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#so is canceling a third meet-up really that big a deal?
rboooks · 10 months
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If you take requests can you do a dc x dp with dead tired ship?
I love requests~! I really hope I got dead tired, ship, right. I need to find out the ship names. It's Tim/Danny, right? If not, let me know, and I'll fix you another one.
Tim really wasn't looking forward to meeting the new heir to Vladco. Usually, his parents didn't want anything to do with new money, as they thought that new money was too close to no money, but Vlad Masters was different.
The difference? He bought out almost all of Drake Industries' shares, and now Tim honestly thinks he owns more of the family company than his parents. Jack and Janet hoped to make good connections with the man and slowly but surely trick him into selling the shares back to the Drakes.
Tim thought if he was smart enough to get the people that bought shares of his family company generations ago, not just once but at least eight times, then Vlad Masters wouldn't be as easy to trick as they thought.
Then again, his parents aren't the best businessmen around. If they were, they wouldn't be flying through the family wealth, leading them to bankruptcy.
Tim would know.
One day, he looked at their books when he was bored a few months after discovering Batman's identity. He tried to tell his mom about it, but she told him that he didn't understand the business well enough to tell.
So he signed himself into college-level business courses online to learn it. She didn't appreciate his initiative.
"Remember, Tim, Daniel Masters is who you must befriend," Janet says for the third time as they climb out of their car. " Friendships are the ladders to climbing up in the world."
"Yes, Mom." He tries to smile at her, but all Tim wants to do is go back to the roofs of Gotham and watch the Bats.
Jason is supposed to start his solo patrols tonight, which is a big deal, and he's missing it. His parents weren't supposed to be back for another month. However, their latest job was canceled due to locals complaining.
His dad grumbled about people getting in the way of history, but Tim thinks it has more to do with his parents wanting to dig up an old cemetery......apparently the locals like their grandparent's resting place to be left alone.
Tim also thinks it's not lovely to dig there just because the locals are poor, so he may have hacked into the country's files and flooded the internet with the disrespectful attempt that his parents were trying to make. It received the right amount of backlash to stop the whole operation.
He then sent the community an anonymous donation so they could fix it up, get the gravestones washed, and the stories of the buried people turned into a book. It's the least he could do.
Tim's parents didn't realize the loss of funds only because he carefully hid his tracks with shell companies.
They are greeted at the door by Vlad Masters. He gives his father a handshake, compliments his mother's dress, and even offers Tim a gentle hello. Masters is known for being a bit of a humble hermit, soft-spoken but with sharp, intelligent eyes.
Everything he expects new money to be, down to his mannerism and even the way he stands. Tim would have been able to clock him miles away without even knowing his name.
"This is my son, Daniel," Masters says, patting the head of a frowning boy Tim's age. He stands just a bit away from Masters as if he does not want to be near him. Tim notes the way he shies away from Master's hand.
Interesting.
"It's Danny." The boy hisses. Mom's face tightens at his manners. She never liked children being heard instead of seen. Danny takes a small breath before smiling at the Drakes with a friendlier composure.
The hostility was only toward his father?
"Please call me Danny. It's my real name, not a nickname," He says, offering his hand for a shake. Tim fights a wince. As the son of a wealthy family and not the head, Danny is not supposed to initiate a greeting with Tim's dad.
He just told the Drakes he needs to be aware of high society rules, making him easy pickings. His parents jump onto that weakness like a lion on a trap gazelle.
"Daniel. It's lovely to meet you. " Mom's articulation is just a shade away from being mocking. Danny's smile falls off his face closing down into a near-emotionless mask. "How old are you, deary?"
"I'm old enough to still hear correctly, unlike you. That's not my name. It's Danny." He says much to mom's surprise. Tim guesses she's not used to people challenging her so directly. He learned that, too, while he was running Gotham.
The elites always made passive-aggressive backhanded comments to insult each other. The poor told you to fuck off to your face.
"You do not speak that way to my wife, Daniel-" His Dad starts, but Danny holds up his hand.
"You either call me Danny or don't talk to me." He says. "I don't need to waste my breath repeating myself."
Wow. Tim thinks, watching the red growing on Dad's face. He's cool.
"Are you going to let him talk to me like that?" Dad demands, turning to an amuse-looking Masters. The other man raises a brow, his gentle smile still on his face, but somehow it looks more....dismissive now. As if he was looking at a child demanding the impossible.
"Why ever do you mean?" Masters asks, "Your tone implies you were insulted, but that would mean you are upset with a child asking to be spoken to with respect. Surely, a man of your standing knows children deserve respect?"
"They need to respect their elders." Mom cuts in her voice like ice.
"He is my son, so I am his elder. Not you." Master counters, "But not to worry, I will remedy this issue. Danny will no longer be speaking to you disrespectfully, as I will not allow him to be near you."
His parents had a few seconds of looking smug until Masters waved his hand back towards the driveway. "Have a lovely night, Mr. and Mrs. Drake."
"Excuse me?" Mom cries, and Tim can't believe his eyes. The rest of the wealthy guests have caught on to the issue and have gathered near the windows and doorway to watch.
"That's Fruitloop for You can leave now." Danny chirps starting to look more like his father by the amusement on his face. "Except for him. He's cool."
He points to Tim, who flushes at the attention. He had been staring at Danny, taking in every detail of his expression and body language, fascinated by the fact he did not once seem intimidated. He didn't even look bored.
He seemed comfortable in his slightly slouched posture and confident in his skin and abilities. But his earlier behavior implied that just as he is confident in himself, he also doesn't think very highly of himself.
Tim's never seen anyone like that. It's strange. New. Exciting.
Heck, it was exhilarating.
Tim wanted to break Danny Masters' head open and figure everything about him out. It felt like a new case just begging him to uncover.
"I am?" He asks in a slight daze, and the other boy offers him a dazzling smile.
"Yeah, you respect the dead. The spirits adore you."
What?
"Oh, this is the young boy who protected that cemetery in Guatemala?" Masters asks with genuine warmth this time. "A fine job, Timithoy."
"It's Tim." He hears himself say, and Masters nods.
"A fine job Tim."
Danny offers him a wink, and Tim thinks his stomach just fell out of his body. What is this-?
"Timothy, we are leaving!" His mother screeches, tugging on his arm and yanking him away. The rest of the guests laugh as the Drakes are driven away. Tim knows he will never be allowed near Danny after this, so he turns his head around to give the boy one last look.
He meets the glowing green eyes of the Masters, who wave their fingers at him.
Tim starts following Danny around after that.
(Danny and Vlad know he's there and think it's cute. That's how ghost courts, so they don't see it as a problem. What is problem is getting along long enough for them to figure out a way back to their home dimension. Danny allowed Vlad to overshadow people just so they could have the means to eat, but he's getting really sick of Gotham. At least the soft clicking sound of a camera lures him to sleep at night.
Tim approaches Robin before his hero can go to Ethiopia. He doesn't understand what he is experiencing as his first crush and concludes that the Masters are aliens planning on luring small children by making them fall under a spell through their glowing eyes. Jason takes this very seriously and agrees to wait on his mission overseas. He realizes early on what's actually happening but, by that point, thinks Tim is hilarious and just edges him on.
He, too, thinks the Masters are aliens, but he's not about to tell Bruce.)
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Text
Call Me
Pairing: Nick “Goose” Bradshaw x Female Reader. 
Summary: After you both find yourselves suddenly single right around Valentine’s Day, you and Nick “Goose” Bradshaw give the “Single's Connection” dating line a call on impulse. You both are pleasantly surprised with what you find on the other end of the line. 📞💋🔥
Warnings: Smut, strong s*xual dialogue, curse words. phone s*x, m*sturb*tion, Goose being a freak, sleazy late-night TV commercials, outrageous landline phone bills in the pre-Internet era. Minors please DNI! 18+.
Word Count: 5,713.
A/N: Minors please DNI! 18+. You are responsible for the content you choose to consume. I did a little bit of research on the old 1-900 numbers that used to be advertised for this sort of thing. I’m sure what I describe here in the story isn’t 100% accurate as to how those phone numbers worked exactly but I kindly ask to be overlooked on that.
Hope you enjoy my trashy mind. ;)
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Goose sighed as he slumped into the recliner in his apartment on base. He ran his hand through his dirty blond hair. He didn't know why he was getting so worked up. Valentine's Day wasn't a real holiday, or at least it shouldn't be. It was just pure commercialism. It was something chicks made a big deal about and dudes went along with it just to keep their girl happy. But there was something painful about being dumped right before Valentine's Day. It hurt like hell.
His date to a party at the Officer's Club had canceled last minute. She was now the third consecutive dud Goose had in the dating world. He had no problem meeting attractive women, especially with Maverick by his side, but it seemed like it always went nowhere. 
"Don't worry, Goose," Maverick told him in the Miramar locker room after training was complete for the day. The pilot quietly told him he would check with Charlie and see if she knew anyone to fill the spot. Goose only shook his head no.
"Thanks, Mav, you're a real pal. But I'll pass. By the way, you do know you and Hot Teacher Lady aren't exactly a secret, right?"
Maverick and Charlie's relationship was obvious to anyone with a fully functional brain and set of eyes. It was kind of funny watching Maverick trying to keep it under wraps. Goose's best friend was anything but subtle.
Back in his apartment, Goose took a swig from a half empty bottle of Budweiser that he had left on his coffee table. He washed down the lukewarm liquid as he flipped on the TV.
He scanned through the channels, not really looking for anything other a mindless distraction. He landed on a commercial featuring a buxom, platinum blonde.
"I'm tired of being alone!" She proclaimed through the television.
"Yeah, you and me both, honey," Goose bitterly said out loud more to himself than to the woman in the box.
"That's why I'm calling the Single's Connection!" The woman went on.
The camera zoomed in on a shot of her picking up the phone and dialing.
A montage of other ridiculously good looking people smiling and chatting on the phone played as a sultry female voice over narrated:
"Talk to real singles in your area now! It's a fun, easy way to meet someone new and it's always discreet. Give the "Singles Connection" a call at 1-900..."
Goose couldn't help but scoff.
"I'm sure all these hotties must have a really, really hard time in the dating department."
Goose joked as he watched the obviously paid spokes-models on the screen, polishing off the rest of his beer.
The first woman from before appeared back on the screen.
"What are you waiting for?! Call me now and let's make a connection!"
The commercial ended and switched to a different one.
"Call me now and let's make a connection!" Goose mimicked.
What a crock of shit. He thought as he sat down his beer bottle. His eyes flickered to the cordless phone on his table. He raised an eyebrow as he stared at it. It was as if the device was silently daring him. He had never once entertained the idea of actually calling those dating hotlines. He figured a guy must be really desperate to resort to doing that and the girls on the other end were probably nowhere as sexy as the commercial portrayed.
"Nahhh..." Goose laughed at himself as he shook his head.
Yet, curiosity got the best of him. He picked up the handset and pulled out the long antenna.
"God, this is so stupid," He muttered. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this."
He punched in the number and went through all the prompts. It apparently was one of those lines where you left a voice recording of you describing yourself and what you were looking for and if someone was interested they would give you a call.
"Hi, ladies, my name's Goose." He spoke into the receiver. "I'm six foot two, one hundred and seventy pounds. I have dark blond hair and brown eyes. For a living I...well, let's just say I have the most bitchin' job in the world. It's guaranteed to make your ex jealous. I'm not rich but I do know how to show a girl a good time. I hope you like the Grand Slams at Denny's and don't mind being picked up in a pretty rad Ford truck. In my spare time, I like playing the piano and singing "Great Balls of Fire" at the top of my lungs and pissing off my peers with my best friend. Anyway, I'm looking for a girl who thinks Valentine's Day sucks as much as I do and is bored and just wants to talk. Yeah, I don't have very high standards. I guess that's pretty obvious, huh? I mean, here I am calling the “Singles Connection” after all. So if you think I'm the stud for you, give me a ring. And by the way, I do have a mustache and I wear Hawaiian shirts in public with no shame. But don't let that scare you off. I'll rock your world, honey. "
Goose could hardly keep a straight face as he ended the message with his phone number. He figured no girl would ever respond to such a silly message.
With a chuckle he put the phone back in the cradle. He got up to go finish the previous night's dishes and when he was done he returned to the recliner and dozed in and out of sleep while watching some more TV.
A few hours later, the phone started ringing, stirring him awake.
Goose looked at the phone ringing and glanced at his watch. It was almost midnight. Who was calling this late?
...
"Hello?" Goose answered. No one said anything. "Hello?" He tried again.
He heard nothing but a faint gasp and the sound of a click. The caller on the other end hung up. Goose looked at the phone in his hand in disbelief.
A minute later, it rang again. He answered on the second ring and hesitated before speaking.
"Helllooo?" Goose asked, slowly and carefully.
A deep breath was inhaled and exhaled on the other end. Finally, a female voice spoke.
"Um, yes, hello," You said, timidly. "Uh, hi. Is this...Goose?"
You sounded so unsure.
"The one and only," Goose replied.
You cleared your throat, took another deep breath and said:
"Hi, there. I'm Y/ N. I heard your message on the Single's Connection."
Goose about shot up out of his chair when he realized what was going on. He had practically forgotten about calling that number and that silly message he left.
"Holy shit...." He leaned forward and clasped his hand over his mouth.
"Is this a bad time?" There was a hint of disappointment in your voice.
"No, no, no!" Goose assured. He chuckled. "I'm sorry. It's just...I didn't expect anyone to actually call me back."
"I'm sorry for hanging up on you earlier," You explained. "It's just I've never done this before. You know, call one of these 1-900 numbers."
"Yeah, it's the first time for me, too." Goose said.
You both breathed a sigh of relief. It made you both calm down and relax.
Goose leaned back in his chair.
"Well, I'm...I'm glad you called! So, you say your name is Y/N? That's a really pretty name."
"Aww, thanks," You replied. "But Goose isn't your real name. Is it?"
Goose laughed. "Hehe. It might as well be. In my line of work it's what everyone calls me."
You smiled on the other end of the line.
"What line of work is that?"
 Goose smiled proudly.
"I'm in the Navy. For now, stationed right here in sunny San Diego. I ride in the back of some really bad ass jets. I'm basically like an extra set of eyes for my pilot. I play with the radio and watch the radar, among other things. If we happen to come across an enemy pilot, we keep up foreign relations. Communicate with the single finger salute. We're really friendly like that, you know. All in all...it's...it's..."
He pretended to struggle to find the words. "It's pretty much the best damn job in the world."
You were giggling on the other end.
 "Wow, yeah! That does sound really cool. Bitchin', I think is what you called it?"
Goose laughed, remembering he had said that in his message. "Yes, ma'am.  Bitchin'."
You spent a few minutes telling him what you did for a living and described what you looked like. You cleared your throat and shifted in your bed. You pressed the receiver closer, so close the pressure started to hurt your ear so you loosened up a bit.
"Hey, um," You start. "I hope you don't mind me asking this... " You take another breath. "But I gotta know something. You know, before we go on..."
"Ask away. I'm an open book."
You laugh nervously. "So..you aren't married, right?"
You grimaced at the thought. Messing around with a married man, even just over the phone, was a line you wouldn't cross.
At first Goose was a little bit taken aback by the question. But it was a reasonable question to ask. Just because it was called the "Single's Connection" didn't mean only single people used the service.
 "Oh, God, no!" He said. "Nah, no lucky lady has claimed me yet."
 He paused and thought about it.
 "Are you?!" He asked, quickly. "You know, married?"
You exhaled a breath you didn't realize you were holding.
"Oh, God, no!" You repeated.
"No, I'm not married. I'm single as a freakin' Pringle!"
You immediately thought that sounded like a such a dorky thing to say but you smiled when you heard him laughing.
"Well, good," Goose said, relieved as much as you were. "That's...that's a very good thing to know."
"That's part of the reason why I called tonight," You told him. He didn't respond and you went on:
"I, uh...um...God, I don't know why I'm telling you this. But I just wanted to talk to someone tonight." You paused and twisted the telephone cord around your finger.
"Well, talk to me, honey. I'll listen. That's why I called, too. Just to talk. All jokes aside. "
His voice was so soothing and friendly. You had only been speaking to this guy for a few minutes but he seemed really warm and funny just like he did on his message. Not at all like some creep you expected to get on these hotlines. It also sounded like he had a little bit of twang when he spoke. A sweet Southern man, you thought.
"So you know it's Valentine's Day this weekend, right? I was supposed to go with my boyfriend on this romantic getaway..." You paused and then quickly clarified:
"My now EX boyfriend, that is! Anyway, so we had these plans set months in advance. We were going to go to this really nice cabin resort in Colorado. Oh God, the pictures of it looked so beautiful. But I found out he's been sneaking around on me! He's been hooking up with his ex for weeks."
You scoffed at reliving it all. "Maybe even longer than that. Shit, I don't know. I feel like such a fool. We had been together awhile now. And I thought...I actually thought...we'd...God. I thought this trip was where he would ask me to marry him."
Your voice cracked at the end but you weren't crying or even tearing up. You had no tears to waste on a cheater.
"I guess I thought wrong, huh?" You concluded.
Goose remained silent for a moment. He wasn't exactly sure what to say to a story like that. He went with the first thing that popped into his mind.
"You were going to go on a romantic getaway to Colorado?!" He asked, incredulous. "What's so romantic about having snow all the way up to your ass?!"
You burst out laughing while Goose went on.
"I mean, no offense, dear, but Hawaii is where it's at!"
"Pffft!, " You playfully spit. "Oh, please! Yeah, Hawaii is nice but it's so cliche. Everyone goes to Hawaii! Or the Bahamas. Or the Virgin Islands. Or the Florida Keys..."
"Yeah, cause they know warm weather is better than freezing-your-nuts-off weather anytime!" Goose interjected.
You both laughed. God, this girl is really sweet. Goose thought. You had such a sweet, lovely voice and you described yourself so pretty. Of course, there was the possibility you were lying about that but he knew you weren't. You were very pretty. Inside and out. He just knew it.
"No, but seriously, Y/N," Goose said. "I'm sorry that happened to you, sugar. And here I was sitting 'round moping just because I had a date cancel on me. You got it much worse. You deserve way better. You dumped his sorry ass, right?"
"Absolutely!" You confirmed. "No regrets. I figure I dodged a bullet."
"Good girl."
Something about that made you shift. Underneath the sheets you felt a tingling sensation in between your legs. It was the other part of the reason why you called. You were looking to get off. It had been awhile.
"Hey, um, Goose? There's something else...I,um, hehe... there's something else. I don't know...if you'd even be up for it?"
"Yes? What is it, honey?"
He really should stop calling you the pet names. He had no idea what it was doing to you or perhaps he did? You assumed it was just a thing that came naturally to him, being from the South and all.
"So..." You began. You told yourself to grow up and just spit it out.
"I know we both said we just wanted to talk but the truth is..."
You trailed off. You took another deep breath and put it out there.
"I'm all alone and I'm feeling...like I need someone to help me release some tension."
Your voice had a slight change in it. You wondered if he knew what you were getting at. He sure did.
Lord have mercy. Goose thought. Somebody pinch me. This is too good to be true! Phone sex was one of his biggest kinks. He had done it before with previous girlfriends especially while being on a lengthy deployment. He always ended up regretting it when he got the phone bill but it was one weakness he couldn't resist.
"Goose?" You asked, worried he might have hung up. "Are you still there?"
“Yeah, I'm still here," He said, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.
"So...just to make things clear. You're feeling horny, honey? And you want me to talk dirty to you? Is that it?"
You felt your cheeks get hot and you were certain you were blushing every shade of red right now.
"Is that right, Y/N?" Goose asked. His voice had become more honeyed and an octave deeper. He had turned on his bedroom voice.
"Yes," You breathlessly admitted. "Yes, Goose. That's right."
"Oh, honeyyy...," His always drawl came out thicker when he felt turned on which was happening rapidly even though nothing had got started yet. "I'd be more than happy to help you!"
You felt the tingling sensation in between your legs again and this time it felt like it was starting to throb.
"OK, so what do I do?" You asked, softly, your heart beating faster. "I've never done this before."
"That's all right. Where are you right now?"
"I'm in my bed."
Goose hummed. "OK, that's good. What are you wearing?"
You looked down at yourself as if you forgotten what you had on. You told him you had on an old cotton T shirt and shorts. You realized you hadn't exactly thought this whole thing through.
"Yeah, I'm not exactly in my sexiest attire," You joked. "I told you this is my first time doing something like this."
"Hey, that's A OK with me, baby," Goose reassured. He asked if you wearing anything underneath.
"No?"
"Great. Take them off. All of it. The shirt and the shorts."
"I'll have to set the phone down for just a second."
"Take your time, sweetheart."
You flung back your bed sheets and did as Goose instructed. The cool air in your bedroom made your unclothed body pebble up but you knew you weren't going to stay cold for long.
"I'm back," You said, raising the receiver to your ear again.
Goose shut his eyes trying to picture you, lying naked on your bed right now. He bet it was a really pretty picture.
He opened his eyes and continued.
"All right. I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath for me. Clear your mind. C'mon, honey, close your eyes and take a deep breath. This won't work if you're not completely relaxed."
You scooted yourself all the way back on your bed so that your back was flush with your head board. You both took a few deep breathes together.
"Keep your eyes closed for me." Goose told you. "I want you to imagine something. Think about your snowy Colorado cabin, OK? Think about how beautiful it is."
"OK," You whispered. You concentrated very hard.
"I want you to really picture it, honey. Picture the most cozy, comfy log cabin. It's big and spacious. There's a King size bed. With super soft red and black plaid sheets. There's a wood burning stove in the corner. There's a nice, crackling fire going. It's the only source of light in the whole room besides a few candles that are lit. Inside it smells like oranges, cinnamon and cloves. All those sweet winter smells. On the table, there's a bouquet of two dozen long stem red roses and a basket with wine and chocolates. Outside, it's snowing. It's a light fluffy snow and it's coming down at a steady pace."
"Mmmm..." You hummed. It all started to take shape in your mind. "You make it sound so lovely."
"There's floor to ceiling windows." Goose continued. "No shades. No curtains. No blinds. If there was anyone standing outside, they could see right in. They'd have a perfect view of you. Lying completely naked on the bed..."
Goose was looking straight ahead but the only thing he could see was the picture he was painting with his words.
"But there's no one there," He whispered low into the receiver. "There's no one there but you and me, baby."
Your breath hitched as the fantasy started to turn sexual.
"Can you feel me, baby?" Goose asked. "I'm right there with you in the bed. I'm naked, too. I'm on top of you. We're looking into each other's eyes and I'm stroking your hair..."
"Are you kissing me?" You asked. You had the phone receiver nestled in the crook of your neck. You were starting to move your hands up and down and all over your body. You were feeling much more relaxed.
Goose smiled. "Mmm...yes, honey. I'm kissing you. Kissing your soft, sweet lips..."
Goose moaned just thinking about it.
"Your tongue on mine. Over and over and over. I'm kissing you all over your body. Mmmm...kissing your pretty little face. Kissing your chin and then right along your jawline. All the way down your neck...mmmm...You feel my mustache tickling your skin, baby?"
You giggled. "Mmmm...I bet it does tickle!"
"It's going tickle you everywhere. Everywhere."
You moaned at the scene playing out in your mind. You began to toy with your pebbled nipples and it made you start squirming.
"What are you doing, baby?" Goose asked. "Are you touching yourself already?"
"I'm playing with my nipples," You replied and you hear him make a throaty noise. "Are you going to suck on them, daddy? I want you to."
You had no idea if Goose was into the "daddy" kink thing. You knew from your experience some guys were and some guys weren't. His moan on the other end of the line confirmed he didn't mind it.
"Hold that thought, honey." Goose said.
Goddamn, this girl is going to be the death of me. He thought as he sat the handset down so he could pull off his shirt. He unbuttoned his jeans and unzipped the fly. He was getting harder and harder by the minute. He moved a box of tissues closer. He was definitely going to need them later.
"You there?" Goose asked when he picked up again.
"I'm here, baby, " You breathed, still stimulating your nipples with wet fingertips. "I'm here with you in the cabin. We're in the sheets. You're kissing me all over. You were going to give my nipples some attention."
"Mmm, yes, " Goose started to palm himself over his underwear. "I bet you got luscious titties, don't you? Do you like it when daddy kisses your titties, baby? Kiss, lick, suck." He made a popping noise as if he just sucked and released one of your nipples. "I love me some titties, darlin'."
"Who doesn't?" You said and you both laughed.
"That's true. Very true!" Goose agreed.
There were two types of people in the world as far as he was concerned. Those who love titties and those who lied about not loving titties.
"Are you going to titty fuck me, daddy?" You asked.
It caught Goose so off guard he didn't recognize his own voice when he made an ungodly moan and almost dropped the handset. He never had a woman ask him to do that before. Over the phone or in-person. It made him pull himself out of his underwear and let his now raging hard-on be free.
"Oh, honeyyy," He drawled. "Fuck yesss..."
You crossed your arms over your stomach so your breasts pressed together.
"Just like that, baby," You begged, picturing him sliding up and down in between your breasts. "Feels so good...mmm...yes, that's it..."
Goose couldn't help but be slightly amused.
"You're a little freak, aren't you?"
You gasped.
"So are you!" You defended with a laugh.
"Of course I am!" Goose licked his lips. “I’m a man after all and I’m in the Navy. It goes without saying. Aww, yes, honey...I'm fuckin' those great titties of yours."
He was steadily stroking himself now. You reached down in between your legs and started rubbing your nub with your manicured hand. You both continued to go back and forth about what you were doing to each other. You were going to put him in your mouth and suck him off. He was going to continue his journey down the length of your body. Kissing, licking, sucking, he assured you he would leave hickeys all over your skin.
"Don't worry," Goose told you . "They'll all be in places where nobody can see."
"Mmm...you're such a gentleman, " You teased. "Turns me on even more."
Goose snickered. "Hehe. I might be a gentleman but trust me, baby, before it's all over, I'll have you acting very unlady-like."
You sighed. "God, yes, please...."
Goose told you about how he was going to use both his mouth and fingers on you.
"I'm in between your legs now, honey. You taste so fuckin' good. Mmmm...You feel it? I like to take my time. Licking that pretty pussy of yours. Over and over and over. Is it pretty, isn't it, darlin'? Pretty just like the rest of you. Then I'm gonna take my fingers..."
He paused and gave them a wiggle before he went on:
"I'm going to take my fingers...my middle and ring fingers...and I'm gonna push them in and out. In and out, baby. Real slow at first..."
You had long since slid down your headboard and you were writhing in your sheets and moaning and panting heavy into the phone. The more this went on, the hotter it got and the more real it seemed.
"That's right, honey, " Goose praised you. "You feel these fingers in you? In and out. Mmm...and I'm still licking you. Mmmm...I'm going to go a little faster. Yeah, faster, faster. That's right. You're getting so wet for me."
You whimpered. "Yesss...Oh God, yes!"
It was true. You were getting wetter and wetter. You rubbed yourself faster.
"That's right, honey." Goose encouraged, loving hearing how you were getting more and more worked up.
"How hard are you right now?" You asked. "You gonna put it in me, baby? I want you inside of me."
Goose looked down and saw he was hard as a rock. He pumped himself faster.
"I'm ready for you, sweetheart. I'm so ready."
He pictured you naked and turned on and all spread eagle for him. It was a gorgeous sight. He just knew it.
"You feel me?" He asked. "I'm right up against you. I'm rubbing against you right now. You ready, darlin'?"
"Please!"  You cried.
"I'm going in, sugar." Goose's breathing was becoming as heavy and as labored as yours. "I'm inside you now. You feel so good, baby. Yesss, so damn good. Mmm...You feel me sliding inside of you? Mmm...In and out. In and out..."
"Don't stop!" You practically wailed. You were rubbing yourself vigorously.  
"Aww, no, no, no," Goose grinned. "No, baby. I'm not stopping. I'm just getting started. In and out....Mmm... You're so fuckin' good... You feel so good...You feel the rhythm, baby? The nice rhythm we got going?"
Goose exhaled. "Ahhh. You feel soooo good!"
He had no doubt in his mind that in real life you felt incredible.
"Harder.." Your plea was just a breathy moan. Goose heard it but decided to tease you a little bit.
"What's that, darlin'? What did you say?"
You were so wet at this point you were starting to leave wet spots on your sheets.
"Harder, daddy, please!" You begged. Your back was arched and while your one hand was busy stimulating yourself, your other hand was putting your fingers in your mouth.
"Ah, you want me to fuck you harder, honey? You like it rough? Can you handle it, baby?"
Goose was starting to wonder how much more he himself could handle. You both were moaning in unison, both of you getting closer and closer.
"I'm right above you," Goose said. "I'm holding you down and I'm driving my hips into you. Over and over. Mmm...faster and faster...Mmm...you feel so fuckin' good! ...Yesss...So deep inside you...Hehe...I can hear how wet you are, honey..."
It was true. The noises you making were becoming obscene.
Goose couldn't help but feel a bit of an ego boost.
"You're making me feel so proud, honey. Keep it up. Atta girl. Yeah, that's it! Come and take it, baby! It's all yours!"
You weren't going to last much longer.
"Holy shit!" You cried. "I'm gonna...I'm gonna..."
"You gonna do what, baby? You gonna come for me? Is that it? I want you to."
You were a blubbering, whimpering mess. It was all you could do was moan into the phone. Your legs were shaking.
Goose was still pumping away.
"Ah, I love those sounds you're making," He groaned. "Like music to my ears, honey. Come on, baby. Yeah, that's good. Mmm...You can come, baby. I'll let you..."
He sucked in a sharp breath as he felt his own crescendo about to happen.
He cradled the phone in the crook of his neck as he reached for a handful of tissues.
"Come with me, darlin'," Goose egged you on. "Come with me. Come on...you can do it. You can do it, baby. Come with me...Ahhh!!!"
"Ohhh, babyyy!!! " You managed to cry. It seemed to be the thing that finally made you both come undone. Your whole body spasmed as you rode out your climax, uncontrollably moaning into the phone. You heard him grunting in rapid succession and knew he was feeling the release too.
You both listened to each other catch your breath for a minute.
Goose chuckled. "Look what you made me do, honey. I made a mess."
You were still trying to come back down to earth. You continued to ride your pleasure wave with little breaths, moans, and whimpers.
"So?..." Goose asked. He discarded the used tissues in the trash can and reached for his pack of Marlboro's. "How are you feeling now?"
He was hoping he helped you out at least a little bit. You certainly helped him.
You cleared your throat, still trying to recover. You opened your mouth to say something but you couldn't help but start giggling. Softly at first and eventually it became a giggle fit. You felt good. So good. Better than good.
Goose smiled listening to you. He, too, began to chuckle as he lit a cigarette and took a drag.
"As long as you're laughing with me and not at me!" He said. "Ahhh...You sound so pretty when you laugh. So? You have a good time, honey?"
You finally found your voice to speak:
"You were fantastic...Incredible."
It was no lie. You wondered if he could make you feel all that over the phone, then he must be dynamite in-person.
"You know, for a guy who said he thinks Valentine's Day sucks," You reminded him of what he said in his message. "You're actually quite the romantic, aren't you?"
You knew deep down he had to be. After coming up with the whole romantic cabin scenario on a whim like that.
Goose laughed. "You caught me, baby. Guilty as charged."
It was true. He was a romantic. A hopeless one, if he was being honest with himself.
"How was I? You know, my first time over the phone and all?" You asked.
Goose thought about telling you that was some of the hottest sex he'd ever had. Instead, he said:
"Perfect. Just...perfect. You were perfect."
"You're not at all what I expected when I called the number," You told him. You told him how you expected to get some creep or a desperate loser or both, neither of which he turned out to be.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, honey," Goose joked. "No, in all seriousness, you're not what I expected either. I didn't expect anything much other than an outrageous phone bill..."
He trailed off and you both groaned simultaneously, remembering how expensive calls to hotlines can run.
"Hey, Y/N?" Goose started. "This might sound kind of crazy but...could I call you, sometime? Outside this hotline?"
He really liked you and wanted to keep talking to you. If it kept going as well as it did, maybe the two of you could meet in person. Perhaps make the fantasy a reality?
"Sure, Goose," You replied, warmly. "I'd like that."
You definitely wanted to keep in touch.
After you gave him your number he said:
"Nick."
"What?"
Goose ran a hand through his hair and grinned.
"My real name. It's Nick."
You smiled.
"Well then, Nick. It's been a pleasure." 
In more ways than one! You thought. "Good night."
"Likewise," Goose drawled. "Oh and hey, by the way...Happy Valentine's Day, honey."
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cartoonfangirl1218 · 1 year
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Mbav dreams
There’s something about this show that is so iconic that I don’t have not one, not two, but three surprisingly coherent dreams about it. All of which dream there’s a season 3 suddenly appearing because it was so cruelly cancelled.
Anyway the first dream was the usual episode plot where they have to fight monsters. This group of monsters were called the Majesticas and they were occupying a The Shining-esque hotel. And the Majesticas were basically vampires/yetis even though they didn’t look yeti like at all. And in this hotel they were cursed to relive the same violent parties and events from years ago in a Groundhog Day loop.
So Erica and Benny infiltrate and get bitten by one. Rory and Ethan are on the outside and electrocute themselves so Sarah has to go infiltrate next, and then Ethan wakes up and is trying to desperately get back in contact with them and that’s about it.  Weird but kinda cool because it really felt like I was seeing a new episode. 
So next was another third season episode and it was somehow darker and more serious than the previous seasons. It was an Erica centered one in where she meets a reincarnated vampire (idk how since vamps are immortal but whatever dreams are weird) and he was all handsome and evil like Jesse, and teaching Erica more advanced vamp skills like mass hypnosis and time traveling and stuff.  And the rest of the group are like “Careful! Why is he trying to train you? He’s corrupting you more” etc.
And Sarah asks the big question of why does she even want more power?
And for once Erica reflects in her bullied nerd past that she avoids thinking of especially as it’s not so bad as compared to something like death. But it represents a time when she really felt worthless. Like depression level worthless.  It also involves a flashback where apparently Erica was also in band on the flute and she got a major flute solo but somehow the popular kids got the teacher to pull out her performance, leaving her to stare at the wall. 
Anyway she decides she doesn’t need to be a powerful vampire. So hot evil guy tries to keep her in the deal because it turns out he was trying to use her body as a vessel for his reincarnated lover. There’s a weird spirit fight with mirrors, red eyes and all that. Plus the appearance of a dark Erica like dark Sarah from season 2.  Then she wins, he turns ti dust and Erica victoriously returns to school to do the lead flute solo in front of a mass hypnotized audience (cuz who’d voluntarily choose to watch a flute recital?) 
The guys and Sarah understand none of this change in Erica’s personality and she’s pretty secretive about what happened. She just enjoys the applause of the hypnotized audience. 
Finally the last dream was the other night and it’s blurry and chaotic now but it was like some sort of What was Sarah doing in between season 1 finale and season 2 premiere called Sarah Alone as she come to terms with her new life interspersed with scenes from the movie and Lawn of the Dead. 
So yeah, that’s about it. My dreams are surprisingly coherent but now it makes me wish even more for that third season of Mbav because the writers would have made it cooler and we could see more of the characters and even more depth of the lore and their growth. 
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amazinggrace00 · 2 years
Text
another name goes up in lights, you wonder if you’ll make it out alive
Chapter 14: some of us have to grow up sometimes, and so if I have to I'm going to leave you behind
Part of @julieandthephantomsbb
Rating: T
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Background Willex, Background Kayla/Reggie
Tags: Past Julie/Nick, Alternate Universe, no ghosts, Well kinda but they aren't real, Everyone Is Alive, TV Show, Hollywood, Cussing, Hollywood sucks, All the guys parents suck, Bobby is okay, hollywood is sexist, Sexism, Song references galore, JATP Big Bang 2022, Carrie isn't a good person, Nick isn't a good person
Chapter 14 Posted: 8/20/2022
Summary:
Phantoms, the new Network TV show, recently got picked up for its second season and filming is already underway. The show follows a special government unit tasked with dealing with the supernatural. The series will return Marci Harrison who portrays the lead detective in charge of a group of junior detectives (Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer, Kayla Caro), forensic scientists (Luke Patterson and Julie Molina), and a rookie detective (Flynn Rider). 
Julie Molina is enjoying her time on Phantoms, the supernatural detective show. It had been her saving grace after being blacklisted from basically everywhere following her media feud with former Disney Channel costar Carrie Wilson that tanked her music career before it even started.
But with rumors that the show isn’t going to get a third season, Julie is worried about her career completely ending with no jobs or recording contracts in sight.
Add in the fact that even if they get a third season, Julie’s costar might leave the show and go off to pursue his music career.
And Julie is trying to understand why said costar potentially leaving is making her so upset.
Chapter 14 Summary: Julie and Luke wake up the next morning. Their phones are blowing up...
Collection: JATP Big Band 2022
Read on AO3
Keep Reading for an excerpt
Julie woke up first since her phone was always on vibrate while Luke’s was always on silent. Before she realized that it was, in fact, her phone that woke her up, her eyes fluttered open, blinded by the light peaking through the window blinds. She felt a weight pressed against her side and she turned her head slightly to look at Luke. 
He was laying on his stomach, face pressed sideways into the pillow with his mouth wide open. His limbs were spread out like a starfish except for the arm that was laid across Julie’s stomach, as she had slept on her back. 
Sometime during the night, the two had moved from their cuddling position, which at this point they could both admit was a little bit too warm, especially since summer in Los Angels was just beginning and they were sweating all the time even with the air conditioning. 
She smiled at his current state, where even though he looked like a disaster, he still looked peaceful. They needed peace after last night. Even though there were the positives, like them admitting their feelings, there was still the fact that their show all but got canceled.
Speaking of which, Julie finally was awake enough to register her phone blowing up, and turned slightly to grab it off the nightstand. 
Julie had about twenty missed calls, fifty texts, and about ten voicemails. She couldn’t even really look at them because a video chat request from Flynn popped up on her screen. 
Without thinking, she accepted the call, not registering until her video popped up that she was in Luke’s bed and not hers. 
Oh well, she thought. It wasn’t like they were really hiding it and Luke was out of frame sleeping anyways. If Flynn asked she wouldn’t lie, but it wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world. 
“Girl why haven’t you been answering your phone!” Was the first thing that Flynn yelled once the call was connected. 
“I was sleeping,” Julie rolled her eyes. “What’s going on?” 
“It’s nine am Julie, most people are up by then,” Flynn shook her head at her. “Anyways, we are all heading over to the studio now. Mrs. Harrison said to all meet there but she wouldn’t tell us anything else.” 
“Shit,” Julie straightened up, now fully sitting up. “Fuck I’ll be there soon.” 
“Yeah, that’s why we have been trying to all get a hold of you. Have you heard from Luke? We haven’t gotten through to him either. We might have Alex stopped by his place to get him.” 
At the sound of his name, Luke started to stir. With his eyes closed, he moved closer to Julie, where he was now in the frame of the camera. “Hmph?” 
Yeah, that did it.
“What the fuck!” Flynn shrieked, Luke clearly in frame, and clearly cuddling in bed next to Julie. “Well, I guess we found him.” 
This woke Luke up completely, whose eyes went wide at the realization that he was on camera. 
“Oh fuck,” he muttered. 
“We’ll be at the studio as soon as possible,” Julie told Flynn, cringing. “We’ll explain later.” 
“Yeah you fucking better,” Flynn replied and then hung up. 
Luke shook his body, trying to level himself. “What just happened?” He reached over towards the nightstand on his side and grabbed his phone. “Does it have something to do with the fact that my phone is blowing up?” 
“Mrs. Harrison told us all to meet her at the studio asap and then went dark,” Julie explained. “And now Flynn knows that we spent the night together in your bed.”
“Oh boy,” Luke grabbed a pillow and shoved it in his face. “I don’t know which one I’m more scared about.” 
Julie nodded her head even though Luke couldn’t really see her. “Yeah, same.” 
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stylesluxx · 2 years
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he has a hard time asking you out – mafia!bts
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[warnings: there’s only one swear and a tad bit of angst if you squint real hard. also, i know it’s not giving mafia vibes but like... duh. they’re approaching someone they want to date, not a rival]
summary: in which they have a hard time asking you out | requested! | previous part
word count: 2,993
main masterlist | bts reactions masterlist
kim seokjin
It's been a week since you gave your number to the owner of your favorite restaurant and you had yet to receive a call or text.
It didn't bug you much but you thought it was weird how he was the one to ask for your number just to turn around and not do anything with it.
Your friends, Ari and Seo-Jun, were more concerned than you were.
"So... any updates?"
"No. Stop asking."
"Oh come on, don't be so grumpy," Ari nudged you before taking a seat on your desk.
"I'm not being grumpy. It's just annoying you guys ask me about him every day. If something happened, I'd tell you. Maybe he's just not interested. It's really not a big deal for you to keep pestering me."
"Fine, we'll leave you be," Seojun agreed and took Ari's hand, pulling her off your desk. "But does this mean we're not getting dinner at Abyss tonight?"
You side-eyed her, making her raise her hands in surrender.
"Alright Moody, we'll find a new place to go to," Ari huffed and dragged Seojun out of your cubicle finally leaving you alone.
To keep yourself distracted you focused on your work, but struggle to keep your eyes off your phone.
As much as you wanted to pretend like you didn't care if Seokjin texted you or not, you were kind of hoping he did.
"Okay, what about sushi?" Ari suggested as you all stepped into the elevator.
"Not really in a sushi mood. What about... pizza?" Spoke Seojun.
"No," Ari quickly declined.
"Okay, Miss Bright Ideas, why don't you come up with something?"
"I did-"
You rolled your eyes and tuned out their bickering so you could do your own search on Google.
As soon as you unlock your phone, it dinged, signifying you received a text. The bickering quickly stopped and all eyes were on you.
You clicked on the message, eyes widening in surprise.
"Do you think you can meet me at Abyss tonight? — Kim Seokjin"
"Rain check?”
You looked up and nodded, "rain check."
As you sat across from Seokjin in a private booth, you took a sip of wine and flipped through the menu.
"I hope you don't think this is our first date. I can do better than bring you to my own restaurant," Seokjin spoke up, making you look away from the menu and give him a small smile.
"I'm sure you can, Seokjin," You nodded.
"Just Jin is fine," He assured you with a smile. "I know it's no excuse, but I've been so busy lately, that's why it took me so long to text you. But my good friend told me we make time for the things that we want, which is why I had you come here tonight. It's nothing special but I just wanted to make sure you knew I was interested."
"Thank you," You nodded and gave him a big, genuine smile. "That's really sweet and I appreciate the gesture. And I love your restaurant so don't worry about it."
He nodded and reached a hand across the table to rest atop of yours. "What do you say to a real date? Next Saturday?"
"I'd love that."
min yoongi
"This is my third time getting ready for nothing. I think it's best if we just let it go," You sighed as you looked at yourself in the mirror, frown on your face.
"No, I'm sorry, I've just been so busy and stressed-"
"I completely understand but I'm tired of my time being wasted. I wish you the best. Goodbye Yoongi."
You hung up and set your phone on the vanity before letting out a loud groan.
Yoongi had made it a habit to cancel on you last minute, not once, not twice, but thrice, forcing you to put an end to whatever you had going on.
You'd think after the first two times, you'd stop putting in so much effort to get ready but this was your best look yet.
Not wanting to let it go to waste, you stood with your phone in hand and walked over to your full body mirror, and started taking pictures.
You did that for a while before the poses became repetitive and then you found yourself laying on the couch watching Home Alone, still fully dressed.
You almost didn't hear the doorbell ring as you started dozing off. You looked over at the clock on your wall, wondering who could be here at this time.
8:58.
You stood from the couch and walked over to the door, looking out the peephole and gasping quietly.
"Yoongi?" You questioned once you opened the door and got a better look at him, his bottom lip tucked under his teeth. "What're you doing here?"
His eyes glanced over your figure, taking in the black sparkly frill dress, black scarf around your neck, black tights, and black heels that you had put on earlier that night.
"You look beautiful," He spoke up after clearing his throat.
"Thank you, but what are you doing here?"
"Oh, um, you sent me your address and I just thought– I wanted to give you these," He spoke shyly and pulled out a bouquet of roses he was holding behind his back. His cheeks quickly turned pink, making you bite back a giggle. "Cliche, I know, but I really am sorry. Work has been keeping me busy but if you'll let me..." His voice trailed off and he shook a grocery bag that he held in his other hand. "I brought groceries so I could make you dinner."
You finally took a good look at him and noticed his black hair was slicked back perfectly like it was done by a professional, and he wore an all-black suit, matching you.
You finally let yourself giggle at his sheepishness and stepped back, opening the door wider so he could come in. "You know, I usually don't give so many chances, so don't mess this up."
"I won't, I promise." jung hoseok
"Okay, I get it. You're just not into me and that's fine. But I wish you wouldn't have strung me along for this long.”
"No," Hoseok argued back. "It's not that. It's not you. Well... it is you."
Your eyebrows furrowed as you watched him try to save face while on FaceTime with you. "What?"
"The night we met, you were so perfect and I couldn't believe you even gave me the time of day. I guess I'm just nervous; I don't want you to get to know me and then realize you don't like me. I wish every night was like that night."
You frowned at his words, not liking how he sounded so unsure of himself. Hoseok was perfect the night you met and if that was him behind himself, there shouldn't be an issue.
"And that's why you keep postponing our date?" You questioned and sighed once you saw him nod his head. "Hoseok, if you were being yourself that night, then there's no need to worry. You were being yourself, right?"
"Of course."
"I liked you that night and I still like you, even if you keep putting me on the back burner. That's why I gave you my number. You'll never know if you don't try."
kim namjoon
You set your hot chocolate down and pick up your pen so you could continue to take notes, humming softly because you knew Namjoon didn't like sitting in complete silence.
"So Y/N..."
"Yeah, Namjoon?"
"What do you think about sharks?"
You furrowed your eyebrows and let out a breathy laugh, looking up at him biting his lip. "What do I think about sharks?"
"Mhm."
"Well... sharks are cool. Did you know over 400 species exist all over the world? And some even glow in the dark," You shrugged.
"How did you know that?"
"I took a marine biology course my sophomore year."
"Wow, I didn't know that."
You giggled and turned back to your textbook. "There's a lot you don't know about me," You teased.
"I... I want to learn more about you!" He quickly blurted out, making you look up and laugh.
"Oh, do you now?"
"Mhm," He nodded his head fervently.
"What do you want to know?"
"Anything!"
You shook your head at his enthusiasm and set down your pen. "Okay, let me think... Growing up I wanted to be a model like Naomi Campbell."
"You can still do that."
"Namjoon, you know how shy I am."
"So?"
"'So,' I don't like being the center of attention. I'm perfectly fine with getting my degree and being normal."
He nodded and looked out the window, letting you think the conversation was over.
You picked your pen back up and went back to taking notes.
It was quiet for a moment before Namjoon cleared his throat and spoke up. "Do you like ostriches?"
"Ostriches?" You questioned without looking up.
"Yeah, ostriches. Did you know they used to live in Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula? But humans became a threat and now they're only found in savannas and woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa."
"I did know that," You nodded and looked up at him. "Not that I'm not interested but why did you randomly bring up ostriches? And sharks? Those aren't even your favorite animals."
He let out a nervous chuckle and moved to rub the back of his neck. "I've, uh, been trying to get the courage to ask you out. But every time I go to ask, I get nervous. You make me nervous."
"I make you nervous?" You repeated just to make sure you heard him right.
"You're, like, perfect. You're so pretty and so so smart. Like, it's crazy how smart you are. And I really just adore you but I'm scared I'll ruin our friendship. I love being around you, even if we're just studying in silence," He confessed, his cheeks turning red as he gave you a toothless smile.
"Me too, I love being around you."
He nodded and gave you a big smile before asking, "do you think you'd want to go on a date with me?"
"Of course, I would. I'd love to."
park jimin
You wouldn't have said this the night before, but you genuinely enjoyed being around Park Jimin. There was never an awkward moment, never a moment where you had to wonder if going out with him was a good idea. He was just so fun and full of joy and energy and it was what you needed after a long week.
"Sorry I was being a bitch yesterday," You apologized as you both walked out of the restaurant, toward his car.
He shook his head and scoffed at your words. "No, that was my fault. I was bothering you."
You nodded your head, not disagreeing with him, but you certainly weren't going to say it out loud. He already heard enough of your mouth the night prior. "I had a lot of fun though. I kinda really like you, Park Jimin."
He was silent for a moment but you both kept walking, his Porsche only a few feet away.
"Thanks," He nods, making you frown.
It was the reaction you were expecting. You were expecting him to say something similar to you but maybe that just wasn't how he felt. He didn't enjoy himself the way you did and you couldn't force him to.
Once you got to his car, he opened the passenger door for you and you mumbled a quick "thank you." He went to the driver's side, got in, and turned the car on but while he did this you made sure your whole body was facing the window, only giving him your back to view.
For the first time all night, the silence was awkward and you could feel the tears in the corner of your eyes, embarrassed that you confessed you liked him.
Once you pulled up outside of your apartment, you quickly took of your seatbelt and grabbed your purse.
"Thank you for tonight," You mumbled and opened your door. "I'll see you around."
"Wait."
You sighed and turned to face him, frown still etched on your face, eyebrows pointed downwards. "Yeah?"
"Do you think... you'd want to go on another date with me?"
"Huh?" You mumbled, eyes narrowed.
"Well, only if you're interested."
"Are you even interested?" You asked, raising an eyebrow, not sure where this proposition was coming from.
"Of course I'm interested, that's why I'm asking, silly," He chuckled.
You shook your head, confused by his sudden change in attitude. "Sorry, it just seemed like you didn't have a good time."
"What? No! I had a great time. I like you, too, Y/N. You just... fluster me. I wasn't expecting you to enjoy yourself after yesterday," He shrugged and gave you a sheepish grin.
"Oh," You chuckled. "Well, I'd love to go out again. Call me? I like hearing your voice."
kim taehyung
After Taehyung had taken you shopping for a new shirt, you made sure you wrote your number down and gave it to him. He had promised to call you but never did.
Weeks later you were walking into the same cafe you met him in, hoping you wouldn't have to face him. The embarrassment would be too much to bear.
You walked up to the counter, ordering your usual before moving to the counter where you'd receive your drink.
"Y/N?" The familiar baritone voice pulled you out of your prayer, which obviously wasn't granted.
You quietly sighed before turning to face him, planting a small smile on your face. "Hi, how are you?"
"I'm good, better now," He smiled, making you raise an eyebrow. If he was so happy to see you, why hadn't he called you? "I'm really sorry I didn't call. I, uh, I lost the paper your number was on. I got into a bit of a mess that day and had to get my clothes dry cleaned. And let's just say, I didn't check my pockets," He explained, scratching the back of his neck.
"Oh, no worries," You shrugged, getting ready to turn back around. It's not that you didn't believe him but... you didn't believe him. It sounded like the perfect excuse. His version of "my dog ate my homework."
"I've been thinking about you nonstop. I really enjoyed your company and I'm sorry I'm such a dunce. But are you busy right now? I'd like to take you out."
"Uh, no I was just gonna wander around," You shrugged and thanked the barista when he put your order in front of you.
"Great! Do you mind sharing your day with me?"
You thought for a moment before shaking your head. If he wasn't interested, he wouldn't have asked you out again, let alone approach you.
“No?”
"No! I mean, yes! That sounds good."
jeon jungkook
"Imo, have you talked to Jungkook?" Yeonjun asked for the millionth time since last week when you had first met Jungkook.
"No, Yeonjun, you know I haven't," You sighed and ruffled his hair as you both walked into the arcade.
He frowned and took your hand in his, squeezing it. "Coming to the arcade reminds me of him."
You didn't understand how or why Yeonjun got so attached to a man you've only met once so you didn't know what to say to comfort him
"Do you want to eat or play first?" You cleared your throat, quickly changing the subject.
Yeonjun decided to eat and then play but scarfed down his food so he could get to the games.
After scolding him multiple times and warning him about choking, you both finished your food and went over to the games.
"Maybe I can get something myself this time."
"I hope so, buddy," You nodded and followed behind him as he ran to his favorite game. He abruptly stopped, making you trip over your own feet but caught yourself before you could fall over. "Yeonjun, what's the matter?"
"It's Jungkook!"
He changed his path but continued running over to the tattooed man, immediately hugging his legs once close enough.
"It's good to see you, too," You heard Jungkook greet your nephew and watched him rub his back gently.
He looked up, following the path Yeonjun cleared to get to him, and once he spotted you, he gave you a smile and a wave.
You hesitantly moved your feet toward him, arms crossed over your chest. "Hey," You grumbled once you stood in front of him.
"Yeonjun, I got some points for you to use, go look around for a toy you want to get," Jungkook offered the young boy clinging onto his legs.
Yeonjun didn't recognize Jungkook's plot to busy him, so he nodded obediently and ran around looking at toys.
"I tried to text you," He said, phone in hand, waving it at you.
"Oh, well I didn't get a message," You quipped hostilely.
"Yeah, I ended up talking to some girl named Katie," He chuckled, ignoring your tone and keeping his light.
"Wait huh?"
"Yeah, I think you gave me the wrong number," He hummed and read the number back to you, making you flush in embarrassment.
You shook your head and palmed your forehead. "I'm so stupid. It's supposed to be 3758, not 3756. I made a typo, I'm sorry," You apologized and let your arms fall to your side.
"And you were trying to treat me like the bad guy," He teased and handed you his phone so you could fix the mistake.
"I'm sorry," You said again, quickly fixing your mistake.
"No, it's alright. I thought maybe you gave me the wrong number on purpose."
Your eyes widened and you shook your head, adamant that wasn't your intention. "No, no, no, I'd never do that to you. Here, let me call my number to make sure it's right this time.”
"Good idea."
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[AN: again, super sorry this took so long to write, but i've cracked the code! i do take requests for reactions, so if you have any please send them in (no smut!). if you want to join my taglist, here’s the link to the info page]
[tags: @yzkyzkuniverse @mwitsmejk @vantaebearr @tomiwastilinskii @yourthebrokengirl @halesandy @blackpetalbluemoon​ @victoryscreech61​ @cherrycheola​ @btsecstasy]
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Why isn't Nightwing a bigger deal? He has all of Batman's skills and Superman's faith in humanity and is arguably the most beloved hero in the DCU, but most people seem to know him either as the leader of the N̶o̶t̶ ̶J̶L̶ Teen Ttians or just Robin.
Thank you for asking me about Nightwing, I've been wanting to write a piece about him for a while now. The short version is that everyone who claims Dick becoming Nightwing was him "moving out of Batman's shadow and becoming his own man" is completely wrong.
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Dick Grayson is a fantastic character, someone who saved Bruce Wayne in-universe both by forcing Batman to grow up a bit, and the countless times he saved Batman's life as his partner whether as Robin or Nightwing. Dick saved Batman in the real world as well, hard to believe but Batman was actually in danger of being cancelled due to poor sales early on. Enter Robin, a young daredevil audience stand in the creators hoped would get kids interested in reading Batman. And it worked! Sales on Batman doubled once Robin showed up which is crazy to think about, but Dick Grayson has always been a popular character. Cartoons like Teen Titans, Batman: The Animated Series, and The Batman only helped grow his audience.
Character-wise, Dick Grayson really does fill a number of crucial roles in the DCU. For Batman, Dick is proof that Batman is a positive force. Meeting Batman helped change Dick for the better, helped him heal after his parents died. With Dick, Batman can take comfort in knowing that yes, he has made a difference in the world for at least one orphan boy, which is all he wanted when he lost his parents himself. To the wider DCU, Dick is a friendly face who convinces others that Batman is competent and not a complete asshole. He took this kid in, trained him to be one of the best heroes the DCU has seen, and did it all out of the kindness of his heart. That someone like Dick can confront the evils of Gotham and not break means there's still hope for that city. As Robin, Dick has led the Titans and is an icon in his own right as The Sidekick, the original, the one every other Robin is built around copying or contrasting. The one all other superhero sidekicks are drawing on as a basis. As Robin Dick Grayson is very much on Batman's level.
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Just not as Nightwing. As Nightwing, Dick has been a second rate Daredevil which means he's a third rate Batman (fully prepared to get hate for this but I've read and enjoyed the Miller and Bendis DD runs so I feel entitled to my opinion). A typical Nightwing run tends to go like this: Moving to Bludhaven (which is Gotham... but WORSE!), Dick Grayson usually enrolls in a pointless job we don't care about in order to provide some meaningless soap opera drama that doesn't go anywhere. Patrolling the city as Nightwing, he fights a variety of bad guys who are usually rather lame and unthreatening, with his big bad being a Kingpin knockoff called Blockbuster. Villains are fought, long running plotlines are set up, then everything is abandoned because it's Batfamily event time, and Dick has to run back to Gotham in order to play sidekick again. Usually his involvement is completely superfluous and it would've been better if the writer had gotten to opt out. By the time we finally get back to Nightwing's solo plotlines, the audience has usually ceased to care and the run gets cut short.
That's how Nightwing has been since the New 52 at least. Anyone who thinks that's "becoming their own man" is out of their mind. Dick is so thoroughly in Batman's shadow that he got shot in the head and spent a longer time as "Ric" which everyone fucking hated and sold like shit, than he did as Agent Grayson which was extremely well-received. Reiterating: Ric went on longer than Grayson because of a fucking Batman plotpoint Tom King wanted where Bruce was sad and cut off from the Batfamily because of Dick getting shot. Not just calling out King either, how many times was Kyle Higgins Nightwing run derailed because of Scott Snyder's crossovers? Or how about that entire run getting dumped to the side because Johns wanted to out Dick during Forever Evil, a Justice League/Lex Luthor story? DC has repeatedly made their contempt for Nightwing clear, he's Batman's sidekick still in their eyes, and he serves whatever story role the Batman writer wants.
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Hell his best stories tend to have been the ones where he's not Nightwing. He was Robin in a good chunk of the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans run. Morrison really showcased his depth as a character when they wrote him as Batman, their time with Dick under the cowl was actually one of the first Batman runs I ever read, and no Nightwing run has ever matched it in terms of quality in my humble opinion. Scott Snyder's work with DickBats also was a high point for the character, showing Dick as competent and examining his relationship with Gotham and the Gordons. King and Seeley gave him one of the best comic runs with Grayson, a series where he wasn't even a "superhero" technically! When it comes to actual pre-New 52 Nightwing runs that are highly recommended where he *is* Nightwing, there's Chuck Dixon and uhhhhhhh... Tomasi's brief run before Dick became Batman? It's not exactly an overwhelming list.
Look there has been good work done with Nightwing, I'm not claiming there hasn't been. Tim Seeley wrote a great run with Nightwing Rebirth. Seeley fleshed out Dick's Rogues Gallery with cool new ones like Raptor, he brought back old foes like Dr. Hurt (why oh why couldn't you have brought back Flamingo too?), he gave Dick's world some character it solely needed. Bludhaven under Seeley is pretty much the only time I've really felt like it lived up to being Dick's city.
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The problem with fictional cities is you have to put in the work to give them the character of real cities. You have to make the cities feel like characters in their own right. Gotham is the best example of this, it's a character all it's own, one that tells you a lot about Batman and his cast. In contrast Bludhaven is usually one of the worst. Any place that wants to claim to be worse than the city that is built over the gate to hell and gets wrecked every other month by the Arkham freaks has to really put in the work to compete. Simply put, Bludhaven typically fails utterly. There's nothing about it that makes you really buy it's worse than Gotham, I mean does anyone really think Nightwing's Rogues wouldn't get their lunches eaten by Batman's? No, no one genuinely buys that. When Bludhaven claims to be worse, it just comes across as tryhard, an attribute that does end up telling you about Nightwing in unintentional ways.
So Seeley didn't do that. Instead he created a city built for a hero like Dick Grayson. Someone who is bright and flashy, but does have an element of darkness to him. Someone who loves the spotlight, but often uses it to obscure. Seeley turned Bludhaven into Las Vegas, and that was the fucking best concept for Bludhaven I have ever seen, it makes so much sense. Las Vegas is the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and isn't that the perfect city for a hero who got their start working in the circus? Isn't the aesthetics of the gleaming casinos, the glamorous sex appeal of the performers, and the spectacle of the shows, all being used to cover up the seediness of mob bosses meeting backstage perfect for Nightwing? It's so utterly unlike New York City, yet Las Vegas is still dangerous, it's got a crime culture all it's own. Seeley used it to great effect, as did Humphries during his brief run, and I will always be pissed that DC didn't continue to use it. That should have stuck around and been the definitive look for Bludhaven.
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How Seeley's take on Bludhaven was treated feels like a small scale version of how Nightwing in general gets treated. Whenever creators pitched ideas for him, if editorial thought there was potential to break big, they asked for those ideas to be repurposed for Batman instead. Anything big or good gets repurposed for Batman or tossed to the side so Nightwing can go back to his default: having irrelevant adventures in a city that is supposedly worse than Gotham but can't live up to it. Just like how Nightwing is supposedly better than Batman but never gets to show it. Goddamn it's so frustrating seeing his potential get wasted like that.
The Nightwing book should be one of DC's most ambitious books in terms of storytelling. You can go from traditional superhero stories, to romantic soap opera, to spy stories, to crime noir, to horror, to cosmic adventures, and ALL of them would fit because Nightwing is someone who has a foot in both Gotham and Metropolis. He's got friends everywhere on every team, and has been a hero longer than most Leaguers have at this point. No reason DC should still be afraid to let him loose and insisting on hewing close to what Dixon established almost over 30 years ago is only holding him back. At the very least get him some better Rogues, why the hell didn't he get to keep Professor Pyg? That's Dick's villain not Bruce's! Bullshit that they didn't let Dick keep him. Hopefully Flamingo comes back, with a slight revamp I think he'd make a great reoccurring Nightwing Rogue.
Luckily it does look somewhat like Nightwing fans have reason to be optimistic. While Taylor isn't to my taste, DC clearly views him as a "big" writer, and that they put him on Nightwing says a lot. Taylor has been selling well so far, so hopefully he gets to tell his story, hilarious that even he lampshaded having to write Dick running over to Gotham for another tie-in after Taylor's big opening arc was all about Dick committing himself and his money to Bludhaven. Scott Snyder is apparently working on a Black Label Nightwing book which will explore how he's a different detective than Bruce. The Gotham Knights video game has him as one of the main stars, and while Titans is... controversial, it's one of the most popular streaming shows and Dick is the main character. There's a lot of content coming that features him in the starring role, and that will only help his star rise further.
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For the first time in, well, ever it feels like DC may be serious about elevating him. Time will tell if it pays off, but I for one choose to be optimistic that the 2020s will be a turning point for Dick Grayson where Nightwing becomes hugely popular in his own right. Not just as Batman's sidekick.
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tinyboxxtink · 3 years
Text
"...So I Married A Monster" *Chapter 1*
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[Yes I know it's absolutely inappropriate/irrelevant but this gif was too priceless not to use it, okay?]
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Chapter 2 is HERE!
So, I gotta shout out the anon who asked me to explore this idea from a one-shot I wrote. Which actually was a request from @word-scribbless, so really this was a team effort. LoL.
Alright so here's the sitch:
You're dating Rafael Barba, and you finally decide to introduce him to your kids. Everything's going fine, until he figures out your ex-husband "Billy Loomis" is actually William Lewis!
Chaos ensues.
RIGHT?
Alright so I just decided to elaborate on the one shot, so I hope you enjoy this introduction.
Yes, I don't know why we're going back into the dark dark depths of angsty, dark storylines, but here we go. It's William Lewis once again, so you already know it's not going to be some fun fluff piece.
Plan your expectations accordingly.
Also, @storiesofsvu said they might read this one, so there's that. Eeep.
Obviously my lovelies are the best as well.
Tag List
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@chasingeverybreakingwave
@milkshqke
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@gibbs274
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@stars-in-the-skies-world
@stars-trash-18
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@shittanyy
@mrsrafaelbarba
—————
You twirled your hair nervously, pacing back and forth in your living room. Rafael Barba, the man you were seeing, was on his way over, it was just a normal day. Except that it wasn’t. Today was the day you were going to introduce him to your kids. Something he wasn’t even aware you had.
You had your reservations about dating guys without kids, as it never really worked out. Men without kids didn’t tend to understand the problems that came along with it, like having to cancel plans at a moment’s notice if one of your kids got sick or something. But Rafael seemed like a really good man, and though he didn’t seem like the “I love kids” type, you had gotten to know him enough to know he came from a good family, and that he might be open to at least meeting yours. You hoped you were right.
Soon your doorbell was ringing, your toddler Kylie came bounding towards the door.
“I’ll get it!!!!” She squealed.
“Uh– No no, Kylie!” You intercepted her on her way to the door, snatching her up in your arms.
“Maggie!” You tried to call her softly, not wanting Rafael to hear you. Your eleven year old came strolling out of the living room while on her phone.
“What?” She barely looked up at you.
“Can you take her? Please?” You asked her sweetly, causing her to move her phone down from her face.
“Why? Who’s at the door?” She raised a skeptical eyebrow at you.
“Just…a friend,” You looked towards the front door nervously. Maggie noticed your hesitance, it finally made her forget about whatever she was doing on her phone.
“Who is it, mom?” She pressed.
“I’ll explain everything, okay?” You gave her a pleading look. “Just take her in the living room and I’ll be there in a minute,”
“…It’s a guy, isn’t it?” She crossed her arms in a sassy manner.
“Maggie!” You pleaded.
“Ok fine…” She rolled her eyes and took Kylie from your arms. “Come on Ky, let’s go find a snack,”
“Thank you,” You kissed her head and ruffled Kylie’s hair as they walked towards the kitchen. You fixed your hair once more and swung the door open, revealing Rafael standing there holding flowers for you.
“Hey baby,” He kissed you softly while handing you the flowers. “I can’t believe I’ve never been to your house, it’s gorgeous,”
“Probably because we’re in New Jersey,” You teased him. You knew how much he hated Jersey, so the fact that he came all the way out here on his day off, really meant something.
“Probably,” He nodded with a teasing smile.
“So…there’s also another reason, I’ve never asked you here,” You ran your fingers through your hair as he entered your foyer.
“Oh?” He asked, curiously.
“I um, so– remember when I told you about my ex husband…?” Your voice trailed off.
“Yeah, that he was a real douche,” Rafael rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, but there’s a good thing about him,” Your eyes glanced over to where the girls had run off to.
“…Oh?” Rafael had a hint of worry in his voice.
“He’s a…” You looked down. “He’s a good dad,”
“….A good dad?” You heard Rafael’s voice shift an octave higher.
“Yes…” You forced yourself to look up at him. “In fact, he’s been keeping the girls all summer,”
“The girls?” He blinked, trying to wrap his head around it. “As in, multiple?”
“…Yes,” You bit your lip. “….You can run screaming now, it’s okay,”
“Ay, carino…” He put both hands on either of your face. “…Where are they?”
“Really?” You bit your lip with a relieved smile.
“Of course!” He kissed you and wiped a few tears that started dropping down your face as he spoke.
“…Okay, come with me,” You took his hand and let him into the kitchen. Maggie was handing Kylie a pudding cup and a juice box when you walked hand in hand with Rafael. Maggie gave him a side eye, while Kylie instantly bounded over with her snacks and a huge smile.
“Hi!!!!” She beamed at Rafael, sticking out her left hand which of course made the snacks fall out of her hand onto the floor. Maggie groaned in frustration as she ran over and picked up the snacks, now eyeing Rafael up and down.
“…Who’s this, mom?” She asked you, not taking an eye off Rafael. He didn’t seem phased at all, he just stuck out his hand to Kylie, since she addressed him first.
“Hi, I’m Rafael. And what’s your name?” He smiled warmly at her, making her eyes sparkle.
“I’m Kylie!” She shook Rafael’s hand furiously with a huge grin. Maggie snatched her up quickly, breaking their handshake.
“I’m Maggie,” She said curtly.
“Maggie,” You said through gritted teeth. “Be nice,”
“Oh it’s fine, carino,” He chuckled, smiling at Maggie. “I was protective of my mami when she’d bring strange men home too,”
“So you’re saying you’re a strange man?” Maggie smirked.
“Maggie!” You hissed.
“I guess you’ll have to figure that out yourself, chica,” He smirked back.
“…Guess we shall, amigo,” She narrowed her eyes, but quickly smiled. She liked this guy.
“Wow…I’m impressed,” you whispered to Rafael as the girls got more snacks for you and him.
“Thank you, mi amor,” He smiled before kissing you on the cheek. “And thank you, for trusting me enough with your kids,”
“Anytime,” You smiled warmly as you pulled him into a real kiss.
“Gross!!!!!” Kylie made a gagging sound before collapsing into giggles. This had gone better than you could have imagined.
-----------
After you and the kids all had snacks, you set up a movie for them to watch while you and Rafael went to your kitchen table to have coffee and talk more about the situation.
“So...I guess this is a stupid question, but why haven’t mentioned you had kids before this, carino?” Rafael ask while he sipped his coffee.
“Well..” You nervously stirred your coffee with your spoon. “I guess I was selfish,”
“Explain,” He pressed.
“Well I don’t typically start a first date with ‘hey by the way I have kids, so you might wanna run now’,” Your explanation caused him to chuckle in amusement.
“Yes I can see that,”
“And honestly by the second or third date, I don’t even like the guy anymore so it’s just pointless,” Your voice lowered even more as you started to allude to your feelings for him.
“...I see,” His chuckle turned into an amused smile. “And with me…?”
“With you...I wanted to introduce you,” You looked up to meet his eyes, hoping that would be enough explanation. His growing smile made it obvious it was.
“Well, I’m glad you did,” He put a hand over yours. “So I guess you want to keep me around, huh?”
“For now,” You teased him with a small giggle. He leaned over to give you a kiss, but your phone began going off. You looked down to see the screen:
BILLY CALLING
“Oooh, one sec baby,” You grabbed the phone. “It’s my ex,”
Rafael nodded in understanding as you turned from him to have the conversation.
"Hey Billy, what’s up?” The mention of their father’s name caught Maggie’s attention.
“Is that daddy?!” She called across the room. “Tell him WICKED was so fun!!!!”
“Wicked?” You repeated into the phone with a sharp tone. “Billy...did you take them into the City?”
“Daddy lives in the City now,” Kylie added to the conversation.
“He WHAT?!” You stood up and moved away from Rafael as your voice raised. “Billy, when were you going to tell me you moved to New York City?”
“No, I think it is a pretty big fucking deal,” You growled into the phone.
“Swear jar!!” Kylie giggled.
“You know how I feel about the City,” You ignored her as you lectured your ex.
“...And how is that?” Rafael raised an eyebrow.
“Shut up, you know I love it,” You rolled your eyes at him. “I just don’t want my children--” You were cut off by Billy’s questioning.
“What? It’s nobody, Billy,” You saw the hurt in Rafael’s eyes when you called him a “nobody”. You walked back over and squeezed his hand.
“I don’t want to get into ‘the talk’ with my ex on the phone, baby,” You explained softly.
“Well I was pretty sure you introducing me to the kiddos was ‘the talk’, but clearly I was wrong,” He shook his head and stood up to go, but you squeezed his hand tighter preventing him from walking away.
“I’m sorry Billy, that was my boyfriend,” You gave Rafael a small smile, hoping for his approval. His grin back gave you all the approval you needed.
“...What?” Your brows furrowed. “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know I needed your permission to have a boyfriend, Billy,”
“No, he just met the girls today. In fact it wasn’t even like fifteen minutes ago--” Billy’s voice was rising, Rafael could hear obscenities through the phone.
“I don’t think that’s any of your business--” You bit your lip in nervousness.
You hated it when he got like this, he had quite the temper on him. It was one of the reasons you got divorced. That, and the fact that he was constantly absent from your lives for work. It was like raising the girls on your own anyway, so you figured you’d make it official.
Rafael noticed the fear in your voice, and he went into a protective mode. He grabbed the phone from you and spoke to Billy with an eerily calm voice.
“Listen Billy, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t appreciate you calling here and intimidating my girlfriend when we were having a perfectly nice day,”
“.....Barba?” A very familiar, terrifying voice came through the ear piece.
“E-Excuse me?” His voice wavered.
“Rafael Barba, is that you?” The voice half laughed; all of the color drained from Rafael’s face.
“...Lewis?” Rafael barely whispered, causing your eyebrows to furrow again.
“Loomis,” You told him, causing him to furrow his own eyebrows. “His last name is Loomis,” You clarified.
“You have some balls, detective,” His evil chuckle made Rafael’s blood run cold. “First you and the red headed bitch try and put me away, and now you’re fucking my wife?”
“She is NOT--” Rafael clenched his fists.
“You know what, as much as I enjoyed this trip down memory lane, I think I’d like to talk to my wife,” William quickly tried to avoid any more detection.
“Like hell you will--” Rafael started to growl, causing you to snap the phone out of his grasp.
“Um, Billy,” You gave Rafael an accusatory look as you spoke to your ex. “Can I call you back?”
“I don’t want that man near my kids,” Billy stated angrily.
“What?” You blinked in surprise. “Why?”
“He’s a bad man, Y/N,” William lied.
“W-What are you talking about?” You looked at Rafael cautiously.
“What is he saying?” Rafael questioned angrily. “Whatever he says, he’s lying,”
“No I’m not, he’s the one who’s lying to you sweetheart,” William quickly shut Rafael down as he heard his accusations through the phone.
“I-I have to go,” Your voice quivered as you hung up on Billy.
Your mind was racing. Who could you trust?
-----------
After you hung up, you just sat there for a second trying to process what had just happened. You didn’t have much time, as Rafael started throwing a million questions at you almost immediately.
“You were married to William Lewis?” He hissed. “Do you have any idea what that man did to me? My squad? My best friend?!”
You suddenly snapped to attention as the familiar feeling of being interrogated kicked in. “Dining room, NOW,” You grabbed his arm and pulled him into the other room, away from your children’s ear shot.
“What the FUCK are you talking about, Rafael?” You now raised your voice a bit. “I don’t know who the hell you’re talking about, but I married Billy Loomis, not this-- William Lewis,”
“Oh please,” Rafael scoffed with a dry laugh. “That’s barely an alias!”
“I’m sorry, are you insinuating I’m a moron?” You crossed your arms. “You think I’m that stupid not to know my husband is a...whatever you think he is?”
“He’s a MONSTER, Y/N!”
“What are you talking about?!” You tried keeping your voice below a roar, but this was getting to be a lot. “You just heard his voice, you don’t even know if it’s the same--”
“He knew my name,” Rafael simply said. “He knew who I was, and he taunted me about it,”
“He taunted you?” You laughed sarcastically. “How did he ‘taunt you’?”
“He’s rubbing in the fact that he escaped NYPD, and now he’s upset I’m fucking--” He paused at the offended look on your face. “...Dating, his ex wife,”
“Wow,” You exhaled exasperatedly. “Wow,”
“Look I’m sorry to be crass, but those are the words he used,” He put a hand to your face, but you stepped back. “Except he used wife,” He added.
“What are you talking about?”
“He still thinks you're his,” Rafael explained. “He thinks of women as things, as property. And he clearly thinks he still ‘owns’ you,”
“Look I-- I don’t know who you think Billy is,” You shook your head as you walked towards a cabinet full of family photos on display. You picked one up and handed it to Rafael: A family photo at the beach.
Billy’s arms were around you, his gorgeous smile at it’s full power. That smile was heart melting, you fell in love with it as soon as he had flashed it your way in a coffee shop. Maggie’s arms were around his neck, and Kylie was in your lap with her hands raised in glee. It was a few years ago, Kylie was a baby and Maggie was nine.
“But this man isn’t a monster,” You finished your thought. “He’s a kind, generous man. He’s a wonderful father, even if he wasn’t that great of a husband--”
Rafael’s eyes were wide and horrified as he saw Lewis’s arms around you, that sick evil grin looking at him as if he was taunting him through the frame. He snapped his head up when you mentioned him not being a great husband.
“Why do you say that?” He cut you off. “Did he hurt you?”
“What?” You laughed, as if thinking that Billy could ever be violent was the funniest thing in the world. “No, he never hurt me Rafael. That’s why I don’t understand--”
“Look, I don’t want to scare you Y/N,” Rafael put the photo down and put his hands on your shoulders. “But this…’Billy’, he isn’t who you think he is,”
“And who is he?” You gave him a curious look.
“He’s a…” He looked into the other room, making sure the girls weren’t listening. “He’s a serial killer and a rapist,”
“What?!” You yelled rather loudly, stepping out of his grip. “Alright, that’s it--” You started leading him to the door.
“W-What are you doing?” Rafael began to panic as you showed him out. “Y/N please, you have to listen to me--”
“No, I’m not going to sit here and listen to you say such vile things about the father of my children,” You narrowed your eyes.
“Why would I make this up?!” He cried, trying to stop you from shutting the door on his face.
“I-I don’t know,” You looked down, thinking about it. Why would he make up such terrible things about Billy? Then you thought about what Billy had said: Rafael was the bad man.
“Maybe because YOU’RE the monster,” You suddenly glared.
“W-What?” Rafael’s voice fell to a whisper, hurt tears came to his eyes.
“Billy said you were a bad man, maybe you’re trying to flip all of this on him. Maybe Billy was trying to warn me, and you’re trying to get to me first,” The more you said it out loud, the more it made sense to you.
“NO!!!!” He almost screamed, tears now dripping down his cheek. He tried desperately getting back into the house, causing you to put more pressure on the door to keep him out. You had never seen him this...unhinged, before.
“No, Y/N please,” He pleaded with you. “You have to listen to me. Please, for the love of God baby you HAVE to listen to me--”
“No, I don’t have to do anything Rafael,” Tears stung your own eyes.
“I-- I thought we had something,” Your heart was breaking as you spoke.
You had thought you were really falling for this man. This kind, sweet, amazing man. And now it was all unravelling, his true colors were coming out. You almost let this psychopath into your children’s lives.
“We did-- we DO!” He was shaking; he was so upset. “Why do you think I’m being so adamant about this? I-- I love you!”
“Shut up!” You barked at him. How dare he say that to you for the first time, at this of all times?
“You-- You need to leave, Rafael,” You pointed to the driveway. “And don’t come back. Don’t call me, don’t text me,” Your voice was stern but filled with tears.
“No,” Rafael barely whispered, his eyes filled to the brim with fresh tears. “Don’t do this, Y/N. Please don’t do this--”
“NOW,”
“Look-- I’ll go,” He put his hands up in defeat and started to walk backwards off your porch. “But for the love of God-- PLEASE, just--- Just google the name ‘William Lewis’,”
“...Why?”
“You’ll see I’m telling the truth, I swear you will,” He looked at you with serious eyes. He was really convinced of what he was saying to you. Your heart started winning over your head, but just for a moment. You had to think about your children’s safety, you couldn’t listen to the ramblings of a crazy man.
“I don’t need to do that Rafael, you’re clearly the psycho,” You snapped before slamming the door in his face. As soon as it was closed, you sank to the floor and pulled your knees to your chest as you silently sobbed, trying to not alert the girls about the chaos that had just erupted.
Why did this have to happen?
98 notes · View notes
nugnthopkns · 3 years
Text
if everything could ever feel this real forever
word count: 4.3k
warnings: explicit!fem reader, cursing, alcohol consumption, allusion to sexual content (nothing explicit but minors please be aware!)
recommended listening: everlong | foo fighters
a/n: broke down and wrote for ratty matty. alternalty titled four times matthew thinks you’re the one and one time he knows (4+1′s are fun to write, pls don’t fight me). also pls ignore the fact i don’t know how airports work, i’ve only ever flown domestically lmao
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Matthew feels different when you’re around. 
You don’t turn him into a completely different person. He’s still himself – an absolute pest at times – but more genuine. With you he can feel everything deeply, say whatever’s on his mind without the fear of being judged. It’s the best kind of different, and he wouldn’t change it for the world. His teammates constantly ask him when he’s going to lock you down; put a ring on your finger and change your last name, but he needs to be sure before he makes such a big commitment. 
one
It’s the beginning of July, and you’re sweating buckets in the back of an Uber. The driver has the air cranked, but nothing seems to alleviate the heat. You know it will be worse in St. Louis so you do your best not to complain, but it’s hard. Taking two weeks off to visit your boyfriend in his hometown sounded like a great idea, but reading the weather forecast has you re-evaluating the trip. 
Your phone lights up in your lap, and you eagerly unlock it. It’s a text from Matthew. Have a safe flight. Text me when you land. Tayrn will be there to pick you up – Brady and I’s on-ice got extended. I’ll see you when I get home. Love you. 
Though you wish he could be the first person you see when you touch down, you understand that his job comes first. Besides, your re-unification will be more private this way. I get to see the best Tkachuk first, fuck yeah you reply, before following it up with Love you too Matty. See you soon. 
Soon after sending the text you arrive at the entrance of Calgary International Airport. With a polite thank you to your driver, you grab your suitcase and head inside. The working air conditioning answers your silent prayers and you feel your body slowly return to a normal temperature. Check in is fast, and before you know it you’re breezing through security. A slightly nervous traveller, you’re at the gate earlier than you need to be. The plane doesn’t take off for another two hours. You don’t mind the wait, listening to a couple of podcast episodes and grabbing a snack at the lounge before boarding. 
The five hour flight passes in the blink of an eye. St. Louis is busier than Calgary, and it takes you longer than you thought it would to get through customs. Once passed immigration and at the baggage carousel you let Matthew know you’re safely inside the city limits. You grab your obnoxious suitcase – a bright red thing with a giant Flames logo that Matthew thought would be funny to give you – and set out to find Tayrn. She’s easy to spot, waving a giant poster with your name on it. Abandoning nearly all airport etiquette, you rush through the crowd to see her. Over the years she’s become a little sister and close friend, and you really wish you could see her more frequently. 
“Y/N!” Taryn squeals as you wrap your arms around her. The pair of you embrace for another moment or two before making your way to her car. Neither of you can stop talking, so excited to be in each other’s presence.
“It’s so nice to be back,” you sigh. “I really do like St. Louis.” 
Tayrn giggles. “You’re just excited to see Matthew.” 
Though she isn’t wrong, you swat her bicep in faux annoyance. “What? Can a girl not enjoy a nice Midwestern city?” You push your sunglasses up onto the bridge of your nose before continuing. “Besides, I only came here to see you. I see enough of Matt at home.”
She rolls her eyes but extends her arm so you can fist bump her. With a quick look to make sure the way is clear, Taryn exits the parking spot and heads in the direction of your temporary home. The open sunroof allows the wind to whip through your hair and you struggle to tame it enough to put it in a ponytail. One Direction blasts from the stereo, and you join Taryn in screaming the lyrics until your lungs hurt. Being on vacation, even if it’s only to St. Louis, is so freeing. You don’t have to deal with work deadlines or friendship drama. All that matters is spending time with Matthew. 
When you pull into the Tkachuk’s driveway it’s empty. It’s Thursday afternoon; Chantal’s at work, Keith is golfing with friends, and the boys are at the rink. You take a few minutes to unpack, filling Matthew’s drawers with your clothes, before joining Taryn by the pool. St. Louis is just as hot as the city you left, and the travel has left you feeling below average. A quick swim is sure to be the perfect remedy. 
The water is the right kind of cool, and alleviates any stress you were possibly feeling. You’re properly in vacation mode now, lounging on pool floaties and gossiping with Taryn. An hour later when Matthew returns home you’re in basically the same position. Stepping out into the yard he sees you urging Taryn to turn around so you can place sunscreen onto the one spot she missed, laughing all the while at some ridiculous celebrity rumor she’s telling you. Seeing you get along so easy with his sister, and the rest of his family, makes his heart swell.
In the couple of months you’ve been separated, Matthew’s thought a lot about his future. Specifically about his future with you. When he closes his eyes he can see it clearly: the two of you married with children and a dog, living in a house in the mountains and loving life. It’s idyllic, and even though he knows you’d say yes if he asked you, Matthew still can’t bring himself to do it. There’s something in the back of his brain telling him to wait until he knows with absolute certainty that you’re it for him.
Not wanting to be separated from you for a minute more, he snaps out of his daze and scurries over. Wrapping his arms tightly around your waist and pressing a kiss to the base of neck, he relishes in how you mould to him immediately, not even questioning who it was. 
“Welcome back baby,” Matthew mumbles into your skin. 
With a chuckle you wriggle slightly in his grasp, allowing yourself to face him. You press a kiss to his lips and it feels like heaven. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, you suppose, because you could stand here kissing Matthew your the rest of your life and be happy. 
“Hi Matty,” you giggle against his lips, parting from him only to rest your forehead on his and twist a curl around your finger.
From somewhere inside the house you hear Brady yell,  “Jesus Christ, you two, get a room.”
Without taking his eyes off you, Matthew replies, “Fuck off Brady!”
two
The energy inside the Saddledome is electric. It’s the Flames’ first home game in nearly a week, doing an east coast road trip and sweeping every team they faced. Six games later the team is on a nine game winning streaking and are hoping to keep it going. You know how much it matters in this moment – the playoffs are fast approaching and all points they can tally up are needed. 
You had decided months ago to buy rinkside tickets for this game, planning to surprise Matthew. He loves when you sit in the regular crowd, cheering and spilling your beer like any old fan. It’s humbling for the both of you, and honestly you enjoy it. Though you love those in the Better Halves box, you were a hockey fan before dating Matthew and sometimes like to enjoy games by yourself. Plus, your friend was supposed to be in town and join you at the game, and you figured she’d like to experience how insane the area is firsthand.
So you do your best to quickly shimmy around those blocking your seat, beverage in hand. It was all you could do to get to the rink on time, sitting in the dense downtown traffic for nearly three quarters of an hour after rushing out of work. You wanted to make it before warmups started to make sure Matt knows you’re there supporting him. No one really bats an eye at you, which you’re thankful for. In no way are you notorious, but it wouldn’t take a die-hard fan long to recognize you. Sitting down and letting a soft sigh escape your lips, you carefully place your jacket over the seat beside you. At the last minute your friend had to cancel her trip to Calgary, leaving you solo. With a quick look at the clock you see that warm up will start in just under a minute. The players begin to step onto the ice as you sip your beer. Matthew is yet to notice you but you don’t take offence. He’s in the zone and most likely won’t realize you’re sitting right in front of him until halfway through the third period.
“Look daddy, it’s Matthew Tkachuk!” you hear a young boy shriek in excitement. “He���s so fast, I want to play just like him.”
You turn to look and see two rows above you there’s a father and son, who looks around eight. He’s wearing a jersey identical to yours, and from the sounds of his excited chattering it’s his first game. Seeing the young boy so happy to be here, to see your boyfriend, has your heart swelling. You want to make this a game he’ll never forget.
“Hi,” you smile at the father. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I know Matthew quite well. Would you like me to get his attention so your son could meet him?”
A shocked expression makes its way onto the dad’s face, but he doesn’t react negatively. “You’d do that?” he asks. “Riley loves Matthew. Wants to be just like him.” When you nod, he lets you approach the boy. 
“Hey there Riley, I’m Y/N,” you say, smiling and extending a hand to him. “I’m a special friend of Matthew’s. Would you like to meet him?”
The boy looks at his father tentatively, and only once he nods encouragingly does Riley respond to your question. “Yes please.”
“Why don’t you come down here with me and we’ll get his attention?”
With a little help from you, Riley climbs over the seats and plops unceremoniously beside you. You help him straighten out his jersey before beginning a conversation. He tells you he plays in a local youth league and wants to make it to the NHL one day. When prompted, you explain to him that you work a boring office job that you love even though it makes you angry sometimes. It’s all very formal, but after cracking a few jokes you get him to loosen up.
Matthew, still not having noticed you, begins to skate along the boards in your direction. “Watch this,” you whisper-yell to your newfound friend, “I bet he’ll jump super high.”
As soon as Matthew passes your spot you bang on the glass and scream his name. Sure enough, his skates lift a good three inches of the ice and he shrieks. Teammates around him laugh and the look on his face is priceless when he discovers you’re the culprit. 
“Babe!” 
You smile. “Matty, this is my new friend Riley. He wears number nineteen just like you!” A glance at the boy lets you know he’s starstruck, and your eyes lock with Matthew’s. 
He leans down and rests his hands on his knees, at eye level with the child. “Hi Riley,” he begins. “I’m Matt. I like your jersey.” 
After that, Riley’s a tap that won’t turn off. He details every bit of his day to Matt, and even though their voices are muffled a bit from the glass they get on like two peas in a pod. Matthew is great with children and doesn’t shy away from having legitimate conversations with them. He talks to them like they’re people, which is something you admire about him. The warmup time runs out, but before he heads back to the dressing room Matthew hoists his stick over the glass, giving it to Riley. The younger boy beams and waves goodbye. You blow Matthew a kiss, which he gladly returns, and turn your attention away from him as his figure retreats. 
“Is he your boyfriend?”The question makes you laugh.
“Is it that obvious?” you ask, to which Riley just shrugs. 
“He called you ‘babe’, and my mommy calls my dad that. That means you’re in love,” he says as though it’s the most obvious thing in the entire world. 
Matthew cannot pay attention in the locker room for the life of him. He’s trying really hard to listen to everyone’s hype speeches, but his mind keeps wandering back to the interaction you shared during warm up. You looked so happy watching him interact with the boy you found god knows where within the arena. It’s then he realizes he wants to watch you act like that for the rest of his life. He wants to see you bring excited children to meet him because you have the power to make their nights. His suspicion is confirmed when he steps onto the ice and looks in your direction, finding you and Riley pressed up against the glass cheering loudly.
three
The Giordano’s are hosting an end-of-season barbeque before everyone scatters into the wind, and you’re going to be late. No matter how much you reminded Matthew of what time you had to leave he still started getting ready as you were finishing up. This typically wouldn’t be a big deal, but he has recently started taking care of his curls, and the routine eats up a lot more time than he anticipates. 
“Matty, are you almost ready? There’s going to be no parking!”
His footsteps echo off the hardwood floor as he comes towards you. “That’s what you’re worrying about, baby? Parking?” Matthew laughs, pulling you into his side and kissing the crown of your head. 
“Yeah Matt, I am. You know I have parking anxiety.”
“I’ll drive then,” he says sweetly. “Besides, it’s been a while since I’ve driven us. Have some fun tonight.”
The short drive across town is full of laughter. Neither of you are great singers, but it doesn’t stop you from belting out lyrics at the top of your lungs. At some point Matthew breaks out a rather terrible impression of Axl Rose and you just have to post it to your instagram story. Captioning with a simple microphone emoji, you slip your phone back into your sweater pocket. Though most certainly warm enough to spend the entire evening outside, Calgary currently has a bit of a proclivity for wind, and you’d rather be prepared. Outside of Mark and Lauren’s house Matthew finds a spot and parallel parks with ease.
“Shut up,” you mumble, poking your tongue out at him. 
Matthew ruffles your hair in retaliation before jumping out of the vehicle, booking it around to the other side so he can open your door. He isn’t slick about hiding his intentions, grabbing a handful off your ass before leaning down to kiss you. Though you’d much rather stand in the cul-de-sac and make out with your boyfriend, you both have appearances to keep up. You get him to stop being a pest kong enough that you can enter the party and pass him off to his teammates. 
You congregate with some of the other girls in the corner of the yard, and enjoy a drink while the sun sets. It’s fun to gossip with them, to catch up one final time before most of them leave. You’ll be staying in Calgary, job tying you down for the foreseeable future. The only thing that’s better than spending time with your friends is glancing at Matthew from across the space. 
He’s enjoying himself, glass of water in hand. When he offered to be the designated driver he was serious, and he took the shit the boys were giving him in stride. Though you’ve only had one gin and tonic and can’t feel the effects of the alcohol, you’re glad he’s staying true to his word. The heightened water intake makes his skin glow, and you’re having a hard time staying focussed on the story Lauren is telling. He catches you staring and shoots you a dazzling smile. Tired of keeping your distance, you excuse yourself from the conversation and saunter over to your boyfriend. 
“Hey Y/N,” Noah says breezily, raising his glass to you in mock salute. You wrap your arms tightly around Matthew’s waist.
“Hanifin,” you smile. “I’m really sorry to do this, but I need to pull Matt away for a quick second.”
No one in the group is the least bit surprised. The two of you have a reputation for being young and in love, sneaking off often and doing everything that entails. Once the two of you are alone you rest a hand on his chest, dangerously close to the button of his shirt. You then move kissing along the underside of his jaw, pressing your body closer to his to ensure he gets the point. 
“Needy baby?” Matthew tries to smirk, but his voice wavers when you reach the junction of his jawbone and earlobe. 
Declining to speak, you continue your actions until he’s just as desperate to get home as you. Though you try to be sneaky as you exit through the back gate, you won’t be surprised if you wake up to a few crude text messages. You’re too far gone to care, solely focussed on showing your boyfriend how much you love him. 
The entire ride home Matthew can barely focus on the road. Not because you’re doing anything particularly risqué, a few too many close calls have put you both off of initiating things in the car, but because he doesn’t ever want to stop sneaking away from events with you. It’s exhilarating in more ways than one, and he hopes the feeling never goes away. Being with you, his best friend, is something he wouldn’t trade for the entire world. So what if he gets chirped by the boys for having precariously placed marks on his back.
four
September brings a chill to Calgary, but you couldn’t feel warmer. Matthew is due home this afternoon after nearly four months of being away. Of course you visited him in St. Louis, and he even flew back to the city once, but the two of you were mostly separated. Your shared apartment felt cold and lonely without him to annoy you, so you had spent as much time away from it as possible. No longer do you have to fall asleep with Matt’s side of the bed stone cold. 
Though you know he likely won’t care, you’re nervous about the new decor. In an effort to make yourself feel better in Matthew’s absence, you completed some home renovations. Most are superficial, like a new sectional and an ungraded home speaker system, but you had redone the entire kitchen after scrolling through pinterest. The cabinets are a bright yellow, and the walls are a warm cream. Subway tile has also replaced the previous backsplash. You’re quite proud of the way it looks – doing pretty much all of it yourself and only calling your dad when you really needed help. 
You spend much of the morning not doing anything productive, pacing the hallway back and forth. It’s nerve wracking and exciting to have Matthew home. Things will go much smoother with his presence even if he can sometimes be the most annoying person on the planet. You force yourself to eat a small meal before continuing to wear holes into your floor. He’ll arrive in a matter of minutes, and you’re practically vibrating with how much your legs are shaking. 
A key twists in the lock, as though it’s a Pavlovian response, you bound towards the front door. Not even letting him step over the threshold you wrap yourself around him as tightly as possible. Matthew giggles sweetly, and you swear it’s the best sound you’ve ever heard. Tears flow freely down your cheeks and soak through his shirt. In a very ungraceful waddle Matthew carries the both of you inside your home and shuts the door lightly. 
“What’s the matter, Y/N?” Matt asks, obviously concerned because this is more emotional than any homecoming you’ve ever had. 
Through hiccupping sobs, you stutter out, “I painted the kitchen cabinets yellow and you’re going to hate them. And then you’ll want to break up with me but I won’t be able to take them with me.”
“Woah woah woah, slow down baby,” he soothes, rubbing circles on your back. “Why am I going to hate it?”
When you can’t come up with a justifiable answer, he knows your anxiety just got the better of you. Repositioning you slightly so you’re tucked into his side, Matthew walks through the apartment to see the kitchen for himself. He’s blown away by its beauty, and he can see just how much work you put into it. The room is so much brighter and inviting – he can’t imagine having any other kitchen now. 
Once you ramble off an apology for being so dramatic that he won’t accept, the two of you settle into the couch and start a reality television marathon. It’s a tradition that both of you take very seriously, and though he’d never admit it to anyone but you, Matthew looks forward to watching the outlandish dramas. The night is quiet, with you getting through quite a few seasons of Desperate Housewives, and at some point you fall asleep on Matthew’s chest. He knows he should gently move you off of him, start to unpack his bags, but he can’t tear himself away.
He can’t help but stare as you snore softly. There’s nothing Matthew would like more than to spend the rest of his life relaxing after coming home to you. If he’s being completely honest, St. Louis doesn’t feel like home as much anymore, and he finds himself counting down the days until he can return to Calgary. Matt supposes you’re the defining factor, and even Antarctica would feel like home to him if you were there. He never wants to lose that feeling. 
+ one 
There’s ten seconds left on the clock. Ten seconds until the Calgary Flames will become Stanley Cup champions. You’re holding your breath – you know a lot could happen in such a short amount of time. The lead isn’t as wide as you’d like it to be, only one, and you squeeze Taryn’s hand tightly. Everyone in the friends and family box is just as amped up as you. If the choice had been yours, you’d be sitting in the stands of the Saddledome, but in event the Flames win you need to be with everyone else if you want to join the team on the ice. 
Matthew carries the puck up the ice, and you audibly gasp. At the last second, a Bruins defenseman is blocking his view of the net. Not letting the scoring opportunity go for his team, he snaps a pass backwards to Elias Lindholm. A nano-second later the puck is in the back of the net. You possibly scream the loudest of anyone in the box, jumping into Brady’s arms excitedly. 
“Holy shit, they’re going to do it,” you whisper, and Brady nods enthusiastically. The clock now only has two seconds, and there is virtually no way the Bruins can make a comeback. 
You untangle yourself from your boyfriend’s brother and approach his parents. “How exciting is this!” Chantal gushes. 
“So fucking exciting,” you say honestly. “Listen, I want to talk to you about something.”
The Bruins’ head coach is halfway through his timeout, so you have to talk fast. You explain that you want to hang back while the family celebrates with their son and brother. Keith and Chantal try to argue, but you insist. You want them to be the first people to greet him as a Stanley Cup champion. 
A horn signals the return to play, and you return your attention to the ice pad below you. Everything seems to move in slow motion; all you remember is the final whistle being blown and getting crushed in a group hug by everyone else in the room. Your voice goes hoarse from screaming, and tears stream freely down your face. 
The party continues for a short time in the box, but then you’re being led through the arena and out onto the ice. Nodding in the direction of Matthew, you urge the Tkachuks to greet him. You congratulate other members of the team, snapping candid pictures of everyone to share in the group chat later. So many families will treasure the photos that you can’t bring yourself to stop, trying your hardest to grab everyone. 
Once enough time has passed for Matthew to properly be congratulated by his family, you make your way towards him. Wasting no time, he skates over and lifts you off your feet. Your lips meet his in a passionate kiss, and if you weren’t so proud you’d have reservations about sticking your tongue down Matthew’s throat in a packed arena. 
“I’m so proud of you,” you whisper against his lips. “My champion.”
Matthew blushes profusely at your words, and you can tell he likes them. “Couldn’t have done it without you supporting me,” he responds, leaning into your touch as you rake your fingers through his hair. 
While you celebrate with the rest of the team, holding babies and snapping pictures, Matthew realizes he can’t live without you. No one else will fit into his life as perfectly as you. There’s no one he wants besides you. Matthew makes a mental note to go through your jewelry box in the morning to get your ring size. His mom always said he’d know when someone was ‘the one’, and now he understands what she meant.  
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
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plus-size-reader · 3 years
Text
Creep pt.2
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Victor Criss x Plus size!reader
Word Count: 2424 words
Warnings: none
Summary: Victor finally gets the date he was so desperate for
Part 1 
—————————————————————————————————
He’d figured it out.
It took him all week, and he’d nearly burst a blood vessel while trying to figure out what it was he wanted to do, but Victor knew now.  
You specified that you wanted him to take you to dinner. That was what you wanted if you were going to believe that he had feelings for you, and he definitely did.
So, all he had to do was figure out was where to take a girl like you, a girl he really liked, without his friends ever finding out that the dinner date happened.
It was a tall order, but after all this time, he had an idea.
All he had to do was make sure that the guys were busy, and he would be free to take you anywhere he wanted. Then, as far as wooing you went, he already had a whole dinner date set up in the form of a picnic in the quarry.
There weren’t a lot of first date level restaurants around here that were any good, and the ones that were around, he certainly couldn’t afford or wasn’t allowed back into.
Most of the business owners in Derry were wary of the Bower’s gang, and they had been banned from most of the fancier establishments.
Hell, even the milkshake bar on the other side of town had threatened to have them arrested if they ever went back. Though, he sort of understood where they were coming from, after Henry spray painted some really obscene things on the side of their building.
Victor just hoped the saying was right, and the thought behind his evening with you would be enough to show you just how much you meant to him because the picnic he’d planned was pretty extensive.
He had gone out and picked up everything you could have wanted, aside from the burgers he was going to pick up right before picking you up at your house, so they wouldn’t get cold.
He had a blanket that he could spread out over the edge of the rock quarry, looking down over the water, and he even got these tiny little cakes from the bakery down the street that he figured you’d like.
Girls liked those kinds of things, he’d asked Belch.
All in all, it was shaping up to be a pretty good date. The only thing Vic still had to do was figure out how to get the guys out of his hair for the night.
The worst thing he could possibly imagine happening would be Henry, Patrick, and to a lesser extent Belch, crashing your picnic and ruining his chances with you completely.
The blonde was already well aware that he was on thin ice with you, which was why this probationary date had to go well. He wanted to show you that he was capable of this.
That he was more than just some thug who made fun of pretty girls for their extra weight and relationship status, two things Henry went pretty hard at you for.
Henry and Patrick both liked to comment on how you would never have a boyfriend because of your size, and how you would probably die a virgin cause nobody would hit that.
In fact, there were very few things about you that the more alpha of his friends wouldn’t torment you for, something that, the more he thought about it, made Victor upset.
You had a point that day in the hall.
He had never really said anything nasty about you to your face, but he hadn’t stopped them from doing it either. He just stood back and let his friends treat you like the dirt beneath their boots.
It was hardly the foundation for a functional relationship, but he wanted to try. For now, all he could do was hope that he’d planned such an amazing date that it would make up for all those terrible things.
Thankfully, before Victor could further drive himself crazy, his three best, and only, friends came around the corner and made a B-line for him. This was it, if this went well, he would be home free for his date tonight.
...But if it didn’t, he had no idea how he was going to explain it to you.
There was no way you would give him a second chance if he cancelled your date to spend the night riding around in Belch’s Trans Am, listening to hair metal.
It had to happen tonight.
“Where have you been?” Belch asked, the only one of the three to even address him once they’d made it to his side.
Henry and Patrick continued to talk about whatever it was that had them so enthralled.
It wasn’t new, and didn’t even really bother Vic, but it was something he had never realized before. They didn’t even really seem to care if he was there or not, which he never would have noticed before talking to you.
Somehow you had managed to turn everything Victor knew upside down and he wasn't sure that he liked it. He wasn’t blind to the fact that his friends weren’t the best people before, but it had never hurt him to be around them.
They were the only friends he had, even if they weren’t the greatest guys of all time.
They were what he had.
“I had to run a few errands, no big deal” the blonde shrugged, hoping he’d done a good enough job at hiding his true intentions so that Belch wouldn’t ask any questions.
He wouldn’t have any answers for him if he did.
This whole thing was new to Vic, who had never really liked a girl this much in the first place, but he was doing what he thought would work. Lying, thankfully, wasn’t new to him.
At the very least, he could rely on his quick wit and the fact that two of the three of his friends couldn’t have been more oblivious to what he was doing and the third wasn’t the brightest to begin with.
It was starting to look like his little scheme would actually work.
Belch didn’t pry any further, something that Victor was glad for, and before it could get any more awkward or he gave himself a stroke, he asked what he’d been trying to ask for days, but didn’t have the nerve to.
“So, what’s the plan for tonight?”
He tried to make it as nonchalant and casual as he could, as if he was just inquiring about the plans he knew they had indefinitely.
Even if the four of them were just going to walk around Henry’s property, or terrorize kids in the park, they always did something together. It wasn’t the sort of question that should have roused any suspicion.
Still, Vic couldn’t help but feel like his entire plot was unraveling at the seams and it was only a matter of time before the gang found out what he was doing and slaughtered him.
It wouldn't go over well. “Nothing, I gotta take care of some things for my pop, so you three girls are on your own” Henry shrugged, not offering any more explanation than that. Whatever it was, if Butch was involved, they knew not to press it.
Though, Victor already felt a little better knowing that Henry wouldn’t be skulking around, potentially finding the two of you in the woods.
Henry already had it out for you more than anyone else because of that time he asked you to see a movie with him and you said no. That rejection had really stuck a bur in his side, and it surely had something to do with his cruelty toward you now.
He wasn’t used to hearing no, after all.
Patrick and Belch had other plans too, it seemed, not really interested in hanging out with any of the others of them without Henry. If it wasn’t the whole gang, it was weird for them.
So, it seemed like Victor was in the clear.
All he had to do now was show you the time of your life and hope that you actually gave him a chance. A girl like you should have never even agreed to go out with him in the first place, so he wasn’t going to ruin it.
You deserved the best, and he was doing all he could to provide it.
~
Vic was sure he’d never been this nervous in his entire life.
Before now, he’d been so preoccupied worrying about the threat of the gang finding out what he was doing, or you changing your mind and rejecting him that he hadn’t given any thought at all to how this would feel.
Waiting for you to get here was going to kill him.
All Victor could think about was whether or not you were coming, or if something had happened to you on the way here. Maybe you decided that this wasn’t a good idea and were staying home, or worse, maybe you had another date.
Whatever it was, it was taking you way too long to get here and every second that passed by, he was sure you weren’t going to show.
You had stopped him in the hallway after the last bell rang, signalling the end of the day, and told him that you would meet him in the Quarry, because he didn’t drive, which didn’t seem like that big of a deal at first.
No good first date had even begun by walking awkwardly in silence through the woods, and it was smart to meet up for the more romantic parts of the evening. However, now that it was here, Vic had to wonder if it was all some clever ploy to leave him in the quarry alone.
It seemed cruel, but after everything he and the guys had done to you, it would be a lie to say that he didn’t deserve it.
He couldn’t have blamed you if you hated him.
Thankfully though, as the sun began creeping down and the air cooled that much more under the waterfront’s influence, you came walking up the path.
You had to admit that when he first suggested coming to the Quarry this late in the evening, you weren’t sure. It still seemed like this whole thing could be some joke, or something put on by Henry to humiliate you.
After all, Victor was the most unassuming of the four of them and if you were going to agree to go out with any of the Bower’s gang, it would have been him.
You just weren’t sure how to feel.
...but you were relieved to see Victor, right where he said he’d been, sitting on a beach towel or something.
It didn’t seem like a set up for a prank, but you weren’t fully convinced until you reached his side and saw the huge set up he’d spread out for you, right on the edge of the cliff.
You were far enough back to avoid falling off or dropping anything into the water below but close enough to see how pretty it was up here. You had never been here before, which had only solidified Victor’s plans to bring you.
The quarry was one of the only things in Derry that was worth seeing, and the fact that you’d lived here this long and still hadn’t come up here was blasphemous to him.
“Hey, I was getting worried you wouldn’t come” Vic called, the first to speak between the two of you. He did his best to play it off like a joke but it seemed like you knew how nervous he was.
Of course you did.
You were nervous to do this too.
Putting yourself out there wasn’t really something you did often or were good at, and you felt like you had taken a huge risk in agreeing to do this with him. However, as far as dates went, this really was worth the risk.
No one had ever gone through so much trouble just to impress you.
“You get stood up often?” you teased, sitting down on the spot across from him which you assumed was meant for you. It would have been sort of strange if he was waiting on someone else too.
It was a joke of course, but what you didn’t know was that he had. In general, Vic didn’t date too often just because he didn’t have a great history with this sort of thing.
He wasn’t exactly a ladies man after all.
“Sometimes” he shrugged, hoping that wouldn’t scare you off. It was much more honest than he was used to being, with anyone, but for some reason, you brought it out of him.
The two of you seemed to bring something different out of each other and as strange as it was for both of you, it was nice.
Victor, for one, felt like he could be who he was around you. It didn’t matter how vulnerable or goofy he wanted to be, there wasn’t going to be any awful consequences like there would be with the gang.
You didn’t seem to care if he wanted to be a geek.
“That’s okay. Me too” you shrugged, grabbing one of the cans of soda he offered you.
Your admission made him laugh, of course, because he assumed that you were joking, but after a few seconds of silence, he realized just how wrong he’d been.
You were completely serious, but that didn’t make any sense to him. You were beautiful and the fact that you had been stood up on a date didn’t compute for him.
Who in their right mind would have skipped out on a date with you? Victor certainly wouldn’t have, even considering how difficult you had made getting here for him.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad they were so stupid because now you’re here with me” he sighed, doing his best to keep from looking you in the face after saying something like that but you were happy he had.
That was one of the sweetest things anyone had ever said to you and as shocked as you were that he was the one saying it, you weren’t going to argue.
“I’m glad too. You’re surprisingly sweet, Vic” you allowed, taking a sip of your drink without much more between the two of you. This was hardly where you saw the evening going, but it was for the better.
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
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sokkastyles · 3 years
Note
In your last post you talked a lot about how Zuko respects Iroh. Could you give some examples of that? Because I'm feeling like Zuko doesn't really respect anyone, he (understandably) has an ego and thinks he's above everyone, even if he's working on
It is such a shame that Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) was cancelled after two episodes.
Lol, now that I've got that out of my system, I'm gonna assume you aren't just a troll and treat this like you actually want a serious answer, because it gives me an opportunity to meta about Zuko and Iroh's relationship.
I would say that the Zuko we are introduced to has a pretty big ego, yeah, and thinks he's above everyone else. He's incredibly disrespectful to most everyone he meets, including his long-suffering uncle. When I started the show I knew through cultural osmosis that Zuko would get redeemed, and from the first episode I was like "alright, I'm ready to see how the show is gonna make me like this asshole." I especially did have a negative reaction to the way he treats Iroh in the beginning, because Iroh is one of the first characters I loved. I also was sympathetic to Iroh because I'm an adult, and an adult who works with kids. If any of my students said to me some of the stuff that Zuko says to Iroh I'd be like, yeah, okay, detention for you young man.
It's also pretty clear from early on though that Zuko's ego comes from a deep insecurity and low self-esteem. That doesn't make the things he does any better, and yes he is incredibly disrespectful to Iroh, especially when Iroh contradicts him about his mission. That's also related to his deep insecurity and trauma surrounding his father, of course, because Zuko needs to believe that he can win back his father's acceptance to cope with what his father did to him, but that doesn't excuse it.
He says some incredibly nasty things to Iroh. In the first episode we see him respond angrily when Iroh won't teach him more advanced firebending, and Zuko responds, as he does several times, by trying to imitate his father's brand of coercion and intimidation. Iroh is like, not impressed, and he puts up with a lot of crap from Zuko but he also doesn't let it get to him because he's a responsible adult and he wants to support Zuko in the way he can. Which also means telling him off sometimes because dude.
Zuko thinks Iroh is lazy and a failure, and resents the fact that Iroh is keeping him from what he says he is "more than ready" for, and tries to bully Iroh when he doesn't get his way, but then we see in the third episode, "The Southern Air Temple," Zuko's fight with Zhao. We see that for all Zuko's complaining about Iroh's teaching, he does what Iroh taught him to do, he sticks to his basics, and he wins. Iroh says that Zuko is honorable and we see that Zuko appreciates Iroh's support. It's also implied by the way Zhao mentions humiliating Zuko in front of his uncle that Zuko wants Iroh to be proud of him, that it's obvious to Zhao how close they are.
Another example of the show letting us know that Zuko cares more about his uncle than he lets on is when he threatens to leave Iroh behind in "Winter Solstice" but then comes back for him to find him gone, and goes out of his way to search for him, even setting aside his hunt for Aang. Zuko fights the earthbenders to save Iroh and Iroh compliments his form, to which Zuko says Iroh taught him well. This episode does a lot to develop Zuko as a character and his relationship with Iroh because not only do we see that Zuko cares for his uncle, but that, contrary to his rudeness and dismissiveness in episode one, Zuko does respect Iroh as a teacher and a bender.
There's a lot of examples like this where Zuko says one thing but does another, because Zuko is a character who, at the beginning of the story, carries a lot of cognitive dissonance and guards his real feelings about things. His relationship with Iroh is an example. This isn't very surprising because it's pretty common in child psychology. Especially with kids who have been abused, they will rebel against an authority figure and push back in any way they can to see if they can find a breaking point. Iroh's endlessly patient and supportive but solid and firm presence is something Zuko is not used to and doesn't know how to deal with. But it's very clear that Zuko relies on Iroh as a father and mentor, even when Zuko doesn't realize it yet.
"The Avatar State" in another episode that shows how much Zuko relies on Iroh. At the beginning of the episode Zuko is sitting apart and it's implied that he's not happy with Iroh relaxing and getting a massage, but Zuko also opens up to Iroh about his feelings about his father. Zuko also is dismissive and rude to Iroh again in this episode, criticizing Iroh for collecting shells and also insulting Iroh when Iroh contradicts him about going with Azula, but then Zuko is happy when Iroh goes with him to Azula's ship, and we get that flash of the image of Ozai with his hand on Zuko's shoulder. This tells us that Zuko sees Iroh as the kind of mentor figure that he wishes his father were, even if, again, Zuko doesn't quite realize this yet. There are many other examples like this where Zuko is frustrated by not getting Iroh's approval on something because he wants Iroh to be proud of him. Like when he steals the teapot and gives it to Iroh and Iroh is not interested in stolen items. Zuko's clearly hurt by not having Iroh's approval, which is a big part of why he left Iroh, and Iroh knows that Zuko is struggling to find himself but also still needs his support.
Then you have "Bitter Work," the lightning bending, and Zuko's look of total admiration when Iroh is bending lightning and teaching Zuko a move that he invented himself. Like I said before, it's clear that Zuko respects Iroh as a powerful bender. This is also echoed in that scene in the book two finale when Iroh is about to breathe fire and Zuko has this look of "wow my uncle is going to beat you so bad this is going to be great!"
There's also a lot of little stuff in the Ba Sing Se arc that show that Zuko respects Iroh and values him as a mentor figure. He lets Iroh do his hair for his date with Jin! It looks terrible! Zuko has no idea how to behave on a date so he's like um, uncle said to give you this coupon! Look how smart my uncle is! Of course the culmination of that arc is Zuko's fever and his awakening which gives him a renewed respect for Iroh, and he actually makes an effort to show Iroh how much he values him. He still betrays Iroh in Ba Sing Se but it's not the "I hate you and you smell!" thing that the play portrays it as. One of the reasons Zuko was so confused there was because he felt like his uncle was telling him contradictory things, and he couldn't reconcile his uncle's wisdom with what he'd been taught to believe by Ozai.
But it's finally losing Iroh as that pillar of support that makes Zuko truly realize how much he does value his uncle. It still takes him a while to get there, and he again pushes back against Iroh when Iroh won't talk to him in prison and blames him for his own internal turmoil. But when he does finally get there, it's such a slap in the face to Ozai that Zuko on the Day of Black Sun tells him to his face that Iroh is his real father, that Zuko is going to fall to his knees and beg for Iroh's forgiveness, because Zuko has realized that Iroh is the one who really deserves his respect. Not only does Zuko tell Ozai that he, in fact, did not teach him anything about respect, but the respect Ozai tried to get from his son through cruelty and control is something Zuko will freely give to Iroh.
Then Zuko spends the next several episodes constantly talking about how great Iroh is, how much he misses him, how good he is at making tea and telling jokes, how wise he is, and what an ass he, Zuko, had been to him. He follows Iroh's advice and humbles himself because Iroh always said he didn't think things through enough, he works hard to make himself into someone his uncle would be proud of. Then when he does meet Iroh again he asks for forgiveness, but he says that even if Iroh won't forgive him he would try to make it up to him. He's completely humbled himself and it's so satisfying because it's the fulfilment of their relationship arc, and you can feel the love and respect that these two characters have for each other. And it's directly meant to contrast with what Ozai said about respect, because Ozai is full of shit.
And then Zuko just like automatically assumes that Iroh will be the Fire Lord and Iroh's like "Zuko did you forget that you are the crown prince?" And Zuko, bless his heart, is like "but I made so many mistakes."
I'm sorry, but if you're gonna keep arguing that Zuko, at this point, still "thinks he's above everyone else" then you are just being willfully obtuse.
Not to mention the fact that Zuko's crowning moment as Fire Lord is him giving a speech about how he wants to serve others, to heal the world, and even the applause and praise that he, in the beginning, wanted from others is something he doesn't accept. He tells everyone that Aang is the real hero. And Aang is a hero but like, Zuko is a hero, too, by showing heroic qualities like being selfless and humble and caring towards others. And then his last scene is not him as Fire Lord, but serving tea to everyone dressed in Earth Kingdom clothes.
And who does he serve tea to first? Uncle.
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suituuup · 3 years
Text
that's the kind of love i've been dreaming of
Has Beca mentioned that she hates his guts? Everything is just too… annoyingly nice. His charming smile, his messy but not too messy hair, his sense of humor, and well, his taste in women, as he’s dating the girl Beca happens to be in love with.
Word count: 2005
Rating: T
Entry for Bechloe week, day one: “Because I'm in love with you, dumbass.”
Beta by the lovely @snowonebutyou and thanks to @green-eyed-weirdo for bouncing ideas with me <3
READ ON AO3
*
The muffled giggle greeting Beca when she steps through the door makes her groan. The deep voice that follows confirms that Chloe is indeed not alone, and Beca briefly considers turning around and… going for a walk or something.
But her feet are about to fall off, she feels gross from her overcrowded subway ride home where she’s pretty sure a dude sniffed her hair, and she is really fucking tired.
She’s just flopped down face first on the pull-out couch when the door to Chloe’s bedroom opens, and two sets of feet grow closer.
“You alright, Becs?”
Beca grunts something inaudible in acknowledgment before she rolls on her back. “M’fine.”
“Hey Beca,” Chicago greets her with a soft smile, and Beca somehow manages to leash in her sneer.
“Hey,” she mumbles, the best she can muster when it comes to Chloe’s boyfriend.
Has she mentioned that she hates his guts? Everything is just too… annoyingly nice. His charming smile, his messy but not too messy hair, his sense of humor, and well, his taste in women, as he’s dating the girl Beca happens to be in love with.
Yep. It’s only been four years and a half; not a big deal.
She was this close to admitting her feelings to Chloe, still reeling with adrenaline after her solo performance, when Chloe ran to Army Boy instead. Beca doesn’t think she knew what a broken heart felt like until that very moment.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Chicago asks, setting his hands on Chloe’s hips.
“Yeah,” Chloe agrees and leans up to kiss his lips. Beca rolls her eyes, grabbing her phone from her back pocket as a distraction from the display of gag-worthy affection.
The door finally clicks shut behind Chicago, and Beca hears Chloe sigh. That kind of content sigh that has jealousy flare up within her because Chloe should be sighing like that because of her.
“I thought he was leaving tomorrow morning?” Beca asks as she scrolls through her Instagram, not really registering the photos zooming past her eyes.
“Not anymore,” Chloe says, biting on her bottom lip like she’s trying to prevent a smile from breaking through. “He’s um, going to be stationed in Brooklyn. His request just got granted.”
A huge lump forms in Beca’s throat as she registers the news and an uneasy feeling seized her stomach. “That’s--” she swallows with difficulty, swiping her tongue over her dry lips. “That’s great, Chlo.”
She soon exits Instagram, opening her safari to look for apartment listings.
*
Finding an apartment in New York City within her price range, as it turns out, is pretty fucking difficult.
You would think Beca was aware of that given the fact that there used to be one more person living in her current studio, with a simple curtain acting as bathroom walls.
(she definitely has PTSD from that night Amy had food poisoning from Taco Bell.)
When Amy moved out, Chloe took her room, because Beca is the night owl of the two, usually coming home late from work or cooking dinner after Chloe has gone to bed.
It’s pushing eleven by the time she makes it back that night, and she prays that Chloe is already in bed. The past couple of weeks following the news have been… weird, to say the least. Beca has been avoiding Chloe, coming up with excuses whenever Chloe asks her if she wants to hang out.
She makes herself a quick dinner (okay, makes might be a bit of an overstatement: she just pours some hot water over instant noodles. Don’t come at her.) and messes around on her laptop for a while, turning the lights off just after one am.
A moan reaching her ears just as she feels herself dozing off has her eyes fly open. A moan that very much belongs to Chloe, and Beca just wants to disappear off the face of the earth. Quiet laughter follows, and when the bed starts squeaking, leaving no doubt regarding what they’re doing in there, Beca ponders smothering herself with her own pillow.
She grabs her headphones instead, hastily placing them over her ears before she hears something that will most likely scar her forever. It somewhat cancels out the sounds, enough for Beca to fall asleep. She flees the apartment before either of them is awake, drowning her sorrows in a double espresso from the corner coffee shop.
Over the next few days, she excels in avoiding Chloe. She knows Chloe’s schedule well enough to come back when she’s either asleep or not there. Or at least she thought so.
“Hey.”
Beca freezes as she closes the door, looking over her shoulder to find Chloe popping her head out of the fridge.
Beca clears her throat, rubbing her nose with her knuckle as she stares down at the scuff of her shoes. “Hey,” she echoes, setting her keys down on the counter.
“Long time no see,” Chloe says as Beca sits on the edge of her bed to take her boots off.
“Yeah um, I’ve been busy,” Beca mumbles as she undoes her laces.
“Busy avoiding me?”
Beca’s spine snaps straighter at that, and she looks up to meet Chloe’s eyes. “No, just--” her shoulder lifts in a half shrug. “I figured you and Chicago might enjoy some private time together.”
Chloe hums like she doesn’t believe her. “You’d tell me if-- if something was bothering you, right? I feel like I’ve done something wrong.”
Beca swallows. “It’s not you, Chlo. I’m just--” she sighs, feeling her frustration rise as she scrapes her brain for a believable lie. “Work sucks and I feel like I’m getting nowhere, so I’ve been crankier than usual.”
Chloe nods, her lips curving in a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry you’re having a hard time at work,” she says. “We should go out tonight! It’s been forever.”
Beca’s rebuttal lies on the tip of her tongue, out of reflex. She swallows it back, because Chloe is giving her those puppy eyes she’s mastered so well, and Beca knows damn well she can’t resist. Besides, she could definitely use a drink. Or ten.
“Yeah, okay. Sure.”
That’s how they find themselves in an overly too loud, busy club a handful of hours later. Beca is definitely tipsy, and Chloe has just ordered shots, so she knows she’s likely to finish the night with her head in the toilet. But she hasn’t laughed like that in a while, and it feels amazing to be… Beca and Chloe again.
It’s ruined just after Beca downs her first shot, when Army Boy shows up.
“Hi!” Chloe exclaims, springing up from her stool to hug him.
Beca grits her teeth so hard that she’s half-concerned they might break, her eyes throwing daggers at Chicago’s head.
“Hey Beca,” he says, apparently oblivious as he slides on the vacant stool.
Beca simply tilts her chin towards him, along with a tight-lipped smile. As Chicago orders his drink with the waitress, Beca shrugs her jacket on. “I’m gonna go,” she announces over the music, not caring one bit that it’s obvious as to why.
She doesn’t wait for a reply, letting her legs carry her towards the exit as quickly as possible as tears burn her eyes. She bumps into someone in her haste and mumbles a disoriented sorry, sucking in a much needed breath as soon as she steps outside of the club.
The music gradually fades away as she starts down the sidewalk, tugging her jacket tighter around her frame when a chill rolls down her spine. She’s not even sure in which direction she’s going, set on hailing the first cab she finds.
“What the hell is your problem??”
Beca freezes at the familiar voice, swallowing around the forming lump in her throat before she turns around. She barely meets Chloe’s eyes. “I’m just tired, Chlo.”
“Bullshit,” Chloe spits out, a scoff flying past her lips as she shakes her head. Her typically warm eyes are bone-chilling icy. “You left the second he got here.”
Beca sighs heavily, her hands forming fists by her sides in an attempt to tame her growing irritation. “Yeah well, maybe I didn’t feel like being the third wheel. I thought it was just going to be you and I, tonight. But you two have been attached to the hip and all you can talk about is Chicago this, Chicago that.”
“Well I’m sorry if I enjoy his company,” Chloe fires back. “You know, the least you could do is be happy for me.”
“Oh great, the guilty card,” Beca says, eyes rolling skyward. She sucks in a sharp breath. “I can’t be happy for you, Chlo.”
Chloe staggers back as though Beca’s words slapped her in the face. “What?”
“I said, I can’t be happy for you,” Beca repeats, her tone rising along with her frustration.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Chloe asks, a mixture of anger, hurt and confusion surfacing in her features. “Why can’t you be happy for me? That’s what best friends are supposed to do, you know. I mean, are you even still my best friend? Because you haven’t been acting like one those past--”
“Because I’m in love with you, dumbass!” Beca finally blurts, a lot louder than necessary. Her declaration catches the attention of a few bypassers, but Beca is too focused on Chloe to care.
She watches as realization dawns in Chloe’s eyes, and all she can hear is her heart beating madly in her ears. She swallows, glancing down at the crack in the sidewalk. “And I’m the biggest idiot in the world,” she mumbles, roughly wiping at her cheeks when she feels a few tears rolling down her skin. “I’ll be out of the apartment by tomorrow.”
Beca is thankful Chloe doesn’t follow her when she turns around and resumes her journey home. She ends up walking all the way, too embarrassed to break down in a cab like in those stupid rom-coms. She texts Amy when she makes it back to ask if she can crash at her fancy apartment, fishing out her suitcase as soon as her friend agrees. Tears keep leaking out, and Beca wipes them away with her sleeve before she starts shoving her clothes into the suitcase, trying to ignore the way her heart aches.
A key slides into the lock just as she’s done packing. Beca straightens and hastily wipes her cheeks dry, even though she knows her bloodshot eyes will betray her.
“You’re really leaving,” Chloe murmurs, her voice barely audible.
Beca sniffles as she heaves her suitcase off the bed and sets it down. “Yep.”
“Why?”
Beca bites back a humorless laugh. “I don’t know, maybe because I’m not a masochist?” She deadpans. “Seeing you and Chicago together isn’t exactly fun.”
“We broke up.”
Beca’s breathing halts as she registers the words. Her jaw slacks. “What?”
Chloe clears her throat a little, taking a step closer. She’s fiddling with her keys, something she does when she gets shy, nervous or nervous, or excited. “Well, I broke up with him.”
“You did?” Beca croaks out.
Chloe nods, the corners of her lips upturning in a sheepish smile. “Because it’s always been you, dumbass.”
Beca’s lungs flood with oxygen, and her shoulders slump, releasing the tension at once. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Chloe echoes, raising an eyebrow as she takes another step.
Beca closes her eyes briefly, her head tilting as she frowns. “Sorry, I think my brain needs to be re-booted. Could you um, could you say that again?”
Chloe chuckles, finally closing the remaining distance between them. She cups Beca’s cheek and joins their lips in a soft, lingering kiss. Beca’s knees quake as a bunch of butterflies release in her belly, and she can’t quite believe this is really happening.
She licks her tingling lips when Chloe pulls away, feeling a bit dizzy. “Um, I’m not sure I quite got that one, either. Care for an encore?”
The first of many, many ones.
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dameronology · 3 years
Text
love in the time of p.t.a. meetings {marcus moreno} - 4/5
summary: after a few months of slightly chaotic bliss, you & marcus start to think about the next steps in your relationship. {series masterlist}
warnings: swearing 
this is up a little later than i wanted & i do apologise, i once again stayed up all night and i cannot recount a single thing i’ve done. enjoy!
- jazz
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Things between you and Marcus quickly fell into a routine.
You kind of had to when you both had kids; their lives needed structure. Depended on it, in fact. It wasn’t long before both of your lives were entangled in more ways than one, mostly for the sake of Missy and Jack having security around them but also because things between you were so good. Neither of you were trying to rush by any means, but when it worked, it worked. You were both good at communicating with each other - not that many issues really cropped up - and you both understood that your children came first. Things progressed easily and naturally, and he made you feel secure enough that you didn’t have to question whether or not it was too good to be true. 
Five months had quickly passed and you were both comfortable. Marcus Moreno was your boyfriend and it wasn’t a big deal. Okay, it had been at first - especially the first time he planted a kiss on your lips in front of the minivan brigade - but now? It was normal. It felt like he’d always been there, and you took it as a good sign. You got on well with Missy, especially since she’d witnessed your spat with Carol and started to think the world of you, and Jack...well, he was obsessed with Marcus. You couldn’t blame the kid. 
‘Jack! Put the soup down!’ 
It was another one of those mornings. It was a Sunday, so you didn’t have to worry about getting up early for school or work but you’d been at Marcus’ till late the night before. You and Jack ended up spending a lot of time at his; there was a swimming pool and a big garden for Optimus Prime to run around in, so it tired both of your tiny spawns out, which worked in your favour.
 Even when the kid had spent four hours swimming last night, he’d still risen that morning at 6AM like Jesus Christ on the third day. You’d woken to find the kitchen covered in smashed eggs and ham, then your oven had broken and the toilet was blocked again. 
You’d been halfway through reversing the problem when you’d heard Jack shuffling in the kitchen. You were stood in the hallway, still in your pyjamas, with a toilet brush in one hand and the other balled up into a fist. 
‘Jack, the soup is about to-’
You paused mid-sentence, watching as the bowl he was trying to reach for toppled straight off of the counter. You’d only washed his hair ten minutes ago, and you might as well have not fucking bothered because it was now covered in chunky vegetable soup. And the Chewbacca onesie he loved so much? Trying to peel that off him for the next few hours to wash the Heinz out of it was going to be a whole task in itself. You’d only just been to the laundrette the day before, and you’d gotten to the point in life where having a place with its own washing machine was a sign of success. 
‘Mum, there’s soup in my hair.’
‘It’s okay.’ You took a moment to breath. ‘We are not going to cry.’
‘I’m not crying.’
‘Wasn’t talking to you, buddy.’ You rubbed your temples for a moment. ‘C’mon, let’s go hop in the bath.’
So much of parenting was just...stopping to breath. Stopping to take a moment to remind yourself that although your love for your child was unwavering and unconditional, you sometimes felt like screaming. All you’d done for the last five hours was go in circles, cleaning and lecturing and cleaning some more. It made you wish you were at work that day, because at least then you could have conversations with people that weren’t about what cheese they wanted for lunch or what cartoon they wanted to watch. 
‘I just had a bath.’ Jack muttered. 
‘Yeah well, you need another one.’ You took another deep breath. ‘I’ll be there in a minute-’
‘- I don’t want a bath!’
‘And I don’t want a kid that’s covered in soup!’ You shot back. ‘C’mon, buddy. Just do as I say, please?’
Your conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door. You frowned for a moment - you weren’t expecting anyone. There was no post on Sundays and you hadn’t seen your landlord since the day you’d moved in. Your nosey neighbour knocked sometimes, usually asking about the noise (he didn’t have kids, clearly) and you were this close to telling him to mind his own fucking business. 
‘I swear to god, if that’s David again, I am going to shove this can of soup up his - Marcus!’ You almost did a double take when you saw your boyfriend stood at the door - he really chose his times, didn’t he? You hadn’t even had time to put the fucking toilet brush down. ‘Hey.’ 
‘Hey, baby.’ He greeted you slowly, eyes slowly taking in your appearance (and not in a sexy way). ‘Were you not expecting me?’
‘Shit, did we have plans?’ Your eyes widened. 
‘No, but Jack called. He said you’d asked him to ask me to come over, but I realise half way through that sentence that starting with Jack called probably means you had no idea.’ He offered you a goofy smile. ‘He said that the sofa had exploded and that you needed help.’
There was a lot to unpack there. When had Jack done that? More to the point, when had he learnt to use the phone? How had he worked out your phone password? The kid couldn’t do up his own velcro and now he was a Russian hacker, apparently. 
‘Oh my god.’ You groaned. ‘I am so sorry. Things have been batshit here this morning and I’m sure he had my best interests in his weird little heart, but he made you come all this way-’
‘- Marcus!’ Speaking of the devil.
Jack pushed past you, wrapping his arms around Marcus’ waist. He leant down to pick him up, lifting him off the ground - albeit at a distance, due to Soupgate. 
‘Hey, buddy.’ He greeted him. ‘You been causing trouble again?’
‘Not on purpose.’ Jack replied. ‘Mum says I need another bath.’
‘I think she’s right.’ Marcus said. ‘Why don’t you go pick out some clothes and come back in a minute, yeah?’
‘Okay!’ Seemingly impressed by the newfound trust in him to choose an outfit, Jack wriggled himself back down to the floor, trotting towards his bedroom. Seriously, how did Marcus do that? Perhaps his ability to have authority over your archaic child was another hidden power of his. 
‘You look like you need a break, baby.’ He reached out, gently running a hand down your arm.
‘I’m fine, he’s just been a lot today.’ You sighed.
‘You have soup on your shirt and fluff in your hair.’
‘Couch stuffing.’
‘Huh?’
‘It’s couch stuffing. Except that was Optimus Prime and not Jack, which makes a nice change.’ You muttered.
‘Look, Missy is at her abuela’s today and she’s been begging for ages to see Jack again.’ He said. ‘What d’you say I drive him over there, you clean up and we hang out? Just us, no kids, no dogs, no stress.’
‘That sounds like a fucking dream.’ You couldn’t help but smile. ‘But Optimus has consumed half the couch and I gotta keep an eye on him-’
‘-we can bring him with us!’ Marcus grinned. ‘He loves the garden.’
‘Are you sure? Because I remember you saying you had work plans today and I don’t want you to cancel them on account for the fact I can’t control my own kid. Or life.’
‘You two come first.’ He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. ‘Three, including Optimus Prime.’
--
In the time it took Marcus to drive Jack to his mum’s and get back to yours, you were able to clean up. The apartment was still a state, but it hadn’t been properly tidy in...how many days had it been since Jack was born? Because it hadn’t been clean in exactly that many days. You felt a little bad dumping him on Anita when he was still covered in soup, but if anyone was able to wrestle him into the bath and some clean clothes, it was her. You’d met her a few times and she was absolutely lovely, but you had no doubt she could be terrifying when need be. She was the sort of woman you aspired to be.
By midday, you were driving out the city. There was music playing quietly over the radio and you were watching the houses go by; even though it was cold out, you had the heater on and you were bundled up in a leather jacket, Marcus’ scarf snugly around your neck. It smelt faintly of his aftershave, which had become one of your favourite scents over the last five months. The time had gone so quickly. You’d seen each other practically every day since then, and having the kids meant you’d been fallen into being domestic pretty quickly. The simplicity of it all - him and you and getting to this point so easily - was overwhelming in itself. 
Your first relationship had been so complicated - so finicky and filled with unnecessary arguments. That should have been a sign early on, but then you’d gotten pregnant with Jack and getting married had seemed like the obvious thing to do. His presence meant you wouldn’t have changed anything, not for the entire fucking world, but it made you a little sad to think about how long you’d wasted on what had clearly been the wrong person. Meanwhile, Marcus’ situation had been entirely different; he’d had the right person the first time around and then he’d lost them. You never felt like a replacement to his wife, or even thought about the notion, really. That had been another part of his life. You were a new part and it didn’t mean he was forgetting the past. The two could co-exist without taking away from each other. 
‘You’re deep in thought.’ Marcus observed. He moved one of his hands to rest on your leg, giving it a light squeeze. He did that a lot, usually whenever you were sat beside him at the table or on the sofa. It was just a him thing. 
‘Yeah, sorry.’ You tore your gaze away from the window. ‘My brain always goes a little into overdrive when things are quiet.’
He chuckled. ‘What’s on your mind?’
‘You, actually.’ You tangled your fingers with his, thumb brushing over the back of his hand. ‘I was just thinking about lucky I am and how good things are, and how it almost feels too good to be true.’
‘Better believe it, baby.’ He replied. ‘Because it is true.’
‘I know.’ You peered over at him with a smile. ‘It’s just...my only perceptions of relationships were based on the single one I’ve had. Everything was so complicated and exhausting. This is completely different and it’s so nice. And normal. And I don’t know, that sounds stupid-’
‘- it’s not stupid at all.’ Marcus peered over at you, shaking his head. ‘It’s natural to be a little apprehensive after a bad relationship and if there’s anything I can do to help, you just have to tell me. You know that, right?’
Maybe it was the way he said it, or maybe it was just him, but you knew for certain that he meant that. There was sort of a silent agreement now that you were both in this for the long haul. Your mum had always said that you’ll know when you know but you’d always written that off. Mostly because you hadn’t known the first time round. But, now you did. You did know and though you weren’t going to admit that to Marcus, you never doubted him for a second. 
‘I do.’ You said. ‘But he’s in the past now - and hopefully it’s where he fucking stays.’
‘I have contacts. I can find him and set Miracle Guy on him.’ Marcus’ grin had returned. ‘Just say the word.’
‘You make a tempting offer.’ You smiled back at him. ‘But the past is the past and I’m ready to...slam the lid on that dumpster.’
‘Do you think he’ll ever want to come back into Jack’s life?’
You pondered for a moment. ‘I don’t think so, but if he did, I dunno if I’d let him. I never wanna be the person who stops someone from seeing their kids but what he did was...it was unforgivable.’
‘You don’t have to make that decision until it actually happens.’ Marcus gently said. ‘And I’ll support whatever you choose.’
He pulled into the drive way of his house - his nice, clean, sofa-stuffing-and-soup free house. Optimus Prime leapt out the car as soon as the door was open, practically tearing past the two of you and down towards the yard. There was a moment of silence and then a splash!
‘Guess he found the pool.’ Marcus commented. ‘At least it’s heated, I s’pose.’
Truth be told, he loved having the three of you at his house. It felt like whatever had been missing before was slowly making an appearance as your relationship progressed. The irony was that you brought nothing but chaos and clutter with you, but that was exactly what made it feel like a home. It was small things; the painting that Jack had done for him at after school club was now hung up up on the fridge, and there was a photo of him and Missy on the fireplace with Optimus Prime. Half of the thousands of blankets of pillows that had been at your place had ended up on his sofa, thanks to the countless sleepovers. 
If he could have it his way, Marcus would have you live with here all the time. The energy that you and Jack brought made everything feel complete. He loved the evenings where Missy and Jack would play out in the pool, and you two would sit back inside, complaining about the cold. Then there were the nights where you’d take both the kids back here when he was working late, and he’d come home to find you piled on the couch watching an old movie, with your burnt cooking abandoned on the stove, surrounded by boxes of left over take out. It was the kind of thing that was so simple and so domestic, but it was everything he wanted. 
That was probably the flashpoint moment when Marcus Moreno realised he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you. He already knew he loved you - he’d worked that out about three months in, when you’d fallen asleep in one of his shirts whilst trying to wait up for him - but he hadn’t said it. He’d hinted at it and made back-handed comments but he’d barely admitted it to himself, let alone to anyone else. He knew what you and Jack had gone through before and it broke his entire fucking heart. You both deserved someone who stand by you and support you, someone who would embrace you both for the craziness and warm energy you brought everywhere with you. More than ever, he was realising he wanted to be that person who gave it you. After all, you’d made his life so much brighter without even trying.
Snapping out of his trance, Marcus looked over at you. You’d already ditched your shoes and dropped onto the sofa, pulling one of the blankets with you. This was exactly what you needed. A quiet house, your favourite person and a cable knit blanket. 
‘Hey, baby?’ 
You looked over at him, smiling at the name. ‘Yeah?’
‘You know I love you, right?’
You blinked in surprise, sitting up. ‘I know.’
‘You do?’
‘You’ve never said it, but I can tell.’ You nodded, before offering a smile. ‘And I love you too.’
‘I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.’ He slowly approached you, dropping onto the sofa beside you and taking your hands in his. ‘I think I just got so caught up in everything and feeling everything that I forgot.’
‘Why are you apologising?’ You couldn’t help but scoff at him, leaning forward to press a kiss to his lips. ‘It’s your actions that say it, Marc. Hearing it is good but you showed it a long time ago.’
‘I know, but really you deserve to hear it everyday.’ He smiled against you, helping you move onto his lap. 
‘You do tell me everyday, with the things you do.’ You reminded him. ‘Like meeting me in the parking lot with coffee, or bribing Jack into going to bed early with video messages from your superheroes, or doing my grocery shopping when you know money is short.’
‘Why wouldn’t I do those things?’ Marcus seemed genuinely confused. ‘It’s you.’
‘I love you.’ You repeated the phrase. 
‘And I love you.’
He pulled you into another kiss - this time it was a little firmer, not unlike your second declaration of love. Marcus did all those things without thinking, simply out of his intense want for you to just be happy. He was the same with Missy, always doing little things to make her life easier just because. It was just part of who he was, and it made him happy to see his loved ones happy. 
With your body pressed against his and your hands tangled in your hair, Marcus realised he didn’t want you to ever leave again. He didn’t want you to have to drive home in the dark at ten because all of your stuff was on the other side of town. You did stay over sometimes, but then you’d have to creep out at 6AM with a sleeping Jack in your arms to get home in time to get ready. He wanted you here all the time. You should have been here all the time. 
‘Move in with me?’ 
He both did and didn’t mean to say it out loud. He did because he wanted you so badly to be a permanent fixture in the house, but he also didn’t because the idea might have been a little absurd. Was it too soon? What if you didn’t want to leave your place? He knew you loved your apartment. It was your home and had been for a long time.
‘What?!’ You suddenly pulled back from the kiss, eyes wide. 
‘I mean...if you want to.’ Marcus slowly said. ‘Hell, Missy and I can move to your place if that’s what you want. It might be tight but she loves the dog and I just want to be with you-’
‘- hey!’ You cut him off, planting your hands on his shoulders. ‘You’re rambling again, but that’s besides the point. I would love to live here.’
‘You would?’
‘I would.’ You smiled. 
It made sense. Aside from the glaringly obvious fact you wanted to, it was also practical. It was closer to the school, closer to your work and it had a fucking swimming pool. Marcus was already clearly financially secure and moving in wouldn’t mean relying on him, but it would have meant that things for Jack were a lot more stable. Missy loved the company of you both, and it meant she would finally have the dog she wanted so bad. 
‘Missy would be okay with it, right?’ You asked.
‘She was the one who put the idea in my head, actually.’ Marcus admitted. ‘I’d thought about it but then she kind of asked in passing why you don’t live here, and I couldn’t give her an answer.’
‘Your kid is smart.’
‘D’you think Jack will-’
‘- I’m going to stop you there.’ You cut him off.
‘Right, I probably don’t need to ask that question.’ He chuckled.
‘Exactly.’ You pressed a kiss to his nose. ‘Don’t forget the dog, either.’
‘How could I? I can literally see him peeing on my lawn right now.’
‘Our lawn.’
--
Exactly three weeks later - and after a hefty amount of paperwork and hours of sorting through Jack’s endless amounts of crap that he insisted on hoarding - moving day came. 
Anita had insisted on having the kids again. They were both excited, but perhaps a little too much. They were probably more likely to get in the way of things if anything. Children, a dog and large boxes? It seemed like a match made in hell. Plus, she had a whole ass training course in her back garden and if that didn’t wear the kid out, then you were definitely going to take him to the Heroics to get tested. The thought alone was enough to tire you out. 
You didn’t have too much stuff to move. You’d been half-moved into the damn place before Marcus had even made the formal proposal, so that made things a lot easier. You were keeping your sofa for Jack’s room, but the rest was going to Goodwill. Most of it had come from there in the first place.
‘I think that’s the last box.’ Marcus announced, exiting the bedroom. ‘I didn’t realise that a five year could own so many variations of storm-trooper toys.’
‘Oh, yeah.’ You replied. ‘There’s the original trilogy ones, sequel trilogy ones, dark troopers, shock troopers, clone troopers - and I realise half way through listing them that you don’t care.’
‘I never said that!’ He placed his hands on your waist, pressing a kiss to your forehead. ‘I’m excited to learn.’
‘I’m sure Jack is excited to tell you.’ You grinned. 
Then, it faltered slightly with the realisation you were actually leaving this place. You’d never intended for it to be your permanent home, but it had still been the centre of your entire universe for half a decade. Every room told a story; the crayon marks on the bathroom wall, the dents behind the TV from, the crack in the living room mirror. All caused by Jack, naturally. The last five years was contained entirely within these four walls and you got bleary eyed at the idea of it becoming someone else’s. 
‘Hey, don’t cry.’ Marcus gently wiped away a tear from your cheek. 
‘You know, the rent is still paid till the end of the month so we could revisit the idea of you and Missy living here instead.’ You tearfully smiled. 
‘You’re kidding but you know I’ll do it.’ He pressed another kiss to your nose, grip on your arms tightening. 
‘It’s okay.’ You moved so that the kiss landed on your mouth instead, capturing his lips in a brief kiss. ‘I knew we were gonna outgrow this place. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.’
‘I know. Still kinda feels like it all came out of no-where, huh?’ He replied. ‘In the best way.’
‘You’re right. In the best way.’ You firmly nodded. ‘Can you believe I was 23 when I moved into this place? I found it on Craiglist within ten minutes of finding out I was pregnant.’
‘Do you wanna take a minute before we go?’
‘No, it’s fine.’ You shook your head. ‘We should get going.’
The apartment was just that: an apartment. And the house you were going to was just that: a house. But the people you were with? That’s what made it count. It wasn’t about the four walls or the roof over your head, or whether or not it had a big yard and a jacuzzi bath tub (though, that did help). It was about the laughter and warmth inside; the faces in the photos on the wall and the people you came home to after a long day. It was the smell of your burnt cooking and the pizza you’d ordered in place. It was Jack’s toys left in the exact place where someone could trip and it was Missy using all the hot water in the morning so that Marcus’ showers were practically arctic. It was everyday things that reminded you of the people around you; the people that made it home, and how lucky you were to have them.
That was home. And you’d found yours. 
taglist: @naivara-duneimith @1-2-3-4-5metalfingers @likeshootingstarsinthenightsky​ @lyanna-the-giantsbane @phoenixhalliwell @crazycookiecrumbles​ @bitchin-beskar​ @comphersjost
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cutethingstolove · 3 years
Text
The Sleepover
Photos From @little-stephanies-diary​, Part 11
On the drive home from the mall, Stephanie’s mind was consumed with arguments she could make to her dad so she wouldn’t have to wear a diaper during her sleepover. Knowing how firm her dad could be, she also ran through a few scenarios of how she could hide her diaper if her dad didn’t change his mind. While pondering her options, she glanced at the cute pink teddy bear she had buckled into the passenger seat. She was really in love with her new bear, but decided she needed to find a name for it. She didn’t need much time to think before she came up with the perfect name: Vincent. Maybe she could even use Vincent to help convince her dad she didn’t need to wear a diaper during her sleepover!
Pulling into the driveway, Stephanie had come up with a plan just hoping it would work, but she had a backup plan just in case. She went to her trunk to grab her new clothes before grabbing Vincent from the front seat and headed towards the front door. As she grabbed the door knob, she paused for a minute to compose herself before turning the knob and walking inside. Standing in the entryway, closing the door behind her, she yelled out, “Daddy! I brought someone home I’d like you to meet!”
A little startled, her dad rose from the couch and looked into Stephanie’s eyes as her head poked around the corner, “You want me to meet someone honey?,” he asked.
“Yup!,” Stephanie beamed with glee, “This is my new friend Vincent!”
“Well hi Vincent,” her dad said with a hint of relief as Stephanie showed him her new teddy bear.
“I’m glad you approve!,” Stephanie smiled, “I’m going to go put him in my room along with my new clothes. I’ll be right back in a minute though, I have something important I need to ask you.”
Not knowing what to expect, her dad sat back down on the couch as Stephanie made her way upstairs to her room. When she reached her room, she set Vincent down gently on the bed before putting her new clothes on hangers in the closet. She was really excited to wear her cute new outfit next weekend when she would, hopefully, no longer have to wear diapers. She was sick of being forced to wear diapers every day, but she had to admit to herself that they had been pretty useful a couple of times. She left her room and headed back downstairs taking a seat on the couch next to her dad hearing an audible squish as her wet diaper hit the cushion.
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“Sounds like it was a good idea to wear that diaper today princess,” her dad said lovingly, “Now what did you want to talk about.”
“Well daddy,” Steph said with a hint of embarrassment, “I sort of invited Courtney over for a sleepover tonight. I was hoping you would let me pause this ‘potty training’ for the night so she doesn’t find out.”
“Sweetheart, you know that wasn’t the deal we made,” he responded firmly.  
“But daddy!,” Steph squealed in argument, “I haven’t had an accident in four days! It’s not fair!”
“The fair is in the summer honey,” he joked, “But in my house, rules are rules and you will follow them.”
Not wanting to cancel on Courtney, Stephanie resorted to Plan B simply saying, “Well, can you change me before she gets here? Maybe I can hide the diaper under my pajamas, but I would need the same deal as today that I won’t have any days added if I can’t use the bathroom.”
“That sounds fair,” he responded, “I’ll go make dinner quick and I’ll change you when we are done.”
Feeling a little dejected, Stephanie had at least found a way to keep her plans for the night.  She decided that she needed to find some pajamas she was absolutely sure would hide her diaper from Courtney, and went to her room to look for something as her dad went to make dinner. Stephanie started digging through her dresser and couldn’t find anything that she was positive would hide her diaper. Worried, she started to go through her closet looking for anything that would work finally finding a pair of pink drop-seat footed pajamas she had bought a couple years earlier for Spirit Week at school. They were very childish, but they were loose enough that they would do the trick in hiding her diaper that night. She tossed them on the bed next to Vincent, and noticed the cute bowtie he had, and thought it would be super cute if she found bow for her hair. She went back to her dresser and found a pink bow that would match her footed pajamas, and tossed it on the bed before heading downstairs to eat.
Dinner went by without much incident, Stephanie and her dad talking casually about her day shopping. She mentioned the cute outfits she had seen in the store where she bought Vincent, hinting the entire time that they would make wonderful gifts for Valentine’s Day. Her and her dad always exchanged gifts on Valentine’s Day, and even though she normally only bought a card and some inexpensive ties, he had always bought her much nicer things. She always felt spoiled when her dad bought her gifts as he always spent way more than she thought was reasonable, but he enjoyed watching her smile as she opened her presents.
As soon as they finished eating, Steph’s dad told her he would take care of the dishes so she could go upstairs and prepare for her sleepover. Stephanie went up to her room, and realized she needed to go pee again, but not wanting to go into the bathroom only to be changed into another diaper right away, she took off her shortalls and sat down on her bed and used her diaper for the third time. Just as the last drops trickled out, her dad entered her room and they went through their routine of him putting a fresh dry diaper on her. As he was taking her wet diaper off, he made a quick comment about just how full it was which instantly made Stephanie blush with embarrassment. As soon as her new diaper was on, her dad left the room and Stephanie pulled on her footed pajamas and affixed the bow in her hair before laying down on her bed and texting Courtney asking when she would be over.
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Courtney texted back saying she would be over in just a few minutes, so Stephanie decided to head downstairs and make some popcorn while she waited. Right as the microwave beeped letting her know the popcorn was done, the doorbell rang. Stephanie quickly made her way to the front door and greeted Courtney with a big hug inviting her inside. Courtney asked why Steph was already in her pajamas, and Stephanie lied saying that she wanted to change after shopping and thought it would be easiest to just put on her PJs right away. Satisfied with the answer, Courtney said she was going to go change too and took her bag upstairs only to come back downstairs a couple minutes later in a pair of light blue sweatpants and a long white t-shirt.
The girls sat down on the couch with a bowl of popcorn between them, and put a movie on. Knowing that the girls liked to be left alone during sleepovers, Stephanie’s dad went upstairs to his room to give them some privacy. The girls weren’t really too interested in the movie, but spent the next couple of hours gossiping about school, the boys they thought were cute, the girls they thought were mean, and the teachers they both had that semester. Just as the movie came to an end, they decided it was time for bed and they both made their way up to Stephanie’s room. Just as they normally did during sleepovers, the girls shared a bed, but Stephanie made sure to keep Vincent between them just in case Courtney accidently felt her diaper under her pajamas.
“Is that the same teddy bear that was in that shop today?,” Courtney asked curiously.
“Yeah,” Steph responded a little sheepishly, “I thought he was kind of cute, so I went back and bought him when I went back to grab my keys earlier.”
“I’m a little jealous,” Courtney replied, “I was tempted to buy that as well, but I didn’t want to spend any more time in that store. What do you mean when you said ‘him’?”
“Well,” Stephanie said perking up a bit, “I decided he needed a name, so I’d like you to meet Vincent!”
“I love the name!,” Courtney said excitedly, “Can we both cuddle with him tonight?”
“Absolutely!,” Steph said a little relieved, “We can make a Vincent sandwich!”
Thrilled with the idea, Courtney quickly agreed, but stood up and told Steph she needed to use the bathroom quick before bed. Steph understood, as she needed to pee as well, but let Courtney leave the room before she rolled onto her back and used her dry diaper knowing she wouldn’t be able to use the bathroom otherwise. It was also the best opportunity to do so with Courtney out of the room. When Courtney returned, she shut off the lights and crawled under the covers wrapping her arm around Vincent. Stephanie rolled over as she cuddled up next to her teddy bear and her best friend before the two girls began to doze off. Things had been working out pretty well so far for Stephanie, she just needed to keep up the charade until Courtney left in the morning.
 To Be Continued…
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bubblefina · 3 years
Text
King of hearts chapter 13
Masterlist
Summary: Reader and Tom meet during their years at Hogwarts, but as the years pass a rivalry grows between the two of them, which leads from soft beginnings to tragic endings.
“Admiring his devilishly good looks as that heart of yours beats faster every time he says your name?” Tom adds, making your cheeks heat up.”
Pairings: Tom x f!reader
•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧. •̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.˚ *•̩̩͙ ✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧.
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Chapter 13- A duel
A week later, Hogwarts managed to be rebuilt, with new additions along with it. Now that the school was able to function again, students were allowed to return to their everyday classes. With the rebuilding came new rules and regulations. Apparition on Hogwarts grounds is forbidden, no student or professor can apparate to or from Hogwarts. Hogsmeade trips for third years and above are cancelled until December. Aurors would patrol the grounds and beyond until Christmas break, ensuring the safety of the school.
The DADA classes introduced dueling clubs to second years and above, for the purpose of teaching more advanced defense techniques against the dark arts, along with dueling in general. The first meeting took place during a Thursday evening, just before dinner was starting. Professor Merrythought along with the charms professor, professor Elms, worked together to begin the club and allow for demonstrations.
The professors were the first to duel, using spells like expelliarmus, protego, and finite. They picked and allowed students to volunteer to duel each other. No nasty jinxes or spells are allowed during the duel, the professors didn’t want the students to greatly hurt each other. As the duel went on, people like Abraxas fought Tom, Lucy fought a Hufflepuff boy and lost against him.
As the professors praised the students who fought, they also looked to the crowd of students for other participants.
“Shall we have someone from Ravenclaw join the duel, miss l/n?” Professor Merrythought looked towards you.
“Me?” you pointed towards yourself.
Merrythought nodded and motioned you to join her on the stand, “Professor Elms tells me that you excel in his charms class, I’m sure you’ll do well in this duel.”
Professor Elms called up the last person you wanted to see, Lela Selwyn. She walked to the stand with her smug face and brought out her wand.
“A Slytherin versus a Ravenclaw, this shall be an interesting match.” Elms spoke as both him and Merrythought walked off of the stand.
“Now remember, no dirty tricks, this will be a fair match, wands at the ready.” Merrythought said.
Both you and Lela brought out your wands and held them to your face.
“Careful now, l/n. Wouldn’t want you falling off the stage.” Lela said, an evil smirk plastered across her face. A few Slytherins started to chuckle at her comment.
“I’ve told you before, Selwyn. Next time I fall, I’m bringing you down with me.” You set your wand down and turned to walk away from her, after walking 10 steps you turn around and point your wand at her in an offensive stance.
“On the count of three, cast your charms to only disarm your opponent, no nasty jinxes of any kind.” Merrythought instructed.
“One”
“Two”
“Flipendo!”
Lela pointed her wand at you, blue light erupted from it, casting its way at you.
“Finite!” you shot a spell back, the mixture of red and blue light erupting from both of your wands caused a small explosion, causing you to step back a few feet. You looked at Lela with furrowed brows.
“The professor said we had to disarm our opponent, not knock them backwards, or can you not understand simple instructions Selwyn?” your hand gripped at your wand, visibly irritated.
“Miss l/n is right Miss Selwyn, the point of this demonstration is not to harm our opponents, it is to disarm them. Please try again.”
Lela looked as if she hadn’t been paying attention, rolled her eyes and turned to walk 10 steps away to regain her position, you did the same.
The countdown began again, and this time you were the one who shot a spell first.
“Expelliarmus!” you waved your wand and pointed it at Lela, knocking her wand out of her hand.
“Excellent miss l/n. Now, the both of you may continue with your duel with more spells that are in your inventory, but remember, no nasty ones. Please begin.”
After the next countdown ended, the both of you lifted your wands, ready to cast the next spell that came to mind.
“Relashio!” Lela shouted at you. You managed to dodge the spell by kneeling to the ground.
“Impedimenta!” you tried to slow down Lela’s movement, but she countered it again.
“Levicorpus!” the spell had hit you. Your ankle hoisted into the air as you flung upside down, flailing to get control again. Your uniform skirt began to fall to the rules of gravity, but thank Merlin you decided to wear stockings underneath today.
“Liberacorpus!” you chanted the counter curse for the spell Lela was using and landed back on the ground with a thud. She wanted to play dirty by using spells that wouldn’t necessarily cause harm, but were still a pain in the ass. The professors, who seemed to be invested in the duel, seemed like they didn’t care about what spells were being used, so you decided to use some special spells underneath your sleeve against the person you despised the most.
“Saltu Caeli!” a vaulting charm of some sort was cast out of your wand, it flung Lela into the air for a few seconds before you could cast your second charm, “Incarcerous!” Ropes had wrapped themselves around Lela, who was still in the air, and brought her down to the floor with a bang. A few gasps were heard amongst the crowd, and a few claps as well.
Lela, who looked a bit flushed, reached for her wand and undid the ropes, got up and pointed her wand at you. You didn’t know what she was going to cast next, but you had Finite ready just in case.
“Incendio!” a burst of flames came your way, but you had countered it, and when you could finally look at Lela again when some smoke subsided, she had this crazy look in her eyes.
“Stupefy!” another spell shot at you, but again, you managed to counter it. 
“Expelliarmus!” you tried to disarm Lela before she could use another spell against you, but she dodged it and prepared for another spell.
“Serpensortia!” Lela let out another spell, a black looking snake conjured itself from her wand and landed on the dueling table. A few gasps were heard around the room. You took a step back as it slithered towards you, baring its teeth.
Shooting a spell at it wouldn’t do it any good, if the snake managed to survive it would become even more irritated and attack you even faster. The situation you were in felt all too familiar as well.
The professors took notice of the live snake on the dueling table and pushed through students to get to it. While they were making their way towards the table, the snake came closer and closer to you. 
“Vipera Evanesca.” Merrythought had cast a spell towards the snake and walked onto the stage in front of you.
“Miss Selwyn, what are you thinking about bringing a snake to a duel? A venomous one at that, 15 points from Slytherin, take your seat,” Merrythought turned towards you, stern look on her face, “Take your seat please.” you were guessing that she wasn’t impressed with the actions you took either.
You gulped as you headed back to the Ravenclaw section. The fellow Ravenclaw students gave you a pat on the back and said that it was okay and that they were glad you stood up for yourself in the duel.
After the dueling club ended, the students were dismissed for dinner.
You met up with Azalea and Melissa, who decided to sit out on the dueling club to do things for their other classes. Of course, in a friendly fashion, you decided to tell them about your duel.
“She shot a snake at you?” Melissa said, choking on her potatoes.
“Don’t choke, madam Crafince is a bit too busy to deal with you if you collapse.” Azalea said.
“Yeah she did. Luckily, Merrythought made it disintegrate. I really hate her, you know, Lela.” you said as you cut into your food.
“In my opinion, I think she was getting mad at the fact that you were getting the upper hand and started to play dirty.” Azalea said.
“That's what I thought, too. I’m just glad I’m not the one that lost 15 points from my house.”
“Don’t worry, knowing them, Slytherin will gain them back in some way.” Melissa snorted.
“Did you get the chance to visit Naomi today?” you asked them.
“Azalea did, I had to help Utonell with her plants in Herbology.” Melissa replied.
“She’s still the same. They managed to heal all of her external injuries, but she hasn’t woken up yet. I hope she’ll be okay.” Azalea ripped apart a bread roll with her fingers.
“I’m sure she’ll be okay, most of the students that were knocked out are waking up, it won’t be long before she does too.” you reassure a worried Azalea who looked like she was about to ruin her dinner by squeezing the rest of it.
After returning to your dorm later that night, you collapsed onto the bed in exhaustion. You felt something tingle your arm and looked down, Orion had made her way onto your palm. You picked her up gently and began talking to her.
“I’m glad you’re nothing like that nasty snake I had to face today Orion,” you coo to her, rubbing circles on her head, “I never want to see Lela again, but I have almost 5 more years with her.” You placed Orion on her small pillow and fed her some snake food before you went to the girls' lavatory to take a shower and change into your pajamas.
★──────────★★──────────★★──────────★
The next morning, you had gotten an owl from your dad about some big news that had occurred back home.
Dear Y/N,
My sweet girl, I have big news. Your mother and I have learned that we are expecting a new member to this family! Your mother is around two months pregnant, and we are all so happy, and I hope that you will be when you get this owl. I hope to see you this Christmas, so we can rejoice as a family for this miracle.
Love, dad. ♡
You dropped the note onto your toast, it being smeared with some butter.
“What’s wrong?” Azalea asked, swallowing her cereal quickly, worried at your shocked appearance.
“My mom’s pregnant.” you whispered, cleaning the butter off of your letter.
“Really? That’s wonderful, y/n! Congratulations. Why don’t you look happy?” she asks.
“I am happy, I guess. It’s just that I never had the best relationship with my mom, so I don’t know how I should feel.” you tucked the letter into your robe and began to eat.
“What do you mean by ‘the best relationship with your mom’?” Azalea asked.
“Ever since I started doing magic, she’s just been acting weird. We’ve been getting into more fights, so I don’t know if I’m fully happy about this.” 
“I understand, I remember when my parents divorced my mom and I used to not get along either, hence why I moved to Spain with my dad, but it got better. I’m sure you’ll make a great big sister to your new sibling.” Azalea gave you a hopeful smile, which lifted your spirits enough for you to stomach your breakfast.
Your classes for that day were plain. Barely focusing on what you were learning, your thoughts were all focused around the news in that letter. You didn’t think that your parents even wanted another child, they seemed pretty content with two kids. In the end you decided not to send an owl back to your dad, they’d see you at Christmas anyway, which is only a month away. 
After classes had ended, you spent the day in the Ravenclaw common room on the sofa near the fireplace, blankly staring at the potions book in your hand. Slughorn said that he was planning on making a healing potion during the next class, and advised the students to study up on the ingredients used in the potion.
Trying your best to concentrate on your book, your eyes skimmed over the words, not absorbing any of the information. The crackling of the fire popped in your ears, making it that much harder to focus. It was snowing outside, so studying out in the courtyard was out of the picture. You reached for the letter inside your robe and pulled it out to read it again. It was only your dad that had written to you, not even your own mother could write a sentence to you. After staring at the letter for a few more seconds, you reached over to the fire and threw the letter upon the open flame, its edges instantly turning black and falling apart.
Tomorrow is Saturday, you closed your book. Potions is on Monday, you had two days to review the material, no point in reading if you won’t learn anything. Putting your book back in your dorm, you head out into the halls of Hogwarts, hoping to find a distraction from all the thoughts that roamed your head.
The snow had been finding its way inside the cloisters of the halls. While walking, you looked at the floor, bumping into many people on the way, mumbling apologies whenever you could. All of a sudden, you full on ran into someone that had books in their hands, their books falling to the floor. The thud of them dropping snapped you out of your trance, and you looked to see it was Solomon that you had bumped into.
“I am so sorry, Solomon!” you said as you bent down to pick up the books along with him.
“Don’t worry about it, y/n, but I have to ask, most people look ahead when they’re walking, so why are you looking at the floor?” he asked, his Gryffindor scarf covering his mouth.
“Something has just been bothering me all day, I can’t shake it out of my head.” you said, handing back two of his books.
“Care to talk about it? I have nothing better to do, and you look like you might run into someone not as forgiving as me if you continue walking like this.”
“Yeah, I think I do need to talk about it.”
You told Solomon about the letter and why you felt the way you did, and the fact that your mom didn’t even bother writing to you either.
“Your mother hates magic, correct?” he asks.
“Seems like it.”
“Perhaps, there’s a part of you that is fearing that this child will be used to replace you in some way. Your younger brother hasn’t shown any signs of magic, which results in him being spoiled by your mother, while you’re left to the side.”
“I never thought of it that way. Some part of it is true, I guess. I did get a little jealous when my mom started paying more attention to my brother after I started doing magic, but I never thought she’d try to replace me.”
“Remember that it is in your head, y/n. You are the type of person that can never be replaced, by anyone. I can see that you will be a wonderful big sister to your unborn sibling. If that child should be magical, you’ll be a wonderful magical tutor as well. Even if your mother doesn’t show you the same love she once did, you still have others that will.” Solomon stepped away from the spot the both of you were sitting at and pulled out his wand. He waved it around and conjured a small cup and filled it with what smelled like hot chocolate.
“Here, to cheer you up. Try not to run into any more people, things will get better, bye now.” He picked up his books and started walking to the other side of the hall, leaving you with the cup of hot chocolate in your hand. Taking small sips of the drink, you made your way across Hogwarts, feeling a little better now, the chocolate was definitely helping.
★──────────★★──────────★★──────────★
That Monday, madam Crafince had informed you that Naomi had awoken in the hospital wing. After classes, you accompanied Azalea and Melissa to the Hospital wing, eagerly waiting to see Naomi, who had been in a coma for almost a week. When you finally gained sight of her, she looked frail and weak. Her once shining blond hair was now a pale yellow color, and her blue eyes seemed gray.
“Hey, how’ve you been?” Melissa asked as she put her hand upon Naomi’s.
“I’ve been better…what happened?” Naomi asked, her voice very coarse.
“Grindelwald's acolytes attacked the school. From what we heard, the first attack was in the tower you were in, you were unconscious for about a week.” you explained to her.
“Did you guys make it out okay?” Naomi asked.
“Me and Azalea made it out with a few injuries, but y/n had a bunch of debris fall on top of her, luckily Tom Riddle was with her, he helped her out.” Azalea told her.
“The Tom Riddle?” Naomi sounded a bit shocked when she heard what Azalea had said.
“He’s not the worst person to be stuck with, I could have been with someone who was much worse.” you shrugged your shoulders and laughed.
The four of you talked as much as you could, but were informed by Crafince that Naomi needed lots of rest before she could be able to take in deeper conversations. The three of you left the Hospital wing, Azalea had unfinished homework and Melissa had to help professor Utonell with her plants again. You on the other hand went to the courtyard. It was still snowing, but it fell very slowly and lightly, good enough for you to walk around.
While looking at the snow falling, a small flower blossom fell between your feet. You picked it up with your gloved hand, wondering where it could have come from. 
“I messed that up.” you heard someone groan behind you.
Turning around, you were greeted by a flushed looking Archer.
“Mess what up?” you ask him.
“I meant to conjure you a small rose but all that came out was a small blossom, saw you looking down for the past few days, thought it would help.” he shrugged his shoulders and laughed, so did you.
“It wasn’t a total mess up, I enjoyed the thought.” you place the blossom gently into your winter coat, walking over to Archer.
“What brings you to this part of the school?’ you ask him.
“I have a few minutes before quidditch practice, so why not talk to my favorite person?”
“I’m your favorite person?” you ask him, heart on your chest in an act of surprise.
“No, I thought Marcus Diggory would be here, but he’s not.” 
You punched him in the chest, and he started to laugh again, which made you cheer up.
“You have quidditch practice even when it’s snowing?” you ask him.
“Even in the toughest conditions, the captain isn’t going to go easy on us just because the weather is changing.”
“Brutal, makes me want to rethink joining next year.”
“C'mon, I'll have fun knocking you around during our matches together, it’ll be great.”
“Yeah for you, I don’t want to fall off my broom ever again.” you began to laugh again.
“Okay, fine, but it will still be a load of fun, but I have to go before the captain sees that I’m missing, catch you later, y/n.” he waves you goodbye, and you watch him run back to the hallway, a small smile plastered onto your face.
“If you continue to stare any longer, you might burn a hole in the back of his neck.” 
The sudden voice behind you makes you jump back.
“Who- what- ugh, don’t do that, Riddle!” you say as you whack him with your scarf.
“Okay, then don’t abuse me with your scarf.” he says as he seizes the fabric between his hands.
“Give it back, my neck is cold,” you mumble, quickly wrapping your neck again as he lets it go, “And I was not staring, I was simply…” you couldn’t think of a word, so you stayed quiet.
“Admiring his devilishly good looks as that heart of yours beats faster every time he says your name?” Tom adds, making your cheeks heat up.
“Why are you here anyway, usually you’re tucked away behind some book.” you say, fixing your outfit.
Tom pulls out a book behind his back, and you roll your eyes.
“I heard that your blonde friend has woken up.” he says, putting his hands behind his back.
“Yeah she did, I visited her not too long ago, she doesn’t look the best, barely remembers what happened.” you sat down near a small well and Tom continued to stand.
“The hospital matron will deal with her, and if she doesn’t get better, she may be transferred to St Mungos.”
“Speaking of, why were you staring at the window during the attack?”
“Curiosity. I was looking at the destruction the acolytes were causing, how simple it was for them to apparate here and destroy the castle as if it were nothing, how easy it was for them to corner students, knock them unconscious and stir worry into their hearts.”
“God, you’re so morbid Riddle, is there anything peaceful in that brain of yours?” you ask him.
“I could ask you the same thing, you were bumping into so many people on Friday I thought you’d bump into a wall and be knocked unconscious like your friend.”
You went quiet, Tom took notice of this and stepped closer.
“Did I hit a nerve?” he asked, a little smug.
“None of your business.” you crossed your arms and looked away from him.
“I didn’t get the chance to tell you, but you did well during the duel with Selwyn, a shame that I didn’t get to fight you and had to waste time with Malfoy.” he rolled his eyes at the last statement, which made you breathe out a small laugh.
“If I recall, we did a duel, and I knocked you onto your ass. Maybe we will duel seriously in the distant future, but I won't go easy on you.”
“Neither will I.”
“Speaking of, why didn’t you talk to the snake that was conjured in the duel, you could have easily stopped it.”
Tom sighed, “I don’t like showing that ability in the public, so please, never speak of it.”
You shrugged your shoulders and sat up from the well, “I’m going to go back inside for some hot chocolate, care to join me?” you extended your hand to him, which he looked at with a raised brow.
“No, thank you, I’ll be heading back to the Slytherin common room.”
“You’re trading in hot cocoa with me for the Slytherin common room? C'mon, Riddle, raise your standards.” you take back your hand and follow Tom as he walks back to the hallway. You were kind enough to say bye, but he didn’t return the gesture.
 ★──────────★
Spells used in the duel: ´ ▽ ` )ノ
Exeplliarmus: disarming charm
Relashio: releases the target's grip
Impedimenta: hinders movement of the target
Levicorpus:causes victim to be hoisted into the air by their ankle
Liberacorpus: counter to Levicorpus
Saltu Caeli:(I made the name up, but the charm is real) vaulting charm, flings opponent into the air
Incarcerous: binds target in ropes
Incendio: conjures flames
Stupefy: stunning spell
Serpensortia: snake summoning spell
Vipera Evanesca: snake vanishing spell
38 notes · View notes
heyheyloki · 4 years
Text
You That I Want
Sugawara x M!Reader
Word Count: 10,000+
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1. The Meeting
There was something about the school library that always grabbed your attention. It was quiet, peaceful. Those were factors, sure, but another plus was that people didn’t judge if one was alone or not in a place like that. It gave you comfort.
Being a first-year at Karasuno wasn’t something that got to you. It wasn’t like you didn’t have any friends or didn’t do good in school. In fact, you had quite a few friends, even some admirers, and you were a straight-A student. Nailing almost all your tests and quizzes that come around in any class. It was just that, at some points in your life, you needed to be alone. To not be bothered after getting hassled all day was something that gave you peace of mind to not explode on the spot, especially when it came to love-confessions.
There were very few people in the rather large area, but that just made it better for you. Most people after school tended to have clubs, hang with friends, or just go straight home. You tended to either sit in the middle of the place, if there were no more open seats, but if it was raining, like on a day like this, you’d tend to prefer the window seats. It was easy to calm down when you heard the patter of rain hitting the glass, and you quite enjoyed watching the droplets move down the window. It was captivating. 
You let out a sigh as you released yourself from the spell that bound you to the glass. Standing up from your seat, you moved around the library, wondering what you should take up for the time being. You didn’t want something too long, but nothing too short either. Something entertaining, yet informative as well. 
Before you knew it, you were searching around the sports section. You had some experience with sports, after all, you played football for a bit in middle school. It wasn’t something you enjoyed, hence why you don’t play anymore, but you were fond of sports itself. Your eyes lingered around at the spines of the books, your head leaning to the side a bit to read the text that was typed out on the hard cover. 
It wasn’t until you saw a book a few feet up on the higher shelf that caught your attention. It was something about a famous baseball player, the book seemed small enough to read before you headed home, and you enjoyed the sport. So, you reached your hand up, brushing the bottom of it with the tips of your fingers. You bit your inner cheek, it was obvious how close you were, but just lacking at least an inch or two on your height to get it without issue. 
Just as you were about to give up and search for some kind of stepping stool, an unfamiliar hand suddenly appeared in sight and grabbed the book you were aiming for without an issue. You paused for a moment, trying to understand what just happened. Though, your eyes were decided to the hand that appeared out of nowhere and followed it until it came back to its owners side. 
You stared with beady, unblinking eyes at the guy in front of you. First off, he was taller than you by that missing inch or two. He had a slender build, slightly thick eyebrows that matched that light-grey hair that sat on his head. He held kind, hazel orbs and wore a gentle smile while he gazed at you. 
“You looked like you were having some trouble,” he said in a sweet, honey soaked voice that snapped you back into reality. “Here.”
“Oh, thanks.” You hummed out as you took the book from the unknown boy. He did seem older than you, just by his demeanor, but then again, you didn’t want to make some kind of rude assumption. 
“Hm?” The unknown male hummed, his head leaning a bit on a tilt as he analyzed you. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. Are you a first-year?”
“I am,” you said with a soft smile as you told the upperclassmen your name, bowing a bit out of respect.
He smiled and nodded. “My name’s Koshi Sugawara. I’m a third-year, so, if you need anything just let me know.” 
“Sure, thank you again.” You said once more before watching the young man give you a gentle smile and wave you off as he left. You couldn’t help but feel like you heard his name before, but you thought it was just a mistake. 
2. Gossip
It wasn’t everyday that you say’d in the classroom after school, but you thought a nap before heading home would be more appropriate here than anywhere else in the school. It was always loud in the gyms, and you felt rude taking a nap in the library. Though, with the classroom, most kids have left and the others that hang around try to get homework done quietly. Today, was a bit different however.
“Kageyama!” A voice yelled out. It was loud, higher pitched than most, but you knew who it was. 
You turned your head, strands of your hand invading your handsome features and along your arms that crossed over on your desk for a make-shift pillow. Your gaze locked on the two boys by the window. They were both first-years like you, obviously, but even with that fact and that you several classes with them, you didn’t know much about them besides their names. 
Shoyo Hinata, a short loud mouth who seemed to made up for his lack in height with his big mouth and Tobio Kageyama, he was quiet and reserved. He struck you as someone who was rather arrogant though. You didn’t mind them necessarily, but they didn’t seem like people you would surround yourself with. 
“What?” Kageyama asked the short, orange haired male. 
“Sugawara wants us to practice with Tanaka, you, and I tomorrow morning, isn’t that so cool of him?” Hinata said with a cherry smile.
While normally you wouldn’t bother with listening to the two, the name pulled your attention ever closer to them. It seemed like they were all on a sports team together, or at least a club. You weren’t so sure what they did, not like it mattered, but you guessed it had something that took quite some energy. After all, you knew Hinata as this guy with so much energy that he literally shakes in his seat. It was distracting, but after a bit you found it entertaining.
You wanted to listen in more, maybe even figure out what they all played. Though, before you could hear any more words that came out passed their lips your body flinched. The sudden touch of hands on your shoulders caused something of a quiet gasp to leave your throat. 
You eyed down the familiar face behind you that just held a proud smile like he actually did something funny. 
“Oh man, you should have seen your face!” You friend yelled out as he held onto his stomach, laughing. 
“How many times do I have to tell you to stop doing that?” You questioned as you stood up from your desk, eyes naturally drawing to you as you spoke. You knew where this was going, and honestly, you just wanted to go home.
“Relax, pretty boy,” your friend whined as he threw his arm over your shoulders. “Come watch the girl’s volleyball practice game with me!”
“Do I have too?” You asked with a deadpanned tone. You didn’t not like to watch your school’s team practice. It was just you didn’t have in interest in the girl’s volleyball team.
“Yes, you do!” He huffed out before dragging you out of the classroom. Though, before you left, you eyed down Hinata and Kageyama. Both of them looking at you with something foreign in their eyes. Something that both made you pissed off, and yet ashamed at the same time.
3. You Again
It was days like these, the rainy ones, that always caught your attention. Either that, or made you sleepy. Today, it was the latter.
You watched out the classroom window with droopy eye as your head was held up by the palm of your hand, elbow planted on your desk. Normally, your mind would be racing with what you should do after school, but on these days, your mind would be totally empty. In a way, it was peaceful. Though, on the opposite side of it, it also made you space. So much so that now, you sat in your desk, eyes still staring out the window with this distant look in your eyes while everyone else has either gone home or went to do their after school club activities. 
You came out of it a few minutes later though, so it wasn’t a big deal. But, you definitely would have been in that state for way longer if you didn’t hear someone call out a name. It wasn’t yours per say, but you didn’t exactly know who was talking. Well, you did, but you couldn’t ID the voice until you saw his face. 
That third-year from the other day. You remembered his name as Sugawara.
The way your eyes wouldn’t let go of him as he looked around your classroom like a parent looking for their child was something unexpected of you. It wasn’t everyday that someone could hold your attention for so long. 
After a second or two of not seeing who he was looking for, he noticed you. In that moment, his eyes widened with familiarity. “Oh, it’s you!”
You leaned your head a bit as he started to approach you, a rain coat over his normal school cloths that made a small smile flicker onto your lips.
“Yeah, it’s me.” You stated with a mischievous glance as you stared at the third-year. Getting a better and longer look at him now, he really did have a pretty face. Hell, he might even rival you for pretty boy award. Though, for you, it was that mole under his right eye that did it for you. 
“So you’re in class with Kageyama and Hinata?” He suddenly asked. It was odd to you how he knew those names, but then the other day completely hit you like a bullet. They were in the same after school club, of course he knew them.
“Yeah,” you simply put, remembering how he called out their names when he first walked in before you asked, “you looking for them or something?”
“Oh, yeah, I was gonna let them know that practice was canceled after school since they’re doing inspections on the gym.” Sugawara said with that same gentle smile he had on the first time you two met. “But I guess they’ll find out when they get there.”
You nodded before checking the time. It was one of those days. You seriously should quit, especially since you were a first-year, but it paid well and you liked your boss. Plus, it wasn’t like you had anything else to do. As you stood up and began to pack up your things you said, “I’m sure they’ll be bummed, but maybe they can practice at home if they can.”
“You heading home?” Sugawara asked curiously as he watched your hands carefully as you placed notebooks and pens back into your bag. 
“No, I have work.” You confessed as you slung your school bag over your shoulder. 
“Really? You are a first year, right?” Sugawara asked, it was obvious how much he didn’t believe you for a second. 
“I am, but it’s not like I’m in a club or anything.” You explained. “Instead, I work. It’s about ten minutes or so from the school by foot. It’s that little convenience store.”
You watched as Sugawara’s disbelief twisted into surprise, his chestnut orbs shining with knowledge before asking with confidence, “Sakanoshita?”
You nodded. “That’s the one.”
“I’m actually heading there right now, why don’t we walk together?” He asked with a bright smile that paled in comparison with the moonlight from a full moon. It really did take you a minute to compose yourself before responding with a calm and collected, “Sure, sounds nice.”
4. New Beginnings
For some, people can be lonely without being alone. You just happened to be part of that ‘some’ category. You were never left alone at school unless you were on your morning walks or hide away in the library after school. Today was no different.
You tried your best, really, you did. You wanted to get before they got here. You needed to get out of that damn classroom everyone knew you were in before they got there. You even packed up your stuff a minute before the bell, but sadly, that still wasn’t enough. As you took your first step away from your desk, a higher pitcher voice called your name with nothing but pure excitement and infatuation. 
You froze for a moment, pondering if you could just run and go home. Then again, if you did, it would be more of a pain in the ass than if you just got it over with now. So, you turned to see a group of three girls. The one in the front, waving at you, you knew since middle school. You didn’t have an issue with her but more so the two in the back who looked shyly away from your gaze with blush rising on their pale features. 
The middle girl ran up to you, her pitch black hair swaying behind her with a happy smile present on her features. “Hey! The girls and I wanna know if you wanna go watch the boy’s volleyball practice? I heard they started to really rise back up in terms of rank since, like, forever!”
“Oh,” you muttered out in surprise. It wasn’t often something shocked you anymore when it came to school. But you did remember when the Karasuno was considered a powerhouse school, hell, they even went to Nationals one year. Still, you had to say, watching the boy’s volleyball practice was not what you were expecting. “Sure, I don’t mind, should be fun.”
“Great!” Your friend shouted in glee before walking side by side with you, chatting up about what kinda team you were going to see. 
Though, for once, you didn’t notice a two pair of eyes that watched and listened to everything about the conversation you held mere moments ago. They both gazed at each other with unblinking eyes, complete shock filling up in their veins before both sprinted out of the classroom towards the gym. 
Both of them ran into people as they sprinted down the hall, sometimes forgetting why they were even doing this as they got into a race with each other. The ‘who can warn the team first’ kinda thing. They get yelled at here and there by both teachers and students, but that wasn’t going to stop them. For once, they were going to have spectators at once of their practices. It was a huge deal. 
When they reached the metal double doors of the gym, both grabbed one side and slid them open hastily. The rough and loud sound of the doors being pounded into the walls enough to make the guys who were already practicing completely stop and those who watched, like their couches and team manager, gaze over at the two first years. 
Kageyama and Hinata both took in a huge whiff of air before shouting out, “Some people are coming to watch us play!”
Dead silent. It was like each of their minds were lagging as they tried to process the information. Though, that didn’t last very long before they all screamed out, “What?”
“Whoa, Hinata, Kageyama, what the hell are you guys even talking about?” A second year with a shaved head who everyone refers to as Tanaka asked as he approached the two. 
“We heard a group talk about coming here to watch us practice today.” Kageyama explained as everyone else gathered around. 
“Awesome! What kinda group?” Nishinoya, a second year as well as the teams libero asked with a ditzy smile. Praying that some girls were coming to watch. 
“Three girls and a guy.” Hinata stated, watching as Tanaka and Noya started to freak out together about girls watching them.
“A guy, too?” Daichi, their team captain questioned. 
“Mhm,” Kageyama hummed. “He’s really popular among the first years. I don’t really remember his name though.”
“I see,” Daichi muttered before saying proudly, “Well, don’t let their presence distract you! Just practice like always!”
“Right!” They all screamed in unison. 
Only about five minutes later they all heard the door open. Some wanted to check out the chicks and figure out who this mystery dude was, but most were doing passes to each other. They had to focus on the ball. Still, that didn’t mean they couldn’t hear their voices. 
“I’ve missed this, yanno, watching practice games.” Your friend said to the group before turning directly to you. “You should really join football, I’d love to go to your games again.”
“Nah, too much work. Plus, I’m pretty sure the deadlines were last week.” You said with a deep breath, your eyes grazing the large gymnasium and focusing on the players. You didn’t know a lot of them, but you did notice two students from your class. 
“Oh, it’s those two.” You uttered out as you took a seat up in the stands. A girl on either side of you. 
“Who?” Himari, your friend, asked.
“Kageyama and Hinata. They have a couple of classes with me.” You said plainly, your eyes dancing before landing on familiar grey hair that made something break along your skin. It was odd, the heat that surrounded you. But you just concluded that it was nerves since he was a third-year. “Huh, Sugawara is here too.”
“Oh, him? He’s been on the team since coming to this school. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.” A friend of Himaris’ stated.
For some reason, you couldn’t put your finger on it. You didn’t know why, but you couldn’t help but focus all your attention on Sugawara. You didn’t know the guy that well, but you felt like he was a kind persona, at least from the few encounters you had with him. Honestly, you didn’t push away the idea that if you two were at least in one class together, you could be friends. Sadly, you were a first-year and you don’t play volleyball. Sure, there was lunch, but you felt it would be a bit rude to come in-between him and his free-time. Plus, he probably likes to hang out with the friends he already has during lunch.
You would have liked to stay in your head a bit more, but sadly, that wasn’t going to happen. At least, not with Himari at your side. 
The sudden touch wasn’t new, especially with her. You felt an elbow dip into your waist. It wasn’t painful, but just attentive. You let out a hum from your chest as you gazed up at some dark hues that gave you an ‘all-knowing’ and cocky look. 
You gave her a deadpanned expression before grunting out, “What?”
“You’re staring.” She grinned. “One of the boys catch your eye?”
You could hear some saddened gasps from your other side, the girls Himari invited praying that they heard incorrectly. 
“Yeah, right.” You dismissed, waving your hand before going back to doing exactly what she suspected. 
It wasn’t until you turned back that you felt a cold chill run up your spine. It wasn’t pleasurable in the slightest, but instead it ran your blood completely cold. In that moment, both pairs of eyes locked onto one another, neither daring to stare away from the other. It was like one of those moments that made you feel like the other people alive. But at the same time, you felt your fingers twitch against your thighs your hands rested upon when Sugawara sent you a wide smile. A smile that was easily as bright as the blue sky.
You stood still until sending a softer one back and waving at the third-year down on the court. 
“Oh!” Himari uttered out as she stared between you and Sugawara, wondering what just happened before her eyes. 
Though, she wasn’t the only one. In reality, the team manager was wondering who you were until something devilish came to her. After all, she was in a need of another helper when it came to dealing with these guys and it seemed like you already had Sugawara’s attention. So, what could go wrong?
After the practice match the boys started to pack everything up and put the cart full of volleyballs back in the practice room where the boys also changed into their normal clothes. During this time, their team manger, Kiyoko, took her chance to grab you before you left and without watchful eyes. 
“Excuse me!” She called out just as you were about to step out of the gym. When you turned to her, she noticed you were a bit on the taller side, close to a lot of the guys on the team. 
“Yes?” You questioned, your school bag slung over your broad shoulder.
She wasn’t intimidated per-say, but rather desperate to find another team manager, especially before she graduates since she herself was a third-year. She didn’t want to leave her position not filled and leave the guys with her responsibilities after she leaves. And so, with a deep breath she asked straight-up, “Please, join the Karasuno Volleyball team as the new team manager.”
You blinked aimlessly at the girl, your hand gripping a bit harder on the bag over your shoulder. “Why? I mean, I don’t even play volleyball, let alone know anything about the game.”
“That’s okay.” She reassured. “I didn’t know much about it either when I first started out. You don’t really need to know everything about it to be the team manager. If you want, we can do a trail membership.”
“I’m not sure,” you said under your breath, any more words that you were originally going to say coming cut from the root as soon as Himari punched your upper arm.
It didn’t hurt, but it did grab your attention. When you looked down at her she said with a bright smile, “I think you should do it. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to make some friends.”
You stared at her. It wasn’t like you didn’t have any friends. Though, you did see her point. It would be nice to have some actual friends instead of being surrounded by people like the ones she invited today. After all, in reality, you really only had two close friends. Her, and another middle school friend who went to a different high school. 
You sighed, the breath relaxing even the most anxious parts of you. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
It was easy how fast the girl’s face went from hopeful to excitement. That wide smile that appeared in mere seconds was enough to prove it. Even more so when she suddenly grabbed your free hand with both of hers in a handshake.
“Thank you so much! I’ll come by your classroom tomorrow to grab you before practice starts!” She explained before leaving you in somewhat of a daze. Honestly, you were kinda wondering what you even signed up for in the first place.
5. Exhaustion
“Hello?” A voice asked. It was soft, and gentle with words. 
A small hum came from your chest as you squirmed in your desk for a moment before you lifted your head up from your arms that crossed over the other. You felt your eyes start to defocus before getting a clear picture of the figure in front of you. 
It was that girl from yesterday.
“Oh, hey,” you muttered in a groggy voice as you rubbed the corners of your eyes. “Is it that time already?”
She stared at you for a moment with a soft smile forming on her lips before nodding her head. 
You returned her action as you grabbed your things before grabbing your things. As she led you to the gym you were at yesterday, she introduced herself as did you. You learned her name as Kiyoko, already in the know about were she stood in terms of year level. The walk wasn’t that long before you reached the gym, everyone completely turning their attention to you both when you walked in. 
“So you found a new person!” Hinata screamed, his voice echoing around the large area.
You stood next to Kiyoko unfazed by Hinata at this point in the school year. It was easy to say that class with him basically nullified his loud antics anywhere else. Even in a space that echos. 
“What’s up?” Some of the guys asked as you watched a group of three jog up to the two of you, the sound of footsteps making it obvious. Though, when you turned your head, you noticed Sugawara, a soft grin making way on your features without your knowing. 
“He’s going to be joining the club on a trail basis as the new manager.” Kiyoko stated, gazing over at you as you noticed most of the guys were starting to gather around. 
You nodded. “I’m [Name], it’s nice to meet you all.”
For some reason unknown to you, whether it be god or fate, you felt your eyes immediately go to Sugawara and couldn’t help but wonder what his reaction may be. In truth, it worried you a bit if you were overstepping, but it wasn’t like this was planned. In fact, you were going to turn it dow after today, but being here now. Seeing that smile and hearing him say that it was awesome that you were joining on as team manager, it made you rethink your original choice. Now, you didn’t want to leave. Not at all.
You struck up a few more conversations with other members to learn their names and such, but after that was over, they went back to practice. You stood on the sidelines and watched over them with Kiyoko at your side as she explained the basics of what she does as manager. She even informed you of a trip that the team will be taking after the exams. It was a training camp sorta trip, so you knew that it was going to require you to leave home for a week or so. But, you weren’t complaining. Though, for the life of you, you couldn’t pick out the couch.
“Uh, sorry, but, who coaches the team?” You asked, watching as Kiyoko was about to explain before she looked behind you. Her eyes following something new. 
“He’s behind you.” She stated.
You tilted your head curiously before turning on your heel to eye down this coach of theirs. You had all these expectations in your head. You thought he was probably some old guy with loads of couching experience on his shoulders. Maybe even someone who has been around for a while and has the complete trust of the third-year students. What you didn’t expect was to know the guy, much less have him be your damn boss. 
“Shit,” you grumbled under your breath. “The hell are you doing here?”
“Huh?” Ukai hummed as he turned to you, a cocky smile moving on his lips that made an uncomfortable shiver run down your back. “Well, well, look who it is. What? Miss me so much that you actually joined the team I couch?”
“In your dream, old man.” You growled, trying to seem pissed as you desperately hid a smile. In truth, the dude was like this older brother you never got to have being an only child and all. “Kiyoko invited me on as team manager.”
“Really? And you’re doing it?” He asked in pure disbelief. 
You felt your blood boil in a way no one could ever pull off. Seriously, sometimes this guy does piss you off. “What’s that? Don’t forget who’s been takin’ care of the store while your ass sits around and watches a bunch of sweaty guys hit goddamn balls.”
“Ouch, you kiss your mama with that mouth?” Ukai asked with a snarky grin.
“I’m going to completely destroy you, old man.” You snarled, your foot stepping down hard on the ground as you rolled up your sleeves. You quickly jumped the guy, his hands quickly holding your closed fists as you two struggled to overpower the other. “C’mon! You wanna talk like that then I’m gonna beat your ass!”
While that was happening, the boy’s volleyball team didn’t hesitate to stop and watch the battle going on between their couch and new team manager. At first it actually looked like you two were fighting, but if one was listening in from the beginning or just looked at Kiyoko laughing at the sight, everyone knew it was friendly. 
“Didn’t know those two knew each other.” Tanaka said aloud as he stood around Noya and Sugawara. 
“He works at Sakanoshita, I guess he fills in when couch is here with us after school.” Sugawara informed his teammate. Those closest to the group, Hinata and Kageyama, now joining in. 
“Oh, yeah, I think you’re right!” Hinata stated. “I’m pretty sure I saw him working the register the other day.”
“Seriously? Now I kinda feel bad, I mean, with coach being here we’re kinda overworking the guy.” Noya expressed, everyone having that factor strike them like lightning. 
“Maybe that’s why every time I see him he’s sleeping.” Kageyama said. 
“Well, maybe now he’ll get to relax a bit since Kiyoko took him on on as the manager.” Sugawara expressed his hopes aloud. He couldn’t help but think back to the other day when he saw you barely even awake when he went to grab his teammates. First, he just thought you were exhausted that day. But now with Kageyama’s statement, for some reason, he felt a bit guilty. 
After practice, you hung around for a bit until everyone was at least going home. You would feel wrong to head home if everyone else was still here. So, you hung out with Ukai inside the gym for a bit before going outside to check on the guys. 
“You going to seriously do it?” Ukai asked, his voice with any teasing antics. He was serious as he could ever be. 
“Maybe, honestly, it feels way too perfect. But then again, fate always did love me. I mean, I got a job at your stinky ass place.” You said with a snarky grin as you watch anger fill in Ukai’s face. 
“Brat, and to think I gave you a raise.” He uttered out as he crossed his arms over his chest. 
You let out a quick chuckle, your gaze moving down at your feet before you said calmly, “But, seriously, I do like it here.”
It was quiet for a moment before you felt a fit hit your upper arm. It wasn’t as weak as Himari’s punches, but not that hard either. In a way, it was enduring. 
“Then join, you damned brat.” Ukai pushed, his voice confident to its very core. 
In that moment all you could do was nod at the guy before waving him off and head outside. It was way after normal school hours, in fact, the sun wasn’t even anywhere near in sight. Complete darkness. The only light allowing you to see was coming from within the gym and the moonlight that skinned your skin gently. 
Looking up, you noticed how much brighter the stars looked on this night. They were so bright that you could even make out a few tricky constellations without any issue. It was truly a blessing to see a night like this, and honestly, you thought for a split second that it could be a sign. After all, not a lot of opportunities like these come up. Who knows, maybe you could even get lucky and while traveling to Tokyo, or even at this very school, be able to meet someone who liked you and you were able to like them back.
In truth, it wasn’t a good feeling turning down girls. You hated it. Every time you got a love letter in your locker or someone asks you to meet them somewhere after class, you get sick to your stomach. It was almost like you were gonna pass out. The worst of it is if they cry though, that really twists your stomach. Most people here in this school, at least among the first years, call you a heartbreaker. But, it’s not that. It’s just, you can’t date someone who you know you’re never gonna like back. After all, they’re all girls.
You sighed, your head moving back down as you tried to control your upset stomach at just thing about that kinda stuff. Just as you were about to step forward and go check on the guys, a voice caught your attention.
“Hey, new guy!” It yelled. 
“Huh?” You uttered as you turned your head to the guys you knew as Tanaka and Noya. Both changed out of the clothes they had before. 
“You better join Karasuno’s Volleyball club.” Noya stated without a hinge in his cocky and weridly happy expression.
“When you’re around Kiyoko talks a lot, but don’t think you can make a pass on her! Got it?” Tanaka suddenly added on.
While you were distracted on them two, you didn’t even notice two more guys appear until their captain, Daichi, hit them both on the head and yelled out, “That’s not how you recruit him, you idiots!”
“I’m so sorry, they can’t help how stupid they are.” Sugawara suddenly stated, his head bowing a bit as en extra apology. 
“It’s fine,” you stated clearly. “And honestly, I kinda already knew I was going to be joining when I first walked in today.” 
In truth, it was because of what Sugawara said when he found out. But you seriously did not need to embarrass yourself or potentially weird these guys out when you just started to get to know them. 
“Really? I look forward to having you around.” Sugawara said clearly while the others just cheered in their own little world.
You couldn’t help but smile. Sure, you haven’t known the guy long, but he’s way too sweet for his own good, as well as your own. Still, as sweet as he is, you did not expect him to suddenly ask, “Are you heading home now? I could walk you, if you’d like.”
It was then that the cheering stopped and everyone, including the others who came back from changing themselves, went completely silent and watched both Sugawara and yourself. It was odd how much your body suddenly went hot even though the air was cool. It was odd at how much your body stiffened. Then again, no one has asked to walk you home in a really, really, long time. It was endearing, sweet, and completely shot straight through your heart, planting a seed that soon was going to grow into something beautiful over time.
“Sure, I’d like that.”
6. Good Feeling
For the next three weeks you have been staying after school everyday to manage the volleyball team at your school. In that time you’ve learned plenty of skills from Kiyoko on what she does for the team, and even made some friends. You knew you were friends with all of the team but you got close to Tsukishima, Kageyama, Asahi, and Tanaka. Though, the one who you got especially close to was Sugawara. You would help him practice anytime you could and after practice it became a habit to walk with each other home. 
You got to know him through those private walks the most. You learned his fears when Kageyama joined, since both of play the setter position and how he didn’t want to regret anything after he graduates. You understood him completely. You may not be a third-year, but if you were one, you definitely  would share Sugawara’s goals. After all, your last year in high school is special.
Today was the day before the trip to Tokyo, a trip that all the players were looking forward to. It was only a practice match, sure, but there was going to be a few teams from all over Japan joining in on this great opportunity. Including Nekoma High. 
As volleyballs few about the gym, everyone couldn’t help but notice a missing person. Not from the team itself, but one that usually sits on the sidelines, someone who watches over them and keeps their heads in the game. 
“Hey, he’s not here today.” Hinata said to Kageyama, their vice captain, Sugawara, couldn’t help but to overhear.
“Yeah, he left class in a rush after the bell.” Kageyama explained to the short stack of the team.
“Oh, I hope he’s alright!” 
“I’m sure he’s fine. C’mon, let’s do a few more sets.”
Suga could feel his lips twitch downwards for a split second, his eyes dulling as when he overheard. He really did hope you were alright and nothing was wrong whether is was home issues or personal stuff. He just hoped you knew that you could talk to him if you needed. 
From the sidelines, Ukai studied Suga carefully. He’d never seen the third-year so much in his head, honestly, it was both worrying and interesting to watch. Though, if he had to be honest, Ukai was just glad someone truly cared for you the way Suga does. It was obvious to him, maybe not to Suga yet, but he knew over time that it would. And hopefully, you felt the same way. 
“Sugawara.” Ukai called out. 
The grey haired teen whipped his head from the ground before jogging up to his couch. “Yes?”
“Try not to worry too much about [Name].” Ukai smiled, watching as the most subtle amount of blush edged on the tips of Suga’s cheeks. “I asked him to work at the shop today. After practice, why not pay him a visit? I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”
Sugawara blinked aimlessly, focusing way too hard on how his heart skipped a single beat. It was a weird feeling, but at the same time, he enjoyed it way too much in the moment.
Before he knew it he let a wide smile sneak up on him, happiness radiating out of every inch of his body before saying, “Sure!”
After practice, Sugawara was the first to rush outta there. It was odd to the guys until Kiyoko explained why he was in such a rush. Luckily for Suga, he didn’t hear all the friendly teasing the guys did while they all changed and cleaned up. 
The third-year student ran downhill, a gentle smile on his lips as the cool, nighttime breeze hit his skin. It was exhilarating, to say the least. It was weird to Suga, he means, he has been seeing you every day after school and sometimes even in the mornings before. He’s spent as much time as he could with you and yet, now, it was like he was seeing you for the first time in weeks. It felt like that, and hell, it felt good.
When he came to the doors, he stopped. Taking a deep breath and fixing his hair involuntarily, he gripped the bag in his hand before walking in. You didn’t notice him at first, probably thinking he was just another run of the mill customer that would just grab their things and call on you when needed. Though, that wasn’t the case this time and for once without you noticing his stares, he took in as much as he could get. It was like this desire that started to grow the more he stared, trying his best to capture this moment forever in his mind. 
You were sitting behind the desk with his look on your face as you dug your head into a book. You were trying to concentrate, Suga knew that, but the sleepiness that started to invade your body was bringing you to your breaking point. Your hair was a straight up mess, kinda like you just took a nap and didn’t bother to fix the obvious bedhead. Though, Suga couldn’t help but smile a bit at that. For some reason, you looked way cuter now than ever before. The realization making something close to fireworks explode within his heart. In truth, that good feeling he had whenever you were around was nothing more than emotions directed towards someone who he liked romantically. 
“Hm?” A hum questioned, the voice breaking Suga from his inner thoughts. He watched when he gazed up at him, your plain features turning into pure happiness at the mere sight of him. 
“Oh, Sugawara! Well, isn’t this a surprise.” You teased, your elbow coming up on the counter as you rested your head in the palm of your hand. A grin present on your face that didn’t look like it was going away anytime soon. 
“Hey, I didn’t see you at practice today.” Suga said as he walked up to the counter. “Couch told me that I could find you here though.”
“Oh, okay, well my shift is almost done so why don’t you keep me entertained for the time being.” You cooed out as your grin started to transform into a sly smirk.
Suga smiled, a chuckle leaving his chest. “I think I will.”
You nodded in glee until you noticed an unfamiliar bag he was holding. Inside looked to be a piece of clothing. You pointed down to it and asked, “Whatcha got there?”
“Huh?” Suga questioned before gazing down himself. His body flinching when realization hit him like a truck and place the bag on the counter before saying, “Kiyoko wanted me to deliver this to you.”
“To me?” You questioned before curiosity got the best of you. In a swift movement you grabbed the item from within the bag, your orbs blinking aimlessly as you held the track jacket up in the air. It was all black with the exception of white text on the back that read, ‘Karasuno Volleyball Team’.
“Oh, wow,” you muttered under your breath as you admired the simple yet meaningful item.
“Try it on,” Suga encouraged.
You were quick to comply with his request. It was an easy, simple fit that hugged your body well. It wasn’t too big nor was it squeezing your body. It was just perfect, and you weren’t the only one who thought that.
Sugawara’s lips parted, admiring you with that cheesy grin that took his heart for a roller coaster ride. In that moment he couldn’t stop his thoughts from escaping his lips, and before he knew it he said, “You look really good in it.”
When that last letter left past his soft lips, he froze. His heart racing at a million miles an hour, wondering if it came out in a creepy way, hoping you didn’t pick up on the affection that laced his voice. But more than anything, he hoped, prayed even, that you weren’t going to flat out reject him right here and now. Seriously, that was his worst nightmare
“Oh,” you uttered out. Your tone nothing but pure shock. You remained still for a moment before grabbing the end of your new jacket, your head moving done with a bashful expression that made Suga believe he was seeing things. “Thank you.”
Suga stood still, blinking aimlessly as he tried to process the picture in front of him. In truth, he thought he was only seeing what he wanted to see. Only hearing what he wanted to hear. But when he figured out that this was reality, that that was your actual reaction to his words, he was more than over the moon and the good feeling within him whenever he saw you became stronger than ever within that moment. 
7. Moment of Truth
It was the day of the volleyball trip to Saitama were a bunch of teams were going to go head to head in some practice matches to improve themselves further. Sadly for you, you had no idea that everyone was leaving in the middle of the night. Seriously, it sucked.
“This blows,” he yawned out, your body weak as you stood next to Suga.
“Did you get any sleep?” He asked in a worried tone, his gaze trying to understand why you keep doing this to yourself. 
“Not really. Maybe, an hour or two?” You questioned, your body starting to give out on you. Without hesitation you leaned next to Suga, your body pressing against his. You felt his body stiffen at your sudden touch, especially when you nuzzled your head into his shoulder. 
“Sorry, just give me a minute.” You muttered out in a sleepy tone that caused the grey haired male to hear his heart beat in his own ears. 
“O-Oh, it’s, um, it’s fine.” He stumbled to say, his free hand coming up to cup the back of his neck. 
He thought that he would be able to get away with this stunt, even with all his friends around, but he was sorely mistaken. It wasn’t like he was trying to hide it per say, but rather not bring his own embarrassment to the next level. A level that might catch your attention.
“Aw, look at you two love-birds.” Tsukishima snickered. “You could have least waited to get on the bus.”
Suga’s blood ran cold, his skin sizzling as if just dipped in boiling water. His chest grew heavy as if someone suddenly placed all of their weight on him without restraint. It wasn’t as if they knew his feelings, but it felt as if he had just exposed himself to not only them, but to the world. 
“Stop it, Tsukishima.” Tanaka said, and for a minute, Suga thought he was safe until the buzzcut fool blurted out, “Don’t be jealous that Suga got him and not you.”
“Yeah, right.” Tsukishima groaned in pure annoyance before getting on the bus. A few people falling in after him.
“Uh,” Suga uttered out as he stood still, wondering what he should do about the one on him that out small snores. Though, his problem was solved when Kageyama suddenly came around and shook your free shoulder lightly.
“[Name], c’mon, we’re getting on the bus.” The first-year setter stated as he noticed you stir into Suga before your eyes began to flutter open. 
“Hm? Oh, sorry.” You mumbled before letting out a loud yawn before following Kageyama side by side into the bus, leaving Suga completely alone in the cold night. 
He stood still, wondering what even just happened and hoping that the night breeze would cool down the side you leaned into that still burned to the touch. What was worse was that whenever the wind did come around, your scent hit his sense of smell like a truck, making it impossible to move. That was until he felt a hand grip onto his shoulder in a friendly manner. 
When Suga turned, he saw Daichi with a gentle smile on his face. 
“Why don’t you just tell him?” He suddenly asked.
Suga blinked aimlessly for a second, pondering if he should deny such a thing. But, he couldn’t lie to Daichi, not in a million years. 
Suga sighed. “I don’t even know if he likes me back.”
“Well, this trip might give you the opportunity to tell him. I mean, best to have no regrets, right?” Daichi asked, knowing he hit a nerve within Suga.
He stared at Daichi, his brain running back to his oath he made in the beginning of this year. It was silly of him to even forget it. “Right.”
During the first couple of days of practice you absorbed as much information about the game from both Karasuno and other teams. You took a fondess of Nekoma, they had this thing about them that you couldn’t quite pin. They weren’t that strong when it came to defense or attack power, but you felt like they were reading your every move. At first, you felt a bit bad since they were the enemy, but when you saw Hinata chatting up with the setter and Daichi talking with their captain, you ruled they were sorta friendly when neither are on the court against each other.
“Are we friends with Nekoma?” You asked Kiyoko who stood next to you on the sidelines as Karasuno played a school you didn’t pay much attention to. 
“We lost to them in a practice match a while back. If anything we’re more like friendly rivals.” Kiyoko explained.
“Gotcha,” you uttered as you watched the game. Everything about volleyball never really excited you, but when it came to these guys, they made it almost way more interesting than it should be. Though, your eyes couldn’t help but wonder over to the people who weren’t playing at the moment, but you mostly focused on Suga over the others. You knew that Ukai put in Kageyama as setter more than him, but you did hope that you would have the chance to see him play. If not, than at least cheer him up.
“Hey, Kiyoko.” You called out, the girl quickly turning to you with a questionable look.
“You’ve known Sugawara the longest, so, uh,” you mumbled. Honestly, this had gone a lot smoother in your head. You gazed down unwillingly, your sight focusing on your feet. “Do you know if, um, if he maybe as anything he enjoys? Like how Tsukki enjoys music. Something that makes him happy?”
Your sight flickered all over the place, your face felling way hotter than before. When you met Kiyoko’s gaze once more, she had this encouraging smile that made your heart come to a complete stop. Only starting back up again when she said, “Well, I’m sure anything from you will do the trick.”
“From me?” You questioned. The simple sentence making immense happiness surge through your veins that you couldn’t contain a cheesy smile that crinkled the edges of your eyes. “Okay, thanks.”
From then on, you asked most of the third years what they thought would be an appropriate gift for Sugawara, some even saying to just call him ‘Suga’ instead of his full last name. You took that into account, but you also took the idea of Super Spicy Mapo Tofu from Asahi. And while you did pick his suggestion, you tried your best to combine everything together to make him as happy as you could.
“Ukai,” you called out. When you jogged up to him you felt multiple eyes on you, both from the court and those not playing. 
“What’s up, kiddo?” He questioned.
“Would it be okay if I was excused for the rest of the day?” You asked, the question itself only sparking sadness and curiosity in those that you didn’t talk to before.
“Sure, just know that I’ll make you work overtime in the shop when we go home.” Ukai stated. He knew he couldn’t just let you off the hook without some kind of punishment, so he did the least problematic one he could think of.
“Thank you,” you said with a quick bow before leaving the occupied gym and heading straight for the cafeteria.
It took you a bit to get everything ready, seriously, you swore if you didn’t really care about this one guy than you wouldn’t even do something like this in the first place. You knew it would make him feel better, but at the same time it was way too embarrassing. It was like you were completely opening your heart, exposing yourself to him even though you had no idea his feeling. You knew he thought of you as a friend, but you seriously were clueless on everything else except your own feelings. Those were painfully obvious to you. 
When everything was complete, you took upon yourself to ask Daichi and Asahi for help since they were the only other third-years on the team. Plus, Daichi was the captain so he had control over everyone’s actions. You put it in terms that weren’t too embarrassing for you, just basically telling them that you set something up for Suga to cheer him up. Politely, you asked if Daichi would only dismiss him from practice and make sure he comes to the boy’s room, the area were the Karasuno guy’s sleep.
They thought it was really thoughtful of you to do something like that for him and agreed to be a part of your plan. After that, you just played the waiting game, hoping that the food didn’t get cold before he showed up. Lucky for you, Suga respects Daichi more than a friend, but as a captain and listened to his every word. It was around five minutes after you came back that he showed up.
You were playing with your hands before you heard the door open. You noticed right away how upset he looked to be kicked out, hoping that he would forgive you after he learned this was all your doing.
After a few more sets, he looked up. The sadness quickly washing away and replayed with pure shock. “Oh, I didn’t know you were here.”
“Hm,” you hummed. Your body soon rotating in front of Suga as he sat down across from you.
“I know you left, but I didn’t think you’d be here.” He expressed, his body leaning forward as he talked. 
“I wasn’t here for all that time.” You confessed, your hands quickly finding the edge of your shirt. “You see, I kinda noticed you were upset from not being able to play with everyone else so I, um,” you trailed off. 
You gulped hard, the sound ringing in your ears for a few seconds before pulling out a bowl full of Super Spicy Mapo Tofu. Your eyes flickered between the bowl of food and the awe-struck expression on Suga’s face.
“I thought I’d make this to cheer you up, a couple of the guys helped me out though.” You mumbled out, your hands starting to grip onto your shirt.
“Oh, wow, this is, um, really nice of you.” You heard him say. Normally, anyone would think he was just trying to be nice to spare your feelings, but the heavy set blush upon his cheeks that trailed over to the tips of your ears say otherwise.
“It’s no problem.” You trailed off in a shaky voice, watching from the corners of your eyes Suga’s face light up when he took the first bite. You couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride overwhelm you, sure you had cooking skills from being an only child, but this was the first time making that dish, so you were just glad you didn’t completely bomb it.
You two sat in silent for a few minutes, but truthfully, it felt like hours. You would try to sneak a few glances here and there just to get a look at his face. You found it absolutely adorable the way it was scrunch up when he got a good bite of your cooking. Overall, you just wanted to save the view but not be creepy as well. But, after a while, he stopped eating. The bowl that was almost overflowing now empty like a dried river. 
“That was great, thank you!” Suga sung happily, that gentle yet pure smile back on his features. It reminded you of when you two first met, but now just wider and more full of pure joy. 
“Hey, Suga,” you called out, your body leaning in. The sudden action, plus shortening of his name caused his body to stiffen. 
“Y-Yeah?” He stuttered, his eyes never once moving away from yours, even though he desperately wanted too.
You were ready. You had it all planned out. Just do it like you practiced. 
While those this did rush throughout your head all you could manage to get out was, “Want me to take that?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure.” Suga replied, his hand picking up the bowl and handed it to you. 
A heavy sigh past your lips when you set the empty bowl over by the door, you would take it down to the cafeteria later. For some reason, this was harder than you remember. Maybe it was cause the last time the person asked you out instead of the other way around. They just made it seem so effortless that you thought for a second that you could do it too. Turns out, you can’t. 
When you came back, you stood a seat next to Suga this time. Both of you now sitting on the sheets he falls asleep on during nightfall. In truth, you had no words. The silence was filled to the brink with this tension that made your head lower, your hands playing with each other. It was like both of you hoped something would happen, but not doing anything to make that come true.
Though, in Suga’s case, his mind replied what Daichi had told him a few days ago. No regrets. Two simple words repeating over and over again. It was true, he didn’t want to have those. Yet, at the same time, he was nervous as all hell to even touch you, let alone start anything. Still, he knew he had to. He had to at least give it a shot, and if he failed, if you didn’t like him the way he did you, he would at least be content with the fact that he never has to wonder what could have been. Even so, his nerves were still all over the place, even if he did make up his mind.
“Hey,” he called out, his body leaning in a bit faster than usual, and when you turned to face him, both of you ended up butting heads. 
Both of you quickly moved your hands up to the sore spot, grunts of pain echoing around the only souls in the room. Suga was the first to recover, guilt swelling up when he noticed you in pain.
“Hey, I’m really sorry, are you okay?” He called out in a panicked voice as he unconsciously placed his hands upon your shoulder. Although, in the mists of his panic, he didn’t realize just how much focus he pushed onto you. 
Your eyes shot open when you felt your body start to move backwards, a small yelp coming from your throat as your squeezed your eyes shut and waited for the hard floor to collide into you. You groaned once it did, the pain now coming from the back of your head and front. You knew this was gonna probably give you a headache later. The pain pounded against your skull, but when you fluttered your eyes open it was like all of that pain was the farthest thing from your mind.
Your breath immediately caught in your lungs, fearful that you’d noticeably start to breath heavier than normal. Before your eyes was a clear few of Suga, his body on top of yours. His eyes were wide, shaky as if trying his hardest not to let his sight wonder. His hands were firmly placed on either side of your head, one of his knees between your legs. 
Both of you remained silent, processing what just happened the best you could. It was then, when you tangled together the events that lead up to this that you subconsciously slide your leg up, bending your knee. Your leg brushing up against Suga’s outter waist and thigh in a way that made him avert his gaze from you for a moment as he recomposed himself.
“I’m, uh, I’m sorry.” Suga apologized, his voice barely a whisper.
You remained silent, your lips slowly parting.
Suga’s eyes disobeyed his will, his sight falling on your lips that look so soft to him. “I should probably get up now.” 
Quiet. You remained utterly speechless. You wanted to speak, you wanted to say a lot of things. However, it was like your words were stopped in your throat before they could even pass your lips, much less move into Suga’s ears. 
After a moment or two of being in the same position, unmoving, Suga started to believe he was making you uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted to do. Screw his ‘no regrets’ phrase, it was one thing when it came to volleyball. Though, it was a completely other thing when it was you. Never in a million years would he ever want to cause you discomfort, even at the cost of his own feelings, he would stop his pining over you if you didn’t feel the same.
You were in your own mind for long that didn’t notice the look on uncertainty flicker in Suga’s eyes. By the time you came to it, he was slowly starting to get up, careful not to hurt you anymore than he had already. You didn’t know what happened, or what kinda demon took over but when you saw him backing away, you panicked. 
Swiftly, you moved your hand up and tugged hard onto his shirt. You heard a soft gasp from him, sure, but when you felt his lips touch your own, everything went deadly quiet. Both of you remained still, processing what was going on, wondering what the next move should be. 
Slowly, you released your grip from his clothes and moved that hand up to the back of his head, your fingers slowly intertwining with his soft locks. It was then that you felt Suga lead, his lips moving slowly against yours. It was gentle, soothing, and full of so much pent up desire that it almost made you escalate things.
His lips tingled a bit, almost like a spice. Luckily, you didn’t mind it and actually thought it felt somewhat good. You moved yours in sync with his as he started to grow more confident, you in turn starting to tug on the back of his hair. It earned you a few grunts that made butterflies start to invade your stomach and only made your over-worked heart beat even faster. You knew that the mischievous side of Suga was slowly working its way out, especially after the little stunt you pulled.
You didn’t care what he did, all you did care about was having him closer. As you had his hair in your hand, you started to but some pressure down on his head, signaling him to come closer, that it was okay. It didn’t take him long to understand what you were trying to tell him and quickly comply with your request. He carefully moved closer, both of your chests colliding as both of your hearts started to beat as one and ultimately deepen the kiss.
You started to get close to your limit when it came to oxygen, and while you didn’t want to end it, your need to breath was more important to you. However, you didn’t need to. Just when you were going to gentle push him away, Suga moved away from you, his cheeks on fire as his eyes glossed over with something that made you way more embarrassed than you already were.
A soft grunt left your chest before you moved your graze to the side, your entire face gradually feeling more heated by the second.
“Hey,” he called out softly. He didn’t have to explain what he wanted from you, you could hear it all in that simple, everyday word. 
Reluctantly, you met his gaze once more. This time, he was smiling. It was one of those smiles that showed so much admiration without the need for words or any other kind of action.
“I really like you.” He simply said. No hesitation. Not even a single fluctuation in his tone of voice. 
This alone made you smile like a kid in a candy store. For once in your life, you had gotten what you really wanted. It made you the happiest guy alive. 
“I really like you too, Suga.”
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