#last night i dreamed that my mom & i were at their old house which was bigger

[syndxlla]

best friends don’t look at each other the way we do

A low stakes, high rewards and self-indulgent Zelink fanfic. Canon-compliant, takes place between BOTW and TOTK

chapter three: She is beautiful, I am a mess

Read chapter two here

My masterlist

Song: Lights are On by Tom Rosenthal

Summary: Link processes his destiny while Zelda slowly recovers. Link meets with an old friend, and realizes how much he wants to Zelda in his life.

Warnings: PTSD, implied self-harm, illness, trauma

Word Count: 3.3k words

Authors note: The last line of this? Scrumptious. I ate that up. Also I’m going to start doing different pieces of art/gifs at the start of each chapter mostly so I can see the differences in the notifications! Thanks for all the support! Everyone has been so kind this is easily the most supportive fan base I’ve ever written for.

Link doesn’t leave her side the entire night, yet again. He sits on a stool pushed against the bed, and watches as she breathes in the sleep. He refuses to sleep, which means he’s gone about four days now with very little actual rest. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, but fighting Ganon on the second day of that no sleep schedule has really taken a toll on his physical health.

In his quiet contemplation as Zelda rested, the weight of what just happened set in. His heart rate rose as he remembered the sight of the Calamity, its spider-like body dripping with malice and disgust as it sneered at him. The stench is still pungent in his memory, his bad ear still beats with the blood that filled his body as he faced his destiny for a second time. He’s supposed to be courageous, unafraid and rarely daunted by his fate, but in reality he’s terrified.

Link doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the feeling in his bones as witnessed by the beast. How he felt paralyzed, how the night before he prayed to the Goddess that he wouldn’t wake up. Make someone else do it, please.

He could never admit this to anyone, and even struggles to admit it to himself. If he’s supposed to be the closest thing to the God of Bravery, why does he feel like such a pathetic coward most of the time? Maybe it was his reckless abandon that caused his status, or the fact that he’s so desensitized to the horrors of his knighthood. But those things do not equate to courage.

What even was courage, he asks himself.

He looks at Zelda. “She is beautiful”, he thinks “I am a mess”.

Link places a nervous thumb to her jaw with trepidation. He gently holds her face, soft enough that it wouldn’t wake her. Her skin is so soft, her eyelashes so gentle, her breathing even. Does she have any idea how beautiful she is when she sleeps?

When day finally breaks, Link realizes how cold it’s gotten in the house, and he takes the brave step of leaving the sleeping princess to build a fire in the hearth. He does so quickly, using a fire arrow. He pulls on a warm shirt, and quickly returns upstairs to Zelda.

She was awake, looking up at him.

“You should keep sleeping.” He whispers.

She groans, “Why did you leave?” She was aware enough to tell?

“I built a fire.” Link explains, "It's cold.”

“Oh.” Zelda whispers, “I am cold.”

Link crosses to his dresser and pulls out a woven blanket from the bottom drawer, draping it over her and the blanket she already had. She whispers thank you. ”Did you dream?” Link asks.

Zelda nods.

“It was me and my mom, we were eating and laughing together.” She describes and Link smiles. He places his hand against her forehead, and feels that she’s burning up. Of course she has a fever, that would cause her body to have the chills, that on top of a cold house wasn’t a good fit.

“How are you feeling?” He asks, vocalizing from a whisper for the first time.

Zelda thinks about it for a moment, she’s so snuggled up in the blankets all he can see is her face. “I’m not sick.” She states. Link is skeptical, but he nods.

“Go back to sleep.”

“Are you going to leave me again?” She asks.

“I might. I think I’ll go into town and get some things from the market, and I should probably send a message to Impa that we’re alive.” Link explains. Zelda frowns.

“I’m scared to be alone again.”

Link frowns, “You’ll be okay. But you need to sleep, your body is trying to recover from-“ He stops himself, he doesn't need to explain any further.

“You need sleep, too.” Zelda replies. She was right.

“I’ll be fine.” He shrugs it off. “But you need to promise me that you’ll be okay if I leave for a few hours, alright?”

Zelda groans, “You’ll come back, right?”

“Of course.”

It’s a few more hours before he leaves, he waits until Zelda falls back asleep, and it’s mid-morning when he finally does. He makes his way into Hateno Village, which is as lively as ever. He first stops in at the general store, buying a few essential items, and telling the store keeper about where he was last.

“You’re telling me you got rid of that thing at Hyrule Castle?” He asks, skeptical. Link just nods and shrugs as he examines a swift carrot. Like it was no big deal. The man laughs behind the counter, “And you lived to tell the tale? I don’t believe it.” He scoffs.

Link sets his items on the table between them, digging out a handful of rupees. “Well, I lived to tell the tale of Naydra last year, you all witnessed that, didn’t you?”

“I suppose… but that thing at the castle is a legend, I never even saw it. Just got told ghost stories of it as a boy.” His voice was gruff.

Link smiles, “whatever you want to believe, you don’t have to believe me.” Link sets to rupees down.

“That’s more than the cost.” The man states.

“Keep it.” Link pushes it towards him before putting his items in his pouch. “Use it to fix your roof, I saw it was leaking.”

The man smiles, “you’re always so good to us, Link. This village owes you.”

“You don’t owe me anything, except maybe your trust. The story will spread and rumors will, too.” Link turns to leave, but stops just outside of the door, speaking over his shoulder. “It wasn’t a ghost either, it was a spider-like thing that hatched out of a cocoon with giant axes and swords.” Link opens his arms up to show the size, “Probably at least the size of three oxen!” The shopkeeper's face goes pale, “But that wasn’t even the hard part!” Link starts to smile mischievously, “Then we took the battle onto Hyrule Field, and he turned into a massive pig. As big as a house, or bigger.”

The owner was dumbfounded, unable to reply at first, but then he shook his head, “You have quite the imagination, Link!” He chuckles and waves him off. Link just grins as he exits the shop.

He makes his way up the mountain to Purah and Symin’s, making a stop at the farm to pet the cows and help the owner with a broken fence post in trade for some milk. It was about noon now, and he wasn’t expecting to take as long to get to the Tech Lab, but the fence was absolutely destroyed. The farmer didn’t know what caused it, but it certainly wasn’t a cow…

The light on the Hateno valley is warm and inviting. It will be the harvest soon. Link had missed his days here. Early on after he woke up, he spent weeks at a time in this little village. Mostly because he was still too poor to afford sleeping anywhere other than his home. It was a safe home base for him when he was freeing the divine beasts. It wasn’t until he had laid his friends' spirits to rest that he became the wild child of the forest he was now. The last year or so he stopped spending more than a few days anywhere, it was the anxiety of the upcoming battle he kept avoiding that caused him to become such a nomad. He learned that it was always free to sleep in trees.

He gets to the lab, and before he can even open the door, Purah is swinging the door open. “Linky! You’re alive!” She cheers, looking up at him.

”I am,” Link replies with a smile, “and Zelda is, too.”

Purah smiles wide, her eyes becoming fiery, “Incredible. Is she okay!” She opens the door for Link, he enters the messy-as-usual lab, setting his sack of goodies down on the table.

“I don’t know…” Link shakes his head, “She’s very tired all the time, and she passed out quite unexpectedly last night.” He sighs. “I’m actually rather worried about her.” He admits. “It took me a long time to wake her up after she passed out, too. Longer than it should have.” Purah walks over to the table before climbing on top of it to Link’s eye-level.

“But she’s alive! And I’m assuming her body has been preserved, no?”

“It has, she doesn’t look a day over seventeen. But her spirit and her mind has changed, she’s tired.”

“Aren’t we all…” Purah shakes her head, “But no one as much as her.” She shrugs, “I would love to run some tests on you two, it might help me figure out my age issue.”

“More tests? I thought you said you were done with me?” Link groans.

“Nope, now that Zelda is here I want to take a sample of her DNA, too, and see if I can reverse-engineer it to cross with my DNA and get me back to my preferred physical age. I’m sick of this.” She gestures to her child-like state.

“When she’s feeling better I’ll ask her. I’m sure she’ll say yes, considering her love of science and all.”

“Alright Linky, what are you here for, I know you didn’t come to just talk, you always need something from me.” She teases.

“Alright Purah… don’t be mad.” He says as he reaches into his pouch to pull out a smashed and destroyed sheikah slate: the same one that got him through his quest.

Purah’s face goes white. “You did not just do that to an ancient piece of indestructible tech.” She reaches for it, taking the device in her hand and cringing.

“Well it wasn’t that indestructible, now was it?” Link asks with an awkward laugh.

“How?” Purah asks, traumatized.

“It happened while I fought Ganon, it kind of… exploded, and then he trampled it as a giant hog in Hyrule field.”

“That is…” She chooses her words carefully, “Epic, Linky.”

“You’re not mad?”

“No! But you’re gonna be when you can warp to sheikah hotspots. You’ll just have to go on foot like the rest of us. Speaking of, did you see what happened to the shrine in the ocean?”

“What?” He obviously didn’t.

“It sunk back into the ground, completely gone! Symin watched it happen! I’m curious about that happening to the other sheikah tech…” She gets lost in thought, and Link realizes that they all might disappear just as fast as they were found. “No one is gonna be more heartbroken about this than the Princess.” Purah finishes her thoughts.

“I’m hiding it from her. She can’t take a heart break in this state.” Link groans, sitting down in one of the chairs by the table. “Purah… I need you to send a message to Impa. I would go myself in person and be back by dinner but I can’t because the slate is gone. I know you sheikah have weird ways of communicating through distance, especially you sisters.” Link sighs.

“Oh she’ll beat you if you don’t go in person. You know how she is.”

“Yes. Which is why I am absolutely sick over this. But I can’t leave Zelda, she’s not okay, and I don’t know how long it’s going to be until she is.” He explains. “Impa can be mad at me all she wants, but she deserves to know that we are both alive and safe, and Ganon is not.”

Purah squints, “Fine. But you owe me.”

“As if saving the world wasn’t enough.” Link scoffs playfully.

“Hey! Don’t get cocky, no one likes a cocky hero. Besides, it’s not like you did it on your first try.” Purah jumps down from the table and Link’s entire body seizes. She freezes in her tracks when she realizes she said that out loud. She slowly turns around to see Link tense and unhappy. “Linky… I’m sorry I didn’t mean-“

He says nothing at first, “Is that what you guys say about me?”

“Link, we've always pushed each other's buttons like that.”

“It’s fine.” He sighs, it wasn’t fine. He signs, “I’m leaving. I don’t need anyone else’s shit.” He always signed when his emotions were at risk of betraying his words. He didn’t want to upset someone with his words. Purah isn’t very good at signs, but she gets the gist.

It was rare to see Link genuinely mad, especially at someone he cared about and knows is good. But that was out of line.

“Link…”

“Will you just tell Impa that we’re okay. Both of us. The calamity is gone and we’ll come visit as soon as we get our strength back.” He grabs his belongings and heads out.

“Wait-“ Purah tries to stop him but he leaves too fast. He takes a deep breath when he gets outside, looking out towards the sea. He walks towards the edge of the cliff, staring out at the horizon, letting the salty sea air blow on his skin. He looks where the shrine that lived in the water once was, and nothing was there but the original mound of island sand it sat on.

Back at home, Zelda is still in bed, and Link frowns when he sees her. He sits on his stool next to her, placing his hand against her forehead again. Her fever hasn’t broken.

“I’m home.” He whispers, and she stirs awake, her green eyes looking up at him. She smiles.

“I had the most wonderful dream.” She sighs. “We were at the beach, you and I, and Impa and Urbosa… and my mother.” Link worries that she dreams about those who have passed, he brushes some of her golden hair out of her face. “We looked at the water and listened to the seagulls. My mother was so beautiful and healthy, not like how she was when I remembered her.”

Zelda was very young when her mother died, and she was quite ill for the years leading up to her passing. Link remembered that, he remembered many of the things Zelda opened up to him about in their final days before The Calamity. “Do you want some water?” Link asks, she nods. He stands up, making his way to the well outside and scooping a bucket of it before coming back in. He finds her sitting up in bed.

“Did you get up all by yourself?” He asks with a smile. She nods, her face still pale and expression lost. She was much worse today. Link scoops some water out with a cup, and hands it to her. She shakily holds it in both hands, bringing the wooden mug up to her lips and sipping lightly. Link sits beside her this time, but he feels petrified.

In the last two days they've already crossed so many boundaries. He feels as though he has to be the stoic Knight from before, never looking at her for too long, not speaking unless spoken to, and especially not touching without explicit permission. That was a whole lifetime ago, however, and he’s barely the same person he was when those were the rules.

But even so, he can’t help but follow those roles that he keeps breaking. He shouldn’t see her in such a state: shirt too loose, eyes droopy, sighs so gentle and alluring it could tame a lynel.

He knows no one is watching them, no one is there to judge them, but he cannot bring himself to hold her hand as she shakes, even though he desperately wants to. Placing his hand on her head to check for temperature and burns in her hair from her face was already a serious breach of protocol, and yet when he did it, he felt so comfortable, so safe. He felt more like himself.

Maybe what’s holding him back is the knowledge that she didn’t lose her memories. To her, he is supposed to be that obedient servant.

He knows they got very close towards the end. Based on the memories he’s recollected, he knows they broke those rules far more than they should have. But it was always by Zelda’s instigation. She wanted him to place his hand on the small of her back as they walked, she asked him to lace up her goddess dress, she initiated the gentle touches and hugs of despair.

Now, he’s terrified of taking advantage of her in her sickly state, but he wants so badly to lie with her. To finally get some rest of his own, in his own bed, holding the girl he worked so tirelessly to rescue.

He wishes he could rest as a reward.

He reminds himself that her presence, safety and life is reward enough.

And goddess, is that a wonderful reward. Her weight sinking down the bed, her intoxicating smell, their shoulders just barely brushing. She was incredible, completing a feat that no one had ever come close to accomplishing, and here she was, in his home, in his bed, wearing his clothes.

Link's stomach flips, and he immediately forces himself to relax. Realizing how immature his though process was. This was a princess, not a girl in the Gerduo Brothel. He was confused.

“What are you thinking about?” She asks him, pulling him out of his rampant thoughts. He snaps back to reality.

“What?” He turns to see her looking up at him with her shiny eyes. “Oh…” He desperately wants to tell her, tell her that he’s thinking of her and only her. For three years he spent sleepless nights staring at the heavens and thinking about her. How he hungrily searched for every memory just to hear her voice, and how he took her diary out of the castle to read every page, even the ones that were scribbled with doodles and blacked-out poetry. He wanted to tell her that he fell for her the moment she told him to open-his-eyes, and when he finally remembered what she looked like, she was even prettier than what he imagined.

“…Horses.” He says, dumbfounded and foolish. She smiles.

“I’ve always admired how you loved them. You were the best rider in all of the guard, I fully believe it’s because of how gentle you were with them. They trusted you, which made them listen to you.”

The way she spoke was so thoughtful, so intelligent. Link catches himself accidentally looking at her lips, but yanks his eyes away.

“W-What were you thinking about?” He asks.

She looks off, swallowing thickly. Zelda then lifts her hand, holding it palm up, staring at it. Nothing happens.

“My gift isn’t working anymore.” She states. “I tried while you were getting the water, and look, nothing.” Zelda explains. Link looks at her hand, not knowing what he’s supposed to see.

Her hand is so soft, her fingers long and slender, her nails clean and rounded to perfection.

Her wrists are littered with old scars.

Link wants to take her hand. She sets it down in her lap, “I suppose that’s alright. I don’t need them anymore.”

“What was it like?” Link asks. “In that castle.” Zelda shudders. “You don’t have to say.” Link states.

Zelda carefully constructs her words, “Cold. All the time I was cold. I wasn’t conscious usually, but I wasn’t… unconscious either. I know it makes no sense. I was in a sort of trance. Time seemed to move at a rapid pace while also simultaneously standing still.” She looks at him, rotating her body to face him, he mirrors her.

“Did he ever… say anything?” Link asked.

Zelda nodded, “In the beginning he would whisper constantly, but it was an ancient language I didn’t understand. The longer time went on, the more tired he got, but the wiser I became. He spoke less, and I was able to pick up on certain words and phrases. He didn’t expect me to last as long as I did, that’s for certain.”

Link listens intently, “How did you do it, last so long?” He asks.

Zelda’s big, green eyes meet his. She takes his hand with hers.

“Because I knew one day you would wake up.”

—

Read Chapter four here

#zelink #zelink angst #botw zelink #zelink pining #zelink thoughts #zelink smut #zelink fanfic #zelink fluff #totk zelink #totk #botw #tloz #loz #tears of the kingdom #breath of the wild #tloz fanfic #the legend of Zelda #legend of Zelda #link x Zelda #fanfic #Zelda x link #zelda fanart #zelda fanfic #zelda fandom #loz totk #tloz fandom #tloz link #zelda and link #princess zelda #link Zelda

[cloveroctobers]

OCTOBER PROMPTS 🦇 — 5. RIO

A/N: had a dream about my man the other night so I guess that was his way of telling me that he misses me? We love delulu!!! Anyways thought this would be fun to actually write something on the line of thriller/spooky this time around. This is me making up for not writing part two’s to my other fall inspired prompt on this man way back when. Hope y’all enjoy this 🧡🫶🏽!!!

PROMPT is from HERE + I’m using: A Begs B to come explore an old house that they believe is haunted. B is hesitant, especially after hearing the scary tales A knows so much about.

*GIF + PHOTO DO NOT BELONG TO ME!

WARNINGS: some France slander, language & hints of sexual content.

<- read my previous October anthology prompt here.

𒅒𒈔𒅒𒇫𒄆 𒅒𒈔𒅒𒇫𒄆 𒅒𒈔

Being in France for the month of October initially wasn’t the plan.

Khadijah and Rio ventured out here for a couple days for Khadijah’s birthday and for Rio to tie up some loose ends for business. What was supposed to be a four day trip turned into a much longer adventure.

“I know y’all done heard they got bed bugs out there, why are your asses staying out there longer?” Khadijah’s mother blurted into the FaceTime call.

Rio chuckled to himself by the mini bar, fixing himself something brown before entering the main living room part of the suite.

“Mom,” Khadijah hissed as she flicked through the channels, “this was a unexpected extended birthday trip.”

“Uh huh, sure it is.” The older woman said not entirely believing that, “Don’t think you can get cute on us and decide not to come back.”

“I’m already cute,” Khadijah modeled with extra shoulder as she sat on the tan couch while her mother brings the camera to show that she’s rolling her eyes.

“Well where do you think you get it from?”

“My father.”

“More like you got his smart mouth.” Khadijah’s mom comments, making her child hold up her finger to interject.

Now she loved her mom dearly but it was no secret that Khadijah was a daddy’s girl and her father’s favorite daughter despite what her two sisters thought. She was one of four children while her youngest sibling happened to be the only boy.

“Aw c’mon, don’t do Mr. Wells like that, especially if he’s not here to defend himself. Where is he anyway? It’s gotta be after 10:30 back home?” Rio came into frame, crouching behind Khadijah, who turned to peck his cheek before facing her phone once more.

The woman sighed, “where else? Working, working, working. I’ve been telling him he needs to slow down, he’s not some twenty year old no more. Lord knows it.”

Mr. Wells had a heart attack last year and had to have a stint put in. Rio’s never seen Khadijah’s so stressed before in his life and although the hardworking man had a good job with good insurance working for the city, they slammed him with some bills that Rio paid off. Which Mr. Wells wouldn’t let slide and already was in the process of paying back.

His choice, not Rio’s.

“He’s close to retirement and he loves supporting his family which is respectable.” Rio starts before joking, “once that happens then the both of you can come with us to Paris next time.”

“Uh uh. I’m never going over there, never had the desire to which is why I want y’all asses to get out of there fast!” Mrs. Wells’ large glasses come into frame now as she holds the phone at not the best angle, “I’d love to see Dubai or St. Lucia with Kayode, your father, and I guess your big headed brother can come too, Deej.”

Khadijah laughs, “yeah and he can bring Eliza too.”

“if I catch him even thinking about it, I’ll click my heels three times and send her bony ass right to hell.”

Laughter bubbles in Khadijah’s throat as she sends a teasing smile to Rio who winked back at his wife, knowing that neither of Khadijah’s parents were fond of their youngest child’s significant other. He was nineteen and found his supposed first love so it was evident that the pair were clingy and so in love with each other. They went to the same high school together, weren’t in the same cliques but ended up at the same community college and decided to give each other a try.

In shorter terms.

“We’ll make it happen,” Rio sighs as he comes around to plop down on the couch next to Khadijah, tossing a hand around the back of the couch, “minus Eliza right?”

“Damn straight,” Mrs. Wells humphed, “she can date somebody else’s son and boss them around for all i care. I just hope it’s over before thanksgiving.”

“Now Mom! Let’s not spread that negative energy for your birthday month, do you need some lavender and Kirk Franklin to keep your blood pressure down?”

The woman with the now bonnet secured around her micro locs fanned her hand, “I already had my session with Mr. Franklin around 7pm so hush! You know that’s what I’m wishing for and hoping you don’t wait around and decide to come back then.”

Khadijah blinks at Rio, who meets her stare. He had no plans of staying here longer than another few days, things got delayed and he offered to send Khadijah back to Detroit if that’s what she wanted but she had some vacation time that she didn’t mind using and she didn’t want to leave Rio behind either.

He’s been busy lately and she just knows as soon as they get back to Detroit, he’ll probably disappear for a little awhile again. So sue the woman if she wanted to be a little selfish and spend more time with her man.

“We’re gonna bring you something much better,” Rio smirks after taking a sip of his liquor, “maybe even a new bundle of joy.”

“WHAT?!” Mrs. Wells yells, “don’t play with me right now. When was your last cycle? I’ve been saying your tatas been looking fuller, ooooh I’ll have to tell your grandmomma.”

“Hey, hey! I’m not pregnant—

“Yet. We’ve been practicing though.” Rio announces, biting down on his bottom lip while Khadijah gasps and shoved at his knee.

Mrs. Wells claps her hands in joy, “y’all keep doing that but don’t bring those bed bugs back with you.”

“We won’t and did our research. If it makes you feel any better, we’re leaving this hotel tonight to stay at this castle for the rest of our trip and then tomorrow we’re gonna go explore this historic house since Rio wanted to have a rest day.” Khadijah informs her mother while Rio slowly nods his head, not knowing of the exploring a house portion but they’d discuss it later.

Mrs. Wells yawns as she sits up in bed now, “sounds fancy but okay then, mom’s tired and ready to knock out. But continue to be safe, the both of you and I’ll see you soon?”

“You sure will, night momma Wells.” Rio gave a two finger salute while Khadijah shared, “I love you’s, talk soon.” Before hanging up the call.

Khadijah leans back against the couch with a sigh, “told you mom’s got serious seperation anxiety all thanks to Kaliyah moving to Toronto with her girlfriend and we’re only traveling!”

“Which is exactly why I tried to smooth over her worries with baby talk, it worked didn’t it?” Rio lifts a thick brow while Khadijah shrugs her shoulders.

Soon she rests her head on Rio’s chest, locking her arms around his waist, “it’ll happen when it’s meant to…and we need to make sure we’re all packed for our new temporary home.”

“Oh I know I am, it’s you you gotta worry about mamas.” Rio presses a kiss to Khadijah’s rosemary scented hair.

Khadijah scoffs, “sorry but I had to buy more for this trip…which I’m not complaining! BUT! Paris’ fashion is really for the petite girlies.”

“They’re forreal missing out on the inclusion and better get on that.” Rio hummed.

“Siobhán is.” Khadijah grins while Rio slowly dips his head at the mention of his old designer friend.

Before Khadijah could get into asking about how she’s been doing, Rio sips from his drink once more and changes the subject, “what’s this about exploring tomorrow?”

“We maybe moving into a castle mansion for a little awhile but there’s no way I’m staying cooped up any longer without seeing what Dordogne has to offer.” Khadijah tells her husband with the perfect pronunciation of the town—or rather department as France calls it.

Rio raises the hand the rests against his wife’s shoulder, “heard you, mamas. No arguing on my part but you know it’s beneficial to have reset days too.”

“Which YouTuber told you that?” Khadijah smirks up at the buzz haired man, figuring that he was probably logged onto her account instead of switching over to his own to watch whatever it is he gets into.

Rio snorts, “don’t try and play me, my aesthetician did.”

“Of course they did.” Khadijah nods believing that since Rio didn’t mess around when it came to his skincare, “and you’re right, there’s nothing wrong with rest days. You’ve been running around x2 compared to me so I get it. You get a nap in and I’ll get the bags ready since we have what? An hour before the service comes and gets us.”

Rio grips Khadijah’s hand as she gets up from the couch, “you sure all an hour is what you need?”

“Shut up, Christopher.” Khadijah laughs, matching Rio’s smile before leaving the man to get his nap on.

With the city life behind the married couple, they settled in Dordogne late last night into the 18th century home. Surprisingly Rio wakes up late the next day, like around eleven am late compared to his seven am timeline. However Khadijah doesn’t mind letting him sleep, snapping a picture of his rest with the camera she brought along for the trip. She watches the clock from time to time, knowing just when to order breakfast to be sent to their room.

Khadijah’s sitting on a olive couch pushed underneath the windows which are half pulled back, sipping on caffe viennese, stomach half full from a classic French breakfast as she stares out into the scenery acting like the main character in a Victorian film.

“Morning, mamas. You starting the day without me?” Rio’s rough morning voice greets the brown skinned woman, who glances over her shoulder at him.

A soft smile meets her full lips, “good morning but someone has to get this party started. But don’t worry, I’ll never not let you in on the thrill. Got you one of these,” she holds the mug up in the air, nodding with her chin on the nightstand next to the man, “and there’s breakfast waiting for you underneath the cloche.”

“Did I mention hearing you speak French is sexy?” Rio states as he slowly sits up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Khadijah smirks, “plenty when you were tipsy on the late night ride here.”

“I regret nothing,” Rio laughs before turning to reach and sip at the warm coffee, “this is delicious.”

Khadijah pops her tongue, “Yeah it is.”

“What we doin’ today? Hold up, what time is it?” Rio turns his eyes into slits, reaching for his phone to let out a low whistle, “damn, haven’t slept that long—

“Since you got shot?”

Rio let’s out a cough, “whoa, that was dark.”

“Sorry,” Khadijah says, “kinda just slipped out.”

“Something you wanna talk about, Dija?” Rio hums, staring at his wife from their temporary shared bed.

Khadijah shakes her head, “nothing I want to get into on this brand new day, no. So!”

She uncurls her feet from underneath her to stand in her floral print lace trim set, placing a smile on her lips as she plops down on the bed. Taking a quick sip of the coffee again, she places it on her side of the nightstand and reaches inside to pull out two slips of paper.

“Close your eyes.”

“Why?” Rio suspiciously tries to peek at the papers but Khadijah slaps them right on her chest.

“You asked what we’re gonna do.”

“Didn’t you say exploring some house last night?” Rio frowns, trying to remember.

Khadijah’s little smile to herself seems wicked but as soon as it appeared it vanished while she wiggled a bit on the bed, “that’s tonight’s adventure after dinner. We have at least a few hours before then to do something else so…pick one, anyone.”

The two options were: Château des Milandes OR Canoeing on the Brantôme.

Rio doesn’t wipe the frown off his brows but holds out his thumb and pointer finger while Khadijah holds onto the deck of two pieces. The tatted man makes a show of taking his time debating, just to irritate Khadijah for a little until he smiles picking the paper to the left.

And the winner is…

“Great choice! Now get your butt up and let’s shower, they’ve been open since 9 this morning.”

Chateau des Milandes!

Rio hums as he studies the paper, sipping at his coffee then replies, “can I enjoy my breakfast along with the view first?”

Khadijah dramatically sighs as she flops beside Rio, resting on her elbow to stare back at the ajar windows, “oh fine but I promise you, the one outside is much better.”

“personally I like the one right next to me.”

Khadijah flicks her head back to meet Rio’s brown eyes and she can’t help but to let a smile split over her lips, then puckering them for Rio to peck and lick his own smiling lips afterwards, “you think you’re so smooth.”

“I mean give a guy some credit. How else do you think I got you?” Rio chuckled while Khadijah just nodded her head from side to side mockingly.

“Just eat your food Christopher.”

It was Rio’s turn to mimic his wife.

“Aight, Khadijah.” He said over his shoulder, sitting on his knees and reaching over for the second tray of food.

Chateau Des Milandes was a sight to see and was a wonderful experience. Ugh!!! here Khadijah was sounding like her very emotional Granny Mozella but she never took moments like these with Rio for granted. On the outside it may seem like Rio was only street smart since that’s what he preferred yet he didn’t mind listening in on historical facts from time to time and no he wasn’t really into podcasts—unless it was true crime content—but no one could ever say he wasn’t open to learning new material and translating it into his own life.

He was good at finding purpose in anything.

He also liked draping his arm across Khadijah’s shoulders as they took the tour around the home that used to be owned by the successful Josephine Baker. That was more interesting to Khadijah than the Lords that lived it way before Ms. Baker but nonetheless they took it all in together including the architecture.

No one could deny that France had a way with its design and art.

They explored the garden, which led to a picnic and wine for dinner with the French sunset as the perfect backdrop, then they ended their time at the Chateau with a bird experience, much to Rio’s surprise as Khadijah winked and placed a kiss on the tattoo on his neck, before clenching onto his arm for dear life once the various of birds—specifically the one that was very similar to the one on Rio’s skin started flying around.

Rio found amusement in that, even when they made it back to the rental car.

“If that big ass bird would have crapped on me, we would have been having a whole different type of bird for thanksgiving this year.” Khadijah continuously checked her outfit for any unfamiliar marks, the paranoia getting to her.

Rio couldn’t help but to throw his head back against the headrest laughing. “They’ve been trained, that wasn’t gonna happen. Plus it may just wanted a strand of your hair for warmth, huh? French winters can be brutal so I hear.”

The man went to curl a strand of his wife’s loose curl that framed her face who scoffed at him.

“You’re far from funny, Mr. Montoya.” Khadijah slapped his hand away to fix her pin curl updo in the drop down mirror.

Rio chuckled some more, watching her, “you’re right…I’m hilarious, Mrs. Montoya.”

“Im glad you had fun, baby. I can tell the bird part was your favorite,” Khadijah gave the man a playful side eye, “but now it’s time for my activity.”

Rio glanced at the watch on his wrist, “it’s going on seven…what else you trying to get into besides drinking more wine and eating cheese?”

“Whew! No more cheese for me.” Khadijah flicked the sun visor back up, “so…I have this other place to visit.”

Rio tapped on the GPS, “aight, what’s the address?”

“I don’t think the GPS will fully locate it…just to a certain point.”

Rio thought about this for a second and asked, “what? It’s some underground event or something?”

“Well sure, yeah. Kinda.” Khadijah shrugged her shoulders making Rio sigh and sit back with his hands clasped.

Khadijah was tapping away on her phone for a moment while Rio just studied her. When she realized the car wasn’t moving, Khadijah turned her attention back to Rio who was patiently waiting for her to come right on out with it.

“We’re not going anywhere until you give me the info I need. No shady shit allowed.”

Khadijah turned sideways to face Rio, “Okay so…there’s this house that we should see.”

“You said that already. But Why? To buy?”

“Hell no,” Khadijah was quick to say, further making Rio put his guard up as to what this whole adventure was even about, “I mean no…yeah no that’s exactly what I mean. It wouldn’t be for us to live…just to see.”

Rio pried, “what’s so special about it?”

“It has a colorful story.”

“Which is…?”

“The year was 1666–

“Nah,” Rio immediately said leaning forward to start the engine but Khadijah flew her hand out to stop Rio from switching the gears.

“You didn’t let me finish.”

Rio leans on the console to completely face Khadijah, “by the way you’re dragging this out let’s me know you’re about to tell me some bullshit, that you know I’m not about to let fly.”

“Can’t a bitch add some extra flavor to the tale?” Khadijah scrunches up her face, “Sheesh.”

“Stop playin’ with me, Dija.”

“So hostile,” Khadijah flicked her hair off her shoulder, “alright you want the synopsis? Got it. So this house is special because during the year of 1666 a woman named Blanche lived there with her father, mother, two siblings, and new husband. Allegedly she was later accused of poisoning her family and beheaded her husband after they all suspected she was a witch because of some rumors started at the hospital she volunteered at. Her sickly father was the one to put her down after his wife and other children slowly started to die one by one. They say Blanche still haunts the home and asks when and or if you visit, to leave a ribbon and tea bag’s on their front step as a offering and for her to rid any vengeance in your life.”

Rio caressed his facial hair in thought, “Question for you, mamas? Did that eagle peck at your brain when i wasn’t around or…”

Khadijah sucks her teeth, “it’s spooky season, asshole!”

“I know that,” Rio lifts his shoulders carelessly, “but you’re trying to get into some serious shit and I can tell you one thing: I’m not feelin’ it.”

“Are you scared?” Khadijah leaned into the center console ready to comfort him, “I never said we had to go inside the house. Just see it and leave something for Blanche.”

Rio didn’t miss how Khadijah started to trail her hands over him but he didn’t fold, “Her business ain’t ours.”

It was Khadijah’s turn to laugh now, “you’re definitely scared!”

“No I’m not.” Rio scowled, “I’m just saying you have to be careful what you expose yourself to. I told moms we’d bring her back a baby, not a witch that may latch onto your body.”

Khadijah frowns, “why would you think Blanche would latch onto mine and not yours?”

“Whoever! And I really can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’re trying to mess with some spirits.”

Khadijah wasn’t trying to “‘mess with spirits,” she always respected the dead but this sounded better than visiting the catacombs to be honest.

So she challenged, “Hey! It’s something to do.”

“I can find plenty of other things we can get into.” Rio placed his chin into the palm of his hand, “We’re not about to be here much longer anyway.”

Khadijah sighs as she grabs Rio’s hand to place in her lap, “I’ll let you try out our new toy at the same time while you’re inside…”

Rio’s eyes begin to darken as they meet Khadijah’s much lighter ones. This was a promising bargain and this Khadijah knew as Rio trailed his own hand up her stomach, between her breasts, and to grip her chin.

“You’re lucky I love you,” Rio states as he presses their lips together and leads the way with his tongue dancing along hers.

It’s passionate and a little nasty just the way the married couple liked their kisses but brief enough that he leaves Khadijah panting on the passenger side. He smirks to himself, lifting up from the driver’s side to pull out his Glock 17 from his black jeans to rest on the dashboard.

“Put your seatbelt on,” Rio tells Khadijah who shortly follows through, “and not a word of this to my abuelita.”

Khadijah makes a cross my heart motion as Rio puts the car in drive.

The drive to this supposed haunted home was a good half hour north from where they were staying and the decline of the countryside was clear. There seemed to be no livelihood as the skies got even darker. Rio could sense to the left of him that Khadijah seemed to be at unease the deeper they got into the area.

He checks in, “How we doing?”

“Hm? Oh, there it is. Stop.”

Rio turns his attention back to the lack of road up ahead and notices that there’s a tunnel with no lighting. He steps on the breaks, witnessing to the left of the tunnel the narrow road carried upwards to what exactly? That he didn’t know. There was no homes or animals in sight on this drive since they started getting further away from the chateau.

“What’s this?”

“That’s the tunnel that leads to Blanche’s house.” Khadijah is sitting on the edge of the passenger seat now.

Rio tightens his hold on the steering wheel, eyes scanning the scenery with the help of the automatic headlights. If they went through that tunnel, which was surely to be just as narrow as the roads out here in the countryside he wasn’t positive they would make it back. His intuition  was telling him since the beginning that this didn’t feel right and being physically here was enough to confirm that for Rio.

Turning his eyes into slits towards the right of the tunnel, Rio can see a decaying headstone with a bunch of colorful ribbons tossed around and possibly some rocks that were most likely teabags scattered below it.

“This is what you came for,” Rio says keeping his eyes on the road.

“Oui-Oui.” Khadijah says suddenly halfhearted and any other time Rio would have laughed but the expression on her face made him aware that the tension was also felt by her as well.

Rio steps on the gas, driving full speed towards the tunnel but stops just at edge, parallel to the headstone, making Khadijah grip the dashboard at the abruptness.

“Get going, sweetheart.” Rio tells Khadijah with a lift of his chin.

Khadijah swallows, prying her eyes away from the tunnel then to the headstone and back to her husband. “W-what? You’re not coming with me?”

“I never said I was going in there. I have sense.” Rio tapped at his temple.

Khadijah glares, “wow. So here’s to trying new things was just another one of your lies then huh?”

“Another? Don’t go there, I’m not doing that with you this evening. You brought this terrible idea to me and I brought you here so go head, show me you’re the one who isn’t scared.” Rio’s hardened stare was now on the fuming woman.

Khadijah didn’t know what the fuck Rio’s problem was and why he thought this energy was okay? Khadijah didn’t like Rio’s tone so she snatched her baguette bag from beside her feet and went to push on the door but remained right inside.

“Are you serious?!”

Rio made a U-Turn and began driving back in the direction they came, “are you forreal thinking I’m about to have our asses messing around with the actual dead? Let alone your indecisive ass? And we don’t even have the full context?”

“I mean…do you not have bodies? You don’t see me questioning you about them.” Khadijah muttered.

Rio snapped his eyes to his wife, “two completely different things and you know that.”

It really wasn’t but okay, if Rio hated her riding the fence then let’s see if he hated it now.

“Whatever.” Khadijah slouched against the seat, “You just wasted our time, like why entertain the fact that you were with it if you’re just gonna try to clown me?”

“I wasn’t letting you do that and you should have known that.” Rio clenched his jaw, “I would never willingly put you in harm’s way and that’s exactly what you were signing up for.”

Khadijah knows Rio wouldn’t and if she wanted to be petty she could but she just mumbles, “You just ruined spooky season in France like?”

“Better throw that ribbon and teabags out the window and get glad. Who knows what would have happened if we went down that dark ass tunnel with only the Glock against a whole spirit mind you, that we don’t even know if she’s still vengeful or not.”

“I mean you make valid arguments…and I don’t even know if the house is still standing. The last update online was from 2021 so I guess I can’t be too pressed about it.” Khadijah explains as she starts to search through her bag, “but you can’t say I was indecisive this time, yet you locked me in here like I’m a child.”

Rio deeply exhales, rubbing at his face in slight aggravation, “yeah we gotta get back to Detroit and quick. I think you need to go back to work and continue spreading peaceful energy at that non-profit instead whatever this is.”

“What?” Khadijah sucked her teeth, “Trying to be on theme?”

“We could easily rent a movie at the spot and call it a day.”

“I wanna be one with nature!”

“As soon as we get far away from Blanche’s murder site, I’ll take the locks off so you can touch some grass.”

“Ohhhh, I cannot stand you!” Khadijah scowled followed by some laughter before ghosting her fingers over the window button, “is this going to work for me or am I still being held hostage?”

Rio just hums to himself, glancing in the rear view spotting a blur of white in the distance along with something that wasn’t tumbleweed rolling right by their feet.

Khadijah doesn’t notice as she cracks the window to toss a pink ribbon and a teabag out on the dirt road.

And when she looks in the rearview, she doesn’t see anything unusual or creepy. So she rolls her window back up and presses her elbow into the arm of the door, resting her cheek along her fingers, watching the night scenery whip by her highlighter eyes.

Soon Rio’s hand reaches for the Glock to rest in the cup holders before sneaking his hand over to bring Khadijah’s hand up to his lips. He knew she was a little sour with him over this and probably a bunch of other built up issues but Khadijah always tried to make the best of it.

Rio was trying to get better at validating her feelings but this shit right here was not it and Khadijah knew that inside. Which is why he had a more safer route up his sleeve to spend the day with Khadijah tomorrow since celebrating Halloween was apparently too american for the French. So he did the best that he could choosing a theme park that would be “on theme” for Khadijah’s spooky cravings.

That would be his gift to her and routine of keeping her best interest at heart, even if she didn’t fully want to see it that way sometimes…

Ah, she’ll be aight.

𒅒𒈔𒅒𒇫𒄆 𒅒𒈔𒅒𒇫𒄆 𒅒𒈔

Continue along with my October anthology prompts here.

#Spotify #Rio good girls #rio x black!reader #rio x reader #october prompts #queued #spooky prompts #good girls nbc #Rio x oc #manny montana

[chronicbeans]

Wally Darling with a Restoration Project Reader (part 4)

Oh no! It looks like you're having a bad dream!

TW: Nightmares/Night Terrors, Isolation, Possible Captivity, Scopophobia/Eye Imagery

🗞️ You find yourself in an odd place. It's dark, almost pitch black. The only thing lighting the area is a pale blue light from the moon outside. As your eyes adjust, you notice the colorful papers scattered all across the walls. The room you're in, which seems to be a little painting studio, is a mess. Paint is spilled on the ground, the paintings are all strewn about. Some canvases are ripped, if not torn in half. The surviving ones are all blocked out with black paint... Some are just messy, black scribbles, while others depict swirls or eyes.

🗞️ You hear a voice somewhere else in the building, which sounds monotone and empty. After every muffled sentence the speaker says, a set of creaks and groans resound from the wood of the building. You meekly open the door, looking out into the dark hallway. It isn't in a much better state than the studio. Paint is everywhere. It even looks like there are some stains left from footprints on the floor and hands smearing paint on the walls.

🗞️ You are as quiet as you can be, walking very slowly. You can barely see ahead of you, only seeing just about a foot ahead of you. It's so dark... the voice seems to be getting closer, though. You can make out some of what they are saying...

🗞️"I've been singing all night long for you... Why have you closed the door? There is so much I want to explore..." A loud creak acts as a response.

🗞️ You get closer, hearing the voice a bit better. You think this is a house, because you have currently found yourself in a bedroom. The blue and red bead spread has been thrown onto the floor, along with a few plush apples. From below you, you hear the voice, indicating that you are most likely on the second floor.

🗞️"Please... oh, please... let me through the front door. I'm on my knees. Let me through that door. I want to see them again." Another loud groan resounds from the wood.

🗞️ Finally, you find the stairs. Just as you are about to walk down, you hear the wood around you let out an ear piercing, cracking groan, followed by the monotone voice asking "Is someone there?"

🗞️ You wake up to your mother shouting. You look up at her, noticing just how sweaty you are, as well as the fact that your blankets are twisted around you in the oddest of ways. "Mom? What is it?"

🗞️"You have been screaming in your sleep for the last hour, sweetie! Are you okay? You were flailing about! You almost choked yourself with your blanket until I pulled it away from your throat... I was scared to touch you to shake you awake, because I didn't know if you would grab me or something. All I could do was stand here, calling out to you every now and again... I was so scared..."

🗞️ You sit up, realizing how out of breath you are. Your throat is sore, too. You look up to your mom, saying "I'm... I'm fine... I'm going to go get a glass of water..." She nods, patting your shoulder. She smiles gently, her old eyes crinkling as she does so. "That is alright, sweetie. I am just glad nothing bad happened. I thought someone was hurting when I woke up to you screaming. Just... Don't get hurt."

#welcome home #welcome home arg #wally darling #wally darling x reader

[youcouldmakealife]

LBTE: Jared (173-174)

In which we prepare for the end by going back to the beginning.

If you'd like to follow along, the series page is here.

Final LBTE the day after tomorrow -- the epilogue itself is tomorrow.

173. Lodestar

He’s already talking about taking next year’s rookies under his wing — taking them out for lunch, inviting them over to play video games, making sure they feel welcome.

Jared terrifying the rookies might put a crimp in Bryce’s rookie mentoring plans.

And — fuck, is Jared going to have to host shit? Jared doesn’t want to host shit. Letting people into his space sounds horrible. Hopefully they’ll get a pass, since there’s no way the team could all fit in their apartment, let alone significant others and kids. They had a few preliminary discussions about getting a house after they re-sign this summer, but no way is that happening if it increases the likelihood of Jared having to endure guests.

Refusing to buy a house solely so no one makes him host anything is the most Jared thing possible.

You’re co-hosting a wine night with me he receives from Stephen, who continues to have the uncanny ability to say the thing that Jared would like to hear least. Jared guesses Gabe told him the news.

Wine nights happen when the Canucks are on the road. Jared replies, rather than ‘I would rather die’, just in case Stephen takes him literally.

Very smart not to tell Stephen your worst fears: he’ll make them happen. Also: you’re co-hosting a wine night with him. It’s inevitable. The rookies may fear Jared, but the WAGs will love him.

The Scouts are flaming out against the Kings, earlier than their typical Stanley Cup Final choking.

This is the Red Wings’ year. So Kings vs Red Wings in the WCF (yes, this 'verse shunted Detroit right back to the west when they finally thought they were safe), then Red Wings vs Lightning in the Finals. Sorry Seb.

Bryce is, but he’s been busy with other things — getting a crash course on what’s involved in wearing the A from Gabe, babysitting the Kurmazov spawn while Dmitry and Oksana pack up their own place for the offseason, bringing some of their extra food over to Elaine’s, and somehow coming home with more shit than he left with, though thankfully all the childhood shit Elaine’s unloading on him is nonperishable.

Seriously, Bryce is 100% living the dream. Mentoring, babysitting, hanging out with his mom.

In one of the boxes is a battered stuffed bear with a bow tie that Bryce greets like an old friend, and now sits with the minor Winnie the Pooh collection in the sulking room. He doesn’t fit thematically, but Jared figures he gets extra points for making Bryce’s eyes light up. His name’s Mr. Bear. Bryce was apparently not a creative child.

Because Bryce was Bear, the Mr. was included to avoid confusion.

“What’s wrong?” Jared asks.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Bryce says.

“Is it your shoulder again?” Jared asks.

“It’s not my shoulder,” Bryce says.

“Is it somewhere else?” Jared asks.

Jared is not a very good listener when he’s panicking.

He’s suddenly terrified Bryce is going to propose or something. Demand they get married again, but in public this time. Fuck, Jared doesn’t want to marry Bryce again. He embarrassed himself in front of enough people last time, and is frankly extremely grateful no video evidence exists. He can’t deny that he cried if there’s a video of him doing exactly that. Not that he’d cry, but—

You’d fucking cry, don’t start.

Also if Bryce knew he could make everybody hold a party for his relationship with Jared? On one knee in a second flat. So Jared will just…never mention the existence of vow renewals in his presence. And quit bugging Gabe and Stephen about when they’re getting married so Stephen doesn’t snap and mention it himself.

Bryce hasn’t shown any signs of stopping to breathe, but Jared doesn’t interrupt him, knows Bryce won’t be able to gather the threads back together if he does, and, more than that, that he’s nervous about this for some reason. Nervous about telling Jared this.

Bryce rambles when he’s nervous and when something’s really important to him. This is both.

Mostly he’s trying to figure out how Bryce did all this without Jared knowing. Like, Jared knew Bryce was keeping busy, but how did he miss a whole ass project? Bryce did financials? He talked to Marc Lapointe?

He had a lot of spare time. Especially during road trips. It wasn’t particularly difficult to keep it on the DL, considering.

“We started in like, January,” Bryce says. “I wanted to have like, a real idea before I told you, make sure I was still like, serious about it. And everyone says to do the research so, like, mom and I did the research. Gabe and Stephen helped too. Stephen was only like, kind of mean about it. Though he kept saying shit about my hair.”

“Babe, saying you have Disney prince hair isn’t an insult, I told you that,” Jared says.

“He says it like an insult,” Bryce says.

Because he’s offended that your hair just DOES that. Stephen is very vain about his own hair, he hates having a competitor.

(It does not just DO that, there is great time and financial investment involved in Bryce’s terrific hair)

“He says everything like an insult,” Jared says. “That’s just the way Stephen communicates.”

“He’s nice to Gabe,” Bryce says.

“Have you ever met anyone who isn’t nice to Gabe?” Jared says. “Even I’m nice to Gabe.”

Er. Nice(r).

But seriously, who’s mean to Gabe? Stephen will kill them.

“I wanted it to be like, fully planned out before I told you,” Bryce says. “You’re always so like — you always think shit through, you know? So I wanted to make sure I thought everything through first. And that took like, way more time than I expected it to. And help. This stuff isn’t like, my thing, you know? But it matters to me, so.”

Bryce trying to make sure he got ahead of every road block and set back so it would be perfect by the time Jared found out about it kills me a little.

“It isn’t?” Bryce says. “I mean, I know it isn’t, I just — you don’t think it’s dumb?”

“Of course I don’t think it’s dumb,” Jared says, and it kind of breaks his heart, how relieved Bryce looks.

Mine too.

“I just don’t want anyone thinking they can have hockey or love but not like, both,” Bryce says. “Like, I’d be a fucking mess without you, and I was kind of a mess without hockey too, and I just—“

Bryce going from someone who can’t even say the word gay out loud to willingly becoming the face of an organization meant for LGBTQ youth athletes — this boy.

“I can’t believe you made a secret club just so you could hang out with your mom,” Jared says.

That’s just a BONUS, Jared.

“I’m not—“ Bryce says. “It’s not a secret club!”

Note there is no denial about the hanging out with his mom part.

“You can join the club,” Bryce says, then, quickly, “But you don’t have to or anything. I know you’re not a joiner.”

“Obviously I want to join your secret club,” Jared says.

“Really?” Bryce asks.

“Duh,” Jared says, kicking Bryce’s foot, and Bryce kicks him back, grinning.

Jared’s evolution has been subtler, but of course he makes an exception for Bryce.

Bryce goes to grab his laptop with this jaunty little trot Jared doesn’t think he’s ever seen him do before, and he smiles down at his hands so he isn’t grinning at Bryce when he returns, just in case Bryce thinks he’s laughing at him.

Another evolution: Jared’s awareness of how easily Bryce’s feelings are hurt, and his efforts to make sure he isn’t the one doing it.

“We can take a break,” Bryce says quickly. Jared decides it wouldn’t be constructive to point out they haven’t actually done anything, form-wise. Certainly wouldn’t get either of them what they want, unless what they want is to be frustrated by bureaucracy.

Excellent work NOT cockblocking yourself with forms, Jared.

For the second time Jared gets to see the jaunty run. It’s a little dorky, but Jared won’t tell Bryce that. If he does, he’ll never see it again, and he’s already fond of it.

Jared getting to see parts of Bryce nobody else does, and being SO SO fond of them.

Jared decides to speed up just a little. If Bryce is going to put on a show, he doesn’t really want to miss it.

Like, yes, this is about sex, but also very much a dynamic that plays out across their relationship, which is great, because Jared doesn’t mind that Bryce is the better player/higher profile/bigger name. In fact, all the extra stuff Bryce deals with because of that is shit Jared is very glad not to deal with. But he loves getting to sit back and watch Bryce do his thing.

174. Starstruck (Redux)

There are so many callbacks in this part it might be easier to point out what isn’t one. One of the great things about doing this liveblogging (I reread the first 102 before I restarted this endeavour) — everything is very fresh when it’s time to wrap things up.

It’s also a really nice way for me to come to terms with finishing things — I get to go back and honour every part of the process, which helps, because this part always hurts. This series has been in my life so long it’d be a first grader by now, so it's been particularly hard to say goodbye to it.

It always feels a little strange now, travelling commercial. Well, strange is putting it nicely. Terrible. It feels terrible. Jared has had five hours of sleep and his Starbucks is burnt and his husband is wearing a toque indoors ‘so people won’t recognise me, J’. He looks ridiculous, and if his coffee’s burnt he can’t taste it, probably because there isn’t much coffee involved in that concoction.

Who says Jared isn’t a morning person (everyone who’s met him, and many would say he’s not an afternoon, evening, or night person either)

“You’re that guy from the Canucks, right?” she asks, inexplicably looking at Jared rather than Bryce.

Guess you should have worn a hat like your genius husband, Jared.

“My friends all think you’re really cute,” she says, then runs back to her group without asking for an autograph or anything, greeted with yells and cheers like she just scored them the OT winner.

She is a god among them.

“Don’t look so douchey in my hat now, do I?” Bryce asks.

“You still do,” Jared says. But he looks like a douche with a good idea.

Shoutout to the time Jared wrote a heartfelt card on his first anniversary that used the word ‘douche’ twice.

“I packed an extra,” Bryce says. “Just in case you changed your mind.”

Jared continues to underestimate how often they’ll be recognized, particularly in Vancouver. Bryce prefers to be prepared so he doesn’t have to take pictures and sign shit when he’s just trying to get a coffee.

Once the plane door shuts, Jared rips the hat off his head. “Is it fixable?”

“I don’t know how you can say I’m vain about my hair,” Bryce murmurs. Jared would tell him it’s because he is, but Bryce is fixing his hair for him at the moment, so it doesn’t seem like the most opportune time to argue.

Jared’s less vain about his hair and more vain about his so called dignity, and messy hair is not dignified. But then, neither is Jared, a lot of the time.

Training with you. I come back to Canada in June.

Absolutely not. Jared texts back.

Chaz and Raf already said OK. So did Arvan. So I’m coming.

Too bad Jared texts back. You’re not invited.

“What’re you so happy about?” Bryce mutters.

Julius officially in the crew and Jared is visibly delighted about it.

“Jared!” Bryce says, grabbing his arm.

There’s a few instances of physical communication between the two of them in this part. Big because it’s always in public/in front of others, and that’s something they’re only recently grown comfortable with.

“Did you know Julius was coming?”

“What, Julius is coming to train?” his dad asks. “That’s news to me.”

“I didn’t mention training,” Jared says.

“Shit,” his dad says, and Jared snorts.

Jared got his terrific lying skills from the best.

“Great,” Jared says. “Wonderful. I’m so happy to be home.”

“We’re as happy to have you as you are to be here,” his dad says.

His chirping skills are mostly from his mom, but sometimes Don comes through.

“Is that where Erin’s taking Bryce?” Jared asks.

“As far as I’m aware,” his dad says.

“Well,” Jared says. “Then I guess that’s where I’m going.”

These two. Two planets orbiting one another.

“I tell you I’m proud of you yet?” his dad asks.

“Not in as many words,” Jared says.

“Well, I am,” his dad says. “Proud of Bryce too.”

Look at Don growing too!!

“Me too,” Jared says. “Next season he’s going to — actually, I’ll let him tell you about it over brunch.”

“The charity thing?” his dad says, then, “Shit.”

“Oh for—“ Jared says. “Come on.”

Elaine got ahead of herself, she’s sorry!

Ashley has a ring on her finger. Grace doesn’t, but judging by Raf going red and hissing ‘shut up’ when Jared asks him about it, that’s changing very shortly.

Raf’s trying to find the perfect moment. Chaz did it in their living room and almost wiped out on one of Maia’s toys when he went to kneel.

“You're pregnant," Bryce says.

"No," Ashley says. "Okay, yes, but—"

Everyone had a couple beers (or spritzers) but her over the afternoon. Bryce noticed, Jared, of course, did not.

“To keep the numbers even we thought that maybe Bryce could be on my side?” Ashley asks. “And you two could partner up. But we don’t want to do that if you’re not—“

“Can I wear a suit that matches the bridesmaid dresses?” Bryce asks.

Ash and Chaz worried he’d feel emasculated, being on the bride’s side. And once upon a time he would have, but now he’s just hyped about a pastel suit.

“So it was Chaz you were hiding it from,” Jared says.

Ashley’s mouth flattens. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“It is an excellent instrument,” Chaz says. “You’re just haters.”

If he plays twinkle twinkle little star on that thing one more time…

(And it is always twinkle twinkle little star. Because that is all he knows.)

Jared leans over to Chaz as Bryce and Ashley put their heads together. “Did you steal a toy from your own child?”

“We’re teaching her to share,” Chaz mutters.

Can MAIA play twinkle twinkle little star? No! It’s wasted on her.

Raf proposes, but only after weeks of making everyone around him miserable. To the surprise of absolutely no one but Raf, she says yes. Jared would be more smug about calling it if he hadn’t been the only one blindsided by Raf asking him to be his best man.

Just wait until Jared remembers there’s a speech involved.

Jared’s volunteered to help, mostly to make sure that Julius doesn’t mistake Jared telling him he’s not welcome, and explicitly uninviting him, for actually not wanting him here.

Taking Jared at his word would obviously be a mistake.

“Oh my fucking god,” Jared mutters. Bryce had finally gotten rid of the convertible when he left Calgary, and Jared had figured that was that, because Vancouver’s the opposite of a good place for one. Maybe that was naive. “You’re too old for that car! Also too young!”

Bryce gets out of the front seat, sliding his sunglasses off and tucking them into his polo. He looks like bad porn. Right in front of Jared’s parents, too. Jared glowers at him as he walks up the driveway.

Jared’s anti-convertible gripe turning into ‘how dare you look hot enough that I now want to ride in your dumb car’. In front of his parents, to boot!

“Nice looking car, Bryce,” his dad says.

Bryce grins. “Want to come for a spin?”

“Watch my pots!” his dad says, then literally jogs down the driveway to get in the passenger seat.

Don has dibs though!

Jared exchanges a look with his mom.

“Well,” she says. “It’s nice to see he’s finally gotten over his Bryce related car trauma.”

Growth!

It’s another half hour before Bryce and his mom come back. It doesn’t involve anyone shouting ‘what a rush’ as they come inside, so it’s more subtle than his dad’s return

I love Don.

Jared scoots over, and Bryce lies down beside him. They don’t fit. They never have, really, but now Jared has to put his back against the wall, tangle their legs together so Bryce doesn’t topple right off the bed.

Back in Jared’s high school bed. Every time they do it gets more and more cramped.

“I thought we could get some pizza,” Bryce says. “Sit around at a park or something. It’s a nice day for it.”

“You got a blanket in the trunk too?” Jared says.

“Maybe,” Bryce says. “Not a Flames one, but.”

This boy. This ridiculously romantic boy.

“Absolutely,” Bryce says. As soon as they get outside he jogs ahead. Jared’s about to ask him what he’s in such a hurry for before Bryce opens the passenger door for him, and then he just has to stop everything, take a moment and watch him, golden in the late spring light.

Jared’s still so gone for him.

“You coming?” Bryce asks.

“Yeah,” Jared says. “Yeah, of course I am.”

So gone.

#liveblogging the end

[minhosimthings]

Someone Older, Just a Little Bit Colder.

Summary: Yoon Y/N and Lee Minho. Perfect enemies. But when some guns and roses get mixed up with both of them, I wonder what the fates have weaved for their story.

Pairings: Fem!reader × Minho, classic Enemies to Lovers. Includes rest of Skz and other groups

Warnings: lots of violence, blood, murder, guns, swearing, mention of food, mention of dead bodies. There is a lot of violence so please do not interact if you are sensitive to these things.

A/N - I finished this finally. This took a lot of time and it is probably my longest work till date. I took inspiration from an edit I saw on Instagram. So here you go! Please enjoy this and feel free to give me feedback. I don't like some parts of the fic that much tho. Cause I was very lazy when I wrote them.

Song rec:

1: I need someone older

"No, no, no" Mournful voices were surrounding your frame. "No this can't be happening. Please Y/N!" Tears, not yours, dripped onto your skin as something red mixed with it to create a pretty little cocktail. "Fuck princess wake up! Fuck no....."

"Y/N! Come down quick! You've gotta get to school!" Another day of school. How mechanical was your life. In your final year of high school, you'd have thought that your life would have sugar, spice and everything nice. But instead, you got stuck with a robotic schedule, which consisted of waking up, going to school, coming back, food time, homework, checking to see if any colleges had sent you mails and then going back to sleep. But you couldn't really complain, because you were in Jeju Island. Literally everyone here had the same robotic schedule. Well maybe except for the richest people here. Your family was what was known as the middle classes. You lived comfortably, but not too plushily and your mom and dad both had jobs. Your elder sister Jinhee and you basically raised each other and now, with Jinhee, already graduated and married (since she was seven years older than you), you were left all alone in your turquoise room, with white borders and black finishes. It wasn't the fact that you weren't happy or anything. But, as a child of the Cosmos and as a ruler of the skies and tides, you wanted to feel that feeling that people had when they would roll around in the grass, or buy flowers from a sweet old lady, or wear ridiculous nail polish with someone, keeping the stories of the stars to yourself, whenever someone asks 'what did you do last night?'. But wasn't that why fairytales existed? To tell you that getting all those things was nothing but a mere dream? A dream which you hoped would come true? Which you hoped that the universe would understand your heart's desire and grant it to you?

"Be safe alright? Got your pepper spray?" "Yes ma don't worry. Im always safe aren't I?" Your mother kissed your forehead gently before letting to walk off to school, pepper spray in hand, knife hidden up the sleeve of your blue school sweater. The road from your house to your school was one of the safest ones. It was a suburban area, with families like yours lining up the street. You had no problem walking by yourself, and casually greeting the wakening families, with their toddlers and teenagers. You felt safe here and in the rare times there was some danger, you knew you could kick their asses (flashback to that one time you thought your dad was a stranger and accidentally kicked him hard in the shin. He still doesn't forgive you for that)

"Miss Yoon. Are you walking alone your highness?" That voice. That voice was perhaps the bane of your existence (not the object of all your desires. Sue me for using Bridgerton right now). A smooth black car pulled up next to you as you were just a metre away from the school. The windows were rolled down to reveal a young boy, your age with fluffy plum brown hair, cat like eyes, a sharp nose and a smirk on his stupid face. Lee Minho. Also known as the worst person you knew. And no this wasn't an enemies to lovers scenario. It usually is but this? Yeah absolutely not. Lee Minho had been your childhood neighbour since he was six. He lived with his grandparents since he was six, with his parents being in one of the richest families of South Korea and working in Seoul. He also went to your school, which was weird considering he was basically a billionaire and still chose to go to the 'middle class' school along with his his seven friends, who coincidentally were also from the seven richest families of South Korea.

"Oh no Minho. I wasn't walking alone. I have an invisible friend that you can't see from behind those stupidly pretty eyes of yours." You threw him a glare as his smirked just increased in size. "You think my eyes are pretty?" "Oh for fucks sake. What do you want?" "Language, princess." Minho chuckled and unlocked the passenger seat door. "Get in." You let out a chuckle and said "With you? Oh no thank you. I would rather go to Hell and dance with the devil." "Oh come on princess." Minho's face only widened even more to form the face of the devil himself. "You know people who die to even touch my car. You're lucky I'm offering you to ride in it." You rolled your eyes at him. So fucking cocky for no reason. You decided that you couldn't take it anymore and just started walking with a small 'I'll see you at school Minho goodbye now.'. Minho seemed to have taken the sign as he locked his doors, rolled the windows down and sped away to school.

Finally some peace. You breathed in the September air as you watched the Magpies fly around with their mates. You always loved Magpies, courtesy to your dad always encouraging you to birdwatch whenever you were free, with the pink binoculars you had. And today, in the serene September air, it felt good, watching two birds in love fluttering around, probably having a conversation about who knows what. There was that odd feeling in your chest again, that feeling which you pretended wasn't loneliness. People never understood the difference between alone and lonely. Yes you can be alone and you can enjoy it to your fullest. Some of your friends loved to be alone, eating chocolate, reading a nice book, sitting by the rain, all of those aesthetic things those Pinterest people do. You always craved to be like that too, but you never could. And you still had to learn to accept the fact that being basic wasn't a bad thing.

"Babe your foundation isn't blended properly come here. Hasn't Mama Huh taught you anything?" Your best friend Yunjin greeted you at the stairs of your school, with her bright unicorn bag and her perfect makeup as usual. "Sorry sweetheart. I really can't focus today." Yunjin gave you a sympathetic look as she blended the foundation on your neck with her hands carefully. "Is it Lee again? I swear to God one of these days I'm gonna go and tell him that you like him and then he'll confess to you and then this can be an enemies to lovers novel where I'm the sassy, amazing best friend who saves the day." You laughed at Yunjin's rambling. "And I thought Chaer was more delusional than you." "Do I hear my name?" A pretty girl with long black hair and perhaps the greatest jawline in the world came up behind you. Lee Chaeryoung, cousin of Minho and your second best friend, also your prettiest friend (sue me she's my wif- I mean my bias) "Hey Chaer. By the way have you guys completed Mr Hong's assignment?" Yunjin groaned at your words as she pulled out a red copy from her bag and opened it to reveal her messy handwriting. "I stayed up to finish this shit. Why do we need to analyse what a curtain means in Shakespearean language? Like I don't know. It could mean the heroine wants to be at an orgy for all I know." Chaer hit Yunjin's arm as you laughed at went inside the school to go to your English class along with Yunjin. Chaeryoung stalked off in the other direction, to her biology class, as you entered the class, where Mr.Hong wasn't present yet. You always dreaded English period, not because you weren't good in the subject, but because of the seating arrangement. Yunjin would always sit at the back of the class while you were stuck in the front with Minho. You internally groaned as you walked up to your seat, where Minho and Chan were talking to each other. Chan was a good friend of yours since your mom was the head of the Jeju Island branch of his dad's buisness. Curly haired, eyes filled with stars and the most gentle behaviour ever, he came straight out of a goddamn book. You always wondered how he became friends with Minho, considering both of them were as different as chalk and cheese. But then again, they has been brought up together, by their grandparents while their parents would stay in Seoul to run buisness.

"Hey Chan. Did you get those physics notes done yesterday?" Chan greeted at you with than omnipresent smile on his face as he nodded fervently like a puppy. "Yeah I got them done! It was really hard though. I really hope Mrs.Choi is absent today. So she can't call me out on my 'mistakes'." You smiled fondly at Chan as he took his seat on your other side, while Minho toyed with a blue hairband. Your hairband. "Minho where did you get that?" He turned to look at you and gave you that smug smirk again. "Why princess? Is it yours?" You scowled as you reached forward and grabbed the hairband out of his hands and stuffed it into your bag. "Yes it is mine! I think you'd know that considering I have been looking for this ever since the playground incident from when we were seven! Oh but I think you wouldn't remember that would you? Considering you're an ajhussi." It was Minho's time to scowl now and he scrunched up his nose like an angry bunny and stuck his tongue out at you, all while mumbling "I'm only two months older you know.", As Mr.Hong entered the classrooms in his pinstriped shirt and began asking for the assignments.

The rest of the day went as normal. You went to all of your classes, had a gossip-filled lunch with Chaeryoung, Yunjin, Miyeon, Sunoo and Jake, accidentally spilt water over Sunghoon from Chemistry, and got top grades in biology as usual.

Gosh September was good. September was lovely. People don't really get why September was so comforting to you. And to be frank, you didn't get it either. But there was this aura that September had that you couldn't shake. It wasn't just all pumpkin spice lattes or orange scarfs. It was..... Something else. Something you couldn't describe. You know that feeling when you bite into an ice cream cone? It crumbles all over you, but you love that feeling, that crunch combined with the sweet ice cream inside. That's what September was.

The bell rang loudly as school got over and you went over to the the basketball court. Being captain of the girls team, you always needed to stay back after school in order to train your team. "Unnie come quick would ya!" Chaewon, the team's greatest shooter called out to you. "Im not that late today Chaewon. That's a record for me!" Chaewon rolled her eyes as she adjusted her shorts. "Y/N are we gonna discuss some tactics for next week's game then? Cause I drew a lot of shit last night and I don't want it to go to waste." Wonyoung, the team's co-captain was nudging some papers into your hands. You gave her a quick smile as you looked over all the loopy drawings she did. "Oh and girls! Please remember to get your registration documents tomorrow! I really don't want to submit them late to Coach Kim." All your teammates nodded at your words and went on to the court, where to your dismay, Minho and his team were also practicing. You were annoyed. You had booked the court for today and has specifically checked with both of your coaches and yet again, your mortal enemy was playing with his team on what was meant to be your court. "Yah Minho! Get off the fucking court. We have it booked for today!" You gave him the biggest glare that you could muster, while he simply strode up to you, ball in hand, and that stupid smile on his face. "Aww princess. You booked the court for today? Well sad because I booked it earlier. I have a signed consent form from Coach Kim too. So either you can get off the court or we can have a practice game together." You felt like blowing up the earth below his feet right now but you couldn't do anything when he showed you the piece of paper on which Coach Kim had signed specifying that the boy's team could play today. "Fine then. But a practice game? Together? Boys versus girls?" Minho simply nodded at your words as you looked back at your girl standing behind you who were currently looking like they wanted to go to war. Seeing their determination, you extended a hand forward to Minho and in a assertive tone, said, "You're on then Lee. I wanna watch your pretty little face when you lose really badly. So what's the prize then?" You regretted asking that question when you saw Minho's face turning into that evil little smirk again. His team was assembled behind him and now you were a bit scared, considering that your tallest player was the size of their shortest one. "How about........ loser has to take the winner to that nice ice cream place that just opened down the street? And it'll only be us two. You know, captain to captain." Hearing that both your team and Minho's team broke out in high pitched 'ooohs' (yes even the Bois) as if you were doing something scandalous. You had no choice but to accept so you extended you hand again as Minho gripped it with his veiny hands and shook it firmly.

Chan and Chaeryoung were sitting by the stands since neither of them played and you smiled gently at them talking and giggling so fondly. The game started with one of the assistant coaches, Jungwon, refereeing. You were more determined now than you were at last month's regional games. You had to beat Minho and he had to take you to that stupid ice cream place. "Scared princess?" Minho asked as you assembled on the half line. You didn't say anything but threw him a smirk, hoping that it would catch him off guard. "Alright, ready set. Rumble!" Jungwon blew the whistle and threw the ball up in the air as you reached forward and managed to slap it onto your side of the court, where Wonyoung caught it and swiftly passed it on to Chaewon, who was standing by the hoops. You heard Minho scolding Jeongin, who was defending Chaewon, for not blocking her properly as you high fived Wonyoung for the quick pass.The rest of the game pretty much went the same way as you kept using witty tactics while Minho kept using speed and strength, which you knew was his greatest weakness. From time to time, his shirt would fly up ever so slightly and you would get distracted for a split second by his abs (which you scolded yourself for).

"Guys can you stop now please? It's 7:30. I'm going home now and you guys should too before they shut the school gate." Jungwon finally ended the game as you looked over at the scoreboard. You had won! You hugged Chaewon tightly before striding up to a very sweaty Minho who, not even in the slightest, looked defeated. "So, Mr Lee. You owe me ice cream now." He gave you a small smile, which made your heart leap, and said "Of course your Highness. Do you wanna get changed and then we can go? Or would you like to come being all sweaty?" You scowled at him and stuck your tongue out as you made your way to the changing rooms as he shouted behind you, "Meet me at the gate!" You quickly took a shower and changed into the tshirt and yoga pants you usually brought with you to change into after a sweaty game.

"Yah are you going to take me in your dumb car?" You questioned Minho as he pulled up by the gate. Chan had taken Chaeryoung home today so you didn't have anyone to walk you home, which was a plus point (for Minho). "Yes princess. Since the ice cream place is not at a walkable distance, atleast for my feet, we are going in my dumb car. And you don't wana walk home this late Y/N. It's dangerous you know? So get the fuck in and let's go. I'm hungry." You begrudgingly got in the car, silently admiring the sleep leather seats as Minho started the engine and turned the car. "Oh and Chan hyung already informed your mom and dad. They're not gonna come home tonight cause they're busy or something so I'll drive you back if you want." You snapped your head from the flying butterfly outside the window to Minho's concentrated face as you shyly mumbled a 'thank you'.

The drive to the ice cream was long and silent. You simply stated out the window while Minho stared forward, trying not to look at the way the rays of the setting sun fell on your skin or how your hair fell in that particular way that just felt good. Do the boys usually confess first? He didn't know. No he hated you. This is absolutely not fucking happening right now. You were Yoon Y/N, captain if the girls basketball team, annoying neighbour, beautiful mortal enemy. No not beautiful. Get out of it Minho!

"Uh is this the place? Looks cute." Minho's car pulled up near a tiny cafe like building called 'Jureimi's parlor', lit up in bright pink signs. "Oh yeah. I'll just park and we can go." You got out of the car as Minho parked nearby and got out too. "Is that boba flavoured ice cream?" You pointed at a brown coloured ice cream in ghe booth. The lady at the counter smiled at you as she nodded and gave you little sample cup. You offered a bit to Minho, who shook his head and went to find a table. "Get what you want. I'll pay." You rolled your eyes at him. He had to pay anyway for losing the game so badly.

You tasted the ice cream, which tasted like heaven and decided that you wanted this. "Can I get this in a cone please? Two scoops." The lady nodded and told her co worker your order, who went to the back to make it. You noticed some pudding cups on the shelf behind the lady. "Are those puddings?" "Oh yes. They're a new addition really. It's a favourite among all the grandmas here." You pointed at the vanilla one and asked the lady to give you that one, while you handed her the money and she handed you your ice cream and the pudding cup. You strode over to Minho, who was sitting with his legs wide open at the little round table in the corner of the store. "Is that for me?" He pointed at the pudding. "No dumbass it's for the Magpies." He gave you a sarcastic smile and grabbed the pudding cup from your hands. "I only got it for you cause this boba ice cream is expensive. So stop smirking at me." He looked up at you with those cat like eyes and slightly pouted, but remained quiet as both of you savoured on the sweet, sticky food.

"Dude how slow do you eat?" You watched Minho as he has halfway through his pudding, while you had already finished your ice cream. "Just slow enough to annoy you baby." You frowned at his words. "Do not call me that ever again. It's makes me wanna vomit." You made a gagging motion as Minho just simply chuckled. "Fine then. While I finish this amazing pudding, how about we play truth or dare hm? Because our impatient princess can't wait for five seconds without doing anything." You thought for a while before finally saying yes. "Alrightly then." Minho smiled at you. "Y/N. Truth or dare?" You picked truth, which seemed like the only viable option, considering the fact that you were in a shop, and Minho said, "How's your brother?"

Your heart dropped as you heard that sentence. How did he know about that? The blue shade of the shop spun around you as you tried to focus on anything else other than what just came out of Minho's mouth. Silence. Yes silence would work. Just give him a glare and it'll be over. "Oh come on princess. We all know what happened to your brother. I just wanna hear it from you personally." Your blood turned cold as your mind kept feeding you memories of that night. That faithful night. That peace filled night. That night when the Magpies stopped singing and September ran cold once more.

"Fuck you Lee Minho." Saying that, you picked up your bag and got up, slamming the chair to the ground, behind you. The lady at the counter looked up to see you walking about the door, pushing it agressively. "No Y/N wait!" Minho knew he had fucked up now. He had never meant to hurt you like this. He had learnt from Yunjin that you were already over your brother's incident. This was just supposed to be normal mortal enemy banter. How do you still remember? He quickly pulled out some cash and slammed it on the counter to the very shocked lady as he ran out after you. You wouldn't have gotten far. After all, you had to pass the school to get to your house. Minho quickly got in his car and started the engine with a blast. You had also left your headband in the carseat. So, that was another excuse for him to chase after you. He wasn't going to lose you again. Not now. Not when he was so close.

The street was dark and cold, lit up faintly by the wavering streetlights. This wasn't September anymore. You could feel December taking all the love out of September. And as you walked upon the concrete, you could feel the Magpies talking about you. You could feel the crescent moon feeling nothing but pity for you. You could feel all the plants with their bugs, looking at you and saying, "Yoon Y/N. You fucked up again just like you always do." You shouldn't have let your anger take control. But then again, when we deal with anger so long, she never tells us that her actual name is grief. Your brother was supposed to be a closed chapter of your life, but like a faded page of an Agatha Christie novel, he lingered on in your brain. All your family had far moved on, but you loved your twin brother, older than you by 8 minutes, too much to let him go from the dusty cabinets of your brain. You tried to forget his screams on that day and that cold, hard cackling but you couldn't. You were right there. Right in front of all the destruction, when your heart broke into a million pieces. Yet how could you forget such a memory?

"Y/N!" Minho was rolling up with this car next to you as you reached your house. The magenta coloured door was locked, your parents were still out on work. "Minho just fucking leave me alone. And I mean it this time. Don't even fucking talk to me." "Yn would you listen to me? Don't go inside the house!" What was this maniac saying? You stared at his figure getting out of the car and swiftly moving across over the lawn to your figure standing at the front door. "please just don't go inside the house." You noticed some figures behind him and you realised that Chan and his friends Jisung and Changbin were also there. "Minho what the fuck are you doing?" Minho looked at with what you thought looked like an expression of pity. "Just please don't go inside the house."

No you weren't going to listen to him. Absolutely fucking not. The last time you listened to him, you ended up in a mud covered ditch. Not today. "Fuck you and fuck your fucking existence Minho! I'm not listening to one word that comes out of that stupid mouth of yours." Before Minho could stop you and before Chan called out your name, you opened the door with gusto, only to be met, not with the familiar scent of Eau de Perfume but with the stench of iron. Your world came crashing down again. Your parents. Lying dead. On the floor. Of your house. Covered in blood. You were frozen. You couldn't move. A sense of familiarity came over you. You knew this feeling. This feeling of feeling like a thousand icicles had pierced your veins. All that came to your mind was him. No this can't be September. September was his birthday! It can't be this bad. No please don't let September be bad. "Y/N. Princess are you alright?" "Min- Minho. They're- they're not. No." The tears weren't coming. This wasn't sadness this was shock. "Chan hyung can you get her out of here? Jisung call the police. Now. Y/N. Y/N what are you doing!" You had strode up to your parents' bodies. Your mom was covered in more blood than your dad. Your dad looked like he was peacefully sleeping. Your mum's head seemed bashed in. Oh god the smell of blood. That night. All that remained was that night. You were too immersed in looking at your parents, that you didn't notice the creeping black figure in front of you. "So you're their daughter are you?" That husky voice was the last thing you heard before a gun shot, Minho's voice and the thud of your body. There was something warm on your stomach. And gooey. And red. This felt nice, you thought. Dying felt nice. If only he felt like this before....

Chan and Changbin slammed the man who had stabbed you onto the wall, destroying some photo frames in the process. Jisung turned on all the lights and went over to the two other men to get a look at the stranger. Minho, on the other hand, had rushed to your side, picking you up in his arms, towel pressuring the wound on your stomach.

"No, no, no" Mournful voices were surrounding your frame. "No this can't be happening. Please Y/N!" Tears, not yours, dripped onto your skin as something red mixed with it to create a pretty little cocktail. "Fuck princess wake up! Fuck no....."

2: Just a little bit colder

"Well well well, Mrs Yoon. How are the children?" Your mother cowered in fear as your elder sister and your dad were tied up next to the fridge in the kitchen. Your twin brother and you were in the clutches of some buff looking men. Eleven years. That's all you were. Eleven fucking years. "Mr. Wang I promise I won't leak the papers. I swear on my children. Please do not harm us." Mr. Wang or whoever he was striding up and down the carpeted room, white papers in his scarred hand. "It's ok Y/Nnie. I'm right here. It's just another November. September will come soon won't it?" Your brother, Doowon tightly held your hand and calmed you down, as your tears threatened to escape from their prison. "Mr. Wang. Please I beg you. Please do not harm me. You have the papers. What more do you want?" Mr Wang smiled at your mother. A cold smile. Shivering and undaunted. "Oh my dear Danbi. I have the papers of course, but you know how I do my work. I do not like bitches who butt their heads into everything. So I want your children to see how their mother is a little bitch." Mr Wang pulled your mother's hair as she screamed and cried out. "Hey don't do that to my mom!" Your borther screamed out as you but the hand if the man who was holding you. Both of you escaped from the clutches of the two men as Mr Wang looked on, slightly amused. "Or what little boy? You gonna beat me up?" Your brother stood his ground, not even daring to break eye contact. "Doowon get back please!" Your mum pleaded with Doowon, but he wouldn't listen. He stepped forward to Mr Wang and stepped painfully on his smooth black shoes. Mr Wang let out a cold laugh as he grabbed your brother by the neck of his shirt. "Grab the little girl too. Let her see how her twin meets with death." A man grabbed you from behind as your family pleaded and you thrashed around, trying to escape. "Let me go!" You screamed as the man took you upstairs while Mr Wang followed with your brother. You reached your bedroom door, which you shared with Doowon and Mr Wang slammed it opened pushing you and your brother inside. "Open that window, Brian." He spat at the man who grabbed you, while you and Doowon stood still. "Now boy. Come here. Come. Here. Now. Unless you want your sister harmed." Doowon looked at you and squeezed your hand before going ever to Mr Wang. And that was the last touch of your brother you had, before Mr. Wang pushed him out of the window on to the green grass below. Your screams had filled the neighborhood, scared the Magpies and threatened September to never come again. September's child,you told yourself. That's all he was. September's child, at the mercy of October.

"She'll be alright Minho. Just give her a few hours. She'll wake up." You were lying on an oak bed with grand purple bedsheets. You had a white sheet wrapped around your waist and your stomach, which stopped blood from coming out of your stab wound. Minho had taken you to his mansion outside of town, where all the sons of the mafias of Korea would hang out. Bang Chan, Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin, Minho's brother Lee Felix Yongbok, Han Jisung, Kim Seungmin, Yang Jeongin and Lee Minho. Stray kids, they called themselves. Basically abandoned by their workaholic parents and brought up by relatives. "Hyung she'll be fine don't worry. Seungmin's aunt is the best surgeon in the country. She stitched Y/N up all fine." Changbin put an arm on Minho's shivering shoulder. Chan and Jisung were also there in the room, trying to comfort Minho and convince him that you would be fine. "What if she's not ok hyung? What do I tell her when she wakes up? Ho-how do I explain to her how I knew that her parents' bodies would be lying in her floor before she even got home? How do I fucking explain that?" Minho looked up at Chan with teary eyes. Chan was worried. Minho hadn't eaten or drunk water for the whole day, ever since you came out of that four hour long surgery. Never before had he seen Minho's cold face so filled with emotion. "Minho listen to me. You can explain everything to her once she wakes up. I called her sister and she'll be coming over in three days from Busan. Now please. You've got to eat something or drink water atleast. I promise you, Y/N will understand if you speak to her properly. Now come on, let's get some breakfast. It's 8 am in the morning. The boys would have woken up by now." Minho listened silently to Chan's words and simply nodded. Words weren't coming out anymore as he slowly got up from his chair and let go of your hand. Taking one last look at you, the boys left the room, all the while commanding two bodyguards to stand outside the door, making sure no one else can even come near you.

"Y/Nnie! Look what I can do!" "That wasn't a proper cartwheel Doowon, it doesn't count!" "Atleast I can do a cartwheel." "Yah don't stick your tongue out at me! Jinhee unnie! Doowon's making fun of me!"

'Do you remember? Twenty first night of September? Love was chasing the minds of pretenders.' "Happy birthday Doowon! I got a CD of your favourite song!" "Thanks Y/Nnie. Let's listen to this song on my birthday every year!"

Purple sheets? This was not your bed. Your bed had dinosaur sheets and made a rickety noise every time you moved. You noticed the white tape wrapped carefully around your waist and dared not touch it. You tried to remember what day it was and where you were as you slowly moved and leaned comfortably against the bed frame, groaning slightly as your stomach was hurting. Gosh what day was it? Was it still September? Or did October come to take you away again?

Lost in your thoughts, you looked around the room, trying to figure out whether you were still in Jeju Island or not. You noticed a drawer close to the bed. Curious, you opened the drawer, to find your phone, a bracelet and a picture of a you and Minho in your jerseys. That bracelet. It was the one which your brother had made for you. Which you hadn't seen ever since that day. And the picture was the one which was taken when you and Minho were elected captains of your basketball teams. You grabbed your phone hurriedly as you realised that this had to be Minho's house. You had to get out. Now. Your memory was coming back to you and you remembered the events that had unfolded the night before. Blood. The smell of iron. The blade of a knife. The tears of a plum brown haired boy.

You threw the sheets off of yourself and made to get up. Stupid decision, you told yourself as the moment your feet hit the floor, you fell down witha loud thud. "OUCH!" you cried out loudly, hoping that this was a soundproof house. Probably not, because five seconds later, you heard footsteps coming down to your door. The oak door swung open with a loud crash to reveal a panic stricken Minho, who had dark circles under his eyes, a worried looking Chan, who was clutching a half finished piece of toast and a very confused Seungmin, who was holding a cup of coffee in his hand. "I knew I shouldn't have left your clumsy ass alone." Minho grumbled as he made his way to you and gently lifted you up, taking care not to touch your injury. You should have probably thrashed around, but for the sake of not accidentally injuring yourself even more, you resisted, as Minho put you back on the head and flicked your forehead painfully. "Yah!" You exclaimed rubbing your forehead. "Ok first of all, where the fuck am I? Second of all, what the fuck am I doing here? Third of all, I know my parents are dead now, so what I am going to do?" You directed the last question at Chan, who scratched his hair and glanced at Seungmin, who was looking at you as if you were his hero. "You know noona, you can come stay with me if you don't wanna stay in Minho's hyung's house." Minho glared at Seungmin as Chan took him by the arm and forced him out of the room, before saying "Minho explain everything. And no I will not help you stop pouting." He slammed the door, leaving Minho and you all alone. All alone in this wood carved room. All alone to face September together. "Alright" Minho took in a deep breath. "Im going to explain everything to you princess. But you will not fucking interrupt me, got it?" You opened your mouth to fire something back at him, but you decided against it in the last moment and quietly nodded. "Alright here goes. First of all I am really sorry for bringing up your brother. I know it was an asshole move and I thought you'd have forgotten about it. Clearly you didn't so I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Second of all, yes your parents are dead. Im sorry Y/N but they are. We informed your sister, she'll come in a few days from Busan. And the reason I knew that your parents were dead and tried to stop you was because my cousin killed your parents." Pause button. Wait what?

"Minho what are you talking about? If this is some kind of joke I will seriously kill myself right here and right now." Minho looked at you with an expression of pure sympathy. "It's not a joke Y/N. You know your mom is the head of the Jeju Island branch of Chan's parents' buisness right? Well all our businesses are connected. And one day when you were a child, your mother had found some papers which proved that my family was in illegal work. My family was ready to forgive her but my cousin, Jackson, wasn't. All those papers were related to his dealings and he wasn't happy that a mere woman had found out about it. So one day, without my parent's knowledge, he found out about your family and well. I think you know the rest don't you?" Too many things. Too many things for your brain to process as it went back to that night. Mr Wang. Jackson Wang. Pretty name, you thought, as you tried to bring his face back to your memory. Scarred. That's all you remembered. Scarred face, scarred mouth, scarred hands grabbing your brother by the cuffs on his shirt. "Chan had found out first. You know him having contacts and all. And when he told me about it, there was this thing inside of me that told me that your parents were probably already dead. I know my cousin pretty well. And he isn't one for patience." "But what did my mom do now?" Minho sighed at your question. "She, she found out some more information about Jackson and she decided to step up. But we all know what happens to heroes don't we?" Your breathing had gotten more steady now and your hands had stopped shaking. Sadness wasn't arriving for you. Not yet. Was it September? Or was it because you never actually knew your mother and father? Because thinking about it, you actually never did.

"Y/N I think it's time to tell you what my parents actually do. What all the boy's parents actually do. We run an underground syndicate over the whole of South Korea. We own every piece of land in Korea. We have information about every person existing in this country. And I want to tell you that your mom was actually one of the most important people for our 'buisness'. She wasn't just some head of the Jeju Island branch. She was a personal spy for my father and mother, put here along with your dad, to spy against, uh, some people." Your head hurt even more with all the information that Minho was unloading on you. You held your head in your hands and massaged your temples gently. Minho looked slightly worried at this and nervously asked, "You ok princess? Want some breakfast?" Oh gosh his lips. "Or a doctor? You know what I'll get a doctor. Chan hyung will say no-" Those lips looked so kissable" "- but what if you don't feel well later on a faint and then you become even more sick-" Don't kiss him Y/N don't you dare. "-and then I'll have to marry you and take care of you foreve-"

Yep you couldn't keep it to yourself anymore. "I wanna kiss you." You blurted out, instantly cringing and regretting your words and Minho turned his head towards you, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted in surprise. "This is adream right? Oh shit I had too much coffee." You were surprised at his words. Wait did he dream of this in a regular basis or what? Or were in you in a coma and this was all in your head? You slightly moved in the bed and as your stomach slightly hurt, you thought, yes definetly not a coma. "Or you could just get me some breakfast? Im hungry and in pain right now." "O-oh yeah I'll just tell t-the guys to get you some. K cool bye Y/N! See you later definetly don't wanna kiss you haha bye!" You were in a state of euphoria as Minho left the room, a blushing mess. Did you just make the Lee Minho blush and stutter? Oh you could jump in joy right now. Well if you could jump. Was this wrong, you thought. Not feeling sad even though your parents had just died? Or were you too familiar with sadness, that meeting her wasn't a big deal anymore?

The door opened again after fifteen minutes to reveal a blonde- haired boy with the most prettiest eyes you've ever seen, carrying a breakfast tray, followed by a taller long haired boy, who looked like he came straight out of those anime comics you read. "Hey noona! Here's some breakfast! Are you feeling better now?" The blonde haired boy, who had a very deep voice, said in a cheery tone. You considered asking him if he was a pixie or an angel because God did he emit that vibe. That positive vibe that just made you wanna pick some flowers and braid them in someone's hair. "Oh hello there. Um thank you for the food. Im sorry if it was of any inconvenience to you." This time, the long haired boy responded instead, saying "Oh no Noona it's fine. Minho hyung would kill us, well specifically me, if, according to his words 'you felt any discomfort', so please eat up. Im Hyunjin by the way and this is Felix." "Im Y/N. Yoon Y/N. But I'm guessing you already knew that?"

"Well of course we know about you. Minho hyung doesn't stop talking to me about you." Jisung had just appeared at the door, dressed in a leather jacket with leather pants, making him look like a biker. "He literally talked to me about your favourite ice cream flavour for five house noona I'm not joking. So please would you tell him you like or something so that I can get out of this hellhole of listening to him?" You were slightly taken aback by Jisung's words and as he plopped and deflated onto the purple couch, you looked at him with a curious expression, "Oh I'm Jisung by the way. Minho's amazingly talented best friend." You heard Hyunjin mutter something along the lines of 'he forgot to add annoying'. "Um I have a lot questions that Minho didn't properly answer. May I ask them,if you don't mind?" You directed this question at Felix, who looked ecstatic at the thought of answering questions, as Hyunjin pulled up two chairs. "Yeah of course Noona! My brother is really vague so please forgive him for that." You smiled at Felix's words about Minho. "Ok first of all where are we right now?" "We're in the outskirts of Jeju Island. This is Minho's hyung's mansion. Well technically our mansion, but my parents are the ones who own it. It's really old and no one cares about it. So we carry out our, er, operations here." Seeing Felix say all that was like seeing a chick with a knife. "So do all of you have like different jobs here? Like in the books and movies?" Hyunjin chuckled at that. "Minho hyung told us you liked suspense literature. Well to answer your question, yes we do have different jobs here. Chan hyung is kind of like our leader. He basically gives all the contacts and manages our profile and connections. You know all the administration shit. Changbin hyung and this idiot over here-" He gestured towards Jisung who gasped dramatically, "-they are our muscle and also so the money work. Lix over here does all the hacking work since his parents trained him and also since he's obsessed with gaming." Felix turned red at that, "Seungmin and Jeongin are our snipers. They are really young but I mean none of us really had an actual childhood. I run the interrogation work. And Minho hyung basically does everything. He doesn't really have a designated position." The way Hyunjin said all of that in the most casual tone weirded you out. He talked as if he was talking about morning coffee, as if it completely normal and nothing suspicious. You smiled awkwardly at Hyunjin who simply stared out the window at the sunlight. "Are all of you so gorgeous over here?" You blurted out, to which Jisung choked on his own saliva, Felix blushed pink and Hyunjin blinked multiple times. "I mean unless you count Jisung out, then yeah all of us are really pretty." You laughed at Hyunjin's statement to which Jisung looked like a furious squirrel.

"Yah Yongbok, Hyunjin are you coming down?" You heard Minho shout from below. "Oh gotta go. Anyways it was nice talking to you noona! I think Minho hyung called the doctor to come in the evening, so you should probably rest up until then. Oh and-" Felix paused for a moment and pulled out a sketchpad from nowhere. "Don't tell Minho I have you this. He told me you like to draw so I sneaked this in here." With that, all of them left you in the room, with a sketchpad, your phone and September's tunes.

You wiled away the hours by drawing the room around you. You tried to draw Hyunjin, Felix, Jisung and Chan too. The house was quiet apart from the voices of whom you assumed was Jeongin and Seungmin talking very loudly. But something was distracting you. That bracelet. The bracelet lying on the bedside drawer. You knew that bracelet very well. It was the bracelet which Doowon had made for you when you were eight or so. And you hadn't ever seen it ever since that night. So what was it doing here? Minho had told you that his cousin and his family don't talk at all, so how was this bracelet here? Was Minho lying? No he wouldn't do that. Yes mortal enemy things but you didn't think this man would be crazy enough to kill. You picked up the bracelet and twirled it in your hands. It was pretty, with gold lining the thing.

You noticed something on one of the biggest pink beads of the bracelet. The bead was... Open? It had a line tracing it as if it was a Pokemon ball, ready to split at any moment to reveal your Pokemon. Curious, you dig your nails into it to open it up. After a few minutes of difficulty (and you almost giving up), you managed to open the ball up. Inside was a tiny piece of folded paper. It was so tiny indeed, that you wondered how someone had managed to fold it. You dug the paper out and unfolded its many layers of folds. This definetly wasn't there when your brother had so lovingly made it for you. The paper was faded, but still looked relatively new. There were some words on it typed out in red, black and blue. The words:.

Yoon Doowon

Birth: September 21, 2005 (Age: Unknown)

Job: Hitman, Ally, Possible heir

Status: Alive

3: Take the weight off his shoulders

'Do you remember 22st night of September? Love was chasing the minds of pretenders all while dancing the night away."

"God boss can you turn that off? It's been playing for an hour now." A stout man, dressed in tight black clothes, which fitted his muscles was sitting spread eagle on a nice blue cushion chair. Sitting in front of him on a much more bigger chair, was a man dressed elaborately in a white mink stole, a pristine white suit, with rings of all colours adorning his fingers, and a big black brooch on a golden chain stuck to his suit. "I won't turn it off until the chorus Brian. You know I love this song don't you? And you shall listen to it until your ears bleed out." Brian groaned and leaned back in his chair. "When is Mr Wang coming?" The man asked Brian. "It's possible he'll be arriving in a few minutes sir. But don't worry. I have intel that he got the job done well and good." "And the little rat? What about her?" Brian shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well she might have gotten away. Lee's gang was there." The man threw his long hair back and threw off the stole, a frown and a red scar decorating his handsome face.

They were in a large room, an office, but it looked more like a King's throne room, where there were chairs for the ministers and wine glasses all decked with pink fluid. There was no door, but a few handing blue beads, which tinkled every now and then. "How could she have gotten away? Who did you send to kill them?" "I sent our best assassin sir." The man scoffed. "Well, clearly he wasn't the best. Does he have family?" Brian nodded in response to the question. "Good. Kill them." "Of course sir."

The blue beads tinkled as a heavily scarred man came into the room along with two bodyguards. "Mr Wang." The white draped man bowed deeply to Jackson who bowed back, only a bit. "Well well well Doowon. You did good. Your parents are dead. This deserves a toast. Shall we?" Doowon smirked at the man and got a green bottle from underneath the table. "Only the finest whiskey for you Mr Wang." Jackson chuckled coldly, taking a glass from the table and extending it forward to Doowon. "But-" Doowon said as he slowly uncorked the bottle. "I do not wish for your bodyguards to be here. You know how the Lee Family works? Even the most trusted allies can turn into back stabbers when their money is involved. " If Jackson Wang was startled, he didn't show it on his face. Instead he motioned for his guards to leave the room, who followed suit, although with a little uncertainty. Brian also left the room, leaving the two scarred men alone.

"Well then a toast. To me and you. Buisness partners." Doowon raised his glass in unison with Jackson, who drank up the whiskey quickly. "Mr Wang I have something to tell you." Jackson looked up at the younger man and waved his hand as if to say 'go on'. "First of all I just want to thank you for taking me in that night, when everyone thought I was dead. You were so ever so good with your observations to notice that I was only playing dead. And then you trained me and everything so thank you for that. And for telling me the truth about everything." Jackson simply nodded. He felt a sharp jab in his stomach and his head started to stir. Doowon was going out of focus now and in what seemed like a split second, Jackson Wang rolled off of the chair, onto the floor. Dead. "But I wanted to tell you sir." Doowon spoke to the limp body on the floor. "That I would like to take over by myself now. You're getting too old and I don't want you to interfere in my personal matters."

"How do you feel now Y/N? Better?" A pretty older woman was checking up on you. She wore a doctor's coat with the nametag 'Dr Kim' on it. She was Seungmin's aunt, the surgeon who had saved your life. "Well the pain has subsided a bit Dr.Kim. I still feel a bit dizzy every time I move, but I think I'm good now." Dr Kim warmly smiled at you as she checked your heartbeat. "Well in any case, I think you'll be fine by tomorrow. You can even walk around tomorrow if you like. But for now, just get some more sleep. I'll tell Minho and the boys not to disturb you alright?" Dr Kim gently squeezed your hand and packed up her equipment. She spoke to you as if you were her own child, with such delicate words and a comforting voice, something that your mother never gave you. "Um Dr Kim? Could you ask Minho to come up here please? If you don't mind?" "Of course honey! I'll ask him. Take care now." She gently kissed your forehead and went out the door.

"You wanted to see me?" Minho was dressed in a blue shirt, slightly open at the top and white pants. He looked so.... refined. And hot, exactly like a K drama CEO. God damn he looked delicious. Don't lick your lips. Do not lick your fucking lips Y/N. "Yeah I have some questions." Minho groaned as he shut the door and came forward to sit on the bed. "What now?" "Where did you get this bracelet?" You held up the bracelet to Minho, who looked at you, perplexed. "That's my bracelet, for your information. My mother gifted it to me. It's been in my family for centuries." Wait what now? "Minho stop fucking lying would you? My brother gave me this as a surprise gift when I was ten. And it went missing ever since the day he fucking died! So could you please tell me where the fuck you got this? Or I'm getting out of this bed and asking Chan." "Woah there princess." Minho looked at you, worried at your outburst. "Alright don't get out of bed please. I don't want you bleeding out and dying. But I'm telling the truth. This is the bracelet my mother gave me when I was twelve. It's been passed on from generation to generation in the Lee Family. It's a special bracelet, because it has these tiny chits inside the beads, telling the person who opens it who the next leader of, well, underground South Korea is going to be."

Too much information again. Number one, you could not stop staring at Minho's pretty pink lips. Number two, why did the chit inside the bead have your brother's name? And why did it say that he was alive?" "Wh-who puts the chits inside of this?" You asked Minho, carefully hiding the chit inside of your hand. "Well my uncle Wang dies. Jackson's dad. His great great great grandpa was the one who made this bracelet. So he has the right to choose the heir." "Minho I think you need to see this." You handed Minho the faded chit. He looked at it for a solid fifteen seconds before looking at you, blinking rapidly, just like how he does whenever someone surprises him. "Y/N oh fuck. Shit come on get up. Quick. I'll help you." "Wait Minho what? What happened?" You asked Minho as he gently wrapped his arms around your waist, supporting you as you slowly got out the bed, and onto your legs. "Y/N we need to get to a safer place. If- if what this chit says is true, you're in more danger than I thought." "Wait Minho stop. Would you stop for a moment? Minho- Lee Minho!" You shouted his name, which made him stop in his tracks, arms still supporting your waist, even though you could still walk fine. "Would you please explain to me what's going on?" "Come down to the hall." Minho sighed and told you. "The boys, except Chan hyung, don't know either. So I can tell them and you at the same time. It'll be easier won't it?"

You nodded, not saying anything. Your mouth was dry and words were not escaping it. Gosh September was meant to be good. Why was it so full of surprises?

"Yah Minho Hyung! Auntie told noona can't get up until tomorrow." Seungmin said to Minho as both of you cam doen the stairs. All of the boys were pin the living room, immersed in their own work. Seungmin and Jeongin were playing chess and Chan was on his laptop as usual. "Chan hyung. I think I've figured out who the Mink Thief is." Chan's head snapped from his laptop to Minho so fast, that you swore you heard a cracking sound. The other boys' attention was also now on Minho. "Are you joking or are you actually telling the truth right now?" Minho smiled at Chan's words and set you down on the couch next to Changbin gently. "No I am not joking. Look at this." He handed Chan the bracelet and the chit, which Chan twirled in his gorgeous fingers, all the while looking at it as if it was some alien substance. "Oh fucking hell. Not him?" Minho nodded at Chan's exasperated words as Chan slumped in his chair, setting his laptop down on the table. "Can anyone explain what's going on please? Minho hyung?" Felix asked. "Alright bitches-" "language Minho" "Hyung stop being so old. Alright bitches listen up. So first of all let me introduce you to a man named Yoon Doowon, also known to us as The Mink Thief, who has been sending our families threats for a long time, also know to Y/N as her dead brother." "Yah! Rude!" "Anyways, one thing that Chan hyung found out a few days ago is that The Mink Thief has been in contact with my cousin, Jackson, ever since the day of Y/N's brother's murder. Also Y/N," he paused at looked into your eyes. "Whatever I'm about to say next will probably shock you so please don't faint out of surprise." You looked at Minho with the best offended eyes you could.

Minho then continued in a much more serious voice, "Yoon Danbi, Y/N's mom has been a spy for my family ever since I was born. Her and her husband had been placed here in Jeju Island along with their only daughter Yoon Jinhee, for an important mission. But soon, people grew suspicious of how both of them would act all the time, leaving their daughter alone for such long periods of time, coming home late at deadly hours and blah blah blah. So, in order to make their family seem much more 'normal', they took in two children. Choi Doowon and Jeon Y/N." "Minho what the fuck are you saying right now." Why were there so many surprises? Was your entire life a lie? Were you adopted for some stupid mission or something? What kind of Marvel shit was this? "Yeah this is why I said, don't faint out of shock." Minho slightly chuckled as Chan looked at repramandingly. "Look yes it's true your parents aren't your real parents. But the thing is your didn't even have parents. You came straight from the orphanage. So when my family took one look at you, someone with no background information which can be traced, they thought you were perfect for this mission. I mean, think of it Y/N, haven't you ever saw your parents hiding any documents from you or getting afraid when you asked for your birth certificate whenever you needed to register for your basketball games?" Yes, when you thought about it, they did do that.

"Hyung don't you think you should have had this conversation somewhere more private?" Felix looked from your distraught face to Minho's. "We probably should have but I have shit to tell all of you too." Minho said to his younger brother. "When Doowon supposedly died that night, Jackson Wang got a new partner in crime. Doowon was probably still alive. I know that no one can survive a fall like that, but I seriously don't know how he survived. So what I'm assuming from this tiny chit here, is that Jackson probably told Doowon the truth about his true parentage and all, and then like a basic villain, Doowon wanted revenge and now Y/N's life is basically a fantasy novel." "Ain't that right?" You scoffed. "My entire fucking life is a lie. I mean is my name even Y/N? Are we just living in a hallucination? What if all humanity is meant to do is just live our boring lives until a giant space turtle comes along and kills us all?" "That would be a cool way to die." Jisung said, not even a bit surprised by your rambling. "Jisung." Chan looked at Jisung with a glare. "Alright listen up everybody. Now that the sad backstory is out the way, we need to get down to buisness. First of all we need to get Y/N somewhere safe. Well safer. So Y/N, would you be willing to go along with Jisung, Jeongin and Seungmin?" You nodded at Chan, who looked very relieved. "Great. Felix, Hyunjin, would both of you search out if Vernon's mansion is still protected and everything? " Felix and Hyunjin replied 'yes' to Chan and quickly went out the room. "Um noona we should get going. Can you walk by yourself?" Seungmin stood up and extended a hand to you, which you gratefully took and got up. "Yeah I can walk don't worry. Um where are we going?" Seungmin smiled at you, revealing his braces. "Don't worry about that. Just follow me to the car."

Fifteen minutes later, you were sitting in the back of a Bentley with Jisung, with Seungmin driving and Jeongin stared out the window, sitting quietly in the passenger seat. "You're lucky Minho hyung gave us his car noona." Jisung commented. "He never even lets us touch it. But then again, we're with you, so I guess that makes up for it." You looked at Jisung's wavy hair and thought to yourself that how can a sweet boy like him, be Minho's best friend. "Jisung, when you said Minho doesn't stop talking about me to you guys, what exactly does he talk about?" "Oh noona I could write an entire seven book Series about that " Seungmin responded instead of Jisung. "He doesn't ever stop talking about what your favourite song is, or what you wore today or how your hair falls in such a perfect way. And when we tell him to just tell you that he is pathetically in love with you, he sulks and says that he would rather kill himself." Well that was certainly surprising. "Oh we're here." Jeongin said, as the car pulled up to a massive iron gate, which had the letters C, H and V on it. What it was guarding was a massive black mansion, which looked very much like a vampire's lair, covered in vines of ivy with a statue of bat hanging out in the big yard. "Chwe Hansol. Also known as Vernon. This is his mansion. He's a good friend of Chan Hyung's and he lets us use the mansion whenever we want. It's the safest place in Jeju Island so we'll be good here noona." Jisung told you, as you stepped out of the car. The mansion looked so ethereal and as you walked into the yard through the gate, you wondered if this was the mansion which was described in the story of the vampire Carmilla. You lived and breathed for that story and you were excited at the thought of hiding in a place which looked exactly like Carmilla's mansion, where she took the blood of her lover, weeping over her body, and complaining about her death.

The boys pushed open the big dual doors of the mansion with difficulty, but not before Jisung had entered a pass code on the tiny keyboard thing which was on the right side of the door. This was indeed Carmilla's mansion, you thought as you entered the big living room, which was decked from head to toe in gold and silver. There was a magnificent chandelier hanging from the ceiling, along with busts of some vague looking people.

"Gosh this is so pretty." You said to Seungmin, who smiled and said "Wait till you see the ball room." You were about say 'theres a ball room here?' when suddenly the lights went out. "Ah fucking hell. Guys stay here with noona. I'll go and see what's wrong." You heard Jisung's voice. "I don't think you need to do that, my dear Mr.Han." you heard a cold voice, which didn't belong to any of the boys. "Who's ther-" Before Seungmin could finish his sentence, you felt a hit to your head, and you blacked out, before hearing Jisung shout, "Noona!"

"Y/Nnie. Wake up." Doowon said in a sing song voice. The boys were tightly tied up to the chairs, with cello tape around their mouths. You were also tied up to the big blue cushion chair, with Doowon, standing in front of you, wearing a red coat and that mink fur stole. He had three bodyguards with him, all buffer than Changbin, all carrying guns and all looking scary as fuck. "Y/N wake up you stupid bitch." Doowon slapped your face painfully, which made you slightly stir. "Hey don't do that she's injured!" Jisung shouted out, having managed to chew through his cello tape. Doowon looked at Jisung with a sarcastic smile and said nothing, while one of the bodyguards punched Jisung. "Doowon?" You had woken up and the surroundings were appearing more clearly now. Your stomach hurt so much and your brain was still fuzzy, except for your dead brother standing in front of you, smirking. "Oh hey Y/Nnie. You miss me?" He asked you in a cold voice you didn't recognise. Never September. This was not September's child standing in front of you. This wasn't September's child, who used to chase butterflies and gift you cute little stones, standing in front of you. "Doowon you're alive." You managed to cough out some words, along with a bit of blood. "Ahh yes I am. I assume your stupid boyfriend already told you what happened to me. So I'm going to skip over the part where I explain shit to you." He let out a cold laugh which made you flinch. "Doowon this isn't you. What are you doing?" You asked him, tears welling up in your eyes. "This isn't me? No Y/N this is me. I've been lied to my entire life and Jackson Wang told me the truth. He taught me the way to survive in our world. He's dead now by the way. Just like our 'parents'." "Doowon please. Stop this lunacy! Atleast let the boys go they haven't done anything wrong!" Doowon leaned down to your level and lifted your chin with his finger. You shivered at his cold touch. "Aww Y/N. Always so fucking innocent. Baby the boys are leverage. Soon the rest of the boys will be here and then after some introductions, I can finally rule all of South Korea." Your tears had escaped now as you looked over at the boys, who were knocked unconscious by the bodyguards. You felt like the most lowest human being on earth, when you looked at Jeongin's bleeding lip, wondering what Chan's reaction would be when he arrived here. "Brian! Go check if the doors are open please. I want them all to waltz in here and call for these pathetic boys. And then we'll hit them where they don't even know it hurts. Maybe we'll start with this one." He moved over to Jeongin. The man named Brian laughed and winked at Doowon. "I'll get the door sir." He moved out the room swiftly.

Fifteen minutes had passed. Fifteen silent minutes. This was silence which you did not enjoy. Silence was sweet in September, when only the Magpies chirped. But now, as you watched Jeongin and Seungmin slightly stir, silence became bitter. "Is Brian not coming? You!" Doowon shouted at one of the guards. "Go out and see where he is! Does it take this much time for the rascal to come back?" The guard obeyed and made to get up from his seat on a rickety wooden chair. BANG! A bullet shot went through the guards head, and as he slumped to the ground, with a pool of blood around his head, Doowon screamed and grabbed Jisung by his chin. "You! What have you done!" Jisung merely smirked at him as Doowon lay frozen there, staring at the body. "Oh for fucks sake what are both of you doing?" Doowon spat at the two remaining guards. "Go upstairs and check if the rats have entered the house already!" The guards nodded their heads fervently and went off in opposite directions, only to be met with two gunshots. The door burst open, as Minho and the remaining boys barged in.

"Doowon." Minho said coldly to Doowon, who merely smirked, trying to hide the fact that he had peed his pants a bit. "Well you found me didn't you? Good job Minho. You know Mr Wang told me how your family works. So I'm honoured that I'm actually getting to experience a member of the great Lee family trying to kill me." You were disgusted by his words. Where did your sweet Doowon go? Where did the boy whom you had cried for day and night go? "Let the boys and Y/N go. Now Doowon. And we won't have any consequences." Chan said to Doowon. He looked furious. You hadn't ever seen Chan like this. "Oh you can take the boys first and then I'll give you Y/N." Hearing that, Changbin and Hyunjin hurried forward, untied the boys, who were concious by now and supported them on their arms, as they carried them back to safety.

"Now Y/N's turn. Give her back to me Doowon and maybe you won't end up choking on your own blood tonight." Minho's voice made your heart go warm. He had nothing but cold fury in his voice. If you thought you had seen his anger on that one particular basketball match in Busan, you were mistaken.

"Now why would I do that? Sweet little Y/N is all ok tied up to his chair aren't you Y/Nnie?" He pulled your hair and kicked you hard in your stomach, which made you cough out blood. Yep, the stitches in your stomach had probably opened up. Fuck no, not now. Don't die in September. Let me wait for October. October seemed more comforting now. The Magpies had their babies in October. Im October, you could get boba on discount. In October, you could hand out with your friends whenever you want. In October, Minho would turn a year older. Wait how did you know that? Why was this room so fuzzy? Hey Minho's face. His beautiful face. It was going out of focus now. Good way to die isn't it. You hoped death came to you, wrapped in white silk and picked you up in her arms like a baby and put you in a cradle. A cradle painted orange and yellow. A cradle with Magpies on it. A cradle which loved all the months equally. But especially October. Especially October.

"Doowon, stop that! Stop fucking hurting her!" Minho screamed at Doowon. You were blacked out now and as Minho looked at your gently sleeping figure, his heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach. "And what if I don't? What will you do oh great Lee Minho? I have her in my arms and I can do anything I wa-" That was the last thing Minho heard before all he saw was Doowon's dumb face, struck with shock, bullet hole in his big head, blood staining his already red suit and his stupid mentality finally gone from this world. "Good job Minho. Now come on let's get Y/N. Guys get Jisung, Seungmin and Jeongin to the car. We'll get Y/N." Chan told the others, while Minho had already strode over to you. He hurriedly untied the ropes around your arms and legs and got you to his arms, fingers looking for your wrists, to check your pulse. Tears were coming out now. Tears he never knew would come for you. He loved you. So much. So much it was honestly pathetic. The way you scowled everytime you saw him, the way your eyes lit up whenever you got a high test score, the way you cherished December for your birthday, the way you existed. He loved everything about you. And he can't lose you. Not now. Not ever.

"Feeling good kitten?" You had woken up in Minho's house again, with Dr Kim checking your heartbeat and adjusting your blood pump. "Minho." You managed to breath out weakly, making Minho's heart drop again. He was quick to stand up and cup your face in his arms gently as tears poured out of your eyes. "Hey hey hey don't cry." He said so gently, in a tone which he never used with you. "No Y/N. Shh. I've got you. You're safe. You're safe." He hugged you gently, supporting your head with his hands as you silently sobbed into his shirt. Once you pulled away, you noticed that his shirt was wet from all the crying and that his eye bags were more prominent. "Im sorry. I'm so sorry Minho. I-I really didn't know about..... about him and I caused you all this trouble. I am so sorry." "Hey hey princess. Y/N listen to me." You looked into his eyes, which were twinkling into yours. "None of it is your fault. You hear me? None of it. If anything, I should have told you all that I know earlier but I couldn't. Because- because I- I love you Y/N." That was it. That's all it took. That's all it took, for your eyes to widen, your hands to reach up to his jaw and for your lips to meet his, in a slow dance accompanied by the melodies of the Magpies outside, celebrating that you two had finally realised your love for each other. You pulled away after what felt like a very short time, but you were running out of breath. Minho and you stared at each other for a while and then burst into giggles. "That felt nice princess. You sure you haven't kissed anyone before?" You slapped his chest playfully as you said "Yah! Don't make me think back about being your girlfriend Lee Minho." Minho's eyes lit up and he stuttered out "Girlfriend? Yep I'm in a dream someone pinch me." You rolled your eyes as you pinched him and he let out a tiny scream. "Oh stop so dramatic. How long was I out by the way? And are the boys alright?" "You were out for two days now kitten. And the boys are good. Jisung is saying he finally got his 'Wattpad best friend gets kidnapped moment' and I think Chan told Dr Kim to double his dosage of sleeping pills so now he's crashed out. And snoring loudly."

"Noona you're awake!" Felix had come into the room, well more like bounced into the room along with the rest of the boys, Seungmin sporting a cast, and Jeongin having a pink band-aid on his lip. Felix hugged you tightly while Chan hugged Minho. "Lix let her go. She needs to breath." Chan said to Felix, who had been hugging you for a long time now. "Seungmin, Jeongin are you guys ok now? I am literally so sorry." Jeongin smiled at you sweetly, his fox like eyes forming crescents and said, "We're good noona. Technically we should be asking you that question. And it's fine please don't apologise." He bowed a bit to you and as you tried to bow back, whilst sitting, Hyunjin said, to Minho "So hyung. Have you finally got your ass together and asked noona out?" Minho glared at Hyunjin as everyone else in the room laughed. "You will be getting your mouth stuffed tonight Hyunjin. And yes I have asked her out. And now she's my girlfriend." "Yah who said I was your girlfriend?" You jokingly said. "Ok I'm gonna ask Jisung out then." Minho said standing up.

Four years later

You had been living with Minho for four years now, as his live-in Girlfriend. He had introduced you to his parents, who had been nothing less that kind to you. They had first apologized profusely for the whole Doowon incident, to which you told them that you really didn't care. You had Minho with you and all of your past had slowly faded away.

And every year as October and September came, you learnt to cherish ,not the month, but the memories you made every day. You learnt to forever keep memories of you, your boyfriend, your friends and everyone around you. You learnt how to let go of grief easily.

And when Minho proposed to you, on the twenty first night of December, you learnt, you just needed someone a bit older, and a bit colder, to teach you what it meant to love a person like you'd love a month.

#lee know #lee minho #skz lee know #skz lee Minho #skz #stray kids lee minno #stray kids lee know fic #lee know fic #lee Minho fix #Minho #minho fic #angst and fluff #enemies to lovers #skz mafia au #lee know mafia au #lee minho mafia au #Minho mafia boss #minho mafia boss au #minho mafia au #stray kids fic #skz fic #stray kids minho #kpop fics #took a long time but shes finally here #the minho is this is Maniac era minho by the way #i described him as having plum brown hair #which is what he had in Oddinary era #SO HAWT #bye bye now #have a great day ahead

[hannawinchester03]

IN ANOTHER GALAXY..

This is a regular imagine, as if you're part of the guardians of the galaxy! Mostly backstory but pt2 coming soon with more romantic and erotic scenes for sure!

Enjoy!

Here is the part 2!

Chapter contains: some flirtation, baby groot (obviously) , mom figure, death, family loss, drunk father, childhood trauma, and sarcasm

Word count: 1587

The year was 1989, Chicago Illinois. (Y/N) was 9 years old, she already was learning how to drive. "You gotta know your way around, who knows when you'll get lost, you always gotta find your way home." Her dad always told her, meaning this meant learning to drive earlier than most people and take care of what needed to be done.

(Y/N) didn't have much of a childhood, grew up faster than she would have liked but hey stuff happens.

It was a casual Friday night for (Y/N) same routine as usual, her dad goes out drinking and partying it up with his friends at the local bar. (Y/N) was used to it by now, it's been 3 years since her aunt passed away, her aunt was like a mother to her, her real mother passed away in child birth, but her dying wish was that her sister took care of (Y/N) like she was her own. Which she did, she took care of (Y/N) while her father drank to get over her mothers passing, but to them it seems he has never gotten over it, probably didn't help the fact that (Y/N) looked exactly like her mother.

(Y/N) remembers her aunt telling her stories of how the two sisters were thick as thieves together, always going out exploring the abandon houses, going to the woods, running through malls together when they were younger, even doing normal things like spending time with each other, like listening to music while they watched their parents dance. (Y/N) always wished that she had a sister or another sibling to play with and share memories with like her mother and aunt did.

"Your mom always wanted to have twins, she'd tell us she has a feeling that you were gonna be a twin, like Luke and leia.." (Y/N) was always told which made her sad at times that she was her mothers one and only child. There was a lot on the 9 year olds shoulders to say the least. (Y/N) always had vivid dreams of what is would be like to in space watching down on the world, making sure every child didn't need to go through what she did, it could have been much worse she always thought but the last 3 years for sure proved her wrong. It was worse, eating only once a week or not for weeks at a time.

It was around 10 pm on Friday, she was waiting for the house phone to ring, and hear the same words she heard every Friday night, the way the bartender would always call her asking to pick up her dad or call him a cab, they had little to no money so the only option was to learn to drive and pick him up herself. Little 9 year old (Y/N) who could barely see over the steering wheel driving at night listening to "my sweet lord- by George Harrison" was the last thing she remembered of her past life.

That was 15 years ago, "I really wanna see you, I really wanna be with you.." was the last thing she heard from the radio before the disaster struck, she watched as a child not much older then she was running through the main Street, then the child was gone only a light shinning down where they were last seen, causing (Y/N) to slam on the brakes and get out running after the light.

15 years later here she stood in the middle of platform floating the in the middle of the sky, standing next to a talking raccoon, a miniature tree that somehow talks but only could speak the three words "I am groot"and the only other person she knew of who was also from earth. A place she once knew so well and now it was just a fuzzy memory.

"Okay we gotta work fast, the others are going to meet us with the other materials. We just need that things heart.." Quill spoke as he looked around at the group mainly looking at (y/n) making her raise an eyebrow at him about to say something back but she was distracted as she heard a small. "I am groot" making her look down and smile softly as her attention was then quickly pulled away as rocket spoke up translating for them. "He says '(y/n) knows what she's doing' he's right, she wasn't born yesterday..like some people." Rocket stated as he lightly nudged (y/n) leg and gave her a small wink with the wrong eye as usual making her chuckle.

Quill rolled his eyes and was about to speak up but quickly got interrupted by the smaller aliens started bursting through a door running in their direction, He quickly stood in position in front of (y/n) to protect her making her roll her eyes as she moves around him grabbing groot propping him up on her shoulder so he wouldn't get stepped on as she held up the gun rocket had given her quickly shooting as many aliens as she could, as she reloaded she took over watching as the others took turns killing the monsters as they seems to keep coming.

"Look out, here comes the big one!" Quill shouted as he was reloading his weapon, (y/n) watched as an alien got to close to him so she quickly shot it and turned her attention to the bigger alien, she couldn't help but stare as it was almost double the side of the other aliens taking a step back as she focused on the multiple arms and hands the monster has, and how it had multiple eyes, she couldn't help but think about how she got into the situation.

"(y/n) just distract it! Whatever you do don't shoot its heart." Rocket called out as (y/n) nodded quickly running towards one of the higher platforms standing on top of it watching as it tried to grab her, shooting its hands away every-time watching as it stumbled back and quill got behind it shooting its head making the monster stumble back falling onto its back crying out in pain.

(y/n) watched as rocket threw a shock wave close to it stunning the alien so it would be in place for a minute or two, she nodded her head at rocket as she jumped down off the platform knowing the plan from here. She got out the laser that rocket has gived to her, she always though it looked kind of like a light saber, but always thought to herself since no one's from earth and they'll know what Star Wars is, she always told herself.

She got next to the beast and sliced clean across the aliens torso watching as it stopped breathing from the clean cut she had made, she watched as rocket climbed on top of the beast slicing its flesh and reached his hand in ripping out the heart. (y/n) couldn't help but stumble backwards as she could smelt a awful smell coming from monster as rocket held the heart up in the air.

(y/n)'s eyes lit up a bit as she now was able to see the heart, the thing they were going after. She could help but stare at it as it looked breath taking, it looked like a solid chunk of gold making her eyebrow go up as rocked stood up holding it proudly. "Great now we have the final part, let's go the others are probably already there." Rocket stated as he began walking back to the ship.

(y/n) let out a small huff still shocked, not that they had killed the monsters, she's used to that by now, considering she's been around it for the last 15 years. She snapped out of her thoughts as she still felt groot on the shoulder playing with some of her hair making her glance down at him.

"I am groot". He hummed out making her chuckle softly and toss some hair over his small head. "Maybe you need to grow out some hair. A nice green to brighten you up." she said back to the small plant making him smile and reply with a simple nod.

"I don't understand how you understand him.. doesn't it freak you out? A talking tree." Quill spoke up as he followed next to (y/n), she let out a small chuckle as groot continued to play with her hair wrapping small vines around her hair and she shrugged. "I mean he's still a person, he talks and has feelings why would it freak me out.." She stated back.

"Well maybe because you're from earth, how is this all normal to you." Quill responded as he walked up onto the space ships loading ramp. "Maybe it's because i wasn't born yesterday, after 15 years you learn to accept everything." She says as she followed behind him, once on the ship she sets groot down and smiles softly at him.

"We're in another galaxy, nothing surprises me anymore Peter." (y/n) states as she passed by quill heading to the main control room to meet up with rocket. "It's Star lord!" He cries out behind (y/n) making her and rocket laugh as they settle into their seats buckling up and (y/n) hums happily as groot comes and sit on her lap for the ride.

Hope y’all enjoyed, please feel free to leave comments, like and share with your friends!

I’m always open for suggestions or ideas so feel free to comment!

#peter quill #peter quill x you #peter quill x y/n #peter quill x reader #peter quill x fem!reader #peter quill fanfic #peter quill imagine #peter quill headcanons #fanfiction tips #guardians of the galaxy #marvel #fanfic #writing #female writers #writers and poets #writers on tumblr

[kyber-crystal]

a lil hangman backstory drabble

ALRIGHT you got it :) sorry if this seems lowkey stupid. it sounded a lot cuter in my head i promise

everyone says hangman got his callsign because of his independent, overconfident nature

but the truth is that's not how it happened at all

you were actually the one that gave him the little nickname

he came from a broken family, and leaned on you a lot because you were all he had

since either of you could start walking and talking, you were best friends

so he was crying one day because his parents were fighting yet again. he was maybe 6? 7? years old. you heard him through your walls, and climbed through his window to get to him. (luckily, there was a tree between your houses so doing this was pretty easy)

being as young as you were at the time, you didn't know many was to comfort a distressed first grader

"jake? i can go back home and bring some cookies. mom made some new ones last night, 'cause she remembered snickerdoodle was your favorite"

he kept crying, which really worried you because he never turned down a request to your family's baking.

so you did the only other thing you knew. you pulled out a piece of paper and colored pencils

you drew a familiar series of lines. then thought for a bit, before you came up with a word and drew out a long series of dashes

"pick a letter!"

as expected, jake went through all the vowels first

it didn't take long for him to guess the phrase

through his tears he looked at you and started to smile. "jake and y/n forever? really?"

you grinned super wide. "duh! what else?"

"so we'll be together forever."

"yeah, dummy. whether you like it or not, i'm staying"

you two had set sights on the naval aviator dream for the longest time. so you pushed each other to the max, and always supported each other no matter what. through middle school, high school, and the naval academy, you stayed together

when you both received invitations to top gun you were beyond excited. you sprinted across the field, not caring that you were probably disrupting the whole commencement ceremony

and you jumped towards him and he spun you around and around

"we did it! we're going to california"

"we sure are," and he kissed your forehead - but he was so excited that he almost kissed you full on the mouth

but he stopped himself because you're his best friend and best friends aren't supposed to feel this way about each other. right?

right.

jake finally sets you down and you dust yourself off. your heart warmed as you looked at his nametag

"it suits you. hangman."

"now, who do i have to thank for that?"

you're so excited that you keep holding his hand through the entire 5.5 hour flight to san diego

and you keep holding his hand as you get in the taxi to the naval base

and as you get out

and as you introduce yourself to everyone there

"i'm phoenix, and i think we're going to be best friends," said the first person you ran into. "that your boyfriend?"

that's when you finally let go of hangman's hand. "no"

"i don't believe you for a second"

fast forward several years and you're all sitting around at penny's bar, talking late into the night

the subject of everyone's callsigns comes up and right away everyone starts roasting poor hangman

"hangman always leaves people out to dry!" - bob

"you left me hanging in the air, and during wii tennis. traitor. i can't believe you" - coyote

"i gave that loser his callsign, you know," you spoke up

and the gang is like wait wtf

so you gave a brief explanation on how it came to be. you'd been glued together since you were babies, and played the classic word game all the time. hence the name...

fanboy and payback are full on SOBBING by the time you finish and it's so hilarious

"might as well change both your callsigns to husband and wife at this point!" - penny

oh. he totally calls you wife up in the air the next morning

it throws you off track long enough for maverick to get a missile lock on you, dropping you out of the simulation's competition

"don't get distracted, ms. seresin" hangman said over your comms

after years of waiting, he finally kisses you when you touch down later that afternoon

tags, including people who may be interested (under the cut):

@walkonthewiidside @sarcastic-sourwolf @totomoshi @sebastianstangirl01 @dilfsandtherapy @purelyfiction @93joons @yeehawnana @lunamoonbby @hazelgirl355 @multifandom-fangirl4 @paintballkid711 @lyn-lc @azari-anna @thelifeofthelifeofme @spawn0fsatan @milestomaverick @teacactusworld @icemansgirl1999 @cherry-waved @newlibrary @ellabellabus07 @criminalyetminimal @whatlovegattado @lets-be-gay-for-the-angel @vane28282 @thisismypointofview @organabanks @hufflepuffprincesse @ice-mans-world @burnedbrisket @fangirlinc @marveljunkie45 @knowledgefulbutterfly @levis-butterfingers @minivture @teacactusworld @lunamooncole @skylynch03 @coastingline @chaoticassidy @hbstre @fantasias-creativebubble @mercury-mae @light-the-moon @winteryoungie @aie1840

#top gun #top gun: maverick #top gun fic #jake seresin #jake hangman seresin #jake seresin x reader #hangman x reader #hangman fic #hangman seresin #top gun fanfic #glen powell #hangman x you #top gun maverick fanfiction #jake seresin x you

[gailstorm]

Long post ahead.

Yesterday, we moved my grandmother into assisted living. I’ve been up here in Pocahontas for most of the week helping my mom pack and spending time with my precious MiMi, who had multiple strokes at the end of last year and cannot take care of herself anymore.

And she’s been looking forward to moving into her new place. It’s back in her hometown of Jonesboro, where some of our family still lives. She has multiple friends and old neighbors that are in this exact facility, and she makes new friends as effortlessly as breathing. My mom is staying with her there for a few days, and said that she’s doing well so far.

I know this is the right decision, and that she’ll be happier and safer. But the change has been surprisingly emotional for me. It’s not a shock that she moved, because she was talking about wanting to do this even before her strokes. She is 92 years old, and has experienced the worst moments of her life while living here. I completely understand her wanting to leave.

I stayed here by myself last night, which felt strange and hollow. For most of my life, my grandparents lived in Jonesboro. I was far more attached to those two houses than I am to this one, which they moved into back in 2010. Being here alone feels shockingly lonely…and I’ve lived by myself (with a dog) for several years. But this place—MiMi and PaPa’s house—is supposed to be filled with family.

I should be able to hear my hard-of-hearing PaPa’s booming bass explaining this year’s crop yield, my Uncle Bobby’s wall-shaking laughter, my Aunt Becky’s always-reserved, quiet alto as she cooks the best meal you’ve ever had. But they’re all gone now.

In less than a two-year timeframe, the three of them passed away. My uncle first, dying of an undiagnosed heart condition in his sleep at his home near Seattle. After being informed of his death, my mom and I joined my aunt up here in Pocahontas to break the devastating news to my grandparents. Witnessing the worst moment of their lives is one of the most heartbreaking memories of mine. Just two months later, that same aunt died of cancer, which was diagnosed about a year beforehand. My MiMi was adamant that she was going to be with Aunt Becky as she passed, as she wished she could’ve been with Uncle Bobby. She held my aunt’s hand as she drifted away while in hospice care.

This was January-March of 2020. My grandfather had developed dementia before this point, and my family could no longer take care of him ourselves…especially after the two aforementioned huge losses. We begrudgingly put him into a nursing home down the road from the Pocahontas house, and my MiMi visited him every day. COVID protocols soon hit, and she was only able to talk to him on the phone and see him through a glass window. The guilt of putting him there overwhelmed my MiMi and my mom, but it was unfortunately necessary. I think my mom still regrets it.

I moved to Texas in January 2021. I had to move to a large city for my then-job, and I loved Austin, so that’s where I chose to go. I hated leaving my family during such a difficult time, but they encouraged me to go live my dream. My PaPa even joked that he would drive down to Austin and see me.

His health deteriorated as the months went by. At the end of November that year, he passed away with my MiMi by his side. He was 93 years old, and held out as long as he could. He was easily the strongest man I have ever known.

I came home for his funeral, wishing that I could’ve been there with him as he passed on, or with my mom when she heard the news. During this time, I learned that due to the skyrocketing housing costs in Austin, my rent was going to go up an extra $600 per month. There was no way I could afford that, and my job agreed that I could work from Little Rock instead. A part of me hated moving back, because I loved my little apartment. My precious dog, Marley, had passed away months earlier from pneumonia while we were out there, and it somehow felt like I was abandoning him as well as my dream home in my dream city.

Being back near my family for the last two years has been the right decision, but it’s also been tough. One of my nieces has been in and out of the hospital with anorexia for nearly these entire two years. She’s been completely inpatient since last August.

Dealing with all of the aforementioned losses, plus my niece’s health, plus my lunatic brother’s violent threats, plus my MiMi’s strokes and deteriorating mental health, I don’t know how my mom even functions. My cousins and I help her with everything, of course, but she’s so fucking tough that she usually wants to do things herself, her way. I’m looking forward to her being able to finally relax knowing that my MiMi will be safe and happier than she has been in years.

So at this moment, I’m here alone in this half-furnished house, reminiscing. My cousins and I will take turns staying up here and fixing things until we sell it. I’m not mourning the loss of the house itself (as I did with my grandparents other two homes) but the fact that the concept of “MiMi and Papa’s house” now ceases to exist.

I’m lucky to have had my PaPa for 37 years of my life. I’m lucky be nearly 40 and still have my MiMi. She’ll be 93 in August, and though she stays positive, she has mentioned that she’ll be glad to be with my aunt, uncle, and grandfather again, as well as her other friends and family members who have passed. She’s not ready to pass on or give up, but she has no fear of death. I selfishly want her around as long as possible, and her chance of a happier, longer life is now much more likely with her move to this new facility.

These past four years have been fucking awful for my family and myself, but hopefully, a positive new chapter is now (finally) beginning.

#family #love

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Thranduil and Josie Pt. 140- Vengeance

Summary: Josie dreams of the past that holds a message. Stephane and Jo have another talk. A birthday party is planned. Josie experiences a new power. She and Charles search for something. Another side of Garrett is seen. A secret is kept. A surprise is in the works. An ultimatum is given. A visitor comes bearing bad news.

*Warnings* language, angst, death mentions, death, violence, graphic depictions, blood

Stories Stories Stories Masterlist

Your dreams took you back in time as you saw yourself at Sarah's house, your best friend in your teen years and the one you saw Harker kill when Jareth had showed you the memory of it.

It was a typical weekend afternoon of tarot cards and witchy stuff that she was into and it also happened to be Halloween, the night she went missing and the day you unknowingly met Jareth the goblin King for the first time. Back then, you didn't believe in all that voodoo stuff so much, although you remembered how your mother did. Sarah though, was all about it, a witch herself and you didn't realize the truth of it all until almost seven years after her death.

For some fun and a break from taking care of your sick dad, you would go to her place to let loose since it was right next door. The night would consist of pizza, sneaking booze from her mom's pantry since she worked in the evening, and cranking up the music while Sarah filled the room with candles and would give you readings. As skeptical as you always were about it, strangely they always became relevant to your life at some point, but you would just chalk it up to be a coincidence.

As she laid the cards out one, she placed the last one in front of you. The high priestess that held the letters B and J on it.

"Sooo, what does that mean?" you asked with an arched brow.

"The high priestess is a card of mystery, stillness and passivity. You need to reflect upon your situation and trust your instincts to guide you though what is to come. Things around you are not what they appear to be." Sarah explained, but then she just stared at the card with a head tilt.

"What things? My instincts tell me my life is exactly what it looks like...all fucked up."

"No...something is....amiss...now and into the future. I've drawn this card for you before, but it never spoke to me util now."

"Sarah, my dad is terminally ill with only a few years to live if he's lucky. That's what's amiss and that is the future."

"Jo, no...you're taking things literally, which sometimes the cards can be but sometimes they have deeper meanings, metaphoric even. I know you don't believe this stuff, but I'm telling you there's something huge about your life and your future. You see this?" she said and pointed to the lady on the card.

"Uh yeah...it looks like a queen or something. Oh my god Sarah?? Am I going to become the Queen of England??" you jested and laughed.

"No!" she scoffed. "But...you will be of some great importance. Something magical and powerful. The half moon at her feet tells me that. I know you never believe me, but I feel it in you. The witchy vibe. I mean come on, why do you think you and I connected so well. I believe you're a true witch who just don't know it yet."

"Yeah umm we connected so well because you live right next door." you chuckled. "I can't even make toast without burning it. I am far from a powerful witch."

"Jo, seriously. You even said your mom was into this stuff....and christ, look how your dad dresses and speaks, like he's from another century or something."

"She was, but I never saw her twinkle her nose and make things happen or ride a broom stick, or lure little children into her house like Hansel and Gretel. My dad, he's just old fashioned. Are you saying he's a witch too??"

"There are male witches you know. They're called warlocks and can you be serious for once? That's not what witches are all about. That's all fairytales. This is real."

"It's all hocus pocus if you ask me, pun intended but ok fine...so I am going to be some witch queen is what you're saying? Who's my King? He better be hot! And what do the letters mean?"

"Well...I definitely feel the J resembles you but...."

She stopped and cocked her head again as she ran her finger over the B.

"But???"

"A...counterpart to you...soul mate of some sort maybe? I keep seeing the word....missing....and...child....a baby maybe??"

You hysterically laughed. "The B stands for baby? I certainly know I am not pregnant...oh god!! Wait! Am I going to have a baby with my future King??? If anyone is missing, it is him! Maybe his name starts with a B! Oh my fucking god, it Bon Jovi!! That's what the B and J stand for!"

"Stop it! It's not that! It's someone you will meet. They will have the answers you seek."

"I'm not seeking anything right now except to get drunk after my encounter with that creepy guy on my way here. Like, he knew my freaking name so I umm, kinda told him my name was Sarah."

"Oh great, now we have some weirdo stalking around here infatuated with the many looks of David Bowie that knows BOTH of our names now and he probably saw you come here because I saw him from the window when you were walking over, and he saw me too. Talk about going all out for a Halloween costume and I didn't like his eyes."

"Calm down, he's probably just some senior from school out trying to score free candy like they did in Hocus Pocus, which is why he knew my name."

"Yeah well, he wasn't carrying a trick or treat bag and he looked way older than that. Def a witch vibe on him too. Probably into some cult shit and will sacrifice me tonight. Speaking of weirdos, tonight for dinner, you will meet the dude my mom is fucking, some Phillip guy. He's def creepy. I get nothing but bad vibes from him, like the hair on the back of my neck stands up when he's around. Witches sense those things."

"Ok miss superstitious, you are not going to be burned at the stake tonight or sacrificed on some stone slab in the middle of the forest. I have an idea. Since you seem to think I am a witch, we should look for our third and fourth to complete the circle, like that movie the Craft. You can teach me how to change my hair color to blonde like that girl did, what was her name...oh that's right, it was SARAH.." you joked some more.

"Fine, mock this all you want. Even the song playing right now is a message. These things don't just randomly happen."

"So when all of this happens, always remember this day and always remember, things are not always as they seem...remember Jo...remember....remember....remember....he's alive...."

Her words reverberated and echoed as your eyes sprung open.

"Sarah??" you gasped as you sat up. "God, what the hell was that?" you asked yourself out loud.

You realized it was late afternoon and that you had been asleep on Lola's sofa since you had come back from seeing Garrett. You hoped he wasn't upset with you for making him leave but you weren't sure what Narcisse and Haldir were going to do after seeing you locking lips with the vampire. Although Garrett was under Amara's protection mark, you didn't know how far that protection went and didn't want to test the waters to find out. You also knew Garrett could hold his own against them or anyone for that matter, but you didn't want to see any of them get hurt.

You sat with Leean, feeding her and as you did so, you began to recall the song Sarah mentioned, so you softly sang it to her, for she was a witch too and already coming into her powers at the mere age of 5 weeks old.

"I walk in worlds that no one can come by. I seek the trees and whispering stones. I dance at night and sing to the firelight to wake the witch who lives within me. I run with wolves and howl at the pale moon. I conjure storms that no man can tame. I love with fire so red it consumes you to wake the witch who lives within me. Music charms me like a spell. Voices fill me with tales to tell. All the women burned before are burning in my soul. All my darkness, all my fears fall away when their ghosts are near. Chanting, dancing, calling me to wake the witch in me. I sought the trees to flee all who hurt me. I whispered spells to endure their stones. I hid in dreams so no one could find me to veil the witch who lives within me. And now I fly at night like a raven. I dance with ghouls and devils till dawn. And in the forest, I’ve found my haven to wake the witch who lives within me."

Leean's big round moonstone eyes danced through yours as she listened to your voice. Little coos came from her daddy's shaped lips as she suckled and lightly kicked her feet.

Just then, a knock sounded upon the door. You already knew who it was, for your intuition told you and...you could smell the peppermint seeping under the door.

"Jo...may I come in?" Narcisse softly asked.

You covered yourself and carried Leean with you to the door, fretting that you were about to get an earful over the kiss of the vampire, but strangely, it was the exact opposite.

As you reluctantly opened, there the warlock stood and his typical grin with his hands resting at his midriff as his fingers fidgeted with his ring like always and there at his feet sat his loyal companion Merlin staring up at you.

"Well there's the two most beautiful girls in the world....and one of them has a most angelic voice from what I just heard, wouldn't you agree Merly?" he said in a baby tone as he tickled Leean's cheek. Of course, she cutely responded with an all out Thranduil smirk, making your heart shatter and ache for your King.

You turned and went to lay her down as Narcisse followed with his faithful feline right at his heels, who then jumped on the sofa making himself right at home as he laid down and yawned.

You gave the Maine Coon some quick chin scratches and then went over by the window and sat down.

"Well...let me have it about Garrett, I mean, that is why you are here, is it not?"

He smiled his arrogant smile and sat down beside you."

"No, actually I am not here about that, although I must say, I don't know what you see in him, the vampire is so boring."

You rolled your eyes as he continued.

"I came to tell you that I have retrieved your belongings."

He pulled out the spell book from within his jacket, along with the record and the dreamcatcher, then laid them beside you.

"The book was found in Claude's room and beside it laid a doll made with hay from the stables, smelling of my horse."

"Oh...gosh. Stephane, I am so sorry. It's all my fault, if I hadn't been in possession of the book, that never would have happened."

"Nonsense. The only fault here lies upon Catherine for her dastardly deeds and possibly her daughter too, which she will soon be questioned after she recovers from giving birth. Claude's diary was found as well and I have a pretty good feeling the answers are in there. I will read over it soon...but if you will notice the bookmarked page in your book. I think that explains the spell on Garrett."

After giving a concerning look, you quickly opened it to see the page stained with a yellow tint. You then looked at him in confusion.

"It's warlock blood, but still man's blood to a vampire and in this case, dead man's blood. Asher's. I can smell it. Somehow Catherine got her hands on it after his death. I have reason to believe she used Claude to place the spell. With that said, it is the same as if Garrett would have drank it himself."

"Jesus, what is it with this bitch and poison?"

"Because that's what Catherine is. Poison. Now...if you'll turn to the back, you'll find another item you were looking for...."

You flipped it to the back to find the letter you wrote to Thranduil.

"Thank you Stephane, for all of this. I will do better at keeping this book out of the wrong hands. I'm glad to have my dreamcatcher back as well."

Narcisse noticed your despaired expression when you mentioned the moonstone sleep aid.

"Jo? What is it?" he asked as he gently laid his hand upon yours.

'"It's...I don't know really. I had fallen asleep earlier and had this strange dream of...well actually it was a memory my friend Sarah who Harker killed. Honestly, I don't want to talk about it. It's my fault she is dead. I should have never left her that night, but I had to get home to my dad. The really fucked up thing is that she had cracked a joke that evening about something happening to her and of course I basically told her that she would be fine."

"You don't have to talk about it. I will say, I am sorry about your friend. She obviously meant a lot to you. And again, it is not your fault...it is Harker's."

"If only I had believed her about her witch sense and all. She figured out who he was that night and that is why he killed her. All the years I knew her, she was a witch just like me, but I didn't know I was and I made fun of her for believing she was. What a shitty friend I was."

"Jo...please don't be so hard on yourself. You were so young still and had no idea who you were. I wish I would have been around more for your dad, maybe I could have done something, or figured out what was going on. If only I had known he was sick."

"Stephane, you obviously had your hands full with Catherine and the situation with Charles. It's no more your fault than mine. You're right. It was Harker's and even my mother's. Jareth too. You would have been there for my dad if you could have. He knew how much he meant to you. You were a good friend to him. Hopefully we can find him soon and fix whatever Jareth has done to him."

"You're too kind Jo. We will get him back. I promise you. I really should get going. I have a birthday party planned for you this evening. I figured you need a break and need to unwind."

"Ummm what??"

"Your birthday, remember? I know it's not actually until tomorrow but I'm too excited about it to wait. And...it's such a beautiful December day, strangely warm as usual which makes it perfect for a nice outside gathering. What color fireworks would you like this time. I had them do purple for you at the last party...that is your favorite color is it not?"

You were completely mind blown over his attentiveness to your likings. He had told you before that he paid attention to the little things.

"I...I...you...did that? for...me?"

"I did. So...purple again? I had a cake made too. It's 25 candles now right?"

Your hands went to your face, covering it as you began sobbing.

"Jo...sweetheart. What is wrong?" he kindly asked and pulled your hands down so he could cup your face in his.

"I...I haven't celebrated my birthday since my seventeenth one, which was the last one with my dad....and he died...well supposably died the next morning. He..he still, in his sickness, made sure a cake was delivered for me, candles and all....and also had a dinner sent to the house because he knew I couldn't cook for shit....and...and this would have been my first one with Thranduil...."

Narcisse offered the most compassionate smile. "I will cancel the party. I apologize for overstepping. I just thought something of some normalcy would make you feel better...."

"No...don't apologize for being nice. You went to all this trouble for me..so it's the least I could do to attend my own party. Purple...yes...and please don't put that many candles on the cake. One will suffice so I can easily blow it out."

"As you wish your majesty. Now...I do have one other reason I came here. You promised me a date sometime. Maybe tomorrow? An afternoon carriage venture along the countryside by my villa?"

"I...umm...well..."

"It's Garrett isn't it? Is someone making you spend time with him?" he sarcastically asked.

"No one makes me do anything and you know it. And honestly, it is none of your business."

"Tell me then, is it my business when just the other day, you were kissing me?"

"Ok well you kissed me."

"And you kissed me back. It scared you didn't it? What you felt, so you turned to Garrett instead. But you, you came clear to the city to try and stop me from that fight. You care for me whether you admit it or not. You and I, we are the same Jo. Both witches that share a rare electrifying sensation when we touch. We empower each other."

"Maybe so...but this is all a game to you. You even said so yourself once, that you like games. I cannot trust what you say is real. I feel this is all just about winning to you, especially over that of a vampire. as if I am some prize...and he does not make me feel that way. I know him...I don't know you."

"Then get to know me. Give me that chance to prove that my feelings for you are genuine. What I said is that I had never had a worthy opponent. I will not deny thinking of you as a prize because you are just that and I would be the luckiest man to ever be able to call you mine. A winner indeed of true happiness that I have never experienced. All that I have done and am doing is because I have come to deeply care for you. This is all new to me. I know in the past I have come across as a seeker of victory but I assure you, that is not the case with you. Since our eyes first met, I wanted more. Much more. I have felt your approach long before you ever arrived."

Narcisse certainly knew how to choose his words, but you knew he meant them. He wasn't wrong. You did feel something for him and yes, you were scared. And you didn't want to hurt Garrett because you felt something for him too. Your dream made sure you faced that. You were just flat out scared to move on because this isn't where you were supposed to be, having to choose between two men. You were supposed to be with Thranduil forever, for he was your only choice.

"I'll tell you what. I will not hold you to your promise, for I know you were just trying to keep me alive at the time. Wear a flower in your hair tonight and if you do, then I will know you have agreed to share a date with me tomorrow. There is fresh new array of them in my office that the servants brought in this morning. I would love to spend your birthday with you. I must be off. It is time to serve more retribution where it is due."

Narcisse got up, offered you a head bow and then left.

Who crossed Narcisse this time? you wondered as you sat where he left you and stared out the window.

Lola then came in and her presence helped aid you in your decision for tonight.

"Lola...how would you like to join me tonight with Leean for a party. It is a beautiful day out and you are always stuck inside."

"A party miss? I was not aware that there was one."

"I was not either, but Narcisse was just here and informed he that he was hosting a birthday gathering for myself."

"It is your birthday? How wonderful..but...why do you not look so eager to attend? Oh how foolish of me to ask such a thing. Of course I know why. My apologies."

"No Lola, it is quite alright. I truly need to face reality and stop wallowing over what will never be again. Besides, he went to all the trouble to do something so nice for me when I was certain after what he saw today...well that's not important. Will you come? I hear there will be cake....and fireworks, although I don't know if that will startle Leean. That will probably be around her bedtime anyways. So what do you say?"

"Of course my lad...Josie. I would love to attend."

"Perfect. I need to do something first. Will you stay with her?"

"You know you do not need to ask. Of course I will."

"Maybe you could pick us both out something to wear while I am gone?"

Lola smiled and nodded, then you left for Stephane's office, still pondering over whether you would wear a flower or not, but you decided to go look at them anyways, for anything floral made you think of Thranduil.

A beautiful rainbow of flowers in a large crystal vase sat on Narcisse's desk just where the sunlight shone in to feed them. Cleary there must have been a greenhouse on the grounds for they couldn't be from the gardens in the middle of winter, but then again, as Narcisse said, the weather was strangely warm...and you did see a purple one sprouting from the ground a few weeks ago after the ice storm.

Of course you chose a violet beings that it was purple. You put it in your hair and stood at a mirror to see how it would look, but all you could see was the memory of the vision you had at Lestat's of Thranduil in the mirror. You closed your eyes and turned away, trying not to cry again.

As you took the flower out of your hair, you stood there and just inhaled it's scent, reminding you of how you would sit in Thranduil's gardens for hours when he was out tending to his Kingly duties. How you missed his Kingdom. Would you ever be ready to go back? You knew you needed to. It was Leean's home...it was your home...and you missed Legolas something awful and surely he was missing Leean if not you. You needed, wanted to make things right with him, but could you? Knowing how he felt about you now and how hurt he was. And why couldn't you hear him anymore? Did you just imagine it all?

You began to leave when something caught your eye on the desk. It was the doll made of hay that Stephane mentioned they found in Claude's room. Out of some strange intuitive feeling, you picked it up and looked it over....and then, something happened that had never happened to you before. You saw a vision.

Arion, standing alone in a place of darkness with a mangled mane and he turned to look at you as if he saw you. His eyes were so sad and lonely.

And then the darkness began to fade and you could see the surroundings. A place you didn't recognize but appeared to be some sort of desolate dungeon standing at the edge of a forest.

You gasped and dropped the doll and ran off to find Narcisse. As you turned a corner, you almost ran into Charles who was coming out of his chambers.

"My lady? Where are you off to in such a rush and why are you out of breath and look frightened??" he sincerely asked.

"Charles...you know the grounds here well, do you not?"

"I..I do yes, why?"

"Is there somewhere around here that is desolate...another dungeon maybe? A big round stone structure by a forest??"

"Umm..y..yes I believe so? A bit south off the back side of the castle. It hasn't been used for years. Why would you ask of such a place?"

"Can you take me there??"

"N...now?"

"Yes, please Charles!"

"Josie, what is this all about??"

"Just take me there. If my vision is true, I am about to make your father the happiest man in the world."

After saddling up some horses, you and Charles galloped off down a discreet pathway behind the castle and headed off into the woods. Roughly twenty minutes later, you came to a clearing and at the other end of it was the stone building you had seen on the edge of a cliff, hidden behind the forest.

"Wait. Stop!" Charles loudly whispered. "There are guards?? Why are there guards at this run down place?"

"Because I believe your mother has something valuable to your father locked up inside of it. I'll take care of them."

"With what? Magic? My father has rules about magic used on his guards. Trust me, I just got an earful about it this morning."

"Fuck the rules." you quipped and rode off.

"I'm going to be in so much trouble...." Charles whispered to himself with wide eyes and took off after you.

"Halt! What business do you have here? This area is forbidden." One of the two guards said as he walked towards you with his sword drawn.

You dismounted and fearlessly walked up to him as Charles jumped down and followed.

"There is no need to draw your weapon on a lady!" Charles snapped. "I know who you are and you know who I am. Exactly what business is it that YOU have here at a deserted dungeon??"

"That is classified information young warlock. If your father wished you to know, you would not be questioning me. Now move along."

"I take no orders from you! I demand to know what is inside, for I feel my father has no knowledge of this at all!."

"I said it is forbidden." the guard snarled and took a few more steps towards the both of you as the other guard then joined him.

"What are you going to do if I pass? Kill me? My father will have your head if you harm me or Josie."

"I will not harm you...now the girl on the other hand means nothing to me...but...maybe for a small price, we can work something out? I have not had the pleasure of a woman in a very long time."

"Nor have I." the other guard said with a twisted grin.

"And I can see why you disgusting oafs. Narcisse will have your heads either way for I know what is inside. His beloved horse. Arion."

"What??" Charles strongly asked as he whipped his head to you.

"That's right. Arion is not dead. Your mother stashed him here to make your father suffer by making him believe she killed him and fed the horse to him. I'm sorry Charles but I told you Catherine was sick. Now, let us pass or..."

"Or what??" the guard laughed. "See, now we have a bigger problem. You should have minded your own business. We cannot let you go now...my lady." the guard said, bearing a sinister smile as he neared you.

Just then, something swarmed him. It was so fast that you couldn't even see it...but you smelled the gush of wind that burst over you....Garrett.

The man backed away in panic, nearing a steep cliff that held only massive sharp rocks below at the ocean's edge. He was stormed again, but this time you saw something you had never saw of Garrett before. He appeared from a swarm of bats and raged in the man's face, causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards, screaming to his death below.

It all was happening so fast, you and Charles were frozen solid as you watched the horror unfold before you.

Garrett charged the other one with his fangs in full view, something else you had never seen on him before, and then he bit into his neck and ripped his throat out.

The man fell to the ground and frantically scurried away from Garrett, ending up being backed against a tree.

Garrett leaned over the horrified man and bit into the other side of his neck, killing him instantly.

Your terrified gasp caught Garrett's attention and he froze, keeping his head down. He then slowly opened his blood soaked hands and looked at them.

Garrett's hands began to shake and his breathing became heavy.

"G..Garrett?" you squeaked as you took a step towards him.

"Stay back!!!!" he growled. "You...you can't see me like this..."

You ignored him and slowly crouched beside him, gently placing your own shaking hand on his shoulder. Your touch startled him and he quickly scooted away, keeping his back to you.

"I said stay away! This...this wasn't supposed to happen...they...they were going to hurt you...I could hear their disgusting thoughts."

"Garrett...it's ok. Please look at me."

"No! I...I never meant for you to see me like this. I can only imagine what you must be thinking. I heard your fear...I can smell it as well."

"Garrett...I...I'm not afraid of you, I was just taken by surprise. They were bad men Garrett...this...this is what you do to those kind of people."

"But you weren't supposed to see it! Not ever! I lost control...I...I'm so...sorry....I...I'm so ashamed..."

His voice was breaking as if he were going to cry as his entire body was now trembling.

"Garrett talk to me...Did...did something happen to cause this?"

"I...I'm a monster Josephine! Just like I always told you I was. That's what caused this. You...you need to stay away from me. I...I don't belong in your world just like everyone has told you."

"Garrett, stop talking like that. You are not a monster! They were the monsters. If you hadn't have come, even I myself would have hurt them. I was going to set them on fire. Does that make me a monster too then? Garrett, please...look at me...let me help you."

"Have a great birthday party and date with Narcisse." he softly said and then his scent rushed through your hair as he vanished.

"Garett wait!!!!!!! You don't understand!!!"

You turned to see Charles still frozen solid with wide eyes and shaking.

"Charles, it's ok. I know him. He wouldn't have hurt you. He was only protecting me."

"Even so, he's...a vampire...on our lands...he just killed two of our guards. I...I have to tell my fath..."

You ran up and grabbed him. "No! You cannot tell Narcisse about this, ever! Do you hear me?? He will have Garrett hunted and they will kill him and I will not let that happen! Those guards were evil and you know it. If Garrett hadn't killed them, I would have...and so would your father if he were here!! But the fact that it was a vampire won't matter to Narcisse, especially that it's Garrett. Please Charles, I'm begging you. I...I care about him...very very much."

"I...I don't know Josie. I think you should just tell him so he does not find out another way. He would understand that the monst...sorry, the vampire was only protecting you...and judging by the way my father looks at you, I would think that your safety would be all that mattered to him. Do you not trust him?"

"I...I want to...but...I just can't risk Garrett's safety...not after all he has ever done for me."

"If..if I stay silent, how will their deaths be explained?? It's quite obvious from the one's wounds what killed him. My father will eventually know they are missing and have them searched for."

"Then they shall not be found."

"W..what?"

You turned to the dead guard and flung your hand out. It ignited into flames and you showered it over him, setting him ablaze.

"There. No more evidence. He will burn to ash. As far as the other guy, he wasn't wounded. It will just look like he accidentally fell if he is found. As far as Narcisse, he only needs to know we found Arion here, nothing more."

"Jesus. Remind me to never piss you off. Alright. I won't say anything...but if I am asked...I will not lie to my father."

"Ok...I can deal with that. Thank you Charles. Now, let's go get Arion."

Sure enough, the snow white horse was inside alive and well, but seemingly depressed and in untidy conditions. His eyes lit up when he saw you, for he remembered his first meeting with you....and of course he knew Charles.

"It's alright now big fella. I am going to take you home where you belong and that wicked witch will never harm you again." you assured him as you lovingly stroked his nose.

He tilted his head and nudged it into your chest, making snorting sounds which had you and Charles laughing. Strangely, it was the first time you had ever heard the boy laugh and you felt slightly guilty for berating his mother in front of him. You understood exactly what it was like to have a love hate relationship with a parent.

You brought the Lipizzan horse outside and let him drink from the canteen you brought, then let him snack on an apple while you tried to untangle his neglected mane. Once he finished his fruit, you both took him back to the stables where the other horses were overly happy to see him as they loudly greeted him with many different pitched neighs and hoof stomps. You spoke with the stableman, asking him to see to it that Arion was pampered, cleaned up and well fed. You also told him to have him ready for a surprise tomorrow and to keep his return a secret until then, for Arion needed a good nights rest in the comfort of his home. After giving the gentle giant a kiss upon his nose, you then left to get ready for the party you were definitely not in the mood for after the recent events, for all you could now think about was Garrett, who was ignoring all of your calls to him. He obviously had heard your conversation with Narcisse and that is what had triggered his anger.

As you and Charles arrived back at the castle, there was a large gathering of of guards and horses in the court yard, along with some man lying on the ground.

"Oh look, Narcisse is serving punishment to one of the guards who caused you trouble the other night in the dining hall. The other guard knew of what would come, so he fled, but he will be found soon enough and pay for his involvement. Come, let's go watch!" Charles eagerly said and trotted off.

How quickly the boy went from referring to Stephane as his father while defending him, then right back to addressing him as Narcisse when it came down to business.

When you walked in, the man on the ground was being tethered by his arms and legs. He saw you and your eyes locked.

"Please....I was never going to hurt you, I swear it! I...I had too much to drink. I shouldn't have said such vulgar things...I...I'm sorry my lady!" he cried.

You gasped in horror, looking all around for Haldir but he was not there. You then rushed up to Narcisse, who turned to you and explained what was happening.

"Do you know why they bind him at up the arms and legs? For a good clean break...or they can do it the other way, at the hands and feet...which do you think would be more painful?"

"Stephane, you cannot be serious? Please, stop this now!"

"Why on earth would you want me to stop? You know how things are done here when it comes to harassment of women, especially you. I had my men stoned to near death as equal punishment over harming a bird, so certainly you must know that this offense would deserve a far worse punishment, for men like Asher should not breath at all."

"The...the crow..." you muttered, wondering where your feathered friend had been since then."

"Yes? I was told by witnesses that it was a black bird when I caught them just after the heinous act of hurling rocks at it. How did you know that?"

"Because that crow is my friend who has saved me many times from danger. He came to me that night, barely able to fly and covered in blood. I had meant it speak with you about it but so many things were happening. He told me, well, he showed Garrett what happened to him, but Garrett said he saw that you had returned from the city and were handling the situation. I'll have you know, the bird would have died if it had not been for Garrett. He healed him when I could not."

You defense of Garrett was another attempt to make Narcisse see he wasn't a monster in case what happened earlier with the guards was ever revealed, but of course, Stephane's response only proved your efforts pointless.

"Ah yes, the infamous heroic vampire saves the day once more. Well...for the crow's sake and yours, I am happy he was saved. Why was the bird here anyways?"

"He's a messenger and my guardian of sorts. Usually he has something to tell me or bring to me. He is how I had gotten my moonstone back. I guess he knew I needed it or something."

It then be became clear to Narcisse that, that is where Thranduil's letter came from that his guard found nearby one the ground that night. The crow somehow knew the Elvenking was alive and brought it here to tell you.

"Can we get back to what's happening here Stephane? I understand you have rules and beliefs and whatever but...I was the victim and I am telling you, it was only drunken words. He does not deserve to die over it. He is sorry, you heard him,...and I believe him. Please, punish him some other way."

"He is only sorry because he is about to be drawn and quartered. Carry on." he then said to the horsemen as if your words meant nothing.

They began moving the horses, pulling his arms and legs nice and taut as the man screamed in sheer terror.

"Stephane Narcisse!! This is not you!!! I thought you believed the spell had been broken?? This is a disgusting vile act!" you shouted in one last plea to save the man.

"Tell me something Jo...your King has done similar and even far worse things to those worthy of their punishments and you did not have a problem with that, so why is it that you have a problem with how I operate things here?"

"I never said I liked it and many times, I told Thranduil how I felt about it, not that it's any of your business, and many times I was able to get through to him because he had a good heart inside of him that only I or Legolas would ever see....and I have seen that heart inside of you. This man does not deserve to die and if you go through with this, you can shut that party down and kiss your date goodbye, and me for that matter, for I will not stay where death takes precedence over what is right. You told me you were not a soulless animal now prove it!" you reeled with your own nose flaring like that of your Elvenking's.

Stephane's bright blue eyes softened and he turned to Bash and nodded at him to stop.

"Release him and take him back to the dungeon. This is your lucky day Rossif." he said to the warlock who mouthed the words 'thank you' to you with tears in his eyes.

"Will I...see you tonight then? Hopefullllly with a flower in your hair..."

You wanted to say no and you wanted to still be mad at him...but you couldn't and it drove you crazy that this warlock lord was growing on you.

You simply nodded with a light smile and left.

On your way to the front entrance, you sensed someone familiar. A vampiress and only vampiress that smelled of baby powder. Selene.

As your eyes scoured for her, you then caught sight of the dark haired vixen standing on the edge of an empty loading dock where she could easily dart off over the Rhun if detected.. Discreetly, you snuck off and made your way there.

"Selene?? Oh my god...." you raved as you stepped onto the dock and then ran to her.

She braced herself for the impact of your bear hug, laughing as you pounced upon her.

"It is soooo good to see you again! I have missed you immensely. Is everything alright? What has brought you to the danger zone?" you asked with a chuckle.

"Well I have certainly missed you as well, my only human friend and I wish this was just a social call but..."

"But? What's going on?" you asked in wariness due to the irresolute look in her ice blue eyes.

She reached into the pocket of her black leather pants and pulled out a small piece of folded paper, then reluctantly handed it to you. Dithering to open it, you slowly unfolded it and softly read it aloud.

"This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I am leaving Devil's Island. You will not see me again. You know you and I could never be and I cannot bear to look you in the eyes again after you saw the real me. I would rather be truly dead than to feel this kind of pain. Hopefully I can make that happen. The dumbest thing I ever did was fall in love with you but it's the happiest I have ever felt. I will carry the memories of you with me until my last breath. I am so sorry I have ever hurt you. I love you. Forever. Goodbye my little one....- Roman"

"This...this is a joke right?? He's just going to leave me??"

You crunched up the letter in a fury and walked to the end of the dock, shouting out into the sky.

"You promised!!!!"

"I..I'm sorry Josie. I begged him to change his mind but he wasn't having it and he wouldn't tell me what happened."

"I'll tell you what happened. Garrett's a fucking LIAR!!" you screamed back at the sky again. "He can't leave anyways, he has my..."

You stopped yourself, because no one but you and Garrett knew about your moonstone's whereabouts.

"You mean the gem? He told me where it is in case you needed it. Don't worry...I will never tell a soul."

'Wow, well I guess he thought of everything didn't he. I guess this means he really is leaving...I...I..."

You could feel your chest tighten as a panic attack threatened to consume you.

"Josie??"

"He...he leaves me now, when I need him more than ever....he's gone." Tears filled your eyes, blurring your vision. "Well I guess he made my choice quite easy for me....although it would have been quite simple."

"Choice?"

"I would have chose him....."

@redeemer46

#lee pace #thranduil #thranduil and josie #king thranduil #thranduil fanfiction #fantasy fanfic #fantasies #fairytales #magic #love stories #dark stories #witches #warlocks #elves #the elvenking #craig parker #narcisse #lord narcisse #stephane narcisse #white horse #garrett twilight #vampires #selene underworld #Youtube

[the-chaos-axolotl]

Last night I had a dream where I was at the mall with @ashermichaelprince and we went into a store with a bunch of ugly clothing. As I walked in I told @ashermichaelprince that I didn't have any money and needed to go ask my mom, fortunately they brought 5 dollars for us to share. While we looked at Christmas necklaces an announcement played saying that someone mixed a bunch of chemicals and made a nuclear bomb that would go off soon. @ashermichaelprince and I ran to a bunker, which contained a few people and my mother. The walls of the bunker were concrete with graffiti, it seemed we were in a tunnel with no end. As others cooked and ate rats, I realized that we would run out of food and slowly starve to death. To avoid this fate, I took out a gun and shot myself. As I lay there, I heard people crying and scream as my world faded to black.

Suddenly, I woke up in my mom's car while she pulled up in my driveway. She turned around and began to tell me how surprised she was that I was with her and alive along with telling how thankful she was for me not to be dead. I swore at her and called her an asshole for not stopping me from shooting myself, this didn't stop her gratitude. Finally, we walked out of the car to return home. Suddenly, a huge van full of strippers pulled, and a priest came out demanding I let him live in my house. I took out a toilet brush and beat him until he was unconscious. Unfortunately, I let my guarded down and all the strippers from the van snuck inside my house.

I decided to sit on my front porch and stare at the ground, when a cat covered in fleas and fruit flies came to me. I rushed inside to clean it in the sink, getting the bugs of it was very easy. Unfortunately, the longer I kept washing the cat, the smaller it got. It became a little kitten, then a mouse, then a few specs of dust. I scooped the dust into a test tube and wished for the cat to come back.

The cat was reincarnated into a man in a cave on a mountain. Though he had to sew and make his own clothes along with making his own equipment. As he began to climb down, a blizzard came and he fell unconscious. Thankfully, an old man carried him down to safety. Unfortunately, he died once he reaches the bottom of the mountain. Then I was in art class reading on a velvet cloth that the cat was a millionaire and left me in his will.

#dreams

[iammistressofmyfate]

My Bodyguard AU for Pynch sort of turned into an original piece...the characterizations were becoming too different that I was like "I can just make them something original"

But I've been toying with a Boxer!Ronan AU that's more Lynch brother centric with some Pynch and Jordeclan tossed in. I just really like writing sports AUs apparently

More about Boxer!Ronan below! CW // discussion of substance abuse and death

Ronan was a successful amateur boxer with his eyes on the Olympics

Declan is his trainer

They have a falling out when their father dies of a drug overdose. Declan grew up seeing his father's substance use where Ronan and Matthew only really knew a sober Niall. Everyone has a lot of big feelings.

Ronan fires Declan and Declan lets him.

Ronan ends up getting injured, which is just fuel on the fire. His dad is gone (so is his mom, several years earlier), he is no longer speaking to his brother, and his hopes and dreams of an Olympic medal are gone

Ronan spirals but with the help of his friends and manager, he's able to right his ship. He's sober, working as an instructor at the woodshop at the local college in their art program and does boxing lessons on the side at Calla's gym. He works with other amateur boxers and does free classes with troubled teens

Ronan meets Adam while in the ER after getting clocked in the face by one of his students who moved too soon. He needs stitches. Adam is the doctor on call. He stitches Ronan up and Ronan fell in love with him the moment he walked into the exam room. Ronan keeps showing up to the ER after his stitches are removed because he wants to see Adam and Adam eventually confronts him. Ronan says he'll leave Adam alone if he goes out with him on one date. Adam says yes (because Ronan IS hot and works with troubled teens so he must have SOME redeemable qualities and isn't always insufferable) They go on a date and hit it off and are engaged in "present day"

Meanwhile, Declan married Jordan and they have two kids. He works as an art dealer. Matthew is the bridge between his brothers and has been trying to get them to reconcile for years. All of the Lynches have been in therapy (because this is fanfic and because I say so)

Adam has noticed how much Ronan seems to miss boxing. During Adam's night shifts he comes home to an empty house on several occasions and finds Ronan at the gym, boxing. They talk about Ronan trying to get back into the amateur circuit and making another go at the Olympics.

Ronan mulls this over. Talks to Calla and his old manager. They think he could pull it off. If not a medal, at least qualifying. Ronan calls Declan. They have an awkward conversation but agree to meet up. They get lunch, catch up, and Declan says he'll think about it.

Declan thinks about it. Jordan encourages him. She knows how much he enjoyed coaching Ronan, how much it meant for both brothers to be that close. Declan agrees to coach Ronan.

>Insert various training montages and boxing matches here<

Ronan qualifies for the Elite team and goes to the Pan Am Games. He wins silver in his weight class, which means he has a ticket to the Olympics. Cue lots of crying and hugging and celebrating. His comeback story is picked up and followed. He does some interviews. This was obviously more than just boxing. This was Ronan and Declan making amends.

Ronan works his way through the prelims to the semifinals, to the quarterfinals, he's in the last bracket for a podium spot. Does he medal...? He'll get at LEAST bronze...

Anyway, as much as I love writing Pynch, I do love a good reconciliation story between the Lynch brothers.

#adam parrish #ronan lynch #declan lynch #matthew lynch #jordan #pynch #jordeclan #boxer!ronan #doctor!adam #art broker!declan #artist!jordan #the raven cycle #the dreamer trilogy #trc #tdt #fic ideas #pynch ideas

[chrismerle]

so we're, like, pretty sure the house is haunted. this is not shocking; it's an old house. it's the second oldest house in town (the oldest is up the street; both houses were built by the same family in the 1770s), it predates the actual town, and it has worn a lot of different hats over the years.

on my first night alone in the house, I was sleeping on the couch, and I had a dream that I was in a diner with my best friend @nicxan, and the table had those, like wrap around booths, because in the dream I was reclined in the seat the same way I was reclined on the couch in real life (l-shaped couch). and at some point in the dream, all the lights in the diner went out and my best friend called me by my name, which was fucking weird on its own because she has solely and exclusively called me Shaddie from the time we were twelve (I call her nixxie, to the exclusion of anything else), and she seemed concerned, so I sat up, and like a fucking lightning strike I was awake and just on the couch again because there was a fucking human silhouette just sitting on the other end of the couch for a second. and that was my introduction to the house.

which sounds a little bad, but I wasn't, like, scared? I was startled, but I essentially had a 'FUCKS SAKE, WARN A BITCH' reaction and then immediately went back to sleep.

a few days later, I caught a glimpse of something while I was loading the fireplace, like, peering around the edge of the fireplace and holding onto it, like a kid looking around a corner. but other than that, basically everyone has just been startled by lights coming on, doors refusing to stay latched, whispering or humming, shit like that.

but at last. AT LAST. someone other than me had An Encounter. this morning.

my mom was woken up out of a dead sleep at like 5:45 by someone saying 'mom. hey, mom!' from a different room. it wasn't me; I was asleep. it wasn't my brother; he'd left for work like 30 minutes before that. so she made her way through the passage to the main stair landing, and there was literally no one there. and then as she was standing there, right in front of the stairs, she heard someone walking down the stairs, and then down the hall at the bottom.

and whatever we have moved in with is apparently SO nonthreatening that the dogs didn't even wake up, and my mom, World's Most Anxious Human Being, woman who starts mentally planning funerals whenever one of us needs to go run an errand, was not remotely concerned. she went back to bed.

#actual journaling

[beardedllamaoafwombat]

Headcanon's time

I have not written headcanons for a very long time, so I apologize for the slightly chaotic writing of this headcanon.

Why didn't Maya and Ray last 8 seasons?

If we recall that at the time of their disappearance, Kai was 5, and in season 7 he was about 17-19 years old, then his parents were in captivity for more than 10-12 years.

This is a long time, which could have consequences.

Krux could, at the time of their captivity, create the first instances of an army of snakes and could, with the help of his subordinates, manipulate Maya and Ray.

"Accept the attempt to escape - do it, but, you know, my snakes are very fond of hitting small children."

Maybe he was starving former masters and not getting enough sleep?

Or parents had to eat some porridge in small quantities for several years in order to survive.

At the same time, Ray and Maya had to work in the forge all day, and this is a very hard and difficult job.

It turns out that the former masters of fire and water worked in the forge from morning to night, ate not much food and prayed that the babysitter would take care of Kai and Nya.

And so live every day for 10 years ...

After 5-6 years, they could stop counting the time, otherwise the number of the duration of their captivity would make Maya and Ray even more unhappy.

Ray could become afraid of the ropes, because every day he thought about how to end this whole nightmare.

Maya, on the other hand, tried to control herself at the sight of the knives, otherwise Kai and Nya might not even meet their mother alive.

And when you add the heavy memories of the Serpentine War and their dreams of meeting their children in their Ignasia, they just wept quietly.Then Maya and Ray meet their children.

And the long-awaited freedom, which they dreamed of for more than 10 years.

What could have gone wrong?

After defeating Krux, Kai and Nya visit their parents in Ignasia and notice their parents' rather strange behavior.

Maya hugs her children for a very long time each time, constantly saying nervously "Thank you, FSM!"

The weapon from the forge was thrown into the trash, which make Kai sad.

He even tried to ask his father to teach him how to make swords, to which Ray angrily refused, hiding his trembling hands in his pockets.

Kai and Nya had to leave their katanas in the cars each time to keep Maya from having tantrums and Ray from going into a trance for a few minutes.

Next to them, Nya recalled memories of childhood poverty and tried to find excuses not to visit her overly tactile mother and nervous father.

Kai, on the contrary, tried to visit them in any free time from missions and helped them get used to the new world.

He saw his parents sleeping on wooden boards instead of a bed.

He saw how mom saves on food, although she has enough money to buy an expensive car.

He saw dad throwing his hammers and tools into the basement.

Looking at them, Kai remembered how he saved on food and clothes for a long time until Zane helped him. How he threw away his ugly swords in anger until Cole let him talk. How he learned to use a computer by listening to Jay's chatter.

Kai wanted to help his parents the same way the ninja helped him.

To make it easier for them.

For them to be happy.

So that they can be a family again.

And his efforts paid off.

Maya became more calm and even tried to joke when she and her son were making pies.

Ray became more open and talked about his past while planting cherries in the garden.

Ray: "You know, my sister, that is, your aunt, was very fond of playing in the orchard."

Kai: "Because you can eat cherries and peaches there?"

Ray: "No. She liked to eat ants. Judging by her statements, bugs have a rather specific taste with cherries."

Kai: "Nya, by the way, also ate strange things. Like sand or grass."

Ray: "Oh, First!"

The parents turned the forge into a simple two-story house with a beautiful garden, which is why sometimes Kai and Nya could not come to them for a long time, because they did not find a small rotten forge.

Every year, Maya and Ray got better and better, because with each visit of Kai, and sometimes Nya, they hugged a lot and gave them several packages of fresh tangerines, peaches and berries.

The son told them about Nya's difficulties adjusting to her parents, and Maya and Ray, though not easy, accepted it, trying not to be too intrusive to their daughter, sending her once a month a package of her favorite yokans and letters of wishes of support, to which Nya always responds.

With slow steps, they become close-knit and open to each other, like an ordinary family that will never break anything again.

#ninjago #ninjago kai #kai smith #ninjago nya #nya smith #ninjago maya #maya smith #ninjago ray #ray smith #ninjago headcanons

[existencebringsonlypain]

1-70 skip all needed if they make you uncomfy

*deep inhale*

LONG POST INCOMING!

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

yeah! they're lovely people

02: Who did you last say I love you" to?

probably my mom

03: Do you regret anything?

I regret many things. can I think of any right now? no

04: Are you insecure?

not really, generally

05: What is your relationship status?

single, but also a minor and aroace so it's not sad or anything

06: How do you want to die?

preferably suddenly without prior notice. that way I couldn't have regrets

07: What did you last eat?

a werthers caramel

08: Played any sports?

nope

09: Do you bite your nails?

not bite with my teeth, but I pick at them often

10: When was your last physical fight?

.....I cannot remember if I ever have fought anyone physically. don't think I have

11: Do you like someone?

I like a lot of people. romantically? no

12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours?

yea. completely accidentally at first, but at one point i thought "ha, I've come this far, I'm just gonna hold out" and then I did

13: Do you hate anyone at the moment?

hate is a strong word. that said, I suppose I might hate jack, cody, juan, and phoenix from school

14: Do you miss someone?

uhhhhh not really

15: Have any pets?

four cats and two dogs. three out of four cats are rescues

16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment?

throat hurts but overall feel the same as ever. which is to say, not much.

17: Ever made out in the bathroom?

no. do people do that???

18: Are you scared of spiders?

not really, unless they're actively on me. theyre fuzzy and adorable

19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance?

....no. I don't want to forget to do something and regret it for the rest of eternity

20: Where was the last place you snogged someone?

im aroace

21: What are your plans for this weekend?

take care of neighbors cat and otherwise sleep

22: Do you want to have kids? How many?

no. might at some point tho, but adopted, and only if they're older. only one.

23: Do you have piercings? How many?

ears pierced, nothing else. only one

24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)?

art, english, math

25: Do you miss anyone from your past?

no. mostly because I've forgotten them. cue existential fear of forgetting childhood friends etc etc

26: What are you craving right now?

anything cold

27: Have you ever broken someone's heart?

not to my knowledge

28: Have you ever been cheated on?

never dated

29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry?

nope

30: What's irritating you right now?

physical symptoms. am sick

31: Does somebody love you?

romantically? not to my knowledge. platonically? hopefully lol

32: What is your favourite color?

lavender. it took maybe four fifths of my life to figure that one out

33: Do you have trust issues?

if trusting too much counts, yeah

34: Who/what was your last dream about?

don't remember

35: Who was the last person you cried in front of?

probably random school people. I have issues with breaking down at school. usually can suppress it tho

36: Do you give out second chances too easily?

no, don't think so. if you break my trust I won't give it back easily

37: ls it easier to forgive or forget?

forget. don't mind how it's pretty much never optional for me

38: Is this year the best year of your life?

nOPE

39: How old were you when you had your first kiss?

older than I am now

40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked?

outside of my house? absolutely not

51: Favourite food?

actually do not know. crunchwraps from taco bell are very good. chow mein from panda express is VERY good. canned corned beef hash is great. that indian dish with the flatbread you dip in the spinach is v good.

52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

nope lol. some shit just happens

53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night?

uhhhhh don't remember. probably listened to a YouTube video

54: Is cheating ever okay?

look man i'm aroace and barely even understand what attraction is. i'm not the guy to ask about this

55: Are you mean?

not intentionally

56: How many people have you fist fought?

a whopping 0, here's hoping it stays that way

57: Do you believe in true love?

nah. it's all a spectrum. how long love lasts may be longer than your lifetime, but I don't think it's infinite. then again never been in love so

58: Favourite weather?

thunderstorm. the dark kind

59: Do you like the snow?

literally never seen it irl

60: Do you wanna get married?

nope. unless it's for tax benefits

61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby?

no that is so gross imo. you are calling me an infant. but again aroace

62: What makes you happy?

no clue, it varies and isn't guaranteed

63: Would you change your name?

eh. maybe. it'd take some time to get used to, maybe wouldn't want to put in the effort

64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed?

I'd kiss fluffy the cat as many times as it took for her to understand its an affection thing

65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

panic

66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around?

yea. Ben D. he's great

67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to?

my brother probably

68: Who's the last person you had a deep conversation with?

depends what you call deep. if this counts than whoever's reading this

69: Do you believe in soulmates?

isn't this a repeat? either way no, not exclusive to individual people anyway

70: Is there anyone you would die for?

prolly most of my friends and my parents

#theeeeeere we go. every single question #didnt take as long as expected #also didn't go as deep as expected. tho prob would be different if i was literally ever in love or even capable of that #existenceunrelateds #ask #asks #ask game

[86-was-his-year]

Sing me to Sleep - Eddie Munson (2)

Chapter 2: Sleepovers Between Lovers

Pairing: Eddie Munson x fem!reader

Word Count: 10.7k

Series Summary: A look back at season 4, a fix-it-fic, if you will.

Chapter summary: You go home and freshen up, later you and Eddie decide to get serious.

Warnings: Light smut in this chapter, fingering (receiving), making out, mentions of Eddie’s boner (lol), mentions of bullying, loss of virginity (in a horrible way), readers old boyfriend doesn't take no for an answer (read with caution), making out, mutual pining, let me know if I missed anything. 

A/N: Sorry this took so long, I’ve been at work and super busy so here it is! I’ll try and be quicker with the next chapter. Too lazy to proofread, maybe I’ll do it later. Hope you guys enjoy!!!!

Your dreams were nice, floating between driving around with Eddie and that kiss that you shared last night. Even your sleeping brain couldn’t get over it. You are warm and cuddled up against the comfy couch, Eddie’s hand on your thigh until you fell asleep last night, listening to Eddie tell you a story. He always had a knack for the theatrics, using voices and acting out motions with his hand while he followed the story in his head. He’s absolutely brilliant.

“Wake up, Y/N.” You hear a voice in your sleep, sounding sweet and light.

“Five more minutes Mom,” You urge and turn in your sleep falling back under the sweet guise of sleep.

You’re content to stay asleep, waiting for Monday when you actually have to get up for school but whoever wants you awake, want you awake now. You’re jolted awake, a heavy pressure on your chest as if something had pushed you. Your first thought was that the cops had finally found you and they were detaining you for working with a criminal, or that Vecna had finally found Eddie and came to finish the job, taking you out in the process. But, you woke up, your eyes dry and your breath tasting horrible to find Eddie sitting on you. He’s dressed up in his usual get up, checking his watch before looking down at you.

“Well, well, I was wondering how long it would take before I crushed you to death.” He said smiling at you. In your tired brain he looks like an angel, a fuzzy halo of curls around his head almost glowing in the light of the moon.

“God, why are you sitting on me? You weigh like a million pounds.” You say and push him off, to which he goes easily. You finally take a full breath urging yourself to wake up when all you want to do is turn around and curl back into the couch.

“How could you,” he gasps and puts his hand on his chest, “I’m as light as a feather.” He scoffs and watches you wrench yourself from the warm cushions of the couch.

“Yeah? Tell that to my broken ribs.” You gesture to your chest and smile when he kneels down on one knee, his hands on your thighs while he leans in.

“I’m light as a feather you little shits, get it together.” He whispers and you actually laugh hard, putting your hands on your mouth to dull the sounds coming out from it. He smiles up at you before standing back up, grabbing your hand in the same action, pulling you up until you’re standing. You stretch, hearing bones in your body pop from a successful night of sleep. You’re about to say good morning until you look out the window and notice it is in fact not morning, the moon still high in the sky while the stars surround it.

“What time is it?” You ask and turn to him, a deadly smile placed on your face. He seems to know the look because he looks at his watch and backs up a step.

“Uh… Three in the morning?” He replies, almost like a question and you think your hands would look really good around his neck. You brush off the thought and looks around the house, finding the candles out and a blanket next to your body. He must’ve put it on in your sleep and snatched it off to get you up. He’s both a sweetheart and a menace, you can’t tell which one you like better.

“Eddie,” You get his attention and he looks like he could run at any minute, “why did you wake me up before the sun?” You ask and pick up the blanket on the couch, cuddling up with it. The night air isn’t as forgiving when the AC isn’t on.

“I’m sorry to say, princess,” A new pet name leaves his lips and it takes everything in you not to smile, " but we’ve got to get back into that boathouse, Dustin and them are going to freak if they come back and we’re not there.” He explains and you know he’s right. His name for you rings in your head and that’s all it takes for you to nod and not complain as you walk to grab your shoes from the kitchen floor.

“Why is it so cold?” You ask, shivering as you toss the blanket onto the counter, bending over to slip your shoes on. Even your jacket isn’t helping keep out the bitter cold, the air going right to your bones.

“It’s three in the morning in the month of March, in Hawkins Indiana. Need I say more?” He says and fiddles around with the chains on his sleeve, the nervous habit finally making an appearance.  

“I suppose you’re right. Still doesn’t make it okay though. I miss my bed.” You groan and put the blanket back around you, glad to have some of the warmth you’ve been needing.

“You could always go back home? I wouldn’t care.” He offers and you look up at him from tying your shoes.

“Over my dead body.” You repeat your words from earlier to which he smiles.

“I miss my bed too. But alas the boat will have to do for tonight. You can go back to sleep when we get out there.” He explains and opens the door when he sees that your ready. A breeze comes through the open door and you can’t stop your teeth from chattering.

“That tarp keep out the cold?” You ask and walk through the door, smiling as he lets you go first before shutting the door behind the both of you.

“Like the Bahamas.” He says and you both start down the small hill to the rusty dump. You can’t say you’re thrilled by having to wake up and move yourself just to go back to sleep but Eddie makes it better. Being with Eddie makes everything better.

The building is just how you left it, candy wrappers and beer bottled littering the floor and spots on boxes, the blue tarp pushed back off of the boat, and lights off. The boat looks spacious enough on the inside, the material being pushed to the bottom of the boat for Eddie to be able to sit in it comfortably. It’s quiet and you watch Eddie get into the boat, the vessel creaking and moving under his weigh.

“You’re sure it’ll hold both of us?” You ask and he looks at you almost like you’re stupid.

“Light as a feather, remember.” He says and you nod, taking is outstretched hand and hiking your leg up to get into the rusty tin boat. With much difficulty, he lays down onto the floor of the boat, opening his arms for you to get into them. As you survey the boat you realize it’s the only choice you have, either be crunched by Eddie against the side of the boat or cuddle up in his arms and have a little bit of space.

“When did you wake up?” You ask while crouching down, laying your head on his shoulder before he closes his arms around you.

“I haven’t slept yet.” He admits and you lift your head up, staring down at him as he smiles bashfully.

“You haven’t slept yet?” You ask and cock your eyebrow in a challenge.

“That’s what I said.” He smiles and pulls you back down, twirling your hair in his hand. “Every time I close my eyes I just see her. Hanging in the air, waiting for her bones to snap.” He explains and I frown, putting my arms around him. It hurts you to know that he’s haunted by what he’s seen, you know that he’ll never be the same after this.

“Is there anything I can do to help you?” You ask and look up at him. He’s staring at the tarp above you, mapping out the highlights and shadows with his darting eyes.

“Just keep holding me?” He suggests and you squeeze your arms around him, the desperation enough for you to not want to let go, like ever.

“I can do that.” You say and smile, cuddling your head into his shoulder. Giving way to sleep wasn’t hard, with the warmth radiating from Eddie and the tarp keeping out the cold air it’s toasty, enough so that you take off your blanket and put it under your head.

“Thank you, Y/N.” You hear just before drifting off to sleep and he says something else but you’re already drifting to far to hear him.

.

“Y/N, wake up.” Eddie is shaking you awake and it’s unlike the wake up call this morning. He sounds scared, his voice shaky and urgent. He pulls back the tarp and light pierces your vision, but that’s not what makes you shoot out of the boat. The sound of feet marching on the gravel path the leads down the hill to the boathouse make you get up and stand in front of Eddie, who’s looking out the window muttering ‘shit’.

“Hide Eddie.” You say but he doesn’t have time to move, the door flinging open and hitting the wall behind it.

“Delivery service.” Dustin says and you sigh, keeling over with relief, your hands on your knees.

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie says from behind you, and you repeat it calming your breath down enough to stand up. You can hear him let out relieved breaths and you turn to him, looking at his face as he tries to relax.

“You guys really thought that was the best way to come in here?” You ask crossing your arms over your chest as you look them over. The have back from the grocery store in there hands, the name matching the one that you saw when you first rode into town.

“Would you have answered if we knocked?” Max offered and you smiled, the attitude oozing from her tone like poison.

“We wouldn’t but then you could’ve opened the door, nicely.” You look over at Dustin who’s smiling as if it’s funny, “we thought you were the police.” You confirm and you notice Steve and Robin’s bashful smile.

“What’d you bring us?” Eddie says and passes by you to grab the bags from their hands, settling back into the boat before looking in the bags finding honey combs and a Yoohoo. You look in the other bag  and find the same thing, frowning at their choice in breakfast tastes. There’s also chips and other bags of snacks in Robins hand, but you decide on the cereal for now. You take the food and sit on one of the boxes, settling criss cross before popping open the food. Eddie is downing it as if he didn’t eat pasta last night but as you open the Honey Comb and get a whiff, your stomach growls.

So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news.” Dustin starts and between Eddie and you, gauging your reactions. “How do you prefer it?” He finishes and looks at Eddie.

“Bad news first, always.” You and Eddie say at the same time, stuffing your face with cereal. A smile spreads across your face while looking at Eddie, finding him smiling as well, still chewing his cereal.

“Alright. Bad news,” Dustin lets out a little laugh, eyeing you a little longer than you would’ve liked but he continues anyway, “We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they’re definitely looking for you.” Eddie’s face falls and yours does to. You gauge the reactions of the people around you, they’re all worried. Steve leans against a post next to the boat Eddie’s sitting in and looks at Dustin, waiting for him to tell the next bit of news.

“Okay,” You say, to try and get him to continue. Your anxiety spikes and you look at Eddie, who’s stopped eating entirely, the news spoiling both of our appetites.

“Also, they’re, uh, pretty convinced that you killed Chrissy.”

“Like, 100% kind of convinced.” Max juts in and all the attention turns to her, whos currently sat on an old cooler.

“And the good news?” Eddie asks, rubbing the fabric of his jeans, another nervous habit.

“You’re name hasn’t gone public yet. But if we found out about you, then it’s only a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother will be out gunning for you.” Robin explains and you watch as the look in Eddie’s turn to fear, his skin becoming ashen as he imagines that reality.

“Hunt the freak, right?” Eddie confirms and looks up to Robin, who looks just as scared as Eddie does.

“Exactly,” She confirms and you look down at your hands, taking a sip of your chocolate milk.

“Shit,” You say looking at Eddie turning to Dustin, almost like he’s asking him for any sort of help.

“So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence.” Dustin says and the carefree expression on his face almost makes you mad, like this isn’t a life and death situation for Eddie.

“That’s all, Dustin? That’s all?” Eddie seems pissed too, the lackadaisical approach to the situation getting on his nerves. Even Steve was nodding to Dustin’s plan, as if it made any sense.

“Yeah, no, that’s pretty much it.” Dustin confirms and Eddie looks away in disbelief, he looks how you feel, the doubt making it’s way into your brain.

“You can’t just expect us to believe that you can take him down.” You say and everyone turns to you, who’s been quiet the entire time.

“Listen, guys, I know that everything Dustin’s saying sounds totally delusional, but we’ve actually been through this before. I mean they have a… a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human-fleshed-based, theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel like we got this.” Robin finishes, and you look around a the group, watching them nod or look solemn, as if they’re remembering what happened.

“Listen, I believe you guys, but this is ridiculous. You can’t expect Eddie and I to believe that you can actually kill this Vecna guy. And you’ve been through this before? I haven’t been here long but you can’t say these things happened and not expect someone other than a group of kids to catch on?” You say, cutting off Steve as he was about to speak, but Eddie nods and points to me, as if I said exactly what he’s thinking.

“The government can cover up a lot of shit if they wanted to.” Max replies and the group nods, as if that makes total sense. Eddie and you seem to be the only ones lost in this conversation.

“Well, you see, we usually rely on this girl who has superpowers. But, uh, those went bye-bye, so…” Steve says what he was going to before I interrupted him and it doesn’t make sense even more.

“So, we’re technically in more of the-” Robin says trying to speak with her hands, waving them around and almost hitting you in the face.

“Brainstorming phase.” Max finishes for them and Steve snaps, as if that’s the word he’s been looking for.

“Brainstorming,” he repeats and nods, smiling at you and Eddie.

“There’s… there’s nothing to worry about.” Steve scoffs and shrugs his shoulders in cool confidence, the rest of the group nodding along. He looks at them in disbelief and turns to you, your face matching his own. You open your mouth to speak but police sirens cut over your voice, sounding in front of Rick’s house and you whip your head towards the window.

“Under the tarp. Under the tarp!” You say and put your food on the ground, going to the window to check out what’s going on. Thankfully, the cars are zooming past, not bothering to give this place a second glance. Ambulances follow in tow and there’s this sinking feeling that tells you it’s happened again. You can’t imagine who it is, all crumbled up in their house or in their lawn. You wish that it’s just an accident, some car crash and not Vecna taking yet another victim.

“We have to go check that out.” Robin says and the rest of them nod.

“You think Vecna attacked again? It’s only a day after Chrissy.” You argue and turn towards Eddie’s boat the tarp lifting up, his face coming into view. He was still eating, and drinking his chocolate milk, the drink almost gone now.

“It could be, I mean there’s no telling what he’s looking for. Better go out there and be safe than sorry.” Dustin explains, putting his backpack back on his back, heading towards the door.

“Let us know what’s going on, and please, grab us some real food.” You look back at Eddie scarfing down the cereal and drinking the last of his milk.

The door shuts and you sit back down onto the stool you occupied, thinking over what Dustin and the group just told us. Eddie looks deep in thought, still munching on the cereal in his arms. It just keep going, coming from the box in handfuls. He looks around the boathouse, taking glancing at everything hanging on the walls, as if he’s already bored with the situation.

“What are we going to do? If there’s another Vecna murder and you’re still not found, they will totally assume it’s you.” You say, taking off your jacket and setting it on the cooler Max sat on earlier.

“I don’t know, think we could just take your car and get out of Hawkins?” Eddie stops eating his food and asks.

“I didn’t bring it with me.” You say scratching your head as you continue to think. “Thinking out loud here, but help me remember what Dustin said about Vecna. He comes from a world beneath Hawkins and it sometime comes into our world. He’s talking like an alternate dimension? Like the Mist, where all the monsters come and try to, I don’t know, kill the people in the shop or, whatever.” You ask, looking at Eddie while he chews his food and swallows.

“Cute,” He says and stares at you, his hand under his chin, giving you this grin that makes him look stupid, “but the creatures came in with the mist, that was a different story. He says this is under Hawkins, like you could dig down and come out the other side.” Eddie says and looks down at the floor, like it’ll open up and grab him.

“And we think that he’s after you, or at least I think so. What is so special about you? Besides the obvious.” You say to yourself, looking at Eddie while he digs his hand in for more cereal.

“I mean, I’m a freak, even if we prove Vecna’s existence, and his connection to these murders, everyone in town will think that I probably summoned him with a ritual or something. I wouldn’t doubt that Jason Carver is running around town saying I killed his girlfriend.” Eddie replies and eyes your Yoohoo, left on the ground by your cereal. You pick it up and take a swig before handing it to him, choosing to think on an empty stomach.

“We have bigger things to worry about than the people in town, they can be convinced easily. I mean, these kids have apparently fought in this inter dimensional war. I’m sure they have some connections.” You explain and think about everything from the start. Dustin didn’t say much but gathering what Robin said about having fought this thing multiple times, and the two different types of enemies she mentioned, human-flesh- related and smoke-based.

“Why are we calling him Vecna again? Why are we basing this on D&D?” You ask Eddie, since he is the one that dubbed him Vecna.

“Vecna is all powerful, a dark spell caster, and most importantly, he was a mortal wizard. He searched his entire life to finding the key to immortality. In all the campaigns and worlds that I’ve read about, there’s nothing to say how he found it, as if Vecna himself didn’t even document it. But he did it, sacrificing his mortality to become a lich, and now he lays siege to all the worlds he’s left behind.” Eddie explains and as he does, he finally sets the cereal down and turns to me, explaining everything in great detail. You can feel his passion in every word. You have yet to see anybody that rivals Eddie’s ability to tell a story.

“But in your campaign he came back, with his cult form Makbar, right?” You recall and think about the final night of the Hellfire Club, the end to Eddie’s weeks long, sadistic campaign.

“He was supposed to be killed by Kas, a half vampire, half human, all badass warrior. They had worked together for a while, and Vecna forged him a sword, the Sword of Kas, and he used it to slay all of Vecna’s enemies until it’s said that the sword whispered to him to kill Vecna and take his power.” Eddie explained and got out of the boat, cereal now in hand as he munches on them one at a time.

“And the only thing to survive was his left and hand and left eye? But you said that Vecna was alive.” You added, picking up your own cereal as your stomach grumbled in hunger.

“Yes, in my campaign I had made it so that he was alive but I only did that for the shock and you know I had to finish off Vecna’s Cult with Vecna being alive. I would’ve been stupid not to.” he confirmed, “So, were talking about inter dimensional war, creatures from another world, and a gaggle of kids that fought these things not once, but twice, and won? Forget The Mist, this is exactly like D&D. I wouldn’t be surprised if these monsters that they’re talking about are like creatures from the game.” Eddie says and looks at me, excitement in his eyes.

“And what are Vecna’s abilities, what can he do and what are his weaknesses?” You ask, treating this as if it was a campaign and not Eddie’s life.

“He had a lot of abilities, immune to mind control, could paralyze people, his sensory perception is insane. He’s just a powerful wizard, even able to alter reality itself.” He says and you both began to circle each other, eating cereal while trying to figure this out.

“You said Chrissy was having problems, what kind of problems?” You ask and stop, letting your mind run instead of your feet.

“I don’t know, she was just so frazzled and it’s not the first time I’ve seen her like this. She asked me if I ever felt like I was losing my mind, man. Being me I thought she was joking, but what if she really was losing her mind.” Eddie explains and sets the cereal down, sitting on the stool that you took up before.

“You said that Vecna can paralyze people with his touch, and alter reality at will.” You start, putting all the metal puzzle pieces together, “What if Chrissy saw Vecna, and whoever else was attacked last night, if that was Vecna. What if she was unsettled and thinking that she was ‘losing her mind’ because she was seeing signs of Vecna. You said it yourself she was in a trance-like state, not moving, paralyzed.” Your blood runs cold and goosebumps erupt on your skin.

“Oh my god,” Eddie says and runs his hands over his face, looking at the ceiling. “It really is Vecna, at least according to the D&D world.” Eddie says and sets his elbows on his knees, folding his fingers together while looking at you. The look in Eddie’s eyes is unlike anything you’ve ever seen, like you have all the answers, like he knows you’ll take care of him no matter what.

“What does this mean for the rest of the gang?” You ask, sitting on the edge of the boat.

“I have no idea.” He answers honestly and you keep going around in circles in your head. You review everything he said, everything that Vecna might be able to do to any of us. You’re convinced he’s after Eddie, I mean Chrissy was right there with him, who says that he’s not marked for death as well?

Steve had come by shortly after, bringing Eddie some water and some more snacks, chips and candy bars settled in the bags he handed to the both of you. You convinced him to let you go, so you could get some new clothes and supplies. Eddie only agreed to be left alone when you told him that you would bring real food for him to eat. He gave you a hug and a small kiss on your lips, bidding you goodbye and safe travels.

The kiss he gave you had you giddy the whole car ride, a smile stuck on your face. It wouldn’t go down even if you tried, Max and Dustin giving you looks out of the corner of their eyes. Your cheeks hurt by the time Steve pulled up to your house, your parents cars both gone. You said your goodbyes and gathered everything from Steve’s car, waving to them as he drove out of there, way too fast for a residential road.

Opening the front door of your house never felt so amazing. The feeling of the AC hitting your sticky skin could’ve made you drop to your knees right there in the entryway. The house is silent, no TV, no laughing from your mother, and no shuffling of feet on either of the floors. Your house isn’t too big, but it isn’t small either. You live next to Nancy Wheeler and with her being gone and Mike not there either you wouldn’t have to worry about either them coming over to knock at your door, something that they did often.

You immediately get to it, hopping up the stairs two at a time to take a quick shower and change clothes. Washing the sweat from the previous nights had never felt better, your skin singing as you wipe it down. You choose shorts and one of the shirts that Eddie let you borrow. It’s a Metallica one, Master of Puppets logo faded from use. It still smells like him. How, you have no idea, the shirt being washed at your house over and over again. But when you take a whiff of the fabric, cigarettes, cologne, and Eddie’s musk fill your nose. You could stand there forever and smell the shirt but you stop yourself, not wanting to look like a weirdo even if you’re the only one home.

The sun is on the horizon when you’re finally done packing up the food for Eddie. Turkey sandwiches with a bag of chips and some cans of coke. For desert you stuff some brownies that your mother made last night into a bag and put it into the tote bag that you chose to carry. In your backpack is a walkie talkie, the one gifted by Dustin for Christmas, your Walkman with a pair of headphones, the tape that Eddie gave you taken from your pocket and put into the Walkman. You also brought a journal, many of the pages are used but it could work to write down any information you acquire. Just as you were about to call Steve to come pick you up, the doorbell rang.

Jason Carver stands at your door, hand on the frame as he looks at you, a grimace on his face. Fear jolts through your body as you look from him, to his car in your driveway, his goons packed into it like some sort of family vacation.

“To what do I owe the displeasure?” You ask, steeling your nerves, turning your voice into a deadly sneer.

“Where you off to?” He asks back ignoring your question as he eyes the bags on the floor at your feet.

“Didn’t know you were the police. What the hell are you doing here?” Your patience is running thin as you step out from your door, crossing your arms over your chest. He scrambles back, his hand pushing from the top of the door in order to keep his balance.

“Let’s cut to the chase. Where’s the freak?” He replies, mimicking your stance as he backs up.

“Standing right in front of me, seems like he was just leaving though.” You spit and look up at him, his temper thinning with each word you speak.

“This isn’t some game Y/N,” Your name from his lips makes your teeth grind, it sounds all wrong, unlike when Eddie speaks it. “We just want to talk to him.”

“You really expect me to believe that bullshit?” You ask and let out a deadly chuckle, your hands falling to your sides before balling into fists. “Listen, I have no idea where he is but I know that there’s things more important than your dead girlfriend, and,”

You don’t get to finish, the back of Jason’s hand connecting with the left side of your face, snapping your head to the right. You don’t move, pain radiating from the left side of your face as you try and register what just happened. You take a breath and lick your lip, tasting blood.

“You don’t understand. This is some serious shit!” He yells as if he didn’t just lay his hand on you.

“Back the Hell away from me and leave my property.” Your voice is calm but you can tell by the look on Jason’s face that there’s a fire in your eyes. Your face stings but you don’t show any signs of pain, stepping into his space as you threaten him.

“Tell me where he is and I will.” Jason argues and you snap, closing your fist at your side before swinging, hitting him square in the jaw and you don’t stop. You connect your foot with his gut and thank God that Eddie taught you how to fight earlier this year. He definitely let you win most of the time but it didn’t stop you from learning some moves.

“Get the fuck out of here. Never let me catch you skulking around here again.” You stare down at him as he doubles over in pain, clutching his stomach as if it’s going to fall out. You watch as he waddles back, his boys out of their car now, watching you with deadly eyes. Your eyes soften as you catch a glimpse of Lucas Sinclair nestled in the back, a look of guilt washing over his face as he looks at you.

You wait till they leave before stepping inside your house and holding your face, the smack he delivered still hurting. When you make your way to your first-floor bathroom you look at yourself in awe. Dried blood makes a trail down your chin and your lip is fat, a cut running through it. Your cheeks are red from anger and your hair is mussed, flyaways catching the light of the bathroom.

You call Steve shortly after you’ve cleaned yourself up, letting him know that he can pick you up whenever he’s ready. Your bags are clutched tightly to your chest while you wait on your step, West End Girls playing in your headphones as you watch the sun shift closer and closer to the horizon. Your cheek stings and your lip is still swollen, you’d bet 10 bucks that there’s going to be a bruise on your cheek as the night draws in. You’d bet even more money that Eddie is going to flip out when he sees it, insisting that you tell him who did it. Just when you think you have enough to deal with, Jason steps into the picture and now you can’t help but think about what he’s gunning for Eddie. No doubt he convinced that Eddie killed Chrissy, believing that he did made some kind of deal with Satan.

“Hey, get in,” Dusting shouts but the next words die in his throat as you walk up to the vehicle, putting your headphones around your neck.

“What the hell happened to you?” Max’s concerned voice comes from the backseat. You smile but immediately let it fall, your lip aching with the movement.

“Jason happened. He’s looking for Eddie and I can’t imagine he’ll be this nice if he finds him.” You point to your face and hop into the backseat, buckling your seat belt before Steve starts to drive. “Do any of you have Tylenol?” You add, a splitting headache starting to rush to your head. You blame it on the smack you received earlier.

“Yeah,” Max comments and hands you the bottle. You pop three pills and give her the bottle back, swallowing them dry as you close your eyes, the headache getting worse and worse by the second.

You don’t remember falling asleep but Max is shaking you awake, your eyes popping open as you jolt awake. You see the familiar shack from the driveway and you smile at the gang.

“Do you have your walkie?” Dustin asks, looking back at you from his place in the front seat.

“Yeah, and an extra set of batteries, before you ask.” You reply and unbuckle your belt, grabbing your bags from the floor beneath you.

“We’re going to be MIA for the next few hours, could stretch into tomorrow so if you need anything just radio us. We’ll get to you as soon as we can.” Steve explains, looking at you through the rear view mirror.

“Okay. Just keep us updated and let us know if you find anything else.” You instruct giving them all a light smile before shutting the door. Gravel crunches under Steve’s tires as he pulls out of the driveway, dust coming up from the ground to puff in your face. The walk down to the tin door feels like ages until you reach it. All you can think of is Eddie’s reaction to the left side of your face. Your fingers run over your cheek and you wince, immediately knowing that a bruise has already formed. Did he really hit you that hard?

You take a breath and open the door, holding your air as you peak inside the shed, finding nothing but silence and the clutter from Eddie’s snacks. Your heart picks up as you look around the tool shed, pulling the flashlight from the side of your backpack, illuminating the dark room. Even as you search with your flashlight there’s nothing to be found and your heart drops to your feet, imagining that Jason finally found where he was hiding.

“Eddie?” You voice tentatively, holding your flashlight in front of you as you wait for any sort of response. Hands wrap around your body, closing around your chest, crushing your backpack as they tighten their hold. A hand comes around your mouth before you could cry, the hand gently pressing against the wound on your lip.

“Boo,” the person whispers and you immediately calm down, Eddie’s smooth whisper falling against the shell of your ear. You push him back, turning around to shine the light into his eyes.

“What the Hell, Eddie. You scared me half to death!” Your heart doesn’t stop racing as he keels over with laughter, his ringed fingers gripping his gut.

“You were so scared. That was priceless!” He stands up and howls with laughter once more, wiping his eyes as if he had tears coming out of them. You immediately smell the weed and smoke on him and smile, you lip hurting with the action but you can’t help it.

“I hope you saved some of that for me.” You turn away from him and grab the tarp from the boat, as well as the blanket, throwing the fabric at him before setting the flashlight down. You drag one of the large stools next to the boat and cover them both with the tarp, making sure it wouldn’t slip off somehow. You put your hand out and Eddie wordlessly lands you the blanket, which you lay under the tarp and pack your stuff in, urging him to sit next to you.

You throw the tarp over your heads, shutting out anything from the outside. You set up the flashlight and grab your bags, rifling through it until you find your Walkman, pressing play before turning it all the way up, music coming from your headphones. You set it up close to you both and dig through the tote bag finding all the food you packed away for the both of you. The cokes kept everything cold and you thank your past self for packing cold ones. Eddie is eerily silent and you can already tell that he’s eyeing your injury in the light of the flashlight.

“What happened?” His voice is soft and you can tell that he’s worried. You look up and find his eyes staring at your cheek, inspecting the damage you received.

“It’s alright, just some douche that jumped me. You should see him.” You chuckle and think about Jason doubled over in pain. Eddie doesn’t seem convinced, looking at your face with pure worry, something that you haven’t seen on him in a long time. It’s quiet as his eyes roam your face, dipping towards your lips before coming up to you look you in the eyes.

“Who did this?” He pushes, already knowing that you’re keeping something from him. Sometimes you regret letting him learn your mannerisms, knowing when you’re lying or when you’re upset. Normally it’s one of the things that you adore about him, but in situations like this, it’s your least favorite thing about him.

“Jason, he’s looking for you. I didn’t tell him though. I would never rat you out.” You say smiling, handing him all his bags of food while eyeing the blunts he’s already rolled for us. Something inside you sinks knowing that you missed watching him roll them, not being able to see his fingers at work.

“Are you alright?” He asks, his hand coming to rest on your cheek, you can tell he feels bad about scaring you, his hand on your face agitating the wound you received.

“Yeah, doesn’t really hurt anymore anyway.” You lie, reaching for the blunt and the lighter. He lets you and drops his hand from your face, looking at you with curious eyes.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that.” He states and you look at him over the flame, inhaling the sweet smoke until you can’t anymore.

“Do what?” You ask as you exhale letting the smoke go into Eddie’s face.

“Lie to make me feel better.” He smiles sweetly and takes the blunt from your outstretched hand.

“You have enough to worry about. I can handle myself.” You say and pop open the tab on your soda, taking a drink before you start coughing. The cool rim against your heated lips makes you sigh and for a moment you don’t even drink, just let it sit there against your split lip.

“Oh I know you can. I fully believe that you showed him who’s boss. Just sucks that he went after you in the first place.” He explains and hands you the blunt, tugging off his jackets before his hands find their way to the frays on his jeans.

“Well, I kicked his ass. I think I gave him another black eye. Kinda wish I broke his nose.” You explain before bringing the blunt to your lips. You can already feel the high start to kick in and by the newfound light in Eddie’s eyes it’s kicking in for him too. You inhale and touch the tender skin of your lip, “Lucas was with them.” You blurt and look at him, hurt spreading across his features.

“Sinclair?” He asks, rolling the cans of coke across the blanket covers floor.

“Yeah, for what it’s worth he really looked like he didn’t want to be there. Almost asked him to step out and come with me like I was some sort of police officer. But I didn’t know if they would hurt him too so I let him go.” You hand him the blunt and take another drink of your soda. You set the coke down and pop open the chips, your taste buds now craving something salty as you let yourself fall deeper and deeper into the high.

“I hope he’s alright.” Eddie says and hands the blunt back over to you. He lets you finish it off before putting it out on the edge of the stool, flicking it out from under the little fort.

“I’m sure he’ll slip away somehow. He never really liked those guys.” You say and continue to munch on chips in silence. He’s opened his brownie, always insisting that he have desert first before anything else. Especially when he was high. And if he wanted another you would have no problem handing over yours, just to see that smile that reached his eyes, all of the lines on his face coming into view. Watching him smile sober was something else, it made time slow and every noise in your ears disappear until it’s only him. But while you’re high, it’s otherworldly, worthy of paintings and pictures that fill entire galleries.

“You’re so pretty.” You say, your turkey sandwich completely forgotten in your hands. He’s midway stuffing his face with a brownie, the corners of his mouth covered in chocolate.

“What?” He asks, crumbs falling from his lips. You laugh because if anybody else saw him this way they’d think he was disgusting. They’d tell him to close his mouth or hand him a napkin with disdain written all over their faces.

“You’re pretty.” You confirm before biting into your sandwich, nodding your head as Love Bites by Judas Priest starts to play through your headphones.

“You’re truly one of a kind, Y/N.” He says after swallowing, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I’m really not. Just some girl you picked up on the side of the road.” You say shrugging while popping a chip into your open mouth, crunching on it while he stares at you.

“What the hell were you even thinking? Somebody could’ve totally kidnapped you.” He exclaims throwing his hands up in disbelief.

“You mean like you? You pulled up in the sketchiest van that exists.” You laugh as you watch his face fall, his hand coming to his heart.

“She’s beautiful, you traitor.” He gasps and you can’t help but laugh, your lips stinging as you open your mouth wide. You can’t help it, the look in his brown eyes as if he’s really hurts makes you cackle like a witch. You’re still laughing as you look back at him, finding the fondest smile you’ve ever seen on him.

“Not more beautiful than you.” You gasp out, watching as red color tints his cheeks. It’s impossible to look away from him, his eyes shuffling around, looking at our food wrappers and even a speck of dirt on the blanket, anywhere but you.

“You really are slick, you know that? It’s a mystery that you don’t date.” He says and his hand comes up to the back of his neck, rubbing nervously.

“Been waiting for you, Eds. Don’t want anybody but you.” You say and smile, his surprised face looking back at you.

“Shut the fuck up,” He pushes your shoulder and you smile, hurt flashing in your heart as he laughs with you. You wish he could take you seriously. After the kisses you shared last night you would think that he would confess to you as well. Maybe he was just looking for the tiniest bit of affection, using you to get all of his frustrations out. But the things that he said to you last night, they didn’t seem like something he would say to someone that he just wanted to have fun with. The truth behind them was more than enough to convince you that he felt the same.

“You alright?” He asks, stopping his motions as he picks up the empty bags, moving the sodas out of the way.

“Yeah, just thinking about some things.” You say, watching as he scoots closer to you, moving towards the center of the fort.

“Could you put my hair up? I’ve been trying for the past hour before you got here and I don’t know how you do it so well.” He hands you a black hair tie, some of his brown hairs still tangled in it.

“Sure thing,” You agree and put your hand on the back of his head, leading him to press his forehead onto your shoulder. His breath tickles your chest as you reach around him, feeling his hair in your fingers before tying the black bands around it. The bun sits low on his head, his favorite type and you smile as you pull your hands away. When he doesn’t move you assume something’s wrong until his hands gently move to your waist, rubbing the fabric of his shirt before moving his hands around you.

His arms slither around you and you smile, your hands rounding his shoulders, holding him as tight as he’s holding you. He smells nice despite the fact that he’s been sitting in a dusty shed for hours. Eddie is warm as he comes closer, your legs tangling together as he situates you on the floor. Your heart starts pumping, as hard as it did last night, warmth flooding through your body at his proximity.

“Your heart’s beating so fast.” He says and moves his head to the side, his hair now tickling your face as he puts his cheek to your chest.

He’s listening to your heart.

“Well, there’s a very pretty boy holding me right now. I’d be shocked if it was normal.” You chuckle and he reciprocates the laugh, a huff coming from his nose.

“Then you should I hear mine.” He take a breath and sits back up, his arms leaving your back cold and empty. You’re forced to let go of him, frowning as he turns the other way reaching for something behind his back. “Can we try something?”

Eddie comes back with the blunt and the lighter, igniting the flame before lighting the end. His face is illuminated from two angles and you can’t help but marvel at him as he looks at you, obviously waiting for any type of answer. You nod and continue to look, his face lighting up with a smile as you watch him.

“Okay, if you want to stop just let me know and we’ll smoke this in silence.” He instructs and you nod again, a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth while you watch him take a hit. He doesn’t exhale it though and you’re almost confused until he puts his hand around your neck and pulls you close. “Breathe in.” He instructs and puts his lips to yours.

His kiss is infectious and you completely forget about the smoke roaming around in his lungs. His lips push against yours and his tongue peaks past his teeth getting you to open, letting him exhale the smoke into your mouth. It’s a miracle that you remember to inhale the smoke from his mouth. He lets it all go before going back to kissing you, his fingers playing with the hair at the nape of your neck. It’s feverish, the clashing of lips and teeth as the smoke starts to burn your lungs.

He pulls away just as you start to push forward, eager to keep kissing him even if you have no breath left in you to do so. The smoke comes from your nose and your mouth as you let out uneven breaths, the smoke stinging your throat. He hits the blunt again and blows it into your face, turning it around to you after you stop your coughing fit.

“Wanna try again?” He asks, smiling as you take the blunt. His hand is still on your neck, his cold rings a stark opposite on your heated skin. Your face is hot and your lip hurts from where Jason hit you but you don’t care, him choosing to let you decide your own limits.

“Fuck, yes, please.” You say and take a hit of the blunt, holding it in your lungs while you grab onto his wrist.

“Such good manners,” he tuts and pulls you closer, crushing his lips against yours before opening his mouth to let you blow the smoke into his own. Rather than pulling away though he slips his tongue into your mouth, moving his lips while his tongue gently caresses your own. You can’t help the moan that you let out and you squeeze his wrist, your nails stretching against his delicate skin. He doesn’t stop though, even as you press your legs together between the both of you. The feeling of his lips on yours is electric, and he knows it, torturing you with his touch.

His tongue is warm against your own, tasting like brownies, Coke, and weed. It’s intoxicating, the way he explores your mouth like he’s Indians Jones in the Temple of Doom. It’s almost like he’s playing with you, his tongue flicking against yours, prompting you to flick back, letting you test out your own movements. He doesn’t care that you have no idea what you’re doing, he doesn’t care that your nails are digging into the skin of his wrist, crescent shapes already taking shape, he doesn’t care about the cute little noises coming out of your mouth with every flick of his tongue against yours.

Smoke piles out of his mouth as he pulls away, looking at you with a dazed expression. You feel higher than you’ve ever been, your brain fuzzy as if static is the only thing up there. Static and the feeling of Eddie, his smell, his taste. It almost drives you mad and you want to push forward for more but he’s already hitting the blunt and leaning back, his hand playing with the ends your hair instead of sitting at your nape. He’s the picture of perfection in front of you as you gather yourself. Face framing hairs have slipped from his bun and they’re tussled thanks to the close proximity to you, and his hellfire shirt has never looked better, riding up to show a sliver of his skin, scarce brown hairs leading to the front of his pants where-

You look away, your breath stalling in your throat as you look at anything but him. The tent in the front of his pants is telling, and just by looking at it, you know he’s packing. God, you recall all of the times you joked that it was small and he just nodded, smiling as if he had some stupid secret.

He indeed had a very big secret.

“You’re not doing much better yourself.” He says and hands you the blunt, his words laced with confidence you didn’t know he had. The air is stuffy, the tarp not letting anything else in, smoke trapped in here with you.

“Shut up, it’s not funny.” You say and squeeze your legs harder, crossing them over each other while he watches with a smug smile.

“Never said it was,” he smiles and looks down at your plush thighs, the muscles constricting against each other, “I can help you if you want.” His hands falls from your locks and you look up at him, shocked by his words. he looks nervous, his hand scratching the nape of his neck while he waits patiently for your answer.

“I’ve only done something like that once, and it wasn’t really fun.” You explain and hit the blunt, looking down at your lap as you remember your first boyfriend.

Back in Chicago, back at your old school when you actually cared about people and being popular, there was Matt. He was on the baseball, basketball, and the lacrosse team, popular all four years of high school. He was kind and he took you on dates every weekend, encouraging you to come to every game that he was in, which you did. One night after he won one of his biggest games, he took you back to his empty house and convinced you to finally have sex with him. He begged and begged so you finally said yes. You regretted the decision right after you made it. He was mean and rough and made you bleed, making you clean yourself off before dropping you at home.

He said that he loved you before you shut his car door, giving you a cool smile that almost made you forget about the pain running through your body with every step. You expected everything to be the same the next day, coming into school ready to see Matt once more. It was different, people looked at you weird and whispered as you walked by in the hallway. It wasn’t till lunch that you figured out what happened. Matt hadn’t talked to you all day, and you expected the he would sit with you at lunch as usual but there he was, avoiding your gaze like the plague while the rest of his group cheered. He’d gone and told everyone what you two had done, what you thought was special was just some stupid joke.

You never spoke to him again.

“I know,” Eddie says, breaking through the memories that resurfaced. You had told Eddie your first experience a couple of months ago, to which he apologized and hugged you. He explained that it wasn’t normal and it shouldn’t hurt ever, that he wasn’t a real man for taking care of you like you deserve.

“Okay,” You say, smiling before handing him the blunt back. He’s studying you, looking over your face for any signs of hesitance.

“I won’t hurt you.” He smiles and puts the blunt out, leaning closer as you let your breath mix together.

“I know,” You smile and pull him closer, your lips finding his immediately. Your lips dance together as he leans you back, his hand around your waist to keep you from hitting the ground harshly. His weight is comforting as he shifts on top of you, his arm holding him up as the other caresses your waist.

Your heart picks up as he moved closer to you, his hips digging into yours, the tent in his pants brushing along your most sensitive part. Your shorts are both tormenting you and giving you everything you want, the thin fabric letting you feel everything. You gasp, your lips parting as your hand flying to the skin of his wrist, squeezing as if in warning.

“You’re alright,” he shifts on top of you, his hips angling away from yours. You almost whine, missing the friction that it gave you.

“What are you going to do?” You ask as he moves his lips down your face, to you jaw, and farther down your neck. Wet kisses follow in his wake, the chilled air attacking your  wet neck as he moves lower.

“What do you want me to do?“ he asks back, looking up at you through thick lashes and brown bangs. He’s face is just as red as yours, his breathing fast as his fingers move to the hem of your- his shirt.

“I don’t know,”

“Want me to tell you what I’d like to do?” He offers and you nod, breath hitching as his calloused fingers slither under your shirt, his skin cold against your heated skin. “Well, personally, I’d like to eat you out until you can’t breathe. But today I think I’m going to fuck you with my fingers. What do you think?” He asks, his hand rising under your shirt until he fingers the edge of your bra.

“Please,” you beg, arching your back into his hand, his fingers pulling the lace up until you spill you, your nipple pebbling against the cold air.

“Please, what?” He asks, teasing you as he caresses the underside of your breast, the tips of his finger calloused and rough but soft as he touches you.

“I want you to fuck me with your fingers.” You relent, your breath kicking up as he flicks his thumb against your nipple. It sends and shock through your system, your thighs squeezing around Eddie as you look for any kind of friction.

“Feels good huh?” He muses and rolls your taut nipple between his fingers, a moan escaping from your parted lips.

“Yes,”

“You want more?”

“Please, Eddie.” His hand fixes your bra and falls from your shirt. He leans up and takes his rings off, setting them in your bag before reaching back for something in the tent you made.

“Here, up.” He instructs and his jackets come into view, messily bundled up in his hands. You sit up and let him place the jackets under your head before he slips his hand behind your head. His fingers tangle in your hair and you sigh at the feeling. The kiss he pulls you into is intoxicating, your lips mashing together while he slowly leans you down.

The jacket under your head keeps you comfortable as he explores your body with his hands, his calloused fingers slipping back under your shirt, teasing the skin of your waist. You gasp, the feeling sending shivers down your spine, and her takes the opportunity to pull your bottom lip between his teeth and pull, letting it go when you whine.

“You’re so fucking pretty, you know that?” He asks and you can feel his short finger nails dip into the hem of your shorts, moving back and forth on your skin. He’s testing his limits, you realize and it drives you mad, the feeling of him being so close yet so far to where you need him.

“Eddie, please.” Your impatience makes him smile and he can’t help the way his heart flutters as he looks at you. You’re spread out for him to see, rolling your hips against his leg as if it will make him move any faster.

“You’re sure?” He asks, dipping his hand even lower until his touching the matching pair of underwear you’re wearing. The lacy hem feels amazing under his fingers and he feels as if he’ll start shaking if he has to wait a minute longer.

“I’m so fucking sure. Just, please, touch me.” You beg and put your hand around the nape of his neck, pulling him into a kiss to distract yourself from your nerves. You haven’t wanted anyone more than you want him right now. The adrenaline running though your veins gives you confidence that you never knew you had. You buck your hips into him and his finger dig deeper, his lips widening into a smile as he slowly trails his hand down.

“Jesus Christ, you’re so wet.” He muses and you whine as his fingers finally spread your lips, collecting the wetness that’s gathered there. You know that if he wore his rings they would be cold against the heat of your cunt and the thought makes you tense. “Just relax, say the word and we’ll stop and never talk about this again. Okay?” He asks and stops the movement of his hand, making you let out a breath that you didn’t know you were holding.

“Okay,” You nod and swallow, your mouth dry from the nerves.

He’s gentle as he explores your pussy, his fingers sending waves of pleasure every time he moves. It doesn’t take him long to find your slit, the hole leaking profusely, something that makes him smile when he finds it, prodding his fingers against it. He moves out form your legs, laying beside you as he watches your face contort with pleasure. He’s so gentle, so light that you can’t even believe the bubble in your stomach is starting to get bigger and bigger. You spread your legs, giving him better access which he makes great use out of, running his hand up until he bumps your clit, a gasp coming from your mouth.

“Right there, huh?” Eddie asks and rubs gentle circles around the bundle of nerves. You can’t help the sounds coming out of your mouth now, even though you aren’t a virgin, you feel like one. You’ve never felt this much pleasure coming from someone else, let alone yourself.

“Yes, oh God.” You whisper and let your head fall back onto Eddie’s jacket, turning your head to the side when he starts to apply more pressure. His scent envelopes your nose and you moan into the clothing, your hips rolling and your stomach clenching. His fingers are wet against you and you clench around nothing, almost wanting to ask for his fingers inside.

“I’m going to put my fingers inside of you alright?” He warns, his fingers lowering themselves once more. His breathing hitches when he pushes inside of you, your walls sucking him in like a vacuum. “Fuck,” He says and you almost lose yourself, reaching down to grab his wrist as his fingers curl up.

“Eddie,” You groan and squeeze your eyes shut, groaning when he rolls his fingers again, finding something inside you that you didn’t know existed until now. Your breathing picks up and the noises are falling from your lips endlessly, between his name and whatever mush your brain decides it wants to say. The cord in your stomach tightens and keep tightening until your dangerously on the edge. Your nails dig into his wrist when his thumb finds your clit, working it until your near crying.

“You can cum,” he permits, his other hand on your jaw, pulling your face towards him. “Wanna look at you when you cum for me.” He smiles and kisses your nose, his thumb caressing your jaw as you look at him, heat spreading to your cheeks. His words spur you on and your squeeze his fingers, your cunt closing around his fingers in a death grip. Your backa rches off the floor and your thighs close around his arm. You don’t know if you’re trying to get him to stop or get him to keep going, riding out your high while he keeps pumping his fingers inside of you, wanting to get every last ounce of your orgasm out of you.

Your breathing is choppy and most of your body is sweating. he can’t help but think you look amazing as you whine under him, his fingers slowing down but never stopping. Your hips shake and shudder and he stops, knowing that you’re about to start complaining by the way your eyebrows draw to the middle of our forehead.

“Fuck, Eddie,” You say and lay flat on the floor, your body riding the high of both the weed and your orgasm. Eddie slips his hand out form your shorts and you watch as he brings the digits to his mouth, sucking your juices off his fingers. Your heart skips and beat and your face goes red, not only did he just taste you, but he rolls his eyes back and groans like it tastes good.

“Just as sweet as I thought you’d be.” He says and lays down next to you, his head on your chest and his legs tangled with your own.

“You though about what I taste like?” You dare to ask, looking down at him. He seems content, his hand drawing circles and random figures on your clothed stomach.

“I’ve thought about a lot of things, sweetheart.” He admits and looks up at you. God, he’s beautiful, you feel like he gets more and more beautiful every time you look at him.

“What kinds of things?” You ask, your tentative fingers playing with the stray locks of hair that fell from his bun.

“Things that shouldn’t leave the confines of my brain.” He says and closes his eyes, listening to the mellow tones of whatever song was playing now.

“If we make it out of this, will you tell me?” You ask, sighing as he puts his hand under the shirt, skin touching yours once more.

“You tell me your secrets and I’ll tell you mine.” He says and pinches the flesh right above your belly button.

“Deal.” You agree, smiling as you watch him relax in your hold.

“Deal,”

#eddie munson #eddie stranger things #stranger things #stranger things smut #stranger things 4 #eddie munson smut #eddie munson x reader #joseph quinn #this took so fucking long #my apologies

[sparkiekong]

Aftermath - Going Home 16/20

John was still flustered about Guy’s comments when he realized his parents were talking about something else, "I wouldn't treat her any less… Wait! What? Did Lysa have her baby already? Did I miss another kid? I swear I want to be here for these things. I got so busy with my farm and fighting with Betty… I literally just lost track of time." He seemed like he was spiraling into a panic.

Lyra patted his arm, “No John calm yourself, Lysa is still pregnant for a little bit longer you haven't missed that, I'm not exactly a spring chicken mind you, but you're about to get another brother or sister.... from me.” 

"What?! That's amazing! ....wait, is that amazing? Please tell me that's amazing."  He was grinning uncontrollably. 

Bob sighed suddenly serious, “No it's a disaster John... sleepless nights, dirty diapers. Cranky wife…”  

Lyra nudged him as he wore a silly grin, “Oh shut up Bob! Yes, it’s amazing.” 

John's face contorted... he tried not to laugh, but he laughed. "I'm glad for all of us." 

Lyra replied, “Was quite a surprise... I'm not exactly sure I am the fittest healthiest woman to have babies now of all the times to be pregnant. I got dosed with radiation, then there were the drugs...”

John stopped her, "It's in the past, nature rarely makes mistakes."

Bob put his arm around her and gave her a comforting hug and nodded his approval at John.

Lyra pointed to the coffee, “Well I am trying to be good, that's decaf coffee which is why it tastes like shit. I've cut down on the cigs, and my diet has improved greatly too again.”

John smiles, "That's great that you're trying to be healthier. There's got to be better decaf coffee out there. Maybe try some of the Sulanian brands. I hear good things about them."

Lyra sighed wistfully, “We might have to take a trip there. I've always wanted to try a Sulanian cigar…”

Bob raised an eyebrow at her, “You're supposed to be cutting down Lyra...”

Lyra rolled her eyes, “After the birth obviously! Though why we would travel with a small baby I do not know.... but I can dream about a fat Sulanian Cigar. I hear there’s one called The Paragon.”

 "I can babysit if you need a vacation." John offers.

 Lyra didn’t hesitate, “Deal! What would you like for lunch? You are staying of course, John!”

John nods, "I thought I might stay for the weekend, if that's ok. I have friends taking care of the house so I could spend some time here. Anything you want to cook would be lovely, Mom."

Lyra smiles warmly, “We have the spare room, I might have already made it up for you...”

Bob nods, “We would be delighted for you to stay, Son. You can stay as long as you like.”

John chuckles, "I figured you might have found me a spot to stay a couple days…  I missed you all very much. Now let me show you the before and after pics of my house." He fiddles with his phone and then shows off his work. “Here’s the before and after of the house. Some of the back and my chickens. I’m thinking of getting a cow next.”

Bob looked and nodded impressed, “My word, you've really whipped that old place into shape! That explains where those shoulders came from.”

John looks proud, "I put a lot into it. You should see some of the crops. They're going to be large enough that I might be able to enter the festival this year… That house was so green... Everything was green. You'd think being green I'd like that.... but I couldn't see myself in the mirror. It was that green."

He secretly hoped Elita was listening in on that last comment.

Guy snorted a laugh, “I'm green daba dee daba die...”

John laughs. It's an odd thing to hear from him, it was genuine and pure, it was plain to see that he was really at peace with his life. Lyra seems relieved, “I'm glad to see you happy! Now all we need to do is get you a girlfriend. Hopefully just the one as well....” She turns a frowny gaze towards Guy. 

John replies, "I don't know Mom... when she shows up. I'll know. I'm in no hurry to rush into anything. It took me a few months to befriend my chicken Betty... I think maybe after I tackle befriending a cow… then maybe I can work up to girls again."

John looks at Guy, "Turned into a ladies man eh? When you're Robinson handsome the girls usually come to you."

Guy turns red, “No! I'm just... you know...”

Lyra waggles a finger at him, “Don't listen to him, let me tell you what his type is John. Female? Check. Has a pulse? Check.”

#tac #ksu #the axiom conclusion #sims 4 story #sims 4 #ts4 story #ts4 #helenofsimblr #crossover #tales from the district s2