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i-write-and-therefore-i-am · 9 months

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One Monstrous Miracle (Part Seven)

Hi. I know it's been quite a long time since I last updated this story, I'm sorry guys! If there's anyone still interested, here's a new chapter, just for you! This is partially motivated by Season 2 dropping, and partially by intense nostalgia from rereading what I had already written. I have an outline for the last chapters, but I'm still trying to decide how to split them up. I can't promise how soon I'll be posting more after this, but I can guarantee it will be sooner than last time! Thank you all for your continued support, and I hope you love this chapter as much as I do <3 (Pst! Here’s the AO3 version!)

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Pairing: Aziraphale/Human!Reader

Summary: A group of kids stop Armageddon (offscreen). A deadbeat dad shows his face. Aziraphale almost has a panic attack.

Warnings: Unsure, please let me know if any pop out at you! I wrote the first part of this chapter 3 years ago, and finished it tonight, so please forgive me if you spot any yucky parts.

Word Count: 4,714

Tadfield Airbase, some weeks later…

Crowley was well aware that things were far from being over. He knew exactly how much Hell had been itching for a do-over, that they were still licking their wounds from the Great War. Adam and his friends had stopped Armageddon, something that would not go unpunished by both sides. If Heaven and Hell wanted a war, they would get one. It was only a matter of time.

They were all standing around in the lull between banishing the Four Horsemen and the next Big Thing, doing the dreaded, but inevitable small talk thing with each other. Crowley ignored most of it, staying on high alert. He was soon rewarded for his diligence in the form of an enormous bolt of purple lightning striking the ground not ten feet away from where the group was standing. Simultaneously, the ground began to break apart and crumble in a small patch beside the spot where the lightning had touched down, seemingly being forced up by something moving from below the pavement. They all gasped, stepping away from the new developments. Everyone except for Adam and Anathema. Newt was trying to pull his new girlfriend back, but she stayed, feet planted firmly where they were. Adam just looked.

Adam watched as a tall, dark shape began to form in the lightning, and something broke through the ground next to it and continued to rise. The rising form turned out to be Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. Adam did not know how he knew this, but he did. The other form was not just one person, but two. An Angel, Gabriel, Adam thought, and a woman. Adam frowned. Gabriel seemed to be holding the woman up by her hair! That didn’t look very nice. The Demon and the Angel glared at each other before marching forwards, Gabriel dragging the groaning woman behind him.

Aziraphale couldn’t help the gasp that escaped him when he saw the state you were in. Once Gabriel had gotten close enough, he threw your limp body to the ground, shaking out his hands as though he had been touching something quite foul. Aziraphale was already halfway to you, shrugging off his coat to cover your ripped and dirty clothes. He gathered you into his arms, mindlessly healing all your scrapes and cuts, taking your bloody wrists in his to press cooling miracles into the wounds there. The look he gave Gabriel could have sent him straight to Damnation, if Aziraphale had been concerned with anything other than your wellbeing. You whimpered and fell fully into Aziraphale’s embrace.

“What did you do to her?” Aziraphale demanded of the Archangel, feeling his blood boil in rage. “Her clothes are soaking wet!”

Gabriel grinned shrugging as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. Aziraphale narrowed his eyes, and he could feel Crowley bristling at his side.

“Oh, I haven’t done anything to your precious little pet. You know me, Azi, I don’t like getting my hands bloody. You know, unless there’s a war on. A divine, righteous war that you…people had no right getting in the way of!”

If Aziraphale hadn’t been holding you, he would’ve lunged at him. As it was, he could feel your shivering getting worse, so he wrapped his coat tighter around you and brought you closer to his chest, burying his face into your messy hair. He was thankful you were alive, anyway. Seeing how the angels had treated you doubled the guilt he felt for not dropping everything to scour creation looking for you. Although he knew it was the right choice, later, he would look at every single cut, scrape, and abrasion on your body, thinking that if he had gotten to you, if he hadn’t gone to Tadfield instead, that you would be whole. You would be healthy and happy, far away from all of this mess. As it was, you were right smack in the middle of Armageddon, completely and utterly clueless about what was happening.

Meanwhile, you had gradually been coming back to consciousness, the jolt from being thrown onto the concrete doing most of the heavy work for you. The first thing you noticed was the smell—like wool and tea and old books. A familiar smell that you couldn’t quite place, so you opened your eyes to find your vision blocked by a wall of light tan. Your pain-addled brain was slow to recognize what had happened, but once it did, you couldn’t help yourself from bursting into tears.

“Aziraphale! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to…they just took me! I sw-swear I didn’t tell them anything, honest—”

“Hush, now! Don’t be silly!” Aziraphale was aghast. Here you were, after Heaven only knows what you had gone through, and you were apologizing! To him! He began rubbing soothing circles onto your back, cooing softly, and quieting your crying. As if he needed more proof that he did not deserve someone like you.

“Oi! Do you think you could get her to stop bawling?” Aziraphale lifted his head to see Lord Beelzebub snarling at the pair of you. Aziraphale couldn’t stop himself from staring as a fly landed right on her eyeball and crawled back into the socket. Shuddering, Aziraphale forced his gaze away from the disgusting sight.

“Surely you can understand, Your Highness, with her having just been tortured and all.” Crowley answered, speaking over whatever was about to come out of Aziraphale’s mouth. He knew his friend, and he recognized the same ancient anger that he had felt from Aziraphale the night they had gone to your empty flat. If Aziraphale had had the wherewithal to keep him from burning half of Heaven to find their girl, then Crowley could, at least try and do the same. For now. Beelzebub sneered at him but turned back to the conversation.

“Now. Adam. Listen to me.” The Prince of Hell was bending over in front of the Son of Satan, looking him straight in his eyes. Adam had to stop himself from scrunching his nose at the rank smell that was rolling off her in waves. He stared at her, waiting for her to speak. “When this is over, you’re going to get to rule the world! Don’t you want to rule the world, boy?”

This was a question that every child has thought of at least once. The ultimate, most interesting question one could ask themselves. Adam, being who he was, hadn’t thought about it at all until the past few months, as things in the world had gotten stranger and stranger. After reading the Antiquarian magazines, after finally learning about all the stuff that was really happening, everything that was wrong with the world, Adam knew that he wanted to fix it. Get rid of the nuclear plants! Welcome the aliens to Earth! Adam would fix everything. Hearing Lord Beelzebub say that he really could rule the world and all he would have to do would be to listen to the voices in his mind that he had been resisting all this time was tempting, to say the absolute least.

But then Adam looked around him at the strange group of people that had gathered together to stop that very thing from happening. The two Angels and the two Demons, the witch and the witchfinders, the fortune teller…and his friends. He knew for a fact that he had scared them witless with how he had behaved towards them. Despite how horribly he had treated them, they were here with him—they had his back. He grinned at them, and they grinned back. He turned to the Prince.

“It’s hard enough to have to think of things for Pepper and Wensley and Brian to do all the time so we don’t get bored. I’ve got all the world I want, right here.” His friends cheered, while Gabriel and Beelzebub looked positively murderous. Gabriel huffed and waving his hands around angrily.

“Well, you can’t just refuse to be who you are,” he informed Adam. “Your birth, your destiny, they’re part of the Great Plan—”

Aziraphale stopped fretting over you when he heard those damnable words. The Great Plan. Poppycock. How many times has that phrase been used over the millennia to excuse all sorts of shit? As he listened to Gabriel and Beelzebub squabbling over not getting their war, he was hit with a sudden realization. It was something that had crossed his mind from time to time, but he had always dismissed it outright because…because of what, exactly? Righteousness? Fear? Was he afraid to acknowledge something so huge that it would shake the very foundations of his faith? He turned and gestured to Madame Tracy, who had been watching the proceedings with varying degrees of horror and fascination. Her heels clicked on the pavement as she hurried over, and it occurred to Aziraphale that he had inhabited that body not one hour ago. What a strange thought.

“What is it, my dear?” Tracy asked kindly. Aziraphale waved her closer to where he was sitting with you half across his lap.

“Tracy, would you mind terribly if I asked you to watch Y/N for a moment?” Tracy immediately got down on the ground beside him, reaching for your still weak body and pulling you gently towards her. She could see Mr. Shadwell inching closer out of the corner of her eye, but she focused on you.

“Oooh, you poor dear. We’ll have you right as rain as soon as all of this nonsense is over with!” She assured you, squeezing your hand. You sneezed and groaned.

Aziraphale rose to his feet, brushing the dirt and grit off of his trousers, and strode over to the rest of the group. He cleared his throat to get their attention.

“Ahem. Um, excuse me, you…keep talking about the Great Plan,” he began. Gabriel did not look at him when he replied,

“Aziraphale, maybe you should just keep your mouth shut.” Aziraphale had no intention of doing anything of the sort.

“One thing I’m not sure I’m clear on just yet. Is that the Ineffable Plan?” Gabriel and Beelzebub shared a confused and irritated look with each other.

“The Great Plan!” Beelzebub insisted, her voice going sort of staticky in her frustration. “It is written! There shall be a world, and it shall last for 6,000 yearzzz and end in fire and flame!”

“Yes, yes that sounds like the Great Plan.” He paused, smiling warmly at the two entities. “Just wondering, is that the Ineffable Plan as well?”

There was a short silence.

“Well, they’re the same thing!” Gabriel sounded a lot less confident than he had before. Crowley couldn’t believe it. All of this fighting. All of this uncertainty, and running around England searching for the bleeding Antichrist, trying to stop the unstoppable war and the two people in charge of the whole affair didn’t even know if God wanted it in the first place. You couldn’t make this drivel up, you really couldn’t.

“You don’t know,” Crowley was incredulous. He looked at Aziraphale and he knew that they were on the exact same page. He smirked. “Uh, well, it’d be a real pity if you’d thought you were doing what you thought the Great Plan said, but you were actually going against God’s Ineffable Plan. I mean, everyone knows the Great Plan, yeah? But the Ineffable Plan…” He licked his lips with his forked tongue. “Well, it’s ineffable, isn’t it? By definition we can’t know it.” Gabriel and Beelzebub looked stricken.

“But…it izzz written?” Beelzebub buzzed, disheartened. Crowley nearly felt sorry for the poor things, all the work they had put in, all for naught. Then he thought about all the work he had put in and found he didn’t care about their feelings anymore.

“God does not play games with the Universe.” Gabriel tried in a tone that sounded resolutely final, but with an expression that looked like someone had just broken his favorite toy. Crowley couldn’t help himself from laughing out loud at that one.

“Where have you been?” he asked in between chortles. The two of them stepped away from the group to have their own little conversation. Crowley watched as Aziraphale returned to his post at your side, nodding his thanks to the strange red-headed woman he had been when Crowley had first reunited with him. Gabriel and Beelzebub couldn’t resist one last threat directed towards Adam before they both blinked out of the world. That was that over, then, onto the next one.

You had been watching all this taking place from your spot on the cold, wet ground. Aziraphale’s coat and arms had been warm enough, but you couldn’t even focus on your own body with everything that was going on. You had never felt more confused in your life, surrounded by complete strangers, except for Aziraphale and Crowley. Aziraphale. The people who had taken you, they’d called themselves Angels, had known who he was, and had known about Crowley too. They had called Aziraphale an Angel, too, and Crowley a demon. They had demanded any and all information that you had concerning either one of them, but you had no idea what they were talking about. At first, you assumed that Aziraphale was secretly in some deep trouble with some strange crime syndicate, like a Godfather sort of thing. But the longer you stayed on that chair, the more you had begun to realize that these angels were…well, they were Angels. And that meant that Aziraphale was an Angel too.

________________________________________________________________

Of all the things you’d expected to happen to you, meeting actual Satan was not high on that list. After the shock of Aziraphale, Crowley, and …Adam(?) blinking in and out of existence, you were greeted by the deep rumbles and sharp smell of burnt earth announcing the arrival of the Great Adversary. Here. In the flesh. About a million feet taller than you, with only his top half poking out of the actual ground, Satan cast an extremely intimidating figure. Your heart stopped when Adam, a boy that couldn’t even be in his teens yet, stepped up to the Ruler of Hell and gave him a piece of his mind. Apparently, Adam was Satan’s son, and had never even seen his own father for the entirety of his life. Typical. Adam sent his father straight back to where he had come from. Once the pavement had patched itself up, a small, red car came tearing through the lingering smoke. The door opened, and out stepped a very cross, middle-aged man.

“Can anyone tell me, what exactly is going on?” He demanded. It turned out that this man was also Adam’s father, which was very confusing. The children all migrated over to him, and the rest of them stayed back, assessing the damage, and waiting to see if it all really was over. You watched as the young couple embraced almost forcefully; the man’s glasses being pushed askew with how…passionate his partner was being with her kisses. The red head and the old man with the Dr. Seuss-ian gun-thing were standing awkwardly next to each other, but you could see their hands brushing each other ever so slightly. Your boys had examined each other, and were now making their way over to you, Aziraphale not even bothering to hide his worry while Crowley sauntered along behind him.

“You alright, Y/N?” Crowley nearly could’ve convinced you that he wasn’t concerned about you, if it wasn’t for the serious expression on his face that completely belied the casual way he had spoken. Aziraphale stayed quiet, seemingly unable to meet your gaze. You looked back at Crowley.

“I’ve been better.” You paused. Aziraphale and Crowley had hidden this part of themselves from you, their true selves, one could say. Now that Crowley wasn’t wearing his glasses, you could see that he had sickly yellow eyes with slits for pupils. Aziraphale didn’t seem any different, but after what the Angels had told you, and what you had seen in the nightmares they had given you, he was hiding some very impressive wings under that trench coat. What were you supposed to do with this information now? The two people you had grown to love more than anyone else weren’t even human, apparently, and they had kept that from you the whole time you had known them. What else could they be lying about?

Immediately, you felt awful for even entertaining such a terrible thought. You knew it wasn’t like that. You could tell just by the look of pure remorse on Aziraphale’s face. Crowley was too much of a sweetheart at his core to hurt you needlessly. You wouldn’t treat them any different at all. You would accept them for who they were, just as they had accepted you with all your faults. You lifted a shaky arm towards the pair, pulling yourself back into the moment.

“Help me up?” They didn’t hesitate to come forwards, Crowley going to one side and Aziraphale going to the other to lift you as gently as they could off the ground. You groaned quietly as your aching body was made to move, but your boys held onto you, letting you lean on them for support. The moment he was sure that you wouldn’t collapse on them, Crowley dropped his hands and stepped back to where he had been before. Aziraphale did not. His fingers dug into the fabric around your waist almost as if he were afraid to let you go. You remembered the last time you had seen him, when he told you that he loved you and how reluctant he had been to let you leave even then. You turned around so that he was now holding you properly in his arms and placed your hands on his chest.

“Are you alright?” Aziraphale startled and looked straight at you for the first time, completely bewildered. His grip on you lessened quite a bit, but he still did not let go.

“Y-you’re asking me if I’m alright? Have you seen yourself?”

“No, actually, but I’d imagine I’m not looking too hot at the moment.” Aziraphale appeared to have lost the power of speech. He sputtered, opening and closing his mouth like a fish while trying to find the words, any words, to say.

“Not too hot?! I can’t believe you, I really can’t. After everything—”

“You know, I’d really prefer it if you didn’t mention it, if you don’t mind.” You interrupted. “I promise I will let you therapize and rehabilitate me to your heart’s content later, but right now, I just want to make sure that you’re alright.”

The process of Aziraphale understanding what you had said was clear in the expressions on his face. At first, he was still baffled at your seemingly blasé attitude towards your kidnapping and torture. Then, you could see the change in him as he slowly realized what you had said. You knew it had clicked when Aziraphale’s mouth dropped open, and you had to hide your amusement when his eyes widened in genuine surprise. You evidently hadn’t been fast enough because Aziraphale quickly attempted to reel himself in, blinking and clearing his throat. He swallowed audibly.

“So…you…what I mean to say is—” He cut himself off. He bit the inside of his cheek, but you could tell that he was trying to hide the way his lips had begun to tremble ever so slightly. “After everything, you aren’t…you…you want to see me again?” Your heart broke at how shyly hopeful he sounded. You grinned, lifting your hands to frame his beautiful face. One of his hands flew to cover yours, his thumb stroking your knuckles absentmindedly.

“Of course, you silly man. Though I suppose I should call you Angel, now, huh?”

“I will never be able to tell you how sorry I am about that, Y/N. I wanted to tell you, truly I did. I even planned to more than once, but I could never summon the courage. I will never forgive myself for what they did to you, those horrible, vile—” He broke off when you lifted onto your tip toes to press your lips to his cheek. He stared down at you in shock.

“We don’t have to talk about any of that right now, Azi. Really, we don’t have to talk about it at all, although I know you’ll need to get it off your chest eventually. I’m just glad that I have my boys back. All the rest, we can deal with later.”

Aziraphale couldn’t stop himself. He had waited all these months pinning for you, never once thinking that you could possibly feel the same. And then, on the night he had tried to force you to leave him by saying all those wicked things, you’d told him that you loved him too. After weeks of not knowing where you were, but not being able to look for you, after seeing what the angels had done to you, after feeling you here, alive and in his arms and looking at him like that, he couldn’t stop himself from tilting his head and leaning down to (finally) plant a kiss on your lips.

Your reaction was instant. Your hands dropped from his face to go around his neck, pulling him farther down so that you could feel his lips more fully against your own. He pulled you in closer, feeling the desperate urge to never let you out of his sight again. You sighed into the kiss, prompting Aziraphale to put a slow and reluctant end to it. You were still in public, after all, with an audience. The both of you pulled apart, unwilling to end the moment.

Aziraphale opened his eyes before you did and took great joy in being able to watch your serene face for the few moments your eyes stayed shut. He felt a sharp pang in his heart as your eyelids fluttered open, almost as though you had just awoken from a very pleasant dream. Your smile could have lit up a room, and it was all for him. He almost couldn’t take it. He could feel Crowley’s excitement radiating off of him, but he ignored his friend. You were the only thing that mattered. He raised a hand to tuck a bit of your hair behind your ear, smiling serenely down at you.

“So…what does this mean, then?” You asked, hating that you had to interrupt the moment that you were having, but needing to know the answer. After everything, you needed Aziraphale in your life more than ever, and if he didn’t feel the same, now was the time to break it off. You couldn’t wait around for him to stop being afraid to love you, you needed it to happen now.

Aziraphale wanted to say many things, but something was holding him back. He frowned inwardly, confused. What was making him hesitate? Every inch of his body wanted to fly to you, to stay wrapped protectively around you until the Universe finally burned into nothing. But there was some small, wriggling thing trying to grasp his attention, fluttering around on the wind—

That damned prophecy! “When alle is fayed and all is done, ye must choose your faces wisely, for soon enouff ye will be playing with fyre”. Fire…Aziraphale had to talk to Crowley about it. He couldn’t quite parse it on his own, although the “faces” part was fairly straightforward. He refocused his attention on you, and felt his heart twinge at the mix of emotions on your face.

“My deepest apologies, dearest, I was lost in thought. What this means—” he took your face in both of his hands, holding you as the precious gift you were, “Is that Crowley and I unfortunately have one very small thing that we must take care of to ensure that any loose ends get tied up. After we have finished with that…”

Aziraphale trailed off. All of his insecurities, all of his doubts that he wasn’t good enough for you, that you would turn him away, especially after what his kind had done to you, raced to the forefront of his mind and stopped his mouth. You frowned a little, but slowly, realization dawned on you and your expression turned sad. You lifted your hands to cover his.

“Aziraphale, listen to me. I love you. I will continue to love you for the foreseeable future. I want to be with you. I just…I need to know if that’s what you want, too. If it’s not, I will understand, but I can’t keep waiting, Azi. I need you to tell me what—”

You were interrupted by Aziraphale’s lips crashing into yours once again, this time with much more urgency, like he was trying to answer you with the kiss. Before you could sink into the kiss, he pulled away, his eyes wide.

“Of course that’s what I want, my darling. I will stay by your side for as long as you will have me. I love you too, and I am so very sorry for everything—” You stopped him with a finger to his lips.

“Shh. I said I don’t want to talk about that right now.” You dropped your hands and grinned. “Well, I suppose you’ll be stuck with me forever then.”

The smile that Aziraphale gave you was so utterly pure that it almost broke your heat.

“Then I suppose I am fortunate that there’s no one else I’d rather be stuck with, aren’t I?”

________________________________________________________________

The swap had gone perfectly. Each side was completely bamboozled by their trick, and equally terrified of the possibilities it implied. Crowley had been absolutely chuffed at how well his plan had gone off. Aziraphale was equally pleased to be done with the whole situation—that is, at least until the next Big Thing showed itself. But for now, everything was put to rights.

Nearly everything, that is.

Crowley hadn’t even needed to ask before dropping Aziraphale off at your apartment, where they had left you. Even after your conversation on the airfield, Aziraphale could feel his nerves skyrocket as Crowley pulled into park in front of the building. He tried to even his breathing, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“Angel, you’re going to hyperventilate” said Crowley, unhelpfully. Aziraphale rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I know that, thank you.” Aziraphale loved Crowley, he really did, but sometimes the Demon’s lack of a bedside manner really irritated—oh. Aziraphale looked down to wear Crowley had put his hand on top of Aziraphale’s trembling one. He looked over at his friend, whose head was turned away from Aziraphale, towards the driver side window.

“Listen, Angel. You’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’m frankly surprised that she still wants you after everything—” Aziraphale yanked his hand out from under his friend’s and moved to get out of the car.

“Really, Crowley, you’re not helping.”

“No, Aziraphale, listen to me.” Crowley sounded annoyed now, and when Aziraphale looked back at him, the Demon was staring back at him.

“She loves you. Despite everything that has happened, she wants to stay with you. That means a lot, Angel. You’ve got something real special with her, you know. Almost as special as us. I know you’ll want to have a therapy sesh with her, but promise me you’ll hold off on that until you’ve had a proper reunion alright? She just needs you to be with her right now. She doesn’t need Aziraphale the Angel, she needs her Azi. Make sense?”

Aziraphale didn’t notice until Crowley stopped talking, but he had apparently started crying during Crowley’s speech, and now he reached up to wipe his tears away. On pure impulse, he reached out to pull his oldest friend into a tight hug, putting all of his love and gratitude into the embrace. After a few moments, he felt Crowley awkwardly tap his shoulder and Aziraphale pulled back, knowing how important personal space was to the other being.

“Thank you, dear boy.” With that, he got out of the car and headed to the apartment, pausing to wave goodbye to Crowley. Aziraphale took a deep breath and rung the bell to your flat.

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avatar-news · 3 years

Photo

The Fire Nation Awaits 🌺 An in-depth look at the ever-elusive islands in the era of Korra and when we will finally pay them a visit

[Artwork by Avatar News; not official.]

Note: This article was published before the official announcement of Avatar Studios at the Paramount+ investor day.

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” We’ve all heard those words a million times. The four elements, and the power to control them bestowed by four subspecies of giant lion-turtles, are at the very heart of the world of Avatar. The balance between them was once upon a time broken by one of the four, the Fire Nation, forming the main conflict of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For much of Aang and the Gaang’s quest at the close of the Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation was a forbidden, far-away location, until the curtain was finally drawn back in the aptly-named Book Three: Fire when our heroes entered the inferno, undercover behind enemy lines. A dramatic tropical destination! New outfits! Culture shock! Needless to say, it was a big deal.

→ 🌺 The big reveal of the Fire Nation in Book Three: Fire had its own marketing push, matching public anticipation.

When the Hundred Year War ended, the newly-instated Fire Lord Zuko dedicated his life to righting the wrongs of his forefathers and working with Avatar Aang to bring the Fire Nation back into the fold under peace. By the time Aang’s successor debuted as the next Avatar in the titular The Legend of Korra, Zuko had abdicated the five-pointed crown and his daughter, Fire Lord Izumi, took the stage leading a reformed, rebalanced Fire Nation.

There was no more war, no more enemy lines, yet the Fire Nation became more distant and mysterious than ever before.

Korra’s close encounters with the land of fire

To this day, Korra has never visited the Fire Nation, nor has it been seen at all, nor do we know anything about it in her era. In fact, practically the only thing we do know is that its leader is a noninterventionist, which conveniently gets it out of the way of making an appearance in Korra’s journey as the Avatar so far.

The closest we have come to seeing the Fire Nation in The Legend of Korra was in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Five: Peacekeepers. In the midst of the Water Tribe Civil War, Korra sets out across the sea to get help from the royal family, however, she is intercepted by a dark spirit and never makes it to her destination. In the next episode, she washes up on a secret island home to the Bhanti sages, which probably technically counts as Fire Nation territory, but as we know from The Shadow of Kyoshi (more on that later), this faction predates the Four Nations themselves so it doesn’t really count.

→ 🌺 Korra washes up on the beach of Bhanti Island in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Six: The Sting.

No, as cool as that location and the events of the Beginnings two-parter that happened there were, it wasn’t the main draw of seeing the Fire Nation that we’re still waiting for: seeing how the Fire Nation, which was already industrializing in Aang’s time, changed over the decades, compared to places like Republic City and Ba Sing Se; meeting new characters; visiting new and familiar locations; worldbuilding both new and expanding on what we already learned.

After this aborted tease in Book Two, we never come close to the island country again (at least not with this Avatar and in her era; yes I’m leading up to something...). Instead, the focus turns strongly to the Earth Kingdom in the third and fourth Books, and beyond.

Keep in mind that The Legend of Korra aired for about two-and-a-half years total from 2012 to 2014. Since then, the story has continued in comics. The comics era has lasted from 2015 to present-- seven years to the animated series’ two. In that time, there have only been two comic trilogies due to various production troubles, and neither have touched the Fire Nation. Instead, they directly continue the Earth Kingdom-focused threads started in Books Three and Four of Korra, both originally airing in 2014. Or, in perspective: we had a focus on Republic City in 2012, the Water Tribes in 2013, and the Earth Kingdom from 2014-2021.

Will we finally see the Fire Nation in the next graphic novel trilogy?

This question comes to mind every time new Korra content is supposed to roll around, and the powers that be know it-- it’s a pretty obvious gap in the world of Avatar right now. This franchise is iconically built around four elements and the Four Nations based on them, so one of them being MIA is quite glaring, and for that reason everyone is understandably always asking about it.

The most concrete confirmation we’ve gotten was this AMA answer from franchise co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino in 2016, two years after the show ended and a year before the first graphic novels did come out:

“Yes, hopefully in the [Korra] comics, we’ll have a chance to go to the Fire Nation and see how it has changed since A:TLA.”

Since then, as previously discussed, two comic trilogies have come and gone, obviously not getting closer to the Fire Nation-- and I would actually argue entrenching themselves further away from it.

I want to make it clear that I’m against fan entitlement. Creatives telling the tales they want to in service of the story and the artform is how the industry should run. I’m just hoping to offer some perspective on how we got to where we are almost a decade into the era of Korra and the metatextual pacing of the franchise itself.

Either way, the next Korra comic trilogy has been official confirmed by the editor for Avatar at Dark Horse Comics in this informal statement on Twitter:

We’re not ready to announce any details yet, but we are working on the next trilogy. I really appreciate your patience and hope it’s worth the wait! ✨

There’s currently some kind of holdup for which we really have zero context or information, and we of course have no idea what this next trilogy will be about. (I do speculate a bit on what it could be a few paragraphs down.)

But, like what turned out to be Ruins of the Empire before it, I faithfully made a mockup graphic for my post announcing the confirmation of the next The Legend of Korra graphic novel trilogy. And like before, I chose to completely speculatively and blindly make it Fire Nation-y, as if the next comic could/would(/should?) feature it. This is mainly because I feel like that’s what most people’s eyes would be caught by and thus result in the most successful post (hey, at least I’m honest), but also because it’s just fun.

Here are both images, from 2018 and 2020 respectively:

→ 🌺 Speculative edits I made for my posts on the announcement of previous and upcoming Korra comics before we knew anything about them.

In both cases, the response was huge, and people were super excited about the prospect of Fire Nation content just from my quick speculative mockups. I am of course hoping that the new artwork I made of the Krew for this post will have a similar effect (it’s the first time I just straight-up drew it instead of editing existing images) but again it’s really mostly just for fun.

Anyway, until the next trilogy is properly revealed, we’ll just have to wait and see.

However, that’s not the only place this could happen.

Are they saving the Fire Nation for an animated movie?

With Avatar’s HUGE success on Netflix last year, interest in the franchise rocketed to an all-time high. The streaming wars have begun, and Avatar’s owner and its parent company, Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS, have finally started to notice.

ViacomCBS is launching Paramount+ on March 4th, a relaunch of its existing streaming service CBS All Access. Paramount+ is meant to be a big expansion and refocus to compete with the big hitters: Disney+, HBO Max, and, yes, Netflix. (There’s quite an entanglement there, with Netflix being the home of Avatar’s big year and the upcoming live-action series.)

One of the keys to a successful streamer today is high-profile originals to drive new subscribers. ViacomCBS knows this and they know Avatar has just become among the highest profiles a property can have, breaking records and going toe-to-toe with other big-hitting sci-fi/fantasy/genre franchises. This knowledge goes right to the top of the food chain: the CEO of ViacomCBS mentioned Avatar by name when discussing potential originals for Paramount+.

I have previously discussed how The Search relates to this. The Search was the second ATLA comic trilogy, focused on the search for Zuko’s mother in the thick of the Fire Nation, and if you didn’t know, it was originally pitched by Bryke as an animated movie after the original series ended.

I just want to be clear that what I’m discussing here is purely speculative, but this is the only other piece of the Avatar franchise that we know was optioned for animation besides the shows themselves. It’s possible they would be interested in going back to this idea as a Paramount+ original (and it would certainly be popular among audiences), but it is of course set during the era of Aang and thus covers both a time period we’ve already seen, and also by nature of already being released as comics, events we’ve already seen too.

However, the whole point of this article is that there is one major, huge thing we haven’t seen yet, with massive anticipation building for a decade behind it: the Fire Nation in the era of Korra. So, again, this is just speculation, but it’s also possible that they could return to the very smallest seed of the original idea for a The Search movie, and do a Fire Nation-focused Korra movie now.

→ 🌺 ATLA’s Fire Nation-focused The Search was originally pitched as an animated movie.

You can skip this next part if you don’t want to see me embarrassingly promote my fan idea 😆 but this is where the artwork I made for this article comes into play. The general idea for it, and the reason I tried to replicate the show’s style as much as possible, is that it’s what a Fire Nation-focused movie could maybe look like. Something as standalone and unrelated to Earth Kingdom drama as possible, with fresh new looks for the Krew to get people excited for something fresh and new! I really feel like the Avatar franchise has so much potential for expanded content like this, that’s why I have high hopes that Paramount+ will make the most out of it! You can see the individual characters’ artwork in larger size here. Ok I’m done back to business.

If the idea of a movie seems too impossible to you, we can also take a deeper look at Bryke’s involvement with upcoming comics instead.

After Korra ended, they officially each went their separate ways. They vaguely consulted on Avatar stuff, and Mike of course wrote the Korra comics, but Bryan was planning on writing and drawing his own original non-Avatar comic series and Mike was releasing his own non-Avatar novels. This all appears to have come to a stop when they signed on to showrun the live-action retelling of ATLA at Netflix, officially reuniting the partnership and committing to Avatar again in a big way. Of course, they ended up leaving that project over creative differences, but it did result in a big, lasting change: this time they remained official creative partners and have indicated they’re still working on Avatar now, together. This is a far cry from the official breakup after Korra, so it begs the question what exactly they’re working on. I of course have my fanciful predictions of a sprawling expansion of the Avatar franchise at Paramount+, but what if it’s actually a combination of the ingredients from before the live-action series...

More speculation, but what if the reason for all the mystery behind the next Korra comics is because they will be made by Bryke, with the two of them co-writing and Bryan doing the art for the first time? If that’s the case, they could want to make them a bigger deal than the other Avatar comics have been so far, and maybe that’s why it’s taking so long to iron everything out, have a more significant story, have more of a marketing push, etc. If they’ve been saving the Fire Nation for something big, this could be it.

I personally think this is less likely than a show or movies or something, but it is possible. Anything is possible right now since we know so little about the large-scale direction of the franchise moving forward, just that it’s gonna get big.

⛰️🌋 The Fire Nation in the era of Avatar Kyoshi

We’re not done! Despite everything I’ve written here, believe it or not, the Fire Nation was actually the star of the show in the last year.

With the debut of the Avatar franchise’s first original novels, Kyoshi made a huge splash (in a way only she can). If you haven’t read them yet, you NEED to-- they’re some of the best Avatar content EVER. The Rise of Kyoshi hit shelves in 2019 and The Shadow of Kyoshi followed in 2020. The latter is of particular interest here, because it was almost entirely set in the Fire Nation and featured practically everything and anything you could want from a visit to elusive islands. Though obviously set in a historical period some four hundred years before Aang’s time, Kyoshi’s sojourn in the Fire Nation gave us a huge amount of new information, a depth and breadth of worldbuilding, culture, and character we’ve never really seen in Avatar before. It truly makes the most of the literary medium, so hats off to author F. C. Yee for the passion and effort he put in.

In The Shadow of Kyoshi, we learn about the era of the previous fire Avatar before Roku, Avatar Szeto. Through Kyoshi and her own Team Avatar, we learn about the different clans and islands of the Fire Nation, as they experience the fraught early reign of Fire Lord Zoryu and the conflict between the Keohso and Saowon clans, culminating in the Camellia-Peony War. We get a multitude of fleshed-out perspectives from the upper crust to the flea-bitten underworld, matching the heights of the worldbuilding quality of Republic City. It’s such cool, intricate stuff, and really shows Avatar’s potential (and that’s all just the worldbuilding-- the character work is also top-notch).

That’s not the only place the Fire Nation has shone recently. One of Insight Editions’ awesome scrapbooks, Legacy of the Fire Nation, gave us a tour through the royal family’s history, including never-before-seen looks at young Iroh and Ozai and much, much more.

All this just goes to show that the Fire Nation has been a hot ticket throughout the ages and there’s one conspicuous gap in that history: the era of Avatar Korra. With so much recent expansion and development of the Fire Nation in our world, it would be perfect to see the culmination of it all in the current time period in the world of Avatar too.

If this made you excited for the potential of what the Avatar franchise could look like in the coming years, same boat!

The next concrete date where something could be announced is February 24th, when ViacomCBS will host their investor day and present their streaming strategy, including Paramount+ originals. There’s no guarantee Avatar is mentioned, but I’m keeping a hopeful eye out.

As for comics, Dark Horse’s schedule marches to its own beat, so there’s no way to know when the next drop of information is coming our way.

Could this finally be the comics that take us to the Fire Nation, or could the much-anticipated visit be in another medium like animation? Stay tuned-- as always I’ll post as soon as we learn anything new!

#korra comics #paramount plus #the fire nation awaits

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f-117-nighthawk · 3 years

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Playlist Update? From MY Brain? More Likely Than You Think

can't remember the last time I posted these all together but I just put a few new songs in. I've been playing Arknights bc STARSET songs keep being used in the trailers, and then I was listening to Transmissions while making dinner, and uhhhhh there's two new Transmissions songs on the playlists, plus whatever else the spotify links needed to update to my ever-changing apple versions.

This is just the main playlist, because this one is now 3h 40m, and the other three playlists are about an hour each. I’ll give them their own post tomorrow. Under the cut, because it's also Write Random Snippits and Include Important Lyrics time

Dark Matter

Surprise surprise, this one’s got probably the most work done on it. A lot of that is moving things around, a few deletions, and the additions.

DM now starts with Your World Will Fail, Dark Matter, and Eater of Worlds. Turn the Lights Out still kinda applies, but I stopped vibing with it starting everything, and wasn’t really sure where else it should go so it got dropped. It’s role is sort of picked up by a UtA song later? Anyway, the opening three are still very much about not only the birth of [REDACTED], but the birth of the universe itself. And that’s why it feels better to start out with YWWF. Because it is the start.

(Your world will fail my love/It’s far beyond repair/Your world will fail my love/It is already there)

(Bring me your soul/Bring me your hate/In my name you will create/Bring me your fear/Bring me your pain/You will destroy in my name)

(Can’t imagine the violence/The rage and the love in my madness/I am the eater of worlds and I’m looking for someone to feed me)

Remnants of Stars is a hook to Filaments at this point, but stays way up here because the thing it’s about connects back up to those three ^ and is something slowly realized by the Paladins throughout the series. There’s kinda three different points that they realize something new about this (at the moment, I Am the One, Cosmic Vertigo, and Centigrade).

(Shed all you know and make way for a galaxy of light/Answers found hidden inside the smallest stone/Bringing forth a new way of life/Open your heart to the sky)

Apocalypse 1992 hasn’t changed. Still about The Fall, still the turning point for the entire damn war. Still about poor Krolia. Still the Rogue One of DM. It happens between parts of Awakenings, detailing the rise of [REDACTED] and the final hours before the destruction of everything sentient species knew beforehand.

(Fly high through apocalypse skies/Fight for the world we must save/Like tears of a unicorn lost in the rain/Chaos will triumph this day)

Apex is the final moments of Apocalypse 1992 from the Red Lion’s perspective, and connects nicely (just as in the albums lol) to the next UtA songs. Which we’ll get to in a bit.

(Brother mountain/Now we sleep/For a thousand years/I will see you again/Something is coming/Coming for me)

You Keep What You Kill covers the slow degeneration of the Empire between The Fall and the Battle of Arus. The knowledge harshly taught by the Thuanial War is forgotten under the influence of Zarkon, Haggar, and [REDACTED]. Marzin and Galraasa quickly rise the ranks as the Empire’s left and right hands, like omens of destruction before them. The four are the ‘holy half-dead,’ the ones who shape the devouring of the universe before them.

(Defying dimensions/These ruthless creatures will steal your soul/Breaking away from the chains of mortality/They won’t be taken down/Bow now to the holy half dead/The master to death mongers calls)

The Glory and the Scum is partially here bc I missed having Delain, I’ll freely admit that. (Delain split up! Like six months ago! I’m still sad!) Here, it’s (most) of the reason why Krolia isn’t around until MGHM. Think Winter Soldier-ish. It’s also from Krolia’s perspective as she’s talking to Kolivan in a conversation I implied in Shatterpoint. Perhaps it shall see the light of day.

(Look at what we've done/Take a step back/Shake your head at what we have become/We're the glory and the scum)

The Seven Sisters is about Keith, mostly, and connected to Closure via its influence on Child From the Stars (Lost in the Dark) and also to Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met. Also the thing about the Pleiades has kinda become A Thing associated with my two favorite halfbloods.

(I cast my hope upon The Pleiades/The Seven Sisters who would come for me/They’d fall to Earth to grant a child’s dream/But I’m still waiting)

Starlight is the Adashi song. Here, it’s the sad part, based around the time that the SFSS Genesis launches for Kerberos. It also is sort of about Shiro’s thoughts throughout the war as he watches ‘from distant skies’ (and influences String Theory kinda)

(At night the earth will rise/And I’ll think of you each time I watch from distant skies/Whenever stars go down and galaxies ignite/I’ll think of you each time they wash me in their light/And I’ll fall in love with you again)

Waking Dream and Abyss are Awakenings. They’re specifically the Red Lion waking up on Sendak’s ship to her new Paladin, but also sort of the rest of the Lions as they find new Paladins for the first time since The Fall (and, also, an accidental hook to the end of Filaments just by virtue of being on the same UtA album…)

(Centuries like flowing streams as years go rushing by/Waiting in the dark for afterlife)

(Open my eyes in a daze/How long has it been? Am I so out of place?/Warmth I can no longer feel/My mountain is gone, I’m surrounded by steel/The strangest of structures arises ahead/Seems to be held up by nothing/Where have I gone, do I dream?/How can the stars be all I can see?)

Who Will Save You Now is about the Paladins in First Contact. It’s the video messages they send to their families, the warning that Something Is Out Here that they need to prepare for. It’s a declaration of protection for Earth, but a recognition that the Paladins may not be able to do what they say.

(I will not take from you and you will not owe/I will protect you from the fire below/It’s not in my mind/It’s here at my side/Go tell the world that I’m still alive)

Then there’s The End of the Beginning. Which is, well, the eponymous fic. And don’t forget the String Theory connection! Fun fact: part of the last chapter leads directly into part of String Theory at the moment.

(Every night I die just a little/All this time, I’m caught in the middle/All your life, you fought with no winning/This is just the end of the beginning)

A Simple Plan is about anything but a simple plan. Lotor is making his secret bid for the construction of the Sinkline ships, but there’s one more thing he needs before it can come to fruition. Haggar has suspicions, and knows one thing that she needs to keep from both him and Voltron. Team Voltron is still struggling to fit into their new roles, especially with a Black Paladin who adamantly does not want to be Black Paladin, and is in desperate need of one thing to fix the last of the damage done during the Battle of the Sarnan Nebula.

(How long can we hold off ending?/How long can we pretend we’re ok?/No one goes on fighting it forever/I know I’m better this way)

Memories of a Girl I Haven’t Met. Such a short song for such an important fic. It skips all the way over Naxzela to the Mission to the Baaria Shipyards, the first major offensive that isn’t somehow connected to canon (even if only a very very small part of it is actually at the shipyards lol). This is also the song that solidified Keith’s very queer identity in Dark Matter. And more Pleiades stuff!

(In this lonely place, bathed in silence and thoughts of you/I can’t see your face but I’m trying to envision you/So are you really out there? Are you awake with memories/Of a boy you haven’t met yet who’s wished upon the Pleiades?)

There’s another fic in here that I’m still waiting for a song to catch my ear, but it’s pretty big so I’m putting it in here. For the moment, it’s called MGHM 2.0: Electric Paladinloo. Featuring the Whispers, Voltron, and a few mullets.

And then. Hoh boy. The beast of beats. TRIALS (reimagine), Dark On Me, String Theory, and I Am the One. We’ve got [REDACTED], we’ve got [spoiler], we’ve got the first major turning point in the entire war, and the first revelation of the true nature of [REDACTED]. Hence the honor of being the separation point of my two main DM folders. TRIALS is the first part, the horrifying realization. Dark On Me and String Theory itself are from Shiro’s perspective. I Am the One is… an image song? I guess? That’s all I’ll say on that. (I would like to note that the STARSET songs bar OWtT tend to be about the Shiroganes…)

(Hear me from the bottom/Forged in regret, I'm the silversmith/Doomsday, you we had it coming/Marching the streets with an iron fist/Obey no more in silence/The steel in our hearts will be monuments/Today, they'll hear the violence/We'll rise from the dark like Lazarus)

(You're the cause/The antidote/The sinking ship that I could not let go/You led my way, then disappeared/How could you just walk away and leave me here?/Light the night up, you're my dark star/And now you're falling away)

(You don’t believe in space/You don’t believe in light/You don’t believe that anything is well beyond your might/We walk across the sky and beneath the ocean floor/We’re never going anywhere we’ve never been before)

(I am the one/I am the architect to rule your fate)

House on Fire is the aftermath of String Theory, and a large vibe of We ARE Struggling Together! It’s about family, never letting go of something you care about, and the slow act of trusting.

(So I’ll just hold you like a hand grenade/You touch me like a razor blade/I wish there was some other way right now/Like a house on fire we’re up in flames/I’d burn here if that’s what it takes/To let you know I won’t let go of you)

Belgrade is The klance song! It is a) a bop b) always stuck in my head because it is That Good. The line in the chorus about ‘sweet songs of seduction’ is eternally funny to me bc a)they’re both ace and b)QPR’s don’t usually involve seduction. Belgrade also leads almost directly into…

(We pretend in the darkness/We pretend the night won’t steal our youth/Singing me the sweet songs of seduction/Let me be the fool, fool, fool/Who will live and die for you)

Here to Save You is about Sam. Mostly. It’s also about Pidge. And Zaivorge cannons.

(A slave for humankind/I made sure I would survive/To stay alive/Now it’s time to move on/When there’s nothing left to prove/I’m coming to get you)

Iron is the third Closure fic (the second is End of the Beginning, forgot to mention that. They’ve slowly moved away from actually being related to it in anything but name and general idea). It’s about Keith coming to terms with parts of himself, and learning how to use them to great effect. Also has a huge info dump about the Blade.

(You can’t live without the fire/It’s the heat that makes you strong/‘Cause you’re born to live/And fight it all the way/You can’t hide what lies inside you/It’s the only thing you know/You’re embracing that, never walk away)

The second major turning point in the war is Monarch, Birthright, and Firewall. I really recommend reading the whole lyrics for Monarch, because the entire thing is very much a Lotor song. I had a bit of trouble picking a lyric to use here. Monarch is here because Lotor is also the ‘singer’ of Birthright, and both songs are to a very specific high-level target of the Coalition. Firewall is a little different as it’s a Team Voltron song not a Lotor song, but happens because of the same thing the other two do. They’re all not exactly a direct result of Iron, but they wouldn’t happen how they do without it, and then [REDACTED] swings back into the fray and things learned in String Theory/the framing story for Through Apocalypse Skies hit in full force.

(I am not the person you remember from before/The one you patronized and stepped on, the one you hurt/And I have pulled the arrows, now my skin has become stone/No longer am I prisoner to your empty fucking words)

(The voices in my head have all begun to sing/(The voices in your head have all begun to sing)/And they sure as hell hope I am listening/(I sure as hell hope you are listening!))

(They come to your dreams with illusion/They come to bring shape to your mind/You know how to stop the intrusion/We all have to fight for our lives)

and then, The Day the Earth Collapsed

(How much time has been elapsed/Since the day the earth collapsed?)

Here Comes the Reign doesn’t come into full effect until several months after Birthright/Firewall, but starts with The Day the Earth Collapsed. It’s largely about Haggar and [REDACTED]

(You made something they can’t take away/Now bring the fire of the burning sun on everyone)

Supersonic is here… kinda as a placeholder? Things have shifted around since its original purpose, and frankly it’s here still as a framework for what I like to call The Meme Battle. It’s generally about the increase in Coalition support and general winning as they go after warlords in the aftermath of Feyiv, culminating in I Need a Hero which is, of course, The Meme Battle.

Yes, it’s the Shrek version. It’s the Meme Battle.

(Supersonic, polyphonic, this is our war/Mustering the armies, marching faster than before)

(I need a hero/I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night/He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast/And he's gotta be fresh from the fight)

But Tonight We Dance isn’t exactly a klance song, but it’s here for them. On a diplomatic mission gone wrong, the Red and Blue Paladins of Voltron uncover a literally-buried government conspiracy, a rebel cell, and nearly die. A normal days work for the two of them. But they’ve really gotta stop having relationship milestones in the middle of a warzone.

Another reason it’s here is Tonight We Dance is a very aro song to me. “A language universal, but I speak not its tongue” hits hard. I felt like I needed a bit in here to remind listeners/readers that romance isn’t a language Keith speaks. And it becomes very explicit in this fic, just like Belgrade.

(Tomorrow we might wake in servitude and silence/I will give you everything if only you would have me/Tomorrow we will sweat and toil/Our hands will quiver, caked with soil/Tomorrow we'll give it one last chance/But tonight we dance/But tonight we dance!)

But Tonight We Dance is the last of the Closure fics, which is why it’s here. Closure in general is a lot of Keith’s character development and some of the struggles he goes through to accept his place in the universe and the fact that yes, he does have people that care about him. The last fic is me shining a brighter light on Closure’s chorus and taking a ‘last goodbye’ as never needing to say it again

(I am the child from the stars/That got lost in the dark/Between heaven and hell/I am forced to live on/I am the cause when you sin/I am the demon you skin/But there is no more tears to beautify/This is my last goodbye)

Then we step back into the universe-level action with Soulbound. Revelations from String Theory and Firewall swing back in with a vengeance on a joint Whispers-Voltron mission, leaving them reeling and Krolia questioning her very identity.

(Soulbound, endlessly forever/Locked between the darkness and the light/Don’t drown in the swarming, blackened rising/Hold on to humanity and fight)

About three months after that is My Darkest Hour and Faster Than Light. Haggar realizes something and goes searching for her fifth [spoiler], sending the Blade and the rest of the Coalition scrambling. These also lead directly, and I mean directly, into…

(When the sun comes crashing down/When the world is spinning round and round/I will face what must be my darkest hour)

(Once more we’re flying fast as light/Dark matter passing in the night/Pursued by a force we can’t outrun/As we hurtle towards a dying sun/We maneuver through the remnants of a moon/On the solar winds of supernovas/There is not a place to hide, the Matriarch is close behind/It’s plain to see she’s coming for us all)

Cosmic Vertigo and Other Worlds Than These. Together they are the second of two revelations in what, exactly, is [REDACTED]

(Banish me like burned down planets/Write my fate with sparkling lies/I am the universe; you're just one sky)

(Pull the wool out from your eyes/It won’t shade your frail belief/In the end we cannot hide/There are other worlds than these)

Godhunter is Team Voltron, well, hunting for gods, even as one of them disappears.

(She’s been watching for a century/With hatred, and with scorn/If you know the hunter’s coming/Then you hide or keep on running/'Cause she’s slain the gods before)

Trophy Hunter, Ember, and Redemption are the culmination of Godhunter. I’ve been thinking of them as akin to the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2, if that gives you an idea of what the hell they run into. Also I switched which specific Redemption is on the playlist, because I was listening to Red Handed Denial again and their Redemption was vibing way more than the Hammerfall one. They link up to Godhunter and Soulbound in subject matter, and lead directly into…

(You, you won’t escape me, I’ll rise from the deep/In this final moment, no words left to say/I can’t let you be when a life fades away/You, you won’t escape me ‘cause I’ll set you free)

(Dark matter falling from the sky/Dancing flames reflecting in your eyes as you watch them burn/Watching all your riches witches burn)

(Remember me not for the mess I’ve made/But who I could have been/Finally I’m going home)

World On Fire, This is a Call, The Reckoning, The Wind That Shapes the Land, and Louder Than Words. Switched the order up a bit so it makes more sense chronologically, because the message ‘sent by forces beyond salvation’ has to get there before the reckoning can begin.

(World on fire with a smoking sun/Stops everything and everyone/Brace yourself for all will pay/Help is on the way)

(This is a call to action/This is a call to arms/All lives for one, together/There are no false alarms)

(I see your face, find peace of mind/Between the madness and the sadness and the fire burning/The end of war, the great divine/We’ll see the day of reckoning)

(Search within/Uncover the will to win/Turn against the tide that washes o'er/Find the strength to fall and rise again/Open up the gates, unleash the force/I am the wind that shapes the land/Old as time and twice as strong/Oceans arise at my command/I alone can carry on)

(We have the force to fight/We have the blinding light/A war is more than heard/Coming in louder than words)

#i am dark matter; your road to ruin #dm playlists #guess who spent two hours on this! again!#as usual!#long post #i'm teaching in the morning and it's one am #oops

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ladyxxdaydream · 3 years

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a year-in-review meme - for writers!

I thought up this writing meme for fic writers who might have been staring at the artists having their lovely and well-deserved collages of their work through the year - and wanted to join in the fun! also this works as a great reminder for those of you (and me) who’ve been thinking that they haven’t been writing as much as they want to, and allows you to go back to enjoy your old fic ;D

Rules: pick your favourite sentence from a work you posted / wrote during a month of 2020! if you didn’t write anything in any particular month, don’t worry! tell us what you were doing or use it as free space for runner-up sentences. after that, tag 8 people or more to do the meme!

That being said, here’s mine:

Tagged by: @rikacain !!

I’m tagging -- @flailinginlove @aviss @kiitsvne @stupidbadgers and @tea-blitz who doesn’t use tumblr anymore but WHATEVER. and anyone else who wants to do it! <3

~~~

JAN: (from Heavy Weight)

“Iruka felt Kakashi’s eye on him. Most people feared the Sharingan, and for good reason, but Iruka feared his real eye, his own eye. It had a way of seeing straight past Iruka’s defenses, no dōjutsu required, and deep into his soul.“

FEB: (from Old Pine)

“Do you want children?” Iruka asked, feeling like the timing was right.

Kakashi was quiet for a few moments. Iruka had learned to read Kakashi’s silences for what they were. It wasn’t hesitation like he had initially thought. Kakashi simply liked to think things through before answering immediately. Iruka liked that about him.

“I think we have four already,” Kakashi said, eyeing Sasuke, Naruto, Ino, and Sakura through the glass door.

Iruka laughed, but refrained from clarifying. He knew Kakashi understood what he meant and would answer him shortly. Iruka had also learned that Kakashi had a tendency to be indirect, before he got around to what he actually wanted to say.

MARCH: (from Mouthful)

“So, Kakashi.” Iruka said, unable to stand still any longer. “We both like what we see. Now what?”

He wasn’t usually this forward, but he was feeling it tonight. All of this playful banter was riling him up—it was his favorite way to flirt.

“I like a man whose direct,” Kakashi said, shifting his stance to lean an elbow on the table. “But hmm,” he hummed. “I don’t know.”

He gave Iruka a seemingly bored look, as if the obvious invitation to leave together was lost on him.

“Well, I like a man whose decisive, so I guess that rules you out.”

Kakashi let out a hard, surprised laugh. He downed the rest of his beer, and took Iruka by the hand, pulling him out of the bar without a word.

APRIL: (from A New Chapter)

“I don’t know how to put this,” Sakumo started, “but… what the hell is that?”

Kakashi looked at where his Father was pointing.

“Uh… a diaper…?” Kakashi guessed, not sure where this was going. They had about a million others, in every color and pattern you could imagine, folded and stacked in the closet. Iruka wanted to go the re-usable route, and several of his students mother’s were eager to gift them. Kakashi had been less than thrilled by the extra laundry.

“Yes. It’s a diaper, Kakashi. Very good. Tell me, did you have both eyes closed when you put it on?”

MAY: (From Cake Substitution No Jutsu)

“What’s this?” Iruka asked as Kakashi entered the kitchen, a fully dressed Tomo whizzing past them both.

“Ah, it’s a backpack,” Kakashi said, crossing over to Iruka excitedly. “I saw it on display in a shop window while doing Gai’s scavenger hunt. Its arms and legs are the straps, so when you wear it, it looks like it’s riding on your back.”

Iruka smiled, turning it around in his hands, noticing the zipper and a few pockets.

“That’s actually pretty ador—”

Iruka stopped speaking. The tail was tightly curled up inside plastic casing still.

“Kakashi,” Iruka said, feeling his eyebrow twitch. “Is this… is this a leash?”

“No. It’s a Puppy Pal… with an exceptionally long tail.”

“It’s a leash,” Iruka deadpanned. “A leash for a child.”

“You put Tomo inside a barrier the other day as a playpen,” Kakashi said, a matter of factly. “Why can’t I have some help controlling her?”

“That’s… that’s different!” Iruka exclaimed, feeling his cheeks heat in contradiction. “Would you like it if I put you on a leash, Kakashi?”

Iruka regretted it the second it came out of his mouth. He could practically see the wolfish grin forming beneath Kakashi’s mask.

JUNE: (from Use Your Imagination)

They laid in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the night through the cracked window—distant cars on the street, a lone dog barking, upbeat music wafting from a floor below them.

Kakashi never wished for time to stop. In fact, he tried to keep himself as busy as possible—he chose a career that ate up most of his life for a reason. But right now? He wished time didn’t exist, hyperaware of how quickly it would pass before Iruka was back on a plane tomorrow.

He traced circles into Iruka’s lower back, watching as the brown skin pressed against his broke out in a wave of goosebumps. Iruka shivered, and then shifted, and Kakashi wondered if he was falling asleep.

He selfishly continued his adorations, wanting to keep Iruka in this realm with him for a little while longer. He expanded his rake, sliding his fingers up Iruka’s spine, skirting around his scar, and back down again.

Kakashi wasn’t one to believe in divine intervention, or soulmates. He’d acted in enough corny films to almost make him hate the notion entirely. But the fact that a man as perfect as Iruka had come into his life so serendipitously—and just as scarred as he was—was something he couldn’t overlook.

It made Kakashi’s heart ache with want, before that ache traveled down, and curled into his gut.

JULY: (from Love Me As You Are)

“And then you demeaned their lives by calling them your soldiers—”

“—is that not what they are?!” Kakashi cut across him, getting upset. “You’re as much a part of this system as I am, sensei! We both know the truth of it, whether we like it or not. I just called it by it’s name.”

“But they’re people too, Kakashi! Kids. They’re so much more than soldiers…”

“That’s not how I was treated,” Kakashi said before he could catch himself.

Iruka’s mouth fell open with a punched sound.

“Kakashi…”

His tone was soft and free of the anger it held a moment ago.

“Forget I said that,” Kakashi said, turning away, his cheeks heating up—the last thing he wanted was Iruka’s pity. “It doesn’t matter.”

“No,” Iruka said, shaking his head as he took a step towards him. “I’m not going to forget you said that. It does matter because you matter. You deserved to have somebody stand up for you too, Kakashi. I’m so sorry Konoha failed you.”

Kakashi’s eyes burned with tears—he bit his tongue, refusing to let them fall. Those words pierced him straight through the heart. It was everything he never knew he needed to hear.

AUG:

um I didn’t write anything this month because my wife and I separated annnd my whole life was uprooted as I moved to a different country ksjdhgkdsj

SEPT: (from I’ll Fall, If You Do)

Their relationship was going really well. There were days where Kakashi still turned him away, usually corresponding with the mornings he had therapy. It was frustrating, because Iruka just wanted to be there for him, for Kakashi to open up to him completely, but he didn’t push. He knew that would only make it worse. They didn’t fight anymore, but Iruka regularly had to correct the language Kakashi used towards himself, and sometimes it was irritating for the both of them.

But mostly… it was amazing. Their chemistry was incredible. Electric. And not just in the bedroom—they were never far from each other, drawn in like magnets, grounded by a simple touch or brush of hands. Kakashi hadn’t even left the room twenty minutes ago, and already Iruka felt the pull.

He jumped up from his seat and went to go find him.

OCT: (From Language Gap)

Iruka glanced out the bus window, his body instinctively knowing where they were about to pass. The building was still empty twenty years later, the brick still scorched, and Iruka’s nightmares were still plagued by the fire despite not being there when it broke out. He’d been sent on a delivery on foot — one steaming container of karē udon — two blocks away. He delivered to the same old lady everyday, and she always kept him longer than necessary, pressing sweets into his palm. When he had come back, the noodle shop was aflame. In his shocked state, he distantly heard something about a grease fire, before he was whisked away by the hand by his childhood friend Asuma, living with him and his father from that day on.

Iruka sighed and stood up, making his way towards the door since his stop was next. He really wished the city would do something about the building. Every time he saw it, it made him feel oddly exposed and vulnerable, like his past was staring straight at him.

He shook his head a little and stepped off the bus.

NOV: (From Brand New Sound)

Kakashi watched in stunned silence for a moment, trying to get his heartbeat under control as color effortlessly flowed from the artist’s hand onto the brick. Whoever this was, they had sort of become one of Kakashi’s heroes. People always said meeting your heroes was never a good idea—bound to be disappointing—because it brought them down to a human level.

But that was precisely what attracted Kakashi to this artist in the first place—the sheer, raw, humanness. The way they tackled hard emotions and vulnerability, baring everything through their work for others to see. It was honest and transformative, and Kakashi spent more nights than he could ever count wandering the streets when he couldn’t sleep, hoping to catch a mural he’d never seen before it was painted over. Sometimes he did, and sometimes he’d sit in front of ones he already knew and found new meaning in them.

DEC: (from Perks of Promotion)

“But why now?” Iruka insisted. “Why ask me out now? Right after I’ve made tokubetsu jounin? When we’ve known each other for years?”

Oh.

Kakashi paused, the realization dawning on him. He didn’t blame Iruka for being suspicious of his intentions; he’d heard the way people said ‘the chuunin sensei’ or ‘the chuunin desk worker’ like it was some kind of insult. It always pissed him off.

Kakashi stared at his feet for a moment before lifting his head again, leveling Iruka with a serious stare. “Because I didn't think I’d live past 21. Because it took me an obscenely long time to become a barely functioning adult. Because I never had the guts before… I-I still don’t, not really, if you can’t tell by how much I’m fumbling around here,” he said with a nervous laugh.

#kakairu #my fic #hatake kakashi/umino iruka #this is VERY long #i dont expect ppl to read it lmao #but it was really fun #*sweats* yeah i picked one sentence.....#also WOW #i published something every month (sometimes twice!!)#except for august #which is... understandable #this was a really cool idea #thanks for tagging me rika :D #writer meme

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childofsquidward · 3 years

Text

First Line Game

I was not tagged but I am going to steal this from @pietrothepoltergeist because it looked like a lot of fun.

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories! See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors! (Bold of you two assume that I’ve written more than three things in my entire life, but let’s see what I got. I’ll probably go from newest to oldest and regret everything, but still have fun ya’know?)

1) Untitled WIP/Just In Time Ch. 1 (Dil Dosti Dance & Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan Crossover)

Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know, Taani thought to herself. If Elsa can do it, so can you.

First of all, am I the only one who’s iffy about the way the show decided to spell ‘yaariaan’ or do I just not know how to spell? Anywho, the reason why I have this down as an untitled wip is because I don’t actually know if I want this to be chapter 1 of Just In Time, but this specific wip (which was just supposed to be a tiny drabble/one-shot) pushed me to create a wholeass fic. I think I started writing this back in 2017 (yeah, I KNOW) and I came back to it last month this year and was like, ‘lemme just write a fic cuz’ why not?’

2) Titanium Ch. 1 - Untitled (Dil Dosti Dance Fix-It Fic/Crossover w/ Best Friends Forever?)

“Yes bhai, I’m 100% sure I didn’t forget anything!” Taani assured her insane older brother for what she was damn sure was the seventy-third time, trying to find a store, any store, that was actually open at freaking four in the morning.

Am I only posting this on here so that I’m motivated to write more? Mayhaps. Also, idc if someone wants to consider this as two lines, I am considering it as one, thank you very much.

3) Runaways Ch. 1 - Untitled (TVD Fic)

Katherine always knew that getting on Klaus Mikaelson’s shit list would finally be her undoing.

I genuinely forgot that this was a thing that I was working once upon a time, aka I last opened this doc two years ago before I read through it again this year because I really wanna know if I can I actually write this.

4) Worth The Risk (WTR) Ch. 3 - Untitled (Dil Dosti Dance Fic)

If Swayam didn’t stop glaring at the dance floor as though he would set it on fire any second now, Varun swore he would bash his friend’s head into the nearest wall.

Oh man, I haven’t opened this document since March... Also, I know I can set the scene better than this, what the fuck Diya???

5) Falling In Love With Reyaansh Singhania (FILWRS) Ch. 3 - That Girl Is A Problem (Dil Dosti Dance AU but let’s be real every D3 fic I write is basically an AU)

“Taani, hurry up! We're going to be late!” Kriya shouted from the living room, tapping her foot impatiently, continuously glancing down at her phone as though a million hours would suddenly pass by if she didn’t.

This is what I’m currently working on aka I have had this doc open since January and it’s gonna be another 20k monstrosity that destroys my computer. (me @ me: YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS)

6) Mother Knows Best (Original Work)

When I was younger, my mother never failed to remind me that every little choice I made had its place in the world.

So this was part of a creative writing assignment that I did back in March, the prof called it a “flash fiction assignment” and I had a lot of fun writing it (of the stressful kind, of course). I don’t know if I’ll ever continue it or elaborate on it because it’s fine as a standalone, it should not even be touched, truly.

7) The Truth About Taani (TTAT) Ch. 2 - The One With Swayam’s Stupid Face (Dil Dosti Dance Fix-It Fic)

“Dishu, are you sure your roommate won't have a problem with me staying here?” Taani asked for what Disha swore was the hundredth time.

The first line for Ch. 1 was so much better than this! Whatever, I’m actually excited to get back into writing this fic, even it’s been almost a year since I’ve even looked at it.

8) One Step At A Time Ch. 2 - The Haunted Engagement (D3 Fic)

"Is this the right address Sharon?" Vicky asks as they approach an old building that looks more like a haunted house that Disney threw up on rather than your average wedding venue.

L O L, this has to be completely unwritten and also once I’m done re-working my initial outline, this probably be posted (in 2035) as Ch. 1.

9) Unwritten Ch. 4 - Untitled (Dil Dosti Dance Fix-It Fic because all my fics are fix-it fics, come on now)

“You cut your hair.”

It’s literally been a year since I last opened this doc and I don’t even think that this is how this chapter is going to start, it’s just the beginning of a random dialogue exchange that will probably end up somewhere in the middle of the chapter. Lowkey, this whole exchange is actually fun to read, I kinda wanna post the whole thing.

10) Little Witch Ch. 3 - Untitled (TVD Fic)

“Stefan, I am not talking to him,” Bonnie says for what feels like the millionth time. “Either pick up the damn phone and keep me out of this, or I swear to god if that thing rings one more time I will throw it at your head.”

REMEMBER THIS HOT MESS?! Can someone please confirm that I deleted this fic? Again, still continuing it, but the first two chapters are so shit I feel like I gotta go back and fix it.

11) Somehow, Someway Ch. 3 - Untitled (TVD Fic)

Two weeks. They had been stuck here for two weeks. An entire fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty-fucking-six hours.

Y’ALL DIDN’T THINK I FORGOT ABOUT THIS DID YOU?! Oh man, I’m so sorry, I posted Ch. 2 in 2016 and that was that apparently. I am still chipping away at this fic though, I’m just a little more into my D3 fics just because I recently (aka April 2020) got back into the fandom. Also, yes, I know that I cheated and posted the first paragraph okay? I regret nothing.

12) The Evolution of BonBekah (TEOBB) Ch. 5 - Meet The Family II (TVD Fic)

Of all the things that Elena Gilbert thought that she’d have to get up at six in the morning for, trudging through hidden tunnels underneath the mayor’s property to look at ancient drawings on the walls of a fucking cave was not one of them.

Every time I tell someone that this is my favourite fic to write, they probably thing I’m the biggest liar on the planet since I posted Ch. 4 in 2016. This was originally supposed to be a series of drabbles that turned into a full-fledged fic because... have you met me? Also, yes, the title is a work in progress.

13) Gray (Original Work)

Another disgusting winter day in Toronto, just what I needed to start the week, Kat thought as she walked down the street to work.

This is just something that I was playing around with and maybe I’ll use it as a fanfic or elaborate on it or something, I don’t know, it’s just one of the few things I’ve written that I genuinely like. Also, I really wanted to post the entire first paragraph, but fine, first line it is.

14) Tumse Pyaar Hua Ch. 1 - Untitled (D3 Fic)

They won.

I would just like to mention that this is a re-write of a fic that I first wrote in 2013 and I found the original fic and cringed so hard like, I’m still a shitty writer, but at least I’m not as shitty as I was before. And yes, the first line of this entire fic will only be two words.

14) Sisters Ch. 1 - Untitled (TVD Fic)

“God, I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Bonnie mutters to herself, playing around with her drink as she waited at Rousseau’s for the absolute worst part of her life to arrive.

So... this is a thing that exists apparently. Maybe one day I’ll write it but like I probably won’t. But anyway, we got Bonnie in NOLA!

15) Just Like A Phoenix Ch. 1 (TVD Fic)

Bonnie’s life has officially turned into a fucking seesaw - except up and down were dead and alive in the former witch’s case.

The next line is: Seriously, fuck that.

16) Of Sparkles And Broken Bones Ch. 1 - The Decision (Original Work)

I’m going to end up being a human sacrifice, aren’t I?

I know, original work from me, how shocking. I genuinely believe that this is one of the few good things that I’ve written just because it was written within a creative writing class where I got a ton of feedback from other people, so it’s like a solid piece. One day I’ll get back to it. Also, the title is not set in stone and will most likely be changed.

17) Help Me, Date Me (Snowest One-Shot)

“What about Ronnie?” Caitlin Snow glanced up from her ever-so sacred ritual of painting-the-pages-of-her-notebook-until-her-highlighters-eventually-bled-through, annoyed that her rhythm was disrupted by her new friend Barry, who had taken a seat across from her as if he didn’t know he was a dead man.

Okay, so I completely forgot that I had a list of fake-dating drabbles for Snowest that I started but never finish (classic Diya move) and I think that maybe I wanted to put them altogether into a one-shot but I just never got around to it??? But anyway, this was like back in 2018 and honestly, I kinda wanna try finishing it because I forgot how much I missed Snowest. Also, the next line is: He definitely knew he was a dead man.

18) Wild One Ch. 3 - The Malhotras (Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan Fic)

"Is something burning?" Naina Malhotra grumbled to herself as she flopped out of bed and trudged down to the kitchen.

WELL HERE’S A BLAST FROM THE PAST!!! I forgot this existed tbh, and this particular chapter was posted back in 2015 and is most definitely still out there somewhere on the internet. That being said, I did start re-writing it maybe like, 3 years ago... and then I didn’t.

19) Untitled

"Shit!" yelled Samar.

I have no idea what this is from. All I know is that it’s 108 pages and that’s the first line. Who the fuck is Samar???

20) Untitled

“What. The. Fuck”

That’s it. That’s the first line. Idk what this is for, but I haven’t opened this doc since 2017 and I was one fic away from 20 fics so I was like why tf not?

Tagging: Anyone that wants to do this!!!

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inevitably-johnlocked · 4 years

Note

hey, do you know of any fics that deal specifically with sherlock’s mental health post-season 4?

Hi Lovely!

Ahhh frig I can’t recall any exactly, but looking quickly through my S4 posts, I believe the ones below have them. Otherwise please check out one of the other lists below!

POST-S4 and MENTAL HEALTH

See also:

Post S4 / S4 Fix Its

Post S4 / S4 Fix Its Pt. 2

Post S4 / S4 Fix Its Pt. 3

S4 Rewrites

S3 / TAB / S4 [FIX IT] Fics (March 2019)

Main Character Depression

Bridges by sussexbound (M, 6,602 w., 1 Ch || Post-TLD / S4 Fix It, Love Confessions, Mending Relationships, Moving Back In, Pining Sherlock, POV Sherlock, Past Abuse, Shaving) – The silence between them is deafening, interrupted only by the hum of the traffic outside, and the soft click-clunk of the plastic cups Rosie is playing with on the floor beside them. It is the first time they have been alone together, since Sherlock’s birthday. It’s only been two days, but it feels huge, important, like there is a precarious bridge stretched out before them both that they need to at least attempt to traverse.

Kintsugi by distantstarlight (E, 14,772 w., 1 Ch. || Post S4, Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Regret / Remorse, Loneliness, Separation, Drug Use, Healing, Protective John, Sad Sherlock, Dev. Rel., Complicated Relationships, Love, Angst With Happy Ending, Sherlock is Called Freak, John’s Penance, Voyeurism, Doctor/Caretaker John, Guilty John, Detox, Fingering, Love Confessions, Cuddling, Slight Non-Con Turns Enthusiastic Consent, Virgin Sherlock) – Sherlock Holmes becomes estranged from the man he had once considered his best friend after John lets him down horribly in public. It seems that the world’s only consulting detective will be on his own once again…or will he?

The Burning of the Leaves by blueink3 (M, 15,915 w., 3 Ch. || Post S4, Angst, Reichenbach, Parentlock, Past Jolto, Idiot John, Sherlock’s a Mess, Puppies, Fluff, Possessive / Jealous Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock POV, Matchmaker Sholto, Melancholic Feelings, Emotional Sherlock, Domesticity, Love Confessions in the Rain, Kissing in the Rain, Pet Names) – After the events of series 4, Major Sholto invites John and Sherlock to lunch one day. It nearly proves to be too much for their tenuous relationship as the past haunts the present, putting the future that Sherlock so desperately wants at risk.

The Winter Garden by Callie4180 (T, 31,213 w., 13 Ch. || Post-S4, Retirement, Christmas, Slow Burn, Grown-Up Rosie, Parenthood, Rosie’s Cat, Angst with Happy Ending, Holidays, Beekeeping, Magical Realism, Sherlock POV, Sherlock’s Violin, Future Fic, Sussex, Honey, Magical Healing Honey, Love Confessions, Sherlock’s Scar, First Kiss, Touching) – As Sherlock nears the end of his career, he’s given the gift of a cottage in Sussex. The honey from the beehives out back is amazing. Almost…magical.

(Never) Turn Your Back to the Sea by DiscordantWords (M, 39,968 w., 7 Ch. || Post S4 Fix It || Grief / Mourning, Victor Trevor, Friendship, Sherlock is Not Okay, Nightmares/Flashbacks/Panic Attacks, Parentlock, Pining Sherlock, Angst with Happy Ending, John Comes Home) – Baker Street is very much the same. Only different. And Sherlock is just trying not to drown.

The Pieces That Fall to Earth by Itsallfine (M, 49,513 w., 84 Ch. || S4 Fix-It, Epistolary, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Parentlock, Past Abuse, Coming Out, Internalized Homophobia, Questioning Sexuality, Mental Health Issues / Therapy, Angst, Happy Ending) – John and Sherlock have hit rock bottom, but with all their armor stripped away, they can finally speak honestly, seek healing, and find the truths that matter most. An epistolary post-s4 fix-it fic. Now complete.(This fic is rated T except for one very clearly marked and easily skippable chapter, which is rated M.) Part 1 of The Pieces that Fall to Earth

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by SilentAuror (E, 50,635 w., 1 Ch. || Post-S4/S4 Divergence, Case Fic, For a Case / Reverse Fake-Relationship, Conferences, Marriage Equality, Travelling / New York, Pride, Homophobia, Bottomlock, Marriage Proposal, John POV, Sexuality, Love Confessions, Emotional Love Making, Public Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Passionate Kissing, Needy/Clingy Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Touching / Hand Holding, Bed Sharing, Little Spoon Sherlock, Intense Orgasms) – John and Sherlock go to New York to attend a conference run by the National Defence of Traditional Marriage Coalition in order to investigate the potential bombing of the annual Manhattan Pride parade. As the conference unfolds, John finds himself repulsed by the toxic ideology being presented, which becomes relevent to his own unacknowledged issues and his friendship with Sherlock…

Bridging the Ravine by SilentAuror (E, 58,887 w., 3 Ch. || Post S4, Couple For a Case, Bed-Sharing, First Times, Confessions, Awkwardness, Sex Trafficking, Massages, Wet T-Shirt Contest, Group Therapy, Past Loss of Child) – Sherlock and John go undercover at Ravine Valley, a therapy centre for same-sex male couples in an investigation into a possible human trafficking ring. As they pose as a couple and fake their way through the therapy sessions for the sake of the case, it quickly becomes difficult to avoid discussing their very real issues. Set roughly six nine months after series 4.

The Monument of Memory by J_Baillier (M, 79,663 w., 14 Ch. || Post S4 Fix It Fic / S4 is Canon, Angst, Family Drama, Guilt, Case Fic, John Loves Sherlock, Complicated Feelings, Mentalism / Hypnosis, Murder, Grieving John, Sherlock is a Bit Not Good, Team Work, Trust Issues, BAMF John, Psychological Trauma, Protective John, Autistic-Spectrum Sherlock, Parentlock, John POV) – A genius traumatised by a past he’s only beginning to recall. The psychopath sister that time forgot. A missing woman and a mentalist who may or may not be a murderer. And, in the middle of it all, stands John Watson.

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #mental health cw #s4 fics #hunninutqueerio #fic rec wednesday

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ohshit-itsyagorl · 3 years

Text

Four Dipshits and a Michelle

Part 6

Y’all I’m getting tired of linking all the chapters every time I post an update, so I’m just going to link the first part and my masterlist.

Part 1, Writing Masterlist

Read the story here on AO3

Summary: Michelle never believed in soulmates. But what happens when she turns seventeen and gets her mark? What happens when she inevitably finds the person with the matching tattoo? And what is she supposed to do with Peter Parker. Her best friend in the whole world. Her crush. Someone she feels drawn to for some inexplicable reason.

Also, I know it’s been a long time since the last update (yikes). I actually update every Sunday night on AO3 and just haven't had the time to catch up, so if I ever go a long time without updating just check there first lol. Alright, here we go...

Michelle woke to the sound of a camera clicking and soft snickering. The sun made her head hurt, eyes blinking rapidly.

“I’m sending this to the group chat,” she heard Ned say from somewhere behind her. She yawned into Peter’s chest. Oh no—this was not happening right now. She turned her head to see Ned standing in the doorway, furiously typing away on his phone, grinning like an idiot.

“Ned,” she whined, “please don’t.”

“Too late. It’s already done.”

“Damn you, Ned. It’s too early for this shit,” Michelle complained, though she kept her voice quiet so as not to wake Peter sleeping behind her.

She carefully tried to shimmy out of his grip, successfully turning around to face the edge of the bed, but when she tried to scoot out of his arms she found she couldn’t.

Peter mumbled something and pulled her closer to his chest, arms banding around her waist—going under her shirt—as he buried his nose in the hair at the base of her neck.

MJ felt her cheeks redden as Ned tried and failed to hold in his laughter, letting out a loud cackle that effectively woke Peter up and simultaneously ruined MJ’s morning.

She turned her head and watched as he blinked the sunlight out of his eyes, then looked to Ned, who pointed at MJ, who wanted to sink into the ground and die just to escape the embarrassment she felt crawling like ants under her skin.

Peter looked down at her. He stared for a second—two; then he seemed to realize what he was doing—one hand wrapped around her waist while the other disappeared under her shirt, scraping across her ribs, dangerously close to the undersides of her breasts. “Oh my—oh my god,” he cried, quickly withdrawing his hands and sitting up. The sheet pooled around his waist, and MJ shivered as her eyes dropped to his chest. To that spider tattoo over his left nipple. Peter covered his face with his hands, tight muscles rippling with the movement. MJ bit her lip.

Click.

“Goddamnit, Ned!” Michelle screeched. She grabbed a pillow, soft sheets scraping against the calluses that covered her hands from drawing, and threw it at his head with all her strength.

Ned squawked in outrage. Then seemed to remember what he was doing. “Man, Betty and Cindy are never going to let you guys live this down,” Ned muttered, looking at his phone. “So embarrassing.”

Michelle stumbled out of the bed, grabbing her phone and bag on the way to the bathroom. She flipped them both off for good measure. She slammed the door and collapsed down onto the toilet. Pulling out her phone, she opened up her text messages.

Four dipshits and a Michelle:

Ned: Check it out!

Ned’s text was followed by a photo of Peter and her. She had her face pressed against his chest, his arms were banded around her sleeping form, and his nose was buried in her hair. The sheet had been kicked down to their waists, and Michelle blushed when she realized her shirt had ridden partway up her back. It did look rather incriminating, though it really wasn’t. She scrolled down.

Betty: WHAT THE FUCK?!?

Cindy: I FUCKING KNEW IT ERIJFNCNDLW

Then there was the other image. The one of Peter’s shirtless chest, abs on full display, hands covering his face. And there she was—obviously looking lower than his face, biting her lip, large t-shirt hanging off her left shoulder, clearly showing she wasn’t wearing a bra.

She opened the other group chat with incoming messages—the one with only Betty and Cindy.

Cindy: Well, this is a morning I will never forget

Betty: The way she was looking at him in that second photo, tho

Cindy: I KNOW! MJ with horny eyes is almost scarier than MJ with angry eyes.

Betty: Someone’s got the hoTS FOR PARKER!!!

Betty: MJ, have you locked yourself in the bathroom yet?

Michelle’s fingers flew furiously across her keyboard.

MJ: Those were NOT horny eyes.

There was a split second where the bubble icon popped up. Then it disappeared. Reappeared.

Cindy: They were definitely horny eyes. Betty?

Betty: I agree. The council has convened. Michelle Jones has a crush on the nerd next door.

Betty: Also, SINCE WHEN HAS PETER BEEN RIPPED???

Cindy: Yeah, when the fuck did that happen?

MJ: He’s had abs for a while.

Cindy: You’ve seen him shirtless before?

Betty: !!!

Cindy: Girl, you are so screwed.

MJ: Stop trying to kill me. I died, like, twenty minutes ago.

Betty: But you LOOOOVE him

Michelle shut off her phone at that. One minute. She would allow one minute of embarrassment, then move on.

She leaned her head back against the wall and groaned, trying to use the cool tile to calm her racing mind. Her eyes fluttered shut, slowly counting down from sixty. Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight.

The way Peter had reacted, like he was uncomfortable waking up with her. She had been uncomfortable, too, but that was because of Ned. What if Peter was uncomfortable because of her?

Forty-five.

Her skin still felt like it was on fire, mark tingling pleasantly in a way that sent shivers down her spine. She cursed quietly.

Thirty. Twenty-nine.

And maybe the unrequited love was starting to drive her crazy, but she could have sworn he had been breathing her in—he had been asleep, of course, but…

Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve.

Her whole body cried out at her to tell him, to be with him, to make him feel good—body and soul.

Seven.

But she couldn’t.

Three.

Silence. Resignation. Determination.

One. Zero.

MJ stood up and shucked off her t-shirt and Peter’s boxers, nearly tripping in the tight confines of the bathroom. And maybe she was being selfish, but she shoved the boxers into her bag along with her shirt. Peter wouldn’t miss one pair. But wearing his clothes… it just felt so right, and she decided that after this morning, she would allow herself that small satisfaction. She put her hair up into a ponytail and looked at herself in the mirror. Then, before she could think better, she reached out a finger and touched her tattoo. Hissed. It was so sensitive—so sensitive after a night spent curled up with him. She could feel her heart beating quickly in her ears, but she could also feel the pulsing rhythm of a slower heartbeat; Peter, it seemed, had calmed down more than she had.

She put her clothes on and marched out of the bathroom. “Not a word from you,” she snapped at Ned as she stalked past. Peter had already put on a shirt and shorts, thankfully. She didn’t think she would be able to keep her eyes off that spider tattoo and then Peter might start to get suspicious.

Michelle turned to look at them. “So… the park and then lunch at Delmar’s?” She asked.

“Sounds good to me,” Peter replied, running a hand through his hair. Michelle looked away quickly, lest her eyes track the movement.

Ned noticed, though. He smirked. “Shut up,” MJ quipped.

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You said nothing very loudly,” MJ grumbled. Ned just grinned at her. She flipped him off.

————————————————————————

By late August, the heat had become pretty much unbearable, the little air-conditioning units used in the cramped New York apartments no match for the sweltering summer.

Which is why Michelle found herself reading on the fire escape with a fold-out chair, trying and failing to cool down, sweating buckets and hating mother earth.

She turned the page. A small breeze swept through the alley and caught her bookmark. She reached out blindly to catch it before it flew out of reach of the fire escape. Just as she caught it, upper body leaning over the railing, sweat plastering her hair to her forehead, she felt hands come to steady her waist.

MJ screeched and whipped around, punching her attacker straight in the face.

Spider-man stumbled backward, hand reaching up to cup his masked jaw, and cried, “What the hell was that for?” His voice was clearly being altered by mask. Another way to protect his identity, she guessed.

Michelle shook out her wrist. “You touched me.”

Spider-man’s eyes widened. He reached his hand up as if to run it through his hair, but he was wearing a mask. “I was trying to help!” He said indignantly, bringing his arm back down and crossing them both over his chest. “I thought you were going to fall.”

“I wasn’t even off balance,” MJ quipped. She reached to push some stray curls off her sweaty forehead, then eyed his suit. “Shouldn’t you be dying in that thing? It’s, like, over a hundred degrees out today.”

“Built-in cooling technology,” he said, leaning against the railing. Michelle rolled her eyes; she supposed he thought it looked cool. It did, but that was beside the point.

“Lucky you,” she snarked. “I’d kill for that on a day like today.” She motioned to her sweaty face.

“The sweat suites you, darling,” he said, white eyes shifting down her body.

Michelle’s face reddened. “Oh my god, that’s disgusting. You could be forty—and if you touch me again, I swear—”

Spider-man’s eyes widened in shock. “No—I’m not forty! I’m a boy—I mean—young man!”

Michelle raised her eyebrows. “How old are you, exactly?” She asked. She waited a moment. “If you don’t answer I’m going to assume you’re older than thirty, which is still creepy, by the way.”

“I’m not, okay?” He said. She waited. “…I’m seventeen.”

MJ furrowed her brows at that. She was seventeen. She could know him. “Okay,” she said.

“You believe me?”

“Do I have a reason not to?” She arched a brow at him, a small smile tugging on the corners of her lips.

He shook his head furiously. “All I’m trying to say is you’re still really pretty, even with all the…perspiration.”

She looked at him more closely; something about him seemed familiar, the way he talked, or the way he held himself—maybe she really did know him from school. “Thanks, I guess. You’re not too bad yourself for a teenager wearing a spandex unitard.”

His hand slipped from the railing, and he stumbled to keep his footing. MJ’s shoulders shook with repressed laughter as she watched him, forgetting for a moment how hot out it was. “It’s not spandex!”

Michelle reached out and touched his arm. He froze. She chuckled. “It sure feels like spandex.”

“Well, it’s not,” he said a bit defensively. He nodded to her book. “What are you reading?”

“A Secret History by,” she checked the cover, “Donna Tartt.”

He nodded. “Is it any good?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Yeah, I’ve actually read it before, though. I ran out of new books and I’m too lazy to go to the library so I just picked up an old one.” She shrugged.

“Maybe I’ll go get it after the superhero gig tonight,” he said. She held out the book to him. He just looked at her, then at the book. “What?”

She rolled her eyes. “I was offering for you to borrow it, dipshit.”

His eyes widened again—it was actually a little creepy how they dilated; like, how did they know when to dilate? “Really?” He squeaked, reaching out to grab the book.

She pulled her hand back. “You’re not a serial killer, are you?” She eyed him suspiciously.

“What? No, I’m a superhero,” he said, still holding his hand out. “Why is that part of the vetting process for borrowing one of your books?” He made little grabby motions with his fingers.

“I feel like being a serial killer goes hand-in-hand with ruining borrowed books,” she said, narrowing her eyes. She handed him the book. “But if you damage it, I’ll kill you—friendly neighborhood Spider-man my ass.”

“Who’s the killer now?” He joked. Then he tilted his head to the side. “Well, I’ve got to go. Duty calls!” He reached his arm out and shot a web, swinging off the balcony with the book in his other hand.

“Don’t you dare drop it!” She called after his retreating form. She shook her head, not sure why she was smiling.

———————————————————

Michelle saw Spider-man again two days later. She was out reading on the fire escape again when he landed with a soft thud. She didn’t look up right away, determined to finish one last page.

He cleared his throat.

“I know you’re there,” she said.

“Oh.”

MJ let out a hum, reaching blindly for her bookmark and slipping it between the pages of her book. She looked up at him. “What do you want, Spider-pig?” She smiled to herself at her inside joke, remembering that day in biology with Peter.

He held her copy of A Secret History out to her. “I finished. It was really good—I can see why you enjoyed it.” She took the book from his hands, peering at him from her chair. His eyes narrowed at her.

“What do you want? I can tell you want something,” she deadpanned.

“What should I call you?” He hopped up onto the railing. Her eyes widened a fraction watching him. He chuckled, “I’m not going to fall. Spider-man, remember?” He mimed shooting webs out of his wrists in rapid succession.

“You can call me Michelle.”

“Really? Your friends call you Michelle?” He swung his feet back and forth, leaning back over the railing so his body hung precariously over the alleyway below to grab a piece of garbage floating in the breeze.

“No. I have a nickname, but you can call me Michelle.” She didn’t just let anybody call her M or MJ, and just because he could swing around the city on wisps of silk didn’t mean he deserved special treatment from her.

He huffed a breath. “Fair enough. You look nice today. How have you been?”

Wow, that was a lot to unpack. She looked nice? She was wearing a ratty old painting shirt that hung below her knees and her hair was up in a topknot. How had she been? Well—

She decided to ignore the first comment. “I’ve been fine. I painted today so now my back hurts, but beauty is pain, right?” She said, gesturing to her paint-stained t-shirt.

“You have paint on your face,” was his only reply. He leaned forward, reaching his hand out toward her cheek, “Here, let me.” He brushed his finger over where she assumed the paint was, but then his eyes narrowed and he ran a finger over the spot again.

“It won’t come off, Idiot. It’s dry.” She smirked at him as he withdrew his hand.

“You didn’t punch me,” he breathed.

She raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, I guess I didn’t. Don’t get too comfortable, though—I might be in a bad mood next time you try to pull shit like that.” She mimed a quick sucker punch, then blew on her fist as if to cool it off.

Spider-man laughed at her antics. “You could give most common criminals a run for their money, you know.”

She shrugged, looking down at her hands. The paint under her fingernails seemed way more interesting than it had earlier that day when she had opted not to spend twenty minutes cleaning it out. “I learned from experience. My dad—” She stopped herself before she could say anything more. That was too much information; information she hadn’t even told her best friends, that she definitely did not want to tell an almost-stranger.

She was saved by a ding coming from next to her on the chair. She picked up her phone.

Four dipshits and a Michelle:

Ned: Has anyone seen Peter? We were supposed to meet to build the millennium falcon.

MJ snorted. She quickly typed out a reply.

MJ: Nope. He probably stayed late at the stupid Stark internship.

MJ: Also, you’re both total dweebs.

She looked up to see that Spider-man wasn’t sitting on the railing anymore. She almost had a heart-attack when she heard a voice right next to her ear. “Peter… Peter Parker?”

She squawked, turning around to see him upside down in an army-crawl position on the wall behind her. “Never,” she panted, “do that again.” Then his words registered. “Wait, you really know him?”

Spider-man propped his head up on his elbows. “Yeah, I know him—from the, uh, the Stark internship—which, by the way, is not stupid.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s rude to read someone else’s messages.”

“Well, I got to go,” he said suddenly. “I have somewhere I need to be.” He shot a web to the roof of the building next to hers and launched himself off the fire escape, disappearing as quickly as he’d come. Michelle looked down at the book in her lap. “Hey!” She looked up to see a red and white mask peering at her from above. “What book are you reading?!”

“The Assistant by Bernard Malamud!” She called back.

He gave her a thumbs up and disappeared again.

She waited, but he didn’t come back a second time.

Part 7

#peter parker #Peter Parker fanfiction #peter x michelle #Peter Parker soulmate #michelle jones #soulmate #soulmarks #Smut #eventual smut #fluff #angst #spideychelle #best friends #spiderman

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mustangshelby04 · 4 years

Text

Boston Boy - Chapter 17

Lisa held her son tightly as he sobbed. He was in hysterics. Helena was back out at the nurse’s station again demanding to speak with anyone that could give her information on what was happening with her daughter. Scott was pacing furiously around the room. Lisa had demanded that he be allowed back since he was family.

“Why won’t they tell us anything?” Scott growled.

“Those nurses are useless!” Helena snapped as she marched back into the room. “She’s my daughter for crying out loud!”

“I refuse to believe she’s anything but ok.” Lisa said. This caused Chris to let out another sob. “Would they tell you anything about the baby?”

“Nothing.” Helena said. “The doctor hasn’t cleared them to divulge any information.”

Finally, forty-five minutes after Chris had been dragged out of the OR, Dr. Beauchamp came into the room. Chris jumped to his feet. “What’s going on? Where’s my fiancée? Where’s my baby?”

“Kate’s in recovery.” Dr. Beauchamp said. “Her blood pressure bottomed out. We think it was a reaction to the booster and the anti-anxiety meds after a hard labor. We had to give her a shot of adrenaline to bring her back.”

“Is she ok?” Helena asked. “Is my daughter ok?”

“She’s on her way to ok.”

“What about the baby?” Lisa asked.

“Your granddaughter is doing good. She’s in the NICU right now just as a precaution since she’s pre-term. Chris, you can go see her.”

“What about Kate?” Chris asked.

“I’m headed back there now. Once I feel she’s stable enough, we’ll move her back in here. This is Nurse Rose,” Dr. Beauchamp gestured to the middle-aged woman with brown hair in pink scrubs standing in the doorway. “She’ll take you to your daughter.”

Chris looked at his mother and Helena. “Go!” Lisa prodded, pushing him towards the door. “We’ll be right here.”

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Kate’s eyes fluttered open again and she realized she was back in the birthing suite. Her nose itched like crazy, but when she went to scratch it she noticed her hand was shaking fiercely. She remembered waking up once before covered in warm blankets and heating pads and shaking even harder than she was now. That room hadn’t been as nice as this one. She giggled at that random thought.

“Hey, sweetheart.” Helena said. Kate turned her head to find her mother sitting on the bed with her. “Welcome back.”

“Mom?” Kate croaked.

“Hang on.” Helena turned and grabbed the cup of ice water off the nightstand. “Drink this.” She helped Kate sip on the straw and the cold liquid felt amazing.

“Why am I shaking so bad?”

“We almost lost you, baby. The doctor had to give you adrenaline. She said you would probably be shaky.”

Kate looked around the room. “Where’s Chris?”

“He’s with your daughter down in NICU.” Lisa said, coming to sit on Kate’s other side. Kate realized that Scott, Carly, and Shanna were also in the room. “They’ll be on their way here soon.”

“Daughter? We have a daughter?”

“Chris says she’s perfect.” Scott said, standing behind his mother.

Kate started to cry and Helena pulled her close and held her. She stroked her hair soothingly, whispering comforting words to her. “Why does my nose itch so bad?” Kate complained.

“That’s the morphine.” Carly said. “It may do wonders for the pain, but it made me itch like crazy.”

The door opened and a nurse wheeled in an empty bassinet. Chris walked in behind her holding a tiny bundle in his arms. He smiled brightly when he saw Kate was awake. Lisa stood up to give him her spot and Chris timidly sat down. Lisa and Helena ushered Scott, Carly, and Shanna out into the hallway to give the new parents some time to themselves.

“Hey.” Chris said to Kate. “You wanna meet our daughter?” Kate smiled, a sob hitching in her chest. She reached out to touch the perfect little cherub cheek, but her hand still shook. She jerked it back, scared to even touch her daughter while she was like this. “Hey, it’s ok. Shh, it’s ok. Dr. Beauchamp warned us that you would be pretty shaky and that it would take a little time to wear off.”

“I can’t even touch her.”

“You will. The shaking will stop and I’m not going anywhere.” Chris gently slipped his shoes off, trying not to jostle the baby or Kate, and slid all the way onto the bed, still cradling their daughter. He settled back on the raised bed, his eyes never leaving their daughter’s face.

Kate laid her head on his shoulder and stared at their little Jelly Bean. “So, you’re the one that’s been throwing dance parties in my belly.”

Chris chuckled. “She looks like you.”

“No. She looks like you. Look at her nose and her lips….”

“Look at the shape of her eyes. That’s all you, baby.”

“What did you name her?”

“I haven’t.”

“Oh. How long was I out?”

“About four hours.”

“Wow.”

He finally tore his eyes away from their baby. “How do you feel?”

“I itch.” Kate rubbed her nose again. “Especially my nose. Carly said that’s a side effect of the morphine.”

Chris chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. “Other than the itching?”

“Tired, mostly. I’m starting to feel sore.”

“We should call the nurse, then.”

“No. I’m ok for right now. I just want it to be the three of us for now.”

“Do you want to hold her?”

Kate held her hands up, but they were still trembling slightly. “I do, but I’m still shaking. I don’t trust myself yet.”

“It’s ok.”

There was a knock on the door and then Doctor Beauchamp walked in to find Kate and Chris smiling at their tiny baby. “Glad to see you’re awake, Kate.” She said, starting to do an examination. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Sore. Itchy.”

“I can imagine.”

“What happened to me?” Doctor Beauchamp gave her a rundown of everything that had happened. “I died?”

“No. Your heart didn’t stop, but it came very, very close to it. You’re going to be hanging out here for a couple more days so we can monitor you.”

“What about our daughter?”

“She’s perfect. We only had her in the NICU for a short time as a precaution since she was, technically, premature. She was six pounds, four ounces and twenty inches long. Her APGAR was nine.”

Kate nodded. “When can I hold her?”

“You could hold her now, but I understand if you’re worried about the shaking. That should go away in the next couple of hours. I’ll get the nurses to bring you in some antihistamines to combat the reaction to the morphine.”

“That would be great.”

“Whenever you need more, just hit this button here. I’ll be back in a little while to check on you again.” Doctor Beauchamp walked to the door. “Should I tell your families to come back in?”

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Kate woke up and realized it had been the baby that had woken her. Chris was asleep in the bed next to her and she decided not to wake him. Getting slowly out of bed, she walked around to the bassinette on his side and lifted their daughter into her arms. She walked into the nursery and sat down in the glider.

It had been five weeks since she’d been released to come home. Chris had been amazing taking care of her and the baby. She had pretty much lived upstairs for the first two and a half weeks while she recuperated. She had finally ventured out into the world for her first check up around three weeks. The doctor wanted her back again next week. Lisa and Helena had also gone home. It was just Chris and Kate there now.

Kate looked down at her beautiful little girl. Madison Amanda Evans had been a dream. She was the complete center of her parents’ world. Her grandparents were enamored with her. Her aunts and uncles had fallen in love with her instantly. She looked like a perfect mix of Chris and Kate.

Danielle had come over and she and Kate had done a newborn shoot. Chris had taken one of the photos of him and Kate sitting on the floor of the nursery in front of the crib, her holding Madison and the two of them staring adoringly at her, with Gally and Dodger on either side of them, and posted it as an announcement on Twitter that their little Jelly Bean had arrived. The photo had blown up. Kate, who didn’t post on Twitter but once in a blue moon, had gained almost a million followers overnight thanks to Chris tagging her in it. The media outlets had been showing it almost non-stop. Chris and Kate were even discussing selling some of the photos to a magazine for his charity, Christopher’s Haven.

Madison began to get fussy, so Kate helped her to latch on and the two of them just stared at each other. “How are you so perfect?” She ran a finger down her daughter’s little cheek. After a few minutes, Madison began to drift of, but she was fighting it. “You’re going to make me do it, aren’t you?” Kate smiled and began to softly sing “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” to her. She watched as Madison closed her eyes and finally fell asleep, still suckling. Feeling eyes on her, she looked up to see Chris standing in the doorway watching her. “Creeper.”

“Sorry.” Chris smiled. “You weren’t in bed and Maddie was missing. I heard you singing and couldn’t resist.”

Kate noticed the cell phone in his hand. “Did you take a picture?”

“I may have.” He looked guilty as hell.

“Did you take a video?”

“I may have done that as well.”

“Just don’t post it.”

“They’re strictly for me.” He walked over and knelt down watching Madison as Kate detached her gently and moved her to lay on her chest. She let out a little burp in her sleep and her parents chuckled. Chris took another picture, a close up of Madison’s face against her mother’s porcelain skin.

“Coulda sworn I’m the photographer in this house.”

“You’re a little busy. Besides, your phone and camera are filled with pictures of me and Maddie.”

“True.” Kate chuckled as she stood up. They walked back into their room and laid Madison back down in her bassinette.

As they laid in bed, facing each other, Chris reached out and brushed her hair behind her ear. “I love you, Kat.”

She smiled and placed her hand on his bearded cheek. “I love you, too, Chris.”

“Let’s get married in October.”

“That’s two months away!”

“We can do it!”

“We have a newborn. I have a job to get back to next month.”

“It doesn’t need to be anything big. We can do it in the backyard of Ma’s house over the weekend. Just us and our families.”

“Chris….”

“Kate, I want to marry you.”

“I want to marry you, too.”

“So, marry me in two months!”

“Why two months?”

“Because October 24th is our one-year anniversary and I want to marry you before then.”

“You’ve already started planning this in your head, haven’t you?”

“October 22nd. It’s a Saturday.”

“There’s so much to do! Even for a little wedding.”

“We can do it.”

“I think you’re sleep deprived.”

“That’s beside the point.” She laughed. “Marry me, Kat?”

“I’ve already said yes to that question.”

“Marry me on October 22nd, Kat?”

She stared at him in the darkness, listening to the sounds of the city below. “Fine. Ok. I’ll marry you on October 22nd.”

Chris pulled her to him tightly, kissing her fiercely.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Kate looked at herself in the mirror as Danielle took pictures. She was standing there in an ivory lace, tea-length wedding dress that had quarter-length lace sleeves and a boat-neckline. Her dark blonde hair was loose around her shoulders in her natural waves. She was wearing pink ballet flats and her grandmother’s string of pearls that her mother had brought up to Boston for the wedding. Madison was being held by Lisa and she was wearing a light pink dress with a poofy skirt littered with little silver polka dots. There was a delicate flower at the high waistband and a matching flower on her hairband. At three months old she looked so much like her father, it was ridiculous. She was waving her arms and making noises at her mother.

Kate laughed and lifted her up. “Hey my gorgeous little Jelly Bean. Are you ready to go see daddy?”

“Daddy is ready to see you guys.” Lisa said.

Helena and Bill walked into the room. “You couldn’t have picked a more perfect day to get married.” Bill said. “It’s beautiful outside.”

“Is Killian here?” Kate asked.

“They just got here.” Helena said, playing with her granddaughter.

“Then it’s time to get this show on the road.”

“I’ll see you out there.” Helena patted her daughter’s cheek and headed out to the backyard.

Lisa kissed Kate’s cheek. “Welcome to the family, Katie. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Lisa.”

Lisa walked out and Bill turned to Kate. “You ready, Katie?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Kate kissed Madison’s cheek and then looped her free arm through Bill’s arm.

The backyard had been strung with fairy lights everywhere and they were beginning to glow in the early twilight. There were three tables set up in the yard. One round one had a little two-tiered simple white cake on it with plates and champagne glasses. Then there were two long tables. One with a buffet of Chris and Kate’s favorite foods and the other for the guests to sit at and eat. Scott had rented a sound system and music was playing from his iPhone.

Chris’ father, Bob, and Scott were standing with Chris and the Massachusetts justice of the peace in the middle of the yard. Chris was wearing a dark blue suit with a black button up shirt and a silver tie. April and Amy were standing opposite them in dark blue, long-sleeved, empire waist, lace dresses. Lisa, Carly, and Shanna were standing with Helena, Killian, and Maura. Hailey was walking around in front of Chris dropping flower petals everywhere. Ethan, Miles, and tiny Stella were all playing a little way away. They had no interest in the romantic goings-on happening with the adults.

Kate walked up to Chris and he grinned at her and Madison. “Hi.”

“You look beautiful.” Chris said. “You both do.” He kissed Madison’s cheek and she gurgled happily at him.

“Ladies and gentlemen, today we have gathered together to celebrate the marriage of Christopher Robert Evans and Kathleen Amelia Allen.” The justice of the peace started the ceremony, but Chris and Kate weren’t paying attention. They were too enamored in each other and their little girl. It wasn’t until Chris heard his name again that they started paying attention. “Chris, will you take Kate, to be your lawful wedded wife? Will you love, comfort, honor and protect her; forsaking all others to be faithful to her until death do you apart?”

“I forever and always do.” Chris said with a huge smile on his face.

“Kate, will you take Chris, to be your lawful wedded husband? Will you love, comfort, honor and protect him; forsaking all others to be faithful to him until death do you apart?”

Kate smiled back. “I forever and always do.”

“The bride and groom have chosen to recite their own vows. Chris?”

Chris took a deep breath. “Kate, a year ago I was walking down a path with my head down, not paying any attention to the world around me and you stopped me dead in my tracks.”

“By knocking me down into dog shit.” Kate giggled.

“That dog shit was the best thing that ever happened to us. It set me on a new path that I will never have my head down on again. I know this hasn’t been the most conventional relationship, but it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced. I promise you that I will always take care of and cherish our relationship. I will love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I promise that I will always be open, honest, and faithful to you. I love you so much, Kat.”

“I love you, too.” Kate said, wiping his tears away before dabbing at her own.

“Kate?” The Justice said.

“I have to follow that? Jeez!” Everyone around them laughed. “Ok…. Wow. Chris, I first saw you in 2005 when you were in this little movie called Cellular. I was a sophomore in college and I was having a rough time and this guy on the screen just drew me in. I didn’t know what it was about him, but I just…. Well, I loved him. Then a year ago, he walked into my life and he loved me back and he gave me the absolute greatest gift in the world.” Kate kissed their daughter’s head. “Thank you for not taking any of the outs I kept giving you. I would’ve missed out on the greatest love story since my grandparents. I promise that today, tomorrow, and forever I will love you for better or worse, in sickness and in health. I will love you and cherish you well beyond my last breath. I love you, Chris.”

“I love you, too, Kat.”

The justice of the peace had them exchange rings. Chris had chosen a simple white gold band with a small sapphire on top and he had two bands specially made for Kate. Her bands were each wrapped with little diamonds and sapphires and they squared around her engagement ring to make them more comfortable to wear together. His hands shook as he took off her engagement ring and placed her new bands around it.

“Until now Kate and Chris have spent each moment of their lives as separate individuals. But from this day on, and every day after this day shall be shared and spent as one. By the power enthroned in me, by the state of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss your bride.” Helena came and took Madison from Kate and Chris pulled his new wife to him. Their lips locked in a fiery kiss as everyone applauded them. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Evans.” The applause got louder as the couple shared another kiss.

The reception went by in a blur. They danced their first dance to “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” by Elvis. Kate smushed cake into Chris’ face and he kissed her as he rubbed the cake on her face. The party went late into the night. When the newlyweds left in a town car, they went to the Boston Harbor Hotel where Chris had rented an insanely fancy suite that looked out over the water. Lisa was babysitting Madison for the night so they could have their wedding night to themselves.

Kate leaned back against Chris’ chest in the giant soaker tub. The bathroom light was off and the place was lit by six candles around the room. There were two champagne glasses sitting on the edge of the tub. They had just spent the last hour and a half consummating their marriage all over the suite before retiring to the large tub to soak their tired muscles. He rubbed her shoulders gently, trailing kisses up and down her neck. “That feels amazing, Mr. Evans.”

“Not as amazing as you look, Mrs. Evans.” Chris kissed her shoulder. “Are you happy?”

“Insanely.”

“Me too.”

Kate was quiet for a long moment. “I miss Maddie.”

“I do too!”

“Should we call your mom?”

“Maddie will be asleep right now. We’ll pick her up first thing in the morning.”

“Ok.”

They were quiet for a long time. “If you had told me a year ago that I would be married with a kid now, I would’ve laughed in your face.”

Kate chuckled. “If you had told me a year ago I would be married to YOU with YOUR kid, I would’ve slapped you for talking crazy.” She shifted slightly to look up at him. “I meant it, Chris. Thank you for never taking any of the outs I kept throwing at you.”

“I wasn’t ever going to let the greatest thing in my life get away. I love you so much, Kat.”

Kate’s lips met his again in a slow passionate kiss. “I love you, too, my Boston boy.”

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@deidrashouseofpain

@thevelvetseries

#Chris Evans #Kate Allen O/C #chris evans fanfic #chris evans fanfiction #Boston Boy #Chris Evans/Kate Allen

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venusloveslobotomies · 4 years

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Pyromania (Bucky x Reader)

A/N: This is my first time posting writing and I would love literally any feedback at all! I’m honestly terrified to put my shit writing out there but I may as well suck it up and just do it! The ‘reader’ is Korean and her last name is Kang. The face reference is optional but it’s helped me get a better idea in my mind of how she looks.

Summary: (Winter Soldier-Endgame Insert) You’re an enhanced HYDRA agent who negotiated her way out of being a weapon. You’re now the nurse/ aid of the Winter Soldier. You end up escaping with him and follow him in and out of danger while slowly developing feelings for each other.

Words: 1950 (approx) Chapter: 1/?

Kang Y/N, age 16

I think one of my worst habits is looking at the clock. I know he’s scheduled to arrive back at 9pm for check-up but that will never stop me from obsessively glancing at the clocks in the hallway, in the kitchen, in his room while I methodically go through the nightly routine. Pick up toiletries and first aid kit, hand in the dinner slip for his food, eat dinner myself, change the sheets, pick up his night clothes for the week from the laundry. I find myself done, having gone on autopilot and finished the routine quicker than usual. I hang around near where the soldiers usually file in after the training session. A few other nurses happen to be there too, waiting on their soldiers. Given that there’s only six of us with supersoldiers, we know each other quite well.

All the other nurses are assigned to other enhanced, are put on general service, are sent on missions or are thrown into the front lines of warzones and therefore operate on different schedules. “Hey Kang, how’s big-shot Soldat going, huh?” Sasha offers a grin and I shake my head at the tall Russki. “He’s well. So far. How’s your girl going?” “Great as far as I can tell! She’s not the most talkative though. Bit of a shame. Bet you and Soldat are getting along perfectly,” I send him a disappointed glare but it doesn’t take long to crack into a smile. It’s hard to be frustrated with Sash. He’s too nice and too young. Well, he may be older than me physically but he entered this work much later than I did, not that I had a choice. “Don’t forget which one of us is the Level 7, Vasiliev. I’ll kick your ass and you know it,” I prod his side and make a show of adjusting my armband with a large ‘7’ embroidered onto the red cross. He feigns fear but before he can continue with his teasing the doors open and in file the soldiers. I lock eyes with my soldier before waving to Sash, “See you at showers, yeah?” He sends me a thumbs up and saunters off behind his soldier. Soldat has already begun marching towards his room. I jog to catch up with him and almost start telling him off before I see the glint in his eyes. There’s so little room for fun around here and he’s rarely in a good enough mood to be teasing so it’s difficult to be annoyed. Once we arrive at the room however, he sits down and the extent of today’s training becomes clear. I can see his bloody face and twitching metal arm. Ok, so maybe not so much in a good mood. “Might need to relocate my other shoulder,” His Russian is harsh and unnatural but not accented like mine. It’s different to the other soldiers and guards here, who are all native speakers. I make a mental note of his tone before I pick up the clothes, first aid kit and toiletries and we walk towards the showers. He tries to take them from me but I smack his hands away and force him to walk in front of me. Now, the showers leave a lot to be desired. A large room with lockers and shelves in the center and lining the left and right walls are blue curtains containing a shelf and a shower head. On the back wall are sinks and mirrors. At least we have hot water and it was clean. But the smell of blood and misery clung to the room no matter how often it was cleaned. Soldat led the way past several of his fellow soldiers before sliding the curtain shut in our usual spot. Unlike the nurses who served individuals like Sasha and I, the soldiers were unfriendly to the extreme with each other, no sense of community or friendship. I’m not complaining though. I enjoy having my soldier to myself, he’s easy to get along with and it was already far too stressful getting used to just him. I didn’t need others to deal with. They’ve all got different personalities, none of them easy-going, and one of them has anger issues. He strips the soaked training clothes off and hangs them carelessly on the shelf before kneeling down and allowing me to examine his injuries. A few cuts, presumably from punches, on his face, blood still dripping from his nose and mouth, a broken rib that’s quickly healing and his shoulder is bruised and tender but not dislocated. I mop the blood off his face and mutter to myself in Korean. He listens with interest. He’s been learning Korean from me lately, giving us more time together since we’re given a block of time to study. All the soldiers must know 30 languages and any extras to the ones already taught (like my Korean dialect) are accommodated with a block of study time. I double check his rib. Definitely broken but also definitely healing. The enhanced healing still freaks me out. I was not taught about how to deal with it when I went through my two years of medical training. I had to get used to it and teach myself. I realise I’m going to need to get morphine from the officials. Otherwise we won’t be sleeping tonight. “Would you like me to get you a recovery day?” I ask in slow, deliberate Korean. I can give my soldier any number of recovery days throughout the year, being his nurse. It usually means an extra day of study rather than training and extra food. Or being sent to cryo. “Ani,” He shakes his head, “I have the mission next day,” His Korean isn’t perfect, which is endearing since he’s perfect at practically everything else. I shrug in response, though I’m upset he refuses most recovery days. I do know that the officials are meticulous about whether the quality of a soldier begins to degrade but he hasn’t taken any for a long time. “If you say so,” I sigh but continue disinfecting his cuts and then tell him to wait. Slipping outside I can see Ira and Nadiya are stripping their outer layers off. Although I haven’t had much opportunity to experience outside life I know nudity like this would not fly outside of this environment. Here, nudity is hardly any issue. The soldiers are used to it for physical examinations and medical exams and their nightly routine. Nurses are unbothered by nudity since we perform plenty of medical duties requiring naked soldiers and all that. So, we all exchange a few words while hanging our dresses, armbands and hats up and putting our shoes on shelves. We talk about the quality of the food going up since the sixties and whether we’re supposed to attend a medical training session in the next month or so. We’re updated annually on the medical advancements outside of our little world. I slide back into our cubicle and find the water running. I step further in and my underclothes are immediately soaked. He turns around and offers me a tired smile, twirling the end of my braid with his normal fingers. I smile back and take a shaky breath. I set about washing the sweat out of his hair with shampoo and while he rubs the blood off himself, I begin scrubbing his metal arm. The blood, sweat and dirt builds up easily in the gaps and if it were left to him, the stupid arm would be rusted by now. I went out of my way to request special cleaning equipment for his arm and luckily was granted it. While we do this, we speak in Korean to help his learning and after a while he seems to relax. It never fails to surprise me when his aggressive personality melts away into the calm man that only I see. I massage his tense muscles with the aid of the hot water and eventually it’s time for dinner and ‘winding down’. For wind down, some soldiers, like a particularly angry man, are sent to the psychs for an hour before they’re put in cryo or bed. By the time we’re out, everyone’s already begun changing, nurses and soldiers alike. There’s no interaction between soldiers, they seem to be in their own little worlds, but the nurses are happily socialising with each other. I change into clean underclothes and my night dress - a white, floor-length dress with an apron and pin my armbands securely on my upper arms - while I listen to Sasha talking about the pains of acquiring painkillers from the officials. Paracetamol, ibuprofen and other basic drugs don’t make a dent in the pain our soldiers endure. Quicker healing is great and all but it’s considerably more painful. It takes a lot of convincing as well as a full medical report to get the higher-ups to give us the morphine they need. We all agree and chime in to add points to strengthen the argument. Eventually, we all clear out of the steamy room and continue chatting all the way down to the living quarters. Two of the soldiers split off with their nurses for cryo prep and we all wave, knowing it’ll be awhile before we see those four. The guards in this part of the facility must be constantly unnerved by the sound. Usually the base is all business, soldiers and guards and nurses silently carrying out their schedules but the six of us that cater to the supersoldiers are unafraid to be happy and loud. It creates a sense of community and we wouldn’t get that outside of this environment. In any case, the guards can’t touch us unless we pose a direct threat. So, we all spend our time walking laughing and talking in a blend of languages. All of us are multilingual since we travel with our soldiers. So, the guards and officials, who often only speak German or Russian or both are even less comfortable since our usual chatter is a mix of Ukrainian, French and pieces of German and they presumably really don’t like not understanding what we’re saying. It’s mostly just a lot of joking around and bagging on each other for whatever we can think of. It’s nice but also a bit strange. Even to me. Back when it was only Soldat and I, these hallways were silent as ever. It was a different time. This whole thing is recent since it was only in the early nineties that the other soldiers were created. Then their nurses were assigned and even then, we were acutely uncomfortable around each other. But I’m happy with the way things are now. As we split off into our rooms, the hallway goes quiet again and it’s time for winding down. I get called to the side by an official. I could laugh at how obviously uncomfortable he is down here. He should be in an office upstairs, getting ready to go home. There’s a good reason why the higher-ups don’t come down here anymore. He hands me a file to prepare for the mission tomorrow. I accept it and watch him walk back to the elevator. I realise Soldat has gone back to the room without me. As I walk back, I think about how strange it is that all twelve of us are out right now. We’re only taken out of cryo for missions. Ira and Michael and their soldiers completed missions the night before but spent the day training anyways. I presume the other three are going on assignments tomorrow since all of us were released from cryo at the same time this morning.

Part 2

#bucky #barnes #buckybarnes #buckyxreader #marvel #marvelxreader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky fic #pyromania fic

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laurasfox-originals · 4 years

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Fix Me (Be The Father Of This Child! Side Story, Patreon Exclusive) by Laura S. Fox

Author’s note: I couldn’t leave the dads without their story, and this is it. It comes in the shape of a side story and it’s a Patreon Exclusive, but here is a little excerpt for anyone interested. In a nutshell, it is the how and why of Sid and Tom ending up together :) The story has 8 chapters in total, and the following text is part of the first chapter.

The link to all the chapters is this:

https://www.patreon.com/laurasfox/posts?filters%5Btag%5D=fix%20me

Start of excerpt:

Chapter One - A Little Bit Of Human Touch

Tom fought a stain on the countertop that seemed to have escaped the thorough cleaning he had overseed earlier that day. Hmm, it looked like it was part of the pattern and not an actual stain. The kids had done a pretty good job, after all.

Jett would make his hair go all grey before time. How could he be with a boy, after having a kid with his girlfriend?

You know how.

Tom pushed away the honest voice inside his head. Honesty, unfortunately, had no place there, in that situation. God knew he had made plenty of mistakes in his life, and that meant that he needed to keep his son from making his.

The worst part was that he understood what Jett saw in that boy with the hippy name. He was the kind of boy Tom would have liked for himself some twenty-five years ago. But he had chosen to be a husband and a father, regardless of particular inclinations that he didn’t want to think about. He had been in love with Jett’s mother; he had desired her completely, and losing her had left him hollow. Yet, to his shame, that hadn’t nullified his secret desires, to which he succumbed once in a while. That only appeared to keep the fire stoked, instead of putting it out.

For years, he had tried to rationalize it. While his wife had been alive, he had never cheated on her. The first time he had had a sexual encounter of the kind – of any kind, actually, it had been four years after her passing away, and it had still felt like cheating.

After that, things had gotten a little easier. Since they were nothing but fleeting experiences, he could dismiss them as nothing but a need for sexual release and nothing more. Also, he didn’t have time for them, so they weren’t a lifestyle or an important change in his life. Or, at least, that was what he told himself over and over again to assuage the guilt.

And now Jett, with the impetus of youth on his side, was just saying loud and clear that he wanted to be with a boy. Tom shook his head. How the times had changed. If it hadn’t been for the baby, maybe Tom would have been convinced, after a while, that Jett was making the right choice.

But no, there was a baby involved now, and Jett had to assume responsibility, whether he liked it or not.

A loud knock on the door startled him. He was getting too used to spending time in his head more often than not these days. Maybe he was growing old. And lonely.

“Who could be at this hour?” He mumbled under his breath as the knocking on the door repeated.

It looked like the kids didn’t think getting the door was their business. From the living room, some stupid TV show blared the fake laughter of an equally fake audience and the annoying voice of the moderator.

Tom pulled the door open so fast that it almost hit him in the face. He really needed to calm the fuck down a little.

“Yes?”

A man in his forties dressed casually in tan khaki pants, loafers, and a brown leather jacket stared at him from the door.

Tom’s first thought was how blue the man’s gaze was. The second one was more unsettling.

Attractive.

“Sid Summer,” the man introduced himself. He offered his hand, along with an honest look.

Tom hesitated for a moment, but he wasn’t one to leave a man hanging. He took Sid’s hand and shook it vigorously. Sid smiled even if Tom was sure his handshake wasn’t exactly friendly. “The boy’s dad?” he asked gruffly. There was no need for too many niceties.

Sid’s hand was firm and smooth. Tom frowned as their hands parted. That little bit of human touch wasn’t supposed to have any effect on him.

“I’m sorry to bother you so late, but do you think you have a minute?” Sid asked in a pleasant tone, his smile never fading.

It did occur to Tom that he didn’t introduce himself, as well, too busy with noticing Sid’s high cheekbones and beautifully drawn lips. That angered him a little. “I have a minute, and it’s already up.”

“Then, I’ll have to ask for one hour.” Sid didn’t appear bothered at all by his tone.

“One hour?”

“I was wondering if you could join me for a drink, Mr. Huntsman.”

“We could talk here.” It was annoying how much he wanted to say ‘yes’ to that invitation. His throat was parched, all of a sudden. But he didn’t need to let that show. If the boy’s dad was there, it had to be for a reason, and it didn’t look like that reason was Sid wanting to take his child home with him. Tom didn’t like it at all.

“Here, the children will have nothing better to do than to try to eavesdrop, as I bet they are doing right now.”

That was a good point. Without a word, for the sake of not letting Sid guess that he was eager to leave the house, Tom grabbed his denim jacket and almost jumped into his boots. He did everything with brusque moves just so that Sid would know, without one shadow of a doubt, that he didn’t like that idea at all.

All that remained was to put things in order before walking out the door. He marched into the living room, where the three misfits were pretending to be watching TV. “I will be out,” he said. “Don’t stay too late. Stop watching stupid shows on TV. That kid needs to be in bed already. You two, no mischief. I know you,” he pointed a finger at April, “have school tomorrow. Jett, you,” he added after a short moment of hesitation, “you have nothing to do, but you still need to wake up at six.”

That covered it. To make sure his words were taken at face value, he stared at the miscreants, one by one, for a few moments more. To his satisfaction, they all looked away. They probably hated him, but Tom wasn’t there to be liked. His role was to put an order in the chaos they had created. And it was all for their own good.

“Let’s go,” he said to Sid as he walked out the door.

“That’s my car,” Sid said as he pointed at his vehicle, a station wagon that must have seen better days.

Tom frowned. The guy had said they would go out for drinks. Did he intend to drive how, after that? “You’re not supposed to drink and drive.”

To his surprise, Sid laughed. “I’m not one of the kids, Mr. Huntsman. I know as much.”

“Tom.”

Shit. He was supposed to keep the distance between him and that blue-eyed man. There were people in the world who were simply attractive, and Sid was one of them. Mary, his late wife, had also been like that. Like a tiny ray of sun had been snatched at her birth and hidden in her eyes.

“Well, Tom, I haven’t drunken anything yet. Scout’s honor. But I’m seriously in need of a drink. I booked a room for the night at a local motel, and there’s a bar nearby. Is that okay?”

“Why did you book a room?” He climbed in front, next to Sid, who put the engine into gear.

“I have a feeling our conversation will be a long one. I also need a drink, as I told you, and I can always drive back to mine in the morning, after allowing the said drink to leave my system.”

“You have an answer to everything.” Tom didn’t want to sound as morose as his voice seemed to his own ears. Yet, the too pleasant feeling coiling in the pit of his stomach whenever he looked at Sid was making him wary.

“That’s exactly what my boy says, too. I suppose it’s annoying. But parents are bound to be annoying.”

Tom chuckled and shook his head. “You can say that again.”

Wait, he wasn’t supposed to feel at ease in the company of April’s dad. Because Sid was April’s dad and that meant that Tom had to keep that in mind, no matter how much he wanted to stare in those blue eyes and check them from up close.

“So, did my April give you any grief?”

Tom considered his next words carefully. On one side, he had little Jay and his best interest at heart. On the other, there was no need to insult Sid. “No. He’s well behaved.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Sid said as he navigated the streets that seemed already deserted at that hour.

Silence followed. Tom wanted the conversation to be over already, but Sid seemed serious about that drink. At the same time, he wanted to spend a little more time in Sid’s company.

“The boys,” he started, “they are young. They don’t know what they want.”

“Hmm. Don’t they?”

Tom felt a bit disconcerted by that question. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

A short chuckle followed. “I’m not your enemy, Tom. I’m sure we can find some common ground. But let’s not discuss such serious stuff without some drinks in front of us. What do you say?”

Tom shrugged. “Fine by me.” He was willing to indulge Sid if only because he wanted to be close to another person his age a little longer. Terrorizing a bunch of young people with their heads up in the clouds was hard work. For tonight, he would allow himself a breather. Plus, he could also hope for a resolution to the situation regarding April. He would do his best to convince Sid that Jett wasn’t a good choice for his son.

He shifted in his place. He couldn’t believe he was a tad nervous. To fill the silence, he reached for the radio, although it wasn’t his car, and it struck him too late that it was an impolite thing to do.

His fingers met Sid’s.

“Maybe some music --”

Tom withdrew his hand like it had been scalded in hot water.

Sid laughed. “Sorry about that. I just find long silences uncomfortable.”

“Well, you were the one to say that we should postpone talking until we have a drink in hand,” Tom replied, a bit irritated.

Sid threw him a sidelong glance. “Don’t tell me you also find long silences uncomfortable.”

Tom scoffed and pretended to look out the window. Not that there was anything interesting to see; only houses and houses again. He needed to avoid looking at Sid too much. There was no wonder April was so pretty; even if he didn’t look like his dad, as far as his facial features went, he was lean and tall like Sid. Tom could guess a slender body in perfect shape under the brown leather jacket and khaki pants. Why on earth was he thinking about how Sid looked without clothes on? He needed to stop and stop right now.

Music filled the car. It was some jazz tune, happy and sad at the same time.

“Is this all right? If you prefer something else --”

“It’s okay,” Tom said abruptly and stared stubbornly out the window.

At least, they were no longer riding in uncomfortable silence, and, in a way, it was worse. Now, Tom could focus on the smallest details, like the smell of Sid’s cologne, something like wood and earth that made him feel longing squeezing his chest

“How come your wife let you out of the house at this hour?” He found himself talking.

There was a short pause. “My wife passed away seven years ago.”

Talking about strange coincidences. “I see,” Tom replied. “Mine, as well.”

Sid didn’t add anything. None of them said ‘sorry’ or any other platitude, and it was better like this.

“We’re here.” Sid pulled the car in the motel’s parking lot.

Tom said nothing and climbed out of the car. He followed Sid as they walked toward the small bar that was located on the grounds. Tom could only hope they had a drink as stiff as he needed right now. His throat felt parched again.

#be the father of this child!#sid x tom #patreon exclusive #side story #mm romance

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wallstagram · 5 years

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january - march fic recs

this might be a long one, so hold on for the ride! below are some of my favorite, favorite, favorite fics that i’ve read so far in 2019 - some are new works, some are tried and true ones that I always come back to for inspiration, and some just make my heart so happy, that they made it on this list!

all authors are listed by their AO3 name but linked to their tumblr, if I could find it!

:: J A N U A R Y ::

honestly, such a busy month for me! i spent most of that month focused on school and working on my own fics, but after having a look at my history, these were the works that stood out as favorites!

like an endless summer by objectlesson

Or, Louis is a riding instructor at a summer camp, and Harry is a fellow counselor who he’s been successfully managing his crush on for the last two summers. That is, until Harry shows up this year leveled up and lethal, and all Louis’s formerly perfected veneer of nonchalance melts like a popsicle in the sun.

OKAY. This story is wonderful. I’m such a sucker for summer camp AU’s, and this one is so drawn out and well done. At 87k, it gets slow burn right without becoming boring. Sweet and sexy moments about facing fears and finding love with all your best friends around. I’m also here to rec the sequel palms reflecting in your eyes because YES.

hymns for restless stars by turnyourankle

Every Holiday season Louis has his pupils write down their Christmas wishes for class. He's read almost every wish under the sun, but one girl's wish takes him by surprise. It's for her uncle not to be alone anymore. It's not a wild wish by any means, but Louis had no idea that former teen idol Harry Styles was lonely in the first place.

this is such a sweet, sweet work that is so near and dear to my heart. It touches on some themes that I feel are downplayed by the fandom (but that rant is for another post, haha) so it was lovely to see it done so well. I just love the characterization and how the whole thing flows from beginning to end. It may be ~38k, but as a 25-chapter fic, I’d consider it an easy read over time, and a story I fully recommend.

:: F E B R U A R Y ::

a firm believer and a warm receiver by objectlesson

a few months ago, Louis had his first heat. It was no big deal, aside from it being awkward and weird and all the other things it was supposed to be. He figured he would present as an omega, so he wasn’t exactly surprised or anything.

But then, last week, Harry had his first heat, too.

---

Or, the omega/omega sleepover fic no one asked for but y'all really, really need.

so - i’m all about non-traditional pairings, and the ABO verse has been full of amazing ones! While this story is shorter than a lot of my recs (at ~ 11k) it is wonderful and the characterization of H and L is wonderful. Highly recommend this one for anyone who likes ABO.

leave your mark on me by fullonlarrie

When Chef Harry Styles’ unbonded Omega designation threatens to derail his career, he does the only thing he can, and goes in search of a black market bond.

wow. okay. so this is one of those stories that - it just blows my mind that more people aren’t talking about how amazing this is! it weighs a bit more heavy on the oppressive realities of ABO for omegas, and i love falling into a version of ABO that I could really envision being an alternate reality. I love the style of it, and the pace is exactly what it needs to be. About 32 k, nice slow burn. (if you haven’t seen a theme, I love a good slow burn!)

from, your secret admirer by flicker_album

Or the one where Louis is Harry's Tumblr crush so he sends him secret admirer messages for Valentine's Day

I really love the idea of fanboys!H&L. I loved the real-world touches, and I think the prompt is so stinking cute! It’s a nice, light read. I thoroughly enjoyed the style and just the dialogue set.

fugue by iwillpaintasongforlou

Harry falls asleep a 17 year-old who lives in Cheshire and is probably rockstar Louis Tomlinson's biggest fan. He wakes up 24 with a wedding ring on his finger, two kids, and Louis Tomlinson attempting to wake him up with a blow job. The doctor calls it organic retrograde amnesia, says he might never get back the last seven years of his life. The only thing that feels the same is how he feels when Louis touches him, and maybe that's enough to make him fall in love all over again

i really think of this fic a lot more than i’d care to admit. there are a few (in my opinion) classics in the fandom that I think everyone should read, and this is surely one of them. there’s the perfect blend of angst and falling in love, dolloped with domesticity, learning to trust each other again, smut, and happiness. i often get so lost in this work that I imagine it’s much longer than it really is (at 17k) but it’s enough to really sink your teeth into and get lost inside of. when i need to be filled up as a writer, these are the kind of works i go to - the ones that have stood the test of time and still are wonderful every single time I come back to them.

:: M A R C H ::

somewhere between a minute and a lifetime by dinosaursmate

“Is your passport definitely in your bag?” “It’s definitely there,” Harry huffed. “I’m not stupid.” “I never said you were, love. I’m just asking from experience.” “It happened once.” Louis pressed his lips together and wheeled his suitcase towards the front door. “And… you really aren’t wearing a plug? You swear?” Harry finally cracked a smile. “I swear.” --- Harry and Louis go on their first big holiday, and they have a few surprises for each other along the way.

so I recommend the whole series, but this third installment is surely my favorite, and the one I come back to. i love holiday fics, and there’s something about this spunky couple that has me following every single word the author has written. I love how witty Harry can be in this, and how nothing about their holiday is picture perfect. all to say - for a smut-centered fic, it knows how to balance an amazing plot and really keep me wanting more. it’s also a nice length at 20k, that I feel satisfied but not like i’ve been reading for forever. i’m really hoping a part four is on the way!

the second hand unwinds by fullonlarrie

Louis Tomlinson is one of the first members of NASA's top secret Chrono Exploration Program. When things go wrong and he's sent further back in time than planned, he has no other option than to show up on his ex-boyfriend's doorstep.

this story fucked me up in the best way possible!!! I really read it all in one go, set it aside, and came back to it. Skimmed for the parts i needed to read again, read the entire thing again, and since I read it, it always comes to mind as one of the first fics I’ll recommend out to someone. i already babbled about my adoration for this fic in the comments, so i’ll let you go see for yourself! it’s ~52k of pure gold.

tell me this is paradise by quickedween

Harry Styles has been lucky in love but unlucky in the bedroom with all of her previous boyfriends. When her best friend Niall finds out that she's never had an orgasm, she knows just what Harry needs: Louis Tomlinson. Niall sets Harry up to get sorted out.

if you asked me five weeks ago if i’d ever have a girl!direction fic in my list, I would’ve laughed. for some reason, i’ve never been able to fully immerse myself in the plot, really get into it. I just - I couldn’t take it seriously. until this. this fic rocked my entire world. it’s the shortest fic on my list at ~ 5k, so i’ve read it multiple times and would seriously recommend based off the characterization, amazing smut, and the fact that it turned me into a girl!direction believer. (AND it inspired me to go on a similar journey to the one Harry has - but that’s for a different post!) but thank you for converting me to girl!direction, quickedween!

like a siren in the night by whoknows

“There is an infestation in my home,” Louis hisses, righting himself quickly and pushing his way past Harry, heading directly for the kitchen. He’s rather haphazardly dressed himself, a coat thrown on over a loose flannel shirt and black pants, slippers on his feet.

Harry resists the urge to sigh, closing the door and trailing behind him slowly. “What kind of infestation?”

For all he knows, Louis is going to claim that there’s a ghost infestation. Harry has no idea what the end game is here – all he knows is that Louis has found at least three complaints a week to bring up since he’s been living on Harry’s property, and he’s been living here for six months.

It’s way too many fucking complaints, is what Harry is saying. Especially when most of them are ridiculous to start with.

oh, my heart. i love this fic so much. it’s ABO, and it has the perfect level of angst, love, and everything in between. i love the imperfect relationship between H and L - and i’m sure you will too! such a darling, sexy, and wonderful work! (~25k)

salt and the appetite by sadaveniren

Aka Harry, a popular BDSM blogger, writes a negative review about Louis’ club. Louis wants to have a chance to make it up to him.

so i’m a huge fan of anything sada writes, but the no control club series itself is so amazing! i always come back to it for something that I know won’t let me down, that is steamy and perfect! this work that starts off the series is 14k of smut and all sorts of fun, sexy stuff that H and L get up to. if you haven’t already read it, you must be living under a rock. go check it out!

so, that’s the list! thank you to @sadaveniren, @becomeawendybird, @fullonlarrie, @dinosaursmate, @canonlarry, @flicker-album, @horsegirlharry, and @turnyourankle for writing such masterpieces! stay tuned for my next rec list! if you survived reading this entire post, you deserve a medal

#fic rec #rec list #2019 recs #ao3 #larry fic #larry fic rec #larry smut #warmcuppatea recs

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19umbrellas · 5 years

Text

The Great Escape || Ben Hargreeves x Reader || Chapter 3

Description: After the death of your childhood sweetheart you began to have very gory and horrific nightmares that lead to your drug and alcohol problem. After your family found out, your sister admitted you to a rehabilitation facility you begin to see glimpses of your old lover walking about the hallway. Have the nightmares finally drove you insane or is your beloved Ben Hargreeves really back from the dead?

Read and find out uwu

Word Count: 1455

Index: uwu

CHAPTER 3

You stood under the steaming rain of shower water as you combed through your clumped, wet hair with your fingers. You were quietly relaxing, feeling your tense muscles slowly loosen. You washed off any remaining Shampoo products on your hair and let the bubbles run down the drain. When you finished you turned off the shower, wrapped a towel around your body before stepping out of the stall.

One of your roommates, Bianca, was standing in front of the mirror on the opposite side of the showers. She was brushing her teeth when she noticed you walk out and she turned to you. "Hey roomie!" she said before spitting out the foam of bubbles that had accumulated in her mouth. Some of the bubbly foam still remained at the corners of her mouth but she didn't mind.

"Hey" you greeted her with a small smile and a nod as you walked to your bag next to her on the sink. You took out your fresh dry clothes and went back into the stall to change. You could hear Bianca gargling as you put on your underwear and then your sweat pants. She spat on the sink before turning the faucet knob and splashed some water on her face.

Pulling your shirt down to waist, you hung your towel on your arm before stepping out once more. Bianca was cleaning up her toiletries as you wrapped your towel around your hair. "Y'know, if you want, you can walk around the facility before lights out." Bianca said. You looked at her with an interested expression. "They usually let us roam for an hour before bed. You should definitely see the garden out back. It's small but it's got some charm." she smiled and you thanked her before you both walked out and headed to your rooms, making small talk along the way.

Once inside you saw your other roommate, Gian, dancing and swaying while lying on her bed to the music that was coming from her gigantic headphones. When she noticed you come in she paused her cassette player and greeted you both. "Bianca, Newbie." you chuckled at her hyper attitude. "Hey, Gian." you waved as you made your way to your bed. "Liking rehab so far?" she asked jokingly. She turned belly down as she propped herself on her bed. You arranged your things as you hummed. "It's pretty nice so far. Not at all what I expected to be honest... " you trailed off, unsure if what you were about to say was going to be offensive for them.

Bianca looked at you, "You thought this place would be a hell hole crawling with mumbling crackheads and angry junkies." you nodded meekly, worried that you may have pushed the wrong buttons. You were taken aback when you heard Bianca and Gian laughing instead of shouting angrily at you.

"I know how you feel." Bianca said. "When I first met Gian she was going to steal my kidney and sell it for some cash." Gian laughed harder, "Man, you were such a pussy back then, Bi." she said wiped away a tear. The two began to bicker playfully as you just smiled and listened. Laughing every once in awhile when they roasted each other.

The door suddenly opened and another girl walked in, she looked rather tired and grumpy. "Hey, Joey. Back from kitchen duty I see." Gian beamed but Joey didn't answer and went straight to bed, turning on her side to avoid eye contact. "Oof, not a good shift I'm guessing." Bianca mumbled to Gian and Gian nodded in agreement. She played her cassette player once more and she quietly mouthed the lyrics as she happily snapped her fingers to the beat.

Bianca turned to you, "Why don't we go to that Garden I told you about?" she said. "I'll show you around too while we're walking." she walked to the door and you followed her.

The hallway was dim, save for a few wall lamps and lights coming from the lower crack of the doors. Your feet quietly squeaked as they made contact with the tiled floor, that was the only sound you could hear other than your breathing. Bianca broke the silence when you reached the red double doors. She explained that this was the cafeteria, it was at the center of the building and how it separated the male ward and the female ward. You continued to walk while Bianca told you some of the rules and regulations of the place. However, you felt a bit anxious as you went farther and farther away from your room. You two were the only ones out and about and you couldn't help but feel like this was not allowed.

Eventually you started to see other patients as well, most of them were playing Foosball in a small room, others were watching, while some were just wandering in the hallway. You saw a familiar man storm out of his room and angrily marched to your direction. Panicked, thinking that he was coming after you, you stopped and flinched as he approached you but nothing happened. You turned to see his retreating figure stomping away from you.

"That's just Klaus. Don't worry he's harmless." Bianca said, noticing your distress. You nodded slowly, still looking at him as he had a hissy fit in the distance. "C'mon, we're almost there." Bianca began to walk once more and you merely followed.

Bianca stopped in front of a door that looked out of place to the rest of the building. This building had modern architecture and furniture but thus door looked like it was going to lead you back to the 1940's or something. You opened the door and flashes of lights suddenly met your eyes. You stared in awe at the simple beauty of it. Bianca wasn't kidding when she said it was a small garden. A line of rose bushes were following the walls to the red bricked metal fence on the other side, vines and such were crawling up the walls, and three hardwood beaches surrounded the small bird bath that was the center of it all. There were four yellow lit lamp posts that were in the area and they were connected with colorful fairy lights

"Wow." you smiled. "This is amazing." you stepped out as a gust of wind blew through your hair. "How come no one else is here?" you asked, confused why no one else would want to spend their nights in this serene place. Bianca shrugged walking next to you. People around these parts don't really like the peace and quiet." she explained. "You. I thought you would like it though." she smiled before patting your back and walking back inside. "You got 15 minutes till lights out." she said, grabbing the door handle. You looked at her, "Aren't you going to stay with me?" you asked and she shook her head. "When I first saw you you looked liked you had a lot on your mind. I may not know you all that well yet but I think you need some alone time to recollect your thoughts." she closed the door.

she wasn't wrong. You did have a lot of things on your mind, a lot of thoughts and unresolved turmoil you've been trying to push down for years only to explode into your unhealthy habit of drinking and smoking that had cost you your old life. You sat on one of the beaches and sighed. You looked at the bird bath and watched as the colors of the fairy lights gently danced on the waters surface. The air was quiet and all you could hear were the hums of crickets and the rustling of branches blown by the wind.

The quiet didn't seem to last when you suddenly heard the crunching of twigs behind you. You snapped back and scanned the area. Nothing was out of the ordinary other than a faint orange glow you could see in the bushes. Smoke started to emit and from the smell you could tell that whoever was in there was surely smoking a joint right now.

Quietly, you got up and grabbed a rather big rock beside on the ground beside you. You tiptoed over to the bush and raised your weapon in the air. You pushed down the branches that covered the mystery smokers frame and you were taken aback as the angry man from earlier screamed at the sight of you. You stumbled backwards, dropping your rock.

"Jesus Christ, you can't just do that to someone." he exclaimed as he stood up. He looked at you and paused. "Oh hello." he blinked. "Haven't seen you around here before."

A.N.:

Henlo!

Okay so, ya’ll I’ll be honest with ya’ll, I have never tried drugs before, I have drank alcohol, perhaps a little too much, but never have I ever touched, smelled, tasted, or even seen any form of drugs in real life. I’m pretty sure a lot of things in my story are inaccurate since my frame of reference only consists of tv and movies that involve such themes. What I’m trying to say is, I’m really sorry for any inaccuracies in the story huhu.

That’s about it, uwu. See ya’ll in the next one.

Taglist:

@purple-alien-monkey

#ben hargreeves #ben hargreeves x reader #ben hargreeves x you #ben hargreeves fanfiction #ben hargreeves is bae #the umbrella academy #the horror #the umbrella academy x reader #reader insert #x reader #reader #tua x reader #number six #number 6 #number four #number 4 #justin min

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unpack-my-heart · 5 years

Text

Unpack My Heart With Words - Updated

New chapter of my Hamlet/Theatre Reddie AU.

It’s on AO3 HERE or I’ve posted it under the cut.

preview:

‘Are you kidding me – YOU’RE my Hamlet? She’s sent me YOU? I swear to God – Right. Well. Get inside – no, not THAT door, the door where – just follow me’.

Richie waits for a beat, watching Eddie march away with his scarf trailing behind him, gauzy fabric reaching out to Richie with invisible arms. Eventually, Richie’s feet co-operate with the signals screaming in his brain to go! go! go!, and he follows Eddie, who had disappeared through a small side-door marked ‘private’. Richie takes a deep breath, before he pushes the door open and steps inside, breaching the dark underbelly of the RSC.

@violetreddie @constantreaderfool @xandertheundead

‘Are you kidding me – YOU’RE my Hamlet? She’s sent me YOU? I swear to God – Right. Well. Get inside – no, not THAT door, the door where – just follow me’.

Richie follows Eddie through a series of corridors, winding this way and that, past small dressing rooms, large open spaces with chairs strewn haphazardly around. People pass them, nodding at Eddie and staring at Richie with blank, expressionless looks. Richie keeps his gaze trained to the shocking white of Eddie’s sneakers, a stark contrast against the deep, velvety black of the rest of his outfit. Eddie is talking on the phone, the tinny voice of the other person filtering out into the air, but not loud enough that Richie can hear what they’re saying. He tries not to listen to what Eddie is saying, feeling invasive, but he can’t persuade his ears to disengage.

“No, I had no idea you’d cast him … I suppose he was always very good when we were at RADA together … I told you that! You knew I went to RADA with him … Well you know now … Yes, he’s that Richie … I have no idea … I have to go, thank you again for this simply marvellous surprise”

Eddie eventually pushes his way through a set of large double doors, and Richie follows him through into a large classroom. One of the walls is mirrored, and there are nine other people staring over at him. He instantly recognises one of them.

Watching Eddie march over to the desk, and start typing furiously, Richie makes a beeline for where Stan is standing.

“Stanley the Manley!”

“Oh Jesus Christ, it’s you”

Richie smacks Stan’s arm lightly.

“That’s hardly an appropriate greeting for your best friend now, is it”

“Richie, I haven’t seen you since we graduated”

“Semantics, semantics” Richie dismisses, with a wave of his hand.

It was true. He hasn’t seen Stan since he graduated fourteen years ago. Even then, Richie had grown more and more distant from everyone after Eddie had left. He put his head down, poured his heart and soul into everything he did, graduated, and never looked back. His RADA years were simultaneously the best and worst years of his life thus far, and it exhausted Richie to think about them. It had, however, meant that he’d lost touch with Stan. Stan had tried, send him texts and emails and even rang him once a month for two years, but that, like all things, eventually stopped. Seeing Stan now, stood in front of him, with fine lines around his eyes and flecks of grey mottling his ashy blonde hair, tugged painfully at Richie’s heart.

“I’m sorry, you know”

“I know you are, Rich. I get it, I was just collateral damage” Stan dead-panned, the monotone voice contrasted happily with the smile in his eyes.

Before Richie could reply, he was interrupted by the clapping of hands.

“So now that the lead has so kindly deigned us all with his presence, we can begin. You should have got the email with the cast list, so perhaps some of you are familiar with each other. My name is Edward Kaspbrak and I’m directing this production, as you all well know. You can call me Eddie, though. We’ll start by reading through act one scenes four and five, the first interaction between Hamlet and the ghost of Old King Hamlet, so those of you who aren’t needed can excuse yourselves to one of the other rehearsal rooms to read through act one scene one to three together. Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus, over here” Eddie instructed, pointing to a door which presumably lead to another rehearsal space, before beckoning to Richie, Stan and an attractive, blonde-haired man steps forward, presumably this production’s Marcellus.

Everyone else filters out of the room in near total silence, leaving Richie, Stan and the man playing Marcellus staring dumbly at each other, unsure of what to do.

“Hang on, who’s playing the ghost?” Richie called out, causing Eddie’s head to snap up from where it was buried in an old beaten up copy of Hamlet, his hands leafing impatiently through the yellowing pages.

“Pardon?”

“The Ghost, who is playing him?”

Eddie blinks.

“It hasn’t been cast yet”

“How the hell are we supposed to block this, then? Am I supposed to talk to the air? Act as if the air is talking to me? C’mon, Eddie, that’s a bit ridiculous” Richie asks, gesticulating wildly.

“I’m sure you’ve had plenty of practice talking to yourself”

As soon as he says it, Eddie’s face shifts, the perfectly schooled apathy replaced by something that looks almost pained, something that almost resembles regret, before its chased away, and the apathy returns.

“Can we at least call one of the others in and have them read it for now?” Richie tries, trying to ensure that his voice doesn’t betray his frustration and start to waver.

“I’ll read it, I suppose, if you’re going to make such a fuss about it”

With that, Eddie throws the book onto a nearby chair, where it lands closed with a slapping sound. Richie sends a sideways glance at Stan, who is staring at both of them with wide, amused eyes.

Marcellus is standing on the other side of the room, looking equal parts confused and terrified.

Watching Eddie unwind his scarf and set it neatly on the nearest table, Richie is thrown backwards in time, as the Eddie standing before him, dressed in black dress pants and a black shirt, morphs into the Eddie he had seen for the first time in rehearsal room 3. His Lear.

They start reading through Act I Scene IV, which goes fairly well. Eddie only shouts at Richie once, when he gets a line wrong.

“Ministers of grace and Angels –“

“Wrong!”

“Pardon?”

“It’s ‘Angels and Ministers of Grace –“

“Oh for fucks sake” Richie mutters under his breath.

Surprisingly, he’s not frustrated at Eddie. In all fairness, he did get the line wrong. What surprises him is the embarrassment that claws at his stomach. He’s embarrassed. He’s standing in front of the love of his life – the boy that twisted him up and turned his whole life upside down nearly fifteen years ago – and he’s getting lines wrong, and he’s embarrassed.

“Try it again” comes Eddie’s reply, and Richie looks up at him tentatively, expecting to be met with glares and scorn, but Eddie’s face is blank. He’s just looking at Richie, prompting him, willing him to continue. No malice, but no soothing smile, either. Richie tries to remember what Eddie looked like when he smiled, when he was tucked under Richie’s armpit when they were watching movies in Richie’s shitty old flat.

Richie tried again, and got it right.

They finish act one scene four, and move straight onto act one scene five. The ghost speaks to Hamlet in this scene, which means Eddie will be speaking to Richie, pleading with him to ‘remember me!’.

Richie never forgot him.

“Where wilt thou lead me? Speak; I’ll go no further” Richie starts.

“Mark me”

“I will”

“My hour is almost come, when I to sulphurous and tormenting flames, must render up myself”

As they progress through the scene, Richie is stunned to realise that Eddie is awful. His delivery is wooden, his voice is monotone, emotionless, as if he doesn’t care, as if he’d rather be anywhere else, totally apathetic to Richie’s need for a good performance to respond to, to bounce off of.

“Adieu, Adieu Hamlet, Remember – –“

“Have you forgotten how to do it, Eds?” Richie interrupts, and it spills out of his mouth with more venom than he’d intended.

“We didn’t all have the luxury of finishing our acting degrees, Richard” Eddie snaps, the apathy on his face gone entirely.

He looks hurt, the same expression he’d been wearing when he’d told Richie he loved him for the very last time at the dining table, before he’d walked out of the door, and out of Richie’s life, nearly fifteen years ago.

Richie doesn’t know what to say, so he doesn’t say anything. They finish reading through the scene. Eddie’s performance doesn’t improve, if anything, it gets worse. Every ‘Swear it!’ delivered with indifference. Tiny verbal bullets that sting every time they hit Richie’s ears. Richie can’t help but recall Eddie’s Lear, powerful and commanding, a harsh juxtaposition to this damp squib of an old King Hamlet.

Almost immediately after Richie had uttered the last line of the scene, Eddie marches over to the door that the other cast members had left through, and disappears. He returns seconds later, accompanied by the rest of the cast.

“We’ll start looking over act one scene two, now. We’ll go back to act one when the whole cast is here, which will be sometime next week. I want to think about staging for scene two, and how we’ll have Claudius and Gertrude situated in relation to Hamlet, I think I’d like you, Ben, over here, and Bill if you can – –“

“Don’t you think we should all introduce ourselves?” Richie interrupts, for a second time.

Eddie just stares at him, eyebrow raised. A challenge. Continue, if you dare.

“I just think we should get to know each other, you know, so we all know where we’ve come from, who we are, what our backgrounds are. I’ll start, so, uh, sup, my dudes, the name’s Richie, and I’ve just come off tour with – –“

“I hardly think that’s relevant” Eddie scoffs, “If you want to spend the precious time we have together making friends, by all means, be my guest, but you’ll be doing it outside of my rehearsal space”

“I just thought it might help improve the chemistry between our characters”

“Do you really think a friendly atmosphere is appropriate for the play in question, Richard?”

“… I mean, I just –“

Richie meets Eddie’s eyes.

“I guess not”

The rest of the rehearsal goes okay. Richie tries not to let it sting too much when Eddie places his hands on Ben’s stomach, above his diaphragm, to help him project his voice, and when he laughs at Mike twirling around the stage In the first mock-up of his Ophelia costume. Richie tries his best to draw Eddie out of his shell, to draw Eddie back to him, repeating jokes that he knows Eddie would have laughed at – did laugh at in the past– but he doesn’t. Their interactions remain cold, clinical and professional.

At the end of the day, the main cast are knackered, but they decide to go to the pub to decompress and get to know each other a bit better. The only members of the cast that make their excuses are the actors playing Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Shrugging on his coat, Ben shouts out an invitation to Eddie to join them.

“Hey, Eddie! We’re all going to the pub. D’ya fancy it?”

“Uh…”, Eddie replies, eyes flicking over each of the people stood in front of him, before his gaze lands on Richie. Their eyes meet, and do not waver.

“No thanks” Eddie delivers straight to Richie, words that bore straight into the pit of Richie’s stomach. Eddie looks away from Richie, and his tone shifts to something light hearted, the voice Richie had grown to love all those years ago. “I’ve got a lot of preparation to do for tomorrow, we’ve still got a lot to do before we can move onto scene three. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

With that, Eddie leaves the door with a small wave.

“Ah, yes, now we can get to know each other ‘outside of the rehearsal space’. I mean, what the hell was that all about?” Mike asks, holding onto Stan’s shoulder as he tries to escape the folds of fabric keeping him hostage.

“I know” Stan replies, simply, a wicked glint in his eye.

“Don’t!” Richie shouts before he can stop himself.

Everyone looks at him expectantly.

“Uh… I just need to get my coat” Richie mumbles, before slinking into the back cupboard. He smacks his forehead against the wall with a thump, closes his eyes, and breathes.

They decide to go to the pub with the garden with the outdoor heaters, at Richie’s insistence, so that he might indulge his nicotine habit. He’s been gasping for a cigarette all day, but he hadn’t dared ask Eddie if he could slip out for a few minutes.

They squish onto a small picnic table together, and Bill ends up sat comfortably on Ben’s lap, an attempt at navigating the lack of space. Ben’s hands loop comfortably around Bill’s waist, and Richie sends a quirked eyebrow his way, receiving a confused but genuine smile in response.

Richie offers to buy the first round, ‘lead buys first’, and pulls Bill off of Ben’s lap to help him carry the drinks back to the table.

“Is something going on there, Billiam?”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific, Rich” Bill replies, leaning on the bar and tapping his fingers rhythmically on the polished wood.

“Between you and our dear King. Bit of method acting, if you will?” Richie replies, waggling his eyebrows.

“I’m still lost”

“Oh my sweet summer child. Are you, our beloved Queen Gertrude, boning the usurper in chief, King Claudius?”

“You mean – am I fucking Ben?” Bill laughs.

“Yes!”

“I’m pretty sure Beverly would stab me with her knitting needles if I even tried it, mate”

“Ah, you got a lady friend then?”

“Nope. Ben does. Bev is the costume designer for this production. She’s been with Ben for years and this is the first production they’ve worked on together since they got together years ago. It’s super sweet and also super gross because I’ve walked in one them … doing things … what feels like so times and we’ve only been rehearsing for a day!”

Richie threw his head back and laughed, a proper belly laugh that shook his entire body and soul. Bill laughed too, a high-pitched croaky laugh that just made Richie laugh even more. Wiping some stray tears from his eyes, Richie was sure he saw a familiar figure disappear into the toilet, a figure wearing all black and a gauzy scarf.

“I thought Eddie wasn’t coming with us?”

“Huh? He’s not?” Bill replied, confused.

“I swear I just saw him disappear into the toilet” Richie said, still staring at the toilet door, lest he miss the person he was sure was Eddie reappear in the main bar area.

“I need a piss anyway so I’ll go check!”

Bill disappeared into the bathroom, and by the time he’d returned Richie was in the middle of ordering.

“Hey mate, can I get four pints of Somersby and two Punk IPA’s please? – – oh, any luck?”

“Nah, It wasn’t Eddie”

Richie hummed, not entirely convinced.

As they waited for their drinks, Bill started pressuring Richie about the weirdness he’d witnessed between him and Eddie.

“I’ve gotta ask, dude, what was all that about with Eddie? I saw that weird look you shared”

Richie tried to remain as flippant, and disaffected as it was possible to be, given the circumstances.

“Ah, I dunno, man. You know how he is”

“I’ve known him a day, Rich, and judging by the tension between you two that you could cut with a knife, I’m guessing you can’t say the same”

They arrived back at the table, much to Richie’s delight, and he passed out the drinks, hoping that the conversation between him and Bill would get buried by whatever everyone else was talking about.

He was not so lucky.

“Hey Stan, what did you mean when you said that you know why Eddie was being all weird about us getting to know each other?”

“I meant what I said, I know the reason. But I can’t tell you if Richie doesn’t want me to. It’s not my story to tell, I just wanted you all to know that I know”

Bill, who was sitting back on Ben’s lap, just rolled his eyes.

“Come on, Rich, I command thee to tell your mother why the air is most foul between you and master Kaspbrak”

“Do you want the long story or the short story?”

Bill rubbed his chin in faux thought.

“Short, then long if it’s juicy enough”

“We met at school, we fell in love, he broke my heart”

Richie was met with a round of sympathetic hisses and whistles, and a comforting hand on his thigh from Mike.

“Sorry, Kid. We all thought it was something to do with you being late, or something.”

“I mean, that probably didn’t help” Richie tried to laugh, but the words came out strangled.

“What was Eddie like at school?” Ben asked, swatting at Bill who kept trying to put leaves in his beer.

“Um. I dunno – he was, uh, he was brilliant, I guess”

“Wait, hang on” Adrian, who was playing Laertes, interrupted. “Didn’t Eddie go to school in Scotland? And you met Stan at RADA? How… I’m lost. How does that work?”

“Eddie went to RADA for a year before he transferred” Stan supplied, after Richie sent him a panicked look. “Eddie left in the Spring term of first year. He met Richie and I there, and then he left for Edinburgh”

“Why’d he transfer?”

“Ask him yourself, because I still don’t have a fucking clue” Richie replied, bitterly, before draining his pint in one go.

#unpack my heart with words #richie tozier x eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #thefutureisbright #ao3

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callunavulgari · 5 years

Text

TOP 25 FICS OF 2018

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In the embedded Instagram photo just under that subheading, a very grumpy Yuri is cuddling a very grumpy-looking cat. The caption reads: I found the cat version of me at the shelter today. #iknowisaidnomorecats #canyoublameme

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7. flowers start to bloom in every different hue by orphan-account | Coraline | Coraline/Wybourn | 1k

Coraline grows up, gets a tattoo, and falls in love. In that order.

Heather Says: I read this fic on a slow day at work, often in quick bursts while I was waiting for the kitchen to finish my table’s food. It’s short. It’s sweet. It’s perfect. And honestly? It’s everything that I was looking for when I ventured into the Coraline tag on ao3 because I was curious.

8. Victory Conditions by @astolat | Transformers | Megatron/Optimus Prime | 37k

“Do you want me to tell you a story?” Megatron said mockingly. “You won’t like it, Prime. It’s not a very nice one.”

Heather Says: Fun fact, I’m not even in this fandom. I haven’t touched the Transformers fandom since the first movie came out in 2007 and I spent a very confusing week shipping a boy and his car. But Astolat has literally never lead me wrong, and I was having one of those bored days where nothing quite itches the right spot, so I sat down on the couch and spent two hours reading this. Worth it.

9. just in it for the game by grim_lupine | Thor | Thor/Loki | 6k

“It's excellent rehabilitation for my image,” Loki says, widening his eyes. “They love you, and because of that they'll trust me. You wouldn't ruin this for me, would you?”

Thor glares at him.

Loki’s mouth twitches. “Also, it's the funniest thing that's ever happened to me.”

Heather Says: The Thor/Loki bug never really bit me until after Ragnorak came out. I mean, sure, I read it and it was good, but hella’s Frostiron fics basically destroyed me for any other Loki pairing. HOWEVER. Ragnorak happened and screwed that all the way up. Also, you know, this fic is absolutely lovely and was just what the doctor ordered.

10. so this guy walks into a bar by MasterOfAllImagination | Pacific Rim | Newt/Hermann | 2.5k

“Bourbon,” Hermann says, hooking his cane on the edge of the bar and sliding by degrees onto a stool.

“Straight up?” the bartender asks.

“Please.” Does he look like the kind of man who enjoys having his nostrils fumigated by undiluted whiskey? “On the rocks.”

Heather Says: I coped with Pacific Rim 2 by reading a couple AUs and a couple very, very long fics full of tragedy and math. Weirdly, the AU of a chance meeting in a bar was the one that stuck.

11. cherry pie by @brawlite & @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 133k

Billy Hargrove lives for summer. Endless sunshine, heavily chlorinated pools, roaming ice cream trucks, and unencumbered freedom? There’s nothing better.

Even being stuck in Hawkins can’t ruin the summer for him. He eats it up, devouring every day whole.

Heather Says: Yeah, okay, but this is the fic that made summer worth it. Highly recommend reading at the pool or with your feet hanging off the back porch. Every piece of this fic was dripping in summertime nostalgia. It was fan-freaking-tastic.

12. the ghost and the good queen val by Wildehack (tyleet) | Thor | Thor/Valkyrie/Loki | 27k

“What,” she says, her heart racing, “was that.”

“What was what?” Korg asks, frowning up at her. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Valkyrie squints suspiciously at the ship.

“Oh my god,” Korg says. “You did! You saw a ghost!”

Heather Says: So, remember how I coped with Pacific Rim 2 with copious AUs? This is how I coped with Infinity War.

13. For Better or Worse by DragonBandit | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 22k

All Damien ever wanted was someone who wanted him. All Damien deserves is to die alone, stripped bare of any of the comforts or affections of humanity, a title he willingly shed.

Mark Bryant seems to be the Universe's compromise.

Wherein Damien and Mark are soulmates, and this changes enough.

Heather Says: I think I’ve read this one three or four time this year? It’s 22k of well-written fic for a fandom that has a max of like 100 fics all with lengths that tend to vary between a couple hundred words to 2 or 3k, max. This fic is the one that really catapulted me into the fandom.

14. in waves by @lymricks | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 38k

It’s March and it’s too cold for Billy to be shirtless and wearing shorts, but he hadn’t noticed until Harrington appeared and made him hold still. Harrington can’t seem to stop looking at the bruises. “What’s it to you if I miss a little school, Harrington?” Billy asks. He feels goosebumps rising on his skin.

“I don’t know,” Harrington snaps back, looking uncomfortable. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Plant your feet, Billy wants to scream at him. I’m going to bowl you over.

Heather Says: And here we have the first fic that wasn’t written by either @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger or @brawlite that made me realize that this fandom was gonna be a good one. So fantastic.

15. the cure by aquaexplicit | The Flash | Cisco/Harry | 43k

“I guess I don’t really get what you need to fix? Harrison Wells is a hot, rich genius that pays you to make cool stuff with his daughter and is totally into you. If you guys boning is the biggest problem you have, I think this officially qualifies as your best relationship ever.”

When Barry puts it like that, everything sounds so simple and not at all as angst ridden as Cisco has been suffering the past few months.

Cisco hangs up on him.

Heather Says: I remember a couple years ago, I fell absolutely head over heels for this one Sterek fic where Derek had twin toddlers and Stiles was the hired babysitter. So I think there’s something about dad + babysitter fics that get me, even if this one in particular the ‘baby’ in question is a fifteen year old genius. Still. Dad + babysitter. I don’t even know, but apparently it works for me.

16. pull out the insides by SpineAndSpite | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 3k

“Stop,” Damien says again, more insistent this time.

“I’m not doing it on purpose.” Mark's heart pounds in his ears and he sees Damien’s hands shaking. God. They shouldn’t have started talking about sex. Shouldn’t have filled in the colors and shadows to this pencil outline of a sketch forming between them. They shouldn’t have given it a name.

Heather Says: This year seems to have had a theme when it comes to fics that I’ve liked and it seems to boil down to: people who are bad for each other have sex and catch feelings. Mark/Damien is not the healthiest ship. But it also hurts in this stupidly tragic way and hell if I didn’t fall head over heels for it.

17. tell me, get my shit together by paperclipbitch | Star Wars | Han/Lando | 5k

“I thought we were actively avoiding each other after the Trandosha Shitshow,” Han says.

“We’re actively avoiding each other after the Iridonia Shitshow,” Lando corrects him, “the Trandosha Shitshow is That Which We Do Not Speak Of.”

Heather Says: So, guess what I did in the two to three hours after seeing Solo? If you guessed: ‘combed through ao3 until you ran out of fic’ ding ding ding, you are 100% correct. This one was very, very good, which makes sense, because paperclipbitch has some good shit.

18. chases, escapes, true love, miracles by pepperfield | The Flash | Cisco/Harry 55k

Just because the timeline has been restored, doesn't mean things are back to normal. Cisco's got 99 problems, and Harry Wells is approximately 38 of them.

In which Cisco makes a bunch of plans, fails most of them, narrowly avoids being disintegrated, receives a hug or two, finds his groove, and gets his man. More or less in that order.

Heather Says: This one was long and wibbly wobbly, because it was basically what season 3 should have been. But it was also really great, and had some super quality Harrisco interactions.

19. Your Pretty Little Heart by Ever-so-reylo | Star Wars | Reylo | 64k

Modern day AU in which Ben is an Alpha, Rey is an Omega, and they are way better at having sex than at communicating with each other.

Heather Says: Speaking of people who are probably a little bit bad for each other... This particular fic was new to me, not because of the um, extensive sexual content, but because I’m usually not a fan of A/B/O. But this one was extremely good, enough that I actually liked it for a/b/o aspect rather than in spite of it.

20. Draconia by perceived_nobility | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 4k

"So I was driving. One ex wife and one ex husband later, stopping at the same fucking gas stations you and I stopped at."

Heather Says: This fic actually prompted a 3 hour long conversation on the ‘adult’ Mark/Damien discord where we basically outlined an entire fic that I never got around to writing where Damien is raising a child, has a farm, and runs into Mark ten years down the ride. One day, I might write it, because vaguely domestic, meet-again-ten-years-down-the-road fics always bowl me right the fuck over and just. There needs to be more fic like this one in the world. But until then, the world can marvel at the beauty that is this one.

21. Artifice by buttpatrol | Wolf 359 | Hera/Eiffel | 23k

A story told in parts about colour palettes, identity, robot uprisings, sensational trials, space, and messy love.

Heather Says: As I’ve recently finished relistening to Wolf 359 I have a fresh appreciation for this fic, which is one of the only longer fics on ao3 that just grips you by the heart and squeezes the same way that the series does. It might have been written before the end of the series, but it’s honestly just as perfect.

22. (shoot the lights out, hide) till its bright out by lipgallagher | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 93k

The most dangerous thing walking around Hawkins goes by the name Billy Hargrove.

And he fucking knows it.

Heather Says: I’m kind of cheating here, because this is a series rather than a single fic, but I’m not picking just one part. I read the first four or so parts of this fic when I was visiting my family in South Carolina and spent the next few days wandering around the place half-in Steve Harrington’s headspace. It was an incredibly surreal experience, which lead to a pretty strong combination of mania, depression, and an indescribable craving for ice cream. So like, maybe don’t read this fic if you’re in a bad head space? But also it’s very good and features one of the most fucked up and intriguing Steve’s that I’ve seen yet.

23. Until My Feet Bleed and My Heart Aches by Reiya | Yuri On Ice | Yuuri/Viktor | 197k

‘…Of all the rivalries in the world of sports over the years, perhaps none has become so legendary as that of Russian figure skater Viktor Nikiforov and his rival, Japanese Yuuri Katsuki…’

Heather Says: I actually read this one on the plane ride down to South Carolina, and kind of didn’t like it at first? I’m not sure if it was just the act of putting Yuuri and Victor into the position of rivals that made me uncomfortable or the goddamn delays that turned half a day of travelling into a full one, but eventually I was able to get into and enjoyed it quite a bit. I really like the rivals to lovers trope, so I’d been looking forward to this one a lot.

24. Traveling Far by @astolat | Game of Thrones | Jaime/Brienne | 24k

Three weeks into their delightful slog across Westeros, during yet another charming day of shitting in the woods, eating half-raw squirrel, and trudging his feet bloody, the single most dour and uninteresting woman Jaime had ever met in all of Westeros stopped in the middle of a field, drew a deep breath, and said, “When I was seven, my aunt came to visit with her son. My father told me that as the daughter of the house, it was my duty to show hospitality to my guests and to be gracious to them. I wanted to make him proud. So for three weeks, I let my cousin follow me around and talk to me about spiders.”

Heather Says: I’ve become very fond of astolat’s Jaime/Brienne fics, and I think this one is my favorite yet. Featuring Starks, found family, and a whole lot of walking.

25. lilies of the valley (cover me with kisses, make my garden grow) by diasterisms | Star Wars | Reylo | 8k

Every girl is entitled to the mistake. That one colossal fuck-up that permanently alters the terrain of who you are. You'll either learn from it or you won't, so might as well have the time of your life.

Heather Says: I just. I really like flower shop AUs, and the idea of a Kylo Ren who owns a sleek flower shop being menaced by a tiny gremlin in a leather jacket just. Kills me. It was really sweet and all kinds of wonderful.

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allthevmff · 5 years

Text

Too Busy Being Yours

by MKissyT

A/N: Inspired by the Tumblr prompt "Can you shut up for five minutes, please?" given to me by AlinaSorokina. This quick prompt turned into something more! Alina, thank you for sending it to me! I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 1

It had been four days since Veronica opened the letter rescinding her acceptance from the FBI internship.

After she'd read it, the only person she'd wanted to talk to was him. However, thanks to her own rash decision to cut him out of her life, he wasn't hers to run to anymore, and that just made everything worse.

After contemplating why that really bothered her, and abruptly ending things with Piz—that went less "It's not you, it's me," and really, more "Can you shut up for five minutes, please? I'm sorry but this isn't working."—she now stood in front of Logan's door with a tasty smelling In 'N Out bag filled to the brim with Double Doubles and fries.

Having been so stressed and disappointed over everything lately, Veronica had hoped that coming back here would help alleviate some of that. Being around Logan had a way of calming her when they'd been together, except when being around him brought out the crazy person. Right now though, she craved his company. She wasn't quite sure what she was expecting from him, but hoped that her delectable bribe would at least allow her inside.

Veronica knew the instant Logan opened the door—standing there in shock, wide eyed and shirtless—that she'd made the right decision to come. She could already feel the weight on her shoulders lifting.

"Heeey there. Long time no talk." It had been almost a month. She held up the bag of food and gave him a hopeful smile. "I...was in the neighborhood?"

Leaning against the open door, he crossed his arms, clearly waiting for her to elaborate. Having prepared herself for possible resistance to her showing up unannounced, Veronica cleared her throat and pushed on.

"I...realize that I may have, um, overstated when I said you were…"

"Out of your life forever?"

Veronica winced, dropping her arm. She'd expected a bit of hesitation, but didn't think he'd still be so upset about her previous declaration. She'd told him in the food court that she'd needed time. Wasn't that a clear indication she hadn't meant what she'd said?

"Yeah...that. Look, Logan. So much has happened since that day. I've caused so much damage for so many people, mainly because I managed to piss off Jake."

"Jake? Jake Kane?" he said hesitantly.

"The one and only," she regretfully sighed. "My Dad lost the election because of it. I lost my internship. Mac and Wallace have put their futures on the line for me and are now under the thumb of Castle without even realizing it, and it's all thanks to my actions."

Straightening up and taking the bag of food from her, Logan gestured with his head for her to come in.

"I'm sorry about your internship. I know how excited you were about it." He gave her a sad smile as he set the food down on the coffee table. "So, what brought you here?"

Flustered by the question, Veronica avoided his eyes as she sat on the edge of the cushion. She'd missed Logan, fiercely, but she wasn't ready to admit that just yet. Running his hand through his hair, Logan flopped down on the cushion across from her.

"I just...I guess I needed to check in? Make sure you were OK? I haven't seen or heard from Gory since...well, you know. And I'd heard through the grapevine that Dick bailed on your summer plans, so I thought I'd come and make sure you were still kicking."

It probably sounded as unconvincing to him as it did to her, but Logan seemed to take her explanation without questioning it. She had been worried about Gory's retribution at first, but when nothing happened, she figured his 'connections' weren't as interested in his personal life as she'd feared.

"Well," Logan said, reaching for the bag and pulling out the burgers, handing one over to her. "Can't say I've been kicking anyone specific lately, but I am still here. As far as Gory is concerned, I'm honestly not too worried about it. Shit has a way of finding me no matter what I do, so I figure I'll just ride this out like everything else."

He raised his eyebrows and gave her a sardonic smile, before turning his focus to the burger in his hands. Not sure how to respond to that, Veronica looked down at her own hands and began fiddling with the food wrapper.

"So, how's Piz these days. All put back together, yet?" he quipped. As soon as the words were out, he grimaced and seemed to deflate. "I really am sorry about that."

It took a moment for her to remember that Logan didn't know they'd broken up. Clearing her throat, she lifted the burger to her mouth.

"Yeah, I know. I appreciate you saying that. I think he's OK. We um, we aren't together anymore, so…" Logan's eyebrows shot up at that and she quickly took an exaggerated bite, looking away in hopes the Piz talk would end there. Of course, this was Logan; Veronica should have known better than to think he'd leave it at that.

"You broke up?" he blurted out.

Nodding as she chewed, she dared to glance up at him, only to be met with a wary look.

"How'd Wallace take it?"

Veronica frowned in confusion. That wasn't the reaction she'd expected at all. "Wallace? Um...he's in Africa now, and I haven't mentioned it in my email." Knowing Piz though, she was sure Wallace already knew. Accepting her answer, Logan nodded.

"How about Mac?"

Realization dawned that he was trying to pry the truth out of her—about why she'd come to see him rather than her other friends. Of course, she was too stubborn to give him the real reason, so she continued to play along.

"Well, Mac is out of town...but she's my friend and supports me, regardless of my decisions," she shrugged, taking another bite. Logan smiled at that. He crumpled up the wrapper and stood to throw it into the wastebasket across the room. Tucking a leg under him as he sat back down, he propped one leg up on the couch and rested his elbow on his knee.

"So let me get see if I get this straight," he said with a laugh. "All your friends are either unavailable or out of town, so you...what? Had no one else to go to? Decided your last choice—me—was better than nothing?" He gave her a mocking smile.

Surprised at the implication of desperation, she lowered the french fry she was about to eat and huffed. Shouldn't he know better about where he really stood with her?

"Actually, you were my first choice, though now I can't recall why." Tossing the fry into her mouth, Veronicacrossed her arms and sank back into the couch. Her blunt answer was clearly unexpected, if the look on Logan's face told her anything. She held his gaze, challenging him to doubt her statement.

Their eyes unwavering, Veronica's mouth quirked as she chewed, causing his to do the same. He reached for a napkin and nodded before standing and taking a few steps to the TV stand. He picked up two console controllers, pivoted on his heel and sauntered back to Veronica, this time sitting down next to her.

"So," he began, handing her a controller. "Seeing as how you have no immediate obligations—I'm assuming, since you're here—and my BFF ditched me for daddy dearest, it seems to me like we could use some mindless recreation for a while."

Appreciating the fact that Logan hadn't pushed for her to elaborate on what she'd said, Veronica smiled and nodded slowly. She wasn't sure what would happen next, if they would try again or not now that they were both single. But she was grateful he was willing to accept her acknowledgement of her over the top reactions, and move forward.

"All right then. Prepare to get your ass handed to you, Echolls," she teased.

Logan let out a hearty laugh. "My ass? I don't think so. I'll be handing you yours, silver platter and everything."

"Don't get too cocky. The number times I crushed all of you at these stupid games back in Junior High would suggest otherwise. "

"Oh, I'll give you cocky." He bobbed his eyebrows and winked. Rolling her eyes, Veronica shook her head as she laughed.

Maybe there was hope for them yet.

A/N2: Special thanks to Irma66 for giving it her magic beta touch.

I'll still continue on my other WIP - I'm Only Human After All - but this will be posted every two weeks.

Next update April 9th

via FanFiction.Net: Veronica Mars, Last Updated https://ift.tt/2Ws7r4S March 26, 2019 at 01:28PM

#IFTTT #Feedly #veronica mars fanfic #vm fic

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