gillie?” – both of you suddenly heard and Gilbert snapped as Ruby popped her head between the leaves. – “Enough! I’ve had enough of hearing that disgusting nickname!” – he screamed out as it startled you, Ruby started to breath quick as she cried in seconds.

Gilbert held his hands against his face as he didn’t know anymore, he was losing you and his heart couldn’t take it, but he also felt relieved for finally telling Ruby how much he hated that nickname. Ruby let go of the leaves and started to run away. He groaned loud as you were shocked by his reaction. You had never seen him snap like that and especially not against Ruby.

You thought Gilbert was losing his mind as you wanted to give him some space, you had told him about your feeling towards him and you knew nothing would change his mind as you didn’t feel needed anymore. You started to make your way to the entrance as you walked past him, Gilbert noticed it and freaked out. – “Y/n! don’t you dare leave me!” – he called out as he grabbed your wrist and pulled you back to him. You bumped against his chest as he suddenly pressed his lips onto yours, you panicked and wanted to pull away, but Gilbert wouldn’t let you for some reason.

He released his lips soft from each other as he wanted to kiss you more passionate. You knew this was wrong since he was still with Ruby but every fibre in your body kept being pulled close to him, like his body was a magnet. You copied his movement as you wanted to feel his lips onto yours, you couldn’t let go of the feeling that busted inside of you.  

You felt his hands go around your body as he pressed you closer to him, you squealed soft as he pulled you closer. After what seemed ages for you he released his lips from yours and you could finally breath again. Gilbert rested his head against yours as you tried to catch your breath, - “What have you done?” – you said soft as you didn’t want to be known as the one who tore them apart. – “I think it’s obvious Y/n?” – Gilbert said in a sweet tone as you were surprised his anger had disappeared.

“I know … but … why?” – you said soft as Gilbert moved his hand to your chin and let his thumb rest there. He started to smile bright as you were getting worried he might have lost his mind. – “I thought it was obvious, Y/n?” – you frowned deep as you really thought he had lost it. – “You love Ruby… why would you kiss me?”

Gilbert let his thumb go briefly over your lips as you kept gazing at him, - “I think knowing that I was losing you made we realise how much you mean to me… more than Ruby…” – you gasped soft as you started into his hazel brown eyes. – “Gil, please don’t taunt me…” – he started to chuckle soft at that specific nickname as it rolled over your lips. – “I’m not, Y/n … I’m choosing you!”

You gasped again as he chose you over Ruby, you thought he loved her, but it seemed to him that he loved you more than her. – “I love you Y/n!” – he called out in such a sincere tone that it made you shiver, - “I love you too…” – you replied as he started to smile soft and tilted your head, pressing his lips back onto yours.

Check out my AWAE masterlist to find all my imagine’s for Anne with an E

#imagine #anne with an e #imagineannewithane #anne shirley #gilbert blythe #imaginegilbert #imaginegilbertblythe #readerxgilbert #awae #awaegilbert #imagineawae #awaeruby #ruby gillis #anne of green gables #green gables #anne of avonlea #avonlea

[survivor-kuwait]

ROP

In preparation for Final Tribal Council, the final 3 reflect on those who have fallen...

Matt:

I can’t say I know much about Brandon, but I can say it’s pretty fucked up that a Sagittarius was the first elimination in a Zodiac themed game

Madison:

We didn’t really play together, but you’re a sweetheart and I’m sure if I knew you I’d believe you were robbed too soon!

Maynor:

I’m not sure if I got a message from you or not. I wanted to get to know you but Warzone twist was very nerve wracking twist.

Matt:

Willow! My Solomon Islands friend/betrayer. I was very excited by the prospect of getting the chance to reconnect with Willow and I was so bummed we only spent one Oasis together. At first I was worried that maybe she would think I was out for revenge, but I have only good blood with Willow and I absolutely wish her so much luck in Montenegro.

Madison:

MY NORTH CAROLINA KWEEN! I was SO sad to see you voted out. You were so kind to me, and I really appreciate the time we did get to spend together!

Maynor:

You were very nice. And we worked together in warzone for a vote or two. I was hoping that we could have worked together in this game.

Matt:

This game definitely would have gone a lot differently if we didn’t get Nehe out when we did. I genuinely enjoyed getting to know Nehe even though I already had the preconceived notion that he would be a schemer. Also, by far the best Tik Tok that anyone made was Nehe’s solo piece. It was so *Chef’s Kiss*

Madison:

Oml Nehe! I’m so sorry we blindsided you so hard but it had to be done and I think you know that. But I love you you crackedt legend.

Maynor:

oh Nehe. You were a blast to talk to. Game wise I never really knew where your head was at. At our first tribal you lied to me and voted Renee. Would love to talk to you though and get to know you more.

Matt:

I’m sorry I never got the chance to meet Taylor, because I will always have a good impression of someone with Gillian as their avi.

Madison:

Didn’t really communicate with you too much, and I think this warzone I wasn’t present for, but I’m sure you’re lovely!

Maynor:

You were someone I could have see  playing this game with. I still feel like maybe there was a way to save you but everyone seemed set on you.

Matt:

Jacob was a sweetheart, we share a lot of similar tastes in games and music and I definitely could have seen myself working more closely with Jacob if things didn’t go down the way they did. Nothing was more pure than trying and failing to explain moon phases with Kait to Jacob because I realized about halfway through I didn’t know nearly enough about them either.

Madison:

MY FELLOW CANCER CRUSTACEAN CWEEN. I love you..so much. You had to fall so I could sprint to where I am now I suppose, and I hope I represent our emotional mess of a sign well here at the end. I miss u.

Maynor:

I hope one time we are able to play a game  and work together. I really want to get to know you more, we dont really talk a lot during these games. So lets talk hopefully you want to.

Matt:

Adrian my Aquarius pal, sorry I had sacrifice you to the Survivor Gods when I heard people were targeting sign partners. We absolutely slayed the sign partner stage of the game, not going to any Warzones and it certainly was in no small part thanks to Adrian.

Madison:

I was truly really sad to see you go. you always brought such a good energy to every conversation we had, and I love that so much. BUT OUR SEASON IS GONNA BE SO GOOD EVERYONE APPLY TO OUR SEASON!

Maynor:

ugh. You were gone too soon. We worked together with Nehe vote and then taken out couple rounds later. I wished we could have worked together more. You were awesome and really nice.

Matt:

Stevie and I chatted a whole bunch when we got the chance and I can’t think of a bad thing to say about him, although I can apologize that I never answered the message he sent me after he got eliminated saying “How’s it going?”. It was going good but I didn’t wanna cheat. I’ll answer it soon I promise.

Madison:

YOU’RE SO SWEET OML. I just miss talking to you.

Maynor:

I didnt get to talk to you much in this game. We were kinda not in many warzones together. But your awesome.

Matt:

I think I inherited Chloe’s cockroach energy after she was eliminated. Truly everyone was constantly throwing Chloe’s name out there and I was NEVA happy about it, and I was even sadder about voting her out. Chloe and I had a very underrated and secret friendship and we voted together about every time until she was eliminated. I literally hope she’s finally feeling better because she was so sick and sleepy for the whole game and people didn’t get the chance to know her like I did.  

Madison:

The odds were truly stacked against us women and I was NOT a feminist player bc I vote for you..several times. Also really sad that we bonded right before you left. but you have bomb taste in music and I’d truly love to talk to you after the season is over.

Maynor:

We never got to talk much. There were a few times we did but it was mostly just hi and then convo died. He seemed really nice.

Matt:

Although I only know Matt B as the reason I still have to use my last initial in my confessionals, I have heard from everyone else that Matt B is a great guy. I hope that if I do win, nobody is disappointed to find out that it was me and not you.

Madison:

we didn’t interact too much honestly! would love to chat after the season, but unfortunately I don’t have a ton to reference right now!

Maynor:

I was extremely sad when I found out you were voted off. You didnt deserve that. I think you were one of the few people from first impressions that I wanted to work with. I really wanted to play this game with you after you co-hosted me. It was nice getting to know you during the first warzone.

Matt:

Renee was the vote that started it all for me. My very first Warzone that really taught me how much of a fucking warzone it actually was. I felt bad about betraying Renee, but it absolutely kick started the relationship I had with Maynor and Madison because we bonded over missing her and were really pulling for her to come back from Lagoon.

Madison:

my actual fucking queen oh my GOD. your vote was the ONLY one I didn’t know what was happening. I had no idea you were leaving and it honestly broke my heart.

Maynor:

My heart. RENEE playing with you in the beginning of this game was so awesome. Talking and us planning on making it to the end. I would have gone to the end with you. I was rooting for you to come back. But I was happy to meet you and I hope we can continue to talk after. ❤️

Matt:

Stephen was a super nice guy, and I always appreciate the Aussies who are playing on an entirely different sleep schedule than the rest of us.

Madison:

I feel..SO BAD FHJSJDJS. I’ve robbed you from so many games and I SWEAR IT’S NOT PERSONAL! I truly love you as a person! we just ALWAYS end up on opposite sides. you also terrify me though bc you’re SUCH a good player. I always have to have an open eye on you, and I really respect that. you’re a gem, never change.

Maynor:

ooo Stephen  this vote was sad but it was everyone saying your name. In this game we talked but it was as good communication like our other game. You know you mean a lot to me because we been through a game n you hosting me.

Matt:

Trace and I played Maluku together like 100 years ago and when I look back at the games we played then and the games we played now I’m very proud of the growth. I had some very nice genuine conversations with Trace about relationships and life and Survivor and I never thought that back in Maluku when I was dumb and petty that I would end up saying I found a friend in Trace. I’m sorry our Queer Eye alliance fell apart almost immediately but I realized he was such a big threat.

Madison:

Trace omg. I loved playing with you and working together while we did! Our alliance was SO cute. I’m sorry if you hold me voting you against me, but you scared me so much, and I feel like our games would’ve inevitably ended before FTC if we’d both stayed in the game. But I have so much respect for you as a player and a person. queer eye til we die.

Maynor:

I was working with you in this game and I was glad to have met you. You were like a very scary player to me for some reason. Your vote off was the start of the game really starting to be more strategic.

Matt:

Corey was one of my favorite people to talk to in the game because I felt like we could literally gab about absolutely anything. We bonded almost immediately at the very first Oasis, and had emotional motion sickness ™ ever since then. It was a sad day when I had to do Corey in the revote after that nutty partner tribal and even sadder when I found out he wasn’t coming back. Genuinely to this day Madison and I talk about how Corey would have hands down won the game if it was judged on music taste alone.

Madison:

my FATHER/SON. voting you out made me legitimately cry! I LOVED working with you and you were truly my ride or die until there was nothing I could do. trying to save you that night is probably one of my worst moves this game but I don’t regret it for a second. I love you so much and I’m so glad we got to play together again and be the cutest alliance..ever. queer eye til we die.

Maynor:

Your vote off was one of the sad ones. You coming to me to try and save you was really heartbreaking. I wanted to save you but during that time there was an alliance and wanted to be in good terms  with them until there was a time for a move. Also timmy and I were really nervous we were getting votes. Im sorry  ❤️ stay in contact. I went to lush andnit was amazing.

Matt:

Thomas went out in a blaze of glory and it was a lot of fun to watch. Anyone that Kait vouches for so vehemently is good in my book. “Fuck you Timmy” is our “Fuck you Brad Culpepper”.

Madison:

THOMAS U SWEETIE! I feel like I’ve said this a lot but there are truly so many kind, genuine people in this cast and I’m so grateful to have been a part of this season with all of you. you made me mad nervous in this game because I never quite knew what you were doing, and we weren’t close, but I felt like we were pretty chill until your vote. you may disagree ofc, but that’s how I see it! I can’t wait to talk after this season omg.

Maynor:

i really liked talking to you and you were an awesome person. I want to get to know you more so lets talk after the game. That twist was kinda an oof one. Im sorry that was how you went. Hopefully we can play another game together.

Matt:

KAIT is honestly the LOML. I absolutely would have gone to the final 3 with Kait even though I probably would have lost. I’m just excited to finally be able to play Smash and Pokemon Sword and Shield with the Paradise Hotel alliance. Besides doing the Logic Puzzle with Kait and having the WRONG clues, having to let Kait go was the hardest thing I had to do in the game but at the same time it really catapulted me to play the rest of the season without the comfort of having someone I trusted so implicitly.

Madison:

love. of. my. fucking. life. there are 2 people I made a conscious choice to not vote for despite knowing I’d be in the minority, and you’re one of them. I knew you were going and that there was nothing I could do without risking my game, and you knew that too, but we had each other’s backs from day 1 and I’m so so so glad I got to play with you. you’re also just a fucking dope person. I just wanna be ur friend after this no matter what you’re so fun.

Maynor:

You were super nice. We mainly talked in our alliance chat. You were a threat in my eyes because you were really tight with Owen. I really want to talk more as well after the game.

Matt:

Owen was the other ⅓ of the Paradise Hotel alliance and my Chicago friend and I think was the only person besides Chips who everyone agreed would absolutely win in a Final 3. I should’ve been mad that Owen sunk ⅔ of the advantages that I had original hit, but I knew they were with someone I could trust.

Madison:

WE FINALLY GOT TO WORK TOGETHER! you’re the other person I consciously didn’t vote for despite knowing you were going. I knew you had to leave when you did for me to slip through the cracks to get to where I am now, and no one would’ve let you make it to the end, but I’m so grateful for our alliance and for you as a person and that emily wasn’t here to fuck us up!

Maynor:

ily. You were one of the people I talked to the most in this game. It was really hard to write down your name twice. I realized and so did everyone else that you were a huge threat in this game and if we didnt take the opportunity to take you out, you were would have been winning this game. Lets continue talking after this game because I really miss talking to you.

Matt:

Ian and I were both great pals and bitter rivals. There was a point after the double idol play at the partner tribal where the two of us really aired all of our differences and talked about how we could move forward in the game with a mutual respect for each other and a mutual love of writing graphic novels, and naturally it came down to another tiebreaker between us, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Madison:

literally the happiest we got to play together again. we were never QUITE on the same page, but never QUITE on different ones either. you’re so intelligent and that..scares me!

Maynor:

I loved talking to you as well. Me you and corey talking about how we all loved each diff starter. It was very difficult to right down your name but you were also a big person that could have won this game if they reached the end. We also need to stay in contact after the season. ❤️

Matt:

Cullan is like 18 years old and I was absolutely terrified of him as a player. We got along fairly well in the beginning and it was a shame that we ended up at odds with one another in the game.  I told Madison I chose to vote Cullan over Chips because I was afraid she was gonna self vote at Live Tribal, but truly I knew the only way for me to advance was to get rid of the guy I knew was a threat with advantages, challenges, AND jury votes.

Madison:

omg you’re so nice. I’m so glad we got to play together, and although it had to happen, I was sad to see you go. (Im running out of time typing my ROP’s but I hope you know I love you)

Maynor:

you were soo nice and very precious. We had a working relationship with each other but towards the end or some votes I couldnt let you in on which felt really bad. You are an awesome person and I hope we can talk more after the game.

Matt:

I started out very wary of Timmy during that isolation twist and after the Owen/Kait blindside, and especially when we had an actual polite disagreement about voting Owen out instead of Ian, but Timmy really came through for me in voting for Ian instead of me and I ended up actually really bummed that we cut him at final six. He was an undeniably good player.

Madison:

TIMMY. WE DID IT. sort of? we talked more than we have in any other game I think? and we actually worked together on some votes! also I’m gonna say that me flipping the vote onto you was claiming my IOU for not voting against you during the Corey round.

Maynor:

❤️❤️❤️❤️ i was sooooo sad when you went home. Like i didnt talk to anyone that night because i was so heartbroken. You were my longest ride or die in this game and im sad we didnt get to make it to the end together. You know i love you and your the best person and im glad i have had the honor to play 3 games now with you. We gotteb way closer since my first org were we first meet. And i hope our friendship growers more.

Matt:

Sweet sweet Chips. Thank you for sharing pictures and stories of your actually adorable baby Calvin, and even more so for saving me at the Ian vote. I like Chips and trusted him so much that I was willing to take the risk of bringing him to Final 4, and even Final 3, but eventually I had to take off the rose colored glasses and realize that everyone liked Chips way too much.

Madison:

that first boot to FTC character development could NOT happen and I know you know that, but I’m so impressed by the game you played and I hope you are too. you crushed it. I can’t wait for our best duo award.

Maynor:

i am happy that I got to meet you. I was sad when you left in the beginning. We also had a working relationship together but never a solid thing. Im was glad to talk with you about baking and I will let u know when i try to make the tie dye cookies. You are very nice and just plan great.

Matt:

Going against Devon in that tiebreaker was very poetic, because we truly made for a great pair of “frenemies”. I admire Devon’s resilience and the way he sticks to his own guns, and the fact that a man over 10 years older than me slayed me in a balance challenge was pretty hardcore.

Madison:

oh..my gosh. our alliance was a ROLLERCOASTER! like we were chill during the warzone phase, and then we weren’t, and then we really pulled it through at the end for BOTH OF US. you really turned the tables for your game after losing Ian, and I’m really impressed. I really hope we can talk after this season because I love you as a person.

Maynor: 

i dont know where to begin. We gotten really close since the merge started. It was never easy writing your name down and I wish I could have taken you to the f3 but in my eyes you were a threat based on your relationships with the jury. It may be a mess because Matt might win but the fire was like the best chance to give it a fair shot between you two. I hope you understand the game move. But we need to stay in contact after the game. 

#survivorstarzone #notice