#also an excuse for me to talk about the soundtrack | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tearlessrain · 1 month

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please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

#I found their original stuff while I was researching various waterhorses and their folklore for no reason #because one of the characters in their original work happens to be an each uisge #and then it turned out it ALSO included a lot of figures from welsh folklore in general #so yknow if you happen to have my incredibly specific hyperfixations you'll love it but even if you don't it's great #I didn't mean to bring up phantom of the opera so much it just happens to be very relevant to a lot of my talking points #I haven't actually seen it in years

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murdrdocs · 1 year

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rocketeer | a. warlock

description. a peek into your budding relationship with adam warlock, soundtracked by the music that follows you through your life

includes. straight fluff that's it, some references to tunes

a/n: playing around with adam as a character .. reader implied to be from earth, also this was a blurb but its long enough to be a mini fic so ,,, that's what it is now. also title is a reference to rocket tehe

word count: 1.2k+

mild gotg3 spoilers!!!

you meet him when rocket's 2000s playlist is playing.

there a general joy spread all across knowhere, each and every being there filled with the adrenaline of the guardians surviving, and saving others along the way, once again. everyone's doing something; dancing, crying, rejoicing, picking up pieces. everyone except him.

he sits on a set of stairs that you know has been coated with bile too many times. he's alone, wrapped in an insulated blanket, and staring at everyone with a sense of longing. your rhythmic steps falter, as does your smile, and your head tilts.

your friend asks what's wrong, you point him out, and his mind is lightyears away because he doesn't notice the obvious gawking from three sets (the extra set your friend has will always be a little off putting for you) of curious eyes. he doesn't notice anything until you're standing above him.

"hi," your wave is just a flare of your hand, small, gentle, as is your smile. his eyes snap up to look at you, wide and yellow and intriguing. it takes him a second but he speaks, although it's quiet and a little hard to hear over florence and the machine.

"salutations."

the formality of it makes your smile widen. "d'you mind if i sit?" you point to the empty space next to him, his gaze following your gesture, and then he's looking back at you with furrowed eyebrows.

"why?"

you shrug, suddenly feeling a little silly, but you suck the feeling down with a large gulp of air. "just cause you seemed a little lonely. loneliness isn't really a thing here on knowhere."

his yellow eyes seem to light up at that. "really?"

not exactly, but you still nod. "really."

he scoots over a smidge to make room for you, even though there's more than enough, and you sit beside him, choosing to ignore the lingering stench of alcohol-induced barf. it's silent for a second, dog days are over ends and seven nation army begins, and then he speaks again.

"i'm adam."

you introduce yourself, starting to notice the way his foot taps along to the bass line. you nod towards the small movement. "you like this sort of music?"

when he shrugs, you can feel the blanket move against your arm and you hadn't realized you two were sitting that close beforehand.

"i don't really know much about music."

"yeah, that'll change here on knowhere, too."

you get closer while rocket is in a 90s kick. there's destiny's child, red hot chili peppers, loads of nirvana, and blur to soundtrack the timidity in the beginning. small "hello"s shared in passing, glances that turn into staring whenever the other isn't looking. talks about meaningless things that are happening on knowhere, just as an excuse to talk to each other at all.

your relationship (lack thereof) with adam feels reminiscent on those movies you would watch back home, telling stories of a boy next door and a girl next door and a painfully slow romance filled with moments that you used to wish would just lead into the big thing.

before he leaves, quill gives you a final word of advice. "stop dancing around it. go for it."

you follow his eye line to adam, who's holding a very confusing looking conversation with one of the kids, and then you look at quill, who's staring down at you like an older, slightly wiser, brother.

"okay?"

"yeah. okay."

he opens up when his favorites are playing. you're teasing him, asking if he finally has artists, genres, songs, anything that he likes. he smiles brightly, like he's been waiting to share this information, and nods eagerly.

"let me show you." the ipod he'd acquired is thrust into your hands and then one end of the flimsy earphones after it. you slip the bud in, listening to the clicks of adam searching for what he wants to show you, and the it starts.

you vaguely recognize it as something that quill passed down to rocket, who tried to pass it down to you, but you don't know it well enough to predict the lyrics before they happen.

the other headphone is placed in one of adam's ears, and he hums to the song. you feel his gaze on yours, waiting for your reaction, and you look to him and smile.

"yeah?" he asks, clearly wanting to know what you thought about it.

"yeah. it's good!"

"right!" and he continues to hum along to the song, clearly wanting to sing it at the top of his lungs and dance around to the beat. the image of what that would look like, of how he would ask you to join in, takes over your mind and adam's voice breaks you from your thought.

"i have just one question though."

"hm?"

"what's disney world?"

and now it's time for your eyes to widen and for you to gasp. you launch into descriptions of 'the happiest place on earth', having to will yourself from telling the entire backstory of the creator and the mystery that exists from his extremely known life. adam seems confused, interested, and like he longs for something like that.

"d'you think we could visit disney world one day?" the odds aren't the best, but you shrug, nod, let the corner of your mouth turn down just a little.

"yeah, maybe."

another solo song by adrian belew starts and then adam tells you about his home, and the sovereign, and his mother. you listen, lowering the volume so you can hear him clearly, and you're there for when tears start to glide down his face.

things change whenever 80s pop is playing.

kraglin had taken over rocket's ipod for the day, resulting in almost every hit from the 80s to play during the entire day.

you'd sung along to most songs, wishing you'd seen adam to tell him about each artist that played. but he'd been gone, not seen by anyone, and you assumed that he'd gone on a mission or something of the sort.

it's late, you're snuggled in bed, the music outside has come to an end but you have your own headphones in to continue listening. wham! plays when there's a knock on your door and you pull down the headphones, lowering george's singing, to open it.

adam stands on the other side, dressed as casual as you've seen him, and his hair sticking up in different places as if he's been messing with it for a while. he looks distressed, and distracted, until you say his name.

"adam? what's wrong?"

and then his large hands are delicately holding your cheeks and his lips are pressed to yours. he freezes with the initial contact, most likely due to a mix of inexperience and shock, but then you start to slowly move your lips against his and he takes the hint to follow your lead. your hands pull at his shirt, urging him to come into your room, and he does as told, kicking the door closed behind him with his foot, giving you a surface that doesn't imply too much to push your back against.

that night, the entire first two albums from wham! play from your headphones while adam kisses you, leaving you to giddily listen to last christmas when you bid him goodbye, his lips a little swollen and a darker hue to his golden cheeks.

#repost bc tumblr no work #adam warlock x reader #adam warlock x you #adam warlock fluff #adam warlock #guardians of the galaxy #guardians of the galaxy x reader #celeste writes mcu

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aangarchy · 6 months

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Alright. I've rewatched the trailer like 20 times by now and i've been processing it.

First things first: anyone that's gonna talk shit about Gordon Cormier is gonna have to go through me first. I've only had Gordon!Aang for a day and a half and if anything happens to him i'll kill everyone here and then myself got it?

Just look at him! This is the exact big eared cute little kid i wanted them to cast for Aang. He looks adorable and honestly his outfit is growing on me.

The glowing arrow looked cool as hell. I like that the light spread through his tattoo almost like veins. I'm still curious on how the full avatar state is gonna look, how they're gonna get the glowing eye effect. Please don't let it look goofy.

Y'know what does look goofy?

Is it better than the m night shyamalan appa? I guess. Does that mean it looks good? Well.... at least momo sort of looks cute instead of some folklore nightmare like in shyamalan's version. But also you can tell in this shot in particular that it's very green screen-y

Then we go over to the bending, the limited shots we have of it. Mainly firebending was shown (a little airbending too but kinda hard to get a stillframe for that one)

Idk how to feel about it. In screenshots it looks alright but the shots while they were moving looked a bit off, especially the one where zuko's kicking. We only got very limited shots and that's intentional. I feel like the bigger cgi fails are gonna show up once we get the full show. If the bending looked good all the time i feel like they'd be showing it off by now.

What i don't like, is how apparently they're gonna SHOW Zuko getting burned. Like sure in atla they didn't bc kids show and Nickelodeon wouldn't allow it, and netflix can take darker turns if they so please. But i personally always felt that scene made so much impact because we didn't see it. Iroh is telling it from his memory and he didn't look when it happened, so we don't see it either. It's like a courtesy the show extends to both Zuko and the audience. We just hear the harrowing scream, and that's enough to know how devastating it is. I don't need a dramatic overlook so we can see the whole thing in detail, netflix.

Another thing is the hair in some scenes.

Daniel dae kim looked better in that promo photo, bc here you can just see how the bulky goatie was glued on. And then Sokka's hair..... where's the ponytail? It's laying completely flat against his head... why? Is it bc that's Ian's hair and they didn't know what to do with it? Literally get a comb and tease that bitch. This is like the complete opposite of Jackson Rathbone's hair in the shyamalan version, and somehow that full maybelline ponytail makes more sense than this sad excuse of a tail. Either way at least Suki looked dope.

Another thing i found weird about the trailer is the narration. I think it's either Iroh's voice or maybe Gyatso's? (I haven't heard Iroh's actor talk yet so idk, but it felt like it was being said TO either Aang or Zuko) but the lines they gave him... it felt like some weird mumbo jumbo tbh. Something something about the past and present being the same and it's up to us to know the difference and be the difference? It's saying everything and nothing at the same time and it felt kind of out of place. They're probably saving the iconic opening narration done by Katara for the full trailer (i hope???) but still they could have just gone with music, or maybe just a few iconic existing lines?

The music? Fire. Nothing needs to be added there. Was i kind of hoping for a different soundtrack? Maybe a bit. But am i mad? Not at all. They clearly took the nostalgia route with the more epic version of the avatar theme, and i can only respect them for that.

So far, very mixed reviews for me. I'm morbidly curious and very nosy by nature though, so i'm absolutely watching.

#avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar #atla netflix #netflix atla #atla live action #netflix

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inkelea · 5 months

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SKZ AS ANIMAL CROSSING PLAYERS! ✭

pairing: ot8 x gn!reader

synopsis: how do each member play animal crossing and how it made you grow close with each other.

genre: fluff. headcanons.

warnings: chan is a sweetheart<3, LINO’S PART IS CHAOTIC. in general all of this is very chaotic.

word count: 1.7k

a/n: animal crossing is so>>>> ik tmblr is full of 12 y/o but I hope you all know what new leaf is. you can see how I lost inspiration through the members😔, I’m still hoping it’s good. this has a lot of references to animal crossing as a whole (obviously) so if you’re not in touch with the game you might not understand:(

#BANG CHAN!

this man YOU ALL, THIS MAN.

he’s the good neighbor.

his animal crossing daily routine is: loading the game, eat three pieces of whichever fruit was the one that he got, and greet his villagers.

if you ask him about his no. 1 priority he’ll always answer the same: forming good and meaningful relationships with his villagers

you can argue with the possibility of that since villagers personalities start to get watered down in new leaf

BUT HE DOESN’T CARE

every day he talks with them and helps them with whatever they need

chan will go down in history as villagers no. 1 defender

“most important part of the game, without them there’s no game. that’s why new horizons is shit” HE’LL BE SAYING, EVERYDAY, WHILE THEY’RE ON TOUR

at least two hours of his day are spent on animal crossing without exception

don’t ask him how, he just does it

big on villagers lore, he’ll tell you everything there is to tell about tom nook’s evolution through the games

probably likes him too

so hear me out, maybe you were a staff member and heard the 4pm soundtrack, and AHHHH

since then you would get in petty arguments about which villagers are the best ones

you definitely visit the others town when he’s on break

you have dates where you see which one of the both of you can help more villagers under an hour

yea, you’re nerds like that:)

#LEE KNOW!

okay so these headcanons are about new leaf but…

you can’t tell me he wouldn’t play new horizons and be the trader

THIS LITTLE SHIT RIGHT HERE

he would be one of the ones who went crazy over raymond

paying ridiculous amount of bells to get him on his island

he would be on nookazon EVERYDAY

he’s a man of business

also on the stalk market

half of his island are rows of growing turnips. it gets to the point where villagers start to complain about it. he doesn’t care.

chan tells him to drop his “rebellious act” as he calls it

but he excuses himself saying it comes from way back

yes i am implying that 14 year old lino was already doing suspicious things on new leaf

TOTALLY TIME TRAVELS

and gets his turnips spoiled from doing it wrong…

BUT ANYWAY

you aren’t any better, you two meet when he’s looking to get raymond and you’re selling him

since then you get used to trade only with the other

aww, look at you, being criminal only with each other🫶🫶🫶

why can I see you holding a new horizons red lily cardboard cutout in a concert?

#SEO CHANGBIN!

and here comes the most normal person on this bullet fic

my guy here is so the escapist

!!!

he’s prone to stop playing the game for months only to come back to find his hair like a mess

(and he doesn’t have shampoodle yet)

(probably doesn’t have kicks either🤪)

by escapist i mean escaping from the real world and from playing the game

he loves the soothing feeling the game carries and gives him in stressful times, but he often feels too lazy to get in the game and do everything he wants to do

like.. fishing, catching bugs, looking for fossils… it’s too MUCH

probably doesn’t ever change outfits, entered in able sisters maximum five times

but that’s okay

it’s isn’t about the looks it’s about the friendships you make along the way💗

or that’s what you tell him

SO LISTEN

you met in high school, started dating and you introduced him to the amazing world of what animal crossing is

you try and get him to play wild world first, but it’s a nono for him

says the graphics are too ugly💀

you sigh, move on, and remember to be grateful for getting him to play new leaf

you still can’t believe he’s been playing for so long and still has kicks locked

he gives you the cold shoulder every time you mention it

you still send him texts every other week reminding him to log in

just for the sake of doing so and greeting his villagers

you’re lucky he loves you, if not, you’d be blocked already😘

#HWANG HYUNJIN!

we all know he’s a pretty good artist

and in animal crossing, he’s the artist too

OBSESSED WITH FURNITURE

type of person who spent the 7,595,800 bells to expand his house to the fullest

for what? to decorate it with everything his heart desires

yep, each room has a different aesthetic

OBSSESED WITH THE FROGGY CHAIR

went nuts when he saw its absence in new horizons

new horizons no. 2 hater

(first one is chan)

has beef with people who don’t care about their house appearance

THIS MAN SPENT YEARS MAKING HIS PERFECT HOUSE

just for a delusional person to tell him it isn’t that important

yes, you’re that person

your first conversation about the game is him rambling about his love for decorating and you telling him how you never really cared about how your house looked

OH BOY

he almost throws hands

he’s just VERY PASSIONATE, he loves what he loves yk

he steals your nintendo one day and decorates it as much as he can

you give him a big old smooch when you see it<3

#HAN JISUNG!

hannie💗💗💗

THIS ONE RIGHT HERE: the collector

he wants ALL

he spends his days catching bugs on the town, going after crickets that jump away from him

every day, without missing, he wastes 1,000 bells on going to tortimer island to try and get a whale shark so he can give it to blathers

no but seriously he does spend more time on tortimer island than in his own town

LOVES THE MINIGAMES!!

forces lino to play with him

(he sucks at the scavenger hunt tour)

he would enter the same house a million times to try and find the stupid object he has left

ANYWAY

when he found the t-rex skull..

he looked like he had just won the lottery

random fact but loveees gyroids

BFFS WITH BLATHERS

loves him so so much

spends hours going around the museum and reading every info plaque!!

tells the members little facts about dinosaurs everyday since then

has a blathers plushie🥰

YOU GAVE IT TO HIM!!!!

you met by a friend of a friend who does animal crossing youtube videos

ofc the blathers and brewster stans would end up together

your brewster plushie appears in the background of one of han’s vlogs and fans went crazy about it

little did they know it was a gift from him that you forgot in his house the last time you visited

#LEE FELIX!

our sunshine!!!

he’s the dreamer

and what does that mean you might ask

well, his whole animal crossing experience rests on dream addresses

luna best character!!

(as he says)

he loves going around other people’s dream towns. his favorite pastime fr

WAS ON ACNL TUMBLR IN 2015

you can still find his abandoned (but not deactivated) account in present day

doesn’t regret anything!

not even losing time entering more than five times every day in the town hall to try and find isabelle sleeping so he can have the dream suite in main street

it takes luna so long to arrive at his town😔

luna you’re making lix sad:((

but yea

big fan of dream towns

and so, you meet when he visits your dream town (you left your address written in some desk at school) and you become friends (in 2015)

DEVASTATED WHEN HE BECAME A TRAINEE

but everything was good again when he debuted and started playing again

you guys reconnected and started talking more again

AND started dating not much later:)

(long distance kinda hard)

you probably move to seoul

or maybe not, who knows…

#KIM SEUNGMIN!

the bully.

yep, you read that right

THIS MAN’S A BULLY

to who?

HIS VILLAGERS

type of player who’s least favorite villager is hopper bc he’s “scary”

like he doesn’t have his villagers traumatized himself

he wants his favorites on his town, and he’ll get them

he doesn’t care, he’ll do whatever is needed

knows every single way of getting ugly villagers out of his island

his favorite tho? probably pushing them into pitfalls

laughs out loud while they cry out in their little dialogue

knows every dialogue by heart

i swear this man has seen every single angry dialogue one by one

forgives the dog villagers from his torture🤞

HAS HIT TOM IN THE HEAD WITH A NET TOO MANY TIMES

oh you know seungmin is a wild life lover

AND YOU🫵

you’re as bad as him

you love to shit-talk about hopper (and some other villagers) together

will send each other photos of your villagers being angry

you guys would feel bad if it didn’t help you release so much stress

visits to the other’s island to meet the other’s enemies- villagers i mean

what can i say, you guys are just menaces in love

#YANG JEONGIN!

don’t let our maknae fool you

he’s no innocent angel

BABY BREAD: GONE

he’s the achiever

you know how this is about new leaf?

well, he’s an acnh player too

and you know what his goal is?

EVERYTHING

and not in the collector, han jisung, kinda way

we’re talking of EVERYTHING

he NEEDS to have those 4,059,999 bells at all times

terraforms like his life depends on it

and space to walk? he doesn’t know it, just like lino, most of his island is covered in turnips

he didn’t sleep until he got the street piano diy recipe

LIKE, HOW COULD HE?

very big fan on getting into fights with people online about new horizons awesomeness

he was raised by lino after all

HOWEVER

he did not get the trading villagers gene at all

doesn’t have time for that shit💀

more like the type of want EVERYTHING, but for himself

and for you<3

HEAR ME OUT, you meet at a gaming convention (acnl era)

before he became a trainee

AND YOU JUST CLICK

the time he saw you looking at animal crossing stickers with wide eyes and a big smile

he knew he had lost the battle

it’s tough but you are able to maintain contact

first as friends

and then as partners:D

he loves giving you stuff incredibly difficult to get in-game

and you love to send him letters thanking him for it💗

@mochamvgz

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thefandomdirtymind · 5 months

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I love your sanji fics so much it’s crazy, I was wondering if you could make an angsty sanji fic!!

A/N IMPORTANT: Hi anon ! Damn this one have make me doubts myself. Angst wasn't my strong suit but I had this idea about those mistake you made when your young and the result push me to ask myself what I would do in those kind of situation and how much a person can grow from his mistake. I also enjoy write more of Zeff, even adding a little Bonus scene. Thank you for your request !

Shout out again for : @alienstardustwrites !

Oregano and others things

Soundtrack : Mine by Kelly Clarkson

OPLA - Sanji

Warning: Angst, Cheating theme, young mistake, redemption

Sanji / OPLA Masterlist and Coming Soon

* English is not my first language, I tried really hard to correct myself but, I hope you will excuse me if some mistakes are still there.

----

The water was agitated, making your little marchand boat tang a little more than to your liking. Taking a deep breath, watching the floating restaurant in front of you, you know what you have to do. You have to put your feet on that dock, wear the waiter uniform waiting for you, help Zeff with his understaffed problem and come back home. Simple, truly a walk in the park. All that and…avoid Sanji.

You came from a respectable family of fishermen and herborists selling their catch on the local market. Little girl, you were in charge of carrying the ice for the cold table and wrapping the customers' fish. You will always remember the day your parents had started making business with Zeff. The tall man, even sitting at the little table in the back of the stall, was imposing enough to at the same time scare you and make you curious. But, the little blond boy, only a few years older than you, following him like his shadow, intrigues you even more.

As you grow up, gaining new responsibility in the shop, you soon regularly help your dad doing the delivery to the Barratie, having the chance to pass some time with Sanji. Their pretext being that you would both benefit from having somebody your own age around, even if it’s for a few hours when it was in reality, for them, a moment to share a drink and talk supplies. The young cook would usually profit from this occasion to make you taste his cooking and ask you many questions about your knowledge on fish.

Adolescent, you had at many occasions,succeeded to sneak out of the not so watching eyes of the adult to respond to some question like only puberty could ask. Partner in crime for many first in your life, it was now hurting you like a knife in the wound to see him, an hour, a minute, a second.

Pushing the side door of the restaurant, many fabulous smells filling your nose, you quickly make your way to the changing room. Place which had welcomed many child games like Hide and Seeks and other less childish things like : what’s hiding under those clothes.

It wasn't the first time that you were serving tables for the Baratie. Your loyalty was, of course, going to your family,putting them first. But often, in occasional need like this, you had accepted to cover some shift to help. However, it's been a few years since you came back here for more than an exchange of ingredients and money. But, like riding a bike, you could remember the important stuff and Zeff had assured your dad that nothing had changed. You wish you could have liked to say the same.

Freshly changed, taking a nervous deep breath but confident, you exited the room, not noticing the tall blond getting out of the kitchen, angrily putting back his suit jacket.

Sanji couldn’t believe it, it was the second time this week that Zeff was rejecting one of his creative plates, sending him to play the waiter. Didn’t the old man see that his mediocre menu was killing him, and making him serve tables was the ultimate insult. He was, after all, the best cook of all this shitty restaurant.

A vision pushes him, half-way in a move to pick a fresh tray of rolled bread, to stop ruminating his dark cloud to instead freeze in place.

A little writing pad in hand, you hair styled into a practical but elegant way, your old uniforme clinging to your curve, you were standing in front of a table of happy imbeciles ( ready to all order medium well prime ribs for sure he presume) who’s was devouring you with their eyes. But the worst, for Sanji, was your smile, a generic one but a rare sign he hadn’t had the joy to see for way too long.

Seeing you like that, moving like a fish in the water around the tables, was bringing back the best and the worst moment of his life all at once,twisting his guts. And he knew exactly who to blame for that.

Turning on his heels, returning in the busy kitchen, his footstep quick and stiff, he easily spotted his mentor.

“ Zeff, why the hell is she here ?” Sanji asked, not feeling the need to clarify who ‘she’ could be. The old pirate already knew, of course, only him could have made her come to help as a waiter.

“ We’re under staff, little eggplant, she knows the job. Deal with it.” Zeff replied, his focus on inspection of the plates ready to go.

“ Really, even after you know our history ? Let me bring back your ex here and tell you the same. Would you deal with it ? “

“ Ex and History” The old man crackle” Is that what you call your little pathetic teenage adventure ? Anyway,you’re welcome to try to bring my Ex here, but I encourage you to prepare yourself to freeze your arse off. The bottom of the sea is pretty cold, just like that fucking witch. “

“ We don’t need her. We can absolutely run the restaurant like we have always do “

“ Sure we can,little eggplant, but we run way better now that she is with us. Anyway for what you did to the poor girl you deserve to feel some guilt. Now stop whining and get out of my kitchen ! “ The chef cut the discussion crossing his arms, his expression dissuading any replies.

His lips pressed in a thigh line, facing his second defeat of the day against the old man, Sanji makes his way to the double door, before stopping at only a few each of the exit, his breath stuck in his throat.

Entering the overheated place, ready to ask for the order of your customers, you briefly meet his gaze, momentarily losing your smile, regaining it as you face Zeff.

“ Four prime ribs…” You begin to say.

“ Let me guess, medium well ?” Sanji sarcastically said from the doors.

“Medium well for table five “ You still finished trying to ignore his chuckles or the caress of his gaze on you after so long.

“ Ignore him, little peach. Four prime rib mediums-well for table five !” Zeff advises you, before shouting the order.

“ I do my best uncle…Chef “ You smile, remembering your kitchen manners.

“ This table seems like a bunch of idiots, let me serve them for you “ The blond offered, his voice softened.

“ I can handle them myself, thank you “ You coldly replied,leaving him behind, trying to regain control of your emotions. Even after all those years, your traitorous heart was responding to his presence.

Making a stop at a few of your tables, seeing on the side Sanji do the same on his own. You gave table five their drink. It was obvious that those four weren't the best sailor sailing on the east blue. It was in fact, almost a miracle that people around them hadn’t complained since they were one of the most noisy tables around. But, you didn’t need his help, you will follow the plan even if the avoid part was now near impossible.

“ two old fashioned, a whisky net, a beer and a long Island “ You enumerate, placing the drink in front of the right person, putting the last one in the middle. “ You’re order is place in the kitchen I will come back soon to give you your food”

“ Wait pretty ! “The taller one exclaimed, pushing gently the long island in front of you “ This one's for you “

“ I’m sorry, I can’t accept it or drink on the job.” You declined,plastering a polite smile on your lips.

“ Oh come on pretty, only a sip, we will not tell ! “ Another with greasy hair laughs.

“ No thank you, Gentleman, I will come back with your order soon “ You firmly answer suddenly feeling the hand of the tall one grab you arm.

“ It’s not polite, we had brought you something, you could at least drink a little of it with us.”

Opening your mouth to put them back at their place, you hear Sanji behind you, his voice cold as ice.

“ First of all, a gentleman should never force a lady or touch her without consent “ The blond tells, removing finger by finger the hand of the man on your arm. “ Second, the lady say no, drink yourself your poisonous gift and let her work in peace.”

“ Sanji, it’s okay, those gentlemen were about to lower their tone and let me go” You explain embarrassedly, looking around to see many side eyes enjoying the drama. Pirates, as well as most of people,were always fond of dramas.

“ Calm down, we are only trying to know her better “ The third protest, throwing to your Ex a dark gaze.

“ Trying to know her,while she is stuck at serving you and already told you no.”

“ Sanji…” You tried.

“ It isn’t a way to treat a lady forcing her to endure your deplorable attempt. Just face it, she’s too good for all of you” Sanji finished.

“ Oh, that’s it, you want her for you lover boy “ The taller laugh” Sorry to say it to you but at the gaze she give you, you seem to have less chance that’s us”

“ Oh no, not at all. I already have the pleasure to kiss her sweet lips, even if she annoy by me, I could never be lower than you.” The blond smirked.

“ That’s enough ! Gentlemen, I came back with your plate. Please lower your tone, you disturb the dining room and you,come with me !” You said,taking Sanji's hand, forcing his taller stature than yours to follow you in one of the storage rooms.

The room, lit by a solitary lightbulb, was one you didn’t come to really often, only once in fact and it was that fatidical day. Surrounded by the many shelfs full of goods, you take three deep breaths before facing the only one you wanted to not face today.

“This was ridiculous” You abruptly said“ Everything was under control and they didn’t have to know our past history.”

“ Under control ? “ Sanji laughed,closing his eyes before tilting his head. “ Ma chérie, he gripped your arm. I know you hate that I was right about those idiot but I truly had help you there”

“ I’m not your chérie, not anymore” You remind him, the old wound reopening slowly.

You could perfectly remember that day. You turned seventeen in two days and, as your birthday was approaching, your dad had promised you that you would be the one doing the delivery alone to the Baratie for now on. Excited about the news, you had sailed to tell Sanji the good news. But, as you had searched the kitchen, the dinner room and even climbed to his room, you couldn’t find him. It’s only when a cook told you he had seen him near the storage that you regain hope. However, as you were approaching the room, you didn’t have the force to go further.

His hands, who had so gently touched you, were locked around another girl's waist, his lips you loved so much pressed against hers. Only his gaze, enlarged in shock, was fixed on you. Tears were rolling on your cheeks without you even noticing that you were crying. The only thing you noticed was a piercing pain in your chest and your body reacting by himself, stepping away as Sanji was trying to reach you, calling your name, telling you that he was sorry.

You hadn’t answered, running as fast as you can. This year, you didn’t make the delivery at the Baratie. It was only when your father felt sick that you finally take your place in the delivery bargain, only dealing with Zeff and no one else.

“ You had broken my heart, Sanji, remember ? “ You painfully said, angry about yourself to hear a point of sadness in your voice.

“ Y/N I was young…” He sighs, guilt painting his trait.

But, as you were trying to calm your heart,years of anger filling your veins.

“ You were young…that's your excuse ?!” You spit, your hand turning into fist. “ After all those years, I was waiting for an explanation who’s never come, crying every night. I finally thought I was able to get over it but it was it...you were young ?…I was too ! “

“ I know I am the one at fault here but you weren't the only one to suffer” Sanji muttered, his gaze darken, refusing to meet yours “ I didn’t know why I did it, and would you have accepted to see me, talk to me ? Your father was looking at me like he wanted to gutter me like his fish and Zeff wasn’t better, kicking me everytime he heard you were crying, whether it was my fault or not ! “

“And for today ? If it should have one who doesn't want to see the other it should be me. So what’s your problem !?” You abruptly asked.

“ My problems…My problems is that I hate having to fight everyday with Zeff about his shitty menu and I hate he put fucking oregano everywhere ! I hate that he has asked you to help knowing how it will make me feel, I hate how sexy you look in that uniform and the way that throws me back. I hate those guys who hit on you without knowing how a fucking brat you can be. “

Sanji answered, passing angrily his hand on his hair,planting his gaze in yours.

“But I hate even more that I was scared of my feelings back then ! I was a coward okay, you were amazing I freak out ! I used to think about how to impress Zeff every day and night, new recipes or new knowledge to become the best chef but the only thing I was about to think about was you. If you would come with your dad the next day, would you enjoy my Risotto or hate it? Should I make you something sweet ? Did you enjoy our kisses as much as me? How can your skin be so soft under my hands or did my hand feel too rough? Did you think of me as much as I did of you? I was falling in love so fast with you but I knew I didn’t deserve you.”

Letting a sigh escape his lips as his voice takes a more annoyed or that is an embarrassed tone as he continues his confession. You couldn’t turn your gaze of his, mute by his raw feeling finally exposed.

“Yet, the worst of all is that I hate the fact that I still do it after all those years. Every night I ask myself if you will be the one doing the delivery tomorrow, will I be able to have a glance of you or will you finally meet my gaze, will you stay mute like everytime or finally say hello and forgive me, that’s is my problems Y/N”

You didn’t know at first what to say, anger having left his place to sadness. As you were standing both still. You could clearly tell by some details in his features and physics how much he had grown since the last time you had stood like that face to face. But being scared wasn’t a reason, neither erased his act or the pain you had endured. Worst, how could you trust him after all this.

“ Well, at least after all this time, I have answers. Yes, I think about you everyday. But it also hurts me everyday,how could I trust you, I don’t know you anymore. The last time I was here we were young and you made the choice to hurt me. It’s too late for us,maybe we could try again someday, in another life. “

Leaving him behind, heading back to the restaurant level, trying to catch the tears from falling out of your eyes, you distantly heard Zeff asking you if everything was okay. Nodding of the head, putting back a smile on your lips, you take your orders and come back to the dining area.

As the sun was pursuing its course, coloring the sky with a vibrant shade of orange, pink and purple. You gave a hug to Zeff, his smell, a mix of leather, sea salt and spice recomforting you.

“ Thank you for your help Little Peach. I know it wasn’t easy with…all this…but you truly help us today “ He tells, freeing you of his bear hug.

“ I was glad to be able to help Uncle Zeff”

Lifting his gaze to the restaurant, the old man seems to shortly struggle to find his words, playing nonchalantly with one of his braids.

“ Sanji isn’t a bad kid, a brat who made some terrible mistake, yes, but I think he really regretted what he had done. I made him regret it too for your sake of course, little Peach…But I saw how his mistake had made him grow. Sometimes you have to lose a treasure you thought was already yours to realize how important it was for you. “

“ I know Zeff “ You smiled, letting so many things go unsaid,trying not to cry again. After all, how do you explain to the old man that feeling of not knowing that man in a suit when you had only known him with a cook uniform or unable to knot a necktie.Or knowing perfectly why his loyalty to the pirate chef will forever prevent him from leaving the restaurant.“ Same hour tomorrow ? “

“ Like always” The old chef smiles, helping you step in your small boat, watching you leave his dock. “ Keep your feet dry “

—

A week later.

The fresh air of the morning was filling your lungs. On the water, the fishing boat was immobile, painting a peaceful image succeeding alway to put you at ease.

As you were preparing the stall, for your opening of the day, careful adjusting the spice jars on their little shelfs, waiting for the fisherman to bring your fresh fish, you heard a small cough.

“ So it was you who sold all that oregano to the old man, “ Sanji's voice gently said, as if he was trying to not scare you away.

Standing at only a few steps of you, a duffel bag on his shoulder, his suit and tie impeccable in the sleepy dock market, you take a full minute to process his presence.

“ You had left The Baratie…” You shockingly said, more a realization of a thing you thought would never happen than a question. “ I mean, what are you doing here ?” You finally asked, still unsure if it wasn’t a trick of your brain. Young Sanji would never leave the restaurant or miss an opportunity to learn kitchen tricks, other than for necessary utility.

“ Yes, Zeff had sent me as a return of favor for the help you gave us and I didn’t protest” He replied, taking a few precautionary steps, the idea that you still could decide to attack him by throwing one of the jars at his face, not far in his brain. “His precise words were to work my ass off or be ready to have my butt kicked. Look, I know that I mess up everything and I will regret it all my life. But I’m well intended to work right today and prove to you that we can maybe have a…fresh start ? “

“ A fresh start “ You repeat, considering the idea. Even if nothing could change the past, you had, in the last week, known that climbing to it now that you had your answers wouldn’t help you in any aspect of your life. And, now that miracle seems to happen, it was maybe all you need. “ You will not say to the clients that oregano is for savages, is that clear ? “

“ Even if it’s the truth ? “ He asked, an amused smile playing on his lips. “ We will have to review the quantity you send to the restaurant it’s way too high “

“ You really have a problem with it are you “ You let yourself joke.

"Hadn’t hated another herbs as much as this one, “ Sanji replied, putting aside his bag.

“ Maybe your taste is just too fancy” You laugh, feeling your heart seem to regain its pace for the first time in a long time.

“ Maybe that’s why your lips always look to me like a one of a kind delicacy “ Sanji flirted.

“ Sanji, fresh start !” You laugh, returning to your opening preparation. “ Just for that you will refill the oregano jar ! “

“ Yes Madam “ The blond cook responded, a smile on his lips, a spark you thought long gone freshly back in his eyes. “ Fresh start “

—-

Bonus :

His old back against one of the piles supporting the platform surrounding the restaurant, his wooden leg removed, Zeff was smiling.

“ They aren’t bad kids, mistakes have been made, kicks have been given. But it’s the good things in life. Errors make you grow and paths who’s we thought never crossed come back. Often it doesn't work, but I hope for them it will.”

“ I hope Zeff, you have grown too, you had more lines in your face than the last time” The timeless woman said, his head resting on his crossed arms, the lower half of his body undulating in the dark water.

“ It’s not everybody who’s an immortal sea witch, “ Zeff replied.

“ I had offered you to share my ageless life, you had decline it “ She remind him.

“ The little eggplant needed me, he was only a child. But I never thought you would forget us on that rock. “ He argued, still bitter of the memory.

“ Time is an abstract notion for us, but you survive, don't you ? “ The sea witch smiles, having the decency to look embarrassed of his own mistake.

“ Will you forget me when I die” Zeff asked.

“ Probably, but the water will remind me of Red boots Zeff and his sacrifice to save a little human.” She simply said, returning into the deep of the sea.

Turning his gaze to the stars, Zeff smiled.

---

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buttercupjosh · 1 month

Text

Seasons of Love

(Gif credit to @youmustlovehim)

Word count: 2,772

Genres: strangers to lovers to exes, a little bittersweet

Warnings: none

A/N: I’ve had pieces of details of this fic in mind for a while and I started to slowly write it out over the past few months. This title comes from Seasons of Love from the musical RENT, although there’s nothing in the story connects to specific details from that. The story is not based off of anything specific, just a plot that had been simmering in me for some time. It’s not set at a specific moment in time (It’s taking place in a fictional future but you could also say that it’s set this season. However, the season is still ongoing at the moment and anything can happen or change). It’s written with a female reader in mind because I’m a female of color but the reader doesn’t specifically have to be a POC or a woman and there’s little dialogue. As always, I’m open to any and all feedback, comments or questions; just put them in my inbox or dm me. Thank you so much in advance for reading, I appreciate it😌

(P.S. I have other stories (linked here) that I have written for other players as well if you want to check it out)

““How do you measure a year in the life? How about love?” -Seasons of Love from the RENT musical soundtrack

Prologue

“Excuse me, is this a good book to read?” a deep accented voice asks you.

“Dune? For sure, it’s an epic story,” you reply.

“Do you think I could finish it in 4 days?” the voice asks.

“4 days? Unless you’re an Olympian at reading and processing complex storylines, I’d say it might take you close to 4 weeks or even 4 months to read it all,” you respond.

“Oh,” the voice says in defeat, “what do you recommend then?”

You list off some sci-fi recs for the towering cute man and he takes your suggestions into mind before deciding to get a copy of We, a novel written by his fellow countryman Yevgeny Zamyatin.

“I’ve never read that one,” you chimed.

“Should we start a book club then so you can read it?” the voice asks with a chuckle.

“Um, how can I start a book club with someone whose name I don’t even know?”

Slightly embarrassed, the voice introduces himself as Andrei and you introduce yourself to him as you shake hands. His hand in yours felt so comforting for someone you just met under an hour ago. Andrei was impressed that you knew so much about books. One of his New Year’s resolutions was to read more so that’s how he ended up at Barnes and Noble talking to you. You were at the store, just looking around for something new to read, and stumbled into the sci-fi section before checking out with your new copy of Happy Place by Emily Henry.

“So are we starting this book club then, Andrei?” you slyly ask.

Andrei wanted to have someone as a reading buddy to discuss reading with him (the other guys on the team weren’t as into reading as him) and it didn’t hurt that he had someone who knew a lot about literature right in front of him so he agreed to it.

“As long as you read “We” with me, please?” Andrei charmingly requested.

Although sci-fi wasn’t your thing at the moment, you couldn’t quite say no to the man with big brown doe eyes so you grabbed a copy off the shelf. Before going over the parameters of the newly formed book club, Andrei kindly paid for both of your books and you decided to discuss the rules in the cafe located inside of the store.

You and Andrei sat in a semi-secluded booth towards the back of the cafe and began sharing some of your backstories with each other over drinks and muffins. Andrei was again impressed by your educational background of holding an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and your job as an adjunct English professor at Wake Tech Community College; it definitely explained your love of reading but your dream was to move to New York and become an author one day. You were working on a manuscript for a cute romance novel but still had a lot of things to do before it was ready to be presented to a publisher. The professor job was just a placeholder until you finished up your manuscript and saved up enough money to get a literary agent; you loved writing as much as you loved reading but getting your foot in the door in the writing industry was rough. You listened to Andrei as he told his story about his life and how he ended up in America through his hockey career. You and Andrei were both curious about each other and asked so many questions to each other for such a long time that you didn’t even notice that the store was going to close. Neither of you wanted your time together to end but you both had lives to get to outside of the store. You both laughed when you realized that you and Andrei spent so much time getting to know each other that not once throughout your conversation did you discuss the rules of the book club. Before leaving, you and Andrei exchanged numbers. You both agreed to read the first 50 pages and scheduled to meet up at a different cafe to discuss what you read so far in two weeks.

————————————————————

Winter

Within a year, the book club didn’t last long but it did lead to you and Andrei being in constant contact with each other. Due to both of your schedules, neither of you really had the time to sit down and have deep intellectual discussions about what you read; you both did end up finishing reading We but you finished it at different paces. Being the book lover you are, you completed the book first but Andrei finished reading the book while on the road and he wanted to discuss the ending with you so bad that he surprisingly FaceTime called you. That one FaceTime call with Andrei turned into a long series of texts, phone calls, and more FaceTime calls and eventually spending time together offline. You and Andrei considered each other to be just friends but that friendship eventually turned into you falling for each other.

Andrei was a hot commodity around Raleigh and in Russia with his DMs bursting at the seams but he only had eyes for you. He had never fallen in love with someone the way that he did for you; being with you was different than what he was used to but it worked in the best way. You knew the risks and chaos of being with a busy, famous athlete but Andrei was worth all of it. You blended and adjusted well into the hockey romantic partner lifestyle and Andrei even taught you how to ice skate. Despite the busyness of your lives, you and Andrei still showed up for and made time for each other, even if it was something as small as meeting up at your place for a post-afternoon game milkshake from The Shiny Diner or as big as taking Andrei as your date to your work holiday party. Whenever you had the time, you and Andrei created fun, everlasting memories together. A somewhat sweet memory that Andrei would always remember was when on one cold evening, you wanted to surprise your Russian boyfriend by attempting to make him borscht, a traditional Eastern European soup that was his favorite comfort food. The soup did not come well at all so you and Andrei ended up ordering Panera Bread to warm your bones. Although the soup you made tasted unpleasant, Andrei appreciated the fact that you took the time and effort to learn something from his culture and did that from your heart. The poetic thing about your relationship was that you patiently understood each other, despite the language and culture barrier; your relationship just worked like two puzzle pieces clicking together into place.

————————————————————

Spring

As the flowers bloomed around Raleigh, the school year for you ended on a good note and unsurprisingly, the Canes made playoffs. Deep into your manuscript writing, Andrei surprised you with a trip to New York after the Canes were eliminated from playoffs. You and Andrei were already spending the entire off-season together so this trip wasn’t a necessity but it was a nice thing to do.

Your time in New York was amazing and full of love, fun, and plenty of delicious food. While you were in the City, you took the opportunity to meet with some potential literary agents and publishers; although your manuscript was about 90 percent done, it didn’t hurt to check those things out. Andrei was supportive of you and your dreams but he selfishly wished that those dreams didn’t include moving to New York and that you would stay in Raleigh and have a life with him there. He had already known his future was tightly connected to the City of Oaks but you had a desire to create a future somewhere else. You knew these dreams of yours could possibly involve leaving the love of your life; neither of you tried not to dwell too hard on the stress and pressure that those dreams added to your relationship. You also knew the publishing industry was cutthroat and competitive and that there was no guarantee that your book would be picked up by a top publisher but those realities didn’t stop you from at least trying to take the steps towards that dream.

Outside of this pressure, you and Andrei still made the best of your time in NYC. You also loved musical theater so of course, you had to catch a Broadway show. Andrei, being the amazing boyfriend that he is, actually secured tickets for the two of you to see Hamilton at the Richard Rogers Theater. You had watched the live stage production on Disney+ and knew the entire soundtrack; Andrei went into the show blindly, only remembering bits and pieces from the songs that you played around him. Seeing Hamilton live on Broadway was a great experience that you both enjoyed. You and Andrei got to see New York City in a different light; you got to explore more of the city that you longed to call home and Andrei got to see more of the city as a true tourist. This entire trip was something that you both would forever cherish.

————————————————————

Summer

Not long after you left New York, you went to Russia for the first time to meet and spend time with his family and friends and to see the place that made Andrei into the man that you love. You learned more about Russian culture, Andrei’s childhood, and even was a guest at his cousin’s wedding. Andrei’s friends and family approved of you as a person and they liked you with him; they could all tell how truly in love you were with each other. You also spent some time together in Turkey and around Europe for some much-needed relaxation; you got to see the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea in Greece, eat authentic handmade pasta in Italy, and kiss your lover in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Traveling around with Andrei made you feel like you were the protagonist of a great summer read. Speaking of reading, Andrei still maintained his goal of reading more books, reading just about anything and everything, and even started to recommend things for you to read. Before you would fall asleep at night, you would share with each other a fact or synopsis of something that you read that day.

While Andrei was occupied with his off-season training during the day, you applied for publishing jobs, presented your finally completed manuscript to several literary agents, and ended up securing one. It was relieving to officially have a literary agent to represent you but the next biggest hurdle was the painstaking editing process and waiting for your work to be picked up by the right publisher.

————————————————————

Fall

After the bliss of the off-season ended, it was time for the hustle and bustle of your teaching job and hockey season to return. About 2 weeks before preseason started, you and Andrei moved in together. It was exciting to get to live with your lover and spend even more time (whenever you could) with him. It was also nice that you got to add your style to the place and make it your own; having a home also meant that you could host your friends, Andrei’s teammates, and sometimes family for holidays and events and create more cherished memories together. Being a hopeless romantic who loved romance novels, you had always wondered who would be the man to sweep you off your feet but you sort of already knew that man was Andrei.

A fun memory that you made together was the Sunday before the season opener, you and Andrei took a trip to a local corn maze with a pumpkin patch to take cute couple photos together and to also check it out. These photos would be added into some of the new picture frames and a scrapbook of memories in your shared home. The photographer did an excellent job, capturing the love that flowed between you in still moments. For the rest of your time, you wandered around the corn maze, hand-in-hand, with your lovely boyfriend. The infamous oak trees in Raleigh began to shed their leaves and the year began inching closer and closer towards the end.

————————————————————

Winter part 2

One snowy morning, you got an email from McGraw Hill, offering you a job as an educational copy editor in their NYC office. You couldn’t believe it, you were on the path of working at a publisher and hopefully, one day getting your book published; all that you had been working so hard for was starting to pay off in tremendous ways. The only issue that was concerning you was breaking the news to Andrei. You knew he would be happy for you but you also knew what the next steps were. You tried to hold in your tears but after practice, Andrei came home to you crying. He immediately dropped his stuff and concerningly asked you what was wrong. You explained to Andrei that you were crying joyfully over the news you received. Words couldn’t describe how proud Andrei was for you so he picked you up and spun you around in happiness.

“I’m so proud of you, my love,” Andrei repeated as he peppered kisses around your face.

He was truly proud of you but the ecstasy of the good news came with the most painful come down. Andrei didn’t want you to move to New York but he had already known for a while that you wanted to leave. He did try to convince you to stay and he hoped for months that you would change your mind but you didn’t so he helped you pack some of your things. Andrei couldn’t help you move up there so he entrusted Nykki, Martin Necas’ girlfriend, to help you settle into your new home and life, more than 500 miles away from the address you once shared.

You and Andrei did try dating long distance but your relationship unfortunately didn’t last very long. Between the responsibilities of your new job, revising over your manuscript, trying to get your book published somewhere, and Andrei’s hectic hockey schedule, you began to drift apart from each other and the physical distance between you didn’t help either. You enjoyed living in New York and you did miss each other from time to time but Andrei knew it would be unfair to ask you to give up on your dreams to come back to Raleigh and be with him. Despite not dating anymore, you and Andrei talked occasionally but not as frequently as it was when you first met and still remained friends. It was okay that the relationship had run its course because it taught you both a lot about love. Andrei came into your life for a season and those seasons you shared together were full of so much undeniable light and love. The love that you shared was different from the romance novels you read but your relationship wrote its own beautiful story.

————————————————————

Epilogue

Before catching his flight to Miami for the NHL All-Star break, Andrei went into the bookstore at Raleigh-Durham International Airport to look for a book to read on his flight. In the book section, he spotted Seasons of Love, written by you with a New York Times Bestseller sticker on the cover. Over the years, Andrei had heard some things about your novel in passing but he purposely avoided reading the book because the breakup was a bit painful for him. After you achieved getting your book published, you wanted to send Andrei a signed copy but decided against it because you weren’t sure if he would actually read the story and didn’t want to come across as pretentious either. He debated back and forth about getting the book before finally asking a store employee about their opinion about it.

“I read that one. It’s a fictional story but I heard it’s loosely based on a true story about the author’s relationship with some cool guy. It’s a super good read if you like romance," said the store employee.

Hearing what the store employee said about your book made Andrei’s heart warm a little and he purchased it as his read for his trip. After returning back to Raleigh, conveniently, there was a book signing by a familiar author at a local Barnes and Noble that Andrei decided to attend. Although Andrei didn’t get his happy ending with you in real life, you sure gave him one with the words that you wrote on the page.

#andrei svechnikov #carolina hurricanes #andrei svechnikov x reader #andrei svechnikov imagine #hockey fic #hockey writing #my writing

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lookninjas · 6 months

Text

Pick a Song From A Bad Description: November Edition

Because it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home and that's why.

I just really needed to capture the spirit of the season (and build a playlist around that Colourfield song), so this is what we're doing.

Pick a song! Any song! You have only my bad descriptions to go off, though. If you are curious about any given song, you can shoot me an ask and I will answer. At the end of voting, I will make a playlist of the songs in order from least number of votes to highest number of votes, and will reblog this poll with that playlist attached. If you want to be reminded of this poll when it's playlist time, leave a comment or put it in the tags if you reblog, and I'll write your username down and tag you when the playlist is posted.

Also, please reblog the poll! Everyone likes it when their polls break containment, even if we don't like it when anything else does. Polls are different like that.

(Also, also, I will probably blaze this one just because everyone's talking about the death of tumblr, and while I've lived through like six of those, it's a good excuse to toss them a little money while I can.)

Vote! Reblog! If you're in the northern hemisphere, try not to let the seasonal depression get you down too much. See you in a week or whenever I reblog this next.

#polls #music #playlists #bit heated about my inability to find the gif i wanted which i know should be on the site #but whatever #anyway just time to do something a bit melancholy for november is all

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felizusnavidad · 4 months

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Hi so i only recently got into hamilton and really liked lmm in it but ive been seeing a lot of pjo fans talking about not wanting him as hermes and you are a lmm expert so i wondered if you knew why people are hating on him for being casted in pjo?

first of all, i am actually flattered that you called me an expert (i am literally not but i do know a lot, i observe, i go through lmm tag every day, i get mad when i see people talk shit about him, basically i'm super loud about my love for this guy so there's that some call it dedication, i call it obsession lol).

there are a lot of reasons actually but all of them are just so silly to me. for example, some people say he is a bad actor (if hamilton is not enough for you, please go watch his dark materials, he is excellent and i will fight). others say he can't sing (he can, he may not have the most incredible vocals ever, not like most broadway stars and i know a lot of people compare him with the best singers out there, but it doesn't mean he can't sing, also, he is much better now than he used to be years ago, for example i'd recommend listening to vivo soundtrack, especially keep the beat or one more song, i mean EXCUSE ME BUT MY MAN CAN SING). another reason: some people say he is annoying because he puts raps everywhere. ok, and? he is a great rapper, i'll say more: he is also a freestyle rapper, very talented indeed (i recommend checking literally any freestyle love supreme video on youtube or you can just go through my fls tag here. making up rhymes on the spot? pretty insane if you ask me). there is also a group of people who think he is cringe, his rhymes are cringe, some of his songs are not good, etc etc (i bet those people can write better songs). i think he is one of the greatest composers of our generation and i will, of course, fight (haters, please shut the fuck up about the scuttlebutt, this song was supposed to be annoying, you just don't get it apparently? same with my own drum actually. can we just stop pretending that he is talentless because of those songs you guys literally have no taste and you hate fun and also shut tf up). oh, and also, people these days very often say he is everywhere and it's annoying (this is literally his job but whatever). and my all-time favourite: some people are mad that he was playing hamilton because they think he didn't deserve it (he literally wrote the whole thing but ok). one more thing: i have never read pjo, i literally just started reading it only because of lin, so i know nothing about hermes, but personally i really hope he will sing/rap, just because i want to see them all suffer.

there were also other controversial stuff (with in the heights, hamilton and puerto rico) but we are not going to discuss it on my blog, sorry (mostly because i have my own opinion about it and i know i will get a lot of hate for speaking my mind). one thing i can say is that nobody's perfect, we all make mistakes sometimes and i will always fight for him, no matter what.

#thank you for this ask #i really love talking about him and it always makes me super happy to know there are others who love him like i do #please feel free to visit my blog whenever you want to #it's a safe space for lin's fans #will i get hate for it? idk maybe #still i'm gonna tag it so others can find it #lin manuel miranda #lmm #anon #i saved every letter you wrote me*#(i am literally drunk and writing essays about lmm on christmas eve what tf is wrong with me)

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ourflagmeansgayrights · 8 months

Text

saw this on twitter and as someone who loves 1. talking about my opinions and 2. talking about this show, i am of course going to take this excuse to talk abt my opinions of this show. im gonna throw all of it into reblogs of this post tho so im not clogging up the tag fdjkhfsjk

anyway days 1-7 (bc im late to the party) under the cut:

Day 1: when did you discover ofmd?

probably same as most ppl on here, ofmd was suddenly all over my dashboard at some point around mid to late march 2022. one post i saw was a link to a google drive with the episodes and i ended up watching the entire series like, the next day.

Day 2: first impression of ofmd

ok tbh my first impression based on the very first gifsets i was seeing was "this show looks kinda stupid idk if i can take these costumes seriously." then during the first few minutes of s1 i was like "oh yeah this is definitely a taika project, this feels so much like wwdits." both of these impressions no longer hold true lol the costumes are SO fun and past the bit in the pilot of stede narrating to lucius the wwdits vibes are no longer present.

Day 3: first ofmd pic in gallery

first ofmd pic in my phone is the uncropped version of this fanart:

ed just hanging out with my doggy

Day 4: reasons why you like ofmd

i tend to enjoy lighthearted comedy tv and also shows with shorter episodes. this is why most of the media i've consumed for years is just cartoons hjfkhkghfskj BUT outside of those basic preferences the HEART the characters the writing the comedy the romance the soundtrack the set design the props the storylines the cast the crew. there's almost no part of this show that im not in love with.

Day 5: fav main character(s)

Day 6: fav supporting character(s)

an incomplete collection in no particular order:

this show has so many blorbos

Day 7: songs that remind you of your fav characters

uhhh mostly just the soundtrack songs (high on a rocky ledge, the chain, perfect day, avalanche, miles from nowhere, the beautiful ones by prince) bc im bad at listening to music. one time i was listening to hurt by johnny cash and i started crying abt ed. jinx by green day is kinda stedecore. there's a handful of todrick hall songs that my mutuals have related to ofmd characters and that's given me brainrot.

#ofmd #our flag means death #s2 hiatus hell #txt #sc #mine #og #my art #30DaysWithOFMD #30 days with ofmd

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goldrushzukka · 2 years

Text

as promised. the first 1k words of aidays10:

“Jet,” Sokka repeats. Nearly chokes on it.

He thinks, fleetingly, terribly, that this must be how wild animals feel before an earthquake.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Sokka,” Jet says. Something icy prickles up Sokka’s spine at the sound of his name in Jet’s mouth. “Zuko’s told me a lot about you.”

Jet is handsome, athletically built, and his smile drips charm like venom on the fangs of a snake.

Sokka’s gaze shifts to Zuko and finds him looking right back, his cheeks burning red.

“I would’ve let you know,” Zuko says, uncharacteristically shy, “but we were already running late –”

“And I can’t say no to a party,” Jet – fucking hell, breathe, Sokka – says. “I hope I’m not crashing.”

Sokka can feel everything starting to bottleneck inside him; all the feelings – the shock, the fondness, the anger, the bone-deep wanting – trying to overwhelm him at once. There’s no time to breathe, no time to think through any of it, no time to process.

The world is ending, and Sokka is still shaking the guy’s fucking hand.

He needs another drink.

“No, it’s, um –” Sokka clears his throat. It doesn’t help. “You said it yourself, man, it’s a party. The more the merrier.”

Jet opens his mouth to speak again, anxiety grips Sokka’s heart in a tight fist –

Someone bumps into Sokka, and he drops Jet’s hand to steady them by the shoulders. Ty Lee giggles as she thanks him. Her lips are the colour of sparkling rosé.

She’s still laughing as she says, “This place looks amazing, thanks so much for inviting us!”

“Thank you for coming,” Sokka says, manners tumbling out on autopilot. He’s not even sure if he means it, it’s just what he knows he’s supposed to say. He needs to get out of here, before he says something stupid – or worse, something he does mean.

“I see you’ve met Jet,” she preens, “isn’t he just a peach?”

She smacks a loud kiss onto Jet’s blushing cheek. He doesn’t wipe away the smear of lipgloss she leaves behind.

“Oh, he’s a charmer,” Sokka says, scanning over her head for a way out, any way out of this nightmare.

Jet starts to say, “Well, I –” when Sokka finally spots an opening. Katara, standing by the bar, waiting to be served. Her fingers tap out a rapid beat on the glass display case.

Sokka puts on the most apologetic smile he can muster and does not look at Zuko. “Would you excuse me? I think my sister needs me for a minute.”

“Oh, I know all about that,” Ty Lee says, and a laugh spills from Jet’s mouth, like it’s an inside joke.

“Good!” Sokka says, in response to nothing but the anxiety bubbling in his blood. “Great. Thanks. Uh –” He snags Aang by the arm on his way past, presumably also heading for Katara, and turns him to face Ty Lee and Jet and Zuko. “This is my best friend, Aang. He’ll give you guys a tour, okay?”

Aang throws Sokka a bewildered glance over his shoulder, asking with his eyes, I will?

Sokka gives him a pleading look, hoping to high heaven that no one else sees it, and Aang plasters on a crooked grin. Right before he slinks away, Sokka hears him ask, “Did you know the Dance Dance Revolution here has the Star Wars soundtrack?”

Sokka doesn’t falter a single step on his way to Katara, even when he’s sure he can feel eyes on his back. He just throws back the rest of his drink and keeps walking.

Katara is ordering when he reaches her. He tells Haru, “I’ll have what she’s having,” because if he knows his sister at all, she’s having something strong and evil.

“You don’t like what I drink,” Katara says, as Haru sets down four shot glasses. “In fact, I believe the word you use for what I drink is yucky.”

“That’s because what you drink is basically moonshine,” Sokka says. “And moonshine is yucky.”

“Coward,” she says. Haru pours, and she raises a shot glass. “Bottoms up.”

Sokka taps his shot against hers with a quiet, plastic clink, and drinks before he can talk himself out of it. He holds his breath and chases it with the second one.

The burn is cruel and merciless and exactly what he needs. It grounds him. Gives him something to focus on that won’t send him into a spiral of what if and maybe and should have.

He buries his head in his hands.

Katara scoffs. “That yucky?”

Sokka groans and looks up. He glances over his shoulder. Aang is at the concession stand explaining the intricacies of the Suki-related pun names of each menu item to Ty Lee and Jet and Mai, who Sokka swears wasn’t there when he left them, and –

Zuko is looking right at him.

That spiral starts up again, deeper than before.

Sokka looks away.

There’s another shot in front of him. He takes it, to clear his head, to cloud his inhibitions.

He turns to Katara.

“Don’t look now,” he tells her, “but the guy listening to Aang talk about onion rings is Jet.”

She ignores his advice, frowning as she cranes her neck to see over the other partygoers. “The one who broke up you and Zuko?”

“We didn’t – we were never together. There was nothing to break up.”

The jacket stretched across Sokka’s shoulders still smells of tea leaves and lilies. A voice in the back of his mind whispers, yes, there was.

Katara looks back at him, eyes rolling. “Forgive me if stopped sleeping together so one of you could try dating another guy and it didn’t work out but you didn’t start sleeping together again because you don’t think he loves you back takes too long to say.”

Sokka puts his head in his hands again.

read and i'll do anything you say (if you say it with your hands) here

#mine #zukka #my writing #aidays #and ill do anything you say #pls enjoy. thank u for ur hard work zukka nation #fic

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multi-fandomedfreak · 10 months

Note

Fic idea: How might the Sides help with writer's block?

Authors note: I wrote Janus and Remus for this one!! Which is why this took a tad longer than usual lol

⚠️ Warnings ⚠️: Remus making dirty comments

👑 Roman 👑

-Oooh writers block with Roman is ALMOST non existent

-He’s creativity after all so he would come up with the most extravagant things

-Would definitely use this as an opportunity to spend time alone with you in the Mindscape place and create whatever came to mind to help inspire you

-DAYDREAM MODE ACTIVATED

-He’ll do EVERYTHING to help you beat writers block, which also gives him an excuse to be as dramatic as possible

-Aww I also feel like the moment he has an idea he doesn’t even say anything he just rushes to the nearest writing utensil and writes it down before he forgets

-Just know asking for Romans help with writers block will have you both exhausted but happy

-exhausted mainly because of all the running around and happy that you both got to do all that together

-You definitely got an idea about what to write

💙 Logan 💙

-ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT WHEN YOU ASK HIM FOR HELP WITH WRITERS BLOCK

-Obviously calm and collected on the outside but on the inside he is so darn happy

-It just makes him feel very important and will take it very seriously

-He’ll research various topics with you, look at art/pictures, take notes of things, etc.

-Expect so. much. info dumping.

-But hey it really does help with drumming up some good ideas

-By the end of it, you’ll have like more than 5 pages worth of notes to help you with your writers block

-He’ll somehow even throw out MORE ideas as he helps you write whatever it is that you’re writing

-Literally a human grammarly so he’s always pointing out where you can improve your grammar

-Likes to compliment certain parts of your work in order to keep you motivated tho

-If you drink coffee, your both probably buzzing off of the amount of caffeine you guys drank during the reasearch

🍪 Patton 🍪

-At first he’ll ask, “what’s writers block?”

-Once you explain it tho, he’ll try drumming up any ideas on how to help

-I feel like his idea of getting you inspired will be stuff like, talking a walk to maybe help clear your head or baking/ cooking something for you

-Probably takes you to his room hoping that all the nostalgic stuff he has in it will help

-He’s trying his best lol

-He’ll probably get distracted with the things in his room and has to be constantly reminded of the task at hand

-Somehow that helps?? Like seeing him organically do stuff and not trying to help you get inspired, helps with the writers block

-With Patton it just really depends if he does or says something that somehow triggers inspiration

-Gives you cookies and milk as you work once you get past writers block

💜 Virgil 💜

-Once you ask him, you both probably sit on his bed trying to think of something

-Till Virgil suggests you listen to some music that will help you

-He puts on ALL his favorite albums

-Puts on Paramore, MCR, Evanescence, and probably the soundtrack of his favorite musicals/movies

-Probably suggests watching some movies to hopefully get inspired

-Tries not to panic when it doesn’t seem to work

-But it does work since you both end up talking in depth about the movies and songs

-It ends up being a veryyyyy long conversation since he’s very passionate about his interests

-And you love listening to him

-Once you sit down and get to work on the thing you wanna write, he’s there sitting with you to help bounce ideas off one another

-Kinda like Logan, will be vibrating from the amount of coffee he’s drank

-Once you asked him to help with writers block, he helped you through the whole day

-And I mean, the whole day

-You’re just both very relieved you finally got through writers block

🐍 Janus 🐍

-“You must be truly desperate to come to me for help.”

-Ok Loki nobody asked for ur opinion

-Will reluctantly help (he would love to help he’s just being janus. he’s actually jumping with joy on the inside that you asked him for help)

-He’ll probably try telling you stories that are completely made up to hopefully get ur creative juices flowing

-Yes he goes through the effort to make up stories to tell you

-Probably will take you to the library to help research various topics

-Why not just look it up? Bc he likes the quiet atmosphere

-Not at all bc he wants to put actual effort into helping you

-He’s gonna be a diva about it tho

-Surprisingly is very keen on helping you get motivated and when you think about giving up, he simply won’t allow it

-He gets you up and running

-Probably promises to get you something as a reward for getting through writers block

-One of the few times he’s not actually lying

-Once you do come up with an idea, he’ll probably make little sassy remarks about your work

-Know he doesn’t actually mean it, he just says it on instinct

-Oh and your reward? He can’t bring himself to give it to you in person so he just leaves it somewhere he knows you’ll find it

💚 Remus 💚

-Oh gosh, you almost regret asking him for help with writers block

-Bc he will go into gremlin mode and just do the most out of pocket things ever

-“To help your creative - and other- juices flow!!” he says

-Immediately gets hit upside the head for that little comment

-But, anyways, if you need help writing some messed up stuff or something; he’s the best guy for the job

-Just imagine him being as extra as Roman but much more…disturbing

-He won’t stop making dirty jokes/comments through the whole thing

-But he surprisingly does a good job at helping you out with writers block

-Of course you both will most likely get sidetracked bc Remus is being Remus

-Just know you you’ll be both disturbed but entertained when it comes to asking Remus for help

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #thomas sanders sides #virgil sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides x reader #patton sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #sanders sides headcanon #roman x reader #logan x reader #Patton x reader #Virgil x reader #janus x reader #remus x reader

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yetanothersparrowofthedawn · 5 months

Text

The Bomb

Masterlist

Word Count: 1.5k

Pairing: Jake Kiszka x Reader

Genre: Angst, Hurt, ex!Jake

Synopsis: Jake hasn’t healed even months after his ex-girlfriend Y/N said ‘I do’ to another man.

For a bit of context while I try and write what came before: Y/N is a super successful singer-songwriter although it’s not super relevant in this chapter. She has been close friends with the members of Greta Van Fleet, for several years. She had a loving yet terribly tumultuous relationship with Jake that didn't end very well (you’ll see), although they eventually figured out how to remain on good terms for everybody’s sake. But Jake was lightyears away from being ready to see her married to another man.

Warning: English isn’t my native language, so I apologize in advance for mistakes and awkward wordings to come. Also, I guess this fic could be triggering because it’s kind of really sad and angsty.

Previous Track: Happier than Ever

Chapter soundtrack : The Bomb – Florence + the Machine

"But if I was free to love you, You wouldn't want me, would you? Unavailability is the only thing that turns you on, Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong. I've blown apart my life for you, And bodies hit the floor for you, Break me, shake me, devastate mе Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong I don't love you, I just love the bomb."

Alright let’s get into this.

The Annual Benefit of the Barcelona Art Institute. The space was beautiful and the exhibition simply exquisite as Y/N wandered gracefully around the sumptuous halls of the venue, occasionally making small talks with fellow art enthusiasts, all the while enjoying a nice glass of champagne. She was deep in conversation with one of the curators about purchasing one of the paintings when she suddenly felt her phone vibrating in her purse.

‘Incoming call from Daniel’

Weird, she thought, it was late at night, and the band and her had already planned to have lunch all together the following day. They had, by some happy coincidence, found themselves in Barcelona at the same time and figured it would be a great opportunity to meet up, since they rarely got to anymore. The members of Greta Van Fleet were there for a concert and some PR business, while Y/N had flown out to attend a couple of events during the peak of social season. She softly excused herself and picked up right away.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Hey, YN,” she heard Danny’s voice, “Listen, I’m so, so sorry, I know that you’re at this Gala thing but, we kind of- have a situation over here…”

“You sound worried, is everyone okay?” YN asked, heading towards a quiet corner.

“Actually… no.” Danny said, “It’s Jake," YN's heart stopped, "he’s-he’s been acting weird all day and he just- kind of, um, freaked out a couple hours ago and walked out before the concert was even over.”

“Jesus, is he alright?” YN asked, a concerned look creeping on her face, “Is somebody with him?”

“Yeah, not really, he’s cooped up in his hotel room right now,” Danny replies, hesitation in his voice, “The staff is losing it, but he won’t let anybody in. He- he did, uh," he paused, "he mentioned you. Do you think- you could- come over? We wouldn’t normally ask but-”

“No, it’s okay, of course. Um, just- send me the address, I- I’ll be right there,” she hung up, racing out of the building, stilettos in hand, and immediately hailing a cab.

_______________

She rushed out of the elevator only to see the boys sitting at the end of the hallway, a defeated look on their faces.

“Y/N, thank god you’re there” Sam sighed in relief, jumping on his feet to greet her.

“Is he in there?” she asked urgently, eyes on the closed door.

“Yeah,” Danny replied, “he ended up opening the door, let Josh in, but- I don’t think he said much.”

Y/N walked past him and towards the hotel room. She knocked softly on the door before cracking it open, only to hear Jake’s gravelly voice shouting, “For crying out! I told you, I didn’t-”

“It’s me,” she interrupted gently, venturing into the room. It was dark, but she still managed to catch a glimpse of what she assumed to be the outcome of her ex-boyfriend’s mood. Chair fallen over, open minibar and clothes scattered all over the floor of the luxurious suite.

Jake was sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees and back facing her, but she could still see his shoulders moving up and down as tiny sobs seemingly racked through his body. Josh was on his knees in front of him, he looked up at YN as soon as she entered. Y/N gave him a weak nod as to indicate that he could leave. He got up and silently walked out of the room, making sure to squeeze her arm on the way out.

She let out a long sigh as she heard the door close behind her. What now? She decided to approach him slowly, the sound of her high heels against the waxed floor letting the boy know of her movements.

“Hey Jakey,” Y/N murmured, looking down at his shivering figure. But the boy kept his eyes on the floor, so she got down on her knees in front of him, “Danny called me… said you had a bit of a- a problem earlier.” She waited for him to speak for a few seconds but was only met with silence, so she carried on, “you know you can tell me any-”

“I, uh,” he interrupted with a hoarse voice, his puffy eyes finally looking up, only to see her all dressed up in her beautiful gown. “Fuck,” he sighed, “I’m sorr- you- you had your charity thing, damnit! I’m such a fuckup,” he started pulling on his hair, rocking back and forth slightly.

“Hey, it’s okay. I don’t- care about that,” she squirmed closer to him and delicately pulled his hands away from his face. Let’s just say she’d seen him looking better. “I care about you. Now tell me, what happened? The boys are worried out of their mind-”

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, “I-I really thought I’d be okay, I thought I could handle it, but- but then-” he paused, “And- and I just-” he looked back down in embarrassment, only for his eyes to catch the delicate gold band that sat in all its glory on her finger. A sour smirk appeared on his face, “Jesus, I’m such an idiot.”

“No, you’re not, we all have bad days… You’re probably tired. I remember touring was always hard on you guys’ nerves,” Y/N said with a strained smile, her hand brushing the boy’s long hair away from his face, desperately trying to avoid the clear possibility that she was the one responsible for his current state. “Come on, let’s get you into bed,” she helped him up and took a few steps backwards to pick up some of the mess from the floor but before she could lean forward, Jake had her engulfed in a tight hug, taking her by surprise.

“Thank you,” he breathed out, and she could smell the alcohol on his breath. Whiskey. “For being here, I mean.”

“I’ll always be here,” she replied with a faint smile, hugging him back, “you know that, right?”

He rested his head on top of hers and inhaled deeply, taking in the citrusy scent of her hair, before burying his face in the crook of her neck. Y/N tensed up as she felt his nose travelling across her skin, his lips pressing soft kisses along the surface of her collarbone.

“Jake,” she whispered, trying to reason with the boy, “wait-”

“Please-” he moaned sadly, his voice breaking as he held onto her for dear life, “Just- just this one time, please- I just- I really need you right now.”

“Jake, you know I can’t,” she sighed, delicately slipping from his embrace, “I’m marr-”

“Don’t-” he hissed, stomping away from her to take a seat at the end of the bed, “Please- just," he gulped, "don’t say it.” She brushed her fingertips against the skin of her neck in an attempt to replace the warmth that had disappeared along with his lips.

The boy’s chest was heaving as he stared at her gorgeous figure, his gaze travelling across every exposed inch of her skin. The skin that was once his to touch. As their eyes finally met, Y/N felt in her core that something very wrong was about to happen.

He had that look in his eyes. The same look he’d had the very first time they’d- been together. Like she was the sun. Jake suddenly got up and walked up to where she stood. He grabbed her by the waist and planted a firm kiss on her lips. They were soft, just like they always were. Heaven, he thought. But that certainly didn’t last long.

She shoved him away with a resentful look in her eyes. “You’re drunk,” she said firmly.

“I’m not,” he retorted, “I mean, I’m more sober than I’ve been these past eight months.”

Eight months, she thought, Jesus, this had been going on since the ceremony. But her thoughts were interrupted as Jake walked back towards her and vigorously pushed his lips back against hers.

“Oh, cut it out, will you!” she yelled, pushing him away once more, this time with more strength, making his drunken frame stumble back.

Jake stood there, frozen for a second, while she stared down at the floor, remorse invading her every bone. She wasn’t only feeling guilty about the fact that she’d let herself be in that situation in the first place, but also that deep down, she still felt there was no place on earth she’d rather be.

He took a step forward hesitantly and placed a hand against her cheek, his calloused index finger travelling down to meet her chin, gently lifting her head and forcing her to look him in the eyes.

She placed a trembling hand against his chest, ready to reject him once more. Her tiny fist was clenching the fabric of his shirt as she took in a shaky breath, mentally begging for the willpower to turn around and walk out the door. But he had the look. And she felt her heart breaking as she was met with his tired eyes. This was all her doing.

In a leap of faith, he gently lowered his head and let his lips brush against her cheek, before going on a painfully slow journey towards her lips. Now, this wasn’t like the two previous kisses. This one was tender. Desperate.

Unable but to close her eyes at the contact, YN felt her resistance slip away and swiftly wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss, as he eagerly unzipped the back of her dress.

By the prick of my thumb, something wicked this way comes.

Next Track : Prayer Factory

Masterlist

Hope you liked it! This is going to be part of a long series and this is not even the beginning of the story, it just happened to be the first chapter I managed to actually finish, but I’ll make sure that it’s all easy to understand as I gradually post the rest. Please interact, people, always happy to get some reactions and feedback!!

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rawliverandgoronspice · 9 months

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I wish mineru got to me an actual character because every single theme we get that has to do with her (thunder islands, spirit temple, construct factory) are so gorgeous and made me fall in love with her, the soundtrack does so much heavy lifting in this game

You're so correct about the soundtrack, it tells such a compelling tale and it really builds off itself constantly, it's genuinely one of my favorite parts of the game!!

Honestly Mineru had tons of potential. I really liked the entire quest to find her and her body, it was the part of the game that kind of sold me the most the mystery and wonder of having such a big world spanning the sky all the way to the Depths. The atmospheric mood of the Thunderhead Isles was wonderful, loved following the light all the way to the Depths (I had already stumbled upon the actual Construct Factory in them before). It was the part of the game that "felt the most zonai" to me, this sort of puzzle-like intricacy of how their influence permeate the world that their name alone was meant to invoke. I regret the lack of worldbuilding here, even a very light one (what was were the Thunderhead Isles? What significance did they have in zonai culture? What about the structures on the ground in the jungle? I would have *loved* more... anything in the Construct Factories), but it was still a treat as a gameplay experience.

(I mean I hated having to pilot the Construct Body itself, but that's more a me problem than a game problem, thankfully the boxing match was a ton of funs regardless)

The character herself though.... Like I feel like there's a lot of potential inherent to her status as one of the last zonais AND her status as the king's sister (not to mention her engineering proclivities). She feels like she should have a very unique perspective on the entire situation, insight about what caused the fall of the zonais (or their departure/refusal to engage with Hyrule), have both tenderness but also criticism towards her brother his wife might not have (as his lover and as an inherently lesser being bound to his good will, she's a priestess so she probably prays to the gods and zonais are said to descend from gods can we talk about that also), share a unique relationship with Zelda through their common love for knowledge (I think Zelda having a strong relationship with Mineru sounds more meaningful than her having one with Sonia as of now tbh, and it would have helped their scenes to be more interesting than an excuse to infodump, I almost said that it's a ship before remembering they're technically related SOMEHOW?? so mayyybe not).

But in practice, she has no desires of her own. She's but an extension of her brother's will, except softer, muted, heartbroken not for her loss (and the fact that her entire race is about to die out once she does), but for Hyrule's perdition. I am still not over the fact that when she swears her oath of fielty to Link, she *touches her brother's hand*, aka the only meaningful relationship in her life that we got to see, zonai skin touching zonai skin for... probably the last time ever? And the camera couldn't care less. No lingering, no body tension, not even one of the little sounds that BotW/TotK characters love to make in cutscenes everytime anything happens, not even any callback to the explicit motif of people touching each other's hand as a sign of support and unity (so you know what symbolism/allegory means game!!! you know this!!!!), the game doesn't seem to be aware that she should be a person with feelings that extend beyond her performative guilt about a situation that has basically nothing to do with her/she couldn't have done anything about/she did everything she could about, actually! She's just here to be a vessel for the restoration project of her brother's kingdom (Rauru being the only one allowed any emotion of genuine grief and upset, and it only lasts like half a second --which sucks!! I wish that, if Sonia was to be fridged anyway, it at least motivated him to become vengeful and furious and make a mistake that costed him his victory, which would have made him sliiightly more compelling instead of reverting back to a fancy cardbox of unquestionned perfection).

Also she's technically the last one you're supposed to get (but you can get her first??? this is such a weird choice sometimes linearity is good nintendo!!!), and after such a long quest, there should have been a narrative reward to finding her that goes harder than "and then Rauru decided to hype you up like crazy to Ganondorf, also Zelda is probably a dragon but you probably already know that" in my opinion. Some modicum of depth; a different emotional texture to the conflict. After that much build up, the payoff didn't land for me.

Yeah. Mineru. She really could have been the aqua-glue holding that ultrahand-ass of a plot together, but Alas.....

#asks #tloz #totk #totk spoilers #totk critical #mineru #rauru #zonai #thoughts #thanks for the ask and sorry for the time it took me to reply!!

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starseneyes · 1 year

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Chenford - Lucy Chen / Tim Bradford - The Rookie - Season 5 - Ep 16

"Exposed" AKA "That Bradford"

Valentine's Day is pushed a week in the universe of The Rookie, but since I'm still not sure what year we're in on the show, that's just fine by me!

SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers are like sugar for me. See, some people love sugar and hate spoilers. I'm the opposite (unless it's macarons or carrot cake). So, if you're spoiler-averse, run. I'll also be spoiling everything that came before. You've been forewarned!

Ready to see how Tim and Lucy's first Valentine's as a couple pans out? Me, too! Let's dive in.

Chenford In Lucy's Bed

No music to lead us into tonight's episode. Only the sounds of the streets. Honking. Cars. Barking dogs. Crickets that have apparently gotten into Lucy's apartment only.

But, anyway, we're not listening to a jamming soundtrack. We're listening to life. It's the sounds a sleeping person might hear in the night.

That's what makes the first sound we hear so jarring. We are with Tim and Lucy in that moment, the harsh buzzing sound of a vibrating, moving phone atop a nightstand.

They've immersed us in this world with them.

And, before I get too swept away... Tim and Lucy in Lucy's bed! To be honest, my very first thought was, "How does he fit in that bed?!".

Of course it's doable, but I've never shared a bed with someone taller than me. Matthew and I are almost the same height! And he complains because I like my feet at the bottom and he likes his head at the top. Learning to share a blanket has been a feat in our marriage!

But Tim and Lucy seem to be sharing the bed well enough—except Lucy is on his side.

Look, it's her bed, so she gets first rights to choosing a side. But I still think it's hilarious they both usually sleep on that side of the bed.

The buzzing sound wakes them. And I gotta ask Lucy what kind of battery she's got in that phone, because it can't be the standard model.

Girlfriend has that phone in her hand all the time during the day, and here she doesn't even have a charge cord in it overnight. That's witchcraft!

"Who is it?" "I don't know" "Hello?" "Loca, you gotta stop texting..."

Lucy jumps up fast. It only takes a second for the wheels to start moving, and she leaps to her dresser, tugging out clothes.

And… I kinda hope a drawer or two belongs to her man. Just sayin’.

"What's happening?" "PUC I trained with distress call. He needs a covert rescue." *Tim sits up* "What are you doing?" "Backing you up."

There's no hesitation in this man, and I can I hear her "thank you" in her look. These two are a team. And while he knows she can handle herself, they both know it's better to have backup.

Lucy's Driving Tim's Ride

Alright, I gotta laugh a little, because my first thought I wrote on this scene (no joke) is, "All about putting Tim in small places today." Seriously. We've taken possibly the tallest member of the cast and put him into all the tiny places and it's cracking me up.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way. Can. We. Talk. About. Lucy!?!

She rolls up into this situation completely in characters, already deep in her backstory and ready to help her friend out of a jam. It's great to get to see her use her UC chops, again.

"Damn You came in hot. Damn." "All clear."

Lucy makes it clear she's not alone. That's a good thing.

Also, I saw a lot of people over on the Twitterverse commenting on him calling her "hot", but this might be a language barrier since this is a turn of phrase. It usually has to do with coming in "guns blazing" or in an otherwise crazy manner.

He's not calling her hot. Well... not yet.

"I'm impressed you managed to scrounge up a backup this fast." "Yeah, I mean, it helps he was sleeping in my bed." "Oh. Oh, you're that Bradford."

Excuse me!? That Bradford?! As in... she talked about Tim!?

"Curious to hear what that means." "No."

I want to know, too! Was Lucy talking about Tim at UC when she was still dating Chris? What was being said that finding out he was in her bed made it all make sense?

Like, hearing "Bradford" didn't click it. It was that he was in her bed.

Did she not talk about Chris at all because she was at UC School and didn't feel the need to fill everyone in on the boyfriend she was bored with? I mean, I get it. I didn't mention my boyfriend when I first met Matt.

No, I wasn't devising a cheating plot or anything. I simply didn't mention the guy because I knew that I was breaking up with him next time I saw him.

Of course, I didn't anticipate Matthew asking me out before that, but "Rejection Day" became the day he proposed three years later, so it all worked out alright for him, I suppose.

And it all worked out for Lucy and "that Bradford", too.

There better be some fics out here that fill in the blanks, because this is another one of those episodes where I have a lot of question marks remaining long after the credits roll.

"Damn it's good to see you hot pants. " "Hot pants." "It's an inside joke."

Inside jokes I get, but it seems like she might explain that one to Tim sometime. Like, I had a nickname at uni from my buddy Sam. We never had interest in one another, but he liked to call me Hot Stuff.

That is... until his Dance Appreciation class had to sit in on my Modern Dance class and he saw me in dance tights. Henceforth, I was Ghetto Booty.

Look, I'm Hispanic and in my thighs and bum... it shows.

No, Matthew never called me either name. So, I get having nicknames and weird in-jokes with someone you'd never be interested in dating. But I do hope she clued Tim in later.

Wesley Hires a Bristow

Is this Sydney's second secret sister? Fellow Alias fans know what I mean. But, as soon as I heard the name I started chuckling aloud, hoping it was a reference.

"You're kidding. Thanks." "Kidding about what" "Uh nothing."

What the hell just went down? Because on this show "nothing" never means nothing. Tim is clearly upset about something.

"You left so early." *arm touch* "I had this whole Valentine's breakfast planned."

D'aww. I mean, that's super cute. I'm kinda sad that Tim missed out on it, but I'm also eager for Tim to cook for Lucy. It's one of those things that I love about them—they both cook.

When Matthew and I met he claimed he could cook one things—eggs. Spoiler Alert: he could not cook eggs.

"Uh, you were up late. I let you sleep."

Marry him. Immediately. That is seriously husband material, right there.

Like, one of the sweetest things Matthew can do for me is let me sleep in. Even before we had kids, he'd let me sleep in and I treasured it.

Lucy, marry that man as soon as you can. He's a keeper!

He's also super on edge. He's looking all around like he doesn't know how to feel comfortable in his own skin.

"We didn't keep you up, did we? " "No, it's fine." *she stops him with a touch* "Hey. Are you okay?" "Yeah. Fine."

You are not fine. You are so fucking far from fine that "fine" is in another zip code. And Lucy knows it.

This girl speaks Tim like no other. So when her man's upset, she knows it. Remember, she "rode long enough with" Tim to know when he's upset. And Tim is upset.

But right now, he wants to focus on work.

"Finally. I'll get right to it."

Grey was not happy Chenford was late getting in. Yikes! Just how late did he let her sleep in!?

"Bradford. Chen. Hold back."

I can hear the kids in elementary school now. "Oooohhh, Lucy and Tim are in truuuubullll!"

In reality, it's just Tim. And poor Tim is already on-edge, and you can hear it coming out in his conversation with Grey.

"I want metro to be ready to move on these guys at a moment's notice." ... "That's why you'll be riding with Chen and Foster today, so there'll be no delays."

From the promos, I was curious how we ended up with these two riding together, again. And, I'm not mad at it, at all!

Shop Talk has been a big deal with these two over the years. So, I'm sure it'll be juicy.

"Everybody adores me, right?" *shoulder touch* "Yup."

Or... not. Tim's barely staying a thing even when he has the chance to compliment his lady.

He's not happy. Lucy is trying to be cordial to her friend and also get through to her boyfriend, but right now attempting both isn't helping her with Tim.

Lucy pulls away from Tim and turns to talking work, which she hopes might work better on Tim. Whatever's bothering him, it's deep. She's going to have to ease him into it.

"We broke up. Well, she broke up with me."

Very similar dialogue to the "Tim tells Lucy about the Ashley breakup" scene. It jumped out at me immediately. I'm not sure if that was an unintentional happenstance, or a reference to the fact that Noah simply wasn't with the right person.

Your guess is as good as mine.

"I'm starting to think the undercover life isn't conducive to a happy relationship."

Tim's. Face. Because he knows all about this. Tim was married to a UC and it didn't go well. And while I think it's a little harsh to blame UC on a relationship ending, we're building quite the use case reference here.

Nyla and her ex. Tim and his ex. Noah and his ex.

If the show's trying to make a point with this, I'm suddenly nervous about Tim and Lucy's path when I haven't been before.

Lucy deserves the chance to go deep cover if she wants it. And Tim would understandably have reservations.

I won't pretend I haven't fantasized about Season 5 ending with Lucy going deep cover and us coming back to Season 6 with a time-jump. But since we haven't yet heard word about Season 6 at all, I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs and hoping Chenford simply survive until the end of the season.

Look, I've got a lot of ship trauma. I want to fully trust, but like my friend Tim, here, I'm not always the best at trust.

"Well, I mean, that probably depends on the couple." "Is that why you're still on Patrol?"

Oooh. Noah just accused Lucy of putting her career on pause for Tim. Yikes.

And, to Lucy's point, I haven't seen her offered a lot of UC this season. It's not like she's been turning offer after offer down, fending off assignments with a stick.

Lucy loves UC and she definitely wants to do it. It's true that she might not be going after those assignments because she's caught in the throes of new love and wants to get this on a solid footing first.

And I think that's important. Because, I feel a big Lucy UC assignment coming. Yes, my feelings could be as unreliable as the Psychic Network, but it does make sense narratively.

"...you were by far the most talented cop at UC school. Be a shame if you didn't take the plunge."

Tim glances over at Lucy, and she has her "pensive" face on. She's considering Noah's words, and I think it's fair that she does.

Look, Tim's advanced his career (unknowingly with Lucy's help) and it's about time Lucy had the opportunity to advance hers.

I'm not a fan who's ready for Tim and Lucy to settle down in a three bedroom home with a meyer lemon tree in the backyard tending babies all day.

And I say this lovingly as a very active mother of three. Lucy deserves the chance to go after what she wants out of her career. I'm blessed to have the kind of husband who supports me working and going after my passions.

I very famously turned down a steady gig to go freelance almost six years ago. I told him I thought it was a better choice. His response? "I disagree, but I support your decision."

Husband of the year, right there. I want Lucy to feel fulfilled career-wise. But I have a feeling this is going to be a future source of angst for Tim and Lucy—and rightfully so.

Tim's reservations are completely understandable. I mean, we've already mentioned the three relationships in their friend circle negatively impacted by UC.

Now, was UC the contributing factor to these relationships ending? Probably not. But it is a commonality that can cloud the fact that each of these relationships likely had other issues.

But I can completely understand how Tim might miss those subtleties. And that's going to be a source of conflict for these two, I think. We'll see if I'm right... only a handful of episodes left in the season!

"Why are you so cranky? First Valentine's Day. You should be basking in the glow of new love." "That's right. What are you guys doing tonight?" "We are not talking about Valentine's Day plans on an open channel."

Tim appreciates that, at least. Look, I love these scenes where the Found Family all get to interact, even if it's only over the radio. But, he has a point, and Lucy comes in to back him up.

They've got each other's backs... even when one of them is obviously pissed and closed off.

But Lucy watches Tim as Grey talks. She's trying to figure him out, because he's barely looking at her. He's barely talking.

And while we all know that Tim isn't the most talkative of guys in the Shop, he usually talks to Lucy. Right now, he's erected an invisible wall between them, and while Lucy can't see it, she can feel the heat of the electricity running through it.

*arm touch* "Out with it." "What?" "What is wrong with you today?" "Nothing." "Bull. "

First off, on this show nothing is ever nothing. Second, have you ever wished that they could just say bullshit on network television? Like, I know there's S&P to deal with, but wouldn't it feel good!?

I remember how excited we all were when Mulder could say "dicking around" in the first X-Files movie when we saw it in theaters. Yes, I'm that old.

But Melissa O'Neil puts as much as she can behind that "bull" so we totally know Lucy Chen is thinking the rest. Like usual, Lucy's calling Tim on his shit.

"Is it Noah? Are you jealous?"

Not like usual, she's actually wrong about what's bothering Tim.

"This is about you going behind my back to get me into Metro." "I did not... " *look from Tim*

Oooh, he's pissed. And, look, I know I talked a lot about wanting Tim to find out he was loved, but finding out that his girlfriend went behind his back to manipulate the situation when he thought he'd earned his place? Ooof. Yeah, that stings.

Think about the moment he got to tell Lucy he got into Metro. He was over-the-moon. He talked about the "rockstar review" he received from Grey and Lucy confirmed it by telling him that he was amazing.

He actually wanted to go out and celebrate himself. Do you know how big that is for someone who grew up with trauma and abuse?

I still struggle with buying myself a dress that isn't off the thrift store rack because I don't know if it's worth it to spend money on myself after I was called selfish as a child. Tim had a father who beat into his head (literally) that he was worthless, without value, and broken.

But for one fleeting second, Tim felt like everything was right in the world. And now that memory is tainted.

Because he didn't earn his place. Right? His girlfriend manipulated it, word has somehow gotten out, and now he has to worry about his manipulation because nobody's going to believe he's good enough.

Tim is so in his own head about this that he can't see it through Lucy's lens. He only has his own, and he's frustrated and fumbling.

"I had to do something. You were miserable riding that desk. " "Okay. Fine. But how do you think that makes me look?" "What?" "How does that make me look? My girlfriend has to solve my problems for me?"

Tim relying on others has never been his strong suit. We know he doesn't ask for help. He doesn't think he deserves it, too often, but he also thinks it makes him look weak.

Again, this is side effects of the trauma he received as a child backed up by a society that emphasizes strong, tough men who don't cry because somehow emotion is a sign of weakness.

Also, can we talk about Tim calling her his girlfriend!? All I need now is for Lucy to introduce Tim as her boyfriend. Yes, I know she told Noah that Tim was in her bed, but I like hearing the labels from her because she's the one who always shied away from them.

Tim is different. But right now Tim is pissed.

"Please tell me this is not some fragile male ego thing." "That is not what's happening here."

He stated it at the top of the conversation—she went behind his back. She lied to him. She feigned ignorance when he told her about it. She manipulated the situation and he was left to find out about it from someone else.

I always wanted Tim to find out... but not like this. Yikes.

I also think Tim might feel like his place was handed to him instead of earned. He is mad that others are going to look at him like we do university students whose parents bribed the admissions' office... with skepticism that they should be there at all.

We, gentle readers, know that's not how it went down. But Tim is hurting and often when we are hurting we shut others out and stew. Tim's practically the king of that.

"Come on! We were just trying to help." "We? Who else was involved?" "Did I say we? Me. Me was trying to help. I was trying to help."

Girl, your ass was just saved by your Backseat Buddy. Although, listening to Lucy talk like Elmo for a second had me rolling.

Tim passes a glare Lucy's way, but she completely misses it. And something about the look that Eric Winter puts into his eyes is completely different from all the glaring Tim has done at Lucy in this Shop before.

And, yes, I'm aware that sounds mental. But it definitely feels more... personal. More raw. More hurt than angry.

Tim's Office

Before we go any further, I have to compare this to 5x09 when she stepped into Grey's office to tell Tim that she'd released the Fourth String Quarterback from her life.

She knocked at the door before coming in. But, here, she slips in as easily as she would her own home. There's comfort, here. Even though they're fighting, she doesn't feel unwelcome. She doesn't feel out of place.

And that confidence in their relationship is sexy as hell. Lucy isn't spiraling because they had a fight. She knows they will get through this. That they are worth it.

Tim's the one who said it back in 5x08 and now they are living it. Tim and Lucy are worth the risk.

"I get why you're angry. Even though you were miserable as court liaison and I spear-headed an almost impossible five person trade to save you, I shouldn't have done it all behind your back."

That was the first thing he said when he told her what was wrong. He was left out of the loop. He was lied to. By the one person he trusts most.

Remember how much I hated all the lying in that episode? Lying catches up to you, even if it's well-intentioned. I guess I don't feel so weird about being so bothered by it seeing that Tim is similarly bothered.

And Tim appreciates Lucy understanding why he is bothered.

"Is that an apology?" "Yes." "Good." "Noo."

I'm having whiplash between so many episodes... Post DOD chat and 5x09 first scene for the "Good". 5x08 for Lucy answering "yes" then "no" to Tim.

Seriously, I think my neurons temporarily short-circuited on that one, because I missed most of the rest of this the first time around, even with subtitles on (because I transcribe live while I watch).

"Because you never would have let me work my magic if I had told you. And then I would have ended up transferring to another station to save you from yourself. And... this worked out so much better. And if you can't see that I'm sorry not sorry."

I'm dying laughing at this. Simply because Lucy started as many sentences with "And" in a short span as I always do. Seriously. Take a look at these Metas. I'm not unaware.

But this is also so her. And when she's being this damn cute, it's hard for Tim to be mad.

That, and she's right. This did work out well, and whatever temporary feelings he has about it, they'll disappear with time. Because he did earn his place. He is amazing. And Lucy acted with love, even if she might not have done it in the best way.

Lucy is more important than the job to him. We already know that.

"Okay..." *giggle* "I accept your non-apology."

Oh, she knew she had him as soon as he cracked that smile. That's why she giggled. I love giggly-in-love-Lucy. It's one of my favorite things.

Like, Melissa O'Neil has imbued Lucy with the cutest giggle known to man, and I smile every time I hear it. It's like Pavlov's Bell, except instead of salivating, I'm beaming.

"Good." "Good."

Are we in a performance of The Court Jester, here? Much as I love that movie, I wasn't expecting to be thrown into it with Chenford. Not ever.

Wow, I need to watch that movie, again, soon. Trust me. Danny Kaye is a treasure.

"So, are we going to dinner or what?" "We are. But your outfit is missing a little something." "What?"

Our girl is fiiiine, Tim. What the hell are you talking about?

Lucy's eyes fall on the box, and she's completely surprised. Remember, this is the girl who had to convince Tim to buy his girlfriend Rachel a birthday present.

Valentine's isn't even a cake holiday, and Tim's here with a jewelry box for his woman?

Endgame. Energy. Tim and Lucy are meant to be, forever and ever.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

Lucy looks at that man like she's ready to marry him right there in his office. The nicest thing he's gifted her before was a sweet final review. And when it comes to picking presents, he's been pretty awful.

Remember, Lucy has had a front-row view to his last three relationships. She didn't expect anything from Tim.

But it's not all those other women. It's Lucy. And since she's had a front-row seat in the past, she knows that this is different for Tim. Tim is doing something for her he wouldn't have done for the others.

And she knows that. She knows how much he loves her, even if they haven't yet said the words. And as she gazes up at him, savoring him before even glimpsing at the gift, she knows she loves him, too.

Because, no matter what he gave her, the gift is in the giving. Tim Bradford went out of his way to ensure she had a present to open. And she will remember how this moment feels the rest of her life.

And I'm now hyper-aware of all my "and" starting sentences.

Back to Tim and Lucy:

"Oh, wow. It's beautiful."

Whatever it is. Look, I don't mean to be cynical or critical, but I seriously have no idea what that necklace is, but I'm so happy Lucy loves it!

"Did you pick this out yourself?" "I did. is that shocking?" "No. You clearly have good taste."

Just wait until the ring, baby! Because we all know that can't be far behind!

And I'm not trying to marry them off, or anything. I'm just saying, we just got confirmation from the woman herself that Tim has good taste. So, when he takes a little trip to the ring counter, we know it's gonna be good.

And just as she once did with her best friend, who is now sadly gone, Lucy sweeps her hair out of the way so he can put the necklace around her neck.

Tim murmurs a "thank you" as Lucy starts to shift gears in her mind. He's standing amazingly close, his hands grazing her neck. He even ensures the charm is centered on her throat before pulling away.

That detail is so personal, and I'm curious if that was actor-choice, director-choice, or script-choice because it makes the moment for me.

"Do you want to skip dinner?"

No. She. Didn't. It's her "Do you wanna come in?" voice. Same cadence, too! Girl wants him just as bad now as she did then.

Tim looks to her, like he's briefly considering it.

"No. I'm hungry, and you're gonna need that fuel for later."

Chenford, meet makeup sex.

Tim touches her back as he shimmies out of his mini office (it really is the day for putting Timmy in Tiny places), leaving her breathless.

Her hand is already on her necklace, holding onto the charm—a physical touchstone to remind her of his love for her. Because he bought this gift for her.

The price tag doesn't matter. The intention does. He somehow did this surreptitiously as an act of love.

Lucy has never felt this loved. We know about the guy who made her sob in her car, the one who cheated on her while she was living with him, Nolan and his easy dumping of her, Emmett and his easy dumping of her, and then Curried Chris who loved an idea of her... not her.

Tim Bradford loves Lucy Chen. She smiles to herself as she follows after him because this mixed feeling of being turned on by an act of love is new. It's the layers that all her relationships before lacked.

Tim and Lucy walked into this relationship already very layered people with a layered relationship. So, it makes sense that their shared romance is also layered.

And they just survived their first fight as a couple. And they are stronger for it.

And... there are too many sentences starting with "and".

Thank you so much for reading and spending this time with me.

I've seen some folks on the Twitterverse complaining about a lack of kiss. Considering tonight might be the first time I remember seeing James and Nyla kiss, I'm not freaking out that we didn't get a kiss. We got a lot.

This episode was packed with Chenford moments. Sleeping together. Waking up together. Having each other's back. Lucy touching Tim every five seconds. First fight as a couple (because their first fight was the first day they met). A freakin' Valentine's Day gift, and it's a necklace. And Tim put it on her. And they're going to dinner, which means they've had reservations a while because they're a pill to get for big romance days.

#Chenford #Lucy Chen #Tim Bradford #Melissa O'Neil #Eric Winter #The Rookie #Meta #Lucy x Tim #Tim x Lucy

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