#she actually broke her laptop while doing all of this and started a fire due to her clumsy trait LOL

[nymfaes]

sabine applied to britechester university as a physics major! women in stem moment 💅

#ts4 #the sims 4 #g:archer #nym:g #a1 #ts4 legacy #ts4 gameplay #ts4 legacy gameplay #ts4 discover university #she actually broke her laptop while doing all of this and started a fire due to her clumsy trait LOL

[going-dead]

Phic Phight:Ghostly Inconvenience

Words:1672

@currentlylurking Team Human My First 2021 phic phight phic 

Prompt from @Slyph-feather :Would love to see Danny dealing with some of the minor inconveniences/differences in being a ghost; slower heartbeat, sickly pallor, maybe not showing up correctly in photographs, etc... bonus points if this is like in the school setting (because I think that would be funny)

Danny thought he had all his ghost problems figured out, or at least was aware of all of them, at this point. Afterall he’s had his powers for almost a year now. He was wrong, oh was he wrong. 

It was the first day of his sophomore year, no longer at the bottom of the high school food chain. He stood in line to get his picture taken for his school ID. Sam and Tucker had different classes for first period so they were off getting their pictures somewhere else. After a few minutes of board waiting it was his turn. Paulina skipped past him to get her ID and look at the picture she just took. 

Danny told the photographer his name and she entered a few things into her computer before gesturing for him to stand in front of the camera. Danny tried to make a few last second adjustments to his hair. “Okay smile!” The camera woman called out as he was blinded by a flash of light.

Danny started walking over to the ID station but was stopped. “Oh hold on dear the photo came out pretty blurry I’ll have to retake it. It’s no big deal don’t worry you probably just moved too quickly after the flash went off, stay still after the picture is taken okay?” 

Danny sighed but did what he was told. After another blinding flash and staying as still as possible Danny looked towards the woman. The camera woman bit her thumb staring at the computer in front of her. “Okay it still was blurry stay there I’m going to take a few at once one of them will turn out good.”

Danny was pretty sure at this point he was going to go blind as he blunk the spots out of his vision from the repeated flashes. Honestly this was getting pretty tiresome already. He walked up to the woman silently praying at least one picture turned out fine. She clicked through the photos face growing more and more confused with each one. “Uh is something wrong?” He asked.

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. Almost all of the photos turned out blurry and the ones that didn’t are weird.” She saw his questioning face. “You’ve heard of red eye right? What happens when you take a picture and sometimes the eyes of the people in the picture show up red? Well I can’t say I’ve seen this version of it in all my years of photography.” She turned the computer to face him more. On the screen it was a photo of him. The area around him was blurred, the only thing in focus was him, almost too in focus, and what really shocked him was his eyes in the photo. His eyes were glowing green in the picture, almost like when you took a picture of a cat in the dark. 

Danny felt like a deer in headlights, what were the chances that she would make the connection of him not being human? The woman just shrugged. “Well it looks like we won’t be able to get a proper photo today. You can use your school photo from last year for your ID for now until retakes in a week.” He let out a sigh, it wasn’t too bad though he didn’t really look much different from the year before. At most he grew two inches. Though it was weird that it happened. He wondered  if it was because of his ghostly half. He didn’t exactly take many or really any photos of himself. Danny walked over to the ID station to explain his situation and hoped that this wasn’t how the rest of the day would go.

During second period it was time for the sophomores to get their health checks done. Though most students were pretty sure it was mostly just an excuse for the local college’s medical students to get some more patient contact hours and hands on practice. This time he did share a class with his friends which was nice. Though it wasn't like they could go into an exam booth together. Calling them booths was a bit of a stretch though really they were just four curtains with equipment to take vitals and a chair inside. There were about a dozen or so lined up in the gym. 

“Daniel Fenton come to booth five please.” A man called stepping out of one of the booths as he pulled a pair of gloves on. 

Danny walked over to said booth and pulled the curtain shut behind him. The man motioned for him to sit down in the chair. Danny obliged and sat down he bounced his leg as he watched the man prepare the equipment. “Alright good morning Danny. I’m Josh, I'll be doing your check up today. It’s just a simple overview of your health no need to be nervous. All I’ll be doing is taking your vitals and checking your reflexes and the sort. Any questions?” 

Danny shook his head. He was nervous though, he couldn’t help it. He had tried his best to avoid any type of medical setting ever since the accident. It would be the first time since then that someone actually took a close look at him. But it would probably be fine right? Not like he would be giving a blood sample here or anything. 

It went fine at first as the man -Josh- checked his reflexes, checked his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. He then affixed a blood pressure cuff to Danny’s arm and stuck a temperature probe in his mouth. Once the results appeared on the machines screen his head tilted a bit. “You usually run a bit cold? Hm your pulse is a bit slower than average than normal too.”

Danny silently cursed. “Uh yeah that's normal for me.”

“Well as long as it’s within your baseline there’s nothing really to worry about. I’m going to listen to your heart and lungs now okay? The stethoscope is a bit cold so be prepared.” Josh warned. When he started to listen to Danny’s heart he seemed at a loss again. “Give me one second okay? I’ll be right back.” He stood up and walked out through the curtain. Well that probably wasn't a good sign. 

Josh returned a minute later with an older man in tow. “Danny, this is Dr. Bears he’s just going to double check something for me.” 

Danny nodded his head giving the doctor an awkward smile. The doctor pulled out a stethoscope of his own and placed it over Danny’s chest. He seemed to listen for a few seconds before moving onto a different region. He gave a small grunt before motioning Josh over. “It’s faint but he does have a heartbeat.”

“Well I know that. He’s clearly alive, he's going to have a heartbeat Doc.”

Danny laughed awkwardly as he continued to watch the two interact. “Try listening again. You’ll probably have issues with the mitral and tricuspid regions though, even I could barely hear it.” The doctor motioned towards Danny before walking out of the booth.

A few minutes later a bunch of other medical students filled into the tent to try to listen to his heart beat. Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about being a case study for a bunch of med students but as long as they didn’t figure out his secret he wouldn’t worry about it too much. 

By the time the bell rang to signal the end of the period half the college students there had listened to Danny’s chest. After emerging from the booth he was met with confused looks from his friends he waved them off promising to explain it to them later.

By the pattern that was emerging Danny was dreading third period. It was english with Mr. Lancer. After everyone took their seats Mr. Lancer stood in front of the class and clapped his hands to bring the classes attention to him. “Alright  class I hope you all enjoyed your summer break. I have exciting news for this school year. Due to the grant given to our school we now have laptops for you all to use during class.” 

The class broke out in whispers and Danny started to have a bit of hope for the rest of the day. Once the laptop cart was wheeled in and each was assigned and passed out to each student they were instructed to make accounts for them. The moment Danny turned the laptop on it gave him a shock. He let out a yelp and barely managed to restrain himself from knocking the thing off of his desk. He shook his hand trying to dispel the pain. He gave the laptop a hesitant poke, no shock. He started on his task of making an account, but was quickly interrupted by the screen glitching out. Danny groaned, occasionally electronics would bug out around him if he was in a particularly sour mood, of course it had to happen today. He waited for the screen to return to normal before trying to continue. 

He just managed to get the account created when it gave him another shock. He yelled in shock once more. Immediately after the lights flickered and all the laptops in the room shut off and the one in front of him started to smoke. The whole class was staring at him and he shrunk under their gaze. They all had bigger problems though as his laptop caught fire and set off the fire alarms. 

“Great Gatsby! Everyone out of the building now!” Mr. Lancer yelled ushering the teens out and leading them to the parking lot. 

Once Mr. Lancer made sure they were all accounted for Sam elbowed Danny in the ribs. “Nice going Danny.” Danny just put his head in his hands and groaned while Tucker pat him on the back. Why couldn’t he just have a normal life? Or just a normal day for once in his half life.

#Phic Phight #phic phight 21 #danny phantom #team human

[allthingsfangirl101]

Camping Surprises–Zac Efron

Wattpad Request by ru_ruva

Work lately has been crazy. I've been working as an assistant for a top editor at a fashion magazine in Beverly Hills for three years. My boss has promised me that once I've worked for her for five years, I'll be promoted to an editing job. Plus, it kind of helps that I'm dating the famous actor, Zac Efron.

Zac and I had been dating for two years under the radar before our secret got out. He had wanted at least one part of his life to be for just him and me. My boss and his fans only found out about us after our anniversary dinner was interrupted by the paparazzi.

When my boss found out, she completely changed her attitude towards me. The next year, she started listening to me in meetings, agreeing with my suggestions, and treating me like a human being. She acted like this new found attitude towards me wasn't because I was on magazine covers with Zac, but she and I both knew she was lying.

Since Zac and I went public with our relationship, we haven't had much time to ourselves. It's been a year since our secret got out and things have only begun to pick up. We can't go out without getting recognized which means we can't even have a meal without being bombarded by fans, reporters, or paparazzi. Sometimes all three.

I walked into our apartment, my shoulders, back, and feet killing me. I tossed my keys into the bowl on the table by the door, dropped my bag onto the floor, kicked off my shoes, and hung up my jacket. I ran my fingers through my hair as I walking into the other room. I plopped onto the couch, the long day weighing me down.

I hadn't noticed I had fallen asleep on the couch until I felt someone tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. I let out a sleepy moan as my eyes fluttered open. I smiled when I saw Zac sitting on the ground in front of me, his face inches from mine.

"Morning," he whispered. I hummed as he continued to run his fingers through my hair. "What time did you get home?"

"A little after 7," I mumbled.

"Seven?" He repeated. "That's later than normal."

"Well," I sighed, "next month's issue is due to the printer by Thursday instead of Friday because of the holiday. Which means this is going to be a late week."

"I'm sorry," he said under his breath. "I hate how hard she works you."

I just shrugged and closed my eyes as I focused on the feeling of Zac playing with my hair.

"What about you?" I mumbled sleepily. "You're home later than usual."

"Yeah," he sighed.

The sound of exhaustion in his voice made me open my eyes. My heart sank when I saw the bags under his eyes. I sat up and pulled him so he was next to me. I smiled as he immediately laid his head on my thigh.

I started playing with his hair, feeling his breathing slow. I grabbed the remote and turned on a random show. We sat like that, not saying anything, and just enjoyed each other's company.

"Do you ever wish our lives were normal?" He asked, breaking the silence. I looked down to see his eyes still closed.

"Actually, no."

He turned his head up towards me and opened his eyes. "Really?" He asked. "You never wish we were different?"

"No," I smiled down at him as I moved some hair out of his face. "Because if we were normal, we wouldn't be who we are. We might not have met and I hate even the idea of that."

Zac reached up and cupped my cheek, pulling me down to him. I smiled as I pressed my lips to his and immediately started moving them in sync. He broke the kiss and sighed.

"I love you," he whispered. "And I'm sorry that things are crazy. I wish I could tell you they were going to slow down, but we both know that isn't going to happen."

                         * * * * *

A couple of days later, I came home to Zac already on the couch. He looked up from his computer when he saw me come in.

"You're home early," I teased as I hung up my keys. He put his laptop on the ottoman and stood up. He walked over to me, grabbed my hand, and led me back to the couch.

"Zac," I said under my breath. "What's going on, babe?"

He didn't say anything as he let go of my hand and grabbed his laptop. I nervously played with my fingers as he pulled something up.

"Babe?" I said, my breath getting caught in my throat. "You're scaring me."

Zac put his laptop on my lap and pointed to the screen. I hesitated before looking at it.

"Beverly Hills Glamp Ground?" I read. "You want to go camping?"

"We need a break," he said, looking down as he grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers.

"A break?" I stuttered.

"From this world, baby," he sighed, looking back up at me. "I come home every day, exhausted. And I know you do too. I feel like we haven't had any time to ourselves, any time to be alone. So, I want to do something. Something fun. Something just us two."

"And you're idea is camping?" I teased.

"We'd be completely alone out there," he explained. "No bosses, no cell service, no cameras. Just you and me."

"That does sound amazing," I sighed. He grabbed his computer and put it back on the coffee table before reaching over and grabbing my hands, turning me towards him.

"Then let's do it," he said eagerly. "It's a long weekend so neither of us work Monday. You sent in next month's issue today, so your boss won't need you over the weekend. She might not even need you tomorrow. My director is spending the weekend with his family and is even taking tomorrow off."

"I haven't used any of my sick days this year," I mumbled.

"Wait," he said slowly. "Are you saying. . ."

"I can call and get tomorrow off. Then with Monday being a holiday. . ."

I giggled when Zac excitedly leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. I smiled as I grabbed his face and kissed him back. He broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against mine.

"Let's go pack."

                         * * * * *

As we pulled up to the camping ground, I noticed another car waiting for us in front of our assigned tent. I looked over at Zac as his brother got out of the other car.

"Dylan's here too?" I asked, trying not to sound disappointed.

"Yeah," Zac said as he got our suitcases out of the back. "He needed a break too and wanted to come."

He looked over at me, his eyes soft. He walked over and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"I'm sorry, baby," he sighed. "But he's in his own tent and promised to do his own thing."

"It's okay," I smiled as I rubbed his chest. I stood on my toes and pressed my lips to his.

"You two lovebirds ready?"

Zac broke the kiss and glared at his brother. I laughed as I grabbed his chin and turned him back to me. "Easy," I whispered.

"I'm sorry," he sighed. "He promised. . ."

"As long as his tent is far away from ours, I don't mind."

The three of us spent the next hour setting up our camping ground. I went to gather firewood as Zac and Dylan got dinner ready. When I got back they were whispering to each other. They jumped when they heard me.

"You guys okay?" I chuckled.

"Yep," Zac said, jumping up and walking over to me. He grabbed the wood from me and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

Dylan and I were cooking dinner when I noticed it was just us two. I looked around, trying to find Zac.

"Where's Zac?"

"He went for a walk," Dylan said, sounding kind of weird.

"It's getting kind of late," I said, not hiding my nerves. "Should we go look for him?"

Dylan checked his watch and bit his bottom lip; something he only did when he was overthinking.

"Let's give him a few more minutes," he decided. "Then we'll go look for him."

I stared at him as he turned back to the fire, trying to hide the look on his face. A few minutes later, I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up, wiping my hands on my jeans.

"That's it," I sighed. "I'm going to go look for him. It's getting dark and I don't think he has his flashlight."

"Wait," he said quickly as he grabbed my hand and stopped me. He cleared his throat, instantly letting go of me.

"Zac's a big boy, Y/N. He knows not to go too far from the campsite and to come back before it gets dark."

"But. . ." I stuttered.

"Y/N," he whispered, "Zac and I went camping all the time as kids. He's fine."

I tried to finish getting dinner ready, but I found myself constantly looking towards the path. A few minutes later, I started nervously chewing on my thumbnail.

"Actually," Dylan said, clearing his throat as he checked his watch. "Let's go look for him."

I let out a sigh of relief as Dylan handed me my jacket and grabbed the flashlights. We had only gone maybe half a mile before we could see some lights through the trees. I started to go around the campsite, but Dylan stopped me.

"What are you. . ." I stuttered as he looked over his shoulder at me with a smirk on his face.

I sighed before following him. My breath got stuck in my throat when we got to the clearing. Zac was standing there, in the middle of the meadow, surrounded by lights and flowers. My eyes filled with tears when I noticed the pictures of us scattered around.

I turned to look at Dylan, but he had slipped back through the trees. When I turned back towards Zac, he was right in front of me. He grabbed my hand and led me to the middle of the meadow.

"How did you. . . When did you. . . Why did you. . ."

Zac laughed as I stuttered. "I needed to bring all of this, but I didn't want you to see it. So Dylan brought it in his car and agreed to distract you while I set it up."

"I just. . . Why?" I finally got out, tears beginning to fall. Zac smiled as he reached forward and caught a tear with his thumb.

"This is why," he whispered.

I covered my mouth as he knelt down on one knee. He had tears in his eyes as he pulled a small black box out of his pocket.

"Y/N," he started, his voice gentle. "I love you so much, darling. And I can't imagine spending my life with anyone other than you. I know our jobs keep us busy and they can kind of be frustrating at times, but it's all worth it as long as I get to come home to you. I love waking up to you typing on your computer and coming home to you asleep on the couch. I love that you are always willing to run lines with me, go to premieres and parties with me, drive me to the airport at 2 in the morning. I love that you are on my team. I love you."

Zac took a shaky breath as he opened the box. My eyes widened, tears streaming down my face as I saw the ring he got for me.

"Will you marry me?"

It took me a second to find my voice, but once I did, I giggled out my answer.

"Yes," I said through my tears. "Of course I'll marry you."

Zac smiled as he slipped the ring on my finger and stood up. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he instantly wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me close to his chest. I felt him laugh as he tightened his arms around me.

"I love you," I whispered, not breaking our embrace. "And I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else either."

Zac laughed as he pulled me back into his chest and pressed his lips to mine. We quickly got caught lost in the kiss as we held each other. We broke apart when we heard someone clapping and laughing. We turned around to see Dylan jogging towards us.

I laughed as he pulled me away from Zac, lifted me up, and spun me.

"Dylan," Zac sighed. "Will you please put my fiancé down?"

"Sorry," Dylan chuckled as he put me down. He walked over to his brother and gave him a hug.

"Congratulations," Dylan whispered. He pulled out of the hug and looked over at me. "You got quite the girl."

"Thanks," Zac laughed. "I got lucky."

I walked over and Zac instantly wrapped his arms around me. He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.

"I'll umm. . . I'll let you two. . . Celebrate," Dylan laughed awkwardly. He was about to walk away but stopped. "I'll send you the pictures I took but you probably won't be able to post them until. . ."

Dylan stopped talking when we broke the kiss and Zac glared at him. "Right. Sorry. Congratulations, you two."

We laughed as he turned on his heel and jogged back to the campsite. I looked back at Zac, biting my bottom lip.

"How long have you planned this?" I asked under my breath.

"Well," he sighed, tightening his arms around my waist. "I've been wanting to propose for the last year but things got so crazy. I realized that this weekend would be the first and only quiet weekend we had together for the next little while. And I couldn't wait any longer. I had to be engaged to you."

I stood on my toes and pressed my lips to his. I felt him smirk as he kissed me back. I broke the kiss and leaned my forehead against his.

"Is Dylan staying the rest of the weekend?" I asked under my breath.

"No," Zac said simply. "He's heading back tonight. Why?"

He saw the knowing look on my face and laughed. I smirked as he tightened his arms around my waist. I sighed before standing on my toes. I didn't press my lips to his yet, teasing him instead.

"Let's head back to camp and celebrate."

#zac efron #zac efron imagines #zac efron x reader

[ecofinisher]

Lady Frost and the Fire King - A familiar partnership - Chap 39

Chapter 39

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31330631/chapters/84485965

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13886468/39/Lady-Frost-and-the-Fire-King-A-familiar-partnership

In the evening several students had arrived at the Françoise Dupont school to attend the prom night organized by the school.

In the meantime, other students, which were invited for the prom were arriving as well at the moment, under them, Rollan was present along with Wayhem and Michael. Wayhem wore a black shirt and pants, which were from Gabriel, and a red tie, which belonged to the same brand. Michael wore dark-brown pants and a green vest with a bow tie.

„You paid 140 euros for that all?“ Asked Rollan shocked as he looked at the dark colors the boy wore.

„I like it. I‘m also planning to use it in the future on other occasions. No one says it‘s a one-time deal,“ Said Wayhem making Rollan nod.

„Unless it‘s a wedding. I hear many people do buy clothes for every different wedding. At least women,“ Commented Michael. „And the dress prices for women compared to our are huge,“

„Have you seen the prices for elegant suits of other brands? Or better for the ones specially used in weddings? They‘re more expensive than you think,“

„Okay, I believe so,“ Admitted Michael and the trio stopped in the middle of the court to see a few students standing around talking, two duos dancing and a few ones at the bankett table eating.

„Are you guys going to eat something?“ Asked Rollan making Wayhem nod and Michael shake his head.

„I‘ll be waiting here for Sofia,“ Responded Michael making the two boys nod.

„I‘m actually interested in trying out those snacks,“ Commented Wayhem, then Rollan nodded.

„I‘m actually a little hungry. I‘m coming as well,“ Mentioned Rollan, which followed Wayhem at the table to check out the various plates with different snacks, which had already a few missing.

„Lots of healthy snacks,“ Commented Rollan picking up a small toothpick with two cherry tomatoes and a mozzarella ball in it and shove a tomato into his mouth. Wayhem had picked up in the meanwhile from an etagere a triangle-cut sandwich with ham and salad and looked at Rollan taking the last two balls from his toothpick.

„Hey over there you got sweet stuff if you‘re interested,“ Commented Wayhem pointing at the end of the table, where Rollan just walked to encounter a plate with macarons only, then looked at the other ones and decided to pick up a half banana, which was covered in dry chocolate cream, which Rollan looked at it with a warily look.

„This looks interesting?“ Asked Rollan taking the stick, where the banana was attached to and took a bite from it, and smiled. „Mmh,“

„While you‘re on that I‘m gonna take this large Linzer cookie,“ Mentioned Wayhem picking up a large cookie, which had a smiley face on it, where you could see the jam filling of it. „Is this strawberry?“

Rollan finished the banana, then looked at Wayhem which was tasting the cookie and Rollan looked at the entrance to see more students enter, but there was no spurt of Gerda yet.

„Did you come on your own or have you a date?“ Asked Rollan making Wayhem shake his head.

„Nope, I‘m all on my own,“ Mumbled the brunette. „I‘m fine for now,“

„Okay,“ Replied Rollan walking around the table to look at the available snacks, then approached a table across the one with the salty snacks and looked at all the glass, that had been filled in with various drinks and Rollan picked up one, which was grape juice then he took a sip of it and frowned a little disappointed at the taste. Rollan watched the baker of the bakery across the school appear with a plate with hot ham croissants and added them into a plate, which had been empty.

„Want to give my croissants a try?“ Asked Mr. Dupain. „They‘re filled with smoked ham and cream cheese Trust me, you‘re going to love it,“

Rollan smiled, then picked up one to try it and blew at it due to its temperature.

„Gracias,“ Answered Rollan, then Tom pondered for a little while and questioned the boy.

„You‘re alone here?“ Asked the adult making Rollan shake his head.

„Wayhem and Michael came with me,“ Answered Rollan. „There‘s also a girl, I‘m waiting for, but she hasn‘t arrived yet,“

„Really?“ Asked Tom making Rollan nod, then Tom approached the raven-haired Spaniard and led him to his side, where three piles of plates were and took one for the boy. „Why don‘t you collect this girl a few little snacks for her to when she arrives?“ Asked Tom watching Rollan look at the plate and shrug his shoulders.

„I guess it‘s a good idea,“ Commented Rollan and looked at the large variation, wondering what he should pick. „Epa, how should I know, what she‘s interested in?“

„You don‘t have to, just take a few things you think she should try. A few salty things, sweet things or healthy things,“ Suggested Tom. „There must be something, that would make her curious to try,“

„Yeah, I think there are a few things she could try,“ Admitted Rollan, then approached the table to look for diversity.

At the entrance, stood Kim together with Max and Nino talking with an African student, which wore headphones and carried under his arm a laptop.

„You‘re telling me, that Yuki and Urioto broke up because of an empty balloon someone left in his dorm?“ Questioned Kim shocked making the boy nod.

„It‘s hella stupid man. Werner only was in his room to ask Urioto‘s roommate for his party box and he had dropped it and eventually left it there. He wasn‘t expecting that there would happen such a big drama,“

„That‘s nuts,“ Commented Kim while Nino nodded.

„I don‘t know how people could mistake that for a contraceptive product, but yeah that really is crazy, that the two boys there fought because of this,“

„It‘s kind of weird this even happened that way,“ Commented Max making Kim nod.

„Hey before you go up at the stage, are you interested in meeting Rollan? The guy I told you about the basketball skills?“ Asked Kim making the older boy shrug his shoulders.

„I‘ve got to see, what exactly I have to plug in and out at the device, maybe I‘ll pass by before I start or after my part is over,“ Answered the dark-skinned boy making Kim nod, which then heard a familiar, squeaky voice and looked down to spot Luka coming along with his sister, the younger girl Rose and the new girl he knows from his class Gerda.

„Hey is that Gerda?“ Asked Kim surprised at seeing Gerda in a short, sleeveless dress with a woven surface over her front and small, white pearls on it. The skirt of the dress reached to her knees and had her shoes replaced with black ballerinas. Her hair she had let it open, passing over her shoulders down at her back. Nino looked along with Max and the DJ at the Quartett, that came upstairs.

„Hey guys!“ Greeted Rose, while Juleka waved at the group and Luka nodded with a smirk.

„Hey,“ Greeted Kim along with the others, while the unfamiliar boy approached Luka to high five.

„Is that your girl?“ Asked the boy curious making Luka shake his head.

„No, this is Gerda. She‘s in my sister‘s class,“ Answered Luka. „She has been invited to the prom by someone else if you‘re wondering,“

„Oh okay. Well, I‘d be surprised if someone like her wouldn‘t have someone. She‘s a natural beauty,“ Commented the boy with a smirk making Gerda feel embarrassed.

„Thanks,“ Answered Gerda, then looked up at the boys. „Has Rollan arrived yet?“ Asked Gerda making Kim shrug his shoulders.

„I know Wayhem did. Maybe he is in there as well and I haven‘t noticed,“ Answered the Vietnamese boy, then Gerda looked at Rose, which smiled and the group followed into the court, looking around at the decorations made for the evening, which were holiday-themed.

„The images up there of the things you see at the beach look realistic,“ Commented Gerda making Rose nod.

„That made our crafting club,“ Mentioned Rose proud. „A big chunk of the things we see all here now at the prom were done by the various after school activity groups,“ „Cool,“ Commented Gerda, then she spotted near the buffet tables Rollan looking around the table for more food for the plate on his hand, then Gerda chuckled and nudged Rose to show her his crush. „He‘s up there,“

„Aww, he‘s just like Nathaniel. Passionate about eating,“ Commented Rose holding her hands together against her chin.

Gerda approached the Spaniard, which was looking at the macarons, then she stepped beside him to look at his plate.

„That looks yummy,“ Commented Gerda, then Rollan looked at the girl and widened his eyes as he saw her now differently as usual.

„Gerda?…..Is that you?“ Asked Rollan surprised making Gerda nod. „I have never seen your hair open…...“

„Is it good?“ Asked Gerda while Rollan admired her hair dazzled, then Gerda moved her hand in front of his face to obtain his attention. „What do you think of it?“

„Your hair?“ Asked Rollan making Gerda nod. „It‘s great. Did your hair always look like this, when you had it open?“

„More or less,“ Commented Gerda. „Juleka cut the edges of my hair, cause it was a little sprouted,“

„You gotta keep your hair like that more often, it makes you look even more beautiful…..You know, you already are but like this you‘re…..uh better,“ Explained Rollan making Gerda laugh.

„That‘s sweet and you look stunning as well,“ Commented Gerda looking at his clothing. „White actually suits you well,“

„Gracias….I actually was going to take a red one, but then Arthur came along with a few of his old ones and I picked up this one here. It‘s slightly a little large, but it works well for me,“

„It really does,“ Admitted Gerda, then Rose gave Gerda a thumb up, which pulled Juleka away leaving the Norwegian back with the taller boy. Gerda watched her friends leave, heading to the other side of the court, then she smiled that the two girls have let her alone with Rollan without any other tries of helping them out.

„Gerda?“ Spoke Rollan getting the girl‘s attention, then he showed her the plate with the various snacks. „I picked up some variations for you….to try it out?“ Offered the Hispanic boy making Gerda smile and pick up a crystalized ginger slice to eat it. „If you want you can take them all. I had specifically picked up them for you,“

„I‘m probably not gonna eat all of this. You can have one or two as well,“ Said Gerda making Rollan nod, then she picked up one macaron and held it in front of Rollan‘s mouth, making him furrow his eyebrows, then he smiled and allowed Gerda to lead it into his mouth for him to eat. Rollan warped his face in disgust making Gerda shut her eyes up in shock.

„You‘re alright?“

„I‘m not very fond of pistachio,“ Commented Rollan making Gerda chuckle.

„Oh alright I‘m sorry,“

„It‘s fine,“ Commented Rollan watching Gerda take a small canapé with salmon on it and Rollan observed her eating with a smile.

At the small stage, which was placed under the stairs appeared the organized DJ, which had fixed his laptop to play on it and picked the microphone up to greet the students.

„Good evening students of the Françoise Dupont!“ Greeted the boy calling the attention of half of the students. „The name‘s Cristiano and I‘m one of the DJs for this prom. For the next 90 minutes you‘ll be listening to my mix, afterward, Principal Damocles will have for us a few words, before we continue with our next DJ, which most of you know, Nino Lahiffe. In the end, there will be a voting for our prom King and prom Queen and we will know who our winners are. So I suggest you all show your best side and show what you‘re worth for the prize!“

The students applauded watching the DJ give them a thumb up, then turn on the first song, which was a house-electronica song meant for partying.

„Oh yeah, our first song coming from the US-Rapper Okla-Homa. Always good for a wild night,“ Commented Cristiano loud watching students beginning to gather together in the middle to dance.

Gerda watched the students begin to dance with each other, then chuckled at the way some were dancing which was unfamiliar to Gerda. Gerda moved her fingers to pick up the last snack, which was a vanilla cookie and at the same time Rollan placed his finger as well meeting Gerda‘s and shrieked, then rolled his eyes at the girl, which beamed at the boy.

„You can take it,“ Offered Rollan shoving it with his index finger at the girl, which accepted it to eat. Rollan placed the plate aside afterward watched Gerda finish the cookie and looked up at Rollan, which smiled and looked at the students, that were dancing, additionally more students were arriving to join the others.

„Can you dance?“ Asked Gerda making Rollan shrug his shoulders.

„I can waltzer and others in company, but this style the others are doing I have never done before,“

„Neither have I,“ Stated Gerda. „Shouldn‘t we at least give it a try together?“

„Hmm I don‘t think it looks that hard….just in my imagination me doing that would be ridiculous,“

„If you want me to be honest I think everyone kind of dances awkwardly. Maybe this is the point of it,“ Commented Gerda making Rollan shrug his shoulders. „What do you think? Are you able to give it a try?“ Questioned the Norwegian girl, then Rollan watched the others dance and returned his eyes at Gerda.

„Let‘s go for it,“ Answered Rollan, then walked along with Gerda at the field, then both stood there waiting for one of the two to start, then Gerda watched Rollan observe the others, then looked back at her grinning a little sheepishly and Gerda began to dance as the others with Rollan watching her, then she approached the Spaniard placing her hands on his arms pushing him nearer to her and moved her shoulders and arms. Rollan grinned at Gerda‘s moves, then tried to copy the girl and looked at the others, which were all dancing on their own or with another person. Rollan looked back at Gerda, which continued dancing as the others were dancing, then Rollan slowly began to copy her moves and watched her nod and do a full spin, making Rollan smile, which stopped and did a quick spin while going on a tip toe and earned a small applause of Gerda.

„Hey that spin was good,“ Commented Gerda making Rollan chuckle, then he began to move his arms and dance, making Gerda glow at his confidence at copying the random movements, therefore she went along with the boy with their odd dance moves while the song was almost over.

„This is kind of funny,“ Commented Gerda making Rollan nod, then looked at the others, which began to jump up in the air, while holding their hands up and the duo did the same, then Gerda laughed excited about it.

„Eso es genial!“ Commented Rollan making Gerda grin, then the song was over and they stopped along with a few duos.

Marinette sat in her bedroom doing her homework and had on the computer a live stream of the prom night, which showed the DJ playing the music and it switched slowly to the dancing students. Marinette sighed, then picked up her smartphone to use the calculator, then shrieked as on her display appeared a phone number calling, which she attended it.

„Hello?“ Greeted Marinette.

„We‘re here,“ Said the voice making Marinette nod and turn the call off. Marinette went upstairs to get to the balcony, then encountered on the roof Su-Han along with a mysterious monk she had never seen before.

„Good evening,“ Greeted Marinette, then Su-Han held out his hand at Marinette to show her the fixed Ladybug miraculous making her smile and embrace the senior, which widened his eyes in shock. „Thank you so much for healing the miraculous for me,“

„There‘s no need to thank me for it. Now please put on your earrings to make sure she‘s good,“ Commented Su-Han watching Marinette put on the miraculous, then they got activated and Tikki showed up in front of Marinette.

„Welcome back, Tikki,“ Greeted Marinette holding out her hands at the kwami, which smiled and hugged them. „I‘m so sorry I have let an akuma take over me and…...you were now gone for a while,“ „What matters is, that we‘re both okay and the akuma was defeated,“ Stated Tikki making Marinette smile and look along with the kwami at the master guardian.

„This is the son of the former guardian of the Scandinavian miraculous box. He was going to step into his feet as the next heir until one faithful night the Snow Queen cursed the entire peninsula with her curse freezing almost every citizen including his father,“

„Oh and what happened next?“ Questioned Marinette looking at the monk.

„I never got the chance to work with that miraculous box, so after the Snow Queen was defeated I studied other legends, under them was the one of the wishing stone and this is where my topic is going to. You have these two new heroes in your group. The fire-themed one and the ice-themed one,“ „Yeah, Cat Noir said he found it in Gabriel Agreste‘s mansion. He has brought them from Norway I think according to his son Adrien Agreste, which we tried to send him undercover into figuring out details,“ Explained Marinette. „I already mentioned you that the other day, Master Su-Han,“

„I know that. This is now a way different topic now. Let him tell you, what he has to,“

„Okay, sorry, go on, Mister,“ Asked Marinette looking at the monk, which nodded.

„Those miraculouses your friends there were, you know the one with the fire and the ice powers. They‘re in potential danger to lose their control and be overtaken by the spirits of the Snow Queen and the Fire Demon. You have to get these miraculouses back, before they get turned into their slaves and lose their control for good,“

„Oh…...uh and how much time do I have to take them back?“

„I‘m not sure. I‘m the one, who experimented with their powers believing nothing would occur, but I have seen in one of the recordings made by surveillance cameras or any other ones, that recorded one of their fights. The fire boy‘s mind was nearly changing before something had interrupted him and prevent him to lose its tempter,“

„Does this mean…..if Fire King loses his tempter in a way he loses his control or….I don‘t understand,“

„I can‘t tell to 100% when exactly this could happen, but you really need to get them back before it happens. The spirits of the Fire Demon and the Snow Queen shouldn‘t be freed. They should return back into the wishing stone and I‘m at the moment the only one, who knows how to do that. I just need your help,“

„Okay, I just will need to know, where they are exactly. I don‘t know their identities to have it easier to find them,“

„Is there a way to gain their attention and get to them? Like a real-life issue? A faked akumatization?“ Questioned the monk making Marinette shrug.

„I haven‘t thought of anything yet, but I can come up quick with a plan,“

„We better leave it to you then and beware, if one or both of them end up losing their souls to these spirits, I‘ll tell you, it will be the hell to be able to defeat them all over again,“ Commented the monk making Marinette drop her mouth in shock at his comment.

„Don‘t break your head about it. I have my full trust in you, you‘re going to get them without a problem,“ Mentioned Su-Han making Marinette nod, then he jumped down off the roof along with the monk and Marinette dropped her back on the deck chair in shock.

„Did you hear that Tikki? What if we fail again?“ Asked Marinette making Tikki shake her head.

„We‘re not gonna fail, Marinette. All we need to do is to find out, who Fire King and Lady Frost are, then tell them what‘s up. Figuring out, who Fire King is won‘t be hard, Cat Noir already knows and we have proof, that something is wrong with Fire King. He will for sure understand and give the miraculous back,“ Stated Tikki making Marinette nod, then look around and back at Tikki.

„Let‘s get charged, we will look for Cat Noir,“ Warned Marinette making the kwami nod.

Later into the evening, Rollan stood at a corner watching a young couple take a picture in front of a wallpaper, which illustrated at the wall a picture of a beach and the ground had actual sand on it with a deck chair, a handmade sandcastle with a lying, red bucket and a shovel next to it. Rollan watched the couple being pictured by the photographer in a few poses at their choice making Rollan smile and cross his arms enjoying the sight.

The photographer gave the couple a thumb up, then looked at Rollan, which was watching the photo session, then approached the Spaniard.

„Hey! I haven‘t seen you here,“ Commented the photographer, then grabbed Rollan on his cheeks. „You‘re not from here aren‘t you?“

„I‘m from Spain,“ Mumbled Rollan, then watched the photographer take his hands down.

„I assumed you were Italian for some reason, but by looking at your built you‘re far too sporty in my opinion,“ Commented the Italian photographer making Rollan furrow his eyebrows confused.

„My friend Wayhem is sporty and Italian,“ Commented Rollan making the photographer grin.

„You‘re probably right, I was referring to the ones I know,“ Commented Vincent. „At least around here…...what do you think? Would you like to participate in a little photo session? I can see inside you hides a boy, that has potential to become a super model“ Complimented Vincent making Rollan shake his head.

„No, I‘m not interested in that kind of thing. I‘m more interested in being able to do something like helping people,“

„Alright and is it okay, if I take a normal picture of you?“ Questioned Vincent.

„Hmm I‘m not really fond of taking pictures,“ Commented Rollan making the photographer nod, then Rollan made his way along the side of the court to get closer to the restrooms, then watched a cook pass by with a plate filled with various cheese sorts shove into one single pike and Rollan took one giving the cook a smile, then took a bite of the first cube, then watched out of the restroom Gerda come out to his direction.

„Did you want a stick?“ Questioned Rollan moving his head at the cook, which was offering one piece at Myléne Hapréle from Gerda‘s class.

„It‘s fine,“ Responded Gerda, followed by Rollan shoving the last cubes into his mouth and looked around for a trash bin, then placed it on a plate, which contained more used sticks near the buffet table.

„What are you planning to do now?“ Questioned Rollan. „Shall we go to the dance floor again?“

„Are they going to play softer songs and not only the energetic ones?“ Questioned Gerda watching Rollan shrug his shoulders,

„Maybe they will play some,“ Answered Rollan. „We probably have to wait a little longer. They exchanged the musician over there, he might give us something else,“

„You‘re right,“ Agreed Gerda looking at the corner to see Juleka and Rose take pictures together, then she nudged Rollan on the shoulder and pointed there. „They‘re taking pictures,“

„That guy there asked me before if I wanted to take pictures,“

„And you didn‘t want?“

„I‘m not very comfortable with taking photos,“ Admitted Rollan, then she grabbed him by the hand and led him to the corner.

„Come, let‘s just take one picture together. As a memory of this night,“ Suggested the blonde. „Come you won‘t look bad I promise,“

„Alright, I‘ll do it,“ Announced Rollan, then the two stopped by the photographer, which took the last picture of the same-gender couple.

„Fantastic!“ Exclaimed Vicent, then looked at Rollan and Gerda that had alined for the photo session.

„I changed my mind,“ Said Rollan making Vincent smile and see Rose and Juleka pass by the man, then Rose picked the man by his arms as the older duo entered into the corner, so she could whisper something into the ear of the Italian.

„Okay, I‘ll do it,“ Said Vincent, then picked up his remote on his pocket to exchange the image behind the two into an image of a Balinese beach showing a beautifully light-blue water, and near the ground was the sand of the beach, which was compatible with the floor of the set. Vincent looked at the two, which stood beside each other normally, then he moved his hands to sign the two to get closer.

Rollan stepped to Gerda closer with an embarrassed face, while Gerda had rolled her eyes down heating up on the face at the boy‘s approach, then they smiled at the camera, which took a snapshot.

„Have something more in mind for this picture?“ Questioned Vincent seeing Rollan and Gerda look at each other, then Rollan grabbed Gerda‘s hand giving Gerda an unsure look. Gerda had a different idea, then shove the arm, which Rollan had grabbed into the gap between his arm and body, then held her other hand up over his upper arm. Rollan got surprised at her touch, then smiled a little seeing the girl look up at him with a smile, then Rollan‘s grew slightly more and together they faced the photographer, which gave them a thumb up to take a picture. At his third try, Gerda leaned her chin on Rollan‘s shoulder making Rollan exchange his facial expression seconds after the picture was taken and he looked down at the girl.

„Perfecto!“ Commented Vincent, then Rollan looked back at the picture and got bewildered about it.

„Didn‘t we had another picture before?“ Asked Rollan making Gerda shrug her shoulders, then they walked out of the corner to the middle of the court. Rollan stopped, followed by Gerda bumping into him and she giggled as she did that, afterward Rollan pointed out at the DJ, which had picked up his microphone to speak into it.

„Ladies and Gentle-dudes! We‘ve been through a wild ride together, but now it‘s time for us to slow it down a little with some light music and easy listening. I tried to search for something, that‘s a little known under some of you, maybe you‘ve heard it in your childhood, who knows. Our first song comes from a known country singer under the girls here,“ Nino said, then he pressed the play button to start the song, which had at the begin of the music a guitar solo.

The court now remained with couples and duos only beginning to dance slowly to the music.

Gerda looked at the pairs dancing, then noticed how close Juleka and Rose were to each other during the dance with the little blonde having her head lied against the chest of the girl friend. Rollan looked around to see the other couples dance together, then he looked at Gerda seeing her smile enchanted at seeing her two best friends happy together, then Rollan pondered about the circumstances and turned around at the girl.

„Gerda?“ Spoke Rollan earning the girl‘s attention, then he bowed down holding out his hand at the girl. „Puedo solicitor este baile?“

„You're asking me what?“ Asked Gerda looking down at his hand, then studied his sentence. „You‘re asking me to dance?“ Questioned Gerda making Rollan nod. „Oh…..so baile means dance?“

„El baile. Si,“

„Si,“ Responded Gerda. „Quiero bailar,“ Answered Gerda taking Rollan‘s hand, then he guided her into the middle to be distanced from all the other couples, then he received the hands of the blonde and he moved one hand after the other, placing one on his shoulder and the right one on his hand. The free arm, Rollan placed behind Gerda‘s back, then both gazed at each other‘s face, Rollan having a dumbfounded expression while Gerda had an enchanting smile, which had begin to bewitch the Spaniard.

Gerda signaled with her eyes the friend to move further, then Rollan shook his head returning to reality, and began to waltz with the girl to the country song.

The singer began to sing, then Gerda focused on the friend during their act with Rollan leading her on the dancefloor keeping her and himself steady on the floor to avoid making a mistake. Rollan made a stop, then allowed Gerda to roll out, while he held his hand up to hold her and she returned back to the Spaniard, that reversed back with her on his arms. A few steps later Rollan let Gerda spin again, then she returned back into his arms slowly locking her eyes up with the ones of the Spaniard, making her wide them from seeing his maroon-colored eyes.

„But you came along and you‘ve changed everything…..“

The two teens waltzed together away from their standing point around the floor along with the other duos, which were focused on themselves leaving the two lovebirds go with the flow in a very identical manner without a failure as if they had been practicing together for a while.

Alya, which had been filming from the side the people dancing had Juleka and Rose pass near her, then noticed Rose point at the side, then Alya saw Rollan along with Gerda have wonderful act together making the alter ego of Rena Rouge smile and aim the camera at the duo, which was slowing down a little to go along with the song.

During the dance, Gerda had twirled around Rollan‘s arms, then he felt the long, blonde hair pass in front of his nose, making him chuckle and he grabbed the edge of Gerda‘s streak to sense it between his thumb and index finger.

„Has your hair always felt so smooth?“ Questioned Rollan making Gerda chuckle and shake her head.

„Juleka borrowed me her hair conditioner. Oh and have you smelt the scent of the shampoo I got from her?“

„Uh no?“ Responded Rollan, then Gerda moved her head down at Rollan‘s hand, then he reached his nose to her hairstreak to pick up the scent. Rollan cackled, thereafter he leaned his face nearer to her head to get the full scent into his nose and took his head back. „It‘s very good. What smell is that?“

„Honey and Almond,“ Responded Gerda. „It‘s a mixture. You like it?“

„To be honest I like that smell on you. It fits you perfectly,“ Admitted the Spaniard, making Gerda beam at his compliment. Rollan smiled glad at seeing his date was having a blast tonight, then adjusted the girl‘s hand back on him to lead the girl along the dancefloor, making her drop her head back smiling brightly as the song returned to the refrain.

„You lift my feet off the ground, spin me around…..“

„Hmm…..Hmm…..“ Gerda hummed to the song, making Rollan smile enamored at the sweet tune of her voice. She took her head up to look at the Spaniard, which had his eyes deeply focused on her, then she went along his lead on the floor and made a rotation, while being assisted by Rollan afterward she returned onto his arms.

„I don‘t want to hide it anymore…..“ Rollan leaned his forehead on Gerda‘s making her smile lovely, enjoying the tender moment between the two, then gazed up at the brown eyes of the Spaniard, which from a happy smile changed to a charmed one and Gerda placed her hands up under Rollan‘s chin to plant her lips on his making him wide his eyes at her move, then he shut them down, wrapping his arms around her slowly, followed by taking the lead and have Gerda move her arms down up on his shoulders, crossing her wrists on the other behind Rollan‘s neck with a slight mumbling noise of delight.

Adrien sat on his chair in front of the desk reading a book as Plagg sat on the desk looking at the live stream of the prom watching the crowd dance slow, which made Plagg yawn.

„Your father did well to not allow you to this. It looks so boring,“ Commented Plagg, then Adrien looked at the stream to see half of the duos, which were mostly lovers to the other have their heads leaned to each other to the calm style of the music.

„If I had the chance there to be with Ladybug or even with Kagami, it would have been pretty,“ Commented Adrien, then looked at the side to see images on the side mostly from Ladybug and two of them were from Kagami.

„You had great chances with Kagami, but you fucked it up by yourself because you couldn‘t leave alone your other crush,“

„I tried to forget her, but I couldn‘t,“ Commented Adrien. „Kagami was my chance to get through it, but I couldn‘t from seeing Ladybug every day,“

„You know the difference here Adrien is, you didn‘t always see Ladybug because it was a superhero case, you saw her because you wanted to. You missed moments, you could work on your relationship with Kagami or even something different, but you didn‘t,“

„Alright, alright, Plagg. Enough. I know I did terrible back there. I would have taken it all back, but I can‘t,“

„Yeah. Fire King probably will learn it from your mistakes or at least I hope he‘s going different,“ Commented Plagg looking at the screen, making Adrien raise his left eyebrow up then noticed on the live stream Fire King‘s alter ego sharing a kiss with Gerda.

„Well at least he seems pretty relaxed for a first kiss,“ Stated Adrien, then he got up and made his way to the windows to look at the schoolhouse, which was lightened by lights. „I think our class is the only class, where a few students didn‘t go to attend the prom. I, Nathaniel, Lila, and Marinette I think too,“ „Weird, why wouldn‘t Lila come?“ Questioned Plagg making Adrien shrug his shoulders.

„I assume her mom didn‘t sign her declaration. The same thing happened when we went to New York and Toronto. Marinette probably stayed back because of the bakery tasks for tonight. Nathaniel must have been because of his grandmother,“ Recounted Adrien then saw in front of his eyes the superheroine Ladybug pass by running above the roofs, heading to the Trocadero.

„Oh look Ladybug is back,“ Stated Adrien with a smile.

„Great to know Tikki is alright,“ Added Plagg, then Adrien looked down at her.

„Shall we do her a little visit? Just to see how she‘s doing?“ Questioned Adrien making Plagg shrug his shoulders.

„I don‘t care to be honest, but it‘s better than watching this boring live stream there,“ Responded Plagg, then Adrien opened the window and announced his transformation phrase.

„Plagg, Claws out!“ Shouted Adrien transforming into Cat Noir, then jumped out of the window to follow the superheroine and whistled loud to call Ladybug‘s attention, which stopped on top of a building before crossing the Seine.

„Cat Noir?“ Asked Ladybug watching Cat Noir arrive by the roof. „Oh great to see you right now,“

„How are you doing? What‘s with Tikki?“ Asked Cat Noir making Ladybug nod.

„She‘s fine now. Thanks for asking. Great that you showed up right now. I need your help, remember what happened last time with Fire King?“

„You mean his transformation issue?“ Questioned the blonde making the heroine nod. „What‘s up with it?“

„Su-Han introduced me to a monk and he told me about a relict they call the wishing stone. Fire King and Lady Frost‘s powers in the miraculous were taken from there….we have to take their miraculouses away or they both will lose their minds to the Snow Queen and the Fire Demon, which will cause destruction to our city. This apparently already happened 100 years or more ago and they were hardly manageable to defeat.“ „Really?“ Asked Cat Noir in shock. „And how are we gonna do that?“ Asked Cat Noir.

„You know, who Fire King is, right?“ Asked the blue-haired heroine making Cat Noir nod. „You‘ll talk to him, what‘s up and retrieve his miraculous, and I will see if I can find Lady Frost anywhere. If you spot there anyone with a wreath, that resembles Lady Frost try to speak to her. Or we‘ll have to wait for her to show up,“

„You could ask Rena Rouge to fake a situation and call her attention?“ Suggested Cat Noir, making Ladybug wide her eyes.

„Hey, that could work. Make your way up to Fire King, if you know where he is. I‘ll see if I can contact Rena Rouge,“ Ordered Ladybug watching Cat Noir salute at her and jump down at the road to head to the school.

At the prom after a couple of songs, Gerda and Rollan had gotten nearer with the other during the evening. Rollan was leading the girl during the current song, which had more pep than the previous one, then smiled as Gerda lied her head next to his face to lean on the shoulder.

„How are you feeling?“ Asked Rollan quiet, then heard the girl sighed enamored and the Spaniard understood, that she had been feeling well. „This is….“Began Rollan, then chuckled softly to watch Gerda move up her head to look at the raven-haired boy. „I have never thought about how both of us would have come this closer. I assumed we would be just friends and now…….this all happened,“

Gerda nodded, then leaned her arms around Rollan‘s head to nudge him with her nose gently.

„Me neither,“ Commented Gerda. „But when I got to know you a little I began to want more than just this,“

Rollan chuckled, then held his arms down aside Gerda‘s waist, allowing her to lean her forehead on his, then he rolled his eyes down to look into her crystal-blue eyes, which kept her focus on the brown iris.

„Remember, when I spoke about that one girl I liked?“ Asked Rollan making Gerda mumble.

„Uh hum,“ „You know I believe….I really never loved that girl. It‘s…..I don‘t know. I saw her every day and thought Damn, she‘s so beautiful, I never understood what was up there if I just found her pretty and was glad, when I was around her. With you….it‘s…..different. I‘m glad to see you and have you as a friend….. We…..we understand each other's lives and could be with each other when no one else could,“

„I have never been in love with someone before. You‘re the first guy I do perceive something and the need to get closer to you just grew more, instantly, that…..now that we‘re here together I‘m…...I couldn‘t be happier now,“

„I‘m sorry I didn‘t realize before how you felt about me,“ Apologized Rollan making Gerda chuckle, then get her head away from the boy to gaze at him.

„It‘s alright. You…..you spoke once about her right?“ Questioned Gerda making Rollan shrug his shoulders.

„I believe so. Her personality from the short time I saw her reminded me of you,“ Commented Rollan.

„Where did you see her in those short moments?“ Questioned Gerda curious, then Rollan pondered about what he should answer.

„Uhm basketball, after school,“ Lied Rollan making Gerda chuckle.

„This took you long to answer?“ Commented Gerda a little bewildered making Rollan nod.

„I had forgotten the word,“ Commented Rollan. „I‘m sorry,“

„It‘s alright,“

„I haven‘t seen that girl in her…...true form you know,“ Stated Rollan. „She wears a…..a long coat and has more makeup on her face, but I‘m not complaining about it. It‘s made well on her, it‘s not overly exaggerated as you‘ve seen on that blonde girl, that you saw bickering with Aurore from my class,“ Commented Rollan making Gerda chuckle.

„That‘s Chloé. Yeah, she‘s a little overdressed and overpainted. There I have to agree. This is why I begged Juleka and Rose to keep my face decent. I wanted you to like me for my real me, not an overly-changed Gerda,“ Stated Gerda watching Rollan cup her cheek, passing his thumb under her eye to uncover a bit of make-up, which had covered the freckles.

„I can‘t believe they covered up your skin points,“ Mentioned Rollan making Gerda a little confused, then figure out what he meant.

„Ah freckles you mean,“ Commented Gerda making Rollan nod, then Gerda took her hands down to grab Rollan‘s to question him something. „Just curious, what do you like about me? Do you have anything specific?“

„Personality-wise or something else?“

„Up to you.“

„Your kindness and confidence you‘ve shown, have caught my eye a lot,“ Commented Rollan, then both shrieked as the DJ had picked up the microphone making it shrill.

„Ops sorry dudes,“ Commented Nino, then showed up a paper on his hands. „Before our last song, I‘d like to announce to you the winners of the voting. As said before, The most voted girl and boy become the King and the Queen of the prom and in second place we get the Prince and the Princess. So open up your ears and listen up,“ Said Nino watching Principal Damocles come up at the stage along with Mrs. Mendeleiev, which were bringing the crowns and the tiaras for the winners. „Those aren‘t real ones, by the way, those were created by the crafting club together with the design club of Mr. Ross and Mr. Nickel,“ Explained Nino watching half of the students applaud.

„Okay dudes, we‘ll start with the second place“ Announced Nino. „Princess of the prom night tonight will be with 21 votes Aurore Boreal from class 12B!“ Announced Nino looking at the light, which searched for the girl, that was near the stage jumping excitedly in front of Wayhem and Luka, which observed the girl get up on the stage to receive the tiara, then the Principal ordered the girl to step forward at the stage to look at the crown, still excited about her win. „Our Prince Charming has gotten silver with 32 votes. Funnily equally voted by both genders. The award goes to Rollan from class 12B as well!“

„What?“ Asked Rollan confused looking at Gerda, which gave him a thumb up. „Why did I win?“ Asked Rollan confused, then Kim Chien Le showed up to clap the friend on his back.

„I voted for you man,“ Commented Kim, then pointed up the stage for Rollan to walk up in which he did and he received a silver-colored crown.

„Actually boys get the crown. Our DJ misunderstood me,“ Said Principal Damocles after setting the crown over Rollan‘s head, then he walked at Aurore, which waved at the Spaniard, which nodded and saw at everyone clapping at him, then swallowed hard tensed about the amount of attention.

Down came Vincent with his camera to take a picture of the two teens, then up the stage appeared the janitor to bring the two a simple rose with a ribbon on it with the number two written on it to hand it out to the silver-winners. After the prize, Rollan returned to Gerda, which stood there with Kim and Max, which were happy about Rollan‘s prize, then Kim held up his hand to have Rollan high-five him.

„What was the prize for?“ Asked Rollan, then watched Max adjust his glasses before explaining him.

„About 145 students had the chance to vote for any girl and anyboy here to become Prom King or Prince. You were elected by 32 students and got second place,“ Explained Max. „According to calculations sportsboys, Chads and anyone good-looking has greater chance to become the most votes, which happened to you,“

„Really?“ Questioned Rollan making Kim nod.

„You‘ve earned our votes. Sadly you didn‘t make it to King thought,“ Mentioned Kim making Max nod.

„I‘m fine with Prince. I would also be fine, if I didn‘t win,“ Mentioned Rollan looking at Gerda, which was looking at the ribbon and the quartett heard the next announcement, afterward Kim began to laugh as he heard Chloé had won the first prize.

„Who voted for her?“ Asked Kim making Rollan shrug his shoulders.

„I had no idea, where to vote,“ Said Rollan, then Gerda pointed at the box under the stage, which had large written Vote on it. „Oh,“

„I would have voted for you, if I knew that,“ Mentioned Rollan making Gerda grin at the comment.

„It‘s fine. I‘m also fine without the prize,“ Commented Gerda, then Kim began to yell as he saw Luka Couffaine get up on stage as he was elected Prom King.

„Almost all my classmates won,“ Commented Rollan making Gerda nod watching Luka and Chloé smile at the camera to get a picture taken, then they moved away and Nino played the next song, which was a pop song, which a soul-like topic.

Rollan placed his hands around Gerda‘s waist again, then watched her place her hands over his shoulders to go on for another dance session together, then she embraced the boy leaning her head by his head and noticed his shirt‘s collar have a notable, failed wrinkle on it, then passed her finger on it.

„Did you iron your shirt?“ Asked Gerda making Rollan nod.

„Yeah, did I miss something?“ Asked the Spaniard making Gerda shake her head.

„No I had noticed one wrinkle on it, which was made by the iron,“

„I was a little trebling with my hands,“ Commented Rollan. „I think I have two more, but under my arms somewhere,“

„Funny I haven‘t noticed anyone yet,“

„You know ironing isn‘t something I do every day, just once a week. Sometimes I do well, sometimes not so well. This one was okay thought,“

„It looks here like you have ironed from your back,“ Commented Gerda. „You know the textile part,“

„I do the arms first, then the body and the collar is the last thing I do,“ Explained Rollan watching Gerda move her head back to listen to his conversation with a charming smile while tapping him on his neck with her index finger. „Maybe the way I learned could help you better,“ Suggested Gerda moving her hand up at the collar lifting it up. „The best thing is to start at the collar and iron it from the inside, afterwards you move it around and go down here at the shoulder part,“ Guided Gerda moving her hand down under his neck, while going up slowly on her tiptoes to peck him on his lips, rousing up the boy, which had lost his attention when following the girl‘s words.

„I will give it a try tomorrow,“ Promised Rollan smiling courteously at the blonde, which replied back with a amused one and placed her head aside his, continuing their last dance under the open skyline over the school ground.

#snowqueen #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #crossover #x-over #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #archiveofourown #prom #prom night #снᴇжнᴀя коᴘолᴇвᴀ #снᴇжнᴀя коᴘолᴇвᴀ Роллан #снᴇжнᴀя коᴘолᴇвᴀ гердa #Роллан и Герда #снᴇжнᴀя коᴘолᴇвᴀ Роллан и Герда

[gloriafc]

Amazing Wife

Jack never expected to let anyone close to his heart, until he met you. You had it the instant he laid his eyes on you.

You're a surgeon, a prodigy attending. You're friends with Miranda and Ben, when she was grumbling under her breath you asked her what was wrong, "Ben forgot to grab his lunch, so now I have to cancel my meeting to take it to him." "I can take it. My shift is almost over. I'm just finishing my paperwork."

You walked into the firehouse and Jack instantly walked over towards you with his charm on. "Can I help you with something?" "I'm just looking for Ben. He forgot his lunch." As soon as you finish your sentence Ben rounds the corner, "Prodigy! What brings you here?" You quickly toss the lunch box to him, "You stressing your wife out." Jack watches the two of you interact a little jealous of Ben for the moment. He instantly perks up when he hears Ben offer you a tour of the place, "Alright. I'll bite, only if theres coffee involved."

When you get to the end of the tour Ben shows you the kitchen where almost everyone is waiting for the girl they noticed instantly caught Jack's attention. They attempt to get to know you, not expecting you to be a super human. "Why does Ben call you prodigy?" "I sort of am. I specialize in multiple areas of surgery. Fetal, peds, gynecology, neuro, and plastics."

It takes Jack a few weeks of begging to get Ben to invite to one of their outings after work. Ben gets Miranda to agree to bring you drinking with everyone.

That night Jack manages to get your number, Ben eventually telling him he couldve just asked him for her number, "But what's the fun in that without the chase."

After a few months you begin dating. And Jack doesnt know how to explain it, but dating you is different than all the other woman hes dated before you. Eventually he figures it's because you're way out of his league, but soon realizes it's because you are different from ever single woman hes dated.

He can see how other men look at you, you're young and successful, and you're hot, what couldn't they want? And normally he'd get jealous but he trusts you with his life. The times he does get jealous or you look like you're getting uncomfortable he'll grab you by your hip and pull you close and he'll refuse to let you go for the rest of the night.

After a few years you get married and he finally knows what it's like to have a family of his own, even if it's just the two of you. You manage to talk him into considering getting a cat. And as much as he hates the idea, and hates how much the cat takes up all of your attention he'd get you another one if you asked.

After being married for two years you find out you're pregnant and at first Jack doesnt know how to feel, he doesnt want to end up like the parents hes never met. But you eventually ease him into the idea and then he couldn't be happier especially when you start to show. He's slightly upset he can't lay his head on your stomach as you watch tv anymore, but he's settled for drawing random shapes on your belly and watching the random movements from your child.

Jack is amazed when hes able to feel the baby kick. He goes as far as feeling it at least once a day minimum, if his hands could permanently stayon your stomach they would.

One day the two of you go separate ways, he heads off to work as you take advantage of your day off and decide to run some errands.

When he gets a call hes talking to Dean about random things like always. When they show up at the scene they get the rundown about the scene. "Three car accident, the last cars brakes failed as they were going down the hill. It rammed into the back of a parked car, that pushed it forward. There was a person walking between the second car and the one in front of it, squishing them." Jack looks at the scene and instantly recognizes your car as the one squished in the middle. Dean does as well and instantly tries to hold Jack back, "Jack you need to calm down." "CALM DOWN! THAT'S MY WIFE AND MY CHILD!" "Hey I get that. But the call says only one person was injured besides the driver." Jack freezes seeing you pop up on the side and start looking at the person stuck between the cars.

Before you realize what's happening you're trapped in two arms, and after a few seconds you realize its Jack from his cologne. You understand immediately what he was thinking and instantly start soothing him, "We're okay. I was inside using the bathroom when it happened okay?" After a few moments Jack's back in action. You get told to stay off to the side because of any fumes that may have been released from the cars. You watch everything happen until the person starts to seize.

You quickly grab a mask and a pair of gloves before climbing over your car and climbing behind the patient. "Y/N get down." "You're pregnant." "That's not safe." "Are any of you a neuro surgeon? This person will continue to seize unless you relieve the pressure in his head, can any of you do burr holes?" When no one answers you continue, "Then I suggest you listen to the pregnant person and get me a drill."

Ben assists you, being the only person with surgical experience, as you do the burr holes. Everyone watches you in amazement as the patient slowly stops to seize as the blood build up is released. You stay behind the person, using your lap as a head rest as they start to move the car off of him. Jack makes you take his jacket when they have to bring out the saw, which gets him scolded at but he could care less, as long as he's keeping you safe. Everyone listens as you talk to the person, keeping him calm. "You two must be married." "What makes you say that?" You laugh when Ben jokes, "Their playful banter?" The guy chuckles as he mindlessly stares at the trees around him, "That's how I was when my wife was pregnant with our first child." You keep the man talking when he sucks in a breath, "How many kids do you have?" "Four. How'd you learn to do that?"

You smile at the man who's referencing to the burr holes you did. "I'm a surgeon at Grey Sloan. Neuro is one of my practices. One of the first things I learned as an intern actually." "Just one of your practices?" You let out a chuckle, "I like working with kids, so I took up pediatrics, then came fetal because why wouldn't a pediatric surgeon know how to fix a baby while it's still in the womb. Then gynecology because I might as well know how to deliver a baby. And finally plastics. Youd be surprised how many kids go through plastic surgery, especially disabled kids." The guy looks at you surprised, the fact that hes literally in a sandwich completely forgotten, "What made you decide to do all that? How'd you manage that?" You chuckle, "Grey Sloan has an amazing program and I jumped at the opportunity. It's sort of what happens when you get told you'd never be able to do something amazing. You prove people wrong and you go above and beyond." "Who told you that?" You let out a chuckle, "An ex actually. My dad wasn't too happy about that one." "What'd he do?" "My mom had to pick him up from jail for smashing every single window on the guys car."

Jack jumps in, "Her moms the one to be scared of though." You let out a laugh as the guy says, "Its always the mom. My wife would murder for our kids." You let out a laugh making the guy smile.

You ride in the ambulance, being one of the only people who'd be able to stabilize the man if he were to start seizing again, and your ride home completely totaled now. When the guy is taken away for surgery Jack bugs Miranda until she agrees to look you over, "Jack I wasnt even in the accident." "You were near it, the fumes and stress cant be good for the baby." Bailey smiles as the two of you go back and forth, "Y/N just lay on the table. You're both stubborn and we'll be here all day if no one stops you two." You give in and lay on the table as she does an ultrasound, the rest of the firehouse watch from the window in amazement as they see the baby on the small screen and they all couldn't be happier that Jack finally got his own family while they also get a niece or nephew, neither of you telling them what you're having just yet.

When the fire station has to leave Miranda is the one who offers to take you home if you're willing to wait for thirty minutes. You make dinner, Jack getting home right on time then you both continue your nights like you usually do. When it's starting to get late you find Jack looking at his laptop, eyebrows furrowed. "What's got you thinking so hard over here?" You come up behind him, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and resting your chin on his right shoulder. "Cars? Really?" "We're going to have to replace the one that got totaled today." "Not one with... Military grade metal? Why dont you just look for tanks on sale?" "You think they have room for carseats?" You hit his arm at his joke making him laugh.

You end up going past your due date, so now it's just a waiting game for you both. As Jack is getting ready to go into work, knowing he can't sit still at all, especiallywhen hes so anxious to meet his kid, he finds you in the kitchen hunched over with your eyes closed and face twisted in pain. He immediately starts to rush over but almost slips, he sees the puddle of water on the ground and looks around confused. When he sees the wet spot on your pants it hits him. "When did your water break? We need to get you to the hospital now." You let out a groan when he tries to help you stand up straight, "When you started coming down the stairs."

Jack helps you to the car, before starting to speed his way to the hospital. He calls Sullivan on the way there, "I wont be there today. Y/Ns water broke.... shit. I forgot the hospital bag." You smile in your seat and between breaths say, "It's fine. There's. One in. My locker. Bailey has one. In her. Office. Too."

Jo and Meredith are the ones to see you enter the hospital, both immediately knowing what's happening, "Jo page Carina and get the hospital bag from her locker. I'll take her to the delivery floor."

You're in labor for most of the day, your friends stop by through the day to check on you and give their congratulations. Jack is by your side the whole time, he's a nervous wreck honestly but hes managed to stay calm until you have to start pushing. By dinner time you've welcomed a baby boy, who has very healthy lungs. Your room is filled with balloons from your friends, as you both sit watching the sleeping boy.

Before the night can end you look at the doorway where the firehouse is standing with even more balloons, along with flowers and what smells like stew. "Hey." Dean is the first to push into the room, he quickly hands you the tupperware of stew before turning to his best friend, "Where is my nephew?"

Everyone gives their congratulations as your son is passed around, "What's his name?" Jack immediately says, "Jack jr." You simply roll your eyes and shake your head before looking at the boy who's now in your arms, "Its Jaxon. With an x. Cant let Jack's ego get too big now."

When everyone is gone and it's just your small family in the room you happily lay next to Jack, now able to press your face into his neck without a giant belly in the way. As you're falling asleep you hear Jack say, "Did we really have a baby today?" You smile and kiss his neck, "We became parents today. You became a dad." You chuckle when you hear Jack huff, "That's going to take some time to get used to." "You'll be fine. We have eighteen years to get it right."

#jack gibson #station 19 #station 19 imagine #jack gibson imagine

[itgetsdarksometimes35]

Love in True Form II

Warnings: Non-con, dub-con, A/B/O, loss of virginity, breeding kink, lactation kink, multiple pregnancies, multiple children, birth, maybe more, 18+

Word Count: 2,720

Pairings: Dark Alpha! Steve Rogers / Omega! Reader, Dark Alpha! Bucky Barnes / Omega! Reader

Summary: Reader moves to the country side to live a slower life she’s not used to after living all her life in the city. She meets two men who can’t seem to get out of her life, and she sees them everywhere. What happens when their instincts get the better of them?

Chapter summary: Reader starts to settle in and has her first meeting with a new client. 

- indicates POV change

~ indicates a time change

A/N: WOW this is completely overdue. Hope everyone enjoys, my masterlist should be working soon. ALSO the POV will stay first person, so sorry if you’re not into that. I’m trying to interoperate different writing styles, and I have plenty of other fics in 2nd person (3rd person will be next at some point in another fic) 

xxx

When I got home, I was still a little shaken from the two guys I had encountered. Their crystal blue eyes made me feel unsettled, yet I couldn’t shake the familiarity I got from them. Had I met them before? Were they there when I was scoping out this place a few months ago? Questions racked my brain, but it was impossible. The only person I had met was my real estate agent. Nobody had been around for miles, and today was the first day I had traveled into town. 

I decided not to think about it any longer due to the countless emails from patients trying to set up virtual appointments. I opened them up and started working my way through each person, delicately reading and responding appropriately with a time that worked for us both. 

-

Steve slammed down the supplies he had bought at the store into the shed. Bucky was inside working on the fire to keep them warm for the night. Steve’s body tingled as he remembered the omega they encountered, as he remembered her faint scent, saw her beautiful body. He felt his blue jeans get a bit tighter at the thought of having her as his own. It’s what they’ve been dreaming of for years, him and Bucky. 

Steve ventured back into the house to find Bucky pacing about with his hands behind his back. When Steve shut the door, Bucky turned to him, halting his pacing. 

“We have to find her.”

“I know,” Steve sighed, moving to the kitchen to start dinner. 

“She smelled magnificent, Stevie, I never thought I’d find someone. She was an omega. A real omega. They don’t exist anymore!”

Steve nodded along. He wasn’t ignoring his friend, quite the opposite actually. He was devising a plan to get their omega. He wasn’t sure how he would, but he wanted it to be as sweet as possible for her. But he also thought of possible reasons she was alive. It didn’t make any sense. Like Bucky said, omegas didn’t exist anymore. 

In their day, there were thousands of them. Steve was a beta then so he had no chance at them, but Bucky was always an alpha. From both of their understanding, omegas had died off while they were still in ice. The omegas had bred with alphas, nothing else was possible, but their offspring seemed to be only beta. Now, nobody really knew what alphas, betas, or omegas were; they were just humans. No special category to go into. 

“Steve?” Bucky was sweating at this point, the worrying for the omega was bringing his alpha out of him. He was looking at Steve with wide, blown out eyes. Steve smiled sweetly before clapping his hand over Bucky’s shoulder. 

“Buck, I know. Her scent hasn’t left me since we saw her in town, and I’d be lying if I said this all made sense. We’ll get her, though, don’t worry. I have a plan.” Bucky nodded his head and glanced at the ground as he put his weight on another foot. 

“When?” he asked impatiently yet gloomfully, meeting his eyes again.

Steve sighed and removed his hand. “We have to ease her into it, Buck. We can’t scare her or force anything, it’ll just make everything that follows way harder than it needs to be.”

Bucky nodded at Steve’s words. He knew what he said was true, but he needed his omega. Their omega. The thought of sharing an omega would typically never be an option for him, but with Steve it was different. 

Steve knew this girl had no idea what he or Bucky was. Hell, she didn’t even know what she was! She was going to be scared and reluctant, and she’d fight them until the end. They were going to have to shape her into an omega. No doubt she wasn’t taught properly how to be one, but Steve could be patient. He had waited this long, he could wait a little longer. 

Bucky switched from foot to foot one last time before retiring to the kitchen. Steve looked at his friend and shook his head. He had a feeling his Bucky wasn’t going to be as willing to wait as him. 

-

I was jerked from my dreams with a loud snore. I looked around and saw my small home completely dark, save for the little moonlight coming through my living room curtains. I sat up from my couch and grabbed the book that I had been reading, that had fallen to the floor, before making my way into the kitchen where my laptop sat. 

I pressed a few keys to wake up the monitor, and I looked at the time--when the screen lit up--to see it was half past 1. I scrolled to my email tab and saw a new email request from someone who wanted to set up an appointment. I clicked on the email and quickly typed in a response for a time to talk that suited us both. 

This Steve Rogers seemed nice. 

~

My hands ached as I planted the last cabbage plant into the ground. So far I had a garden of carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and celery. This new vegetarian diet was something I had never tried before, nor were these foods something I was particularly fond of, but I was more than willing to give it a try. 

I dusted my hands off and ventured inside the cabin to where my only two pieces of technology lay. I checked the time on my phone before setting it back down. I still had 15 more minutes before my online meeting with Steve started, so I walked to the fridge to cool down with water and have a break. 

I looked at my bookshelf and decided I needed more books. All I could fit in my car was about 30 books, but I had already read most of them. It wouldn’t take long to get through the rest, but thankfully Molly told me she had some I could have. I smiled to myself at the thought of being met with a bunch of planting books when going to retrieve the older woman’s stash. Not that I wouldn’t use them, though, Lord knows I certainly need to get better at this whole gardening thing. My hunger kinda depended on it. 

I was brought from my thoughts when my computer started ringing from the Skype app, causing me to frown at the screen. Who could that be? No patients were scheduled right now, and nobody else would want to call me; my family and few friends seemed to be shunning me on my choice to leave. Maybe they believed if they shunned me enough I’d come back to the city. I scoffed at that. Not a chance.

I pushed myself from the counter I was leaning on and walked to the screen to look at the ID. “Steven Rogers.” I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at the clock at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. We still had 10 more minutes. Regardless, I reluctantly pressed “answer”; what else am I doing right now?

Skype connected us, but Steve’s screen was completely black. I checked my connection, but it wasn’t me. I didn’t hear anything, so I decided to wait a few more seconds for him to connect. His internet must be bad. 

“Steve?” I smiled at the dark screen, and hoped he could at least see me. Putting a face to a name and voice could really help someone who’s going through something; it can help them realize other people do care. 

“Hello?”

“Hey! Oh, erm- can you see me? Your screen is black, so I can’t see you.” It got silent for a second. 

“Oh, yeah I can see you. I don’t know why you can’t see me; I’m sorry it’s probably me. I’m not good at this technology stuff. I had a hard time turning on my mic, that’s why I was silent at first.” He gave a dry laugh.

“Don’t apologize, it’s okay. I had a hard time getting used to this when I first started, too, so don’t worry! You’ll get used to it soon.” I smiled at the dark screen, I was glad Steve could see me. “I should apologize for my appearance, though, I was working in the garden.”

“Oh, you look lovely, don’t worry.”

I blushed at his compliment and reached for the bag leaning against the table’s leg. Inside was a notebook that contained details about my patients. I didn’t like discussing much over email or text--I liked talking about it face to face, or face to black screen in this case-- so that’s why Steve’s section was mostly empty. All I knew was his name and that he lived about 10 miles from me. 

“Well, enough about me. What did you want to discuss today?”

~

Steve and I ended up talking about how he felt different from everyone else. He felt he couldn’t relate with everyone else and that he just felt alienated. I nodded the entire time he spoke, stealing glances at my notebook to take notes every few seconds. 

When he was done I asked him a few questions. Any reasons he may have as to why he felt this way, when did he start feeling like this? Was there any dramatic change in his life? He answered he used to feel normal, in his early years, but one day he just woke up and felt unable to relate to the people around him anymore. He even felt he lost family and friends. My heart broke in my chest as I jotted down more notes. That was something I could sort of relate to, I thought.

We talked about ways he could enter outside of his comfort zone, finding hobbies that others enjoyed in order to feel a bit more connected. Go to stores that, not many people shopped at, but enough to let him ease into a life that involved other people again.

I asked him if he had any social media. If he wasn’t comfortable with doing social things in person yet, there were plenty of groups to join online that incorporated fun activities and joined people together virtually. It could also be a good way to connect with lost connections and maybe make new ones. 

“Oh, no Doll, I can’t say I do. I’m not really into anything like that. I don’t even have a tv, and, as you can already see, have bad internet.” He chuckled again and I joined in a bit. 

“Oh yeah, I understand.” I had sworn off phones--except my cell that was stripped of everything except my contacts list-- and tvs, so I understood where Steve was coming from completely. “Well hey, no harm in that. Social media can be good, but in my opinion the best contact can be made face to face. No offense.” I laughed at the irony and Steve did, too. 

“Thank you, and I agree.”

I hummed in response and pulled out my calendar from my bag. I looked for a free spot next week, and saw an opening on Thursday at 3:45. 

“Alright, Steve, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you, but our time is up, sadly. I’d like to reschedule an appointment with you, if that’s okay, next week. How does Thursday at 3:45 sound?”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Great! Okay, remember what I said. I look forward to our next chat. Hopefully I can see you next time,” I added with a smile and a small giggle.

“Me too, talk to you soon, Doll.” There goes that nickname and my blush again.

“Bye!” The call ended and I made a few more notes in my notebook before closing it. My next appointment wasn’t for another hour, so I thought maybe I could go to town to get some stuff I couldn’t grow myself--or at all.  

As I went to shower and look presentable, I couldn’t stop thinking about Steve. He was a charmer, and for someone who felt disconnected was able to connect with me fast. I tried to destroy the barrier I tended to feel with patients that had been made. They sometimes saw me as a figure, but I wanted them to feel as if I were a friend they could confide in. I was there to help them, yes, but I didn’t see the need in them calling me Miss. My name would do just fine, or any other nickname they picked up along the way, but Steve chose “doll” fairly quickly. He even asked me a lot of questions. Where I lived before, where I lived now, where I went to college, things like that. We had a lot more in common than I thought we would, though, so maybe that’s why we just clicked better. Everyone moves at different speeds, and I needed to remember that.

-

Steve pushed the laptop further down the table, away from him. He had a giant smile on his face, and he couldn’t deny the hard on he was sporting from just hearing her voice. He couldn’t believe the tape and microphone trick had worked. He felt bad about lying, but he didn’t want to scare her off by seeing him. Plus, he needed to hear her voice and her breathing for a bit, just before he started speaking. 

When she introduced herself to him, it took him everything not to repeat it over and over like a love poem his mother used to read to him. He wanted to draw her in her “messy” state, her hair sticking up in wild places; some strands sticking to her forehead from sweat. He wondered if that’s what she’d look like under him.

He disappeared into his room and shut the door. Bucky went back into town after he found they had forgotten something at the store. Steve had a while before he got back, and he decided to take advantage of it. 

Steve laid down on the bed and shimmied out of his suddenly tight jeans. He gripped his member through his underwear and groaned at the feeling. He stroked his member over the fabric a few more times, teasing himself, before removing himself from his confides completely. Steve’s rock hard cock sprung out and hit his stomach, slightly bobbing. He sighed in frustration yet relief at the feeling. The tip was fiery red with precum oozing out from the slit. He spit into his hand before grabbing the base firmly. 

Steve stroked himself, slowly at first, up and down. He moaned and panted as his hand got him off, his mind on the woman and her sweet voice the entire time. How her boobs would look when they were released from the tight black shirt she had worn in the meeting. How she’d look begging for her alpha’s fat cock to plunge into your tiny cunt, milking him and bringing on his knot. How’d it feel to claim her and ceal you both in a bond. How she’d look carrying his pups, her tits leaking for milk he’d happily drink up. Steve took a break from working himself to tease his tip with his thumb, shuddering a bit before he pumped himself faster as his moans got louder and more desperate as his need to cum became greater and greater. He was whining the omega’s name like a chant as his other hand reached down to start playing with his balls. His hips were rising, fucking his fist harder and harder. He moaned a few more times before he felt the sweet swell of his cock as his knot grew. Spurts of cum flew from his pulsing member as he worked himself through his orgasm. He continued to roar and growl her name as he came down. 

When Steve was satisfied, he just stared at the ceiling, a smile still playing at his lips. He couldn’t remember the last time he had cum that hard. Hell, he couldn’t even remember the last time he was that hard! As he waited for his knot to subside, he started cleaning up his mess and headed into the shower. Bucky would be home any minute now, and he had to tell him everything that he had learned about you. 

xxx

#dark!fic #dark!steve rogers #dark!steve rogers x reader #alpha!steve rogers #alpha!steve rogers x omega! reader #alpha!bucky barnes #alpha!bucky barnes x omega! reader #dark!mcu #dark!marvel #dub con #non con

[cloviaglade]

THE CRIMSON FLOWER ROUTE CORPORATE UNION AU

Yeah it came to me in a dream shared it with a friend and she said I should inflict it on the world so here we go

Warning: It's super long but I broke it up into chunks

(note not all members of the house fall into the categories listed also I'm not the best with corporate terms and positions. Also this was made for fun and isn't that serious)

The houses

The Black eagles generally were in accounting or sales. They dealt with a lot of the customers firsthand and were considered expendable

Blue lions where mostly in HR or IT

Golden deer mostly worked in maintenance and public relations.

Staff and church members are members of the board. Flayn has her position on the board despite her age because nepotism

The Seiros Co:

It's a large company that provide a large array of services and products that promote physical and emotional well-being. The company started out with good intentions but soon became a corporate monster

The company provides a host of benefits to its employees including on site housing, on site restraunts, on site pools gyms ect. They even have the best insurance on the planet. They even have horse therapy.

However they have to pay premiums on the health insurance, their rent is docted from their pay, they have to pay for on-site facilities, and those living on site are heavily encouraged to work overtime.

a lot of this is justified by cover every single health expense and days of for minor colds. Many employees seek mental health care more often than they seek physical care.

The on site living conditions vary heavily. Most are just a small white room with a single bed and a dresser. No visitors after certain hours and forget about outside visitors. However rumors are spreading that the board members have spacious luxury apartments.

The pay without all the benefits is not a wage you could live off of. But with the rent for these rooms doct from your pay you couldn't reasonably save up for different arrangements.

The strike begins:

Edelguard was finally fed up watching her team struggling. She hears constantly about how her workers are not making enough. How they have to scrape because they needed new clothes or shoes. Or worse how Petra wasn't able to support her sick grandfather

She hired a lawyer Hubert to look into information about their contracts and compare everything to labor laws. She needed to know how much of this was legal and if there was anything to be done about it.

Huberts lawfirm dealt with several lawsuits in the past. They are considered ruthless in court however media painted them out to be money hungry and demented

As expected, it was legal (mostly due to lack of regulation for these types of benefits) but really unfair, So Hubert suggested a strike. His firm would handle all the legal matters as they prepared a lawsuit and to unionize.

Edelguard was careful to organize it in private. Nothing was emailed. Nothing to tract them. Flyers were handwritten and posted in the dorms inviting members to secret meeting on slow hours.

Roles

What everyone did on the day of the strike/position they were in the office.

Black eagles

Edalguard: head of sales- she got everyone in her department and many others in different departments to simply stop working for the day when she commanded everyone to stop working via megaphone. She suck in hubert and went to a private meeting room to set up a list of demands.

Hubert: head of Vestra lawfirm- he snuck past security with the help of Edelguard. He brought a laptop and a phone with Hotspot so he could video call the rest of his attorneys from inside the conference room. Once the strike was in full swing he toured the place with Edelguard gathering evidence.

Ferdinand: senior sale manager has the highest customer satisfaction - when the strike was well underway he sent a mass email to everyone in every department including the CEO and founder herself in a very professional tone about how there is a strike. Lornez replied immediately and they when to the breakroom to enjoy tea while on the clock.

Lindhart: IT software specialist - first thing he did was turn off all the bans on websites. Everyone could go on whatever website they wanted to. He left the download blocker up and other safety precautions in place. Others could looks at memes and scroll through social media ect. He then returns to his dorm and takes a paid nap.

Caspar: manager in accounting slow but very accurate and a real team player - he hated the no pets policy with a burning passion so he let all the stray and feral cats that hang around the building in through one of the side doors. They stayed mostly on the ground floor and a few made a mess under the desks. He played with the strays with a few of his co-workers.

Bernadette: customer service rep. - she hated the calls filled with angry people. She clocked out, disconnected he phone, ran into her dorm and screamed into her pillow until calm. Once she calmed down enough she did some embroidery.

Dorothea: sales representative- has the highest upsale rate - she gets into her car and just leaves. She is still clocked in. Nobody knows where she went. Some say she met with a lover, others say she went on a binge. Nobody really knows.

Petra: bilingual sales rep. - she signed her phone off and immediately called up her family overseas. She proceeded to catch up and talk with her family for hours. She rarely got to speak with them due to the difference in timezones.

Blue lions

Dimitri: head of IT - he doesn't actually know much about IT and has little intrest in it. He got the job because his dad recommended him. With the outside website ban lifted and the lost of control of his department he frantically tried to get everything under control

Dedue: cyber security and protocol educator - although the bans are lifted he is still concerned about a cyber attack. He is frantically try to restore the ban but it seems like lindhart deleted the code.

Felix: hardware specialists - he was the one who should've been promoted into Dimitri's position and is a bit smug about how everything is falling apart in front of his boss. He bypasses the download blocker and plays minecraft on the company computer. Dimitri is too busy to notice that felix isn't helping.

Sylvain: HR rep. - he knew from the start that working conditions were shit. He was tired of trying to raise moral by doing everything but paying the employees more, giving them time off, and reasonable working hours. He went to the break room where Ferdinand and Lornez were having tea and ate a bunch of the snacks the company was reselling at super high prices then faxed a picture of his ass and balls to rhea herself as a letter of resignation.

Ashe: new hire in IT - was called down to the first floor to replace a keyboard a cat peed on. Found caspar was the reason the cats were let in. Caspar then persuaded him to play with the cats instead of shooing them out. 3 hours later he completely forgot about the strike and clocked out per usual. He completely forgot about the strike

Mercedes: head of HR - she meets with the board and discussed what to do about the strikers. They can't force them to go home since everyone striking lives on site and has every right to be there. No significant damages is being done to property. The only loss is from those not working (and a keyboard covered in cat piss and $35 worth of snacks) Mercedes is forced to find a way to get them to stop but in a way that doesn't really change anything. She leaves the meeting when it is over clocks out and returns to her modest house she calls out sick for the next couple of months.

Annette: HR rep - she tries to stop the chaos on the floor and to convince everyone to return to work. She is ignored. She wanted to ask for a megaphone to help gain attention but edelguard took the one from HR and the person with the key to one in the event closet is striking as well. She runs around in a paint trying to answer emails and settle everyone down.

Ingrid: IT helpline rep - helping Dimitri reset the ban on outside websites is above her pay grade. She at least know some of the terminology and the basics. She manages to set up a very basic blocker but it didn't block whole domains just the homepage of every website she could think of that's wasn't appropriate for work. Logging into the site allowed you to bypass the block. Ingrid feels like she will be fired for not being able to do more

Golden deer:

Claude: event planner - noticing that there was no work happening he finally decided it was time to actually do his job. He dipped into those sweet event funds and ordered as many pizza's as he could from every pizza join that could deliver. He busted out the sport balls and got employees to clear some room for flag football on the 3rd floor. He got Hilda to organize games of hide and go seek in floors 4 and 5. All games and activities were not officially approved but followed all guidelines.

Hilda: claudes assistant - organized games on the 4th and 5th floors. The cubicle although uniform made excellent hiding spaces and the food plaza just got rid of the old tables and chairs awaiting delivery of new ones so there was a ton of space to run around. Hidia had to jump between floors pretty often which was a workout all on its own but it was worth it to see everyone smile at work for once.

Lornez: head of advertising - he was tired of writing jingles and stupid commercials for the company. He wasn't aware of the strike until he got the email from Ferdinand. He offered to treat him to some tea he brought from home. They had a lovely talk and watched Sylvain stress eat. He tried to talk Sylvain out of resigning but failed.

Raphael: pizza delivery guy - he thought it was a joke at first since they never delivered pizza to the Serios Co but was persuaded by Claude. He got stopped at the front by the front desk clerk who was ordered not to allow any deliveries. Soon more pizza guys showed up and some of them where not as nice as Raphael. He eventually got in and successfully delivered his pizza.

Ignatz: accountant - he wanted no part of this and tried to work despite being on the 3rd floor. He doesn't have any PTO and is frantically trying to get his absence approved because he cannot work under these conditions. He got walled in with desks and chairs and hand to crawl his way out to try to find someone in HR to help him but found their office empty. Worst day of work ever.

Lysithia: Intern- hopes to join the advertising department - She needs this job for school credits so finding out that her boss told her to take the day off because of strike she immediately thought of her record. Lorenz assured her that she would get credit as long as he had any say in it. She played a round of hide and go seek before studying in Lornez's office

Marianne: customer service rep.- she heard the rumors and on the day of the strike she freaked out and when to have a panic attack in her car. She was on lunch technically but she took a 3 hour lunch. She came back in clocked out and decided to try that horse therapy.

Leonnie: pizza delivery guy (not nice) - she knows the customer didn't care that the order took so long to complete and was very understanding that the 30mins or less delivery time but seriously! 50 PIZZAS!! She had to stretch and press dough at top speed for like 45 mins then she burnt her hand while boxing some of the pizza's and she had to deliver all of it to this company just outside of town and now the person at the front door is insisting that the pizza was ordered by mistake oh no! Not today! You will take the pizza and you will pay for it and tip 25%.

Church

Rhea: CEO and founder - she honestly believes her practices are helping the community. She doesn't realize that she doesn't give her employees much choice. She thinks her employees are ungrateful.

Seteth: president - also believes the company is doing the best they can. He knows the dorms are small and brand but they house 78.364% of their employees and they all see a doctor at least 3 times a month. He hates that he has difficulty finding a balance between competitive prices, compensating workers, and turning a profit.

Flayn: secretary - she saw the fun going on in the 5th floor while on her lunch and thought it was organized by staff and didn't connect it as part of the strike.

Catherine: front desk - tried to turn away all the delivery drivers but more kept coming. She kept getting calls from upper management about the social media platforms and tried frantically to get in to make a statement but had little luck. She gave up when Leonnie demanded payment and let all the delivery people in.

Shamir: social media manager- she originally attended the meetings as a mole but soon learned that her fellow employees hardships. She drafted huge posts on every platform exposing the truth, changed all the passwords then took a vacation during the strike.

Hanneman: chief operational officer - he is calling and emailing the IT department about the bans every moment he can. He organized the meeting as soon as the strikers got rowdy.

Manuela: chief financial officer - although she is worried about the finances she has also been pressing about where to cut the budget first. Horse therapy is ridiculous! They own the whole ranch and are responsible for the upkeep of every horse. And all the horses are carefully hand selected and trained too. It's too much nobody uses the horse therapy because nobody has the time off to go to horse therapy!

Alois: Chairman - his title is mostly empty. He joined the strikers in a game of flag football scored a touchdown. Then went back to work as usual. Didn't check his emails about the strike since he only checks them in the morning when he first comes into work.

Gilbert: treasurer - he puts business first. Doesn't know his daughter works for the same company. Was friends with Dimitri's father. He is stressing about how the company will recover financially. He is the reason for the pay cuts so they can fund most of the benefits.

Cyrill: gopher - he gets paid minimum wage and lives on site. He considers himself lucky that he can drive the company car to go pick up office supplies from the store. He was homeless before he got a job at Seiros and feels like he is important.

Results

Since several members of the board were caught participating in strike activities the hubert and his firm counted them at strikers and used this in court.

The dorms were not considered responsible accommodations saying that prisoners in jail cells at least have their own toilet.

The news when crazy with the posts on social media. The account never replied to any dms or comments. When called they said a rogue employee posted them falsely because she was being fired.

Rhea was forced to pay a lawsuit that gave all dormitory workers an allowance of $1000 for rent for life. Even if they choose to leave the company.

Dimitri was fired for not actually having any training. Felix was promoted to the head of IT and everyone respects him.

Rhea looses her company. And most of her assets. She kept the therapy horse ranch and manages that for a living.

With the entire company now belonging to her since everyone above her resigned she made a ton of changes making the company more normal. She pays a fair livable wage to every employee. She repurposed the dorms into offices or solitary break rooms.

Huberts firm gets rebranded as a honest firm that wants to help the little guys. He later goes on to help other corporations unionize.

#fire emblem three houses #fire emblem 3 houses #fe3h #fe3h golden deer #fe3h au #fe3h dimitri #fe3h black eagles #fe3h crimson flower #fe3h blue lions #fe3h headcanons #fe3h sylvain #fe3h hubert #fe3h edelgard #fe3h caspar #fe3h ferdinand #fe3h bernadetta #fe3h ashe #fe3h petra #fe3h dorothea #fe3h claude #fe3h hilda #fe3h dedue #fe3h felix #fe3h imagines #fe3h ingrid #fe3h lindhart #fire emblem three houses AU #fire emblem three houses modern au #fire emblem 3h #fire emblem three houses crimson flower

[twokinkybeans]

Stark On Ice Chapter 5: Glitter and Gold (Starker Figure Skating AU)

Read here on AO3!

-

Chapter 5: Glitter and Gold

Peter groans at the sound of his alarm. The loud, blaring tune is pulling him back into consciousness after a good night’s rest. He grabs his phone to turn the alarm off and ponders sneaking in an extra five minutes just because he’s so comfortable within these soft, thick sheets. However, the amount of notifications has him frowning. He only needs a few seconds of skimming through them to feel the blood drain from his face.

No.

No, no, no!

There are too many missed calls. Too many texts about him and Tony, and when he opens one of them, his heart sinks. Tony and he have been caught kissing. Peter sinks into the sheets a little more to trick his nerves into settling down. Obviously, they don’t. His fingers dial MJ’s number almost automatically. He knows he should call Tony too, but MJ is honest and objective, and she always knows what to do. She’ll tell him how bad the situation is. “Peter Benjamin Parker, what the fuck have you-”

Bad. The situation is bad. 

And right at that moment, Peter can see his career crumbling before his very own eyes. Everything he’s worked for. Everything his parents worked for. The legacy they left behind for him. None of that matters anymore. He’s done. “MJ,” he chokes out, tears threatening to blur his vision. His voice is small. It’s a wonder MJ even caught her name falling from his lips. She quickly catches on to Peter’s clear panicked state and quips a quick ‘stay right where you are; I’m coming over’ before she ends the call. Peter stares at his lock screen. He ignores the notifications that are still flowing in- wave after wave after wave.

Tony. He has to call Tony.

 -

Not much later, they’re all squeezed around Peter’s small dining table. MJ, Steve, Tony, and of course, Happy too. Though the latter has pulled his seat a little further back- clearly not wanting to be involved in the drama. Peter doesn’t blame him. Working for Tony Stark must be tiring. “I warned you, I-” “Steve, we didn’t do this on purpose!” “Still!” “My security system didn’t alarm me. I figured we were safe.” “Safe,” MJ deadpans “-god. Y’all gotta stop blaming each other. We know neither of you did this on purpose, so all we gotta do now is figure out a solution.” Peter sends her a grateful smile before turning to Tony.

“Have you dealt with something like this before? Do you know how to shut it down?” Tony nods slowly. Not a good sign. Tony can be stubborn. Frustrated. But he never displays a sign of powerlessness as he does now. “Media is too fast. Trying to stop the fire is a lost cause. We either confirm or deny.”

They’re quiet for a moment. Peter isn’t sure what to say next. Lying… He hates lying. Doesn’t think it’ll help solve issues in the long run. Lying will probably only make it worse. But if they admit the truth… He doesn’t even want to think about the possible consequences. Steve groans and leans forward on his elbows resting on the table. “I talked to the PR-team quickly. They recommended to try and keep this quiet until at least the end of the season. Three more weeks.” Tony shakes his head at that. “People aren’t going to wait that long. Celebrity Spin-Off is too commercial. People are too invested. They won’t let it slide, trust me. We ain't straight enough.” Peter lets the words sink in. He wonders if there’s an easy way out of this at all. Probably not. If there is, they would’ve known. “What if we…” he starts. Steve and Tony raise their heads at him. MJ only grins. “Keep going.” “Well, an official statement is way too heavy. I mean, of course, we’re two men, but we’re adults, and nothing about this kiss is illegal. If we make it too heavy for ourselves, people will think of it as a scandal too.” “So you’re saying to ignore it? I told you that won’t-” 

“No, Tony, hear me out.” Peter takes another breath. “We don’t say shit. We skate our routine. By the end, we kiss each other. Confirming what the public already knows anyway.”

MJ nods approvingly and wants to give him a high five, but Steve shakes his head. “You could eliminate yourselves like that if people don’t vote-” This time, it’s Tony who speaks up. “Y’know what, I agree with Peter. They already know what’s going on anyways. Heck, I got myself tangled up in this show by accident because I didn’t want to play along with the “everyone in the skating world is straight”-norm. I’d rather get eliminated over a kiss than rumors, and eh, it’s just a show anyway. I don’t mind if we don’t win.” Steve throws his arms up. “Alright, alright, you’re right. It’s not our TV show. Skating is what we do best. If this is what you want, I’ll play along with you.” Peter glows up. He has worked with both Steve and MJ from the very start of his actual skating career at the Midtown Ice Arena, and the fact that they both support him means the world.

“Hey Peter, shouldn’t you be at-” Ned’s mouth drops when he sees Tony Stark. The boy is standing in the doorway, still wearing his PJ’s, his laptop clutched to his chest. “H-Hi?”

-

Peter and Tony skate towards the middle of the rink. It’s time for their second choreo of the night. The music hasn’t started yet, so it’s simple, easy forward strokes until they come to a halt. Peter can tell Tony finally masters his skates outside their choreos too. The subtle movements are smooth and steady. Peter is proud of him. Of his hard work and dedication toward something he’d never done before.

I am flesh and I am bone Rise up, ting ting, like glitter and gold

Peter grins, their tight outfits shining in the spotlights. Blinding Lights. Peter huffs quietly, not showing it but having fun about his little inward joke. They’d performed the altered version of that choreo for that earlier this night. His arm aches a little now, but it’s doable. He’s skated with worse pains before. Like that time he broke his little toe. Or the time- No. Focus. 

Peter jumps swiftly into Tony’s arms for the stationary lift- careful to keep his blades away from Tony’s body. Tony catches him easily and supports his back with the warm, big, broad hands. Peter loves being held like this. It's almost bridal style, the way they're holding one another. God, Tony is so handsome from up close. The stubble on his cheeks. Little marks and spots are covering the skin and showing the man's many years of experience here on earth.

I've got fire in my soul Rise up, ting ting, like glitter

On the first ‘ting’, Peter throws his head back and lifts his right leg up straight. The next, he comes back in bridal style and easily slides down until his knees rest on Tony’s upper legs. From there, the music picks up, and Peter rolls his shoulders down sensually while Tony bends his knees further. Their foreheads press together, and Peter licks his lips as he resists the urge to kiss the man already. Peter then lowers his skates back onto the ice and lets go of Tony when he feels the grip. Lowering his body, coming back up with a sexy body roll. The audience whistles. Peter grins and reaches his arm out to grab Tony’s hand, wincing slightly at the sharp pain shooting through his deltoid. Fuck. He keeps smiling though and refocuses on the next part of the sequence. Twizzles. Then, skating their short eight-figure before both lifting a leg to slide forward in a paired spiral.

Do you ponder the manner of things In the dark The dark, the dark, the dark

Forward strokes. Peter quickly glances at Tony before he changes his hand position. The man looks so happy. So proud of himself. Peter smiles and nods at Tony as a sign he’s ready for the loop lift. It’s a challenging lift for Peter as he always has to keep himself from jumping too high- it’s not a loop jump. So instead, he pushes himself off the ice just enough for Tony to lift him, spin the both of them around and then put him back down. 

I am flesh and I am bone Arise, ting ting, like glitter and gold

Here comes the most challenging part. Peter grits his teeth together. He’s done the death spiral so often he isn’t scared of it. Tony is a bit, though.

I've got fire in my soul Rise up, ting ting, like glitter

Peter tries to give Tony the most encouraging smile he can muster up as they shift their hand positions. They start circling and spinning, and once they’ve got momentum, Peter takes a leap of faith and lowers himself into the death spiral.

'Cause everybody's in the backroom's Spinning up Don't know what you're asking for

Tony grips him tightly- the two-handed version still – and Peter feels so fucking free as the man spins him around and around. They’re going a tad too slow, so Peter squeezes Tony’s hand as a sign to pull him back up. Thank god the man catches on. To drag out time now that they're up early, Peter wraps his arms around Tony’s neck gently- both their bodies still spinning on the spot.

And everybody's in the front room's Tripping out You left your bottle at the door

They come to a halt, their chests falling and rising rapidly due to the exercise. Simultaneously, the song has the breathy part- thanks to Steve for the little detail. From there, they both know there’s only one bit left before the song comes to an end. “You got this,” Peter whispers quickly before they break away from one another. The turn, facing the same end of the rink as they start running. Actual running, on the ice. They go faster and faster until halfway through, they both drop onto one knee and lean into a deep backbend as they slide forward. The audience goes wild. Steve knows how much Peter loves Johnny Weir, a famous Olympic figure skater, for his unconventional costumes and choreos. When Steve told Peter they were going to use his signature move, Peter had been thrilled. They hadn’t been so sure about Tony being able to pull it off, but the man was way more flexible than he seemed, and here they are. Peter feels ecstatic.

Like glitter and gold Like glitter Like glitter and gold Like glitter

They slow down. Leaning back up. They moved into some sort of V-shape, closer and closer to the other, so now that their knees are almost touching, they pull each other in closer until Tony is fully kneeling and has Peter splayed out in his lap. The song ends. The audience almost starts to cheer, but not before Tony leans in and passionately crashes their lips together. Tony’s lips are salty from the exercise, yet so soft and firm and already contain a strange hint of familiarity. Peter moans slightly, deepening the kiss now that they still can. He’s reeling with the loud applause and cheers and confused noises coming from the crowd around them. He knows they made the right decision.

After a few seconds, he reluctantly pulls back. Turning around proudly and sticking his still good arm in the air. He doesn’t make eye contact with anyone. Not with the people seated in the first row, not with Beck, who made his way on the ice for the standard post-choreo interview. Peter simply stands there.

This is me. He thinks. Mom and dad, this one's for you. I’m taking back control of the ice.

-

Masterpost Next Chapter (to be uploaded)

#starker #stark on ice #tony stark #starker fanfic #soi #adult peter parker #peter parker #tony x peter #peter x tony #peter parker x tony stark #tony stark x peter parker #marvel #mcu #fandom #fan fiction #fanfic #fan fic #fanfiction #ironspider

[beanie-beebo-writes]

It follows

Series Summary: Reader is running from financial problems and his/her studies, will they catch up with him/her? Charlie's close friends (none other than Sam and Dean) go to check up on the reader due to Charlie becoming worried for him/her. Trouble pursues, as the reader wants to keep silent about his/her struggles.

Warnings: None

Masterlist

Chapter 14

Dean focused intently on driving down city side-streets, just in case if the creature back there decided to trail after them. He was bewildered, and honestly didn't know what to think, but he tried not to get too lost in thought as he sped to the motel. Hell, he was lucky he wasn't a midnight snack, based on the way it tried to ravish both Dean and itself.. For a good couple of minutes, the drive was silent, except for the sound of your heart pounding in your ears and an occasional thought passing through your mind.

"What exactly happened back there?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, I really don't. But whatever we are hunting, it is not a werewolf." Dean replied.

"Did you see what it was?" You asked curiously.

"That's the thing, I did, but, it wasn't anything I've seen before." Dean said.

You and Sam stared at Dean, hoping the discomfort would force him to continue explaining. As you expected, he glanced from the road, back at both of you.

"What?!" He finally asked.

"What did it look like?" Sam inquired.

"Well, it was in the form of this beautiful woman. It looked normal, at least until I slashed it with the silver knife; which had no effect on it, by the way. And it used some sort of power, healing the wound instantly. Not like angel mojo, but… I don't know." Dean explained.

"Anything else?" You asked, feeling like he was holding back.

"Um… well, it's like she put a spell on me." Dean admitted.

"And you didn't bother to tell us?!" Sam asked.

"I thought it was nothing, but I suppose now it could be important." Dean said.

"What did she specifically do to you?" Sam asked.

"I don't really know, to be honest.. It was like she was.. irresistible, and I couldn't control Mr. General-"

"Please don't tell me you..." Sam began to interrupt.

"God Sam, no, I didn't go down on her. At least, I wasn't going to, not until she started biting my neck." Dean said.

Sam massaged the bridge of his nose. "You could have spared the details, you know." He said in disgust.

"No, like, she was actually trying to feed on me, it was weird." Dean explained.

Both you and Sam looked in confusion at the elder Winchester; you hadn't even heard of this in the books.

"I guess it isn't a wolf." You mumbled audibly.

"Ya think?" Dean retorted.

"But that leaves us with one big question.. What is it then?" Sam asked aloud.

Silence filled the car once again as you all pondered deeply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as you got back into the motel room, you all instantly hit the books, having no idea where to even start. You weren't really too skilled at this type of research, but you used what you knew from the series, hoping it would suffice. The first topic you figured you could start on, was a shapeshifter, but you instantly hit another dead end, since shifters weren't immune to silver. Your only resort now was anything that ate their prey.

"Could it be a rugaru?" You asked, reading into the lore.

"I don't think so," Dean said, "at least not like any I have ever seen. That thing had complete control, you should have seen it."

Sam cleared his throat briefly. "Maybe it had its urges under control?" Sam guessed.

"Maybe, but it seemed completely human to me, except for the feeding part. No wrinkling skin or black eyes… All normal. There was something about her face though, and I can't put my finger on it." Dean said.

"What about it?" You asked.

"It had a familiar aspect to it, like I've seen the features before."

"Like you knew her?" You asked.

"No, like I've seen similar facial features somewhere before, but I can't remember exactly where." Dean said.

"What were the facial features like?" Sam asked.

"She had a long pointed face..." Dean recalled.

"Like a stereotypical witch?" Sam asked with a chuckle.

"No," You responded, typing away on the extra laptop, "like a fox."

"There it is," Dean said with recognition, "how did you guess?"

"I've watched some interesting cartoons in the nineties." You responded with a smirk.

Dean looked at you with confusion and then to his brother, shrugging when they both didn't get the reference. You clicked on the first link that popped up, since it seemed remotely along the lines of the Winchester business.

"A Kumiho?" Dean asked, reading the title of the webpage.

"Yeah, it says here that it roughly translates to 'nine-tailed fox'." You stated.

Dean hummed in response, peering over your shoulder.

"Common lore says it transforms freely; many say that it turns into a woman, to seduce prey."

You all raised your eyebrows at the last statement and instantly looked at one another.

"This makes total sense," Dean said, "(Y/N), you're a genius!"

You blushed. "I mean, not really.." You replied.

"Are you kidding? It would have taken me and Sammy a good hour or so to crack this, and I think it's only been forty minutes. That's incredible!" Dean exclaimed.

"Thanks." You beamed quietly.

"Yeah, good work (Y/N)." Sam agreed, returning the smile.

Suddenly, the police scanner on Sam's computer popped up without warning, almost sending you to the floor. A male voice roughly came through the small speakers, ordering a squad to dispatch to East Morgan Street, near State Road 931. The attacker was unclear, but a young boy was both badly injured and traumatized by something the officer couldn't exactly place reason on.

"Alright, I definitely feel we should check this one out. It's likely what we're after." Sam said, standing up from his small work space.

"What have we got to lose?" Dean said.

The three of you quickly got into your federal attire and headed out to the general address provided. In a short amount of time you arrived to the scene. Multiple cop cars, and fire rescue squads were swarmed about, flooding the dark, desolate street with flashing lights. You adjusted your 'badge' and made your way to the police car in the center of the scene. A middle-aged cop stood on the side with a small group from the squad, who seemed to be discussing what he came across when he found the boy. The rest of the two teams attended to the boy on the back of an ambulance, addressing his wounds and occasionally asking him questions. You and Dean headed over to the officer, while Sam took to the boy. Your anxiety perked slightly, but you acted as nonchalant as possible, to try and not draw attention.

"Excuse me," Dean said, grabbing the group's attention, "I'm Agent Ford, this is my partner, Agent Griffith, would you care to explain the situation?"

"FBI? Why would you guys be interested in this? Isn't it a little early?" The middle-aged officer asked.

"We've been pinging these types of cases for a brief while, and we think it's the work of a specific killer, we picked this up on the radar." You responded confidently.

"Alright, that sounds reasonable." The officer said to you. "Tend to the scene guys, I've got this one." He said to his colleagues.

After his colleagues dispersed, you instantly asked for details on what had occurred not long before he sent out the alert on the scanner.

"It's weird, I was driving down here, patrolling the park for the evening shift, when this young boy ran straight in front of my car. Luckily, I wasn't going the speed limit, or both of us would have been roadkill. He came right out of the brush over there, and it looked like he got attacked by some wild animal or something. I got out of the car, and asked him what was wrong, and he just pointed to where he ran from. There was a woman, just standing inside the entrance of the woods, staring at us. I shone my flashlight, and she took off running. I couldn't leave the boy, so I called for backup." The officer said.

"Did he ever say what gave him those bites?" Dean asked.

"That's the thing, he said it was the woman." He replied with uneasiness.

"Did you have anyone go after her?" You asked.

"Some of the squad scoured the area, but they couldn't find anyone. Like I said, it was weird." He answered.

"What did the woman look like, officer.." Dean trailed off, gesturing to the cop.

"Mavin, sorry." He finished. "She was thin, her hair was infused with a natural red and a few other natural-born colors. Her face came to a point at the chin, and her nose was small but longer in length… Almost like.."

"A fox?" You said.

"Yeah..exactly! How did you know?" Marvin asked.

"Just intuition." You said.

"And you haven't seen her since?" Dean asked.

"No, thankfully. She had a weird vibe to her. But we have definitely on the lookout." He said.

"Thank you for your time, Officer Mavin." You said.

As you finished conversing with the officer, you saw Sam had already walked back from the ambulance, talking with another officer. He broke off the conversation as he saw you two walking up.

"What did you find?" Sam asked, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Looks like this coincides with the case," Dean replied, "The officer matched the attacker to a 'T'. It was the same thing that attacked me."

"That's promising; you know what the kid just told me? The lady lured him in, probably just like the other victims. Remember how Brayden's sister said that a woman was trailing her brother before he died? I think that's what has been happening with all of the victims." Sam said.

"I think you're right, but do you think we could take this back to the car or something? Cops make me uneasy." You admitted quietly.

The boys looked at you with understanding and agreed to your reasonable request. Without drawing much attention, you all went back to the beloved car to discuss what would happen next. But just before you hopped into the back seat, you could have sworn you saw two eyes glaring at you in the distance.

#spn x reader #spn reader insert #spn fanfiction

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

Yo did u make that post about your 9th grade science class

oh my God I was talking about it with my friend last night and now I’m losing my mind about it all over again sdkjhdfskh

so the school I went to for 9th grade was a Catholic high school, and it was one with like a GREAT reputation. Like, all the Catholic high schools in my area were ‘good schools’ but this was the like the Big One. Always had the best grades, happiest students, best sports teams, best plays, always did the most outreach with the elementary schools, like it was a very popular school. 

But then,

The summer before I started, the city shut down like...a fucking hundred Catholic schools, because no one wants to fund education I guess? And if your parents send you to Catholic school, they usually want you to stay there no matter what. So instead of all these students going to public school...a ton of them were forcibly transferred to this school (in the suburbs). Everyone was pissed- the city kids were mad because they had no attachment to this place and the commute was annoying. The teachers that transferred with them were pissed off about the whole affair. The teachers that previously worked in this school and didn’t lose their jobs to new teachers were stressed and had no way of controlling the overcrowded classrooms. Tuition went THROUGH THE ROOF. And their was a lot of tension between the city kids and the suburb kids for...literally no reason at all tbh, it was just There so all the classes were insane.

But my science class. Took insane to new levels. 

So, I need to preface this with the type of student I was: I liked science, I thought it was interesting, but science did not like me, and thought I was a bitch. No matter what I tried I was always just scrapping by in the class- but. I always dedicated myself to being the nice, quiet girl who sits in the front, because then the teachers like you, and whether you’re actually a good student or not they’ll give you allowances. 12th Grade gov class, I literally handed in my requirement-for-graduation research paper in a week and a half late and still got a hundred on it, because when the teacher asked me where it was I told her ‘I handed it in on the due date?’ and she immediately was like ‘Oh my God, you did? I’m so sorry!’, then gave me a day to get a ‘’‘new’’’ copy to her, and she felt so bad she gave me extra credit. Like, genuinely, I was determined to play this part and it paid off lmao. 

So for 9th grade I was obviously doing that, but compared to everyone else going crazy, I looked like a literal saint. The teachers in this school weren’t authorized to give detention- we had a school ‘Disciplinarian’, and basically you had to go to his office for him to tell you you have detention, it was weird, but if an entire class was acting up, each room had a call button so he could be summoned to the room to give the full class detention. But all 3 of my science teachers that year, instead of pressing the button, would send me down to his office to bring him back up to the classroom personally, so he would know that everyone EXCEPT me was getting detention. Like, every time one left they literally left in their notes for the new teacher ‘send Molly to get Mr. Chia if the class gets too bad’ it was so fucking funny. 

We went through 3 teachers that year. 

The first one was this old man with an impossible to pronounce last name, who walked with a cane and was considered one of the toughest teachers in the school. Before the end of October, he had mysteriously vanished. Like- they literally wouldn’t tell us where this man went. I feel like if he died or had a stroke, they would’ve had us pray for him during homeroom or something??? He left us no clues, he literally said to me ‘you did great on the worksheet today! Skip the homework, I’ll see you tomorrow’ and then for the next few weeks we had rotating substitutes until they found a new teacher kjshdgjkhd where did he GO

But anyway- he hated our class. He had the toughest teacher rep to live up to and he literally could not control a single student. Screamed his throat raw. Was constantly changing seating arraignments to try and keep certain kids apart. Was constantly getting bombarded with paper wasps and rubber bands and annoying kids asking invasive questions about his stroke. Kids were threating to fight him if he sent them to get detention. No one ever did the homework, everyone always yelling over him when he was trying to teach- in the later weeks before he disappeared, he literally just taught to me and like 3 other students in the front and tried to tune out the other kids. This poor dude omg. 

So, we had various substitutes that just put on movies for a few weeks, and then they found our second teacher. He was a cute, young guy, eager to mold young minds, was active in the church and his sister actually went to the school, so they though they could count on him to get our class together and stick it out for the full school year.

This man was mistreated so badly by these 15 year olds that he RAN AWAY TO ITALY.

I’M NOT EVEN BEING DRAMATIC HE LEGITMATELY MOVED TO ROME TO GET AWAY FROM US. 

He stood no chance. The SECOND he walked in all the kids could smell he was weak blood. The chaos went to new levels- people released real wasps into the room so everyone would run around in panic. Physical fights broke out *just* for the sake of disrupting class. No one would ever stop talking over him. A used tampon was once thrown at the chalkboard. I was shot in the arm with a homemade blow dart that a kid made during a test. People were always trying to hack into his laptop to get answers. A fire was started in the trashcan. Someone tried to climb out the window when he snapped and started screaming at everyone. He screamed so much his voice was almost perpetually hoarse in the days before he left. People would make inappropriate jokes about his fiancée and little sister. Someone tried to steal his camera a few times. The all had terrible nicknames for him.

I literally saw this man transform, before my very eyes, from someone happy and excited to live his passion, into a depressed and stressed out man who just wanted an out. I felt SO bad for him. I genuinely cannot imagine being pushed to my breaking point so hard that I decide my only option is to FLEE THE COUNTRY. But he literally came in one day like ‘guess what fuckers! I’ll be in Rome by the end of the week! Have fun in hell!’ ksdjfdskjfd

The third teacher- they had a hard time finding. Even people who were actively looking for teaching positions didn’t wanna take the job because word got around about us literally driving a man out of America. They ended up finding a teacher at another school who was good with ‘’’’’difficult students’’’’’ and offering him an obscene amount of money to switch. He...listen. He was nice.

He comes in the first day, says ‘So I don’t actually know what physical science is- I’m just gonna teach you guys chemistry’ and then proceeded to not actually teach chemistry. 

He got mad at the kids every now and then, but he was a lot calmer than the other teachers. He let A LOT slide and put on a lot of science videos to get out of trying to get through to the class. 

He was...not the most attentive. I distinctly remember being in the lab, and we were doing that thing where you make flames change colors, and while he had his back turned a guy at my table lit his worksheet on fire, laughed, wasn’t paying attention and let the flame get to his sleeve, had his sleeve catch fire, panicked and beat it out, all in a few moments, all before Mr. Sliffy managed to turn around to catch him. It was an almost completely silent affair, but I feel like the teacher should’ve noticed the residual smoke coming off a kids arm??? He didn’t say anything though khdfsfhkds

So we really skated through for the last trimester that year- apart from a few labs he’d just put on like, ocean life documentaries and if he saw you paying attention he’d give you full class credit. He gave out candy to ‘anyone who’s not being an asshole’, so while some kids were still wild and unruly, everyone calmed down enough so the constant screaming turned into more. Bearable chatter. Tests were few and far between and not that difficult. 

But I still cannot believe I had to live through this class like....I think I developed tinnitus just from sitting in it everyday. I was like constantly on guard for a fist or a dart to hit me for months afterward. It was too much like...can we please do something about schools oh my God. I don’t even know how to officially end this post. Please be nice to teachers oh my God. 

#molly's memories #freshman year #science #asks #molly mumbles

[san-station]

No more sad songs • Bang Chan

Pairing: Bang Chan x Reader

(Fluff & Angst)

WARNING: Broken heart.

↝Word count: 1,9k 

The things you've done for your best friend were uncountable, you would go to hell and beyond to bring him back to you, just like Dante did for Beatrice on his journey through the nine circles of Hell. Having the Lee Minho as your Thing #1 was what people would say: a blessing. But sometimes blessings weren't as great as they sound. Your relationship was a mess, he was known as the mighty fuckboy of SKZ fraternity and you were "Lee Minho's fan", "the girl who chases the unreachable", "the groupie" and more names you've heard around campus. 

People didn't know that you've been friends since you could spell your name correctly, you went to the same school, you lived in the same neighborhood and Minho was the first one to approach the little shy girl who rather play alone with her dolls and paint some flowers than play with the other kids. Minho found you cute and weird (in a good way), you were the only girl that didn't want to give him a kiss or ask to be his friend, so he thought you were unique.

Over the years, you built a beautiful friendship based on him being the cocky fuckboy who dragged the bashful girl to parties; you being the responsible friend who dragged  him to his house before he passed out and gave him painkillers in the morning to get him to his dance major classes. Him, distracting you from your music major homework to watch his new choreography, and more.

Your friendship was like any other friendship... the problem was that you were deeply in love with Minho from the very beginning. You loved everything about him and it hurt, you were in love with the one person who will never see you as more than just a friend because he loved to party, to live the moment and forget about the past, to blindly look forward and annihilate everything in his path, it didn't  matter if his best friend was in the field, he'll destroy her without noticing and, even so, you loved him.

You've been through a lot due to that reckless behavior and he was oblivious, he didn't realize those sad songs you wrote were about him and the things he did impulsively. That time when he kissed the girl with the white dress on Lee Jeno's party leaving you all alone in a place where you didn't  know anyone and ended up calling your friend Changbin to give you a ride back home; the time when you were eating at a restaurant with your other friends to celebrate your birthday and he didn't show up because he was having some fun at the dance studio with his choreo partner and didn't even apologize; that time when he got pretty drunk and kissed you in a SKZ party and then said "I'm sorry, Y/N, I thought you were another girl! Ewwww, I kissed my best friend this is so weird" and started laughing his ass off. 

He never notice the tears in your eyes when he did all of that, he never stopped to ask how you were or if you wanted to go when you felt so unhappy on those parties. And you still did everything for him because he had your heart, yet, he was so stupid to understand it. All your friends knew it. Well, they all could read your lyrics and play your beats and be aware of your feelings towards Minho.

Now you were at the music studio with your fellow partners and friends: 3Racha, also known as Bang Chan, Seo Changbin and Han Jisung. Your appointment for today was creating two different beats with the same lyrics to see how flexible it could be, but all you were thinking were gloomy melodies and heartbroken songs.

The australian boy gave his friends a concerned look and text them on their group chat. 

∼3RACHA Bros∼

Chan: I think it's Minho again... 

Jisung: Yeah, saw him yesterday, he REALLY had some fun lololol

Changbin: Hyung, do something... this isn't working.

Chan: Why me???

Changbin: you're good with words :D

Chan: We all literally are good with words, Bin.

Jisung: c'mon Hyung, she'll listen to you, you have like a thing lol

Chan: ????

Changbin: Make her happy or we won't buy you food :D

Chan: I hate both of you...  

Jisung got up from his sit in front of you and you looked up at him immediately. Changbin stood up as well and smiled at Chan. 

"We're gonna buy pizza for the rest of the evening", Changbin said fixing the black beanie on his head. Jisung grabbed Chan's wallet over the table and he groaned.

"For real?", Chan questioned rolling his eyes and sitting back on his chair. The laptop in front of him stopped playing the track he was working on and stared at Jisung. 

"We'll be back soon", Changbin said again and, before getting out of the room, he turned to you and groaned. 

"And pleaseeee, I'm begging you, Y/N, no more sad songs", he pouted. 

Jisung pushed him outside the room and yelled: "yeah! I'm the sentimental boy of the group, please, be happy for once, girl!" 

You tensed and lower you gaze to your lyrics book tracing the words with your fingers. Chan sighed at the view of your dispirited body and sat next to you, closer.

"Let's talk about... the beautiful day!", Chan panicked a little and smiled at you brightly. You didn't see him, you couldn't find in yourself any strength to put a smile on your face or even willing to, it didn't worth it.

"I'm not in the mood, Channie", your voice sounded like a sweet whisper. If Chan wouldn't have gotten that closer, he wouldn't have listened.

"Would you like to talk about it?", he asked pouting. He really wanted to make you smile, it warmed his heart watching your amusement. Right now he felt sick watching you so depressed, he could feel as if all his energy would've left his body and needed proper sleep to regain the power or the enthusiasm he required for you to feel something more than sadness. He heard you sighed.

"Yesterday, in Mark's party... Minho was making out with like four different people at the same time while I was sitting on the couch waiting for him to go back home." You closed your eyes, images of last night travelled through your mind making you whimper. "It hurts so much..." 

Chan kept silence, his breath was heavy, his eyes were on your face as you finally saw his expression and you got worried.  

"Don't look at me like that, I'm gonna be fine soon!", you reassured him.

"It's just that... I've told you the truth about him so many times and you're still not over him, Y/N", Chan caressed a strand of your hair avoiding your hurt gaze. 

"It's not that easy, you know? We've known each other since first grade... I've loved him since...", Chan frowned and hummed for a second. 

"How could you tell it was real love when you basically were thinking about dolls and candies?”, he spoke calmly, pronouncing every word slowly for you to process the question. You frowned and opened your mouth, yet, Chan interrupted.

“Tell me something... Has he ever told you that he loves you? Has he ever thanked you for everything you've done for him?”, once again, he caressed your hair and stared deeply into your soul, his brown eyes made you swallow hard trying to remember a moment when all those things happened. 

“Has he ever compliment you about your work? About your incredible music?”, he continued as the voices in your head screamed the real answer. 

“Sometimes… I think...”, you finally mumbled and sighed in defeat. Chan was right, Minho had only said good things about her when she did him a favour, when he asked for things and she was there to help him; when he was tired of listening to her complains, he would say something nice to make her stop.

Your lips trembled as you tried to speak, but nothing came out, so Chan grabbed your hands and squeezed them. 

“Y/N, you love someone who's too selfish to realize you've been crushing on him for years, I think it's time for you to understand that you have to move on or you're going to keep hurting yourself even more than you are right now”, his voice, in a way, made you feel safe, it made you feel that the decision you’d make was the right one, that there are others who could make you a better version of yourself, make you believe you were loved. Chan’s voice was really one of those who you wanted to hear before going to sleep and when you wake up. Chan always took care of your feelings trying to make you smile even when you had to write a sad song, even when you cried the whole night because Minho forgot your birthday, even when you were so fragile you could broke by negative thoughts. Chan was there and that was the most important thing in your life right now. You sniffed and avoided his gaze, it started to burn your cheeks unexpectedly.

“The past sometimes brings us joy, you have your good memories with him, he’s your best friend, for God sakes!”, he scoffed in disbelieve and that made you chuckled, his eyes became crescent moons when he smiled at that gesture.

“The love meter you have right here”, his right finger pointed the left side of your chest. “...you need to low that status a little. From 'I'm in love with Minho' to 'I love my best friend as much as he loves me, as a friend' and keep looking forward because you're a strong woman, okay?”, your seriously thought your body was on fire, your hands holding his made your stomach growl and you giggled due to his words. 

“You are beautiful, Y/N, you are an amazing person and you have the kindest heart... Give it to someone who will appreciate everything you're willing to give and embrace real love…”, Chan died a little inside when he saw the effect of his words on you, you were shining, cheeks with a pink shade of embarrassment and giggling like a teenager girl. His heart was racing out of control but on the outside he seemed relaxed.

“Thank you, Channie… I really appreciate it”, you said trying to stop your smile from growing bigger.  

“I promise that, once you forget about that crush, you’ll find someone who would be there for you in the good and bad moments”, he pinched your blushed cheeks. He stood up and you thought he was going to sit on his chair a few meters away from you, but he actually grabbed his laptop and sat on your side. 

“So, what about we start making a happy beat for your lyrics?”, you nodded and opened again you lyrics book. 

Both of you began to work on the melodies and changed a lot of the lyrics as they were too depressing. An hour and a half later, Changbin and Jisung came back with the pizza they promised and watched the joyful atmosphere around you. At the end of the day, you made two flexible tracks for your appointment and ignored the messages Minho had sent you inviting you to another party. You laughed when Jisung was making fun of Changbin, you laughed as Changbin was complaining about Jisung, you laughed when Chan laughed, you were happy there having your own party and you couldn’t think of any sad songs anymore. 

Masterlist

#Chan #Bang Chan #Christopher Bang #Chris #Stray Kids #Stray kids fanfic #Skz fic #Bang Chan fluff #Chan fluff #Minho #Lee Know #Stray Kids fluff #Stray Kids angst #3racha #No more sad song by little mix #Han Jisung #Jisung #Changbin #Seo Changbin #uwu #Chan imagine #Chan fanfic #Chan one shot #Angst #Fluff #One Shot #i love him

[junietc]

not just a friend - steve rogers

steve rogers x reader

pairing: steve rogers/captain america x reader

word count: 7213

summary: friday nights used to be lazy nights but maybe helping steve finish his pop culture list instead wouldn’t be all that bad

warnings: swearing, maybe some sex relate jokes but all in all just a fluffy one shot

a/n: this is a reallllll long one haha. for our lovely captain, steve rogers, we have a not so short one shot i’ve been working on for the past few weeks. please leave requests and remember to show some love :)) 

hope you enjoy ~

Friday night meant a lazy night in Y/n's eyes.

It meant staying at the Avengers compound in her favourite pajamas, either reading a book or watching some new Netflix movie Tony was raving about.

It also meant she finally would get some peace and quiet seeing as Friday night was when Tony and Pepper went on their date night, Steve went out with Bucky and Sam to explore the modern world, and Clint and Natasha dragged Bruce out of the lab to have some fun.

Of course, it wasn’t that she wasn't invited to join them, (asides from Tony and Pepper's date night) but she always chose to stay at home.

Say it’s because she wanted a day to let her feet rest or say she just wanted to enjoy the couple hours she had to herself without any obnoxious shouting being tossed around the compound. 

Whatever the reason was, Y/n was used to being alone on Friday night.

So, you could only imagine her surprise when she saw a certain blue-eyed captain plop down, right next to her on the couch. 

Raising a brow, she turned her head towards the super soldier. "Steve? What are you still doing here?” pausing slightly, she winced at her choice of words.  “Sorry, that sounded really harsh. Aren't you supposed to be out? You know, fraternizing with the modern world with your little trio?" she heard him laugh before shaking his head.  

"Yes actually. But I had some extra work to do, so I told Buck and Sam that they could go out on their own," Y/n nodded, unsure of what to say. She saw him let out a wistful sigh, more than enough evidence to tell her that he wished he could be with them. 

Pausing the movie that was playing on the screen, she crossed her legs and turned to face him. "What do you guys do when you go out?" he looked at her surprised.

"Oh! Well, I try to check off my pop culture "to do" list. I've had it for a while and all the things are pretty stupid but I guess I just really want to finish it,” he told her, pulling out the small notebook from his back pocket.

Peering down and scanning through the list quickly, she noticed he still had more than half to check off. Y/n pursed her lips, looking down at her comfy over sized t-shirt and sighed slightly. I suppose now is a better time than ever to become closer to Steve. Allowing any possibilities of a peaceful evening to leave her mind she shook her and flashed him a grin. "Well than, get that American ass up and dressed because we're checking another thing off this list!" she announced enthusiastically standing up.

"What do you mean?" Steve chuckled watching her point at his notebook.

"I mean we're doing at least one of these. Lemme see, ooh! Are you hungry? I'm sure I could eat. Let's go get some Thai food! We could go to this restaurant that does takeout and then, hmm, 'I love Lucy'? I haven’t seen that show in ages, we could watch it when we get back at the tower," she looked up and saw Steve staring at her, a grin etched on his face. "What are you staring at? Let’s go!" she ushered Steve off the couch, making him laugh as she ran into her own room.

Changing out of her pajamas’ and into a simple t-shirt and jeans, she undid her messy ponytail and fumbled with her hair until she felt presentable.

She got out of the room and met up with Steve, who was had threw on a pair of jeans and his leather jacket over his shirt. The two took off and headed into the elevator. "The place isn't that far so we could walk there if that's alright with you," she told him.

"Sounds good," she smiled at him and they headed out to the restaurant. The walk was short as she had anticipated, the two chatting among themselves about their day and miscellaneous stories about their teammates.

They ordered their takeout before quickly heading back to the tower, the walk back filled with Y/n complaining about how cold it had suddenly gotten. Once they had gotten back to the tower, Y/n fired up the television and put on the first episode of "I Love Lucy" as the two changed into some comfier clothes.

"Alright, Thai food and I love Lucy. Lucky you Rogers, you've got yourself one of the best combinations in life," Y/n joked as she snuggled into the couch and started to eat some Pad Thai. Steve smiled at the girl, happy that someone cared this much to cancel their plans just for him. (Though her plans were hardly anything that needed canceling)

"I suppose I am lucky aren't I," he winked at her as she snorted in response.

The night trailed on, and it had been closing in on two hours of watching when the two had realized that it was getting late and they should be getting some sleep. They cleaned up and Y/n was about to retire to bed when Steve stopped her. "Hey, Y/n?"

She turned around and leaned against the door frame of her room. "Mhm?" she hummed in response.

"Thank you for tonight. It was nice of you to go out of your way to help me check off my list. It means a lot to me," he sent her a warm smile.

She smiled back, "it's no problem." He nodded before bidding her a goodnight. Before he could leave, Y/n’s voice stopped him. “Hey, I just had an idea. Why don't I help you check off your entire list? Anytime we're free we'll try and do another thing on your list. How's that sound Captain?"

A wide and goofy grin emerged on Steve's face. "That sounds perfect."

******

Nearly two weeks had passed, due to a rouge mission, before Y/n and Steve finally had another day off.

It was Saturday morning and Y/n was brain dead. Her thoughts were dispersed throughout her brain, trying to figure out where the next spot the criminal they were trying to catch would be. Not to mention she was running off seven cups of coffee and two hours of sleep so you could only imagine the chaos that was her mind.

She took a pause from her frantic typing and eyed the numerous tabs she had opened and papers that were scattered across her desk. Under her breath she cursed at how little progress she had made before returning to her laptop.

After an hour of dead ends and two more cups of coffee, Y/n decided it was pointless. “Who am I kidding. I should just give this case to someone at S.H.I.E.L.D," she stretched her neck and ran her fingers through her hair. A nap sounded like a nice idea at the time, but her plans were interrupted by a sudden knock on her wall.

Looking up from her work she saw Steve leaning against the door frame, a concerned look on his face. She threw her hand up in attempts to greet him. "Hey Cap, what's up?"

"Just checking up on you. Everything alright? You looked stressed," he questioned, concern laced in his voice. He walked over and examined her workspace. "You know you have the day off, right? You really should be relaxing. Working everyday isn't good for you.”

She scoffed, shaking her head, "Is Steve I-Need-To-Solve-This-Problem-Right-Now-Or-I-Will-Never-Forgive-Myself Rogers telling me to relax?” noticing his eyes roll she smiled. “Hey, I get what you mean. I guess I just though if did some more work I’d be able to help some more. But now all I’ve got to show for it is my Word doc with a billion typos and dead ends,” a sad laugh escaping her mouth.

"Don't say that," he spoke sternly. She raised an eyebrow at him as he picked up one of her lists, "There's a ton of good ideas here Y/n. You're just missing a few things and that’s probably just because you’re half asleep. You know what would help with that?" Y/n cocked a brow as he shook her slightly. "Taking a break."

Y/n broke into a grin when he pulled out the small notebook. "Are you just trying to get me to help you check off this list?" he grinned cheekily.

"Maybe."

*******

The two agreed that they needed to get some air, so Y/n suggested that they go to the planetarium. Maybe Steve could learn a thing or two about what recently happened in the solar system within the last seventy years he had been frozen.

When they got in, Steve was surprised to see a large dome with dozens of seats all lined up in a semicircle. Y/n grabbed his hand and dragged him over to sit down. "Trust me. Just watch," before he knew it, the lights switched off and various projections started to appear on the ceiling above them.

The patterns arranged themselves into different planets and stars and a deep voice began to play from a speaker. The two watched the whole show and listened intently, Steve occasionally chuckling due to Y/n whispering a few stupid jokes every so often.

After a solid hour or so, the two had to leave and head back to Avengers headquarter for training.

They walked in a comfortable silence, admiring the scenery and laughing at dumb jokes from time to time. Heading closer to the tower, they noticed a pair of figures being Sam and Bucky, waiting and chatting at the front entrance. "Hey Buck! Sam," Steve greeted the two men. Y/n sent a wave which they returned with soft smiles. The three of them chatted and Y/n noticed she was fourth wheeling, so she decided to bid the men a goodbye as she went in to change for her sparring with Nat.

Slipping into a tank top and her old pair of gym shorts, she grabbed a bag filled with simple necessities and headed into the elevator.

She made her way down to the training room, seeing Natasha talking to Clint who was practicing his shots. Quickly tying up her hair, she made her way over towards the two. "Hey, you ready for sparring?" Natasha greeted her, motioning towards the already set up mat.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

*******

After what felt like years of sparring, practicing her aim in the shooting range and weapon practice, Y/n was exhausted. She made her way over to the break station where Clint and Natasha were drinking water and cooling down.

"I swear I come out of training with a new body part broken each week,” she groaned, her muscles sore and her body sweaty. The pair chuckled as Y/n collapsed onto the chair in front of them.

"I noticed you and Steve have been hanging out quite a bit this past month. What have you been doing?" Clint remarked, throwing a towel towards Y/n, which she easily caught and used to wipe the sweat off her face.

"Well, I've been helping him do everything on his checklist since he's had it for a while," she replied simply, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge and taking a large gulp of the icy cold liquid. Natasha smirked slightly, raising an eyebrow.

"And you’re saying that’s the only thing happening during all this, one on one time?" Y/n nearly spat out the water she was drinking before turning to the ex-assassin. Clint, who had been trying to keep his laughter in check, looked at Y/n's face and completely lost it. "Well?"

"Nat!" Y/n exclaimed in a hush tone, looking around to see if anyone heard her. Turning back, she sent a glare. "Are you serious?" Natasha crossed her arms, the look on her face telling her that she wouldn’t stop if Y/n didn’t answer the question. Y/n sighed, "no. There are you happy? We're just friends alright? That's all that we are, all that we'll ever be. Jeez." Breathing heavily, Y/n shook her head.

Can’t believe her. Why would she think Steve and I would ever – no way that could happen.

Nat and Clint shared a look with each other before shrugging and changing topics. Noticing that they weren't talking about her anymore, she casually grabbed an apple and bit into it. She watched Steve sparring with Bucky and smiled as his eyes met hers.

Her stomach did that weird thing again, that caused her to feel all giddy inside and her heart seemed to be beating faster than usual. Confused, she looked down wondering what was going on in her body.

It's probably just from sparring for so long.

It was obvious to any outsider that she was incredibly wrong.

*******

A few days had passed, and Steve and Y/n had hung out a few times, grabbing lunch together or merely just chatting in the compound.

Y/n was minding her own business, when a sudden realization had struck. Getting up from her comfortable spot on her bed, she made her way to the living room where Steve was seated, watching an old re-run of a television show.

"You know what Rogers? I've realized that I've been helping you do what everyone else wants you, yet I haven't added anything to your list. We're going to change that," Y/n randomly announced, plopping down onto the couch next to him.

He looked over at her, her face in full concentration, trying to find the perfect thing to add to his list. Laughing he cocked an eyebrow at her, "Oh really? And what is something so revolutionary that I just have to add to my list."

Thinking deeply, her eyes lit up before smiling widely at him. "Snicker doodles."

*******

"Steve! You're supposed to save the cinnamon for rolling the cookies in! Not for putting it inside the batter!" Y/n was laughing, as she tried to stop Steve from screwing up the recipe and mixing the wet ingredients.

"Well you said dry ingredients. Unless something has changed in the past seventy years, I'm fairly certain that cinnamon is dry," he retorted, watching her roll her eyes at him.

The two were trying to bake snicker doodles, Steve making quite hard too, as the Trouble man Soundtrack was playing in the background. Y/n made the snarky remark that since Steve still hasn't listen to it since Sam hadn't shut up about it.

When 'Trouble Man' played, Y/n smiled to herself. Dancing, as she mixed the bowl, she swayed to the melody and made her way towards Steve. Humming along to the song, she started to sing. "I come up hard baby, but now I'm cool. I didn't make it sugar, playin' by the rules. I come up hard baby, but now I'm fine," Y/n removed the whisk from his hand and replaced it with her own hand. "Dance with me?"

Steve looked at her and smiled brightly. The two swayed together in sync. Y/n placed her hands on his shoulders before placing her face into his chest. Steve looked slightly shocked before smiling and placing his hands on her waist. "I'm checkin' trouble-"

"-sugar, movin' down the line" Steve interrupted, causing Y/n to snap her head up and stare at him incredulously.

"I thought you hadn't heard this yet?"

"Sam manages to sneak this song on every time we're in a car," smiling and laughing, the two look down to realize that the flour on Steve's shirt had transferred to Y/n's hair. "You'd better clean that out, here let me help."

Steve shoots his hand out to ruffle her hair but Y/n ducks down fast enough. "Not so fast old man. I may lack braincells, but I do have eyes and I can see that your hands are clearly covered in flower,” she pointed an accusing finger at him. "Alright, now that you're done throwing flour everywhere. We can start making balls of dough and covering them in the cinnamon sugar," the two shared giggles before grabbing small handfuls of dough and rolling them in between their hands.

After covering the last few cookies, it was time to throw them in the oven. Y/n was holding the tray and Steve opened the oven. A breeze of hot air blew across her face, causing her to scrunch up her nose before placing the tray in the middle of the rack. "You said how long until they're done?" Steve asked her.

"Approximately 10 minutes, so at 6:36," she replied, closing the oven and punching in the numbers. She turned around to face him. "Meaning we should clean up the mess we made before the others come and see what we've been up to all day."

They started cleaning up the mess they had created, throwing most of the utensils and bowls into the dishwasher and putting away all the leftover ingredients. Realizing that the soundtrack had played through, she made her way over to her phone and opened the music. "Which band was it that you also needed to listen too?" she asked Steve, who opened his small notebook. 

"This band named Nirvana?" Y/n's eyes sparkled at the mention. Steve chuckled watching her facial expression turn excited and enthusiastic. "What? Do you know them or something?"

She looked over her shoulder and stared at him incredulously. "Know them? I love them! How have you never listened to – you know what? I'm just going to play it," she pressed shuffle on her phone before placing it down and heading over to clean up the last few things.

Grabbing a towel, she started to dry a few of the plates and placing them away. Music played, and Y/n sung along, dancing without a care in the world.

"Ooh! This is my favourite song!" Y/n dropped the towel in her hand and grabbed the spoon from the counter, bringing it up to her mouth. "Come as you are, as you were. As I want you to be. As a friend, as a friend. As a known enemy," she danced around the room, pretending she was on a stage, singing her heart out. Steve watched her sing and point at him, laughing to himself at how adorable she looked. "Take your time, hurry up. The choice is yours, don't be late. Take a rest as a friend. As an old-" she climbed onto the counter and used her free hand to dramatize her performance.

"Memoria, memoria, memoria, memoria." Once the lyrics finished, she danced around to the music and hopped off the counter. Panting slightly, she brushed the stray hairs out of her face before interlocking eyes with Steve and smiling goofily.

"Now that was a performance," Steve applauded her as she jokingly curtsied while laughing. The two shared a smile before cleaning up again and singing along to the songs.

Steve admired the girl, throwing a glance towards her every so often. His stomach seemed to be doing flips and he soon realized -

He was falling in love.

*******

About a month or so had passed and the subject of whether Steve and Y/n were dating was a frequently brought up topic. Many of the team members believed that it was all a secret and they were hiding their relationship, such as Tony, Clint and Sam. On the other end, a few of them thought that they were too pussy to go up and ask the other on a date such as Natasha and Bucky.

Of course, Bruce decided to stay out of all of this, but he did have his hopes that their relationship would soon evolve into something more than friendship.

To be completely honest, Y/n and Steve themselves had no clue what was going on.

The two liked each other tremendously.

Well that was obvious.

But they never truly acted on it, aside from Y/n's flirty remarks, but that was just her usual behavior, and remained friends.

It was quiet Friday night when Y/n was bored out of her mind. Dangling upside down from her bed, her eyes bore a stare into the wall.

A minute had passed before she decided that she was thirsty and headed down to the kitchen for something to drink. "Where's something to do when you need it?" she murmured, her fingers running through her hair as a yawn escaped her lips.

Once she opened her eyes, she saw a tall, dark haired figure standing in the kitchen. I mean I wouldn't mind doing him but – “Y/n?" her head snapped up.

"Oh, hey Bucky. What's up?" she asked as she made her way to the cabinets, grabbing a glass.

"Not much," she nodded before pouring water from the pitcher. "You know I was just talking to Natasha about your current love life," she looked at him, confused at why he was bringing this subject up, but nodded, taking a sip from her glass. "And I was wondering whether or not you and Steve were ever going to date."

Spitting out the water in her mouth, she looked up at the ex-assassin, her eyes nearly bulging out their sockets. "What?" she questioned, as sly smile started creeping its way on to his face.

"All that I'm saying is that you guys have chemistry. You've been hanging out a lot and-"

"I'm just helping him finish everything on that to do list of his," she interjected, wiping the excess water from the side of her face.

"Yeah and you're probably the last thing on it," Bucky grumbled quietly, making sure she didn't hear him. "What I was saying, is that you both should at least try and go on a date. I know Steve hasn't had something remotely close to a relationship in the last seventy years so I'm sure a date could fix him right up."

Y/n scoffed, rolling her eyes at his suggestion. "Why don't you go on a date with him then? He basically sacrificed his whole friendship with Tony for you. I smell a movie idea," she mocked in a sing-song voice. Bucky sighed before turning around to face the girl.

"I'm being serious Y/n."

She stared at him dead eye and crossed her arms. "And so am I. So, understand when I say that nothing will ever happen between me and Steve. He's just a friend," with that she walked out of the kitchen, grumbling to herself that she was hungry as Bucky rolled his eyes. “Also tell Natasha to stop blabbering about my love life to everyone!”

"They're even more perfect for each other than I thought. Stupidly oblivious though," he face-palmed before rubbing his eyes in annoyance. "God, I swear if I’m not Steve's man of honour when they get married."

*******

"I still can't believe you haven't seen any of the Star Trek movies. I thought you would've at least watched one with Sam or someone," Y/n rolled her eyes, settling down with popcorn next to Steve.

He chuckled slightly as he spread the blanket over top of the two of them. "Hey, at least I watched the Star-Wars movies. Tony wouldn't shut up about them until he made me watch every single one," Y/n laughed remembering the one time that Tony had barged into the meeting yelling about how Steve hadn't watched Star-Wars.

"I think you struck the most luck when you heard AC/DC early on. Tony nearly killed me when I said I only listened to one of their songs and it was Highway to Hell," she snorted, turning on the television.

About halfway into the third movie, Y/n stifled a yawn and started to lean on Steve's shoulder. She felt him tense for a second before loosening up.

The two were much too engrossed in the movie to have noticed the elevator doors opening revealing Tony and Natasha. The two of them walked into the living room and stopped when they saw Y/n and Steve together on the couch, Y/n's head on his shoulder. The two superheroes looked at each other and smirked. Tony let out a wolf whistle.

"Wow! Didn't know you still had it in you Capsicle. Especially not with our lovely Y/n! congrats," he teased, clapping his hands as they snapped their heads to look at them and Y/n rolled her eyes.

"Oh, shut it Stark. We're just watching a movie," she snapped, before turning back to face the screen.

Natasha snorted before curtsying in a mocking manner. "Oh, forgive us. Come on Stark, the lovely couple would like their privacy," Steve groaned as they snickered before making their way out of the room.

Y/n cursed something under her breath, before focusing her attention on the movie. "You know, a few days ago Bucky asked me if we were going to date."

Steve looked at her incredulously, her face blank as she shoved popcorn into her mouth. "What?" he asked her.

"He asked if we were going to date," she turned to face the shocked looking man. "I said no, don't worry. I told him we were just friends anyways," her voice quieter towards the end, chest clenching.

"Oh," Steve nodded, regaining his posture. "Just friends," his heart sunk to his stomach, as he shuffled around uncomfortably in his seat. "Right."

*******

The two had binged through the next few movies, probably landing on the ninth or tenth when Y/n started falling asleep.

Steve allowed the girl to take a nap, his eyes trailing from the screen to her.

He smiled as Y/n was snoozing softly on his shoulder. He checked on his watch and realized it was closing in on 3 am in the morning. He moved her, so she was leaning against the couch for a second before standing up and carrying her in his arms.

He walked over to her room as he walked into his Bucky eyeing him. "You and L/n have been hanging out a lot these past few weeks. You sure there's nothing going on Steve?" he teased his friend. Steve rolled his eyes before looking down at Y/n who had her face snuggled up against his chest.

"I wish I knew what it was Buck but I’m just not sure what it is," he looked down at the sleeping girl, a soft smile appearing on his face. With that he bid his goodnight before heading off.

Bucky watched his friend bring the girl into her room as he rolled his eyes. "Not sure what it is my ass. That punk knows he's in love with her."

Steve opened up the door and laid Y/n on her bed. He pressed a chaste kiss on her temple before sitting up from the bed. "'Night Y/n."

Before he could leave, he felt a hand grab onto his forearm. He saw Y/n, her eyelids only half open and her breath raspy. "Stay?" she pleaded. Steve looked at her slightly shocked. He saw her pout and gave in almost immediately.

"Alright," he laid down next to her as she turned and placed her face in his chest. He sucked on his breath, looking at the tired girl and wrapped his arm around her.

*******

Mmmm, warmth.

Y/n hummed in content as she woke up. She felt something hard pressed up against her head and opened her eyes to see Steve sleeping next to her. Her eyes widened immediately. Her first reaction to jump away before realizing that it would be too hard since his arm was wrapped around her.

Inhaling sharply, panic struck across her face. Steve's sleeping next to me. The love of my life is sleeping next to me. What am I supposed to do?

Steve's eyes blinked open, his head turning to face Y/n's embarrassed one. He smiled softly at her before murmuring a quiet 'good morning' in a low, raspy voice. Blinking slightly, makings sure this wasn't a dream, she smiled awkwardly.

"H-Hi," tucking a strand of hair behind her ear in attempt to reduce her embarrassment (which it didn't), she greeted him. "Morning. Remind me, but – er, why are you here? In bed. With me?"

Just realizing she was unsure what was going on, Steve apologized profusely. "Oh my god, I am so sorry! I didn't realize that you didn't know what was happening and you were probably extremely confused and I- "

God damnit Y/n. You just totally stressed out Cap for being nice. "– Steve?" stopping abruptly, he looked at her, worry in his eyes. "I'm not upset. It was sweet of you to bring me to my room. I just wondered why you chose to stay the night with me?"

Chuckling slightly, he scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, you asked me to stay the night."

"I what."

"Yeah you kind of begged for me to stay with you last night after I dropped you off in bed," he responded nervously. Due to her shock, her eyes widened as she watched the blue-eyed man start to laugh. "Hey don't worry. I don't mind. You were really cute when you were tired, so I couldn't say no," as soon as the words had escaped his mouth, Y/n's brain started to malfunction.

Did Steven Grant Roger, aka Captain America, aka my biggest crush ever just call me cute?

"Oh?" she exclaimed; her voice uncharacteristically high. "Really now?"

Steve looked at her oddly until he realized the words he had said earlier. "Oh, oh! Sorry I didn't mean it to say that you're cute – ah! Not saying you're not, I mean you're gorgeous, prettiest girl I've ever met but – damnit! I mean –" Y/n started smiling uncontrollably, laughter tumbling off her lips. Groaning Steve cursed under his breath. "Shit."

"Steve, what are you trying to say?" she asked the super soldier, who was currently hiding his face in his hands. Smothering a laugh, she tried to move his hands away from his head. "Steve?"

"Y/n, I have to tell you something," surprised at his sudden outburst, Y/n looked at him shocked.

"Oh! Well, what is it?" her mind trailed off, wondering what he wished to talk to her about.

Fumbling around his fingers, he bit his bottom lip before looking into her eyes. "Y/n, I really like –"

"Meeting in five minutes Y/n – oh! Steve? What are you doing in Y/n's room?" Natasha interrupted glancing at the two, a smirk tugging at her lips. "You two already slept together? I mean I knew it was going to happen, but I at least expected a date or –"

Y/n started to panic, launching a pillow at the red head's direction. "Natasha! Are you serious? Get out!" the ex-assassin laughed before shutting the door.

"Fury wants us there in five minutes!" her voice trailed off as she left. Y/n rubbed her temples at the actions of her friend. Turning to face Steve, whose face was prominently red now, she tried to get him to tell her what he was going to say before they were rudely interrupted.

"What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"I – nothing. Never mind. We should get going, don't want to leave Fury waiting," getting up and out of the bed, Y/n watched as he prepared to leave the room.

Disappointed, she replied, "oh, I get it. Tell me later?" Steve turned to face her with an unsure face.

"Sure."

*******

"They were in the same room?" Tony exclaimed loudly as Natasha shushed him with a glare. "Well sorry. I'm just asking to make sure you weren't seeing things?" he questioned, sipping some of the hot liquid in his mug.

Rolling her eyes at his distrust in her, she crossed her arms. "I'm sure Tony. I saw him when I went to call Y/n. They were deep in conversation and I'm pretty sure I wasn't just seeing things. He might've just popped into her room in the morning though. I'm not –"

Bucky, who had been quiet for most of the conversation had finally spoken up, "I saw him bring Y/n back into her room last night and he never came back out," Sam turned to face him and cocked a brow.

"And how do you know he never got out? Were you stalking him?" Clint snickered at the question, watching the soldier scoff and roll his eyes.

"That doesn't matter Wilson. The two definitely at least slept in the same room. But now to the question of whether they fu –"

Y/n's head popped in from the door and the rest of the team turned towards her, slightly surprised. "What are you guys up to?"

"Working on some tests," Bruce quickly replied, snatching random papers that were scattered on the table.

Clint rose his mug and took a sip, "snacking."

"Talking about whether or not you and Steve fucked each other last night," Natasha replied casually, watching Bruce choke on his coffee. Bucky snorted slightly, watching the h/c haired girl's face distort into shock.

Tony started laughing manically. "So, tell us Y/n? What'd the two of you do in the same room? Anything I'd like to get in the middle of?" glaring, she made a disgusted face at Tony's statement.

"Very funny Stark. We didn't do anything last night, alright? We were just watching movies and I fell asleep and Steve was a gentleman and brought me to my room," walking into the room, she grabbed a cookie from the plate on the table and munched on it.

Clint furrowed his brows before asking the next question, "but why did he stay the night? I didn't know that was a part of being a gentleman," Y/n pursed her lips, cursing under her breath. "Unless there's something you didn't mention, Y/n?" Turning around and crossing her arms she huffed.

"I might've asked him to stay," she mumbled under her breath quickly, not wishing for anyone to hear her. Bucky, who was closest to her, overheard her mutters and rose his eyebrows. Before he could say anything, Y/n cleared her throat and walked out of the room. "Now if you'll excuse me, Steve and I are heading out for lunch," seeing everyone's looks at her, she narrowed her eyes and stated, "as friends."

Bucky shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged his shoulders. "I mean sure it might start with being friends but a quick mouth to mouth action really can get it going for the two of you. Steve's just a little shy and won't initiate it but if you try hard enough–"

"Bucky we're not kissing."

"I never said kissing," smirking slightly he flashed a wolfish grin. "You two could always make-out instead," Y/n groaned loudly, watching the rest of the team burst in to laughs, even Bruce betraying her with his fit of giggles.

"You guys are honestly the worst. Steve doesn't like me in that way, and I don't like him in that way so there's no possible way for the two of us to date," Natasha started cackling and slammed her fist onto the table as her laughing intensified. Crossing her arms, Y/n asked, "what's so funny now Nat?"

Wiping a tear from her eye she looked at the girl and shook her head. "Alright if you and Steve aren't madly in love with each other than I guess that I wasn’t a previous assassin," Tony grinned before chiming in as well.

"And I suppose that I'm not a billionaire."

Sam chuckled before joining with the two, "and I'm not the best-looking guy on the team," everyone turned to look at him. "What?" Y/n shook her head, before looking down at her phone.

"I've got to go now. I don't want to keep Steve waiting. We'll be back in an hour or so," saying her goodbyes, she headed out for the door only getting stopped by the sound of Bucky's voice.

"That's right. No need to keep your future husband waiting to long," Y/n resisted the urge to smack him across the face but turned around and glared.

The laughter died down as she narrowed her eyes intensely, "would you please, stop?" Bucky scoffed but waved goodbye as she turned back around.

"Alright but for the wedding, can I be –"

"Oh my god you guys are so annoying!"

******

The crisp autumn air blew through Y/n's hair as she walked side by side with Steve, headed for a coffee shop downtown. This wasn't one of the things that Steve needed to do but Y/n was in the mood for a warm drink to calm her down from all the events that had occurred. Like sleeping with her massive crush.

Stopping in front of a quaint little café, Y/n opened the door and allowed Steve in. "After you, kind sir," she mocked, bow down as he chuckled.

"Well thank you doll," the slight word choice was enough for Y/n's cheeks to turn pink and for butterflies to start fluttering around in her stomach. After purchasing their drinks (and a slight banter between the two on who was paying. Y/n ended winning by swiping her card while they were arguing), the two set out for a casual stroll down the streets of New York.

They walked in a peaceful silence, enjoying the background noises of the busy streets and sipping on the drinks every so often. Y/n looked around, her eyes meeting back with his. She smiled warmly at him, her nose scrunching up as she giggled suddenly. "What's so funny?" he asked with a playful smile.

"Oh nothing," she waved him off. "I'm just remembering what the team said earlier. They were talking about us sleeping together or something dumb like that," she scoffed thinking about how dumb that idea was. Not that she wouldn't want to. God knows she does, but Steve didn't need to know that.

Not yet at least.

Steve placed one of his hands in his pocket, nodding slightly. "Oh. Yeah, Bucky was asking me about that earlier. I don't know what's gotten into them,"

"Yeah. They even joked about you liking me and whatnot. It was really weird," as soon as the words had left her mouth, Steve nodded awkwardly. Noticing something was up she turned to face the super soldier. "Everything alright?"

He nodded his head at first, "yeah, yeah don't worry about it," she nodded, going back to her original position facing forwards. It was only a few seconds after when Steve started shaking his head violently and sighing. "You know what? It's not alright," Y/n looked at him in shock.

"What do you mean? Is something wrong? Did I do something to upset you? Is – "

"I'm in love with you," pausing afterwards, he began to be extremely infatuated with his shoes, not taking his eyes off them. "I'm in love with you, Y/n L/n. And I have been for a while."

Y/n's face was red. Extremely red. "O-Oh," she could feel the blood rising to her cheeks, his sentence came outs so suddenly she hardly had time to react. Steve realized she hadn't responded and shook his head.

"You know what, I'm really sorry that was a lot to put on you and I didn't mean to just drop the bomb like that. I had a whole plan too –" Y/n pulled on his arm and leaned him downwards as she sealed his mouth with a kiss.

He tasted like the minty gum they had earlier and fresh coffee, his scent intoxicating her, sending her emotions haywire. They pulled apart, lips slightly parted, heavy breaths colliding with one another. Y/n smiled softly, once their eyes had met. "This is going to sound cliché, but you were talking way too much."

A bright grin had erupted on his face as he pulled her closer to him and pressed another kiss on her lips. His arms found their way around her waist as hers rested on his arms. Smiling once they broke apart, he said, "I suppose that was the best way to shut me up."

********

(One Year Later)

Steve never really was good at secrets. It seemed that everything he wanted to hide from his beloved girlfriend was impossible to do. Perhaps he was terrible at keeping them, but he liked to say it was because she was just so smart.

Fumbling around with the last few touches he quickly ran over to the couch and waited for Y/n too walk through the door. Jingle of the keys were heard, and a smile found its way to Steve face. "Hey babe, how are you doing?" Y/n asked as she walked in.

"I'm good," she placed a kiss on his cheek as she walked by, throwing her bag by the kitchen table. "Hey, do you mind grabbing my glasses for me in the bedroom?" he asked as she nodded, throwing her hair up into a ponytail.

Calling out to him as she headed to the room she said, "where are they?"

"They should be in the drawer next to the bed."

"Alright," she nodded as she opened the door into the room. Opening the drawer, her eyes were surprised to find a small velvet box sitting in the middle of the drawer, rose petals scattered around it. "Steve? What's all of –"

Picking up the box she turned around when she saw Steve down on one knee, a shiny diamond ring in his hand. "Y/n, doll. I know we've only been dating for a year, but I know you make me a better person and I know I love you with every single piece of my heart. You've sacrificed your time for me and your lazy Fridays," Y/n laughed as tears glistened in her eyes. "But I just want you to know I love you so much, would you do the honour of making me the happiest man in the world?"

Sobbing as tears cascaded down her cheeks she nodded aggressively. "Yes! A million times yes Steve. I love you so much," placing the ring on her finger he smiled as he took her face in his hands and kissed her passionately.

The two walked out of the room and loud cheers could be heard. "I knew she would say yes! What else could she have said?" Bucky shouted, hugging his friend who laughed.

Giggling she headed over to Natasha and Tony who hugged her tightly. "You know Steve was hiding all six of us in your bathroom? It was terribly tight. But I'm proud of you girl," Tony laughed before agreeing and ruffling her hair.

Bruce and Clint congratulated her and after harassing Steve, so did Bucky and Sam. They popped open some of Tony's celebratory alcohol and cheered. As soon as all the commotion had settled down Bucky cleared his throat. "Can I just say I predicted this like a year ago?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Honey, we all predicted this. Don't act like you were the only one," everyone laughed before they all held a toast.

"To our two favourite blind love idiots who took way too long to date but the right amount of time to get engaged!" Clint announced as everyone chorused; "To Y/n and Steve!"

Sipping their drinks, the newly engaged couple smiled at the other and kissed deeply. "I love you Y/n," Steve said as she kissed his cheek.

"I love you too, Steven Grant Rogers."

✩✩✩✩✩✩✩

#Steve Rogers #steve #captain america #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers imagines #steve rogers one shot #x reader #avengers x reader #marvel #avengers #natasha romanoff #tony stark #iron man #captain america imagine #captain america x reader #captain america imagines #captain america oneshot #love #romance #endgame #marvel x reader #imagines #one shot

[nicolewrites]

We Stand, Fate-Tested - II

Sticking with the longer chapters. I finished this part up instead of an essay due in 5 hours, so it’s a gift you should run with. I have the outline for the story roughly in place, but no promises about when the next update will be. 

Rating: T+ Genre: Mystery, Friendship, Romance Characters: [Byleth/My Unit, Dimitri B.], [Byleth/My Unit, Claude R.] Words: 5,826

Byleth leads the first tutorial of the year. / The Blue Lions return home for the second time since the war's end.

AO3 | FFN

II - In Circles We Tread

Garreg Mach University - 14 Horsebow Moon, 732 AU

Byleth arrived at the classroom where her tutorial section was meeting ten minutes early. She was hoping that whatever class had the room before her would be done early so that she could set up her laptop and her review slides for the session. Fortunately, there didn’t appear to have been a class in the room so she was able to enter as soon as she arrived.

Byleth was in the midst of setting up her laptop with the tangled, university-supplied cables when her first student arrived. It was the same girl with straight, dark hair that had been the first student to arrive in the lecture the week before. She approached the front desk and smiled at Byleth.

Byleth paused in her set up. “Hi,” she greeted.

“Hello, Miss Eisner,” the girl replied. “My name is Lysithea.”

Byleth nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, Lysithea. You’re a bit early, but please, have a seat wherever you’d like.”

The girl nodded and sat right in the front row. She pulled out a laptop and began tapping away at the keyboard. Byleth went back to setting up her presentation as more students trickled in. She recognized the boy with green hair, half of the group of students that had sat near her in lecture, as well as Claude and Dimitri. Claude took a seat in the back, flanked by a girl with bright pink hair and a boy with purple hair and expensively styled clothes while Dimitri sat with the friends he had sat with in lecture.

Byleth finished setting up her slides and glanced at the clock. It was one minute before 1:30, when the tutorial was supposed to begin so she stood up, assessing her class. Her tutorial section had half the class and Seteth ran the tutorial with the other half. As it was the first tutorial of the section, attendance was at almost, or entirely, full capacity, something which likely wouldn’t continue throughout the whole semester.

“Hi everyone,” she greeted when the clock finally ticked over to 1:30. The chatter in the room mostly died out and all the curious faces turned to face her. A bead of nervousness pricked in her chest, but she smiled and forced it down. “As I’m sure you guys know, I’m Byleth Eisner and I’ll be your TA for this class. I’m leading this tutorial section, Tutorial 2, and Dr. Cichol leads Tutorial 1.”

She leaned down and moved to the first slide in her slideshow which was a trio of pictures. The first was Byleth and Seteth working in a lab doing hands-on analysis of artifacts. The second was a shot of Byleth posing with her undergrad thesis team at Shambhala where they had done an expedition. The last photo was Byleth in the Main Hall of the university as she presented her undergraduate thesis.

“I’m in my first year of my Masters here at Garreg Mach University with a specialization in Unification Era Archaeology focused on the Guardian of Order. I did my undergraduate degree here and graduated with a combined honours in Archaeology and History. Dr. Cichol is currently my Masters supervisor which is why I’m here as your TA.”

There were a few murmurs across the class as people assessed her qualifications. Byleth ignored them and moved to her next slide which held a photo of the ancient sword that was rumoured to have been wielded by the Guardian of Order. They had discussed it in lecture since it was one of very few relics from the Unification Era that hadn’t been lost to looters or fire. However, since it was still early in the semester, they’d looked at the blade objectively, not as a relic wielded by the Guardian.

“Archaeology is the study of material remains of humans and societies. In our first class we talked about the first step of working with artifacts: description, classification, and analysis. The next step is the placement of an artifact within its historical context. If we take this image here, can someone give me a description for it?” She gestured to the screen and the image of the sword. “And, for the first few classes if you can just say your name beforehand so I can get to know everyone, that would be much appreciated.”

The blonde girl sitting with Dimitri raised her hand and Byleth nodded. “I’m Ingrid,” the girl introduced, brushing her braid back over her shoulder. “The first step would be to identify the weapon as an ancient blade, likely a longsword. It appears to be made of some kind of bone or clay material due to its lack of metallic qualities.”

Byleth nodded. “Excellent, thank you, Ingrid. Now, can someone give me a guess about the historical context of the blade based off of that?”

Lysithea, the girl who had been early for class, raised her hand. “Given the design of the blade and its recovery location, this is likely a blade that had been used in the Unification War. Due to appearance, it is likely that the blade was used by a highly ranked soldier, officer, or commander. It fell to disuse probably after the fire in 101 and 102 AU.”

Byleth nodded and was about to commend Lysithea when Claude raised his hand. She raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to speak.

Claude was leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head as he made steady eye contact with Byleth. “Maybe I just know this as a History major, but that blade fell to disuse before the Great Fire of Garreg Mach. It would have been around 9 AU that it was no longer wielded. It’s structure greatly resembles the other legendary weapons of the time known as ‘Relics’.”

Byleth appraised Claude. He was correct, of course, but it had taken her a lot of research to actually find the year when the Guardian was reported to have disappeared, leaving her legendary blade to the Royal Collection. “That is correct, Claude,” she agreed. “This sword,” she paused to continue the presentation on her laptop which let the label pop up on the screen, “is known to us as the Guardian’s Blade, the weapon that was wielded by the Guardian of Order in the Unification War.”

There were a few more jumbled murmurs around the room as students processed what she was saying.

“Pardon me, Miss Eisner,” the green-haired boy said, raising a hand, “if you’re saying this weapon is one of the Relics, why was it recovered separately from the rest of the ancient weapons?”

“That’s an excellent question,” she trailed off, gesturing for the student to give his name.

“Linhardt.”

“Linhardt,” Byleth repeated. “In the year 7 AU, after the death of the Saviour King, the Guardian of Order called for the collection of the Relics to be displayed as artifacts and historical trophies instead of used as weapons. It has never been confirmed, but historians have theorized that since the Guardian of Order disappeared just under a year after her husband’s passing, she took her blade with her when she vanished. The discovery of the sword here at Garreg Mach is one of the biggest mysteries regarding her disappearance.”

At the back of the classroom, Claude’s friends were whispering, but Claude’s green eyes were fixed sharply on Byleth as she explained. Byleth tried to ignore him as she continued to field questions as well as offer her own discussion questions. The rest of the 50-minute section passed relatively quickly, but right until the end, Byleth could have sworn that Claude didn’t take his eyes off of her.

At 2:20, Byleth concluded the discussion and dismissed class, saying she would see everyone back the next week. Conversations broke out and people started packing up. She unplugged her laptop from the projector and started putting away her own things. She slid her laptop into her bag and looked up when someone cleared their throat in front of the podium. Byleth found Claude smirking at her, his hands wrapped around the straps of his backpack.

“Good discussion,” he complimented.

“Thank you,” Byleth replied. She still felt on edge around Claude. There was something about him that was so infuriatingly familiar and she just couldn’t figure out what it was because it certainly wasn’t just because he was the son of an ambassador.

“Combined honours with History, hm?” he continued. “Sounds familiar.”

Byleth rolled her eyes but smiled faintly. “Yes, it appears we have similar interests.” She contemplated something for a moment before she pushed forward with it: “Have you taken a lot of courses in Unification Era history?”

Claude shrugged. “I took 234 and I’m currently in 316.”

Byleth had taken both of those courses herself. History 234 was the Unification War History course and History 316 was History of the Unification Years. Neither was particularly heavy in information about the Guardian of Order and the Guardian’s Blade, topics Claude had already proved himself knowledgeable in.

“Is knowing everything just a hobby then?” she asked.

Claude laughed this time. “If I knew everything I don’t think I’d be in your class, Teach.”

The nickname caught her off guard and she blinked dumbly at him for a moment. Claude seemed to recognize his blunder and he winced.

“Ah, sorry if that was weird, it just felt right.”

Byleth bit her lip and shook her head. “It’s fine, really,” she assured. In all honesty, the nickname had felt fitting and familiar. It was weird.

“Anyways, I don’t suppose there’s any way we could sit down and talk about your thesis, is there? I’m incredibly curious about the research that you’ve been doing,” Claude continued after a short cough.

Byleth raised an eyebrow. “I have office hours and my email is on the course outline,” she replied flatly.

Claude laughed. “Yes, but your office hours will be filled with students with academic, course-related questions. Email, also, doesn’t have the same personal touch as a face-to-face conversation.”

Byleth sighed. “Look, Claude, I’m your TA, I don’t know what you want me to say.”

He held up his hands innocently. “I’ve just got questions about your Masters, surely that’s an innocent enough intention? What about Thursday afternoon at the coffee shop in the student centre?”

Byleth considered it for a moment. There was nothing in her contract that said she couldn’t get coffee with someone who was interested in her academic projects and if she managed to convince Claude to pursue a graduate degree in her field after graduation, she knew Seteth wouldn’t care about the nature of their conversation.

She sized up Claude and folded her arms. “I’ll meet you at Anna’s at 4 on Thursday,” she consented.

Claude’s smirk widened and he nodded. “I look forward to it, Teach.”

With one last cheeky wink, Claude strode away and headed for the door where his two friends had lingered, waiting for him. Byleth watched him for a moment before she resumed packing up her things. She slid her attendance sheet into her folder and placed it in her bag.

“Miss Eisner,” a new voice interrupted.

Byleth shook her head and looked up. “Byleth, please.”

Dimitri, standing in front of her desk, gave her a small smile. “Byleth,” he agreed. “I hope Claude wasn’t bothering you. He’s a strong personality.”

Byleth laughed lightly and smiled. “No, no, he was just asking about my area of study. I’m happy to talk about it. I wouldn’t be studying it if I wasn’t.”

Dimitri looked relieved. “That’s good to hear. You’re certainly interesting to listen to in tutorial. You know your stuff.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Admittedly, I’m feeling a bit out of my depth in this class.”

Byleth nodded. “That’s understandable, but really, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’ve got some smart classmates, if today was any indication, and both Dr. Cichol and I have office hours reserved for this class section so feel free to come to either of us if you need anything.”

Dimitri nodded. “Yes, thank you very much.” Someone called his name from by the door and he turned to walk away, pausing once to give her a last goodbye.

Byleth pulled her bag up onto her shoulder and bit her lip. Dimitri and Claude and Edelgard were so familiar that it hurt her to think about them. Even so, she had a job to do and a meeting with Seteth to get to. She strode out of the classroom, fishing her tangled headphones out of her pocket.

- ~ -

Seteth placed a new folder on the desk between them, gesturing for her to take a look. Byleth slid it towards herself and opened it. It was a stack of about five pieces of paper and the first was an email between Seteth and the Fhirdiad National Museum of Unification that was set to sponsor the expedition below Garreg Mach.

Byleth scanned the email and grinned when she found the phrase she was looking for. “On behalf of the Board of Directors here at the museum, we consent to allow Miss Byleth Eisner a position on the Garreg Mach Research Team to assist with her academic development,” she read aloud.

Seteth was smiling. “Keep reading.”

“In the interest of the success of the dig, funding has also been secured for an additional team of researchers to join you on this endeavour. The idea is to have undergraduate students join you to develop practical archaeological skills.” Byleth stopped reading abruptly and looked up at Seteth. “Let me get this straight: you not only got approval for me to join, but now they want us to take on a group of undergrads?”

Seteth nodded, knitting his fingers together atop his desk. “I think this will be an interesting opportunity for them.” He reached for the file, pushing Byleth’s hands away and pulling the documentation back towards him. “The expedition is set to begin next year, in the Guardian Moon of the new semester. I was thinking that we would extend this opportunity to the students currently in Archaeology 356. That way we have a semester to evaluate the students so we can choose ones we think will be beneficial, not hindering, to the studies.”

Byleth nodded slowly. “Yeah, that makes sense. Still, this kind of opportunity for undergraduates means everyone will want in. I know I would have when I was in my third year.”

“I’m going to put an announcement up on my website about the opportunity and discuss it next class. I was hoping you would be able to design some kind of application form so that we can immediately narrow down our options.”

Byleth slid her laptop out of her bag and opened a blank document. “What kind of questions were you thinking for the application?”

Seteth pondered for a moment before he answered: “Ask about any experience they have, and how many prior archaeology or history credits they have. I would also like to know about their own interpretation of the Unification Era, since that’s what this is all about.”

“If I asked what they think is a major, lasting influence of the Unification Era on current Fódlani politics?”

Seteth smiled. “I like that.”

“How many students can we take?”

Seteth flipped through papers briefly to find the definite answer. “We can take ten, but that’s too many. I think eight is an appropriate number.”

Byleth noted that down and she tapped out a few more rough questions. “I assume we’ll do a vetting process with the written applications and then call the best candidates for interviews with the rest of our dig team, right?”

“Yes,” Seteth agreed. “It’s important that they meet and can get along with the rest of the team because they are an addition to the team that is meant to help their skills, not hinder the results of our expedition. Too many people have put too much effort into this for it to fail now.”

Byleth knew why Seteth was nervous because the last time someone had led a dig under the university, it had fallen apart just a few weeks after it began. Byleth paused and exhaled slowly. “Seteth, this might be overstepping, but I want to ask about my father.” Seteth tensed and Byleth swallowed her nervousness before continuing. “I know he was a part of the last research expedition to the underside of Garreg Mach five years ago. I know he pulled out of the project part-way through and that the project fell through after he withdrew. What are we going to find down there that caused my father to pull out so suddenly?”

Seteth stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Byleth, are you asking me if I know why your father was killed?”

“No,” she said firmly. “He was stabbed five years ago. That’s unrelated to his work. I’m asking you why the excavation couldn’t continue without my father.”

“I honestly don’t know,” Seteth admitted. “I wasn’t a member of that excavation team. It was led by a woman named Catherine Charon. Catherine cancelled further progress once your father withdrew his support. The excavation was privately funded by a private collector from Zanado and apparently the money stopped once your father left the project.”

Byleth frowned. “My father was a security contractor, not an archaeologist. His withdrawal from the project should have just meant that they brought on someone else, not that they cancelled the dig entirely.”

“I agree. It was something that I could never get Catherine to explain and she left the University that year before I could get a real answer out of her. Your father never liked to talk about it either, as I’m sure you know, and then he died just five months later.”

Byleth sighed. “I’ve been through the site notes and the inventory of every artifact recorded as recovered. There are no mentions of what caused him to pull out or anything that might lend to the private donor withdrawing their support or Dr. Charon calling off the project.”

Seteth studied her for a moment. “Does your interest in being part of this dig only have to do with your father?”

“No,” Byleth assured. “I’m interested in what we might be able to recover and how it can support my thesis, but I won’t say I’m not curious.”

She closed her laptop and stood up from the desk. She pulled her bag up and prepared to head out of Seteth’s office. “My father was a different man after that expedition than when he went into it. I do want to know why, and I don’t want that to happen to anyone else, either, if I can help it.”

- ~ - ~ - ~ -

Garreg Mach Monastery - 21 Red Wolf Moon, Unification Year

A knock at the door drew Byleth’s attention and she turned in her seat to look at the entrance to her room. It was one of the monastery’s monks who stood patiently in the doorway, waiting for permission to enter. Byleth waved her in and the monk bowed briefly before stepping in.

“Your Grace, I have received word from an advanced scout that His Majesty and the court will be arriving in the next few hours.”

Byleth smiled faintly. “Thank you, but please, I’m not the Archbishop yet, so Professor or Byleth is more than fine.”

The monk shook her head, but she was smiling as well. “With all due respect, you are ascending in rank tomorrow, Your Grace. You’ve been acting head of the church for several months as well.” She bowed briefly once more before leaving the room, leaving Byleth alone again.

Byleth sighed and stood from her desk, heading towards her balcony. She pushed open the doors and stepped outside. The stone was cold against her bare feet and the air was chilly enough that she instantly shivered. Byleth looked up at the clear blue sky and twisted the ring on her finger thoughtfully.

After the war had ended, Dimitri had stayed for a month of negotiations with the church and for his coronation before his council of advisors had finally managed to get him to return to Fhirdiad. Byleth missed him dearly–him and Felix and Sylvain and Ingrid and Dedue who had returned with him. Annette and Ashe had stayed at the monastery for another couple of weeks before they too left for the capital, leaving Byleth with only Mercedes, Flayn, Seteth, and the Knights of Seiros.

She and Dimitri had announced their engagement officially on the day of his coronation, but all of their close friends had known much before that point. It had been just over a month now, since all the former Blue Lions had been in one place and even though part of Byleth was dreading her formal ascension to the head of the church, she was grateful for the opportunity it offered to gather her friends and allies in one place.

Of course, there was also the wedding that would follow Byleth’s ascension. She and Dimitri had argued about the wedding for nearly two weeks since while they both wanted a smaller affair, Dimitri had been the only one willing to go through with a small event. Byleth knew that a private wedding would invite more scrutiny than the marriage of the church and the state already would. She also knew it would be important for Dimitri to use the wedding as a political event to continue to smooth relations with former Empire territories. Eventually, her argument had won out and they’d been thrown into planning the wedding of the century.

Byleth didn’t linger too long on the balcony. The chill was going to get to her and she really couldn’t afford to get sick with a few very important days ahead of her. She slipped back inside her chambers and moved to pull on a pair of slip-on shoes to chase away lingering chills. The ornate furniture and decorations in the room felt wrong to her. Three weeks after the war, Rhea had departed and Byleth had moved into the former archbishop’s chambers.

Byleth ran her hand along the top of the dresser near the balcony and frowned. Being in Rhea’s old room felt weird enough on its own, but the fact that Byleth had not gotten a moment alone with Rhea to ask about what Seteth had told her before the former archbishop had departed made her feel even more uncomfortable.

Seteth’s words, and their implications, weighed on her daily. She had not managed to get another candid conversation with her advisor since that day two months ago. Flayn too, seemed to be avoiding Byleth or only approaching her when there were other people around. Byleth pulled her hand off the dresser and touched it to the left side of her chest. As always, there was no heartbeat beneath her palm and she exhaled wearily.

Another sharp knock on the door caused Byleth to jolt upright and snap her hand back to her side. This intruder was a much more welcome sight than the monk who had interrupted her earlier.

“Mercedes!” Byleth exclaimed as her friend stepped into the room.

“Hello Professor!” Mercedes replied cheerfully. “You look lovely,” she complimented.

Byleth blinked and took in her own outfit. She was wearing one of the ceremonial dresses that had been commissioned for her, but it was nowhere near as high end as the dress she would be wearing for her ascension tomorrow. She smoothed her hands over the cream-coloured fabric and smiled softly.

“Thank you. What are you doing up here? I thought you were going to wait in the entrance hall for the others.”

Mercedes laughed. “Well, Professor, we sent someone up to let you know they were almost here, but you never reappeared, so I decided to come fetch you myself.”

“They’re almost here?” Byleth repeated. When the monk had mentioned that they would be arriving in a few hours, she had not been expecting their arrival in the next half hour.

Mercedes’s eyes were shining. “Their party had just been spotted entering the monastery grounds when I came up.”

- ~ -

Standing outside the main entrance of the monastery, Byleth felt like her blood was singing. The first few riders of the party had just crossed into the marketplace of the monastery and already two of the riders were breaking in her direction. Above them, a pegasus whinnied and descended.

Sylvain and Felix, the first two riders, dismounted and covered the remaining distance on foot. Ingrid barely managed to get herself off of her pegasus before she was also breaking towards Byleth and Mercedes. Felix reached her first and he paused, forcing himself into a stiff bow. Byleth rolled her eyes and pulled him into a hug. He didn’t reciprocate immediately, but he did pat her back after a moment.

As soon as she released Felix, Sylvain pulled her into a tight hug. Sylvain was wearing more armour than Felix so the hug felt stiffer, but he was warm and solid against her and Byleth drank in his familiarity. She pulled away from Sylvain and turned to hug Ingrid as well. After she had hugged the last of the trio, Byleth stepped back and smiled broadly.

“Welcome back,” she greeted.

Sylvain laughed. “Come on, Professor, we know we’re not the ones you really want to see.” He gestured behind him where the rest of the party was arriving including Ashe, Annette, Gustave, and Dedue.

Byleth’s breath caught as she recognized the rider at the front of the pack. He seemed to have noticed her as well, practically leaping off of his mount and jogging towards her. Byleth brushed past her former students to move towards him, nearly tripping on her dress as she descended the steps. He was in front of her before she could trip, his hands gripping her forearms as he stared at her face. A dazzling smile cracked across Dimitri’s expression and Byleth felt herself smile too.

“Hello, my beloved,” Dimitri greeted gently.

“I missed you,” Byleth said. She had intended for a more eloquent greeting, but her heart had won out and she had spoken the naked truth instead.

The life glimmering in Dimitri’s good eye softened and he bent his head, pressing his forehead to hers. “I missed you too, Byleth,” he murmured.

Byleth didn’t get to reply before he was kissing her. Her hands framed his face as she kissed him back fiercely, pouring a month’s worth of emotion into their reunion kiss. It wasn’t the most proper or befitting of greetings for two authority figures, but it was the genuine, real reaction of two young people in love who had nearly lost each other in a brutal 5-year war. Finally–and unfortunately–Byleth had to pull away, breathing hard.

She laughed when Dimitri didn’t let her pull far away and she felt her adoration for him cause tears to prickle at the corners of her eyes. She ran her thumb across his cheekbone and smiled warmly.

“I don’t know if that was the most proper greeting,” she teased.

Dimitri’s laugh rumbled in his chest. “A man can be excused for missing his fiancé,” Dimitri refuted and Byleth laughed again.

“Welcome back, my love,” she said quietly. “It’s good to see you.”

“And I am always glad to see you,” he replied. He looked past her towards the monastery where many of the clergy were gathered to watch his arrival. “I really have made a scene, haven’t I?”

Byleth slipped her hand into his and tugged him back towards the monastery. “Come on, I want to hear about Fhirdiad. I want to hear from all of you. Surely we can spare an afternoon in the Blue Lion’s classroom to reconnect?”

Dimitri followed her lead as they walked towards the monastery. “You’ll get no complaints from me on that, but won’t Seteth protest?”

Byleth huffed. “I am not Archbishop until tomorrow, but I do hope that he’ll allow me this time with my friends before I saddle myself with responsibility for the rest of my life.”

“I suppose I could busy myself with keeping our guests from Fhirdiad occupied,” Seteth admitted, catching the end of Byleth’s sentence as she and Dimitri rejoined the group gathered at the monastery’s entrance. “Your Majesty, it is nice to see you, as always,” her advisor added for pleasantness’s sake.

Byleth beamed and pulled Dimitri past Seteth heading into the monastery. Their friends, including the rest of the Blue Lions plus Flayn, followed them as Byleth led the way. Byleth watched her friends as they walked, noting who was talking to who and the expressions on faces.

Dedue was listening intently to Mercedes as she spoke softly, Ashe was chatting with Flayn, Annette seemed to be having some kind of minimal conversation with Felix, and Ingrid and Sylvain were conversing in light and teasing tones. Byleth smiled to herself as she watched them and tightened her grip on Dimitri’s hand unintentionally.

“You look satisfied, love, is there something you’d like to share?” Dimitri asked curiously.

Byleth laughed lightly. “I don’t want to scare this away,” she admitted, gently tilting her head in Felix and Annette’s direction. Felix’s ears were pink at the tips and Annette’s cheeks had a rosy glow.

“Ah,” Dimitri replied, his own lips twitching into a smile. “Well I could let it go, but I know Duke Fraldarius has been spending much more time in conversation with Baron Dominic.”

Byleth squeezed his hand. “I wonder why that could be,” she replied teasingly. “Perhaps the same reason why Ashe has been my best communicator with Brigid recently.”

“Or why the son of the esteemed Margrave Gautier has taken to spending his time split between his own lands and the lands of Count Galatea,” Dimitri replied, glancing over at his other childhood friends.

Byleth shook her head fondly. “I don’t think our wedding will be the only one in the future, my love.”

“No, I would be inclined to agree with you on that,” Dimitri hummed.

Finally, their little group reached the room that used to be the Blue Lion’s classroom. All of them stopped just outside the room as if none of them could make themselves set foot inside the room. After a moment of nothing, Byleth dropped Dimitri’s hand and stepped forward across the threshold.

The monastery’s reconstruction effort had obviously begun to move into areas like the classroom since all the furniture was righted and placed mostly back where it had been before the war. The bookshelves were emptier than they used to be, thanks to thieves, and Byleth’s blackboard that had been used for lectures was leaning in two large, broken pieces against the rear wall.

Byleth moved towards it like a magnet and ran her fingers across the still chalk-dusted surface with a wistful smile on her face.

“This place feels like it was frozen in time,” Sylvain said idly as he stepped in and moved towards the windows on the front wall.

Felix snorted. “I’m not sure that’s how I’d describe it.”

“You know, I don’t think I’ve been here since the war ended,” Ashe admitted.

Annette nodded. “Me either. I used to come here to work on things when everywhere else was crowded.”

“We’ve shared a lot of memories in this place,” Ingrid agreed. She walked curiously over to one of the bookshelves and pressed her fingers in the empty spaces between books.

“Will you get the Officer’s Academy up and running again, Professor?” Dedue asked after a moment.

Byleth blinked and she realized that she honestly hadn’t even considered it until that point. She had been focusing so much of her effort on unification campaigns and the physical and spiritual repairs to the church that she had almost forgotten it was once a school as well.

“I think we should try,” Dimitri answered for her. He stepped up next to Byleth and wrapped a warm arm around her waist. “So much good came out of this place.”

“I think it would be easy enough to convince my brother to divert some efforts into getting this place all fixed up,” Flayn said brightly. “As much as he tries to pretend, I know he has a soft spot for the Academy and for the Blue Lions House especially since you all did take me on as a student partway through the year.”

“We’d all have to get together more often in that case,” Mercedes said cheerfully. “An annual gathering to celebrate the new classes,” she suggested.

Sylvain chuckled, throwing an arm over Felix’s shoulder as he headed for the centre of the room. “I like that idea, Mercedes. It reminds us all of that fateful day we all took a chance to return here and we met up with our Professor and our Prince again.”

Dimitri tensed at her side, but Sylvain’s words held no malice and he relaxed after a moment. Slowly, the rest of the Blue Lions congregated at the front of the classroom. Annette and Mercedes had linked their arms while Sylvain had thrown his other arm over Ingrid’s shoulders as well. Ashe moved to stand between Ingrid and Annette, Dedue stood between Mercedes and Dimitri, and Flayn slipped in between Byleth and Felix.

In their odd, sort-of circle, Byleth felt a lump well up in her throat. She loved these people more than she knew she was capable of. The moment felt like it needed a toast of some sort to cement it, so Byleth swiped Dimitri’s flask from its position on his belt. Her fiancé made a noise of surprise, but Byleth just ignored him and raised the flask.

“To the best students I could have asked for and the best group of friends I could have ever needed.”

Smiles rippled around the room and Byleth took a swig from the flask, letting the hard liquor Dimitri was carrying burn down her throat as she swallowed. She handed the flask off to him and he took a sip before passing it off to Dedue. The flask made its way around the ring and everyone drank to differing successes (Ashe, Annette, and Flayn pulling strange faces while the rest managed to stomach it with little reaction and Sylvain even took two sips).

“Thank you, my friends,” Byleth continued as she received the flask back from Flayn. “I am so grateful you were all able to come to support me in this endeavour. Your support means so much.”

“Of course, Professor,” Ingrid replied gently. “You believed in us when no one else did so it was only fair that we did the same.”

“Besides,” Dimitri continued, “my rule is nothing without the support of the Church of Seiros.”

Byleth rolled her eyes and elbowed him, but he just tightened his grip on her waist and leaned down to kiss her temple. She smiled.

#the writing section #we stand fate-tested #dimileth #claudeleth #fire emblem three houses #f: fire emblem #fic: we stand fate-tested #ship: dimileth #ship: claudeleth #words: 5.8k+ #r: t+ #c: dimitri #c: byleth #c: claude #c: seteth #c: the blue lions #fe3h #fe3h fic #g: mystery #g: adventure #g: romance #g: friendship

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #252

my personal laptop has to be fixed, so therefore i don’t have games to play, so expect plenty of these to pass the time lmao.

Have you ever said something just to see what kind of reaction you’d get? No, not that I remember. Have you ever confronted someone about using too much chat-speak? ??? No??? Have you ever revealed someone’s secret, after promising not to tell? No. Secrets are one thing I'm very serious about respecting. What is one emotion that you experience regularly? STRESS, MOTHERFUCKER. Describe the last major change you made concerning your hairstyle? Lopped it all off, lmao. It's been like, two years now though. Who was the last person to walk out of your life, and why? It feels like my friend Alex. She's kinda just... left me hanging for months. I think she's active online, but not with me, despite reaching out. She's also deleted her b.net account or just removed me from her friends list, idk. Absolutely nothing seems like it would've prompted that, though. Are you less likely to approach people that look/dress a certain way? I was going to say no, but the last person's answer inspired mine to yes; like, I'm not going to go talk to people with some crazy or offensive shit on their shirts, nor am I going to just go walk up to someone covered in blood. Name one embarrassing activity that you take part in? I don't know. Like I say enough I'm VERY self-conscious of revealing I RP, but only because I'm sensitive to how the person will respond. I'm in no way like, ashamed I do it. I'm just terrified of judgment over something "unusual." Ever been told that you can’t understand love due to your age? Not that I remember. I only claimed to "get it" (to my recollection) at a point in mine and Jason's relationship, and I very legitimately would've guffawed at and honestly nearly slapped you if you claimed I "didn't understand" love. What is your favorite Starburst candy flavor? THE PINK ONES. Do you think that you act like yourself while online? I act more like myself online. Have you ever lied about something to get someone to like you? No. Who is the fakest person in your life right now? I don't keep those people in my life. Have you ever laid down in the grass, and made shapes out of the clouds? As a kiddo. When someone’s constantly negative, how do you deal with it? It depends on the person, but ALMOST in all cases, I really really try to support the person as best I can. It may start to bring me a bit down, but I feel I'm just like... hardwired to help those I love. I think it's what my relationship with Jason did, as he left because he couldn't handle my depression anymore, and with how that absolutely and utterly annihilated me, I don't want anyone else to feel that pain. Now, for people I don't have much of a bond with, it's easier for me to say "I'm sorry, but I can't handle this right now," but even then, I prefer to help. Does Christmas make you feel like a kid again? No. I'm really most excited for aunt reasons, lol. Do you have any artistic talent? Some. Would you ever shoplift from a store if you knew you wouldn’t be caught? Absolutely not. When one of your pets dies, how do you react? Usually cry. I've only ever not done so if I hadn't at all formed a bond with the animal. When you go to the movies, where in the theater do you sit? Close to the front, in the middle. When was the last time you lost your appetite? I don’t know. Have you ever neglected to take care of yourself? Er. Quite badly during '16, in the depth of my depression. I'll just say my teeth are kinda yellow because of it. I want to whiten my teeth at some point if I can afford that kind of luxury. The last song/poem/story you wrote - what was it about? In RP, the most recent section being written now is my main protagonists receiving a visit from their allies before getting their asses torn up the next day lmao. After a fight, who apologizes first - you, or the other person? Usually me, but it does depend. If I genuinely feel I didn't do jackshit wrong, no, I'm not apologizing. When you’re feeling creative, what do you do? Write. Do you mind being in your house alone overnight? Not really by now. Done so a number of times. Are there any dreams you remember from childhood? Nightmares, yes, and one very realistic dream. What worries you most about death? Not knowing what happens afterwards. Do you watch really old tv shows or movies from the 1970s or earlier? I love The Munsters, I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, and The Addams Family. I'm sure there's more, considering I liked to watch stuff with my mom as a kid. Who’s your celebrity crush(es)? HHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Ever been to a rave? No. Are you afraid to name the person you talk the most shit about? I don't really do that. Like I'll vent about people occasionally, but "talk shit" seems like the wrong word. I don't like gossiping. Are you a jealous person? Envious, rather, sometimes. I get VERY envious when it comes to photography, but otherwise, I don't feel it much. Who do you text the most out of your friends? Sara is like the only friend I text, lol. What would you do if you saw a complete stranger dealing drugs in public?
 Honestly, call an authority. I don't fuck with that. I'm not watching it happen. How often do you play video games? What are some of your favourites?
 I played World of Warcraft daily until my laptop took a shit. Need to get that fixed. Now I play actual video games very rarely... but mostly just because you can only replay the same ole game so many times before you've had enough of it for like a year. There are a great number of new games I want to play, though. I want a PS4 soooo badly. What are a few things that get on your nerves when it comes to Facebook (or your social networking site of choice)?
 More than anything, posting something that's crying for attention only for the person to be like "ugh I don't wanna talk about it." Then don't fucking post it. What are three things you’ve started to like lately? I feel like I haven't found new interests in a long time... Wait! I do feel The Handmaid's Tale and the Wings of Fire book Sara lent me have revived my love of reading! :') I want to go to the book store when I can and get both the new sequel to THT and the next WoF book. What was the last reason for having butterflies in your stomach?
 *shrug* Do you need a lot of space in relationships, or are you happy to spend a lot of time with your SO?
 I need SOME alone time, but for the most part I love being together. Once we're really close, anyway. What was the last thing you cooked from scratch? Scrambled eggs. Have you ever won anything from those games in arcades?
 Yeah. Funny story, there was this one time my sister won a stuffed duck from a claw machine, and it was the one I wanted after trying many times, and I cried so hard that one of the employees literally got one out for me lmfao. I probably still have it in the attic. When was the last time you went out to a fair?
 Not since right before the breakup. How far is the nearest zoo or wildlife park from your house? Do you go often?
 Like, two hours. We almost never go because of the distance. Are either one of your parents retired? If not, what do they do for a living?
 No. My dad's been a mailman all my life, and Mom is currently on disability because she has cancer and obviously can't work because of chemotherapy and all that. She was a pharmacy tech, though. If you could change one physical trait about yourself, what would it be?
 Can all this weight like vanish please. Have you ever gone out with someone you didn’t like?
 ????? Why would I do that???? Well, I didn't yet like-like Tyler because we hadn't been reunited as friends long enough; dating was kinda like... a dumb way to re-get to know each other? Thank fuck that was only two weeks. Would you ever take a bullet for your significant other? I'm single. Would you ever work at a fast food restaurant?
 No. History shows I can't work with people. Are you good at haunted houses, or do you scream your head off?
 AHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE!!!!!!!!!!! If you’ve seen it, what did you think of the Twilight movie?
 I never watched them. Have you ever gotten your tongue stuck on a frozen pole?
 No. Are you a cat or a dog person?
 Cat. Does the movie Titanic make you cry?
 Ha ha, yes. I watched it on movie day while at the psych hospital and all of us were lil bitches almost sobbing, lol. Because it's a long movie, it went past our allotted time, but the nurses decided to let us finish it because we were so into it. I do have some good memories from those times... Do you think that fat people should wear skinny jeans? I think people can wear whatever the fuck they want without fear of judgment. Do you prefer game systems like Xbox, or older ones like Super Nintendo? The former. Do you enjoy indie music? Yep! What is the most strange piercing you’ve ever seen? Those ones people were getting on their fingers instead of rings... just huh. What do you do when you’re waiting in line at the grocery store? Look around, I guess. Think. What is your favourite beach to go to? I haven't been to enough to know. Have you ever been to a country club? No. Have you ever seen an animal die in real life? Too many times. Animals have been euthanized in my arms, and a kitten slowly died in my hands once. One of the most heartbreaking things I have ever experienced. Teddy accidentally punctured its lungs or broke ribs, I think, or something like that. I'm pretty sure he was trying to bring it back to its siblings because it wandered off, but he held it too tightly. I was home alone, too. It was fucking awful. Do you live on a Rd, St, Blvd, Ln, Way, or Ave? Road. Do you have naked pictures of someone saved on your phone? No. Would you ever go see an opera? Bitch I played Parasite Eve, I don't trust that shit. But seriously, no, not my scene. Do you own anything John Deere? No. Do you have a push mower or a mower that you ride on? Neither. A friend mows for us; he has the latter. What is the longest amount of time you’ve been stuck in traffic for? No clue. I think during a trip to New York. Would you consider joining the air force, army, etc? No. Who was your first crush and what made them special? This kid named Dylan. I thought he was super cute and cool. What is one thing nobody knows about you because nobody ever cared to ask? I dunno. Who did you idolize growing up? Steve Irwin. Do you believe that we are all here for a reason? What might the reason be? No. Have you ever carved your name or initials into a tree or stone? No. What were your best and worst subjects in school or college? Best: English. Worst: math. Name something you would like to devote more time to seeing or doing. Writing poetry. Drawing. Do you like to get your nails done? No. Do you remember the last movie you saw while on a date? Yeah, IT. Do you like to wear dresses? Hell no with my current body. Do you like any ‘manly’ activities like hunting, fishing, or camping? I find fishing to be fun and relaxing, but because of morals, I can't stomach doing it anymore. What was the name of your first boyfriend? First with the title, Aaron. First *real* boyfriend, Jason. Your first kiss? Jason. Are you still with either of those people from the last 2 questions? No. Have you ever used your bra to hold things like you would a pocket? Ha ha no. I think. What is your longest relationship to date? Three years, 7-8 months. I don't remember if the breakup was in August or September. Who ended the last relationship you were in? It was kinda like... mutual-ish, but moreso her. Have you ever gotten back with an ex? No. Who was your first prom date? Jason. Do you cry during romantic movies? Sometimes. Who was the last person to see you cry? Mom. Have you ever been used? I don't think so romantically, but in other ways, I know I have been. Have you ever felt violated? Yes. Do you like when a guy takes you by surprise and kisses you? Not everyone likes guys, so what an assumption. But anyway, only if we're very serious and have heavy trust in one another. Do you ever leave the house without makeup? Pretty much always. When was the last time someone gave you flowers? Been a few years. What kind of gift can win you over? BITCH buy me something Mark-related and you earn like 20 points. Has anyone ever sung to you? Yes. Do you like massages? Depends on who you are. In almost any case, no. They're awkward. Have you ever been skinny dipping? No. Do you sleep naked? No. Is smoking a turn-off? Yes. Is there a certain tv show you get upset if you miss? No. When was the last time you spent the night at someone else’s house? When I was at Sara's a year or so back. What is one food you always crave? Ice cream. Are you an exercise freak? Hunny- What scares you more, spiders or snakes? Snakes don't scare me, so spooders. Do you expect to be married in the next two years? No. Would you ever get implants? Nah. Have you ever had a crush on a sibling’s friend? No. Have you ever had a crush on a friend’s sibling? No. Are you more of a 'girly girl’ or a 'tomboy’? A tomboy. Have you ever dated someone with a child? No. Are you addicted to texting? No.

#survey #quiz #questions

[familyvisionis2020]

Day 6 - The Drive Home

Today was the last day of tour. I wake up in the morning feeling guilty because I have a groggy memory of waking up around 8 to go to the bathroom, Paul was waiting to go, but when the person came out I just fronted him (a word I just now remember from elementary school, cut in line, but southern), used the bathroom and went back to bed. Rude. I am wiping the cold from my eye, taking in the undecorated walls of the apartment, and Jeremy comes from down the hall and says ‘Did you get the memo? Louisville cancelled. Tour’s over.” I said ‘fuck’ and processed it. I feel sad for Jeremy and John and Kabir because I know they wanted to play this last show in Kentucky. It’s not that I didn’t, but also for the last three months and for especially the last month I have been feeling a tremendous amount of anxiety about this tour, about feeling out-of-control, about being away from loved ones at home, about being available to show up for people in my life, about completing regular routines of hygiene and spirituality and task completion that make me feel boring and comfortable, both. Touring stirs up dredges of the tea leaves that I had let settle into a fine filmy sediment at the bottom of me. I manufactured a jello mold two years ago and poured myself into it: regular 9-5 in the legal field as a means and precursor to law school, then diligent study for 3 years, then a professional career, abandoning the party life, abandoning trespassing in abandoned buildings, abondoning the luxury of resentment and unproductive time, trying to cool and firm into something reliable, serviceable, dependable, available, a resource people could draw from for once, rather than a leech or slug. And when I go on tour I take that jello mold out of the fridge and it holds its shape but also it warms and the longer I’m out the more liquidy it gets and sloshes over the sides and so forth. So I’m ambivalent because I like what I have to offer to this band, I like the physical process of drumming and expressing myself in the context of music and being a member of a band, but also I feel like I’ve kind of chilled enough and it’s time to settle down. And I’m at a way different point in my life than the other guys in the band it seems like, for the most part. So anyways all this to contextualize the fact that the news of tour ending even earlier than early honestly makes me feel relieved, if not happy, and so then I work to temper that boosted mood for the sake of grim decorum befitting a tour taken before its time. 

All our stuff is locked in the venue from last night and we learn we won’t be able to pick it up until 1pm and so we have about 4 hours to kill in the apartment. Phillip puts on a pot of coffee that will turn out to be some of the wateriest on record, but still, a super kind gesture, and then he also puts on The Wire on HBO Go and we just settle in on the couch and watch for awhile. Some of the scenes are familiar, there’s something seductive about this show, and it brings me back to the precise moment of Summer of 2013 right before I moved to Philadelphia right after I got evicted from the squat/music venue I had been living in that winter and spring, I watched all episodes of The Wire on DVD on Matt Martin’s couch at 3 Pomroy and felt deeply depressed. It ranks up there with when I watched all released episodes of The Office in bed in the winter of 2009 after my girlfriend broke up with me, in terms of memorably devestating life phases offset by the amniotic fluid of full-series of TV. So we watch The Wire and I find myself not too inclined to sit and watch and I want to write so I sit at my laptop on the table nearby and write an email to a female (sorry) but I actually do and its purpose is to make her smile and bring some levity and play and purple prose to a moment in her life that, from how she tells it to me, is just so heavy, nightmares and waking horror and a future that feels like it hangs by a thread. so I’m glad to spend time showing up for her in this small way rather than watching The Wire, and also I write yesterday’s blog post, another activity that feels sort of like a pittance but also like: doing-writing is something I have been putting off, in phases and seasons, for my entire adult life, because to me nothing ever matters enough to write about, or if it does my perspective is deficient, or my research inadequate, or my skill incommensurate with the subject matter, or it won’t properly reflect my feelings, or any number of self-sabotaging excuses to not do this thing I so love doing, and love sharing. So for me, writing this blog is a very meaningful and special act of reclamation of a personal mode of expression that constitutes a break in my winter’s depression and what feels like a new phase of happiness, of believing-i-have-a-future, of feeling more authoratative and qualified to know and describe my own experience in a lifetime marred and dampened by dissociation, oblivion, amnesia, and fugue. So it feels like nourishment to get some paragraphs done and to move slow through my days, get them onto the page.

The Wire grows tiresome at some point and Jeremy fires up the PS4 and then the PS3 looking for games but none are multiplayer and so eventually he settles on Skyrim and starts from a new file. Me personally I love watching let’s plays and this is as good as TV. There was a moment last tour when we were in this strange small town in Connecticut called Torrington (the town all touring bands are required to go to, we also joked), in this town Jeremy was describing the sort of surrealness he experienced there and he said he felt like the townspeople in Torrington were like NPCs in a FPS RPG like Skyrim wherein you would go up to people and press A to talk, say ‘What news?” and that I thought was really funny then, I like his sense of humor. Really Kabir and Jeremy and Royal represent this sort of humor that is to me equal parts razor wit, cleverness, timing, accents, absurdity, and broad conceptual placticity, all for the most part very clean too, never or at least rarely blue (you’re gonna inevitably make a D’s nuts joke and that’s just that). And during happy times I am so grateful to be nearby this humor and during less happy times I get self conscious about how great their humor is and how I sometimes feel like I don’t measure up. But that feeling doesn’t weigh for long. Skyrim is fun to watch, it kills some time, we all take turns trying to kill wolves with swords before Jeremy finally does it, there’s a dragon, we loot corpses, discuss Bloodborne and Dark Souls and comparable games. A lot of the main media activity in this group is discussing how a given media relates to another media, Kabir and Jeremy and John know it seems like everything between the three of them when it comes to record labels, band narratives, artist’s hometowns, etc. So we play Skyrim for awhile, and then eventually it’s time to go to the venue and we drive back to The Salty Nut, load in all our gear, do a final sweep, and say our goodbyes and thankyous to Phillip. We return to the Bandido place one last time for one last round of free local Taco Bell which we absolutely scarf and are very vocally grateful to the people for giving it to us for free again, it’s clear they really put effort into being hospitable to touring bands here, at least through Phillip. His band, Thomas Function, was signed on Fat Possum Records, which also had bigger indie acts like Jay Reatard (who Phillip tells a story about him demanding $50,000 in cash for a show fee to feed his coke and heroin habit, Reatard died at age 29 from cocaine toxicity with alcohol also), The Black Keys, Andrew Bird, Wavves and Soccer Mommy, but which Kabir postulates has most of its success due to having signed octogenarian southern blues legends like R.L. Burnside and King Ernest and raking in royalties from what Kabir speculates is due to poor management of the estates of these dead leagends who each had more than a dozen children. It’s truly fascinating for me to hear how deep and complex the analysis of music these guys have is. When I feel insecure, which is often, I tend to veneer these sorts of expertises and shibboleths among music-heads as snobby, elitist, exclusionary, petty and asinine. But I think most of that comes from a fear that I lack the insight, cognitive absorbency, and passionate research skills to collate and catalog data about artists in the way these people do, the way my bandmates do. I feel inspired to take time to dig deeper into the musicans I love, to make them real to me, to get a sense of their story, their lived experience, for the sake of corroding the mediation between us somewhat, or at least polishing the media membrane. 

I volunteer to drive for the first half of what will end up being about a 10-hour drive back from Huntsville to Chapel Hill. We go to a Whole Foods in Huntsville upon Kabir’s insistence where I purchase a nootropic snakeoil energy affair in beverage form, Kabir gets hot coffee and a La Colombe Draft can of latte, Jeremy gets a kombucha made from yerba mate (“best of both worlds” he says), John black coffee as per, and Kabir also buys a slice of Tres Leches cake in a clear plastic to-go clamshell: “they can take away my tour, but they can’t take away my tres leches.” Later he’s eating it in the van and he accidentally spills some on himself and he says “shit…spilled some on myself. oh good, it was only one leche” which to me is so funny and perfect humor and just like kind of a paragon of the kind of joke I so treasure from this friend group. Another is when Jeremy and Kabir are recalling a favorite running joke from two tours ago, wherein they were in Philly, home to the famous Schuykill River (pronounced skoo-kill, at least when i lived there, at least around the non-indigenous people i knew), and while there they would affect this blaring Brooklyn accent, deployed heavily on this trip as well for basically any purpose, but back then they would say “UGH MY SKOYKL IS KILLING ME” like Schuykill was lombago or sciatica and also would say “YEAH LET ME GET A KWATA POUND OF SKOYKL ON RYE” like it was a deli meat, and they laughed and laughed. Also they liked doing rhyming jokes like last night there was a chair nearby the combo amp Tired Frontier was going to use for their set and Kabir goes ‘amp on the chair, tone everywhere’ and then I say ‘amp on the ground, makes a bad sound’ and then I tell Jeremy later how Kabir would put me in good spirits whenever I was describing to someone how my LSAT score is very competitive but my checkered past makes the acceptance process a little less than straightforward, and Kabir would see I was getting kinda down and anxious, and he would say ‘You gotta break the law before you make the law,’ and we all laugh and I love that, the function of humor as balm, salve. I want to wield my humor like that.

The drive back is fine, some sprinkles, nothing major, clear traffic for the most part, I feel like I have a good command of the van, keep it around 75 for most of the trip, feel smoth and confident switching lanes, passing, etc. We do another two NYT Wednesday classic crosswords together, Kabir is getting probably 40% of the clues, me maybe 30% Jeremy and John the other 30%, Kabir will just to YEAHHHHHHHH after getting a clue and I start doing that too after Jeremy says “X down, ‘on the table’ 15 letters,” and I say UPFORDISCUSSION after only a couple seconds and it fits and is correct and I feel like a damn genius and we’re all laughing and kind of praising each other half-jokingly for being strong beautiful geniuses who also we know songs. This is a great passtime and the drive flies by and before I know it we’re in Western NC just outside of Asheville and we make a stop to refuel the tank and get dinner. We decide on a Waffle House across the street, not wanting to venture too deep into Asheville for something healthier and better because of the time and money it would likely eat up, Kabir says that FEMA uses the closing of Waffle Houses as a bellweather to indicate the severity of a given natural disaster. We go inside, the waitress says ‘ya’ll aren’t from around here are you?’ in a way that I take to be hostile and I suggest that to the guys and they seem like maybe slightly offput but not very much and we decide not to abort and I later feel foolish because I think I am doing this thing where I become excessively vigilant or sensitive to a perceived slight to a friend who is brown for the putative purpose of interceding on their behalf against racism but what’s actually happening is if someone was racist to them they could just stand up for themselves and make their own call regarding their own comfort or lack thereof and I would do better to act less motivated by white guilt when avoidable. That passes, it’s fine, we eat hash browns and waffles and eggs and grits and toast and cover everything in tobasco and tip well and get back on the road, John takes over for the final stretch. 

I return a call from Marty and catch him up about tour being cancelled and we discuss our fears and hysteria and cancellations and reaction and so forth. Marty remarks that he is a gravedigger during the plague, which is the best possible job to have. It’s not a joke because he actually drives a backhoe working for a cemetary and digs actual graves, super weird and eminently punk/goth and kind of a curiosity but really perfect for the lead singer of one of the South’s premiere punk bands, especially after his being fired from the swish cafe he worked at in Richmond before that. I love Marty and catching up and it feels good to hear his voice. After I get off the phone it sort of becomes campfire spooky story time in the van with everyone proffering their take on the panic, market failure, the likelihood of Capitalism as a superstructure to require perpetual growth even at the peril or death of its working class, the superior response to covid that South Korea and Norway seem to have mounted, a lot of fear of financial insecurity. Eventually this digresses to talk of touring, and the guys discuss all manner of various routes throught the South, Midwest, Northeast, plains states, PNW, Mexico City, Jeremy says ‘I can get us a show in Colombia’ which he can, Argentina or Venezuela through a mutual friend, then Europe so long as the label foots the bill for the plane ticket, then Japan, setting up camp on Honshu would make it easy to hit TOkyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya no problem, except where exactly are people playing shows? there’s gotta be somewhere all these Japanese Noise and Hardcore bands are getting gigs, and then from there of course it’s not hard to get to Australia, John knows a band there, and they go all around the world and this is stressing me out a little bit, only because I wonder about how much they think I would be involved or want to go on such a theoretical tour, and the answer is I don’t 100% know. Part of me wants to say this is my last tour, lean all the way in to law school and leave behind this chapter. Part of me feels like it’s better not to make a hard and fast statement like that because what if the economy collapses and for some reason school is a no-go but being in the band becomes the most plausible source of income or something. I get anxious and psych myself out and quiet down and feel foolish and wish to be home. I fantasize about my future life of stability, but I second guess myself because I just don’t know for sure how my life will be, and want to be careful to work toward the goals I think will be the most fulfilling, self-actualizing, spiritually nourishing, healthy for me; I also want to not forsake the friendships and bonds I’ve forged in these weird intimate moments in the van with the guys. I have the wherewithal to know that nobody is requiring me to make a decision right this second, and that as time passes it’s likely that the best course of action will be revealed one way or another if I can keep from panicking. So I watch videos of the 2019 Classic Tetris World Championships on my phone, eat two candy bars, watch videos of a streamer named Wumbotize play the latest Tetris game, Tetris Effect (2018, PS4, PC), and am pleasantly awed by how crazily far the skill curve of that game has shot up. I have some time ahead of me that is completely free, which is so nice. Before I know it I’m back home in my clean apartment which is tidy like a tetris field at the beginning of a new game and I get into my bed and lay down flat and if my bed is the well than the line of me clears and the well is clean, smooth, primed, for whatever falls tomorrow. 

[kaibacorpintern]

@emblematik requested “yuugi + datebook” and i was like “hm interesting” and then a few minutes later i was like “oh shit... IDEA.” 

no joke: i wrote 90% of this on my phone. i just checked the word count and it’s 2000 words. lol. casual rivalshipping, but it’s not about that. post-DM. enjoy the feels x

MONDAY, 8:26 AM

Yuugi sat cross-legged in the soft, shallow cradle of his bed, half-asleep, phone in his hands. Anzu was on the other end of the video call, wandering through the New York apartment she shared with four other girls.

“ -- so they come bursting out of the egg, and that's just how the show starts. It gets loonier from there. But it means every week, she has to make another big-ass papier-mâché egg for her guest performer, and this week, that’s me. Hey Tiff, love the space buns,” Anzu said, turning to someone out-of-sight, and Yuugi heard a voice call back, in a cheerful sing-song, thaaank youuu!

“So you're helping her make the egg?” Yuugi said.

“Yeah, she calls it 'laying the egg.’ Performance artists are so weird,” she said, as Yuugi grinned with delight. “Anyway, gotta run. Can you do next Sunday?”

“Let me see,” Yuugi said, leaning over to swipe his weathered datebook off his night stand, the pages dogeared with almost a year's worth of use. A blank datebook he'd filled out from June to June with every notable hour of his life, using a pen he kept tucked in the binding. He'd spilled water on it a few months ago and the pages had crinkled as they dried. Now it refused to sit flat, with gaps that rippled between the pages.

He held the phone in one hand and flipped clumsily through the datebook with the other, spreading it open on his thigh. After that Sunday, there was one blank week left in the datebook. “Nope, I'm booked. Let's just do Monday again.”

“Works for me,” Anzu said. “Love ya! Bye!��

“Love you too, have fun laying your egg,” Yuugi said, and she flashed him an exasperated grin. The screen went black, and a dreamy silence descended on Yuugi’s bedroom once more. Yuugi flopped back down into bed with a contented sigh, tossing the phone onto the nightstand. He held the datebook over his head, his week carefully penned in. Class, his shifts at the game shop, and on Tuesday, he was seeing…

TUESDAY, 6:37 PM

“Fuck,” Jounouchi said, staring in bafflement at the cards lying face up on the playmat between them. They sat at a long, wooden table on the airy patio of a cafe, with vines flowing thick along the walls, the cards illuminated in the soft, inviting light of the lanterns strung across the space. “How did you win? When did you win?”

“A few turns ago,” Yuugi confessed, idly churning the ice of his Italian soda with his straw. “But you had me on the ropes for a while there. If you played your Time Wizard combo a turn earlier, I would've lost.”

“Damnit! I knew it,” Jounouchi said, thumping his fist firmly on the table. “I keep forcing myself to wait. I just don't wanna blow it again, like Nationals.”

“I think your nerves are making you doubt yourself,” Yuugi said. “Your instincts are strong. Just listen to them, and you'll do fine.”

Jounouchi, gathering up his cards from the playmat, glanced up at him, the lantern light giving his faint blush a rosy glow.

“See, how the heck am I supposed to attack you when you say things like that?” he said. “Maybe I should get a practice duel with someone who actually pisses me off. Hey, ask your pal if he'll duel me.”

“My pal? Is that what he is?” Yuugi said, lifting an eyebrow as he reached for his phone; then he changed course, tucking his hand into the messenger bag at his feet and ferreting out his datebook. He checked the date. “I'm seeing him tomorrow, actually. I'll just ask.”

“Perfect. How's your Sunday looking? Honda said he’ll have my Duel Disk fixed by then.”

“I have plans already,” Yuugi said, dropping the datebook back into his bag and leaning back in his chair.

“Oh, okay, Mr. Popular. Don't forget I leave for the tournament Friday after next. That's in your book, right?” Jou said, and Yuugi hummed in reply. Mm-hmm. Then Jou leaned forward, resting both elbows on the table and his chin atop his hands, fixing Yuugi with a roguish look. “Who is Kaiba, if not your pal?”

Now Yuugi couldn't help but blush, his skin warmer than the summer air. “Uh, he's…”

WEDNESDAY, 9:57 PM

Sitting next to Yuugi on the couch, one bent leg tucked underneath him and one arm slung over the back. Studying the screen of Yuugi's laptop as Yuugi scrolled through the lines of code he'd abandoned, several days earlier, at dawn, surrendering to the frustration of a long and fruitless all-nighter. Lucky for him, Kaiba liked nothing so much as telling people they were wrong, why they were wrong, and how to stop being wrong.

Kaiba leaned closer, frowning intently, his force of presence buffeting Yuugi like a wave. A good wave, dense and heady, fragrant with his cologne. He had many, many things to say about object-oriented programming, all of which Yuugi had listened to very carefully, and none of which he'd actually heard.

“I found your problem,” Kaiba declared.

“Thank God, this assignment is driving me nuts,” Yuugi said, sighing with relief. “What is it?”

In response, Kaiba reached out and shut the laptop with a firm whap. “You’re distracted.”

“I am not,” Yuugi said.

“Tell me what I just said about using global variables.”

Yuugi bit his lip, scrambling through the last five, ten, fifteen minutes for whatever Kaiba had said about global variables, and found… nothing, except a keen awareness of the way Kaiba was staring at him now, leaning his cheek against his loosely curled hand, a wry smile tugging on his lips. 

“Uh,” Yuugi said after a moment, realizing he’d fallen neatly into the usual trap. “Don't?”

Kaiba snorted. “When is this due?”

Yuugi leaned forward, momentarily escaping the weightless swell of feeling in his chest, and plucked his datebook off the coffee table from where it lay beside his textbooks. “In a week.”

“Alright. I have a few hours on Sunday or Tuesday. When would you like to waste my time next?” Kaiba said, with a sort of laid-back disdain.

“I think I’ll squander your Tuesday,” Yuugi said, tugging the pen free, scribbling a note. He set both laptop and datebook on the coffee table and settled back, deeply, breathlessly aware of Kaiba's gaze on him, tracing lines of fire up and down his body.

“So,” Kaiba said, a low, teasing growl, his mouth inches from Yuugi's ear. “What is so distracting to you?”

“Nothing,” Yuugi said, smiling, about to vibrate out of himself with impatience. “You have my full attention.”

“Good,” Kaiba said, and the next thing Yuugi knew he was swept up in a dark rush of warmth, Kaiba pressing a kiss like a hot, wet star to the curve of his neck. He fumbled blindly with one arm, catching Kaiba by the back of his head, pulling him down as he twisted and fell backwards along the couch.

He huffed, a wordless plea for mercy, as Kaiba mouthed along the shell of his ear, making scandalous suggestions with his tongue, clearly enjoying himself.

“Problem solved,” he said smugly, and Yuugi groaned, laughing.

FRIDAY, 4:13 PM

A gentle chime broke through the cool, quiet air of the game shop. Yuugi, wandering the shelves with his scanner, conducting inventory, pulled his phone out of his back pocket.

RYOU: finished writing my new campaign!! want in?

YUUGI: duh

what days are u thinking?

RYOU: sundays? that's when everyone else is free

YUUGI: i can do sundays, but not this sunday

RYOU: not a problem. we can start next week. any plans?

The question turned over in his chest like a stone, a tremendous weight, heavy and slow and dull. Yuugi stood motionless, staring down at his phone, the scanner dangling in his limp hand and the silence of the store falling over him like a shroud.

But he shook it off. Ryou had given him the idea.

YUUGI: I’m going to the park with my datebook, you know the one

RYOU: oh

please send him my best

YUUGI: i will!

is this the space campaign you were telling me about?

Pulling out of the subject like pulling a boot out of the mud, with staggering release. Yuugi resumed his task of taking inventory, stopping every so often to answer Ryou's excited texts about Eldritch horrors and homebrew campaigns.

That night, he lay in bed and discovered the stone was still there, cradled in his straining ribs. So he opened the skylight in his bedroom, inviting the summer night to flow in. It sprawled open above him, hot and dark and flecked with stars, vibrating with the hum of cicadas hidden in the trees. The summer spinning its promise into a refrain. Every new day, each blank page of his datebook, beckoning him forward.

SUNDAY, 11:00 AM

Yuugi awoke to a bright, beautiful June morning, sliding his feet into the secret pockets of cool still tucked away between the sheets. The skylight in his room revealed a clear, hot sky.

He flew through the rest of the morning, as light and taut as a kite, unburdened by exhaustion or idleness. On a whim, he opened his laptop, giving a quick eye to his assignment; Kaiba wouldn't bring up global variables for no reason… and the solution presented itself, like a closed fist turning over to reveal the prize in its palm.

He didn’t cancel on Kaiba. They’d waste time some other way.

Buoyant, he left the house, with his datebook and a lighter in his bag. There were two stops to make before the park: first, a cafe, for an iced coffee, and second, the neighborhood bookstore, where he bought a brand-new blank datebook.

Then he began the long, pleasant walk down to the park, his phone on silent. The whole of Domino was cast in a drowsy summer light so smooth and liquid he wanted to cup it in his hands and drink it, to feel it run sweet and pure through his veins. Neither his mind nor his route wandered from their destination: the plank bridge in the park.

It sat in an isolated corner of the park, a leafy, overgrown grotto dappled with sunlight. The long pond slowed to a mirrored stillness here, cooled by the shade of the trees. Insects hummed in the foliage. As Yuugi stepped onto the plank bridge, the hollow thunk of his foot sent some small, shy creature plunging for safety into the water, leaving only ripples behind.

He knelt on the plank bridge and opened the old datebook, taking a moment to transfer the last remains of his schedule into the first week of the new datebook. His class schedule, his work schedule, his weekly call with Anzu, Joe's tournament dates, the new campaign. All of it carefully penned in.

Then he leaned over the edge of the plank bridge, seeing his reflection on the surface of the water. It was harder with mirrors: they were too crisp, too defined. They showed him nothing but his own face. But if he unfocused his eyes a bit, if he took a deep breath and snapped the last piece into place and made a wish, the face on the water wavered. Just enough to believe.

“I miss you,” he said, to the water. “I miss you every day. I still feel you… gone, here.”

He made a fist, motioning to the center of his chest. An absence with weight; a nothing and a something all at the same time. The kind of puzzle Atem would love.

There was nothing else to add. He’d said most of it already, last year and the year before. They would see each other again, some day, and he had long since understood that he was not meant to wait and he was not meant to run. He was meant to stay right here, in the heart of his own life, and feel it beating.

Yuugi readjusted, sitting cross-legged on the bridge. He flipped through the datebook, going backwards to the beginning. The memories burst open inside him, as raw and fresh as a ripe fruit, swollen with color and feeling. Deadlines for that art history class. Flying out for Anzu’s solo show in December. His first date with Kaiba, sometime in March, although neither of them realized it was a date until the morning after. CHAMPIONSHIP!!, on a weekend in September, when Jou had swept the Pan-Pacific. The pages were as crisp and dry as autumn leaves; they'd burn well.

He turned to the first page.

“Here’s what you missed,” Yuugi said, and began to read.

#intern memo #emblematik #/ #// #/// #fanfiction #can you tell i'm desperate for summer to arrive