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fandomdaydreamer · 2 years

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The Lighthouse and the Ocean

Part 16

Elsewhere

Pairing: Pedro Pascal/OFC

Warnings: slight angst, FLUFF

Summary: Pedro has a plan how to make the most out of Nini's days off work. Their encounter with a dubious gang seems to be just 'meh, whatever' compared to the important question he is burning with.

Notes: Also find this fic on Ao3 -here- or the series' Masterlist and Playlist -here-

May some light reading bring a little comfort during these very difficult times. My thoughts are with the people in Ukraine and all human beings in the world who are the victims of a war.

Length: 10.4k

Elsewhere

When Pedro returned to his hotel room, the day had far progressed into a warm November afternoon but she was still dead asleep to the world. He had hoped she hadn't noticed his absence but the tall glass of water he had left for her on the nightstand was empty and she was sleeping with her hand resting on his 'BRB' note. Judging by the way Nini was hugging his pillow, she had missed his presence.

Intense fatigue made him lean against the wall and a deep exhale escaped his lungs, for he was grateful for a moment of peace and silence. Pedro was running on exactly zero amount of sleep. At least he had finally managed to settle everything that needed to be done to put an end to this chaos and secure Nini's further wellbeing. He could sense the tiredness seeping into his bones, now things were finally smoothed over and the only thing left on his list was for her to get better.

Too much ineffective caffeine kept buzzing in his system and this strange kind of restlessness remained, especially because he had just gotten off the phone with her best friend.

"Wait, I've been trying to convince her to see a therapist for 'years' and then you manage to change her opinion after knowing her for a couple of months?" Tom's heated words had provoked uneasiness between them, for Pedro had thought the younger man had been seething with anger after he had to tell him what happened.

"Listen, Tom, I'm not trying to replace you as her best friend. In this situation, I-" Pedro had tried to calm him down but found himself interrupted by a loud sob. He had felt startled and suddenly worried. "Tom?"

"Thank you-" The Brit's voice had pitched over the phone and the realisation, how much Nini was loved, had crashed over Pedro like a tidal wave that shouldn't have been surprising at all. He had been stunned into silence by this misleading conversation but had lost all tension once he fathomed the amount of gratitude Tom had felt in that moment.

"Oh, oh uhm, okay." Pedro had stuttered. "Maybe it's going to be a journey with many obstacles but she will pull through, alright? I'll tell her you called." Pedro had promised because he didn't know how to respond.

"Do you love her?" Tom had finally asked, voice strangled by a sound that had been half a hiccup, half a chuckle.

Pedro needed a moment to sort his emotions and compose himself. He could pinpoint so many moments during their acquaintance when his heart had fluttered in his chest and had spread this warm feeling into the depth of his soul. When he closed his eyes, the picture of her smile seemed to be the reason why he felt illuminated.

It seemed he didn't even know when he had started to fall in love with her. Like Jane Austen once wrote, 'it had been something coming on so gradually, he hardly knew where it began. "I do." Pedro had replied in simple words but the truth had lifted a weight off his shoulders nevertheless. Yes, he loved her, of course, he loved her.

Finally, Pedro relaxed as he contemplated the echo of his words. He let them bloom in his chest and he retreated into his bathroom for a minute. It was the same place he had sat on the floor last night after Nini had fallen asleep, where he had tried to wrap his head around the story of her past. He had spilt a few silent tears then, feeling numb and overwhelmed with devastation. It still made him question why tragedies like this existed, because her father had been full of rage, fuelled by grief and because horrible things happened to good people and the most vulnerable; innocent children.

His eyelids fluttered down towards the fresh rose he twirled between his fingers and he found it to be a perfect vision from every angle. Pedro tried to be as quiet as possible as he filled a small vase with tap water and placed the light pink rose next to the sleeping beauty resting in his bed.

Watching the soft cadence of her breathing felt comforting and he pried a discarded strand of hair from her face. A sad smile tugged at the corners of Pedro's lips while he treated her gently like a precious little bird in the palm of his hands. He was glad she wasn't conscious to see his worried expression, for he felt a heavy heartache bruising within himself.

God, he adored her so much. The all-consuming, familiar feeling hurt in a good way and grew in abundance the longer he studied her sleeping form and peaceful, kind face. His affections only seemed to intensify with every breath that left her lips.

Pedro knew she would be alright again. The colour was returning to her cheeks little by little and even though it was only a small comfort, her sight soothed his weary eyes.

His sweet girl who only tried to chase her hopes and dreams. This talented artist, reaching for the stars. A strong woman, who had accomplished so much already despite her deep battle scars and the heavy, invisible baggage Pedro had just learned to see last night. How could he ever begin to comprehend what dark kind of storm stirred underneath the surface of her carefully constructed guard? Her undiagnosed anxiety alone should have been a severe disability if she'd only taken it seriously at some point in her life. He was making assumptions at this point after he had researched scientific data in the early morning hours, knowing he wasn't a psychologist. The only thing he knew for certain was that she needed a break. A proper break.

Pedro's eyes were wider than before, though so little had changed, he could see much more now and he was endlessly impressed and moved by all those years she just endured her struggle.

He sat down at his desk by the open window and massaged the bridge of his nose to relieve the pressure behind his eyes. The painkillers weren't doing anything for him and he was tired but he couldn't allow himself to catch some sleep just yet. Keeping one watchful eye over Nini, he guarded her sleep so her mind wouldn't play tricks with her dreams like it had at some points during the night. The best way to pass time in this deceptive picture of his personal idyllic paradise was to distract himself with work.

Of course, Pedro wasn't productively working on anything at all. His eyes skipped across the sentences of his screenplay without actually reading any words. He started over but his thoughts kept drifting away.

Nothing had changed the fact that he had been struggling to ask her an important question for more than a week... before their fight and before her breakdown. He didn't feel any different, for he was wondering, now more than ever, if she would maybe, just maybe consider- or could imagine that, perhaps- urgh- they were ready to take the next step in their... relationship? Pedro contemplated this specific word and didn't dare to assume. 'Relationship', the way in which people or things were associated... an emotional or sexual connection between two people. True, but it was also a term of commitment.

They had never brought up labels but he had realised in the course of this month that this was what he really wanted. Dreaming about it seemed like the only right thing to do while his wishes treaded lightly to the borders of reality. Whatever they were, it felt like something real.

He prayed Nini hadn't looked into his bin and read the pathetic half-written speeches on crumpled pieces of paper, words he'd designed that night they had spent apart. Words asking for her forgiveness and well, which would never be spoken aloud because he'd tossed the next sheet into the basket as soon as he had failed to describe how much she meant to him.

Pedro hid them further away. They were equally bad as an attempt to pass his crush a note with little multiple-choice boxes to tick off like high school boys did. 'Do you want to be my girlfriend? Yes - No'. Could he do that? It would certainly make her laugh. He realised he could wait for the right moment for a little while longer, wait until he knew what she wanted.

Pedro continued marking bits and pieces of text in his script with red ink while he listened to the distant sound of church bells calling for evening mass. An adorable round tit bird on the nearest branch was priming its feathers, getting ready to embrace the last rays of sunlight and fill the evening with one more song. He hardly even noticed he had drawn it next to the written love confession one of his characters was making.

As he tapped his pen against his lips, his black-framed glasses began to descend the bridge of his nose and he had to push them back in place. His brows furrowed while he read the same sentence over and over, not quite figuring out what was wrong with it.

Writing was just another synonym for struggling.

He edited until he felt a familiar energy prickling his skin. It caught his attention and made him spy over the rim of his glasses towards the white sheets stacked high enough for mountain climbing.

A pair of curious eyes blinked at him as they barely peeked above the covers.

Pedro smiled, asking himself how long Nini had been observing him scribbling away time. Her hair was a dishevelled mess chaotic enough to challenge the appearance of any famous hangover riddled rock star that ever lived to tell the tale of an extremely wild night.

The more she stared at him like a scared little mouse, the more courage he needed to speak up as well.

Her voice cracked as she finally broke their silence. "Can I ask you something?" Nini spoke behind the pillowy fortress.

"Of course," Pedro replied, expecting her to spiral into a fit of guilt and he braced himself to gently contradict her. He was ready to collide with her defeaters behind enemy lines but for now, he could only try to shed some light on her dark day.

"That's your manuscript, isn't it?" She asked, voice still sounding weak. His worry disappeared, having not expected her to pick up this specific topic. "Yeah." He gave back with a sniff, staring down at the pages like they contained rocket science instead of dialogue.

"What is it about?" She inquired further and dipped the covers to reveal her entire face and rest her cheek against her fingers. She looked up at him shyly and Pedro found beauty in everything he saw. The soft skin of her leg appeared from underneath the covers and her toes curled as she stretched her limbs and rubbed her puffy eyes.

Pedro hummed. "It's a screenplay for a movie... something I thought I had abandoned, really-" he began like it had been a silly idea to start such a project but he gladly shared his vision with her. However, he thought it was too cheesy to admit that ever since he'd met her, she had inspired him to pick up his script again. "I always wanted to produce and direct a movie someday. I wrote it for all those actors I know and love who haven't had the chance to get a part in a lot of movies yet." He said and remembered his own struggle to score roles in his younger days. "It's a work in progress but it's about um... have you noticed these flyers with contact slips all around New York?" He asked and watched the gears turn in her head.

"You mean those 'call this number for piano lessons' or 'have you seen my cat' ones to rip off street poles?" She squinted as she pictured them.

He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees and he spoke calmly despite the spark of excitement he felt at her interest in his work. "Yes, exactly or some that say 'Who's seen my tax declaration, due on Monday?' or 'take what you need, love, hope, patience."

She returned his smile, shifting to lie on her belly and raising her feet into the air while he continued. Pedro felt the thrill of creative passion bubbling up inside. "Well, the thing I'm writing is about many different people and their stories. There isn't really a protagonist but the individual plots all start with a different contact slip. They eventually have people in common, one person, in particular, it's like um..." Pedro thought. "Like 'Love Actually' but weirder and without Christmas and less white people."

Nini began to smile, growing more enthusiastic about his work by the second. "What kind of person do they have in common?"

Pedro breathed out a laugh before he admitted the red thread of the plot. "Someone who gives away young orange trees, I know how random this sounds."

She blinked at him, soothingly. "I think it sounds so charming. What's it called?"

He showed her the blank cover and a title in bold handwritten letters on the next page. "Not sure yet. The working title is... 'A Family of Orange Trees." "I love it." "A foot', for short." Pedro shortened the title and chuckled when Nini needed a second to check the initials and understand.

When she did, she grinned widely. "You're making your dreams come true." She said, sweetly.

His smile softened at her words. Would it do any harm to tell her she had become a major aspect of his dreams? "One at a time." He replied, looking into her eyes and daring to hope.

"I saw your note, thank y-" She mumbled before she looked back and discovered the fresh rose. Silently, she reached for the vase and claimed the pink flower.

"I learned its name is 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale." Pedro introduced the blush-coloured rose. Nini let out a sound of pure adoration when she buried her nose into the source of the intense fragrance like an addict who was reunited with their favourite substance. She repeated the rose's name and he smiled as he watched her inability to breathe outside the labyrinth of velvet petals. "Thank you, angel." She told him.

"You're welcome." Pedro put his script aside and removed his reading glasses. "Now you know where I've been all morning but I um-" he struggled to find the right words, not wanting to upset her by bringing up yesterday. His fingers were fumbling awkwardly before he looked at her again. "I spoke to Jim. He's fully prepared for you to sue him if that's what you want to do now."

Nini's gaze was shying away from him. "I'm not gonna sue him. Was that your idea?" She asked silently, finger tracing her rose.

He bit his tongue for not treading more lightly. "I thought you wouldn't but it's a possibility. You could consider speaking to him though, he would like to apologise to you for everything." She nodded lightly. "I will."

When Pedro stood up from his chair, he let out an old man groan from sitting in one position for too long. He walked over towards the bed in a sluggish manner and asked himself what she was smirking at. "I also bargained a deal with him." He began, letting the mystery build in his voice to intrigue her clouded mind and he felt happy to immediately tell her.

"A deal? What kind of deal?" She asked when he dropped onto the mattress and caged her in, looking down at her. "I'm taking you out." He decided, determined to distract her.

"Out like in 'out' out? Or out like in, you'll put me out of my misery?" She deadpanned and he felt relieved to witness her unique sense of humour resurface again.

He successfully suppressed his amusement. "Do you have a preference, are you suggesting we're still fighting?"

He smiled eventually, though they both remembered how severe their fight had become before everything went down a different shit hole. Fighting was apparently, just another passion they had discovered they were incredibly good at. But like everything new he discovered about her every day, her temper was something he liked about her just as much as her strangest quirks and he was prepared to put up with it.

"No?" She gave him a full teethed smile this time despite her lingering shyness and she squirmed underneath his critical stare. How dare she be this adorable and give him chest pains?

"I mean, you and I are going on a little trip." Pedro finally revealed his plan.

"You mean... like a holiday?" She paraphrased in disbelief and he shrugged one shoulder. While he explained the details, her eyes grew wider and wider. "Sure. Nobody expects you to go back to work for a couple of days and I asked for Monday off. Maria said we can borrow her truck, also said something about it needing slight repairs but it'll be fine." He waved it off, feeling reassured that the hotel owner hadn't been worried about the bitching ignition coil at all. "I already booked a place and we'll be off the grid for a couple of days."

Her jaw dropped in wonder. "Where? How long?" She gasped and he counted the days on his fingers because he was too tired to do a simple calculation. "A three-day weekend trip somewhere very nice. Would you like that?" He asked, not really doubting her adventurous spirit but proceeding with caution nevertheless.

"We could go elsewhere... drive anywhere just to get there." She replied like she drifted into a dream.

Pedro tilted his head. "I had to agree though, we have to be back before my next scene on Tuesday. So, we should be back by Monday night." "Or the truck turns back into a pumpkin?" She suggested, not helping. "Or Jim will send out an army to look for us and charge me for it." Pedro corrected. "He's joking, right?" He narrowed his eyes.

"I fucking hope he is. Oh, you want to go on another road trip with me?" She seemed delighted, drawing out the last word and digging her fingers into his hair but momentarily, a thought caught up with her. "Didn't they say Mexico is a little dangerous or is Jim's bad consciousness suddenly stronger than his concerns about us getting turned into a statistic?"

Pedro tutted at her. "Excuse me, I believe we could at least make it on the news."

It was her turn to be on the receiving end of her sense of humour. "That's not funny."

He made a sound of protest. "Mexico isn't more dangerous than New York, we're going to a tourist vacation hotspot, not North to any of the border states." "Tourist vacation hotspot?" She repeated, sceptically, staying true to her almost snobbish distaste for anything mainstream.

Pedro set her mind at ease. "None of these massive all-inclusive spa and hotel towers, don't worry. It's cooler than that."

"Okay?" She still sounded unsure but she simply had to trust him.

"We're unsupervised." He wiggled his brows at her. "What do you say?" He waited for her reaction and the more she thought about it, the more she seemed to regain the joyful spirit in her eyes.

"Hell yeah." She finally said and Pedro cheered and grinned. He leaned down to kiss her and lingered for a moment, having just realised how much he had missed her sweet lips. He was endlessly glad she agreed to his choice of action instead of letting herself be coddled and babied.

Nini returned the kiss until they were both smiling too much. "Thank you, you absolute treasure of a man. Taking care of me, being the best- sweetest-" she spoke between kisses. She cupped his cheek in her palm but the light moment ended when his attention was drawn towards the bandages on her wrist. Nini caught his stare, taking a breath of air to say something but deciding against it.

Instead of waiting for permission, Pedro helped her slowly remove them. Her skin was still tender and there were red and angry scratches, half-moon shaped wounds of her fingernails and scraped skin. It didn't look too bad though and it would heal soon. Nini wasn't alone in her recovery or falling to the unknown to be left scared and disappear underneath dark waves. She had Pedro now and he had long understood that he was utterly and completely devoted to his little songbird.

"You look tired, my darling." Nini noticed with compassion in her voice.

"I'm fine," Pedro replied, fighting a yawn. "How are you, mi amor?" He asked in return, smoothing a finger over the rebellious swirl in her right eyebrow. Nini's smile faded a little as she contemplated her answer. "Better. I'm glad you're here." She said and he felt relieved to hear this.

"I want you to make a full recovery." He demanded more sternly. "We're leaving tomorrow morning. I'm planning to romance you until you regained your spirits and I'd start right now but I'm-" he couldn't help himself and closed his eyes as he slowly sank his head onto her chest and buried his face between her boobs, best pillows in the world, covered by his Prince t-shirt. "Tired." His voice rumbled deeply as he felt contented to rest against a few of his favourite things. She should wear his clothes more often. This was nice. He could fall asleep like this right now.

Nini cooed at him. "You need to sleep. You didn't have a proper sleep in two days." She stroked his hair but Pedro grumbled, remembering the last bullet point on his checklist.

He sat back up again. "One last thing. Can you do something for me?"

"Hm?" She questioned at his serious tone and expression. "Call Tom back and maybe you're grandparents as well? They're worried sick."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "You called my family?"

Pedro was a little embarrassed, feeling awful for doing exactly what had caused their previous fight and checked the caller ID on her display. "Actually, it was Tom who called because you missed your Skype meeting this morning. I answered your phone, I'm sorry, it kept ringing, I didn't-"

"No, it's okay. Shit, I forgot about that, of course." She cringed after she realised, she hadn't called off their regular check-in.

Pedro remembered the younger man's panicked string of questions and he had tried to keep up with his terror and the many curses uttered, listening with endless patience. "I had to tell him what happened and he got... mad? Not at you, obviously but- mad the rest of us and I can't blame him. Then he started crying and this girl started interrogating me why I was making him cry and she was a lot scarier than him." He only half-joked.

"That was probably Zendaya." Nini bit her lip to hide her guilty expression. "Tom was crying? Did you tell them you're the hero in this story? You should have woken me up." "I told them you were mostly okay and that I'm taking care of you. We wanted to let you sleep."

He placed the phone into her palm. "Why don't you also order one or two of these egg sandwiches you keep denying yourself?" He suggested but it didn't sound like he was giving her a choice. She smiled at him and nodded obediently. "I'll be in your room while you make your calls, okay?" He decided to give her some privacy and maybe, close his eyes for a bit. Jesus Christ, he was so tired, he could barely walk.

An indefinite time later, she caught him in a state of half-sleep when she joined him in her room. He smiled when he heard her enter and could feel the bed dip when she crawled up behind him, smelling like the orange she must have had. She hugged her arm around his broader frame while eating something that sounded too healthy and he felt her jaw move against his bicep as she audibly munched on it.

"My grandparents love you." She whispered and Pedro let out an amused grunt. They rested like that for a while until he felt her body shift and her lips littering kisses across his shoulder.

Pedro smirked, doubting he had the energy for sex right now until he realised Nini was apologising, worrying over the bruises her fingertips had left on his shoulder yesterday. He managed to hum out a 'no', refusing to accept the blame she put on herself. He simply turned, pulled her in and sighed into the embrace of the one who could hear his silence when her breath was soft against his face.

Pedro basked in her softness and he was already asleep when he thought he could hear hushed reassuring words, that everything was alright and the world would look infinitely brighter tomorrow.

~~~

"This is totally our thing now," Nini exclaimed the next day, beaming at him while she stuck a feather she had found out the window of their borrowed truck, letting it flutter in the wind.

Just for old times’ sake, they listened to Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' again. He tore his eyes off the country road to look at her and she pushed her cat-eye sunglasses up her hair. Pedro returned her wide smile, taking in her white summer dress and young face, free of worry, eyes shining bright like morning drew drops. It was like nothing had ever changed since their first road trip, only this time, she leaned into him and he could put his arm around her shoulders while steering the car with one hand.

Oh Daddy

You soothe me with your smile

You're letting me know

You're the best thing in my life

She gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"When will you tell me where we're going?" Nini asked, noticing they were driving past a sign that indicated they were heading towards the west coast. The landscape had changed from a high mountain range behind them to dry grasslands and softer hills. He was looking forward to palm trees and to resting his eyes on the horizon of the wide Pacific Ocean.

"Mazatlán," Pedro answered promptly and sighed because he really was incredibly bad at keeping secrets. "I have a surprise for you, I booked an Airbnb-" she interrupted him with a long squeal and he couldn't help himself and joined in. "Now it's not a surprise anymore, I guess. I found a nice place without a pool." He felt free to mention his efforts during his sleepless night.

Nini sat up to look at him with a sweet, tortured expression. "You're perfect." She whined and he snorted. "No, I'm not." He protested but felt flattered anyway. Wasn't that like... a no-brainer after learning that pools were an absolute deal-breaker? He was glad he knew what things to avoid now.

"Yes, you are, you just won't admit it. But oh, thank you. That's one less unreasonable fear to worry about."

"It's not unreasonable." Pedro disagreed, trying to phrase it carefully. "It's actually quite common for, you know, trauma survivors to associate smells with their trauma. The amygdala releases stress hormones and-" He recited from memory but stopped when he noticed she had begun fumbling with her bracelet again. "It's going to be fine." He reminded her.

"Promise?" Her smile began to quiver a little bit. "Pinky promise." He offered his finger to her and her full belly laugh started with one of her adorable snorts.

"Fuck off." She replied instead of accepting and she paused fondly. "Thank you for treating me the same, even though you know every disturbing detail now." She said, relief laced into her gentle voice.

He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. "Nini, why wouldn't I? I'd- I would, even if... I don't know, had found out you liked puppy for dinner, voted conservative or were fucking my best friend."

She squinted her eyes at him, sensing the exaggeration. "No, you wouldn't."

He shrugged, defeated, not taking these extreme red flags seriously. "No, I wouldn't." He corrected himself. "But you get what I mean."

Pedro wasn't surprised at all as he witnessed her black humour kicking in. "I'm a cat person." She said, like the absurdity in itself could somehow ease his mind or explain anything.

"And you sing along to your favourite leftist punk bands." Pedro recalled, knowing they shared similar views and he could rant about socialism to his heart's content, even though she wasn't very interested in politics and her standard position was a sweet-natured but naïve; 'I just don't want people to suffer. Which is why he had never doubted her when she swore it hadn't been her who had left the Ayn Rand book in the lobby. An event that had occurred two weeks ago and had led to a tense game of 'who-dun-it-Cluedo between the cast.

"I've been told that makes you a shitty leftie but yeah." She stated. "Who said that?" "Better lefties on Twitter who called me out on my so-called 'liberal elitist wank." She replied in fake disgust and didn't that sound relatable?

After a while, she must have realised she could annoy him a little more. "So, Oscar Isaac is your best friend?" "He is..." His tone should have been warning enough already but she made a 'not-bad' sound anyway and he explained further after a beat. "-already married."

They both grinned at her attempts to get under his skin as she pretended to debate whether or not she would jump the really good-looking man he called his brother, though she never met Oscar apart from a video call she'd ruined once. "You better not." He cautioned her. "Bros before hos."

"Oi, dickhead!" She snickered at his ability to keep up with her pestering but she offered him a slice of her portioned apple anyway.

"Are you afraid of anything?" She asked while he munched on the fruit.

"Uh, yeah, shit tons of stuff." He admitted, ever so willingly, partly just to make her feel better. "Like what?"

He paused chewing. "Being buried alive for example. Full 'Uma Thurman, Kill Bill' style. What a fucking nightmare." He almost shuddered at the claustrophobic thought.

Nini hissed in understanding. "Oh, okay. Well, that's unlikely but not unreasonable. What else?"

Pedro thought for a while, remembering the thing he had grown scared of since yesterday. He had realised he was incredibly scared something could happen to her. "I don't know, I think I've seen too many goddamn horror movies in my life, pick literally anything." He answered instead.

"Zombies? I'm afraid of zombies."

Pedro frowned and tore his gaze off the road for a little too long. "You're afraid of zombies and you want to play a character in an apocalypse?"

"Who told you that?" She accused him, more than asked.

Pedro huffed out a laugh. "You. While you were drunk and proclaimed your love for 'The Mummy." He knew a lot of things about her. He knew she only pretended to hate musicals while in fact, many of her favourite films were musicals. He also knew that he had exactly no chance to ever win any future fights because she immediately ran off to write the next heart-wrenching song.

"Oh, how embarrassing, ok." She shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I think it would be exciting." She decided and Pedro thought how entirely true this was and how enjoyable it had been to play the upcoming real-life version of the video game 'The Last of Us. Pedro just loved gory scary movies.

Nini continued. "But that's my unreasonable fear then, in case of a real apocalypse, dying first because I can't drive a car and wouldn't know how to bring myself to safety."

No. That wouldn't do. Pedro frowned and stopped the truck, killed the engine and put the brakes on with determination.

"What's happening, why are we stopping?" She asked in confusion.

He was already half out of the car. "I'm teaching you how to drive, come on. One less fear for you, one at a time but this I can get rid of, right now."

"Ow, my heart." She complained and her posture deflated alarmingly. For a split of a second, she had scared the hell out of him because he remembered reading about her higher risk of heart disease. "You okay?" He asked, climbing back into the car.

She winced in response. "Yes, you're just so adorable. Give me a second." He relaxed with an enamoured exhale after she had said this and he let himself be pulled in for a peck on his lips. "Okay, teach me."

Pedro readjusted the driver's seat for her once she had settled behind the steering wheel. It shifted a mile forward for her shorter legs and she buckled up.

He leaned one arm against the driver's seat and donned his aviators. "Okay, the first thing you should always check is the rear-view mirror and the side mirrors so you can keep an eye on the zombies behind you."

Nini adjusted the mirror while he shut the door and walked around the car. She noticed the sides were just fine. "Okay, what now?" She asked once he was seated next to her.

Pedro began explaining. "There's automatic driving and stick. This truck has five manual gears and a reverse, see? Step onto the left pedal." He went through every gear with her, dwarfing her hand with his when they turned them together. "I get it, you go to the next the faster you're driving." They smiled at each other. "Yes, let's try it. You can lose the breaks."

"Which one is for gas?" She looked down at her feet at the three pedals.

"The one on the right is gas, the middle is the breaks, and the one on the left is the clutch pedal, pressed halfway to release the drive only and pressed fully to release both the drive and PTO clutches."

"Huh?"

He blinked at her. "Step on the left one again and turn the key." He instructed, realising technicalities weren't a priority.

She did as instructed but immediately stalled the engine and both them and the truck jumped forward.

Pedro had let out an 'oof' against the restraining of his belt. "Should have told you to not let go too quickly."

"I'm sorry!" Nini yelled and turned on the windscreen wipers.

Pedro remedied her panic by deactivating them and placing his hand on her back. She calmed down immediately. "Don't be, it's alright. Try again and lift your foot veeeery gently." He demonstrated with a slow tilt of his hand.

Soon after, they were rolling down the road. "I'm doing it!" She exclaimed and bounced in her seat while she drove the car at the speed of that lazy donkey on the field next to them.

"Good! Now accelerate and step on the left pedal again while turning the gear into two."

She did it and he nodded. "Now three, good. Faster, now four. Baby, you're doing it! You're driving!" He whooped but Nini's grip on the steering wheel was so tense, it caused her knuckles to turn white.

"We're too fucking fast!" "Downshifting is easy, just go from four into three."

She shifted the gears and the car nearly exploded, she screamed, they flew forward and everything shut down.

"That was the second gear," Pedro commented breathlessly, taking this punch in the gut but after they had digested the shock, he stared at her with wide eyes.

"Let's try again."

Nini was driving the car at a reasonable speed, she was a lot more relaxed now and even though she had no driver's license, they didn't give a damn about driving on a street they encountered another car only every ten minutes or so. He was incredibly proud of her fast learning progress and she seemed to enjoy driving, muttering along to a Jimmy Page guitar solo in perfect sync. This time, it was Nini who was looking at Pedro riding shotgun until they both started frowning.

"Um, why does it make that sound? I'm not doing anything." She said in a worried tone and Pedro turned off the music.

The car was sputtering even though they had enough gas and everything had worked just fine until now. "No, it's not you. I don't know what's-" he was interrupted by a loud bang coming from the back. "Shit, stop the car." They rolled until the truck had come to a complete halt and he motioned them to switch places.

Pedro tried to reignite the truck several times but it just whined and trembled pathetically. "It's probably the ignition coil." He remembered and let out a string of curses in his mother tongue when it still wouldn't start.

"Sounds like Hugh Jackman's singing voice," Nini remarked. "Or Hugh Jackman complaining about that his pen is out of ink."

He quirked one eyebrow at her. "That's weirdly specific."

The truck gave a sudden burst of black smoke behind them with its last dying breath and they jumped.

"Fuck." They both swore at the same time.

Pedro opened the hood and waved in front of his face as the back smoke circled into the air. He coughed and hissed when he found the vehicle's motor to be dramatically overheated.

"And?" She yelled, poking her head outside the window. "Shit, something's causing the engine to overheat, I don't know." He replied after he had checked the oil. She stepped out to join him but she was just as clueless.

"You're a man, don't you know how to fix a car?"

"That's sexist." He scolded, pointing his index finger at her before he pushed his sunglasses back in place. Standing with his hands on his hips, he shook his head at the exposed motor. He'd driven cars since before it had been legal for him to do so but he spent the majority of his life in big cities, using the subway or cabs. He liked cars but he wasn't a mechanic and he could do very little about a weak current.

"We don't even know how far the next town is!" Nini walked a few steps into the direction they had been heading while the truck continued to smoke.

"Half an hour at least- by car. On foot though? No clue."

"We have suitcases." She complained.

Pedro sighed, looked left and right and the road looked just the same both ways. Empty and long.

"If we head that way, we'll make it to the next village eventually or we could go back to the gas station we drove by. Your call, baby." He let her decide and would follow her gut feeling.

Nini thought for a moment, then headed back towards the truck and tossed him his yellow backpack. "There could be a mechanic at that gas station. We can't just leave Maria's truck here." She told him.

Pedro checked if they had the essentials and enough water. "Alright. It's a hiking trip now, c'mon."

They walked for a while, thankful for every cloud and tree that offered some shade. A flock of birds throwing a shadow plane across the road was the only sign of life. The sun stood high above the sky and the green piece of sea glass Pedro produced from his pocket sparkled prettily.

"You brought it with you?" He heard Nini ask and he smiled and shrugged his shoulders. What, it was a sentimental thing. The attachment he felt for this inanimate object had been slightly stronger than his fear of losing it. "It's for luck." He claimed.

She chirped out a laugh and Pedro thought it was a sound so beautiful it seemed to have been kissed by a cosmic muse in its moment of creation. "That's sweet honey, I hope it's working soon." She said, tilting her chin at their journey ahead.

Nothing else was at the horizon except more yellowed grass and a distant cloud of dust behind them but they soon learned what was producing it.

A red car approached over the hill and whirled up dust in the sun as it closed the distance between them. Pedro gave Nini a look like she had been mocking fate when luck had been just around the corner. "Hey, maybe they could give us a ride?" He stuck up his thumb as a universal sign for hitchhikers but she swatted his hand down before it was even raised properly.

"What do you think you're doing?" She spoke through gritted teeth. "This is Mexico, you can't just hitchhike, you never know how friendly they are towards the Narcos." She hissed, eyes widened in alarm.

Pedro's jaw dropped, not quite believing her. "Really, Nini? Prejudice?" He accused her, having thought better of her. "This country is full of friendly, helpful people. There's nothing, literally nothing to worry about and look at that, a Prius. What Narco drives a Prius?"

"That's the point, you can't tell who's a trafficker before they kidnap you. We're both famous fucking multi-millionaires, walking around like unclaimed prizes to just pick up." She described them as the next criminal's big jackpot.

"Not everyone's bad, c'mon." He disagreed. "Jesus, I-" she began but was interrupted just when the car stopped next to them.

Momentarily, the smell of marijuana drifted out when the window on the passenger seat's side opened and the clearing of fog revealed a very fat and imposingly large guy. The car was packed with a group of tough, unfriendly looking men with a bunch of tattoos and Pedro's smile dropped.

Some might have wondered how clowns did that trick where too many of them fit into a single car. This wasn't much unlike it, only there weren't clowns inside the Prius but a gang of maybe five to eight men who had made their tiny car a hotpot of fuming aromatic smoke. And they were all staring at them like they owed them money.

Pedro's jaw dropped slightly and he removed his aviators when Nini turned her head slowly to give him a blank look but this wasn't a 'told you' moment, more like a 'we're about to be turned into that statistic Jim told us about' moment.

Pedro's wasn't so cock sure anymore. It was a window to a life he hadn't seen since he'd shot 'Narcos' and he gulped. This wasn't for television, those were actual thugs with- fuck, very unsuspicious brown paper bags... A kind of panic he could only control with politeness coursed through his veins and he prayed they were in luck and he was only judging a book by its cover- and those men were nice- and just staring them down with patronising glares for show. They might be a bunch of gay guys or gym bros showing off their jagged tattoos stretched over their tree trunk arms in their tank tops, who knew for certain?

Nini bend forward to their eye level and Pedro noticed they were most definitely not gay but smirking at her cleavage. "Hola, como estas?" Nini spoke up first to his surprise, smiled girlishly and waved at them. Pedro's tense posture deflated in resignation and he scrunched his eyes shut behind his hand.

He could tell she tried her best Spanish on those too serious men and charmed them with a noticeable Gringa accent. The imposingly large man continued to give her a blank stare above the protruding purple circles of his eyes. "Mi novio y yo tenemos... una direción a la- What's 'next city' in Spanish?" She looked back at Pedro, her shiny, windswept hair flipping around and making him realise she was putting up an act when she gave him another stressed out glance.

He on the other hand dealt with a momentum of pure astonishment. When he realised, they were all expectantly looking at him he thawed and tried to smile past his puzzled expression. "La proxima ciuadad." He answered. Jesus, good for him to muster up any words at all while she had taken the initiative to keep their asses out of trouble.

'Boyfriend', she'd said and the word echoed through his head. He grinned at everyone, like a proper idiot. Pedro was experiencing both the best and worst moment of his day right now.

Nini simply looked at him with an expression that seemed to question his sanity before she smiled back at the troup in the car. "Okay, a la proxima ciudad proque our coche is broken, indefenito." They all frowned at each other, the driver with the black tear tattoo beneath his eye looked back and forth between Nini and Pedro. Still, nobody was saying anything. Why was this meathead not saying something?

He thought his heart would stop when the mean-looking one in the passenger seat reached into the paper bag on his lap. Pedro tucked Nini behind his body, raising his hands while they both babbled out their 'whoah there's' before he could produce anything from it. Pedro repeated an elaborated and much politer version of their predicament in fluent Spanish, all the while making sure she couldn't step forward.

Before the situation could escalate though, the driver had already raised his hand to his compañero and Pedro relaxed a little when he didn't pull a gun from the paper bag, but some kind of pan dulce.

He chewed on the sugared pastry. Very slowly, very high.

He knew Nini couldn't understand much except him saying that they didn't want any trouble. He offered them money too but paused awkwardly when donut guy offered him a clear plastic bag with maybe five grams of pot in return. Pedro looked at it with a nervous quirk of his eyebrows but decided it was rude not to accept and he was just baffled, thanking pastry guy with the big necklace and sausage fingers and making the exchange.

The driver had suddenly, gained an ounce of friendliness, making them an offer. "Vale, nececitas que la lleven?" He spoke up for the first time and big guy stopped chewing on his sweet bread.

"What did he say?" Nini whispered to Pedro nervously, who then glanced back at her like he hadn't understood him either. "He asked if we need a ride."

They both looked back at the car that was so packed with thugs it couldn't have picked up a single chicken from the road and after a beat, everyone laughed at the obvious joke together.

All passengers hollered with laughter as the driver hit the gas and sped away with a lewd jerking off gesture and a rude comment at Pedro.

They stared after the red car for a while with open mouths until it had disappeared behind the hill, its passengers' laughter louder than their engine.

He could sense Nini stepping to his side after they had regained their ability to breathe. "So, that went well." She commented and let out a deep exhale. "Oh, my God, I'm shaking."

"Holy fuck," It was like his mind had caught up with this absurd encounter just now and Nini giggled at his astonishment.

Though, he didn't need much time to put himself together and produce a cheeky grin. "You just called me your boyfriend." He looked at her in a teasing manner.

Nini swallowed, visibly flustered. "Oh, um... I'm sorry if that was inappropriate. I know how bad my Spanish is, don't tell me. I didn't mean to... I was just- SERIOUSLY?" She gasped at him, face flaring up with a furious blush all of sudden which made Pedro chuckle already. "We just met a fucking gang and got away only because they were in a good mood and you choose to focus on that detail?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever they were, that guy also said I'm an old jerk." She quirked her brow and raised one shoulder. "Well..." She kind of agreed and thus, earned a critical stare from a not-so-amused Pedro.

"You were wrong," Nini said pointedly but he held up his dull sea glass. "Lucky." He argued in return and felt sure that it had proven its worth. "No, you were wrong and they were at least dubious." "Meh." "Wrong." She insisted.

"Alright, birdbrain, I was wrong but look who's got weed now." He sing-songed, and inspected the tiny bag of pot triumphantly, assuming it was legitimate good Mexican stuff, fuck yeah.

She grinned, crossing her arms. "They just did that, huh?" His shrug was answer enough and he put it in his backpack for later.

They both lost more of their tension by laughing before they picked up their journey again. "Well, at least it's a good story to tell our grandchildren." She suggested, provoking a somewhat surprised look from Pedro before they both realised 'our' was also an undefined determiner and they were not, in fact, talking about starting a family. "Or- or interview." She corrected with an awkward side glance.

Stretching his neck, Pedro gave the landside a thin-lipped smile. "That's more likely, I'm too old already to expect to ever meet any grandchildren, even if settling down happened rather sooner than later." He said, having made peace with the fact that he probably won't even be a father.

"That's just not true." It made her bump her hip into his playfully and he stumbled to the side from the surprising impact. "You're in your mid-forties, not dead."

First, he huffed at her bluntness, then pulled her back into him and kept his arm around her. "But you're still dating me even though I'm... an old jerk and you're a P.Y.T."

"Sí, papi." Nini agreed and then asked. "What's a P.Y.T?"

He chuckled at her and then groaned in agony when he realised liking the term of endearment was totally inappropriate because the girl had very real daddy issues. "Pretty young thing? By Michael Jackson, Thriller album. 'I want to love you- P.Y.T, pretty young thing. You need some lovin'- T.L.C, tender love and care." he sang the song, snipping his fingers. There, he did it again, tiptoeing around the word 'love' but masking it by being a dork.

"Oh!" Nini exclaimed. "That song." She remembered a little but the melody was wrong. "Exactly." He replied anyway.

"Of course, I'm with you. You're... you're everything." She pressed her lips together and blushed when Pedro finally cracked a smile. It felt like such a relief when she laced her fingers into his and they continued walking hand in hand.

Ask her, ask her, he encouraged himself. "Truth is, I really can't believe my luck." He said but before he could continue, she tugged at his sleeve to make him look at her. "Even though I'm a nutcase and easy to fight with over anything?" She asked and he hummed with a pout on his lips.

"Honey, it will be like that sometimes. We'll fight, we'll make up, we'll fight again, maybe worse and we'll get out of it stronger. It'll be worth it." He squeezed her hand.

"Does that mean you want to- does this mean we're official now?" Nini asked, shyly.

The last bit made Pedro's steps falter. He couldn't believe she was the one to finally breach this topic. "You know, I really wanted to talk to you before we... well, before everything went downhill, at least according to the original plan." He rambled after they had stopped walking completely.

Nini bit her lip, feeling conscious about something and she dropped his hand, walking ahead and leaving him behind. "I understand. I would have broken up with me too. I wanted to do the same, you know? Do it before you would."

Pedro's eyes widened and he jogged after her to catch up. "You wanted to break up with me?" He asked as they picked up their voyage across the countryside again.

She let out a weak sound of confusion. "Wasn't that what you wanted to do?"

"God no, I wanted to apologise. I stayed up all night, writing a whole ass speech." "Really?" More like, he had sat in the dark, sad and drunk, scribbling stuff he was, of course, blanking on right now. "Do you still want that? Call it off?" Pedro asked, feeling his heart sink to the floor.

"Only if thought I trapped you into staying with me by having a mental breakdown." She mumbled and Pedro paused to gape at her. "Okay, first of all, yes- being needed, feels great. I'm not gonna pretend you don't wake that protective instinct in me but I don't pity you, I don't think you're not strong enough."

The corners of his mouth turned downwards. Just the thought she could have ever assumed she was a bother or didn't mean more to him than being someone he vibed and had sex with, pained him. "I'm here for you, even if you want to continue our relationship as friends and no, I was not giving you up that easily. After I screwed my head back on, I just wanted to talk things out like adults. Which by the way, we've been improving on, I think."

"And you had me convinced I would get dumped." It was her turn to groan. "Oh, you could have been less cryptic about your 'We need to talk' speech, you-" she kicked some sand into his path with a grin. "Stomme kloothommel!" She dared him and had shouted the obvious insult without any malice in her voice.

"What's that mean?" His eyes widened in curiosity and she looked away, stuttering out what the insult translated into. "Stupid... stupid ballsack-bumblebee." She admitted and stopped walking when she noticed he had fallen behind.

Pedro laughed good three minutes about the Dutch insult, repeating it back to her whenever his breaths allowed him to. He tried to stop but the image of a bumblebee with balls kept intruding his mind. They both communicated such a creature with dorky hand gestures and immature descriptions and laughed until their sides hurt.

"God, I love Dutch." He wheezed, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. "You just can't get mad at that. Who invented you people?"

"A German with a sore throat and a hot potato in their mouth." She replied without missing a beat and shrugged her shoulders at the historically inaccurate fact, seemingly happy she had made Pedro snicker again. Yes, he wanted to stick around, at the very least for a sheer limitless number of ridiculous words.

Which made him remember what the thing he had originally planned to ask her was. "Nini, listen, I um-" he had to get serious for a second, which was hard because they were both being incredibly childish.

She stood facing him from a few feet away, looking at him with a halo of warm light illuminating her blonde hair, dipped in sunlight. He wondered how he could ever tell her that every time he looked into her eyes, he longed to be seen by them forever.

He adored her, it was her he idolised and his inability to just be cool about it scared him. He had forgotten that this kind of young love could make you scream internally in sweet agony.

This was it. He'd ask her. He'd ask her now, there was no turning back. "When I think about what we have and it being so... perfect- it's hard not to wanna rush things." he began and his heart swelled at the sight of her blush creeping up her face. "Sure, I don't even know where to begin describing how much you're keeping me on my toes, how mad you're able to get me, how jealous-" Pedro's eyes had narrowed as he stepped closer again and she gulped. "-and I'm not the jealous type so, congrats for managing to bring up that side of me. I um- I've got to ask you, if not now then someday, if-" he bit his lip to stop himself from talking. Man, get it together, you're not asking her to marry you, he reminded himself.

He zoned out, staring at her while she stood before him in that white summer dress and the idea of her in a wedding dress popped into his imagination. Him, waiting for her at the altar... Pedro blanked. He felt positive about wanting to waste an eternity just looking at her with this image in his head but he was half afraid to picture it any further because she could read his mind like he could read hers.

Just like he had worried, her eyes widened. "Pedro?" She questioned breathlessly, snapping him back into reality.

"Sorry-" He closed his eyes and shook his head. Damn, where had that come from?

He nodded to himself, finally finding the right words. "I'm all the way in if you are." He opened his arms and palms to empathise his vulnerability at this moment. "And I have no idea what our future has to offer and no possible plan. I don't know if we'll last a year or less or gonna meet 'our' grandchildren someday but the best-case scenario I can think of, for now, would be if you wanted to be my girlfriend. You know," It was his turn to blush. "The whole boyfriend-girlfriend kinda thing in case you like me better than Ewan." He rolled his eyes, making fun of his unreasonable insecurities.

"Oh, Pedro."

"If you prefer this old jerk." He pointed at himself.

After she seemed to have digested his words, she swaggered over to him playfully, drawing her voice into a tease. "I do prefer you-" "Well, good. That's good. That's a start." Pedro chuckled nervously when she snaked her hands up his torso and bit her lip in a way that always managed to make him weak.

"Even though Ewan has a nicer singing voice and drives motorbikes." She continued unfazed and put her arms on each of his shoulders, still plaguing him. "And owns an impressive collection of bagpipes but he's getting married so..."

Pedro let out an irritated hiss through his teeth, spying through her tease but she grew more serious. "I'm most definitely over him and you don't have to wonder if I'm all the way in or not." She slotted her hands behind his neck, trying to catch his gaze. "So, yes." She grinned.

"Yes?" He repeated her answer, feeling his heart speed up.

She nodded wildly before she could speak up. "Yes, I want to be your girlfriend, do you want to be my boyfriend?" She returned the question happily and her eyes shimmered up at him.

"Oh, yes!" He breathed thoroughly, repeating the answer to her follow up question several times, feeling like the luckiest bastard in the world and after a pause for breath, he smirked. "Okay, are you ready?" He asked. "Ready?" "Are you ready 'cause I'm about to do something extremely bold."

Nini's eyes widened. "Ready for what?"

"I'm gonna kiss you now. In public." Pedro announced with a comical frown and it made her look around in confusion. There wasn't a single soul around and they were both aware of that. Not for miles. The joke wasn't lost on her.

"Okay." She giggled but he instantly muted her with a kiss, slotting his mouth against her decadently soft lips and keeping his eyes closed to lose himself in this feeling. He could get so lost in her.

She hummed into him, hands flying up to frame his face when she let him swipe his tongue into her mouth possessively.

They kissed in between fields in the middle of nowhere until he broke the kiss. She leaned into him for more but Pedro sniffed and rolled his shoulders, picking up on her former words that seemed to have been more irritating than he had thought. "Bagpipes." He cursed under his breath about how fucking lame that was, admitting to her he wasn't chill about her ex at all and she let out a snorting laugh.

The world made a little more sense to him now that Nini was finally his girlfriend and he found purpose in belonging with her. It echoed through his head, like a mantra and he grinned widely.

Maybe he could start learning a little of her weird language. He caught her smaller hand in his and found a new bounce in her step as they continued walking down the sandy road.

"What's frog in Dutch?" He pointed at flattened, dry and very dead frog on the road and she pouted at the poor little guy before she told him. "Kikker." She gave back with a stunning smile. She picked the mummified thing up, held it between her index and thumb and realised her bag wasn't suitable as a temporary tomb.

Pedro shook his head after she had turned to him with a questioning look on her face. He could support her collection of all kinds of stuff but he was not putting that in his pocket. She was almost as bad as Grogu. "He's not coming with us." Pedro decided. There were limits. "But-" "No."

This was the first thing they did after becoming a couple, they buried a frog and spent a moment of silence in front of its shallow grave.

Afterwards, they went on for a while, either one of them pointing at something they saw and repeating the Spanish or Dutch word. She discovered Chilean Spanish had its own set of particular words and accents and Pedro discovered, like the Inuit had a hundred word combinations for 'snow', the Dutch had a hundred insults containing the word 'dick.

He was mirroring his girlfriend's wide grin when he realised, they had never lost their dorky dynamic. They were two tall children, stuck in the middle of nowhere, who weren't half as concerned as they should be... that was until the next car approached and they eyed each other nervously.

"Oye! ¿Puedo ayudarle?" The stranger asked. A woman in a white cowboy hat and a deranged, happy dog leaned out of the window of her sky blue truck and after a second, she flashed them a brilliant smile. "Wait, don't I know you?"

Part 17

Translation notes: (self explanatory mostly)

(sp): Oye! Puedo ayudarle? - (eng): Hey, can I help you?

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wannabe-amateur-writer · 3 years

Text

Levi Ackerman X Femme Reader: Sick Boy Soldier, Modern AU

Inspired by the song: Sick Boy Soldier but you're at a party and Levi Ackerman saw you.

Sick Boy Soldier: By Palaye Royale.

Listen to it whilst reading this if you would like.

***

You weren't exactly dragged to this disco. More like you and your friend suddenly wound up here after deciding to go on a late night walk.

The disco was lit with neon lights, meaning some areas were murky. A lot of people were smoking, to your distaste, but for some reason you stayed put. The music was just at the right volume and it wasn't blaring out deafening noises. It matched the setting flawlessly.

So did he...

"Y/n, you're staring", your friend nudged you once realising who you were staring at.

You snapped out of your trance, quickly taking a sip of your drink to recompose yourself from the embarrassment.

''He's hot'', your friend stated. Eyes traveling back to the stranger, your body tingled with a feeling quite alien to you. You unwillingly found yourself nodding your head in agreement and only knew what you were doing once hearing the muffled snicker of your friend.

"Shut up", you mumble, setting your eyes downcast to look at the table instead.

"He's looking at you", your friend whispered after a few seconds.

"Liar", you retort, taking another sip of your drink with a metal straw.

"I swear his eyes are traveling towards your direction", your eyes rolled at your friend's words.

"He's definitely staring at you".

Your eyes glanced up to catch his eyes, just briefly though as your phone went off. You received a text from another friend, luckily your phone was already placed upwards on the table so you didn't have to pick it up.

"He's so fucking hot", your friend blurted.

You hit their thigh lightly with the back of your hand, indicting they should shut up but they didn't take the hint.

"He's literally devouring you with his eyes", they went on.

A small smirk met his lips, as if he heard that once you looked back up.

"Oh shit...", you murmur, thinking he did actually hear.

"Chill, he's quite far away, plus this music is kinda loud", they reassure you.

'Oh, I heard it'.

His eyes travel back to his friend, who was blabbering this whole time. He responded back.

"Damn, you hear how silky his voice is?!", your friend gushed. The man's eyes landed back in your direction.

'Silky?'

"Oh my god...", you face palm, "he sure as fuck heard that".

'So adorable'.

This time his orbs didn't move from your figure. Your body sizzled under his intense gaze.

"Go talk to him dude! The man can't stop looking at ya", your friend encouraged you, nudging you again, "and from the looks of it, neither can you".

"Very funny", you comment at the last bit, your eyes only wandering from your glass to the stranger.

His chin was being held up by his index finger, his head facing his friend but his eyes were solely on you, occasionally glancing back at his friend but only for a brief second or two. His figure was illuminated by the neon lights behind him, making him stand out more than usual.

"His attention is just on you. It's like he's not even aware his friend is still there", they say.

"You're fawning", you point out.

"You're literally drooling", they shot back causing you to roll your eyes again. You received another message.

"Someone's popular tonight".

"It was the same person", you retort, picking up the phone to swiftly respond. Once putting your phone back down, your eyes inadvertently flicker towards the man. Once locking eyes with him, he smirks again.

"He winked at you!!!!", your friend squeaked, "oh my lord. Go talk to him, like now".

You didn't know how to handle this but realised the pungent stench of cigarettes was getting more prominent.

"Ugh, it stinks so bad in here", your face scrunched up in disgust as you cover your nose and mouth with a hand.

'Now there's another cute expression'.

"We'll leave after you speak to him", your friend remarks.

"Are you serious? No, not happening. He's probably just bored and looking around", you try come up with excuses, not realising you said it a bit too loud.

'Bored? Yes, until my eyes landed on you and your amusing expressions'.

''Go to him dude or you'll regret it", your friend said, eyebrows wiggling.

"No, no. He's probably not even interested. Let's just leave".

"Oof, too late", your friend instantly scurried off.

"Hey, where are you-?", you halted once you glanced up to see the man was gone. Someone sat down to your right. From the corner of your eye, you realised it was him.

'Oh god. Oh fuck!!', you thought, freaking the hell out.

"Hey", he said, facing you. His back was right against the elongated baroque styled sofa.

'Okay, his voice is so fucking smoky and hot'.

"Hey-hi", you stammer for words, desperately trying to shake your thoughts.

"You don't seem like the sort to come here", he continued.

You laugh nervously, "haha, yeah, no. I dislike it here".

"Mm, I see why", he faced ahead instead.

"Do you come here often?'', you ask.

Maybe you shouldn't have because now you regained his attention. His eyes swallowed you whole.

He chuckled slightly, "yeah, you could say that".

You felt like you were missing something from what he said.

"Oh... Do you smoke?"

He shook his head, "nah, it tastes and smells disgusting".

He got that right.

You look ahead at his friend who was conversing with someone else. His eyes dart towards you again, taking you all in. He leaned in but you only realised once the back of his index finger stroked up and down near your temple. You jolt from shock before you felt your rapidly beating heart sprinting inside of you.

He again chuckled at your reaction.

"What's your name?", he asked.

"My-my name? Oh, um... It's Y/n! My name is Y/n", you stutter, almost forgetting everything about yourself, "what's-what's yours?"

"My name's Levi. Nice to meet'cha, Y/n'', he gives you a half smile as his index finger wraps around a strand of your silky hair.

"You too...", you manage to breathe out, closing your eyes for a second.

After a little bit of chatting with Levi (who was still playing with the strand of your hair), you remember your friend.

"Oh! Sorry, I have to go", you swiftly state, "my friend– they're waiting for me. I'm so sorry. Bye!", you apologise, getting up and gathering your stuff. You give him a wave with a sheepish smile before heading off.

You barely just caught onto his words, "see ya around Y/n".

You find your friend, Zara, pretty easily as she was near the exit. Once she saw you, her eyes lit up in excitement.

"So how'd it go??", she asked.

"Okay, he was nice but I'll probably never see him again. Anyways let's go", you say, wanting to cut the conversation short and keep the details to a minimum.

'Every second that passed that I was still near him made me melt. His voice was as smooth as honey. His eyes were like black holes and they were consuming me and my every move. His touch though... That was the worst of them all. Every time he touched me, my skin was on fire and I think he knew it too'.

"Wait, I gotta grab my phone. Brb", she exclaimed, disappearing into the crowd once more.

You decided to meet her by the car, you couldn't stand being in there another second. Your mind still ran back to when you asked Levi if he went there often. You definitely didn't pick up on something but what?

"Back!!", Zara yelled, unlocking the door for you. You swiftly open the door to the passenger seat, it was too damn cold right now.

"I'm sleeping over yours tonight'', Zara breathed out once inside the car. You giggle at her reaction before agreeing.

~Time Skip~

After the two of you got some pizza, you both went to your house. Once inside, your roommate greeted you.

"You guys are back so late", he stated.

"But Y/n messaged you back", Zara stated, "plus her eyes were a little too preoccupied''. She nudged you before joining Zach on the couch.

"Wait, what?''

"Y/n met a guy-"

"Zara!!", you shout at her.

"What?", she innocently shrugs her shoulders.

"Shut. Up", you chuck your purse at her which she just about managed to catch.

"I want details!!", Zach now sat cross legged on the couch, eagerly staring at you both.

You facepalm as Zara goes on about how hot he was and how you were almost drooling.

"Y/nnn", the two whine on the couch as you move about the house, putting things away.

"Yes?", you groan.

"What was his name?", Zara asked for at least the hundredth time.

"Levi. His name was Levi. And why are you both making such a big deal out of it? It's not like I'll ever see him again".

Zara had a grin plastered on her face as she held up your phone, "I wouldn't be too sure about that".

You squint your eyes at her, "what did you do?"

"Well you know how I said I had to go and grab my phone...?"

"You got his number, didn't you?"

She gave you a sheepish grin as your phone went off, "he texted you".

Your eyes widen as you sprint towards her, snatching your phone from her grasp. You leave to your room as your two friends whine in complaint. You only did that because you knew she would have read the message out loud and responded back.

You peer at your phone to see that he did in fact message you.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Hey, this is Levi (the guy from the disco). Your friend gave me your number.

Your eyes widen at the name Zara put down for him. Why did you expect her to put a sensible name anyways?

You: Hi, I'm so sorry about her. I swear she meant well, I'm also really sorry if she threatened you for your number.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: It's okay, I was actually the one who asked her for your number.

You: Wait... Really??

A small blush adorned your cheeks as a smile arose on your lips.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Yeah.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Sorry, I just wanted to talk to you more.

The blood in your body warmed up so much. This guy was very straightforward and candid.

You: It's okay, I'm glad you did so but I doubt you even remember my name, never mind what I look like.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋 is typing...

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: your name is Y/N. (E/c) eyes. (H/l), (h/c) hair. (H).

You: Okay... I guess you do remember.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Apart from my name, what do you remember about me?

You: you have kinda short, black hair and grey eyes that look a little bit blue. You're pretty tall, like really tall.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Hm, I didn't actually expect you to remember.

You: 😇

You: Me neither... But luckily I did.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Are you free tomorrow?

You: After 2:30pm, I am.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Would you like to grab a coffee?

Did you really want to? He was a complete stranger after all. But it would be in a public setting so he wouldn't be able try anything. You bit your lower lip as you weighed out the options.

'C'mon Y/n, just give the guy a shot. He could be a genuine guy'.

'What's the point, he'll lose interest as quickly as he gained it'.

'You never know until you take the chance'.

Your phone pinged again.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: I'll be sure to make it worth your while.

You bit your lip even more but the smile you were trying to mask peaked it's way through.

You: Where and when?

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: 4pm, at L'Vistro's?

You: Sounds cool. I'll see you then.

#Fawning💋😍😘🤤👅💋: Okay, night Y/N.

You: Goodnight Levi.

You turned off your phone and stared at the blank screen for a few minutes, the messages still carved into your mind. You let out a small squeal in delight. You couldn't believe this... Maybe Zara giving out your number to a complete stranger actually worked in your favour for once.

~ ~ ~

I know Levi isn't tall but he is in the fic.

#captain levi #levi x y/n #levi x you #levi aot #levi attack on titan #levi au #levi ackerman #fanfiction #fandom #anime #x fem!reader #x reader #sick boy soldier #palaye royale inspired #tall levi #nightclub

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vegalocity · 3 years

Note

Fluff 25 for a Mabifica and Lumity double date, please?

Prompt meme || @starsfic

“I think (she/he/they/I) rubbed off on you.”

Brb making up some backstory bullshit

“And so I looked Emperor Belos right in the eye and said 'I may have lost but so have you!' and I SLAMMED the magic staff down and the fire glyphs all ignited at once and blew up the magic door!”

“Wowzers! That sounds incredible! And you were fourteen?”

“Yup! Not bad for a Freshman huh?”

“Not bad at all! I was in Seventh grade when my brother and I fought our Boss Battle! And Bill wasn't an easy corn chip to fight!”

“Evil cornchip? With a silly name? Well now you have to tell me THAT story!”

“...well I'm legally obligated in the state of Oregon to answer that with 'Never mind all that!'....but we're in California SO HERE GOES-”

Luz and Mabel were leaned over the shared table, both ranting excitedly about their adventures from their early teens. Luz's adventure was about four years ago, Mabel a solid six years, and they only had recently met in their recently ended shared senior year, and had decided to set this up.

“You get the feeling WE might be tagalongs on THEIR date?” Luz's green haired girlfriend—Amelia? Some sort of 'A' name—leaned in and whispered conspiratorially in Pacifica's ear.

“No doubt.” She responded equally quietly, but it wouldn't have mattered, Mabel's boisterous storytelling easily drowning her words out if one wasn't paying attention.

“And Pacifica had to borrow my Llama sweater because she was basically wearing a potato sack by that point-”

“Hey! I wasn't exactly wearing an outfit built for exercise when the whole thing hit! I'd like to see you keep a whole look in order while you're running for your life!”

“It's not hard.” the green haired girlfriend—Amity, she remembered after a beat—Spoke up. “Luz and I destroyed Gromethus bringer of terror in our Grom dresses.” She paused for a second “Well, dress and Skirted pantsuit.” Amity shot her a smile, a challenge.

“Oh it was that easy for you?” Well if that was the challenge then far be it for her to turn down. “Well I'll have you know that the Wierdpocalypse was a little more challenging than one monster. And if we're talking singular showdowns I fought a level ten ghost in a floor length gown without getting a spot of mud on my dress!”

“Oh boy...” Luz muttered as Amity leaned forward onto her arm. “This ain't good.”

“Paz, it's not a contest...” Mabel tried to gently pull her away.

“Did you know that Luz discovered—entirely on her own—an entirely different way to cast spells and perform magic that was lost centuries of not millenia ago!”

“Well Mabel took out an entire Gnome kingdom with only a leafblower! And she's legally a congresswoman for life!”

“Yeah? Well Luz dismantled an oppressive regime and saved her home dimension!”

“Mabel did all of that before she was even technically a teen!"

“...They're gonna keep going on like this, aren't they?” Luz leaned over to whisper to Mabel.

“Yeah probably.” Mabel huffed. “What's 'Luzura' anyway? I heard you guys talking about it earlier..”

“Oh! Good Witch Luzura! See it's this story I had in my head when I was younger, I tried publishing it on the Boiling Isles, but... schenanigans... Anyway Amity's been helping me work on the story so it isn't as much of an Azura clone as it was when I was fourteen.” Luz continued on as Mabel eagerly listened. Pacifica and Amity's game of 'my girlfriend is cooler than yours' passed until their entrees got to the table.

And when the entrees were gone Luz and Mabel continued their discussion, now deep in depth about the practicalities of grappling hooks in battle.

“Hey, what are those things stitched onto your cardigan sleeves?” Amity was apparently uninterested in their pre-dinner challenge.

“Hm?”

“I'm not super familiar with the creatures of the human world.” Amity tucked a lock of hair behind her pointed ear and Pacifica was forcibly reminded just why their double date was taking place in Piedmont, where the Pines Twins brought weird with them like a storm brings rain. “And those things look... kinda like horses, but too long. And they're not giraffes I don't think...”

“They're llamas.” Pacifica explains, holding the sleeve of her cardigan across the table for Amity to better examine. “They're South Ame... They're from the mountains in the far south and they have really sturdy fur, Mabel actually made this for me out of llama hair.”

“....Didn't she say in that story that you borrowed her sweater with a llama on it?” Pacifica shrugged.

“It was my part of the Prophecy wheel. Never got around to returning the sweater and it rubbed off on me.”

“I think she rubbed off on you.” Amity grinned around her drink at Pacifica “Way before you two got together.”

“Oh most certainly.” Pacifica agreed. “But you can't look me in the eye and say nothing of Luz rubbed off on you.” Now it was Amity's turn to shrug.

“Well, fair enough.”

Send me stuff!

#Mabifica #Lumity #vega writes stories too #Starsfic #Letters to vega #No beta we die like men #Catch Paz and Amity getting into a phsyical fight on who has the cooler girlfriend #writingamongther0ses

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sambergscott · 4 years

Text

i'll promise that i'll love you for the rest of my life

one giving the other flowers, as requested by @rosalitadiazz AGES ago, also dedicated to @397bartonstreet for the initial idea of amy sleeping in/just being the best and @nine-niall for helping with the marriage highlight reel.... and for making me listen to heartbreak weather on repeat for the last few days and coming up with this title

happy anniversary to jake and amy!!! (also since the ep aired 2 years ago today i'm not *technically* late thank u very much)

One million, fifty one thousand and two hundred minutes after marrying Amy Santiago (or, two years), every moment is as wonderful as day one. He still feels the same rush of excitement when he sees her waiting by their car at the end of a shift, the same swell of pride when she introduces him to someone as her husband, the same “oh my god we’re actually married” moment when he catches her rings glinting in the sunlight. It’s been the best one million, fifty one thousand and two hundred minutes of his life. And while he appreciates every single second they have together, knowing how in their line of work things can change all too easy, their second anniversary presents the perfect opportunity to remind her that everyday he gets to be with someone as amazing as her is crazy to him.

He has flowers, a handmade card, he even hoovered and she’s still asleep.

She never sleeps this late.

Everyone knows she’s the morning person in their relationship and he’s the Get Out Of Bed After Snoozing The Alarm Seventeen Times person. They live together, share a car, and yet most mornings he ends up riding the Subway, squashed between an old woman and a nerdy looking guy who smells like he hasn’t showered in a week, Amy rolling her eyes when he gets to work mid-briefing. The rare days she can get him out of bed early usually involve some kind of bribery using food and/or sex.

The point is, he’s supposed to be the one sleeping in past 11 AM, but ever since their doctor prescribed Clomid to help stimulate ovulation and boost their chances of making a baby, their roles have been totally reversed like Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday.

Pregnant Amy falls asleep anywhere and everywhere. The couch, the car, the cleaning cupboard at work when she was trying to find some Nuclear-strength cleaner to remove the stench of Charles’ lunch from the air before she hurled again.

She could sleep all day if he let her and he quite easily could. She looks so peaceful and cute and free from the stresses of her family asking why they waited so long (well, long for Santiago standards) to start a family. Plus, the messy hair and tiny bit of drool on her chin are impossibly endearing in the way only she can be.

He smiles and wraps his arms around her, resting his head on his shoulder, his hands - like his thoughts - drifting to her growing bump as they inevitably always do.

This time next year they’ll be celebrating with their little boy or girl, telling them all about the insane, magical day that was May 15th 2018. Of course, it might be some time before they can fully grasp the TV-worthy drama of the creepy phone call, the bomb in the vent, the ex-boyfriend proposing - twice! - and the wall of Amy photos, but they will sure as dammit know how beautiful their mom looked in her dress and how happy their dad was when Grandpa Holt finally announced them as husband and wife.

“Can’t breathe,” his wife squeaks, finally awake. “Arms too tight.”

“Oops. Sorry, babe.” He kisses her by way of apology; sometimes when he gets to thinking about that day, about seeing her walk down the shredded paper aisle under the glow of fairy lights, surrounded by the very people who watched them fall in love, he kind of forgets where he is and what he’s doing.

She’s always had that intoxicating effect on him. That’s never gonna change.

“Time is it?” She yawns, stretching her arms above her head.

“Twenty five to,” he pauses to brace himself for her reaction, “...twelve.”

“Twelve?” Horrified, she moves to get out of bed and yeah, he knows her so well. “Let me go,” she huffs in frustration when he forms a barrier to keep her from leaving.

“No can do, Santiago,” he says authoritatively. “You’ve been working yourself to the bone and you’re pregnant. You need to rest. We’ve both got the day off, our dinner reservations aren’t until 8. Just let your husband take care of you for a couple of hours.”

She chews on her lower lip, making her contemplative face that he recognises from sitting opposite her for so many years, preferring watching her piece together the leads in a case rather than work on his own. “Fine,” she eventually concedes. “Happy anniversary, by the way.”

“Happy anniversary,” he returns the sentiment, kissing her again because, well, he can, one of the perks of marrying Amy Santiago (alongside a perfectly organised sock drawer and getting to hang out with the best person in the world 24 sevs). “I got you these,” he adds, procuring the daffodil bouquet he found online.

“Jake,” she sighs dreamily, placing the flowers on her nightstand. “They’re beautiful. And my favourites.”

“I know,” he smirks. He may not be Santiago level smart, but he’s smart when it comes to all things Santiago. “Also made you this.” He hands over the card.

She opens it, instantly tearing up at his sweet message inside, the dam bursting when she notices the scrawled message written with his wrong hand from their unborn baby. “Mine sucks in comparison,” she laments, passing him his card before locking her eyes back on the words ‘happy anniversary to the world’s best mama’.

“It does not suck,” he reassures her, clutching it to his chest. “I’m going to savour it for all times. I want to be buried with it.”

She rolls her eyes, drying her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I thought you wanted to be buried with your original copy of Die Hard.”

“OK, Die Hard and your card. Rhymes for a reason, Ames.”

“You’re such a dork,” she responds, stifling her laughter. “Can’t believe I’ve been married to you for two full years.”

“I know.” He grins. “What was your favourite part?”

Her eyes glimmer with excitement and love and memories of their first anniversary before things turned upside down. “Are you suggesting we do a marriage highlight reel à la NBA inside stuff?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. I’ll go first. NUMBER FIVE,” he yells in his spot on Ahmad Rashad impression, earning a giggle from his wife. “Number five is that dress you wore on my birthday. Your butt looked the bomb in it.”

“Thanks, babe.” Two years in, she’s used to the constant “your butt is the bomb” comments, often uttered at the most inappropriate of times like when she stands up to brief the squad or play soccer with her brothers, much to her chagrin and their delight.

“Number four,” she quickly moves on. “The time you taught me to play Mario Party and I beat Wario on the first try.”

“That was my worst moment,” he groans.

“And that’s why it’s my best.”

He sighs, considers debating it, engaging in the classic back-and-forth that is the very foundation of their relationship, but it’s moot. She was way better than him. Santiago’s learn fast. It’s in their genes or something. And despite the crushing disappointment when she beat Wario with ease and dork danced her way to the kitchen to grab them both an orange soda, it was still a very fun night and a worthy moment in the highlight reel.

“Number Three. The York murder.”

Immediate understanding spreads across Amy’s face, but he explains anyway.

“I spent three days working that case and you just came in, saw the board and solved it right away.”

“I’m very smart,” she jokes lightheartedly.

“You are,” he agrees, his voice coming out softer and sincerer than even he imagined. “I love that about you. I love your brain. I love how good you are at your job, at figuring out puzzles. I love that you listen to NPR and know so much about the font Helvetica and have read, like, a million books. I love that you do a crossword every night and I love how proud you look when you give me a sports clue and I actually get it right. I love cheering you on at Trivia Nights even when Kylie can’t stop glaring at me. How lucky am I to have the smartest wife in the world?”

Touched, she can barely compile her thoughts to reveal her Number Two.

“The night at Shaw’s, at Hitchcock’s second divorce party, your speech, the way you kissed me, the way you were so gentle when we got home,” she sniffles. “It was special and made me feel so loved and if I say anymore I’m going to cry again, so you go.”

He chuckles knowingly. The pregnancy hormones have been making her extra emotional lately, they can’t even watch commercials anymore without her fully weeping. And while last year Pam and her twisted bowels interrupted before they could get to Number One, this year Number One is obvious. Clear as day. And there’s no one to interrupt.

He pretends to think about it for a minute (because he will always love teasing her, married or not). Only when she grabs his arm and digs her nails into his skin does he put both their hands on her bump and smiles. “Obviously this little guy or gal is Number One.”

She smiles back at him, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

His own face falls. “Ames?”

“It’s been a hard year, hasn’t it?” She sighs, thinking back to calendars and fertility appointments and the strict no nacho policy.

“Yeah,” he says, “it has. But this next year is gonna be the best one yet.”

“I mean... We’re probably not going to sleep a lot.”

“You might not sleep a lot but I sure will,” he teases, his words falling flat. “Just kidding, babe. Obviously I’m going to get up for all the feeds and diaper changes and whatever else this kid throws at us. Gonna be there for you both. No matter what.”

The pregnancy hormones strike again and she starts crying and, honestly, he can’t wait for this baby to get out, for more reasons than one.

“BRB, I’ll go make your favourite breakfast to make you feel better, don’t grow anymore body parts while I’m gone.”

He returns seven minutes later with pancakes, a ton of fruit, decaf coffee and another kiss. He climbs back into bed, devours his own Nutella pancakes and posts his favourite blurry, drunk on Champagne and love selfie from their makeshift wedding reception at Shaw’s, on Insta with a caption about how he promises he’s gonna love her for the rest of his life.

And he keeps that promise.

#b99 fic #jake x amy #my writing #dork danced is my new favourite verb

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whats-the-story-tc · 4 years

Text

13th of March, 2020

"The One with V's Sister"

[REALLY LONG ONE. I got her back for a day, you best believe I'm savouring every single goddamn second.]

Shenanigans below the cut:

Another day, another ponytail. :-)

I dreamt with her again the night before. We were at this school event and I introduced her to my Dad. As they shook hands, Dad was wondering where he'd heard her name, then asked me if she was the one I always kept talking about. V just chuckled and said that I am her best student, but I never tell her stuff like that. Dream-me was probably blushing profusely.

Right. So. Morning. Bandana Friend and I were at the secretary's office to ask for something and lo and behold, there's V in her usual seat turned towards the door, hands glued to her phone, hair pulled back. I got really excited. I had two whole classes to drink in the sight, and I simply couldn't wait. "Whoop, there she is!" Bandana Friend told me. "Yeah, I saw her. And her hair is up!" We got excited, then remembered we said it loud enough that she could've heard. A laugh was had.

After that encounter, I was informed that we were to write a pretty important test in V's class that I didn't even know about. I tied my hair back as well, and spent the whole of my History class rather anxiously cramming anything and everything Grammar-related. Class ended, and my classmates were pleading with me to try and convince V to postpone the test a little, because she likes me. (It's not worth much, though. They say that about every teacher.) I told them that even though she does, she wouldn't listen to me, either. "There's no getting a plan out of that woman's head," I said.

Turns out, I was once again boo boo the fool. V decided to axe the test and have us write it a week later. I could've kissed her. I actually went: "MISS!" out loud from the surprise, hands thrown up in the air. And not only did she axe the test, she told us exactly what to expect and what we need to know, when we eventually DO write it. And, even though we'd previously discussed everything she mentioned, she took the time to go through everything once again, explain every important thing one by one. And she spoke English again! Okay, it was one word, when she brought up euphony, and said how everyone says German is a violent, angry language because of its phonetics, and brought up the classic "butterfly/Schmetterling" example I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

As she was talking about stylistic value, and how it can differ depending on the context, she brought up the very word she called me the last time we shared a walk, the one I translated as 'babydoll'. I immediately started smiling. Pleasant memories. And, as she went on, now talking paradoxes, she brought up the epigram I associate with her. Odi et amo. I looked away from her with a bittersweet smile. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. But the rest of the time, I couldn't keep my eyes away when I wasn't writing. There was always something to look at. Her hair, her eyes, her smile, her coffee mug necklace, her outfit and body (*cough* low-cut T-shirt *cough*) and basically everything. Cynical Twat (who no longer sits behind me) had his eyes on me for a while, while I was looking at her like she hung the stars. I think he's onto my ass. Fuck.

We also spoke about the other class in our year, as they came up. I asked V if they were ahead of us, as she said she keeps mixing up what she discussed with us and them, and she told me we were basically even at the moment. Then came the obvious question from Blond Boy in the Back: who does she like more? V was very reluctant to answer that, not wanting to generate tension between us, and only wound up saying that we were a lot more disciplined while the other bunch act more freely, and that she likes them and they'll mature someday. She also mentioned she has class with them in really unfortunate time slots and that not even the best class would want anything to do with her or her subject in 7th/8th period. I was about to protest, but I remembered it would be best not to. It's not like she'd respond, anyway.

Towards the end of class, we practised recognising different types of symbolism in poetry. There was this one about tree branches throwing black bouquets on the ground. I wondered what it meant — exactly until the very moment V asked us what it meant. That's when I realised it referred to shadows, and said it immediately. V didn't look at me, just pointed at me as she repeated my answer. She didn't have to reach far — she was standing right next to me. It was quite the common occurence in that very class, as she kind of alternated between standing at the board and by my side. Brb, gotta go get my tinfoil hat.

I also remember the two of us (ft. Comparison Boy I think, but mostly just V and me) having a short debate about whether or not this one famous poem was picture poetry or not. We were so persistent that V ended up telling us something along the lines of "Okay, it can be viewed as such, but technically, it isn't." Ha! Success :)

At the end of class, just to get a proper conversation out of her, I trotted up to her to ask if the definitions of metonymy and synecdoche I jotted down for myself after a bit of extra research were passable. She said that she'd word them a little differently, but technically, they were passable. Cool. End of story.

...at least I thought so. But more on that later.

She gave us back our earlier tests, one Grammar I fucked up here (I only got a B for it, my perfectionist ass can't take it), and the Literature one from here. A+. Huh. And, for once in her life, V actually signed a test! (I'm not exaggerating when I say I've never seen her signature in the past, nearly 2 years.) But what was best, is that when we looked at Debate Friend's test, couldn't finish her essay and barely wrote anything, under it stood, in red V-cursive: "I know you ran out of time." You guys, she gave her maximum points for it! We were full-on gushing when we saw it. Angels walk among us, I tell you.

Later, I had a splitting headache in (foreign) English, and told Curly Friend that I probably would suffer through my upcoming last class of the day if it wasn't going to be with V. I think I told her I always go to V's classes to catch a break. Not because they're easy, but because I can relax and listen to things I love hearing about, from a woman I love listening to. He told me that V was feeling pretty poorly, too (he had double class with her after she was with us), which surprised me. Aside from one story she told us about her dad (she mentioned both her parents today which she doesn't usually do), she was rather very smiley and energised from the very start of class with us. The only time I saw her be more serious was when I spoke to her after class. There was something about her eyes I noticed, but didn't think much into it. The usual sharp-cold fox eyes (I thought it through, they're more fox-like than cat-like), piercing right through the soul upon first glance. Now I realise how tired she must have been.

7th period Literature, aka where things genuinely started getting crazy. Whew. Here we go. Just before we actually got started, my homeroom teacher showed up and called V outside for a minute. You'll later see why. Then, class proceeded as usual. V set up everything, then put on a video about romanticism era here, at home. But, as per usual, V couldn't stop herself from making notes on the board and pausing the video to add her own commentary. Most of the time, she was crouching beside her laptop, with a complete disregard to me looking at her instead of the video whenever she did that. Once the video was over, she explained some things, her back against the board. She realised she got a whole person's name wrong, and, upon noticing she smudged the writing a little, she remarked "I hope I wiped the board with my hair again," and reached for her ponytail. I was laughing to myself. What do you mean again, love? My dearest, the train wreck.

Second video, about this play based on a queen's assassination in the medieval times. V said it was a tragedy, and asked us what a tragedy was. As I was trying to lace my thoughts together, I did notice that quick look she stole at me that basically said "Come on, Specs, you're the drama expert, say something or this is gonna get really awkward." Me and this other boy did manage to answer, though. After that, it was video time. V took a seat on an empty desk at the other side of the classroom, so she wouldn't block the view. Coincidentally, I had perfect view of both the screen and her. And that's where everything started getting mad.

She noticed. As I was watching her reactions, she turned to me and looked me in the eye before turning back to the video. And after that, though I didn't dare to look at her as much, most, if not all my gazes were returned. When the title character eventually stabbed the queen, she let out this extremely ridiculous scream straight out of a cartoon (well, they WERE cartoon silhouettes after all). I look at V, she looks back at me with this smile of "yeah, I know". Thing is, even in the next 'scene' with a trial, taking place presumably days later, the queen's body was still on the ground. I couldn't help myself, and asked "And they just left the queen there?" V burst into a grin as she looked at me to say "No!". This time last year, I used to get very Done™ looks for this kind of joke, and no verbal response at all. We're getting somewhere, ladies and gentlemen and enby people.

After the video ended, I actually raised my hand this once, to point something out. V was about to start speaking, but said "Yeah?" when she saw my hand up, dropping that train of thought immediately. I talked about how ironic it was that only the queen and her brother's silhouettes were black, and the rest of them were white. As I thought, it symbolised who were meant to be the good guys and the bad guys. I also brought up chess, which V agreed to, and I could see she was glad that there's someone who actively pays attention to detail.

I said it was mad before? Whoo, boy, then it's about to get insane.

Class ends, and V is packing. I was standing there anyway, so I thought I'd help a teensy bit, putting the projector cable away for her so she only had to deal with her laptop. I got a "Many thanks" for it when she noticed. And then. Oh, then. I'm standing beside her desk, not saying a goddamn word, and she, completely unprompted, starts talking to me about the play in depth. She didn't even call my name to get my attention, because she knew I'd be listening. (Been there, done that.) She told me that she finds the plot interesting, and as an adult, she can appreciate it, but the whole thing is written in such a dry and complicated way (she frowned saying this), that she can't help but have mixed opinions about it.

These are all things she mentioned in class before and needn't have repeated, but I was kinda glad she did. I let her talk, adding my own opinion whenever I felt like it, drinking in the fact that she wanted to talk to me specifically about it. I told her that as an actress, I find the characters interesting and I'd love to do this play because the plot really does sound interesting. The look she gave me... she looked me in the eyes, not a word said. It wasn't the fox eyes, it felt more like she was focused on me. There was a depth to it, a silent intensity. I have no idea what she could've been thinking, but I think she might have tried to imagine it. "We'll continue this on Tuesday." she told me, as the bell was about to ring. Lmao, as if.

But it didn't end there, oh, no. Sorry, you have to read a little longer. When she left the classroom, I realised: "Hold on there, V, I'm not done with you yet" and immediately went after her. She walked over to Art Friend, who was writing a test outside, at a nearby table, to check up on how she's doing. Me being me, as they finished talking, and more of my friends started to gather around, I decided to check up on how V's doing. And — you guys aren't going to believe this —, for once, she didn't ignore me asking her how she was! She said that even though she wasn't a hundred percent well, she was doing fine. She didn't plan on not being at school on Tuesday, but life got in the way. (She even explained how, we goin' personal in here.) She didn't say anything when I told her to take care of herself, but I didn't really expect her to.

(From here, our topics might not be in chronological order, because I literally don't remember how it happened.)

There we were, on opposite sides of that table, facing each other directly. "Is the weather changing again, Miss? Is that why my head is splitting apart?" I asked her, thinking adults always know about the weather anyway. "Maybe. Or you're just sick and we're all going to die." she told me as she was putting stuff into her laptop bag. "Oh, great. Bright future you're predicting for me, Miss, thank you." I responded, somewhere along the lines of this. I don't remember the exact thing. "We're all going to die one day, aren't we?" "Well, yeah..." "Just think about all the times we could've died as children..." Bright and optimistic topic in the middle of a goddamn pandemic, courtesy of our very own Miss V. But me and Debate Friend chimed right in with our stories anyway. If there are two people who are ride-or-die with V's weird shit, it's us.

I remembered what happened the previous day, Comparison Boy calling me by her name. "[Art Friend], should I tell her about [Comparison Boy and co.]?" I asked my friend out loud, because I know V absolutely hates not knowing stuff. "Oh, Lord, what happened?" V asked immediately, both elbows on the table, watching curiously. See? This is why I adore teasing her. It's the reaction. "Long story short, they don't call me by my name anymore." I said, not daring to look up at her, no matter how coy I was being. Inside, I was still afraid of what she'd say to being compared to me. "Whose, then?" No going back. "Well, yours, Miss." I admitted. Immediately, I heard a "No." of disbelief, and there we were, both of us grinning at the accusations and me talking about how different we are on the inside. "[Curly Friend] found me with his theory, too." V told me, and now I was the one not believing her. I couldn't believe he told her! "What theory?" Art Friend asked. V seemed to have a hard time putting it into words so I helped out. "That she is me 10 years into the future." Yup. That's an actual theory he has. V looked a little... not withdrawn, even though she was leaning away from the table, but... awkward? But to be honest, we both were. "[Curly Friend] is nice, I like him, but if only he had this much creativity for studying..." V said, to close the topic off. Bwahaha.

At some point, my homeroom teacher came over to us when she saw us chatting, giving V's shoulder a little stroke as she walked past behind her to get next to her. I saw V crack a smile, this little, but very pleased one. Theirs is an unlikely friendship, but I stan it so much. She asked V about how Blond Boy in the Back was doing, as he was quite pale, and V said she noticed (she even asked him if he was alright) but nothing really extreme happened. After all the times he'd disrespected her, it's amazing how much V still cares about him. Then, my homeroom teacher mentioned a potential new teacher who might be coming soon (not anymore I guess lmao) and I burst into a fed-up "Again?". We all know what happened last time, after all. V grinned and muttered a half-impressed, half-unbelieving "She says 'Again?'..." to herself.

Art Friend brought up a British actor, but didn't know his name. (I couldn't guess she was talking about James McAvoy until she said His Dark Materials.) She said she was handsome, and V immediately said "I think I know who you're thinking about, and he's not that handsome." I was fully hollering. It was a shorter-lived convo bit, but V mentioned that she cries at every little thing. Now, that's an exaggeration right there, Miss. Also, I'm not entirely sure it was at this point, but sometime during the conversation, I nearly reached out and took her hand as a comforting gesture after something that was said, but stopped myself as soon as my hand moved. I couldn't do that. I had to know my place.

You know what I'm going to miss most about seeing V face-to-face? Her incredibly telling eyes, that speak for her every given minute. This whole conversation through, she was looking at us with this soft, crinkled-up-to-the-point-they're-half-closed eyes, the look a mixture of bliss and calmness... maybe even pride at a push. She looked like there genuinely wasn't anything she'd rather do in that very moment, but talk to us. She is an angel, let me tell you. I don't deserve her.

When she eventually got going, Debate Friend ran ahead (I gave her a Done™ look for a joke and she just bolted off), while V and I walked together. "Are [Curly Friend] and [Debate Friend] related by any chance?" she asked me. "Same hair, same smile, similar personality..." "Well, if we can be compared, so can they." I smiled back. Then something happened I didn't and couldn't account for. Debate Friend shot back, though I don't exactly remember how she worded it, that V and I could be related as well. And I mentally took a deep breath, fully aware of the risk I was taking, and exclaimed, grinning:

"I have an older sister! I've always wanted a sister!"

I can't possibly begin to comprehend that smile. She didn't say anything, but she closed her eyes and her lips pulled up into this really bright smile, something like this emoji: 😊, discount the blush. It went through my mind later that she did it because she was annoyed with me or thought me stupid and she was trying to mask it, then I remembered... it's V. She wouldn't do that, couldn't pretend if she tried. So that leaves us with one explanation: she was glad I said that. She actually liked me saying that and didn't mind being called my sister. I still don't believe it. It was the same smile as the one she said that "Oh, come on!" with on Wednesday, so she might even have been... flattered? Impossible.

Once she called out Debate Friend for addressing a teacher by her last name only, no honorific, she walked away and out of sight, smiling and waving goodbye to us. And that was the last time I saw her in the flesh — possibly for a very long time.

Later that day, I mentioned her and how much she helped me to my psychologist, who used to work in my school a while back. Last time I was there and I spoke about her, she didn't remember V, but now she was fully aware who I was talking about, if a bit surprised. "I never would've thought she is so... sentimental," she said. Me neither, doc. Honestly, me neither. But here we are. She was glad I found someone who helps me this much and I wholeheartedly agreed. How could I not?

It's been a little over a week since all this happened. Online school is kicking my ass, but I'll be fine. I have her. Still... I miss school a lot. I miss hugging my friends and doodling in classes and the thrill of scanning the corridors for a glimpse of a certain Miss V walking past. Here's to hoping it gets better soon. Until then, all of you take care, stay safe and stay home.

~ S ♡

[Every story I share here, no matter how specific I get with my wording, depicts actual events from my own life.]

#tc #tcc #teacher crush community #female tc #female teacher crush

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bugheadspoby · 5 years

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*Don’t kill me after reading this. This is just a result of my obsession* The theories are going around that Betty is actually hallucinating/imagining everything that happened in season 3. First of all..Betty’s mind is a little fucked up because of the trauma but still her imagination isn’t as shitty as the s3 storyline (but it can happen because this show uses words like ‘ENDGAME‘ anything can happen) Secondly..she is in the same dress in finale (as people said, it could be wrong) as ‘THE SWEETWATER SWIMMING HOLE’ in ep1 so maybe she just collapsed there and everyone is trying to retain her and it is all her imagination. Thirdly..(A SHIT THEORY BY ME) Maybe Betty collapsed at the swimming hole and is in coma and everything that happened was actually because Jughead TOLD HER about the happenings himself (talking to her unconscious self while she was on the hospital bed, in coma) because he knew she will wake up while everyone else gave up the hope that she will (and the doctors told him that she could listen to him but is unable to respond) *Inserts crying emojis* that would be beautiful because when she’ll wake up she will tell Jug that she dreamt and then he’ll tell her that all of that was true and he used to talk to her unconscious self, praying that she wakes up.

BRB I’m crying because I’m obsessed to an unhealthy extent and I need Bughead.

Note: I’m not a twelve year old.

#Bughead #betty x jughead #riverdale

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shirtlesssammy · 5 years

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1x03: Dead in the Water

Then:

A Season One Aesthetic

Now:

Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin

We open to a quaint family tableau: father, daughter, and son. The daughter is a bit of a health nut and heads to the lake for a morning swim. If this brand new baby of a show hadn’t been named “Supernatural”, the under the water shots of her swimming would tip us off that something creepy is about to go down. The woman hears voices and is suddenly sucked under the water. We then are shown 2.5 hours of bubbling water. SUSPENSE.

Dean Winchester is on the case though! (Natasha: Look at these precious babies, still using printed newspapers to research cases!) Bby is a bit thirsty for a buxom server to really care about Sam’s slight bitchiness that their dad is still missing (I’ll always remember my resounding, insistent questioning about where their father was when I watched this the first time. Lol, John Winchester is coming back for episode 300, and I no longer am chomping at the bit for this. Ok, so like, yeah, I think it’ll be good --it better be cathartic for the brothers, especially Dean, who’s changed and grown so much since his father has died. Instead of writing this recap, let me write a 1000 word essay on the return of John Winchester.) Dean makes it very clear that he wants to find their dad, but until then, they’re going to hunt everything they can.

Wildlife Agents Ford and Hamill are on the case. They interview the brother, who tells them his sister was an expert swimmer and nothing was amiss about the lake that day. Sam wants to interview the father but “he’s kind of been through a lot.”

They head to the sheriff’s office. Ha, the sheriff insists that there’s nothing in the lake big enough to pull a human under, “unless it was the Loch Ness Monster.” (We won’t learn for several seasons that the Loch Ness Monster is actually real. I wonder if the brothers know that at this point.) In the process of explaining the unexplainable, the sheriff spills that the dam is falling apart. In 6 months, there won’t be a lake --or a town for that matter.

The sheriff’s daughter and grandson pop in. Dean turns the creep factor up a bit at the daughter, Andrea, but turns on the soft father-type he really is when he sees the grandson, Lucas. Lucas doesn’t respond to Dean, and his grandfather admits he’s “been through a lot.”

Andrea walks Dean and Sam over to their motel. Dean tries engaging her in conversation, but she sees right through his weak style. “Must be hard with your sense of direction, never being able to find yourself to a decent pick up line.” BURN.

Although, Sam calling Dean out on not loving kids is rich. WE KNOW HE DOES --but Sam doesn’t at this point. (Sidenote: Dean counting with his hands and scratching the back of his head. That’s it. That’s the sidenote.)

Sam’s research reveals that whatever is haunting the lake, it’s picking up its pace. There have been disappearances over the years, but it’s becoming much worse. They discover that Lucas is the only witness to what’s happening in the lake. He was out with his father a couple months before when his father drowned. Yeah, I guess this kid has been “through a lot.” Dean’s empathy with Lucas breaks me.

The brothers track Andrea and Lucas down at a park. Dean heads to talk with Lucas while Sam stays with Andrea. Dean’s beyond the flirting stage, and wants to get to the bottom of this case. He also has a major soft spot for a kid in pain. BRB, crying.

Dean tries engaging a mute Lucas with reminiscing about green plastic army men. BRB, crying. (GOD! There are really some things that can hit you A LOT harder on a rewatch.) Dean asks to sit and draw with Lucas. He has an artist’s eye (WHERE’S THE DEAN IS AN ARTIST FANFIC, YOU HEATHENS.) Dean then proceeds to start drawing and, lit by nothing but soft, reflective music, talk to Lucas about his own childhood trauma. He tells Lucas that he’ll listen if Lucas wants to talk (or draw).

Dean reconnects with Sam as Andrea tells how traumatized Lucas is. Lucas walks up and hands Dean a picture of a house.

That night, the father of the victim sits morosely in the dark, his son insisting he eat something (Sidenote: I love how the budget was so tight in early seasons of Supernatural that they couldn’t afford lighting.) While the son preps dinner, the sink water turns black and starts bubbling up from the drain.

Ok, Asshole, we’ve all seen It. Do you want to float too? Ugh. Apparently so, because bro sticks his hand in and gets sucked under. The water eventually drains away to reveal his dead face.

Upon learning about the latest lake victim, Sam and Dean quickly put it together that whatever is haunting the lake is in a race against time. It can reach out beyond the lake, and it will take what it can, while it can. The brothers go to visit the victim’s father, Bill Carlton. He’s in a deep state of grief, and in no place to talk. Dean thinks he’s also hiding something. He also notices that the drawing of a house Lucas gave him matches the Carlton home.

They go to talk with Lucas. Dean asks Lucas about his drawing, and feels that Lucas is scared. (Dean admitting he leads his life the way he feels others want him to. BRB, crying.) Lucas gives Dean another picture of a boy and a bike.

For Pained Boy Noir Science:

In the car, Sam spins out theories that Lucas is experiencing trauma-induced psychic visions. (I wonder if they'd planned Sam's psychic arc at this point?) (Later edit: They DID! Excellent!) Sam also tries to address Dean's revelation about seeing their mom die, which Dean shrugs off with his signature macho deflection. Damn it, Dean.

They find the church and the yellow house that match up to the drawing Lucas gave Dean and head in to investigate. An elderly woman lives there who tells them about the disappearance of her son 35 years ago. “Losing him – it's worse than dying.” Dean finds an old photo of the missing boy and Bill – the father from the cold open.

Cut to Bill sitting on the end of the dock addressing the water, saying that he finally understands what it wants. Losing his children is “worse than dying.” When Dean and Sam arrive, he's already piloting a boat out into the water. His boat gets thrown into the air and...game over.

Back at the Sheriff's, Lucas is freaking out. He grabs Dean, distressed, but can still say nothing. Dean looks after him as he leaves, equally distressed.

For OH NO, DEAN BEAN Science:

Later, the Sheriff interrogates Dean and Sam, telling them that he knows they're not Fish and Wildlife Service. Uh, yeah, no kidding! They start to leave town but Dean changes his mind and heads back. Sam's surprised.

Dean: I just don't want to leave this town until I know the kid's okay.

Sam: Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?

Dean: Shut up.

Natasha: What Dean said.

Meanwhile, Andrea is preparing an extremely full bath. She relaxes into it as brackish water begins pouring in through the tap. Suddenly something grabs her and tries to pull her down into the bathtub. Dean and Sam arrive during the attack and Lucas opens the door for them and leads them to the bathroom.

Dean kicks down the door (Mmmmhmmmm) while Sam drags Andrea from the bath, fighting the spirit’s fierce hold. They save her! Yay! But that nice wood floor is ruined, man.

(Sidenote: I love how this episode was filmed. There are so many interesting shots through windows and mirrors, as though these are reflections or looking through the surface of water. Well done, show!)

The next morning Sam gently interrogates Andrea while Dean researches through old family albums. He finds a picture of the Sheriff – Jake - as a young boy, in a Boy Scout troop photo with Bill and the missing boy, Peter. A clue!

Lucas interrupts them by staring intently outside, and he leads them to a patch of moss. Sam and Dean dig, only to find Peter’s red bicycle buried in the ground.

Jack interrupts the Winchesters and pulls a gun on them, asking them how they knew the bicycle was there. Ooof. How did YOU know it was there, buddy? “You can't bury the truth,” Sam tells him. Dean tells Jack that the kid they killed is haunting the lake and plans to kill Andrea and Lucas AND Jack. They need to burn and salt the remains. Andrea runs out to talk to her dad and asks him for the truth. She reminds him that her husband died and tells him she was recently attacked. Jack begins to break down. He tells her that he and Bill bullied Peter. They held his head underwater too long and he drowned. The body sank into the lake.

They're making plans to leave the lake when they notice Lucas leaning over the end of the dock.

They race to pull him away, but it's too late. A gray arm reaches out of the water and drags Lucas in.

While Sam and Dean dive into the water to search for him, Jack wades into the lake pleading with Peter's ghost to take him instead. Andrea watches it all from the dock and HELLO, TRAUMA.

Jack gets pulled down into the suddenly crazy deep lake. Meanwhile Sam emerges from the water and shakes his head sadly. NOOOOO.

Suddenly Dean bursts up out of the water with Lucas in his arms! Lucas is limp :( :( :(

The next day, Sam and Dean get ready to leave town. “We're not gonna save everybody,” Sam tells a sad Dean. NOOOOOOO. Just then, Andrea calls to them and she and Lucas approach! Oh, show, good job tricking me. They've brought them lunch! Lucas is speaking again! Andrea is super cute!

Andrea and Sam wrap up the case. Andrea’s seeking some closure and peace with the loss of her father. Dean and Lucas share a different farewell. Dean teaches Lucas to say, “Zepp rules!” Oh, Dean. I’d say never change, but I enjoy the journey.

Dean gets a kiss from Andrea. Dean's adorable about it and SOFT. Then Dean Bean ushers Sam back to the car. Time to hit the road! On Netflix, we get played out with some random pop song but on the originally released show Bad Company's "Movin' On" starts to play and they head out to the next hunt.

Natasha: This episode holds a special place in my heart because it's the moment when my eyes were open to Dean Winchester in all his traumatized, dutiful, and soft glory. I loved the little glimpses we get into the loss of Mary and the effect that had on Dean. This episode reads like a thesis statement on macho Dean and his underlying softer layers – from his empathy with Lucas to his use of Ford and Hamill surnames for their cover. (Boris: HARD AGREE)’

Still Searching for the Quote-Ness Monster:

We will find Dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?

I’m Agent Ford, this is Agent Hamill. We’re with the U.S. Wildlife Service.

Kids are the best, huh?

Must be hard, with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line.

Watching one of your parents die isn’t something you just get over.

Kids are strong. You'd be surprised what they can deal with.

My mom—I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave.

Zeppelin rules!

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 1x03 #dead in the water #dean winchester #Sam winchester #supernatural season 1

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m0onbean · 6 years

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enemies to lovers!eunwoo

okay so rivals to lovers!AU with eunwoo where do i start

the rivalry began one day when you were sitting in the library at your normal seat, studying for your next exam

and you usually go to the library everyday because when you’re at home you can’t seem to stay focused because of your roommate who’s always inviting her friends in your dorm at midnight and blasting Katy Perry

so the library is your go-to study spot and it’s always been for the past school years

you would always plop yourself at the table in the deserted corner of the library where all of the boring textbooks are

until that one day you came to your table, ready to cram in your last minute studying when you see a boy????? already sitting there????????

aND YOURE LIKE WHOMSTDVE WOULD DARE TAKE MY SPOT

the boy is wearing this plaid shirt with the buttons near his collar not buttoned up

and he’s super handsome

and he’s like reading this small book and he’s so immersed in the story that he doesn’t even realize your presence until you set your backpack on the table and clear your throat

and with your most polite voice you’re like “you’re sitting in my seat, can you please move to the other chair?”

bc the table you sat at only had one (1) chair and all of the other tables had people at them (ew)

but the brunette haired boy just glances at you for a secOND then returns to his book aND YOURE LIKE ???!???!!!???

so you repeat yourself and you’re like “sIR this is my seat!!!! pLs move im dying”

“i don’t see your name on it” he mutters without batting an eye anD you’re like so done and you’re about to yell at him until your phone rings and ur like brb lemme delay this ass beating later

when you check, it’s your mom & ur like sh00t so you blast outside of the library and temporarily forget your anger

so the next day, you return to your table only to find the SAME EXACT boy sitting in your seat this time with a different book

and you don’t even feel like arguing you just sit at another table and do your work

...although you prefer your own isolated table because nobody else sits there

and from then on it becomes like a race everyday to see who can get to the table first

if you win, then the boy ends up sitting at the other tables with the loud teenagers and you swear you can feel him glaring into your head from across the room

but if he wins, you have to sit there and now it’s your turn glaring at him

and the weird thing is that you two never directly communicated with each other?

you don’t even recall hearing his voice tbh

it’s like this unspoken rivalry ,,, and even though it’s super irritating how he snatches your table,,, it adds a dash of playfulness and fun into your boring school life

so this game you two play goes on for weeks until one stressful day

your teacher yelled at you in front of the class which made you late to your next class which led to another mad teacher and so on

you left your binder of homework at your dorm so you got marked off on your grades

your roommate left the house in a hot mess after a slumber party she had last night

and it’s just,,,,, everything is crashing down at you at once and it’s just so,, suffocating

and you’ve managed to hold everything in until up to moment you’re in the library

the minute you reach your table you just collapse on the ground from exhaustion

you hear a yell and you feel an awkward hand on your back

and in a sweet voice you hear “hey!!?? are you okay? (y/n) answer me”

and when you look up you’re surprised to see the boy who’s been snatching your table looking down at you with concern swimming in his eyes

and wow,, he’s so good looking up close

then you see a blush creep up on his cheeks and you’re like shIT i’m staring

you nod shyly and tell him you’re just tired af because it was a rough day

next thing you know he’s leading you to a convenience store and buying you a cup of latté

he introduces himself as eunwoo & you remember that he said your name earlier so you’re like “hey eunwoo how did you know my name??”

and he gets flustered and is like “uHhh you’re really well known... around the campus”

and even though you’re like hMMM you let it slide and you end up spilling your feelings to him

feelings about how you’re pressured for the future and how school is a pain in the ass

and the whole time he just listens and nods his head while giving commentary like “oh that’s horrible” or “wow i cant believe she did that”

by the end of it you’re both done with your drinks and you feel so so much more better

then you see eunwoo hesitating and you’re like ?!!!

he was actually contemplating whether he should hug you or not but mans is too awkward for that

he ends up just ruffling your hair

WHICH makes your heart go dududududu

and you’re like “thanks for listening... i feel so much better because of you.”

eunwoo just smiles and says something along the lines of “o-of course”

when you check the time you see that it’s close to your curfew so you both wave goodbye to each other

the next day, you see that eunwoo is still sitting at your table, only this time there’s an extra chair on the other side

so when you approach him he immediately shoots up and is like “i got you an extra chair so we don’t have to fight anymore”

& ur like oh.. o h okay we should’ve done this earlier

you two spend most of your time in peaceful silence while you study and he reads a different book everyday

occasionally you would steal glances of him because he looks... so attractive... just READING

and while you’re not paying attention eunwoo also stares at you bc wow.. you look so beautiful focused on your homework

there would be moments where you two would catch each other staring which leads to two very flustered faces and awkward tension

but trust me it’s adorable

even the librarian is cooing in the background

eventually eunwoo asks for your number and tries to make an excuse like “oH just in case you’re stressed out again”

in reality he just wants to talk to you

and when you smirk and say “oh okay eunwoo are we stepping up this friendship??”

he’S LIKE W O T .... PPFFFT seriouslyhowdidyouknow

and since eunwoo is rlly romantic he would send text messages like “did you eat?” or “stop studying and sleep”

and it’s so sweet and considerate you feel your heart bursting with so much love how can someone be so cute??????

occasionally you’d flirt around to purposely make him flustered

like you’d hold his hand randomly in the library when it’s “cold”

or you would randomly text him “i miss you”

the day he asks you out is when you two are talking on the phone at midnight bc eunwoo called you to stop you from studying

and while you’re talking you hear his sleepy voice say “you’re so adorable i just want to hug you”

and by this point how is this considered platonic AAAAAAAAA

you’re about to respond playfully but he continues and is like “i really like you”

AND YOURE SIDDJSOKASKS SCREKAING INSIDE

but in real life you’re like “i do too :)”

the next day he finds you outside your dorm and hugs you tightly before you can even get out a “good morning”

he tries to get you a new drink every morning but fails many times since your classes are so early and eunwoo just caNT wake up that early

and since you’re dating now he moved his chair next to yours so you’re both on the same side of the table :))

you two share earbuds and alternate from each other’s playlists everyday

he introduces you to his loud friends and his roommate Moonbin

moonbin is like a wild version of eunwoo and loves teasing you two every chance he gets

he’d use eunwoo’s embarrassing childhood stories as blackmail if eunwoo didn’t cook him something

regardless though, he would still tell you about that time eunwoo married a tree in elementary school dkzjsoakao

eunwoo as a boyfriend would try not to be clingy but he just can’t help but squish your cheeks and wrap his arms around you bc you’re juST so cute <3

you’d listen to him rant about books and give you summaries about each book he’s reading

how he manages to finish one whole book each day is still a mystery to you

but because of that he’s literally so smart

he excels in literature and language and leverything

he’s just a little... weak... in math LMAO

a lot of girls would glare at you two bc they’re jealous you got the hottest guy on campus and they’d probably be like “you don’t deserve eunwoo” a lot

and that honestly ... lowers your self esteem so so much because you understand why you don’t deserve him

this leads to an argument you two have where he’s telling you that you deserve him just as much as he deserves you!!!!!!!!

of course, this takes a lot of time for you to learn but eventually you’ll feel like you Deserve him because yes!! yes you do!!

it’s also tiring for eunwoo to always be seen as the model and the perfect and hot guy of the school ,,,, that’s why he likes you so much

you treat him like the most precious human being and are genuinely interested in him... not just his looks

you assure eunwoo so many times that even if he looked like your foot you would love him as much as you do now

aND that makes him giggle and wow he’s so in love with you

#this is so long ndkskaka im sowwy mobile users #i dont have my computer with me rn :(#anyways enjoy #astro #astro headcanons #astro scenarios #astro fanfictions #astro fluff #cha eunwoo

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thecrotchhand · 6 years

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health class >:(

-ug

-did somebody say rick of suicide

-”ooh, there’s a laser!” -student teacher

-good ways to manage stress- “punching a hole through the wall”

-”do you have a long-term goal?” “dying”

-”we should deport justin bieber back to canada”

-”if you say you're gonna do something, then do it" "i'm gonna kill myself ;))"

-"i'm busy singing Africa by Toto" *off-key singing continues*

-"when you lose weight, where does it go?" "it goes to weight heaven"

-the guy next to me started playing Africa quietly from his phone

-"i'm talking to bowl cut. just kidding chris. i love you." "...i'm getting a haircut."

-"you don't lift to get swole" -st

-"that sounds not good for you" "i'm gonna try it"

-"during pregnancy, the women in here are gonna need more folate, iron, and calcium" "no, i'm gonna need a coathanger"

-"liar liar pants for hire"

-"is eustress good stress or bad stress?" (long silence) "it's good stress! yay!" -st

-good ways to relax- "11 hours straight of anime"

-"everything's gonna be ok" lmao good joke

-"precipitation... wait i mean perspiration. it still counts, it's raining from your body."

-ways to manage depression- "kill yourself :D"

-help the teacher (flynn) has been yelling at us for the past five minutes

-uh oh she said damn it's gettin' wild

-she went back into her office after and all of a sudden we hear a quiet "oh, happy Wednesday"

-"is it possible to have an abortion 700 weeks late?"

-"what's the r-word we talked about?" "rawr XD"

-"what does autonomy mean?" "it's like grey's anatomy but for cars"

-alcoholism is a good sims trait

-guy: sneezes

guy's friend: "god bless... america"

-”what do you say to your sibling during an argument?” "you should've been aborted" “no”

- "your personality might be kind of boring" "like a potato!" "yeah"

-"what does down to earth mean?" "it means you're like the lorax, you speak for the trees"

-"he was happy?" "yeah! put him working with me and larson for ten years and... we fixed him!"

-the student teacher generally has a habit of sarcastic yaying and it entertains me

-"jason (chris) move your head" "just throw a rock at it, it'll move"

-someone was trying to come up with weird phobias and someone suggested genital herpes

-"sir you've been diagnose with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia " "aahHH"

-"if someone comes up to you and says a mean word, you're gonna be upset" "hey sam" "what" "fuck"

-"i found a big circle"

-"*cough* flynn"

flynn, out of nowhere: "i heard that"

-"have you guys seen cabin in the woods?" "wait, the one with the cabin in the woods?"

-:(

-"let's say you don't have a gun" "pft, not in america"

-we were talking about miscarriage and cody goes "fetus... deletus"

-examples of anger- "when mcdonald's doesn't have ice cream"

-video from the 80's: "depression isn't talked about"

-a seal saved this guy's life and he just: 'ah yes it was all because of god' ¿¿¿???

-80's commercials are the weirdest shit

-yepperdoodles

-"...gonna get addicted to xanax"

-"you guys all did a really good job on your tests" "i got a C" "i got a D+" "yeah there wasn't a single person i was not happy with"

-"you say you see really good scores, but what i'm seeing is a D"

-examples of compromise- "i got a D+, but i feel i deserved an A, so let's meet in the middle with a C" "but what do i get out of it?" "if he passes the class, you don't have to see him anymore"

-"oh no my one feeling"

-"what are some ways to resolve conflict?" "killing yourself"

-"put away the candy this is health class"

-(talking about conflict) "...then the fire nation attacked"

-(softly) "yo what the heck dawg"

-"if they started a rumor-" "kill them"

-"when i was-" "a young boy"

-"you got two more weeks with the student teacher, then you get me back" *high pitched screaming*

-"they never broke out, and then one of them broke out"

-"wrestling uniforms are skimpy"

-(across the room) "hey man, can i touch your butt?" "i don't mind, dude"

-"let's say my wife is going to leave me and i'm... celebrating! oh wait"

-"they're fat and skinny, they're white, black, pink, purple, and orange-" "trump"

-"listen, idiotface"

-"do you think... the government is hiding the cure for cancer...?"

-i love government conspiracy theories during health

-"i... declare... bAnkrUptCY"

-"are we watching a movie?" "maybe if we're lucky it's the ring and it'll kill us"

-lmao i don't need drugs to feel numb

-"aww, flynn, we know you're drinkin' a bottle in the back room" "yeah, just look at ya, why wouldn't i?"

-The Weed™

-"weed stops your sperm from being produced correctly" "perfect, it's birth control too"

-"weed might shrink your... parts" "i think i'll just stick to meth"

-"weed might give you a special needs child" "it's wilson 2.0!"

-"i'm gonna be a drug dealer but not a mean one like a nice, happy 'eyy, wanna buy some drugs? :3'"

-oh no, grandma's growing weed in the basement

-"ahh, the weed's on fire"

-"guess that's how they caught the drug dealers. the deer were high"

-teacher: "ooh, i just sounded like yoda: don't smoke The Weed™"

-"hey, where can you buy a still? asking for a cousin"

-"raise your hand if you want to watch hentai"

-this guy keeps responding to people with "yes, my child?"

-"they put aborted fetuses in vaccines" "oh honey no"

-"how do you keep yourself from getting sick?" "stop breathing"

-examples of painkillers- "cocaine"

-"i know elvis presley is still alive because the king never dies"

-biggest drinker in our grade: "am i gonna be an alcoholic?" class: "you already are"

-c o m p r o m i s i n g p o s i t i o n

-"trick question, i am hentai"

-"what would you do... if i said i could put you in your own hentai"

-"you're gettin' a hole in your nose oh my goodness"

-"depression" "nope" "wait... depression"

-"I can't remember the happiness i felt before drugs" "i can't remember feeling happiness at all"

-"oh you're back! just in time for meth"

-"oh my garage"

-"lotta meth in that town" "nah just incest"

-"it kills your brain cells. which some of you can't afford (staring directly at the class alcoholic)"

-"why do dentists have the highest suicide rate?? probably because everyone hates the dentist, i dunno"

-"that's accusations" "uuuuuhh no" "oh"

-"oh my gads. you got some meth?"

-"in the puss!" "terms" "sorry. vag!"

-"there's a pretty good chance that drug came out of someone's anal cavity" "that's why i don't do heroin"

-"hey, whose buttocks did this come out of?"

"i'm gonna go shoot myself with some dog food, brb"

-"oh my chicken pie"

-"i've been told we're gonna draw a penis"

-help they're genuinely discussing giving babies steroids

-"most of the female reproductive cells are useless" "just like my brain cells"

-the teacher keeps referring to developing babies as "little rat" and "alien creature"

-"if you eat my period snacks, i will eat you"

-*chiming* "is that santa??"

-"what's the only fluid that doesn't go to the baby?" "water" "no" "air" "no" "earth" "..." "fire"

-"you're supposed to snort those calcium pills" "don't snort the calcium pills"

-"mr. o'reilly, when'd you miss your period?"

-"is it true you puke the day after you get pregnant?" "no, if you puke the day after, it's from the alcohol the night before"

-fetus = jumbo shrimp

- i too, am a very sad lookin' heart

-"no, you cannot throw up your baby"

-"now that we've taken the baby home, we need to figure out what to do with it" "flush it down the toilet"

-"if you wear a hat all the time, all your hair is gonna fall out and die" "ha ha kevin, you're gonna die"

-"since i was 14. and i'm 112"

-"big dumb"

-"what do you want to be when you grow up?" "dead"

-"my parents say: 'hey... whatcha doin' with that 24-pack?'"

-"did jeffery dahmer's mom love him?" "hope not"

-"ohh i love the smell of babies *sniff sniff*"

-"they can be found in places that are... places"

-"why are there rotting apples under here?" "no you gotta let those ferment"

-"what's something you lose by age 3?" "hope"

-the guy in front of me had marvel porn on his phone????????????? hentai hulk's bright red ass is permanently ingrained in my mind

-"what am i supposed to do to live 2 more years? wrap myself in bubble wrap and eat brussel sprouts?"

-"for every 10 pounds overweight you are, subtract 1." "-50"

-"you're wearing a flamingo shirt, you're no one's favorite"

-"you don't snort viagra"

-"how do you feel about having guns in our home?" "how do you feel about how quickly i'd use it to kill myself?"

-"hey, 2 seniors walking down the hallway! wanna give her your papers?" "outta my way. hey! get back here and gimme your papers, ya bums."

-"it's not just the genitals that transfer STDs" "left calf"

-"what if they got an STD some other way?" "drinking sprite"

-"...serial monogamy-" "cereal is for mornings"

-"...trading sex for-" "chicken nugget"

-"you wanna try sex wearing a hazmat suit, go ahead" "don't kinkshame me"

-"STI: spaghetti time infection. it's an epidemic"

-"g- ross"

-"AIDS didn't come from sex with a monkey" "it's definitely about sex with monkeys"

-"what kinds of drugs do i need if i have AIDS?" "nothing, you wanna die"

-"do you know what they do to get rid of genital warts?" "chop your dick off" "mix wart cream with water and drink it"

-oh no they found out what they do get rid of genital warts

-"they shove a q-tip in your penis" "iiiiii'd rather die"

-"is that what tinder is? swipe right if you want crabs?"

-"i would suggest not setting your genitals on fire"

- "your penis doesn't do tricks"

-"do you have a driver's license? *nod* "do you have a car?" *nod* "are you a big boy?" *unsure nod*

-"i know it's only the last day but i will make you suffer for every last minute" "then i'll just do what i always do *sleeps*"

-our resident alcoholic was washing the board and people were jokingly flirting with him so he tied his shirt into a bikini and continued washing so the teacher docked him points for it. don't worry he was already failing

#quotes #notes #class #american school #american schools #meme #wtf #out of context quotes #offensive humor #i wouldn't be surprised if our class is the one that causes our teacher to become an alcoholic

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nortonsetupproduct · 3 years

Text

The BRB Bot from Charmin Will Keep You Active on Zoom Even When You Take a Break

Now, courtesy of this BRB Bot unveiled by Charmin; you can freely take a loo break during zoom calls while the bot takes care of your presence. The bot is currently at the second stage of development and is being tested by few specific customers (beta-only) before being released to the general public. The BRB bot utilizes Artificial Intelligence technology to listen to your zoom calls pretending to be you and also respond in your absence with adequate words, so your boss doesn’t find out that you had left the zoom call abruptly.

As the world was forced to work from home in the pandemic-stricken 2020, nearly every professional faced a dilemma of whether to continue with the zoom call or respond to nature’s call. Surely, not everyone prefers to take the laptop with them inside the washroom. Well, no worries, because Charmin, known as the toilet-paper manufacturer, has built a new technology that can massively help you with this problem as the corporate industry continues to work from home.

The technology aiming to create your digital clone is known as BRB Bot, which utilizes machine learning and AI to fill in your shoes while you take a break during zoom calls. While the user is gone, the BRB Bot from Charmin will replace the live version of the user with an AI-powered version to keep your presence in real-time, with no one suspecting that you had to log off.

While there are people that have enjoyed not needing to wake up early in the morning to get ready during the remote-work era, not many enjoy being fixed to video calls all the time, and some are even searching for smart ways to get away from repetitive and monotonous phone calls. There have been reports of people pre-recording responses and playing the audio-bits of dogs and crying babies to either postpone the meeting or end the meeting early.

However, as much promise the new technology gives, it hasn’t yet reached the final stage of development. However, still, the methodology and usefulness are quite splendid.

Charmin has also released a demonstration video on the internet as a part of a sales pitch, and if you want to learn about the technology in a bit more detail, then you can watch the video right now. You can easily find the video on YouTube.

So, this is how it works. You will need to take about three minutes to record responses to general questions and facial expressions, adjusting the camera angle and video angle with your preference to infer the fact that things are moving in your house. And, then the BRB Bot will use the concept of machine learning, AI intelligence, tone analysis, and natural language processing to create your fake digital image and keep you present during the call using recorded facial expressions and adequate responses to perfection.

It’s not that difficult as it sounds; you just need to record your authentic image and fill it in with your responses. This is especially helpful during the zoom call, where you do not need to say much.

Charmin has also released a statement through the video and has said that the BRB Bot does work in real-time, and it will employ the concepts of tone analysis, language processing, AI, and machine learning to respond on behalf of the user in real-time.

It is imperative to note the fact that Charmin has created a lot of nutty and silly products in the past as well. They had designed and developed a product called “Rollbot,” a robotic iteration that can deliver toilet paper rolls directly to your washroom in case you run out of one. They had also made something called “NFT(P),” which has been described as toilet paper art.

Even if it excites you a little bit, the BRB Bot from Charmin is still in use for Beta-customers, and no official release date or plans have been released yet. So, we would have to see how much further this plan takes shape. It, of course, looks pretty interesting.

AI and machine learning are fast-growing research concepts, which have made some staggering progress in the past couple of years after a long duration of slow research. They are expected to create staggering revolutions in the manufacturing sector, replacing the majority of the human workforce. Other by-products of AI and machine learning are home automation, medical prediction and diagnosis, game theory and prognostication, simplification in the data entry process, progress in the creation of better financial models, space exploration and research, and revolution in covert military operations.

Many people have had trouble listening to video calls continuously. The new BRB Bot developed by Charmin is striving to change the game entirely using AI.

Katherine Wood is an avid technical blogger, a magazine contributor, a publisher of guides at norton.com/setup and a professional cyber security analyst. Through her writing, she aims to educate people about the dangers and threats lurking in the digital world.

Source: https://katherinenortonsetup.wordpress.com/2021/05/21/the-brb-bot-from-charmin-will-keep-you-active-on-zoom-even-when-you-take-a-break/

#BRB Bot #Zoom #norton setup #norton.com/setup #www.norton.com/setup

0 notes

whydontwe-fanfics · 7 years

Text

Or Something (D.S)

Description: Daniel gets jealous over yours and Jonah’s close relationship, which is strictly platonic.

Word Count: 1.9k

---

You and Jonah had been best friends for years. Years before you and Daniel met. But that didn't mean anything to you because you knew where you stood with both the Marais and the Seavey boys. Daniel was your boyfriend and Jonah, your best friend. Nothing could change that and you had believed that Daniel knew that. You believed that Daniel officially knew your status with both boys, Daniel - your boyfriend, and Jonah - your best friend.

The thought of Daniel getting jealous over you and Jonah was sometimes there, like when you'd show Jonah funny videos on the internet that you and he had been doing for years - the thought of Daniel getting envious over that has crossed your mind. Keyword: crossed. Meaning it was there, maybe for a split second, but before you could go into deep depths of the possibility, it was gone.

What you hadn't known was that Daniel despised the friendship you and Jonah had with all of his heart. He wanted to resent Jonah, but he was not only his bandmate but his best friend, too. He wanted to talk to Jonah about it because he knew Jonah wouldn't be a dick about it, but the possibility of Jonah telling you eventually was unfortunately really high.

Though evidently, back at the Why Don't We House, Daniel just couldn't keep it in.

You had been laughing with Jonah about the most random subjects and things for the past thirty minutes, both of you in the kitchen. Daniel sat in the living room, but close enough to the kitchen so he could hear every word.

Daniel knew that Jonah would never make a move on you, but then again you were you. Sometimes Daniel asks himself how you and Jonah had never dated when you two were so good together. Why would you want Daniel when you could have Jonah? And why would Jonah let you slip through his fingers like that?

"Hey, Daniel, where's Jonah?" Jack asked as he came jogging down the stairs.

"In the kitchen," Daniel tonelessly said. "With Y/N," he numbly added. Jack had started heading to the kitchen but froze mid-step when Daniel let that last part slip.

"You okay, bro?" Jack then began heading to Daniel, resting his hands on the back of the couch.

"Yeah, just fine," Daniel grumbled. "Except, when I invite my girlfriend over, I expect her to pay more attention to me." He didn't mean to sound so bitter, it just came out that way, but the slight annoyance was still there.

Jack didn't say anything, pursing his lips and furrowing his eyebrows. Abruptly, he patted Daniel's back before walking into the kitchen.

"Hey, Jonah, you got a minute?" Jack asked, glancing between you and Jonah who were both chuckling at something.

"Uh, yeah. Brb, Y/N," Jonah snapped at you before following after Jack and out of the kitchen. You followed them out and smiled when you saw Daniel, but his face remained stoic. Jack and Jonah went upstairs while you sat next to Daniel on the couch.

"What's wrong?" You scrunch your eyebrows, a look of concern growing on your face.

Daniel barely scoffs. "I just thought I'd see more of you, my girlfriend, when I invited, you know, my girlfriend over to hang out with me and not Jonah."

Your eyebrows stayed in place as you shifted in your seat, confused.

"I-I," you didn't even know how to respond. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about that. I didn't mean to-"

"It's no big deal. I'm just wondering why you aren't dating Jonah when you prefer his presence over mine," Daniel monotonously said, his eyes staying put on the television screen before him while your body was turning towards him.

"You know that isn't true," you frown, the realization of his jealousy just hitting. "Jonah and I don't like each other. I'm your girlfriend, not his. He's just my best friend, I thought you knew that."

"Well, it's hard remembering when you're all over him."

"I'm not all over him," you frowned, feeling somewhat offended.

"Yeah, you are," Daniel scoffs. "You practically throw yourself at him every time you're five feet away."

"Why would you say something like that? I just told you I don't like him like that and I'm sorry for making you feel that way. I didn't know, and if you would've just told me something-"

"I shouldn't have to tell you something like that," he argued.

"I know, I get that," is all you had left to say.

"It really seems like you don't."

You didn't know how to respond, so that's how you responded.

"I don't know what to say," you admitted.

"Then don't say anything," Daniel spat, still heated up with anger. You grit your teeth together before standing up and walking out the house, slamming the front door shut before you made your way down the pathway and to your car angrily.

"What the hell just happened?" Zach asked as he came in from the back.

Daniel leans back into the couch with his arms crossed as he kept a deadly stare on the coffee table. "Y/N," he sighs, taking one hand to run down his face.

"You guys get into a fight or something?"

Daniel huffs. "Or something."

---

It's been three days since you and Daniel have last talked. You and he were both too stubborn and headstrong to apologize to the other, but Daniel felt like he should feel more guilty than you.

You hadn't known what you were doing and apologized, but Daniel still felt like he came second to Jonah.

Jonah and Daniel have also been distant towards one another lately. Jonah is confused as to why Daniel is giving him the cold shoulder and Daniel is still brackish to the entire situation.

But today was Jack's birthday and you guys had been planning to hang out for weeks. You weren't going to cancel because your boyfriend was getting on your nerves.

You dressed in casual clothes and had your hair in (whatever style you'd want). It took you about twenty minutes to get to the Why Don't We house and you could hear the music blasting from inside when you pulled up.

When you walked in, you noticed the boys and a few friends lounging around on the stairs, couches, and chairs. The second you walked through the door, the first person you make eye contact with is Daniel, but you're the first to look away.

"Hey, Y/N! Daniel's over there," Corbyn startled you from behind.

"Yeah, I know," you clasp your hands together and plaster on a fake smile. Corbyn furrows his eyebrows before merely shrugging.

"Okay? Well, Jonah, Eben, Aspen, and Jack are hanging around back with everybody around the pool... uh-Zach is with Austin in the kitchen and everybody else is just scattered around," Corbyn explained.

"Thanks. Is Christina here?"

"Nah, her plane was delayed but she'll be here tomorrow," Corbyn sighed.

"I'm sorry. I miss her," you tell him.

"So do I," he nods before his eyes glance to somewhere behind you. You turn and catch eye contact with Daniel, who's falsely listening in on the conversation that's going on behind him. You can read his facial expression as he gets up and starts heading to you, and a small sigh left your lips.

You turned back to Corbyn only to see that he was gone. You swivel your body around, back to Daniel's direction when you see Jonah step in between the wide distance between you and your boyfriend.

Your eyes castes from Daniel to Jonah in a second and you saw in your peripheral vision that he halted.

"Y/N, you haven't been answering my calls! I've missed you!" Jonah says, pulling you into a hug. "Did you and Daniel get in a fight or something?"

"Or something," you huff, looking from him to Daniel, who seemed conflicted on what to do.

"Well, whatever's going on between you two somehow roped me in, because I'm ninety percent sure Daniel is really pissed at me." Jonah crossed his arms just as you return your gaze back to him.

"It's just something stupid, you shouldn't worry about it," you say, sincerely.

"Whatever you say," Jonah shrugs. "Oh, and Aspen's in the back. She's been waiting for you to come for a while, now," he informs you.

"Oh, okay, I'll-"

"Y/N!" You're startled for a minute by the sound of Aspen and Jack shouting your name.

"Hey, guys!" You grin, your face faltering for a millisecond when you see that Daniel is nowhere to be seen, absent from the spot he was standing the last time you saw him. "Happy Birthday, Jack! You're eighteen, it's about time." You congratulate him even though you've already done so via iMessage earlier that morning.

"You're still seventeen," he points out.

"It's still about time," you gently pat his fluffy hair with a grin before Aspen attacks you with a hug.

"I've missed you," she squeals.

"I know, I haven't seen you in a while," you tell her. "You're the one who went to Disney World without me."

"I invited you," Aspen poked your ribcage.

"I know," you laugh, shaking your head. "Can you guys give me a second, I have to use the bathroom," you excuse yourself.

"Oh, I'll come," Aspen starts to walk after you, but is stopped by Eben who comments on the cat ears headband she's wearing. You shake your head with a short chuckle, rushing up the stairs and heading to the second-floor restroom, which was your favorite.

Though right before your hand could reach the handle, a hand is placed on your lower back, startling you horrendously.

You spin on your heels and feel your heart rate cool down once you see that it was Daniel who had abruptly put his hands on you.

"You scared me," you oh-so-obviously state, letting out a huff from your nose.

"Sorry, I just wanted to talk to you and when I saw you were heading up here, I-" he gestured around them before sighing. "I just wanted to apologize. I was a dick and too stubborn to admit it. I know you and Jonah have been friends longer than we've known each other, but I just can't help but get a bit jealous when it seems like you'd rather be with him than me," he quietly admits.

"I'm sorry, too. I never meant for you to feel that way," you tell him.

"And you told me that, but I was so riled up," he rambles.

"Daniel," you say his name with a slightly hushed voice. "Jonah has been and always will be my best friend. It's always been platonic between us, and I think you forget that he's the one who introduced us to each other. He set us up and every time we're together I'm grateful that he did so."

When he pulls you into a hug, you don't resist. Your arms immediately go around his neck as your chest is flushed right against his.

"I love you. You know that right?" You mumble.

"I do. Sometimes I just get insecure," he states and you shake your head.

"That's one insecurity you need to get rid of. I love you and you're the only person I have these feelings for," you elaborate, slightly pulling apart from him and gesturing in between the two of you.

"I don't like arguing with you," he sighs, resting his forehead against yours.

"Me, neither."

"We both need to stop being so stubborn when it comes to stuff like this."

"And we'll work on it, because that's what couples do," your nose taps his as a slanted smile grows on his face.

"I love you," he mutters.

"I love you, too, Daniel," you giggle just as he quickly leans in and placed his lips on yours. Your arms tighten around his neck as his tighten around your waist.

"It's about fuckin' time," Jack says from the end of the hallway, causing you and Daniel to split the kiss and turn to see him just arriving at the top of the stairs.

"Agreed," Zach shouts from behind the bathroom door you were just about to open.

---

Masterlist | Request Here

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vixxscifiwritings · 7 years

Text

The Struggles Of A Fanfic Writer

AU - Fanboys!AU Genre - Fluff/Comedy Warnings - None Word Count - 1422

Summary - Kim Wonshik writes 6Keys fanfiction. And like most fanfiction writers Kim Wonshik struggles with that one idol group member.

Find all parts here

“I just saw the music video for Lady Gaga’s paparazzi” Wonshik typed.

“I haven't seen it yet. Brb” Jaehwan responded.

“Go watch it! Because it just gave me a fic idea” Wonshik told him.

“aksjdhs Don't you already have like 50 WIPs already??”

“>.>”

“Kim Wonshik. I swear to god if you leave that high school MiRa (Miya x Ara) fic unfinished and unresolved then I will jump off a cliff and my spirit will haunt you for eternity” Jaehwan swore.

“I will finish it! Eventually! But get this, this might be MinEul (Minah x Haneul)” Wonshik replied.

“Ugh. I hate you but I am listening” Jaehwan said.

“Did you see the video yet??” he asked.

“I just did! Akdjdhskal it was all very rated. You're writing MinEul smut aren't you?” Jaehwan asked and Wonshik could feel the suggestive eyebrow wiggle through text.

“It does have… sexy times in it” he agreed reluctantly.

“HOE GO DO IT INSTANTLY” Jaehwan yelled over text.

“You are a pervert” Wonshik scoffed.

“You are the one writing it! Besides, I am starved for good MinEul smut okay!! What is the entire storyline?” Jaehwan asked curiously. Wonshik rarely wrote for Haneul so this would be interesting.

“Well… Minah is a famous celebrity and Haneul is her girlfriend who seduces her only for the fame. And Minah comes to know of this but the couple is already very popular and she knows she will lose fans after the breakup so she stays in the relationship” Wonshik explained.

“...”

“KIM WONSHIK WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS TO ME”

“Hehehehehehehe”

“HOE DON'T DO IT. IF IT ENDS SAD THEN I WILL CRY”

“You cry even when my fics have a happy ending”

“That is besides the point! Why is Haneul always evil in your fics? Are you an anti?? Why can't my fellow Aries sister Minah be happy?!”

“I don't hate Haneul lol”

“She's your favourite and hence she must suffer?!? Is that going to be your explanation?? I hate you fanfic writers. Also I hate myself because now I want to read it!”

“You love my fanfics~ That's how we became friends”

Wonshik laughed as he typed. Jaehwan had been one of the few readers when he had started writing 6Keys fanfiction and the first to read and leave comments. Wonshik had fallen in love instantly and ever since then Jaehwan had been his go to person for all his crazy fanfic ideas.

“One of these days Kim Wonshik… one of these days...” Jaehwan complained.

“Okay. I will be back after I write something”

“Okaii! I shall be fanboying with Sanghyuk over his new crack video”

Wonshik closed the chat window and opened up a doc.

He had the idea in his head. Minah was to be an upcoming singer. Suddenly too famous and with everyone's eyes on her next move. And while she was glad her music was being recognised, she was all alone and easily disillusioned with the bright lights and jazz.

Till Haneul came along that is.

Haneul would be the that girl that stood out in the club. And Minah was inevitably drawn to her. Oh oh oh. Maybe the affair should be secret. A forbidden love. And that would be what drew Minah into the scandal.

Except Haneul wasn't innocent at all. And beneath the alluring smiles lay danger and greed. And Minah took a while to realise it but she does and then she would delude herself into believing that someday Haneul would love her for her. Or maybe get jaded but keep her around for company because she was all alone and didn't have anyone else.

Damn.

Maybe Jaehwan was right and he was extremely evil for doing this to his girls but… that was the thing about angst fics. It demands to be written. (Somewhere John Green was getting teary eyed over his references. He just knew it)

So Wonshik put his headphones back in and put Paparazzi on repeat. He was going to write a heartbreaker! Honestly the excitement of a story was the best.

What to take as the opening? Hmm… Maybe he could start at the club scene. When Minah first meets Haneul. He could clearly imagine it. Minah would be in one of those private rooms that overlooked the dance floor. And Haneul would be on the said dance floor. Dancing sexily enough to attract her attention.

No no no. This trope was so tacky. And kinda sleazy. Gross. Maybe they should meet at the bar. Get to talk. That would be a more organic attraction. Hmm.

But what would you say to a pretty woman? What would a pretty woman say to another woman? Like how would a girl pick up another girl at a bar? Much less do it artistically enough for a fanfic??

Well Google sucked. Wobshik took a moment to blink. Lesbian pick up lines and tactics was something he had never thought he would google in his life. It ranked above the time he googled how to murder using ball pens in his list of weird things.

Anyhow, back to the topic. Which was embarrassingly still lesbian pick up lines.

Maybe Minah and Haneul should just start at the hotel room after the club. But that would mean starting with the smut right off the bat. And if you thought Wonshik was bad at handling pick up lines…

Wonshik sighed. Maybe he should eat some chocolate pudding. The sugar in his blood would jump start his brains.

Oh oh oh. There was the Ceci shoot from last year which has a lovely gold and black theme. Everyone had looked sexy. Maybe that would work as better inspiration.

Wonshik opened up Hakyeon’s blog. He had a sideblog dedicated to Haneul and his tag system was amazing.

Now that he thought about it, he never had this problem with any of the other 6Keys members. Of course it was easiest to write anything for Ara and Bora. Miya was his bias and his longest and favourite aus were dedicated to her. Haru was the youngest and hence he had a strict no mature theme rule for her. But he had an abundance of cute fluff for her.

So why was Haneul a problem?

“Did she have another Ceci shoot?” Wonshik asked out loud when he saw a very different set of pictures appear. This time the theme was red and white and she was wearing a long flowing red gown with red white and pink flower crown.

The set was interesting… The lighting brought out the red very well. It was set in the ruins of old Greek style building. Had they shot this while 6Keys were on tour in Europe? Wonshik kept scrolling and liking the posts. He added a few to the queue on his own 6Keys fan blog.

“Why are you stalking Haneul on my blog??” Hakyeon’s message popped up on the chat window on the page.

“I'm not stalking her!” Wonshik replied indignantly. “I'm just looking for fanfic inspiration.”

“Why? So you can kill her and break my heart yet again??” Hakyeon asked bitterly.

Wonshik bit his lip. Hakyeon had never forgiven him after Haneul had died in his mafia au. But to be honest the entire story had even been written because Wonshik had imagined that scene first and then written the rest of the story around it. It had also been crucial to Bora’s character development. Haneul’s death would be what prompted her to finally kill their enemies and become the true mafia lord of the city.

“I won't kill her this time. I promise” Wonshik said.

“I don't trust you” Hakyeon replied.

“Fair enough. If it makes you feel any better then I updated the Miya x Ara fic yesterday. It's all fluff” Wonshik told him.

“Yay *__* “ Hakyeon replied and went offline. Wonshik laughed and prayed that Hakyeon would forgive him for the fic to come.

Speaking of which, Wonshik had no idea how to start that. The Ceci shoots had given him an idea for a different au for Haneul altogether. But what to do about paparazzi au MinEul?

Maybe he should start with a different scene and then come back and write the starting. This time he would post his fic only after finishing the entire thing. No more making readers suffer because of his erratic update schedule.

The blank doc stared at him.

Wonshik stared at the blank doc.

He groaned and opened the chat window with Jaehwan.

“I have a writer’s block ;A; “

“Noooooooooooooooooooooo”

#vixx ravi #series: glowsticks and music notes #vixx as fanboys #this one is crack

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turntechgodoka · 7 years

Text

Whoop, I guess it's April 13th and I already posted my new fic stuff on Sunday. I was hoping to get a couple one-shots done or something, but I've spent the last couple weeks helping a friend prep/recover from surgery and said friend is my primary brainstorming partner t'boot. It's surprisingly difficult to brainstorm with someone who just got out of surgery! I'm like, "yo, should I have John do this thing or that thing?" and they're like "zzzzzzzzzz snore snore just fifteen more hours of sleep first..."

Hmm, so. How about I share one of the relatively polished scenes I've got cooking for Constants & Variables Act 4? (PS: someone stop me from sub-titling this act "R.O.D.: Retcon Or Die." My beta reader is doing the opposite of discouraging this nonsense! Bad beta reader!) CW for violence and a small bit of blood.

* * *

Despite what Auto-Responder and Jake and probably everyone else who knew him assumed, Dirk didn't relish the opportunity to kick his glitchy descendant's ass. If he'd actually found that shit enjoyable, he wouldn't have been so hesitant to take the kid on as a protege.

He doubted anyone would actually believe it, but it was what it was: sending Daveglitch flying across the block was just fucking depressing, not satisfying.

"Stop jumping in on the easy openings, Glitch," Dirk said, lowering his katana without lowering the rest of his guard. "If it's obvious to you, it's sure as hell obvious to me and I'll see you coming five miles away."

Daveglitch climbed back to his feet, taking a deep breath as he steadied himself. "Got it." Under the glitch's influence, the kid was unstoppable, an opponent that even Dirk struggled to match. Without it, he crumbled before Dirk even broke a sweat.

"How exactly do you expect to help the lad by kicking his caboose time and again?" Jake called from the sidelines. He leaned back against the wall and kept his arms crossed as he watched the strifes.

"It's called the 'drop them in the deep end until they swim' method," Dirk said, sliding into an offensive stance and waiting for the perfect opportunity to spring.

All told, for as easy as it was to bat Daveglitch around on a counterattack, it was hard to get the drop on the kid the rest of the time. Daveglitch was faster than Dirk when he wanted to be and he had uncanny observational skills borne from glitch-lent senses.

Still, better to exhaust every angle while in a controlled setting than risk the kid discovering an otherwise unknown weakness while in the heat of a real life-or-death battle.

Dirk shot forward in a flashstep and Daveglitch responded in kind. Their swords clashed in a deafening blow, the echos drowned out by continued strikes. Daveglitch stabbed, Dirk blocked and slid in to land a kick, Daveglitch spun out of reach and slashed at Dirk's back, Dirk ducked and slashed at Daveglitch's legs, Daveglitch jumped over Dirk's blade... Dirk's main goal was to provide a new line of attack as often as possible, changing shit up to push Daveglitch's limits until repetition could take him off-guard again and then Dirk would push him hard the other direction until there were no more damn limits to push.

The main difference between the kid and the glitch's ability in a fight was confidence, and the relative lack thereof. Daveglitch hesitated. He faltered. He questioned himself. The glitch, when it acted alone, didn't have time for such emotional weaknesses, just like the Auto-Responder. Computers were fast. When built right, they had the capacity for perfection, at least when it came to executing tasks.

No organic lifeform could hope to match those levels, not even a kid who'd played host to a digital ghost.

Which was why Dirk didn't have room to go easy on the kid. If Daveglitch was going to survive an encounter with another version of that glitchy asshole from some doomed timeline, he had to be as close to fucking perfect as it got. With any luck, he wouldn't have to trash his flesh identity to do so.

Dirk caught Daveglitch's wrist and threw him into the wall. Daveglitch remained silent, but the wall made a pretty loud thud.

"Stop going for the predictable hits, Glitch," Dirk said, keeping his sword raised in case Daveglitch got a second wind right away.

"Dirk!" Jake snapped, stomping into the ring and over to check on Daveglitch. "That's too rough!"

Dirk shrugged, but he did lower his weapon. God, he didn't want to flip back to black with Jake, not on top of everything else going down. "He can take it."

Jake glared over his shoulder at him. "That doesn't mean he fucking should!" he said. He knelt to check on Daveglitch and caught his shoulder, gently rubbing it. "You okay, lad? You didn't hit your noggin, did you?" he said, his tone softening.

"I'm cool," Daveglitch said even as he winced. He struggled to climb back to his feet and Jake slipped an arm around his middle to help steady him. "This shit is exactly what I asked for. You don't need to go to bat for me."

"I'm sure you have a lot of moxie, but I think a breather is in order regardless. Don't you, Dirk?" Jake said, shooting Dirk a Look that communicated plain as day that he'd be sleeping alone for a perigee if he didn't relent.

Dirk held back a sigh as he put his katana away. "Yeah, take a break, Glitch. Save straining yourself for when you're in the field," he said, because even if he had to back down, he was at least going to shove in a reminder that Daveglitch's real opponents wouldn't go so easy on him.

Jake rolled his eyes. All those fucking sweeps and he finally grew a backbone. Dirk equally admired and hated him for it -- God knew Jake needed to learn to stand up for himself, but he could have chosen some better hills to die on.

Daveglitch hesitated, still gripping his sword. "I'm not down for the count yet."

"Now, now. Dirk's given the order, so just sit your tush down and take a well-earned break," Jake said, coaxing Daveglitch back to the floor. They sat crosslegged together, Jake ruffling his hair and talking about the newest movie he discovered from the humans' libraries while Daveglitch. The actual Dave would have interrupted a few times, but the glitched up version must have grown used to listening quietly for the five hundred sweeps he and Jake were both captives.

"How is it going?"

Dirk did not jump. That was a thing way too uncool for a Strider to partake in. His head may have turned a little faster than usual, but there was only so much even a dude as awesome as himself could do when some limeblooded pupa literally goddamn teleported next to him with no fucking warning.

Jade just smiled, giving no commentary on his less-than-stoic greeting.

He grunted. "Your matesprit's a slow learner," he said.

"Aww, I am sure he is trying his best! Maybe you could try new approaches?" She clapped her hands together. "Everybody learns best in different ways, you know!"

"Then he could have picked a different teacher instead of coming to me," Dirk said flatly.

TT2: What's wrong, Dirk? Can't adapt to challenging circumstances? TT: Shut up, AR. TT: "Teacher" isn't exactly on my business card. If he doesn't like my unprofessional teaching methods, he can find someone else who actually specializes in it. TT2: Oh, but you're all about manipulating people into doing what you want. TT2: Sorry, I mean manipulating them until they reach their top potential. (And do what you want.) TT: I'll uninstall you. TT2: Yeah, haven't heard that before. TT2: brb, cowering in fear of another empty threat.

Daveglitch's demeanor changed the instant he caught sight of Jade, his drooping indifference dropped in favor of perking up like a lost pupa who just spotted his first sign of home. He scrambled to his feet and hurried over to meet her, Jake following after more casually with a sly smile.

"Hi, TG!" Jade said with a smile so bright that it could probably cause blindness if stared at directly. "How's the training going?"

"Well, you know, we're getting shit done and learning all kinds of mad awesome skills here," Daveglitch said, catching her hands when she offered them to him. "Can I kiss you?" he murmured, almost out of earshot of Dirk.

Jade giggled. "Yeeees, silly," she said, hopping onto her toes and giving him a quick peck on the lips.

It was so fucking chaste compared to the PDAs that Dave partook in with his human matesprit. It was, if Dirk dared admit it, almost fucking cute in all its innocence.

Dirk caught Jake's hand and held it tightly. Jake gave Dirk a questioning look before squeezing back.

"I'm sorry," Dirk whispered.

"Let's skip that old song and dance today," Jake whispered back.

"So what have you guys been teaching TG anyway?" Jade asked, her eyes lit with curiosity.

Dirk cleared his throat. "We've been sparring."

"Dirk was, ah..." Jake said, stumbling on his words even as he spoke quickly. "Dirk was finding his feet with this whole teaching hullabaloo, but I'm sure he's getting the hang of it." He grinned up at Dirk and swung his arm. "Eh, old chap?"

Dirk nodded and averted his gaze. "We'll be slowing down for a while. Making sure the kid can keep up."

"I could keep up just fucking fine," Daveglitch grumbled with a foolish stubbornness Dirk related to, just a touch.

"Well, it's easier for lessons to sink into your sponge if you take them at a steady pace!" Jade said with a smile, leaning against Daveglitch's shoulder. "Can I train with you guys too?"

Daveglitch's eyes widened. "What, for real?"

"With the Striders?" Jake asked, just as surprised. "Jade, you don't use swordkind."

She shook her head. "Nooo, but I'm high enough level that I can diversify my specibus deck!" she said, holding up her deck. "It's a good idea to round out my skills with an option for close combat, right? Besides, it sounds like fun."

Dirk shrugged. "Doesn't hurt or even waste my time, seeing as I'm already training one of you either way," he said. Maybe he'd stay grounded better with her around. "Anyway, she's got a point. The art of sword fighting is a useful skill to possess, especially for an otherwise long-ranged specialist."

She beamed. "Thanks, Mr. Strider!"

He snorted. Jegus Crust, these kids were always finding new ways to surprise him with unnecessary formality. At least she wasn't calling him Mr. Signless anymore. "Dirk's still fine, Li'l Harley. Go pick a weapon and we'll get this show on the road."

"Okay, Dirk," she said. She beckoned to Daveglitch before running over to the assortment of swords Dirk had set up.

"Don't get too rough with my descendant, eh?" Jake said, shooting Dirk a smirk as Jade tested the weight of the swords and showed each one off to Daveglitch. Whatever she picked, Dirk would probably have to correct her later, but he'd let her make that mistake, for now.

"I wouldn't fucking dare." Dirk returned the smirk. "She'd probably shoot me again."

Jake lightly elbowed him in the ribs. "Don't even remind me of that. I think witnessing that took ten years off my lifespan, immortal or not."

"What, you mean you still care, Harley?" Dirk asked, leaning his shoulder against Jake's.

Jake's cheeks turned a light shade of green as he leaned back. "Yes, you big lug, I still give one or two shits about my closest bosom friend."

Dirk laughed, only half bothering to try hiding it. "You call me your what?"

"Oh, shut your trap, Strider," Jake said, but he was still grinning. "Your jabber has its own kooky jargon to it."

"Sorry my dope lingo is too kooky for you, dog."

Jake snorted and made to grab at Dirk's nose, as if he was quick enough to ever get the drop on Dirk. At least Jane had a chance in hell, since she knew to throw her (metaphorical) punches when Dirk was least expecting them, but here Jake wanted to rough house with full warning.

Dirk ducked under Jake's arm and slid in close to him so that their chests were practically pressed together, then he swept Jake's leg out from under him. He caught Jake under his back, but only after he'd fallen a couple of inches and his feet had gone splaying. Dirk smirked and pulled him into a kiss, not minding even an iota when Jake nipped at his lips.

Maybe vacillating a little pitched wasn't so bad.

"TG, don't stare!" Jade whispered.

Oh. Right. The audience.

Dirk made no hurry to break away or show any other sign of embarrassment. He let his mouth linger by Jake's ear long enough to murmur, "Stop by my block later," before he pulled Jake back onto his feet.

Jake pressed his knuckles to his mouth and cleared his throat, as if he could ward off the blush covering his face with a loud enough noise. "Yes. Well then," he said, firmly patting Dirk's shoulder. "I'll, uh. I'll just leave you to it, since you seem to have gotten the hang of it. I should... check on my moirail."

"Right on, bro," Dirk said as Jake scurried for the door. Was it the audience made up of their descendants that got to him, or that they were too flushed for that level of shameless PDA? Ah well. Dirk rested a hand on his hip. "You kids ready?"

Jade quickly stood at attention, a blush the same color as Jake's still resting on her cheeks. "Yes sir!" she said.

Dirk nodded. "Glitch, go wait for me to initiate another strife while I get Jade set up here."

"On it," Daveglitch said as he returned to the center of the block, though he glanced over his shoulder at them.

Dirk picked up one of the swords and passed it over to Jade. "This one," he said. "The one you picked is too long for you. Hey, don't sweat it," he added when she looked disappointed. "We all make rookie mistakes early on. You should have seen the first piece of shit I fought with. It's a small miracle it didn't snap under pressure."

She giggled. "That is hard to imagine!" she said, placing both of her hands around the sword hilt and holding it up.

"Oh, yeah, believe it or not, I was a noob once too, a couple thousand sweeps ago." He slid behind her and set his hands on her arms, guiding her to an ideal starting pose. "My posture was shit, my stance was sloppy, and I barely even understood what the word 'balance' fucking meant." He nudged her feet with the toe of his shoe until she got the idea and widened her stance. "I was, I dunno, two sweeps old?"

She broke into laughter. "Yooou are still pretty arrogant, you know!"

He smirked. "Oh, I am arrogant as shit, but at least I can make people laugh about it sometimes." He caught her hands and gently guided her fingers into a better grip. "Here, careful not to put too much strain on your wrists," he said.

Jade nodded, following along without any complaint. "It is true, Striders are pretty funny guys, even if you also take yourselves a little too seriously," she said, shooting him a wry smile. Once she had the right pose, she held it well, but he wouldn't have expected less from a highly skilled fighter whose greatest weakness was training in the wrong weaponry.

"Nah, we don't take ourselves seriously." He released his grip and stepped around to survey her from a distance. Daveglitch also watched their progress, though Dirk ignored him for the time being. They'd get back to work in a moment. "That's just an ironic act. We really don't give a shit about anything."

"I do not think I believe you," she said, her eyes following him even as she kept her stance. Yeah, given practice, she could unleash hell with that blade.

"My moirail doesn't either," Dirk said, stepping beside her and catching her beneath an arm. "I'm gonna show you some basic blocks and strikes now."

She let him guide her arms through a high block, a medium block, a low stab, and a medium slash, just for starters. None of them were particularly impressive moves or even anything remotely resembling the techniques he practiced in an actual fight, but they covered the body movement well enough for beginners.

"All right, try them out without my help," he said, though he didn't have much doubt that she'd do fine on her own. He watched her block once, twice, and begin her stab before he flashstepped away.

He shot behind Daveglitch and swung his katana, bringing it to an abrupt halt when its edge was half an inch from Daveglitch's neck. Only then did Daveglitch raise his weapon, but Dirk flung his arm around him and pinned Daveglitch's arm to his side.

"Too late," Dirk said, gripping Daveglitch's wrist as he rested his blade on Daveglitch's shoulder. "You can't let your guard down when you're in enemy territory, Glitch. If this were real, you'd be dead now." Dirk lowered his voice and murmured directly into Daveglitch's ear, "Tuck that away deep in your think pan and learn from it, because you got a lot of people who want to see you come home safe." He released his hold on Daveglitch and pulled his sword away.

Daveglitch stumbled forward and spun on Dirk, his sword at the ready though his eyes were still wide from the shock.

"You ready for this again, kid?" Dirk asked, lowering into a defensive stance.

Daveglitch caught his breath, keeping his gaze locked on Dirk and his katana. "Hella ready, bro," he said.

Dirk nodded. "Keep practicing those moves, Li'l Harley," he called to Jade, both to assure her that she hadn't been forgotten and to remind her not to waste time gawking at their strife. "I'll give you some new ones so you can change it up in a bit, but you want this stuff wired into your muscle memory until they come to you as easily as walking."

"Will do!" she called. He'd have liked to have turned his head long enough to make sure the event hadn't startled her out of her perfect technique, but what kind of role model would he be for Daveglitch if he let his guard down for even a second?

Daveglitch inched to the side, always facing Dirk and keeping his sword raised. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

God dammit. Dirk had wanted to start going easy on the brat, but how the hell could he overlook a mistake that blatant? It wouldn't do anyone any good to let Daveglitch get away with that. Dirk charged, ready to hold his blade back at the last inch again.

Daveglitch's eyes snapped open and he blocked Dirk's attack with a shockingly sudden twist of the arm. He'd wiped the surprise and uncertainty from his expression, replacing it with a perfect poker face that might as well have been a mask for as little as it allowed even a wince.

Dirk smirked. That was more like it. He weaved away from Daveglitch's counterattack, slipping in to try a new strike. It was only a little frustrating that Daveglitch blocked it again, compared to the satisfaction that the kid was actually learning a thing or two.

They traded blows back and forth, remaining in a near constant state of flashstepping in order to keep up with each other. Daveglitch wasn't having much luck at driving Dirk back, but he wasn't letting his guard down. Dirk would have been happy to call the lesson accomplished with only that, until Daveglitch made for another way too obvious attack.

Dirk adjusted his weapon. In a real battle, he could have sliced Daveglitch in two for such a reckless strike, but as it was, he'd just shove him with an elbow and follow it with another goddamn lecture that was getting too repetitive.

It was a feint. Daveglitch ducked sideways, holding his sword with his non-dominant hand, and struck on Dirk's freshly unprotected opposite side. A sharp pain shot up Dirk's side and he clenched his teeth to prevent crying out as he felt blood leak down his skin and stain his shirt. It wasn't deep, but even papercuts could smart like a motherfucker.

Daveglitch's poker face crashed, replaced by a startled grimace. "Fuck!" he said, yanking his sword away from Dirk. The edge of it dripped in bright red blood.

Jade dropped her sword and hurried over, her eyes wide with concern. "Are you okay?"

Dirk waved her off. "I'm cool. It's just a surface cut." He lifted his hand to show off the wound. It was a fair amount of blood trickling down his shirt, but he'd had worse. "I'll have Jane look at it later."

Daveglitch shuffled back. "S-sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to hurt you and shit. Again. Fuck."

"Nah, don't apologize that I failed to stop you." Dirk raised his fist and Daveglitch started back, ready to go on the defense again, before he recognized it wasn't another strife initiation. They bumped fists and Dirk nodded. "You did good work tonight, Glitch."

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