#space from her mom who sucks and from the drama of finding out her dad is the emperor who also sucks and that she and harrow have a

[sunaswife]

Summary: It’s been five years since you’ve seen your ex, Rin. He’s still not over you and you’re not over him. When he finds out you have children he thought he didn’t have a chance. Then he finds out they’re his? All of a sudden you’re teaching Suna how to be a single dad.

🔪: THIS CHAPTER WILL CONTAIN AN ATTEMPTED SUICIDE SCENE PLEASE BE ADVISED IF YOU CHOOSE TO NOT READ THEN SKIP THE ITALICS AND START READING AGAIN WITH THE REGULAR FONT

Warnings: Fluff, angst I guess, drama, and cuteness twin overload

Previously Up Next Masterlist

Chapter Ten

“Don’t worry I will save the princess and the queen!” Rini yelled with a paper towel sword. “Rawr!!!” Rin sat on his knees and flared his arms. “Oh no save us!” Akira yelled and you both stayed huddled on the couch. “I’m going to eat the princess and the queen.” Rin growled and attack Rini. Rini fell on his back and Rin began tickling his son.

Rini immediately began laughing and thrashing around under his dad and you were trying to tell them to be careful so Rini wouldn’t pee on himself. “See mom, boys are useless.” Akira muttered and stood up on the couch. Before you can scold her she hopped on Rin’s back and began pulling his hair. “Bad dragon don’t tickle the knight!” She huffed and began smack. “Oww, what the fuck—“ Rin hissed and gripped Akiras shoulders. He flipped her and made her land on her back (gently) and began tickling her as well.

Akira’s laugh filled the living room and Rini was trying to catch his breath. “Mom save us!” Akira yelled. “Jesus Christ.” You sighed and did exactly what Akira did. You wrapped your arms around his neck and your chest rubbed his back. He froze and Akira caught her breath. She lifted her legs and with her feet pushed him back and Rin lost his balance. You fell back and Rin landed right on top of you. “Ow..” you mumbled and rubbed your head. “I’m sorry.” Rin groaned and turned, his face rested right between your breasts. He slowly lifted himself and he looked at your chest. He looked up at your face and saw the embarrassment. “Holy shit I’m sorry!” He said and immediately pulled away.

“It’s okay. Sorry for landing on your back.” You muttered and he held out his hand, you grabbed it and he pulled you up. “Mommy and daddy sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Your kids sang and you scowled. “Come on, time for bed.” You immediately said and they began to whine. “No cuz then daddy’s gonna leave.” Akira whined. “No arguing. It’s late and momma and I need to have a talk.” He said and carried them both.

He walked them to their room and began tucking them in. They kept protesting that they didn’t want him to leave but he said that he had to and it was final. He was going to come back and see them anyways.

A crying fest began and it took almost an hour for them to calm down and eventually they knocked out due to exhaustion. Finally you and Rin sighed and closed the door to their room. “I can’t believe you did that for five years already.” Rin said and rubbed his shoulder. “I need to see a chiropractor.” You muttered, “me too.” He replied. You made your way to the kitchen and took out a wine cooler, “want one?” You asked, he nodded and you tossed it and he caught it.

“I’m gonna need like four of these.” You said and Rin snorted. “You bet.” He sighed and you both got comfortable on the couch. “Where do i start?” Rin hummed. “Post breakup...?” You suggested and he nodded. “Once upon a time—“ he started and you nudged him with your foot. “I’m your ex not your kid.” You said and he chuckled.

“Alright. So it started when—“

“Sweetie please talk to us..” Rintarou’s mother knocked on her sons door. “I’m fine.” Rin spat out. “Just leave me alone.” He said as he held the pig plush in his arms. “Rintarou I’m worried. Please.” His mother begged. “What do you want me to say?!” He raised his voice causing his mother’s eyes to widened.

He’s never ever raised his voice at her. “The girl that I love left me. How am I supposed to feel?! I don’t have anyone anymore!” He cried. “Sweetie she’s your first love, of course it’ll hurt but—“ “She’s my only love! Don’t you get it! I don’t want to be with anyone but her. She was my rock, she was there when nobody else was. She supported me and inspired me to be better and now she’s gone.” He sobbed and squeeze the pig plush. 

He saw the photo of you and him smiling by his bed and his chest tightened. “You fucking idiot!” He yelled at himself. He threw the plush and grabbed his wallet from his desk. He opened the door and his mom was standing there looking at her son in shock.

“Rintarou—you’re out. Are you hungr—“ “I’ll be back in a few days.” He told her. “Wait what? Why—Rintarou I know you’re heartbroken but you’ll find someone who will truly love you and appreciate—“ “Don’t you get it you old hag?! She loved me and appreciated me! But I ruined it! I ruined everything!” He neared his mom causing her to take a step back.

His eyes widened and he saw the fear in his own mother’s eyes. “Mom I—“

Slap

“I’m sick and tired of you being stupid! She’s gone. She doesn’t want you. Just move on. It won’t be easy but you’ll get over her eventually.” She told her son and he wiped his face with his sleeve. “I’m going to Miyagi and I’m going to find her.” He had decided, “With what money Rintarou? That’s a day long trip.” His mother asked.

He looked at her and she shook her head, “I’m not giving you money to see your little ex girlfriend just for you to come back even more depressed.” She told him and he rolled his eyes and slammed his bedroom door.

His mother sighed.

That night she got into a fight with her husband. “Rintarou is severely depressed and he’s having mood swings over some girl!” She hissed and his dad sighed. “My love, he’ll get over her eventually. He just needs his space—“ Rintarou’s parents were both interrupted by banging on their front door. They looked at eachother confused and his dad went to answer.

When he opened the door he was met with the gray haired twin. “Osamu hi..what brings you here—“ “Where is Rin?” He immediately asked and pushed through them. “What do you mean, he’s in his room.” Rin’s father said. “Excuse me.” Osamu quickly panted as he ran up the stairs. It was incredible disrespectful to barge in unannounced and without taking off your shoes but he wanted to make sure that his best friend was okay.

He found Rin’s door and tried the door knob. “Leave me alone!” Rin’s voice cracked as he tried to open the new pain meds his mother bought. “Rin listen to me, open the door. Please.” Osamu begged. “Osamu whats the meaning of this?” Rin’s father automatically asked. “Rin open the door.” Osamu repeated. Everyone else was muted from his mind his watery eyes and shaking hand made it hard for him to open the pill bottle.

He didn’t answer and Osamu’s heart stopped. He took a few steps back, then rammed his shoulder in the door. Rin flinched and turned to see his door slightly cracked. Osamu winced at the pain and he stepped back once more instead of his shoulder he lifted his leg to kick and he tried breaking it once more.

“Fuck Fuck Fuck.” Suna muttered as he kept his struggle. Finally the pill bottle cap unscrewed and his eyes widened. He held the pills in his palm and he put his head back to swallow. Even if he chokes trying to swallow the dry pills it doesn’t matter. He grabbed his water bottle, the one you put stickers all over and he drank as much as his throat could take.

It hurt swallowing down those pills, his throat burned and it felt like he was being cut from the inside. From the corner of his eye the door bursted open and came in Osamu with Suna’s poor weeping mother being held by her husband, his father. “Are you a fucking idiot?!” The gray haired twin screamed and immediately pulled Suna to his side. “Call 119 NOW!” Osamu yelled. “Leave me alone Samu—“ “Like hell I will! What would Y/N think if she find out you did this?!” He yelled. Tears filled his eyes and he could barley see his best friend. Rin stayed quiet and his gaze shifted passed Osamu’s shoulder.

“Y/N...what are you doing here?” Suna whispered and Osamu saw Suna’s eyes next to him. “What do you mean I’m stupid? I just feel so lonely... I said I was sorry. But you didn’t want to listen.” Suna began to cry once more and Osamu hugged him. “It’s gonna be okay. Please stay with me Rin.”

“Oh my god.” You cried, “I’m so sorry.” You apologized. “Hey hey it’s okay. I’m fine now.” Suna smiled softly and held you in his arms. “You could have been dead because of me.” You smacked his chest. Even in tears You looked so beautiful.

“In all honesty it was my fault to begin with. I shouldn’t have played with your heart. And when you left, it broke my heart. And I desperately wanted to get it back. I guess it showed how much I loved you.”

“How much I still love you.” He said softly.

“Rin you’re insane.” You wiped your eyes. “And what happened after?” You asked. “Well I had a dream about you and you seemed disappointed in the actions and state I was in. So I decided to try to be better than I was before. So that eventually you can take me back. I don’t know if you noticed but I’m a bit more social.” He joked and your heart swelled.

“In all honesty you were my motivation out of my depression. Sometimes I still get episodes and it sucks but I’ve been fine for a while now.” He admitted. “So you literally did a 180 just for..me?” You hiccuped. “Yeah. I love you. Always have and always will.” He looked into your eyes hopefully.

“Do you want to move in?” You asked and his eyes widened. “You want me to move in?” He asked. “Well how else are we gonna raise two kids? Our schedules are always changing. It makes sense to just live together.” You said and he nodded.

“Does that mean we can like share a room and cuddle like last night?”

“No.”

🔪: I know this was a lot but I wanted it to end a little positively

🏷: @therealwalmartjesus @differentballooncollection @aaesuki @atsunflower @dope-squish @prettysetterboiss @june-phantom @tomo-uwu @austriasmariazelle @xrnia @katsulia @aprettyfruit @shut-your-eyes-kiss-me-goodbye @tvbiio @sun-daddy-yoriichi @kamenoyaki @ppangiiroo @loeyprivvv @kmskj92 @lovinnoya @sarahvvictoria @tris-does-stuff @mokkeguts @sunaluvr6969 @bara-rose-would @sempiternal-amour @volleybloop @leykyuu @bokutoichigo @stfucanunot @iloveanime691 @tpwkatsumu @ohrintarou @shoutosimp @mqrinqcele @bokutosdivineass @anngelllla @toworuu @hidden-otaku-stuff @seijohiselite @caxsthetic @aquariarose @hhwanggu @bakuhoetoedoroki @yoozuku @osamus-onigiri @akaashi-todorki @donica95 @kakaokenma @airheadpillar

#haikyuu suna #suna rintarou fluff #suna rintarō #suna x reader #haikyuu!! x reader #miya atsumu #miya osamu #Akira and Rini #your everything #Inarizaki

[personuhh]

okay so awhile ago you posted something about Yosuke (crazy, right?) and in the tags I believe you mentioned something about how you don’t like Yosukes parents? Could you elaborate? bc I have not stopped thinking about it since you mentioned it (sorry this is so vague my memory is horrid skjdjfjgj)

OYSUEJGHHBKEJHDSGVDH oh my god okay SO. At first I just got ~vibes~ from him... like, I couldn’t quite pin down what made me think he had abusive parents, because obviously he never says anything to indicate it explicitly, but then I started noticing... small things.

I don’t want to say outright that I think they’re abusive (physically or verbally) and I also don’t think that Yosuke hates them, or necessarily even sees anything wrong with how they treat him, but I do think that their behavior has severely impacted Yosuke and led to a lot of the negative traits he displays.

To me, the most telling example is this conversation where he talks about Teddie being praised by his parents for being “thoughtful” very pointedly in front of him. It seems to be a reoccurring thing where they compare him to other people (primarily Teddie) and make him feel inferior. Yosuke’s a bit of a pushover, and frequently gets taken advantage of monetarily, and in this case he’s caved and lent Teddie a significant chunk of his savings for their trip to Tatsumi Port Island... only for him to spend it on presents to suck up to Yosuke’s parents which makes Yosuke look unthoughtful. Yosuke clearly sees it that way, even if Teddie hadn’t intentionally planned it out from the start as such (he calls Teddie “surprisingly shrewd”).

Yosuke gets told off either because a) he didn’t want to fight back/argue, and instead just took a passive stance instead of telling his parents that he was the one to lend Teddie the money in the first place, and thus didn’t have any left to buy them gifts, or b) his parents think so little of him that they don’t believe him at all. He specifically says he doubts his parents understand, which makes me think that he did try to explain the situation.

There are also several instances of a large Junes event being Yosuke’s responsibility, or at least of him thinking that he has to scramble to make things work, like the Junes concert, where he says he’ll have to move away if it doesn’t pan out; maybe this is his own thinking, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if it was something his dad said to scare him into helping, especially considering he MUST know that Yosuke is friends with Rise, or the time during the summer where he calls Yu and begs him to help out. Yosuke isn’t a manager, but he’s still got all the responsibilities of one, and even tries his best to work out other employees’ problems as well (look at his SL).

The Junes concert in particular really sent up some red flags for me, especially because Yosuke says this.

“Awfully nice for some reason”?

Yosuke’s got terrible self-esteem, there are countless times where he’s shown to be overwhelmed and embarrassed by completely genuine praise from his friends. In one of the drama CDs he mentions that he intentionally doesn’t try his best in school because he doesn’t want to disappoint himself by doing poorly while also knowing that he gave his all. It really makes me think that his parents just have an abysmally low opinion of him, and he’s adopted that same view of himself.

There’s also several scenes where he talks about his parents finding his porn (or Teddie showing it to them) and in his SL he says his mom “read the title out loud to [his] family” which on top of obviously indicating his family is pretty conservative about that kind of thing, also means he’s had to learn to be secretive with them to some extent. In Arena, Yosuke’s mother goes as far as burning the porn Teddie finds. Even if it's meant to be humorous, Yosuke's property is still being destroyed.

Now these next few things are more... abstract and can definitely be argued, but personally I still find them important to point out when discussing the topic.

Yosuke obviously struggles with toxic masculinity, and similarly to Kanji, feels like he needs to be the ideal, strong man that protects the weak, etc. Even without looking at specific dialogue, you can tell that Yosuke’s been raised to think he needs to be a “real” man, that displaying more “feminine” behaviors is a sign of weakness; because that isn’t just subtextual, it’s something he very visibly displays, it’s part of his arc. He can’t mourn and cry, he has to get revenge (because he couldn’t protect Saki at the time and he watched helplessly as she died, it makes it his fault), he says hugs are for girls (a common sentiment, but he had to learn it from somewhere), and any time he slips up and reveals his actual feelings, he has to overcompensate, let everyone know that he’s just your average teenage boy who’s definitely interested in women. Yosuke’s not the most masculine guy, he likes fashion and cares about his appearance (the bar is so low) and I’d bet that if he were given space to explore his interests without any expectations, he might actually find he’s into stuff that goes against what he’s been taught. He admits to liking crossdressing, then walks it back; not because he’s ashamed of it (on the contrary, once he realizes people found him cute, he openly brags about it), but because he thinks he SHOULD be ashamed of it.

It’s why he feels so threatened by Kanji, who completely takes him by surprise when he realizes his outer appearance and interests don’t match up. Now Yosuke’s got to compete with Kanji over who’s the manliest, show that he’s not like Kanji, because Kanji’s already accepted that side of himself, and it totally goes against everything Yosuke’s been taught to think is “normal”.

So then we look at lines like this.

On its own it’s nothing special, but it’s not just the slogan itself, it’s the way that Yosuke specifically says that his dad is still saying it. Combining this with what I mentioned previously about Yosuke’s behavior, and a few other tidbits, like Teddie mentioning that he watches violent war movies with Yosuke’s dad, it definitely makes me think he’s the type of guy who’d try and push Yosuke into being more masculine, being a traditional, unshakable, unemotional man.

Lastly, there’s the recently identified album on Yosuke’s shelf in arena, and what do you know, one of the songs on it (The Chain, by Mr. Big) has these lyrics...

In my mind, I see Yosuke’s mother as an incredibly controlling, strict woman who expects her son to be utterly perfect, and even when he’s good, it’s never good enough. Yosuke’s father is busy with Junes, and while he isn’t around the house too often, Yosuke sees him at work quite a bit, large and in-charge, not allowing anyone to see weakness, he leans on his son because he can’t bring himself to ask for help. Yosuke’s left to pick up the slack, and he’s taught by example that relying on others is cowardly, that being intimidating gets you further than being “nice”. Even though Yosuke obviously goes against this, he can't fully commit for fear of standing out and disappointing his parents, and that makes him passive; he ends up being a pushover, and neither of his parents are happy about that. He’s a “disappointment” to them, it’s one of his defining traits that everyone loves to bring up. It's something that's shown to really get under his skin, but he can never do much more than get angry, because he truly thinks he is a disappointment, he doesn't think highly of himself, even if he protests.

Maybe I’m reading into all of these things a little too much, but... I don’t know, I’ve said it before, but I just don’t see how half of Yosuke’s personality would have been shaped by anything other than his parents being Not Great.

#ada's writing #yosuke's parents #yosuke hanamura #yosuke appreciation #WHEW. THIS WAS A LONG ONE. #i literally spent like 3 hours on this and i still couldn't find most of the examples i wanted to lol #mentions of abuse #mentions of neglect #official-redhood #ask ada #ada's analysis #yosuke meta

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

The Wedding Date (Part 2)

Summary: When the reader is in desperate need of a date to her sister’s wedding, she calls a service to fulfill the need and ends up meeting Dean Winchester…

Masterlist

Pairing: AU!Dean x reader

Word Count: 7,400ish

Warnings: language, family angst/drama, scary situation

_______

After your shower you changed into a short sleeve romper, a pretty deep green that reminded you of the forest outside. With a hum you wandered out to the bedroom, spotting Dean laying on the bed watching TV.

“How was exploring?” you asked.

“This place is huge. I wouldn’t mind going out on the lake at some point if that’s okay,” he said.

“For sure,” you said, bending over to throw your hair up in a messy bun. You fixed it a bit in the mirror in there, catching Dean watching you. “What?”

“You look like a model or something,” he said. You stared before bursting out laughing, Dean giving you a small smile. “It’s true.”

“Ten bucks my mom tells me I look like a boy,” you said, grabbing a spare hair tie and your bracelet from the nightstand, slipping them back on your wrist.

“You look like some preppy girl, definitely not a boy,” he said, watching you step into a pair of sandals and zip up the backs.

“Still,” you said, looking yourself over before you put on some lip balm. “Are you hungry? We can get something to eat.”

“Sure,” he said. “Should I change?”

“Wear whatever you want,” you said. He rolled off the bed and went over to his bag, grabbing a few things before he stepped inside the bathroom. You’d just finished with some mascara when the door opened. Dean stepped out in a pair of khaki shorts and a gray button down with the sleeves rolled up. He took out the Sperry’s from his bag and put them on his feet before he turned to you. 

“This okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. You look like you fit in already,” you said.

“I’m used to hanging out with rich people. I get how they can be,” he said. 

“If you need space just say your allergies are acting up. It can be our code word if they get to be too much for you,” you said.

“Okay. Don’t worry so much,” he said. You sighed and shoved your phone and room key in your pocket, grabbing a pair of sunglasses and waving him out ahead of you. You walked quietly down the hall together, most people arriving later in time for the party. You were nearly at the elevator when you heard a whistle. 

“If it isn’t my baby sister,” said Jason, your oldest brother. He was fifteen years older and you were the definition of a kid sister. He ran over from his room and gave you a hug, picking you up off the ground. “Clean up all pretty, don’t you?”

“Too bad we can’t do anything about your face,” you said.

“You still need better insults,” he said, turning his attention to Dean. “Hi, sorry. Jason. I don’t get to see Y/N that much so we tend to make up for lost time. You are?”

“Dean Winchester and lucky enough to be seeing your beautiful sister,” said Dean, shaking hands with Jason. Your brother looked at Dean and then you, narrowing his eyes.

“What?” you asked.

“You got a boyfriend,” he said, a big smirk crossing his face. “Oh, I don’t think baby sis has ever had a-“

“Shut up,” you said, Jason snapping his jaw closed. “Dean, let's go to lunch and I don’t tell you everything about my dating life, Jason.”

“Yeah cause you don’t talk to me,” he said as you pulled Dean into the elevator, Jason following you inside.

“When am I supposed to talk to you? You’re a workaholic with a wife and two small kids,” you said.

“I can see you’re going to be exactly the way you always are at these. Well it’s Lauren’s wedding so please try to pretend like you don’t hate your family,” he said. “For our sake.”

“Can you try to pretend like you’re an adult and not jump down her throat for having a reasonable explanation of why she doesn’t talk to you a lot? If you were my brother, I don’t think I’d want to talk to you either,” said Dean.

“Watch your mouth, Winchester,” said Jason, grumpily trudging out ahead of you and Dean.

“Someone’s a little pissy,” said Dean. “He always like that?”

“What would you say if I told you that he’s who I get along with best out of my siblings?”

“I say I am so beginning to understand you not wanting to face this alone,” he said. You saw Jason pause for a moment, probably catching part of the conversation. You grabbed Dean’s hand and walked past him, feeling his stare on your back as you headed towards the dining area.

“Hey,” said Jason. You rolled your eyes and spun around, Jason taking a deep breath. “I know I’m busy a lot. You could call or text every once in a while is all I’m saying.”

“I stopped when you stopped answering. Forget it, Jason. It’s fine. We’ll see you at the dinner later,” you said. You pulled Dean along and through the open french doors, sighing as you found a table by the back window to sit at. He slid in across from you and stared at you, pursing his lip. “What?”

“He could call too,” he said. “I know a thing or two about non-responsive brothers. Sucks to be the only one that cares sometimes.”

“He’s just busy. He’s at a different place in life. It’s fine,” you said. A waiter brought over a pair of menus with a smile. “Order whatever you like, Dean. Can I get a slice of key lime pie and a bottle of beer?”

“I’ll have what she’s having,” said Dean. “Extra big piece.”

The guy grabbed the menus and Dean chuckled when he left.

“I’m really starting to like you, sweetheart,” he said. “Pie and beer. Not what I was expecting.”

“If I have another cobb salad I may vomit,” you said. “I am eating whatever the hell I want this week and I advise you do the same. The good booze will be out tonight so take advantage of that.”

“I’ll be sure to,” he said. You looked outside, catching sight of Jason walking out the back door over to a group of people sitting at a table. “Who’s that?”

“My siblings and their spouses aside from my brother, Brent. I don’t think him and his fiance are here yet. He’s seven years older than me. He’s next closest in age,” you said. “His wedding is in November. If my life is still a wreck, I may need to hire you again.”

“Pay me like this again and I’ll pay off that loan in no time,” he said. “You want to go sit with them?”

“Not really,” you said, looking across the room, spotting the waiter with your food. “I’ll have to face them by the end of the day. I’m okay with hiding until then.”

He was quiet as you got your drinks and dessert, Dean humming after his first bite. He gave a thumbs up and you smirked at the fact he got a bigger piece than normal as requested. You poked at yours for a moment, Dean snapping his fingers in front of your face.

“You okay? You looked out of it,” he said.

“Daydreaming,” you said. You took a bite and pushed your whip cream to the side, Dean quick to steal it for himself. “Do you like owning a garage?”

“Eh, I hate the bills but being your own boss isn’t too bad,” he said. “It’s a love hate relationship. It’s not what I thought I’d be doing to be honest.”

“Really? You said you went to college,” you said.

“I was going to do something else but my dad got sick. He’s fine now but he couldn’t run the garage anymore. I took his half of the garage and then the other guy retired right after we remodeled and expanded. It was crappy timing was all,” he said.

“What’d you want to be?” you asked.

“You’re gonna laugh at me,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“No, no, don’t apologize. It’s...I was dating this girl back then. She was a pastry chef. Incredible, like born with it kind of talent. She went to culinary school. She was going to New York City to work in a top restaurant and I was going to move out there with her and work for the New York Yankees as one of their athletic trainers.”

“Seriously? Wow, you must be good at baseball,” you said with a smirk, Dean putting on a shy smile. “Oh come on.”

“I got a scholarship for school. It’s how I could afford to go. It was a dream job, once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s been too many years now though and I haven’t picked up a bat in forever,” he said. 

“What happened with the girl if that’s okay,” you said. He shrugged and sipped on his beer, nursing it a moment.

“She cheated on me the first week she was out there,” he said. “I was ‘holding her back’ and had been for a long time. Exactly what I needed to hear three days after my dad had a massive heart attack.”

“Sounds like a bitch.”

He chuckled and nodded his head. 

“You got any shitty exes?” he asked.

“No. I’ve been on a lot of first dates, second dates, even the occasional third. Nothing ever stuck,” you said.

“Me either,” he said, knocking back the rest of his drink. “Not worth the aggravation, trust me.”

“You said your dad’s okay now, right?” you asked. He nodded and offered a quick smile.

“Yeah, he’s good. He can’t eat the way he used to and he has to workout now but my little brother is pretty good about keeping on him about that stuff,” said Dean.

“Just the one brother?”

“Yeah. I don’t have a whole pack like you,” he said. “Baby of the family must suck. They all seem a bit older.”

“They never include me in anything. I’m only in the wedding because my mom made Lauren. She’s always hated me,” you said.

“She’s your sister. I doubt she hates you,” he said.

“Remember how I said Jason is the nicest? I meant it,” you said.

“...Well if you want me to go protective asshole boyfriend, I am more than willing,” he said.

“Thanks, Dean. I’d rather try to keep the peace this week,” you said, eating your last bite. “Anything you want to do? You mentioned the lake?”

“Whatever’s good with you,” he said.

“Come on. We’ll take one of the canoes out,” you said. “You totally want more beer for the boat, right?”

“Woman after my own heart,” he teased.

“Give me ten minutes to put in an order and then we will be on our way.”

Dean excused himself to the restroom while you put in the drinks. You ducked in the bathroom for a moment, exiting to find Dean standing around in the lobby.

“You can swim right?” you asked.

“Yes, dork,” he said, throwing his arm over your shoulder. You almost made a comment but you saw your parents come down the stairs. You got out of there before they could catch up with you, heading straight outside as your siblings were all starting to get up.

“Hey, there’s Y/N. Now we’re just missing Brent,” said Lauren, plastering a fake smile on her face. She rushed over and gave you a hug, giving Dean a side eye. “Who’s this? I hope you paid him good!”

Your face felt hot as you stared at her, barely noticing Dean wrap an arm around your waist and give it a tight squeeze.

“Oh you can’t buy me, honey,” said Dean, giving her a smile back before he kissed your cheek. “Is this your oldest sister?”

She frowned and you bit down you smirk, Jason not bothering to hide his.

“I’m Lauren, Y/N’s middle sister,” she said. “You’re Y/N’s plus one?”

“I guess I am,” said Dean. “Sorry. Y/N and I had a horribly long drive and I promised her a little one on one time before you all take her away. I look forward to getting to know you all tonight though. Come on, sweetheart.”

Dean pulled you off of the patio and down a few steps to the path and it took everything in you not to look back.

“Too much?” he asked.

“Oh, I fucking loved that,” you said, Dean giving you a high five. 

“No offense but your brothers and sisters are all like...incredibly passive aggressive towards you. It’s kinda weird to do that for no reason,” he said.

“They’ve all been that way since as far back as I can remember. I just don’t think they like me very much. The unplanned kid,” you said. “I think I threw a wrench in my parents lives and theirs.”

“You didn’t ask for that. What, they mad cause they have to share their trust fund? They can grow up,” he said. 

“Well thank you but please do try to play nice with them, and my parents. It is Lauren’s wedding like Jason said.”

“Is that how they always get you to back down? Tell you it’s not your turn, it’s about someone else?” 

You slowed your walk and bit your bottom lip.

“You’re very perceptive for a fake boyfriend,” you said.

“Hey, I gotta use that psychology minor for something,” he said.

“Business owner, baseball, psych...you’re a little enigma, aren’t you, Dean Winchester,” you said.

“Is that latin for adorable?” he said. You laughed, a big genuine one that had Dean throwing his arm over your shoulders. “You stick with me and you’re gonna survive this week just fine, sweetheart.”

“I sincerely hope I do,” you said. The path down to the docks went slowly, Dean taking his time to look around at the lake in front of you, the trees around, glancing at the different parts of the resort all around. “It’s an outdoor wedding as you can tell. They’re already decorating.”

“This place is really beautiful,” he said. “How much does a normal night in a place like this cost?”

“I think the lowest package is $600 a day per person. All inclusive,” you said. “Better room, better booze, more options, price goes up. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make it more affordable.”

“Do you work here?” he asked. “You never really mentioned what you do.”

“I’m on the board, all us kids are. I don’t have a real job per say,” you said. “You probably think I’m even more of a spoiled brat, don’t you.”

“I never said that. If you don’t work, how do you fill your day?” he asked.

“Different things. Workout, do some of my own stuff like write or do resort stuff. I get lunch and then I volunteer at a few places in the afternoons,” you said. “Jason and my other older brother Dan and my oldest sister Aria, they all work in the family business. They run things with my parents. Lauren and Brent and me all kind of do more charity work I guess.”

“Well I think that’s a very good use of your time,” said Dean. “People who can afford to give back should.”

“I agree. It’s not like I’ll ever have a job here,” you said. 

“What’d you want to be when you grew up?” he asked.

“A ghost,” you said. Dean laughed and grabbed your hand as you walked past a few workers on the path. “I’m serious!”

“I wanted to be a ghostbuster,” he said. 

“Well that too of course,” you said.

“You wanted to fly around?” he asked.

“I saw that movie Casper as a kid. I don’t know. I’ve always been invisible to a degree with my family. It made sense at the time,” you said. “We should go over the schedule for the week probably.”

“Well I am going to show you off and make sure they see you,” he said. “You can count on it.”

“You’re not half bad for a fake boyfriend, Dean.”

“I could say the same,” he said, smiling as you finally made your way to the docks. “Now I think we should discuss our 4 wheeling trip, don’t you? Something fun to look forward to?”

“You think you can handle it?” you teased.

“Oh, I know I can,” he said, letting you guide him over to a canoe marked off for you. “Ladies first.”

You grabbed the aqua colored life jacket and pulled it on, letting Dean get the bright blue on himself. 

“Here,” you said, tugging on the strap when he get tangled up. “If we’re gonna be drinking, better safe than sorry.”

“You’re the expert, not me,” he said. You left your phones on the dock before you helped Dean in the canoe, handing him a paddle before you took off. It was quieter on the water and you felt Dean’s gaze on your back as you started to slow. You spun around on your bottom and opened the cooler sat between you. “So where do you go riding?”

“See over that way?” you asked, pointing to the northern side of the lake. “It’s about a twenty minute drive. There’s a town over there and about ten minutes past that is the local riding trails. You ever ride before?”

“A few times in a field,” he said.

“Alex will loan you some gear to wear.”

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Weren’t we doing that already?” you said. “Shoot, Winchester.”

“Why don’t you make it past the third date?” he asked. “You could land whoever you want out there.”

“That’s very kind of you but normally by the third date is when they find out I come from this. It’s hard to trust a stranger when they look at you like you’re suddenly a bank account.”

“Not a one ever worked out?” he asked.

“This is taking a depressing turn, Dean,” you said.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. You have nothing to do with my shitty dating history,” you said.

“You’re not the only one with one,” he said, taking a beer out and cracking it open. “So what’s this dinner tonight? How do the fancy people do it?”

“It’s kind of this tradition. The family, my parents and the kids, we have a family dinner with just us before everyone else shows up,” you said. “It’s normally my least favorite event.”

“Well we should come up with some things to brag about, hm?”

Later That Evening

“Uh oh,” said Dean, ducking into the bathroom as you pouted in front of the mirror. “Someone looks grumpy.”

“I can’t do this. I paid you...what kind of freak am I? They’re gonna find out and-” you said, Dean putting both his hands on your shoulders.

“Relax. You’re in a bind and so am I. Think of it as two friends helping each other out, okay? It’s a dinner. You’ll survive,” he said.

“You look nice in your suit,” you said, smoothing out your dinner dress. “We should head down.”

You started to turn to leave but he caught your cheek and you turned back, Dean tilting his head.

“If you need to get out of there, I think maybe we have a codeword for you too. Say your stomach is bothering you?” he asked.

“You’re sweet,” you said with a nod. “Let’s face the music.”

“You look very beautiful,” he said, shoving his wallet in his pants pocket.

“Dean, when we’re alone, you don’t have to act like my boyfriend,” you said.

“Alright. I didn’t think I was,” he said. He slipped past you and tugged on his suit jacket, fixing it before you followed him out and down towards the stairs. He was cool and calm right up until you walked to the outdoor dining area, Dean swallowing but putting on a friendly face quickly.

“Y/N! We haven’t seen you all day,” said your mom as she gave you a hug. “Dean’s been keeping you busy it seems.”

“Yes, very,” you said. You looked around the table, spotting an open spot next to Dan. You took Dean’s hand and guided him over to sit, a glass of white wine quickly in front of you.

“Oh, sorry, I don’t like white,” said Dean to the server.

“We have whatever you could want,” said your dad. 

“Whiskey on the rocks?” asked Dean.

“Double,” you said, holding up a finger. Lauren gave you a look but put a smile on her face.

“So I know Calvin and I are super excited to have everyone with us. We just wish his parents could have gotten in for the party tonight but I know all of you will make him feel right at home,” she said. “Oh and Dean too. I know we’re all dying to get to know Y/N’s little friend.”

“Oh it’s your guys day, week. Please feel free to take the spotlight off of me,” said Dean. “Congratulations.”

She seemed to ease up at that, some bread coming out along with your drinks. You were quiet, listening in somewhat, Dean being goofy and making you hide a laugh as he picked at the loaf in front of you.

“Dean,” said your dad, the table going silent. “How’d you two meet?”

“In a little coffee shop. It was almost like a movie or something. I fell for her right on the spot,” he said. “Of course she thought I was weird when I kept staring at her. It took a good half hour before she gave me a shot.”

“You asked her out?” asked Dan, Aria making a face at him. “No offense, Y/N. He’s kinda hot is all.”

Dean made a face before he turned to your parents. Your mom whacked Dan and you sighed.

“Hey, good for you. Most of us aren’t that lucky is all,” he said.

“What is that supposed to mean, Daniel?” said his wife, Greta. 

“Nothing! We met at school. I think you’re hot too! Geez,” he said. 

“Excuse him,” said your mom. “I for one think it’s wonderful that Y/N has found such a lovely young man. It’s about time.”

You gripped your thigh under the table, Dean’s hand finding yours and giving it a squeeze.

“I think we all deserve to find someone, no matter when that happens,” said Dean. “Right, sweetheart?”

“Yeah,” you said, getting a smile out of him. 

“Y/N tells me the Y/L/N family normally has some fun activities during their weddings,” said Dean. 

“Oh and you guys are gonna love what Calvin and I have planned,” said Lauren. “We-”

The string lights shut off and you saw the inside of the resort go dark, a generator kicking on to turn on part of the inside after a moment.

“Aiden,” said your dad as he came walking by past the kids table. “Can you please figure out how to get the power back on?”

“Of course,” he said, quickly heading inside. Dean pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight, other’s doing the same and quickly you had a decent amount of light. There was a little patter of feet as Jason’s two kids ran over to him.

“Girls, it’s just the power. It’s fine,” he said.

“No it was the monster,” said Abby, the oldest. She pointed off towards the woods and you rolled your eyes. 

“Abby, there’s nothing there,” you said.

“Aunt Y/N yeah there was!” she said.

“Alright,” said Dean, knocking back the rest of his drink. “Time to go hunt some monsters. I’ll be right back girls.”

He stood up and you shook your head, Dean taking a walk down the path past the kids table and over towards the woods.

“I like him,” said Brent. “Nice ass too.”

“Brent,” said Lauren, rolling her eyes.

“Oh I agree,” said his fiance Peter. You watched Dean walk across the grass and over to the woods, holding up his phone. You swore you saw something in the dark trees but you were far away and it was nearly pitch black. “Did anyone else see that?”

“Uh huh,” you heard a few voices say as you got to your feet.

“Dean!” you called. “You can come back now!”

He took a few steps forward before a shot rang off and Dean’s phone fell to the ground.

“Everyone inside, now,” said your dad. You stared out in the dark, waiting for a flicker of the light to come back as there was rustling all around you.

“Inside,” growled Jason as he picked you up and quickly walked the two of you through the back door. Your dad locked it after you and you had enough common sense to plant your feet on the ground.

“Hey. Dean is still-”

“We don’t know what happened,” he said quietly. “I am not risking my children to find out.”

“Well he’s my friend and I’m the reject of the family so who cares? It could be a damn hunting accident for all we know,” you said. You put a hand on the lock and you felt Jason’s arm around you again. “I swear if you don’t stop doing-”

“Bring her up to our suite,” said your mom with a sigh. “Please everyone go to your rooms. Kids, meet in ours. We need to talk about this.”

You narrowed your eyes, watching in some strange synchronized way how everyone did as asked, Jason setting you down after a moment in favor of grabbing your arm and pulling you upstairs.

“What the hell is going on?” you asked. He shook his head and you followed your dad into your parents room, your siblings all filing in and settling around the room, your mom taking her time to return and lock the door shut after herself. You went over to the backdoor to look for Dean but this time you felt two pairs of hands on you pulling you back. Your older brothers walked you back to the couch and sat you down. 

You looked around, no one looking you in the eye and you stood up.

“This is not helping. I am going-”

“Sit your ass down. I am done,” said your dad. You swallowed and sat back in your seat, your dad running his hands over his face. “It’s done. No more. You all knew this was a possibility and now it’s happening.”

“Uh, hi. Possibly shot boyfriend out in the yard and I have zero fucking clue what you are talking about,” you said.

“You know how you’re the baby,” said Lauren. “Like even Brent is quite a bit older.”

“Yes. There’s an age gap. I am aware, Lauren,” you said. She glanced to your parents, Jason leaning forward in his seat.

“You’re not my daughter,” said your dad. 

“What?” you laughed. “You’re my dad.”

“I know I’m your dad, sweetie. It doesn’t mean I’m your father,” he said. You wiped the smile off your face, your mom closing her eyes. “Your mother had an affair. You were a result of it.”

“Oh,” you said, trying to wrap your head around that. “I...that’s not true. This is some really...lame prank...right?”

“Why do you think they didn’t like you?” asked Jason. You bit your bottom lip and he gave you a smile. “Proof of cheating. Proof of a marriage that was failing. Proof of a lack of love. You have always thought we hated you. We all know it.”

You swallowed and put your head in your hands, a shaky breath escaping you. There was a hand on your back and you sat up straight, taking a big gulp of air as tears formed in your eyes.

“Some people may have left a two year old unattended near a pool by herself and thought the problem would take care of itself,” said Jason, throwing a dirty look across the room to Aria, Dan and Lauren.

“Oh. Awesome,” you said, standing up and wrapping your arms around yourself.

“That was a fucking accident and you know it, Jason. I miscounted and thought she was ahead of us. It was a fucking mistake. That was before that whole night even happened,” said Aria.

“Well you’ve always been a bitch to her. You all have. I’m not perfect but I’m nearly fifteen years older than her and it was kinda hard to be around for the kid,” he said.

“Would you all just shut the fuck up,” you said. The room went silent as you walked back towards the window, spotting a light in the grass again. “There’s light in the yard.”

“You can’t go out there,” said your dad as you headed for the door.

“Why on earth would I want to stay with you people? You’ve all apparently lied to me my entire life. My own brothers and sisters have bullied me and made me feel so horrible about myself...why do you think I don’t talk to any of you? You’re all so condescending and look at me like I’m less than you. At least now I understand why,” you said.

“Y/N,” said your mom. She stood and shook her head, guiding you to sit next to her. “Your birth father is an incredibly dangerous man. Incredibly. We decided...after an incident occured when you were three, we told the children about him and made them swear to never tell you. To protect you. Maybe we never called them out on their behavior like we should have and maybe we are not the best parents in the world but everyone in this room has spent many, many years, protecting you.”

“Porecting me? You gave me an eating disorder when I was in highschool,” you said to Lauren. “You’re damn lucky I finally broke out of it in college. Dan, you broke my arm and never apologized. Aria, you made made me so nervous about relationships, I never even got laid until last year. Brent, you accused me of not liking the fact you were gay when I’m the one that told your fucking fiance that you guys would be so good for each other when I’ve known since I was twelve by the way. Jason...maybe you weren’t as bad but you left me alone to grow up in this. Do you all want to know the best part? Dean isn’t even my boyfriend. I hired him to pretend to be mine to get all of you people off my back when it turns out, that was never going to happen. You know and maybe I did hire him but he’s been my friend all day long and I’m going to go make sure he’s okay.”

You got up and left before any of them could stop you. You jogged down the stairs and into the lobby, looking around until you headed towards the backdoor.

A hand yanked you back and covered your mouth, warm lips brushing your ear. 

“Sh. It’s me,” said Dean. “Be quiet.”

He dropped his hands away and laced your fingers together, jogging the two of you upstairs. You ducked into your own room, Dean shutting the door silently behind himself.

“What happened out there?” you asked.

“I saw a guy in the woods and he shot my phone so I hit the deck and ran. When the coast was clear, I headed back up here,” he said.

“You didn’t get your phone? We saw it moving around in the yard,” you said.

“It wasn’t me,” he said. You sat on the edge of the bed and Dean knelt down in front of you. “It’s just a bad person probably looking to rob the place or a really idiot hunter. It’ll be okay.”

“I don’t know. I just learned a whole bunch of family stuff and I’m so sorry I dragged you into this. I’ll pay you whatever you want. I-“

“Hey,” he said, cupping your cheeks. “Relax, sweetheart.”

“I’m sorry. This is-”

“I said relax. Take a deep breath,” he said. He did the motion and you followed him, Dean smiling after a few tries. “There we go. Better?”

“A little. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It was only a phone,” he said. The lights kicked back on fully and he immediately frowned. “Y/N. Don’t cry. I promise it’s okay.”

“It’s not you. My family knows about you. I just told them. First thing in the morning I’ll drive you home and try to fix this,” you said. There was a knock at the door and Dean got up slowly.

“Y/N? You in there?” asked Jason. Dean went over to the door and cracked it open a hair. “Oh. Hey. Y/N in there?”

“What do you need Jason?” asked Dean.

“Police are out front. They caught a couple of teenagers hunting illegally,” he said. “You probably want to talk to them.”

“I’ll be down in a minute,” said Dean. “By the way, now that everything’s out in the open and all...be nicer to your sister.”

“Yeah. I sort of got that part already,” he said. “Can I talk to her?”

You shook your head and Dean turned back to the door, giving Jason a look.

“Tell her...forget it. I’ll ask the kitchen to send up your guys dinner,” he said.

“Bottle of something very alcoholic would go a long way too,” said Dean. He shut the door and ran his hands over his face. “Y/N.”

“Yeah,” you said, staring at the floor. 

“I’m going to go talk to the cops. Why don’t you take a soak in that jetted tub in there. We can have our own night, okay?” he asked. He rubbed a hand up and down your back and you turned your head towards him.

“Dean. They know I paid you. You don’t have to pretend anymore,” you said. “It’s okay. Really.”

“Maybe you paid me but you’re my friend now and you look like you had a hell of a night. I nearly got shot. So why don’t we do what friends do and have a little sleepover and get drunk. That sounds good to me,” he said.

“Thanks,” you said. You stood up and gathered some pajamas up before you headed into the bathroom, looking over your shoulder at him. He ran his hand over his face and you saw red on the back of his hand before he was on his feet and leaving. 

After a few minutes you had the tub filled and got in the water, washing your face a few times. A part of you seriously considered driving home first thing in the morning and never speaking to any of them ever again. You had more questions than answers now though and you did love them, even if you didn’t really want to at the moment.

Then there was the whole dangerous father thing that had you on edge.

“Y/N?” said Dean, knocking on the door, making you jump. “Dinner’ll be up soon. I got us some dessert too.”

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

You let yourself soak a few more minutes before you got out and dried off. You changed and walked back into the bedroom to find Dean in his pajamas, sitting on the bed with a roll of gauze in his hand. He stared up at you as you pouted.

“What happened?” you asked, taking a seat next to him, gently taking his wrist.

“Cop said I probably got grazed,” he said. “I cleaned it downstairs. I didn’t want to put on the stupid bandage.”

“Well you should, even if it’s just for the night,” you said. You reached across his lap and picked the white roll up, careful of his hand as you wrapped it for him. 

“Thanks,” he said quietly, settling his hands in his lap.

“I’m going to set the alarm for six. We can get on the road early,” you said. He raised an eyebrow at you, a soft look forming on his face. “Going home, Dean.”

“Don’t you still have a wedding?” he asked.

“I won’t make you stay. Tonight could have been so bad.”

“It was an accident. Barely an accident. I didn’t even press charges. I am fine, Y/N. I’m not running off and leaving you with these assholes on your own. You’re too nice to just ditch your sister’s wedding so I know you aren’t going anywhere so I guess I’m not either.”

“Your ex was such an idiot,” you said. Dean laughed and nodded his head.

“Yeah. I’m kinda glad things happened the way they did. I don’t think things would have worked out anyways,” he said. There was a knock at the door and a moment later Dean returned with a cart, some food and a bottle of the good scotch on top. “Well that looks expensive. Seems like your brother is trying to apologize.”

“Half-brother,” you said, standing and grabbing the bottle, pouring a triple for yourself, knocking most of it back in one go. You shivered as it burned down your throat, Dean blankly staring at you.

“Half-brother?”

“Oh, have I got a story for you.”

“Wow,” said Dean an hour later, the two of you picking at the last of the ice cream pie. “I mean wow.”

“Yeah,” you said, handing the bottle over to Dean for a refill. He took a long drink, shaking his head out.

“Do you really think they hated you?” he asked.

“No. But I don’t think they liked me. I don’t know if it’s because our mom cheated or I took a share of their trust fund money or they were supposedly always having to protect me. What kind of bullshit is that by the way? Protect me? Those assholes hurt me nearly my whole life,” you said.

“You don’t have the eating disorder anymore, right?” he asked, licking the whipped cream off his fork.

“No,” you said, Dean smiling back at you. “It was just in highschool and a bit of college. The more I was on my own, the easier it was to get better.”

“Good. You’re perfect the way you are,” he said. 

“Let’s not go that far,” you said with a laugh as you rolled back on the bed, tilting your head back at him. “I think I’m kinda drunk.”

“Oh, I think that’s safe to say,” he said, taking another forkful of pie before he rolled right next to you. “At least you’re not the only one.”

“Do you like doing this?” you asked, Dean resting his chin on his hands. “Getting paid to be a date?”

“Not really. I mean, despite the nearly being shot, this is my favorite job I’ve had,” he said.

“How much is your loan?” you asked.

“Okay drunk girl, we’re not going there,” he said. 

“I had to try,” you said.

“You really don’t.”

“S’not fair. You didn’t even want that job and you got stuck with it and then you got stuck with this other job and s’not fair, Dean. You should be able to do what you want and not worry and have a girlfriend and your weekends and nights back and it’s not fair you know? I just-”

“You’re drunk and you had a bad night. No way in Hell would I take your moeny, sweetheart. I appreciate the offer, I do, but it’s my bed and I gotta lie in it. You got your own,” he said.

“Well maybe I’m just tired of sleeping alone,” you said.

“What are we talking about anymore?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” you breathed out. 

“Me either,” he said, propping himself up on his elbows. You reached across the bed and grabbed his hand, drawing shapes on his palm until he squeezed it shut around you. He pushed it away gently, quietly crawling over and looking down at you staring right back. “To be clear, I’m off the clock.”

“Okay,” you said.

He dipped his head low and kissed you, letting you cup his cheek as he very slowly broke away. He laid next to you, turning to face you, a tiny smile on your face. He returned it, closing his eyes after a moment.

“Why’d you kiss me?” you asked.

“I wanted to,” he said. “Was that okay?”

“It wasn’t not okay,” you said. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah. Just...I might do it again as a warning,” he said. 

“Okay,” you said. He moved his bandaged hand up to your face and pushed a strand of hair aside. “Why do you want to kiss me, Dean?”

“Cause I like you,” he said. “You don’t treat me like meat or make me feel bad about the fact I do this. Out of all those people, out of all your strong brothers and brother in laws and all that, you’re the one that when you thought something happened to me, you tried to come help me. You’re cute and sarcastic and I like you.”

“You don’t think I’m pathetic?”

“No. I never have. You have trust issues and so do I. I think we have more in common than what you see at the surface.”

“People don’t talk like that in real life,” you said.

“I do. If I trust the other person.”

“Can we do the rest of this trip as friends? Not as a date for hire.”

“Yeah,” he said as you took his hand and ran your thumb over the back of it. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

You brought it up to your face and kissed it, Dean smiling.

“All better now,” he said. “You doing alright?”

“I don’t know,” you said. You jammed your face in his shoulder, Dean’s arm moving to wrap it around you. “I’m glad you’re here, Dean.”

“Me too, sweetheart.”

_______

A/N: Read the Final Part here!

#supernatural #spn #dean x reader #dean winchester #supernatural fanfiction #dean winchester x reader #dean spn #dean #winchester #dean spn au #au

[bitsandbobsandstuff]

The (not naked) pin-up calendar

Summary: When you ask for a favor, Bucky (very) grudgingly agrees. What can you do to thank him? Return the favor, of course.

Characters: Bucky x Reader; a plethora of Avengers Warnings: Hardcore fluff. Soldiers wrestling like immature children. Steve being weirded out by nut sacks. Harry Potter references. A hint of naughty times at the end.

A/N: This is silly and fun and what can I say, writing sassy Bucky makes me happy. This is for @beckzorz 1k Writing Challenge (go follow this incredibly talented, beautiful lady), and my prompt was ‘Pin-up calendar’. Thanks a million for hosting Becca, I love you 3000! ♥️

Want to find all my stories? Search #bitsmasterlist or try the link in my bio!

*****

Overnight, the list gets tacked on the corkboard in the kitchen.

Bucky’s rummaging through the pantry, searching for his breakfast Doritos and a jar of salsa to dunk them in, when he glimpses his name from a distance. Snatching up a butter knife, he wanders over to the wall. When he sees the list header, he whirls around in a flurry of tangled hair and irrational grumpiness.

“What the hell is this?”

Bucky complaining first thing in the morning is par for the course, so both Sam and Steve, strolling in to search for breakfast, ignore him. Sam veers toward the sugary cereal cabinet, Steve heads for the oversize Ironman container housing granola, and Bucky stomps his foot like a toddler.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Steve says seconds later, through an overflowing mouthful of flaxseed and yogurt. “You already agreed. You’re not backing out.”

Bucky spins around and reads the flyer again.

---

“Avengers Calendar Shoot”

See below for your name and photo call timing.

Monday: Carol (10am), Wanda (2pm), Scott (6pm)

Tuesday: Rhodey (10am), Sam (2pm), Steve (6pm)

Wednesday: Tony (10am), Bruce (2pm), Natasha (6pm)

Thursday: Thor (10am), Clint (2pm), Bucky (6pm)

---

Stomping his foot again, Bucky stabs the flyer with the aforementioned butter knife.

“Someone better be yankin’ my dick right now,” he warns. “I definitely didn’t agree to bare my wrinkly nut sack for the whole fucking world to see.”

Sam dry heaves over his Lucky Charms.

Steve’s now filling his Black Widow coffee mug and rolling his eyes.

“What is it with you always trying to be naked? It’s not a naked thing, it’s a charity thing. Innocent children who don’t know what an asshole you are will see this, so you better be wearing clothes,” Steve gives his mug an annoying slurp. “Besides - you already agreed. No takebacks.”

“Steve,” Bucky crisply pivots, launching metaphorical murder darts from his eyes. “We’ve talked about this. Don’t tell me how to live my life.”

“Well it was your girl who convinced everyone to do it, so good luck telling her you’re a liar.” Instead of responding, Bucky holds up a Dorito in front of Steve and peers around the silhouette. Draws a few angles in his head. “What?” Steve asks brusquely.

“Nothing,” Bucky mutters. The chip cracks between his teeth with a puff of toxic orange. “Just makin’ an observation.”

“Just wear your scary leather bondage uniform with your scary mask and stand there all scary. You don’t even need to smile,” Sam says. Spooning cereal in with one hand, his other is attempting to worm its way into Bucky’s bag of chips. Cradling the Doritos under his arm, Bucky twists away, blocking the attack.

“Good way to lose a finger. Don’t touch my things.”

Sam swallows his cereal, ignores the lethal look in Bucky’s eyes, and tries again.

Steve joins in.

And so, when you roll into the kitchen a few minutes later, here’s what you find: three Avengers, three veteran soldiers, wrestling over a bag of Doritos. Bucky has Sam in a headlock, Sam is kicking Bucky’s shins and hitting him with a milky spoon, and for some reason, Steve is dancing around trying to tickle them both.

Clearing your throat, the trio freezes.

You smile.

“Gentlemen.”

Flailing arms and legs instantly break apart. Sam and Steve have the good grace to look chastened, both stammering embarrassed apologies. Bucky simply shoves a fistful of Doritos in his mouth and smiles triumphantly. Striding over to you, he wraps an arm around your shoulders.

“Babe, take my side here. You don’t want the whole world to see my nut sack, right?”

“Stop saying nut sack,” Steve hisses. “Nuts are gross.”

“Maybe your nuts are gross Steve,” Sam pipes up, rubbing his shirt with a wet rag, trying to clear away Bucky’s orange powder fingerprints, “but my nuts are awesome.” After a few harsh scrubs, he sees the futility and throws the rag in Bucky’s face. Stalking from the kitchen, he shouts something about laundry wheels and Oxyclean.

When you pluck the bag of Doritos from Bucky’s grubby hands, he releases them easily and grins at your exasperation. Sidling close, he rubs up against you like a needy kitten, so you hug him tight, dipping your fingers down to squeeze his butt.

“Please do it Bucky, I already told them you would. Wear anything you want, you don’t even have to smile,” you murmur in his ear, knowing precisely which buttons to push. “And besides, I bet I’m not the only one who wants to see those pretty blue eyes. Right?”

Bucky purses his lips. Wrinkles his nose. Grumbles under his breath.

And because you’re looking at him all wide-eyed and soft, he gives in.

Like he always does.

“Fine,” he huffs. “Fine. I’ll do it for you.”

“So much drama,” Steve mumbles through his granola. Bucky lunges for him, but Steve drops his bowl in the sink and skirts past, rushing for the door. Looking back, he throws Bucky a challenging smirk, before smacking into the doorframe. There’s a brief ricochet and then he’s scurrying down the hall, laughing as he goes.

“Idiot,” Bucky mutters.

Folding your fingers behind his neck, you turn his face back to you and kiss his stubbly cheek. “Thank you. Reason number one billion and two why I love you.”

At the brush of your lips, Bucky promptly grabs the back of your thighs and hoists you in the air. Spinning around, he shuffles over to the counter and drops you on top. Settling between your legs, hands flat on the counter boxing you in, his mouth finds the open space above your shirt collar and he proceeds to kiss every square inch.

“The things I do for you,” he breathes, sucking his favorite spot along your neck. It makes you shiver, that thing he does with his tongue. “You realize now I gotta go on a diet.”

“What? No, you don’t. You look perfect.”

Disappointingly, he stops that whole talented tongue thing and leans back. Grinding your heels into his butt, you kick him, urging him to stay put. Instead, he sighs in that tragic, pay attention to me way that only Bucky Barnes can do.

“Obviously I’m perfect, so are you by the way, but the camera adds five pounds. I have to preemptively lose it.” Crinkling up his now empty bag of Doritos, he throws it at the trash can and misses by a mile. He gives you a hangdog, pathetic sort of look. “This sucks.”

Bucky Barnes, ladies and gentlemen. The most dramatic human being on the planet.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you don’t need to diet. You could weigh a thousand pounds and it wouldn’t matter, you don’t - “

“Maybe not, like, a thousand pounds,” Bucky interrupts. “That’d make sex super hard. And not good hard. Just awkward hard. You know? Like when Hagrid’s mom and dad had sex. Which I still don’t understand how that’s supposed to work and I’ve done a shitload of research on it, been on all kinds of forums and talked to some experts - there’s a guy at SHIELD who specializes in interplanetary species relationships, I don’t know if you knew that - but anyway it just makes no sense because she would have killed that little guy if he tried to bang her, and I’m sorry, that’s the tea and I’ll fucking fight anyone who disagrees.”

Pausing for breath, he looks so earnest you almost hate to stop him.

“Buck, maybe we try one day where you don’t reference Harry Potter? I know you’re a fan, but - “

“I drew some diagrams,” he continues. “Boning diagrams. But like, I still can’t get it to work.”

Staring into space, he lets his marvelous tactical brain run every scenario of sexual acrobatics required to establish the feasibility of human-giant sex.

This could go on forever. Once Bucky gets knee-deep in fan forum theories, hours will lapse before he swims up for air. Many a morning has found him still in his boxers, laptop on his knees while he smashes the keyboard, arguing with virtual enemies about the physical features of Hogwarts house founders or the complex nuances of international Wizarding trade law.

The truth is - Bucky Barnes is a god damn nerd.

Clapping your hands, you drag him back to real life.

“Focus please. You’re good to do this then? Without the diet?”

“I really really hate it,” he replies, matter of fact, “but I really really love you, so if you want me to, I guess I’m in. But I’m still losing five pounds.”

“You’re my favorite, you know that?” Slipping your hands up under his shirt, you massage the tight muscles alone his spine and he hums happily. Flashing a lazy grin, he boops your nose.

“You know what? I think you should do it too. Be so great to have a sexy poster of you for those long nights when I’m gone and can’t sleep,” he waggles his eyebrows suggestively. “If you know what I mean.”

“I’m going to pretend I don’t know what you mean.”

“Whatever. Like you don’t have a folder full of dick pics with my name on it,” he laughs.

“I wish you’d stop sending me those,” you say sternly. “You know this is my work phone.”

“So? You always need fresh material for your diddle box. Keeps the romance alive,” he says. Reaching up behind you, he tugs open the snack cabinet and rummages for a new bag of Doritos. The airtight blurp of a new jar of salsa follows.

“I’m sure I’ll regret this, but - what exactly is a diddle box?”

Massive Winter Soldier eye roll.

“All the pictures and videos and sexy shit you use to masturbate. Clearly.”

“Why do I ask you questions,” you sigh.

“I’m starting my diet tomorrow,” he answers instead, before dunking a fresh Dorito in the salsa.

*****

The next two weeks are spent with Bucky mostly eating raw vegetables and baked chicken breast and loudly commenting on the sorrows of dieting to everyone he encounters.

“You’re being ridiculous Bucky. No one told you to lose weight.”

“No,” he says glumly, crunching a celery stick with a martyred expression. “I need to be hot. Beauty is pain.”

“You are a pain.”

He sighs dramatically. Stares wistfully into the distance. Snaps a carrot in half.

“The things I do for you.”

“Jesus.”

*****

AVENGERS CALENDAR SHOOT THIS WEEK!

Remember to be on time, or we will choose the worst picture of you and print that.

We’re assholes that way.

Thanks,

Management

*****

MONDAY

(SEPTEMBER: Danvers, Carol; Captain Marvel)

Carol throws her bomber jacket over her red, blue, and gold uniform, and adds a sleek pair of vintage Ray Bans. Climbing into the cockpit of her fighter jet, she turns herself all glowy and golden, the color bouncing merrily off the control panel. Tipping her face down to the camera, she flashes the Shaka sign and gives the photographer a huge smile.

(FEBRUARY: Maximoff, Wanda; Scarlett Witch)

Wanda goes all out on all things red. Clad in a long red dress and long coat, surrounded by hundreds of red flowers - tulips and roses and carnations - she curls her fingers and everything around her begins to glow with a warm red light. When she smiles at the camera, her head tilts shyly.

(OCTOBER: Lang, Scott; Antman)

Is Scott actually in the picture or did someone spill coffee? The photographer sees a white sheet and a black spec, and scratches his head in confusion. Antman is kinda weird.

*****

TUESDAY

(NOVEMBER: Rhodes, James; War Machine)

Rhodey shows up dressed head to toe in gunmetal colored armor. When he snaps the faceplate down, the photographer timidly asks if maybe he wants to show his face. Rhodey flips the faceplate back up, reminds the photographer how badass this armor is, and says nope. He’s all good, thanks.

(APRIL: Wilson, Sam; Falcon)

Sam has spent the last few nights practicing his Zoolander pout in the bathroom mirror. He decides to wear a tight black t-shirt and comfortable jeans, with his wings spread wide, Redwing hovering beside him. At the last minute, his sultry pout melts into an animated belly laugh and they decide to use that one instead.

(JULY: Rogers, Steven; Captain America)

Steve goes back to his roots. Wearing a too small shirt and holey old jeans, he gazes pensively at the easel in front of him, glossy blond hair combed in a perfect wave. Fingers dusty with charcoal, he points to the picture he’s drawing and insists they capture it in the photo as well. They later realize he was drawing a picture of his own ass. That month gets labeled “Steve Rogers and America’s Ass”.

*****

WEDNESDAY

(MAY: Stark, Tony; Ironman)

Tony wears the bottom half of his suit and his favorite Black Sabbath t-shirt. Posing in his lab, he floats a few feet off the ground, crossing his arms and giving that trademark smirk. Scattered around him are random bits of technology and a few arc reactors, with Dum-E and a steaming platter of cheeseburgers in the background.

(JUNE: Banner, Bruce; Incredible Hulk)

Bruce looks a bit rumpled. The publicity shy scientist in him detests these things, but he’s a good sport for a good cause. Surrounded by microscopes and beakers of dazzling green liquids, he allows the teeniest quirk of his lips. Hands tucked in his pockets, messy curls fall over his forehead, and Bruce just feels happy to be included.

(JANUARY: Romanoff, Natasha; Black Widow)

Natasha asks for her photo in black and white. Dressed in shadows and tulle, she is nothing more than a dark figure against a white backdrop. On her feet, are a pair of ballet slippers, their satin ribbons looped and laced around her ankles. When she arches slowly up on pointe, her arms curve gracefully over her head and there’s an ethereal stillness about the image. Natasha is amazing.

*****

THURSDAY

(DECEMBER: Odinson, Thor; Thor)

Thor wears an enthusiastic smile when he arrives - and not much else. Dressed in a cherry red speedo, black boots, and his swirling red cape, he stands with one fist on his hip and Mjolnir held lovingly in the other. When the photographer asks about his outfit, Thor proudly describes something called “fan art” he saw online of himself wearing this outfit, mentioning how many “re-blogs” it had. He thinks he might wear this outfit more often, if that’s what the Midgardians want.

(AUGUST: Barton, Clint; Hawkeye)

Clint has a cup of coffee in one hand, a pot of coffee in the other. He wears purple sweatpants and a grey tank top and he yawns every five seconds. When asked what pose he’d like to use, he pretends his hearing-aids are broken. He lays down for a nap and the photographer goes with that.

(MARCH: Barnes, James “Bucky”; Winter Soldier)

Bucky leaves his leather bondage gear, his excessive collection of knives and guns, and his murder scowl at home. Instead, he arrives in black jeans and boots, a dark blue t-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, his tousled hair brushing the collar of his jean jacket. Perched casually on the seat of his restored Harley, he looks carefree and sweet, offering that signature smile that always sets hearts aflutter.

*****

When the final photo is taken, Bucky ambles over to where you stand with the photographer, reviewing proofs. Snuggling up beside you, he moves in for a kiss and stops in surprise.

“What’s with the lipstick?” he asks, bemused. “That’s new.”

You seem momentarily flustered by the question, stuttering something about losing your chapstick and trying new things. Bucky shrugs and dives in anyway. It makes no difference to him. Painted red or completely bare, your lips are always his favorite flavor.

*****

“They’re here!”

The box of calendars lands with a thump on the kitchen counter.

“Excellent. Are we hot?” Steve asks, his mouth full of cheesy pizza.

“I’m always hot,” Sam answers, ripping into the box. “Yesterday I saw a Buzzfeed post about how hot I am, and it said 11/10 recommend.” Yanking out the pile of calendars, he throws one to Steve. “That means more than 100% would recommend. I’m beloved.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a national treasure,” Steve argues. Reaching for a calendar, he flicks impatiently until he finds himself.

Leaving the team to laugh and bicker and poke fun of each other, you grab your bag (and another small package), heading off to search for your favorite assassin slash model.

His door is cracked when you reach it, low music in the background. Knocking lightly, you push it open.

“Hey Buck. Are you busy?”

Surrounded a chaos of metal, Bucky sits cross-legged on his bedroom floor. A tin of gun oil lays open beside him, a shredded old t-shirt in hand, while he cleans and reassembles his guns. This particular task has taken him literally all day, because Bucky Barnes has yet to meet a gun he doesn’t need.

(Seriously. He needs them. All of them. Stop questioning him, Steve.)

At your voice, an adorable smile scrunches up his face. Bouncing to his feet, he leaps gracefully from the middle of the mess and scoops you up, twirling in a circle and stealing your breath with a warm kiss.

“Hey sweetheart, what’re you doin’ here?”

“Something arrived. Thought you might like to see.”

Handing over the calendar, Bucky wipes his hands on his jeans. A nervous energy makes his fingers fumble when he riffles through the pages.

He stops abruptly at March.

“Huh,” he says, observing his portrait from every angle. Turns it sideways, upside down, pinches his lip. Squints a little. Finally, he nods. “Yeah. Okay, yeah. I look pretty great. I think? Right? I don’t know, what do you think?”

It’s funny.

Sometimes, you hold your breath when you watch at him. There are these little things. The bright excitement in his eyes maybe, or the way he scratches his jaw when he gets nervous, or the absentminded way he tucks his hair behind his ear.

It does things to your heart.

“Yeah,” you say, mesmerized by those little things, “you really do.”

Bucky looks up. Sees your face and breaks into a wide grin. He loves when you look at him like this, like he’s the only thing that matters. Like he’s your whole world. Like you love him.

It does things to his heart.

Snapping the calendar shut, he flings it on his bed. Blue eyes rake you up and down and he pokes his lip out in an exaggerated pout.

“Still think you should’ve done it too,” he says. “Bet you would’a looked so hot.”

At his comment, you reach into your bag and pull something free. Silently, you hand over a second square, this one wrapped in black paper, a silver bow taped along the edge.

“What’s this?” he asks curiously.

Shrugging, your expression stays neutral.

“Open it and see.”

Like a kid on Christmas morning, he rips the paper away.

He freezes.

Blinking rapidly, he looks up. Silver fingers delicately trace the shiny picture and he swallows hard.

“Honey, is this - did you do this for me?” he asks softly. Flipping gently through each page of this special, one-of-a-kind calendar, he shakes his head in slow disbelief.

Because there you are.

Posing in March, holding his favorite confetti cupcakes adorned with birthday candles in front of your naked breasts.

Posing in July, dressed in a vintage red, white, and blue USO uniform, white boots on your feet and crackling sparklers in your hands.

Posing again in October, wearing a slutty pumpkin dress with cut-outs revealing slivers of your sweet, sexy assets.

Each picture is incredible. Full of vivid colors and your sunny smile. No air-brushing, no fake poses, just you. Indescribable and undeniably beautiful, bursting with love.

All for him.

Bucky rubs his chest absently, feeling his heart thumping with every turn of the page. And then he reaches the last month, and there’s a strangled squeak. He stares intently at the page. Looks up at you. Back to the page. Back up at you. Closes his eyes briefly.

This is it, this is his favorite, his absolute fucking favorite thing of all time, the image instantly wiping all other thoughts from his proverbial spank bank.

There.

You.

Are.

Damn.

Tacked above you is a sprig of mistletoe, a concession to the holiday theme. But it’s the outfit that does it. Black combat boots, lacy red lingerie, deep red lipstick, and an empty thigh holster. You’re pointing one of his favorite guns at the camera and giving a sly wink.

Mind-blowingly, devastatingly, breathtakingly gorgeous.

Bucky awkwardly adjusts the rising situation in his pants, raising lust-blown eyes to yours. Licking your lips, you give him a hesitant smile.

“Do you - um, do you like them?”

It makes you panic when he says nothing. He simply stares. But then he sets the calendar carefully, reverently, aside. Slipping a hand behind your neck, he hustles you backward until you bump the door, slamming it shut. His warm mouth slants over yours, that talented tongue returning to sweep over your lips. The kiss is hot and frantic, tinged with an edge of wild excitement. When he finally breaks away, his voice is low, dark gravel in your ear.

“Listen. I’m gonna need you to get all those outfits and put on every,” he kisses your throat, “single,” he trails his lips up to your jawline, “one,” and now he’s panting in your ear, “and then I wanna take pictures of me taking everything off, before I fuck you so damn good. How’s that sound?”

Sliding a hand between his legs, your answer makes him tremble.

“Sounds like a deal.”

*****

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #beccas1kwritingchallenge #bucky fic #bucky barnes fic #bitsmasterlist #bucky barnes

[wonderful-writer]

23 - Time Goes On

Summary: Y/n and Bellamy adjust to a normal life in Arkadia, until an Ark tracking beacon is signaled in Azgeda territory and problems occur, along with the discovery that Clarke has been up to no good and now has a bounty on her head. 

Word Count: 7.43k

Warnings: Fighting (training), one mention of sex, alcohol, angst, etc. 

Based Off: 03x01, “Wanheda”

Author’s note: I honestly feel so proud of this chapter just because I got to write some nice moments between Bellamy and the reader, plus it’s the most I’ve ever written and took me so long to come up with everything that wasn’t canon-based. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do! 

Feedback is always highly appreciated!

          2 weeks after Mount Weather

“You know Abby said you can’t walk without your crutches for another week, right?” Bellamy’s voice sounded from the doorway, catching you off guard as you stood up from your shared bed.

He laughed when you jumped at his voice, turning around to greet him as he leaned against the doorway. “Well, what the chancellor doesn’t know won’t hurt her, right?”

Your boyfriend rolled his eyes and sported a small smirk as he crossed his arms. “She gave me strict orders to tell you when you weren’t using your crutches, you know.”

“Oh, did she now?” You asked.

“Yes, she did.” His smirk fell when he noticed you losing your balance, quickly making his way to you, supporting you by the arms and guiding you back to bed as he got your crutches. “You won’t heal properly if you don’t use the crutches, then you won’t be able to train at all,”

“I know,” You said as you put the crutches under your arms and got back up. “But I should be out there with you, she’s basically my sister and I need to find her. I know she said she wanted space but…”

“But it’s not the same without her.” He finished, putting his hands on your upper arms. “I know, princess. But I did come to see you for a reason.”

“Not just because you love me and can’t go more than four hours without seeing me?” You joked, a playful smirk crossing your lips.

Bellamy laughed a little at your joke. “Well, there’s that, but your dad wanted me to tell you that he wants to have lunch with you again, he finally managed to get a break in his schedule and he wanted to see you.”

“Okay, I’ll go see him then.” You looked back up at your boyfriend. “But I get dinner with you. You’ve been training too much.”

“Not a problem,” Bellamy agreed to dinner. He leant down and placed a kiss on your hairline before grabbing his guard jacket. “I’ll walk with you to Abby’s office, I have a shift and it’s on my way out.”

Smiling, you used your crutches to help yourself along, out of yours and Bellamy’s room and towards Abby’s office to meet with your father. 

          3 weeks after Mount Weather

You walked out of the medbay for hopefully the last time in a while, crutch free. Practically skipping down the halls to Abby’s office, you passed many people who gave you weird looks, and Gina, who turned around to walk with you when she saw you. 

Gina worked with you in the kitchens, where your father put you for the past two and a half weeks after bugging him to let you do something for work. She and you instantly clicked, and she told you how she was doing this job as a filler until she had enough training to work the guard, which she was in training for before Arkadia came to earth.

“You seem happy to be up and walking,” She laughed when you sent her a big smile. 

“Of course I am, Jackson cleared me for work! Which means I can work shifts with you and Bell now.” You beamed.

She laughed once more and you glanced at her before speaking up. “Wanna have drinks with me and Bellamy tonight? If dad lets me on the guard, Bellamy was gonna take me for drinks to celebrate,”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to intrude or anything--” She tried to decline the offer, but you grabbed her hand politely.

“Gina, my sweet, sweet Gina,” You shook your head. “Intruding is the last possible thing you would be doing, trust me. Bellamy would love to have you with us, you’re our friend.”

After insisting, she decided that going with you and your boyfriend wouldn’t be bad. You hugged her excitedly and walked with her all the way to your father’s office, where she said her goodbye’s and departed back down the hall, the way you came. 

Knocking, your father opened the door and let you into the room after a quick hug. “You already know why I’m here, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do. And before you say anything, you start tomorrow.”

“What?” “I said, you start tomorrow.” A smile started to grow on your father’s face at your shocked expression. “Bellamy stopped by while you were in medical, told me how you were perfect for the position and thought I should give you a chance.”

Still stunned, all you could do was look at your dad as he pulled out a guard jacket and walked over to you. “Congratulations, sweetheart.” 

You took the jacket from his hands and slipped it on. You looked at yourself as best as you could and smiled widely for the second time in the hour. “Thank you, dad!” 

You pulled your father into a grateful hug, feeling his arms hold you tight. Once you broke away you spoke up. “Bellamy and I will see you later for dinner, but I have to show him right now.”

He smiled at you and nodded, patting your shoulder lightly. “See you then, bug.”

The nickname was one that he hadn’t called you for almost 10 years, so your initial shock was to be expected. You sobered up before Marcus could notice, though, and sent him a final smile before opening his office door and barreling down the halls to Arkadia’s exit, where Bellamy was doing a shift at the front gate. 

When you were halfway to him you shouted out his name, catching his attention. He noticed the guard jacket you were wearing and a large smile painted his face as he momentarily let go of his gun to greet you. “I heard what you did for me, Bell.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” He denied playfully.

“Sure you don’t,” You rolled your eyes. “Anyway, we have dinner with my dad again tonight and then Gina is gonna meet with us for drinks. I gotta go help Abby with the map, though, so I might not see you until before dinner.”

“Well my shift ends in a few hours, so I might see if Kane needs me to do anything before then and if not, then I’ll probably just bother you and Abby until dinner.” 

You laughed at him and pressed a kiss to his cheek, muttering a “See you later,” and heading back into the building to meet with Abby. 

          5 weeks after Mount Weather

“Wow, you actually did that?” You laughed, catching some of the attention of the people around you, but you were too drunk to care. You, Gina, Raven, and Octavia decided to have a night to yourselves, the last few weeks had gotten to all of you. 

Raven was pissed that she wasn’t able to work on anything other than sorting scrap metal and the new rovers, Gina had a tough run to Mount Weather yesterday, Octavia was just generally pissed at Lincoln’s kill order, and Jasper’s coping mechanism was starting to get to you. You tried as much as you could to help your brother but it seemed that he didn’t want you anymore. 

He cut off all of his hair and started growing a beard of sorts, drinking any kind of alcohol he could get his hands on. It hurt to see your brother in the state he was in, and helping him was something you tried to do, until last night when he screamed at you for so long that he started losing his voice. 

“Yeah! I was surprised no one gave me shit for it, but I guess being a small kid I got away faster than they thought.” Gina smirked, taking a sip of her drink.

“Can’t beat the time that I snuck into farm station to steal moonshine for Finn’s birthday,” Raven reminisced. Though she was still in pain from his death, it seems that the drinks loosened her up enough to speak about him without tears in her eyes. 

“I’ve never even been to those stupid dances that people had, you know.” You remembered, sipping the moonshine. 

“Never?” Gina looked at you incredulously.

“Never. I was like 12 when I was sent to the skybox, G.” She made an ‘oh’ face and took another drink.

“It sucks that you’ve never been to one, they’re pretty cool,” Raven commented quickly, and Octavia scoffed.

“The only masquerade dance I’ve been to got my mother killed and me tossed into the Skybox.” She grumbled and you put your hand on her back. 

“Well, I think they suck anyway, Tavia. Teenage dances are a breeding ground for unnecessary drama and hookups that make things awkward.” 

The three of them laughed and you joined in soon after, the rest of the dining hall turned their heads to look at you, but you were too busy to tell them off and eventually they turned back to their own conversations. By the time you sobered up laughter-wise, you realized how late it was. 

“Oh shit,” You stumbled off the stool. “Gotta go, ladies, Bellamy should be done with his shift by now.”

“Whipped!” Gina shouted playfully, causing the other girls to laugh. 

“At least I’m getting some,” You smirked, walking backwards towards the exit to see their reactions. 

Once you were satisfied with their shock, you turned around and headed towards yours and Bellamy’s shared room

          6 weeks after Mount Weather

“Tell me about your mom,” You requested tiredly, tangled up in the bed with Bellamy. Your legs were as intertwined as they could be and your head was on his chest, while he kept one arm around your body and the other behind his head. 

“We just had sex and you want me to tell you about my mom?” His bare chest vibrated as he laughed, trying to get a good look at you to see if you were joking.

“I’m being serious!” You whined, smacking his chest lightly. “I never got to meet her and I just want to know what she was like.”

Sighing, Bellamy pulled you closer and looked up at the ceiling. “Her name was Aurora. She sewed up and made the clothes or fixed them, taught me and Octavia how to do the same. She always wanted me to be on the guard, though. She was probably the biggest fan of mythology ever, and always read to me and Octavia growing up. The Iliad is my favorite out of all of them, but the Three Sisters of Fate was hers. She always liked the idea that everything happens for a reason and you can’t do anything to change it, that the decisions you make are because the sisters wanted it to be that way. She always thought that she had Octavia because that’s what the sisters wanted.”

“She sounds wonderful, Bellamy.”

“She was,” You saw the tears glistening in his eyes and you sat up, putting your hand on his cheek in comfort. “I miss her so much.”

“I know.” He leaned into your palm and closed his eyes. You leaned up and kissed his forehead, pulling him into your chest instead. “Just get some rest, okay?” 

It didn’t take long for his breathing to start to even out and you scratched his scalp lightly and played with his curls until you started to fall asleep yourself. 

          7 weeks after Mount Weather

The adrenaline pumping through your veins and the atmosphere of the room drove you to push harder than you were sure you’ve ever fought. Since you lost your sword to the mountain, you had to learn hand-to-hand combat, usually with Lincoln or Octavia. The last time you were paired with Bellamy to spar, things went very wrong very fast. To say the least, you forgot that there were other people watching you for a little bit.

You kept your fists up in defense, shifting your weight from foot to foot as Lincoln stared you down. You knew what he was attempting seconds before he did it, moving your hand to block the punch to your side and using the other to punch his chest quickly. Sticking out your leg, you swiped his from under his body, watching as he fell to the floor with a thud. He looked winded, leading you to step lightly on his wrist with a smirk.

“How was that for a good fight?”

He wheezed and looked up at you. “Definitely better, but never let your guard down.”

Before you could give a reply, his hand grasped your ankle and pulled you to the ground with force, winding you just like you did him. “Asshole,” You wheezed as he stood up, giving you his hand to help you up. 

Once you stood, Lincoln turned to the crowd that watched the sparring lesson. “She was really close to winning, but she let her guard down early. Defeating the opponent is very tricky, and getting arrogant and cocky early on makes it easier for them to know your moves and take you down.”

“At least I got that far, last week I was immediately wiped out.” You told him before picking up a towel and looking at the group. “The key is practice. Keep practicing your moves, what makes you feel comfortable and is effective. Yes, you will have guns, but guns won’t always protect you.”

          8 weeks after Mount Weather

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Your father asked once more.

“Yes, dad, I’m sure. I’ll be okay, don’t worry.” 

You sat at the table in Abby’s office, her and your father opposite to you. They knew this would be dangerous for you, even if you didn’t see it like that.

“It’s just this run, right? Gina will be with me. I know some parts of the mountain and there’s no one there to hurt me.” You reassured him. “Besides, other than this one, I’ll only be going if someone can’t make it.”

“I know, I’m just making sure that you want to do this. If you don’t, it’s okay. But i just want to double check.” 

“I know, dad. But they’re leaving soon and I have to go.” standing, you said your goodbyes and sped down the hall, rushing to make it to the hangar. 

You stepped into the rover, taking your seat next to Gina as the doors to the hangar opened and you sped off with another rover trailing behind, back to the place you hated with your entire being. Gina kept you calm throughout the drive, and getting in wasn’t a problem.

Stepping inside, you were reminded of the pain you were put through, the people you lost. You tensed while the others walked past you, not knowing the horrors that went on in these walls. Subconsciously, you reached down to your thigh, where the scar you gained from being strapped to a table was, the phantom pain kicking in.

Gina noticed it, and took your hand away, keeping it locked in hers. “You’re okay. They’re not here anymore, and we’re only gonna be here for a few hours, max. I’ll be right here, I promise.”

You nodded and took a deep breath, stepping forward. You were looking for their armory while the others went to level 5 to get as much food as they could back to Arkadia. It didn’t take long to find it on level 1, walking at a little bit faster of a pace than before once the double doors were in sight.

Reaching the armory, you each pulled a door open and marveled at the firepower contained in one room. Pulling the radio from Gina’s belt, you put it to your mouth and pressed the button. “This is Y/n and Gina, we found the armory.”

“What about it?” One of the men replied. 

“It’s a goldmine, Jason, that’s what. Rover one, I want everyone down here now. Let rover two handle the food, we’re gonna need as much room as we can get.”

You handed the radio back to her and she tucked it back into her belt and walked in with you, looking at the weapons. While your back was turned to hers, looking at the rifles on the wall, she gasped and laughed. “Holy shit!” 

“What?”

“There’s a sword here!” Gina turned around with a sheathed sword in her palms. “Look at it! There’s a bunch of knives in here, too.”

“Must be where they kept all the grounder weapons,” You noted, looking into the large bin. “Hey, can I see that sword?”

You took the weapon from Gina’s hands, turning it over before unsheathing it. “This is my sword,” You realized.

“You had a sword?”

“Yeah, I found one when Jaha sent me, Bellamy, and Clarke to look for shelter through the winter.” You smiled a little before a thought crossed your mind. Putting the sword on the ground you dove into the bin, sifting through the daggers carefully. “AHA!”

You yanked the leather strap and held it high in the air, head still in the bucket. It didn’t take you long to find the other one, pulling them both up. “Yes!”

“What’s so special about those?”

“They’re my thigh knives.” You responded simply. Before Gina could say anything else, you were strapping both daggers to your thighs, making sure they were safe before picking up your sword. 

The other three of your men showed up and you began directing who should take what and bring it to the rover. Within the hour, three large bins of ammo were loaded up in the middle of the rover, and the group had many rifles strapped to them to bring back. 

Once everyone was back in the rover with you in the driver’s seat, you notified rover two’s driver that you would be heading back to Arkadia to deliver the weapons to your small armory. Gina rode shotgun and she asked you questions about how exactly you got the weapons and what it was like to use them. 

“I had them since we got to the ground. But I lost them when Mount Weather took us from the dropship, and I guess they kept the weapons that they took from the grounders.” You shrugged. “Either way, I’m lucky as hell to get them back.”

As soon as you stopped in the hangar bay you spotted Bellamy at the top of the ramp, looking worried. Sighing, you turned off the rover and stepped out, meeting his eyes. He started toward you and took you into his arms as soon as he could. “Why didn’t you tell me you were going?”

“It was really last minute, Bell, I didn’t have the time to tell you before they left.”

He just nodded and you sank into the embrace before letting him go. “Come with me, I have to tell Abby and my dad what we found.”

          9 weeks after Mount Weather 

After finding your old weapons, sparring got a whole lot easier after learning how to properly use it again. Since then, however, between guard shifts, meals, time with your friends and father, trying to get Jasper back on the right track, and sparring, you did mapping runs with Bellamy. 

You didn’t go back to Mount Weather since you were there last, but you didn’t mind not going. They always had enough people to get two rovers worth of items from the mountain and bring it all back, all while managing to keep the peace between yourselves and the grounders. 

Things were turning around again, and you finally felt somewhat at peace. Although, knowing how things turned out for you, peace wouldn’t last. You were getting less and less sleep as time went on, and when you did you often woke up in the night and went on a trek back to the dropship. 

That’s where you were headed now, your weapons with you and a pack on your back, filled with rations and moonshine. You used a flashlight to guide your way, although the path was familiar to you by now. Once the grown over dropship came into sight, you visibly relaxed, walking through the middle and looking around at the walls; walls you helped build, helped defend. This was your home once upon a time, and in a way it still was. 

This is where you built your new life, where you almost died-- twice-- and where you got your footing for your future. This place was where you gained a new hope for humanity, where you somehow fell for the biggest asshole ever. But you didn’t mind. Not one bit. 

Taking a seat at the entrance, you opened your pack and pulled out the moonshine you packed. If you could have it your way, you would be back here, before you lost so many people and before you felt unnecessarily empty. You had a family, a man that you loved, friends. Why did you feel like this? 

You poured out the alcohol and raised your cup to the sky. “So much for peace on earth, huh? Bet you didn’t think I would turn out like this, did you, ma?” 

Downing the harsh liquid, you felt a little bit better. Despite it all, you knew things wouldn’t stay this way forever. When it came to you, things went to shit quickly. You gave it a matter of weeks before you’d face another battle that would take more of your people, leave you worse than before.

          10 weeks after Mount Weather 

You snuck back into camp later than you thought you did, accidentally falling asleep under the stars at the dropship. You didn’t know how late you were, but you knew that everyone was already awake when you got back in. 

Taking back entrances and panels in the walls, you entered the residential halls, trying to get back to yours and Bellamy’s quarters without being seen. Of course, it wasn’t that easy. “There you are,”

Your father’s stern voice echoed in the empty hall, making you stop in your tracks and tense up. Turning slowly, you faced your father, Bellamy, Lincoln, Octavia, Raven, Abby, Miller, and Gina at the opposite end of the hall. Monty and Harper were there as well, but you didn’t see them at first, they were tucked behind the rest.

“Can we not do this here?” You requested quietly. You followed the group to Abby’s office, the rest of them waiting outside while she, Bellamy, and your father went inside with you.

“Where the hell did you go?” Your father demanded when you sat on the couch. “Do you have any idea how reckless you were being? The grounders barely trust us as it is, what if they found you? What if you--” He stopped himself, taking a breath. You knew what he was going to say. 

“I was fine, okay? I had my knives and my sword, and it’s not like I just wandered off for the night.” You defended.

“The night?! You were gone all night?” The anger in your father's voice made you flinch in your spot, but you knew he wasn’t actually mad, just worried.

You watched Bellamy search your bag and pull out the large canteen of moonshine, recognizing what it was from the smell of it as soon as it was uncapped. “It’s almost empty,”

“Where the hell did you go?”

“The dropship,” You mumbled, barely able to hear it yourself. Your father hummed and asked you to speak up, so you did. “I went to the dropship, okay? I went to the dropship to get drunk and I fell asleep. It’s not like this is the first time it’s happened.” 

“How long?” Bellamy asked.

“Two weeks, give or take.”

“Why?”

“It’s-” You sighed. “I can feel it. This won’t last. The dropship, that’s our home. Everything started there. I know that sooner than later we’re gonna fight a war we’ll barely win, everyone will end up worse than the last time, and I know how this ends. We’re not making it out of this next time and even if we do, it’s gonna tear us apart.”

The trio shared worried glances and Bellamy took the first initiative, sitting next to his girlfriend and wrapping her up in his arms. “I promise you, we will have peace. We have it right now, princess. You, me, everyone here has peace. And even if things fall apart, it’ll be okay.”

You looked up at him and he kissed your forehead. “It’ll be okay because we have each other. Me and you. And we have the others; Raven, Octavia, Lincoln, Gina, your dad, Abby, Miller, Harper, Monty, Jasper. We’ll stick together, okay? No matter what happens, we’ll be together.”

The reassurance calms you down considerably, and you put your head on Bellamy’s chest, near his shoulder. “But it won’t work if you don’t talk to us. Any of us. It doesn’t matter if you tell one of us or all of us, but you can’t keep going back there, not alone and definitely not with booze.” 

“Okay,” Your voice was tired and small, so it didn’t surprise anyone when you fell asleep mere seconds after your agreement with Bellamy. Abby and Kane both decided to relieve you and Bellamy of your shifts today, giving you a break and allowing Bellamy to stay with you.

Bellamy scooped you into his arms, carrying you bridal style to the door, where Kane opened the door to see the rest of the group standing there worriedly. Raven was the first to approach the door. “What happened?”

“She’s fine, just sleeping.” 

“Where the hell did she go?” Octavia queried, stepping up from the wall. 

“The dropship,” Bellamy sighed. “She’s been going there every night for a couple of weeks now. She gets drunk and then comes home before we get up.”

A collective sigh from the group was heard and wasn’t clear if it was out of sympathy for their friend or relief that she was somewhere familiar. “We’ve both been cleared for the day, I’m gonna take her back to the room and let her sleep, I gather she hasn’t been getting much lately.”

With that, the group dispersed to get back to their own jobs, while Bellamy walked back to his and yours shared room, placing you gently on the unmade bed. He pulled off your boots gently, placing them on the floor at the end of the bed, tucking you in a little further and pulling up the blankets to your shoulders.

He admired you lovingly for a little while, looking so peaceful and calm in your dreams, where none of the worries you previously presented to him could weigh on your shoulders. That was all he wanted for you, a world where you didn’t have to be burdened with your own thoughts and worries, where you and him could live happily with your friends-- who now seemed to be more like family than anything-- and a few of your own children to raise. 

With a heavy sigh, he moved from the space beside you, where he lay, to the window that looked out to the gates. You were lucky to have a window at all, but it served no purpose aside from natural light. So, Bellamy closed the shutters and blocked out the light before moving back to his side of the bed. Moving in closer than he was before, he put an arm over your waist and maneuvered the other to push some stray hairs that fell from your braid out of your face.

He looked around quietly before deciding he would tell you a story, like the ones his mother read to him and Octavia when they were younger. He decided that one of the stories of the gods would do nicely, and after some pondering, the story of Hestia, although a story he didn’t hear the story often, was one that stuck with him.

In some instances, Hestia reminded him of you. She was the goddess that represented everything domestic, everything he wanted with you. Everything you so clearly wanted. A home, a life, a routine. No more fighting or keeping guard, no constant need of weapons. And as he told the tale of Hestia in a quiet voice, he thought about his own future and what it could possibly look like.

          12 weeks after Mount Weather

Since you got caught sneaking back into the camp, you managed to catch yourself before you went down as deep of a hole as your brother did. You were helping yourself, talking to Bellamy and Raven about your fears. You stopped yourself from leaving the camp again, as much as you wanted to. But today, you were allowed. 

One of the people who usually accompanied Gina and the others on the Mount Weather runs couldn’t go due to an injured wrist, so your father let you go instead. Your leg bounced the entire way there, and your lip was red from how hard you were biting it. Gina managed to get you to relax until you got there, splitting off from the rest to go into the art room. 

“I can’t believe they didn’t put everything up, it’s all so beautiful.” Gina marveled, moving the paintings to the door for the others to bring to the rover. 

“It really is,” You muttered, spotting a bookshelf in the back and heading towards it. There were multiple authors on the spines of the books. People like Jane Austin, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Ernest Hemmingway to name a few. And then you saw it. On the bottom shelf, placed on top of a few upright books, was something you didn’t think you’d ever see. 

The very last copy of The Iliad, hardcover with a black spine and a gold title rest there, looking a little worn, but seemingly never touched. You crouched down, pulling it from the shelf slowly and taking it into your hands. The cover was yellowed, but the pages were intact. “Huh,” 

You walked back to Gina, who was moving a painting that you didn’t recognize. “I found a bookshelf back there, filled with classic books,” 

She seemed surprised but nodded, moving slowly with the weight of the painting. “Seems cool, what did you find?”

“The Iliad,”

“What’s it about?”

“The Trojan War, I’m pretty sure. It’s one of Bellamy’s favorites and I think it burned on the way back down, so I’m bringing it back for him.”

“Awe, cute.” Gina smiled and you laughed, rolling your eyes. 

“Funny, G.” You tucked the book into your waistband, helping her move the rest of the art until the rovers were full, tucking the book behind the art before grabbing Gina’s hand and helping yourself into the rover.

The ride seemed short, but you knew it wasn’t, the thoughts and excitement of giving Bellamy the book filling your mind and distracting you. Once the rover stopped, you helped hand Zeke the produce and get it to the kitchens, staying beside the rover. Bellamy approached the rover in his guard jacket, meaning he and the others were going somewhere.

“Hey,” He greeted. “Easy run?” “No,” You sighed out. “It wasn’t as hard for me to go in, but that place is terrifying.”

“I know, but at least you don’t have to go every time.” 

“True,” You agreed, turning around and grabbing the book. “I did, however, find this.” 

You placed the book in his hands and he smiled at you, silently asking how you got it with his eyes. “You read me a few of the stories off the top of your head once, and you told me how your mom read that to you and I found it in one of the rooms. I thought you’d like to have it.”

“I do. Thank you.” And with that, he gave you a quick peck and turned to rover one, putting it on the hood and slamming his bag down to put it there. 

“Hey!” Raven slid out from underneath the rover to scold Bellamy. “Take it easy.”

“Morning to you, too.” Bellamy joked as the woman stood up and made her way to you for a hug, which you gratefully returned. Miller came into the hangar bay as Bellamy tossed him a gun and they talked about the grounders as you asked Raven where they were going.

“A tracking beacon from the Ark was turned on in sector 7, Kane’s letting us check it out.”

“Cool, can I come?” 

“Ask Mr. Leader over there,” She nudged her head towards Bellamy, who was unloading the guns from his sack. “I doubt he’ll say no, considering he’s in love with you.” You laughed as Raven made fake heart eyes at you, mocking Bellamy.

It was cut short, however, when Monty tossed a bucket of cold water at Jasper to get him to sober up. “I’m sorry, was that too cold for you?” 

Jasper yelled in rage and slammed Monty against the rover before letting go, walking over to the guns. Bellamy stopped him, saying that he wasn’t allowed to carry a gun until he was sober. He walked away after hitting Bellamy lightly with his wet hand in a form of a salute. Bellamy, now annoyed, grabbed his weapon and walked over to you. 

Just by the look in your eyes, he could tell you wanted to come with him. A wordless exchange led him to sighing and grabbing your hand, pulling you to the rover. “You better be ready for this,”

“I am,” You reassured. “I’ve been learning how to use my sword and knives for a while now, Bell. Lincoln told me the other day that I’ve gotten pretty good, you know.” 

He just hummed in agreement, helping you into the rover before sitting down close to the driver's seat, where Raven was. Jasper was beside her, and Monty and Miller across from you. Octavia, no doubt, would be riding on her horse, Helios. And as you drove out of the hangar bay, you knew you were right. The girl yelled at Raven to try and keep up, leading her to drive down the path and out of the gates behind Octavia.

As you raced down the dirt road, you sat in silence, aside from the crunch of the gravel and roaring of the engine, along with Jasper’s music blaring from his earbuds. Once he started singing, Monty pulled them from his ears. “No way. If you’re gonna ride shotgun, you can’t just disappear.”

Jasper plugged his music into the speakers of the rover, letting it blast throughout the vehicle. Monty was about to turn it off but Bellamy allowed it. The music sounded good, and Miller and Raven started moving to the beat of it first while Jasper sung, before you decided to join in. The lyrics were something all of you knew, and when you started singing them and enticing Bellamy to join in, along with Miller’s antics, you saw him smile.

“Come on, Bell, it’s fun!” You started shouting the lyrics instead of actually singing them, getting your boyfriend to laugh. It was more fun that way, anyway.

You laughed at your brother when he came to the back and stood up, his upper half sticking out of the rover as he whooped. However, when the GPS started beeping, Raven shut off the music and Monty climbed into the front. Raven stopped the rover as Jasper came down, muttering about how that was the best part of the song.

“Who is it?” Asked Bellamy.

Monty typed something on his keyboard and revealed that it was Farm Station’s beacon. 

“After 4 months? How?” Miller asked. 

“We’ll find out.” Bellamy affirmed. “Where are they?”

The back door creaked open to reveal Octavia. “Don’t tell me I missed the party,”

“Sector 8.” Monty revealed. 

“That’s Ice Nation,” You recalled.

“What about it?” Octavia queried.

“Protocol says we go home,” Raven suggested. “Let the Chancellor decide what to do next.”

“Screw protocol.” Bellamy decided. “The Chancellor’s not from Farm Station. Monty is, and so is Miller’s boyfriend. It’s your call.” 

“Let’s do this,” Monty decided. Miller agreed and Bellamy looked at his sister, repeating the words she said to Raven before they left camp. She shut the rover door and got back on her horse while you sped off once again, heading directly towards Ice Nation.

The air was much colder as you pulled up to the border, jumping out just as the rover was coming to a stop. “These woods must be the border.”

“So where’s all the ice?” 

“Much further north.” Octavia answered your brother. “Azgeda stretches for a thousand miles.” 

“Good thing we only have to go 200 meters,” Monty replied, staring intently at the GPS in his hands. 

“Slow down.” Bellamy stopped your friend. “Remember, rules of engagement are nonlethal force. Tight formation on my command. Raven, you stay in the rover.” 

“Yeah, right.” She disagreed, pushing past Bellamy.

“We need every gun we’ve got,” You agree.

“They’re coming,” Monty notified the group and you slowly unsheathed your sword as he counted down. Bellamy raised his gun and everyone got into position as a horse neighed behind the trees, multiple Azgeda men coming towards you. Everyone aimed their weapons and you readied your sword, knowing it wouldn’t do much good unless they were close range.

“Ice Nation?” Bellamy asked.

“Yes,” His sister responded. “White war paint. Stay calm.” Octavia put her sword back in it’s sheath on her back and raised her hands. 

“Who are you?” One of the warriors asked and you didn’t understand what they were saying, due to the fact that you only learned the basics from Lincoln, as did everyone else on the guard. You just hoped Octavia could get you out of this mess safely. 

“Skaikru,” She responded. “Looking for our people.” 

“Looking for Wanheda.” 

 One of the warriors got off his horse as Octavia spoke. “They think we’re looking for Wanheda.” 

“Who the hell is Wanheda?” You asked.

“I don’t know.”

“The light,” Monty nodded towards the grounder that was no longer on his horse. “That’s the beacon.”

Jasper stepped up and you all told him to get back, as the grounders aimed arrows at him, but he assured the group that he had it, which you knew was a lie. Panicked, Bellamy told Octavia to tell the warriors that they observed the Commander's truce, hoping it would do some good. She did, but when Jasper pulled the glowing beacon from the grounder and held it to his face, the grounder pulled him back and held a knife to his throat.

“Where’s Wanheda?” 

“Let him go!” Bellamy shouted in Trig as Octavia spoke up.

“We don’t know who that is! Please. We can help each other.”

To your surprise, Jasper began to laugh, and the grounder told him something that you didn’t understand, pressing the knife and beginning to cut him. Bellamy shot the grounder and he released Jasper as the other two were shot down. Bellamy shouted at Miller and Octavia threw her sword into the last rounder’s gut, killing him. 

Once he was dead, your dad came in over the radio and Octavia went for her sword, Bellamy to the radio, and you to your brother, helping to carry him back to the rover as Miller shouted at him.

“We got the beacon, didn’t we?” Was his response.

“Yeah, but where did they get it?” Monty wondered. 

“He needs to get to medical,” Octavia said as she dragged him back to the rover. 

“More like how did they get it,” You pondered, now standing next to Monty. Bellamy talked to your dad over the radio before coming to the other side, shouting orders. 

“Miller, get one of their horses; Raven, since you can’t ride you’re on the back, Y/n and Monty, you’re with me, let’s go.” Monty took over as the driver while Bellamy sat in the passenger side, leaving you to crawl in the back. 

The ride was quiet after they answered your questions of where exactly you were going and why you needed to get there. As you reached your destination, you slowed to a stop at the end of a tunnel, hopping out of the rover with Bellamy and Monty. They kept their guns in their hands, you unsheathed your sword.

“You were right about Jasper. Is that what you want me to say?” 

“Quiet.” Bellamy snapped. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

You walked a little further behind them, acting as cover from behind. “I could have said no.”

“He’s getting worse, isn’t he?” You asked from behind the pair, They both looked back at you and you took the chance to speak again. “Getting drunk every night is one thing, but smiling with a knife to your throat; that’s next-level damaged.”

You slowed to a stop as your father broke through the trees on the other side as Monty asked, “Who’s he with?”

“Indra.” 

“That’s Indra?” Monty asked. 

“He must’ve told her we broke the truce,” Bellamy guessed and proceeded towards the pair, you and Monty right behind him. “Sir, before you say anything, there was a good reason--”

“We’ll deal with that later,” Your father assured him. “This is about Clarke.” 

“What about her?” You asked. 

“She’s being hunted,” Indra responded. 

“By who?” Monty worried.

“By everyone.” Indra’s response made your heart skip a beat; until you were brought back to the conversation that Octavia had with the grounders. Wanheda. Could that be her? Why would they be calling her Wanheda, and why were they hunting her?

Before you could say anything, everyone was being loaded back into the rover, heading into sector 7. You were in the back next to your father, Bellamy and Monty taking their previous seats, with Indra on the other side. 

On the way there we hit a few bumps, all of them making Indra a little frightened, but your father assured her that it was nothing, as he wasn’t completely used to it either. 

“Sir, we’re almost out of range.” Monty notified him. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell the Chancellor?” 

“I’m sure.” He affirmed. “I don’t want to worry Abby until we know something.” 

“We know there’s a kill order.” Bellamy deadpanned. “You people are big on those.” 

“It’s not a kill order; it’s a bounty.” Indra corrected him. “Clarke’s a symbol. She’s known as Wanheda-- the Commander of death.”

“Wait,” You stepped in. “The Ice Nation men we killed, they were asking about Wanheda. Why are they looking for Clarke?”

“My people believe that when you kill someone, you get their power.” She said. “Kill Wanheda, and you command death.”

“She’s just one girl,�� Kane reminded Indra. 

“So was the Commander,” Indra said. “What Clarke did at Mount Weather weakened her. The Ice Nation is emboldened. Their queen wants Clarke’s power. If her people believe she has it, she’ll break the coalition and start a war. I can’t let that happen.”

The GPS beeped. “Welcome to sector 7. Where to?”

“If she’s here, she’ll need supplies. We’ll start at the trading posts.” Indra decided. 

You spent hours cramped up in the rover, getting more tired as each minute passed. The rumble of the engine and body heat coming from your father were enough to start lulling you to sleep, and when you let your head fall to his shoulder and he didn’t protest it, you fell asleep quickly. 

Of course, you didn’t expect it to last very long. You woke up when your body jolted harshly, hitting the back of your head on the metal panels on the rover. Monty seemed to hit the brakes as hard as he could, and once you were over it, you touched the back of your head but felt nothing. 

No blood, but it would likely give you a headache later. “What the hell?”

“There’s a tree, we have to move it.” Monty responded.

As the pair went to open their doors, Indra stopped them. “It’s been cut down.” 

“We don’t know that,” Bellamy told her as he stepped into the back, opening the hatch on the top of the rover to look out at the surrounding forest. There was a loud creaking noise and the ground beneath you shook, allowing Bellamy to fall back into the rover as he ducked for cover. 

“We do now,” Indra commented. Bellamy sat beside the woman and she unsheathed her sword, suggesting we stay inside the vehicle until whoever cut down the trees was gone. 

It was going to be a long night.

Taglist: @soullessbabee​​ | @hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis​​ | @dummythiccwitch​ | @sireddobrev​​ | @gxvrielle​ | @hurricane-abigail​ | @holyhumorliteraturelight​ | @lilacs-lavender​

#bellamy blake #bellamy blake imagine #bellamy blake series #bellamy blake x reader #bellamy blake x you #bellamy blake x y/n #The 100 #the 100 x reader #the 100 rewrite #this is war series

[imagining-supernatural]

I’m Not Saying Alcohol is Always The Answer But...

Chapter 11 of Life Changes (Hopefully For The Better)

Summary: The night would have gone so much differently if my mom hadn’t shown up and I hadn’t slapped her but god yelling at her felt so good

Warnings: Bitchy mom drama 

Word Count: 1,246

“I find it incredibly annoying that you wouldn’t let me have another drink.”

“You wanted to leave the house, and I’m not putting you on the back of my bike when you’re anything more than tipsy.”

“Awww,” I stepped up close to Bucky and framed his face with my hands. “You do care about my well-being.”

He grinned and covered one of my hands with his. “More than you know.”

“Yeah… about that. I have a question.”

Looking back on it now, I realize that standing outside my apartment at nine o’ clock at night was not a good place to initiate that conversation. Sure, it was better than back at the house with Natasha nosing in on everything, but it’s really still not a good place.

And that night? Worst place. Worst timing.

Why?

“Y/N?”

Because my mother was there.

I froze when I heard her voice calling my name. Bucky must have caught my eyes widening and heart stopping because his hand tightened around mine.

“Y/N,” my mom called again, her voice closer.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“Is that any way to greet the woman who gave you life?”

“Considering that is how I greeted you, I’d say yeah. That is a way to greet you.” It took exactly three deep breaths for my confidence to get high enough for me to look away from Bucky and face my mother. I nearly stepped away from him to distance him from whatever bullshit was about to go down, but I remembered that I was trying to let him in. Trying to let him help me through my shit.

Sucks that he was right in the middle of it right now, but he was a big boy. If he wanted to leave, he could.

But until then, I was keeping his hand firmly in mine.

“What do you want, Shandra?”

“Shandra?”

“You disowned me. Kinda makes it hard to call you mom.”

Her eyes flickered to Bucky and I knew exactly what she was seeing. She saw his long hair, old leather jacket, and lack of prestige. She saw the kind of person she wouldn’t even hire to mow her lawn. Someone who hadn’t even made it into the nightmare she pictured for her daughter’s future.

If only she could see him how I did.

“I had to do something to shock you out of your spiral.”

“My spiral? What the fuck do you know about my life?”

“Language, missy.”

“Fuck off, Shandra. I’m not fucking spiraling.” Was I cursing more than usual just to spite her? Of course I was. What did you expect? “My spiral stopped the moment I moved out. The moment I realized how fucking toxic you are—”

“You’re the toxic one! Never appreciating everything I’ve done for you—”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I supposed to appreciate all of the insults you’ve given me? Am I supposed to fucking appreciate every time you made me cry? I suppose you want me to appreciate the bruises you gave me too.”

She gasped and surged forward, but I held my ground. I was a different person now. I was eons different than I’d been the last time she saw me. It was time she saw that. “You ungrateful, sorry excuse for a—”

“I think you need to leave now,” Bucky cut in.

“Get away from my daughter,” she growled. “You’re exactly the kind of bottom-feeding—”

For the first time in my life, I slapped my mother. The sound echoed across the parking lot and filled me with the strangest sense of satisfaction. “Don’t ever talk to him like that. In fact, don’t talk to him ever. If you’ve got something to say, you say it to me.”

“You—you hit me.”

“I’ll do it again too. You disowned me. That is the only thing I’ll ever thank you for. I grew up in that house playing your games and saying your words and crying myself to sleep because I knew I was never going to be the person you wanted me to be. I was never going to be the daughter you expected. You made damn sure I knew I wasn’t good enough for anyone. I’m not sorry that I’m a disappointment to you. I’m not sorry that I’m not the trophy wife of some dick-head doctor right now. I’m not sorry about any of that because I’m who I want to be. I’m with who I want to be with. I can finally picture the kind of future that makes me want to get out of bed everyday and I’m with the person who makes me want to stay in bed with him every day. I’m not looking for an escape anymore. I’m happy and you can’t take that from me anymore. I’m not going to turn into you. You can’t make me as miserable as you are. So thank you for disowning me because now you have absolutely no power over me anymore.”

“You bitch.”

Language, mother. “Now get the hell away from me or I’ll call the police.”

“You’re making the biggest mistake of your life, young lady.”

“I disagree.”

“You’ll be hearing from my lawyers.”

“Hit me with your worst.” I mean, it wasn’t like I worked at a law firm, or anything. It wasn’t like I was a few semesters away from getting into law school. “I’ve got years of journals detailing every kind of abuse you put me through after dad died. Who do you think a judge is going to believe? A woman who is drunk before noon every day, or a law student who hasn’t ever been admitted to a hospital for drug overdose?”

Maybe it was the vodka giving me the courage or maybe it was Bucky squeezing my hand. Whatever it was, I stepped right up in her space and squared my shoulders. “I will do whatever it takes to keep you out of my life. I’m finally happy. There’s no fucking way in hell I’m going to let you ruin that.”

And, miracle of miracles, she didn’t seem to have anything to say to that. She just stood there, mouth gaping slightly, staring at me. Finally, she seemed to come back to herself and haughtily tossed her hair over her shoulder, slyly taking a few steps backwards.

When she spoke, she was looking over my shoulder at Bucky. “She’ll get tired of you. Y/N doesn’t have the attention span to stick around, so enjoy her while she’s here. Soon enough, she’ll be off whoring her way around.”

“That’s the plan,” I replied sarcastically. Honestly, the only thing stopping me from decking her was Bucky’s tight grip on my hand. “Gonna fuck my way across America. Men, women, and everyone in between—oh, sorry, did I offend your precious homophobic feelings? Forgot that was the last straw before you, you know, disowned me.”

“Your father would be so disappointed in you if he could see you.”

“Funny. I was thinking he’d be disappointed in you.” I couldn’t have been more over this conversation than if I was the cow who jumped over the moon. So, I pulled Bucky as I started walking backwards, towards the apartment complex. “Goodbye, Shandra. And I hope you have a truly terrible life.”

I couldn’t breathe until the door to the complex was locked behind us and I couldn’t hear her yelling anymore. Wearily, I looked up at Bucky. “You gonna let me drink some more now?”

“I’ll pour it for you.”

#buckyxreader au #bucky x reader au #bucky x reader angst #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x you #bucky x you au #bucky x y/n

[stimmypaw]

Stimmypaw reads Darkest Night! The fourth text post!

Back with these uh live reading comments! Remember those? yeah! I'm on the fourth book of Warrior Cats: A Vision of Shadows :D I read The Apprentice's Quest and Thunder and Shadow and Shattered Sky and now!! I'm here :D and boy did I have a time. Click read more to see it!

NEEDLETAIL?????????

Needletail???????????

What?????

OH???????

Wh THIS GUY IS TALKIN 2 DEAD PEOPLE????

HOW WHO IS THAT

OH MY GOD

These guys are weak and dumb skyclan is epic and sharing the territory with them is good, but of course sparkpelt isn't dealing well with change wink wink nudge wink nudge nudge huh???? (this is a nod to how I project into her and say shes autistic)

I am getting anxious for tinycloud SERIOUSLY how much longer until those kits??? Everyday you show up and its WOW my tummy ssure is HUGE AND BULGING I just Wonder Oh When They'll Be Born, probably pretty soon!!! :) and then they arent!!!! Birth dammit!!!

Cherryfall cut the sick and hurt cats some slack jeez youre Fine, youre not feeding half the forest and you have THREE medicine cats ready to help you if youre not feeling well

Bastard Cherryfall I hate you /lh

Dovewing and Tigerheart have relationship drama again. What is UP with those two I simply do not understand them

Watching Bramblestar trying to control this bizarre situation is actually funny he is so close to screaming "PLEASE dont be mad :c"

SOON WHEN???? JUST KIT THOSE KITTENS DAMMIT

Get her, Alderheart

They LITERALLY said something about sharing the territory, they were like "Stars have five points baby and we need those 5 clans togetherrrr" what else do these cats want??? I know its a big change but its necessary

Wait everyone shut up that cat is named Podlight this is so important to me

Dang these cats are really still struggling :c I wish they didnt blame each other

Harestar is so cool

What the FUCK mistystar????

God what a disaster of a gathering Starclan is gonna be so pissed everyone is doing the opposite of what they should

I was holding my breath oof

I hope thunderclan gives some territory too thats too small a space for Skyclan

Oh boy oh boy oh boy i am Anxious for these Kitties

Violetpaw is me having nightmares every night

Macgyver is a heavily gringue name and I have No Clue how to say it how the hell do you say it

Update its either Mick Guyver or Mac Guyver apparently

Its fun to see how different the sisters are from one another, I love them both

I also love their mom with the name identical to puddleshine wish I got to meet her

IM CRYING BRO........M...MDB.....NFBANN.....VIOLETPAW BELONGS MY DARLING MY DAUGHTER

Sadly Twigpaw is for gender binarism 😔 /j

Twigpaw is often in her thoughts and doesn't pay attention to anything around her and I love her for that

Bad news Finpaw is gonna lose his tail, good news I can draw his tail fin-shaped

Puddleshine surgeon moment!!!

I love Graystripe and Millie

And I love that being flirty is a part of Sparkpelt's personality, I don't know what Alderheart is talking about she's always been dandelion-headed

Ok this is epic, I’m glad we’re breaking gender roles in Warrior Cats my heart dropped when the books called Briarlight cr*ppled, that’s the thing they promised not to do anymore recently right? I’m not sure but, I could use some uh less ableism on my Warrior Cats, the series is old but the newer books should be better, so yeah, good modernize these cats babyyy

OH COOL Skyclan journey!!! Fun I hope they find someone :] also fuck Molewhisker and Cherryfall bastards.

Jayfeather is gonna miss Alderheart too much for him to leave hehehe

ALL of Starclan showed up just to call out Riverclan pahahah

oooo is shadowclan haunted?????

FINALLY TINYCLOUD IS KITTING YES GOD YES GO QUEEN GOOOO!!!!

I wonder why Twigpaw wants to stay behind, there has to be more than just the camp stuff

"I wish I were more positive like Twigpaw, but at least I'm just as scarred by the death of my loved ones as my dad :] I like being like him"

Violetpaw witnesses a car crash 😔 that was a bit messy what happened to those cars also why the hell was one of them smaller was it a bike??? Or ???? Idk what's up with it!!!

Needletail just happens to have slow-down turned on for her on the discord chat so she can only say like a few words each hour :/ why the hell is she here tho Violetpaw needs to get OVER your death!!!!

This short exchange has made me love Dewpaw

Also, I love Twigpaw, I still wonder why she stayed behind tho

Ahh, is it cus she feels too estranged from her family :c ? I wish her mom was around maybe that would help

Jee Twigpaw be a tad more empathic, I can see Twigpaw struggles with that sometimes

You can't cheer him up right now he's grieving, just find him on common ground, talk to him, don't try to make him happy just try to keep him company

Oh wow finpaw that's a dangerous thing to say I hope Twigpaw doesn't crumble under the pressure to never be sad because people like her because she's happy and her being sad would be bad

ALSO I JUST REMMEMBRERD UH TWIGPAW MENTIONED BRIARLIGHT BUT BERRYNOSE IS RIGHT THERE???? HE IS RIGHT HE DIDNT DIE OFF SCREEN IM SURE OF IT WAIY

BERRYNOSS IS RIGHT THERE I CHDCKED!!!! HE LOST HIS TAIL TOO AND HES A GREAT WARRIOR, TWIGPAW!!!! YOU SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED IT ITS MORE RELATABLE

Okay I'm glad they're getting along this is nice

Oh look twigpaw you Are like your father :] this is cute

Skyclan begins to fish competitively I'm glad

I like it when medicine cats bicker about their leader's behaviors ehheheh, Jayfeather talking about how weak Shadowclan is, Alderheart being annoyed at his father for wanting to stay silent, the others worried about the tensions this is all cheff the kisser

Jayfeather spitting the truths about how Starclan doesn't know shit, and he is very much one to speak

Puddleshine: Rowanstar stepped up the patrols :c

Leadstar: He has warriors enough for that?? Damn good for him

Dang poor Skyclan I hope they manage stuff better soon

Oooo the girls are fighting!!!

Alderheart starclan anxiety time dang

Sheep :]

Needletail :[

I'm sad Ravenpaw isn't here, this is a lovely reunion scene but knowing Barley will be alone when they all leave breaks my heart

Oh, maybe not, but if they stay I'll be sad also cus Skyclan needs its warriors

Aw man, Twigpaw is struggling :c

OUCH

I WANT SKYCLAN 2 SWIM THO......

Omg crimes

That sounds kinda possessive twigpaw!

DOVEWING?????

T

WhHAHAGAHAHA WHERE DID THAT COME FROM

omg tigerstar 2 real

Whats he gonna do to rowanstar???

ALRIGHT THATA OVER THEN PAHAHA

Aw, I'm glad they're having fun tho, and that twigpaw sees herself as skyclan

Alderheart, as he meets someone for the first time in a while: ARE YOU OKAY???

Blackstar protagonist moment

The medicine cats: our gods are toying with us again and destiny is uncertain

Leaders: I cannot DO this right now PLEASE leave and let me care for The Real Issues

Alderheart: YOU WILL hang out at my house Willowshine this isn't up for debate

Riverclan suffered enough and it's their turn to throw a tantrum about it, honestly good for them hsghahah

Alderheart asks his father to go on a quest to check people's feet

WHAT THR HELL IS A CANTANKEROUS

Alderheart and Willowpelt sitting there watching Shadowclan fight

This is really funny

HEWWO????

Puddleshine, in his eyes: help help

I love Skyclan

Ok this sounds like it's gonna be very very fun

Mission impossible: Escape From São Paulo

Oh, is Fallowfern deaf? That's so poggers omg I wanna see more of her

Edit: fallowfern is an elder that lost her hearing with age and retired after that happened :/ boring

I love leafstar so much

Juniperclaw: aren't you gonna punish her????

Leafstar: why

Juniperclaw: when I tell rowanstar he's gonna be pissed

Leafstar: don't tell him

Juniperclaw: the fuck is wrong with you and your clan??? Where is everyone???????

Leafstar: busy

Icon

I don't trust abled people specially able-bodied people telling disabled people they just have to train harder and feeling sorry for yourself won't help.

But this is the closest to a positive message to disabled people we have ever had in warriors so I guess I'll take it but I want better

IVYPOOL!!!💖💖💖💖💕

Dang ivypool what a way to show someone you miss them hahaha

Twigpaw: uhhhh how's dovewing?

Ivypool: what do you mean did she do something illegal I'm sure she did

Ivypool is a seriously funny character WHY are you yelling at the young adult about your sisters illegal activities she doesn't know anything about it!!!!

Alderheart goes on an adventure

Feet inspector on the road!!!!

Jasper is so funny I love him

Omg what's he got against clan cats??? What's his sad backstory????

YEESSSS SPARKPELT MY LOVE 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💕💕💕💕💕💕💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💕💕💕

Sparkpelt your opinion sucks but I love you

I'm really really glad they had this moment this is really sweet, they hadn't talked for a while but this is genuine like, we hadn't had this sort of relationship in so long in the books with just, dialogue yknow??? THEYRE TALKING ABOUT THINGS

And the pause Sparkpelt takes between her speaking to fix what she's saying "I'm sorry for saving you :c no wait uhh not exactly but like" this is so good so natural so fun I love you sparkpelt

I get why she has a diferent opinion on Skyclan it's good for someone close to Alderheart to have a different mindset from him and for him to have someone like uh be opposites from him a lil yknow contrats his characteristics makes both siblings fun round and full of kitty do you get what I'm saying???

I love this

I love Sparkpelt, love her lil anxious moments, love her, love that she just wants to fool around with toms and enjoys Larksong but doesn't want to get serious you go girl

They wanted to write smart-ass they wanted to write smart-ass so bad

They're doing this in the rain?????

I'm quite certain Violetpaw is a young adult by this point its valid for her to go

Wh why did you let your cat out in the rain dude!!! When it comes back it's gonna dirty up the whole place it's wet out there!!!! And the cold is gonna get in the house!!!!!!!

I WAS HOLDING MY BREATH OH LORD

That was SO INTENSE AND SO FUNNY AND SO MUCH, IM SO GLAD SHE MADE IT I GOT SCARED

Oh this is so epic

That moment when your cat nearly dies and then it runs off and you go after it and then a bunch of other cats show up and start running with it

I hope Twigpaw can see the others soon

Glad to see her keeping her medicine cat knowledge ehehehe

???????

Sandynose I hate you you are so abled

Sandynose: I don't want my son to feel distanced from his peers so I'm distancing him from his peers

DOVEWING???

SANDYNOSE SHUT UP IM GOING TO KILL YOU ANS MURDER YOU

I'm so upset with Sandynose WHY isn't leafstar seeing this WHY DOESNG ANYONE SEE THIS SOMSONE PLEASE CONFORT AND LOVE MY CHILD TWIGPAW DOESNT DESERVE THIS

Angry sad upset why

Piscina

Thanks graystripe

Ok who's dying this time

Ok no one just a background cat got hurt he will survive otherwise it would be relevant

This was intense though what will happen now???

YES FINALLY

Oh this is lovely so good they're here!!! The rest of skyclan has arrived and we are all happy together

That dream felt good

NEEDLETAIL??? AGAIN

Where were you at!!!!

What!!!

Check this man's feet how many toes are there this could be good

What

Hegshahwha what the fuck is up with this guy

Okay I like him

Ohhh THATS tree

Change your name if you don't like it you sound trans already

Yeah nothing makes one smarter like dying

This is very fun I'm excited for more of whatever happening

Twigpaw :c

HIS SNIFFLES

Oh no

Hhhhnn I want Twigpaw to be happy so bad, I hate seeing her struggles

Sandynose you are so evil and very detested by me

You can and you SHOULD feel angry at Sandynose he SUCKS and he is being needlessly mean at you!!!!! There are much better ways to bring up the possibility that maybe you'd be happier with thunderclan!!! Fuck off Sandynose

Oh so Snowbush hasn't improved, maybe he will die?

Poor Alderheart

Oh fuck there he goes

Yeah

Aw man, rip to the background cat

That was a heavy death too

Aw, I was hoping the rest of Skyclan would show up before the gathering, maybe just after it???

I wonder what's going on in Shadowclan

TIGERHEARTS MISSING HUH???

The couple was kidnapped

HUH????

Oh my lord oh fuck

Can't anyone step up to lead why do they depend on Tigerheart so much???

Jesus christ

Alderheart kills his gods

This is so chaotic and funny I'm worried as hell for shadowclan but excited a lot is happening

HI TREE AGSGAHAH

Tawnypelt >:(

Puddleshine: WAIT DONT KICK HIM OUT, CHECK OUT HIS FREAKY FEET INSTEAD

Oh dear

Twigpaw :c

TWIGPAW :CCCC Man rememebr when I said I hope Twigpaw doesn't crumble under the pressure of being happy for others? yeah

GET OUT SANDYNOSE I DONT CARE YOURE BEING REASOMABLE FOR ONCE YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN LATER

:C

I'm so heartbroken for them

Uh pdhsgahab okay then

Bye finpaw

Wow that was easy for him

This is fun

I'm still sad as hell

Okay there's a lot going on right now wow

The owl scene was funny as hell to picture, this dramatic prophetic moment and the cats just "uuggh is that a prophecy??? Nooo"

Okay so

There's some shadowclan cats missing, considering the many sleekwhisker maps I'm sure she's up to no good but I have no clue what happened to the others and I hope they're okay

Wow! That was really something

Fantastic ending to a very good book its, definitely a different energy from the third but I'm really enjoying this I'm still excited as hell!!! I got worried things would get kinda bad from here but nope!!!! Very fun stuff for now this is very very good and I am enjoying it

This is definitely one of the most fun arcs I've read so far!!! The drama the stakes the little moments everything is tying together really well into a very fun story I'm enjoying a lot!

I worry for Twigpaw and hope for her happiness, and Violetshine too, hope her and Hawkwing deal well with missing her. Tree is being interesting. Alderheart wasn't much of a focus here but always fun to see him trying to solve the damn prophecy no leaders seem to care about. Mousewhisker was okay??? Lots of very fantastic turns for all events and uh let's see where this all goes next!!!

#vision of shadows #a vision of shadows #wc #warrior cats #warriors #darkest night #avos #avos darkest night #warrior cats avos #avos warrior cats #twigpaw #hawkwing #alderheart #mousewhisker #violetshine #rowanclaw #rowanstar #finpaw #sandynose #i hate you sandynose #also talk about quest for the 6 toed feet huh?

[all-things-skam]

Jens’ season | Chapter one

Tuesday, January 7th

Winter break had quickly gone by and school was already starting again - much to the boys' displeasure. The return to school was tough for some, their sleeping schedules being messed up from staying up late after partying all winter break.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t so cold that morning. Jens and the boys stood outside the building, chatting as they waited for the first bell to go off. Moyo was kinda falling asleep, and Robbe had this huge, bright hickey peeking out of his hoodie.

''Nine times? Don't you think that's a little bit exaggerated?'' Jens said, not quite believing Aaron’s story.

''I'm telling the truth. We fucked all night long. It was... wow. Orgasm over orgasm over orgasm ove-''

''Okay, okay. We get it,'' Robbe interrupted, putting a stop to Aaron's detailed night with Amber.

Aaron scoffed. ''You're just jealous you and Sander have never had a torrid night like us.''

Since getting together with Amber, Aaron didn’t seem to be able to stop talking about her. It was all he talked about now: her - and what they did together in bed. Jens got him. Truly. Losing your virginity is a big moment - more so when your first time was with the girl you've been after all year. However, the boys didn't need - nor want - to hear every little detail of his and Amber's sexual life. The curly haired one had always been an oversharer, but now that he was dating Amber, it was worse - if that was even possible.

Robbe's cheeks flushed, flashing back to his night at the penthouse. If only they knew...

''Girls bodies are different, Robbe.''

''Are they? I didn't notice,'' the brunet responded, light sarcasm out

Moyo laughed. ‘’And you? What’s going on with Jana? You two were quite cozy on Saturday,’’ he said, raising his eyebrows knowingly, because everyone had seen the two making out in a hallway at the party.

Jens shrugged, having not much to tell. ‘’I don't know. We're letting things flow and seeing where it'll go, I guess,’’ he replied, brushing it off. ‘’We don't want to go too fast and make the same mistakes.”

He had kinda got back together - if you could even call it that - with Jana at Robbe's Christmas party, sharing a kiss again for the first time after months of flirting and dipping toes around each other. It took them a long time to want to try again, kiss again, but they were glad to have waited.

Even though breaking up had been hard as hell, it was the right thing to do. Their relationship had become toxic; Jana's guilt and paranoia had to stop. They had reached a state where staying together was only causing pain and although it broke their hearts to come to this conclusion, sometimes, love wasn’t enough.

‘’If you and Jana get back together, we could all go on a triple date. You, me, Robbe, Sander and the girls,’’ Aaron suggested, already looking forward to the non-agreed date.

Robbe shook his head, not on board with this idea. ‘’Sander and I are not going on a date with you and Amber.’’

‘’Jana and I are taking things slow. We’re not going on a date anytime soon,’’ Jens reminded him.

Dates had never been their thing either, being barely fifteen when they started dating - and, like, very broke. The closest to a date they ever had was watching movies on a laptop. The freezing screen and adds for pornographic websites weren’t what you’d call romantic.

Aaron furrowed his eyebrows. ‘’Sander is practically a part of the Broerrrs now and Jana and Amber are friends, so why not-’’

‘’Because Sander can't stand Amber,’’ Robbe blurted out, having enough of walking on eggshells concerning the two. Sander had made it clear the day they met at Seaside that he didn’t like Amber. He found her too bossy and annoying for his taste.

Between them, Moyo made ‘oooh’ sounds, adding drama to the on-going spat.

Their conversation was drowned and ignored as Jens looked away, eyes falling on a boy with dark blond hair and a denim jacket. Jens didn’t know why, but he couldn’t help looking at him. There was something on this unknown boy that drew his attention and gave him an odd sensation he couldn’t quite explain or understand. What the fuck?

''Who is that?’’

As if on cue, the unnamed teenager looked back at him, giving Jens a good look at his face. He was all angular jaw and tousled, curly fringe.

‘’Some new kid that just moved here from the Netherlands. I think his name is Lucas,’’ Aaron responded, for once being aware of the latest gossips. ‘’Why?’’

Jens shrugged, tearing his eyes from Lucas, turning back to the boys. ‘’Curious. Hadn’t seen him here before.’’

.

Wednesday, January 8th

Hood on, Jens stood outside Lotte's school, waiting for her to get out. His mom had messaged him, asking to pick up his sister after school because she replaced someone at the hospital and couldn't pick her up. Jens didn't mind - and it helped ease his mom's mind. Lotte was only eight, still a bit young to walk by herself.

There was ten minutes left before Lotte would be released, so Jens pulled out his phone, seeing new messages from the Broerrrs group chat.

Moyo: BOYS!! We need to find an idea for the next vlog. We haven't put anything up since the start of exam week…

Robbe: The vlogs... I forgot about those

Moyo: Maybe if you’d stop sucking face with Sander for a minute

Robbe: We’re NOT always kissing…

Aaron: That’s all you two did on break! I even saw Sander wiping his mouth at a party 😏🍆💦

Robbe: WHAT?!

Jens: As if you and Amber were any better

Moyo: So? Anyone has ideas for the vlogs?

Aaron: What about a mukbangs? Can we do mukbangs?

Moyo: No mukbangs

Aaron: Why not? They’re cool to watch

Moyo: Maybe, but it’s fucking expensive, man. Do you have any idea how much food we need to buy to do mukbangs?

Jens: Yeah, you could barely afford McDonalds last friday 😂

Aaron: Fuck you!! Unlike you, I had a Christmas present to buy for my girlfriend

Moyo: We could do a twister? Have you guys seen the painful twister challenge?

Robbe: Painful twister?

Moyo: It’s like twister, but when you fall, you do a ‘painful’ challenge like eating a hot pepper or going in an ice bath or even waxing a leg

Jens: My sister has a twister mat, I’ll bring it

Moyo: We’re doing it?

Jens: Fine with me

Robbe: Same

Aaron: We’re not gonna do too painful things, right? Please no electric shock

Jens: Electric shock it is!

Moyo: Sunday 2pm at mine?

Robbe: Can’t. Sander and I are having lunch with my dad

A bell went off and the gates opened, freeing everyone. Then, a huddle of kids hurried out of the school, accompanied by a hubbub of voices and laughters. They ran toward their busses while others walked on the sidewalk, heading home by themselves.

‘’Jens!’’ a cheery voice called in the distance.

He looked up from his phone and smiled as Lotte ran in his direction, happy smile on her face. Her beanie was pulled down too much, almost covering her eyes. Jens let out an ‘oof’ as his sister collided into him, hugging him by the waist.

The brunette pushed up her beanie so she could see better. ‘’Where’s Mama?’’ Lotte asked with a frown, not seeing her around.

‘’Someone was sick and she had to replace them at the hospital. It’s gonna be just the two of us tonight.’’

Lotte pouted, her sad face tugging at Jens’ heart. ‘’She’s always working.’’

‘’I know... What do you say we watch Frozen 2 tonight?’’ Jens offered, knowing how much his sister wanted to see it since it came out in theaters.

Her eyes brightened and face lifted immediately at the mention of the Frozen sequel. ‘’For real?’’ Jens nodded. ‘’All my friends saw it during Christmas break and I’m the only one who didn’t. I have to plug my ears every time they talk about it because I don’t want to get spoiled. Mom said she’d take me, but never did.’’

Jens chuckled, easily imagining Lotte trying to block the spoilers. ‘’Well, you can tell them all about it tomorrow.’’

‘’Yes! You’re the best brother.’’ She went for a second hug, jumping excitedly.

Most siblings who are on opposite ends of the age scale have trouble getting along. Having this much of an age gap means having very different interests. Teenagers tend to need space and don't like their stuff to be touched while children are always in the mood to play and a bit invasive - or curious.

It wasn't the case for Jens and Lotte. Jens loved being an older brother. He took his role very seriously and fully embraced the protective big brother role.Sure, she was annoying at times, always asking questions about everything - but she was eight years old, what could one expect?

Despite that, Jens loved spending time with her whether it was helping with homework or watching movies in their pajamas during the weekend. Nothing made him happier than seeing a big smile on his Lotte’s face - except maybe knowing he was the one that made it appear.

.

Thursday, January 9th

''Left hand on blue,'' Robbe called, being the first to spin the wheel.

Instead of playing the classic way, they decided to all move for every spin. It was more fair to measure everyone's flexibility and endurance. So far, Aaron was losing sorely, having chosen a farther blue circle than necessary.

Jens snickered, seeing his friend's move. Had he ever played Twister?

''Right hand on red.''

This one was easy, at least when you started the right way. Now, Aaron was already struggling, thanks to Moyo, who purposely picked the red circle closer to Aaron.

''I was going to use that one!''

Moyo shrugged. The two others laughed. ''We never agreed to play fair, did we?''

Robbe spun the spinner, watching as Aaron attempted to slide his hand under Jens's chest to reach the other red circle. ''Left foot on green.''

Jens carefully elongated his leg back, putting the asked foot on a green circle, succeeding. Robbe gave him a thumbs-up, but when he turned back to the boys, Moyo's ass was right in his face. He grimaced. ''No... Move away! Get your ass out of my face, man.''

''I can't. It's Aaron's fault. He messed the whole game up when taking the wrong circle,'' Moyo justified.

Guilty, Aaron laughed. ‘’What, how am I supposed to-’’ He was cut off, losing balance when he moved his leg and ended up falling on top of Jens. ‘’Fuck.’’

Robbe snorted. ''And you said you had gotten more flexible now that you’re having so much sex.''

‘’I am. It’s just- The mat is slippery, okay? It wasn't my fault,'' he tried to defend, but it didn't matter because he had fell anyways. First loser.

“That’s what happens when you don’t take off your socks, man.” Moyo laughed, gesturing to everyone else's bare feet.

Standing from the mat, Jens went to grab the wax strips he bought for the video and held them high for the camera. ‘’Wax time!’’ he and Moyo declared at the same time.

He warmed the wax strips with his hands as Aaron rolled up one of his pant’s leg, revealing a very hairy limb. Jens shared a look with Robbe, looking forward to see their friend suffer. He put the wax strip on Aaron’s leg, smirking. There was no going back, now.

‘’Want me to pull it slowly or one shot?’’

‘’Go slow-’’ He was cut off as Jens didn’t listen and pulled it one shot, making Aaron’s leg throb in pain. ‘’Ow!’’ Aaron curled on himself, holding his - now hairless - leg as if it would lessen the pain. ‘’Holy fuck! Why do girls do that to themselves? That shit hurts.’’

Once Aaron had semi recovered from his waxed leg, Moyo took Robbe’s place and spun the spinner, going for a second round.

‘’Okay, Broerrrs, let’s start.’’ Moyo rubbed his hands together excitedly, watching as the arrow circled around and stopped on a color. ‘’Right foot on yellow.''

Again, Aaron didn’t seem to get the rules of the game and used the yellow in Jens’ part of the mat. ''Aaron, what the fuck? This was my yellow,''

Robbe and Moyo laughed as Aaron removed his foot and chose another one. Someone,please, help this child...

After a couple rounds, their asses were in the air, resembling the downward-facing dog position. While it was semi-comfortable position, the next move wasn't.

''Left hand on green.''

Jens, being taller than the other two, was able to reach the green circle. He grinned as he watched Aaron and Robbe struggling. By some miracle, they reached a green circle as well and the game continued.

The next to fall was Robbe, toppling over and causing everyone to join him on the floor. A hot pepper was presented to him and he had to take a bite. There were tears pooling in Robbe’s eyes at how spicy it was. He was not able to feel his lips for the next two rounds.

Moyo managed to crack his pants in the third round, making a move he probably shouldn't have. Despite the clothing casualty, it was gonna be good laughing content for the vlog.

Then, Robbe accidently put his foot on Jens’s hand and Aaron was caught cheating. He swore he wasn’t aware of the ‘only hands and feet are allowed on the mat’ rule, but the boys decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, not wanting to start an argument.

This was, certainly, a memory to tell.

.

Friday, January 10th

Jens’s bedroom door creaked open, pulling him from his sleep. As he woke up, the echoes of his parents' screaming match became clearer, informing him that his dad was home. It’s been like this since December. Jens’s dad had been working at the same office for over fifteen years and, when his boss felt the company’s sales going downhill, he was one of the unlucky employees who got fucking fired. Fired.

Sighing, Jens rubbed his eyes, prying them open, and saw Lotte's standing figure at the foot of his bed, waiting expectantly. It was dark, but he could see the purple giraffe plushie she was holding to her chest. He glanced at the time on his phone: almost 1am.

Sitting up, Jens scooted closer to the wall and lifted his comforter, making room for Lotte. She quickly crossed the floor and crawled under the covers.

‘’Are mama and papa getting divorced?’’ she asked in a small voice.

Jens’s heart sank at her question. He shifted and wrapped his arms around her, fuzzy pajamas tickling his skin. He didn’t know what to say, what to do - he didn’t even know where she’d learned that word. At her age Jens didn’t know what divorce was, less wonder if it was going to happen to his parents.

“Don’t worry Lotte, everything’s going to be okay.’’ His arms hugged her tighter, hoping it would reassure her a little...hoping he was right. He knew that hearing their parents fight so frequently was affecting her more than him, but he didn’t realise just how much more.

.

His skilled hands were under Jana's top, thumb grazing over her unpadded bralette, making her nipple harden. She arched her back as they kissed, trying to create friction between their bodies.

They had escaped to a free bedroom minutes ago, seeking the intimacy and proximity that they couldn't allow themselves in the middle of the party.

This bed wasn't near as comfortable as Jana's, but it did the job for their mid-party make out session. A better choice than the bathroom, at least. In here, no one would bang on the door and yell about needing to use the toilet.

A moan left Jana's lips as Jens kissed down her neck, her bitten fingernails scratching at Jens's back under his tee shirt - why was it still on? Jens smiled smugly, remembering his ex-girlfriend’s body and its reaction to his touch like they never broke up the year prior. Some things just can’t be forgotten.

The loud music echoed inside the room, Travis Scott’s latest hit playing. It wasn’t really a song to bang to, but they weren’t the ones in charge of the playlist, were they?

Jana hooked her leg around Jens’s waist, fingers grasping the sheets as he kissed his way down her stomach, knowing exactly where this was going. ‘’Jens…’’

.

Readjusting his hoodie, Jens ducked out of the bedroom he was in. His hair was probably still messy from Jana running her fingers through it. He pulled out his phone, texting Moyo to ask where they were, in the mood to smoke a joint. Nothing tasted better than a blunt after a blowjob.

At least, at the moment.

‘’Got lucky tonight?’’

Looking up, Jens recognized the new guy at school. Lucas, was it? He was standing in the hallway, red cup in his left hand, leaning against the wall as he raised his eyebrows suggestively, a smug grin on his lips.

Jens frowned. ‘’Uh?’’

‘’I saw your girl leaving the same room and adjusting her shirt a minute ago. Not that I was stalking you. I was just...there, I guess,’’ he explained, bringing his cup to his lips, taking a slow sip.

‘’Oh, you mean Jana?’’ Jens shook his head, correcting him. ‘’She’s not my girl. Not anymore.’’

Lucas hummed, interested in the new information. ‘’So, you’re the kind of guy who fuck with his ex?’’

The question took Jens by surprise. He blinked. Did he hear him right? Who was this guy to assume things about him?

‘’What? We didn’t-’’

‘’Clearly, something happened in there and, by the look of your lips and messy hair, no talking was involved,’’ he said, raising his eyebrows suggestively again before holding his hand out. ‘’I’m Lucas.’’

‘’Jens,’’ he replied, shaking the other boy’s hand.

Before they could carry on with their party small talk, someone hooked their arm around Jens’ shoulder. ‘’There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Robbe disappeared with Sander and Aaron is sucking faces with Amber.’’

“Here I am,” Jens said, laughing at Moyo’s comment about their friends. “Did you get my text?”

Moyo shook his head, a questioning look on his face. ‘’No…’’

“Do you have the weed?”

“Ah, yes.” Moyo replied, pulling a joint out of his pocket and handing it to Jens, who took it gratefully. ‘’Want some?’’ he asked, nodding at Lucas.

‘’Normally I’d say yes, but I actually should be heading home now.’’ Lucas raised his eyebrows, blue eyes on Jens. ‘’See you around, Jens.’’

Moyo was distracted by someone behind them talking and Lucas took the opportunity to wink at Jens, before walking off and leaving the other boy baffled.

What. The. Fuck.

#jens stoffels #jens's season #wtfock #lucas van der heijden #vds #van der stoffels

[theglasscat]

Dark Crytal/Age of Resistance Human/High School AU

HEAR ME OUT Thorn Hill Ridge Academy (THRA) 

PTA moms:

Mayrin Vapra (PTA head, connections to the School Board)

Fara Stonewood

Argot Grot (Deet’s grandma)

Laesid Drenchen (a doctor)

Mera Spriton (Kylan’s aunt)

Seethi Dousan

Ethri Sifa (teen mom who thinks she needs to go to these meetings as she’s a parent now)

Ordon is a cop doing a teen outreach program or a school security guard, haven’t decided which The kids:

The Vapra Sisters: 

Seladon- Prep, senior, class president, debate team, preparing to be valedictorian, secretly enjoys metal

Tavra- Prep/jock, junior, on several sports teams, skater by day but still gets top grades, has a secret girlfriend, hangs out with different kids at school than her home life suggests

Brea- Prep/nerd, freshman, excited to be at school and spend her time reading books her reading level, makes friends with the librarian.

Ordon’s Son:

Rian- Oldest of three. Jock. Junior. On several sports teams.  Expected to go into army after and then be a cop like his father. Would rather just make out with people and go to college. Goes out with Mira when she’s not going out with Gurjin. Best friend is Gurjin.  They are NOT gay, they only kissed two times and he’s only touched his dick once!  They’re just really close friends man! Probably the best friends in the whole world, man! It’s not wrong to love your best friend!

Mira- Jock. Junior. On several sports teams.  Slacks at school but it’s fine cause she’s going to join the army anyway.  Family has higher expectations of her.  Can’t decide if she should go out with Rian or Gurjin and the social drama she brings so she can date both (but never at the same time that would be, like, mean) is legendary.

The Drenchen Siblings:

Naia- Junior. Jock. On the swim team. Parents want her to go to medical school, twin sister to Gurjin. Best friends since elementary with Kylan.

Gurjin- Junior. Jock. On all the sports teams as Rian. Parents want him to attend police academy after graduation and he is considering it but he might want to go to college too. Goes out with Mira when Rian isn’t. Best bros with Rian and bro it’s not gay to cherish your best friend and think he’s hot and kiss him when you’re alone right? They’re just bros.

Two younger sisters in middle school.

The Sifa Family is a large family with lots of cousins and second cousins and siblings.  They include:

Onica- Junior. Tavra’s secret girlfriend. Skater. Sometimes stoner. Likes to read tarot cards and palms. Witch-core af.

Tae- Junior. Jock. Onica’s best friend. On same sports teams as Tavra. Believes in Onica’s prophecies.

Ethri- Senior. Had a baby with Staya and now she’s a parent? Which is why she’s too busy for school work so why don’t teachers understand that? And isn’t the PTA supposed to be like, so Parents and Teachers can talk to each other? Not like, these weird conversations with these judgy moms?

Staya- Unrelated but Ethri’s baby daddy. 18 year old drop out who has a van.

Freshly transferred to the school is:

Deet- Sophmore.  Homeschooled/”Unschooled” by her two dads on a farm on edge of town until recently.  Very bright so it wasn’t just her Grandma being a teacher and on the PTA that got her in.  Would love to make some new friends because she really likes talking to people, but doesn’t get why everyone needs to split up into cliques and be so mean to one another.  Makes friends with the janitor.

There is also: 

Kylan: Junior. Band geek. Naia’s best friend since elementary school.  Really into comic books and drawing potential covers for his potential folk metal band’s first album, that is if he can gather enough people who know what folk metal is first.

Amri: Junior. Not trying to be in any clique.  Deet’s cousin. Wants to be a doctor like Naia but a homeopathic one and because of this they butt heads in science class a lot.

Staff

Principal: Aughra

At least one of the teachers is: Argot

Teachers: Mystics (Mr. Su, Mr. Sol Mr. Swim Coach San, Archery Coach Va, etc.)

The janitor: Hup  

School Board Committee:

The Skeksis: Seemingly ancient and wealthy patrons of the school but are *record scratch* still aliens. Still sucking the souls out of teens. One day Rian is skipping practice to makeout with MIra but she’s not there to meet him at their usual spot and when he sees her going somewhere else he follows her to the detention room, which is fair enough, she probably just didn’t have the chance to tell him she had detention, until he peeks through the window (you know the sort with criss cross over the glass) and sees the members of the board sucking out Mira’s soul. Now it’s up to Rian to convince his fellow students and their parents to what the board is up to.  But with everyone separated into different cliques and family ties, how will they ever unite to save themselves and their school?

The Garthim: Security guards approved by the board to quell the rumors that are spreading around the school.  Actually robots.

Years later:

Jen is a teenager living on the edge of a big empty town.  One day he finds out his math tutor being put into an ambulance and on his dying breath tells Jen to go to Aughra and get the key to the old abandoned high school to save the world.  Aughra gives him the key and Jen goes poking around the abandoned high school.

There he meets Kira, a girl his age, and her dog, Fizzgizz who explore the building with him.  Together they escape the clutches of the barely hanging in there school board and their still operating robot security guards.  The key Aughra gave Jen was also the key to the spaceship that is also the central campus building.  The remaining Mystic teachers and their school board counterparts fuse and thank Jen and Kira for helping them and then activate their spaceship home.  Jen and Kira run out of the campus and watch the school blast off into space from the overgrown football field.

Roll credits

#the dark crystal #high school au #human au #it ends just like rocky horror #hear me out

[lovecanbesostrange]

There was no reason for Station 19 to go that hard on all fronts, but wow they did. I honestly watched S1+2 mostly out of habit, but S3 was like cleaning house, setting everybody up as a character with their personal flashback gave them far more layers and now I truly care. Thanks. Well, and then Grey’s happened and I cried for like half the episode...........

Maya and Jack have definitely profitted the most from the shift in tone and the character development overhaul. And I liked both their storylines. Maya dealing with all that crap from her father and coming to terms with why she maybe isn’t 100% ready for this very steady relationship and sharing all her emotions was great. Can she tell Carina everything she told Andy? In almost exactly this way, please? Because being afraid of slipping and finding these moments and naming what she has trouble with adjusting to - that is all good. And Carina is one of the most compassionate and patient people (from the limited scenes we have had with her over the years). Dear Maya, if you communicate, she will be there for you.

And wow, Carina than talking about her home and her own fears. Magnificent. Early days of covid? All the horrible, horrible news from Italy come to mind. So thanks writers for building that international bridge. (I wonder how any Italian tv shows that will incorporate the pandemic will deal with this. Every country has their very unique story in this.)

Of course we will see nice side characters getting covid and probably die. Gonna keep my fingers crossed for Marsha nonetheless. Jack having this make-shift family did wonders for his character and I don’t want him to take a blow. It’s a found family on the side, not bound by trade and I like it. I love that thanks to Marcus the masks with plastic windows were mentioned (even tying back to Dr. Riley’s visit to Grey-Sloan. Good job.

Well, Miller and Sullivan. That all happened. And I am exactly 0% qualified to discuss the issues raised. I do empathise with Sullivan a bit more (not that I dismiss Miller’s points, because like Sullivan and Warren say, he is right). Because I absolutely hate this thing were being part of a (minority) group makes you the spokesperson and you get judged far more harshly. And then also taking in-group crap about it. Yes, it is how the world is. But it’s unfair. (And tbh luckily Sullivan hurt mostly himself and he did stand up and face any consequence coming his way. And yes, he was the kind of person to always tell everybody else to better not make mistakes *blablabla* and look, he fell down that high horse... I do think that is something Miller pointed out very rightfully.)

Glad Travis talked to his dad. And I do like the way he did. Just letting him know he knows and leaving that door open. His breakdown about how the church/religion is letting gay people down, while so many sins are just forgiven... damn. Hard to watch. And if just one viewer watching suddenly went like “huh, fucked up”, it was worth it.

Vic is the unsung hero of this episode. I loved how she kept defending that drugged up dude. Yes, he is stupid and it’s horrifying that he stays with his obviously abusive wife, but also keeps drugs around and just... lives like this. But she kept talking about how he didn’t mean to hurt anybody else and that he needed help far more than punishment. Travis and Vic are both good people, but in that situation I think most of us would react more like Travis. Being annoyed, mouthing back and wanting those two shut the fuck up. It’s a normal reaction. What Vic said is the harder choice. And it felt like there was an untold story there.

Okay, wow, much to say about Station 19 for once. But oh boy, Grey’s...........

I remember the “early” episodes we met Bailey’s father. And then we barely talked about her parents. They were somewhere in the background. Until in “(Don’t) Fear the Reaper” we met her mom, got that whole thing with her dead sister and got this picture of her early home life. It was really good. And last week her parents get mentioned again, because hey, elderly people. AND NOW THEY TELL US HER MOM HAD ALZHEIMER’S AND THEN SHE DIED............................................................... it was so fucking heartbreaking start to finish.

And I love all the quiet scenes we got out of this that are just so human. Sad and human. Bailey talking to Meredith, saying she misses her and relating to the whole seeing your mom withering away (so dying twice in a way). I like the use of the beach, because Meredith is semi-conscious, she hears it all, but she just can’t wake up long enough. And then Maggie and Bailey on that bench.

Two people sitting on a bench, talking. Nothing special happens. They don’t need to distract by having them in a busy hallway or somethng. It’s a whole ass conversation with no shorthand. Showing all the emotions. Having Maggie go back to that time her mother died and how she views it all in a different light now. Talking about dying with dignity. Chandra Wilson was so good in this scene. (Her best performance to me will probably always be when Charles died in front of those elevators, I can cry just thinking about that.) And she was allowed such a variety of feelings. And the pain of it all brings up joyful memories. Thanks so much for that hilarity that her scholarship came from the fucking Daughters of the Revolution. HA!

I don’t get people who still watch Grey’s and the relationship drama is the thing they care most about. This is what I’m here for first - the personal lives and relating to all these emotions (and also the mistakes and the way to do better next time).

Well, at least Tom got better quick, I guess. Nice way to give Amelia a reason to get to work for a day and thus have her confronting Teddy. Look, I am done with storylines involving cheating and all. Teddy as a character is often hard to like. But the way she is isolated and like the most contact she has is with DeLuca when he updates her on Meredith’s vitals... it’s harsh. And I liked that Amelia can talk to her without making her feel more terrible. And then I did like Teddy talking to Tom, who was his charming self in the end. Bonuspoints for mentioning that the kids are with Owen’s mom. And hey, I give this to Owen, I believe this must be hard for him, because being a dad is the biggest deal for him. Actually something to make him more likeable - if handled correctly - and this situation sucks for him as well.

Which brings me to Link. Who was left at the Grey home. With Zola, Bailey, Ellis and Scout. Wow. Who would have thought? Amelia’s pregnancy was a good thing, I guess, to give them the excuse of baby time and also Link sorta moving in to deal with all the kids. (Shipping all of them off to their own living Grandma isn’t an option. lol ) Link is a good dude. So please, okay, it was news to him, no need to hate on Tom, push through the irritation, Link! Ahahahahaha.

Jackson being so nervous about his mom being a bit too proud to always keep her mask on - wonderful. Sure, she’s a doctor, she’s also stubborn and he was so scared of losing her not that long ago. Family drama everywhere! I always like seeing Jackson and Webber together. And then they had another big talk, hammering home the fact that people are affected differently. That it’s worse for poor people and not by accident, but systemic problems, most of them are PoCs. So many black and brown patients dying left and right, and it’s clear where the problem starts... I do believe for some viewers this is actually news, because the “news media” they consume won’t talk about that.

So, well, and then there is the Jo of it all. OMG where do I even start? Now, first off, Levi and Jo living together is still hilarious and thanks so much for getting two scenes at the loft. Especially that first one with Levi pretty much pushing her out of bed. Now, I do want Levi to talk to his mom, I desperately need to know how things are. I’m sure the pandemic has shed some new light on what’s important. Second I’m also glad Levi is with Jo, so she is not alone, which makes it harder for her to fall into really bad habits and down that depression hole.

I kinda freaked out seeing Val again and was sure she’s gonna die (might still happen aaaaah). They have a tendency to kill the nice ladies. Still haven’t forgiven Grey’s for killing CeCe. So it was cool that the surgery was a success and wow, did I love when Jo sent Levi out to just listen to Val and connect. And then the baby delivery happened and....... what is going on? Jo even just casually thinking about switching specialties? TO OB?????????? WHAT?????? Dear writers, you dropped the ball on her entire medical journey so often, giving her a bonkers fellowship, having her residency take way too long and shoving her into general, because oops no mentor or anything. And now you give me this? Please, so this is how I would accept this as a set-up for an actual carthartic moment:

Let Jo stalk Carina, play out this thought “what if this thing that made me happy for a day is the thing I am supposed to do longer”. And then let her have joyous moments, but also something complicated, and finally a very distressed woman in labor. And Jo feels for the woman, is compassionate and all and when the baby is there, the woman struggles to connect. And this joyous second is withheld from Jo. And boom, full circle, this woman feels like shit for not loving that baby instantly, for the feeling of resentment and being out of her mind. And finally Jo can forvige Vicki. And that’s the end of that particular journey.

I mean we all pretend that we have forgotten that time Jo stole a baby, right? Because that was the S16 hiatus and there was a storyline set in motion that blew up with Justin leaving like that. And we have had Jo interacting with babies and new moms so often over the course of the show. While also staiting that Jo’s self-worth is tied to being in an OR, which is also her safe space. So this whole thing...

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Addison was the attending OB/GYN once upon a time. (”I’m being stalked by pregnant women!” “You are an obstetrician.”) She was also a fetal surgeon, which was what Arizona eventually became. So it’s not like when Meredith wore pink scrubs for a few weeks and got made fun of. There could be a long interesting road that eventually does include  surgeries. But it’s just so....... dumb. In a way. Especially with Jo having so many issues. And the writers - who give out pregnancies and babies like halloween candy - constantly skipping a potential Jolex-as-parents-storyline.... which kinda bites them in the ass now. ugh F R U S T R A T I O N......... I could write a five page essay just about Jo so far this season, I’m sorry. (Also if I ever have to see Jo in pink scrubs, a part of my brain will explode thinking back to Jason for sure.............)

Oh, and then there was Ben Warren. Just existing. Being a good man. Thanks. :3

#Station 19 #Grey's Anatomy #ramblings

[aloneeedra]

Start-Up (2020)

Where you can watch it?: Netflix

How many seasons?: 1 (16 episodes)

Rating: 7.7/10

Summary: (mild spoilers) after a parents divorce, two daughters split up, one picking her mother and the other (the main lead) picking her father. In order to get through it, the main lead’s grandmother decides to write the main lead letters under someone eles name taken from a newspaper so she has someone to talk to, and even in lists an orphan boy to help her.

Skip to 15 years later, where the main lead, desperate to prove her sister that picking her dad over her mom was not a mistake, seeks to find her childhood penpal and use him (first male lead) to impress her sister. Of course, the first male lead (who does very much exist) has no idea who she is, but with the help of the orphan boy (second male lead) now all grown up with lots of money and lots of loneliness, he tries to be everything she wants, even if that means lying.

Soon after, the goal changes from prove sister wrong with first male lead to prove sister wrong by becoming ceo of a successful business after a few secrets are reveled. Together (the main lead, the first male lead and a group of friends) compete in Start-Up, a place that can make all their dreams come true, but like everything else, consequences come their way.

Best parts: there are quite a few things I liked about this drama. First, Nam Do-san is adorable. Next, I really appreciate that they did not drag out the misunderstanding like many dramas tend to do. I think the first couple of episodes are absolutely amazing and I would rate those few a 10/10. The humor in those are also hilarious. The backstory made me cry, and I hardly cry at backstories so this is quite impressive. I think the first and second lead make an excellent couple; they are cute. Nice supporting characters. The grandma is great. I really appreciate that they didn’t try to fix everything in the last episode.

Worst part: there’s this thing that happens to me a lot where I start watching a show and the first few episodes are like pure bless, but towards the middle the show seems to burn out, or at least my attention span does. Now, Idk if it’s just me, but I think that in the beginning of the show, the reason why I loved it so much is because I felt close to these characters. As if I could reach them, if that makes sense. Like these are attainable characters, so watching them flirt with each other and overcome challenges was fun. But then, as time went on, there seemed to be more space between I and the characters. Its like before, I had front seats to the screen, but now someone sat in front of me and I couldn’t see the screen so I had to move a couple rows back and then it would happen again and again until I was stuck in the last row.

This show had a time skip. Now, I understand the need for time skips. I understand the need for growth. But before the time skip, I felt I was seating in the second row, but afterwards, I was seating close to the last, questioning if I had somehow ended up in a different theater because these character are kind of not the same.

I kept comparing the ending to My Mister’s ending, asking myself why I found My Mister’s ending so satisfying (since it also had a time skip), while I dislike how clean and neat this one was. I think I found an answer. My Mister’s time skip wasn’t meant to wander. It was short, quick and that made it satisfying. It didn’t overstay it’s welcome. It’s served it’s purpose. Same with Descendants of the Sun, which also had a time skip. The time before was short and had purpose. The time skip in Start-Up, however, was bad. It did linger too long, long enough for me to realize that these were not the same characters I cared about, but not long enough for me to gain attachment to them once again. It was as if they were trying to get me invested in a whole different story. Because both, before and after the time skip, have a lot screen time, it was suppose to win me over twice, but failed the second time. The show got lazy and assumed that I would have those same feelings for those characters, even though now they were completely new to me. They were better versions of themselves, but I didn’t have time to see how. I wasn’t given enough time to compare them. I was simple told to believe it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, because I didn’t see that change or growth nor was I given enough time to care for the characters after the time skip, when one character pointed out to the other that they have changed a lot, I found myself not buying it, and that itself made me feel less attach to the character so much, that by the time the credits were rolling, I simply shrugged my shoulders and left. It honestly baffles me how I can go from absolutely loving every interaction to being so unbothered by the show being over. Plus, those dragged on moments where the music would play extra loud in the background and having a second male lead with a poor character arc did not help. I was rooting for the second lead for a while there, asking myself if he could possible be the first, but then like every drop of personality was sucked out of him and I really disliked him by the end of the show.

Should you watch it?: Yeah. I still think it’s worth a watch. The ending wasn’t the best, but I still like the drama as a whole.

#Start-up #Kdrama #Netflix #review #what to watch

[admutual]

What do you think Roger’s childhood was like up in space?

oh god , i sdknsdkj have Some hcs for his childhood ,, but my hcs are kinda messy, so i’ll try to word this the best i can.

i’ll start with his relationship with his parents since i got a Lot to say here.

for starters,, his childhood was mostly ,, hh Not Great.

his mother was controlling, emotionally abusive, neglectful, and highly manipulative. she also kept roger a shut-in most of his childhood, so roger never really gained proper social skills and had to rely on her as his only source of interpersonal contact. she had this habit of bullying him and putting him down and just destroying his self-esteem, before softening up and drawing him back in with a faux sense of compassion and gentleness (she def tried to convince him that she was the only one who could possibly love him). she was sorta a ‘zira meets mother gothel meets rainflower from warrior cats, with a little frollo mixed in’ type. she was a mess.

his dad on the other hand was emotionally distant and absent and just utterly disinterested in roger, and the few times he was around he was loud, aggressive, and prone to fits of anger. he was also highly religious and it Showed. i don’t have the actual complete details for the religion he followed, all i really have is most of my inspiration for it stems from a lot of xenofiction i read (lapine mythology from watership down, starclan from warrior cats, the spirituality from tailchaser’s song ,, i’m like physically unable to make non-human creatures without drawing inspiration from xenofiction) and that roger definitely experiences some religious trauma from him.

his parents fought a Lot. and it did a number on roger,, kinda why i like to believe he’s so desperate for drama, it’s all he’s known and the peace of quiet living is unnerving to him.

roger was desperate to be on his parents’ good sides. his mother was unpredictable in this regard in that she bounced back and forth between being gentle and kind before switching to verbal abuse and aggression. his dad though never expressed any positive feelings for roger. rog tried really hard to earn his dad’s affection, but after he got older and started to realize that that just wasn’t gonna happen, his tone toward him shifted to disdain. it definitely helped that his mother was loud in her distaste for his father too and through her aforementioned behavior managed to keep roger on her side through it all. if his mom hated someone, roger did too.

that whole thing about roger eating his dad,, ye . gonna make that Edgier let’s go. i like to imagine it was long after roger had accepted that his dad sucked, he was alone with him, he got pushed a little too far, and he just snapped, killing him. as for the cannibalism thing, that religion i mentioned earlier? i still don’t have much details, but one thing i Do know is that one important belief in this religion is how their bodies are handled after death and it’s very important that funeral services are handled accordingly,, shit like don’t touch the body with bare skin after the passing, their grave must be lined with bark and leaves from a specific type of tree, no visiting the burial site for a set period of time after burial, etc. so roger, being the dramatic extreme petty bitch he is, decided to give one last ‘fuck you’ to his dad by eating him instead to fuck up the burial process. we love taking a generic primetime sitcom and making it edgier than it needs to be.

i kinda like to imagine roger’s relationships with his parents heavily influenced his relationship with stan and francine too:

for stan’s side, roger felt that stan reminded him a lot of his own father. like i said, roger felt a heavy resentment towards his father, and after coming to earth and finding he was going to be living with someone who all too closely resembled him, he put his foot down and refused to allow himself to keel over to what felt like mistreatment from him.

when roger first started to get to know stan, all he saw in him initially was the same anger and neglect he got from his own father, and in turn went out of his way to lash out and harass him as sort of a cathartic defense. but then time went on, the two started to see each other on their own level, and roger realized how stan below the surface was far from how his dad was, and he warmed up enough to view him as a close friend. i kinda like to think roger softened up to stan after finding out about jack too, as you know he could relate to him having a shitty neglectful dad himself.

as for francine, roger was drawn to her for the opposite reason in that she was nothing like his mom. roger was a total mama’s boy back home, like i said she kept him shut-in during his childhood to where she was the only one he could rely on. even after coming to earth, roger was still under the impression that she truly loved him and he had a habit of getting overly defensive of her (klaus makes a ‘your mom’ joke and roger’s in tears screaming at him to take it back). he started to question some of her treatment towards him the longer he stayed, especially with the more families he got close to where he got to observe other people’s parental relationships, but never enough to have an epiphany that she sucked. it wasn’t until after the events of ‘weiner of our discontent’ that he finally started to actively reflect on his past life on his home planet, now that he knew he was stuck on earth to stay, and he finally accepted that his mom wasn’t good to him.

as for how this influenced his relationship with francine, like i said francine was way different from roger’s mom. initially roger was super uncomfortable every time she treated him kindly and gently. he sorta held back from getting too close for a good month or two because he didn’t know which of her behavior was genuine and what was just a facade. but time went on, he decided to trust her by letting down his guard and allowing her to get close, and now the two are as tight-knit as can be. and roger’s still a total mama’s boy with her sometimes. also the aforementioned religious trauma roger experienced,, i like to believe that also drew him closer to francine after hearing her experiences growing up. roger’s just Shared Trauma Buddies with everyone.

anyways after years of constant abuse and neglect, he eventually finds a family that loves him unconditionally and he’s finally allowed to rest. i’m a slut for the ‘earn your happy ending’ trope and i’m pushing that onto roger.

(actually one last thing ,, this isn’t a set-in-stone hc, i’m not sure if i’m gonna keep it, but i like to bounce around the idea that maybe the reason his parents were so awful to him is because they believed he was responsible for a sibling’s death. like roger when he really little was out playing on the ice, things Went Wrong and it shattered, his older sib leaped in to rescue him, but things Went Even More Wrong, and his sibling managed to save him but not themself. and his parent’s (or at least his mom since i like to imagine his dad just from the start was pretty distant) immediately placed the blame on roger and never forgave. like i said idk if i’m gonna keep it as a hc, but whatevs thought i’d mention it anyway since the topic of roger’s childhood’s brought up)

and now that that’s done, the other stuff.

i like to believe because of roger’s kind’s practice of abduction, they have a decent enough study on various other planet’s species. and roger, from a young age, immediately built up a fascination with humans. he spent hours reading and rereading every study and book he could find on them. when he was given the choice to be The Decider, it was a complete dream come true for him, not only because he found what he felt was his life’s purpose, but also because he could finally study up close a species he’s admired all his life. (also once roger landed on earth his interest in humans quickly shifted from an ‘idk i just think they’re cute and fun and interesting creatures!!’ to an ‘oh fuck . o h god … humans are Hot what the hell ….’ like i make jokes about how ‘oh haha steve’s an alien fucker lol’ but tbh ……. roger’s the alien fucker in the relationship.)

bouncing off that, they definitely don’t have english as their main language. that’s always been a trope that’s annoyed me, the whole ‘every alien just inexplicably speaks english by default and can communicate with humans fluently’ trope. because of that, i like to believe roger self-taught himself multiple languages through earthling test subjects, listening to audio recordings and such. he wasn’t completely fluent, but it was enough that he could at least communicate enough once he landed on earth. and as for the mothership featured in ‘lost in space’,, hc that it’s installed with a universal translator. still kinda a lazy cop-out i guess, but whatever.

roger’s always been ,, idk,, softer than his species. not in an ‘uwu he’s actually a total sweetheart’ kinda way, but just in that unlike most of his kind, he can experience compassion (it’s rare and his conscience is still really weak, and empathy is still completely foreign to him, but he does experience compassion for those he allows to get close to him like the smiths), he’s always been too sensitive compared to most of his kind, he’s too emotionally-driven, he latches onto others and cares to much what others think of him, just a bunch of things that to most of his peers made him come across as ‘weaker’.

roger picked his own name!! i don’t really care for the trope of aliens having generic western names, so my hc is that when roger’s kind are born they’re given a placeholder name (or a title or something) and then they’re allowed to pick whatever name they want as they get older, which often times is influenced by other species. like i said earlier, roger’s always had a fascination with humans, and i like to think he decided to name himself after an abduction victim he read up on.

once roger was able to distance himself from his mom and was allowed on his own, he was a constant traveller, both in the sense of journeying across his home planet, and in finding any way possible to travel to other planets. sitting still for too long bored him and he needed to explore every possible place he could.

liste n ,,,,, roger loved building snowmen growing up. the few times he got the chance to get out was always spent building them and creating personalities for them. and he still finds himself building them on earth sometimes.

roger’s always loved reading. he can’t count how many times he flew through all the books they had around the house. and even now he just . really loves to read and can power through massive books in a matter of hours.

he loves watching the snow fall and blizzards always brought him a lot of comfort.

that whole thing about roger’s kind being 60% electricity? roger had a lot of trouble controlling excess electricity as a kid. his parents weren’t good teachers, so he just had a habit of accidentally jolting others on accident, sometimes while reading he’d get too excited and accidentally singe the papers a little, he was always pretty shaky as a kid just from how much electricity he had coursing through his body that he had zero clue how to process safely.

roger’s tendency towards playing characters came at a young age. he was always running around the house playing pretend as multiple characters and that habit just never went away.

i like to imagine roger enjoyed building little dens in the snow to chill in. for his kind, children tend to build snow dens to function in the same way human kids build treehouses,, just to vibe with their friends. and on earth sometimes during the winter roger will decide to build a den in the backyard and spend some of his nights down there.

roger’s kind love swimming. probably one of their more popular sports, hell some of them even choose to fish for their own food in the same way seals do. roger though? terrified of the water. nowadays he’s okay with it (still prefers to avoid it for the most part though), but as a kid it was one of his worst fears.

i feel like there’s something i’m missing? idk, this is long enough though so i’ll stop jsdgndks.

#anon #asks #american dad

[pynkhues]

Love your writing always ❤️❤️❤️❤️ rio making light hearted jokes about Beth being a cougar . Or Beth pta friends or neighbor asking about beths younger bf

Ahhh, this one got long, anon, haha. 

Anyway, here you go! 

(Quick reminder that Asmita and Lauren are who IMDB tells me are Beth’s S2 PTA mom friends). 

Set in The Centre and Circumference / Domestic Fic universe

-

Despite what she knows Rio will inevitably tell her later, Beth didn’t really have a choice.

Or, well, she did, kind of, but honestly telling Asmita and Lauren that she couldn’t make it to her own leaving party seemed like the exact type of drama Beth was inclined to avoid. Besides, it sort of felt like the end of an era. The school year was over, and with that came the end of her kids’ time at Peach Grove Elementary (and her own time on the PTA) and Marcus’ at Buckley Street Elementary – the promise of Glenvale and a new start waiting at the end of the summer.

If nothing else, Beth was mostly excited too – it felt like the final transition, after all. They’d moved months ago, had gotten the kids settled, had navigated Dean and Laura and the rest of their families, and while none of it had been without hiccups, it had all been surprisingly easy too. So what if she spent a few hours enduring Asmita and Lauren’s banal chatter as they saw her off and out the elementary school doors? Beth might not have felt particularly excited at the prospect, but in some ways it felt like an accurate way to mark the end of this chapter of her life.

(Although Rio had disagreed.

“Just tell ‘em you ain’t interested,” Rio had told her over breakfast at the café down the road from her office, newspaper folded to show just the crossword in front of him, a pen in the hand not holding his fork. “Not like you gonna see any of them again.”

“Except I will,” Beth corrects, taking a sip of her coffee, eyeing off the clues from across the table. “Lauren’s daughter is Emma’s best friend. Four down is Jakarta.”

Rio blinks up at her, eyebrow arched, and Beth tilts her head back to the crossword.

“Four down, capital of Indonesia. It’s Jakarta.”

Rio fills it in.)

And all in all, the party wasn’t exactly bad. The kids were all burning off energy in the playground while the parents hung around the back of the school hall, drinking cheap chardonnay out of paper cups. The PTA had organised a bland spread of gluten-free, sugar-free, flavour-free cakes and slices, a few of the dads manning a smoking barbeque, and Asmita had insisted on an array of gold-toned balloons that looked more nickel beneath the glare of the afternoon sun. (Honestly – what were they going to do without Beth to wrangle all of this?)

At least she wasn’t here alone anyway, Beth thinks, her gaze finding Rio easily across the fray of other parents – his tall, lean form, his navy button-up shirt, his angular handsomeness striking like lightning in the otherwise dull fog of the PTA. He doesn’t look at her, doesn’t even seem to realise she’s looking at him, not with the way his forehead furrows, his lip curled at something Annie must’ve said as he stares down at her and her date. Beth bites back a grin when she sees Rio draw in an unimpressed breath.

Beside her, Asmita snorts.

“Your sister sure knows how to pick them, huh?”

With a quick twitch of her lips, Beth’s gaze drifts away from Rio to where Annie’s date stands beside him, nursing a beer – and just, god, nobody could say her sister doesn’t have a type. Beth wouldn’t look twice at him in an empty room, but he seems sweet enough, and enamoured with Annie, and it wasn’t like he was unattractive – sandy-haired and a little pale, thin, wire-framed glasses propped on a long, narrow nose. He talks a little too quickly, nervously, and had made at least three pop culture references in the space of their five-minute introduction that afternoon which Beth had enough experience to just smile and nod at, but had Rio shaking his head in what Beth was starting to recognise as second-hand embarrassment.

At the thought of Rio, Beth’s gaze slides back to him, and she’s surprised when he meets her look this time, his dark eyes rolling up as Annie’s date babbles beside him. Beth bites back a grin.

“I mean, he is handsome,” Lauren confesses. “But gosh, you know, he looks like he could be in a gang or something. Like in one of those shows on cable.”

And just - - wait. Beth stiffens, turning around sharply to look at Lauren and Asmita, but before she can even get a word out, Asmita shifts closer, tilting her small paper cup at Beth and levelling her with a strange look.  

“Speaking of new men,” Asmita says, shoulders raised a little as she leans in towards Beth. “You’ve certainly kept yours on the down low. I feel like last I heard you and Dean were just starting to talk about separating, and now look at you! You’ve let some new beau buy you a house.”

“He didn’t buy me anything, we bought it together,” Beth corrects, but Lauren and Asmita titter excitedly, ignoring her.

“A house near Glenvale,” Lauren enthuses. “I mean, gosh, those are million dollar houses out there.”

The words are enough to make Asmita nod a little too furiously, and Beth turns to reply only to pause when she sees Asmita’s face twist, almost pinched, before she catches Beth looking and smooths it back into a PTA-friendly smile.

“Must be on good money then, huh?” Asmita says quickly, then sing-songs: “Upgrade, am I right? So is he a doctor, dentist, lawyer?”

“Finance,” Beth replies easily, a practiced routine. Her gaze skirts the crowd again, locking in on Annie who’s somehow managed to steal one of the chardonnay bottles from the catering table and is liberally topping up her own cup. “He made his fortune young, now mostly invests.”

With a happy gasp, Lauren throws out a hand to paw at Beth’s arm.  

“Oh my god, an investor. Like, a Silicon Valley type?”

Beth opens her mouth to reply, but Asmita doesn’t give her the chance to.

“How’d you meet him?”

“Grocery store,” Beth says with a shrug. “I…accidentally picked something up that belonged to him. You know how it goes.”

“Ohmygod, Beth! You are like, a total Meg Ryan right now. Total romantic comedy moment. Or - - what do people call it? A sweet meet?” Lauren gushes, while Asmita makes a strange noise in the back of her throat.

“Meet cute,” she corrects, eyeballing Beth, and Beth takes a sip of her cup of wine, dragging her gaze away from Annie and looking back out across the park to where the kids are playing now, laughing as they chase each other around the climbing frame. Even Marcus has gotten in on the action, Beth thinks with a grin, pleased to see him chattering with Jane at the top of the slide.

“That’s it! You know, it reminds me a little of me and my Steven – we met at a football game, back when I was still cheering. He was working in management - -”

“Please, he was managing the hot dog stand,” Asmita says with a snort, and Beth jerks her gaze away from the kids to look at Lauren, who’s blushing bright now, swallowing thick as her hands tighten around her cup of wine. Beth purses her lips, not even looking at Asmita.

“But he was barely twenty-one back then, wasn’t he?” she says loudly, smiling at Lauren. “Managing anything at twenty-one is pretty impressive. Besides, I’ve heard nothing but incredible things about his new restaurant.”

Her words are enough to make Lauren practically glow back at her, and Beth’s smile settles into something a little more natural at the reply, even if she now just wants to tell Asmita exactly how ugly the balloons she’d chosen were. Not worth it, Beth reminds herself, sucking in a breath, but then again - - it really would feel pretty good.

Before she can think any more of it, there’s a hand at the small of her back, and she turns in time to see Rio slide into view beside her, leaning in to kiss her chastely on the lips.

“’Ey,” he says, grinning against her mouth, and Beth can’t quite chase off her own grin in time as he leans back to reveal the wide-eyed looks of both Lauren and Asmita, and - - right, Beth thinks, standing up a little straighter. She clears her throat, turning back a little to better face them, as Rio’s hand drops down her back a little further so that it’s resting less at her tail bone and more at the upper swell of her ass. He balls his hand in her dress, making it bunch a little, before smoothing it back down. Beth resists the urge to slap his hand away, because god, if this is absolutely not the time or place.

“Lauren, Asmita, this is Christopher, Christopher, Lauren, Asmita,” Beth gestures back to the girls, and Rio tilts his chin up at them in acknowledgement, and she sees it – the way he seems to unpack them instantly, his gaze lingering a little longer on Asmita’s curled lip than Lauren’s wide eyes. He holds out a hand to Lauren. 

“Nice to meet you,” he drawls, and Lauren flusters, but takes his hand and returns the sentiment.

“Wow, you are not what I was expecting when I heard Beth had herself a boyfriend,” Lauren stutters, and then blushes, glancing at Beth apologetically. “I just mean, you’re very - -” her eyes flick over Rio’s face, his neck tattoo, the bracelets on his wrists, his converse, and everything all those things imply, before she settles on: “Young.”

And well, Beth thinks, resigned. She certainly could’ve said something worse. She lets herself glance over at Rio, who mostly just looks intensely amused, tilting his head, which only serves to keep Lauren talking, a bundle of nervous energy.

“I just mean to - - to be an investor,” Lauren babbles, her tone reaching a higher pitch, her hands flailing, her cheeks pink. “Beth said you - -”

“Beth was just saying you worked in finance,” Asmita interjects, giving Rio a long, pointed once over, and god, Beth thinks, annoyance sparking in her gut. Has she always been this much of an asshole? She frowns, opens her mouth to reply, but Rio smoothly moves his hand from her ass to curl around her hip, pulling her into his side.

“Yeah, somethin’ like that,” he drawls, almost bored, and Asmita must pick up on it, because next thing she’s tilting up her nose, eyes unblinking.

“My husband actually works in accounting – for Shepherd and Sons.”

“Good firm,” Rio replies easily, and Asmita blinks, surprised, before quickly recovering.

“One of the best in Detroit.”

Sucking in his lower lip, furrowing his brow, Rio nods in a way that Beth hopes reads as considering instead of condescending.

“One of, sure,” he replies, tone loaded, and Beth resists the urge to elbow him in the side.

Thankfully, Asmita doesn’t seem to pick up on the undertone of Rio’s words, instead she seems to preen, her husband’s status firmly re-established, and god, Beth had forgotten she’d be like that. She’d mostly laid off the comparisons after Beth had told her she and Dean were divorcing, but suddenly she’s having flashbacks of Asmita sniffing that Boland Motors was a cute little family business but really, if Dean was more ambitious he’d be looking at climbing the ladder in an established, name-brand dealership like Toyota or Mazda, like Martin was at the Shepherd and Sons firm.

“You might know him, actually, if your background’s in finance. He was interviewed for an article in The Detroit Economist a few months ago.”

Rio just shrugs.

“Maybe. Think Elizabeth probably woulda told me though, huh?”

And god, both Asmita and Lauren’s eyebrows shoot up at that.

“Elizabeth,” Asmita says, a look of disbelief on her face. Her eyes skirt quickly to Beth, as if asking is this guy for real? before settling back on Rio. “A little formal.”

“Mmm,” Rio hums. “Was raised to respect my elders, y’know?”

He gives Lauren a playful grin at that, making her blush furiously, and Beth resists the urge to roll her eyes. The words are enough to make Asmita laugh though, something too loud and put upon, and Beth catches Rio’s look back at her, his lips twisted in something that tells her Asmita’s reaction was exactly what he wanted, and just. God, she wishes he was less obvious when he wanted to put people in their place.

“You certainly have made a regular Mrs Robinson out of our Bethie, huh? Of course, Mrs Robinson wasn’t the one who shacked up with her boy toy in the end, was she?” Asmita says, voice still a little loud, and just - - what? Any sympathy for Asmita flies out the window as Beth almost swallows her tongue in mortification, her body stiffening even as Rio’s grip stays firm on her hip. He stares back at Asmita, something between amusement and clear disregard colouring his features.

“Asmita,” Lauren hisses behind her, but Asmita ignores her, looking smugly between Beth and Rio, her shoulders set back firmly, and right, Beth thinks. It’s time to go. Before she can summon up an excuse though, Rio’s leaning forwards a little, his eyes bright.

“Oh, you lookin’ for tips, baby?” Rio asks Asmita suddenly. “Don’t blame you. Can’t be easy bein’ married to a guy at a second-rate firm like Shepherd and Sons. Gotta say though if you lookin’ to pick up some college-aged side piece, I’d probably take the basic bitch act down a notch.”

“Okay!” Beth says loudly, over Asmita’s gasp of outrage, grabbing Rio’s hand. “We really need to go check on the kids. Lauren, still on for the play date next week?”

Lauren nods, eyes wide all over again, staring between Rio and Asmita, as Beth waves them off and drags Rio down towards the playground and the kids. She waits until they’re out of earshot to glare up at Rio.

“That was rude.”

“She was rude,” Rio counters easily, untangling his hand from hers to drape his arm over her shoulders instead. Beth huffs at the weight of it, still glaring at him, and Rio just rolls his eyes. “You’ve never had any problem callin’ me out, why you play polite around that shit?”

And, well. Isn’t that the million-dollar question? She bites her lip, looking away. Somewhere behind her, she can hear Annie laughing, can hear the sizzle of the barbeque and the sounds of children playing, and if it were anyone else - - hell, if it was them a year ago, she’d probably have changed the topic. As it is, Beth sighs.

“I don’t know,” she says. “Had to see them all the time, I guess.”

“And you ain’t seein’ me all the time? Mama, you wakin’ up to me, ain’t you?”

Beth rolls her eyes, reaches a hand sideways to jab a finger at his side, to the one spot she knows is ticklish, relishing in feeling him twitch at her side.

“I just can’t believe you’ve seen The Graduate,” she adds instead of elaborating any further, and Rio grins, dart quick, before swallowing it. Honestly, she can’t. She thinks she can count on one hand the number of movies Rio’s seen, and most of them involve Minions thanks to the kids.

“Maybe she wasn’t entirely wrong about the Mrs. Robinson thing,” he replies easily, and Beth blinks, turning enough beneath his arm to stare at him again.

“You like older women?” she asks, then corrects it, nose scrunching up in disbelief. “You like that I’m older?”

Rio just laughs, the sound lyrical through the fray of the event.

“Like the whole package, you know that.”

It’s enough to make her squint up at him, making a noise of disbelief, before saying:

“Some parts more than others.”

And that just makes him hum in agreement, and then, quick as anything, the hand attached to the arm draped over her shoulders, slips down the neck of her dress and gropes her breast, and even though she yelps, really, she should’ve figured he would’ve taken that as an invitation.

***

 And okay, it’s not like the thought takes up that much space in her head, just that it floats back to the surface later that night, when she’s straddling him in bed.

“You really like that I’m older?” Beth asks, a little breathless, and Rio blinks up at her face, tearing his gaze away from where he’s rolling her nipple between two fingers.

“You like that I’m younger?” he counters, and really, it’s not something she’s thought about recently, and back when she had, it had mostly come with a degree of embarrassment – at being so much less experienced than him in almost every capacity except child rearing, at wanting him so much, at being made fun of for it, at being some sort of desperate joke to him and his boys. Before she can work out how to say that though, Rio rolls his hips up beneath her. “Like bein’ a cougar, yeah?”

Beth rolls her eyes, but can’t quite hide her blush at the thought.

“Like bein’ a MI- - “

She drops her hands to cover his mouth.

“Do not finish that,” she hisses, and Rio laughs beneath her hand, the sound dampening her palms, and she gasps when he thrusts up into her, tilting forwards, and then before she can better balance herself, he’s rolled them over, grabbed her wrists, held them above her head as he pulls almost the whole way out and then sinks slowly back into her, drawing a low, guttural moan from her in the process.

The thought mostly leaves her mind until afterwards, when Rio flops down on the bed beside her, stretching a little, his long, leonine body curving effortlessly against the sheets. Beth rolls onto her side to watch him - - god, she loves watching him move - - before pursing her lips.

“What is it about that, anyway?” she asks. “The whole mom you’d like to - - older woman thing.”

The question is enough to make Rio roll onto his side to face her, hand finding the dip of her waist, settling there.

“Dunno,” he says lightly, stroking his hand down from her waist, up to the peak of her hip. He makes a noise of appreciation that still surprises Beth. He likes this – likes feeling every curve, memorising them with his touch, and Beth - - well, Beth likes that he likes it so much, even if it had taken her longer than she cared to admit to get used to it. Dean had always seemed to use touch as a means to fuck her, disentangling as quickly as he could after he’d had her. She doesn’t think Rio would ever stop touching her if she let him. “Idea of bein’ taken care of maybe.”

Beth furrows her brow at that, blinking in surprise, her gaze darting over Rio’s face, searching for any sort of insinuation or request in it, but he’s as much of a mystery as ever, so in the end, she just asks:

“You want me to take care of you?”

His reaction is instant – he snorts, shakes his head.

“Fuck no,” he says, and then looks at her, levels her with an expression that can only be described as lewd. “Maybe,” he corrects, shifting a little closer towards her, enough she can feel his cock twitch at her thigh, and Beth rolls her eyes, but can’t quite help her grin as she lowers her hand to glide through the thin line of hair from his belly button to his crotch.  

And it’s later still, when he says:

“Wouldn’t matter.”

And Beth’s panting underneath him again now, writhing up to get closer to him, when he pulls away a little, and Beth looks up at him through her lashes.

“What?” she asks, twitching back a little self-consciously, and Rio just shakes his head.

“Wouldn’t matter if you were twenty-six or sixty-six, age - - just a fuckin’ number. But you. Ain’t nothin’ just about you.”

And it’s just - - it’s the way he looks at her when he says it, his gaze fixed on her, soft and dark and not like anything she’s ever felt before, but nothing with Rio is anything she’s ever felt before, and before she can stop herself, she’s surging up to kiss him, tangling her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

“Nothing just about you either,” she says breathlessly, and Rio grins against her lips, brushing his nose against hers as he thrusts into her, and Beth just holds him closer still.

#beth x rio #my fic #the center and circumference #domesticity #beth boland #rio #pta moms #welcome to my ama

[drev-the-procrastinator]

1, 8, 12 and 52 for the writing thingy!!!

Look at me finally answering these after like a whole month lol

Thanks for the ask!

1. Tell us about your WIP!

Which one lol, I’ve got many of them. Too many. Really. That, coupled with the fact that I am a slow writer because I keep getting distracted and procrastinating (like with answering these asks,,,,) means that pretty much everyone on this site will die of old age before I finish like any of them :’D

Anyway, I guess I’ll give brief summaries of all of the… main ones. This is gonna be a long one, fellas! I guess in the order I came up with them? Or the order I’m pretty sure I came up with them in.

TT: My original story I’ve been low-key working on and reworking since… 2012…? It’s a fantasy story, and it is… way too long probably. Also needs a lot of work. Worldbuilding and character building and plot building… At the moment, I guess I could summarise it as, our world gets wrecked for some reason, and the main characters, these two girls, who got saved into another, fantasy world with like… a bunch of other survivors, leave the Earth-refugee camp and get tangled with like, politics? Of that world? Well, politics and then eventually like, a war type thing… I didn’t say it was good, and I did also say it needs a whole lotta work. I’m pretty happy with some names younger me came up with though! Also it has dragons, so. Yup.

Fantasy fanfic: I am very good with names, as you’ll come to notice. Anyway this is a.. Hetalia fantasy fic..? I came up with in, like, 2014. I’m not actively working on this one at the moment, but I would like to maybe write it one day, and my most beloved OC originated in this story, you may have seen me mention her in my tags? I haven’t managed to come up with a name for her, but I call her the Asshole Goddess, because she’s a goddess, and also an ass. So.

Anyway this one’s pretty cliche, and it’s like, an absurdly large cast of Hetalia characters ending up in a fantasy world, where a bunch of other characters, who’d gone missing earlier, have apparently been taken to? Then it’s a journey to find and get them back, friendships are formed and magical things are encountered, but uh oh! They’re mortal here and can die! And many do. You may note I was 14 when I came up with it, so. Well. It is quite edgy. Had some good concepts though!

Kingdom AU: Great with names, as I said. This one is also a Hetalia fic, because that is the fandom I’ve been stuck in forever, though mostly just because I’ve so many fics for it. This is the odd one out in my fics though! This is like, a royalty AU of an rp AU me and my friend made by accident one time? The RP, not this AU, this is all my invention. It’s really just for me and my friend, since it’s based on that strange RP and the main thing in it is like and OC x canon character ship? That’s also why it’s the weird one, I don’t usually have much romance in my fics because I’m not big on ships and just prefer gen stuff, but this one is like primarily romance? Lots of pining. And it’s very soft. And I love this AU with all my heart. It’s also got a whole lotta angst!

Basic plot is the more or less classic, kinda cliche, peasant girl goes to get a job in the royal palace to help her poor family and meets the crown prince, and they become friends, and slowly fall in love.. Except, well, this is weird also in that the end point isn’t them getting married or confessing their love or anything, that’s like...Maybe the midpoint? There’s also politics, kinda worldbuilding? It’s set in like a 1700s type setting, I think, And while it’s not really a fantasy world since no magic, it’s not like, a real world setting. Anyway, yeah, this is near and dear to my heart.

The Home Front Fic: This! This is the one I’ve been trying to work on lately! It’s about life on the Finnish home front during WWII, and yes this is uh, also a Hetalia fic. Sorry. Though to be fair with this one and the previous one everyone’s probably gonna be so OOC and the setting is so different they might as well just be original works lol. Anyway, it’s a human AU, and also had a lot of OCs for that reason because it’d be tough to make a story of this scope with like. Three characters.

Basically! Tino is a 8, soon to be 9-year-old boy living in the Finnish countryside in 1942. His dad’s gone off to war, as well as the farmhand they had at the farm, and his mom and grandma can’t take care of the whole farm by themselves. So when they hear a nearby factory and some other farms in the area are getting extra work force in the form of Soviet prisoners of war, they decide to ask for one, too. They get a worker, his name’s Ivan. It takes some time, since they’re technically enemies, right, but eventually Tino befriends him and slowly he kind of becomes a part of the family… But you know what happened when the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union ended in September 1944? :) Well, I’ll just say that Stalin did say “There are no Soviet prisoners of war, only traitors.”

This one also has angst. But it also has found family! I like it a whole lot, I wish I’d written it already, but I have been having such a hard time starting it. :(

That BNHA Fic: I can call it that because I’ve only got one so far! So this is a My Hero Academia fic, and hmm. I haven’t talked about it too much, but I do like it, even though my focus has been pulled back to the Home Front Fic again. I do wanna write this one!

So this is like a future fic? It’s canon divergent because some stuff happening in the manga rn is not gonna work with the plot, I guess it’ll diverge at least from like… all the New Year’s chapters? I don’t remember what the number is.

Anyway, the main character is Eri, who’s been going to like this boarding school meant for kids with volatile quirks. She wanted to go there herself when some years ago her quirk had gone bonkers, she thinks? Something like that, she doesn’t remember that well anymore, but anyway, she’s going to apply to UA! Just the Gen-Ed, her quirk isn’t any good against robots. She’d love to be a hero, though, she knows so many heroes and she just wants to help people, but her quirk is no good. :( Anyway she’s back in Musutafu for the summer break in her last year of middle school, and she meets Mirio and Aizawa at the train station, and they go around the town meeting everyone! In the entrance exams she meets Kouta, who for some reason doesn’t want to be a hero though he’s got a really good quirk for it, and he’s proud of his parents who were famous heroes! They both get into UA, and she manages to convince him to try to get into the hero course through the Sports Festival, and he does! She doesn’t get that far in the festival though, because even though she’s practiced using her quirk, she’s scared to use it on people when in battle and stuff. Anyway, she’s very upset about it, and when she tells Mirio about how she wants to help people, but can’t, because her quirk sucks, he gets this look on his face and later tells her that he knows someone who could help. They go to meet this scarecrow lookin’ dude, and oh wait, is that All Might?? Why’s he refusing to help her out from Mirio’s request?? And later, what’s this One For All Mirio’s talking about?? And whose kind arms does she keep dreaming of in her sleep??? 

So yeah. That’s the BNHA fic. One more WIP to go!

Space Fic: Back to Hetalia, and this is technically an older fic but I decided to someday actually write it just recently. So it’s my Historical Human AU No. 3. It’s based on a space facts video fact, where it said that in 1963 Kennedy had proposed the USSR and US go to the Moon together, and Khrushchev had been meaning to agree, but then Kennedy died and the plan was abandoned. This story idea was like, but what if they’d gone through with it? And then, because why not, what if they’d included other countries as well? And this WIP was born. It’d be like, the main characters would be representatives of their home countries, sent to take part in the program and they’d all be candidates for going to the Moon, but there’d be only 3 spots on the rocket so like, they’d kind of have to compete for the spots? And the ones that wouldn’t pass would take part in the mission on Earth. So then there'd compete, there’d be personal drama, their personal relationships would be affected by the relationships between their home countries, but overtime friendships would be forged, and they’d all just become… one big ole found family. A space family. A big ole found space family. And the Overview Effect would also play a part. This is kind of on the back burner, this’ll need lots of research and the Home front fic also needs a lot of it, so I’ll try to.. write that first, I guess? We’ll see.

So that’s all my WIPs. There are other fic ideas that I haven’t put much thought into yet so they’re not on the list, but yeah!

8. Do you have any writing buddies or critique partners?

I don’t have any one person who I’ve talked to about all of my stories, but I have discussed my stories with a few people! Both online and irl. I’m also on a couple discord servers that are for writing or where people talk about writing, even though for the most part I’m too shy to talk much on any of them ;u; But the people who’ve been awesome enough to listen to me ramble about my stories have helped me a lot!

12. Which story of yours do you like best? Why?

Aaaa, don’t make me choose between my children! ;__; I love them all,,,

Well, I am very fond of TT, since it’s my own original story and I’ve worked on it the longest… Then again, the Kingdom AU has a lovely aesthetic and those two pining idiots in it… But also, that BNHA fic has some really nice plot and character moments? But also I’ve spent so long researching for the Home front fic and it’s got my boys in it! And the atmosphere in it is so nice, and it has found family,,, But then also… Space??? And even the fantasy fanfic has the Asshole Goddess in it?? And a nice storyline with Liech?? See I can’t choose ;_;

To be fair, the story my dumb brain takes interest in changes every now and then, for example lately I’ve been mostly thinking about TT, the Kingdom AU and the Home front fic, so I guess those would be my favorites at the moment? But a couple weeks ago I was really into the Space Fic, and at the start of the year it was the BNHA fic. So it depends! But I do love them all.

52. Who do you write for?

Well, primarily probably for myself. I do often find myself in a situation where I’m looking for fics or books to read but none of them really click, and then I realize I’m looking for my own story. Which I haven’t written. So that’s definitely a big one! Then, to some extent, I also write for the people I’ve rambled about my fics to, so they might maybe someday get to experience the whole thing through something other than just my ramblings :’D But mostly for myself, I think.

Thanks for the ask again and sorry for taking so long!

#it's been 84 years..... #long post #drev's fics #did i have an ask tag? i don't remember

[literary-lioness]

Nanowrimo Day 4

When I look at my word count, I realize I am a lot further from being caught up than I originally thought, but given time, I am sure I can catch up. Positive vibes. Here is what I worked on today. 

Nanowrimo Day 4

Total Word Count: 3365

                                                          II

                                                       Emery

Emery clung to her little Frenchie, Bucky, for the rest of the walk to the coffee shop. She had been terrified when he had wiggled out of his collar and ran into the street toward an oncoming car. Luckily, the driver of the car had quick reflexes and managed to stop before any harm had come to Emery’s little friend. Emery indulged in thoughts of the gorgeous red head that had emerged from the car.

Emery almost hadn’t said anything when the woman initially came toward her; she had been lost in the deep gray eyes, that if she wasn’t mistaken, had done an appreciative sweep of her body. Emery was only able to re-focus because Bucky had once again tried to wiggle his way to freedom. She realized she needed to apologize and instantly regretted doing so. The apology seemed to ignite a fire in the woman, and all Emery could do was continue to stupidly apologize. She had been both relieved and disappointed when the woman had gotten back into her car and driven away.

  She finally arrived at Java, Snow Haven’s best coffee shop, fifteen minutes late. Emery scanned the tables and found her best friend, Lauren, sitting at the corner table with the best view of the street. Java had been their official meet up spot ever since they had moved to Snow Haven together four years before. Lauren had moved for a boy, now her husband, while Emery just needed a change of scenery after finishing up her teaching degree.

“Sorry I’m late,” Emery said as she took the seat across from Lauren.

“What was the hold up?” Lauren asked, her tone short.

“Bucky got loose, ran into the street, and almost got hit by the most insanely attractive woman I have ever seen.”

“Holy shit, is he ok?”

Emery passed Bucky over to Lauren for inspection, “He’s fine. He didn’t even realize how close he came to death. Dummy.”

Bucky nuzzled into Lauren and licked her chin, “Oh Bucky, don’t let her talk about you like that! Who’s the goodest boy? Who’s the goodest boy?”

Emery rolled her eyes, “Don’t encourage his naughty behavior.”

Lauren laughing, fed a piece of the croissant sitting in front of her to Bucky, “Ok, so tell me about the gorgeous driver. Does she have a name?”

“I’m sure she does, but I didn’t catch it. She was actually pretty pissed off; she started yelling at me about being an irresponsible pet owner.”

“Ew, rude much? It’s not like you set him free to run into the street.”

“Right?”

“Yeah! I would say that you’ll probably never see her again, but we live in a small town, so chances are you’ll see her again.”

Emery shrugged, “Under better circumstances I might not mind.”

“Oh my God, what is it about pretty women that makes you useless?”

“It’s a curse,” she said dramatically sweeping her hand to her forehead and dipping backward.

“Alright drama queen, chill out. Hey, what are your Christmas plans this year?”

Emery shifted uncomfortably in her seat, up until three months ago she was supposed to spend Christmas with her girlfriend. However, finding her in their bed with another woman had put a damper on those plans, and Lauren knew it.

“Eh, little of this, little of that. Spend time with Bucky, you know.”

“Why don’t you come over to Dave and I’s? My mom and dad will be in town, and I know they would love to see you.”

Lauren’s parents had basically raised Emery. Her father was never in the picture, and her mother worked long hours at her important marketing job, which left Emery to take care of herself at a young age. When she met and befriended Lauren in fifth grade, the lonely nights spent eating Spaghetti-O’s and toast ended.

“Maybe, I mean obviously I want to see your Mom and Dad, but I don’t want to put a damper on your and Dave’s first Christmas as a married couple.”

“You wouldn’t be, we want you there Em, you’re family.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Lauren sighed, “Is this about Jade?”

“No this isn’t about Jade.”

“Why don’t I believe that?”

“Not everything is about, Jade.”

“I thought my ears were burning,” said an all too familiar voice.

I spun around in my chair so fast I almost fell out of it, “Jade!”

“Hey, Em,” Jade gave her a sultry smile that made her squirm.

“Don’t ‘hey Em’ her, cheater,” Lauren spat.

“Lauren, lovely to see you, as always.”

“Get lost.”

“Well, I can tell I’m not welcome here,” she said turning her gaze back on Emery, “Maybe we can catch up another time.”

She walked away, tossing a wink over her shoulder. Emery hated that she watched the sway of her hips until she was out of view. Seeing Jade never failed to hit Emery with a cocktail of anger, sadness, shame, and a little bit of lingering lust. Feeling made all too familiar given they both worked at the same school. She turned back to Lauren ready for the onslaught of Jade hate.

“I’m sorry, Em.”

Emery blinked back the shock she felt. Normally Lauren would have launched into all the reasons Jade sucked, beginning with her lack of attention during their relationship and ending with the affair that had ultimately been the end of it.

“It’s fine, forget about it,” Emery said.

They spend the next hour trying to pretend that Emery was as fine as she said she was, but deep down they both knew she was lying; to herself, to Lauren, and sometimes to Bucky. They parted with a hug, “Please think about coming over for Christmas?”

“I will,” she said, though she already knew that she wasn’t interested in being with Lauren and Dave on Christmas, even if it meant seeing Lauren’s parents.

Emery tightened Bucky’s collar so that he wouldn’t be able to escape again and let him walk home beside her. It didn’t take long to reach the apartment building that housed her tiny studio apartment. When she and Jade had broken up, Jade kept the nice two-bedroom place they had shared, which suited Emery, because she didn’t want the constant reminder of her failed relationship.

She unlocked the door to her apartment and called out, “I’m home.” Knowing there would be no response, or if there was, she should defiantly run for her life. She flipped on the lights and surveyed the room.

She had done the best she could with what little space she had. She had created a sitting area that was far enough away from her bed that it felt like she had a living room, especially with the patrician that she had put up to create the illusion of more than one room. There wasn’t much in the way of decorations; she hadn’t purchased anything that she could use to decorate, mostly because everything she had considered made her think of her old apartment, and she didn’t want anything that would be a constant reminder of her break-up.

Emery walked over to the patrician and pushed it aside. She planned to allow herself an ice cream in bed and bad TV night. That was one of the benefits of living alone, no one could ask you not to eat messy chocolate ice cream in your bed while you cried when Dana died in the L-word (even though she had seen it at least five times).

She settled into her bed with her ice cream and forced herself to stop thinking about the cringeworthy wink that Jade had given her, and the uncomfortable implications that had accompanied it.

#language #nanowrimo #nanowrimo2019 #literarylionesswriting #writing challenge #word count 3365 #lesbian

[likeshipsonthesea]

If you're doing prompts, 19 and 24 for nurseydex

for au mash up 19. Summer Camp AU and 24. Soulmate AU

okay so in this universe, as per any soulmate universe, soulmates are A Big Thing. the way that soulmates work–let’s have some fun here– when you touch your soulmate for the first time, they leave a color in the spot they touched you. it has to be skin-to-skin. this will become important later.

so in this world, since soulmates are such a big thing–almost everyone finds their soulmate, the only typical cases that don’t are people that die young or people who are aro, though there are platonic soulmates and poly and such, bc we’re inclusive here boyos– but because they’re so big and common and everything, there are a lot of industries around them

psychics and palm readers have specialized skills to tell you what your soulmate is like, bio-medical companies sell drugs that tell you how long it will be until you find your soulmate (sketchy, but people are desperate) and the weirdest one, imo, is the send-away summer camps for children to find their soulmates young.

yeah. weird.

there’s science to back it up, saying kids who kind their soulmates at younger ages live longer, healthier lives, and the matches between those soulmates is much stronger and, now, with the advent of social media, kid soulmate findings always go viral

so now onto our story; nursey’s parents all have very big work summers coming up (his parents are one of the few poly soulmates in the world, his dad is aro and platonically bonded to nursey’s mom and mama, who are v gay and v in love, and they all live together happily in a beautiful brownstone) so they ask him what he wants to do for the summer and he shows them the brochure for the Summer Soulmate Camp in the rural part of maine.

why did nursey choose this one? he’s a romantic and thinks the greenery is the perfect place to fall in love, it won’t be too hot for the summer, he can go swimming, and they have a hockey rink. it’s perfect.

(also, sidenote, i imagine he’s about ten or eleven here, dex is the same)

so though nursey’s parents are a little hesitant, they also want their son to be happy, so they buy him all the gear he’ll need, drive him up to maine, and kiss him goodbye on the first day of camp.

nursey takes to the camp immediately–the food isn’t great, very bland, but the people are so nice and there’s so much to do and he can’t wait to find friends, even if he doesn’t end up finding his soulmate. his roommate is a great guy–named chris, but goes by chowder– and he’s so enthusiastic and he tells nursey he plays goalie in hockey so when the day comes to join the hockey group on campus, they both head down to the rink, bouncing and excited.

this is, of course, where dex comes in.

dex, a sullen, tiny, perpetually frowning little dude gets matched up with nursey for d-man. despite nursey’s initial hesitation at such a little guy being a d-man, dex soon shows his worth by checking the opposing forward hard.

“will, buddy, we’re not checking in this league, okay?” the coach, a well-meaning woman with smile crinkles next to her eyes.

dex stares up at her. “if i’m not checking anyone why am i even here.”

there may or may not have been an expletive in there somewhere. we’re not going to mention it if you won’t.

and you might be wondering, “hey why is dex being such a dick” or maybe you’re just like “mm in character” (ur wrong but whatever) but here’s the story. these summer camps are usually reserved for people who have the money–there’s only so many spaces and aside from the soulmate thing, they still have a bunch of amenities and it’s for the whole summer. by all rights, dex shouldn’t be here.

but then last winter happened, and he fell down during hockey practice, and the doctor explained to the poindexters–little mama p standing tall, resolute, her husband holding onto her waist in support, dex’s older brother j, finally not wearing an asshole’s smirk– that dex was sick. badly.

and see, dex is fine. like, the chemo sucked and his hair falling out sucked and everyone looking at him like he’s a weak little useless fucking– it sucks. but that was months ago, and it’s sort of in remission now, and though the doctor says it’s probably going to come back and they’ll have to do another round of chemo– dex is fine okay. the buzzed hair doesn’t look too bad and he’s stronger now, he can play hockey again.

but the cancer scared his parents, and his extended family, and though they all believe in the natural meeting of your soulmate, they all silently agreed that dex didn’t have the time to wait. the only thing sadder than dying young was dying without a soulmate.

so they scrounged up the cash through all the branches of their family tree and sent dex to Summer Soulmate Camp, and now here he is, angry and isolated and ready to check any rich prep kid that looks at him funny on the ice.

as you can imagine, nursey and dex don’t get along well at the start.

dex isn’t much into soulmates and doesn’t keep his opinion to himself, and nursey is so wholeheartedly romantic that he can’t imagine not thinking about your soulmate every day. “they’re the one person who can make you the best you can be,” nursey says, one day after practice, and dex scoffs.

“if you’re not good enough on your own, how the hell is your soulmate being chained to you gonna make it any better?”

they also argue about money things, but mostly brand names that dex doesn’t know, or international trips nursey doesn’t realize is a luxury. to be fair, none of the other kids know this either–nursey at least tries to listen

(he’s too young, really, to understand how his blackness has affected him in a similar, possibly more visible way. later on, he’ll read books about slaves “given permission” to marry their soulmates from masters, the interracial couples that ended in mobs driving the black man out of town–or worse– and the history of black soulmates being restricted and demeaned and made to feel less than. now, now he only notices being the only mixed boy in the room some of the time. now, at least, is a calm before the bliss is broken.)

but the thing that comes along with all of nursey and dex’s arguments is that they come to know each other better than anyone else at the camp. even chowder, who tags along with them all the time when he isn’t following after the girls’ volleyball team (he hasn’t touched farmer yet, so he can’t know, but he really likes her smile and she’s the best at doing handstands), even he doesn’t know how nursey feels about books the way dex does, after the late-night talk around the bonfire when nursey got rambly and giddy and dex just.. listened

and it takes a while before dex talks about the cancer. back home, everyone knows, but here he could pretend. nursey doesn’t tell everyone–dex almost expected that he would, but that was more on him than nursey– but he listens and nods and doesn’t pity dex, respects him maybe, cares, but no pity.

and that night, sitting on the end of the dock in a rare unsupervised moment, nursey nearly reaches out to hold dex’s hand in comfort, and dex nearly hugs nursey when he says, “fuck cancer” in the most emphatic, simple, comprehending way dex has ever heard, but neither does. they’ve learned, in this culture, the importance of touch, and both boys are too scared to find out, to break that last barrier. this could be enough. this should be enough.

the rest of the summer is spent in a haze of friendships and salt water and trees and scraped knees and laughter, and all of them swear that they’re gonna text, call, facetime, whatever. they’re going to keep this up. they’re going to be friends forever

they’re not allowed phones at the camp, so they write down each other’s numbers– just dex’s, actually, because he’s the only one who can remember his home phone number– and nursey and chowder swear to call when they get home and give dex their number (chowder also has farmer’s number, now, and her mark–smudgy and bluish purple on his shoulder from where she tackled him trying to spike the ball in a game on the beach last week. his, teal, is on her palm almost in the shape of a heart)

on the day of pick up, dex’s family shows up first–closer– and he and nursey are forced to say goodbye. “i guess this is it,” dex says, hefting his duffle bag strap onto his shoulder.

“no it’s not,” nursey insists. “i’ll call you. i will.”

“yeah right,” dex says, but he’s smiling anyway, and something about the moment–two boys, from such different worlds, somehow so similar in all the important ways, stand in front of each other, having never touched but knowing every little thing– something about the moment makes it so, suddenly, being soulmates doesn’t matter.

they’re friends. no matter what their colors say, that can be the most profound relationship they ever have.

“see you, nursey,” dex says, impulsive, and reaches his arms up to hug nursey close. nursey, startled, wraps his arms around dex. the hug is so unexpected, so quick, that neither of them feels dex’s forearm brush against nursey’s neck, neither of them notice the spread of green–on dex’s arm– or orange– nursey’s neck

later, after dex’s dad pulls in the driveway of their house, dex shoves open the door he’d slumped against when he got in the car and absentmindedly goes to wipe off the mossy-green stuff on his arm only to see it and freak

nursey, since his is behind his head, isn’t the one to notice his mark. it’s only when he’s going up the stairs in front of his mama that she yells something about “papito why didn’t you tell us you found your soulmate?” and nursey drops all of his bags and races up the stairs to the bathroom to try to use a hand mirror and the bathroom vanity to see the sunset dex left on his neck

but here’s the drama, right, nursey goes for his bag to find dex’s number and call–and he can’t find the paper it was written on. he scours his stuff to no avail. his parents call the summer camp, but they legally can’t give out information, and nursey doesn’t know the name of dex’s town and– you get where i’m going. they can’t find each other. they lose touch.

and both boy wonders what could have been, dex wonders why nursey didn’t call (probably develops a complex, whatever) and nursey wonders why dex never tried to look him up, and nursey hopes that dex’s cancer didn’t come back and dex hopes that nursey is still the romantic he’s always been, but they don’t see each other for another seven years.

what happens then? well, these hockey nerds go to take a tour of this cool college called samwell and, well. the rest i’m sure you can figure out from there.

(excerpt from the aftermath; a frequent fight

“i can’t believe you lost my number”

“i can’t believe you gave me a mark i can’t even see”

“i can’t believe you wanted to go to a summer camp to find your soulmate when you were ten”

“i can’t believe you didn’t–”

“nursey, dex, please can we just pick a place to eat and go?” poor baby chow

boys; “well, i had cancer, so i think i should get to pick–” “hey, you can’t pull the cancer card every time you want to eat at the grill, it’s not fair!” “i lost my hair, derek!” “so? you shave it all the damn time–”

chowder’s stomach rumbles. he texts chowder frowny faces and she sends back a cry-laugh and a wink. he gets no sympathy for his plight.)

#nurseydex #dexnursey #check please #nursey #derek nurse #dex #william poindexter #my writing #sort of fic #this was fun #the ending is a bit meh #but i liked the story