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miraculous-trinity-leo · 3 years

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Tᕼᗴ ᑕᕼᗩOTIᑕ ᗩᑎᘜᗴᒪ

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6)

Chapter 5: Don't Jinx It!

·•·—–·•†•·–—·•·

Chloé Bourgeois... A girl that can be described in many words

"She's absolutely ridiculous! I can't believe you have to do an art project with her of all people!" - Alix sprawled out on Marinette's balcony

"She can't be that bad, besides we might become friends." - Marinette sketching some designs

"Believe me, even I think she's a bit much... She's snobby, annoying, rude, immature, spoiled, she basically has the “I'm better than thow” attitude to a T."- Kagami sitting next to the flowerbed while reading a literature book

"See? Even Kagami agrees... Just don't talk to her, actually don't even move if you're in her sights. She's like a T-Rex, she can't see you if you don't move." - Alix

… … … … …

"Hello, I'm Marinette, it's nice to meet you." - Marinette reached out her hand as she smiled

*Que Alix facepalming herself while Kagami lets out a sigh*

"Whatever, I'm Chloé, but I'm sure you already knew that." - Chloé

They started their project and most interactions went the same way, Chloé would sit in a chair near the window and paint her nails while Marinette did all the work. The next day Marinette and Chloé were the only ones in the art room.

"Okay, let's get started." - Marinette skipping her way over to the art supplies

"You do that, I'll just sit over here." - Chloé walking to her chair

"... Say, is it fun painting your nails?" - Marinette looking over to Chloé

"Of course, what girl doesn't like nail art?" - Chloé

"Well, painting on a canvas is kind of like nail art, here try painting something." - Marinette handing Chloé a paint brush

"Please, I don't do art." - Chloé refusing the paint brush

"But you ‘Paint’ your nails." - Marinette

"It's different!" - Chloé

"Okay, how about this, if I can do a magic trick for you, will you try painting just a little bit?" - Marinette

"...Fine, impress me." - Chloé giving Marinette her full attention

Marinette pulled a seed she got earlier that day out of her pocket and showed it to Chloé

"A seed?" - Chloé giving an unimpressed look

"I'll turn it into a flower, as you can see I only have this seed, and there's nothing up my sleeves. When I turn back around this seed will be a flower, are you ready?" - Marinette still holding the seed for Chloé to see

"Just do it already." - Chloé

So, Marinette turned around putting her free hand over the seed, and imagined it growing. When Marinette turned back around, all Chloé saw was a fully bloomed Common Rockrose flower, leaving her stunned.

"How did you do that?!" - Chloé walking up to Marinette to get a better look at the flower

"Family secret." - Marinette with a small smirk - "So, you want to try painting now?"

"... Fine." - Chloé pouted her lips and sat down at an empty canvas while Marinette walked to the table beside it, and Marinette may or may not have seen a small smile on Chloé's face while she grabbed some more paint.

After about 30 minutes Alix and Kagami came in and found Chloé and Marinette flinging water paint at the canvas

"Ha!" - Marinette whiped her arm out, watching as the wet paint from the brush splattered onto the canvas

"Ha HA!" - Chloé doing the exact same motion, but with a little more flare

Kagami and Alix just stared in amazed silence... they had created a master piece... It was a magnificent painting showing a meadow with many flowers in an almost hazy dream kind of look, it had a blue sky and a faint rainbow in the background behind some clouds on the horizon

"It's *sniff* Ridiculously beautiful..." - Chloé

"And you thought painting was boring." - Marinette teasing Chloé

"... Isley-Quinzel, look me in the face and say that again." - Chloé

"And you- ("Boop" - Chloé) -Hey!" - Marinette got booped on her nose by Chloé's paint covered finger

"I admit it was fun... to some extent. Now lets act like this never happened." - Chloé getting ready to leave

"How the hell did you get Chloé to paint?!" - Alix snapping out of her surprise, which caused Chloé to get startled and trip, knocking the paint onto Marinette and herself in the process

"Well... that was a colorful entrance." - Marinette now covered in blue, pink, green and red paint

"Utterly Ridiculous!" - Chloé now covered in yellow, dark green, and blue paint

"Ooops?" - Alix shrugging her shoulders

*facepalms* - Kagami

… … …

Marinette and Chloé had to walk around school covered in paint, definitely getting a few awkward stares from the other kids. About an hour later, each pair of students presented their shared work of art. When Marinette and Chloé went up, both holding their masterpiece while still covered in paint, stunned the other students.(Not because Chloé was 1. covered in paint, 2. actually carrying the painting, and 3. had a smile on her face) Needless to say they got an A+, and for the rest of the day Marinette, Chloé, Alix and Kagami hung out laughing and having fun. Not long after that the other kids started making bets on who Marinette would befriend next, and how long it would take for that someone to be an instant friend.

Chloé ended up spending a lot more time with the GPS and eventually...

The girls sat around in a circle within Marinette's room with all the lights off, only having a single lamp in the center of the room to add an ominous glow

"Are you ready to take the oath?" - Alix

"Yes, but why do we have to make it look like some utterly ridiculous ritual summoning?" - Chloe

"I agree with Chloé, I'm not allowed to summon the unnatural or paranormal." - Kagami

"Well, let's forget the paranormal stuff for now, ehem. Chloé Bourgeois, do you promise to always have our backs..." - Marinette

"Through the good and the bad..." - Alix

"To say the truth and nothing but the truth." - Kagami

"Wrong oath Kagami." - Marinette whispering to Kagami

"...... To always stay on the path that is straight and true..." - Kagami

"To uphold the justice in this crazy world..." - Alix

"And to guide those who have abandoned the light... Are you ready to join the GPS?" - Marinette

"Yes." - Chloé

"Girls, time to eat- ... Marinette, please tell me you aren't summoning the unnatural like Harley did that one time." - Selina just opening the door and seeing basically a ritual gathering

"In mom's defense, she was trying to get rid of the spooky spirit." - Marinette

"That was from a story Ed made up that one time, you wouldn't stop seeing the shadows ‘moving’, and then Harley thought she saw them move, and she ended up doing a ritual to get rid of it, but we ended up with the cursed toaster ghost. And now all bread we toast is burnt back home." - Selina

"... But burnt toast is the best!" - Marinette

"Ivy told you that it would make you grow quicker, which then tricked you into liking burnt toast, which isn't tasty at all." - Selina

"*dramatic gasp* You Take That Back!" - Marinette

"Nope, now come down in 3 so we can eat." - Selina closed the door and walked away

"You girls agree with me right?" - Marinette turning to her friends

"... Marinette, how can you think burnt toast is good?!" - Alix

"It's... burnt." - Kagami

"Ehhh, it's okay." - Chloé

"Thank You!" - Marinette hugging Chloé

"... un-second thought, I retract my ‘yes’ to that oath." - Chloé

"Too late." - Kagami

"You're stuck with us..." - Alix then leaned over and whispered in Chloé's ear - "Foreverrrrr."

……… ……… ………

After they had their food they went back up to Marinette's (ritual free) room and started playing Ultimate Mecha Strike 2.

After a few rounds of Marinette dominating Ultimate Mecha Slaughter Strike 2, they moved on to watching some Jurassic Park

"So... your mom cursed your toaster?" - Chloé

"... maybe." - Marinette

"Honestly though, who in their right mind likes burnt toast?" - Alix

"Apparently Marinette." - Kagami

"It's kinda like thin burnt rice crispy treats, just minus the sugar." - Marinette

"*dramatic gasp* You Take That Back Right Now." - Alix

"You don't even know what rice crispy treats are, do you." - Marinette now looking away from the TV and directly at Alix

"Not a clue." - Alix

"It's an American treat, it's actually really good, not to sweet, and not to crunchy." - Chloé

"This is why you are part of the GPS." - Marinette hugging Chloé - "You understand most red blooded American treats, and for that I give you my thanks." - Marinette now starting to tear up

"What are we, chop liver?" - Kagami pointing to Alix and herself

"Well unlike you two, I have seen the other side... I swear, they're all hillbillies, and they live in the worst weather ever! Sunshine state my ass, more like out door saunas 24/7." - Chloé ended up mumbling her last few words

"... That's Florida, and it's not that bad, it never gets hotter than 115°F, and that's during summer." - Marinette

"... No wonder you like burnt toast... your brains were burnt with it." - Alix

"I didn't live in Florida, I lived in New Jersey, and the weather is better there." - Marinette

"That's what she said." - Kagami stuffing her face with popcorn

……… ……… ………

Over the course of the next few months Marinette taught the GPS all she knew about parkour and self-defense, at first they wondered why she knew so many different techniques of self-defense, until she explained where she grew up had a few unpleasant people. They still think she's meta.

When Winter rolled around she was to head back to Gotham for the next month and a half. She was packed and ready when the GPS burst into her room.

"Don't leave! I need an Ice skating buddie!" - Alix clinging to Marinette

"You have Chloé and Kagami, besides, I'm pretty sure Kagami is better on the ice than I am." - Marinette accepting the fact she won't be getting Alix off her anytime soon

"It's Not The Same!" - Alix becoming a human koala on Marinette's back

"She's going to see her family, show some restraint!" - Chloé detaching Alix from Marinette

"No!" - Alix getting out of Chloé's grip and reattaching herself to Marinette

"There's a new attraction with a big ramp jump for the ice skating rink." - Kagami on her phone

"Really?! Let me see!" - Alix detaching herself to look at Kagami's phone, only to see the normal boring ice skating rink - "You tricked me." - Alix gave Kagami the stink eye

"It got you off of Marinette at least." - Kagami putting her phone away

"I'm gonna miss you girls." - Marinette gave them a big hug

"You better not do anything stupid while you're back home." - Chloé

"I would never." - Marinette thinking of the time she ran from the Bat-Birds

"What city in New Jersey do you live in again?" - Alix

"That's-" - Marinette

"Kitten you all set for Gotham?" - Selina opened the door and saw Marinette in a big hug with the girls - "Oh, you girls are here, hope you said your goodbyes because we're leaving in 10 minutes." - She then closed the door to make sure everything was ready downstairs

"... ... ..." - Chloé/Alix/Kagami - "You live where?"

"Gotham...?" - Marinette slowly backing up to grab her luggage and make her way to the door

"Oh hell No!" - Kagami standing between Marinette and the door

"You're staying!" - Alix clinging to Marinette again

"Gotham's a death trap!!!" - Chloé joining Alix and clinging to Marinette

... ... ...

After some convincing the girls let Marinette go, and she was now on the plane that would take her back home.

"... They really think Gotham's a death trap?" - Selina relaxing in the first class seats she got them.

"It's not that bad is it? I had asked them what they thought could even go wrong." - Marinette

"... Well literally everything can go wrong in Gotham... It's not to late to get off actually." - Selina getting up

"Not you too!" - Marinette grabbing her Aunt's hand

"I'm joking Kitten... you are wearing the bullet proof vest under that coat right?" - Selina

"Of course." - Marinette

"Then we should be fine..." - Selina now sitting back down and looking 10 times more nervous than before

"..." - Marinette put her hands together and mumbled under her breath - "Please don't jinx it. Please don't jinx it. Please don't jinx it. Pleeeeease don't jinx it."

……………… They had an hour delay, had to switch flights and couldn't eat anything because it looked like it would give them food poisoning, and they didn't get a wink of sleep......... but they made it to Gotham in one piece... at 2 in the morning.

"You jinxed it." - Marinette dragging her luggage sleepily

"It can't get any worse now-" - Selina

"No!-" - As Marinette tried to stop her Aunt from finishing her sentence, a truck past by the curb and sent a blanket of powdered snow flying into them - "-say it..."

"...Okay, now it-" - Selina was cut off by Marinette stuffing her mouth with the last secret cookie she had

"Don't anger the jinx gods, please." - Marinette pleading to her Aunt

After Selina finished the secret cookie she called Ivy to pick them up. They waited about 15 minutes before Ivy, along with a sleeping Harley in the back seat, picked them up. As they got in the car Harley jolted awake

"Are we dere yet?" - Harley rubbing her eyes

"Yes, and in our snow covered glory we entered the car." - Marinette giving her mom a hug

"I missed yuh so much, it just hasn't been de same wit'outcha cupcake." - Harley returning the hug

"And what about me, did you miss me?" - Selina getting comfortable in the passenger seat

"Ehhh." - Harley tilted here hand from side to side as she continued to side hug Marinette

"... Have I ever told you how great you are at warm welcomes?" - Selina giving Harley the stink eye

"She didn't mean it, you know she has no filter at this hour." - Ivy pulling up to the stoplight

"In other words her honest opinion of me being back is ‘ehhh’, I'm glad she thinks so highly of me." - Selina resting her head on the window

The ride to their base was peaceful, they arrived and went to their rooms after Marinette gave her moms and aunt a goodnight hug. As Marinette went to sleep in her bed, Bud and Lou jumped onto the bed and curled up next to her, as she stroked their fur, she couldn't help but feel excited to spend time with her family and friends. She soon fell asleep in the calm silence of her room, the last thought she had before drifting off, was that she was happy to be back home.

·•·—–·•★•·–—·•·

Chapter 5 complete, hope you're all having a magnificent day, rockin' all the positive vibes and staying safe !BUG-OUT! 🐞💮🐞

〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜Tag List〜(꒪꒳꒪)〜

1st Place★: @jumpingjoy82

2nd Place★: @myazael

3rd Place★: @solangelo252

@fandom-trapped-03, @zorua-adorable, @blueblossombliss, @thefangirlwholiterallydies, @woe-is-me0, @lady-bee-fechin, @jayjayspixiepop, @kashlyn, @toodaloo-kangaroo, @buginetye, @our-preciousss, @vroomtaka, @alessialeone6997, @doll246 , @aestheticnpoetic, @moon5608, @moonlightstar64, @kking13

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wiypt-writes · 3 years

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Riding High

Ch 5: Ad Nauseam

Chapter Summary: It’s Mary’s first day at school, and it doesn’t go according to plan… Chapter Warnings: Bad Language words.

Chapter Pairings: Frank Adler x OFC Fliss Gallagher

A/N: So from here on in we dive into the GIFTED main story line so this contains SPOILERS for the film. If you haven’t seen it please be aware of that before you read on. As a Lawyer I know how long the types of cases depicted in GIFTED can take, so for that reason I’ll be spreading the storyline over a number of Months, because I find that realistic and it also fits with how I want the story to go so…just roll with it!

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Fliss Gallagher and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Riding High Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Chapter 4

September 2017

“Hey! Come on.” Frank sighed, knocking on the door that led into his bedroom where Mary was getting changed “Come on let’s move”.

“No” came the sullen reply

“Let me see.” he said a little more gently.

“No.”

“Come on, I made you a special breakfast.” Frank tried.

“You can't cook.” Mary replied, a snort in her voice. With a deep sigh Frank decided enough was enough.

“Hey, Mary, open up.” his voice was sterner and a few seconds later the door opened and Mary looked up at him. She was dressed in her new red summer dress with a white collar and blue and white flowers patterned all over it. She wore a filthy scowl on her face which Frank was trying really hard not to laugh at.

“You look beautiful.” he told her.

“I look like Disney character.” She seethed as she stormed past him. Frank watched her pass as the door to the room shut, gave a sigh and then followed her to the kitchen. She sat at the table, pulling the bowl of cereal to her as Frank set about making her lunch.

“Where's the special?” Mary suddenly said.

“What?” Frank asked, reaching up for a piece of kitchen roll to wipe a knife clean.

“You said you made me special breakfast.”

Frank leaned over and with his left hand turned the box of Special K round so Mary could see it. She rolled her eyes and made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a growl. Frank ignored her until she spoke again, her voice pleading.

“Please, don't make me go. You can keep home schooling me.”

“I've taught you everything I know” Frank replied, smearing peanut butter onto the bread in front of him.

“But I don't want to go.”

“Well... I don't want to go to work, but I do.” Frank shrugged as he fixed the sandwich together and reached for a zip-press bag to place it in.

“You don't go to work. You fix boats on the dock.”

“Okay, it's poor example.” he said, pulling the top of the bag open. “But you are still going.”

“But what about Fred?” Mary asked as Frank shimmied the sandwich into the bag and sealed it

“What about him?” Frank sighed

“You won't take care of him. You don't like cats.”

Well, she had him there. He really didn’t like cats. But Frank was ok. Frank wasn’t really a cat, he was more of a dog…

“I don't like two-eyed cats” Frank shrugged in reply “Fred is as you know, monocular.”

“Who's gonna throw him his ping pong ball?” Mary tried again.

“Fred's gonna be fine, no more argument, okay?” Frank sighed, looking at her as he pulled another sandwich bag from the box for his own. “We've discussed this ad nauseam.”

“What's an nauseam?” Mary frowned.

“You don't know?” Frank turned to look at her, leaning against the kitchen unit. “Looks like someone needs school.” Mary looked at him, an utterly filthy scowl on her face and he stared back. She sighed and turned back to her breakfast, hand propping her face up as her elbow rest on the table. Frank stood watching her whilst he threw some bread in the toaster. He felt bad, he really did but this was for the best. She needed to be normal. He felt his phone buzzing in his back pocket and, wiping his hands on his dirty work jeans, he pulled it out, smiling as he read the text from Fliss.

“Good luck with the whole School thing this morning. If she kicks off tell her no riding lesson on Saturday. Give me a call or swing by if you need me xx”

“I don’t need good luck I need a miracle, and a drink. Is 8am on a Monday too early for a beer?” he replied.

“Well, it’s afternoon somewhere in the world Sailor ;-) “

Gave a chuckle as he put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Mary who was watching him, a knowing look on her face.

“What?”

“I know that was Fliss.” she said.

“How?”

“Because you’re smiling, the way you always do when she messages you.” “Well we’re friends…we like talking to one another. Something you might understand after you make some at school.” She scowled at him again and he ignored her, shoving the last bit of his breakfast into his mouth before he looked at the clock.

“Finish up, it’s nearly time to go.”

With a grumble Mary ate another mouthful before she slid off her chair. Frank packed her lunch into her rucksack before he handed it to her. With another scowl she place her arms through the straps and then together they walked out of their home.

“Just remember that today, those kids in your class, they’ve probably haven’t learnt even half as much as you.” Frank said, looking at her as they walked down the path. “So try not to show off ok?” “I can’t even use what I do know?” “No I’m not saying that, just, don’t make it so obvious ok? It will make people ask questions about why you know so many things and...” “AM I not supposed to know them?”

“Honestly, no, you’re seven.” Frank shrugged. “But you’re smart, you know this.”

She remained quiet for a second before she sighed “Ok, I promise I won’t show off.”

They reach the end of the path and then walked across the grassy area between two of the other prefabs just in time for the bus to pull to a stop.

Frank watched Mary as she stood looking at it as the doors swung open.

“This is gonna be fun.” He said, watching the back of her head “You're gonna meet kids today that you’re gonna borrow money from for the rest of your life.”

She didn’t reply

“Come on.” he urged gently, gesturing her forward with his right arm, his tone somewhat softer. He watched her climb up the staps, his hands falling to his hips as he tried to think of something encouraging to say. “You’re gonna be great.”

She paused and looked back at him, her expression soft.

“You know, just...” He gave her a thumbs up, “I don't know. Try bein' a kid.”

Mary looked down as the school bus doors shut and Frank sighed. He watched her take a seat as the bus pulled off and then turned to head back to the house. He was running through his day in his head, he had a boat he needed to have a look at but didn’t think it was a major fix, few parts that type of thing. He could swing by Sandybrook later on, maybe, see if Fliss was free for an hour for lunch…

There was a rapping on a window and he stopped dead at the end of the path looking up. His eyes locking with Roberta’s as she gazed at him from out of her window. With a sigh of frustration he turned to his left and continued back towards his home another way.

“Frank! Frank, I know you hear me.” He let out an inward groan as he rolled his eyes, ignoring her completely. He walked in the door to his kitchen, shut it and then snapped the lock across to make a point. The point being ‘piss off and leave me alone’. He knew that making the point was, however, pointless because she’d just fucking unlock the door and walk in anyway. Like she always did. He grabbed the toast that had popped up whilst he had been out and threw it on a plate.

“Frank!” There was a juggle of the door handle and he turned to look at Roberta as she pulled out a set of keys.

Ignoring her completely he grabbed a mug and poured some coffee into it.

“There's still time for you to undo this nonsense. Go get in your car and go get that child.”

“Are you technically allowed to use these keys whenever you want?” He said to her, a little sarcastically as he passed her the mug. She took it from him

“How you can stand there...acting all calm and all of that making light out of this?” she asked as he took a bit of his toast “Now, go get her back before it's too late.”

“She gotta go out in the world.” Frank said as he began to tidy up the kitchen, placing the breakfast and lunch making items away “She has no friend her age, no social skills. She doesn’t know how to be a kid.”

Roberta merely watched him as he sighed and turned to face her, leaning his hip against the counter. “Two nights ago she told me that even if Germany bails out the Euro, there could still be worldwide depression.” He shook his head “I was staring at the celling for three hours.” he finished softly

Roberta wrinkled her nose a little and looked down at the floor as she shook her head softly. “I'm so worried.” she said gently, her voice cracking and it was then that Frank noticed her eyes were filling with tears. He knew she cared for Mary, she cared for him too even if she showed that less. And he got it, he did, he got exactly what she was worried about because hell, he felt the same. If people spotted Mary’s potential and then started digging it was going to cause a whole heap of ramifications. But he had to balance out the need to keep her ‘talents’ hidden and for her to have a normal life. He saw so many parallels between Mary and Diane, and frankly it scared the shit out of him. His mother had been overbearing, insisted that they were both home schooled, but when their Father had died Frank had rebelled. He’d gone out, fallen in with a BMX riding, trouble making crowd (well, as much trouble as eight year olds could make…toilet papering houses, throwing stones at cars, that type of thing) basically stuck the middle finger up at his mother who had in the end conceded and he’d gone to school. But Diane…well, she’d been smothered and grown up so isolated with no social skills.

No, he wasn’t, he couldn’t let that happen to Mary.

He let out a sigh “Come on, Roberta. If you start crying, I will have to pretend to start crying.”

He watched as she nodded sadly.

“Hey.”

She looked up at him as he spoke.

“You know there's something you could be overlookin’.” he smiled “This could work out.”

“Maybe.” she agreed, with a slight nod and a smile “But if anybody takes that baby away...I'll smother you in yo sleep.” she warned him, her southern accent becoming stronger as she issued the threat “Morning, Fred.” she said to the cat who was led on the table. His tail swished as she rather viciously grabbed at her keys before she left the house.

With his fucking mug.

The sun was already warm and it wasn’t even 9 when Frank reached the dock, the rays bouncing off the crystal blue surface of the water. As he walked he applied a slight smearing of sunscreen to his neck, he knew that bore the brunt of the sun when he was outside and not in the lock up. Fliss had commented it on it the other day, and he had admitted to her that when he’d gotten out of the shower the other day he noticed he was definitely sporting some amusing tan lines, both round the collar of his T-shirts and where the arms finished. It was always the same thought. Fliss had laughed, rolled up her sleeves to show him the same and pointed out it was why she spent as much time as she could on her days off by the pool trying to even it out.

Lying by the pool on a day off… Frank mused to himself, now there was a thought.

Whilst his mind was on Fliss, he pulled his phone out and dialed her number.

“Hey Frankie boy.” she greeted him “Did you manage to get her on the bus without a gun or…” Frank chuckled “It was surprisingly less trouble than I thought but…”

“You’re doing the right thing.” she assured him, and he had to smile at the fact she knew what he was pondering.

“Roberta doesn’t seem to think so.”

“Yeah, well, she’s worried but that doesn’t make her right.” Fliss said “Look, Mary is a kid. She needs to just, oh I dunno, live like a kid. You’ve done the right thing for both of you, Frank.”

“Thanks Fliss.” he smiled to himself “Think I just needed to hear that.” “Any time, look I gotta go, my 9 am is here.” “Ok, well, I thought if the invite was open I could swing by at lunch. I’ll grab us a sandwich on the way?”

“Sounds great.” Fliss said, “Just message me later.” “Sure, have a good morning Cowgirl.” She laughed “You too Sailor.”

He tucked the phone back in his pocketed and continued to head down the gangway, nodding to a few people before he hopped onto the white speed-boat he was working on, pulling the dust cover off the stripped down engine.

**** Two hours. It was a whole two hours before he got a phone call telling him to head into the school. He strode back to the house, quickly washed his hands and threw on a blue and red plaid button down over his grubby white t-shirt before he headed to go get the pain-in-the-ass.

After a number of apologies, Frank walked out of the Principal’s office with a groan. Mary skipped ahead of him, examining something in a cabinet but he placed his hand on her head and turned it in the direction she needed to walk. He pushed open the double doors, letting her go in front of him.

One hand between her shoulder he steered her away from the entrance to the school and was fishing in his pocket for his keys when he heard a voice behind him.

“Excuse me?”

He turned to see a slim, quite pretty brunette in a green and white dress hurrying towards him.

“Hi.” she said, raising her hand in greeting.

“Look it's my teacher.” Mary rolled her eyes as Frank slowed down. “Probably wants to remind me what one plus one is.”

“Go to the car, okay?” he said, gently guiding her away with his hand.

“Hi” he repeated

“Hi.” Frank replied, removing his glasses and taking her extended hand in greeting.

“Sorry to yell at you and then chase you down.” she apologised.

“It's okay. Mary's teacher?” he asked, releasing her hand.

“Yes. I'm Bonnie Stevenson”

“Frank. How are you?” he said, and then before giving her chance to apologise he sighed “Sorry about today. She got little overexcited.” he gestured to the car as Mary climbed in “It's just first day jitters.”

“Sure, yeah.” Bonnie nodded, turning to look at Mary

“We are running a little bit late actually, so we gotta get going.” Frank said, late for what he had no idea, he hadn’t made that bit up yet.

“Okay, I don't even wanna talk about that.” Bonnie shook her head “I will keep you just a minute”

“Okay.”

“I think your daughter...I think Mary might be gifted.”

Shit.

“What?” Frank feigned surprise, quite well too so it seemed.

“Yeah, today in math, she answered some really, really complicated equations and…”

“Oh, no, no, no…” Frank held his hand out to stop her as she was gesticulating fastly with her own as she continued to speak. “No, that's...it's not gifted.”

“difficult questions that a seven year old would...”

“It's Trachtenberg.” Frank cut her off easily, he could deflect this.

“I’m sorry…” Bonnie laughed, folding her arms, looking at him, puzzled.

“Jakow Trachtenberg.” Frank nodded. “Spent seven years in a concentration camp. Developed a system to rapidly solve problems.” he gestured with the hand holding his keys “It's the Trachtenberg method.”

“But she’s…I mean...she's seven though.” Bonnie said, smiling slightly, her tone still surprised.

“I learned it when I was eight.” he said, smiling “Do I look gifted to you?”

Bonnie looked him up and down and dropped her head, smiling.

“It kinda went out of note since the invention of the calculator.” Frank continued, backing away from her as he spoke, “But I can still win a drink at the bar using it.” he smiled, opening his sunglasses out. “Sorry for today. Won't happen again.”

“Okay.” Bonnie nodded as Frank slid on his shades.

“Nice to meet you…Bonnie.” he said, remembering her name.

“Frank.” Bonnie nodded again.

He drove them home in silence. His only words being an instruction for her to go change into something suitable for an afternoon at the docks before he stepped into the kitchen and remembered his lunch arrangements. With a curse he pulled his phone out and gave Fliss a quick call.

**** Fliss’ morning had been fairly busy as well. She’d given two private lessons, worked one of her horses, mucked half the block out as it was a Monday, which meant that Ellis had the day off so she mucked in, and was now going through the bookings for the week. She’d been inundated this week with requests that she couldn’t accommodate, but was contemplating putting another lesson on to satisfy the demand. Bill had told her not to be stupid, she was already teaching 6 days a week and needed to let her staff shoulder some of the responsibility before she burnt out.

“Joanne?” she called. Joanna walked in and looked at Fliss.

“How do you fancy over for me completely on a Sunday?” she asked.

“Me?” Joanne frowned.

“Yeah.” Fliss nodded “You open up, close and can run a couple of Classes. You have your teaching qualifications. I can supervise the first two weeks or so and if you’re happy after that then you can take the day completely, take 20% of the earnings as an extra. What do you say?”

“Fliss, I’d, well, I don’t know what to say!” Joanne grinned “Yeah, yeah I’d love to!”

“Good.” Fliss smiled “There’s a list of clients here, you can call back after lunch and offer them a time slot to suit you on Sunday, have a think about a lesson plan for groups and then…” “Thanks Fliss. “ Joanne smiled “This means a lot.” “You’ve earned it.” Fliss smiled “You’ve been a perfect head groom these last 6 months. Keep going and…well, we’ll see where we end up!”

Joanne beamed and nodded, heading back out onto the yard.

Fliss took a deep breath. She had spent so much of her life not in control of her career or home life, doing as she was told by John, when she was told to do it or suffer the consequences of a beating, that she had gone the complete opposite way when she had taken grasp of her own life. Her business was run by her with military precision. Bill did the books for her, but other than that she arranged everything. She was a control freak, she knew that so stepping away 1 day a week might seem like a little step to other people but to her it was a huge one. Bill had reminded her the other night that the idea had been that eventually Fliss would have a manager running the place for her which meant she could turn up to provided lessons and ride when needed. She was a long way off that yet though, but this one day off was a little progress.

Her phone started ringing and she reached over to pick it up, smiling when she saw the number.

“Two calls before noon!” Fliss grinned “I’m honoured”

“Unfortunately I’m calling to cancel lunch.” Frank sighed.

Fliss was surprised she felt disappointed. “Oh, it’s no issue.” She said, pulling a face. “Is everything alright.

“No.” he replied bluntly.

“Mary?”

“How did you guess?” he gave a low chuckle.

“She’s normally your source of your trouble. What has she done?”

“Apparently she stood up in class, and shouted at the principal to, and I quote ‘get on your phone and call Frank and tell him to get me out of here.’ I mean…”

Fliss bit back a laugh. It shouldn’t be funny, but she could picture Mary’s angry face and her arms folded across her chest. Despite her best attempts an amused snort escaped her.

“It’s not funny.” Frank deadpanned

“I know, I’m sorry but…“ Fliss cleared he throat, forcing herself to become serious.

“You now I wasn’t a perfect kid but I’m pretty sure I never got thrown out before lunchtime on my first day.” Frank sighed.

“She’s not been thrown out…just told to go home early” Fliss countered

“Well I brushed it off as first day excitement but the teacher was digging into how smart she is and…”

“Look, try not to worry.” Fliss soothed, sensing the tone of panic in his voice “Just try talking to Mary You always get the best out of her when you explain things to her.”

“Yeah, look, I better go…I need to get back to the boat yard.”

“No problem. Take care, and, just…well, listen to her Frank.”

“Yeah, bye Fliss.”

Fliss placed her phone down on her desk, and bit her lip. The morning had started off reasonably well too. She knew Frank well enough now to know that his frustration with Mary was born out of simply wanting the absolute best for her, and he was completely focused on making that happen even if Mary was not happy about it.

Fliss tapped her nails absentmindedly on the desk, trying to think of ways she could help. But other than talk to Mary, as she had encouraged Frank to do, she was stumped.

Nope, Fliss didn’t envy Frank one bit.

*****

“For the record, I didn't wanna go to the stupid school in the first place.” Mary rambled on as she perched on a cool box, blue sun hat perched on her face as Frank finally finished his work on the engine, screwing the cover back on “And the boy in the front row acts inappropriately for someone who's a child.”

“Sorry. I'm still passively aggressively ignoring you.” he said without looking up.

“Other kids answer questions, they don't get in trouble.” Mary continued to protest.

“You didn't get in trouble for answering the questions.” Frank looked at her, still turning the screw driver, his voice taking on a tone of exasperation. “You yelled at the principal.”

Mary looked at him, shrugging.

“All right, you know what? You're gonna find this interesting.” he said, stepping back slightly, tossing the screwdriver onto one of the seats as he made his way to the cockpit of the boat “So I googled" first graders who yelled at the principal". And statistically you will never believe how many kids do it.”

He started working his way through the checks as Mary answered

“How many?”

“None.” he shot back over his shoulder as he fired up the boat, revving it slightly. He heard Mary’s footsteps as she ran down the side of the boat and stopped.

“Frank, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.” she said leaning over the edge to look at him.

“Yeah, right.” he said, shaking his head before he turned to look at her “You can't show off like that in school.”

“I know.”

“You promised you wouldn't then the first day...”

“I know, I screwed up.”

Frank looked at her, he could see she was genuinely contrite. Her head was dropped slightly. He watched her for a moment before he nodded and looked back out of the water before she spoke again.

“Do you think this boat needs a test ride?”

He looked back at her as she grinned up at him, the gap where her two top teeth had fallen out serving as a reminder as to just how young she damned well was. Like he could ever forget that, mind. Frank looked down and shoved his glasses back as they slipped down his nose and with a sigh he gave in, the way he normally did when she pulled those puppy dog eyes on him.

“Go get, Fred.”

She smiled and jumped up.

“Don't run!” he called after her, watching as she slowed to a walk for a few strides, before running anyway. He shook his head, smiling to himself at her blatant disregard for his order.

She appeared a little while later and Frank got her settled in the seat of the boat with a life vest and a blanket covering her legs, it could get a little nippy on the water for Mary, not that it bothered him.

“Ready?” he asked

She gave him a thumbs up and he pulled the boat out of the spot and headed slowly out of the harbour. Once on the open water he sped up, relishing the feel of the wind in his hair. He felt at peace on the water, something about it soothed his soul. He drove them to a stretch of beach they knew and loved, a quiet one and he drove the boat into the shallow water before he shucked off his shoes and socks, rolled his jeans up and jumped down, pushing it up onto the sand.

“Alright short stack…” he smiled as Mary grinned and stood up. She shucked off her life vest and he lifted her out of the boat before passing Fred over. He hopped back in, grabbed the parasol and a fold out chair, passing her a bucket and spade, all of which he had thrown on the boat whilst she’d headed off to get Fred, before they made their way up the beach.

Mary soon set off, digging about in the sand and collecting shells, like a normal kid her age should do and Frank settled down to watch her, occasionally glancing out into the ocean, spotting every so often the ripple of the resident pod of dolphins as they broke surface lazily. Mary was splashing around in the shallow pools on the beach, Fred by her side before she looked up and came running towards him, jumping on his knee as the birds flew down to inspect what the tide had washed in.

“You ok?” he asked.

“Yeah.” she smiled, shifting around to get comfortable. “Fred loves to watch the sandpipers.”

Fred gave a meow as if to confirm what she was saying and Frank looked down at the cat as it lounged in the shade.

“He thinks he'd like to catch one, but he'd regret it.” she continued “Fred's not a killer. He's a lover.”

She gave a sigh and leaned back into him, her back resting against his chest and Frank moved his arms as she took his left hand in both of hers, gently looking at his palm and playing with his fingers.

“Would my mom want me to go to this school?” she asked.

“I can only guess.” Frank replied, honestly “But I will tell you that she would have wanted you to have friends.”

“Idiot friends?” Mary said, almost groaning.

“She'd want you to have compassion for others.” Frank tilted his head so he was looking down at the side of her face “Like a cat can have for a sandpiper.”

Mary paused and shifted slightly, looking down a little “But what if they don't like me?” she asked softly.

And God, if that didn’t break his heart! He swallowed and took a moment, before he looked at her.

Then they're idiots.” he said simply, and in his mind it was the truth.

Mary didn’t reply, instead she leaned back, her head on his shoulder and Frank gently wrapped his arms further around her, patting her stomach gently. They both sat in silence for a bit, Mary gently tickling the back of his hands with her own. He was just thinking about telling her they really should get back, when he felt her sit up.

“Hey, is that Fliss?”

Frank frowned and looked at her, “Where?”

“There, look.” He followed where she was pointing and squinted slightly. There was a woman riding a chestnut horse a little further down the beach, and it certainly looked like Fliss.

“Hang on…” Frank pulled out his phone. He dialled Fliss and as he watched he saw the woman pause and reach into her boot to retriever her phone.

“Hey…” she greeted him.

“Turn to your left.”

There was a pause and then as she did so the two of the waved. Fliss laughed.

“Be right there…”

She placed the phone back in her boot and then kicked the horse into a gallop. It sped over the sand, kicking up spray as it went and Mary giggled and jumped off Frank’s knee as she approached.

“Hi!” she beamed down at them as she pulled the horse to a stop. Frank stood up and smiled at her. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Had to take the speedboat for a test drive.” Frank shrugged.

“Test sail.” Fliss countered.

“Whatever.” Frank rolled his eyes as Mary was busy stroking Heidi’s face. “What about you?”

“Oh had a spare afternoon so decide to load her majesty up and come down here.” she smiled “It’s nice and quiet. Sometimes I see the dolphins too.” Frank noticed the way her face lit up as she said that, and he smiled.

“They’re even better up close.” Mary grinned.

“Well, one day maybe I’ll get the chance” Fliss smiled.

“I still owe you a ride.” Frank smiled and she grinned.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Fliss grinned, “And speaking of rides…” she looked at Mary and gestured to the horse.

Frank took a deep breath “seriously?”

“Come on.” Fliss said “She’ll be safe, I trust this horse with my life.” Mary, suddenly realising what was being said looked to Frank, her eyes sparkling.

“Fine…” Frank sighed, shaking his head “But drop her and I’ll kill you.”

“What do you take me for?” Fliss scoffed, removing her hat and handing it to Mary. Once she was seated in front of her Fliss held her tightly, one arm around her waist, the other in the reins and told Mary to hang on. She set off slowly at first and then with a grin kicked the horse on into a slow canter, and steered towards the sea.

“Shit…” Frank muttered, his heart in his mouth as the both cantered through the waves, the spray kicking up behind them. He could hear Mary’s shouting and laughing as it echoed up the beach. They went a little distance away before Fliss slowed down to a walk, Heidi continuing along her path steadily.

“So, I hear school wasn’t great?” Fliss said as they turned and made their way back at a slower pace.

“No.” Mary shrugged “Frank got mad.”

“Did you apologise?”

“Yeah…its ok now.” Mary shrugged “I just didn’t like it. And I don’t think they liked me.” Fliss took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you a secret, when I first started riding, the other kids didn’t like me either.” “Really?” Mary turned to face her as they wandered back, gently swaying with the horses motions.

“Nope, I came from a different back ground to them. We weren’t rich, I mean my mum and dad have money now but we didn’t always.”

“So what happened?” “I kept going.” Fliss said gently “And then I met a friend, a girl called Charlotte. She was the same. Her family sold all their belongings so she could pursue her dream.”

Heidi slowed to a stop by Frank but Fliss continued to talk “And we became good friends, and we worked hard. She did dressage, I did show-jumping. And we both grew up together, and encouraged each other, and we made the teams.”

“Are you still friends now?” “Yeah, I still talk to her now, I don’t see her as much but…” Fliss took a deep breath, the thought of the past still a bit painful. “The point is Mary, if you go in thinking that everyone is against you then believe me, it will seem that way. Maybe you should think about having an open mind and giving this a go, yeah?”

Franks eyes were hidden behind his glasses and at that moment he was kind of glad, because for some reason, there was a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes as he had observed his niece and Fliss together, the woman simply talking to Mary.

Mary pondered for a moment before she sighed “I suppose…”

Fliss smiled “Good, you’ll be glad you did.”

Mary shrugged “Maybe. Hey, you know what ad nauseam means?”

Fliss frowned and looked up as Frank gave a laugh “It means indefinitely, never ending…forever, why?” she looked at Mary. “Oh, something Frank said I’d learn at school but I didn’t.” she shrugged “But now I know, thanks.” “You’re welcome.” Fliss chuckled, as Frank helped her down. She watched her run off to pick up her cat.

“Thank you.” Frank said gently, turning to look up at Fliss.

“What for?”

“Talking to her, the way you always do. I don’t know how you do it Lissy, but you make her listen.”

“Don’t worry too much about her.” Fliss smiled “I know it’s easy for me to say but, well you always said today would be a challenge. See how she goes tomorrow.”

Frank smiled and rubbed at the back of his neck before he took a deep breath, suddenly making a decision. “I err, don’t suppose you wanna come for a drink on Friday? I’m only going to Fergs but…”

“I thought Fridays were your nights, you know where you sat at a bar, alone, all broody and mysterious.” Fliss grinned down at him.

Frank shook his head, a crooked smile spreading on his face “Yeah well, maybe I fancy a bit of company this week.”

Fliss looked at him for a moment, considering what he had said before she smiled “Ok, I got lessons until 6:30 but I can meet you there later on?”

Frank smiled “Great, it’s a date.”

Fliss arched her eyebrow and Frank inwardly cursed “I mean, not a date, but, you know, a…”

“You’re cute when you get flustered.” Fliss teased, cutting him off with a laugh “Don’t worry, Sailor, I know what you mean.”

With that she turned the horse back the way she had come and winking at Frank called to Mary. “Hey, you know when you asked if Heidi could still go really fast?”

Mary nodded.

“Well watch this.”

And with that Fliss gave the horse a gentle nudge and it erupted into a ridiculously fast gallop back down the beach. Fliss’ whoops echoed in the air as she looked back waving, and Mary ran a little way after her laughing and waving back.

****

Fliss was right. The next morning they had a little fuss but nothing drastic. Mary came home with a note about Wednesday being show and tell. Mary wanted to take Fred. So they bundled him into a cardboard box. Frank waited patiently outside until Mary was escorted back out by a classroom assistant to hand the cat back over.

“Enjoy that?” he said.

Mary nodded.

“I was talking to Fred.” Frank teased. Mary narrowed her eyes and he laughed. “I’ll see you later ok?”

She came home a lot happier, talking to him about how the kids had asked her questions about Fred that she had answered and Frank couldn’t help but smile as she rambled on and on. Later, when he called Fliss he couldn’t stop himself from talking either and Fliss had been led on her bed, smiling at his voice as he continued to gush about his niece. Thursday and Friday passed much the same, which was why when Friday night came Frank was in a reasonably good mood, and ready to buy Fliss all the damned beer she wanted.

Fliss, however, was in a flap. Her lesson had overrun and now she had changed her outfit 3 times, finally settling on a light blue cotton knee length, sleeveless dress and brown sandals, leaving her hair loose and her make up light. She hadn’t been out with her friends for, well, not since moving here. Sure, she’d been out with her parents and their friends but this felt different. And she was nervous.

“You look nice.” Her dad looked up as she walked into their living room. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, you sure you don’t mind dropping me?” she looked at him, “I can get a cab?”

“Don’t be daft.” Bill said, picking up his keys.

“Have a nice time, Honey!” her mum called.

Bill could tell Fliss was nervous so he made idle chit chat on the drive down to the main strip of bars and eventually pulled up outside Fergs.

“Just have fun.” he looked at her, squeezing her hand gently “And if you need me, call.”

“Thanks dad.” she smiled, kissing his cheek before she let herself out of the range rover and headed into the bar.

She glanced around for a second, looking for Frank and spotted him at a table talking to a dark haired woman, with a pretty face. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she really wanted to interrupt and was debating running back out to catch Bill when Frank looked up and saw her. Flashing her that smile that could melt her on the spot he waved her over.

"Thought you were gonna stand me up!" he grinned at her as she took a seat. "Sorry, my last lesson over ran." She answered before she smiled politely at the dark haired woman. "Hi..." "Oh, Fliss this is Bonnie, Mary's teacher." Frank introduced them. "Nice to meet you." Fliss smiled. The woman gave her a smile back and stood up speaking to her as she did so “Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time Frank and don’t want to eat into your date." "Oh this isn’t a date..." Fliss protested at the same time Frank shook his head "We're not..." he gestured between himself and Fliss with his hands "Fliss is Mary's riding instructor" "She horse rides?" Bonnie said, an air of surprise in her tone. "The idea was it would hopefully teach her social skills." Frank snorted. "Clearly hasn’t worked.." "Oh don't be so hard on her." Fliss jumped to the girls defence. "She's a good kid." "I bet it’s easier when you're trying to teach them something they actually want to learn, or in Mary's case teaching her something she doesn’t know." Bonnie said and Fliss laughed. "She’s actually one of the easier kids I have." She replied and Frank smiled at her comment "mind you, none of the kids give me any hassle really, it’s the adults that are hard work."

“Oh my god tell me about it.” Bonnie groaned “I dread Teacher-Parent evenings, honestly, some of them are so obtuse.” "I can imagine." Fliss grinned

"Anyway I better..." Bonnie gestured over her shoulder. "See you later Frank, and nice to meet you Fliss" "You too." Fliss nodded to he as Frank waved his hand in goodbye.

“What you drinking cowgirl?” he asked, standing up “I’ll go get em in.”

Fliss asked for a beer and sat down as he went to place their order. A few minutes later he was back, sliding the bud over to her.

“Thanks…” she took a huge drink. “I err, didn’t interrupt anything before did I?"

"No, not really." Frank shook his head "Not really?" "She errr...found out about Diane." Frank said. "Oh." Fliss frowned. "How? I mean..." "When I picked Mary up on Monday she was asking me about her background on account of her being so smart. I tried to fob her off, saying I had taught her a system, you know for arithmetic but she didn’t buy it. Apparently she’s been giving Mary a few more advanced equations to do…”

Fliss looked down as he slid the paper on the table over to him. It contained a number of formulas and algebra problems which Fliss could see Mary had completed.

“As you can see, she aced them. And then Bonnie googled the system I mentioned, and then me and up popped Diane.”

“So did you tell her the truth?” Fliss asked looking up at him, sliding the paper back.

“What option did I have?” He shrugged, folding it and shoving it in his pocket. “She came down here to call me out so I figured honesty was the best…what?" He asked when he noticed Fliss was frowning. "She came down here on a Friday night to find you?" Fliss snorted

Frank shrugged “That’s what she said.”

"How she know you'd be here?" "I'm here most Fridays...not that hard to find." "Maybe you should think about varying your routine, Sailor" Fliss grinned “And you should definitely think about varying this shirt.”

Frank glanced down at his bright yellow palm tree print Hawaiian shirt

“What’s wrong with it?” he pouted.

“What’s right with it more like.”

“Well I’m not one for corporatism.” Frank shrugged “I like to think I’m an individual.”

“Yeah, well I’m not sure planet Earth could deal with two of you.” Fliss shot back. “I can only just about cope with one…”

Frank paused before he looked at her, shaking his head with a snort as his mouth curled up at one corner “Well that’s just fucking rude.”

“Made you smile though.” Fliss grinned at him.

Frank looked at her for a moment before he felt his face split further into a grin as he looked at her. “Yeah, yeah you do…I mean did.”

**** Chapter 6

#riding high #frank adler #frank adler x ofc #frank adler x original female character #gifted #gifted fan fic

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leonardovaldezz · 4 years

Text

Of Toasters and Lightning

@bunkernine Nico

Sometimes, just sometimes, Nico thinks waking up is a burden.

Not because he doesn’t want to wake up, life is... decent as of late, if you forget about saving the world, the doors of death, all that bullshit. And even with all of that, he quite likes waking up. No, the reason it’s a burden, especially this morning in particular, is because Leo Valdez is standing in the middle of their dinning room on the Argo 2, remote control in hand as an abomination of a toaster sits on the table. It’s sliver and extremely long, glossy like it’s just been polished. In eight different slots are pieces of un-toasted bread, each with their own sets of timers.

He’s grinning so wide it almost takes up the entirety of his face, hands proudly planted on his hips, dark brown eyes twinkling with excitement. And much to Nico’s surprise Annabeth is next to him, looking simultaneously defeated and curious, grime swiped across her cheek. Nico almost feels sick, she was probably helping him with this.

“Welcome,” Leo says, sweeping his arms over the monstrosity, “To the Leabeth toaster. Patent pending.”

Nico blinks. Percy is oooing and ahhhing at the thing like they’ve just presented the cure for cancer, messing with the knobs and running his hands across the metal.

Annabeth snorts, “We are not calling it that.” She says simply, and Nico wonders briefly if this is actually a dream.

Hazel just looks confused, gingerly reaching out to touch it, looking like she expects it to somehow transform and chase after her.

“Why do we have a toaster with eight slots?” She asks, sounding genuinely confused. And yeah, Nico feels the same way.

Leo grins and he’s basically bouncing in place. “I’m glad you asked! The new and improved octa-toaster-”

“We’re not calling it that either.” Annabeth interupts, looking like she’s fighting a smile.

Leo just blows past the interruption. “-was created to service all of our bread toasting needs! Now with new and improved technology we can all toast our bread at the same time, in the same toaster! No more waiting in line, just pick a slot and be on your way!”

Percy looks starry-eyed, “Genius.” He says. Now Nico knows it isn’t a dream, no one can beat Percy Jackson in the art of being ridiculous, not even dream Percy.

Jason and Frank stand at the edge of the table, and Jason’s pinching the bridge of his nose. Frank looks amused, but worried. Nico isn’t surprised, the guy’s always worried.

“Won’t it take like. A lot of power to run this?” He asks, eyeing the octa-toaster.

Annabeth shakes her head, “No, just a quick zap of lightning from our resident boy wonder here and it’ll run just fine for about a week. That’s how me and Leo designed it, at least.” They bump fist. Nico thinks he might go into cardiac arrest.

Piper looks endlessly amused, “I call this slot!” She says, standing at the fourth one down. “Also I demand a presentation, does it toast perfectly on all sides? Does it have the right amount of spring to make the toast pop out after it’s done?”

Percy nods, “Spring is important, that’s what makes a good toaster.”

Nico rubs his eyes, walking over to the table to get a better look at the thing. It doesn’t look as simple as a regular toaster, it’s got way too many buttons and settings to even be considered. And as much as he hates to admit it, it’s... cool. Dumb, but very cool. There’s even a button that adds butter while it’s cooking. And also, he’s curious. He wants to know if it can cook all of the bread at different temperatures all at once.

“You guys are ridiculous,” Jason says, but he’s fighting off a smile and Nico knows he thinks this whole thing is funny, “It would’ve been more efficient for all of us to wait to use the toaster one by one.”

“That’s no fun!” Leo chirps, waving his controller in the air, “Besides, this baby doesn’t just toast your bread, it’s more than a mere bread warmer! It has range!”

Nico snorts, “Oh yeah, it sure does, range that takes up the entire table.” He jokes, pressing down on the pre-buttered button, “Now come on, I want to see how this thing works.”

“Jason,” Frank says, “If you could please do the honors of zapping our giant toaster machine?”

Jason’s face contorts, “What? No way!”

Percy tsks, “Come on dude, don’t let us down, we all want to see the wonders of the octa-toaster!” Annabeth shoots him a dirty look, probably for addressing the toaster as ‘‘octa-taster”, but it’s too late now, the name has already stuck with everyone.

And Nico doesn’t know who starts it, but a chant of Jason’s name starts filling the room. (It was him, he started it).

After a few minutes Jason caves, “Alright alright, everyone stand clear.” And everyone cheers as he points his finger at the contraption, moving their hands and stepping back. Lighting shoots from his finger and dances across the metal, zapping and flickering until it eventually settles. Everyone holds their breath, and for a moment it’s silent in the room. When nothing continues to happen, Hazel’s voice is the first to break the silence.

“Uh,” she looks disappointed, Nico makes a mental note to talk to her more about technology, he doesn’t know much either but they could learn together, “Is this what’s supposed to happen?”

“No, definitely not.” Leo answers, and he’s tinkering with the remote, “Hold on let me just-” He presses a button and with a swirl of clicks and clacks the machine thrums to life, shaking the table as it warms up. Everyone cheers and Leo’s got a big, shit eating grin on his face. “Everyone make your selections now! I’m gonna send these babies down in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”

With preferences for time toasted, buttered, jellied, and all of the other bells and whistles, Leo presses a button, and all of the bread goes down with a whoosh.

Now, Nico thinks, is the waiting game. If the entire toaster doesn’t burst into flames he’ll call it a success. Which shouldn’t be too hard, Leo’s a pretty smart guy, and besides Annabeth helped him with this... creation, she would’ve factored in things like: mass fire started by overheating of a eight slotted toaster. It’s actually all a little crazy to think about, if Nico is honest. They’re supposed to be on this serious quest to save the world and whatnot, but somehow in between it all they’re still finding time to be dumb teenagers. And if the excitement in the room as everyone waits for the first pieces of toasts to pop up is anything to go by, then Nico knows sometimes they need breaks like this.

The first pieces of toast pop up, and everyone gasps. It’s Pipers, and she takes it out and slowly inspects it. It’s lightly toasted and jellied, grape jelly specifically. We all watch in anticipation as she brings it to her nose, sniffing before taking a bite out of it. We all hold our breath as she chews.

She swallows, and her brown eyes are blown wide, “Holy. Shit.”

As if on cue other pieces start popping up and everyone goes into a frenzy, Nico thinks he can hear Hazel yelling about how it’s been pre-cut in triangles for her, and somewhere in the distance he can hear Percy trying to convince Jason to carve a smiley face into his toast with lightning. Idiots.

He crosses his arms, his toast is the only one that hasn’t popped up yet and he’s starting to get impatient. Just when he thinks he’s going to have to complain a hand lands on his shoulder, squeezing lightly. Normally he would jump at the touch, whirl around and start something, but no one else on the ship is bold enough to touch him but his sister and a very persistent Leo Valdez. Nico doesn’t need to turn his head to know the boy has a smile on his face, and he knows it’s him because of the excessive amount of heat that rolls off his skin.

“Patience, young grasshopper. Perfect toast requires the utmost control.” Leo jokes, and Nico begrudgingly cracks a smile. He’ll never actually admit it out loud but. Leo is funny. Or he’s just an idiot, which means Nico probably has a thing for idiots. “Yes of course, Sensei, I remember your lessons.” Nico jokes back, turning his head to look at him, and just like he suspected that smile is firmly in place. “To be in control of the toast is to be in control of oneself.” Leo burst out laughing, and Nico is so caught up in it he doesn’t even notice when his toast pops up.

#heros of olympus #Percy Jackon and the Olympians #percy jackson #annabeth chase #jason grace #Nico di Angelo #Leo Valdez #hazel levesque #frank zhang #piper mclean #slight valdangelo #?? Idk I’ll just tag it just in case #valdangelo #PJO/HOO #PJO #hoo

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spaceskam · 4 years

Text

for @youaremyworldlois ❤️️

ao3

“Do you wanna come stay with me? There’s room.”

“No, no, I don’t wanna get your dad sick on accident.”

“Okay,” Liz said skeptically, “I’m here if you need me.”

“I know, thank you, but I think it’ll be fine,” Alex sighed.

He was huddled in bed, trying not to pout too much about the situation for the last week. Starting Monday, classes would be solely online which sucked since he was a guitar major and there were few things more anxiety-inducing than being in a small apartment and practicing for hours on end. However, it was only made worse by the fact that he was stuck with his stupidly hot roommate that apparently didn’t have anywhere to go home to either.

“Stay safe, love you!” Liz told him.

“Love you too.”

The call ended and forced Alex to see that it was already 2PM and he hadn’t gotten out of bed. He decided to climb out of bed and face reality. He put on pants and a shirt, knowing damn well his roommate would probably be roaming around. He wasn’t even sure that guy even slept.

For the first two years of college, Alex had lived in a dorm with random guys that always made him uncomfortable. He hated living with strangers in just one room with no semblance of privacy, especially when he had no idea what they would do if they knew their roommate was gay. Then, whenever dorms would close, he would have to couch hop since there was no way he could go back home.

So, after his sophomore year, he started looking into off-campus apartments. He had a good amount of money saved up and all he had to do was find a roommate. It proved harder than expected because Liz already lived with her boyfriend and Maria lived back home, so he had to actually look for someone he could be comfortable with.

That’s when he found Michael.

Or, actually, Liz found Michael. He was her boyfriend’s brother and apparently a genius that doubled as a giant puppy. He was in a frat and had lived in his frat house for a while before deciding to move out so he could focus better in school. They’d met and Alex had laid out all his concerns and Michael had taken them all in stride, happily agreeing to whatever as long as he had a place to rest his head.

They’d been living together for about six months by the time schools were beginning to shut down and, the closer it got to when UNM would be closing, the more Alex got anxious. Living together for six months didn’t actually mean they hung out ever. Most days, they never even saw each other and he could count the number of conversations outside of ‘I’m going to the store, you need anything?’ on one hand.

But now, according to the fucking CDC, he was going to be stuck alone with him for the foreseeable future.

“Good morning,” Michael said, not even looking his way when Alex stepped out of his bedroom.

“Is it morning?” Alex asked. Michael looked up from whatever the hell he was doing at the coffee table and smiled.

“For you it is,” he answered happily.

That was another thing about Michael. He was so painfully heterosexual that he didn’t seem to have any idea what the hell that smile could do to someone like Alex who basically fell in love with any guy who gave him attention. It was the worst and it would the main reason Alex had no problem keeping his distance from him.

“So, quarantine,” Alex hummed, looking in their newly stocked kitchen for something to eat. He decided on toast and popped two slices of bread in the toaster. “Are you, like, gonna go home?” Alex already figured the answer was no since he didn’t go anywhere to Christmas, but he figured he should ask.

“Nah,” Michael said, “You?”

“Nope,” Alex answered, “So I guess we’re stuck together.”

Michael gave that overwhelming little smirk and licked his lips, cocking his head in Alex’s direction. “I guess we are.”

Alex turned to face the toaster and tried to think of how he was going to survive like this. Why did he have to be so hot and so straight at the same time? It just wasn’t fair.

When Alex had first met him, he’d thought that maybe he wasn’t straight. It was just a vibe he gave off and the way he sat in his chair. However, when he asked Liz about it, she’d basically laughed and said he was the straightest guy she knew. Then, when Alex inevitably let him know that he was gay, Michael just said ‘cool’ instead of coming out as anything other than straight. It was even further confirmed whenever he’d text Alex to make sure it was okay to bring a girl over. Which, that only happened about six times, but still. All girls. Straight, straight, straight.

Not like he’d have a chance anyway.

“What exactly are you doing?” Alex asked, holding a napkin under his toast as he walked towards the living room. Might as well get used to talking to him.

“A puzzle,” Michael answered. However, when Alex got closer, he saw what looked like the base of a miniature house.

“That is not a puzzle,” Alex laughed. Michael laughed right alongside him.

“Yes, it is! 3-D puzzle, it’s a replica of the Neuschwanstein Castle.”

“The what?”

“Sorry, did I pronounce that wrong? I didn’t Google it.”

“I have no fuckin’ idea,” Alex said, shaking his head. Michael gestured for him to sit on the other side of the coffee table.

“Wanna build it with me? Maybe we can actually bond for once?” he suggested. Alex huffed a small laugh and agreed, carefully sitting down across from him and placing his toast on the napkin on the table. “So, Alex, you come here often?”

“Is that how we’re gonna bond? Because I think I might have to go back to my room.”

“No, stay,” Michael laughed, “Help me build this thing.”

So Alex did. It was kind of weird actually spending time with him, but it turns out Michael wasn’t so bad for a straight guy. He was funny and a whole lot better at building than Alex was.

When the castle was halfway built, Alex felt a socked foot graze his calf. Every hair on his body stood up in alert, eyeing Michael in shock only to see him straight up steal the rest of his toast by shoving the entire thing in his mouth.

“Did you just eat my toast?” Alex scoffed. He was actually pretty thankful for the distraction because he would’ve hyperfixated on that little touch for hours. Who was he kidding? He was going to do that anyway.

“You haven’t touched it for five whole minutes,” Michael said, his cheek puffed out and stuffed with bread, Alex laughed, genuinely laughed.

“What is wrong with you? Were you never taught manners?”

“No,” Michael answered innocently. Which, honestly, just made them both laugh harder. “Also I lived in a frat house with, like, 10 other guys for two years. We consume or we die. You’re, like, the cleanest and most respectful guy I’ve ever lived with.”

“Well, thanks, I guess.”

“Want me to make you some more toast?” Michael offered. Alex smiled and tried not to become too obsessed with his charm, shaking his head.

“No, but I will take you up on a pot of coffee.”

“On it!” Micahel said, standing to his feet and showing that he was in nothing but a ratty old t-shirt and tight boxer briefs and socks with little koalas on them. Alex tried—and failed—not to watch him walk to the kitchen area and slide on his socks towards the coffee maker.

This was going to be a long couple of weeks.

“Hey, I hate to be that fuckhead, but could you turn your music down? I have a lesson.”

“No problem,” Michael said, turning his music down. Alex gave him a thankful smile and then quickly went to go to his online guitar lesson at his setup in his room.

He had his sheet music in front of him on his stand and his laptop propped up beside it, easily connecting whenever his professor started the video call.

It was weird, trying to take notes and adequately tweak them via video. He was used to being shown in person how to correct his finger placement or his posture. This was just... He wanted to go back to normal.

“Keep up the good work,” Dr. V said. Alex could tell, though, that he was just as irritated with the lack of hands-on teaching. Working with one teacher one on one really created a close bond of trust and familiarity. Alex could fuck up with Dr. V and not even think twice about it. They were like family.

And now it was fucking weird.

“I sent you scans of that more contemporary piece considering it’s less crucial for you to work on your performance pieces. Have fun with it, play around, show me what you come up with next lesson,” Dr. V added before saying his goodbye’s. Thankfully, that was Alex’s last class of the day.

“You’re really good.”

Alex nearly jumped out of his skin when he opened his bedroom door to see Michael loitering a few steps away. He looked like he’d been there for a while.

"Were you standing there the whole time?”

“Huh? No, I, uh, I was gonna ask what you wanted for dinner and then I heard you were still playing, so I was waiting so I wouldn’t interrupt you. And, well, you’re really good,” Michael said, his fingers tapping against his thigh as he rose up on his toes and dropped back down. His curls sprung with the movement.

“Thank you,” Alex said, trying to smile despite the fact that made him uncomfortable. As stupid as it was, he didn’t really like having random people hear him play. It was different when he was actually performing. Whoever was there came to see him and wanted to hear him. But, like this, it felt like he was simply being annoying.

“You know, I always wanted to play guitar,” Michael said, biting down on his lip just a little bit and Alex had to wonder why the hell he deserved that.

“I mean,” Alex started, looking around before being forced to look back at Michael due to the lack of scenery, “Maybe I can show you a thing or two sometime? I don’t just know classical.”

Michael split into a happy grin and bounced on his toes one more time. “Sounds super fun.”

“So,” Alex said, “Dinner?”

Michael blinked a couple times as if suddenly realizing where the conversation had originated. It was the cutest thing.

“Oh, right.”

“We need to do this more often, I think it’d help my fucked eating schedule.”

“Well, we can, if you want.”

“Cool,” Michael said all happily. They were making breakfast together like some sort of domestic couple, bustling around the kitchen to concoct something edible. Eggs, toast, and apparently Michael also needed waffles with those things.

Alex got to work on the toast and waffles while Michael made the eggs.

“Don’t put any pepper in mine, please, pepper makes me wanna gag,” Alex mentioned. Michael gave him a bewildered look.

“Says the guy who put, like, an absurd amount of Tony’s on his fried rice,” Michael scoffed. Alex grinned. He remembered that?

“That’s different.”

“Is it? Is it really?” Michael asked. Alex laughed and swatted in his direction. Michael grabbed his arm instinctually and tugged him closer. It caught Alex so off guard that all he could do was stare with wide eyes. Eventually, Michael seemed to realize that was a little fucking weird and let go, taking a step back. “Do you want me to put Tony’s on your eggs?”

“Yes, please,” Alex said, clearing his throat in an attempt to not sound like that was weird. Which, it was weird. And absolutely not at all good for him brain that seemed to think Michael was more and more lovable each day.

A couple minutes later, Michael got his attention again.

“Try this, tell me if it’s enough,” he said, holding up a fork with scrambled eggs on it. Alex looked between it and Michael’s eyes a few times before realizing he was just going to feed it to him. Is this what they did at the frat house? He would really like to know.

But, instead of questioning it, Alex opened his mouth and let Michael feed him the bite.

“Good?” Michael asked, smiling all proud of himself. Alex almost forgot what he was asking about.

“Yeah. So good.”

“I’m gonna go insane.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Alex hissed, covering himself with his blanket to try and stifle his words despite the fact that Michael was taking a shower and couldn’t hear him, “He’s so fucking cute and nice. Who allowed him to be both? It’s a goddamn crime.”

“Alex, his niceness is why you let him be your roommate in the first place,” Liz pointed out with a laugh.

“Yeah, so?” Alex groaned, “It’s overwhelming. Do you know what he does for fun? Puzzles. And then, last night I guess he ran out of puzzles, because I woke up at, like, three in the morning to get water and he was building a house of cards. Not just a house, a fucking castle. What the fuck is that? Why am I attracted to someone who builds card castles?”

Liz laughed even louder, “Alex, maybe it’s the quarantine. I mean, you’re stuck with him, so you’re bound to catch some feelings because they have nowhere else to go.”

“Okay, but he’s a straight guy that I once saw wash his hair in the kitchen sink on one side and defrost chicken on the other.”

“Ew,” Liz said.

“I know! And yet I look at him and want to put my head through a wall to stop feeling like a pile of goo,” he groaned, “Sometimes I think he is just instigating it.”

“What do you mean?”

“A couple mornings ago, he pulled me close to him and fed me a bite of eggs. Like, who does that? The more I think about it, the more I think he’s messing with me,” Alex whined. Liz was silent for a moment.

“Michael isn’t the type of guy to just, like, mess with people. Especially not his roommate,” she said cautiously. Alex didn’t know what to respond. “Maybe ask him not to do stuff like that? Ask him not to lead you on?”

“Okay, but I’m not going to ask him not to lead me on because then he’ll think I like him,” Alex argued.

“But you do.”

“But he doesn’t know that!”

“Hey, Alex?!” Michael called from the other room, very quickly making Alex panic about what he could’ve overheard.

“Yeah?!” Alex yelled back.

“Can you get me a towel from the dryer?! I washed them to take a shower and then I forgot!” he called. Alex gulped hard and looked upwards, letting out a quiet, strained noise.

“Yeah, gimme one second!” he yelled, “Okay, Liz, I gotta go, He needs me to get him a towel.”

“Seriously, Alex, you need to ask him—“

“Nope, bye! Talk to you later,” Alex said, hanging up before she could try to pressure him into having an adult conversation.

Instead, he went and fetched a towel and then knocked on Michael’s bathroom door. The door opened only a few inches, but it was enough to see a soaking wet body that was tanned and covered in chest hair and Alex realized he was beyond help.

Instead of risking saying anything embarrassing, he just held out the towel. Michael flashed a smile, a ringlet already forming against his forehead that dripped water onto his nose. How was he even real?

“Thank you,” Michael said, winking before he closed the door again.

Alex decided then and there that it had to just be hormones. He was going stir-crazy with nothing but hormones and a hot guy. That’s it. Because there was no goddamn way he looked that good. Alex had to be exaggerating in his head.

He just fucking had to.

“Okay, you promised me over a week ago that you’d teach me some things on the guitar and you still haven’t.”

“Okay, okay, come here,” Alex said. Michael smiled like a kid in a candy store and bounced on his toes before meeting Alex on the couch.

Alex had been a little bit better about keeping his distance and giving himself a reality check daily after the amount of wet skin he’d seen during the shower incident. That was really only two days ago, but still. He was reminding himself that he only felt so attracted to him because he had no other choice in the moment or something. Now, however, that was hard to remember when he was sitting so close.

Still, Alex handed over his guitar. Michael looked at him expectantly. It was almost too much to handle.

“Okay, so these things are called frets and the strings are numbered one through six going from this end to this end,” Alex said, pointing at what he was talking about. Michael nodded along. “Okay, so put your index finger on the first fret, second string. Middle finger on the second fret, fourth string. Ring finger, third fret, fifth string.”

Michael slowly did just that. When Alex reached to adjust his finger and hand placement, he let him. He listened well and molded to whatever Alex suggested.

“Okay, now strum,” Alex told him, listening to the sound it made, “And that’s C Major.”

“Oh, shit,” Michael laughed. Alex huffed and rolled his eyes.

For the next few minutes, Alex walked him through chords: A minor, G Major, F Major, the basics. He explained how to hold the neck of the guitar so it wouldn’t cramp up his hand and how to not press down too hard, but also not too light to get the best sound out of it. They walked through them and switching chords. Alex explained how it got easier with time and with calluses.

“And now basically you can play 90% of pop songs,” Alex said. Michael’s eyes went wide and he laughed.

“What?”

“Yeah, most pop music is made up of just those four chords or variations of them. Sorry to disappoint,” Alex told him. Michael shook his head.

“Show me another one,” he asked.

“Okay,” Alex agreed. He leaned a bit close again, talking and guiding Michael through the finger placement for D Major. But then Michael moved his hand off the body of the guitar and to Alex’s cheek, leaning.

For a moment, Alex was frozen and feeling more confused than he had in a long time.

“Sorry, do you not want to?” Michael asked after a few seconds of kissing Alex and Alex just not kissing back.

Logically, Alex should’ve explained that he was confused. He should’ve said that he thought Michael was straight and that, if he was indeed straight, he shouldn’t be doing this because this was mean. He should’ve been an adult.

But he had been stuck alone with him for three weeks and all sense of logic seemed to fly out the window.

Alex moved the guitar to the coffee table with one hand and grabbed Michael’s neck with the other. He pulled him in for a much more heedless kiss that the first one. Michael made a soft noise of approval as his hands went to pull Alex closer by his hips.

Things moved fast. If it were a normal circumstance or a normal situation, Alex would’ve thought it was too fast. But this wasn’t normal and Alex couldn’t contain himself. He’d been thinking about this for days. Weeks. Probably even months.

He let Michael kiss down his neck, he helped strip them both down, he happily melted when he was finally being touched by someone that wasn’t himself.

He enjoyed every second.

Alex wished his horny brain had warned him that the next morning would feel weird.

He woke up first and laid there, frozen on the couch for thirty minutes because he was too scared to moved. Michael was laying on top of him partially, his head on his chest and his thigh draped against his hips. It was the first time Alex had ever actually seen him sleep and so he was too nervous to wake him.

In that hour, though, he was able to plan what he was going to say. He was going to assure him that it didn’t mean anything and that things happen. It was just circumstances. They could still be roommates. Going down on a guy didn’t make anyone gay. He had it all planned and fully expected a breakdown the moment Michael woke up and realized what happened.

Only, again, he couldn’t have predicted what actually happened.

Michael woke up slowly, shifting a little bit and stretching his legs out. He didn’t jump or scream. He rubbed his thumb all the way from Alex’s nipple to his armpit and made a sweet waking-up sound before raising his head.

“Hi,” he said sweetly, his voice a little deeper than normal. It was jarring and Alex was trying to find the beginning of his speech. He was only more thrown off when Michael kissed his jaw and put his head back on his chest, seeming comfortable in their placement.

“Hey... Uh, maybe we should talk?” Alex said awkwardly. Only then did Michael seem to react, pushing himself up a little bit. He took in whatever expression happened to be on Alex’s face and sat up completely. Alex followed suit. “So, um, I’m sorry about last night. We’ve just been crammed together and stuff happens. I hope this doesn’t make it awkward between us. We can still be roommates.” Micahel’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion and, with each sentence of Alex’s speech, seemed to become more and more offended.

“What?” Michael asked, rubbing his face.

“I-I mean, don’t worry,” Alex assured, “What happened doesn’t make you gay and I hope you aren’t, like, weirded out by me.”

“Alex,” Michael said, voice matching the offended look as he held his hand up, “What the fuck are you talking about? Why are you acting like I wasn’t a fully engaged participant? Like, I did that on purpose, it wasn’t an ‘oops, tripped and fell onto your dick’.”

Alex gulped, shifting a bit as he began to feel offended. So he wasn’t wrong. Micahel had been leading him on.

“Okay, well, you can’t just act interested in me because you don’t have any girls to hook up with, that’s just—“

“Alex!” Michael said, cutting him off and looking at him with genuine hurt, “Why do you think I’m acting? What the fuck?”

Alex didn’t actually know what to say to that. He stared at him blankly, trying to think of a response that wouldn’t make this situation worse. But he figured he’d already ruined a soft morning by accusing him of things, so he might as well just say what he was thinking.

“You’re straight,” Alex said. Michael huffed a laugh, falling back into the couch and staring up at the ceiling.

“Why the hell do you think that?” Michael asked. Alex sat up pin-straight, looking at him in a whole different light by that one little sentence.

“You... You’ve only brought home girls,” Alex pointed out weakly.

“That’s just not true,” Michael said, looking over at him with amusement rather than anger. Alex relaxed a little. “Ari was a guy, you just didn’t see him, and Dylan was non-binary, you just didn’t see them either—and that’s just since we moved in together. You never saw anyone I brought over, Alex, don’t assume based on names I say and the way I look.”

Alex felt his face flush and he started feeling more than a little embarrassed. In fact, he was so embarrassed, he kind of wanted to cry. Or lay on the floor. Preferably both.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” he said, dropping his head into his hands. Michael sighed and shifted closer, his hand pressing into Alex’s shoulder.

“It’s okay. I’m honestly more concerned with how many allegedly straight guys you’ve hooked up with that you had a speech prepared,” Michael said. Alex laughed a little.

“I was the only gay guy in my high school, I got pretty used to it,” he admitted.

Michael clasped his hand over Alex’s shoulder and pulled him in for a hug. Alex melted into it, hoping that it meant he hadn’t embarrassed himself for life.

“I’m bisexual,” Michael said so confidently that it almost made Alex cry just by that alone. He was so sure of himself.

“So does that mean you were flirting with me?” Alex asked when he got to courage to raise his head. Michael huffed a laugh.

“Wow, thanks for noticing.”

Alex groaned, “God, I’m embarrassed.”

“Don’t be. Just, you know, head’s up, next time we hook up, I’d prefer to have the speech be at least an hour after I wake up,” Michael said. Alex groaned louder. “What? No cute remark about me saying next time?”

Alex held back a smile and glared at the boy in front of him.

“I already know there will be a next time because we are still going to be stuck alone in this apartment for at least a couple more weeks. It’s after that that I’ll have questions,” Alex said.

“So confident for someone so embarrassed,” Michael teased. Alex raised an eyebrow that said ‘am I wrong?’ He got a kiss instead of a response. “Here, to balance out your embarrassment, I’ll admit a thing. The only reason I brought that many people over was because I wanted to see if you’d get jealous and make a move.”

“I don’t get jealous, I just get confused.”

“Noted,” Michael laughed, nudging his nose against Alex’s. It was so much touching, so much affection. Alex couldn’t remember a time anyone had done that to him in a non-platonic way. “Point is, I liked you the moment I met you.”

“Liz insisted you were straight so I kept my distance until I couldn’t because I didn’t wanna catch feelings.”

“Oops.”

“Yeah, oops.”

They both laughed for a few seconds before it slowly died down through Michael giving him full heart eyes. It made Alex’s heart go a little haywire.

“Okay, so now that we talked, can we have a redo of last night where you don’t think you’re getting head from a straight dude?” Michael asked. Alex flashed a smile and nodded.

Who knew something good would come out of this?

#malex #malex fic #michael guerin #alex manes #roswell new mexico #my fic #i chose to leave out the part where all classical guitarists have really long right thumb nails #because while that would be accurate it's kind of a weird attribute #i knew one classical guitarist who bit all his nails except the right thumb #that bitch was like 2 inches long #he was a DAMN good player tho

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cravingmarvel · 4 years

Text

Kill All Your Friends - Chapter Two

Bucky Barnes AU

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Nothing bad yet, a few swear words ahead though!

Word Count: 3126

Summary: You loved so many things about your boyfriend Steve. One thing is his passion to help people! But what you don’t know is that the person who needs his help would become your pain in the ass. Bucky Barnes is stubborn, selfish and messy! But as Steve is whisked away on a business trip, both of you are stuck living with each other for the weekend.

But, what you both come to find out, is that you have more in common than you think. Bucky wakes something in you, that’s been missing for years…

A/N: I know I uploaded Chapter One only yesterday, but I just didn’t have anything to do today so I wrote this! I’m so happy so many of you liked the first chapter and as a little treat for all the love I thought it would be nice to give you chapter two today! I have to say that Kill All Your Friends by MCR basically helped me plan and write this series hahah so go listen to that song if you want to feel the same vibes as I did!

Have Fun!

Tags: (you by all means don’t have to read this! I would love to get your blessing that’s all hahah) @suz-123 @sgtjbuccky @buckisthatyou @softhairbarnes @justreadingfics @captain-rogers-beard @captain-ariel-barnes

You walked into the living room, rubbing your eyes as the morning sun hit your face. Walking straight to the kitchen, you got all the necessary ingredients to make yourself pancakes. You tied your hair up because there is nothing nastier to you than finding hair in your food. You started mixing all the ingredients together lazily, not really having the strength to do this faster. Still in a trance from your night’s sleep, you barely noticed Bucky walking in.

“Morning.” He said in the most monotone way anyone could ever say it and went straight to making himself some toast. Bucky leaned on the kitchen counter with his lower back, waiting for his toast to be ready. “Wow, someone’s talkative this fine morning.” Bucky’s voice dripping in sarcasm. You inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to keep calm and collected, not showing him any sign what anger he was evoking inside of you.

“Fuck off, Barnes.” You kept your eyes peeled on your pancakes, making sure he doesn’t steal them again. You didn’t have the patience to deal with his bullshit this morning. You saw him smirking from the corner of your eye.

He took his piece of toast out of the toaster as soon as it was done. “No, I won’t, doll” Bucky took his piece of dry toast between his teeth and walked behind you. With a swift move, he pulled the hairband out of your hair.

“Are you serious?” You shouted, turning around. The heat rising to your head formed a light headache. Your blood was boiling, cheeks turning red from the anger you could no longer keep inside.

“Are you serious?” Bucky said, mocking you as he walked backwards into the hallway. He tied his hair up with your hairband, smiling victoriously. You were ready to punch him, but he was already in his room and you heard the lock of his door click. A habit both of you developed.

The smell of burned pancake caught your attention, fishing it out of the pan and throwing it away. All you wanted to do is call Steve and tell him that you can’t take Bucky’s bullshit anymore. You wanted your peace back. The calm mornings you knew and loved were gone as soon as Bucky moved into your apartment.

---

Well you can hide a lot about yourself

But honey, what are you gonna do?

And you can sleep in a coffin

But the past ain't through with you

Your breathing was heavy, but nothing could stop you right now. Your body just moved to the rhythm, giving in full control. You loved these little moments of just letting go, letting you be free. You were in the middle of cleaning the shelve behind the kitchen table when the music just took your focus away. Your ability to sing was ok, but it didn’t matter. Screaming the lyrics almost, made them even more meaningful. It doesn’t matter what you sound like. You’re not on a stage, you’re in your living room. If anything, the only thing that could stop your freedom, hold you back from your flowing movements was-

“Great moves!”

-Bucky.

You stopped and looked at him leaning on the wall of the hallway, smiling. He was fully dressed, fancy shirt and everything. Even his hair was styled a little differently, it had more volume, pushed back from his forehead a little at the roots. You were surprised to see him again at all today. He was in his room up until this point. Your chest rising and falling quickly, you looked at the clock hanging on the wall. “It’s three PM! What have you been doing in your room?”

“Masturbating.” He said sarcastically, smirking at you. You scrunched your nose in disgust, taking the cloth and continued cleaning the items on the shelve you put on the table.

Bucky walked further into the room towards you stopping at the kitchen table, the only thing between you two, completely ignoring your question. He picked up your phone, reading the title of the song. “My Chemical Romance? Good choice. I didn’t think you would listen to music like that.”

You turned your body away from him, putting the cleaned items back on the shelf, catching your breath a little from all the dancing. “What did you think I would listen to?” You looked over your shoulder to Bucky who grinned mockingly. He turned the music up and you turned your focus on the shelf in front of you again.

“Maybe something like Taylor Swift? A little One Direction?” Bucky said, followed by a chuckle. You have nothing against Taylor Swift, but her taste in music is a little further away from what you usually listen to. You have respect for every artist, but you usually tend to stay with what you love.

Your parents are the ones to blame for your taste in music. Your mom being one of the biggest Nirvana fans out there always listen to them in the car. It was almost as if the radio or other artists didn’t exist. All you listen to in your mom’s car was Nirvana. Your dad was the same, though he leaned more towards the metal style of music.

You threw your head back laughing whole heatedly at his assumptions. Turning to face him properly, you saw him grinning. “You got me all wrong, Barnes.” You knew exactly what he saw in you, basically what everyone else seems to see in you. “I love My Chemical Romance; I even have their lyrics tattooed.”

Bucky’s jaw dropped; eyes wide as you told him about your tattoo. “You have a tattoo? Y/n… full of surprises. Show me.” You smiled at his reaction and lifted your shirt to reveal the words inked on the skin over your rib-cage: We’ll carry on. “Nice choice of lyrics, doll.” He smiled, nodding his head, approving of your tattoo.

He picked up a picture frame, the photo in it was taken at your birthday party two years ago. Steve surprised you by getting all your friends from home to celebrate your birthday together. He always puts so much effort into his surprises for you, you could never compete. You saw his leg tapping to the beat.

Sometimes you scrape and sink so low

I'm shocked at you're capable of

And if this a coronation

I ain't feeling the love

Slowly but surely, he moved his torso, his shoulders and then he started bopping his head so the rhythm. You couldn’t hold back a chuckle, smiling without noticing. Seeing him like this was truly priceless. Him moving so freely made a different light shine on him, a soft golden one, making him look almost lovely.

Bucky took it a step further, picking up a pen lying around to mimic a microphone. He started singing the lyrics, closing his eyes as he moved his body, guiding him all around the living room. His voice wasn’t better than yours and not worse either. He knew the lyrics by heart.

He opened his eyes, looking right at you without haltering his movements. Bucky gestured for you to join him with his hand.

'Cause we're all a bunch of animals

That never payed attention in school

Deciding that it was time for you to shine, you picked up a bottle of water standing on the table and blurred out the lyrics with him. You danced around the table, to the middle of the room, keeping your eyes on Bucky.

Both of you moving so ridiculously, the circus would be jealous.

So tell me all about your problems

I was killing before killing was cool

You're so cool, you're so cool

Bucky started jumping around and you made great efforts to imitate playing the guitar. Each move made you breathless, exhausted, but you just couldn’t stop. It was as if everything blurred out, only the two of you in focus. Soon both of you were just smiling, laughing, getting lost in the song.

'Cause we all wanna party when the funeral ends

And we all get together when we bury our friends

It's been 9 bitter years since I've been seeing your face

To your surprise, Bucky took your hand in his, swirling you around.

You let go of everything that stood between you and Bucky. Whatever might have happened. You were living. You didn’t care at the moment.

Both of you were headbanging like two ridiculously armature rock stars. The slick sweat on your forehead cooling with every move.

Bucky’s phone started ringing in his pocket and he wiped some of the sweat off of his forehead.

And you're walking away

And I will die in this place

Bucky turned the music down and took a few steps away from you, turning his back to you. Standing there awkwardly, out of breath and slightly confused by what just happened. You played with the loose skin around your nails.

Bucky hung up the phone, turned around and bowed down quickly. “It was my pleasure to do this performance with you, but I have to go.” Bucky seemed to be as much out of breath as you are. His chest rising and falling quickly like yours.

“Where are you going?” You picked the bottle of water up and put it back on the table.

Bucky put on his leather jacket. “I’m going on a date.” He stood in front of the mirror next to the door, fixing his hair and the collar of his shirt.

You turned away from him, because for some reason, you started to feel the warmth building up on your cheeks. “Oh… Ok have fun.” You pushed a picture frame around as if that would change anything about it.

“Don’t be jealous, Doll. You’re still my number one girl.” He closed the door of the apartment and you could feel the smirk on his face, lingering in the room. His confidence just oozing all around the place.

Furrowing your eyebrows together, you exhaled sharply. “I’m not jealous!” You finished re-arranging the shelf and decided to treat yourself to order pizza, get comfortable on the sofa and just enjoy having the apartment all to yourself.

---

You decided to invite your only so-called friend Sharon over. Both of you only hung out at work where you met her. It’s not like you’re lonely or anything, you just had difficulty connecting with anyone other than Steve when you moved. Steve and you did basically everything together so there was never a need for a friend. But you couldn’t talk to Steve about the problem you’re having right now.

Sharon sat next to you on the sofa taking a bite of her pizza every now and then when her rambling allowed it. She talks… a lot. But that made things easier for you. You never really had to say anything other than asking a few questions and giving her the occasional ‘oh’ and ‘wow really?’. She talks a lot about her failed marriage and how they still hook up now and again.

Fact is, the only reason why her marriage didn’t work out was because he’s about twenty years older than her, on a completely different path in life than her and lives on the other side of America. But you never had the heart to tell her that.

“I need your advice… like really badly.” You interrupted her speech about why men are trash. She raised her eyebrows at you. “It’s about a guy.”

Sharon’s eyes lit up at your words. “Oh my god! Tell me, what did Steve do?” She put the pizza carton on the coffee table and shifted on the sofa to sit directly opposite you.

“Well, it’s not about Steve.” You put your pizza aside as well and looked around nervously. Even though nothing dramatic has happened between Bucky and you, the feeling of guilt didn’t leave you alone. You told her about how Bucky had to move into the apartment and the struggle both of you have been having. “It’s so strange because the first two weeks he was here, he was just so distant and all the interactions we had were basically just bullying each other and all of a sudden he’s holding my hand and dancing with me.”

“He’s so into you, Y/n.” You looked at Sharon, who had the widest grin plastered on her face you’ve ever seen. “I’m excited to see what Steve has to say about this.”

“It’s not like I have feelings for Bucky! The only emotion I feel towards him is anger!”

“Yeah, holding hands and dancing is the best way to show someone how angry you are.”

“He was the one who started to hold my hand out of nowhere!”

“But you didn’t protest? Slapped his hand away? Cursed him out with that ager you feel towards him?”

“Well… I…you see-”

“Well?” Sharon raised an eyebrow at you, the feeling of triumph oozing out of every pore. You picked up a pillow and hit her shoulder. “You better figure this out, because you have to remember that Steve has feelings that might get incredibly hurt in this. Just be careful.”

You had to admit, even though Sharon talked a lot, she was really good at tickling the truth out of you. Maybe if you offered some topics to talk about and actually talked to her, she could be a great friend.

---

You looked at the chords again, making sure you weren’t reading things wrong. You gripped the strings firmly, exactly like it says on the website you pulled up on your phone. But the sound the electric guitar made wasn’t as satisfying as it sounds in the song. You tried your luck a few more times before your hand cramped up. This wasn’t relaxing at all. You should’ve just stuck with watching a movie, but once you set your mind to do something, you just can’t let go until you have mastered that skill.

But things weren’t looking any better. You rubbed your hand, pain striking your face. As you were about to put the guitar away, you heard the door clicking and Bucky emerged from behind it. You weren’t expecting him at all until the early morning.

“Are you gonna play it or is that just decor?” Bucky smiled, taking his shoes and jacket off. You leaned back on the sofa in frustration. Not only are you struggling to learn this stupid song, you also must be bullied by Bucky for it. He made his way to the sofa and sat to your right. “What are you learning anyway?”

“I’m trying to learn the song we danced to earlier today, ‘Kill All Your Friends’ you know?”

“Here, let me help.” Bucky shuffled closer to you, his chest leaning flush on your back. You bit your lip involuntarily; glad he couldn’t see it. His left arm wrapped around you, taking the neck of the guitar in his hand. His other hand rested on your waist for reasons you couldn’t say. You knew that he was able to see the hairs on your arm rising at the close contact, a shiver running down your spine.

Bucky placed your fingers where they needed to be and after every chord he arranged with your fingers, he instructed for you to strum the guitar. With every word he spoke you felt his warm breath on your neck. Throughout the whole process you didn’t say anything. Not because you were so invested in the lesson, but because if you opened your mouth you knew there wouldn’t be words coming out.

“See, it’s not that hard.” Bucky spoke softly. The whole apartment appeared calmer and you chuckled at the thought of yourself from a few days ago seeing both of you here like this.

You turn your head, looking directly into Bucky’s eyes. His face was closer than you thought, your lips were mere inches apart. Bucky’s left hand let go of the neck of the guitar, holding on to your waist. His warm breath tickled your face and you dared to look at his lips.

You looked away quickly, remembering what Sharon said, propping the guitar on the side of the sofa. You shuffle away from Bucky, your gaze went to your hands resting on your crossed legs, unsure of what to say. “How was your date?” You blurted out without thinking about it. You slapped yourself mentally. That was the last thing you wanted to know about.

“Was alright. What did you do?” Bucky looked at you and you felt his gaze on the side of your face.

“I had my friend Sharon over.”

“Wow you have friends?” There it was. “I’m kidding, Y/n, you know that right?” His voice soft and velvety.

You weren’t really sure if he was kidding or not. Turning your head to look at him, you couldn’t see a smug smile or a smirk, he just looked at you with a soft gaze. His face was lit up only by the candle in front of you on the coffee table. You still weren’t sure if he was kidding or not, leading you on to believe that he was playfully joking. The apartment was a little too quiet for your liking, so quiet you were sure you could hear your heartbeat in your chest.

“You wanna watch a movie?” You felt stupid asking in the first place, but you needed to diffuse the tension still lingering in the room.

“Sure.” Bucky said, standing up and walking over to the small shelve underneath the TV, looking through the collection of movies Steve and you collected over the years. He decided on ‘Goodfellas’, putting the DVD in. “Let me get a blanket.”

“I’m gonna make popcorn.” You didn’t wait for Bucky to answer as you got up and walked over to the kitchen. You felt a little like a zombie. The feeling you got as Bucky touched you made you feel guilty, you started to get confused about your feelings towards Bucky.

You sat back on the sofa and Bucky came back with his duvet, sitting down next you. He covered both of you with the warm blanket and you started the movie. Your nostrils filled with his scent as soon as you were comfortably covered. A wave of wood and citrus undeniably belonging to Bucky hit you, putting you in a sort of trance.

Bucky shifted a little and you felt his knees touching. Your body stiffened a little. You felt ridiculous. It’s just his knee. But even just this small contact made it impossible to focus on the movie, as if being surrounded by his scent wasn’t enough already.

Both of you got about halfway through the movie before falling asleep.

---

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what-is-your-plan-today · 4 years

Text

Riding High Ch 5: Ad Nauseam

Chapter Summary: It’s Mary’s first day at school, and it doesn’t go according to plan…

Chapter Warnings: Bad Language words.

Chapter Pairings: Frank Adler x OFC Fliss Gallagher

A/N: So from here on in we dive into the GIFTED main story line so this contains SPOILERS for the film. If you haven’t seen it please be aware of that before you read on. As a Lawyer I know how long the types of cases depicted in GIFTED can take, and I also know how fast they can be too. So for that reason I’ll be spreading the storyline over couple of months, because I find that realistic and it also fits with how I want the story to go so…just roll with it!

This is also HEAVILY Frank’s POV at the moment, as probably most of the next few bits will be but it is a fic about him in the main! As always I’m a ho for a REBLOG and COMMENT!

Chapter Song: The Wind by Cat Stevens

Series Masterlist Main Masterlist

September 2017

“Hey! Come on.” Frank sighed, knocking on the door that led into his bedroom where Mary was getting changed “Come on let’s move”

“No” came the sullen reply

“Let me see.” he said a little more gently.

“No.”

“Come on, I made you a special breakfast.” Frank tried again, although why he had no idea. Bribery didn’t work unless it involved a visit to Fliss or the horses.

“You can’t cook.” Mary replied, a snort in her voice. With a deep sigh Frank decided enough was enough.

“You look beautiful.” he told her.

“I look like a Disney character.” She seethed as she stormed past him. Frank watched her pass as the door to the room shut, gave a sigh and then followed her to the kitchen. She sat at the table, pulling the bowl of cereal to her as Frank set about making her lunch.

“Where’s the special?” Mary suddenly said.

“What?” Frank asked, reaching up for a piece of kitchen roll to wipe a knife clean.

“You said you made me a special breakfast.”

“Please, don’t make me go. You can keep home schooling me.”

“I’ve taught you everything I know” Frank replied, smearing peanut butter onto the bread in front of him.

“But I don’t want to go.”

“Well… I don’t want to go to work, but I do.” Frank shrugged as he fixed the sandwich together and reached for a zip-press bag to place it in.

“You don’t go to work. You fix boats on the dock.”

“Okay, it’s a poor example..” he said, pulling the top of the bag open. “But you are still going.”

“But… but what about Fred?” Mary asked as Frank shimmied the sandwich into the bag and sealed it

“What about him?” Frank sighed

“You won’t take care of him. You don’t like cats.”

Well, she had him there. He really didn’t like cats. But Frank was ok. Frank wasn’t really a cat, he was more of a dog…

“I don’t like two-eyed cats” Frank shrugged in reply “Fred is as you know, monocular.”

“Who’s gonna throw him his ping pong ball?” Mary tried again.

“Fred’s gonna be fine, no more argument, okay?” Frank sighed, looking at her as he pulled another sandwich bag from the box for his own. “We’ve discussed this ad nauseam.”

“What’s an nauseam?” Mary frowned.

“You don’t know?” Frank turned to look at her, leaning against the kitchen unit. “Looks like someone needs school.” Mary looked at him, an utterly filthy scowl on her face and he stared back. She sighed and turned back to her breakfast, hand propping her face up as her elbow rest on the table. Frank stood watching her whilst he threw some bread in the toaster. He felt bad, he really did but this was for the best. She needed to be normal. He felt his phone buzzing in his back pocket and, wiping his hands on his dirty work jeans, he pulled it out, smiling as he read the text from Fliss.

“Good luck with the whole School thing this morning. If she kicks off tell her no riding lesson on Saturday. Give me a call or swing by if you need me xx”

“I don’t need good luck I need a miracle, and a drink. Is 8am on a Monday too early for a beer?” he replied.

“Well, it’s afternoon somewhere in the world Sailor ;-) “

He gave a chuckle as he put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Mary who was watching him, a knowing look on her face.

“What?”

“I know that was Fliss.” she said.

“How?”

“Because you’re smiling, the way you always do when she messages you.” “Well we’re friends…we like talking to one another. Something you might understand after you make some at school…” She scowled at him again and he ignored her looking up at the clock.

“Finish up, it’s nearly time to go.”

“Just remember that today, those kids in your class, they probably haven’t learnt even half as much as you.” Frank said, looking at her as they walked down the path. “So try not to show off ok?” “I can’t even use what I do know?” “No I’m not saying that, just…don’t make it so obvious ok? It will make people ask questions about why you know so many things and…” “AM I not supposed to know them?”

“Honestly, no, you’re 7.” Frank shrugged “but you’re smart, you know this.”

She remained quiet for a second before she sighed “Ok, I promise I won’t show off.”

They reach the end of the path and then walked across the grassy area between two of the other pre-fabs just in time for the bus to pull to a stop.

Frank watched Mary as she stood looking at it as the doors swung open.

“This is gonna be fun.” He said, watching the back of her head “You’re gonna meet kids today that you’re gonna borrow money from for the rest of your life.”

She didn’t reply

“Come on.” he said, gently gesturing her forward with his right arm, his tone somewhat softer. He watched her climb up the steps, his hands falling to his hips as he tried to think of something encouraging to say. “You’re gonna be great.”

She paused and looked back at him, her expression soft.

“You know, just…” he gave her a thumbs up “I don’t know. Try bein’ a kid.”

“Frank!” There was a juggle of the door handle and he turned to look at Roberta as she pulled out a set of keys.

Ignoring her completely he grabbed a mug and poured some coffee into it.

“There’s still time for you to undo this nonsense. Go get in your car and go get that child.”

“Are you technically allowed to use these keys whenever you want?” He said to her, a little sarcastically as he passed her the mug. She took it from him

“How you can stand there…acting all calm and all of that making light out of this?” she asked as he took a bite of his toast “Now, go get her back before it’s too late.”

“She gotta go out in the world.” Frank said as he began to tidy up the kitchen, placing the breakfast and lunch making items away “She has no friends her age, no social skills. She doesn’t know how to be a kid.”

Roberta merely watched him as he sighed and turned to face her, leaning his hip against the counter. “Two nights ago she told me that even if Germany bails out the Euro, there could still be worldwide recession.” He shook his head “I was staring at the celling for three hours.” he finished softly

Roberta wrinkled her nose a little and looked down at the floor as she shook her head softly. “I’m so worried.” she said gently, her voice cracking and it was then that Frank noticed her eyes were filling with tears. He knew she cared for Mary, she cared for him too even if she showed that less. And he got it, he did, he got exactly what she was worried about because hell, he felt the same. If people spotted Mary’s potential and then started digging it was going to cause a whole heap of ramifications. But he had to balance out the need to keep her ‘talents’ hidden and for her to have a normal life. He saw so many parallels between Mary and Diane, and frankly it scared the shit out of him. His mother had been overbearing, insisted that they were both home schooled, but when their Father had died Frank had rebelled. He’d gone out, fallen in with a BMX riding, trouble making crowd (well, as much trouble as 8 year olds could make…toilet papering houses, throwing stones at cars, that type of thing) basically stuck the middle finger up at his mother who had in the end conceded and he’d gone to school. But Diane…well, she’d been smothered and grown up so isolated with no social skills.

No, he couldn’t let that happen to Mary.

He let out a sigh “Come on, Roberta. If you start crying, I will have to pretend to start crying.”

He watched as she nodded sadly.

“Hey.”

She looked up at him as he spoke.

“You know there’s something you could be overlookin’.” he smiled “This could work out.”

“Maybe.” she agreed, with a slight nod and a smile “But if anybody takes that baby away…I’ll smother you in yo sleep.” she warned him, her southern accent becoming stronger as she issued the threat “Morning, Fred.” she said to the cat who was led on the table. His tail swished as she rather viciously grabbed at her keys before she left the house.

With his fucking mug.

The sun was already warm and it wasn’t even 9 when Frank reached the dock, the rays bouncing off the crystal blue surface of the water. As he walked he applied a slight smearing of sunscreen to his neck, he knew that bore the brunt of the sun when he was outside and not in the lock up. Fliss had commented it on it the other day, and he had admitted to her that when he’d gotten out of the shower he had noticed he was definitely sporting some amusing tan lines, both round the collar of his T-shirts and where the arms finished. It was always the same though. Fliss had laughed, rolled up her sleeves to show him the same and pointed out it was why she spent as much time as she could on her days off by the pool trying to even it out.

Lying by the pool on a day off… Frank mused to himself, now there was a thought.

Whilst his mind was on Fliss, he pulled his phone out and dialed her number.

“Hey Frankie boy.” she greeted him “Did you manage to get her on the bus without a gun or…” Frank chuckled “It was surprisingly less trouble than I thought but…”

“You’re doing the right thing Frank.” she replied, and he had to smile at the fact she knew what he was pondering.

“Roberta doesn’t seem to think so.”

“Yeah, well, she’s worried but that doesn’t make her right.” Fliss said “Look, Mary is a kid. She needs to just, oh I dunno, live like a kid. You’ve done it now anyway so, well, just see how it goes, that’s all you can do.”

“Sounds great.” Fliss said, “Just message me later.” “Sure, have a good morning Cowgirl.” She laughed “You too Sailor.”

After a number of apologies, Frank walked out of the Principal’s office with a groan. Mary skipped ahead of him, examining something in a cabinet but he placedd his hand on her head and turned it in the direction she needed to walk. He pushed oen the double doors, letting her go in front of him.

One hand between her shoulder he steered her away from the entrance to the school and was fishing in his pocket for his keys when he heard a voice behind him.

“Excuse me?”

He turned to see a slim, quite pretty, brunette in a green and white dress hurrying towards him.

“Hi.” she said, raising her hand in greeting.

“Look it’s my teacher.” Mary said with a roll of her eyes as Frank slowed down. “Probably wants to remind me what one plus one is.”

“Go to the car, okay?” he said, gently guiding her away with his hand.

“Hi” he repeated

“Hi.” Frank replied, removing his glasses and taking her extended hand in greeting.

“Sorry to yell at you and then chase you down.” she apologised.

“It’s okay. Mary’s teacher?” he asked, releasing her hand.

“Yes. I’m Bonnie Stevenson”

“Sure, yeah.” Bonnie nodded, turning to look at Mary

“We are running a little bit late actually, so we gotta get going.” Frank said, late for what he had no idea, he hadn’t made that bit up yet.

“Okay, I don’t even wanna talk about that.” Bonnie shook her head “I will keep you just a minute”

“Okay.”

“I think your daughter…I think Mary might be gifted.”

Shit.

“What?” Frank feigned surprise, quite well too so it seemed.

“Yeah, today in math, she answered some really…really…”

“Oh, no, no, no…” he said, holding his hand out to stop her as she was gesticulating rapidly with her own as she continued to speak. “No, that’s…it’s not gifted.”

“Difficult questions that a seven year old would…”

“It’s Trachtenberg.” Frank cut her off easily, he could deflect this.

“I’m sorry…” Bonnie laughed, folding her arms, looking at him, puzzled.

“Jakow Trachtenberg.” Frank nodded. “Spent seven years in a concentration camp. Developed a system to rapidly solve problems.” he gestured with the hand holding his keys “ It’s the Trachtenberg method.”

“But she’s…I mean… She’s seven though.” Bonnie said, smiling slightly, her tone still surprised.

“I learned it when I was eight.” he said, smiling “Do I look gifted to you?”

Bonnie looked him up and down and dropped her head, smiling.

“It kinda went out of note since the invention of the calculator…” Frank continued, backing away from her as he spoke, “But… I can still win a drink at the bar using it.” he smiled, opening his sunglasses out. “Sorry for today. Won’t happen again.”

“Okay.” Bonnie nodded as Frank slid on his shades.

“Nice to meet you…Bonnie.” he said, remembering her name.

“Frank.” Bonnie nodded again.

**** Fliss’ morning had been fairly busy as well. She’d given 2 private lessons, worked one of her horses, mucked half the block out as it was a Monday, which meant that Ellis had the day off so she mucked in, and was now going through the bookings for the week. She’d been inundated this week with requests that she couldn’t accommodate, but was contemplating putting another lesson on to satisfy the demand. Bill had told her not to be stupid, she was already teaching 6 days a week and needed to let her staff shoulder some of the responsibility before she burnt out.

“Joanne?” she called. Joanna walked in and looked at Fliss.

“How do you fancy taking over for me completely on a Sunday?” she asked.

“Me?” Joanne frowned.

“Yeah.” Fliss nodded “You open up, close and can run a couple of Classes. You have your teaching qualifications…I can supervise the first 2 weeks or so and if you’re happy after that then…you can take the day completely, take 20% of the earnings as an extra. What do you say?”

“Fliss, I’d…well, I don’t know what to say!” Joanne grinned “Yeah, yeah I’d love to!”

Joanne beamed and nodded, heading back out onto the yard.

Her phone started ringing and she reached over to pick it up, smiling when she saw the number.

“2 calls before noon!” Fliss grinned “I’m honoured”

“Unfortunately I’m calling to cancel lunch.” Frank sighed.

Fliss was surprised she felt disappointed. “Oh, it’s no issue.” she said, pulling a face “is everything alright.

“No.” he replied bluntly.

“Mary?”

“How did you guess?” he gave a low chuckle.

“She’s normally your source of your trouble. What has she done?”

“Apparently she stood up in class, and shouted at the principal to, and I quote “get on your phone and call Frank and tell him to get me out of here.””

Fliss bit back a laugh. It shouldn’t be funny, but she could picture Mary’s angry face and her arms folded across her chest. Despite her best attempts an amused snort escaped her.

“It’s not funny” Frank deadpanned

“I know, I’m sorry but… “ Fliss cleared he throat, forcing herself to become serious.

“You now I wasn’t a perfect kid but I’m pretty sure I never got thrown out before lunchtime on my first day.” Frank sighed.

“She’s not been thrown out…just told to go home early” Fliss countered

“Well I brushed it off as first day excitement but…the teacher was digging into how smart she is and…”

“Look, try not to worry.” Fliss said, sensing the tone of panic in his voice “Just try talking to Mary You always get the best out of her when you explain things to her.”

“Yeah, look, I better go…I need to get back to the boat yard.”

“No problem. Take care, and…just…well, listen to her Frank.”

“Yeah, bye Fliss.”

Fliss tapped her nails absentmindedly on the desk, trying to think of ways she could help. But other than talk to Mary, as she had encouraged Frank to do, she was stumped.

Nope, Fliss didn’t envy Frank one bit.

*****

“For the record, I didn’t wanna go to the stupid school in the first place.” Mary rambled on as she perched on a cool box, blue sun hat perched on her face as Frank finally finished his work on the engine, screwing the cover back on “And the boy in the front row acts inappropriately for someone who’s a child.”

“Sorry. I’m still passively aggressively ignoring you.” he said without looking up.

“Other kids answer questions, they don’t get in trouble.” Mary continued to protest.

“You didn’t get in trouble for answering the questions.” Frank looked at her, still turning the screw driver, his voice taking on a tone of exasperation. “You yelled at the principal.”

Mary looked at him, shrugging.

“All right, you know what? You’re gonna find this interesting.” he said, stepping back slightly, tossing the screwdriver onto one of the seats as he made his way to the cockpit of the boat “So I googled" first graders who yelled at the principal". And statistically you will never believe how many kids do it.”

He started working his way through the checks as Mary answered

“How many?”

“None.” he shot back over his shoulder as he fired up the boat, revving it slightly. He heard Mary’s footsteps as she ran down the side of the boat and stopped.

“Frank, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” she said leaning over the edge to look at him.

“Yeah, right.” he said, shaking his head before he turned to look at her “You can’t show off like that in school.”

“I know.”

“You promised you wouldn’t then the first day…”

“I know, I screwed up.”

Frank looked at her, he could see she was genuinely contrite. Her head was dropped slightly. He watched her for a moment before he nodded and looked back out of the water before she spoke again.

“Do you think this boat needs a test ride?”

“Go get, Fred.”

She smiled and jumped up.

“Don’t run!” he called after her, watching as she slowed to a walk for a few strides, before running anyway. He shook his head, smiling to himself at her blatant disregard for his order.

“Ready?” he asked

“You ok?” he asked.

“Yeah.” she smiled, shifting around to get comfortable. “Fred loves to watch the sandpipers.”

Fred gave a meow as if to confirm what she was saying and Frank looked down at the cat as it lounged in the shade.

“He thinks he’d like to catch one, but he’d regret it.” she continued “Fred’s not a killer. He’s a lover.”

“Would my mom want me to go to this school?” she asked.

“I can only guess.” Frank replied, honestly “But I will tell you that, she would have wanted you to have friends.”

“Idiot friends?” Mary said, almost groaning.

“She’d want you to have compassion for others.” Frank said, tilting his head so he was looking down at the side of her face “Like a cat can have for a sandpiper.”

Mary paused and shifted slightly, looking down a little “But what if they don’t like me?” she asked softly.

And God, if that didn’t break his heart! He swallowed and took a moment, before he looked at her.

“Then they’re idiots.” he said simply, and in his mind it was the truth.

“Hey…is that Fliss?”

Frank frowned and looked at her, “Where?”

“There, look…” He followed where she was pointing and squinted slightly. There was a woman riding a chestnut horse a little further down the beach, and it certainly looked like Fliss.

“Hang on…” Frank said, pulling out his phone. He dialled Fliss and as he watched he saw the woman pause and reach into her boot to retrieve her phone.

“Hey…” she greeted him.

“Turn to your left…” he said.

There was a pause and then as she did so the two of the waved. Fliss laughed.

“Hang on…”

She placed the phone back in her boot and then kicked the horse into a gallop. It sped over the sand, kicking up spray as it went and Mary giggled and jumped off Frank’s knee as she approached.

“Hi!” she beamed down at them as she pulled the horse to a stop. Frank stood up and smiled at her. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Had to take the speedboat for a test drive.” Frank shrugged.

“Test sail.” Fliss countered.

“Whatever.” Frank rolled his eyes as Mary was busy stroking Heidi’s face. “What about you?”

“Oh had a spare hour so decide to load her majesty up and come down here.” she smiled “It’s nice and quiet. Sometimes I see the dolphins too.” Frank noticed the way her face lit up as she said that, and he smiled.

“They’re even better up close.” Mary grinned.

“Well, one day maybe I’ll get the chance” Fliss smiled.

“I still owe you a ride.” Frank smiled and she grinned.

“I’ll hold you to that…” Fliss said, “And speaking of rides…”

Frank took a deep breath “seriously?”

“Come on…” Fliss said “She’ll be safe, I trust this horse with my life.”

Mary, suddenly realising what was being said looked to Frank, her eyes sparkling.

“Fine…” Frank sighed, shaking his head “But drop her and I’ll kill you.”

“Shit…” Frank muttered, his heart in his mouth as the both cantered through the waves, the spray kicking up behind them. He could hear Mary’s shouting and laughing as it echoed up the beach. They went a little distance away before Katie slowed down to a walk, Heidi continuing along her path steadily.

“So, I hear school wasn’t great?” Katie said as they turned and made their way back at a slower pace.

“No.” Mary shrugged “Frank got mad.”

“Did you apologise?”

“Yeah…its ok now.” Mary shrugged “I just didn’t like it. And I don’t think they liked me.” Fliss took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you a secret…when I first started riding, the other kids didn’t like me either.” “Really?” Mary turned to face her as they wandered back, gently swaying with the horses motions.

“Nope, I came from a different back ground to them. We weren’t rich, I mean my mum and dad have money now but that was only after Bill opened the business.”

“Are you still friends now?” “Yeah, I still talk to her, I don’t see her as much but…” Fliss took a deep breath, the thought of the past still a bit painful. “The point is Mary, if you go in thinking that everyone is against you then believe me, it will seem that way. Maybe you should think about having an open mind and giving this a go, yeah?”

Mary pondered for a moment before she sighed “I suppose…”

Fliss smiled “Good, you’ll be glad you did.”

Mary shrugged “Maybe. Hey, you know what ad nauseam means?”

Fliss frowned and looked up as Frank gave a laugh “It means indefinitely, never ending…forever, why?” she looked at Mary. “Oh, something Frank said I’d learn at school but I didn’t…” she shrugged “But now I know, thanks.” “You’re welcome…” Fliss chuckled, as Frank helped her down. She watched her run off to pick up her cat.

“Thank you.” Frank said gently, turning to look up at Fliss.

“What for?”

“Talking to her, the way you always do. I don’t know how you do it Lissy, but you make her listen.”

“Don’t worry too much about her.” Fliss smiled “I know it’s easy for me to say but, well you always said today would be a challenge. See how she goes tomorrow.”

“I thought Fridays were your nights, you know where you sat at a bar, alone, all broody and mysterious…” Fliss grinned down at him.

Frank shook his head, a crooked smile spreading on his face “Yeah well, maybe I fancy a bit of company this week…”

Fliss looked at him for a moment, considering what he had said before she smiled “Ok, I got lessons until 6:30 but I can meet you there later on?”

Frank smiled “Great, it’s a date.”

Fliss arched her eyebrow and Frank inwardly cursed “I mean, not a date, but…you know, a…”

“You’re cute when you get flustered.” Fliss teased, cutting him off with a laugh “Don’t worry sailor, I know what you mean.”

With that she turned the horse back the way she had come and winking at Frank called to Mary. “Hey, you know when you asked how fast Heidi could go?”

Mary nodded.

“Well watch this…”

****

Fliss was right. The next morning they had a little fuss but nothing drastic. Mary came home with a note about Wednesday being show and tell and she wanted to take Fred. So they bundled him into a cardboard box. Frank waited patiently outside until Mary was escorted back out by a classroom assistant to hand the cat back over.

“Enjoy that?” he said.

Mary nodded.

“I was talking to Fred.” Frank teased. Mary narrowed her eyes and he laughed. “I’ll see you later ok?”

“You look nice.” Her dad looked up as she walked into their living room. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, you sure you don’t mind dropping me?” she looked at him, “I can get a cab?”

“Don’t be daft…” Bill said, picking up his keys.

“Have a nice time honey!” her mum called.

Bill could tell she was nervous so he made idle chit chat on the drive down to the main strip of bars and eventually pulled up outside Fergs.

“Just have fun.” he said to her gently “And if you need me, call.”

“Thanks dad.” she smiled, kissing his cheek before she let herself out of the range rover and headed into the bar.

“Thought you were gonna stand me up!” he grinned at her as she took a seat. “Sorry, my last lesson over ran.” She answered before she smiled politely at the dark haired woman. “Hi…” “Oh, Fliss this is Bonnie, Mary’s teacher.” Frank introduced them. “Nice to meet you.” Fliss smiled. The woman gave her a smile back and stood up speaking to her as she did so “Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time Frank and I don’t want to eat into your date.“ “Oh this isn’t a date…” Fliss protested at the same time Frank shook his head “We’re not…” he gestured between himself and Fliss with his hands “Fliss is Mary’s riding instructor” “She horse rides?” Bonnie said, an air of surprise in her tone. “The idea was it would hopefully teach her social skills before School.” Frank snorted “clearly didn’t work..” “Oh don’t be so hard in her.” Fliss jumped to the girls defence “she’s a good kid.” “I bet its easier when you’re trying to teach them something they actually want to learn…or in Mary’s case teaching her something she doesn’t know….” Bonnie said and Fliss laughed. “She’s actually one of the easier kids I have.” She said and Frank smiled at her comment “mind you, none of the kids give me any hassle really, its the adults that are hard work.”

“Oh my god tell me about it…” Bonnie groaned “I dread Teacher-Parent evenings, honestly, some of them are so obtuse…” “I can imagine.” Fliss grinned

“Anyway I better…” Bonnie gestured over her shoulder “see you later Frank, and nice to meet you Fliss” “You too.” Fliss nodded to he as Frank waved his hand in goodbye.

“What you drinking cowgirl?” he asked, standing up “I’ll go get em in.”

FLiss asked for a beer and sat down as he went to place their order. A frew minutes latger he was back, sliding the bud over to her.

“Thanks…” she took a huge drink. “I err, didnt interrupt anything before did I?“

“No, not really.” Frank shook his head “Not really?” “She errr…found out about Diane.” Frank said. “Oh.” Fliss frowned “how? I mean…” “When I picked Mary up on Monday she was asking me about her background om account of her being so smart. I tried to fob her off, saying I had taught her a system, you know for arithmetic but she didn’t buy it. Apparently she’s been giving Mary a few more advanced equations to do…”

Fliss looked down as he slid the paper on the table over to him. It contained a number of formulas and algebra problems which Fliss could see Mary had completed.

“As you can see, she aced them. And then Bonnie googled the system I mentioned, and then me and…up popped Diane” he shrugged .

“So did you tell her the truth?” Fliss asked looking up at him, sliding the paper back.

“What option did I have” he shrugged, folding it and shoving it in his pocket. “She came down here to call me out so I figured honesty was the best…what?“ He asked when he noticed Fliss was frowning. "She came down here on a Friday night to find you?” Fliss snorted

Frank shrugged “That’s what she said.”

“How she know you’d be here?” “I’m here most Fridays…not that hard to find.” “Maybe you should think about varying your routine Sailor” Fliss grinned “And you should definitely think about varying this shirt.”

Frank glanced down at his bright yellow palm tree print Hawaiian shirt

“What’s wrong with it?” he pouted.

“What’s right with it more like…”

“Well I’m not one for corporatism.” Frank shrugged “I like to think I’m an individual.”

“To be fair I’m not sure planet Earth could deal with two of you.” Fliss shot back. “I can only just about cope with one…”

Frank paused before he looked at her, shaking his head with a snort as his mouth curled up at one corner “Well that’s just fucking rude.”

“Made you smile though.” Fliss grinned at him.

Frank looked at her for a moment before he felt his face split further into a grin as he looked at her. “Yeah, yeah you do…I mean did.”

He saw her cheeks flush in that adorable way they did, and he decided to save her from further embarrassment by changing the subject. It wasn’t long before they settled into an easy conversation and the events of the previous week and all worries about Mary flew completely from Frank’s mind. @the-omni-princess @momobaby227 @geekofmanythings16 @angelofhell-666 @thewackywriter @marvelfansworld @cobalt-gear @asgardlover75 @jennmurawski13 @jtargaryen18 @saiyanprincessswanie @navispalace @patzammit @joannaliceevans-fanficblog @djeniiscorner @ayamenimthiriel @coldmuffinbanditshoe @disneylovingal @madzmilllz @sgtjaamesbaarnes @sweater-daddiesdumbdork @southerngracela @goldenfightergir @kellymat @official-and-unstable-satan @icanfeelastormbrewing @pagesoflauren

#frank adler x ofc #frank adler #gifted #gifted fan fic

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rueren · 4 years

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★ 𝓢 𝓣𝓐 𝓡 𝓓 𝓤 𝓢 𝓣★

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 1

Word Count: 6k

CW: swearing, slight angst

𝒦 𝐸 𝐼 𝒯 𝐻

Saturday August 31, 7:07 am

***

He woke up drenched in warm sunlight.

Wait, no. Cold sunlight. Cold sunlight? No, that's not right. Cold, artificial, too bright to be natural light.

The clicking of a light switch rang throughout the room. His eyelids turned orange, the fluorescent light source directly behind them. Click. Click. Click.

He pulled the sheets closer to his chin, mumbling sentences that didn’t even make sense to himself. He’d just ignore the flickering lights - and the person flicking them - until they left Keith alone and let him sleep in peace. He hoped.

Then the sheets started to shift, being pulled slightly off of his leg.

“Ugh, okay, fine, I’m up now.” He grumbled into his pillow, “What do you want from me.”

This was the same thing Shiro had done the whole week. And well basically their whole life. Randomly waking him up at such an ungodly hour by flicking the lights on and off. Kicking his foot just enough to annoy him into consciousness.

The room was occupied by boxes. Towers of them. Maybe not towers. Mounds? There were like, five boxes to unpack. Maybe seven. He’d be done in two hours, three tops. He’d been putting it off for a week, sure. But he’d do it today. Today, but not now. Later. Not at seven o’clock in the fucking morning.

“I don’t want anything. I need you to get up, and unpack. We’ve been here for almost a week and you haven’t touched your boxes, and classes start after tomorrow.” Shiro said, finally pulling the sheets off the mattress.

His body blocked the sun coming from the glass wall across the room, and when he moved away with the sheet, the cold air in the apartment from the AC washed over his legs. Shiro stepped over him, with hair still dripping wet, and sat on the other side of Keith’s mattress on the floor. They’d bought basic bed frames back home, and Krolia said she would ship it to them, but they hadn’t come in yet, so he’d had to make due.

“It’s seven am, Takashi. On a Saturday. I don’t have time for your shit,” Keith grumbled, curling in on himself, “And besides, I have opened them.” A truth. Not a whole truth, but that still counted, right?

“Opening one box to take out like two shirts since we got here doesn’t count Keith.” Shiro reprimanded, and Keith didn’t need to open his eyes to hear the smirk in his voice.

“Okay, I’ll do it. But I’ll do it later, ‘cause its seven fucking am Shiro, not everyone is as excited about the crack of dawn as you.” He finally opened his eyes, glaring at Shiro with still sleep-heavy lids.

Shiro laughed at that, water droplets falling onto Keiths face, “It’s not my fault you like to sleep away your entire existence,” He kicked at Keith’s shin as he got up, with Keith expecting the bed to dip back with the lack of weight but then it doesn't and he remembers he doesn't even have a bed frame so it isn't going to dip, because their stupid IKEA beds hadn’t come in yet. Good for nothing shipping companies, never being on time, “I’m coming back to get you in ten minutes. With a glass of water. Cold.”

“You wouldn’t.” Keith half sat up, propped on his elbow, facing him.

“Guess we’ll find out in ten minutes.”

He closed the door before Keith could get out a retort, and Keith just groaned, flopping in his bed.

Shiro’s laugh behind the door sounds fainter as the receding sound of feet against floorboards crept out of earshot.

He might as well get up now, he supposed. He was fully awake anyway. And Shiro pouring a cup of water on him if he fell asleep again wasn’t as appealing as it sounded.

He stretched out his limbs, and made his way out of bed. An incoherent string of insults fell from his lips as he reached to grab a shirt out of the box. He stared at it for a bit, going back on what Shiro said about only opening the box to grab a shirt. Stupid Shiro for always being right, it’s not even natural. He tossed back the shirt and grabbed a pair of sweatpants instead, because if Shiro gets to wake him up, he doesn't have the power to make him get dressed. Neither is he going to give him the satisfaction of being right about something else. Again.

The floor of his room was freezing under his feet, despite the August weather. It sent shivers up his legs to his shoulders as he walked into the hallway of the new apartment. It was still new to him. He made a move to go to the bathroom, out in the hallway. Then realized that it wasn’t home. Well it was, but not home. He doubled back and went into his bathroom, connected to his room.

He wasn’t used to the layout of the place, not like he was back home. Back home he could walk around with his eyes closed. He wasn’t bothered though. He’d just have to make due.

The bathroom floor was no different. Cold under his feet, if not colder. Keith grumbled under his breath, glancing at the door as Shiro stuck his head in. “You’re like a wet dog, dripping everywhere.” He didn’t wait to hear Shiro’s response, closing the door on his face. Metal on wood was heard outside the door, prosthetic clanging against the door, followed by more receding footsteps.

Keith dragged a hand across his face, staring at his reflection. He’d spent the night tossing and turning, never comfortable, and now his hair paid the price. He knew he should have tied it, but he was too tired to care. Future Keith’s problem, he’d thought. Well, Present Keith was ticked at Past Keith. Also at Present Shiro for waking him up at seven am on a fucking Saturday. All this being-pissed-off was not helping his bed head, and he sighed as he tried to finger comb his hair, not to literally rip the hair out of his follicles.

Hair brushed and mouth not tasting gross anymore, he trudged out to the kitchen. The apartment wasn’t the biggest, but it certainly was bigger than most.

The living room was big, with a glass wall, and a balcony behind a sliding glass door. There was a door in Keiths room that connected to the balcony too. Shiro didn’t even fight Keith when he promptly flung his bag on the floor the second he found out that room had the balcony - he knew Keith would’ve fought him for it. And Shiro didn’t mind that much either. Although they weren’t that high up, it was only the tenth floor, Shiro wasn’t too fond of heights. So a smaller window instead of a glass door reminding him just how high up they were was all he could ask for.

When they first made their way up to the apartment, he thanked whatever celestial beings he could think of for this place to have two bathrooms. He’d shared one with Shiro back home, and saying it was a nightmare was an understatement. Using all the hot water after a run, taking too long to make that tuft of white hair just right. It was too much for Keith to process. It looked like he just left it there when he finished anyways, so why did it always take twenty minutes.

And the space. Their bathroom back home was the smallest bathroom you could imagine. Shower and tub together, the sink crammed right next to it and a toilet across. They’d had to install and uninstall a lock on the door more times than he could remember, for one reason or another.

This one was different. Spacious. A full bath and shower. A long mirror. Tiled shower walls. Gray and white aesthetic, the lights being a little bit too bright, but he didn’t mind. Helps him wake up when he needs to.

The only thing wrong with this bathroom was the floor to ceiling glass wall. Who in their right mind would ever think that that was okay. He thought back to when Krolia had told them about the place

The bedrooms were situated on either side of the bathroom . Keith's first then Shiro’s . And since they were at the end of the hall in the complex, they’d gotten a corner apartment.

They had a pretty decent kitchen as well, with an island and barstool chairs and everything.

Well, there would be barstools around the island, and an actual dishwasher in the spot by the edge of the counter, and an actual stove, if the shipping company got their shit together and sent their furniture. The apartment had been eerily empty with just mattresses in each room, and the living room stacked with boxes instead of actual furniture.

He sat himself on a box, one that was not labeled fragile. His head slumped forward, hair falling down his face, tickling the exposed skin on his back.. He was not looking forward to Shiro telling him to open his boxes again after today, so he’d have to get it done. And besides, the semester started the day after tomorrow. He’d have to do it anyway.

“He got you too?” A voice, rough with sleep, said from behind him. He smirked, as he heard the sleep driven shuffle of slippers on the hardwood floor.

“Yeah. Got you too it seems.” Keith said, finally looking up. Adam looked over at him with sleep heavy eyes.

“Why is he so hellbent on waking up before the sun every single morning?” Adam sighed, grabbing the box of Eggo waffles from the freezer. He held it up and Keith held up two fingers. Adam took out four and put them in the four slot toaster. A gift from Krolia before they left.

“I just know you boys are going to fight over who gets breakfast first. Here, take it.”

“Krolia, we don’t need this. Keep it-”

“Hush. Take it. I will not have you two fighting over who gets to toast a stupid piece of bread every day the whole way through college,” Krolia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, “Ugh, just thinking about it gives me a headache. Take it, Shiro, or so help me god-”

“Okay, okay, we’ll take the toaster. Thank you.”

He’d slept over the night before to help Shiro unpack. Well, that’s what he’d said he was over for. All three of them knew he was here to be with Shiro. Long distance relationships were always hard, and Shiro and Adam were no exception. They’d been dating since high school, senior year, so that had been - 5 years?

There had been a break up halfway through, though. Keith didn’t even know something could be mutual but also not until this break. They’d both agreed on it, but only for the sake of the other, the whole time complaining to Keith. Adam called him to wallow in his misery, sentences consisting of “Ugh, I miss him so much, Keith.” and “Why would I even say that we should take a break?” and “I’m so stupid. Keith, does he even talk about me?”.

Shiro talked about it less frequently to Keith, but when he did, he did so more insistently. “Keith, I know he calls you. Does he say anything about me? Please, tell me he does. Ugh, why did we even think a break was a good idea?”

Both of them thought the other had wanted it. Wanted time to focus on themselves. Both of them being stupidly wrong. Both of them thinking a break would be best because of stress and long distance and whatever else made them take a break. Neither of them really wanted it, but only did it because they thought the other needed it. And they would do anything for each other.

It was sweet, Keith thought then. Sweet but stupid. Make yourself hurt for what you thought the person you loved wanted. Sweet but stupid.

Adam had flown out to see Shiro, a month and a half into the break, because Shiro had drunk called him. That was enough to break him. He booked a flight to LA, from Chicago, and only told Keith that he was in the city, once he landed. Krolia had driven down to pick him from the airport. Keith was in charge of keeping Shiro preoccupied until Adam got to the house.

Adam came into the house the moment Shiro started complaining about the break again. And when Adam had heard Shiro say he hated the break, never wanted it to begin with, only agreed to it because Adam wanted it, he stepped out from where he stood in the foreir.

“I never wanted it, you dipshit.” Adam said, and Shiro froze in place. He turned around slowly, and Keith found himself smiling, watching it unfold in front of him. Shiros face falling, then he smiled, the brightest he’d ever seen Shiro smile.

Then he started tearing up. That’s when Adam moved across the living room. Turned to Shiro, strides across the floor purposeful, and filled with love and emotion, as if that were even possible. Steps filled with the distance between them and the longing they both had for each other and the love they had for each other that was projected in the way they looked at each other.

“I missed you.” Shiro’s voice cracked.

“I missed you too,” Adam said, his hands coming around Shiro’s wrists, “ God, I missed you. So much.”

And when he said that, Shiro broke. They both broke, and hugged and cried and laughed and fell to their knees with their heads pressed to the others shoulder and Keith felt tight in the chest as Krolia placed a hand on his shoulder, a small smile gracing her face as well. And they both left, feeling like they were invading a private moment.

“Well, he’s your boyfriend, and he never did that before you,” Keith smirked, “So I say it’s your own fault.”

“Yeah, well, that was before I figured out how much of a blessing sleep was when you're a college student.” He grumbled before downing the glass of water he poured for himself.

He looked worse than Keith, with his hair - which had grown last since Keith had seen him, another thing that made Keith remember he was away from the people he was close to for far too long - was disheveled, flat against one side from sleep. He hadn’t even put his glasses on and the bags under his eyes were more visible. His shirt, a soft dark gray with NASA across the front in a fading font, from how old it was, a few sizes too big, considering it was Shiro’s. Pajamas bottoms too long for his legs, scrunched up against his Bart Simpson slipper, the red and blue and black stripes making the yellow of Bart’s face way too bright.

Adam yawned as he started a pot of coffee. As tired as Adam looked, it reminded Keith of where he was. With the people he cared about. Not talking to them through a screen that pixelated their faces because of sketchy college dorm WIFI. He had seen Pidge and Matt the first day they got into Chicago, and he’d felt better. Hugged them and forced himself not to tear up, because they would never let him hear the end of it. He was happy. For the first time in a long while.

“Good, you’re both up.” Shiro’s voice entered the kitchen. They both looked over at him, and gaped at how awake he looked.

Well, Keith did. Adam was probably gaping for different reasons, that Keith did not want to think about his brother in.

He had on a tank top - way too tight, for no reason, other than that his boyfriend was here - dark gray sweatpants, and an honest to god neon pink and black striped headband in his hair, a stark contrast to the white bangs that it held from his face.

“No thanks to you,” Keith grumbled. The toaster popped up and Keith reluctantly stomped over to it, throwing them on a plate and taking the syrup Adam handed to him absentmindedly, drenching his waffles.

Shiro sat on the floor - because they had no furniture - cross legged, against the box Keith was sitting on before. “How do you guys eat that stuff? It's just sugar.”

“Some of us like sugar, Shiro,” Adam quipped, hopping up on the island to sit and wait for his coffee, “Just like how some of us actually enjoy letting the sun get up before we do.”

Shiro laughed, “I went out for a run. I let you guys sleep for another 2 hours after I got up.”

“How did you guys even come from the same house?’ Adam directed at Keith, around a piece of waffle, as he stuffed a piece of his own waffle into his mouth.

“How are you guys even dating? '' He countered, voice monotone, but his chest tightened slightly in happiness. He liked how happy Shiro got around Adam. He deserved to be happy after everything that’s happened to them.

Not that he’d say that aloud. He’d never hear the end of it.

“He’s lucky he’s cute,” Adam said, grabbing 3 mugs from the cupboard, pouring their coffee, and Shiro’s cheeks went pink. Keith made a show of visibly gagging, and Adam flipped him off.

It still amazed Keith, how even after dating for so long, his brother still got flustered over the smallest of compliments.

“Yeah, whatever. Go sleep the rest of your youth away. I don’t care.” Shiro teased, and Adam handed him his mug of coffee. He kissed Shiro’s head, and Shiro’s face went redder as he smiled.

They all sat around for a bit, Adam beside Shiro on the floor and Keith on the island, eating waffles drinking coffee, and talking about school starting and Adam’s new job, and Shiro’s new classes, as well as Keith starting classes as well.

Keith missed this. The familiarity of it all. He missed it.

“‘Kay, as much as I love talking with you both about school at seven in the morning on Saturday, I need to take a shower.” Adam got up from the floor, cracking his back, “When is your furniture supposed to come in?”

“It was supposed to come in two days ago. They said it’d be another like, 3 days at most.” Shiro said, getting up too, and putting both their mugs in the sink.

“Okay, yeah. Well, off to shower I guess.” And he left down the hall. Shiro and Keith talked a bit more while he showered, about Krolia saying she was going to visit in a few weeks, about Matt and his new girlfriend, and when their schedules had open spots at the same time.

“Alright. I need to go get some WIFI and whatever,” Keith said, dropping his plate in the sink, as Adam turned off the shower, “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“You have to finish unpacking today,” Shiro said, as he walked off to his room, to change.

“Yeah, I’ve got the rest of the day. It’ll be unpacked don’t worry.”

“Alright,” Shiro said, as Keith closed the door to his bedroom. Keith chuckled at Shiro’s voice muffled behind the door as he said, “How do I always get stuck on dish duty?”

He changed into a black t-shirt and ripped black jeans, although half of the cuts he’d done himself. Rummaging around in the one box he’d opened when they first got here, he fished out a blue shirt, and groaned, tossing it over onto the mattress . The next thing he grabbed was a flannel. Basic, but it would make do. Red and black plaid around his waist, he grabbed his olive green messenger bag, covered in pins and patchwork and doodles. His laptop and charger were stuffed inside, as well as his sketchbook and pencils. Never left anywhere without it.

Phone in hand, he left his room, and walked to the front door. He passed Adam walking out of the bathroom, with his head wrapped in a towel and one around his waist, glasses slightly fogged from the steam.

“Is that even necessary? You don’t even have that much hair to dry?” Keith questioned, grabbing an apple from the fridge.

“Don’t hate my routine when you don’t care about your own hair, kiddo,” Adam said, over dramatically ruffling Keith’s hair. He swatted his hand away, walking out the door, with Shiro and Adam laughing behind him. He called over his shoulder, “Call me if you need me to pick anything up.”

“Yeah, sure.” Shiro said, and Keith grabbed his red leather jacket and stuffed his feet into his black and red checkered vans.

“Be careful,” Shiro called and Keith locked the front door.

And he left the apartment. With his bike helmet under his arm, he rode the elevator down. He passed the front lobby. The swivel doors were occupied by someone holding a bunch of boxes, so he took the side door.

He fiddled with his keys, looking for the one to his bike lock. He didn’t notice the person walking towards him, boxes covering his face. Not until they crashed into each other.

“Oh my god, shit. Shit, shit, no. No, oh my god,” The strangers rambled, grasping at the boxes that started teetering to the side, dangerously close to falling over. Keith threw his hands out to stabilize them, his hand coming over the other guy's hand.

“Shit, sorry, I didn’t see you.” He said to Keith. He poked his head around the boxes, and smiled at Keith.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Keith said, taking his hands off the boxes after making sure they weren’t gonna fall, and smiled slightly, “Sorry about bumping into you. Wasn’t watching where I was going either.”

“No worries. Thanks for not letting me drop these,” He smiled and moved out of the way for Keith to get through. He waved and the boy stuck out two fingers as a salute, and went into the building, talking to the guy who went in through the swivel doors.

Keith got his keys out and unlocked his bike chain from the back of the complex. He stuffed his messenger bag in the compartment in his motorcycle, and texted Pidge to say he was leaving to go to the coffee shop they’d agreed to meet up at the night before.

Keef

i’ll be there in like, 20 minutes

u better be up

and there

Pidge(on)

don’t tell me ur awake

a l r e a d y

dude its 8 am

im nOT leaving my bed this early

good bye sir

Keef

ill give you like 10 minutes after i get there

then im leaving

its not even my fault

u knooo shiro has like sum competition with the sun to see who can get up earlier

Pidge(on)

LMFAOOO

hes prolly winning too

uuuuuuugh fine

20*

Keef

whatever

just be there

and pidge i swear to god

if its some basic bitch place with watered down shit im gonna kill u

Pidge(on)

ur lack of faith in me is wounding

u wont be mad trust me

He pocketed his phone, sighing and zipped the pocket of the leather jacket he wore. Extra precautions. He’d broken his last phone that way. His bank account was not happy about it. He pulled his hair out of his face and tied it in a low ponytail, tugging his helmet on. The bike revved, and the low rumble of the engine was enough to set him into a familiar rhythm. Kick up the stand, put his leather gloves on, twist the handle bars, speed out the parking lot.

The wind got stuck in his jacket, and sent a welcomed breeze up his shirt. It helped his mind relax, the familiar feeling of his jacket wiping behind him as the wind rushed through it. He loved the feeling. The familiarity. It was always something he could rely on. Something to ground him, when everything got too much for him. He’d grab his helmet, and just drive. Back in Texas, he’d drive for hours down the dusty trains behind his parents house. Even though he hadn’t had a motorcycle then, and he was a child, he’d ride his bicycle for hours and hours in their backyard until his mom would call him in for dinner.

Then when his dad died from a firefighter accident when he was 10. He ran into a building, when everyone had told him not to go. He hadn’t listened. He was a Kogane, never backing down from a challenge. His mom packed them up and left right after the funeral. She said it was to get a new start, make a life for them somewhere else. So Texas would always be in their memories, but only the good ones.

Even then, he knew she just wanted to escape. Escape from the freshest memories, not the countless others where his father was present.

So they packed up, and moved. To LA. It had been impulsive. She’d applied for a position at the art gallery in the city, never really thinking she’d get called back. When she did, he remembered her being over the moon.

He’d gotten there, and always rode his bike around the neighborhood. To and from school. To the corner store. To hockey practice. That had been hard, for an 11 year old to go to practice with all his equipment on his back, and keep control of a bike. Krolia drove him after he tried once.

And while they were there, she met her future husband. They hadn’t gotten along with each other at first. Both insanely competitive, but never failing to compliment the other on their pieces. Friendly competition. They started hanging out, they started dating, they had their children meet at Bring Your Kid To Work Day. Shiro had taken a liking to Keith, and the two found out they were going to the same school. Even when they weren’t technically step siblings yet, he had always looked up to Shiro, from the second they met. So when, 4 years later, their parents got married, Keith was ecstatic. He was going to have a family again.

He still rode his bike, but not to escape anything. Because he liked his life now. Enjoyed waking up, having breakfast with his mom and her fiancé, and fighting over who got to use the bathroom first with his step-bro to be.

Everything was great. The wedding was sickeningly sweet. His mom looked beautiful in her dress. Shiro’s dad cried. Shiro teared up, his friend Matt sat beside him, also beaming with happiness. Matt’s younger sister, Katie, who insisted on being called Pidge - “What kind of name is Pidge?” 11 year old Keith had asked the 8 year old Pidge. “It’s my name. Matt gave it to me. Better than a boring name like Keef,” She said, a tooth missing from the corner of her mouth” - sat beside Keith, smiling up at them, glasses way too big for her face.

Everything was great. They were a family. Went on vacations. Shiro was the best big brother he could’ve asked for, and Shiro’s dad was really nice to him, and although he wasn’t like his own dad, Keith accepted him really quickly.

Everything was fine, until 3 years ago.

Keith shook his head. He didn’t want to go back there. It was a new beginning, Shiro had said on the way up to Chicago. A fresh start. Away from all the messiness of their past. Not that they were trying to escape when the opportunity arose, but they certainly did not turn it down.

He arrived at the coffee shop ten minutes after texting Pidge. He parked the bike across the street from the café, killing the engine. He stepped off the bike, and took his helmet off, shaking out his hair from the loose ponytail it was in. Grabbing his bag from the compartment in his motorcycle, he stared up at the sign for the café

When Pidge had told him to go to the Lion’s Café, saying it was the “the best coffee shop near campus”, what he was met with certainly wasn’t at all how he’d pictured it. Glass walls outlined the café, and even with the glare from the sun, he could see the many potted plants hanging from the ceiling against the glass. The sign was bold, each letter looping and connecting with another, in a gold cursive font. A blue coffee cup with gold swirls of steam was put in place of the tittle for the letter “i”.

Inside was no less intriguing. The counter was old, rustic, worn. Full of character. A glass display case for the pastries was tall, chest height, gold accents around the rims. Chalk boards hung over the wall behind the counter, the menu in swirly, colorful, cursive writing. Doodle’s of coffee cups and pastries adorned the corners of the boards.

The walls on either side were brick, colors ranging in warm tones, browns, dark burgundy, black, beige, with white cement between each block. Scattered art work lined the walls, white floating shelves a sharp contrast, each adorned in small potted plants. On the wall opposite from the front door, there was a large, floor-to-ceiling length mirror. The tables were made to look like the ring of a tree, with metallic seats on either side of them.

What really stood out to him was the room and wall on the far end of the café. Through the arch way, hung a curtain of beads. Inside, two couches with a mismatch of throw pillows sat on each side of the small room at the end of the café. There were a few tables behind the couches, still the same design as the seating area in the front. But the walls, the wall’s of the back room were what caught his attention.

The walls of the room were covered in books. Head to toe. All books, crammed into the shelves, books piled into the corners of the room, books piled on the corner tables on either side of either couch. He ran his hands along the books on the shelf. So many different books. Fiction, non-fiction, old, new, big, small, paperback, hardcover. There were so many. He looked up at the lights on the ceiling- Faerie lights hung along the ceiling, in a mismatch pattern.

It looked like something straight out of a movie. Or a book, whatever. Definitely something fictional. It didn’t look real.

And it was this close to campus?

Keith knew exactly where he would be hanging out between classes now.

He sat down on the couch, and opened his laptop, connecting to the cafe’s WIFI. He’d been there for a little over another the minutes when Pidge came through the door.

Keith stifled a laugh, a grin plastering against his face. Pidge looked...the same. The same as always. Tired, bags under her eyes. She had on her favorite green pullover, with an awkward collar that sat somewhere on the line between crew neck and turtleneck - and honestly, it was 80 degrees, he didn’t understand how she wore long sleeves all the time and hadn’t passed out from heat stroke yet. She had on cargo pants, probably Matt’s, probably something she grabbed from the laundry. Her backpack hung off of one shoulder, as she ordered something from the cash.

“Hey,” He said, when she sat down. More like collapsed, into the spot opposite from him on the couch.

“Why did you make me come here so early?” She groaned, arm over her eyes, head thrown against the back of the couch.

“Blame Shiro,” He grumbled, and turned back to his computer, tabs upon tabs of job applications open.

Pidge sat up more, turning over to face him, grinning, while taking her laptop out of her bag, “So, how’re you liking the Lion?”

“It’s cool. Not what I expected,” Keith said, not taking his eyes off his screen. It was more than cool, way better than cool. It was probably going to be his new favorite place, but he’d never let Pidge know that.

“Oh come on. It’s great. And I literally work here dude, you have to give it some credit,” She said, starting up the computer.

Keith turned his head, “You work here? You said you worked at a -”

“At a coffee shop? Yeah, this one,” She grinned.

“It’s cool. Aesthetic. Might draw it or something.”

“Must be pretty great for Keith Kogane to draw it, huh.”

He smiled softly, “Must be.”

And they sat in silence for a while, with Keith’s eyes scanning for applications, and sending resume’s and sending emails to Kijiji ad’s, and Pidge’s steady typing filling the air. Her coffee came a few minutes after - worker came over and passed it to her, and Pidge later told him her name was Ezor - and the silence washed over them again.

It was nice. He missed this. The comfortable silence they could get into, enjoying each others presence. It was familiar, and he reveled in it, since he didn’t get too much familiarity in his life. And he knew she understood how he valued their friendship so much. Even if he didn’t express it in so many words. She helped him, with grounding him, with being there for him, for pushing him out of his comfort zone.

Well, maybe he spoke too soon.

“Dude, there’s this party tonight. Some ex-frat boy or something. His parties are known campus wide, according to Matt. Legendary stories,” Pidge said, as they were packing up to go back to go back to Keith’s place. He’d roped her into helping him unpack his last few boxes.

“Keith, I am not unpacking your boxes for you. Haven’t you been here for like a whole week? Why haven’t you done it yet?”

“Didn’t it take you like, a month to finish unpacking your stuff when you moved here?” Keith countered, eyebrow raised, “I distinctly remember Colleen yelling at you through over Skype to unpack.”

“I’m like, 5’2. I can’t be expected to unpack everything so quick, when I can’t even reach the top shelf.”

“Whatever. I’ll buy you McDonalds if you come over.”

“I am offended that you think I will cave that easily.”

“And a tub of cookie dough.”

“Fine.”

“Okay, that’s cool. I guess,” He said, looking skeptically at her grin that would’ve put the Cheshire cat to shame, “Why are you telling me this?”

“‘Cause you’re coming.” She said. “And before you even say no, Shiro already knows. And he said that you should go.”

“Shiro wants me to unpack my boxes. Not go to a party.” He said exasperated. He held the door open for her to pass, and they made their way to Keith’s motorcycle.

“Pidge no I swear this is really not my scene.”

“You’re the worst liar. I can not even count off how many times you snuck out to go to parties back home,” She glared, tightening the straps of the backpack, so it wouldn’t fall off while they drove. “And how many stories you’ve told me over facetime.”

“Okay, fine. But I don’t know. I think I’m just gonna watch stuff. Not feeling up to it.”

“You will be. Don’t worry kiddo -”

“I’m literally 2 years older than you, but go off.”

“-We’re gonna unpack your stuff and make it all sparkly and pretty and then you’re gonna get ready to kill all the boys at the party,” She said, her grin falling from her face as he shoved the helmet into her arms, “Do I have to wear this? It probably has like lice or something.”

“Do you want to bash your head in if you fall off?”

“You would never let me fall off,” She smirked, reluctantly putting the helmet on, “You’re too much of a hero.”

Keith swung his leg over the bike, and kicked up the kick stand. He started the motorcycle, and Pidge’s arms tightened around his waist.

“Debatable.” He said over the roar of the engine.

***

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#klance #keith kogane #keith #lance #lance mcclain #voltron #vld #voltron legendary defenders #stardust klance #stardust #fanfiction

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return-of-a-space-cowboy · 4 years

Text

Part of my world (yandere Selfaware Sora X female reader)

this was originally three parts but here you go

To Sora everything seemed to be going on repeat. Everything he did felt like it had already happened, he could predict everything that happened in front of him. His wonderful adventures had become bothersome chores. Until he discovered what lied beyond, a place in which he could manipulate how his adventures played out. Fighting half a dozen bosses at once, exploring lost lands and discovering the forgotten treasures of the unknown. He could feel a sense of accomplishment and finally enjoy his life again.

But on one fateful day while mining through all of the data that he had uncovered he noticed one peculiar file, *$gpk79¶∆π. 'Strange I didn't see this file yesterday... Well let's find out' he thought as a opened the small piece of data.

In front of him appeared a young girl, around his age. She had shiny (h/l) (h/c) hair, soft (s/k) skin and unblinking (e/c) eyes. She just stood in front of him unresponsively. 'Maybe I have to interact with her' he thought. "Hello, my names Sora, what's yours?" He said while giving her a bright smile. She blinked and tried to speak but an ear piercing, distorted screech came out, Sora couldn't help but block his ears and cringe. She stopped and became motionless again.

He rested his hand on her shoulder. "Why are you here?" He asked. She didn't respond before she began to violently twitch which spread to him. "What's going on! Are you alright!" he yelled as everything started going black and her body became nothing more then a bunch of distorted textures. 'Oh no... I've crashed the system!" He mentally screamed, he always hated when this had happened. His sight went to blue as he blacked out.

🎁🎁🎁

After what seemed like hours of him altering the *$gpk79¶∆π file's code and numerous crashes. His work paid off. He had finally patched up the file.

The girl seemed to be sitting on thin air almost as if she was sitting on a normal chair. "Why don't you give up? I'm not supposed to exist... So why do you want to explore my code?" She said in a robotic voice. "Curiosity I guess" he answered her. "You know I have no real purpose... So why alter me? Most would have given up ages ago" She asked again "Well I just did, after seeing that you were a person I wanted to find out about you" he responded. "Anyway I didn't catch your name the last time I was able to get your file to work" he continued. The girl looked down before she replied. "I don't have a name... My code is just a jumble of numbers, letters and symbols..." "Well how about I give you a name?" He asked, making her look up at him with a shocked expression. "You would really do that for me?" "Of course! What's a person without a name?" He said as he put both of his hands on her shoulder. "OK let me think..." He said as he thought up all the names he could think of.

"How about (Y/N)?" Sora asked her. "It's perfect!!" She shouted in glee before everything began to reset. "What's going on Sora?" (Y/n) asked as she noticed what was going on. Sora said nothing as placed her neglected file in one of the worlds data.

"Giving you a life beyond the data scape"

🎁🎁🎁

You woke up in soft, cozy bed. The warm early rays of sun bringing warmth to your face. You hopped out of bed and put on some clothes before running down a flight of stairs straight into the kitchen.

In the kitchen you saw your mother but even though she was your mother, she gave off the vibes of a total stranger. "Oh, good morning (y/n) how was your sleep" she said as she gave you a warm smile. "It was good I guess..." You said as you sat at the table. "So any plans today?" She asked you. "I think I'll catch up with my friends today since it's summer Holliday's" you said automatically, almost as if there was no other option. You were deep in thought, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, before the sound of a toaster was heard and your mother placed a plate with two pieces of toast on it, both slathered in lemon curd.

🎁🎁🎁

And you did just like you said you would but the truth was you had no friends at all. All you could think about was 'Day 1'. Day 1 of what? Summer Holliday's? In a new home? Since you met someone? With everything that you were feeling it might as well be your first day of existence. All of these thoughts overwhelmed your mind until three people walked to you. A boy with messy blonde hair and brown eyes. A girl with curly brown hair and brown eyes and chubby boy with black hair and brown eyes. "Hey you look lonely, wanna hangout with us?" the blonde haired boy said. "Oh... Um sure" you said before the girl grabbed your hand. "OK then let's go!" She said as she pointed in a random direction.

🎁🎁🎁

As you walked in the door you could still feel a smile plastered on your face as you recalled fun things you did with the trio, who's names were Pence, Hayner and Olette. You walked straight to your room and looked for a journal in your bookshelf. You found one and opened it up and flipped through the pages, nothing. So you began to write.

Day 1 Today feels like my first day of existence, even thou I've lived prior to today, I know it sounds weird... It's just everything feels so new to me.

Anyway I made my first group of friends. Their names are Pence, Hayner and Olette. We all spent the day talking about things and walking around town and in the afternoon they brought me ice cream. Sea salt ice cream, it was actually a lot nicer then I thought.

They said I could come and see them anytime and that they enjoyed me being around... So I take that as a sign of friendship. I hope we can grow closer.

After writing your entry you hid your journal under your bed, so no one cold see it. Unaware that your journal had now a digital copy for any browsing in the data scape to find.

And it didn't take long for Sora to find it and it took less for him to read it all. A smile decorated his face as he thought of how happy you must be.

And so, every day you wrote down in you journal. He could see...

Day 2 Today Pence, Hayner, Olette and I ran a few errands to get some munny for a trip on the train out of town. We're still deciding on where to go. Maybe the beach? I don't know, we'll decide tomorrow.

Sora couldn't help but laugh a little. It sounded exactly like something Roxas would have wrote.

Day 3 Today was alright, Pence and Olette were pestering me and Hayner to do our homework.

To be honest I didn't even know that I had homework but at least I found out. It's a task for English. Basically we have to write... poems. Uh I know, a really boring and useless waste of precious summer days.

So while Olette and Pence were soaking up the summer sun, Hayner and I were stuck in the library looking for reference and inspiration. It wasn't all that bad thou. We actually got to have a good one on one chat and thou Hayner may act like a total jerk sometimes but he's actually a really nice guy.

But if you're still wondering about the homework. I'll say the truth...

It's nowhere near complete.

He couldn't help but feel curious as to how thing had played out in person. He started to wonder about the events that you may not have written about.

Day 4 Red robins perch up so high They spread their wings in joyous celebration

Tortoises lay down on the grass They stay put in procrastination

That's all I've come up for my poem so far. It's in an A,B,C,B formation but I hope the teacher will let it slide.

But to what I usually write

Today wasn't to much. I couldn't see the crew because it's to danm hot! So I just spent my time being a good student and working on my homework... Still not much done. I wonder what the others did?

Sora at this point really wanted to see (y/n) again. He hadn't seen her since finding her file, and by what she was writing she sounded a lot happier. He knew that you wouldn't remember him, he knew that when ever he restated the system everyone's memories were reset, so how would you'd be able to remember him?

It was then when he began to have a crush on you, which he found strange. He was nothing more then data himself. So why was he getting these feeling towards a programmed NPC that he had little to no interactions. He wasn't programmed to have true feelings towards others. Only interactions that compare to that.

To his displeasure days 5 and 6 were pretty basic, you were busy cleaning the house and days 7, 8, 10 and 11 were pretty brief. Like you started giving up on writing. He couldn't wait any more, he wanted to see you so badly. So had made up his mind, he was going to twilight town.

You were on your way to the hangout, you couldn't wait to see the group again and you couldn't believe that today had been a fortnight since you met them. What was going to happen today?

You then noticed a brunette boy your age walking around, looking around, looking lost. So you did what you thought was right and walked up to him. "Hey are you alright? You look lost?" You said to him, the brunette turned to face you before replying. "I'm fine, it's just been awhile since I've been here" he said as he flashed you a warm smile. You looked at him more carefully. Had you met him before? He looked so familiar... But how? You don't remember him, yet there was just something that clicked the spiky brown hair or maybe his deep cerulean eyes. "Have I met you before? You seem familiar" you asked him. "Umm I don't think so..." he answered. "My names Sora" he said as he held out his hand. "Well mines (y/n). It's a pleasure to meet you Sora" you replied as you shook his hand.

After the day had ended Sora couldn't help but wonder what you had written in your journal today, what did you think about him? It had him waiting in anticipation as he searched for it.

Day 12 Today I met a boy named Sora. He was a sweet guy but I couldn't help but wonder if I had met him before. Something about him just felt familiar. I hope I get to meet him again.

Sora couldn't help but smile at the passage, you still remembered him. Maybe not how but you still did.

The next day however was a different story...

Sora had spent another day in twilight town sitting down ontop of one of the many buildings taking in the beautiful sunset that forever painted the world. Until he heard familiar voices that caught his attention.

"I just... I wanted you here because..." The voice of a boy stuttered. "I really like you OK! The truth is... I've had a crush on you since the start of the year... During classes, I just couldn't help but stare at you... Your so pretty and-" he continued. "Your so sweet Hayner" a familiar female voice said, (Y/n) voice. Sora looked down and his heart began to ache. There you were, being asked out by Hayner. A deadly concoction of envy, wrath and fear began to brew inside of him.

"Of course I'll be your girlfriend"

Those words stabbed through him like a lance, his heart felt like it was being ripped out of him.

He had longed for those word... But he had wanted those words to be directed at him...

🎁🎁🎁

Day 13 Hayner asked me out today and I accepted. I've actually been having feelings for him for along time... I'm so glad he felt the same.

I can't wait to see him Tomorrow

Sora felt absolutely broken. In denial of what happened. His heart felt like it was being torn to shreds, he could handle it anymore.

So he did what he thought was best...

🎁🎁🎁

Sora was so sick of it. He had reset the game at least seven times already, every world he had placed you in had failed. "What's wrong Sora? You've been staring into space for the past two minutes" Kairi said to him but not out of worry, the dialogue had previously been written.

Sora had completely forgot about what was happening right now, he was on Destiny island, sitting on the palm he had so many times before... But this was the moment he was dreading, this was when he would confess to Kairi... But he didn't have feeling for her. He had feelings for you.

This was the moment he wanted to spend with you.

"Kairi... I don't love you" he said as the game froze and the sweet melody of the moment had become an annoying three second loop.

'I'm so sorry Kairi... But I'm going to have to get rid of you'

🎁🎁🎁

You were on the beach. Running in hopes of beating your friends in their race. A boy with short platinum hair who's name was Riku and boy with spiky brown hair named Sora, you had been the closest of friends since you washed up on the island. You struggled to catch up as a thick cloud of darkness appeared behind of you. You tried to run as fast as you could but the world around you crumbled away and the darkness swallowed you.

🔗🔗🔗

"Hey (y/n), (y/n) wake up" a voice said as they shaked your shoulder. You opened your eyes to see a spikey red head man in a black cloak. "And I thought you were gonna be the one to wake me up" he chuckled. "What do you mean?" You asked. He gave you a confused look. "You forgot!!!" He yelled in shock. "We're going to catch up with Sora today, you've been waiting for this for a fortnight! Got it memorised" he said as he threw the bed sheets of your bed.

You groaned as you sat up. Your phone beeped and you opened it.

Sora: hey (Y/n) can't wait to see you again. Missed you alot 😞

Xoxo

You smiled before replying

Me: same here! I have a surprise 😉

You pressed send and looked to the door to see the new dress you had recently brought and looked in the mirror to see your new hair cut. You couldn't lie, you have had a crush on him for a couple of years now but you didn't have the courage to tell him your feelings.

🔗🔗🔗

You stood in wait with Lea in the middle of Radiant garden. "Hey (Y/n), I'm going to see if any of the stores here sell sea salt icecream, I'll be back soon" Lea said. "Sure, could you get me one... I've never tried them before but if you like them then they must be good, right?" You asked. "Sure thing!" He gave you a thumbs up before leaving.

🔗🔗🔗

A few minutes passed. 'what's taking Lea so long?' you thought. A passing girl dropped a book and you quickly picked it up for her. "Here you go" you said as you gave it to her, but when you looked in her eyes you became confused. She seemed so familiar. Her dark burgundy hair, her cerulean eyes. "Have I met you before?" You asked in union. "Who are you?" You both asked. "Whoa... It's like we have the same mind or something" you both replied again. "Well my name's (y/n)" you said. "Kairi" she replied Kairi, it was such a familiar name... But you didn't know how. You were going to say something but a familiar voice called to you. "Hey (Y/n)!!!" The voice cheered. You looked behind you to see Sora. "Sora!" you called as you leaped into his arms. "How have you been?" He chirped as he hugged you. "Good" you said slyly. "Oh I just realised you got a hair cut, and new clothes" he smiled as you stepped back. "You look really cute" he said as he kissed you on the cheek. You felt yourself heat up.

"What are you love birds up to" you heard Lea say. You saw Sora go red as you did too. "Nothing" you both said.

🔗🔗🔗

The day had gone by almost too quickly. Eventually you had to say goodbye and you didn't know when you would see Sora next, but the girl you had met had constantly been on you mind. She was so familiar yet still felt like a complete stranger.

🔗🔗🔗

You woke up the next morning and put on your clothes. You grabbed your hairbrush and walked to the mirror, but instead of your own reflection you saw Kairi. You let out scream in shock and Lea instantly ran in. "(Y/n) are you alright?!" He yelled. "My reflection..." You mumbled as you pointed to the mirror. He walked to the mirror and looked. "What are you talking about?" He asked. "You look the same to me" he continued. You looked in the mirror again and you reflection was normal. "But I swear that I saw someone else" you said. He seemed to be in deep thought for a few seconds. "It might just be Merlin's magic" he assured you as he left. "I'll let you get ready"

🔗🔗🔗

These events had eventually become part of you day to day life. You saw Kairi everyday. In you reflections and in your dreams. At this point you accepted it.

"Hey Kairi!" you heard Lea call out. "Huh, did you just call me Kairi?" You asked. "No I didn't" he replied. "Anyway now's not the time to be drifting in thoughts" he said as you realized that you were in the middle of training. But just as you swing at one of the heartless decoys you got a pounding headache, you stumbled around until you finally drifted asleep.

🔗🔗🔗

You had that dream again but you weren't there, Kairi was. At that moment realisation hit you, you were never meant to be here.

You were never meant to be...

🔗🔗🔗

You woke up to see that you were in your room, Lea beside your bed. "I was never supposed to exist" you whispered, barely audible to anyone else. "Huh?" "Nothing, it was nothing" you replied.

🔗🔗🔗

This had been the very moment that Sora had been waiting for, finally he was going to confess his love to you. You both sat next to each other on the palm tree, a beautiful sunset that glowed in the sky.

He looked towards you. You looked so caught up within you thoughts. Then you held you head in pain. "(Y/n)! Are you alright" he asked. "Why did you do it?" You responded. "what are you talking about?" "Why did you mess with everything? Why did you keep switching me around with other people?" "You've been controlling my life, why did you do this?" You cried.

"I'll tell you why..." He cooed as he leaned closer to you. "Because I love you" he said as he tried to kiss you but you pushed his face away. "Your crazy, how can we feel emotions, were all just made of data" you yelled at him. He just gave you a warm yet unsettling smile. "I... Can't take this..." You said as your form began to twitch and glitch. "(Y/n)! What are you doing?!" he screamed "I can't understand..." You murmured. As the world around you became twisted and disfigured. "Can't live in this world, or any" you said as you began to fade. "I'm deleting myself" you told him. He began to cry and scream. "No! You can't leave me! I won't let that happen" he screamed. "Your selfish" you coldly said. "You like a spoilt child" you hissed as everything went black.

You were gone but Sora's crying became a hysterical laughter.

"Did you really think you can just delete yourself... Ha... Ha... Your file will always remain, if anything... You've just made my job all easier..."

🔗🔗🔗

You couldn't move, not an inch. You had locked yourself in this neverending abyss of nothing. This is what your life was like as a lonely speck of data. Forever trapped in a motionless body but you were oddly content with that. You felt safe and secure until that day had come.

"Oh (y/n) I've been looking for you for so long..." an eerily familiar voice coed as a pair of arms wrapped around you, the first feeling of contact would have made you flinch if you could. "But now I have you all to myself" he continued as he nuzzled his face into your neck. "Mine, mine, all mine" he repeated in a sing song tone.

You wanted to speak but you physically couldn't. You had no way to reject him. "Oh, your not talking to me" he sighed. "I'll just take that as a yes" he hummed. "Do you love me?" He said as he nuzzled your cheek. You so desperately tried to say no but you couldn't. "Of course you do!" He hummed as he grabbed your hand, to you it felt so stiff but obviously it was limp to him. "I'll never let you go my Princess..." He nuzzled your had. "Besides... You have nowhere to go..." He eerily sung as he shifted you to face him before planting a small kiss on your lips. "... You can not escape me as long as I have you locked here..." "This is my game... And I'm the one that decides what happens" he coed as he tilted his head, an loud crack echoed.

"And I am the only one that knows who you are... So don't expect anyone to try and save you, I mean even if another person then us became selfaware.... I could just delete them..."

#kingdom hearts #sora #sora x reader #yandere x reader #yandere #spacy works

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emilyxvalentyne · 5 years

Text

Alcoholic Love CH

A/n: So this is my first ever series so please bare with me. I may not be the best but I’m trying so please leave some positive feed back. Don’t let this flop please.

Disclaimer: This is just some good old classic fiction. I am not involved or do I know anything about the character used in this.

Warnings: not really any in this one but for the (series) there is going to be some of the following: alcohol abuse, drug abuse, cursing, depression, anxiety.

Summary: CalumXgirlfriend theres a rough patch in the relationship Calum has become distant, she slowly turns to drugs and alcohol to numb her pain.

A/n: please don’t let this flop!! Give me some tips on how to better it or if you have any ideas for me.

…………

I woke up to the bed empty this morning, I heard some noise going on downstairs so I assume Calum is still here. I got out of bed and put some socks on trying to avoid the cold floor. I made my way down stairs and into the kitchen. I saw Calum making some coffee. I slowly made my way behind him wrapping my arms around his torso resting my head against his back, he tensed up against my touch but didn't respond to it. I sighed and moved away from him walking over to the fridge, grabbing the butter, jam and orange juice. I set them on the counter next to Calum, who was sitting on a stool drinking his coffee and texting someone on his phone. I turned away from him and stuck some bread in the toaster. Calum seemed to be entertained with his phone to pay me any mind. I leaned my side in to the counter keeping me up on my propped elbow. I stared at Calum trying to read his face. Lately it's just been nothing but him working or going out, this is probably the longest we have been in a room together in about three weeks. He was dressed up as if he was about to head out. I would be lying if I said I wasn't sad that he was going out. I've tried talking to him about it but all he says is that he doesn't have time to talk about it or that he was to tired. I felt sad whenever I was alone here in our home, of course I went to work and did some college classes but whenever I got home to an empty house (besides duke) it always depressed me. I was pulled out of my thought when my toast finally popped up. I took out a butter knife and smeared the butter and strawberry jam on the golden squares. I poured some juice into a glass and put everything away. I pulled out the stool next to Calum and sat down. I felt Calum's stare burn into the side of my face as I sat there eating my toast.

'Do you want some of my toast?' I slide my plate over to Calum finally making eye contact with him. His eyes were dark and unreadable, but I could sense he was annoyed. Calum rolled his eyes and got up placing his mug into the sink. I felt as if he was almost annoyed with my very existence.

'No im heading out' I heard Calum mumble as he stared walking towards the living room. I followed I never ask Calum where he went anymore so I could avoid him getting mad but now I was kind skeptical on where exactly he was going. Calum was crouched down petting dukes head.

'Heading out where?' I asked more to myself rather then to him. I could practically see him rolling his eyes. He stood up and glared over at me.

'I'm just going out, God do you need to know where I am like your my mom' Calum was now heading up to our room I was right behind him following him into the closet where he continued to look for shoes.

'I never ask you where you even go anymore because you get mad all the time' I stood there in front of him as he sat on the bed tying his shoes.

'Well then why do you ask its just a waste of my time and yours' Calum was now putting on some cologne. He looked extremely agitated with me but at this point I could care less.

'Because I was wondering what time you would be home so we could hang out you know it's been a while since we-' I was cut off by Calum chuckling he stared at me as if I was stupid.

'Look I really don't have time for all of this right now I have to get going' calum said as he stared walking past me. But I reached forward to grab his wrist.

'Are you seriously to busy to even hang out with me? What has gotten into you, huh? All you do is go to rehearsal and go out with your friends, you seem to never have time for me, your girlfriend anymore' I looked into his dark eyes trying to see anything but all I could see was annoyance.

'Oh my god, fine then be ready by 6' Calum pulled his arm back and walked out of the room. I followed not wanting to give up.

'Are you serious, you are taking me out later?' I said before he walked out the front door. He turned around stood directly in front of me towering over me. I felt as if his eyes were burning into my soul, all I wanted to do was step back but I felt locked into place.

'Yes, I'll be back later' Calum reached forward and and caressed my cheek and leaned in placing a kiss on my forehead. He then turned out the door shutting it closed with a loud thud. I was left in the same position as he left me in. Confused his kiss didn't feel right on my skin anymore almost as if he had forced it. I walked back upstairs and into my room where I then laid on our bed. I glanced over to his side of the bed. It was slightly wrinkled as if he only slept on top of the blankets. I wish he was still here, I wish he would spend the day with me, I wish.... I wish he would love me... no he, does love me maybe he's having a hard time at the studio and rehearsal.

I rolled into my side and looked at my alarm clock it was 12:36 in the afternoon. I sat there deciding whether or not to clean the house. After a long sigh I got up and walked over to the laundry basket that of course had only my clothes in it with Calum's clothes all bunched up on the floor around it. 'For the last time the clothes goes into the basket' I groaned out loud, I put all the dirty laundry in to the basket and made my way down to the laundry room. I started organizing the clothes and washing and folding. It's amazing how much clothes Calum goes through in one week. After about an hour and a half of washing and folding I finally finished and fed duke and washed the dishes. The rest of the house was basically clean since I clean it almost everyday. I sat on the couch finally checking my phone. I responded to a few text and checked the time it was 3:17 I groaned and decided to watch tv. I flipped through the channels while duke laid on my lap.

'You understand me right' I spoke to the little furry dog that laid on my lap. Duke just continued to chew on his bone. 'Why is your owner such an asshole sometimes' this time duke looked up and whimpered almost as if he understood what I said

'But I love him just as much as I love you' I ruffled his fur and kissed his head. I got up finally making my way to take a shower and getting ready to go out with Calum.

I put on a two piece set with some sandals I curled my hair and sprayed myself with Calum’s favorite scent on me. My makeup was done and now it was just a waiting game.

6:30 rolled around at this moment he could just be late. I let duke go out into the backyard I watched him run around then come back inside where he literally stopped to look at me and then he ran back out. I laughed at every little thing he did he really does cheer me up when I’m feeling down. He’s like a best friend but I always wish he could talk that would be cool. I played tug war with him and I always let him win. He made me miss my family and my dog back home.

7:30 rolled around the sun was getting ready to set and there was still no sign of Calum. I knew at this point he wasn’t going to come but a small part of me still had hope. I was mad that I got all ready for him to not even show up but in the end I should have expected this it’s really no shocker. I texted him but it wasn’t the usual ‘hey are you still coming!’ Text. Rather I sent this instead ‘ you could’ve just told me you were busy tonight or not even have told me to get ready for disappointment tonight at all. It probably would have hurt less’. I dragged myself up stairs to change I put on some sweats and a Pink Floyd t-shirt, I slipped my checkers vans on and grabbed my credit card and keys. I decided to just leave my phone I got into my car and went to the local Mexican restaurant I usually go to. I really didn’t want to sit around being sad.

“Well well well welcome back, long time no see” Celia my usual waitress was always to cheerful.

“Yah yah yah I know” I laughed as I took a seat right in front of her as I scanned the menu as if I didn’t know what was on it.

“What will it be hermosa? The usual?” I nodded and handed her the menu.

“Wait Celia can I get it to go and a strawberry margarita to go as well please”

“Of course Emily, I’ll be right back” I scanned the restaurant it was pretty slow for a Friday night usually the place packed with customers.

“Slow tonight because banda MS is in town, how come you’re not there you usually love seeing and going to bailes mija”

“I wasn’t really feeling it tonight I guess” I wasn’t even feeling anything tonight. I didn’t even know my favorite Latin band was in town.

“What’s wrong chula you seem like you have a lot on your mind you know you can tell your momma Celia anything” I really wanted to cry she always made me miss my mom.

“I’m just stressed about school and work that’s all”

“No no I think this something else, do you got boy troubles is it that boyfriend of yours the Australiano” she could always tell what was wrong.

“Yah... he stood me up again I don’t know what to do anymore, god Celia i really love him, but he doesn’t seem to feel the same anymore. It’s like the more I try to talk to him the farther away he gets” tears welted up on my eyes but I held them in.

“Chula you cant force love, sometimes you just have to get up and go. If he is the one for you he will make that clear he will chase after you if he wants you for you because he loves you. And you will see that he wants you because he loves you, you will feel it but if he doesn’t want you then you need to move on and do what is good for you, you have to fall before you can get back up you are young and beautiful and dont forget you are a Latina, nos otras somos fuerte (we are strong) I don’t want to see you all sad next time you come in okay?” I hugged Celia she’s my mom from my home away for home.

“Okay thank you Celia” I paid and tipped her and left I made my way back home to finally eat my Nachos and drink my margarita.

11:30pm rolled by and there was still no sign of him. I always try and try and try. I Put others before myself, and my heart just isn’t ready to let go. I feel as if having this big heart of mine is only a blessing when it becomes an accommodation to other but it’s a curse to my feelings. I put my plates in the sink and my trash in the bin. I switch off the lights and locked up so I can head up to bed.

Another night alone, same bed that made me feel so loved and protected. Now it’s the place where I long for that innocent loving touch

#calum blurb #calum hood imagine #sad calum #calum 5sos #calum hood #calum hood fighting imagines #calum 5 seconds of summer #calum x reader #luke 5sos #ashton 5sos #micheal 5sos #5sos blurb #5sos imagine #5 seconds of summer #5sos #5sos fic

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hellishvu · 5 years

Text

Imagine BTS: with you who loves to play with their hands/hair

— hehe i’m currently writing this in mexico, on the plane, and on the bus back home...gays let me tell you... i’m very excited to start opening my story requests and the new look of august is looking good! also sorry about last story, i really couldn’t figure out how to add “read more” and it was acting dumb! also this imagine is probably the longest i’ve ever wrote and the real reason why it took so long to write !

Kim Namjoon: ˚✧₊⁎

Namjoon has been on tours and busy traveling to different shoots and interviews. You promised Namjoon you would come with him the next tour saving up all your vacation days to be with him on the bus you two are on right now.

You couldn’t guess how many hours of sleep he got. Half the time he gets the appropriate amount and the other time he gets less then 5 hours. You could tell by the the middle of the day wether he was grumpy or stressed out. Wanting you to hold his hand way more often being needy almost, you complied though everytime.

“Aren’t you tired Joon?” Namjoon leans on your shoulder typing at his phone listening to instrumentals trying to catch lyrical inspiration.

“Nope, need to write lyrics.” See when Namjoon comes up with an excuse of why he isn’t tired. That’s when you know he’s actually running on small amounts of sleep. You yanked your blanket from your backpack laying it on top of Namjoon seeing his suspicious glance.

“Are you sure angel?” Rubbing his hair, that was the man’s weakness and if he was tired he would fall asleep in minutes when you rubbed his hair. Looking out the bus window playing with his hair.

“Mmh stop rubbing. You know that’s my weakness!” Namjoon whines turning around when he places his head in the crook of your neck. Running your hand through his hair you couldn’t help but snicker seeing he looked like a big baby but he was your baby.

“I wonder what happens when I do that and why it gets my angel so mad.” Placing a kiss on his cheek while he wraps his hands around your neck basically putting more of his body on your side then his own seat.

“Not sleeping.” Namjoon says quietly hoping you didn’t hear but you did sending you to give him more cheek kisses. The rest of the members were sleeping and it happened that you wanted the hard working man to go to sleep finally when he has a chance.

“With the spell of love I command Namjoon to fall asleep.” You couldn’t finish your sentence seeing that Namjoon fell asleep already in your arms. Smelling his fresh scent hair that he washed before leaving to be bus.

Namjoon woke up seeing the roads of just freeways, yawning not realizing that he was well still on top of you. Grumbling you press him closer wanting him to go back to sleep.

“Angel go back to sleep. Still have.. 2 hours left.” He heard your breathing slow down because you were half asleep. Namjoon couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter because even if you weren’t awake fully you still called him angel. Namjoon went back to sleep even if in the back of his head he should be working on lyrics. That could wait he suppose.

“So you know that sculptor that I was basically couldn’t stop talking about?” After the bus ride the group separated, now being in a car with only Namjoon. Namjoon asks with a voice of interest while you search for a place to eat after the long bus ride.

“Yeah of course, what about them?” Driving because well Namjoon couldn’t. You love it when Namjoon talks about things he loves even if they weren’t understood by other people he loves it anyway.

“Well their workshop is here and I’ve been meaning to meet them.”

“But?” You asked knowing there was something holding him back from meeting this person that he gets inspiration from.

“But what if they don’t want to teach me? Or they think I’m stuck up?” You lowered the music when the lights were red. Namjoon looking out of the window before looking back at you.

“Angel who ever thinks you are ignorant is completely blind. I’m sure they will be so happy to teach you, you’ve brought many army to their creations of work.” With one hand you drove and the other quickly running your hand through his hair, Namjoon turning up the music once again.

You drove to a local restaurant to grab something quick to eat seeing the workshop was starting sooner then you’ll like. Namjoon almost chugging his entire ice tea and his meal. You rested your hand on top of his wanting to calm him down. You wouldn’t want him to throw up in front of the sculptor.

“Sorry, just nervous.”

“Joon Ive seen you nervous but this is something else.”

“Okay I’m excited, nervous, scared, and going to throw up all in one feeling.” Namjoon sighs pulling his hands up to his face. You ordered the check, going back to Namjoon pulling his hands down to see his face.

“You will be fine okay? And if anything happens you can call me.” Placing a tip you walked out with Namjoon holding his hand feeling his palms sweat. He went from sucking on the mint the restaurant provided to biting on it in mere seconds once he saw the building.

“You will be okay! I will wait outside and if anytime you think you can’t do it. Just wave at me and we’ll be out here.” Parking in the lot of the building, Namjoon seeing his confirmation of his ticket to the workshop. Taking deep breathes he opened the car door stepping out, cleaning his suit, and checking his breath. Before he walked in the building he waved at you, you responded to him by blowing him a kiss.

An hour or two went by, you going from playing music and singing in the car to hearing the local radio of your favorite celebrities interviews. Humming a tone you looked out to see many different people walk out with their sculptures. Some of them had just classic bowls while others had details pieces of work that could belong to a museum.

You tried to look for Namjoon till you saw him and the famous sculptor laughing together. That moment made you proud of Namjoon seeing that he took a chance and his reward was that he got along with his inspiration. Namjoon pointed at you in the car, you were taken back but waved seeing the sculptor pat him on the back before going back to the building.

“Wait before you drive! I got you something. Well I made it.” Namjoon gets in the car hearing you turn on the engine. Setting a cardboard box smelling the freshly dried clay, you hummed opening the box seeing a crab holding a heart.

“A crab—”

“Holding a heart! A heart for you!” Namjoon lifted it from the box turning it around for you to see all the beautiful details he put into. You kissed him on the cheek setting down the crab sculpture.

“It’s beautiful. I love it.” Leaning back from Namjoon, he pulls you by your neck pressing a kiss against your lips. He wanted to show you how grateful he was for you. To encourage him to take chances.

Kim Seokjin: ˚✧₊⁎

The morning was a special place for you, wether Seokjin came home late or early enough to catch you awake. You always know you can wake up to him. The face of pleasant sleep and dreams till he woke up fluttering his eyelashes yawning to see you admiring him.

“Didn’t know my cutie was a stalker.” Seokjin’s voice was starting to come back. The deep voice making you rest your head on his chest. His heartbeat against your ear and the warmth of his body that made your heart whole.

“You look cute sleeping.” Seokjin rested his hand on his stomach but it didn’t take much long for you to grab it holding the hand of his. Placing kisses on his knuckles hearing him snicker from how cheesy you are. You two could lay down all day and listen to eachother’s breathing.

“I’m sure I do.” You place the entirwing hands on top of your chest, you checking the time on your phone with your free hand. You had enough time with Seokjin before he had to get ready, him humming your favorite song looking into your eyes. The butterflies that Seokjin caused even months into the relationship.

“Give me kisses.” You cooed at him resting your chin on his chest seeing him have a slight grin. You now holding both of his hands with yours.

“1 Kiss.. 2 kiss... 3 kiss... 4 kiss.” Seokjin press his lips on your forehead, both cheeks, and finally ending it with your lips. Earning you a smile before giving him the same treatment.

The next morning was well a special one. Since it was your first month living together you wanted to celebrate in a special way and what better way was breakfast in bed!

“Y/N! Where are you?!” You heard Seokjin scream from the bedroom while you were getting his meal prepared. Almost sprinting back to the bedroom so you could keep your surprise a secret.

“What is it?” Peeking from the door trying to keep your secret from showing in your voice. Seokjin rolled over to your side of the bed wanting to get the cuddles he needs.

“I will come back to bed, just have to wash some dishes.” Sending him a sweet smile before he yawned. Running his hand through his bed hair, you could just go back to bed with him and play with his hair but you knew that you couldn’t break.

“I can help you with the dishes.” Seokjin hoarse voice making your knees weak but you brushed him off. Couldn’t go ruining your surprise, now you thought about it the food was probably getting cold while talking to him.

“No! No it’s fine baby. Just stay in bed and I’ll be back quickly.” Kissing his forehead he nods going back to laying down but not without giving you a look of confusion.

You checked the warmth of the food, getting the freshly toasted bread from the toaster. You tried your best to carry everything in one hand and you swore you had dropped some strawberries on the way to the bedroom. You’ll just have to clean them up later.

“To my wonderful boyfriend.” Cheering with your high pitch voice you opened the door seeing the bed empty with no Seokjin found.

“Seokjin?” You asked placing the breakfast on the drawer filled with freshly cleaned clothes. Peeking into the bathroom you saw Seokjin brushing his teeth noticing you were standing behind him.

“What is it cutie?” He raised his eyebrow before spitting out the toothpaste. You pointed out the bathroom door, Seokjin whipping off the water on his shirt seeing the breakfast perfectly made.

“Aww cutie... I’m so sorry. If I would’ve known I would have gone back to sleep and woke up to find my prince charming bringing me breakfast in bed!” Pressing his body closer to you forcing into a hug while you whine in his chest.

Another morning you remember waking up and not seeing Seokjin by your side. You yawned rubbing your eyes maybe thinking your vision was messing with you. The house was empty and silent making you dread of being alone.

Searching through the house, no bubbly Seokjin was found and that made you take out your phone. See the thing was that Seokjin when he leaves earlier then expected he puts a cute little note about it but you haven’t seen one.

The moment you send it the door opens with Seokjin. He opens his mouth not realizing you were in the living room. Seokjin held a black plastic bag which seems to be filled with take out breakfast food.

“So... first I thought you would overslept since you stood up really late and second I thought if you did wake up you would stay in the bedroom.” Seokjin places the bag on the living room table.

“So we both ruined eachother’s bed in breakfast plan?”

“Basically.” You two bursted into laughter, trying to do all this cheesy stuff but it never goes plan but you both know this was better. Opening the bag the box of yours had bold letters of your name and hearts around it.

“I love you.” Seokjin quietly says holding your hand. You kiss him on the cheek loving the moment of pure love. You love the man in front of you and you couldn’t see yourself with anyone else.

Min Yoongi: ˚✧₊⁎

Yoongi mumbles to himself, tapping his finger on his coffee lid waiting patiently. Maybe he wouldn’t be set up for the 6th time but he wasn’t counting... The warm cafe that once brought memories of first love and first encounters turned quickly into first disappointments and first heartaches. Yoongi was in a relationship but he had been neglected for months now.

Months of waiting by the person that so claims they love him, but he doesn’t remember love being so cold. He had doubts of his thoughts for a whole, thinking that he was selfish for wanting more time with them. That was till the massive amounts of make up texts he recieved saying the occasion “sorry” and “i’ll make it up to you.”

Yoongi felt a hand on his hair, almost feeling his body heat up from the touch. The lovable touch that he hasn’t felt in his chest for so long. Thinking it was the famous set up of his lover he turned around to see you, standing next to his booth at the cafe looking silly before realizing that this person was not your friend you thought.

“Oh. Oh! Shit I’m sorry. Should’ve made sure it was my friend before playing with your hair.” You apologized retreating your hand to stick by your sides.

First time someone apologized to Yoongi instead of Yoongi saying sorry for the mistakes of others.

“I would say it’s common, but it’s not everyday where someone plays with my hair.”

“Oh, yeah single club sucks a bit.” The saying made Yoongi freeze, single? Was there something he was missing? Like an amount of kisses he was suppose to get, an amount of hugs, and an amount of I love you’s?

“Oh actually I have someone. They should be here soon.” Yoongi quietly said looking into your eyes seeing the look of realization.

“Oh then I should probably go then.” Before leaving you said another “sorry” waving a goodbye to sit on the other side of the cafe. Going back to the main reason of why you were here, looking at your text messages of your friend telling you they couldn’t make it. It was fine you needed alone time anyway, to do work of course.

An hour went by, your lingering eyes raised up seeing the male still alone. Not even bothering to look around anymore for his someone. You tapped your fingers on the table seeing if an idea could go well such as asking if you could seat by him. You rubbed your eyes seeing them strain from working, the bright light came back into your vision but a shadow figure was in front of you.

“Excuse me?” The same voice from earlier you recognized. Blinking a couple times seeing the male from earlier acting rather shy sitting in front of you. His backpack on the ground of his chair meaning that he wanted to stay where he was. Yoongi even brought his drink along praying that you’ll let him stay.

“I was wondering since my significant other kinda stood me up and I got tired of the pity looks of the waiter. I just thought if I could sit with you. And my name is Yoongi.” Yoongi softly says smiling at you, placing his hands on the table leaning against them. The eagerness of getting to know you maybe was showing through body language but you couldn’t notice because you couldn’t stop staring at his hands.

“Of course. No problem, my friend cancelled plans so it would be nice to have company. My name is Y/N by the way.” You cleared your throat closing your work. Focusing on the person in front of you. Wondering who he was and why did he seem unbothered by being stood up?

“So how often are you stood up?” The question took him by surprise noticing he kinda tries to slouch on his chair to hide himself. Clearly you kinda jumped the gun you frantically had to think of something to say.

“Sorry again none of my business.” Seeing Yoongi look at the door of the restaurant, no sign of them. Disappointed but he sadly wasn’t surprised they wouldn’t show.

“This is the 6th time... in a row.” His voice quietly says the last part being embarrassed that he was still with them even after being bluntly ignored like left over litter on the ground. You did a quiet “oh” not realizing that this man Yoongi was actually having problems of his own. You two talked for hours till the restaurant was going to close and a waiter reminds you two of the closing time. Last call for any drinks was made while you saw Yoongi sip on his wine giggling with you. A genuine smile was on his face that he wished could stay on forever.

“Well you could always come over. We just met but if you need someone. Call me.” Writing your number on some bright neon pink sticky note that was found in your pencil pouch. You paid your check for the restaurant. Paying for Yoongi of course not wanting to put him into finical trouble.

One night you were getting ready for bed. Standing in your bathroom yawning before brushing your teeth. You heard a loud obnoxious ringtone that you probably should have changed by now since your best friend Namjoon loves to call spam you. You answered the phone hearing a slight voice that you heard before. It was Yoongi, you looked for an shirt while holding the phone against your ear.

“It’s 11pm Yoongi what’s up?” Turning on the bright light that hurt your eyes for a bit before adjusting to the brightness. Hearing Yoongi start a sentence before ending it and then trying once again.

“You know my lover? They poofed they left a note and just left me behind. I went home after work and found all of their stuff was gone.” You could tell he struggled to tell you, although just barely friends you wanted to be there for him. The sound of a helpless heartbroken man on the other line. You couldn’t leave him like this.

The night was introduced with Yoongi, his soft hoodie with pants that seemed he just chose and put on. You let him in, the warm hot coco already made for him to comfort. Coffee seemed too late but it would’ve been perfect for him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” The silence killed you, your mind still trying to wrap around how someone could just poof out of a relationship espically with Yoongi.

“Nope just want to watch movies.. but not love movies dear god. Do you have Chainsaw Massacre?” Yoongi sat down on your couch seeing the freshly popped popcorn you made due to wanting to catch up on your tv-show.

“Of course I do.” You laid next to him, stuck in the middle of “do I leave him alone in his own space” to “should I cuddle him or is it too early?”. Your stare spoke volumes to Yoongi catching you staring at him.

“Yes you can play with my hair.” Not the answer you expected but you took what you were given. Yoongi took off his hat running a hand through his hair before laying closer to you.

“Thank you.” Yoongi cooes when you play with his hair, wanting to stay in this position forever. Not caring what was going on with his life or his head. This moment was and is forever perfect.

Jung Hoseok: ˚✧₊⁎

You were hired for your expertise, having many happy customers and clients. To you it didn’t matter how famous they were you were on the case. But those different jobs completely switched when you were hired to protect the famous boy band Bts. That’s when you met Jung Hoseok, the man that changed the stoic persona and sometimes shoving people in airports and turned you into one of the softest person in this earth.

It was probably not the best idea to get together with a client but you couldn’t help when at the end of your shifts Hoseok would give you a present wether it was your favorite food or a teddy bear you accepted them. Days spent with you two shamelessly flirting till one day you asked him out in the middle of an airport waiting for security to clear them through... probably not the most romantic setting but he said yes in an instant.

Today was a big deal because they were coming back to Korea which means media will probably be all over them and knowing Hoseok he likes to put on a smile and show army’s that he loves them but it could be overwhelming fast.

“Are you going to be okay?” You asked sitting next to him in your all black outfit on the plane about to set down at the airport. You prepared your walkie-talkie to talk to the other security guards on your belt, silencing it so it could be quiet with you and Hoseok.

“I’ll be fine honey.” Hoseok likes to call you honey even if it sounds like you two were 90 you wouldn’t have anyone else tell you that.

“And if anything happens I know my ninja will save me.” Pinching your cheeks making you close your eyes with content.

“I didn’t chose the outfit I would have a bulletproof vest and those colorful halloween costumes.”

“Yeah because that screams security.” Hoseok chuckles resting his head on your shoulder wanting to get some alone time with you before chaos.

The time has come and time to show your “protect sunshine at all cost and his wonderful friends” mode was on. You were known on twitter for being one of the scarier but good looking guards. Many times you don’t have to use force to move the fans you can just give them a stare and they would kinda lean off.

Of course Hoseok never well seen it because he was too busy with army’s and waving at them, sending hearts to them. While you on the other hand was in a battlefield trying to keep them not too close where personal space was invaded.

The hard part was done, the flashing lights, the screaming, and the sometimes shoving was set and done for now till the next couple months. Driving in the dark vans that just scream “a famous person is probably in here” but the technology of tinted windows no one finds out it’s Jung Hoseok they are passing by. Holding hands with Hoseok because you were the giant softie. Caressing the back of his hand with your thumb.

“What does it say here? ScaryBtsSecurity is apparently trending everywhere?” Hoseok announces from the back seat you tempted to turn around and see who they are talking about.

“Honey, they are talking about you?” Hoseok was actually confused but seeing the photos, man did you look scary like you eat metal for breakfast scary. Hoseok looks at the photo and back to you seeing actually two different men.

“My giant softie?! Scary?” Hoseok chuckles switching seats to right behind you putting his hand over your shoulders through the spaces of the seat. Whining you tell him to not distract you from the road.

“If they knew.” Hoseok chuckles switching back to the middle seat seeing you trying to find his hand once again.

“Not soft!” You say wishing he was in the front seat instead of the back, but protection was more important than you touching his hair so you’ll just have to wait till you get home.

“So scary! You have no mercy!”

Arriving at Hoseok’s home you were excited because you had never seen his house before. It was a home that screamed Hoseok, the small plants in the front provided by Namjoon. The swinging chair that was painted by himself. The kitchen seems clutterful but just the right amount you can still find everything.

“My home!” Hoseok holds your hand while showing around the place. The photos of you two haven’t been hung up because you two got together during the tour so he couldn’t get them up.

The night came and most of the day was spent you helping him unpack and sorting out his clothes. He cooked one of his favorite meals for you to try while you stared at the wonderful man in front of you. When he ran his hands through his hair because it got in his face or when he tastes the food humming in satisfaction.

“So what is in your wardrobe?” Hoseok asks while you eat the perfectly home made meal. You choking on the food, never wanting Hoseok to ask that question.

“It’s all black.”

“You’re not serious-” The stare you gave him back was confirmation you are 100% serious.

“What do you sleep in? What if you want to go out? You just always look like a security guard?” Obviously there was things that you two needed to learn about each other but you were happy to explain.

“Well I don’t go out unless you guys do. I help with concerts and such so I’m basically everywhere you guys are.”

“I thought you just went to every concert to support.”

“I would go to every concert even if I didn’t have to and you know that.” Pouting because why would Hoseok ever think you didn’t enjoy him or his passion for music and the band. Hoseok disappeared into the stairscase of his home leaving you with your now cold meal.

“Here! No black and all security Y/N! I want to know the real soft honeybun you are.” Hoseok lifts up the Mang bt21 throwing it at you. He was already in his own matching with you if you decided to wear it.

“If I wear this, I get to play with your hair as much as I want.”

“And you get to hold my hand.” Hoseok shows off his hand no longer with rings but just his natural hands. You sent him a smile picking up the pajamas off the ground.

“You have a deal!”

Park Jimin: ˚✧₊⁎

It was time for you to hang out with Jimin for once in a while. The date or the outing was planned days ahead wanting to be perfect and no plans to be intrupted or ones that could go wrong. Jimin looked in the mirror fixing his hair before putting a pair of sunglasses on. He heard knocking seeing you peek on him getting ready.

“You look stunning.” Softly said as you caressed his arm seeing him blush with the compliment. Jimin poked out his tongue when you so “fixed” his hair. He complained that it looked good already.

“There was just a strand out of place.” You pouted seeing Jimin look back into the mirror closely trying to find anymore strands that were not in place.

You two walked to frozen yogurt, Jimin admiring the small moments when he isn’t shoved into cameras or the spotlight. Where he could just act natural with his delightful boyfriend. Frozen yogurt was your idea even if Jimin at first wasn’t fond of it but with a little convincing he was sold.

Walking in the bright colorful store smelling the scent of the different flavors and the toppings, hearing the pop music slightly in the background. You grabbed the size you wanted to fill with the sugary delight of the frozen snack. Jimin following right behind you sampling the flavors ranging from red velvet to the classic vanilla. Smiling at him you got your go to flavors before adding your favorite toppings. Sitting down across from Jimin. You started gobbling the frozen treat but stopped almost immediately when you heard a whine from him.

“I want to take a photo.” Jimin pulls out his phone and you couldn’t help but chuckle placing your plastic spoon back into the cup and shuffling it closer to Jimin’s cup.

“Are you done?” Grabbing the spoon licking the frozen yogurt you took back your treat. Snickering you saw Jimin stick out his tongue.

Jimin’s hair was one of your favorite things about him. The softness of it and the different colors of it always fits him. I don’t think there is a bad hair color on your lovely boyfriend. It was soft and divine always being the softest. Going to bed? You played with his hair even if he complained about you messing it up he always secretly loves it. So of course you take every opportunity to touch his hair or every excuse in the book, going through it all before Jimin stopped believing you sometimes.

You moved his hair from his eyes since he looked down eating his frozen yogurt, Jimin sending you a smile before secretly taking a scoop of your ice cream. Chuckling seeing your widen eyes when he placed it in his mouth doing an exaggerated moan.

“There was dust in your hair.” Ruffling his hair Jimin put his head down just accepting the teasing giggling at your excuse.

“No there wasn’t.” Jimin feels a bit of frozen yogurt on his lips, licking his lips from the melted cream residue. You kissed him across the table having your hand behind his head pressing your lips to his.

“Let’s go.” Jimin suggests separating from the kiss first. Scooping the last amount of frozen yogurt so he could throw away the bowl.

You pulled out the list of places to go while Jimin looked around the glowing city, smiling while he sees cute merchandise on the displays of stores even if he wanted to buy it he knew he had no use for it really.

“How about a park?” Jimin turns to you, his beautiful hair flowing due to the wind. He looked gorgeous and you found yourself dumb founded for a bit till Jimin snapped in front of your face.

“Sounds great.”

The day was still bright and the park had some people in it but not too much that either of you felt uncomfortable to the point of being paranoid if one of them knew it was Jimin. The natural breeze felt nice to the touch and the skies were clear.

“Do you want to take a photo together?” You asked seeing that your profile was lacking you and Jimin. You wanted to show him off to your friends because he was absolutely amazing and downright specular.

“Of course, always picture ready for you.” Jimin wraps his hand around your neck pulling you closer to him feeling his body heat.

You brushed your hand his hair, him looking up at your hand wondering what you were doing. Moving some strands of hair before clicking your tongue happy with the look.

“Just wanted to style it before the photo.” Jimin raises his eyebrow at your excuse of touching his hair. You raised your shoulders trying to push the excuse.

“You know you should be my hair stylist.”

“Really?”

“Yeah because you touch my hair more then they do.” Teasing you was Jimin’s speciality but you know it’s all in good fun because you always got him back with tickles or kisses which made him blush and laugh uncontrollably.

You were about to kiss him and attack him seeing Jimin was already ready for the attack reaching out his hands to stop the attack but you’ve heard a buzz near his hair causing you to stop in your tracks.

“What is it?” Jimin asks walking closer to you while you took the same amount of steps back. Crossing his arms he wondered what was going on with you.

“Jimin there’s a bee in your hair.” The bee flew around Jimin’s head before landing on the top of his fluffy hair. Pointing at it Jimin shook his hand around his hair but he didn’t see no bee.

“No there isn’t you just want to touch my hair, darling if you wanted to touch it you can just tell me—” Jimin stops mid sentence when he heard the familiar buzz in his ear standing completely still almost like a rock.

“There really is a bee isn’t there.” Jimin’s fear in his voice rises when you slowly nod. It took every bit of his gut to not start running around.

“Oh god!” He heard it in his ear once again starting to run now. It was his life or the bee’s and he has a will to live that’s for damn sure. You couldn’t help but laugh at your boyfriend running around while a small creature that probably means no harm is chasing after him. Hell he is Park Jimin, even a bee knows beauty.

Kim Taehyung: ˚✧₊⁎

Taehyung and you sitting at the science laboratory for a school project. Being the two nerds you were Taehyung decided to work on it during a weekend. The mixture substance that you two had to create for a final exam sort of thing. Present it to the class, pretend like you know what you are talking about, and get an A. The board of education about the substance half of it was bullshit you put on the board to fill up space and the other half was actual evidence enough that you were confident that you could get an A.

“Okay but we don’t want the details to fall off let’s use heavy duty glue.” Taehyung suggests grabbing the glue that definitely says “stupid people do not use.” all over it. Taehyung getting some on his hand but not giving another thought thinking he’ll just clean it later.

You helping him glue them also getting the sticky stuff on your hands but honestly you didn’t realize till the project was finished. You standing behind to see it all of its glory. The images of the formula and the iconic “By: L/N Y/N and Kim Taehyung.” on the front bold and clear for everyone to see.

You highfived Taehyung about to let go but you couldn’t. You turned to look at the hand seeing he was holding your hand, the visible sign of struggle when he also looks at you. Your eyes landed on the extreme glue and back to Taehyung.

“No...no no no no.” Taehyung frantically says running towards the glue dragging you along. You yelp out to remind him you’re stuck with him quite literally!

“Taehyung! I’m still stuck to you.” The palms of your hands were stuck to his so you decided the most comfortable way was to just hold his hand. Plus you two wouldn’t want to walk out with your palms stick together that would have looked weird.

“How do we get this off? Are they going to need to chop it off? It’s my writing hand!” Taehyung tried to grab his phone from the desk. Grabbing it in his non-dominant hand was another struggle. Typing at the google search of how to take it off, but the stupid signal was horrible at school. The system decides that it would be a bright idea to have poor reception to have the kids focus more on school.

Hoseok heard a door ring than heard slamming on his door, groaning as he got up from the couch the comfortable position ruined once he got up. Eating a quick chip before opening the door seeing you two. You are Hoseok’s best friend and also wingman you like to say on many days. Taehyung on the other hand had little to no clue who was Hoseok thinking that maybe he saw him from a english class?

“Oh you two are dating? Congratulations.” Hoseok stuffed his mouth with another chip whipping off the crumbs on his shirt. Only you and Taehyung would be working on a project on the weekend so the helpful list was short.

“We are not dating, we are stuck together.” Taehyung raised the hands. Hoseok well not taking you two seriously pulling at your hand to let go before you yelled out of pain.

“Oh— You two are serious.” Hoseok pulled Taehyung’s arm to come inside his house pulling you with him. Hoseok grabbing his phone searching up how to get rid of glue from skin while you and Taehyung sat down awkward distance away from eachother.

“Here you’ll need to go to nearby store. Since my car is broken down you’ll need to walk.” Hoseok passed you a list trusting you more than Taehyung. You nodded walking out the door holding hands with Taehyung.

“Let’s hope we don’t see anyone from school.” Taehyung whispers in your ear, you looked at your phone seeing the walk there was rather far so you plugged in your earphones disregarding Taehyung.

“You aren’t going to share?”

“Huh?” You unplugged your earphone seeing Taehyung sigh.

“I said “You aren’t going to share?” Taehyung pointed at your earphone feeling left out and just seeing two people holding hands but completely ignoring eachother would be seen as odd.

You surrendered passing your earphone to him, playing the music once again seeing Taehyung bob his head to the beat making you smile a little seeing someone enjoying your music taste. You held his hand tighter getting used to his soft hand rubbing your thumb on the back of his hand.

The actual store was filled of “Are you two dating?” it ended up with you and Taehyung trying to come up with a sensible answer that didn’t embarrass you two. It was also filled with Taehyung picking snacks on the way to the supplies, stopping at almost every colorful candy packaging and cookies that were all different types of flavors.

“Here it is!” You grabbed the supply shaking it a little. Taehyung gave you a thumbs up for the success of your eye. The rest of the items were found in a short amount of time.

“So why are you taking this class again?” You asked grabbing some snacks on the way since the walk is rather long. You two didn’t have money for a bus pass and the money you spent on the supplies were provided by Hoseok.

“I heard it was a good way to see your study skills are up to par and if I want to take much more advanced classes might as well work my way up. If I work hard enough I can help more and more people.” Taehyung snacks on the chips, you holding the bag while he basically feeds you. At first you two were awkward crimson blush rising on Taehyung’s cheeks when he fed the chips to you.

“That’s nice. Just make sure you don’t overwork yourself. You’re kind Taehyung, the world needs more of you.”

“Well thanks Y/N. You’re not too bad yourself.” Taehyung sways your held hands still sharing your earbuds, smiling when his favorite song comes on.

“You hear this? Holy shit I’ve been waiting to meet a fan so I could take them to a concert.” The time stops when you two stare at eachother’s eyes seeing them glimmer. Taehyung couldn’t take his eyes off you but he felt his face heat up looking back on the ground.

“I’m sure we can go sometime.”

“Is that a date?” He couldn’t believe his ears. You were good looking to Taehyung and you seemed to be smart and kind so maybe it could work out. Taehyung wanted to find out.

“I don’t know, is it?” You raised a eyebrow walking up the steps of Hoseok’s house throwing Hoseok the supplies to get the sticky love hands away. While Taehyung dreaded the moment your hand lets go of his, placing his thumb against his palm longing for your hand.

Jeon Jungkook: ˚✧₊⁎

Jungkook felt his heart race, speed walking pass all the crowds of people he thought were good. Jungkook pushing through people getting glares he couldn’t care less though because all he wanted was to go see his demon boyfriend on the other side of the realm. Plugging in his earphones to distract his running thoughts of the beytral.

Jungkook learned that elves were never the so kind and genius people that just wanted peace. They got their peace all right but by blood shed and cries of lives taken away from the demons. To learn that your kind is a complete lie made Jungkook want to run, run so far away from this house of elves but running away from your own loyal house was known as crime and who even knows that dating you a demon that they were going to let him off easy.

Jungkook basically slammed on your door wanting you to hug him, run your hand through his hair that you always do no matter how much he claims to not love it. He’s always loved it and he’s yearns for it when you two are seperate. He heard the door open seeing you almost jumping on you, he wasn’t suppose to look at that, he wasn’t suppose to hear what his so called leaders were talking about, and he wasn’t suppose to have such a responsible of knowledge on his shoulders.

You had no idea why Jungkook was basically hugging you like it would be the last one. You rubbed his back seeing him slowly break apart from the hug seeing his eyes flutter him trying to form a sentence.

“Here we should go inside.” You pulled him into your house, it wasn’t the best but it felt homey and that is why Jungkook spent more time at your house then his. His felt forced like the drawings when he was little that his mother forced him to make even if he didn’t want to or the forced pressure of all of his older brothers awards clear on display to remind Jungkook that he needs succeed or else he’ll be a failure to his family.

“Everyone just lied to me. Everyone pretended we were the good guys.” Jungkook whispers out when he entered your home making sure you closed the door behind him.

“Koo what are you talking about?” Your thoughts ran seeing Jungkook so worried so all over the place. You tried to reach out to him placing a hand on his shoulder but he basically shivered up like a cold rush ran through his body.

“I heard something I shouldn’t have. I learned the real reason why elf’s are where they are now. I learned the truth and it can possibly kill me. Elf’s were never the so beautiful and elegant creatures everything thinks. We killed your kind for fun. We— We never needed a war but we started it anyway.” His eyes piercing through yours, you could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t lying, yes Jungkook was known to sneak around and let curiously get the best of him but now? Curiosity could get him killed.

“Koo it’s fine.” You tried to reason with him, to keep his mind at bay for an hour or at least a minute but that only made him erupt more. Jungkook wasn’t mad at you at all. He was mad at himself of how could he just believe something so idiotically.

“No it isn’t! Every bad thing that happens, demons are blamed for! A elf getting caught? He’ll just say “A demon made me do it!” and everyone defends that elf blindly.” Before Jungkook could start crying, his voice become bitter you pulled him into a hug once again. Hearing him sniff into your chest knowing that history of the kinds, you two were different and you never want to let your kind get in between him and you.

“Thank you for everything.” Jungkook voice comes out muffled but you could tell how genuine he was. You held his hand when he separated from the hug. Smiling at him, you hoped that even if he was taken away from you. You would always run through his mind.

“If you want to run away, from everything. I will go with you in a heartbeat you know that right? You know how much I love you?” Placing a kiss on his forehead wanting to a see a smile from Jungkook even if it was just a small smile. You would take anything to see Jungkook get better.

“I know I just... should I do something? Leave an anonymous article about the truth? So the realm could understand? The wolves, the fairies, the demons, and the humans? Should I do something?” Jungkook said placing his hands on your chest looking up at you. His ears twitching as like when he was confused expect this wasn’t a math problem. This was something that could ruin kingdoms or worst destroy them.

“When you’re ready. I’ll be here with you, by your side. You know what to do Jungkook.” The heart racing at some point you could see Jungkook’s eyes sparkle. You pressed your lips against his seeing his elf ears go red and your demon horns warming up from the love you two have.

“Now let’s go cuddle and let me hold your hand.” Dragging him by his hand you let him lay on your chest his face humming when you ran your hand through his hair. The favorite position fit like you two were meant to be.

“No one will seperate us. I love you for you not because you’re an elf or your status. I love you Jeon Jungkook.” You meant every word wanting to comfort Jungkook even when he didn’t show he was anxious you could sense it, almost like your soul was connected with his.

A/N: finally USED THAT ONE YOONGI GIF!! that’s all... that’s the authors note.

#bts #bts x male reader #bts imagine #bts jungkook #bts jimin #bts namjoon #bts seokjin #bts taehyung #bts yoongi #bts hoseok

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imaginetonyandbucky · 7 years

Text

Careful what you wish for

Prompt: Imagine Tony and bucky not getting along which results in them getting into a prank war. The other avengers complain so naturally they team up together to get everyone else and it is the best thing. I mean the worst thing for everyone else, but still the best thing.

Steve knew the atmosphere in the Tower would be tense. The so called superhero civil war left them in a certain state of disarray for the longest time, but three Earth-threatning incidents later, the team was back together trying to overcome the past in order to face the future. And for the most part, it’s been working. If he was concerned about anything in particular, it was Bucky and most importantly how Tony would take his now quite permanent presence.

However much they had worked through the programming, Bucky still behaved like the Winter Soldier at times and some of the Avengers were less than impressed by the fact. Especially Natasha, who would whip out a knife out of nowhere whenever she spotted his behavior shifting towards the darker side.

To Steve’s outmost surprise, Tony didn’t overreact. In fact, he just didn’t react at all at first. With a nonchalant shrug he one day presented Bucky with a new arm, said something along the lines of “We’re cool, it was HYDRA” but then proceeded to ignore Bucky at every opportunity. And when their paths inevitably crossed, sparks started flying - and not the good kind of sparks.

No actual fight happened…yet, but Steve fears the day when one takes an argument just a bit too far and the other starts throwing furniture – or worse, weapons – instead of swear words. The situation just couldn’t get any worse.

Or so he thought.

Because then one morning, few weeks after they all moved in, Bucky shuffled to the toaster to prepare his usual breakfast – he put two slices of bread in and waited for the standard one minute and a half that it took to get the perfect golden sear, looming very Winter Soldier-y over the machine. The toasts popped out after said time, but instead of two perfectly crunchy and yummy toasts, two pieces of black and smoking charcoals jumped out instead.

“Must have put them in for longer, Bucks,” Steve told him, making excuses for the small device even if he knew it was precisely one and a half minute. Bucky counted every second, of that he was sure. But seeing his best friend glare at the poor toaster so fiercely he feared the machine would explode any minute, he just quickly took the ruined bread out and put a new pair in.

Exactly one and a half minute later, history repeated itself and the two slices of bread popped out blacker than the night, the awful smell of burnt pastry now spreading across the common floor’s kitchen.

“Let’s uh…try a shorter time then,” he offered, still trying to save the situation but when even after mere fifteen seconds all the toasts ended up cremated, Steve gave up.

Bucky’s glare intensified with every failed attempt at saving his meal, he even let out a low growl and that’s how Steve knew the machine’s days are numbered.

“It’s probably just…malfunctioning,” Tony said, appearing in the doorway, cringing at the smell. There was something odd about the way he said that, but Steve couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Bucky was a different story though. His glare zeroed in on the grinning engineer, the murderous intent quite evident. Before Steve could intervene and stop what he believed would be one angry Winter Soldier jumping one still brightly smiling Iron Man and murdering him right there and then, Bucky grabbed onto the toaster and crushed it to bits in his metal arm, eyes never leaving Tony.

Said engineer’s grin twisted into something Steve didn’t really understand, but as Bucky walked around Tony to leave the premises – bits of the destroyed toaster littering the floor as he went – a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes. A challenge. One that mirrored itself in the retreating assassin’s eyes.

Little did Steve know at the time, that what he witnessed was the beginning of a war.

The next time Tony emerged from his workshop after a week-long inventing and scheming binge, he barely even greeted Clint and Natasha sitting at the kitchen bar and went straight for the coffee maker. He wasn’t about to let the Winter Menace gain on him in the ongoing war score by foolishly thinking his most prized kitchen device remained untainted by the vengeance thirsty assassin, so he inspected it very carefully before deeming it safe and switching it on.

He smirked triumphantly, when the coffee maker did what was expected – brewed coffee – without any strange occurrence. Clint and Natasha exchanged a questioning look and continued watching him as he victoriously hoisted the finished product, poured himself a healthy large cup of it and joined them at the bar.

“Looks like I’ve overestimated the double ass-in,” he muttered into the cup, somewhat disappointed.

Disappointment turned to horror the moment he took a big gulp of the black liquid – it was coffee, only it’s been apparently mixed with balsamic vinegar. He spat the entire mouthful out, right onto his two very unamused companions.

“You wanna die, Stark?!” Natasha blurted out at him in Russian and he only understood it because that’s what he translated it as after the Winter Wonder growled the same sentence at him two days ago, when he slipped into his military grade boots during a routine assemble, only to find them full of egg yolks. Tony’s glee was short-lived even then, because when he put the helmet on to cover his smirk, he found it filled with lube.

He still didn’t want to speculate on when and how did the Winter Soldier acquire it, because just imagining him waltzing into Wallmart and casually buying a bottle of lube and some pretzels sent his brain on a whole different adventure, one hardly compatible with his battleplan.

Nevertheless, nobody gets away with tainting his sacred coffee! So he sneaked around Natasha and the slightly stunned bird-man and headed straight to the workshop.

It was time to up the game!

Bucky no longer remembered who started it, let alone why this prank war between him and Stark commenced – other than the fact they were kinda in each other’s hair for quite some time after he moved in, but he would be lying his teeth off if he were to say he didn’t start enjoying this somewhere along the way. The Winter Soldier part of him in fact relished in the schemes and was equally impressed by his pranks as well as Stark’s. So instead of pointlessly wandering around the Tower – which is basically all he had done before the prank war has been declared – trying to figure out what he’s supposed to do with his newly found life, he would now spend his days devising devious pranks, setting them up and then evading, or failing to evade Stark’s own.

And it was glorious.

What he was not sure about is if Stark was enjoying this because he still fiercely hated him for what Bucky’s done and for who he was – or – if he was having just as much mischievous fun as him now.

Considering the pranks gradually turned jovial – even flirtatious if Bucky dared say – as opposed to the initial malicious ones, he would like to believe it was a combination of both…leaning toward the second. Hopefully. Maybe.

The real problem wasn’t even Stark. But the other Avengers, unwittingly ending up in the middle of the warzone majority of the times, were beginning to grow tired of the conflict. And their cup of patience was bound to spill over.

He was sitting with Steve, Sam and Natasha in the kitchen – a hot spot for pranking activities, so most avoided it now – when Stark walked in, immediately alerting to Bucky’s presence.

“Please tell me the kitchen’s safe today, man!” Sam pleaded, squinting between him and Stark.

Neither answered, Bucky just shrugged with an innocent ‘You’ll never know’ expression while Tony cautiously made his way to the counter, longingly staring at the coffeemaker.

Since the vinegar incident, Bucky made sure to not temper with it anymore. Of course on purpose. Because if Stark spent the past few days thinking it’s safe to operate, then…

Stark made the same assumption as yesterday and clicked the on button without second-guessing the decision. In an instant, the coffeemaker was showering coffee onto everyone in the vicinity – including him.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, dude!” Sam cursed, ducking underneath the table.

“Seriously, Bucks?” Steve whined, not even bothering to hide from the onslaught of the still warm beverage.

Natasha somehow managed to avoid the carnage by teleporting around the doorway, from where she decided to glare at Bucky.

“You do realize, Barnes, that you just got caught in your own set-up?” Stark asked, slowly turning to face the table. He was completely drenched in coffee, but despite his state of undoing he looked as collected as ever.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Stark,” Bucky replied, face falling emotionless.

Stark’s mouth twitched for a second there, but he didn’t break the cold stare. “What I’m talking about is that you are losing a point for this. Sure, you got me, but you got yourself too! Counts as friendly fire in my books.”

“You’re keeping a score?!” Sam all but yelled from under the table.

“FRIDAY is. I’m winning, right?” Tony asked, smiling brightly as if streams of coffee weren’t going down his face.

“Not exactly, boss,” the AI answered carefully.

“Right, I almost forgot!” Stark clasped his hands together and his stare turned into a neutral expression Bucky has learnt to understand as ‘danger ahead’. “You might wanna leave the room now. Gotta clean this mess.”

He wanted Bucky to leave the room, specifically. That much Bucky figured from his daring look. Was there something waiting for him in the common room? Pie to the face? Maybe some beads to slip on and fall? Deciding to humor the engineer, he got up…or tried to get up. “What the…,” he blurted out, looking over his shoulder to see that the chair was very much stuck to his butt.

“Now you’re winning,” FRIDAY announced after that, clearly counting the extra point for Stark as decisive.

“Yesss,” Stark hopped into the air, flashing up a victorious sign for good measure, not caring one bit for the coffeemaker that was still on rampage behind him. “You uh…seem a bit…stuck in there, Winter Blunder,” he pointed at the chair, not giving way to Bucky’s attempts at unsticking it.

Bucky sent the clearly amused man the deadliest of looks, noticing how Steve tensed up and Natasha procured not one, but two knives.

If Stark wanted to play dirty, he could indulge the man no problem. He was Bucky Winter god damn Soldier Barnes. So he broke his cold stare into a grin that maintained its dangerousness and did what one had to do in his precarious situation.

Unbuckled his belt and undressed from his jeans.

That sure dealt with the chair issue. And effectively wiped that victorious smirk off of Stark’s face. Good thing he wore the ‘Fuck…’ ‘…off’ boxers today – finally an opportunity to wiggle those at the right target presented itself.

“Just letting you know, boss, that I am adding a point to his score for this,” FRIDAY surprisingly took his side, even sounding amused.

“Okay, enough is enough!” Steve smashed a hand against the table and nearly broke it in half, scaring Sam shitless. “You, you,” he pointed at him and Stark separately, then turned to Natasha, “all of you in the common room, now! Call everybody in there, FRIDAY!” he commanded and stormed to the entrance. “Oh and if the two of you have something, anything to confess before we step into the room now’s the time. Because I swear to god if someone trips on more wires or gets superglue and confetti to the face, again, I will seriously hurt somebody,” he warned, face dead serious.

That was one pissed-off Steve Rogers, if Bucky had ever seen one.

Stark cleared his throat, side-stepping around him. “You might not want to sit on the sofa then,” he actually confessed.

With a sigh, Bucky added onto the disclosure. “And avoid the glass doors to the terrace.”

“And…don’t step on the carpet. Don’t even ask,” Stark adds when Bucky frowned at him.

“Riiiight,” Steve took a deep breath. “Is there any room in the Tower other than our private ones that are a hundred percent safe?” he asked patiently.

Bucky exchanged a questioning look with Stark and answered in sync with him. “No.”

“Nope. Well…the roof, maybe?” Stark suggested.

“No.”

“Oh…the workshop then.”

“Definitely not,” Bucky shakes his head.

“You don’t have access in there!”

“Had to get creative,” he explained with a shrug. “The gym looked safe last night.”

“Yeah…so did the coffeemaker,” Stark argued with a suggestive smirk.

“I see. That’s a no to room safety then, Stevie,” Bucky summed it up to one furious looking Captain America.

The Avengers poured into the common room and per Steve’s further directions remained standing in front of the elevator, because everywhere else was a minefield. His words, not Bucky’s.

“Why are you all wet?” Bruce frowned, looking disturbed.

“Forget that but why are you not wearing any pants, dude?” Peter asked with an unreadable expression, pointing out Bucky’s state of undress.

“And why are your butt cheeks telling me to fuck off?” Clint added, covering his eyes with a cringe.

“Long story,” Bucky retorted simply.

“This,” Steve began once he had everyone’s undivided attention, “whatever this is,” he flailed his hand at the two of them, “gotta end. Now.”

“What do you mean?” Stark squinted at the Captain. “There’s no this or that. Nothing to end here,” he motions between himself and Bucky.

“He means the prank war, you assholes!” Rhodey explains for the Captain, looking accusingly at his best friend. “You know, the one that started couple of weeks ago and is annoying the hell out of everyone in the Tower?!”

Stark fakes the most offended expression ever. “I would never! Me and pranks? No! How dare you…you traitor,” he mouths at the Patriot.

“He’s right. It was amusing at first I have to admit,” Wanda chuckled at Stark, “especially when you fell asleep in the kitchen and woke up with kiddie stickers of Captain America plastered all over you…but it is getting ridiculous now. We are caught in the crossfire all the time. You want to fight then fight, but leave us out of it!”

“Nobody is fighting anyone…please,” Steve came in after the Avengers erupted in agreeing rumble. “I mean it. This war is over, you two. If you can’t get along and can’t work together then…then don’t. I get it. You don’t like each other, point taken! I hoped…I wished that you would and it’s really sad that you can’t but if that’s how it is then I can’t do anything about it now, can I? Just…keep out of each other’s way, ignore each other, whatever works for you! Just stop this madness…,” he trailed out with a sad sigh and turned to leave.

The Avengers all nodded and hummed in agreement, sending them dirty looks while following Steve out of the common room, leaving the two stunned pranksters alone.

“Woooow,” Stark groaned, throwing his head back. “Just when I thought I’ve had enough of Disappointed Steve to last me a lifetime.”

Bucky sighed, silently agreeing. Did they take it too far? It was just a bit of harmless fun…right? They didn’t mean for the Avengers to be the collateral damage in most of the pranks but what’s the harm in some splashed coffee? Can’t the Avengers take a joke?

“They really can’t take a joke, can they?” Stark unknowingly voiced Bucky’s inner thoughts and at the same time confirmed something for Bucky.

So it was all fun and jokes. Not an ‘I hate you, but I can’t straight up murder you so I’m gonna prank you’ war. Not anymore at least. It was just for good fun now and it was really good, too. They were really good at this and that’s what made it so enjoyable.

That’s where Bucky realized that Steve was wrong. It’s not that they disliked each other…not anymore. It’s because they found out they actually like each other, with every new elaborate prank. So it dawned on him right there, that they can absolutely fulfill Steve’s wish.

“Hey Stark,” he began, staring at the flustered engineer. “You realize he just wants us to work together, right?”

“Yeah, well. Too bad! He’s a spoilsport! Him and this whole bunch so Capsicle can take his wish and stick it right up his spangled ass!”

“No…what I mean is…he told us to stop this,” he gestures between them, “prank war thing. He told us to stop this and ignore each other if we can’t work together,” he grinned.

Stark alerted to his suggestive tone and squinted at him. “So?”

“So, Mr. Genius, if Captain America wants us to work together then hell. We can work together…right? If they acted like this with just the two of us throwing pranks at each other…imagine the nightmare we can come up with for them if we do work together. As per Captain’s wish,” he slowly spelled it out for the frowning man, until his confused expression melted into a matching mischievous grin.

“I see…yeah! Hell yeah, those little uptight bastards…,” he muttered, clearing his throat and looking straight up at Bucky. “Well then Mister Barnes, looks like we are burying the hatchet for the greater good that is mutual teamwork. My genius and your efficiency put together, the Captain is going to wish he had never wished for what he wished for!”

“Serves him right. And it’s Bucky,” he grinned wider, offering his flash hand to the man.

He shook it despite Bucky fearing he might not. “Tony. Now, let’s destroy those killjoys!”

“Yeah…but first, tell me what you did to that carpet,” he demanded, looking suspiciously at the white fluffy carpet in front of the television he preferred to sit on.

“You tell me how and what you rigged my workshop with and we’ve got a deal.”

“Deal.”

Steve knew the atmosphere in the Tower would be tense. The so called supersoldier vs. supergenius prank war left the team wondering if now that it’s over they can freely roam the Tower again and hopefully not witness any more disputes between Bucky and Tony. After his intervention he feared their relationship or lack thereof would in fact escalate for the worse.

And oh, he had no idea just how worse it would be.

Just few days later, after everything seemed to have gone back to normal and it was indeed safe to move around and interact with objects inside public rooms again, Steve had learnt the meaning of the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for’. Because if he thought Bucky and Tony not getting along and fighting was his biggest nightmare, they went the extra mile to prove to him that them working together, as he wished, was actually even worse!

Nowhere was safe anymore. Nothing they touched was safe anymore. Their sanity was not safe anymore.

Clint couldn’t even think about slithering through the vents as usual because every day, there was something new waiting to get him in there. Like mouse traps, glue or milk or fifty gallons of lube just sloshing in there…and Steve really didn’t want to think about where they got fifty gallons of lube from. The internet no doubt.

Natasha found her entire wardrobe full of formerly black ninja clothes was filled with pink ones. Pink. Natasha’s! Pink spandex, pink lacey dresses, pink hair ribbons, pink high-heels, pink underwear. She was ready to murder the perpetrators instantly, but found her entire stash of murder knives turned into pink plastic ones, with Hello Kitty stickers on them.

Vision couldn’t move through walls anymore, because the spaces in between were, according to his words, littered with disturbing erotica posters. Wanda couldn’t even round a corner without some ridiculous Halloween decoration jumping out at her, making her shriek in fright every time. Peter’s webbing was now regularly changing color, consistency and even smell. Sam couldn’t go for his morning runs because his running shoes were either filled with something or they mysteriously turned into high-heels, no matter where he hid them.

Bruce thought he’d be safe, but no. His clothes just disappeared. All of them. All he was left with were dozens of pairs of Hulk-themed underwear. Tight underwear. He tried buying new clothes, but they would disappear too. And eventually all the nearby storeowners would just present him with Hulk-themed kid clothing, just for him.

Rhodey appeared once in the common kitchen, looking blue – actually blue, like his skin was this bright shade of blue – and he just straight up left the Tower. Receiving further reports of him going all kinds of colors and even him with a long blonde hair, leaving clearly didn’t work out for him very much.

Thor…where to even begin with Thor. Who now had short spiky hair and was clean-shaved. And his hammer…oh Mjolnir got some major face-lift. Tony’s words of course, claiming that lift is not worthy of lifting the hammer but his lift is worthy of lifting the hammer’s spirits. It was red and gold now. Which would match Thor’s robes somewhat, if those didn’t mysteriously turn into Loki’s.

And Steve was naturally the pair’s most favorite target, for they never once failed to color all three orange juices in his fridge red, white and blue – so he could have a true, patriotic breakfast every morning, according to Bucky. Speaking of red, white and blue that’s what his room was decorated in, from the walls down to the carpet, the bed and the furniture, the entire bathroom, too! His clothes, his wallet, his hair, his gym, his favorite French croissants – all red, white and blue…and the national anthem was set on his alarm now and it played whenever he entered the common floor. During training, it would instead play ‘’Murica! Fuck yeah!’.

All in all, it took just one week for Steve to wave the white flag of surrender, apologize to team WinterIron – which is what they called themselves now – and yield to their prank mastery. He even told them he was impressed and really happy that they get along…if only they could now show their newly found friendship and teamwork to…their enemies instead maybe?

Which resulted in HYDRA and Nick Fury both getting pranked at every opportunity instead of the Avengers. And if Steve began to think his two friends now get along a little more than just friends, he didn’t comment on it.

As if he or anyone else dared to, after all this.

- Lantia

#winteriron #tony x bucky #tony stark #bucky barnes #prompts #lantia #swearing #humor #prank war

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monkey-network · 7 years

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Good Stuff - THE TROOF ABOUT STEVEN UNIVERSE - Part 3.5

WARNING: If you want to be charitable, give people some of your time. If you want more, here’s Part 3. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

Steven Universe is a charming, popular show with a quad-polar fandom, and I’m only here to point out what I say is legitimately wrong with this cartoon. Simple enough? Fair enough. Next point:

RONALDO:

Okay. Okay. This isn’t a big point about SU’s world building or anything as serious as my previous installments, but I just wanted to address this for simple, contemptuous reasons #regardingthetroof. Call it a rant, if you wish. This dude...is the most invaluable character that I will ever see, and I mean EVER see. It takes a lot for me to genuinely HATE anything or anyone, and I mean a LOT. But, in all seriousness, I hate this character more than anyone in this show and in my entire life. Like, bear with me here. He..he’s like a piece of toast.

Just picture this

You get it fresh out of the toaster, it’s warm, crisp in all dimensions, and it has that good looking gilded tan to it. It looks perfect. You quickly get some preserve (whatever’s your taste) out the fridge, grab a clean knife, and you just flawlessly spread that on there to nearly every edge and corner of the toast. After you put quickly everything away, you get back to the toast, it’s cooled down, and it is and could possibly be the greatest thing you ever created. Soon as you seek to pick it up and take that first bite and........

SPLAT!

you drop it, jam first, onto the floor. Now that’s okay, nothing is truly perfect. Just take a deep breath, throw it away, clean up the mess, and start over. Have that notion that you can always make something better and things like that can happen. With Ronaldo, though, he’s like if you don’t do that and you just eat the toast that just went splat on your floor and act like it doesn’t matter. Yeah, you can relate, but relatability can only so far. He doesn’t offer anything insightful, nothing funny or valuable, he’s nothing even good or valuable as the show’s comedic punching bag. He’s nothing. He’s... dirt floor toast.

I don’t want no damn dirt floor toast!

And the worse part is, and this is the only time I will ever say this, he could’ve been great. Conspiracy nuts can offer something most supporting characters in shows don’t knowingly bring to the table: intentional doubt. Character’s actions and involvement should have some sign of uncertainty while possessing a naivete in going along with it like its audience, and characters like Ronaldo can bring that to a sensible light. Problem is, they’ve made him so admittedly pathetic that it sheds any confidence, respect, and seriousness that he would want out of us.

Most would know Dib from Invader Zim, and he’s Ronaldo done right. He gets pushed around, can be full of himself, and everybody basically laughs at everything he tries to prove. But, he can be so enigmatic and relentlessly dedicated, that we see, with enough seriousness, where he stands in trying to point out the fact that our main character is actually the villain of the show.

But, everything in Invader Zim just screams conspiracy

Another example would be The Powerpuff Girls and their episode “Documentary”, where a filmmaker is trying so hard to get good info on the girls for his documentary about them. Again, there’s that charisma and dedication that, while his efforts can come off as pathetic as Ronaldo’s in his episode (”Rising Tides/Crashing Skies”), there’s still that sense of seriousness that he’s not doing this just for show, but for his interest in the heroes’ everyday lives. And in the end, he does learn something from his experience.

youtube

And you can watch it now, while Youtube lets it lasts...

Now one might say, “Monkey network, what about Rocknaldo? He offered intentional doubt towards Steven when he wanted to join the team.” To that, I say fair point if it mattered. And it mattered as much as a fan of Deadpool asking the creator of Deadpool “What do you know about Deadpool?” Self aware? Yes. Meaningful? To a degree. Insightful? No. Annoying? Yes. There’s letting it slide, and there’s throwing more than enough softballs.

Ronaldo has no good quality, therefore no necessary validity, not anymore; he’s shamelessly pathetic and vain, and the only thing he’s given as a character is to be less of an asshole to Steven and the gems. Even the most obnoxious(?) got some level of respect out of me. I may have pointed out specific flaws with SU’s elements for more than enough words, but I have never nor will ever said that they weren’t trying to accomplish something in said flaws. This? No way. They not only didn’t try, but never really made him any better. This character failed, man, and now we’re stuck with him, like a itchy butt hemorrhoid. Take with this what you will, believe it or not, but THIS is the lowest Steven Universe has and will ever provide in terms of quality.

Congrats, show. I’m so proud of you. You did good. You’re going places. I wish you well. Got a full career ahead.

#steven universe #su #su critical #su criticism #su critique #cartoons #reviews #analysis #rant #Good Stuff #Roy Macintosh #ye #awesome #the powerpuff girls #invader zim

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ecotone99 · 5 years

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[RF] How about a tour?

First, you walk down that black asphalt path, with short-trimmed grass on either side. The HOA makes everyone keep it like that, no matter how sickly it makes it look. A strict line of long-stemmed yellow flowers hugs the perimeter of the house, contrasting nicely with the freshly power washed brick exterior. Not as elaborate as some of the other house’s gardens, but I think it goes really well with the vibe of the lot.

You probably noticed this is one of the smaller houses on the street, but it’s by far the best maintained. We rent it from this Puerto Rican couple who take the curb appeal so seriously that when my roommate tried to start a vegetable garden, they made her cover it up because the patch of dirt threw off the symmetry of the front entrance.

It’s a strange little house, but the layout works for us.

Once you come all the way up the blacktop walkway and get to the concrete steps, you can just start to make out our stove through the semicircle window on the front door.

Thanks to the placement of the stove in relation to the window, I can always see if my roommate is cooking something. If she’s cooking in a frying pan, I know she’s not expecting anyone. If she’s cooking in a sauce pot, I know she’s either expecting a man, or her sisters. Either way I know I’ll be hiding out in my room all night trying to air out the smell of Indonesian food.

Once you push open the door (don’t worry, it’s normal for it to take a couple tries, use your shoulder) you’ll be in a narrow corridor that opens into our semi-spacious living/dining room.

You can’t miss the artisan shoe rack my roommate bought before she even had money to buy a mattress that didn’t have to be inflated. Please use it, or she will throw you out. No, I’m not kidding. And then we’ll have to vacuum every room, even the rooms you weren’t in. So just put your shoes on the rack.

Perfect, so that clears up pretty much the only house rule (for guess at least.)

Step over the faux-Persian rug at the end of this hall and you’re in our living/dining room. The kitchen is kind of depressing to look at, but my roommate makes magic in that sad little rectangle. Sometimes I wish there was a door, but if the door were ever shut, there wouldn’t be enough space to move around.

You know what, let’s just get the kitchen out of the way since it’s the lowest point of the tour. Right this way, just keep going straight, perfect. So here we are. The solid white tiles with the little grey flecks remind me a lot of my school cafeteria’s floor which might contribute to my distaste for this room. You can go in front of me, we won’t both fit in here.

Fun fact, when we moved in, the two countertops facing out towards the living room weren’t here. This was all shelf space. But then there was only the one counter next to the stove and we kept having near misses with pot handles. We had to fight tooth and nail to get permission to install these, I don’t think the landlady appreciated our challenging her interior decorating sense. She finally agreed to let us take the shelving out if we paid her husband to install the counters. A little sketchy, I know, but he was actually cheaper than anyone else we looked at, and the counters work fine.

I’m not thrilled with this beige on brown look, but hey, they have a lot of drawers, so I just like to think functionality won out.

Watch your head on those hanging baskets. They’re actually just strips of mesh we bought from a fabric store and stapled to the ceiling. I can’t believe they’ve held up so long. You can probably tell the one with the apples and bananas is mine. The ones with unidentified root vegetables and stuff are my roommate’s. This first one is cassava. Underneath that scratchy brown stuff there’s this starchy white flesh. My roommate eats the entire hanging bag’s worth every month. Cassava would definitely be her desert island pick.

This middle one is just different kinds of rice, which she swears are all unique and serve different purposes that are not interchangeable, but between you and me I think they all taste the same.

Oh! Ok, this is the fun one. So these three vegetables find their way into just about everything she makes. The long prickly squash is called oyong, she doesn’t know an English term for it. It tastes like an okra and zucchini hybrid. These football shaped pale green buddies are called calabash. It’s pretty mellow. The feather lettuce is actually called dragon bean. She says if you eat it raw it’ll kill you, so, watch out for that one. I’m too scared to eat it cooked even. And the garlic is just garlic.

Stacking the toaster on top of the microwave was her idea. We definitely wouldn’t have had space for both, she eats toast every day, and I need a microwave for survival, so this was a good compromise.

There isn’t really a story to the fridge magnets. One is the Indonesian flag and the other is a running grocery list. Nothing exciting.

Alright, so the living/dining room is potentially our landlady’s greatest achievement.

This space is actually smaller than our entire bedroom yet there’s this nice blue couch we bought at an estate sale. It fits both of us and the dog. There’s the TV which , while small, can get really loud. And before you even say it, yes, it was my roommate’s idea to stack the tv on a shelf so we could keep books.

The dining room table and chairs were already here and when we moved in — the landlords basically said “we own this table and have nowhere to store it, so it’s staying here.” But that was fine with us. It’s nice to have a separate space to eat and study than right in the living room.

Plus, I can’t count the heavy objects I’ve dropped on this table, and still no dents. Whatever it’s made out of is solid stuff.

All those paintings of flowers are my roommate’s. She’s a great embroiderer too, but she refuses to hang any finished pieces because she thinks they look tacky. You can tell my family photos from hers because, well, they’re the ones without Indonesian people in them. And, yes, the framed Bible verses are mine, don’t judge. It’s mostly to keep my mom happy. She has a key and I never know when she’s going to decide to drop by.

We should really throw these flowers out, they’re starting to smell. They don’t look dead, but they smell dead. These side windows don’t open all the way, so if we get dead flower smell in here, we’re stuck with it for at least a week.

Oh, sorry I should’ve mentioned, that little door across the hall is the bathroom if you need one. Just, knock first, because it’s the only bathroom so it has the shower and everything. We have more magazines in there than underneath the tv. That other door, the one that looks too thin to walk through, is kind of an illusion. It’s not really a room, it’s a pantry.

So once we head up the stairs, you see the clever dividing plan my roommate dreamed up. It’s basically just a series of freestanding shower bars, but these curtains really do function like a wall. They don’t block sound, but they block light.

I don’t know who designed this house to have everything on the first floor then a weird little bedroom shoved into a second floor like an afterthought. It’s too separate to be a loft but doesn’t have enough to really call the second floor.

Right hand side is me, lefthand is her. I know this treadmill is kind of the elephant in the room, especially wedged between these two curtains, but I’m a personal trainer and I just had to have some equipment in the house. It can get logistically complicated. Like, if I’m running and she wants to come out of her room, I’ve got to stop the machine so she can step on it to get downstairs.

Ok. Let me just pull back both curtains so you can see everything.

Our bedspreads say a lot about our personality. Her sensible, temperature controlled beige plaid blanket made total sense for her. She likes things organized and practical. I picked this frilly leafy green one, and while I have to wear a sweatshirt to sleep in the winter, I love looking at this thing. I think this year I’m just going to suck it up and get a heavier blanket to use over it. Oh, feel the rug right by the bed, it’s so soft.

It was originally a bathmat, but I liked the texture so much I use it as a bed carpet.

I’ve had that blue bunny since I was 6, but the teddy bear I didn’t get until high school. That one’s a long story for another day.

I’ve got a rack of weights pushed up at the end of the room, and they’re worth every inch of space they take up. I’ve been using these suitcases as a modular dresser, but as you can see, my roommate has plenty of space for a dresser. Not that she cares.

This aisle between the bed and the weights is where I put my yoga mat when I make my YouTube videos, recognize the poster that’s always in the background? I don’t even really like that band, I just loved the album cover art.

My side is usually the emptier one. I feel like the less stuff I have out, the cleaner it is, the bigger it feels. She’s the opposite, she feels like the more stuff she’s got spread around the more she’s taking advantage of the space.

She’s a freelance programmer, and that computer is the most expensive thing in this house by far. More than the car out front.

Her art supplies double as her decor. She can’t stand trinkets or desk toys because she thinks they don’t serve a purpose. Ten mason jars of perfectly sharpened colored pencils, one for each color of the rainbow plus one for black, one for white, grey, and silver, and one for brown. Every time she uses a pencil, she immediately sharpens it into a perfect point again before returning it to the mason jar.

She’s got paint pens stashed behind the jars, her last roommate always used them up so she got into the habit of keeping them back there. That way if her jars are disturbed she knows someone’s been messing with them. I can’t draw to save my life, so she’s really wasting her breath hiding art supplies from me.

She keeps her clothes in these clear plastic drawers stashed underneath her bed. I’d show you but I don’t want to mess up her covers, she’s sensitive about that. They’re basically like the kind of drawers you’d find in a school supply closet.

That speaker may look small but damn it gets loud. Especially when she gets in her feelings and starts playing gamelan. I can’t even tune that stuff out with headphones on.

The dog likes it though, and it never likes any of my music. Why did we get a dog when the place was already so... cozy? We didn’t really have a choice.

We were at the park one day passing by this adoptathon for pets and it was just finishing up and this one sad dog was the only one who wasn’t adopted. We didn’t even ask any questions about her, we just adopted her there and then. Thankfully she was housetrained.

We’re pretty sure it’s because she didn’t go up to potential adopters so people thought she was standoffish, but really she’s just arthritic. We’ve got her on supplements now and she’s doing so much better. But we still keep her bed downstairs, because you never know what kind of day she’ll be having. She usually only ventures up here if she thinks we’re eating food.

I think her name had something to do with it too. Octavia is a weird name for a dog. It’s not comforting. The first thing we did when we brought her home was change it.

Oh, it’s funny you ask, we thought she was a mutt at first but we just found out she’s a Brittany. They’re usually medium sized but of course we get, like, the biggest Brittany ever created.

So, where I have weights and where a normal person would have a dresser, my roommate’s got this collapsible easel she paints her flowers on. Sometimes she takes it to the park but things have been so busy this summer. And then yah, that’s all computer stuff, it’s really sci-fi to look at but I can’t open it. She keeps it all locked in this titanium locker thing so if we’re robbed they won’t get taken. That stuff is her livelihood. If we’re gone for more than a day somewhere she even locks her desktop in there as well.

So, yah, that’s pretty much it. I’m so glad I got to show you. Thanks for sticking with me through the whole house. It’s small but it’s got a lot going on! And you should see it on Nyepi, that’s this Indonesian holiday, to this day I’m still not sure exactly what it’s for. But she takes it really seriously, decorating and cleaning and stuff.

Anyways, let’s head downstairs and I’ll take you around the rest of the neighborhood. There’s a cute little park, there’s a cool coffee shop if you want something to drink, there’s a hair salon that also sells flautas that are great. But the guy who sells them doesn’t keep regular hours so we’ll just have to try our luck. You can’t really walk anywhere else interesting from here but the bus stop right at the end of the street where you turned to get that spot goes to pretty much anywhere in the suburbs and right into the middle of the city.

Let’s head down, we’ll figure it out as we go.

Man, I really wish I could’ve shown you her computers. There’s a spare key behind one of these paintings, but, eh, you can imagine what it looks like, right?

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