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lustfulslxt · 6 months

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Good Girl - Matt Sturniolo

summary : you and matt never got along, always going back and forth with some illogical feud. until the night of a party, everything changes with the consumption of alcohol

warnings : use of alcohol, smut

—

You just finished getting ready, walking downstairs to the living room to wait for the rest of them. You were going to Nate’s party with the triplets and Madi. Unfortunately for you, Matt was included in the triplets.

You two had never gotten along, for reasons unbeknownst to you. From the very start, Matt was always a jerk to you, so you were a bitch right back . That, lead to you both supposedly hating each other. Every time you guys were around one another, you both always had something smart to say, and there was never a time it wasn’t like that.

Honestly, if he would stop being such a douche, you could easily lose the attitude. But since he chooses to act the way he does, you were matching his energy.

And of course, the next one to emerge from his bedroom was Matt in all his fine glory. As much as you hate him, you couldn’t deny the fact that he was the finest man you’d ever seen. His soft and fluffy hair, his long skinny fingers, his tattoos. The way he carries himself alone was enough to make you want to drop your panties.

“What the fuck is your problem?” His bitter voice snaps you from your trance.

You couldn’t help but roll your eyes, “Matthew, why must you speak?”

“Well, your ass is standing there, staring, like you want to take a bite out of me.” He glares, a small smirk pulling to his lips.

“Don’t be ridiculous, kid. You couldn’t handle me.” You grin, mischievously.

“Please.” He scoffs, “I would have you running.”

“Before you guys jump into each other’s pants, can we leave?” Chris’ asks, causing both of you to look over.

That’s when you noticed the other three standing there, waiting for you and Matt to finish your never ending conversation.

You couldn’t help but say, “As if. I don’t think I could stand within a foot of this kid, let alone jump in his pants.”

You knew you were lying so hard. Sometimes, you wanted nothing more than for him to just shut up and fuck you. But seeing as he is the way he is, you knew that would never happen.

Without another word, the five of you walk out to the van, piling in and heading in the direction of Nate’s house.

It was about an hour into the party, you were having a good time. You had gotten separated from your friends, but you weren't complaining as you had shot after shot. It was only a total of four, but you were feeling good.

Dancing to the music, you observed your surroundings. In search of any of your friends, you come across Matt. He was leaning against the wall with a solo cup in his hand, his eyes intently staring at you. You couldn't help the smirk that spread across your face. For some reason, you loved that even with all the people here, you were the only one that had his attention.

Your hips swayed so perfectly and in sync with the loud music. Your hands trailed up and down your body, moving from your waist to your hair. You felt on top of the world with the alcohol coursing through your veins as you danced to the music, with Matt's eyes never leaving you once.

Your eyes connected once again, him tipping his cup up and emptying the rest of its contents into his mouth. And still, he never broke eye contact. You couldn't lie, it was getting you hot. Without another thought, you were making your way over to him.

"Matthew." You say, seductively.

"Y/N." He responds, his voice holding a slight rasp to it.

With a cheeky grin, you turned around and placed the back of your body against the front of his. You could feel him tense up, yet his hands still found their way to your waist.

"What are you doing?" He asks you, whispering in your ear.

You couldn't help the goosebumps that scattered across your skin, and the hairs standing up at the back of your neck.

"I'm giving you what you want, Matthew." You say, "You've been staring at me all night. So, here I am."

You began swaying to the music again, this time, grinding your hips into his. His hands firmly planted on your pelvis, guiding you back and forth.

"Do you wanna know what I was thinking about?" He asks, his lips softly brushing against your ear.

"Mhm." You hummed.

"Mm, I was thinking about fucking you senseless." He admits, his hand wrapping around your hair as he harshly bucks his hips into your ass.

A soft moan fell from your lips. You could feel his hard on poking into you and it drove you crazy. You wanted him inside you, so bad.

He continues, thrusting into you again. "I was thinking about how pretty you would look swallowing my dick."

Another moan escaped your mouth. You could feel your panties were drenched at this point. You couldn't help but tighten your pussy, clenching for some type of friction.

"I was thinking about how good your pretty little pussy would feel around my cock."

That was beyond enough for you to grab his hand and pull him to the guest room upstairs. You were in such a hurry, desperate to feel him bury himself inside you. You could tell he was big just from his hard on, and you couldn't wait to be stuffed by him.

As soon as you got in the room, he pushed you against the door and put his lips on yours. His kiss was hot and needy. His tongue immediately swiped your lip, begging for entrance. His hands went down to your ass, squeezing it, causing you to let out a little moan. He took the opportunity to shove his tongue in your mouth, exploring every inch of it.

You furiously both grabbed at one another, as if any second one of you would disappear. His hand gripped your jaw, turning your head away from him. Within seconds, his lips were back on you, leaving soft kisses along your neck. Occasionally, he would bite at your sensitive skin, sucking it right after to soothe the slight pain.

"God, you're driving me absolutely insane." He mumbles against your skin.

You softly moaned, "Mmm, I need you so bad, daddy."

You calling him that flipped a switch in him, and now all he wanted to do was completely wreck you. His dick was literally throbbing, begging for relief. He pulled away from you, his hands immediately tugging your shirt over your head and throwing it to the floor. Your bra following seconds later.

His mouth quickly travelled down your neck and chest, taking one nipple in his mouth while his hand tweaked the other one. You were letting out little whimpers, tugging him impossibly closer. You swiftly lifted his shirt, adding it to the growing pile of clothing on the floor.

You couldn’t help but take a moment to admire him. He was truly something else. His longish hair a bit messy from your wandering hands, his chain sitting perfectly against his chest, his tattoos scattered all over his arm, the growing beard on his chin. His pupils were blown out, hardly any blue showing as he stared at you with nothing but lust in his eyes. His lips were swollen and red from your feverish kisses.

All of him was turning you on more and more by the second.

He thought the same thing about you. He loved the way your skin flushed under his touch, how your breathing was slightly rapid from your heavy kissing. He loved how you looked at him with your big doe eyes, looking completely innocent when he knew you were far from it. He couldn’t wait to destroy you.

His lips quickly met yours again, and his hands went down to your jeans. In one swift motion, he had them unbuttoned and down your legs. As you kicked them and your shoes off, he started removing his own, leaving him in his boxers.

His dick was struggling in his boxers, begging to be let loose. You reached your hand out and palmed him through the thin fabric, causing him to sharply inhale as he grabbed your wrist.

His lips trailed down your neck once more, marking you up as he went. You could hear his little moans as he was close to your ear, and you almost came right then and there. He sounded so heavenly.

“Take these off.” You state, tugging on his boxers.

As he did so, you copied his actions, leaving you both naked. He stepped back from you for a second, taking in your appearance. You looked so good to him, he could feel his dick twitching.

Not wasting another second, he yanked you towards him by your neck and slammed his lips into yours. Your tongues were gliding together so perfectly, needing one another. He swiftly lifted you up, carrying you over to the dresser. He set you on it and began working down your body once again.

“Please.” You moaned out as his mouth worked on your nipples again.

“Use your words, princess.” He mutters into your skin.

“Please. Fuck me, daddy, please.” You begged. “I need you inside me.”

“Such a filthy slut.” He moans out, grabbing his dick and putting it at your entrance.

He swiped it between your folds, coating it in your arousal. He brought his other hand down, gliding a finger through your juices, causing you to let out a few moans. When he pulled his hand away, a string of wetness followed, and he couldn’t help but suck on his finger, savoring the way you tasted. Your jaw dropped at the sight, he looked magnificent. He pulled your legs farther apart, propping your feet up on the end of the dresser before ramming into you with his dick.

“Oh, fuck.” You moan out, tossing your head back.

He gave you a couple of slow thrusts before he picked up the pace and starting fucking you fast and hard. His dick was so big, hitting you in all the right places. Your mouth fell agape as multiple pornographic like moans fell from it, only encouraging him even more.

“God, I’ve been wanting to do this for so long. I knew you’d feel so good around my cock, princess.” He moaned, his lips meeting yours once again.

His thrusts were lethal, fucking into you so perfectly, you were a moaning mess under him.

“You’re taking me so well, baby.”

Your hands went down his back, nails digging into his skin in a sense of stability. You were quickly coming undone.

“Mm, baby. You’re so wet for me. Daddy’s little slut.”

The way he was talking to you was enough to send you over the edge. Your legs were shaking as you clenched around him, a loud moan escaping your mouth.

“Look at you, cumming without permission.” He teased, pinching your nipples.

You were a mess, but he still kept fucking you. Not even just for his own release, he was determined to make you cum again. He lifted your legs up, pushing them against your chest so he could fuck deeper. And he sure was, deeper than ever.

“Ahh fuck!” You scream, your face twisting in pleasure.

“Touch yourself for me, baby.” He moans out, watching you intently.

As he continued pumping in and out of you, you held eye contact with him, bringing your hand up to his mouth. Putting two fingers against his lips, he brought them in and sucked on them, lubricating them for you. After they were drenched in his saliva, you brought them down to your clit and slowly began rubbing it, all while holding eye contact.

“Fuck.” He groaned, fucking you impossibly faster as he watched you. “You listen so well, princess.”

You were a puddle beneath him, rubbing yourself in fast, tight circles. Your face contorted, eyebrows furrowed and eyes clenched shut, as you neared your climax.

“Open your eyes, baby. I want you to look me in the eyes when you cum on my cock.”

You both were moving at fast paces, nothing but pleasure coursing through the both of you. It felt so intimate as the two of you locked eyes, pleasure plastered over both of your faces.

“Fuck, daddy, you fuck me so good.” You moaned, tossing your head back for a moment.

“I know you’re almost there, baby. You’re so close.” He whispers, his hand gripping around your neck. “Let go, baby. Cum for me, cum all over daddy’s cock.”

Your legs shook as you tightened around him, one of your hands gripping his bicep while the other rubbed your clit in fast circles. Everything went white, your hearing going in and out as you released. You felt pure bliss, cumming all over his dick.

“Look at you, such a good girl for me, princess.”

You had to pull your hand away from your pussy as it was beginning to become to much for you. However, he had other thoughts and placed his hand back on your clit, rubbing his thumb over it. You were quivering underneath him, unable to control the shaking of your body and the noises that came from your mouth as you squirted all over. You were completely losing yourself to him and he loved every bit of it. So much that it brought him over the edge and he shot his load into you with a loud moan.

“Baby, you’re so fucking sexy.” He pants, out of breath as he fucked his nut into you. “You made such a mess, I love it.”

Your face heated up as you looked at the puddle beneath you and the wetness all over his thighs and stomach. He actually made you squirt, and it felt so fucking good.

After a moment of gathering your breaths and coming down from your highs, he finally pulls out and plants a sweet kiss to your lips.

“I knew you loved me.” You grinned at him.

He playfully rolls his eyes and slumps against you, placing a few more kisses all over your face. “Yeah, yeah. Shut up.”

—

a/n : sozzz, not proofread but what’s new? xD ugh i love me some matthew, i wanna b his cumslut so bad 😫😫😫😫 brb while i go nut. &&& request sum shizzz xx

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pynkhues · 10 months

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Important succession question: was Nate dating Shiv first and then became friends with Kendall or was Nate friends with Kendall and then started dating Shiv? I cannot express how much both options fascinate me

Anon, this is a question that lives rent free in my head! One of the things I find especially interesting is that Tom actually knows him as a friend of Kendall's before he knows he's anything to Shiv at all. Like this:

Happens before this:

Which kind of does make it seem like maybe Kendall's talked about Nate in more contexts than Shiv has, which is particularly interesting given Kendall seemingly didn't mention that he dated his sister, haha.

But yes! As to who met who first, I think there are two questions that really impact how you can speculate that: first, what you think the age gap between Shiv and Kendall is (I'm a golden-trio-are-close-in-age truther, so I tend to put it as four years max), and when you think Kendall was in Shanghai.

The latter question is one I've seen contested a lot - I know a few people who think it was probably after rehab as a sort of exile like Roman being sent to LA was / an extension of 'you send the weak one away', but I actually think the show kind of gave us the answer for that when Logan was seriously looking to bring Shiv into the company.

I strongly suspect that he's basing that loosely off what he took Kendall through, minus a few things (like we know that Kendall got his MBA at Harvard and that he interned at Logan's papers, because he mentions it in Dundee, etc.) and likely with a condensed timeline just because of Kendall and Logan's respective ages at the time Kendall was going through it.

In my master timeline that I'll one day actually post, haha, I tend to put Kendall as having been born in 1979/1980 (s1 of the show is specifically set in 2018, and Kendall turns 40 in s3 which I think is meant to be roughly a year later). If that's the case, I think an estimate of Kendall's professional history would be:

at Harvard 1997-2002

Starting at Waystar and learning from Gerri/Baird/Frank/Karl for probably a few years, not one, lets say three or four, so that takes us through to about 2006. Kendall marries Rava in about 2004 too, so that fits neatly into this period as well.

Shanghai maybe 2007-2008

UK for a while, let's say through 2010.

Back for six months of management training

In roughly 2011 he's shadowing his father

2015 we know was rehab, which was a spanner in the works.

Then 2016-2018 was him back to shadowing his father with the view to take over.

That would put Kendall at about 28 while they were in Shanghai, and then poses the new question of how you think Kendall met Nate if not through Shiv.

I don't think Nate ever worked at Waystar, because I think it would've come up, so that's off the table. If you go with my rough estimate of Shiv being about 24 then, she would've graduated college herself and maybe met Nate interning then connected him and Ken when Ken was alone in Shanghai, but that doesn't really seem like something Shiv would do. Nate could've gone to college with either one of them too, but then that doesn't seem to really fit with the way he's talked about either.

I tend to lean towards Kendall knowing Nate first, and I tend to think they probably actually met in Shanghai? Given Nate's career path, I think you could make the argument that he was working somewhere like the US Embassy & Consulate in Shanghai which would make sense as to why Gil hired him and also put him pretty neatly in Kendall's orbit both professionally and personally.

After that, I kind of think it would be a pretty clear path as to Shiv meeting him, especially because Kendall's the only one who really seems to bring outsiders-in in that way like he's done with Stewy, Jess and Naomi.

But of course, that's a lot of speculation, haha. It's a really fun one to think about though - the show does such an awesome job of just dropping in these details that hint at so much storyworld.

What do you think though?

#i think if nate worked at the embassy too it would've been like #the sort of neat strategic thing which made kendall feel like he was playing logan correctly #which also makes sense for that sort of time period #nate sofrelli #kendall roy #shiv roy #tom wambsgans #kendall + nate #nate + shiv #hbo succession #succession meta #speculation #welcome to my ama

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soda-cherry · 25 days

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BONFIRE🪵

One shot

summary- You and the triplets have been best of friends since you were 3… You may even seem “sister like” to them. But what happens when one day at the beach there’s more flames than just the bonfire.

Contains: nothing sexual, a little bit of fluff. Chris x female reader

Me and the boys decided to hang out with Nate today. We all decide to go to the beach for the sunset every time we have the chance. This time was different.

————————🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒————————

I’m in Nicks room packing a small beach bag with a towel and a hoodie for when it eventually gets dark and the breeze hits a bit more. Chris is sat on his bed on his phone playing with his hair, while nick and Matt are bickering between if Nate gets shotgun of the passenger seat. I decided to try on my new baby pink bikini since I haven’t got the chance to wear it out yet. I look up in the mirror as I see Chris quickly look down in my reflection with a flush of red covering his cheeks.

“GUYS HURRY THE FUCK UP WERE GONNA MISS THE SUNSET” I hear Matt scream from downstairs, keys rattling in his hand. I quickly grab my towel completely missing my bag as I snap out of my trance hearing a pair of echoey footsteps make their way down the stairs. All five of us laughing making our way to the car. Nick won the argument. Obviously. It’s always been hard to win a debate against Nick. Everyone’s known that since the 4th grade so no one even tried once he had his mind set to something to even ATTEMPT to change it. He hops in the passenger seat quickly connecting to aux before anyone can say anything as Matt climbs in the car like he’s been ready to go for the last 30 minutes. I get wedged between Nate and Chris in the back as they spread out their legs leaving mine right together in the middle. Matt is focused on driving occasionally looking in the mirror at Nate since him and Nick are bickering over what song to play. Eventually bonfire by childish Gambino fills up the speakers of the car as they carry on debating which artists are better than one another. Chris is to the left of me looking out the window as he watches the sky get darker before it sets. I can tell he’s admiring every second of it because it’s not often they come back from LA to Boston to enjoy moments like this. I’ve noticed my legs slipped loose and became more relaxed as mine and Chris’s knees are now touching and are closer than usual. I shake my head snapping myself out of it because why am I thinking that now? we’re all as close as ever and I’ve never even thought about little touches like that before?

Matt parks up the car as we all get out as quickly as we could and make our way towards the beach. There’s about 20 small groups of people spread out the beach making their own bonfires and s’mores as several channels of quiet music is heard all over the beach. We find a spot and decide to dump our stuff there before all getting in the ocean. Nick and Matt are having their own conversation on who can make the better s’mores while me Nate and Chris are all giggling at the constant digs they throw at each other. Nate eventually interrupts as me and Chris are now in our own conversation. His words are going straight through my head and I notice the slight appearance of his blue swimming shorts under the water. His flushed red cheeks from the heat and i can tell he’s caught the sun a lot. The way his chain is sat around his neck as the small wet hairs are sticking to his forehead as small droplets of water fall off.

and then I was like HOW ARE YOU NOT GOING TO LIKE LIL SKIES HES LIKE THE BEST ARTI-“

“Did you forget to put sunscreen on?” I interrupt him making him immediately un tense from his small rant he was on about before.

“ Oh yeah I forgot to put some on before I left” he let out a small laugh.

“I can tell because your nose and cheeks look a bit burnt” I laugh back in response with him.

Eventually it’s just silent and we can still hear the continuous bickering from the three boys next to us about completely random topics. We shared eye contact for what felt like forever but it was almost comforting in a way. I try to snap out of it again as I realise I’m scanning over all of his features trying to think of something to say.

“The colour pink really suits you” I smile at him as he quickly says “well your bikini really suits your figure- I mean like not in that way- not like you took it in that way but it makes you look really nice like”

He takes a big sigh and almost sounds defeat “sorry I like just wanted to say you look really good” I slowly smiled and nodded as my cheeks fell pink making a clear difference between the sunburn I originally had as I watch him try to get his words out, nervously cutting himself off every other word. “ Thank you Chris, I think you look really good too” i give him a warm reassuring smile as he looks completely confused that I even responded and didn’t just swim away. I don’t know what he’s expecting me to do because obviously I find him attractive. Id be stupid to say I didn’t.

“ GUYS CMON LETS GO MAKE SMORES” I hear Nate yell already making his way back to the front of the beach. We all quickly make our way back craving the s’mores as the water made us all super hungry. I walk back next to Nick laughing about old stories we shared here as kids as Matt and Chris race to see who can get to our patch the fastest. We all eventually sit down as Me and Nate begin to make the fire as the three boys start gathering everything ready to make them. Me and Nate share a small handshake we made in the 7th grade because we finally got the fire to start while everyone is celebrating because they know how dumb Nate and I can be when we work together. They sometimes ‘joke’ and say we share half a breaking combined.

We all set our towels down and begin to sit on them as Nick hands out all the things we need. I sat down next to Chris as all 5 of us are staring at the sky as the contrasting colours of pink,yellow and orange fills our eyes. We’re all sharing and laughing at memories we shared here as kids and Nick tells the group the ones we were both laughing about previously. The suns pretty much set now as we all turn our attention back to the small fire which had surprisingly not gone out yet. The wind starts to pick up a small bit. I turn to my right Chris was already staring at me. I realise I had forgotten my bag but I don’t say anything other than give him a light smile and turn my head back to the fire as I make Nick put my s’more together because I can never seem to do it properly without it breaking.

Everyone is stuck in their own conversations, or debates I should call them again. I feel a heavy fabric land on my thighs as i snap my head to the right. Mine and Chris’s faces are now inches away from each other. I throw a confused expression at him and he gives me a light smile in return. “I seen you left without your bag” he raises his eyebrows as i throw a small dig at him in response. “Didn’t know you watched every move I make” I say back cockily as I throw the oversized hoodie over my head. “Thanks” i roll my eyes at him as I see him still staring at me still giggling at my response to himself with a small smile tugging his lips.

Once all the marshmallows are finished we watch the fire go out just sat enjoying each others company, because it’s rare that the boys come back and visit me and Nate back home in Boston. Tiredly we all stand up and slowly make our way back to the car slumping ourselves back into the same positions we were in before.

The sky was pretty much pitch black as nicks music quietly played in the back round eyes glued to his phone trying to keep himself awake. Nate’s hat was propped up on his head in a way the front of his eyes were covered as he had his arms crossed and eyes most likely closed under it. Matts eyes focused on the road per usual not missing a single turn home on the busy roads which took us longer than usual to get back. I lean my body into Chris as my eyes fell heavy resting my head on his shoulder into the crook of his neck. He leaned into me a bit more swinging his arm around the back of me to make me lay more comfortably. I feel his eyes slowly glance at me every once in a while as mine finally shut. I wasn’t asleep yet but I couldn’t keep them open anymore.

All of the windows were rolled down as the hot hair filled the car making everyone feel even more exhausted. I feel Chris’s hand move the pieces of my hair out of my face as he pulls me in a bit tighter than he ever has before. I feel a light peck on my head which immediately turned the sickness from the heat in my stomach to intense butterflies. He thought I was asleep or I would’ve grabbed his face and kissed him then and there. I eventually drifted off to the sound of drowned out music and other cars passing by on the road. How long has he been waiting to do this?

AUTHORS NOTE- hey guys this is my first time writing.Please give recommendations and just remember you are loved.💋

#chris sturniolo #nick sturniolo #matt sturniolo #sturniolo #sturniolo triplets #fluff #nate doe #oneshot #beach

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equallyshaw · 1 year

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something borrowed - nathan mackinnon (feat. erik johnson and ryan graves)

- based off the movie of the same name + my own plot changes

- Warnings: swearing. angst. ej is annoying in this, i apologize. just a character. also lili is a bimbo blonde in this, kinda like in the movie. no hate against any blondes, just mirroring the movie. there is a not so friendly joke, so please be advised. itll be in bold so you can skip over. ALSO, this movie is so chaotic and all over the place...this is all over the place and chaotic lol

- shoutout to @pucksalotguys for supporting this and giving me feedback :)

Word Count: 5.7k+ this is a long one, so much to upack.

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tessa burns grew up around some of the greats in nova scotia, canada. aka, sid the kid, brad marchand, andrew cogliano and ryan graves to name a few. her older brothers played hockey ofcourse and so she was always around the rink at all hours. always had a chirp or two to throw out as she left the arena with them. despite growing up in nova scotia, she never met nathan mackinnon until they both went to shattuck st marys for highschool and hockey. they instantly connected, over hockey, nova scotia, bad breakups and the undying need to be the best. though, he was more hard core than she ever was; in her defense.

tessa was never alone growing up, despite have four brothers before her. she had her best friend ryan graves, grew up right down the block. always had a bad joke, always had a smart and witty comment to make. one that would rock you to your core. she also had her best friend liliana who was a blonde goddess. a 5'8 blonde, taller goddess. one that all the guys went after. one that swore she gave up toronto university just so they could both go to univeristy of british columbia. one that guilt tripped her left and right, but she was liliana. ofcourse, she couldn't 'drop' her. that was her girl, and there was no way she could do that to her closest confidant besides ryan. ryan saw how shitty liliana treated her, how liliana made sure she was the center of the attention. always. ryan always knew about tessa having the huge crush and ever lasting love for nathan, though he was lilianas. she had been for the past three years. so ryan watched as tessa looked on from the bench, what else could she do? so she wallowed in her own guilt, pity and anger of not saying anything before to nate. though it was too late, they were to bed wed in the middle of august before they would flee to california for a week then back to denver.

°• ♔ •°

tessa walked into the restaurant and her eyes went wide, taking in the 'surprise' 28th birthday part; liliana had thrown for her. it was june 24th right after the seaosn had ended, but on without a cup. not this year. tessa smiled fakely as lili cheered and wrapped her arms around her best friend, sister even. "honeybug happy birthday!" she screamed, using an old childhood nickname that should have never see the light of day; even when she was 6. "thanks lili." she responded cooly, hugging her friend back. some of her closest friends were here, well lili's too. wherever tessa went, lili did too and vice versa. she smiled at her brothers who came up, wrapping her in a family hug. "hi guys.." she smiled, one that didn't reach her eyes. "hey tess, mom and dad say sorry for not being here." the oldest, billy explained and she nodded. british columbia was more importnant it seemed.

"AYYYYY KIDDO!!" she heard the ever popular and familiar voice of brad marchand. she turned and grinned at the brother like man and hugged him. then she hugged his wife charlotte, "thankyou guys for coming!" she beamed, holding onto her left arm. "ofcourse! we wouldn't miss it for the world hun." his wife smiled and tessa nodded. "hey bobby orr!" she heard the captains voice from behind her, and tessa turned. she smiled widely for sidney, and hugged him. "hi sid." she mused, pulling away. "got you your fav." he mused, and handed her a cherry vodka. she smiled, thanking him. "where the hell is nate?" she heard him mutter under his breathe. she felt her heart rate pick up, covering it up with a small smile. "do you know where ryan is?" she questioned and speak of the devil, he walked up behind sid. he clasped a hand on sid's shoulder and they did a bro hug before sid sauntered off to find his best friend.

"nice surprise face." he smirked leaning in and she rolled her eyes. "dont tell her please!" she begged her best friend, brother even. he nodded smiling, "ofcourse not. that would ruin her, i think." he trailed off as they caught her making a scene. she saw nate behind her, smiling up at her as she said a joke and laughed loudly. oh, the ever enigma stealing the spotlight once again. "i don't think she's capable of NOT having the attention on her..even if it's your birthday. by the way, happy birthday sis." he smirked and she gave him a wink. "oh thankyou, thought you wouldn't say it for a sec." she grinned and he stuck out his tongue. "uh huh." he sighed, sipping his whiskey and looking back at lili. she rubbed her temple, before looking around. "love how its mainly her frineds." she muttered, feeling angry at herself. again, another birthday and she had no new friends. and everyyear, lili had more and more.

"hey, stop. dont feel bad for yourself. she's a lot to deal with." he mused, almost as if it was an insult. but tessa, knew exactly what he meant. "honeybug!" she heard the very immature nickname and rolled her eyes which ryan caught; as she turned around with a fake smile. "what?" she asked, with a fake giggle as lili rushed up to her with a tall guy. "i want you to meet somebody!" she grinned, pulling her towards the guy. "ej this is tessa. tessa this is erik johnson or ej as we call him." she smiled, as if she was cupid herself. "birthday gal!" he said loudly, causing lili to laugh loudly once again as he pulled tessa in for a bear hug. "ah hi." she said, unsure of what to do. she stood there, frozen. felt like she had been violted in a way, but it wasn't that deep she reminded herself. "you guys are so cute together!" was all lili said before waltzing off to give nate a kiss.

tessa sighed, looking around, trying to not ficate on ej himself. the very tall, and muscular man in front her of. with 3 front teeth missing, like a little kid. "how'd you lose your teeth?" she asked randomly and he laughed a hearty laugh. he explained in a unnceccesary 10 minute story before they were interrupted by nathan. she gave him a thankful smile that he could decode, and nodded. "i think cale is in the back over there." nate said through gritted teeth. ej nodded, giving the birthday gal a kiss on her cheek to which she instantly wiped off. ej left, and left a chuckling nate in his path. "you have a great poker face burnsy." he mused, sipping his beer. she looked at him, acting as if she didn't. he met her eye, before she could spit out words. he gave her a charming smile and laughed. "i would never tell lili." he joked, and tessa sighed looking down at her almost empty drink. "tess-" nate said but she cut him off. "its all good. im gonna go find ryan." she said without looking at him as she walked past him, and away.

minutes later, lili yelled over on the microphone to get her cute butt up there. "honeybug, baby, get your cute butt up here!" she joked, causing everybody to laugh. nate searched for her, and she appeared after ryan pushed her to the front. "dont keep cruelle waiting." he muttered for only her to hear. she sighed as lili smiled at her, dotingly. "honeybug. happy birthday. so thankful for you every day." she smiled, an erupture of 'aws' filled the room. tessa blushed, "tessa gosh, where do i begin?" she said, almost acting. she looked up at the ceiling, pretending to wipe away any tears. "phew, my botox is really holding up.." she trailed off joking causing some uncomfortable and comfortable laughter to erupt. ryan from next to her, hit her shoulder and she laughed.

"tessa, tess, burnsy honeybug, my platonic soulmate..gosh we've been through it all! from kindergarton when i pushed ryan down the slide for cutting us off on the playground.." she began as the photos began on the slideshow, showing the two and then the trio of chaos. "god, we were the trio of chaos. tessa, ryan and i. i don't know how ryan put up with us, to be honest. or how he still does." she joked. "she was with me through my first breakup in 6th grade..i was a mess! let me tell you. we watched the holiday and the he's just not that into you SO many times with lots of popcorn, oreos and icecream." she explained, showing some photos of their teenage years. "heres us at prom. ryan said 'fuck it' im taking you to prom honeybug. awe SO cute!" she said doing a little hop. "then miss burnsy went off to shattuck, fucking shattuck oh my god. if i have to hear about one more hockey player that to shattucks im gonna pull my hair out. o.m.g." she said laughing along with everybody else. "then fucking gravy went off to shattucks and so i was left alone." she began, something she never got over. something she held over them, and still guilt tripped them about. "i was not a hockey player, thankgod! i was all about makeup and clothes and cheerleading. and they weren't there to witness me win state but i witnessed them play for team canada. what assholes." lili had the audience in the palm of her hands. they were eating this up. though ryan, sid, her brothers and nate all cringed throughout.

"but anywho, after i notably declined ivy league university of toronto to go to university of BC with my honeybug..ryan went to some place called denver." she added the last part with everybody hollering now. though it wasn't a joke really, she was purely an idiot. “then we graduated, and then it was really real that we were gonna be seperated for real this time. miss barnsy got into john marshall law school in chicago, and i was incredibly sad when i started working in toronto. but only 512 miles away from one another." she paused, waving a small wave. "and after a year into living into chicago, you introduced me to the absolute love of my life." she pasued, blowing a kiss to nate. he smiled shyly, and looked down embarrassed a tad bit. "thanks for hiding him for so long hun." she dazzled the crowd. "and now were getting married, thanks to you!" she smiled widely. "bubba as much as i love you, tessa girl has been my one constant my whole life."

she turned towards tessa now, ""you're the the sister i've never had, you're sometimes the mother i often need, the reason why i can stumble so fearlessly into adventure is because she's always there. she's always there. i love you tessa. my forever honeybug." she beamed, and the crowd clapped. "bubba!" she said, out of the microphone and made her way towards nate. she wrapped his arms around the girl and kissed her head. tessa watched from afar, and ryan nudged her to look away. "lets get you another drink..after that." sid mused, pulling her towards the bar.

later on in the evening, it was now ryan, nate, lili and tessa left. ryan was holding lili as they all waited outside the restaurant now on the almost desolate street. "oh fuck- i forgot my bag!" lili said slurrely. nate and tessas head perked up and both went to say something, "take her to the hotel. we will be there soon." nate said before tessa could say for him to go back with her. the duo nodded and the other two made there way back inside. "was it the vintage chanel?" nate questioned and tessa laughed, a true and real hearty laugh. "nathan...aren't you the one who got it for her?" she said cocking an eyebrow as she held it up. nate sighed a relief, snatchingit from her. they looked at one another, and nate saw something twinkle. "lets get one more drink." he mused, pulling her down the street to the bar next door.

one drink turned into four more, and somehow someway; though they knew how it happened. they ended up in her small apartment there in toronto. for the first time in their entire relationships, they had acted on that part of their feelings. though, they thought it was more the alcohol than anything.

°• ♔ •°

ryan, sid, ej, their other friend maria, liliana and tessa found themselves in st john on the coast of newfoundland. the five of them walked into the lake house, that they were staying at for the next week. nate and lili walked hand in hand, lili doting on him that made ryan want to vomit. "bubba...please?" she asked with puppy eyes, begging him to take her shopping on the mainland. he sighed, instantly giving into her. lili clapped her hands together, and ej high fived her for some odd reason. "you go girl!" he hummed, sitting down in the living room sofa and propping his feet on the table. tessa stopped unable to move anymore, because of ej's hockey bag and suitcase that was in the way. she gave him a scowl, nobody noticing but ryan ofcourse. "ej..bags please." ryan spoke up and ej hopped up, muttering an apology. "its ok." she smiled, and simply stated. tessa made her way up the stairs, as ryan went towards the first floor room. she got to the second floor, and nate instantly grabbed her bags. "oh thanks." she hummed, following him to the bedroom next to theirs. "thanks." she smiled, and he nodded. very unsure of what to do. things were kinda awkward after they slept together, but she made him forget about it. made him, and he promised her. "yeah. no prob." he responded, as she sat down on the bed. his eyes flicked to her's from the doorway before lili came up and smiled.

"shopping?" she grinned, and then motioned towards nate with her eyes. tessa shook her head no, "im gonna take a nap." she said cooly and the two nodded. lili pulled nate away before he could say bye. tessa sighed, laying down on her back. "hey barnsy, wanna come swimming?" she heard the voice of ej and she perched herself onto her elbows. he took in her stance, and angle she saw him check her out. she shivered and sat up all the way. "im okay. thanks though." she responded and he nodded, giving her a toothy smile before he ran off. she shut her door, silently cursing herself. this was going to be a long trip.

°• ♔ •°

the following day, the group decided they were going to play volleyball. just unsure when. before they made there way to the beach, ryan pulled tessa into her bedroom. "spill." he demanded crossing his arms as she sat on the bed. she shrugged, "tell you what?" she asked. he gave her a blank stare, "i know what youre hiding honeybug." he stated and she gritted her teeth. "nothing im hiding nothing." she spat, standing up and walked over towards the double window french doors to the balcony. she instantly found nate's broad shoulders, strong back and dirty blonde hair of his. she stared at him, as lili spoke to him from the pool with ej. ej and her were splashing one another now, and she could tell that nate wanted to be anywhere but there. "that. you are hiding that, tessa." ryan said from behind her, freaking her out. she must of timed out, watching him. she shook her head, looking out towards the beach now. "no its true. i could tell at breakfast. im not an idiot." he said, checking his hip with hers. "well i could say the same about you and maria..." she mused coyly, before giggling as she walked out of the room. "oh god no, if i ever have to be at the same table especially at their wedding, im killing them before they leave for cali." ryan mused making tessa laugh even more. "you two totally slept together!" he whispered yelled and she whipped around to face him. "oh thats gold." he said chuckling. she shook her head as he nodded hers.

"im not an idiot, i know you did. now it makes sense." he said as a wave of realization washed over him. as he placed his hands behind his head, laying down on her bed he asked, "you totally did..more than once?" he asked like a child, he couldn't contain his excitement. she combed back her hair, trying to calm herself down. "oh my god, twice?" he asked, getting excited more. she looked at him through the bedroom mirror and he started to laugh. "oh my god." he said abruptly stopping, "lili, oh my god, she's gonna flip." he said seriously before laughing. "its not funny!" she said pulling a pillow towards her from the bed and hitting him. "this is rich barnsy!!!! you have to say something to nate, i see it eating you two up." he exclaimed and she shook her head, a wave of guilt and sadness washed over her pale face. "no, its already been decided that we aren't to speak of it ever again." she stated before walking out.

breakfast.

tessa sat down next to nate by accident, as she sat their reading the newspaper. he met her eyes, over the newspaper, when she looked at him. she whisked her eyesight away and focused on transporting the fruit to her plate. "listen..tess. we need to talk-" she cut him off with a glare. "no, we do not. we already have. we can't hurt lili more than we already have." she hurriedly said. he swallowed back what he was going to say, and nodded. "never. again." she said through gritted teeth before meeting his eyes. god, those blue eyes that transported her back to shattucks. god, how she loved them.. ej bolted outside with coffee, and threw down a iced coffee for the brunette. a black coffee for nate. "oh yay coffee's here!" lili said walking out with pancakes. ej sat across next to lili who sat across from tessa. tessa swallowed, as she could feel the intense stare ej was giving her. nate coughed, breaking ej's concentration and ej looked away. maria sat down next to ej and he smiled at her. "morning." he smirked and maria gave him a polite smile, before noticebly scooting her chair a few inches away. ryan finally walked out and sat down next to tessa. "gravy finally arrives, nice. we can begin." lili said in her fake polite voice, clearly annoyed with ryan. per usual. "sorry princess, forgot the world and time revolved around you. what a keeper nate." raya huffed, and lili squinted at him while nate rubbed his eyes.

“okay gravy, atleast i have some sort of schedule going. arent you a hockey player? it looks like you haven't done anything to combat your croissants and poutine eating." she spat, (trigger warning) softly grabbing her stomach. he flipped her off, causing ej to laugh loudly. nate looked at him with a intense stare, one tessa hadn't seen for a few years. it was almost, like his old self had flared for a hot second. before it cooled. "atleast i dont spend somebody else's hard earned money." ryan muttered, and lili picked that up. "well, atleast he has somebody to spend it on. dont ya honey?" she smiled a dazziling smile, placing a arm over nate's shoulder and kissing him. ryan pointed a finger in his mouth and faked gagged causing tessa to stifle a laugh. "besides, i always tell nate to help out tessa but she always says no." lili added, sipping her coffee. tessa set down her fork, "how many times do i have to tell you that i dont want or need his money." she explained once again. "i am comfortable, i dont need a lot. besides-" lili cut her off, "youre due for a promotion anyways!" she clasped her hands together and tessa shook her head.

"no, not what i was gonna say but thats true. i like the life i live, and i love the work i do lili. i dont need anybody's money, especially not his." she defended and they all sat up with the 'not his' part. ryan took in the quick look nate and tessa shared, one without words but words. "what i mean is that, he's my friend, that just feels weird." she added and they nodded. "besides, more for me!" lili hummed, kissing nate again. tessa picked up her fork and took a strong bite of her strawberry.

After.

the group were outside on the beach, hitting the volleyball to warm up. it was ej and tessa, lili and nate. while ryan and maria sat out. "ouuu! we should play a game!" lili beamed with mimosa in her hand. "yes!" ej said loudly, pointing at her. "how about everytime we get a point, one of us on the winning point tells a secret!" lili said with a grin, causing ej to grin wickledly and laugh. "no i dont-" "lets not -" nate and tessa said at the same time. "oh come on! itll be fun!" lili said pouting. "yeah, itll be fun!" ryan added, and tessa glared at him. "ej im in, youre out." ryan said and ej nodded, as they switched positions. "ryan!" she whispered yelled at him, and he smirked. "it has to come out eventually babe." he smiled and placed a quick kiss on her head. nate looked over, and saw what was going on. he knew ryan knew, even without ryan confirming.

“ry!" she said before lili hit the ball to him, him to nate and back to ryan. that happend over and over. ryan won the never ending sequence and chuckled, "oh dont i have a secret!!" he huffed, "tell it tell it!" ej said like a 5 year old. "dont i have a secret." he laughed, and tessa begged him with a pleading look. "no its fine, we don't need to play." nate said trying to get him to not say anyhting. "no this has to be said." ryan exclaimed and lili looked on with excitment, "yes please tell!" she beamed sipping more of her mimosa. "tessa- tessa and-" but he was cut off, as she made he way towards ej - as a distraction - and kissed him. she kissd him hard, pulling him in by his thin shirt. nate and ryan looked on with confusion while lili shrieked with excitemnt. "AHHHH! im cupid!!" she cheered as tessa pulled apart, and walked off. ryan and nate looked at tessa as she stomped away.

tessa continued walking down the beach for 20 minutes more, trying desperately to stop crying. nothing was working. she sniffled, as she sat down and wrapped her arms around her knees. what the fuck did she just do, she thought. ryan made his way over, after the rest of the group went back to the house. "youre an ass." she said boldly, standing up and walking past him. without allowing him to get a word in. "tes-" she cut him off. "how dare you jeoporadize my whole relationship with them? huh?! how you made me kiss ej!" she screamed at him. "i made you kiss him? that was all your doing hun. not mine. youre too scared to admit your true feelings for nate, im not an idiot. you love him. everything makes fucking sense. ever since i first met him when i visited you in minnesota, i saw the way you looked at him and how he looked at you. you fucking fool. you let her snatch him away. you let her win." he screamed.

"she wins everything! she has won everything that has come her way! she gets the guy she gets the house, the unending bank account, her fucking parents are god sends, she got into utoronto with a lower gpa then me!!!! liliana wins everything, that is just how it goes. she wins everything." she whispered the last part, as she fell apart. ryan walked up to her, but she pushed him away. "no." she sniffled as she paused, "dont. just dont. youve done enough." she sighed and walked back up to the house. already packed and ready to go.

°• ♔ •°

the following evening the group was down at a local pub, taking in the drinks and food. tessa sipped her cocktail as maria came up. "ryan will never like me, right?" she stated and tessa did a double take at her. maria already knew, "im sorry maria. he doesn't like you that way and probably wont ever." she said softly. maria nodded, " its fine." maria responded before walking off. that was how it will be with nate, tessa thought. she looked in the distance and saw nate and lili bickering about something, before she walked off to dance with ej. nate rolled his eyes and turned around to the bar and met tessa's stare. she swallowed, grabbing her bag and walking out. she walked outside to the rain, and she felt her arm being grabbed. "tessa dont go!" nate pleaded. she shook her head, as she was being drenched.

“then leave her. leave her, and be-" he cut her off. "be with you? i cant, tess. i just cant." he stated and she nodded. "becasue it wouldnt look good, huh? im not exactly a trophy wife and im fine with that. but....but atleast ill be happy. at some point." she mused, and turned around. "im sorry tess. i really am." he stated and she stopped middway. she turned around and hurried towards him. "i should of gone back for you." she began, "i should if let you walk me home that night in denver. i should have let you done a lot of things but i was scared. i was nervous. i was scared into thinking that you could possibly like me." she exclaimed. "i should have never told you to stay with her, then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation now." she stated, finishing her tangent. he shook his head, "you were always enough tess. always, there wasn't a moment where i thought otherwise." he began and she felt a beacon of hope flicker through her. "but im with her now." he stated and she felt her heart break even more. she sighed, he took in all her tears. she shook her head, "youre a coward, nathan. a coward." she stated promptly. "but ill be happy, ill be incredibly happy without you." she stated, before walking off. nate watched as she did, the rain coming down even harder which coincided with her mood. nate really watched as the love of his life walked away for him, for good.

°• ♔ •°

there was a knock at her apartment door around 2pm. she closed her book and walked towards it, opening it to nathan. she tried to close it, but he quickly stopped it. "what nate?" she demanded, placing a hand on her hip. she shook her head when he said nothing, "we broke up. i - i thought about what you said and it's true. i won't be happy with her, how i'd be happy with you." he began and she shook her head sniffiling. "no." she said very warily, her voice cracking. she saw the pleading on her face, and opened her door further to let him in. "i should have never let you walk home that night you introduced us tess. i know that, ive known that but i was too scared to break it off and see what people that follow me would say. you were right, i am a coward. ok? and im sorry that it took me over 10 years to figure it out. im sorry tess, there isn't anybody i'd ever want to be with but you. and then we, and then we slept together and i knew i was doomed. i knew her's and i's relationship was doomed." he finished and she looked at the ground. she wiped her tears, looking back up at him. "i want you, always and forever." he stated, with much emotion. "i - im sorry." she started, "i just dont know. she's my bestfriend." she exclaimed. "i see the way she treats you t." he stated, using a barely used nickname from him. one that dated back to a drunken state moment in highschool.

“i want to, trust me." she sighed and was about to say something else but somebody knocked at her door. "tessa honeybug!!!" they both heard from her door, and she pushed him to go hide. "go go!" she whispered and he disapeared. she opened the door and lili instantly walked in. "i broke up with him!" she stated, and tessa acted surprise. "really?" she questioned and lili nodded sitting down. "i uh, i knew he wasn't the one. after.." she trailed off, unsure how to tell her best friend that she'd been sneaking off with somebody.

"what changed?" tessa asked, nervously. "i met somebody!" she squeled, not bothering to contain her excitement. "i mean, more then met." she added, "well i knew this person, for awhile." she stated. "who?" tessa whispered. "ej." she mouthed. "ej!" she said excitedly. the fuck? "the toothless big foot?" tessa quipped. lili rolled her eyes, "yes him. and i know!" she said. "thats nathan's teammate! lil!" tessa said getting defensive of him. "i know i know but nothing happened until we went to st johns. thats it. nothing before." lili defended. tessa began to pace, "and im in love with him, and i want to be with him." lili stated standing up and beginning to walk out. "i know it'll take you a bit to come around, but please don't tell nate yet. we want to do it together."she said before pausing at the door. tessa's mouth was still open in shock, "oh and dont feel guilty about the kiss. it was humerous." she smirked before walking out. as soon as she did, tessa went to look for nate. somebody knocked on the door again and she opened it to lili. "is that nate's jacket?" she asked, smirking. "wait what? oh- he left it in my car when we got back into toronto." she lied but lili didn't buy it. "no, no. thats not true." she stated, before pushing the door open. "nate! i know youre in here, nate!" she yelled, as tessa shut the door. nate walked out into the living room.

"you asshole!" "my teammate?!" they yelled at one another, "my best friend!!!!" lili threw back at him. "my. teammate." he slithered back. "how could you?" lili, turned towards tessa. "no- no dont go after tess. go after me. she didn't initiate it." lili held her hand up, "stop, dont speak for her." lili spat. lili shook her head at nate, "you know, i hope youre both happy together. i really do." was all lili said before walking out.

"nate-" tessa said but nate shook his head, grabbed his coat and walked out.

°• ♔ •°

tessa mouthed "im sorry" to ryan and he flipped over his card that had her name on it, "me too." and she hugged him. tessa had just flown from toronto to newark to visit ryan. she hadn't seen or talked to him since june and it was now middle of october, hockey season. they drove back to his condo, and the two put her stuff in the guest room. a little while later she walked out into the kitchen and sat down at the counter, as he cooked dinner. "whats for dinner?" she questioned in french. he smiled a toothy smile, "fettuince alfredo." he mused back in french. tessa nodded, grabbing the water bottle he set down on the counter. "what are you doing here?" he asked leaning against it, trying to read her expression. she sighed, "well you know about lili and ej. well nathan was there and lili heard and then he heard her and then when i tried to talk to him, he walked out." she said placing her face in her hands. he saw the stress, anxiety and never faultering love with nate. "have you talked since then?" he asked and she shook her head, "nor lili?" and she shook her head. "im alone." she said before sobbing. he instantly came over and pulled her in for a hug. "shh." he whispered over and over again, trying to comfort her. "youve got me." he said kissing her head. she sniffled, and pulled away. "youve always had me, no matter what." he explained some more, trying to get her to understand.

she looked at him, "always will. and-" he paused laughing nervously. "this is shitty timing but i dont care. ive always been there watching you from the bench, watching lili have something that you didn't. and that hurt me, because i was there the whole time but-" she cut him off, "i never noticed because i wanted him." she finished and he nodded. "im in love with you, and i have been since we were kids." he added and she felt a whiplash of memories hit her. she went through the big and little moments with him, putting the pieces together. he always chose her over lili, and that's why he got so upset with her in st john. "ry-" he cut her off, putting his hands up in innocence. "i know, i know." he said biting the inside of his cheek. "i know ill never be nate. ill never be nate the great. even before, i knew i was never good enough." was all he said before moving back to the stove. tessa sat there and shut her eyes, feeling her emotions consumer her. but they didn't. ryan's phone started to blast, and he looked a the id and saw nate. he rolled his eyes, picking it up.

“hey nate." he stated, and tessa perked up. ryan looked at tessa, "yeah she's actually here. she came to visit." ryan stated with not emotion on his face. "for you, tessa girl." he said locking his phone. "look's like it's time for you to fly to denver...in two hours."

1 year skip.

tessa walked with nate's dry cleaning in her hand as she walked through downtown denver. it was now october, one of the last warm days, and tessa was spending it in the city; working. after everything went down, lili and ej got together as well as nate and tessa. tessa moved in as lili moved out and in with ej. tessa was walking down the street going towards where nate said he'd be for them to drive home together, after she spent the day in the city. she walked down mainstreet and saw a familiar blonde walk past. the both of them paused instantly, turning around to face one another. lili sized tessa up and tessa just smiled. "you look good." tessa said, ever the people pleaser. ever the lili pleaser. lili pushed some hair behind her shoulder and smiled. despite them being in denver, and having their boyfriends be teammates, they stayed away from one another. they didnt talk, and tessa honestly had more friends outside of the wags group. she was only friends with tracy, cales gf and andrew coglianos wife. she was fine with that. nate and ej moved on, but still kept a distance. lili smiled, tilting her head just a bit. "oh." was all she said, before realizing that tessa saw it. "i hope you two are happy." was all lili stated, nodding towards tessa's engagment ring. the two got engaged over the summer right before they came out to denver. tessa smiled with a somewhat of a glow radiating from her, "we are. i am." was all she said. lili nodded, "are you two?" tessa questioned. lili nodded, "yes. we uh, we eloped this summer." she smiled referencing her small and simple ring. so unlike lili, tessa thought. "i know what youre thinking. but i love it. ej seems like a lot and he is in a way, but he's truly simple. i wish; i hope that someday you and nate can see that and hopefully come around. or atleast nate." lili responded and tessa nodded. "me too." tessa smiled, before turning around and continued to walk down main street to the square, where nate was waiting.

nate saw tessa's midlength wavy hair before he saw the rest of her. she was in her usual workday outfit, he pixie black pants clinging to her curves and her white boyfriend shirt untucked. she beamed as soon as she saw him, and he mirrored her. "hi." he mused, wrapping an arm around her back and pecking her. "hi." she said back, as he took the dry cleaning from her along with her work bag, and took her hand in the other. "ready for dinner?" he questioned and she nodded, heels clipping the sidewalk as they went to meet sid who was in the city for a game. where they'd also be asking him if he wanted to be Nate’s best man.

tessa saw her life with nate, she always had despite lili. despite the years spent on the bench, she'd never change it because now she had him. and he had her. she regularly thinks about their first meeting as they plan their wedding, both remembering clearly the outfit she had on. a blue dress. something borrowed from the very beginning.

────────────

wasnt sure how to end but i hope you guys like it!!! despite it's being hella long, i hope you liked the drama :)

@fallinallincurls @erikjohnsons @hockeylvr59 @hockeyboysarehot @cale8makar @makarhughes @starshine-hockey-girl @slafgoalskybaby

#Nathan mackinnon #Nathan mackinnon x oc #nate mackinnon #colorado avalanche #sidney crosby #erik johnson #hockey #nhl #hockey imagine #nhl imagine #hockey oneshot #nhl oneshot #Nathan mackinnon fic #Nathan mackinnon imagine #Nathan mackinnon oneshot #Ryan graves #New Jersey devils

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charlieconwayy · 8 months

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why jay/leia is the intended endgame: an unnecessarily long post

the very obvious answer to this is the whole legacy argument. who didn't know when the character descriptions dropped that those two would be a couple just for the whole "haha the kelsos are still driving the forman women crazy" joke? (which they haven't even made yet, which also makes me think we have in no way seen the last of them. we are DEFINITELY getting an eric freakout) kelso was a joke character nearly his entire stint on t70s. they never portrayed him as a good bf or caring ab . . . well anything other than sex, and then eventually betsy (trans!jay kelso theory?). jay, however, they make a big point of showing/saying that he is not like his dad. there is an entire episode dedicated to red realizing that jay is a good boy and that is not kelso just bc he is a kelso.

this is the jay defining moment for me. i think if they had cast a lesser actor than mace this could've come off as 'haha jay trying to get into leia's pants' but mace delivered it so genuinely and sincerely that it is very clear to me that leia is not going to be someone that jay gets over easily. he's this "reformed playboy," yet we never see him be anything less than a gentleman to leia. i am pointing out this line in particular bc of it's OBVIOUS parallel to eric saying that he needed to go to africa so that he can deserve donna.

i have trauma from the gmw fandom debating to death who the corpanga was supposed to be (as if that was a good thing lmfao) but there is literally no debate that jay/leia is the new donna/eric. jay is the cool hot love interest who centers the neurotic dorky protagonist. plus, i mean, the car scene within the first three episodes? be so serious here.

the show spent sooooo much time on jay and it would be so weird to me if they suddenly were just like "actually nate is the male lead now!" i think he probably got the least amount of screentime of any of the kids.

i know the showrunner came out and said leia needed to find a ~deep connection not built on lust~ and that's where nate came in. i do agree with that to an extent, but nate/leia is clearly just to throw off the viewers. also, nate is the kelso archetype more than jay is, lbr. (i could do an entirely separate blog post on that). yes, nate and leia connected. they were able to confide in each other about their relationship issues. does that mean there's romantic chemistry there? no. it just means that they were there for each other in an important moment.

is a big proponent of leia/jay's relationship built on lust? i would argue moreso on leia's side than jay's, but also, leia didn't like jay bc of his looks. she liked him because he made her feel special and treated her with respect. she liked the kind, sensitive part of him. it was only once they had that moment where she began to ~lust after him. and for anyone to argue that jay's feelings for leia are lust related is fucking stupid because

like jay could get any girl he wants canonically. he likes leia for leia. he likes her for all of her little quirks and flaws. plus there is ANOTHER episode dedicated to her feeling she needs to put out and him saying he only wants what she is comfortable with. c'mon man.

this is not some lust related fling that was built on nothing but mutual attraction. i'm not gonna act like their convos ever get super deep or anything (mainly because we only got ten episodes in season one), but nate/leia rly didn't either. like. they were both just upset about jay and nikki. and then they almost kissed.

are nate and leia probably going to be a focus in season two? oh, for sure. but the obvious endgame is jay and leia.

like be so for real.

i could also talk about the difference in her expressions here for hours but i'll just leave all of this here.

#jay x leia #that 90s show #meta

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phyllistines · 1 year

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Ted Lasso s1e3 Analysis

I recently rewatched the third episode of Ted Lasso’s first season, and I noticed a ton of stuff. I’m gonna preface this by saying I know that trent wasn’t written to come back, and it was in fact James Lance that inspired Jason to add Trent in more, but there are a lot of things that tie back to tedependent, things that show it was here from the beginning, and Jason could have easily decided to just build off of that. Ok, now into this weirdly complicated analysis about nothing at all.

The first season of the show, specifically the first three eps, is dedicated to introducing what’s important to ted. Of course every first season of every show ever is for introducing characters, but there is a clear effort in the first three episodes to showcase what will motivate ted and what will be important to him.

first ep: beard,(his friendship with him) and his job

second ep: rebecca, family, the team

third ep: team functioning properly, friendships, trent

immediately trent is established as something important to the show and to ted. the first big (one on one) interaction between them is literally a date. besides that, it’s the first time we see trent (sort of) drop his guard. the reason for this is the spicy food, it catches trent off guard, and distracts him enough to not only stop talking about journalism, but actively struggle to talk about work. it’s a forced type of opening up, and it’s barely anything at all, but it is still there. it’s almost foreshadowing, the way trent is forced to drop his journalist facade when around ted can point to how he later fully drops it on purpose. there are some other themes that loosely tie back to season three as well, specifically the next episode (ep 9 as of writing this). The main conflict between roy and ted in s1e3 is about ted refusing to stop jamie from picking on nate. the fighting is the main story w roy and ted in the episode, and it eventually leads to ted and trent bonding. trent even chimes in to a convo between roy and ted to add some clarification. the next episode could really lead to some classic tedtrent action, seeing as the main conflict is sure to be colin and isaac fighting, and trent is arguably more involved with them than he ever was with roy’s storyline. Another interesting little theme i noticed was the fact that ted connects with people through food. (very basic but bare with me) He brings rebecca biscuits everyday to get to know her better, (he calls trent a cookie at one point too) he gets sam food when he’s homesick, he and beard have a weekly sandwich swap tradition, and his friendship with keeley begins to develop when he innocently feeds her a sandwich. Almost every meaningful relationship in the show surrounds food, with Ted having the most out of anyone. (other food relationships include Sam naming his restaurant after Ola and cooking with him, nate meeting his gf at his favorite restaurant, and then ted’s whole experience at the american restaurant aka “home”) we also see the entire team connect over a big meal three times in separate seasons. trent is present for one of these, establishing him as a person worth connecting to, even if he’s not officially part of the team yet. The final little piece from s1e3 is something that trent says in his lil voiceover at the end of the episode. “His coaching style is subtle. It never hits you over the head. Slowly growing until you can no longer ignore its presence.” Sound familiar? It’s incredibly similar to his lil speech/rant he gives to Ted at the end of “The Strings that Bind Us”: “By slowly but surely building a club-wide culture of trust and support through thousands of imperceptible moments, all leading to their inevitable conclusion.” Trent’s presence in this show has been prevalent and it’s all been leading up to this final season.

#ted lasso #trent crimm #or at least i hope it has #thanks for reading my rambling about some insignificant stuff!#this was mostly for fun #tedependent #tedtrent #ted x trent

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queen-scribbles · 3 months

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how about close and/or tug, for the Wayhaven pair of your choosing (or anyone else you'd like 😉)

*shows up nine months later with Dunkin and fic*

Close fill for Mallory/Adam, post-book 3 (grab your popcorn) ---

Pulling Punches

Mallory had thought she timed it right to be the only one in the training room.

She'd thought wrong.

"Agent," Adam greeted her, only half turning from the dummy he was practicing against.

"Only when I'm on duty," Mallory muttered as she shrugged off her jacket and started to wrap her hands. The annoyance was more at herself for guessing wrong--and the odd leap her heart did seeing him here--than him for the greeting.

"Which is, in a sense, all times," Adam countered, completing his turn toward her and clasping his hands behind his back. "Would you care for a partner, Mallory?"

She crossed her arms at the deliberate pause before he said her name. "For sparring, or did you have something else in mind?"

A muscle in his jaw twitched, the only reaction to her verbal jab. "Sparring, of course. That is why we're both here, is it not?"

"I wouldn't want to keep you, if you were finishing."

"I'm hardly worn out," Adam said, glint of amusement in his eyes. And it was true; however long he'd been at this, there was only a slight sheen of sweat on his skin, faint stains dampening the back of his t-shirt. He wasn't even out of breath. "And I would do what I can to assist you."

She did prefer sparring with an opponent to hitting a punching bag. More fun if she had to strategize and react. And she'd never gotten to hit Bobby after he broke her heart.

Of course, given how their last few training sessions had gone, she wouldn't get to really hit Adam, either. But maybe just trying would be cathartic. Wasn't like she'd hurt him even if she did land a punch.

It annoyed her how much that last point mattered.

"Yeah, alright," Mallory nodded, reaching up to check the hairband around her bun was secure. "Ready?"

"When you are," Adam said, inclining his head.

She sized him up and lunged forward, already swinging. It wasn't surprising when he knocked away both the punch and its follow-up. But he also dodged the sweep at his ankles she'd been trying to distract him from.

"Very good." A genuine smile curved his lips. "So long as you don't overextend yourself, such a combination is a smart choice. Keep your opponent's attention divided."

Something prickled in her chest at him talking like an instructor, detached, when he was--and should be--so much more to her. "Creating weaknesses to exploit?"

She kicked at the back of his knee, pivoted and felt her elbow strike glance off his ribs as he twisted out of the way.

"Or take advantage of exisiting ones." He raised an arm to deflect a punch, swept her feet using the momentum.

Mallory hit the mats, growled as she rolled back to her feet, immediately ducking under a kick. "And that's why you try not to have- any-." She punctuated the words with two more swings. Adam was silent, but Mallory was pretty damn sure it wasn't through any luck or skill of her own that both hits connected with his abdomen. "Trying to avoid getting hurt?"

Like you hurt me. She only just kept from saying it.

"To protect myself and others, yes," Adam said, blocking her next strike easily. "I have a responsibility to the team." He twisted to pin her arm behind her. "I cannot--"

"Show weakness?" Mallory bit out, swiveling in the heartbeat his grip loosened to pull free. She slammed the heel of her hand up into his shoulder joint, hoping to unbalance him.

She didn't. "Have them," Adam corrected.

Mallory snorted and huffed loose tendril of hair out of her face. "Well, that's bull. I know you care about the team, or protecting us wouldn't mean so much." She swung, he dodged. "Are you you trying to tell me Mason and Felix aren't weaknesses, by that metric?" Another swing, deflected this time, and she gave a breathless, sardonic laugh. "Hell, you've been best friends with Nate for three bloody centuries, Adam. D'you really expect me to believe it wouldn't hurt you if something happened to him?!" She kicked at his hip and almost fell when he braced to take it rather than avoid as she'd anticipated.

Adam caught her ankle. "That is not the same," he bit out, tugging on her leg just enough to unbalance her.

She hit the mats with a curse, tasted blood from biting her lip as she sprang back to her feet. "How?"

She knew, and if he said it, God help her, she was going to punch him in the face.

A strange vulnerability flickered in Adam's eyes, chest heaving with a breath. "He is not mortal, Mallory. None of them are."

"And I'm not fragile!!" she spat, launching herself at him again.

He caught the punch, easily keeping her at arms' length as he swiveled. "Yes, you are." The words were steady, implacable, and just a hint pained. "Compared to us, you are."

"And yet I'm still bloody here!" She tugged on the trapped wrist, swung with the other hand when he didn't let go. "Despite the danger, despite the fact you can be the most arrogant, condescending, stubborn--"

"Stubborn?" Adam interjected, giving her a significant look as he caught her other wrist in the same hand as well.

"Guess we're made for each other," Mallory retorted, yanking her hands free. He let her. "Except in that case, you're being stubborn in the wrong direction. I thought fear made us fighters, so why are you giving up so easily?!"

Rather than swing at him, she crowded into his space, breathing hard, as she made the demand. It hung in the air as Adam ran a gaze over her, as a muscle in his jaw twitched when that gaze lingered on her lips before returning to her eyes. As he held her gaze for several long seconds.

"Because I have already lost everything once," he finally said, level, quiet. Hollow. "I would not care do it again."

She swallowed hard, Tu omnia burning bright in her thoughts.

'You are everything'.

But she was not letting it go. He didn't get to break both their hearts and pretend it was the right thing, the noble thing, to do.

"So you're going to lose it to surrendering instead?" Mallory said bluntly, rolling her shoulders as she stepped back to resume sparring.

Adam's jaw tightened. "I am not-"

"You are!" She brought her hands up, fingers curling. "You're giving up even if I haven't!"

He frowned, emotion gleaming in his eyes. "You don't know what it feels like, Mallory, I cannot allow--"

"Don't tell me what to do!!" she yelled, frustration boiling over in a wild punch. "Just b'cause you don't want to fight f--" Another punch.

Adam caught both, one wrist in each hand, grip gentle but unyielding "I have seen the cost of fighting to follow my emotions. I would spare you that." He swept her feet from under her, following down to pin her to the mat, one knee by her hip and a hand still around each wrist. "My parents, my brothers, my sister, my friends, everything." He held her gaze, both breathing hard. "I have borne that for nine hundred years. But if I allow... us and something happened to you..." His gaze wandered her face, unfathomably sad when it met hers once again. "That I could not bear for nine minutes, let alone nine hundred years."

Mallory was silent as the words washed over her, as she caught the spark of pain and fear in his eyes. "I understand what you lost. That it hurts." She pushed herself up on her elbows, wrists still pinned, until mere centimeters separated them. "But I love you, Adam du Mortain. I am not going to stop because you're afraid..." A deep breath, the words shaking as they whisked against his skin. "...and I don't think you will, either."

He stared at her for so long she half-expected him to kiss her. Was more than half tempted to kiss him. But he pushed away, releasing her.

"It is too great a risk," he said softly, fingers tracing through the air a whisper from the edge of her jaw. This is... just for show...

"Have you forgotten how much I like risk?" Mallory challenged with a snort as she pushed to her feet. For once taller than him as he remained sitting cross-legged on the mat. "However much there is, it's worth it to me. I'm in love with you and you can't stop me. Denying that only hurts both of us." She moved to pick up her jacket and take a drink of water, swallowing hard around the lump in her throat. "Just keep that in mind."

And she strode from the room without looking back.

#queens fic #eyes emoji prompts #mallory denney #adam du mortain #mallory/adam #otp: offkilter #MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

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zalrb · 8 months

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i find the whole deb ball thing in tsitp so stupid like that wasn’t even a plot point in the book so why this…. i get that this show is probably mainly written to be wish fulfillment for 13 year olds and the whole ‘polite society’ scene is popular i guess but this show is playing everything straight and its just boring. like obviously i don’t expect the show to engage with any political implication nor do i want it to but at least gossip girl did it in a more ironic way and it actually fit the show (but i haven’t rewatched those eps in a long time to be fair). if the point is supposed to be about belly becoming more confident and self assured.. well. they didn’t do that either!

yeah because the issue is they aren't doing anything with cotillion or the deb ball or anything really. there's no drama in this teen drama.

with gossip girl, the peacocking of the event is emphasized

but it's also used -- and not very well imo but much much better than whatever they're doing here -- to emphasize what is going to be the primary issue between dan and serena which is class/insider vs. outsider

and it's also used to ramp up the tension in the triangle between blair and chuck and nate

it's also used to show that lily now accepts dan at the very same time that rufus doesn't want to let the mistakes of the past repeat in the present but their kids are dating

like the cotillion actually represents something, same thing with the o.c.

so, the o.c.'s cotillion is my favourite cotillion and it's because so much drama that has been building up for three episodes erupts at cotillion (and that's a the o.c. theme -- if things are brewing, it's all going to explode publicly at a function, it already happens the episode before at casino night) and it works because it also connects to various themes that put pressure on the actual event.

the episode begins with sandy and kirsten formally asking ryan if they can become his guardians and he's like yes, and they're like great but that means you can't get into any trouble because you're on probation and CPS is up our ass, it also means that ryan -- the outsider -- has to partake in cohen family traditions like going to cotillion so there's that pressure.

plus there's the marissa and luke and ryan triangle and they're all going to be at cotillion and luke and ryan essentially always fight when they see each other so there's that tension. and luke tries to instigate a fight at a pre-cotillion party and ryan's trying to keep his temper in check.

jimmy has been stealing from his clients who are all a part of the community he lives in and has asked kirsten for a loan to cover up his debt obviously no one knows that he's been stealing from them but the walls are closing in, officers show up at his house in like the second episode.

seth is somewhere pining for summer.

and then all the actions happens at the biggest event of the season -- luke breaks up with her,

ryan and marissa get to dance which adds to their buildup and julie's hatred of ryan intensifies

summer has no date, anna's introduced so we're kicking off another love triangle

holly -- who is marissa's friend -- her dad punches jimmy out in the middle of the waltz, which starts a bit of a brawl and alienates marissa and her family from everyone else

and it all matters

nothing about this deb ball seems to matter except for the fact that susannah just really wants to see belly attend before she dies. the biggest thing i can see happening at this ball is susannah collapses at it and now belly, jere and steven will find out that she has cancer but even the susannah has cancer and is hiding it from everybody plot line doesn't feel like it's a ticking time bomb where you're just waiting for everyone to figure out what's going on and it's going to be awful because it mostly consists of susannah sleeping sometimes, there isn't this impending sense of dread.

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bitterbitern · 8 months

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Oh, Nate Shelley, Underkid!

So, as ever, I'm going to write about a show that's ended because it's when I re-watch and time has passed that I do my best thinking. Also, late at night before having to work the next day.

This may be a controversial opinion but somehow I really liked Nathan Shelley's character on Ted Lasso in Seasons 1 and 2 much better than in S3.

Further spoilers ahead for people who worry about that kind of thing for all of Ted Lasso.

Here's the thing: Nate in the first 2 seasons is more real, more three dimensional, more relatable in a way. He comes out of his shell but doesn't realized how tender and hurt he still is. He has bad boundaries and places inappropriate weight and responsibility for his happiness on others: Ted and Keeley in particular. And at the end of S2 when he's enraged at being abandoned and he blames Ted for not even having the picture of them together at the office (where *he* can see it), Nate embodied a self-righteous indignation that I have both lived and seen. It was refreshing to see a character move in that direction: here's the argument with someone you care about that just feels impossible to resolve. Here's the falling out in a relationship where both parties are just so hurt. Ted's at a loss for how to express understanding and Nathan wouldn't hear of it anyway. The audience knows that the picture is at Ted's flat, but it wouldn't matter to Nate if he were told, because he's not in a place where he can accept anything but information that confirms his pain and affirms his choice to leave the club and shield himself from connections that have become painful to him. And you know what!? I love that shit! I love it all; it's messy and it happens to people every day. It stayed with me because that energy is a very real facet of life in connection with other people that we don't see explored with such nuance and intention.

Ted Lasso S3 went and took that beautiful ball of fiery, complicated yet blunt rage and set it down on the ground where it rolled along for a bit and then kind of got into the goal; no longer intentional, the character just sort of oopsies and coughs and all the energy of transformation that he had was just fizzled out and the next changes were just flat. He's just sort of dismayed into trying to be a nice person again. I'm not saying Nate should have stayed trapped in anger and blame or that he should not have ended up back at Richmond in the end. His arc in season 3 just doesn't really see him dig into the path he'd chosen or the ending he arrives at. Yes, he's a dick to his players and tries out Rupert's style of business and life. And then he gets a girlfriend whose entire personality is flat affect and existing in a warm body, realizes that's nice, and Rupert's mean which is *not* good, and his dad is actually nice to him which does feel *good* and bam, it's all over with. Nate is returned to Richmond and forgiven. He and that poor woman who was given almost no characterization of her own are going to be together like she's a reward for him not being a total douche bag. We don't see Nate doing the kind of work that we saw Ted do; it all just sort of happens and this character who had such dynamism before is rendered mostly milquetoast by the end.

S3 had a lot expectations placed on it and certain choices were made that I don't think served it (the "Hey Jude" sing along thing??) but overall, I feel like it mostly stuck the landing and I enjoyed much of it. Nate's story line however, gets a thumbs down from me.

#ted lasso #nathan shelley #ted lasso season 3 #ted lasso s3 #ted lasso show #afc richmond #nate the great

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utterlyinevitable · 1 year

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⇒ read on ao3

2. Hit me on the phone

Pairing: Mason x F!Detective (Felicity ‘Lia’ Bastra) Rating: Teen+ Summary: Lia butt dials Mason. Sometime after book 2.

a/n: this is a series of drabbles where my detective is caught in a love triangle between Mason and Nate

An unassuming evening. For once Wayhaven is silent. Comfortable. There’s no looming disaster hanging over her head (at least nothing bigger than the overarching threat Lia’s come to live under). She’s safe in her apartment after an uneventful day at the station (uneventful workload-wise, Douglas still keeps testing her patience). Everything’s fine.

A click of a couple buttons has soft music playing through her soundbar, filling every corner of her modestly cramped box of an apartment as she dresses down from the day. Her boots kicked off by the kitchen alcove, her jacket thrown on the couch, her badge and her phone haphazardly chucked on her bed before she retreats to her haven of a warm shower. Everything’s fine.

Except it’s not, not really.

Before she’s even fully soaked, there’s grumbling and groaning, and high pitched screeching sounding from the depths of her bedroom. So quiet she couldn’t hear over the stream of water overhead.

It’s not fine.

Because as Lia washes shampoo out of her hair, there’s a supernatural circling her building.

And another scaling the fire escapes until they stop at her ajar bedroom window.

And two others sneaking up the steps, breaking down her door with restrained force.

She doesn’t hear any of that as the two intruders invade her space, too absorbed in relaxation to notice the way the air shifts as she lets the steam roll out of the bathroom. Too calm to notice two large figures in her room. That is until she takes three steps past the bathroom doorway.

She doesn’t even recognize the blood curdling scream that leaves her lips.

The three of them stand there stunned for a moment. Enough for Lia to take in the scene she’s unwittingly a part of: she’s stood in nothing but a blue fluffy towel, her heartbeat running races as she stares at her intruders - her friends. She’s taking breaths to calm down, but it’s still jarring to be caught unawares in her own home. She feels them watching her intently, too. At least one pair of eyes burning into her flesh.

Lia stands there wide-eyed and naked, pulling the edges of the slit in the towel closer together so as to not flash them her lady business. Why isn’t anyone saying anything?

Faster than a bolt of lightning, two hands are gripping her by the shoulders and she’s teetering on the balls of her feet. His gray eyes are piercing, all harsh lines, but she can pick out flecks of relief in his irises as he stares and assesses her being.

Mason breaks the tension between them with a gallantly venomous, “What is fucking wrong with you?!”

“Huh?” her brows knit together as she stops swaying, her grip on her towel loosening in their shared space. “What’re you talking about?”

He lets her go with a little less than a shove, stomping over to hold up her phone where their call was still connected.

“Oh… I didn’t do that on purpose. Must’ve been an accident.” She shrugs so cavalier. A response Mason certainly didn’t agree with by the way his face has contorted in a less-than-attractive sneer.

“You should be more careful, detective,” Adam notes, breaking the weird tension between the totally-not-a-couple and reminding her that there’re other people in this room too. The entire unit is now packed in a bedroom that is barely big enough for five pieces of furniture.

“Yeah, Mason almost had a heart attack before we even left the warehouse,” Felix adds, a knowing smirk permeating the darkness.

Mason sneers, “I did not.”

***

Everything is quiet. Comfortable. Enough that Mason can sit on the roof in relative peace, reflecting and trying not to think of a certain detective.

Speak of the devil

His phone rings with that irritating melody Felix seemed to set for her. And even though his ears grate at the sound, Mason can’t help the self-satisfied smirk from taking hold.

“Hello?” he says, anticipating the reason for her late-night call even before she speaks.

When she doesn’t greet him he adds, “Playing hard to get, sweetheart?”

Still, no response.

“Detective?”

He sits up, every limb in his body rigid as he focuses his senses on the other end of the line.

“Lia?”

Mason can’t hear anything in the background through that shitty phone speaker. Everything is muffled and eerily quiet. Too quiet. Much too quiet for a fight - because he knows she would fight. Lia Bastra would go down kicking and screaming before letting anyone take her.

“Felicity!?”

In seconds Mason has fled his perch, rounded up the rest of Unit Bravo, and is racing to Lia’s apartment. The entire time Mason’s mind is running an unsettling what if what if what if

Adam stalks the perimeter of her building. Felix scales the side, checking the fire escapes. Nate and Mason head for the door, moving deathly silently up flights of stairs towards her apartment.

The door is locked. Fuck. Without a second thought Mason breaks it the fuck down with a swift kick of his heavy boot.

And there’s nothing. Just a small side table lamp illuminating her eclectic living room.

All is quiet and nothing is out of place and there’s just… drops. Pitter patters of water on porcelain.

Mason barely shares a concerned glance with Nate before the two move quietly into Lia’s bedroom on high alert.

And there’s nothing here either. Besides Felix perched on the metal fire escape and her clothes on the floor and her bed still made perfectly… There’s no sign of a fight. Her mirror is still fully covered so there’s no chance the maa-alused could have come for her again. Mason can feel her. He can hear her heart beating and her breaths coming, but he can’t sense anything else.

Everything is quiet.

and then there’s a creak.

and then a heart-shattering scream.

and the two vampire’s spin around to the source of the noise.

Lia.

And no one says anything.

The three of them stand there stunned for a moment. Mason sees her standing before him alive and well, but he doesn’t tune into anything save for her deep breaths and frantic heartbeat. His eyes rove over her, searching for signs of distress. Any rational reason as to why she’d call him and then fucking disappear.

Lia stands there wide-eyed, pulling the edges of the towel closer together. Mason can’t take one second more - he rushes over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders, barely holding onto the thread that’s keeping him from shaking her silly.

He hears Adam and Felix make their way inside, and he knows. Mason knows he can’t make a scene, can’t make demands or overreact in the ways his body is urging him to. He stares at her, chronicling every inch of exposed skin.

When he’s sated and assured she’s not in any danger, he explodes.

“What is fucking wrong with you?!”

“Huh?” her brows knit together in the most vexing of ways. As if she still doesn’t understand the dangers at play in this town. “What’re you talking about?”

He lets her go, striding to pick her phone up off the duvet and waving the device in front of her face so she could see just what she did - that she’s connected to Mason. He wouldn’t admit that he was too scared to shut it off. Fearing what could happen if he did and there was a chance he could hear something. Mason would never forgive himself if something happened to her and he wasn’t there to help.

“Oh… I didn’t do that on purpose. Must’ve been an accident.” She shrugs, and if Mason didn’t like having her around so much he’d throttle her on principle alone.

“You should be more careful, detective,” he hears Adam say, watches as her eyes flicker over to the commanding agent in this stifling room.

And there’s some sense of relief for Mason as he feels everything settle. He takes a deep breath. But it’s cut short by Felix adding a very incriminating;

“Yeah, Mason almost had a heart attack before we even left the warehouse.”

Mason quickly retorts, “I did not.”

But he catches the flicker in Lia’s eye. And with that Mason is able to settle.

Everything is fine and she is here. Heart beating and blood kept in her body.

Mason doesn’t hear the further comments about him the last hour from Felix. He also doesn’t catch the other’s telling her to be more careful.

Now that he’s settled, his scowl of relief can dissipate and his mind can catch up to the moment. Mason may not know why he’s feeling these odd feelings, but he knows he’s been in more perilous situations and this all feels different.

Weird.

Felix is still yammering in the background telling Lia how worried Mason was isn’t helping. And Nate hiding a smile isn’t helping. And she’s standing there in nothing but a cloth towel with beads of fresh water and that damn body wash fresh on her skin and that’s certainly not helping.

After the three musketeers he calls family finishes their lecture, the three move towards the living room to talk further. Mason can hear bits of conversation - should they stay the night here to keep a lookout, should they patrol more since they’re already here, and they really don’t need to inform Rebecca that they moved in on a false alarm, do they. Listening into the conversation is preferable to explaining why he’s still in her room.

Because Lia has a glint in her eye, and a sly grin on her delicious lips as she closes the distance between them.

“You worried about me, Sunshine?”

__________________________

a/n: we all know the N/M LT is coming so I ask.... How do we think Nate felt in this moment? Was he all flustered at the naked detective too???

#twc #twc fic #the wayhaven chronicles #twc mason #agent m #specialist agent m

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xplrvibes · 2 years

Text

I'm sorry. It's been a bit since I actually did one of these, but...I had to. It's like an itch that I just had to scratch, lol.

Behind the cut are my thoughts on episodes 5 and 6 of the so-called season 2: Bower's Mansion and Victoria's Black Swan Inn.

But before you hit that keep reading button: please for the love of all that is good and pure, READ THE DISCLAIMER.

Try to remember that I am just some goof with a blog and a lot of opinions, and I am not the world's foremost expert on all things Sam and Colby. If you don't like what I said, don't lose sleep over it.

Opinions are defined as: "A view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge."

So, I didn’t really talk much about Bower’s Mansion- and that wasn’t for any bad reason, I actually did like the episode- but I do want to take this opportunity to talk about one thing that I just need to get off my chest about Bower’s: The Door.

If I’m allowed one critique about this episode, its that they didn’t even attempt to figure out if the door closing multiple times in a night could be anything other than paranormal. I 100% believe Colby had nothing to do with that door closing the second time (even if the way he moved away from the door right before it closed was a bit...suspicious). His absolute panic at the jump scare, plus them catching the door closing on camera later in the night really sealed the deal of his innocence for me. That being said- to me, a door closing three times in one night makes it more likely that it can be ascribed to a creaky old malfunctioning door in a creaky old abandoned house, rather than anything paranormal.

However, they get eternal brownie points for finally acknowledging that Colby got some shit going on with him, which as you know, has been my mission statement since the dawning of the age of aquarius, and they gave us a ton of sweet sweet cat footage, so...they get an overall 8/10 on that episode from me.

Now, onto this latest episode (Victoria's Black Swan Inn).

This episode was just ok to me. I don’t know why, but it felt a little...rushed. It almost felt like they left a few key scenes out for some reason. And I feel, at the end of the day, that maybe there just wasn’t much interesting evidence or paranormal stuff that happened in this episode, and maybe that’s why it felt kind of off, but I did definitely notice it.

Anyway, there were some pro's and some con's. So, I'm going to highlight some of those below. These are in no particular order:

Pro: Sam, Colby and Nate's relationship is top tier. They work really well together and you can just see how much they truly enjoy each other's company- and how many years of history they have between them. I don't think snc gel with anyone quite as smoothly as they do with Nate.

Con: I couldn’t follow along with the story of what supposedly happened in this house. Maybe I was too tired, or maybe the editing was a little choppy, but...I don’t know. There was a lady who died somehow (I think they mentioned like 3 different ways this woman could've died?), and a guy named Park Street who killed himself, only maybe he didn’t, only maybe he did? And somehow they were connected, and then there was some guy named Porkelroy or something? And a dude that died trying to save a horse, but I don't know if he was the Porkelroy guy or someone totally unrelated? I don’t know. I really don’t know.

Pro: I don't know why Sam and Colby had to take their shirts off and stand so awkwardly in the corner to scare Nate, but when I tell you I laughed...

I mean, why are they standing like this???!!

This will haunt my nightmares, but in the best of ways. Nate said it best: "I don't know whether to be scared or aroused."

Con: Outside of the Estes Method, which I'll get to in a sec, there really wasn't much in the way of super cool paranormal activity, so I feel like the things thay were happening they were really dialing up to 11. The flashlights were fun, I guess, and I'm happy they remembered that they own a thermal camera, but...I don't know.

I didn't buy that shadow figure thing at all...mostly because I didn't see anything. Like Sam literally pointed the camera in the other direction at first, like wtf lol. And even when they did zoom in...maybe my bad eyesight is catching up to me, but I didn't see shit.

Also...Sam kept saying this is the first time he saw a shadow figure, but he supposedly saw one at the Conjuring and the Bellaire House, so he's on like his third first with that whole thing.

Pro: The Estes Method Sessions were both cool. First of all, did anyone catch Colby rocking along in perfect tandem with Nate while Nate was under? So random, lol.

But second of all- while it was kind of weird to throw Colby in the closet and be yelling questions through the door at him, watching him practically hypnotize himself while he was doing the Estes Method really upped the creep factor. I don't know wtf they were even trying to get out of the lady, cause I couldn't follow that whole story worth a damn, but it was still cool!

Con: This is just a minor thing, but don't be tracking wet shoes and mud all through that old ass house with them old ass floors, boys. Also, the bare feet- wasn't Nate running around barefoot all night? Couldn't those tracks have been him?

Pro: The psychomanteum thing, was very very interesting to me. I didn’t for a second buy that it was paranormal in any way, shape or form, but my god was it fascinating in a psychological way. I loved it, I loved hearing about the state of almost hypnosis that they put themselves in and the things they saw, and I would love to do some kind of deep dive and figure out what some of that says about one's psyche.

Also, Nate is quite the wordsmith lol. "Obsidian wells" sounds like the name of a town on a soap opera. 🤣

And this is not a pro or a con, but a random observation: There was something really funky happening with Colby in this entire episode. I don't know if he hotboxed beforehand, or what, but he was...off. At a couple different points, he was staring off into space like he was seeing/hearing things the others weren't, he randomly started smelling gunpowder, and he just seemed...drained. Even before the whole psychomanteum/Estes Method thing, he just seemed off. I don't know what that was about, perse, but it was noticeable- at least to me. Anyone else?

Anyway, this one was solid on the interactions between the boys and had some fun moments, but it was kind of filler for me. I'll give it a 6.5/10, and I guess we'll see what's in store for next week!

#sam and colby #colby brock #sam golbach #snc video review #xplr

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mysteriesofloves · 2 years

Note

Something that is really interesting is that with dair sex scenes, outside of 5.19, they are kind of just alluded to? Like the beginning of 5.22, you can tell that they just had sex (they both were sporting those flushed faces like it was nothing), and I think it's interesting that the show that is all about sex chose not to show dair having sex all of the time. It's still there, they just choose not to show it.

yeah i mean i think the non-fun answer lends to this thing where blair doesn’t really have any sex scenes outside of chuck. only the one with nate and the one with dan. like she marries louis and sex is only implied by the fact she gets pregnant otherwise there is… nothing there. idk why this is, maybe as a way to appease vocal 🪑 fanbase, maybe as a way to show 🪑 as the only passionate ship, idk but it does indirectly have the effect that blair “is chuck’s” and seeing her with another man goes against that so it’s only implied.

but then again 5.18 is one long sex scene with interruptions in between and the actual sex scene itself is one of the longest on the show, and one of the more “explicit” (obviously not actually explicit but for the cw it leans that way). so idk! that pokes a hole through my theory!

(mind you, while writing this i tried to think if nate/serena had any longer/“explicit” scenes other than the coat room one and i don’t remember any? so this might just be a case of “we’re set in our endgames and will devote our sex scene time mostly to them” ??)

but the not-intentional fun-for-me effect is that it highlights how much those endgame couples rely solely on this physical connection and their lust for each other to keep drawing them back (this applies mostly to 🪑, derena absolutely have a good, solid friendship, but when the show comes back around to their romance arc every season it never focuses on it, so). 5.18 is all about how they have both the physical and intellectual/emotional connections and understandings and it ends up highlighting how the others… really, really don’t.

i think in the end the writers were committed to writing dair as intellectual and emotional partners with sex being secondary. i however am committed to all three being front row centre :))

#asks #gg meta

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wayhavenots · 1 year

Text

I posted 1,144 times in 2022

That's 108 more posts than 2021!

162 posts created (14%)

982 posts reblogged (86%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@amlovelies

@grapecaseschoices

@griffin-wood

@agentnatesewell

@queerdetectiveblue

I tagged 1,023 of my posts in 2022

Only 11% of my posts had no tags

#avery lin - 43 posts

#nate x avery - 38 posts

#gray x daphne - 35 posts

#daphne wiseman - 31 posts

#rider mcqueen - 29 posts

#n sewell - 21 posts

#dove shepherd - 16 posts

#luz solano - 15 posts

#rose blum - 15 posts

#to blorbo tag later - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#it's been a while since i played the lt route but i always like to imagine that in the lt a is the one who drives them for maximal angst 😁

My Top Posts in 2022:

but 😭 imagine n keeping this rabbit so pristine and clean and cared for over the centuries, especially after the death of the detective 😭

48 notes - Posted October 13, 2022

my n sewell thought of the day is that if n sewell were better with technology they would spend so much time reading fanfiction and leaving kind comments on everything they read. they would just adore this new way of interacting with stories *and* with other fans of stories.

(as it is they prefer physical books. so they print out the fanfiction when they first discover that they can find such things on the internet. but one day they sent 100k words of smut to the entire Agency listserv by accident and uh. anyway they stick to books.)

58 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

Someday we'll find it The rainbow connection The lovers, the dreamers, and me

I was going to save this for later this month, but I can’t do it, I need everyone to see this right now immediately. Please feast your eyes on all of this serotonin I commissioned from @rickety-goose (and then go commission her yourself)!

This is my Nick Wiseman (from Mind Blind @mindblindbard ) and Kermit the Frog singing a little duet. I imagine that he was asked to film something with Kermit as some kind of PR thing for Unity (and brings it up like once a week for the rest of time). Inspired by a video I saw of Kermit singing with James Corden on the Late Late Show (can’t find the video rn, but I’ll put a still below the cut).

Ren was so great to work with and really made this vision come to life. Look at the lighting and the sparkles and the details and their faces, this was so perfect and I’m so pleased with how this turned out.

See the full post

72 notes - Posted March 9, 2022

Miscommunication

Hitting post before I can think about this anymore! This was written with the sole intention of expressing my high levels of thirst about this Nate art by @/greyhands . Tried to smoothe out the thirst with a rolling pin of context, but some of it doesn’t make sense ✌🏼 don’t think about it

Rating: 16+ (Nate is all suave and suggestive but nothing explicit)

Word count: 1325

Synopsis: Unit Bravo has a secret mission. Nate distracts Avery from her fears for him. (Nate x Avery)

Avery isn't supposed to be involved in this mission. She isn't even supposed to be at the Warehouse today. It’s an anxious pit in her stomach that brings her there, a foolish hope that Rebecca won’t notice her until she’s learned the details of the mission and it’s too late. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Alas, no dice.

Thirty-three minutes after she is sent to her room---a command that makes Morgan snicker---her pacing is interrupted by a gentle knock on the door. “Avery?”

Nate.

She almost doesn't want to see him, or rather, for him to see her. Not like this---frustrated and anxious and irrational and unable to hide it from his super-senses.

"Come in," she says anyway. "Look, I can explain---”

But when Nate enters, Avery stops her pacing. Her eyes flick up to meet his, then roll slowly over his Agency-issued tactical suit and gear. The protective nylon material beneath his (bulletproof?) vest does nothing to hide the lines of his muscles as he turns to shut the door behind him. Holsters are buckled at his waist and high up his thighs. There are no thoughts in her head.

“Oh my God,” she says.

Nate turns away from the door and pauses in his path, looking like an action hero even as he fiddles with the walkie-talkie which is chattering away (Farah) in his pocket. He presses a button, the walkie-talkie falls silent, and he finally turns his full attention to her, lips curving into a smile at her attention.

"Is something the matter, Avery?" he asks.

It’s suddenly sweltering beneath her hoodie, but she shakes her head, buying herself a moment to collect herself. "I've just never seen you in that," she says, tone as close to casual as she can manage.

Trying in vain to hide his effect on her, like he can’t hear her accelerated pulse, like he can’t tell that she's drinking in his delicious features as if this might be her last chance.

(Couldn’t it be?)

She shakes the thought away. "Are you wearing that on all your missions now?" she prods.

"I’m certainly tempted, seeing your reaction to it," he teases as he saunters closer. "But it's just a precaution for today."

"Precaution for...?"

“Just a precaution,” says Nate, sidestepping the question with a reassuring smile. “Nothing to be concerned about.”

She purses her lips. Nothing to be unconcerned about, either, since nothing is all she knows. “I don’t like this, Nate.”

He nods sympathetically. “I wish I could tell you more, Avery, but it’s---”

"Classified,” she finishes with an exasperated sigh. “For my safety. And considering all the things that haven’t been classified for my safety...” The Trappers that left Nate unresponsive in a hospital bed, for example. She crosses her arms over her chest. “It’s incredibly reassuring,” she says, a lump in her throat pushing her pitch higher than normal, “that this is the one I can’t know about, that you have to get all gussied up for this particular date with danger, and I can’t even know---”

She doesn’t realize she’s pacing again until Nate reaches out to still her by the shoulders. The comforting pressure of his hands and the familiar scent of his fancy soap help to loosen the knot in her stomach, steady her breathing, bring her down to Earth.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “You shouldn’t have to deal with this before the mission. I’ll be fine.” As long as you are.

"There’s nothing to apologize for,” he assures her. “Is there anything I could do to make you feel better?"

Don’t go, she wants to say. “Tell me the truth,” she says instead. “Is there a chance that you could leave here, all suited up, and not...make it back?”

See the full post

78 notes - Posted April 8, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

we have an RO and a best friend but tell me in the tags which ub member likes your detective(s) the least

91 notes - Posted October 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#the way 3 of my top 5 are from two weeks in October #zero surprises here lol

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meiakrp · 2 years

Photo

DAY ONE : PART TWO

The screeching siren of an incoming missile has everyone in the cargobob on full alert. Maylin’s voice comes through the coms before any connection to the outside is cut off.

“Hold on! This is going to be rough!” Sol shouts into the headset as he jerks the control of the cargobob. It doesn’t turn quickly, but he does get it to drop in height.

Time seems to slow as the missile is seen from the front windows. Sol throws off his headset, and belt keeping him in his seat. The co-pilot copying him.

They both dive to the back. Sol points to Harlequin and Helios and the senior agent nods. Their shield enhancement would allow them to keep someone else safe. It would be a challenge to get two safe but in moments like this enhancements need to be tested.

Sol drops next to Epsilon and Khiana.

The missile hits its target.

Fire fills the sky as the cargobob and everything it was carrying is destroyed–or so it is assumed. Amidst the chaos and destruction a few figures are shot down into the city.

GROUP ONE

A crater rests in the center of a parking structure. Makeshift stairs are built along the side of the crater via rocks, boxes, and other debris from the bottom.

“Careful–the stone on top is wobbly.” Khiana says to Epsilon as the other agent clears the top of the crater. The medic shoots her an annoyed look then pushes himself up.

“Thanks, I never noticed.” The sarcasm is thick Epsilon's voice which makes Khiana chuckle.

Sol is the last to push up from the crater. He’s covered in small scraps and cuts and looks a little on the wobbly side but he stands nevertheless.

“Status?” He questions. Neither agent with him appears to be injured and they both respond confirming that. Of course he knows they might not be telling the truth. Senior agents are bad about hiding injuries especially in the field.

But for now he would let it slide. No time to scold when they are exposed like this.

“My coms are down, do either of you have a connection?” Sol continues, guiding them out from the open and into a more closed off space. At least they can’t be spotted from above.

“Negative, mine’s been fried.” Khiana responds, crouching just at the entrance of their new hideout.

“Epsilon?”

“I have a signal but it’s not very clear.” Epsilon responds.

“ come in - - - lips- - - requ—- nates— - - come i - - “ The faint transmission comes from a familiar voice but none of them are able to pick up what is being said.

“Let me see, I learned a thing or two from Alistair.” Sol says, and tinkers with Epsilon’s coms device for a moment. The transmission gets a bit more clear and they are able to tell its from agent Helios.

“uH…” Khiana’s voice draws their attention. She’s looking out the entryway which causes Epsilon to shift over to her side. “We might have a problem.”

The crash, to no one’s surprise, drew demons from the surrounding area to investigate the noise. The number of demons is far more than the three of them could handle–even with a head agent here.

“If we don’t act soon our way out is going to be a path to death.” She continues, not taking her eyes off the growing number of demons. It’s only a matter of time before they spot the group.

“There’s a way back here, I don't know what the other side looks like but it’s our best bet right now.” Sol says, handing back Epsilon’s coms device.

“Helios?” Epsilon calls into the device as the trio begins to make their way through the crumbling building. “Helios, do you copy?”

The coms on the other end is crackling with noise but no one has been responding yet. He can tell they are connected but the lack of response is worrisome. There is no telling what is happening where they ended up.

“Seoyun–” The medic’s attention snaps forward at Khiana’s voice. She’s right in front of him, worry pinching her brows together. “You good? We will find them.” She says quietly.

“Shut up, I know we will.” He pushes past her, angry, embarrassed and worried at all once. but he can’t show that. His normal expression falls onto his face as he focuses on their current situation. The coms device is still humming in one ear.

“You never change.” Khiana’s amused voice sounds right behind him but Seoyun doesn’t respond.

The building they are in seems to be an old pharmacy. A counter with glass around it sits to the right of them, and mostly empty shelves sit to the right. Seoyun pauses to grab some of the still closed gauze and bandages. Sterile and good size.

Khiana snickers, earning a side eye from Seoyun.

“Can you take anything seriously?”

“Can you ever have fun?” She fires back then smirks.

Sol, who had been watching them, shakes his head and steps ahead.

“Come on you both, we need to get to the other side and hopefully we can find the other three.” He says, pushing the door to the main area of the pharmacy and making his way through the store.

Seoyun is quick to follow, not making sure Khiana is behind him. He picks up the sound of footsteps which let him know she is.

The sound of cracking glass makes the trio pause, eyes flying in the direction of the noise. Seoyun crouches and leans forward to see around the shelf he’s by.

“Oh…” Khiana lets out a surprised breath, but before Seoyun can see what she has seen, the girl is crouching in front of him.

“Hey.”

“...?” He eyes her as she greets him as if they were passing in the cafeteria.

Khiana grins.

“You really need to work on your people skills, hotshot.”

“You–”

“Shhhh.” Khiana covers his mouth with her hand, she glances around the shelf once more before looking at him again. “You need to get Sol out of here. Kaiser has a plan and this was part of it.”

Seoyun’s expression gets angrier which makes Khiana’s smile turn a bit sad. She drops her hand and nods. “I was originally here to complete a mission for him. Not by choice–whatever your head medic did, it broke me from that.”

“I knew there was something off about you.”

Khiana laughs under her breath. “So you were suspicious of me.”

“Explain.”

“I wish I had the time for that…”

“What do you—”

The sound of demon growling reaches their ears. Seoyun tenses, going for his gun but Khiana shakes her head. “There’s no point–just go with Sol. Getting out if priority, getting back to your brother.”

Seoyun grabs her arm. “I’m not leaving you behind, I still need answers.”

Khiana smiles. “Maybe you’ll find them in Tacetel.”

The girl leans forward quickly, her lips pressing against Seoyun’s. It’s not a soft kiss, not one of affection. It’s hard, desperate, and full of regret. She feels his hand loosen on her arm in surprise and she takes the chance to push him at Sol who is just as surprised. Even a little confused.

“Go!” She whispers urgently. Sol sees something in her eyes that makes the head agent nod. He doesn’t hesitate to grab hold of Seoyun and drag the senior out.

Khiana watches them leave, her eyes on Seoyun.

“I wonder… if we had met sooner.”

The sound of demon growls makes her turn around. More than 20 are lumbering into the shop from a back room. The first few finally spot her and a roar echos through the building.

The sound can be heard outside as Sol and Seoyun run.

“Fucking idiot.” Seoyun says as he glances back one more time. There is no heat in his voice.

GROUP TWO

Agent Helios releases his hold on Agent Harlequin as the dust around them settles. He checks the younger agent over for any injuries before turning to the other senior agent with them. The senior appears okay, just exhausted from using his enhancement.

“Do we have eyes on Sol, Epsilon, or Khiana?” He questions, falling into mission mode.

Harlequin is stiff and it doesn’t take Helios long to find the problem. A sprained ankle and bruised up knee, probably from impact.

“Try contacting Epsilon or Sol, okay?” Helios says as he kneels beside Harlequin and starts wrapping his ankle.

The younger agent is quick to respond. He’s obviously shaken but Helios can tell he is trying to keep it together. A good agent. Helios works swiftly in tending to the younger. The coms device is barely getting through, so once he’s sure Harlequin will be alright, he starts calling on his own.

“Come in Epsilon, Sol, this is agent Helios. Requesting your location. Come in.” He calls into the device.

“Helios, I got through to Maylin.” Harlequin gets his attention.

“Good work, kid.” He replies, taking hold of Harlequin’s device and attempting to get a similar message through.

“This is agent helios, we are down but unharmed. Unable to contact Sol. Continue forward.” He catches the confused look on the younger agent's face.

“Shouldn’t they come back for us?”

“It’s too dangerous for that. The civilians would never make it.” He explains.

“Couldn’t they send a team?”

“An risk leaving the rest of them outnumbered?”

Harlequin frowns but doesn’t continue questioning.

“Best we can do right now is find the rest of our group and move forward.”

A voice does manage to get through to them–Helios specifically.

Daesu please respond. Let me know youre alive.

Agent Luna and her ability to speak into minds reaches out for Helios who lets out a sigh. The newly married couple spend a moment talking to each other in their minds. Helios letting her know their current situation and plan.

Once they break off he tries once more to contact Sol or Seoyun. Nothing.

“We need to get higher ground.”

On that command the three agents begin to slowly make their way through the area. They got lucky with very few demon sightings, and soon enough found their way to the higher level of a building. The wall surrounding the stairs had been broken down and allowed them to climb easily.

“I’ll look south, Harlequin take west.” Helios says, each of them looking in a different direction for their comrades.

The time passes slowly, but also quickly. Demons lumbering around, crumbling noises of buildings giving up–it’s a whole other world out here than the agency grounds. Soon enough Harlequin is calling out to the seniors.

“There, just beyond the billboard.”

Sure enough two figures can be seen ducking under the fallen billboard. They spot the MEIA symbol on the sleeve of Sol’s arm, bright and clear. Helios holds up an arm and waves them over. The trio began to descend the steps again to meet them halfway.

“Good to see the three of you are alive.” Sol greets. There is something about his tone that is off, but Epsilon doesn’t react to it so Helios pushes it off as paranoia.

“Sir, Epsilon, good to see you.” Helios glances around but before he can voice his question someone else speaks.

“She stayed behind.” Epsilon says, voice tense. Angry, annoyed, frustrated. All things Helios has seen from the other before. He figures out what happened from those emotions alone. He nods, taking a moment to send his thanks to Khiana for protecting Helios.

Sol once more leads the group to a more protected area. Nothing here is truly safe but less open air means easier to spot attacks. He pulls out his coms device and tells the others to get theirs out. Each device is laid out, and the senior agent reveals he was from the Tech team before leaving. They watch as he fiddles away with the devices.

A few seconds pass, then they all ding in unison.

“We’re getting a message.” The senior agent explains, and a holographic message appears. A video opening moments after.

“Hey guys!” A grinning Mist is seen through the screen. “I found you~ You know everyone is freaking out right now.” The five agents let out breaths when they get a proper connection.

“Our devices were harmed in the fall and–” Sol starts but Mist interrupts him.

“I know! I hacked in with Remy’s help and we managed to triangulate your devices with a few here. A couple of additions and twists.” She rambles in a tech voice that only one of them keeps up with for a moment. At the blank looks she stops. “Basically you’re running off of Maylin’s device.”

Sol nods. “Does she have orders for our next action?”

Mist nods.

“I’m going to guide you through the city. She said we should reach out first destination in 5 hours and that she will give you two days to make it through the city and meet us there.” As Mist talks, a map appears before them. They see their position and they see the troops' position. A red line begins to form leading them forward.

“Just follow this.” Mist continues. “There is no telling what the demonic activity is like but this should get you through stable ground.”

“Should?” Helios questions his cousin.

“Will.” She affirms. “Don’t worry! You got me to guide you.”

Helios and Epsilon trade a look.

“That’s reassuring.” Harlequin replies, making Mist laugh.

“Better get moving!”

#mialoreevent2 #mialore #epsilonmia #miahelios #miahyunwoo #lunaxmia #miagaeul

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