#also we've walked around the store like twelve times

[88-special]

Masterclass in Denial

Jeff Winger x Reader (Female pronouns)

Part 1 of 5

The 4 times you and Jeff denied your feelings for each other and the 1 time you didn't.

They were arguing again. They were always arguing. For a group of people who choose to spend all their time together they didn't seem to like each other very much. Y/n questioned her sanity, they all drove her crazy as well, but she too still chose to show up at every study group session. Maybe misery does love company, she smirked to herself.

"I just don't think it's fair!" Annie protested, "I go to every lecture, do my homework, take notes and then every time there's a test you all expect me to help you guys!" She ended her spiel with her arms crossed and a firm nod.

There was a chorus of objections, whines, and pleas from the group. Y/n mumbled about how she also has been at every class and has taken notes right alongside Annie. They quickly fell quiet when Jeff slammed his hands down on the table, starting another one of his famous pep talks. They went through this same song as dance every week it seemed. Y/n looked around the table, Annie was still pouting, but listening intently as Jeff spoke. Shirley sat alert, with her hands folded in front of her, nodding along glancing at Annie to see if the words were having their desired effect. Pierce was slouched back in his chair, head hung low - a snore escaped his open mouth, no one bothered to wake him, it was for the better. Troy and Abed were having some sort of silent conversation with a tremendous amount of eyebrow and shoulder wiggling. Britta was a near mirror image of Shirley, adding in a 'yeah' of support when appropriate.

"...In conclusion, America!"Jeff finished his monologue, plopping into his chair, arms spread wide, and a grin plastered on his face.

Annie dropped her shoulders, and sighing in defeat she pulled out her binder and began passing out individual copies of her notes. Y/n snatched her copy, eager to finally get studying and end the bickering. 

"So the test is supposed to cover chapters twelve through fourteen, I think we should quiz each other on vocab, and then-"

"VOCAB?!" Pierce cut in, irritable over the disruption of his nap. "As in vocabulary? We all already know words! How else would we be having this conversation?!"

"Pierce, you know that's not what-"

"Listen, I do know words, but what about-"

"What are these extra pages? Did we have homework?!-"

Annie, Troy, and Britta all began talking at once. Annie quickly shifted to chastise Britta. Pierce and Shirley launched into their third argument of the day. Troy and Abed pulled a magic eight ball seemingly out of thin air, to ask it if they were going to pass the test. Y/n gaped in horror before turning to Jeff who was oblivious, leaning back in his chair tapping away on his phone.

"Jeff, please do something!"

"They'll tire themselves out eventually." He shrugged without looking up.

Two hours later Y/n walked out of the library worried she was less prepared for the test than she had been this morning.

"Y/n!" Jeff called as she hurried down the steps. "Wait up!"

Y/n sighed and slowed her pace. Jeff jogged up to her, puffing out his chest as he discreetly tried to slow his breathing, ever concerned of his image.

"I think we've earned ourselves a drink over at Tavern 32."

'This must be hell, I died and this is my penance, to be stuck in an endless loop of crazy. Maybe Greendale was actually purgatory.' Y/n thought to herself. The whole reason they are all here is to finish school, get whatever degree needed, and move on with their lives, hopefully never thinking of this fever dream of a school ever again. Well, maybe not Jeff, he seemed to see the campus as his own personal dating app. Y/n resumed her gate.

"How do you figure? We didn't even open the book! Now I'm going to have to spend the rest of my night studying at home." 

"Cool, cool, I'll just grab some drinks from the store and we can have our own private study sesh at your place" Dear god, that grin, how many women has he fooled with that grin alone?

" 'No' is a full sentence Jeff. Have a good night." Y/n continued to her car and sped off without a second glance.

He just couldn't win with her, none of his usual charms worked. Even Britta has succumbed a couple times, but Y/n was immune. He tried to shake off the rejection and headed home. Telling himself the only reason it bothered him was because he hadn't won her over yet. Once she gave in, he'd lose interest, just like he always did. It was just a game. It wasn't guilt he felt earlier when she looked at him disapprovingly for not stepping in on the groups arguing. It wasn't his heart speeding up when her hand brushed his at the study table. It's just a game, give him his prize and then on to the next one. Jeff smacked the steering wheel and jerked left into the parking lot of the same bar he was trying to take Y/n to earlier. He doesn't need Y/n, he doesn't need anyone. He's Jeff fucking Winger.

The next morning Jeff sat slumped in his chair. Sunglasses on, clutching his third espresso like a lifeline. Y/n took her usual seat next to him, slamming her notebook on the table, relishing in the groan that emitted from her hungover classmate.

"Studied too hard last night?" She mused. 

Jeff lifted his head to reply. He swore she couldn't be more perfect, but here she was, light streaming from the window behind her, setting her aglow, that huge ugly sweater swallowing her whole, and her unbrushed hair sticking out in every direction. She was holding out a breakfast sandwich to him. Jeff lifted his sunglasses with a questioning look.

"Sausage, egg, and cheese, best hangover cure there is." She beamed at him.

"How did you - "

"Good morning class, clear off your desks, you have forty-five minutes to complete..."

Y/n shifted her attention to their professor. Jeff dug into the sandwich, the grease immediately working its magic. As he ate, he snuck glances at the girl next to him. He needed to stop chasing her, she was way too good for him.

Part 2

#jeff winger x reader #joel mchale #greendale community college #community #jeff winger #Jeff winger x you #Jeff winger x y/n #britta perry #annie edison #shirley bennett #pierce hawthorne #troy barnes #abed nadir

[ask-ultimate-fashionista]

🎼

It's an unexceptional, ordinary night The noise, the sparkle, and you

Business had been an unbelievably slow that day; unexceptional, unlike what she was promise. The lack of interaction was never an unwelcome occasion, but she could only handle so much silence.. Well.. Almost complete silence. It had been raining for more than just a moment, now, and while she had originally found herself glancing out into window, watching as people walk in and then out of view; the soft patters against the glass had only served as the lullaby that tried to lull her to sleep.

The clock hands are frozen again The frequented, cluttered room Nothing changed, but as I look back We both had gotten older

With several more hours of the workday to spare, and seemingly no customers to serve, the only thing Aika had to do was finish up on older orders -- it was a thoughtless task, befitting of something that felt like second nature to her. She'd disappear into the backroom to grab everything -- tools, gems, notes and all -- before returning to the front counter. Refusing to subject herself to another few hours mindless silence, she turned to her phone to play her music.

It was an older album that she had bought on Itunes from an idol group left behind by time and fame. Twelve songs, each made with the sweat, tears and love of the five members. And yet the first to play was one she could remember all too well..

"The music stops again, you drop the needle We've replayed it so much, we nearly grow bored of it Nothing changed, please don't change You're the only one who's stayed"

The first few verses, came out in wearied whispers, never raising nor falling in volume. When it came to that part though, her voiced raised to just be audible to those who entered her bubble; her unpracticed voice would slowly ease to be nearly identical to the songstress on her phone. The soft yellow-hued light that shone above her acted as a spotlight, a feeling she thought she had long forgotten. It left her feeling warm to the touch, lighter than the she could ever feel in the dull blue blazer suit she wore.

"We avoid the topic with small talk We hesitate to touch the subject We stop to push the hands forward Our breaths start to sync"

The ring of the doorbell chimed, proudly announcing that she now had an audience outside of the cameras that littered the little store. But that, like the rest of the store around her, had been blurred from her attention, blending in unceremoniously with the music. Her focus on the necklace in her hands had also started to wane, leaving her to longingly stare at the deep blue gem she serenaded..

#ask: rage-trigger #//if this isn't who you wanted feel free let me know ! #//song is Night Dancer by imase

[alexin-wonderlust]

Day Twelve - Tokyo

18th November 2022

Alright Tokyo, Day Two. Let's see what we've got...

Today we are heading to Shibuya and Shinjuku for Shin-anigan's...

First stop is Eggslut in Shibuya. A bit tricky to find, it was inside a "mall" thing, and inside a two level food court... but not the main food court. -__- There was also a taco bell, and a panda express... we weren't tempted, and it was worth it. Possibly the best egg sando I've ever had. Sure, I might die if I eat another one... but holy moley, it was gooey and perfect. The service was actually not great... for Japan. But, no complaints. Its Fast Food.

Now to explore... I took ben to Tower Records. Unsure if this was a mistake -- we were in there for 3 hours. Looking at records, and CD's and music memorabilia. It's so awesome that this culture is still alive here. There's something magical and nostalgic about digging around a CD store. :) I bought some second hand records, and had to stop myself at some.. sigh. Next time, a bigger bag. More luggage. Haha!

I was able to do some shopping of my own at this stage -- heading to the Disney Store and Loft (for STICKERS!!) and we grabbed a coffee at a nearby cafe which was cash free, seat yourself... very COVID friendly. I hated it. Haha! But I knew we were about to head to Fruits Parlour to get another cafe experience. I've been dying to go back!

Their menu wasnt as fun as it was last time (I went in Spring and it was cherry blossom season) but we still got to have a delicious strawberry parfait. Walking back, I thought to take the long way via the Tokyo Tower and see what food is available there.

Tokyo Tower was all lit up because now it was dark -- so pretty. But this also meant the food places were minimal. But the food court underneath was still popping -- we decided to have a snack and get Ramen before we have our late night adventure.

After the hotel to recharge (and drink the alcohol we had collected throughout our trip, and use the salt from the flight to shot the tequila.. which was gross btw...) we were headed back to Shinjuku. To Donki first for some cheap booze again, and then Ramen at Ichi-ran.

Ben LOVED Ichiran. It is so fun and solo, but we were drunk and being obnoxious. Woops. Sorry Tokyo. He was dancing because his smoked chasu was delicious haha!

I had found some "rock" bars to visit -- GODZ Bar was the first on the list. Full of memorabilia and autographs from bands who had also visited, it was definitely our place to be. The bartender chick, was just standing there, smoking, like she didn't want to be -- but it added to the aesthetic. We chatted with some dudes (i swear they were from Germany, maybe it was Amsterdam?) about metal and sang along to the Youtube videos they were playing.

Next up was BarPSY which was their "sister" bar. Across the way -- it was smaller, but busier and the vibe was so fun. We were forced into doing Jager Shots from test tubes and told do say "Chin-po" which apparently means Penis. Thanks HAHA!

I still wanted to do MORE but it was 2am, now that means the trains were done... its expensive Taxi Time. Woops again. I'm always surprised at how fast it seems like they drive...

IG Post:

"Today involved music, shopping and drinking. It got messy.

We started the day looking for a breakfast place in Shibuya so we looked around the Disney Store and Tower Records. I bought some second hand records and they were really cheap compared to what we get in Adelaide so I was excited. Hopefully they come home okay!

After all the shopping I took Ben past the Tokyo Tower and we had a drink underneath before walking back to our hotel to get ready to go out to Shinjuku and find some where to party.

I came across Godz Bar on IG a long time ago so that was our first stop and we met some German dudes and rocked out to some metal. Then we went across to their “partner bar” Bar PSY and did some Jaeger shots and it started to get messy. Taxi back to the hotel was definitely an easier option! 😂"

#bennyandthelex #alexinwonderlust #travelblog #traveladdict #travelphotos #adventure #explore #escape #seetheworld #holiday #travel #igtravel #instapassport #ig_travel #traveller #travelgram #travelbug #travelpics #instatravel #travelgoals #japan #tokyo #bennyandthelexadventures #foodadventures #shibuya #shinjuku

[ladyofthecrows]

Diary Entries from lately

Wed June 8th

Had a weird long dream where a rich girl looted a boutique style store as lots of people were looting it for supplies for s coming store, but she only stole art. A mirror, a towering building set, a lion statue, ect. She got caught with a big diamond necklace around her wrist but had ditched the cart with the rest and two needy children got the rest of the pretty things, made a collage kinda state out of it in the street as the rich girl got all the flack. It was around just long enough for the rioting town to take offense before the storm took it out too. In that, the dollhouse was the mane, but in a mini dream I had when I closed my eyes again, I saw a A ferocious lion with french Cate for a mane, a pink lace dolly for a collar

Thursday June 9th

Had a weird dream where robbers were taking things out of our house in a weird convoy so I set a hoard of big dogs like all the big dogs I'd ever met on them because they were apparently ours but then the robbers had guns so I had to walk the kids back into the house one by one and they kept getting on the convoy and getting carried out

You had your second day of work today and met a very good dog, several good dogs but one with a big dumb black meat head

Also bobby finally felt well enough to come out and say hi while you were making dinner

Got my period though, really bad one. Most of today was spent in bed working on art ideas, studying a few artists. Favorite idea of the day is a slutty illustration of always sunny

You're starting to burn out on skyward sword on the switch and tomorrow you're gonna get some food from the food bank

We need to buy more kitty food, but I did the cat litter and changed the pads today. This is the second time ever we've been too broke to buy kitty food, and we can steal a bit to make up for it, so I'm not that worried. We buy such expensive food for them that it's kind of a source of pride

You've got 2y hours so far in skyward

Friday June 10th

Couldnt sleep after you woke me and I watched you do the lanayru boss in skyward, so I started my art blog around 5 in the morning and have been working on it since. It's about noon now, you've been at work since 730. I feel silly having nothing to show for my work. Oh well.

Lots of art done today, I'm proud. Feels a bit like an endless slog, NGL, but I posted a bunch for my first twelve hours and have some concepts I'm proud of. Hopefully it's worthwhile. I really, really hope so.

Please be patient, my thigh hair is unionizing by weaving itself together without realizing that I'm going to inadvertently rip out like half of it out when I stand up.

I wanna learn how to do risographs and ceramics

Kinda wanna do a secret in the Minecraft realm of a big yeti hiding its face in an old growth forest

Sometimes you just gotta have a toasted peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich

Sat June 11th

Awake and alone with Monty in your spot, he curled up on my shoulder and is purring and burning warm. I feel safe. I feel good knowing he is safe. You went to bed hours ago, but I only got a nap in. It was still nice to curl up besides you. You gave up your day off yesterday so you're unofficially taking tomorrow off, and I think you deserve it.

The sky is the same color as Boris today, a lovely calm rain day.

Sun, Jun 12th

Bobby is talking about doing keto and were trying to talk him out of it so he doesnt hurt himself. Otherwise- It's been a good day. You're off work, which is nice, and we've been lazy. Called with Cara for a bit, she's at an oddity fair and just got broken up with for being 'too perfect'. Also we found coke in the ceiling of the basement while trying to fix the light. Thanks ray and Karen. Love that for us. Bobby wanted to take it and we told him no ceiling coke, understandably. He grumped.

Monday June 13th

Today has been a Very Good Day. Bobby is about to leave so we bought him a cake (strawberry, with writing that said 'so long pardner' on it), some beer and some hot wings, gram sent a bit of money and we got great deals on some veggies. He visibly lit up after having woke up Grumpy, it was the sweetest thing. We both shared a ciggy with bobby before heading out to value village to do some searching, psyched about that. I'm gonna try and do your birthday present with stuff from the dollarama, but we ended dup not going- robbed the hell out of vv, petsmart, Michael's, and walmart though. Like 300 bucks worth? Most notably, my Aaonanai yarn, you intend on making a little moth for me with it. I'm still just an little sad Bobby is leaving. I'll miss him a lot. Highlight for me was getting 4 notes on my digi painting of Muffin without needing to fish for notes or anything. Made me really, really happy. Oh, and we got some cute new bowls for a buck at a garage sale. You took a day off of work, had to get a power bar for your top teeth tho, poor thing.

Tuesday, June 14th

Today was really great. Just. Wow. I woke up early and sketched in the garden, you came out and we got groceries and had a little ice cream date at the water front, drove around. Came home and watched paint your wagon, then you two played some video games and I worked. You're asleep now to drive bobby to the airport at the asscrack of dawn and I'm staying up to make sure you get up. Very pleasant indeed.

Sat, June 18th

Sorry I havent written. Rough couple of days. Had a big crying fit, you had some rough days at work. Still tight on money. We're okay.

Yesterday was nice though, technically today in our brains since we just went to bed but whatever. You had long gasp in your schedule so you got to come home for lunch and a nap, which was a lovely surprise. I love you. Right now you and Monty are snoring together so every time you breath out he breaths in and vice versa. Its 2 in the morning and I couldn't love you more.

Wednesday, June 22nd 

The last couple days have been nice. We've been ridiculously tight, but Ma sent us money, so we had burgers last night, made chocolate chip cookies today, and saw fireworks the night before by chance. Tonight you finished Skyward Sword and revealed that we can play some old 64 games through a neat thing the Switch is doing, which I'm jazzed about, and Gran is helping with rent tomorrow. Things are good. I love you. Oh, and we played champed up with the boys, which is always good. They're really in their element on the farm. Also Muffy was just suckling and twitching in her dreams again, sweet baby, then went to have a snack when she woke up. 

[chiliiscereal]

Here’s the link for the full version ^ ——

Sister dear (Steve x sister reader)

(This is preseason one to show you what the background is on the whole story)

(let me know if you think this should be published as a separate book!)

You and Steve had a rocky start to being siblings.

You were born four years apart.

He was born in a time when your parents actually loved each other. They had time for birthdays and family weekends together. They went out to the park on saturdays. They were a picture perfect family.

It just so happened that when you were born, your father stopped being quite so faithful to your mother. When you came into the world, your father was in Europe on a business trip. And he wasn't only up to business.

Little Steve had adored you at first. He always wanted to hold you or play with you.

But then their parents no longer had time for him.

It was always work... and taking care of you.

It slowly changed over the years to only work, as your mother could no longer trust your father. Steve was left to watch you for weeks on end. He was good at it at first. He used to watch you carefully. He used to make sure you were happy and well...

Until he could no longer see his friends.

He was ten. You were five.

He began to leave you at home. At first it was only for thirty minutes while he went to the park. Then it was an hour every day during his elementary school days while he went to the movies.

You were seven when you began cooking your own meals.

You TRIED talking to him. You really did.

You tried catching his sleeve whenever he breezed past. You tried showing him crafts you made. You tried playing music you thought he might like.

That ended with twelve year old Steve pushing you away.

It ended with your works of art thrown in the trash.

Your music cassettes were thrown onto the road.

Your mother made sure both of you knew to never walk into the middle of the road, so you could only cry as some unknowing stranger destroyed your wonderful music. The music you had saved up all your allowance for. The music that you had thought your older brother would like. The music that you thought might bring you two together.

When your mother and father returned, you tattled.

Steve was grounded for a whole week.

But he always needed to have the last say. So he sold your boom box and spent all the money on comics. He threw your sketchbook in the quarry water. He shoved you to the floor, saying that if you ever tattled again then you would join your drawing book in the cold water.

You stopped trying to give Steve your attention and love. You no longer wished he would spend more time at home. So you began exploring the town by yourself at the age of nine. You didn't really have friends to hang out with so you would browse through stores.

The arcade was your favorite place.

You loved showing up early on Saturday mornings, before Steve was even awake, and leaving behind a new high score on the dragons lair.

Why?

Because it always riled up a group of boys your age. They had no idea who kept beating them over and over. Every Sunday morning you watched them walk in... only to scream a few seconds later about how someone had beaten their score by ONE point. Again.

You loved having some sort of connection to them. Even if they didn't know it was you. Or even who you were at all. They were a weird little group, strictly sticking with only other A.V club kids. Besides, you hardly ever talked. What would be so special about you?

It also didn't help that your older brother had begun to build himself a reputation. When you were ten, he began to be known as king Steve. You knew he bullied one of the kids (wills) older brother while beginning to flirt with another's (mike's) older sister.

You knew this because your father began forcing Steve to drive you home from school. That was the rule he set when he gave Steve the car.

Every day you trekked to the high school, only to watch Steve hang around Nancy Wheeler and push Johnathan Byers. You would have intervened and told him that you really didn't want to wait twenty minutes (out of sight) for him to be done. But the last time he did that he made you ride the way home in the trunk of his car.

When you were eleven, you started hanging out at Melvald's convenience store in the town square. Your favorite time to go there was at 7:00, because Mrs. Byers would always work the morning shift.

Wills mother was really quite wonderful. Every time you walked in she greeted you with a smile and lowered her magazine.

——-

"Whatcha lookin for today, kiddo?" She smiled softly, leaning on the counter to watch you browse.

"Any new cassette tapes." You shrugged, fingering each music case that caught your eye. "Do you have any Clash? I... lost mine." You didn't lose it. Steve broke it when he heard you mutter about how much you hated Tommy H.

"Yeah, we got a new box of cassettes delivered this morning." She hopped up and waved for you to follow her to the back room. "I miiiight have snagged a Clash cassette for you when I saw it." She grinned as she held the door open for the young girl.

"You didn't need to buy anything for me!" You gasped. You knew that the Byers needed all the money they could get. "Can I pay you back?" You immediately began digging through your pockets for spare change.

She placed a guiding hand on your back as you both entered, pulling you away from your search. "Oh no it's fine! It's the least I can do for my most frequent visitor."

She plucked the music case off the shelf and handed it to you. "You go to Hawkins elementary, right? You should talk to my son. Will. He also loves the Clash."

You turned red and clutched the cassette. "I've...seen him around before. I don't know how to talk to him."

"Oh it's easy!" She grabbed the spare paper and crayons you always used when you visited. "You just need to find common ground. For example," she pulled up a stool beside her for you to sit at, "you both like to draw!"

You placed down the paper and got working on your art. "Will it make a difference if I draw cartoons and he draws realistic? What if the difference is too big for him to want to talk to me?"

"It'll give you more to talk about!"

——

So began your quest to pursue friendship.

You attempted to speak to Will and his friends in the hall.

They were talking too loud about their latest campaign to hear you.

You tried asking to sit by them at lunch.

They were too busy launching potato's at the ceiling to notice.

Right when you almost gave up... Will and you were paired together as partners for a history project.

——-

'Don't mess it up, don't mess it up', you told yourself over and over as you moved to sit by Will. 'Don't be weird. See if he'll talk first. Don't be clingy.'

Wills was equally quiet. He just read through the rubric of the project and stayed silent.

'What can we talk about... what should I say?'

A drawing poking out of wills bag caught your eye. It looked like a wizard casting some sort of spell.

"I like your drawing!" You blurted out, wishing you could just shut up.

Wills jumped, startled. "Yeah... umm.. it's from... uh... it's from our last campaign.." he began fiddling with his thumbs, unsure of what to say to a girl. "Our DnD campaign... I mean."

You nodded along. "I like to draw to! I've never... I've never played DnD before... so I like to draw people."

Will cracked a shy smile. "I'll show you my drawing if you show me one of yours."

You agreed hesitantly.

He took your cartoon and you took his master piece. You desperately wished you could draw like him. Your cartoons looked so simple, as Steve always said.

"You're a cartoonist!" Will smiled, holding the paper out in front of him. It was a caricature of Mrs. Byers. "You must be the girl my mom sees at her job!" His eyes were wide with recognition. "This is so good! I wish I could draw cartoons. But whenever I try... they look like potato's." He laughed.

You flushed a deep red. "I... I'm also the one that beats your scores every Saturday." You admit.

His jaw dropped. "No way. We've been trying to figure out who that was for months! We formed a whole list of people to interrogate!" He ran a hand through his hair.

You giggled. "I can prove it... if you want. Next Saturday I could show you and your friends? At the arcade?"

"Yeah! I'm totally down to hang out at the arcade!"

——

Will had brought you to the A.V club after to ask the rest of the party. You had protested at first. What if they didn't like you? What if they said no? You would look so stupid! You tried to use your brother driving you home as an excuse.

But if you brought Steve up... no. You couldn't start a potential friendship like that.

Will proposed the ideas to everyone excitedly.

It seemed that Lucas had a problem with it immediately.

——-

"Sorry Will, but we can't." Lucas shook his head. "We've got plans."

Your heart dropped.

"Wait," Dustin frowned and turned to his friend. "What plans? I wasn't aware of any plans."

Lucas crossed his arms. "Remember? Our campaign?"

"We don't have a-."

Lucas elbowed him harshly and looked at you. "Can you leave for a second? We need to talk. ALONE."

You nodded and stepped out of the room. "Yeah totally! Just let me know when-."

The door slammed in your face.

You know you shouldn't have but you pressed your ear to the door anyway.

"What's your damage?" Mike Wheeler hissed quietly.

"Don't you know who she is?" Lucas accused.

"No... should we?" Will whispered in confusion.

"That's Y/N Harrington!" Lucas spat out.

"Steve Harrington's little sister." Dustin stated, now understanding.

Mike groaned. "The douche bag my sisters hooked on?"

"Yes! What if she's exactly like him?"

"You mean a total mouth breather? A player? An absolute jackass?"

You sunk to the floor. Of course Steve ruined the only chance you might have of a friendship. How could she think that these kids would look past her family's reputation? No one ever did. Even her teachers expected her to be disruptive and rude.

"Guys." Will intervened. "I talked to her in history."

"What?!"

"Traitor!"

"What about the party?"

Will lowered his voice, causing you to lean a little closer to the door. "She doesn't act like him. She never called me any names. She never told me that I'm a freak. She tried to talk to me about art."

"Steve definitely doesn't appreciate art." Dustin mumbled.

Wills continued. "She's a cartoonist. And I think she might be like us. You know who kept beating our dragon lair record?"

"Who?"

"Please tell me it wasn't Troy."

"Y/N Harrington."

"WHAT?!"

"IT WAS HER?!"

"GIRLS PLAY VIDEO GAMES?!"

#for you #bookish #wattpad #fanfic #steve harrington #stranger things fandom #stranger things #upside down #steve harrington fanfiction

[spooniemumoftwo]

Parenting through Lockdown and Covid-19 with ME CFS

Parenting is the best, and most rewarding thing I've ever done, and yet at times, its equally the hardest job in the world. Adding ME CFS into the mix complicates things further at times, but we work through it, and become stronger as a family unit. However, also adding a global pandemic into the mix...now, that is a different story!

What a year 2020 has been!

The last nearly twelve months have been full of confusion, anxiety and a different everyday living for most people. Imagine all that change, emotional and physical stress, and required resilience on top of a pre-existing chronic illness. 

Up until nine months ago, things were fairly normal, or as normal as they have been since my ME CFS diagnosis. My ME symptoms were being managed and I was maintaining a slower but relatively steady pace of life. As many others, I was worried about the possibility of catching the Covid-19 virus, and the potential impact of that on myself, my family and obviously my current health. There was the added concern that many others shared, about lockdown, working from home and home schooling! What a minefield!

One of my children has ADHD and anxiety, and had already demonstrated that she was worried about what was happening. The day schools closed was rough! We all cried that day, a lot! Whilst dealing with my own anxieties about the short term plans, myself and my husband found ourselves managing our children’s anxieties as well. Trying to reassure them that they WOULD be going back to school, that working from home COULD be fun, and that things WOULD go back to normal at some point, whilst not knowing or believing when, or even if, this would all happen. 

We started our new routine on the Monday. Home schooling with an attempt at a timetable to meet everyone’s needs, and working from home for 30 hours a week around home schooling. I’m not sure there were enough hours in the day or the week but we managed it, just! The main focus had to be helping our children regulate their emotions; allowing them time to be confused, time to be sad, and time to grieve for their ‘normal’ that had been turned upside down. In my role as Mum, I unintentionally neglected to consider and allow time for me to regulate my own emotions.

Then, at the start of April, I had a positive Covid test!

I was extremely lucky; I had extremely mild symptoms and remained reasonably well other than severe flu-like symptoms. As I know many others are experiencing, the after effects however, have been long lasting to say the least.

Since I tested positive for Covid, my energy levels have reduced significantly. There have been days when I simply do not have the energy to sit up for long at all. I've worked in bed, fully propped up by cushions; I've slept in the day and worked in the evenings when I've felt better, and there have been days where I have been able to work at my desk at home.

I've also found my mobility has decreased since I had Covid, and that I now stumble and lose my footing frequently. My daughter celebrated her birthday in the summer, and like most other children who had birthdays during the lockdowns, was insistent that she wanted to see her friends. To comply with the current guidelines and restrictions at the time, and in order to give her a brief 'escape' from the stress of lockdown restrictions, we arranged a walk in a local forest and arranged for a small number of her friends to be there also with their families so she could say 'hello' from a distance. During this walk, a mere 1 mile at most, I stumbled a significant number of times, and my husband noticed. He was visibly spooked and didn't leave my side for the remainder of the walk. I think this was the point where he became aware of the additional difficulties I was experiencing. My husband approaches life in a very matter of fact and optimistic manner, and often lives by a 'worry about things when they happen' mentality, however, having witnessed my apparent difficulties, his understanding of my ME CFS changed that day! From then on, we have worked together to monitor my difficulties, and to seek support for my ongoing concerning mobility.

During this year, our children have needed variety as well as things to look forward to, more so during lockdowns and times when there have been restrictions on who we could see. Not seeing our family has been a huge disappointment for us, as I'm sure it has for many, and we've tried to come up with new ways to facilitate this contact. Walks with a scarf to maintain 2 metre distances, zoom calls for bingo games and Uno, drive by's to briefly see people in the flesh whilst delivering something, and sending letters and cards. It's been hard! Watching my children struggle with these restrictions has been heart -wrenching. We've had to be resourceful! There have been days when the last thing I've felt able to do is be resourceful or creative; there have been days when I've had to put plans in place days previously, and there have been days where I've had to cancel plans made just to prioritise some rest and recuperation for myself.

My priority throughout this last year, as always, has been my children, and we've made so many lovely memories we will treasure forever. We have been so lucky to have time together that we wouldn't have had if schools hadn't closed. Despite the many positives, it has been the hardest thing I've ever done, and it has been so hard knowing that some days, I just couldn't do the things I felt I needed to do to make them happy.

When reflecting on this last year, a global pandemic has taught me many things:

That my children don't need to do exciting things to be happy, they need time with their family.

That being kind to myself and allowing myself time to rest is essential to allow me to be the Mum I want to be

That my children need rest also, and that we don't have to be out and about at all times

That family and friends are everything. The support we've had from family and friends continues to be the most valuable thing ever. Just to know someone is there for us and cares is huge.

That fresh air with my husband and my children is a therapy in it's own place. Being able to leave the house is a luxury we take for granted and often don't make use of enough, until that freedom is taken away. Two weeks isolation was hard...the same four walls all day every day.

I am a hugger - I always knew I was a tactile person, but it's only since that freedom has been temporarily (I hope!) taken away that I realise how important a hug is for me. Giving hugs is one thing, and I love that I can embrace my children and my husband when they need or want it, as well as when I want or need a hug. However, there are times when I need to be hugged, to be told things are okay and to be reassured.

Parenting through a pandemic was never something I envisaged, however it was something we've had to adapt to quickly. I think everyone, not just parents, have felt out of their depths at times during the last year, and yet, here we are at the start of 2021, a new year, ready to embrace what this year has in store.

#myalgic encephalomyelitis #me #mecfs #mecfswarrior #cfsme #cfs/me #cfswarrior #mewarrior #chronic fаtiguе ѕуndrоmе #chronic illness #spooniemumoftwo #spoonie #countingspoons #spoon theory #me/cfs #parenting with ME CFS #CFS Mum #ME Mum #coronavirus #covid19 #lockdown2020 #lockdown #pandemic #global pandemic #parenting through a pandemic #parenting through covid-19

[followingliz]

The First Day in Italy

Our first twelve hours in our new homeland were a bit...overwhelming. We couldn't find a sim card, got lost, dragged our luggage through the rain, got lost again, rolled through a red light, had our first fully Italian conversation and took an entire 20 min to buy pasta and pasta sauce at the grocery store.

Not the most auspicious beginning.

When you land in any new country, unless you're greeted by some good friends, it's going to be a bit rough. You're tired, stressed and desperate for a shower and a nap. But you've got things to do! 

We left Johannesburg SA in winter at 8:30 pm and arrived in a Bologna summer at 10:50 am. It was raining.

Although we had to wait 20min for it to come round on the carousel all four pieces of luggage arrived still wrapped! It was a very exciting beginning considering we were running on 4hrs of sleep. The next step was finding our rental agency so we could drive 50min to Reggio. Easy peasy.

After you make your way through customs the Bologna airport turns into a long hallway with shops on either side and teaming with people. We walked past Hertz twice before finding it. It's a little alley-way of a store that couldn't fit our luggage. Alex eventually got the car sorted and we embarked on our journey around what felt like the_ entire _building in the rain to the rental cars. I was suddenly very grateful all our luggage was plastic wrapped.

Our car was perfect, a little four-door that held all our luggage and us. It was time to hit the road! ....without a map 😬

We didn't manage to find a sim card inside and even though I had an international phone plan my phone is useless when it comes to showing it's accurate location while on the move. We thought no problem, We'll do it the old-fashioned way where you look up the map first before you get going. In Italy, they don't really want you to know where you're going.

The road signs are small but also so many...  The highway numbers were so small and it’s a lot to read when you’re approaching it at 45mph. If you don't know what you're looking for and aren't fluent in Italian you might not be able to read them fast enough. In the states, even in SA, on highways the road signs are HUGE! Can't miss them! We got lost and then missed our turn-off onto the highway that takes us to Reggio three times. We sort of waved to it as we passed by.

50min later ( plus the 20min of being lost) we arrived in Reggio! Finding our Airbnb should've been easy because it's on the main road however it had a bar in front of the parking lot and to turn in you have to leave your butt in the street while you wait for the bar to lift...needless to say, we passed it.

Another difference in Italian motorways is the distance between the traffic light/ crosswalk and where the cars wait for the light to change. It's much much further away than in the States or SA. Trying to figure out where to turn and reading the street signs (of which there are none) miiiiggghhhhtttt cause you to roll forward a bit more before you realize you're not 100% sure if the light was red or green and now you're too far forward to see it. And even though there's no traffic you're now in the middle of the road... the safest thing to do is turn? Right?

After no sleep and at least 1.5hrs of stress, we arrived at our Airbnb where our host, Sandra, speaks 93% Italian and 7% English. We made it through the contract, the instructions for the house and the location fo the nearest grocery store mildly well though extremely bewildered.

Ah-ha. A house, a bed, wifi.. surely we were reaching the end of our very stressful day? one thing left to do: food. How hard can it be?

You'd think the westernization of grocery stores would mean grocery shopping would be an easy task.

 But in each country, as we've learned before, each grocery store is just a little different, things are packaged differently and (of course) everything is in another language. We spent about 20 min trying to translate and decipher everything in that grocery store...looking for what we needed in the coming weeks to cook and then....we gave up. We settled on pasta, a jar of pasta sauce and eggs. We could make it work until tomorrow.

So the first 12 hrs were not promising. We got lost, felt lost and couldn't even go for a proper grocery shop. But we made it. After 6+months of planning and prepping ~we were in Italy~and tomorrow would be better.

#travel #adventure #moving abroad #perils of moving abroad #travel abroad #driving abroad #italy #italia #reggio #reggio emilia #expat #tales of an expat #travelblog #tblogger #expatblog #new country #new home #new adventures #gifs #first day #travelbug

[leoninapelliolovesconchitawurst]

ENGLISH TRANSLATION ( Jeannette Nobbe)

VOLSKRANT.NL 31/01/20

by Mennon Pot

https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/conchita-wurst-sorry-dat-ik-zo-n-wandelend-cliche-ben~b0477817/

(Conchita) Wurst: 'I'm sorry I'm a walking cliché'.

Above all we know Conchita Wurst as the bearded 'female 'singer who won the ESC in 2014. But we've moved on and are a bit wiser. It´s just Wurst now, but the beard is still there.

With light feathered steps, Thomas Neuwirth (31) enters the conference room of the hotel in Groningen where he is staying: black combat boots, black leather pants, tight black T-shirt, the black beard and the perfect short trimmed jet black hair..

He introduces himself as Tom. It's not difficult to recognise the bearded drag queen Conchita in him. (Kopenhagen, 2014, remember?) but the dress and wig are stowed away for a while. Conchita has a sort of sabbatical, so to speak.

Neuwirth is on tour as a man. Stage name: Wurst. Yesterday evening he performed in Groningen; the next concert will be 7 february at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. His new album 'Truth over Magnitude' also carries the artist´s name Wurst.

Let's get this straight: when the subject is Conchita Wurst, the word 'transgender' sometimes comes a long. Wrongly. Neuwirth is a man, ('but incredibly gay, of course'), who has a choice from now on: being on tour as a drag queen (Conchita) or as a man (Wurst) .

´a lot of fun, being a masculine stage persona', he says. Conchita will turn up again somewhere else.

Holland appreciated Conchita's 'Rise like a Phoenix' with the highest score, almost 6 years ago.

Neuwirth didn't forget: twelve points, douze points from Holland for the bearded diva from Austria.

Then hectic years followed. 'After the Song Contest I thought, I have to make the most of it now, build my fame and cash it in. So I surrounded myself with all kinds of experts, managers, stylists, make/up artists, the whole circus. After 3 years I was exhausted. I couldn´t do it anymore. I told my audience every nigh, be yourself, believe in yourself. But along the way, I forgot myself.´

He got rid of the experts’ circus and is having a relaxed tour now, with a small entourage. He feels good again, although in 2018 he had to announce he is infected with the HIV virus. His manager politely asks, almost in an humble manner, not to talk about that.

Tom doesn´t appear to be very worried about that. There has seldom been a star who starts an interview so cheerfully. ´A great photo shoot and after that talk about things I find beautiful and fun.

Terrific, I was already looking forward to it when I came out of bed.´

´Curriculum Vitae'

1988 – Born as Thomas Neuwirth in Gmunden, Austria

2007 – Candidate at the talentshow Starmania, and boyband Jetzt anders!

2011 – Debut as female persona Conchita Wurst, the debut single `I´ll be there´

2012 - Second place at the Austrian Songfestival

2014 – ESC winner with ´Rise like a Phoenix

2015 – First album ´Conchita´, co-presenter ESC

2018 – Second album ´From Vienna with Love´

2019 – Debut as male stage persona ´Wurst´, third album ´Truth over Magnitude´

2020 – Wurst ´Trust over Magnitude´ Sony Music

Wurst will be performing in the Melkweg in Amsterdam on February 7

SOUNDTRACK

Music from the Motion Picture Titanic ...1997

´My first CD. I was 9 years old when I bought it. `My heart will go on´’changed my life´. As it were, Céline Dion gave me permission to be utterly dramatic and to be over the top. When I came out of the closet, I heard that song in my head.

It was also a liberation for me as a singer. My mom always sang with a thin, high falsetto voice. I thought that was how it should be. Dion taught me, you may yell as hard as you can, with all the power you have in you. When you sing so loud, you can’t fake it. The sound you push out of your body, is the sound of your body, unique and by definition authentic. Céline Dion taught me that singing is something really physical.´

SERIES

The Crown ..Netflix..., 2016 until 2019

´For me it´s getting difficult to watch a movie to the end. I guess that´s because of all the series on Netflix and HBO. My favorite is `The Crown´.. ´the intro alone is so beautiful, that liquid gold that forms a crown, such art. I used to watch it twice. Ít says something about the fact that I can´t choose between the two women who play Elizabeth and the two men who play prince Philip. All the actors are great. The costumes, the stories, the palaces, it´s so delightful. The history also intrigues me, after every episode I checked on Wikipedia if it was really what had happened.

PARTIES

´At Christmas I always come back to Vienna. I love the lights, glitters and decorations, my inner Mariah Carey is looking forward to it every year. Christmas 2019 was extra special because it had been a long time since the whole family came together at my grandmother´s house.´

I would love it to be like that every year... A couple of days being together in one home. Talking, getting to really know my family. Maybe now you think, days on and on with uncles and aunts, such horror! It is easy to say that I don´t really have much in common with these people. But I do, Really. They all have a story and similarities with your stories. Ask them about your life and tell them about yours.´

That´s what Christmas is all about to me. To me, the birth of Jesus has not that much to do with it.´

ISLAND..

I have an agreement with my best friends to go on vacation at least once every two years. We have been to Mykonos a couple of times, THE especially gay island. I´m sorry I sound like a walking cliché.´

The sun, the sea, the beaches, the small streets, so cosy. We rent a house with a pool and for a week or two we live in our own little paradise, actually being a bit tipsy the whole time. Go shopping and cook.´

`What´s also very important, on Mykomos, the wind is always blowing the right way. I love to watch the women, because their dresses and their hair flutter so beautifully.´

STYLE ICON

Victoria Beckham

I was and still am a big Spice Girls fan and I especially admire Victoria Beckham, because she lives her life the way she wants. She appears in tabloids every day, but has survived a crisis in her relationship and has stayed happy with the love of her life and her family. I think that it´s really strong.´

In regard to her style, she can go from very classy to very trashy, I like that. One day she´s wearing a designer dress, the next she and David Beckham are walking in identical jogging suits. She couldn’t care less. I think that it´s inspiring.´

´I think she is utterly authentic, raging through the glamour. Although I have never met her, I´m sure that I could have a lot of fun with her. I´d love to drink some tequila with her for an afternoon or so.´

AGE

30

´I thought becoming 30 was really special, I lost my wild behaviour, came to be more restful. Some way or another I think a lot about some things my mother said: in my twenties, I ignored those lessons, but now I´m 30, I suddenly realised she was right for example how important family and friends are.

I´m 31 now, I have inner peace and my life in order, but I still feel young. I´m convinced that this the best period of my life´. My advise to everybody... be 30.´

ALBUM

Recomposed by Max Richter / The Four Seasons ..2012

I don´t play any instruments and until not too long ago, I didn´t really know much about music. I really found that a pity sometimes. Fortunately, my good friend Martin studies at the School of Musical Arts... !! He´s studying the history of music intensely and tells me about a lot of great composers. I learn a lot from that.´´I never understood classical music and didn´t really know anything about it, but thanks to the listening sessions with Martin I fell in love with Vivaldi..

The pop artist of the classical artists.

´Max Richter interpreted Vivaldi´s Four Seasons and composed it in a modern fashion. It´s a modern, post minimalistic piece, completely different from the original one, but you still recognise it. Greatly done, at the moment it´s my favorite album.´

BOOK

Friedrich Schiller « Ueber die aesthetische Erziehung des Menschen ». About the aesthetic upbringing of the people..´

´A good friend advised me to read the philosophical letters from Friedrich Schiller ..Letters, 1794-1795)

That´s a hard job to do. Because of the old fashioned German I had to read some sentences 5 times. You always have to wrestle yourself through a thick layer of 18th century sexism.

´But further on you´ll find something beautiful. Schiller writes a lot about finding your inner beauty and your own truth. Dare to be yourself. Embrace your darker sides. Those are important as well.´

´At the same time he preaches self-perspective.. don´t take yourself too seriously, you´re not the center of the universe. That is very worthy to me. Namely because I DO think I´m the center of the universe, haha.

`Still it´s very wise of him, to send a message from 1795 to a 21st century queen with a Mariah Carey complex.´

CLUB

Circus in Vienna

´The Arena is a huge complex in Vienna, a concert building with a mega discotheque. A couple of times a year they organize Circus, my favorite gay club night. I always go there with my group of closest friends, but it´s actually a bit of a rule that we lose each other and disappear into the crowd.´

´I roam around all night- Every room, every floor has its own musical theme and decoration. I love the types of people I meet there, their clothes, their fetishisms, everything.´

….Arena Vienna, Baumgasse 80, Vienna

CITY

Amsterdam

´I live in Vienna, I love Vienna and I will always come back there, but the greatest city I´ve been to is Amsterdam – since then I traveled all over the world so I know what I´m talking about.

´Of all the cities I visited, Amsterdam is the only one where I would want to live a period of time. So that´s what I´m gonna do, this summer, for a few months to begin with.´

´I can see that Amsterdam also has the flagship stores from all known store chains. And a lot of tourists, like every special city. But I see all these small jewelry shops where they sell their self-made jewelry. Little bakeries. Cosy streets. And a lot of water. I love water. I love cities with lots of water.´

#conchitawurst #wurst #tomneuwirth #artist #singer #esc2014 #escwinner #music #performer #lgbt #celebrity #interview #translation

[minbobs]

Bad Guy

SUMMARY — you were the best recruit they had on the team, and they decided you were finally ready for your first job as an official officer, but your heart was bigger than your brain and ruined it all for you.

TYPE — criminal / officer au

PAIRING — lee jeno x reader

WARNINGS — jeno being an annoying little shit , robbery , idk bad shit , kinda sexual tbh

WORD COUNT — 4k

A/N — i apologise if there’s any mistakes, i haven’t read over and will probably forget to later.

you'd been training for this day for almost three years now, and you felt as if you were ready for it. you'd spent majority of your time learning the different procedures and techniques of law enforcement, what it meant to have leadership and how to show it, the defensive tactics you needed and many other things that took time and practice to completely understand and perfect. the amount of time you'd spent at the academy led to you slowly losing friends, only leaving mina, the other girl at the academy. however, the loss of friends didn't affect you, in a bad way at least. it motivated you to carry on, because it didn't matter about others, it was for you and you only.

when talking to other recruits, taeyong always used you as the prime example of what the perfect student at the academy should act like and look like; it may have caused people to somewhat dislike you for being so 'perfect', but if taeyong liked you then they also had to like you, because they'd get a lecture on how it's bad to despise your peers.

it was a wednesday morning, around eight thirty am when you'd received a phone call from the academy. you weren't supposed to be there that day, so you were still fast asleep in your warm, comfortable bed — the one thing that could possibly stop you from wanting to leave the house for training.

when the ringing started, you opened your eyes and sat up, stretching as far as possible to stretch every muscle to the point where it was satisfying. eyeing up the phone, you wondered if you should even pick it up, when you could really just lie down and go back to sleep, because you were asleep and it was a perfect excuse.

despite that thought, you yawned and grabbed the phone.

"hello?" you spoke sleepily, putting your head back down on your fluffy pillow, resting your eyes. you were so uninterested in the phone call already, that you almost fell asleep until you heard the voice on the other side.

"hello? this is y/n l/n isn't it?" the voice of taeyong asked, and you quickly rose from your bed and was immediately wide awake.

"uh, yes it is!" you spoke almost too enthusiastically, making you cringe. that'd definitely be on your mind later.

"i just called to say that we'd like you to come down the the station at around twelve pm. we have some important news to speak to you about, we hope to see you there." before you could get any words out, the call ended abruptly.

was it good news? was it bad news? the possibility could go from you getting your first mission on the team to getting kicked out. not to be too vain, but you could see it leaning more towards your first mission.

you had time, but you were way too excited to go back to sleep. finally, you left your bed with a small groan because you really didn't want to leave it, but there was really no point of you being in it so you should do something productive.

that's if you call mixing different cereals together in a bowl and eating it while watching the umbrella academy for the second time productive.

eventually, it reached eleven am, meaning you should probably get moving. so at that, you got up finally and changed into the uniform the academy had given you and grabbed your keys from the side. you'd only just gotten your drivers license, so you were still wary about driving. you didn’t actually want a car when you could just get mina to drive you places because she’s always free, but it was part of the job.

"we've decided that you're ready for your first job. we've been tracking down a group of young boys that have been going around to different stores and stealing a different assortment of items. they've even been caught on cctv threatening the store owners for the money in the tills. we have an idea about where abouts they are, and we need your help to find them." taeyong took a seat in his chair, and yours eyes widened from what he said.

"are you sure? what if i completely mess it up and don't find anything?" you asked and he gave a small smile.

"don't worry, this isn't like school y/n. you won't get in trouble for it. as your first job it'll make it much easier for jaehyun and i to give you pointers on what to do next time." you nodded, you felt less nervous from that. "but as officers, you get jobs whatever time, whenever. so unfortunately for you, you don't have enough time to prepare. the job is starting right now." he spoke and you almost felt like shouting at him — the nerves had one hundred percent come back.

all you did was say 'ok', before standing up to walk out of the door, going to one of the meeting rooms. before you had a chance to leave, taeyong spoke up.

"just, don't worry ok? we don't know if it's their actually hide out, so please don't feel upset with yourself if you don't find anything.

now you were in a car, of which mina was driving. she was basically your designated driver, you really didn't trust anyone else to drive you places; not even yourself yet.

"i don't understand why you're so nervous, taeyong told you not to worry and it's your first time doing something like this. if it makes you feel any better, i overheard taeyong and jaehyun and they said not even yuta could catch them. apparently they're really smart kids, i think they're around your age too." mina spoke, and you gave a sigh. yuta was the best at his job, and the idea of him not being able to catch a bunch of sixteen to twenty year olds.

when you arrived on the 'site', jaehyun, taeyong, yuta and a few others were already there.

"ah y/n! we're going to send you off with jaehyun down that way. you'll go down the right side of the building and he'll go down the left side. if you need help, use this." taeyong passed you a walkie, then walked off only leaving you with jaehyun and mina.

"remember what i said, you'll do good y/n i promise." mina whispered in your ear before walking off back to her car. being reassured by mina was nice and something you needed. all through your life since you've known her she's always reassured you and it's brought you to be who you are today; strongly disliked by most people, but it didn't hurt you in any way.

"come on, let's go." jaehyun said and you followed him to the building. it was quite small, not as big as all the others ones in the abandoned place. it was all wrecked, parts of the walls had collapsed and it seemed really unstable and unsafe to go inside — it was probably why they were only letting you go around the outside. "if you need anything, use the walkie. it's connected to mine and taeyong's." jaehyun walked off to his side of the building, leaving you by your used and with a fast beating heart.

you had completely forgotten these were actually criminals, these people had actually committed crimes and you'd only just remembered that. you'd left your thoughts finally, and had a feeling you had eyes on you, you thought that maybe jaehyun was still here secretly, but when you looked the person standing around the corner definitely wasn't jaehyun. when they noticed you saw them, they quickly went back around the corner.

you breathed in deeply and closed your eyes, replaying everything you'd learnt in your head, every single piece of information you remembered, you felt ready. so you walked with a hand on your gun in your pocket just in case. the closer you got to the corner, you were starting to think about backing out, and just saying you didn't find anything. but you knew that was wrong, and you couldn't do it.

as you turned the corner of the building, you were pressed up against the wall, and a hand over your mouth; your arms were pressed behind your hands so you could reach for the walkie to even get anyone's attention. the person in front of you had black hair parted in the middle — you couldn't lie by saying he wasn't the most beautiful human being you'd ever seen.

"please, please don't tell them you found us. please, i'm begging you." he whimpered, his eyes beginning to water. you started to become less tense, and you were starting to feel some sort of sympathy. he removed his hand off you mouth, and you gave him a glare.

"why shouldn't i? you've been stealing from stores and threatening people. you should be in jail." you tried to push his arms off you, but he was clearly much stronger than you, and you were starting to feel fear.

"we only do it because we don't have anything else, just leave us be. i promise that if you ever find us again, we'll let you take us." he was breathing heavily, and his eyes were becoming teary. he was a criminal, and he shouldn't be forgiven, but you had a weak heart and you were starting to realise, maybe you just weren't fit for this job.

"go." you spoke almost emotionally, and you looked down in guilt thinking about how taeyong would feel if he found about this — his best student let him down, on purpose. you didn't even try hard.

"thank you so much." he mumbled, then ran off down the side of the building. i sighed, wiping the sweat from my forehead, that wasn't even the worst something could have been.

"did she fall for it? dude, if she did i'm signing you up as an actor, because you just tricked a cop into having sympathy for you." jaemin jumped over the ripped up couch they had in what they would call a living room. jaemin was one of the boys that usually stayed put, he would be the one flirting with the store owner while some of the others stole whatever they needed.

"of course she did, i really deserve an oscar, i even fake cried. it was quite easy to be honest, because it wasn't leader boy taeyong or their 'best cop' yuta, what cop doesn't know how to chase down a bunch of teens? i think she was new, i haven't seen her before." the boys had been in trouble with the police on multiple occasions, at this point they were now the main criminals the police were after.

a bunch of young boys they just wanted to spend their life in the most adventurous way.

"you probably scared the poor girl to death, you really could've just pretended you were a random guy walking around, this place isn't blocked off. because now she knows what you look like, well done." renjun rolled his eyes, eating a packet of doritos that they'd recently stolen from one of the stores. 

renjun didn't really do much to do with the boys, he just took care of them all. he cooked for them with the help of jaemin, he made sure they felt safe where they were. all because he was scared of losing them.

"they're invading our privacy, i'd just say were six, innocent boys that got kicked out of our parents houses because they didn't care about us." renjun rolled his eyes at donghyuck's response, the orange haired boy looked like the fluffiest person alive, but he really wasn't — he was the most dangerous one of the group, the one who was treated the worst. he wasn't scared to go up to someone and threaten them, hurt them. and that scared the others too.

"renjun where are the other doritos, i swear we took more than one packet." jisung walked into the room, smiling when he finally saw jeno was back. jisung was a lookout, he stayed at their, well home, watching out for any people and jeno was the first to leave to lead them away when jisung was worrying over the police outside.

honestly, jeno really could not care less if he went to prison, but there was no way he could leave his friends behind and be split from them because it would have broke him.

"i ate it, sorry." chenle giggled, running away as jisung ran after him shouting over the face he claimed that packet.

"i kinda feel bad about it you know? it was easy to get rid of her, but she was new clearly and probably trained for that shit for years, and i just ruined it for her." he mumbled, taking a seat and taking a deep breath. jaemin patted his back with a smile on his face.

"well you did it buddy, we're proud of you." renjun stood up whispering 'it was a stupid decision' under his breath. renjun really hated the way they did things, but he knew it was the way they survived, and he was already in a bad mood today after jaemin and donghyuck had a bad argument of which he had to spend time sorting out.

"i guess i'll just have to hope i don't have to do that again."

when you got back, you told taeyong you hadn't found anything and the whole place was abandoned, that one comment had threw off the whole job because they decided to search in other places on the other side of town, where the group of boys weren't set.

it had been a couple of days since then, and everything was starting to get messy for you. you couldn't concentrate nor could you sleep at night thinking about the boy you'd encountered. you'd learnt so much about how important it was to check people's body language, but you hadn't once looked at him below his face because he scared you. you weren't fit to go against criminals.

one night, you decided to just go on a little walk in hope that it would calm you down a little bit. grabbing your coat, you walked outside and breathed in the fresh air. it was late at night, maybe around eleven pm. when you still lived with your parents, you used to sneak out a lot when you were younger for these types of walks. you used to go to the same park every time but you moved farm far away from there and it saddened you that you couldn't go there now — you would've been a lot calmer there instead of walking down the streets walking past closing shops, making it become slightly darker as the light from the shops were off.

behind you, light footsteps were heard and you swallowed the lump in your throat, starting to walk faster. looking around, you looked for any signs of open shops you could go in but there was nothing. everything was closed. you brought up the courage to turn around, and noticed an extremely tall man behind you.

"are you following me?" you asked and he gave a small smirk, yeah, he was definitely following you. "are you going to answer or not? i don't have time for this."

"i just couldn't help myself, you just looked so delicious." you gagged at his words, you almost laughed. it was disguising, he looked disgusting, his teeth were pure yellow and his clothes were ripped, his hair was extremely greasy.

"i'd appreciate it if you left me alone, i've got things to do and you're interrupting it." you didn't know where this sudden confidence in yourself had come from, but you liked it. he reached in to grab your arm, and you tried to move from his grip but he was much stronger than you. "get  your hands off me, in work at a police station and i could get you sent down right now with one push of a button. now get the fuck of me." you scowled, but the man continued to drag you into the alley way right next to you, how convenient for him.

pushing you up against the wall, his face was getting closer and closer to you, then you remember, he has a dick. so, you lifted your knee up high and used all of the energy you had to knee him, causing him to groan in pain and pull away from you. you tried running, but it didn't work as he grabbed you leg, pulling you back and pushing you down on the floor.

"i like the ones who try to get away." he whispered in your ear, dragging his lips from your ear down to your neck and you whimpered, you were absolutely terrified. that was until the man was ripped away, but your vision had gotten blurry so you had no idea who it was and could only hear the voices of others.

"jeno, get off him you're killing him!"

"no,no i'm enjoying watching this, this dick deserves to die. i swear we've come across him about five times doing the same thing, i think we should let him kill him this time."

"jae, we'll get in trouble. jeno will be in deep shit do you want that?"

"yah, i didn't think of that... hyuck pick up the girl, we can't just leave her here."

you felt arms wrap around your waist and you wanted to fight back but slowly, you were passing out. and everything was black.

when you finally opened your eyes, you were in a somewhat familiar place. it felt like you'd been there before. it was kind of bright so your eyes were hurting, but you sat up quickly to the smell of food.

"oh, she's awake. hi, i'm chenle!" a blonde haired boy appeared in front of you causing you to fall off the couch you were on and let out a small squeak. "woah, are you ok?"

"am i ok? i have no idea where i am!" you shouted, making the blonde haired boy flinch. you felt sort of bad, he seemed innocent enough, and you'd basically scared the crap out of him.

"jesus fucking christ could you be any loude- oh, that wasn't chenle making all the noise this time." another boy appeared from behind the couch and you were official in complete confusion. you remembered everything that happened last night, but you don't remember being in an abandoned building. and it hit you, these were the boys you were supposed to be searching for. "i'm jaemin, do whatever you want with that information i guess."

"i have food!" and now more people were walking into the room, and you recognised one right off the bat.

"it's you! you're the one that i almost arrested but didn't!" you shouted as you stood up, and the dark haired boy rolled his eyes and groaned.

"and you're the one that almost got me in shit when i was doing nothing wrong." he spoke and you placed your hands in your face.

"do you realise how much trouble i could get in for being here? i could get fired and i've hardly even started yet. i need to go-" you stood up and grabbed your stuff which was placed next to the couch, your coat was folded nicely and your phone, credit card and things like that were placed on the table in front of it.

you were sort of confused of why they didn't steal from you, put parts of your brain were telling you it was rude to assume they stole from everyone.

"no, before you go, promise you won't say anything about us." one of them grabbed your arm, and he looked slightly more petite then the others, less stronger, but strong non the less.

you sighed and looked at them all, "i promise i won't say anything about you."

and from that day on, you became the six boys favourite person. you become good friends with them despite it being a sin to your job, but they were the cutest things alive, you wouldn't think they'd be going around stealing, you really couldn't get over it.

something unusual had developed between you and jeno to which you didn't understand, it was like you disliked each other but we're the closest in the group at the same time. despite that, everything was getting better for them because of you. you'd helped them furnish the place a bit better, with the money you were getting from your job as an officer — ironic.

"y/n! donghyuck keeps hitting me again! i swear i didn't take your pillow, why in the fuck would i take your pillow?" jaemin shouted from across the room and you almost had ripped donghyuck's hair. today had been ten times harder to cope with them all.

"i'll take care of it, don't worry. maybe you should go take a nap or something, you seem really tired today." renjun smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder, i nodded my head and walked to one of the back rooms where the beds were. there were only six beds, so you just jumped on the first one you set eyes on.

after a few minutes, you heard a small chuckle, "what are you doing in my bed?" jeno asked and you felt the bed dip when he sat down.

"i'm tired, hyuck and jaemin won't shut up, jisung and chenle are being hype and it seems like you and renjun are the only sane ones around here." you mumbled, turning around to face him.

the more you turned up here, the more you realised how pretty each and every feature of jeno was, and just looking at him made you happy.

"why are you staring at me?” he asked, you quickly looked away and you could feel him smirking at you, he knew exactly what you were thinking. “hey, look at me.” you turned your head, and soon enough jeno’s hands were on your waist with your hands around his neck and his lips on top of yours.

even just from that, you were scared. it reminded you of that night all those weeks ago. you trusted jeno wholeheartedly, but even just his hands going under your shirt, making your burning hot skin freezing cold whenever he moved them.

“j-jeno...” you moaned lightly as his hands moved from your lips down your neck.

“it’s okay.” he mumbled on your skin, his hands were slowly moving to the waistband of your pants, but the mood was quickly interrupted when jaemin had burst into the room.

“guys, renjun made us food an- oh my god i knew this was going to happen but jesus, i didn’t want it to happen in front of me. i’ll just tell renjun to put your food i-” jaemin was rambling, and his face was slowly becoming redder and redder at the sight.

“could you, like, leave jaemin.” jeno asked and jaemin nodded, and shut the door.

you and jeno looked at each other, and immediately burst out laughing. there was no way the mood was going to go back to how it was before jaemin burst into the room.

“i was thinking, maybe i should leave the dream of being a police officer behind.” you lay next to each other, but jeno quickly sat up to look at you with a shocked face.

“what? why? when you first started coming here often you’d talk about all the things you did, how long you spent working for it.” he asked and you shrugged.

“i like you guys more than i like my job, i like you a lot more than my job.” she smiled, as his lips placed on yours again.

“i like you a lot too.”

#jeno #nct jaemin #renjun #haechan #lee donghyuck #nct fluff #nct haechan #nct renjun #nct jeno #fluff #nct dream #nct u #nct 127 #taeyong

[chiliiscereal]

(This is preseason one to show you what the background is on the whole story)

(let me know if you think this should be published as a separate book!)

You and Steve had a rocky start to being siblings.

You were born four years apart.

He was born in a time when your parents actually loved each other. They had time for birthdays and family weekends together. They went out to the park on saturdays. They were a picture perfect family.

It just so happened that when you were born, your father stopped being quite so faithful to your mother. When you came into the world, your father was in Europe on a business trip. And he wasn't only up to business.

Little Steve had adored you at first. He always wanted to hold you or play with you.

But then their parents no longer had time for him.

It was always work... and taking care of you.

It slowly changed over the years to only work, as your mother could no longer trust your father. Steve was left to watch you for weeks on end. He was good at it at first. He used to watch you carefully. He used to make sure you were happy and well...

Until he could no longer see his friends.

He was ten. You were five.

He began to leave you at home. At first it was only for thirty minutes while he went to the park. Then it was an hour every day during his elementary school days while he went to the movies.

You were seven when you began cooking your own meals.

You TRIED talking to him. You really did.

You tried catching his sleeve whenever he breezed past. You tried showing him crafts you made. You tried playing music you thought he might like.

That ended with twelve year old Steve pushing you away.

It ended with your works of art thrown in the trash.

Your music cassettes were thrown onto the road.

Your mother made sure both of you knew to never walk into the middle of the road, so you could only cry as some unknowing stranger destroyed your wonderful music. The music you had saved up all your allowance for. The music that you had thought your older brother would like. The music that you thought might bring you two together.

When your mother and father returned, you tattled.

Steve was grounded for a whole week.

But he always needed to have the last say. So he sold your boom box and spent all the money on comics. He threw your sketchbook in the quarry water. He shoved you to the floor, saying that if you ever tattled again then you would join your drawing book in the cold water.

You stopped trying to give Steve your attention and love. You no longer wished he would spend more time at home. So you began exploring the town by yourself at the age of nine. You didn't really have friends to hang out with so you would browse through stores.

The arcade was your favorite place.

You loved showing up early on Saturday mornings, before Steve was even awake, and leaving behind a new high score on the dragons lair.

Why?

Because it always riled up a group of boys your age. They had no idea who kept beating them over and over. Every Sunday morning you watched them walk in... only to scream a few seconds later about how someone had beaten their score by ONE point. Again.

You loved having some sort of connection to them. Even if they didn't know it was you. Or even who you were at all. They were a weird little group, strictly sticking with only other A.V club kids. Besides, you hardly ever talked. What would be so special about you?

It also didn't help that your older brother had begun to build himself a reputation. When you were ten, he began to be known as king Steve. You knew he bullied one of the kids (wills) older brother while beginning to flirt with another's (mike's) older sister.

You knew this because your father began forcing Steve to drive you home from school. That was the rule he set when he gave Steve the car.

Every day you trekked to the high school, only to watch Steve hang around Nancy Wheeler and push Johnathan Byers. You would have intervened and told him that you really didn't want to wait twenty minutes (out of sight) for him to be done. But the last time he did that he made you ride the way home in the trunk of his car.

When you were eleven, you started hanging out at Melvald's convenience store in the town square. Your favorite time to go there was at 7:00, because Mrs. Byers would always work the morning shift.

Wills mother was really quite wonderful. Every time you walked in she greeted you with a smile and lowered her magazine.

——-

"Whatcha lookin for today, kiddo?" She smiled softly, leaning on the counter to watch you browse.

"Any new cassette tapes." You shrugged, fingering each music case that caught your eye. "Do you have any Clash? I... lost mine." You didn't lose it. Steve broke it when he heard you mutter about how much you hated Tommy H.

"Yeah, we got a new box of cassettes delivered this morning." She hopped up and waved for you to follow her to the back room. "I miiiight have snagged a Clash cassette for you when I saw it." She grinned as she held the door open for the young girl.

"You didn't need to buy anything for me!" You gasped. You knew that the Byers needed all the money they could get. "Can I pay you back?" You immediately began digging through your pockets for spare change.

She placed a guiding hand on your back as you both entered, pulling you away from your search. "Oh no it's fine! It's the least I can do for my most frequent visitor."

She plucked the music case off the shelf and handed it to you. "You go to Hawkins elementary, right? You should talk to my son. Will. He also loves the Clash."

You turned red and clutched the cassette. "I've...seen him around before. I don't know how to talk to him."

"Oh it's easy!" She grabbed the spare paper and crayons you always used when you visited. "You just need to find common ground. For example," she pulled up a stool beside her for you to sit at, "you both like to draw!"

You placed down the paper and got working on your art. "Will it make a difference if I draw cartoons and he draws realistic? What if the difference is too big for him to want to talk to me?"

"It'll give you more to talk about!"

——

So began your quest to pursue friendship.

You attempted to speak to Will and his friends in the hall.

They were talking too loud about their latest campaign to hear you.

You tried asking to sit by them at lunch.

They were too busy launching potato's at the ceiling to notice.

Right when you almost gave up... Will and you were paired together as partners for a history project.

——-

'Don't mess it up, don't mess it up', you told yourself over and over as you moved to sit by Will. 'Don't be weird. See if he'll talk first. Don't be clingy.'

Wills was equally quiet. He just read through the rubric of the project and stayed silent.

'What can we talk about... what should I say?'

A drawing poking out of wills bag caught your eye. It looked like a wizard casting some sort of spell.

"I like your drawing!" You blurted out, wishing you could just shut up.

Wills jumped, startled. "Yeah... umm.. it's from... uh... it's from our last campaign.." he began fiddling with his thumbs, unsure of what to say to a girl. "Our DnD campaign... I mean."

You nodded along. "I like to draw to! I've never... I've never played DnD before... so I like to draw people."

Will cracked a shy smile. "I'll show you my drawing if you show me one of yours."

You agreed hesitantly.

He took your cartoon and you took his master piece. You desperately wished you could draw like him. Your cartoons looked so simple, as Steve always said.

"You're a cartoonist!" Will smiled, holding the paper out in front of him. It was a caricature of Mrs. Byers. "You must be the girl my mom sees at her job!" His eyes were wide with recognition. "This is so good! I wish I could draw cartoons. But whenever I try... they look like potato's." He laughed.

You flushed a deep red. "I... I'm also the one that beats your scores every Saturday." You admit.

His jaw dropped. "No way. We've been trying to figure out who that was for months! We formed a whole list of people to interrogate!" He ran a hand through his hair.

You giggled. "I can prove it... if you want. Next Saturday I could show you and your friends? At the arcade?"

"Yeah! I'm totally down to hang out at the arcade!"

——

Will had brought you to the A.V club after to ask the rest of the party. You had protested at first. What if they didn't like you? What if they said no? You would look so stupid! You tried to use your brother driving you home as an excuse.

But if you brought Steve up... no. You couldn't start a potential friendship like that.

Will proposed the ideas to everyone excitedly.

It seemed that Lucas had a problem with it immediately.

——-

"Sorry Will, but we can't." Lucas shook his head. "We've got plans."

Your heart dropped.

"Wait," Dustin frowned and turned to his friend. "What plans? I wasn't aware of any plans."

Lucas crossed his arms. "Remember? Our campaign?"

"We don't have a-."

Lucas elbowed him harshly and looked at you. "Can you leave for a second? We need to talk. ALONE."

You nodded and stepped out of the room. "Yeah totally! Just let me know when-."

The door slammed in your face.

You know you shouldn't have but you pressed your ear to the door anyway.

"What's your damage?" Mike Wheeler hissed quietly.

"Don't you know who she is?" Lucas accused.

"No... should we?" Will whispered in confusion.

"That's Y/N Harrington!" Lucas spat out.

"Steve Harrington's little sister." Dustin stated, now understanding.

Mike groaned. "The douche bag my sisters hooked on?"

"Yes! What if she's exactly like him?"

"You mean a total mouth breather? A player? An absolute jackass?"

You sunk to the floor. Of course Steve ruined the only chance you might have of a friendship. How could she think that these kids would look past her family's reputation? No one ever did. Even her teachers expected her to be disruptive and rude.

"Guys." Will intervened. "I talked to her in history."

"What?!"

"Traitor!"

"What about the party?"

Will lowered his voice, causing you to lean a little closer to the door. "She doesn't act like him. She never called me any names. She never told me that I'm a freak. She tried to talk to me about art."

"Steve definitely doesn't appreciate art." Dustin mumbled.

Wills continued. "She's a cartoonist. And I think she might be like us. You know who kept beating our dragon lair record?"

"Who?"

"Please tell me it wasn't Troy."

"Y/N Harrington."

"WHAT?!"

"IT WAS HER?!"

"GIRLS PLAY VIDEO GAMES?!"

#steve harrington #stranger things fandom #fanfic #wattpad #sister #oneshot #imagine #sneakpeak #for you