#you call aubrey a woman and they go 'oh honey.'

[onlineloversnetwork]

It is Christmas day in Toronto. The Graham residence is primarily peaceful except for a few bustling bodies making preparations for tonight’s merrymaking — a specially curated dinner for friends and family. Halls are fully decked, flooded by the sweet, piney scent of a Douglas Fir standing tall and garnished on the main floor.

The certified bachelor is re-charged by the present state of calm afforded him. Not to be disturbed behind bedroom doors he takes a restful gaze toward high ceilings. “Fuck,” he mutters to himself as thoughts soon drift to very particular members of the guest list. Nonetheless, a certain confidence in his servitors allays any threat of stress for what promises to be an enjoyable evening for all.

Indeed, the night progresses with great care, attention and effort to the ease of the gentleman appearing of robust mind and spirit. Glasses are kept filled, a warm and lively chatter swells the air. 

Later, he is summoned by the faint chime of the doors bell, of which, he answers himself.

“Are you going to invite me in, stupid?”

Aubrey, completely unsuspecting of the visitor, excitably pulls his estranged step-sister inside with a grizzly bear of a welcome.

“Sis? Is that you?” He jokes. 

Her pageant queen appeal under a blue New York baseball cap with minimal make-up. Smooth, chestnut skin and the most striking eyebrows. Her dark hair is cut short into a bob pushed behind pixie-like ears to frame a square jawline. A thin, pouty mouth with only a smattering of clear gloss. Pretty brown eyes reflect hazel under the glittering light of the foyer. 

“I didn’t know you were in town.”

“Are you surprised?”

A mercurial type of woman. Intensely alive as if her life depended on it. From the moment he laid eyes on her that day at the wedding, Aubrey regarded qualities in her he’d only hope to one day find in a marriageable mate. A fact he’d never allow himself to share out loud. Least of all to her. She’d laugh, amused. Voted most likely to tease him into hardness. 

“I missed you, brother.” Her words emphasized like honey. 

“You look good,” she follows up, removing her coat and draping it across her petite arm. 

The girl wore all black. No stranger to tantalizing fashion moments. A full body, form fitting catsuit that hugged her slender curves.  

“Can I get that for you?” The man of the house asks politely.

Reluctant, “Thats ok — I’ll hold onto it. You know how I get cold.”

The two exchange a set of barely legal glances as she steps out in front of him. A soft perfume trails behind to affect the playboy suppressing a growing tightness in the cashmere of his pants. He uses the opportunity to separate from the intoxicating beauty that is his older step-sister now making her way across the room to Aubrey's mother. The guests now spread intimately throughout the homey manor. A satisfying blend of spices, florals, tobacco and booze wrapped around them. 

When he is ready to brave her again he finds her alone on the balcony of his library. Her long, wool coat once again blanketing her body against the wintry temperatures. First, observing her from afar, his hands cozy in the pockets of his slacks before making himself known.

“Aye — It’s bloody cold out there.”

She is startled a little by the intrusion (as were his intentions) though attempts to mask it.

“Aye.” She calls back, rolling her eyes hard. 

“What are you doing out there?” He pokes.

“I’m chillin’.”

“Girl—” As if to reiterate the chilled weather.

“Guy.” She smirks, looking over her shoulder at him before averting her focus.

A Carby Musk approaches slow on her neck prompting the preoccupied seductress into new awareness.

He stands not too far behind. A heavy silence meets a starry night sky.

“It’s good to see you.” His voice husky in tone. 

“You too.” Whipping her body around to face him.

“I really like what you did to the place, Santa.” 

“Oh — This?” He is trained in modesty.

“I just — you know…” He hesitates to describe the true sense of joy he feels around this time of year.

“They really seem to get along, don’t they?” She continues.

“Yeah. I’m happy they found each other.” 

“Me too.”

“Listen…” He starts.

The two appear raw in front of the other anticipating what isn’t being said, but, may just be about to. 

“Keep me warm,” she says, drawing an inch closer to his warm body. In the same motion flicking her cap and disrobing the protective covering to fall elegantly at her feet. 

“I wondered when I would see this outfit again.” His face beams with that wide, toothy smile.

“Why? So you can ask me where I got it and gift it to one of your little girlfriends?”

This time he doesn’t hesitate to grab her firmly by the throat with a thick, kind hand.

“Don’t be such a bitch.”

The sudden gesture forces her to brace herself.

"I'll be yours," she whispers, smokily.

His eye contact unflinching, intensifying the squeeze of his grip on every side of that pretty little neck.

“Show me,” he challenges. In the heat of the moment, lips meet in a kiss of wet, hungry passion. 

“Make love to me,” she cries into the deep of his mouth now gentle and sweet. A sudden tear drops from her winged eye, wetting a flushed cheek. He pauses briefly to study the magnitude of her needs. 

“You missed me?” 

Butterflies begin to fill her stomach explosively.

“I want to feel you inside me—” is the gracious response of his receptive step-sibling, unzips the front of her attire past a pierced belly button. 

The refined man watches the woman undress as she puts herself on display for his eyes only. 

“I need to be punished.” She says. "Badly."

Her words make him want to own her. 

Mindful of the bitterly cold, Aubrey, lifts her from her thighs up to his waist, legs wrap around and she is carried inside with him kicking velvet loafers off one by one. With prioritizing strength guides them both near the back of the room. Her nude body placed deliberate and safe atop the furniture, legs guided further apart with a nudge of his own body.

Together, they work to undo his trousers. She assists in raising his shirt over his head. A violent steam emitting from their bodies. For the first time, nothing held back.

He pushes into her hot and heavy, sliding snug into her wetness. His beard prickly on her face while she breathes in a soft rhythm to deep, filling strokes. A low, throaty moan escapes her quivering lips, swollen with desire. He is the lover she imagined he would be — attentive and effective, rough and tender.

***This is a work of fiction. Events are a product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental or an exaggeration of public knowledge***

#drake fan fiction #fan fiction #drake fandom #fandom #writing #short stories #fiction #adult fiction #storytelling #fiction writing #celebrity fan fiction #christmas #step sister #step brother #sibling fantasy #sister fantasy #step brother fantasy #step sister fantasy #fantasy #adult fantasy

[valentinesparda]

logic dictates that aubrey should stay in their lane and either commit to being femme or commit to being masc out of concern for their personal safety because historical accuracy would mean they’d be prosecuted for their presentation but im god here and i wish there were more representation for gender nonconforming people who didnt adhere to an either / both presentation that weren’t set on one side of the box or the other, so they will wear whatever the fuck they wanna wear and i do not care what anyone has to say

#that said yes i will make it applicable when it needs to be but not a constant fuckin thing because im TIRED #i am going to force positive representation down ur throats and u will like it #aubrey WILL be the genderflopping person of your nightmares and i WILL write about them being gay. #my brain says to do stupid shit like 'oh it needs to be a plot point that they need to present as fem when with thomas' but consider: #i dont give a shit. thomas will have this gremlin in a tux on his arm and it will be accepted. #you call aubrey a woman and they go 'oh honey.' #aubrey with a saccharine tone: i'm your wife now thomas #thomas: uh. that sounds like a threat. #aubrey: it is. :) #si: aubrey #el.txt #everywhere i go by hollywood undead is playing on repeat and i am going ham

[kendrickslmanburg]

Game On!

Pairing: Beca Mitchell/Aubrey Posen

Words: 1.3k

Rating: T

Note: Thank you to @pleaseactsurprisedxx participating in the Pitch Perfect Fandom Drive! For more information visit @ppfandomdrive

PLOT: Beca gets dragged once again by Stacie to go with her and Bella for a school event, but during the event she is reunited with one of the people who picked on her for years.

It was a normal Saturday morning in Beca’s apartment, she’s chilling on her balcony with a cup of coffee in her hand watching the people and cars pass by until… Her phone rang. Beca looks at her phone and it was Stacie, what is the emergency now? She answers her call

“What’s up Stacie?” She spoke.

Meanwhile on the other line, Stacie is in her living room on a loudspeaker as she’s putting on Bella’s socks “Hey Becs sorry to interrupt, are you busy right now?” She asked the shorter woman.

“I was busy looking at people and cars passing by my apartment but I don’t have any agenda right now, is everything alright?” She enters her apartment placing her mug down on the table.

“Good, because I need your help- Bella honey, turn your ipad off, mommy is talking to Auntie Beca.” Stacie said.

Beca lets out a light chuckle hearing her best friend try her best to be a great mom to her daughter “I can tell, what’s the catch Stace?” She leaned against a wall crossing her arms.

“Can you go with Bella and I to an event for her school, Emily is out for a business trip and Bella was kinda upset so she told me to call you instead.” Stacie explained to her.

Knowing Beca, she’ll jump in front of a train for her best friend agreed to what Stacie told her, a few minutes later she left her apartment to go and pick up Stacie and Bella and drive to her school.

“Is this the thing you dragged me into?” Beca asked looking at her surroundings, there are parents everywhere along with their children “Yeah, it’s the annual parent-children day. It happens every year.” Stacie answered. Bella’s teacher, Miss Lawson walks up to them “Hello Miss Conrad, it’s great to see you again, is this the wife you’ve been talking about?” Miss Lawson asked Stacie thinking that Beca is Emily.

“Nope I am not her wife, I am a friend. Beca Mitchell.” She reached her hand out for Miss Lawson to shake "My wife is on a business trip, so I had to drag my friend here with me." Stacie explained, while her friend was talking to her daughter's teacher Beca noticed a familiar face in the crowd "You've got to be kidding me right now!" She whined out loud. “You good Becs?” Stacie asked. The person she saw in the crowd is none other than Aubrey Posen, Aubrey and Beca go way back but not in a good way. Aubrey always picked on Beca when they were kids; she mostly picked on Beca about her height and many years later, they are reunited with this event.

“Beca Mitchell, what a surprise.” Aubrey walked up to Beca, Stacie, and Bella. “What are you doing here?” Aubrey asked.

“What are you doing here?” Beca bounced the question back to the blonde.

“Oh I am just here accompanying my niece, Peyton, to this event. And I see that you’ve bagged yourself a supermodel.” If Beca had a dollar every time she’s with Stacie and people assume that she’s married to her, she’d buy a truck and run Aubrey over with it. “She’s not my wife first of all, second, I heard you and your niece are back to back champions and guess what? Bella and I will win this event.” Beca answered back at Aubrey.

“I know you Mitchell, you’re all bark, no bite.” Aubrey said, adding more flame to the fire. “Okay you two, cut the barking and snarling out.” Stacie drags Beca away from Aubrey and Peyton “I am not finished with you Posen!” Beca yelled out one last time all Aubrey did was laugh.

Aubrey faces her niece and they do a one on one pep talk “Alright Peyton, you know what to do. I know that your parents are super busy all of the time, but remember what I told you?”

“Kick their shins and go for the gold!” Peyton continued

“Exactly.” Aubrey said with a big smile on her face.

Meanwhile on the other side of the field, Beca and Stacie give their own pep talk to Bella “Alright kiddo, you know the drill; if you win, then you win.” Beca mentioned “Also be a good sport, don’t act all high and mighty, the only thing that matters here is that we have fun.” Stacie added, Bella nodded and high fived Beca and Stacie.

Then the games began.

The games were a mix of students only and students with parents (or guardians), The ones who are mostly going head to head with each other are Bella and Peyton cause Beca and Stacie are as competitive as Aubrey. Screaming from the top of their lungs cheering for their kids, which annoyed some of the parents at some point. A few games later, they are down to their final game. “Okay this last game is for the parents and legal guardians, get ready to unleash your inner NFL players we’re playing a game of football!” The host announced, Bella looks at her mom and her aunt “Mommy, Auntie Beca! You need to play this game.” The younger Conrad convinced her mother and aunt to join. Peyton glances at Bella convincing Beca and Stacie and looks back at her aunt “You don’t need to say anything kid, I am joining that game.” Aubrey brisk walked to the middle of the field where the Parents and Guardians who are playing this game, Beca and Stacie are on the same team while Aubrey is on the opposite team.

“I got my eyes on you Posen.” Beca taunted the blonde rolling her sleeves up.

Aubrey snickered, stretching “Whatever.”

Everyone got into position and as they heard the sound of the whistle, the game started. The kids are cheering for their parents and guardians in the game, one of the parents passes the ball to Stacie and she looks for Beca and throws the ball at her “I got it!” Beca yelled and is now being chased by the opposing team, but out of all the members from the other team, Aubrey was sprinting and pushing people away as Beca ran to get a touchdown. Aubrey then tackles Beca, leaving the both of them in a very awkward position. Stacie looks at the current situation and starts laughing uncontrollably, Beca opens her eyes to see Aubrey is on top of her which made her blush in embarrassment “Finally.” Aubrey said. Beca smiles at the blonde which made Aubrey raise a brow “TOUCHDOWN!” The referee yelled. Aubrey gets off of Beca and groans rolling her eyes, Stacie helps the shorter woman get back up again. “GUESS WHO’S THE LOSER NOW POSEN?!?” Beca bragged while she’s laughing.

After the event, Beca is seen getting in her car but was stopped by Aubrey “Hey, Beca a word?” Beca turns around and walks up to the blonde “How can I help you?” She asked, “I just want to say that game was amazing, it’s also been years since I’ve seen you so this really brought back a lot of memories from middle school.” Aubrey smiled, but not a cocky smile it’s more of a soft and gentle smile.

Beca chuckled “Well color me shocked.” She said.

The two of them just stood there not talking for a good second, Aubrey clears her throat and scratches the back of her neck “Do you uh… Have somewhere to go this week?” She asked. Is Aubrey asking her out? After she tackled her into the ground thirty minutes ago?

Beca looked at her surroundings before locking eyes with the other woman and slowly shook her head “No…? Also are you asking me out?” A confused smile formed on Beca’s face, Aubrey’s eyes widened “What? Me? Asking you out?” She lets out a nervous chuckle “Yes.” She answered very straightforwardly. “And so it’s a date? I love that, pick me up at six.” Beca agreed, she did her famous two finger salute at the blonde and left. Aubrey just stood there with a smile on her face and headed to her car, leaving the venue knowing that her and Beca have officially moved on from being up on each other's nerves to people who’d show affection towards each other.

#I hope you enjoy this <3 #beca mitchell #aubrey posen #stacie conrad #mitchsen #pitch perfect fanfiction #ppfandomdrive #pitch perfect fandom drive

[thiswasinevitableid]

For the meet Ugly- 13 with Danbrey?

Here you go! I went SFW on this one

13: we make contact before trying to steal the last seat on the subway/bus/train and I end up in your lap and fuck you, I’m going to stay here because I’ve had a really long day and this seat was mine

The bus is not as fun as she remembers.

When Aubrey was a little kid, her mom would use the bus to take her to the museum or the movies or, on the best days, the magic store. Yes, the Little’s had a nice car, but her mom believed that not only was the bus better for the environment, it was a way to remember that there was nothing scary about being around people who come from all sorts of circumstances (Aubrey later learned this was due to her mom once being at a PTA meeting where hands were rung over children using public transportation being exposed to “unsavory” people).

“The world is full of all kinds of people, firebug. That’s not something to be scared of.”

She wipes her eye surreptitiously under the West Virginia sun. You’d think she’d have learned not to think about mom in public by now.

The bus line she’s using for her tour is inexplicably crowded; half these towns are on their way to being ghosts but somehow she’s always fighting for a seat. She doesn’t like her chances for this leg of the ride, since she got distracted reading about the history of Doc Martens and ended up towards the back of the line.

By some luck, there’s one seat left as she squeezes onto the bus, using her body to keep people from elbowing the fabric carrier containing Dr. Harris Bonkers, PhD. But in the time she takes to turn to sit, someone else slips into the spot, so fast it’s almost inhuman.

“Um, excuse me, but this was my seat.” She turns to confront the thief and finds herself looking at a young woman about her age, with honey-blonde hair and hazel eyes which, were she not tired and grumpy, Aubrey would have lots of compliments for.

“No, it wasn’t. I got here first. You’ll just have to stand.”

“That’d be fine if it were just me.” The bus pulls away from the curb, “but it’s bad for Dr. Harris Bonkers to be suspended for too long.” She adjusts the bunny bag, hoping his big brown eyes and wiggly nose will make her case for her.

“Awww” the blonde coos, booping him through the mesh, “don’t worry little guy, you aren’t going too far. You’ll be fine if your person stands for a little bit.”

“It’s not a little bit, it’s twelve hour trip to my next stop!”

A smile full of understated charm and triumph, “It’s thirteen to mine.”

“Aw beans.”

“......are you going to get out of my lap at any point?”

“No” Aubrey turns her head to look out the window, “this is a good seat, even if there’s someone in it. I’m staying.”

It’s not her finest moment, to be sure. But she’s tired and heartsick so she is staying in this seat, damn it. The other woman grumbles something and slumps back against the black seat.

They hit the next stop, but not enough people get off, so she stays in her mystery lady’s lap. Her seat(mate) pulls a baggie of granola from the pocket of her definitely-not-cute-at-all overalls and crunches it louder than necessary by her ear.

“Uh, your rabbit is trying to get out.”

Aubrey glances down to see the mesh front straining as Dr. Harris Bonkers attempts to reach the granola.

“Don’t beg, young man, it’s rude.”

“Can he have a piece?” She holds up a dried strawberry.

“Um, sure.” Aubrey watches as she unzips the top of the carrier and let’s the rabbit nibble the treat from her hand. Aubrey’s a little jealous.

They don’t say anything to each other, but the rabbit gets two more treats before they reach the next stop. The person who’s spent the whole trip asleep in the window seat next to them jerks awake and hurries off the bus. Aubrey scoots into it before anyone can dare challenge her.

They’ve just turned onto the highway when she says, “Thanks. For, um, for sharing your granola.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And I’m, um, I’m sorry for sitting on you.”

“Yeah that wasn’t great, but if someone was going to sit on me I’m glad it’s the cutest passenger on the bus.” She points at Dr. Harris Bonkers, but keeps her eyes on Aubrey.

“We’re both kinda tired. We had a show late last night and we’re nervous for the one tomorrow.”

“Show?”

“I’m a magician and he’s my assistant. I’m known as the Lady Flame” she snaps and finger-guns, setting off a flashpaper, “but you can call me Aubrey.”

“Ma’am, no smoking on the bus!”

“Sorry!” She calls to the driver.

“I’m Dani” the blond boops Dr. Harris Bonkers again, “whose this guy?”

“Dr. Harris Bonkers, PhD.”

“Nice to meet you, doctor.”

“Are, um, are you just traveling for fun?” She unzips the carrier enough for them both to pet him.

“Not really. I was running an, uh, an errand. I’ll be glad to get back to Kepler.” She fiddles with something in her pocket, “could I see more of your act?”

“I think that might get me thrown off the bus.”

“Don’t you have pictures?” Dani smiles.

“Oh duh, right, here, I even got someone to take some videos.” She scooches closer, Dani closing the remaining distance to rest their shoulders together. As they move through the videos, Dani is noticeably excited, even claps a few times. When Aubrey’s battery dies, they say “fuck” in sync.

“...want to play ‘I Spy?”

“Hell yeah.”

The next three hours pass in a flash, the two of them laughing and trading stories, all the while both cuddling closer to the window (to better play the game, of course).

They reach a travel hub, the driver informing everyone that they’ll leave in an hour on the dot. The two of them select a Dennys, since in Aubrey’s experience they tend to ignore her bringing in an eighteen pound rabbit.

She charges her phone while they eat, Dani getting corned beef hash, (“not as good as the one my friend makes back home”) while Aubrey has pancakes. She gets a little syrup on her cheek and nearly asks Dani to clean it off for her. With her tongue.

It’s dark when they get back to their seats, but the driver keeps the A.C cranked to the point that Aubrey is shivering. Dani pulls a shawl from her backpack, draping it around them both like a blanket as the trees become nothing more than vague shapes in the dark.

They talk about Aubrey’s tattoos, about the garden Dani has back home (“lots of veggies, you’d like that, wouldn’t you buddy?”). Last night starts catching up with Aubrey, yawns threatening to steal her attention from the way the light catches in Dani’s hair.

“Wanna see more videos?” That’s low energy flirtation, right?

“Of course.”

As she opens the videos, she hits an older album and an image of her and her mom fills the screen. She freezes, like the highbeams of the past are barrelling towards her and all she can do is watch.

“Aubrey?” Dani touches her cheek.

“Um, sorry.” She shoves the phone in the pocket of her jacket, “I, my, my mom died a little while ago. That was her. Um. I guess that was obvious. Sorry.”

Dani’s fingers find hers, interlacing them gently, “I’m so sorry, Aubrey. I...I get it. My family is, well I made some choices that mean I’ll never get to see them again. I, the reason I went on this trip was because I heard one of my brothers might have, uh, done the same thing. He hadn’t.” She sighs, “I don’t even know if they’re all still alive.”

“That sucks. This all. Fucking. Sucks.”

Dani nods, rests their heads together, “You know what doesn’t suck? Meeting you.”

“Pfffft” Aubrey smiles through her tears, hoping the joking noise will hide her blush.

Dani cups her cheeks, “I’m serious. Getting to know you feels like, like rounding a corner and seeing your house after years away. I, this is going to sound silly but please tell me you’re stopping in Kepler for a show?”

“I’m not but I, um, I guess I could still stop off there? If you really wanted me to.” Something about Dani’s smile, the warmth in her eyes, soothes her grief to sleep for now.

“I do, fireblossom, so much.”

Aubrey blushes, “Think you might be my first fan; no one else ever requests a show.”

Dani kisses her cheek, “I might even request one in private.”

“I could get into that” she yawns, “damn it, I don’t wanna sleep. I wanna keep flirting with you, cutie pie.”

Dani shifts their luggage, scoots sideways and guides Aubrey’s head down into her lap, “Get some rest, Aubrey. Just being able to look at you is enough for me.”

“Awww” Aubrey nestles against her stomach, “you’re so cute...just a...cutie...pie...zzz”

The last thing she feels is a kiss on the forehead and Dani tucking the shawl around her.

-----------------------------------------------

Aubrey does not want to get off this bus; Dani is cuddled up next to her, telling her about what kind of flowers she’d grow her, when he stops come up.

“Whelp….this is me.”

Dani helps her off the bus, passing her the carrier containing a sleeping Dr. Harris Bonkers. Then she smirks, “is your balance pretty good.”

“Yeah? Wh-mmphhoh” She holds tight as Dani nearly knocks her off her feet in a kiss. She tastes like the strawberry poptart they split for breakfast and is not making it any easier to say goodbye.

“Promise you’ll come see me in Kepler?’ Dani murmurs against her lips.

“Promise.”

A kiss on the nose, then a longer one on the mouth that makes Aubrey feel like she’s going to go up flashpaper. Then Dani is gone, off towards Kepler. A town Aubrey has no knowledge of and no idea how to navigate. And she didn’t get Dani’s last name.

“Fuck.” She says to the rabbit.

The rabbit simply snuffles in reply.

-------------------------------------

A few hours after her most catastrophic show to date and getting a gun pointed at her, Aubrey walks into Amnesty Lodge and finds a certain face, haloed with golden hair, waiting for her by the fireplace.

#Aubrey little/dani #danbrey #TAZ Amnesty #meet ugly

[ear-monstrosities]

the silence isn’t so bad ‘til I look at my hands and feel sad, ‘cause the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly (1/1)

Summary: ”I will never stop loving you Chloe. Not now, not ever. No matter where I am, I will be there with you through thick and thin. I will never truly leave you.”

Word Count: 5,336

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Major Character Death(s)

A/N: Title from Vanilla Twilight -Owl City I do not own the characters or anything associated with Pitch Perfect (except Jacob and BJ)

Read here or on AO3

* * * * *    

Chloe dragged her feet through the door and plopped down on the couch. Work had really taken a toll on her today. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in her nice, comfy bed and take a 24-hour nap. She knew she couldn’t, though, as she had a family to feed. After several episodes of Meet the Frasers, Chloe glanced at the clock. Beca and Jake should be home by now, they should have been home at least a half-hour ago. Chloe started to get up from the couch when her phone rang.

”Hello?” Chloe hesitantly answered the phone.

”Is this Mrs. Beale-Mitchell?” The man’s gravelly voice came through the speaker.

”Yes, this is she” Chloe’s response showed the worry in her voice.

”Beca Beale-Mitchell and Jacob Beale-Mitchell have been in an accident. Beca is in critical condition.“ The man replied, and Chloe’s face went white. The rest of the conversation was a jumble of words as she grabbed her keys and ran out the door. She slung open the door to her car in a panicked frenzy and sat down in the driver's seat. Not ten seconds went by and she was already screaming down and out of the driveway. She knew she shouldn’t be putting herself in danger just to get there, but she couldn’t stand the thought of her wife and son being hurt.

Chloe pulled up to the hospital and got out of her car hastily. When she got to the front desk, she gave her name and who she was there for, before swiftly walking to see them.

”How bad is it?” Chloe frantically asked the doctor. There was fear in her eyes as a lonesome tear ran down her cheek.

”She’s coming in and out of consciousness and is in critical condition. There’s not much more we can do for her. As for Jacob, he’s stable. He’ll make it out.” The doctor replied with sympathy in his eyes. Chloe opened her mouth to speak but the doctor cut her off.

”You might want to go speak to her. There’s no telling how long she has left. We don’t think she’ll make it through the night” Chloe let out a sob as the tears came streaming down her cheeks. She didn’t attempt to dry them as she walked towards Beca.

”Chloe? Baby, is that you?” Beca said in a raspy voice as her eyes fluttered open. Chloe smiled at the younger woman.

”It’s me Becs. I’m here. I’m not gonna leave you. Never.” Chloe said with determination.

”I think I’ll be the one leaving, Chlo.” Chloe tried to protest but Beca stopped her. “I need you to stay strong for me, honey. I might not make it out of this hospital, so that means you need to keep going. Find someone that will take care of you and love you when I’m gone. Take care of our kids.”

Beca placed a battered hand on Chloe’s ever-growing abdomen. She was 6 months pregnant with their baby girl. They used Beca’s eggs, so there would be a mini Beca for her to have running around the house.

”I will never stop loving you, Chloe. Not now, not ever. No matter where I am, I will be there with you through thick and thin. I will never truly leave you.” Beca was crying at this point.

”I love you too, Beca, but you’re gonna be okay.” Chloe replied, but Beca just shook her head.

”I really don’t think I will. It’s just my time to go.” Beca’s voice cracked and she looked away. “But I don’t wanna spend the last day of my life alone. I wanna be here, with you. Will you stay here with me?”

”Of course, Becs” Chloe eased into the side of Beca’s bed and slowly snuggled her head into her side, being careful not to hit a cord or hurt her. About an hour went by with doctors coming in and out of the room. Chloe never stopped crying, and Beca stroked Chloe’s head while she was conscious.

”Thank you, Chloe. Thank you for this wonderful life you’ve given me. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love my girls-“ Beca caressed Chloe’s abdomen “-and my baby boy who is not such a baby anymore”

The beeping on the monitor gradually slowed down

“I love you, Chloe. So much. Never forget that.” Beca squeezed Chloe’s hand as her eyes fluttered shut and her breath spilled out of her lungs with a small groan. Chloe sobbed loudly and called the doctor in. The doctor placed a gentle hand on her shoulder as she left the room and went to go see her son. She walked into the room and was met with a pair of puffy eyes.

”She’s gone, isn’t she?” The 9 year old boy asked with a shake to his voice. Chloe didn’t say anything as she walked over and held the boy in her arms.

”I made her late Mom. I made her late and now my Mama’s gone” The young boy sobbed into his mother’s shirt.

”It’s not your fault, Jakey. No one could’ve known.” Chloe gently said to Jacob.

”No, no, if I wouldn’t have asked to meet Halsey, she wouldn’t have been there. We would’ve already been home and we would both be safe” Jacob sobbed.

”It is not your fault, you hear me?” Jacob slowly nodded and went back to crying.

”Let it out. Don’t be afraid, just let it out” Chloe whispered to the boy as both of them let their emotions take over them.

”We’ll never be without her. We’ll never forget her. She’s a part of us.” Chloe spoke between sobs.

”She's never truly gone, she's only gone once we forget her. I won’t let that happen.”

-

”C’mon Chlo, you got this. Push!” Aubrey was by Chloe’s side through the entire labor. She didn’t leave once. She might not be Beca, but Aubrey’s husband died a year before Beca did, so they stick together.

”One more push, she’s almost here,” Aubrey said barely loud enough for Chloe to hear. The screaming cries of a newborn baby filled the room. A beautiful baby girl with a head full of brown hair was placed into Chloe’s arms.

”She’s beautiful, Bree” Chloe whispered and started crying.

”What’re you gonna name her?” Aubrey asked while smiling at the bundle of joy in Chloe’s arms.

”Beca Jaymes Beale-Mitchell.” Chloe confidently stated, leaving Aubrey gaping for a few seconds

”J-Jaymes?” Aubrey stuttered as she ran the name over in her mind again. That was the name of her late husband.

”Yes, Bree. I named her after him, too. You both helped me through so much, and I wanted to honor him in a way.” Chloe explained with a huge grin on her face.

”I love you, Chloe.” Aubrey sobbed and kissed Chloe on the forehead.

”I love you too, Aubs,” Chloe said before returning her attention to Baby Beca in her arms.

-

“Support her head, Jake,” Chloe said as she passed the half-sleeping baby into his arms. Jacob started crying as he looked at her.

”What's wrong, bud?” Chloe asked, looking into his eyes. They were crystal blue, but not as bright as Chloe’s.

”She looks like Mama”

-

“C’mon BJ, time for school” Chloe shouted up the stairs and walked into the kitchen where Aubrey was currently fixing waffles. The women had formed a very strong connection in the years after their soulmates’ deaths. They weren’t together in a romantic sense, but they lived together, and to someone from the outside, it would seem as though they were married.

”Yeah, yeah, I’m coming” The moody 15 year old shouted back. Chloe just chuckled to herself. The girl had grown to look and act just like Beca as the years went by. After several minutes, the teen came moping down the stairs.

”Grab a waffle and go, you’re late,” Chloe said with a stern look. BJ nodded and started out the door. She stopped and turned around to look at the picture of her late mother again. Today was a particularly sad day for the whole family; It was Beca’s birthday. BJ smiled at the picture and whispered “I love you, Mama” before walking out the door.

-

”Look at my baby boy. Getting married, god, where has the time gone?” Chloe spoke to Aubrey as she dabbed at the corners of her eyes. “I just wish Beca were here to see.”

”She is, Chlo. Not in the traditional sense, but she’s here.” Chloe nodded and went back to her drink. Chloe wasn’t keeping track of time, and soon enough, Nneka was walking down the aisle. Her dress was beautiful, it hugged her every curve and accentuated her breasts perfectly.

”You may now kiss the bride” Jacob enveloped Nneka in a loving kiss. Chloe started clapping and crying even harder as she watched her only son finally start truly living, with a wife of his own.

-

“Mom, I think I’m gay” BJ blurted out over dinner. Chloe dropped her fork but quickly recovered.

”Me too, ‘s no big deal. I’m glad you told me, honey. That’s a hard thing to do” Chloe smiled at the brunette girl.

”I don’t even know why I was scared to tell you” Chloe shrugged along with BJ “Hold on, backtrack. I thought you were pansexual?”

“I thought I was, but I’m not capable of loving anyone but your mother. If that makes me gay, so be it” Chloe explained without making eye contact. BJ knew this was a hard topic for her. Even after 16 years she still couldn’t love anyone else. No one compared to Beca. BJ placed a loving hand on her mother’s knee.

”You are just like her. I know I tell you this a lot, but you are an exact copy of Beca Mitchell. From the dark clothes, to the snippy attitude, to these ear monstrosities here-“ Chloe flicked BJ’s ear spike and she laughed at the memories of Aubrey and Beca in college, “-you are just like her. I just wish you knew her.”

BJ grinned at her mother and nodded. “I’ve seen so many pictures and videos it feels like I really do know her. I wish I could’ve met her” Chloe nodded and smiled at her daughter.

-

“I got in!” BJ shouted over the phone.

”Of course you did, you’re a legacy!” Chloe’s smile could be heard through the phone as her daughter did a small dance on the other line.

”You’ve come so far, I’m so proud of you”

-

“Oh god, first I had to give away my son, now I’ve gotta give away my daughter, too” Chloe whispered to herself as the bride, Nessa, began to walk down the aisle. BJ was standing in an all-white tux with a single rose in her pocket. Nessa had a flair of red across her collarbone. They were both so beautiful.

”I do,” BJ said, and she didn’t even need for him to say the words, she was already kissing her wife. The two 27 year olds got lost in the moment before coming back to reality and sheepishly smiling at their mothers.

The music was comprised of only Beca’s playlists, which in its self made Chloe cry. BJ climbed onto the stage “There’s a certain song I wanted to sing tonight. It goes all the way back to 2012 at Barden University. That was when my Mom fell in love with my Mama. This song is dedicated to my amazing Moms.”

The beginning notes of Titanium began to play on the stage, and Chloe instantly started sobbing. Aubrey placed a loving hand in the small of Chloe’s back. She sang along quietly and thought of Beca. All the bumps along the road, the messy parts of life were worth it, because she made the good part so much better. She was Chloe’s sunshine, even with her dark fashion choice.

”I love you Moms. I always will. Even when we’re not together, you’re a part of me, and It’ll always be there.” BJ smiled at the sky, then at Chloe when the song ended.

-

”Aubrey, do you ever regret this?” A weary, 68 year old Chloe asked. Aubrey looked confused. “I mean, do you regret not getting remarried?”

”Not at all. After Jaymes died, I realized I couldn’t love anyone else. I loved him so much I could barely breathe without him, so I knew no one could love me enough and have me return those feelings.” Aubrey replied with a shake to her voice.

”Me neither. I’m glad you’re here with me. I couldn’t have done it without you. Now my babies are all grown up and I’m missing Beca even more. I know I’ll see her soon, though.” Chloe smiled to herself at the thought of her wife.

”Don’t say that, Chlo. You still have a lot of life left to live. Don’t give up on me now” Aubrey chastised the red and white haired woman.

“I’m not giving up Bree, I promise”

-

Chloe didn’t stay true to her word. In the years following, she was waiting to leave so she could be with Beca. She wasn’t trying to die, but she was ready to go be with her loving wife again.

”Chloe, you have to go to the doctor.” Aubrey said as Chloe was taken over by another coughing spell. The coughing lasted several minutes and was accompanied by a sharp pain in the ribs.

”I’m fine”

-

”Chloe, you’re going to the doctor, now” Aubrey commanded and dragged Chloe to the door.

”I’m really fine, I promise.” Chloe was very obviously lying.

”No, you’re really not” Aubrey felt a tear run down her cheek as she watched the frail woman get into the car

-

“You have Mesothelioma, stage 4” The doctor gravely stated. Aubrey gasped.

”Stage 4? I-I don’t” Aubrey stuttered.

”It’s okay Bree. I was afraid this would happen. I let it go on too long.” Chloe silently cried into Aubrey’s shoulder.

”You have the option to undergo chemotherapy, but otherwise there’s nothing we can do. It’s already spread too far, we can’t remove it” The doctor had a sympathetic look on his face.

”Just let me go. Let me go in peace. Chemotherapy won’t do me any good.” Chloe wiped away Aubrey’s tears.

”I have been with you for 50 years, I’m not leaving you that easy, Chlo.” Aubrey determinedly stated.

”Bree, I’m dying already. Be grateful for the life we have while we still have it. I want to go home.”

-

Chloe’s last days were spent in pain. The cancer was spreading even further into her lungs. It was getting harder and harder to keep going. It had been 6 months since the diagnosis, and Chloe didn’t know how long she had left. She really didn’t want to know. As Chloe settled into bed, Aubrey began her nightly routine with Chloe.

”Goodnight Chloe. I love you so much. More than you can even imagine. I’ll see you later.” Aubrey leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Chloe dreamt of Beca and the Bellas. She remembered every touch, every kiss, every moment. She dreamt of meeting all the Bellas, of ICCAs, of every date they ever went on. She remembered it all.

...

”Hi, any interest in joining our a Capella group?” The bubbly read-head asked the sulking brunette.

”Oh, right, this is like a thing now” Aubrey was not amused by the girl’s tone, but Chloe was undeterred. She saw the potential in the mysterious woman.

...

”I’ve got more important things to do!” Beca shouted to no one in particular.

”What could be more important than this?” Chloe asked, bewildered.

”Nothing, forget it” Beca threw her hands up and turned around.

”No, you don’t think that we haven’t all realized you’ve been a little checked out lately?” Chloe borderline shouted at Beca.

”C'mon, Beca, just tell her.” Amy chimed in, to Beca’s dismay.

”I heard that, tell me what?” Chloe demanded.

”Oh, you misunderstood me, I clearly said rumpumpecker, ushmeller” Amy clarified, but Chloe didn’t pay attention.

“Listen, I don’t want you guys to fight. You’re Beca and Chloe. Together you’re Bhloe, and everyone loves a good bhloe.” Amy said, the girls ignoring her attempt at a joke.

“Okay, I have been interning at a recording studio, and a legit music producer wants to hear my work, God forbid I have something going on outside this group.” Beca broke down and told her.

”Okay, so why would you keep something like that from us-“ Chloe was cut off by a fuming Beca.

”’Cause you’re obsessed! You all are! We’re graduating and the only person thinking about life after the Bellas is me.” Beca looked at all the girls that were listening intently.

”What is so wrong with being focused on the Bellas? This has been my family for seven years.” Chloe retorted with a bite to her tone.

”Yeah cause you’re too scared to leave! Sack up, dude!” Beca shouted which earned a “Girl fight” from Cynthia Rose.

”Okay so you’ve been lying to us this whole year, and now you’re just gonna flake out? Now you’re just gonna flake out when the worlds is like right after graduation?” Chloe’s voice was straining to speak loud enough without crying.

”Oh my god! Enough about the worlds, I can’t- I am out of here.” Beca turned around to leave, heading straight for the bear trap.

”Oh okay, you’re just gonna leave now? You’re just-“ Chloe was cut off by Beca turning around and shouting.

”We all have to eventually Chloe. Might as well be now.” Beca turned back around and kept walking.

”Beca, the sign!” Emily shouted as Beca was taken into the air by a huge net.

”What the hell!” Beca screeched

...

“Hey guys,” Chloe said, waking in the door and taking off her coat.

”Why aren’t you guys ready?” Chloe questioned, seeing the casual attire the girls were dressed in.

”Why are you wearing that?!” Beca questioned with an accusing tone.

”What-“ Chloe started but was soon cut off by Beca.

”Did you wear that to work?!” Beca screeched, pointing a finger at her original Bellas uniform.

“Yeah, underneath my scrubs,” Chloe said, confidently smoothing out the wrinkles in her blazer.

”Oh, sweetie why?” Beca questioned, her mouth twisted into a confused grimace

“Because it reminds me I was special once,” Chloe said with a sad grin. ”and, you know, the Bellas reunion at the Brooklyn Aquarium”

”That’s tonight?!”

...

“What’s up, pitches!” Amy shouted as she spotted the other Bellas.

”I can’t wait for us to sing together,” Chloe said to the girls as she gave them all hugs.

”Hey Bellas!” Emily said as she walked up with the rest of the new Bellas

”What do you want us to sing tonight?” Chloe started rambling off song names.

”I brought this just in case” Chloe pulled a blue cup out of her bag to which Beca smacked it ferociously out of her hand. Emily watched it clatter to the ground

...

“Will you marry me?” Beca asked from her position on one knee. Chloe was speechless for what seemed like an eternity.

”Beca oh my God, yes!” Chloe squealed and pulled her into a kiss. She slipped the ring onto Chloe’s finger.

”I can’t believe this, Beca. I love you. So much.” Chloe cried as she spoke, still wrapped in Beca’s arms. It was a simple night, just a dinner at home with rose petals everywhere and fancy wine. It wasn’t much but it was perfect. It was home.

...

The wedding was gorgeous. It was on a beach, with red and white thrown around in a messy yet precise manner. Beca’s outfit consisted of a black blazer with a red lining, her bow tie was black and she had a pair of black and red heels on. Chloe had on a knee length dress, the sleeves see through with a floral pattern on them. Aubrey had agreed to be the officiant, so they were completely surrounded by all of their closest friends and family.

“Please be seated. First, I’d like to begin by welcoming everyone and thanking each and every one of you for being here on this most happy of days. It’s no accident that each of you are here today, and each of you were invited to be here because you represent someone important in the individual and collective lives of Beca Mitchell and Chloe Beale.

“I truly can’t think of a better venue than this beautiful beach for an occasion that I know is not only monumental for the wedded-couple-to-be, but for all of us who are lucky to know and love them as individuals; but even more so as a perfect pairing.

“The most remarkable moment in life is when you meet the person who makes you feel complete. The person who makes the world a beautiful and magical place. The person with whom you share a bond so special that it transcends normal relationships and becomes something so pure and so wonderful, that you can’t imagine spending another day of your life without them. For Chloe, that happened about 9 years ago when she met me and we became best friends. I made it hard on her, of course, being the aca-nazi I am- yes I heard you call me that- I’m looking at you, Amy. But about 6 years ago she met Beca, who is pretty wonderful, too. I didn’t think so in the beginning, but she has indeed grown on me. I know how deeply these two care for and love one another, and I feel privileged to be here today among all of you as a witness of their commitment to a lifetime of love for one another.

“I think I’ve had the good fortune to meet most of you here today at some point or another, but for those of you whom I haven’t met, my name is Aubrey Posen, and I went to Barden University with both of these lovely ladies here.

“Now, Beca and Chloe have asked that I keep this speech short, classy, and family-friendly, and politely asked me to leave out stories that are unflattering to either of them. So I’ve had to redline stories about previous flings...drugs or alcohol...encounters with the police...but I do feel comfortable saying, “I told you so.” Which is exactly what I said when I learned that their relationship was becoming truly serious.

“As a third-party spectator to their developing love, it was extremely clear that the two of them represent a perfect pairing because each of them complements the other so well. They balance one another, and while each of them are tremendous individuals on their own, together they are even better. And being better together, as a team, a unit, and partners in crime, is what has been many years in the making and ultimately leads us to being here today, witnessing their commitment to one another in front of those they love most.

“I wish I could tell you a single story about Beca and Chloe that summarizes their relationship and how they enrich each other’s lives, and the lives of each of us, but the truth is there isn’t one single event that is a good encapsulation of what they mean to me, to each other, and to all of us. But what I do know is that both of them care deeply and passionately for each other; they protect each other; they make each other laugh and think outside themselves; that time magically seems to both fly and slow down when they’re together. They help each other in ways that are obvious and unnoticed, but always appreciated.

“I also know that it’s not just anyone with whom you can have communication with simply a look, or remember the weirdest names of each other’s Über drivers, or surprise each other with reservations at a restaurant you’ve been eyeing for years, or say “I’m sorry” every time it’s warranted ...eventually. They do that for and with each other.

“But it’s also my personal experiences with Beca and Chloe that highlight the quality of their love. It doesn’t matter if I’m with them in person, or simply in a bizarre group text with them and the Bellas—when I’m engaging with Beca and Chloe, I am always enjoying myself. And I am certain that that’s part of what makes them so special to each of us: how happy and contented we feel when we are with them. And what I wish for them on their wedding day is that their lifetime together as a team is one of complete contentment; full of those moments that they wish would never end, and that they continue to make one another smile and laugh as they make each of us do.

“So, without further ado… Dearly beloved and honored guests, we are gathered together here to join Beca Mitchell and Chloe Beale in the union of marriage. This contract is not to be entered into lightly, but thoughtfully and seriously, and with a deep realization of its obligations and responsibilities. The brides have each prepared vows that they will read now.“

Beca took a deep breath and steadied herself. “Chloe, you were my reason back then, my reason now, my reason every day. You strengthen my weaknesses, bring focus to my dreams. You are why I am living. Without you, I’d survive, but that is all I would be capable of. I wouldn’t be me without you. Here and now I pledge my life to yours, that your dreams become my dreams. No matter where life leads me, I know that as long as you are there, that is where I am meant to be.”

Chloe was crying by the time she had to say her vows. She didn’t even try to wipe them away. “Beca, you have been my best friend, mentor, playmate, confidant, and my greatest challenge. But most importantly, you are the love of my life and you make me happier than I could ever imagine and more loved than I ever thought possible. You have made me a better person, as our love for one another is reflected in the way I live my life. So I am truly blessed to be a part of your life, which as of today becomes our life together.”

Beca had tears streaming down her face by the time Chloe finished. She was so ready for this wonderful life they would make together. Aubrey cleared her throat.

“And now... Beca Mitchell, do you take Chloe Beale to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect her, forsaking all others, and holding only unto her forevermore?“

“I do.”

“And Chloe Beale do you take Beca Mitchell to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish, and protect her, forsaking all others, and holding only unto her forevermore?“

“I do.”

“Beca and Chloe will now exchange rings as a symbol of love and commitment to each other. Rings are a precious metal; they are also made precious by you wearing them. Your wedding rings are special; they enhance who you are. They mark the beginning of your long journey together. Your wedding ring is a circle—a symbol of love never ending. It is the seal of the vows you have just taken to love each other without end. Beca, please place the ring on Chloe’s left hand and repeat after me:

“As a sign of my love, that I have chosen you above all else, with this ring, I thee wed.”

Beca repeated at all the right times, allowing herself to cry freely.

“And Chloe, please place the ring on Beca’s left hand and repeat after me:

“As a sign of my love that I have chosen you above all else, with this ring, I thee wed.“

Chloe said as she was told.

”To make your relationship work will take love. Continue to date each other. Take time to show each other that your love and marriage grows stronger with time. It will take trust to know that in your hearts, you truly want what is best for each other. It will take dedication to stay open to one another—and to learn and grow together. It will take loyalty to go forward together, without knowing exactly what the future brings. And it will take commitment to hold true to the journey you have both pledged today.

“Now by the power vested in me by the state of California, it is my honor and delight to declare you married. Go forth and live each day to the fullest. You may seal this declaration with a kiss.“

Beca pulled Chloe into a passionate kiss, blocking out all other senses other than the feeling of Mrs. Beale-Mitchell’s lips against her own. At that moment, nothing else mattered.

...

”I’m pregnant” Chloe blurted out one day while on a picnic with Beca. Beca whipped her head around to face her and met the glistening eyes of the love of her life.

”It worked?!” Beca exclaimed and pulled Chloe into a huge hug. Chloe had insisted on carrying the baby. She wanted to carry all of them. She always wanted to be a mother. Beca ran over to the edge of the cliff and took in a deep breath.

”I’m gonna be a daddy!” Beca shouted at the top of her lungs into the air. The city was below, the lights glinting off of windows of buildings. Chloe chuckled at Beca’s antics.

”You’re gonna be the best daddy ever.” Chloe told Beca confidently and she grinned.

”I can’t believe this, baby. We’re gonna have a kid. I’m so happy.” Beca peppered Chloe’s face with kisses and they stayed in each other's arms for as long as possible before they had to go back home

...

“You got this baby, just push. He’s almost here. You’re doing amazing, honey” Beca said in a gentle voice. Her wife wasn’t being so gentle on her hand, but she felt the need to soothe her. The cries of a newborn baby boy were like music to her ears.

”He looks just like you, Chloe.” Beca looked at the boy and smiled. He was just like a mini Chloe.

”What’re you gonna name him?” Sheila called from the corner of the room. She and Beca had become closer since college. She had no ill will towards her or Warren.

”Jacob Warren Beale-Mitchell,” Chloe said and looked at Beca’s father with a smile. He sputtered and smiled even wider at the name choice.

”My Jakey” Beca cooed at the baby

...

”Becs, guess what?” Chloe said one day at dinner.

”I’m pregnant” Beca’s fork stopped between her mouth and the plate.

”R-really? It worked again?” Beca asked with a smile.

”Yeah, it did. We’re gonna have another baby”

...

”Chloe, I’m gonna take Jake to work today, he wants to watch me work and meet my clients” Beca said as she grabbed an apple from the counter.

”Alright honey, be careful driving.” Chloe kissed Beca chastely before pulling away and resting her forehead against Beca’s. Beca placed her hands on Chloe’s pregnant belly and kissed it. “Bye baby girl” Beca whispered to the growing baby in her wife’s abdomen.

”I always am. I love you.”

“Love you too, babe”

"Alright kiddo, let’s blow this popsicle stand” Jacob laughed at his mother, a boisterous, carefree sound.

”Love you Jacob,” Chloe said and kissed his cheek.

”Love you too, Mom,” He said and hugged her goodbye.

...

Chloe’s life had been filled with hardships, but she also had love, companionship, and a wonderful group of ladies that were there for her always.

Chloe passed away in her sleep that evening. The last thing she saw before the world faded to black was a vivid mental image of her wife smiling back at her.

“Welcome home, Chloe.”

#pitch perfect #beca mitchell #chloe beale #aubrey posen #bechloe #beca x chloe #beca and chloe #chloe x beca #chloe and beca #bhloe #pitch perfect 2 #pitch perfect 3 #pp #pp2 #pp3 #anna kendrick #brittany snow #sad fic #fanfic #fanfiction #tragedy #archive of our own #ao3

[tiny-maus-boots]

The Howl pt 10

A/N: It is of course as always...unedited at this point. As always thankyouthankyouthankyou to my beta bestie @chloes-yellow-cup for always doing the thing with the reblogging and posting on ao3. 

A big thank you for everyone that takes the time read. A special thanks for all those that comment. You guys are nice. 

Lastly...yeah I know. I just can’t seem to end a chapter without that wtf kind of ending. sorry? kinda?

10.

“So tell me again how much of an old lady you are.”

Aubrey chuckled and raised her head from Stacie's chest to look her mate in the eye. She knew eventually they would get around to her age, especially after the look Stacie had given her earlier. She just didn't think it would be at the first quiet lull in their lovemaking. A pale shoulder rolled in a slight shrug of dismissal.

“Six hundred and thirty two by my count.”

“By your count? What, no one else knows one else knows how old you are?”

She put her head back down and brought a hand up to trace around the other woman's nipple. There was something decidedly addicting to the feel of being this close to the wolf. Skin to skin with nothing between them but the things left unsaid. A hand combed through her hair and she smiled against the warm, soft swell of Stacie's breast.

“My aunt. She's never quite gotten over having to bury her twin brother.”

The body under her stilled for a moment before Stacie brought a hand to her chin and lifted her head so they could see one another. There were a wealth of questions in those green eyes and Aubrey didn't know where to begin answering any of them. There was just so much to her past that it would take six lifetimes to tell. She let her head tip to the side so she could nuzzle the warm palm that was cupping her face so tenderly.

“When a vampire chooses another as a mate they give over a part of themselves to the bond between them. Losing one in death causes pain so great it drives the surviving mate to madness. It's why bonds to mortal beings are considered...déclassé among our kind.” Aubrey's lip curled slightly as she thought of what they would say about her newly claimed mate. “Alain, my father, was to lead our coven but when my mother died he was found unfit. Tante Amélie became the Lady of our house and he was buried with his shame like the blood traitor he is.”

Stacie's eyes widened at the last and she sighed with a shrug. The arm around her waist tightened and she was pulled in closer to the warmth of the wolf's body. A calloused hand trailed down her back and palmed her ass in a solid and oddly reassuring grip that made her melt bonelessly into the brunette. Aubrey sighed blissfully as peace and comfort lapped at the edges of her connection soothing the parts of her she never realized were hurt.

“Is that what you really think of him?” She was quiet a moment, considering her next words carefully when Stacie's low voice burred out. “You don't have to answer that. It's personal and we...just met. I would get it if you want to keep it to yourself.”

Seconds ticked by but Stacie didn't probe any further and Aubrey realized that she had nothing to gain by holding on to it. And only the shame and pain of it to lose in the telling of it all. They were so close she could count the flecks of amber in her mate's eyes and she felt the words tumble free before she had the thought to speak them.

“It's the one thing she is sure to remind me of at least once a year. My birth cursed him to the indignity of the grave.”

Stacie's eyes darkened at the echo of guilty loneliness that rebounded through their connection. A quiet rumble of unease trickled out and Aubrey shushed her with a soft kiss. Those were the burdens of a day long past and she wasn't looking to go back. Not now when she had so much life to actually live. The vampire nudged at her mate's nose with her own.

“Couldn't they do anything else besides bury him?”

She could see all the different possibilities bloom in her Stacie's eyes and she smiled sadly. There was no hospital or home for vampires afflicted by madness or disease. There was only true and final death or the casket, the latter of which she considered worse than death. To be insane and entombed, hearing the world grow and never being able to taste the life pulsing around you, only feeling unending, blinding anguish and loss...

Aubrey cut off the tide of panic that was starting to rise. She had suffered a lot under Tante Amélie's rule but that was a torture that would break her, it was better not to think on it at all. Stacie brushed a thumb over her cheek, the touch so soft and delicate it robbed her of the ability to speak. It was silly that something so simple could affect her so profoundly but the tenderness in the gesture resonated with the love Stacie felt for her.

“Is that going to happen to you too If I...you know?”

She didn't say anything and understanding slowly filled Stacie's eyes with sorrow. One day perhaps, in the future so far distant she couldn't see it clearly enough to worry about. But she didn't intend to suffer for long, Aubrey would walk right into the sun before she ever let someone stick her in a coffin.

“Is there any real reason you have to go back?”

Aubrey chuckled at that and shifted her weight so that she was raised on her hands hovering inches above Stacie. Long legs hooked around her, keeping their bodies pressed tightly together. It was hard to remember a good reason to go back when everything she cared about was right there in her arms. But like Stacie she had responsibilities, ones that were suddenly all the more important now that she had more information.

“For starters...my in-laws hate me.” She couldn't blame them, she wasn't a wolf so how could they trust her. It was the only thing she and the boyfriend were in agreement about. Aubrey barely resisted the urge to sneeze the scent of him out, her nose wrinkling with the effort of it. “And as much as it pains me to say, I live to serve my coven and the whims of The Lady.”

“The Lady sounds like a real bitch face.” It was so irreverent that it pulled a startled laugh out of the vampire. Stacie's smile was bright but the words were a quiet plea. “Stay with me.”

Please stay. Aubrey swallowed hard because if she thought too long about it she wouldn't leave Stacie's side for the rest of their lives. And she couldn't think about that because it was dangerous for both of them.

“I want to, but I can't.” Stacie's brows raised in question and she sighed. “I meant what I said. I serve the coven and right now they need me to figure out who among us is creating revenants so the culprit can be dealt with before anyone else gets hurt.”

“Is that the only thing you do for the coven?” She knew what was being asked of her. It was a fair question if uncomfortable. Aubrey lowered her body down and nuzzled Stacie's chest. “Is it because of your bite?”

She didn't want to look up so she stayed, content to be held with her ear pressed over Stacie's heart. The beat of it a steady and reassuring. Strong and constant like the wolf herself. “It's a unique gift that can be used in many ways to the advantage of the coven. A small war could keep us fed, a negotiation of borders could afford us more land, a small bite in trade for a fortune of benefits.”

Stacie stopped breathing and the vampire turned her head to chance a glance up. She was being watched carefully so she shrugged and made a vague gesture with her hand to dismiss it. Her hand was caught in a warm grip and brought to Stacie's lips for butterfly kisses across her knuckles.

“You don't bend a knee to anyone now. You're mine and my mate has no master.” It wasn't an idle wish or pretty words to soothe a broken heart. It was a promise she could feel race through their connection with burning heat. Here, with Stacie, her value had nothing to do with what her bite could earn. It was freeing and almost too good to be true. Aubrey frowned trying to find the lie or trap in it, still tentative to trust what her instincts were telling her. “Stay with me, with us.”

“She'll kill us both...”

“She'll try.”

“Stacie...”

“Please don't leave me.”

How could she say no to that? How could she pull herself away when everything inside of her craved everything that Stacie was. How could she leave the only person that had ever asked her to stay?

“Your pack is going to hate it.”

“Hm maybe. But I have no doubt the pack will come to trust and love you like I do Aubrey. In time. Probably.” They both laughed softly at that, the animosity of the pack the least of their various worries. “I'm more concerned about whatever you've been holding back since you caught that scent on Wade.”

She froze, eyes still locked with Stacie's. It was a lot and there were things she still wasn't sure of so she didn't quite know how to explain it all. Or if she should explain any of it, this was vampire business after all. But if she didn't tell, would Stacie ever really trust her? Could she blame her if she didn't?

Nothing but the feeling of quiet calm drifted between their connection, there was no ulterior motive in the statement. Stacie didn't want to use her for anything. Aubrey blinked at the realization and gave a thoughtful hum as she came to a decision. If it was the coven or the pack she only had one choice to make. Whatever business it was of the coven it now involved the pack. They deserved to know and they deserved to hear it from her. If she was going to be Stacie's, and the pack's, it was going to start now, with the truth.

“How good is your nose, Puppy?”

Stacie growled under her making her smile widely. The strong arms around her tightened and her world shifted as she was bucked and rolled. It was a position she didn't mind in the least, not with all that delicious warmth enveloping her. The wolf settled her weight, hips fitting between her legs as if she were always meant to be there.

“Call me puppy again and you're not gonna like it...”

“Oh?” Aubrey tipped her head to the side, watching green eyes bleed to that beautiful honey gold she loved so much. “And if I do? What are you going to do about it?”

It was playing with fire and she knew it but the idea that she might get burned was too alluring to pass up. Stacie's full lips curved into a grin and she nipped hard at Aubrey's shoulder. It wasn't hard enough to break the skin but the feel of those sharp teeth raking over her flesh was rough enough to bring her body up in desperate roll against the other woman.

“You're trying to distract me, Aubrey.”

“Not my fault you're easily distracted by me.”

Another rough nip to her other shoulder caused a shiver to skate down her spine. Stacie nudged the vampire's chin up with her nose and nuzzled in with all the soft tenderness her earlier bites had lacked. Aubrey was safe with her, would always be safe with her, no matter how rough or feral they may provoke each other into being.

“I don't think it's any secret here that I want you. Constantly.”

Aubrey trailed her hands up Stacie's smooth back feeling the play of muscles twitching just under the surface as the wolf ground her hips down into her. Fangs lengthened in response and she rose up to meet the slow maddening undulations. It would be so easy to get lost in all of this and it would be glorious but it wouldn't solve any of their problems.

“Of that I am quite certain. ” The vampire lifted her head and nibbled lightly along the curve of Stacie's jaw to her ear when she could whisper near silently. On the other hand...mixing a little bit of business with painful pleasure couldn't be a bad thing right? “Puppy.”

She knew what would happen, Stacie had warned her that it would, and yet she had been most unprepared for the bite that followed. Maybe because she was too busy laughing at the growl to take the warning in it seriously. And maybe a little bit because she wanted to be bitten. Teeth sunk into the flesh of her shoulder and her laugh turned into a squeal of pained pleasure, her legs tightening around Stacie's hips.

“I thought you said I wouldn't like it...”

Stacie snarled down at her with her chin smeared with Aubrey's own blood and she rose up, long tongue swiping over it teasingly. Her mate growled again, bringing them together in a hungry, dominant kiss that Aubrey gave over to with a hum of appreciation. Oh yes, she very much enjoyed pulling this side out of the wolf. Her hands fisted in the thick soft waves of Stacie's hair pulling her back as the kiss broke. Amber eyes glowed softly then faded to a cold silver that was all too familiar to the vampire. She hadn't intended that to happen but now that she was faced with the depth of their bond the last wary hesitation fell away. Her fingers traced along the strong brow and straight nose in a delicate touch. Stacie's head tipped to the side, her tongue licking out along Aubrey's lip teasingly.

The wolf nipped at her chin and collarbone before dragging her tongue along the bite she'd made. Aubrey hissed and rocked her hips up searching for more contact and pressure. Stacie bit at the shoulder again, nipping and kissing with the rumble of a growl purring her chest. It took her a few moments of getting lost in sensation before she realized that Stacie had stilled and lay with her nose pressed to Aubrey's shoulder breathing carefully.

“Why do I smell violets, Aubrey?”

The wolf raised her head and pinned her mate with a questioning look. Stacie knew she wasn't the one that killed her pack mate, of course she did, but her scent was on his body. There was a connection there and the Alpha was demanding an explanation as a leader not a mate. Whatever vampire had killed Wade hadn't just been from the coven. They had been family.

“Because it's a mark of my blood line.”

[teruthecreator]

if you're comfortable, could you say what specifically you hated about the finale? i never got into amnesty but i liked balance so i would like to know how disappointed i should be ://

okay i’m gonna explain this in-detail exactly Once bc i’m trying rlly hard to just forget about the whole epilogue and keep it moving like that shit never happened, so for anyone else who is asking me why i don’t like the finale (and im not saying you’re wrong for asking, anon, it just seems that when you vocally do not like a thing there are hundreds of people who come out of the woodworks to ask you why and i think thats kinda Huh, Weird of everyone but like whatever) i’m gonna lay it all out here on the table and you can take this as you will. 

i’m not gonna be getting into fistfights with people abt this so if you disagree please don’t try and banter with me. i am running on

also, CRITICISM OF ART DOES NOT MEAN CRITICISM OF THE ARTIST. I AM NOT CRITICIZING THE MCELROYS AS HUMAN BEINGS, BUT RATHER THEIR ARTISTIC DECISIONS IN TAZ: AMNESTY. MORE PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS A SEPARATION BETWEEN ART AND ARTIST, AND ONCE YOU (AS AN ARTIST) POST A PIECE, IT BECOMES SUBJECT TO CRITICISM. I AM NOT BRINGING GRIFFIN, JUSTIN, TRAVIS, OR CLINT’S CHARACTERS INTO QUESTION; I AM SIMPLY GIVING A CRITICISM ON THE SHOW THEY’VE CREATED AS A WORK OF ART. 

oh, this goes without saying, but i will anyway: SPOILERS FOR AMNESTY (IN GENERAL, BUT ALSO FOR EPISODE 36) 

i’m gonna start off by saying, i don’t think the whole episode was a total disaster. there are two things mainly that have ruined the whole experience for me, but for the most part i thought the like first 2 hours of this episode were a lot of fun! the fight scene was a little bogged down in the rolls imo, but it didn’t deter me too much from the overarching boss battle. the intro was a sick concept, i enjoyed the callback bits spliced in w newly scripted bits from mentioned past encounters, that was all well and good. i loved beacon in the episode, and god do i wish he stayed for the whole thing. 

my problem mainly sits with the epilogue, which is why i think the whole episode turns sour in my mind. because the epilogue is supposed to be what satiates your desire to know more, right? not to reference balance too much (bc these are two completely different stories w different premises, and for people to so readily compare them is kinda wack. that being said, they are two stories made by the same people that use an epilogue to wrap up the loose ends, so im gonna make this one comparison), but the epilogue told us, the listener, all the things we wanted to know about after the day of story of song. we got to know what they did, a little bit of their interpersonal relationships, and we even got a big group scene with the killarey wedding! 

this epilogue, though, feels like it left so much still on the table. one of those things i will swing back to later because it is the largest part of my argument, but after all of this time we still don’t know why everyone at the lodge got exiled! no one talks about it! we don’t know how dani ended up there, or jake, or barclay, or moira, or anyone! they don’t reference the banishments at all, which i think is a huge shortcoming figuring that is the core premise as to why these characters exist in our pc’s world in the first place. 

i also feel like the concept of the worlds being divided for a long time is kind of a dumb way to go about framing what they do After The Fact. like, they could have had those scenes happen without the looming concept of them being divided, especially when their big reunion scene is like 2 minutes long and basically does nothing. what would have been a cooler premise is if billy connected the worlds, and the worlds worked together in rebuilding themselves. we still could’ve had the same bits happen (for the most part), but i just think that whole separation bit kinda alienated the pc’s (especially thacker). 

but everything up to aubrey’s epilogue bit is fine. i have some problems, but it’s fine. where i started to completely abandon the work itself though is duck’s bit, and i’m gonna get into it by saying this: I know Justin Mcelroy is not legally required to make all of his characters gay, but this whole scene was just a big reminder to me that this show is done by 4 straight white men

and yeah, my big problem with this scene is the fact that justin had to make Duck/Minerva a thing. because it adds nothing to the story while also being a very skeevy concept in-general, and it reduces minerva’s character down to the Hero’s Girlfriend trope and it’s so comphet and she doesn’t deserve it. 

my first grievance with this: It adds nothing to the story. 

had justin not even mentioned the relationship part of their interaction before the scene actually took place, this scene would be like every other scene involving duck and minerva prior to this. duck says honey once, and even that could’ve been played off as duck just being affectionate to his friends (which is a thing, i call several of my friends “my love” irl and it isn’t a big deal). minerva doesn’t even use pet names, she calls duck by his full name, which is exactly how she addressed him in every other scene! duck’s speech is a genuine heart-puller, but it was completely soured by the fact that justin had to premise this entire scene by saying duck and minerva are a thing. 

my second grievance: it’s a skeevy-as-all-hell concept. 

this whole premise is nasty seven ways from sunday, and it is my biggest problem with duck’s bit as a whole. for starters, and i think more people need to mention this, minerva meets duck on the night of his 18th birthday. which means duck has literally just stopped being legally considered a minor before minerva appears before him. and honestly, i would still consider duck a minor in this case because he has literally just turned 18!!! his brain has not developed past one of a 17-year-old on the exact date of his birthday, and i argue it will not until he is at least in his twenties. keep in mind, your brain does not stop developing until you are about 25. so while in the legal sense, duck is an adult, in both the mental and emotional sense at that exact moment, duck is still a minor. AND he’s still in high school, as referenced in his response to her call to duty: “i got class tomorrow”. and minerva is old enough to have become the minister of defense for her homeworld, go through an entire war, and have several other chosen ones (including leo tarkesian, who is at least 20 years older than duck) before meeting duck. so that makes her much, much older than duck when she meets him. and i don’t care if they had barely any interaction after that first moment (though they did, as justin legit talks about when he introduces minerva as a concept to the show), that still establishes their initial interaction at a massive age difference. which, regardless of anything, makes their eventual relationship so genuinely messed up. 

sure, you can argue that when you get older age doesn’t make that much of a difference, and i would agree. my mother is 53 and her husband is 63, that’s ten years. but my mother and step mother did not meet at 8 and 18, they met at 50 and 60. the initial interaction makes all the difference between “older people meeting and having a relationship” and “a very messed up situation”. 

also, in this same argument, taking the mentor-student relationship and turning it into a romantic relationship IS SO MESSED UP!!!! GENUINELY AND HONESTLY MESSED UP!!! i feel like i don’t need to explain this because there have been so many examples already as to why this is a relationship you Should Not turn romantic, but i will anyway because it frustrates me so much that justin completely glosses over this!!! the power dynamic of a mentor-student relationship, in whatever way it is portrayed, displays a power balance that is heavily leaning to one side. there is not an equal distribution of power amongst the two because one person is teaching the other. the one person is weak to the others wills and whims because of lack of experience. think of your high school teacher or college professor; if you started a relationship with them, people would raise so many questions because you are not at equals to the teacher/professor. even if they treat you different, and even if they no longer teach you, it all has to do with the initial interaction. and minerva was still duck’s mentor up until either episode 34 or 35, when she handed off the title of Herald of the Astral Mind to duck. that means for nearly all of their interactions, there was a mentor-student dynamic. to have that turn into a romantic relationship is so sketchy and weird and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 

my third grievance: it reduces minerva’s character down to a girlfriend trope, and it’s comphet as hell 

my friend tin (@taako–waititi) phrased this so well in the big group chat im in w her, so imma just quote her on this and then go into the comphet stuff: 

“i was dming max about it and they also mentioned, quote, ‘her story was never about romance. it reduced her down to ‘competent woman becomes endgame girlfriend’ trope’ and they are so right it makes me fucking pissed. regardless of any ‘mutual respect’ and ‘emotional intimacy’ kind of thing going on that some people are arguing for, it’s something that didn’t need to happen because minerva’s character becomes that. my thing is mutual respect and emotional intimacy between two people can. exist. without it being. romantic. like. friendship is. also valid. i personally don’t think that mutual respect and emotional intimacy are two buttons that you press to make the machine churn out a romance” 

not only does it reduce minerva’s character to tropes, but it also is extremely comphet for a woman who is so heavily wlw-coded or lesbian-coded and it just angers me. you could argue that she could be bi, but if we look at canon for just its face-value, the only romantic interaction she ever has is with a man, which basically makes her straight. this isn’t like aubrey’s situation, where travis clearly states she is a bi woman who is just in a relationship with another woman in amnesty. griffin doesn’t state anything about minerva’s sexuality and then she’s paired off with a man right at the end. and you could argue that she isn’t wlw or lesbian-coded, but i am not the only one who is wlw and thinks this, so i feel like i have more of a ground to stand on in this opinion. and this just feels so, like, textbook compulsory heteronormativity it made me feel physically sick when i heard this bit in the podcast. 

so that’s my first big issue with the finale, fully explained. my second issue with the epilogue is that ned’s death continues to be disappointing and his character arc is never completed, which just tanks the whole show for me. 

i’ve talked about this several times since ep 28 about how ned’s death was stupid and did nothing for his character arc, but i’m gonna reiterate my main points for the people who find this post without knowing my whole blog:

1. ned’s main interpersonal conflicts are just brought to the surface and never fully delved into before his sudden death. ned doesn’t ever get to explain his history with boyd and why he had to steal shade tree to mama or barclay or really anyone besides vaguely to aubrey. 

2. every character is just immediately expected to feel sad about ned’s death, despite the tension that still remains right up until the very end. aubrey shouldn’t have even known that the shapeshifter framed ned because that’s all explained once she goes to sylvain, but i think travis just assumed she did because he heard the interaction between ned, mama, and barclay. so she should’ve had Way more conflicting feelings about the whole thing, but ned’s death is just angst-bait so that doesn’t happen.

3. ned’s death doesn’t make roll sense because clint rolled a mixed success and mixed successes, by definition, are supposed to be less severe moves than a failed roll (which gives the gm the ability to make a hard move). there isn’t really anything harder to do to a character than kill them, but even if you wanted to argue that if clint failed the roll the hard move would’ve been ned failing and letting dani get shot, it still doesn’t change the fact that clint rolled a mixed success when slamming into the pizza hut sign at full velocity and came out of that alive (severely injured, naturally, but still alive). 

so, yeah, there’s that. and then theres the fact that griffin doesn’t ever give us any other scenes involving ned directly. ned only becomes a reference from 28 on, which is so disappointing given ned’s importance to the other two pcs. and i understand that the mcelroys have a lot of trauma related to death, but griffin shouldn’t have killed ned off then if he did not want to talk about death in graphic detail. we all have trauma. we all want to avoid topics. but to kill ned off and then never talk about his death in great relation to the others is a genuine disservice to ned’s character. 

the day episode 28 aired was the same day i buried my grandmother. i would have loved if death wasn’t brought up, but i don’t control the podcast. the mcelroys do; they had the ability to avoid this topic in a more servicing way to the characters and they didn’t. that isn’t to say they are bad people for not doing it, but it makes the finale even more disappointing because it means we never get the full rounding out of ned’s character arc. he becomes this like brief reference that is, once again, angst-bait or emotional fuel and i feel like he didn’t deserve that. he deserved a genuine reference, a genuine moment. even a dream sequence i would have appreciated!!! 

griffin had sylvain directly point at ned in aubrey’s flashback in ep 35, and then did nothing about what that could have implicated in the finale. it sours the entire episode in a major way and disappointed me immensely. there should have been more done with that topic and there wasn’t and i will never forget how deeply it hurt me and turned me away from canon as a whole. not to be ned kin on main, but ned was the backbone of this show and the exact moment he left was the exact moment the whole thing went downhill. it turned less into a story about growth and adversary and amnesty and more into a waiting game for when this very loose end was going to get wrapped up. 

i wanted to enjoy this episode. i tried so hard, y’all. but just the thought of ned loomed over me the entire time and i was waiting for a more proper completion to his arc, and it never happened. and coupled with that very bad and skeevy duck/minerva bit i was just so frustrated and hurt last night. 

so, yeah, that’s my whole spiel. you are free to disagree with me, but keep that opinion to yourself because i’m not getting into it with anyone. i will just block you; it’s better for us both, anyway. 

#taz spoilers #taz amnesty spoilers #ignorance cloud on #im not putting this into the main tag bc i dont want people to bitch at me abt that #so if this shows up in theres its bc tumblr has a terrible algorithm

[tabarnaks]

Bravery’s Call

AU where Duck accepts his destiny at 18, except some of the ages (Aubrey’s) are weird because otherwise, it doesn’t work.

You can also read it on ao3 here.

As Tabitha drives him back home after their day at Mount Kepler, Duck knows he’s made his decision. It’s difficult for him to find the right words to tell her, but he has no other options available to him.

He has to refuse Minerva.

He can’t do it. He can’t risk his life like that. He can’t throw away every single one of his future opportunities, he can’t throw away all the potential french onion soup he’ll have in the future.

Duck decides not to tell Minerva the exact reason why. He feels stupid enough reiterating it in his thoughts, saying it out loud would be much worse.

About ten minutes before Minerva usually shows up, Tabitha pulls up in front of his house. Duck steels himself before opening the door to his girlfriend’s car. He makes sure he’s ready to tell Minerva a firm, unwavering “No”.

Finally, he starts to open his door, and Tabitha pulls him towards her. She gives him a quick kiss on the cheek, before adding, “This was super fun, honey. We should do this again soon.”

Duck swallows through the rapidly forming lump in his throat and nods. He almost wants to mention the fact that he wasn’t even with her for most of the day, but opts not to, “Yeah, we should.”

He closes the car door behind him and starts heading through his driveway. He hears the car start speeding away before he’s even at his door. Duck sighs, and hopes he’ll be able to stop himself from overthinking it. Tabitha’s just in a hurry to get home. It’s nothing to think twice about.

It takes until he’s at the door, fishing through his pockets for his keys, before he realizes the driveway is empty. He feels anxiety start to bubble up in his stomach, his mother’s supposed to be home by now. Duck shakes his head in an attempt to clear it. His mother was supposed to pick Jane up from a friend’s house today. She’s just running late.

Everything has to be normal right now. Duck’s already telling a semi-ethereal woman that he can’t fight her war for her, and he doesn’t think he can handle anything else.

As soon as he enters his home, Duck loses any hope that this is a regular evening. There’s a pot of pasta cooking on the stove,  the burner still on, boiling water overflowing and spilling out. Duck leaves his keys in the door, rushing to the stove to turn off the heat.

After he’s turned off the obvious fire hazard, Duck spots the hastily scrawled note left on the kitchen counter.

Animal attacked Jane Couldn’t get in touch Come to hospital

Duck’s heart drops. He doesn’t think even for a second before running outside, slamming his front door behind him, unaware of the keys still hanging from the lock.

He runs to the middle of the street, hoping that he might be able to still see Tabitha’s car, but of course, he’s not that lucky.

He considers his options for a second. He could always call one of the three cabs in Kepler and hope they’re close enough to bring him to the hospital in less time than it’ll take to walk there. Or, he could just book it.

There’s a weird energy coursing through him. There’s a part of it that’s adrenaline for sure, but also something else, something a lot more foreign. That energy makes him sure that he’ll be able to reach the hospital or at least Tabitha’s car which should be heading in the same direction.

A weird energy courses through him. Part of it is adrenaline and anxiety and fear for his sister’s life, but there’s also something else, something a lot more foreign and alien.

It’s that foreign feeling that makes him sure he’ll be able to reach the hospital, or at least Tabitha’s car, before a cab even arrives.

Duck decides to run for it. It feels like the fastest option, even if the energy wears off after two or three street corners.

Also, if Duck had stayed still for a second longer, he would’ve had the worst anxiety attack of his life, right in the middle of the road.

So Duck runs as fast as his legs will take him. Which, turns out, is pretty fast. The streets fly by, pure instinct guiding him through the streets of Kepler. Though he knows he should be feeling something by now, shortness of breath, cramps, whatever, there’s nothing. It feels like little more than a casual jog.

Duck almost trips in surprise when he spots Tabitha’s familiar red car at a stoplight. He slows down, knocking on the passenger side window. She jumps and a look of shock spreads across her face. Tabitha stays frozen for a second before finally leaning across the passenger seat to unlock the door.

As the door before him opens before him, familiar music starts playing, immediately followed by the voice he’s dreaded almost all day, “Duck Newton! I see you have started utilizing your abilities! How exciting!”

Duck grits his teeth and doesn’t think before turning back to Minerva, “Not now.”

He sits in the car and slams the door in the ghostly figure’s face. He shoots a look at Tabitha, whose face has shifted from flabbergasted to worried.

“Sorry,” Duck says quickly, “My little sister’s been hurt. You need to drive me to the hospital.”

Ned wonders how he managed to get himself stuck in this situation.

Housed by an old, dying woman after having broken into her home with the intent to rob her blind. His name written on her will, giving him her museum of oddities.

He does have to admit it is a comfortable situation, despite how boring it often is. As long as he knows how to convincingly peddle his bullshit, he’ll always have a roof over his head and warm meals.

Still, it’s never as simple as that. Especially right now. Especially with the way the walls of Victoria’s home seem to close in around him a little more with every minute he pushes back checking on her.

Victoria had told him last night she didn’t think she’d make it to sunrise. She’d been saying stuff like that with increasing frequency the past few weeks. This time, Ned had really believed her.

The total lack of movement, not even the sound of struggling breaths, makes Ned more and more sure of her passing as the minutes pass.

Ned’s never dreaded anything more than entering Victoria’s room right now. Even if it’s only to confirm what he already knows, it feels like an insurmountable task.

The handle to her door feels colder than it should be, a lingering effect of Death passing through. He hesitates before turning the handle and opening the door, but it has to be done.

He finally rips off the band-aid and swings the door open much faster than he means to.

Her room isn’t as dark as Ned expects it to be. Apparently, she had managed to open the curtains some time last night. The late morning sun shines through the window, illuminating every last nook and cranny.

She looks like she’s sleeping. Her eyes are closed, and her arms are draped across her stomach. She looks about as peaceful as she has ever been, at least around Ned.

He knows it’s pointless, but he tries to call out anyway, “Victoria?” he says, surprised by the shakiness of his own voice.

Predictably, there’s no reaction.

Ned sighs, passing a hand through his too long hair, and leaves the room heading the landline.

He dials the doctor’s phone number and is assured someone will pass by in the next few hours.

So Ned waits. He shuts Victoria’s door, leaving her as is. He closes the Cryptonomica for the day. It’s pointless to leave it open when he can’t put on a convincing show for the potential visitors. Instead, Ned busies himself by tidying up Victoria’s office, and finally sorting through her paperwork.

This is his place now after all. He needs to know about all the finance stuff.

The men from the local coroner’s office finally come, and Victoria leaves with them.

Before leaving, one of the two men comes to talk to him, “You’re Ned right?”

Ned nods, trying to not let his nerves get the best of him, “Yes, that would be me.”

“I’m Gregor, I’m so sorry for your loss. I just wanted to make sure you noticed the note she left on her bedside table. It’s probably for you unless she knows another Ned.”

Ned smiles, but it feels tacky on his face, “Oh, yeah, that would be for me. Thank you for the info, Gregor.”

“It’s the least I can do.” Gregor pauses, looking at his clipboard, “Are you the one who’s going to be taking care of the funeral arrangements?”

Oh, yeah. Victoria needs a funeral. That’s another thing Ned needs to worry about.

“Yes, I suppose so. I’ll contact you as soon as I can.”

The mortician nods and heads towards the door, “Alright then, I’ll hear from you soon.”

The door shuts, and for the first time in months, Ned is alone.

He watches the van drive away, a lump caught in his throat. Once it’s out of sight, he heads upstairs to Victoria’s empty room. The coroner was right. There is a note left for him on her bedside table.

Big, and very obvious. Ned has no idea how he missed it.

Ned picks it up, admiring Victoria’s neat handwriting. Ned would guess she wrote this a few weeks ago, or, at the very least, not yesterday. She’s been shaking a lot lately, and she would’ve been too weak to spend so much energy on making her handwriting so neat.

Ned opens it and sits on her bed to read it.

Ned Chicane. I’ve already told you that I’m giving you the Cryptonomica. I know that you’re going to change some things about it. Even more than you’ve already changed that is. I understand. A man with so much life ahead of him like you needs to worry about money much more than a dying old woman. Still, I just want to ask you one thing. No matter how much you change to this place, make sure it always does one thing.

Ned, please make sure to keep Kepler as curious as you can.

Duck is in the middle of an unfamiliar clearing in the forest. The moon shines above, its light filling the opening of an odd stone gate a few feet from Duck. the wind blows, rustling the leaves and chilling Duck to the bone.

A monstrous, guttural growl snaps him out of his reverie and sends Duck running away from it on pure instinct. Some kind of fiery projectile comes toward him and he ducks to avoid it. It hits the thing behind him, if Duck judges by the ensuing screech and sound of glass breaking.

Duck looks in the direction the fire came from and sees a young girl, one or two years older than Jane, staring at her own hand in wonder.

The girl opens her mouth, but as she starts to speak, her words get drowned out. The ambient noises of the forest fade with her, replaced with his little sister, growing more and more frustrated, “Duck. Duck. Duck!”

Duck’s eyes snap open, looking around at his surroundings. Bright neon lights, blue curtains, lots of machinery, he’s in the hospital room. And, more importantly, Jane is finally awake and trying to get his attention.

Duck shifts in the chair he’d fallen asleep in, getting back into a comfortable position, “Hey, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

Jane looks around the room and sits up slowly, flinching and clutching at her stomach despite her caution, “Bad. Where’s Mom?”

“She had to talk to people, insurance or something. She should be back soon.”

Jane nods, “Duck, I have somethin’ I need to tell you. But you have to promise to believe me, okay?”

Duck frowns puzzled, “What is it?”

She locks eyes with him, and Duck sees a look he’s never seen on his sister’s face before, “You gotta promise first.”

Duck doesn’t hesitate, “I promise, whatever you say, I believe you.”

Jane looks away and takes a deep breath, “I lied to mom. It wasn’t an animal, it was some kind of freak monster that attacked me.”

Duck’s heart drops straight into his stomach. Fear and apprehension lock his muscles in place. He opens his mouth to ask a question, but nothing comes out of his mouth.

Jane doesn’t notice his silence, and continues talking, “It was huge. At least twice as big as you or mom, and it looked like it was made of this weird slimy purple crystal. It had huge claws and even bigger teeth that smelled just awful, and I don’t know if it had eyes there was too much crystal. But it probably did because it seemed to be able to tell exactly where I was running and everything.”

The door to the room opens behind him, and though he’s sure Jane has more to tell him, she shuts her mouth.

“Oh, Jane,” his mother says from behind him, “You’re awake, I hope you’re not feeling too bad. Is it okay if the doctor checks on you now?”

His sister considers for a second before nodding, “Yeah, sure.”

Duck hears some rustling, and then his mother’s handing him a five dollar bill, “Hey-” she hesitates on the name, of course she does, “Honey, do you mind getting yourself something to eat? The doctor needs some privacy to check on Jane.”

Duck nods and takes the money, it’s almost time for lunch anyway.

His sister’s confession sits heavy on his conscience. He knows his sister wasn’t lying. He also knows that the thing that attacked her is one of the creatures Minerva says he’s destined to fight.

The same creatures he’d decided it was impossible for him to fight. The same creatures he’d decided were too dangerous to fight. The same creatures he’d realized would be the end of him.

One of those creatures had attacked his sister.

It feels like a slap in the face. Or some kind of fucked up wake up call.

If he doesn’t do anything, if he rejects Minerva like he’d planned to do just hours earlier, the monsters would hurt more people. If he doesn’t do anything, the monsters are sure to kill someone sooner or later.

Duck is suddenly aware of how selfish his initial decision was. He knew it was selfish, he’s not that dumb, but it didn’t feel real.

Now, with his sister in a hospital bed, he has no idea how he could live with himself if he does nothing to try and stop the creatures.

God, he feels so guilty.

Duck lets his head slowly fall towards the table he’s sitting at, exhaustion and guilt taking their toll on him.

“Minerva,” Duck whispers, hoping the few others in the cafeteria can’t hear him, “I don’t know how this all works. I don’t know if you can hear me right now, or what. But I’ll do it. I’ll be your chosen one.”

Aubrey spends way too long looking at herself in the mirror, trying to see what she can do to make herself look older. The owner of the hotel had seemed skeptical on the phone, but Aubrey had assured her that she just sounded young. She really doesn’t want to get kicked out before performing for silly reasons like being too young. She’s an entrepreneur after all.

Aubrey finally gives up, realizing that nothing she’s doing it actually helping much. She puts on her usual costume, a traditional magician’s outfit she’d modified with cool flame motifs. Then, she grabs her coat and her suitcase full of gear, heading for the door.

She’s ready to open the door before she realizes she’s forgotten her greatest ally. Aubrey drops her things, and runs to her room, almost tripping on some of the miscellaneous boxes still littering the corridor. Dr. Harris Bonkers Ph.D. is in his enclosure, as expected. She picks him up and puts him in his travel bag, before heading back to the front door.

Once she’s sure she has everything she needs, Aubrey writes a note for her dad. Just in case he comes back before she’s finished her show. Once she’s placed it somewhere so obvious he couldn’t possibly miss it, she leaves their new apartment.

Somehow, she manages not to get lost while travelling through the streets of Kepler. Soon enough, she’s in front of the large entrance leading into Amnesty Lodge, anxiety building up at the thought of the first show in her new town.

Aubrey opens the door and walks into the warm lobby. It’s much emptier than the previous places she’s performed at, but there are a few people here and there.

She heads towards the desk, trying not to let her nervousness show.  This is going to be her first show in Kepler after all. And her first show since…

Aubrey shakes her head to get rid of the thought. It’s definitely bad luck to think about that right before a show. She’s practiced a lot. She’s going to be okay.

Once in front of the reception desk, Aubrey drops her suitcase and gently puts down Dr. Harris Bonkers Ph.D. She stands up a straighter, hoping to seem at least a little taller than she is.

Seeing her walk up, the tall bearded man smiles behind the desk smiles down at her, “Welcome to Amnesty Lodge, I’m Barclay. How can I help you today?”

Aubrey gives Barclay her sweetest smile, and places her hands on the counter in a way she hopes looks professional, “Hi! I’m Aubrey, I’m here for the magic show.”

Barclay frowns, “I didn’t know we’d advertised that.” he mumbles, more to himself than to Aubrey, “Well, the performer hasn’t arrived yet. Just take a seat anywhere and she should get here soon.”

“No, no, no. You don’t understand. I am The Lady Flame. I’m here to perform.” The look on Barclay’s face stays doubtful, so Aubrey quickly opens her jacket to let him see her costume and gestures to it, “See?”

The man stays doubtful for a few more seconds before carefully switching to a more neutral face, “All right then. Let me just go get Mama, she didn’t tell me where she was planning for you to set up.” he says before walking to a back room, leaving Aubrey alone in the lobby.

She manages to wait for at least a few minutes before getting bored and lifting Dr. Harris Bonkers’ travel bag onto the counter to look at him. He looks the same way he usually does, but Aubrey can tell that he’s just as nervous as she is.

She leans in close, poking a finger through the net to pet him, “It’s gonna okay, Doctor. Everything’s gonna be okay.” she whispers to him.

After like an hour, Barclay comes back with a woman as tall as he is. “So you’re The Lady Flame, huh?” she says, moving around the counter towards Aubrey, “Can I have an actual name?”

“Um,” Aubrey hesitates, trying to come up with a fake name, but she comes up empty, “I’m Aubrey.”

The woman raises an eyebrow, “Aubrey what?”

“Aubrey Biggle.” It takes Aubrey real effort to not start laughing at her own answer. Aside from a tiny sideways smile she can’t quite conceal, she thinks she manages it pretty well.

The woman nods, “Well, I’m Mama. Follow me, I’ll show you to the spot I prepared for you.”

The woman, Mama, leads her to a spot near the fireplace where a big table, has been set up.

Aubrey is quick to get everything set up. She places all the necessary things on the table, and then releases Dr. Harris Bonkers on the table with a treat to keep him well behaved.

Once everything’s finally ready, Aubrey takes a deep breath and looks around the room. It’s not packed or anything, but there are a few people here and there. Her eyes soon shift over to Mama, who’s leaning against a wall near a door talking to someone Aubrey can’t see. Mama catches her looking and she smiles and gives her a quick thumbs up.

With such an obvious sign that it’s okay to go, Aubrey starts her show immediately.

The first few tricks go pretty well. Though when she asks for volunteers, she’s disappointed there’s no kids or even people her age.

Luckily for her, a blond guy, like twenty-five or something, wearing a cool bright pink and blue coat, volunteers for her card tricks.

Though she’s skeptical at first, since adults usually aren’t as much fun to do tricks with, she quickly warms up to him.

Finally, she gets to her first fire trick. The fire isn’t integral to it or anything, it’s just a bit of flash paper used to distract the audience, but she feels excited regardless.

The feeling builds up until she feels like she’s almost vibrating in place while doing her trick. It’s not nervousness. She would know, she’s been nervous the entire show. It feels like there’s a weird heat emanating from her heart, spreading through her, all the way to her fingertips.

Instinctively, she knows to keep it inside, to not let it flow completely out of her. But as she’s about to finally pull out the flash paper, she realizes no one’s looking at her.

In the back, Mama and Barclay are talking in hushed voices, Barclay holding car keys in his hand. That’s not a problem, Aubrey’s fine with not having all the attention on her, but everyone else is looking at them too. Even the blond guy in the cool jacket, who’d been her volunteer and had seemed to be really into it, is looking away.

Though Aubrey’s only distracted by the lack of attention on her for a second, it’s long enough for something to snap.

Suddenly, the flash paper has ignited in Aubrey’s hands and has caused a much bigger flame than it’s supposed to.

A flame that is becoming bigger and bigger faster than anything Aubrey’s ever seen. A flame Aubrey has no idea what to do about.

The fire has been enough to get attention back on Aubrey, though she really wishes it hadn’t.

There’s a second where the room is still and silent, only leaving the fire slowly spreading more and more.

Then everything starts moving very, very fast.

Aubrey grabs Dr. Harris Bonkers from the table, place him in his travel bag which she slides away to safety. Then, she grabs the extinguisher she’d left underneath the table.

As she’s doing that, she hears Mama say, “You go to Victoria’s place. I’ll take care of this.” Followed by a flurry of footsteps, many of them heading toward her.

Aubrey fumbles with the fire extinguisher for a bit, unsure of how it actually works. Before long, it’s grabbed out of hands by a much more confident Mama who turns it on easily.

The fire is put out as quickly as it had started. Aubrey’s already trying to stumble through apologies, but Mama doesn’t let her get a word it. She grabs Aubrey’s arm and drags her out of the main room to some nearby office.

“Okay, now you’re not in any trouble, but you are going to have to come clean about why you weren’t following the rules.” Mama says in a stern voice

“Rules? No, you told me fire elements were okay. It was just some faulty flash paper.” Aubrey pauses before adding, “Look, I am really super sorry, I can pay for any damage and all that-”

The older woman interrupts Aubrey, “You know that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the rules relating to Sylvain.“

"Sylvain? Is that a place in town or something? Sorry, we moved from out of state a week ago so I don’t know much about Kepler.”

“Come on now, don’t play dumb, you know what I’m talkin’ about. You know humans can’t do magic.”

“No, no no,” Aubrey laughs nervously, “It’s not, like, actual magic. They’re just tricks.” Aubrey pulls her hand out of Mama’s now loose grasp and pulls at her sleeve, “See? I have flash paper in my sleeves and that one was just a bad one.”

Mama considers her for a second, frown still etched across her features. Finally, she sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, “Oh man, you really are human, aren’t you?”

Ned decides not to take the rest of the day off, even though he knows he should

He concentrates on two things: planning the funeral and getting the legal rights to the Cryptonomica.

The first thing is pretty easy. He finds Victoria’s old phone book and calls a few people. Just enough to get the ball rolling and to make sure everything will be done in a timely fashion.

The second is a little more complicated. Sure, he’s gone by Ned Chicane for a few years by now, and he has the appropriate IDs to go with the name, but Ned Chicane is hardly a real person. Definitely not real enough to own and run a business in any case. So he makes a few other calls, this time not using the phone book.

By the time he finishes all his phone calls, he’s completely skipped lunch and it’s already well into dinnertime.

He’s halfway through cooking his dinner when a loud noise outside grabs his attention.

Shivers gather up his spine as he carefully heads towards the backdoor to check it out. He sees his car, undamaged, thank God, with a tall man he’s never seen before leaning against it, pushing it sideways towards the Cryptonomica.

Immediately, Ned opens the door and shouts, “Hey! What are you doing with my car?”

The man stares at him for a second before screaming back, “Go back inside, it isn’t safe out here!” As he shouts, the man motions toward the Cryptonomica.

Ned’s about to retort, tell him to stop messing with his car, but as he turns his head toward where the man is motioning, he honest to God feels his heart skip a beat.

A creature stands there, definitely not human, but definitely not one of the cryptids the Cryptonomica presents either. It’s huge for one, and it’s covered in odd translucent spikes, like the worst porcupine imaginable. Its mouth, which is hard to miss thanks to all its grotesque teeth, is open, letting a disgusting slime-like substance leak out. But, the worst has to be its claws. Though they’re not particularly disproportionate considering the size of the monster, they’re clawing at the walls of the Cryptonomica, definitely damaging it

The stranger continues to motion for Ned to go inside while he’s trying to find words to say. He can’t make any sense of what he’s seeing in front of him. This stuff isn’t supposed to be real, but it is. Except it can’t possibly be.

Finally, a few words come to him that leak out of his mouth without a thought, “Okay, what the fuck is going on?”

#the adventure zone #the adventure zone amnesty #duck newton #aubrey little #ned chicane #taz mama #taz barclay #taz amnesty #taz #a moi #long post

[aubrey-plaza]

will you give the people what they want and tell us the nsfw “fall in love with the burn (and run) hcs

for those who missed the fic, you can read it [on ao3]

I didn’t have a lot of these but then I really started thinking about it and:

If you think that getting the girl makes Aubrey Posen in any way immune to Stacie’s sex appeal you are totally incorrect. She requests not to get any arson cases because the sight of Stacie in full gear, or better yet with the fire jacket zipped open and hanging off her shoulders, the pants low on her hips, sauntering over to her like she knows she’s hot shit makes Aubrey completely useless and also has caused her to have to throw out more than one pair of underwear.

and Stacie? Very grateful for Aubrey’s subtle shift in career focus. She’d thought that the urge to ruin Aubrey’s always perfect bun of hair would lessen after getting to run her fingers through the silky strands but the urge only grows every time she sees Aubrey and Stacie has to tuck her hands into her pockets so as to not reach out and touch Aubrey inappropriately at work, the fantasy of a dishevelled Aubrey Posen with a gun and badge strapped to her hip crippling at times (and the just loves the promising glint of her girlfriend’s handcuffs)

Needless to say, Jade is traumatised several times:

The first time is after she comes home to a quiet house and goes into the kitchen to make a sandwich. Aubrey pops her head out from the pantry, cheeks, neck and ears bright red as she says “Hey, can you just, go upstairs for a few minutes? To your room, close your door?”

“Why?” Jade asks but Aubrey just bites down on her lips and leans out slightly more and Jade can see her bare shoulder and catches on immediately.

“Stacie’s here,” Aubrey says and Jade immediately drops the knife she’s holding, the silverware clattering loudly.

“What did you touch?” she asks urgently.

Aubrey doesn’t answer but her blush deepens.

“Aubrey!”

“I’ll make your sandwich for you.”

Jade growls but goes upstairs with a loud gagging noise.

The second time it happens, she’s standing on the front porch, rifling through her bag for her house keys when she hears a loud moan and looks up, moves along the length of the porch to follow the sounds, finds herself standing in front of the large living room windows, looking straight at the couch where Aubrey and Stacie are sprawled. 

Stacie’s sitting between Aubrey’s legs, her shirt off and her shorts unbuttoned and Aubrey’s hand down the front. Her head’s thrown back and it’s not even the sound of her moans or the sight of Aubrey’s hand moving with purpose that makes Jade want to immediately go shine a laser into her retinas, but it’s Aubrey’s totally smug and satisfied expression that really ruins her day, the pure pride she’s getting from making her girlfriend a wanton mess.

Jade bangs her fist on the window and Aubrey’s eyes snap up to look at what it is but she doesn’t pull her hand out of Stacie’s shorts.

“People can fucking see you!” Jade yells, gesturing vaguely to the street behind her.

Stacie murmurs something to Aubrey and she takes her hand off Stacie’s bra-clad boob to grab the blanket thrown over the back of the couch, spreading it over them for some privacy. Aubrey then turns to her sister with raised eyebrows.

“I hate you!” Jade yells.

“You’re home early!”

The third time the house is mercifully quiet and she makes it all the way to her bedroom without incident.

“Aubrey?” she calls out while standing in the hall, and Aubrey’s voice is clear and crisp when she speaks.

“In here.”

Jade knocks on the door despite Aubrey’s words, counts to ten before ever so slowly opening the door, poking her head around with her eyes shut tightly.

Aubrey rolls her eyes, but Jade doesn’t see it.

“Is it safe?”

“Yes,” Aubrey says in a teasing voice and Jade cracks open one eye in suspicion, the other one opening when she finds just Aubrey perched on her perfectly made bed, the only sign of anything being off the messy topknot. “Welcome home.”

Jade smiles and glances around the room with a furrowed brow.

“How was Tokyo?”

“Amazing!” Jade says, can’t contain her smile and Aubrey shifts sideways, a subtle invitation that Jade takes as she crawls onto bed to lean back against the headboard next to her sister.

Jade tells her all about work and the trip and Aubrey listens intently with a sweet smile. Jade finally finishes, asks Aubrey if they can postpone their usual Jade-is-home-from-a-long-work-trip plans so she can get dinner with a friend and Aubrey nods, a sincere “of course,” falling from her lips.

“Okay, you’re awesome,” Jade says, throwing her arms around Aubrey in a quick hug.

She climbs off the bed but instead of walking over to the door, she makes her way to Aubrey’s small walk-in closet.

“I’m taking back the green shirt you stole last month!” Jade says with a laugh.

“Jade—NO!” Aubrey yells just as the girl yanks open the door.

Stacie looks up just in time to see Jade open the door, but it’s too late to do cover up or do anything.

“FUCK!” Jade yells when she sees Stacie, stark naked save for the strap on harness, casually leaning against one of Aubrey’s shelves, phone in hand. “WHAT THE FUCK!”

She slams the door closed and squeezes her eyes shut.

“Can I die? Please? God, please take me.”

Stacie tries not to laugh as she shimmies out of the harness and hastily puts on a pair of shorts and one of Aubrey’s softer hoodies.

“Jade, I’m so sorry,” Aubrey repeats over and over again as Stacie quietly slips out of the walk-in closet. She reaches out and touches the younger woman’s shoulder and Jade recoils away from her.

“Don’t touch me,” she says with a dry heave. “I don’t know where your hands have been.”

“You hugged me just now.”

“Ohhhh god,” Jade says, eyes still firmly shut. “You know, I was perfectly okay with not knowing how you like to be fucked.”

Stacie giggles then and Jade shakes her head with a pitiful whine.

“Please God can someone kill me and put me out of my misery?” Jade mumbles as she twists and turns to leave the room, miscalculating the distance and smashing her shoulder against the doorway.

“Oh, honey, no,” Aubrey says, quickly striding over to move Jade away from danger. “Open your eyes please, we’re both fully dressed.”

“I don’t trust you anymore.”

“If it makes any difference, when we heard you come home she shoved me into the closet and told me to get dressed. She didn’t know I’d be naked,” Stacie tries to say.

“I didn’t think you were gonna go in there,” Aubrey says. “I’m sorry. We’ll be more discreet next time.”

“No,” Jade finally says, snapping open her eyes. “There will be no next time.”

“What?” Aubrey asks, the amusement in her eyes dying as she sobers up. Stacie looks near tears, knows that she can’t make Aubrey pick between her and Jade and knowing how this is going to play out and already steeling herself for the worst.

“When Stacie comes over, you will put our friendship bracelet on the doorknob so that I know she’s here. And no sex in the house within 12 hours of me coming home. Okay?”

Aubrey breathes a sigh of relief and nods.

“Deal.”

“And no kinky sex in the house.”

“So, no sex in the house, got it,” Stacie says with a wink and Aubrey’s already swatted her middle before Jade levels that impressive Posen glare on her.

“I hate you two so much,” she grumbles before stomping away. She turns back just as abruptly. “I still want my green top.”

Stacie immediately steps between her and the walk-in closet, shaking her head with a wry smile. “I’ll come bring it to you.”

Jade really doesn’t want to know what else they’re hiding, so she doesn’t ask.

Also their favourite spot to have sex is on the super comfy couch Stacie has on her back deck. Fresh air, being outside, no neighbours, practically on the water with the lingering threat of a person rowing past? Absolutely perfect.

fall in love with the burn (and run)

#firefighter au #fm #staubrey #staubrey headcanons #anonymous #anon #ask

[mskinkyafro]

Meet the Watsons (Aubrey x MC) - Part 1

Summary: After Viola & Aubrey take their relationship to the next level their moment is interrupted by unforeseen forces.

A/N: This will be a mini fic series. It takes place after the diamond scene with Aubrey in the finale and where it will end, I have know idea yet lol. The timeline is something I have yet to truly figure out in this book, but since characters kept referring how great MC was this year, I’m assuming it’s been about possibly 6-9 months max. I don’t see a full year this all happen. With that in mind, Aubrey and Viola’s relationship has been an ongoing one for a long time and I don’t know why but not exclusive just yet. (That’s where I come in with the power of fanfic on my side.) 

The focus of the series is Viola and Aubrey’s  growing relationship and her meeting his lovable yet crazy family. After Aubrey mentioned the Watson Odyssey and the fact this book is a standalone, I thought more and more of Viola meeting his family.  And to the Watson luck, how far from normal it would be lol (In my headcannon, the Watsons are just a hilarious hot mess)  After this fic is up, I will make a seperate post with the headcannons/backgrounds I’ve created for Aubrey and his family and my MC Viola.

Rating: Just to be safe this first part of the series is a 18+ NSFW fic. I wasn’t planning on writing a NSFW, however it just happened.  It’s minor smut. Mainly fondling/caressing but no actual sex. However, if your under 18 or uncomfortable with smut don’t read this fic or scroll past the beginning. If you decide to read, you’re agreeing your 18 and okay with the content.

Note: This series for the most part will be rated PG or PG-13 either due to language or innuendos, however the rating will be bolded and listed nsfw if any future parts contain explicit sexual content. So just be aware to check the rating on the parts of this fic series at all times. I will list the accurate rating according to each part. 

(Thoughts are italicized and in parentheses)

After a night full of passionate lovemaking all over Aubrey’s bachelor pad, the two settle themselves in his bed cuddling as the morning light shines through the bedroom. Viola lays her head on Aubrey’s chest with her eyes closed just listening to his heart beat in time with her own. She sighs in content as his fingers comb through her now frizzy, kinky blonde curls. It was quiet in the room except their gentle breathing and the sound of soft whispering, that only Viola could hear.

(“Just perfect...this moment is perfect.”)

She opens her eyes and is met with two bright blue eyes looking back at her.

“Hi.” she says softly.

“Hi.”

“What are you staring at?”

“Just the most beautiful woman in the world. And somehow she’s naked in my arms. I keep thinking I died and gone to heaven.” he whispers as he moves his hand from her hair to travel down to her waist.

Viola lifts her head up slowly and slides her body up so her face is inches from Aubrey’s and her breasts press down on his chest as her hands rest on the sides of his head.

“You’re working really hard for morning sex aren’t you?” she says smirking at him.

He lets his right arm that was secured around her waist under the covers to slink lower. His hand moves to grip Viola’s ass, making her grind against his growing erection. He grins up at her as she moans loud and her eyelids drift shut.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Maybe…” Viola opens her eyes and moves her her right hand from behind his head to drift down his body to between his legs to gently strokes his cock. She watches as his body stiffens and his eyes roll to the back of his head at his touch.

“...but two can play that game.” 

Viola leans down and presses a sensual long kiss on Aubrey’s lips as she continues to stroke him slowly. As she breaks away from his lips and lets her mouth trail down the nape of his neck, his thoughts ring out loud and clear.

(Oh god...we’ve barely started but I feel like I’m on fire. If this is how mornings are going to be like with her, I want to wake up next to her forever.)

Viola continues to trail down from his neck to his chest down his abs and almost past his waist when the distinct growling of stomachs fill  the room. Viola and Aubrey pause and lock eyes with each other before laughter filled the air. Aubrey is the first to speak through the fits of laughter.

“I suppose after last night we’ve both worked up an appetite.”

“That’s true, but what if I worked up an appetite for some else?” she tells him, her eyes full of desire.

(“God she just loves to tease me, doesn’t she?”)

Before he could respond, Viola’s stomach growls even louder than before.

“Okay, so maybe we should get some food then continue…”

Her hands gesture over the two of them.

“...this later.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He presses a chaste kiss to her forehead.

“Why don’t you take a shower and I’ll start on breakfast?”

“Is this another sneaky plan to see me all wet and soapy?” she says seductively as she crawls off him and out the bed toward his bathroom. 

“Viola...you’re killing me.”

She laughs and winks back at him before entering the bathroom and shutting the door. He can hear the turning of the shower head and water running as he lays in his bed, the sheets covering his bottom half , but barely concealing his erection. 

He couldn’t help the stupid grin that grew on his face. He loved how domestic they were, how right it felt. He was so distracted by his thoughts of Viola that he barely caught the sound of his cell phone chiming. He turns his head to the bedside table and unlocks his phone to see thirty text messages from his mother, ten miss calls. Half of which were from his father. Even a message from his sister Liz and his twin brothers, Forrest and Jasper. And lastly a notification from Snapchat from his niece. 

Confused by the barrel of messages from his family he quickly presses the voicemail. Listening in he hears his mother’s concern over what happened at the debate. Sighing loudly and rub his face in exasperation his phone rings loudly as the FaceTime icon pops up. He clicks and the image of an older woman with a round face, blonde wavy hair styled in a layered bob, and soft blue eyes that resembled Aubrey’s hidden behind black frames appears.

“Oh thank god! You’re alive! My baby is okay!!”

“Ma...of course I am. Why wouldn’t I? And why did you and everyone blow up my phone?”

“Oh Aubrey...you weren’t answering and I was worried!  I called your siblings to check on you and when you weren’t responding I had them come over immediately. What else was I supposed to do?! That vile man punched my baby and I have no idea if you were concussed or god forbid dead due to head trauma.”

Aubrey rolls his eyes at his mother’s overreactions and pulls the phone closer. 

“Don’t you roll your eyes at me! I’m still your mother!”

Aubrey flinches at her tone and sheepishly says.

“Sorry Ma, but you have nothing to-“

Aubrey’s was cut off by his bedroom door slamming open with two men attempting to roll on the ground and pop up into ninja stances and an older man standing in the middle swinging nunchucks moderately fast.

“Get ready to get your ass kicked, punks! Watson Style!

“What the hell?!” Aubrey exclaims. He drops his phone beside him as he pulls his bed sheets around himself tighter. And quickly grabs a pillow to cover his lap.

The two men scramble up from the ground as they speak simultaneously. 

“And backup from double trouble!”

“Aubrey! Honey what’s going on?! Should I call the police?!” his mother yells through the phone. 

The chaos of the last thirty seconds forces him to raise his voice.

“Enough!”

The three men that entered the room freezes as they look at Aubrey. His mother stays silent on the phone. He closes his eyes and punches the bridge of his nose.

“Okay…I’m going to start at the top and provide some answers hoping I’ll get some in return.” he quietly states.

The two men who were identical in every way, from the way they stand to the same expression on their face as their green eyes lit up in confusion, and how they ruffled their brown hair as they waited for Aubrey to speak. While the older man who looked like a more seasoned version of the other two with bit of belly slowly lowered his weapon. Aubrey nods and then picks up his phone and looks at his mother.

“Good. Ma I’m okay. Mr. Burdock may of decked me but I survived.”

He then looks away from the screen and fixes an annoyed gaze toward the men in the room.

“Pop, Jasper, Forest...I have two questions. How did you guys get into my apartment and Pop...why do you have a nunchuck?”

“ Well son, we have some questions before we answer yours, right boys.” his father says looking toward his older sons. 

“Right pop!” they both said at the same time.

“Ugh! You two are getting too old for the twins in sync gimmick. It’s just creepy.”

Jasper crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the dresser next to the wall as Forrest leans his arm to prop himself beside his twin.

“Oh yeah? Well you’re definitely too old to have me and Forrest come save you. We ain’t kids anymore, snobrey.” Jasper retorts.

Nodding along, Forrest speaks.

“Yep! Especially, Pop.”

“Hey, I’m not that old boys. I still got enough spring in my step.”

Frustrated by each second, Aubrey runs his hands aggressively through his hair.

“You guys didn’t answer any of my questions.”

“Aubrey, I sent your father and brother’s with your spare key to go check in on you since you weren’t answering your phone.”

He turns back his attention to his mother on his phone screen.

“Ma...that was for emergencies only! Everything is fine. I’m fine!”

“Oh really? Then why do I see bruises forming at your neck? Were you in another scuffle that wasn’t televised?” His mother asks accusingly.

“And son, why was your plates and kitchen sets tossed to the floor with broken glass?” his father adds.

Jasper leans away from the dresser and stands up straight and stares with Forrest joining in.

“Mind you, snobrey. Your shirt was found ripped and it’s pretty obvious that something…” 

He trails off as he takes a more detailed look at his baby brother. His bare chest is revealed and  flushed red, his hair skewed and the way he keeps one arm over his lap while he manages to hold his phone up. At that moment of Jasper not speaking the only sound being heard was the running of the shower.

“Is your shower on?” Forrest asks breaking the silence.

Watching Aubrey’s eyes flash with worry, it clicked for Jasper.

“Oh my god! Looks like little snobrey here wasn’t in any trouble at all. Actually he seems to have enjoyed the trouble he did get into last night.” Jasper said with a leer.

“Shut. Up.” he says through clenched teeth.

“What do you mean?” his parents asked at the same time.

Forrest eyed his twin and his baby brother before he caught on as well and broke out in a smile that rivaled a Cheshire cat.

“Well, well, well! I can’t believe it, but the evidence is right before our eyes.”

“Stop! Stop talking right now Forrest! Everyone, please get out!”

Before anyone else can speak another word, the shower turns off and shuffling is heard behind the bathroom door. Everyone turns their attention to the bathroom as they hear the door open and Viola exits with a short yellow towel that leaves little to the imagination, showing off her smooth long legs and hugs her curves. Her blonde curls clinging to her head as droplets slide down her body.

She walks out slowly with the towel wrapped securely around her figure and her eyes closed as she combs through her hair with her hand.

“Hey what was all that noise? Were you watching a movie without me? Eh, It’s not important.  I had a fabulous idea right now. Why don’t we pick up where we left off and have a repeat of last night, breakfast edition.”

Viola opens her eyes and freezes instantly. She opens her mouth to scream but nothing comes out. No one in the room made a move or sound. The tension in the room was high and shock was evident on three older men’s face while embarrassment adorn Aubrey’s and Viola’s.

In her head she can hear mixture of multiple voices.

(“Oh my god, Viola will never want to see me again after this.”)

(“Damn. Who knew Aubrey could land such a babe.”)

(“When the hell did this happen?”)

(“I managed to avoid this during all my kids teenage years yet the universe decided that I have to go through the rite of passage of catching my kid in the act eventually.”)

“Who’s that? Is that a girl? Does my baby boy have a girl in his room?!”

Jasper shaking himself from his shock saunters towards Aubrey and grabs his phone away from him and fixes it so that their mother has Viola in her view.

“Right on the nose Ma. And not just any girl. Looks like little baby Aubrey seemed to snag Northbridge’s leading anchor.”

“Umm so this is very, very...um, awkward.” Viola says as she avoids eye contact with everyone in the room.

Aubrey leans to pick up a piece of clothing from the ground beside his side of the bed and slips them on underneath the sheets and gets out of bed and walks towards Viola and pulls her close to him.

“So this is the most embarrassing thing to happen to me and I’m so sorry, Viola. But umm this is my older twin brothers Jasper and Forrest. My Pops, Richard and on my phone my Ma, Sadie. Umm meet the Watsons.”

Viola hiding herself in Aubrey’s embrace in order to shield her lightly concealed body gives them all a shy wave.

“Hello. Umm, I’m Viola Porchia. Umm, I’ve heard lovely things about you all. I never thought in a million years we’d meet like this.”

“Ohhhhh! How exciting!” his mother exclaims through the phone.

Richard collects himself and chuckles as he turns away from the young couple and heads out the bedroom.

“I’m too old for this. Son, next time you’re occupied entertaining your lady friend after getting hurt on national tv, remember to check in with your mother that you’re okay so we don’t have a repeat of today.”

“Umm, yes Pop.”

“Good. We can’t be scaring away the poor girl. You’re lucky a woman like her is even with you. Besides, from what we’ve seen in your apartment you two might be the closest hope of your mother having more grandchildren.” he says with a wink that he throws to the two.

“Oh god! Pop! Please, enough.”

“Oh Aubrey, I was young once too! How did you think you’re mother and I got all you kids.”

Jasper and Forrest are trying to hide their laughter as their father continues to tease their little brother.

“I’m begging,”

“Okay, okay. Viola it’s nice to meet you and sorry for interrupting.You two...carry on. Come on boys. Let’s leave the lovers to it.”

Jasper tosses Aubrey’s phone on the bed as himself, his twin, and father make their leave.

“Sadie, honey we’re on our way back now.”

“Okay, Richard. See you boys in a few.”

The three exit the bedroom and a distinct shutting of the main door of his apartment is heard.

Aubrey and Viola breathe out. 

Aubrey picks up his phone and faces the camera towards him.

“Okay, this has been mortifying. I’m gonna go Ma.”

“Fine, but since everyone is here, bring Viola down to dinner. I haven’t had all my children together for a meal in such a long time. And I want to meet her face to face.”

“Jeez, I don’t know Ma-”

“I won’t take no for an answer. See you two tonight at 6:30pm.” she says before disconnecting the call.

Aubrey sets his phone down and turns back around to pull Viola into a comforting hug.

“I have no words. I’m so so so sorry. I was hoping you’d meet them later on.”

“That will definitely be up there for most embarrassing moments, but it's okay. At least they didn’t walk in on us in action.”

“You always see the bright side of it all, don’t you?”

“I try.”

“You can probably tell now why I only introduced Liz and Shiloh.”

“A little but they seem very sweet. I see it runs in the Watson genes.”

He chuckles and walks backward to sit on the edge of his bed and pulls her so she’s sitting on his lap.

“Perhaps. So you don’t mind coming to dinner with me and meeting my mom? I know this is happening very fast and it’s really really weird-”

Viola cuts him off by placing a finger to his lips.

“Well at this point, I’ve met all the Watsons except for the most important one.” she says with a glowing smile.

“Oh yes, Ma is really gonna love you.”

“Really? You think so?”

“I know so. Besides I already do.”

Viola tenses after those words left his mouth and just stares at Aubrey. He looks at her and flinches slightly at what he said.

“You love me?” she asks in a small voice.

“I...umm..” he begins nervously and trails off.  Aubrey takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before opening them and gazes deep into Viola’s hazel-green eyes.

“I do. I know we haven’t official made us exclusive yet in these past months but there’s been no one else who can compare to you. No one else has turned my head but you. Viola, I’m falling in love with you.”

With her eyes glazing softly with light tears she leans and kisses him softly and firmly.

“I’m falling in love with you too.” 

“Really?”

“Really really”

In one swift movement, Aubrey cradles Viola quickly into bridal position in his arms and swings her around in joy. Her squeals of surprise and laughter fill the room before he sets her down.

“I have a question for you. Will you be my girlfriend?”

“In a heartbeat.”

Aubrey kiss her gently on the lips t a few times before she pulls away.

“One question  for you though.”

“Yes?”

“Why did your dad have nunchucks?”

Aubrey stays silent for a moment or two trying to find a way to answer that question but only one thing came to mind.

“Apparently it’s the Watson style.”

Tagged: @hellomynameisdevi  @cora-nova @jlpplays1 @rain18rain @mrsmckenziesworld 

If anyone else wants to be tagged in future fics with this pairing or for this mini series just let me know!

#aubrey x mc #aubrey watson #aubrey watson x mc #choices wishful thinking #wishful thinking fanfiction #choices wt #Aubrey Watson x Viola Porchia #n*sfw

[lets-talk-appella]

Bechloe #10 for the dialogue prompt challenge? Thanks so much and have a great day!

Hello, thank you for the prompt! Um, very sorry it’s taken me this long. I hope you have a great day as well :)

Prompt: “Come over here and make me.”

Pigtails

Summary:

"Her stomach fills with hot dread. They’re in a rural town in a state known for anti-LGBT attitudes. And they’re obviously together. Of course. She’d been stupid; at home in New York, it’s so easy to forget. At home, they can touch each other, can hold hands, can kiss in public. At home, they can be together.But not here."

Added to “PP3 Doesn’t Exist Here” series.

Tagging for side Saubrey (like, blink and you miss it).

Word Count: 4.4k

Rating: T for homophobic attitudes, homophobic slurs, and general intense situation.

AO3 and FFN

Lookingaround at the multitude of fruit, vegetable, and homemade goods vendors linedup along the aisle, in which flows a sea of strangers, Beca has never been soon edge in her life.

Louisianais hotter than she’d expected it to be in March, and the outdoor market they’reat seems more crowded than it should be for such a small town.

“Where thehell are we?” Beca mutters to Chloe, tugging on her hand to pull her closer.Even after almost a year of dating, the feeling of Chloe’s hand in hers stillmakes Beca’s body hum.

“Um, some townthat starts with a T,” Chloe replies absently, her attention more focused onthe beautiful scarves laid out for display on a table next to the walkway. “Ormaybe an F. Or L. I don’t know, ask Amy.”

Beca huffsand cranes her neck, trying to catch a glimpse of Amy, or any of the others, toask exactly why they’d detoured to an outdoor market in the middle of a parkduring what was supposed to be a beach vacation. The whole thing had beenAubrey’s idea, actually, that they all take off work for a long weekend and gettogether for some Bella bonding time; by some miracle, they’d all managed it,even Emily, who was on Spring Break.

Shefinally spots Amy and Aubrey talking to an elderly man selling apples, whileFlo and Stacie carefully examine glass sculptures a few stalls beyond them.Lilly has already disappeared into the crowd, probably in search of a weaponsvendor of some sort. The rest of the Bellas had decided to continue driving totheir hotel rather than stopping. Beca finds herself wishing she’d chosen toride in their car rather than in the van dictated by Amy.

Beca huffsagain and looks forward in time to narrowly avoid being plowed over by a tallman carrying a crate of broccoli. He turns, probably about to apologize foralmost killing her, only for the words to get caught in his throat as he does adouble-take. His eyes flick down, and Beca instinctively follows his gaze towhere her fingers are interlaced with Chloe’s.

She looksup again and the man’s already turning away, never having apologized. Becafrowns, unsure what had happened there. Before she can say anything to Chloe,though, she’s being dragged off in another direction.

“Bec, lookat the honey!” Chloe squeals, stopping in front of a table piled high with jarsof the stuff.

“Mmm, verynice,” Beca replies, more focused on the way the older woman running the standglares at them. She’s wearing a heavy frown and a cross around her neck. Hereyes are fixed on their joined hands.

“Uh, Chlo,maybe –”

“How muchfor a jar?” Chloe asks the woman, who flinches as if stung.

Chloe’shand twitches in Beca’s, but she doesn’t pull away. Beca glances at her, butshe’s just watching the woman expectantly.

The honeyseller stares at Chloe for perhaps a second too long before replying. “Just…one jar, or two?” she asks in a tight voice that seems to carry a heaviermeaning than the sentence should.

“Justone,” Chloe chirps, moving even closer to Beca and momentarily dropping herhand to loop both arms around her waist. “We’ll share.”

The woman’seyes slam shut, then flutter open a second later. “It’s raw honey, so… $7.99.” Shespeaks slowly, as if every word pains her. Her fingers play with the cross ather throat.

Understandingbarrels into Beca’s mind like a freight train. She lets her own eyes slideclosed briefly.

Herstomach fills with hot dread. They’re in a rural town in a state known foranti-LGBT attitudes. And they’re obviously together. Of course. She’d beenstupid; at home in New York, it’s so easy to forget. At home, they can toucheach other, can hold hands, can kiss in public. At home, they can be together.

But nothere.

Beca fidgetsin Chloe’s embrace, unsure how to convey that they have to be more careful –that while they’re there, they can only be “just friends,” but Chloe only holdsher tighter. For the first time ever, Chloe’s arms around her feelconstrictive.

On a whim,Beca glances at the sign taped to the front of the vendor table to checkwhether the listed price is the same as the price the woman had said. It is.

“Oh,okay,” Chloe says brightly, apparently oblivious to the woman’s demeanor. Shedoes have to reclaim her arms from around Beca to dig for her money in herpurse, and Beca takes the opportunity to shift away from her girlfriend, everyinch between them an unsurpassable wall.

Chloe paysthe woman – who is careful not to let their hands touch – and selects a jar ofhoney with a smile that the vendor doesn’t return. Before Beca can resist orpull away, Chloe’s hand finds hers again and they’re off deeper into themarket.

As theywalk, the back of Beca’s neck prickles with the stares – real or imagined, sheisn’t sure – of the people around them. Her head swivels, on the lookout forany sign of hostility. Most people around them, either going in the oppositedirection or just in their general vicinity, don’t spare them any attention.But the more Beca looks, the more she sees: a husband and wife stare openly atthem as they walk past, headed back toward the honey vendor; a man sellingcarrots and peppers scowls at their joined hands; three women waiting in linefor a sample of homemade jam watch them, eyebrows raised, and start whisperingamongst themselves as Beca and Chloe pass.

Theintense scrutiny makes Beca’s stomach roll. The edges of her vision turn fuzzy,and a weight settles on her chest, filling her lungs. She’s pretty sure thehand holding Chloe’s has started sweating.

Sheloosens her grip on Chloe’s hand. “Chloe, maybe we shouldn’t –”

Someonebumps into her, ramming into her shoulder with enough force to knock her offbalance until Chloe steadies her. She looks around wildly, but whoever did itis already gone, swallowed by the crowd at the market. There’s no way it was anaccident, not when it had been that forceful.

“Keep up, I don’t want to lose you in thecrowd,” Chloe calls back to her, her hand only tightening on Beca’s.  

Settingher jaw, Beca holds tight to Chloe; she has a wild desire to protect Chloe fromthis, to keep Chloe unaware of the simmering anger directed at their conjoinedhands. Chloe doesn’t need to know; it would only make her sad. They just needto find the others and get out.

Beca looksaround, but Amy, Aubrey, Lilly, Stacie, and Flo are nowhere to be seen. Becahopes that Aubrey and Stacie have the sense to avoid touching too much.

Maybe holdinghands isn’t enough to give them away. Maybe people just assume they’re onlyfriends trying to stay linked in such a busy area. Maybe Beca’s imagining thestares.

“Can webuy oranges?” Chloe pulls Beca aside abruptly, pointing at a stall overflowingwith the delicious-looking fruit. “They’re supposed to be good here I think.”

“Uh, yeah,sure,” Beca replies, trying to force a smile as she continues to tell herselfshe’s imagining everything.

“Awes!”Chloe beams at her, leaning in to peck her quickly on the lips before Beca canstop her.

It’s a quickkiss, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kiss, but it still sends a bolt of white-hotpanic firing down Beca’s spine.

Ordinarily,kissing Chloe is bliss. This kiss feels like a death sentence.

Beca’s eyesfly wide and she chokes out, “We can’t –”

Before shecan get another word out, Chloe’s turning and leading her (by the hand again)toward the oranges. As they walk, Beca locks eyes with an elderly woman headedin the opposite direction; she’s glaring with open hostility, brow furrowed andlip curled, and Beca instantly knows she’d seen the kiss. Beside her walks alittle girl with her hair in brown pigtails, no older than three or four, thewoman’s granddaughter maybe. She’s also staring, her mouth agape, but her eyesare focused on Chloe.

As Becawatches, the woman and child draw closer and closer, until they’re about to bypasseach other; the little girl’s arm flies out to catch at Chloe’s leg. Chloestops instantly, looking down at the little girl in confusion. Beca stares directlyinto the old woman’s angry eyes, wanting desperately to ask what her problemis, but something large seems to have lodged itself in her throat.

“S’cuseme,” the little girl says in a small voice.

“Yes?”Chloe asks, dropping Beca’s hand and kneeling to match the girl’s height.

Beca holdsher breath, knowing the girl is goingto ask about them, that she’s going to comment on their kiss and call themgross or weird or wrong or any of the far, far uglier words she knows are currentlyflying through the old woman’s mind, and –

The littlegirl reaches out a tentative hand. “Can I touch your hair?”

Chloe’sstartled laugh breaks the staring contest between Beca and the girl’sgrandmother, and both look down.

“Yeah, youcan touch my hair if it’s okay with…?” Chloe looks up to the old womanquestioningly, faltering at the open hostility still on the woman’s face. Thenlittle girl looks up, and the woman’s face shifts to a more neutral mask. Shenods once, stiffly.

The girl’ssmile turns huge and she reaches a small hand forward to gently brush throughthe ends of Chloe’s red curls. “It’s so pretty,” she says happily, reclaimingher hand after a moment.

“Thankyou,” Chloe smiles. “Your hair is pretty, too,” she says, gesturing to thegirl’s brown pigtails. It makes the girl grin shyly, hiding behind a hand.

As Chloerises from her kneel, Beca again makes eye contact with the elderly woman. Thehostility is back, unmistakable in the set of her jaw and the deep furrowbetween her brows. Absurdly, Beca almost wants to laugh at her; then, sherealizes what kind of influence the little girl will grow up with if the oldwoman truly is her grandmother, and her amusement is replaced with heavyfatigue.

Chloewaves goodbye to the little girl, Beca glares at the old woman, and theycontinue on their way. As Chloe reunites their hands and they reach the tablewith oranges, Beca searches for the other Bellas. She finally spots them whileChloe talks with the orange vendor; they’re almost halfway down the market fromthem, Stacie and Aubrey looking over an arrangement of handcrafted soaps whilethe others wait for them (Lilly is still missing). Beca’s relieved to see Stacieand Aubrey still standing without touching and that no one seems to be payingthem any extra attention, beyond the occasional wandering male eye.

“What areyou looking at?” Chloe asks, her voice suddenly closer than Beca had expected.Beca glances over to see Chloe clutching a small bag of oranges in the samehand already holding the jar of honey.

“Just theBellas,” Beca replies. “Think we should wait for them, then head out? You know,before you buy the entire market,” she manages to tease, trying to hide her owndiscomfort and keep Chloe oblivious of the surrounding hostility aimed at them.

Even asshe speaks, another middle-aged couple walking by glares at them. Beca feelsher face warm and turns, pretending to look over at the Bellas again.

“Oh,sure,” Chloe agrees easily, regaining Beca’s attention. “Let’s look at…postcards?” She points to a spinning rack of the souvenirs standing just a fewstalls down, located in a cramped-looking vendor tent for cheap trinkets andother gifts. In order to get to the postcards, they’ll have to move behind theseller’s table.

Beca nodsand follows her, weaving around people and ducking behind the selling table tofinally squeeze into the little space around the postcards. It’s even smallerthan it had looked from the main area, with cheap tables for key rings andother Louisiana-themed trinkets set up on either side of the revolving postcardrack. The position of the rack means the vendor – a middle-aged man – sits betweenthem and the main walkway of the market.

Becacatches his eye and swallows hard at the frown on his face. From where he’ssitting, he easily could have seen them kiss, and Chloe’s hand is still firmlywrapped around hers. She shifts her weight uncomfortably as Chloe sets honeyand oranges down on the ground, freeing a hand to browse through the postcards.

The mantwists his upper body in his seat to stare at them with blatant aggression.Beca pivots her own body so her back is to him, rather than the side of herface, but she can still feel the heat of his gaze searing into the back of herhead.

It’s unfair, she thinks tiredly. It’s so unfair.

Her eyesstart to prickle and burn with frustrated tears, and Beca blinks rapidly beforeChloe can see any sign of them. She can’t let anything break the bubble Chloe’screated for herself. Beca takes a deep breath through her nose as Chloe rotatesthe postcard rack.

Beca takesa moment to be grateful for that innocent obliviousness, and the sight of Chloeacting so calm and normal makes the unpleasant heat in her eyes recede.

“Hey,dykes,” a rasping, gravely male suddenly voice rings out from behind them. Becaknows instantly it’s the vendor. Her heart clenches.

Chloedoesn’t react. So, Beca doesn’t either.

“I’mtalking to you. Do you hear me? How dare you go out in front of children?” the mansneers. “Showing them your ways. Infecting them.”

At that, amuscle in Chloe’s cheek stands out, and Beca knows she’s clenching her jaw.Beca looks around, purposely avoiding making eye contact with the angry facestaring at her, searching for the Bellas. She spots them still shopping only afew stalls down, near the orange vendor, but they don’t see her and Chloe.

The manrises from his chair to stand purposely between them and the only exit; thesurrounding tables block them from movement.

Chloe’shand trembles as she replaces the postcard she’d been looking at.

“How dareyou flaunt your sin like that,” the man continues, careful to keep his volumeat a level only they can hear. “You disgusting whores.”

Beca hearsherself make a weird gasping noise. She’s never been called a whore before.

Chloe’shand shifts in her own. With a pang, Beca realizes she’s trying to pull away toput some space between them. Instead of letting go, Beca only tightens her gripon Chloe’s hand, holding her in place.

Instantly,Chloe’s eyes – wide and frightened – snap up to meet Beca’s. Cheek musclesstraining with the effort, Beca forces her face into what is hopefully areassuring smile as she runs her thumb over the back of Chloe’s hand. Theaction seems to soothe Chole marginally, her expression relaxing and eyessoftening around the edges.

In thatmoment, Beca wants nothing more than to wrap Chloe in her arms and protect herfrom this man and from the outside world, but she knows that any further signof affection will only make it worse for them.

“Hey, fire-crotch,come here,” the raspy voice drawls.

Theinstant the slur leaves the man’s mouth, Beca twists so she’s standing betweenChloe and the vendor, facing him. Their hands are still linked, Beca’s right inChloe’s left, so the action pulls Chloe close against her back.

A quiet“Bec, don’t,” is breathed into her ear, but Beca doesn’t budge, even when Chloetries to drag her aside. Her eyes dart around, first from the man to thepassing crowd; a few people seem to have heard, or at least understand thatsomething is going on, and have stopped to watch. Over their heads, Becafinally makes eye contact with Aubrey, who’s looking over at them with a frown.Her eyes flick to the man, then back to where Beca stands protectively in frontof Chloe. Her eyebrows lift and she whirls to Stacie.

Relieffloods Beca’s veins at the silent communication, but the man still has themtrapped in the corner.

“I’llpersuade you to like men,” he continues addressing Chloe, lips drawn into a pervertedsmile and hand gesturing obscenely at his crotch. “You just haven’t had onegood enough.” Chloe stiffens against Beca’s back. “You’ll like it. I can makeyou scream more than that little dyke ever does. Ginger, I’ll fu –”

“SHUT UP!”Beca roars, finding her voice. Several more people stop to stare. Beyond them,Aubrey, Stacie, Amy, and Flo push through the crowd, trying to get to them.“Just shut the fuck up and leave us alone.”

The manstraightens his posture and blinks at Beca in surprise. He recovers, though,and with a greasy smile, takes a step forward. “Well, well… come over here andmake me.”

Furycourses through Beca. Her vision blurs and she takes a step forward at the sametime Aubrey and Amy break free of the crowd and move toward the man with firein their eyes, Amy (for some reason) shouting, “I eat Krauts like you forlunch!”

Before anyof them can touch the man, though, Lilly – out of nowhere – launches herselfout from under one of the tables of cheap souvenirs in the tent and tackles himaround the knees. He goes down with a loud yell, but Beca’s moving before shecan see what happens next. She drags Chloe by the hand out of the stall, pastwhere the man and Lilly are struggling on the ground, and back into the mainaisle of the market.

“Go!”Aubrey yells at them, her eyes on the fight.

“We gotthis,” Flo assures, and Stacie and Amy nod.

Beca spinsaround, looking for an exit. For a wild second, she thinks they’re going tohave to shove their way out of the throng of people staring at them. But then,a man looking to be in his twenties moves aside to give them room.

“Get outof here,” he says, not unkindly. “And… sorry.”

Then why didn’t you help? Beca wants to snap back at him,but then Chloe’s urging her forward and they’re half-jogging through the massof people and breaking away from the market. Footsteps follow and Beca glancesover her shoulder, ready to punch someone, but it’s just Stacie making surethat no one threatening comes after them.

They move quicklythrough the park surrounding the market, seemingly without any destination inmind apart from away. As they flee,Chloe leading, all Beca can see is the man’s twisted, hateful face. Hisdisgusting words fill her ears on a loop and she wants nothing more than to goback and join the fight, to cause him as much pain as he’s caused her and Chloe.

Becadoesn’t realize she’s crying until Chloe drags her to a stop beside a parkbench far away from the market, wiping at her face with shaking hands.

“Bec,breathe, you need to calm down –”

“Didn’tyou hear what he said to you?” Beca half-shouts as she shakes off Chloe’s hands,all her fear and anger from the past hour boiling over and bursting out in awild torrent.

Stacie’sstill following them, but she stops running well before she reaches the benchto give them room. She turns, presumably looking for Aubrey and the others soshe can wave them down.

Chloenods, her eyes wide and hands still shaking, half raised as if yearning toreach out to Beca. “Yes, I did hear it, and it was – it’s horrible, I hatedevery second – but Bec, you can’t freak out at –”

“Chloe, he–” Beca has to cut herself off and turn away for a second, both hands runningthrough her hair. She takes a quick breath in an attempt to quiet her voicebefore continuing. “Those – fucking – those people would rip us apart for beinghappy. Did you see that? Did you see any of that fucking bullshit? They hateus, just because we’re happy with each other and we happen to be two girls!”

By the endof the sentence, she’s yelling again, her hands gesturing wildly through theair. In the distance, she can see Amy, Lilly, Flo, and Aubrey exiting themarket; Stacie waves at them to get their attention.

“God,Chloe!” Beca keeps going, anger rolling off of her in waves. “It’s so fuckingunfair that we can’t – that I can’t hold your hand in public without feelinglike someone’s going to attack us or something! I hate that we can’t beourselves here!”

“I know,Beca! I know!” Chloe cries back,tears forming in her own eyes. “It’s horrible! But please don’t yell.”

“Don’tyell?” Beca shouts, her voice cracking. “Don’t yell?! Do you realize if we’d wanted to – Chloe, until a few yearsago, we wouldn’t have been able to get married! Do you know how fucked up thatis? We shouldn’t have to hide what we have to be safe from those assholes!”

Aubrey,Amy, Lilly, and Flo have reached Stacie, and the five of them pace nervously,faces turning between where Beca and Chloe stand and the market.

“Yes, Beca, I do know! It’s completelyfucked up!” Chloe’s chin wobbles dangerously as a few tears fall from her eyes.The sight makes Beca’s own eyes sting again and she wipes at them angrily.

“Of courseI know! I saw it!” Chloe continues, her own voice rising in volume with everyword. “Do you think I didn’t notice the honey seller close her eyes? Or thatperson bump into you? Or all the staring? Or how that – that old crone was ready to personally slit ourthroats for that little kiss? Did you really think I didn’t see any of that?”

“I –”

“Yes,Beca,” Chloe plowed on, “we shouldn’t have to hide, and it’s not fair – but pleasejust listen to me for a second. Okay?” The volume of her voice dropped to alow, soothing tone and she took a step forward, back into Beca’s personalspace.

“Please?”Chloe whispers, slowly bringing her hands up to again wipe at the few residualtears Beca can feel on her face. “Breathe, baby, just breathe for a second.”

Beca takesa deep, shaking breath. Chloe’s stopped crying, but her cheeks are stillflushed with emotion. The careful, tender expression on her face makes somethingsettle in Beca’s chest, calming her. She feels a little ashamed for losingcontrol, but the way Chloe looks at her now tells her that it’s okay.

She nodsafter a moment, wanting Chloe to continue.

“Okay,”Chloe breathes. Her hands fall from Beca’s face to slide down her arms untilshe links their fingertips. “I know we shouldn’t have to hide, and I know it’snot fair,” she says quietly, so only Beca can hear. “But listen to me. We’relucky to even have what we have, Bec. There are… in some countries, being likeus is illegal. Not even marriage, just… being.”

A freshwave of sadness crashes over Beca, but before it can drag her down, Chloe keepsgoing.

“Listen tome, okay? There’s nothing we can do to change other people, and I – I’m sorry.I’m so sorry. But we need to focus on the good. In New York, nobody cares. Wecan be us at home. And the Bellas…”  Chloe lets out a huff that might be a laugh asshe glances toward the others, still waiting quietly. “The Bellas are so happyfor us. Bec, most people don’t care or they support us. Like – that littlegirl. Do you remember that little girl?”

Beca nodsand feels her lips lift into a small smile, already knowing where Chloe’s goingwith this.

“Thatlittle girl,” Chloe says, “saw me kiss you and – and all she cared about wasthe color of my hair. Bec, focus on her. Focus on the guy that let us leave.Focus on everyone who walked by without a second look at us. Focus on the good.”

“Yeah,”Beca sighs, her voice a little hoarse. She closes her eyes to see the shy smileof the little girl.

“Yeah,”Chloe repeats. “It’s getting better. Every day, it’s getting better. Focus onthat.”

Beca drawsa lungful of air through her nose, the last of her anger and anxiety drainingaway. After a moment, she reopens her eyes to see Chloe smiling tentatively ather. It’s her favorite sight in the entire world, and in that second, it’s theonly thing that matters.

“Okay?”Chloe asks quietly, her eyes flicking between Beca’s. “There are some peoplewaiting for us.”

“I’mokay,” Beca replies, then leans in to press her lips briefly against Chloe’s. Maybeit’s a stupid thing to do, but she needs to kiss Chloe right then.

She turns,a little unwilling at first to meet the others’ eyes, but there’s no avoidingthe sympathy in Amy’s and Flo’s expressions and the understanding in Aubrey’sand Stacie’s. Lilly, Beca is pleased to see, looks as stoic as ever and doesn’thave a single scratch on her.

“That wasa sweet tackle, Lilly,” Beca says with a grin. “Thanks for that.”

Lillyshrugs. “Satan has taught me many things,” she whispers.

“Yeah,sorry about not – we should have been there,” Amy says uncomfortably. “We heardyou yell, but…”

“We shouldhave dragged that man behind a car,” Flo insists.

“Well,”Chloe replies, standing beside Beca and smoothing a hand across her lower back,“that’s a good idea, but probably would have gotten us arrested.”

“Speakingof,” Aubrey adds, glancing around nervously, “we probably should go. I thinksomeone did call the cops.”

Becawinces. “Yeah, are you guys okay?”

Amysnorts. “It was all Lilly. She hit him – well, that guy won’t be able to havekids anytime soon.”

“He waslucky we were there to drag her off of him, actually,” Stacie says with aslightly fearful glance at Lilly, who smiles serenely.

“Oh,here’s these,” Flo steps forward suddenly, pulling the honey and oranges Chloehad left at the market out of her bag.

“Thanks,”Chloe takes them, then looks at Beca. “Ready to get out of here? The others areprobably at the hotel by now.”

Beca nods,the tension in her chest finally lifting. “So ready.”

Chloereaches to hold Beca’s hand again, and Stacie reaches for Aubrey, and togetherthey make their way back to Amy’s van, heads held high.

#bechloe #bechloe fic #my writing #tumblr prompt #side staubrey #beca mitchell #chloe beale #homophobia #homophobic slurs #Anonymous

[casualneonglitterpainterposts]

A Curse that could Kill....

Hello, ok this is the prologue of a story I’ve been working on. The story is a mixture of a bit similar to Ella Enchanted, a bit of a snow white feeling. Anyway I’m not the greatest of writers but I Hope you like the prologue....

PROLOGUE 

It was a midsummer morning, about five past three. Down in her room with her husband and fairy friend by her side, Aubrey was giving birth. Sweat dripping from her ever so pale forehead, her teeth clenched tight as she pushed harder and harder, her nails digging into Henry’s clammy palms.

“Come on my dear your’e nearly there” cried the doctor.

“I-I can’t keep pushing , I-I just”, with that Aubrey began to feel herself passing out.

“No, it’s ok honey, you can do this, just one last big push and you’ll be free to rest, come on honey”,  Henry exclaimed wrapping his other arm around his wife. Exhausted as she was, Aubrey used the last ounce of energy she had left in her body to push. She clenched her teeth oh so hard and let out a wail of pain as she pushed with everything she had.

“AAAARRGHH, AAAARRGHH, AAAARRGHH, ”

“WAA,WAA,WAA,WAA,WAA,WAA”

“AH, congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hendra it’s a girl” said the midwife as she wrapped the child in a warm fluffy blanket.

“Oh Aubrey, she’s beautiful, A-Aubrey…?” said Heidi holding her beautiful little god child.

“Honey, honey, wake up ,Aubrey come on, it’s ok you can breathe now, come on dear” cried Henry holding her clammy hand. The doctor after cleaning her and himself up walked over to Aubrey. He grabbed her clammy hand and put two fingers up against her wrist. His eyes widened and his face dropped..

“I’m sorry Mr. Hendra there’s no pulse, Aubrey is dead” He replied to Henry with his head held down in a moment of silence.

Henry held his wife in his arms, tears of agony and pain gushed down his smooth but fair skin as he mourned his beautiful wife’s death.

“Come now, midwife and Heidi, take the child and leave the room please, We’ll give you a moment Mr.Hendra” the doctor said shuffling the two women out of the room.

Heidi and the midwife were down stairs looking after the beautiful baby girl wrapped in the fluffy blanket. 

“Oh she’s a little treasure isn’t she Heidi dear?” 

“Y-Yes she is, she looks just like her mother?” Heidi replied as she cradled the child in her arms.

“Did Aubrey and Henry have a name for her?”

“They did, the two wanted to name her Costella after Aubrey’s younger sister that travelled the world”

“Well I think that Costella is a beautiful name for the baby” the midwife replied nursing the baby once again.

Mr.Hendra had finished saying his goodbyes to his beautiful wife, he then went down stairs to meet his beautiful little girl. 

He sat down on his old brown chair with his daughter in his arms, “she is everything we ever wanted, I love you my beautiful Costella” he said gently touching her soft little nose. A week went by, Aubrey’s funeral had passed, Henry was left with Costella, but he wasn’t alone. Fairy Heidi, a family friend to Mr Hendra was there to protect Costella like a fairy godmother- she wouldn’t let harm come to her.

But it was too late, one night Costella was crying all night long, screaming her little lungs out at two in the morning. Her crying could be heard down the street, it had woken up the wicked woman down the road. Her eyes were full of rage as she banged on Mr. Hendra’s front door.

“H-Hello, I-I’m sorry Costella has woken you up again” Henry replied rubbing his eyes.

“I’ve had it with that wretched daughter of yours, it’s time I taught her a lesson”, with that the old woman pulled out her wand and went over to Costella’s cradle. She looked at the baby and growled:

“ You ugly little thing, shut up, it’s time you learnt to do as your told”

Heidi was hiding on the stairwell ready to take action if needed.

The wicked woman pointed the wand to Costella’s face and then announced loudly,

“You will obey everything you are told to no matter what, and one day this could be the death of you my child, now sleep”

With that Costella was quiet and fast asleep in her crib. 

“What have you done to my daughter” Henry said with rage in his voice.

“You ungrateful ugly little man, I’ve just given you the perfect child, she’ll do anything she told and without a fuss,” the woman replied slamming the door behind her.

“Heidi, Heidi what has she done, one day someone  could get my Costella to do something wrong” Henry said slightly panicking.

Heidi came down stairs and replied: “I’m sorry I can’t reverse her spell but I can do this…” 

Heidi pulled out her wand and cast a spell, “ though you will do everything you told, one day your curse will be broken when a man truly loves you for who you are”.

“I know it’s not the most useful for our situation now, but one day it shall break her curse”

“Thank you very much Heidi for that, but for now we need to look after her and make sure she’s safe” Henry replied.

Five years had passed, Costella was now an energetic and playful five year old girl. Sadly her father had passed away from a weak heart, over the years he had a few heart episodes leading to severe damage to his heart. Heidi had promised to be a good godmother and look after Costella, making sure her obedian curse was kept a secret.

“Stella” was a bit of a handful for a five year old, you had to be very careful what you said to her, but sadly when some of the other children told her to do something stupid, she had no choice and would do it.

“Go jump in a lake or something Costella” a boy cried out.

She did what she was told, Costella ran and jumped into the lake.

“Your a freak Costella, go away” one cried as Costella came out from the lake covered in pond weed and slime.

Costella’s face drooped sadly, tears began to run down her face. 

“Come on “Stella” dear let’s clean you up” Heidi said taking her hand.

“O-Ok Heidi” she replied sniffling.

Heidi watched Costella as she grew, many kids teased her and pushed her aside because they thought she was a freak. But Heidi was pleased when one girl became friends with Costella. Lillian liked Costella for who she was, flaws and all- though she was never told about “Stella’s” curse.

Costella had grown to be a bit rebellious and a little stubborn, though she still had no control over what people told her to do.Some days she felt like she was nothing but a puppet, her curse wasn’t going to stop her from being herself. Over the winter at the age of twelve, Costella’s 

Godmother Heidi had growth terribly ill and passed away. But before she left, Heidi told her to stay safe and never tell anyone about her curse.

Costella was now an orphan living with her best friend, thank goodness her best friend was such a kind hearted girl with a very welcoming family. They made sure to do their best to raise Costella for the last few years of her childhood. 

Soon before she knew it Costella had turned thirteen, she looked even more like her mother, but with her fathers luscious brown hair. She was very pretty, but some girls at school didn’t like her natural beauty or her brains. The girls who didn’t like her were the Foxen sisters,  Harriet and Rosebud. The two didn’t like her one bit so when they saw her doing whatever she was told to do, the sisters decided to teach her a lesson. 

Walking down the hallways back from the library and out into the courtyard, Costella was greeted by the two Foxen sisters.

“Hello, miss freakshow, nice to see you again” Rosebud said snickering.

“Can you just get out of my way, thanks” she groaned out in frustration.

Harriet saw the grounds man doing some painting, a smirk grew across her face as she turned towards Costella.

“Hey Costella go get that bucket of paint and pour it on yourself”

“Oh crap”- Costella thought to herself, she knew she had no control. Costella tried pulling away but she couldn’t. The groundsman wasn’t looking when.. “SPLASH”, Costella was covered head to toe in bright orange paint.

The two sisters were cackling at her, “Ooh, Ooh my turn” Rosebud cried out.

“Costella go cover  yourself in all the food from the cafeteria and then tell the headmaster he’s a big fat ugly troll” She exclaimed.

Costella clenched her hands tight to the ladder, on which the groundsman was on, but she couldn’t stop herself. She pulled it down covering him in paint too.

In the cafeteria she went.She jumped onto tables grabbing people’s food and throwing it onto herself, students laughed at her and threw food at her shouting “hey get her, it’s Costella the freak”. Costella was covered head to toe in food, she was at breaking point. Tears began to fill her eyes as the Two Foxen sisters stood on the table shouting:

“Look everyone it’s the freak, quick runaway from her before you become a freak too”.

“Back off Harriet and Rosebud, leave Costella alone you fat ugly cows”Lillian cried out as she stood up for her friend.

“What did you just call us?” , Harriet said getting up in Lillian’s face.

Lillian stepped forward, looking into Harriet’s beady eyes and growled, “You heard me you fat ugly cow, leave Costella alone or else”.

“What is going on here?”  the headmaster shouted as he walked into the cafeteria. Costella’s eyes widened in fear as she knew she was told to call the headmaster a fat ugly troll.

“Well?”.....

“It’s all Costella’s fault sir, she’s become a bad person” Rosebud said as she began to fake cry.

“ She’s ruined the cafeteria and upset everyone” Harriet exclaimed, chiming in.

The headmaster walked over to Costella, she did her best to keep her mouth shut.

“What do you have to say for yourself miss Hendra?” the headmaster asked.

She couldn’t resist holding her mouth shut any longer, she blurted out “Sir your a fat ugly troll”.

Everyone gasped,  Lillian knew the Foxen sisters made her do this, she wasn’t happy.

Before the headmaster had a chance to speak again Costella ran away, she cried through town as she ran home. People would point and laugh at her as she passed by. When she got home, Costella grabbed a bag of stuff, before she left the house she wrote a letter to Lillian and left it on her table.

Once she was done, Costella  ran away. She vowed that she’d never return to that town again. She’d run to another town where she’d live a life alone where she couldn’t be a freak and where no one could use her curse against her ever again. Costella decided to live the rest of her days in a life of solitude. “Stella” lived on the edge of  her new town, Ramshorn in a small white washed cottage 

Though she lived alone, Costella would write to her friend Lillian, telling her about her adventures and her life. And occasionally Lillian would come visit her. No one could look after her now, all Costella had now was herself and the dreaded curse she was given from the wicked woman.

…...

#a curse that could kill... #prologue #story #my ocs #Costella Hendra #Lillian Desmarais #I hope you like it :3

[drakefanfiction]

Ex Factor Chapter 17

Aubrey’s Pov

As soon as I touched down in Toronto I had Spoons take my bags to the condo while I headed to my mom’s house with Cam. So far I haven’t told anyone about this whole thing with Ava’s miscarriage, but with everything going on I really need to talk to someone, so why not talk to the woman who knows me best. It was a silent ride through the city that I love so much, I couldn’t even fully take in the fact that I was home, because so much stuff was weighing on my conscience. I pulled into the driveway; before I could even cut the car off and get out, my mom was standing in the doorway. I couldn’t help but smile seeing her tiny frame, standing there like she was waiting for the school bus to drop me off. I got out of the driver side and went around to rear to unbuckle Cam and let him out of the car. As soon as my mom set her sights on him, her eyes lit up. She had no idea he was traveling with me.

“Is that my grandson? Get over here and give your Bubby a hug.” She spoke in nothing short of excitement. Cam ran towards my mom with open arms and she bent down to pick him up.

“Mom, he’s getting heavy I don’t want you to hurt yourself.” I told her. She keeps forgetting she’s not as young as she used to be. Cam’s almost half her height at his age already.    

Like always my mom just brushed me off. “Oh relax, I’m gonna pick up my grandson as long as there’s enough strength in these old bones to do so.” She said; kissing him all over his face.

“Bubby, are you coming to my party?” Cam asked which reminded me book those costume characters like I told Raven I would a week ago.

“Of course, I’m coming. it’s not every day you turn 4.” She said with a smile. “Now what do you want for your birthday?”

“Cookies!” Cam shouted without giving it any thought. He thinks he’s slick, I just took his pack of Oreos from him on the ride over because he was cutting up.

“Well you’re in luck. I have some in the kitchen and they’re all yours.”

“Just one mom. If he gets hyped up he’s spending the night with you.” I told her as they walked off.

“Don’t threaten us with a good time.” My mom replied back over her shoulder. She didn’t know I was serious; the moment he starts bouncing off of the walls I’m bringing him right back over here with his grandmother.

While they were in the kitchen I stayed behind in the living room looking around at all of the pictures on the wall. She’s added a few since I’ve last been here. I think the photos of my son was starting to outnumber the ones she has of me, which I’m not gonna lie I was feeling some type of way about that. I looked at the ones she had above the fire place, my baby picture was right beside Cam’s; everyone calls him my twin but I never realized it until now. Looking at these photos just reminds how much my life has changed for the better. Being a father is the best thing that ever happened to me, so this miscarriage has really been weighing heavy on my mind. Having kids with Ava was never even a thought that crossed my mind; hell. we were nowhere near ready for that, but I would’ve accepted and loved my son or daughter nonetheless. I guess we’ll never know.

“So, what’s with the face?” I turned around and saw my mom standing there watching me with this look on her face that said, she’s about to dig into my business and I have no choice in the matter. She walked over to the couch taking a seat and patted the empty space beside her. “Come on Aubrey, I can tell when something is going on with you. Did you and Raven get into another argument?” She asked. Raven was the only woman that could make me go running to my mom, but in this case she wasn’t the cause.

“Actually, things with me and Raven are better than ever. We’re in a good space and I want to keep it that way.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“Do you remember Ava, the girl I introduced you to back in September?”

She thought about it for a moment and shrugged her shoulders. “Vaguely, Aubrey you know I can’t keep up with you and the women that come in and out of your life. I’m too old and too tired.”

“Well, she just told me that she was pregnant with my child and had a miscarriage.” The moment those words left my lips, my mom’s face went completely ghost. Her jaw dropped, I could tell she was thrown all the way off, because I just had the same reaction only hours ago.  

“Oh my god.” Was all she said. We just sat there in silence as I waited for her to gather her next words. “Wow, Aubrey, I don’t even know what to say. Baby that’s terrible news. That poor girl must be going through it; how far along was she?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to meet up with her later, so we can talk. I just feel bad because had I known she was pregnant…”

“You wouldn’t have tried to fix your relationship with Raven.” She finished for me, and I’m not gonna lie, the thought did cross my mind for a brief moment. My mom grabbed my chin, turning my face to look her in the eyes. “Aubrey listen to me; now I’ve sat back and watched you toy with girl after girl for years now, and I’ve never said anything. You were young and having your fun, and had too much of your father in you I guess, but the time for games is over. You’re getting older, and you have a son idolizing your every move. It’s time for you to be a man, make a choice and stick by that choice. You can’t keep bouncing from bed to bed. It’s not right for you to keep stringing women along; especially the mother of your child. Your father did it to me, and I’ll be damned if I watch you do it to someone else.” She snapped on me out of nowhere. I couldn’t help but to see the hurt and disappointment in her eyes. My dad was still a sensitive subject to her. To even think that she sees the two of us in the same light makes me feel like I let her down somehow.

“Mom, you know I love Raven and all I ever wanted was a second a chance and she's finally ready to give me that; I’m not going to jeopardize it. I just wish I had handled this situation with Ava better, that’s all. I’m not out here making the same mistakes as my father.” I assured her. Going down my dad’s path wasn’t an option. I could never disappoint Cam the way my dad disappointed me.

“That’s good to know; Raven’s a good woman and a great mother so don’t screw that up any further than what it already is.” She said, giving my cheek what was supposed to be light slap, but still stung a little. “So… does Raven know about the miscarriage?” She added, waiting patiently for my response. I lifted my head to look at her and my expression must’ve said it all because one look in my eyes had her shaking her head. “Aubrey, don’t start with the secrets again.”

“Look mom, I’ll talk to her about it after I sit down with Ava. I don’t even know if she would want Raven knowing about this.”

“I can understand that, but Raven’s legally your wife now whether the two of you want to acknowledge it or not. If you really want to start your relationship with Raven with a clean slate, then you have to be honest with her. What if the shoe was on the other foot and Raven was pregnant with another guy’s child? Even if she didn’t have the baby you would still want to know.” I thought about what she was saying, and my mom did have valid a point. I’d be pissed if found out that Raven was pregnant by another man and on top of that, didn’t tell me about it. “You don’t have to take my advice son, but just think about it.”

The sound of my phone going off interrupted our conversation. I reached in the pocket of my jeans, pulling out to see Raven’s name across the screen for a facetime. I instantly got the cheesiest grin because I already knew what this call was about.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answered. “How’s your day so--”

“Is that Raven? Hi honey, how’ve you been?” My mom cut into the phone call, shouting in my ear, making it ring a little. I could tell my mom wanted to be a part of my private conversation, so I handed her the phone so she’d stop leaning over my shoulder.

“Hi mom! I’m hanging in there, works been keeping me busy.” Raven’s cheery voice responded.

“And keeping you away. It’s been too long sweetie, I want to see you soon.”

“You will, I promise.”

“Alright honey, I’ll let you and Aubrey talk before he throws a fit.” She said before getting up to check on Cam, who’s been super quiet in the kitchen this entire time.

As soon as my phone was out of ear shot, I got back to the call. “So, are you finished having a conversation with my mom?”

“Yes I am, now back to you. My dressing room is currently being filled with dozens upon dozens of roses; you wouldn’t happen to know who’s responsible for that, would you?” She asked knowingly.

“If I had to guess, I would say you have a secret admirer.” The fact that I could see all of the flowers cluttering the background of her room made me grin. I did that to make a statement while she’s off working with what’s his face. Just in case he forgets who she belongs to.

“You think you’re so smooth, don’t you?” Raven rolled her eyes trying to hide the smile on her face.

“The smoothest, but I thought you knew that by now.”

“No, but really, thank you for the flowers baby, I love them.”

“Baby? I see we’ve eased back into the pet name stage; you must miss me.”

“Maybe just a little bit, I just wish that I didn’t have to be in New York, I hate that I’m gonna miss the pre-opening.”

“You’re just disappointed because you’re missing out on the free food.”

“You know me so well.” She emailed, but then turned her head when someone called her name in the background. “They’re calling me on set, I have to go. Kiss my baby for me.”

“What about me?” Raven blew me a kiss and then hung up the FaceTime.Everything just feels right whenever I’m with her, or even when we’re just talking. It was starting to feel like when we first met, before all of the bullshit got between us.

------

After tying up a few loose ends for tomorrow’s opening, I took my mom and Cam out to dinner so she wouldn’t feel like she’s obligated to cook a big ass dinner for my first night back in town. The look on my mom’s face whenever she’s around Cam is worth more than any extravagant gift I could ever buy her. I think my greatest accomplishment to her, was giving her a grandson. Every now and then I feel a little guilty for being so far away from her most of the time. I’ve been thinking about moving back to Toronto, but that complicates things with Raven and Cam back in LA, and I’m not about to live 3000 miles away from my son. I’m just trying to make it my priority to visit her as often as possible. I couldn’t get Cam to leave her side. After we went out to eat, he didn’t even want to go back to the condo with me. Knowing all the junk my mom had line up at her house, going home with me wasn’t even in the question. He straight up told me he was spending the night with his grandmom. I didn’t have a problem with that; I was gonna end up asking my mom to watch him tonight anyway so that I could stop by Ava’s place and figure out what’s been going on with her lately.

Ava spent the entire day ignoring my phone calls; knowing exactly what I was calling her about. She knew I was going to be in Toronto so we could talk face to face, but now she's playing phone games. I chilled at my mom's house, waiting patiently for Ava to call me back or respond to my text. After about 20 minutes with no response, I checked my phone to see if I missed a text notification from her and saw that her ass read the message and chose not to reply back. Now she was getting on my nerves. I got up and grabbed my keys, intent on driving over to her apartment. She's not gonna just tell me she lost our child and go ghost on me.

After a 20 minute drive, I found myself at Ava's door. I knocked three times and waited; no answer. Her car was parked across the street so I know she's home. As I raised my hand to bang on the door, it opened. Ava stood there with her hand on her hips wearing a Maple Leafs jersey and a frown.        

“I’m surprised you showed, I thought you'd be busy playing house with your baby mama... or is it wifey now?” She spoke as soon as she laid eye on me; no hello's at all. I knew what type of conversation this was about to be.

“Raven's not here with me. Do you plan on letting me in?” I asked while still standing in the hallway, hoping one of her neighbors wouldn't come out.

Ava stepped to the side, allowing me to enter. I looked around the place and it was a lot different from the last time i'd been here. It was pristine before, nothing out of place, not a spec in sight, but now there was pizza boxes and chinese takeout scattered in the living room. It was dark inside due to the curtains being pulled shut, not letting an inch of light in. I went over to the window, tripping on a shoe on my way over and let some sun in. Hearing a groan from behind me, I turned around to see Ava with her hand over her eyes.

“Why are you here bothering me? Shouldn't you be somewhere annoying Raven, or is there trouble in paradise already?” She asked as she flopped down on the sofa with a satisfied smirk on her face.

“You know why I'm  here and it's not to talk about Raven.” I shot back, and the grin disappeared from her face.

“Aubrey, please tell me you didn't say anything about the miscarriage? I don't want her knowing my business.” She questioned, making me upset at how she was talking about everything but the situation at hand.

“She doesn't know about it, but I would be nice if I could get some details, like when did you find out you were pregnant in the first place, and why didn't you even tell me--"

“Aubrey, there was no miscarriage" I paused at Ava's words, looking at her sideways. Was she serious right now? "Listen, I was upset and I lied about it because I knew it would get you here.”

I was shocked. I couldn't do anything but stare at her in disbelief because this wasn't the girl I met on tour. “Are you fucking serious Ava, where did these games come from with you? Who lies about being pregnant and having a miscarriage?" I asked, waiting for a better explanation to justify her going that far, but she didn't say anything. Ava just got up from the couch and disappeared into one of the back rooms. Just as I was about to follow after her, she came out holding a white stick that she handed to me. "What is this?"

"That is a pregnancy test. I took it the night I got back to Toronto." My eyes stared down at the plus sign, feeling like a bucket of cold water had been thrown on me. Just like that, whatever relief I had in regard to this situation had washed away. "Aubrey, I never lied about being pregnant. I told you I had a miscarriage because I came very close to aborting our baby."

“Pregnant...” was on repeat in my head over and over while looking at that positive sign on the test. "Is it mine?" The words left my thoughts quicker than I intended and if looks could kill I'd be a dead man.

“Don't fucking insult me like that. You're the cheater in this relationship, not me." Ava snapped back, poking me in my chest. Clearly I hit a nerve. She tried walking away from me, so I grabbed her by the arm to stop her.

“Ava, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out like that." I sincerely apologized. Even though I was confused, not knowing what to think or feel right now, she was right about one thing; I was the only unfaithful one during our time together. "How far along are you?" I asked, trying to soften her up and break the ice wall she'd now built.

There was nothing but silence. She barely made eye contact with me before mumbling out, “8 weeks?”

“Are you still thinking about getting an abortion?” Her head snapped in my direction when I asked that question.

“What do you think? You looked me in my eyes and promised me that I wasn’t a rebound. You told me that it was me you wanted to be with and that you would never touch her again and it was all lies. You never cared about me!” She cried, and if it was possible I felt even more like a shitty guy than I did before. It was never my intention to hurt her like this.

“That’s not true Ava, I did care about you; I still do. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. Just tell me what you need from me. What do you want me to do?” I asked, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Ava was always so strong and confident, seeing her breakdown like this really had me feeling guilty knowing that my actions are the cause. She leaned in to kiss me, but I leaned back, placing my hands on her shoulders to stop her. “That, I can’t do.”

Her eyes, still fresh with tears widened from rejection. “You asked me what I need, and that’s you. Aubrey I really need you here with me right now.” Ava spoke in a cracked soft voice that made me want to fix everything and hold her, but I couldn't lead her on or have her get the wrong idea.

“I’m here, but not in that way. I'm going to be there every step of the way for you and the baby, but we can't be together... I'm sorry.” I spoke truthfully, leaving no blurred lines. Her touch slowly faded away and I could feel the energy in the room shift. She wouldn't look me in the eyes, but I could tell the tears started again. Ava went back over to the couch to sit down, and I followed taking a seat beside her. “Listen, I don't want you hating me, especially since we're going to be raising a child together. I’m having a celebration for my restaurant opening tomorrow, and I really want you to come.”

She shook her head no, not even giving it a thought. “I’m really not up for that Aubrey.”

“You need to get out of the house, it’s just one night... please.” I didn't feel right leaving Ava all alone in this apartment in her current state. A part of me wanted to do something to cheer her up and keep an eye on her at the same time.

She huffed under her breath, shaking her head from side to side. “I don’t know Aubrey, I don't have anything to wear.” She argued back, but this time sounding a little less reluctant.  

I turned her chin to face me, “You let me handle that, just be ready tomorrow night by 8:00 PM. I’ll have a car pick you up.” I got up from the couch, pulling Ava up with me and into a hug before leaving.

When I got in my car reality set in. I was going to have another kid, but not with Raven. I don’t know how I’m going to break this to her. When we agreed to start over, we also agreed on cutting our ex’s off. How am I supposed to do that when Ava is carrying my child? Hell, how am I even going to expect Raven to stick around after she finds out. I know one thing is certain, I need to tell her as soon as I get back to LA before the word gets out and she hears it from someone else.

------

Raven’s Pov

It was 4:00 AM when I was rushed out of my bed by Alex so I could get on set and into hair and makeup. I was already exhausted from the 16 hours of filming we did yesterday, and with only 4 hours of sleep I was now needed to get back in character. After I showered and threw on a pair of sweatpants, a t-shirt and my sneakers to meet Alex who was waiting at the hotel room door looking half sleep himself holding two Starbucks cups in hand. I grabbed my java chip frapp, and we both headed out the door.

We were met in the hall by the security guard that MGM hired to escort me around the city safely. I usually don’t like having security guards because I don’t like the idea of strangers following me around, but with this guy, he’s so quiet and stealthy, I barely know he’s there. He led Alex and I down the elevator and through the kitchen where we made our exit to the black Tahoe that was waiting outside in the alley. The security guard opened the rear passenger door for me and as soon as he did I came face to face with Ari getting almost an instant headache. He just grinned and patted the empty seat beside him. I rolled my eyes as I climbed in, knowing I was in for a long ride ahead of me.  

“I knew this was going to happen. What did I tell you? I told you not to breakup with him in the first place or at least wait until after the movie wrapped. That’s bad business.” Ari’s lecture started in Center City and continued on half way through to Delaware County.

I just rested my head against the window trying to tune him out. It’s way too early in the morning for this, but I knew what I was in for the moment I laid eyes on him, especially after what happened on set yesterday. The tension was so thick between Michael and I yesterday that it could be felt by the entire crew. On top of that, he wouldn’t speak one word to me and his attitude and my frustration began to show in our performances which caused the director to chew both of our heads off. I knew it was a matter of time before I heard from Ari, but what I wasn’t expecting was for him to get on the turnpike and drive to Philly to yell at me.  

“Are you even listening to me Raven?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I forgot my headphones back at the hotel.” I responded causing Alex to chuckle from the front seat. I glanced up at him with a smile of my own.

“I’m glad you two think this is funny.” Ari replied, with not one hint of playfulness in his voice I finally sat up, turning in my seat to hear him out. “Raven, Michael is a leading man in this business, you're now a leading lady and there's nothing like a power couple; take and Will and Jada for example, they're Hollywood gold. These exec’s love shit like that. The studio was banking on using your relationship to promote the movie.”

“You know I don’t do publicity stunts, that’s not even my style, besides my personal life has nothing to do with my professional.”

“Everything has to do with the professional, and I need you to get that through your head. Your life is on display for public consumption so we have to keep it in order, and the moves you’ve been making lately isn’t good for you. I don’t think that now is a good time to reconcile with Drake, and honestly speaking, you can do better than-”

“Can we not make this about Aubrey? I get it, you don’t like him, but at the end of the day, it’s still my life.” He finally put his hands up, backing off of the subject. “Now, I’ll talk to Michael so we can try and get through this last day of filming without any drama.”

After my talk with Ari, I knew that I had to bite the bullet and make things right with Michael. I sat in my trailer deep in thought while my hair stylist went on and on about drama within the hair and makeup department. Normally her entertaining gossip would be the highlight of my morning, but I couldn’t get past how I was going to fix the mess I’ve made because we certainly couldn’t have another day like yesterday. I stared blankly into the mirror as my braids were being touched up knowing this wasn’t going easy. The last time Michael and I had a conversation, to say it ended badly would be an understatement. He was deep in his feelings and had every right to be. There was a tap on the door, shaking me from my thoughts. I told whoever it was to enter and the door cracked opened revealing one of the PA’s.

“Ryan needs her in wardrobe in 10.” He spoke to the hairstylist letting her know to wrap up the gossip so I can get into my outfit for the first scene.

I smiled at her dramatic eye roll knowing full well she was going to keep running her mouth, and that she did. I eventually made it out of hair and changed over into my clothes that the wardrobe stylist laid out for me. Once my look was completed I tried to focus on putting myself in the mindset of Bianca, which was somewhat difficult when I was having trouble dealing with being Raven.

As I waited for the crew to finish setting up, I made my way over to the craft service table to grab a bite to eat. There was some mini breakfast quiche that the chef made every morning and I swear I could eat these things all day. I stacked a few on my plate along with some fruit with plans to head back to my trailer and run lines with Alex, but I noticed that the butter cake was just set out. This was like Michael’s favorite thing in the world! I remember when we first started filming and the crew devoured the cake before he could get any, he had a pout on his face that whole day. I thought he was just joking, but he went straight to the caterer after we wrapped and requested that whenever there was butter cake, a piece be set aside for him. Thinking back on that, I asked one of the PA’s to take my food to my trailer as I took the cake to his, hoping for it to be a peace offering.  

Walking pass the bustling crew on set, I made it to his trailer which was right next mine and knocked twice on the door. I waited a few seconds and just as I was about to knock again I heard his faint voice telling me to come in. I opened the door and stepped inside, just as he was stepping out of the bathroom shirtless in just his Creed shorts. He paused in his tracks for a second looking confused as to why I was standing in his room, but that soon faded when he shook his head and brushed right passed me to go sit on the couch in front of the TV to watch

whatever was on the screen, with the purpose to ignore me.          

“Good morning…” I said as I walked closer to him, of course there was no response. “Craft just set some cake out and it’s still hot. I grabbed a slice for you before the sound crew attacked it.” I held the small plate out to him, but he just left my hand dangling in the air. I set the plate down on the table and stepped in front of him blocking his view. “So is this how it’s going to be, you not talking to me for the rest of the shoot?”

“This is the last day of filming, I think I can manage.” He placed his hand on my hip moving me to the side.

“Michael there’s clearly tension between us and I rather we talk about it, than be chastised by Ryan again.”

“Raven what do you want me to say that hasn’t already been said?”

“Everything!” I shouted and snatched the remote from him to turn the tv off. “Tell me how you feel, get mad, yell at me, anything but this cold unbothered attitude that you have. Even though we’re not together, I still want us to be on good terms.”

Michael jumped up from the couch, his face showing every bit of angry emotion I was asking for, that I suddenly began to regret. “No, what you want is for me to tell you that everything is okay, that we can still be friends even though you cheated on me and lied to me. You want me to ease your conscience and that’s not gonna happen. So unless it has something to do with this movie, you and I don’t have a damn thing to talk about.” He shouted in a tone that I’m sure echoed outside of this room.

His nostrils flared as chest heaved up and down and those brown eyes of his that were locked on me were on fire, but through it all I could see the hurt that he was trying to shield from me. My eyes began to water standing there in the midst of this whole mess that I created. Michael let out a frustrated groan and stormed back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. I did the same as I exited his trailer only to be met by several staring eyes.

The remainder of the day went on in pure agony, but I’ll tell you one thing; Michael is one hell of an actor because as soon as action was yelled he got right into character and had me feeling like we didn’t just have a blow up. When that final cut was shouted, it was officially a wrap on Creed. Everyone was all smiles, hugging and taking photos but I noticed that Michael just walked off, back to the seclusion of his trailer.

After wrapping things up, I made my way back to my own trailer; I wasn’t much in the celebrating mood either. I was greeted by Alex with a bouquet of roses, which I had more than enough of thanks to Aubrey.

“Congratulations, now we can get back to the sunshine!” Alex beamed. He was over this unpredictable east coast weather. “The driver is waiting to take you back to the hotel so you can get ready for the wrap party.”

The studio put together a party at a bowling alley for the cast and crew but I wasn’t in the mood to put on fake smiles. “I’m not going. I don’t feel like dealing with cameras tonight.” I said as I gathered my belongings from the vanity and stuffed them in my tote.

“Don’t feel like dealing with the cameras, or don’t feel like dealing with Michael?” Alex replied in his usual snarky manner, but this time it got got on my last nerve.

“Alex, I’m really not in the mood for your comments today, so keep it to yourself.”

Alex clutched his invisible pearls, leaning back in his chair. “Sheesh, I’m sorry, don’t bite my head off.” He replied, and didn’t say another word about Michael.

I headed back to the hotel while Alex went on to the party which was fine by me; I could go without his jokes for a few hours. It was late; around 11PM and I wanted to talk to my baby so bad, but I knew he was sleeping, so instead I took a nice hot shower and snuggled into my fuzzy white robe. I plopped down on the king sized bed in my suite and flipped through the tv channels, landing on Family Guy. When the commercial break came I decided to call room service and order up one last free meal on the studio since I was checking out in the morning.

I was in the middle of laughing at Stewie beat up Brian when I heard knocking at my door. “Just a second.” I said as I grabbed my wallet from the nightstand to tip for the room service, and rushed to the door. I opened it, only to be surprised by Michael standing there with his hands stuffed in the pocket of his jean. “Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked as I looked around the hall making sure no one was out there to see him. I didn’t need a story on the blogs in the morning.

“You wanted to talk, so I’m here. Let’s talk.” Michael stated firmly as he invited himself in.

Now staring at an empty hallway, I closed the door and followed him into the living room of the suite. “Michael, it’s late. Can we do this another time--”

“I just need to ask you a question, and you have to answer it, honestly.” Michael blurted out, catching me off guard. If it was going to help ease the tension between us and stop him from hating me, I was more than open to answering his question.

“Okay, what do you want to know?” I took a deep breath, waiting for whatever he was about to hit me with.

“I need to know was it real, what you and I had, or was I just something to keep you busy?” He asked sincerely, and effectively making me feel even crappier than I did before.  

“Michael I wouldn’t have introduced you to my son if I didn’t think what we had was something real. Any woman in her right mind would jump at the chance to be with you.” I tried to assure him, but he just shook my words off.

“If that’s the case then what is your problem? Was it something I did? Something I didn’t do? I need to know.” His brown eyes pleaded with mine for answers that I couldn't really give without hurting him even further. “Are you pushing me away because you los-”

“No.” I cut him off immediately. “It’s none of that. You were perfect. You are perfect. It’s just that… I don’t know. Everything with us just happened so fast. I do care about you, but the way my relationship with Aubrey ended I always felt like we left things unfinished and I never actually tried giving this whole family thing a chance.”

“So you’re saying you’re only going back to him because of your son?” He questioned, and it sounded too much like a statement for my liking.

“That’s not what I said.”

“Well, that’s what it sounds like.”

“Well it’s not.” I argued back sounding more like a child than I'd like to admit.

Michael cracked a smirk, stepping closer to me. “That's too bad I don’t believe you.” He said as his body language switched up on me. “Look, I don’t know what kind of history you and Drake have, but I do know that for you to walk away the first time, he had to do something stupid to hurt you; something that I would never imagine doing as long as you’re mine. I know that when we were together I can’t think of one moment you went without a smile; except for when I made love to you.” The gentle, yet smooth tone of his voice mixed with extremely close proximity and cologne sent tingles through my body, in areas that it shouldn't have. I tried looking away so he wouldn't catch me blushing, but Michael placed his hand on my chin, giving me no choice but to make eye contact. “Raven, all I wanted was a chance to replace the smile that he took away; and if you can’t see that, then I don’t know what else to say.” He moved in even closer, leaving my body no choice but to be pressed against the wall and himself, and before I could blink, his lips were pressed against mine. When he pulled back, there was a smile on his face and twinkle in his eyes. “Since you say I never make the first move.” He spoke, throwing my previous words back at me. I was frozen; completely stuck. This wasn't the man that was yelling at me a few hours ago. Michael's hand caressed my cheek, leaning in to kiss me again, but this time I put my hands on his chest to stop him.

“Michael, I can’t. You have to go, now.” firmly as I could. I just starred at me for a moment, as if he was trying to gaged how serious I was. After about a five second stared down, his hand left my cheek and he backed away.

“I get it. I'm gonna give you your space to figure yourself out, but just know that I'm not going anywhere because you and I both know you're making a mistake.” He spoke looking me dead in the eyes, before saying good night.  

As soon as the door closed, my body sunk against it. Where the hell did that come from? I know where I want to be and who I want to be with, but Michael's really making this whole thing harder than it has to be with this recent switch up. Why can't life be simple, and why the hell did I let him kiss me? I don't want to entertain whatever possibilities he has in his head for us, other than friendship. I went back into the bedroom to get my phone and call Alex. Knowing him, he was still at the party.

The phone rang three times before he answered with loud music in the background. “Hey Alex, I need you to book me a flight to Toronto.” I shouted over the music.

“Why are you leaving so soon? What about the cast brunch tomorrow?” He questioned, but I wasn't about to go into detail about everything over the blaring music.

“Alex, please, just book the first flight and text me the details as soon as it's confirmed." I hung up, not giving him a chance to respond back. I really needed to get out of this hotel and away from Michael. The two of us being close together clearly isn't healthy to our situation, and besides, I was missing Cam and Aubrey far too much. This just gave me an excuse to skip the brunch and surprise Aubrey at his restaurant opening.

#drakefanfiction #drake #drake fanfic #Aubrey Graham #Aubrey Drake Graham #The Ex Factor #Catching Feelings #sorry for the wait #hope you like this! #chapter 17 #if you like it theres more

[thiswasinevitableid]

10 tattoos/piercing, Danbrey, sfw, please!

Here you go! I based Dani's design on an arowana because I liked the color.

“Remember, non-scented soap, nice to meet you, byeee!” Aubrey waves to her client as they head down the boardwalk. She has thirty minutes until her next appointment, so it’s time to stretch her legs and check the little ‘doggy cam” she set up on Dr. Harris Bonkers cage to make sure the giant rabbit hasn’t finally managed to chew his way through the bars.

“Hi doctor” She coos into the phone. One white ear pivots towards the camera, but the bunny remains otherwise unmoved.

She leans on the railing, Pacfic sparkling like a postcard before her.

“Excuse me?”

“YEEEEP!” She jumps back, not expecting a woman to pop out of the water, let alone pop out and talk to her.

“Oops, sorry.” The other woman smiles, golden hair fanning out around her. There are two types of blondes in Long Beach; the ones hoping to be the next influencer sensation and the kind who are excited to tell you about GOOP and crystals.

Whichever kind this woman is, she’s the most gorgeous girl Aubrey’s ever seen.

“Um, can I help you?”

“Yeah! Can you tattoo me? A piercing would be okay too, but I really like how pretty the tattoos are.”

“Thanks. Um, you’re gonna need an appointment.” She pulls out her phone again, since it’s synced to the calendar Joseph makes them all keep, “lemme see....I have a big slot of time on Friday afternoon.”

The girl cocks her head, “That’s two days from now, right?”

“Yep.We can start at one if that works for you?”

“Sure, see you then!” She waves and then disappears under the water. A few moments later, a shimmering golden tail breaks the swell, seeming to wave once before submerging. Aubrey blinks, switches back to the bun cam.

“How do I tell Joseph I have to move my stuff outside to tattoo a mermaid?”

Dr. Harris Bonkers snuffles, but offers no further commentary.

------------------------------------------------------------

“Joseph, for the last time, you are not gonna hang around just to ask my client questions while I’m trying to work.”

“I don’t plan to, but we need to make sure everything, and I mean everything, is as sterile as we can manage. Doing this outside gives me hives as it is.” Joseph finishes setting up the pop-tent, the kind sun-phobic families take to the beach.

“C’mon, people gave each other traditional tattoos out in the open for centuries. It should be fine.”

Joseph makes an unsure noise, but leaves her in peace all the same. Before long a golden tail flashes out of the water as the mermaid swims towards the beach, the closest spot to the pier where they could actually set the tent and generator up. It’s right on the tide line, Duck having used his almanac to tell them whether Aubrey would be chasing the tide or fleeing from it if the appointment turns out to be long.

“Um, hi again.” She waves.

“Hello!” The mermaid slides up into the surf. When she sits up, Aubrey turns pink.

“Uh, do you, uh, want a swimsuit or something?” Her voice is embarrassingly high.

The mermaid looks down, then at Aubrey studiously looking elsewhere, and laughs, “Oh, right, I forgot humans don’t like it when we’re bare-chested.”

“I mean it’s not that we don’t like it-” Aubrey mumbles.

“Be right back.” She pushes back into the sea, returning a minute later wearing a bright green bikini top, “is that better?”

“Yep!” She replies too quickly, “Sorry, I, um, I’ve never worked on a mermaid before, kinda figured you guys wore seashells or sea stars or something?”

“You...you realize where that would put the seastar mouths, right?” The mermaid scoots up onto the beach, tail in the water and back on the inflatable recliner they borrowed from Kirbys apartment.

“Ooohouch, you’re right, fuck, sorry.” She grabs her flash binder, brought in case the mermaid didn’t have a design in mind.

The mermaid glances over her shoulder, smiling, “You’re cute when you blush.”

She maintains her professionalism, but only just, as the mermaid chooses her preferred design; a brightly colored swirl of planets and stars. For a newbie, she barely seems to register the needle, focused instead on studying Aubrey’s face and hands as she works. She learns that her name is Dani, that she’s one of several merfolk living near the pier, and that she’s observed Aubrey and her handiwork courtesy of a rock and a pair of salvaged binoculars.

“Oooh” Dani wiggles her tail happily when she sees the finished product, “it’s perfect, thank you so much Aubrey.”

“Glad you like it-oh, okay.” She stiffens as Dani rubs their cheeks together twice before pulling back.

“I’m supposed to keep it clean right?”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure how well saran wrap will hold up to sea water.”

A formerly empty Rose bottle thunks onto the sand. Dani grabs it, popping the make-shift cork off with her teeth.

“Ooh, Indrid sent me a special covering to keep it safe. And these must be for you.” She holds out two pearls.”

“Thanks” She’s more interested in watching the kissable lips covering razor sharp than the gems the mermaid gives her.

“Can I see you again?” Dani is halfway back in the water.

“Whenever you want. You’re a great client; you, um, you’re really nice to touch. Wait, um, I mean you take it really welllARGH, um, yes please come back.” Aubrey replies, tucking the second most valuable thing on the beach into her pocket and continuing to blush well after Dani has returned to the waves.

--------------------------------------------------------

“AHFUCK!”

“Sorry!” Dani gives a sheepish wave to Duck before turning to Aubrey, who got used to her popping out of the water five times ago, “are you free tomorrow?”

“Sure” even if she isn’t, she’ll happily reschedule another client for Dani’s sake, “do want to pick something from my flash?”

“Nope, this time Indrid designed something. It’s about the same size as this” she holds up the watercolor hermit crab on her right arm, “see you then?”

“Of course.” Aubrey waves goodbye, blows a kiss when Dani is out of sight.

She forgot Duck was still here.

“You got it bad, Lady Flame.”

“Shush, I saw you chatting to Indrid by the coffee shop yesterday.”

“....you can’t prove anythin.”

She holds up her phone, smirking, “Oh yes I can.”

--------------------------------------------

“Aubrey!”

She looks up, wondering who’s calling her name on the deserted beach. She brings Dr. Harris Bonkers down here on a leash late at night for enrichment for him and a break from the summer heat for her.

“Aubrey, over here!” Dani leaps through the surf until she;s only able to slide, “I thought it was you. Ohhhhhh” she squeals, “this must be Dr. Harris Bonkers. Hello cutie pie, aren’t you just so lovelyOH, oh he feels like an otter.” She rubs the rabbits head, causing him to creep towards the water, “you’re the second cutest thing on this beach, doctor.” She winks at Aubrey, then sits up, “can I introduce him to Ferdinand?”

Aubrey nods, excited to finally meet Dani’s pet; she only his name, but she’s expecting a seal, or maybe a crab.

What she gets is an octopus. The cephalopod winds a tentacle around her arm, investigating her.

“Aww, he likes you.” Dani sets the octopus down in shallow water, where it proceeds to stretch multiple limbs out to poke Dr. Harris Bonkers.

“Guess they’re having a playdate?” Dani scoots closer, resting her head on Aubrey’s shoulder.

Aubrey sets a hand on her tail, running her fingers up and down the scales as the mermaid sighs happily.

“As long as he doesn’t carry Dr. Harris Bonkers into the tidepools, they can hang out as long as you like.”

----------------------------------------------------------

“Dani? How many tattoos are you planning to get?” Aubrey looks up from where she’s outlining an octopus on Dani’s side.

“I haven’t decided yet. It’s really common for mers to have lots of piercings and tattoos. That’s why Indrid can leave Duck so many expensive tokens; he’s the most in-demand tattoo artist on the coast.”

“Neat! Wait-” she sits up, shutting off the gun, “your friend is a tattoo artist, but you kept coming here?”

“Yes.” Dani is still, save for the end of her tail, which vibrates nervously.

“Why?”

“Um, well, I, I really liked your style. Then I really liked you, and I wanted to keep seeing you…”

“Holy crap, do you keep getting tattoos because you think that’s the only way you’re able to see me?”

“Uhhuh.” Dani is bright pink from her cheeks to her waist as Aubrey scrambles to sit in front of her, “I mean, when you want to date someone, you’re only allowed to see them at their work until they say they want to date you too. Even us meeting on the beach a few weeks ago was pushing it, and I didn’t want you thinking I was pushy.”

“....Huh?”

“Do humans not have that rule?” Dani’s honey-colored eyes widen.

“Nope. It’s actually kinda rude to ask people out at work, because they can’t get away BUT” she hurriedly sets the gun aside, “but I make exceptions for super cute wonderful mermaids.”

“Oh. In that case-” Dani knocks her backwards with her tail and climbs atop her, kissing her so hard she wonders if you can die from a really good make-out session. When the salty kiss ends the mermaid continues peppering her face with kisses and flicking her tongue along her neck.

“Dani I, I’m loving all of this but if you mess up my ink I’m gonna be as annoyed as I can possibly be with a gorgeous mermaid feeling me up.”

“Crap, you’re right.” Dani sits back up, glancing at the half-done tattoo, "I really don't want to ruin your work. Desperate need to see you aside, I do love your style." She folds her hands back into her lap and readjusts onto the inflatable chair.

Aubrey crawls forward, kissing her sweetly, "Once we're done and you're all wrapped up, wanna join me on the beach for a little, um, late night picnic."

A teasing kiss, first to her nose and then to her lips, "I'd love to."

#danbrey #aubrey little/dani #taz amnesty #mermay #mermay fills

[unholyhelbig]

Prompt; when Emily doesn’t know what she’s being for Halloween yet and Aubrey doesn’t have a partner for what’s considered a “couples costume” (u can choose what costume)

SEND ME CUTE HALLOWEEN PROMPTS HERE

The second her bedroom door slammed shut behind her, Aubrey Posen reached for an embroidered pillow and let out a muffled scream into the fabric. A stupid little saying had been written into it’s muted brown color. Something about bears- she had never paid much mind to the decretive piece, and she wasn’t going to start tonight. It was nothing but a silencer.

A stark white wedding dress laid easily among a meticulously made bed. The plaid design of it all was lined up perfectly with the dresser. The room still mostly dark; a propped open window let in cool October air as moonlight washed over a vacuumed floor. The dress had been through a wringer, stained in mud and deviled by long scrapes of Spanish moss that fell from the very trees past their front door.

Things hadn’t gone Aubrey’s way tonight. She had stayed late on a lecture to give her physic’s teacher a piece of her mind, nearly missed the bus back to her lowly apartment. She had just caught it, but not before large tires sloshed murky ice water into her clothes. And now this? Her coworker deciding, he wanted to suck face with the cashier at a ready-mart instead of attending a Halloween party with her.

At least he had been polite about the decline in plans, having left the perfectly trimmed suit in front of her door with a little post-it note that was scrawled with the word sorry. Yeah, Aubrey was close to punching his stupid face. She was dateless and fuming and he probably got a discount on slim Jim’s and artificially flavored nachos.

The knock at the door didn’t help much either. It was soft and timid- and god, why hadn’t Chloe pulled herself from the clutches of her room and answered it already?

Aubrey threw the pillow aside, nervily avoiding a lamp that had a flickering bulb in the first place. Her whole body ached, and her lips tasted like mud. Her clothes had just begun to dry but she swallowed back the chills that plagued her. The apartment was quiet. Maybe Chloe wasn’t even home, having gone to the Halloween party herself dawning a pair of flawless feathered wings and cherry red lip stain.

She pulled open the door. A near stranger blinking dangerously at her. Aubrey quirked a brow at her upstairs neighbor, a small woman that looked too young to even be renting an apartment on this side of the city. The artificial lights hung by maintenance shaded her face, and more importantly the innocent beauty about it.

“Oh… Hi,” She blinked like she wasn’t expecting an answer. She raked pools of honey over Aubrey’s stained appearance. The obvious chill that rocked through her was from the cold, she told herself. She looked and smelled like a wet rat.

“I just- well, I found this suit in front of your door, and it looks like a nice suit. But not that I say it, I’m sure you know it’s here. It looks like it’s about to rain, but I’m not Al Roker, so I’m probably wrong and” The stranger clenched her eyes shut, taking a steadying breath “I thought’ I’d let you know.”

Aubrey parted her lips and breathed out deeply, the door creaking as she moved it open a little bit more. This woman was rocking back and forth on her heels like a child awaiting approval. She held the clothing in her grasp, nervously running her thumb over the stinted fabric. She smiled, cheeks heating as Aubrey scanned the woman’s appearance. “How tall are you?”

“What?” It was a breathless mess of a word, the stranger letting tension fall from her shoulders. Relaxed, maybe.

“I mean, you must be 5’6 at least.”

“5’8 but I don’t see-“

“What are you doing tonight?”

Aubrey’s mind was in overdrive. This woman was certainly tall enough to fit the length and stature of the very suit that she was holding, her perfect eyebrow quirked as she clenched her jaw. She was dressed in oversized sweatpants that had Braden written across the side. An even larger sweatshirt pulled over her arms.

“Nothing, really.” Her cheeks heated “I bought a bunch of candy but not many kids come around here so I’ll just sulk and drown my sorrows in chocolate- and you didn’t need to know that.”

No, she didn’t’. But it was quite charming, the way this woman stumbled over her words when she tried to talk. She nervously tucked a strand of brown hair behind a slowly reddening ear. Again, rocking back and forth on her toes.

“How would you feel about being the Victor to my Corpse’s bride? My date kind of bailed last minute and a zombie bride is pretty lame when there’s no suiter by her side.”

“I mean,” Emily swallowed loudly, looking down at the suit “What do I have to lose?”

“That’s the spirit.”

Aubrey stepped further to the right, allowing the woman inside of her tiny little apartment that smelled overwhelmingly like pumpkin spice (courtesy of a bubbly roommate that had a monthly subscription to white barn.). She closed the door, leading the way to her bedroom like it was second nature to bring a stranger into its cool clutches. She followed nervously.

She gasped when she saw the torn wedding dress, it almost made Aubrey’s heart swell. She had worked hard to make it look just distressed enough to pass as dead. Had even invested in paint in a sickly blue and grey shade that would really complete the look that Tim Burton had originally sculpted.

“Whoa, this is so cool-“ She glanced at her, eyebrows knit.

“Aubrey,”

“Emily.”

“Well, thank you, Emily. Halloween is kind of my thing.”

She nodded, taking in a gulp of air as she set down as she glanced around the small room. It was homey, if not a bit chilly from the window that was left propped open. Aubrey could almost smell the incoming of rain that Emily had mentioned so feverishly in her opening statement. Aubrey smiled at the woman’s awkward nature before she grasped the wedding dress. “You can change in here if you’d like. I’ll take the bathroom.”

“Okay,” She agreed, scratching the back of her neck as a few stray edges of hair fell from the bun on top of her head, framing her face as she managed a nervous smile.

Aubrey bowed out, pulling the wedding dress that she had found at a thrift store on ninth over herself, wiggling into it with enough gusto to break a sweat. She had taken more than enough time to squeeze the beaded top closer to her grasp, trying not to let it slip as she knocked back on her bedroom door, the unreachable zipper cold against her skin.

She got a weak response, pushing the door open as she got a good look at Emily. Her neighbor upstairs had folded the sweatpants and jacket easily against the corner of the dresser. She had let her hair down, the suit fitting her as smugly as Aubrey hoped it would. A bit of silver peaked from a vest and a back puffed ascot lay untied against the white shirt.

Aubrey’s color drained and the base of her stomach heated unexpectedly. She steadied herself against the doorframe, struggling to keep her dress up as Emily adjusted the collar of the blazer. A lopsided grin graced her lips. “This look okay? I need some help with this tie, though, I don’t really know how to fasten one. I only went to one girl scouts meeting and, yeah, didn’t’ pay much attention.”

“You look perfect,” Aubrey beamed, “Could you um, zip me up?”

Emily stared for a moment, almost mesmerized herself before letting out a squawk and propelling herself across the room where she moved the zipper easily up her back, fingers cold, but not nearly as frigid as the ruined clothes Aubrey peeled from herself earlier. She turned Emily’s touch not entirely dropping as she reached up and grasped the black ascot.

“How come I don’t see you around much?” Aubrey’s asked, trying to ignore the fact that Emily shivered under her touch, breath hot on her cheek.

“Oh, I’m what they call in introvert.” Emily chuckled, chest rumbling at her own joke. “Like I said, my plans were pretty much drowning my sorrows in snickers and turning out my porch light.”

Aubrey laughed, looping the fabric around as she secured it. Emily really did look like Victor, pale composure and all, her touch lingering, but never enough to warrant discomfort. The two of them standing there in innate silence.

“You know, Aubrey, usually I ask a girl on a first date before getting her into a wedding dress.”

“Is that so?” She asked, masking a smirk.

“Oh yeah, I’m a real Casanova too.” She beamed “Next time I’ll even bring my dog, his name is scraps. Though, he is a little boney.”      

#Aubrey Posen #Emily Junk #Junksen #Fanfiction #request

[tiny-maus-boots]

The Howl pt 5

A/N: thanks to my bestie and beta for always doing the thing and also talking me off the metaphorical ledge...again. I kept the word like you said to. I still think I should have changed it but I’ll trust your judgement as I always do on everything except tv shows. You’re kinda suspect on that.... i’m kidding ilyan @chloes-yellow-cup

05

Stacie pranced around the bike with barely contained energy. Her wolf had enjoyed the excitement of chasing the vampire this far. Her whole life Stacie had always been able to outrun everyone and everything that wanted to cage her in and lock her down. Hunters, lovers, friends, packs....family. No one could ever come close to catching her before let alone push her to keep up. It was a new experience and she found herself liking it.

The rumble of the engine was loud and she gave a bark to get the woman's attention. It was silly because she couldn't actually speak but she didn't want to see her mate ride off without one last look. Sillier still because she didn't even know her name. They just hadn't gotten that far before the bond drew them together. The vampire raised a brow and smirked at her almost as if she'd heard her thought.

“You can call me Aubrey. I'll see you tonight puppy.”

Stacie sneezed and growled, one foot pawing at the ground in irritation. It seemed to amuse Aubrey even more but there wasn't any time to enjoy herself. The sun was breaking just behind them and she'd have to move fast to keep ahead of it. The bike roared off and Stacie watched for second before she darted off back toward town. She lengthened her stride and settled into the run through the forest, thoughts of her pack warring with the memory of looking up at Aubrey's pale writhing body in the moonlight.

Eventually Aubrey won out and she let her mind wander over every minute of their encounter. It was distracting enough that she narrowly avoided running into a tree or two before she broke past the forest. Stacie put her ears back and pushed faster wanting to make it home before the pack inevitably showed up. She knew they'd likely be angry at her for avoiding them all and missing a run on the full moon. Mating with Aubrey wasn't going to make any of that easier to bear either. Not that she would change it if she could.

Maybe it was just the magic of the bond but it felt right. Being with the vampire had felt like a home she never really had or wanted before. And maybe hours prior she might have scoffed at the idea that she'd feel this way, but she did now and that was okay. She wanted this...thing between them to work. A thought that should have been a little concerning at the very least. Stacie tucked it away to think on later as she slunk into the narrow alley behind her shop and leaped into the still open window.

As soon as her paws hit the floor she knew someone was there. Stacie padded to the narrow staircase in the corner of the office and stared up it. She sniffed the air then gave a disgruntled growl and headed up. Redd was laying in her bed in all his chiseled perfection, one arm spread over her pillow as he leaned against the headboard waiting. They weren't together. Not in the traditional sense of the word. He was tall and handsome with sandy blonde hair and abs to die for. And she'd slept with him. More than once.

Something she regretted deeply now. It wasn't that Redmond wasn't a good man, or wolf. He was, and he was strong and fast. Just never strong or fast enough for her to think of as more than just a comforting distraction. She knew he was hoping to be her mate, that most of the pack already considered him her mate but she didn't want him. Not like that. So she'd been distancing herself from the other wolf slowly but as the pack got more anxious for her to choose he became more persistent in his interest.

Stacie shifted reluctantly at the entrance to her room and breezed past the bed for the bathroom. He watched her start the shower and grab a towel before he finally spoke. His deep voice soft and amused as it fell from his annoyingly smirky lips that made her want to hiss her displeasure. Something she'd never done before but the thought felt oddly natural if slightly confusing.  

“So who was she?”

She didn't answer as she stepped into the shower. It wasn't any of his business who she had spent the night with and as his Alpha she didn't owe him any damn answers. The fact that he dared to ask bothered her in a way she couldn't explain. Maybe because she wasn't quite ready to share her experience with Aubrey. Stacie stuck her head under the warm spray and huffed when she realized it was too hot for her even after being outside all night. She turned the nob to the right, adjusting it to a fine cool spray before placing her palms on the cold tile of the shower wall. It wasn't even close to the feeling of Aubrey's cool hands drifting down her body but it would do for the moment.

The door to the bathroom pushed open with a creak and she glanced over her shoulder at Redd. He crossed his arms over his chest and dropped his head to the side as he let his eyes roam up her body. It was a completely different experience from the night before with Aubrey and she turned away from him in naked disinterest.

“Pack missed you last night.”

“I know. I needed space.” And she had. That was why she had run off in the first place. She had wanted distance from everything that her pack demanded of her. And had run headlong into exactly what they wanted. Well. Maybe not exactly. Stacie didn't like the weight of Redd's presence, it felt choking and smothering and made her want to shift just so she didn't have to deal with it but she couldn't. She had a responsibility to her people and she was going to have to face them no matter how distasteful. “They'll be here soon enough anyway.”

Redd gave a grunt of agreement patiently waiting for her to wash her hair before he spoke again. “I know you know what they wanted to say. I'm sorry. Wasn't my choice but it's what the pack wants, what would make them feel safer.”

Stacie rolled her eyes at that. She was positive that he was perfectly fine with the pack's choice, he had made that plenty clear before. He must have read her disbelief in her silence because she could hear him raise his big hands and drop them to his sides in defeat.

“Look, Stacie...you've done a lot of good for the pack and the town but you're a runner. Every pack from here to Prague knows it. You think that's easy for us? Wondering if you're going to get tired of our home and our lives? Get tired of us maybe? Other packs can take care of themselves but this pack can't, and without you the pack goes feral. They want you to mate and bear pups because we don't trust you to stick around!”

It was the way he changed from 'they' to 'we' in the same sentence that caught her attention. Stacie turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He handed her a towel that she took with a snatch and a glare. Redd took the meaning and stomped out of the bathroom. She wiped the mirror and stared at herself for a long moment. She had always known he was ambitious and opportunistic but now she was starting to wonder exactly where pack got the idea that making her settle down with someone was binding her to them all.

Anger flashed through her dragging the growl up from her throat but it wasn't a familiar anger because it wasn't her own. It was a cold rage that trebled down her spine making her grip the edge of the counter as she tried to control the wolf in her. Her normally green eyes flared a deep honey yellow as her wolf rose before she could rein it in. The stone top counter crumbled in her hands as the beast roared up and for a second she was afraid the shift would happen no matter what she did but it didn't. Her wolf pulled right to the surface making her eyes flash the cold silver of Aubrey's vampire rage for the space between heartbeats and dropped back down leaving her gasping and weak kneed in the wake of it.

“Oh...whaaaat the fuuuuuck...”

She blinked at herself in the mirror unsure if she had actually seen it happen or if she hallucinated it. The amber of her eyes bled back to green and she leaned forward, nose nearly touching the glass as she gasped in her breaths.

“Aubrey?”

Stacie shook her head looked down at the counter. Damnit. She hastily cleaned up what she could, dropping the pieces in the trash bin and washed her hands. Something had happened that she didn't understand and she didn't have the time to figure it out now though she suspected it had something to do with her bond to the vampire. The wolf gave herself one last wary look in the mirror and took a settling breath. Whatever had just happened, whatever was happening, it would have to wait. She moved into her bedroom to dress quickly as the sound of the back door to her shop opening reached her ears.

She was just rolling up the sleeves of her lightweight flannel when Cynthia Rose appeared in the door way. Stacie felt the tired disappointment in her Beta and she sighed.

“I know.”

The other wolf didn't say anything but she didn't have to. Running off had proven the pack's point adequately enough. Stacie stroked a hand down the other woman's arm in a comforting pet and jerked her head toward the kitchen.

“C'mon, I'll get breakfast started, you've gotta be starving.”

Cynthia Rose's stomach rumbled its agreement and she chuckled. They walked hand in hand to the open kitchen on the other side of the loft. Redd was already brewing a pot of coffee and she nodded gratefully at him when he handed CR a mug. He might be trying to make her mate with him but she honestly believed he thought it was for the good of the pack. She trusted that he would protect and serve them as a good leader would and should.

Her bare feet were silent as she moved around the kitchen preparing mountains food. Wolves started trickling in sullen and hungry as she worked. They settled in pairs and groups anywhere they could sit as Stacie served out plates laden with pancakes, eggs and steak, delivering all of them with affectionate nuzzles and caresses. The reassurances soothed them almost as much as the food. She smiled as Angus leaned into her shoulder and helped gather empty plates.

She loved these people, they were hers and she had no intention of abandoning them. Even if the thought crossed her mind from time to time she had made her home here. Some of the wolves needed her more than the others. Like sweet Wade. Her eyes drifted over the members of her pack looking for a familiar hunched shoulder and dipped head. Not every wolf was here, many of them were outliers, they lived in Tongass and only kept a loose association with the pack. It wasn't a common practice to have independent wolves in your pack, it was dangerous to have a potential gathering of wolves outside of the pack's control in the same territory. It could lead to bloody squabbles over hunting grounds and ranks of dominance.

But Stacie hadn't worried so much about outliers forming their own pack. She wasn't going to force anyone's allegiance or push for conformity. That wasn't wolf culture, that was all human. So she didn't expect to see every single one of her people but definitely expected Wade. Stacie caught Redd watching her and she frowned slightly before jerking her head to beckon him. She reached out and tapped lightly on CR's elbow and trailed a hand along Angus' shoulder. They followed her down to the shop obediently.

“Anyone seen Wade?” They shook their heads in confusion and she sighed. “What about on the moon?”

Angus frowned and looked at Cynthia Rose then back to Stacie. “He usually sticks to your flank. I didn't see him last night at all.”

It wasn't an accusation at all but she felt it in her soul nonetheless. She should have been there last night she knew that. But if she had been she wouldn't have been with Aubrey. Stacie's brow furrowed and she gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. It was probably nothing and for any other of her wolves she wouldn't be concerned, at least not like this. But it was one of the weaker wolves and hers to protect. Thoughts of the rabid vampire that tried to kill her sprang to her mind and that fear made her heart race.

“I don't like it. Last night...there was something out there.”

Redd raised his head and eyed her curiously. “Something like what? Vampires? We can handle them just fine. That's your rule right? Keep the fangers away?”

She narrowed her eyes at the unexpected aggression but his face gave nothing away. Stacie nodded once and glanced at the other two. If they were to come up against one of those creatures alone they wouldn't survive it. She very nearly didn't.

“Something like that. It was stronger than anything I've ever seen. It was a vampire but...different. It was sick and unreasoning.” And the smell of decay had been thick and choking from the moment it opened its mouth. It was dead and rotting inside in a way that regular vampires were not. “I want the patrols doubled up around town, two to three in a group and we don't stay out of baying range. I have the feeling there will be more of them out there.”

“You saw it?” Stacie flicked her eyes to Redd's and nodded. He swallowed thickly, some of the irritation at her melting away quickly. “Did it attack you?”

She nodded once but didn't elaborate. It was better not to go into further detail about the night until she had time to talk to Aubrey about it. Instead she nodded to her strongest wolves and gestured to the door. They would obey her without question now that they knew there was something out there worth being afraid of.

“It's full day, I'll send out messengers to the outlier camps, in the meantime...find Wade. If he's hurt or lost he'll be scared, cold and hungry.”

They nodded and filed out the back door. Redd stopped before it swung shut behind him and leveled a sad eyed look at her. He knew that the chance of finding Wade alive was slim. Even if he'd survived the night without incident he'd likely be not survive the day in the wildness naked and stuck in human form. She turned away from the pitying look and took the stairs back up to the loft. Wade wasn't her only wolf and she had others to protect and care for now.

---------

It was late afternoon by the time the messenger had returned from the forest. She still hadn't heard from her Betas and her unsettled spirit was making her pack restless. They had stayed, filling her loft and garage with warm bodies, a low level tension running through all of them. She had done her best to soothe them with reassuring touches but worry was starting to gnaw at her insides.

The crunch of truck tires on fresh snow made her lift her head and stare at the open bay of the garage. Stacie walked out into the sunlight, blinking at the surprising brightness just as Redd's big old Chevy pulled into the alley. She knew something was wrong before she even got to the tailgate. CR didn't meet her eye and Angus...oh Angus.

Stacie could barely process the sight of him cradling Wade's blue tinged and stiff body. The quiet sobs louder than a concussive blast to her ears. She pulled herself into the bed of the truck so she could see for herself the worst of it. Her mind refused to accept the sight of her sweet and gentle Wade, face twisted in fear and pain. Her pack drifted out of the shop, surrounding the truck with murmurs and soft sobs but she couldn't see a single one. All she saw was Wade.

Stacie plucked a few twigs out of his matted hair, caressing his brow in a gentle caress of apology. “Oh Wade....no...”

This was her fault. Tears rushed up before she could force them back, they spilled hotly down her cheeks as she reached out to to cradle Wade's head to her chest. Grief hit her in a rush of guilt and pain and rage and she didn't even bother to stop herself with the wolf demanded control. Stacie tipped her head back and let it out in one deep and reverberating howl that echoed far past the edge of town to the forest behind it.

Around her the voices of her pack joined hers in an eerie song of mourning. Every wolf for miles would cry for Wade and she could already hear the echo of howls far into the woods. And though she didn't know it...miles away, deep within the catacombs, dead asleep in the full light of day, her vampire woke.