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supernovafics · 8 months

Text

series masterlist | last part

pairing: modern!actor!steve harrington x fem!reader

word count: 8.1k words

warnings: explicit language, angst, fluff, smut (18+)

summary: it’s ten months of texts, phone calls, voicemails, anything to make it feel like everything isn’t too different. and for the most part, it works. until you and steve finally see each other again

EPILOGUE | ❝𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆❞

You: How’s New York so far?

Steve: Good aside from Tom trying to force me to do more press stuff than what we initially agreed on and I’ve only been here three days

You: I kinda miss that british man

Steve: That truly offends me</3

You: I’m sorry<3

You: Okay very very important question

You: Empire State of Mind or Welcome to New York?

Steve: ????

You: You’re in New York for the next month so one of them has to be your signature song (and yes this is coming from the person that has only been to New York a handful of times. shut up don’t mention it)

Steve: Can I say no to both of them?

You: No.

Steve: Okay then

Steve: The Taylor Swift one

You: Solid answer

You: Now I will start your morning right every day you’re there by sending you lyrics from that song :)

Steve: Oh god

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Steve: What was the name of that show we watched for almost five hours at your place that one night?

You: It sincerely hurts me that you forgot the name of Brooklyn Nine-Nine….

Steve: Yes, that’s it! I was thinking about this one episode we watched of it but I couldn’t remember the name

You: Are you about to watch it without me? (if the answer is yes that hurts me even more)

Steve: Yes I was… But now no way I would never watch it without you

You: A true friend. Thank you

Steve: Oh wait I’m just now realizing how late it is where you are. How are you even talking to me right now?

You: Yeah, it’s 2am but I can’t sleep. First day of real filming tomorrow. First day being AD. And yes all the pre-production stuff me and Jessie have been doing since we got to Spain two weeks ago has been perfectly leading to this moment, but now it just feels so fucking real and even though I know I’m not gonna mess up or anything I’m still nervous

Steve: You’re gonna do great and actually I think it’s impossible for you not to be really good at what you do

You: Thank you

Steve: I would suggest that I call you and we watch an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine to take your mind off things but you should sleep

You: No actually can we do that? I’m wide awake right now and I don’t think I’ll be able to fall asleep anytime soon

You: Also fun fact: I’m actually able to function better when I’m running on barely three hours of sleep

Steve: That’s a huge lie but okay

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“… Please leave a message after the beep.”

You listened to the all-too familiar sound of the “beep” and then began speaking. “Okay, I know it’s like three in the morning in LA right now, so it completely makes sense why you didn’t answer. But, anyway, I just landed in London last night and now it’s morning and I’m at the coffee shop that you told me I should go to while I’m here.”

“It’s really, really great, and I hate how right you are about the tea being amazing, and it actually makes me change my mind about how much I dislike tea. Oh, also, I got my first ever British scone from here and it’s so good too. I think I’ll probably be spending every day at this place while I’m here for the next month.”

“And I know you raved a lot about the breakfast sandwiches here too, so I will try that tomorrow. I think you said that the bacon one was your favorite, but please confirm that because I can’t fully remember… Oh, wait, nevermind, it’s definitely the bacon because I do remember you saying that you miss it a lot.”

“I could bring you one back if you want? No, wait, actually, that wouldn’t make sense because even when I leave London, I’m still gonna be in Europe for three more months… Wait, I see that they sell coffee mugs here, though, so I could definitely bring you back that if you wanted me to? They have some cool options.”

“Alright, I think I’m just rambling at this point so let me shut up.” You let out a small laugh. “Okay, bye.”

Call Ended

You: *image attached*

You: Enjoy that picture of me being the most touristy tourist in the world :)

Steve: I can’t believe you’re doing the leaning tower of pisa pose thing

You: I had to. I couldn’t come here and not do it. It feels like tradition. A rite of passage, if you will

Steve: You’re such a dork

You: Joke’s on you because I fully take that as a compliment, so thank you

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

The feeling of your phone vibrating in the back pocket of the jeans you were wearing surprised you because you thought you had turned it off for the day. And then seeing Steve’s name take over your phone screen further surprised you, but you didn’t hesitate to answer the call.

“Hi,” You said. You were on a break for the first time that day, so the timing of his call was actually kind of perfect. “This is a pretty nice surprise.”

“Hey, how’s it going?” It felt really good actually hearing his voice for the first time in what felt like forever.

“Pretty good. I never thought I’d actually find myself truly missing LA, but now I kinda can’t wait to be back there in three weeks,” You answered, saying what had been on your mind for a while at this point. “How’s Vancouver?”

“Nice so far. It’s actually been snowing a lot, but I like it.”

“I hope you've been doing all of the snow and Winter activities; making snow angels, sledding down hills. Y’know, all the stuff they do in children’s Christmas movies.”

You almost immediately heard Steve laugh at your words. “The apartment I’m staying at here has a balcony, and last night after it stopped snowing I made a really small snowman.”

You smiled. “I love that. Please send me a picture of it.”

“Okay.”

Things became quiet for a moment, and it was a silence that easily felt comfortable and you didn’t mind it at all. Simply knowing that Steve was on the other end of the call felt like enough.

“This is a random thought, but we never usually talk on the phone. Mainly because our time zones are insanely different, so the timing is never right, and we’re either leaving each other voicemails or just texting, which is fine. But it’s really nice hearing your voice. It’s just… really comforting.” You let out a soft breath. “Where I am right now and where I’ve been the past five-ish months have become my makeshift “homes,” but talking to you actually feels like home, in a way… And I know exactly how disgustingly cheesy that sounds. Don’t say anything about it, or I will end this call.”

Steve laughed a bit. “No, I agree with you. We’ve talked about feeling lonely before, but even though we haven’t seen each other in what feels like a really long time, whenever we text and especially when we talk on the phone, it’s hard to feel lonely. It’s like all of these miles between us don’t really matter, which is nice. You’re my “home” too.”

You were quiet for a second, fully taking in his words and smiling at how happy they made you feel. It was the kind of happiness where you also kind of felt like crying.

You loved what you had been doing currently with your job and you wouldn’t have changed any of it, but you also really wished that you could see Steve right then; you would’ve killed for a hug.

“Okay, I think I should go before I start crying,” You said, only slightly joking with your words. “Also, I only have ten more minutes of my break, and I haven’t eaten since this morning.”

“Oh shit, I’m sorry.”

You shook your head even though he couldn’t see you. “No, don’t be sorry. Like I said, I really like when we can actually talk to each other. I like hearing your voice.”

“I like hearing yours too,” He told you and somehow it was easy to hear the smile in his tone. “Okay, I’m gonna hang up now. Go eat something.”

“Aye, aye captain,” You said with a small laugh. “Talk to you soon.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

You: I just watched the final cut of Fear of Lonesome with Jessie… Enjoy this picture of me currently bawling my eyes out at the ending

You: *image attached*

Steve: Sorry for making you cry?

You: It was worth it, honestly

Steve: You’re coming to the cast and crew screening next week right?

You: Of course. I will happily cry at this movie again :)

You: It’s kinda really fucked up how good of an actor you are

Steve: Thank you? At least I think that’s a compliment

You: It is<3

You: Anyway I’ll see you next week then

You: The first time in a really really long time. Holy shit

Steve: That feels a little weird to think about. But a good kind of weird

You: Yeah definitely the good kind

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

It was a moment that was ten months in the making.

Ten months of texts, voicemails, and sporadic phone calls. Ten months of being so far apart from one another, but doing so much to make it feel like you weren’t.

It was all leading here— seeing Steve in person at the small theater in West Hollywood that had been rented out for the night’s occasion. And when you saw him, talking to random members of the cast and crew, it didn’t exactly feel real, which made you not say anything.

Until he saw you and your eyes met and small smiles were quickly shared. You gave him a small nod before you got pulled into a conversation with someone.

He looked a little different, hair grown out a bit more and there was something minorly different about his stance, but overall he was still your Steve. Well, not technically yours, but close enough. You then wondered if he thought you looked any different. You personally felt a bit different, in a good way; like you’d become better over the past ten months, and in some ways, more of yourself.

It was almost amusing how, most of the time, the time seemed to move slowly over the past ten months, but now it was suddenly moving so much faster.

Everyone left the lobby area and started making their way inside the room that the screening would be happening in since it was scheduled to start in five minutes, but you and Steve lingered back, walking toward each other until there were only a few beats of space between you two.

You smiled at him again. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He stepped forward to close the rest of the distance between you and pull you in for a hug, but you stepped back.

“Oh, I don’t know if I’m allowed to hug you. Y’know given that you’re an engaged man and all.” You tried to be completely serious with your words but it was hard not to laugh at least a little bit.

According to many celebrity news outlets, Steve and his female costar of the limited series he’d been filming in Vancouver for the past five months were dating. It was a rumor that started about two months into filming, and there had been no confirmations about the said relationship but there were also no hard denials, so the speculations continued. And then there were even a handful of news outlets that went quite insane with their headlines and said that the two were secretly engaged. You both had laughed about it then when you sent that article to him, because the rumors were hilariously ridiculous, and you couldn’t not joke about it now.

“Ha ha,” He said, voice deadpan. “I didn’t even get to tell you, but Tom suggested that me and Lily actually start fake dating because, in addition to all of this giving so much more press to the show, it could also help me. If I’m dating someone it will fully “kill off the asshole image.” I immediately vetoed that idea, though.”

Although the asshole narrative that surrounded Steve still existed— not as prominent as it once was but it still lingered whenever his name was brought up by the media— it was hard to see him like that anymore.

You let out a laugh. “Of course Tom would suggest that.”

“Yeah, he’s…” Steve trailed off with a quick shake of his head. “Anyway, c’mere.”

You walked into his open arms that time, pushing up on your toes to circle your arms around his neck as his wrapped around your waist. Your eyes fell shut as he held you tight and it was then that the time felt like it started to move slow again.

“I have something for you,” You told him after a moment, words getting somewhat lost in his neck but he was still able to hear you. “A little gift. It’s in my car, I’ll give it to you after.”

“I also have something for you,” Steve whispered, and you opened your eyes at that.

You pulled back from the hug, still smiling at him. “Great minds, hm?”

He nodded and matched your smile with one of his own. Seeing him right then still didn’t entirely feel real just yet, so you went quiet once again and the two of you simply looked at each other.

During the past ten months you and him had talked pretty much all of the time, but there was something different about this moment. Feelings that you thought you had successfully pushed far away rushed right back to the surface.

“We should head inside,” He said, breaking the silence and pulling you out of your thoughts, which you were grateful for because you really didn’t want to think right then, especially not about that.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

You were the one that suggested Steve come back to your place and the small gift exchange happen there.

The screening felt as if it ended too soon and the inevitability of the night itself ending started to hang in the air. However, you couldn’t allow that to happen; you wanted this night to last as long as it could.

Steve agreed with your suggestion and thirty minutes after various goodbyes were said, the two of you were sitting on your couch as a frozen pizza that you’d just bought yesterday cooked in the oven because both of you were hungry.

You were already wearing the navy blue oversized crewneck he got you that had “Vancouver” embroidered in white across the front of it. It was comfortable and perfect, and a simple gift but also the best thing you’d received in a while.

“I hope you like this,” You said as you handed him the gift you’d gotten for him; a cream colored mug with the logo of a coffee shop in brown lettering on the side. “I know you said that you were okay with not getting a mug from that coffee shop in London, but I just really wanted to get you this one.”

Steve looked at the mug for a second and then at you, a smile on his face. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” You said and your fingers started mindlessly playing with the hem of your crewneck as you continued speaking. “I’ve missed you a lot this past year. I know we talked so often and everything, but being right here, in person, feels really nice.”

“I’ve missed you too,” He said softly before he placed the mug on the coffee table barely a few feet away and then met your eyes again. “There were so many times where I wanted to just drop everything and go see you. Rearrange plans or cancel some stupid press stuff and meet up with you. Even if it would only be for barely a day or whatever. I just always wanted to see you.”

You wanted to tell him how much you related to his words. You wanted to say how there were a countless amount of times where you had yearned to do the exact same thing. However, you couldn’t find the words to tell Steve any of that, so instead you only looked at him for a bit.

It was almost funny how many times you had become at a loss of words so far that night simply because of him. But it was as if the fact that you were suppressing so much made you unable to say pretty much anything. Because you were scared of where exactly your mind would go if you didn’t immediately shut down some of your thoughts that involved you and Steve, especially now that he was right here instead of thousands of miles away and no longer solely limited to the confines of your phone.

He was your friend. Best friend. And it had been so much easier to pretend that that was where you and him solely began and ended when you both were so far away from each other— when he wasn’t right in front of you and you weren’t so easily reminded of how close you two used to be in such a different way.

Those same revived feelings from earlier that night came right back again, and they practically increased tenfold because you found yourself wanting to kiss him so fucking badly. And, of course, there was a part of your mind that immediately told you just how bad of an idea that would be. However, at that moment, you became okay with all logical thinking being pushed out of the window.

In your mind it felt like you were moving in slow motion, scooting closer to him on the couch and sliding into his lap so that your legs were on either side of him, but in reality it was happening so much quicker. However, you stopped there before you did anything else.

You could see some confusion in his eyes and also something else that you couldn’t fully decipher, maybe he was contemplating things as much as you had been before you decided to take this sort of plunge.

That look was almost enough to wake you up and remind you of what had been agreed upon all those months ago, but it wasn’t enough to make you pull away from Steve. However, instead of sliding off of his lap or moving things further, you gave the metaphorical ball to him.

You let silence hang in the air as the two of you simply looked at each other and you gave him the opportunity to push you away. To tell you that there wasn’t any part of him that wanted this to happen. That he was so far past feeling anything like that toward you anymore. That he never even thought about it.

You would’ve been okay with any of those things happening because even though it would’ve hurt, it would actually make things a thousand times easier.

But, he didn’t do or say any of that. Instead, he closed the last bit of space between you two and slotted his lips against yours.

It was an immovable and obvious fact that you had missed him so much over the past ten months, but you now realized that you had missed this just as much. A soft kiss that almost immediately turned into something more with one of Steve’s hands coming up to cup your cheek and the other finding your hip to keep you steady. You couldn’t help but moan into his mouth when his tongue ran across your bottom lip making the kiss deeper, and your hands fisted themselves into his t-shirt to bring yourself impossibly closer to him.

For the time being, you effectively turned your mind off. You deliberately chose not to think about what this exactly meant or what it would come to mean. All you focused on in that moment was how fucking good doing this with Steve felt.

Your hands found the hem of your crewneck because you suddenly felt way too hot and you pulled away from Steve for a second so that you could slip it over your head, leaving you in just your black tank top and shorts.

You became so lost in the pure happiness of everything that was happening right then that you couldn’t hear anything except your heart pounding in your ears and the soft sounds Steve was managing to elicit from you due to the way he was squeezing your hips.

“The oven,” He mumbled against your lips, which slowly snapped you out of the haze you were in. “The oven is beeping.”

It was then that you heard the incessant noise; almost too loud and clear.

You abruptly pulled away from Steve and maneuvered off of his lap. “Oh, shit.”

He followed you into the kitchen as you opened up the oven and used a mitt to grab the circular pan the pizza was on and place it atop the stove.

“That was, um…” You trailed off not knowing exactly where you wanted to go with your words.

Steve shook his head. “It’s okay. We don’t have to talk about it.”

“I don’t regret what just happened,” You blurted out. They were the words that pretty much mimicked what was said after the first time you two ever had sex. But, instead of those words first coming from Steve they were coming from you. “And I don’t really know what that means, and I kinda don’t wanna think about what it means right now. I kinda just don’t wanna think at all right now. Sometimes I feel like I think way too much when it comes to us.”

He was quiet for a second before he nodded at you. “Okay.”

His hands found your hips and you were softly pressed against the side of the kitchen counter. You two shared a look that felt as if it was saying a million things, none of which you particularly wanted to decipher right then.

Before things could stay silent for too long, before you accidentally let your mind fall down a spiraling rabbit hole, you nodded a bit and mimicked Steve’s previous word. “Okay.”

His hands came up to cup your face before he leaned in to kiss you again. You didn’t waste a second to push yourself onto the counter and Steve’s lips found your neck, roughly kissing and nipping at the skin. Your hands started playing with the hem of his t-shirt before circling in the loops of his jeans and pulling him flush against you. When you felt his hardness press against your inner thigh, you took in a sharp breath and let out a soft moan. You were completely certain that you would’ve let him pull off your shorts and underwear and do whatever he wanted to do to you against your kitchen counter if you weren’t reminded of something else.

“The pizza?” You mumbled, a bit unable to form the question coherently because all you could really focus on was the feeling of Steve’s mouth against you.

He pulled away from your neck and met your eyes. “We can eat it after.”

He didn’t have to specify further for you to know exactly what he meant. You smiled and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. “Yeah, after sounds perfect.”

It became a blur of movements after those words fell from your lips. His hands found the backs of your thighs and he picked you up— the abruptness of the action made you simultaneously yelp and laugh as your arms came up to circle around his neck. You were carried to your bedroom and softly placed down against the unmade bed. Clothes were quickly shed until there was nothing between you and him.

No words were said in these rushed moments where hands and mouths roamed almost everywhere on each other's bodies; the brief looks shared and breathy noises coming from both of you were enough.

It was as if one mind was being shared or a song that only you two knew the words to was playing and both of you were singing along. Your hands were in his hair, softly pulling because the groans he’d let out were probably the hottest thing you’d ever heard. And his middle finger softly teased your clit as he whispered the filthiest things in your ear because he knew just how much that would make you lose it.

It had been almost a year but neither of you forgot these little things about one another and it almost felt like second nature to be with each other in this way. There wasn’t a hint of nervousness or awkwardness, and maybe that was saying a lot more than you wanted to admit.

You were positive that if you fully thought about what was happening right then, your mind wouldn’t hesitate to yell at you that this was a bad idea; that it would only make things complicated, and start you both back at square one.

However, it would also tell you that the times in your life where you felt your happiest and most comfortable mainly consisted of moments with Steve, and that was something that felt as if it would never change.

Therefore, when he slipped inside you with a low groan that you caught with your mouth and proceeded to make you come faster than you had in such a long time, it was hard to feel anything but completely happy.

Your legs wrapped around him, coaxing him deeper inside of you and soft “pleases” fell from your lips begging him to come. And after a particularly hard thrust, he let out a loud “Fuck” and came inside of you, and you couldn’t do anything but moan at the feeling of his cum painting your walls.

The weight of him crushed you in the most comforting way possible, and you tilted your head upward a bit to meet his lips in a soft and lazy kiss. The two of you stayed just like that for a while, coming down from your highs and letting your racing hearts return to normal. Your head fell back against your pillow, eyes closing, but you didn’t feel tired.

“When those articles about you and Lily dating started coming out, I knew exactly how ridiculous the rumors were because I feel like we have the kind of… friendship where you’d tell me if you were dating someone… But, there was still a small part of me that believed it for a second, and it was actually so hard to not feel a little sad about it.” Your words came out quiet, and you actually had no idea why you had just said all of that— perhaps that confession did not make for the best post-sex pillow talk conversation. But, for some reason, you wanted to say it.

It was a thought that had weighed on you all those months ago, and you knew that you couldn’t tell that to him then because of what it implied. And you weren’t entirely sure why and what made this moment different from then.

Steve was quiet for a bit and his face was buried in your neck as he softly spoke. “I don’t really know what to say to that.”

“It’s okay,” You whispered back. “You don’t have to say anything. It was dumb of me to feel that way about it.”

He rolled off of you and the feel of his warmth against you was something that you missed almost immediately. For a second you thought that maybe you ruined this moment, whatever it was, but then he said something.

“What are you doing this weekend?” He asked, and you were grateful for the randomness of the subject change.

You let out a breath that you didn't know you’d been holding and turned on your side to face him. “For once, absolutely nothing. It’ll probably be the last time I actually have nothing to do before the documentary I’m helping out on starts filming in a month, and I have to do some pre-production stuff for it soon.”

Work was honestly the only thing in your life that felt completely certain, so it always felt easy to talk about.

“You should come to New York. I’m going tomorrow, and I'll be there until the premiere here for the movie next week. I have to do some press stuff and have a few meetings. A bunch of boring stuff, but you should come for the weekend,” Steve said, one hand finding your bare hip and softly rubbing the skin. “To make the boring stuff a lot less boring.”

You couldn’t help but smile at that, and you nodded at him, quickly deciding not to think too heavily about your answer. “Okay.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

It was a little surprising that it wasn’t surprising how easy things fell back into that old place with you and Steve. Back to what sort of resembled the “arrangement” that had started during filming a year ago where you two pretty much acted like you were in a relationship, but neither of you would say the words or wholeheartedly acknowledge that fact.

There was a lot that you two would eventually have to talk about, but you decided that that would be a bridge that you’d cross once you were hours away from getting on your flight back to California. And it was a flight that kept changing because you didn’t want to leave New York just yet; you didn’t want to leave Steve yet.

So, your weekend trip extended days upon days until Wednesday came and it was agreed upon that you’d just go back to Los Angeles Friday morning when Steve was heading back there as well because that was the same day as the movie premiere.

You had a little work to do during those first few weekdays you were there, but you found it easy to respond to emails and make the phone calls you needed to from the comfort of Steve’s apartment, which was smaller than his place in LA but of course still massive and had a great view of Central Park. The dining room area became your makeshift “work from home” spot with your laptop at the table at pretty much all times. And while you did that, Steve was off doing press stuff for the movie, or he was in meetings; the things aside from filming that came along with being a famous actor.

And then when the day would change into the evening and then night, you two were together, doing everything that you both had desperately missed doing. You two still knew each other’s bodies so well, and it was as if that fact was only further and further proven every night.

It was hard not to be close to each other when for so long, you hadn’t been able to be, and because of that, things became a little different this time around in comparison to what the “arrangement” had been. There were little touches and affections— holding hands while sitting as close as you possibly could on the couch or Steve kissing you goodbye before he’d leave the apartment— that hadn’t happened before because of the lines that had been metaphorically drawn, but they felt pretty blurred now.

A sort of routine quickly and almost effortlessly formed and it gave you that glimpse into what you and him could be if the circumstances were slightly different. And it was hard not to admit that you completely adored what this “what if” looked like.

“We need snacks.” Your words were random and abrupt and Steve only looked at you amusingly.

It was Wednesday night, days before things would inevitably change, and you weren’t completely sure what they’d change into— if they’d go back to the normal you had created with Steve where the two of you were friends and nothing more, or if things changed into something else entirely. You still completely avoided thinking about it all, and it was pretty damn nice living in this fantasy world.

The two of you were on the couch in his living room. Your legs were draped over his lap and a blanket covered you both.

One of Steve’s hands was absentmindedly rubbing your leg beneath the blanket as he spoke. “There’s some stuff in the pantry.”

“If we’re about to spend the entire night watching The Hunger Games movies we need more than just the chips to keep us alive.”

His eyebrows furrowed at your words. “Am I underestimating how long these movies are?”

“You definitely are,” You said with a small laugh and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. You then pulled off the blanket that had been draped over the both of you and stood up from the couch. “I’ll go to the convenience store down the street.”

Steve got up as well. “I’ll come too.”

You quickly shook your head. “No way. It’s kinda insane how the paparazzi seem way more ruthless here. I think they’re always camping outside the building.”

Over the past few days, you had come to the conclusion that it was lucky that Steve lived in an apartment building because whenever you would leave and come back, no one could ever know that you were there for him. And you knew just how big of a field day they would have if they did know, especially because of the dating rumors that were still circling about him and Lily.

“Yeah, way too many famous people live here,” Steve said as he followed you into his bedroom.

Your small suitcase, that had only been meant for a weekend trip and was packed as such, was a haphazard mess in the corner. You slipped off the shorts you were wearing and pulled on a black pair of leggings.

“And yet, I’ve still not run into Paul Rudd on the elevator since I’ve been here,” You jokingly said and expected Steve to laugh, but instead he bypassed your statement.

“Wait, it’s raining. You sure you’re gonna be okay out there?”

You smiled at his slightly concerned face. “Okay, I know I’ve been living in LA for a long time now, but don’t worry I have in fact experienced rain before.”

Steve shook his head at you but still couldn’t help but laugh a little at your words. “Hold on.”

He almost immediately walked away, heading into his closet, before you could ask him what he was doing, and then returned moments later with a hoodie and umbrella.

“I was already planning to steal a hoodie, but thanks for the umbrella,” You told him with a smile as you put on the plain black hoodie. “What kind of candy do you want me to get?”

“Skittles.”

“Solid answer,” You responded with a nod.

The two of you headed toward the front door and you put on your shoes that were next to it. Once you were done, Steve handed you the umbrella. He then pulled the hood of the hoodie over your head and then leaned in to press a kiss on your nose. “Don’t meet Paul Rudd on the elevator.”

You laughed a bit. “I’m sorry, but I really, really hope I do.”

You didn’t meet Paul Rudd on the elevator, and you told Steve that with an over dramatic sad sigh when you came back from the store twenty minutes later, a bag full of junk food in hand, before you both settled back on the couch.

The two of you were only able to fully watch the first two Hunger Games movies before falling asleep an hour into the third one, around two in the morning. You half-woke up when the credits were rolling and then lightly poked Steve awake so that you two could go to his actual bed for the rest of the night.

“This is how it would be, y’know,” Steve said in the morning, words slightly getting lost in your hair.

The two of you were cuddled in his bed, your back pressed against his front and one of his arms draped over your waist. You had just finished having a half-awake discussion about what to do for breakfast before he said that he had to leave soon for the final day of press interviews for the movie, but he told you about a bagel place nearby that you’d probably like. And then the conversation shifted to a pinky promise agreement that you and him would finish the final two Hunger Games movies that night.

Things became quiet after that, with both of you savoring the last few minutes you could spend in bed, and you found his hand, intertwining it with yours and pulling it up to kiss the back of it.

You almost shifted around to face Steve after he abruptly said his previous words, but you felt too comfortable in your current position to do so. “How what would be?”

“You and me if we decided to be something real.”

“Steve,” You said softly and then decided to shift around so that you were looking at him. His hair was a little disheveled and he looked pretty tired, but he also looked so cute. If he hadn’t just abruptly pushed open the door to the conversation that you knew needed to happen, you were certain that you would’ve kissed him right then.

“I’m just saying...” He said as his shoulders upturned in a small shrug. “Also, I’m slightly kidding. This week has been really good, and I’m glad we got to have it, but I know things will go back to… normal soon. And that’s okay.”

Hearing him say that— confirming that things would just go back to how they were, a friendship where you both seemed to just lie about what you really wanted and how you felt— made you get hit with the sudden realization that you hated the thought of going back to that.

However, for some reason, you couldn’t find the words to tell him that right then, so instead you nodded at what he had just said and plastered on a fake smile. You made your voice sound as light as possible. “Yeah.”

He left the apartment forty-minutes later and you left it twenty minutes after that, deciding to go to the bagel place he suggested because you were hungry and also because you didn’t want to be alone in his apartment with only your confusing and contradicting thoughts to keep you company.

However, somehow as you walked aimlessly around Central Park— your bag with your plain cream cheese bagel in one hand and iced coffee in the other— that was when it felt like the dam broke, and your mind started spiraling because it finally felt impossible to keep avoiding and pushing your thoughts away. You were finally facing the bridge that you had told yourself you’d eventually have to cross, and in your head, you could see that the end of it was leading in two completely different directions. And you knew the exact direction you wanted to go in.

Your friendship with Steve was supposed to be more than enough. That was what you had told yourself that night at the wrap party to convince yourself that you were completely okay with only having a friendship with him.

But now, after these past five days of getting that glimpse into what something more could look like, you knew that just being friends really wasn’t enough, and it never would be. And although a part of you still felt a little scared to risk it all, there was an even bigger part of you that didn’t want to give this up anymore.

You couldn’t give up how completely and irrevocably happy Steve made you in more ways than just friendship. It was a mixture of the butterflies you’d get in your stomach whenever he would pull you close to him to press a soft kiss against your forehead or cheek and the wide smile you’d get on your face when he’d come back to the apartment after being gone for hours. It was also how he would look at you so adoringly when you would ramble about work stuff and how he could easily manage to convince you to stay in bed for “five more minutes;” five minutes that would always turn into at least ten but you never cared.

Steve Harrington made you the happiest you’d ever been and you suddenly became tired of continuously avoiding that fact.

It was a series of quick but definitely long overdue actions that happened next.

You found yourself sitting on a park bench with the thought of eating your bagel or drinking more of your coffee long forgotten for the time being, and instead they simply sat next to you, because there was something else you needed to do at that moment. You pulled out your phone and went to Steve’s contact, pressing the call button before you could think twice about it.

It went straight to voicemail, just like you knew it would because he always kept it off during interviews, so you waited for the way too familiar “beep” sound and then started speaking.

“Hi,” Your voice came out softer than you expected it to, so you cleared your throat. “I knew that you weren’t gonna answer, and I’m kinda glad that you didn’t because I just want to get all of this out all at once. So, stay tuned for a very long-winded ramble from me.” You let out a small laugh. “Um, anyway, these past five days that I’ve been here in New York with you have been so good, like insanely good, and I’ve been avoiding thinking about what would happen after this and what would exactly change between us. And I was completely okay with not thinking about any of that because it made it easier to just live in the moment and be happy with what we’ve been doing. But then this morning, you said that it’s okay that things will go back to normal soon and that finally made me think about everything, and I realized that I don’t want us to go back to “normal.” I actually kind of hate the thought of doing so.”

You stopped for a moment, gaze becoming fixated on a group of friends that had blankets spread out in the grass and were having a picnic not that far away from you, and then you looked at a couple that was walking down one of the paths holding hands.

After taking a quick breath, you kept going. “You’re so important to me, and our friendship is so important to me too… But I love you. I’m in love with you. And because of that, I can’t just be your friend. I want more, I want us to be something real; and that’s pretty much exactly what you said that night at my apartment almost a year ago. I’m so sorry that it’s taken me this long to realize just how fucking great we are together.”

Your hand that wasn’t holding your phone to your ear began absentmindedly playing with the hem of the sweatshirt you were wearing; it was the Vancouver crewneck he got for you.

“I want us to have days like this past week forever. And I know that this week has kind of been a fluke because, for the first time in a really long time, our schedules worked out pretty well. But we can make this work. I know we can. I was an idiot to say that we don’t make sense before because we do. Yes, our lives pull us in pretty different directions most of the time, and it sucks, but it's okay because it doesn’t change how I feel about you, and it never will. And I think that's the most important thing. It's why I know we, us, can actually work.”

You leaned back against the wooden bench and let out a breath. “Okay, wow, I’m so surprised that I haven’t been cut off yet… I’m currently sitting on a park bench in Central Park, and I got a bagel and coffee from the place you mentioned. I haven’t tried the bagel yet, but the coffee’s pretty good…” You trailed off with a shake of your head and then laughed a bit. “I have no idea why I’m telling you that right now. Um, anyway, I’m gonna stop talking now, and I’ll see you back at the apartment later. Bye.”

When you ended the call and pocketed your phone away, you felt an immediate weight lift off of your shoulders and you let out a contented sigh that turned into a small laugh.

You waited for a second, though, waited for something that resembled dread or regret to suddenly hit you, but it never did. And that was what let you know that what you’d just done was fully the right thing to do.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Hours later, you still felt nothing but complete contentment with what you had done, leaving the minute and a half long voicemail that would, in fact, change everything. You wanted it to change everything.

After responding to a handful of work emails and then enduring an hour-long phone call with one of the Producer’s of the soon-to-be filming documentary, you were in the kitchen searching for some sort of a snack to eat. However, hearing the sound of the front door opening halted your rummaging.

“Hi,” You said, watching Steve enter the apartment and then close and lock the door behind him.

He met your eyes almost immediately. “I really loved that voicemail.”

You smiled at him, at how quickly he wanted to address the elephant in the room before it really even had a chance to enter. “Yeah?”

He didn’t hesitate to nod his head and he smiled back at you. “Yeah. I’m never deleting it.”

He looked so happy as he walked over to you where you were leaning against the kitchen island, and that look made your heart constrict in your chest.

“I love you,” It didn’t feel the tiniest bit scary to say the words right to him, they just felt so honest and undeniable. Your voice was soft and your arms came up to wrap around his neck, hands immediately finding home in the hair at the nape.

“Mm,” His eyes slipped shut as his arms circled around you, pulling you against him. “Say it again.”

Your mouth was right against his ear as you spoke. “I love you.”

He hummed again and then pulled back a bit, his nose brushed against yours and his lips did the same. It was all so teasing, like he wanted to take his absolute time with kissing you. However, now it didn’t have to be slow or drawn out because none of this was going to abruptly end; there was no expiration date apart of this like the arrangement you had a year ago.

“I love you too,” He said before finally slotting his lips against yours.

There was so much expressed in the soft kiss. It completely felt like the beginning of something new, something better, rather than simply a continuation of what you two had. The kiss was so certain and sure and it only further confirmed to you that everything happening was right and good and perfect. This was what you had wanted from the moment the two of you made that pinky promise during the wrap party; the one where you both said that you wouldn’t let your friendship end. Technically, it wasn’t being broken.

You pulled away when you started feeling lightheaded and you met Steve’s gaze as you allowed yourself to breathe for a bit. You were quiet for only a second.

“This will work,” You whispered.

Steve nodded and then pressed a kiss to your forehead. “Yeah, it will.”

The three simple words comforted you, they wrapped around you like a warm blanket, and you savored the feel of them. For the first time, probably ever, your overthinking mind felt sated; it couldn’t find anything wrong about this moment. You finally felt like you could breathe so goddamn easy because there was nothing to truly worry about, and you found yourself wanting to cry at that feeling, but you didn’t. Instead, you kissed Steve’s cheek and then his other one, and then his nose and forehead.

“This is random, but I’m really, really glad that I was forced to be your assistant.”

Steve laughed a bit at that. “Sometimes it doesn’t even really feel like that's where we started.” His hands found yours, intertwining them and giving them a light squeeze. “But, I’m so fucking glad that it was you.”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

author’s note: i'm gonna miss these two<333 i hope yall enjoyed this series! its been a rollercoaster fr (a good one for the most part though lol) i might do lil blurbs for these two someday because i'm way too attached to them and i have some minor ideas of some things i'd wanna do involving them.... but that probably won't happen for a while because after somehow being able to put out chapters weekly for this i do in fact need a Break lmao but anyway thank you for reading and enjoying this series🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fic #steve harrington smut #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington x you #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington series #steve harrington x reader smut #steve harrington fanfiction #stranger things fic #stranger things fluff #stranger things imagine

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mandoalorian · 1 year

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Look For The Light [Joel Miller x F!Reader]

Prologue: Part I

Summary: You are a hardened survivor trying to navigate your way in a post-apocolyptic world when you bump into an old friend who goes by the name of Joel Miller.

Warnings: the reader is slightly younger than Joel, say a 10-year age gap? All TLOU relevant warnings such as gore, violence, guns, drugs, and cursing. Joel has an anxiety disorder which parallels his portrayal in the games. Diet talk. Expect smut later on… [Please do not read if you are under the age of 18!]

Author’s Note: I can’t believe it has taken me so long to write a full-blown Joel fic. Those of you who know me well know that I became a fan of TLOU in 2019, just a year before I became a fan of Pedro. I was elated when it was announced he’d been cast as Joel and thus far, I am thrilled with his performance and the many themes of the TV show that have stayed true to the game/s. It is everything I could’ve asked for, and more. I feel as though there is no better person qualified to write a ‘re-write’ per-se of the game/TV show, and I aim to release chapters in time for the new episodes coming out.

Word count: 6,800 words.

Masterlist | Want to support me? | Listen to 'Look For The Light' on Spotify

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Sarah had been sitting on the patio since she finished middle school at noon, waiting for her dad to come home from work. Every school in the US was let out early today for some unknown reason. Government orders. But when Sarah’s dad called her at four-thirty and told her that he’d be home at nine, she thought little of it. This often happened, especially this season. With it just being him and Tommy, working on big contracting jobs often took some time, but Joel often reassured Sarah that it was better that way. Despite their constant brotherly bickering, Joel and Tommy were hard workers and made an excellent team. When Joel heard how disappointed Sarah was that he would be home late, he told her that she could take some money out of his wallet, which was located in his bedside drawer. He told her she could order a pizza and stay up late to watch a movie, and if she got bored waiting up for him, then she could visit their neighbours—the Adlers. They weren’t remarkable company, but they were kind people and they adored Sarah.

Sarah’s mind worked fast as soon as her father hung up the call and it didn’t take long for her to concoct a plan. If she recalled correctly, there was a cheese pizza in the freezer, so instead of ordering take-out, she opted to take her dad’s money and his favourite (yet broken) watch to the jewellers to get fixed. Luckily it wasn’t too far and she managed to get there before five, which was closing time. Sarah was elated that she was able to do this for her father. He always complained about his broken watch, and he was so busy that he was never given the opportunity to get it fixed.

She placed the broken watch on the counter, alongside a twenty-dollar bill, and she offered the gentleman who worked in the store a small wave ‘hello’. He was an older man with white hair and crow’s feet by the corner of his eyes, a sign that he’d smiled a lot during his lifetime.

“Oh, hey Sarah. How’s your dad?” The man, who according by his nametag, went by Eric, enquired while picking up the wristwatch and examining the damage.

“He’s good, thanks. Working late tonight,” Sarah hummed absent-mindedly while she admired the many antiques and trinkets which were dotted around the store. This wasn’t your traditional jeweller—but somewhat of a pawn shop where you could buy the occasional bracelet or diamond ring. “Actually, it’s his birthday tomorrow. Was hoping to get his favourite watch fixed.”

Eric chuckled heartedly. “Well, you’re in luck, kid. Looks like it just needs a new battery. That’ll get it ticking again.” After a few short moments, he returned the repaired watch to Sarah. Eric slid the twenty-dollar bill back over to her.

“No no,” Sarah surrendered her hands. “That’s your payment,” Sarah put the watch in her backpack. “Please take it.”

“Your father is a good man, and you’re a sweet kid—doing this for him. Don’t worry about the payment, I—” Just as he was about to finish his sentence, an older woman came charging into the front of the store, appearing panicked and dishevelled. “Honey, what’s the matter?”

Sarah identified the woman as the shopkeeper’s wife and noted her shaky hands and rapid movements. She was in a frenzy.

“We have to close the store,” the woman said quickly.

“What? Why?”

“We have to close the store!” the woman repeated this time shouting, and switching over the ‘Open’ sign to read ‘Closed’. She then turned to Sarah and grabbed the young girl by her arms. “You need to go home. Now.”

“Wh—is everything—” Sarah couldn’t even finish her sentence when the lady began to push her out the front door. Within seconds, the door to the store slammed shut and locked, and the blinds flew down.

Sarah stood outside the jewellers for a few moments, her brain trying to register everything that had just happened. It wasn’t until an abundance of fire trucks and police cars zoomed past her; their sirens were deafeningly loud. Sarah heard some screams in the distance and took that as her sign to head home. She hoped that her dad would get home at nine as he promised.

The streets were eerily quiet on the walk home, and there wasn’t a soul in sight. Sarah noted the lack of cars on the road. She wanted to take her time to travel back to her neighbourhood—after all, her father wouldn’t be back for hours and she had plenty of time to kill, but the more she began to think about the things she had seen, the more she found her footsteps were speeding up into a fast pace.

When Sarah arrived home, she fumbled with the keys to unlock the front door. The sky was growing dark now and she wondered what she could do with herself to keep occupied while she waited for Joel to return home. Mrs Adler, the Miller’s neighbour, called for her, and Sarah turned to see the nice lady relaxing on the front porch, next to her mother who was much older. Sarah picked up the keys and pondered across the Adlers’ front lawn, and over to their porch, greeting Mrs Adler.

Sarah spent the rest of the evening with the Adler’s and their dog, Mercy. By eight-thirty, Sarah headed home, but not before taking ‘Curtis and Viper 2’ from Mrs Adler’s DVD shelf. Mrs Adler was fine with Sarah taking the movie. She described it as a boyish film, anyway. Sarah watched the movie and cooked her frozen pizza. By midnight, she found herself becoming increasingly worried about why her dad hadn’t returned home at nine like he had promised. Usually, she would be okay with it, knowing the nature of his job-- but with the strange occurrences that had been happening today, something felt off.

The pale crescent moon shone like a silvery claw in the velvet night sky. When Joel finally pulled up into the driveway, he sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. He wasn’t getting enough sleep, and he was beginning to feel the effects of the long laborous hours on the same damn job. Tommy left at nine but Joel stayed back for a few hours to tie up loose ends. At least now he was paid, and he could forget all about it. He remained in his seat for a little while, listening to the end of the radio broadcast.

“—Indonesian minister of health released a statement today stating that the government is doing everything in their power to maintain the spread of the Cordyceps infection in Jakarta.”

Joel turned off the radio and left his truck. His mind was far too preoccupied to understand the severity of what was going on in the world around him. As he sauntered to the front patio, he cursed himself for being home so late knowing that Sarah would have been disappointed in him.

To his surprise, he heard Sarah’s voice the second he opened the front door. She’d stayed up for him.

“You said you’d be home at nine,” Sarah grumbled, her lips pulling into a frown as Joel walked through the front door. Her eyes felt heavy but she had stayed awake this long, anticipating her father’s return. She wasn’t going to fall asleep now. Her determined mind stopped her from doing that. The young girl looked up at the wall clock above the television and her frown deepened. “It’s almost one in the mornin’.”

Joel removed his brown work jacket and brushed down his t-shirt before sliding out of his shoes and shuffling into the living room. The room was illuminated by the amber lantern on the coffee table. His gaze was immediately drawn to a little brown moth, hazily dancing around the lantern before settling down atop it. If he was in his usual teasing mood, he would have pointed the moth out to Sarah, knowing it would scare her, but instead, Joel just ignored the insect and slumped down onto the sofa. Joel spread his legs and leaned back, pulling out a yawn. What a day.

“I’m sorry kid,” Joel finally said, feeling a genuine sense of guilt. “Rough day. Bad traffic.”

At least that wasn’t a lie. The roads had been hectic, with people swerving chaotically and more sirens in the neighbourhood than Joel had ever heard.

Sarah hummed knowingly. She’d been hearing the panic outside too, and the news broadcasts on the television had been secretly terrifying her to the point she couldn’t bear to watch. Something about an infection from Jakarta having sightings in the city. Not much was known about it, but Sarah was just glad she lived on the outskirts of Austin, Texas.

She’d be okay and so would her dad.

That’s all that mattered.

“Sweetie, what are you still doing up? It is way past your bedtime.”

“Oh! But I got you something,” Sarah beamed and reached down the side of the sofa, bringing up a white box. Joel looked at Sarah with surprised eyes and held the weighty box in his hand.

He opened the box, not exactly sure what to expect from his fourteen-year-old daughter, only for it to be revealed that she had gotten his favourite watch fixed. The watch had been broken for quite some time and Joel, being the busy man that he was, never got the chance to fix it.

When Joel didn’t respond to the gift, Sarah interjected, feeling the need to explain herself. “You kept complaining about your broken watch so I figured…”

“I—honey, I love it but I think it’s broken,” Joel tapped the watch face and held it to his ear, checking to hear for its ticks. Sarah, in a panic, grabbed her dad’s wrist to inspect the watch for herself, only to see that it was working in perfect order.

“Oh ha ha.” Sarah mocked as her father snorted a chuckle.

“Where’d you get the money for this?” He inquired, quirking an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs.” Sarah joked with a smirk, pleased with herself for getting her dad a present that he truly liked.

“Oh good. You can help out with the mortgage then.” Joel countered and Sarah laughed, snuggling into her dad and resting her head on his lap.

“You wish.”

Joel turned on the television and despite it being late, settled on an old war movie to watch. Sarah hated those old black-and-white films, and it didn’t take her long to fall asleep. Taking his daughter in his arms, Joel picked up Sarah, carried her upstairs, and tucked her into bed. Placing a kiss on her forehead, Joel remembered just how lucky he was to have Sarah in his life. She kept him grounded—she kept him sane—and she gave him reason to keep going.

By the time morning rolled around, Sarah was the first to wake up, as usual. Joel pressed snooze on his alarm three times, before his fourth and final alarm—being Sarah—came into his bedroom, opened up the curtains and let in the blinding golden sunlight which enveloped him. Joel winced as he felt the rays burn his skin, and turned over, putting a pillow over his head in frustration.

“Get up, dad,” Sarah announced. “It’s your birthday and I am making you special birthday pancakes.”

The pancakes were more so for Sarah, but her dad’s birthday was the best excuse to make them. She’d make rainbow funfetti pancakes with cream and syrup and strawberries. They were her all-time favourite breakfast. If he was lucky, she might have even stuck a candle in the top and sung ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.

That got Joel’s attention. “Birthday pancakes?”

“Be downstairs, dressed, in five minutes,” Sarah said before leaving her father’s bedroom.

Joel crawled out of his warm bed, the pancakes being the only motivation he had to actually get up, and pulled over the same navy blue t-shirt that he was wearing the day before. Buckling up the belt of his dark wash denim jeans, he shuffled down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“I don’t smell pancakes,” Joel frowned. “But I do smell coffee.”

Already preparing her father’s daily black espresso, Sarah sighed. “We don’t have any flour,” she replied, just as disappointed as he was. “You must’ve forgotten to pick it up. I guess you forgot the birthday cake too?”

“Damn it,” Joel huffed, realising that hopping to the grocery store yesterday must have completely slipped his mind. “That’s okay baby girl, I’ll make eggs.”

Eggs were fine, but they weren’t part of her convoluted plan to give her dad the best birthday imaginable. Sarah supposed that it would be okay and that the both of them were still able to spend the day together.

Sarah placed her dad’s coffee on the table. “Your shirt is inside out.”

The young girl helped her dad set the table and poured out some orange juice before taking her seat and eating her breakfast. After fixing his shirt, Joel sat down and turned on the television before digging at his eggs.

‘BREAKING NEWS: Cordyceps Brain Infection comes from contaminated food, spokesperson says. Total number of infected rises to 5000.’

“5,000?” Sarah repeated in disbelief. “Where is this infection spreading?”

“Jakarta,” Joel replied, stuffing a mouthful of bacon into his mouth. “Heard about it on the radio yesterday. Those poor people…”

“What kind of food is contaminated?” Sarah asked, to which Joel could only shrug in response.

“I don’t know honey, but don’t worry. We’re fine over here.”

Just as Joel and Sarah were finishing up their eggs and bacon, they overheard the front door swing open.

“Well well well, happy birthday old man,” Tommy Miller strolled into the kitchen with ease ruffling his older brother’s already messy bed hair playfully.

“Old man?” Joel countered, dropping his fork to the plate and acting mockingly offended.

“Old. Degenerate,” Tommy corrected and Sarah stifled a laugh. “Hey, I thought we were having birthday pancakes.”

“No flour.” Joel and Sarah replied simultaneously knowing that those two words offered enough of an explanation.

Tommy grumbled in dismay. “Well, in that case, I’ll see you guys later.”

When Tommy left, Sarah and Joel erupted into a fit of laughter. Tommy lived in the neighbourhood so it was often he would just pop in for a few minutes only to leave again. Now that he had the day off, Tommy would most likely spend his day in a bar playing pool, or hitting on girls that were way out of his league.

“No but seriously, what are we doing today?” Sarah asked, clearing her plate and heading over to the sink to wash her dishes.

“Well I got to pop out to the city for a little while. I promised an old friend I’d help her with a favour. You remember your old nanny?”

Sarah beamed at the memory of her. “Of course! Can I come with you?”

“No darling, I won’t be there long. She just wants me to take a look at her shower. She’s got a place up in Austin now.”

“Nice,” Sarah smiled. “She always did want to move to the city.”

“I should be back in time for dinner, and this time I’ll grab a birthday cake from the grocers,” Joel promised. Sarah offered him a hug.

“Okay daddy, do what you gotta do. I’ll see you later.”

The traffic was even worse than yesterday. The roads that led into the city were filled with people who were seemingly fleeing, all speeding in opposite directions. There was an accident on the quickest route so Joel found that he had to go through back alleys and side streets in order to get there as quickly and safely as possible. He didn’t understand why the roads were so hectic, and his mind was too preoccupied with the thought of seeing you again after so long.

Joel wasn’t sure whether or not he had done the right thing when it came to rejecting the new contracting job that was proposed by a local business, only to take on a free favour for the girl who used to babysit his daughter. You had done more than enough favours for the Miller family; having been there for Sarah ever since she was a little girl. If Joel had to be honest with himself; you were as much of an influence on Sarah as he could’ve hoped for. Being a young, single dad had its difficulties and Joel’s job often meant that he had to work long hours away from his daughter. As Sarah got older she understood why her dad would have to leave so early in the morning and come back so late at night. He was simply doing it to take care of her.

But when he wasn’t around, you were the reliable force that protected Sarah and watched over her during the day. You took her to kindergarten and later elementary school. You sat with her during the late evenings, helped with her homework and even cooked her dinner. Despite the ten-year age gap between you and Sarah, the two of you had become quite close, and according to Joel, you were simply a terrific girl; well-mannered and gentle. Your personality had an influence on Sarah, and Joel certainly couldn’t complain about that. He was so proud of his daughter. That’s why Joel was prepared to do this job as a favour to you, much to Tommy’s dismay.

Tommy being Tommy, always had something to complain about.

“This is un-fucking-believable. You got to earn a living Joel—and I do too. You sacrificed a legitimate job to help fix Sarah’s old nanny’s bathroom plumbing. And shit man, you ain’t even a plumber.” Tommy was midway ranting to Joel on the phone when he pulled up outside your apartment. After moving out of your family home, you found a place in central Austin, where you were living with your boyfriend. The commute to work was much easier now that you lived in the city. You’d scored a secretary job in a corporate office down on Congress Avenue.

“We are doing fine for business,” Joel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. It was times like this when Joel would wonder about the fine line between love and tolerance. Tommy was never going to let his brother forget about this. “I just owe this girl some favours.”

“You just want to get in her pants.” Tommy snarked back, the vulgar words dripping from his tongue.

“And you better watch your mouth boy,” Joel warned, his tone darkening as he immediately found himself getting ticked off by his brother’s comment. Tommy was always one to jump to accusations. “Just a favour.” Joel reminded before promptly hanging up the call.

Joel slid his cell into his jean pocket and took a deep breath. He hadn’t seen you in months. Not since you moved away. He felt his palms get just a little sweaty with nerves as he approached the front door to your building. Apartment number 13. After a brief moment of coaching himself, Joel pressed the button to buzz into your apartment.

“It’s me—Joel—uh, Miller—Joel Mil—” where were these nerves coming from?

“Come up!” your cheery voice interrupted him and he heard the electronic front door click open. Joel said a silent prayer hoping that you couldn’t sense his anxiety through the intercom. He had forgotten to take his medication that morning.

Noticing the elevator was out of order, Joel had no choice but to take the many flights of stairs that led up to your place. The walls in the hallway were painted a dingy brown and several cracks laced the webbed corners. When he got to your floor, he wiped away the beads of sweat that laced his hairline and noticed that the door to your apartment was already wide open, beckoning him to come in.

He lingered outside for a moment hesitantly, peeking around your front room; but you were nowhere in sight. He scratched the back of his neck before calling your name. It would be rude to just enter your apartment without you knowing.

When there was no response, Joel called your name again. He proceeded to take a step into your apartment and shut the door behind him. It was very small; just a sofa and a small TV and a bookshelf in the corner. Your kitchen was adjoined to your living room, and there were only two rooms towards the back. He assumed one must have been your bedroom, and the other… he heard a rush of water running. The bathroom.

The door was shut and Joel took a few steps, calling your name as he got closer and closer to the bathroom.

“I’m in here!” you called back. “Uh—you can come in—but please don’t laugh.”

Joel quirked his eyebrow as he pondered what could be beyond the door. He slowly reached down to the door handle.

“Are ‘ya… are you decent?” Joel asked awkwardly, noting that the shower was still running.

Another moment of silence before your timid voice responded. “…I suppose…”

Joel pushed down on the bronze door handle and let himself into the bathroom, only to be enveloped by warm, thick, humid air coming from the running shower. His immediate response was to choke back a cough as he squinted his eyes, trying to navigate where exactly you were hiding. You were behind the fogged-up shower glass, on your knees and sopping wet. You made no effort to remove yourself from the running water, even when Joel had already entered the room. You were adamant you could get this fixed yourself.

“Damn it!” you cursed loudly, finally withdrawing yourself from the shower and crawling out of the bathtub. You were never one to give up easily, but meddling with this shower was like fighting a losing battle.

You looked up at Joel whose large hand was covering the smirk that grazed his lips. He was trying so hard not to laugh at you. His broad shoulders were adorned by a brown jacket and his dark locks of hair seemed to be adorned with just a few grey specks—and hell, if he wasn’t staring at you with the utmost judgement—you might have even considered just how attractive he looked.

“You good?” Joel chuckled, the corners of his chocolate eyes creasing with elation. You stood up to meet his level, ignoring the fact your t-shirt was now stuck to your skin and water droplets were falling from your hair.

“Do I look good?” you snarked back, narrowing your eyes.

“Well—” Joel raised an eyebrow, eyeing you up and down. You felt your cheeks heat up under his gaze and you sheepishly looked down at your feet, hoping he wouldn’t catch your earnest reaction. “What happened?”

“Thought I could be all big and clever and try and fix this damn shower by myself,” you admitted, feeling silly for even giving it a try. “Thought that if I fixed it, I wouldn’t have had to waste your time.”

“Ah,” Joel nodded, stepping aside from you and hesitantly approaching the shower. A few stray streams of water jumped out at him. “You ain't ever wasting my time.”

You fiddled with your thumbs as Joel pulled out a wrench from his back pocket. Without hesitating, he stepped under the hot water and began to adjust the shower faucet, tightening the metal valve located under the head of the shower. The wrench kept slipping however and Joel ended up placing it on the side of the tub, opting to use his strength to tighten the valve. You watched as his grip tightened against the faucet controls, his biceps flexing as he let out a quiet grunt. The main flow of water came to a halt and the condensation in the room began to slowly fizzle away. Small drips of water fell from the leaky showerhead, but for the most part, Joel fixed your problem in just a matter of minutes.

Scratching the back of his neck, Joel ran his finger down one of the pipes that joint into the valve. “You might need to get your pipes checked, could be rust or—”

“Fungus,” you cut him off. “It’s gross, I know, but a neighbour was telling me she had the same problem with the faucet in her kitchen. Damn water wouldn’t stop running. She had some guys come around and they found this gross, fungus-type thing growing in the pipes.”

Joel made no effort to hide the disgusted look on his face.

You sighed, knowing you’d have to call a plumber over to investigate your shower further. You really didn’t need the extra expense right now. But then you remembered just how grateful you were that Joel travelled all this way to do you the favour of fixing your shower—even if it was a temporary solution. You walked over to the man and gently interlinked your fingers with his, your cautious movements taking Joel by surprise.

“Come on,” you said softly. “It’s slippery. Let me help you out of the tub.” You noted how your hand fit in his. It was much smaller, and even though you wanted him to hold onto you for support, it felt more like you were holding onto him.

Joel graciously took a step out of the tub, and you realised he didn’t need to hold onto you whatsoever. You took a towel from the radiator and wrapped it around his shoulders; a pathetic attempt at getting him dry.

“I should’ve brought a change of clothes.” he huffed, running his now empty hand through his short hair.

“I have something that might fit,” you smiled. “I mean—not my clothes of course, but my boyfriend, Michael… well, he’s probably the same size as you.”

Boyfriend?

It took a second for Joel to register the word. For some reason, he’d made the assumption you didn’t have a boyfriend. But then again, it had been a while since he last saw you, and now you lived in the city with your corporate job and your brand-new life. Just when Joel thought he knew everything about you, he realised that there was now so much more for him to learn. He followed you into your small, box-shaped bedroom and into the closet.

You searched through a pile of clean laundry that was mixed with both yours and Michael’s clothes.

“If you see anything you like, just take it. Michael won’t mind.” You offered.

Despite your assurance, Joel reluctantly knelt and searched through the pile of clothes. Amongst your many shirts, pants and colourful pyjamas, Joel finally found a light grey sweater and a pair of matching sweatpants to wear. As he pulled them out from under the pile, he couldn’t help but notice a lace lingerie set that was placed delicately underneath. Deliberately, at the bottom of the pile. His eyes were drawn to the piece and his grip on the grey fabric tightened as he imagined you wearing the set. The thoughts invaded his mind without choice and Joel cursed himself for not fighting them away.

He finally stood up and turned to face you, only to immediately retract back when he saw you pull off your t-shirt. Catching a glimpse of your bare back, Joel swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to face the poorly painted wall behind him, not wanting you to feel uncomfortable upon you discovering that he had seen you like that.

You had in fact told him that you were going to change out of your wet clothes too—around about the same time he noticed your lingerie. He was just too distracted to have heard.

Dropping your soaking wet jeans to the floor and letting them pool around your ankles, you pulled up your favourite, fleece-lined black leggings and wrapped your wet hair into a towel. Now dry and cosy, you turned back around to Joel who was staring at the concrete wall, waiting patiently for you to have finished.

“Joel?” you asked.

“Y—yeah?” Joel stuttered, clutching onto the sweats.

“You found something to wear?”

“Yeah.” Joel confirmed, smiling softly and showing you the grey sweats that he had picked out, almost as if he was asking permission—again—as to whether or not he could take them.

He was such a sweetheart.

“Perfect,” you returned his smile. “You can get changed in here. I’m going to head into the kitchen.”

Before Joel could reply, you left your bedroom and gently closed the door behind you, allowing Joel to get changed in privacy.

You opened up the refrigerator and took out a batch of chocolate chip cookies that you’d baked the night before. Heating them up in the microwave, you prepared them neatly on a plate and placed them down atop the small table that segregated your kitchen from your living room. Just as you were finishing up presenting the cookies, Joel exited your bedroom and you felt your heart blossom in your chest when you caught sight of him.

You were so used to seeing Michael wear those same grey sweats all the time, you hadn’t even prepared yourself for how they’d look on Joel. For the same garments, you’d imagine they would look identical—but you couldn’t have been more wrong. They fit on Joel’s body like a glove and tugged on him in all the right places. The light colour highlighted his slender waist and broad shoulders, and the way the waistband around his sweatpants was just ever so slack…

Joel cleared his throat and you felt your cheeks heat up as you snapped out of your daydream.

“Looks good,” You nodded your head with positive affirmation and then your eyes quickly darted to the cookies on the table behind you. “Cookies!” you announced, happy to have found a reason to change the subject. Joel shuffled towards you and eyed up the plate of cookies.

“Oh wow—chocolate chip?” Joel smiled. “Those are my favourite.”

“Sarah’s too,” you beamed. “I remembered. Would you like to try one?”

“I—I would love too,” Joel grinned and extended his arm over to the plate. But then he abruptly stopped himself. “But—ah, I’m on Atkins. And I’m doing so well…”

“What’s that?”

“Oh,” Joel grumbled. “Just this dumb diet thing. I’ve basically been cutting out carbs. Lasted nearly two weeks so far.”

Your frown deepened at his admittance. “That doesn’t sound healthy…”

“No, well, neither is this.” Joel prodded his tummy.

You wanted to tell him not to diet—that he didn’t need to. That his body was damn well gorgeous just the way it was.

But you didn’t want to overstep any boundaries.

“Take them home for Sarah?” you offered.

“She’d love that,” Joel smiled and inched towards you. There was barely any distance separating you both now, and you couldn’t recall a time when you had been this close to one another. “Thank you.” His words were so genuine, so real, that they sparked butterflies in the pit of your tummy and you held back a smile. You held it back because, without any restraint, you’d be grinning like an excited little girl.

“How is Sarah?” you asked, looking up at Joel.

If you took just one step forward, your chest would be touching his.

“She’s good,” his voice had lowered an octave and that Southern twang in his accent became all the more prominent. “I’m sure she’d like to see you. You should come over sometime for movie night.”

“I—I would love that,” you admitted. Movie night with Joel and Sarah… just like the old days.

“She’s really into those horror movies now she’s getting older…”

It was like some kind of mystic energy was pulling you both closer to each other. It wasn’t conscious, and the movements were small, but as your bodies got closer together you noticed the way Joel’s voice trailed off into eventual complete silence. And then, like magic, the curve of his nose bumped into yours and you let out a small giggle. The proximity of each other felt so intimate and yet you couldn’t bear to draw away from him. You wanted him to touch you, hold you, bump noses with you again…

Joel’s eyes became dark and lust-filled as his gaze flicked down towards your mouth. Your eye line followed his and you observed his pretty pink lips that were framed by his moustache, all the same. You both wanted the same thing. He wanted to kiss you, softly and delicately—and he wanted to cradle your face as he relished the moment. And equally, you wondered what it would be like to kiss him, if his light stubble would graze your skin or if it would tickle you and make you erupt into a fit of giggles. You wondered if his hair would be rough and brassy or soft and fluffy.

You cautiously extended your arms and placed both your hands into his still-damp hair, threading your fingers through the roots to the tips. As a response, Joel closed his eyes and hummed in contentment, the vibrations in his chest sending chills through your own body. His own hands swung down to your hips and he bravely pulled you in closer to him.

Joel opened his eyes and brought one hand up to your shoulder and then gently cupped the side of your cheek. You leaned into his palm and he swept his thumb over your bottom lip. Bumping noses with you again, this time he did not draw back. You could feel his breath fan over your lips and you pushed your chest into him and opened your mouth when---

Ring. Ring. Ring.

The alert of Joel’s ringtone made him jolt back from you and stumble even a few steps further. You stood there, as still as could be, your brain desperately trying to piece together what just happened.

You almost kissed Joel Miller.

“Shit, it’s Tommy,” Joel explained. “I should take this.”

Breathlessly, you nodded, and all Joel could do was shoot you an apologetic look before flipping open his phone and holding it to his ear.

“Joel—Joel—I need you to come to pick me up. I’m in jail.” A brief moment of static buzzed through the line but Joel heard Tommy loud and clear. He wished he had misheard.

“You what—” Joel placed a hand on his hip, taking a second to process his little brother’s words. “Why the hell are you in jail, Tommy? What did you do?”

Your eyes widened when you heard what was going on. Tommy in trouble?

“I—it wasn’t my fault—”

“It never is,” Joel grimaced.

“I was at Linkin’s Bar down by the Creek and some guy just started attackin’ Isabella. Grabbed a hold of her and wouldn’t let go… so I smashed a bottle in his face. Knocked him to the ground. That showed the fucker.”

“Jesus Christ Tommy,” Joel sighed.

“You’d do the same,” Tommy called out. “Isabella’s only small, and she couldn’t defend herself. Anyway—I need you to come to the County Jail and bail me out. I’ll pay you back, I promise. I just can’t stand to spend another moment in here.”

“Alright, I’m on my way, but I’m in Austin. Will take me a while to drive back up that way.”

“Just get here quick,” Tommy practically begged. “I—I think there’s something wrong with the officer. He keeps twitchin’ all funny. People have been acting weird, Joel.”

Joel shook his head and let out a deep sigh. “Whatever Tommy, I’m on my way.”

As soon as Joel put his cell back in his pocket, you placed a caring hand on his forearm. “Is Tommy okay?”

“He’s always getting into trouble, that boy.” Joel sighed.

“You take care of your brother. You’re a good guy,” you said softly. “Maybe… maybe we can plan that movie night for tomorrow, huh? I get off work at five.”

Joel smiled. A good guy. That was all he wanted to be. And making plans for movie night with Sarah? Joel felt a buzz in his chest. She would love to see you again. “That sounds good.” He said casually, trying to hide the fact he was beaming inside.

“Alright,” you returned his smile and then nudged his side playfully. “I’ll see you tomorrow then. And I’ll bring the cookies.”

“See ‘ya.”

Joel turned around and left the apartment without another word and you stood there, your heart racing, still reeling from what had happened just minutes prior. You’d hardly lost track of time when Michael came through the front door.

“Hey, who was that guy I just saw leaving? He kinda looked like me.”

Michael wished he looked like Joel, but you assumed that remark was made in reference to the outfit that Joel had ‘borrowed’.

“I—” immediately you felt defensive. Not that you needed to be, because technically, nothing happened. Was there any need to be defensive over mere feelings? “It was the plumber.”

“Oh. He fixed the shower?” Michael asked, stealing a cookie from the batch you had baked.

“Yeah—hey! Don’t eat those. They aren’t for you.” You warned, but Michael was already swallowing his first piece.

“Huh?” Michael chortled. “It’s not like you need to eat them, looks like you’ve eaten enough already.” He said with a snide look.

You felt your jaw slacken slightly at the comment and resisted the urge to tell him exactly just who this ‘plumber’ guy was, and how much you wished you had kissed him in that heat of the moment.

You didn’t respond but instead watched Michael eat two more cookies. Your lips curled into a frown, knowing you’d have to bake another batch, but at least this time they would be fresh for tomorrow’s movie night.

For the first time in weeks, Joel felt he was finally able to relax. He took the drive home slow and steady and turned up the car radio to drown out the ongoing sirens in the distance. The song ‘Future Days’ by Pearl Jam played, and Joel decided he would take up learning it on the guitar when he got home. Now that he had a few days off from work, he could put his feet up and do whatever he wanted. He looked forward to seeing you tomorrow, but now he just had to head on to the grocers, like he had promised Sarah, and pick out a birthday cake.

He found a red velvet one with buttercream icing, knowing it was more Sarah’s favourite than his own. Joel liked fruitcake but he knew that if he brought a fruitcake home for Sarah, she’d just sit there disgusted and pick out the raisins. He’d rather she was satisfied.

Joel brought the red velvet cake to the cashier and opened up his wallet, preparing to pay.

“I’m sorry sir,” the lady behind the desk said. “I can’t sell you this. I’m afraid all wheat-based products are being recalled due to the Cordyceps Brain Infection.”

Joel furrowed his eyebrows together in bewilderment. “The Cordyceps--? I thought that was all the way in Jakarta?”

“You haven’t heard--?”

Just then, alarms began ringing in the grocery store and an automated voice boomed through the speakers. The cashier froze and her eyes widened as soon as she recognised the voice. “This is an automated message. This is a red alert warning from the United States government and the CISA. Please stop what you are doing and return home immediately. Lock your doors. Do not let anyone inside.”

The message repeated repeatedly, and the entire store erupted into a panic; including the cashier standing before Joel.

“What the hell is happening?” Joel asked, his gaze darting around the store. He watched a stampede of people head towards the fire exit, clambering and yelling frantically.

“You have to go.” The cashier replied before running off into the crowd.

Joel headed towards the entrance, thinking he could leave that way where it was less crowded. He had no comprehension of what was happening, but he knew for certain he wouldn’t leave Tommy behind.

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

Prologue: Part II

#Joel miller #Pedro pascal #Pedro pascal x reader #Joel miller x reader #the last of us #tlou #smut

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revelwrittenscenes · 7 months

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Reaction: Red Velvet - You Can't Fall Asleep Without Them

Idol: Red Velvet

{ Fluff }

Requested: Yes!

- - -

Note: Thank you to the anon that requested this! And to other people that requested, I'll write as many as I can. Enjoy~

Irene:

When she came home after a long practice session with the girls, she found you curled up on the bed, humming mindlessly to yourself.

Her heart warmed at the sight and warmed even more once you spotted her, inviting her into your now open arms.

“I’m home.” She murmured softly, settling herself against you.

“Mmm, finally, I can sleep.” You mumbled into her shoulder, before closing your eyes and tightening your hold on her.

Irene felt her heart fill with joy (no pun intended) and she drifted off to sleep herself, secretly loving the fact that you needed her.

. . .

Seulgi:

Seulgi sat on the couch, basically on the edge of her seat and mussing her hair constantly as she watched the last few episodes of her favorite drama.

“No no no! He was dead, wasn’t he?!”

“Seulgi, pleaseee.” You whined for the third time. “Let’s go to sleep, I’m exhausted! Work was horrible today.”

“One second, Y/N. There’s just 2 more episodes to go.”

“But I’ve told you, it’s really hard for me to fall asleep without you there.” You yawned. Seulgi quickly paused the episode.

“Wait, really? You can’t sleep without me?” Seulgi cooed.

“Mm-hm.”

“Okay, then. Let’s go to bed. I don’t want you to be too sleepy tomorrow.”

. . .

Wendy:

It was 11pm and Wendy still hadn’t returned from the kitchen. You sighed, deciding to go see what your girlfriend had gotten herself into at this late hour.

You couldn’t say you were surprised to find her mixing a bowl of some kind of pastry dough. Wendy usually made sweets whenever she was under stress.

Wendy took one look at your tired face and confessed her worries.

“Our new choreo is so complicated. Which is a good thing because our Luvies have always wanted better for us!” She rambled on. “But at the same time, I’m worried I can’t keep up with the members. They’re just such good dancers and our comeback is in 2 weeks and-“

She was interrupted by the feeling of your arms hugging her from behind.

“Wendy, I’m sure whatever you’re making is delicious and normally I’d help you finish it. But I’m really, really tired and…I have trouble sleeping without you.”

“Your best is enough, Wendy. I know you’re gonna kill this choreo. And all the fancy vocals.” Wendy leaned back into you, before letting out a sigh of relief.

“I know you’re right, Y/N. Here, let’s put this in the fridge and go back to bed, since you know, you can’t sleep without me.” She gave you a cheeky smile.

. . .

Joy:

“I’m home!”

You looked up from the book you were trying to read, smiling at your girlfriend. She seemed bouncier than usual, and you suspected it was because of the numerous shopping bags she had in each arm.

“I see you went shopping. Did you go with the girls?” You asked, trying to suppress a yawn. The sun had gone down hours ago, and you’d had a long shift at work.

“I did! But you shouldn’t have waited up for me if you’re this tired. Didn’t you work overtime today?”

“Yeah, but..” you yawned. “I kinda have a hard time going to sleep without you.”

Joy was quiet for a moment, before tossing all the bags onto the couch and speedwalking her way to you.

“Let’s get you to bed then.” She cooed, her arms around your waist and her head on your shoulder. “I can’t let my love be too sleepy for our date tomorrow.”

. . .

Yeri:

“To be or not to be, that is the question!”

“What…I thought we were rehearsing for your drama?” You laughed, and soon Yeri began to laugh with you. You’d been up helping her for her latest drama, which would begin to shoot the following day.

“I know, I know! I just wanted to see if you were paying attention.” Yeri gave you a cheeky smile. “You seem pretty tired.”

You yawned. “A bit, but the more I help you rehearse, the faster we can get to bed.”

“That’s very sweet, but if you’re this tired I can practice by myself?” Yeri put an arm around your shoulders, stroking a finger against your arm.

“I could try, but I can’t really fall asleep without you there with me.”

Yeri’s face lit up.

“Really? That is so cute.” She pinched your cheek. She stood up, taking the script from your hands and putting it aside, along with hers.

“There, I think I’ve rehearsed enough. Besides, I’m really craving some cuddles right now.”

#red velvet #red velvet reactions #red velvet imagines #red velvet x reader #red velvet fluff #kpop imagines #kpop reactions

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t0ast-ghost · 1 month

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20th Episode Achieved! (Tomorrow Is Yesterday)

Here’s some thoughts:

- it’s a time travel episode, isn’t it?

- I think there could be a lot of “real UFO’s” because they’re just unidentified flying objects

- goddamnit Kirk what’ve you done, your in the atmosphere

- great Scott! They’re in the 60s!

- Kirk certainly hasn’t been briefed on what to do by the starfleet time agency

- “I’ve never believed in little green men” “neither have I.” SPOCK, you literally just saw a Gorn… also Orions

- Spock knows he’s scaring the shit outta this guy and he’s enjoying it

- why when the computer starts calling him dear does Kirk look to Spock like he did this (I’d believe it, I could totally hear him saying that)

- WAIT the computer system on all ships are made by a female dominated planet, that’s pretty cool

- Kirk not afraid to slap a bitch

- “Jim, what if we can’t go back?” Was delivered with such… je ne sais quoi

- (18:33) “Now you’re sounding like Spock.” “Well, if you’re gonna get nasty, I’m gonna leave.”

- “Could he be retrained to forget his family, his children.” “The answer to that is no.” Don’t worry they’re not making threats! They’re just having their regular chats on theoretical situations!

- “It’s just a joke, Captain.” Bones finding Spock’s joke funny

- Sulu looks so happy to be here

- McCoy pacing and worrying while Spock watches him and does his calculations

- THE BOYFRIENDS CONCUR! They’re both worried about Kirk and Sulu

- BOYS WE GOT ANOTHER ONE! Spock gives the new officer a look and then WALKS AWAY

- McCoy just takes the gun. BONES GOT A GUN

- Okay again, walking around in plain sight (yeah this isn’t sneaking at this point) is not an effective strategy for being unseen

- Kirk would eat the chemicals in a darkroom, you can’t convince me otherwise

- Kirk’s fighting strategy is straight up goofy

- I love Kirk and Sulu gaslighting the soldiers

- “hmm… Poor photography.” REALLY?!?

- “BLAST your theories and observations, Mr. Spock! What about, Jim? He’s down there alone, probably under arrest. He doesn’t have a communicator and we can’t beam him back aboard without one.” “I am aware of that, doctor.” I feel like they have this conversation every time. Like McCoy wants Jim to be safe and thinks that Spock is under reacting when Spock is just as worried but doesn’t think any outburst would be effective.

- “I popped in out of thin air.” He took that sass from Spock

- Spock worried Kirk punching someone hurt his hand

- yay they made it back!!!!

I’ve been a bit distracted while drawing for the past couple episodes but drawing Bones is worth it

Master list :D

#star trek #star trek the original series #star trek tos #star trek kirk #tos kirk #captain james kirk #star trek spock #tos spock #spock #star trek mccoy #star trek bones #tos mccoy #tos bones #leonard bones mccoy #star trek sulu #tos sulu #hikaru sulu

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enkas-illusion · 5 months

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Christmas Markets with Nanami

Fandom / Pairing: Jujutsu Kaisen / Boyfriend!Nanami x f!reader

Rating: Tooth-rotting fluff but gets suggestive, MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Content warning: fluff, frustrated Nanami, teasing, suggestive, Nanami being the best boifie.

Summary:

The Christmas season is just round the corner and you can’t wait to spend it with your new boyfriend, Nanami Kento. Your love for Christmas markets reaches a new level after you spend it with the love of your life. It’s fun seeing your boyfriend get frustrated over winning a plushie but teasing him might get you in trouble…

Author's Note: Hello, this is my first attempt at writing a one-shot. Here's some much-needed fluff with my husband Nanami after the recent episode. I'm taking him to Malaysia tomorrow. If you enjoy it, feel free to like, reblog or comment. Thank you for reading!

-Nanami’s Munchkin

Christmas markets were something you waited for the whole year. The lights, the vibes, the special Christmas roast, the games and the hot chocolate in the cold of the night were just some of the various things you missed as soon as the fair ended. It was a yearly tradition among your friends to visit the markets every weekend and on Christmas eve.

This year was going to be even better because you were going with your new boyfriend, Nanami Kento. You felt kinda sorry for missing out on the annual tradition with your friends, but they all insisted that you go alone with Nanami.

Understandable since nobody likes being the third-wheel with the new couple. Especially when said couple doesn’t shy away from PDA. In all honesty, the excitement of going with your man was overshadowing any guilt you’d felt when your friends initially declined your offer.

So here you were, walking with your cold hands intertwined and tucked safely in the pocket of your boyfriend’s jacket. Walking around trying out all the different food they had to offer and having a grand time, almost feeling like a teenager who’d fallen in love for the very first time – stealing glances to look at your man.

The highlight so far had to be making out on the ferris wheel when it reached the top and it felt as if the busy market had faded into the background. Although you were at the very top of the ferris wheel, being here like this with Kento only took you higher and higher till it felt like you were on cloud nine.

As you walked, hand in hand, around the marketplace, you couldn’t help but smile at all the people near the games’ stall, trying to win plushies and failing miserably, which does not go unnoticed by your boyfriend.

“Which one do you like?” he smiles at you and you look up at him trying to figure out what he was referring to. He tilts his head, redirecting your gaze to the plushies and you immediately say, “Oh no! They are a waste of money.”

Your boyfriend simply gives you a look that screams that’s not the answer I want. So, you further add to over explain yourself, “The games are rigged! They just want us to waste our money and time. I used to try those each year before I eventually gave up. Don’t even think about trying. They’re hopeless!”

“Sweetheart, just take your pick… am I even a good boyfriend if I can’t win my prettiest girl a new plushie to go on top of her mountain of plushies?”, he says playfully, pulling you towards the stands.

“Do you want the panda?” he asks and you just laugh before replying, “We already have our huge talking panda. Don’t want another one. Seriously! It’s not worth it. And it hurts watching the money go down the drain” you pout.

“You wound me sweetheart. Have a little faith. Now come on!” he says standing in the spot and paying for the turn. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you” you say, not wanting to push it further. He takes your hand out of his pocket for the first time the entire night and you already miss his warmth. He takes the darts and is focused on the game in hand.

You cannot take your eyes off him, the lights make him look even more ethereal. Even Greek gods hold no candle to how beautiful your boyfriend is, you feel like pulling his face right there and then kissing his gorgeous face.

You are brought back from the trace when he takes his first swing, and it fails. You can't help but giggle and he gives you an unamused look that makes your stomach swarm with butterflies. He tries two more times, they land, but not enough to win the prize.

“Satisfied? Now let’s go!” you try to drag him out of there but he just presses a kiss on your temples and says, “Patience, sweetheart” and it flies right between your legs. You whine, “Kento!”

He only laughs knowingly and proceeds to pay for another round. This time he takes off his glasses and looks so determined to win that you want to take him right there in front of everyone. He hit the target but not quite right and you can see his stoic, cool persona fading into an annoyed one.

You loved seeing this side of him so you egged him on, “On a second thought, that huge teddy looks really cute. But it’s okay if you can’t do it.” you say mischievously.

He comes closer and whispers into your ears, “You’re gonna regret that baby. Might as well have to cover its eyes tonight so he doesn’t see the things I do to you.” And you just stand there dumbfounded and he just smirks and gets back to the game.

It’s unlike him to provoke you in public but now you just want to drag him out and let him have his way with you. On his final shot, he actually hits the bullseye and he sees your eye glitter oh so beautifully.

You jump on him and he catches you and you can’t help but say a chain of ‘thank you’s. He puts you down and collects your prize and he thinks he’d win all the plushies in the world if he gets to see you this happy.

You pull him into a kiss and he just smiles at you, “You're very happy for a person who said they didn’t want anything”, causing you to hit his abs playfully.

He leans closer till his lips almost kiss your earlobe, “So whose eyes should I cover with my tie tonight? The teddy’s or yours?”

#nanamismunchkin #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsukaisen x reader #jjk x reader #jjk x you #nanamikento x reader #nanami kento #jjk nanami #nanami x reader #kento nanami #nanami my beloved #jujutsu nanami #jjk

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finduilasclln · 1 year

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Welcome to my Buddie Fic Rec List!

Since I read so many Buddie fics, and some of them are so good, I thought I’d share them in some handy lists. I’ll be posting them in different categories, and you will be able to find all the posts HERE.

Disclaimer: Always read the tags and warnings! Also, tastes differ. These are my personal favorites, which doesn’t mean they’ll automatically be yours of course.

If you want to reblog and add some of your own favorites that fit the category, please be my guest! I always love discovering new fics. I will also add new recs of my own whenever I stumble upon them.

One last thing: Please like and comment when you’ve had a nice read. It means so much to authors to hear your thoughts! And don’t hesitate to share this post and spread the love for these fics around!

Buddie Fic Rec: "Lightning Strike / Buck's Coma".

Fics that are dealing with episodes 6.10 and 6.11 aka Buck getting hit by lightning and his subsequent coma. (Speculation as well as canon compliant)

It only falls into place when you're falling to pieces, by justhockey || 4759 words ||

“You don’t deserve him,” Eddie says. “You never have, and you never will.”

And then he hangs up the phone and lets out a ragged breath - one it sounds like he’s been holding for much longer than the length of that conversation.

It makes Buck’s fingers itch with the urge to reach out and touch him. He’s reached through fire and over cliff sides, across blood-soaked asphalt and between a decades worth of trauma, all for Eddie. This - this is nothing.

one more tomorrow, by fallingthorns (@fallingthorns) || 4438 words ||

He presses Buck’s hand into his forehead and breathes in the scent of antiseptic that lingers on Buck’s skin. He doesn't understand how he missed so many clues, doesn't know how he's been so clueless. But he thinks that some part of him did know that he was in love with Buck, because he put him in his will and made him Christopher’s guardian. Some part of him, deep down, knew what Eddie himself didn’t even realize.

He exhales and squeezes Buck’s hand again. It’s not supposed to be like this – the will doesn’t cover this. It was never supposed to be Buck that goes first.

“Bobby,” he whispers, voice cracking as he closes his eyes against the dorsum of Buck’s hand again. “What am I going to do?” -- Or, in the hospital, Eddie waits, and thinks, and dreams.

coming back as we are, by markofalover (@markofalover) || 4178 words ||

“Hey, Buck,” Maddie cuts in, soft. “Evan. Look at me.”

Buck looks at her. His heart rate is up, he can hear it on the monitor, and the nurse is looking between them with a raised brow. He’ll have to remember to apologize later, after he gets to his—

“They’re in the waiting room.”

...or, wherever he was, Buck comes back.

the tide comes (and goes and goes), by renecdote (@renecdote) || 3402 words ||

It’s almost funny that Eddie brought him to the beach today. To the ocean. He doesn’t know—can’t know, Buck hasn’t told anyone—but Buck feels unbearably seen by it anyway. He almost wishes Bobby was here too, so he could let his captain wrap an arm around his shoulders and say, “See? It didn’t take either of us.”

(That’s not true though, is it? It took them, it just didn’t keep them.)

Buck, Eddie, the beach, and conversations about okay.

For BTHB: hyperventilating

like the peel clings to the pomegranate, by fallingthorns (@fallingthorns) || 3482 words ||

Buck startles awake to Chris prying his eye open. Chris’s concerned expression swims into his vision as both eyes adjust, squinting at the morning sun streaming in through the window.

“You’ve been sleeping for fourteen hours,” Chris deadpans. Buck is still half asleep, but he catches the slight waver in his voice, can see his eyebrows furrowed as he watches Buck carefully. “You went to bed at seven last night, and now it’s nine in the morning.”

“Nine in the morning, huh?” Buck’s own voice resembles more of a croak as he sits up, muscles aching and head still throbbing. It’s all a result of being struck by lightning and in a coma for a few days, he knows, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

But what he does like is the smell of Eddie’s sheets, the pictures of him and Eddie and Chris on Eddie’s bedroom walls. He likes the feeling of Eddie’s arms around him in the middle of the night, making sure that he’s okay and breathing.

“Christopher.” Eddie’s voice hisses through the crack in the bedroom door. “I told you not to bother him.” -- Or, Buck recovers and doesn't quite realize what he means to others.

Raise my hand before I can speak my mind, by Mellaithwen (@mellaithwen) || 1696 words ||

“My name’s Eddie, by the way. Eddie Diaz.”

“Buck,” Evan says in response, before frowning. He’s never introduced himself as Buck in his entire life. “Uh—I mean—my name is Evan but…"

“But your friends call you Buck?”

Evan wants to say no, actually, because they don't. The youngest Buckley sibling has always gone by his first name, or his full surname. Never anything in between. The closest he’s ever come to having a nickname is when kids like to call him Mr Bee! And he buzzes back in response, but….Buck? No, that’s...that's new..

Eddie meets his son's favorite teacher, although it's not technically their first meeting at all... aka a coma!dream meet-cute.

let me know you (bedhead and morning breath), by burnthatbridge (@burnthatbridge) || 6157 words ||

When Eddie wakes, it’s to Buck’s arm slung across his chest, Buck’s ankle hooked over his, and Buck’s erection pressing into his hip.

Two out of three of those aren’t unusual.

It’s six weeks since the lightning. Five weeks and two days since Buck woke up. Four weeks and three days since he was released from hospital. Four weeks exactly since he came home, came to stay at the Diaz house while he recuperates, like he should have from the start.

It’s been three weeks and four days since they started sharing the bed.

or: Buck hasn't gotten off since the lightning strike. Eddie watches him do something about it.

Fragile lines (and wasted time), by Mellaithwen (@mellaithwen) || 7457 words ||

“Hey Buck,” Christopher says a little shyly, before reaching out to grab Buck’s foot through the hospital blankets—shaking it in the same way he’s woken his father up on many a bleary-eyed morning. The familiarity of the gesture makes Eddie’s head spin.

But of course, there’s no response from the comatose man on the bed.

“I thought you said he was sleeping,” Chris mumbles, angrily swiping at his cheeks, and Eddie’s already broken heart shatters all over again for whatever hope his son had just lost when his expectations were so cruelly dashed..

While Buck sleeps, and dreams in the aftermath of the lightning strike, Eddie tries desperately to hold himself together.

***

I will be adding my own fics that fit the category, in case you want to read those too:

lights will guide you home, by Finduilas || 916 words ||

Buck and Eddie have a talk after Buck gets back from the hospital.

#Buddie #Buddie fic rec #911 #Buddie fic #Fin's fic rec list #NEW CATEGORY!#Because this one needs a new page :)

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natverse · 2 years

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smoke signals

request: wandanat watching reader doing some stuff like playing video games or watching fav show and look really excited and happy about something and they just feel so happy to have r in their lifes so they give her so much hugs and kisses and r really surprised but she still tell them that she loves them too really a lot and just so much fluff

…

summary: as adopted!reader excitedly sits down to watch the new episode of her favorite show, wanda and natasha reflect on how lucky they are to have a daughter like you.

author’s note: apologize for this taking so long for me to write, it’s not great but i hope you like it anon. so sorry if it’s a little emotional 😣 this is also lightly based off of smoke signals by phoebe bridgers !

pairings: mama!wanda + mama!nat x adopted daughter!reader

warnings: basically none, this is just pure fluff. there are gendered terms used (girl).

—

grabbing your bowl of popcorn from the microwave, you dashed into the living room, shaking out of pure excitement. almost completely ignoring your two moms peacefully sitting on the couch, deep in conversation it seemed, you snatched the remote and scrambled to switch to your favorite channel on the tv as you squeezed in between the two of them.

“woah there, what’s got you so excited sweetheart?”, natasha giggles, playfully rubbing your shoulder. “it’s been a whole week since i’ve seen this show, and there’s a new episode tonight. you wouldn’t believe the cliffhanger i got left on, i need to see this.”

you feel two pairs of eyes glued to your smiling face, burning your skin with their stares. “sorry, did you two want the tv? if you did you’re just going to have to wait, i can’t wait any longer to see this,” you joked, mouth full of burning hot popcorn.

wanda lovingly runs her hand through your hair, natasha still rubbing your shoulder. “no no, we’re alright. you’re happy, and that’s all that matters to your mom and i,” wanda says softly, lips forming a smile. “also, let that popcorn cool down before you eat it. i wouldn’t want you burning your mouth.”

wanda and natasha, as much as you wish they were, were not your biological parents. you knew you had a number of dreadful memories before they’d adopted you, but you were never able to quite recall them; making so many unforgettable memories with wanda and natasha seemed to push all the bad away.

you were completely zoned out, forgetting about the world around you. somehow you’d completely forgotten about your favorite show playing; except, this was almost better. you couldn’t help but think about all the happiness your moms had given you. the love they had given. they had swooped in and saved you.

for just a brief moment, you were lost in the depths of happy memories; until natasha snapped you out of it.

“hey, y/n,” she said gently, turning to face you completely. she stretches her free hand across your body to grab wanda’s, her deep green eyes staring into yours. “your mom and i… we’ve never been so lucky. this family we’ve built, this beautiful, smart girl we helped to raise. you are our everything, y/n. and we will spend the rest of our lives proving that to you.”

for the first time in your life, the pool of tears welling up in your eyes weren’t out of misery or despair, but rather happiness. you shifted your gaze to wanda, who was still playing with the ends of your hair.

she gently pulls you into her arms, placing a kiss on the top of your head. “we love you, more than you could ever know y/n.” you couldn’t help the tears falling out of your eyes as natasha crawled on top of you, wrapping her arms around you and wanda.

the three of you didn’t move an inch for at least an hour, simply enjoying each other’s comfort as a family. “you know, you two are sensitive,” you joked, still fighting tears. “and i didn’t even get to watch my show. when i’m cranky tomorrow, you’ll know who’s fault it is.” no response from either side.

furrowing your brows, you looked at each of your moms; as you suspected, both sound asleep in your embrace. you let out a soft giggle, tucking your head back into the comfort of wanda’s chest.

you felt that same feeling of happiness from earlier crawl back into your brain, consuming your thoughts entirely. your eyes slowly shut, as you finally drifted off to sleep. you were so lucky to have natasha and wanda as your forever parents, and you wouldn’t have traded them for a thing in the world.

#wandanat x reader #wandanat #mama!nat #mama!wanda #natasha romanoff x reader #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff au #natasha romanoff x daughter!reader #wanda #wanda maximoff #natasha romanoff #wanda maximoff x daughter!reader

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kissokkotsu · 2 years

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Late Night Chat !!

𖦹 You can’t sleep so you make it Megumi’s problem.

featuring: Megumi Fushiguro!!

Warnings: none !!

A/n: Gender neutral terms are used!! This is super short apologies :( !! I am a strong believer in smug Megumi.

Megumi loves you. He really does.

He adores your presence. You keep him grounded. He appreciates everything you have done for him and how you still stick by his side despite him seeming “cold” which by the way, he’s the opposite of cold with you.

Yeah he’s not too talkative but he’s an amazing listener. He loves your rambles. He loves cuddling with you while you two watch some movie that Yuji recommend. He loves cooking with you. He just loves you.

But back to the rambling part, yeah. He loves when you talk about your interests or likes listening to you talk about something new you learned and you dumping all this information to him. However, he also likes sleeping. He takes his night routine very seriously.

This dude is a fucking loser. He goes to bed at 9:00 pm sharp. The latest you’ll catch him going to bed is 10:30 and that’s only if you persuade him to watch two more episodes of some show you like.

Now you see, you’re quite the opposite of your boyfriend. You love staying up. You feel much more energized and productive. However you hate being left alone so you always accompany Megumi to bed, also because he kinda drags you to bed no matter what.

He just wants you to also have a good night rest!! It’s not healthy to stay up for too long.

“Turn off the TV it’s time to go to bed, c’mon we can brush our teeth together and cuddle.”

Most of the time you find it hard to sleep. You always stare at the ceiling, waiting til your eyes become droopy. Megumi softly breathing into your neck, his arms around your waist. God you were jealous of his ability to easily sleep.

Megumi is light sleeper too, any small noise or sudden movement on your part has him waking up and asking if everything is fine.

Most days you were quiet. Letting your boyfriend sleep while your thoughts roamed to what you would eat the next day. Other times you would have too much energy and just wanted talk.

Today is no different.

Megumi had his head buried in your neck. Eyes already closed and soft breathing being the only noise in the room. Snoring every once in a while. You on the other hand…you were quite hyper. You and Megumi had just finished watching some romantic comedy and you had so much to say.

“Hey Megumi!! You awake?” You said shuffling around to face the black haired male.

Megumi softly groaned signaling to you that you need to get back to sleep.

“I take that as a yes! Say…when are we gonna have a picnic?” You said as you grabbed Megumi’s hand that was on your waist. Ignoring his groan from before.

Megumi sighed. No use. He’ll throw you a bone.

“Where is this coming from?” He said softly, his eyes were still closed.

You hummed. “From the movie we watched. Can we have a picnic date? I wanna go to one with ducks though so we can feed them together.” You stroked soothing circles into Megumi’s palms, a habit of yours he loved.

“We can have a picnic tomorrow, if you go to sleep.”

You giggled at his response giving him a kiss on his forehead. He smiled at this. He really thought that you would go to sleep if he said that. He really did.

He was wrong. Very wrong.

Five minutes later you opened your mouth once again. “Remember when you had a crush on me?” You said your eyes fluttering back open.

Megumi dug his head into your shoulder. Begging you in his mind to sleep.

“Babe…we’ve been dating for almost a year now.” He said, his voice quite raspy.

“I knoww but it’s cute to think about you know? Like the Megumi Fushiguro was interested in silly me.” You said softly laughing.

“Didn’t you also like me?” He said. Eyes still closed but he kinda wanted to mess with you. It’s only fair, you’re disturbing his time of peace.

“Yeah…” You said very curious as to where he was going with this.

“Hm yeah I remember you would always make really strange flirting attempts.”

Oh you were getting embarrassed.

“Remember when you used to use those pick up lines?”

Not wanting to remember your awful attempts at courting your boyfriend before you two got together, you faced your back towards Megumi.

“Goodnight!!” You said pulling your side of the comforter up to your face trying to hide your flushed state. Which was no use since the room was dark so Megumi wouldn’t even notice.

But with your current mannerisms he could tell you were embarrassed. He chuckled. Still wanting to sleep and seeing as you were embarrassed, he once again wrapped his arms around your frame, peppering your neck in kisses.

“Goodnight love.” He said softly before pressing one last kiss on your neck.

Yeah he adores you and messing with you when he gets the chance.

𖦹 Reblogs are greatly appreciated !! <33

Officially sixteen now lads!!! Yeah!!!! Awesome!!! Reservations to the retirement home are being made rn for me as we speak!! Anyways…sorry for being semi ia these past days this week were not it…but at least I posted!!! I have a lot of ideas in my brain rn so expect more brain rot. Have a lovely rest of your day <33 if you read this far!!! Congrats!!!

#megumi x reader #megumi fushiguro x reader #fushiguro megumi x reader #jjk megumi #megumi fluff #megumi fushiguro fluff #jjk fluff #megumi x you #megumi fushiguro x you #jjk x gender neutral reader #jjk x reader #megumi scenarios #🔖: evie writes.

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wigglebox · 2 years

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NYCC The Winchesters - 1x01 screening, panel

Good morning/afternoon/evening people!

So I had to take a break from art in order to write down my first impressions on things for the prequel pilot and the subsequent panel after.

Note that I haven’t had any time to watch any interviews the folks did before the screening/panel, so this is just me writing what I experienced in ~*the room where it happened*~. The bulk will be behind a read more!

** Note, I try to avoid mega spoilers but I do go into my impressions of the pilot and my emotions with it, AND I do outline the characters. I try not to get into the nitty gritty since y’all will mostly be seeing it tomorrow anyway, but if you don’t want even a HINT of a spoiler, just don’t read it lol.

The tldr; I loved it, it has so much to expand on, and I can’t wait to start speculating with y’all again on something SPN based.

—

I won’t lie, I was nervous.

Not because I didn’t think this show wouldn’t do a good job, because it’s made it this far — which is a lot considering the last two attempts at a spin-off were dead in the water. I was more or less nervous of the audience reception.

Living in one's own head as a Supernatural fan makes you and your goldfish bowl of friends in your Twitter GC and Discord servers, have a set of parameters of what makes a good Supernatural episode or not. But not everyone else shares those parameters that you have convinced yourself are right.

And I was nervous because, given those parameters, I had to keep reminding myself that this isn’t Supernatural. It is its own thing. It’s its own form, own show, with a connection to the main show. These are new characters, even if we knew the older versions of two of them already. Everything is still basically brand new.

My nerves came from a mixture of anticipation, fearing audience reception after the year and a half wait we had to think about this show, and not knowing if I or the audience can see this show as its own individual self and not just another Supernatural episode.

Suffice to say after like, the first five minutes those nerves were gone.

The Pilot

I’m going to get this out of the way before I continue. Pilots aren’t ever perfect. Even Supernatural’s pilot, which is a pilot that I consider to be top-tier, has some clunkiness.

Pilots can drag, or pilots can speed — there’s rarely an inbetween. The Winchesters pilot seemed to be a little fast paced, trying to introduce the premise of the show a little too quick. The pacing of events and understanding and dialogue kind of felt like this should have been a two hour episode and not the 40 minute one we’re going to get.

And, some of the dialogue, just like in its predecessor, was indeed clunky exposition.

But I’m saying this as someone who yes, understands that’s what that was — but also someone who doesn’t take this into account when it comes to what makes a pilot successful. In fact, I never expect perfection in pilots.

The Winchesters pilot has a lot riding on it. Not only is it the third attempt at a spin off, but it’s having to perform two duties where the original Supernatural pilot only had to do one.

The Winchesters pilot has to both grab old fans, and intrigue new ones. The original Supernatural pilot just had to attract new fans and build up a new world.

So, given that The Winchesters has to do a little extra work, and given that it’s a network pilot, a pilot in general — for me — the fast-paced nature of the episode doesn’t really affect it negatively for me. I expected it, and I’m sure others did as well.

A successful pilot for me is 1) am I interested in this world/characters 2) did you make me ask enough questions to come back next week?

And, The Winchesters scored on both of those accounts!

The episode opens up with its standard cold open where you mostly see a character you have no idea who they are, doing something that’s going to launch you into the next 45 minutes of adventure with the main characters. But, this cold open also has to launch us into the entire season. It’s the first-ever cold open for The Winchesters and it worked very well.

I’m not going to get too much into plot, to keep this spoiler free, however I will say in my head I described it as the Scooby Doo Avengers. When I say Scooby Doo I don’t mean campy, zoinks, goofy monsters of the week — but that there is this team, that is clearly already close, willing to do what it takes to figure something out. And... they have a van lol.

In the group there is tension already from the get go, which I love. By group, I mean Lata [Latika but Lata is her nickname], Mary, and Carlos have already known each other.

Small spoiler, but at once point Lata tells, not asks, Mary “You’re still mad at me.” Carlos and Mary have tension and unresolved past things that they gotta talk about at some point probably. And John blends in with them rather effortlessly. I will say I’ll be keeping my eyes on John and Lata right now.

But all four of them had a chemistry that already worked. Not like “Oh we all love each other here, no problems at all!” kind of chemistry, but chemistry where you can tell that interactions aren’t being forced. Almost like they’ve been acting together for years by that point, even though they hadn’t.

That was another thing I enjoyed about this core four, the fact that they’re each their own characters but they’re also not standing out too much from each other. That they both don’t blend into each other, but also they’re not so over the top it feels like a caricature.

Here are my first impressions of the characters:

Lata is a book nerd, clearly the “brains” but she’s also rather timid, nervous about hunts, and finds her satisfying success when it comes to what she’s learned on the page rather than hunting down a monster. She’s softer-spoken, and I can see her being the more level-headed grounded one of the group. However, I can also see where her self doubt can get the better of her, and her fear, and given a conversation she has with Mary in the van — I have to wonder if something bad happened in the recent past that made her like this.

Mary is the kind of Mary I felt like we got with Sam Smith. Marching forward, doing what she has to do, almost “going through the motions” of being a Hunter. She already voices her desire to walk away from this, and it’s hinted in that conversation with Lata, something went wrong recently that caused a big upheaval in her life. But that’s kind of a plot point that can be saved for when you watch it Tuesday. Of all four of the characters, it felt like I knew Mary the most because we got later-seasons Mary for a hot second. However, you can see how Meg Donnelly brings her own understanding of the character to the table. I am so very interested to see where she goes throughout this series.

Carlos will be the problem child (affectionate). When the role was first cast, and you got his description, you saw JoJo getting cast, and then seeing him in the trailer, folks already pinged on him being the fandom favorite and I can see that. He’s sharp, witty, already has some one-liners, and I can easily see him causing but also solving problems for the group. One thing that gets me is that he comes across as almost stubborn, not willing to admit when he’s wrong, so I can imagine that comes back into play. That indication comes with a small conversation with Lata over something that happened in the past. It’s played off as a “ha ha,” but if you think about it deeper, you’re seeing someone who knows what he wants and likely will do what he has to do to get it. There are definitely two Alphas in this group, Carlos and Mary, and I can see them butting heads at some point.

And now we’re at John.

When this prequel was first leaked onto Deadline in June 2021, folks (save for myself and a few others that were on my timeline and Discord) immediately rocketed to their feet to voice their displeasure at John being a focal point.

Accusations of trying to twist the narrative and make excuses for John’s behavior in Supernatural-Prime (neglect, child abuse, etc.), or that the constant reminder that John and Mary’s love story was manufactured so how on earth could you have a story about it — or just the attitude in fandom that’s been in there since I’VE started, back in 2013, that John Winchester is an Asshole.

But, a few pointed out that indeed we don’t actually know anything about John aside from his father, Henry, “walking out” on him and his mother, and… that was it. The flashback episodes we had with Matt Cohen’s John were that of a story that we kinda already figured. “In the Beginning” was more about Mary and showing Dean how that deal was made, and “The Song Remains the Same” served as a lesson for Dean and Sam to understand that they “can’t escape fate” with their bloodline.

Nothing’s really known about John at all, especially before 1973.

That being said, I really have to spend this portion completely cheering Drake’s John on because holy moly.

Drake has, and will continue to have, an uphill battle trying to get the most hardened Anti-John folk on board (a struggle Matt Cohen didn’t have to have as much I think). But, given the life that he’s brought to John in this pilot alone, I don’t think it’ll be too much of a struggle.

I joked that with them casting Drake that “it’s almost like they want us to love and adore him” but I’m not even joking anymore. I adore him.

Indeed, it’s important to note that this John is not the John we wind up with in the main show. And the cast and everyone involved knows that and have stated as such in interviews. They’re not erasing or rewriting anything.

The truth, for me, is far more tragic:

The John in the pilot is likable with an almost puppy-like innocence, looking to get answers but also someone dealing with trauma himself as someone who went into the Vietnam War way too early and suffered the consequences of that. I won’t get into specifics, but there’s a touching moment when he’s describing what he saw and what happened to a dear friend and I almost cried.

You have a kid, and yes I’m calling him a kid, suffering from this trauma in a way that you see twice in the episode, while also someone keeping his head held high while following orders and the motions from his new group of Scooby Doo hunters that he stumbled into.

When asked how he found someone so fast, John remarks that’s what he does because he was in the Marines. So we get little glimpses of that.

His ending moment after the final climax of the action was so adorable I wanted to squish his cheeks and yes, I know that’s weird, but he was so proud of himself.

But, in my opinion, it also demonstrated something that I think may or may not come back — and that’s that he did what he did down there in the tomb almost a little too easily and without freaking out. And was excited to tell his new friends about it.

John in this show I think will become someone that even the most reluctant watchers may come to find they really like.

And to me, that’s making him automatically, from episode one, one of the most tragic characters.

Already in the pilot, I was mentally screaming for John to turn back, don’t investigate, don’t do any of this, because we know what’s waiting for him down this path.

I have to mentally make a line in the sand to separate Drake from Matt from JDM because there’s no way I can continue going with The Winchesters and not completely support and adore John and his efforts to understand the Men of Letters and also being with his friends.

With characters out of the way, I’ll mention we don’t get much with Ada or Millie, however I can’t wait to see more of them in the future and what they have to offer. Millie seemingly already knew about the Men of Letters and Ada — in my head when she was first announced as a character I saw her as a Bobby character, just the know it all that can be their “save us because we don’t know what else to do!” character. However it feels like she can, and likely will be, more than that.

As for the plot of the episode, this is where my “Is a pilot successful” requirement is filled for “Are there enough questions to keep me coming back.”

The answer is, holy shit yes.

Particularly two things, which I can’t wait to speculate on when the episode airs. One involves John and his letter with the Men of Letters star on it, and the other of who the big bad is for the entire season. I’m so excited to speculate with people on that.

But also, this hunters world in the 1970s is so different to me than what we were first introduced to in 2005. They don’t have cell phones, they don’t have GPS, they don’t have computers, they don’t have quick ways of communicating with each other. They will have a network, sure, but its the 70s. They also don’t have access to THEE Men of Letters bunker, at least for now, which holds a lot of information as well.

So I have questions about those too.

I didn’t want this show to just be about “hey let’s do a case study on John” and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be that. I don’t mind that, but I also wanted this show to stand on its own.

And it’s clear that they’re looking at it in a way that will provide an actual story that can get folded back into Supernatural-Prime.

The Panel

After the pilot screening, there was a 30 minute panel with Danneel, Jensen, Meg, Drake, and Robbie and holy wow.

I wish I could convey to anyone reading this, especially anyone who had any doubts over anything, just how much this group cares.

Like, it’s not even just in their words saying it, but you can feel it, and I wasn’t even in the front row. It was this like, almost electrical current in the air that could reach you and make you truly, fully, 100% understand that they’re not doing this just for kicks.

They’re not just tossing aside whatever they want, that they’re not just doing this as a cash grab or anything — but that they’re a team of creatives that really truly wholly believe in this world that the main show created and wanted to explore that more.

They do treat the existing material with respect, and that they’re not going to just throw all those 15 years of blood sweat and tears down the drain.

I remember in the months following the Deadline leak, folks online kept stamping their feet about canon this and canon that. We haven’t had much press until just recently about it therefore come comments that would be made at a Supernatural convention by Jackles from time to time would have to suffice, but still didn’t convince many.

I think at the time also, when the Deadline leak happened, a lot of opposition I saw came from younger fans, or newer fans, who started season 12 and onward (or even after the show ended) and didn’t quite understand just how monumental it was that Robbie was brought on board.

Robbie stopped writing for the show in season 11 and I wanted to take an informal survey of fandom asking them if they truly understood the word that he did. Some folks don’t pay attention to who writes what.

His episodes I find tend to be some of the most gif’ed episodes on Tumblr or most talked about episodes in general. Any one of his episodes you’d likely find up in any fan’s top 10 list. He’s given us Charlie, Eileen, and even had a hand in bringing Chuck back both in Fan Fiction and in Don’t Call Me Shurely.

For many folks who were in fandom before Andrew Dabb took over some time in season 11, Robbie was easily one of the top three writers for many people.

And there’s a good reason for that. Between writing snappy dialogue and getting characterizations down really well, he’s also seemingly a master at these unconventional episodes. He’s had more normal ones like Goodbye Stranger, 8x17, and First Born (9x11) among others, but he’s also done Baby, Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo, LARP and the Real Girl, Bitten, Fan Fiction, Meta Fiction and the like.

He’s written episodes that were great for character showcasing while also having unconventional storytelling apparatuses as well. My favorite one of his episodes was Time After Time, 7x12.

Suffice it to say, them grabbing Robbie for this project really stood out to me, which is probably why when Deadline first leaked the project, I wasn’t upset. To me, if Robbie was involved, then that’s really all I needed to feel secure in knowing that whatever, or however, they were going to tell this story, he’ll have fun figuring it out.

And I can’t even begin to describe how much it really does come across how much Jackles cares.

It’s very very easy for someone with that amount of talent to just peace out from a 15-year show that ended, a show that likely made taking other roles nearly impossible, and just go on to do bigger things.

But the fact that he stuck around and that even before the show wrapped in Sept. 2020 (due to the pandemic) he was already starting on this? That means a lot to me. Like, no matter what he does, he seems to want to keep one hand on his roots and that can only benefit us because you don’t do that unless you really believe in it and care about it.

It’s also hilarious to me that in these press interviews, he’s basically being outed as THEE biggest SPN brain rot stan and, he’s not alone there. We have jackets, dude!

So yes, up on stage, with them answering questions and describing the process, how they’re viewing this — you can tell there’s a reverence they have for the material and understand truly how much time, energy, blood, sweat, tears, smiles, sadness, chaos had gone into the main show.

The pilot was good, it was something that would keep me interested with the characters they presented and the premise of the rest of the season to come. It established that we’re not in 2005-2020 anymore, it established a kind of big bad that we’re not used to seeing*, and it had enough easter eggs that satisfied my little Supernatural heart but not over doing it.

*This is something I can’t wait to speculate about.

On a personal note, I’ve been excited since that night, and had felt almost like I was in limbo for the last year and a half waiting for this moment and it was so satisfying seeing the pilot and understanding that my excitement and enthusiasm wasn’t misplaced in the slightest.

I went into this with the question of “Will I be disappointed in all of this hype that I’ve helped build up for this, both in my head and outwardly?” And the screening and panel shot back: “Nah you’re good.”

So I can’t wait to rewatch this Tuesday night, and then I can’t wait to watch it the following Tuesday, and again, and again.

I’m excited for The Winchesters to grow its wings and fly!

#long post #spnwin #the winchesters #spn #supernatural #nycc22 #i left out a lot of spoilery things #and still can be kinda spoilery so keep that in mind!

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xo-lesserafim · 11 months

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FALLING FOR YOUR SMILE AND EYES

EPISODE 4. TGIF

authors note: Thank you to everyone who liked my post, since we made it to 50 likes<3. Anyways, enjoy episode 4

Bold: Korean

Italics: Over the phone

Both: Korean and over the phone

Back to masterlist

“Minho! I actually didnt think you would call Campus Police! Plus why didn’t you call it or on me?” I asked “Because I told you, I wouldn’t call it on you, I didn’t say I wouldn’t call it on Kitty.” Minho replied. “UGH! Now I’m gonna be the only girl, thanks a lot Minnie Mouse.” “Welcome pup.”

It was time for Literature, I was sitting by Kitty when she fell asleep. “Kitty! Wake up.” I whispered. “Huh? Did something happened.” “No, but are you okay?” “No, but I’ll tell you after class, promise.” “Alright.”

“So, what’s going on?” I asked. “My new roommate sucks, she’s always gaming, and I can’t sleep or study.” “Oh my, that sucks. let’s go talk with Professor Finnerty.” “Professor Finnerty?” Kitty asked.

“Hi Kitty and Andrea. What the problem?” He asked. “Please you have to help me” Kitty pleads. “I understand that the living situation may be a little bit difficult.” “Professor Finnerty, have you ever seen a Jenga Tower of pizza boxes? Have you ever smelled a Jenga tower of pizza boxes?” Kitty asked. “Actually-“ He says before he’s cut of. “You’re our resident advisor. Isn’t there anything you can do?” Kitty asked. “Sorry, Kitty, but the girls’ dorm is full.” “I can’t sleep. I can’t study. I can’t get the mozzarella out of the carpet. And I’m gonna fail all of my classes.” Kitty says. “There’s always the library. I believe you can make it work. You’ve already survived your first week of junior year.” The school bell rings. “ I’m here if you need me. And let’s look on the bright side. This whole living situation, it could be a lot worse.” “How?” Kitty asked. “Could be blue cheese.”

TIME SKIP: AFTER SCHOOL

As Kitty, Q, and I were watching a Korean film, “I dont know.” Kitty said. “It’s a lot of bulging eyes and rotting flesh.” I said. “Drea, what? This is a classic” Q said. “You know who you should be watching this with?” Kitty asked. “Florian.” We both said. “You guys are vibing!” “I don’t know. I mean, I’ve been with plenty of guys before… but I’ve never liked anyone this much. It’s making me nervous.” Q said. “I have an idea. What if we got a group together tomorrow for a binge party?” I said. “We can invite Florian, he’ll love and get hooked on the show, and you, and start watching more episodes, with fewer people, at night time.” Kitty said. “Just take it at one step at a time.” “Yea. Right. Like how you flew across the world for Dae without telling him.” Q said. “Hey, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met you.” Kitty said. “Yea, same.” I said. “Plus we wouldn’t have discovered that we have a half-sibling somewhere in Korea.” “You got me there.” Q said. “ What sucks is that I can’t tell Dae anyone of this, because Yuri is always around. I miss my bestfriend.” Kitty said. “Excuse you?” I said jokingly. “After you, you’ll always be my bestfriend.” Kitty said. “Well, I might know one place Dae will be that Yuri definitely wont.” Q said. “Nature. That girl is not outdoorsy, and you guys are talking to the president of KISS’s outdoors club. First hike is tomorrow.”

“All right people, welcome to KISS’s outdoors club. First rule of Outdoor, please talk about Outdoors Club. That would be quite, no very helpful because we did lose a few members this summer. All right, let’s get started with some stretches.” Q said. I saw Dae come up to talk to Kitty, so I gave them space. Then Yuri came. How many more people are gonna magically come? Then I heard the one voice i never wanna hear. “All right, who’s ready to go on a hike?”

MINHO’S POV

“All right, who’s ready to go on a hike?” I asked. “Min Ho! What are you doing here?” Dae asked. “What!? I can’t hang out with my best friends?” I said. And I also happened to see Andrea. Those gorgeous golden-brown eyes are just so… Wait why an I thinking about her. “Min ho?” Andrea asked. “What?” “Why are even here? I thought Minnie Mouse doesn’t hike?” “Just shut up, Pup.” “Whatever.” “Make sure you guys stay hydrated. I hope you guys used the bathrooms because there are none.” Q said.

ANDREA(Y/N’s) POV

“Andrea.” Min ho said. “What?” “Stop for a second, your shoes are untied.” Minho ties my lace as he said that. “I could have perfectly tied themselves, but thank you.” I said running to catch up to Kitty. But the smirk he gave was so cute, wait… am I think about MIN HO? Gosh, someone help me. I was able to catch up to Kitty at-least. But she was in a race with Yuri. “KITTY WATCH UP.” I yelled. I have never ran as fast I as did, but I beat them somehow. “ I won, you guys both suck.” I said. When Kitty,Dae , and Yuri were up that, Kitty had taken a photo of Yuri and Dae. “Kitty! The baby bracelet has the same symbol as the one in the photo. Come on, let’s go!” I said as me and Kitty ran to the hospital.

As Kitty and I ran through the crowd of people to the hospital, we finally made it. “Hello.” The receptionist said.” “Hello. We’re looking for a information on somebody who was a patient here.” I said. “A current patient?” “No. In 1993.” “Sorry, all past records are strictly confidential.” “Okay, thank you.” I said bowing. “Kitty, all past records are strictly confidential.” I said whispering “Wait what? Really? Wait, I have a good idea.”

As we brought flowers to the maternity ward to cover our faces, Their was a women who had a pass to get into the record room. I had a great idea. “Excuse me ma’am. These flowers are from him.” I said. “Oh, my he likes me!” The women said. “Come on, Kitty.” I whispered. “Let’s go.”

As we sneaked into the records room, Kitty got to the computer, it was in korean. “Let it to me Kitty.” I said. “Found it!” I said. I searches up Eve Song. “Oh my gosh.” I said. “ We have a brother.” “Oh shoot the door opened. “Security!” A man said as security guards came running in. “Do we get a phone call?” Kitty said. Oh my gosh, Kitty.

When we got out, “Thank you so much for saving us at the hospital.” I said. “What were you guys even doing in there.” Professor Finnerty asked. “It’s a ling story.” Kitty said. “Well lucky I was there to sweet-talk the guards.” “Yes, but your Korean could work a bit.” I said. “And, your Korean was almost bad as mine.” Kitty said. “Hey, don’t judge. You’ve had a head start.” “A head start?” Kitty asked. “Well, one of your parents is Korean, right?” He asked. “Mine are both white.” “Really?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m adopted.” “Oh” Kitty said. “Cool.” “Yeah, it is pretty cool. I was adopted by some amazing people.” He said. “Have you every met your birth parents?” I asked. “No.” “ Are you curious? I feel like I would be curious .”I said. “ You certainly are very curious person.” “Have you always known you were adopted?” Kitty asked. “Uh, yeah. It was kind of obvious.” “Right. Duh.” Kitty said. “Do you ever see people on the street and think,like, “Oh my gosh, that person has the same shapes ears as me, maybe they’re my mom, or they could be my dad, or we could have the same ear shape?” I said. “We kinda do, huh.” “You ask a lot of questions, and I’m not an ear expert.” “Wait, Kitty, he was adopted my Australians.” I said. “Adopted by Australians. Twenty-nine-ish. When’s your birthday?” Kitty asked. “I think it’s gonna rain soon. Uh, we should hurry. I think the subway’s this way, Yup.” He said “Okay,” I said. “I think we found out who our half-brother could be.”

“Is Q here? I have 8 minutes until curfew.” Kitty said. “Yeah, in his room.” Okay, thanks, come on Drea.” Kitty said. “All right.” “Come in, “Q said. “And when were at the the hospital, look at we found.” I said as Kitty was showing him a photo. “Adopted by Australian parents, just like Professor Finnerty, and born around the same time.” Kitty said. “ He could totally be our half- brother.” I said. “Okay, what?” Q said. “ The facts add up.” Kitty said. “ I don’t you guys, This could be a huge coincidence. I mean, a lot it Korean Kids are adopted by Australians.” Q said. “But why else would he be at KISS? He probably looking for answers ” I said. “Answers we can find together as brother and sisters.” “Whoa. I think you need a little bit more bit evidence. I mean you guys will be dropping a lot of information on him, including the fact that his birth mom is, well not alive. “Yea, you may be right. But I just get the feeling that our mom kept the bracelet for a reason. I think she wanted to find the baby one day.” Kitty said.

As Min ho and Dae knocked on the door, “We need to show you something.” Dae said. “What?” I thought. “What?” Kitty said. “What the fuck is this?” I asked. “My roommate put on some weird website as I was sleeping?” Kitty said. “My gosh.” “I don’t see the appeal.” Min ho said. “Yea, totally as if you weren’t the one to call Campus Police.” I said in my head. “Yet, you found the site.” Q said. “Kitty, you should move.” Dae said. “You can’t live with that girl anymore.” “ Yea, I kind of agree with Dae. This is kind of sketchy.” Q said. “ I tries to move, but there are no other rooms available.” Kitty said. “Uhh, how about a hotel? My driver could take you right now,” Min ho said. “Cant afford that for an entire semester.” Kitty said. “I sure Dae could hook you up with a discount at Hans Hotel.” Min ho said. “Shut up Min ho.” Kitty said. “Move back in with us!” I said. “What! No, I called Campus Police for a reason.” Min ho said. “Whatever.” I replied. “Yea that could work.” Dae and Q said. “She can bunk with Drea and I, and Dae and Min ho will bunk.” Q said. “Yea!” I said. “Let the moving begin tomorrow!”

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TAGLIST: @chaewon-slays @cherrriesss

#min ho x reader #sang heon lee #x reader #minho x oc #minho x y/n #minho x you #netflix #to all the boys series #x yn #x you #xo kitty

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justme-1723 · 7 months

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I see a lot of discussion surrounding whether or not Ray was ever actually in love with Mew…

I understand why this is a hot topic. Defining love can be tricky, especially when you have little to no experience receiving it in a healthy way.

The phrase “in love” is so subjective.

For me, it’s more about reciprocated love. Loving someone who will never love you back is painful, but loving someone who is capable and willing to return that love with equal or greater intensity… that’s terrifying. It’s exciting. It’s overwhelming. And it takes work to maintain.

I think whatever it is he feels for Mew… is real for Ray, but it’s not mutual and as much as that hurts… it’s something Ray is used to. Mew has stayed consistent in his rejection of Ray’s romantic feelings. It’s almost safe because if Mew doesn’t love him back, he can’t ruin it. He can’t lose Mew in that way. Nothing changes between them.

Sand is a wildcard and I can’t wait to watch Ray navigate his feelings (and Sand’s) once he finally realizes there is something more than friendship between them.

Sorry. Just some random rambles before the new episode tomorrow. Also, why is SandRay not in the preview post GMMTV posted today? I’m emotionally: unstable. I’m physically: unwell. Please let them have peace 🥹

#only friends the series #ofts #sand x ray #ray x sand #raysand #sandray #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #firstkhao #gmmtv #gmmtv series #first khaotung #khaotungfirst #khaofirst #only friends series

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dindjarinxbokatan · 1 year

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So I shared these thoughts on my other tumblr just a few days ago, and then my tumblr was suddenly deactivated?? And now I have this new one (an older one repurposed for Dinbo).

Anyway…

here are my ✨DinBo thoughts✨again

Do you remember in the Heiress and the episodes leading up to the it we see the frog lady with Din. She is the last of her species and she is waiting to meet up with her frog husband. And they go through great lengths to be together, to help their species survive. It’s very sweet and romantic. Also! The frog lady is red, like Bo-Katan’s hair and frog man is dark. Just an interesting parallel and possible foreshadowing.

In the Heiress we see Axe and Koska act annoyed with Din being a Child of the Watch but Bo tries to soften the blow of telling him. She also wants to use his skills to help her get to Moff Gideon but we see immediately she is fond of Din. After he dramatically flies away from them she comes back and offers to buy him a drink - he’s not going to drink with them - she just wants to talk to him further.

There are so many scenes in that episode where Din and Bo are gravitating each other, or moving toward each other and it shows a possible initial attraction despite their different goals and purposes.

And in order to tell him about Ahsoka she takes off her helmet, which didn’t necessarily need to, but it’s because we are allowed to see her watch Din walk away and give him a meaningful glance. All done on purpose thanks to Bryce Dallas Howard. All of her episodes have a romantic theme to them.

The episode coming out tomorrow is hers. We can only imagine what might lay in store for us and I can’t wait to further analyze it.

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kiloskywalker · 1 year

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4x04

HOLY CRAP YALL WHAT AN EPISODE! SO GOOD ON ALL FRONTS NO NOTES ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL thanks to @chaotictarlos again for screaming crying and throwing up with me. I have a super early call time and three flights tomorrow so my thoughts are going to be kinda brief but holy shit. -Already 5 minutes in and i was getting high heart rate notifications from my Apple Watch -APD comes off so fucking useless in this episode like did they do ANY investigating at all? Seriously its ridiculous. They missed the false wall, they missed the ash in the fireplace? Like who is this detective and where is Detective Washington? But you know who was one of the best detectives? FUCKIN’ TK STRAND!!!!!!! HE’s come a long way from misidentifying statues as people! NO ONE is gonna stop him from finding his man. -Carlos you smart SOB, making that connection with Trudy. Also him talking about Gwyn and her love for TK being flowed through him...fucking wrecked me. I miss my mom and I hope I find someone like that. Carlos balancing his need to scream for TK standing right there but also trying to protect him from the crazy lady with a knife, can you imagine. -Ugh both Ronen and Rafael were SO GOOD in this episode. Probably the most intense we’ve seen from either of them, especially with Detective!TK. Sidenote, Ronen’s instagram stories were so funny.

-Okay also, some of these one liners were so good. Even if they were in stressful situations. The serial killer adjacent old lady being more of a LGBT ally than my own father lol: “I love the gays!” Also new favorite Owen line: “I’m a fireman. Our codes are like: Fire!” -I swear to god the last five minutes of this episode aged me like 20 years. SHE WAS SO CLOSE TO HELPING CARLOS! THEN TK AND GABRIEL WERE SO CLOSE TO HIM! UGH!!! Who else had TK having to do CPR on Carlos. I can’t wait for the residual trauma for the two of them! I know there’s limited time for that but that’s why we have fic writers. -ALSO, the B plot was crazy: I’m getting real pissed off with the FBI. They clearly have no idea how to run this investigation, they are treating their asset (Owen) with more contempt than the people they are trying to catch. Clearly Owen is scared/uncomfortable with their plan and they are doing nothing to assuage that. Like my god. -I also can see how they are going to set up an inevitable conflict between TK and Owen which I know Ronen has teased in previous interviews, why the two of them have kind of drifted a bit. I’m excited for that conversation to come, I can’t imagine how TK is feeling at this moment.

ALSO: “Are you kidding, you died!”, “Yeah, look who’s talking” I MEAN, exCUSE ME.....Fiancés that have-their-heart-stop-and-literally-die together, stay together. AND REMEMBER: ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE WEDDING All in all, an absolutely fantastic episode. I can’t wait to read some fics about it. I have a really early call time tomorrow (0500) and three flights (Orlando-Houston-Chicago-DC) so idk how available I’ll be, but I’d love to talk more about it with yall!

#9-1-1 lone star #911 lone star #tarlos #tk strand #Carlos Reyes #this episode was so good #i cant wait to read about it #i nearly had a heart attack #4x04 #911 ls #911 lone star season 4

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sometimes-love-is-enough · 11 months

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In honor of the new Cartoon Therapy episode coming out tomorrow (TOMORROW? TOMORROW!), have the first chapter of a fic that I am (sadly) most likely never going to finish. I once referred to it as Eucatastrophe by way of Cartoon Therapy, with less Eldritch Nonsense and more gratuitous cartoon references (of course). Enjoy some Elliott POV fic! The world is sorely lacking in it.

What OVER THE GARDEN WALL Can Teach You About Rescuing Your Therapist From An Otherworldly Magical Forest!

It’s already pretty bad when Elliott’s boyfriend doesn’t show up to couple’s therapy, weeks in a row.

It’s even worse when their therapist is the one not showing up.

At first it’s annoying, but only for the first fifteen minutes of waiting. Elliott rubs their forearms, glances around the Funko Pop-lined walls of Dr Picani’s latest office, and shifts back and forth on the comfy patient’s couch. They check their phone a few times, scrolling through Twitter and old strings of messages, and wonder if they’d got the date or time wrong, somehow.

After fifteen minutes, it’s confusing. Dr Picani is usually nothing less than slightly-less-than-punctual. Sure, he’s almost never actually on time, but fifteen minutes is the worst he’s ever been, and even on those occasions he’s always sure to send a string of reassuring emoji-riddled texts and bring an extra apology mug of hot chocolate from the café he’d been held up at. (Elliott generally prefers coffee, but never brings it up. The hot chocolate’s actually really good.)

With that in mind, Elliott checks their messages. There’s no promises of hot chocolate, no goofy Disney White Rabbit GIFs, no texts at all. They bite their lip, and shove their phone into their pocket before focusing all their attention on the Finding Nemo poster plastered on the wall across from them.

Twenty minutes in, and his secretary pokes her head around the door, looking apologetic. She tells Elliott that it looks like Dr Picani isn’t coming in today, would they like to reschedule?

Elliott does, same time next week will be just fine thank you; and leaves, and goes to sit at the park across the road and worry. The secretary hadn’t said anything about why Dr Picani hadn’t been in today, but Elliott likes to think they’re pretty good at reading people, and they could see that she’d been just as confused as them. They can’t be sure, obviously – they might be overthinking, actually – but it’s entirely possible that this wasn’t a planned sort of absence.

Is he sick? Did he get into some sort of accident? Did he find a life-changing obscure German cartoon on some out-of-the-way streaming website and get fixated on it to the point of forgetting to turn up to work? Did he decide to ditch therapy as a career altogether and accept a job at Disney as the official guy who sits in the corner of cartoon pitch meetings and cheers ‘yeah, heck yeah!’ at each and every pitch that comes over the table? All extremely real possibilities!

…They really, really hope he’s all right.

But the next week, Dr Picani isn’t there – and the office is completely closed. He still hasn’t replied to a single one of Elliott’s texts, which is downright terrifying. His response time is usually about one minute flat outside of office hours, no matter how late at night or early in the mornings it is – something Elliott only knows because of the embarrassing time they’d impulse-texted him at 3 AM to share that they’d started watching Avatar. (He’d been right about Elliott liking Zuko. Letting him know had seemed only fair.) Again, really embarrassing, but at least Dr Picani hadn’t been weird about it. Weirder than usual, anyway.

But there’s no text responses at all, not even read receipts. Elliott’s not even annoyed anymore. They just want to see one incomprehensible cartoon GIF, and then their brain can stop exploding with worst-case scenarios. A single weird reference. One out-of-context screenshot.

Elliott loiters at the closed-and-locked door to the therapy clinic, frowning at their phone, not really knowing what to do. They don’t want to go home and face Mitchell, who’ll only laugh and say I told you so, and he wouldn’t be wrong, he had told them so. But it’s not as if staying here’s going to do any good.

“Hey! Are you one of Picani’s other patients?” says a too-loud someone from behind them, and Elliott’s body makes the fun decision to flinch violently.

“Sloane, you can’t just ask someone that,” hisses someone else.

Elliott turns, and sees two unfamiliar people holding hands, standing nearby. One’s looking at Elliott with expectancy. The other is looking at the first with exasperation.

“I mean,” they say, slowly, “yeah. Yeah, I am. Do you, like… know where he is?”

The person whose voice is too loud gets a look on their face that’s all scary intense and breathes, “I knew it. I knew something was wrong. Didn’t I say something was wrong?”

“Back up,” says Elliott, raising a hand. “What are you talking about? Who are you guys? What’s going on here?”

Introductions all around. Sloane is tall and bright-eyed and has no inside voice; Corbin is his boyfriend and looks like this conversation is the last thing he wanted to be having today. (Elliott can sort of relate to that, but since when have they ever got what they want?) Neither of them have seen Dr Picani for weeks, either – looks like he ditched their group-therapy appointments as well, both last week and just today.

“God, that’s weird,” Corbin says, when they’ve confirmed their respective situations. “He’s… well, he’s a bit out there sometimes, but he’s not an actually bad therapist.”

“Yeah, it was out of character, so we were worried about him,” Sloane says in a majorly straightforward sort of way. “So we were thinking – ”

“You were thinking – ”

“Fine, I was thinking, and you were onboard enough to come here with me – ”

“I can’t believe you’re making me partially responsible for this – ”

“I was thinking that there’s a window at the back of the building that we could probably get through, and then if we get into his office, well – well, I’m not sure what we could actually find out, but there’s probably something, isn’t there?” Sloane is practically bouncing in place, very enthused of his own plan. “Hey, do you want to get in on it? The more hands the better, you know!”

“Sloane, you can’t just invite someone to do break into their therapist’s office – ”

“I totally can! I invited you, didn’t I?”

Elliott sighs, and tries to work out just how much they care about finding what Picani’s up to. The answer is, apparently, enough to break into the guy’s office. They’re not sure how much further past there it’s going to stretch, but they have a feeling that this entire experience is going to be an exercise in finding out. “Fine. But if the cops show up, I’m leaving.”

When their small group of three rounds the side of the building to do an Actual Proper Crime (Elliott is already regretting this), there is a crime already in progress. There’s a middle-aged couple in matching denim jackets watching a younger person with a fierce scowl slashed across their face sitting on top of a dumpster, fiddling with the exact window that Sloane had been planning on going through. The guy with the beard is offering occasional advice. His partner – wife? – appears to be keeping lookout, but not very good lookout considering that Elliott, Corbin and Sloane manage to get all the way into the back alley and right next to the three of them before she notices them.

The kid on the dumpster freezes, and mutters, “Oh, shit.”

“We are not doing anything wrong, and we’re absolutely meant to be here,” says jacket guy loudly.

“Hey, chill, we’re here to break into the office too,” Sloane says, raising his hands.

“Sloane, you can’t just admit to breaking and entering – ”

More quick introductions follow. The angry kid is Kai, the matching-jacket couple are Dot and Larry. They’re also patients of Dr Picani’s, and all seem to have had the same idea vis-à-vis Picani’s office, which Elliot thinks probably says something about the general demographic of this guy’s clients. They clearly haven’t been having much success with getting in, though – the window’s locked from the inside. Apparently therapists lock their windows.

“I know the technique of getting it open,” mutters Kai furiously, “I’ve watched so many YouTube tutorials, but my fingers won’t work. Stupid fingers. Stupid bendy bony fingers.”

“Break the window,” says Sloane enthusiastically, looking like he’s wanted to do just that his entire life.

“Do not,” said Corbin, the polar opposite of enthusiastic.

“I’ll pass,” Kai says, and uncomfortably shifts from side to side from where they’re sitting on the dumpster. “Anyone got something flat and sharp? I can probably wiggle it underneath and pop it open that way.”

Corbin reluctantly passes up his pocket knife, and within seconds, the window is open. Kai gets down painfully from the dumpster, citing bendiness and refusing to climb through.

A moment later, Elliott is voted smallest and lithest, and subsequently reluctantly wiggles their way through the opened gap to unlock the office from the inside for everyone else. They really hope there’s no security cameras in here. This would be the stupidest possible way to get arrested.

Although strangely, they can’t picture Dr Picani actually getting mad about the whole thing. He’d probably compare the whole venture to Totally Spies or some other cartoon Elliott only vaguely knows about, and try to relate the whole thing to dealing with anxiety or separation issues somehow.

Unbelievably, Elliott is starting to miss him.

Two queer couples, a kid with bendy bones, and a very nervous Elliott break into their therapist’s private office at two thirty-five in the afternoon. It’s a bad joke of a situation, and Elliott doesn’t want to know what the punchline is. Inside they find sixty billion plushies, an impressive wall-to-wall tapestry-style Spirited Away poster, and a shelf that’s completely packed with VCR cartoon recordings – among other things.

“Yeah, I don’t know what I expected,” Corbin says. “That’s… yep. That tracks.”

Speaking of tracks, there’s mud tracked all over the Aladdin-style carpet laid out in the centre of the room.

Larry says, “Oh, he’d never let that happen. Someone broke in here.”

To which Kai says, “Yeah, us. We broke in here.”

“No, someone before us,” Larry is saying, and meanwhile Dot and Sloane are poking around behind Picani’s desk. They’re avoiding all the papers and patient files, which Elliott is silently relieved about, and just reading the Hello Kitty post-it notes papered everywhere.

“It’s mostly anime recommendations,” Sloane announces. “Ooh, Spy Family, he has good taste. Oh. One Piece. Uh, less good taste? I mean, it is a classic, but… sheesh, dude.”

“I don’t understand half the words coming out of your mouth,” Dot mutters. “Is any of that relevant, young man?”

“I guess not, but man, I kind of want to see his MyAnimeList now,” Sloane says thoughtfully. “Guy probably has some killer reviews."

Elliott is the one who realizes that the television hooked up to the laptop on the other side of the room is not just on, but is blisteringly hot – like it’s been running for days or maybe weeks, without anyone shutting it off. It’s almost too hot to wiggle the mouse and tap at the keyboard to refresh the screen. When it flickers to life, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s a cartoon playing on-screen – soft, smooth animation, oddly-dressed kids and talking birds flitting across the screen. Honestly, it’d be weirder if there hadn’t been cartoons running on this computer.

What’s weird is the fact that the show, whatever it is, seems to be set to a loop – and what’s more, it looks like it’s been running continuously for a very long time. Even weirder; a smudge of that same mud on the laptop screen, like someone had brushed a finger up against it, except it’s weirdly-shaped, almost arrow-like.

As Elliott notices the smudge, something strange happens to the video player. It flickers and stutters, and then freezes altogether on an image of a rather forbidding forest, a path leading into it. The arrow-shaped smudge now points directly down the path, into the trees.

Elliott is, understandably, a little freaked by this, especially when they try to rewind but the video player won’t let them.

They wave the others over, and Kai says, “Oh, that’s Over the Garden Wall, Lauren keeps telling me to watch it.”

“Yeah, I think I’ve heard of it,” Corbin says. “Kind of weird that he left it on when he was gone. That’s gotta be running up a killer power bill.”

Dot’s still at Dr Picani’s desk, and has now sat down on the comfy colorful desk chair, pressing her glasses all the way up at her nose to properly study the sticky notes. “You know, this isn’t all cartoon recommendations. Well, mostly not – he’s got a lot of contingency plans on here.”

Which is interesting enough that Elliott briefly forgets about the weird mud and the frozen screen. “Contingency plans?”

“Yes, he’s got a lot of them,” says Dot, and squints over her glasses at the sticky notes in her hand. “See – here. ‘In the case of loss of faith in humanity, watch My Neighbour Totoro.’ ‘In the event of mysterious deaths of the 1%, watch Death Note.’ ‘In the case of total collapse of personal morals and decency, please for the love of Don Bluth do not make it worse by watching South Park.’”

“Has he got one for ‘weird disappearance out of nowhere involving mud and moss tracked all over his office’?” Elliott asks, half-joking.

Dot looks through the rest of the notes on the desk, and then holds up a dog-eared note, looking faintly bemused. “Over The Garden Wall.”

Elliott blinks, then looks at the TV screen, still showing a shot of that darkened forest. The mud remains, pointing an arrow right into the trees, like a sign screaming, go here. Seriously, go here. I am so not joking about going here. “You mean, like… like this show?”

“I suppose so,” she says.

“Well, that feels like a clue,” says Sloane. “Maybe we should watch the whole thing!”

Elliott wants to say that’s stupid, and by the look on Kai and Corbin’s faces in particular, they’re both thinking the same thing. But Sloane’s not wrong. It does feel like a clue, dumb as it feels. After a second, they start looking around for the remote.

“Hang on, we’ve just found out that Dr Picani’s gone mysteriously missing – we can’t just start watching TV based on a Post-It note he left,” Corbin says incredulously. “Would he really want us to sit here in his office, watching some kid’s cartoon instead of, you know, going out and actually doing something about it?”

There’s a short silence.

“Um, yeah?” says Elliott.

“He’d probably be disappointed if we didn’t,” Kai admits.

“I wonder if he has any popcorn,” Larry says thoughtfully, eyeing the small microwave tucked underneath Dr Picani’s desk.

He does have popcorn. And, well, as long as they’re doing breaking-and-entering, they might as well throw petty theft into the mix.

Elliott really hopes Dr Picani’s not going to mind.

So they watch Over The Garden Wall, and afterwards they all agree that yes, it’s a solid show and yes, Dr Picani’s often-questionable good taste has hit home on this one show at least.

But even thought most of them cried at least once during the impromptu binge session, it doesn’t exactly help them in any way. There aren’t any hidden recordings spliced in-between episodes, there’s no obvious signs or placards in the background art saying ‘THIS IS THE ANSWER! HERE ARE THE EXACT COORDINATES YOUR THERAPIST IS HIDDEN AT!’, and if there’s some sort of metaphor in here, it’s flying entirely over Elliott’s head.

After it’s all done, Sloane is excitedly explaining the Divine Comedy metaphor to a mostly-uninterested Kai, and Larry is eyeing the minifridge. And in the middle of all of this awkward we-don’t-know-where-to-go-from-here, Elliott looks down at the mud-caked carpet and thinks wait a minute, because it’s not just random mud, there’s definite footprints. And more than that – the footprints are leading somewhere.

Leaving everyone else behind for the moment, Elliott follows the mud trail all the way out of the office – down the hallways, past their usual therapy room, and out to the reception area. Now that they’re paying attention and not just trying to get everyone inside as quickly as possible so they don’t get arrested or whatever, they can see that the mud is much more obvious here – several sets of footprints. One big set of therapist-sized footprints, with little puppy paws in the sole marks (Scooby Doo? Courage the Cowardly Dog? It’s anyone’s guess what reference it is, this time!) – and several improbably small sets, which Elliott would have sorted into the ‘animal tracks’ category, if not for the fact that they are visibly bare human feet. Humanoid feet.

“No,” Elliott tells themself, very firmly. “Not thinking about it. Not thinking about the implications. I do not need to to think about the implications. I just… need clues.” They pause, grind a hand against their head, and very carefully do not voice a Blues Clues reference out loud, despite the immense urge to do so. Something about this goddamned office wormed the cartoon thoughts right into the centre of your brain. Probably all of the cartoon merch. It’s near-unbearable. Honestly, Elliott would have switched therapists months ago, if it weren’t for the fact that…

Elliott rubs the side of their head again, this time a touch more anxiously. Yeah. Okay. They’re really worried about Dr Picani. He’s nice, is the thing. And not sugary-sweet, too-cheerful and too-bright nice in the way you might expect from just looking at the guy; he’s got a sharp wit and a gentle hardness. He’s never once dismissed Elliott’s feelings as unimportant or stupid, which is a hell of a lot more than they can say for… a lot of other people in their life.

He’s a weirdo, but what’s that thing everyone always says? Cringe is dead? He’s a good therapist, and you don’t need to be ‘normal’ or ‘mainstream’ to be good at your job. Elliott knows a good thing when they have it, and fuck if they’re going to go through the mortifying ordeal of interviewing a dozen new therapists just because their current one thought it’d be a good idea to re-enact Spirited Away or whatever the hell this is.

Elliott looks behind the front counter, and finds a map there. It’s a normal-looking map of the immediate area, one they’ve seen before pinned to walls of local businesses – but it, much like most of the office floor, is covered in mud. And bright-pink ballpoint pen, in familiar handwriting.

In case of having already watched Over the Garden Wall, it reads, I’m probably somewhere out here.

They carefully lift the map from the desk, and stare at it for a long, long moment before they become aware of the fact that they’re holding it tight enough to crumple the page.

Slowly, they look down at the mud tracks, and the tiny little footprints running all the way through the hallway, all the way out the front door.

Okay. Yeah. Elliott’s officially thinking about the implications now. They wish they weren’t, but they’re thinking about them.

Elliott returns to the office, map in hand, to find Dot and Larry stealing from Dr Picani’s minifridge, and Sloane trying to find hidden hints on the underside of his work desk, while Corbin looks on ruefully.

“Forest’s haunted,” they say.

“What?” Kai says, looking up from a limited-edition Avatar: The Legend of Korra complete artbook.

Elliot holds up the map, and repeats the awful truth of the matter: “I said, forest’s haunted. Does anyone have a car? Because if we’re going to get our therapist back, I’m sure as hell not walking all the way there.”

#cartoon therapy #storytime #my fic #please do not ask me to write more of this or imply that i should do more! it will just make me sad and anxious when i can't.#i am very serious. i will delete this if i start feeling bad about it. i've done it before and will do it again #just enjoy the little that is here.#euCTastrophe

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