#but at this rate we can watch the next two weeks together which is very slay

[wiser-girl]

We finally convinced my friend to watch OFMD and she finished season 1 earlier today but she just texted me that she’s up to s2e3 and… imagine not having waiting a year and a half to find out what happened like we hadn’t even acknowledged Lucius being dead before he’s just back this is INSANE

#SHE JUST PRESSED NEXT EPISODE LIKE IT WAS NO BIG DEAL #YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH WE SUFFERED #but at this rate we can watch the next two weeks together which is very slay #also her name is Izzy and this has made the groupchat very confusing 💀 #ofmd #our flag means death #my post

[grimrester]

i am really so sorry to continue harping on about the watcher entertainment streaming service. but this kind of stuff (internet content as a business & marketing it as such) is truly my obsession, and i think i will implode if i don't talk about some of the takes i'm seeing.

i'd like to emphasize again i don't have strong feelings about watcher either way. i like ghost files, i watch mystery files sometimes, i watched worth it back in the buzzfeed days. i don't watch any of their shows religiously.

anyway, here's the main things i keep seeing crop up and my thoughts on each:

"watcher has 25 employees they have to pay, and employing people in this economy is good, so we should be banding together to pay them."

employing people is good if you currently have the capacity to pay them. i checked watcher's linkedin page, and many of their employees were hired within the last year or two. if they hired people they cannot pay with the business model they had before, something is seriously wrong with their internal bookkeeping/decision making. it means they either didn't know they couldn't pay these people long term, or they did know and were content with risking newly hired employees' livelihoods on a huge content pivot in the next year.

of note is that none of their employees' titles have anything to do with managing the finances of the company. they are the size of a small business but have no one aside from the figureheads of the company in charge of their finances.

this is the kind of company decision making that leads to downsizing and layoffs, which can be devastating. but you know what's worse than laying off a portion of your staff? laying off everyone because your business is going under.

"not everyone can afford the subscription, but those who can should pay it to support the watcher team."

no. $6/month for a couple hours of content (depending on what shows you actively watch and the natural fluctuation of their release schedule) is a fundamentally bad value. i can pay that much for a few movies on amazon. i can pay that much for dropout, if i want to support a smaller business instead.

and to be totally frank, even if people do sign up, i don't think they'd get enough to compete with the amount they get through patreon/sponsorships. and the fact that they didn't know how many of their subscribers would realistically sign up is a bad sign.

a pretty good conversion rate of free to paid subscribers of a service or content is 3% (usually accomplished through a free trial). given the very poor reception of the announcement, let's say about 1% of their 3 mil youtube subs pay for their service. that's 30k people paying for their new platform. that's $180k a month in their pocket.

(they currently only have 12k subs on patreon so we are being generous here.)

a sponsorship deal (based on my googling, i have less direct experience with this) is anywhere from $10-50 per 1000 views. they've gotten about 1 mil views on their last few videos. 3 mil subs is nothing to shake a stick at, but let's say they're on the lower end of the payscale at $25 per 1000 views. that's $25k a video, $100k a month if they release 1 video a week. their lowest patreon tier is 5 bucks, so even if all their subs are at that tier, that's another $60k, so $160k total. it's entirely likely they're bringing in much more than that when you factor in merch, adsence, etc.

did anyone on their team crunch numbers on how many people would need to sub to make the switch worth it? did anyone do market research on how many people they could convert to paid users? because if not, if they really didn't have a game plan for this, the subscription service was always doomed to fail.

"this was their only option to continue making the content they want to make, with the production value they want."

i watched their announcement video. a key point in that video is that they have done sponsored videos and that's what used to pay for their content, but they did not like the amount of creative control the sponsor had over the content.

look, i get that's no fun. we'd all love creatives to be able to make whatever they want. but when you are a small business with a team of employees relying on you, you have to think about making money, sometimes at the cost of creative liberties.

and they had so many other options to make money for the projects they want to make without jumping to a subscription platform.

they could have started actually promoting their patreon, and maybe done some restructuring of the tiers. why not a highly produced, special series just for patreon members? or a special high-budget episode of each series, while the main series is lower budget?

bite the bullet and continue taking sponsorship deals on some less-produced shows, while axing sponsorships from the ones the crew feels more passionate about.

schedule larger, blowout-production shows only when they can be afforded. this is what Notorious Amongus Guy streamer jerma does. he saves up for big productions like his baseball or dollhouse streams, so he can really get creative with them.

they had other options and they've tried very little, especially when you compare them to other content house business at similar scales. try guys and good mythical morning both put out significant content with significant staff, and have had to diversify their income streams with auxiliary products, shows with widely varied levels of production, etc. but it seems to be working for them. watcher has merch and that's about it, and seems to only want to increase the production quality of ALL their shows.

really, all this just boils down to a terrible business decision. it's hard to say if the watcher team is working with a consultant or anyone outside of their team, but they certainly don't have anyone internally who is experienced with running a business like this. to me, it seems very much like they got in a room together and did some extremely optimistic income ballparking with no research behind it.

and that might have been fine for three dudes running a channel alone, but if they're a business, they have to start making decisions like one.

#i encourage discussion on this in my notes btw! #you can even be mean to me if you disagree. i dont actually care #watcher

[sluttywonwoo]

no nut november — i.n (loser #2)

pairing: yang jeongin x fem!reader

warnings: swearing, smut (18+), dry humping, messing around with clothes on

a/n: part of @gimmeurtmi and i's collab <3

word count: 2.9k

To say you were suspicious when Minho approached you at the surprise birthday party Jisung threw for him (over a week late) would be an understatement. He was one of the friends who would only come to you when he needed something, and you assumed this time was no different. 

“Happy birthday?” you offer, wondering if that’s what he was expecting. 

He’s unfazed by your greeting in the form of a question and just smiles, slipping his hands into the pockets of his jeans. 

“Thanks.”

You stare at him for a moment, waiting for him to get to whatever it was he wanted from you but he stares right back with that stupid grin of his.

“So, um, were you surprised?” 

“Not really. Hannie talks in his sleep and he crashed while we were watching a movie together the other night. But hey, anyway, you like Jeongin, right?”

You’d have whiplash by now if you weren’t so used to Minho’s abrupt subject changes. This one, however, did manage to catch you a bit off guard. 

“Of course I do. He’s a good friend.”

“But you like him as more than a friend.” He wasn’t asking, he was stating. 

You blink, stunned. “Wh- I don’t-”

“Come on, don’t play dumb. I can see the way you look at him when you think no one’s paying attention.”

Well fuck. If Minho of all people had noticed your crush on Jeongin, who else knew? Did Jeongin know? Did everybody know?

“Relax, I'm not going to tell him,” he continues when he sees the look on your face. That wasn’t necessarily what you were worried about but good to know nonetheless. He sneaks a look at the younger member from across the room as he talks. “I just thought that you should know that he likes you too.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“You know I’m like one of his best friends, right?

“I-I mean, yeah, but...”

“And we live together, he literally never shuts up about you,” Minho adds. He raises his eyebrows expectantly but you don’t say anything. You don’t know what to say. “You don’t believe me?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t believe you… it’s just, why are you telling me?”

Minho shrugs. “Think of it as a favor.” 

“Since when have you done anyone a favor?”

“Ouch.”

“I’m serious,” you insist warily. “You’re acting weird. Why are you suddenly so invested in me and Jeongin? You have to have some kind of stake in this.”

Minho sighs and drops his head, which confirms your suspicions. “Okay, fine. Here’s the deal...”

Jeongin’s pleasantly surprised when you approach him at Minho’s birthday party. You’re one of his good friends but it’s rare that the two of you ever spend time alone together. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, he just gets so nervous around you. He can barely get a word out when you’re in the room, which is why when he sees you making your way across the room he prays for strength and holds his breath. 

“Hey,” you say casually, sliding into the seat next to him, and Jeongin feels his heart rate pick up almost immediately. “Bored already?”

Jeongin chuckles. “What gave it away?”

“Well, you’re sitting over here all by yourself. It wasn’t very hard to guess.”

“Yeah, I guess I should mingle more,” he sighs and puts his hands on his knees to push himself up.

“Wait, but not now! I just got here.”

Jeongin’s half-relieved he doesn’t have to move from his spot, half-panicked because now he’s forced to have this one on one conversation with you. He started sweating the minute you walked in the door how the fuck was he supposed to get through this in one piece. 

“Oh, right, sorry.”

“Did you get Minho a birthday present?” you ask, thankfully skirting right past Jeongin trying to ditch you. 

He nods. “I did.”

“What’d you get him?”

“It’s a secret.”

“You didn’t get him anything, did you?”

“Would you believe me if I said it was in the mail?”

“No.”

“I forgot,” Jeongin admits sheepishly. “I always get the guys birthday gifts after the fact. I’m terrible at that stuff.”

“You can just add your name to mine, if you want,” you offer. “People group us together all the time anyway.”

“Wha- they do?” 

“Yeah, you know like whenever I show up at the dorms the boys are always like ‘Jeongin’s in his room’, ‘Jeongin will be right out’. ‘Jeongin isn’t here right now, I thought he’d be with you’. Do they not say that stuff to you?”

“Uh, no. Not really.” 

Probably because they all know about his giant fucking crush on you. 

“Oh.” 

You sound disappointed. Fuck. How does he always manage to put his foot in his mouth? 

“I mean, because they just tease me right in front of you anyway.”

“They just like giving you a hard time,” you reason. 

“So you’re on their side now?”

You crook an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize there were sides.”

“There are.”

“Then I’m on your side, obviously.”

“Really?” 

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Cause you’re friends with all of us, not just me.”

“Yeah, but you’re my favorite.”

Jeongin isn’t sure if he totally believes you but he’s elated regardless. He beams at you. 

“You’re my favorite too.”

-

He doesn’t know why, but after Minho’s birthday party, things between him and you feel different. The next time he sees you is on that Saturday, the fifth. You come over for game night like you do every weekend, and you take your spot next to Jeongin as usual. Everything seems normal. But it isn’t. Jeongin can feel it in the stiffness of your posture, in the nervous tapping of your foot against the hardwood floor. 

The night progresses as smoothly as any other game night, with Jeongin losing every single one, but he can’t shake the feeling that something’s off. 

You’re not mad at him, he knows that. You still laugh at his dumb jokes, you still let him cheat off of you, both good signs. 

When Felix calls for a break, Jeongin takes the opportunity to lean over and check in. 

“Are you okay?” he asks. 

You jump in your seat a little like you hadn’t been expecting him to address you, which was fair because he was usually too much of a coward to, and turn to face him. “Hm? Oh yeah, I’m fine.”

“Just fine?”

“Yup. Just fine.”

“Not good?”

“Neither good, nor bad,” you say with a shrug. 

“Why? Is something wrong?”

You open your mouth to answer but Felix’s voice from the kitchen cuts you off as he calls out to suggest that the group of you watch a movie instead of finishing the game of Uno you were currently playing.

“You never want to watch movies,” Hyunjin says, scrunching his face in confusion. 

“Yeah, you’re only suggesting that because you’re losing!” Seungmin adds.

Felix comes into the room, hands on his hips, and lips pursed. “Do you want to watch How to Train Your Dragon or not?”

-

Seven and a half minutes later, you’re all on the couch watching Hiccup struggle with his daddy issues. Jeongin didn’t have much say in the matter but you had seemed eager to watch the movie so obviously he was… also eager. To watch the movie. 

A lot of the guys’ girlfriends were over so you asked Jeongin to share a blanket with you, seeing as there were only so many to go around. 

He agrees, of course, even though he isn’t cold. If anything, he’s overly warm. He hopes you can’t feel the heat radiating from his body. 

It’s hard to focus on the movie with you so close, not that he was really interested in it in the first place, but then you snuggle close to Jeongin and rest your head on his shoulder and his brain short circuits. You must feel his body tense because you sit back up immediately after, frowning. 

“No, you can lay back down,” Jeongin insists, going as far as craning his neck in the opposite direction to give you more room. 

“I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” you mumble. 

“Why would I be uncomfortable?” he asks.

“Because you’re being all weird.”

“I’m not-”

“Hey, you two,” Jisung hisses from the other couch, “could you keep it down? Some of us are trying to watch the movie.”

Jeongin apologizes and you shift away from him, crossing your arms over your chest. He’s really done it now. He tries to remedy the situation by scooting closer but you don’t even look at him. 

From across the room, Jeongin makes eye contact with Minho, who gives him a look as if to say what the fuck are you doing? 

Minho’s been trying to get Jeongin to make a move on you for months now, claiming to be tired of listening to him pine over you from afar, but Jeongin knows his friend really just wants him to be happy, put himself out there and all that. Minho’s been especially insistent ever since the eight of them made that stupid bet. He’s somehow under the impression that if Jeongin tells you how he feels it’ll eliminate him as competition. But for that to happen, you would have to like him back. 

He doubts he’ll win No Nut November anyway, girlfriend or not. Hell, half the reason he acts so strange around you is because he’s using up all of his energy trying not to get hard. All you have to do is smile at him and his dick will twitch in his pants. In fact, he knows tonight after you go home he’ll just lay in bed, hard and aching with thoughts of you as he wills his cock to soften on its own. 

But at least he wouldn’t be the first loser. Jisung made sure of that by losing on the second day of the month. Everyone saw it coming. 

Jeongin’s pulled from his thoughts by the sound of you yawning. 

“Are you tired?” he asks softly, not wanting to get scolded by his members for talking again.

“A little.”

“Do you want to lay down in my room? You could stay the night if you want, I know it’s getting late.”

“That’d be great, Innie, thanks.” You smile sleepily at him and reach for his hand. “Will you come with me? I don’t want to go by myself, I’d feel weird.”

Jeongin nods, brain going on autopilot as he takes your hand and leads you to his bedroom. No one questions where the two of you are going, either too engrossed in the movie to notice, or too uninterested to care. 

You flop down on his bed as soon as the door’s shut behind you. Jeongin chuckles. 

“Make yourself comfortable.”

“I will,” you hum. 

Despite the fact that the two of you don’t spend much time together, it isn’t uncommon for you to end up in Jeongin’s bed. He offers it to you whenever you decide to stay over because he doesn’t want you driving yourself home if you’re tired or if you’ve been drinking. He always takes the couch even though you’ve pointed out that his bed is big enough for the both of you. He doesn’t trust himself not to embarrass himself if he were to entertain the idea. 

“I know you wore jeans tonight so you can borrow something of mine to sleep in if you want.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I can just sleep in my underwear,” you say as you start to unzip your pants. “Unless that bothers you?”

Jeongin’s eyes widen at the sight and he spins on his heel to face the wall and give you privacy. 

“N-no, that’s fine,” he squeaks out. 

“You don’t have to turn away, Jeongin. It’s not like I’m a stranger.”

He ignores you and only turns back around once he hears you slide underneath the covers, knowing that he’d instantly get hard if he did any sooner. 

“I know, I just... uh, let me know if you need anything else,” he says and heads for the door. 

“Wait,” you call after him. “Won’t you stay with me?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he says slowly. 

You huff in frustration and throw back the covers. “I-I don’t understand. I should have never listened to Minho-”

“Minho? What’s Minho got to do with this?”

You look guilty all of the sudden, and Jeongin’s drops as his brian conjures up every possible scenario that involves you and Minho talking about him. None of them are good. 

“Y/n?” he prompts again. 

“He told me that he knew I had feelings for you and that you had feelings for me too, and then he told me about that idiotic bet you all made and tried to get me in on it, I guess to seduce you or something? But obviously he doesn’t know what he’s talking about because you don’t even like me!”

It’s entirely too much information for Jeongin’s brain to process at once. All he can focus on is that you have feelings for him??? 

“You have feelings for me?” he asks, dumbfounded. 

“Did you listen to anything else I just said?” you huff. 

“Not really.”

“Yes, I’ve had a big fat crush on you for forever now, thanks for noticing.”

“Really?”

“Really. Are you going to make me say it again?”

“I kind of want to,” Jeongin admits, finally feeling brave enough to approach you on his bed. 

“That’s mean.”

“Why? I have a crush on you too, silly.”

You blink in surprise. “What?”

“Minho wasn’t messing with you. He was right.”

“You like me?”

“How could I not?”

“You have a funny way of showing it,” you scoff. 

Jeongin rolls his eyes at you and pouts. “You just make me nervous, okay? I can’t function around a pretty girl.”

“You think I’m pretty?”

He nods and takes your hand. “The prettiest.”

He’s not sure who makes the next move, probably you, but then you’re kissing. Your arms are wrapped around Jeongin’s neck, pulling him down close to you as he slips his tongue into your mouth. Clumsily, he climbs onto the bed with you and slots himself in between your legs, moaning into your mouth a little when his hand brushes against your bare thigh. 

You already sound breathy and desperate for him and it spurs him on further, hips grinding into you instinctively. He’s practically fully hard in his sweats, there’s no way you can’t feel it, but you don’t seem to mind. If anything, it turns you on even more. 

You’re the first to break away, though, pushing on Jeongin’s chest to put more distance between you. “Wait, wait, the bet! Don’t you want to win?”

He doesn’t even need to think about it. “Fuck the bet.”

Jeongin kisses you again, letting his hands travel beneath your shirt and up to your tits. He traces your curves, outlining each one, before moving down to your underwear. It seems that you have a similar train of thought because you reach for the waistband of his pants at the same time, but he stops you with a sheepish grin. 

“This is really embarrassing, but I haven’t jerked off in like a week so I won’t last long.”

You smile against his lips. “It’s okay, Innie. We can just go again if you cum too fast. We have all the time in the world now.”

The assurance is all he needs to relax. You begin to palm him over his sweats and it becomes very apparent to Jeongin that he’s going to cum way faster than he wants to. He whines, actually whines, and bucks his hips into your hand. 

“Shhh, the others are still outside,” you remind him. 

“S-sorry.”

You giggle and pull him in for another kiss as he fumbles for the waistband of your panties, wanting to make you feel good too. He dips his thumb beneath the fabric, lower and lower until you’re moaning and arching your back off the bed. 

“Fuck, yeah, just like that,” you whisper. 

Jeongin keeps his thumb on your clit, rubbing slow circles, while he works the rest of his hand into your underwear. He figures that if he can’t make you cum on his cock, his fingers will have to do. He’s been told that he has nice hands on more than one occasion, and he’s gotten good reviews from partners in the past, so it’s kind of like a failsafe for him. 

“Shit, you’re wet,” Jeongin breathes.

“Do you believe I like you now?”

For some reason, that’s what does it for him. He shudders and falls forward into you as he cums in his pants. 

“Oh god, sorry, sorry,” he groans. 

There’s so much of it too, it seeps through the material of his sweatpants and onto your hand and he’s mortified.

“Don’t be sorry, baby,” you soothe, rubbing his back as he comes down. “You told me it was going to happen, I expected it.”

“But still.”

“It really isn’t a big deal, Innie. If anything, I think it’s hot that I have that effect on you. And you can go again right?”

He nods eagerly. “Yes! Yeah, just give me like, ten minutes.”

You laugh and pet his hair. “Well in that case, I can think of a lot of things we can do in ten minutes, can’t you?”

nnn tags: @doesthismeannothingtoyou @yellowroses-world @allyoops @thelostverse @karlitaburrito @lydataylorsversion @septemberkisses @caticorn61 @multifandomtrash-dree @cixrosie @mchslut @cutiequokka

#no nut november skz #nnn skz #stray kids smut #skz smut #stray kids x reader #skz x reader #stray kids x female reader #i.n smut #i.n x reader #jeongin smut #jeongin x reader #stray kids x you #stray kids x y/n #flashing tw

[seungmoonandstars]

⋆꙳Under the Tree

Kim Seungmin/Female Reader

wc: ~2.5k

rating: mature, explicit (oral sex), fluff ಇ

comments: more holiday activities as requested by @goblinracha a few weeks ago! This time it’s a oneshot within the Blind Date universe (@myseungsungheart !). It started out as simple romantic fluff, but slowly transformed into what I felt like doing to Seungmin today ¯\_( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ )_/ uuhh I didn’t proofread very well

⋆꙳•❅*ִ

You watch as Seungmin’s face is lit up—first in a warm white glow, then in red and green and blue. Then back again to warm white.

“Choose one for tonight,” you pick up one of the ornaments from his box and search for a good spot on the tree, “we can change it next time.”

“I don’t know which one I like more.” He switches it back to the multi-colored lights and takes a few steps back. Then he walks back and pulls the curtain open. “The colors are more fun…buuut…which do you prefer?”

“I like the colored lights.”

“Okay, we will keep the colors on tonight.”

Seungmin digs around in the box and pulls out two star shaped ornaments. He finds a branch for his, hands you the other, and watches you closely as you search for a spot.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?” He smiles and tilts his head to one side.

“Like I’m gonna put it in the wrong spot…”

“Wherever you put it is perfect.”

You keep your eyes on him as he stares at the tree, then at the gifts already placed under it. There aren’t many, and what is there is small—but it’s what the two of you have gotten for each other. And you’ll have to open them soon…early.

Then he looks at you.

“I should be the one looking like a sad puppy,” you grab his arm and pull him toward you, “what’s wrong, Minnie?”

Seungmin smiles at that, but you can tell it’s forced. He wraps his arms around your shoulders and squeezes you tight, “I’m not ready to leave tomorrow.”

“I know. It doesn’t get easier.”

It’s been over a year of this; the reality of being his biggest secret, of nobody knowing you exist (a few people know, so you’re not a complete secret anymore), Seungmin coming and going—mostly going. It’s just the way things are. It’s your normal.

He sighs, “it’s gotten harder.”

Your hold on his waist tightens, and your heart jumps to your throat. Whether or not this would even work was something only time would reveal, but everything has been good. You didn’t expect everything to always be good, because things are never that easy, but the two of you have never argued over anything. There is never tension when you’re together.

Being apart so much and so often means that the relationship always feels brand new. Seeing him is excitement and relief all mixed together—it feels like a piece of you that’s been missing has clicked back into place for a while.

But you don’t always know what’s going through Seungmin’s head, either. He talks, and he tells you things, but he’s still quiet sometimes—and exhausted when he’s here with you.

You pull back and look up at him, “harder?”

Seungmin nods, but his head tilts again when you keep looking at him with his puppy eyes.

“Like, you don’t think you can keep doing it…harder?”

His eyes widen, but he takes a second to think and put your words together, “oh, no…no I don’t mean it like that.”

He places a kiss on your forehead. You let out the breath you were holding and shove your face into his chest.

“Harder to leave you when I’m here, that’s what I meant...”

“You’ll keep doing it?”

“I never thought about stopping.” Seungmin lets go of you, reluctantly, and lowers himself next to the gifts. It’s still too early to open them, but he’s shuffling a few of the small ones around.

“I’ll get a big bow to put on you, and I won’t need anything else.”

He looks up at you, eyes big, bottom lip stuck out in a pout. It turns into a smile, and he reaches a hand up to you.

You take it and let him pull you down next to him. “It’s too early for gifts…and I’m not done yet.”

“Just one…we can save the rest,” he picks one up and hands it to you. It’s wrapped in pink striped paper, and you can tell he did this one himself. The tag says your name, written out in Hangul, with a very carefully drawn puppy face beneath it.

Before opening it, you pull the tag off. It’s too cute to throw away. Seungmin laughs and moves a little closer. Underneath the paper is a white box—you assume a jewelry box. And when you open it and peek in (he tries to peek with you, even though he knows what’s in there), the light from the tree bounces off the gold.

“It’s okay if you don’t—“ You give him a look before he finishes. He closes his mouth and smiles, then finishes anyway, “…like it.”

A gold chain lays over your hand, just as thin and delicate as the bracelet you gave him last year. Hanging on the end is a dainty charm, small enough that you have to hold it a little closer to get a good look at it.

“Oh, it’s a little lock!” You hold it up so it swings back and forth between the two of you. “It’s so tiny and sweet.”

He grabs it, unclasps it, and leans forward to put it around your neck. “I can get you a longer chain if you’d like.”

“No, this is perfect…everyone can see it here.” You run your hand across your throat and hold the little charm. “Thank you.”

Seungmin is still hovering over you, his eyes moving from the necklace…up your neck, to your face. They jump between your eyes and lips as he closes in and finds a spot to start kissing. He holds himself back, though, only leaving a few along your cheek and lips. “So you like it?”

“I love it, Minnie. And you.” His hand grabs for yours, so you bring it to your lips and kiss along his fingers. “It’s my turn.”

He watches eagerly as you look at each of the small gifts you’ve already wrapped for him. You can hear him talking excitedly under his breath, which one, which one? while he swings your arm back and forth.

“It’s not easy finding you a gift,” you say and reach for one of the larger boxes.

“Why is that?”

“You have so much stuff, and you can get anything you want. I thought about getting us baseball tickets, but we can’t go together.”

The bow slides off next to him, “I prefer watching here with you anyway,” he pops the lid off, “oh!” Seungmin pulls it out a little and looks at it, then a little more. His eyes are big and round as he takes it out and holds it up in front of him. “Did you make this?”

It’s been a while since you’ve seen his smile so big. The joy coming from him is palpable and you can feel your face warm up and probably turn pink. You weren’t sure how he’d receive this, or any of his gifts. Birthdays are easy, but this is your first real Christmas together. “I did. Hopefully it’s not too big, or too small.”

“You made this whole thing?” He’s still staring at it, piece by piece—looking at each button, pulling the sleeves out and looking at the subtly colored stripes running down them. He flips up the hood and grabs the two ears on top and laughs, “even the little ears?”

When he looks at you again, you nod. He undoes a button and pulls it over his head, “it’s perfect,” he pulls up the hood and grabs the ears again. “I can take you everywhere with me now, when I wear it.”

“Aww Minnie, shut up…that’s cute.”

He pulls you onto his lap and kisses across your shoulder, squeezes you tight. “It’s true. You made all the little stitches, you worked so hard,” His hand slides under your sweatshirt—lips, still smiling, drag across your ear, “you worked so hard to keep me warm.”

“You’re worth all of my time, pup.”

“That’s so—“

“Yeah, corny, I know.”

Now he has both of his hands on your bare skin, moving in circles, and giving you goosebumps. “I was going to say romantic.” He finds a spot near your shoulder and kneads into the muscle. The pressure makes you moan, and it makes Seungmin perk up.

Your hand reaches under his layers of clothes and searches for skin. His stomach is tight and warm against your fingertips, and he breathes out a little laugh as he closes in on your lips.

It’s only been a few hours since he got home, and aside from hugging him tightly as he came through the door and kissing everywhere on his face, this is the first you’ve really touched each other. Every night together ends up like this, though, because when he’s here, you can never have him close enough. And Seungmin, who you know loves you, can’t always get the words out right. He shows his affection in many different ways, and when you’re together like this, he shows it well.

So it’s just a matter of when and where and who will initiate. Tonight it’s both of you—but mostly you, because your hand moves down from his stomach and disappears beneath his sweatpants.

Seungmin leans back and rests on one hand so he can watch your hand move under the fabric. You kiss at his smile until he opens up and lets you in.

“Right here under the tree?” Seungmin laughs and goes right back to kissing. His legs open and he gets you in between them.

The two of you have had sex on almost every surface in the apartment, but never on the floor, and you don’t really want to start now.

Seungmin feels your head shake back and forth and sits himself up. He doesn’t stop your hand, though. And you don’t stop either. He pulls at his sweatpants until he can see the steady up and down of your hand. He’s already painfully hard, and he wants to come.

He pulls his sweater over his head and sets it back neatly in its box.

You smile at him before bending and slowly running your tongue over his head, and his moan is soft and sweet. One arm comes forward and his hand caresses your cheek, then your ear, until he can wrap his hand around the back of your neck.

His fingers knead into you, gently, and with no intention of forcing you down. Seungmin never forces himself in, unless he’s on top and you want him to.

“Are you comfortable?”

You nod and grab a thigh, and when you’re ready, you take him in your mouth as far as you can manage.

His moan makes your skin prickle, and a shiver runs down your body. You can feel heat collecting in your stomach, swirling, dropping down into your thighs and making your legs shake. You grip his thigh harder, digging your fingers in. He doesn’t flinch. Your mouth grips him tight as you pull back out, run your tongue around his head, and suck him right back in.

When you find your rhythm and get comfortable, you work on him even faster. He’s speaking softly between moans, rubbing your neck as you take him in and out, over and over, stopping only to take a breath and stroke him.

You look at him when your hands take over. He’s trying hard to maintain the eye contact, but both hands working him makes it nearly impossible. His eyes squeeze shut, then open again. He whimpers, his hips twitch. He starts to buck up into your hands, wanting to take some control back and reach his climax, but you don’t want him to finish yet.

Your grip softens and your hands slow down.

“No no…” he pulls you closer, squeezes your neck harder. “Don’t stop babe.”

You run your lips over him, leave kisses, lick.

Seungmin whimpers and when you look at him again, his face is desperate. He’s pouting and panting, moving his hips, hoping you’ll take mercy on him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” your hand strokes him again, softer than before, but enough to make his hips jerk with pleasure. “I want you to enjoy it.”

“I am,” his lips twitch, and a smile slowly forms.

“…for as long as possible.”

Seungmin licks his lips and nods. “I don’t think I’ll last long.” His nod turns into a head shake and his laugh is a little pained. He wants to come.

You continue your slow, hard strokes. One hand on his cock, the other pushing gently on his hip to keep him still.

His breathing is heavy and ragged; the sweet, soft noises become deep and uninhibited.

You speed up—his moaning is making it hard for you to stay in control. But you want to hear him, and you want him to lose himself in it a little more.

When he tries to speak again, it’s no more than a whisper. You look at him and lean forward, then give him a questioning look. On his second try you catch the word mouth, and you fill in the rest.

“You want my mouth?” You tease him, leaning forward a bit to lick, but your hand continues doing the work. “And my tongue?”

Seungmin nods slowly, mouth back in a pout. He keeps his eyes fixed on you; they’re wide open and taking in as much as they can in the dim light of the tree. He’s furrowing his brow with every stroke, trying desperately to hold on a little longer.

“You want to come in my mouth?”

“Yes please,” he answers without a thought, and his hips lift despite your hand still holding him down. “Swallow it all for me.”

“Okay okay…you win.”

He sighs and relaxes.

Your mouth closes around him, sucking gently at first, circling him with your tongue and finding his most sensitive spots. He pushes his hips toward you, but he’s careful not to force more of himself in. His hand is on you again; on your back, across your neck, your shoulder.

He’s touching and grabbing, hoping to ground himself for the inevitable.

Once your hand begins to stroke him again, his breathing becomes uneven. A sound gets caught in his throat. You take as much of him as you can and when you moan and hum, it sets him off. His hips lift again and his fingers grip you hard.

The sound he makes rings in your ears, his body tenses up, and he fills your mouth. You were ready for it, but some still escapes. It catches on your hand as you slowly, gently stroke upward, swallow, and lick what remains on your fingers. You take him in your mouth once more to clean him off.

Seungmin is spent, mouth open, chest heaving. He looks like he wants to fall backward on the floor, but he holds himself there until you finish. He lets out a laugh, lazy and full of relief, and pushes his hair away from his forehead.

“I’m expecting more later.” You lean forward and kiss him there.

He laughs again—his eyes and face soften as he watches you adjust and smooth out your sweatshirt. “You look so pretty in the lights,” he sits up and pulls you back for another kiss.

#kim seungmin #☾ blind date #skz seungmin #seungmin x you #seungmin x reader #seungmin x y/n #kim seungmin x reader #kim seungmin x y/n #kim seungmin x you #seungmin fluff #seungmin smut #kim seungmin smut #kim seungmin fluff

[illiterateaffairs]

behind the scenes chapter three | friends with professional benefits

masterlist | prev | next

pairing: jamie tartt x actress!reader (ted lasso)

rating: T

word count: 3,410

summary: you and jamie get to know each other. let the games begin.

a/n: this is coming out later than i had planned but i hope it was worth the wait! going to be less busy this coming weekend so hope to share more soon and get a lot of chapters in the queue for you all <3

Five days. It had been five days since you and Jamie agreed on your plan to fake date in front of the entire world. And although you didn’t regret the idea - yet - you’d still had enough time to overthink and suddenly become very nervous about things going wrong. 

You hadn’t seen Jamie since your conversation in the café, but you had various text exchanges throughout the week. At some point Jamie had asked you what your contact name was for him.

what do you mean? it's your name. jamie.

just jamie?

what else would it be?

you’ve gotta add emojis luv if someone sees your phone it's gotta look like i’m ur boyfriend. mine says ur name with like 5 hearts

That’s when you realized you needed to be more thorough than you thought. 

Which is precisely why Jamie was coming over to your flat today. Sure you’d known you needed to get together sooner or later to talk through the plan as a whole, but today you were armed with a checklist of things to cover. 

You’d also talked things over with Margot earlier in the week. And Harry. But that conversation had been a lot more cut and dry. He was over the moon you were doing this, and sent you an email with own list of requirements. It basically started and ended with: be a couple in PUBLIC. 

With Margot, she’d repeatedly asked if you were sure about the whole thing. You’d told her over and over again that, yes, you had never been more sure of anything in your life. Though by the fourth reassurance, you weren’t sure how convincing you sounded. 

Either way, you were committed to this and dammit if you weren’t going to see this through. This was just another role you had to play. It’s what you did best.

From your spot on your coach, you nearly fall off of it when there’s a knock on your door. 

Jamie.

Its go time. 

You put your laptop down on the coffee table and jog over to the front door. Pulling it open, you’re actually surprised to see Jamie standing on your doorstep holding a bouquet of flowers. 

You squint, “Are those for me?”

Jamie scoffs, “No, they’re for your elderly neighbor I just passed. I’m hoping you can introduce me.” You roll your eyes but give him a smile, “Of course they’re for you. We have to make this look convincing right?”

“Jamie, there’s nobody else here.”

“Okay, but what about paparazzi? One could be lurking about and catching me visiting your flat would be the perfect kickstart to this whole thing.”

You chuckle, “I doubt there’s any photographers around here.” Still you look around behind him, and after seeing no one, you pull him into your apartment and shut the door.

“Still, you know Google Earth. Always taking pics,” Jamie jokes, laughing to himself as he steps further into your living room.

You stop in your place before you follow him, “Did you just quote Parks and Rec?”

Jamie spins around, “You understood that reference?” 

You laugh in disbelief, “Of course. It's one of my favorite shows.”

“Same,” he smiles, “Used to watch it with my Mum all the time in high school.”

“I love that,” you smile back, closing the gap between the two of you so you can take the flowers from his hands, “These are pretty by the way. Let me go put them in a vase but feel free to make yourself at home.”

You’re quick to fill up a vase in your kitchen, leaving the flowers on the counter, but are surprised to return to Jamie still standing in the middle of your living room, looking around.

“This place doesn’t seem very you,” he comments as you return, plopping down on the couch.

“How would you know? You just met me,” you ask teasingly.

“Well, that’s the point of today isn’t it,” Jamie teases back, joining you on the couch, “Still, it seems very posh and you seem a lot more chill.”

You nod, “Well, I’m just renting this place while I’m here so not much of it is mine. I’m thinking about decorating it a bit to make it more homey.”

“Well if you need any recommendations for places to look, I know some stores that have cool shit.”

“I may have to take you up on that.”

You lean forward and grab your laptop again. You glance over the excel sheet you had open and try to figure out where to start.

“What you lookin’ at over there?” Jamie asks curiously, trying to peak over.

“I want a way to keep track of all the things we need to figure out like our cover story and just things we need to know about each other,” You explain, turning your computer towards him.

His eyes widen at the very detailed and colored coded document you had laid out. “Wow, that’s…intense.”

You chuckle, “Yeah, I may be a creative but I am very Type A. I also don’t want to fuck this up so I think it would nice to have a place to keep track of everything. I can email this to you if you want? Or ooh! I can upload it to Google Drive so we can both edit it.”

Jamie shakes his head, but there’s a small smile on his face, “Sure. Where should we start, Boss?”

“Well, I feel like the most obvious thing we need to cover is how did we meet? How did we get together?”

Jamie’s thoughtful for a second before shrugging, “I feel like we could use how we actually met, you know? It’s realistic because it's actually real. And keeps it simple. We ran into each other and got coffee, or hot chocolate, as some may prefer.”

“Nice, you remember my preferred beverage,” you smile as you start typing in the doc, “Who asked who out? Did we do it that day?”

“You asked to exchange numbers, but I reached out a couple days later. Maybe we went on our first date last weekend?”

You nod thoughtfully, “That works.”

“It would’ve had to have been Friday, though,” he adds, “I had a match Saturday afternoon and told Keeley about seeing someone that night.”

You bite the inside of your cheek, “I filmed late on Friday night.”

Jamie shrugs, “I could’ve waited up for you. Got drinks at a bar?”

Your lips quirk up at the thoughtfulness - even though it was made up.

“Okay,” you continue filling out your spreadsheet, “I have a list of things that one might normally know about a significant other, but since our “relationship” is so new, I think we only need to cover what you would on a first date.”

Jamie’s eyebrows furrow, “Like…what?”

You glance up at him, “What? Jamie Tartt’s never been on a date before?”

He laughs awkwardly, “I’ve obviously been on dates. But we didn’t really do a lot of talking.”

You roll your eyes, “Oh lovely. Alrighty, then, let's just focus on what normal people do the first time they’re getting to know someone.”

“Fine,” Jamie sighs, “Hit me.”

“What’s your…favorite color?”

“Seriously?”

“What?” you laugh, “It's a completely normal question.”

“Yeah, for five year-olds,” he frowns, crossing his arms.

“Come on, you’re seriously going to sit here and tell me you don’t have a favorite color?”

“I dunno,” he shakes his head looking around, “Maybe, blue?”

“Blue? Come on, that’s such a boy answer,” you mock.

“Well, I am a boy if you haven’t noticed,” Jamie throws back defensively, “Its my favorite color your asking, is it not?”

You bite your lip to keep from laughing, amused by how seriously he’s taking this, “It is. Why blue then?”

He shrugs, “Dunno. It’s one of Richmond’s colors. Was a Man City color, which is the team I used to play for and my hometown team. I remember my mum wearing it a lot growing up.”

A genuine smile starts to form on your face as you listen to him ramble. It was the second time he’d brought up his mom. “Are you and your mom really close?”

He turns to you, a little taken back, “You ask about parents on a first date?”

You shrug one shoulder, “If it's going well.”

Jamie has to turn back away from you so he doesn’t do something stupid like blush. He decides to focus on answering your question. “We are. She’s sort of like...my rock, I guess? She’s actually the one who got me into football.”

You nod, listening intently, “And your dad?”

You notice Jamie tense slightly, but he turns back to you with a half smile, “Our relationship’s a bit complicated. Maybe that’s more of a story for a fifth date or something.”

You give him a kind smile, “That’s fair.” And then you turn back to your laptop screen.

“What about you?” Jamie asks after a beat.

You look up with raised eyebrows, “Me? My favorite color is yellow.”

Jamie chuckles, “Noted. But no, I meant, what's your relationship with your parents like?”

“Oh!” you chuckle lightly with him, “My mom is the best. Feels like she might get along with yours; she’s the reason I’m an actor.” Jamie’s smile grows, “She did literally everything in the world to support me even though she was a single mother. I never knew my dad though. He left my mom before I was born so he’s never been around.”

“Oh, that sucks, I’m sorry,” Jamie says softly.

“It’s fine. I don’t know him. And from the brief things my mom has said, its probably for the best. And honestly it's okay. Mom’s been more than enough on her own.”

Jamie nods, the smile back on his face. “Okay, anything else you got on that list besides colors and parents?”

“Oh, I have plenty,” you chuckle, “But feel free to ask me anything of your own?”

“Hmm,” Jamie thinks for a second, “What's your favorite flower?”

You look up, amused, “My favorite flower?”

“Yeah. You know that way I can be more specific next time I get you some,”

You once again have to bite back a smile, “Uh, I would say daisies are my favorite flower.” Jamie nods, committing the information to memory, “What about you?”

“Me?” you nod and Jamie doesn’t even hesitate, “I think lilies are nice.”

“Lillies are nice,” you agree, typing it into the doc.

That’s how you spend the next hour or so, asking one another trivia about each other and inputting it into the doc for ease of studying later. You learn about each others childhood pets and the careers you wanted when you were five. You learn each other's favorite foods, stores, bands, as well as the little things you hated. You learned more about his teammates, particularly those closest to him like Sam, Isaac, Colin and Dani. In turn you told him about how Margot was more like a sister to you even if she was technically your employee, as well as your childhood next door neighbor Katie who was still your best friend today.

You only realize you’d been talking for so long when your stomach lets out a growl, and Jamie doesn’t even pretend to courteously not hear it when he lets out a belly laugh. 

“Leave me alone, it actually is almost dinner time, dude,” you defend, even though you find yourself laughing along with him.

“Fair point,” he amends when he catches his breath, “Do you want to order in?”

You don’t even protest the idea of prolonging your time together, thoroughly enjoying getting to know him, “Sure. I can order a pizza.”

You start searching local pizza places into Google, when you remember another item of business you had on your list. 

“Ooh, that packet on the coffee table is for you.” you nod in the direction of said stack of papers.

Jamie sits up, intrigued by the mysterious document, and picks it up. He squints at the weird legalese, “Is this…a contract?” You nod, “What, you don’t trust me or something?”

“No, it's not that, it's just standard,” you shrug, “It's more or less just to appease my publicist and the like.” Jamie still looks unsure, so you sit up and start flipping pages of the document for him, “Looks, its no big deal. I already signed it myself. It just states we can’t tell anyone about this. Besides, the NDA expires in 5 years anyway. So by that time, I’ll have an Oscar and you’ll be a washed up football player, and no one will believe you if you said anything.”

Jamie huffs, “I want to be offended by that, but you called it football so I’ll accept it.”

You smirk, “See, I’m a fast learner.” Then you settle back into your spot on the couch and carry on ordering pizza. 

Jamie looks over the packet again, before siding it was no use tonight, “You mind if I look this over and get it back to you in a few days?”

You nod, “Of course.”

“And your publicist knows? I mean obviously. And assuming Margot knows? Have you told anyone else?” he asks.

“Nope, that’s all,” You answer, “I get it if you want someone to confide in, but I figure the tighter we keep the circle, the better, right?” Jamie nods, “I mean have you told your publicist or professional team?”

Jamie laughs humorlessly, “My publicist is my ex, Keeley.”

You once again look up at him with your mouth agape, “Nooo, how does that happen?”

Jamie shakes his head, “Not intentionally. She took over the club’s PR before I came back to the team and I guess I never thought to find someone else. We became friends, genuine friends, but then everything got tangled up again a few months ago. And yeah. Here we are.”

You look at him for a few seconds before you let out a deep breath, “Well, that all sounds fun. A real incestuous family you got going on over there at AFC Richmond huh?”

Jamie can’t help but laugh along with you, “Yeah, look what you’re marrying into.”

You chuckle, but weirdly you feel your stomach flip at his phrasing. You brush right past it in order to collect his pizza preferences. As you finalize submitting the order, Jamie starts over analyzing your apartment again. This time he’s a bit more nosy and pulls open some of the coffee table drawers. He gasps when he pulls open the second one.

“No way. Please tell me this is yours and it didn’t just come with the place.”

When you look up, he’s holding up a Mario Kart game cover. 

You scoff, “Of course that’s mine.” 

“I haven’t played this in ages,” Jamie says, studying the back cover. 

Another smile plays at your lips. You nod at the TV in front of you, “I can hook up my Switch if you want. It’s been a while since I’ve played with someone other than myself.”

Jamie looks up at you, an excited grin forming on his face. “You’re fucking on.”

And so you spend the next hour competing against Jamie in various Mario Kart races. You play as Toad, naturally. Jamie plays as Princess Peach which makes you laugh. In between rounds, you munch on pizza and breadsticks. You also manage to get to know each other more, and set up ground rules for your charade even as you trash talk one another.

“I feel like the most important is PDA,” you state, somehow managing to focus on not falling off rainbow road while also talking strategy.

“Well, we’ve obviously got to do some of it,” Jamie comments, cursing as he gets hit with a shell, “It would look weird if we didn’t sometimes.”

“Sure, but we’ve gotta have some boundaries. We can’t just be kissing each other willy-nilly.”

Jamie chuckles, “Well, yeah, consent is key.”

Your lips quirk, “I’m completely fine with small things like hugs and hand holding whenever it seems fit.”

“Okay, cool, yeah,” Jamie nods, “And if you’re fine with it, kisses on the cheek are pretty innocent.”

“Yeah,” you nod, swerving to avoid a banana, “But actual kissing…”

Neither of you know how to finish that sentence. However, your race comes to an end. This time you get away with first place, Jamie in second, which you’d be switching between throughout the evening. Without gameplay to distract you, you have to make a decision.

“Maybe we just take it as it comes?” you suggest slowly, “I mean, couples kiss right? So if it feels right in the moment, it's not a big deal for a peck here and there?”

“Yeah,” Jamie agrees, “And if there’s ever a time we need to make a show of it, we check in with each other. Either beforehand, or if its in the moment, we give each other a signal.”

“A signal?”

“Yeah, like we blink twice or something.”

You nod, “Blink twice. Okay. And if we’re ever uncomfortable with something, we just have to communicate with each other, right?”

“Right.” Jamie nods. After a beat, he extends his hand, “Looks like we’re doing this.”

You chuckle, but shake his hand none the less, “We’re doing this.”

You exchange smiles. Now that the sun has gone down, Jamie decides its probably time to head out for the night, feeling like you’d accomplished a lot over the course of the evening.

As you walk him to your door, you ask one last question, “There was actually one more thing I wanted to ask. If you’re free Thursday night, do you want to come to an event with me? Isabel Mercer’s new movie is premiering, and since she’s dating my costar the whole cast is going. Figure it might be a good place to make a public debut?”

Jamie smirks, “A movie premiere? You should have started with that.”

You snort, “Yeah, well, I had to make sure this mock-date went well first.”

“I’d say it went very well, wouldn’t you?” Jamie smiles, “I think we’ve got this shit in the bag.”

You laugh, “So I guess that means you’re in?”

Jamie does a half bow, “I would be honored.”  

“Good, because I hate going to these things. I need someone to suffer through it with me.”

Jamie fake-pouts, “Don’t try to make this sound less fun for me.”

You shake your head, and you make your voice really high as you reply, “Don’t worry, it’ll be great!”

Jamie tsks, “You’re gonna have to be better than that when we’re trying to convince the whole world we’re madly in love.”

“Yeah, yeah, get out of here,” You tease, opening your front door and gently shoving him towards it.

Jamie turns to you with a smile, “Good night, girlfriend.”

You resist the urge to roll your eyes and give him a smile of your own, “Good night, boyfriend.”

Before you can process what he’s doing, he’s leaning in to press a quick kiss to your cheek. Before he completely pulls away, he whispers in your ear, “Google Earth.” He gives you once last smirk before jogging down the steps. 

You shake your head as you lock up. This was certainly going to be an experience these next three months. 

You flop back down on your couch to review your notes from the evening. After reading through for a few minutes, you remember you hadn’t checked your phone the entire time he was there. Aside from a couple emails and a text from your mom, you didn’t have much since it was a Saturday. However, you also have 2 texts from Margot. The first you had missed from earlier this afternoon, which was a link to tweet from an updates account about you. The tweet contained pictures of Jamie arriving at your flat earlier that day. The second had been sent minutes ago, including a tweet from the same account, this time with pictures of Jamie leaving literally ten minutes ago.

The devil works hard, but paparazzi and stans work harder.

You also realize that Jamie had been right. That smug bastard.

You couldn’t be too annoyed though. The comments under the tweets, even the most recent, were filled with people surprised yet supportive of your coupling. A few even conceding that you did look cute in a relationship. You smile to yourself as you scroll through.

Shit. This was going to work. 

a/n: can’t wait to hear what you guys think!!! :))))))

taglist: @respondingtoshowerthoughts-blog​ @royalestrellas​ @loveslide​ @torpedo-belly​ @skewedcherries​ @littlemisssunshine192​ @hopefulromances​ @breakmyheartlater​ @ohpuckyeah​ @alipap3​ @meg-ro​ @rexorangecouny​ @pythagothug​ @bonesbonesetc​ @xxenia14​ @rockchickrebel​ @thatonedogwithablog​ @percysaidnever​ @msjb2002​ @loveforaugust​ @dicgohargreeves​ @whimsical-roasting​ @gcidrvsh @lightninginab0ttle it wouldn’t let me tag the last couple of you, but i will keep trying <3

#jamie tartt x reader #jamie tartt imagine #jamie tartt fanfiction #jamie tartt x f!reader #jamie tartt x female reader #ted lasso fanfic #ted lasso fanfiction #mine #my writing #behind the scenes series

[storyofmychoices]

Impossibly Perfect

[Bryce Lahela x Olivia Hadley Masterlist] 

Pairing: Bryce Lahela x Olivia Hadley (F!OC) with Keiki Lahela, Malia Lahela (mentioned) Book: Open Heart Word Count: ~700 Rating/Warnings: general, no warnings, all the silly fluff

Prompts: Christmas: @choicesdecember2023, @choicesficwriterscreations, @choicesholidays, @choicesflashfics (Holiday prompt #24, in bold)

Synopsis: Bryce, Olivia, and Keiki are taking a walk through the park on their way to do some last minute Christmas shopping.

This absolutely gorgeous portrait of my babies is by artsy_elii on Instagram.

Winter's familiar embrace painted the city of Boston with frosty enchantment. Bryce and Olivia strolled through the snow covered park. Seasonally appropriate Santa hats rested upon their heads, while they held candy canes in their hands. The swirling red and white of the sweet treats tempted them to take the first lick. The peppermint treat had been a token of gratitude from a Santa collecting donations for a children's charity near the park's entrance— a cause Bryce and Olivia had generously supported.

The pair strolled closely together, their fingers entwined between them, as they made their way down the snowy path. Olivia held out her candy cane in front of her, gesturing for Bryce to do the same. She tipped hers toward his, the two meeting to form a simple heart. 

"Perfect!" Olivia cheerfully exclaimed, the heat of her breath creating a frosty trail in the wintry air.

Bryce's eyes sparkled as he gazed at Olivia. "Yes, you are."

"Bryce," his name slipped shyly from her lips as her gaze drifted down. 

“I mean it.” His fingers delicately brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. “My only resolution is to love you and Malia even more next year.”

“I love you so much.” Olivia's cheeks flushed brightly with happiness, her smile spreading wide across her face. "How did I get so lucky?" 

"Ugh!" Keiki turned back toward the sound of the giggling couple. "Gross!" she quipped, pretending to gag on her own candy cane, which she had shaped into a dangerous point. "Seriously, if I wanted to watch a Hallmark Movie, I would be at your house every day. Note, that I am not."

"Sorry, Keiki." Olivia's cheeks warmed as she buried her face in Bryce's arm. 

"It's more him than you!" Her gaze narrowed on her brother. "We all knew you were a sunshine person. You even look like you could be one of the leads."

"I take offense to that," he feigned indignation. "I think I'm handsome enough to be a leading man."

"Keep telling yourself that, bro." Keiki rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "When is your paternity leave up? I think your brain is going soft."

"In a couple more weeks," Bryce replied. "And my brain is doing very well, thanks for your concern. Malia and I have been reading a lot of medical journals together. We also have been working on the alphabet. It's about balance.”

"Don't forget the animal sounds," Keiki teased. "I've heard a lot of those lately, too."

Bryce pulled Keiki closer, wrapping his arms around his sister. He pressed a kiss on the top of her head before tussling her hair slightly. "One day, you'll be here, where we are, and you'll get it." 

"Maybe," she shrugged. "But for now—" She shoved him away, holding out her candy cane dagger toward him. "You can keep your hands to Olivia."

"I like the sound of that—"

"Ughhh," Keiki groaned. "You're impossible." 

"It must be a family trait," he winked, his brow arching at her. 

"I'll show you impossible!" Keiki scooped up a handful of snow, molding it swiftly into a ball before throwing it at Bryce.  

Bryce dodged Keiki's snowball and retaliated with one of his own.

Right on cue, Olivia thought to herself, a warm smile spreading on her face. All that was missing was a fresh flurry of snow to seal the moment. She watched the siblings chase each other through the field, snowballs being tossed between them. 

Keiki might not want to admit it but her life was more like a movie than she realized. Just a few years ago, she had flown 5,000 miles to escape her parents and reunite with a brother whom she hadn't seen in years, only to find the happiness and family she had always wanted with Bryce, Olivia, and now her niece, Malia. None of it had been without its trials, but what in life wasn't? Life was about holding onto the good and learning from the bad. And this little family, treasured moments like this, because just being together was always more than enough.

A/N: Malia is at home with Olivia's parents who are spending time with their granddaughter aka spoiling her rotten.

I HC that if Keiki is around when there is a Hallmark movie on with Holland Roden, that she always makes a comment, like see, you could be in one of these movies.

Also, I didn't really edit this, so please ignore any errors. 💛

#bryce lahela #bryce lahela x mc #bryce lahela x oc #bryce oph #open heart #malia lahela #playchoices #choices #choices game #olivia hadley #bryce x olivia #brylivia #lovealexhunt #oph bryce #fan fiction #open heart fan fic #my commission #brylivia commission #lovealexhuntgetsart #december2023

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for breaking off a friendship without an explanation after a boundary has been crossed repeatedly?

This is one of those "happened a while ago, but still on my mind" stories. I (then 26F) had a long-term close friendship with a classmate from highschool (then 25F) in which we'd been really through a lot together, too much to recount here.

Relevant to the story is that I had just survived cancer a few months earlier, though. Also probably relevant is that we had started drifting apart a little bit recently anyway, because I wasn't as available for daily phone calls anymore due to a new job and a new relationship.

To get to the matter of the friendship break-up fight: I usually proofread her papers for university as a courtesy, she didn't proofread mine, which I didn't mind - orthography is a skill of mine and she showed up for me in different ways. Now it was time for her to write her graduation thesis and I had agreed to help her with it if (!) she managed to finish it a couple days before the deadline this time, because I knew I was gonna be busy on the weekend of the deadline (hand-in on Monday morning). She had a history of procrastination, so I made that clear beforehand.

Friday evening rolls around, she hasn't send me anything yet and I figure she has it covered or found someone else to help her out.

On Saturday evening I'm entertaining guests, two friends who were emigrating halfway across the globe for work the next week. I haven't looked at my phone in hours, as I find that really rude on such a special occasion. I get a call on the landline from my thesis friend, telling me she's done and demanding I get on it immediately. I tell her that I'm busy hosting friends, and that I don't know when I'll next see these two.

She gets nasty. Demands again that I get right on it and to throw my guests out now. I can only put this down to severe stress. I tell her that I'll do it Sunday morning, but not now, and hang up. I get back to my goodbye party. Sunday morning I do the proofreading, send it back to her, we talk a little on the phone and I can tell she's still mad at me for blowing her off.

When I probe a bit and ask what's wrong, she blows up at me and tells me that she had expected better of me, that she expected me to be there for her and not other people in her time of need because she was there for me when I had cancer. That I should count myself lucky because unlike some other friends, she didn't leave me over my illness. (Which did happen, other friends left.)

I get very upset and tell her how much that hurts, that I don't feel it's fair to have this brought up in this context and that if she uses my cancer against me again, friendship over. She hands in her thesis on Monday, gets an A- for it.

Fast forward a couple months, a common friend calls me and tells me my thesis friend had said some incredibly rude things about me and she worries. I have her tell me the story and lo and behold, it's the same complaints: I wasn't grateful enough, didn't value her sacrifice during my chemo enough (visiting me in the same city every two weeks to watch shows together), she expected more devotion etc.

I tell the shared friend and thank you and block the thesis friend on all social media and my phone. I get calls from a hidden number at an insane rate for a week, which I don't pick up, and then that stops too - I'm still not sure if that was her, but the timing was... weird.

The shared friend tells the thesis friend that she told me, so the thesis friend definitely knows what caused me to block her - but I wasn't the one who told her why. Some of our shared friends still feel like I was an asshole for cutting her out like this, so am I?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[mdhwrites]

The Lumity Kiss is Bad

Which is really weird when the actual, physical kiss is pretty much textbook perfect. However, this isn't a quick kiss or a throwaway one. It's the BIG kiss in a romantic subplot. The second half of the resolution we got in Knock Knock Knocking with the confession and the show frames it that way. As such... The kiss is more than just the kiss and it's every element around the physical action that ruins it, making even the textbook nature of it somehow flawed.

Let's start with the positive though. Now I've actually said I don't like how the kiss is animated and I do kind of stick to that. If you go to the 57 mark of this clip of the kiss, you can literally watch as Amity's face slides back to being on model.

And kind of like a lot of moments in the show with big budget animation, that's not a HUGE issue but it is deciding that frame rate and smoothness is king for good animation without considering how jarring it is to watch in the show and if it actually fits within the style of the show. I find TOH fights WAY more enjoyable to watch when isolated by themselves because of this because they aren't in an uncanny valley where they feel like a well produced fan animation than something official and I do still hold to that with the kiss itself. I just wish I could better describe why.

BUT! I said I had a positive to talk about and I do. For three seconds, the scene is just right. Luz says the date will be perfect before then Amity, looking at Luz, the person who the mere thought of was comforting her and who she's been worried about for a week, decides to go in and kiss her. Her hands are gentle as they take Luz's face and she leans in. Luz is shocked that this is happening but then quickly gives into the bliss and holds Amity's hand in her own. It is sweet, quick but incredibly impactful. It is a textbook example of how to do a kiss that one half of the pair didn't see coming and the couple are meant to be deeply in love. It's nothing new but doing the classic spot on is never a bad thing.

Those three seconds die the second Luz says, "Crikey," let alone the fact that it's in an Australian accent. And don't get me wrong: You do not have to make a kiss like this sappy. I Was A Teenage Exocolonist has a romance route with a very clinical, scientific person and when you two get together, she snarks at you if you ask what next. That I should know her well enough to know she has a logical decision deduced from what is correct for the situation.

"So are you going to kiss me or am I going to kiss you?"

Great. Amazing. Silly and not taking itself too seriously but above all else IN. CHARACTER.

I'm sorry to break it to you all but Luz is NOWHERE NEAR "Lol, random" enough for this. Hell, in both this scene and Looking Glass Ruins, the writers point out how Amity is driven to act on emotion and on what her brain pulls her towards more than Luz, especially on this topic. It's why Amity is ALWAYS the one to do the firsts in their relationship. Meanwhile, Luz's only times where she blurts out something random is "Snorses" which had a clear correlation to what was happening and "You damn rat!" which also was explicitly tied to the stimuli causing it.

What stimuli here makes her go "Crikey" and turn FUCKING AUSTRALIAN!? The only reasonable excuse I could even think of is to say she's a huge Crocodile Dundee fan but Luz was born theoretically somewhere around 2006, literally TWENTY YEARS after that movie came out and I don't feel like Camila would push something like that for her to watch or really fits in with most of what else Luz seems to enjoy.

Fucking BAZINGA would have been more in character because at least nerds still mock Big Bang Theory. Other options for a random word or reference would have been "Excelsior!" or "Wahoo!" as she jumps into the air like the hyperactive gremlin she's supposed to be.

Neither one would work though in general because the tone and framing of the scene isn't right for a joke, let alone this sort of joke. Part of what makes the kiss feel so justified in this moment is the setup... Though only on Amity's side. I'll get to the problems with Luz's setup for the kiss in a bit.

Amity has thought Luz might be dead for a week. She hasn't heard back from her, she's scared, distressed and strung out. She wants things to go back to simpler times like in Season 1 when things weren't so scary. She's emotional and is actively using the thought of Luz as a way to comfort herself. Then, out of nowhere, Luz comes in, promising romance, better times and safety, all while proving she herself is safe.

It is perfect setup in a story like this for the first kiss. Honestly, they could have gone one step farther and mentioned that they haven't even had a big kiss but they went with the missing out on the date element, which works just as well. It's nothing new but it's correct. It's good. However... It's also genuinely serious. Like this is effectively Amity laying out exactly why she likes Luz. The strength she gets from Luz. Why this relationship is important to her. It is great setup for an "I love you," or a first kiss.

It is a REALLY bad setup for a joke. However... as bad Luz's joke is... Amity's is actually worse.

"I can't believe I just did that!"

Yeah and I can't believe that in this moment that should show how far Luz and Amity have come as a couple, the strength and joy they've gained after being a couple for half a season, you're literally reacting the EXACT same way as you did when you kissed her on the cheek back in Looking Glass Ruins. It doesn't matter that you have nicknames now. That you two keep twirling each other about. Have had deep conversations about Luz's pain while Luz ignored yours. *eye twitch at Reaching Out* And it doesn't matter that in this moment, you have EVERY justification to be confident in this choice. To simply happy and overcome with emotion that your partner is simply ALIVE.

Her response should have been, "I'm so happy to see you," not literally going back an entire half a season for a cheap, repeat gag.

To be fair though, while this entire scene, from the moment it cuts to Amity talking to Emira and Edric, is obviously paying reverence to how big of a deal this is and trying to make the kiss be correct... The jokes are in keeping with how quite literally the rest of the episode treats Lumity. Remember, this episode starts with Luz claiming she'd like to pull a romantic rescue but deciding to opt out because despite having literally nothing to do with the plan, and likely being detrimental to how stealthy they need to be because fewer numbers are better here, she would rather be prepared to help Eda and King than actually break her girlfriend out from being grounded by the EC. This is despite, in Luz's own words, "You know me. I'll always choose the chaotic option." That... Isn't a good starting point.

Then the rescue is comically easy and Luz doesn't actually do any of it. It's all Gus, Willow and Hunter. Luz just gets to take the credit and get the big hero kiss, which this ABSOLUTELY IS. Amity was a damsel in distress for Luz to save, complete with a kiss for doing so. That's also without getting into how pathetically easy the save is. Like Willow doesn't even have to try to bury one dude and an abomaton ALIVE under ground. Frankly, I'm amazed that guard is still alive.

It's just a lot of stuff way too easy to be leading into what is the final payoff for your romantic subplot, let alone one that has taken up a THIRD of your story so far.

The rest of the episode isn't any better though. This should be an episode about Lumity. It starts with talking about Amity in trouble. Then it saves Amity and does the big, climactic kiss... But we haven't gotten Luz's side of the relationship yet, have we? We haven't gotten her speech like we did Amity's. We haven't gotten anything to show her deeper care for Amity and while Amity is talking about Luz's quirks and her kindness and the strength she gets from her, Knock Knock Knocking is really the closest we've gotten with "Awesome and pretty" which is vague and shallow. This is your chance to fix that.

There's even a perfect moment. Odalia threatens their relationship and says Luz isn't worthy. Have Luz agree... But then say it doesn't matter what her or Odalia think. That she is lucky to have someone as smart, dedicated, and passionate while having a sweet center that despite all her fears, anytime she's with Amity, she knows Amity is going to give her the chances she needs. Is going to understand what she's trying to say instead of looking at how weird she is and rejecting her. Take ten, twenty seconds to do that... While in the background, we can see Gus obviously thinking about something, glance at Luz, and then start working on a spell circle.

The shield comes down, get the dramatic reveal of Alador and then cut back to where Hunter is holding Amity's hand. Same effect as the show but allow Gus to make the plan of his own volition because he wants to protect his bro and this was the best he could think of. He thought Luz would be more capable of defending herself due to glyphs and that Belos was less likely to kill her than Hunter. Also, it was in a panic and the best he could think of.

INSTEAD, we get Luz ignoring Amity's problems with her parents for the THIRD FUCKING TIME and focusing on the white boy in the cast instead. In fact, I don't think Lumity talk to each other ONCE after the kiss scene. The focus is too much on the plot and Amity's angst and I could do an entire blog about how little Luz actually engages with Amity's character arc and plot elements. It makes it real rough analyzing old episodes for Amity's arc when you realize how much Amity jumps in her arc without almost any input from Luz on elements that are suddenly gone.

And this would be OKAY... But it makes the kiss feel like... Well, honestly like a gag. We're at a point in the show after all where very little of it is trying to be funny. Even Gus and King are being taken seriously now and Amity will be a joke for most of S3, especially in Thanks to Them. Even her standing up to her mother is lightly mocked by Alador sounding like he's just saying sweet lies in telling Amity that she was close to breaking the barrier. It's WEIRD the treatment of it when it has consumed so much time and the framing of the actual moment is so serious.

And I want to be clear: I am happy they kissed. I am not against this because it's two girls or anything like that. I'd criticize this no matter the gender, race, etc. of any element here because it is just flatly bad romance writing. The only parts that function are either cut off at the knees or the one part that has the characters too silent to actually harm the moment.

And I think the last thing any of us wanted for Lumity was for it to be treated like a joke.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house #Lumity critical #Lumity

[thisismysecondrodeo]

thinking about ted holding something out of y/n’s reach to tease her, so she tickles him and he starts giggling and blushing

AN: I based this one very loosely off of this scene in Abbott Elementary because I am obsessed lol if you haven’t watched it you should its SO good.

Rating: Teen

Tags: Fluff, One Shot, Flirting, Getting Together, Making Out

Fic masterlist

You walked into the coaches’ office to find Ted and Beard in the middle of their paper ball game. You leaned against the door, always amused at their antics and not wanting to interrupt, but after a few rounds the ball skittered to a stop at your feet and the men noticed your presence. 

“Well hey there, Y/N,” Ted smiled at you broadly which always sent a rush of butterflies through your stomach. You had only been working at AFC Richmond for a couple of months and you had to remind yourself that he was that nice to everyone, even if it only made your crush harder to manage. “Sorry about our little game there, something we can do for you?”

“Just need you actually, Ted,” you responded and Beard wasted no time in grabbing his backpack and heading towards the door. 

“Y/N,” he said in passing, feigning seriousness but he was betrayed by the small smirk on his face. 

“Jethro,” you returned and he did a double-take and then shook his head with a chuckle. It had become a running game between the two of you for you to try to guess his name, but really you just tried to make him laugh. Apparently, Jethro wasn’t it. Ted chuckled as well and you winked at him before picking up the paper ball and tossing it up and down as you entered the office, leaning your hip against the side of Beard’s desk to face Ted. 

If you didn’t know better, and of course you knew better, Ted looked like he might be checking you out. His eyes lingered on where your hip jutted out, making their way slowly up your body—or maybe it was just a trick of the light. 

“I was coming to ask if you’d be willing to do an Instagram takeover from training one day next week. Richmond fans love when you’re on.” 

“Really,” Ted leaned back in his chair, a quizzical look on his face, “Keeley told me she used to just get a bunch of messages that said ‘wanker.’” 

“Oh yeah, there’s a lot of that,” you nodded seriously, “but our female fans feel VERY strongly that you be featured in every post. And I’d have to agree. Hence, the takeover.”

Ted blushed and adjusted his sweater. It brought you an inordinate amount of joy to catch him off guard with a compliment. It only took a second for him to recover and a mischievous look crossed his face.

“Tell ya what,” Ted suddenly leaned forward and caught the paper ball you’d been tossing in your hand, “you play me in a game of paper horse. You win and I’ll do the Instagram takeover.”

“And if you win?”

“If I win,” Ted was suddenly not meeting your eye, looking around the room as if he could find the answer somewhere on the walls, “then you’ll come to the Crown & Anchor with me for dinner, tonight?” Your eyes widened, but you could see that in the split second that you didn’t answer, Ted was second-guessing himself—you couldn’t have that. 

You didn’t want him to doubt asking you to dinner, you just couldn’t believe it had happened. You leaned into Ted’s space, your faces inches apart as you took the paper ball back from him, “You’re on.” 

You turned around and took an easy shot at the trash can, leaning on your muscle memory from playing high school basketball. Ted whistled behind you as the paper landed neatly in the basket. He took off his sweater and you tried to contain your enthusiasm at seeing him in one less layer. “Well now, I believe I might have just been hustled,” you laughed as Ted stepped around you to retrieve the paper and you took Ted’s seat, watching as he positioned himself in the same spot as you, and the ball sunk in neatly. 

“Uh-huh, sure you are. I know you played college ball, Coach, I do my research. I think you may have been trying to hustle me,” you smiled as he stepped into Roy’s office to try for the equivalent of a paper ball 3-pointer that bounced off the rim. Both of you walked towards the trash to retrieve it, but Ted beat you to it.

“Woah, woah, woah what are you doing? You missed, it's my turn.” 

“I missed it but I didn’t get a letter! There’s no shot for you to match,” Ted tried to explain but you were still trying to get the paper ball back from him and he lifted his hand above his head while he was talking to keep it out of your grasp. 

Ted was so fastidious about making eye contact when you spoke, it never felt like he was as tall as he really was. It was silly, but the height difference he had on you was more than a little attractive. You stretched as if you had a chance of reaching his hand but you only managed to bump your chest against his, and you could feel his sharp intake of breath at the contact. You looked down from the paper ball your eyes met,  the tension between you two nearly overwhelming. It suddenly struck you how empty the stadium was now that it was after hours, how close you were to Ted’s lips, and how much you wanted to wrap a hand behind his head and bring those lips to yours. 

The two of you stood unmoving and silent for a solid 15 seconds before you smirked, and brought your hands quickly to Ted’s sides catching him off guard with a tickle. Ted brought his arm down sharply and all out giggled, his chin tucking to his chest and his dimple appearing deeper than ever out in pure mirth. It was adorable, and it made you never want to stop tickling him, but you could see the pink blush creeping up from under his shirt color and up his cheeks. You took pity on him and stopped, but it took a moment for his breathing to calm. He didn’t even notice you had slipped the paper ball from his grasp and hopped up to sit on the desk as he was too busy taking a deep breath a few steps away. 

“Now I see why you wear all those layers, you’re a downright Tickle-Me-Elmo…a tickle-me-Ted if you will,” you teased and Ted smiled back, a little bashful. 

“I can’t remember the last time someone tickled me. I mean probably Henry but kids are no good at it,” he smiled, “I was always embarrassed at how ticklish I was as a kid.” 

“You shouldn’t be,” you shook your head sincerely, “it’s adorable. It only makes me want to touch you more.” You ducked your head as soon as the words left your mouth, but Ted just stepped closer forcing you to lift your chin to meet his gaze. 

“Is that right,” Ted said, an undercurrent of flirtation in his tone. You smiled, setting the paper ball aside and gripping the edge of the desk with both hands leaning towards Ted to speak quietly.

“That’s right. What do you say we call this game of HORSE a draw? You still do the Instagram takeover, and I still take you out to dinner.” You lifted a hand, fit your finger playfully between two of the buttons of his dress shirt and he grinned. 

“I’d say that’s an offer I can’t refuse. But since you did make the first shot, I think it's only right you get a little something extra.” 

“Extra, huh?” You were trying to sound flirty but it came out so breathy you just sounded eager—which you couldn’t deny you were. 

Ted leaned down and you wasted no time meeting his lips, kissing him softly and sweetly before he licked against your bottom lip and the kiss turned heated. 

You broke away, regretfully, and whispered, “if we don’t stop now neither one of us is going to dinner.” 

“Is that a threat or a promise,” Ted said, his voice low and seductive. You groaned, your desire to go on a date with Ted warring with your desire to jump his bones then and there. You put your hands on his waist and backed him up as you slid off the desk. 

“Come on Elmo,” you held out a hand to him to lead him out of the office, pleased that he only grabbed his backpack and not his sweater. “Dinner first and then I’ll find all the other places that make you giggle like that.” 

#ted lasso fanfic #ted lasso #ted lasso x reader #ted lasso x yn #my fanfic #ted lasso fluff

[writingshushf1]

Lover - chapter 3

Summary: the next 4 minutes have decided your whole life.  

Rating: +16

Warnings: unplanned pregnancy, intimacy (but not sex)

Word count: 3.5k

Note:  hey! sorry for not updating, I moved, uni started so I was basically studying, eating and sleeping, now that I adjusted into my routine- IT’S BACKKK! i hope yall enjoy it! don’t be a ghost reader! (also available on AO3.)

masterlist

(BEGINNING OF) JULY, 2024.

It’s been 6 weeks that you and Mick haven’t seen each other, it was the start of the break of the season, so he would be around a month with you. It meant you could actually talk to him about what happened between you two. That week, you scheduled a doctor’s appointment to know the sex of the baby, so then you would transform your office into a nursery.

The german would be back in a tuesday, so you made sure your appointment was going to be after that, to at least give the chance of him deciding whether he wanted or not to be in. It was a week after the ideal time to see the gender? Yes, but you didn’t actually care, probably on the last ultrasound, the doctor saw it’s sex, but you told him you didn’t want to know yet, because you were waiting for your friend to be back from his work trip and he was one of the most important people in your life. Seb also came to Monaco with Hanna, both of them wanted to be there for you, like your parental figure and you loved the idea, Mick even offered his spare room so they wouldn’t need to go to a hotel.

After a few hours on Tuesday, he messaged you after arriving at his apartment, although you wanted him to invite you, maybe it wasn’t the moment yet, to see him and act like nothing happened. You were working, thank God they still wanted you - at least until the baby was born, so all the paperwork you were avoiding last week now needed to be sent and approved by your boss. Everything was making you stressed, so you stopped for a while and layed on your bed, putting your hands on your bump and feeling little movements, still very subtle, if you weren’t alone, you wouldn’t be able to feel it; in two weeks others would be able to feel them kicking, because it would be stronger. Out of the blue, you heard your phone ringing, so you picked up to see Mick’s number.

“Hi…” You said softly.

“Hey… I… Can you come over? I’m feeling a bit lonely and Seb will arrive in the middle of the night, so I would love to have someone keeping me up.”

“Why will he arrive in the middle of the night and not during the morning?”

“Oh, the flight had problems, so they cancelled it and got an earlier flight, because the other available he wouldn’t be able to arrive on time for the appointment.”

“I’m going, give me 5 minutes.”

When you arrived, the door was already open and an anxious Mick was waiting for you, he looked at your belly, impressed by how big it was and then at your boobs, blatantly staring at them until you were too close for him to disguise. He hugged you gently, kissing your forehead.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

You looked at each other for a few seconds before getting in and sitting on the sofa together. He let you lay your head on his lap, while you stayed in silence for a couple of minutes and the sound of the tv filled the space.

“Your bump is so big.”

“I know, right? 22 weeks.”

“Already? God, we’ve known each other for that long?”

“15 weeks, which would be almost four months, yeah.”

“I don’t know, it looks like we’ve always known each other.”

“Yeah… I don’t know, Micki, maybe we just clicked.”

You turned on your side, watching the random tv show, you felt his hands run through your scalp, caressing it; the affection was making you sleepy, even starting to softly snore. You heard him laughing at you.

“Sorry, I’m always tired and every chance I get to nap, I’ll do it.”

“It’s okay… I know you get tired because of the baby, but it was a bit funny that you just fell asleep within minutes.”

You laughed and looked at him again, sitting up dangerously close to him. One of Mick’s arms was around your waist, while the other was on top of his leg, almost on yours; slowly your hands were up his chest, with your face almost touching each other. You shouldn’t be doing this, it wasn’t the time, on the other hand, he was there for you, always. When you were about to kiss, his alarm rang, so you backed off from one another and he saw the time.

“We should get going to the airport, Seb and Hanna will arrive soon.” He said, getting up.

Frustration ran through your body, but you ignored, also getting up and walking behind him towards the garage from the building. You were feeling cold because you forgot your coat at your house, because when Mick messaged you, the last thought was going to get something to make you warm, he normally did that. The blonde noticed you shivering - even if it was summer, Monaco at night could be chilly, seconds later he was giving his coat to you and you felt drunk with his perfume exhaling from the jacket.

The ride till the airport was nice, mostly quiet, a consequence from your actions earlier - and you were napping for a part of it. He woke you up by lightly tapping on your shoulder, which initially you turned your body to the other side, then he tapped again, starting to talk about how you two would be late to see Sebastian, that made you wake up instantly. You waited for an hour till they arrived, the couple looking very tired, but that didn’t stop them from hugging both of you.

“Your bump is so big, honey!” Hanna said, touching it. “You said it was 22 weeks, right? Wow.” She smiled. “I know you weren’t into it in the beginning, but you do look beautiful, the pregnancy glow is working very well for you.”

“Right? The only thing I have to do regularly is to put lotion on my bump because it’s growing too fast and it’s stretching the skin.”

“That’s normal, I’ve been there three times.”

“Let’s go, girls?” Seb intervened. “I’m very tired and you two must be too.”

The ride to Schumacher’s apartment was silent, you let Sebastian sit on the passenger seat, so you and Hanna were in the back. Most of the trip you were sleeping, so was the blonde woman. Mick felt bad to wake you up, because he knew you waited on your feet for the German couple, so he took you into his arms and left you in his bed, taking off your shoes and the jacket, covering your body with a blanket before he showed the others where they would be staying. After they were settled, he put his pyjama - which consisted in only wearing boxer shorts, and laid next to you, however, he didn’t touched your body, seeing that your bump was big and he was afraid of hurting it; although, a few minutes later you were somewhat hugging his body as a result of not having your pregnancy pillow with you; the blonde liked that and tried to stay in the same position to not bother you.

It was 9am and you were up, in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone. Schumacher smelled the pancakes and walked in, still with his sleepy face.

“Good morning…” He smiled, putting his hands on your waist, laying his head on your shoulder. “Do you need any help?”

“Uhm… Yeah, wash the fruits, get the syrup and the honey, make the table…” You said, flipping a pancake.

“Ok. Coffee, tea and juice?”

“Yeah.”

You two were doing the breakfast when the German couple walked in, looking Mick and you together, talking and cooking together.

“They look like us when we were younger.” Hanna whispered.

“Yeah, they do.” Seb kissed his wife's forehead. “They look good together.”

Then you noticed their presence, blushing a little and pretending they didn’t see how you two were acting to each other. The four of you sat down to eat. Mick and Sebastian were talking while you concentrated on eating, considering you were doing that for two instead of one.

….................................................

It was the time for the ultrasound and you were there waiting with the other three for the doctor to start.

“Do you have any guesses on the baby’s sex?” The doctor asked.

“No. Not at all, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about that, being completely honest.” You said, looking at Mick, hoping he would say something.

“No one else?”

“I think it’s going to be a girl.” Seb said to support you, putting his hand on your shoulder.

“Maybe a boy.” Hanna added.

“Let’s see if the… The patient's parents are right.”

Vettel didn’t correct the doctor, even though you weren’t father-daughter, he knew you would need some figure to be there and you internally thanked him for that. You couldn’t pay attention on the images, because all that was passing through your head was the image of a happy family, where Sebastian and Hanna were the future grandparents - or almost that, waiting for the result, while the dad of this kid was also there to be by your side, which it would be Mick. You noticed that the younger blonde was squeezing his hands together like he was holding himself from being closer to you.

Schumacher’s head was restless, all of his thoughts were running around at once, making him distracted from what was happening during the appointment. Fidgeting his hands to not get closer, looking around to not get nervous and if someone entered the room, they would’ve bet he was the father just from his actions.

“So…” The deep voice from the doctor awakened Mick from his trance. “It’s a girl! Congrats.”

“I knew it!” Vettel smiled, kissing your head. “You need to think about names! I had an idea for her room.”

"You always knows! It's not fair." You said to him. Vettel had guessed all of his kids when Hanna was pregnant.

“Congrats, schatz!” Hanna also walked to be by your side.

The younger German smiled, secretly holding your hand. “I would love to see a mini you running around.” He whispered.

Later that night, you and Hanna were making dinner while the boys were adjusting the nursery for the baby. You often walked there, to see them dirty with paint, talking in German and laughing. This was a night that you never thought would happen. On the other hand, you were so happy that it was, having them being there for you when you need the most, being this “non” conventional family that it’s better than you’ve ever asked for. When dinner was ready they changed their outfits to not stain the house with the paint. The four of you sat on the table, mostly filling the silence with small talks while you appreciated the delicious lasagna that Hanna made.

“I thought about a name…” You said, having the three pairs of eyes on you after that.

“Do tell!” Mick looked at you, curious.

“Okay… I liked the name Sophia. Is it a common name? Yes, but it’s pretty…” You took a sip of your juice.

“It’s a beautiful name.” Sebastian smiled.

“I think this should be the one.” Hanna completed.

“You sure?”

“Of course! It’s beautiful and… It's just… Clicks, you know?” Schumacher looked at you, his piercing blue eyes could see you through.

After the dinner, the boys offered to clean the kitchen, so you two went to the balcony to relax, no conversation needed. You loved that, the fact that Hanna became your second mom and was supporting you in this journey, the way she knows you to the core and tries to be a sort of grandma/auntie to the baby - now with a name to call, Sophia, that would probably get called Sophie as a nickname. She looked at you sometimes, smiling and taking a sip from her drink, maybe she was proud of you.

An hour later, you were back to Mick’s apartment since the German couple was staying there and you were asleep in no time again, but this time in his room. Sebastian and Hanna were in the spare bedroom, getting ready to sleep and the younger blonde? On his balcony, making a phone call.

“Mama. Hey.” He smiled. “Missed you.”

“Missed you too, lieb.”

“Seb and Hanna are here! I think you knew, right?”

“Yes, of course! How are things going? Is everything okay?”

“It’s fine! Really good time.” He looked at the streets, emptier than usual.

“And your friend? Does she know the sex of the baby?”

“It’s a girl… Seb somehow got it right.”

“Oh! Say that I’m happy for her.” She laughed. “He always does, Mickey.”

“Yeah… It’s going to be Sophia.” His tone was vague, like he wasn’t paying attention to the conversation.

“You want to talk about something, don’t you?” She knew him all too well. “When you’re not focused that means you want to talk about something.”

“Well… I’m in love with her.” He confessed, sighing out loud, which called Vettel’s attention while he was going to grab a bottle of water, then he stayed to see what Mick was saying. “But she’s…”

“Pregnant with someone else’s child. Yeah, schatz, it’s somewhat complicated, but not the worst.” She said “You should follow your heart, okay? Your dad would say that to you too.”

“I know, mama, I know.” He sniffled. “It’s hard, people judging that I’m taking a big responsibility into the growth of my career.”

“It is hard, it’s a child that we’re talking about and you're young, however… You should do whatever feels best to both of you, or better… The three of you.”

“I’ll, I promise.”

“And remember what your papa always said, private is private.”

“Yes, you know I follow this as much as I can.”

“By the way, come to visit us! I’m missing my baby boy.” She laughed and so did he. “And bring the girl, I wanna meet her. To see if she’s worth it.”

“Mama!”

“Just to make sure, sohn.”

“Okay. Danke, Mama.'' He smiled. “See you soon.”

Then Sebastian appeared on the balcony, scaring Mick.

“Sorry, I heard a part of your phone call with your mom, I know I shouldn’t have done it.”

“It’s okay, really… I would love an uncle Seb moment right now.”

The older German hugged him, running his fingers through the youngest’s hair while he breathed calmly, enjoying the comfort.

“It still hurts a little when she mentions dad.”

“Oh, liebling, it must suck sometimes… But she knows about things, that’s why she says it.”

“I know, I know.” He looked at his mentor. “Changing the subject before I start to cry… Mom said I should go and see them and bring… You know who, with me.”

“Really? Did Corinna listen to me? I’m flattered.” He chuckled.

“You gave the idea to her?”

“Maybe I did.” Vettel's unforgettable cocky smile was appearing.

“Why?”

“You admitted to her and yourself. You’re in love. You want her to be part of your family, then why not introduce her to them?”

“What if they don’t like her?”

“They will, I know they’ll.”

“But if she doesn’t want to go?”

“I’m sure she does want to meet your family because it is an important thing for you and she would do everything for your happiness.”

“And I would do the same for her.”

“See? You’re on the same page, but refuse to admit that to each other!”

“It’s because of the baby.”

“I know, on the other hand, does it really matter? She won’t go to the father of Sophie for anything, that means she’s single and obviously wants you. Maybe if you do think it’s better and can handle it, you can wait till the baby is born to start something and if you won’t go to try something, both of you will regret that.”

“I know… I hate that I know all of this but the courage doesn’t seem to get into my head.”

“It’s okay, you can go slowly, but always make sure to have conversation, that’s the most important thing you could ever have.”

“Thank you, Seb.” He breathed out, like a heavy weight was lifted off from his shoulders. “I needed a sign to come back to reality.”

“I will always help you and try to guide you to the best decisions.”

“That’s what a mentor does!”

They chuckled and walked to their respective bedrooms. Meanwhile, you woke up from the noise that Mick made when he entered the room, sitting on the bed and waiting for him to get into his pyjamas and lay on the bed.

“Sorry I woke you up.”

“It’s okay…” You felt the baby move. “Actually, do you want to try to feel the baby moving?”

“Oh.” He was taken by surprise with your idea. “Yes, totally. Can I feel it, already?”

“You? Barely, I can feel it more, however, we can put our hands on my bump and wait. Also we can talk to her in hopes that she will move to the sound of our voices.”

He sat behind you, letting your back against his chest and laying his hands on the top of your belly after you rolled your shirt enough to show the bump.

“From which week can I feel it? Like, actually feel it?”

“Week 24. In two weeks.”

“Wow, it’s close.”

“Yeah.”

Both of you set your hands on your bump, slowly caressing and talking in a lower and softer spoken tone, so that the baby could listen - from this week, the baby can hear the parent’s voice. It was an intimate moment that would never do with him unless both of you were deeply in love. That was showing to Mick more obvious signs that both were on the same page, which let him be more sure of what he was going to ask next.

“Go to Switzerland with me. Let’s spend a week or so there, meet my family, spend time together where there won't be any cameras or people surrounding us with questions.”

You stayed quiet for a while, it was a big information to deal with.

“So…?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure… I was just concentrating on Sophie.” Then she moved abruptly. “Wow, that was a big move, little girl, too early for that.”

“Maybe she agrees with my offer.”

“Shut up, Mick.” You laughed, moving his hands around for him to feel it still moving.

….........................................................

During the morning, Sebastian woke you up to go shopping for the baby nursery related things, he was more excited than you were, which was the cutest thing to watch. You two were walking down the store hall, looking through cribs.

“You’re going to be her godfather, right? And Hanna, her godmother.”

“Is this a request or an order?”

“Both?”

He laughed, getting closer and stopping at a colourful crib and looking at it.

“I will.” He smiled. “Everything for you.”

“Good! Maybe she’ll call you Opa.”

“I’ll love that.”

You kept looking at things for the whole morning, buying a crib, outfits, decoration, more paint and some cloth diapers. The choice for the style of the room was rainbows, sunshine and rain, like summer. Mick and Hanna got scared on how many things you have bought for the room, they didn’t let you do any effort, just sit and see the room gaining life. When the room was finished it made you cry, it was beautiful, the love put on that little room was overbearing.

“We should put paint in our hands and put it on the front of the door.” You said. “I want this memory to be part of Sophie’s life.”

You had five different paint colours, so everyone could have one. You chose purple, Mick chose red, Sebastian chose green and Hanna chose yellow, probably in the future you would do her hand in blue.

“When it dries, I will write our names below.”

Later that day, you and Mick took the German couple back to the airport, they needed to be back at home for the kids. You cried again, because you weren’t going to see them anytime soon, so the moment was emotional.

The ride back was silent, none of you wanted to say a word, however, it was okay, the silence was comfortable. You went to his apartment, the paint was still wet and the smell made you feel a bit sick, so of course he would let you crash at his place for the night. Both of you sat on the sofa, now alone, no conversations going around, just you.

“We need to talk.” Schumacher said, fidgeting with his hands.

“We do.”

“Can I start?”

“Sure.”

“So…” He sighed. “My feelings lately have been bothering me, because they’re too much. When I met you, I thought I had a new friend that found out that was pregnant and I would be the annoying uncle… However, things haven’t worked well. I developed feelings, big ones and I tried to suppress them, because Sophia is someone else’s and I couldn’t take this place and you were… And is currently overwhelmed by everything changing so fast. But we kissed, made out and it felt amazing. I was caught up in this, Max even mocked me for it. And again, we set it out as a friendship, when we clearly are more than this. We sleep on the same bed, cuddle, you put my hands into your bump to feel her. I am confused about everything, because… I want to be yours, but I know that maybe you won’t be ready for it.”

You stood there, his words were like a sharp knife cutting into your chest, you didn’t know how hurt he was. He breathed out, chuckling and sobbing at the same time, looking down.

“You don’t feel the same, right?”

That took you out of your trance.

“Hey! Hey! Calm down… I disassociated, this was a big confession…” You held his face. “I have one to make it too.”

“Please, say it.”

“I also feel the same. It’s more than a friendship. I didn’t want to drag you with me because I knew that you would go all down for being a father figure and I don’t want that. You have a bright future and it’s too early for that, especially when you’re not the biological dad.” You felt tears falling off your face. “And what will people say about you? I’m worried about that too.”

“I don’t care about them, schatz.”

“But I do.” He wiped your tears off. “I like you and want what’s best for you only.”

“The best for me is to be with you, if you want to.”

It took you a few seconds to answer him.

“I do.” Both of you breathed out at the same time, like a weight was lifted off your shoulders. “We can go slowly, only making it official after Sophie’s birth, okay? Avoid telling anyone other than our family and closest friends. Right now, we don’t have an official label, we’re getting to know each other, is that good for you?”

“If this means that I can kiss you, I’m fine with it.”

He got closer to you, closing the gap between your lips; the kiss was salty due to the tears that fell from your face, it was slow and tender, like he was afraid to step in too much.

“We could take a shower together.” You suggested.

“For someone that wants to take it slowly, this is…”

“It’s not sexual! Oh God, you’re so horny.”

“Always, babe, always.”

You laughed, slapping his shoulder.

“It’s to create a bond, intimacy between us. When I’m in labour, you will see my body, so you should get used to it. Probably you will help me to shower and I’ll always be messy in the postpartum period, those times will be the hardest and it will probably be after the season is over, so you will be home to experience everything.”

“Okay… Let’s go then.”

You got your pyjamas and towels, going to the big bathroom. The undressing was awkward, none of you wanted to stare at the other, like it was a crime to do it. He turned on the shower, walking in with you.

“You’re so beautiful.” He hugged you from behind, bringing your body into the hot water. “Let me take care of you.”

Then he took the shampoo, putting on your hair and massaging the scalp slowly, leaving a trail of kisses in your shoulder. After he washed out, Mick put conditioner on your hair, carefully passing through your strands, while you relaxed with the attention. Soon, he grabbed the washcloth, putting the soap on it and passed through your bump, then shoulders, back, and legs, not getting close into parts of your body he didn’t know if he was allowed to touch.After the relaxing shower, when you were just wearing panties, he walked with you to the front of the mirror, grabbing a moisturiser and staying behind you.

“I remember you talking with Hanna, about having to put lotion because the skin is stretching.” He put the mixture into his palms, soon with them in your belly, moving around carefully. “I researched about it. Looked some tips and bought this one for you, it said it could help with it.”

“Oh...” Your heart melted with his softness. “Thank you, Schumi.”

“No need to thank me, it’s a treat for you that I’ve been saving it.”

Later, both of you were laying on his bed, cuddling while watching a movie, when he broke the silence.

“So… Are we going to Switzerland then?”

“Of course. I know how important it is to you.”

“Then I’ll get everything ready for us.”

#mick schumacher #mick schumacher fanfiction #mick schumacher imagine #mick schumacher x reader #mick schumacher fluff #f1 fanfiction #f1 imagine #f1 x you

[tymime]

I'm very alarmed by how many people are dismissive of the lost media community, even going so far as to spread misinformation about them. I've seen them characterize lost media seekers as ignorant whiners and brats, and that they're wasting their efforts. Do these people have any idea how difficult it actually is to find this stuff? It can take years, if copies even exist. Don't they value art preservation?

You'd be astonished by how many shows that are barely twenty years old that have simply vanished, with no clear indication of whether or not the copyright holders kept a record of it. When fans try to contact the people involved in the show, they often refuse to answer emails. These aren't old, aging shows from fifty years ago, decaying in some film can. These are shows from as recent as the 2000s and 2010s.

There's been a toxic attitude going around big media companies for a couple decades now, treating their IPs (and their customers) as disposable, moving on to the next thing as soon as profits dry up. This is a big part of the reason media becomes lost in the first place. Old show not getting enough ratings? Need to make room for a new show? Just get rid of it! Now, some of these examples aren't lost media, admittedly- but they definitely could have been, if not for an on-the-ball internet pirate downloading and backing them up. There's a series from 2002 called Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? which hasn't been on the air in about twenty years. The original audio track was missing for many years, and had to be pieced together from several sources, with the video elements coming from a foreign dub. There was a music track heard in an episode of SpongeBob called "Humpback Hop" with several minutes cut from it, unheard of for two decades, and even the composer had lost all of his copies of it. It seemed like even Nickelodeon didn't have it in their archives, because they rerecorded it for a DVD menu. It's a miracle somebody finally tracked it down. There's a series from 2007 called Out of Jimmy's Head, whose original English version is still half missing. Even though by all accounts it's a crappy show, I still want to see it. (update: This show has been found, thank goodness.) And even though I'm not a fan, there are dozens of 2010s Cartoon Network shows that were once on HBO Max, that are simply gone. They're not in reruns, they're not officially streaming. You have to resort to piracy to view them. I wouldn't wish this fate on anybody. The Willow series from 2022 was taken off Disney+ mere weeks after its debut, just because not enough people watched it. It's stuck in the middle of a storyline.

Nintendo has been notoriously bad about this. They don't want you to play any NES, SNES, GB, or N64 games that aren't the most iconic best-sellers. They take down ROM websites, even if most of the games there aren't first party or being sold in any way. The only way to legally play a game that isn't available on the Switch is to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a working console and cartridges. Most people can't afford to do that.

If it hadn't been for the efforts of unofficial programs like Ruffle and Flashpoint, thousands of flash games and cartoons would be unplayable and unwatchable.

Even if the cartoon is safe and sound locked away in some vault, instead of missing entirely, it still winds up unseen that way. The public has a right to see a show they used to be able to see and enjoyed, instead of it being unviewable for all eternity. "Oh, but they have a right to not let us see it! They own the rights to it, after all, and can do whatever they want!" some might say. What if WB went out of their way to destroy every DVD, Blu-ray, and video tape of Looney Tunes, and locked away all their copies? Would you feel the same way then? Would we not have a right to see them? Would you just roll over and take it, and let corporate overlords tell what you can or can't watch? Just shrug it off and say "Oh well, guess I'll never see it again"? How would it not irritate you? TV and movies aren't the same as some painting or statue where usually only one version of it exists in some museum or private collection. Media is meant to be distributed and seen worldwide, for everyone to enjoy in their homes. If they're stuck in some warehouse on some hard drive, they may as well not exist.

It extends out into other aspects of our lives- old buildings get torn down instead of getting restored, vintage interiors get torn out or covered up by something modern or ugly. There was a time when films and video tapes were routinely destroyed to make room for new ones, because nobody thought anybody would want to see them again. We need to get past this destructive pattern.

Am I grateful for streaming services and the content they make available? Of course I am. But as many have said before, they could take it all away, and a show can simply vanish, leaving fans to resort to piracy just to see it, if anyone even bothered to save it beforehand.

Being dismissive of these efforts is the sort of attitude that's part of the reason media gets lost in the first place.

#lost media #streaming #cartoons #animation #disney plus #cartoon network #disney #hbo max #flash #ruffle #flashpoint #nintendo #media preservation #preservation

[everythingpresley]

Don't You Kiss Me Once or Twice - Chapter 4

Character/Fandom: Elvis - Elvis (2022)

Prompt: Jessica Anderson is Elvis Presley's assistant and after months of working together, slowly something sparks between them. Friendship? Or is it more? [ Fem!Reader ]

Rating: Explicit/Mature (NSFW, 18+), Slowburn

    ||     Word Count: 3,267

Masterlist

I was finally able to walk on my right foot without feeling any pain, I was still able to walk on it directly after but it was somewhat painful. Elvis was such a sweetheart, he kept on checking on me and would scold me whenever I was walking around too much.

Later that week my friend Janice begged me to go on a double date with her since the guy she was interested in had a “hot” friend. Her words not mine. Honestly, I was not looking to be in a relationship or even going out but she had been begging me and making me feel bad because with Elvis’ schedule we barely had any time to see each other. Plus, she said I was a bad friend. And I refuse to be called a bad friend even though I kind of was because I prioritized my job.

So today I had music blasting in my room as I got dressed in a little white sundress and a white headband, doing my makeup light because we were doing an early dinner / sunset picnic. I was having fun getting ready but I was completely dreading the date. My introverted personality really comes into play when meeting new people. Shoving my feet into my favorite black converse, I quickly jogged up the stairs that led to the living room.

“Hey.” Jerry said. The whole was pretty quiet so I think it was only him in the house “Where are you goin all dressed up?”

“A blind double date.” I winked.

“Oooo” Jerry smiled.

“Have you seen Elvis?” I asked.

“Oh they just left something about buying new guns.”

“Doesn’t he have enough?”

“He loves his guns.” Jerry shrugged.

“Can you please let him know that I might come home late?” I didn’t want anyone to worry incase I came home late. 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. I’ll let him know.” Jerry waved me off.

Janice picked me up since we were meeting the guys at the park. We walked towards the two guys standing by one of the trees. Janice and I had the picnic basket and blankets.

“Hi, I’m Chris.” Chris, Janice’s date smiled as he reached to shake my hand. He had this cute, boyish charm to him. Blond hair, light green eyes.

“Hi, I’m Jess.” I smiled back then turned towards the guy who’s supposed to be my date. “You must be Matt.”

“I am.” He grinned, shaking my hand. He was gorgeous. Light brown eyes, dark brown hair and a slight tan to his skin. He was slightly muscular but not too much and very tall.

Why was the first thought after that was He’s not as handsome as Elvis though. I hate myself for thinking that. Shaking the thought out of my head we put down the blankets and sat down.

We slowly got to know each other, siting on the blanket, eating little turkey sandwiches and drinking beers.

Janice and Chris were very engrossed with one another. Same with Matt and I but definitely leaning more towards a friendship rather than a relationship while Janice and Chris really seemed to be hitting it off with one another.

“So, how do you know Janice?” Matt asked, taking a sip from the beer bottle in his hand.

“I was originally living in California when I got the job to be an assistant here. And moving here was pretty hard at first, not knowing many people and having a hectic schedule. I would always go to this diner which Janice happened to work at and slowly we got to know each other.” I tried not to mention that I was Elvis Presley’s assistant solely for the fact that people usually started acting different or weird whenever they knew and they would start asking for favors such as autographs or actually setting up a meeting with him.

We walked around the park, ate ice cream, watched the sunset and ended up at Janice’s place. The guys ended up leaving around 11PM.

“You and Matt really hit it off.” Janice wiggled her eyebrows. Both of us siting next to each other on the couch, clutching our hot camomile tea.

“You definitely weren't paying attention, I knew you wanted to jump Chris right then and there.”

“Oh of course. If you and Matt weren't there, Chris would still be here.” She smirked.

I laughed “Hey! You’re the one that dragged us into this blind date.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Janice waved me off “ But seriously, Matt is gorgeous.”

“He is!” I agreed “But I don’t think I see this going anywhere.”

“Jess! You need to stop putting your job and Elvis first!”

“My entire job is Elvis. Please Janice you have to understand, being his assistant is a demanding job.”

“I get it. I do. But you deserve to be happy. Don’t think I didn’t notice you had a wall up. You’re not letting yourself open up because you have this idea in your head that it won’t work with your schedule and you don’t even want to try to create this balance.”

That made me quiet down, I couldn’t argue with what she said because it was true.

“Grab the ice cream, I’m catching up with my best friend tonight.” I replied. She grinned and squealed, we haven't done a sleepover is such a long time.

“I have old pjs I can give you and I have a new pack of toothbrushes.”

“Perfect.” I smiled.

I didn’t want Elvis to worry so I quickly dialed Graceland’s number but after a few rings no one answered. I guess Martha was already sleep and Elvis might be busy because it was way too early for him to be asleep.

The next day Janice dropped me off at Graceland before her shift at the diner. I hopped up the steps leading to the front door, still dressed in yesterday's white sundress. It was almost noon so I think everyone might be up. I unlocked the front door and walked in, I could hear Elvis going off on someone. He sounded really mad but I couldn’t make out what was being said. Shutting the front door behind me, I spotted Jerry walking out of the kitchen shaking his head. Once he spotted me, he mouthed “Run.”

Elvis was in a pissy mood and I had no idea why, god save us.

“What’s going on?” I whispered to Jerry as he got closer to where I was standing.

“I have no idea. Poor Red didn’t even do anything.”

“Oh god.” I hated when Elvis was in one of his moods, he would get irritated and explode on anyone.

“I tell YOU what to do! Not the other way around, you hear!” Elvis’s voice carried out from the kitchen to the living room.

“You’re the boss.” Red replied quietly.

“Where is Jess?!” Elvis yelled.

“Fuck.” I cursed softly and speed walked to the kitchen.

“I’m here, I’m here.” I said, walking in.

Elvis turned, his face in a full scowl. As his eyes took me in, his scowl softened slightly.

“Where the fuck were you?” He growled, his voice still raised but not really yelling like he was a second ago “Staying out all night, no idea where you were!”

“I called.” I replied, quietly.

Everyone automatically quieted down whenever Elvis was mad. Honestly, he was very intimidating. I don’t think anyone could back talk him.

“Oh! And that makes it okay?” Elvis placed his hands on his waist, scolding me like I was a little kid.

“I called and no one answered. I figured you were still out.” I shrugged.

“No big deal.” He mock shrugged “Not knowing where you were and who you were with.”

I furrowed my brows, really confused at why he was this angry “Why do I feel like a teenager again getting scolded by my father?”

His jaw clenched and unclenched when I said that, probably aggravating him even more. Shit.

“Maybe you deserve getting scolded.” He replied.

“Why? I’m a grown adult.”

“Let her live EP. She rarely ever gets to go out.” Jerry said, appearing by my side.

“Stay outta this Jerry.”

“No, he's right. I never go out, I always have to put you and your needs above everything. The one time I go out, you’re mad?”

“It’s not about you goin’ out. It’s about you stayin' out all night, doin’ the walk'a shame like a lil’ slut.” He spat out.

My jaw snapped open. I can't believe he just said that. What the actual fuck.

He turned and walked out, heading up the stairs to his room.

“What the fuck!” I exclaimed, turning to face Jerry.

“Calm down. Don’t get mad, you know how he is when he’s mad. He doesn’t think his words through.” Jerry said, placing his hands on my shoulders.

“I don’t get it, since when has he been mad? He was going to buy new guns, he gets really excited when he gets new guns.”

“He’s been like this since last night. After we got back.” Red replied.

“Let him cool down, he’ll probably come down and apologize.” Jerry said.

“I need to cool down.” I huffed and shrugged his hands off. Walking down the stairs to my room to shower and change into jeans and a t-shirt.

I didn't see Elvis that day, he stayed up in his room. When he came down for dinner, I took my dinner with me to my room. I really couldn’t look at him, I was so mad at him. He had no right to call me a slut. The next day I couldn’t avoid him because I couldn’t just stay in my room since I was technically working. However, Elvis ignored me the whole day. He didn’t apologize, he didn’t talk to me, he didn’t even look at me. He avoided my gaze and I didn’t bother talking to him. If he needed anything he would send Martha to tell me which pissed me off even more. Because I still don't get why he was still pissed off, I should be the mad one here.

At 5PM I decided to go walk around and see the horses. I walked around the property, stopping by the barn. I just loved feeding them and giving them little scratches. My favorite would have to be Rising sun. He was also Elvis’ favorite but he was my favorite because he was the only one that loved to follow me around like a little puppy. I smiled watching him trot around then he came by the fence where I was standing. I reached over and scratched his chin, grabbing a carrot that I had shoved in the back out my pocket, I fed him. I giggled when his face nuzzled to my face. It’s a shame that I didn’t know how to ride horses because I really loved them.

“He really likes you.” Elvis’ soft voice spoke from behind me.

I scowled slightly, not turning around to look at him and continued scratching Rising sun.

“I know you’re mad at me.” He said, walking closer and coming to stand next to me, reaching over the fence to also scratch Rising sun.

“You don't say.” I replied.

“I shouldn’t have said what I said. I’m sorry.” He said.

“Thanks for apologizing.” I replied timidly.

“Still I was worried about you, you can’t just not come home. What if you were murdered or something and I had no idea.” He said.

“I’m sorry.” I replied, understanding where he was coming from.

“So.. who’s the guy?” He asked. I turned to look at him, catching a glimpse of his jaw clenching.

“Huh?”

“When I got back last night Jerry told me you were on a blind date.” Elvis said, avoiding my eyes by  keeping his eyes on Rising sun.

I remembered Red saying Elvis’ mood switched once they got back. Was I the reason why he was in a pissy mood? No way, it was probably something else.

“He’s the guy you were with right?”

“Oh, yeah. I went on a double date last night. He was nice but nothing came of it. I ended up staying the night at Janice’s to catch up since I haven't seen her in a while.”

“Oh.” Elvis replied.

“So no walk of shame for this gal.” I chuckled. Elvis nodded, not looking at me seemingly deep in thought.

“I’m throwing a party tonight. Invite your friends.” Elvis said after a beat. 

“Okay.”

I called up Janice to invite her to Graceland for the party. She was super excited but kept begging me to invite Chris and Matt. I really didn’t want to have to explain that I was Elvis Presley’s assistant and was living with him. I agreed after she reassured me that they would be on their best behavior and won’t fangirl. I don’t even know if they’re Elvis fans or not.

The party was in full swing from 11PM, I don’t think an Elvis Presley party has ever started this early but I guess the guys were super excited because the music was blasting and drinks were being passed around. I was in a corner talking with Red and Jerry when I spotted Janice, Matt and Chris coming in through the front door. I smiled when I noticed Chris and Matt looking around with wide eyes. I wanted to laugh at their amazed expression but I get it. That was me almost a year ago when I first came to Graceland.

I weaved through the people, walking towards them “Hi guys!”

“Hey!” They all replied enthusiastically.

Matt reached forward and kissed my cheek softly. I smiled at him but his eyes went wide.

“Why is Elvis Presley looking at me like he’s about to murder me?” He asked, still looking behind my head.

I looked at him confused and turned to look but as I did Elvis turned and walked towards one of the girls in the living room.

“Let’s go get drinks!” Janice said, changing the subject.

We drank and talked for a while when Janice and Chris disappeared, probably making out somewhere.

“Do you want to meet Elvis?” I asked Matt.

Matt widened his eyes and shook his head no.

“Why?” I laughed.

“He seems scary.” Matt replied.

“What! No! He’s really nice and sweet but he has his scary moments.”

“What’s it like being his assistant?”

“There are days where I’m on the brink of quitting and there are days were it’s the most exciting, fun time.”

Matt laughed and shook his head “I bet. A rollercoaster of a job.”

“Omg yes that’s the perfect description.” I laughed.

Everyone was pretty drunk, people were dancing, people were making out.

I think Janice and Chris were walking outside, Elvis was on the couch with a bunch of girls and Matt and I were standing in a corner. We talked a lot and it was a kind of switch when he all of a sudden reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

“I’m gonna kiss you now.” Matt whispered, waiting for me to give him an indication on whether it was okay or not.

Then I recalled what Janice said, so I decided to let my guard down. I nodded slowly. Matt grinned and dipped his head, his mouth a few inches away from mine.

“Party’s over!” Elvis’ voice boomed through the entire house, the music cuts off at the same time “Everybody out!”

Matt sighed “Maybe its better if our first kiss was in a place more romantic.” He smiled. I smiled back and nodded. Agreeing that this isn’t the most romantic setting.

“Hey buddy! Party’s over. Out.” Elvis said, approaching us.

My eyes widened, my jaw clenched “I’m sorry” I mouthed to Matt.

Matt nodded at Elvis then turned towards me “I’ll see you around.” He said and walked out.

As people filtered out, I turned to Elvis with a clenched jaw.

“What the hell was that?” I asked him.

“What?” Elvis asked, acting completely clueless.

“You were so mean to my friend.” I replied.

“Your friend? You just met him a few days ago.” Elvis rolled his eyes.

“Still. You were mean.” I scolded him, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I didn’t mean to be mean.” He grinned innocently and shrugged.

“Just because you’re acting cute doesn't mean I’m not mad.” I replied.

“So I’m cute.” His grin grew even more.

“Shut up.” I laughed “You are so annoying.”

Elvis laughed, throwing his head back “I looove annoying you Jess. It’s my favorite daily activity.”

“Clearly.” I replied then I spotted a girl still siting in the living room, looking at us. She was one of the girls that was kissing Elvis “I think someone is waiting for you Mr. Presley.”

He turned to see what I was looking at “Oh, I forgot.”

I shook my head at him and left to go to my room.

I got into my pjs and laid in bed. I tossed and turned for a few minutes, not able to fall asleep. I was thinking about the pros and cons of dating Matt and honestly I couldn’t think of one con. Maybe because I don’t really know him but he was really cute and sweet. Maybe something might stem from that. I know I wasn’t looking for marriage yet but I need to start having fun and I was really enjoying myself with him tonight. I decided I was done trying to sleep so I got out of bed to make tea. I walked up the steps that led to the living room. As I walked in I spotted Elvis on the couch, head hung back while the girl that was siting on the couch a few minutes ago was on her knees, giving him a blow job.

I gasped, frozen in my spot. Elvis’ head snapped up and smirked when he saw me standing there.

“I’m so sorry!” I apologize and rushed out of the living room, practically ran back to my room. My face was on fire. Shit. I did not just walk in on him getting a blow job. I can never ever make eye contact with him again. I shut my door and leaned on it, gasping for breath. Holy shit maybe I did actually run out of there. Climbing back into my bed I forced my eyes shut. I don't think I’ll be able to sleep anytime soon.

Few minutes passed when I heard someone knock on my bedroom door. I really hoped it wasn't Elvis but it probably was. I threw my comforter off and got up to open the door.

Slowly opening it, I’m face with a smug looking Elvis with a huge smirk on his face “You okay doll?” He chuckled and practically shoved past me, walking into my room.

“You know I’m home. Heck, a lot of people live here. Your dad, your grandma…”

“Dad’s not here and Dogder’s been asleep for hours.” He shrugged “And, this is my house after all. I’m not gonna hide up in my room.”

I rolled my eyes at his response.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me doll.” Elvis said clenching his jaw, completely serious as he moved forward towards me, trapping me between him and the wall.

“What are you going to about it?” I asked, in a low voice. We were almost chest to chest.

“You don’t wanna know baby.” He said, his voice as low as mine.

I bit my lip, getting lost in his blue eyes.

He gulped, his eyes zeroing in on my lips.

#elvis 2022 #austin butler elvis #austin!elvis x reader #elvis presley #elvis songs #elvis x reader #elvis x y/n #elvis x you #elvis movie #austin elvis imagine #elvis presley x y/n #elvis presley x you #elvis presley x reader #elvis gifs #elvis #elvis x oc #elvis presley x oc

[musings-of-a-rose]

This idea is in my mind, I think since, I saw Triple Frontier, and it was Pedro's first work that, I watched, and was love at first sight.

The root of idea was something, like reader being the Millers' cousin, I think, it's too cliché for my taste, I don't mind, people like that way.

First, you can answer this question in private or message me. You don't care if reader is, like 26 or 27 years? I'm 27 years old, I know, it's a BIG age difference, I feel more comfortable reading stories that, the reader is in same age group as mine, 20 to 29 years old. I notice that, writers over thirty, they don't seem to enjoy writing with female readers in that age group.

Well, let's forget about Tinder, if they met at a coffee shop, several times, until she got nerve to ask him, if he wants to go to dinner as a date. But that's not idea. Now, we jump to about four years later, they live together and they have a little boy, I thought Nicholas, you can change, if you want a girl. It's Thanksgiving, one of her two older sisters tells them that, as their mother went away on a trip, she thought about inviting Ben and Wil too, so they could have dinner with them. While two play with little boy on porch, the Millers are watching three of them, Ben, even trying playing with three, as Nicholas is a little child, he gets shy. Her sister arrives with an old friend, reader doesn't remember her, having seen her, rarely in childhood. They notice that, her friend seems to have seen a ghost. The reader undoes that, she needs to get one blanket for Nicholas, she follows voices, down hall to living room. She listens to their conversation, she hears her sister commenting that, she suspected that, she knew Frankie, when her little sister introduced him to family, her friend said, that she was in love with him at school, they were a few years younger than him. She gets it all wrong, at dinner, everyone notices that, reader is grumpy about something, she just answers yes or no, when someone asks her something, even Ben jokes with her, but Wil defends her from his brother, Frankie hides his laugh. Nicholas looks chuckling, they notice, only he makes her giggle. When they get home, after her sister convinces her to leave Nicholas with her, two begin to argue about her sister's friend, Frankie said that, he knew her, through halls of school, however, he never knew anything about her feelings for him. Well, Frankie shows how he loves and desires her, in sex for them to make up.

Sorry, so many details, I can never not say more than I should, thank you very much, in advance. ❤️ Xxxx

Then and Now 

Pairing: Frankie Morales x f! Miller Cousin reader

Word Count: 1500+

Rating: Mature - 18+ ONLY!

Warnings: Just like ao3, “creator chooses not to use warnings.” If you click Keep Reading, that means you agree that you’re the age to handle mature themes. Also by clicking Keep Reading, you understand warnings may not be complete in order to avoid spoilers for the story. 

Notes: Sorry this took so long to get to! My brain is not operable on most days. This wasn’t beta’d and I changed a couple small details. I hope that’s ok!

**If you want to be added to the taglist, join here or let me know!

Main Masterlist

Frankie Morales Masterlist

My cousin Benny dragging me to a coffeehouse in the middle of the day should’ve been uneventful. He wasn’t boring by any means, but something as routine as grabbing a cup of coffee should’ve just been a typical day.

Except today, I met my soul mate.

Frankie Morales, bff to my cousin in Delta Force, was waiting for us when we got there, his eyes bright and brown and his smile lighting up the entire room, an electric shock winding its way through my body with his soft but firm handshake. I’m not entirely sure what he talked about that day as I spent most of it just in awe of him. But apparently I said something he liked because he showed up the next few times that Benny and I went to grab coffee, which happened to be a few times within a week. 

I knew what Benny was doing, smirking between Frankie and I as I finally loosened up enough to start laughing and joking with him, sometimes turning the conversation to more serious topics. He seemed to hang on every word I said, as I did the same to him, but when it came time to leave, he’d turn pink and shake my hand, rubbing the back of his neck or lifting his cap to run fingers through his hair before departing. It would be 3 weeks before I worked up enough nerve to ask him to dinner.

And here we are, 4 years later with a 2 year old boy, Nicholas. 

My parent’s house was always busy during the holidays and this Thanksgiving was no exception. My mom had invited our cousins, Benny and Will, as their parents were out of town on some cruise and my older sisters were inviting boyfriends and friends. Benny and Will took to Nicholas quickly, playing and chasing him around as he squeals with laughter, my mom scolding Benny when he nearly knocks her over in the kitchen as he bolts after Nicholas. 

A knock on the door prompts my eldest sister to leave the madness of the kitchen. I have no idea how she heard it over the amount of sounds and squeals coming from Ben and Nic, but a few moments later, she walks back in the kitchen accompanied by her friend…I want to say..Grace? I vaguely remember her face from my childhood, never seeing her long enough before my sister would slam her bedroom door in my face or they’d both race out the front door and head off to wherever they had plans. 

“Everyone, this is Grace. Grace, this is everyone. You remember my sister-” Grace nods at me and I nod back politely. 

“-and her long term boyfriend, Frankie.”

All the color drains from Grace’s face when she looks at Frankie. A cry of “MOMMMA!” pulls me from this conversation and I’m forced to leave the kitchen to take care of a crying Nicholas, who had run head first into the bannister when trying to escape from Benny.

“ ‘m sorry! He just runs so fast I couldn’t grab him in time.”

I wave him off. “It’s ok, Ben. It’s nothing a fancy bandage won’t solve.”

I get Nicholas to the upstairs bathroom where it’s quieter and fish a superhero bandage from my purse. After cleaning the minor cut, I put on the bandage and Nicholas admires it in the mirror, laughing when Benny picks him up and hauls him away down the stairs. I take a few minutes to clean the area and just take in the lessened noise when I hear my sister speaking to Grace in the hallway. 

“Frankie has really grown up,” Grace speaks quietly to my sister.

“Mmhmm. So funny he ended up in the same unit with my cousins.”

“Yeah…you know, I had such a crush on him in high school.”

“Not a crush, Grace. You were in love with him!”

“Sshh! I mean…yeah I was but there’s no way he would’ve gone out with me. I was just a shy freshman and he was a senior.”

“Didn’t you used to doodle his name all over your notebook?”

“Shut up!”

Their voices grew louder and then fade away as they pass the bathroom and head back downstairs. What the fuck was that? Not only did Grace know Frankie, my Frankie, but she was in love with him? How come my sister never mentioned she knew Frankie from school? Were they friends?

I quickly finish cleaning and head back downstairs, intending on questioning my sister, but I was cut off by my mother shoving plates of food at me and telling me to set the table. Impossible to say no to, I take the plates from my mom and help her, everyone piling in for dinner shortly after. 

I’m quiet during dinner, trying to process everything I just heard. Why did Frankie never mention that he knew my sister in school? Was there something there? What about Grace?

After dinner, my mother and Nicholas team up and beg me to let him stay overnight, a Thanksgiving sleepover at Grandma’s. I have no energy to argue, my brain still overtaken with thoughts about life and so I give in. Nicholas already has a bag here and we can come get him in the morning. 

The ride home is quiet, Frankie chatting idly about the food and which pie he liked the best. I simply nod or make quiet noises, which eventually clues him in that I’m not fully listening.

“Are you ok, bonita?”

“Do you know Grace?”

He’s quiet a moment. “Grace?”

“My sister’s friend.”

“Oh, Grace. Yeah, I remember her from high school vaguely. I passed her in the halls a lot with your sister apparently.”

“How come you never mentioned knowing my sister?”

“I didn’t really. I never knew her name and I only passed them in the halls. Honestly, I never made the connection until tonight.”

“So you didn’t ever hook up or anything?”

Frankie laughs before he notices the look on my face. “You’re serious?”

“Yes.”

“No! I never knew their names. Someone may have told me at one point but I don’t remember.”

“So you didn’t notice Grace was in love with you?”

“What?”

I tell him everything I overheard in the hall and a look of realization washes over Frankie.

“Is this why you’re upset?”

I say nothing.

“Bonita, that was high school. I had no idea who they were, let alone that one of them was in love with me. I was focused on other things and going into the army.”

“You promise?”

“I do.”

We arrive at the house and I hop out, Frankie following me into the house, closing the door and locking it behind him. Before I can turn around, his large hands grip my hips tightly as he pulls me back into his chest, his nose nudging my head to the side so he can speak in my ear. 

"You are the only one for me, bonita."

He starts to kiss that spot on my neck that instantly makes me go weak and I moan into him. A deep chuckle puffs over my neck before his hands start to roam, fingers walking their way across my skin. His fingers find the hem of my dress and slide under it, rough skin gliding up my thighs. My breathing speeds up and I know he notices, my suspicion confirmed when his fingers trail lightly over my underwear, making my thighs twitch. 

He says nothing but continues to kiss at my neck, suckhaed enough to leave a mark as he dips below my panties, fingers tracing up the seam of me. Swallowing my moans as his lips find mine, he finds my clit and starts to rub slow circles there, occasionally sliding down, inching closer and closer to my hole with each drag of his finger. Once he does, he breaks the kiss, his own puff of air coming out as he feels how wet I am for him.

Impatience overtakes us both and as I bend forward over the back of the couch, Frankie yanks my underwear down to my ankles, the sound of a zipper quickly following as he shuffles up against me. I feel him line up with me before he quickly thrusts inside, crying out with me in pleasure at his abrupt entrance. 

My hand shoots out and I grab at his hips, desperately trying to get him to move. He takes the hint and pulls out, pushing back in at a rough pace, pushing the couch across the floor slightly in time with his hips. Neither of us says a word, the room filling with the sounds of pleasure and sex. 

His hand moves back between my thighs and he touches me exactly how he knows I need him and I plunge over the edge, tightening around him as I cry out his name, stars erupting behind my vision. It doesn't take him long before he follows, his hips sputtering against my ass as he spills himself inside me. 

His fingers still grip my hips, his breaths starting to even out with mine as we both start to come back to reality. He pulls out of me and I feel him dripping down the inside of my thighs. But before I can move, he’s kissing me, his hands gently holding my face as his thumbs caress my cheeks. He pulls back and the amount of love I feel pouring out of him nearly overwhelms me.

“I love you, bonita. You’re the only one for me.”

--------

General Taglist:

@frankie-catfish-morales @chaoticgeminate @janebby @astoryisaloveaffair @balekanemohafe @greeneyedblondie44 @hoeforthefictional @marvelousmermaid @Hauntedmama @giuliarogers-blog @icanbeyourjedi @diaryofkali @sunnshineeexoxo @livingmydreams13 @adventures-of-a-noodle @sara-alonso @theewokingdead @punkerthanpascal @giggly-otter @f0rever15elf @phandoz @dirtytissuebox @jadore-andor @gallowsjoker @lovesbiggerthanpride @sarahmilesbendrix @booksarekindaneat @mrsudontknowme @swol-bear @charlispersonallyhell @xoxabs88xox @amneris21 @gooddaykate @alindeluce @avengers-fixation @paintballkid711 @harriedandharassed   @ladykatakuri @marrianena  @practicalghost @withakindheartx @batdarkladyvampir @justanotherkpopstanlol   @mermaidxatxheart @alexxavicry @ichigodjarin

#frankie catfish morales #frankie morales #frankie morales x reader #triple frontier #pedro pascal #frankie morales x you #pedro pascal x reader #pedro pascal x you #pedro pascal characters #pedro pascal character fanfic #pedro pascal character ff #pedro pascal character fanfiction #frankie morales x f!reader #francisco catfish morales

[queen-of-boops]

Summary: Lucas and Dani have been happily coupled up since Lucas entered the villa, but Nope has other plans...

Written for the @litgwritersroom prompt: re-write Operation Nope.

Rated Teen.

Below the cut or on Ao3.

Huge thanks to @ellegreenwxy for betaing!

“Mmm, something smells amazing.”

Dani giggled as he hugged her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“Oh, did you want some?” she teased, pushing his plate out of his reach.

“You know better than anyone that I worked up quite the appetite last night.”

She flushed immediately, likely replaying last night’s events in her mind. The two of them had been voted into the Hideaway and Lucas had been determined to make sure it was something she wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

Dani playfully shoved him away. “Sit. Eat.”

Obediently, he took his seat, taking a bite of the pancakes she’d sat in front of him.

“I love it when you’re bossy,” he said, smirking at her.

Her grey eyes sparkled with amusement. Even as she feigned annoyance, those eyes told him all he’d ever need to know; she was happy. Happy with him.

From the moment he’d stepped into the villa, Dani had been the one to catch his eye. For five days, he’d sat in his hotel room, bewitched by this artsy, bold girl he saw on his screen. He’d watched the other guys fall over themselves to impress her, watched as she’d skillfully and kindly rejected all of them. If he was being honest, he was so nervous that she’d do the same to him that their whole first date was a happy blur.

But for some reason, she didn’t reject him. Lucas was terrified he’d do something to chase her away, but it hadn’t happened. Her attention seemed firmly fixed on him, never straying as he integrated himself into the villa.

She just made it so easy. From the very first time she’d smiled at him, she’d made him feel relaxed, like he could actually be himself around her. Dani brought out the real him; he shared parts of himself with her that he’d thought he’d locked away for good.

“Babe?” she asked, a nervous crinkle forming between her brows. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m great.”

~

“Ugh,” Hope said with an eye roll, watching as Dani and Lucas made eyes at each other across the breakfast bar. “They’re insufferable.”

Noah sighed sadly, while he didn’t necessarily agree with Hope’s statement, he could understand not wanting to watch them together. Dani was the only girl in the villa who seemed completely uninterested in him. Which only made him want her more.

She was funny and gorgeous. And exactly his type on paper. Noah felt like he could talk to her about anything. But while he’d really wanted to kiss her after she spent half an hour debating the best Toto songs with him, she’d made it very clear that Noah was just a friend.

But at least she’d friendzoned everyone.

Then Lucas strode into the villa, dragging Thor Junior in his wake, and Dani had fallen head over heels for him. To say that stung was an understatement.

“He shouldn’t be with her,” Hope spat.

“Maybe you’re right. But what can we do about it?”

Hope got that look in her eye. The look that said she was going to get what she wanted and no one was going to stop her.

“What if one of us tried to turn their heads?”

“Dani isn’t interested in me,” Noah admitted dejectedly.

“For now. But what if her man was suddenly out of the picture? Then she’d have nothing else to do but come cry on your shoulder.”

She let the idea hang in the air, let it take root in Noah’s mind like a weed. The more he thought about it the better it sounded.

“Alright. Let’s do it. You’ll try to graft Lucas then?”

“Oh hun,” Hope said with a feline smile, tossing her braids over her shoulder. “There is no try.”

~

The feel of Dani’s lips against his was lingering in Lucas’ mind as he strode through the villa. How was it that in less than a week, this girl had imprinted herself on his life? Even when she wasn’t next to him, he could hear her laugh.

“What’s got you grinning like a schoolboy?” Hope asked, pulling him out of his daydreams. “It’s Dani, isn’t it?”

He noticed that her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.

There was no point in denying it. He, Lucas Koh, the man who put up so many walls, was completely and utterly whipped. And it had only taken Dani five days to do it.

“Yeah, it’s Dani.”

Hope sighed, sliding a little bit closer to him. “You know I love Dani, but do you really think she’s the right person for you? Or is just an infatuation?

“What are you trying to say?” he growled.

“Lucas, come on. Do you really think she’ll fit into your life?” Hope purred, her manicured nail dragging against his chest. “Dani? The girl who doesn’t know when to stay quiet and thinks fifty pounds is a lot to spend on a pair of shoes?”

A small smile formed on his face as he pictured his father’s face when he brought Dani home. No, Dani was not the type of girl Lucas typically dated. But maybe that was exactly why he was so drawn to her.

“You need someone who’ll fit right in. Someone more…high class. Not that there’s anything wrong with Dani!” Hope hastily added, seeing the anger on his face. “It’s just…you live such a posh life, Lucas. Shouldn’t you give someone else a shot? Someone who wants that life?”

“Someone like you?” he asked, lifting his brow.

“It’s just a suggestion, babes.”

God, he would’ve laughed if he wasn’t so damn angry. Hope was exactly the type of girl Lucas had dated in the past. She was cool, calm, and collected; a force to be reckoned with. Objectively, she was perfect for him, a beautiful, ambitious woman who’d challenge him in every facet of life.

But as he looked at her, her lips parted slightly as she tilted her head up towards him, practically begging to be kissed, he felt nothing.

Because she wasn’t Dani.

“No thanks, I’m good,” he said, stepping back quickly.

He strode out of the living room, leaving Hope behind him, gaping like a fish out of water.

“Lucas! I was just looking for you!” Noah said cheerily.

That was weird. Noah wasn’t exactly unfriendly, but of all the guys in the villa, he was the one Lucas had talked to the least.

“Um, hey Noah.”

“Did Hope talk to you?”

“Yeah, I just left her.”

“Oh, well. Listen, she told me when you came in that she really liked you…”

If Lucas didn’t know better, he’d say that Noah was trying to set him up with his partner. “Uh, cool. Listen, have you seen Dani?”

“She’s by the loungers.”

“Great. Thanks mate!”

Shaking his head, Lucas tried to push the conversation out of his mind. Something was nagging at him though. It was odd, two people coming up to him on the same day to talk about Hope’s interest in him.

“Babe!” Dani called, her smiling making Lucas feel about twenty kilos lighter.

He couldn’t resist wrapping a possessive arm around her waist as he sat down next to her. Nor could he fight the urge to plant a row of kisses on her neck.

“Lucas…people can see us…” she murmured, the breathy pant in her voice spurring him on.

“Let them watch.”

Dani lifted his gaze to hers with a single finger under his chin. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

Of course, she knew something was bothering him. It sometimes felt like she knew what he was thinking before he knew it himself.

“Hope pulled me for a chat earlier…”

Tension flooded her body instantly. Instinctively, Lucas’s fingers roamed over her shoulders, soothing every knot he came across.

“Nothing happened,” he continued. “But she made a pass at me…”

Those striking grey eyes that Lucas loved to see light up darkened with anger. “She did what?!?”

“She was flirting with me, but I shut it down. What was really weird was Noah talking to me after.”

“Nope. Not gonna slide out of this one that easily. Hope tried to make a move on my man?”

Lucas couldn’t fight the smile on his face. It really wasn’t the right time to smile, but he really liked seeing how much she cared.

“Why are you smiling?” she demanded.

“Babe, listen to yourself.”

Dani glared at him, crossing her arms stubbornly in front of her. “I’m pissed off Lucas, I don’t want to over-analyze what I’m saying right now.”

“You just called me your man.”

“Is it too soon?” she asked. All that anger suddenly made more sense, she was scared. There was a part of her that was terrified of losing him.

“Not all. I’m yours Dani. Only yours.”

He watched the emotions play across her face: disbelief, shock, and then pure, unbridled joy. The breath was temporarily knocked from his lungs as Dani threw her arms around him. Laughing, the pair of them fell back onto the lounger in an awkward tangle of limbs.

Heat bloomed in his chest as Dani closed the gap between them, kissing him with an intensity that made the blazing Spanish sun feel downright cold.

Love Island was unpredictable. Things happened that no one was expecting, couples broke up and new islanders came in. He and Dani still had a long way to go until the end, and he knew they’d face their own share of obstacles.

But it didn’t matter. Because she was his and he was hers.

#litg #litg fanfics #litg fanfic #litg fanfiction #litg s2 #litg season 2 #litg lucas #litg lucas koh #litg prompts #love island the game #operation nope

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

Sweet Dreams--Part 5

Calum and you have dance around reality for a few months now. But after Calum leaves and returns from a trip, the reality has to be confronted. 

Weeks are passing and maybe more is blooming between you and Calum than might meet the eye.

Prince!Calum x Reader Insert.

CW: 18+ content in this chapter (smut). Smut across the series. Mentions of parental neglect, and alcohol abuse across the series as well.

Series Masterlist

My Complete Masterlist

_________

Calum catches the crunch of gravel and looks up. The nose of your car crests up over the small bump and rolls to a stop near the door. Your window rolls down and you lean out of the window. “I got told there was a stud muffin in these parts,” you joke. 

Calum’s laughter bubbles up in his chest but climbs down the few steps, guitar case at his side. “Hmm, I think we both might need directions on that one,” he returns. You peel yourself out from the driver seat and open the side back driver side door for Calum to get the case inside. He can spot a blanket on the backseat. There’s a basket on the floor. The back of some canvas peers up at him too as he gets the guitar settled. 

It’s silly. Calum knows it, but his heart races because it’s all becoming so real. A real date. But he knows he has to confess too. The envelope in his pocket is no doubt visible to you. With the instrument settled, Calum shuts the door. There’s a smile on your face, but Calum knows. He pulls the envelope out and hands it to you. “That’s-that’s for you.”

He watches your eyes skimming over the letter. But he already knows what’s up there. Ninety days. Sixty of which you’ll still be able to work at your full rate. The last thirty you’ll be given two installments at a fraction of your normal biweekly pay and be ‘excused’ from your duties. This is all contingent on you not finding something sooner. If you do find anything sooner, you’ll only get full pay until your resignation date. It’s more than what was originally discussed with the sixty days total for you to find work and two weeks pay even after you’ve been excused from your duties. But Calum hopes it’s enough. Though you asked him not too. 

“I’m glad I didn’t make you a liar yesterday,” you state, looking at Calum. He can feel the heat behind the sharp gaze. 

“I know. I know you asked me not to get involved. I should’ve listened. It was a very ugly discussion. But, I needed to know you were going to be okay for at least a little bit. I’ll do whatever I need to do for you to forgive me. But I can’t, I can’t say I’m exactly sorry for getting involved.”

You nod, lips pressing together in a firm line. “I’m annoyed. I need you to know that. I’m very annoyed at you for meddling.”

“I can take that,” Calum returns. “You have every right to be annoyed.”

“I’m really fucking annoyed,” you huff, like it’s somehow the only thing you can utter. 

Maybe it is. Maybe there’s too much else tying up your tongue so you settle for this. Calum almost wants to ask for the rest of it. Until he notices the tick in your jaw. That’s game over. That’s too far. Calum knows that it’s a big mess up. Well, to be honest, he knew it was a mistake the moment he knocked on the office doors. But he’d still gone through with it after the door creaked open. Yet, he’d accepted that he’d have to face the consequences. This here, your flickering gaze and tight jaw are the consequences. Part of them at least.  It takes a long few moments but you finally aim your sights at him.

“Just tell me what I need to do.” Calum’s not above begging when it comes to you. That’s for certain, not when it comes to you. He’ll grovel. He’ll get on his knees. He’ll do whatever imaginable. 

You sigh, slapping the paper at his chest. It’s not hard by any means, couldn’t even cause a paper cut. But Calum gets the message loud and clear before you speak, “Don’t get involved unless I ask next time, okay? Please don’t.”

“Scouts honor,” Calum answers, holding a hand over his heart. 

“Thank you. For this.” You hold the letter up. “I really thought I was going to be a goner before the end of the month. And this helps. A lot. But I can fight my own battles. I like having you there to support me. But I don’t need a savior. I want you, Calum. The goofy guy that makes me laugh. I don’t need some knight in shining armor bullshit.”

Calum’s never once questioned your ability to find a solution to the shit life’s thrown to you. He just wanted to make the load easier to carry. He’s always got a brain focused on finding a way to make things better. That’s what people who love each other do. They try to make the days a little easier. But if that’s not always what you want, he can work on that. 

Calum nods at the request. “I can be that--the goofy guy that can make you laugh.”

“Good. Now get your cute ass into the car, please?” You exhale at the end of the question--shaky. But your attempt to smile is genuine. 

“I can,” Calum agrees. “But can I get a hug first?” Your response is the hug, tight around his body. It eases the slight ache around his chest. Even though Calum fucked up, you weren’t pushing away. 

“I’m sorry I overstepped your ask,” Calum whispers into your skin. 

He’s sorry that he undermined you. Calum just needed to know that you’d be okay. There were other ways to go about it, but when he woke this morning there was still a fire in his belly. He couldn’t shake the feeling that you were getting shafted. And Calum wouldn’t stand for something like that. He surely wouldn’t. 

“I’ll forgive you,” you laugh. “With time.” 

“As long as you do.” That’s all Calum needs to know is that with time you’ll forgive him. And it surely doesn’t hurt his case that he was able to pull through this time. Fate may not always be on his side though. Calum ought only to need to learn this lesson once. 

Your rub at Calum’s side and he knows his time is up.  “The food’s going to go colder,” you tease. 

Calum laughs, giving your body one last squeeze. “Got it, got it, got it. Getting my cute ass into the car. Promise.”

Calum opens your door and you slip inside. Once he’s sure you’re settled, he closes the door on your side. Your laughter echoes when he cracks open the passenger side door. It’s a silly thing, the dramatic waddle around the car. But he’s just hoping to break the tension, find the right corner to lift up so he can ease himself back into your good graces. The guy that makes me laugh, you said. Calum could do that. 

The drive passes with the soft echoes of guitars over your radio. Though it burns on Calum’s tongue to ask yet again about what you have in store, he does his best to remain content with the fact that he knows you’ve taken the time to plan and put together anything at all. The streets Calum’s come to learn well over his two odd decades pass by him, the trees whipping by the windows. When you mentioned a park, Calum was sure it would be somewhere closer, but as ten minutes turn into twenty and the city falls further and further behind him, he thinks maybe you have something else in mind. 

“Are you attempting to take me somewhere that won’t require my baseball cap and my sunglasses aren’t needed?” Calum jokes. 

“It’s a park I used to go to a lot as a kid. So, sunglasses and cap are still needed,” you laugh.

“So a place you enjoyed, I take it?” He really wants to ask if it’s the place you might’ve used to escape. He really wants to ask if you’re going to be okay. Though he doesn't know a lot about what you endured, he doesn’t want you to subject yourself to something that you don’t have too. 

“A lot,” you answer. 

Calum nods, a hum falling from his chest. There’s not quite a sadness on your face, though Calum thinks maybe it could be. “Have you been back to this town in a while?”

“My parents are still out here with Charlie and Teagan.” 

He doesn’t want to assume. Really, he shouldn’t. He shouldn’t assume but for a moment the wonder sparks the fleeting thought that he might get to meet them. That you’ve also included your siblings in on the event, but he doesn’t voice it. He tucks that hope up under his tongue. “Speaking of Teagan, I know I am late, but do you know what she’s into? I’d like to get her a gift if that’s okay? For her birthday.”

You laugh a little. “Don’t sound so unsure there.”’

“Hey, hey, I’ve fucked up once. Not trying to do it a second time.”

You nod. “Yeah, it’s okay if you really want to.”

“And I do,” Calum clarifies.

“Teagan’s getting into a glitter and unicorn kick. There’s a stuffed unicorn that she wants and it’s huge.”

“How much of a detour would that be from this park?”

“Ten minutes or so,” you return, voice tilting up a little. Calum can almost see the mental map you’re running through. “It-it is a little expensive.”

Calum takes the warning in stride. Though he wants to reach out, taking your hand or squeeze your knee to provide comfort, he reframes. “Would we have time for such a detour?”

“You don’t-you don’t have to get her this unicorn.”

Calum knows he doesn't. But that doesn't mean he doesn't want to. “Let me just get my eyes on it, before I make a decision. That sound good?”

You give a nod. “Sure. I missed the easiest exit, but I can get us there,” you relay. 

Of course he doesn’t know where anything is in relation to each other just yet, but he hadn’t meant to cause a big ruckus with the ask. “As long as you’re sure it’s not a problem.”

“No. It’s not. Just traffic,” you laugh. Calum can see you’re trying to merge into the right lane, he assumes to take the upcoming exit. But no one seems to be budging. You’re able to get over eventually, though he laughs at your quiet swears. It can be difficult around this time though it should soon be thinning out just a little. 

It is a bit of a loop Calum notices. The exit you got off at is further east than the shop, so there’s a long journey back west. He’s not come down here often. He distinctly remembers coming down a couple times for the Christmas tree lighting in the square, but hasn’t gone in recent years. The streets are familiar with a hint of a haze. Calum knows them based on the landmarks--the stores he’s had to make sure he didn’t pass or make turns at-- but he doesn’t know them like reflexes. He wouldn’t be able to name a street just by how far he is from it. 

But you take the lights with ease, taking turns with practice and before Calum truly realizes, you’re pulling to a stop in front of the toy store. In the window front Calum spots a train set, going round and round on its tracks. Around it, he spots a display of a pink dress--he assumes for princess parties--bright colored boxes scattered about too. It’s a cute store, one that Calum is sure all kids peer into with big wide eyes, tugging on their parents hands to at least just take a peek inside. 

Calum’s up and out of the car first. Though his goal is to get to your door, you’re out before he can finish the walk around. He holds out his hand, waiting for the warmth of your touch. It doesn’t come and he looks back over to you, noticing the tension across your shoulders. “Okay?” he asks. The pictures are already out. They wouldn’t stop now, but maybe it feels all too different for you. Maybe Calum’s taking leaps that you’re not ready to take. He turns his palms back into his side. 

You nod. “I’m okay.” Your steps are long, arm brushing over Calum’s. But you don’t take his hand. 

“Is this too public?” Calum asks. 

The hesitation lingers, thick between the centimeters between the two of you. “It’s-I’m just I can see the headlines now, I guess. A little scared.”

Calum nods, a tiny smile cresting over his face. “How can you see headlines if I haven’t shown them to you yet? What if they’re not important?”

You laugh, looking up from your shoes. “Touché. But I think it’s hitting me. This is your reality and by extension, mine too now, I guess. If I stick around.”

“Oh,” Calum huffs, covering his left pec. “You wound me. But it’s okay if it’s scary. This is all new to you. I didn’t--I don’t mean to push you into something.”

You shake your head. “I don’t think you are. It’s just something I didn’t realize until now.”

“We can take it slow in public,” Calum offers. He’s not really sure what slow looks like, but it’s an olive branch. The two of you can figure out what slow means. 

“I like slow,” you agree. 

It’s just a nod between the two of you, but Calum motions up to the door of the store. “To visit a massive unicorn, yeah?”

“To visit a massive unicorn,” you agree. 

Just before Calum can take a step, you slot your pinkie around his. This is slow and Calum’s not going to let it slip out of his fingers. He tightens the hook of his digit, letting the flutter of his chest consume him as he opens the door for you. Your smile, quaint as it is, warms his body. This--this is what Calum needs. Inside the store, Calum catches the cheery twinkles of music drifting in through the speakers. It’s cut intermittently by the whistle of the train, the crank of a toy, a child’s laughter, the patience rumble of a parent’s voice. There’s a wander that settles like a blanket inside the warmth of the store. 

And there’s you, pinkie still wrapped around Calum’s, taking the lead as you wind around the front displays. You are a sparkle in the lights of the store, eyes darting around, but body carrying straight on. Calum thinks maybe you are taking catalog--eying what to get for Charlie’s birthday or what to put on the Christmas list. He wants to be able to help, keep an eye out for what they might like too. He’ll get there one day. For now, he follows a couple steps behind and it’s not long before the bin of stuffed animals appears in front of them. The unicorn sits at the top of the pile, pink and white, the horn a plastic iridescent with silver and gold streaks in it. 

“There she is,” you laugh, looking back to Calum. 

He takes a look at the yellow sign, taped to a piece of cardboard box, which is then taped to metal bars keeping the toys from tumbling to the floor. 60 dollars for the smaller versions. And it goes up by an increment for 15 for each size over it with a cap at 90. Calum’s really not sure how one is supposed to decide how much any of them cost, but he peers back up at the unicorn towards the top. 

“Give me a hand?” Calum asks. He’s tall, but even with the height, he knows he’s not going to be able to get it down himself. “But first, will this fit in your car?”

You peer up to the stuffed down, close to Calum’s height as well. “She’s going to have to be okay with being squished down, but she should fit in the back.”

“Yeah, then give me a hand please?”

“And you’re sure you want to do this? Teagan won’t die if you start off smaller, if you’re really sure you want to do something for her birthday.”

There’s a hair of something teasing to the tone and Calum laughs. “Are you saying I might be setting the bar too high?”

“Just a little.”

“Well, here’s a little bit of context about me, should you have forgotten, I’m going to set the bar high.”

You shake your head and Calum knows it’s overkill. The stuffed animal is more than maybe necessary. Yet, Calum’s not going to walk out of this store without it. It’s not what the toy is, but what it means. It means that he’s doing what he can to show that he cares. “I’ll get an employee over here,” you laugh.

“Oh, I’m no wimp,” Calum laughs. He looks around and notices a three rung wooden step stool next to the animals. 

“You absolutely are not serious,” you hiss. 

Calum’s not going to stop. He takes the first two steps up and stretches up to his tiptoes. His fingers brush over the hoof. It’s going to need just another push, so Calum plants one foot on the third rung and pushes up. It’s not the smartest thing in the world, especially not as the stool wobbles. 

“Oh my god,” you whisper behind him. 

The stool stabilizes beneath Calum and he gets his hands solidly around the leg and shimmies it loose from the stack. As it unfolds, Calum realizes it’s a tad smaller than it looked from below. But it’s still massive. The horn nearly pokes his hat off his head but he gets out of the way before glancing back down to get his steps back down. When he peers down, he spots you holding the stool steady for him. 

“You are a mad man,” you laugh. 

“Only when it matters.” Calum gets to the ground and settles the unicorn into his hip, hugging it to him, though the top half still towers over him by about six inches or so. He’d hazard it’s nearly as tall as him when on the floor, if not just a little bit taller. 

“Could I add a second detour to drop this off?” he asks, knowing he’s really dragging out more on this date than you might’ve planned. 

“Uh,” you gasp with a little bit of laughter, “I think you’ll have to. There’s no way I’m driving around with that in my car for longer than necessary.”

“Fair enough. And I-I can drop it off personally, if that would work better for you.” It’s only after your confirmation that Calum realizes in doing so, you’ll be subjecting yourself to a visit to your parents. 

“It’s okay. Teagan will be more than excited.”

“Have you told your parents?” Calum asks. Should he also be worried that it’s the first time your parents even are aware of you dating, let alone who you’re dating? He knew that your siblings might’ve had an inkling that you were dating someone. Yet, Calum’s gut lets him know that you may not have told your parents.  

“They know I’m dating someone. Just not who,” you conclude. “Though, your reputation may proceed you.”

Calum thinks he hears what’s being asked: that maybe he doesn’t give away who he is. He can do that, as best as he can of course. “Well, it’s a good thing this is just as big as I am.”

“That’s okay?”

He nods. Even if it did hurt, Calum’s not got the grounds to force you to do more than you’re happy to do when it comes to your parents. “Yeah,” he returns in a whisper. He’d hoped one day you might be able to envision something closer, but that’s your life. That’s the pain you’ve endured so he lets himself be secondary in this realm. He lingers a couple steps behind so that you get the ability to take control when you need it. He lingers to let you know he’s there, but he’s not trying to take cover. 

“Who’s the lucky little one?” the older lady at the counter grins as she rings up the item. 

“My sister,” you laugh. “I think she might die when she sees it.”

“Well, that’s what we hope,” Calum teases, gently offering the item to you. You take it with a nod. 

“Oh, Your Highness, I hadn’t seen you. My apologies,” the woman stutters out. 

“No, please,” Calum laughs. “Literally, I don’t think anyone could see their own shadow behind that.”

“I just wish we’d known. We’d clean this place up a bit. Though, I think the little ones enjoy the ruckus.”

“No, there’s no fuss for me. Just here, as a patron.” This is the part that can get old. The constant pressure that he exudes just by showing up. But the interaction wraps up rather painlessly and you cart the unicorn back outside, a whopping 90 dollars later. 

“I hope you’re good at geometry,” you laugh, unlocking the car doors. 

“I like to think I know my way around,” Calum returns, rearranging a few things to help you tuck the unicorn into the backseat. It’s nearly a close call to get the animal inside, but with it buckled in, you and Calum watch over each other over the hood of your car. “You’re sure you’re okay to see your parents?”

“Calum, we don’t get along, but it’s not going to kill me. And if it does, at least you’ll get to say you were right.” It’s a teasing grin, but Calum takes it slipping back into the car. 

“Just one second,” you ask, pulling your phone out. Though the call’s not on speaker, Calum catches both sides of the conversation. 

"Hello."

“Hi, sorry to call so last minute, is Teagan home?” you ask. 

 Calum captures the soft reply from the other end of the phone, “She is.”

“There’s an extra birthday gift for her. Is she okay for a visit? Ten minutes at most.”

“How far are you from here? We’re having dinner right now.”

“I’m about twenty minutes from the house.”

“She’ll just be finishing up dinner around then, I’d reckon. That’s okay.”

“Thanks. I’ll be quick.”

“You’re welcome.”

The call ends and before Calum turns, you’re throwing the car into reverse. Perhaps, it’s better just to let this moment go, let it be what it’s always been.  Calum watches as you seemingly go back into the direction that you two might’ve been going in originally. The streets are the same as the ones you came up on. 

Ten minutes into the drive, your voice cuts through the silence. “The neighborhood’s..well, it’s probably not what you’re expecting.” 

Calum doesn’t know what the warning is meant to convey. Had he given some sort of hint that he’d made any assumptions about your childhood? Calum hums in acknowledgement to your comment though as that it doesn’t seem like he’s ignoring you. As the time passes, the houses get taller and expand. Big lawns and gates. And as the deeper you two get, the more the houses settle into the massive shadows.  Admittedly, this isn’t what he’d assumed you’d grown up in. Perhaps, he did have some sort of subconscious expectation about what your childhood home might look like. But the houses look like the kind his friends grew up in. There’s discomfort in the fleeting thought that something like this could’ve been happening to someone he knew and he probably wouldn’t have suspected it just because of the looks. Had that happened to you, where your abuse had been overlooked for so long simply because you grew up here?

The deeper into the neighborhood the more Calum would even hazard a guess that he might recognize some parts of this neighborhood now. At least this part. But he just waits and waits and when your signal clicks around the two of you and you make the turn into a paved driveway, at least six feet in length up to the house that has two stories, and a two car garage, Calum gets it. There’s a bit of shame that solidifies in his gut. Why had he expected your parents to be living in a rather harsher part of the neighborhood? Why did that make something about your story easier to swallow? But he looks up at the house, yellow lights dancing in the lower levels, and Calum feels a bit of disgust at himself and a tad more rage at your parents. Clearly they were capable. Yet, you were here, worried about the job you’d been doing for years being swept out from under your feet in the matter of weeks. 

When the car cuts off, he’s got to swallow the rage and shame and unbuckle the unicorn from the backseat to give to your sister. The front door bell rings throughout the evening air. Calum stays on the step below you, holding onto the unicorn in front of him, peering out from the side of the stuffed animal. The door creaks open and Calum’s expecting your mother, maybe, your father. But the body is tiny, short with pigtails. Your name falls over their throat in a squeal. “Mommy said you’d be coming by!” 

Your laughter catches Calum’s ears. “Yeah, Teag. Came by to see you. Can we come in?”

“We?”

Calum watches as Teagan finally takes in the stuffed animal and waves when their eyes lock. She waves in return, eyes big and wide as she looks up at the toy. “Holy moly,” she whispers but widens the door open. 

You step through and Calum follows suit. Inside is warm, the lights in the foyer warm and the scent of dinner still lingering in the air. If not for the fact of what Calum knows, he’d say this place felt homey, lived in and inviting. The three of you don’t go further into the house and right at the base of the stairs that seem to lead further up into the house, Calum spots a man. Your father, he assumes. Calum gives a nod, praying that he’s still undetectable as he drops the unicorn down to Teagan’s level. It’s short lived--his hope--because your father sits up a little straight on the steps, but seemingly freezes at the same time. 

“Teag, this is my friend,” you introduce. 

Teagan blinks up from the unicorn to Calum. Recognition settles on her face and she pats at your knee to wave you down. You squat to her height. “Your friends with the-?” Teagan whispers, voice coated in awe at the prospects. She’s seemingly so in shock that she can’t finish the question.

Calum watches the slight wince that flashes over your face but you nod. “Yes, but that’s between us. It doesn't leave those lips ever, got me?” You mime zipping her lips. 

Teagan gives a fervent nod and mimes zipping her lips close too. “Got you.”

Calum kneels down, holding the unicorn in front of him a little. “I heard it was your birthday a couple days ago. Is that correct?”

Teagan nods, sliding in closer to you. It’s subtle, but she inches in towards your chest. “Yes. Do you know everyone’s birthday? Is that like your job?”

Calum laughs at the question. “No, no, unfortunately I don’t know everyone’s birthday. It’s not a part of my job. But I do know the birthdays of important people.”

“So, I’m important?” Teagan asks. She inches now out of your safety, intrigue pulling her out from your wing and closer to Calum. She looks like you, the longer Calum stares. Her eyes are less sharp than yours, but there’s a softer version of your face in hers. A face open and ready for the world. 

Calum smiles. “Yeah, Teagan. You’re pretty important. Especially to your sibling.”

“How did you two become friends?” Teagan asks. “I met my friends at school. Did you two meet in school?”

You snort at the question. “Teagan, let’s be careful there.”

“What?” she questions. “It’s fair.”

“We met at work,” Calum answers. “It’s sort of like school. But this, this is for you,” Calum notes, moving the unicorn closer to her. It swallows Teagan’s height two times over and almost a third time too. But she holds it by two hooves, staring up at the giant mythological creature.  

“It’s mine?” Teagan questions.

Calum nods. “Yes, for your birthday.”

Her eyes light up, stepping into the stuffed animal. “Thank you,” she rushes out, looking between you and him. 

“It’s from him,” you explain nodding over to Calum.

“Thank you,” she beams at Calum. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, Teagan.” 

“Can-can I give you a hug?” Teagan asks Calum. She bounces on the balls of her feet, brimming with an excitement that only children seem to be able to hold. Calum nods, holding out his arms for her. It’s a quick hug before she bounces back over to the stuffed animal and drags it over to the stairs. 

“Look, Daddy!” Teagan shouts. “Look!”

“Yeah, I see,” your father smiles but keeps glancing from Teagan to the two of you like maybe he’s also processing something at the same time. “That was very generous of him, wasn’t it? Did you say thank you?” Given how close he is, Calum’s sure your father did hear Teagan’s gratitude, but he asks anyway. 

Teagan nods. “Yes, yes I said thank you! Charlie, look!” she hollers. 

You pause her for a moment before she runs deeper into the house for a hug and a kiss to the top of her head. “Love you, Teag.”

“Love you,” she returns in the embrace. Then she carries on, dragging the unicorn with her down the hallway. She doesn’t seem to care that the item is probably twice her weight either. Teagan gets a hold and uses all her might down the hall, deeper into the house where Charlie must be. 

“Tell Diana I said thanks again for letting me stop by,” you direct up to your father. 

He stands, taking a few steps back down to the ground level. “I will.”

You nod and turn to the door but Calum watches the half step your dad takes, mouth sliding open like there’s more to come. So Calum slides just a little between the two of you. The attention turns from you to him. Calum watches the suspicion settle in the older man’s face. But your father doesn’t take a step back. “So I guess it’s true, huh? The buzz that’s been going on?” your father questions. 

“I’ll call again before I drop by,” you return. Calum’s not sure he’d fault you for not wanting to get into the specifics. Though his presence does answer the question in and of itself.

“I didn’t mean--I’m sorry,” he offers. The door creaks open. Calum can hear the crickets chirping. But he keeps looking forward to your father. “That didn’t come out right. Just wanted to hear if you’re doing well,” your father clarifies. 

There’s only silence from you initially. The door eeks close, not so much as a slam but Calum feels the evening air cut off from his back slowly, inch by inch. The crickets concert is soon silenced behind Calum fully. 

“I’m doing,” you answer. 

“That’s good, yeah?”

Your name is called again, from deeper in the house. You follow the sound, stepping around Calum. He watches and wants to follow, but remembers he’s supposed to be hanging back. “Yes, Charlie boy?” you call back out. You disappear down the hallway. 

The sigh that leaves your father is heavy, his face falls. “I won’t talk,” he offers to Calum. “And Teagan won’t either. She adores her sibling too much to utter a peep when promised not to. Thanks for being there. For them, with them. Makes an old man like me not feel like shit to know there’s something out there taking care of them.”

“Of course, sir.” Calum nods. 

“Oh, it’s Melvin. Yeah, no need for ‘sir’ here really. Though I guess, should I address you in any specific way in all of this? Don’t really know the rules of engagement,” he laughs.  

Calum takes in the black plastic frames on your father’s face, the beard and eyebrows going white slowly. Here, right now, he looks so plainly like a father. Like someone who might try to use the latest slang to stay relevant, or just to annoy his children. It’s probably a good thing that no one’s past is branded on them for Charlie and Teagan’s sake. “Just Calum is fine,” he answers to Melvin’s question. 

“Just Calum,” Melvin repeats with a laugh. When there’s no laughter from Calum in return, he nods, lips pressing together. It’s awkward and tense. 

“My dad would’ve love that,” Calum offers. “Maybe it’s a Dad thing.”

Your laughter bounces up the walls. “Oh, no, sir, Santa’s already left. I only get a few minutes with him at a time. I can’t go clogging up his line.”

“C’mon! Please. For your little brother. Call him again just for me.”

“When I come back in a couple of weeks, make sure you have a list. I’ll see what can be done. But I can make no promises,” you laugh. It’s interrupted by Charlie’s own laughter, a screech followed by giggles. Calum smiles at the sound, imagining maybe you’ve wrapped the little boy up in order to tickle him. 

“You love them.” Calum looks back at your father, a sad smile painting his face. “You’ve got a certain look in your eyes about them. I know that look.” 

“Sir?” That’s definitely not expected. 

Melvin gives a small tuft of laughter. “And if it means anything, like literally a dime in the bucket or anything, I see the way they look at you. I know it when I see it,” Melvin states. “I don’t have much grounds to say for certain about anything involving them of course. But I know my kid.”

“Don’t go. Please stay!” Teagan bellows. 

“I’ll be back. Don’t I always come back to you, Teag?”

“You do. But you could stay. Mommy and Daddy say that they want you to say.”

“I promise I’ll be back. I love you.”

 You come back up to the foyer, a piece of paper in hand. The handwriting is thick and wobbly from what Calum catches, though it’s only in pieces as you fold it up. Your goodbyes are shouted, I love you’s breaking through the calls too. Calum meets you, pushing himself deeper into the house but careful not to be seen. Your pinkies hook yet again.  

“Nice to meet you, sir. And please, let your wife know that I appreciate her letting us drop by.” Calum extends a hand. Even if things looked good, Calum wouldn’t attempt to undermine you. He could though ensure that he remained polite. His own mother would have his ass if he didn’t. 

Melvin nods in return, shaking his hand. But it’s the only thing said before you and Calum exit the house. The crickets are singing around them. “So I’m Santa Claus, huh?” Calum jokes after you’ve shut the door to the house behind you. 

“Teag’s good on her foot when she needs to be. I’ll tell Charlie the truth soon enough. He’s…a bit more truthful and straight laced.”

Calum laughs at the description. “I don’t think he’d stand up to Miranda’s scrutiny, so good to avoid it if you can.”

“See, you get it.”

Calum walks you around to the driver side of the car. There’s nothing on your face that Calum can pick up, a tick of your jaw, the glazed eyes. “You good?”

“Peachy,” you nod. “I still have Santa Claus to take on a date.”

Calum snickers again at the fib. It’s a good one. Though he’s sure sooner rather than later Charlie will definitely catch on that it’s not Christmas yet. Not even close to it. “Ho, ho, ho,” Calum returns, opening your door. “I should’ve called in a favor from Rudolph then.”

“Next time.”

“Yeah, next time,” Calum agrees. He notices as he’s walking back to the passenger side door two tiny bodies in the windows next to the door. Teagan waves at Calum which he returns and Charlie seems to only watch, eyes wide as he gazes out. Calum salutes Charlie quickly and attempts not to show too much of his face before stepping into the car. Teagan and Charlie turn to each other, speaking but there’s no detectable sound as he shuts the door. 

There’s a little solace, Calum thinks, that he’s gotten a deeper glimpse into your life. The way your siblings thoroughly enjoy your company. The way you enjoy theirs. But there’s still that leaden shame in Calum’s gut: his own assumptions, his own ignorance, the discomfort of knowing what he knows about your parents but the care they give to your siblings. The past wouldn’t exist without the present and the present still tastes sour of what’s behind it.  Two things that don’t exclude each other. Two solid truths. 

“So, Melvin and Diana then?” Calum questions. 

“My parents,” you return with a nod. 

“And you grew up in that house? That’s always been the house you grew up in?”

“That’s the only house. When my parents first got together, they were in an apartment and then moved in there a couple years later.”

Calum won’t press, but he’s starting to put pieces onto the board. Not the richest neighborhood in this town, but still one of the best neighborhoods to live in. And you went fourteen years, maybe less, in that house with your parents drinking day in and day out. And Calum wishes he could say something like, look at you now. But the reality is that you lived with roommates. You took jobs to be as far as you could from your parents but still visit your siblings. You were facing the imminent threat of losing your current job. 

“Can I ask you something?” Calum starts the question right as you pull into the parking lot of the park. 

“Yeah, you can ask something.”

“When you were eighteen and getting into culinary school, what was your dream? What did you want on the other side of school?”

The car cuts off, in park now and the dashboard lights cut out slowly around the two of you. “I wanted freedom. And I guess that looked like working in a five star michelin restaurant and wanted to leave my parents specifically behind. Then the more I hung out with Charlie and Teagan the more I realized I didn’t want to be super far from them. Just wanted a job to pay my bills and see them. So now I don’t really know what I’m looking for if I’m honest. I just know I can’t stop. I feel like I can’t stop long enough to figure it out.”

“I guess in your position it sort of feels like if you stop then you’re risking something?” Calum tries. 

“Yeah,” you nod. “If I stop, then who’s going to pay my bills? That’s the way it starts to feel. If I stop, who’s going to carry the rest of the load?”

“No other family?”

“Uh, maybe on my father’s side? I don’t really know my extended family too well because of everything.”

“I know I’m probably not making your situation vastly better. But know I do want you to figure that out. I’ll do what I can to give you that space to figure it out.”

You cup his cheek, thumb stroking over his cheek. “Thanks for that.”

Calum holds your hand to press a kiss to your palm. “Anytime.”

Calum’s not sure what to expect when he steps out of the car, but you direct him and he pulls out the basket and cooler. You carry the guitar case and painting with the blanket tossed over your shoulder. The park’s pretty empty. He reads over the signs and notices there’s almost two halves. To the left there seems to be a normal playground. To the right, the sign points to hiking and running trails. But you march on forward towards the grassy patch in the middle of the halves. Calum follows behind. He’s careful not to look too much at the painting though he can catch glimpses of something red on it. As you find a good spot to settle, he helps spread out the blankets and anchors down the top and bottom of the blanket with the cooler and picnic basket before settling down next to you. 

“This is quite the spread,” Calum comments as you unearth what you have. Sandwiches, chips, individually wrapped slices of pie, a medley of fruits, a cheeseboard, and a selection of meats as well assembled onto a wooden board. The cooler opens to reveal water, some sodas, a couple bottles of juices as well. 

“Wasn’t sure what you’d go for, but I hope it’s not too much?”

Calum shakes his head, slipping the sunglasses off his face. The evening’s starting to settle in nicely and the cap feels like enough to hide him away. “No, no it’s not too much.”

You nod. “Good. Though I’ll admit, I definitely am nervous.”

“Nervous? Why are you nervous?” Calum pops a grape into his mouth, reading over the labels you’ve hand written on the sandwiches. The one without tomatoes is yours--as Calum remembers even after just one witnessing of you assembling your own sandwich-- and he hands it over. 

“Haven’t been on a date in ages, I feel rusty.”

“You are definitely not rusty,” Calum laughs. “All this is not rust.”

“Some of it is,” you return, peeling off the wrapping around the sandwich. “As a heads up, the painting I bought has been in progress for weeks. So it’s not..totally done.”

“Then I’ll judge like I’m an art snob,” Calum retorts around his bite. 

“I expect nothing less.”

“Can I take a look now?”

“That is why I brought it.”

 Calum’s careful as he takes the canvas into his hands. He sets his sandwich off to the side to avoid getting anything on it. The background isn't finished, you started that much is clear by the glasses and tables. But the foreground is a hand, bleeding, and being cradled by another set of hands. They meet in the middle of the canvas, fingertips brushing mostly. The red of the blood drips over the second set of hands and down to the bottom of the canvas, almost like it could drip off the medium itself and into Calum’s lap. 

He focuses for a moment on the blood, wanting to trace his fingers over it but then decides against it. He takes in the skin tone of the hand bleeding, some of the thumb is facing up and he can catch the tan. If he didn’t know anymore he’d say it could be his hand. Nothing confirms that though. Much to his parents dismay, he’d tattooed their initials onto his hands. There’s some red that he catches on the table clothes in the backgrounds, it’s small and muted the shadows the wrists casting over them he assumes. 

The second set of hands though are a little smaller than the bleeding hand. Calum looks over the details, and thinks the skin tones are a little different, potentially a third hand. But he’s not sure. He carries on, looking over the details and spots there on the left wrist a scar, a darker spot, a little jagged and a little red. He knows that spot anywhere. He scoots closer to you, reaching for your left arm and that you give up easily. He turns it up and notices the same scar. 

“Are these our hands?” Calum whispers. 

You nod. “Yeah. Yeah they are. And that,” you hover over the right hand, the one different in skin color, in the picture cradling the injured hand--now definitely Calum’s. “That’s supposed to be Joy’s hand.”

“Is this? Is this from when I cut my hand on that glass?” 

“Well, sort of. That inspired me.”

“Holy smokes,” Calum laughs, holding the canvas up a little. It’s distinctly a different color to the skin in that third hand. He can see the resemblance to his mother’s complexion. But the hands are all palm up, so it is hard at the first look to see it. But he sees now the veins now crawling up the wrist, feeding in the palms. His are a bit more blue. His mother’s a bit more purplish hue--the depth of her undertone, but he can see care. 

“This is fucking amazing,” Calum exhales on the phrase. It’s not what an art expert might call technically perfect. Some of the scales are just a little off, but the work on the skin tones, the veins, the way the painting almost feels like it could drip off the canvas at any point makes it impressive in and of itself. 

“Thank-thanks. I used to hide in the art room in school and draw.”

“Then what drew you into the kitchen?” Calum laughs. “Why not be an artist?”

“Doesn’t fucking pay,” you snort. “At least if I can cook, I can always eat.”

“But you could be an artist,” Calum returns. “This is fucking incredible.”

“You can have it. Once I finish it. But it’s yours.”

Calum takes in your unfocused gaze, the way you duck your head. He wouldn’t say you’re shy, but you are avoiding him. But Calum won’t let that stand for much longer. He misses how much your eyes glint with the mischievous edge when you’re teasing him. He misses how he feels like he could fall into your gaze and never want to catch himself. He lifts your gaze up by two fingers under your chin. “Am I the first to get an original painting? Be honest.”

“What do you think?” you retort. 

“I think I might be, but I would love to hear it from your lips.” It would be the perfect time to lean in for a kiss. The desire bubbles in Calum’s gut. Slow, though, he remembered that. He’s got to go slow, even if it’s burning his insides. 

“You might be the first.”

“Oh, you’re never going to give it to me easily,” Calum laughs. You’ve always been tough when you want to be. “Thank you, in advance, baby.” 

“You’re welcome.” Calum situates the painting back to safety before reaching back for his sandwich. “How’s Mrs. Clifford? Have you won yet?”

He snorts at the tease. “She’s good and still kicking my ass in bridge.”

“And that’s Michael’s mom?”

He nods, around his final chews. “Yeah, she is. I met Michael in middle school? We went to the same private school. He taught me how to play guitar.”

“So is Michael the reason why you’ve got a drawer full of band t-shirts?”

Calum laughs. “I don’t know if Michael is solely the reason. But he’s definitely an influence. He’s a producer now,  not that I’m shocked. He always had the music bug.”

“A producer,” you hum around the statement. Calum can’t tell if it’s a question or not, but he nods. “Private school?

Now, this Calum can tell is a question. “Up until university,” he answers. 

“So, what about you?”

Calum hums around his bite, unsure what you’re referring to. You laugh, digging out a napkin and holding it out to him. Only after he takes it, do you gesture to your mouth and Calum realizes he might have mustard on his lips. 

“What did you want to do? Before you realize you were getting shackled to a throne?” you clarify. 

“I wouldn’t call it being shackled. But uh, I went for a little bit to Brazil to a training camp for football.” Your eyes widen at the confession and Calum grins a little. “Dunno. Wanted to be an athlete. But I think well before then I knew what my responsibilities were and what would be expected of me.”

“But those stars that you don’t miss,” you counter. 

If Calum’s honest, he does miss the stars just a little. But he’s always known what would become of him. There was no fighting it. He had his youth. He’d have plenty of stories of his friends and him laughing in cars with all the windows down going well over the speed limit on empty highways and the bright artificial lights illuminating the pavement. None of that would ever overthrow what work he’d have to do. Even if he wanted something different, he’d never get it. 

“No, those stars were hideous. But, it’s--” It’s like two halves that make a whole. Calum misses how easy life used to be. How he could spend his days worrying about who had a crush on him and he could spend the days worried about a test, about forgetting to ask for a ride but knowing he’d always get one. And none of that negates that Calum always knew where he’d be. It was always clear that no matter what Calum did he’d be here--lined up for the throne. That was his destiny. 

“It’s what?” you ask. 

“It’s just an unspoken rule. I could do whatever I wanted when I was young. But when I got old enough they’d want me on the throne. I was allowed to be a kid, but I always knew where the road was going to lead.”

“A road with detours.”

“Exactly,” Calum agrees. His parents had driven the ship for years, and he took the reins. He had his fun and eventually all the turns still lead here. When he took control, he knew that. He knew no matter what he’d always be here. 

“There were rumors.”

“Rumors?” Calum questions. 

“Rumors that you’d gone out of town looking for a bride. This was a few months ago.”

It doesn’t shock Calum that his love life seems to be the hot talk of the town. He’d prefer it not to be, but the reality of the situation means he’s got to get used to things about his life being under scrutiny or just being gossip subjects, no matter how wrong it is. He studies the way you stare out into the treelines. The pinch to your brow returns, where it’d previously varnished on the drive to the park from your parent’s house, it returns now. Your forehead holds the ‘V’ of the knitted brows. 

“A few months ago, like before or after our first time?” Calum’s not too naive to call it the first time you two made love, and he’s not grotesque to call it a fuck either. It’d been a succumbing, melting into desire, but there’s no way to say that without it sounding like sap. So first time feels like the best calculus of words. 

“I caught wind of them before.”

“Didn’t seem like they stopped you much. If I remember correctly, your direct words were, ‘I want you to fuck me.’”

You snort. Calum knows the swat is coming. He braces for it, for the back of your hand--knuckles and digit-- to connect with his sternum. When they do, he takes your hand into his pressing deeper into his body before bringing your knuckles to his lips. He can spot the knicks along your skin from all the cuts you’ve probably endured. “And if they were?” you tease, looking over to him. Your eyes twinkle with your amusements. 

“Well, if rumors can do that,” Calum starts, lips brushing over your skin, “I’m dying to see what comes next.” 

“Calum,” you laugh. 

And god, he loves the way you say his name. His toes curl in his shoes and he exhales harshly onto your skin. No syllable gets lost in the curl of your tongue. It’s not lost on him that you’ve yet to use a pet name, but if just his name can make his whole body feel like it’s on fire, Calum knows he’s a goner should you ever decide to bestow such a prestige of a pet name onto him. 

“But what about those rumors?” Calum asks. His lips are still brushing over your skin. He’s still keeping your arm extended out, and it feels like he could hideaway between the brim of his cap and the softness of your skin, even while scarred. 

“I was selfish.”

It sounds like a confession and Calum settles your intertwined hands to his lap. “Selfish about what?”

“I had those rumors burning the back of my brain and when we kissed, I told myself I would take whatever I could get even if it wasn’t all of you. Sometimes I still think I’m waiting for this all to come crumbling down. And then your mom wanted lunch. Your dad wants golf. You call me just to hear my breath sometimes and I think that it won’t. I don’t want it to crumble.”

“That’s why you said you didn’t want to fuck this all up?” You never did call Calum to tell him later what had gone down. He hasn’t pressed it until now. 

“I said that because sometimes I want to run. There’s a voice in the back of my head that tells me I need to get out because all the safety I’ve built in being anonymous is going to shatter.”

That--that’s not something Calum anticipated. He knew there was fear, or least assumed so. “But you’re still here,” he counters. It feels a little desperate in his chest. Though he doesn’t want to panic and think you’ve done all this just to end it, it still claws at his heart. 

“I am. I want to be here with you. It’s…it’s just hard. Especially after that conversation with Miranda. It would be easier to drop it all. But I don’t think that’s the best choice.”

“I hate to point out the obvious. But we are in public, right now.” Calum knows that you know but he’s not going to let this slide either. 

“Call it exposure therapy,” you laugh. “I just--I’d gotten used to safety. And I don’t have it anymore. Or at least I don’t have what I had before. I have to like rebuild. I don’t even know what it would look like to rebuild that safety. Well, expect for the fact that I’m stealing you mom. She’s definitely a part of it.”

“No, I encourage the stealing of my mother as long as I get visitation rights.”

“That can be arranged.”

The air fills with the laughter bubbling from both you and Calum. Just behind it there’s the flutter of wings as a flock of birds take off. The sun’s tipped deeper into the horizon. The air’s cooling. But Calum keeps watching you. The V’s still there in your brows, smaller than before, but not gone. 

“If-If my mum’s a piece of safety, then I do want to encourage you to reach out to her. I know it’ll be weird because she’s my mum. But I think right now what matters more is your well-being. She’s got a good head on her shoulders and she won’t come back to me with it. not if you don’t want her too. She’s good with secrets.”

You give a nod, looking over now to face Calum directly rather than speaking out into the air in front of you. Your eyes are glassy, but no tears fall and Calum waits. He just wants as the words tick at your jaw. It’s slow, but the words build up and out and Calum listens as you speak. “It’s--she just reminded me of everything I wanted from my parents. I see the way my parents treat Charlie and Teagan and I’m so happy for them, but I am so angry that I couldn’t get it too. Last week, after we met, I realized how much I hadn’t let myself be angry about it all. I’m still trying to be the perfect kid for them but I still push them away because I’m fucking pissed. And everyone wants something from me, right? Everyone wants me to act a specific way--be it either forgiving my parents, or moving on, or whatever. But I just, sometimes I’m stuck. I’m just stuck and I’m angry and it’s exhausting.”

“Fuck them--everyone’s that ever wanted something from you. Including me.” Calum returns. It feels easy to say and he knows it is easy for him to say. But he means it. “The only thing you’ve got each day is the best you’ve got. Whatever it looks. If it’s 50%, then that’s the best. If it’s anger, then that’s the best. And I wish I could say I’d make everyone not want something from you. But the truth is, I can’t do that. No one can. The thing you can do is just give yourself the space to have what you have.”

It’s a slow and thoughtful nod that you give before you squeeze at Calum’s hand. “Yeah, yeah maybe you’re right,” you whisper. It’s caught in the gentle breeze and passes over Calum’s cheeks like a wispy breath. 

“Your world’s fundamentally changing, baby. You don’t have to have a solution right now. I know a lot of the changes are because of me and some of them are a little time sensitive. But I mean it, there are just going to be some days as you grieve that you’ve only got a little in the tank. And there’s going to be days where you’re angrier than others. I’ll still be there okay? But not as knight in shining armor bullshit. Promise,” he grins. 

“How then?” you ask, a smile pulling at the corner of your lips. 

“I’ll be there like the goofy guy that makes you laugh. Who kisses you when you’re sleepy still in the morning and you complain about your morning breath. Like the guy who’ll make your toast just right and always listens to the ancestors about how much sugar to put in your coffee. Like the guy who’s your boyfriend. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, if I’m honest. And you can still call me out on my bullshit too.”

“Oh, I’d be happy too,” Calum laughs. “You still owe me a couple more bites on that sandwich though,” he notes, nodding over to the item in your lap. 

“Yes, yes,” you laugh, picking it up again. “Thanks. For listening.”

“Anytime,” Calum whispers. 

The evening darkens quicker than you or Calum quite planned for, undoubtedly related to the detours that you set on earlier. But just before the twilight passes, you and Calum pack up the remnants of the food--a couple individual bags of chips and the empty tupperware. It’s less of jostle now that the bags are a little bit lighter as the two of you pack everything back into the car. 

“I still owe you a song,” Calum notes as you two start back to the castle. He doesn’t want to slack on his end of the bargain and he doesn’t want to let you go just yet either. Though he’s sure you might have to work tomorrow and he’s sure you’re probably not comfortable escorting him to your place just yet either. Not that he faults that. The timing might look a little too suspicious. 

“Are you asking me to stay the night?”

“Are we at a point where I can ask outright?”

“Say it in lamest terms,” you counters, flicking your eyes to Calum for just a moment. Maybe not even a full second. 

“I want you to spend the night with me.” It’s an easy sentence to say now. Like he was only really asking for permission to say it so plainly. And maybe he was. Maybe Calum’s always waiting because he knows just how hard what he’s asking for. He wants it to be easy, but it never will be. He just wants to make it easier. If he could just make things easier that would be all he needs. But the trick to all of this is that you can still say no. Even though Calum’s telling you what he wants, you still have the rebuttal. 

“I’d love to,” you answer. His heart soars--not one ounce of a hesitation filtering into your words. “But!” It comes out loud and you hold a hand up in front of Calum’s chest. The groans at the interjection climbs up his throat without thought and Calum throws his head into the headrest. 

“Finish the demands, just twist the knife,” he huffs. 

Your laughter is soft. “You’ll live, big guy. Promise. But you dry as I wash first before anything else?”

“I don’t think drying dishes will kill the mood that much,” Calum hums. It does make Calum’s gut twist at the name, though he’s sure you don’t really mean it like that, more like a tease at his own dramatics, Calum curls his fingers into his palms. God, he feels like a teenager again. Like somehow everything about you calls to him. His own personal Siren song echoes in the wisps of your breath. 

“Mustard breath didn’t kill the mood,” you laugh. “I don’t think anything can.”

Calum doesn’t think anything can either. But he wallows just a little, shifting in the passenger seat to make you laugh again. When you do, he follows the sound, how it brushes over the glass of the window and then backwards towards his ears. It warms his gut as it goes. The words are bubbling on his tongue, right at the soft palate, but Calum can’t say them. He doesn’t even know how true they are. Though it would feel right, he withholds. Instead, he bothers you for your hand at a red light, just to leave some kisses and letting go when the light turns green. 

The sink’s rushing by the time Calum returns from depositing his guitar and your spare bag and other piece of tupperware on the rack waiting for him. He slides by you to grab the towel hanging off the oven. Your skin is soft, a slight chill from the evening, but Calum presses kisses to your cheek regardless. You hum. “Dishes, Calum.”

“They’re not nearly as fun,” he laughs.

“They’re not.”

It’s a simple sentence, but you melt into Calum for a moment, weight falling back into him. You’re solid against Calum’s chest. As his arms wind around your waist, he squeezes. The embrace is warm and Calum swears his mind’s never been as quiet other than when he’s embracing you. 

It’s all too easy to leave a kiss on your neck. It’s all too easy to wrap you with both his arms, and force you back into Calum. He knows your head will drop into his shoulder. He knows you’ll hum again with that little blissful smile when he runs his nose along the cut of your jaw. The content hum falls from Calum’s throat easily. He takes a gentle bite out of you and then kisses the area before moving on to the dishes. 

A whine pierces the air and Calum nearly buckles. He loves that sound, the little huff of disappointment that escapes you because you know just like he does that you’re still going to the responsible one. You’re still going to wash the fucking dishes and Calum’s going to fucking dry them. But it’s not what either of you want to. Calum loves how much you hate it because it only serves to build the anticipation. It really only serves to make every touch, every kiss that much sweeter. 

The last of the dishes hit the drying rack and the drain releases to take the water down with it. Calum’s been purposefully slow, taking extra wipes at the lids. He should be listening though. He should be paying more attention to where you are in the room because it falls silent for far too long. Calum catches the ticking off the clock and nothing else. He snaps the lid onto the bowl and places it down in the bag and just as Calum bends over just a little to get your basket and cooler stacked up into the corner, the crack comes. 

It stings and maybe it stings before the crack hits the air. But Calum laughs, shock falling over the laughter too as he whips around, one hand resting on his ass as he spies you with another kitchen towel in your hand, winding it up for another shot. 

“That was my butt,” he hollers. 

“It’s a cute one too.”

The retort doesn’t slow you though as you step in just a little bit closer to Calum. His laughter ceases. “No, no, not like this.” Calum’s not going to go down like this. He winds his own towel up. It’s ridiculous. But it doesn’t stop his own smile. 

You’re slow, crouched over as you hold your kitchen town at the ready. Calum knows it’s reactionary, but he takes the crack. You lean back out the crack of the towel, your own laughter bubbling out of your chest. Calum’s overextended tried to reach too far too fast and can’t back up before you get a hit on his forearms. 

“Yes, yes exactly like this,” you laugh, wrapping one of Calum’s wrist up into the towel. It’s a gentle pull, but Calum lets himself go into the command. Where’d this been the entire time, this playfulness, Calum doesn’t know. But he’s glad it’s there. He’s glad to see it as you pull his body into yours. 

Your hands are cupping his cheeks, pulling him in for the kiss and Calum can’t even refute you. Can’t be mad that he doesn’t get the chance to tease you for being desperate. Because god, you’ve always tasted so sweet--even tainted in sweat, Calum thinks it’s the most intoxicating taste. The air of the kitchen echoes with the sounds of the huffs, the press and pull of lips. Calum knows he wants to swallow you whole. He wants to press you into his ribs, make you the marrow of his bones. 

The blood in your veins thumps erratically. Calum can feel them throbbing against his lips as he breathes into your neck. “My room?” he asks in a pant. “Or are you ready to risk it here?”

Calum laughs at your sharp intake of air. “Oh, did you think I’d forget that? How you admitted that you daydreamed about me taking you here in this kitchen?” Calum seals another kiss into your skin. 

Your response is only the heavy inhales. 

Calum grins, slowly lifting his head to watch your face. The slack jaw of desire, the furrow of your brow because he’s stopped. “Yeah, I remembered. Tell me though. Did you fantasize about being caught? Did I have to keep you quiet? Were you bent over this island? I need every detail, baby,” Calum whispers closing in. 

You’re going to push up, try and capture Calum with another kiss, but he’s quicker, pulls out of the way before you can get in closer. “You’re not playing fair," you huff. 

“Please tell me?” Calum adds. It’s so desperate, even to Calum’s own ears. But he doesn’t care. He wouldn’t be able to find it in himself to care.

“It starts with a kiss,” you start. It’s with a heavy exhale over your lungs. Calum complies, holding your face between his hands. Your body goes lax and Calum’s more than grateful to watch how much a touch from him can cause you to turn off like a light. But as much as he wants to swallow the sighs down, he lets you go when you pull away from me. 

“Your hands are under my shirt,” you pant. 

Your skin is hot--or maybe it’s his own skin-- but Calum slips his hand under the cotton, caressing your side. The shuddering sigh ghost over his face, but Calum wants for the next instruction, the next part of the fantasy to come alive. 

“I’m working off your shirt,” you laugh. “The fantasy has a dress shirt.”

Calum looks down at the cotton Nine Inch Nails t-shirt and grins. “My apologies, baby.”

You shake your head. “It’s okay.” 

Your fingers tease at Calum’s skin under the shirt and though it tickles, his eyes flutter close at the touch. It’s sure, but soft. “I’m usually in my uniform,” you continue on in a whisper. “But we’ll make do. You move me over the counter, my chest pressed into the marble.”

He takes your waist more firmly and Calum pushes one hip to urge you to turn. You go willing, hips pushed out into his. The jeans are tight and Calum ruts, needing the friction. He’s going to explode before he even gets to have you. It’s burning at his gut when your voice comes fluttering out. 

“You kiss my neck.”

Calum leans in, mouth salivating at just the thought of another taste. You’re real in his hands. You’re real in his mouth. Calum has to keep telling himself this is all real. Because he swears if he doesn’t, it’ll all float away. He’ll find some way to convince himself that he dreamed it. And instruction after instruction, Calum takes your body apart. It’s slow but steady as you allow yourself to be consumed. 

The instructions never waiver. Calum never falters. He knows he’s doing what you want. He knows he’s making you feel good. Why else would you have fantasized about it if it weren’t good? His body is hot, can feel the start of sweat at his hairline as he eases himself into you. Every kiss, every touch, every piece of clothing has been touched, bitten, pulled just the way you wanted. There’s no way one body can hold this much desire and not crack. Calum’s so sure he’s going to crack. His skin is holding by seams but your sighs, the way you praise Calum, keeps him together just enough. 

All Calum has to do is chase the punched out sighs that escape your throat. All he has to do is focus on you and it all makes it a little easier. Though he’s never felt such a tightness in his gut. To say a body’s been made for him feels too simple of a phrase. You’re not an object. You’re not something that can be consumed. Your body feels like the things prayers are made of--hope and pinning. Your body feels like what hymnals are yearning for. And Calum wants nothing more than to collapse at your feet and worship you. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” you huff out. 

And though the castle is quiet at night, the last thing you two need is to be caught. Calum presses down a little into your back and pulls a kitchen towel discarded onto the counter into his grasp. “If you can’t be quiet,” Calum laughs with a whisper. “I will have to resort to desperate measures.”

His hips are steady into yours, attempting to keep from too much noise, but still keeping each thrust powerful. More than once your knees have hit the cabinets with a clatter, but that can be played off, assumed to be normal noise of someone in the kitchen. Your moans are definitely not something that can be played off. 

“Fuck,” you huff. It’s loud, sounds deep from within you. 

“Baby,” Calum coos, pushing the towel into your mouth. “I warned you.”

You whine, openly, freely into the towel at another thrust. Calum grins into your skin. Watching the way you reach back for him, the way you push back into him like you can’t get enough. 

It’s blinding and fast when Calum cums. It’d been building, feeling at the edges as it peeled up, but it takes literally everything out of Calum when his release hits. Your body is still shaking under him from your own orgasm and Calum knows all his weight on you is not ideal, but he’s not sure if he knows if his knees will work. He feels wobbly but kissies at your exposed cheek. “So good for me,” he whispers. 

Your laughter is soft and Calum pulls the kitchen towel away from your lips. “Better than the fantasy,” you whisper back to him. 

Calum helps you up, once his own knees cooperate. It’s a slow process to get clothes reassembled. The kisses are slow, hazy, but Calum feels the burn of you in his lungs. A burn that somehow only you can soothe too. 

“I’ll meet you upstairs,” you whisper against Calum’s lips. 

“We’re-we’re not going to get caught nor is anyone going to say anything to us if they see us together.” The word’s already out, more or less. It’s out as much as it needs to be. 

You snort. “No, I need to clean the kitchen. Disinfect after everything.”

“Oh.” Not an articulate response but it does dawn on Calum that maybe it should’ve been a bit more cautious. But what’s done is done now. Either way, he nods, kissing at your temple. 

“I’ll get your things back into your car? Or do you want to leave them in my room?”

“My car is okay. It’s all clean now.” You kiss Calum gently, trailing it up to his nose. “Thank you. For everything.”

“Happily,” Calum returns. 

It’s five minutes for Calum to get the items back into the trunk of your car, but once they’re settled in, he watches from the doorway of the kitchen as you spray and scrub down the counters. You make it seem like easy work. Though, there's a force behind your scrub that Calum ponders. “I don’t think a sponge is going to erode marble,” he teases across the way. 

“Figured I’d give it a shot.”

You return cleaners to the cabinets, throw gloves away and Calum knows watching you that you are the things prayers are made of. You are hope, and yearning. You are going to be the death of him but he couldn’t care less about that. He drops your keys back into your palm. “Elevators,” Calum directs. 

“And why would we take that when there’s perfectly good stairs?” you tease. 

“Trust me we will need to take the elevators.”

You grin but nod. “Lead the way.”

***********

Calum’s not even sure you’re listening anymore. The strings are echoing through the guitar, but Calum’s sure that you’re long gone. Asleep above him. He’d slid down to the floor after you teased him about being more focused on more sex and not with producing his end of the bargain in order to prove you wrong. He hadn’t even bothered with his underwear and unearthed the instrument. Your fingers were trailing along his scalp, teasing at the nape of neck. Now your fingers are still. Calum leans his head back. Your face is full, but slack pressed into his pillows. 

The sheets cover away your bare body. But Calum knows it even behind his closed eyes. It’s etched into his retinas. He conjures it, even now, behind closed eyes. His fingers dance over the frets, up and down the strings to chase the shape of your spine, carving your hips out from memory. As he licks his lips, the taste of you and him still lingers, Calum etches into the muscles of your shoulders, carrying a steady line down his frets until he’s dancing along your calves. 

When Calum opens his eyes, after playing out the last notes of your toes, he finds you still asleep. Your lips have parted now. A snore will be escaping you shortly. Calum should probably sleep soon. But he watches you. “Sometimes I think it’s just a fairytale,” Calum mutters to you, knowing you can’t answer. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m Alice, if I've fallen down the rabbit hole. But then I think about you, or what you might say to me, or what you might do, and it doesn't feel like falling anymore.”

Calum doesn’t know what is when it’s not falling. It feels silly to call it acceptance. Yet, the falling doesn’t feel like falling when he thinks of you. It feels like ground, it feels like when one lands--a bit of a shock to the knees and spine but then a rush of relief that follows behind it too. 

Calum pushes up, putting the guitar back up in the corner. He gathers your clothes and his, scattered about his room after being discarded with reckless abandon. He’ll have to get to laundry tomorrow, his basket is overflowing. His desk is also a mess--mugs, notes, his computer. He was supposed to clean that up earlier. Some days just don’t happen like they’re supposed to. With clothes and desk semi-organized, he ensures your phone and his are both plugged in and charging for the night. Calum climbs into the bed behind you. Before he can get settled fully, you turn into his body. 

A hum falls from your throat. “Calum?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” he returns. 

Confirmation is all you need before you’re burrow into his chest and Calum holds you there, your breath ghosting over his skin as he finds sleep himself. 

#calum hood #calum hood fanfic #calum hood fic #calum hood imagine #calum hood smut #calum hood x reader #prince!calum #calum hood x gender neutral reader #h writes #5sos #5sos fanfic #5sos fic #5 seconds of summer #5 seconds of summer fanfic #5 seconds of summer fic

[landinrris]

do you know of any fics that explore their age gap? i always forget that they really are like 5 years apart, i feel like that dynamic is kinda interesting

Hey! I sometimes forget as well, and then it's like "oh yeah, okay cool 😭" I've gone through my bookmarks (which is by no means an exhaustive list) to try and pull some things together that touch on their age difference. Some of these are definitely more "in the spirit of" and touching on the gap in their experiences rather than "they are 5 years apart" The list got a bit long, so it's under the "read more." Feel free to add anything for the ones I inevitably missed or let me know if you'd like me to take your tag/work off the list!

"Canon"-based

⁘ and everything that i do is out of lovin' you by raikkonen (Rating: E)

Racing will always be his first love, but Lando is his second, and he doesn't want to imagine a life where he can't have both.

⁘ Free Practice- Romance Edition by f1princess (@f1princess) (Rating: E)

Lando drives cars at 300kph for a living. He got a hotly contested seat in the pinnacle of motorsport at the young age of nineteen. Experts call him the next British prodigy. Yes, Lando might be in his fourth season of Formula One but he still doesn’t know how kissing works, let alone other forms of intimacy. Cue Carlos, Lando’s best friend and former teammate who agrees to give him free practice sessions when it comes to romance. or: Lando and Carlos are friends with benefits but the benefit is experience and of course they are secretly in love with each other.

⁘ i don't ever wanna leave when you cry by peargasly (@peargcsly) (Rating: T)

the heady apprehension creeps through him like molasses – the sudden knowledge that something is wrong. lando half expects carlos to brush by him without a word and he starts reaching out before the prickling anxiety tells him to let this one go. but carlos’s eyes catch him in their snare and he’s always been hopeless under his stare. carlos’s name is on the tip of his tongue, but carlos is speaking before he can take a breath to say it. “think a little next time, i know you do not like to, but it could be us both if you do that again,” carlos says, voice low and biting. (or carlando post-brazil angst that is solved by the power of friendship and the looming presence of pierre gasly)

⁘ In the Wet by plastics (@shinyfakehard) (Rating: E; very E. pwp E)

How did you learn to get so good in the wet? ... These conditions are where the greats are recognized. - Carlos Sainz Jr. in Beyond the Grid, on how he won every British Formula 3 race in the rain.

⁘ like two ships that passed in the night - our story that gets told in many many years by palalabu (@palalabu) (Rating: T)

The long and intricate history of Lando and Carlos.

⁘ The life we built by formulacherry (@formulacherry) (Rating: T)

Lando is one race away from potentially being World Drivers Champion, Carlos and their kids go along to support him.

⁘ Until you came to me by phebes (@phebess) (Rating: NR)

Carlos Sainz, with the hair, the famous dad, the face - Carlos Sainz is going to be his teammate. In Formula 1. And Lando is supposed to just meet him in a marketing room at the MTC on a Tuesday like it's not something he's maybe thought about for 7 years. Lando really thinks he might shit himself. // Or: A fic based on these tweets from Lando in 2012. Title inspired by the song We Belong by Katie Herzig.

⁘ Yours by phebes (@phebess)(Rating: E)

Carlos watches Lando grow up. Carlos watches Lando explore. Carlos is not jealous.

⁘ You Crawled Inside My Head and Set a Fire by kolyarostov (Rating: M)

Falling in love with Carlos wasn’t an all-of-a-sudden thing, but it happens quicker than Lando would like to admit. One day while they’re eating lunch at the MTC during an off-week, just the two of them between meetings in mid-March, Lando looks up at Carlos laughing across from him, and just thinks: “Fuck." Or: This is how Lando and Carlos fall in love

Alternate Universes

⁘ best intentions by madlyiephasetwo (Rating: E)

And then Carlos asked, the tone of his voice one somewhere between amusement and curiosity, “And what about love?” *** Lando Norris does not wish to marry.

⁘ Dancing You Into a Lonely Night by kolyarostov (Rating: E)

The noise of someone yelling is probably just some stupid first-year who got locked out by a roommate who has headphones on. What greets Carlos instead is a boy about halfway down the hallway with a head full of unruly curls looking like he’s ready to go out. But he’s not out— he’s hammering and kicking at a door in a residence hall at 9:30 at night. A boy kicking and yelling— “Danny! You piece of shit, answer the door!” Or: Carlos has his night interrupted by a tetchy first-year, but maybe it's not all bad in the end

⁘ Every Minute Boy, Steady Rhythm Joy by kolyarostov (Rating: E)

It should be embarrassing that Carlos’ touch makes him shiver after being apart for less than twenty-four hours, even when the touch is above his hoodie. But Carlos sliding his hand around Lando’s waist and below his backpack does just that. Maybe it’s the subtle and blatant possessiveness of Carlos kissing his temple when he pulls Lando close, plain to see in front of Daniel. The press of Carlos’ lips still makes Lando’s knees weak. Before Carlos is able to tug Lando fully out of the room, Daniel calls back for them. Both of their heads turn, but Daniel’s look is inscrutable. He hums to himself and shakes his head. “Fucking of course.” It’s said mostly to himself, but Lando can’t help but grin to himself because Daniel’s right, in a way. The irony isn’t lost on Lando about who he’s ended up with. Or: Looks into Lando and Carlos' life after they decide to give their not-casual-one-night-stand thing a proper go

⁘ fall and fixture by heroics (@restacks) (Rating: E)

Lando’s already had a very poor time of it this morning. First there was no real milk in the break room refrigerator, so he had to put almond milk in his tea, disgusting. Then he caused a panic in the explosives lab by knocking over someone’s project. Now he’s faced with Carlos Sainz Jr., Foreign Operative #055.

⁘ God knows you're lonely souls by fox_this_lap (@redshoulderedblackbirds) (Rating: M)

Lando is an engineering student in Paris, celebrating graduation before he starts his career in motorsport, but there's more to the evening in the bar than he could ever had expected. Like the Universe meant for him to be there...

⁘ If the Love is Pure by loveleclerc (@holacarlando) (Rating: E; a/b/o)

After being attacked in the middle of the night by an unknown Alpha, Lando flees to Spain for protection from the Sainz Pack while his fathers search for a way to keep him safe in England. He never asked to be a male Omega, a designation rare beyond belief and sought after by Alphas around the world, but fleeing into the care of Carlos Sainz Jr. may just be the solution to all of his fears... and dreams.

⁘ i'll race you for pinks by cazio (@chubbydino) (Rating: M)

Heist!AU. Carlos Sainz Jr. is heading a heist operation based out of New York, following his father's footsteps as a criminal mastermind. Max Verstappen, the most feared mercenary in the business, is his second in command. Daniel Ricciardo is the deadly charmer that gets them whatever they need, from whoever they need it from. Lando Norris is the mystery. Carlos has never met him in person, but he knows Lando will be perfect for the job. But Lando is not exactly what Carlos envisioned a computer nerd to be. In fact, he is very, very hot.

⁘ Love is the Heritage (And Cousin to Death) by kolyarostov (Rating: E)

Carlos stays quiet, trailing Lando through the ornate halls that are simultaneously cold yet warm with their rugs and furniture. He watches the way Lando walks, the way the younger boy lets his shoulders fall the farther they get from the watchful eyes of his family. It looks like he’s shedding a coat, a mask specifically put into place for his family’s sake. The change is fascinating— there’s a story there that would explain all of Lando’s intricacies, and Carlos finds that he wants to know every single detail. The family had appeared to be perfectly amenable, so why is the change in Lando’s demeanour so painfully obvious? Or: Carlos travels to England to apprentice under Lando’s father for the summer and admittedly ends up falling in love along the way

⁘ ¡Revolución! by hibivrooms (@interlagosed) (Rating: E)

19-year-old Lando Norris, originally from the Kingdom of Anglosax, decides to pursue his undergraduate degree at the State University of Hiberia. There, he strikes up a relationship with a 25-year old Hiberian man, Carlos Sainz. Carlos is beautiful, kind, and deeply passionate about the Hiberian people and their struggles. Though Lando knows very little about he wants out of life, he knows one thing: he desperately wants Carlos. But against the backdrop of an increasingly tumultuous political situation in Hiberia, will Lando be brave enough to open his heart to all of Carlos?

⁘ the shadow of radiance by hibivrooms (@interlagosed) (Rating: E)

No one expected Galla, protector state of the Holy Principality of Seuloger, to turn heretic in such a violent way. After several years of Galla-stoked hostilities short of war, Anglosax and Hiberia set aside their differences in favor of a grand alliance to return Il Predestinato, Charles of House Leclerc, back to his rightful and Goddess-ordained throne. Years later, as a gesture of goodwill, Hiberia sends several of its squires to Fort Silverstone, where Anglosax's finest pages and squires learn to become fierce knights. Squire Lando of Norris, loyal to Anglosax beyond words, must contend with his own distrust of the leader of this Hiberian contingent - Prince Carlos the Younger of Sainz, a newly minted and already-decorated Knight of Hiberia. Prince Carlos is immensely talented, kind, suspiciously handsome, and seemingly dedicated to this alliance. But Lando isn't buying any of it - for the sake of Anglosax. Allegedly.

⁘ Señor Sainz by phebes (@phebess) (Rating: E)

Lando wants to die. Crawl in a hole, and die. His tombstone can read 'Here lies Lando, he did not speak Spanish.' Carlos repeats himself, looking at Lando with faint amusement in his eyes. Lando can feel his cheeks flush as his simply stares back, absolutely no clue what's being asked of him. // Or: University AU where Lando doesn't speak Spanish but ends up in an advanced class, and Carlos is a young professor determined to teach Lando Spanish.

⁘ What if we said goodbye to safe and sound? by tiredtiredsharl (@wolfiemcwolferson) (Rating: E)

Lando realizes as Carlos is telling them all about this job in London that maybe the feelings he's been carrying around aren't so straight or bro-pal-lad as he thought they were. It's really unfortunate that Carlos is set to move 5,478 miles away from him in just a few weeks. Told over a year and set directly after the end of our Piarles/Maxiel stories, we see Lando come to terms with his own feelings about Carlos, make a lot of mistakes along the way, attempt to get through the last year of his program with Alex, and realize that sometimes being the smartest person in the room isn't as valuable as he's always thought it would be.

#everything in my bookmarks is wonderful but i felt these fit with your request particularly #also yes i did shove some of mine in there because why not and they fit with what you were wanting #fic rec #husbands™ #ask