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wildemaven · 10 months

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bloom : one | joel miller

→ pairing: no outbreak joel miller x f!reader

→ WC: 2494

→ warnings: meet cute vibes, reader is single mom, small injury at work, Joel to the rescue using nontraditional techniques to help (I don't want to give it away), daughter is a teen and bleeds sarcasm, fluff and more fluff, mention of divorce and adoption.

→ a/n: some of you are probably like “wait, what is happening?!” i started this series on another account that i was using to take a break from this one. I had plans to finish this series out over there and then just abandon the account and move back here. but i love this series and want it to live here with my other work. so, im getting things set up so i can post part two later this week and move back to this account for good. also, this is series is a TLOU AU, so I've fudged all timelines and relationships to make it work for me. Ihope you like it, am very nervous to share it with you all.

two | series masterlist | main masterlist

You’re staring.

It would feel less awkward if it were somewhere else, anywhere but where you are right now. Like sitting a table away at a packed restaurant, enough people crowded around to lessen your obvious ogling of a handsome stranger, eyes locked on his profile as you hide behind the empty glass you’re pretending to sip from. The crossing of paths in a grocery store would also feel less awkward, a quick glance back over your shoulder after your carts squeeze through the nearly claustrophobic aisle, your gaze on him as he stares at the shelves filled with sugary snacks— he most definitely would have a wicked sweet tooth you think.

Unfortunately for you, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, it’s just you and him, alone in the store front of the floral shop— your floral shop.

He’d walked by the front window, stopping instantly to read the shop’s name in gold letters above the entrance, then hands cupped over his eyes and face pressed close to the glass contemplating the shop’s worthiness of his time.

It’s a corner spot, sitting at the crossroads of two of the town’s busiest shopping streets— prime location. Bold was a chance you took with painting the exterior black, even with the apprehension of the city council deeming it too “gothic” for the town's rather conservative appeal. The dark exterior paired with black and white striped awning over the door was the perfect balance of moody and romantic.

It was worthy enough, pushing the front door open he stepped inside, the automated bell signaling through the shop. The heaviness of his boots scuff across the wood floor a few steps, his broad body stopping in front of one of the cold displays that held an array of dramatic arrangements. His hands tucked securely into his pockets as he looks around aimlessly, it’s evident this isn’t a regular occurrence for him.

“Welcome to Wilder Floral. Is there anything I can help you with today?” You greet him from your workbench.

Your hands busily work to trim the ends and dethorn the stems of a bundle of antique mauve roses, one of your best sellers, then trimming off the lower leaves before placing them in a bucket of water.

“Not really sure at the moment. Just browsin’ for now.” His deep voice sounds through the small space, the raspy tone sending a tingle down your spine.

“Okay. Well, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.” He nods to you, catching the way his gaze doesn’t immediately break from you, he gives you a half smile then continues to look over everything again.

You’re staring.

Your mind is filled with thoughts of only this handsome stranger, quietly watching him over the now full bucket of cleaned roses.

You note the way his hip cocks out to the side as he stands with his large hands secure against his small waist. His eyebrows pinch together briefly, a look of deep thought painted over his face accentuating the little crinkles around his eyes. After a moment, his beautiful face relaxes into a calmer expression.

You can make out every muscle that runs the length of his arms, the weight of the arrangement he’s now holding provoking the defined musculature. His arms lifting and turning the vase with ease, examining every detail of the floral design you created.

You’re still staring. You can’t help it though. Actually, you can, but your brain convinces you that you are just admiring, so that makes it more than okay— right?

“You know, if you take a picture it lasts longer!” A hushed voice pops up from behind you.

“Ouch!! God dammit, Ellie! Why do you do that?!” You yelp, tossing the rose stem you were holding onto the table.

“It’s too easy! You were lost in la la land over some grumpy guy looking at flowers. I saw an opportunity, so I took it.” She laughs, pushing your buttons brings her a weird satisfaction.

There’s a throbbing pain coming from your hand. Looking down you see part of a thorn had broken off and was now embedded deep into the pad of your finger— a rookie mistake at this point in your career. You wrap your other hand around the base of your fingers, hoping some pressure will elevate the pain.

“I’m glad you enjoyed this. Can you just go grab the first aid kit in the back, please!”

“Yeah, yeah. Try not to fall for him too hard while I’m gone— don’t think you have enough bandages to fix that mess.” She sulks away into the back room.

“Shit!” You hiss, the pain getting more intense and now radiating through your entire finger.

“You okay ma’am?” The handsome customer asks you, stealthy in his approach to where you’re standing, still clutching your hand.

He places the floral arrangement he was holding down on your work table, his feet still moving in an urgent manner until he is standing in front of you.

“Yeah— actually, no… The thorn broke off and it’s in there real good. It hurts and I’m trying really hard to not be a baby about it. Someone’s getting a first aid kit out of the back for me.” You hold your pained finger up to him.

“Do you want me to take a look at it?” His hands slowly reach out, your lips parted and ready to speak but words fail you, only managing to nod a response.

Your mind briefly wonders what Ellie is up to, but the thought vanishes instantly once his hands wrap around your wrist and he brings your injured finger closer to his face.

“My name is Joel.” He looks over to you, heat pricks over your cheeks as he holds your gaze. It’s a cosmic thing, his touch activating warmth you’ve longed for. A corner of his mouth lifts, you can’t help but fixate on the dimple that forms resulting in a barrage of flutters erupting in your chest.

“Hi Joel.” Giving him yours in return, his smile growing louder as he repeats it back to you softly, like he couldn’t wait to say it out loud.

He refocuses back on your injury. A pinched expression, similar to the one he wore earlier, is even more adorable up close— zeroing in on the small wound that was tormenting you.

Joel’s movements are dizzying, an unbridled enthusiasm that elicits a sudden burst of desire you hadn’t experienced in ages, but he senses you trust him at your willingness to let him take control of the situation. Bringing your finger to his mouth, he wraps his pillowy lips around the tip of your finger and sucks with a gentle pressure. You watch him unabashedly, completely mesmerized by the way he jumped into action, how his cheeks draw in from the suction.

Your eyes lock when he looks up from your hand, sensing your eyes already on him, his thumbs drawing circles over your wrist, soothing over your racing pulse, as he continues to suck at the fleshy pad of your finger. It feels nearly overwhelming, the fierceness of his warm brown eyes has an inebriating feeling blooming inside you.

A gasp shoots through your throat at the feeling of his tongue slightly flicks over the part of your finger that is in his mouth, pressing the back of your other hand against your lips, embarrassed by your reaction to the erogenous sensation.

The whole thing is over as quickly as it began. Joel is pulling your finger from his lips, his grip still holding on to your wrist as he lowers your arm down to your side. You watch as the tip of his tongue breaches his lips, his pointer finger and thumb picking at the small little thorn that was once lodged into your skin, now resting on his tongue. He rubs his lips together almost nervously, the weight of the whole situation kind of sinking in.

“Got it!” He rasps, holding the annoying culprit up between his fingers.

“How did you know that would work? I usually have to dig those out with tweezers. That was— wow, thank you.”

“I get splinters regularly— I’m a carpenter. Sometimes when I’m out on the job, gotta use what you have. I hope I didn’t make you feel uncomfortable, just knew it needed to come out— the last thing you want is an infected finger.” He rubs nervously at the back of his neck, hoping he didn’t over step in anyway.

“No! Not uncomfortable in the slightest!! Thank you, seriously. Rose thorns can cause a mean infection too. I appreciate it—“

“I leave for two minutes and you’ve already moved onto second base with the guy?!” Ellie announces her reemergence, holding the first aid kit in her hands and a grossed out look on her face.

“Ellie!” Your body runs cold, completely mortified, ready to crawl into the nearest hole.

“He had your finger in his mouth— probably more like rounding to third if I’m being honest.”

You grab the kit from her hands, setting it on the counter, turning to see Joel still rooted in the same spot with his hands tucked into his front pockets and a tinge of red across his cheeks.

“I’m so sorry! Sometimes I think my daughter forgets she has a filter and that she can actively choose to use it before she speaks.” You try to make sure he isn’t the one who feels uncomfortable now.

“Adopted daughter, actually.” You roll your eyes at her need for technicalities. Adopted, yes, but daughter nonetheless. “Also, in case you were wondering, cause I’m sure you are, she’s single.”

“Ellie!” You look back at her with a sternness in your voice, eyes blown wide in hopes she picks up that she can stop at any point in time. Turning back to Joel, you mouth an ‘I’m sorry’, your shoulders dropping in defeat.

There’s an awkward silence that settles over the three of you. Joel looks like he doesn’t really seem to know how to diffuse the awkwardness at hand, Ellie has a shit eating grin she wears proudly when she knows she’s embarrassed you just enough, and you simply would like to evaporate into thin air.

“So, this is the part where you give your relationship status to her— makes this whole ‘her finger in your mouth’ thing feel a little less weird for all of us.” She has a point. You had been wondering that very thing, but how were you supposed to bring it up when he’s sucking a thorn out of your finger with his gorgeous mouth.

“Single— very much single.” He laughs at how forward she is, knowing she’s just looking out for you. “I do have a daughter, probably about your age too.”

“What, your wife die or something?” Ellie asks with zero hesitation.

“No. Just an ole fashion divorce. Anythin’ else you wanna to know?” He looks to Ellie, ready for whatever comes next.

She studies Joel for a beat, “Nope, that’s all.”

You release the breath you hadn’t realized you were holding, grateful to what ever greater power decided to switch Ellie’s filter back on.

Ellie turns to head to the back room, where she had previously been working on her homework, but turns on her heels in the process to look back at Joel and you.

“One last thing, she needs to be wined and dined before you even think about kissing her.” Then she's gone before you can say anything else.

The awkwardness creeps back into the room, you’re not really sure how to come back from all of that. You open the first aid box, rifling through the contents for a cleaning pad and small bandage.

“She seems like a fun kid.” Joel decides to take the lead, watching you swipe the alcohol pad over your finger.

“She is— she definitely keeps me on my toes at all times. But, she’s got a big heart under all her sarcasm.” You tell him. You grab for the bandage, but Joel beats you to it, snagging it off the table and ripping it open before you get the chance.

You hold your finger out in front of you, ready for him to wrap it up properly for you, but instead of sticking gauze, your wounded finger is met with his plush lips for a few seconds.

“Obviously, a kiss to make it better.” He smiles again and you melt, biting at your lower lip as he wraps the dressing around your finger.

“Thank you, Joel.”

“Speaking of daughters— mine is the reason I came here in the first place. I was wanting to get this arrangement for her. She passed a test she’d been stressin’ about. Thought I’d get her a little something to celebrate her.” Joel points to the flowers on the cash stand that he had been holding earlier, grabbing his wallet out of his back pocket and pulling out his credit card ready to pay.

“They’re on the house today.” You tell him as you walk up to your computer, imputing the information to zero out the sale.

“No— no, I can’t let you do that. Lemme pay for them please. Least I can do for all your time and talent you put in.” Holding his card out to you, insisting he pay in full.

“You practically saved my life,” A slight exaggeration, but he laughs anyway. “How about you come here for all your flowers in the future, instead of my competitors, and we’ll call it even.”

“I can do that. I might just have a need for flowers soon then, I’m sure I can find an excuse to come back for more— you think you can handle that?”

“Yeah— I can handle that.” Handing him the vase of flowers, hoping he does find an excuse to come back and tell you how much his daughter enjoyed them.

Joel walks a few feet in the direction of the door then stops, turning back to see you’re already busily back to work with a handful of flowers. He says your name, falling from his lips like sweet honey, and you don’t think you could ever get tired of him saying it the way he does. “I’ll be seein’ you around. Try to be safe until then, m’kay?”

“See you around Joel. I’ll keep the injuries to a minimum until then.”

“I’d prefer no injuries at all, actually.”

“I’ll do my best.”

You exchange goodbyes, watching him cross the street and get settled into his truck from the store front window. You’re not sure why you miss him, having only just met, but there’s a longing that’s started to burn inside your heart.

Joel’s truck merges onto the road, he takes one last glance in your direction, his hand thrown out the window waving at you as he drives off, planning his next visit so he can see you again.

#joel miller #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #joel miller x f!reader #joel miller x female reader #bloom series #no outbreak!joel miller #tlou au #pedrostories

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jackhues · 11 months

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(mockingbird au!) graduation - platonic!hughes

request: for the mockingbird au maybe something where the reader graduates college and her *actual* parents aren’t there but the hughes family is

requested by: anon : )

notes: continue sending in requests for the au! check out the request rules below! thanks for requesting <3

likes are good, reblogs are better <3

mockingbird! au request rules!

tags: @woodruff-edwards , @austinbutlerscaresme , @svechnikovvv , @hockeyboysarehot , @emptyflowerpots , @mysticaldonkey , @lam-ila , @babydollmarauders , @starjoyyy , @kjohnson-91 , @gavinbrindley, @hischierdevils , @jackhughesily , @panarin10 , @equallyshaw , @power2myheart , @lynnismypseudonym , @beccaiscold , @akengii , @nowandkei , @cinnamonpancakes , @mitchymainer , @lifeofpriya , @marshmallow-babe, @hughesx3 , @emsully2002 , @starsandhughes , @huggy-hischier73 , @doglady5678 , @thatoneblog , @exonct07 @hughesmedicine , @qwanelledingele , @mindless-rock , @ireadthensuetheauthors , @huggy-hischier94, @slaythehousedownboots , @diary-of-jj

join my taglist!

gif not mine!

“i can’t wait to go to ihop after this,” em, one of your friends muttered, playing with her graduation gown.

sleepless nights, random breakdowns, and four long years had finally led to this moment. your graduation.

you were excited to walk across the stage and receive your diploma, but you couldn’t hide the nerves you were feeling as well. school was one of the fixed points in your life, and you weren’t sure how you felt leaving it behind forever.

“your parents are taking you?” you asked em, fixing your attention on your friend.

“yeah, it’s a tradition,” she nodded. “my parents take me and my entire family out to ihop whenever anyone graduates. max started it, but my parents continued it for the rest of us.”

you grinned at the mention of em’s family. her oldest brother, max, was a teacher and ten years older than em. her youngest sister, julie, was five years younger than em and still had one year of high school left.

unlike you, em had a lot of siblings, and most of them were really close with each other. it was weird that you became best friends with someone who grew up with an almost entirely opposite lifestyle, but it worked out.

“are your parents coming?” em asked, the two of you walking ahead as the names of students in front of you were called.

“ellen and jim are here,” you smiled. “jack’s with them, somewhere in the crowd. i didn’t get a chance to look for them yet.”

em knew you well enough not to ask about your biological parents. after a long discussion with her, you decided not to invite them.

em nodded, “and luke and quinn? they’re coming too, or no?”

“i have no idea,” you answered honestly. “there was a skate today, and jack skipped that to be here. and last i checked, quinn was in florida for something so i don’t know if he’ll make it. but he called last night, so it’s okay.”

em grinned, the two of you taking more steps ahead. she looked over the top of your head, her eyes finding someone else in the crowd, “well, i think he did make it.”

“what?”

you turned around immediately, searching over the tops of people's heads to see a group of people waving in your direction.

ellen and jim were in their chairs, waving at you, the former blowing you a kiss while the latter gave you a thumbs up. next to them, luke, jack and quinn sat in their seats, waving and mouthing encouragement (which you couldn’t make out because you were horrible at reading lips).

jack signed ‘i love you’, a phrase you taught him years ago. you signed it back, smiling widely.

“this is so cute,” em gushed. “but it’s almost our turn. get ready.”

you looked ahead, surprised to see it was only em left in front of you in the line. her name was called, and she squeezed your hand quickly before walking across the stage to receive her diploma. her family cheered in the background.

“y/n, y/l/n,” your name was announced.

you heard the familiar voices of the three hughes boys, cheering you on and hyping you up.

sure, your biological mom and dad weren’t here, but that’s okay. because those boys were here, ellen and jim were here, and they were supporting you.

it’s okay that your biological parents weren’t here, because your family was here.

you shook the principal’s hand, receiving your diploma all while your family cheered you on.

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hail-ey-m · 1 year

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кαтѕυкι вαкυgσυ—ιη¢σяяє¢т qυσтєѕ

Relationship: up to reader

!!TW: A good bit of cursing (it’s Bakugou what’d you expect) mentions alcohol, mentions murder for satirical purposes!!

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Y/n: What is your biggest weakness?

Bakugou: I can be uncooperative.

Y/n: Okay, can you give me an example?

Bakugou: No.

Y/n: That’s one of my biggest fears. Like, if I ever woke up as a donut...

Bakugou: You would eat yourself?

Y/n: I wouldn’t even question it.

Y/n: Hey Bakugou can I get a sip of your water?

Bakugou: It's not water.

Y/n: Vodka, I like your style!

Bakugou: It's vinegar.

Y/n: Wh-Wha-

Bakugou: It's vinegar, COWARD.

Y/n: Top 30 reasons why Bakugou is sorry... Number 5 will surprise you!

Bakugou: Top 30 anime deaths. Number One: YOUR FUCKING ASS RIGHT NOW!!!

Bakugou: Can you please be serious for five minutes?

Y/n: My record is four, but I think I can do it.

Bakugou: In light of what you did for me, you can hug me for four to five seconds.

Y/n: FORTY FIVE SECONDS?!?

Bakugou: No! Four to five seconds!

Y/n: Too late!!!

Y/n: Look. I may not be a saint, but it's not like I’ve killed anybody. I’m not an arsonist. I’ve never found a wallet outside of an IHOP and thought about returning it but saw the owner lived out of state so just took the cash and dropped the wallet back on the ground.

Bakugou: Okay, that's really specific, and that makes me think that you definitely did do that.

Y/n: Is letting someone win at chess sapiosexual bottoming

Bakugou: Does anyone in this godforsaken group ever think before they speak

*Y/n and Bakugou skipping stones on lake*

Y/n: It’s such a beautiful evening.

Bakugou, whispering: Take that you fucking lake

Bakugou: You're right.

Y/n: That's... That's an unusual phrase for you. Did you just learn it?

Bakugou: What doesn't kill me should run, because now I'm fucking pissed.

Bakugou: I prevented a murder today.

Y/n: Really? How’d you do that?

Bakugou: self control.

Bakugou: So what’s for dinner?

Y/n, staring at the food they just burnt: Regret.

Bakugou: You love me, right, Y/n?

Y/n: Normally, I’d say yes without hesitation, but I feel like this is going somewhere and I don’t like it.

Y/n: .. .----. -- / ... --- .-. .-. -.-- [translation: I’M SORRY]

Bakugou: What's that?

Y/n: Remorse code.

Bakugou: I'm even angrier now.

Bakugou: I'm 'the second worst thing to ever happen to those orphans', what does that mean?

Y/n: It means you were second worst thing to happen to those orphans.

Bakugou: but what’s the first worst thing?

*Awkward pause*

Y/n: Bakugou, they...they weren’t always orphans.

Bakugou:

Y/n: Remember when you didn't try to solve all your problems with attempted murder?

Bakugou: Stop romanticizing the past.

Y/n: Am I in trouble?

Bakugou: Take a guess.

Y/n: No?

Bakugou: Take another guess.

Y/n, in a beach shirt: So sue me, it's October and I'd like to be on Island Time for a day!

Bakugou: I have Spotify open right now on my computer, do you want me to blast you? Do you want me to put you on blast? Cuz I've got your history right here on the sidebar,

Bakugou: Take it Back by Jimmy Buffet, Nautical Wheelers by Jimmy Buffet, Jolly Mon Sing by Jimmy Buffet, Steamer by Jimmy Buffet, trEAT HER LIKE A LADY BY JIMMY BUFFET, MAÑANA BY JIMMY BUFFET, WHEN SALOME PLAYS THE DRUMS BY JAMES BUFFET, HAVANA DAYDREAMIN BY JIMMY BUFFET- What the FUCK happened to you?!

Y/n, laughing: I HAD A CASE OF THE MONDAYS

Bakugou: ARE YOU HAUNTED?! ARE YOU FUCKING POSSESSED?!

Bakugou: YOU USED TO BE MY FRIEND

Y/n, cry-laughing: ᴵ ᴴᴬᴰ ᴬ ᶜᴬˢᴱ ᴼᶠ ᵀᴴᴱ ᴹᴼᴺᴰᴬʸˢ

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

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aritamargarita · 2 years

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ATTITUDE || 012

tonight, you find out who this secret admirer is and more shenanigans ensue. like anon said, reader is slowly entering her dean ambrose era but someone(s) want to put a stop to it before it gets worse. i KIND OF had to like split things up im doin something important just stick around....hotel interactions next chapter!

poor reader getting dragged into team extreme drama is insane like omg. at leaaasstt she can get closer to jeff, YAAYYY. this chapter, something in the air shifted i fear….

RAW IS WAR // 6:37 PM

Monday came around quickly and yet again, you were back at the arena. Raw was a little different than Smackdown’s set up, but you didn’t really mind. The interchangeable brands, despite how much trouble it caused you, was somewhere you could easily call home.

You and Lita really drank too much, huh? You’ll both have to get those pancakes another time.

You remember Lita calling you and thanking you for allowing her to spend the night, but you couldn’t even respond with how loudly you were laughing once those memories came crashing down.

You swore off of drinking for a while. You also made Lita agree to never take you out to a bar again. At least not before eating anything. And next time, the destination would be IHOP instead of some sleazy bar.

Lita had to beg you to not tell Jeff what she said. In compromise, she said that you could meet her in the locker room before the first match to talk.

Today’s matches were as follows…

CHRISTIAN VS. JEFF HARDY (EUROPEAN TITLE)

RVD VS. D-VON DUDLEY (HARDCORE CHAMPIONSHIP)

TRISH STRATUS VS. STACY KEIBLER

EDGE VS. TEST (INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE)

WILLIAM REGAL VS. BIG SHOW

THE ROCK VS. CHRIS JERICHO AND KURT ANGLE

At least you weren’t on the card, but Jeff’s got a match with Christian? Looks like Stacy’s got a match too. Perhaps you’d be seeing them very, very soon.

That is, if you had time. The voice of that man over the phone replayed in your head, reminding the time you should meet him. 7:50? No, 7:20. NO, 7:30!

Now’s not the time to have a bad memory. This could be important. If they had some sort of “strategy” to keep Stephanie down for a bit, you wanted to hear it. You came earlier than usual just to ensure that you’d be there in time.

The hushed and murmured voices made you stop. You could hear them behind the door.

“Well, is she in here?”

“Ya’ think I know for sure?”

Okay, just by the tone of their voices, it sounded like Debra and Austin outside of your door. Their questions towards each other had turned into a small argument, something about who’s going to be the one to call you out first.

Why’d they show up? You knew Austin saw how mad you were the night of your match, so maybe he told Debra.

“Come on out, [Name].” Austin calls. “Just want to talk.”

You didn’t want to be chastised. It’s the last thing you wanted to hear, especially from him. “I’m not coming out.”

“Don’t make me break this door down.”

This time you got scared because you knew that he’d do it. So you slowly crack open the door. “Yes?” Of course, those cameras you loved so dearly were rolling. This must be good.

Debra steps forward, an apologetic look on her face. “We’ve been thinking...after what happened back on Smackdown…we think you should start looking into some anger management classes. You see, Mr. McMahon has offered it to certain people who were apart of the Alliance after a recommendation.”

Anger management classes??

It was one thing for Mr. McMahon to pour MORE salt in the wound after a crushing loss to your original team, but to even suggest anger management? You’ve gotta be fucking kidding.

“If I have to look into anger management classes, he has to look into them too!” You point a finger at Austin accusingly.

“Me? Anger management?” Shockingly enough, he seemed appalled at your words. “I don’t need a damn anger management class, goddamnit. All I need is a forklift.”

“You have issues!”

Debra can only shake her head. This is exactly why you should look into it. However, you made a valid case. The more she thought about it, she realizes the both of you needed to go. “That’s it then. I’ll be signing the both of you up for a class next week.” She briskly walks away, not staying around to hear you two’s outburst.

“Hey, no! What if I have a match or something? Debraaaaa!” You complain. Austin wasn’t too happy about this decision either. You walk after her, pleading to not let you go. “Pleaaasee?? Can’t you just send him alone? He’s an angry guy! Like way more angry than me!”

“My answer is final!” She asserted, making you take a step back. “If it makes you feel better, there are other people who you may know that are attending. Why don’t you make some friends?”

“Ughhhhh…” You groan. Debra softly rubs your shoulder.

Once Debra made her mind up, that was it. Looks like you’ll be taking anger management classes with Austin.

Pissed off wasn’t strong enough to describe how he felt about it. He comes closer to you two, rubbing his face. “I need a beer.”

“I don’t have anger management issues, I was just mad!“ You complain. “Throwing chairs at the walls aren’t even that bad! I could do worse. I could do way worse, right?!”

You turn over to Austin, who was simply shaking his head at you. For a split second he was going to say something, but decided not to. So far, the things he’s done in the past have been completely worse than what you’ve did in the last few days.

In an effort to take it off your mind for now, you look between the two. “Err, have any of you seen Jeff Hardy? I’d like to talk to him.”

“Not at all.” Debra shook his head. “Wouldn’t he usually be with his brother and that Lita girl?”

“Sort of, kind of. Not with Lita. They got into an argument or something, but right now I’m not sure if they’re cool. I really hope things blow over.”

“Why talk to him?” Austin just cuts to the chase. “Rainbow hair makes me sick. Him and that girl who can’t pull her pants up.”

You roll your eyes. Of course he had an iffy opinion on them. He’s so old school. You bet if you gave him a keyboard, he’d take forever to type just one word.

“I can’t tell you. But it’s really important.”

“Let the girl go.” Debra waves her hand. “The classes aren’t today. Besides, I need to talk with you about things, Austin.” She then looks at you knowingly, a mischievous glint in her eye. Did she kno—

“Why’re ya’ lookin’ like that??” Austin questioned, switching his finger between you two.

Debra feigns innocence. “Like what?”

“Ya’ looked at her with that look in your eye like ya’ got something planned.”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about!” You smile. “Listen, I’ll catch up with you guys later. I need to find Jeff.” This was very urgent. It’s a matter of life or death.

“Hey, kid, before ya’ go…” Austin holds out his hand, causing you to stop in place. “Almost forgot. We’re on commentary tonight.”

…You’re on commentary?! Seriously?

“Wait, for all the matches?”

Debra shakes her head, thankfully. “Just for the last match I believe. You two need to keep it together. No picking fights. If they start something with you, you walk away.”

That’ll be easy for you, unless, for some reason…someone decides to show up unannounced again. If Jericho decided to mess with you, then that’d be another fish to fry.

For Austin though, it may be a little harder. Incredibly harder.

The Rock was in the match. It was a no-brainer that they’ve always had some sort of tension. And Jericho was there too. Not to mention Kurt Angle. Those men have had problems with him in the past.

Who cares right now?! You had to figure out if you should make a move or not! If Jeff had a thing for you, you needed to strike accordingly, right? You walk back in the other direction towards the locker room.

You still couldn’t believe it though. Lita had really spilled the beans on that one. This whole time, Jeff Hardy may or may not have been interested in you.

If you were fast enough, you could catch him and Christian’s match. It would be best to change right now. Should you wear something nice? It’s not like you were going on a date in the ring or something.

...Okay, maybe you’re thinking about this too hard.

RAW IS WAR // 6:50 PM

You were all set. New clothes, feeling energized, and most importantly, feeling confident. Tonight was a new night, so you couldn’t let anyone get you down.

“Hey, [Name]…you look nice…?”

The familiar voice makes you turn on your heel almost immediately. “Oh, you’ve got a lot of guts showing up here.”

Stacy holds out her hands. “Hey! I’m on your side. I don’t think you’ve ever asked me how I felt, huh? Before you try anything, just listen to what I have to say!”

Just this once, you’ll give her the time of day.

“I…I hate Torrie as much as you do.” She admits. “I don’t know how you didn’t realize. We’ve been at each other’s necks for at least a week or two now.”

“If it’s only been a week or two, you’ve gotta give me a break.” You sigh. “I’ve a lot of shit on my plate, Stacy.”

“I understand that!” She seems happy you hadn’t attacked her yet, clearing her throat afterwards. “But I just wanted to let you know before you came after me. Don’t forget, I’m your best friend too.”

Right. She is.

“Torrie’s been spreading some nasty things about you.”

You roll your eyes. This same song and dance. “I know. If it’s about the letters—“

“Oh, no,” Stacy shakes her head, folding her arms behind her back. “Not about letters at all. She says you’ve been sleeping around.”

“First of all, if anyone’s doing the sleeping around, it’s her. Last time, I remember her and Mr. McMahon had some sort of meeting. I hope she knows talent is not sexually transmitted…not like Mr. McMahon is talented anyway.”

Stacy comes over and hits your arm. “You can’t say that! You could get fired, what if someone’s listening?!”

“I’m just saying! Jeez.” You rub your arm. “By the way, you’re lucky you said something, because I was about to fight you right here.”

For some reason, she doesn’t seem to stop talking about Torrie, even if you thought it was over. “Did I mention she says you’re trashing most of the superstars? I mean, even disrespecting legends, wow!”

What? Disrespecting legends? What legends was she talking about?? Now, some of them deserved it. But who exactly?

“Wait, who?”

Stacy opens her mouth, but is interrupted by the door opening.

In comes Lita, surprised to see you two not mauling each other. Sure, it wasn’t Torrie, but it’s someone she associated with. “…You guys are still friends?” She stares at Stacy for a moment, fighting the urge to glare.

Stacy nods. “Of course. That’s my [Name]!” She gives you a tight hug. “I’ll see you later, okay?” Just like that, she was gone. Suspiciously quick.

You simply wave as she walks off. Lita can only scoff. “Her? Really? After I poured my heart out last night?”

“I just think you’re jealous.” You grin. “Litaaa’ss jeaaallouusss.”

Your sing-song tone made her smile as well. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever makes you happy.” She looks at you, then your outfit of choice. “Woah, that’s a transformation if I’ve ever seen one. You really want his attention, huh?”

It’s not like she wasn’t dressed up herself either. Her thong was literally saying ‘hello!’ to you. “You’re talking about me, but do you have a match I don’t know about?” You question, walking over to fold the clothes you decided not to wear.

….You’ve never folded clothes so fast, with shaky hands at that. Lita catches on quickly and takes a seat nearby. She doesn’t comment on it, but she damn sure notices.

“Just accompanying Jeff to the ring. Don’t worry, I’m not stealing him away from you or anything.” She prefaced. “..He just got really hurt at Survivor Series. And in the argument that Matt started, he didn’t want him to perform.”

She didn’t want you to be nervous. In fact, she could even sympathize. Maybe YOU were more shy than she thought, haha.

You take a breather, doing your best to offset the anxiety. “Oohh, I see. No wonder. So, it’s just you and Matt that are having issues.”

“No, no,” Lita shakes her head. “Jeff has problems with Matt too. Me and Jeff don’t have any issue with each other.”

Noooow you got it. She didn’t explain that in depth when you first asked her. She must’ve still been frazzled from the whole thing.

“I just have a feeling Jeff’ll do something risky. As much as I hate to say this, you’ll have to take advantage of that. I’ll pretend like it’s a complete surprise.” Lita pauses for a moment, taking a second to now stretch on the floor. “…If Matt by chance shows up, he’s not gonna be happy Jeff’s in a match tonight.”

You finish with folding things up, zipping your bag shut. “Fine with me. Hey, you’re not gonna screw me over, are you?”

Lita gives you a confused look. “Hell no. Why would I do that?”

“Just making sure.”

RAW IS WAR // 7:05 PM

You hoped this wouldn’t take too long. As much as you wanted to see Jeff, you had other obligations. You wanted to be in the parking lot at 7:30 sharp, no later than that. It’d be better if you got there earlier.

You’re backstage now, checking out the match on the television. It’s been going on for a while now. You giggle as you notice how Jeff’s shirt was stuck around his ankles. Him being shirtless was one thing, but you were immature enough to giggle at his shirt. You noticed how it limited his movement and Christian was really wearing him down because of it.

You’d ask him how things were going later. It makes you jump in surprise to see Jeff rebound with a enzugiri.

By this point, Matt’s already down to the ring, picking an argument with Lita. While they’re at it, you think it’s time to head down to the ring yourself.

With a pep in your step, you make your way to gorilla. You’d only stick around to check in on Jeff and give him help, but that’s it. Every little bit counts.

You push away the curtains and head down to the ring, catching Lita’s gaze. She fought the smile on her face, doing her best to look upset instead. The crowd cheers at your appearance.

Jeff notices you, confused as to why you’re out here in the first place. You don’t have anything to do with him. You wave at him.

Oh…

Did you come out for him? For some reason, a small grin appears on his face, but it’s quickly knocked off as Christian clotheslined him.

Christian notices you too. He comes over and even blows you a kiss.

He’s funny.

You cross your arms. You’re not out for him right now! Just for Jeff, but maybe you’ll keep that to yourself for now. You wave at him, feeling as if it’s rude to not respond.

Lita jogs away from Matt (much to his own confusion, a lot of it was going around..) right over to you.

“Started to think you wouldn’t come out here!” She raises her voice so you can hear her over the crowd. “Thought your dad was gonna stop you. I could’ve sworn he told me to pull my pants up!”

You laugh, raising your voice as well. “Yeah, right. Are things going okay out here?”

“Not..really.” She looks away, doing her best to not stare at Matt anymore. “It’s hard being here.”

“I get it. I’m sorry about that.” You turn your attention back to the ring, and Lita returns to her spot nearby Matt. Now you two were on opposite sides.

Christian begins to turn Jeff into the Killswitch, but Jeff reverses it into the Twist of Fate. Matt begins to scream at him to do the pin, but instead he climbs onto the top rope.

Even you thought it was a good idea to pin Christian. Was Jeff really going to be able to do this??

Matt comes over to your side yelling at him and you move further away. Christian, in the meanwhile, rolls out of the ring to safety.

But not for long. Jeff readjusts himself to do a high flying move, but Matt is still yelling. Taking advantage, Christian shoves Matt into the ring post, knocking Jeff straight into the mat.

You wince. That must’ve really hurt.

Christian gets right back into the ring and pins Jeff, retaining his championship. He points down at you with a smile.

You have to say, good for him. You clap, giving him some respect. You had nothing against him.

He rolls out of the ring and you roll right in.

“Jeff.” You get down on your knees, leaning over him. “Why’d you do that?”

He takes a minute to respond, breathing heavily. “Thought…ya’ might like it.”

Before you could say something, the referee shoos you out of the ring and you roll back out to give them space.

Jeff didn’t want that. He struggles to get up and slowly crawls out himself. “Wait.” He rasps, reaching out toward you. You come a bit closer to help him out and back up the ramp.

He’s holding his neck as you two go up, Matt and Lita trailing behind. This isn’t going to be good, you could just tell.

The closer you got to towards the medic, the thicker the tension had gotten. It got even worse after you entered the room.

No one was saying anything to each other. You and Lita could only exchange glances. The crinkling of the ice bag was the only sound heard throughout the room. One of the medics handed it over to you, and almost as if they knew something bad was coming, left the room.

You gently place it over the back of Jeff’s neck, making him quietly sigh. It must’ve been one of relief, because he sets his hand over your own.

“Jeff, how could you be so stupid, man?!”

And there it was. Matt stroked the fire.

“Stupid?!” Jeff immediately gets up from his spot, almost as if he had a jolt of energy. It startled you slightly, leaving the bag of ice in your hand.

“Yeah, stupid. I told you, you shouldn’t even have been wrestling tonight.” Matt got in his face. “But did you listen to me? No. And even when you went in the ring, I supported you. I told you what you should do. I told you; don’t take any unnecessary risks. I told you; do the Twist of Fate and beat him on the mat—“

Jeff interrupts him. “Who asked you, Matt? Who asked you to get involved in the match anyway, huh?”

“Nobody asked me to get involved. I got involved because I care about you. I got involved because I care about the team. Do you care about the team, Jeff?” Matt’s words were coming out almost a thousand miles an hour. It’s almost like this has been on his mind for a while.

You watch as they continue going back and forth for a while. You didn’t want to take sides, you were only watching from the sidelines.

Lita runs her hands through her hair. This was really getting to her. You felt really bad. She shouldn’t have to be in the middle of this.

“—Ever since we were kids Matt, you’ve been trying to run my life, you’ve been trying to control me.” Jeff accuses. “You’ve always thought you’re smarter, you’ve always thought you’re better..”

“I don’t think it’s a question that I’m smarter than you, Jeff. I think that’s obvious. And somebody—“

“Guys, relax, Lita is….“ You try to intervene, but you immediately get shut down by Matt.

“Look, shut up, please. She’s not in this and neither are you. I don’t even know why you’re here.” And now, his attention is on you. “Are you here just for yourself? Which one of us do you want to ruin first? Is it Jeff?”

Ruin? That must’ve been something Torrie must’ve spread. Matt must’ve considered you bad news.

But Jeff quickly stands up for you. “Don’t tell her to shut up. She came to help me, unlike someone I know. She actually cares.”

It goes silent again. You’re not exactly sure what to say.

This time, Lita speaks up. “…I thought you were in here cause’ you cared about Jeff. At the very least you could be nice to someone who’s trying to help. It’s pretty obvious the only thing you care about is yourself.”

She leaves, and Jeff glares at Matt. “Who feels stupid now, Matt?”

Matt ignores his comment, simply giving Jeff a scowl of his own. He calls after Lita and leaves the room.

Now, you and Jeff were alone. He mutters an apology, sitting back on the seat.

You say nothing, instead setting the bag of ice back onto his neck. He sets his hand back onto your own.

“You….look nice today.” Jeff compliments you, using his free hand to toy with his armband. He had no idea why he felt so on edge in your presence. Whether it was the atmosphere of the argument still lingering or just the idea of you taking care of him, he didn’t know.

“Hah.” You let out a strained laugh. “Thanks.”

It’s hard to bounce back from what just happened. And you didn’t know what else to say.

You had an idea though.

You let go of the ice and so does he. Jeff looks up at you questionably as you move to sit next to him.

No one was in the room, no one had to know.

So, instead of saying anything else, you take a chance and just kiss him. “I didn’t know what else to say, sorry.”

Jeff doesn’t have anything to say either, as his response is nothing more than returning his lips to your own. Again, and again. Each time, it was harder than the last. You hadn’t even realized how close you got to him until you felt his body against your own.

He sets his hand on your back, doing his best to keep you as close as possible.

You already felt like you couldn’t breathe. And just as you were going to open your mouth for him just a little more, he lightly pushes you away. Nothing lasts forever, you guess.

You still groan in disappointment.

“If we keep doing this, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.” He admitted. “..and my neck is killing me.”

All you can do is nod. At least he came to his senses, any further and you’d forget your meet up with your secret admirer. You were close to blowing him off.

You finally collect your words. “What time..is it?”

Jeff looks up towards the clock in the room. “7:20.”

Shit. You had ten minutes to get it together.

“I’ve gotta go.” You say, getting out of your seat. “There’s something I’ve gotta do. I hope you get better, sorry about earlier.” In order to not explode, you try to talk about other things. “You guys shouldn’t have to go through that as a team.

Jeff waves you off. “It’ll blow over. Thanks for staying with me. I’ll see ya’ later.”

RAW IS WAR // 7:27 PM

You were in a mad dash to the parking lot, trying to make sure you were on time. You had about 3 minutes to spare luckily, so here you were, just rubbing your temples.

“Over here, Nitro Girl.”

You turn over to the direction of the voice, a curious look on your face. The curiosity turns into shock.

“Hey, wait, aren’t you….?”

The man nods. He’s a little aggressive as he shoves the bouquet of flowers into your arms. “Hunter. You’re a bit early.”

You just couldn’t believe it.

…..Triple H? He’s the person who wanted to meet you out here? Was this some sort of setup so Stephanie could ambush you from behind?

“Is this a joke?” You boldly ask. “Out of all people, it’s you??”

“No joke..“ He doesn’t seem to be in the best of moods, but you don’t point it out. “I’m going to cut to the chase. I think Stephanie is sleeping with someone else.”

Huh?!

Your eyes widen. That was one hell of an accusation. “How do you know?”

“I haven’t been in the ring and she’s been going on about this whole spiel about becoming business partners with others while I’m away. Because you refused, I think your attack on Smackdown may have been planned. I know how she is.”

“Do you really think it was planned? The only other person I could think of would be Jericho, but there’s no way he would be on it.” You say. “I mean, he’s called her so many nasty names. I don’t get it. And there’s no way in hell it could be Austin.”

Hunter shook his head. “Jericho’s the only one that makes sense. He’s threatened by me and he knows as soon as I come back, I’ll be going for the title spot. He’ll do anything to take me down, even if it means associating with Stephanie.”

“Yikes.” You mutter, adjusting the bouquet of flowers in your arms. “So, what’re you asking me to do here?”

“How about we become business partners?” He suggests. “You want revenge. I want a spot in the title picture. It’s an even exchange, nothing less, nothing more. I want to see what she’ll do next. If it’s true, we’ll officially start. If it’s false, we’ll pretend like we never met. Do we have a deal?”

You had nothing to lose, so you agree. “We have a deal. I’ll let you know if I see or hear anything.”

Neither of you had the confirmation, but once you did, it’d be one hell of a week.

RAW IS WAR // 7:45 PM

You were able to put the flowers from Hunter away in the locker room. Austin was waiting for you outside to head out to the announcers table. In order to get by him, you passed it off as a secret admirer gift to Trish. Someone gave it to you, so you decided to pass on the message. You refused to elaborate any further than that.

“Let’s get goin’ kid, they’re waitin’ on us.” Austin rushes you out, making you groan.

“I’m coming, hold on!” You close the door behind you.

“Took ya’ long enough. I was gonna leave.”

Well, you’re here now!

Once you two hit gorilla, the sound of glass shattering was your cue. Austin walks down the ramp with you behind him. While he’s all serious, you wave to the crowd.

There’s a fan that reaches out a pen and a picture of you. Before you meet Austin at the table, you decide to sign it. You quickly write your signature with a smile and give them a final wave before you run towards the announcer table.

You take a seat nearby Austin, as JR and Jerry greet you before JR begins his introduction.

‘And we are back here on Raw, Raw Zone on the new TNN. At ringside, Austin and [Name] accompany us…..’

Jerry automatically has his attention on you. ‘You look great tonight!’

You gave a thumbs up at his compliment. ‘I take pride in my wardrobe!’

Austin isn’t too happy about you taking too long, complaining as soon as you put your headphones on. ‘She always takes her time gettin’ places because of her little wardrobe!’

‘I have to pick something out! And don’t even start, I was signing an autograph, okay! I was being nice! Debra told us to play nice!’

Before you can continue, the pop of pyro and Jericho’s music immediately gets you hot. You’re so sick and tired of him.

Lillian announces him in. “The following handicap match is set for one fall! Introducing first, from Winnipeg Manitoba Canada, weighing 227 pounds, Chris Jericho!”

‘Y2J told us earlier this night what was wrong with his game all along,” JR says. ‘He cared about the fans. Obviously, he doesn’t care any longer.’

‘Oh, whatever. He only cares about himself!’ You accuse.

Jericho enters the ring, turning his attention down to the announcers table. He smirks seeing you two, and you can only shoot daggers at him. ‘I fucking hate you!’ Of course, they bleeped your curse word out, but you meant what you said. You were still heated from your own handicap match.

His music cuts off, changing into Kurt Angle’s music.

“Introducing his partner from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kurt Angle!”

‘Austin, you and Kurt Angle will go one-on-one for the WWF title at Vengeance. The winner of that match will go on against either Y2J or The Rock to unify those championships. How do you feel?’ JR asks.

‘Gotta be nervous, huh? I mean, this is the undisputed championship we’re talking about!’ Jerry adds.

‘I’m not nervous about those sons of bitches at all. I’m coming out of Vengeance as the undisputed champion. Most importantly, I won’t be kissing Vince’s ass tonight.’

Wait, huh? You look at Austin curiously. ‘Woah, I’m confused. What’re you talking about?’

You couldn’t hear anything else after The Rock’s music hits, the crowd coming alive and screaming. ‘I have to say, I’m on Rock’s side! A handicapped match? I can sympathize how hard it is. This isn’t fair.’

“And from Miami, Florida, weighing in at 240 pounds, he is the World Champion, The Rock!”

JR agrees with you. ‘I can agree with you, [Name]. He’ll be lucky to survive this.’

Austin seems offended at your words. ‘You’re on his side? Really? Ya’ weren’t even goin’ in alone!’

‘I mean, can’t you sympathize sort of? The odds were—‘

Suddenly, Ric Flair’s music hits just as soon as the match is ready to begin. The crowd “woo’s”.

You snap your fingers. ‘Oh, I forgot! He bought our stock, huh?’

‘And he made a career of being fashionably late. The match already started!’ Jerry says.

Flair’s raspy voice echoes. “I don’t think my business partner will mind at all the fact that I am changing this handicap match into a tag match, WOO! Without further ado, The Rock’s partner, Kane!”

As soon as he says his name, an explosion of fire comes from the ramp.

Kane….

Kane was another story. You weren’t quite sure about him, nor have you seen him around. All you’ve heard was that he had a bad, bad upbringing. He was intimidating and you were almost scared.

This match certainly was something else.

k temporary spacer thingy. i decided to kind of speed through the like last match since its not as important. what’s important is what comes after it sort of. sorry for cutting the jeff scene so short though, i kinda had to push myself out of my comfort zone since im not that experienced with likeeee all the serious romance stuff. there’s more to come next. btw i promise we’ll see some more superstars soon,,ones that left and all yes yes. btw “nothing more nothing less” my ass smh.

anyone been rushed out before by your parents? like them threatening to leave u if u dont hurry up?? yeah its totally stone cold and [name] lmaoo,,, them anger management classes about to go hard💯

also kane interaction anyone? no? ok i’ll leave…

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beaniebeensbaby201 · 1 year

Text

MIDNIGHT SKY// JAY KELSO X READER

For first chapter click here: Part 1

A/N: I decided to make Cassie their family friend instead of their actual cousin to go along with the story. But there might be a story twist a bit, but I'm still figuring it out. Nothing too dramatic kr anything, just who her parents r and stuff.

Part 2 of this will be posted either tonight or tomorrow.

I know you have all been waiting for a part two, and I haven't been very active with my stories. But I'm going to get back into writing, I have been watching the last of us recently, and I am going to be writing a story for Joel.

If anyone wants to be tagged in this series lmk!

•○●•○●•○●●○○●○○●○○●•○●○•○

We were back in Forman's basement playing uno. I was swinging my leg that was over my thigh and saw Ozzie place all his cards down.

"Ozzie, boo that's not how you play. You're only supposed to drop one card." I frowned, confused as to what he was doing.

He looked at me with a slight glare on his face as I gulped.

"Excuse me?" I rolled my eyes at the boy and sighed.

"Cool basement." Gwen said as I sat down in a chair next to the light skinned girl.

"Yea man, it's dope." I agreed, I adjusted my sunglasses that were starting to fall when I tucked a piece of red hair in.

"It's a dump." I took a swig of my cola that was resting on the table.

"Ozzie man, manners." I hissed, but he just rolls his eyes at me.

"Ozzie and I met last year in detention. Tell her what you did." Gwen said, getting excited.

"Chill out bro, you're gonna burn a hole in that chair." She slapped my hand, and I just gasped dramatically at her.

"You didn't!" She just rolls her eyes at my dramaticness.

"I told my math teacher his wife was cheating on him. She was making out with some guy at IHOP." I laughed, I would always laugh whenever Ozzie would tell us this story as Leia looked over at me like I'm crazy.

"That's horrible." Leia said as I took another sip.

"I know, IHOPE." He scoffed.

"She could have done it somewhere else. Why iHOP? The lamest date ever, man. You know, maybe the government had something to do with this man. I mean, my old man would tell me some shit about them." I said, as Leia gives me a weird look.

"What does the government have to do with ihop?" I just shrugged at Leia's question, not knowing the answer to her question.

"I don't know, man." I laughed.

The door to the basement opened and revealed my boyfriend, Nikki, and Nate.

"Babe!" I jumped into his arms, my legs wrapping around his waist as he quickly caught me with a low grunt.

"Ugh, please don't make out. I think I might gag." I rolled my eyes, but I kissed him anyways.

"You will not believe what we found." Nate said he looked like a kid in a candy store.

"You found a keg?" I asked.

"Bro! You ruined the story, man!" I give him a fake pout as I dropped my feet back to the ground and ignored Nate's wines.

"You don't get excited like that unless it has something to do with beer. And like I said, if it's a story about how you found a keg, I'd like to hear how you, my dear friend, how you found it." I skipped towards the couch, with Jay's hand in mine as I made him sit first and plant myself on his lap.

"Now, tell me. How did you find this tap?" I pat my lap waiting for Nate to start his story.

"Because if this is just you telling us the story of you eating a McRib again, then I will be disappointed in you." I joked, as Nate looked at me with a scared look on his face.

"Hey man, I thought it was gone forever!" I rolled my eyes and picked at the chip black nail polish on my nails.

"Aw, you were scared, babe?" I groaned in annoyance, tilting my head back that was now resting on Jay's shoulder.

Jay pats my stomach as he laughed at my dramaticness.

"So awful to see those two." I leaned my face so my face was hiding in his neck away from their view.

"Can you tell your story now, man?" I asked, but not facing their view as my eyes were closed getting bored.

"So, we were just chilling in my van. Cassie was supposed to join us, but she ditched Jay for Gwen." I shrugged.

"Because I'm her favorite." Gwen piped in.

"Nu-huh, I am." Jay pouted, but I put my fingers through his hair and shook my head.

"Sorry, babe, but Gwen is my favorite." I give him a kiss on his pouted lips that turned into a smile.

"But at least you get kisses and other things." I whispered the other part that the others didn't hear.

"Why don't I get the front seat?" Nikki asked, I looked up at Nate and then back to Jay.

"Yea, Nate, why doesn't your girlfriend get the front seat?" I pressed.

"I called shotgun." I scoffed at Jay and quickly got off of his lap.

"So, if Nate called shotgun in your car, he'd get the front seat?" Jay gulped and looked at Gwen, but she just shrugged and had a smirk on her face.

"N-no?" He stuttered, I rolled my eyes at him, knowing that was a lie.

"He's my best friend Cas." Nate claimed, I ignored him, and I just sat back down in my regular lawn chair.

"You get no cuddles nor kisses for a week." Jay continued to protest, but I ignored him as Leia looked at me.

"Wow." Leia said as I looked at her with scrunched eyebrows.

"How do you do that? That was so brave." I snorted at the blonde girl.

"Everyone is scared of her." Leia looked at me with a confused look on her face.

"But you're so nice! How could you be scary?" I heard a noise coming from everyone in the room.

"Last year, Cassidy freaking froze the football teams' clothes! And she pulled the fire alarm so she could get out of a math test!" I shrugged, crossing my arms over my chest, and crossed my leg over my thigh.

"It's easy, man. You just gotta make sure the cameras can't see you. Also, I have so many fake doctors' notes, man. I think my old man would be proud of me." I joked, as I have a fake smile on my face.

"I still don't know how you're with a Kelso. Your dad must've flipped, dude." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Who's you're dad?" Leia asked.

"Steven Hyde, but I kept my moms last name." Leia went wide-eyed as she looked at me.

"Your dad is my dad's best friend! Dude, that's so weird!" I sighed. I continued to pick at the black nail polish off of my fingers.

"Not really. I don't see him, but he got arrested, and I hadn't seen him in a few years." I said, finishing my sob story.

"But anyways, you were saying Nate?" I wanted him to finish his story.

He was telling us how he got a keg from Mama's as I rolled my eyes.

"How the hell did you get a keg? You two are awful liars! Jay, you're terrible at keeping up with a lie without stuttering." I said, pointing Jay out as he gives me a disbelief look.

"Bro!" Nate said, offended. But they both started saying bro to each other.

"I need a new boyfriend." I shook my head and looked to Ozzie, who placed a hand on my thigh.

"It's okay, you'll learn for next time." I scowled at the boy, and he just gave me a sarcastic smile.

"They were like this the whole time." I gasped, placing a hand over my heart and quickly rushing towards Nikki and giving her a hug.

"I'm so sorry for you, babes." I pat her curly hair, but making sure not to ruin her curls.

"Come on, babe. It's the fourth of July, miracle! With beer!" He exclaimed the last part to Nikki.

"Then what are we waiting for! Let's tap that keg and get the party going!" Gwen said. I quickly agreed with her. Nate, on the other hand, looked worried.

"We don't have a tap." I groaned, leaning on Gwen, who was sitting on a chair at the table.

"You idiot! You got a keg with no tap!" I said, shaking my head at the boy.

"Would a kiss make it better?" Nikki sarcastically asked me as I scowled at her playfully.

"Do you have a mouthful of beer?" She shook her head.

"Then no." I replied.

"Well. I have something remotely better." Leia said.

I was sitting on Jay's lap, as I was staring at uno cards.

"Bro, pick a card." I giggled, looking at Gwen.

"Bro, c'mon!" I whined. She caved and took a card.

"I bet you it's a blue card!' I laughed when it was the right card.

"Dude, that's so fuckin cool bro! How did you know?" I put an invisible key to my lips and zipped my mouth. But I ended up laughing, then I stopped, then I continued to laugh again.

Our high was over as Nate was now trying to bang the keg opened. I was yawning as I was sitting next to Ozzie as I was staring at Nate.

"Nate versus beer. You know, I thought I trained you to he better kid. I thought that you'd learned better from me. I was so wrong." I tsk at the boy.

"Cassie man, would you shut up! You're making me feel bad!" I rolled my eyes as I walked away. I made my way towards Jay, and leaned on his arm.

"I thought you said no cuddles or kisses for a week?" A grin was plastered on his lips as I grumbled at him.

"Shut up." He laughed as I got more comfortable on his arm.

"Wait, why can't we just go back to Mama's and get a tap?" I looked at Leia with a terrified look.

"Look, man, we all tried. I even let Jay flirt with her!" I said, Gwen shuddered in response.

"It's true. And Cassie is very possessive of Jay." I nodded my head, agreeing.

"It's true. But I'm not that bad, am I?" I looked to Nikki, who gives me a half and half shake with her hand.

"But you only do it when other girls flirt with him. Which is understandable." I let out a sigh of relief.

"Even Cas tried. Jay had to swoop in and save the girl before she blew her cover. She almost got caught by the cops again." I nodded my head. A look of fright was on my face.

"It's true, man. I almost died." Jay throws me into his arms and hugged me as I fakes sobbed.

"I have failed at lying!" I cried, fake sobs racking my body.

"It's okay, babe. It's not you. It was her." He assured me as I pulled away from his warm body.

"Okay."Okay." He pushes some hair out of my face as he gives me a soft kiss on the lips.

"But you haven't tried yet." Gwen said, pointing to Leia.

"She's innocent! She's a Forman, man!" Gwen gives me a glare in response as I silenced myself.

"Then help me, you could show me how to be braver. Or lie better, I mean I was on the debate team. Can't be that hard to lie." I snorted.

"Debate team?" I asked, in return, a slap on my arm from Jay as I silenced myself.

"Cas could help you. I mean, she's literally the best at stealing." Jay said as I placed a hand on my heart.

"Awe babe, that's so sweet." I sneak my hand into his pocket as he continues to stare into my eyes as I stole a piece of gum.

"See, expert." We all rolled our eyes at the boy.

"You're just whipped." Gwen said to Jay, who scoffs in response and tried to deny.

"Deny, all you want, babe, but it's true. You are." I said while blowing a bubble with the mint gum.

"I want to be you when I grow up." I laughed at Leia, but she was one hundred percent serious.

"Alright. So, here's the plan." And I knew just from then that Leia Forman will become a woman, and learn that she could be strong without worrying about others.

#jay kelso #tumlbr fyp #jay kelso x reader #that 90s show #that 70s show #jay kelso fanfiction #jay kelso imagine #jay kelso x girlfriend reader

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wwenhlimagines · 1 year

Text

Stuck In The Middle - Part 7

Hook x Y/N x Ricky Starks

Part 6

After seeing a fan take a picture of them out getting breakfast, Y/N and Hook have to navigate through the speculation and drama with Ricky Starks.

I see the flash of a camera out of the corner of my eye, and I quickly turn my head to see an AEW fan snapping pictures of Hook and I eating together. I turned to Hook, who seemed somewhat unphased. "Why now? We are just eating breakfast."

He shrugs his shoulders before flagging down our server and asking for the check and some to go boxes. "Fans don't always have the best self-awareness. Unfortunately, it comes with being a public figure."

I groan as I look around and see Eddie walking towards the fan in question. He talks to them for a minute before walking back towards us. "They shouldn't be bothering you anymore. We good over here?"

We both nod, and I thank Eddie before our server comes over with the check and boxes. We quickly box up our food, and Hook pays for breakfast even though I insist on splitting it. "I embarrassed you on TV last night. It's the least I can do."

I nod and text Ruby to come pick me up, to which she replies she is already in the parking lot. I grab my to go box and wait for Hook to finish leaving the tip. We walk out to the parking lot and find Eddie talking to Ruby through the rolled down window of her car. "Thanks for breakfast, Hook. I'll see you next week!"

Hook nods and waves goodbye as he walks to his car. I turn my attention to Ruby and Eddie and walk over to get into the passenger seat. Eddie smiles as he sees me sit down and buckle up. "Aside from the fan, is everything good now, newbie?"

I smile and nod. "Yes, thanks for talking to that fan. We don't need any more drama. Right?"

Eddie scoffs, "You have a lot to learn about working here, sweetheart. But I'll leave you girls alone to enjoy the rest of your day." He waves as he walks away, and Ruby and I wave back.

I was about to ask what our plans were for today when Willow popped up in the backseat. "Surprise! It's time for a girl's day!"

I slightly jumped as her purple hair and bright colored clothes come into sight. "Willow, what the hell? You scared the shit out of me!"

She giggles as she settles back into her seat. "Sorry girl, just super excited to get our nails done, massages, and whatever else you want to do today."

Ruby smirks in the driver's seat, "Hey, she just got into the car. I had nothing to do with the scaring part."

I take a deep breath and think about what we could do together. "I need a new pair of sneakers. How about we go shopping first?" The girls nod, and Ruby drives us to the shoe store, and we start our girls' day.

For the next few hours, we shopped for shoes and clothes, gotten our nails done, and sat in the fancy massage chairs in the mall for a while. We were just about to get lunch when my phone started blowing up.

I groaned as I reached for it and saw Hook, Ricky, and Eddie had all texted me. I also saw I got tagged in some pictures on Instagram, and my heart dropped as I opened the pictures. There were multiple pictures from IHOP, including one where I am touching Hook's hand.

I decided to open Eddie's message first.

Eddie: I swear I saw that girl delete the pictures in front of my eyes! I don't know how this happened. I'm so sorry, Y/N!

I sighed and texted back:

It's not your fault, Eddie. You tried your best, but she must have them backed up somewhere, or she already sent them to her friends.

Next, I open the text from Hook.

Hook: Y/N, I'm so sorry. I had a feeling a public place wasn't the best setting for us to meet up. I should have listened to my dad.

We both agreed to breakfast, and I'm the one who reached my hand over to comfort you. How do we combat the dating rumors, though?

What do you think would happen if we ignored it?

We can't just ignore it. Speculation will grow further, and we will have even less privacy.

Fine. I'll call my dad and ask for his opinion.

Finally, I got to Ricky's message.

Ricky: So you're dating my boy Hook, now?

I groaned before responding to him.

We are not dating. We went out for breakfast so he could explain the shit you caused last night.

Moi, causing drama? I could never do such a thing! What ever could you be talking about?

Hook got flustered when you crossed paths backstage, and he ended up trying to hit on me on live TV, you jackass!

I didn't know he was going to do that! I never wanted you to be embarrassed, darling.

Well, how about you apologize to him then? I have told him I'm not looking for a relationship with ANYONE. That includes you, Starks! I just want to make friends, so if you could own up to your mistakes, that would be greatly appreciated.

I decide to leave my phone on silent and ignore the drama ramping up for the rest of the day as Ruby and Willow don't deserve to deal with my grumpy side. We get lunch, and the girls help keep my mind off of the drama for the rest of the day.

Hook's POV

This is not at all how I expected today to go. I thought Y/N and I would walk out of IHOP as a couple, but I understand why she isn't looking for that, and I am going to respect her space. At least, she wants to get to know me as a friend, so I haven't lost her completely.

I called my dad to ask for advice, but he didn't pick up the phone. Instead, I see a text come in from Ricky...

So you embarrassed her on TV, and now rumors are spreading about you dating when she has already said she doesn't want to date right now. That's rough, bro!

I roll my eyes before typing a reply.

Thanks, Captain Obvious! I hadn't noticed how horrible my luck has been the past 24 hours. The pictures aren't great, but we are working on a plan to fix it.

I watch the typing bubble for a few seconds before his reply comes in.

Just remember, you might be a good starting pitcher, but everyone remembers the closer.

Tags: @thesupreme316 @gethooked @730hook @baybay-boom @hookedonhook @louisianalady @hooks-martin @imswitchbabemox @plentyoffandoms @730cssndr @legit9thlunaticwarrior @lclb13 @hookswifeeyy @hookhausen @im-just-a-mississippi-girl @lghockey @thenerdybaker523

#aew imagine #aew hook imagine #aew hook fic #ricky starks fic #ricky starks imagine #stuck in the middle

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v4mp1res3verywhere · 2 years

Text

blurb that I intend to write out at some point.

tags/warnings: [this is so short so idk but just incase, reader has a thing for Danny, sexual tension, reader has the shining,idk how to space on mobile im sorry LMAO]

POV u get Danny Torrance to telekinetically get you a bag of Doritos while giving you sexy eyes. That’s it. That’s the plot.

“Boy wonder, you think you could, uh…”

She pounded her fist twice on the vending machine, metal spikes of her bracelet clanking against the plexiglass.

Danny rolled his eyes with a smirk but turned to the vending machine anyway, mentally shaking her prize free from the rusted coils after a moment of Intense staring.

“Thank you.”

She said as she fished the Doritos from behind the heavy hinged door of the machines receptacle, beaming as she offered him a chip. His shoulders shifted in silent amusement as he looked at her smiling face then the chip bag, sheepishly taking a Dorito.

“So uh, Abras coming soon right?”

Dan nodded.

“Yeah. After she gets here we can all go somewhere, how’s iHOP sound?”

If someone a month ago had told her she’d be going to iHOP with a gorgeous psychic and his even more psychic niece at 12 AM, she wouldn’t have believed them.

She winced, hoping he hadn’t heard the gorgeous part. If he did he hadn’t showed any reaction.

She was used to guarding her thoughts, a natural instinct afforded to the intuitive that she’d always chalked up as little more than paranoia. she wasn’t sure whether her mental security system was up to par to contain her psychic leakage from a mind reader. It wasn’t like she was used to being around telepaths. She appreciated Danny’s respect of her boundaries, that or his disinterest in her thoughts despite their volume ,either way it worked out favorably seeing as how she’d rather he not overhear her minds constant lament of him.

Sometimes though, she wished he knew, especially in moments like these where he seemed to , looking over her with a gaze that looked both hungry and tender, If such a thing was possible. He was full of impossibilities. His voice was gentle when he spoke next, tone afflicted with a sense of intimacy that blurred her vision enough to make the shine of his eyes seem dangerously close to adoration. “What’re you thinking about?” He shouldered the machine, leaning forward a touch, hands stuffed in the corduroy of his pockets. She noted they could probably switch clothes without much consequence, it was the Midwest and she’d always been a fan of grandpa sweaters.

She hummed, dusting the chip dust from her fingers. “Just stuff.” He didn’t pry, he never did. She wondered if he even needed to, how much of an open book was she, even subtracting her shine? From the distinct err of concern that clung to him (much like his cologne that made her want to sway forward, further into the orbit of his personal space) she doubted he’d caught wind. He watched her for a long moment and she allowed him, frozen by her fear of rejection to do much else but stare back. If she’d ever encountered such a thing as sexual tension, this was it.

He cleared his throat, rubbing his face, dispelling whatever shine spell had taken over the room. Now she really wanted to know what he’d been thinking, although she didn’t need her gift to know.

#danny torrance #Danny Torrance X reader #dan torrance #Dan Torrance X reader #doctor sleep #doctor sleep X reader #ewan mcgregor #Dan Torrance blurb #🧸

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fcble · 3 months

Note

blindsided for andrew!

BLINDSIDED: a scene from my muse’s past in which they were betrayed or shocked by what someone did

SONATINA — In which Andrew experiences a cutthroat reality. WORD COUNT: 2.2k SETTING: February 2013 WARNINGS: Mentions of drinking, weed

MOVEMENT I: EXPOSITION.

Andrew meets Nyssa at a house party. He probably shouldn’t be here because he’s three weeks into the second semester of his freshman year, and because he’s a guy. As it turns out, one of his suitemates knows a guy who knows a guy who lives in said house, and that’s why Andrew is half-heartedly participating in his suitemates’ heated debate on whether or not Skyfall can really be considered the best James Bond movie when it released less than a year ago. Andrew is of the opinion that it can, recency bias be damned. The wall vibrates gently against his back in rhythm with Nicki Minaj’s “Starships.” The music plays at a volume that might shatter his eardrums while a small crowd tries to scream the lyrics louder than the speakers.

It’s exactly the sort of scene he would avoid if it weren’t for the free booze. He finds it bothers him much less when he’s tipsy.

She stops him on his short trip back to the keg, standing firmly in his path. Andrew tries to get around her, but she tiptoes and yells into his ear, clearly in reference to his faded t-shirt, “Top three High Violets songs?”

He doesn't even have to think. “‘Ciné,’ ‘44 Down,’ ‘The Believer,’” he yells back. He doesn’t know who she is, but if a girl wants to talk about dream pop band The High Violets, then Andrew will talk.

“You aren't old enough to drink,” she says, and plucks his annoyingly stereotypical red Solo cup out of his hand.

“Does that matter?” he asks. He doesn't bother arguing, because he knows he doesn't look 21.

“Not to me. Parker”—she uses Andrew's cup to gesture across the room to the lead “Starships” singer—”whose dad owns this place, hates when there are freshmen at his parties.”

Then, as if an afterthought, she adds, “I’m Nyssa.”

“Andrew.”

“You're the freshman who passed Carver’s 3115 with a perfect score.”

“It wasn’t hard.”

When Andrew picked out his first round of college courses, he had no idea that MUSIC UN3115: Independent Composition I, with its surprisingly nonexistent list of prerequisites, was one of the most difficult electives a music major can take, especially when taught by Professor Julia “Hardass” Carver. He certainly never expected to return from winter break as a minor celebrity within the small music department.

He doesn’t tell her about the sleepless nights and the countless office hours and the awful, looming feelings that nothing he makes will ever be good enough. The feelings creep further and further into every aspect of the thing Andrew loves so much. He’s fairly certain his perfect score came not so much from his own efforts, but from the tiny bit of warmth left in Carver’s heart to pity the only freshman in her class.

“You must be the only person to think that,” Nyssa says.

He shrugs. For the most part, school has always been easy for him, and he expects college to be the same.

“Let’s go somewhere quieter,” she says decisively and grabs Andrew by the wrist.

He thinks briefly about his suitemates, probably still arguing about the James Bond film franchise, and follows.

His first night in Nyssa’s company passes under the fluorescent lights of an IHOP, deep in conversation. The hours fly by, until their single order of fries grows cold, and the waitress asks them in a not-so-nice tone of voice to leave if they aren’t going to eat.

Andrew mentally adds “kicked out of IHOP” to his list of things he never expected to happen in college.

MOVEMENT II: DEVELOPMENT.

In the days that follow, he learns more and more about Nyssa Mercer in a steady stream of bits and pieces from a number of places—Nyssa herself, his suitemates, upperclassmen talking too loudly in the halls between Andrew's classes. He learns she's a junior studying music with a focus on theory—similar, but not the same as his composition. One semester into college, Andrew has already mentally categorized all of his classmates within their major. There are the rich kids coasting on their parents' money. The people who played in All-State bands or orchestras and still think they're better than everyone else. Those who picked music because they thought it might be easy and aren't serious about it. Those who picked music because they are serious about it. Andrew places himself firmly in the last category. Nyssa, on the other hand, seems to defy categorization. She's serious about music in a different way—not as a composer or songwriter, but as a fan, or maybe a critic. She studies it like it’s a science.

According to his roommate, Marcus—a double major in clarinet performance and philosophy—she comes from East Coast old money or West Coast Hollywood royalty or some combination of the two. Andrew hasn't bothered to ask where she's from, and she hasn't offered the information.

The upperclassmen speak more about the freshman she chooses to associate with than her. Andrew doesn't mind, because her friends are becoming his friends—to the dismay of his friends. Marcus, for one, makes it clear that he has, quote, “no fucking clue what she sees in you.”

Andrew doesn't take it personally. He has bigger fish to fry than thinking about what his roommate thinks of his company. Nyssa wants to write music with him. She's working on a demo to show her aunt who does something at Universal Music.

Sitting on a brightly rug on the floor of her studio apartment, Andrew realizes there might be something to the Hollywood rumors. He also thinks there are more organic ways of making it into the music industry. He says as much, and Nyssa laughs at the suggestion, though it's not directed at him and without a hint of malice.

“It's the way the industry works,” she says, self-assured and confident about that world away from Anderew.

He knows she's right, but some other part of him thinks it's different now. The times are changing. All anyone really needs is a camera, a microphone, a YouTube channel, and the perfect timing to go viral. He has the tact to know when his opinions aren’t exactly valued, so he mentions none of that. Instead, he sits silently and dreams up melodies while half-listening to Nyssa talk.

The more time he spends with her, the faster the semester seems to fly by. Andrew begins to suspect he spends more time in Nyssa’s apartment than his own dorm. It has its own appeal: it isn’t a space shared with three other people, and it’s mere blocks away from their favorite miniscule live venue. More than that, he enjoys the conversation with Nyssa’s upperclassmen friends. He’s the youngest person in the room, but he’s almost always been the youngest person in the room. He adjusted to that years ago. Now he’s adjusting to the heady scent of weed that comes with the small, intimate parties she hosts, a far cry from the house party they met at. The gatherings feel less like parties and more like what he imagines an eighteenth-century Enlightenment salon was like.

Andrew’s suspicions are confirmed one night when he accidentally locks himself out of his real dorm room. It’s by the far the most stressful event of the semester, because he never slips up like that. He knocks as loudly as he dares for some time after two in the morning, and when no one answers, he calls Marcus until he picks up.

When the door finally opens, Andrew is greeted with a deadpan, “I thought you were spending the night with your girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“I would have bet money you were sleeping with her.”

Andrew feels himself flush. “That's illegal.”

He hears a muttered something that sounds like, “That’s never stopped you before” and chooses to ignore it. He’s certain Nyssa doesn’t see him in any sort of romantic way.

It isn’t until Andrew’s eyes adjust to the darkness that he sees the form of another person in Marcus’s bed. Marcus crosses the room in three hurried strides.

“My friend is staying the night,” he says with a slight pause before the word “friend.”

Andrew nods automatically, because he doesn’t care. It isn’t until a few minutes later, when he steps into the shower, that he realizes he’s cockblocking his roommate.

After that, Andrew returns to his normal routine of spending most of his free time and some of his time that shouldn’t be free with Nyssa. His grades don't slip, because he's too smart for that. His attendance does, and so Andrew's new favorite college perk becomes not the lack of parental supervision, but the way no one takes attendance. It does bring about the new problem of sneaking into the music department to use their private studios, dodging his professors and anyone else who might know him.

They develop a system. It’s always Nyssa who reserves the studio and spends the first ten minutes of the reserved time alone.

If anyone thinks it’s suspicious that she spends so much time in there, Andrew never hears of it. The professors dote on her, having reviewed much of the music they’ve written. Nyssa always presents it as her work, because it would be odd for Andrew to make an appearance at office hours when he hasn't been to class in two weeks. When they're in private, she never ceases to emphasize his importance to their work.

MOVEMENT III: RECAPITULATION.

Then it's the week before finals, and Nyssa disappears. Andrew learns of this when he finally deigns to attend class again. The gossip spreads quickly through his peers, many of whom knew her by reputation, if not personally. He learns she’s left—dropped out, presumably—in favor of a record deal. No one seems surprised by this turn of events, because everyone knows it’s what she spent the last semester seriously working towards. Andrew’s place in all of this remains unmentioned. He’s gone from the freshman who aced 3115 to the freshman who aced 3115 and let it get to his head, evidenced by the way he missed almost half the semester.

He holds his phone under his desk and sends her a quick congratulatory text. It doesn't deliver, so he jabs the retry prompt a few times. That doesn’t work, so he gives up any pretense of hiding his phone and checks Instagram instead. Their last DM was a meme post shared by him that she hasn’t read. A bit disgruntled, he checks her posts. There’s a new one of Nyssa at an airport, judging by the United Airlines plane in the background, captioned “thx for the good times.” She’s mentioned a few people, and Andrew reads it over twice—skimming quickly at first, then slowly, name by name—looking for his username. He’s nowhere to be found. He sits back in his seat and swipes numbly: Nyssa in their school’s recording studio, Nyssa and a few of her friends at a concert, Nyssa posing for a faux graduation photo, Nyssa at the iconic Santa Monica Pier. Not a single image features Andrew, confirming his worst suspicions.

He takes initiative and blocks her first.

That night, in what can only be described as a moment of drunken weakness, Andrew confesses it all to Marcus. There are smarter decisions to make than getting blitzed when his finals are mere days away, but Andrew’s rationality went out the window ages ago.

His roommate already knows the general sketch of Nyssa’s flight, so Andrew fills in the details of his own role as an unknowing participant in her master plan.

“That goes against Kant’s categorical imperative completely,” Marcus—also drunk—says when Andrew finishes speaking. It’s a genuine, earnest response, but also a reassurance so shocking that it snaps Andrew out of whatever melancholy he had almost lost himself in. He shouldn’t have expected anything else from the guy who read Thus Spoke Zarathustra earlier in the semester and made it a tenet of his very being.

Finals weeks comes to bear anyway. Andrew briefly considers submitting one of the songs he and Nyssa wrote—one he wrote almost entirely by himself—for his 3116 final. He thinks about how many professors she showed their work too, and stops considering it. It's his song, but Nyssa has already gone around saying it was hers. Would anyone believe him over the new darling of the music department?

He spends two sleepless nights dredging up something presentable from the depths of his hard drive. He scrapes by with a 93 and a comment that reads, “What happened?”

He doesn't dare besmirch Nyssa's name, not when the department is still buzzing with her success—never mind the fact that she has yet to release a song.

Eight months later, Andrew listens to Nyssa Mercer’s debut single. She’s the latest new pop star on everyone’s minds, the pretty, angelic, all-American girl who gave up an Ivy League education and cold-called producers until someone told her yes. He gets all of this from the comment section of her music video.

The song has been altered—polished, mostly—but Andrew can still hear the echoes of himself. He knows the chord progressions he favored all those months ago and the minimalist, tinny percussion he was obsessed with. Despite himself, he checks the song’s credits. Nyssa’s name is there, as a composer and a lyricist, alongside a handful of other names Andrew doesn’t recognize. He presumes them to be her new Universal Music team.

He doesn’t know why he expected anything different.

#╰ to be written in ink is to be immortal — [ yejun. ]#╰ to be written in ink is to be immortal — [ writing. ]#andrew's college years untapped free real estate 🔥🔥#also space for enlightenment mention 🔥 bc that's my roman empire #and twice as long as i wanted it to be 🔥🔥

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boricuacherry-blog · 11 months

Text

My sister seemed mature and had a hollow kind of glamour. She took a new interest in me as a preteen now rather than a little girl. She paid attention to the outside of me, swooping in and correcting my disastrous attempts to make myself pretty, which to a twelve-year-old girl means everything. After I accidentally made my hair all kinds of shades of ugly orange, she took me to get a toner for my hair and made it one color. She took me to a place that made my eyebrows beautiful. She took me shopping for my first bra. She and I would make earnest attempts at being normal. We were trying to be sisters - or so I thought.

Even though I was young, I knew my sister was doing things that were not good. I mean, she had a beeper, and only drug dealers, rappers, and doctors had beepers back then. She wore a nice manicure - bright-pink nail polish, sometimes decorated with rhinestones. Once, as she was dropping me off in front of my mother's house, she dipped a sharp pink nail tip into some white crystal powder and held it up to my face, saying, "Just try it, just try a little bit; who cares?"

I knew it was cocaine, and it scared me to death. Thank God, I didn't take the sniff. I played it off and calmly replied, "No thanks! Bye; see you later." I shudder to think what could've happened if I'd walked into her trap and then that house. I don't know what would've happened if I'd snorted cocaine right before seeing my mother, or ever in my life.

It was all such a setup. Alison began bringing me around her friends, and I started looking forward to our secret outings - though for all the initial glamour and excitement, it was a very scary time in my life. I still have nightmares about it.

One day, she explained that it was time to meet her boyfriend, John, and the other girls she hung around, who she'd been telling stories to me about. John was tall, with green eyes, a large, fluffy afro, and a strong charisma. Christine, a seventeen-year-old runaway white girl, an older woman named Denise - "older" meaning she was maybe twenty-eight - and my sister, then in her early twenties, all lived in a house together with John. I looked up to Christine; she had a worldly air about her, yet she also seemed like a little girl. Her pale skin was sprinkled with tan freckles, and she had medium-blonde hair that fell softly to her shoulders, which were long and thin like the rest of her body. She could've been in a teen movie, but instead she was here, in that house.

John's house was nicer, brighter, and cleaner than where I lived. They had a brand-new couch. There was a television, and I could watch whatever shows I wanted. They had all the snacks I could want. They had Juicy Juice. We couldn't afford any of that at home. A couple of times my sister came to where I lived and filled the refrigerator with the stuff I liked. This was part of the confusion I felt about our relationship. It sometimes felt and looked like she cared, but her motives were always unclear. It was manipulation masquerading as love.

My sister told me not to tell anyone I was going to the house where she lived with John, especially not my brother. She told me that my brother didn't like him because John had beat him at backgammon. Being so young and naive, I believed her. So there was no one who knew. Dysfunctional families are ideal prey for abusers. Now, of course it's clear to me now that the fun house was a whore house. I think my sister was kind of like the hustler, the talent scout. John, my sister, and I would drive to the city together. I remember one time we were going somewhere, and the radio was playing a song he loved. He loudly screamed out the lyrics, while my sister and I giggled at his strangled singing. They let me smoke cigarettes in the backseat of the car [I was twelve]. I felt free. We would go to IHOP. They took me to Adventureland and I played Pac-Man. I was having all these fun adventures and thinking to myself, I finally know what it feels like to have a big sister who's in my life for good. And I like this easy breezy guy, John. This was what I'd been missing. I was starting to feel something resembling a normal family. But confusing and curious things quickly started happening.

My sister had secretly gotten me my own phone line, which only she called me on. She would call me late at night during these bouts of drug-induced hysteria, constantly threatening to kill herself as I would talk her down, in the wee hours before I had to go to school. Then the calls stopped for awhile. Finally, one day, Alison phoned and said she and John were coming to pick me up. I was excited to think of the three of us together again, riding, laughing, smoking, singing, and playing. But John showed up alone.

We began driving, but there was no radio blasting, no talking. It wasn't fun at all, and I felt that something wasn't right. Finally I asked, "Where is my sister? When are we going to pick her up?" John kept his eyes forward and assured me, "Oh, she'll be here later." I was sitting in the front seat, and I could clearly see the handgun resting against his thigh. John, his gun, and I made two stops: a card game and a drive-in movie. There's a look, a feel, and a smell to rooms where grown men play in the dark. It was dank and cluttered. The air was dense with cheap booze, stale menthol cigarette smoke, and unspoken perversions. There were no pretty things. It was hard for me to see and hard to breathe. I don't know exactly how many men were there - but I do know it was all men, and me. I sat in a corner on the sticky floor where I could see the door and held onto myself. I would catch a glimpse of them leering at me or hear a lewd reference in their conversations. I knew my sister was not coming this time. I don't remember how I got from the card-room floor back into the front seat of the car. A panic bubbled up in my throat. Where am I going? Why am I alone with my sister's boyfriend? Our next stop was the drive-in, where John put his arm around me. My body went stiff. My eyes were fixed on his gun. I noticed an elderly white man peering at us with disgust from the corner of my eye. John pulled out of the drive-in slowly and drove me home in silence.

After a couple of days back in my room, the phone began ringing again, but this time I wouldn't pick it up. I resumed pretending I had a regular seventh-grade life. I wanted to be a child again. Sometimes all the kids in my neighborhood would play chase (tag) at night. Most of them lived in nice houses with two parents, and sisters who didn't burden them with thoughts of suicide and set them up with pimps. One night we were deep in a group game of chase, kids running and weaving, when I saw a car coming down the road. I recognized it as John's car. It was creeping along slowly, as if looking for someone. Panicking, I ducked behind a house, hiding. There was no way I could tell my friends that I was "it" to a pimp with a gun. John eventually drove away. Though I had narrowly escaped him, the fear of men followed me for a very long time. When I got home, I unplugged the phone from the wall and never trusted my big sister again. Sisters are supposed to protect you - not pimp you out.

-Mariah Carey

#mariah carey #quote #alison carey #pimp #grooming

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nathank77 · 17 days

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4/14/24

12:52 a.m

I heard someone yell Nathan in the food court but I looked all over and didn't see anyone.

I thought I was hallucinating.. I wish it was her but why wouldn't she walk up to me or wave a hand or something at me if it wasn't a hallucination.

She knows I'm blind. Glasses with inaccurate focal points make your eye sight worse.

Not wearing glasses make you blind. I've talked about how I can't see far distances.

It may have been someone else saying Nathan. It could have been a hallucination as I hardly had any auditory hallucinations at the mall bc so many people were talking.

I stood there I looked all over. If I had seen her i would have walked up to her. If she waved a hand. Anything else to draw my attention.

I didn't see her. As I left I saw a blue Subaru parked outside the food court entrance.

I detailed my entire trip, from where I was walking. What level I was on. When I left lens crafters. I even walked back to the food court.

I did go to some shoe stores to make my trip more worthwhile. As lens crafters was such a bust...

Idk if I hallucinated it. All I know is I heard Nathan yelled out clearly and I stopped and stared/looked all around me and at people at the tables. I looked everywhere I could. I stopped for prob 60 seconds or more. And brushed it off as a hallucination.

Idk if she was there. Idk if that was her. Idk if it was a hallucination. Idk if it was a mother yelling her kids name bc he was misbehaving. That's the problem with auditory hallucinations.

All I know was it was within the first 5 minutes of me getting to the food court. And I stood there writing on my tumblr then I walked very slowly as I walked by the food court and stared at the people at the tables and then I heard my name.

If it was her, just know I didn't see you. My eye sight is bad.... really bad at distances....

Idk. I wish this were easier. You posted that post. After I brought up lens crafters. I showed up when I said I would. I looked around. I detailed most of my trip. I wore what I said I would but I didn't see her. I smoked outside ihop not the food court. Idk why I thought they were so close. They weren't far.. but I thought it was the same entrance. It was a little further over.

Idk. I feel stupid even posting this but it's been bothering me bc I clearly heard Nathan.

I keep thinking Maybe you didn't look hard enough, maybe you werent detailed enough in what you were doing minute by minute.

I don't think it's a trick she played too much.

I think she wasn't there.... or if she was... I had to see her and walk up to her... but my eye sight...

I love you Elise. And I just want to be in your family. I don't care if I'm just a friend.

I don't go places. My next trip is the cbd store in Avon on Saturday.... it'll be smaller and easier to see but I'm going at like 4 p.m bc they close at like 5 p.m.

I feel stupid. All I know is idk if I hallucinated it or not.

All I know is I know you're here. Or at least were. Maybe you changed it from everyone to friends bc you wanted me to know for sure you were reading.....

You got to find me and you got to consider my eye sight is bad. If that was you.

Maybe you don't want to find me. Maybe you just want me to assume you lied and you're a bad person. Maybe you couldn't make it..

Maybe it was you. Maybe you're going to show up somewhere eventually.

All I know is I'm sure you're reading. I'll be at Warners Best in Avon on Saturday at like 4 or 4:30 p.m.

I'll keep posting what I'm doing and when and maybe one day I'll see you there.

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potatoes83 · 2 months

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Random...

So last night was the Matthew West concert featuring Cochren and Company in Clarkston. What a great show. Now understand, especially the more time has gone on, I am not one to sit and obsessively idolize singers, actors, entertainers, and yes, I tend to look negatively upon those who do. Like several of my coworkers who are so wildly obsessed with Taylors Wift, spending small fortunes to attend her concert, spending hours refreshing refreshing refreshing their browser pages on their phone, desperately scrambling for a charging cord less they lose their precious place in line to get tickets to her last tour. I'm not all about that, and what the hell is wrong with you people. So my point there is that while I have heard the music of both these groups, it's not like I know the full discography, hell, I couldn't have even told you what they looked like.

We've had the radio pretty much exclusively set to K-LOVE now since not this past Christmas, but the Christmas before. I have it on classical in my office at work, in the car while I'm driving it can vary, but at home, it's basically the background music of our life. And in my work truck, and quite often in the vehicle too. And I heard on a commercial on the radio that Matthew West was doing a tour and coming to Clarkston. And I knew of several of his songs, and I liked them, so I got tickets. I had heard of Cochren and company, at least heard of a few of their songs, and I liked them too. I mean, it's contemporary Christian. It's very doubtful, very doubtful that I'm going to be standing there and be like no, I can't get into this.

I had attended that concert before in November downtown at Little Caesars arena. That was, oh let me think now... TobyMac, MercyMe, and Zach Williams. It was my first experience with a contemporary Christian concert. And wow. If you've never been, and there's a singer you happen to like, and they happen to be in a venue somewhere near you, I would highly recommend it. Because everyone was there for just one thing, to praise the power and glory of the Lord. To pray, together, thousands of people with their arms outstretched, oh, and certainly not to marginalize, excellent music too. Just really good solid music. Positive, uplifting, encouraging, but above all else, really good singers and songwriters. Really good harmonies and melodies. In such a variety of different genres of music, but just GOOD music! And you are invariably going to hear something that you needed to hear, whatever that may be.

This concert was the same but different, a smaller more intimate venue, and I say smaller with a grain of salt, this is one of those big non-denominational churches that seats like 3500. But I mean, the LCA seats 22,000, so definitely more intimate. But we're not talking like a school play or something here. It was just a fantastic concert. And it's the energy of the crowd, an entire room of people all there for that singular purpose, in some ways, it's like being at church. But different. But so good. It's the sort of thing you walk away from and you just feel uplifted, inspired, oh sure, all the stuff you got going on in your life, it's going to be there the next day when you wake up, but you're just sort of recharged, you just feel like you're going to be able to get through this, whatever this may be.

He said something last night, and damned if I can remember exactly how he phrased it, but it was something to the effect of these days, in America, it seems like we have the freedom to talk about anything we want, to share any opinion we have... as long as it's not about our faith. And boy, did that hit. Because yes, in this world where I'm reminded every time an email is sent that someone at work is allegedly a they/she/he, or last night at IHOP, where there was a group of high schoolers at the table next to us, one of which was clearly a boy wearing a 1950s polka dot dress, or where we were at the B-52's concert a couple summers back at Meadowbrook, and a commercial for Planned Parenthood comes on the big screen on the stage during the intermission, and everyone's cheering and clapping like seals, to stand and testify my faith, to stand there and say yes, I'm a Catholic, that's a hard row to hoe. Or just a Christian in general. To stand there and say that I believe in a higher power, and His name is Jesus Christ, you talk about a room going silent...

With that, it is incredibly affirming, the good kind, not pretending to be a gender that you're not, to be in a place with thousands of other people who believe the same things you do. Who go through those same awkward conversations. To know that you're not alone. Humans are social creatures, and we need that.

In the words of Matthew West: don't stop praying! 🥔

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lucastee97 · 2 years

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Subsonic Eye USA Tour 2022

Wahidah, Dan, Spencer and I reached LA first; Jared could only come one day later cause he didn't have enough day-offs from work. LA is such a beautiful city, and the weather was amazing. All our gear didnt make it to the airport and Spencer left his wallet in the airplane so first day was a mess. Luckily Dan's guitars and my drum stuff came the next day, but Spencer's bass never came.

First out of many Mexican food places we tried in California 😍

Our friends from Young Lovers (they opened for us in LA, and were also kind enough to lend us their amps and drumset) brought us to The Last Bookstore in LA and it was awesome. So many good records and books. Spencer bought a bicycle touring book.

Jared arrived the next day and we had IHOP for the first time

Soundcheck for our first show! We played at this place called The Echo. We didn't manage to take pictures for the show itself cause Zasha (who took these pictures) was busy managing the merch booth. It was insane how many people came down and talked to us afterwards; we even saw a guy wearing a Cosmic Child shirt (Another Singaporean band, and good friends of ours). Definitely a good start to the tour.

With the opening act for the LA show, Young Lovers! Super nice guys we love them so much. We owe a lot them because they let us ship our big box of merch over to their place first from Singapore first, so we didn't have to bring it onto the airplane with us. They also introduced us to the openers for our show in San Francisco; Wander!

Somewhere in between LA and San Francisco

A lot of time on tour was spent like this

and this... we're all under 25 so we weren't allowed to rent a 7 seater. We had no choice but to cram 6 people into a 5 seater car, and try to efficiently pack our gear and bags into the trunk as best as we could. We lived like this for 2 weeks.

Our San Francisco show was on the same day we reached. We played at this place called Brick & Mortar, and it was awesome. The opening bands, Wander and Quick Fiction were really good. We talked to a lot of people and everyone was so nice.

With Wander, and our good friend Ishan at the extreme left! He filmed our whole set on VHS and we have never seen a VHS camcorder before. He also recommended a lot of cool places for us to check out for the next few cities.

Drove up to Twin Peaks to check out the SF skyline, and a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge

Our tour mom, Zasha ❤️ she came along with us to help out with merch, driving, and documenting a lot of the tour.

The long drive up to Portland was super beautiful

The AirBnB we stayed at in Portland was our favourite, but unfortunately we only had enough time to hang there for a couple of hours because after the show we had to drive to Seattle immediately.

Portland show! For shows in US you have to bring your own backline (drums, amps), not like in Singapore where the venues will provide. Our opener in Portland was Candy Cigarettes who was just a solo act. We couldn't afford to rent from a rental company so we put out an Instagram Story asking who could let us borrow drums and amps. Luckily, 2 super nice guys Kellen and Justin reached out to us and helped us out. We're very grateful for that.

Right after our Portland show, we drove 4 hours at night to Seattle. We wanted to get there early so we could get enough sleep for the KEXP session, which was filmed pretty early. None of this could believe this was real. You can watch our KEXP session here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZDqLttdgmQ

Right after the KEXP session, we played at this place in Seattle called The Sunset Tavern with math/emo band Curse League. Super nice guys, and we got to chat with them about Singaporean music, and recommended some acts for them to check out.

From Seattle, we took a flight out to New York for our next show. We were extremely hungover from celebrating KEXP the night before.

We didn't get to take much pictures for our show in New York but that was probably our most packed and favourite show. We couldn't believe how many people there were. Our merch all sold out that night.

We stopped by this music shop called Atomic Guitar Works. Spencer's bass never came, so he just went ahead and got a new one! No regrets

Philadelphia was our favourite city to hang out in. We played at this venue called Johnny Brenda's with one of our most favourite bands, 2nd Grade. So crazy to play together with them, they sounded amazing and were lovely people!

On the way to Washington.... a lot of our meals were like this. We didn't wanna leave our car alone in case it got broken into, so we'd take-away the food and eat by the parking lot.

Washington was probably our loudest show. Our initial openers had to pull out, which also means we didn't have any drums and amps to borrow. I put out another post on Instagram asking who could help us out. Marc from Ultimate Overshare reached out and said his band could let us borrow their gear, and I told him they might as well be the openers! Really awesome guys.

Our last show in Boston was sold out! We played at this cafe inside Berklee College of Music. We met this couple there who told us their wedding song was our song 'Tired Club'. We initially didn't plan on playing that, but after he told us that we just had to. It was so crazy to hear that.

With the opener for Boston, Addie! They were super sweet to us and had GREAT GUITAR TONES

It's a wrap!!!

youtube

This video basically covers it all, check this out if you want to!

#Youtube

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study-coffee-chicago · 3 years

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Overprotective (A Halstead Brothers + Halstead Sister! Imagine)

A/N: This was a request from an anon who wanted overprotective Jay and Will and angst and fluff! So, I hope I did your request justice!

Thanks for reading! Remember to like/reblog and comment! I love reading your comments because they put a smile on my face!

Thunderstorm (age 7)

It had been six months since your mom died. Jay was back from his second deployment and was now a police officer and Will was in New York for what you called doctor school. And your dad, well he was here in Chicago with you physically, but not mentally.

You whimpered as you hugged your teddy bear--whom you had affectionately named Officer Chuckles after you heard someone call Jay that at a picnic for police and their families--tight to your chest. The thunder was really loud and you swore it was shaking the house. And, to make matters worse, your dad wasn't here; he had left his seven-year-old daughter alone at home, during a thunderstorm, at 11:30 at night.

Your mom had loved thunderstorms and she'd always watch them as they rolled in. If it was morning, she'd sit and drink her coffee on the front porch while she watched them and listened to the rain drum down on the roof. If it was nighttime, she'd have something called wine, which she told you that you couldn't have until you were older, and do the same thing.

Because of this, every time there was a thunderstorm and your dad wasn't working, he'd always go to the cemetery to visit your mom. You didn't know what he did there. You just knew that every time there was a thunderstorm, you'd just be that much more scared.

Your mom used to comfort you when there was a thunderstorm; she'd tell you that the thunder was just a giant up in the sky bowling and that he just got a strike. But, your dad wouldn't really comfort you because he'd just leave. And, there was only so much Officer Chuckles and huddling in your blankets could do for you.

"We gotta call Jay," you whispered to your bear. "He'll know what to do."

So, you gripped Officer Chuckles in your little hand and then made your way into the kitchen. You jumped as more lightning and thunder cracked across the sky.

You flicked on the light and picked up the phone. You looked at the number on the fridge and carefully dialed it and then hit the "talk" button. Then, you listened to it ring while little whimpers of fear escaped your mouth.

"Dad? Why are you--" You jumped and a small scream came out. "Y/N? Kiddo, what are you doing up? It's late."

"I- I'm scared," you said quickly and ran back to your room with Officer Chuckles and the phone still in your hand and pressed up to your ear.

"Because of the thunder?" Jay asked gently.

"Uh-huh," you answered as you buried yourself back under your covers. "Daddy's not here and-and it's really loud."

"Dad's not there?"

"He went to see Mommy." You squeaked as more thunder came.

Jay cursed on the other end of the phone and hoped you didn't pick up on it. "Y/N, I will be there in ten minutes, okay? I just want you to stay in your room until I get there. Can you do that for me?"

"Uh-huh. But please come fast, Jay Jay. Me and Officer Chuckles are really scared."

"I'll come really, really fast. I promise. Now, I have to put down the phone so I can drive. But I promise I'll get there really fast. I love you."

"I love you, too, Jay Jay."

***

Jay cursed himself as he drove as fast as he could towards his childhood home. He didn't even speed, just tried to go the speed limit. But, it was downpouring so hard that he had to slow down so that he didn't hydroplane and get into a car accident. He didn't need that right now and you definitely didn't need that right now.

Jay walked up the front porch--forgetting his umbrella in his car because he was so focused on getting to you--and then found the spare key under the flower pot. The flower was fake; there's no way your dad could keep a plant alive.

"Y/N?" he called out as he slipped off his shoes once he was inside. "It's me. It's Jay Jay."

Thunder cracked across the sky and Jay swore under his breath and then took off running to your bedroom.

There, he found you huddled underneath your comforter clutching Officer Chuckles to your chest and resting your head against him. Your small night light was the only thing giving off light in your room.

"Y/N," he whispered, causing you to jump. "It's okay, it's just me. It's Jay," he said quickly and then flicked on your bedroom light.

Now that everything was bathed in light, you jumped out of bed without hesitating and held tightly onto Jay. "It's too loud! It's too loud!" you wailed as your fingers clutched the bottom of his shirt.

"I know, I know," he soothed and gently rubbed your back while you continued to cry. "But remember what Mom said? It's just a giant up in the sky bowling."

"Well, he needs to play a quieter game."

Jay laughed at that. "I mean, we could try to tell him that, but I don't think he'd listen since he's way bigger than us." You nodded in agreement. Jay crouched down in front of you, seeing as you had finally let go of him. "Y/N, can you grab me your most favorite backpack?"

"Why?" you asked, tilting your head to the side. "It's nighttime, not school time."

Jay smiled at your innocence. "I know. But, you're gonna come over to my house and we're gonna have a sleepover."

"Like we do on some weekends?"

"Just like that."

More thunder.

You grabbed onto Jay's hand. "You come with me to get my backpack in the living room?"

Jay nodded. "Of course."

Once you were back in your room, Jay started grabbing some clothes for you and you grabbed your favorite blanket and Officer Chuckles. Then, something dawned on you. You were always supposed to tell your daddy if you went somewhere.

"Will Daddy be mad?"

Jay turned away from your dresser and to look at you. "Why would he be mad, kiddo?"

"Because I'm not- I'm not telling him I'm having a sleepover with you."

"Oh, he knows."

"You talked to him?"

"I called him on the way here." Well, he sent him a strongly worded text message, but that was basically the same thing. All he needed to know was that you were coming to his house since you were scared of the storm (not to mention you were seven years old and you shouldn't be home alone in the first place). He hadn't answered the text yet, but at least he'd know where you were.

"Okay. Will you come with me to get my raincoat, too?"

Jay had just finished putting the last of a pair of clothes in your backpack. "I think we can grab that on our way out. Good thinking, kiddo."

He shouldered your little backpack and took your blanket from you so that it wouldn't drag on the wet ground when you walked outside. Then, you put on your rain boots and raincoat at the front door and clutched Officer Chuckles super tight and walked out to Jay's car, and started on your way to his apartment.

***

"Hold my hand when we walk through the parking lot, okay?" Jay said as he pulled into the parking lot of his apartment building.

"Okay."

He put the car in park and then turned it off and got out, quickly opening an umbrella he had stashed in his passenger seat. Then, he made his way over to your side of the car and helped you out and grabbed your backpack, and slung your blanket over his shoulders. You held tight to Officer Chuckles with one hand and held Jay's hand with the other while you two walked into his apartment building, the umbrella Jay was holding with his opposite hand shielding you from the rain.

Once you were inside, you handed Jay your raincoat and he hung it up on the rack because you couldn't reach it.

Jay started digging around in your backpack for the spare pair of pajamas that he had packed for you. "Okay, Y/N, why don't you go put on these nice comfy pajamas--"

"Because mine are kinda wet?" you asked and looked up at your big brother.

"Yes, because yours are kind of wet," Jay confirmed. "And then after, we can go to sleep, okay?"

Thunder cracked again and you jumped.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Jay said and crouched down in front of you. "I promise you nothing bad will happen."

"You promise?"

"I promise," he confirmed with a nod of his head.

You turned to go change your clothes, and then remembered something. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Of course."

After you changed into dry pajamas, you put your dirty ones in your backpack and left the bathroom to see Jay sitting on the couch waiting for you. "Ready for bed?" he asked.

You yawned. "Uh-huh."

Jay glanced at the clock. It was nearing 12:30 am. There was no way you were going to go to school after six and a half hours of sleep. So, he had a plan. And that plan involved iHOP.

Once you got into bed, you tried to fall asleep, but you couldn't. Jay noticed this when you jumped at the thunder. So, he grabbed your little hand in his and squeezed. You then moved closer to him and buried your head in his chest. You knew you were safe from the thunder because your big brother was around and he was big and strong and would protect you from anything. So, you soon fell asleep after, ending your very long night.

***

You rubbed your eyes as you walked out of Jay's bedroom the next morning, Officer Chuckles in your hand dangling by your side.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Jay said.

You looked at the clock. 8:30. "Don't I gotta be at school?" you asked, scrunching up your eyebrows which Jay thought was the cutest thing ever.

"Not until after lunchtime," he told you. "You were up really late, so I wanted to let you sleep. And, so we can go out for breakfast."

"Really? Where?" you asked excitedly, almost dropping Officer Chuckles because you were absolutely buzzing with excitement.

"That is a surprise. Now, how about you go get dressed and brush your teeth and brush your hair, and then we can get going, okay?"

"Okay!"

Then, you scampered off and did just what Jay told you to do. You wanted to know what the surprise would be!

Once you were all done, you and Jay left, and on the ride to the place where you were going for breakfast, you kept asking where you'd be going. But, Jay just wouldn't let up. But, then you saw the big blue sign and knew exactly where you were headed.

"iHOP!" you exclaimed. "Smiley pancakes! Smiley pancakes!" You looked at Jay as he turned into the parking lot. "Can I get the smiley face pancakes? Please, Jay Jay?"

Jay smiled at your excitement. "Yes, you can get the smiley face pancakes."

"Yay!" you cheered.

After breakfast and going back to his apartment to get your school stuff that he had packed in your backpack last night, Jay brought you to school.

When he got back to his apartment, he started making phone calls and cashing in favors.

A month and a half later, Jay officially had guardianship of you.

***

Beach fight (age 14)

"It's so hot," you whined as you walked out of your room in the middle of summer and into the kitchen. You looked at Jay who was drinking coffee out of a mug. "I don't get how you can drink hot coffee. It's too hot out for that."

"You--" Jay took a sip of his coffee.--"are such a drama queen."

"But I'm a queen, so I'll take it."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Wonder where you got the quick comebacks from."

"Just a tall, red-headed doctor. Definitely not you."

"You're funny, kid. Real funny." Jay's phone buzzed. He furrowed his eyebrows. Then it buzzed again and he made eye contact with you and tilted his head to the side. "You texted Will about a beach day? And said that I said it was okay?"

"Uh-huh. You aren't the only Halstead sibling who can be sneaky you know."

"Normally, normally I'd be pissed. But, it's scorching out. So I'll give him a call. Go start getting ready and wear your swimsuit under your clothes so we don't have to change there."

"Yes! Thank you, Jay! Love you!" You gave him a quick hug.

"Yeah, yeah. You never love me more than when you get your way."

Then, you went off to your room to get changed.

***

"Will said he'd be right here," Jay muttered as he looked at his phone for the millionth time in ten minutes. Will and Jay had set up a spot to meet, but Will was running late.

Then, Will's familiar car pulled in and he parked. "Sorry I'm late," he started as he stepped out. "Had to pick up some groceries." He held up the six-pack of beer. "Can't have a beach day without alcohol."

Jay rolled his eyes. "Uh, yes, you can. And both of us are driving home." He turned to you. "Y/N, you're gonna have to make sure each of us only drinks two. I should be fine, but I don't know about him here."

"Hey!" Will exclaimed and then smacked Jay upside the head with his free hand.

You rolled your eyes and grabbed your beach chair and your drawstring bag with your towel and your book from Jay's truck. Jay grabbed the cooler, his bag, and his chair. Will grabbed his stuff and then the three of you were off.

***

You had waded in the water and read your book for a bit while Will and Jay chatted about some mutual cases they had come across while drinking their beer and eating snacks. You were snacking on your cheddar popcorn, (which Will had affectionately picked up a bag for you when he went to get beer because he knew it was your favorite) when you realized something: the boys had a drink other than water but you didn't.

You debated which brother would allow you to buy something from the coffee cart up by the entrance to the beach.

Will won.

"Will," you said sweetly and turned around to look at him.

"Uh oh," Jay said. "That's her I want something voice. Don't give in. Be strong."

Will rolled his eyes. "Yes, Y/N?"

"I was thinking--"

"It's worse than I thought!" Jay exclaimed. "She's thinking!"

You scowled at him and turned back to face Will. "I was thinking that since you two have something other than water to drink and I don't, could I maybe get something from the coffee cart? Please?"

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

"Dude! She's fourteen! She shouldn't be drinking caffeine...especially not at noon!" Jay protested.

"There's this thing called decaf coffee, Jay."

"There's this thing called decaf coffee, Jay," Jay mocked. "Shut up, Will."

Will rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I have to go to the bathroom, so I'll walk up with there with you and just give you money and meet you back there." He looked at Jay. "Are you okay with that? I know you hate when she's out of our sight in super crowded place like this," he asked Jay.

"I do not do that!" Jay argued. You and Will gave him a look. "Fine. Maybe I do. I just see a lot of stuff that I never want her to be involved in. Just, make sure you give Will his change back."

"I will," you said. After all, you were in a swimsuit, not that there were pockets there for you to stash your big brother's change like you normally did and then keep it for yourself.

You and Will made your way up the beach to the entrance where he handed you a ten-dollar bill and you two split up. He went straight to go to the bathrooms and you took a slight right to go to the coffee cart.

Will had said on the walk up not to wait for him and to just go back to Jay. So, you ordered your decaf iced mocha caramel latte, took the four dollars and something cents in change, got your latte, and started to walk back to Jay.

That was, you walked until you heard it.

A catcall.

You pretended you didn't hear it, that it was directed at someone else.

But then, "Babe with the coffee." You stopped walking. "I know you heard me. C'mon, show us that pretty face of yours."

Your eyes widened as you swallowed and your lip started to tremble. You knew you should just make a run for it, but you knew that in running in the sand with your hands full, that you'd just end up face planting and getting a mouth full of sand.

"Aw, c'mon baby. I've got friends, too. You don't like me, maybe you'll like them. We'll like you either way."

You wanted to smack yourself at what came out of your mouth next. You turned around. These guys were probably 23-25 year-olds and there were three of them. They were way taller than you and you knew that they'd easily be able to overpower you. But, you said the first thing that you thought would make them back off.

"I have a boy--". You cleared your throat. "I have a boyfriend."

"I don't see no boy." He turned to one of his friends. "Do you?" The other guy shook his head.

Where the fuck is Will?

"Take my money. Just, leave me alone."

You held the money out to the man, but instead of taking it, he grabbed your wrist instead. Hard.

You dropped your coffee, the plastic cup breaking in the sand and making the cold, sweet liquid form a puddle.

"How cute, boys. She's paying us, normally we'd be paying her!"

From down on the beach, Jay was watching from afar. He saw some guys walking towards you and at first, he assumed that they might've been older siblings of some kids you knew at school or something like that.

Then, he noticed your rigid posture and stood up.

He started walking toward you.

You held your hand out and the guy grabbed your wrist.

Jay started running.

"Just, let me go and we can pretend this never happened," you said, borrowing a line you had seen in movies multiple times...not that it ever worked in those, but maybe it'd work in real life.

"No can--"

"Hey!"

Oh, thank God for Jay.

"You the boyfriend?" he asked rhetorically. "She's gotta be sixteen then. How is she?"

"For your information, I'm the brother. And, it'd be in your best interest to let go," Jay growled.

"Three on one. This should be fun." The guy shrugged.

"Listen, man. I really don't feel like doing this here. So just, let her go."

He tugged you closer to him and you yelped, your front hitting his chest.

You squeezed your eyes shut.

You felt arms wrap around you and pull you away from the random guy's chest and you screamed.

"You son of a bitch!" Jay yelled.

You opened your eyes to see that Will was the one who had run up and pulled you back, your heart still beating out of your chest.

"Jay, he's not--" Will tried, but it was no use.

Jay threw the first punch.

The guy's head flew back and he fell to the ground. The guy tried to throw a punch from there, but Jay easily dodged it. Then, he threw three more hits to his face.

Will turned his head away from the fight at the sound of shitty sirens. "Fucking hell, Jay! Security!"

He didn't stop.

"Jay!" you yelled.

Now, this caused him to stop for a second...right as security pulled up next to him.

Jay looked up.

"He threw the first punch!" the man yelled to security before Jay could even explain the situation in its entirety.

"And you harassed my sister, so I think me punching you was warranted!" Jay argued. He turned to security. "Jay Halstead, CPD detective with the Intelligence unit."

The two beach security guards shared a glance. One sighed. "Okay, to make this easier, we won't call the cops because apparently, he is one. But, both of you are banned from the beach."

"What?" the guy bellowed. "You're not even going to ask him for some identification? Unbelievable!"

"I can easily go grab my badge from my car, officer," Jay suggested.

"That won't be necessary," the security guard said. He turned to you. "Miss, did he hurt you in any way?" You held out your hand to show him your wrist, which was red and you knew you'd have bruising on it tomorrow. Then, he turned his attention back to the guy who had been harassing you and his two friends. "You, come with me. Unless one of your buddies wants to cop to being the one who did the harassing?"

The two other guys held up their hands in a sign of surrender and backed up.

"What?" the guy yelled. "I need medical attention! I probably need stitches!"

"And we can have someone do that for you, but you need to come with us." He pulled out a pair of zip ties and got them on the guy's wrist...not without him giving the security guards some difficulty, though. He turned his attention back to you and your brothers. "I take it back, Detective, you're not banned."

Jay gave him a curt nod of thanks.

"What?" the guy yelled as the security guard started walking, taking the creeper away from you and your brothers.

"Keep it moving, buddy. Keep it moving."

"Let's get outta here," Will suggested.

You and Jay agreed, and then the three of you went to grab your stuff from where it previously was at the beach.

***

You had ridden back home with Will instead of Jay since he needed some time to cool off...and call Voight to make sure that the asshole actually got some jail time or something. Basically, Jay needed Voight to make sure that the beach security was actually doing their job.

The two of you made your way into the apartment (Jay had given Will a key and Will had given Jay a key to his apartment also. You didn't bring your key because you thought you'd be riding home with Jay, but then everything popped off.). Then, Will immediately went into doctor mode.

"Go change into some clothes and then I'm gonna take a look at that wrist," he told you.

You nodded and quickly changed into a pair of comfy shorts and a t-shirt. Then, you made your way to the kitchen table where Will was waiting expectantly. You sat down a sighed.

"You okay?" Will asked as he stopped unzipping his medical bag that he always kept in his car in case of emergencies and gave you his full attention.

"That was terrifying. I just, I never would've thought that would happen."

"And it shouldn't have happened. You're fourteen; you're just a kid. It shouldn't happen to an adult, much less a kid." You nodded. "Can I see your wrist?"

You held it out to him and he gently pressed on it and began to inspect it. "You know," you started, "I thought you'd be patching up Jay. Turns out that ass- that guy's friends didn't want to get involved."

"I wouldn't either," Will agreed. "There's no way I'd want to be one the receiving end of a fistfight with Jay. And, for the record, that guy was an asshole." Then, he started talking about the subject at hand. "Well, good news is that it isn't broken...but we already knew that. Bad news is that there will be some slight bruising, so we need to ice it."

"Okay."

Will got up to get some ice from the freezer when Jay walked in...holding a bag of groceries.

"What's that?" you asked.

"Well, I figured we'd get ice cream after the beach, but since that didn't happen, I decided to pick some up." He set the bag of groceries on the table in front of you and started taking out pints of ice cream. "Superman for Will, Neopolitan for me, and cookies n creme for you."

Your eyes went wide as you saw the ice cream and quickly snatched up your pint. Jay laughed at your excitement.

"Still can't believe that Will's favorite is Superman," you mused.

"He's like a kid in an adult's body," Jay agreed.

"I heard that!" Will yelled and then came back with an ice pack and three spoons. "What can I say, I'm a sugar aficionado. Now, what movie are we watching?"

The three of you made your way over to the couch with your spoons and ice cream, you with your ice pack as well, and started to try and agree on a movie.

Sometimes, you hated that Jay was so vigilant and that Will always had to take a look at something as small as a scrape, but today, those two things definitely came in handy. And, you couldn't be more thankful.

***

Migraine (age 16)

Oh here we go again, you thought as you sat in your American history class and felt the pounding in your head coming on. You had had a slight headache this morning but had a feeling it was going to turn into something more since all of your headaches lately have been turning into migraines almost every other day for the past week. For a few weeks, you'd been having headaches and they started out not too bad, a small dose of Tylenol would fix them. You assumed they were just stress headaches from school. But, then they started making the sides of your head pound and making you sensitive to light or nauseous. And right now, you felt a really bad one coming on.

Forty-five minutes later, you had gotten out of your history class and were on your way to biology. But, you were in the midst of the worst migraine of your life. Your head was pounding, everyone seemed to be talking right in your ear, and the lights were way too bright even when you squinted.

You had to go home. You couldn't stay at school any longer.

So, you went to the office and explained this and then called Jay.

"Hello? Y/N, aren't you supposed to be in class?" he asked when he answered.

"My head hurts really bad, Jay. Please, can you come pick me up?" you asked.

"I can have someone drop off some Tylenol," he suggested.

"No," you whined. "It hurts so bad. The light hurts my head and people talking hurts my head. Please, Jay."

You were practically pleading and even though Jay knew that you had a geometry test today, he agreed.

"Okay, I'll email your math teacher about the test."

"Oh. I forgot about that." You hissed as the late bell rang, causing your head to pound even more for those few seconds.

"That bad, huh?" Jay asked, having heard the bell chime on his end of the phone.

"Uh-huh. But, I can't drive home."

"Okay, and I can't pick you because I'm meeting with a CI. You okay if Adam picks you up and brings you back to the district? Then, me and someone else can go pick up your car from school later?"

"Okay. Why can't I just go home?"

"Because, if you're feeling as crappy as you say you are, then I'd prefer that someone has eyes on you. I'll see you in a bit."

"Okay, bye Jay."

Then, you hung up, told the secretary you'd be leaving so that she could send an email to your teachers, grabbed your stuff from your locker, and came back to the office to wait for Adam.

***

Twenty minutes later, Adam walked into the office.

"Hey, kiddo. I'm gonna sign you out and then we'll get you out of here, okay?" You had balled up your sweatshirt and were using it as a pillow and had your eyes closed. But, you cracked them open and nodded. Adam knew this definitely wasn't you lying to get out of a test because usually, you'd tell him not to call you kiddo, seeing as you were sixteen.

Adm showed his ID to the secretary and then he signed you out. You stood up and your head started pounding even more due to the sudden change in posture.

"Here, I can take your bag," Adam offered and you handed him your backpack.

"Thanks," you said quietly.

Then, you made your way to Adam's Jeep and got in the backseat. Not even two minutes into the trip to the district, you knew you couldn't take the music that was playing from the radio...even though you knew it was lower than he normally played it.

"Adam?" you asked, your head now resting on your balled-up sweatshirt as you tried your best to lay down while still buckled up in the backseat.

"Yeah?"

"Can you turn off the music? It really hurts my head."

"Of course." Then, he quickly turned off the radio and the two of you rode in silence the rest of the way to the district.

Adam would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about you.

***

"Mini Halstead! What's--" Trudy Platt exclaimed when you and Adam walked into the district, but Adam quickly placed a finger to his lips as you whimpered at the loudness of her voice. "Sorry," she whispered. "You hungry?"

You shook your head. "Thanks, though."

The desk sergeant nodded. "Let me know if she needs anything," she directed to Adam.

"Will do, Sarge."

Then, the two of you made your way up the stairs and into Intelligence, not without the buzzer on the gate causing you to hiss at the pain it caused in your temples.

"Mini Halstead!" Kevin exclaimed, but Adam quickly put a finger to his lips as you whimpered at his loud voice.

Jay quickly made his way over to you. "Let's go into the break room, okay?" You nodded. Jay turned to Adam. "I can take her bag."

Jay took your backpack from Adam and then the two of you went into the break room.

"There's some Tylenol and water on the table for you," Jay said, fully expecting you to walk over and get it. But, instead, you just plopped yourself down on the couch. "Or, I can bring it to you."

He gave you the water and the two pills and you took them.

"Have you eaten anything since breakfast?" he asked.

You shook your head. "Hurts to chew."

"Okay." Jay paused for a moment. "I think I have a banana I brought with me in case I got hungry. Is that soft enough for you to chew? I want you to eat something."

"I guess," you mumbled as you laid down on the couch. "Just wanna sleep."

"I know, but I wanna get some calories in you before you do that. Can you just stay awake for like five more minutes?" You nodded. "Okay, I'll be right back."

Jay came back two minutes later with a banana and a blanket.

"Where'd you get the blanket?" you asked.

"I keep it in my truck for late-night stakeouts. Here." He handed you the banana and then set the blanket next to you. "I don't have a pillow, so your sweatshirt will have to do. You all set?"

"Yeah, gonna eat this and take a nap."

"Okay, I'll make sure Voight doesn't yell too much. This door's pretty much soundproof though, so you should be fine. Come get me if you need anything."

"Okay."

Then, you ate the banana, folded up your hoodie and put it under your head, and pulled the blanket over you, quickly falling asleep.

***

You woke up two hours later feeling too warm. Your migraine had subsided into just a headache...but you knew in a couple of hours, the migraine would probably be back after the Tylenol had worn off. And, it was still a decently bad headache, just without the light hurting your eyes as much.

But then, you had an idea.

Sometimes at home when you had headaches, you'd lay your head on the tiled floor of the bathroom because it was cold. Cold surfaces always seemed to help.

So, you looked out into the bullpen to see if anyone was there.

No one.

You picked up your phone to see a text from Jay saying that they had gone on a raid and would be back soon and that if you needed anything, to let Trudy know. He also said that he had let Will know what was going on and that he'd be at the apartment later tonight to check up on you.

You wrapped the blanket around you and then made your way out of the bullpen and into an empty interrogation room.

You sat down in the cold metal chair and held your blanket tighter around your body. Then, you laid your head on the cold metal table and relished the feeling of coolness on your head.

Yeah, this will help.

***

"I didn't do it! I swear!" a drug dealer that Trudy was holding by the arm defended himself while Trudy led him to an interrogation room.

"Not that I don't believe you," she started, "but I've heard that one before."

She walked into the interrogation room and her eyes went wide when she saw you lying with your head on the table, asleep.

"What's a kid doing in here? I don't know her!"

"Shut up," Trudy told him. "Come on."

Then, she pulled him towards the next interrogation room.

"Some officers will be in here soon to have a chat with you. Feel free to make yourself comfortable."

Then, Trudy left the room and closed the door, and made her way into the interrogation room where you were currently sleeping.

She knelt down beside you. "Y/N," she whispered. You didn't stir. She placed a hand on your shoulder. "Kid, wake up."

"Hmmm, no," you said, not even lifting your head up. "Wanna go home. Cold feels good on my head."

Then, Trudy heard the buzzer to Intelligence go off. "I'll be back," she told you.

"Uh-huh," you said, closing your eyes once again.

Trudy walked into Intelligence and immediately set her sights on Jay.

"Halstead," she barked.

Jay quickly turned his head. "What can I do for you, Sarge?"

"You can explain to me why that sister of yours is currently taking a nap in one of my interrogation rooms because she says the cold feels good on her head and then get her out of there," she told him.

"What?" he asked, more confused than ever.

"Y/N's napping at the table in an interrogation room. I need you to get her out of there. I almost put a dealer in there."

"Why's she in there?"

"Like I just told you: she said the cold feels good on her head. But I need you to get her out of there. Now."

"Copy you, Sarge."

"Good choice, Chuckles, good choice."

Then, Jay made his way to the interrogation room that Trudy told him that you were in.

He squatted down next to you. "Y/N," he whispered.

"Feels good. Leave," you mumbled.

"You know I can't let you stay in here. We gotta get you back out into the break room. It's not safe for you in here."

"Don't care."

Jay huffed. "I know you don't, but I do."

You opened your eyes to see that Jay had turned the lights on all the way...compared to how dim you had them before.

Fuck, it had been a few hours since you had taken the Tylenol and it was wearing off.

You closed your eyes again.

"Y/N," Jay warned.

"Light hurts."

Jay sighed. "Okay, I'll dim the lights and I'll be right back."

Jay dimmed the lights and walked out of the interrogation room and into the bullpen once more.

"Why's she not out yet?" Voight asked.

Jay rummaged around in his desk while he answered. "She said the light hurts her eyes, so I'm giving her these to wear." He held up a pair of sunglasses.

"Huh." Voight paused. "Take her home, Jay. You're done for the day. I don't expect to see you back here until Monday."

"Sarge, all due respect, but it's Wednesday and we're in the middle of a case."

"We'll be fine for one half-finished case without you, Jay. Y/N's family. Take care of her. Just think of it as of tomorrow, you get to have a four-day weekend."

"Can I get one of those four-day weekends?" Adam asked.

"No," Voight answered without skipping a beat. "Go take care of your sister, Halstead."

Jay nodded and then grabbed your backpack from the break room and then returned to his desk for his keys and jacket and then went back to the interrogation room.

"Y/N, we're gonna go home now," he whispered when he walked into the room.

"Yay," you said in a monotone voice and slowly lifted your head up and then rubbed your hands down your face.

"Put these on. They should help with the light."

You took the sunglasses from him and put them on. Then, you two slowly walked out of the room and outside of the district to his truck.

***

"So she's sensitive to light and sound?" Will asked Jay over the phone once Will had gotten off shift and realized his brother had called him concerning your headache.

"Yeah, pretty sure it's a migraine," Jay confirmed.

"She mention anything about nausea?"

"When we were driving home she did."

"Could also be that she started getting motion sick if it only happened in the car. I'll stop over and take a look. She eaten anything?"

"Just breakfast and a banana."

"Jesus, man. It's past five o'clock. She needs more than that!"

"I know, but she said it hurts to chew, so I didn't want to force her."

"Okay, I get it then. I'll pick up some food on my way. I'll get Panera Bread so I can get her some soup. Text me what you want."

"Okay, thanks, man. And Y/N likes--"

"--the cheese broccoli soup. I know, Jay, I know."

"Just checking."

Then, Jay hung up and started to look at the menu and then texted Will what he wanted. Now he just had to wait for Will to come over and hopefully fix you. Because Jay would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about you.

***

"Thanks for coming, man," Jay said as he opened the door. "God, she's making me really worried."

"Whoa, it must be bad if you're admitting you're worried," Will joked and then set the bag of food on the counter.

"Dude, she was napping in an interrogation room because she said the table was cold and it felt good on her head! Damn right I'm worried!"

"Okay, just...get the food out and I'll go check her out. Hopefully, I can figure out what's making her get all these headaches. She mention headaches before now?"

"Yeah, for about the past week, week and a half. But, they've never been this bad. And, if they were, she hasn't told me."

"Okay, thanks. I'll see if she'll tell me more. She's gonna be okay."

Jay nodded and then Will made his way to your bedroom.

He opened the door to see that you were sound asleep with your blinds closed all the way. You had your fan on and had earplugs in, so he assumed that just wanted the fan on for the cool air and not the noise...and the noise was the reason you usually wanted it on.

Gently, Will touched your shoulder.

"Go away, Jay," you mumbled and rolled over to face the wall.

"It's not Jay, it's--" Will sighed when he realized you wouldn't be able to hear him because of the earplugs you had in. So, he settled on shaking your shoulder until you opened your eyes and realized it was him and not Jay.

You took out the earplugs.

"Can you fix it?" you asked. Then, you whimpered. "It hurts so bad."

Your lip started to tremble. You didn't want to cry because you knew it would make your migraine worse, but you couldn't stop the tears; you were so sick of these damn headaches and this migraine.

"When did they start?" Will asked and turned off the fan.

"Three weeks ago," you answered.

"Jay said only a week and a half."

"I didn't tell him. I thought they were from school stress, but they won't go away. Make it stop! Please! I can't- I can't even think straight anymore, Will."

You put your head in your hands and rubbed your temples.

"Have you been eating a lot of different foods? Getting too little sleep? Drinking too much caffeine? Weird periods?"

"No, none of that." You wanted to tell him that it was weird having him ask you about your period, but your head hurt so bad that you refrained.

"Okay, well, I think Jay's got the food ready, so do you think you can manage some cheese broccoli soup from Panera?"

You shrugged. "Maybe a little."

"That's good enough for me. C'mon."

You grabbed a pair of sunglasses from your bedside table next to you and then followed Will out into the hallway and then put the sunglasses on.

"How you doing?" Jay asked as he finished pouring everyone water.

You shrugged. "Still hurts."

"I'm sorry, but the bottle says you can't have anymore Tylenol yet."

You nodded and sat down and slowly started to eat your soup, sunglasses still on.

You started to eat and then realized your soup was kind of cold. You stood up.

"Soup cold?" Jay asked.

You nodded and put it in the microwave.

Then, something clicked in Will's head.

Cold.

Temperature.

"Barometric pressure," Will muttered. Then he looked up, a smile starting to spread across his face. "Barometric pressure," he repeated, this time louder.

"Bara-what-now?" Jay asked.

"It's essentially the air pressure when the weather changes," he explained. "Remember when Y/N was in elementary school and would have really bad allergies in the fall?"

"Yeah," Jay said. "What's this got to do with migraines?"

"Migraines start around adolescence and since she had allergies in the fall before, I'm fairly certain that this is why she's getting them."

"You know why?" you asked as you sat back down, your soup now warm. "Can you make them stop?"

"I think I do. But, we'd have to get you checked out tomorrow."

"Okay. Thank you. Get me an appointment."

A few days later, after lots of naps, soup, and tv when your headache/migraine decided to subside, you were put on corticosteroids for what were called "cluster headaches" in the medical field. You're only supposed to be on them for about two weeks and then you'd have to be reassessed. But, for now, your migraines had subsided and you could finally, finally think clearly.

***

Sorry About your Truck (age 18)

You didn't know what was happening. One second you were driving on the circle of the on-ramp to the highway, and the next, you fishtailed to the right. You spun your wheel to the left, maybe slammed on the brakes (which you knew you weren't supposed to do), and then slid to the right again. It all happened so fast that you didn't even know how it happened.

But, you knew how you got in this position.

"Fuck," you muttered as you put your hand up to the vent in your car the day before you left for school. Even though it was set to defrost, you still should've been able to feel some heat coming out. But you felt nothing. Well, nothing but cold air.

You trudged back inside to see Jay putting on his jacket.

"I think my heat in my car's broken," you said.

Jay looked at you and raised his eyebrows. "You probably just didn't turn it on."

"Yes, I did. And I double-checked. Come see."

So, Jay walked out to your car. And sure enough, your heat was broken.

"I'll drop you off at school and then we'll bring the car to the shop tonight. C'mon," Jay told you.

"I have to work tomorrow until 11," you said. "How am I supposed to go to work?"

Jay sighed. "I'll figure it out."

Because, he knew for a fact he couldn't let you drive without heat...not in these Chicago winters.

***

"Jay, man, you gotta go to sleep," Will told his younger brother.

"Dude, it's getting icy out!" Jay argued over the phone. "I'm staying awake until she gets home!"

Will sighed. "Fine. I know there's no changing your mind."

"Thank you. Now, I'm gonna see if I can find a hockey game happening on the west coast and watch that. I'll text you when she gets home."

"I don't need you to do that, but if it makes you feel better, feel free. God, you need to make your cop instincts chill for once."

***

You screamed. You didn't know what to do. One second you swerved to the left and then you swerved to the right. You tried to correct yourself again and get back on the road, but it wasn't working...not like it worked last time when you tried to go back the opposite way anyway. But, now, oh now you were more terrified than before...if that was even possible.

You felt hot tears sting your eyes as you heard the sounds of metal ripping through metal. Then, you felt yourself tumbling. You didn't know if you were screaming at this point, but you felt your knee jam into the dashboard and the next thing you knew, you were upside down with only your seatbelt keeping you in place and the broken glass from the windows had left a smattering of cuts along your body, with the deepest one being on your forehead.

You kept flailing your arms, trying to do something, anything to get you out. And then you heard the sound of sirens and the snow around you started turning blue.

Great...you had found the button to turn on Jay's sirens. Just great.

"Help!" you yelled.

You hoped that someone would call 911....but according to these sirens, you were 911.

***

"Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Truck 81, Engine 51, Battalion 25. Single vehicle car accident. Person trapped."

"Single vehicle?" Casey asked. "Why do they need all of us?"

"Beats me," Severide said. "But we're about to find out."

***

"A cop car?" Kelly asked as he furrowed his eyebrows on the way to the scene.

"Guess so, Lieutenant," Cruz said. "Looks like an undercover car to me, too."

As they got closer, Kelly noticed something. He knew that truck.

"Casey," he said into his radio, "that look like Jay Halstead's truck to you?"

Casey tilted his head. "You know, it actually does. Dispatch," he started, "this is Truck 81 to Main, can you get in contact with the 21st District and see if Jay Halstead is on duty tonight and then get back to us?"

"Copy that Truck 81."

They all pulled up to the scene and Boden started directing everyone.

"Squad, we need to get that victim out. Truck, help Squad with figuring out how to get the victim out. Chances are we'll have to cut the car and need all hands on deck. Engine, I need you on standby in case there's a gas leak and a fire starts. Sixty-One, do all you can."

They all said their "copy that's" in some form or another and then Casey, Stella, and all of Squad 3 went over to look at the truck.

"Help!" you yelled. "Somebody help me, please!" At this point, the blood from your forehead was dripping all over the roof of the truck. At least, since you were upside down, the blood wasn't going into your eyes. But, tears were rolling down your cheeks. You were terrified and your knee was in so much pain from being crushed up against the dash and your head was starting to burn where you had been cut by the glass.

"Main to Truck 81, Jay Halstead is not on duty tonight according to the 21st."

"It's not Halstead!" Casey yelled. "He's not on duty!"

They all raced up to the truck.

"I'm gonna climb up to the window and see how the victim's doing. I'll tell you what we need from there," Kelly said.

Then, with the help of Cruz and Capp, he got on top of the rolled-over vehicle.

"Help! Please help me!" you yelled.

"We're gonna get you out, don't worry!" Kelly yelled once he was close enough that he knew you'd be able to hear him.

You knew that voice.

Kelly looked down into the truck to see you straining your neck to look out the broken window and up to him.

"Don't move!" he ordered. He had no idea whether or not you had sustained injuries to your spinal cord.

"O- Okay," you whimpered. "I'm scared, Kelly."

"I know, I know. But we're gonna get you out of here. It'll all be okay." He turned his head so that it was back facing Squad, Casey, and Stella. "Casey!" he yelled. "I need you to tell Boden to get in touch with one of the Halsteads! It's Y/N!"

***

"Hello?" Jay asked sleepily into his phone. He had finally taken Will's advice and had tried to go to sleep...with a Vegas Golden Knights vs. Colorado Avalanche game playing in the background since that was the NHL game that was happening on the west coast right now.

"Halstead, it's Wallace Boden. Are you aware that your sister was driving your truck?"

At this, Jay sat up straight, sleep be damned. "She was. Why? What happened? Is she okay?"

He stood up and started pacing the room.

"Jay, I'm going to tell you the location and I need you to call Will and you both need to get here ASAP."

"Chief, all due respect, but you need to tell me what's going on."

"Y/N's been in a car accident. It's a roll-over crash. She's currently stuck in the car but conscious."

Everything Jay learned about bad news from your mom and dad passing, to his time in the military, to him being a cop flew out the window in that very moment.

"She's been in a crash? Can they get her out? Tell me they're gonna get her out, Chief! They have to!"

"Jay, my men are doing everything they can. But right now, you need to call your brother and you need to get to this location as fast as possible."

"Okay, yeah, yeah. I can do that."

Then, Jay quickly hung up.

After calling Will four times in a row, he finally picked up.

"Dude, I'm about to be in surgery, what's--"

"Y/N's been in a car accident. We need to go there now."

Will almost dropped his phone.

"What? How? When?"

"I don't know, all I know is that Boden called me and told me to get to the scene ASAP. I'll pick you up on the way."

Then, without waiting for Will's response, Jay hung up the phone and dialed a number he never thought he'd be calling off duty: his new partner, Hailey Upton.

"Hailey, it's Jay. I need a favor."

***

"Capp!" Kelly yelled. "We need to cut through the seat to get it off from the floor because that's currently the ceiling! Squad and 81, we need to cut the back of the truck so we can get her out of here! 51, figure out how to kill these sirens! And, Brett, I need you to come up here and take a look so you can tell me the best way to get her out of here!"

Sylvie Brett started sprinting over to the truck with her jump bag and then Casey and Cruz helped her onto the truck and Kelly gave her his hand to make sure she got all the way up there safely.

"Y/N, I'm Sylvie. Do you remember me?" she asked calmly.

"Uh-huh," you answered, trying your best not to move your head like had Kelly told you.

"I bet your leg hurts really bad, huh?"

"Not, not really," you answered.

Sylvie and Kelly shared a look. They knew what this was: you were going into shock.

"Hand me that flashlight," Sylvie said to Kelly. He handed it to her. "Yeah, she's tensing her leg muscles, which is probably why she can't feel it. She's still having an adrenaline rush since she seems to unconsciously tensing them. We'll still give her pain meds as soon as we can because when the pain wears off, it's gonna hurt.

"For now, I need to get a C-collar on her and when she gets out, I need her on a backboard and I need that leg in a splint. Try your best not to do any sudden movements that can hurt her leg even more than it already is. By the looks of it, I'm assuming she shattered her knee cap."

"Got the bolt cutters, Severide!" Capp yelled.

"Got the saw, too!" Casey yelled. "I think we should start by cutting the end of the truck, sound good?"

"Yeah, that works!" He took off his turnout coat and handed it to Brett. "Get in there, get a C-collar on her, and cover her with this while we cut the end of the truck. Close your eyes and cover your head with your jacket. Yell to me when you're ready."

"Why aren't you going in there?" Sylvie asked as she positioned herself to jump through the window and down into the truck.

"I don't think I could fit through that window."

"You never know," Sylvie said and then slipped down and into the truck.

"They're gonna cut it?" you asked frantically. "But what if they hurt me?"

"Y/N, it's okay. They won't hurt you. They're professionals. They've done this hundreds of times. But, I need you to stay calm for me. I'm gonna put this C-collar around your neck and cover you with this coat so that debris doesn't get in your eyes." She didn't mention the cut on your forehead and at the moment, she hoped you weren't feeling it.

Sylvie got the C-collar around your neck to stabilize it and then she put the turnout coat over you and pulled hers over her head. "Ready!" she yelled to Kelly.

You started hearing the sound of metal being cut. You could feel your heart pounding out of your chest, but at the same time, you couldn't feel anything at all.

***

"There it is!" Jay pointed from the passenger seat of Hailey's car. The hospital had been on their way to the scene, so they grabbed Will on the way. Jay was thankful because he knew that the hospital would be close if you needed to go there.

Will was practically standing up in the backseat so that he could jump out of the car as quickly as possible. He needed to make sure you were okay.

Hailey had barely put the car in park when both Halsteads jumped out.

"Chief!" Jay yelled. "Where is she?"

"She's still in the car. They're trying--"

"They're trying?" Jay yelled angrily, cutting Chief Boden off. "If she's not out yet and it's been this long then they sure as hell aren't trying! I swear to God if--"

"Jay!" Will yelled and stepped in front of him and gave him a shove to push him away from Boden. "You need to calm down!"

"Calm down? Don't tell me to fucking calm down! Our sister's in a roll-over crash and you're telling me to calm down?"

"I understand you're upset," Boden started, "but you two shouldn't even be here right now. And, if you don't want to be pushed back behind the yellow tape, I suggest you calm down."

Jay glared at Boden but kept his mouth shut.

Jay started walking away and then locked eyes with Stella. He picked up his pace. Will tried to pull him back because he had a feeling he knew what he was going to do, but he was too late.

"Stella!" he yelled. "What's happening? You gotta tell me what's going on in there. Please."

Stella sighed. She knew she shouldn't be doing this. But, she knew if it was anyone in her family, hell if it was Kelly or anyone else in Firehouse 51, she'd want to know what was going on, too.

"She's upside down, hanging from her seat. Her knee's jammed up against the dash. She's still conscious, but they have to get her out."

There was a loud creaking sound that caused everyone to turn their attention back to the scene.

They had sawed through the back half of the truck and were now going in.

"Casey, Kelly," Stella said into her radio, "can I get an update on the situation? Jay and Will are here and they just want to know."

"We just gotta get the chair down, Kidd," Casey's voice came from her radio. "She's still conscious. She's scared, but she should get out fine."

Jay looked up at the sky while Will sighed in relief.

You'd be getting out of there just fine.

***

The next few hours were a blur of you getting out of the truck and being taken by ambulance to Chicago Med (Will rode with you because of Jay's fear of needles), and you being in knee surgery.

Jay and Will had to wait outside while you were in surgery. And they were beside themselves.

"God, I shouldn't have let her take my truck," Jay vented as he was pacing the waiting area with his hands on his head.

"You couldn't have known it was gonna snow like this. It wasn't supposed to snow like this," Will comforted.

"How do you do it?" Jay asked.

Will furrowed his eyebrows. "Do what?"

"Stay so calm? Like, when we were at the scene, you were so calm when I was absolutely losing it."

"I don't know, I really don't. Maybe I realized that being pissed wasn't going to help anyone. But, when I heard Stella and Casey tell us what was going on, I knew she was going to be okay. There were no injuries to the abdomen, chest, or head--well, except for that laceration on her forehead--and she was conscious. I just knew."

"So you're telling me, you thought logically with medical knowledge?" Jay asked. He had absolutely no idea such a sophisticated sentence would ever make its way out of his mouth, but hey, there was a time and place for everything.

"That and I knew you'd be pissed, so I knew I'd have to at least be calm enough to calm you down...or hold you back."

"There it is."

***

You woke up an hour later. You blinked, trying to remember what happened, and then it all came rushing back. The fishtailing...the screaming...Kelly talking to you...the sound of metal being cut...

You took a deep breath.

This alerted your brothers that you were awake.

"Hey, how was being under?" Will asked jokingly. You had always asked what it felt like to be under anesthesia and Will said he couldn't really explain it; he said you'd just have to find out some time.

"It was a nice nap," you answered.

Will laughed. "I bet it was. Feeling better?"

"Tired," you yawned.

"Well, it is just past four in the morning, so that makes sense."

You looked at Jay. "I'm sorry about your truck. I was just going down the exit ramp and it happened so fast and--"

"Hey, hey," Jay said quickly and stood up. "It's okay. It's just a truck, it's replaceable; you, kiddo, are not."

Will smiled. "Borrowing a line from Mom's book when we both inevitably got in our first car accidents, I see."

Your finger started to move toward the stitches on your forehead.

"No, no, no," Will said quickly. "Don't touch them!"

You kept running your finger over them. "But they feel funny."

"That's because you haven't gotten them before. They'll feel even funnier if you pop one and me or someone else has to redo them."

Your stomach grumbled.

"Okay, what do you want to eat?" Will asked. He handed you a cup of water, too because he figured that if you were hungry, that you'd be thirsty as well.

You took a few sips and then answered. "Olive Garden."

Jay laughed. "Olive Garden isn't open at four am."

You pursed your lips to the side, thinking about what you wanted. "Pizza."

"I'll go have someone grab you some," Will said.

"Maybe send Adam because he can just call the cafeteria lady darlin' and then just like that,--" Jay snapped his fingers---, "she'll get an extra piece for free," Jay suggested.

"Adam's here?" you asked.

"Everyone's here," Jay answered. "They all wanted to make sure that you were okay...and the 21st also got called to see if I was on duty since it was my truck."

"If it makes you guys feel any better, I don't think I'll be driving for a while."

"That's okay. Voight gave me a few weeks off to look after you while you're recovering and I think Goodwin's letting Will cut down his hours."

"What he means Y/N, is that you'll be stuck with us telling you not to try to walk for a few weeks," Will said.

"Uh," you groaned.

Will and Jay both laughed. "I'm gonna go see if Adam can get you that pizza," Will said. He was almost out the door when he added, "you better not touch your stitches while I'm gone."

The next few weeks was a blur of doing all your schoolwork at home--and a lot of times, from the couch--, Jay and Will scolding you if you so much as tried to bend your leg, lots of movies and tv shows (and Jay and Will always let you pick because you couldn't really do much while you were laid up at home), and convincing Jay to buy you lots of Oreos and cheddar popcorn. And if he didn't...well, you'd just text Will (luckily you had insurance on your phone and could get a new one without paying a lot after the crash) and he'd bring you your Oreos and cheddar popcorn. After the first two weeks, Jay just had to live with the fact that he was outnumbered when it came to you and your favorite snacks.

***

Rough Shift (age 21)

Trigger warning for mentions of suicidal ideation!

You sat at Molly's finishing up your second pomegranate martini...and it was only 6 pm. You waved Stella over to have her make you another one.

"Y/N, I know you drove here. I can't in good conscience give you another drink. Hell, I didn't even want to give you the last one! But, I can get you a pop if you want? Or lemonade?"

"Stella," you whined. "I just want another drink. It's been a really rough day at work. Please, just make me another one."

"You know I can't do that. What happened at work? Maybe it'll help to talk about it. We've all had rough shifts before and talking about it or crying it out usually helps."

"I can't really cry it out right in the middle of a bar." You took a shaky breath. "Even though, I really wish I could." Tears started to sting your eyes. You couldn't cry. Not here. "I think I'm gonna go have that cry." You set some money on the bar. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. And hey, if you ever need someone to talk to, Y/N, I'm your girl."

"Thanks, Stella."

Then, you left Molly's. But, you didn't go straight home. You decided to go to the store instead. And all you bought there was a bottle of peach Moscato.

Time to get buzzed enough to forget for the time being.

***

When you got home, you popped some food in the microwave since you hadn't eaten since basically breakfast save for some beef jerky and an apple, and unscrewed the cap to the wine you had just bought. Normally, you wouldn't buy a ton of alcohol for yourself because you'd just take Jay or Hailey's drinks if she brought any over (yes, you still lived with Jay because college is ridiculously expensive and you were trying to get out of school with as little debt as possible...if any), but those two were on a camping trip on Lake Michigan for the weekend. You were supposed to go, but then you had to work. So, Will ended up going instead. He said maybe he'd meet a girl up there and you just laughed.

You took a few sips of your wine and then realized that maybe you should call your brothers. You knew this wasn't healthy and you felt like everything was coming down on you at once: the stories you heard at work, being in the hospital, currently just being physically and emotionally exhausted and hungry.

So, you dialed Jay's number.

"Hey, Y/N, what's up?" he asked. He put the phone on speaker so he could finish adding wood to the campfire he was building for him, Hailey, and Will to roast hot dogs over.

"It's just, it's been a really bad day," you said, your voice cracking.

Will was near him and he looked at Jay worriedly.

"Why's that?" Jay asked.

"I- I had to go the hospital with a girl because she- because she said she was going to kill herself." Tears were currently rolling down your cheeks. You had kept it together all day and now you were crumbling.

Working in a group home you knew things like this were bound to happen, but you didn't know they'd happen in your first two months there. And, to make matters worse, you got the email when you were driving into work, so you really had no idea what was going on. When you got to work, you were told you had to go to Lakeshore Memorial Hospital because a girl was saying she was going to kill herself the night before. And, you didn't have the staff to get her back inside safely, so, as is protocol, the shift lead the shift before yours had to call emergency services to take her to the hospital. You didn't know about any of this until you got to work when you were debriefed and then told you'd have to go to the hospital.

God, you knew this happened but nothing prepared you for sitting in that dark room with her all shift, the monitors beeping, telling you that she was still alive. You had done some homework and you had talked with her, gotten more information about why she did it. You had read her file, but she really seemed to open up to you and told you more. And, what broke your heart the most was that, since she was in a group home, she had no family. So, you did your best to sit with her the entire shift, only leaving to go to the bathroom, get some water, or make a phone call to your shift lead. Because, even if you were doing homework and she was sleeping or just sitting in silence, you knew it helped to have someone there with you. And, you knew if it was you in that position, you'd want someone to be there with you.

"Are you okay?" Jay asked, breaking you out of your thoughts.

"No," you admitted. "I don't want to be alone."

Jay sighed. There was nothing he could really do for you at this point. "Y/N--"

"I'll grab my stuff and I'll be there in an hour and half, Y/N," Will interjected.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to leave. I don't want to be alone, but I don't want you wasting your weekend off--"

"Y/N," Will began, "it's fine. I'll see you soon."

***

Will walked inside carrying a bag of McDonald's.

He walked into the living room to see you sipping wine out of the bottle. You weren't even halfway through it yet. You were just a little buzzed because you had drank the martinis a couple of hours ago. So, now you needed to get more buzzed to forget about your horrible shift. Normally you never did this: drink to forget. But today, well today, you deemed it warranted.

"Y/N, at least pour it in a glass," Will sighed and then sat down next to you and set the bag of food on the coffee table in front of you.

"Why's it matter? I'm the only one who drinks Moscato; you and Jay say it's too sweet."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to drink too much."

"But I just wanna forget what happened, Will," you said as you turned to face him. You started to cry. "She's just a kid. She shouldn't be going through this. Hell, she shouldn't have gone through what happened to her in her past! She didn't deserve it!"

Will wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into a hug while you cried. He knew because of confidentiality reasons that you couldn't tell him any more than you had just told him and what you mentioned on the phone.

"I know, I know," he soothed.

"I know she didn't- she didn't die," you cried. "But, God, it feels like I got my first death."

"And, crying about it is nothing to be ashamed of," Will said. "When I had my first patient death, I went home and did exactly what you did: cried and drank until I couldn't think straight, much less think about what happened at work."

You pulled away. You didn't think Will ever cried over something that happened at work. "You did?"

"Hand to God, I did."

"How do you cope with this stuff all the time?"

"You do the best you can with the knowledge you have. You talk to somebody about how you're feeling and you don't drown yourself in drinking, drugs, or sex." He moved your bottle of wine. "You cope in healthy ways. And, sooner or later, you realize that you can't save everybody. And, that you can't change the past.

"You can't change what happened in this girl's past to make her end up in a group home or have these intrusive thoughts, but you can help change her future by being there for her and listening to her, and helping her get to a better place."

"That's what I want to do."

"Good, then you're in the right place to do that. You just have to focus on your wins and not your losses."

You pulled away and wiped your hands across your face to get rid of the tears. "Thank you for coming home. I, uh, I really needed that."

Will nodded. "You're welcome. I wished someone would've told me that earlier in medical school and I didn't want you to feel like I felt."

"Is that why you decided to come home and not Jay?"

"Part of the reason."

You raised an eyebrow. "And the other part?"

"I figured Jay and Hailey could use a night all to themselves."

"Gross!" You faked gagged and Will laughed.

"I don't know if you'll be able to eat now that I mentioned that, but how about we try and we can watch a funny movie?"

"I like that idea."

And, even though you really wanted to get buzzed to forget about the day you had, you knew it was better for you to talk about it with Will and eat takeout and watch a movie with him. And, you were pretty sure you felt better after that than you would if you drank an entire bottle of wine by yourself.

A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading! Sorry this one took so long, but I'm in school and working, so updates won't be as frequent as they were in the summer. And finally, please remember to like/reblog and comment! I love reading your comments! As always, if you want to be added to my taglist, just tell me and I’ll add you!

taglist: @theambracer88 @virtualreader @kelelas-life @celyndavies @brookerz122493 @musicismyescape27 @anotherfan07 @thexplosivegirl @dreamingwithlens @xoxmariaxox @onechicago18 @iamasimpingh0e @i-like-sparkly-things @herecomesthewriterwitch @liampayne88

516 notes · View notes

natsfirecat · 3 years

Note

Okay! Here’s my request:

Natasha x asexual reader (female),where Natasha confesses her feelings for the reader, but the reader reluctantly rejects her. So after turning down Natasha’s declaration of love, the reader can’t stand seeing Natasha all beaten down and upset, so the reader confesses that she is asexual, telling Natasha that she deserves to be with someone who can give her everything and satisfy her needs. That the reader won’t be enough, no matter how much in love she is with Natasha. But little does the reader know, Natasha doesn’t want those needs, but you.

What do you think? 😃🖤💜🤍

Enough

pairing: Natasha Romanoff x asexual fem reader

word count: 3.5k

summary: much to her dismay, r has to reject her crush, natasha

warnings: swearing, drinking, mentions of sex and sexual attraction, lmk if i need to add any more

A/N: thank you for this request! i love writing for asexual reader sm! i hope you like it, and remember that aces are valid and amazing! :D

also not proofread very well. i'm tired and too lazy rn lmao

You fiddled with your ring, staring blankly at the wall. You had just gotten home from a mission, and needed some time to rest up.

The mission had gone well, you went with Natasha. Your task was to stop a HYDRA attack on civilians. Everything went as planned, and there were no casualties.

Now that you were back, all you wanted to do was rest up and relax.

So, you did just that.

You only woke a few hours later because of Natasha calling you, saying that you had to debrief the mission.

So you reluctantly got out of bed, and made your way to the meeting room.

Fury was there, reading files, and Natasha sat in her usual seat. Her face lit up when you walked in, then she waved and motioned for you to sit down.

As Fury started going over the mission, you just gave short, straight to the point answers to his questions.

It wasn’t until Natasha gave a detailed summary that he let you leave.

While walking out the room, she stopped you.

“Are you going to Tony’s party tonight?”

“Wanda’s making me,”

She laughed, knowing that you most definitely would not be going to a social gathering unless one of your friends forced you.

“Well, I think it’ll be fun. I’ll see you there,”

You were about to shrug and go on a rant about how Tony’s parties were very much overrated, but she simply waved goodbye and made her way down the hallway back to her room.

You were about to do the same before you felt someone tap your arm from behind.

You whipped around, then grinned to see Carol.

“You’ve been back and haven’t seen me yet?”

“Sorry…” you muttered, suddenly feeling guilty.

“You can make it up to me by getting me food,”

You rolled your eyes, then agreed, knowing you would get yourself food too.

She gave you a satisfied smile before beginning to walk down the steps towards the garage of cars.

She stepped into the driver’s seat of course, while you followed behind in the passenger’s seat.

“IHOP?” She asked, despite the fact that it was 3:00 in the afternoon.

“Yes!”

“Great, you’re buying!”

You rolled your eyes, already knowing she would say that.

“So how’d the mission go?” She asked.

“It was fine, nothing exciting happened.

“As soon as we convince Fury to let you come to space with me for missions, things will get a lot more exciting for you,”

You smiled, then chuckled at her statement.

She would talk to you about space all the time, and you had often expressed interest in it. So she took it upon herself to make a slideshow presentation about why you should be allowed to go with her to space. It still needed some work, but she was absolutely planning on presenting it to Fury when it was done.

“Where will you take me?”

“Well we’d start off with something close, maybe not exit the galaxy neighborhood quite yet,”

You laughed again, looking forward to your space adventures with your best friend.

Carol had eaten about a quarter of her food before she broke the silence,

“So I heard you tell Natasha that you’re going tonight,”

“Yeah,” you said with a shrug, choosing to stare at your pancakes instead of making eye contact.

“Well that’s good, maybe you guys can talk and…”

“And what?” You were beginning to get a little irritated.

“Oh come on! We both know how you feel. Why can’t you just talk with her about it?”

“You know why, Carol,” you said as you subconsciously began to fidget with the black ring you always wore on the middle finger of your right hand.

She sighed, not wanting to fight you on this. So she went back to eating her pancakes, and didn’t say another word about it to you.

As you reluctantly promised, you were at the party that night. Not wanting to engage too much, you stood off at the edge of the room, taking a small sip of your drink.

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Wanda and Natasha talking. You thought nothing of it, until you saw Wanda wink at her.

You turned your head to the side, then accidentally made eye contact.

Quickly shifting your gaze to the floor, you took another sip of your drink to hide your embarrassment.

You then decided to walk away, not wanting to create any more awkward tension.

You made your way into the next room until you almost bumped into Sam, who gave you a weird look as he stepped away from you.

“You alright, L/N?” He asked.

“I’m good!” You told him, quickly walking away.

When you finally got to the corner of the other room, you took a deep breath. You finally let yourself relax against the wall, away from the person you wanted to avoid tonight.

You closed your eyes for a minute, pretending you weren’t here.

For just a moment, it worked; you weren’t a loud, crowded party. You were just happy in your room watching movies and eating popcorn. No one was bothering you, and you didn’t have to worry about anything.

Unfortunately, your moment didn’t last.

Your eyes opened again when you heard your name called several times. Standing in front of you, was Natasha.

You noticed both Wanda and Carol standing at the door, watching the both of you.

“Hi, Y/N,” she said, her voice shakier than normal. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about, can we talk somewhere more private?”

You nodded, then began to follow her back the way you came until you were in another hallway that didn’t have anyone in it.

“Y/N,” she began. “I’ve always liked you as a person, I think you’re brilliant on the field, and I just love being around you. I feel these things around you, and it’s scary. But there’s something between us, I can feel it, and I think you feel it too. I’d like to explore these feelings, so… would you want to go out together… on a date?”

You let out a sigh as your heart dropped. You felt tears coming to your eyes as you thought about what she was saying to you. As much as it would hurt both of you, you had to do it.

“I’m really sorry, Natasha, but no. I can’t.”

“Oh-” she was taken aback from your response, unable to hide the disappointment in her voice. “This was stupid, you’re right. I’m sorry for even asking in the first place, I-” she couldn’t even finish her sentence before walking off, leaving you alone.

Two days later, Natasha had barely left her room. She stayed under the covers, mostly trying to sleep. Of course, it eventually turned into hours of staring at the ceiling while her stomach was in knots.

So, she took a sip from the bottle of vodka she brought up to her room, and leaned back against the headboard.

As soon as she felt tears forming in her eyes, she grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. She watched the saddest movies and TV shows she could think of, and ended up finishing the entire bottle.

If she was going to be sad and cry, it would be from too much drinking while watching sad stuff. It wouldn’t be from you. Natasha refused to let herself cry over a simple rejection.

But it wasn’t a simple rejection.

She’s had these feelings for you for months.

Your smile has made her heart flutter since your first mission with her. She vividly remembers the way your eyes lit up when you found out you were paired with her.

The two of you ended up working so well together. At the end of the mission, you held both your hands up for a double high five. The gesture confused her at first, but she eventually gave in and placed her hands against yours. That’s when you gave her the same smile that still gives her butterflies.

She didn’t even start to notice it until a few months ago, when Clint called her out on it. He noticed that your name was brought up in their conversations a lot. So he blatantly asked her what her feelings for you were.

Of course, she denied everything at first. You were just a friend who was nice to work with. Nothing more.

She didn’t fully realize it until Wanda called her out on it too.

You were eating breakfast, and Natasha’s eyes never left you. You exchanged smiles a few times, and the butterfly feeling in her stomach kept growing.

Wanda saw, feeling a smile grow on her face as she glanced between the two of you. Of course, her powers made this even more fun for her.

While she didn’t usually like to invade people’s private thoughts, especially her friends’, Natasha’s thoughts were loud. Yours too.

So after you got up, and waved goodbye to the both of them, Wanda immediately cornered Natasha. Normally, she wouldn’t do something like that to the assassin, but she felt okay with it considering that her thoughts of you softened her up a bit.

“So, when are you planning on asking Y/N out?” She asked her.

“What are you talking about?”

“You guys would make such a good couple, you should ask her out!”

“Absolutely not! We’re just friends,”

Wanda let out a huff, then rolled her eyes.

“You seem to forget that I’m a telepath,”

This time, Natasha rolled her eyes at her.

“Stay out of my head, Maximoff,”

And with that, she walked away, not wanting to talk about it any longer.

Of course, Wanda had other plans.

The next week, she made mental notes of how the two of you would interact. No matter how much you both denied it, she knew you had feelings for each other.

While you smiled around everyone, you smiled the most around her. Your eyes would light up, and you’d be grinning from ear to ear. And your smile would usually cause her to reciprocate it. She rarely smiled, but she was okay with you seeing her smile.

On top of that, Wanda noticed all the small gestures you would do for each other.

She would pack your bag for missions often, and you would share your food with her.

While both of those things could be seen as platonic, she knew better. You definitely had feelings for each other.

So when she brought it up to Natasha again, she couldn’t even deny it this time.

“Tell anyone, and I’ll make you feel pain you didn’t even know could be felt,” Natasha threatened her.

Wanda nodded, promising that she only wanted to help her.

Eventually, the assassin gave in and let her plan the whole thing out.

It would work out in the end, it had to.

Now, Natasha let out a growl of frustration as Wanda entered her room.

“Can you at least knock?”

“I’m worried about you, Nat,”

Despite her glares, Wanda continued walking towards her until she sat down on the foot of her bed.

“Why do you even care? You lied to me, you said it would work!”

“I really thought it would, I’m so sorry. But you can’t keep yourself locked in here, we’re all worried about you,”

“I can’t face her after I humiliated myself like that. Why would you tell me she had feelings for me too? You said you could tell from her thoughts, but she clearly doesn’t see me that way. Now I’ve probably ruined my friendship with her too.”

“I don’t know why that happened,”

“Please, just leave me alone.”

Letting out a disappointed sigh, Wanda realized this would get her nowhere. Natasha still needed a bit more time.

As she saw her friend leave the room, she finally allowed the tears to fall again.

She hated herself for it, but maybe she actually was crying over you.

It wasn’t like you were doing any better.

You only left your room to train with Carol, and to bring food back up to your room since you didn’t want to eat with everyone else.

You couldn’t help but notice the way Wanda glared at you when you passed her in the hallway. You ended up glaring right back, surprised by her sudden hostility towards you.

The two of you had been relatively close, but she was especially close with Natasha. You knew you had hurt her with your rejection, but in the end, you were doing her a favor.

She’d understand that eventually, and hopefully, so would Wanda.

For now, you lay in bed. You were clinging tightly onto your pillow, letting a few sobs escape.

Even though you knew the rejection was for the best, for both you and Natasha, it didn’t make it hurt any less.

You were only saving the both of you from future heartbreak. It would be worth it eventually. Soon enough, you’d both get over it and go back to being the friends you once were.

However, now you continued crying into your pillow.

You wished you could just turn feelings on and off with a switch, but you couldn’t. It would make things so much easier if these feelings didn’t exist in the first place.

You had tried to suppress and deny them at first.

You ignored the way you felt yourself smiling more at her. You ignored the way you felt like you were on top of the world when she returned your smile. You ignored the way your stomach turned into a knot of nerves whenever you touched; whether it was a full on hug or just fingers brushing past each other in the hallway.

When she sat next to you on movie night though, closer than she normally did, that’s when you realized you couldn’t ignore the feelings anymore.

You wanted to completely close the distance between the two of you, and snuggle completely into her. You wanted to kiss her, and hold her tight. You wanted everything to do with her.

But you couldn’t have her, and it hurt like hell.

After another two days, Carol came barging into your room.

“Y/N, what the fuck?” She said, getting straight to the point.

Your eyes widened, but you said nothing as she sat down and glared at you.

“You’ve been sulking for days, and haven’t done anything about it,”

You shrugged, sinking back father into the bed.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Talk to her!”

“No! I’m just gonna stay here until my feelings go away,”

“Y/N, I love you, platonically, but sometimes you’re the dumbest person I know,”

“Thanks, Carol,”

“Your feelings aren’t gonna magically go away like that. If you don’t wanna date her, then at least talk to her so you can both have some closure on this!”

“I can’t, she’d never understand and it’d just be a whole thing, and I don’t want that,”

“You explained it to me and I understood,”

“Well yeah, cuz it doesn’t affect you at all. It affects her because it’s the reason I can’t be with her,”

“Have you ever thought to consider that maybe she wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course she’d mind, Carol,”

Sighing, your best friend decided she wasn’t gonna win this battle today.

Despite her anger towards you, she still reached over and hugged you before getting up and leaving.

Once again, you were left alone in your own misery.

You began to fidget with your ring, staring at the flag on your wall. The black, grey, white, and purple colors stood out against the wall, adding a nice touch to your room.

You were obviously proud and unashamed of who you were, but that didn’t change the fact that so many people didn’t understand it. So it was just easier to not bring it up. Maybe one day you could find someone like you, who’d understand.

Tears began to fill your eyes as you thought about Natasha. You hated that you had to do this.

You weren’t even sure if you would be able to salvage your friendship at the end of this. That just made everything worse.

You lay back down again, clinging onto the pillow once more.

You remembered the way you felt when Natasha first smiled at you. You remembered the happiness she made you feel. You remembered just how much you wanted to be around her.

Luckily, your thoughts of misery finally stopped when you managed to fall asleep.

The next day, Carol dragged you out of your room. Literally dragged, she grabbed both your wrists and pulled you out of the bed until you hit the floor.

“Ow! What the fuck?”

“No more sulking, you’re getting up and not coming back to your room until tonight. Let’s go,”

You sighed in defeat, then stood up, following her out of your room.

She dragged you downstairs to the kitchen, where she already had breakfast laying out for you.

As annoyed as you were with her, you definitely thought it was sweet that she was going through all this effort for you.

So you sat down and began eating, forcing a smile. You were still hurting, but for now, you could fake it in front of your friend.

She sat down next to you, and seemed satisfied.

You gave a small smile, then continued eating.

It was progress.

When Natasha finally came down, you were the last person she expected to see. Her bloodshot, puffy eyes widened as she saw you with Carol.

She immediately looked away, not wanting to face you, especially like this.

Unfortunately for her, you had already made eye contact for a moment. You took in her appearance, letting out a deep exhale.

She refused to say anything, then turned around as if she had never been there in the first place.

As soon as she left, you turned back to Carol.

“I really messed up, didn’t I?”

As much as the logical part of your mind tried to convince you not to do this, the other part was currently making you.

So now, you stood outside Natasha’s bedroom, hand hovering over the door, prepared to knock.

You took in a few deep breaths, trying to prepare yourself. Just as you were about to knock, the door swung open before you were ready.

“Y/N?” Natasha didn’t expect to see you after what happened. “What are you doing?”

“Can we please talk?”

She frowned, thinking about what happened the last time you two talked. But, she opened the door wider, letting you in.

You walked over to her bed, waiting for her to nod, giving you permission to sit down.

“I just wanted to start off by saying that I’m really sorry for this, for hurting you like that,”

“You don’t need to apologize. You can’t change how you feel.”

“I know, but here’s the thing; I have feelings for you too,”

Her eyes widened in both shock and confusion.

“Then why’d you say no?”

You took in a few more deep breaths, preparing yourself.

“I’m asexual,” you finally got out. “While I feel romantic attraction to you, and really like you, I’m not sexually attracted to you. I’m not sexually attracted to anyone.”

She tilted her head to the side, but continued listening as you went on.

“So as much as I do like you, it’s not fair for us to be together. You deserve someone who can give you everything you want and need in a relationship, and I can’t do that.” You told her, trying to prevent yourself from crying. “No matter how much I love you, I won’t be enough,”

That’s what broke you, causing the tears to stream down your face as they had so many times within the past few days. Telling her everything you had been thinking, and finally getting it out.

You noticed a few tears forming in her eyes as she sat down next to you, wrapping her arm around your shoulder.

“Thank you for telling me,” she said. “I wish you had told me earlier, though,”

“I know, I’m sorry,”

“You’re wrong though,”

“About what?”

“You are enough for me, Y/N. I don’t care about sex, I just want you.”

“Really? You mean it?”

“Of course I do,”

You let out a gasp, then turned and wrapped both your arms around her, leaning in between her chest and neck.

“You’re okay with kisses though, right?”

You smiled, then leaned in and crashed your lips against hers. That certainly answered her question.

It felt like a weight was lifted off the both of you. You loved being like this with her, lips connected and arms wrapped around one another. You never wanted to let go.

When you had to break apart for air, Natasha smirked at you.

“So how about that date now?”

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