#so we had to narrow it down to six love interests

[gutsby]

Grow a Uterus and We'll Talk

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader

Summary: Daryl has a bad case of baby fever, to put it lightly. You’re practically terrified of children. Rick lends you his kid for the night, and together, you come to learn that parenthood might not be the worst thing in the world. Even easier than baking muffins, one might say.

Warnings: Fluff, fluff, fluff, an absurd amount of baby rabies, and fluff. Don’t blame me if y’all get pregnant.

“You lay one finger on me and I’ll bite it off, Dixon.”

You’d done the same damn dance once a month, every month for the past two years, and you were starting to grow annoyed with your boyfriend’s advances.

“Would it really be tha’ bad if we tried it out…just once?” Daryl huffed.

“I don’t know,” you answered, shrugging, “Grow a uterus and we’ll talk.”

The archer playfully lunged at you from across the couch, but you easily side-stepped and took residence at the far end of the room. You reached for a stiletto to throw at his head if he came any closer.

“Still on the baby business, huh?” Carol called as she strode past the living room toward the kitchen.

“Ya know we’d make some damn cute crotch goblins,” Daryl yelled back. You rolled your eyes.

“That isn’t for you to decide, Daryl,” Carol’s voice seemed to toughen, even give him a scolding look from a distance away, “And if you knock her up before she’s ready, I’ll string you up by your balls and feed you to the walkers.”

The woman did not fuck around—and you loved her for it. Presently, you stuck your tongue out at Daryl as if to say, ‘See? I told you so’ and the man simply scowled. Flopped down on the couch and propped his dirty boots up on the coffee table.

“‘Course I wouldn’t try if ye weren’t ready,” he grumbled, “Jus’ wanted you ta consider it.”

You joined him on the couch and nudged his feet off the table.

“Is that why you’ve been parading every baby in Alexandria in my face for the past six months? Hoping I’d ‘consider’ things a little more?” you quipped, raising both eyebrows.

Daryl paused a beat, seemed to chew on his thoughts for a moment or two. Then he offered you a sheepish grin and said,

“Rick and Michonne really need the free childcare.”

You were itching to grab that high heel again. Before you could, though, a sound thundered through your foyer and the front door was thrown open wide. In the blink of an eye, Rick had stumbled through your entryway, passed off his infant to Daryl like a sack of potatoes, and raced back to the door.

“Rick, what the fuck?!” you shouted before he could escape.

“Date night,” Rick answered in a ragged breath, gripping the door frame while he glanced over at Daryl.

Daryl smiled and held Judith to his chest like she might’ve been the most precious thing in the universe. You narrowed your eyes.

“He put you up to this?” you asked, tipping your chin in Daryl’s direction.

Rick didn’t hesitate; he said that he had. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Daryl shooting daggers at his friend. Promptly, Judith pawed at your boyfriend’s stubbled cheeks and babbled.

Sensing the tension in the air, Carol gathered her belongings and contemplated baking her bread elsewhere—or at least give you and Daryl some space to talk. She started toward the door,

“Walk a lady home?” she said to Rick.

Rick shot her a curious look but accepted anyway. Casting a sidelong glance to the man on the couch and the woman who was currently staring him down with an irate look in her eyes—you—he quickly surmised it was in his best interest to leave. Hopefully Judith was too young to catch on to any curse words that might be hurled in the next several minutes.

“Be good, you three,” Rick gave his parting words before following Carol outside. The door crashed shut behind them.

As soon as it had, you were back on your feet and traipsing out of the room.

“Come on,” Daryl whined.

He followed your steps into the kitchen with Judith still cradled in his arms. There was a pregnant pause as you rifled through your cabinets, wordlessly searching for some ingredients to bake whatever pastry it would take to get your mind off the discomfiture of this situation—you decided on muffins, at length.

It wasn’t like you hated babies. You loved their big bald heads and their pudgy, wobbling legs. You loved the way they giggled and smiled and dribbled food all over their fronts. You didn’t even mind the thought of pregnancy; carrying a pint-sized redneck in your belly for nine months wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen. 

It was the world that frightened you most. The thought of a newborn child’s slim chances at surviving a place like this. The fear of that alone was enough to have you fighting that dreadful outcome, tracking your cycle like a hound and fighting Daryl off every month when you knew that day was coming. You’d been pretty successful thus far. But by the looks of the man across the kitchen beaming down at the baby, you weren’t sure how long that winning streak would last.

“Wanna hold her?”

“No.”

“Wanna do her hair?”

“She hasn’t got any.”

Daryl shot you a look of mock indignation and stroked Judith’s head.

“You kiddin’? Little Ass Kicker’s gotta have at least fifteen strands by now,” he retorted, tugging at the short blond tufts as if to prove a point.

Judith smiled a toothless grin up at her Uncle Daryl. You all but had to leave the room to stifle the sounds of your reproductive organs screaming, 'Give that man a baby! NOW!' You clenched your stomach and turned away to start preparing the pans.

Daryl perched Judith on his lap and starting puffing out his cheeks. The infant shrieked with laughter. You assembled the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together on the counter and sought after a bowl.

“Dada, Dada!” Judith chanted. Trying in earnest to say ‘Daryl’ but ending up sounding like she was calling him dad. You dropped the mixing bowl on the countertop with a clatter.

“Daryl, kiddo, Dar-yl,” your boyfriend tried to teach her, enunciating his name a couple more times.

“Dada!” the little tyke howled again as she fisted his shirt in her fingers.

Milk and oil and— eggs. Where are the eggs?

You tore through the fridge and wanted to sob into the shelves with the sheer force of delirium coursing through your veins. Damn you, Charles Darwin, I am not in a place to be procreating right now.

You tried turning your mind to other things—cooking, crying, contemplating the course of human evolution—but when you turned back with the carton of eggs in hand, you almost sent the dozen of them crashing straight to the floor.

Daryl was pinching her chubby cheeks.

If you weren’t so violently inclined to breed a whole new gaggle of progeny with this man, you probably would’ve chucked an egg at his head.

You sighed as you dropped the last of your cooking supplies on the surface of the kitchen island. You planted your hands flat on the granite and stared shamelessly at the two of them. Daryl was feigning ignorance, tapping Judith’s tiny pink nose with the tip of his finger and watching her giggle. When he leaned down to kiss the top of her head, you spun around to kick the oven door shut and cut the appliance off, immediately.

“Alright, you win, you bastard,” you said in a huff.

Daryl looked up from his present occupation, eyeing you innocently.

“What do you mean, hon—”

You cut him short, raising a finger to halt his speech before starting toward the door.

“Shut up,” you muttered as you headed for the stairs, “Meet me up there in five.”

Daryl deposited Judith in her portable playard in a second’s time and went scrambling up those steps faster than he ever had before. 

Silently, speedily, he thanked every one of his lucky stars and his best friend, Rick Grimes.

#daryl dixon #daryl x reader #daryl dixon fluff #fluff #daryl dixon imagine #twd daryl #twd fanfiction #daryl dixon smut #the walking dead #daryl dixon one shot #twd imagine

[lixxpix]

burn- lee minho (l.mh)

| spotify playlist to listen to while reading^^

| summary: "you really think you can charm your way out of anything, don't you?" minho sighed, eyebrows pinched as he drove you back home.

"it's worked so far, hasn't it?" you grinned, chin in the palm of your hand as you stared out the window.

"one day, you'll meet your match."

| warnings: angst, bad parenting, daddy issues lol, cursing, drunk people, physical fights, blood, comfort and fluff tho, reader is a bit stupid while drunk but minho is her protector (we love a protective lino), lots of comfort and fluff i swear

| pairings: badboy/biker/college/honestly idk what to classify him as!leeknow x reader

| word count: 9.9k

| author's note: i decided to make it a proper story/fic with capitalisation and punctation this time! i realised my other fics are written in my texting style much like the style i am writing this note to you in rn, so hope u enjoy this format more or if you just want drabbles. i had to write this because hot badboy protective leeknow has been in my head for days lmao. enjoy luvs!

Minho sighed as he wove through crowds of sweaty, drunk people grinding against each other like horny animals. However, he kept his attention focused on you, trying to find you amidst the sea of bodies in a dingy, dark, and frankly overcrowded club. Eyes narrowing as he finally caught a glimpse of you, sitting at a bar drunkenly flirting with some idiot of a man.

"Y/n." He kept his gaze firmly trained on you, grabbing on to your arm tightly. You turned around, a scowl on your face until you saw who it was. "Lino!" you beamed, words slurring together as you tried to stand up, but unfortunately stumbling due to you deciding to wear six-inch heels to the club tonight. Minho's hand darted out, supporting you by the elbow, just barely saving you from completely toppling over.

"We need to go, it's late. Chaeryoung and the rest have already left." His lips thinned into a line, raising his eyebrows as you pouted up at him.

"But I wanna stay," you whined, tugging at his elbow in an effort to go back to the bar you sat at not too long ago.

"We don't have time for this, you're clearly wasted and we need to go. Don't argue with me." He sighed, eyebrows pinching together as you whined and protested.

"B-but- I wanna drink more, plus the guy at the bar said he would buy me drinks if I talked to him," you stared pleadingly up at him with your best doe eyes.

Just as you finished your sentence, right on cue, a man walked up, placing a hand on your shoulder. He looked menacing, rich, and was staring at you in a way Minho definitely did not like, he decided.

"Hey love, where did you go to? We didn't finish our conversation earlier," the man grinned, bending down to whisper in your ear, and Minho didn't miss the way you shivered the moment his hand slipped from your shoulder to your waist and the minuscule distance you tried putting between yourself and the man. "O-oh, nothing, I was just talking to my friend right here," you batted your eyelashes at the man in an attempt to make him think you were interested, not wanting him to attack you if you told him you honestly just wanted him to fuck off. The man was clearly a lot different now, his nice persona at the bar could have almost fooled you, you had only started to dislike him when he placed his hands on your shoulder.

"Look, mate, I'm not in the mood to be fighting with someone else right now. Get your hands off her and fuck off. Y/n, we're leaving." Minho gritted out, taking your arm and guiding you to his side as you cowered behind Minho like a baby deer.

"What the fuck? You told me your name was Yena!" the man looked at you, rage and fury in his eyes as he took a step towards you.

Minho's instincts immediately kicked in, pushing you behind him and stepping forward so that the man and his own noses were almost touching.

"I. Said. Leave. Her. Alone." Minho snarled, rage bubbling in his viens. The man was almost as tall as Minho, yet Minho had a more muscular body and was certain he could probably out-power him if he tried. The man sneered.

"I'd like to see you try."

And with that, Minho's fist was swinging towards his face, smirking when a crack resounded out the moment his knuckles met the man's nose, ignoring your cry of horror and the gasps from the patrons of the club.

The man stumbled back, clutching his nose, crimson blood dripping from his face, soaking his shirt as he howled in agony.

Minho grabbed your hand, dashing for it as the two of you ran out of the club, never stopping until you were in his car.

"What the fuck Minho," you gasped out, still clutching at your chest and trying to regain your breath.

"He deserved it," Minho shrugs, grabbing a pack of tissues from his backseat and trying to wipe the blood off his knuckles dry, wincing as he let out a hiss.

"Here," you grabbed the tissue from him, taking his hand before gently blowing on it and dabbing at the blood around the wound, being careful not to touch the wound.

And it was then Minho's world stopped, time freezing as his breath hitched. It was a sorry sight, the both of you sitting in his car in the middle of a parking lot behind the club, yet it felt like everything as he watched you treat his hand with the most gentle care. It was no secret to all of your friends that he had a crush on you, only that you had never noticed, pining on you from afar but never making a move. His breath stuttered when you smiled, placing a soft kiss on his hand when you were done with cleaning.

"Done," you giggled drunkenly. "A kiss to make it better. We can properly disinfect it later," you smiled, comfortably reclining in his car's seat as you stared out the window.

"U-uh, yeah," he stammered out, before hastily turning his car on and driving out, brain hazy from the kiss you had placed on his hand, butterflies erupting from his stomach.

He sighed. "You really think you can charm your way out of anything, don't you?" Minho sighed, eyebrows pinched as he drove you back home.

"It's worked so far, hasn't it?" You grinned, chin in the palm of your hand as you stared out the window.

"One day, you'll meet your match. He could've done something to you if I hadn't stepped in. Batting your eyelashes and pretending that you're busy isn't going to work all the time, what if he had persisted?" Minho's hand gripped the steering wheel tightly, eyes on the road as he sighed.

"I'll find a way out," you shrugged.

The rest of the car ride to your apartment was silent, you gently snoring as all the alcohol got to you and making you fall asleep.

Minho shook you gently, parked right outside your house.

"Hey, wake up."

You stirred slightly, grumbling before promptly going back to sleep.

"Yah, wake up or I'll pour cold water over you." He shook you more vigorously this time.

After several attempts to wake you up, he decided he had no choice but to carry you, grunting as he lifted you up and kicked the door of his car shut.

"God, when did you get this heavy," he groaned slightly to himself, arms aching as he waited for the lift.

Unlocking your apartment door with the spare key you had given him, he kicked off his shoes and removed yours, setting you down on the couch before shuffling over to the fridge to get you a hangover drink he knew would definitely come in handy tomorrow morning. Getting the necessary ingredients out of your fridge, he started making pasta, knowing your stomach would be empty when you woke up.

You woke up twenty minutes later from your nap to the aroma of homemade tomato sauce wafting through the house, blinking groggily as you watched a plate laden with piles of tomatoes, cheese, and spaghetti be set down in front of you, coupled with your favourite brand of hangover drinks by a giggling Minho.

"You look like a mess," he chuckled, digging into his own plate of pasta while sitting cross legged at your coffee table.

"Yeah, no shit sherlock." You grumbled, rubbing your eyes and unfortunately smearing mascara all over your face. "Shit."

Hurrying to the bathroom, you grabbed some makeup wipes, removing your makeup and throwing on some comfy clothes nefore heading out to eat your midnight meal with Minho, currently halfway through his plate already.

"Mm, this is good," your eyes widened in surprise as you took a bite of his food.

"Since when has my food never not been amazing?" Minho scowled playfully, glaring at you for a total of three seconds before bursting out in laughter.

Rolling your eyes, you silently ate, letting out small sounds of satisfaction as you smiled.

In that moment, Minho knew he was fucked. Well, truly, and utterly fucked. The way you looked at him with those sparkling doe eyes to the curve of your lips and the scrunch of your nose when you smiled had him bewitched and entranced, and he knew that his feelings for you were going to be there for a long, long time.

"I need to go back home, it's late," he stated, after both of you had eaten your fill and were lounging on your couch.

"Stay," you whined, and he felt his resolve crumble the moment you looked at him pleadingly.

"Fine."

You beamed at his response, and he felt his heart skip a beat.

Minho was no stranger to sleeping over at your house, the friend group the both of you were in always having random sleepovers whenever, all of you had clothes at each other's homes, so there really wasn't much of a reason for him to have to go back to his apartment at this late hour.

Taking a shower and changing into comfy shirt and shorts, he made his way into the living room, where you were fast asleep once again, shaking you gently.

"Go shower."

"Fineeee," you pouted, finally finding the will to get up and trod to the bathroom.

Later that night, the both of you lay curled up to each other in bed, his hand disinfected and wrapped up carefully in bandages by you.

"Min?" you asked sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"I like you. Like- like, like you, you know? In fact I think I love you," you rambled, a dopey smile on your face as you faced him, watching his features instantly morph into ones of shock.

Minho felt like his world had stopped, reeling from the shock as he processed what you said.

"This- this isn't a dream or a joke, right? It's real?"

The question came out as a barely there whisper, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

You smiled softly, taking his hand.

"No Min, it's not."

And that was all it took, that simple sentence, to have him lean forward and connect his plush lips to yours as he kissed you with every fibre in his being, holding you close as if he was afraid that you were a dream that would slip away the moment he let you go. You poured your soul into the kiss, deepening it, both of you never separating 'till your lips were swollen and your faces were flushed, gasping for air yet smiling giddily like toddlers receiving a lollipop, the rush of adrenaline and thrill coursing through you.

"I love you," Minho says, holding you close.

"I love you, and I would burn for you."

And he meant it.

#lee know x reader #lee minho #lee know #comfort #angst #non!idol au #stray kids #lee minho x reader #reader insert #skz x reader #fluff #comforting #warmth #drabbles #oneshot #Spotify #stray kids x reader #skz

[writeroutoftime]

i can’t get the idea of carmy x butcher reader out of my mind for some reason

words: 0.7k

warnings: none, I mean carmy's a bit of jerk for a minute, but what's new lol

a/n: honestly, I love this idea, anon so here's a little blurb! not sure if I went in the direction you were anticipating, but I really enjoyed writing this! (also, this is my first time writing for carmy so please forgive me while I'm learning his character!)

p.s. I would totally be opening to write more little blurbs for this specific pairing if anyone is interested!

oOoOo

It took four blocks to walk from The Beef to the butcher Mikey had used for the past few years. Six blocks for Carmen's fists to repeatedly clench and unclench and for his jaw to tightened as he stormed down the street, not caring who got in his way.

When he reached the butchers, Carmen threw the door open. The bell attached nearly flew off in protest, immediately catching your attention.

"How can I help?" you asked, dusting off your hands to give your newest customer your full attention. Though, by his heavy breaths, you mentally prepared yourself for the difficult conversation you expected to follow.

"You can start by getting your fucking orders right for delivery. This is the second time in a month that your shop dropped the ball and it's impacting my kitchen." he all but shouted, jabbing an accusatory finger in your direction.

Your hands gripped the counter, subtly, as you forced yourself to take a deep breath. It was early in the morning. You weren't exactly keen to start your day by dealing with angry customers - even if his intense, blue eyes were rather attractive.

"Okay," you spoke slowly. "What's the name on the order? We can figure this out."

Unfortunately, this did little to placate the seething man. "The name is Berzatto for The Beef. And I don't want to work anything out, I just want you to deliver the orders you're fucking supposed to. We need twenty pounds of meat, and you only delivered two. What good does two pounds do me?"

By that point, your own jaw clicked as you turned to look through your files. You recognized the name Berzatto and deep down you knew the delivery was correct on your end. After years of shadowing your family before taking over, you knew how to run this business.

Rather aggressively, you pulled out the order sheet and slammed it down on the counter in front of Berzatto. He snatched the sheet, eyes quickly scanning the text. You saw the moment his face fell, and couldn't help but feel rather smug.

"Do you wanna walk outside, come back in, and try again?" you asked, crossing your arms over your chest, eyes narrowed.

A few moments of silence and Berzatto finally looked back up at you, his chest heaving as he came down from his rush of adrenaline. "I," he began, then quickly shut his mouth, and turned from the counter running his hand down his face in frustration.

"Okay, how can I order the rest of the meat to be delivered, ASAP?" he asked suddenly, turning around and running a hand through his already mussed hair only to end up on the back of his neck as he looked at you.

It wasn't an apology, but his tone was noticeably calmer. You figured that would be the closest you'd get for a while. One glance at him and you could tell he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. The name Berzatto rung a bell in your mind, and you remembered hearing there was a new owner after the previous one passed away.

With a soft sigh, you grabbed a pen and pad of paper and began to write down his order. "What's the name for the order?"

"Uh, Carm-Carmen Berzatto." he stuttered out, taken aback by your suddenly soft demeanor.

"Alright, Carmen. Here's what we're going to do. I can get you the rest of your order by this evening, and payment can be due at the end of this month. That sound okay to you?" you questioned, holding out the order slip.

Carmen reached out to grab the paper, slightly brushing his fingers against yours. Both of you pulled back quickly ignoring any sort of spark you might have felt.

He looked down at the slip, back up to you, and nodded in agreement. With a tightlipped smile, Carmen nodded his thanks and moved to leave your shop and head back to the Beef.

"And Berzatto?" you called out, quietly laughing at the way he stumbled over his feet in the doorway to turn back. "Next time try the civil approach first." you teased, leaving Carmen a blushing mess.

#carmen berzatto x reader #carmen berzatto imagine #the bear imagine #fx the bear imagine #carmy berzatto x reader

[darylsfavoritegirl]

Whoopps im liking this better than i thought

Summary: Daryl and Rick go on a run, they run into a pretty girl who is quite skilled in killing walkers but she is acting a bit suspicious👀 they decide to keep an eye on her. Again this takes place in the prison era.

Warnings: nothing really? a bit of phsyical pain involved cuz its twd

I initially tried to write this with first and third person narration which failed horribly so this is my first y/n fanfic ? feel free to correct my mistakes!! i'm new

"...And she ain't afraid to get violent with men 3 times her size."

Daryl and Rick were behind a large tree as they were watching out for walkers. Daryl narrowed his eyes slightly when he saw this girl fighting off walkers on the corner of his eyes.

"The hell she think' she's doin' ?" Daryl mumbled under his breath in a rush only for Rick to turn to his body towards him.

"What?" He asked before his eyes caught Y/n taking down three walkers.

Rick scanned the area only to see two more coming at her from behind. Daryl looked at Rick for a second and followed his gaze.

"Should we help her?" Rick asked cautiously, trying to calculate Daryl's reaction.

"Nah, she can handle 'em herself. Let's go."

Rick gazed at Daryl as he was walking into the woods. He decided to take one last glare at this alone mysterious girl when his eyes widened slightly at the scene that was going on infront of his eyes. He called for Daryl in a barely audible tone.

"Check this out." He said swinging his index and middle finger lightly at the girl. Daryl leered at her. She had a camera on her and she was documenting the area. She was taking pictures of the trees, the dead walkers, the stores. Anything.

"Well, ain't none of our dam' business." Daryl said with a slight irritation in his voice.

Rick glared at him from the corner of his eyes for a brief second before taking a deep breath.

"She is alone, quiet pretty and actin' all strange." Rick said with an undertone of mistrust.

"She took five or six walkers all by herself, without a trouble." He then added with fascinated eyes.

Daryl rolled his eyes moderately "Now what? Yea takin' interest in sum girl fightin' for 'er life?"

Daryl kept leering at Y/n as she walked into the pharmacy store right after cleaning her knife with a cloth she ripped from a dress that one of the walkers was wearing.

He scowled lightly as his frustration revealed itself in his voice "Great. She goin' into the store I was plannin' to go into." He grunted. He sighed audibly and looked at Rick over his shoulder before putting his crossbow in place on his hands. Rick kept sniggering and followed him. They were looking for survivors. They needed them, Daryl didn't love the idea. He thought Rick was trusting people easily but maybe he needed to do that... He entered the pharmacy, with the intention of studying this girl more.

. . . .

Y/n kneelt infront of the biggest drug shelf, trying her hardest to find antibiotics. They were useful for anything, though none was left. Y/n sighed before going through piled up medications on the floor when she heard someone walk in. Whoever that was, they were quite, almost too quite for her to not notice. She slowly got up, scanned the area for a brief moment. Thank god, she wasn't in the entrance, otherwise she would be caught in the open; like a prey awaiting for its predator.

Y/n knew the first thing she had to do was to control her breathing so she did. She hid behind a big metal desk, her backpack was near the door, the entrance where whoever that was there could see it easily. She didn't panick. She held her breath and got close to her backbag with cautious light movements. She dragged her bag to herself.

Y/n listened to area for a few seconds before slowly pulling her knife and pistol out of their cases. This was what she was scared of, dealing with somebody she doesn't know in the middle of the apocalpyse. She knew she had to stay calm. She inspected her ammo, incase she had to use it. She checked the magazine. Y/n had her pistol on one hand meanwhile she had her commando knife sitting on her left hand gently. She had a firm stance but before she could even take a second peek, y/n felt someone's presence.

"Come out."

Y/n studied the man's voice before she got up. The grunt, the thick southern accent one could hear even in two words. Y/n could already tell she had to deal with an aggressive one. She had a moment of debating with herself whether or not she should leave her weapons on the floor. "That's stupid." she notioned inside of her head. All these thoughts pondered her head within 5 seconds when the man, once again repeated it.

"Come on out. Now."

She lifted her head up. An arrow in a crossbow looking directly at her forehead and blue stern eyes behind it. Y/n immediatly got up and stepped back, weapons in her hand with a firm stance. A hasty moment of exchanging rigid gazes.

"I'm not looking for trouble." Y/n said with a humane tone. Ironic, she believed. A girl stating that she isn't looking for trouble with two lethal weapons in her hands.

The man stayed silent without breaking the intense eye contact. Y/n felt the need of giving assurance to him to not get killed. Anything could happen these days.

She sounded as if she was begging, abundance of tender in her voice "I just need some supplies and I'll be out of here before you know it."

Y/n leered deep into the man's eye as if she could see what was going on inside of his head. Daryl looked at y/n up and down, trying to conclude if she is any danger at all. He finally stopped frowning and loosened his grip on the crossbow.

"Go ahead." he mumbled.

Y/n also loosened her grip on her weapons. She felt her hands cramping because how long she had been holding the weapons. She moved aside, her eyes still following the man. Y/n got down, confused even scared because she had no idea what could happen any second. She forgot about the pills. She was scared for her life. Nonetheless, she grabbed a few medicine from the pile on the floor and tossed them into her bag. Y/n could see the man's reflection from the broken glass infront of her. He was not taking his eyes off of her, which freaked y/n out. She took a deep breath and slowly got up. The man was leaning against one of the desks in the pharmacy, he was looking rather calm but at alert. Y/n could see that. Her eyes formed some kind of apologetic manner as she examined the man for a brief moment. She didn't know why she did that. Maybe she felt he was no longer a threat to her. Daryl was quite indifferent. He was not also taking her eyes off of Y/n. She started walking towards the door when the ammo in her backpack started making noises because they got all messy in there when she tried to get a magazine out. She hoped he wouldn't mind it and stopped for a second, turned to this man and gently said

"I'm Y/n"

Y/n didn't know if she was supposed to wait for him to respond. She felt as if she owed this man the courtesy of saying her name at least. She decided to walk out when all of a sudden her thoughts were interrupted by another grunt. "Daryl." He said. It sounded apathetic as if he only said his name because Y/n said hers. Y/n gently smiled, if you can call that a smile. She made her way to the door. She was still sweating when another one of her pistols dropped from her bag and made a big thud, leaving her all panicked. She had a few guns in her backpack and this wasn't good to a stranger's eyes. She grabbed her ALFA combat and incompetently put it into her jacket pocket that she was wearing in the heat of Georgia. She didn't even look at Daryl.

Y/n didn't wanna take long because she knew it would get fucked up and it indeed did. Her action was interrupted by Daryl's hasty voice when her hand touched the door handle.

"Hold on." He said in a wary tone.

"Wha's tha' in yer bag?" his eyes roaming through her body and backpack as he came closer.

Y/n took a deep breath before turning to him. She knew it was time to actually be a bit belligerent. There was no way this could end in any virtuousness.

"You a damn cop now?" Y/n said with vexation in her eyes.

"First you come here and spy on me now you wanna check my backpack." the annoyance and electric in her voice growing stronger with each word.

Daryl stayed tranquil. He knew Y/n was a potential survivor Rick might wanna take in but he still needed to make sure everything. He came even closer. No one could blame Y/n for feeling under threat. Her survival instinct kicked in. She already calculated the strength of Daryl, there was no way she could overpower him. That's the thought that kept notioning inside of her head throughtout the 5 minutes she had to spend with him. But, Y/n thought, if she attacked him when he least expected it, maybe that would give her enough time to run as far as she could and make him lose track of her.

So she did, she kicked Daryl in the guts, leaving him only stumble a few steps back. Daryl huffed "Fuck." at the pain of being kicked in the stomach.That was all her power and Daryl didn't even fall. She didn't have time to bore her mind with that at the moment. Y/n grabbed the the door handle and pulled it with all her power and started running as fast as she could.

Y/n was panicking more than ever now. She knew she was a survivor, that was the reason she stayed alive in this wilderness where dead people were walking aimlessly, attempting to bite into anything that had life and flesh. The bag full of ammo and couple of guns were making harsh noises as it was also slowing her down.

Y/n was panting and practically dragging her feet to run along when she heard a gun fire. She instantly stopped. Perhaps it was another survival instinct, perhaps she believed the next upcoming bullet would go through her skull if she didn't stop. Her legs were trembling and her body was sweating like never before. She should've never worn that jacket in the heat of the summer but that was for precaution. She halted. The first thing she did before turning to him with her hands in the air was to catch up on breathing as if she forgot how to do that. It was a big area before one could get lost in the woods. She took long hasty breaths and slowly turned her body towards the spot where the gun was fired.

Y/n huffed swiftly under her breath "Fuck" She did not only see Daryl but another man next to him holding a colt python. Daryl was panting aswell but he quickly fixed his posture.

Were they spying on Y/n all along? Demented possibilities were lining up in her head one after another. Two of the men kept looking at her while her arms and hands started cramping because of how long she had been holding them up in the air.

"What do you want?" Y/n shouted. Her eyes scrutinizing both men, debating inside of her head if they would go any further.

A few geeks started coming out of the woods. She knew it was mindless of the other man to fire a gun, even far away from the city. She reached at for her knife the second she heard their infuriating growls but Daryl didn't let her. He gave y/n a spine-chilling glare as he walked past her and killed the geeks on the spot. The other man looked rather nonchalant, not keeping his eyes on neither one of them; just giving soft glares now and then. Y/n couldn't even dare to look back, see what Daryl was doing. She supposed he was taking his arrows out of geeks' heads, cleaning them with a piece of cloth. That's pretty much what everyone did.

Then y/n felt Daryl's unyielding grip on her forearm and her backpack. He was forcing her to walk ahead of him. She could feel his harsh breaths behind her ears and it only made her heart drop.

"Asshole." she whispered and sort of hoped he wouldn't hear it. He most likely did but did not pay any attention to it. Y/n felt more under threat as they were getting closer to the other man. She notioned this could not end in any good. It was time to take action now or never. Her brain felt like it could explode any minute.

"Let me go." she howled, trying to push Daryl but it only made him more antagonized. He felt as if she was only trying to provoke him at this point. He responded back with pushing y/n to the wall of the pharmacy store. Her back hit the wall swiftly and harshly making her whine in pain. The backpack was still on her and all that metal stinged her back because of how hard Daryl tossed her on the wall. It was like every single one of the curved metal was being carved into her back.

"Ahh." she cried out. Before y/n could even pull herself together, she once again felt his harsh grip on the backpack. She gave in at that point, seeing no reason in fighting back.

"Easy." y/n heard the other man saying slowly to Daryl, his eyes forming a stern look. Y/n looked at him, she wanted to speak; explain herself but she didn't know if it would make a difference at all. She bucked up, her back was still hurting but it was now or never. Y/n took a deep breath between the whimpers of pain and said

"I don't fire 'em." she exchanged glances between two men. Her voice sounded as if she was in rush. Her voice growing raspier because of thirst that was caused by running and apprehensiveness. Daryl looking more irritated with every word that was coming out of her mouth.

"Then wha's for carryin' a bag full o' guns, huh?" he uttered.

Y/n knew she had to be wary, if not she had no idea what would happen to her. She made out that she could put some sense into the other man if not into the redneck.

"I'm delivering them to a friend." a lie. She couldn't even look into directly their eyes but tried her best to do so.

Rick seemed rather suspicious "All alone?" he muttered. Y/n caught his leer.

"Goin' all this trouble to deliver few guns." Rick sounded as if he was asking a question but also reflecting the situation in his head.

" 'Few' guns worth more than gold nowadays." Y/n said emphasizing the word "few" with a subtle irritation in her voice.

"I don' know man." Daryl got closer to Rick. Every one of them were still eyeing eachother up and down. Rick didn't want to let her go for two reasons, first being cautious about the prison's perimeter if she was telling the truth. He thought she wasn't being honest but there was no harm in being wary. Second being, she would be good use in the prison if she was alone and soloing her way. He knew he needed to investigate into it when y/n interrupted his track of thought

"Can I go now?" she said, not too pretentious but also not too sloppy either. She kept eyeing them, not letting her guard down and trying to not irritate them even more.

"Y'all don't look like bandits or I- I- don't know, plunderers. Why not let me go?" She was gazing at both of them as if she could see their souls.

"Tha's cuz wer not." Daryl said in an obvious exasperated, raucous tone. Y/n couldn't help but smirk a little bit at his extreme, fragile reaction.

A brief fierce eye contacted formed between y/n and Daryl when Rick made a hand gesture infront of Daryl to indicate him that Y/n was no longer a threat that she could, perhaps, leave. Her gaze shifted back to Rick. Rick had a soft manner on his face, he slowly swinged his fingers at y/n, indicating she was free to go. Y/n sighed and rolled her eyes lightly as she got down and grabbed her backpack, she had a fierce look on her eyes when she took one last leer at Daryl and slowly started to walk away.

Rick gazed at Daryl watching Y/n walk away from the corner of his eyes. Daryl could feel his eyes on him so he turned to him with a slight maddening going through his body like electroshocks. Rick still had that pleasant bearing on his face which drew Daryl more irritated

"No more interested in takin' 'er into the prison?" He grunted as he grabbed his crossbow and slung it over his shoulder as he kept staring at Rick.

"I am." Rick said in a cool manner.

"I dun' kno' man. She 's trouble and ain't afraid to get violent wit' men three times her size." Daryl said still studying y/n in his mind.

"And that's a survivor right there." Rick sniggered as a subtle smirk appeared on Daryl's face.

FOOTNOTE

Ok yall can't believe this took me 2-ish days to write😭😭 i love writing these that's why i been skipping studying lmao and this one is a lot longer than the previous one. we get more daryl content (i hope you like the way i describe/write him im trying my best but again he is such a complicated character. writing rick is a lot easier.) i hope you like it!! i can write a sequel fanfic if you want me to!!! just let me know :)

#daryl dixon x oc #daryl fanfiction #twd daryl #the walking dead daryl #daryl dixon #daryl x reader #daryl x you #daryl dixon one shot #daryl dixon imagine #twd imagine #the walking dead fanfiction #the walking dead #rick grimes #rick grimes imagine #rick grimes oneshot #daryl dixon angst #daryl dixon blurb #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon fluff #daryl dixon gif #daryl dixon oneshot #rick grimes fanfiction

[alisonsfics]

old college flame

pairing: tony dinozzo x ex-girlfriend!reader

summary: you and tony had dated in college. you were the only serious girlfriend he ever had. after going your separate ways, you got a job working at the FBI, which means you hadn’t seen tony since. until NCIS and the FBI have to collaborate on a case.

word count: 2.3k

“Agent Fornell, is NCIS aware that we are assisting them on this case? You’ve told me how Agent Gibbs doesn’t like other agencies to step on his toes.” You asked your boss.

You both were currently in the elevator, riding up to the NCIS squad room. You had never worked with NCIS in all your years at the agency, and you wanted to know what to expect.

“Yes, Agent Gibbs invited us on to this case.” He informed you.

The elevator doors dinged, and you both stepped out. You followed after Fornell, since he knew his way around NCIS headquarters. “Agent Gibbs, pleasure to work with you again.” Your boss said, walking into a room with four desks.

Gibbs stood up and shook Fornell’s hand. “You must be Agent L/N. Tobias told be about you. You’ve been at the FBI for six years now?” He asked. You nodded, politely, and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, sir.” You said, simply.

Gibbs gestured behind you. “That’s Special Agent McGee, and this is Ziva David.” He explained. They both came over and shook your hand.

“I read your paper about using satellite images during investigations. I thought it was really interesting.” You told McGee. He was flattered. “I’m actually working on that now trying to analyze images around our crime scene. I can show you, if you like. I could use a second opinion.” He offered.

You quickly nodded and agreed. “Here, let me borrow my colleague’s chair. He won’t mind, he has a thing for beautiful women.” McGee said, wheeling the chair from the empty desk over to his own desk.

You took a seat, and he showed you the screen. “I’ve been looking at this radius between the two crimes because we think the suspect lives in the area.” He explained, pointing at the circles on the map.

“We have an unsolved case from a few years ago that I think might be related.” You said, pulling the file out of your bag and showing it to him.

“It matches the other two crimes, and it took place right around here.” You said, gesturing towards the map.

McGee glanced over the file before typing in the third location. “That narrows our search area down by a lot.” He said, glancing over at Gibbs.

“Up on the screen, McGee,” Gibbs said, gesturing at the tv. From behind you, you heard the elevator doors ding.

“Probie, where’s my chair?” You heard a loud voice ask. The voice sounded familiar to you, but you weren’t sure why.

You turned around to see who was talking. “It’s being borrowed by Agent—” McGee started to say, as you turned around and made eye contact with Tony.

“Y/N,” Tony said, almost at a whisper. He was standing completely still, just staring. You were also frozen in your seat.

“You two know each other?” Gibbs asked, curious as to why you both were just staring at each other.

“College,” you both said at the same time.

You and Tony had dated for two years in college. He was your first real love, and you were his. You broke up because you were moving to different cities. You both preferred having a mutual breakup instead of your relationship deteriorating from doing long distance and ending with a messy breakup.

Gibbs and Fornell both snapped to get you both out of your trances.

“McGee, you and Agent L/N go work with Abby on this map. Tony and Ziva start looking into the cold case.” Gibbs delegated.

You stood up from your seat and walked over to Tony. “Hi,” you said, giving him a soft smile. You handed him the file, and he returned the smile. “It’s nice to see you,” he responded, left just as speechless as you were.

“Right this way,” McGee said, showing you to the elevator. You followed after him, looking back over your shoulder and making eye contact with Tony.

You and McGee stepped into the elevator. “So, you know Tony?” McGee asked you. You nodded your head. “Yeah, you could say that. Or at least I used to,” you told him.

“You two haven’t seen each other since college?” McGee asked, curiously. He had never seen Tony as shaken up as he was when he saw you.

“Yeah, I think so,” you said, as though you didn’t specifically remember the last time you saw Tony.

It was when you brought Tony to the airport. He was leaving for DC. You both knew it’d be the last time you saw each other. It was the only time you’d seen Tony cry. You had a Hallmark-movie emotional kiss.

And you hadn’t seen him since.

You and McGee stepped out of the elevator and walked down a hallway. You both walked into Abby’s lab. Then, you noticed Abby.

She was typing on her computer, facing away from you both. “Hi, Abby.” McGee said as you both entered the room.

“McGee, did you hear? Ziva called me. Something about Tony acting weird around some girl. I was thinking secret ex-girlfriend, but that doesn’t really feel like Tony—” Abby started rambling, before McGee interrupted.

“Abby,” McGee said, loudly. He gave you a look of sympathy. Abby turned around, and her eyes went wide.

“Abby, meet Agent L/N from the FBI,” McGee introduced you.

Abby had a terrified look in her eyes. “See, you might think I was talking about you, but I was actually talking about someone else.” She lied, trying to smooth things over.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I get it,” you assured her. She looked relieved. The three of you discussed the map for a few minutes, and then McGee got a phone call.

“Boss wants me upstairs,” He said, leaving the lab.

“Hey, I’m sorry about earlier.” Abby apologized again. You gave her a polite smile. “You really don’t have to worry about it. Also, I thought you’d want to know that you were right.” You told her.

Her eyebrows furrowed, and you could tell from her expression that she was confused. “Wait, about what?” She asked you.

“Tony,” you said, simply.

She still looked confused for another minute, and then her eyes lit up. “You’re Tony’s ex-girlfriend? You two actually dated?” Abby asked, excitedly.

You could tell how shocked she was. She ran and grabbed two chairs for you both to sit on. You took a seat, giggling at her excitement.

“So, Tony actually had a girlfriend? Like a serious girlfriend?” She asked you. You nodded your head. “Two years serious,” you replied.

Abby was shocked. She’d never heard Tony talk about a girlfriend. There wasn’t even many girls that he took on second dates. He didn’t even try to seriously date anyone after you.

What you both had was special. Tony knew he’d never be able to replicate that, so he didn’t see a point in trying. That is what led to the long string of one night stands.

Abby’s expression shifted when she saw your disappointment. She was excited to learn Tony had a girlfriend, but reminiscing about your relationship just gave you regrets.

“When you said having a secret ex-girlfriend didn’t sound like Tony, what did you mean?” You asked Abby, curiously. She didn’t know what to say.

“Obviously, I didn’t know Tony in college, but now, I’ve haven’t seen him date anyone serious. It’s a lot of first dates that don’t go anywhere. What you both had must have been really special.” She said, giving you a soft smile.

You sighed, thinking back to your relationship. It was special. You both had the perfect fit, until you didn’t.

“I should probably get back upstairs. I wouldn’t say Fornell is the most patient boss.” You said, standing up from your seat. Abby giggled to herself. “Sounds like Gibbs,” she joked.

“What sounds like Gibbs?” You heard Gibbs as he walked into the room.

“I’m gonna head back upstairs.” You said, quickly walking out of the room. You waited for the elevator. When it dinged, you went to step inside.

You bumped straight into Tony, who was trying to get out of the elevator. You both froze. “Hi, again,” you said, softly.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, scooting to the side to let you get in the elevator.

“I was just getting out.” He said, stepping into the hallway. You watched him as the doors started to close, when he quickly hopped inside the elevator.

He quickly flipped the off switch, turning the lights darker and bringing the elevator to a halt.

“Sorry, I just really needed to talk to you.” He said, turning to face you. You smiled at him, knowing exactly how he felt.

“So you’re working with the FBI now?” He asked, not knowing how to start this conversation. You nodded, giving him an awkward smile.

“Have you, y’know, been doing good?” You asked. Even after all these years, you still cared about him. “Yeah, I’m doing better. What about you? You ever get married?” He asked, remembering how you had talked about your perfect wedding.

You let out half of a laugh. “Nope, not married. Not even close,” you said, honestly. He nodded along, and you knew he felt the same way.

“Trouble finding the right guy?” He asked. He knew he sounded jealous, but you were his first love.

“Nope, I had the right guy. Just the wrong time,” you said, taking a step closer to him. He looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry if I ever hurt you. We tried to stop things from ending messily, but I don’t think it mattered. Having to say goodbye to the person you love the most is always messy.” He said, slowly grabbing one of your hands.

He was nervous, waiting for your permission. You gave him a smile and interlaced your fingers with his.

“You never did anything wrong, Tony. You were perfect. I know we both have regrets about everything, at least I do.” You told him, honestly.

He could hear your hurt in your voice. He wished there was a way to go back and undo all the pain you both had been through.

“Trust me, you are not the only one with regrets. I am always wondering what would have happened if I fought harder for us. Maybe we would have survived long distance, or maybe I should’ve just taken the jump and moved to be with you.” He rambled.

He had never told anyone any of this. He felt so relieved to get it off his chest. “I guess we’ll never know.” You said. You were realizing for the first time that you both were living in the same city now.

Tony went to say something, but stopped himself. “Actually, nevermind. That’s stupid,” he said, dropping your hand and backing up from you. He leaned against the elevator railing, worrying he’d just messed everything up.

He went to flip the on switch, but you grabbed his hand, stopping him. “It’s not stupid. What were you going to say?” You asked him.

He took a deep breath, knowing he could blow everything up with what he was about to say.

“I was just going to say that I never stopped loving you.” He confessed, looking into your eyes with a look that made you melt.

You cupped his face and kissed him. He quickly wrapped his arms around your waist, kissing you back. He spun you around, so your back was pressed up against the wall.

Your hands found their way back into his hair, like they had so many times before. It all still felt natural. He pulled you closer to him. He had missed you for years, and now he felt like he couldn’t breath without you.

He ran his tongue along your bottom lip, causing you to smirk. “God, I have missed you so much,” Tony whispered, pulling out of the kiss.

“Are we giving us a second chance?” You asked him. A giant smile spread on his face. “I have dreamed about having a second chance with you for years.” He said, giving you a quick peck on the cheek.

Suddenly, Tony’s phone started ringing.

“Yeah, Abby, what’s up?” He asked. You heard Abby cheering loudly on the other side. Tony flinched, pulling the phone away from his ear.

“You got the girl back! You both are so cute together.” You heard her say, causing Tony’s cheeks to turn pink.

“Wait a minute. Abby are you spying through the security camera?” He asked, turning to face the camera. You heard the phone beep as she hung up.

You giggled to yourself. “Sounds like Abby is a fan.” You joked. He nodded, knowing what you said was an understatement. “She didn’t know it was you but she always knew I was hung up on someone.” He said, pulling you into a hug.

“We should probably get back before Gibbs and Fornell get suspicious.” You mumbled, into his shirt. You both pulled out of the hug, and he flipped the on switch.

You walked back into the squad room. You both were anticipating that Abby would have told the rest of the team already, but no one seemed to react.

“Boss is on his way up, he wants to talk theories.” McGee informed you both. You both nodded.

Tony grabbed your hand, which caught McGee and Ziva’s attention. They gave each other a quick look from across the room. They were both wondering what was happening.

Tony pulled his chair out for you, letting you sit down. Then, he leaned against the side of his desk.

“So?” McGee asked, looking at Tony.

Tony chuckled at his colleagues’ intrigue and curiosity.

“You may be seeing much more of Agent L/N” Tony said, causing both McGee and Ziva to smile. “We’re happy for you both,” Ziva said, smiling.

McGee walked over to you. “You’ll be needing this. I’m going to need to hear all about how Tony was in college.” McGee said, handing you his card with his phone number.

“We should all get drinks tonight. I’m sure you have lots of stories about Tony.” Ziva suggested. Tony knew he was going to be in for a long night.

taglist: @laurakirsten0502 @miraclesoflove @nathaliabakes @millipop18 @azghedaheda @shyinadarkplace @vanteguccir @missroro @guacam011y @sw33t-cupid @ice-dtae @leyannrae @sia2raw @nyx2021 @just-a-littlebit-of-everything @shyconversationalbookworm @shadowhuntyi @visenyaverse @ruzannetheseahorse @superdeath @wandaswifeyforlifey @spookyqueen @mcuswhore @bookwormchick91 @princess-evans-addict @n3ssm0nique @peakascum @cjand10 @namsey1987 @multitargaryen @stephv213 @warriormirkwood @one-sweet-gubler @narliesstuff @bibissparkles @happygirl-0408

Let me know if you want to be added to my taglist for all my imagines or for a specific character/fandom!!

#tony dinozzo x reader #tony dinozzo #tony dinozzo imagine #tony dinozzo fanfiction #tony dinozzo fic #tony dinozzo ncis #ncis #ncis x reader #ncis fic #ncis fanfiction #ncis imagine #ncis fandom #michael weatherly

[my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction]

Hi Fen!!! Popping in to ask what you think the moon boys’ hobbies would be (if they weren’t so busy moon knighting). (For Steven, I feel like studying ancient Egypt is more like a passion, so like what else do you think he’d be into?)

K. Love you! Byeeeee.

IDJIDHVDHFH Oh my gosh, I love this ask so much! Thank you so, so, SO much for sending it! ❤️(ILY!) Did I think about this at work for a good 1 and 30 mins instead of working on a spreadsheet? No, of course not, I would never do that… 👀

I have narrowed it down to one each to save everyone from seeing my absolute madness.

Moon Knight Boys Headcanons & Hobbies

Rating: PG  Masterlist | ao3 | want to be tagged?

Warnings: Swearing

Steven: Cooking

Okay, here me out. So, I’ve seen opposite ends of opinion on this one (both are valid) but I’m going with Steven is a very good cook, and he likes cooking. 

He’s been vegan for a while and it’s only in the last couple of years that food places have really been trying with vegan and vegetarian options that aren’t salad… bread… (chips if you’re lucky) So, I think he enjoys making lots of different recipes. 

It started out with him just making vegan ones and then, over time, became him changing other recipes to make them vegan and coming up with his own. 

Absolute master at vegan cakes, no one can ever tell the difference, and, in fact, a lot of people compliment him on ‘the best cake they’ve ever had’, ‘so light and fluffy? How do you do it?’ “Well, that’s the secret, innit?” (whisk the aquafaba like your life depends on it and sweet potato) 

Steven is absolutely horrified by the food Marc makes himself. (Plain chicken, rice, spinach) 

“Where are the flavours Marc? At least some herbs? Spices for fuck’s sake? I can’t believe you’re eating plain steamed chicken?” (He doesn’t even care that it’s meat, it's just the lack of flavour.)

“It’s boiled chicken actually.”

Steven loses his goddamn mind. 

“I don’t care what bloody macronutrient you are monitoring, you are not eating that.”

It’s not that Marc can’t cook, he just doesn’t see the reason to put the effort in when it’s just for himself (doesn’t feel like he deserves it.)

Steven grumbles to himself and refuses to let Marc cook his own dinner if he can help it. “If you’re going to eat meat, at least treat it with respect, yeah? Bring out the flavour?” He usually preps something for Marc, so he can cook it quickly when he’s hungry. 

Makes so many cakes and pastries for Jake. Leaves them in boxes with ‘Jake :)’ written on a post stick note on the top. Jake is always so touched and surprised when he does. They have taken to playing a little game where sometimes the food is vegan and sometimes it’s not and Jake has to guess. He’s more accurate than most people, but it still only averages around 70% right. (69% if we’re being exact, and Marc is sure Jake’s messing with the correct statistics on purpose.)

Marc: Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football

Literally takes it so seriously. Has spreadsheets filled with information and pours over every single statistic like it holds the answers to the universe. It only got more intense when he found a forum for people with the same interest and he literally will spend hours talking online about it.

“It’s not about getting the best players, it’s about making the best team.”

Jake has joked that he puts Steven and his love for history to shame and if those spreadsheets weren’t saved on the computer Marc would have boxes and boxes and folders upon folders of printed out info and then there would be zero space in the flat. 

When Marc annoys Steven, Steven tells him to “go play with your pretend american cricket and american rugby” to piss him off. 

(Marc retaliates by incorrectly pronouncing UK places. 

“Steven, maybe we should take a trip to Ed-in-b-row” 

“It’s Ed-in-bruh.” 

“How about Sus-SEX or Es-SEX?” 

“It’s Sus-SIX and Es-SIX.” 

“I do love Green-WITCH at this time of year.” 

“IT’S GREN-ITCH! Jake, you're from New York, how is Greenwich pronounced?” 

“I’m not getting involved.” 

“Ha! That’s because he agrees with me!”

When things get really heated, Marc threatens to make a cup of tea in the microwave. Steven says he doesn’t care because he makes coffee in the microwave all the time and it’s fine. Jake puts an end to it by saying hot chocolate tastes best with water and then laughing when both Marc and Steven gang up on him. 

“I cannot believe you think that mate.”

“You know how many different types of milk there are?”

“Absolutely disgusting.”

“Cow, goat, soya, almond, coconut, literally any of them instead.”)

Jake: Knitting

Wanted something to keep his hands busy, that he could pick up and put down, and that he could take in his cab when he was stationary and waiting for fares. 

Took to it a lot quicker than he thought it would, and can just zone out and knit. It helps keep him grounded. 

He feels like he has spent a lot of his time destroying and there is something so satisfying about being able to create. 

Once he mastered the stitch he quickly moved onto making clothes. Before Marc and Steven knew about him he used to knit jumpers for Steven and hide them in the wardrobe. 

Jake makes Marc a cartoony style baseball jumper that he also loves, and a thick cardigan for Steven that is covered in hieroglyphics (he spends months researching the language to get it to make some sense, and works in a dig at Khonshu in there and has Steven crying with laughter.) 

When they know about him Steven excitedly requests the “most garish and over the top Hanukkah jumper anyone has ever seen!” Jake does his best, presenting it to Steven (and trying to hide how nervous he feels) Steven loves it and refuses to take it off all winter. 

Most people think Jake has a stern glare when he wants, but you can never be sure if he’s planning your destruction or trying to work out how many balls of wool it would take to make someone your size a jumper.

____________________________________

Thank you for reading!

Taglist: @pleasurebuttonwrites @raven-rk @campingwiththecharmings @alexxavicry @mystinky-butt @cocodiem @oscarisaacsspit @welcometostayingawake @mbakubabe @solobagginses @melodygatesauthor @romanarose @pimosworld @jake-g-lockley

If you'd like to be taken off the tag list please let me know here

#steven grant #moon knight #moon knight mcu #marc spector #jake lockley #headcanon #headcanons #hobbies #my writing #fanfic #oscar isaac #oscar isaac characters

[imagineanime2022]

Cursed Siblings

Ryomen Sukuna X Sibling!Reader

Word Count: 1524

Requested: @imperatrizpirata

Request: hello everything is fine? I love your post, can I request jujutsu kaisen again? with the female reader being a curse and ryomen sukuna's older sister? the reader also saves jumpei from mahito (but the reader wants to use jumpei to be his new vessel). Thank you in advance…

Warning: Cannon divergence, still cannon deaths

A/N: the moment that I saw this request I was super excited to write it, I hope that it lives up to what you were thinking about and let me know if you want me to right a part 2 because I would totally be interested in doing that.

You were sick of the human bodies that you had taken, you had been around since the Heian Era, everyone knew your brother Ryomen Sukuna, he held their attention and therefore their rage when they came to take back their freedom and kill the biggest threat. The jujutsu sorcerers of that era knew very little of you and quickly forgot about you when your brother’s memory faded too.

You watched the world change around you, you changed with it, having to take a number of different host bodies, all genders, body types and ethnicity. It was getting boring though being the way that you were, stagnant in a moving world, you were established and had been for a long while as the danger in the forest, humans built a story around you, summoning you with a ritual allowed them to ask you for 1 wish in return for something from them and for the most part that was right however not many people were smart enough add the clause of actually enjoying their wish before you take your price and you were always in need of a new body.

The modern world was no different, in fact humans were more vain and your job had become more boring than it had been in a long time… Well until you felt it, your brother’s power surged across the city, someone had become his vessel, so you waited but he never came looking for you.

“You're the curse that they call wish granter?” One of the curses asked, he had light blue hair stitches that covered his face. “You curses should definitely know me by a different name.” Your muttered cheek rested against your fist as you looked down at them. “(Y/N) sibling to Sukuna.” You looked over at the body the voice had come from, it was dead, you knew that much, the curse was in the head of the body. “What do you want?” You asked. “This is Sukuna’s sibling, the one you were talking about, they don’t seem so dangerous.” The first one whined and you narrowed your eyes, a simple movement from your hand, he was pinned to the floor with a force no one could see but everyone could feel. “The lack of patience runs in the family. Do not test me, speak quickly, if I lose focus he dies painfully.” You warned them. “I am Kenjaku and we intend to bring your brother back to his former glory.” He said as he stepped forward. “You insult him by even thinking he would need your help.” You muttered as you looked over them. “A curse born from the fear of volcanoes, a curse born of nature's fear of man, a curse born of human fear of each other, a curse born of the fear of water based natural disasters and their puppet master.” You appeared before each of them as you listed them settling in a place before Kenjaku. “I assure you we are more than that.” Kenjaku promised. “What are you doing here?” You asked. “Sukuna is known to be unpredictable-” “You think he would be more likely to join you?” You asked. “They don’t call him a king for nothing, he will join no one.” “He’s currently trapped within a particularly strong teenager, a vessel I made to contain his power, under the watchful six eyed sorcerer.” The curse under your technique explained and you smirked. “And you're convinced that it will stay that way without your help?” You asked. “I know it will be with Gojo Satoru watching.” Kenjaku said and you shook your head. “Naive.” You muttered before lifting the cursed technique “leave before I kill you myself.”

You were out again, you hadn’t been bothered by those curses again but equally you hadn’t felt your brother’s power either, you hadn’t expected to when the curse womb made itself known but there he was. “Must you terrorise all life?” You asked leaning against the tree as you watched him fight the poor teenager. “I’m giving him the chance to save his friend.” Sukuna smirked as he looked at you, still easily dodging him. “You look well.” “I’m bored, you took your time coming back.” You sighed as he smirked. “You miss me?” He asked. “Missed the chaos, not you.” You answered “but you won’t be around for much longer, this one's clawing back.” “Hm.” Sukuna grunted. “Use the time to make a pact, a vessel made to contain your power is probably more brawn than brains right?” You asked. “You always were too smart for your own good.” Sukuna muttered and you shrugged. “Wait for me, I’ll bring the fun soon.” He promised. “I should hope so I haven’t waited this long hoping from body to body for you to fail me.” You said kicking yourself off of the tree trunk. “Get to work I’ll only wait for so much longer.”

You had decided to look for a new vessel or curse user to bind yourself to in preparation for your brother returning, you knew that you needed someone a little more vulnerable then the average, someone that you can ‘help’ and then manipulate, your brother loved ruling with it, inspiring it. You much preferred manipulation into loyalty if a subject thought that they owed you something they were far more likely to choose you when they were asked, that was what led you to Junpei in the first place. You started small bumping into him on the street apologising to him, holding a door for him or grumbling at people who caused him some kind of inconvenience, you didn’t need to be a big part of his life not yet, he just needed to know you. Your plan was ruined when Mahito latched onto him far faster than you planned to do and talked him into attacking his school but you managed to use that to your advantage.

“Help… Me.” He pleaded as he looked at the kid that was your brother’s vessel, you could hear the boy begging as Mahito laughed and you assumed that Sukuna was laughing too. “Alright that’s enough of that.” You muttered using your cursed energy to slam Mahito against the wall on the other side of the hall as you walked towards the transfigured human. “Hey you remember me right?” “Mhm.” He hummed almost like it was painful to do so, you reached out a hand touching his cheek and using your reversed curse technique to bring him back to his original form. “Thank you.” Junpei looked over at Mahito on the other side of the hall. “I could protect you from everything, if you wanted, I’ve seen you around, you're a sweet boy and you don’t deserve what has happened to you.” You explained. “Can you save my mum?” He asked. “She’s already passed?” You asked. “Yes.” He answered. “I can not reverse death.” You answered with a soft sigh. “I have no one left.” His eyes watered as he looked at you. “Do you want a friend that can never leave you, one that depends on you the same way that you depend on them?” You asked. “Y-you?” He asked. “Me.” You nodded, putting your hand out “state your terms and I will state mine then we confirm the deal by connecting our hands.” “I want you to protect me from any harm, stay by my side and be my friend, one that comes when I call.” He stated and you smiled. “I want the freedom to use my power how I see fit, to work with my brother when he asks and the ability to take control when I say the word activate.” You explained wiggling your fingers as you waited for him to accept. “Junpei don’t!” Yuji yelled. “Don’t worry Yuji, I’ll be okay, they’ll keep me safe.” He smiled through tears as he took your hand finalising the deal, the body you were in dropped to the floor as you took up the place of Junpei's bonded spirit. The pulse of energy seemed to call sorcerers in the area because by the time Junpei and Yuji had gotten downstairs the six eyes user and another sorcerer were waiting. “Yuji what happened?” The six eyes user asked but his eyes moved to where you were hanging over Junpei’s shoulder. “You can see me, can't you six eyes?” You asked. “Who are you?” He asked. “You know that already, think harder.” You teased. “You thought I was bad in this form.” Sukuna’s voice emitted from somewhere on Yuji’s body “no one ever talked about my older sibling but they should have, they were the one that taught me what I know and always reminded me that there was so much that they hadn’t taught me.” “You flatter me little brother.” You waved him off as you rested your chin on Junpei’s shoulder. “You have no need to worry about me yet…” “Uhh this is going to be even harder to explain to the higher ups, they’re going to think I’m doing this on purpose.” He groaned. “Time to tell them that the cursed siblings are back.”

*Part 2*

Request Here!!

#jujustu kaisen scenario #jujutsu kaisen oneshot #jujustu kaisen imagine #jujutsu kaisen imagine #jujustu kaisen #ryomen sukuna imagine #ryomen sukuna oneshot #ryomen #ryomen sukuna #imagine #oneshot #one shot #reader insert #x reader #junpei yoshino #junpei yoshino imagine #junpei yoshino oneshot

[deathisararemercy]

Ties to The Past

Death x ghost/soulmate!Reader

“Wait…is it really you, old friend?” If you had any blood in your body, it would’ve run cold. There was no mistaking that voice. The wrinkled old spirit in front of you, the soul who was standing next to the lifeless body in the bed, the person Death had come to reap, was a former friend of yours from when you were alive, years and years ago.

A/N: Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. After posting something nearly every day for about a week, it felt weird not doing so last night. However, I come bearing a 3k part two to this 2 am post, aka Red String. This story has shifted a bit, but I hope you all enjoy. I have more planned out for this AU. It shouldn't be more than five or six parts, and I'll hopefully finish it by the end of next week, if not the end of this week. In the meantime, this is a little reminder that my requests are open (guidelines in pinned)! Thank you for all the love on Red String!

Part One | Part Two |

“I’m sorry, mi fantasma. You can’t come with me on this one.”

Your eyes widened in shock before narrowing in suspicion. “Why not?” You floated over the wolf’s head, peering down at him. After what seemed like forever, you figured out how levitation worked, and it was now your favorite means of getting from place to place. Being a ghost had its perks, aside from the whole being dead thing.

Death, however, was not tolerating this at the moment. He batted you away with a grim expression on his face. “I can’t tell you.” Seeing your hurt expression, he sighed. “You won’t want to see this particular soul. They’ve done some…unpleasant things.”

You groaned, floating a bit further ahead of him as you gestured around you. “We’re in the middle of a small little seaside town,” you said incredulously. “What kind of ‘unpleasant things’ could this person have done?”

You had a point. The town the two of you walked (or floated) through was the epitome of an idyllic seaside life. The mid-afternoon air carried in from the sea was crisp and smelled faintly of brine. The red roofed houses were full of life and color. People, unaware of Death’s presence and certainly not of yours, called out to one another, selling wares, fruits, and fish, and children raced down to the seashore. Seeing the ocean’s horizon and the endless shades of blue filled you with excitement.

Slowly, you returned to the earth and walked alongside Death on the cobbled road, your red thread growing warmer at the physical proximity. “I’ve seen you work a ton of times before, Muerte. Good people, bad people. Old people, young people. I think I can handle another soul collection.”

“Don’t get cocky now,” he chuckled. He tugged on his hood to further obscure his face, though no one could see him at the moment. “I mean it, cordero,” he muttered. “When we arrive at the house, I want you to stay outside.”

You had died a long time ago. But when you did, your red soulmate thread appeared and connected you to Death. And not metaphorically or rhetorically or poetically or theoretically or in any other fancy way. Your soulmate was Death, straight up. Ever since he cut the silver cord connecting your soul to your physical body, you’ve traveled with the wolf and kept him company. Though he never said it aloud, you could tell he appreciated this, and that a small part of him needed it too.

Wolves are social creatures, you thought to yourself as Death changed the subject to a cat who was shot out of a cannon not too far from these shores. Death loved stories. His tail always wagged a bit whenever you told him a story about your life. Even after you thought you had run out of stories to tell, he always managed to dig up a memory of yours that you had thought you had completely forgotten. It amused and interested him to hear you talk about your life, and it kept you sane too. After all, it must have been…decades since you died. The fear of forgetting your life always haunted you, which was annoying because you were a ghost, and you were supposed to be the haunter and not the haunted.

At least if there was one person you knew you were haunting successfully, it was Death. Your red thread made sure the two of you were never too far from one another, but even without that thread, it would be practically impossible to separate you from his side. If being by his side and providing each other company as the world moved on and on and on was supposed to be your “happily ever after,” you weren’t going to complain.

But you were going to complain if he didn’t let you join him on this one little job. “Why don’t you think I can handle myself?” you asked him one last time. “Don’t you trust me?”

The wolf stopped suddenly. If you had a physical body, you would’ve walked straight into him. You stood in front of him now with a stern glare. The thread felt heavier than it usually did. An unreadable expression was on Death’s face. His eyes twitched a little as he spoke. “It’s not that I don’t trust you.”

“Alright then.”

“It’s that I’m worried for you.”

This wiped the glare off of your face. You faltered. “What?”

Muerte pointed up at the window of the large house you two stopped in front of. “Up there in that bedroom is the soul I have to collect. An elderly person who has lived a life full of popularity, wealth, and status and died peacefully in their sleep during a post-lunch nap.”

“Sounds…pretty nice,” you mumbled. A scowl crossed your face. “So what? You think I’m going to get hurt because I’m going to see a person who lived a full life? I’ve seen plenty before!”

“It’s not just that, mi fantasma,” continued Death slowly. “They did not live a truly full life. They’re alone right now. And no one will know that they’ve died for quite some time. Despite their riches and ranking, no one was truly ever close with them. At least, there is no one they hold close anymore.” He placed a paw on your shoulder. “I have the feeling that they might resist me while I try to do my job, and I don’t want you to have to see me get…” He paused, tilting his head a bit and chewing on the words. “Violent.”

Realization dawned on your face slowly, softening your features. “Oh.”

“Oh,” he nodded. The wolf sniffed the air a bit. “I have to go in now. Stay here, alright?” He gently tugged on the string, warmth filling your bodies. “I’ll be right back.”

He began to whistle his eerie little tune, and in a blink, he was gone. Your thread showed that he was already up in the bedroom. You sighed. You weren’t going to complain. You were going to listen and be a good little ghost and respect his wishes and stay outside.

But you were worried about him.

You had no doubt that Death could handle himself in a fight. He was tall and strong, and his reflexes were terrifyingly quick. Though you’ve seen him use his sickles to cut cords, you knew he could use them very well in a fight. He was an immortal being, for folk’s sake. No one escapes Death. But even so…

A chill went up your spine as you tried to lean casually against the wall of the house and fell through to the other side. You jolted upright, finding yourself in the living room of the house. You could hear quiet murmuring upstairs. Well, you were already inside. One small peek wouldn’t hurt would it?

Right?

There was a loud crash and your chest suddenly burst into pain. “Muerte!” You phased upwards through the floor and found yourself in the bedroom.

Death stood with his back to the wall, startling when he saw you. He didn’t look hurt, but his eyes were burning a violent scarlet.

You rushed to the wolf’s side, hands searching for injuries. “Muerte, are you alright?”

He tightly shut his scarlet eyes before shaking his head and opening them. They were a bit less red, but the intensity remained. “I’m fine. But that,” he said, pointing to the other side of the room, “That’s a problem.”

On the other side of the room was the phantom. They were still connected to their physical body by their silver cord, but their spectral form was fizzling in and out of existence in anger. Black and red, hazy and undefined, its aura was one of nothing but anger.

“Here’s what I think we should do,” Death began as he struck his sickles together. “We- what are you doing?” he sputtered as you left his side and walked up to the phantom.

It screeched and it hissed, and the air around it seemed to burn hot, a sensation you hadn’t truly felt since your death. Everything sounded like static, but you stared intently at where you hoped their face was.

“You’re dead, and there’s nothing you or he,” you added, gesturing towards the wolf, “can do about it.” You glanced at the spirit’s physical, lifeless body. Their wrinkled face was in a grimace. Shutting your eyes tight, you focused on being able to touch the body and shifted the face’s expression to one of peace.

The phantom was less agitated, letting out a small confused shriek. “You can’t go back to your body or the life you used to have. I know it hurts,” you added quietly, “Having to let go. Realizing you can’t wake back up. But that big wolf over there?” You gestured at Death, who stood silently behind you. “He’s a really nice guy. And he’s going to cut that cord of yours and send you off to the spirit world. You’re going to be alright.”

The phantom’s edges began to sharpen, becoming less blurry. It drew closer to you. Behind you, you could hear Death’s low growling. The red thread in your chest seemed to bunch up in a tight knot. You held your breath. And the intense air in the room was gone, and the phantom was no longer a faceless specter, but a spirit more akin to the body in the bed. In fact, that face looked very familiar.

“Is it really you, old friend?”

If you had any blood in your body, it would’ve run cold. There was no mistaking that voice. The wrinkled old spirit in front of you, the soul who was standing next to the lifeless body in the bed, the person Death had come to reap, was a former friend of yours from when you were alive, years and years ago. You had a falling out just before you died actually, if you remembered correctly.

“H-hi..” you said quietly. You offered a small wave.

They didn’t wave back. “You don’t look like you’ve aged a day since…”

“I decided to stick around the mortal plane for a while,” you said lightly, trying to lean back against the wall before realizing Death was behind you. You heard him quickly sheathe his sickles, and he caught you as you stumbled into his arms. But his hands were tight on your shoulders as he set you back up while you laughed nervously. He didn’t let go.

Your former friend blinked slowly. Oh, this was going just splendidly. You plastered a bigger grin on your face as you left Death’s grip and walked around the room jauntily. There were paintings all over the walls of different people with your old friend in golden frames. As you took a look around the room, you realized how lavishly it was decorated with bright cushions and heavy drapery, unusual for a seaside house. “Glad to see you lived a nice and full life! It looks like you had a lot of fun and are- were- erm, doing really well for yourself!”

“I did.”

“I’m kinda jealous, you know. I died pretty young,” you chuckled, enunciating the ‘t’s and wagging a finger.

You cast a glance at Death, who still stood in front of the spirit. His gaze was… questioning. Are you okay? he asked silently with a slight tilt of his head. The red string connecting the two of you tightened.

You shook yours slightly in response, but circled back to your old friend. “But I’m still hanging around and all that. I might not be alive but I feel alive getting to hang out with Muerte everyday.” Oh, what the hell. That was such a stupid thing to say.

The spirit raised an eyebrow. “You hang out with this guy? Isn’t he Death?”

The wolf rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m Death.” He drew his sickles again. “And I think it’s time for you to go.”

“Hold on, hold on. Why are you sticking around him?” Your friend’s brows furrowed. They took your hands in theirs. “Why don’t you come with me?”

Death stiffened as you let go of their hands. “Well, the funny thing is…he’s my soulmate.” You splayed your hands out awkwardly, letting the statement sink in.

The room was still for just a moment. “Your red string. Is connected. To Death?” The spirit said slowly. And then they burst out into laughter. They wheezed, clutching their sides as you stood awkwardly in front of Death. “You?” they laughed. “With Death? Oh, I’m so sorry. That’s some really messed up luck. Fate was not on your side.”

“I’m starting to remember why we had that falling out,” you said through clenched teeth.

“Oh, please. Relax. I just thought you were doomed to die alone without a soulmate. I mean, you remember all those people you’d talk to. You were so desperate to find your soulmate. And you end up dying and this guy is your soulmate? What, is he keeping you captive or something? Come on, let’s just get to the spirit world. Together! Then I can introduce you to all the famous people I met. Maybe one of them will really like you, who knows?

“This entire thing with Death was probably just a mistake. Who could ever love a big bad wolf like him?”

You were ready to punch a ghost in the face, but Death beat you to it. “It’s time for you to go,” the wolf growled, stalking forward.

The spirit raised their hands over their head as if that would stop Death himself. “W-wait!”

With one clean swipe, Death slashed their silver cord. The spirit was freed from their physical body. Death gave them no time to react. With an upwards motion, his sicles cut through the fabric of the universe. The light of the shimmering doorway to the spirit world blinded everyone in the room momentarily. But the light didn’t stop Death. Before the spirit began to process what was happening, he shoved them through the door before deftly grabbing the edges of the ripped seam and pulling it shut. He slashed the air with his sicles to clear the air.

It was all over in the matter of seconds.

He stood still, breathing heavily. His hands gripped his sickles tightly, shaking.

You could feel the string grow taut, and you hesitantly drew closer to the wolf. “They’re wrong, you know.”

He blinked, suddenly remembering you were there. He stepped towards the window, laughing as he looked outside. He refused to meet your eyes. “I know. But I’m Death. They don’t get under my skin. They can think whatever they want. They can’t escape me and they certainly can’t change who I am. I’m fine, really.”

“I hate to break it to you,” you said gently, “But I’m pretty sure you’re lying to yourself right now.”

“I’m not,” Death grumbled. He sheathed his sickles. Looking back at the body on the bed, he gently tucked it in before heading to the door. “Let’s get out of here.” He stomped out of the bedroom, leaving you to follow.

“Wait!”

You quickly ran out to follow him.

“Muerte!”

On the stairwell, his ears twitched a little. He turned to look at you, halfway out of the bedroom door. “¿Sí, mi fantasma? What is it?”

You opened and closed your mouth, trying to figure out what to say. You stepped forward, while pulling him closer by pulling on the red string. “Don’t believe a word they said. I chose to stay  in the mortal realm. I wanted to get to know you and I wanted to be there for you. All my life,” you choked out, “All my life, I looked for a soulmate. I met so many people with so many fascinating stories and lives. But even though I wasn’t alone, I still felt lonely.”

“Are you trying to say that you think I’m lonely?” Death teased.

“Yes!” you blurted out. “Yes, I think you’re lonely! But I don't want you to have to be lonely anymore! I don’t think you’re a big bad wolf! You’re- you’re a big good wolf! You’re strong and gentle and- I can’t believe I’m saying this- you are really attractive!”

What.

The.

Folk.

“Oh my fairy godmother.” Your hands flew to your face as you knelt to the ground, unable to process your outburst. “I want to die. Again.”

“I love you too.”

You looked up. “What?”

“I love you too.” Death looked down with a smirk. He bent down, elbows on his knees. His smirk softened to a smile as he placed a hand on your shoulder. “I know what you were trying to say. Thank you… I needed that.” He hesitated. And then he kissed your forehead, gentle and sweet.

The red thread seemed to come alive and your entire body felt like it was burning, but in the best way possible. Without thinking, you grabbed the string and tugged it down, leading Death to your lips. He didn’t object. And for however long that kiss lasted, you finally felt alive again. You could smell the dirt and seabrine in his fur, soft and cold under your hands. You felt the phantom sensations of your heart racing. He was tender and soft, though as you both pulled away, you could see a hungry look in his eyes, as if he were ready to devour you in an instant.

God, you wanted to kiss him again.

“We better get going,” you coughed, rising to your feet quickly.

Death followed suit. “Certainly.”

The two of you walked out of the house and into the street. Death didn’t put on his hood. But your hand did find its way into his. He gave it a small squeeze.

“I love you, Muerte.” You said quietly when you reached the edge of town. The two of you stopped. Dusk was quickly settling down over the seaside town. The two of you stood on the edge of the main road. He gave you a long look, red eyes cutting through the dark. “Do you believe we’re soulmates?”

“I do.”

He said this without hesitation or doubt. And by the look in his eyes, you knew he believed it.

==x==x==

“I must say though, I’m surprised you find me attractive. I didn’t think I’d be your type.”

“Please. I don’t want to die another time out of shame.”

#puss in boots #the last wish #puss in boots death #death x reader #puss in boots muerte #muerte x reader #x reader #.writing

[vivalas-vega]

new perspectives / jake ‘hangman’ seresin x reader / part seven

another chapter with our favorite love birds!!! this chapter is a bit more of a filler... just a glimpse into what their lives look like now and tbh I love it. they deserve all the fluff (and meddling children lol) as always lmk what you think!

new perspectives / jake ‘hangman’ seresin x reader / part seven

prologue - one - two - three - four - five - six

add yourself to my taglist

word count: 2.8k

warnings: language, drinking, allusions to smut, brief mentions of injuries !!! 

“You’re stealing my roommate,” Rooster grumbled as he carried another box inside and you giggled as you whipped up another pitcher of margaritas for the boys, watching not-so-subtly as they all went back and forth from the moving truck. You were thankful for the heat today, come the end of the evening you would be curling up in bed with your boyfriend that you lived with, and getting to watch all the pilots with their shirts off and muscles flexing was just the cherry on top. “The audacity to steal my roommate and not even help with the boxes.”

“Stop whining, Roo, you’re ruining the atmosphere,” you shot back, handing him a fresh glass as he stopped to take a break. “You’re welcome for the refreshments.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he said and you chuckled at his sour mood. 

“Stop looking at everyone else,” Jake teased, sneaking up behind you as he wrapped his arms around your waist and you craned your neck up to place a kiss on his jaw.

“I only have eyes for one pilot,” you said, smiling when he pressed his lips to the top of your head. “Okay, but I’m only looking, not touching.” you added with a mischievous giggle and he turned you around to press your head into his chest, shielding your eyes as Coyote walked through the door. 

“Are you going to get mad at me if I suggest leaving all the boxes in the living room tonight?” he asked and you looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

“Why would we do that?”

“Well… I was thinking we should kick all of these fools out, finish the margaritas and christen the house?” 

“Jake,” you whined, there was nothing more you wanted to do. “We promised them dinner in exchange for their free labor,” you said with a sigh.

“I think we could negotiate down to covering their tabs at the bar next time,” he replied and you raised your eyebrows.

“I think dinner would be cheaper,” you chuckled and he groaned as he rested his head atop yours.

“You’re killing me in these shorts,” he said, hands coming to rest on the tops of your thighs and you pulled your head back to kiss him. You all but sighed against him, wrapping your arms around his neck as he trailed his tongue across your bottom lip and your skin felt hot as he tightened his grip.

“Oh come on,” Fanboy groaned, dropping a box in the kitchen rather dramatically, “there are kids present,” he said and you pulled apart to shoot him a questioning glance.

“What kids?” you asked and he gestured to Bob, who was leaning against the fridge and sipping his margarita, pretending to be very interested in your collection of cookbooks. 

“You can make it through dinner,” you said, giving him another quick kiss and ignoring the groan he let out, “I believe in you.” You busied yourself with sorting out the boxes, dropping them in their respective rooms to make unpacking a little bit easier, whenever the two of you got around to it and you couldn’t help but feel overjoyed. You were currently moving Jake into your house… a house you had inadvertently bought for the two of you despite not knowing where you stood at the time and it felt so good. You pulled your buzzing phone from your back pocket and smiled as you answered, your phone screen filling with Mary’s face.

“Hey Mary,” you greeted, chuckling at her excited expression.

“How’s move-in day going?” she asked as you walked down the hallway and into the living room, flipping the camera to show your usually-pristine home filled with boxes.

“See for yourself,” you said and she laughed, but was cut short when Rooster stepped into frame.

“Oh, Bradley!” she called and he stopped in his tracks, looking around to see where the voice had come from before settling on you and feeling rather sheepish as he crossed his arms over his chest and walked over to stand beside you.

“Hi Mrs. Seresin, how are you?” he asked as you stifled your laughter. Mary had a particular soft spot for Rooster, and you thanked your lucky stars her medical issues were limited to her brain and not her heart at his sudden half-naked appearance. 

“I’m good, dear, are they being good hosts? You look thirsty, Jupiter, get that boy a glass of water,” she said and you laughed.

“Mary, he’s drinking me out of house and home right now, he’s doing just fine,” you replied and she shook her head, giving you that famous Mary look that had you passing the phone to Rooster as you went to pour him a glass of water. As you went to hand it to him you indignantly took several gulps of it before passing it off, like a petulant child, and you ignored Mary scolding you… saying something along the lines of I saw that. 

“You two are like siblings, I swear,” she said through her own laughter and Jake looked at you questioningly as he walked through the front door.

“Mom?” he asked, crossing the room and snatching the phone from Rooster’s hands. “What are you doing talking to Chicken?”

“Jacob Seresin, you be nice to your friends. I wanted to check in and see how the move was going?” 

“It’s good, Ma, we’re just about wrapping up now,” he answered. 

“Did you get that package I sent? I had it sent to your old-” you couldn’t catch the end of her sentence, Jake’s eyes had widened and before you knew it he was scurrying off and locking himself in the bedroom as you chuckled.

“What was that about?” Rooster asked, finishing off the water and silently asking you for a refill, to which you obliged with an eye roll as you walked into the kitchen.

“He thinks I’m stupid,” you answered and he raised his eyebrows in confusion. “I’d be willing to bet money Mary sent Grandma’s ring in the mail,” you said.

“Ring? Like an engagement ring?”

You nodded, “it’s not really an engagement ring… it was this beautiful art deco piece she always wore, Grandpa had gotten it for her birthday one year. If there was one thing Grammy Seresin didn’t play about it was her jewels,” you chuckled. “I just adored it, they always joked Jake would put it on my finger one day. She actually willed it to me, along with some other pieces I quite honestly don’t feel comfortable owning, but Mary’s been holding onto it all for me.” you explained.

“You think he’s really going to pop the question so soon?” he asked, taking a sip of his drink and you shrugged.

“No idea, I mean our relationship exists in a time vacuum so I wouldn’t be surprised but… if anything that’s Mary getting overexcited and sending it of her own volition,” you laughed. “She was hinting about a wedding in the hospital and ever since we got back together her and my mom have been relentless.”

“I love weddings,” Bob chimed in as he took a seat at the countertop and wiped a hand across his forehead. “Never been a groomsman before, do you think Jake’s going to want the stereotypical bachelor party?” he asked and Coyote nodded as he joined.

“Definitely, I’d say prepare for a Hangover-level bachelor party,” he joked.

“Damn, I’ve gotta get a new suit,” Fanboy mumbled and Payback looked at him questioningly as he trickled in.

“Why are we getting suits?” he asked.

“Jake and Jupiter are getting married,” Rooster answered and you looked at all of them incredulously before picking up a dish towel and using it to hit their shoulders.

“Out, all of you,” you ordered as they looked at you in shock.

“But we haven’t had dinner!” Coyote protested and you kept whipping the towel against their skin as you herded them out.

“I don’t care, get out,” you said, ditching the towel and opting to use your hands as you now pushed them out the door. “Thank you for your help, have a great night.” you said, slamming the door in their face and you turned around to see Jake looking at you confused.

“What the hell was that about?” he asked and you quickly crossed the distance between you, jumping and wrapping your legs around him as he caught you with ease.

“Your idea grew on me,” you said through a smirk and you giggled as he all but ran through the house to drop you on your bed. 

“I could really get used to this,” you sighed, drawing absentminded patterns across Jake’s bare chest as your breathing regulated. You were acutely aware of the sheen of sweat currently sticking both of your bodies together but you couldn’t find it in you to care… not when you were so wrapped in perfect bliss. 

“Well, you better sweetheart, because I’m not going anywhere,” he said and you smiled as you let your eyes flutter closed.

“Wouldn’t let you even if you tried,” you responded and he chuckled beneath you. “I’m afraid you’re stuck with me now.”

“Oh god, what a shame,” he groaned dramatically and you swatted him playfully. 

“So… since we make all of our big decisions after sex…” you started, propping yourself up on his chest to look up at him, “I had an idea.”

“And what idea might that be?” he asked, more than content to indulge your whims as he carded a hand through your hair.

“What do you think about getting a pet?” you proposed and you watched as his eyes lit up.

“Are you serious? Yes! What are you thinking, dog or cat?”

“Definitely dog, would be a shame to just let that yard go to waste, wouldn’t it?”

“I love this,” he said, running a hand along your back and you smiled up at him. “Planning for our future, this is just… perfect,” he said and you nodded, placing a kiss on his chest. It was almost as if the universe had decided this moment was too perfect, too blissful, too serene as your pager went off on the bedside table and you groaned.

“I’m not even on call,” you grumbled, picking it up to see 911 flashing across the top. You tossed it aside, “I’m not on call.” you repeated, laying your head back to Jake’s chest but it just beeped again and you felt him move to grab it.

“It says 912, what does that mean?” he asked and you sat up as you grabbed it, wanting to see for yourself.

“Means it’s more urgent than 911…” you grabbed your phone, dialing the extension attached to the page and rubbed a hand over your forehead as one of the interns picked up. “Do you want to tell me why you’re paging me when I’m not on call?” you asked, clearly annoyed and Jake chuckled as he stood and slipped his shorts back on. 

“I’m sorry, Dr. J, I wouldn’t have paged unless it was urgent… there’s uh- well, a trauma just came in and it’s-” 

“Will you spit it out?” 

“It’s your friends,” he said, and you shot out of bed and rushed to your closet, sandwiching the phone between your ear and your shoulder as you grabbed a pair of scrubs and started gesturing at Jake.

“You wanna give me some information or just leave me hanging, Rogers?”

“Yes, sorry, seems like there was some kind of accident on the beach, there’s a lot of… arguing, I don’t really know what happened but they mentioned they knew you so I said I would page,” he explained and you rolled your eyes.

“I’m on my way,” you sighed, hanging up and tossing your phone on the bed as you finished pulling your scrubs on and throwing your hair in a ponytail. “It’s our idiot friends, all they said was some kind of accident on the beach.”

“Accident on the beach?” Jake asked, stepping into the closet and slipping his shoes on as you grabbed your keys and shrugged, already moving down the hallway towards the front door.

“Your guess is as good as mine, didn’t sound quite as urgent as a 912, though.” you said as you climbed into the car and began the short drive to the hospital. “What the hell happened to you?” you asked as you ran through the emergency department to see Rooster, Fanboy and Coyote all in beds while Bob, Phoenix and Payback stood off to the side, looking rather disappointed.

“Dogfight football gone wrong,” Rooster winced as an intern was stitching above his eyebrow and looked over to see Fanboy in the same boat. 

“Get up, that’s going to scar,” you said as you pulled some gloves on and Rooster’s eyes widened. 

“Scar? Jupiter-” he started but you gave him a look that shut him up. 

“Do you see me taking over?” you asked and he nodded, “exactly, calm down.” you said with a chuckle as you gently pulled out the sutures to start over. “So you had the baby doctor’s page me for what, two cuts and a sprained ankle?” you asked as you looked over to see Coyote with an ice pack secured to his foot.

“Fanboy got scared when they pulled the needles out,” Phoenix laughed and he scoffed.

“I did not get scared.”

“Then why has no one started on your stitches?” you asked, lifting your eyes from Rooster long enough to give him a questioning look and you saw how his cheeks flushed.

“Okay, so I got scared!” he exclaimed. “Sue me for wanting the best doctor,” he grumbled and you felt your heart warm at the sentiment.

“Aw, Mickey. That’s really sweet,” you said, finishing up and applying an ointment along the stitches before bandaging it. “Those should dissolve in a week, I’ll check up on them as I see you,” you said as you stood and swapped for fresh gloves before sitting beside Fanboy. 

“That’s a big needle, Jupiter,” he said as you picked up the lidocaine and you gave him a soft smile.

“It only looks big, I’m barely going to insert it, and trust me once I start on the stitches you’re going to be glad you did it.” you said, bringing the needle around his line of vision so he couldn’t see it as you lined it up, “alright, deep breath and little pinch,” you said as you administered it as quickly as you could.

“Oh, I barely felt it,” he said, looking sheepish for being scared in the first place and you chuckled.

“That’s what you get for holding out for the best,” you said as you started his stitches and finished in record time. “You know, if you guys were mad at me for kicking you out you didn’t have to land yourselves in the ER,” you teased as you picked up their charts to scribble down your notes. 

“You kicked them out?” Phoenix laughed loudly as you reached into the supply cart to your left and pulled three lollipops from the top drawer to distribute.

“For being such good patients,” you said with a smirk and they gave you a look of annoyance but took them anyway. 

“Yeah, she used us for our manual labor and then kicked us to the curb,” Rooster pouted and you rolled your eyes.

“You were being annoying, now get up, you're wasting beds in a busy emergency department,” you said as you walked over to the desk to sign off on their discharges.

“I’m sorry for paging, Dr. J, I know we could have handled it but-” Dr. Rogers started but you shook your head.

“You did the right thing, if anyone comes in here saying they know me always page me, even if it’s a bunch of grown men whining over sprained ankles and small lacerations,” you joked as you walked over to see Jake helping Coyote out of bed. “Well, now I need a drink. Meet at the Hard Deck?” you asked and everyone nodded as they headed into the parking lot and dispersed to their cars, chuckling as Coyote threw out a thanks mom and dad as Phoenix loaded him into her car.

“So much for our perfect first night in,” you sighed as Jake opened the passenger door for you.

“I think this is about as perfect as it was going to get for us, sweetheart,” he said, leaning in to give you a kiss before softly closing it. “Besides, I’m going home with you at the end of the night… doesn’t get much better than that.” he said as he pulled out of the lot.

“Cheeseball,” you chuckled, looking over at him as the setting sun illuminated his profile and you sighed in content. The past ten years had been full of ups and downs, but you couldn’t have imagined a high better than this one as his hand came to settle on your thigh. You finally had Jake, you were planning your future and you had friends that might have been annoying but always showed up… and called when they needed you. Every long night so far away from him, every stressful exam and every tedious surgery during your residency led you here, and you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt you had never been happier.

previous / next 

taglist: @mamaskillerqueen @clancycucumber230 @the-romanian-is-bae @dempy @alldaysdreamers @zzsloth @emma8895eb @novagreen04 @classyunknownlover @olliepig @purplevortexx @mayhemmanaged @ohgodnotagainn @smoothdogsgirl @swiftsgirlfriend @memoriesat30 @the-fandom-ness @midnightmagpiemama @shanimallina87 @tiredqueen73 @charles11700 @thegodessc @angelbabyange @failuretothrivesstuff @wildxwidow @sp1rit-realm @grxcieluvr @alluringshawn @amatswimming @camilaricci @pinkpantheris @taytaylala12​ @callsignspirit​ @cruelmissdior @underaveragefangirl​ @nolita-fairytale​ (if your username is struck through it means I couldn’t tag you - sorry!)

#jake hangman seresin #jake hangman seresin fan fiction #jake hangman seresin x reader #jake hangman seresin x you #jake seresin #jake seresin fan fiction #jake seresin x reader #jake seresin x you #hangman #hangman fan fiction #hangman x reader #hangman x you #top gun maverick #top gun fan fiction

[fallingforfictionalcharacterss]

Heyy! I just wanted to say I LOVE your writing and read your fanfics all the time!! I just wanted to ask (if you are not busy) could you write a fanfic in which reader and Draco breakup but reader realises they made a mistake and want Draco back? Thanks for all the other amazing writing you have xx lots of love <333

Thank you so much for your request! Writing this was quite a challenge for some reason and I still don´t know how I like the outcome, but I really hope that you´ll enjoy reading.

By the way, I most likely won´t be uploading something in the next few weeks (as if I had a regular schedule for this anyway) because I´m going on vacation. So for the next two weeks, I´ll be lying at a beach in Thailand (for the first time in five years, I´m super excited) but I really hope that after this I´ll be inspired and write some new fics for y´all.

Secrets

Warnings: break-up; it´s pretty much an emotional rollercoaster

You raised your upper body slightly, resting its weight on your forearms, as you watched the figure sitting at the desk, his back turned to you, with narrowed eyes.

“Draco?”

The blond boy just hummed in response.

“When will you be done with this?”

“Just a little longer, love.”

“But that´s what you already said an hour ago.”, you said, letting out a dramatic sigh.

“It will take how long it will take, (Y/n). After this I´m all yours, I promise.”

“Pff, that´s what you always say.”, you huffed. “Until something else comes to your mind which is much more important than me again.”

“There is nothing more important to me than you, my love. You know that.”

“Oh yeah? Is that so? Because right now, you aren’t even looking at me.”

Draco groaned in defeat as he put down the quill and turned around in his chair to finally face you. And even though he held an annoyed frown on his face, originally intending to scold you, his expression softened rather quickly when he saw you lying on his bed in one of his sweaters, looking at him with doe eyes. Even though you were trying to hide it, Draco just knew you for way too long to miss the disappointment in your eyes. And while Draco Malfoy wasn’t one to care much about the feelings of others, when it came to his beloved girlfriend, he just couldn’t bear to see even the slightest hints of dejection.

So he quickly scribbled down one last sentence onto his parchment, before finally closing the book he had been hovering over for the last few hours, and with a few large steps, he walked over to his bed, letting himself fall down right next to you. The moment you felt the mattress lowering, you quickly shuffled over, huddling into the embrace of your boyfriend. Draco put an arm around you, as you rested your head on his chest.

“Are you happy now, love?”, he asked, letting out a low chuckle as you nodded eagerly. You could feel the vibration in his chest going through your entire body, making chills run down your spine. “But you know I can´t stay long, don’t you? I still have stuff to do.”

You pouted.

“Stuff, what kind of stuff?”

When Draco didn’t answer immediately, you glanced up at the boy, noticing how with a blank expression, he stared into the void.

“Draco?”, you asked in a soft voice, making the boy beneath you jolt.

He looked at you, seemingly confused for a second, before he got a grip on himself again and cleared his throat.

“Nothing- Nothing important. I´ll just… I´ll meet up with Crabbe and Goyle. We… still have… It´s some Quidditch stuff, you know? Nothing interesting.”

You frowned.

“Six years and I still don’t like these guys. I mean, the others are all so nice. Pansy and Blaise… But these two? I don’t know what you see in them.”

Draco raised an eyebrow as he glared down at you.

“You made it very clear that I shouldn’t criticize you for the choice of your friends early on. So do me the same favour, love, alright?”

You nodded in defeat, but you couldn’t help but add: “But you have to admit that they are… well, not the sharpest knife in the drawer to say the least.”

A small grin sneaked on your boyfriend's face again.

“Probably can´t argue with that. Merlin, I feel like a troll could beat them in their exams if it would try very hard.”

You let out a small giggle, making Draco´s grin only widen.

“So why don’t you just ditch your troll friends and spend the evening with me?”, you asked, glancing at Draco through your eyelashes hopefully.

But the boy just shook his head.

“Believe me, love, there´s nothing I´d rather do, but you know just as well as I do I can´t.”

“I know.”, you sighed. “The team would be lost without you, wouldn’t it? And I obviously can´t take that responsibility.”

“The team?”, Draco frowned, before he seemed to remember. “Oh yeah, of course. We can´t let those filthy Gryffindors win the cup once more, can we?”

You looked at Draco doubtfully. Because even though his words were making sense, by the way, his voice sounded and he avoided your gaze, you knew he was lying to you. Which unfortunately happened rather often since the school year had started.

You didn’t know what had happened over the summer holidays before your sixth year at Hogwarts had started. But you knew that ever since then, Draco had changed. At first, you had suspected that it had something to do with you and your relationship – for a frightful moment, you had even suspected that Draco might had fallen out of love with you or had someone else - but soon you had realized that Draco didn’t only behave differently around you, but in general. He was thin-skinned and easy to distract, and even though he spent much more time studying and practising Quidditch, his grades had dropped drastically and even though you hated to admit, Draco was a worse player than he had ever been before. From time to time, you had the feeling that the only moments he could truly relax were when it was just the two of you. Draco and you by now knew each other for way too long to actually hide your feelings from one another and most of the time it was useless anyway because you could read each other like a book. You loved how much your boyfriend was able to calm down when he was around you, however, you would have certainly preferred it, if he would have just told you what it was that was troubling these days. But even though you had encouraged him many times that he could talk to you and you had promised him that whatever he would tell you would stay between just the two of you, Draco had stubbornly denied to tell you anything at all. At some point, you had just given up trying, not because you didn’t want to know or because you didn’t care, but because you felt as if the most that you could do for the boy you loved was just to be there for him and give him the safe space he apparently needed so bad these days, making sure he knew that he could always talk to you but also not pressured into anything. You trusted Draco enough to believe that he would come around by the time he was ready to tell you, and until then, you had decided that you would just enjoy the moments you still had left with him, just like the one you had now.

So instead of pushing him any further, you just pecked his jawline, before nuzzling only deeper into his chest.

“I have no doubt you won´t. They won´t stand a chance against you this year.”

“Especially if my beautiful girlfriend will be in the stands cheering for me.”

“I´ll make sure to bring my pom-poms.”, you chuckled.

“I don´t care about those things. Though I´d really like to see you in one of those uniforms someday.”

You let out a laugh.

“Oh, I bet you do. But you should be focused on the snitch. Not on me.”

“As if I ever could take my eyes off you. No matter what you are wearing.”

“Don´t you dare to put the blame on me for last year´s disgrace, Malfoy!”

“I would never even dream of doing so, my love.”, he smiled, as the boy only pulled you closer, making you smile against his chest.

You weren’t quite sure how much time had passed, but Draco and you were still lying in his bed. Your head was still placed on his chest, but by now, you faced the ceiling, while Draco had wrapped an arm around you. A comfortable silence had spread across you, while you had put his large hand into your smaller ones, absentmindedly fiddling with the rings covering his delicate fingers. Your fingertips were tracing the lines in his hand, making Draco shiver under you, before turning it around, dancing over the back of it. You followed the lines of his veins, clearly visible under his pale skin, before you reached the button of his white shirt. Draco´s breath slowed down more and more, and his right arm, which was tangled in your hair, slowed down his movements more and more, while the blond boy´s mind slowly but steadily drifted away more and more. You smiled to yourself, as you played with the button, opening and closing it a few times, before suddenly, you stopped short. Because at the upper edge of the slit in Draco´s sleeve, you made out some lines of dark ink, a harsh contrast on his fair skin.

“What is this?”, you asked, as you curiously tried to tuck the sleeve up a bit. “Did you get a tattoo and didn’t tell me?”

Draco blinked down at you in confusion when your words made him snap out of his haze, but the moment he realized what you were talking about, he quickly pulled his arm away and jolted up, making you fall from his chest and yelp in surprise.

“Draco, what the hell?”, you laughed as you looked at the boy who was staring at you with widened eyes.

Your boyfriend took a deep breath and forced a wry smile at you.

“Sorry, love. I almost fell asleep. I just startled.”

You shrugged and smiled at him, not holding it against him.

“So tell me. What´s that?”, you asked again, nodding in the direction of Draco´s arm.

“Nothing. It´s nothing.”, Draco responded, feeling clearly uncomfortable as he avoided your gaze.

“There are pretty many things that are nothing today, don’t you think?”, you asked as you watched him gulp nervously.

“I just don´t want to bore you with unimportant things.”

“Oh please. As if you would have ever cared about this. You´ve always been ranting for hours about stuff that I don´t care about. I still remember a certain speech of almost an hour when Potter conquered you in potions at the beginning of the year.”, you huffed.

Draco narrowed his eyes.

“So suddenly you don´t care about what I´ve got to say anymore at all?”

“That´s not what I said.”

“In fact, it was.”

“No, Draco. What I´m trying to say is that I don´t mind if from time to time you also talk about things that I´m not as involved in as you or that I don´t understand. As long as it is important enough to you and you want to talk about it with me, that´s enough. Because I love you, Draco. Merlin, I love you so much you could give me a four-hour talk about flobberworms and I would gladly listen to it. And if it´s only to hear your voice. So go ahead and tell me.”

The corner of Draco´s mouth twitched up slightly.

“Well, I´m not sure if I can go on for four hours, but it´s that weird little creature that bit Crabbe in one of the lessons of this incompetent disgrace for the wizarding world calling himself a teacher, who also…”

“You know I´m not talking about the flobberworms.”, you interrupted Draco.

“But you said you would listen to me even if I would just talk about them for hours. And I thought a little personal anecdote would…”

“You´re distracting, Draco.”, you cut your boyfriend off once more. Under different circumstances, you would have probably found it funny or adorable how desperately he tried to distract you, but right now you were way too worried about the boy in front of you to continue playing his games.

“What do you want to talk about then, my love?”

“How about what´s on your arm?”

“That shouldn’t be any concern of yours.”

“Well, it is.”

“It might be, but you told me that I should tell you what I want to talk about and this certainly isn´t one of those things. Flobberworms on the other hand…”

And at this very moment, you were just done with Draco´s childish behaviour.

While the boy genuinely tried to keep on chatting about the most boring creature to ever exist, looking anywhere but at you, you quickly bent forwards, grabbed Draco´s arm and pulled up the boy´s sleeve. The second Draco realized what you were doing, he pulled away immediately, but it was already too late.

Even with the white fabric covering the black ink on his forearm again, your eyes were still fixed on the place, you had spotted them seconds ago.

Draco crossed his arms in front of his chest and let out a nervous chuckle.

“Merlin, (Y/n), if I would have known you want to rip off my clothes so badly…”

“What is this?” Your voice was surprisingly calm for what your eyes had just spotted and for what your mind was just about to process. “Draco, what the hell is this?”

“It´s nothing, love. You really don´t have to think about…”

“No, Draco. Not again. Tell me what this is. Tell me...” Your voice started to crack. “Tell me this isn´t what I think it is.”

“Well, if you already think you know better, who am I to tell you differently?” He sounded defiant, but just like you, Draco couldn´t hide the vigorous shaking of his voice.

It had been only a second, most likely only the split of it, that you had exposed the dark lines covering the inner side of Draco´s left forearm, but the picture was burned into your mind, nevertheless. Every delicate feature of the snake winding elegantly around the skull, the black appearing even darker on Draco´s pale skin; a piece of art looking way too pretty on him for the fact, that this little thing had just shattered all your hopes and dreams in no time.

“But you… you have to. Tell me I´m wrong, Draco. Please.”

The whisper almost broke Draco´s heart, yet he seemed to remain unfazed by it. He still didn’t look at you, because if the boy would have seen the tears shimmering in your eyes, it would have made everything just so much worse.

“I don´t even know what´s on your mind, (Y/n). So how can I tell you, whether you´re wrong or right?”

Obviously, he knew what you were thinking. He always knew. But for now, this seemed to be the only way to delay the inevitable.

 “Don´t… don´t make me say it. I can´t…” Your voice broke once more.

“Well if you can´t then we don´t need to talk about it anymore as well, do we?”

Finally, Draco glanced up at you. When he saw you blinking vigorously, trying to prevent the tears in your eyes from falling, he automatically extended his hand to touch you, to offer you some kind of comfort, but you shied away from his touch, lowering your gaze. Draco flinched as if he had burned himself. You could only imagine the hurt lying in his eyes now, but at this moment, you didn´t really care. How could you when the guy you had always loved more than anyone else had betrayed you in the worst way possible?

“Love?” Draco´s voice was gentle, way too gentle to come from a boy who has chosen a life of fear and death. “Love, please talk to me.”

Your gaze was fixed on your lap, your hands played with themselves nervously.

“You said we shouldn’t talk about it. So I don´t think there is anything left to say, is it?”

“I… I didn’t mean it that way, (Y/n). You know that.”

“Do I, Draco? How would I?”

“Because it´s me. Love, you know me better than anyone else does. If there´s anyone out there who understands me then it´s you.”

You glared up at the boy in front of you, eying him suspiciously.

“How dare you say that? How dare you to say that I know you? That I understand you? I don’t recognize you, Draco. I always trusted you. I was always by your side. And you used me like this. Lied into my face all the time. So how can I think that I´ve ever truly known you?”

You expected Draco to object. To tell you that whatever had happened to him; that he had no choice. That this wasn´t who he wanted to be. That you were actually the only one who knew who he truly was. But instead, he just huffed.

“See, that´s why I didn’t tell you. I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

Your face fell.

“That´s what you think?”

“That´s what I think.”

You nodded as you straightened your back and wiped away the tears. A useless act you realized, since new ones were falling steadily. But you ignored it.

“Then there´s nothing left to say I guess.”

“That´s not what I… (Y/n), listen. Just lie back and calm down for a moment and then you´ll see that none of this will affect you and when you aren’t so upset anymore then we can go back to…”

“No, Draco. We won´t. None of those things. I… Honestly, I don´t even want to hear what you got to say anymore. And I certainly don´t want to calm down. Because there´s nothing to be calm about. And nothing that won´t affect me. And if you…” You gulped heavily. “If you think I´ll stay after you did this. After you lied to me. You are mistaken. I won´t stay. Not in this stupid bed, not in this stupid room and certainly…” The words almost got stuck in your throat as you choked out: “Certainly not with you.”

You wished you could just storm out of the room and slam the door dramatically, but you were still tangled into Draco´s damn sheets, which were way too soft and smelled way too much like him. That smelled way too much like home. So you just shuffled away from Draco awkwardly to the other side of the bed. Draco watched you. His face showed no emotion, as you kicked the blanket away that was still wrapped around your legs before you headed towards the door with large steps. You wished Draco would call you out. Tell you that all of this was just a misunderstanding. A bad dream. Something you would figure out together.

And he held you back indeed.

“(Y/n)?”

You had almost reached the door when his voice made you freeze. This was it. The moment he could take everything back. The moment he could fix it. Where he could save your relationship. Save you.

“You won´t tell anyone about this. Will you?”

And just like that, even the last sparkle of hope for a happy ending for the both of you was stifled. You let out a dry laugh, a sound neither Draco nor you were used to hearing from you.

“Why? What would you do if I did? Would you hurt me, Draco?”

Silence.

“Would you do it? Would you… If that´s what you needed to do to keep your secret, would you hurt me? Would you… would you kill me?”

When you glanced at Draco and returned his gaze, you tried to read what was on his mind. There was a small voice inside of you that told you that his eyes were begging you not to leave, telling you that he would never hurt you, that after all, you were the only thing he really needed in his life, the only one he genuinely loved. But when the boy still didn’t answer and just pressed his lips together, you came to the realisation, that all of these assumptions, all the things you thought you knew about Draco, were based on a lie.

You didn’t know how long you had been standing there, staring into the eyes of the boy who you had thought loved you unconditionally until you realized that Draco wouldn’t give you an answer. And especially not the one you were hoping for.

You nodded slowly, finally managing to tear your gaze apart from the blond Slytherin still sitting on the bed, you had been cuddling in carelessly only minutes ago.

“At least I know now.”

And with that, you turned around, leaving the dorm and everything you had ever been hoping for behind you, once and for all.

If somebody would ever ask you, what time of your life had been the worst, you would probably tell them about the days after Draco´s and your way had parted. Because while all you wanted to do was curl up in your bed and never leave your dorm again, the school made that impossible. And with the classes came the questions. It just seemed to be incomprehensible to everyone, how (Y/n) (Y/l/n), the girl who was known to had softened the heart of the Slytherin prince, and Draco Malfoy had parted ways. One day, everything had seemed so perfect and the two of you had seemed to be so much in love, and the next day, the both of you acted as if the other one simply didn’t exist, claiming to not care, while in fact, everyone saw how much you did care. And obviously, everyone wanted to know how it had come to this unforeseeable event. And while people barely ever dared to talk to Draco, especially now that he seemed to be more thin-skinned than ever, you were much easier to approach, and people were literally bombarding you with questions. People you didn’t even know were coming up to you with inappropriately intimate questions about your relationship with Draco, or more precisely, the ending of it. At some point you snapped, hexing some giggling Gryffindors with the Bee-Sting Jinx, causing their skin to swell and giving it an unsavoury pinkish tinge. Until that very day, the girls hadn’t left the hospital wing yet, and you couldn’t exactly say you were sorry to hear.

Who you couldn’t get rid of that easily, however, were your own friends. Especially Pansy stuck to her guns, trying to get you to finally reveal what had happened between Draco and you. You couldn’t blame your friend though, since she had been the one staying up several nights ever since Draco and you had broken up, providing you with some hot chocolate and the most heart-wrenching romance novels, while you were crying at her shoulder. But even Pansy couldn’t get you to tell her what had happened that day in Draco´s dorm.

You had been debating with yourself forever about whether or not you should tell anyone what you had witnessed that day, and until now, you hadn’t come to a conclusion yet. At least that´s what you told yourself. Because the truth was, you knew very well, that you wouldn’t tell a soul, what Draco had done. And not because you were scared that Draco could actually hurt you. In fact, you were quite sure that no matter what he would try, nothing would hurt more than his betrayal. No, the reason why you wouldn’t give away what you knew about the blond boy now, was rather the complete opposite of the idea that you could actually be scared of him, yet it was just as simple as this. Because the truth was no matter what Draco had done and no matter what he would do in the future, you were still completely and utterly in love with the boy. And you also knew that this would never change. And even though you knew that – regardless of your feelings- breaking all ties with Draco was the right thing, that didn’t mean that you simply didn’t have the heart to tell anyone that Draco Malfoy was by now a Death Eater and just like that destroy his future and most likely getting him a ticket to Azkaban without a return.

In one of your several sleepless nights you had debated with yourself that Draco wasn’t even of age yet and that he had probably been pushed into all of that and no one would actually send him to Azkaban, but then again, if You-Know-Who would find out that Draco had been exposed, he would certainly find a way to get rid of him, as a punishment or to simply prevent him from spilling some secrets. Sure, Draco was probably already in a more than dangerous situation anyway, but you had the feeling that exposing him would most likely only make things worse. And while you had also considered asking Professor Dumbledore or Professor Snape, who had always been the closest to Draco out of all the professors, for help, you had quickly realized, that the Headmaster wasn’t as powerful anymore as he had used to be and you were also quite aware of all the rumours surrounding the Head of the Slytherin house. And if Professor Snape was actually still loyal to You-Know-Who, once again, this would only make things worse.

So all there was left to do, was to keep your mouth shut and trying to avoid Draco as much as possible. Because while all the comments of the other students were pretty annoying, whose presence hurt you more than anyone else’s, was Draco´s. And while you had always known what had been going on in the blond head for the past few years, by now you had absolutely no idea. Most of the time, he ignored you, not even seeming to even notice your presence, but from time to time, you caught him, staring at you from across the room with a blank expression on his face and something in his eyes, that you couldn’t quite put a finger on. But that might had also been due to the fact, that neither of you could bear the glances of the other one for more than a few seconds and whenever your gaze met his, the both of you quickly looked away again, trying to ignore the stinging in your heart whenever this happened. Luckily, you didn’t meet Draco often these days. He often skipped the meals, and even to most of the classes he rarely appeared anymore. And while you were mostly lucky about the fact that you didn’t stumble across the Slytherin that often these days, there was still a small voice inside your head, worrying about Draco´s concerning behaviour, wondering how he would be able to pass the exams at the end of the year and how long he would be able to go on at all, with the little he ate and apparently also slept, concluding from the dark circles under his eyes.

Your friends however pointed out, that you didn’t look much better either. The breakup tugged on your nerves much more than you wanted to admit, and you also slept bad these days, and while you regularly appeared to the classes and meals, in the classes, you barely even listened to what the teachers were saying, mostly staring at the blank spot where Draco was supposed to sit and during the meals you mostly just shoved the food on your plate around unenthusiastically. Your thoughts often drifted to the blond boy, making you forget everything around you, just like you did now.

You were sitting at the Great Lake with some of your friends, who were, now that you had finished your homework, happily chatting about all different kind of themes. You on the other hand were just staring at the lake absentmindedly, doodling onto the parchment in front of you, which was already filled with the few sentences that you had scribbled down as a poor excuse for your homework. Lost in your thoughts, you didn’t even notice how a tall figure approached you until he stood right in front of you and cleared his throat.

You flinched and glanced up quickly, the confusion on your face slowly giving way to a small smile.

“Hey, Blaise.”

“(Y/n).”, he grinned, giving you a short nod as a greeting. “Do you have a second?”

You put the parchment on your lap aside and shrugged your shoulders.

“Sure. Why don’t you sit down?”

“Actually, I was hoping to talk to you alone.”, he said, glaring at your friends that eyed the two of you curiously.

You let out a sigh, before you got up.

“Wanna go on a walk then?”

Blaise just nodded again, before he walked towards the lake, not even looking back at you once.

You quickly said your friends goodbye, before with some quick steps, you caught up with Blaise again. For a few minutes, the two of you were just walking next to each other in silence, until the Slytherin boy finally cleared his throat.

“So… How are you?”

You glanced at him suspiciously.

“Why do you ask?”

“It´s been a while since we talked. I mean, we don´t see each other that often anymore since Draco and you…” He trailed off, his gaze fixed on the ground in front of him.

Even though Blaise and you weren’t as close as Draco and he was, you knew for sure that Blaise wasn’t a man of many words, and the fact that he actively had been looking for you and was bringing up such an uncomfortable topic on his own made you suspect that there was more to this conversation than met the eye at this moment.

You sighed.

“Just spit it out, Blaise. What is it?”

“Listen, I know it´s none of my business what happened between Draco and you and I…”

“That´s right, this is absolutely no concern of yours.”, you interrupted him, before he could say anything else. “So why do you still bring it up then?”

Blaise raised an eyebrow at you.

“For real, (Y/n)?”

You rolled your eyes.

“No, I´m joking. So just tell me what you have to say.”

The Slytherin stopped in his tracks and turned around to you.

“For Salazar's sake. Draco misses you, (Y/n). He´s absolutely miserable since the two of you have broken up and it absolutely sucks to see him like this.”

You stared at Blaise with slightly widened eyes, surprised by that -for the quiet boy quite unusual- emotional outburst. For now, however, this was only the second most important thing about your interaction with the Slytherin. Because what stuck way more with you was what Blaise had said to you. Because if Blaise was actually right, Draco felt the exact same way about your breakup as you did. And while you could feel your heart stinging in your chest at the thought that your actions might had hurt the boy you still loved so much, the reasons for your behaviour were still much more important to you than the consequences, weren’t they? And for now, cutting off as many strings between Draco and you was for you the only reasonable reaction to the fact that he had not only irrevocably turned to the dark side, but had also kept this not exactly insignificant detail as a secret from you. Because if you wouldn’t have taken any consequences from this, if you would have just kept going, ignoring the fact that you didn’t even know anymore who the person claiming to want to spend the rest of his life with you was, what would that have said about your relationship to Draco and most importantly about yourself as a person? So even if the fact that your actions might had hurt the blond boy and with that hurt you even more than they already did as well, you knew that your decision had been right. You couldn’t be in a relationship with a person who you weren’t even sure if you knew them properly and ending things was the only logical conclusion. But how were you supposed to explain that to Blaise?

“Listen, Blaise, it´s not like I wanted this. Not like I have fun doing this. But it´s the right thing. After what Draco has done…”

You didn’t finish the sentence, staring at your feet instead.

“What could he possibly have done wrong that you are so upset with him?”, Blaise asked, sounding genuinely irritated. “On the same day in the classes everything still seemed to be alright and only a few hours later you act as if Draco has murdered your favourite owl.” He stopped in his tracks and glared at you. “Hold on, he didn´t, did he?”

You couldn’t help but let out a small laugh as you shook your head.

“No, he didn’t.”

Blaise let out a sigh of relief.

“See, it can´t be that bad if you´re still laughing about it.” He remained silent for a few moments, but when you didn’t answer and just shrugged your shoulders, he continued: “I know Draco can be difficult from time to time, (Y/n). But what I know just as well is that he loves you and that he would never hurt you on purpose. So maybe it was just a misunderstanding or he just…”

“Oh, trust me, there was not much room for misinterpretation.”, you interrupted him bitterly.

Blaise shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

“If you say so. But maybe it would still help you to talk to him once more. Or at least listen to what he has to say to you.”

“As if he would have ever tried. He´s ignoring me ever since.”

“So do you.”

“I have every reason to. Trust me, Blaise.”

“Maybe Draco just wants to give you some space. And when you´re ready, he will gladly come up to you and maybe you can work it out then. I´m sure of that.”

You remained silent. Blaise let out a sigh.

“Just think about it, (Y/n).”

You nodded in response.

“I will.”

Blaise gave you a wry smile.

“That´s all I can ask for for now, I guess.”

“Trust me, it is.”

The Slytherin let out a low chuckle.

“Alright then my job here is done, I guess. I still have Quidditch practice anyway. See you around, (Y/n).”

You returned his smile half-hearted.

“See you, Blaise.”

The Slytherin had already turned away from you, when suddenly, he stopped, looking back at you once more.

“Draco loves you, (Y/n). He´d do anything for you. You just have to ask for it. And if he… If he would be up to something stupid…” Blaise looked at the ground, shifting his weight uncomfortably. “Draco knows right from wrong, even if he doesn’t always admit it. So if he has gotten himself into something, I´m sure he has a good reason for it. And I also know for sure that you love him way too much to let him go through this alone.”

And with that, the tall boy finally turned away completely, leaving you alone by the shore, looking at the water, as your thoughts were murmuring in your minds just like the waves in front of you.

The following night, you didn’t sleep as bad as you had ever since you had left Draco in his dorm that day, hunted by his face in your dreams just as much as when you were lying awake, but you simply didn’t sleep at all.

After a few sleepless hours, before you were even realizing what you were doing, you snug up to your wardrobe, pulling out the sweater you had tucked in there carelessly the day you had returned from Draco´s dorm for the last time. When back then you had noticed that you were still wearing Draco´s clothes, you had ripped it off immediately, stuffing it into the deepest corner of your closet. And until that very day, you had refused to take it out there again. But for some reason, tonight you just couldn’t resist.

When you were lying in bed again, the sweater covering you like a blanket and inhaling Draco´s scent that by now already threatened to vanish, Blaise´s words echoed through your head. You knew that Draco and Blaise were good friends and that Blaise probably actually just hated to see his friend suffer after you had broken up with him, yet his last words made you suspect that maybe Blaise knew even more than he had told you. But then again, he hadn’t said anything that hadn’t gone through your mind as well over the last few days. While in the second you had seen the dark mark placed on your boyfriend´s arm, you had felt nothing but disappointment and betrayal. You had been wondering how Draco had still been willing to join the Death Eaters, after everything You-Know-Who had done to this world – and also to his family. Because after all, Draco´s father was sitting in Azkaban because he had been caught as a part of the very same group his son had now joined as well. As you had thought about it later once more, however, you couldn’t had helped but wondering whether it had actually been Draco´s free will to follow in his father’s footsteps. And after your talk to Blaise, you were wondering even more about the blond boy´s motives. Because while it was quite possible that for Blaise the pieces had just fallen together just like they had done for you, it was also possible that he knew something more about what exactly was going on with Draco. This thought however was almost just as hurtful. Because that would mean that Draco would trust his roommate more than he trusted you. And if you were honest, this had probably been the worst thing about the situation from the very beginning. You had always known that Draco had always been fascinated by the dark arts and that his family had taught him some values and beliefs that were in your eyes very extreme, to put it nicely, but you had never actually minded. Because you knew a side of Draco, that he rarely showed to others. He had granted you a look behind the walls he had put up, and what you had seen there had been what you had fallen in love with. And what you still were in love with. You thought you had known all of Draco, all his dreams and his fears, just as he knew all of you. And to discover that there was a part of him that he had intentionally hidden from you, simply broke your heart. At what point in your relationship had you lost his unconditional trust, his willingness to tell you everything? Had you ever even had it at all? Or had everything been a lie since the very beginning? You shook your head, trying to get rid of those unwelcoming thoughts. No, you knew Draco. Better than everyone else. And if there was a part of him, that you still had yet to discover, you were more than willing to do so. You knew that no matter what, things would never be the same as they used to be, but how they would develop was in your hands. And even if for now you weren’t quite sure yet, how you wanted things to turn out, you knew one thing for sure: No matter what the future would hold for you – you wanted to go through it with Draco.

Quietly, you got up from your bed and slipped into your shoes, before you sneaked to the door of your dorm.

When the cold air of the night hit your skin, you shivered. Still, you continued your way, sneaking up the stairs of the tower, placing your feet carefully to prevent the old material from creaking. The wind was stronger up here on the platform, pulling at your hair and your clothes. But you barely even noticed it, your gaze fixed on the tall silhouette leaning against the bannister. You couldn’t help the small smile that crept on your face when you took a step closer.

“I knew you would be here.”, you spoke up.

Even though your voice was soft and barely audible over the howling of the wind, the shadow flinched and turned around quickly. When his gaze met yours, you thought to see his eyes lighting up for the split of a second, before his face went blank again.

Draco´s expression didn’t change as he watched you walking towards him with narrowed eyes, until you had finally reached the railing, leaning against it right next to him, while you returned his gaze without blinking once.

“What do you want?”, he finally raised to speak. His voice sounded strange. It was the same tone he always struck when he was talking to people he considered beneath his dignity, yet you could hear it shaking slightly.

“I was looking for you.”

“You found me now, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“So, what now?”

You bit your lip, glancing at the boy, who was glaring at you with piercing eyes.

“I want to talk.”

Draco huffed.

“Now you suddenly want to.”

“I do.”

“But maybe I don’t want to. It was the same with you when I tried to talk to you, wasn’t it?”

You raised an eyebrow.

“Can you blame me?”

Silence.

“So?”

“Why do you even care? You were the one who left, remember?”

You took a deep breath. You could argue that Draco had been the one who had started what had led to the end. That it had been the only right thing to do. That he had been the one who had let you go. But you knew that starting this argument wouldn’t bring you anywhere at that point. And after all, Draco was also somehow right.

“I… I didn’t think about anything else ever since.”, you finally admitted in a low voice.

“So that´s why you´re here? To sooth your conscience?”, he spat out.

“No, I´m here because just because I left that day it doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you anymore!”

Draco´s eyes widened slightly at your confession, one that you both had already been aware of, but also one both of you had been too proud to admit.

“Why would you?” His voice now sounded raspier than ever, and you could see that Draco´s eyes were slightly glossy. “After everything that happened. Why would you still care?”

You took a step closer to Draco. Your hand on the railing now covered his. The boy flinched, his gaze flickered to where your hands were touching, probably remembering painfully what had happened the last time your hands had been intertwined, but he didn’t pull away.

“We´ve been together for such a long time, Draco. I fell in love with you years ago and no matter what we´ve been through, I never stopped. And I… I don’t think I ever will. Even if I wanted to. So if you want me to, I will be with you. And we will get through this together. No matter what it takes. We… I trust you with my life. With everything I have and I need you to know that you can do the same. So if you tell me what is wrong, I will help you. I promise.”

You saw the corner of Draco´s mouth twitching up at your words. He removed his hand from under yours, as he closed the remaining gap between the two of you until your chests almost touched, and cupped your face with his hands. As the blond boy smiled down at you, you felt your heart skipping a beat. While your yearning over the past few days had almost eaten you up, only now that you felt his closeness once more, you realized what exactly you had been missing. And you swore to yourself that you would never let it go ever again that easily.

Draco bent down and pressed his soft lips on your forehead, making you melt into his touch even more. Then he pulled back slightly, looking at you with a softness in his eyes that you had barely ever seen before, even after all those years.

“I know, love. I know the things you would do for me, and I want you to know that I would do just the same for you. And that´s why I am so sorry. For the things I have done and the things I am about to do. And mostly…” He gulped heavily, his eyes scanning every feature of your face, taking in even the smallest details, before he continued: “Mostly I am sorry that this is never going to happen. Because I can´t tell you what I am up to. I can´t get you involved in any of those things. It doesn’t matter if you want to go back to what we were, because we won´t, (Y/n). That´s the end.” Draco took a step back, his hands slipping from your cheeks, leaving behind nothing but the coldness that was embracing you now instead of him. “I´m truly sorry.”

And with that, Draco turned around, leaving you on your own, staring at the place he had stood only seconds ago in disbelief, making you wonder who you hated more at this moment. Him for being the one to leave you this time or yourself for actually letting him go.

If you had thought that you had been at your worst after you had left Draco, you had been wrong. Because now that he had been the one leaving you behind, you felt a thousand times worse. You spend your time staring into the void and now, you weren’t simply ignoring Draco anymore, but tensing up to an unknown level, feeling the tears pricking in your eyes that had failed to do so back on the Astronomy Tower. Because while back then you had barely understood the entire situation, by now the realization slowly started to sink in. You still didn’t know what Draco was up to or what had happened to him in the past, but by now you were absolutely sure that Draco was still the same guy that had meant so much to you from the second you had placed your foot in his train department back on your ride to Hogwarts in your first year. Obviously, many things had changed since then, but the strong connection that you had always felt between Draco and you was still there. And to know that you yet couldn’t be with him for whatever mysterious reason, just made it so much harder for you to deal with the situation.

By now you just felt as if the entire world was against you and you just hated everything and everyone around you, blaming your surroundings for the fact that Draco had taken your opportunity to fix the worst mistake you had ever made in your life away from you again. And so when Blaise approached you one day, asking you how you were feeling, the poor boy was utterly confused when you glared at him with defiance of death, telling him that he should have never suggested talking to Draco and trying to fix the situation, because after all, now you knew for sure that everything was over once and for all and would never get better ever again. And when you stormed away, you were so caught up in your own thoughts and self-pity, that you didn’t even notice how Pansy joined Blaise, who still didn’t quite understand what he had done wrong, and the both of you were watching you walking away with a blank look on your face, with your eyes being glossy nevertheless.

“I really thought they would figure it out.”, Blaise said helplessly.

“You´re not the only one.”, Pansy sighed. “There must be something we can do about this. It´s unbearable to watch them like this.”

You stared at the school grounds underneath you, lying there in silence. The wind howling around the Astronomy Tower wasn’t nearly as strong as when you had been there with Draco, but over the last few days, it had gotten much colder. A shiver ran down your spine. You weren’t sure whether it was because of the cold or the memories that were flooding your mind every single time you got up here. Probably both.

You tried to recall the feeling you had had when for a wonderful moment you had thought that everything might work out after all that night. You remembered the warmth of his hands cupping your cheeks, the feeling of his lips pressed against your forehead, the overwhelming affection you had felt when Draco had looked into your eyes. But even though not much time had passed since then, you already felt all those feelings fading. And the more you tried to recall them, the quicker they vanished. And you already feared the moment, all of this would be nothing more than a distant memory, something you knew had happened to you at some point in your life, that by then would feel like the one of a stranger; a story you would know but would have anything to hold onto except for the knowledge that it did happen. You closed your eyes, trying to savour the warm feeling flooding through your body you had always felt when some grey eyes had been smiling down at you.

“You shouldn’t be up here on your own.”

You spun around quickly, looking into the very same eyes that you had just tried to remember so badly. For a second you thought that this was a sick game your mind was playing with you, to regain a shimmer of hope before suffocating it once more, but if it would have been that way, the smile Draco held on his face would actually reach his eyes and he wouldn’t hesitate to approach you, like he did now.

Finally, he made a few steps towards you, walking up to you slowly, until he had reached the banister. Draco kept his distance from you, as his gaze wandered over the land under you, just like yours had done only minutes before. You turned around again as well, eying Draco carefully from the corner of your eye. From the way his jaw clenched, and he was playing with the rings on his fingers, you could tell that he was nervous. Trying to build up the courage to finally speak up. You felt the corner of your mouth twitching upwards involuntarily. You just knew him far too well after all.

You didn’t know how long you had been standing there in silence, staring at the castle´s ground, before Draco finally spoke up.

“I really screwed up, didn’t I?”

You nodded, even though you weren’t sure if he could see since his gaze was still fixed on the landscape in front of you.

“I think we both did.”

Draco let out a small chuckle before he shook his head.

“No, (Y/n). You´ve done nothing wrong. Merlin, I think you couldn’t, no matter how hard you tried.”

“Don´t challenge me, Malfoy.”, you responded.

But the moment the words left your mouth, you regretted them again already. It just reminded you too much of your silly bickering back when everything had been just fine. Which it wasn’t anymore. So you also shouldn’t be joking around like it was.

“We both know I would fail.”

You just shrugged your shoulders in response, not willing to give in to the warmth that flooded through your body when you heard that familiar smirk in his voice.

After a few more moments of silence, you sighed and took a step back from the railing. No matter how much you wanted to stay with Draco right now, no matter how every fibre of your body was screaming at you to not walk away but only get closer to the boy you still loved with all your heart, you knew that this was probably the worst thing you could do. And the only right action right now was to leave the tower and Draco behind, as long as you were still capable of doing so.

You cleared your throat.

“I assume you came here to be alone. So I don’t want to bother you any longer.”

But before you had even turned around completely, Draco´s voice held you back.

“You don’t bother me, (Y/n). You know you never do. Besides... Actually, I was looking for you.” You froze in your steps, trying to prevent your heart from going crazy inside your chest. It didn’t work. “I… I talked a lot with Blaise and Pansy lately, you know?”, he continued. “And I figured out that maybe… I wasn’t quite fair to you.”

No, he hadn’t been. But neither had you been.

You forced yourself to smile.

“It´s okay, Draco. I don’t need your sympathy. I´ll be just fine.”

This was a lie. And the blond boy knew it just as well as you did. Still, he just nodded.

“I know you will be. But…” Draco took a deep breath. “I won´t. Not without you.”

And with that confession, all the walls the two of you had built up around you, tumbled down just like that. You turned around to Draco again, who was standing there, looking defeated, shoulders sloping, and his gaze fixed on his shoes. His lips were trembling dangerously, in a way you had never seen before.

That was all you needed. With a few quick steps, you closed the gap between the Slytherin and you and wrapped your arms around him. It took Draco a few moments to return the gesture, but when he did, he held you impossibly close, as if he never wanted to let you go ever again. And in this moment, he didn’t have any intention to do so indeed. You buried your face in his chest, inhaling his familiar scent and enjoying the feeling of comfort his embrace granted you.

“I´m sorry, love. I´m so sorry.”, Draco mumbled into your ear, his face hidden in your hair.

“It´s okay. It´s alright.”, you whispered repeatedly, clenching onto him, holding Draco up, just like he did with you.

Finally, Draco loosened his grip around you slightly, not much, but just enough so he could look down at you.

“I promise I will tell you everything there is to say. And I will answer all your questions. But just so you know – I never wanted this. None of this. And the least of all I wanted to hurt you. But I guess I failed.”

You could feel a tear dripping down your cheek, and Draco brushed it away with his thumb gently, making you smile through the haze of tears.

“It´s not only on you. I… I shouldn’t have left that day. That wasn’t fair either. But it´s just like I promised. I will stay with you and we will get through this. Together.”

A small smile appeared on Draco´s face.

“So no lies anymore? No secrets?”

You nodded.

“No lies and no secrets. Promised.”

And when Draco pressed his lips on yours, it felt like no time had passed since that day that you had been laying in his dorm, cuddling and whispering sweet nothings into each other´s ears. Just like that, the whole world was falling into place again, as if every problem had just disappeared the moment you finally felt the lips of the boy you loved endlessly again.

When Draco pulled back, you could see the boyish smirk on his face, you had missed so much ever since the school year had started. His fingers traced over your lips and cheek, before brushing a strand of hair out of your face, making you giggle.

“Merlin, have I missed that sound.”, Draco grinned, before pressing a small kiss on the tip of your nose, making another small laugh erupting from you.

Your fingers were buried deep in Draco´s soft hair, drawing some small circles on his scalp as you got lost in his grey eyes, just like he did in yours.

“Draco?”, you spoke up after a while again.

The blond boy just hummed in response.

“There is one thing I still have to tell you.”

“And what would that be, princess?”

“I lied to you earlier once more.”

Draco raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“I said that I would be alright. That I would be fine without you.”

The boy in front of you tilted his head and looked at you with narrowed eyes.

“You did indeed. Pretty hurtful, if you ask me.”

You chuckled. “I know. Sorry.” But then you grew serious again. “That´s it. That was the lie. I wasn’t okay when you were gone. I felt absolutely miserable. And I… I don’t think that I´ll ever be. Alright. Without you, I mean. I love you, Draco. And I don’t want to be without you.”

A small smile appeared on Draco´s face. But not the cocky grin you were used to, but a real smile. A vulnerable one.

“Love, don’t you ever think for a second that I feel any different about you, alright? I love you, (Y/n). More than you can imagine. And I can promise you, that I will never stop doing so until the day I die. And beyond that.”

And that was true. Draco loved you just as unconditionally as you loved him and the both of you knew that. Maybe it was true. Maybe sometimes you only knew what you had lost when it was already gone. But maybe only like that you would also learn to fight for it to get it back once and for all.

Taglist: @xodracomalfoyxo @marigold-morelli @army24—7 @lbhmoon @cappgyuccino @writingwitch007 @myomy0ss @tinafuentes @dmslvt @Slytherin4eva @foulkryptonitepeanut @chillcheesecake @pottertea @webswatts @jaiistg @ceehance

#draco malfoy #draco x reader #draco x female reader #draco x you #draco x y/n #draco fluff #draco fanfiction #draco fic #harry potter #blaise zabini #pansy parkinson #slytherin #fanfic #fanfiction

[spicysix]

girls make me wanna die

"the way we met not so unique / on the internet we make up things / a different story every person we see i'm writing poems and they're all online / under a different name, nothing like mine / i tried to tell her once, on a drunken night / but it came out all fucked like a bad pickup line i don't know when i fell. she doesn't know as well"

rating: T warnings: Eddie's trans in this fic, it's not a major plot point but it is a major Eddie characteristic heh. also, this is an Edancy fic, meaning Eddie and Nancy and i know that's not everyone's cup of tea so please for the love of god if you're not interested in this pairing, keep that to yourself, scroll the page, leave the fic untouched. don't like, don't read, all the maners. i think that's it word count: 6.1k author's note: fic idea and title from the song of the same name by The Aces. written for Lex's Spicy Six Summer Fanwork Challenge, for the prompt "rooftops". yes, i know i'm a little bit late (just six months), but it is Summer where i live right now so i think it still counts lmao. thanks again for hosting @thefreakandthehair ♡ also super thanks to my beautiful betas robin (@ronancevibes) and frankie (@blubblesandink) ♡

↳ read on ao3

I DON’T KNOW WHEN I FELL

The first time Eddie saw her, she thought she was a mirage.

It was Steve’s birthday party, and since the guy was still as popular as he used to be in high school, his house was packed. Eddie hadn’t seen her when she first arrived, and she later found out it was because she had been upstairs finishing getting ready with Robin.

But as she came down the stairs, all dolled up, a true femme divinity of Eddie’s most sapphic dreams, the neon lights were hitting her just right in a way that encompassed her with pink, purple and blue all around and it was one of the prettiest sights Eddie had ever seen. Eddie stood right at the end of the stairs and stared up at her, jaw on the floor, probably drooling all over her chin.

She probably could’ve fallen right then and there.

If she hadn’t looked at Eddie, still standing dumbly in the way, up and down with her eyes narrowed and lips turned down into a frown before she opened them to say, with the most velvet smooth, passive-aggressive voice Eddie had ever heard:

“Can you move?”

It wasn’t a request. It was a demand.

Eddie kinda wanted to bitch-slap her for it, but her own body betrayed her as she moved out of the way instantly and she smiled at her — almost fondly, but venomous, also all passive-aggressive and, honestly? Delicious.

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

Eddie was pissed off and aroused to her deepest corners, and she would later find out that it wouldn’t be the first time Nancy Wheeler would piss her off and still have her do whatever she demanded with that silky way of hers.

Eddie didn’t see her anymore at all after that at the party, and still had no idea who she was for a whole week before she ran into Robin at the grocery store. She asked her who the girl was, describing her looks and clothes. She tried not to be too obvious about her annoyance and also attraction to the mystery girl, and she thought she succeeded because Robin didn’t shoot her one of her bombastic side eyes.

“Oh! Short curly bob, about yay high?” Robin asked, gesturing somewhere around her chin level. Eddie nodded as she turned to pick up some sugar. “Yeah, that’s Nancy.”

Eddie stopped with her hand mid-reach. “Steve’s ex, Nancy?” she asked.

“The one and only,” Robin snickered and Eddie blinked a few times in shock before proceeding with her shopping.

Eddie thought she knew a lot about the infamous Nancy Wheeler, because she had befriended Steve right after Nancy had broken his pure little himbo heart, almost eight years before. She knew Steve and Nancy had worked things out and were friendly now, but didn’t know they were friendly enough for Steve to invite her to his birthday. She shared those thoughts with Robin, who chuckled teasingly.

“Oh, sweet summer child. You have no idea of the intricacies of our friend group, do you?”

That was true. Eddie knew of Steve and Robin’s friend group from their hometown and she knew that it was a whole beautiful mess off queerness, but she hadn’t met anyone but Robin so far, even with the almost eight years of friendship with Steve — and probably only knew her because Steve and Robin were glued at the hip. She knew of Nancy, and of Jonathan, and of course, knewRobin’s girlfriend Vickie, but didn’t know what their intricacies were.

She was honestly a little scared to ask at that point, so she just shrugged and Robin and her continued their shopping talking of other stuff from then on.

She saw Nancy again a couple of months after Steve’s party, because then it was Vickie’s birthday party, and at least this time Chrissy was able to go so Eddie wouldn’t have to be stuck to Robin the whole night.

“I’m so glad I’m not missing this one. I mean, Vickie’s a great girl and of course she’s the main reason, but that Jon boy was looking delicious in the pics Steve posted and I’m so sad I missed seeing him looking like that,” she was rambling on and on about her crush as she reapplied lip gloss on the way to the bar Vickie chose to have her small party at. “Did you meet him at all?”

“No, I only saw him passing by. He did look good, smelled amazing too,” Eddie replied with a grin.

“Ugh, you’re no good as a best friend. You know I’ve been in love with him ever since Steve posted that picture last November! You had to befriend him!” she complained but she had a smile on her shiny pink lips.

“You can’t be in love with him, bitch, you don’t even know him,” Eddie replied.

“I so can, bitch. I feel it in my tits,” Chrissy ended the discussion as the Uber parked in front of the bar, and they left it laughing loudly after thanking the driver. “In my heart, I mean. Under the tits. If he’s not here today I’ll leave immediately!”

“I’ll tell the birthday girl you said that,” Eddie sing-sang as she started walking faster towards the bar entrance. Chrissy yelled after her as they walked through the doors still laughing.

To Chrissy’s delight, the Jon boy was there in all his scrawny glory where he sat across from Vickie at the table they reserved for the birthday. Vickie was excitedly talking to him about something, gesturing all around her as Robin looked at her with pathetic heart shaped eyes. Nancy, sitting beside Jonathan, was also paying attention.

No, she was not the first person Eddie noticed.

Eddie and Chrissy approached the table and Steve lit up at the sight of them from where he was sitting on the other side of Vickie.

“There they are! My favorite sapphics club is complete!” he was getting up from his seat as he talked, and Vickie wrapped up her story before getting up to greet them too.

Jonathan turned to Nancy and they whispered between them, and Eddie would’ve thought they were talking about Vickie’s story if Nancy hadn’t shot her a look from over Jonathan’s shoulder. He then looked over too and smirked before turning back to Nancy and saying something that made her hide a laugh behind her wrist.

“Why do you surround yourself with so many sapphics anyway?” Chrissy asked as she and Steve separated from their embrace, and Eddie finally tore her look away from Nancy and Jonathan to hug Vickie tightly.

“It’s the ally in me,” Steve answered and it got him a slap from his favorite sapphic who had also gotten up to greet the newcomers.

“You’re literally queer too,” Robin said as she made grabby hands at Chrissy for her own hug. Steve just cackled and shrugged.

They finished their greetings session and both Eddie and Chrissy handed Vickie their gifts — a matching set of earrings and a necklace — before walking back to the table. Aside from them, Jonathan and Nancy, there were only a couple more people that were introduced as Vickie’s work friends.

“Nice to finally get your name,” Nancy said with a smirk when Vickie introduced her to Eddie.

Eddie narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t ask for it when you were bossing me around like a bitch last time.” Eddie didn’t made clear who the bitch was. It was on purpose.

Nancy’s smile only widened with her answer as Jonathan hid a snort behind a cough.

“She tends to do that,” Steve said as he pulled a chair for Chrissy to sit at beside him.

“Excuse me?” Nancy asked, but she was still clearly being playful.

“Yeah, no, he’s right,” Jonathan said before sipping on whatever drink he had.

Nancy rolled her stupidly beautiful blue eyes. “Love when my exes team up against me.”

Eddie thankfully wasn’t drinking anything yet or she would’ve choked on liquid, and that would be worse than choking on thin air —which she did.

“What?” one of Vickie’s coworkers thankfully asked, and all of the long-time friends laughed together.

“Oh, isn’t that a long story…” Vickie giggled to her friend who just shrugged:

“We do have all night.”

Long story short, they all had had relationships in some way.

Not like Eddie or Chrissy could judge, since they both met Steve on different nights out and they both hooked up with him in the respective back alleys of the clubs they were in, and Chrissy and Robin were definitely flirting before Robin went all monogamist-serious with Vickie. And they wouldn’t judge even if it didn’t make them hypocrites because there was nothing wrong with all that anyway, but that’s an obvious statement.

But none of their things with each other had been serious or even consummated, meanwhile it was kind of funny that Nancy dated Steve and then Jonathan, and Jonathan dated Argyle who had been in the bathroom and appeared in the middle of the story, and who was now on his journey to woo Steve into a relationship, and Nancy and Robin also had a fling at some point and so did Jonathan and Steve.

Eddie felt tired at the end of the retelling and she had been sitting down the whole time.

“Ah yes, the amazing queer experience,” Vickie’s coworker who had initially asked commented at the end of it all.

They all laughed at that and the coworker — Eddie really didn’t get their name — waved a bartender over for some shots. Once they were delivered and everyone had gotten one, Coworker started a toast.

“To Vickie, and her hometown friends who all fucked each other!” they toasted, and everyone laughed louder as they clinked their tiny cups together before throwing the shots back.

Those were just the first shots of many that night, each round with a more ridiculous toast to accompany the ‘To Vickie’ one every time.

After a few hours Chrissy was best friends with Vickie’s coworkers, and Eddie still had no idea what their names were, and instead had found her way in between Jonathan and Argyle as they all talked about photography, an art they all shared their love for. Jonathan was actually a photographer himself. The talk went from classic photography, analog to digital, and just as they started talking about Instagram accounts, Chrissy stopped by, whispered something right by Jonathan’s ear that made him blush, and they left together. Eddie and Argyle traded knowing looks and continued the conversation without the person who had begun it, and soon Nancy took Jonathan’s seat instead.

“What’s the talk?” she asked while sipping her fruity cocktail that Argyle then took from her and drank before answering.

“Our favorite Instagram accounts. We were talking about photography, but…”

“Oh!” Nancy took her phone from the pocket of her dress — a dress with pockets, amazing; Eddie thought — and opened the app. “It’s not photography, but this one is my favorite of all times. It’s so inspiring to me,” she said as she found the profile she was looking for and then turned the screen for Eddie and Argyle to look at.

Eddie had a really hard time trying not to choke on thin air for the second time that evening.

The profile Nancy was showing was a poet’s page, by the name of M.W. and who posted small, handwritten poems with a beige and brown color palette, a drawn sheet ghost as their profile picture. Clearly anonymous, even with hundreds of thousands of followers, the person behind the poems and the page didn’t want people to know who they were.

The person behind the poems and the page was Eddie.

“What-” Eddie tried to talk, failed, cleared her throat and tried again, “What do you like about it?”

Nancy got this look on her face that Eddie hadn’t seen before so far. Something fond and sweet, her blue eyes like pools Eddie wanted to drown in. Her smile was wide and it turned her face to something entirely different, all the sharpness and sarcastic expressions Eddie had been graced with so far transforming into earnest softness.

“I’m a journalist, and I love writing and sharing stories. Poems have always been something I wouldn’t do, because they all seemed so hard and too complex and I always thought ‘normal’ people couldn’t do them,” she explained, looking Eddie in the eye the whole time. She was like Medusa, and Eddie was trapped paralyzed under her stare but with no intention of leaving any time soon. “And then all these modern poets came around on social media, and they have always spoken to me in some ways, but Emme…” She looked down at her phone screen again, that same soft look that made Eddie’s brain short-circuit. “I don’t know what it is, but they talk to me so personally. I love everything they write. They are delicate with words without losing their candidness, and forthright without losing their gentleness. I just… I’m very impressed and inspired by them.”

Maybe it was then.

Eddie, of course, had no idea what to answer to that. She received comments and messages every day about how her writing helped and affected people, but it had never happened in person because no one knew who she was. That was different. Nancy’s words echoed right into her chest, making it swell with pride, but she didn’t know how to respond. She just stared at the girl before her, hoping her expression wasn’t giving her away.

“That’s so nice, dude. They’re really nice poems,” Argyle said as he rolled through M’s feed. “Do you not like them, Eddie?” he asked, and Eddie shook her head to get out of her wandering thoughts before glancing at the screen Argyle was showing her.

She didn’t need to look too hard, she knew every single poem there by heart.

She shrugged. “I don’t… think too hard about poems, I guess,” she lied without thinking, already trying to come up with other topics she could suggest to stir the conversation before she admitted anything.

The only person who knew she was the one behind M.W. was Chrissy, and Eddie wasn’t ready to make it public — probably never would be. The words were too personal, open windows to her soul that she carefully curated, that she poured so much of herself into and she wasn’t ready to share the backstage of.

Eddie saw as Nancy’s eyes hardened again, as she shut her jaw firmly and she felt immediately sorry for her lie. She didn’t want Nancy to retreat, she liked seeing her vulnerable side. The side of Nancy that related to Eddie’s own vulnerability, even if she didn’t know it.

“Too bad.” And then she gave Eddie that sneering look, the same as she did from her superior level at the stairs of Steve’s house, that up-and-down look that made Eddie’s face turn into a scowl instantly.

Both their jaws clenched and they narrowed their eyes at the same time and stared at each other for what felt like hours, but was probably less than a minute, before getting up to walk to different directions, headed to different groups of other people to talk to.

“What the hell happened, man?” Argyle whispered softly to himself as he was left alone with all the tension still hanging in the air.

Eddie replayed that conversation in her head for many days after Vickie’s birthday. The gnawing feeling in the bottom of her stomach that threatened to burn her from the inside out appeared every other hour.

Why the fuck did she lie about not liking poems?

She didn’t have to tell them the truth about being M.W., but she could still have said something nice about Nancy’s passion for the poems. Not dismiss it completely, making it seem like she was a total bitch, causing Nancy to go back into her distrust, closing the doors to her vulnerability. Making Nancy think Eddie had no interest in her interests at all, like she was still holding a grudge over nothing, like they couldn’t bond over something they both loved.

The what-ifs and the should-haves kept eating at Eddie’s brain, sometimes so strongly that it was overwhelming, and she didn’t relax even a little bit about it for almost three weeks, when she met Chrissy for their monthly brunch together.

“What’s up with you today?” was the first question Chrissy asked over their mimosas, no need to be at Eddie’s side for long to realize that something was giving her anxiety.

It caused Eddie’s shoulders to slump down and her throat to get a little less constricted. Just knowing Chrissy cared enough about her to notice the small signs of her distress made some of the fog in her brain dissipate. It was easy to tell her everything after that, the scene she had caused, the disappointment in Nancy’s eyes, the way it made Eddie feel like shit. Chrissy heard it all quietly, attentively, as if Eddie’s life depended on it because she knew that Eddie felt like it did at the high of her anxiety.

“I think you like her more than you care to admit,” Chrissy answered at the end of it all.

Eddie didn’t like that Chrissy’s mind went straight into that area instead of comforting Eddie, but she rationally knew that Chrissy wouldn’t bring that up if it wasn’t relevant.

“Chris, I don’t even know her-”

Chrissy interrupted. “And I think you should be honest with her.”

“I can’t tell her-”

She did it again. “I’m not telling you to come out to her as Emme, I’m only saying you could honestly tell her she makes you kinda nervous and you stumbled over your words near her, and you said things you didn’t mean because you couldn’t think through.”

“Can you stop interrupting me!” Eddie whined. “Oh, so I just have to make a fool of myself in front of her? Solid advice, Chris, thanks.”

“Why’d you ask for my help if you’re gonna complain about what I say?” She asked, swirling her cup around.

“I didn’t ask for your help, Chrissy!” Eddie all but shouted, her voice a raspy tone, and Chrissy stopped mid-movement. Eddie instantly regretted it. “Sorry. I’m so sorry. Ugh, I’m so stressed out over nothing.”

She hid her face behind her hand, embarrassment making her cheeks burn up, but she soon felt Chrissy’s cool hand on top of her own. It was soothing once again.

“Sorry I pushed too. It’s not nothing, Eddie, I swear. I still think you can be a little more honest with her if you ever see her again, though,” Chrissy still advised.

“Maybe you’re right. I’ll think about it,” Eddie answered.

“And I still think you like Nancy more than you want to admit,” Chrissy continued.

Eddie let her hands fall from her face and stared into Chrissy’s blue pools. They reminded her of other blue pools.

Nancy’s pool blue eyes hardening over Eddie’s words, the way her jaw shut tight, the clinical look she shot at her. Nancy’s pool blue eyes softening over talking about Eddie’s words, the blush on her cheeks, the adoring speech she gave about Eddie’s soul without even knowing.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right about that too,” Eddie finally admitted.

Maybe it was then.

Summer was approaching and as the temperatures started to rise Steve hyped them all up for a lake day. Eddie took Chrissy, Robin, Vickie and Jonathan in her van; and Steve, Argyle and Nancy went in his car. They all brought snacks and smuggled drinks amongst card games and inflatable buoys.

The lake wasn’t packed because summer vacations still hadn’t started and the middle schoolers, high schoolers and college students still weren’t free to enjoy the scalding Sun and the cold water, so Steve’s idea was great after all.

Eddie waited until the Sun wasn’t at its peak to venture under its rays, because she was as pale as a vampire and the Sun was a menace to her just the same as it was to the blood-sucking monsters. She’d burn instantly. So she covered herself in sunblock, hid under the shadow of a big tree with one of Wayne’s old caps on her head and a book in her hands, and watched as her group of people had their fun.

Steve and Chrissy were playing with a volleyball in the sand, while Argyle and Vickie went against Jonathan and Robin in a game of chicken in the water with Nancy as the referee. Eddie had fun people-watching, and when it came to some of her new favorite people it was even better.

As midday approached, they all gathered under the barely-there shadow to eat their snacks and escape the dangerous Sun beams at their high. Argyle had some pre-baked space brownies for dessert and they all shared stories and laughed about nonsense. Eddie felt happy that she and Chrissy were finally being more included into the lives of Steve and Robin, and that their friends came along. It felt like they had always belonged there, as a full group. It was amazing.

When both the Sun and Eddie weren’t as high anymore, she finally felt safe enough to take off her shirt and cap. With another sunscreen layer applied, she stretched a bit before asking Chrissy to join her at the shallow ends of the lake. The pebbles hurt her feet in a good way and the smell of damp earth was refreshing.

“How’s it going?” Chrissy asked.

Eddie looked at her and saw that she was staring ahead. She followed the line of vision and saw Nancy taking a few laps in the deeper parts of the water. She instantly knew what Chrissy was asking.

“I might have been stalking too much on Instagram,” she answered, and Chrissy cackled.

“Does she follow you?”

“Uh, no. Her profile’s open,” she finished and Chrissy almost choked on her laughter.

Eddie tried to hide her smile, but Chrissy’s snorts were endearing even if they were at her expense.

“What are we laughing so hard about?” The subject of the conversation appeared out of nowhere, Robin and Vickie behind her as they approached.

Chrissy laughed harder.

“Uh, just this dude. You guys don’t know him.” Eddie tried to act casual, but Nancy’s raised eyebrow showed she wasn’t buying. Thankfully, she also didn’t press further. “Uh. Nice bikini,” she pointed at Nancy’s torso, immediately regretting it.

Nancy looked down, as if she didn’t remember what she was wearing. There was nothing special about it, just a different color in each of the little triangles covering Nancy’s breasts, but now all the attention was in it, on them, and Eddie felt like a complete fool. If she wanted Nancy not to know about her stupid not-crush, talking about her fucking boobs wasn’t the best course of action.

“Thanks?” she said, kind of asked, as her answer to Eddie’s random compliment. “Yours is pretty too.” She smiled sweetly, and Eddie was a hundred percent sure she didn’t deserve that kindness.

“Not just the bikini,” Vickie whispered a little too loud, causing Chrissy to fall into her laughing fit again. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. That was so out of pocket.” Her freckled face was all red, and Robin was hiding a grin under her hand, and Nancy was suddenly looking at the water, brows pinched, pink cheeks, perched lips.

Interesting, Eddie thought.

“Ah, don’t be,” she answered Vickie. “I paid a hell of a price for them, they’re supposed to be admired.”

“Wait until you’re at a level three friendship clearance and you’ll get to see them uncovered. Maybe even touch,” Chrissy said, still in between chuckles.

“Well, yeah, I want to show them off!” Eddie spoke up.

Nancy coughed loudly. “I’ll go back to the-” she stopped herself and never finished her sentence before practically running back to the water, her body curving in a beautiful dive once she was deep enough.

Eddie felt glad she was still wearing her shorts, cause the tightness in them could get a little uncomfortable.

“You guys are funny,” Robin said, arm draped over Vickie’s shoulder, and her pointed look at Eddie’s profile seemed to mean something more.

“What do you mean?” Eddie asked.

Robin chuckled a little louder. “You and Nancy would get along real well if you stopped dancing around each other,” she answered.

Eddie bit the inside of her cheek before turning to look at the lake again. Nancy wasn’t doing laps anymore, instead she was talking to the boys. As if she felt Eddie’s eyes on her, she also turned to look back to the shore, and her gaze met Eddie’s.

She smiled so sweetly. As if Eddie had never insulted her, as if her vulnerability had never been hidden, she smiled the same way Eddie saw her smile when she talked about M.W’s words.

Maybe it was then.

“Still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eddie lied, without ending her eye contact with the girl on the water, and her senses were so focused on only her that she didn’t even hear Robin and Chrissy’s snickering.

She really had to stop dancing.

Chrissy went to Eddie’s house and ruined her life on a simple Friday.

“You’re being so dramatic,” Chrissy said while Eddie paced around her living room, fingers tangled in her hair, and her phone still in Chrissy’s hand.

Eddie knew it had been a horrible idea to download Tinder to get over her not-crush on Nancy, and she knew it had been a horrible idea to tell Chrissy about it — but she went ahead and did both of those things anyway.

It started harmless enough, Eddie and Chrissy sat side by side, a bottle of wine shared with no need for glasses, a random movie on the TV as background noise. Chrissy giving her input on Eddie’s bio, her picture choices, the people she swapped right or left.

It started harmless enough, until Nancy’s profile showed up.

Only a few miles away, a stunning profile picture that made Eddie’s heart almost crack her ribcage, a bio that Eddie couldn’t even read entirely because suddenly her phone wasn’t in her hands anymore, and Chrissy was locking herself in the bathroom.

No amount of Eddie’s banging on the door made her get out, not until she felt like her mission was complete, not until after she swiped right on Nancy.

And then Eddie was spiraling, pacing around her living room while Chrissy finished whatever wine was left in the bottle, the movie had ended on the TV and Tinder was left open and forgotten on Eddie’s phone.

“You acted like a bitch and you know it,” Eddie said, and Chrissy only huffed. “Christine!”

“Calm down, I’ve told you already! It’s not like-” she paused mid sentence when the phone screen lit up. Chrissy’s eyes grew comically larger, and she bit her bottom lip tightly, the skin under her teeth going pale. “So, about that-”

“Christine!” Eddie yelled again, throwing herself on the couch and aiming for the phone already. “Please, for the love of god and all that is holy, please tell me she didn’t just-”

“You have a match,” Chrissy confirmed Eddie’s worst nightmares.

“FUCKING HELL!”

It was undeniable, right at the center of the screen, big bold letters in a way that Eddie couldn’t blame on drunkenness because she hadn’t even drank that much. She had a match with Nancy Wheeler.

“Why is that a bad thing? You have a crush on her anyway, you just learned it’s reciprocated?” Chrissy asked, already getting up to fetch another wine bottle.

“What if it’s a joke. What if she swiped in the wrong direction as an accident. What if she sat on her phone and butt-matched me. What-”

“Eddie, stop spiraling,” Chrissy told her, a new wine bottle in her hands that she passed to Eddie in exchange for the phone again. “We’ll keep watching whatever movie this is,” she checked the TV, saw the movie was over, “We’ll watch whatever other random movie and get your head out of this and tomorrow you’ll wake up renewed and look at this situation with fresh eyes and see it’s not that bad. Okay?”

“You just don’t want me to yell at you ‘cause you know it’s your fault,” Eddie grumbled.

“I won’t lie to you, my best friend, that is partly the reason.” Chrissy chose another random movie without really checking what it was. “But I also really don’t think it’s such a big deal.”

“Whatever,” Eddie whined again, but draped her head on Chrissy’s shoulder when she sat beside her.

She was warm, and smelled of berries and coconut, and she had Eddie’s phone so she couldn’t do anything stupid, and she usually knew better. She was probably right. Eddie let herself be comforted in the presence of Chrissy’s calming aura.

Eddie ended the night having no idea what the movie was about, her mental state a little over tipsy and a little under drunk, her phone back in her hands and the Tinder conversation with Nancy Wheeler opened.

She came to learn a lot in between one and six A.M., the time she spent talking to Nancy while Chrissy still snored beside her.

Nancy had a younger brother and a younger sister.

She loved ballet.

Her favorite singer was Madonna.

Her parents were divorced, and the day they told her the news was one of the best days of her life.

Some of her hobbies included journaling, roller skating, and painting her nails.

Her best friend was named Barb, and she was studying abroad for her PhD.

She legally owned a gun. That was terrifying. (And also a little hot.)

She had never used it, though. But felt safe having it.

She was power driven, passion driven, a force to be reckoned with, and kind and sweet while doing it all.

Maybe it was then.

Neither of them acknowledged the fact that they both had been assholes to each other, and just accepted the Tinder match as if it had been nothing more. Nancy had started the conversation as if they had already texted before, and Eddie just rolled with it.

They talked all night, and Eddie could’ve kept talking to her if she hadn’t passed out from sleep deprivation and alcohol consumption.

She only noticed the next afternoon, when she woke up, that she tried telling Nancy she was M.W. at the peak of her insanity, but thankfully had never sent the message.

She deleted it and said nothing else instead.

Eddie saw Nancy sooner than she expected — and, honestly, sooner than she was ready to.

She and Nancy hadn’t talked after that day, not at all, not on Tinder and not on Instagram after they followed each other. Nancy liked a couple of Eddie’s pictures and stories, and Eddie liked some of her stuff back, but that was it.

She thought it had dwindled out, she was too much of a coward to pull Nancy back to a conversation and thought Nancy had no interest when she also made no move to message Eddie again.

Eddie was nursing a minor heartache when she asked Chrissy to go with her to a party one of her neighbors invited her to merely a week later. It was at the rooftop of another building, fairy lights still turned off during the day but they would look beautiful by night, the Sun was warm and they had punch, so Eddie thought it to be the perfect place and opportunity to get her mind off of Nancy Wheeler.

Imagine her surprise to see Nancy Wheeler there?

Chrissy spotted her immediately, elbowing Eddie until she noticed too. She looked beautiful under the sun, all sparkly makeup and flowy dress and pulled-up hair. And Chrissy gave Eddie no time to think or react before pulling her by the hand straight into Nancy’s direction where she was talking to a short-haired girl.

“Christine, stop, what if they’re-”

“Nancy! Hi!” Chrissy didn’t let Eddie pour out her negative thoughts, and instead called to the source of all of Eddie’s most recent problems.

“Chrissy!” she smiled, oh so pretty. “And Eddie!”

Eddie didn’t want to get all delusional, but she felt like Nancy’s smile to her was wider than the one to Chrissy.

Chrissy hugged her, and soon came Eddie’s turn, and if she put a little more strength into her arms, and if she made it last just a second longer, and if she carefully sniffed Nancy’s hair — well, that’s her problem.

“So nice to see you two. This is Barb!” She looked at Eddie as she said it, maybe to see if Eddie remembered that conversation, and Eddie could never lose that opportunity.

She took a deep breath, inhaled some courage from the air, turned to Barb and said, “Heard only the greatest things about you.”

Barb smiled, and so did Nancy, and maybe, yeah, maybe Eddie was a little delusional and maybe she was a little biased but Nancy’s smile was wider and prettier and more important.

She touched Eddie’s arm after she hugged Barb, and she looked Eddie right in the eyes and there was something there —  some gratitude, some recognition, Eddie wasn’t sure what it was, but it was there.

And maybe it was then.

“So… what about that poem page? Still digging it?” Eddie asked hours later, when Chrissy was hooking up with a stranger in the bathroom and Barb had gone home already.

Nancy turned to pay attention to her immediately. They were leaning against the rooftop’s half-walls, Eddie’s jean jacket over Nancy’s naked shoulders cause there was a funny cold little breeze.

“Yeah, of course,” Nancy answered. Her eyes were sparkling, and the sun was setting, and the fairy lights were on.

She looked breath-taking.

“Still your favorite?” Eddie asked again, just because she needed to have that little pinch of Nancy Wheeler’s approval, even if Nancy had no idea.

“Still my favorite,” Nancy answered again, her eyes narrowing but smile widening a bit. “You still hate poetry?” she asked instead, and the slight twitch in the corner of her mouth was the only hint that she wasn’t as serious, that she was just teasing.

“I don’t hate poetry,” Eddie said with an accompanying eye roll and a small smile of her own. “I actually envy them. I wish I could say stuff that makes you feel… the way you feel. Instead of constantly annoying you.”

She kept a smirk as she said it, but it was a deeply honest confession. Of course, it was her words making Nancy feel the way she felt. But Nancy didn’t know that, and if she didn’t know that, did it really count?

Nancy’s expression softened as Eddie said it, those blue pools opening up for her again. Eddie felt like she would never get tired of it.

“You don’t constantly annoy me, just sometimes… most of the time,” she teased and nothing about her face said sarcasm and Eddie smiled wide back at her.

Nancy’s hand found Eddie’s, her fingers small and delicate and they fit right in between Eddie’s fingers, and it felt like it was meant to be, like the perfect puzzle pieces. There was music somewhere around them, lots of chatter from all the other people, but it all felt so distant as Nancy held Eddie’s hand so tight it almost hurt but it didn’t because it was her.

Maybe it was then.

Eddie wasn’t sure when she fell for Nancy Wheeler, but she knew for sure that’s when their story really started.

SHE DOESN’T KNOW AS WELL

Six months later

“I knew it already,” she said.

Her hair was a bit longer by then, curling around her head like an aura and getting all knotted up right with Eddie’s hair as they laid side by side in bed. The air smelt like sex, like them, and the streets outside the window were quiet in the middle of the night.

“The fuck you did,” Eddie answered.

“I’m an investigative journalist, Eddie, of course I knew you were Emme like, two weeks after we started dating.”

“Shut the fuck up,” she said, and Nancy snorted. She knew Eddie wasn’t actually mad. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Nancy instantly sobered up. “Cause it’s important to you. I wanted you to tell me, whenever you were ready. That’s your soul, Ed.”

It definitely wasn’t then, it had been long ago.

But it was then that Eddie confessed it, out loud, almost screaming in a whisper:

“I love you.”

Nancy smiled, her blue eyes two huge pools of vulnerability, that sweetness that poured out of her like honey.

“I don’t know when this happened. But. I love you too, of course.”

#edancy #eddie munson x nancy wheeler #edancy fanfic #edancy fic #edancy oneshot #nancy wheeler x eddie munson #nancy wheeler #eddie munson #stranger things fic #stranger things fanfic #lui writes #lexssummerfanworkschallenge

[pliablehead]

I guess if I want to write a travelogue/write up post about my 4-stop journey following the first chunk of Everything Everything's 2023 US tour then I have to just... do it!! If this is of interest to anyone other than me then GREAT and if not then it's still special to me to try to write down and remember everything I can uwu

FIRST STOP WASHINGTO-- wait, no, actually, first stop, on my way out of town, the local donut shop in my neighborhood, a place that I absolutely adore and patronize all the time with staff who mostly know me by now/some of whom are my instagram friends/etc. i'd checked with the Pittsburgh venue ahead of time to see if it was okay to send in outside food as a gift to the band even though they have a cafe/bar in their own right, and whoever I corresponded with said it would be totally fine, so I talked to the donut shop manager and set up a delivery of a dozen for the lads for Saturday before their show here. advance paid for that, as well as getting my own breakfast and coffee hehe, and then hit the road. OKAY FOR REAL FIRST STOP WASHINGTON DC!!! This was the second-longest leg of my Car Driving and it was definitely a wee bit exhausting but I had a podcast or two and a ton of E E on shuffle to bolster me through and I made it to my mom's friends' house, where I was staying, with relative ease. The venue was within a not-too-unreasonable walking distance too so after a change of clothes (I had very distinct and deliberate Show Outfits for each night that were fully separate from my travelin' clothes) and a bunch of fussing with the bracelets™ I headed over!! stopped for empanadas and a smoothie on the way and then queued up!!

aaaaahh this was such a nice fun queue. I was maybe about a dozen-ish people back from the front, down about half a block, and once I finished scarfing down my food this was my first real experience with doling out the bracelets. so fun! I'm glad it was basically an instant hit! AND I even got a few trades in this queue--one person gave me a Man Alive / Tin / E E bracelet with teeny tiny beads, super fun, and one person with a SHITTON of kandi stuff gave me one that had the name of a flower genus on it?? i think they said it was?? I love the colors on this one! And one person traded me a Blow Pop. lmao. I should eat that before it sits in my fanny pack for too long. I also really enjoyed chatting with the two guys right in front of me (Nick and Alex?), who were from south-central PA and had a couple other fandom touchstones in common with me (mcelroys/dnd/BDG! I love this Venn diagram!!) as well as a big love for E E. We didn't really see much of each other beyond the point of getting inside but I liked y'all a lot!! Hope you had as great a time as I did!!

Black Cat is where I saw E E the first time I EVER SAW THEM, which was almost exactly six years ago from this gig, which is insaaaane. The space is kind of narrow so there's not a huge amount of stage barrier space right at the front, so Becky and I ended up pretty much at the front but almost aa-all the way stage left/Jeremy-side. coulda been worse hehehe. We kind of loitered and chatted with nearby folks, I think maybe becky checked out merch ahead of the show ? but I kind of just held down the fort, enjoying setup stuff, pete running around etc hehe. getting BLASTED by the AC, which was nice.

the ummmm the opener! our first experience with Pierre! I gotta say his general style is not for me, despite the fact that I do think he's very talented and good at the thing he's doing. this first night especially he was SO sweaty and I felt bad for him lmao, you could like see it dripping off him. i am so curious as to why/how he got paired with the boys for this tour, like, what aligned in such a way that this match was made, because my general vibe on the crowd/his audience/etc was that we the fans of the nerdy white english mathy rocker guys were not exactly his demo LOL. BUT i will say in DC I do think he had one little pocket of strong-contingency fans because I kept hearing big whoops and cheers coming from one specific audience spot and I loved that for him lmao. for some reason i cannot explain I actually almost found his backing/support musician guy (the guy who was basically his version of peter) more compelling. I wanna know THAT dude's story lol.

so when he finished up we had a little interlude aaaannndd the setlist appeared... hehe. I could def have peered up to look at it from where I was, but I was telling myself I wanted to be surprised, and was deliberately looking away........ until suddenly everyone around me was gasping and going HOLY SHIT and I was like, ugghhh okay, I will check JUST enough to figure out what that's all about, and what that was all about was immediately apparent because smack in the middle of the set were a Man Alive track (which we never get in the states bar MY KZ) and something that just said "New Song." AND LIKE, OKAY, THAT'S A JUSTIFIED HOLY SHIT. new song????? so now we had THAT to contend with coming up, and aaaaaaah. ahh. yeah holy shit indeed.

it's also while we're standing there that AG pops into view, (or maybe I first spotted him during Pierre's set? Chronology is irrelevant), back off behind Becky from me in the other direction, and we waved over at him to say hi and he says to us, "All four of them are bleached blond." And my gut instinct was to be like, I DON'T BELIEVE YOU, but also the truth in my heart was that there was absolutely no justification for not believing them, because of course they would, and sure enough these bozos roll out onto the stage and they are all four draco malfoy-ass bleach blond. God it looks a mess on Jeremy LOL and while the color/dye job wasn't bad on Alex, it was clear his finer hair wasn't holding up as well against the chemicals because it was just a fluffy riot mess. BUT GOD IT WAS REALLY SO INCREDIBLY STRIKING OF A VISUAL for them to be all be wearing all pure white/beige clothes and then to have this bleach-white hair and all of it catching and glowing under the stage lights... god... clearly the effect they were going for and it WORKED, IT REALLY DID. I think it looks so damn goofy (mostly on jez) out of context but it's ABSOLUTELY nailing the Everything Everything Gig Costumes energy/uniform thing that I felt like they'd drifted away from a little the past couple tour cycles, I'm so incredibly here for it

The set!!!! The gig!!!!!!! it wasn't a wildly different set from what we'd seen in CA last year, obviously RDF-heavy supplemented with a heaping helping of singles from the other albums too, but I remember thinking Leviathan and Pizza Boy were especially excellent aaaah. And Schoolin'! And the NEW SONG! The two pieces of it I IMMEDIATELY absorbed and retained were 'the image of a little yellow face to tell you that I'm sorry' and 'I love you like an atom bomb,' and I was spouting those two pieces back to anyone who wanted to talk to me about it for the rest of the night. I'm so lyrics-pilled/vocalist-biased. Which was.... Unfortunate, for this DC gig, because I do think the audio mix was pretty rough - at least from where we were standing so close to the front, I wonder if it was at least a tiny bit better further back into the crowd in the area the sound system was probably primarily calibrated for - and we were REALLY losing Jon in the mix, especially underneath how enthusiastically the crowd was singing along a lot of the time. We were on Jeremy's side of the stage and we were really just getting a LOT of Jeremy. (Which, the bass did sound absolutely fantastic, so hard to complain about that, at least, but still.) I was very thankful to be going to a few more gigs beyond this one so that this wasn't my only experience with it, especially New Song!!! Plus there were a bunch of other little tech difficulties too? Near the beginning of the new song, Jon's guitar strap came detached and wouldn't reconnect, and after struggling a bit with that he decided to just drift back and pass it off the stage to their tech guy--but he was still kind of singing/holding the mic, so as he moved on stage, the mic cable yanked the microphone stand straight over, too. Then the rest of the night that stand was pretty precarious and nearly fell two other times, only caught at the last minute by a true homie who was standing directly in front of it in the audience lmao. I think Becky yelled HIRE HIM! at one point. Annnnd also for like a whole verse of NOTLK jez's bass boards just kind of Gave Up. He tried switching to his other instrument but that wasn't working either, and then finally it all sort of came back online, so he played a little stretch with the wrong bass and then was able to switch back to the right bass when there was a lull in his part. SHAMBLES. lmfao. god it was a great gig though. SO FUCKING GOOD TO BE BACK I LOVE BAND UWAAAAAHH I WAS SO SWEATY AND HAPPY

afterrrr da gig, we needed very badly to drink water and so we managed to do that I believe, and we kind of loitered in the Merch Line Situation trying to figure out what was going on. I had kind of resolved not to buy merch until at least NY, part because I really didn't want to be lugging anything around with me for too much of my trip (esp on this night where I walked) and part because I'd read a post that Irving Plaza was among the venues who'd committed to not taking a cut of band merch sales and letting them keep it all, and I was like, well obvi that's where I want to spend my money. Plus it was cash only in DC and since I'd kind of told myself NY I didn't even have cash out, so it was nothing. BUT!!! homie Adrian whomst I had met at the DC Foals show last December had been there, a few people ahead of me in the queue and also rocking out yaayyy, and he was trying to get merch but the ATM inside the venue literally did not have any more cash left inside it to dispense because everyone was taking out so much of it to buy merch AAAH. so he reached out to me like 'you're going to more shows than just this one right?' and asked if I'd pick him up the stuff he wanted later and then mail it to him so he didn't have to contend with international shipping and I was like aaaah absolutely! yay gig comradeship!

so I think becky finally committed to getting in the merch line and I was mostly just waiting With Becky and there weren't a ton of people left because the venue was trying to clear out, but the handful of us who were still there, a wild Alex Robertshaw appeared up near the stage/bar. we vibed out whether he was receptive to Fan Bothering at this time but it seemed legit, so a bunch of us went over and socialized with him and took some pics, got some signatures, etc, woooo. We tried to vibe out from him also if the other guys were gonna be coming out, and when and where, but y'all know Alex is the awkwardest member of this band by a country mile and we didn't really have too coherent of a discourse at this point in time lmao. Not sure who talked to him about what at this point as I was just trying to hold down the fort and be Normal. I was able to give Alex the bracelet I'd made for him at this point (he was so cute studying on it and reading it ahaha - "rave-- kevin-- kevins rave KEVIN'S RAVE" and he smiled and I felt cool), and also meanwhile Pete was still running around stage doing roadietech type stuff and I sort of politely flagged him down like "do what you need to do if you need to do it but also: Hi lol" and I got to give him his bracelet as well! yay ♥. He complimented my shirt--I'd been getting a lot of compliments on it honestly, it's their Yellow Bird Project shirt that Jon designed some time ago, only I replaced the plain white sleeves of the original unisex tee with some sort of vermilion "girly fit" sleeves that are more comfy to me and kind of give the shirt a different look haha--and I sort of joked on that, said as much, oh, I swapped the sleeves out, "It's to cover up how sweaty I get." and Pete gave me a deadpan look and went "You don't even want to go there with me" and I was like "YEP I FEEL MUCH THE SAME" and I think we both enjoyed a moment of feeling very Seen about the sweatiness hehehehehe. I love Pete he is my heckin Friend With no additional merch purchases (merchases) (hm, no) the venue was finally for realsies ejecting us so we drifted back out into the streets and just like... okay... now what........ this was the point at which I think our Band Groupie-ing Crew became me, Becky, Danielle in the fox ears/tail, and a lanky youth named S.P. whom I'd talked to in line earlier while doling out bracelets (he had the good E E baseball cap; he asked for an Arc bracelet and I commended him for being an Arc fan, since I feel like they are a dwindling/rarer breed, and then I offered up my hot take that Violent Sun is just the second coming and second pass at Duet, which he thought was spicy, and then he asked for my most controversial E E take and I told him that I don't really like Tin very much and he told me he doesn't really like Shark Week very much and we agreed to disagree and have a good night LOL) (anyway I digress !). It was a warm enough night and none of us really had places to be so we didn't mind just loitering and trying to suss out some more Guys other than just Alex and Pete, but slowly but surely we became basically the only fans left sticking it out. so we stuck together! We split up to try to find if there was a rear stage door at the back and SP and I went one way (the long way RIP) and Becky and Danielle went the other way and it turns out the way that SP and I went was an alleyway just FULL of rats. Too many rats in DC!! People like to talk about rats in NYC but I saw WAY more in Washington just vibing out on the sidewalks and eating trash. I'm not anti-rat, they live there and deserve to live, but oh man it was just. I did not especially want a rat encounter LOL. The rat alley DID actually lead us to where the bus was though!!, but there was also a venue security guy there who was immediately like "Nope, back up, leave, bye" and we were like. understood have a nice day, and doubled around a different way to meet back up with the other two. wwwwelp.

We loitered a bunch more and eventually saw Alex and his homies like, AT LEAST two more times, but we ultimately never saw anyone else. They p much confirmed for us that because this was the first night of the tour, they had a really intense load-out, and everyone was jetlagged to all fuck, that they probably wouldn't ever make it out, even though at least once Alex had said something ambiguous/optimistic enough to imply that they might yet, but really it just got SO late that we couldn't justify still being there for nothing instead of being like. asleep. lol. SP and Danielle got rideshares, Becky and I walked back as far as her hotel together, and then I hiked the rest of my way back too and went the fuck to SLEEP!!! FIRST GIG IN THE BOOKS!! WHAT A LOVELY NIGHT GOD IT WAS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL TO BE SEEING THEM AGAIN ngl I think the blond is really attractive on Mike with his darker brows/beard and I'm always a sl*t for jonathan so like. beautiful. finally some delicious fucking food

it was super nice of my mom's friend to let me stay with him!!! I was so delighted to see his cats again, I remembered them from the last time I was there like six or so years ago, they're sooooo floofy and beautiful aahh. he also provided me with a white noise fan without me even asking which was SO choice. zzzzz. My plan was to get up in the morning, get coffee someplace nearby at wherever he recommended, and then hit the road forrrr... Philadelphia!!! Night two!!!! I got some breakfast tacos at a hella legit place, messed up my coffee/milk/sugar ratio ever so slightly but not in an undrinkable way, and then frickin. autobot rolled out. This drive was not bad at ALL, I timed it pretty much exactly like I planned it to, which was to: get to my friend's place where I was crashing in philly with, ideally, enough time to take a small nap before I had to do anything else, because, god, despite being pretty exhausted and sleeping okay on the nice guest bed in DC, I had BARELY slept the night before I left just from Travel Antsiness and from both staying up way later and waking up way earlier than I meant to unintentionally, and a second little recharge zzz before I went and did it all over again really hit the spot.

It was soooo nice to see Mads again and to see Mr. Angus and also meet BENNY!! More host cats!! They are suuuch silly good little lads, Mads and I had a ton of Kitty Chat and just vibing out and talking about concerts and fandom and stuff, I was so thankful she let me stay with her and getting to hang out was icing on the cake of this trip! She pointed me toward the trolley I'd need to take to get to the venue, and after my baby snzzz and drinking a ton of water and suiting up in my Arc-inspired look (literally just a sweatshirt dress I bought specifically because it was color-blocked very very much like the jackets/outfits they toured Arc in, I saw it and bought it immediately lmfao) I journeyed into the city, hoping to just find a place to eat in the vicinity of the gig! I was way closer up in the queue this time, the people in front of me were really just like.... the usual suspects, Annika+squad and David+squad (incl. Becky, who'd apparently already been there when I got there but wasn't there when I arrived), and also a super-nice woman immediately in front of me named Robin who I MEGA hit it off with!!! Hanging out with her was such an awesome part of my experience at this gig!!! she's COMPLETELY Offline which is so powerful for her but I hope there's some capacity in which we can continue to be friends because she ruled.

There was a Dominican(? I think) place like one block down from the venue where a couple in front of me had gotten some stuff and so I ran down there to snag food too and holy shit this man gave me so much goddamn food. Just a HUGE pile of rice and beans and some pork ribs, and I got a pineapple fanta, and I just popped a squat on the sidewalk and ate as much of it as I could which was probably not even half of what he gave me but it wasn't even that expensive so god bless. Once I wasn't dealing with my food sitch any more I was freed up to pass out a bunch of bracelets again, and I even got a couple more trades, one that was just a bunch of black beads and a bunch of Xs and one that says 'BUSSY' which I am elated about, thank you so fucking much lmao. Also someone offered to trade me an ibuprofen LOL and I was like no that's fine the bracelet can be free... for now, but I will keep that in mind if I change my mind later LOL aaahhh i was just so excited to give the bracelets out it was such a good vector for socializing and making Friends and Gig Buddies. I did learn p quickly at Philly that I should have made way more Man Alive, GTH, and Raw Data feel bracelets because those were basically the first to go every night and then I got stuck with just sad unloved Re-Animators and AFDs :( I was trying to like! do equal amounts of everything to give everything the love because I love them all! but people got favorites out there damn lmao. I was happy to be able to give Robin the MY KZ one because she said that's the first song she ever heard by them and it's special to her because of that (and then also it's been in the touring set and she got to hear them perform it too yay!!! I don't remember if she said she'd seen them before but it had just been a very very long time, or what, idk, aaaah).

We were R I G H T on the stage at this venue, slightly more to Alex's side this time, and the lip/rise of the stage was not very high at ALL and it felt almost like... intimidating, or like it shouldn't have been ALLOWED, for us to be that close to the stage. :flushed emoji: jeez lmao. I didn't fuck w merch here either but some people around me did I think and I held their spots, and a nice kid from right behind me in the queue brought me a Liquid Death which was so incredibly sweet. Pierre's set passed much as it had in DC, lmao; his other musician guy had a sweet fit on, though, this like two-piece set that was a really really dark/muted camo, a blazer over a black top and then matching like athleisure-fit pants and black boots, it was a fuckin look. They had a song at the very end of Pierre's Philly set that I don't think they'd done in DC (and that I didn't get in PGH either, it turned out), and ironically that was actually probably far and away the song of his I enjoyed the most, so I got kind of into it there at the end! but MAN was I ready to see the boys instead. hnnnn.

LADS SO CLOSE TO ME. JUST RIGHT THERE AND SINGING AND ROCKING. the set was aaaalmost exactly the same as DC, but in Philly they shifted Bad Friday up out of the encore and back into the set proper, and then replaced it in the encore with Violent Sun, which I admit I'd been bummed to not see in DC because I think the Violent Sun/No Reptiles encore double whammy is so incredibly crucial to the vibe. Warmed me to have it back in. Obviously Pittsburgh had so many other contributing factors that put it over the edge, but if it weren't for all of those, I think Philly would've been my favorite/best experience of these four gigs. Jon was spicy (he sang so many of the Original Rejected naughty lyrics, this is where we got 'he's a vegetable now' for the first and only time and also the only gig of the four where he leaned into the 'Arch Jeremy' gag in Arch Enemy, hehehehe, plus also motherfuckin' distant past which is not uncommon), and we got way more of the New Song-- through the whisper network of Becky, AG, David, etc., etc., we'd pieced together enough info to know by now that apparently the title of the song was in the lyrics of the chorus, and so I think it was in Philly that we all pretty much determined/decided that this was Cold Reactor. I love you like an atom bomb and I've become a cold reactor. I wasn't diving as DEEP into SONG DECIPHERING as some other folks were, but I did like kind of working on it at my own pace and absorbing it into my heart and my understanding of the band and what they're about to start doing, and so this was really great, for me, here, beautiful, beautiful. I took almost NO pics and vids at this one because my phone was kind of dying but also mostly just because I was honestly having such an enormously great time and I didn't feel the need to try to do anything other than be present in my body at the gig and experience it live. you KNOW?? LIKE!! MUSIC. man. EDIT TO ADD: I forgot to mention a small tech flub that was actually so charming, where near the very end of Arch Enemy jon seemed to be having trouble with his guitar board in the front, and he spent so long in the outro squinting down at it and trying to resolve the issue that he didn't fully come in on the It's time to show your face! bit at the proper time, and he ended up just saying "It's time to show your face." right into the mic very unaffected and straight-up in his regular speaking voice at the very, very end when the song was basically over. lol. he is cute. everyone is cute.

(I WILL ALSO SAY I got the giggles SO BAD at david and amanda's gudetama they slipped onto the stage, oh my god--I was going to take a joke video just dramatically zooming in on it, as one does, except right when I went to do that it got caught up in jon's mic cable and just TUMBLED AND JOSTLED ALL OVER THE PLACE and that fucking GOT me and I was DYING and it was right at like. the serious, heartstring-tugging, fuck-yeah parts of No Reptiles where I'm supposed to be at CHURCH and instead I'm losing my shit into hysterics over this poor gudetama just rolling everywhere alksdhjglaksd, I had to bury my face in Becky's shoulder for a measure or more and try to recover, oh my godddd. EGGS!) -- (OH ALSO I LMAO I HAVE SEVERAL AUDIENCE MEMBER ~BITS THAT I AM DOING just like, clapping here or there, participating actively in certain parts of things, and one that I kept doing for some asshole clown reason was singing along with/lampshading Alex's quick backing vox on the second verse of Spring Sun Winter Dread-- Philly was probably the place where I was the most prominent/obvious/easy to see doing it, and it made both him and Jeremy REALLY snicker, ahahaha I'm sorryyyyyyy for being obnoxioussssss)

The merch/loitering sitch was sli-iiightly more locked down, in here; there was only so long Marty and I could pretend to be thinking about merch/hanging out with people who were actually in line but not actually being in line before they really truly wanted us to leave, and they were pretty pissed that I even left the venue with an empty/ice-only water cup, never mind any dreams of re-entry. The militant energy of the security at this venue compared to how relatively chill and normal DC had been (for two venues I would say of comparable size/seriousness) was def my least favorite part of the Philly experience. I was outside, finishing my water and chitchatting with some artsy youths who were also unimpressed with security, and Becky's messaging me like "they're in here!" and I'm like "well I'm not and I can't come back so you gotta tell them to come out here!" lmao. But they did!!! All the guys came out before too long and I very delightfully got to talk to everyone. I gave Mike and Jeremy the bracelets I'd made for them - THEY both apologized to ME outright for not coming out to chat the night before?? like hello you’re the band we’re the fans you don’t owe us anything - they kind of came toward my side of the door first, and talked and chatted some, vs Jon sort of peeling the other way to the other half of the loiterers - I honestly have lost track of the sequence of events here and what happened when, but it was largely unimportant hehe. (Gosh, but then I keep randomly remembering other unrelated details. Like, for example, Black Cat gave me their big ol' signature black cat hand stamp, and I'd been thinking, oh this will be fun to watch my four hand stamps stack from these four gigs, the way I got two together from The Altogether/Matt Duncan double feature back in July, and then Underground Arts put theirs on the INSIDE OF MY WRIST and not the back of my hand, and both Irving and T-Bird just did wristbands. BUMMER.) But mostly just Seeing Band, Talking To Band. This was when I overheard Alex definitely confirm to someone that the new song is called Cold Reactor, and he sort of half-seriously half-not said they just didn't call it that on the setlist in case there was another "New Song" they might want to decide to start playing there instead at the last minute, even though the longer this goes on the more confident we are that they're not going to do that and that Cold Reactor is gonna be a new single that probably drops once this tour is over <___< eyes emoji. Also, between Wednesday and Thursday we also knew that the bleach-blond hair is for Lore Reasons, which we assume are to do with Cold Reactor and the album it will be on, because of course it is. stupid. jonathan higgs I want to crawl inside your deranged pisces mind and meld with it vulcan style.

anyway, as far as my short term memory can be relied upon/will tell me is the truth, I think Jon was actually the last person I ended up in contact with on this night; I was drifting over toward him but someone else was still engaged in an active conversation with him, so I was like, well obviously I will wait my turn and let other people have jonathan time even though I'm the biggest jonathan girlie, I can just hang and go in when he frees up, and so I was turned slightly away from him listening in on other convos and talking to Becky and maybe Annika or a couple other people, and then suddenly there's a delicate hand on the back of my shoulder and Jon's right in my fucking ear ominously going "hello." askdjhgka. He was soooo cute and nice, I gave him the bracelet I made him as well (which was "I wanna be there" from Violent Sun and shades of re-animator orange) and he was immediately like Oh, of course you, are the bracelet distributor, and I was like hehehe yes, and he asked if I also had to do with the gudetama and I was like absolutely not I have no idea what is going on there lmfao. and I think amanda and david did take credit for it at that time of course so yes hehe. Ended up in a fun casual chitchat with Jon and Becky for most of the rest of the time here, with her trying to squeeze him for info about the new song and album and lore hehehe and him being his typical cryptic trolly cagey Jon, and it was all in incredibly good fun; he noticed her bracelet too, and she pointed it out like Yes I got the one that says This Is The Prophecy from big climb because it hearkens back to that bit they were doing on twitter from way before that song even came out so I gave her that one on purpose duh lol, and Jon says "Oooh yep I forgot about that. .. Album..." and mimed swiping his hair back like whoopsie lmao and it was such a silly little half-self-neg on Re-Animator lol, and so I said "WELP too bad! because the one I made from you is one of those too haha!" and he took another look at it as if to remind himself about it and then went "Well yeah that one's good" with a wryer wickeder laugh and I was like lmao tell us how you really feel. But like he's right violent sun is perfect and I actually labored so long over what I was going to have jon's say because he was the only person I didn't have a really solid concrete idea of what to make for and ALSO he was the only one I REALLY wanted to get PERFECT because it's important to me and yeah. so it was. reassuring for him to like the violent sun one. idk anyway.

The woman we'd seen running around doing a lot for them, including merch, who recognized us from DC the night before and was fun and glib about it, and who turns out to be: Tour Manager Sam, finally had enough of our fucking about and started very efficiently organizing us all into "everyone who wants a pic with themself + all four guys come get in Now and I'm gonna play photographer and then we all gotta go the fuck home" and I respected it SO much lmao, so we had sort of a rotating queue of group picture taking and then the guys all went back inside the venue (I kind of fingerguns'd Jon like "New York :D?" and he looked at me just SO Put Out and just deadpanned "Of course you're going to be there." of course!! lmfao) and we started talking amongst ourselves just out of reluctance to let the night end/social energy we still wanted to wallow in and that was cute and nice. I said goodbye to some folks who weren't going any further on the tour. I had such a wonderful night. Then, lo and behold, we turn around and Jeremy's up on the stoop of the venue, and he's like, I think I've locked myself out. I am locked out and I also don't have my phone on me. lmfao jez. he goes "I am going to blame jonathan" and we allowed him that. I was like, do you want me to TWEET AT SOMEONE LOL and he was like good god no they'll come back for me eventually, and then yes they did, and THEN we all left hahahaha. becky insisted on sticking with me part of the way to the trolley but I was like, it is coming in 14 minutes and it says it's gonna take me 12 minutes to get there I gotta GO!, and I freaking missed it anyway!!! and then I had to wait like OVER HALF AN HOUR MORE for the next one and i didn't even get ON the trolley till like 12:50 and it was soooo late before I was back at mads's place aiyaa. But, all in all, TRULY SUCH A GOOD NIGHT I JUST LOVE BEING IN AN ACTIVE BUZZY FANDOM SPACE AND MEETING FANS AND PARASOCIALING AND DANCING AND SINGING AND DOING ARTS N CRAFTS. you KNOW?? you know. you're on tumblr you get it.

The Philly to Jersey (pre-NYC) leg of my road tripping was set to be Thee shortest drive I had to make the whole time, so I let myself have time in the morning to keep snoozing and fucking about, even though I once again woke up way earlier than I'd hoped to and didn't ever make it back to sleep after that. But the tradeoff was still super nice and relaxing vibing with Madeline--I offered to buy her breakfast in exchange for the couch-crashin' and we got hella bagel sandwiches and cold brew from a place real close by her apartment, and scarfed 'em down while watching the most recent ep of Make Some Noise and just shooting the shit (again, largely about either fandom or kitty cats. We are simple folk). My sandwich contained salmon, a fried egg, and the most incredible sloppy caramelized onions, what a banger. The last truly good food I truly enjoyed before my mega super Travel Tummy set in and wrecked my whole shop metabolically speaking, rip. I took a little rinsy-rinse shower at her place too, and then finally made myself get up and Go to do the runaround silly business of driving to and parking in NJ, taking the ferry in to Manhattan, and then taking the subway to Allegra's place for NIGHT THREE IN NEW YORK CITY WOOOOO. I LOVE going to E E with Allegra!!!!! Once again I used her place primarily as a spot to change out of my car clothes and into my gig clothes (it's RDF night; I wore an oversized pale beige button-up shirt, actually left over from my Foals Antidotes costume from last halloween hahaha, gussied up with E E pins and jewelry) and to fuck about with bracelets. I made Allegra a special In Birdsong bracelet, the only one I did from that song :) because allegra is my special E E friend!! and she needs one of her special song!!! Fandom... is good. Allegra also had a kickass outfit. We stopped in at a tex-mex place she really wanted to try that was nearby the venue, and i got pretty nervous that it was gonna be a little late before doors for us to be hitting a sit-down dinner spot, but we rushed it along pretty well on the food and got our slice of dessert cake to go in a box and everything was A-OK. And I had time to hit a bodega for merch cash from the ATM and a pineapple soda for fortitude! let's GOOO irving plaza.

God, Irving was kind of a shitshow when it came to queuing and security though. There were a fair few people in line ahead of us, maybe just as many or slightly more than what I'd had in DC (definitely further back than Philly, although in line near us were the same also-eating-Dominican-food couple from the Philly gig, and I recognized them and was glad to see them again-- I FULLY DO NOT REMEMBER/DID NOT CATCH Y'ALL'S NAMES, AND I FEEL TERRIBLE BECAUSE WE HUNG OUT AND WORKED TOGETHER SO MUCH, i am so sorryyyyy), but then because it's not a sweet local friendly indie venue but is in fact Livenation As Hell, there's some person affiliated with the venue wandering up front offering some sort of VIP/fast pass line experience where you can just cough up some extra cash and get in your own special line and get to go in first regardless of how long other people have been queuing--you know the deal. Wack as hell. I think David and Amanda opted for this in some capacity, so I was happy for them about it, but a lot of the other people who ended up doing it had kind of rancid vibes of just like "concert-going" and not the very lovely communal sardine megafan energy everyone else had had thusfar. Also it put us where we were at in the queue standing in a place that just had a really terrible smell of sewage, which persisted almost the entire time we were there only to suddenly be replaced by a very powerful smell of bleach, as if whatever it was was suddenly being cleaned/sanitized. ICKY!! Annika was enough further ahead of us in line that I thought it might have only been over where we were but she said no she was definitely getting it too. new york city babey

Bracelet distribution got a little silly here, too, since the queue was wrapping SO far back and was being policed a little more stringently, but I had kind of figured I may need some kind of additional plan, especially since I'd decided not to wear my fanny pack (bum bag--fanny pack, says Jonathan Higgs in a derisive American accent, even as he's telling me he likes mine a lot, skdjshgalkj smh) since my shorts under my shirt had really capacious pockets and that just made for one less thing to worry about--I snagged a sheet of paper at Allegra's place, along with a gallon-size ziploc bag, and I put all the bracelets in there with a note that said to just take one if you wanted one and pass it back through the queue while we waited. It was kind of a crapshoot how effective I thought this was going to be, especially since I had to kind of wait to deploy it once there was a substantial queue BUT by the time there was a big queue it meant that I couldn't see exactly HOW big from where I was near-ish enough to the front, so I didn't know how far the bag was going to make it, if someone was going to end up stuck with my whole big bag at the back of the line (esp since I had a fair number of extra Philly bracelets left over that I lumped in with the NYC ones just because I still Had them).... whew...! BUT by the time Marty was there, he was further enough back from me that I asked him to kind of check up on it when it made it to him and keep passing it; and, by the time we were going inside, I could see zero sign of the bag itself but I DID catch a lot of people milling around me wearing bracelets, and one or two of them did stop me to thank me (since I'd indicated on my note in the bag that I was the person with green hair hahaha), and then I never saw 'em again, so I guess it was a relative success!! Yayyyyy!! WAY less conducive to making New Line Friends than the DC/Philly setup had been, but incredibly effective at making sure that all my bracelets found new homes rather than me having to take a huge handful home with me again and them just sitting in my house forever LOL. success! :)

tl;dr about the bracelets. not important compared to concert and band. WE GO INSIDE!! They have such dumb security/bag check. a gender-split process where the men get patted down by a dude guard and the women get patted down by a lady guard? In TYOOL 2023? you hate to see it. She felt the Sharpie in my back pocket and made me take it out and surrender it???? MY METALLIC BRONZE SHARPIE ? ? no sharpies in the venue I guess. Talked to at least one other person who got sharpie-confiscated too, but also at least two people who fully didn't and still had markers just fine. Absolute shenanigans. Allegra and I didn't quite get barrier due in part to fastpass line nonsense but we did end up right exactly behind Annika &co. with perfect sightlines, once again stage-left/Jeremy-ward-of-center. we don't hate it! my Philly pals to my left with David, Becky et al in front of them. Me fully surrounded by redheads. LOL.

this was the laaaatest show of my whole run, a whole lot of standing around just waiting for Band, and also definitely the energy of "trying to politely vibe to pierre kwenders's set because he can clearly see me and look straight at me even though I would much rather just skip to the bit I actually came for and don't necessarily need to see his set" just slowly increasing every night RIP lol. BUT WE MADE IT! ohhhh new york. EXACT same set as Philly but I couldn't even be mad about it because I was still so grateful to get a Man Alive song that wasn't just MY KZ (not that I don't love my kz obviously, but it HAS been in the set literally all eight times that I have seen E E live as of this Irving Plaza gig, and something else from that album is fun fresh delicious) (OH, SWEET THREEP OF FRIDAY EVENING, YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW) and to be getting COLD REACTOR again, especially becaussseee by this point I knew just enough of the lyrics that I felt confident singing/mouthing along conspicuously with the parts that I Did know, aka I See You Sir I'm Doing The Thing Just Watch Me, god I wish I knew how to be not so fucking extra but then again no I don't. we did get saddled with some Rather Annoying audience members in our near vicinity--a couple I'd spotted in the fastpass line earlier wedged themselves hard between me and my tall redhead/mask-wearing homie from Philly, all like "ummm we're short :)" because they. were, but that didn't give them a right to be pushy and rude, and their vibes were kind of shit because the sense I got was they were mostly there because the girl really loved the band and the dude didn't know much about them at all, and also they were already drunk so early on in the set, and they were talking loudly with some other fans they'd just met and getting Lore™ explained to them and it was just a lot of. loud talking and shoving. in my vicinity. when I would have preferred for there to. not be. BUT Also materializing behind me was someone who said "I saw your bracelets on twitter do you still have any!!" and I had to be like UHHHH FUCK, NO, I turned them loose into the queue, did they not make it as far as you..?? and she sadly said no, and I was like, well the only one I have left is this one I just left on for tradesies/advertising purposes, and it says "akon in the butterfly house" so that's kind of a deep cut, if you're familiar-- and she went WAIT REALLY and seemed SUPER jazzed to get a Dave Sardine-ass bracelet and I was like OKAY YOU KNOW WHAT, GOOD, ACTUALLY, because I'd made four of these and I knew they were going to be the deepest cut/hardest sell and I was really really hoping that whoever ended up with them would actually get and appreciate them. so thank you, andrea, for being that person, and for appearing exactly when the bracelet needed it most. so glad to have hung with you this night. sorry that you too found yourself among the ranks of the sharpie-confiscatees.

ANYWAY, OTHER THAN THAT, THIS AUDIENCE WAS FIRE AND THIS GIG SLAPPED. We were finally in a space and an environment that REALLY lent itself to the crowd actually full on bouncing/dancing instead of just kind of wobbling and vibing and everyone in my immediate zone was really going hard. I LOVE this fucking BAND. I love every song by this band. I love when Jon just points the mic at the crowd and the entire crowd sings the whole song word for word and note for note. I love that Jon was still desperately trying to cram the name of the host city into the start of My Kz, despite the fact that "Washington" subs for "Lucifer" perfectly (he has done this both times I've seen them in DC lol) but "Philadelphia" is WAY too stupid long and "New York City," while a syllable shorter, scans metrically in an extremely busted way and you could have just said EN WHY CEE or. y'know. lucifer. but okay man you do you. Jon was just as rowdy as the rest of us lmfao. he was like, climbing up and down off Mike's riser, he was finding people who were taking photos/videos and staring directly into their cameras (me fucking included--I'm sorry, Jon, you can't make eye contact with me while singing the "When I saw you, I fell in love" part of Leviathan, I am pretty sure that is illegal and a crime against my humanity), and basically all the tracks from Get To Heaven (plus like, Cough Cough and NOTLK) blew the fucking roof off the place. I think he donked some My Kz lyrics hehehe he just skipped to the alt lyrics of the chorus too early without completing the standard chorus first at the end, and a little flubbo in NOTLK and a tiny stutter in No Reptiles too, everyone was just TOO ROWDY and he's THROWN LOOPY and man did we not care. I said multiple times to people on this tour that pretty much the closest things I've ever experienced to true Religion are a) being in an E E audience for No Reptiles and b) being in a Hedwig audience for Midnight Radio. they're the same spiritually in my heart and also like do people who love Jesus feel this way and is this why. insane. the cult leader imagery was Not Wrong!!!!!

I wanna MERCH! I got in the line not too long after the show wrapped, but true to reports I'd heard about the pre-show merch line, it was moving verrryy slowly, with just one guy manning it who was not exactly quick and a card reader that seemed pretty chuggy too (but hey, at least NY was taking card). I'd known I wanted the poster--it's got my favorite neon orange on it, it really really slaps, and I wanted something to get signed--but I let myself talk myself into a t-shirt too, mostly because I was REALLY excited to buy E E merch apparel that wasn't black or white. Yellow!! a really freaking good yellow!! I wish the yellow ones had actually had the tour dates on them like the black and white ones did but the yellow branding has been pretty exclusive to this leg of tour (i.e. vs the red branding of the west coast one last year) and it looks soooo good with my hair that I don't especially mind. I also knew that Adrian wanted a copy of Caps Lock On, but that he also wanted a shirt, but I hadn't heard back from him about which shirt or what size so I just got the book and my stuff and then bounced. Communique from outside was that Alex had surfaced but no one else, but that Alex had promised appearances by the rest of them, but that also Alex was already gone and unlikely to return by the time I made it outside. I posted up with all my friends from inside, god this was SUCH a good sardine squad this night, and it took some waiting but eventually the promises came true! All the other boys surfaced and we had some REALLY great fan chats and mingling this tiimmmmee. oh my gosh. A guy came with a Modern Bison CD that Jon and Jeremy were really truly overjoyed to see and to sign and take pictures with; I talked to Jeremy about the bracelets some more because he'd been wearing the one I gave him the WHOLE GIG IN NEW YORK SO LIKE THAT'S GONNA BE IN ANY PHOTOS THAT WERE TAKEN PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING, oh my gosshhh, he was so nice about it and enjoyed that his Arch Jeremy matched my Arch Emily, the vibes were impeccable; and then I got everyone to sign my poster, but of course Alex was gone already, so Jon offers to forge Alex's signature and goes "look it's like this" and draws some loopy scribble on there and I'm like, lmao, sure.

thing was... I had absolutely heard Jeremy signing something for someone else the night before talking about how he was getting really good at forging Alex's signature for him, since I guess it's normal for him to be the one that disappears the sneakiest (god he really is just the Justin Craig of this band, it's 1:1, huh), and so when I told Jeremy this, he was like "I'll do it" and I was like "no Jon did already do it" and he was going to just leave it then, like, oh, well, okay, but then he saw the mess Jon had made and he was like "--that's quite dreadful actually-- the trick is to not overthink it--" and so now my poster has two forged Alex Robertshaw signatures and zero authentic ones. l m f a o. (To be fair, I do have other things they've all four signed, and Jeremy's fake Alex is at least passable, and Jon's fake Alex is Absolute Dogshit Nothing. I am obsessed.) I even got Peter to sign! He was talking with another fan about a gift she'd given them in the past that had sadly been part of what they lost in their studio fire, it was really heartbreaking to hear. He also thanked me again for his bracelet and told me he planned to give it to his daughter and that she would love it. We took a pic together! Pete the GOAT.

While I was making the rounds with the other boys and other fans, Allegra mostly in tow, swapping sharpies among those of us who still had them, Becky was back with Jon, taking a couple videos for people who weren't there in NY to talk about stuff that they were curious about--I think in the context of Maria, Becky said something like, she thinks the hair is crazy, and Jon said into the camera something like, "If you think it's crazy Now, give it like two or three more weeks, and you're really gonna think it's crazy." SIR WHAT. If the blond is a precursor to something else happening I'm gonna be so the opposite of normal about it, and if the bleach is a stepping stone toward the boys dyeing their hair Other colors I am going to be PROFOUNDLY NOT NORMAL ABOUT IT, AND IF ANY MEMBER OF THE MANCUNIAN ROCK BAND EVERYTHING EVERYTHING HAS THEIR HAIR DYED GREEN ANY TIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE I AM GOING TO BE ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY INSUFFERABLE. tyler the creator unfollow me right now etc. etc. etc. The more I've thought about it I don't THINK this is what's up--my sense is that any Cold Reactor music video is probably already filmed and ready to drop alongside the single pretty quick after the tour ends, rather than being something they're going to film/put together entirely post-tour, so they probably needed the bleachblond for some energy similar to how I felt about them when they first walked on stage in DC, but Oh man...... OH MAN............ I digress. anyway.

following up from that, Allegra (I think? Or maybe still Becky and allegra was just Present) addressed the notion of the hair being related to the Lore, and like, did that mean lore for the single/the upcoming album ? ? which was what we were assuming, and Jon said some demented and ominous and extremely exciting phrase like, "The lore for this one is.... b o t t o m l e s s" in his always-startling real deep Jon voice, and that was the fucking sound bite of the evening, folks. FOLKS. ALLEGRA AND I WENT ALL THE WAY BACK TO HER APARTMENT JUST CONTINUALLY SAYING "THE LORE IS BOTTOMLESS!" my body is so god damn ready.

We bid farewells to all our friends for whom NYC was their final stop on this tour!! SAD!!!!!! Going to miss all the homies T___T it's not fair that we're not just all going to every single stop on this tour I don't think? it should actually be illegal for us not to be present when the band is performing?? the hugest RIP. Hugs exchanged all around. Me trying to say bye to Jon but he's engaged with someone else so I think I just awkwardly said "See you tomorrow" twice and then we left. becky maaaybe trying to last minute scramble to also come to pgh now despite not really having accounted for it in her plans originally ? ? I was not certain what she intended here but I supported her. yes. me, annika and AG for sure being there at least. we ride. Back to allegra's where I did, unfortunately, sleep ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLY/BASICALLY NOT AT ALL due to being so hot and stuffy in my little nest on the floor that it was making me nauseated, I think I got maybe 2.5 hours tops, but I didn't really have a choice because if I wanted to be back home in time to do ANYTHING other than just rock straight over to the queue for Thunderbird then I knew I was going to have to leave so GOD DAMN early in the morning to haul ass back to where my car was and then drive the seven hours to pgh. But I did exactly that!!!! bitch!!!!! Other than some issues like, managing to make a timely pit stop for gas/potty/coffee, I endured the miserable long roadtrip despite myself, raging my way through the poconos, downing the largest cold brew Wawa would sell me, having a truly tragic car vs quesadilla incident, etc. My BFF Francis even got on the phone with me for the last hour or so and we chatted and I got to give them the whole update on the tour thus far, so fun! They MIGHT try to go to the Chicago stop next week!!! if they feel like they can swing it, and I was like ok no pressure but also it's been an extraordinary experience for me thusfar and I highly recommend. So if you see Francis at E E Chicago please holler at them kindly from me!!! :) But at the very least they said they did want a T-shirt and venmo'd me money to buy them one, since I was already still gonna have to get one for Adrian. woooooo

I got home with, yeah, basically exactly enough time to shower, get my outfit together, and regroup before heading to the venue !!! I JUST BARELY missed the bus that would've gotten me there the most promptly, largely due to not being able to find another fucking Sharpie since irving plaza took my first one lmfao, and it ended up being quicker to walk there than to wait the 36 minutes it would've been for another bus or whatever. I still had MEGA travel tummy so I just snagged an apple and scarfed it down on the walk over. Annika was already there queuing! so we hung out in line together and waited and drank the waters we had definitely brought in from outside the bar and just vibed lol. and she was like, I heard them checking two new songs that haven't been in the setlist yet, and I was like ha ha lol like what, and she said, kevin's car and leave the engine room.

and listen, I was optimistic. that my social media obnoxiousness and well-known, easily observable public desires might yet sway them, because come on it's my hometown and it's the last show i'm gonna see on this tour and I sent them donuts, and those were MEANT as a KINDNESS and an ENTHUSIASM FOR DONUTS and not as a bribe, but if anyone wanted to interpret them as a bribe anyway whomst was I to say no, but like. just because I want the band i like to do a thing absolutely does not mean that they have to fucking do it. I want to be crystal clear that i have never at any point EXPECTED them to do this. i just. hoped. yearned in my heart of hearts. and also had very sound rationale for how possible/likely it was. Here's How Engie Room Can Still Win. yfm. but the soundcheck all but confirmed it in my soul for me. and I was like... glad, that she'd been there and caught it and could tell me about it, because it gave me time to like, come to terms with the reality of it, emotionally. AAH. AAAAAHHH, OKAY. BITCH, PLIABLE HEAD, IT'S ALL HAPPENING.

we lingered and watched the queue form behind us-- I spotted a kid I'd seen at the Philly show, god bless. Everywhere we turn, repeat customers. I was telling my work friend today, I feel like the US fanbase for E E is significantly smaller than the UK audience, but we make up for it in that we go fucking hard. Every US fan is a superfan. there are no half-assed american sardines. and that has been so BEAUTIFUL and means the WORLD to me to be sharing it with the other ones of you. Bracelet sharing rocked at this gig!! I had exactly as many as I'd set aside for Pittsburgh and no more, since all my spares had evaporated up at Irving, A new person ALSO HAD BRACELETS!!! LIKE, for realsies Made For Trading At This Show Specifically bracelets, it was suuuuch a delight, so in addition to my eclectic collection from the previous gigs I now also have one that says RAW DATA FEEL with some truly choice glow in the dark bric-a-brac on there as well, and my heart was so warm aaaaaah. fwiendship :) Also spotted in the pre-doors queue were the Pizza Boy costumed guy and a woman I met at Foals in 2019?? who I guess automatically recognizes me because of the green hair, but just. omg. the community!!!! I'm dying!!!!!!

There was a slight will-call kerfuffle that nevertheless did not stop me from being dead center dead at the front right in front of where jonathan's mic was destined to be, and I was like. god. here we go. the home stretch. This was ABSOLUTELY the WORST place to be to be pretending to be interested in pierre's set, because he kept looking straight at me and dog I gotta admit four shows in I was feeling pretty tired. like, the energy of E E Itself was going to fully reinvigorate me, but nearly everything else on the planet was like totally disinteresting and I wasn't really up for it, especially when it's my semi-sex-repulsed ace-spectrum ass being just really put off by the suggestive gyrations of a performer that is not to my tastes. UM SORRY BYE HAHA. they didn't even play the one song I kind of liked. I managed to miss like two and a half songs of his set being still locked in the merch line at least lmao. literally WHILE I WAS STANDING IN THE MERCH LINE they sold out of the yellow shirt and I couldn't get me and francis matchies so I had to get them the black instead :( but thankfully they still had the one Adrian wanted because idk what I would have done if I had to scramble for a plan B with him on short notice haha. and I had EXACTLY enough cash for the two shirts left from the day before and I was paying Tour Manager Sam with it like oh my gosh I'm so sorry this is like my sweaty pocket cash from last night this is kinda gross and she was just like, No actually that's honestly exactly how I've been rolling as well and it is kind of gross so like agreed hahaha. She's the best. Idk how long she'll be tenured to them but I'd love to see her continue to exist in like their coterie moving forward. impeccable vibes.

also used merch waiting as a way to distribute more bracelets and get a drink of water! WOOHOO NOW I AM READY TO RECEIVE MY COMMUNION THANK YOU. they put the setlists down and there was a very small fraction of me that wanted to avert my eyes but like I. I had to know. and annika said yes there are new songs in the list. and I peered into the list and my song was there.

hey guys. hey guys? look, this was for me. I have to be honest with you. i manifested this. by being annoying on twitter. by being god's specialest costume-making donut-gifting bracelet-slinging weirdo. I'm owning it and it's mine. I was exactly EXACTLY right with "well, if they put Engine Room in they'll probably take Leviathan out, because they'd kind of fill the same role of slow moody song in the set, and then they'll probably swap in a different non-Man Alive song to compensate for Engine Room being there instead," and this is exactly what happened, and so then not only did I get Engine Room but I also got REGRET, WHICH IS ALSO AN EMILY THREEPWILLOW PLIABLE HEAD SONG, BECAUSE HERE THESE NERDLORD KINGSHIT BANDBOYS ARE IN MY GODDAMN BACK YARD, they're in my house and god it took me the whole fucking set up to then to just prepare, like I had to try not to think about it so I could enjoy what was right in front of me. God it was so fucking, fucking good. our position along the stage had Alex's stuff REALLY forward in the mix which was kind of new for me, but jon was just right there and every time I lifted my hands to dance and to yearn it was like, the only thing stopping me from touching you is my own sense of propriety and not any kind of physical barrier or distance, and the person immediately behind me was seeing the band for the first time and felt similarly about NOTLK as I did to Engine Room and those two songs were literally back to back in the set so we kind of screamed and cried and died together, I gave her a huge hug, and LOL SORRY NOT SORRY THAT I GOT MY KZ AND LEVIATHAN TAKEN OUT OF THE SETLIST FOR Y'ALL, PITTSBURGH, I DO FEEL KIND OF BAD BUT THIS WAS UMMM IMPORTANT TO ME, THANK YOU, goodbye. goodbye I left the planet. I thought I was going to cry and I nearly did but I didn't, but I did actually maybe start hyperventilating. like I'm glad I knew it was coming ahead of time because if it had been a full surprise I think whatever was happening to my lungs would have been exponentially worse and I may have even fainted.

(which, btw: jonathan. jon. when he came out on stage, he almost immediately got his mic cable caught on the edge of where his setlist was taped down, and in jerking it around, he whipped the setlist up off the floor and way upstage toward where Pete was; when he finally put it to rights and taped it back down, he just left it where it was at, far enough away from me that I definitely could not read it anymore; and like DID YOU DO THAT ON PURPOSE? TO MOVE IT OUT OF MY LINE OF SIGHT, TO MAYBE KEEP ME FROM READING IT? SURELY YOU HAVE TO KNOW THAT I'D ALREADY SEEN IT LIKE 15 MINUTES AGO. NICE TRY BUT IT'S TOO LATE I SAW EVERYTHING. i love him. i'm in physical pain.)

knowing this was my final one, I went so, so, incredibly hard, I let myself dance and mosh and scream and take way more pics and videos than I had before, I leaned on the lip of the stage, I had an absolute fucking blast. When the set was over a few other people who were more strategically positioned (i.e. people who had not had their most easily accessible setlists unceremoniously yoinked several feet away) snatched up the closest ones way quick; there was a general tension in the crowd at being able to see jon's, but it being further away out of reach, and one ballsy-ass kid (the "Kevin" person who'd accompanied the pizza boy person) actually clambored up onto the stage and ninja'd over and took it for himself, which inspired two copycats to do the same for some discarded guitar picks (and all of which definitely provoked a very loud, unimpressed, authoritative barking of "HEY!!!" from some security somewhere, like, they definitely shouldn't have done that!! yikes!!!!). I, instead, very patiently waited for an opportune moment to get the attention of their short king guitar tech as he was running around doing teardown, and someone else flagged him first and got pete's setlist, and in my final moments I got him to get me mike's. Gang, I'm gonna be real with you, I was not leaving my Pittsburgh hometown show in which they played Leave The fucking Engine Room without a setlist. there would've been blood or at the very least tears. so like. thank god lmao. Satisfied, we got some water and then headed out!!!

It was a long, chilly wait for the boys outside--god, the chilliness was REFRESHING, though, it's October for crying out loud, and DC and Philly and NY had all been muggy sweaty hot with no need for even long pants, much less a jacket, but I was glad I'd had the forethought to wear my flannel around my waist to cover up the YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT printed around the ass of my shorts on my walk over to deter questions, lmfao. We easily identified the spot on the side of the venue where we assumed the guys were coming out, it was all just a matter of time. (AG and I getting some confusing-to-parse messages from Becky? Idk my phone was SUPER dying so I was trying to leave it on airplane as much as possible, I didn't even make it to the end of the night, RIP needing to use my map all day in the car and even with it plugged in spending more than I was juicing of the battery. Listen i needed PICS and VIDEOS!!) I saw Jon first, and he almost looked past me before spotting me there because I was pretty close to the corner of the block, and I just stared at him, and said, May I hug you. and he said, of course! and I hugged him so long and so hard just like, thank you, I was extremely emotional then and I'm also getting extremely emotional now just typing about it, and he was like omg haha what for? Coming to your town? and I was like coming to my town and playing my SONG!!! And then he said something with the tone of a snarky teasy joke but that was like flusteringly truthful underneath about them legitimately rearranging the set quite a lot for me, and I have not stopped screaming internally since then, and Jeremy joked that I'd just seen the exact same set three times and they felt they ought to give me at least something new ha ha ha but like it wasn't entirely a joke, and I just don't even know how to process this. i am perishèd in the soil. anyhow.

I wanted both my setlist and my Supernormal EP vinyl signed by all the boys, and I managed this with relatively little doing ("A deep cut!" jeremy remarks of the supernormal, haha), but I didn't want to be crowding them and getting in the way of other people getting lad time, so I kind of took a backseat and just talked when the time was right, but Jon did kind of keep wanting to talk to me. We talked about the new song, and we talked about the donuts I sent over--oh my GOD, because I was like, they're from that place over there, you can see the big neon donut sign from here! haha, and he was like dyou know what, I knew that's where they were from, because I went over there earlier in the day and got one for myself, I got a huckleberry one and I came back with it and everyone was like, what's that, they were very jealous, and then not too long after that this box of loads of them just shows up-- And like I am a donut fairy psychic wizard. Also everyone who is ever in Pittsburgh should go to Oliver's donuts and eat their fabulously good products. I will shill for them literally any day of the week. This is the second band I have given Oliver's to this year. I cannot be stopped. ANYWAY. i honestly almost could have written that prediction on an envelope and sealed it, that they'd end up wandering in there on their own only for me to send them some too. i was so tickled that jon got the huckleberry one because it's their signature flavor and it's SO PINK and allegra and I had just decided the night before that jon higgs is hot pink coded. like, in the universe where they are dyeing their hair multicolors for the lore. anyhow. it's good shit.

i had SO much fun after this show, even though it was so chilly and dark and we were scrungling around on a literal street corner outside a wine and spirits store, I was like holding people's things so they could get pics and signatures, I was showing off my supernormal booty shorts, I was talking to Jon about lore----- ohhh, my god, I had exactly two bracelets left when the night was over, literally the end of my stash, and it was one Final Form FIRST BODY LAST BODY that I said, y'know, I'm going to save this for my bestie francis when I send them the shirt, because that's the lyric I wanna get a tattoo of, and it'll match with my PLIABLE HEAD bracelet, and it'll be another sort of besties matching thing; and my one lone AKON IN THE BUTTERFLY HOUSE bracelet that remained, where I'd kind of said, well, if this one doesn't find the right home tonight, then at the end of the night I'm going to give it to Jon too. So I dug in my bag and passed it off, and he was like "what does this one say.... kon... Akon... Akon in the house--what is--OH AND THERE'S A LITTLE BUTTERFLY ON THERE, God--" and he was GRINNING and he was SO TICKLED BY IT and Jez chimed in with just like "The attention to detail--" and Jon was like "this is my favorite one actually," he LOVED IT AND I WAS SO CHARMED AND EMOTIONAL ABOUT IT, and then he offered me up something like "you kno-ow, this, the song, of this, there's actually a reference to it in something, something you've never heard-- and--that you never will," doing his cryptic Jon troll grin, "the one thing that didn't make it," with the implied end of that sentence being "onto the album," and 'album' in this case being implied to be Raw Data Feel, which they have very publicly said that for once was an album where they just put everything on and didn't cull any songs or reserve any bonus tracks to release later or whatever. So I said, "Oh, from the one that we've been told had no cuts...?" also not explicitly saying RDF, and his answer to that was vague/nondescript enough but was probably an affirmative, but then he did follow that up with "that's lore that's SO far down the line, WAY WAY out there," and god, just, how deep does this man's brain and nonsense even fucking go. how far into the future is there LORE. BOTTOMLESS!!! I am obsessed with him. i cannot stress enough how blorbo he is to me.

The shorts came back up in conversation too ("Sorry, let me just look quite closely at your ass for a moment--" "It's okay, the shorts are designed that way--") and him saying, yeah, we do talk about some of the costumes still, and then segueing into asking if I had plans for this year and what I was doing, and I said, maybe, I'm not sure if I want to tell you, and he said, Is it to do with us, and I said, Neither confirm nor deny, and he said, Well if it's not, then, I want to know, with kind of a 'duh' tone ahahaha because like true there would be no reason to be coy if it was nothing to do with E E at all, and I explained that like I kind of have to have two costumes ("of course you do."), WELL because y'know the E E ones don't really play to or land with the general populace (a very cheeky "No!") so I have, just, one that's for going to parties, and one that's for fucking around on the internet. He seemed to find that acceptable hahaha.

Anyway what I REALLY wanted with wearing the Supernormal shorts was a group pic of all five of us normal frontways, and then a group pic of all five of us facing backward/ass to the camera a la the picture of them outside the White House, where you could see the goof of my shorts but also all of their butts, but this was an ABSOLUTE DISASTER TO DO when it was so dark that phone cameras were taking everything long-exposure, and also they'd all had just enough beer to not really be following on what the bit was. Absolute shit results on the backwards pic because I couldn't, y'know, see to coordinate it, because I had my back turned. (Me yelling, "Not just MY butt, EVERYONE'S butts, come on!!" into the streets of Lawrenceville.) Utter failure. Didn't care. I love these fucking guys. The vibe was finally kind of winding down, closing-time energy, the guys still had to get on the bus to Boston right away even with tomorrow being their day off, it was a Boston day off and not a Pittsburgh day off where I could offer them free ice cream sadly, so they all sort of bowed sweetly out. Jon gave me his like, I Am Part Of The Band clearance ID badge from the venue, kind of out of nowhere, he was like "sorry this is all I have to give you, it's the least I could do," and I was like WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU'VE ALREADY GIVEN ME SO M-- YOU COULD DO WAY LESS ??? but I guess now I have that, too. I tried to give him the King Of Oil sign from my fatberg costume, which I'd initially brought because I thought it would be a fun photo taking prop but the photo situation was the aforementioned disaster so that never really came to any fruition at all, so I was just going to gift it to them, and he said "My suitcase is already so full of so much random shit-- that you've given us--" and then right as he was leaving he just said "Thank you for being such a weirdo" with a voice full of all the kindness and affection in the world and I just yelled "ANY TIME!!" and then oh so tragically the night had to be over.

it's been nice, though, because I'm so used to driving the long drive home at the end of an adventure and having that signify the end, of getting to the end of the car ride and having nothing beyond that but the rest of my regular life; and this time, I drove all the way home, but when I got there, the adventure was still happening, right in my neighborhood, right down the street, and all I had to do was walk back home alone in the dark and climb into my own bed at the end of a long and beautiful night. i can already tell that this is going to be one of my most special memories basically forever, and now every time I drive or ride the bus to and from work each day I will be passing by the place where Everything Everything performed Leave The Engine Room for me, and that's so profoundly special that I don't even have words to describe it. I love this band, I love the people in it and I love the people its gravity pulls in to orbit around it, I'm just so goddamn happy. I don't even know what to say or how to end this.

#everything everything #e e #RDF US tour 2023 #this has been a post #jonathan fucking higgs. #god. #they all just like. referred to me plainly by my name a lot more than i was expecting in a way that was overwhelming #like to one another/other people and not just to me directly #i exist???? sounds fake #i will be thinking about this week for a hundred thousand years #my pliable head IS a walking hope thank you so much for NOTICING!!!!!! #pics to follow maybe on here but maybe just on twitter #where I am yes you guessed it @pliablehead if people want to lurk and see #ok fucking goodnight

[wandabear]

COME UNDONE - WANDA MAXIMOFF X F!READER

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x f! reader  / Natasha Romanoff x OC

Summary: Wanda is a 32-year-old, a divorced mother who hasn’t opened herself up to the opportunity to love again. She met Y/N but the 7 year age difference made her feel guilty… until she end up being victim of Thanos’ snap while Y/N stayed. What if Wanda never joined the Avengers? Her parents left Sokovia when Wanda and Pietro were little, achieving the dream of living in USA.

 

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 & 4 - part 5  - part 6 -   part 7 - part 8 - part 9 - part 10 finale

Jules is portrayed by Adelaide Kane. Jules outfit here: link. Enjoy it!

ㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ Chapter 7

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted. Billie Holiday.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ

'Then I ended up completely soaked! It's a mess, but it was worth it. How are you? How is your day? Have you taken something for the pain in your head?’ – Received from Wanda.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So… what are you going to do?” Yelena's hoarse voice pulled Y/N out of her thoughts, leaving her phone next to her, forgetting to answer that message.

Y/N looked up to see the blonde arching a curious eyebrow. They were both in the café across the hospital street, sharing a delicious snack before Yelena had to go back to Philosophy 108 and the brunette finally to enjoy her days off.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“About what?” Y/N sipped her latte, trying to hide the smile behind the cup of coffee.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You know about what!” Yelena fought the urge to throw a ball of paper at her, but she stopped herself this time. “About Wanda…”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I don’t know yet.” Y/N shrugged.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Of course you know.” Yelena said under her breath, almost between a scolding and a sigh, giving in… to whatever Y/N was going to do. “Just say that you're playing hard to get. It shows that you are still completely whipped by her, the difference now is that she seems to be behind you like a lost puppy in love.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Of course not!” Y/N said a bit annoyed, but her best friend cocked her head, narrowing those russian green eyes. Despite the six years without her, Yelena still knew her perfectly well, like the first day they met.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“She keeps sending you flowers, food, stupid adorable notes that I don't deny are... cute.” Yelena sighed and looked out the window, it was a beautiful day without a doubt. “Just try not to let either of you get hurt. Don't hurt Wanda if you don't want anything with her.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Sorry? Me? hurt her?” Y/N groaned, completely surprised at those words. “Do you remember who got hurt last time?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I know perfectly well what happened, Y/N, and believe me that she’s still paying for it with me.” Yelena glared at her. “But I still love her like my own sister, and I don't want to see her suffer like she suffered for Vision again. Or you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The doctor looked down and took her steaming coffee in her hands. “I know, I'm sorry. I'm just a little tired. Can we not talk about that now?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

She took the opportunity to drink some of her delicious latte, noticing how Yelena looked at her phone curiously for a few seconds and then at her, as if she were a bird of prey trying to get information out of her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What now?” Y/N blinked nervously.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“My sister is going out tonight, do you have any idea who's the woman she's going out with?” Yelena looked at her in a rather questioning and intimidating way. ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N smiled, trying to hide the joy in her voice. Her intimidation wouldn't work this time. “No idea at all.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Of course she knew with whom, but she wasn't going to spoil the surprise. Since Natasha's birthday, Jules hadn't stopped talking about how pretty and interesting Nat was, and Natasha apparently asked Y/N for Jules phone number and well… everything happened slowly, or maybe really fast.

Y/N looked down to see her own phone, trying to avoid Yelena's curious questions.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

'I'm better, thanks. I’m in the cafe with Yelena. She keeps asking trying to find about Natasha’s date…’

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

‘Natasha keeps going around, she has been thinking about what to wear for half an hour! She's quite adorable tho, I've never seen her like this before.'

Received from Wanda.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N smiled broadly at that message, she was about to reply when a throat clearing made her look up again, Yelena sneering at her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I hope you're not talking about Natasha.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You’ll never know.” Y/N smirked and shrugged.

ㅤㅤㅤ

They both chatted for a while, enjoying their lattes until they were interrupted by a girl with hair as black as night, who arrived a bit in a hurry.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Y/N! Geez! I finally found you!” Jules sighed deeply and awkwardly, she took off her white coat and put on her jacket, so fast. “I just got out of the claws of Von Doom. Phew! So… Do you have it?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Who’s Von Doom?” Yelena asked curiously, surprised by the arrival of that girl. She knew her, she saw her at Natasha's party.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“A reeeeal pain in our ass in that hospital.” Y/N rolled her eyes and looked at her friend. “Okay, I’m glad you made it. Do you have everything? Are you going to tell me how everything is going? Take care of my car, Jules!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Always. I followed all your tips, I'm going to tell you everything.” Jules smiled solemnly and crossed a hand over her heart but when she turned to see Yelena to say goodbye, she noticed the blonde's curious look on her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So… are you the one trying to win over my beloved sestra?” Yelena narrowed her eyes like an animal about to seize her prey.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N enjoyed the situation smiling, willing to see how far it would go.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I… well… I-” Jules stammered and just decided to leave quickly. “Leaving, bye now!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Seeing that it wasn't going to be possible to question Jules because she was already leaving that cafe, Yelena turned her gaze to Y/N who just shrugged again.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Don't look at me like that!”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I love you both! Take care! Call me if you need anything!” Wanda waved from the threshold of her door. Billy and Tommy were waving at her from inside the car, Vision greeted the redhead with just a nod and drove out of that house, taking the little ones with him for the whole weekend.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda sighed and closed the door, finally alone. Although she loved being with her little ones, she had to admit that the little moments Vision took with the children meant she could rest, relax and have some time to herself.

ㅤㅤㅤ

After pouring herself a glass of wine, the sokovian sit on the kitchen counter somewhat… bored. What to do now? Without all the screaming and children running, without the questions of 'what are we going to eat tonight, mom?'

ㅤㅤㅤ

Her phone snapped her out of her thoughts, smiling just to know who was texting her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Right now, Natasha and Jules are on a date. Can you believe it?"

Received, Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda bit her lower lip and answered:

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I know, Nat was excited. Pretty nervous, but glad you gave her Jules's phone. Ever since they started talking, she doesn't stop talking about her.”

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm glad to see her happy too, since Bruce left her, she's been so lonely.”

Received, from Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Did she tell you where they were going?”

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Jules made me promise not to say anything.”

Received, from Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“When will it be our turn?”

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Wanda...”

Received, from Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Come on... Do you wanna go on a date with me?”

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda bit her lower lip, she knew that perhaps she was passing a limit but she wasn't going to give up either.

It had been two months since came back and Y/N was still keeping distance. The redhead kept fighting but slowly, began to lose hope.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I know I screwed up, but I've been trying to fix it... you can say ‘no’. I know.”

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda put her phone aside and sipped some wine, looking out the kitchen window. A quiet night, a rather noisy silence inside her. So many mixed thoughts and feelings.

Another notification popped up, she sighed.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I know. You've been really nice to me lately.”

Received, from Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

"So, will you come on a date with me?"

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

She tried one more time. Expectantly, the Sokovian could see how the 'writing' in the screen moved again and again. Anxiety slowly devouring her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Maybe... When?” Received, from Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda's lips parted, she couldn't believe what she was reading.

She thought for a few seconds, when? what to say? She had never gotten this far.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What about now?” Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

A risky move.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“But keep it a secret, I wouldn't want to overshadow Romanoff's date.” Received, from Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda's heart beating again so wild and a huge smile lit up her face. Her fingers trembled as she typed, she even feared dropping the phone from the emotion running through her body. She was going on a date with Y/N!

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Is it really a date if we haven't planned it? Or do you have something in mind?"

Send.

ㅤㅤㅤ

A huge smile appeared on Wanda's lips, finally after a long time sunk in a constant agony of guilt and loneliness, a genuine smile appeared on that beautiful mouth of hers when she read the answer:

“Something like that.” Received, from Y/N.

The dark-haired woman took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a few seconds before opening them and falling back to reality. She had been close to Natasha Romanoff for about fifteen minutes… Well, only because they had traveled together in that beautiful, shiny black and a bit sexy Camaro 69.

Jules promised to pick her up, although her own car was at the repair garage, Y/N decided to gave Jules her car, only if she promised to take care of it with her own life. Even more.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“That was…something.” Jules said a bit amused, getting out of the car next to the redhead and handing the keys to the valet, but not before emphasizing that he should take care of the car as if it were his own life. “Again, sorry, my car is at the repair garage...”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Don't worry. You're not crazy enough to drive like Y/N.” Natasha smiled sideways. Once they both looked at each other, Jules couldn't help but sigh at how beautiful Nat looked.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You look really good without your leather jacket and jeans.” Jules flirted, smiling like a dumb teenager. “I mean, you look beautiful in that jacket and jeans. You always look beautiful.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha wore a beautiful black and white dress, which made her loose red hair contrast perfectly. Light makeup and an exquisite and seductive parfume, worthy of Natasha Romanoff.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You don't look bad at all, doc.” Nat winked at her, noting how beautiful the doctor was that night. Julia was wearing a dark, slightly open shirt, a dark blue blazer, and tight pants. Picture here.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Her black hair was down and her make up was really soft but good.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Soon-to-be-a-doc.” She corrected as she held out her arm for Nat to take. That gesture surprised the russian, but after a few seconds, she accepted it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Both walked down one of the lit up NY streets until they reached the entrance of a building. Seemed quite nice but aroused Natasha's curiosity. It didn't look like the entrance to a restaurant, but she did see how the guy in charge of security greeted Jules kindly. In spanish.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So where are you taking me? How do I know if you are not kidnapping me?” Nat arched an eyebrow, clearly messing with her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I wouldn't be able to kidnap you, detective. You sure kick my ass so damn fast. And if I did, let me tell you that I would never let you go.” Jules cocked her head, inviting her inside together. Nat just bit her lower lip, hiding a smile.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“To be honest, I was going to take you to a 'Solve a murder' but I thought you'd be bored.” Jules was stunned to see that she managed to make Natasha laugh. Both walked through the large and quite luxurious hall, a long black carpet that guided their way and dim lights going up the stairs until they reached the second floor.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Where are we going to do then?” Natasha looked around, at that precise moment one of the receptionists approached them and with a friendly smile she accompanied both to one of the larger doors, opening it for both of them.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Why don't you find out for yourself, Detective? I can't tell you everything, it would spoil the fun.” Jules smiled when she saw Natasha's eyes widen.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It’s a…” The redhead didn't know exactly how to describe it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

In front of her was a huge room with several tables and a quite pleasant atmosphere, dim lights and waiters who came and went.

The background music caught her attention, it sounded like a fairly modern version of a tango.

In the center of that room, some people dared to dance that tango with natural delicacy and sensuality. Other couples just laughed and had fun trying to follow the steps.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“A beautiful but very different restaurant?” Jules commented amused as they both walked following the waitress, until they found the table that Jules reserved. “It really is. Gracias, señorita.”

ㅤㅤ��

Both took a seat in front of that huge window that overlooked the city, looking at each other with a shy smile, but at the same time a bit flirtatious.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So…”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So…”

ㅤㅤㅤ

They both let out a giggle.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Sorry, I don't usually do dates...” Jules shrugged as she took off her blazer.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I understand you, I've barely had time between capturing thugs, seeing how the Avengers sometimes get the credit, and having a 'normal' life.” Natasha joked.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“How about we start with… a good wine? Red or white, Miss Romanoff?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Surprise me.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Sighing deeply, Y/N stood silently in front of the door. That house which she hadn’t set foot in for six years. She was ready, raising her hand to ring the bell when a memory flashed through her mind.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hi.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Every time you come you bring me a different one.” Wanda shook her head and took it in her hands, delighted by that gesture of hers. She smiled, in love. But she would never tell.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I just want to make you feel special as you are…” Y/N looked at the flower and pointed to it. “It's an anemone… it represents abandonment... but also hope and expectation. It’s the ideal flower to say that… I missed you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The girl looked at Wanda so in love, she could see how dazzled she felt by the figure of that redhead. Wanda… So damn beautiful, so delicate and sensual, so unique. Wanda taking her breath away just by looking at her, the only woman capable of stealing Y/N's heart.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Shaking her head, Y/N forced herself to wake up from that memory. Seeing herself, excited about that woman who was now on the other side of the door, about to open it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

There she was again, as beautiful as ever. Six years later she looked exactly the same. With her wild, flowing red hair, and her big, green eyes that held a unique illusion.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Panicking.

Y/N's heart skipped a beat, and although she tried to hide it, she scolded herself knowing that coming over maybe was a 'bad idea'. Hiding her feelings was going to be harder than she expected.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hello.” Y/N broke the silence.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Hi, come on in!” Wanda greeted, happy to see Y/N again… there. So many memories. “I didn't think you would come.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I know, me neither.” Y/N smiled a bit shy, fidgeting a bit nervously until Wanda stepped aside to let her pass.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Is that your motorcycle?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Yeah. I gave Jules my car tonight… her car was being repaired and she wanted to impress Natasha.” She rolled her eyes, making Wanda smile.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The brunette looked around, fascinated to notice that after six years everything remained in its place. Except for some pictures or some new stuff, everything looked exactly the same and she knew it was “Wanda’s touch’.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I haven't stepped foot in this place in years, it looks exactly the same as before.” Y/N nodded.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Yeah. Everything remains the same, except for some small changes that I needed to make, you know, renovation.” Wanda said somewhat shyly, smiling, nervous in a good way.

ㅤㅤㅤ

As if they were two young people in love, they were facing each other, staring at each other and playing with their hands.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So, what's your idea?" Wanda tilted her head, curious. Y/N told her it would be nice to see each other but then she kept quiet about their 'plans'.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The brunette smiled mischievously and took her bag, pointing out some objects that she had inside it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You have a rooftop, right? A balcony maybe? Today is reeeally an interesting night.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda nodded but she smiled somewhat confused, not really understanding what it was about.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Are you sure? I don't want to be embarrassed in front of strangers on my first date.” Natasha asked, giggling as Jules dragged her onto the dance floor, after drinking a delicious glass of wine.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Both of them ordered pasta for dinner, but since it would take a while, they decided to accept the waitress's suggestion and try learn some steps.

Of course, some seemed to execute that dance in a sensual and passionate way, something that always defined tango. Others just tried and laughed when they failed, because the idea was that. To learn, have fun and have a good time.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Of course, come here…” Jules kept Natasha's hand intertwined with hers, before turning to face her face to face.

The brunette approached Natasha, placing a hand on her waist in a "possessive" way.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Don't you think we should wait after dinner for that?” Natasha teased.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Shut up and learn.” Jules said wrinkling her nose at her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The brunette clung to Natasha's body again and took her other hand, to guide the steps that she would execute. “It is said that tango is danced «listening to the body of the other» and it is always in a couple.”

A new song started, special for both. ‘Por una Cabeza’ by Carlos Gardel.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It is a two-headed monster, a four-legged beast, languid or lively, that lives how long a song lasts and dies murdered by the last beat… this is how the Argentine writer Alicia Dujovne Ortiz defines tango.” Jules whispered in a passionate way as she danced, every step she took, Natasha followed her to perfection. They complemented each other, surprising both.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Por una cabeza, todas las locuras Su boca que besa Borra la tristeza Calma la amargura

ㅤㅤㅤ

Every three steps, Julia stopped pulling her hips against Natasha’s body, moving in a slow, sensual way. It was a back and forth, a swing of flirtations and at the same time, a diversity of executed steps. Intertwined, always together. Legs that moved so slow and then fast, attracted each other and moved away.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Tango started in Buenos Aires, with the lower urban classes, including slaves, immigrants, and the poor and working classes.” Jules whispered in the redhead's ear. “Usually it was danced between two men. It was said to be a dance between 'machos'... what a stupid old thing, don't you think? Look at us.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha smiled when she heard her, she couldn't help but feel fascinated by the knowledge and by the passionate way in which she told it, so similar to the way she moved.

The melody advanced and became faster, some dancers were encouraged to perform interesting pirouettes but they just kept moving, intertwining and having fun.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The song finally came to an end, with one last beat, exposing both women who were now staring at each other. Their faces, separated by a few centimeters and a tension worthy of a tango melody. They were ready for a kiss… but not now.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha's heart pounded, afraid that Jules might hear it over the melodies in the background. If only she knew, that woman was beginning to win her over without even trying.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You know a lot about this for an American.” Natasha finally said, breaking the moment, but her gaze was still on the other woman's lips.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm from Boston, but my parents were from Argentina... well, my mom. My dad was Irish.” Jules smiled noticing the tension between the two, now it was breaking when they saw the waitress approaching the table with the food. “Now, if you'll give me a moment and we'll have some delicious pasta, I might tell you even more...”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha just nodded her head and tried not to smile, but it was impossible. She walked next to Jules, but she never let go of her hand and that was all Jules needed to feel in paradise.

“Are you sure what you're doing? We could get sick, you know?” Wanda said as they walked to the balcony. The brunette was carrying two huge blankets while Wanda was carrying two cup of hot cocoa.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Don't worry then, I'm a doctor! Come on, Maximoff, when was the last time you took such a risk?” Y/N teased and rolled her eyes, laying the blankets on the confy couches. It was a fairly cool night but nothing that could be fixed with a good warmth blanket.

Y/N  helped Wanda put down the cups of cocoa and look for some marshmallows.

ㅤㅤㅤ

They both made themselves comfortable on one of the sofas together, while they watched that beautiful starry sky, together with a steaming and warm chocolate. It was perfect, sure.

Wanda hid her smile as she brought that cup to her lips, the delicious taste of it making her close her eyes in delight.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I admit it, this is cozy.” The redhead said after licking her lips, tilting her head to see how Y/N was still staring at the sky. “But why here?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Finally, the brunette tilted her head to look at Wanda and simply fell silent for a moment. She even smiled at the redhead's insistence, so adorable.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Because tonight…” Y/N whispered, bowing slightly, in a playful way. “It's meteor shower night.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda frowned at her a bit confused and then turned to look at the sky. Thanks to the fact that the place where she lived was away from the light pollution of the city, both were able to enjoy the show. Little falling meteors were beginning to dominate the dark sky.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Oh my god, they are beautiful. I had no idea.” Wanda said surprised, completely excited and happy to see such a magnificent show. Y/N giggled and tilted her head so she could whisper to her as they both enjoyed the delicious chocolate together.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Yup. They are called 'Ursids', they come from the Ursa Major and the Ursa Minor.” Y/N explained as she watched one of the meteors fall and get lost slowly, she pointed to the constellation or rather, where it should be seen.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“A Roman myth involves both bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. A beautiful maiden, Callisto, hunting in the forest, grew tired and laid down to rest. The god Jupiter noticed her and was smitten with her beauty...”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda smiled, completely spellbound listening to that story. The way Y/N talked, showing off a bit the little knowledge she had, always fascinated her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Jupiter's wife, Juno, became extremely jealous of Callisto. So, some time later, Juno discovered that Callisto had given birth to a son and decided that Jupiter must have been the father. To punish her, Juno changed Callisto into a bear so she would no longer be beautiful… Callisto's son, called Arcas, was adopted and grew up to be a hunter, while Callisto continued to live in the forest.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

The brunette turned to see Wanda, getting lost in those beautiful green eyes that shone with that full moon. She could notice a certain joy in these, and that made her own heart beat wildly.

After six years, six long years, she still had the power to make her feel this way. Her heart pounding, the little bats flapping their wings on her tummy and her legs weak as jelly.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Although she knew that Wanda was to blame for her greatest pain, she also couldn't deny that she was trying to make it up to her. Wanda could never erase her pain, but she could help her heal to build a better future.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“One day Callisto saw Arcas and was so overjoyed at seeing her son that she rushed up to him, forgetting she was a bear. Arcas thought he was being attacked and shot an arrow at Callisto. Jupiter saw the arrow and stopped it from hitting Callisto... To save Callisto and her son from further damage from Juno, Jupiter changed Arcas into a bear also, grabbed them both by their tails, and swung them both into the heavens so they could live peacefully among the stars. The strength of the throw caused the short stubby tails of the bears to become a bit elongated.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N smiled when she saw that Wanda seemed relaxed and glad that the story did not end in such a tragic way as she supposed. The brunette took one of her hands to caress her cheek, Wanda closed her eyes. Oh, the touch.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You love those big fluffy animals, don’t you?” The Sokovian started with her eyes still closed, widening when they both giggled.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Shut up.” She settled back to look at the sky, playing being hurt. Wanda hesitated for a moment if she would follow her heart, reason told her to be patient but she couldn't help but feel how her entire world was shaken by the presence of that woman by her side.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Without waiting another second, she wrapped her arms around Y/N's body, resting her head on the brunette's shoulder.

But far from taking it as something bad or feeling that it was too much, the doctor just smiled and kissed Wanda’s forehead gently, snuggling against her body.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“But yes, I do.” Y/N whispered. “They take care of those they love, I hope I can do it too.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You do.” Wanda looked up, appreciating the face of the woman she loved since forever, and denied so much. Denied herself being able to be happy, a mistake so stupid that surely, she would pay her whole life.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Please, let me do this right.” Wanda said again, taking Y/N's attention. The redhead brought a hand to the doctor's cheek and caressed it gently, with a devotion that she never felt before.

ㅤㅤㅤ

That look took a beat from her heart, what to say? How to refuse? If everything in her asked her to kiss those lips again, to fall back and sink into Wanda once more and forever.

Hers. Her lips, as alluring and teasing as ever, inviting her to melt into them once more. Get lost forever. Like quicksand, dragging you through your body.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Kiss her. She wanted it so bad.

Unable to take it anymore, the redhead broke the tension between them and kissed Y/N’s lips, joining once more.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Andromeda and the Milky Way, colliding for the first time. That was the way they both felt, as the little winged creatures in her womb began to flap their wings in desperation.

Wanda was her Milky Way. Y/N was Andromeda, both destined to crash. To unite, love and destroy each other. To put themselves together, to create something new together.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N's heart skipped a beat. Six years away from her, six years without being able to feel the taste of her kisses, the warmth and softness of her mouth.

All those years where she met so many women but none ever managed to make her feel all those unique sensations.

A short kiss, but enough to complement each other like never before.

Oh, it was divine. ㅤㅤㅤ

As soon as they parted from that kiss, a smile appeared on Wanda's lips, completely stunned, and without even being able to help it, a more dreamy look on Y/N.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Slowly.” Y/N whispered.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Slowly… We can make it.” Wanda whispered the same way. She snuggled against Y/N's body to be able to continue watching that beautiful meteor shower, that although the meteor  seemed really cool… enjoying the time by her side was already the best plan in this universe.

After parking outside that beautiful house, Jules noticed that Natasha was still staring at her, with a look that couldn't differentiate between curiosity, interest and flirtation.

The background music seemed to liven up the tension between them a bit; they smiled.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“So…that was really quite a peculiar date…” Natasha started to speak this time, smiling but quickly adding before Jules took it the wrong way. “But in very pretty way.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

For a moment, the girl had felt her heart skip a beat at the word 'peculiar' but then she managed to breathe, giggling like a lovesick fool.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'm glad you liked it.” Jules nodded, both enjoying each other's company over Hailee Steinfeld's 'I Love You's'.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The russian watched out of the corner of her eye as her house waited there, completely lonely and without hesitation, Natasha took another step.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Would you like to come in? Maybe have a cup of coffee… or maybe something stronger.” Natasha looked down for a moment, trying not to sound like exactly what she wanted to sound like. It was quite a strange feeling, she always been a flirtatious sexy and direct woman but the sincere and lovely look of that girl managed to... make her feel in such a 'peculiar' way.

She was a passionate woman, determined to live for the moment.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I'd love to.” Jules said, owner of huge dark brown eyes. She kept her hands on the steering wheel of the car for a moment trying to stay cool, everything she had been dreaming of for a long time was now coming true. How to say 'no'? “But I think it's better to leave it for another time.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Silence reigned, Natasha seemed somewhat confused by that answer. Was she being rejected? She never received a 'no' to that...

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Don't think I'm not interested, in fact, I would love to be with you.” Jules nodded quickly, her words coming out of her mouth and she had no control over what she said. “I swear to you, it's one of the things I've wanted most in my life!”

 Okay, maybe that was too much.

ㅤㅤㅤ Natasha arched an eyebrow playfully. Jules sighed, defeated and tired of her own babbling.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“What I mean is...” The dark-eyed girl took a deep breath, taking Natasha's hand. “That I would love to go with you, but the truth is that I want to do something different. You’re beautiful, Natasha, you are… amazing. And I really like you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Natasha's eyes stayed on the girl who, without a doubt, had left her completely amazed and maybe a little crushed with her checkered sincerity and her babbling.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“You’re hot as hell, and really cute, and smart, badass and REALLY amazing… And I've liked you ever since I saw you in the hospital when one of your partners was injured, I think his name was Clint, and you were always there holding his hand. You didn’t leave him, never. Even when so many doctors asked you to step aside and you were too stubborn to accept it.” Jules followed, nodding quickly. “But I don't want to be the same as the others, I want this time to be different.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

As soon as she finished saying it, Natasha couldn't resist anymore and cradled the brunette's face in her hands before losing both of them in the softest, most passionate and delicious kiss that both of them have had in their lives.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The warmth of her other's lips made Natasha smile slightly in that kiss. The taste of these, she could feel a slight hint of raspberry in them.

It seemed like it had lasted an eternity, after a moment they had to finally separate with a cheerful smile from both women.

Natasha just smiled a little shyly after walking away from that kiss. “I'll see you soon then?”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Jules bit her lower lip with a dreamy look. Her eyes shone as brightly as the stars that night. “Sooner than you expect.”

The desperate sighs that got away between kisses, both warm bodies were under the covers of that bed. Red hair scattered on the white pillows, her hands entwined with Y/N's.

It only took one more movement to bring them both to an orgasm that made their hips tremble, together, always together. In some erotic dance between both bodies that finally reached its final beat, ending with both moans complementing each other as well as their naked bodies. Hearts that intertwine.

Just one kiss on her lips, was all it took to seal their future.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Y/N was on top of her, caressing her, filling her, making Wanda hers one more time. Running through her again after six years of trying to forget every inch of her skin, where she had sworn to forget her sighs and the taste of her skin.

Now her sighs of pleasure were a divine melody.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Who did she want to deceive? She couldn't forget her, she couldn't forget Wanda even by losing herself in the different women each night. The love Y/N felt for her was exponential and eternal.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“That wasn't very slow.” Wanda said trying to take a breath, completely agitated. She could still feel her thighs tremble and the warmth of them after reaching orgasm and that made her smile happily. Y/N smiled before stealing a short kiss and settling down next to her.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It wasn't at all.” Admitted the brunette, shaking her head as hse admired the body of the woman next to her. Wanda’s pale skin, so silky and warm, invited again to snuggle into her and lose herself forever.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The redhead noticed Y/N's gaze and blushing slightly, she sought her place snuggling against the brunette's chest, caressing gently her breasts with the fingertips.

ㅤㅤㅤ “This feels like a dream...”

ㅤㅤㅤ

“It’s not.” Y/N assured, kissing her forehead gently. Almost as if she wanted to make sure that it wasn't a dream, she should touch it, was all this real?

ㅤㅤㅤ

Reality hit her so hard, remembering the times she escaped from that bed. Where Wanda made her go home before dawn came.

Y/N was about to get up but Wanda kept her in the same position, not willing to let her go.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“Soon it will dawn.” Y/N whispered.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda just shook her head, snuggling even more against her body. She sighed.  “We don’t do that anymore. Stay, please. I want you here with me.”

Those words made Y/N's heart melt, how many times she dreamed of hearing that?

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I missed you too much.” Wanda confessed, inhaling the scent of her beloved and closing her eyes. She ended up leaving a small and cute kiss on Y/N’s chest. “I don't want to lose you again, ever again. You are really everything to me, and I know I have been very stupid, and selfish… mostly selfish. I was a cold hearted bitch… but I have learned my lesson. I don't want to walk away from you.”

ㅤㅤㅤ

Wanda rested her head on Y/N's chest. For a moment, Y/N's ears turned slightly flushed knowing that Wanda would surely hear her own heart pounding at those words.

How many times had she wished with all her might that the redhead would say something like that to her? She cried nights, wishing and imagining in her old room at College, thinking that the redhead would regret it and appear at her door, asking for forgiveness.

Six years where she ended up killing all the illusions of having Wanda Maximoff by her side again, burying them completely at the bottom of the ocean when Wanda died because of the snap.

ㅤㅤㅤ

The nights where she mourned knowing that she could never even hear that voice, that accent, could never hear an apology, could never said to Wanda how much she hurted her.

Y/N could never tell her that she truly loved her… or hear Wanda say it.

ㅤㅤㅤ

Six years loving a woman she thought lost and now she lay in her arms, sharing warmth under a cold night.

ㅤㅤㅤ

“I missed you a lot.” Y/N finally confessed, swallowing hard. It was a big risk, again opening her heart like that, but she had to tell Wanda the truth. Couldn't lie, especially seeing the enormous smile of the Sokovian when she heard her words.

Wanda ended the distance between them, sealing that night with a passionate and needy kiss, feeling her heart jump because now they were together again.

And this time, she wasn't going to waste it.

here goes some amazing and lovely people tags ✨ :  @dudaaaluthor  @marvell-love​ - @ etheriaaly - @idcplss - @how-to-disappearrr - @simp4nat -  @cristin-rjd - @   lonewalker17   @zairaaaa @mrscromanoff @kacka84

ㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤ

I want to thank everyone who reads me, it really means a lot. Sorry to keep you waiting.

I'm so sorry I couldn't get on earlier. I got sick, my girlfriend came to live with me, I had horrible days at work... I'm so sorry! I promise to take less, or try better.

Some of you told me that you were hoping to see a little bit of Jules and Nat? I hope you liked it, I love seeing Natasha Romanoff being happy. She deserves it. Again, thanks to the people who leave a ❤️ , reposts and comments, you make me keep writing.

Bear hugs to y'all! 🐻

#wanda maximoff x reader #Wanda maximoff x f!reader

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Jung Wild Grenzenlos (2022) - Paul Landers (with translation)

ARD/MDR documentary from 2022 about the 1990's era with Paul Landers, with an attempt at translation by me 😊.

Paul:

The 90's to me where the good old days in a sense that things evolved that one didn't know before. Musical directions emerged that didn't exist before. Youth movements that didn't exist. All of a sudden there was Grunge. Cool shit! Nirvana I heard on the radio and thought: Man what kind of good music is that! And one thought it would continue like that forever, and now looking back, one knows that is was a beautiful phase really, of change and of innocence and freshness.

There was this euphoria and i remember that it had a some anarchic traits, because the cops in the East could leave us, they weren't responsible for us anymore and the West cops didn't know us and didn't really know how to deal with the East-people and because of that there was a little Fool's freedom. Was a really lovely time.

<at a clip about the band Think about Mutation> 'Think about Mutation' initially were even ahead of us. They already had the principle of sequencer, machines and guitars. They already discovered that before us. At a concert we were pretty impressed by them in a musical way.

West alcohol i thought was really good, all the various variaties opened a whole new dimension.

Voice-over:

Maybe that Paul Landers pretty soon would be on stage with the band Rammstein. Forged from the wild growth of the Post reunification period, they practised at the East Berliner Knaack club and initially only play half full shows. But that changes quickly: German lyric, celebrated teutonics, Stage fire: the media foams of anger.

Paul:

The claim really was that we only do what we like, without looking in any specific direction, just "Lets go, we want to make trouble and we want to be extreme". We didn't care whether anybody liked it, at all.

VO:

Then the flame ignites, soon they fill every stadium all over the world. Six east-guys become the biggest band in the world. With thanks to the 90's.

Paul:

Rammstein is clearly a 90's band, but visually and musically. Ofcourse we think, we move, we mirror the sign of the time, but we are a 90's band, definitely.

VO:

Bobo, alias Christiane Hebold, steers the chorus of Engel

Bobo:

We were friends really. Then the idea was born for me to come in the studio and try out a few things as background. Paul sang the first parts of Engel to me and i thought "Sounds abit like 'Silly'" and he said "'Silly' is cool, sing it like that".

Paul:

The state-supported bands had a similar experience as the 'Ost-schrippen' 1) for the first time they weren't needed.

VO:

In the year 1991 almost a third of East people were unemployed. Especially women and men over 40 could step down.

Paul:

My father was at the Academy of Science, and in the West there already was an Acadamy of Science, so they threw him out right away, whoop!, with one swipe. My mother too, whoop! Both in the party, for them initially it wasn't that great.

VO:

Paul Landers at the time plays with Feeling B, and the band creates a funny little song from the desolate situation. "Ich such' die DDR" (I'm looking for the GDR) becomes a hit in the scene in 1993. Many want to forgive the old regime and crawl back in the warm nest.

Paul:

'Ich such die DDR' was a joke, because somehow it was funny, Whoop! the GDR, the country i was born in, is gone. Daft at first, but also interesting. A country, Whoop! nothing left. And an ambassador really has to pack his bags because his country is gone. He can go home. Somehow we thought it an interesting theme.

VO:

Feeling B didn't find the GDR again, and because of that, are soon history.

Paul:

Feeling B's motive was to mess around a bit, be a bit cheeky, explore the East limits, those were very narrow, so pretty easy to explore, and when those were gone, at first i felt dumb. The main reason for our musical existance was gone somehow. It was all a bit...it felt stale, like an old beer.

In the east i liked the east, and in the west i like the west. Because of this i don't have 'Ostalgie' 2) in a sense like the others may have because maybe they noticed that is was pretty great looking back, and the West wasn't as gold as they thought it was. For that reason i never went to a 'Ostalgie' party.

---

1) 'Ost-schrippen' are a kind of breadroll that was very familiar in GDR bakeries, but were quickly replaced by the treats from western bakeries (there are bakeries now that sell them again)

2) 'Ostalgie' is a wordplay that is often used, made of 'Ost' (the East) and 'Nostalgie' (Nostalgia), it describes a longing for East Germany when things in the West didn't turn out as fabulous as the seemed from East perspective before East and West Germany were reunified in 1989

#jung wild grenzenlos #paul talking #paul interview 2022 #rammstein #paul landers

[arabian-bloodstream]

The Object of Your Ire

Oh, Daemrya fam! We were blinded by the chemistry and the gorgeous love story (which I still firmly believe is intact and still totes there), but oh, oh, oh, the scenes that played out in the final episode, including the infamous choking scene, ah, they were all carefully set up!

Episode 1 -  Our first scene with Daemon? HE was sitting on the Iron Throne and it was Rhaenyra that came to him, and he talked of himself being the heir. Later we saw him listening in on the Small Council meeting, clearly showing an interest in the goings-on of the realm, the interplay. Later, he made it clear to Viserys that the fact that Viserys had never relied upon him, asked him to be Hand, trusted in him hurt him deeply. He was removed as heir, and banished.

Episode 2 - Daemon stole the egg meant for Baelon, the "heir for the day." Rhaenrya challenged him and she told him that she was the "object of his ire" as she was the heir to the Iron Throne. He acquiesed, because as we all know, haha, he is putty in her hands. He brought members of the City Watch with him to Dragonstone because they were loyal to him, not the crown.

Episode 3 - He was off in the Stepstones with Corlys attempting to fight and win a war to gain his own legitimacy and name on his own. When Viserys offered help, Daemon was all fuck that shit and almost single-handedly did it on his own. He needed that legitimacy to back himself up. And he got it.

Episode 4 - He returned to King's Landing as "King of the Narrow Sea." Daemon took Rhaenyra out on the town in "disguise" but once they got to the brothel, he removed her hat so that her identity was clear to all who might be paying attention, and of course, people would be paying attention. Later, when Viserys wailed on him, Daemon said he wanted Rhaenyra, wanted to restore House Targaryen to its former glory. Viserys was not down for that, reminding him that (a) he already had a wife, and (b) he didn't want Rhaenyra, he only wanted the throne. And he banished him again.

Now about this, the Inside the Episode featured the showrunners saying that Daemon had taken Rhaenyra on their little adventure to get back at Viserys, to get under his skin, and that, of course, if he were to marry Rhaenyra, it would get him closer to the throne, and the Daemyra fam (including myself) pish-poshed that notion. Nuh uh, we all said. Daemon doesn't care about the throne, he wants Rhaenyra. Viserys is a blind fool, and the showrunners are talking crack. But, erm, nope, taking off my pretty Daemyra-colored glasses, the two things can both be true. Yes, Daemon realized that he wanted Rhaenyra, because, duh, obviously he did. But he still wanted the throne. He did.

Look at Episode 1-4. Daemon was introduced ON THE IRON THRONE. He reminded Rhaenyra he was the heir. He listened in on the Small Council meetings in private to keep apprised of what was going on. He established his own personal little army essentially with the City Watch. He made his own name for himself, fighting (and eventually) winning the war (for a time) in the Stepstones, and being named King there. He arranged to compromise Rhaenyra and had he succeeded in sleeping with her it is very likely that Daemon would have been able to convince (with a besotted Rhaenyra) to convince Viserys to set aside his unconsummated marriage to Rhea so that he could marry Rhaenrya. Boom, Daemon is now King Consort heir.

Episode 5 - He gets rid of the wife, makes his way back just before she is to wed, he's got six days to upend that, right? Alas, things goes South.

Episode 6 - Of all the women in Westeros, who does he marry? The daughter of the second most powerful man (arguably THE most) in Westeros, Corlys Velaryon. The only problem, and this is where the love story comes in because, yes, Daemon and Rhaenyra DO have this love story. It's NOT just that Daemon wants to restore House Targaryen to its former glory. It's not just that Daemon wants to be respected by Viserys. It's not just that Daemon wants the throne. Nope, Daemon also is in love, madly in love, with Rhaenyra. So, we have the ten years of a Daemon Targaryen who is a shadow of the man he was. He no longer burns. Because he can not flicker, light up without his other half. He just cannot. Just as she cannot.

Episode 7 - They reunite. They burn. Just as they are meant to.

Episode 8 - All of the feelings, all of the love that Daemon felt for Viserys come to the fore. All of the love, all of the desire for the Targaryen glory to burn rise as the signs of it have been stricken from the Red Keep. The only softness we see from Daemon, the only sign of the good in him is the love for Rhaenyra, Viserys, and the children, but the violent, bloodthirsty anger is there, seething beneath the surface.

Episode 9 - The Greens do their thang.

Episode 10 - It all comes to a head. Look back, look at what we've seen with Daemon throughout the series' run so far. He was the heir, introduced on the Iron Throne. He wanted to be at Viserys' side the whole time. He wanted to be TRUSTED by Viserys. Rhaenyra, "the object of his ire," was made heir fourteen years -- at the least -- long after he had been heir. He was pushed around from position to position, moved like a worthless piece that Viserys didn't have time for while his brother trusted fucking Otto Hightower and Daemon did what he could in each role, never being trusted, never being regarded as worthy. He loved Rhaenyra for years. He lost ten years with her because Viserys didn't trust him, didn't listen to him. Rhaenyra's favor at court, reputation was damaged nearly irreparably, constantly having to be defended because Viserys wouldn't allow him to wed her. All because Viserys thought him unworthy.

And he wanted it. He DID want it. We know that. We know that from episode 01. We saw that. And here we are, the moment they find out, Daemon was ready, Daemon was decisive, making plans, sending out ravens, doing what needs be done, for Rhaenyra, for the Targaryen House glory, acting as a king would do. But as Jace reminded him--which he ignored--and then Rhaenyra reminded him by standing down his orders, which he did listen to--he was not the king. She was the queen. She was the one that Viserys found worthy. She was the one that Viserys trusted. Not him, never him. And then, ah, and then, it all came to a head.

Rhaenyra casually mentioned the Song of Ice and Fire dream. She mentioned it to him as if she expected him to know because, of course, he did. He had been the heir to the Iron Throne for years. Of course, Viserys had told him. Daemon was heir to the throne. Daemon was Viserys' heir, he must have trusted him. He *must* have told him. But. He. Had. Not. Because Viserys didn't trust him. He thought he was unworthy. A dishonorable man. And the person standing there, telling him this, bringing this final act of knowledge to him, the last "gift" from his brother, the last thing he would ever learn from Viserys now that he was dead was Rhaenyra, the one who knew, the one Viserys found worthy, the one that Viserys trusted, the object of his ire.

Daemon was awful and wrong and terrible for what he did to Rhaenyra. Daemon is also wild and turbulent and a violent man who is suffering through the most chaotic couple of days of his entire life.

His brother--who he deeply loved and deeply hated in equal parts--just died.

Daemon believed that same brother was slain by the people who stole his wife's crown.

His wife's throne was usurped. A throne that has been in his family for generations. Nevermind that technically the usurper is also his family, their Hightowers, damnit!

His wife also had a stillborn baby which is terrible enough on its own, but his last wife also would have had a stillborn baby--had she not surrendered herself to dragonfire.

He was this close to killing Otto Hightower. Thisclose! But Rhaenrya wouldn't let him. Fuuuuck! THISCLOSE!

It's been a chaotic crazy few days. Even for Daemon Targaryen. He forgot himself. He was very bad. Daemon is a very, very bad boy. We know this. It doesn't mean he doesn't still love Rhaenrya. After all, he was the one who came to her with news of Luke. Held her hand for a long, long moment. Stood beside her. And I have little doubt he will continue to stand beside her. Because he loves her. We've seen that plainly throughout the run of the series' so far. Just as we've seen that he also wanted the throne. But, you know what? He has given that up... FOR Rhaenyra. Again, because he loves her.

So, yeah, for anyone who thinks that everything that happened in this episode hasn't had the seeds lain? They have. They most definitely have.

#hotd 1x10 spoilers #hotd 1x10 #hotd spoilers #daemon targaryen #house of the dragon spoilers #daemyra positivity #daemyra

[italianpersonwithashippersheart]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "italianpersonwithashippersheart"?

The name used to be italiangirlwithanenglishheart, because ever since I started to be fluent in English I have been speaking and thinking in English and have always feel more connected to English things then Italian ones.

I have change girl to person when I started to questioning my gender and english to shipper because I am trying to have more interest in my own language and culture and trying not be so english focus (also because I have stopped wanting to move to the UK or America, no offence but *looks at the news* yikes).

I am not sure how good I will be with the list of fics recs, or if I can even get to 10 but I will try:

Philkas College Verse Series, continuation of the Eyewitness miniseries and canon as far as I am concerned: https://archiveofourown.org/series/697560

The Verse or Ari & Dante series continuation of the Aristotele and Dante Discover the Secret of the Universe first book only https://archiveofourown.org/series/1411420

Resplendent Verse Series and Until We Meet Again AU series where Korn and In didn't die but still seperated and rekindle their romance in their 50s thanks to Dean and Pharm (aka the greatest fic I have ever read, seriously!!!) https://archiveofourown.org/series/2324807

The Seven Deadly Sins series from Hannibal (there are many fics I love in the Hannigram fandom, but this is the series I come back to the most) https://archiveofourown.org/series/2835709

I want to shut out to the only 3 fics on ao3 about Anwar and Maxxie from Skins Gen 1, the only fics that understand these two characters as I have: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Anwar%20KharralsMaxxie%20Oliver/works

A Daemon AU Six of Crows Wesper Focus fic that is super amazing http://archiveofourown.org/works/32207206

Free Falling (Catch me if you Can) & Made The Right Selection from Red White and Royal Blue http://archiveofourown.org/works/34050883 & http://archiveofourown.org/works/33559741

The Still Incomplete On My Mind, Under My Skin LITA poly fic. One of the best poly fics I ever read. EDIT: I wanted to add the writer's tumblr but I had a memory lapse and could not remember it, now I do this amazing fic series is by @poetry-protest-pornography

Shape you like an ocean (come alive or come undone) - Black/Yok Not Me https://archiveofourown.org/works/38762907

A Helping Hand Ming/Wayo Ghost Ship fic from 2moons ttp://archiveofourown.org/works/24064309

And BONUS: kueadiao kissies Cutie Pie almost poly fic http://archiveofourown.org/works/46516054 (I can't find an actual poly ship for the cutie pie couples the way I can for the LITA couples and I will die mad about it)

Thanks for the ask anon this was a lot of fun. It was difficult to narrow down a favorite in some of this fandoms, but these are the ones that jump into my head right away.

#ask #Anonymous #fic recs