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helenazbmrskai · 3 years

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This Summer

Guess who’s back with another yoongi fic featuring my favourite trope so here’s another brother’s best friend au, I wanted to try a different setting for this one since I like summer camp aus a lot (and there’s not enough of it on this site I tell you) and I never did something similar to this also I’m sorry that there will be mistakes in here because I wrote this in three days but I’ll proofread it once I have the energy.

🏕️Title: ‹This Summer›

🏕️Pairing: ‹brother’s best friend and camp counsellor! yoongi x new camp counsellor! reader ft. brother and camp counsellor! hoseok›

🏕️Genre: ‹brother’s best friend, summer camp, camp counsellor, romance, fluff, angst, smut, idiots to lovers›

🏕️Summary: ‹This summer you’re going to stop liking min yoongi for good. The plan is flawless until it’s not (but you’re not the only one with plans.)›

🏕️Warnings: ‹smut, making out, oral (both parties) receiving, penetrative sex, condom sex, dirty talk, yoongi is jealous of jungkook having your boobs against his chest, y/n avoids yoongi like it’s her life mission for like 5k straight, a lot of angst but there will be fluff too so don’t worry, awkward tension, sexual tension, clueless hobi, everyone is stupid in this, jungkook likes meddling with y/n’s life a little bit too much, poor tae facing yoongi’s wrath without any reason lol›

🏕️Word count: ‹12.3k›

🏕️Masterlist l read radio sweethearts if you want another brother's best friend yoongi l enjoy!

Your brother is a ticking time bomb, no one knows when he’s going to take something into his head, he’s that annoying sibling that’s always full of energy and twists everyone around his pinky finger on family dinners. You love him with your whole heart, considering you ripped that mean girl’s hair out in elementary school when she called your baby brother (who is older than you but shh) ugly and made him cry.

Hoseok and you are polar opposites he’s cheery and positive always have a big smile on his face, ready to help all the old ladies with heavy shopping bags cross the street while you’re on the quiet side and often misunderstood.

It’s easy to see on holiday dinners and get-togethers that your relatives favour him over you because you’re less talkative and friendly, he has better achievements in life whilst you struggle with school but those you’re close with know the real you and awkward conversations about your nonexistent boyfriend because you’re so deeply in love with your brother’s best friend is not the best ice breaker your distant grandmas try to pull on you. Even so, when Yoongi decides to tag along to those said dinners accompanied by his parents and little sister, might just hell break loose.

The second man who basically acts like he lives in your house is your best friend slash knight in shining armour and partner in crime; simply named Jeon Jungkook for good measure who is your next-door neighbour. You have tons of unforgettable memories with him as he was the one you went to prom with, annoyed all the teachers on field trips with your loud rap battles and cried on each other's shoulders as you graduated high school together.

Your friendship with him came as a surprise to all your family members as they originally thought your brother and him will become close but instead, he spent most of his time with you while yoongi and hoseok with their other friends hang out separately. On rare occasions, your group would mix and go to see a popular movie or play games at the arcade on someone’s birthday.

Summer usually is the time when things are a little slow. No assignments to do or classes to attend, your brother leaves in early July for this summer camp that’s half a day far away from your home with his friends and the last two summers even Jungkook applied to be a camp counsellor as he likes to be surrounded by kids and nature just like your brother does so literally, everyone left for some time leaving you alone in your hometown with nothing to do but it was better this way because away from Hoseok meant that Yoongi will be far away too.

Your brother tries to persuade you every year to go with them but you always have to decline, sometimes your no is firmer than other times because Hoseok is excellent at using his puppy eyes on you.

However, this summer you had other plans. There’s no bell to ring once the last class is dismissed for the semester, tired from your finals you’re going to dedicate at least a week to catch up on your sleep and fix your eating habits but you have a big smile on your face as you climb into Jungkook’s run-down Ford slamming the car door behind your body since they don’t function properly sometimes. This car is his prized possession, got it for his 18th birthday after he successfully passed his test (at the forth try) and bragged about his driving license to you for over two weeks although you only dared to sit next to him after two months. Jungkook named his car Adonis and forbid you of disrespecting his little baby if you want to ever get a lift so you let him be.

Back to your important inner turmoil, you decided you will no longer simp over Min Yoongi your brother’s best friend and this summer you’ll get over him as a grown-up woman. Being in your second year at the local University that all the boys attend it’s surprisingly easy to avoid your brother and his friends and how everyone’s schedule seems to be so packed all the time during the semester, you don’t see them as much as you used to in high school.

”This was your last final, right?” Jungkook turns the ignition key ready to leave this hellhole of a place, holding your headrest with one hand as he turns to see the back of the car so he can back out of the parking lot without any accidents. You grab the smoothie from the cup holder before humming in agreement and take a sip whilst taking in your best friend’s features you haven’t seen for the past week.

”As soon as I get home I’m going to sleep till the next century.” Your dramatic response earns a chuckle and a jab to your left boob as he didn’t take his eyes off the road while delivering his hit. Jungkook wears his signature white tee with a pair of dark blue jeans no traces are left of the stress both of you went under, he was luckier than you as his finals ended a week ago.

”School sucks, we couldn’t even have fun together and I’m leaving next week. I’m going to miss you, you know. You really won’t come with us?” He tried to make you rethink your decision just like your brother but not even his bambi eyes can waver your summer plans, this time you fully intend to have one more Min Yoongiless summer, this silly crush you have on your brother’s best friend can’t continue.

”There’s always one place left for you at the camp Y/N. Hoseok would love to see you there too and we could spend so much time together.” The idea of spending a few weeks with Jungkook sounds nice but a voice in your head reminds you that Yoongi will be there too. He could be yelling at children and wear his trademark grumpy expression but you would still find something attractive about him. The worst part is that he’s never like that with you.

Yoongi is not as talkative as Jungkook or Hoseok, making him be more like you, at first you thought that your crush developed because he seemed to understand you in a different way your brother couldn’t. He cares for his friends, always making sure to show them by doing thoughtful gestures.

Hoseok tells his friends all the time that you and him are a package deal it’s either both of you or none of you, sometimes people have a problem with that but these five boys he hangs out with for years now are the good exception. You like them even though you don’t like all of Hoseok’s friends.

”I’m sorry Koo but I can’t, we talked about this before.” It’s not like you hate children because you don’t you’re not the best with them but they are ok, the heatwave is what you despise in summer camps. You love being in an air-conditioned place without bug bites all-around your ankles and not even the campfire with yummy marshmallows could persuade you to like outdoor activities.

Summer camps are just not your thing.

”What do you mean you signed me up?” The black t-shirt slips through your fingertips, it has a band logo at the front you remember Hoseok liked back in high school, his suitcase is halfway filled with clothes when he decided to tell you he faked your signature to sign you up as the new summer camp counsellor.

You admit that you have a weird talent for making nice origamis that kids would probably love to learn and a good addition to the routine activities, he would have swayed you with compliments if it weren’t for the fact that he faked your signature and signed you up for something you definitely said no to but still decided to do it without your permission. You heard nice things about the camp itself since it got renovated two years ago and Hoseok’s friends are nice people, he said their co-workers are nice people and your best friend would be there too, don’t get the wrong impression there, you even heard that the camp leader Seokjin is nice and a fun person not strict at all unless it concerns the kid's safety because he will not allow that.

”Don’t be mad, please. Jungkook and I just thought that this could be a fun experience for you, things will get busy next year so it’s going to be the last summer together like this. Pretty please?”

You sighed defeatedly as you can’t possibly say no to that when he phrases it like that. Hoseok looks at you with his round big eyes full of hope. Your summer plan was flawless until…it’s not.

Jungkook came almost knocking down your front door when you called him to come over after you were finally done helping Hoseok finish packing for the trip, you scolded your best friend for not stopping your brother as soon as he learned his scheme about ruining your summer plans you felt furious but he picked up on his way over to your house your favourite coffee flavoured candies and it made you forgive him too easily as you were soon munching on the treat.

It’s a huge disadvantage on your part that he knows your preferences so well. Now you can understand why he always seems so frustrated with you when you make him his favourite dish to get him to forgive you, this is just too much power to have over someone and when he crushes you with his tight hug listing out the things the two of you can do at the camp all of your remaining anger vanishes.

You will think about Min Yoongi later.

That later, however, comes sooner than you anticipated. Sitting on the kitchen stool drinking your coffee while all Hoseok’s noisy friends get a fill of breakfast and a cup of coffee, you have the unfortunate fate of housing all the boys to dine before getting on the road and after a lost rock, paper, scissors thanks to your brother’s ridiculous bad luck you become the host.

The kitchen got filled with animated chit-chats as they place a toast or two on their plates over the noises you almost don’t hear Jungkook next to you asking for the jam but you pass him the jar silently. Yoongi and Jimin are the only ones missing from the group because Yoongi has to drive Jimin to his parent’s place to pick up his car that he got repaired recently so they were running a bit late.

Namjoon is a new addition to the group after Hoseok met him in Uni so you don’t know him that well but he’s nice as far as you’re concerned, you talked to him a few times and his interesting topics never fail to entertain you. Jin steals a toast from Namjoon’s plate so he doesn’t need to get up and fetch one for himself but Namjoon looks too tired to care as he munches on his remaining one toast that his friend can’t steal because it’s halfway in his mouth.

Seokjin’s parents run the bakery on the main road so everyone knows him, he got introduced to the friend group when you were still in high school and you and Jungkook were regulars at the shop. Jin always sneaked a pair of baguettes for the two of you exclusively after you were finished with school.

It’s nice to see all these familiar faces after the stressful semester you had, momentarily forgetting about your problems you feel thankful that Hoseok went out of his way to ruin your plans and sign you up for this train wreck of an adventure, it’s been a while since everyone was together like this.

The doorbell rang interrupting Jungkook and Seokjin’s argument about who’s going to get the last toast piece but Hoseok perked up at the sound yelling excitedly that Yoongi and Jimin are here. Your brother quickens his pace after rising from his seat to open the door for them and grins when they step through the threshold.

Greetings are exchanged between friends and the place becomes livelier as the last pieces decide to join the puzzle, Jimin sees you first and knocks into Jungkook’s shoulder while he tries to get to you to give you a warm hug.

It’s been a while since you last saw Yoongi face to face, you’re added to the boy's group chat so in some depth you knew how he’s doing. He has been over at your house a few times hanging out with Hoseok but you always stayed late inside the library on the days he visited using the weak excuse that you need to catch up on school work so you had no chance of crossing paths with him coincidently while you were searching for a glass of water in the kitchen it’s humiliating enough that he saw you exit your bathroom wearing only a towel when you were a teenager.

Your curves became more defined and your body matured a lot over the years and knowing that he saw you like that when you had no ass or boobs. It’s embarrassing. Hoseok liked you that way because it meant no man would thirst over you as he liked to call it. The memory of him telling the boys that you’re off-limits and made them swear at the ’bro code’ to stay away from you is crystal clear in your mind even if now you are in your twenties.

The memory only makes your situation difficult as Yoongi probably doesn’t feel the same way.

As soon as Jimin steps back and releases you from the hug he has Jungkook in a headlock the next second, wrestling with the younger playfully, Jungkook is probably the closest to Jimin after you.

”Hey, it’s nice to see you.”

Yoongi has a half-smile on his face as he approaches you hesitantly pulling you into a hug like Jimin did but his approach is more gentle and careful as he pats your back with featherlight touches. His scent envelops your senses tuning out everything else that’s not him, it feels like forever that you hugged him, normally the two of you greet each other but rarely hug like this.

”Yeah, you too.” You murmur the words into his shoulder but he must have heard you because the side of his lips turned slightly upwards after you separate.

There are two cars available for the eight of you and Seokjin yells that it’s a matter of a game of rock, paper, scissors and everyone agrees as this is the common way your group chose who is riding with who.

”Easy, the losers ride with Jimin and the winners with Yoongs.” Jungkook is the first one to initiate the rules and everyone agrees except Jimin who whines about why he takes the losers but no one pays attention as the bloody battle starts. The first contestants are Namjoon and Hoseok and your brother ends up loosing while yelling like a banshee and making up excuses that he wanted to show rock and not paper as Namjoon choose scissors as his weapon.

You come up next with Jungkook as your opponent and you let a wicked smile appear on your face because no one knows him better than you, you know his move before he even thinks it through and you show paper getting your well-deserved victory.

Just later you realise that winners ride with Yoongi that you reconsider your decision, you were so caught up in your rivalry that’s your friendship’s base foundation with Jungkook at this point that it slipped your mind entirely.

Taehyung and Jin are the last ones to compete and the battle ends with Taehyung winning the last space in Yoongi’s car leaving Seokjin to dramatically kneel like a wounded soldier making fake sobbing noises. Taehyung ends up changing seats with Jungkook last moment and finally, everything is set to get going.

Jungkook and Namjoon take over the backseat as they loaded their luggage at lightning speed so they can claim their spot first leaving you with the only option to have the passenger seat at the front.

Yoongi obviously got behind the steering wheel entrusted with the task of operating the car throughout this long drive to the summer camp sight. Taehyung, Jin and Hoseok got into Jimin’s car like it was decided by the game.

The camp is bigger than you expected and the renovations got the place a little modern touch to it while still maintaining a close feel to nature with all the wooden houses and trees around but your favourite part is the lake at the far end of the campsite.

You share a room with a girl counsellor that spends her second year here, still, relatively new like yourself so it’s easy to befriend her. The campers will arrive the next day early in the morning Areum informs you as you two walk to the dining area to have the first meeting before everything starts.

By the end of the day, everyone knows you’re Hoseok’s little sister and new people approach you every now and then to confirm the facts and know a little bit more about you since everyone seems to like your noisy brother here (not that it surprises you), it looks like the counsellors are excited to start a new summer here and the atmosphere easily pulls you in, you watch Jimin and Jungkook have a water fight just to catch in the corner of your eye the figure of your brother pushing an unsuspecting Seokjin into the lake when he stands too close to the edge.

The day goes by like a flash as you hang out with Areum, she shows you her favourite places that consists of the greenhouse and the other side of the lake where there are built benches and tables for outdoor picnics.

Jungkook pouts during dinner fake crying that you replaced him and you have to forcefully spoon feed him to stop him from embarrassing you in front of all these unfamiliar people that gathered to have some quiet dinner. So everything goes smoothly, you have such a great time that it scares you.

It’s getting pretty late when all counsellors gather around the campfire to roast marshmallows and catch up with each other’s lives, you’re still new so you use this time to get to know Areum a little bit more since you and her are going to be responsible for entertaining the kids inside the art room alongside with Taehyung who teaches the kids how to paint.

You tell her about your silly hobby that landed you this job and she gets really excited to see your origami creations, you show the same enthusiasm when she reveals her major is classical statuary.

Even though Yoongi was always nearby it got easy to ignore his existence when so many new things surrounded you. It didn’t mean he fully left your thoughts throughout the day but made you feel that sense of false security that you could get over him. That all those years of pinning for your brother’s best friend could just vanish if you told your heart to stop skipping beats when he calls your name. Boose soon gets introduced to the mix and by the time midnight rolls around everyone is pleasantly buzzed and when Jungkook enters the state that he hangs off of you like a koala nuzzling his cheek into the crook of your neck you decided to call it a night.

You wake up with your head thumping inside your skull slightly feeling hangover; your roommate is in a similar state as you two approach the dining room getting small slices of bread to make a light sandwich.

You’re mid-bite into your food when you see Yoongi enter, walking alongside with your brother he catches your gaze sooner than you were able to look away and after they get their fills on their trays your loud brother flops down next to you with the loudest greeting that he could possibly muster up alerting everyone in the ten-metre radius.

Yoongi and you groan at the same time telling him to shut up like it’s a scripted response and your eyes meet for the barest of seconds before you focus on your half-eaten sandwich.

It’s hard not to look at him. Despite his gruff exterior, he’s very good at dealing with children, your activity where kids can learn how to fold origami is always after his cookie baking lesson and he smells like rough cookie dough and chocolate ship when he leads the kids into the art room where you would have all the coloured papers ready at each desk and folded a sample beforehand so they can use it as a reference if the instructions don’t look clear enough in the printed page.

The idea for this lesson formed last night, you were up all night as you researched on the internet how to fold hearts. It kept you up till the sun rose as you were trying out every folding technique that would look pretty but easier to do for the kids, you even accidentally cut your finger with the scissor while you were working using only the faint light from the lamp on the bedside table.

Yoongi greets you like he usually would wearing a little smile at the corners as he lets the kids inside first holding the door open for them, he always leaves silently after he delivered the campers to the art room but this time the door slides closed behind his form as he got dragged into the room by a kid named Minsung holding onto Yoongi’s hand he stood awkwardly while everyone else had a decided seat to take.

”Can Yoongi join us today Y/N?” Minsung asks holding Yoongi’s hand as he leads him further into the art room and every kid looks expectantly at you waiting for you to agree and seeing their faces you nod with a smile pulling out the chair next to you beckoning the embarrassed man to sit beside you.

He didn’t think you would say yes if he’s being honest. After you finished high school and he and Hoseok went to University and got busy with life he started to see you less and less, at first he didn’t think much of it but after some time it looked like that you’re actively avoiding him.

He has no idea why (that’s what eats him from the inside out on sleepless nights) he doesn’t remember saying or doing something that would make you upset and even now when you keep bumping into each other you seem skittish around him and he doesn’t like that, hence he even talked to Hoseok about this and your own brother couldn’t give him an answer why you started avoiding him.

”Do you know how to fold origami?” You ask him slipping papers in front of him as soon as he seats himself beside you, your heart beats inside your chest violently when you get enveloped in his scent yet again reminding you of the hug you shared that you’re afraid he’s going to hear it.

”I barely know how to fold my clothes.” The nervous joke lightens the mood as the kids laugh loudly the poor attempt at making you be more comfortable with him earns a little snort that makes a blush creep up your face rapidly in embarrassment but Yoongi thinks you sound adorable. You think you sounded like a troll.

”It’s fine I’ll help you.” Your little smile is still there even though your eyes are no longer on Yoongi as you focus on the kids, you tell them first what they will make and then go into detail how they can fold it while using the instructions and clearing some of the confusing images for them to understand it better. Lastly, you encourage them to not be afraid to ask if they have questions and you’ll gladly help them. It falls silent after as everyone gets absorbed in their work and you start making extra origamis for the children as usual until someone needs help.

Yoongi looks intent on finding out using the illustrations how to proceed and even though your instructions were pretty clear and well detailed he couldn’t figure out how to do it, he wastes two papers before he even got to the third step.

You see him struggling and he clearly gets worked up over it considering the number of creases appearing on his forehead once you get back to your desk after helping a kid figure out the instructions you move your chair closer getting his attention with the movement, your knees touch in the process but neither of you makes any moves to instal more distance between your bodies.

”Can I show you?” You reach for the scrambled paper but stop midway to look up and ask for permission.

Yoongi nods his head sliding the mess closer to you, observing as you unfold the paper and restart making more accurate lines and you immediately see what’s wrong with his shape. His measurements are off, even when he folded the paper in half that seemed uneven because he tried to fold it in one go and the paper sometimes moves around if you’re not careful enough.

After you fixed it and slid the paper to be in front of him you tell him your advice in a soft-spoken way. Heart still hammering inside your chest due to the closeness you share. ”Don’t rush through the steps, take your time while you fold it.” Your fingers touch briefly when you pass him the paper and you resume your working so it would take away from the embarrassment of how loud your heart beats because of him.

He looks so good today wearing a black oversized t-shirt with small prints in the front and even when his hair is damp with sweat his smile is able to melt your resolves any time you gaze up at those dark eyes.

Kids can be very attentive and they easily see how Y/N looks so smitten with Yoongi if those stolen sideway glances are anything to go by, every time he shows up you became a nervous ball of a mess it’s not rocket science to know you have a huge crush on the boy, the only mystery that campers can’t figure out is why you tiptoe around each other when Yoongi doesn’t seem indifferent either.

They often catch him looking at you as they run around the campsite during leisure activities led by Hoseok.

Minsung and Soohyung share a knowing smile as they watch them fold origami and it’s not overlooked by either of them when you focus back to do your work and Yoongi takes glances in your direction mesmerized by you, the task seems easy when he watches you do it.

A knock is followed by the appearance of your camp leader Seokjin leaning onto the doorframe interrupting your little bubble, looking at the kids with a fond expression before he addresses Yoongi and they leave together to discuss something, the activity is almost over as you learn glancing at the clock and Jungkook soon appears where Jin was a little while ago to get the kids.

Jungkook and your brother are the ones responsible for the outdoor activities and at the end of the day not only the kids are tired but their counsellors too by constantly running around to ensure everyone's safety.

Yoongi wanted to talk to you and help you clean up, have a real conversation in private, but things never turn out as he wants them to there seems to be always an obstacle standing between you two so he follows Jin to discuss a camp-related issue while he wishes he could spend a little more time with you.

If only you would tell him what he did wrong so he can fix it, this awkward state you two got stuck in makes him sad for some reason.

There was a time when you were greeting him with a big smile on your face and ask him about his day, he vividly remembers your chubbier cheeks and crooked teeth when you were younger but he doesn’t mind your feminine growth over the years, Yoongi always thought you will grow up to be a beautiful woman.

He remembers your prom dress, it was in a navy blue colour that complimented your fuller curves he only started to notice in your last year in high school, Jungkook posed beside you like you were Mr and Mrs Smith as your parents took pictures of you two and he found himself smiling fondly at you.

It was Hoseok’s birthday when the air shifted from platonic to something else in the short span of ten seconds, both of you were a little tipsy and you were sitting at a corner table together because neither of you wanted to hit the dance floor, the bar was packed and guys tried to hit on you numerous times just to be chased away by your brother’s antics.

You didn’t seem to mind that he prevented every guy from making a move on you and as you were all alone in a small booth chest to chest to hear each other over the loud music while you tried to tell him a story about Jungkook choking on fries at Mcdonalds when the waitress suddenly slipped her number scribbled onto a napkin trying not to ugly laugh yourself. His nose accidentally bumped into yours as he suppressed a laugh and if the others didn’t choose that exact moment to take a breather and have more drinks he thinks he would have probably kissed you right then and there.

The other time he felt something different while he was around you was when you and his friends took a trip to Busan to see the sea and you wore that one piece bikini, the bottom and top half were connected by a line of fabric but let your sides and hips be visible under the little clothing you had on.

Guys turned their heads when you passed them and he couldn’t even blame them like Hoseok because he looked at you a few times as well trying to seem as subtle as he possibly can since Hoseok otherwise would have killed him knowing that his best friend was ogling at his little sister.

”Don’t you dare!” Your yelling draws the attention of the kids and counsellors equally that’s how loud you are as your best friend approaches your form sitting under the umbrella trying to cool yourself down since today’s temperate is insanely (and unreasonably) hot. ”When we get home I’ll draw all your action figures a moustache using permanent markers. I’m not joking stop right there!”

Your horrific expression is validated since Jungkook has this shit-eating grin on his face when he’s about to do something you’ll most definitely not like, knowing him from your early stage of childhood when he was just a lanky anime fanatic and you were flat like a wooden board with huge pimples you’re an expert at distinguishing his different expressions and actions.

”You’re cute to think that will stop me.” Jungkook chuckles grabbing you by the waist as he drapes you over his shoulder effortlessly walking with you to the edge of the lake despite your efforts to break free from his grip, your friend jumps into the water with you still firmly clinging onto his body. The kids around you laugh at your friendly banter as you rise from the water like a lake monster and you duck Jungkook’s head underwater to make him pay for your ruined clothes and makeup.

Coming to help you, Jimin manoeuvres his boat next to you and stretches his hand out followed by a big grin to drag you out of the lake but it appears to be more difficult as you two almost flip over but you manage to unceremonially flop down next to him dragging your fingers through your hair to get the hairs out of your face.

”You really want war, Jeon. Just you wait but don’t blame me if I shave your hair off while you’re sleeping.” Coughing between your threatening words Jimin starts patting your back, rubbing your spine to help you feel better.

Jimin oars closer to the dock and you land your feet on the ground again without any more incidents occurring while Jungkook swims all the way, making comments about your appearance making the campers giggle alongside with him as your face gets warmer, once both of you are secure on land Jungkook hugs you close despite your distaste, your clothes cling to your body uncomfortably and droplets from his hair land on your cheek as he moulds your bodies together.

”Let me go, I’m not talking to you.” You try to push him away but instead of letting you go he scoops you up from the ground and spins you around, begging for your forgiveness but you don’t give in so easily.

Yoongi observes the scenes before him with a sour expression, he doesn’t even realise how he glares at Jungkook holding you that close to him while both of you are dripping of lake water, your boobs are entirely pushed against his chest as your best friend giggles midst of you struggling to break free.

Next to him Hoseok sits relaxed in his chair sipping his cold drink, shaking his head in faux amusement happy to see you have a good time here, your brother is normally very protective of you when it comes to guys but with Jungkook he knows that you guys are just best friends it’s hard to see you two otherwise when he witnessed your first period crying onto Jungkook’s shoulder that you’re going to bleed out and your poor friend almost dragged you to the hospital because he thought you were being real but soon learned that you overdramatise things when it’s that time of the month.

He often finds you in a weird position while you watch tv with Jungkook’s head on your tummy because the pressure and warmth of his head make the pain more bearable cuddling under blankets because you get needy when you’re on your period, your brother knows all of this because when your best friend is unavailable he has to fill the space and lay his head on your stomach until the feeling goes away.

He had his doubts in the early stage of your budding friendship when you first started to hang out with each other because things can get weird easily between friends if they are not the same gender but Jungkook proved to Hoseok multiple times that he supports you and would walk through fire for you. Nothing happened between you two in romantic aspects, there was no shift, even though someone who doesn’t see you daily interacting with him would assume something is going on.

”I’m going to change.” You announce to no one in particular, the way your shirt clings to your curves as you’re surrounded by male counsellors you don’t know adds extra pressure and their eyes on you make you uncomfortably fidget in place, your make up is probably smudged on your face giving you a panda effect.

”Wear this your bra is showing.” Jungkook gives you his wet shirt but the black material conceals your body to look decent enough and you thank him he could easily sense your distress and he feels a little bad that he pulled that trick on you. He had to coax you into wearing that bikini at the beach last year buttering you up with compliments so the two of you could finally get going, he knows better than anyone that you’re shy and insecure about your body if someone you don’t know sees you, you don’t hate your body but it makes you feel anxious if some stranger looks at you like you’re his meal for the evening and he totally gets it.

He glares at every single one of them who looks at you inappropriately alongside your brother who shares the same sentiment as him. You deserve to be treated right, that’s why he was super angry once you told him about your first time, that guy just stuck it in without making you cum.

Hoseok doesn’t know, however, you only told Jungkook about your unpleasant experience when you were tipsy, you had to tell him at a house party while playing truth or dare, you had to share something he didn’t know and considering he’s your best friend not much was there to confess. You hoped that he was drunk enough to forget about it the next day but he surprised you with ice cream and you talked it out with him, he can be immature sometimes though when the situation needs him to be serious he’s there for you. He never once made fun of you for something you felt insecure or not confident about.

Areum takes in your dishevelled look as soon as you step through the entrance of your current accommodation, opting for a quick shower to wash the dirty lake water off your skin you tell her what happened vaguely before disappearing behind the bathroom door and she snickers silently seeing your grumpy face.

Jungkook marches to the seat next to Hoseok the playful glint is still there as he rakes his fingers through his hair shaking the droplets out of his locks like a dog and the way female colleagues eye him didn’t go unnoticed by either Yoongi or Hoseok for that matter. Your best friend is not as dense as you think he is because for a while now he connected the dots why you seem to avoid Yoongi at all cost.

It shocked him at first but now observing your interactions closely he calls himself a fool that he didn’t realise it sooner. Your best friend knows about the ’you can’t woo my baby sister’ rule because it’s applied to him as well, Hoseok cornered him one day after you left to bring up snacks for a movie night and told him awfully descriptive outcomes what will happen to him if he tries anything on you all the while he pushed him against your lavender walls, that day he learned that smiley Hoseok can be scary sometimes.

It’s been years and his overprotectiveness lessened because you dated guys here and there and Hoseok was always supportive of you and your soon-to-be boyfriends, but you didn’t go to second dates with any of them.

He found it strange at first but after he found out about your little crush on your brother’s best friend some things clicked and your behaviour wasn’t soo odd anymore, Jungkook didn’t read too much into it at first because he thought it’s going to be a fleeting flame but it’s been years that you harbour feelings for the older man.

Yoongi was a harder nut to crack because he’s better at masking his feelings than you but he can see how his eyes linger on you when he thinks no one’s looking, his slip-ups are subtle ones and it would go over his head if he wouldn’t be so tuned in searching for his reactions.

His gut feeling tells him Yoongi feels the same way you do (his face might not be as expressive but his eyes are sparkling every time he finds you in the crowd) although he can’t be one hundred percent sure, the benefit of the doubt that makes him keep question every move and look he throws your way his confusing actions indicates that even Yoongi doesn’t know how he truly feels about you so Jungkook didn’t bring up the subject because he’s not sure how to approach this without making this more complicated.

He doesn’t want to give you hope when he can’t guarantee his intuition is right so he choose to silently observe and let things unfold naturally but it gets harder with time to ignore how you two are dancing around each other like idiots. Well, at least before now you straight out refuse to be in the same room as him.

At this point, he’s convinced that neither of you is going to make a move to let the other know about your romantic feelings, he wanted to respect the fact that you didn’t want him to know about your feelings towards your brother’s best friend but enough is enough and he’s tired of seeing you avoid the matter for another year like this.

His plan so far doesn’t seem to work, he convinced Hoseok to sign you up for the camp against your will but things don’t go forward as you keep avoiding the problem so he needs to give both of you a little push from the sidelines to end this.

He doesn’t like the idea of you hurting if he’s being wrong about this but the rejection would be better than living in denial, not knowing if he reciprocates your feelings, he hates seeing you cry but he’ll be there to kick ass and support you. Jungkook makes up his mind and calls Hoseok’s name to grab his attention.

”What do you think about one of your friends dating Y/N?”

Hoseok’s brow raises in question and Yoongi’s body stiffens at the mention trying to seem unaffected but Jungkook detects the slight change in his demeanour. ”Why do you ask? You’re not in love with my sister, are you Jeon?” He can’t stop laughing as he hears Hoseok accusing him immediately, he gets comfortable in his seat before answering. Waiting a little before responding to get a dramatic effect, he spends too much time with you as he realises he picked up some of your theatrical approaches.

”God, no. She’s my best friend I know too much about her to think like that.” His laughing subdues into small chuckles, he saw you at your worst and best moments, seen you naked by accident. You’re beautiful and funny but he doesn’t see you as a woman. Yoongi’s eyebrow twitches at the mention of ’knowing too much’ but Jungkook’s next words are the final blow for him to grip the armrest.

”I heard Taehyung is gonna ask her out and I wanted to know what you think about it.” Hoseok schools his features quickly after that, he didn’t know Taehyung liked you like that but he has no right to control your life or tell you who you can consider as a potential love interest. You can like whoever you want, he tried to show you his support when you introduced some of your dates to him and he’s going to keep his promise even when it comes to his friends.

You were always close but after he began to tell you who you can or can’t see your relationship became distant until he realised his mistakes, you forgave him easily because you love your brother a lot and he loves you just as much so after a heartfelt conversation between the two of you he promised not to do that to you ever again.

You’re aware he did this to protect you because you’re his precious little sister and big brothers could get unreasonably overprotective so after you almost drifted apart and even though you two talked it out. The fact that because of a boy you argued with Hoseok you decided you’ll never act on your feelings for Yoongi for the sake of your relationship. Jungkook doesn’t know that’s the main reason you keep avoiding Yoongi but he couldn’t have known because you two never touched upon the subject.

”It’s her decision.” Hoseok shrugs finally and Jungkook nods with a smile eyeing Yoongi who seem to absorb the answer he didn’t think he would get.

You’re aware of your feelings so it’s time for Yoongi to reflect on his thoughts and figure out what he wants.

Jungkook thinks that his plan might just work if he keeps up the good work. You can thank him later.

Taehyung is an unsuspecting victim caught up in Jungkook’s spider web to get you guys together. He likes every kind of art-related stuff and Jungkook showed him some of the origamis you folded for him as he has a few of the smaller ones stuffed inside his wallet under your graduation photo and of course when Taehyung asked you to teach him you agreed with the biggest smile on your face.

You took it as a great opportunity to get to know him better because you’re the least close to him in the group, not because you don’t think he’s a nice guy but before this there were not many occasions to bond with him.

He has the talent for it you realise this soon and you two spend hours inside the art room together folding new pieces after you’re free, he even suggests as a beginner what’s easier to make so the kids can be encouraged rather than making them do hard ones and be disappointed by the end result.

He visits you often and brings you tea to chat about art at first but gradually you get to know more about each other’s personal lives all the while you make origamis together. You skip lunch sometimes when you get too caught up experimenting with new shapes and Jungkook notices the displeased expression on Yoongi’s face every time someone asks about you and Taehyung’s whereabouts just to hear you two are yet again holed up inside the art room laughing and chatting.

He got even grumpier than normal and lashes out without any reason, the others dismiss his behaviour as he probably had a bad day but his best friend knows something is up with him, it’s not like he lashes out on the children because he smiles at them like he used to but his quick mood changes are getting on everyone’s nerves lately. Hoseok knows that something bothers him but every time he asks about it he says it’s nothing.

Jungkook sits beside Hoseok as he goes on and on about he has no idea what’s gotten into Yoongi lately and he’s close to rolling his eyes at him, no wonder you two are siblings he thinks. Both of you are idiots.

Yoongi didn’t show up for breakfast and you’re nowhere to find as well, he knows you’re not with Taehyung because he sits at the table behind him with Jimin and Seokjin telling each other funny stories about the kids. He shows some of the origami pieces he folded and Jimin compliments him while Seokjin tries to stuck one inside his pocket so a friendly banter breaks out at their table.

”.. and he doesn’t even tell me what’s the problem. Hey, Jungkook are you listening to me at all?” Hoseok waves his hand in front of Jungkook’s face who munches on the garnish almost finished with eating while your brother’s plate is full of food because as soon as Jungkook joined him at the table, since he couldn’t find you in the crowd, started complaining about how difficult Yoongi is being as of late and it’s too early to deal with this bullshit.

”Yoongi is upset because Y/N hangs out with Taehyung too much. If you look at the signs you would have seen that he obviously likes your sister but because of that stupid rule you made neither of them is acting upon their feelings for each other.” The outburst momentarily shuts up Hoseok, his mouth hangs open like a fish out of water blinking rapidly and it’s noticeable how the wheels are turning inside his head as he processes the information.

”Yoongi likes my sister?!” The three surrounding tables turn after hearing Hoseok’s signature banshee yell and Jungkook audibly sighs at the shocked expression he’s sporting like he suddenly grew four heads and three legs. He just might because the food is weird sometimes.

You tell Areum you have to pick something up from the art room and you’ll join her a bit later to eat breakfast hiding your hands in your hoodie’s pocket as mornings tend to be on the colder side, she gives you a thumbs up as she walks towards the dining room and you wait until she gets out of sight to turn on your heel.

You visit the art room first but what you’re searching for is not there and you head back to your cabin to see if you brought it back by accident without you realising it.

You made that origami star Taehyung whined to you about. He wanted to make one but it just can’t seem to look like it should be as he showed you his attempts. It took you a few tries to succeed as well since folding the edges were quite tricky to figure out.

On your way to the dining room, you bump into someone and the star you made end up on the ground slipping out of your grip. Raising your head instantly to apologise to the person, you were not ready to face Min Yoongi out of all people, he picks up the origami and hands it back dusting it off before giving it to you.

”Thanks.”

”Uh, everything’s alright? You seem to be in a bad mood.” You’re hesitant to address the elephant in the room, you didn’t really witness his mood swings as others because you spent most of your time in the art room but seeing him now with dark circles under his eyes a grim expression on his handsome face, it speaks volumes of how true it is, and you would hate to get on his bad side because you ask a question everyone probably asked before you.

”I’m fine.” Yoongi tilts his head towards the sky and sighs, you wait for him to say something else but that’s all he does before he walks past you.

You grimace at the lack of response, sure, things were awkward nowadays but he never straight out ignored you like that, he didn’t even look at you while he answered and left just like that.

When you join Jungkook and your brother for breakfast they have a weird aura around them and you’re itching to interrupt their silent talk as they eye each other like you’re not sitting right next to both of them.

What is wrong with anyone today, huh?

”Okay we need to do something, things can’t continue like this.” Jungkook places his hands on each side of his hips as he captures everyone's attention when he climbs on top of one of the tables like he’s about to give a grand speech about something world-rocking kind of important matters.

”I agree. I can’t even say something to Yoongi that doesn’t end with him taking my head off.” Jimin and Taehyung agree immediately since they had to deal with his temper for the most part.

”And what do you suggest we do?” Hoseok puts his weight onto the broom as he speaks, after Jungkook told him that his best friend is in love with his sister everything made sense in a way.

Why he asked about you a lot like how’s school or how’ life going for you, made sure to get something for your birthday every year, he thought that he’s nice to you because you’re his little sister, after all, he told him to treat you right. He couldn’t be more wrong about it, however. They are supposed to be best friends and Hoseok didn’t even know he liked you like that.

”I think you should talk to her Hobi. She doesn’t act on her feelings because she thinks you wouldn’t like them together, maybe if you tell her it’s ok to date each other they will end our suffering. I don’t think I can manage this moody Yoongi for another day he looked like he’s about to murder me in my sleep.” Because of Jungkook’s scheme, Yoongi went extra hard on Taehyung and the poor soul didn’t have a clue why he’s suddenly replaced as Yoongi’s personal punching bag.

Hoseok makes sure to visit your cabin after they are done cleaning and it would be an understatement to say he feels a little nervous. It’s weird that he’s here to tell you to go after his best friend as it is.

He already had a talk with Yoong in their cabin before he came here and his friend seemed terrified when Hoseok told him he knows that he’s in love with his sister.

All the colour drained from his face and he actually took pity on him that it feels him with so much dread that his best friend knows he likes a girl, even if it’s his sister he’s happy that he found someone he likes.

Hoseok tells him that nothing is going on between you and Taehyung so he should stop torturing him, Jungkook just tried to make him jealous by saying that, it felt nice for both of them to talk openly about everything.

Yoongi told him about the party when he almost kissed her or when they would stay up all night talking to each other about everything and nothing, he shares his genuine feelings and admits that for a while he didn’t know what he felt for her but he wants to be with her.

You had similar reactions like his friend, at first you tried to deny the fact but later when Hoseok reveals everything and speak about Jungkook’s plan, you gave up to lie and instead tell him you liked him for three years and you tried to move on but you couldn’t that’s why none of your previous relationships seemed to work out.

Your brother feels stupid for not seeing the signs, maybe Jungkook was right and he’s really an idiot.

It’s awkward knowing that he feels the same way about you you’re not gonna lie, it feels like a dream but at the same time, you’re afraid one day you’ll wake up and realise all of this was just a fragment of your imagination.

Hoseok’s support was a pleasant surprise and even though you want to strangle your best friend with your bare hands for meddling with your business and literally shouting out to the world you love Min Yoongi to the moon and back moments ago to have everyone witness your face flame up you decide against all expectations and you give him a bone-crushing hug because without him all of this wouldn’t have happened. All that matters is that he likes you back.

”How did you know?” You curiously ask and Jungkook feigns he’s thinking about the answer whilst pinching your cheek, that smirk he wears when he’s about to say something stupid makes you reconsider. You shouldn’t have asked.

”I mean I discovered it recently so you were quite good at hiding it because normally I always sniff out your secrets right off the bat but as soon as I focused on your reactions it was easy to tell.” He points at Yoongi standing a few feet away next to Hoseok and he suddenly burst out laughing.

”I saw you running into a fucking tree when you saw Yoongi wet because Hoseok threw him into the lake.” You clasp your hand over his runny mouth before he can embarrass you further, you were not ready to see Yoongi blush so cutely at the comment while Hoseok doubled over because he laughed so hard seeing your face after Jungkook said that.

You denied it in a high pitched squeal. ”That fucking tree wasn’t there that’s why!” Everyone seemed to find your excuse hilarious as they laughed continuously at your attempts of saving your last piece of dignity but even Yoongi chuckled couldn’t contain his biggest smile to take over his features as he thinks you look so cute when you’re embarrassed, and you like him back.

”Can we see a kiss at least if we had to put up with grumpy Yoongi for an entire week, I really started to fear for my life, you know?” Jimin chimed in, it was endearing to see Yoongi turn bashful in front of you.

”Now that it was brought up Jeon Jungkook I can’t believe you used me like that! I had no idea why you suggested that I try to learn making origamis from Y/N. Our friendship is over!” Taehyung points at your best friend accusingly and he only scratches the back of his neck.

”I did it for a good cause…wait Tae where are you going? Look I’m sorry…” Jungkook chases after the former boy trying to hug him from behind but Taehyung doesn’t reciprocate it and your friend starts whining at that telling him that he’s so sorry while Jimin and the others unoccupied at the moment resumes their staring at the both of you to move and kiss finally.

Even Namjoon and Seokjin who were silent until now joins in and chants alongside the others to ”kiss kiss kiss kissss”

You let out a shy chuckle taking the first steps in his direction and his eyes go wide in surprise when your shoe touch. Kissing his cheek instead you tiptoe to reach his height so you can easily circle your hands around his neck and pull him down to hug you, it reminds you of the hug you shared with him before the whole trip to the summer camp started but this time it felt different.

His embrace was warm and inviting as he held you by your waist his chest vibrated against you as he laughed when your friends demanded a real kiss.

Yoongi found himself sitting beside you inside the art room as you explained how the kids can make bunny-shaped origami out of the grey coloured papers in front of them and his hand immediately found yours under the table to intertwine your fingers together once you sat down next to him.

You try to suppress a smile as you watch over the kids ensuring that they don’t cut themselves with the scissors but your body betrays you as you subconsciously lean into his frame he smells like vanilla extract and chocolate. He showed the kids how to make muffins in today’s lesson, it turned out good because Yoongi measured the ingredients while the kids only mixed and did simple tasks such as portioning out the dough or decorating the top of the treats.

Someone had two or three muffins left on their table as they worked, focused on their folding technique occasionally they stole bites making you and Yoongi giggling under your noses when you would catch chipmunk cheeks.

Yoongi helped you clean up after the lesson throwing out leftover papers and sweeping the floor before you joined the others for lunch.

Things changed in the group’s dynamics after you started dating Yoongi but overall they were happy to see both of you happy.

Even though Jungkook likes to make jokes about how you two are basically joined at the hip for days and soon after starts to complain about how you spend less time with him now that you have a boyfriend, he’s clearly happy for you. It’s a new situation for everyone and Hoseok has a hard time picturing you with his best friend but seeing you so happy with him he supports your relationship wholeheartedly.

After you’re done with the activities for the day you and Yoongi retreat into his cabin as everyone else stays at the campfire. They see the two of you slip away hand in hand, howbeit no one dares to comment on it but you see Jungkook having an inner battle to stop himself from yelling out ’use protection’ luckily Taehyung stuffs his mouth with a handful of chio chips before that could happen.

Your boyfriend pulls you closer by tugging on your intertwined hands caging you between his arms and the door, kissing the corner of your mouth he moves downwards to kiss over your jawline and neck, smiles into the juncture of your neck when you chase after his lips as he pecks your cupid’s bow next, impatient to feel his lips against yours you pull at a fistful of his hair guiding his mouth to capture his lip between your teeth. Yoongi grunts into the kiss tasting your sweet mouth never cease his hunger for you, only leaves him wanting more and more.

”I can’t believe you’re mine.” He seals his words over your feverish skin with in between kisses, marking up your neck, nibbling and kissing every inch until your breath becomes laboured under his sweet attacks.

You weave your fingers into his hair whilst a soft mewl leaves your parted lips as his knee parts your legs to brush against your centre.

He presses his thighs further into your throbbing pussy swallowing the noises you make getting lost in your body heat. He wants to take his time with you licking every corner and dip until you shake and pant his name.

”Wait. What about my brother?” You jump a little when you feel his hand on your ribs travelling up until he cups your breast over the shirt you’re wearing. Kneading your flesh over the fabric your body relaxes into his touch it’s enough to leave you breathless seeing his expression so earnest to please you, pupils dilated as he looks at you under his hooded lids it’s hard to control his urges when you look good enough to eat.

”He stays over at Namjoon’s don’t worry about him.” Yoongi catches your earlobe with his mouth biting down on your shell playfully, the sensation makes you heave a gasp, the words barely registering in your brain.

”Off. I want this off.” Feeling especially bold today you sneak your hands under his shirt caressing his sides with your fingertips, pecking his collarbone that peaks through the collar of his clothing. A whine resonates within your throat when your boyfriend steps back to pull his shirt over his head revealing his stomach and shoulders for your hungry eyes to feast upon disliking the cold air that fills the space once his body is not there to keep you warm, you pull him close diving in to connect your lips in a heated kiss tongue licking into his mouth.

His hands wander under your clothes this time mapping out your smooth skin following the lines of your sides to find the opening on your bra, once he gets the clasp open he traces your spine with his index finger grabbing your ass with both hands as his wandering hands reach south. Your moan gets lost inside his busy mouth that explores your hot cavern at the same time his hands cup you over the fabric of your leggings. It doesn’t give your throbbing pussy justice when he decides to rub your clit and drag his fingers over the dampening material.

”Let’s move things to the bedroom shall we?” The innocent peck he places onto your cheek makes your heart flutter, excitement and love mix inside your veins sweetening your blood as your pulse quickens under his adoring gaze. You nod kissing him again before you let him guide you to his door, not separating from your sensually moving lips as he blindly closes it behind your entangled forms.

He removes your pants and shirt in one go, letting the garments form a pile on the floor promising your sweet release with each removed clothing until the only remaining barrier that keeps your naked glory from his piercing gaze is slipped down your shaved legs, he feels how soaked the material of your cotton underwear had become after so little foreplay and he finds himself insanely turned on by the discovery.

Yoongi eagerly encloses his mouth over your erect bud eliciting airy moans when he alternates between sucks and licks on your sensitive mound paying equal attention to both sides as he massages the neglected one with firm hands whilst he blows air to the saliva coated nipples and watch your expression morph into torturous pleasure but he’s not satisfied with your shy suppressed noises.

Your slick oozes out of your empty opening running down your thighs and stain the bedsheet your clit aches to be touched and your hole clenches around nothing as your lover keeps his head between your boobs kissing and licking your skin there until your nipples get too sensitive to his touch, red and swollen when he rolls it between his fingers. His leg parts your thighs keeping them wide open so you can’t get any stimulation until he decides to move lower.

Seeing how you shake under his body parted lips keep asking him to give you more, he doesn’t have the heart to deny you any longer as he starts to rub your thighs keeping your legs open for him to bury his face between your beautiful cunt swollen and needy for his touch he lets his tongue dip between your folds tasting you first before gently sucking on your clit.

He hears you call his name perfectly in tune with his tongue’s strokes as he intends to eat you up. Your essence covers his chin as he licks your hole clean lapping up everything your precious body can produce for him dipping inside the tip of his tongue your muscles tense up ready to get filled with something bigger and Yoongi’s cock twitches inside the confine of his underwear.

He doesn’t need to remove his undergarments to know his tip is red and slick with his precum desperate to fill your empty hole up but before that, he coats two of his fingers in your wetness and pushes them inside parting your walls gently to ease you into the feeling preparing you to take his cock.

Your hips buck into his hand as he curls his long fingers inside your velvety walls feeling your muscles constrict around his digits he moans with his head thrown back as he imagines his dick getting the same treatment later, your musky scent and visual laying beneath him taking what he gives you drives him crazy with need.

Perking up at the sound you open your eyes blinking to get the blurriness fade dreamy half-lidded eyes watch as his fingers fill you up and you almost close them again because of the pure ecstasy his expert hands give to your overwhelmed body.

You see the painful tent that formed inside his briefs before the numbing pleasure could consume you yet again and there’s a wet spot in the middle that lets you know he gets off on seeing you enjoy yourself. His hips unknowingly to him ruts against the sheets to get some kind of friction realising that he focused solely on your pleasure and put it aside to chase his, he’s so different from the partners you previously slept with and the sudden urge to please him overtakes your selfish side to just receive and receive.

You palm him over the wet spot following the outline of his hard dick to give him some well-deserved relief and he immediately grinds into your palm letting out breathy groans and low moans, you don’t mind at all when he gets lost in your touch instead and momentarily forgets about his goal to get you prepped nicely for his cock. The fingers he has inside you stills and your head clear out a little, you’re able to focus on his face learning what he likes as you study his reactions to your movements, you know his moans will probably become your favourite sounds.

You take advantage of his current state to switch positions, letting his fingers slip out of you as you get rid of his underwear grabbing his thighs to lower yourself while he sits down at the edge of the bed.

Taking his tip into your mouth to taste his precum you feel Yoongi’s nails digging into your scalp as you swallow around him trying to get him into your mouth as much as your poor jaw can handle. Holding the base of his cock to guide him back into your wet cavern you set a slow pace, stroking what you can’t fit.

”You look so good sucking my dick baby.” You learned that he tends to be on the quiet side even in the bedroom, his reactions however are good indicators of how you’re able to affect him with every swirl of your tongue. Letting him use the hand tangled in your hair to set the rhythm of your movements your vision blurs as tears swell in your eyes due to the quickened pace and force he starts to fuck your mouth but he pulls out before he could get too close to cumming.

”I need to have you know. Lie down on the bed with your legs spread wide for me.” You follow his instructions showing him your drenched swollen pussy as he climbs on the bed after you, admiring the way he ruined your cunt before he reaches for a condom retrieving the item from inside his drawer.

He touches himself in front of you watching you squirm under his gaze as you wait for him to roll the condom down his length, your body aches to finally be filled with something bigger.

”Yoongi. Fill me up.” You part your pussy lips for him revealing your hole clenching around nothing, beckoning him to fill you up Yoongi looks at the sinful image in front of him saving this memory of you for later when he’s alone with his hands but today he plans to have your cunt wrapped around his cock rather than his fingers.

Your drenched walls suck him in as he enters you, hips lowering in slow motion to bury his entire length inside, nice and steady, gripping his shoulders for support you moan into the sloppy kiss feeling so full.

You hear his guttural moan loud and clear just as his breath hits the shell of your ear and your walls squeeze around him, wet squelching sounds ring beside your mixed love language thriving off the sounds he grunts directly into your ear encouraging you to meet his movements in the middle.

It feels like you stand in front of the gates of heaven when Yoongi increases his pace thrusting in and out, not being able to stop as he feels his balls tighten with the need to cum he parts your legs even more as he watches his dick emerge from the pussy he owns now coated in your juices taking his hard length and moan out every time his tip curves to touch your sweet spot with each delivered stroke.

You cum first around his dick, he helps you ride out your pleasure only pulling out when you whine from oversensitivity and he rolls the condom off to finish as well, watching your spent pussy glistening with your cum he uses the sight in front of him to get off, he collects your slick to lubricate his shaft as he starts to jerk himself off faster.

Once your breathing evens out and you see the concentration on Yoongi’s face while he lucidly moves his hands up and down his throbbing cock with the desperate need to cum you touch his hips drawing soothing circles onto his sweaty skin taking him back into your mouth to help him reach his high.

He comes in your mouth with a soft cry throwing his head back as you keep sucking him licking his sensitive tip until he pulls your head off with a shaky hand stroking your cheeks with his thumb.

”So friends and family, let me introduce you to my boyfriend Yoongi. You might have already met him before.” You joke in front of your relatives of all ages and you see in the corner of your eyes how Hoseok rolls his eyes.

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collecting-stories · 3 years

Text

Cardigan - Rafe Cameron

Request: heyy for the ts anthology, can u do one for cardigan with rafe? love ur writing🤍

TS Anthology Series | Outer Banks Masterlist

_ . ◦ ⭐︎:*.☾.*:⭐︎◦∙._

The summer you turned thirteen was the same summer your dad showed up again. Driving the same lemon of a car that he’d pulled out of the driveway in when you were six, he looked like he hadn’t aged. Or maybe you just didn’t remember him all that well because his face felt the same but you were different. When you missed your best friend’s birthday, a trip to the gymnastics gym on the mainland and a towering cake with fondant replicas of all her favorite things, she was rightly pissed.

Thirteen felt monumental, like the movie the two of you had snuck onto your mom’s Verizon bill, and you had both made a pact that you would be there for each other no matter what. That promise included birthdays and, more seriously, dads who showed up after seven years of radio silence because they didn’t want to “miss anything else”. But you didn’t mention your dad because hers was so great and you felt a little like you were floating on an island and no one could understand you enough to reach it. But then you missed her birthday and she swore not to speak to you and that felt more crushing than the dad thing until her brother stepped in. Always the one playing referee in when you fought, Rafe was a few years older and, in your mind, a lot smarter.

It felt pretty important that an older boy would make the time to talk to you, especially when he had to know that his sister was avoiding you at all costs. He’d just gotten his permit and, like any good brother, showed up in the car he wasn’t supposed to drive with a minor in the passenger seat, to take you around the island for the afternoon.

“My mom said she thinks we’re gonna move.” You mentioned, less casually than you would’ve hoped. The windows in the truck were rolled down and you had your legs up, feet placed precariously on the window ledge. There was a particularly nasty bruise on your knee from falling off your skateboard three days ago and a few short hairs you’d missed shaving. You were relatively new to both shaving and skateboarding so there were bound to be mistakes, you just wished they were less visible.

“Off the island?” Rafe asked, concern etched into his tone. You assumed the concern was for his sister, what would Sarah do if you moved? Who would put up with all her antics?

You shook your head, “to the cut.”

“Why?”

“She can’t afford the house on her own anymore and my dad has been lousy with child support.” You repeated back all the things she had said to you. Why she didn’t take him to court like the other kid in your grade with divorced parents was beyond you. Rose told her that it was the only way to ensure he paid what he was supposed to but she hadn’t been able to bring herself to hold him accountable.

Can’t believe you’re gonna be a pogue.” He said it like it meant something worse than you moving to the mainland.

“It’s not forever. My grandma’s house is there, we’re gonna stay with her until we can get back up on our feet.” You shrugged, “at least my dad’ll stay away then.”

But you dad wasn’t the only one who kept their distance. It felt like the distinction over your mother’s life choices held a greater impact on your friends than they had let on. A year into pogue life and Rafe seemed to disappear almost completely. It had always been an odd kind of friendship in the first place but you’d thought that it could’ve withstood a change in address.

Sarah kept in touch, unbothered by labels or mailing addresses. She’d been to your grandma’s a hundred times before you moved and she continued to go there to see you after. The two of you played in the backyard, doing tricks on the trampoline until gossiping about kids at school became more important than cartwheels. You’d lay there whispering as if someone might overhear, telling each other stories from the week that you were separated. Rafe always came to pick her up, staying in the car and honking the horn for her but never coming over to see you.

It felt a little lonely even though you technically retained most of your friends.

In tenth grade you got the role of Eponine in the teen camp production of Les Miserables that the local theatre was putting on. You were technically sharing the role with another girl your age but you couldn’t help being excited nonetheless. The boy playing Marius was in two of your classes, a senior who had lofty city dreams and a nice smile. He flirted almost constantly with you, brushing your hair back, telling you how pretty you were, inviting you out after practice. You told Sarah you were “pretty sure” you were on your way to having your first real boyfriend.

But maybe the ominous casting of Eponine over your life should’ve been hint enough that things weren’t destined to work out that way. The boy who played Marius had an actual girlfriend, home from vacationing with her family in time to watch her boyfriend on stage, and you were supposed to accept that he was just “connecting to the character” when he was with you. Either way, your On My Own struck a different chord in you and after the show was over you didn’t join the other cast members in the lobby to greet people.

“So when you get to New York...do I get to leak all those videos of you and Sarah doing your Genie in a Bottle routine?” Rafe asked, pulling a chair next to you at the makeup table. Yours was halfway off but you’d stopped scrubbing at your face to stare at yourself in the mirror. Self-pity was a powerful procrastinator.

“You’re supposed to be in the lobby.” You pointed out, ignoring his comment, “I look like a ghost raccoon that just climbed out of a dumpster.

“Now there’s an analogy.” He laughed and picked up the cotton pads you had sitting on the counter, soaking one in micellar water and turning your head to face him.

You bit your bottom lip as you tried to keep your composure. It’d been a while since you and Rafe had been alone and last time he was just your best friend’s cute older brother. Too old for you and way out of your league but you were fifteen now and seventeen didn’t feel so far away.

But Sarah was your best friend and she would be mortified if she found out that you had even entertained the idea of her brother, let alone had serious thoughts about it.

“I’m sorry,” you said as he swiped the cotton pad over your cheek.

“What for?”

“I know we’re all supposed to go out tonight for dinner but I kinda just wanna go home.” You replied.

“Sarah might’ve let it slip about-”

You groaned, “don’t even say his name.” You weren’t sure if it was embarrassment at having let yourself totally believe he liked you but hearing Rafe bring it up made you feel even worse.

“Hey, you’re so much better than that loser,” He insisted, “I’ll beat the crap outta him though, just say the word.”

It was that same year, just as school was ending, that you turned sixteen. A short stay in the cut at your grandma’s house had helped your mom get back on her feet. A new job, better than the one that let her go, afforded a moderately sized house back on Figure Eight and a birthday with all the friends that had left the two of you behind.

Sixteen felt a little more important than thirteen had, especially because, for two whole weeks, time suspended and you were technically only a year younger than Rafe. You still hadn’t told Sarah that you liked her brother, though she did seem a little suspicious when the crush on your co-star dissipated almost overnight. The boys of the past had no hold over your growing infatuation with Rafe. Maybe it was foolish but you couldn’t help thinking that maybe it wasn’t.

Especially not when he showed up at your house the same way he had when you were thirteen, though this time he had his actual license and not just a permit. He told you it was birthday drive around the island, that he was in charge of stalling you while Sarah set up a surprise party at your house.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to tell me that it’s a surprise.” You teased, sipping at the iced coffee that Rafe had brought you when he picked you up. You swished the ice around once before sipping again.

“It’s a party either way.” Rafe replied, shrugging his shoulder.

“So, we’re just driving around until she texts you?” You asked. Rafe turned into the Island Club, circling the parking lot once and then turning back around.

“I’m yours until Sarah says otherwise.” He said, the words erupting butterflies in your stomach. You could practically feel yourself heat up thinking about what those words could mean if he wasn’t just your best friend’s brother.

“Well...then do you wanna go to the beach?” You suggested, “Jaxon showed me this really cool spot on the south side that’s practically hidden.”

“Jaxon?” Rafe sounded judgmental when he said the other boy’s name, whether he meant to or not.

“Yea, we’ve been on a couple dates. You know him, he took me to prom,” you supplied, thinking of the way Rafe had sulked on the staircase while you and Sarah had gotten your pictures taken on the front lawn of Tanney Hill. The last picture in the bunch, despite his sulkiness, was of you and Rafe. You’d asked and he had obliged, coming down onto the porch to take a picture with you before everyone left for the dance.

It was your favorite picture, even more than the countless ones of you and Sarah or the few of you and Jaxon. He was just a place holder anyway, someone to take your mind off the thing you couldn’t have. Not that it was working, especially when you were driving around with Rafe at the moment.

“I remember him.” Rafe replied, “so this special part of the beach?”

“It’s so pretty.” You confirmed, “Sarah and I went there a couple weeks ago but she only ever wants to sunbathe.”

“Don’t say it like you’re surprised.” He said, pulling his car off to the side of the road when you told him to.

You were out of the car first, letting the door fall shut behind you as you headed up the wooden ramp to the beach. The drop off at the top was a little steeper here than anywhere else, the beach mostly desolate. You stopped at the top of the walkway, turning back to wait for Rafe. He was standing at the bottom of the ramp staring up at you.

“Are you coming up or what?” You called.

“Yeah,” he nodded, walking up the path to you.

“I know Sarah’s planning a big birthday for me, but I’d much rather have this...” you admitted, “just like, coming out to the beach with you...”

“Oh yeah?” He asked, grinning down at you.

“Don’t tell Sarah,” you joked, “she’ll be mad-”

“Why, cause I’m your favorite Cameron?”

Maybe it was being sixteen or maybe it was that you were feeling particularly bold, out here on the beach with just Rafe, no threat of prying eyes to interrupt you. Either way, you had been thinking about telling him for a while now and it felt like the time...even if getting rejected ran the risk of ruining your birthday.

“I know I’m just Sarah’s best friend but...I really like you Rafe.” You said, “and I know it’s like a million to one that you like me back but I just felt like I would explode if I didn’t tell you.” You waited a beat for him to say something and when he didn’t you kept talking, “Sorry, I know this is so weird-”

“It’s not weird.” Rafe cut you off, “I’m just shocked that you seriously think I only see you as Sarah’s best friend.” His tone was teasing as he brushed a piece of hair behind your ear and cupped your cheek. “You’re so much more than that.”

It was Sarah who told you, days before your eighteenth birthday. She’d seen Rafe with someone else when her family took a weekend trip out to Chapel Hill to see a game. There was a girl there, hanging all over her brother. He swore she was just a friend, told Sarah not to tell you, but Sarah wasn’t dumb and she wouldn’t help her brother cover up an indiscretion. So she told you flat out that her brother was cheating on you.

When Sarah first found out that you and Rafe were dating, she had been as mad as her thirteenth birthday. How could you go behind her back and date her brother? The anger dissipated slowly, over the course of the summer it became clear that were not going to leave her in the dust for Rafe. She wasn’t wholly supportive of the relationship but she was supportive of you and if Rafe was who you wanted to be with than she’d be happy for you.

But if she had to choose, it would always be you over Rafe.

“I didn’t want to tell you, I really thought about not saying anything but...you deserve to know.” It was the justification she used as your face fell, all the giddiness from planning your eighteenth birthday fading in the blink of an eye.

“He cheated?” And it felt like a punch to the gut. “Are you sure?”

“He said she was just a friend but...I don’t hang on my friends like that.” Sarah remarked.

You fiddled with the phone in your lap, Sarah’s comments turning over in your head. You could refute them, tell her that you’d just talked to him the night before and he told you how excited he was to see you, how much he loved you. He’d used the word love...that had to mean something right? You could call him, ask him straight away if he was actually cheating, but you suspected that he would only lie to you. And if he wasn’t cheating, if he did tell the truth, would you believe him? Sarah was your best friend and once she had planted the seeds of doubt in you, they seemed to flourish there.

You didn’t say anything else about it to Sarah that night and when Rafe called to talk, like he always did, you pretended that everything was fine. But that could only last for so long. A week before your party, on the same special part of the beach that Rafe had first kissed you, things ended. Rafe had sworn to Sarah that the girl at school was just a friend but he couldn’t lie to you, and he didn’t try to either.

“It was a mistake,” he insisted, as if it was the type of thing you could brush off.

“But you still made it.” You replied.

“I didn’t mean to.” Rafe didn’t have any good reasons for why he had cheated on, only that he had and that, since you now knew, he was apologetic. “I don’t even talk to that girl anymore. She meant nothing to me.”

“Obviously she meant more than we did.”

Rafe had been it for you for a long time. He seemed so out of your league and you had thought a million times that you would’ve done anything for him. He was the ideal for everything that you wanted and for a while, when you had it, had him, it had felt like a dream. But now you were waking up to reality and it wasn’t a sunset on the beach.

“I love you.” He said it like it was something you were neglecting to remember.

“Not enough.”

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inawickedlittletown · 3 years

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Baked With Love (Destiel fic) - 1/5

Summary: Dean never met Lisa's neighbor, but he knew one thing: whoever it was, they could bake. After breaking up with Lisa, the one thing Dean misses is her neighbor's pie. After finally meeting him, Cas' pie is not the only thing Dean likes.

On Ao3

------

The weird thing about the end of a relationship was all the little things that suddenly just came to an end. Things like Sunday brunch and dinner dates at restaurants that Dean would have never stepped foot in before. The best things to end were the arguments when Lisa would get mad every single week about Dean’s standing bar night with Sam. Or how often Lisa had expected Dean to get her flowers. In some ways, it was strange to re-calibrate to having free time again, but in the best way.

Dean found himself at The Roadhouse on a Wednesday night — something that would have never occurred while he was dating Lisa. Wednesday was not his and Sam’s usual night, but his brother met him there anyway.

“How are you holding up?” Sam asked after they were already a few beers in.

“What do you mean?”

“The break up, dude,” Sam said. “It’s been what? Two weeks?”

The thing that really cemented for him that he’d done the right thing breaking up with Lisa was that he didn’t even miss her. Dean had expected to, but the loss of the relationship didn’t really hurt. It was nothing like his last serious relationship with Cassie and maybe that was why Sam was so concerned. Cassie had broken him. It had been a long time after Cassie before Dean felt like he could do more than a one night stand. It was why Lisa had felt different, Dean had wanted more from her and yet somehow things just hadn’t worked. If he really had to think about it, he couldn’t even say that he missed the sex and considering how bendy Lisa was, that was saying something.

“I’m alright, Sammy,” Dean said. “I don’t think I actually let myself get attached, if I’m honest.”

Sam nodded.

“But, I do miss one thing,” Dean said. He took a gulp of his beer.

Sam made a face. “Ew, Dean!”

“What? No….I mean, she did yoga. But, no, I miss the pie.”

“Lisa baked?” Sam asked, his eyebrow raised.

Dean couldn’t help but laugh. “No. Definitely not. But she had this neighbor. I never met them, but every Friday they brought Lisa some sort of baked good. Sam, it was the best pie that I have ever tasted. Better than mom’s even. And now, no more pie.”

“Wow,” Sam said.

The crust had been flaky and sweet. The apples had had a crunch to them and there had been so much care put to the spices and the flavor. Dean had never believed in a higher power and yet eating that pie had felt like a religious experience.

—

A month after the break up, Dean ran into Lisa. He really should have known better than to stop at the cafe near the yoga studio, but Dean had been desperate for caffeine and it was a better option than Starbucks. While he was there, he couldn’t help but notice the pies on display and so he indulged in a slice of cherry pie. It left Dean on his own at a round table waiting for the coffee to kick in and savoring his pie. It wasn’t an amazing pie, but it was still pie. He was so single-focused on the pie that he almost didn’t see her at first, but then he looked up and spotted her.

She wore yoga leggings and a sports bra. Her hair was tied back into a neat ponytail and she was laughing with a gaggle of her yoga friends. Dean had met a few of them and he wasn’t ever going to be able to tell them apart.

As she turned to get into the line, her eyes swept right over Dean and then came back to him. Dean lifted his hand in an awkward wave. He didn’t expect Lisa to do more than similarly acknowledge him, but instead she headed his way.

“Dean,” she said.

“Hi,” Dean said back. “How, um, how have you been?”

Lisa actually smiled at him. “I’m alright. We had fun there for a while. And I just wanted to say, no hard feelings.”

“Good. Yeah. Uh, you too.”

Lisa pointed at the last few bites of Dean’s pie. “My neighbor came by last night and left me a loaf of banana bread. I had to bring it into yoga class because you weren’t around to eat it all.”

Dean chuckled. “Your neighbor should open up their own bakery. I would be their number one customer.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Lisa said.

“And, uh, you know, since no hard feelings and all, if your neighbor bakes a pie any time soon I am definitely available to take it off your hands. If that isn’t, you know, weird.”

Lisa actually threw her head back and laughed. “Do you want my neighbor’s number? Get you right to the source?”

He should have felt weird about it, especially because in the entire time that Dean had dated Lisa, he’d never actually seen Lisa’s neighbor. He’d always pictured the neighbor as a nice older woman who lived alone and didn’t have anyone to share her baking with.

“Look, Cas is a sweetheart and it won’t be weird or anything.”

Maybe, it would be less weird than using Lisa as some sort of go between. No matter how amicable their break up had been, Dean figured they probably shouldn’t see much of each other.

“Alright, then,” Dean said.

Lisa nodded. She grabbed her phone out and a moment later Dean had a text with Cas’ phone number.

—

It was almost a month later when Dean saw Lisa again. This time, it was because she was having car trouble and didn’t know where else to go but to the only mechanic that Lisa knew: Dean.

Dean co-owned Singer Auto. It had once belonged to his uncle, Bobby Singer. Bobby wasn’t even really his uncle by blood, but he’d been a family friend for so long that everyone considered Bobby family. When Bobby decided to retire a few years earlier, he’d offered Dean the shop. It was Dean that insisted on buying it from him. Bobby had eventually been worn down to selling half the business to Dean.

Dean ran the day to day, but Bobby stopped in every once in a while — when he got bored mostly — and did a bit here and there. Business was going well.

Lisa’s car had been in good shape when Dean was dating her, but when she called him up, it was because her car wasn’t starting. Dean talked her through tightening up the battery terminals but the car still didn’t start.

“You might need a new battery,” Dean said.

Before Dean could offer to head to her place to jump the battery and get the car over to the shop, Lisa told her her neighbor had just come out and offered to do it.

“And I’ll just drive it straight over to you.”

Lisa arrived not long after and with her came a tupperware container of chocolate chip cookies.

“From my neighbor,” Lisa said. “I asked and Cas said you never called.”

It wasn’t that Dean had forgotten as much as that he’d felt awkward calling someone he didn’t really know just to ask them if he could buy some pie from them. He was sort of rethinking Cas being an older grandma type, though, what with the whole giving Lisa’s car a jump thing. Maybe Cas was younger than Dean expected, or a woman that knew how to bake and their way around a car.

“Call Cas, Dean,” Lisa said. “It would be rude not to. Cas is expecting a call.”

Replacing her battery didn’t take long and Lisa reminded him to call her neighbor again before she left. The taste of Cas’ cookies after they were all gone later that day made him decide that he would call Lisa’s neighbor.

—

He sent a text instead of calling. He did it early, right between breakfast and leaving for work. A kind of rip the band-aid off type of thing.

Hi. This is Dean.

And then because that felt like not enough at all. He sent a second:

Lisa gave me your number because of how much I gush about your pie.

Hope this isn’t weird.

And when that didn’t seem like enough either.

Feel free to ignore me if this is too strange to you, but I am very willing to pay you to bake me a pie.

He read them all over a couple of times before sending one last text.

Thank you. And promise, I’m just very enthusiastic about pie.

After that, he just dropped his phone on the couch next to him and groaned. He wanted to take back all the texts. Lisa’s neighbor was going to think he was crazy.

By the time Dean set off to work, he had no response which was probably for the better.

Work was busy that day. It was a constant. They had a bunch of appointments lined up. Some easy jobs like doing an oil change, but others were more complicated — the type of thing that would take days to finish. Then, there were the people that just stopped by on the chance that Dean or one of his mechanics were free. So, Dean didn’t get to glance at his phone once the whole morning. And because Sam showed up during his lunch, he didn’t look at it then either.

It wasn’t until he got home, after a long shower to get rid of all the grime and the smell of motor oil that clung to him, that Dean even glanced at his phone.

Hello, Dean.

Lisa mentioned I might get a call from you. Your texts were a humorous way to start my morning. It is not weird to be complimented on something I love to do. Baking is a passion of mine. I would love to bake you a pie. Lisa mentioned my apple double crust was your favorite.

Payment is not necessary. Friday is the earliest I will have time, if that works for you. I’ll have it ready for you to pick up by six.

-Cas

Cas sounded formal. It was hard to infer age or gender, but Dean supposed none of that mattered when it came to it, not when this Cas person could bake a pie that was rivaled by no other.

I would feel weird not paying you for all that hard work. Friday is great. Thanks again.

Dean was going to make sure he gave Cas something for the pie. The whole thing already felt a little strange, but for Dean it would feel even stranger to take the pie for free.

When he and Sam met up that night, Dean didn’t bring up the whole weirdness with Lisa’s neighbor, but when Sam asked if Dean wanted to do something on Friday night he turned him down.

“What, you have a date or something?” Sam asked.

Dean denied it, but his brother didn’t seem to actually believe him.

—

On Friday, it was Cas that texted Dean first, with an address to the house on the right of Lisa’s, as well as confirmation for pick up any time after six. Dean read the text over his lunch and he texted an affirmative before he got back to work.

The shop closed at five. Dean went home and got showered and cleaned up. And because it felt like he’d come off as too eager to show up at six on the dot, he busied himself cleaning his kitchen and getting his laundry sorted so he could put it in the wash later. After that, he went through the pile of mail that he hadn’t looked at all week. It was almost seven when he texted Cas to let him know he was on his way.

Cas’ house looked almost identical to Lisa’s and all the other houses on that street. A neat lawn in the front, a Victorian style with a large porch, a detached garage in front of which sat an electric blue Jeep. Not the type of car that should have belonged to the middle aged woman that Dean had been expecting. He parked his car on the street, feeling just a little strange that he wasn’t pulling into Lisa’s driveway. A glance over there told Dean that Lisa wasn’t home.

As he walked up, the first thing that Dean noticed was that Cas’ mailbox was shaped like a bee. It was really well made and adorable to boot.

He gave the doorbell a ring and didn’t wait long for someone to come to the door. As the door pulled open, Dean was startled by a car screeching by. He turned away, looking out as a Honda Civic narrowly missed Dean’s Impala as it drove off. For a moment, Dean had almost stopped breathing.

“I don’t know how that kid managed to get his license,” a voice from behind him said. A deep, masculine voice.

Dean turned, slowly. Cas had stepped out and Dean’s breath caught.

Cas was a man that stood almost at Dean’s height. His dark hair was tousled, his eyes were the bluest eyes that Dean had ever seen, and over a lean and muscular frame, he wore an apron that in cursive letters said “Save The Bees”.

“Hello, Dean,” Cas said and his chapped lips broke into a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. “I’m actually a little behind, so your pie just made it into the oven. But, come on in.”

“Uh,” Dean couldn’t find words. How had Lisa not told him that her neighbor was a guy. A very attractive guy.

Part Two

#destiel #destiel fic #deancas fic #supernatural fic #deancas #supernatural #fanfic #my fic #this fic is all fluff

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ladycatofwinterfell · 3 years

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Dealing with the consequences, part 2

Summary: One day, six months after they move into their new house, Ned and Cat wake up to an unfortunate surprise. This small and seemingly insignificant event sets things into motion, and they try their best to repair what they can despite that they have messed up before. Because maybe, just maybe, they can do things a little bit better that time around. And you know what they say, third time’s the charm.

Consequences

This chapter will be entirely from Cat's POV, and I plan to make the next one all about Ned, but we'll see about that. Anyway, hope you like it <3

“Hello, Ned” Minisa said when Ned came inside.

Catelyn was glad for that only her mother had come. It would have been a lot harder if she had brought Dad as well. He and Ned didn’t really get along. He didn’t know everything and had therefore immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was Ned that had wronged his daughter in some way, and not the other way around. Mom was kinder and for that Catelyn was immensely grateful. She loved her father but sometimes he made things a lot harder than they had to be.

“Hello, Minisa.”

Minisa had Sansa on her lap and was gently bouncing the overjoyed baby up and down. Sansa had previously spent ten minutes trying to eat her grandma’s hair.

“Is it okay if we eat?” Catelyn asked. “I’m quite hungry.”

“I’m gonna leave soon, I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”

For just a second Catelyn got eye contact with Ned over her Mom’s shoulder as he walked into the kitchen to get plates for them. The scent of something that smelled much like her favorite pasta was filling the room and she had to hold back a smile. He knew just what she liked.

“We’re doing fine” she assured her mother.

They were doing fine. A bit of uncertainty, a dash of conflicted feelings, a few unsolved problems. But fine. Maybe no more than fine, but definitely fine. They did their things, raised their kids, lived their lives.

“Except for the kitchen, of course” she added.

They were definitely not doing fine on that point.

“Yes, what is your plan for that?”

“I’ve been looking at some options today while Ned was at work, but we’re gonna talk more about it.”

It had been deadly dull and she wasn’t looking forward to sitting down with Ned and look into it more, but it would probably be a little more bearable than doing it alone. Sansa really hadn’t been of much help.

“Would you like any help with that?” Minisa asked and smiled.

She smiled like Catelyn was a child who had no idea of that she was doing. Sure, she had no idea at all of what she was doing sometimes, but she was an adult and could figure it out.

“No, we have this.”

The last thing they needed was family members coming with more or less, most often less, helpful advice. It would only stress them. The only one she took advice from was Cersei, which was strange considering where that had taken her. But at least Cersei didn’t pretend that her advice was great advice and that she always knew best... Who was Catelyn trying to fool, she definitely did that. Maybe she was just supposed to stop taking advice.

“Okay.”

That smile didn’t go away.

“Don’t look at me like that” Catelyn said firmly.

Perhaps a little bit firmer than intended, but that pitiful gaze was driving her nuts.

“I’m not looking at you in any particular way” Minisa said, raising her eyebrows.

“But you are” Catelyn sighed. “And I know all of you doubt everything I do, and that you have done so since I had Robb, but can you please not? Because I’m sick of it.”

It wasn’t doing any damage to anyone. Her son was a happy child, her daughter would be as well because no matter what she would be loved and cared for. And she knew what her situation must have looked like from the outside, but she was so goddamn tired of people judging without knowing a damn thing.

“Oh Cat, we don’t doubt you. We know you always try to do the right thing and that you’re doing your best, as we all are...” she paused, waved a hand through the air, and when she spoke again she had lowered her voice. “But are you really fine? Are you happy?”

Catelyn had to keep in a number of angry responses. She couldn't really be angry because of course her mother would be worried. That was what mothers did, they worried. Catelyn worried for Robb, she worried for Sansa, she understood. But the small difference was that her kids were still kids, while she herself was a grown woman.

“I am” she said. “My kids are happy pills and I have the luck to live with a man who is probably a better person to live with than most. And I have a good job, and friends, so I don’t have much to complain about.”

She definitely wasn’t unhappy. Of course everything didn’t feel great all the time, but she was building with what she had. And that was fine. Not fantastic, but fine. She had a few things to complain about, but not enough for there to be a serious problem. Okay, there was a pretty serious problem, but she couldn't acknowledge that without Ned and he pretty much refused to acknowledge that.

“Okay.”

Her mother was smiling again. But it wasn’t the same smile as before, and that was a relief.

“I think I should get home to your father now, but it was nice to see you and little Sansa again.”

“It was nice seeing you too” Catelyn said.

Seeing her family was always nice, her mother’s timing just hadn’t been ideal. There was a lot of feelings going on.

“You don’t need to hide anymore, she’s gone!” she shouted at Ned once the door had closed behind Minisa.

He had been in the kitvhen for much longer than necessary and she knew perfectly well why.

“Oh thank the gods!”

She had to laugh at that.

They discussed what she had been looking at during the day while they ate. She had been right about the pasta, and it was just as amazing as usual. They got somewhere with what they were going to do an everything felt a little better when they agreed about it. She wished that could have applied to other discussions as well, but she had to do with what she got. At least the kitchen would be fixed.

“We’ll have to take everything out tomorrow or Sunday if they’re gonna be here Monday” Ned said.

“We should turn off the electricity in the kitchen as soon as possible, so I think we should do it tomorrow” Catelyn responded through a mouthful of pasta.

“We’ll have to move the fridge and the freezer out here.”

“Ah, damnit, as if the table wasn’t enough.”

After dinner she handed their daughter to Ned and then she had a shower. She had been longing for that shower all day, there hadn’t really been time for it and Sansa was never too happy when Catelyn showered.

She came down the stairs half an hour later to a sight so perfect that she had to stop for a moment. It really was a dangerous thing, living together. Because then she could see stuff like that and be hit straight in the face with the desire to have it like that always. They were a family, that was true, but she wished it could have been full circle. She wished she could have looked at the man lying on the couch with their baby and think “that’s my husband and our baby”. Instead it was just “that’s the man I have a messed up relationship with and our baby”. She wished they could have been something to each other as well, she wished things had been different.

“Say whatever you want about the mess we created, but we do make cute babies” Ned said, looking at the small bundle sleeping on his chest.

When they had been together long ago he had never expressed a wish to have children. He had actually seemed quite opposed to it. That had been one of the reasons for why she had done as she did. But just that second she couldn’t understand how she had ever thought that, because the way he looked at their daughter was so soft and loving. He was a great father. What she was looking at was the way it was supposed to be.

“Yeah. We do.”

The knowledge of that they could make good things as well, that not everything they did together ended up being terrible, made her happy. They had made Sansa. And Robb, but Robb was different. Robb was hers. Sansa was theirs. And she was perfect, Catelyn could look at her for hours. She had looked at Robb that way when he was a baby as well.

“I’m a bit amazed by it” she added. “That we created her.”

“I’d love to take some credit for this lovely little thing, but it was mostly you.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you.”

He had given her Sansa, and he had been with her through almost everything despite that he had been very angry at her. And she most likely wouldn’t have been able to take care of another baby completely on her own, no matter what she had thought in the beginning. Or, well, she would have been able to do it, the question was about whether or not she would have been fine while doing it.

Catelyn sat on the edge of the couch and laid a hand on Sansa’s back. She was so tiny. Robb had been much bigger.

“I had almost forgotten what it feels like to have a small baby” Ned said.

“Me too. She’s entirely dependent on us. We are necessary for her survival.”

“That’s crazy.”

She looked at him. He turned his eyes from Sansa and to her. But that thing in his eyes, the one she associated with how he watched her daughter, the one she associated with love, that thing was still there.

“It’s nice though, isn’t it?” Catelyn said softly. “Being that important to someone.”

“It is.”

She couldn’t help but smile, and when he smiled as well she had to look away. Damnit. What was she playing at, what was she trying to do? What was he trying to do?

“I should put her to bed.”

When she reached for Sansa he took one of her hands and held it. She met his eyes once more.

“Ned. We really shouldn’t...”

“I know, I know.”

She carefully took their daughter and held the still sleeping baby to her chest. She could feel how Sansa breathed steadily. It was always calming to feel that since she was still in the phase when she was constantly terrified of that her baby would just stop breathing and die.

Ned sat up. That brought him much closer to her, she could almost feel the heat radiating from his body.

“Why do you want to?” she asked, keeping her gaze on Sansa. “You haven’t forgiven me, we haven’t fixed anything, why do you want to?”

He was quiet and Catelyn was just about to leave the couch and take Sansa upstairs when he answered.

“I don’t know. Why do you want to?”

She could answer that question in a heartbeat.

“Because I miss you.”

She did. She missed him. He was right there, but not like he had been before. And that was her own fault. Everyone could have been happy if it had not been for what she did.

“I miss you too.”

Why had he said that? Anything else would have been better, anything else would have made it easier to stay away.

“How can you do that when you hate me?” she asked.

“I don’t hate you. I hate what you did, I’m angry and I won’t forgive you, but I don’t hate you.”

“It sure as hell would have been easier if you did.”

He chuckled at that. But it wasn’t a happy sound.

“I don’t know if I’m able to. Sometimes I wish that I could, but I can’t. You did something to me that hurt me and still I can’t hate you. Maybe that is the reason for why I want to.”

That made no sense at all. But nothing ever really made sense. Or maybe it did and she just couldn’t understand it. At least she wasn’t alone in that, she had a strong feeling of that he probably understood nothing as well.

“Because you can’t hate me?”

“Clearly there is something about you that stops me from that, no matter if I like it or not.”

Despite that everything in her screamed at her not to do it, she leaned a bit closer to him. She couldn’t do that, she couldn’t, but she wanted to. It felt like she had never wanted something more.

“I can’t” she forced out. “This won’t make anything better.”

If anything it could make everything worse.

“No, but what can make things better?” he sighed.

She had asked herself that question a million times. What could make it better? She didn’t know. He almost refused to talk about it, gave her nothing on what she was supposed to do. It felt like she was walking in a dark room with no way of knowing where the light switch was. What she did know was that she was incredibly tired of it. It was draining. She was the one who had turned off the lights, but she was still tired of it.

She moved away from him again.

“Am I supposed to answer that? I’m not the one who won’t talk.”

And suddenly his face was no longer soft, but hard and cold as the northern winter.

“Have you considered that maybe trusting you is a bit hard after you kept a child secret?”

“I’m not asking you to trust me, I’m asking you to talk to me. This is the closest we have been to a meaningful conversation in more than a year. I just want to know what you want me to do.”

“I don’t want you to do anything. You have messed up enough as it is.”

All that worked as quite a reminder of why she had not said anything about that earlier. They wouldn’t get anywhere with that, there was no point in trying. And she didn’t want to fight, she didn’t have the energy for that, so she simply stood up and took Sansa upstairs to her crib.

Catelyn stayed in her room for the remainder of that evening. It was better than risking anything. He didn’t want to fight either, she was well aware of that. But it was hard, and multiple times she found herself almost going to him. To apologize, or try to talk again, or anything, really. She didn’t know what she wanted to do, but she wanted to do something. The fact that she had no idea about what to do ached in her. She hated not having a grip of the situation.

And when she heard him come up the stairs she just couldn’t stop herself. She opened the door, but he walked right past her.

“I would take it back if I could” she said, leaning against the doorframe. “And I’m sorry.”

Ned stopped. He didn’t turn to look at her, but he sighed.

“I know you are because I know you’re not a bad person. You never meant to hurt anyone, but here we are.”

It was slowly killing her to see him hurt so. It hurt in her as well. Because she loved him. She had denied it for quite some time, but she did love him. Otherwise it wouldn’t have hurt so much. Otherwise the guilt wouldn’t have been eating her up from the inside.

“Here we are” she mumbled and once again wondered where they would have been if it had been different.

“Loving you is undoubtedly the hardest thing I have ever done.”

She could say the same. Loving him was the hardest thing she had ever done. But she loved him all the same.

“Don’t you mean it was? It should be past tense.”

“No.”

That didn’t make any– oh. Oh.

“Ned.”

He loved her. And she loved him. Catelyn had never experienced a stranger emotion than the mix of joy and sorrow that filled her at that realization. It was supposed to be a good thing, and to some extent it was, but at the same time it kept them from going forward.

Ned just continued to his room, not looking back at her. That time she didn’t hesitate before following him, she couldn’t leave it there.

“Ned” she repeated, laying a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Cat” he responded.

When he turned around he was so close to her that she could almost feel his breath on her face.

“I’m sorry” she whispered and turned her gaze to the floor. “I’m so sorry.”

She didn’t know what she was apologizing for. For keeping the secret for so long, for showing up at his house one day without a warning, for partaking in the affair, for that he still loved her. Maybe it was all of it. Maybe it was something entirely different.

He leaned his forehead against hers and she could feel the tears in her eyes. Why did it have to be so hard? Why couldn’t it be easy? She was exhausted.

“I love you, and I miss you” Ned said. “That is why.”

The only thing Catelyn could do in response to that was kiss him. It wasn’t accidental, it wasn’t something she did in confusion, she did it because she wanted to. Because she believed he wanted to as well. And it felt just as good as she had imagined when he pulled her closer to him and deepened the kiss.

~*~

She had not meant to fall asleep afterwards. She had meant to go to her room and sleep there. But still she woke to the sound of Sansa’s cries and did not realize where she was at first. It took her a moment to understand to who that warm arm around her belonged to.

Ned stirred when she moved away from him and climbed off the bed. She began gathering up her clothes from the floor. It definitely was time to move back to her bedroom and she might just as well do it when she had to go to Sansa.

“I can take her” Ned offered.

“No” Catelyn said, perhaps a bit too quickly. “I’ll do it. I should get back to my room anyway.”

She left before he had time to say anything else. The night before she had been too caught up in the moment to feel ashamed about it. But after that sated bliss had left her she could look at it in another light. Last time things had ended so terribly bad. And the circumstances were very different that time around, sure, but still something tightened in her chest. How would he feel about it? Would he regret it? Would he regret sleeping with her again after what she had done? She didn't want to go back to how it had been between them mere months earlier.

She held Sansa in her arms and kissed the top of her little head. She wasn’t hungry and was quite quickly soothed back to sleep. But Catelyn wasn’t quick to put her down.

She half expected Ned to come after her. Or maybe she just wished he would. She didn’t know. But he never came and in the end she put Sansa down and crawled into her own bed. And she couldn’t help but thinking of that morning in the kitchen when he had made her pancakes. It had been more than a year since that. And a lot had happened. But she felt the same as she had felt then. She wanted to be with him. All of him. They were living together, she had been in his bed just minutes earlier. It was more than she had had back then, before Sansa. But she still didn’t have every part of him. And she was very sure of that he would never give it all to her. She understood that, and she was aware of that she had fucked up badly. But it still hurt.

Catelyn had slept little when morning came, Sansa had refused to sleep longer than an hour at a time, which was unusual. But Catelyn still wasn’t that tired. And she heard when Ned passed her door and walked down the stairs. Always the early riser. Even up earlier than the baby.

She wanted to stay in bed longer. Because she had no idea about what to do or say when she saw him. It had been fine. Why had they decided to throw sex into the mix as well and shake everything up? She didn’t know. But it had felt so damn good that she was almost ready to take every consequence there was just for more of it. And they loved each other.

After a while Sansa decided that it was time to get up for them too. So Catelyn fed her and then took her downstairs.

“Mornin’” Ned said when she came downstairs.

He didn’t look up from the newspaper he was reading. Was he as stressed about all of it as she was? Or was he as calm as he seemed? She genuinely had no idea. Lately it had been very hard to understand his feelings and what he wanted. She just didn't want them to hurt each other because of it.

“Good morning” she responded as she put Sansa in her chair.

It felt a bit weird to have the kitchen table in the living room, but they would have all of their kitchen in the living room in a day when they started renovating the kitchen.

Ned put away his newspaper and directed his attention towards Sansa instead. He was great at keeping her in a good mood.

The morning slowly passed. They did some cleaning, which was a hundred times easier when Robb and Jon weren’t home. Lovely lads, but terrible at putting things away. And Catelyn had not even reflected over that they had baby stuff literally everywhere, but she did when she was picking it all up. She could only imagine what it would be like once Sansa learned to walk.

It was actually quite nice. They didn’t talk much, but it didn’t feel bad at all. He even smiled at her occasionally so he couldn’t hate it too much, right? It could go well.

After lunch they took boxes down from the attic and began packing down things they had in the kitchen. Catelyn was surprised by how many things they had after only having lived there for half a year. They were just taking a break when she got a messege

haven't seen you in a while, wanna take a walk or something?

The timing for that couldn't have been better and an hour later Catelyn found herself walking towards the little coffee shop a few blocks from their house so that she could get some desperately needed coffee before meeting up with Cersei. Ned had happily taken Sansa for an hour so that she could go out for a walk, he was probably glad to be rid of her for a while. He probably needed some time to reflect, just as she did. It had been hard to do so while being just a few meters apart.

“Well, don’t you look miserable?” was the first thing Cersei said. “Baby keeping you awake?”

“Among other things” Catelyn responded and took a sip of her coffee.

She regretted it when she burned her tongue and pulled a face. She should have known that she had to wait until it cooled down a bit. But she should have known that last night as well. And that hadn’t exactly stopped her.

“And your kitchen flooded. You’re really living the dream life.”

Catelyn had to smile. She was living quite the opposite of the dream life.

“Fucked up relationship, flooded kitchen, kids that won’t sleep, people wish they were me.”

Cersei snorted.

“You still call that a relationship?”

She hesitated for a moment. Was it a good idea to tell Cersei about it? She didn’t want to keep it to herself, but it was still so new, she didn’t know what to do with it. But what would change if she told Cersei? Nothing. So she decided to go for it.

“I don’t know what else to call it.”

“Have you considered dating or seeing someone else?”

She had absolutely not considered that. Who would have wanted her anyway? She was living with an ex and three children between the ages of ten and five months. So even if she had been interested in that the situation really wasn’t ideal for it.

“No. And he told me he loves me last night. I don’t know what that makes it, but it sure is something.”

She had expected some sort of reaction from Cersei, but the blonde only shrugged.

“Huh, I thought it would take longer.”

And what exactly did Cersei mean by that?

“What?”

“I knew it would come sooner or later, but not this soon. Ned’s a stubborn son of a bitch.”

Catelyn had to stop and look at her. That it would come sooner or later? Had she not listened when Catelyn told her about what had happened before? Ned had barely spoken to her for weeks, had refused to meet her eyes. There had been no sign of love, no sign of that they could ever be what they had been before. How could she have expected that?

“How could you have known that?” she exclaimed.

“Because I’ve been observing this relationship for years now, darling” Cersei laughed. “And no matter what happens you two always manage to snake your way back to each other. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, I’m just saying that’s how it is.”

It would have felt better if she could dismiss that as something that wasn’t true, but Catelyn knew it was. Nothing had ever stopped them before so she probably should have expected it to happen. She should have been ready. She hadn’t been ready. Not for him telling her that he loved her.

“I don’t know if it’s a good thing either” she sighed. “It just feels like we’re digging through rock bottom together.”

“That’s not great.”

“No. I thought that maybe it was about to get better now, that maybe we could finally move forward, but instead we just fell down the hole. Again. And I can’t even be mad about it because I love him.”

She didn’t want to feel that way, but she did. It should have been a good thing, love was a good thing, and how many nights had she not dreamt of them being happy with each other again? But that was the thing, she had dreamt of happiness. And at the moment their love didn’t make any of them happy. At least Ned wasn’t happy. And how could he ever be? When he loved the woman who had wronged him so terribly. It would have been a lot more welcome if they had talked more first, and actually started fixing their relationship.

“Maybe admitting that you love each other is what it takes for you to start digging upwards instead of downwards” Cersei said, sounding way too optimistic for Catelyn’s liking.

She couldn’t escape the feeling of that his feelings for her made him unhappy. That he disliked it. And it was hard to blame him for it. She just didn't want to hurt him more. She couldn't stand the thought of making things worse for him.

“I guess you could fix this if you want to. But the question is whether or not it’s a good idea.”

Catelyn had to believe it was a good idea. For the sake of her children. And for hers and Ned's sake. She wanted it to work so badly that it ached in her. And if they fucked up yet another time she would never forgive herself.

“I don’t know if he wants to. We’re in the same house because of the kids, not because he wants a relationship.”

It was fully possible that it had made him realize that he didn't want it at all and that he didn't want it to be more than a thing that happened once. She didn't want to dive right into it if he was going to back out as soon as it was brought up again.

“You haven’t talked to him?” Cersei asked, seemingly surprised.

“No. We tried to talk, got irritated with each other, I apologized and he told me he loves me and then–“ she stopped herself from finishing that sentence.

Cersei laughed again.

“I knew it!”

“Oh shut up, that’s really not important.”

The important part was literally everything but that. But she would have to talk to Ned about everything, she understood that. He understood it as well. Because they couldn’t just leave it there. Some things they just had to deal with as soon as possible.

They should have had that conversation the first thing that morning, but they hadn’t. They had had a good time instead.

“The mood was good this morning though, so maybe I shouldn’t be so pessimistic” she added. “I don’t know, I’m not brave enough to hope for anything because if I get my hopes up and it falls apart yet another time I’m gonna lose my mind.”

“I believe you shouldn’t think too much on it before you have actually talked about it with him. Because worrying isn’t doing anything good for you.”

“You’re probably right. I just don’t want us to go into it too fast and end up messing things up for ourselves and our kids.”

“I get that, Cat. But you really should talk to each other. I’m definitely no relationship expert, I have my fair share of mistakes regarding that, but even I can see that you two fucking suck at talking.”

"Oh believe me, I know."

But she was going to talk to him because walking around and being uncertain was quickly becoming unbearable.

#catelyn stark #catelyn tully #ned stark #ned x cat #minisa tully #cersei lannister #sansa stark #consequences #dealing with the consequences #i was planning to post earlier but i got distracted by a friend so im sorry about that but here's the chapter

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futurewriter2000 · 3 years

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' There are a lot of things that remind me of you. More than things should make another person nostalgic, literally everything makes me nostalgic for you.

It's odd because I got over you but the bus rides remind me of you. The day you bought me a bus ticket and the way you laid your head on the bus window. Your hair were so greasy and you closed your eyes meanwhile I talked. The scene was like picked out from a movie and I remembered it since then. Every time I ride the bus, I sit on our designated seats and for one person, four seats are too much. It almost makes me feel selfish but I just grew attached to it. I remember you sitting across me or two seats next to me. I remember your ripped jeans, white and black, both pairs that you wore. I remember the bus station you waited on, and the path you walked me home on and your block... and the bus station near my block where we met to go out and the bus station I walked you to... and the bench we sat on... and I just remember so much of you that it still makes my eyes tear up.

I remember the conversations we had about horror movies and anime... and I remember how other conversations we had made right triangle and Pythagoras' theorem a thing for us. I remember conversations about having trust issues and when you had told me about your ex and a random girl, who stole your favorite bandana hoodie. I remember the water that you bought us that morning when we got high on the meadow and my shoes were covered in drawings of your cat you named Snow and the triangles, flowers... I cannot wear the grandma jacket I wore that day. Every time I spray myself with Dolce Gabbana The One parfume, it reminds me of you because I wore it for you. I remember how I couldn't climb the stupid wall because it was too high and we just spent laughing for five solid minutes. I remember you telling me that you loved my energy. That morning you sent me your plushie with wack eyes, your favorite hoodie, your plant... I came home with such a smile on my face- God, I told so many people about that day because it was like a movie. With you it was always like a movie.

I didn't know what was going through your head since then but something did because when I was working morning shifts, standing there completely asleep as I had no time for my coffee, you scared me half to death and laughed. People thought you and me had something... we did, actually. We did have something but nobody knew what, not even us. I don't know why but since that moment you started to push me away and I remember that so clearly for some odd reason.

I could say that it felt like a summer fling but it happened from November till March. Then in April... you just started disappearing and how can somebody just disappear? I beat myself sensless since then. Crying and crying and crying and crying because I lost somebody special but it wasn't just that. I believed that somehow you thought I wasn't good enough to be in your life... or funny enough or that I was just too weird for you- I don't know. I just felt I was losing my mind over you. That you just left without saying anything... not even a goodbye. You just disappeared.

I worked those night shifts without you and I sat at the same table we sat, we met, we talking about pencils, us drinking red-bulls (some days you bought them for us, some days I bought them for us), you trying coconut chips and judging me for it, me getting you pistachios, me making no sense with a story because you just listened and I got lost because nobody listened that much to me... I didn't know where to eat because we spent time everywhere in that place. The stupid heater and you standing there looking at it like you had seen God. The bench where I sat and you stood, smoking. Some days I woke up and even though you weren't there, I smelled it and I took such a deep breath of it because I missed you so much. You making no sense by asking me why I don't smoke. Which is saved in my drawer of our weird conversations about how to fall asleep if you cannot sleep, how some scenes in horror movies are actually funny instead of scary, throwing up while high- which reminds me of the day we went to get burgers for us three and I paid and you looked at me and were like so confused of why. Well, I like to give to my friends and that is who I considered you to be for all those months.

I should have seen the red flags thought. The mood swings you got out of the blue, the tired eyes and the way you snapped at me sometimes, the hot and cold energy, the way you invited us to spend New Years but bailed, the invite to your birthday party and you bailed even though all of us got you a birthday present already... you said only pistachios from me would be fine... I didn't take that at all. Some people told me to get you a ring and I thought that was a bit too weird. It might look like I was proposing to you and you always were curious of what I got you for your birthday. I feel like you still are at some point. I got you matching Rick and Morty bucket hats... and pistachios because you don't eat sweets.

God, there are so many memories that place me back in that time. You telling me to must watch that show... my mask getting stuck to my brand new piercing and you helping me get it off... every time it got stuck to my hair. It got stuck just this week again and I thought of you and a rush of memories came with that but I just brushed it off. They don't affect me like they would... like they did when you left, I was working the same place where I was that day we were by ourselves. You drew on my shoes, every time we went on a break, Maria- I hope you still remember her because I do and she was the sweetest person. The grandma sweater that I adore, now it always hangs in my closet. My parfume- and the duck tape- OH! And my uniform that I drew on that same day. The cereal that sucks by the way. You have a terrible taste in cereal, which reminds me that you promised me a chicken burger and I had never recieved it from you.

And then I quit because I was so lost without you. I quit and I spent a month and a half gathering myself together. And the first night after I quit there, I met a great guy but by the end of the night I still thought of you. That was when I needed to start the whole letting go of you process that was going quite well... up until I thought of you out of the blue when I was blending strawberries and banana. I have no clue how you popped into my head like that but you did at times but this time making a smoothie had no connections to you- so I thought that maybe you were heavily thinking of me. Since then, you had been on my mind all the time. I went back to work and it was weird at first but I was okay. I wasn't crying on the bus back home, that's for one. Which meant that I was a step further than I was before but I still wanted to see you. I still wanted to see just a peek of you that you were alive. Maybe at the bus station, maybe at the path, maybe somewhere in my town but... the only day I didn't take the bus, my co-worker said she saw you. And I was shocked at first and I was mad that the only time I didn't take the bus, I could see you. Then she said you didn't really look well and I got upset because if I hate something more than sea food, it's hearing that somebody I used to care for a lot isn't doing well. I cried that day for you, after a long time but also decided that day that you're not my problem anymore. You're not a burden, you're not something I have to think of all the time... and I was glad I didn't see you that day because if I would, I'd be stuck again. I don't want to be stuck again... ever... because you mean a lot to me but not seeing you made you mean less to me. I know the moment we see each other again, you'll mean a lot to me again but I won't be emotionally attached like I used to be.

I moved on. I got over you. Something I didn't think I would. Back then when I was moving on, I was crying because I was moving on and I didn't want to. I loved memories of us, us in general. I missed your laugh and your smile and your eyes, your hair, your jacket, your jeans... just you but that's all they were becoming. Memories. All the people from my past start coming back to me and when they did, I just put you among them. You're behind. You're the past but a great yet complicated past.

And now there is somebody new in my life and I don't know where this will take us but he's great. He's stable and honest... and great. He sort of talks like you, which reminds me of you but he's not you and I like that about him. He's funny and smart and he likes books. He's got a really nice smile and he's interested in the same things I am. He keeps asking me questions and he listens to my answers. He's sweet and he also made me realise that I should really stop missing out on good things because of you.

You were a good thing in my life... up to a point you weren't anymore.

But now he's a good thing in my life and he makes promises he can keep. I love that about him...'

#this is my coping mechanism #Love #friendship #friends #strangers with memories i guess #stranger #moving on #Heartbreak

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gumnut-logic · 4 years

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Not sure about this, but here it is.

For @soniabigcheese cos she ignited it.

-o-o-o-

Virgil had never felt so confined and uncomfortable in his uniform. His baldric was heavy and his collar itched. He shoved fingers between the material and his skin and scratched it raw.

“Stop that, honey.” A small hand reached up and pulled his hand away. He sighed and let his shoulders drop as Grandma wrapped her fingers around his.

They were standing in the foyer of Tracy Tower in Auckland. Scott had been determined that if the press wanted the story, they had to come to them. That and setting it up in public, in front of the massive feat of architecture and engineering most certainly helped to remind people of the power and money behind the Tracy brothers.

Virgil just hoped that they would also remember the good his family did on a daily basis. Not just through International Rescue, but via Tracy Industries itself - its technology, its philanthropy, its genuinely caring contribution to the world.

They weren’t just another billionaire family.

They cared.

Grandma was straightening his collar, her actions a sign of her unease more so than her words. “We will get through this, Virgil.”

He wrapped his hands around hers and stilled their nervous movements, attempting to catch her eyes. “Yes, Grandma, we will.”

She smiled up at him. “Yes, we will.” A glance behind him and she frowned. “Even if Alan eats the entire buffet.”

Virgil turned around to find Alan hovering over the food laid out on the reception desk. The red of his baldric glowed in the shafts of natural light filtering down from the windows far above them. Virgil subconsciously acknowledged the structural design work that managed to get direct sunlight all the way down here in the centre of a major city.

His littlest brother tended to eat when nervous.

Gordon was pacing back and forth a little further away, his yellow even brighter than Alan’s red. His fish brother hadn’t stopped glaring the entire flight out.

John had the privilege of being excused from this exercise. The man, despite having slept, as briefly as possible, was still working. Virgil was worried.

As for Scott...

His big brother was standing tall, not far away, not willing to let Virgil out of his sight, apparently. At this moment, he was deep in conversation with a harried Jack.

The lawyer had seen better days. The man’s comb-over had come astray and he had bags under his eyes to rival those under Scott’s.

Virgil’s face itched.

Scott’s eyes darted in his direction as if they were psychically linked, his eyes catching Virgil’s hand as it reached to scratch his cheek.

Grandma’s hand grabbed his again and Virgil sighed.

How did women wear makeup all day. It was so...itchy.

It was Jack’s command. The remains of the bruise on Virgil’s cheek had to be gone. The press did not need a reminder of what had started all this.

Jack had the fun of being snarled at by Gordon for that comment.

The lawyer was unfazed, his expression tolerant as he took the aquanaut on.

A word from Virgil had halted his fish brother’s tirade of innocence. Jack wasn’t the one responsible.

But ultimately, here they were. Virgil decked out in his uniform and a little face putty to hide the green of a fading bruise.

So damned itchy.

Veronica Myers, your typical power-suited, perfectly polished PR representative hurried out from the elevator and narrowed in on Scott. The woman was good at what she did. It was what she did that baffled Virgil and his brothers. In the spotlight for a good chunk of their lives, they knew how important appearances were, but Veronica added a whole new dimension to the concept.

“They are ready for you, Mr Tracy.”

‘Mr Tracy’ was only one of them in this situation.

Cold blue eyes turned to Virgil. It had been decided that only Scott and the second eldest would take the stand.

Gordon was very loud and pointed about his opinion of the situation, but Scott was louder and in command.

The aquanaut was still steaming.

It appeared to be a permanent state of mind for his fish brother lately.

Virgil squeezed his grandmother’s hand and let go. He strode over to his brother, their lawyer and PR rep.

Veronica straightened his collar and Virgil held back a sigh.

“Do you remember the script?” Her voice was crisp, her eyes searching.

“Yeah, as best I can.” Veronica hadn’t liked the fact Virgil was accompanying Scott in this little venture. The engineer had much less experience speaking to the press than his bigger brother. Virgil was much more a behind the scenes type and usually kept his appearances attached to worthy causes when he got the chance.

There was a big difference between opening a new children’s hospital ward versus a press conference.

“Scott will do most of the talking.” He had the skill set. Virgil was far too honest for his own good.

Veronica’s eyes were almost violet in this lighting. Perfect lips pursed just a little in worry.

She was honestly the oddest mother hen type he had ever encountered. She cared about their business and their family was the business.

Her fingernails were an iridescent purple today, long and perfectly manicured.

A tug at his baldric and she caught his eyes. “Looking good, Virgil.” She smiled. “You’ve got this.”

Despite himself, Virgil snorted. “Thanks, V.”

Her smile widened before turning to Scott. “You ready?”

Scott’s lips thinned as his shoulders set. As determined as before any rescue. “Let’s do this.”

-o-o-o-

It wasn’t until he stepped out onto the stage that Virgil realised he was almost beside himself with nerves. So much preparation, so much thinking about his brothers, that he failed to acknowledge his own thoughts on the matter.

There was a sea of people.

Holocams hovered, their bright lights eye piercing. Cameras flashed. The moment he and his brother emerged, a mass of sound welled up from the crowd. Scott’s name, his name, accusations disguised as questions.

It was overwhelming.

Scott took it all in stride, back straight, expression challenging anyone who encountered it.

A hand reached back and touched Virgil’s arm and it was enough to snap him into responder mode, the wall of professionalism coming down to protect himself. he straightened his own posture. He was a member of International Rescue.

The flashes were as blinding as any electrical storm he had encountered.

Veronica took mic control as the two brothers took their places at the podium. Sitting down, but still above the general crowd, Virgil could see where the police had blocked off the street to contain the crowd.

At the centre of the gathering were all the professional journalists. Expensive equipment, well dressed, sharp and likely the most dangerous sharks in the sea. But on the edges of the cordoned off area the crowd became the everyday joe. Placards on one side screamed messages like ‘Tracy fraud’ and ‘They let my son die’.

The words stabbed at him, sharp and cold. This was his responsibility. This is what he had done.

His reaction must have been obvious because, combined with a sudden mad flashing in his direction, even more questions were screamed at him.

“Why did you do it?!” One above all others yelled across the plaza.

Virgil, always able to locate the source of a sound, found the woman off to the left. She had tears streaming down her face. She held a placard with a young man’s photograph stuck to it. Underneath was written ‘One of Sixty-three’. “He was my only son!”

There was another flurry of camera noise and light as Virgil stood up. His eyes only for her.

Scott was saying something, pulling at his harness, but Virgil was stronger.

The woman stared at him, tears running down her face.

Words fell from his lips.

“I’m sorry.”

-o-o-o-

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderbirds #Virgil Tracy #Scott Tracy #Gordon Tracy #Alan Tracy #Grandma Tracy #nuttys fandomversary

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themountainsays · 4 years

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Unpopular opinion but making Anna and Elsa related to the Northuldra and making their mom indigenous is actually good and less problematic bc it makes it slightly less white savior ish.

I mean imagine if they weren't related to the northuldra at all. Two white princesses show up after their white grandpa king tried to colonize the shit out of the Northuldra and fix everything while the indigenous people sit there uselessly waiting for some white colonizer to save them. Making Iduna northuldra and thus having her daughters be part northuldra doesn't fix everything of course, but it's not a bad decision in itself. In any case it's a GOOD decision that wasn't as thoroughly developed and explored as it should have for it to work properly. And at the end it's implied Elsa lives with the Northuldra and I think its likely she's reconnecting to her mother's people, probably becoming one of them in time, and Anna with her "our lands and people" line also implies she considers the northuldra somewhat her people too.

Sure it's problematic to retcon the two white princesses indigenous if they're going to put so little effort into making it work, but if this was going to be the story, it's less problematic than NOT having them be related to this indigenous people.

If you ask me, i would have included at least one Northuldra main character, who was probably introduced during the deleted prologue scene bc that scene rocks, and Idk have them be the POV character of that scene maybe? Or one of the POV characters alongside tiny Iduna. And then give them almost as much protagonism as the girls once they're reunited. Omg it could be Iduna's mother since she was calling out to her. The scene jumping between their POVs as they try to find each other? OH MY GOD WHAT IF YELENA WAS HER MOM. WHAT IF YELENA IS ANNA AND ELSA'S GRANDMA I WOULD HAVE LOVED THAT. Anyways just give the Northuldra more developed and give them more agency. I would do this by moving the spirit stuff to the side a bit and making more space for the Northuldra-Arendelle conflict. Maybe the two groups are still fighting! Maybe the gang needs to act as a mediator and figure out the truth before they all kill each other? Now you have a ticking clock and stakes, which is exactly what the movie needed. Add that the damn destroying the land, floods, the woods dying, lack of food etc and basically life in the forest getting worse and worse and BAM you got it! High stakes a sense of urgency. At first it looks like there must be a misunderstanding between the groups, or like there's some evil bad guy pulling the strings but no Arendelle just fucked up. Maybe they don't believe Elsa is queen so they don't obey her word? i mean she’s got magic so they might not trust her. And there are like, battle plans and some BIG FINAL PLAN to END THE ENEMY ONCE AND FOR ALL that probably includes Elsa or Anna bc i don't like coincidences so the final missing piece they needed has to be recently introduced. Anyways Yelena (yeah i'm keeping yelena) is not the only important northuldra character, Ryder and Honeymaren should be important too but they don't have to be main characters at the same level of say olaf or krisroff back in the first movie (cos we all know no one comes at the same level as the sisters). The northuldra as a whole need to be important actors in the story. And if their leader is a main character then so should be the leader of the Arendellians so we're promoting Mattias as well. Great now we have two new protagonists. I don't think we NEED more and this movie is still 2 hours long or less so there it is. (This is a great oportunity to show Anna being a leader and do a better job at selling us queen!Anna for the ending). Then we show the girls 1) learn more about their country's true history (sprinkle some historical revisionism themes here and there) and 2) further connect to the Northuldra. Meet their extended family, form a deep emotional connection with them, learn from them, probably have a cool scene at the climax where they win/survive with their new knowledge, and basically slowly become one of them. This would probably require the movie to span a longer period of time. Maaaaybe a month? That would be new! Also cool and a great oportunity for a montage with an epic song. If httyd can do it so can we. Maybe at the Low PointTM they realize compromise is impossible and they need i pick side? And pick the Northuldra hopefully. Maybe Anna is more invested in this plotline (communication, fighting ect) while Elsa takes care of the spiritual side of the isse? Especially if you want to keep the ending. And most importantly: whatever the girls did to save the day, they were helping Yelena. Or following Yelena's plan somehow. Even if Yelena doesn’t literally give them orders that the girls mindlessly follow, make it clear Yelena was the one to provide the knowladge to solve the problem. Or the Northuldra as a whole, but having it be Yelena would feel more fitting. THE GIRLS DO NOT BRING IN NEW KNOWLADGE, INFORMATION OR SOLUTIONS TO THE TABLE. THE NORTHULDRA DO. LET THE NORTHULDRA BE THEIR OWN HEROES. LET THE GIRLS BE THE HEROES ONLY WHEN THEY’RE CHANNELING THEIR INNER NORTHULDRA OR SOMETHING. ONLY BECAUSE THEY’RE SOMEWHAT PART OF THE NORTHULDRA. Maybe it was a comment or something Yelena said during an argument with them? That they remembered later during the climax and finally understand the solution or something idk. the solution is probably to destroy the dam i guess. In any case, the girls discover some stuff in the forest that allow them to re-contextualize the information the Northuldra already had, or maybe they only put the pieces together after having a Character Arc that allowed them to see the solution and that’s why Yelena couldn’t just tell them what to do and be done with it because they didn’t actually get it idk.

Also, this is my personal opinion but the world of frozen 2 felt weirdly empty. i would have expanded it by having a bigger arendellian military camp, like a small city, probably stone constructions such as abandoned watch towers and shit, maybe an abandoned village destroyed by the spirits? places for the gang to explore, find information about the past and traces of the truth and shit. Also, more Northuldra. More Northuldra is always good. Maybe there are different tribes or clans of the same nation, and they’re all somewhat dinstinctive, hopefully drawing inspiration from the different sámi groups? Maybe Yelena’s clan lives in the forest, but then there are others who live further north in the frozen tundra or high in the mountains idk dude but that would have been super cool, if the girls had to connect and get to know all the different Northuldra groups? also, worldbuilding. i love worldbuilding.

Give the northuldra characters arcs! Give them personality! Give them inner conflict! And tune down the magic native noble savage planet of hats bs. Yes i know those are not the same things. Give me Northuldra who are assholes, or who don’t have a knack for spiritual shit, or who are not happy with how things are done. Snarky Northuldra. Funny Northuldra. Northuldra with dreams and fears and agency. Just have a few background characters make offhand comments about literally anything that could make it look like they have personality and develop Honeymaren and Ryder a little bit more. Maybe the leader previous to Yelena was this very spiritual person and Yelena is... not. And doesn’t get along with the spirits. And can’t seem to live up to what is needed of her. Elsa being suuuuuper in tune with the spirits would probably be Not Cool in this scenario but I think it can be well made if they both learned how to better connect to the spirits togehter? Helping each other and shit. Maybe Elsa connects to them in a more personal level because she knows how they feel, being treated as monsters, and approaches them like you would approach a traumatized person rather than a dangerous animal. And Yelena actually KNOWS stuff about spirits so yeah she’d still have more tools and knowladge than Elsa no matter how much she relates to them, and could actually teach her about them and how not to get killed whenever she tries to have therapy with them.

Probably have the sisters slowly adopt bits and pieces of Northuldra culture, to show they’re reconnecting to their mother’s people (all of it allowed by yelena obvs. Yelena is like “I think you’re ready for this” and gives Anna some cool Northuldra weapon. Possibly a sword. please. give anna a sword).

Going back to Mattias for a bit, if he’s supposed to represent The Bad Guys aka Arendelle, give him a redemption arc, to represent that Runeard wasn’t just one evil individual. Arendelle’s colonialism is an Arendelle problem and ALL of Arendelle needs to adress it and fix its crimes. Maybe he has an enemies-to-friends story with Yelena? That would be nice.

As you can see, Frozen 2 would have needed a lot of fixing for the Northuldra plot to work, but Anna and Elsa being part indigenous is NOT the problem. People in real life DO reconnect with their indigenous heritage. Sometimes. I know I would love to connect to mine but I think it’s a bit too late for my family, which is why I love Frozen 2 so much. idk if i like it, but damn if I didn’t cry watching it. I do think the writers should have to consult a lot of indigenous people and take their word very seriously to write this kind of story, but that can be done! They have the time space and resources for that! Frozen 2 COULD have been a story about the girls reconnecting to their indigenous heritage and finding their place and their people. God knows being mixed will give you like 5 identity crisis at the same time. I’m actually kind of writing a fic about it. If this was the story they wanted to tell, Anna and Elsa being mixed is not the problem. It is, in fact, part of an unfinished, abandoned solution.

#frozen 2 #northuldra #meta #kinda #theory?#yelena #iduna #elsa #anna #criticism #fix-it #i guess?#mattias #worldbuilding #enchanted forest

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tsarisfanfiction · 4 years

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Night At The Opera

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Gen Genre: Friendship Characters: Scott, Penelope, Parker, Tracy Family

So this one took forever and is my longest single contribution to @gumnut-logic‘s irrelief so far (’Toffee’ will end up longer but that’s a multichap and this is not). We’re using @darkestwolfx‘s prompt “Any characters (but maybe including Scott) – going to the opera” this time, although there’s not much opera actually in this, whoops.

Thanks to Nutty for helping me out with things to see in Sydney - any errors are my own lack of research, laziness, and the excuse “it’s 40 years in the future, things might have changed” - and how timezones work. I also seem to have transplanted TOS!Penelope’s personality into her TAG counterpart because it fit better, oops.

Surely an invitation to the opera was better suited for Virgil? Or one of his other brothers? No? Okay, then. Wait, what do you mean he had to wear a suit?

Despite reassurances to the contrary, Scott was still fairly sure there’d been a mistake. The invitation may have come from one Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, a woman who most certainly did not make mistakes, but why a ticket to the opera would come for him rather than, say, Virgil – or even Gordon, if he was reading the air between the pair of them correctly – was utterly beyond him. Hell, it was the sort of thing he’d expect her to drag John to, for a bit of social time with no requirement to talk. An opera theatre was not exactly where you’d expect to find Scott Tracy.

An air show was more his speed, preferably as one of the performers. Not sitting in a secluded box for people of importance and expected to sit still and quietly for several hours. In a suit.

“Scott, are you ready?” Grandma rapped on his bedroom door loudly and he jumped, almost dropping the tie he was fidgeting with. “Lady Penelope’s almost here!”

He was almost ready. A crisp sharp grey suit had been dredged out of the dark part of his wardrobe – the area where clothes he disliked hid away, and all suits registered highly on the ‘disliked’ list – and pulled on with extreme reluctance. Cufflinks, silver with diamond studs and in the shape of small planes, had been begrudgingly pulled out of hiding, and additional gel had been called upon to slick his hair back entirely, rather than its usual half wind-swept style.

It all felt stifling, and once the tie went around his neck it would all be complete. The man looking back at him in the mirror was stiff, and it was only years of scoldings from Grandma that stopped him scuffing his shiny shoes on the floor, just to break the perfect gentleman look. Scott was a perfect gentleman, thank you very much. He didn’t need to dress up all fancy for that.

But Lady Penelope had insisted, and when Lady Creighton-Ward insisted, there was very little anyone could do to stop her. Just ask John.

His door hissed open, and he jumped as his grandmother entered the room, her eyes raking him up and down.

“Grandma!” he yelped, scurrying back a step or two and tugging at his jacket sleeves again, just to make sure they were absolutely perfect. The big Three-Oh might be looming in his not too distant future, and he might be the interim commander of International Rescue, but his grandmother could always reduce him to feeling like a child with his hand in the cookie jar with nothing more than a simple look. “What if I was still getting changed?”

She shrugged at him, unconcerned. “I used to change your diapers, kid. It’s nothing new.” She’d also dragged him, battered and bleeding and barely conscious, out of his uniform less than a week prior. He still had the stitches and bandages from the worst wounds, carefully hidden beneath the suit.

Neither of them mentioned that one.

“But I’d say it’s a good thing I came in,” she continued, striding forwards and plucking the tie out of his hands. “You can’t wear this one.” This one was a simple navy tie, plain and unassuming, and therefore Scott’s favourite – if he had a favourite tie. He didn’t. “Honestly, child, you know the man should complement the Lady’s attire.”

She rummaged through his collection, and years of experience led him to back off and just let her do what she wanted. When Grandma got an idea into her head, there was little chance of dissuading her.

“I’m not going as her date,” he protested, though, just to make it clear. As a friend, perhaps, work colleague at worst, but he’d seen the aftermath of Gordon’s jealousy after the charity auction and had no desire to be on the receiving end of it himself. Teasing younger brothers was all well and good until they retaliated with goop and other questionable substances at inopportune moments. John avoided the worst of it by virtue of being on Thunderbird Five, and not even Gordon was willing to ruin his entire rare stays Earthside. As a permanent resident of Tracy Island, Scott had no such escape, and he was fairly sure being the eldest brother meant anything went in their resident prankster’s eyes.

“You’re escorting her, and no grandson of mine will be embarrassing us or her by wearing the wrong colour tie,” Grandma rebuked, finally pulling out a light blue tie and approaching him with it. The height difference was no obstacle to the formidable woman as she slipped it around his neck and tied it with a flourish into a Windsor. “There.” She patted his jacket lapels down before stepping back.

“Lady Penelope’s here,” Virgil said, poking his head in through the door. “Gordon’s drooling worse than Sherbet, just so you know.”

A not insignificant part of Scott had hoped his brothers would be out on a mission when his ‘h’escort’ arrived. The raised eyebrow from Virgil and betrayed pout of Gordon had been bad enough when the tickets had arrived the previous day, and had only increased when Scott had immediately contacted their London Agent to point out the mistake, to be told there was no mistake, Scott, and we’ll be collecting you at four pm tomorrow.

For once, the world was silent, and all four brothers were there, if one holographically, to observe as he somewhat stiffly made his way into the den, where Lady Penelope was waiting in a stunning pale blue evening dress – the exact same colour as his tie; clearly someone had been co-ordinating behind the scenes, and that someone was probably Grandma – and a matching bouquet of lace and faux flowers atop her head that Scott didn’t think deserved the name of ‘hat’, but women’s fashion had never been his strong point.

Gordon was, as Virgil had said, almost entirely oblivious to anything in the room except the blonde woman, although sadly not oblivious enough to miss Scott’s matching tie. Amber eyes narrowed at him and Scott offered them an apologetic smile.

“Scott!” Perfectly manicured fingers caught his arm, Lady Penelope gracefully linking their arms together in a way that made it look like he was in control. It was an illusion – he wasn’t. Gordon’s eyes narrowed further, and Scott made a mental note to attempt to talk him down from whatever revenge he was no doubt plotting as soon as he got back. “You look amazing, dear,” she continued. “Boys, I’ll be borrowing your brother for the evening.”

“By all means.” Virgil was grinning broadly. “You two have fun.”

“Oh, we plan to, Virgil,” Lady Penelope reassured him. “Don’t wait up for him; I’ll bring him back tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Scott hadn’t heard that before, and from the strangled noise Gordon made, he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been told that little detail. “But…”

“The performance doesn’t finish until midnight,” Lady Penelope informed him. “I’ve made all the arrangements for the overnight stay, and we’ll have you back here by this time tomorrow.”

“But-”

“No buts, young man,” Grandma cut in, her hand coming to his elbow. Between them, the two women started to steer him down towards the hangar, where Parker and FAB1 were no doubt waiting. “Go and enjoy your downtime.”

Downtime. The thing he’d been on since that mission. That thing he would still be on until Grandma and Virgil decided the stitches could be removed and that he was ready for duty again. Suddenly things started slotting into place.

“See you tomorrow, Scott!” Alan called cheerfully, echoed by Virgil. Gordon made a noise that sounded more like a grunt than words, and Scott decided the best thing to do would be to ignore it as he was led downstairs.

“h’All the bags are packed, M’Lady,” Parker greeted them as he held the door open. Sherbet yipped at them from the back seat. “Shut up, you.” Manners drilled into him by his grandmother indicated that Scott should assist Lady Penelope into the car first, but before he could even make a move, she was slipping off of his arm and sidling all the way across the back seat, scooping Sherbet up in the same fluid movement. “h’After you, Mister Scott, sir.”

With a nod to Parker, and stooping just enough for Grandma to kiss his cheek lightly in farewell, he folded himself into the remaining seat and pulled his seatbelt on.

FAB1 was not a usual Tracy ride. Scott wasn’t familiar with the car like he was their fleet of transportation – both Thunderbirds and regular craft – and had rarely had the opportunity to travel in the pink Rolls-Royce. Much of that was down to his preference to pilot himself places, rather than be a passenger, and being trapped in a suit normally didn’t stop him firmly placing himself in the pilot’s seat of whatever plane was being used.

Grounded for injury as he was, however, the option of piloting had been forcibly removed by the family medics, leaving him with no choice but to recline in the back seat as Lady Penelope gave the order for them to leave the island. Palm trees didn’t show the car the same respect as Thunderbird Two, and stayed rigidly upright as they passed between them, FAB1’s flight mode engaging with plenty of time to spare before they ran out of runway.

The car was, for obvious reasons, not as fast as his usual rides. Even the regular aircraft they kept for official non-IR business went faster than Parker was currently going, and Scott quickly found the expanse of water passing below them monotonous. No doubt Gordon would find it fascinating, if he could tear his eyes away from Lady Penelope, but Gordon wasn’t here and water wasn’t Scott’s preferred view.

“Are you sure you didn’t mean Virgil or Gordon?” he asked, glancing over at the woman beside him.

“Quite sure,” she confirmed. Sherbet let out another yip and jumped onto his lap, demanding to be petted. Scott acquiesced, running a hand over short coarse fur to the pug’s obvious pleasure. “I’m aware that the opera house is not your usual preference, but your family agreed that a change of scene would be good for you.”

“Even Gordon?” he asked, and was surprised to see a hint of colour in her cheeks.

“Gordon was not involved in the discussion,” she admitted. “It was mainly your Grandmother and John, although I believe Virgil also had some input.”

Why did that not surprise Scott in the slightest?

“Of course it was,” he sighed.

“How are your injuries?” she inquired, and he winced.

“Healing,” he evaded. She didn’t press further, not that she needed to. No doubt Grandma had filled her in on exactly what injuries he had and therefore situations to avoid until they were healed. As it happened, sitting down for extended periods of time was one of the few things he could do under her instruction. No doubt the opera would fit the bill precisely.

Small talk was not Scott’s preference, but Lady Penelope was a master of the art. Coaxed into discussions about his brothers and the newest GDF fliers, the journey to Sydney passed quickly. The fact that it was four pm when they arrived might have thrown Scott at one point, but jetting all over the world daily had long since dulled him to timezone changes and, thankfully, jet lag.

“I’ve secured reservations for dinner in our hotel,” Lady Penelope informed him as FAB1 gently set down on tarmac and folded in her wings, returning to the usual form of a regular, if expensive car. “The performance begins at nine, but the doors open at seven thirty.”

“You really have this all planned out, don’t you?” he asked, thoroughly unsurprised. She smiled and gestured towards the opera house, now visible as they headed towards it.

“’Ere we are, M’Lady, Mr Scott,” Parker said, pulling FAB1 to a gentle stop outside a hotel. It was suitably lavish for Lady Penelope’s accommodations, no doubt five star with a three star restaurant nestled inside. Diamond-studded cufflinks fit right in, and Scott viewed it with some trepidation as Parker opened the door for him. Cars were not designed for long-legged Tracys to be in for any length of time – one of the many reasons Scott adored Thunderbird One was her unlimited legroom on longer flights – and it took him a moment to straighten fully, by which time Lady Penelope had materialised on his arm.

“Shall we?” He sent a glance back at where Parker was opening FAB1’s deceptively large boot to reveal their overnight bags. “Parker will take care of the bags, Scott,” Lady Penelope assured him, and without waiting for a reply began to steer him into the building.

The interior matched the exterior, marking this as a hotel clearly aimed at the upper class upon their visits to the Opera House. Holograms gave him a changing view of the Opera House itself through the years, its iconic silhouette particularly striking in dusk views in Scott’s opinion. Undeterred by the lavish interior, Lady Penelope whisked him through to the desk, where Parker had already materialised, bags in tow, to claim both room keys.

It was easy to forget, with Parker’s h’attitude and ‘misspent youth’, that he was perfectly competent in his primary role as butler and chauffeur to the Creighton-Ward estate. Watching him in what should be an arena far outside his status – one that felt far outside Scott’s, despite the fact that he was, in fact, a multi-billionaire – never ceased to amaze Scott, who was content to let the Brits whisk him through the foyer, through some glass elevators and into a large suite with too many chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Through one open room he caught sight of a king sized bed.

Lady Penelope didn’t bother asking him if it was good enough for him – she had, once upon a time, but Scott was fairly sure she’d got fed up of being told the various rooms she found for them were excessive and now just swept them up in the extravagance and expected them to appreciate it, or at least have the good grace not to comment unprompted. Scott had learnt that lesson, too.

Still the suite was a far cry from sharing a bedroom with two brothers in a small house in Kansas, and while Scott was getting used to being dragged to such places, he still preferred to stay more down to earth. Not having to share with a brother was enough for him (sure, he loved his brothers, but personal space was nice, too).

He was abandoned with his luggage – luggage he had not packed, so he had no idea what was in it and prayed that the person responsible had packed something comfortable and not just another suit – while Parker showed Lady Penelope to her own quarters next door. Parker had told him not to touch his luggage and that he would be back soon to unpack for him, but Scott had never had a butler and no intentions of starting now.

His stitches pulled worryingly as he picked the case up and he froze. Tearing stitches and bleeding through bandages was always a nuisance, but in the stuffy suit he’d been coerced into, it would be an utter nightmare.

“h’I told you not to, Mr Scott.” Suddenly Parker was there, whisking the case out of his grip and making a beeline for the bedroom. “Your gran would ‘ave my ‘ead h’if you tore your stitches ‘ere. M’Lady, too.” Scott winced and followed him.

“At least let me unpack my own clothes,” he said, jumping in as the case opened and Parker started to pull clothes out of it – oh joy, another suit. Why? It was only one evening!

“You ‘ave h’one ‘our h’until the restaurant reservation,” Parker informed him, subtly blocking his attempts to get at his own clothes. “M’Lady h’expects you to take a walk h’around the garden with ‘er.” The older man had Scott hustled out of his own quarters before he even realised what was happening.

Lady Penelope emerged from her room at the same time, and Scott had known her far too long to even entertain the notion that it was coincidental. He didn’t bother to comment on it, allowing her manicured talons to curl around his bicep once more as she left her room key with Parker – who had never even let Scott touch his – and swept back towards the elevator, Tracy firmly in tow.

“The gardens are delightful at this time of year,” she informed him as though this was his first time in Sydney. Admittedly, it wasn’t a place he’d visited much, and when he had been there, the scenery was usually the last thing on his mind. “We shall visit them properly tomorrow, but a short stroll will do us both wonders after our journey.”

Not one to turn down fresh air at any point, Scott was willing to step outside the rear entrance of the hotel – just as grand as the front – onto neatly manicured lawns. Beyond them, the botanical garden loomed, with its trees in full bloom. Neither of them wore shoes designed for walking on grass – or far at all, in the case of Lady Penelope’s heels, although Scott knew she could do a lot more in them than appearances implied – so they restrained themselves to the paths.

It was certainly easier terrain than Tracy Island boasted. The rocky, volcanic island had been chosen precisely for being remote and inhospitable, allowing them to train in secrecy, but it lent itself less well to the walking injured. Not that Scott considered himself walking wounded, but Grandma and Virgil both did, and restricted his permitted movements accordingly. To that end, he admitted it was good to get away from the island and the worried smothering of his family for a few hours.

The company certainly didn’t hurt, either. Scott had a lot of respect for Lady Penelope, but thanks to their respective lines of work and commitment, rarely got to spend any time with her. There was also the constant worry of the paparazzi and rumours of more than just friendship flying, what with them both being filthy rich heirs and famous (even if Scott was technically not an heir anymore), but if Lady Penelope had proposed the visit, then that angle was certainly being taken care of. Kayo had been suspiciously absent over the last couple of days with no real reason given, and Scott chose to believe she was working some magic somewhere. After all, if his sister was on the case, nothing unwanted would be leaked – and even if it somehow got past her, there was John ready with a digital nuke.

He’d pulled that one before, more than once. It had proven very useful, even if its legality wasn’t even debatable and the GDF were turning an obliging blind eye to the fact that sometimes information just vanished. Or they plain hadn’t noticed; that was also possible, although Scott liked to think Colonel Casey was a little more observant than that.

Their hour in the comfortably warm Sydney sun passed quickly. Scott wasn’t the best at keeping track of time, relying on John for that when it was important, but Lady Penelope seemed to have a built-in pocket watch because they wandered into the restaurant at precisely one minute to five to be seated by a waiter in a sharp pressed suit who held out a seat for Lady Penelope and himself before Scott could even grasp the back of his own chair. Scott prided himself on his quick reflexes; serving staff were truly in a class of their own. His injuries weren’t slowing him that much, although he ruefully noticed that after an hour’s easy stroll the act of sitting down was appreciated by his body.

Maybe he did need the break from rescues, not that he’d be admitting that to anyone any time soon. Sharp blue eyes followed his every moment, but Lady Penelope had enough tact to keep her observations to herself, so Scott wasn’t unduly concerned about her.

Eating at a three star restaurant was far from Scott’s usual fare, and he left handling the waiter entirely to Lady Penelope. The idea that they’d be attending the opera later that evening didn’t phase him in the slightest as he offered them a shorter menu that would allow plenty of time for the final course to settle before they made their way towards the Opera House, and while Scott hoped that three star did not mean food arranged in an overly fancy manner but with very little actually on the plate – there was a lot of him to feed, especially in comparison to the delicate form of the Lady opposite him – he agreed with Lady Penelope’s assertion that that would be perfect, thank you.

It took some dredging up of strict lessons on dining etiquette when he was younger and Dad was making his first millions from the depths of his memory, but Scott was quite pleased with himself for not committing a faux pas during the meal. The portions had been small, as he’d feared, but still filling enough that he thought he could probably survive an evening of opera. Which, now that it had sunk in that it really was him going and not one of his brothers, didn’t seem all that terrible an idea. After all, he could appreciate good music – it was impossible to live with Virgil and not, although Alan was doing a good job at it, but that was teenagers for you – he just rarely had time to.

Time was something he had been rather forcibly given, courtesy of a rescue that had felt perfectly successful to Scott – no-one died, after all – barring an inconvenient injury that had him just coming out of forced bedrest. His family were rather unfortunately more influenced by the so-called ‘cost’ of the rescue – a fair bit of Scott’s blood, an unexpected nap for a few hours and a dozen stitches – than the success. So maybe he’d given them a fright when he’d collapsed out of his ‘bird and narrowly missed getting splattered on his own ‘bird’s hangar floor when he didn’t quite land square on the extended access ramp (apparently – he didn’t remember that bit but John was insistent), but that was nearly a week ago and he was fine now.

Well, near enough, he mentally amended as he stood up from the table and his stitches tugged threateningly again.

“Come on, dear,” Lady Penelope tutted, once more scooping his bicep into her grip and guiding him out of the room and… back upstairs? “We’re a little behind schedule, so you’ll have to get changed quickly. Parker should have your new outfit laid out for you already.”

“Get changed?” Scott looked down at his crisp suit. “Why?”

“We’re two of the richest people in Sydney right now,” she said, as though that should mean something. “Being seen in public in the same outfit twice just won’t do. Don’t worry, I’m sure Mrs Tracy has found something you’ll be comfortable in.”

Suits and comfortable were two words that did not go together, but Lady Penelope was a force to be reckoned with and subtly manhandled him into his own suite before vanishing into her own, neighbouring suite.

“There you h’are!” Parker exclaimed, ushering him forwards. To Scott’s chagrin, there was indeed another suit laid out for him. “h’I’m under h’orders from your gran to check your stitches, so h’off with those.” He gestured at the suit Scott was still wearing, and he cringed.

“Do we have to go through all this fuss, Parker?” he asked.

“h’Oh yes, Mr Scott. ‘Er Ladyship’s changing ‘er dress and h’I wouldn’t want to be the h’one to make M’Lady look bad by not wearing the right clothes, h’if you catch my drift.”

Scott did catch his drift. That didn’t mean he liked it, but both Lady Penelope and his grandmother were terrifying women when they wanted to be, and upsetting them would lead to nothing good.

There was some glee in getting rid of the tie, too, even if it was only going to be replaced by a black bow tie, by the looks of it.

According to tradition, stereotypes, and everything else, women took forever to get ready. But by the time Parker was satisfied his stitches were as they should be and got him into the new suit – a light blue waistcoat over a white shirt underneath the navy jacket, and matching trousers – Lady Penelope was waiting for him. Her dress was almost the same colour as before, but in a different cut and with a different assortment of lace and fabric perching on top of perfectly coiffed blonde curls.

“You look fantastic, dear,” she informed him as he escaped Parker and his lint brush. “Are we ready?” A matching clutch purse occupied one of her hands, but the other resumed its default position of curling around his bicep and guided him back towards the elevator.

Even amongst other ridiculously rich people in their suits, Scott felt overdressed as he pretended to escort Lady Penelope, who was very much actually escorting him, to the doorway as Parker vanished, only to reappear in FAB1 by the time they left the building. Scott had no idea how the man did it, but it was a relief to slip into the pink car and away from any watching eyes. He was conscious that he wasn’t at his best, and had no real desire to advertise to the world that the interim commander of International Rescue was injured. The suit did its job well and hid the bandaging, but Scott couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling that everyone looking at him could see.

At least at the opera no-one would be looking at him.

Getting into the Opera House, however, required once again walking in front of crowds. A pink car drew attention, even in front of a spectacular building like the Sydney Opera House, and as Parker assisted first Scott, and then Lady Penelope out there was the tell-tale flash of photography. Scott hoped Kayo and John were on top of that.

“h’I shall be ‘ere when you come h’out, M’Lady, Mr Scott,” Parker said as Lady Penelope once again positioned herself on Scott’s arm.

“Thank you, Parker,” she said.

“He’s not coming in?” Scott asked, surprised, as they made their way inside. Behind them, FAB1 drove away.

“The opera isn’t Parker’s style,” she answered, flashing their tickets at the assistant, who promptly called for someone to lead them to their box. “He’ll find his own entertainment for a few hours.”

“Doing what?”

“Oh, I’m sure I don’t know.” Scott knew a conversation end when he heard one; whatever her butler was up to, Lady Penelope knew and had no intentions of sharing. Then again, considering Parker’s so-called ‘misspent youth’, ignorance was probably a good idea. Having four younger brothers had taught Scott the value of plausible deniability long ago.

They were ushered into a small box, high above the stage, with enough room for four people to seat comfortably. Only two chairs had been set up, however, leaving Scott with the relief that he wouldn’t be sat with strangers for several hours. Lady Penelope chose her seat, sitting down elegantly and looking entirely at ease in the velvet-lined chair, with her no doubt several-thousand-pound dress (Scott had no idea if it was actually a British dress) arrayed around her without so much as a crease wrong.

In comparison, Scott felt decidedly ill at ease as he sank into the surprisingly comfortable chair in his own far too expensive suit, leaning back until he found a position where the stitches didn’t complain. The box had ample leg room even for a man over six foot in height, and Scott took full advantage of the fact that the box was almost impossible to see into, even if anyone wanted to people-watch instead of opera-watch, to stretch out his long legs.

There wasn’t even as much as a tut from his companion, and in slight surprise he looked over to her to see a smile gracing her face.

“You may as well be comfortable,” she agreed, although she remained prim in her posture.

“What about you?” he asked, and she laughed lightly.

“I’ve been taking posture lessons since before I could walk,” she reminded him. “This is perfectly comfortable for me, but thank you for your concern.” Pacified, Scott relaxed and turned his attention to the stage below them.

It was empty, the show still not due to start for another hour, according to the holographic interface on the inside of their box, ticking down the minutes until the show began. 00:59:01 ticked down to 00:59:00 and then so on, counting it down to the second.

It had been a long time since Scott had last been to the opera, or any stage performance – was it normal to have the timing of the start down to the second?

“Not everywhere,” Lady Penelope told him when he asked. “But Sydney Opera House is one of the best in the world, and when you’re the best, the timing is expected to be precise.” Scott could respect that; enough air show routines had been down to the millisecond for him to appreciate the importance. He just hadn’t expected to find it in an opera.

Lady Penelope picked up a pair of what looked like miniature binoculars and raised them to her eye delicately.

“Shall we see who’s in the crowd tonight?” she mused, training the lenses at the not-box seating below.

“Using binoculars?” Scott asked, glancing down to see many men in stuffy suits and women in fancy dresses. “Really?”

“Opera glasses, Scott, they’re called opera glasses. And of course. They have fantastic levels of magnification. Oh, that poor woman – whoever told her salmon and lemon work together like that?”

Scott blinked, lost at the sudden change in conversation.

“I thought you were supposed to put lemon on fish?” he asked, only for Lady Penelope to turn her head and stare at him for a moment, before shaking her head lightly.

“The colours, Scott, not the food. See that woman sat in the third row?”

He squinted, and she tutted before handing him the binoculars – opera glasses. Reluctantly he raised them to his eyes and peered through.

“The one dressed in pink and yellow?” he asked, finally locating someone who might have fit the vague description.

“The colours are salmon and lemon,” Lady Penelope corrected. “But yes, her. See how the lemon overpowers the salmon? It makes her complexion look quite ill. I dare say she’s wearing the wrong undertone foundation as well.”

“The wrong what?” He supposed the woman in question did look a little off colour.

“Undertone foundation,” she repeated. “The undertone of the foundation is important; using the wrong one ensures that even if you have the perfect hue, it won’t match your complexion properly.”

“If you say so,” he said dubiously, beyond relieved that Kayo barely wore any make-up to his knowledge, and didn’t expect him to know anything about it anyway. Then again, knowing Kayo her lipstick – lipgloss? Lip-thing – was probably modelled after that one Batman villain’s and was toxic.

“I do,” she said, shooting him a quick smile. “Your turn.”

“What?”

“Pick someone,” she explained, gesturing at the ever-increasing numbers finding their way to seats below. “We’re people watching.”

Scott gaped at her.

“Isn’t that supposed to be rude?” he asked, gesturing at the opera glasses they both held.

“Everyone does it.” She brushed his complaints off. “See, in the box opposite; the light just glinted off of their opera glasses.”

“But why?”

“It’s interesting,” she smiled. “And also good practice.”

Good practice for what, Scott managed to stop himself from asking, finally remembering that he was at an opera house with one of the best spies in the world. “So I just… pick someone?” he asked instead, beginning to scan the crowds with more intent.

“Anyone,” she confirmed, just as his gaze was caught by a teenage boy who clearly didn’t want to be there. He reminded Scott of Alan, for all that this teenager was a redhead and shorter than his brother. Lady Penelope laughed when he mentioned it, before finding him with her own opera glasses and agreeing.

People watching was surprisingly fun, once Scott got the hang of it, and found himself caught out when the lights dimmed and the stage was lit in spotlight. The holographic countdown declared 00:00:28 when he glanced at it, and following Lady Penelope’s lead he focused his opera glasses on the stage, where at precisely nine pm, the show began.

And at precisely midnight, three hours of singing and a short interlude where refreshments had been offered (and devoured by a hungry Tracy), the final note cut off, accompanied by the lights, plunging the entire room into darkness. The applause was genuine, if at a polite volume, echoing through the darkened arena. Scott was more than happy to join in, having enjoyed the performance more than he’d expected.

It was even worth being stuffed into a suit for several long hours, although he’d keep that part quiet from his brothers. He had something of a reputation to uphold, after all, and as much as he’d enjoyed it, it was probably still more Virgil’s thing.

The main lights slowly brightened, and Scott stretched his legs out. Even with the leg room, the lack of actually moving had stiffened his muscles up somewhat.

“So how long do we stay here?” he asked, looking at Lady Penelope only to find her already on her feet.

“No longer than necessary,” she quipped, holding a hand out to him. “How are you feeling?” It was only the second time she’d referenced his injury all day, and Scott found that after the opera he was feeling slightly more charitable towards it being mentioned. No doubt an anticipated reaction from the short woman with him.

“I’m not designed to sit still for several hours,” he shrugged, accepting her hand and hauling himself to his feet, ignoring the familiar twinge of a healing wound.

“No, I don’t suppose you are,” she agreed. “But you enjoyed the evening?” He smiled down at her as her hand once again found his bicep.

“More than I thought I would,” he admitted. “Thank you for this.”

“What are friends for?”

Parker was waiting for them, as promised, when they left the building, draping a thin fur coat over Lady Penelope’s shoulders as they were exposed to the slightly cooler midnight air.

“Thank you, Parker,” she said, gliding effortlessly into the back of her car and picking up a sleeping Sherbet – who Scott had seen surprisingly little of since their arrival in Australia, now that he thought about it. “I trust you had a successful evening?”

“h’Oh yes, M’Lady,” Parker responded gleefully as Scott got in and shut the door behind him. “Most successful.”

“Successful?” Scott asked, and Parker laughed.

“Those ‘ooligans down at the casino never knew what ‘it ‘em, Mr Scott, sir. H’It’s h’always worth taking them folk down a peg h’or two, h’if you catch my drift.”

So Parker had been cheating cheaters out of their scammed earnings while they were gone. Scott supposed that wasn’t surprising; Parker made no real secret that his underground skills remained sharp – indeed, all of the Tracys could cheat their way around cards, in no small part thanks to tricks taught to them by the butler himself.

“Well, it’s been a long day, especially with all those timezone changes, so I think I’ll turn in for the night when we get back to the hotel,” Lady Penelope said. “I’d like to see the botanical gardens properly and I did promise to get you back to your brothers by four pm Tracy Island time tomorrow, so that will mean an early start, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t mind getting up early,” Scott assured her as they arrived, and she smiled.

“Then I’ll see you for a seven o’clock breakfast?”

“Do I have to wear a suit?” She laughed.

“I’ll have Parker pick a less formal one out for you,” she promised, and Scott groaned. “Sorry, dear, but this hotel has standards, and your usual attire doesn’t quite cut it.”

Parker caught up with them before they even reached the elevator, FAB1 parked away safely for the night, and Scott wondered if he and Lady Penelope were that slow, or if Parker was that fast.

“Seven am,” Lady Penelope repeated as they reached his room, and Scott agreed. Parker opened the door for him with a “h’I’ll see you h’in a moment, M’Lady”, and followed him inside.

“h’Another stitches check, h’I’m h’afraid, Mr Scott,” he said, and Scott rolled his eyes but submitted to it with minimal protest, glad to get out of the formal clothes and, once Parker was well and truly dismissed for the night, a third suit glaring at him accusingly from where the butler had laid it out, finally into something properly comfortable for bed.

Crossing timezones tended not to bother him after so long in International Rescue, but without the adrenaline rush of a rescue he found himself wearier than he would usually be at midnight. He glanced at his communicator, which he’d discovered packed in the bottom of his case, and debated calling John for a chat before remembering the time difference. Even if John probably wasn’t asleep, Scott should not be encouraging bad sleeping habits in his brothers. The same went for the rest of them, and he had no idea where Kayo was, so contacting his family was dismissed for the moment and he sank into the soft mattress of the huge bed gratefully, only for a spike of pain to warn him that if he wanted to sleep through the night, he should take the next dose of painkillers – also packed without his knowledge, most likely by Grandma or Virgil.

Pills were thrown back with an accompaniment of Australian spring water from the minibar, and then he crawled back into bed. Sleep claimed him almost immediately.

The next morning came quickly, Scott’s internal clock disturbing him at six. He didn’t need an hour to get ready for breakfast, even if getting ready included pulling on another suit, but going back to sleep would be an exercise in futility if he wanted to be on time for breakfast.

Spying his communicator again, the timezone now worked in his favour. Six am in Sydney was a more sociable hour on Tracy Island, and he’d hooked up a line to Thunderbird Five before he’d finished considering doing it.

“Morning, Scott,” John greeted him immediately. “How was last night?”

“I could have done without the suits,” Scott admitted, rolling over onto his back. “But it wasn’t bad.” John, a brother well versed in the pains of being chosen as Lady Penelope’s arm decoration, gifted him a small smile.

“I know the feeling,” he agreed. “Are you still in bed?”

“Yup.” Scott popped the ‘p’ and made a show of stretching out, even if John could only see his head and shoulders. “Big bed. Nice bed. Comfy bed. I have an hour ‘til breakfast. There’s time.”

“Scott Tracy being lazy; I never thought I’d see the day,” John commented, and Scott scowled at him.

“I have to wear another suit for breakfast, John. For breakfast!”

“So you’re procrastinating getting dressed by calling me,” his brother surmised.

“Can’t I check on how my brothers are doing?” he asked maybe a little defensively, raising an eyebrow.

“You could, except you haven’t asked yet.” Pesky smart younger brothers.

“I’m asking now.” John raised an eyebrow at him in return, but humoured him.

“Everyone’s fine; they had a late-night rescue but that went fine, no injuries. Does mean they’re all still in bed, though.”

“Even Gordon?” It was a very tired squid that didn’t surface with the sun, regardless of what time he went to bed.

“Even Gordon, luckily for you.”

Scott blinked.

“Luckily for me?”

“The usual rumours aren’t flying around, but there are still pictures of the two of you going to the opera last night on the net. The less time between him seeing those, and seeing you, the less time he has to scheme.” Scott groaned.

“Can’t you just get rid of them?” he asked.

“It looks more suspicious if I delete everything regarding the two of you,” John told him. “All of the captions refer to you as friends or work colleagues, though. Kayo and I made sure of that.”

“Thanks.” Well, it was better than nothing, he supposed. His eyes fell on the suit Parker had laid out for him the previous evening and he groaned. “I’d better get up,” he grumbled, glaring at it. “I’m supposed to be meeting her at seven for breakfast and I want a shower first.”

“Watch your stitches.”

“Yes, Virgil.”

John chuckled. “See you later, big brother.” His hologram vanished, and Scott set aside the communicator before reluctantly leaving the bed and heading for the ensuite.

Showering with stitches was always a nuisance; they were old enough to get slightly damp without consequences, but it was still annoying to have to mind them. Still, the wound was getting better and Scott was cautiously optimistic that he’d be allowed back on duty soon – he’d have cleared himself a few days ago, but Grandma and Virgil called had that ‘nonsense’ when he’d suggested it.

Dried off, he left the room with a fluffy towel around his waist to find Parker standing there, already perfectly dressed for the day.

“Morning, Mr Scott,” he said, seemingly unfazed by the fact that Scott was wearing nothing but a towel. “h’I’ve been h’asked to check your stitches h’again before you get dressed.” Scott snatched at his underwear and beat a hasty retreat back into the ensuite to pull them on.

“Give me a minute, Parker!”

From the timing, he heavily suspected this occasion to be John’s fault, and made a mental note to complain at him later.

Parker’s presence did not vanish after the stitches check, the butler instead insisting on helping Scott with his suit and tie – a pale pink one, this time, not that Scott had known he owned one in that colour – and piling on the hair gel when Scott attempted to return to his usual style.

“Aren’t you supposed to be Lady Penelope’s butler?” Scott asked as the man wrestled the comb away from him and made him sit.

“’er Ladyship h’is less of h’a disaster when h’it comes to dressing ‘erself for the h’occasion,” Parker retorted, and Scott groaned.

“You’re not exactly aristocrat class yourself, either,” he pointed out, slumping forwards until a light jab in the back made him straighten up.

“h’I learnt from the best, Mr Scott,” the older man retorted. “h’And you should respect your h’elders.”

“Right, sorry.” There was a large mirror on the wall opposite, and Scott watched his transformation back into the perfect rich gentleman with a small amount of despair as Parker added one last dollop of hair gel, combed it in, and pronounced himself satisfied.

The clock proclaimed 06:57, and with no small amount of gratitude to his father for not employing an army of servants and putting him through that rigmarole every day, despite reaching billionaire status, Scott left his room to meet up with Lady Penelope – dressed in a pale pink to match his tie, as Scott had suspected – for breakfast.

It had always been drilled into Scott that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, and it was clear that the Australians agreed. Unlike the previous evening of small plates of food arranged artistically, breakfast was a far more hearty affair, much to the delight of Scott’s stomach. Lady Penelope offered an amused smile as he dug in.

“A change from your grandmother’s cooking?” she asked, daintily picking at her smaller breakfast.

“Definitely,” he agreed, and they both laughed. “So what’s the plan for today?”

“Nothing much, I’m afraid,” she said. “The time difference between here and your home works against us this time, so we’ll only have time to visit the gardens before we have to leave.”

“Do I have to get changed again?” he asked, and she smiled.

“No, I think we can spare you the trauma of a fourth suit,” she laughed, and Scott relaxed, finishing off his plate with gusto and draining his coffee. “Shall we go?”

“What about our rooms?” he asked. “Don’t we need to check out?”

“Parker has that all in hand,” she assured him. “I just need to collect Bertie from him, and then I’ll be ready for our walk.”

“Sherbet’s coming with us?” Scott asked, somewhat surprised. After the lapdog’s absence from everything the day before, he’d expected him to remain in Parker’s care.

“Of course,” Lady Penelope told him, correcting his assumption. “Bertie loves going out for walks.”

Well, Scott had no particular issue with the small dog, so he had no complaints about the additional companion as Parker materialised outside the restaurant, dog in arms and ready to be handed over to his mistress.

“We’ll be back by midday,” Lady Penelope informed him as she took her dog, Sherbet making contented little noises as he settled into her arms. “If you could arrange a packed lunch for our journey back that would be appreciated.”

“Yes, M’Lady. h’Enjoy your walk.”

“Oh, I’m sure we will. Shall we, Scott?” With her arms full of dog, there was no subtle grip on his arm, but Scott remembered the way out of the hotel well enough from the previous day, and it took very little time for them to leave the building and end up back in the manicured lawns of the hotel’s garden.

Unlike the previous day, they didn’t stick to the lawns, but headed towards the trees and other fantastic flora visible in the botanical gardens themselves. Unsurprisingly, despite the relative earliness of the day, there were already some people milling around, admiring the flowers. An unspoken agreement had the pair avoiding them, seeking somewhere more quiet after the previous evening.

The gardens were huge, however, and it was simple enough to slip past the other admirers of nature to find a quieter area.

“A nice change from your usual atmosphere,” Lady Penelope observed, and Scott laughed, thinking of noisy brothers and roaring engines.

“Less chaos, for sure,” he agreed, “a few less rocks, too.” While Tracy Island had some greenery, it was at its heart a volcanic outcrop – great for challenging exploring but not so much for casual strolls to admire nature.

If he didn’t know Lady Penelope as well as he did, he might have thought that she was picking her route at random through the large area. High heels did nothing to stop the woman from finding the less even paths amongst the trees and higher shrubs, and while she was not walking with purpose, she was steering him slowly in a single direction.

Their eventual destination, after an hour or so of very casual walking, turned out to be a carved seat, overlooking the harbour. Lady Penelope sat herself down on it gracefully, gesturing for Scott to join her. Sherbet yapped as he did so, wriggling out of his owner’s grip and landing on Scott’s lap, looking up at him expectantly. Relaxing back against the sandstone, he scratched the dog behind the ears.

Underneath the shade of the trees, protected from the Australian sun, it was easy to relax and watch the ships manoeuvring in and out of the harbour. Scott couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d just sat and watched the world go by – usually, he was having to chase after it in a Thunderbird as disasters struck, or there was the endless paperwork to juggle. With both Thunderbird and paperwork strictly forbidden and out of reach, and a very determined Lady beside him, he’d been left with very little choice and found it was actually quite peaceful.

Was this what John saw, when he got a break from calls? Maybe he should ask him about that at some point. Birds sang overhead, and a light breeze ruffled the leaves above him, although not quite strong enough to free his hair from its heavily gelled confines. For the first time in a long time, Scott just let himself exist in the moment.

“As lovely as it is here, we must be heading back.” Lady Penelope’s voice broke the silence suddenly, and Scott was startled to discover more than an hour had passed. “I would like to keep my promise to your family, so we do need to leave Sydney by midday.”

Scott could just imagine the fuss if he wasn’t back by then – not because they didn’t completely trust Lady Penelope and Parker, but because the pair had a reputation for arriving where they said, when they said. It would take more than having a single Tracy guest to delay them. A delay would be concerning, to say the least.

Still, it was with some reluctance that he found his feet again, brushing his back off and hiding a wince as painkillers decided they’d done their duty and had worn off at some point while he was distracted. Blue eyes focused on him, but Lady Penelope didn’t comment. She did, however, scoop Sherbet up with only one arm, linking her other through with his. Scott knew better than to refuse the silent aid, if only because it was Lady Penelope, and let her guide him back towards the direction of the hotel and the waiting Parker.

It was just before midday when they arrived, Penelope sliding into the car before Scott joined her.

“h’I h’obtained some sandwiches for you, M’Lady, Mr Scott,” Parker informed them as he lowered the travel table in the back of the driver’s seat and placed the paper plates laden with said sandwiches on it. “There are drinks h’in the cup ‘olders. h’I ‘ope that’ll do?”

“Indeed they will, thank you, Parker,” Lady Penelope assured him.

“Mr Scott, h’I took the liberty h’of putting your painkillers and some water h’in the door,” he continued, and Scott spotted them.

“Thanks,” he said, and reluctantly fished them out as the car began to move, trundling through the streets before the wings engaged and they lifted into the air.

Parker was no stranger to the appetite of the Tracy family – or the lack of cooking ability exhibited by their grandmother – and the sandwiches turned out to be numerous enough to keep Scott quite content as they flew over the ocean, back towards Tracy Island and the brothers that were no doubt waiting for him, provided they weren’t out on another rescue.

Sure enough, Thunderbird Two was still happily in her hangar when FAB1 trundled in at precisely four o’clock, according to the communicator Scott had strapped back to his wrist, uncaring of whether or not it belonged there while he was in a suit.

Also there was Virgil, who left his tools at the sight of them and hollered a call of “they’re back!” into his comm as he jogged over to the car. Gordon immediately tore into view, clearly having been waiting as much as doing maintenance on Module Four, and in an echo of twenty four hours previous immediately zeroed in on Scott’s tie, which matched Lady Penelope’s current dress perfectly.

“Lady Penelope, you look amazing!” he gushed, almost knocking Scott out of the way in his haste to help the woman out of the car. Sherbet yipped at him and the aquanaut flinched backwards, to Scott’s amusement.

“How are you?” Virgil asked Scott, drawing his attention to his dark haired brother as worried brown eyes looked him up and down.

“I’m fine, Virgil,” he assured him. “You can ask Parker if you don’t believe me.” Virgil had an annoying habit of never believing the words ‘I’m fine’, for some reason.

“Parker?” his brother immediately asked, and Scott sighed, drifting away as the questions about his health started again. An entire day of not being treated like a patient had been a welcome break. Unfortunately, that put him in Gordon’s line of sight, as Kayo materialised and headed straight for Lady Penelope, elbowing the blond out of the way.

Amber eyes looked him up and down in an echo of Virgil’s, only there was less worry and more scrutiny in the gaze before Gordon locked eyes with him.

“Gordon-” he started, hoping to head off whatever storm was headed his way, but Gordon interrupted him with a raised hand.

“Uh, uh.”

And then he was tackled in a hug, Gordon’s arms carefully avoiding his stitches.

“Gordon?”

“I’m still not happy you got to go and I didn’t,” his brother grumbled. “But you look better than you have all week, so it was obviously for a good cause.”

“I- thanks?”

“But the next date is mine,” Gordon added, glowering up at him. “Got it?”

“That’s not my call to make,” Scott admitted, as much as he’d like to say ‘yes’ just to get Gordon off his case. “The only one who gets to decide that is her.”

They both looked across at where the two women were discussing something in hushed tones, the words “Sydney”, “arrested”, and “GDF” floating into earshot. For some reason, that seemed to cheer Gordon up, as he released Scott and took a step back.

“Yeah, well, you look ridiculous.” Parker’s carefully crafted hairstyle was mussed up, and Gordon made a face at the amount of gel that came off onto his hands, wiping them vigorously on his shorts. “Gross. Go get yourself back to normal and stop looking like a pampered billionaire.”

Scott grinned at him. “But Gordon, didn’t you know? I am a pampered billionaire.”

Gordon whacked his arm. “Go. Change. Don’t worry about the luggage – Virgil’s already got that.” Scott whirled around and sure enough, his case was being carried towards the stairs by his brother.

“Seriously?” he sighed, leaving his younger brother to his failed attempts to get Lady Penelope’s attention away from Kayo and jogging to catch up with Virgil. “I can carry my own bag.”

“Doesn’t mean you’re going to,” Virgil retorted, moving it out of reach when Scott tried to reclaim it. “Go take the elevator up.” Scott matched him, step for step, and Virgil stopped, grumbling under his breath, before turning and heading back down. “Fine, we’ll both take the elevator. Come on.”

Admitting defeat, he followed, leaning against the wall as it carried them up to the den.

“Where’s Alan?” he asked, noticing a lack of his youngest brother.

“Freighter ran into some trouble just out of orbit,” Virgil shrugged. “Brains went with him, and John’s joined them with the exo-suit. They should be finished soon.”

“Why didn’t Kayo go?” he wondered, and Virgil laughed.

“Turns out Lady Penelope had some other business in Sydney as well as going to the opera,” he said. “Kayo’s been handling the fall out while you two had a nice walk in the park and gave Lady P. an alibi.”

Scott stared at him, making no move to get out of the elevator when it arrived.

“You mean I was playing distraction in a spy mission the whole time?”

“Seems that way, bro,” Virgil grinned, taking hold of his elbow and guiding him out, towards the final set of stairs. “Judging by the papers, you made a fantastic one. They’re full of conspiracy theories why you two were at the opera last night, although John’s culled the worst offenders.”

Scott sighed and picked at his bejewelled cufflinks morosely.

“No wonder they were so determined that I wear overpriced suits,” he moaned. “Get me out of this thing; I’ve had enough.”

Virgil laughed again, pushing his way inside Scott’s room and putting the case down on the floor.

“I’ll leave you to it,” he said even as Scott all but ripped the tie away from his neck, letting the expensive pink material fall to the floor. “See you in the den when you’re done.”

“Sure.”

It took very little time to get the offending clothes off, and his usual, comfy attire on. His hair was a lost cause that required washing to get all of the gel out, however, so Scott just left it in its Gordon-ruffled state to be dealt with later, especially as the unmistakable sound of Thunderbird Three roared through the house; a glance out of his window showed him the large rocket returning to her silo, youngest brother presumably on board.

What he hadn’t been expecting, as he made his way back down to the den to find everyone gathered there, was the third person on board.

“You look better,” John said bluntly, crossing the room and putting a hand on his shoulder, surveying him critically like two of their younger brothers already had. “I thought as much this morning, but holograms can be deceiving.”

“This morning?” he heard Gordon ask, but Alan chose that moment to leap at his two eldest brothers and hug them both, John’s recoil coming too late to escape.

“How was it?” the youngest asked excitedly. “Did you see the bridge? Was the Opera House all lit up?”

Scott didn’t get a chance to answer before John cut in.

“Get off, Alan.”

However, their youngest brother was like a limpet when he wanted to be, and with Scott not particularly trying very hard to escape, John’s struggles were fruitless, much to the amusement of everyone else in the room.

“Dog pile!” Gordon yelled suddenly, and Scott joined the laughter as Virgil got willingly dragged in, the four youngest brothers making a ring around the eldest.

“Guys!” John complained, but there was no real bite to his tone.

“Well, isn’t that just a picture,” Grandma commented. “Kayo, be a dear and take a photo of my grandsons.”

“Already done.” She flicked it up onto a holoprojector, and after a few moments the five boys disentangled enough to see it. Four of them were laughing, with the fifth wearing a reluctant smile. It was a total mess, with limbs everywhere and Gordon in danger of falling over where he was half-clinging to Virgil’s back. Alan wasn’t even facing the camera, a bright blob of blond shielding most of his face from view.

“That’s awful,” John said, at the same moment Lady Penelope asked Kayo for a copy.

The two long term friends looked at each other, one frowning, the other openly amused, before John shook his head and extracted himself entirely from the crowd of brothers. Scott watched the exchange, amused, before realising his brother was heading back towards the hangars.

“John, where are you going?” he asked.

“Back to the office, and sanity,” the redhead retorted.

“You don’t even want some cake?” Lady Penelope asked. “It’s chocolate.”

Cake? “When did we get cake?” Scott asked, turning away from where John had paused to look at her, still dressed in her posh pink dress.

“h’I did, Mr Scott,” Parker waved. “While you were h’out on your walk this morning. M’Lady h’asked that h’I pick h’up the cake she h’ordered yesterday.”

“It’s in the kitchen, ready to be eaten,” Grandma interjected, and Scott blinked as his three youngest brothers vanished in a stampede, Kayo already long gone.

“Fine, I’ll stay for the cake.” John’s reluctance was entirely put-on, in Scott’s opinion. “Come on, Scott, or the vultures will have eaten it all before we get there.”

Scott laughed, and hauled himself back out of the sofa.

“Race you!”

As he and John tore down the stairs, both slowed down by injury or gravity, he heard more laughter from the den, and the click of another photograph being taken.

#irrelief #irrelief2020 #thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds are go fanfiction #tsari writes fanfiction #scott tracy #lady penelope creighton-ward #aloysius parker #grandma tracy #virgil tracy #gordon tracy #john tracy #alan tracy #kayo kyrano #thunderfluff

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davieslandon · 3 years

Text

Discord Thread || Landon&Stas

Discord thread featuring: Landon & @ancstasio

When: March 23rd

Mentions: @jayceelynd @romanbeckett @aaronhart93

Description: Before going to the airport for their trip to London, Landon makes a quick detour at Stas’ place to tell him Jaycee’s pregnant and that the baby is his.

Trigger Warnings: nothing, I think

LANDON

Landon wasn't planning on making any detours before going to the airport to catch their flight. They were very early but Elle was so excited about going to London to visit grandma that they were ready a lot sooner than he would be if he was going on his own. His daughter wasn't amused when he said that he needed to make a quick stop to talk to a friend first but promising to let her watch a couple of YouTube videos while he talked to Stas worked a charm. Landon knew that wasn't exactly star parenting but he really needed to talk to his...friend, fuck buddy, something more? With Stas leaving for Paris before he got back from London, that didn't leave him with many options and this was something the other needed to hear from him. Him and Jaycee were going to announce the pregnancy at some point and he wanted the people he was close with to hear it from him. He knocked at the door and smiled when the other answered. "Sorry, it's so last minute." And strange. It wasn't every day that he hung out with Stas with his daughter there.

anastasio

stas seemed to have been running all over his house since he got home last night, having to pack a few bags to leave for paris sometime that day because he had some morello business to do for his parents and probably for the launch of his own morello line in the future that he was secretly working on. he had to make sure he had the right clothes and all of his work things in order and packed, which was why he was up early. he knew landon was coming over, for what? he had no idea, but he knew that he'd be glad to see landon, he was always glad to see landon. he's running down the steps of his home when he hears the knock on his door, knowing that it was landon there. he's walking into his foyer, opening the door to the vestibule before opening the front door to welcome there. "hey, no problem." he states, motioning both of them inside.

LANDON

Landon followed him inside and got Elle settled with his phone and a playlist of her favourite videos. He could tell that Stas was busy so he was even more grateful that he was taking the time to talk to him at the last minute. "Is there somewhere we can talk a little more privately?" His daughter knew that she was going to be a big sister but this still wasn't something that he wanted to do in front of her. So he followed him to another room and tried not to look as nervous as he felt. They weren't together or anything like that. On the contrary, they both had the tendency to insist they were just friends but it was still going to be a shocking announcement. "So...here's the thing. You know Jaycee right?" What a stupid question. Somehow this was even harder than when he told Roman and Aaron. "There was this holiday party last December, we were both drunk and...hooked up. Now she's pregnant."

anastasio

stas let's landon get his daughter settled somewhere in the living room once they were in the house, nodding his head at the question. "um, yeah, we could go into my office over there." he points to the french doors before he's leading landon inside, shutting the door over, but not all of the way, just in case they needed to listen for elle. "sorry it's a mess in here, been working on some stuff and trying to figure out what i need to take with me for meetings and whatever." he states, chuckling for a moment before he's leaning against the desk, looking towards landon. stas is nodding his head as he listened to landon, smiling softly. "really?" stas questioned before he smirks softly. "that great, lan, i'm happy for you."

LANDON

Landon was never the sort of person to comment about other people's mess. His office was a disaster most of the times and he was the only one who could find anything in it so this wasn't anything he wasn't used to. That, and he had other things to worry about at the moment. He wasn't sure what sort of reaction he was expecting from the other but it definitely wasn't something so...calm. It caught him off guard and left him staring at Stas with wide eyes, almost like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. "Thank you?" It came out sounding more like a question than a statement.

anastasio

he's sure most people wouldn't care about the office being much of a mess, but stas figured that he just cared too much about how he presented himself. there's a chuckle falling from his lips, fingers reaching up to push some of his hair back as he looked towards landon, mostly confused by the male's response to him. "i don't know if you were expecting a different response." he smirks softly, shrugging once more. "you having another kid isn't going to change what i think about you or, uh, how i feel about you for that matter." he tells landon, shrugging once more.

LANDON

Landon wasn’t expecting screaming or tears but he also didn’t think Stas would react so calmly. His words were enough for him to relax slightly. What his friend meant by what he felt about him, he didn’t know, but the fact that he wasn’t judging him for getting his friend pregnant after a hookup was enough for him. Landon wasn’t sure what was going on between him and Stas other than the obvious but at least now he would still have a chance to figure it out. He didn’t ruin things, that’s all he could really ask for. “I don’t know what I was expecting. Everyone I’ve told so far was so shocked that I figured you’d react similarly.”

anastasio

stas didn't see any reason to be indifferent or not react so shocked or anything about the idea of landon having a child with somebody that he hooked up with months ago. shit happens and he was a firm believer in that, really. stas didn't see the idea of the other being a father to a second child to change anything between them, it didn't change anything because it wasn't like landon was in a relationship or anything. he still had a chance with landon and a chance to see what would happen with them in the future or where this thing between them was really going. "eh, i don't see a reason to be shocked or anything. it's a normal thing that happens, really."

LANDON

Landon wished he had the same reaction as Stas when Jaycee first told him she was pregnant. It probably would have been more comforting than the shock and disbelief he ended up offering. He was almost thirty years old so it’s not like Landon still needed to learn how babies are made but both him and Jaycee were both so sure that pregnancy wasn’t an option that it never even crossed his mind to worry the day after the party. At least Stas wasn’t choking on his pasta like Aaron did when he told him. “That...makes sense I guess. Although I was definitely shocked when I first found out. But thanks, I should have known there was nothing for me to worry about.”

anastasio

stas could understand landon's reaction when he first found out, he couldn't really even imagine how it would feel if somebody told him that they were pregnant. maybe that's why stas took it in a less shocking manner, he wasn't truly sure, but, oh well. "oh, totally, i'm sure it's shocking to find out that somebody you've hooked up with ended up pregnant. it's a lot to take in and figure out or whatever."

LANDON

“Tell me about it, at least we’re friends. It would have been so much worse if all of this happened with some one night stand I don’t even remember the name of”, he said, lips twisting just at the thought of it. Jaycee was one of his good friends and Elle loved her, so at least he didn’t have to worry about co-parenting with someone he didn’t get along with. “I wanted to tell you before I go to London since you’ll be in Paris when I get back. Didn’t want you to find out from some Instagram post or something.”

anastasio

"that would have been terrible, especially because then you'd probably find out once the kid was an adult or something." stas responds, shrugging his shoulders towards the other male. he's nodding his head at the question, soft smile on his lips towards the man. "well, i'm glad you felt the need to tell me, at least. i suppose it is much better hearing it from you and not from, like, instagram or something."

LANDON

Something like that would have broken his heart. Landon might not have expected it but he was still excited to be a dad again. The thought of having a kid out there he didn’t know about was enough to stress him out. “Yeah, that wouldn’t have been fair on you. It’s why I’m going to London. My mum would kill me if I didn’t tell her something like this in person.”

anastasio

stas is nodding his head, chuckling softly at the other man's words. "i can honestly only imagine not telling my madre something like that in person but letting them find out on like, social media or some shit like that." he responds, chuckling to himself once more. "but, i hope it goes well for you, telling her and all of that. at least try to enjoy yourself where you're there, yeah?"

LANDON

"If your mum is anything like mine, she would kill you. And don't even get me started on my sisters, they would have my head if I let them find out I'm having another kid on social media." Landon knew it wasn't the same for everyone and some siblings spent months not talking to each other but that's what you get when you stay close to your family. "I'm sure she'll be supportive once she stops ranting at me", he laughed, shaking his head. "I'll see you when we both get back?"

anastasio

"madre would totally kill you and nobody would find out." stas jokes, letting a chuckle fall from his lips towards landon. he nods, "i'm sure they'll all be supportive, you have nothing to worry about." stas explains, hoping that he's reassuring the other man. "yeah, of course we'll see each other when we get back. we'll grab dinner or something."

LANDON

Now that it was out of the way and Stas knew why he was going to London for an impromptu visit to his family, he felt a little more relaxed. His mum was going to be supportive no matter what and now at least he knew that once he got back the two of them could go right back where they left off. He walked out of the office with Stas and back to the living room, where Elle was still sitting down with his phone in her hands. As soon as they walked in, she raised her head and directed a bright smile at him that never failed to make Landon’s day better. “Ready to go angel?” he asked, bending down to pick up one of her many bags that she refused to leave in the car. “We’re going to head off, have a flight to catch and all that. Text me about that dinner when you get back.”

anastasio

stas follows landon out of the office and back into the living room where landon's daughter was, especially so that he could walk them to the door and what not. he listens to landon's words, nodding his head at the other male with a soft smile. "yeah, course i will." he states before he's leading landon and elle towards the door. "you two have fun in london, alright?"

LANDON

Important news aside, he was excited for the opportunity to go to London again. New York was great and he couldn’t really imagine himself living anywhere else at this point but London was always going to be his second home, and he knew they would both have a few days of fun with their family. “We will.” With one last smile at Stas, he took Elle’s hand in his and together they walked out, with his daughter chatting away about all the things she was going to buy from London.

#discord #thread #c: stas

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vamplu · 3 years

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Chapter 1:

“Sorry, I’m not interested. It’s clear to me you have plenty of loyal bitches already.”, the girl scoffed at the tall man trying to “pick her up”, “Besides you’re not my type at all.”. “Aw c’mon. Don’t be a tsundere~”, the man Chikage Rokujou said with a wink. “Yeah no, sorry. I have more important things to do than sit around with some womanizing scum.”, the girl shot back, “And also, let me know if any of these girls aren’t in high school.”. She began to walk away, heading to her job’s location, a maid cafe in Ikebukuro. She thought about how much men sucked, all the way from her father, to her “fiance”, to the random men on the streets. Her only safe haven was the maid cafe’s owner, an old woman who’d started it for fun, Amai Fukiro. All the girls called her “Grandma”, though. She was wise, kind, and well old. A perfect grandmother figure. The other girls, however, were jerks. As Hanako opened the door, she heard the bell ding, and the cheery call of her co-worker, a fellow high schooler, Sakura, “Afternoon, Hanako-San!”. “Please drop the ‘san’. I’m only a year older than you.”, Hanako replied, cringing. She was a third year at Raira Academy, being eighteen years old, and the younger girl always called her “Hanako-San”, which only added to Hanako’s stress about what would be happening when she graduated. A domestic life was the scariest thing about her future. She walked to the employee locker room, and changed into the maid costume, and walked back to Sakura. “We go on in three minutes, once the other guy’s shifts end.”, Sakura reminded. Hanako nodded, “You ready?”. Sakura nodded happily. Hanako cracked a small smile, “You’re adorable, y’know?”. Sakura’s cheeks tinted light pink, and she shook her head. Hanako returned her attention to the door that led into the main part of the cafe. Sudden;y, Sakura piped up with a question that startled Hanako. “A-are you… in the Dollars?”, she asked nervously. “That gang?”, Hanako asked, confused. “Yeah… just wondering.”. “I’m not.”. “Ah ok.”. “Why?”. “I just thought that y’know, someone as cool as you would be in something cool like the Dollars.”. Hanako laughed, “I’m not cool, and neither are the Dollars. Gangs aren’t cool. They may seem like it, but they really aren’t.”. “I know but still… being without rules or guidelines, or even a leader? They seem so… well, cool!”, Sakura gushed, and turned her face to Hanako. “Rules and guidelines keep the world functioning, leaders guide people away from mistakes in principle.”, Hanako replied, though she didn’t mean it. She hated all the rules she had to follow. “I know but still… chaos is kinda fun!”, Sakura giggled. “Chaos is not ‘kinda fun’. I can’t tell you what to or to not do but please, think about the effects before you take any leaps of faith and dive into anything remotely illegal. It ruins lives, you know.”, Hanako said, grabbing the girl’s hands and looking into her eyes, “You don’t want to wind up in jail, pregnant, or with a criminal record.”. “Pregnant? What part of the Dollars makes you think I’ll get knocked up?!!”, Sakura exclaimed. “Nothing… just something I saw earlier. My bad.”. Sakura blushed and looked down. Hanako released the girl’s pale wrists, “Anyways, please don’t do anything illegal.”. “I didn’t ever say I was going to join the Dollars, Hanako-San.”. “I can see in your eyes you’re thinking about it.”. “I forgot you can read me like an open book.”, Sakura giggled, “And I’m still thinking about it, nothing’s set in stone.”. Hanako nodded, and bit her lip. How much she wished she could be in the Dollars, free. She wanted to be like the Headless Rider, a free spirit that did what was good. She also wanted to bike like it did. She’d seen it once, for a moment, and her vision and dreams were captured, whether or not they could come true. Three girls came rushing in, and sighed, “Your turn. Good luck, it’s a riot out there. There’s a group of four with endless stomachs and two otakus. Some sort of party.”. “Thank you Rio, we’ll do our best.”, Sakura replied with a smile. “Yeah, yeah.”, Rio said, “Now get out there.”. Sakura and Hanako rushed out, and were greeted with various regulars, and a group of four people, in their late teens and early twenties, who sat by the window chatting away. “I can handle them if you can get the frequents.”, Hanako whispered, and Sakura nodded, looking relieved. Sakura was good with people older than her, not so much people her age. Hanako walked over with a smile painted onto her face, and asked sweetly, “Hello!~ My name is Hanako, and I’ll be your server today! What can I get you to drink?”. “I’ll have some of the cat coffee!”, a girl in a long black dress said, her hair covered for the most part by a black hat. “Alright!”. “I’ll have water.”, a level headed guy said, his slicked back black hair was under a black do-rag. “Mhm!~”. “I’ll have the green tea.”, a man with shoulder length brown hair said. Hanako nodded, and turned to the final customer, a boy with light brown hair. “I can’t pick between the sakura blossom tea, or the cat coffee…”, he said, “What would you get?”. “Well it depends. If I’m sleepy, sad, or angry, I’d get the cat coffee. I’d pick the sakura blossom tea if I was calm or relaxed.”, Hanako said, “The cat coffee is more chocolatey, and the Sakura Tea has a distinct tea-like taste.”. “Hmmm….”, the boy said, “I think I’ll go for the cat coffee, in that case. I want something sweet.”. “I’ll have those right out!”, Hanako smiled.

Finally out of that damn dress, Hanako thought, retrieving her cell phone from her pocket, and reading her messages, which only bored her further. She was supposed to go home after work, but she wanted to see the sakura trees in the park, as it was spring, and they were in full bloom. She hoped she’d get to see the Headless Rider, or something cool. Maybe then her mundane life would be a little more interesting. She was so sick of the same cycle she went through everyday. School, then work, the straight home for homework and studying. Sometimes she was able to watch TV, if she got done with all her assignments by 10, her curfew. Hanako knew she’d be in trouble when she got back home late, but she couldn’t care anymore. When was she not in trouble? At this point her father was more mad at her than not, and her mother was in America, like always, working at her fashion company. She had finally made it to the fountain, in the center of the park, to which she sat on. She pulled the book she’d been reading out of her bag, and silently read it. It was about “How to Live Life Like You Want”, another inspirational book her mother had given to her. She thought it was a sign from Mom, that maybe she should break out of the mundane, but had quickly written out the thought. Mother wanted her to marry Makoto just as much as her father did, for the same reasons too. Money, power, and title. The three things that fueled all of her parents decisions on her behalf. She’d be forced to forfeit free will for as long as she could remember. Makato was… nice, but when you’re forced to marry someone, you only see their flaws. He was quick to anger, and spoiled. He didn’t know suffering, and she supposed she didn’t either, but it doesn’t make her any less resentful of him. He was never yelled at, didn’t have to work for his good grades, and did horse-back riding. He was annoyingly perfect. Hanako hated him. She let the words of the chapter sink in, about making your own choices that benefit you. Wish it was that easy, she thought, Wish I could just leave and never look back. She shoveled the book back in her bag, and shook off her crazy ideas. She couldn’t leave. Not in a million years. She sent a text to her dad, a quick, “I’m ok and I’ll be home soon.”, text. She began her walk home, and paused for a moment when she saw two of her underclassmen, Anri Sonohara and Mikado Ryugamine, walking together, most likely heading home. She was slightly jealous of them, but nothing she had confirmed, or had been confirmed. She could tell by looking into their eyes that they lived a life that was anything besides normal. She looked away for a moment, and thought hard for a moment. I could run. I could make it. I could join the Dollars. I could look for the Headless Rider…, she thought, before again, shaking the thought away. She owed it to her parents to do what they wanted. They had given her a good life, and given her life to begin with, the least she could do was pay them back in doing their wishes. Besides, she couldn’t leave her younger sister, Asumi. Asumi loved the way they lived though, and wanted to marry Makoto instead of her older sister. Makoto was good with kids. Hell, he’d make a great dad. And a great husband. But he was to tame. He was too domesticated. Hanako didn’t want children or to be a housewife. She wanted to be free. Something she’d never felt. She was bound by chains of gratitude, and the feeling of owing her parents. She’d thought about the group of friends from earlier. Erika, Walker, Kyohei, and Saburo. She’d picked their names up from their conversations, which she’d been listening to as she waited on them. Sometimes, they included her, asking her questions or for her opinions. She wanted friends like them, a group of people she could trust with her life and secrets. Their smiles were genuine, their laughter full and bright. She felt her fingernails dig into her palms, and she pressed them harder, snapping herself out of her daydreaming. She let out a sigh and continued walking. Anri and Mikado were long gone, she couldn't even see them walking behind her. Friendship and… love, she thought sadly, Something I can’t have.

She made it home with no complications, which disappointed her, but what more did she expect? Her father went into his usual rant about her being late, told her that Stella, their housekeeper, would bring her dinner at her room because he needed the dining room for “work”. Hanako did as she was told, and sat herself at her desk, retrieving her red folder for homework, and began on her chemistry homework. Stella opened the door softly, and said, “Here’s your dinner, Hanako.”. “Thanks Stella.”. They were on a first name basis, as they had been for years. Stella was the daughter of one of her father’s workers' children, who couldn’t raise her, and asked him to take her in. She was Hanako’s closest thing to a friend, as they had grown up together basically. Only difference was that Stella was being paid to be a prisoner of the Ito family home. Stella placed the plate of food on her desk. “Hanako, something appears to be bothering you. You can talk to me, anytime.”, Stella said. “I’m fine Stella, really. Just a bit stressed from balancing work, school, and training. Nothing I can’t handle.”, Hanako replied, grabbing Stella’s hand in her own, “But some green tea might help, if you wouldn’t mind.”. “Of course.”, Stella replied, “I’d be glad to get you some tea. Is that all?”. “Yes ma’am, it is.”, Hanako said with a smile, releasing Stella’s hand. Being eighteen, a student, an heir to a multi-billion dollar company, and a full-time maid café worker made life… hectic. She enjoyed her job. More than anything, really. Little did she know, the customers from earlier were talking about her.

“Dotachin, don’t you think that girl from the café was really pretty? Her boobs were big too! She was a perfect dating sim character.”, Erika exclaimed. “For sure! She’d be the mature older sister type, right?”, Walker chirped. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. She was nice, boobs or not.”, Kyohei replied, “Don’t make comments like that about any woman or girl, got it?”. “Aww man! It’s just true statements though!”, Erika whined. “We don’t wanna seem like we don’t respect women, do we?”, Saburo said. Walker and Erika nodded, “We aren’t like that at all!”. Kyohei nodded at Saburo in thanks. “HeyHey! Dotachin, we should ask her if she wants to join us! She seemed so bored with her life!”, Erika exclaimed, “She seems super kick-assey too!”. “Yeah for sure! She seems so mysterious. She’s actually like a protagonist! Super bored with their life and looking for change! We could be the supporting characters of her story! I bet she has daddy issues too!”, Walker gushed. “Here we go again.”, Saburo groaned. “We can’t just walk up to her and ask if she wants to join our gang.”, Kyohei explained, “It’s a surefire way to get reported to the cops.”. “Aww man! I wanted another girl on our team…”, Erika mumbled. “I wanted a big sister type girl!”, Walker pouted. Kyohei sighed. Saburo laughed, “So you thought we were going to just ask her, and she would say yes?”. Erika and Walker looked at each other. “Joining a gang isn’t the kind of thing someone says yes too.”. “Well yeah but-”, Erika started, but was cut off by Kyohei, “Saburo's right. No one joins a gang because someone asks them too.”. “Unless there’s blackmail! Or threats!”, Walker exclaimed. “Right…”, Kyohei replied.

Hanako gripped the pencil in her hand harder, her eyes scanning the algebra questions, and answering them easily. “Simplify…”, she muttered, before furiously scribbling things down. Stella’s home brewed green tea always made her focused, most likely because of the caffeine. Stella had left a while ago, and Hanako missed the presence of her, as she acted as a big sister in a weird way. She was five years older than Hanako, and was wiser and less driven by emotions, not to say she was emotionless. She had a very logical view on life, and passed on her opinions with reserve and grace. She was dignified, and way more suited to be the Ito’s next chairman. Suddenly, her door burst open, and she heard the voice of her twelve year old sister, Asumi, who exclaimed, “Hana! I want you to paint my nails!”. “Asumi… I’m doing homework, maybe later.”. “No I want them done now~”, she whined, “I’ll pay you ten bucks!”. “I don’t need your money, Asumi.”. “Well I want you to paint my nails, so make it twenty.”. Asumi had no idea how much twenty dollars really was in her young mind. “Fine, if you insist.”, Hanako sighed. She was almost done anyway. “I’ll go get the color!”, Asumi cheered, looping her skinny arms around Hanako, burying her face into her breasts. “Ok, ok. I get it.”, Hanako said, rubbing the girl’s blonde hair. Asumi ran out, and was back two minutes later with a pearl pink color in her hands. She thrusted the bottle into Hanako’s outstretched hands, “Thank you Hanahanamura!”. “I told you to just call me Hana.”, Hanako sighed. “Okok fine!!”, Asumi giggled, “Do you have time to do my feet and my fingers?”. “A mani-pedi? Don’t you know dad would let you get your nails done any day of the week.”. “I know but it isn’t the same as when you do it Hana!”. The sentiment warmed Hanako’s heart, and she began painting her sister’s nails.

“Your twenty dollars, m’lady.”, Asumi giggled as she passed Hanako a crisp twenty dollar bill. “Thank you my peasant.”, Hanako teased. “Hey! I am at least a princess!”, Asumi cried out. “You sure are. Princess Asumi, Queen Athena, King Mirio and…”. “Princess Hanako! If I'm a princess you’re a princess!”. “Umm… ok, Princess Hanako.”. Hanako wasn’t the same as her sister, not at all. Her sister wasn’t a closed door rebellion, a secret disgrace. She didn’t hate her father, or Makoto. She wasn’t selfish. “Mhm!~ Princess Hana and her Prince Charming, Makoto!”. Asumi had said it as a joke, but Hanako cringed at that statement. “Yeahhhhhhhh.”. “Mhm!~”. Stella broke the awkward situation, “Ms. Asumi, it’s your curfew.”. Asumi pouted, and hugged Hanako goodbye. “Night Night Hana!”, she said softly, kissing Hanako’s pale cheek. Hanako wrapped her arms around Asumi, and kissed the crown of her head, “Goodnight Princess Asumi.”. Ausmi released Hanako, and bounded behind Stella, heading to her room. Hanako finished her homework, and took a shower. As the hot water ran down her body, she found herself singing. “I hope you know that I’m trying to build a life I can love. I hope I never stop dreaming, I need something I believe in.”, she sang, projecting her thoughts and feelings into the words she sang, “I dip this world in black and white, monochrome igniting. I'm gonna be a neon sign. Let the ship rest 'cause I'm lighting up the city. I don't ever wanna wake up wondering, where the youth have gone. Not gonna be another sell out zombie, wondering what went wrong. I'll never give in, I'll never back down, I'll never be another zombie in a life that's not my own.”. By the end of her “song”, she felt a little better, a little less confused. She stepped out of the warm shower, and dried herself off, putting on her pajamas, and laid down in bed. She decided to read, and picked up where she’d left off in the book her mother had given her. “Chapter Five.”, she read aloud, “Don’t Be a Slave to Obligation”. She was shocked by the chapter title. It was exactly what she was suffering from. She read more, engrossed by the chapter’s calling out of her lifestyle. A slave to obligation is what I am, she thought, but I don’t have to be, do I?. But of course she did, she had no choice. She shook off the thought, it was ridiculous. She had to stay. For her parents, for Asumi, for Stella. She looked out the window, at the city below her, a large and vast place of different people and different groups she could become a part of. AShe could create her own group if she really wanted to. Her mind flickered back to Kyohei and his group of unlikely friends, and their connection. A bond stronger than steel, that nothing can peirce, ever. She longed for that, and not in the negative way she was feeling currently towards her family. Her mind flickered to Sakura, who was thinking about joining the Dollars, to her anxiety around people her age. Hanako ran a brush through her brown hair, her chocolate eyes fixed on the small handheld device on her nightstand. I could sign up for the Dollars right now… it would be so easy. “No!”, she commanded herself, “No more stupid thoughts!”. She grabbed her phone, but not to join the Dollars, instead to text her mother. “I’m enjoying the book you sent me, it’s very eye opening! Thank you Mother!”, she typed, and sent. Her mother didn’t respond, which she expected, as it was eight A.M in New York, which meant her mother was working. Athena Ito had a strict work schedule, which included not taking breaks for texts or calls that weren’t directly related to Ito Fashion. Ito Tech and Ito Fashion… the company's her parents owned. She finished brushing her hair, placing both the phone and brush on the nightstand, plugging the phone in, and fell asleep quickly.

#durarara!!#ocfic #oc fiction #izaya orihara #shizou #chikage rokujou #anri sonohara #mikado ryugamine #masaomi kida #ikebukuro #maid cafe #durarara #daddy issues #celty #headless rider #dollars #toramaru

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halorocks1214 · 4 years

Text

the law of relativity

AO3 Link

Word Count: 9963

Summary: The Law of Relativity states that each person will receive a series of problems (‘tests of initiation’) for the purpose of strengthening the ‘light’ within. We must consider each of these tests to be a challenge and remain connected to our hearts when proceeding to solve the problems. This law also teaches us to compare our problems to others’ problems and put everything into its proper perspective. No matter how bad we perceive our situation to be, there is always someone who is in a worse position. It is all relative

Previous Parts (in order): Alan | Virgil | You are here! | Gordon

WHY 👏🏼 CANT 👏🏼 I 👏🏼 WRITE 👏🏼 FICS 👏🏼 IN 👏🏼 MO 👏🏼 DER 👏🏼 RATION 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 also just bluuuergh. dont ask about this fic. part of it was written in a dark auditorium, another was written in a different state, another was written on a frickin bus, this fic has been places ill tell you what. half the time i think this is hot garbage and the other half i think its actually decent so im posting this while my head is in a good headspace and then promptly yeeting myself off the internet for a few hours to wait and see what happens. this series is becoming less of a canon divergence AU and more of a straight-up AU because of certain details im trying to worm in there buT IM TRYING MY BEST

thanks once more to @gumnut-logic, because of the length, this time i used three prompts, them being "What do you mean?", crease, and dream (and they werent even used that much sksksksk)

Warnings for both graphic and non-graphic depictions of violence, as well as mentions of torture and other PTSD/panic attack related stuff. I went deep with this one fellas

Orphan.

The word tasted dirty in his mouth.

He can still see the footage in the backs of his eyelids from when he watched it exactly one year ago. He was the only other (living) adult at the time in the family outside of Grandma, so he was permitted to see it. He remembered they originally didn’t want to show him, mainly because of his age, but Grandma was fierce, and she put one hell of an argument on the table.

One Scott refused to let fall through the cracks by breaking down. If only Grandma knew how he cried his eyes out and screamed to high heaven that night in the hotel room after essentially watching his father be blown to bloody smithereens then she was a goddamn saint for keeping it a secret. It made sense, she was the mother to his father. She had quite the line up of stories from Jeff’s childhood. Scott sensed the early-greying of his hair came from her, heh.

The rest of his family eventually saw it, of course, they did. Scott couldn’t shield them forever. What he will protect, selfishly he might add, was how angry he was at how much better they took it than he did. They cried, yes they did, but they never fully broke down like Scott did. Later in life, he wondered if it was jealousy: jealousy at not truly being able to let go. Whatever it was, he made sure to swallow it along with whatever alcohol he chose for the weekend.

Just add it to the ever-growing pile of shit he had to deal with. Nothing new.

Suddenly he’s 20 again and seated in a plane to be taken to his first stint in the Air Force. He said his goodbyes to Virgil, Gordon, and Alan back at home while Grandma and John metaphorically held his hand all the way to the airport. John was… quiet, more so than usual, but Grandma was stuck right in the middle between being a sobbing mess and ecstatic at the fine young man he’s become.

You’re just like your father. He would be proud.

Scott was secretly glad she never physically said it. It gave him plausible deniability in thinking that those words weren’t laced behind her big, bright, prideful eyes.

The first time went well, maybe even great. He stayed for a couple of months, did some flight tests, and while the training was brutal, boy did he learn a lot. When he came back home it was to a family slowly stitching itself back together. Grandma was a full-time house member, Virgil had taken up painting, Gordon talked about potentially going back to his swim meets, and while Alan was still as silent as ever, he was perkier than when Scott last saw him.

It would be on and off for the next few years: a couple of months at home, slowly and painfully taking over the role their father had (he can’t remember when he essentially received joint custody of his younger siblings with Grandma, but hey, he’s not complaining), then a couple of months out at the Air Force base where he slowly climbed up the ranking platform. He became skillful, perhaps too skillful. When he got his rank of Captain he felt it was less of an honor and more of something they owed him.

He was getting cocky. Never enough to be a danger to his fellow men, but enough to be somewhat of an occasional annoyance. Charles smacked him upside the head more than once. It felt like the world was right-side-up for once. Scott made many-a-calls to John and Virgil, the former enjoying his first few rotations up in space and the latter squarely in the middle of college. Gordon was being offered sponsorships to hell and back, and Alan was quietly getting along with the other kids at his school. Grandma was on welcoming duty for Kayo, who was taking her slot in the Tracy family with grace, though, a warning that their family would take custody of her if something were to happen to her parents would have been nice, Dad.

Of course, nothing ever goes right for their family for too long.

Orphan.

Age 24, it was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission of civilians. Scott was put in charge of his squad and then some. At night, they rolled-- well, flew out to get the job done. Scott can’t even remember the country anymore when minding his own business. Australia? Finland? Perhaps Bangladesh? There was a place John was insistent Scott never do rescues in, Virgil tended to agree, and the eldest unhealthily let them banish him from ever stepping foot there without argument. He could never remember the name off the top of his head until John’s familiar International Rescue, we have a situation rung out in the living room followed by the name of the country.

He would immediately forget it later, trauma too strong, too volatile, but the way his heart stopped and his head shattered and the way he felt ice water rush down his back was a good enough reason to quietly leave the room and let John delegate the job to one of his brothers. Sometimes John found him retching in the toilet halfway through the mission. He made sure to always mute Scott’s wrist communicator, even if it was never turned on in the first place.

The plane touched down. Orders sent the ground team out. But then the ground team took longer than estimated. Scott tensely waited where he was told to. It wasn’t the first mission that took a little longer than predicted and knowing humans, it surely wouldn’t be the last. Then, words mixed with heavy static came over the radio. H--p. Co-- ---7--. --nd ba---p --me--at--y.

Scott sat tensely in his seat, remembering his orders and suddenly hating them. Radio back to home if the mission goes south. Well, it didn’t look like they had the radio anymore. Still didn’t hurt to try at least. Scott spoke the familiar protocol that was ingrained into him when trying to call base. Dammit. Nothing. Probably some kind of blocker of sorts. Sitting up straight as a board, Scott looked through his options.

… He was in charge here. If something happened to his team the fault would lie squarely on his shoulders. Going against everything but his gut, he went out to help his squad. He can’t really remember what he exactly did anymore, but he does remember that it made a noise. Like a Looney Tunes scene: he flinched, froze, waited to see if anything or one heard, breathed a sigh of relief, and continued.

He eventually stumbled across one of his closest comrades, Arnold Brigeets. Yes, the name was ironic and half the reason he joined the force in the first place. The guy was one of the people that actually trained Scott and also seemed to be one of the few that was genuinely proud when Scott became a higher rank. It’s why Scott was more appreciative of Arnold than others, that, and well… Scott thought his fatherly abilities were good. The guy did have three kids back home.

Orphan.

Ducking down behind the cover his older friend was semi-situated behind, Scott watched as Arnold jumped at the intrusion before sighing. Scott had run into some enemies that he swiftly took down-- nothing too serious, he didn’t have the time or weapons for such an act, but they definitely would be out of it for a while-- so Arnold must have too on his way to find cover as well, hence why he was so on edge.

“Thank God,” Arnold wiped his forehead, “Glad to see you join us, kid.”

Scott was breathing heavily, but the grin he attempted was still there, “Y-Yeah, so what happened? More threats than we thought?”

Arnold shook his head, “Yes and no. There were a lot more baddies than we thought, but that’s because the civilians weren’t civilians. It’s a tr--”

Boom. The familiar sound of a gunshot.

Arnold fell over. Never got back up. Dropped like a rock in a lake, never to come up to the surface again.

Scott was so caught off guard he couldn’t react to the gun that swiftly beat him over the head, knocking him out cold. The only thing on his mind was oh fuck oh fuck I messed up I shouldn’t have come I wouldn’t have made any noise that way why did I--

They had him for roughly two weeks. Scott always thought the plotline in movies where the villain vehemently denied knowing any important information was dumb as hell. We’re not stupid. We wouldn’t go after someone if they didn’t know something.

The things they did hurt and no amount of I don’t fucking know anything! would help. Those two weeks were lost to Scott in a sea of pain and torment. The only thing he remembered was being captured, then waking up in a hospital drugged up to his gills with his superiors staring at him like he cured cancer.

“You saved the rest of your squad from sharing the same fate as the first half.”

“I-I did?”

“You betcha, son. I only wish I was there to see it! People be saying you were like an animal in how you took ‘em all down.”

Scott’s never remembered, and he wanted to keep it that way.

He was given the highest honors, even the chance to skip a couple of ranks to be at the same level as the big boys, but the night they were going to share the news to the golden boy himself, they found him in one of the bathrooms with a bloody hand and a mirror shattered with no hope of fixing it.

He was honorably discharged to a family that was so thankful he was home. Words like missing in action and POA never stopped haunting their nightmares. Scott was too, God, of course, he was, but sitting around and doing nothing was the last thing his traumatized mind wanted or maybe even needed. After doing what he considered to be the biggest fuck-up of his life, he needed to feel important.

This isn’t the first time he’ll say this and it surely won’t be the last: thank Christ for Grandma.

“You want me to take over?...”

“Yep, it’s about time Tracy Industries received a new pair of eyes. The Board certainly thinks so.”

“But… they’d rather have a crazy, PTSD-infected veteran over you?”

A rough pinch to his ear, “Hey now, don’t call yourself that,” the gentle motherly tone was back as soon as it left, “Besides, that crazy might exactly be what they want. Half of their argument is that I “don’t take enough risks.” They’re getting tired of listening to an old fart like me.”

A moment of contemplation, followed by the cheeky raise of an eyebrow, “So you’re saying you want me to take so many risks they have no choice but to take you back?”

A bark of laughter, “Damn straight.”

He learned the ropes faster than normal (healthy, is probably the correct term), and he immediately won the hearts of both young and old in the company. Instead of flying planes every few months, he worked on business reports and vetoed new ideas every couple of weeks. It felt satisfying for the most part, and his family was just happy he was still alive to enjoy it.

However, there was a slight roadblock on his way to becoming a somewhat stable person.

He became prone to violent blackouts. It had to have started when he blacked out and saved himself from those two weeks of hell, which made the most sense. Something was always destroyed when he came back to life. John was the best at calming him down due to his own experience with panic attacks, however, John couldn’t always be there, and the next rotation for NASA was coming swiftly. Scott swore up and down he would be fine, he could figure something out. John went back into space with an eyebrow permanently raised.

It was just him and Virgil home (Grandma had taken Alan and Kayo to watch Gordon swim) when he, unfortunately, proved John right. Scott wasn’t sure what triggered it, but he vividly remembered coming back in Virgil’s extremely tight hold. The first thing Scott thought to say was damn, beanstalk, when did you get so strong? but then he laid his eyes upon the forming bruise on his younger bro’s face and hasn’t recovered since.

Virgil swore he never held it against Scott. Scott definitely thought he should have.

That night brought sudden clarity to Scott that he was doing this horribly wrong. He was a ticking time bomb, and it wouldn’t be long before something was damaged in a way that couldn’t be fixed. Scott needed an anchor. Something to ground him before he took it too far. John wasn’t going to be earthside forever, Grandma was busy with Kayo, Alan was just a kid, and Gordon was living the dream. None of them were viable.

Then, as he was thinking, he was suddenly aware of how calming Virgil’s arms were around him, how they were preventing the growing panic attack in his chest from getting even bigger.

It was easy.

For once in Scott’s life, his eyes were big and young as he asked Virgil, “Help me, please.”

After a few brief seconds, Virgil gulped, “Okay.”

From then on, Virgil was Stone Number One. Scott’s admiration for Virgil outweighed the guilt of putting the black-haired man in that position in the first place. Virgil was glad to follow his older brother’s leadership, but just as qualified to bring him the hell back when he went too far. From getting too sacrificial to preventing a good punching-out some of the idiots they dealt with, Virgil made sure Scott knocked that shit off.

Time went on, Scott was a top-notch CEO at Tracy Industries, John was having one hell of a time up in space, Virgil was graduated and had so many life opportunities to pick from, Alan was thriving at being a (mostly) stable kid, Kayo was 100% acclimated to the family, and Gordon--

Scott found himself gripping the wooden desk very abruptly. He was shocked he didn’t snap a chunk off in the process. Why was he thinking about this right after a giant business conference? Who knows at this point. If this giant origin story seemed jagged and jumpy, maybe even somewhat vague, good, that’s how it fucking felt.

Back to said story.

Scott always thought he and Gordon would have the least amount in common.

They do, but out of all the things they could have picked to be similar, why did it have to be the PTSD caused by military-related jobs? Scott was 24 when he got his, Gordon was just under 20. It may have been a few years since their respective accidents, but they’re never going to go another day without it feeling like it was just yesterday.

At this point, Gordon was up and walking again, mainly thanks to John and Alan while Virgil and Scott helped in their own ways. Grandma’s cooking was what probably motivated him the most though, ha, the need to get away from it… Scott smiled. Grandma was always a constant. Honestly, if it weren’t for her, the family might have fallen apart. Literally.

What has he been saying throughout this whole shindig? Thank Christ for Grandma.

One day out of the blue, Grandma reserved the entire family (yes, even Kayo and Alan) private plane tickets so they could spend some time on the mainland for a few days. Honestly, even if the island wasn’t getting major renovations, you hooligans need to get out more. Have some fun. Try not to kill anything, especially each other, she all told them while creepily grinning. John and Virgil smacked Gordon more than once on the plane for insisting that she finally snapped, dudes, she’s gonna kill us.

Most of the time during their little vacation, Scott heavily focused on his breathing. He was pretty sure he knew what she was doing. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous, but the same went for his excitement.

Dad showed him these plans the day after his 18th birthday. You’re a man now, Scotty, I need your help making this big boy decision with me.

As soon as they reset foot down on the island, Scott took a deep breath and felt relaxed at the salty taste in the air. It was weird, nothing on the outside was changed, and yet… it still felt different.

“Guys!” Virgil yelled out, “Stop playing in the water! We just got back, aren’t you two tired?!”

Blinking back to reality, Scott looked over to see his two youngest brothers doing exactly what Virgil was yelling at them for. Poor Johnny was a little damp too, which is what probably caused Virgil to shout at them in the first place. The blondes didn’t care. They continued to prance around in the shallow waves with their pants legs rolled up, acting as if they didn’t hear anything outside of their laughter. Gordon shoved his hands down into the liquid and threw some directly at Alan, nailing him right in the face.

Scott exhaled slowly. He couldn’t imagine them doing this 8 years ago.

Regardless, the artist was right, and they couldn’t waste too much time. Kayo was swift in grabbing both gentlemen by the ears and dragging them onto dry land. They all painstakingly trekked their way up to the-- what would you call Tracy Island? Mansion? Over-blown cabin? Well, whatever it was, Scott would always be willing to call it home.

Stepping inside, each brother took in the view, which was underwhelmingly not that much different, except for one tiny thing. John suddenly noticed a figure already standing in the living room and blinked, “No way… it’s--”

Gordon jumped in, both with his body and his words, “Brains?! Dude, how’s it hanging?!”

The scientist in question jumped at the voices before clearing his throat and readjusting his glasses, “O-Oh, hello again, T-Tracys. It’s good to see you all once more.”

Virgil slung an arm around his shoulder, ignoring the blatant squawk, “Man, how long has it been?! What made you finally decide to crawl out of your hole?”

Snickers came from all corners of the house. Brains stood up straighter, “W-Well, I was contacted b-by Mrs. Tracy over here with an offer I c-couldn’t turn down.”

Eyebrows tilted in all shapes and sizes. Someone cleared their throat. Everyone turned to look at Grandma once again, “I think if you all follow me, you’ll swiftly understand what I’m talking about.”

I already do, Scott thought matter-of-factly. John seemed to be understanding it now, Virgil was on the cusp of remembering what his father was hinting at for him, and Gordon was just as lost as Alan. It made sense, Jeff talked to all of them about it, but the oldest had seniority. The two youngest not remembering just by words was expected, especially since that was going to be rectified very quickly.

The hangar under the island was beautiful. Point blank. It smelt of iron and steel and grease and engine and that was the first time since Scott had been in the Air Force that he didn’t gag or flinch at the thought of flying something again. Scott had seen the plans his father drew. He assumed Jeff finished building it, but he never got to physically see it since…

In some ways, he was glad he didn’t. Now he got to experience it with (most of) his family, and that made it ten times better.

After letting them absorb the scenery, Grandma slowly turned around to look at them all, “You remember that dream your father had?”

The four oldest blinked, Kayo simply raised her eyebrows, meanwhile, Alan, being the teenager he was, didn’t read the emotion in the room, “Oh, yeah! Aunt Casey always talked about how he was going to “change the world” and stuff. What did he call it again?”

Scott felt way more confident than he had in a while, “International Rescue.”

Grandma nodded, gleeful at the happy look on her oldest and youngest grandsons’ faces, “Well, I’ve been thinking about some things. I know we don’t exactly worry about money, but after everything your father put into these girls… I’d hate for them to go to waste.”

The Tracy family jumped at that. John’s mouth was wide open in shock, yes, shock, “That station is still up there?”

Grandma sighed, “You mean ‘Five? Not for long. Not if we don’t send someone up there within the next few days.”

John blushed at the grin Grandma gave him. Clearing his throat, his big brain came to a startling conclusion, “Wait… you brought Alan along?”

The other big brothers in the room jumped at that. Kayo was the only one with enough balls to say the truth out loud, “Mrs. Tracy, I mean no offense, but he’s--”

“Just a kid?” Grandma smirked, “A kid that’s topped the VR charts for Intergalactic Fury for weeks straight while simultaneously getting nothing but A’s in his classes?”

Scott nodded slowly in comprehension. He remembered Alan talking about that game for a while. It was some kind of online racing simulator of sorts. Scott caught the prettiest string of words from Alan when going to bed one night. Nearly made him shit his pants. He made the kid promise to keep it PG-13 if he wanted to keep playing.

Still, the elders in the family slowly turned to look at the freckled boy with both shock and pride. Alan blinked with wide-eyed innocence, “But my English class is only at a B--”

“Shh, kiddo, I’m making a point,” Grandma rolled her eyes. The other brothers snickered. Yep, still Alan. Grandma sighed, “Now before you point out that video games are different, I know, but the difference between them and this is that video games don’t have some of the most talented older brothers in the world to guide him.”

Said older brothers jumped at the idea. Before any objection could be made, Grandma continued, “Besides, the GDF seemed to be okay with it. The Colonel was willing to oversee some of his training too.”

John flinched at that, “But IR is supposed to be independent!”

Grandma slightly frowned. She didn’t exactly like it either, “It still is, but in the world of business, compromises have to be made.”

Virgil huffed and crossed his arms, “Well, that’s… rough. Here I thought only Scott would have to deal with the bullshit of business.”

Grandma chuckled at the somewhat un-Virgil-like behavior, “It really is, Virgil. But about that Scott part,” she slowly turned to look at him and him only, “I hate to give you more work to do, but if you want to work within their restrictions?”

Suddenly every pair of eyes in the room was on the head of the family. Gulping, Scott looked down at his feet to think. It was a tense few moments, nobody sure what he was going to decide, least of all him, before the brunette cleared his throat and brought his face back up with a grin.

“Well then,” Scott turned to look at the bright tip of ‘One, chest fluttering with a feeling that became unfamiliar to him over the past few years, “I guess now it’s time to state the obvious.”

From then on, every time he loaded into that cockpit of his girl, he felt lighter than air.

“Thunderbirds are GO!”

Everything was okay again.

Mostly.

Orphan.

Scott took another sip of his whiskey and refocused on his reports.

---

Scott was in some kind of dissociative state the whole way home.

Alan doesn’t deserve this. He’s still a kid, barely an adult, and he’s going to go through utter hell because you screwed up. You were 24, Gordon was just under 20, Alan was barely 18. Alan’s going to get fucked up like you and it’s all your fault.

His movements were robotic and rigid. Anyone with a working eye could tell he was deep in shock and running on autopilot. Mostly Jeff. Especially Jeff. The rest of the brothers all noticed too, but they were also running on their own empty fuel tanks, so the only thing they could do was guilty send their older brother the occasional glance of pity and concern.

Jeff was going to need to talk to them about that. Somehow. Maybe he shouldn’t be the one to point it out since he feels just as bad. His sons were too much like him, sometimes, and that made his guilt burn all the same. He should’ve been there to warn his sons about the dangers of unnecessary guilt. Having that kind of guilt was a parent’s job, dammit, and maybe grandparents only occasionally.

But then he remembered where he’s been for the past 8 years and… who really was Alan’s parents anymore? His gut was screaming it sure as hell isn’t you, but he knew his sons would want him to step back into the role as soon as he was physically fit to do so, not just for Alan, but for themselves as well. They would deny it, but they probably just wanted to be kids again too, even if it was only brief, fleeting moments.

Who was to tell the protective, fatherly side of Jeff no to that? No better time to fix things like the present after all.

He saw Scott go up the stairs when they first stepped into the living room, so that’s where Jeff was going to go too. Footsteps light, Jeff retraced his eldest’s pathway to his bedroom. Only, he stopped before said bedroom. Unfavorable noises were coming from the closed bathroom door, and Jeff could only swallow whatever emotion it made him feel. Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened the (unlocked) door to the bathroom and laid his eyes upon the incriminating scene.

Jeff was met with the sight of Scott retching his entire stomach into the toilet, hands aggressively grabbing his sticky, hair-gelled hair and trying to make himself bald from the strain.

Jeff’s reaction was always based on autopilot, and it will never stop being so.

Ignoring his protesting body, Jeff kneeled and placed a hand on his son’s back, only to abruptly pull back like he touched a hot stove when Scott only got more hysterical at the contact. The brunette clenched his eyes shut even more (and they were already shut as much as possible) while his head became a special kind of crease. Like he was in pain, “God, I wanna go home. Why won’t they listen I swear I’m telling the truth! Please, I just want Dad--”

Jeff was frozen on the spot, heart stopping in the process. His brain shut down while he watched his son continue to mindlessly ramble and panic. His freaked-out mind barely registered footsteps from behind in the hallway, followed by a voice going what’s going-- holy--

Something thundered past him. Blinking once, Jeff guiltily watched as Virgil kneeled behind the eldest and wrapped his arms around the thin man’s shoulders while taking Scott’s hands in his in a protective blanket, “Scott! Jesus-- we’re at home, you’re safe and it’s June 14th, 2--”

Scott only struggled more, panicking at the fact he could no longer yank his hair out. Dammit, it was the only way he could feel in control, don’t take that away too! “No! I swear I’ve said everything! Please--”

Virgil immediately knew that this was one of those attacks that Scott wasn’t coming back down from with pure human intervention. Add-on the sight of his father’s big eyes signifying the man was at a loss at what to do, Virgil had no choice. He snapped loudly, remembering the comms were still on and only feeling slightly bad at the way Scott flinched in his arms, “Shit-- John! It’s Scott! Get the stuff! We’re in the upstairs bathroom!”

Muffled footsteps through a few walls in the house could be heard. Jeff’s mind was only starting to catch up when the brother Virgil called for came rushing into the bathroom (Jeff never remembered it being big enough to hold four of them) and ignoring Jeff (practically shoving him out of the way too, man, this was bad) on his way to the main problem at hand. Landing on his knees in a way that made Jeff wince, John gently grabbed one of Scott’s arms from Virgil’s hold and subsequently pulled a needle from nowhere and injected something into Scott.

The response was instantaneous.

Scott’s breathing, while still labored, got slower. He stopped struggling as well, and the way he sagged reminded Jeff of ice melting into a puddle. The two other brothers’ shoulders also sagged, relieved at the crisis averted. John stood up, knees cracking as he rubbed the back of his neck. Then, he froze at the sight of something in the doorway, “G-Gordon…”

Virgil snapped his head up from where he was looking at Scott. Jeff did something similar. Yup, in the doorway was the strawberry blonde, eyes wide, making him younger by about 10 years. The ex-Olympian in question inhaled, closed his eyes, and soon speed-walked his way out of the entrance to the bathroom. Dammit, neither Gordon or Alan have seen something like that and it probably spooked him more than anything. He’d understand with his own PTSD-related issues, but still, seeing the “never weak” big brother freak out in such a scary way...

John combed a hand through his hair, shaking his head. As he started walking out of the room, he whispered to himself, probably hoping no one heard him, “Dammit, this is all so fucked…”

Unfortunately, Jeff did hear, and the dirty language made the father flinch. John was always the best about making sure Grandma didn’t wash his mouth out with soap, and the fact that he so willingly didn’t care meant that everyone was at the end of their rope. Still reeling at the sight, Jeff couldn’t react to the gentle arms that picked him up off the floor and slowly led him out of the suddenly stuffy room.

With the click of the door shutting, Jeff realized what Virgil did, “W-Wait, Scott--”

“Will be okay for a few seconds,” Virgil finished for his dad, “I know it’s nearly been a decade, but the one part of you I definitely know hasn’t changed is the need to comfort us, just like we hoped.” The small grin that fell over the middle child’s face put Jeff a little bit at ease, but Virgil wasn’t completely done, “So, I’m going to let you take care of this, but I just want to make sure you’ll handle it with grace. Take this slowly, okay? Scott might be doped up, but he’s still… volatile, in a sense.”

Jeff cleared his throat, suddenly choking on the unneeded tension, “Okay, Virgil, I promise, just… what happened? That was… bad, and really bad at that too. I know Scott would never let something that severe willingly come out in front of his family.”

Virgil rubbed the back of his neck, clearly not ready for this conversation, “Listen, Dad,” he inhaled sharply, cutting himself off before sighing in a way that said fuck it, might as well get this over with, “As much as it felt like it did, the world didn’t stop spinning because you… well, we had lives we somehow wanted to continue living. We all have lives and stories now, and this is Scott’s story to tell.”

Jeff was getting misty-eyed again. Back when he was just a kid, Virgil couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, mainly in part due to his insomnia-related issues (Jeff has to wonder if he still has them, more problems for the future) and general lack of filter because of sleep-deprivation. Now Jeff knew there was a starch difference between a kid who couldn’t keep his mouth shut and a man who genuinely knew how to respect another man’s privacy, but…

It just hammers home how much he’s missed with his boys. Gulping, Jeff made a mental note to talk with his mom about certain things he’s missed. She’ll know a lot more than he would, “Okay, Virge. Thank you, for stepping up there.”

Virgil’s shoulders relaxed at Jeff’s words, as well as his father’s hand patting him on the shoulder, “Thanks, Dad. Just… go easy on him. I know it’s a little late for this but none of us ever properly talked about things. It was very unhealthy, deep down we all knew that, but…”

“You just couldn’t get the proper emotions out?” Jeff finished for his son. At Virgil’s soft nod, Jeff exhaled, “I’m not going to say that it was a smart decision, but we’re all here now. We can move forward with this.” Jeff squeezed where his hand laid.

Virgil blinked before curtly going, “Yeah. Goodnight, Dad. Take care of Scott.”

Virgil stepped around his father and walked to where his bedroom most definitely was not, but Jeff could deal with that in a little bit. He had another son who he was pretty sure just had a violent PTSD attack of some kind, plus, Virgil seemed to sour at something Jeff said. The ex-astronaut wasn’t sure what it was, so he didn’t chase after him out of worry that--

Wait.

We’re all here now.

Dammit, Jeff. Out of all the sentences you could’ve picked...

Alrighty, just add that to the ever-growing pile of things that need to be talked about later. No biggie. Jeff found himself sighing and rubbing the back of his neck much like Virgil did a few minutes ago. Turning around, he was met with the bathroom door once more. Shaking his head, Jeff slowly crept into the room and saw that not much was different, especially with Scott.

His heart softly cracked, but, again, he can deal with it later.

Sitting down on the ground and grimacing at the way his body ached (was gravity always this rough?), Jeff leaned against the floor cabinets about 2-3 feet away from Scott, who made himself into a nice comfortable ball in the corner next to the toilet, his palm smushed against his forehead. Jeff waited a few seconds. Then minutes. Then he realized he would have to be the one to initiate the conversation. He probably should’ve realized that right when he came back in. He opened his mouth, but his wasn’t the one that words came out of.

“It was… Zambia.”

Jeff’s heart stopped and his mouth snapped shut. He couldn’t stop the way his eyes clearly showed his panic, but hopefully, he guiltily thought, Scott was a little too doped up to not realize it, “Scotty, what do you mean?”

Scott shrugged in a way that spoke he thought what he was admitting wasn’t a big deal. Yep, clearly not with it, “Mission went bad… caught for a couple of weeks.”

Jeff was hoping his first fuck back on Earth, spoken to himself like right now or otherwise, would have been a comedic thing, but the way nausea rose in his throat said this was anything but funny.

Scott wanted to be in the Air Force. Badly. Who was a father to deny his son’s want to be part of such a noble cause? He gave him tips, took him to meet friends in high places, sometimes even sparred with him when he turned 18, but then Jeff was suddenly thousands of miles away with no hope of ever having the chance of sparring with his eldest again. Despite it, Jeff hoped Scott went on to become the best pilot the world has ever seen.

Part of this looks like he did, but at what cost?

As much as it felt like it did, the world didn’t stop spinning because you… well, we had lives we somehow wanted to continue living.

Aw hell, “Jesus, Scott…” Jeff couldn’t tell if it was the brashness or the lack of a nickname that made Scott flinch and he hated it. He immediately softened his tone and brought his 27-year-old child into his arms, “Shh, shh, we’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out.”

Like father like son, old habits die hard, and as easy as it was to still be able to comfort his children, Scott seemed to just as easily take it as he used to 8 years ago, “Alan doesn’t deserve this kind of hell, God, he’s barely not a kid anymore! Why--”

Jeff tightened his hold to keep his son in reality, and because he didn’t like the tone behind those words, “Hey, you didn’t either--”

Scott somehow managed to fling himself out of the hug, focus incredibly on point for someone who was doped up to his eyelids five seconds ago, “But I fucked up! I made the wrong call and then suddenly Arnold was dead and he had a wife and kids-- shit, what the hell did I do?”

Okay.

First of all: way to put him back in that headspace when that’s the exact opposite you were going for, Jeff, father of the year. Second: dammit. Just… dammit. This was a big fat hand grenade in a giant handbasket that they didn’t have time to gently get out while simultaneously not yanking the pin clean off with the grace of a drunk elephant. Jeff was no stranger to Survivor’s Guilt, but there was a whole untapped pile of metaphorical C4 within his son’s head that was ready for someone to push the goddamn button.

He wanted it to be him, desperately, because it sounded like he already failed his family enough, it was all he could do at this point, but he absolutely hated that he couldn’t do it right now. This was going to take a lot of time, which they didn’t have, plus, Jeff thought he had a pretty good understanding of this new Scott and the rest of his kids. Jeff was aware that if he didn’t help his sons find their baby as fast as possible over everything else it’ll lead to a fate nobody wanted.

A shaky sigh, “Okay, Scotty, let’s get you to bed. We’ll talk strategy in the morning.”

Scott simply nodded as his father flung Scott’s arm around his broader shoulders and picked him up. Slowly and painfully but surely, father and son meandered their way to Scott’s room. With a thump a little harder than Jeff wanted, Scott flopped down on top of his sheets and immediately started snoring. Despite everything that just happened, the father couldn’t help but grin at the sight. Well, there was another thing Jeff gracefully passed onto his son.

Jeff only took Scott’s shoes off. He would’ve loved to pull the sheets up around him too, but the father didn’t want to take any chances at waking him up. Slowly tip-toeing out of the room, Jeff gave one last glance back at his son before finally letting him be and gently shutting the door. He had three other sons he needed to console, but his tired joints told him to selfishly take a moment for himself for right now unless he wanted to collapse and give his family more to deal with.

Jeff eventually made his way to his room-- which was sadly unkempt, he noticed-- and sat down on the edge of his unfamiliar bed to think.

He’ll figure something out. If he had to crawl through images of his son being brutally and bloodily tortured then by God he would with the fury of a thousand suns.

He was back and he wasn’t going to throw away any second or even third chance he was given.

---

“I got him.”

Virgil turned his comms back on, and with it, Scott’s heart restarted for the first time in a few weeks. Taking a moment for a breather, Scott leaned against the wall while practically wheezing. They have him back, holy shit, they have him back. Scott vaguely heard Gordon cry in pure relief and joy. He saw John’s side of the comms flutter for a bit before a bright flash happened. Blinking away the white spots, Scott looked at his wrist to see a fully detailed map of the compound.

Gordon spoke what they were all thinking, “Woohoo! First Allie comes back, then Johnny-boy gets us a free ticket out of here! We’re winning this race, baby!”

A very loud moment of silence. John cleared his throat, “Actually, I was going to say glad to see you in one piece, you little shit,” a playful gasp came from Virgil’s side. It was too high pitched to be from the pianist’s mouth. Scott chuckled, but the paranoid part of his brain said John wasn’t done. His brain was right, ‘“But guys… that wasn’t me. Or EOS. We still haven’t found a way to get past the metal they made these walls out of.”

That silence was even more deafening than the last, and before Virgil could utter out his typical what the fuck, a small logo appeared at the corner of their new map. One that was all too familiar. The Chaos Crew wasn’t the only one who could brand their awful deeds.

Son of a bitch.

Virgil’s order over the radio was meant for Alan, but Scott couldn’t help but listen to it too.

“Shit, Alan, you need to run.”

Making quick work of the compound once more, Scott, while booking it even quicker than last time, opened a private line between him and Gordon, “Hey, how would you feel if I said go help Virgil while I cover Alan?”

The first response was stuttering, which Scott expected, but then it was followed up by something completely out of left field for Gordon, “... Okay, just as long as you promise to bring Alan back in one piece.”

Part of Scott wanted to console Gordon, another was questioning why Gordon was so quick to give up, another wanted to say of course, I will, idiot, but the first part that made itself verbal was easy, “You know I will, buddy.”

Scott could physically picture Gordon’s tiny, little, somber nod clear as day, “Sounds good, captain. See you on the other side.”

With a click, Scott was back on the group comm. Suddenly remembering what exactly his job was, he pulled out the map so graciously given to them by The Hood. Looking at all the dots, one was heading towards a prone one (oh if that asshole did anything to Virgil…) while another one was heading right for Scott himself. Actually, in just a few seconds, right as Scott rounded the corner he would--

“Woah, look out there, Tigger!”

Yes, you heard that correctly: not tiger, Tigger. Tigger hadn’t been used since Alan was itty bitty. It always seemed like the kid had endless energy with the way he wouldn’t stop bounding off the walls and furniture. Even as a baby, Lucy had to sit with him for a few hours while he slept in his crib to make sure he would stay there. In fact, their mother gave Alan that nickname herself. She was quite the Winnie the Pooh fan, and the rest of the family figured it would be one of the ways they could keep her legacy alive for the tiny potato.

Wrapping his arms around said flailing potato, albeit much bigger than a baby, Scott thought he would collapse then and there. Alan was here, in his arms, and yeah, the sight of his dirty and somewhat ripped up IR uniform made him mad, but Scott, for once in his life, decided to focus on the here-and-now, aka his precious, alive little brother, who finally stopped struggling at the realization that hey, the person holding you is a good guy, time to turn off fight mode.

Smushing their foreheads together as much as possible, Scott desperately fought to keep the waterworks back, a smile from ear to ear hopefully taking whatever energy his tear ducts had, “You are getting such an ass beating when we get home, little bro.”

Alan jumped back with a look of What the hell?! What did I do now?!

Scott simply rolled his eyes, “Really? “Not important”? You graduated high school, tiny dude! That’s huge! You remember Gordon’s party, right?”

Alan’s mouth gaped before he closed it with slightly puffy cheeks. Those same cheeks tinged with a small blush. Alan wasn’t exactly expecting to be smothered so soon (well, he did cry his eyes out on Virgil’s shoulder, but that was different!). Shaking it off, Alan moved his hands rhythmically and rapidly, To be fair, we weren’t sure he was going to get one for a while.

Scott faltered a little bit at the ASL. Darn, he should’ve seen Alan’s lack of talking from a mile away. Scott carefully hid his disappointment from Alan. Lord knew what the kid would take it as, “Yeah, that’s what he got for barely making it. Imagine what you’re going to get!”

Scott assumed his semi-fake charm worked, as Alan seemed to play along without any kind of suspicion, Oh yeah. Fair enough.

This kid, man.

Then, slow clapping came from a dark corner, making Scott’s heart leap out of his throat as well as push Alan behind himself. Glaring as much as he could towards the invisible evil-doer, Scott didn’t have to think twice, “Alan, take my map and find Virgil and Gordon.”

The youngest looked like he was going to object.

“Go.”

He no longer did. Good.

Listening to the field commander’s orders, Scott felt his wristband slip off his wrist and a warm body leave his vicinity. An inhale. Also good. An exhale, followed by an even darker glare, “What more do you want?”

Short and straight-to-the-point and angry, two things Scott typically wasn’t. Regardless, like a cold gust of wind, footsteps started approaching him from the shadow. Once Scott saw the outline of a body, he tensed even more. Virgil would snap at him for clenching his jaw so much.

A dark chuckle reminded him of what was important. The voice that spoke reminded him of something completely different, “Now then, brother, let’s not be rude to each other!”

Scott’s pupils shrunk at the familiar sight of Gordon stepping towards him. Except it wasn’t Gordon, because Scott knew that Gordon knew better. He also knew Gordon didn’t cheekily smile like that, even after a prank, nor did he walk that straight. He always had a funny walk after WASP, and Gordon wore that fact like a badge of honor.

Oh no, Scott definitely knew who this was, “What the hell are you playing at?”

Fake-Gordon rolled his eyes, like it wasn’t obvious, “I mean if we want to go that route, why did kid insist you being in the military was the coolest thing he’d ever heard you do? Maybe I wouldn’t have been pressured into joining a branch myself in the end.”

Scott’s nostrils flared, and by God, his pupils might have actually slitted like a snake’s, or possibly even a dragon’s, “Excuse me?”

Scott blinked, and suddenly he was met by not-Virgil, “Plus, why was our conclusion after hearing a three-year-old wanting to see snow to go to a ski resort? It had to have been those big, selfish, beady eyes, right?”

“C’mon, Scotty, we gotta give you some kind of calming exercise. There’s going to come a time when neither me or John are going to be there.”

“Hmm… does yoga work?”

A snort, “Well, that’s not too bad of an idea. Maybe the person pissing you off will stop whatever they’re doing at the sight of you spontaneously doing downward dog.”

Laughter, an unfamiliar action, “Yeah, okay, but for real, those breathing exercises I’ve seen you do look okay. Let’s start there.”

Scott was not a liar by heart. He had to admit that those exercises were doing jack shit right about now.

Another blink, another brother. Familiar ginger hair was all Scott could see, “To continue that previous point, why did Dad start International Rescue again? And what led to his demise?”

“Sounds like a piece of work. Why do you keep dealing with these people again?”

“Someone has to pay the bills, Johnny. Grandma’s too focused on making the perfect poison for us.”

A roll of eyes, “Right, because the billions we have saved wouldn’t be enough to last a couple of families a few lifetimes. Glad to see your calming exercises are working at least. How’s that going for you, by the way?”

A pause. A flicker of vision around the room. Someone cleared their throat, probably himself, “It’s probably not as bad as whatever space is throwing at you. You handling it okay up there?”

Another pause, followed by a sigh, “Well, since you asked so nicely…”

Scott wanted to deflect the truth so badly right now more than anything else. Telling him he couldn’t pilot ‘One anymore would be a much more enticing option than what he was hearing.

Suddenly, Scott was looking in a mirror, “Besides, I know more than anybody that he wasn’t wanted. A mistake. I thought we Tracys hated being imperfect?”

The Hood must have known their backstories from internet articles, and being the mastermind he was, it probably took him all of three seconds to see Alan had some hidden self-worth issues. By playing the biggest Guess Who? game of all time, The Hood was most likely able to figure out some less-than-positive ideals Alan thought about himself throughout his childhood and danced circles around his already weakened mind to string together some spineless blame to put on the kid by sheer evilness alone.

Knowing his kid brother, it worked.

Scott wasn’t thinking straight-- maybe even at all when the first punch was thrown.

Just like that, Scott blacked out and was running on terminator mode. John would be disappointed. Virgil would be horrified. Gordon might find it funny. Alan wasn’t here, and thank God for that. Scott wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. All his mind was telling him was make lots of pain hard and fast. His brain also blocked out any hit The Hood was giving him in return. Pain flared for a few seconds, then it was swept away in the puddle of rage his mind was currently being consumed in.

Soon, his out-of-it mind found its target and gripped his-- The Hood’s arm, no disguise would make him have an identity crisis, thank you very much-- nice and rough.

Scott heard the familiar snap of cartilage and felt only partially bad. If he was thinking more clearly, he would be disgusted with himself. Yes, even The Hood didn’t deserve this level of Scott’s fury. Oh, he definitely deserved to be hit by a truck, but not by Scott. It was mostly due to Scott’s sanity. If he could be this graphic and violent at all, even to the worse possible criminals, that meant he could be that way during other moments, and that was not a territory he wanted to cross into.

Welp, he was here now, and he’ll hate to admit it in the future, but the only thing that brought him out of it was a tiny gasp from a few feet away. Snapping his head up, Scott’s eyes landed squarely on a smaller-than-normal Alan, who was currently clutching his arm to his chest in an emotion Scott didn’t want to figure out at the moment. So much for going and finding Virgil and Gordon.

“Allie, help…” fake him grunted out, only making real Scott growl and tighten his hold (and probably making his case worse). Looking up from the person in his arms, Scott felt his heart split in two at the sight. There was fear and uncertainty in Alan’s blue eyes and boy did it hurt. Scott couldn’t tell if it was because even seeing a potentially-fake Scott being beaten up was bad or if it was because he’d never seen big brother be this brutal, even towards their enemies. Whatever the reason, it involved Scott being the main root of the problem.

Wait, that was The Hood’s plan. Shit… make Scott act past the point of no return in a way that was unfamiliar to Alan so the kid couldn’t be fully sure who was who, and Scott fell right into his trap, hook, line, and sinker.

Fuck.

Bloody well done, Scott, you absolute moron.

Scott faltered a little bit, “A-Alan, I--”

That falter was enough for The Hood to break an arm out of his grip and elbow him in the face. In the brief second of freedom he had, he tried dashing towards Alan, but Scott was too quick for everyone’s good and soon had the imposter back in his arms, both of them struggling in a way that made them look like they were tied into the weirdest knot in existence.

Then, an earthquake struck.

No, literally.

A big shake of the abandoned compound threw the look-a-likes about and subsequently off the platform they were on. The place was old; it didn’t take a lot of weight for that guard rail they made their way over towards while fighting to snap right off. With a yelp, the two of them gripped the edge as much as they could and held on. Crap, I know we talked with Fuse about potentially setting some stuff off, but--

Blinking, Scott saw a familiar mop of blonde hair come into view. Alan was rather panicked, clearly not sure which Scott was the real Scott. Not only that, he had little time to decide which one to save. Goodie, another reason to despise The Hood: not only has he put Alan through weeks of torment, now he’s forcing the kid to decide to either save his oldest brother and biggest hero or his personal torturer.

And Alan won’t know until he picks.

Holy hell, this was getting worse by the second. Hopefully, big brother charm can work its magic and get them the hell out of there.

“Alan, quickly, over here!”

“I can’t hold on for much longer, Alan, hurry!”

The two Scotts glared at one another in the exact same way, not making Alan’s job much easier. Another shake, another slip down the metal cliff, more screams, and Alan looked ready to tear his hair out. Scott watched as the kid looked around rapidly, probably praying for a miracle in the process. Suddenly, the kid jumped when he must have spotted something important. Within the blink of an eye, he was gone and out of their range of visions to retrieve it.

Whatever the hell he noticed better be important, because if just ended up wasting precious time then--

Another shake, probably the last one. Still, it was enough.

Both their grips gave away at the same time, screams identical (God, did he always sound that wimpy?) as they plummeted to their demises. Scott was briefly able to look up to see his brother pop his head over the cliff like a chipmunk again and grab the (albeit broken) arm of The Hood and save him. Dammit, Scott should have expected that, though, that display of anger was uncharacteristic to Alan. Probably terrified him even more than he already was. Fuck, Scott deser--

Suddenly, a rope wrapped itself around Scott’s left arm and stopped his descent. Hard. Hopefully, it was only torn stuff, they didn’t have time to deal with dislocation--

Wait.

Scott wasn’t dead if he could think about these kinds of things.

Blinking, he looked at his arm to see the familiar rope of his grappling hook around his forearm. Moving his eyesight to look past that, he saw the wide, blue eyes of his baby brother struggling to stay on top. The Hood was using his non-broken side to try and climb his way back up to safety. Huh, that’s weird. When did Alan get ahold of that? Scott must have dropped it during his scuffle with--

That’s when it hit Scott.

Alan saved them both.

And it would be all for jack shit if Scott didn’t get his ass up there to help.

Panicking, Scott gripped the rope and started to ascend. He had two working arms and a smother complex to boot; it wasn’t long before he overtook a struggling Hood, who could only use one arm and a weakened brother (that bastard was so lucky Alan had a literal heart of gold).

Flinging his arms over the edge and pulling himself up-- and shrugging off the extra help Alan offered. Save your strength, baby bro-- Scott was in a much calmer search-and-destroy mode. He yanked his evil look-a-like up, turned him on his stomach, pinned him down, and before he could even watch Alan blink, “Sign something.”

There, now he watched Alan blink.

Scott pulled out one of his best ‘big brother’ smiles ever, “Tell me something in ASL. I don’t think The Hood learned that kind of etiquette.”

The body beneath him growled, making Alan jump and Scott tighten not only his hold but his glare. Further prove big brother’s point, why don’t cha? He lost the angry look immediately to grin at Alan once more, who seemed to be slowly getting the picture. With a gulp, the blonde slowly strung together a sentence that Scott had to laugh at, just a little bit.

Damn, could you teach me to fight like that, Scooter?

Nodding his head, Scott had to concede, “Sure. Consider it a graduation present.”

Alan blinked again, and the immense relief that washed over the boy’s shoulders would be enough to banish nightmares for at least a couple of days. Suddenly, The Hood’s disguise blinked out of existence, making both brothers jump that time. Scott didn’t falter in his grip, however. This man was going down right here and now, Scott thought darkly, staring at the prone body beneath his.

Scott saw Alan continue to sign out of the corner of his eye, You know you look like shit, right?

Scott chuckled. Alan was always able to put a smile on his face no matter the circumstances, “Yeah, well, kindred spirits, little bro.”

Scott was probably as pale as Alan was with such lack of sleep and food. Running on what was essentially a prolonged PTSD attack wasn’t healthy in the slightest, and no doubt whatever kind of bruises and scratches The Hood gave him didn’t help, however, seeing hope fill those deep-blue eyes when Alan learned he was truly being saved drowned everything out, including the way those freckles were getting lost in those eye bags.

Yeah, their entire family probably looked like shit, and the recovery process was going to be even shittier, but they were going to suffer through it together as a family would.

That made it all worth it.

Shuffling himself so one arm was free while the other kept The Hood pinned, Scott held it out towards Alan. The flinch the youngest made tore a hole in Scott’s heart that was only slightly patched when Alan leaned into the warmth and safety of his biggest bro. Long recovery process, remember? Regardless, Alan still took to the hug like a dehydrated zebra did a pond, and that was good enough for Scott.

The Hood groaned underneath them.

Yep, good enough.

#fabfivefeb #fabfivefeb2020 #thunderbirds #thunderbirds are go #scott tracy #alan tracy #jeff tracy #grandma tracy #the hood #virgil tracy #john tracy #gordon tracy #my post #my fic #series: rules of alchemy

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strawbwrry · 4 years

Text

know it all ❥ h.ys

word count：4.k

warnings：slight swearing, time traveling, soulmates, and a few tears

↳ happy yunseong day!

now this is in no way a secret to anyone, but i do adore yunseong, and i wanted to do something special for 100 followers (currently 132, love you guys :D) and something special for yunseongs birthday, so this is where it went! now before anything i’d really like to say i truly do hope for the best for him, his future looks bright and i am eagerly awaiting for whatever happens in his career and his life, and will 100000% support him in all his endeavors. i hope he is having a good birthday, and just would like so say i really appreciate him. also hey woolim let us see him and the rest of the boys we miss them!!! to end my small rant (cause trust me i could go on for ages, and as the great @choi-yeonjunz said to me the first day we talked “im head over heels for yunseong) all i have to say is, happy birthday yunseong ♡

song rec：dayfly ❥ dean

❥❥❥❥

know it all

hwang yunseong

❥❥❥❥

I had seen him before, but he was new here. No matter how many times I tried to convince myself of that, I knew very well I had seen him before. Something about him didn’t feel normal.

How did I know him? I wasn’t so sure.

❥❥❥❥

Yunseong was attractive, seemed nice, and was on the quiet side. You’d always find him near his friends. But something was, off. I’d talked to him just once, and it was an apology after running into him and spilling some of my water on his shirt. In total honesty, before I had realized I had spoken to him, our conversation had ended.

Now usually I would’ve brushed off this unsettling feeling and continued on with my life. No matter how hard I tried to move past it, desperately tried to ignore it, I was drawn to him. When I’d see him enter the coffee shop I couldn’t help but stare. I’m sure he’d caught me more than a few times, but I couldn’t care less.

I couldn’t help it.

The day everything would change was, to be excruciatingly honest, the most mundane of them all. I got dressed, finished my classes for the day, and headed off to work. I checked in, and began on my daily tasks. As I began to clean the tables right before we closed up, I realized one thing : Yunseong hadn’t come in today. For the past few months every single day, and at the exact same time, down to the second, Yunseong walked in and ordered a drink.

He never missed a day.

My co-worker walked up to me and handed me a cookie and pointed at the table and we sat. Serim took a bite from her cookie before giving me a wide grin. “Did the boy you like not come in today?” I rolled my eyes and groaned as I opened up the packaging, “Oh shut up! I do not like him Serim.” She laughed and patted my arm, “Whatever you say Y/N.” A chill ran up my spine as a loud screech was heard outside. My eyes bolted to Serim before I tried to look out of the large window.

“Y/N, what was that?” I peered through the window all I saw was darkness. I vaguely saw dark figures, one moved continuously till I felt it look in my direction. I couldn’t see was looked back at me, but it’s eyes stung into my chest. Everything about its gaze hurt. Whatever was staring at me wasn’t human, or in the very least, wasn’t fully human. All of a sudden there was a knock on the door, when I turned to look at the person there, it was Yunseong.

His face remained stoic and calm as always, his hair tousled, but nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn’t till I noticed a figure behind him, that I felt my eyes widen, it was a tall man with seemingly no distinct features what so ever, his large hand landed onto Yunseong’s right shoulder. His lips quirked up into a lopsided grin, his eyes looked straight into mine, as he turned around in an instant, I had fallen to the floor. My vision went black for just a second, my breathing became erratic, and when I looked back there stood Yunseong alone. I turned around trying to find Serim to no avail. “Serim!” My shaky voice yelled out, as my arms pulled my body away from the door slowly. My video on blurred, and I felt a throat getting tighter and tighter by the second.

“Serim?” I felt my eyes began to sting. I pulled myself up and felt a sudden pain in my side, which dropped me right back to the floor.

I heard knocks once again coming from the door, my head instantly looked up to find Yunseong there, but his demeanor had drastically shifted. His once stoic face had turned into one of anxiousness and his hand pounded against the door violently, he looked terrified. He point behind me and as I turned around I came face to face, with who I could only describe as the tallest person to ever exist. I quickly scrambled up and ran to the door, my hands fumbled clumsily until it was open, I quickly shut the door behind me and watched as the man disappeared once again. I looked into Yunseong’s eyes to find a certain sense of relief, but deep behind that was something else. A secret, a fear, that I knew was there.

“It didn’t happen.” My face clearly contorted in confusion. What did he mean it didn’t happen? I struggled to regain my breath and vision as I stood across from him. My chest heaved tiredly.

Up. Down. Up. Down.

As my breath began to settle I looked up at him, “What do you mean ‘it’ didn’t happen?”

He let out a deep sigh, then proceeded to look around him. He anxiously rubbed the back of his neck with the palm of his hand before turning back to make eye contact with me. His eyes boring into mine which only made me more nervous.

“I’m not sure how to tell you this, but you were supposed to be dead 5 minutes ago.”

❥❥❥❥

That was a rough night. Yunseong and I had agreed to meet at the park the next day to talk, I really wasn’t ready for what I was about to learn, what I was about to see, or what I was about to feel.

❥❥❥❥

We sat besides each other awkwardly. To anyone else it would’ve looked like the most awkward first date to ever have taken place. What was really happening though, was something no one would really understand. Hell if I understood what was going on.

My eyes wandered to him before I nervously breathed in and sighed. “What did you mean when you said I was going to die last night, and who were those people with you?”

He seemed taken aback at the mention of people. “You could see them?”

“Was I not supposed to be able to see them?” He smiled timidly before straightening his face out and looking back at me. “Y/N you’re something special.”

I stayed silent. How should I respond to that? Should ask why? I wasn’t sure.

I stayed sat beside him quietly, my hands feeling as if they were going to sweat, but to be frank I wasn’t sure if they would. He sighed heavily, wiping his hands over his knees and laughing quietly. I turned to face him, quite honestly startled by his sudden laugh. It was cute, but I was confused. I laughed softly too, I had just realized I had flinched at the sound of his sudden laugh. An array of giggles escaped us before we began to quiet down.

“I’m not sure where to start, is there anything you want to know?” I sucked in a breath of air and lightly played around with my fingers wondering where to start as well. “Is there anything significant you think I should know?”

He purses his lips tightly, racking his head for a little bit. “Lee Sujin, your grandma.”

“What about my grandma?” My jaw clenched tightly, I’m wasn’t so sure if I wanted to know this. “Your grandma had a younger brother right?” I nodded quietly, my head turning to his direction as I did so. “Was his name Lee Eunsang?”

I swallowed dryly, and nodded my head nervously, “That was his name. My grandma used to talk about him all the time. But he died in 1969.” He nodded, “He wasn’t supposed to.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everybody has a certain time at which they’re supposed to die. The vast majority of people die the date and time they’re supposed to, but others die too soon, or too completely miss their time and seemingly live forever.” I squinted my eyes trying to process the information. I bit my lips back lightly, nodded very gently at his words, trying my hardest to understand them,

“So he died too early?”

He nodded, “My job is to correct each early or missed death in multiple universes, your great uncle just happens to be next on my list.”

“Can I go with you?” I pursed my lips, anxiously waiting for a response.

“Why do you want to go Y/N?” His head cocked to the side curiously, a little bit of a smile popping onto his face.

“I’d love to meet him, plus I’d love to see if you’re lying or not.” A small grin fully etched itself onto his face at my words, his hand outstretching itself till it was right by mine. He looked forward, his eyes closing for a few seconds, before he opened them again. They looked different now. A certain new quality had appeared within them. It felt comforting, almost even familiar in an odd sense.

“Y/N, take my hand and close your eyes. No matter what keep them closed, until I tell you to open them.“

My heart began to thump erratically, I felt a certain sense of nervousness overcome me in totality. I swallowed nervously but asked one final question, “What happens if I open my eyes?”

He pursed his lips for just a second, and then let out a shaky breath, “Something bad would happen. Something very bad.”

His hand began shaking slightly, his fingers gently curling inwards, “Do you still want to go?”

I nodded softly, then lifted my hand to place it in his. His grip on my hand tightened just a bit before loosening once again, “Close your eyes.”

I closed my eyes, the bright sun, green trees, blue sky, and the fountain that formerly resided in my field of vision now gone. His once regular quiet breathing became heavier, and sounded more labored. The grip of his hand adjusted, gently locking his fingers with mine, as his grip tightened, in an instant I could no longer saw any hint of light.

Darkness, a totally unexplainable lack of light, it was odd in every way possible. Yet it was familiar, I’d felt this before, I was sure of it in every way possible. A sudden image flashed before me, it was a picture of me with someone, someone who couldn’t be seen, was blurred out, seemingly wasn’t supposed to be there in that picture with me.

It stayed there motionless, until it began moving. The person next to me began to poke my cheek, even pinching it later on. As the video began fading from my sight I saw lips land onto my forehead.

I felt my heart flutter as I watched intently. I could feel the kiss being gently pressed to my forehead, and where my cheek had been gently poked and pinched. It was gentle and soft, but still prompted a shy smile on my face. I didn’t know who the person was, but deep down I could feel an unknown fondness for them, I couldn’t help it. As the video faded from my view I belt my heart ache at the sudden disappearance of the person in the video.

My chest tightened as I felt Yunseong squeeze my hand, his small pinky began adjusting slightly. “Almost.” I felt a sudden wave of reassurance wash over me at his voice, I’d never felt this way. I’d never felt so utterly comfortable with someone.

But I didn’t know him.

I had known about his existence for just a few months, talked to him for much less than two hours, but felt the strongest sense of infatuation with him. The strongest feeling of attachment. The darkness began to fade, and a sudden light appeared, “Y/N you can open your eyes now.”

When my eyelids parted, instantly I knew, we weren’t in 2019 anymore.

It was the summer of 1969.

❥❥❥❥

Everything was so different. The cars. The people. The clothing.

“Yunseong, holy crap is that my grandma?” My eyes widened at the sight of a certain teenager, my age, walking hand in hand with a male. “Wait no way, that’s my grandpa!” I quickly turned around, crouching down, and raising up to my hands to my eye sockets covering my eyes.

He chuckled, his hand reaching out to help me stand up again, “Bingo.” I placed my hand onto his and let him pull me up. His head turned away, as my eyes were drawn to his side profile, I unknowingly smiled, my heart felt content, here holding his hand.

For once everything felt right.

❥❥❥❥

Everything changes with perspective

What’s going on in Yunseong’s mind?

❥❥❥❥

Her eyes widened significantly and she turned to me for just a second, “Yunseong, holy crap is that my grandma?” Her hand landed over her mouth in shock and her eyes scanned over the teenager stood not far from us.

“Wait no way, that’s my grandpa!” I chuckled softly, she crouched to the floor and covered her eyes with her hands trying to process the sight just a few feet away. When she turned to look back at me my hand instinctively shot out to help her up, “Bingo.”

He hand landed onto mine and for the few second it was there I felt complete.

She’d never be mine, but that wouldn’t stop me from coming back to her.

I turned away, my heart heavy, but feeling content. “Y/N, your great uncle should be in the park over there. Come on, let’s go.”

The walk was quiet, not a single word uttered between the both of us. The day was nice, the sky clear and blue, a gentle wind blowing past us, the sun beaming warming our skin. Her hand grabbed my wrist stopping us both. Her head quickly turned to look back at me, “Yunseong, is that him?” I smiled softly at her excitement and nodded softly, “Hey Eunsang! Is that the girlfriend you’ve been telling me about?”

He blushed and rolled his eyes, “Hyung! You’re embarrassing me!” I laughed before turning to look down at Y/N, her eyes wide and face reading shock. My hand intertwined with hers, before I looked back up, “Yunseong hyung, who is she? Is that your girlfriend?” Y/N’s face went red, her hand tightened around mine, but before I said anything,

“My name is Y/N, and yes.”

My face heated up slightly, as I felt her hand tighten around mine. Eunsang’s girlfriend smiled widely, “Care to join us for a bit?”

I turned to look at her and she smiled softly, her eyes wandering into mine, boring holes into my soul as she hopefully stared at me. “We’d love too!”

❥❥❥❥

"How did you like being with them?” Her smile was wide, and hands remained warm, she looked so happy. So genuinely excited, I couldn’t help to smile back at her. “I understand what my grandma meant when she talked about him.”

“What did she say about him?” We stopped in front of a gorgeous rose bush. She let go of my hand, and faced me in front of the rose bush, her eyelashes fluttered prettily, her eyes reading me in a way I couldn’t pinpoint. “Mischievous personified. She told how much he enjoyed seeing others happy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better descriptive of someone.” Her head dropped down, a fond smile growing onto her face, “She would’ve loved to see him one last time before she passed.”

Without a thought my hand lifted to brush her hair away from her face, my eyes drawn naturally to hers. It felt so natural. Her eyes softened slightly before she turned to admire the roses, “Tell me Yunseong, what other things exist that we don’t know about.” I smiled sadly at her, I was so helplessly entranced by her in every way, it was so obvious.

“Which ones do you want to know?”

“Well I know about time traveling, since we just did it, and the fact that multiple universes exist, so just anything that’d be a shock to most people.”

“I know in your universe it’s a big debate on if soulmates exist, but they do exist. Other is probably, people you see, aren’t always people, they can be some misshapen monster put into the wrong universe.”

Her eyes shot back to mine, “Like the people next to you from last night?” I nodded, “I was shocked when you could see them because you’re not supposed to be able to see them. No normal person should be able to see them. I’m positive you saw some kind of video or picture when we were coming over here.”

“I did.” My hunch was right. Nobody is every that quiet, there’s always some sort of panicking or nervous whispering. She was silent. She wasn’t normal and I’m sure of it, I’m just not sure in what way she’s different. “What was it of?”

A shy smile painted itself over her face and her eyes filled with a certain sense of happiness I’d never be able to understand. “It was incredibly mundane and unimportant, but it seemed so life changing and real to me. The main thing was, I guess when a person kissed my forehead.”

“Who was this somebody?” Her face contorted slightly in confusion, “I’m not really sure, I couldn’t see their face.”

“If you’re okay with answering, what about it seemed so important to you?” Her bashful smile returned, her eyes turning to mine for a bit before turning away once again, “I don’t know who the person was, but at that moment I felt like I needed them. Like I wasn’t complete with out them. I could feel the kiss, but I couldn’t pinpoint what about felt so special and important to me. It just was.”

I smiled sadly, “It must’ve been a vision of your soulmate.” My hand reaches out and gently poked her cheek, I smiled fondly at the girl who stood in front of me, each time she died I always came back, even if I knew I shouldn’t. My heart broke each time but I couldn’t help it. I loved her.

“Yunseong do you have a soulmate?”

I smiled,“I do, but because I technically don’t exist, my soulmate has another soulmate.” I looked down at the roses and smiled, their vibrant reds truly shining as the setting sun covered them in a golden light. It was a scene that could really only be described as unreal, “What do you mean you don’t exist?”

“I was born in between universes, so while I am here and real, I’ll never really exist anywhere. I’ll spend all of my seemingly endless life fixing the universe’s anomalies, until the day my body gives out. But then I’ll be reborn like this once again.” I paused, my throat tightening slightly, “The majority of us don’t have soulmates. I’m one of the few who does. I’ll never be able to be with them though, so what does it matter at this point.”

“Do you know them?” I turned to look at Y/N, her eyes glazed with a childlike sense of curiosity, I smiled wholeheartedly before turning away to watch the sun set, my smile instantly falling, “I’ve seen her die, and be reborn multiple times. Each and every time it happens I can’t help but hope she’ll be one of us. It’s selfish I know, but it’s been centuries in your years, over again watching them fall in love with another man. It’s futile. But I’ll always adore her no matter who she’s been reborn as.”

Her hand landed gently on my arm, lightly grabbing in the long sleeve shirt that hung loosely on my arm, tears brimming at her eyes. A wave of emotions washed over me in which I could only name a few, my hands lifted up to her face and I gently swiped her tears with my thumbs, watching as she sniffled. My hand gently pinched at the soft skin of her cheeks, smiling as a timid smile painted her face. She gently took my hand in both of hers and held it tightly. “Doesn’t it hurt?”

“I can’t do anything about it. All I can do is watch and hope she’s happy with who ever she lands as a soulmate. It hurts so damn much. She’ll never know how much I truly love her, but it’s alright. I’ll die one day, maybe I’ll be among the majority of us who are lucky enough to not have soulmates.” Her lips pursed as her eyes locked on mine. Once again, her eyes stared into mine trying to find something, something I’d never know of. Her hands still firmly held onto mine. “Would you ever tell your soulmate that?”

Words were caught at my throat, I had so much to say, yet no way to say it. Should I tell her? I sighed heavily and and gently leaned in to place a loving kiss to her forehead, using my free hand to gently cup her face, my thumb stroking her cheekbone,

“I just did.”

❥❥❥❥

We had just arrived once again in 2019, I was hesitant to leave. Y/N stayed silent, and while she hadn’t said anything to me following my three-worded confession, she refused to let go of my hand. The sky was dark, the only illumination present in anyway being the uninviting street lights that were scattered across the sidewalks.

I walked Y/N to her doorstep and watched her head up to the door. Each step she took to her door felt agonizingly long, I’d never see her again after this, and she knew it. Her hands reached the doorknob and I watched as she unlocked her door. My eyes watched intently as she began to walk inside her house. In an instant she dropped her keys and turned back to me, she walked quickly and rested her head against my shoulder, her hands wrapped around my waist. To say I was shocked was an understatement, I felt my body relax against hers as my arm pulled her closer. My head rested against hers and we stood there quietly,

“Yunseong don’t leave. Please don’t leave.” My heart broke at the shakiness of her words, her warm forehead pressed against the side of my neck sending goosebumps up my spine. “You know I can’t stay.” Her arms tightened around my body as I began to pull away. “Why can’t you stay?”

“I don’t belong here.” She shook her head gently, before pulling her upper body away from mine and looking me in the eyes, “Whenever I look into your eyes I see something different, I can see your fears, I can see your thoughts, and I can see your memories. You’re real in every way. When I look at you I see Hwang Yunseong. Whether you exist or not, I love you. Whether you knew it or not I always have.”

“And whether you accept it or not I’m not letting go.”

A smile grew on my face as I bashfully looked away from her trying to hide a smile. A sudden stinging in my eyes startled me, I chuckled softly at myself, soon joined by Y/N. Just like the first time we had truly talked, for a moment it was just a fit of giggles. Her gleaming smile so gorgeous, I couldn’t help but stare. When the laughs ceased I felt a tear roll down my cheek, something that hadn’t happened in quite a long time. “Why are you crying Yunseong?”

“I never thought I’d be able to have a moment like this with you. I just love you. Much more than you’d ever know.”

“I love you too Yunseong.”

❥❥❥❥

This was the moment that’d change our lives. This was the moment I felt complete, after what felt like an eternity of endless searching, endless watching happy couples together, I finally felt like I was complete.

She’d never understand how much I love her. She never will. Your not just fond of someone for hundreds of years. Sure I’m a know it all, but I really didn’t know how she felt.

And I’m glad I didn’t.

❥❥❥❥

#hwang yunseong #yunseong scenarios #yunseong angst #yunseong fluff #yunseong imagines #produce x 101 #produce x 101 imagine #produce x 101 fluff #produce x scenarios #produce x imagines #pdx 101 #produce x 101 angst #produce x 101 scenarios #woolim #yunseong #happy birthday bby!!#happy yunseong day!!!!#mOM I LOVE HIM #so much

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anxiouslymalicious · 5 years

Text

Until the sun sets

Pairing: Ben Hardy x Reader

Summary: A continuation of Until we meet again in which the reader is doing bad after the break up and meets Ben again.

Word Count: 3195

Warnings: Bad writing? mentions of alcohol and getting tipsy

A/N: I’m so sorry this took me so long to write! The last few days have been quite busy, but now I’m back at it again! Hope you enjoy!

Also, this is more of a filler than anything else and the next parts is already in the works!

Ever since Ben told you to leave, he hadn’t been the same. He couldn’t do anything anymore. Working was hard, he barely managed to get through the day and as soon as he got home, he curled up with Frankie. Ben managed to eat somewhat properly, but he couldn’t usually motivate himself to work out. It reminded him too much of how you used to do these things together. It was like your ghost was still there, although a big part of your clothing and other belongings was not anymore.

You must have picked them up when Ben was at work, knowingly avoiding him. It hurt. A lot. The minute he saw you leaving, he had hoped to see you come back to him, see you open that door and yell at him. It was selfish of him, and he knew it, but Ben couldn’t help but hope that you would forget what he did, that you would forgive him and come back to him. That there was no one new, who is already treating you better than he did. That there wasn’t someone who caught your eye and swooped you off your feet. Ben couldn’t help but wonder if you felt the same way about him. If you felt the same pain, the same heartache, the same loneliness.

And you did.

But your best friend wouldn’t let you.

Ever since you had left the flat that morning, you had been staying with your best friend, Helen. She had been one of your closest friends ever sine you were 3. You met one sunny morning, both of your parents had decided that it was a nice day to go to the local playground. You had already built the prettiest and biggest sandcastle you could imagine when the little girl with the brown pigtails came over and stared at your sandcastle. Then, she smashed it and, before you could start crying, told you that you could build a better one with her. She was a proper asshole as a kid, but a very loveable one. She wasn’t much better now, but you loved her and couldn’t imagine a life without her by your side. Right now, she was the only support you felt like you had.

Your parents had always told you not to date an actor, he would only break your heart and be good for nothing, but you didn’t want to believe them.

“Ben is not like that. He cares about me. He loves me. He wouldn’t hurt me.”, you told them as you sat together the night after he had met them for the first time. They had just explained their worries to you and, to some extent, you could understand them. It wasn’t easy for you either, seeing Ben with all those women, knowing that a lot of fans were behind him, supporting him, adoring him, but you trusted him. There was something about him. When he first introduced himself to you in that theatre as you were seated next to each other, both on your own. Something about him felt calm, yet so full of life and energy. After the movie, he had asked you to join him in a pub nearby to have a drink and ever since, you had been close friends, star-crossed lovers, loving parents of a furry baby.

“Y/N, baby, we just want what’s best for you. And you have to know that this life won’t be easy.”, said your mother. She put her hand over yours as you were seated at the table, your cup of tea still stood in front of you, untouched, slowly cooling down. Your father was leaning against the kitchen counter, his arms crossed in front of his chest, the look in his eyes more than unhappy. He was fuming, but he had yet to say a word. Your mom, meanwhile, was sitting across from you. She had a soft look on her face, her whole body leaned towards you, her gaze trying to find yours. You wouldn’t let her, though.

“I know that this is not going to be easy, but nothing in life ever is. Some things are just worth fighting for, and I know that this is. And I know that Ben feels the same. You should have seen the look on his face when he introduced me to his family. I have never seen this much love and adoration on anyone else when they looked at me. I have never felt this way. Besides, wasn’t grandma wary of dad, too when you first started dating?”, you asked, pulling your hand away from your mothers. She had never acted like this, she had always told you to follow your heart and now that you did, she was practically telling you not to. It was infuriating.

“That was different.”, your father suddenly said. It was the first time he was talking since saying goodbye to you and Ben the night before.

“How is that different? How was you being a business man with very little time and many other successful women surrounding you different to Ben being an actor with women being his co-stars?”, you were now raising your voice. Your heart was aching. Both, your parents and Ben, were important to you. You were sure that neither of them would hurt you intentionally, that they would support and love you unconditionally. That day, you ran out on your parents, too hurt by their words, hurt that they did not trust you. You only texted your mother every once in a while, asking how she was, telling her how you were, but you hadn’t seen either your mother or your father ever since. Now, you regretted it. You regretted it deeply. All you wanted was to do was knocking on their door and telling them what Ben did, but you couldn’t. Your father would look at you disapprovingly, telling you that you should have listened to them and their warnings. Your mother, however, would look at you, torn apart inside. You knew that she would want to let you in, embrace you and comfort you, but she was also on your father’s side, wanting to tell you off for being so incredibly disrespectful to them.

“Are you thinking of him again?”, asked Helen as she plopped down on the couch next to you. You had curled up there earlier under a blanket she had lying around in the living room.

“Obviously. What else would I be doing?”, you asked, almost preparing yourself for the unempathetic response you were about to get.

Going out. Celebrating single life. Dying.

“I’m sorry, my love.”, she said honestly with a sigh. Her hand landed on your thigh. “But you do look like you’ve died a few days ago. A shower won’t hurt you, you know?” Your heart ached slightly less as you playfully scoffed at her. Usually, she tried to cheer you up by not letting you sulk, but this was different and she knew that.

“I’ve got to leave for work in a few, but I’ll bring home some takeout and ice cream. But you’ll only get the ice cream if you showered and cleaned up a bit until I get back. Can’t have you staying here for nothing, now can I?”, Helen asked with a smirk, pushing you lightly. You suddenly moved and wrapped your arms around her dainty frame tightly. She embraced you just as tightly.

“I love you, you know that, don’t you?”, you asked and felt tears filling your eyes. You sniffed lightly and hoped that she hadn’t heard it, but how could she not when her chin was resting on top of your head, your ear pressed against her chest, listening to her heartbeat. It was slow and steady. Strangely comforting. You knew that she was actually there.

“Of course, I do, princess. I love you just as much.”, she replied as she moved one of her hands to gently caress your head.

“And you won’t leave me?”, you asked, your voice breaking, just like the dam that held your tears. You were full on sobbing now.

“You already fucked up when I started stealing your toys. Your stuff is always way too cool. There is no way you’ll ever get rid of me.”, Helen said, giving you another squeeze before pushing you away lightly, holding you still, but in a way that she could look into your eyes.

“And I still think you should get the rest of your stuff and end things with Ben altogether, but that’s your decision to make. You know that I’ll be there to support you through everything.” You knew that she was right, but you had gone through so much with him, it just did not feel right to end all that so quickly. On the other hand, he had been able to end things in the blink of an eye, he threw a long-lasting relationship out of the window and it still stung.

You nodded, wiping away your tears as you watched her get up and leave the room.

“I’m stealing your headphones, by the way! Mine are broken!”, she yelled just before you heard the door close behind her. A breathy chuckle left your lips as you shook your head. Helen had a way of saying the absolutely wrong things, but making them sound so incredibly right. You were glad she was your friend.

Slowly, you let your body sink back into the cushion of the couch, gnawing on your bottom lip, lost in your own thoughts. It had been quite some time since you functioned like a proper human being. You had taken time off from work, barely saw the sunlight anymore. You only did what was necessary to survive, and sometimes not even that. You missed Ben and Frankie. Almost everyday either of them, on rare occasions even both of them, were the first thing you saw when you woke up. You were rarely ever alone, Frankie was always following around and, whenever he was there, so was Ben. Everything was a lot more fun with them.

Silent tears rolled down your cheeks and the bawling started anew.

You spent the day doing as Helen told you and, as she came back, you were curled up on the couch again, using her Netflix account, watching some brainless show that you really didn’t pay attention to. She set the takeout down on the coffee table in front of you before leaving the room to get some cutlery while you sat up and made some space for her under the blanket.

“I saw Ben today. He and Gwil were in the queue before me. He looked even worse than you.”, Helen said as she picked at her food. She felt like she needed to tell you. Almost like you had a right to know.

“Really?”, you asked, a glimmer of hope in your voice. It may have been selfish of you, but it made you feel better to know that Ben was doing just as bad. You didn’t feel as alone.

“Yeah. Seemed like Gwil had a hard time getting him out of the flat.”

“Maybe I should call him.”, you whispered, earning an unimpressed glare in return.

“You really think you should call him? He hurt you. Ben has to apologise.”, Helen said before poking you with her fork.

“OW! I know he did, but I miss him.”, you mumbled.

“I know you do, but I’m afraid of the person you might become if you run after him like that. I’m just looking out for you. But I also know that you’re an adult and I can’t tell you what to do.”, Helen told you, the last part was almost inaudible though. You still heard her over the sound of laughter on the show you two were watching, causing a tiny smile to grow on your face.

At the end of the night, you two ended up slightly tipsy, stalking Ben’s social media and eating ice cream straight out of the tub. He hadn’t posted in quite some time, the pictures you two had taken together were still online and his fans were actively asking in the comments of his last picture if he was alright. His last picture being of you, Ben, Gwil and his fiancé as you had spent the day together. It wasn’t anything special, but all of you needed that day off.

You tried to swallow the lump in your throat as you thought about it and instead went to bed.

The following week, you went back to work. At the end of that week, you went grocery shopping with Helen. The weekend after, you two had a picnic and the week following said weekend, you started going outside on your own again. It didn’t feel like the whole world was watching your every step anymore. It felt like you were freeing yourself from Ben.

Well, that was until a sunny Saturday morning. You decided to go out for a walk on your own, wanting to enjoy the surprisingly nice weather for a change. After spending so much time cramped up in your best friend’s flat, you were desperate to get out an do something.

Just as you had paid for a coffee to-go and a pastry in a small café and turned to leave, you saw that all too familiar mop of blonde hair. Ben looked like literal hell. He had dark circled under his eyes, a light stubble covered his chin and his hair was unkempt and looked as though he hadn’t gotten it cut in quite a while. He was wearing light grey sweats and a simple black sweatshirt. One of your favourites. You always loved seeing it on him, but wearing it yourself was always better.

Frankie barked happily. It was quite evident that she missed you. After all, you had been one of the humans she was close to for a long time. She tried to pull Ben into your direction, pulling at the harness with all her power. Against your free will, a smile built up on your lips at the small creature’s excitement. Hesitantly, you lifted your head again slightly to look at your ex-boyfriend. You silently asked him whether he was alright with you coming closer and petting the dog.

And the look he gave you in return was almost begging you to come closer.

So, you did.

“Hey.”, you said quietly, more to Frankie than Ben. Your gaze was solely focused on the dog who was looking at you with those huge eyes you just couldn’t say no to. You were afraid of looking at the man himself, scared that you would break down if you looked at him for too long.

Carefully, you kneeled down in front of Frankie, enjoying the affection she was giving you. You missed her deeply.

“Hi.”, Ben replied, watching you intently. His voice was coarse. Like he hadn’t really been talking. Like he had been crying. No more words were exchanged between you two, neither of you knew what to say.

“How have you been?”, Ben suddenly asked, trying to make some conversation. His question was genuine, he needed to know. You looked as though you were doing much better than him and it hurt.

“Are we really going to be like this?”, you asked with a sigh, getting up to stand straight.

“Like what?” Ben was now anxious. He didn’t want you to leave just yet. He couldn’t let you go again. Not after what he called fate pulled him into that little café that he barely noticed.

“Asking each other awkward questions, trying to figure out who is doing worse than the other, maybe even trying to be friends even though both of us know that we can’t be friends. Not after all we’ve been through together.”, you said, your arms crossing in front of your chest and tears welling up in your eyes.

“No, I don’t mean for it to be like this. Please, let’s have a coffee together and I’ll explain, just please don’t go. Don’t leave me. Please.”, Ben was full on begging. Tears stained his cheeks and you had to physically restrain yourself from wiping his tears away. Ben had to physically restrain himself, too. But he had to do so as to not hug you tightly and not let go again.

“One coffee.”, you said before motioning for him to order one, then sat down at one of the little tables. Ben quickly handed you Frankie’s leash before moving to order his own drink. He was looking back at you every now and then, almost like he was scared that you would run off if he turned his back to you for a longer time than half a minute.

Once he had his coffee, he hurried back to the table, sitting down in front of you.

“Talk.”, you said, taking a sip from your coffee. Frankie was contently resting under your chair, happy to be close to you again.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. So sorry. I don’t know what was going on with me, I don’t know why I said all those unforgivable things.”, Ben was sobbing. Other people in the café were eyeing you curiously, but you tried to pay them no mind. You were nibbling on your bottom lip, trying your best not to cry, wanting to stay strong.

“Are you really, though?”, you asked, your own voice on the verge of breaking. “Because you didn’t seem to regret a single word you said back then. You didn’t call or text. You did not make any effort to apologise. Why would I believe you now?”

“I was so scared. I- I thought you hated me and you would block me and not listen to me. I was scared that you had already found someone else. And I thought that you wouldn’t forgive me anyway. I hurt you so bad and it hurt me and I regret every single thing I said, please believe me. Please. I miss you so much and I still love you so much. And Frankie, she misses you just as much. Every night, she is sitting in front of the door and is waiting for you to come home, but you don’t.”, Ben was rambling, trying to get everything out at once.

“Oh, Frankie…”, you mumbled, leaning down again to gently pet her head. “And how am I supposed to believe you?, you asked Ben.

“I’ll prove it! I’ll prove that I’m sorry and I’m worth a second chance, please. Y/N, you mean the world to me and I would do anything to get you back.”, Ben’s lips were slightly parted, his eyes huge with hope. He looked like he couldn’t believe what was happening, how lucky he was.

“Okay.”, you said. “Okay. You’ve got until the sun sets to prove it.”, you continued with a little smirk. If he was that sure, he would surely be able to redeem himself in the course of one day. And if he really knew you, he’d know exactly how.

That was truly the beginning of an extraordinary day.

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