#!!!!! this!!! jus got back from visiting my mom

[dixons-sunshine]

Shopping Spree, Hangout Dreams | Young!Daryl Dixon x Young!Fem!Reader

*GIF isn't mine*

Summary: While hanging out with Daryl, an old friend decided to pay you an unexpected visit. Not wanting to cut your visit short, Daryl offers to tag along to the supermarket. You agree, which lead to the funniest but best shopping experience of your life. And the hangout afterwards turned into a night you'd never forget.

Genre: Fluff, some angst (mentions of Daryl's dad and his scars—reader knows about his home life.)

Era: Pre outbreak

Warnings: Swearing, blood (from reader's period), mentions of abuse, mentions of Merle being an asshole to reader and Daryl, allusions to money problems (reader chooses the cheapest foods while in the store and lives in a trailer park), reader's mom is implied to be a single parent.

Word count: 4.6k (this got way longer than I expected)

A/n: Honestly my second favourite story I've written. It's not great, but I loved the concept very much and writing about Daryl before the apocalypse turned out to be so much fun! I definitely need to write more about pre-apocalypse Daryl.

Requests are open for any TWD requests if y'all wanna send any!

Part two

—

“I'm telling you, you're overreacting. How was I supposed to know that it was gonna go flying in your direction?”

“It wasn't even supposed to go flyin' like tha' in the first place. I've been tryin' to teach ya to fish fer months now, but yer hopeless. Stick to buyin' fish from the market fer yer safety and mine.”

You threw one of the pillows on the couch you were sitting on in his direction, trying to look offended but failing miserably due to the burst of laughter falling from your lips. Daryl easily caught the pillow and chuckled, a boyish grin on his face. He flopped down next to you on the couch, keeping the pillow on his lap as he watched you trying to calm your laughter.

“You're mean, you know that? I'm not hopeless, fishing is just hard,” you said with a smile, looking at him through your eyelashes.

The smile you wore and the sparkle in your eyes made Daryl's heart skip a beat. His mouth suddenly felt dry and he felt an overwhelming urge to close the distance between the two of you—and urge he's had for months now—but he refrained, his father's deprecating words about his 'nonexistent' worth echoing in the back of his mind.

Daryl shook the thoughts from his mind and focused back on you, your smile he loved so much still gracing your features. “Nah, it ain't tha' hard,” he replied, resting his arm on the back of the couch.

“Says the fish whisperer,” you retorted, crossing your arms over your chest in mock anger, but the huge smile on your face ruined your facade.

Daryl couldn't help the amused laugh that escaped his mouth. “Fish whisperer?” he asked, a crooked smile on his face as he looked at you. “Tha's what yer callin' me?”

“Yeah, you're a fish whisperer. Every time I try to catch a fish, you lean down to the water and tell the fish to be difficult so that I can't catch them and you get the satisfaction of watching me fail. I've got you all figured out, Dixon,” you joked, a teasing grin on your face.

Daryl shook his head at your ‘accusation’ and chuckled. “Ya got me,” he responded. “Sorry ya had to find out like this. The fish and I jus' have this unspoken bond, ya know? They do whatever I tell 'em to.”

“I knew it,” you replied playfully, pointing an accusing finger at him. “Apologise right now.”

“'M sorry,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “I'll talk to the fish and get them to go easier on ya.”

“Thank you,” you laughed in playful triumph.

“Yer welcome,” he replied with a shake of his head, the crooked smile still on his face. “Now are we gonna watch tha' movie ya promised or are we jus' gonna go back and forth over your lack of fishin' skills?”

“Yeah, I just gotta use the bathroom really quick. You can pick out a movie in the meantime,” you acknowledged, getting up from the couch once you saw Daryl nod.

You headed into the bathroom of your small trailer home and closed the door, heading towards the toilet to tend to your business. However, as soon as you sat down, you saw blotches of blood on the inside of your underwear. You groaned inwardly at the horrible timing of your period's arrival and reached for the box of tampons you kept located near the toilet. However, as soon as you opened the box, you audibly groaned at the sight of only one tampon remaining. You didn't have any pads either due to your mom having used the last one a week prior, so you'd have to make a run to the store.

You finished your business, grabbing a fresh pair of underwear from the laundry basket you had yet to take back to your room as well as a pair of pants, before going back out to Daryl. He patiently waited for you on the couch, the movie he picked out paused and waiting to be watched. He fiddled with the remote in his hands before looking up at you when he heard your approaching footsteps. He gave you a small smile before frowning, instantly noticing the ashamed look on your face.

“Wha's wrong?” he questioned, getting up from the couch and taking a step towards you.

“Nothing! It's nothing, I just...” you trailed off, unsure how to go about telling Daryl about why you needed to cut the visit short.

“Ya jus' wha'?” he asked anxiously, unnerved by your sudden awkwardness. You were never nervous around him, so the sudden awkwardness baffled him.

“I have to go into town. I need something urgently and it can't really wait. I'm sorry,” you apologized sincerely, your tone holding sadness at the prospect of the visit you had to cut short.

Daryl's heart sank at your words. He enjoyed hanging out with you and really didn't want to go home yet. He was sure his dad wasn't passed out from drinking yet and he didn't want to accidentally set him off into another rage and deeply pay the price for it, so he wanted to wait it out here with you. But now he most likely wouldn't be able to.

“Wha' do ya need?” he asked, nervously chewing on his bottom lip.

You hesitated for a moment. You liked Daryl, and not just platonically, either. Despite his rough exterior, he was undeniably sweet, kind, caring, affectionate and so much more. He knew how to make you laugh even if he preferred to be serious most of the time and he always treated you with the utmost respect. But you also knew that both his brother and his father were misogynistic pricks. They didn't know the first thing about women and feminine needs, so they definitely didn't teach Daryl about any of that. You didn't want Daryl to look at you differently or be grossed out by you because of your period. You wouldn't be able to handle that.

“Hey, ya alrigh'?” Daryl asked, snapping you out of your thoughts. His eyebrows were furrowed in a deep frown, his eyes flickering between your eyes in concern.

“Yeah,” you nodded. “I'm fine. I just zoned out for a second.”

“Ya didn't answer my question from before. Wha' do ya need in town?” he repeated his question.

You swallowed nervously before sighing. “I'm on my period,” you whispered, heat creeping up to your face. “And I'm out of tampons.”

Realisation struck Daryl like a ton of bricks. “Oh,” he mumbled, awkwardly fiddling with his hands.

In all honesty, Daryl wasn't weirded out by you saying that, but he didn't know how to go about the information you gave him. He only had the tiniest grain of knowledge about women's periods—thanks to the many women his dad brought home—but he knew that freaking out about it wasn't the way to go. You were one of the most important people in the world to him, and by god he would do anything to ensure that you knew that you could go to him whenever you needed anything, even for something like you needing period products.

“Ya want me to give ya a ride to the store?” he asked, completely taking you by surprise.

“No, I don't want to trouble you. I'll just walk,” you declined his offer, nervously hugging yourself in an attempt to appear nonchalant and simultaneously ward off the pain that would soon stab through your lower abdomen.

“I ain't lettin' ya walk, especially this close to dark. God knows what trouble is waitin' if ya set foot outside this trailer park alone. Tha' new motorcycle gang likes to hang 'round here and I dun' want them to get any ideas with ya,” Daryl replied steadfastly, his mind already set on escorting you to the store.

You smiled at Daryl's worry towards you. It was rare to see his softer side, but when you did, you always cherished it. Daryl Dixon truly was unlike any man you've ever met.

“Fine,” you relented, your voice adapting the playful tone from earlier. “You can drive me, but just so you know, I'm taking advantage of your hospitality. I need to buy some groceries anyways, but I never got around to it because it would be too much to carry if I walked.”

Daryl's lips twitched up into a half smile and nodded. “Alrigh',” he agreed. “But yer buyin' me a Coke fer my valiant efforts of simply drivin' ya to the store.”

“Deal,” you laughed lightly, unaware of the effect it had on Daryl. His heart quickened at the sweet sound of your melodic laughter and he had to duck his head to hide the blush that formed on his face.

“Let's go.” He motioned for you to follow him and you obliged after grabbing the grocery list, following him out of your trailer and over to his neighbouring trailer. The two of you quietly made your way over to his beat down truck, a vehicle he was 'graciously' being lent by his older brother. Or as Daryl once told you, Merle simply dropped it off one day after getting his motorcycle and just seemed to forget about its existence. So now the truck unofficially belonged to the younger Dixon brother.

You opened the passenger side of the vehicle and got in, closing the door behind you. Daryl got into the driver's side and started the truck, his eyes glancing around at the wrappers and few empty cigarette boxes that littered the floor. “Sorry 'bout the mess.”

“It's fine,” you reassured him. “It certainly doesn't look worse than my trailer when my mom and I have been too lazy to clean up.”

Daryl quietly nodded and started the drive to the store, pulling out of the trailer park. The drive was mostly spent in silence until about five minutes in when a bunch of motorcycles whirled past the truck in the opposite direction. Daryl visibly stiffened after one particular motorcycle drove past and you frowned, placing your hand on his arm to try and ease his tension. At the unexpected action, Daryl tensed slightly but soon relaxed under your tender touch.

“Who was it? The guy on the motorcycle? You seem to know him,” you questioned, earning a disgruntled sigh in response.

“'S my brother,” he responded after a moment's hesitation. “He's back in town fer a while but I dun' know why. He hasn't bothered to come see me.”

“Merle's back?” you asked, trying to keep the distaste out of your voice, but failing miserably, causing a small smile to fall on Daryl's face.

It was no secret to Daryl that you despised his brother. The few limited interactions you had with the man were enough to fuel your distaste. Merle either made sexual passes at you, insulted you or questioned your intentions with Daryl. When you didn't fall for his advances or insults, he'd take a jab at your friendship with his younger brother, claiming that Daryl was "pussy whipped" and that you were taking advantage of him. Daryl always immediately shut him down, but that never stopped Merle. Each time it took walking back into your trailer to get the man to shut up.

“Yeah,” Daryl confirmed, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. “I think he joined tha' new motorcycle gang. He's a stupid son of a bitch, my brother. Never learns his lesson, but wha' can I do? He ain't ever gonna listen to me.”

“He's a grown man. He'll hopefully learn from his mistakes,” you started, knowing your words probably weren't much comfort for him right now. “If you want, I can punch some sense into him. I've been wanting to punch him for a while now.”

That seemed to lighten Daryl's mood a bit. His lips twitched into a half smile. “Nah, but thanks fer the kind offer. I'll let ya know if I ever need ya to punch him fer me.”

“Please do. I'll practice and everything,” you joked, playfully punching the air in front of you for added effect, eliciting a small chuckle from him.

“Alrigh', Bruce Lee, we're here,” he laughed quietly, parking the car outside the store.

The two of you got out of the truck and moved to the store. Once inside, Daryl grabbed a shopping cart and leaned his arms on the handle bar, looking at you expectantly. “Where to first, boss lady?”

You giggled and took the grocery list from the back pocket of your jeans, unfolding the paper and starting your list. “We'll come back to the period things later. Let's get the necessities out of the way first.”

Daryl pushed the cart as he followed behind you, walking into one of the grocery aisles. “Tampons ain't a necessity?” he asked, curiously watching you search for the cheapest pasta before adding it to the cart.

You shrugged and walked on, hearing the squeaks from the wheels on the cart following closely behind. “It is, but not before food. I can always improvise or ask one of the neighbour ladies for it, but I don't want to ask for food.”

Daryl nodded, although you couldn't see him. “Yeah, tha's understandable,” he said, his eyes scanning over the products in the aisle.

You continued grabbing things on your list, adding them to the cart. You even grabbed two bags of chips and the Coke you promised Daryl, as well as a drink for yourself. After that, you made your way over to the feminine hygiene section and started looking over the various different choices, searching for your preferred items.

“Wha' the fuck?” you heard Daryl whisper behind you, prompting you to turn around and look at him. You giggled at the sight in front of you; Daryl holding a pack of pads whilst his eyes trailed over the different period products, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“What?” you asked with a giggle, gaining Daryl's attention.

“Why the hell do y'all need so many different things fer yer pussy blood?” he asked bluntly, eliciting an amused laugh from you.

“First of all, don't call it pussy blood. That's disgusting. Second of all, it's all about preference. Some women prefer pads, others prefer tampons and other things. And not everyone is the same. Some women have heavier flows and some women need bigger tampons and pads than others,” you explained, amused at the deep frown Daryl wore.

Daryl nodded slowly. “Alrigh',” he started. “But still, it's a lot. Tampons, pads... And wha' the hell is a fuckin' diva cup? Y'all use tha' to make tea fer yer pussies or somethin'?”

“No,” you responded, laughing lightly at the confused man. “I don't know how a diva cup works because I've never used one, but it's for our periods. Like I said, preference. Some women prefer diva cups over pads and tampons.”

Daryl shook his head slightly and turned away from the shelves, focusing his eyes back on you. “Well, ya got whatever pads or tampons ya prefer? Or do ya use somethin' else that wasn't named in yer explanation?”

You rolled your eyes and smiled, amused. You grabbed a box of tampons, as well as a box of pads, and added them to the cart. “No, I use pads and tampons, don't worry.”

“Why would I worry?” Daryl asked, pushing the cart as the two of you walked over to pay for the groceries.

“I just meant that you didn't have to worry about there being any more "period product" surprises. I don't think you would've been able to handle it if I told you there was more,” you explained.

“Well... 'S there?” he asked hesitantly, chewing on his lower lip.

“Yeah.”

You walked ahead to the checkout aisle, leaving Daryl baffled behind you. He sped up to catch up to you, and together you started unloading the items.

“This was more than I bargained fer when I offered to come to the store with ya,” Daryl said, handing off items to be scanned.

“I said I would walk,” you replied nonchalantly, shrugging your shoulders. “Would've spared you the headache you got from looking at all those different brands and stuff.”

“Nah, I'd take the headache over somethin' happenin' to ya. Walkin' alone ain't safe,” he retorted, giving you a stern look.

“I would've been fine.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn't risk it. Still ain't gonna risk it.”

“Ah, young love,” the lady working at the cash register interrupted, startling both you and Daryl. “You two lovebirds are absolutely adorable.”

Daryl ducked his head in embarrassment, a blush spreading across his face. You could feel your own face flush with heat as well.

“Thanks,” you mumbled, handing the owed amount over to the cashier before moving over to grab a few bags.

Daryl followed your lead and grabbed most of the bags. Together the two of you walked out of the store and over to his truck. You placed the bags in the back of the truck before getting into the passenger side, Daryl getting into the driver's side. He silently started up the vehicle and pulled out of the parking lot, starting the drive back to the trailer park.

“Thank you, by the way,” you said after a few minutes of silence, shifting Daryl's attention to you.

“Fer wha'?” he asked in confusion, shifting his eyes from the road to you and then back again.

“The ride. And for making me laugh. It was nice.”

“My confusion was amusin' to ya?” he asked with a small smile, glancing over to you.

“No, but the things you said were. Especially the thing about the diva cup. Comedy gold right there,” you said with a smile, gaining a quiet chuckle in return.

“Glad I could make ya laugh,” he replied, before a look of realisation crossed his face. “Wait, ain't ya supposed to be in pain? From wha' I know, period's are supposed to hurt.”

At his words, realisation dawned on you. You could suddenly feel a dull ache in your lower abdomen, a telltale sign of a greater pain awaiting you in a few hours. You just hoped that you had some ibuprofen left back at home.

“I'm fine for now,” you reassured him. “The pain's manageable.”

Daryl nodded. The rest of the drive was spent in silence, save for the rumble of the engine and the wind coming through the open windows. You stared outside at the rising moon, the stars starting to light up the approaching night sky. The trailer park soon came into view and Daryl pulled up to your trailer instead of his, putting the vehicle into park. However, instead of getting out, Daryl tensed up as he stared ahead at his trailer.

You followed his line of sight and saw what he was looking at; his father leading a woman into the trailer. His father shut the door behind him, effectively cutting off your line of sight. You turned to Daryl and saw his jaw clenched in anger, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly as his mind seemed to be in another place. You doubted that Daryl even remembered you were still in the truck with him.

“You can stay over if you want,” you said quietly, snapping Daryl from his wandering thoughts. “My mom's working the night shift down at the bar. I've got the trailer to myself tonight and I wouldn't mind having some company.”

Daryl hesitated for a moment. “Ya sure? I can go home. Doubt the old man would notice me slippin' in anyway.”

You nodded your head at him. “I'm sure. Come on.”

Daryl followed you from the truck and into your trailer, carrying most of the bags so that you could unlock the door. Once you were inside and he placed the bags down, he silently admired you as you grabbed a bowl to pour the bought chips into.

Daryl appreciated the fact that you never pried. He had told you once about his father and what he did to him because you'd accidentally caught sight of one of the scars on his back. However, instead of pity, you offered him comfort and understanding, telling him that you were there if he ever needed to talk to someone or needed an escape. You never brought up his home life or his scars, and only ever talked about it if he initiated the sensitive conversation first, which was rare. Because of that, Daryl was convinced that you were an angel in human form. You understood him in a way nobody did, and he would forever be grateful for the chance he got to know you.

You could feel Daryl's intense gaze on you and you could feel your face heat up. Daring to be confident for a moment, you glanced up and locked eyes with him. “See something you like?”

“Mhm,” Daryl hummed in agreement, completely capturing you off guard. You inhaled sharply and tried to slow your racing heart.

Daryl inwardly cursed himself. He hadn't meant to let that slip, but he had gotten so lost in his thoughts and admiration of you that he acted before properly thinking. He blushed for what felt like the thousandth time that day and ducked his head, finding the floor very interesting all of a sudden.

“Well,” you started after clearing your throat, grabbing the bowl of chips and the drinks you bought for you both and walking the short distance into the living room, Daryl hot on your tail. “I'm glad you enjoyed the view. It's my "I desperately need to wash my hair" look.”

Daryl chuckled but said nothing. He got comfortable on the couch, sitting beside you as you handed him the Coke you promised him. “Thanks,” he said, nudging his nose up at you in a nod. “How's yer stomach?”

“Surprisingly okay. I guess the pain decided to give me a break for now. I probably won't be so lucky tomorrow, though,” you responded.

You grabbed the remote and hit play on the movie that Daryl had picked out earlier before you went into town, the opening sequence playing loudly. However, about ten minutes into the movie, Daryl took the remote from you and paused it again, confusing you.

“Can I ask ya somethin'?” he asked unexpectedly, his face conveying how nervous he was.

“Of course,” you replied without hesitation, shifting on the couch until your body completely faced him.

“I dun'... I dun' really know how to ask ya this, and I really hope this won't ruin anythin' between us, but I need to know if ya feel the same,” Daryl nervously said, fiddling with his hands in his lap.

“Daryl, what-”

“Nah, let me finish, please. 'S jus'... Yer so perfect to me, y'know tha'? Yer so kind, so carin', so affectionate. Yer basically a ray of sunshine. Yer the complete opposite of me, and ya could spend yer time with someone who deserves ya, but ya choose to hang out with me. Even though 'm damaged goods and I ain't gonna be nothin' more than a dumb, redneck scum, ya always treat me like 'm this fine piece of priceless art or somethin', and I dun' get why. Yer-”

The sudden pressure of your lips against his instantly shut him up. His eyes widened for a moment before he closed them, his hands instinctively going to rest on your waist. The kiss was slow and hesitant, but loving and sweet at the same time. It was perfect and neither of you wanted it to end, but you soon pulled away, looking into Daryl's ocean coloured eyes.

“You're not damaged goods and you're not a dumb, redneck scum. Don't ever say that about yourself again, you hear me?” you told him quietly, your hands gently resting on his cheeks. After he nodded, you continued. “Where's all of this coming from? I'm not complaining at all, but it's kind of unexpected.”

“I've felt this way fer a while now,” he explained, taking one of your hands off of his face and playing with your fingers. “I never said anythin' because I didn't want to scare ya off, but after tha' lady called us 'lovebirds' and ya offered to let me stay over without question after ya saw my expression earlier... I dun' know, I guess I jus' needed to let ya know how I felt. Didn't know if ya'd feel the same, though.”

You smiled at him and leaned forward to press another kiss to his lips, this one more firm and sure than the first one. “I do feel the same,” you confirmed after you pulled away. “I just never thought you'd like me.”

“Guess we both wasted time not sayin' anythin' 'til now, huh?” he asked, giving you a boyish smile.

“Definitely,” you nodded in agreement, a huge smile on your face.

“I guess we have to thank yer time of the month fer this happenin',” Daryl said. “If it didn't start and we didn't go to the store, tha' lady never would've called us 'lovebirds' and we never would've seen my father and tha' woman enterin' the trailer, so ya wouldn't have asked me to stay over. I probably would've gone home by now if we didn't have to go to the store and probably would've never gotten the balls to say anythin'.”

“I never thought I would be this grateful for my period, but I am now,” you said, leaning your forehead against his.

Daryl closed the remaining gap between the two of you, the two of you descending into a slow, hungry kiss. You brought your arms around his neck and his arms encircled around your waist, bringing you closer into his arms. As the two of you got lost in the moment, you didn't hear the trailer door opening, too caught up in each other to hear anything else. However, the clearing of someone's throat startled you, the two of you practically jumping apart.

“Sorry, am I interrupting something?” your mom asked with a raised eyebrow, her hands on her hips as she looked over the two of you.

You looked over at Daryl, your face flaming with heat at being caught by your mom. Daryl's eyes widened as fear crossed his face, his breathing heavy from your previous actions. You turned your attention back to your mom and sighed.

“Mom, don't freak out. I promise I can explain.”

©dixons-sunshine 2024. I do not give permission for my works to be copied, modified, adapted or translated to any other site or platform without evidence of my given consent.

[loveinhawkins]

It’s only once everything is okay that Dustin starts thinking there’s something deeply wrong with him.

They’re out of the danger zone, where hospital visits have almost become normal hangouts rather than something to sit through on tenterhooks. Eddie’s getting the all clear to go home soon, and Dustin feels like he’s finally, finally able to take a deep breath, and blow it all the way out.

Steve must feel it, too, because he starts drifting off halfway through one of their last visits, while Dustin’s telling Eddie how Tews got up on the roof last night.

Dustin’s not offended by Steve falling asleep—for one, Steve already heard the story on the ride to the hospital and, more importantly, Dustin’s pretty positive that he’s barely been sleeping, only just enough so he can safely drive his car.

Dustin pats his knee fondly as he gets up.

Even though he’s steadily swaying towards the end of the couch, Steve tries to rouse himself.

“Mm, Dustin, jus’… jus’ need ten minutes, then��� give y’ride home…”

“It’s okay,” Dustin says. He gently pushes Steve’s shoulder, snorts when Steve’s head tips right onto the arm of the couch. “I’m gonna go call my mom.”

He knows Steve really must be exhausted when he doesn’t attempt an argument to counter that, just sighs with a murmured, “Hmm? If tha’s… ‘kay.”

From the bed, Eddie looks on with a smile. “Thanks, Henderson,” he says softly. “Wayne’s gonna come later, he can… give him a ride home.”

He yawns through his words, like just looking at Steve is making him sleepy, too.

They’ve been like that a lot recently, Dustin thinks, like their breathing falls into sync without them even trying.

He slips out of the room quietly. There’s something between Steve and Eddie, he can feel it—and although he can’t quite put a name to it yet, he knows it’s something delicate, like spun glass. He’s not going to be the one to disturb it.

When his mom comes to pick him up, it happens.

“Put your coat on, hon, it’s freezing out.”

Dustin rolls his eyes—it’s hardly that cold—but as he steps outside, the air hits his bare skin and—

He’s in The Upside Down, and the cold is in his throat, in his lungs, he can’t stop shaking with it, and Eddie, he’s—he’s not breathing—

“Dustin? The car’s parked this way, baby.”

Dustin breathes in, short and sharp. For a moment, he can still see it all: the lightning, the blue tint, the particles hanging in the air, and then, like blinking away a camera flash, it’s gone.

His mom frowns, steps closer. “Dusty? Oh, you look pale. Hope you’re not coming down with something. Early night tonight, okay?”

“Yeah,” Dustin says. Blinks. “I’m fine. Just tired.”

-

He tells himself it’s a one-off.

Then it happens again—inside the hospital this time.

Steve opens a window in Eddie’s room before heading to the vending machine—just a crack. Barely anything.

But the cold is so intense that it takes Dustin’s breath away.

He hears the bats. Feels the pain in his foot, burning white-hot as he runs, he has to run. Eddie. Screaming. He has to get to him now or he’ll—he’ll—

Dustin shuts the window with such force that the pane rattles.

Eddie glances over from where he’s standing, right in front of the tiny mirror on the wall; he’s been wringing out his still damp hair with a clean T-shirt that Dustin highly suspects belongs to Steve, unless Eddie’s suddenly taken to owning a Hawkins Phys. Ed uniform.

“Woah, that’s the window shut, I guess,” Eddie says lightly. “You cold?”

“A bit,” Dustin says, hopes it comes out normal.

It must do, because Eddie just shrugs and goes back to the mirror, fiddling with his curls, and Dustin would usually give him so much shit for that, but his chest is tight, and although logically, he knows he’s sitting on the edge of the bed, he can still feel the dampness of the ground, the dirt under his nails, Eddie’s blood…

“Did you just close that?” Steve says, jerking his head towards the window with a bemused look.

“I live to piss you off,” Dustin says.

Eddie laughs.

“Yeah, it’s your special talent,” Steve shoots back, monotone, but he’s grinning as he throws a candy bar at Dustin’s head.

3 Musketeers.

Dustin isn’t hungry, not even for nougat.

But he tears the wrapper anyway, takes a sizeable bite just for the sake of appearances.

Steve is catching Eddie’s eye in the mirror, and Eddie’s smiling, looking at Steve’s reflection; and although Dustin can hardly hear what they’re saying through the thud of his own heartbeat, their joy is obvious without words.

Because it’s over. It’s all over.

Dustin’s not gonna be the one to ruin this for them.

He won’t.

[theushijimaoverlord]

"this whole thing is a mess"

♡ tooru oikawa x reader - 1.3k ♡ warnings - none other than oikawa himself (and some ugly baby shenanigans) ♡ notes - hi! i'm purple and this is my first post, enjoy! (prompt credit from @creativepromptsforwriting)

It was a mess.

A big, tremendous, nearly-unfixable mess.

The day started off normal enough, you in your comfy gray sweat, loose shirt (that may or may not belong to Oikawa), a book you’ve been overdue to read in your hands. As your eyes scanned the pages, your attention was drawn away as you began to the thump thump thump of someone running up the stairs. And unless someone had broken into your house, you already knew who was currently making their way towards your bedroom.

As if on cue, a familiar ruffle of brunette hair came into view as said person came barreling through your door. For an athlete, it always bemuses you how Oikawa always got so winded running up your stairs.

You patiently wait for him to catch his breath. Finally, after he had decided that enough air had entered his lungs, he looked up and if you knew any better from the look in his eyes, you could already tell he was about to tell the most ridiculous thing ever. Because your boyfriend wouldn’t be doing the world justice if he were one for the dramatics.

“You would not believe what I just found out.”

Staring at him for a few seconds, you roll your eyes, close your books and turn your whole body to face him. This was gonna take a while. “Okay I’ll bite. Tell me what you found out.”

If you squint hard enough, you could almost see the joy gleaming in his eye from the fact that he caused you to turn your whole attention to him. But it quickly disappeared as he crossed the room and plopped down face first onto your bed, arms wide, and began whining.

You should convince him to take up theater.

“Come on Tooru, tell me what you came all the way up here for or I’m going back to my book,” Turning his face, Oikawa looked at you and gave his signature pout. If you called him out for it, he would vigilantly deny it.

“Did you remember when you went over to my mom's house a week ago?” 

“When we visited for new years? Yeah I remember, remind me later to ask her for her mochi recipe.”

“Yeah, yeah. So you remember when the two of you decided to torture me by looking at my baby photos?” Honestly, he was the one torturing you with the way he was loudly complaining with each flip of the photo album.

If it wasn’t already obvious by the media attention, countless photo-shoot bookings, and (to his dismay) amount of fanfic being written about him, Oikawa Tooru was a very handsome man. Some might even argue (you) that the word pretty comes to mind when talking about the Argentina National Volleyball Team’s setter.

But a little secret that he had and would rather take to the grave is that he was a very, very ugly baby. At least by his standards. You have a running theory that he only thinks that way because Iwaizumi liked to taunt him about it, especially when they were younger.

“Yes Tooru, although I’ve told you pointless times that you were a very normal looking baby, I do recall looking at photos with your mom.” Reaching a hand out from under the warm blanket, you grab his hand that is closest to you and intertwine your fingers. You swear his pout lessens a little before he continued telling you about his current dilemma.

“Well I was scrolling online and you will not believe what I saw” Sitting up without disconnecting your hands, he sits on the bed, brown eyes now directly across from you. 

“Well she. Posted. The. Photos.”

A beat of silence passed as he just stared at you, straight faced and serious. 

And then you break eye contact by letting out a short laugh, which apparently broke a dam inside you because your free hand came up to cover your mouth as you tried to suppress the fit of giggles you couldn’t hold back anymore. 

Oikawa just continues to stare at you, but now he had a dumbfounded expression on his face, as if he hadn’t just told you the worst possible thing to ever happen to him. Realizing you weren’t gonna stop, Oikawa lets out a long drawn whine, closing the gap in between the two of you and throwing his arms around your body, pressing his face into your neck.

The position caused you to uncover your mouth and now the only sound filling the room was your unfiltered laughs. As much as Oikawa loved listening to the noise, he hugged you tighter hoping you would eventually stop being entertained by his misfortune.

“Why do you hate me, babe. What have I done to deserve this mistreatment?”

As your laughter finally dies down, you reach your arms around and hug him back, rubbing one palm up and down his back as the other hand carded his brown moppy hair through your fingers. Your bedroom was now engulfed by a (rare) moment of peaceful silence as you felt him breathing into your neck.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’d have a knack for always being the most dramatic person in a room” A pause before his response.

“...no” An obvious lie, but you let it slide.

“Alright, what are people saying about your photos though? Can’t be that bad”

Sitting up straight again, his arms were still wrapped around your body so he had to crane his neck to look down at you and you find yourself doing a similar motion to look up at him. If anyone else saw the two of you like this, they might find the positioning comedic.

“It’s terrible. Absolutely horrible. This whole thing is a mess. The entire world is making fun of me as we speak.” 

Rolling your eyes, you reach for your phone on the nightstand and begin searching for his mother’s post which wasn’t hard considering you closely followed her actively due to her weekly recipe post. And just as you presumed, Oikawa’s mom’s most recent post was a picture of some photos from the album the two of you looked at a few days ago.

You could tell they were pictures of Oikawa during his infant years, but only because you were able to see it in person but…. When you closely examined the post, you were astonished that anyone could even tell what the photo was off. Even though mama Oikawa had skills in the kitchen and taking pictures of the foods she makes, the woman wasn’t as skilled when photographing other things.

“Babe, literally no one can tell what this is a picture of. If I didn’t know any better, it just looks like she took a picture of a photograph of a loaf of bread and posted it.” A gasp falls from his lips, causing you to look back up at him.

“Are you saying I look like a loaf of bread? How dare you!” You are practically rendered speechless.

“No! I’m saying that unless people have seen the real thing, there is no way anyone would guess that it’s a photo of you as a baby. And I’m looking at the comment section right now, no one is saying anything about you, most people are asking what it even is.”

“What? I swear people were saying stuff” Snatching your phone, he also begins to scroll before he comes across a comment that read:

that’s the stupidest looking baby I’ve ever seen

Turning the phone to show you, he pointed at the words on the screen, giving you a wide eyed I-told-you-so look. 

“See??” Looking at him, you gave Oikawa a blank stare.

“Tooru, Hajime is that one who commented that” Flipping the screen back around, his eyes quickly scan for the person who typed out the atrocious words and staring right back at him is Iwa-chan’s username, and profile pic of the gym he worked at.

“Oh”

Pondering his existence, Oikawa almost misses the snort you let out if it wasn’t for the explosion of laughter you let out.

Again

♡ hello! thank you for finishing my first work, i hope you enjoyed it. i would love any type of constructive criticism, either in regard of my writing, theme, or anything else

♡ i took a lot of my inspiration from @adoringhaikyuu, especially when creating my theme so i wanted to give them credit, and i completely recommend their work so go check them out

♡ thank you (again) and warmest regards, ms. purple

[vintageshanny]

Play Something For Me - Part 7 - Over the Rainbow

Content: Ruby and Elvis enjoy a sweet and smutty Thanksgiving in 1973 that involves a leather suit with rainbow fringe. 18+

Thank you to @peaceloveelvis for inspiring me with this pic of leather rainbow fringe pants that I didn’t know existed. And eternal gratitude to my lovely friends who’ve cheered me on in writing this series! 😘 @whositmcwhatsit @ellie-24 @be-my-ally @thatbanditqueen @lookingforrainbows @from-memphis-with-love @missmaywemeetagain @powerofelvis @arrolyn1114

If you need to catch up, here’s the series page:

Play Something For Me

Wednesday, November 21st, 1973

“But mom, I wanna go with you! It’s not fair!” Ella’s chocolate-brown eyes glazed over with tears as she pleaded her case. “Oh, honey, I know. There’s nothing I can do, it’s your father’s turn for Thanksgiving this year. But Elvis was very insistent that we both come for Christmas, so you’ll get to see Graceland then.” Ruby rubbed Ella’s back as she embraced her, soothing away the tears while she tried to hold her own nerves at bay.

After the week Elvis had spent in St. Louis at Halloween, he’d had to go back to Memphis to “take care of some business,” as he put it. The times they’d spent together so far had been in a sort of cocoon of love. Now she’d be entering his home and his normal daily life, whatever that entailed. After his comment about wanting her to move in, she felt a little terrified at how the visit would go.

A car horn honked outside, and Ruby gave Ella one last reassuring squeeze. “I love you, Ella-bella,” she murmured. “I’ll tell you all about Graceland when you come home on Sunday.” “You better,” Ella said with a small smile, trying to will herself into a better mood. “And I love you too.”

With Ella safely picked up, Ruby turned her attention back to her closet so she could finish packing for the long weekend. “What exactly does one wear for Thanksgiving at Graceland?” she muttered under her breath as she surveyed what looked to her like a bunch of frumpy “mom” dresses. “I wonder if I have time to alter anything…” she continued her one-way conversation when the phone interrupted her thoughts with its shrill tone.

“Hey, sweet red Ruby,” the unmistakable timbre sent butterflies swarming through her belly. “Elvis! It’s you!” Ruby squeaked out nervously. “Course it’s me baby, ya got another man callin’ ya?” he asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice. “No, no, sorry, I’m just…nervous about tomorrow,” Ruby admitted. Elvis’ tone softened instantly. “W-w-why ya nervous honey? It’s jus’ me. You ain’t never gotta be nervous or scared ‘round me.” Ruby cleared her throat a little bit. “Yeah, I know, I just hope I fit in there with you, in your home,” she said with an anxious sigh. “Ruby honey, ya ain’t gotta worry ‘bout that. Ya already know we fit together perfectly. In every way,” he added, and Ruby could almost see his cheeky grin right through the phone line as a flush rose on her face and a strained little whimper escaped her lips. Elvis laughed and teased, “Red Ruby, wait til ya get here so I can see the look on your face when ya make those noises.” Then he added more seriously, “I can’t wait ta see ya, honey. I miss ya so much.” Ruby’s heart melted right down and warmed her entire body. “Me too, baby.”

**************************************************************************************************

Ruby landed at the airport in Memphis at 11:18 Thursday morning with all the other last-minute Thanksgiving travelers. She bit down on her lip nervously as she looked around for Charlie, who she knew Elvis was sending to pick her up. She’d met Charlie in Las Vegas and he was sweet enough, although maybe a little desperate for Elvis’ approval. She inwardly chuckled, thinking how Elvis’ entourage probably thought the same about her. Charlie was polite but quiet on the drive to Graceland, as if he sensed her nerves and didn’t want to say anything that might escalate them.

Ruby gasped a little bit as they pulled up to the famed music note gate. She’d seen pictures of the house in magazines, but it was even more beautiful in person. She somehow felt Elvis’ aura and energy the moment they started up the driveway, and the nerves and excitement intensified as they parked and headed for the door. “We’ll go in the back ‘cuz he’s probably in the den waitin’ for ya,” Charlie explained. Ruby nodded anxiously and followed.

As she walked through the door and into a room filled with interesting furniture and an actual waterfall along the wall, she only had eyes for her beautiful man, who was sitting in a high-backed chair, holding court with his loyal subjects. He was talking and laughing, and his warm energy called to her. As soon as he laid eyes on her, he jumped to his feet and swooped her up in a big hug. “Ever’one, this is my sweet red Ruby,” he declared proudly, showing her off like a shiny new car. Most of the guys she recognized from Las Vegas, but she was introduced to some girlfriends and wives, plus a couple other employees. “Imma take Ruby on a tour,” Elvis said with a little wink as he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the basement steps. As they walked away, she could swear she heard someone remark, “It’s nice to see someone closer to his age.” Elvis must have heard it too because his grip tightened slightly, but he chose to ignore it for now.

“Will I get to meet Lisa?” Ruby asked as they walked down the stairs and turned right. She could see Elvis’ jaw tighten and his eyes turn stormy. “Naw, baby, Cilla is bein’ a –” Elvis caught himself and blinked slowly, trying to calm down. “Cilla won’t let her come home til Christmas,” he said, his eyes dropping sadly. Ruby wrapped her arms around him in a comforting embrace. “I’m sorry, Elvis,” she said softly. “I know how hard it is to be without your baby at the holidays. I guess the silver lining for us is that we have some time alone right now.” Elvis glanced up at her face quickly, his sad expression turning playful. “And what did ya have in mind for the alone time, Miss Ruby? Hmm?” he questioned teasingly.

“Well,” Ruby murmured with a deep blush, “I did notice the first stop on the tour is this big couch.” She nodded toward the long couch right behind Elvis. “And you’re here looking so sexy like this,” she added as she fully took in his outfit for the first time. Along with his usual assortment of rings and necklaces, he was wearing a brown leather jacket with long rainbow-colored fringe over a green button-down shirt. His leather pants matched the jacket, rainbow fringe and all. “Ya like it? I thought it felt like a Thanksgiving thing,” he said, his crooked grin lighting up his face. Ruby had to hold back a giggle at how cute he was to try to dress on theme for the holiday. “I love it, Elvis, there’s no one quite like you,” Ruby said, letting her hands drop and her fingers run ever so lightly over the soft bulge in his leather pants, causing a shiver to run though him. “I should hope not,” he said, smiling, resting one large hand on her shoulder, his warm fingers gently brushing the bare skin of her neck.

“You look very beautiful yourself, sweet Ruby,” Elvis said as he took her in, his eyelids seeming to grow heavy with lust. Ruby beamed, happy that she had chosen the right thing to wear - a burgundy sweater dress with a short flared skirt and a scoop neckline with a drawstring bow. Elvis’ fingers’ moved a little lower down her neck until they were tracing the neckline of her dress, running gently over her cleavage. The mixture of the warmth of his hand and the cool metal of his rings raised goosebumps on her skin. “This little dress is giving me some thoughts,” he whispered lowly as he gave the drawstring a little tug, the bow coming undone and the fabric gaping open a little bit. Elvis bent down and started pressing wet kisses to the exposed area of her chest, little moans coming from both of them. “Oh, baby, you’re makin’ me weak in the knees,” Elvis chuckled. “Let’s sit down for a minute.”

Sitting was the last thing on either of their minds though as Elvis pulled Ruby onto his lap on the couch and explored her mouth, her ear, her neck, and her chest with his tongue. He pulled the front of her dress and the cup of her lacy bra down a little more until one of her breasts was exposed. As he grazed his teeth lightly over her nipple and then sucked it into his warm mouth, flicking it with his tongue, Ruby couldn’t help but instinctually grind down onto his package that had grown so hard she wasn’t sure how it hadn’t burst right through the leather. She hoped the breathy moans from the two of them weren’t wafting up the stairs, but Elvis didn’t seem worried. “Goddamn, baby, I’ve missed ya,” he moaned out as Ruby leaned in and bit softly on his lower lip, then ran her tongue over it. She reached down between them and rubbed her hand back and forth over his bulge, the friction becoming too much for him to bear. “Oh, damn, Ruby, I-I-I love ya baby,” he said with a shudder as she suddenly felt a damp warmth beneath her hand. “I love you too, Elvis,” Ruby whispered as she laid her hand over his chest, feeling his racing heartbeat trying to return to its normal rhythm.

“EP, it’s almost turkey time!” a voice shouted down from upstairs. “Shoot, what am I gonna do ‘bout my pants?” Elvis muttered, looking down at where a sticky wet spot had soaked right through the leather. “I’ll have ta sneak up and change. Baby, can you go up and tell ever’one to wait for me in the dining room?” “Of course,” Ruby smiled as she stood up and straightened out her dress, re-tying the neckline and leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek before going back upstairs.

Twenty minutes later, everyone had gathered in the dining room for a Thanksgiving feast and Elvis appeared wearing the same jacket but with some black pants. Nancy, one of the cooks who Ruby had been briefly introduced to earlier, brought in a platter of food and looked at Elvis in surprise. “Mr. Elvis, you were so excited about your outfit! Why’d ya change your pants?” Elvis’ face turned red as he stumbled for an answer. Joe started snickering. “I think Elvis needs to know how to get something sticky out of leather. Any tips, Nancy?” Elvis gave Joe a glare that could freeze hell over, but all the guys seemed to have trouble holding back their laughter. Especially when Nancy chimed in with, “You didn’t get syrup on your pants again, did ya?”

Sitting at Elvis’ side, Ruby could feel her face burning red as she realized everyone probably could hear them in the basement. Elvis looked a bit embarrassed too, but Ruby’s presence had a way of lightening his mood. He just leaned in and whispered loudly, “Ignore these assholes Ruby.” Then he dropped his voice so only she could hear. “We’ll go up to my soundproof bedroom later and do whatever you want.” Ruby blushed again and smiled broadly at him as he winked at her. He always made her feel comfortable and protected.

After a delicious dinner, some of the guys went to the basement to play pool, but Elvis sat down and started playing gospel songs on the piano. A few others joined in singing, and Ruby leaned at the edge of the piano, watching Elvis’ passionate face as memories from long ago washed over her. As he started playing “If I Loved You,” he looked up and caught her eye with a big grin, causing her to blush and look away. She knew they were both picturing her kneeling between his legs at the piano bench fifteen years ago. Ruby could feel her pulse quicken at the thought. If only no one else was around, she’d do it all again. She thought about how soft and smooth he felt when she rolled his foreskin up and down, the inviting way his head peeked out when he was fully hard, how sensitive it was when she touched her tongue to it…her chest was starting to heave with all these fantasies racing through her mind, all while staring at this most perfect of faces. As if sensing her desire, Elvis announced they were going to turn in for the night and thanked everyone for celebrating with him. He grabbed Ruby’s hand and showed her the way to the master bedroom.

“I know what you were thinkin’ ‘bout red Ruby,” Elvis teased once they were alone. “You were thinking the same thing!” Ruby protested, swatting at his arm. Elvis smiled so big that his cute dimple flashed at her. “Maybe,” he said. “I was thinkin’ of somethin’ else though, too.” “What’s that?” Ruby asked. “I was thinkin,” Elvis said as he ran his hands down her sides and gently squeezed her waist, “that I wanna lick your pretty little kitty again. I like knowin’ I’m the first man that ever did that to ya.” “You’re the only man,” Ruby corrected as she reached up and stroked his cheek softly. “I have a few firsts with you, but I don’t think you have any with me,” she said, her voice sounding a little bit sad. Elvis looked at her in surprise. He gave her forehead a tender kiss before he spoke.

“Baby, you’re the first woman I’ve been with where I feel like ya want to spend time with me just as much as I do with you. Not spend money or get your name in the papers or any of that, but just spend time with me and and enjoy me and love me for who I am. You’re interested when I talk to ya, you’re affectionate with me all the time, ya never say ya need a break from me, you accept me completely. That’s a first for me, and probably the most important first there is.” Ruby looked up at him, her eyes misty with emotion. “Well, any woman who doesn’t see what a special person you are, even without the money and fame, must be crazy. But that’s okay, because now I get to be the lucky one.”

“You sure do, baby, and let me show ya just how lucky.” Ruby squealed with delight as Elvis tossed her on the bed so he could get to work worshipping her with his tongue.

[warrior-cats-rewritten]

Hey. Semi-Serious post here. I'm gonna be quite frank, this is about the death of a real animal. My animal.

The one I made the dedication of WCR!Into The Wild for. Because the wounds are still so raw that I can barely get through typing this very sentence without feeling choked up. So... If this post isn't for you, enjoy the first cat picture, the rest will be under the cut.

Meet Cleo.

She was my best friend. I moved into her home when I was a child, and her being there got me through the ensuing abusive situation I'd found myself in. I quickly became her favorite person. She was always there for me, and I was always there for her. I read Warriors books to her.

I met someone online that I fell in love with, and planned to have them move here. I worried about Cleo, who was now getting on in her years, but still healthy and strong.

I was granted full, effective ownership of her, since she was never really registered with a breeder. An oopsie, runt of the litter kitten of a genuine bred Maine Coon, unknown father.

Plan fell through, immigrating to Canada is difficult and the economy was about to fall apart. So I made the choice to move to the UK.

I was then informed that I could not take Cleo with me, they said she was too old, and that the plane ride would be too much for her. She was roughly 14/15 years old and, again, healthy. This next part is hard to write.

I spent every day after that, for a year, spending as much time as she wanted with me. She got every cuddle and snuggle she wanted.

I still remember that last time I ever saw her, the night I left the country. I held her like a baby, because she liked that. I remember what the back of her neck smelled like (warm chocolate). I rubbed her belly, and whispered to her that I loved her, and promised to come back again and see her. Then I placed her on her favorite spot on the back of the chair, and left.

I got regular updates from my mom about her, but something was clear. When I was on the phone, I was not to call out to her, because when I did, it made her search the whole house, meowing and calling out for me, looking for me. The dogs never did that, just Cleo.

4 months away from home, she started peeing in... Odd places. Visible places. Like... Middle of the living room and on bathroom rug.

Mind you, she used to do that in front of her litter box as a protest when it wasn't clean enough for her liking. But... Not like that.

Other than that, normal behavior.

Then, about 6 months in, she started being weird with food. Still demanded it, of course, but... Wouldn't eat it. Mind you, there were times when she really was just happy to have the wet food there... And then go off and eat her kibble as if she hadn't just acted like she would die without her wet food. Typical, right?

After a week straight, and not much kibble eaten, it... Was concerning. I offered my mom to cover the cost of any medical bills she would need, but was told to not be 'ridiculous', that she was too old. That she didn't need a vet, that nothing would help.

7 months in. July 7th, 2023. Ordinary day, kinda fun, sunny out, a relaxing day where I wasn't looking at my phone much. My partner gets a text from my mom asking if I am around. I get a call from my mom.

She hadn't eaten in days. She wasn't in her box anymore. She was barely drinking. All her chub was gone, leaving my poor girl at only 5 pounds. A fraction of her weight.

My mom was not calling me to say goodbye. Goodbye had already been said. And I wasn't there.

I asked if my mom could bury her, so at the very least I could have something to visit when I got home.

To get Cleo's body back, it would have cost 200 dollars. She would be cremated, and her ashes not given back either. Gone.

The older woman next to me later said she had never, in all her years, heard a person wail and scream the way I had. I barely remember it, or anything after that. The grief is so bad that I feel chest pains, and my throat will close, I could cry myself hoarse still, just from thinking about her.

On one hand I don't want to feel this way anymore. On the other I feel horrific guilt about that, about wanting to "move on". I hate that term, it needs something new. Moving on isn't forgetting about them, it just means it doesn't hurt as badly anymore, but... What does THAT mean?

Below is the very last picture I have of her.

I'm sorry, Cleo. I'm sorry I couldn't help you. I sorry I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry I broke my promise. And I'm sorry I wasn't there to say goodbye.

I'll never forget you. I'll never love you any less.

It'll be hard to visit home without you in it.

If you read this post, thanks for listening. I'm really struggling with grief processing, even though it's been almost a year. 208 days as of today. She isn't the first I've lost, she won't be the last, but WCR is partially dedicated to her.

I hope you like the pictures of her, knowing how vain she was I'm sure she would enjoy me showing them off.

Bye guys.

[witched-kid-writer]

Day Twenty-two: Imposter

31 Days of Horror prompt list

Statement of Evelyn Myers on the apparent disappearance of her sister Lisa Myers. Statement given March 12th 2013.

Statement begins.

It's not her. You don't have to believe me but I know. I should probably start from the beginning so you can understand what's going on, I just haven't had anyone willing to sit down and talk to me about this. No one seems to believe me when I tell them that Lisa isn't Lisa anymore. They have all been telling me that everything is the same. That she's the same. But I know.

Okay, right. The beginning. Lisa was five years, six months, and two days younger than me. Which meant when I moved out at twenty-one she was still fifteen. Our home life was good. Our parents loved and doted on both of us. Hence why I didn't move out until I was in my twenties. Lisa was honestly the most excited for me out of everyone, she knew how much I needed to get out of the house and be independent.

I didn't go very far though. I was close enough that I could still visit a few times a month. It was a few months after I left that my parents got a new table. Said they found it at some second hand shop and just couldn't leave it behind. I thought there was something deeply wrong with the thing but I couldn't tell them what they could or couldn't bring into their home, so I kept my mouth shut about it. I keep thinking that if I had said something to them, told them to get rid of the dam thing, then Lisa would still be here. The real Lisa would still be here.

Lisa didn't seem to care one way or another about the table. At least not at first. Every time I would go over she would be more and more... I guess the best word is enamoured by it. Or maybe I should use obsessed. A few months in and nothing could pry her away from it.

Then there was a period of a few months where I couldn't go visit. Too much was going on at work and with my boyfriend and just in the rest of my personal life I couldn't make the time to make the trek out to all of them. I still called my parents as much as I could but Lisa never seemed to have time to talk to me any more. It worried me, I kept thinking maybe she was going through something at school but I didn't want to pry too much. I tried texting her but all of her responses just seemed off. I told my parents to try and keep a close eye on her but they kept saying she was fine at home.

I should have known then that something was up. She had never been like that with me. Sure there was time when we were kids when we were at each other's throats, but once we both started to get a bit older she really started to open up to me. It was never like her to just go so radio silent on me.

It would have been Lisa's sixteenth birthday when I finally was able to make it back home. I had specifically taken some annual leave to make sure I wouldn't miss it. It had been so nice to finally get a hug from them, it was something I so desperately needed after everything that had been going on with work and the fact that at that point I was newly single. The only other person i really wanted to see at that point was Lisa. And when I followed my parents into the living room what I found was not her.

Me and my sister both took after our father. Same dark hair and eyes, darker skin tone, tall and a little gangly. This person sitting playing on my sister's phone was shorter, stockier like our mother. She had our mother's fair hair and skin and these crisp hazel eyes. The difference, the shock, stopped me in my tracks. there was confusion across both my parents' faces as my Mom asked me what was wrong. I told her that that wasn't my sister.

And my Mom laughed. Like I had told her some joke and not the fact that my world was crumbling around me. She said of course it was. Dad asked me how I couldn't recognize my own sister. I put on a smile, how could I not. If they thought that that person was my sister there had to be something so deeply wrong it would take more than just me pointing it out. I would have to find some old pictures and show them that that this was wrong.

After about an hour of catching up I asked if we could go through the old photo books to look at past birthday pictures. I knew that there would be the proof I needed to show them that there was something up. My Mom was completely happy to go dig them out and put them on that same damn table that I hated since they brought it in and flip it open. I was so ready to show that I was right, to prove that the person sitting in this room with us wasn't my sister.

You can understand my utter horror when the photos from Lisa's last birthday were of the same person sitting right there. I remember the day that the picture was taken, I remember pulling her in close and both of us smiling as my Dad snapped a picture of the two of us on his stupid digital camera I had been telling him to replace for years. I can remember the pictures getting printing and me, Lisa, and our Mom sitting around the kitchen table putting them into the photo book. But I knew it wasn't that person who I had taken the photo with.

I didn't say anything else about it for the rest of the night because I couldn't make sense of it. I don't know how the picture, the picture I knew was taken, had been replaced. How my parents didn't realise their daughter had been replaced with someone who was not her. There was just no explanation for anything that happened.

When I went to leave that night I didn't bother saying goodbye to this fake Lisa. But as I made it to my car and looked back out the house I saw her staring at me from Lisa's bedroom window. When she noticed me looking she smiled. And in that moment I knew, I just knew, that whatever that thing was it knew what it was doing.

[nobleriver]

Hi! Hu! Hi! It's me, again! I just had a thought and I needed to get it out and you'll be the one I thought of first- other than my sister who is not a Whovian but does love River. But River- River with children... River taking care of others- at the cost of her self.

River being the one baby/toddler Anthony wants to be held by most. To her parents' joy and exasperation. Cause they will be holding and spoiling him but the minute he sees her- he's straining out wanting to be held by big sister. At first, this used to terrify River- afraid of accidently hurting or dropping him but getting used and being comforted by holding him later on. Also being a bit smug the way firstborn are when little siblings prefers them over Mom and Dad.

And then Anthony grows up- still loving his sister most; other than his parents of course- and his child does the same thing he did- strain out of his grasp because she wants her auntie Melody to hold her. Amy thinks it's payback and teases Anthony about it often. Rory taked Amy's side to Anthony constration and River is just delighted over holding her niece.

When Amy and Rory died- River stayed in the past as long as she could. Helping her brother grief. Making sure he takes care of himself and only letting herself fall apart in silence.

When Anthony died- she was there alongside her niece. They heard his last words. River comforting and hugging her niece and only grieving in the safety of her Mom's console.

Neither Anthony or his daughter or Amy and Rory learned of her fate BTW. Not while they were alive but in their death- the doctor visited their graves- after Deliriuim- to let them know and apologize for not saving her life.

Abused children looking at River and gravitating towards her in planets she saves. Because they know she knows what's it's like- the way children intuitively knows when someone is safe or not and they know she will protect them no matter what. And River does- she protects them, gives them safe homes, bring them back home if they want and if they ask for it, exact revenge against their abusers.

Her losing her cool if a child is a victim and letting her darker side out- same way the doctor does.

Post- library, when she meets 14 and the Noble-Mott-Temple family- she takes Rose under her wing. Calling her niece- going out with her in little auntie- niece dates. Teaching her a bit on how to drive the TARDIS- and taking her out on the TARDIS too. Both of them and Donna teaming up against 14. She had to be held back a couple of times from taking care of transphobic assholes. She still takes care of them of course- with Rose's premission and Donna's help but it's in subtle ways that's can't be traced back to them. The family knows of course. But River flashes an innocent- unbelievable- smile: Donna just smirks and everybody decids it's better not to ask. Sylvia is just disappointed she didn't get to join though. 😒

14 sometimes regrets the day these two met- they're a force of nature individually and unstoppable together. He's just happy he's not on their bad side. Shaun is just delighted his wife and daughter are happy- and happy his brother in law got his wife back.

She does the same thing with Ruby BTW- taking her under her wing- I mean to 15's eternal delight. He was less delighted when Ruby flirted with his wife when these two first met. But tbh, Ruby didn't know River was the doctor's wife at first.

But, that side- in my headcanon- also extends to the companions. Her checking in at first for the doctor and then growing to genuinely like them. Helping them here or there- from the background ofc. Maybe in some cases she develops friendships with them- a la Liv and Helen. I headcanon she and Martha are close friends too- first developed by River dropping in UNIT- fixing things and/or causing chaos. And then River would drop by and take Martha on adventurs here and there- mostly on Earth- foiling bad aliens. Martha was devastated when she learned of River's death.

I just... I just genuinely adore the thought of River being a caretaker and having people love and care for her in return but yet- her view of herself is still distorted and negative. At least until she heals enough to realize otherwise.

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble. Hope you are having a lovely day!! 💗😘😊💕

Awww how lovely! I am having a good day. However, my brain is a little dead at this point. River has a fiercely protective heart, constantly putting her life on the line to save people just like the doctor, that's part of the attraction. She pretends not to, but she genuinely cares about people, especially her family. Actions speak louder than words. I can definitely see her and Martha hitting it off. They'd be brilliant.

[lythea-creation]

Expectations - Shams x fem reader (Chapter 8)

Chapter 1

Previous Chapter

warnings: none

word count: 1.031

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

Even though Samira hurried to get done as quickly as possible it took her three weeks to settle everything at her home.

I had never been apart from Shams and Omar for that long, but at least Samira had gotten my phone back. So I could text and call them, which I did on a daily basis.

Over the time away I was able to get to know Samira a bit and the other way around. She told me about my mom and their time together and I told her about me and my life, although I still had not enlightened her about my relationship with Shams. I was still scared that she might reject me for that.

In the meantime I had also picked up my social media again, telling everyone that I was living with Samira now. Thanks to the deal with my dad I claimed that I did it to get to know another part of my family.

I also incorporated Samira in some of my videos and my viewers just loved her. It was difficult not to love her to be honest. She was a true sunshine and absolutely real, always speaking what was on her mind without thinking about it first. At the same time she was considerate to no end. No clue how she could do that.

“Are you excited to get back?”, Samira inquired on the ride to our new home.

“Yeah, but also pretty nervous”, I admitted.

“Oh, I get that”, she declared. “There was this one time where I got suspended from school ...”

“You got suspended?”, I interrupted her, shocked.

“Yeah. Back at my time schools were way more conservative and they didn't like some stuff I said”, she explained. “But what I wanted to say … What did I want to say?”

I could not help but laugh. She was so out of it sometimes.

“Oh, yeah”, she recalled. “I was so anxious how people would react to my return, but I pictured it worse than it actually was.”

“Hope I got your luck”, I mumbled.

“I'm sure it will go fine. Either way we'll get some ice cream after your first day back at school. You can invite Shams and Omar, too, if you want to”, she considered.

“Thanks”, I shot back, picturing in my head how their first meeting would probably go.

I was not sure if I was ready for that …

When we arrived at the new house I was excited and hesitant at the same time. It was way smaller than my dad's house, which I did not mind at all. I hoped that it would be cozier as well.

“Come on! I can't wait to get a good look at it now that the furniture is here”, Samira encouraged me.

Her carefree nature was infatuating and without wasting another thought on it I followed her.

“I know it's not that big, but you have your own room”, Samira enlightened me.

Meanwhile I was in awe. Samira's style was completely different from my dad's or whoever he had hired to decorate our house.

Countless plants and pictures adored each room, even the hallway. The furniture was welcoming and the whole place looked bright with its huge windows. It actually looked like a home and not like a mansion out of an advertisement.

“I love it already”, I let her know while continuing to explore our new home.

It was not hard to detect my room.

“I thought you might want to have your own stuff here. Feel free to toss out anything you don't like anymore. We can buy you something else as soon as we find time for that”, Samira stated and left into another room.

I took my time to assemble everything the way I liked. There were even some frames to add pictures to my room.

After a felt eternity that ironically went by in a blink at the same time, I was finished and showed it all to Shams and Omar via video phone call.

“That's awesome”, Omar remarked.

“Hey, don't take up all the space! I can't see anything”, his sister complained.

I laughed at their usual behavior. “You know you can visit me from now on. Samira's already looking forward to meeting you”, I declared.

“What is she like?”, Shams inquired.

“She's really funny and almost always in a good mood. I've no clue how she does that though. It seems like she just knows what to say and to do all the time. But honestly her head's in the clouds sometimes and she can be quite clumsy”, I proposed.

“Sounds like me”, Omar proclaimed.

“Cut the funny and we're more at it”, Shams teased him.

“Hey! I am funny! (f/n), tell her I'm funny”, Omar requested.

“People that have to make others claim they're funny, usually aren't funny”, Shams noted with a grin.

“You think you're any better?”, he challenged her.

“I wasn't the one trying to make a point about myself”, she shot back.

“Guys, calm down!”, I instructed them, barely able to contain my laughter.

To my surprise they actually listened to me. Maybe the benefit of being gone for so long.

“I can't wait to see you again”, I confessed. “But somehow it would feel ungrateful to leave Samira already. You know … after she just gave up her old life to support me without truly knowing me. She doesn't even make it seem like a big deal. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I visited you.”

“It's fine, (f/n). We're looking forward to see you, too. But we've waited for weeks now. We can wait one more day”, Shams assured me.

“Thank you.” I shot them a smile. “See you at school then”, I addressed my girlfriend. “I'll come by your place afterwards”, I promised Omar before he could complain.

Time was an illusion lately as it seemed to hurry and creep simultaneously. But right now it had brought just the change of pace I had needed.

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

What do you think about the changes in (f/n)'s life? And how do you like the story so far?

Tag List: @sunwoniie

[and-so-he-rambled]

(Got amputation on a whump wheel and chose Leo)

Leo rolled out of bed with a groan, stumbling a bit as his balance was briefly thrown off. He was still getting used to this.

His arm lay in ist capsule, disconnected and sitting pretty like a Halloween decoration. He hated looking at it.

He used to be the weak one, but now, with his arm off and a metal hole where his bionic arm was made to slot in, he felt weakest of all. He was back home again, never quite able to be away from his mom for too long. Janelle liked the visits too, growing up into a firecracker of a lady and studying engineering at the local college. He’d always wanted to be cool for her, but he was a bit of a trophy boyfriend these days.

He made his way to the kitchen, his left arm habitually opening doors as his stump hung uselessly. The right arm was too powerful anyways when it was connected, so he’d taught himself to be left handed. He still slipped up sometimes away from the reinforced walls and doorknobs of the island, but he was getting better at it.

He found his way easily in the dark, familiar with the house as he pulled a glass from the cabinet.

“Leo?” Light filled the room, his mother standing in the doorway in her robe. Her baby belly was barely showing, but he found that he noticed it every day. A reminder he’d have a little sibling, one he swore to keep safe from their crazy life. Was this how his mom had felt when he started going on missions?

He was startled by a cry from his mom, a hiccuping sob that she tried to cover with his hands. The glass slipped from his weak fingers, exploding on the floor.

“Mom? Are you okay? Is it the baby? Do I need to call Davenport?” He asked in a flurry, watching her shake her head while tears began to escape her eyes. She took a step forward and he held his arm out to stop her. “Mom, there’s glass, stop there!”

She didn’t respond, just staring with her hand over her mouth. He followed her gaze, right to his stump.

Oh.

“It’s okay mom, it’s okay.” He tried to assure her, stepping away from the mess to reach out and touch her. It felt safer, hugging her without fear of crushing her. He missed being able to hold her with both arms and squeeze, the way she used to groan dramatically as if he was the strongest kid in the world instead of a stringbean little punk.

“I-“ She attempted to speak, swallowing. “I’d never seen it off before. I didn’t realize…”She held him, pressing her teary face into the crook of his neck. When he’d she gotten so small? When had he gotten so big?

“My baby. My baby.” She repeated, one hand around her boy and the other on her small bump. It made his chest ache, hearing his mother cry. She never cried, said there were always better things to do than cry. She used to tell him she cried to say he was born and when he got his first shots, but he’d never seen her cry in front of him in all his years. It felt wrong. He was the emotional little kid who would run to her and son into her chest. She was the strong woman who wiped his tears.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.” She whispered, squeezing his hand.

“Mom, you have nothing to be sorry for.” He tried to assure her. “This wasn’t your fault, none of it. I just got hurt, it happens. I’ve got training now, it won’t happen again. It’ll be okay.” He just spoke in a stream of consciousness, word vomit that seemed to help. Her little sobs died down, hands frantically wiping away the traitorous tears.

“I’m your mother Leo, I’ll always feel responsible for you, no matter what you do, or how old you get. It’s my job.” He wisely didn’t mention the birthdays she missed for reporting or all the times she forgot to pick him up from school. It didn’t really matter now, she’d been a good mom, taken care of him after his dad died. He loved her.

“I’m okay.” He promised through the phantom pains and nightmares. He’d try and remember to wear it when he left his room, to hide the reminder. Just because he’d gotten used to the sight doesn’t mean the rest would.

“Just be careful baby.” She pressed a kiss to his head, standing to get the broom as she gathered herself together, shooing him away when he tried to help.

He promised he would, going back to his room to hopefully sleep. He’d be heading back to the island tomorrow.

-

A week later, Mr, Davenport built the space elevator.

[primroses-n-deadleaves]

i dont have anyone to talk to rn, not out of anything bad theyre just busy and also have their own issues and so on; its okay still it leaves me wondering what went wrong? i only have two ppl that i can rlly talk to like both socialize and also to the extremes of venting, i try to help them too but im not rlly good at it, and so, whenever theyre missing or busy, i feel very alone, which is funny becuz im quite fortunate to have a semi active group on discord with cool ppl but instead of trying to get rid of my loneliness ig i jus self isolate idek whats wrong with me now, all the bad stressful stuff passed, for now,, mom was angry cuz my room got infested with termites, she got rid of them and i was left with the task of cleaning the stain,; and i jus discovered theres more termites to my side that went unnoticed by mom and that are eating the table and chair,; she doenst know of that yet thou so i can handle but i havent, the weekend approaches which is when well be doing all of this, i could try to take care of it before saturday before she notices and gets even more angry at me but here i am writing instead.

i feel very useless, my car is still at the repair shop so i can go out and buy the insecticide i need to get rid of the termitees, its at the repair shop cuz i let it break,, when it broke i called mom and she was at work so she asked me if i had any friends that could come and help me, all my friends are little ppl on my phone stuck to the other side of screen,; she had to call her friend which i was lucky that he was available and came to help me i felt very alone and useless and without any friends theres only so much online friends can do and i dont blame them, im also an online friend to them and i cant rlly do much for them either; that said, i rlly want irl friends.... but those "friends" i, stupid highschool drama ruined all my friendships its been 4 years and im still suffering the consequences of it; and also i rlly miss them, even if they were shitty and used me i still miss them;; maybe if i had acted like nothing id probably still be used sure but maybe i wouldve had someone to call when my car broke down

also im unemployed, with a gambling addiction of all things,, ive been thinking of getting a cheaper addiction- well, cheaper in the long run, something like smoking, not drinking, drinking is a bit expensive and my family from dad's side has a history of alcoholism,, so smoking or vaping, ruin my lungs,, im pretty sure a pack of cigarettes is cheaper than putting 100 into gacha games; why not look for a job? great question, i have, maybe not hard enough but im a bit too depressed if u cant tell by the writing; ive also tried to do online job but its rlly taxing to do a lot of work making vids and such to see no profit and ik ik it comes with time but i dont have time i need money now the funniest part is that i tried to apply for military jobs yknow the army and even those have rejected me, yes im overweight according to bmi, thats all they needed to disqualify me,; so instead i spend my time leeching money of mom, i feel very guilty, im a horrible child,, i sobbed when i was getting my meds and it ended up costing 30 bucks to buy becuz i sent it to a damn walgreens instead of a local pharmacy that accepts my insurance, i lost my meds and i could get refill but itll end up costing until i change the location which i cant change until my next visit

i wanted to kill myself when mom told me i could be working rn and that she was right, i could be working rn but instead i was laying on the bed which isnt even mine becuz i sleep on my sisters room taht has ac

the feeling had dissipated for a moment, well, it left when i repressed my feelings, which writing about it makes me confront those feelings so the suicidal ideation is back; in moments like this i think about one certain episode of fairly odd parents, yknow the one where timmy sees how the world would be if he never existed and sees that everyone around him is doing better without him? i dont remember the ending, i just think about it and think im better off dead, literally, i bring no good to the world

if u happen to stumble upon this, dw, i have a strangely strong will to live, last time i rlly tried to kill myself and acted, i called the hotline, which took me to the hospital where i was fortunate its a good hospital and got treated nicely,; bottom line is, and i quite hate this part of myself, ill live,; this stupid survival instict is strong enough to keep me from dying, i rlly hope it wasnt , life honestly isnt worth living,, the world is a shit place

[ask-homoclan]

To everyone

What’s your relationship with your families?

Whiskerdrum: Ah... Um....well my mother and father passed away when I was younger, so I had to take care of my sister. I had an aunt who was not very kind to say the least. She used every opportunity to treat me and my sister like dirt. But after leaving Shadowclan, I haven't talked to her since.

Foxfeather: Ugh my relationship with my mother Cotton was horrible She always hisses and nips me and my sisters all the time. And she never goes one day without reminding us that we were mistakes and she never wanted kits. My relationship with my father Slash is surprisingly good due to him being a loner. Slash would always come and visit me and my sisters he would sometimes have food with us and will tell us a stories about the places and the cats and animals he’s seen or talked to.

And my relationship with my sister’s Sun, Moon, and Star is pretty normal. When we were kits each one of us would take the place of the one who is going to get nipped by Cotton just to spare the other and my sisters were extra protective of me because I was blind. When we got adopted, turns out our twolegs live fairly close to each other so we always come to each other’s gardens and talk.

I haven’t talked to them since I left for the forest…

Curlstep: My family is quite nice. My mother is the deputy of Windclan, so aside from feeding me when i was younger, she was much more distant. Father took over in the nursery for her. She was loving, yes. She would lay down her life for the family and the entire clan, but she just was much more wrapped up in her duties. I remember when Featherwalker and I left how sad she and my brother were to see me go, but I don’t think i could ever regret leaving.

As for my brother, he is quite the cat. He was roughly 8 moons old when i was born. Back then we would squabble nonstop. Nothing violent mind you, just normal sibling rivalry. *However*, i do remember one time when i did bite his paw when i was an apprentice, and he was a warrior. We were heading home from a patrol, things got heated and i just dove for his paw. I was reprimanded when we returned to camp. Not my finest moment.

Father is the kindest cat you could find in Windclan. He’ll befriend anyone—from rouges and loners to enemy warriors. Granted, that didn’t always work out for him, but it did most of the time. It definitely did help feed his catmint addiction though. But by far my favorite moment was when he took me out of camp as a kit on multiple occasions. I’d ride in his back, and he’d bring me to a dip in the moor a good distance from camp, and we’d just sit there, watching the stars. He’d give them names, pointing out shapes and figures he’d see in them. Those times were what i’d consider the highlight of my kithood.

My aunt was very helpful back when i was a medicine cat apprentice. She’s a warrior but for a warrior she knew her herbs like the back of her paws, and has a wicked sense of sarcasm. Couldn’t tell you what most of the herbs did, but she could spot them from a mile away. Sometimes she did get a bit *too* sarcastic. But other than that, she’s a wonderful cat.

Haildance: I miss my father. My brother is...I would rather not discuss him.

Blackbeak: Ah hope the molly who birthed meh rots alone. Falconscale was nevah truly mah brothuh, but I hope to see him again.. Jus' to tear 'is face in two. Clay, mah stepfather and previous mentor when I lived in Riverclan, is an amazing tom. I'm glad to have him with me on this journey. Those structures don't matter much to me anymore though. Curlstep's mah real mom, Seaf's mah true dad and ah have my darlin' kits with Haildance.

Nightsnow: My father was deadbeat so I obviously hate him. My mom can't be intolerable sometimes but I guess that's what most parents are like. My brother is lazy and just straight up annoying. My sister is sweet but she can sometimes be too noisy and energetic for me to handle.

Seaflower: Well considering my sister's treatment of me and those I care for was a driving force in my decision to leave Skyclan, not well, I'd think.

Featherwalker: My parents, Flightwhisker and Grassroot, weren’t there, they had other more better children to worry about. Had no to time for me.

Had all the time in the world for their other kids especially their precious Downstalk.

[dixons-sunshine]

Imagine this…. for the young daryl X young reader au

Reader has a camcorder which she carries around when her and daryl go on little trips and they end up finding it again after years for whatever reason and it’s a nice little fluffy scene where they relive earlier times together before everything

A Trip Down Memory Lane | Daryl Dixon x Fem!Reader

*GIF isn't mine.*

Summary: While unpacking your things for your new apartment with Daryl, you stumbled across an old video camera you had used to film little moments between you and Daryl in your teen years. A visit down memory lane gives Daryl the push he needed to ask you something important.

Genre: Fluff.

Era: Pre outbreak.

Part of the Shopping Spree, Hangout Dreams universe.

Warnings: Swearing.

Word count: 1.5k

A/n: This request was so cute! I hope you don't mind that I paired it with another idea I had. It just seemed like it would fit perfectly. And I made Daryl romantic in this because he's a romantic deep down.

➳༻❀✿❀༺➳

“Dear god, what the fuck was I thinking? That style was horrible!”

Daryl laughed at your comment, pulling you closer into his side. “I think ya looked cute. Kinda like Minnie Mouse in a way.”

“That doesn't make it any less horrible. Polka dots and frilly pink headbands are not my thing,” you laughed, skipping to the next video on the video camera you had found.

You and Daryl were in the midst of unpacking the boxes with all of your things. The two of you had just recently found a cheap enough apartment to rent and were busy organising everything when you had stumbled upon an old video camera that you had used when you were teenagers. Everything else was quickly forgotten as you and Daryl sat in the middle of what should be the living room, surrounded by a bunch of boxes as you took a trip down memory lane.

“Fuck, please tell me tha' ain't me,” Daryl groaned when a younger version of him appeared on the screen. “Jesus, buddy. Ya ever heard of sunlight? It'd do ya good to work on yer tan. Ya look like a fuckin' sheet of paper.”

You chuckled at the comment, nodding your head in agreement. “You do kinda look pale in this.”

“Looks like I needed at least 50 blood transfusions. M'surprised I didn't drop dead back then,” Daryl agreed, shaking his head in disapproval of his former self. “Can't believe s'already been a decade. Feels like jus' yesterday when we were back in yer mom's trailer.”

“Time flies. Now we're moving in to what is hopefully our last apartment for a while. You've got a great job down at that motorcycle repair shop and I've got a great teaching gig,” you replied, placing the video camera down next to you.

Daryl nodded. “Mhm,” he agreed, before giving you a playful smile. “Dun' know 'bout yer gig, though. Those five year olds are gremlins. They're gon' eat ya alive when ya start on Monday. Ya dun' stand a chance.”

You faked an offended gasp and shoved him lightly, eliciting a laugh from him. “I'll have you know, Mr Dixon, that I'm more than capable of handling a couple of five year olds. I've been doing it for two years.”

Daryl smiled and pulled you closer into his side, placing a kiss on the top of your head. “Yeah, I know. S'those high schoolers yer plannin' on teachin' one day tha's gon' eat ya up. Teenagers are the real ones ya should look out for.”

“Luckily that won't be for a while. I'm quite content on just teaching the little ones for now,” you responded, nuzzling your face into his chest. “And teenagers aren't that bad. Most of them are just misunderstood. Some of them are in situations a lot like—”

Despite cutting yourself off, Daryl knew exactly what you meant. If it were any other person, Daryl would've gotten pissed, but it wasn't just any other person. It was you, the love of his life, the person who's stuck with him despite everything, because of everything. He wouldn't fault you for one slip up. God only knows he'd said so much worse a couple of years ago, but you forgave him.

You were amazing to him like that.

“Situations a lot like wha' I went through,” Daryl finished for you, letting out a deep sigh.

“Sorry,” you hurriedly apologised, pulling back slightly to look into your boyfriend's eyes. “I didn't mean to bring it up. I—”

A tender kiss to your lips shut you up instantly. When Daryl pulled back, he gave you a reassuring smile. The last thing he wanted was for you to feel like he'd get mad at you for one minor slip of the tongue.

“S'alrigh',” he reassured you. “M'not mad. And yer righ'. There's way too many kids tha' go through wha' I went through. Tha's why any highschool would be lucky to have ya. Ya could help a lot of kids in situations like tha'. No, ya will help a lot of kids in situations like tha'. Jus' like ya helped me.”

You smiled and gently cupped his cheek, bringing him into a sweet kiss. “I love you,” you whispered when you pulled away, resting your forehead against his.

“I love ya too. More than ya'll ever know,” he responded, before pulling away and reaching for something in his pocket. “But maybe this will give ya a glimmer of how much I love ya.”

You gasped in surprise, happy tears welling up in your eyes. A choked up laugh escaped you, ecstasy flooding through your body as your eyes flickered between the man you loved and the small, round object he held delicately between his fingers.

A ring.

“I know this ain't the most expensive ring out there, and it dun' have some big diamond in the middle tha's worth more than this apartment, but m'hopin' s'enough. If I could get a better one, I would, and I will someday. Someday when I finally get promoted and yer teachin' high schoolers, when we dun' have to worry 'bout rent and shit like tha'.”

You smiled through your tears, another small laugh escaping. “Daryl—”

“Nah, please let me finish 'fore I chicken out,” he cut you off. When you nodded, he continued. “Ya've always been there fer me. Ever since we were twelve and ya started joinin' me by tha' river. When I needed ya the most, ya were always there with a reassurin' smile and a willin' ear. Then ya became my girlfriend ten years ago, and despite everythin', ya've stuck with me. Despite my outbursts, my baggage, my brother...”

You laughed at that. “I really don't like your brother.”

Daryl chuckled and nodded. “I know, but ya stayed. Fer ten years now, ya've been by my side. Yer my best friend, my partner in crime, the love of my life, and there's no one I wanna spend the rest of my days with than the beautiful, kind, funny, smart woman right in front of me. Yer my ray of sunshine, the one who always manages to make me feel better.”

Daryl adjusted himself until he was on one knee in front of you. Your breath got caught in your throat, and you scrambled to sit on your knees, your eyes sparkling in wonder as the ring glinted in the light.

“Sunshine, would ya do me the honour of bein' my wife?”

Words completely eluded you at that moment. You quickly grabbed his face and brought him into a kiss, that particular kiss conveying more than words ever could. When you pulled away, you smiled softly at him.

“Yes, I'll marry you. You didn't even have to ask.”

Daryl let out a sigh of relief and pulled you into his arms, hugging you tightly. “God, tha' was nerve wrackin'.”

You laughed as you pulled away from the hug. “I bet. You know, for a man of few words, that speech was kind of incredible. It definitely beat the one I had planned for you.”

Daryl frowned in confusion. “Wha' speech fer me?”

Nervously, you reached into your own pocket and pulled out a silver band. Daryl's eyes widened in surprise as you showed him the ring you had.

“I was kinda getting fed up with waiting for you to pop the question, so I was gonna take matters into my own hands.”

Daryl let out a laugh of surprise and shook his head. “Wow,” he mused. “Gender roles be damned, huh?”

“Damn straight,” you agreed, before motioning to the ring in his hand. “You can slip the ring on my finger, Mr Dixon.”

Complying with your request, he slipped the ring onto your finger. Before you even had to ask, Daryl extended his left hand to you. You smiled and slipped his own ring onto his finger.

Looking at the ring, Daryl smiled fondly. “Ya continue to surprise me everyday, Mrs Dixon.”

“I'm not a Dixon yet,” you reminded him, allowing him to pull you into his arms for the millionth time that day. “But I could be one soon. Maybe tomorrow, even.”

“Ya suggestin' we elope?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at the idea—an idea that sounded absolutely perfect to him. “Yer mom would kill us if she found out.”

“Well,” you began, admiring the ring on your finger. “It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Besides, we don't need some elaborate wedding to show how much we love each other. All we need is each other, and someone willing to officiate. We can go to the courthouse tomorrow.”

“Tha' sounds absolutely perfect,” Daryl agreed, pressing a kiss to your head.

“By the way, if you buy me another ring in the future to replace this one, I will be pissed. This ring is perfect.”

“Whatever makes ya happy, Mrs Dixon. I love ya.”

“I love you too.”

©dixons-sunshine 2024. I do not give permission for my works to be copied, modified, adapted or translated to any other site or platform without evidence of my given consent.

[imoutodaughter]

pattern of isolation/social seperation

at home it was very rocky with mom being overwhelmed and dysregulated and dad overworking and being vry emotionally repressed and toxic and absent and sometimes just like straight up abusive??? lots of fighting parents.. and big episode nights where little things would snowball into dysregulated mess on all sides

I would lay awake at night and listen to my parents yelling and arguing about me and what to do with me through the walls.. my room was next to theirs

there were nights where it would get physical with my dad and I, one night I remember I was upset and trying to talk to him and he was in the kitchen so I blocked the exit and stood in the exit way from the kitchen and he got upset at that and picked me up and threw me on the kitchen floor hurting my leg,,,

at one point I was having a super bad tantrum fit cry session where I was bawling my eyes out in my room and begging to see my mom literally "I want mommm I want mommm I want mommy I want mom please momm" (who was in the master bedroom next to mine, and didn't want to see me because she was done with the whole thing and exhausted and I think maybe scared I'd hurt her..? my dad eventually came into my room and guidedme to/i think like told me i had to? get in his car and then he drove us out to an area near Mt Sima and the gravel quarry there and I was still crying and crying and super dysregulated and he then eventually kicked me out of his car and drove away fully off into the distance and I jus collapsed onto the ground sobbing and sobbing and sobbing until he came back about 25-30 minutes later? 40? not sure.. was a long time? but I was just so dysregulated/dissociated I think just crying and crying it was hard to tell.. he picked me up and I don't remember much after that I think I passed out at home.. I think I was maybe 12 or 13 idk?? I really don't know how old I was when this happened I just remember it happening vividly

I would play alone alot, I would play with Legos and lots of different toys and let my imagination run wild and run around outside and play pretend by myself, I would get really into video games and their stories and worlds and universes and world building..

sometimes I would have friends over! that was nice and I also liked going to visit friends but I would mess up behaving a lot of the time and accidentally ruin friendships :< I didn't know what I was doing at all

in school I would be separated a lot, taken to a small room away from the class a lot of the time, hidden away, it was literally a pipe maintenance closet with a piano in it at one point,,,

I got expelled from elementary school because I had a freak out and got rly rly angry and dysregulated at a teacher who was treating me rly unempathetically and kinda mean and I exploded on her and started throwing scissors at her an got expelled...

my parents took me to the hospital and the hospital decided to send me to an evaluation program in edmonton where I was kept for 3 weeks. as soon as we got in after the medevac flight they said my parents had to go and that I couldn't see them and it was basically operating as a child psych ward and I could only see them on weekends and call them sometimes... there was a classroom where we'd do normal class things and a cafeteria like big room and then a room with rows of medical beds and all the kids got one and that was where we stayed and slept.. sometimes we were taken away and put thru medical tests like cat scans or something? I know we did a brain scan thing.. one night I was woken up and led out of the room of kids and laid on a medical bed in a separate room with several waiting doctors and hooked up to a head node thing and then they told me to go back to sleep because they needed to do a sleep test... I hated it there a lot I wanted to go home i wanted mom and dad but I wasn't allowed to leave and I didn't have many belongings and I couldn't call them a lot.. I would freak out randomly and behave rly badly and sometimes would get put in a seclusion room.. I was in this ward for 3 weeks and I was 10 years old. It was a rly traumatic experience I think.. I was super super distressed the whole time

after getting home from all of that I switched schools and my parents got me a puppy because I was begging one saying it would help me because I wanted a friend to play with and bond and talk to and they got me a yellow lab puppy and we named her Jazz.. when she was still really young like um I forget how old not adult but not puppy... my dad and I were out walking along the copper haul road with her which is a small rarely used access road in the woods kinda a bit out of town. I was concerned that he had her off leash because what if something bad happened and he told me not to worry... after that as we were walking back to the car we heard a vehicle coming down the road.. my dad and I were on the left side of the road and jazz was on the right, as the vehicle was coming I guess he wanted to make sure she was safe and called her over but she hesitated and then came running at the exact perfect timing to cross the road in front of the truck and get hit right just feet in front of me... I screamed and panicked and ran up to her and cradled her in my arms and she was twitching weird and obviously not okay and I was screaming and crying holding her while she was dying and eventually my dad pulled me away and we took her to the vet immediately but they couldn't do anything she had already passed..

even at my better school I was kinda separated off with the ea in a other room a whole while, picked up drums and stuff and got really into music an bonded with it

it wasn't rly til the very very last year of elementary school and then the first few years of high school that I wasn't super isolated tbh and even in that period it was a lot of..... teen.. hormonal bs and rocky first relationships... and then there was the whole getting getting charged thing... which deleted all of that and cut me off from my peers basically completely,, an then I dropped out and welp

I was also like exploring my sexuality???? and gender??? identity?? cuz like I was just figuring all that out??

at the same time my sister was getting sick so mom an dad and sister were very occupied and overwhelmed and drained and emotionally absent, sometimes literally absent a lot.. tons of time home alone just not knowing what to do or staying with my grandparents so I kinda jus fell into internet and games

and then I stayed on internet and games and not knowing how to self regulate or knowing basically like any healthy development stuff with a bucket load of emotional scars until about 22 until I finally started to sortof become self aware a little and make sense of it all but that's still very much a journey.. I have so so so so so so so so much healing to do and learning and growing to do bleh but I just wanna exist and be a healthy person emotionally and physically for myself and others :< I want to love and be loved. I want to experience. I want to create. I want to heal

[atiyasnake]

@stealingyourbones it stayed in my head so here ya go (I say this with love)

~

It took longer than Bruce would have liked for his next visit to the Fenton household. 

The previous weeks were filled with reports, meetings, and research that still didn’t make Bruce feel like he knew enough. 

He didn’t. 

This was made clear when Constantine nearly strangled him when he reported the portal and the news about the Anti-Ecto Acts. Of course, Constantine practically gave himself an aneurism when trying to figure it out himself and explain it to the rest of the JL members. “The Realms”, Constantine had said was “tricky business”.

It didn’t bode well.

That sense of unease followed Bruce back into Amity Park where he stood at the doorstep of a former employee. 

He knocked. 

The moments that followed as his hand left the wooden door were peculiar and slightly concerning. Not that he saw anything odd, but rather what he heard. 

It sounded like something crashed in the house and a few curses slipped out of someone’s mouth.

“Just a sec!” someone called out before it was cut off by an electric whine and then the sound of a small bast. There was a loud thud against the door and before Bruce could call out to see if they were okay, the door opened. 

Unlike last time when Bruce was met with a wall of a man, he instead had to look down to see who had opened it. 

“Boss Man! Watcha doin’ here?” Danny asked. His shirt was ripped. His hair was a mess with smoke trailing from a few strands. There was even a slight cut on his cheek, but he barely seemed aware of it, only looking at Bruce curiously. 

Before Bruce could answer, though he wasn’t sure what he would have said, Danny looked around him. He moved to the side. “Why don’t you come in for now,” and he ushered Bruce inside.

The house again was still a mess. There was even a gun on the entrance table, one unlike Bruce had ever seen. Danny after closing the door quickly picked it up, making sure to have it aimed at the ground, his finger nowhere near the trigger. 

Bruce's gut turned at the sight, the familiarity of the actions. 

“Dad’s not here if you came by to ask him more questions,” Danny said putting away the gun, its light now longer glowing. “He said he was taking a little trip, but I’m pretty sure he wreaking havoc with the GAV somewhere around town, ya know.”

“The GAV?” Bruce asked. 

“Yeah the Ghost Assault Vehicle,” Danny said like it was obvious. “A repurposed RV with all my parent's gadgets and stuff. Kinda like those storm chaser vehicles in a way, just less fancy.”

The description didn’t fill Bruce with a lot of faith. For all he knew it could be similar to the Batmobile, considering the Fenton gadgets consisted of various weaponry.

“Anyways, Mom’s downstairs though if you wanna talk to her.” Danny motioned towards the basement door.

Green filled Bruce’s memory. 

Bruce would rather stay upstairs, away from the portal. Away from the place where he came to the horrible realization that he had been too late. Away from that unsettling sensation that told him he still didn’t fully understand what he had been late to stop. 

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be a bother. I’ll admit this was a spur-of-the moment visit,” Bruce said apologetically.

Danny smirked, blood welled up from the cut on his cheek at the motion. “If you don’t ‘bother’ them” -he said as he went over to the basement door and Bruce followed, his hand reaching out for Danny’s shoulder -“then you’ll never get a chance to talk.” Bruce’s gut turned even more as Danny got closer to the door. He didn’t want to go back down there. He could still remember that look Danny had as he stared at the portal and the way his hands shook as he closed it. “You did come all the way from-well I don't know- but still, I can ju-”

Bruce’s hand had just been about to touch Danny's shoulder to stop him when something burst through the basement door.

A blur of red and green rushed out accompanied by the sound of screeching wheels and Danny was knocked back into Bruce. The blur turned. It was a motorcycle? Two people were on it and they rushed out towards the front door, not stopping as they got nearer. 

Bruce thought there would be a crash, already using the hold he had on Danny to turn him away from any possible debris. But instead, the blur passed through the door like it had with the basement door. Then they were gone.

The basement door was pulled open.

“Danny, where did it go?” A voice yelled and Bruce was met with the sight of Madeline Fenton in her full jumpsuit gear holding what could only be described as a bazooka in the doorway of the basement. Even with her eyes covered by goggles, he could see the scowl on her lips, the tension in which she held her weapon. She stared down at them on the floor. “Where!”

“They-uh went out the door.” Danny’s voice sounded hesitant when he answered.

Madeline sighed exasperatedly as she stalked over to the door. “How many times do I have to tell you not to forget to rengage the system, Danny,” She set aside the bazooka and pulled what looked like a shotgun from her back. Danny flinched at the sound it made when she cocked the gun. “It wouldn’t have gotten out, now I have to hunt it down.”

She opened the front door with a slam and raced out leaving without another word. 

Not a single word or question about the man in her house. The man from a mother's point of view had her son on the ground. The son who had a cut on his cheek, singed hair, and a rip in his shirt.

No not a word. 

Barely a glance. 

The two were left alone. 

_

Danny let his head slump back down on the floor and just looked at the door and what little he could see on the street. He could hear some distant shooting and the hollering that could only be Johnny and Kitty. 

Bruce had after a moment, finally backed off, no longer essentially covering Danny’s body. Danny had felt the man catch him when he was knocked back earlier and how he was moved in a way that Danny had pulled a few times himself in past fights. 

Bruce didn’t stand up though, instead, he just kept sitting on the ground.

Danny didn’t feel like getting up. 

Before Bruce had shown up he was dealing with some reanimated hotdogs. There had been seven of them and Danny had only managed to get six of them when Bruce knocked on their door. Missing one was sure to bite him in the ass later. 

Literally. 

For some reason, hotdogs were real biters, viciously so.

“Jeet?” Danny found himself asking and turned his head to where Bruce was sitting. He didn’t think those pants should have been touching their floors. 

“Hm?” Bruce titled his head in question.

“Didja eat?” Which was probably not the best question Danny could ask considering there wasn’t any food in the house other than the on-the-loose hotdog. Though, it was best to get out of the house. Danny remembered how unsettled Bruce had been last time he had been there after learning about the portal and he didn’t want to see those expensive pants get ripped like his shirt did. 

Fortunately for him, Bruce’s answer was, “No, I haven’t.”

With that and a plan to keep Bruce’s pants unripped, Danny finally got up. He ignored the slight twinges he could feel in his body at the movement. When he stood up he had expected Bruce to have already gotten up but the man was still seated, his expensive pants still touching the floor. 

It really shouldn’t have. 

Bruce was just staring at him. 

“You good, boss man?”

“It’s just…” Bruce lifted a hand and touched his cheek, “you're bleeding Danny.”

Danny mirrored the man’s actions and when he pulled back his hand, he saw the red on his fingertips. “Huh.” He looked back at Bruce and shrugged. “Guess I missed that.”

Bruce finally got up, but his eyes were still trained on Danny’s cheek. It was…

“Whaddya think of diner food?” Danny asked. 

…It didn’t matter. 

Bruce sighed. “I’ll pay?”

Danny wiped his hand on his pants. “Well…I don’t know about tha-”

“Please,” Bruce cut in, “I insist.” 

His eyes finally moved away from Danny’s cheek and that…feeling in his chest settled down.

Danny sighed in resignation, and turned around. “Alright,” he said and began to walk towards the front door, “but we’d better hurry up if you want good seats.”

“Are there any bad seats?” Bruce asked when he followed. 

“Ha! You have no idea.”

Short DPXDC Prompts #986

Jack Fenton briefly worked in R&D in Wayne Industries a year or so after Vlad’s portal incident. He used some company assets to plan new prototypes of his ghost portal in his spare time. Drafting blueprints and creating models of the portal during his lunch break. He stored the physical documents he had in a storage closet near his desk so he wouldn’t mix his documents up with his work documents. 20 years later, a group of interns were instructed to clean out a storage closet that had been abandoned and came across a dust covered set of blueprints and schematics for what looked like a boom tube. This looked like something Mr. Wayne would be interested in. Sending their unique findings to Bruce and thinking nothing of it, while Bruce is freaking out because if he’s reading these notes right, this machine is intended to punch holes into another dimension. It might have just been a far-fetched fantasy idea made by Jack Fenton but just in case, he needed to make sure this man didn’t tear a hole in reality.

[actualtext]

Nov 14, 2022

A timeline

My mom got pregnant in high school at the age of 16 with my sister Nicole and had to drop out. Nicole's father, as far as I know, wasn't in the picture and died very young. So, from the very beginning, my mom was a single parent. My mom was a very hard worker, so more often than not, my sister had to take care of me. I'm pretty sure my sister is the one who potty trained me. Nicole is 11 years older than me. My mom met my dad (as far as I was told, he was a friend of her older brothers), and they got pregnant with me when she was 28 and he was 40. I'm not sure to this day if I was conceived before or after the wedding, but I do know that my parents were catholic. All that meant back then was that contreception was a no-no, that if you got pregnant, you'd better be married before the baby is born out of wedlock, and that abortion wasn't an option at all. At around the age of 6 months, my parents decided to move to colorado, and I'm not sure why. I don't have any early memories of my father, especially not when we lived in Colorado, because he decided to move back to San Antonio before I could identify as an individual and formulate memories. I suspect it wasn't long after having me that my parents separated. Later in life, my sister told me my dad would beat my mom and just treat her really poorly.

Despite not having a high school diploma, my mom was able to find a job at a nursing home. I remember her saying she was a CNA, but I'm not really sure how that was possible without a high school diploma . I know for fact that she worked at a nursing home though. She would have to take me with her sometimes when she didn't have child care. She made enough money to support two children and live in an apartment. My sister eventually ran away to San Antonio from Colorado (at least that's how I remember it), because she missed her boyfriend Javie. Nicole got pregnant at the age of 14, and had her first baby, my nephew Javie, at 15. She then had her second child, my niece Mari, at 16 or 17. By this point, she had her own family unit and wasn't really present in our lives. All I really remember is that it was me and my mom for a while. Occasionally my sister would live with us for a few months but she didn't really get along with my mom so she would eventually leave and be on her own again.

For whatever reason, what I assume to be the death of my uncle Ruben, her brother, my mom decided to return to Texas. This is the point that our lives got turned upside down. Without a highschool diploma, she couldn't find a good paying, stable job. she usually had to work two jobs, usually fast food entry-level jobs that flopped just as quickly as she found them. She was always working, which meant she was never around. I remember vividly having to couch surf with different family members thinking that we were just spending the night and having slumber parties everywhere. I hated how many schools I went to. Ultimately, I went to 7 elementary schools, three middle schools and luckily only one high school. This was before finding out about the mckinney vento act, and how if you're homeless, under this act you can stay at the same school regardless of your physical address.

Another thing that happened when we moved back to Texas was that I met my father for the first time since being able to form memories. It wasn't shortly after, that he molested me. My mom would get upset that I wet my bed until I was 11 years old, but she didn't know this was a common side effect of child molestation. I remember whenever we would visit him, he would kiss me in a very non fatherly way...he would try to make out with me. I hated going to see him, but I continued to go because I didn't know how to tell anyone what he was doing to me.

My mother and I continued to be chronically homeless up until the day she died. I was 23. Two days prior, she and I were really excited because I had just gotten a job at a local grocery store. The night prior, I'd just gone to see the band Blink 182 play in austin. I didn't want to wake my mom up so I stayed with a boyfriend that night. The next morning, she hadn't texted me which was unusual for her, so I went back home around noon. When I entered our apartment she was nowhere to be found on the lower floor, so I went upstairs to look for her. I noticed the bathroom light was on so I knocked on the door and called for her, but there was no answer. I opened the door and was immediately hit in the face with a cloud of steam. It was almost hard to breathe with how thick the steam was. I called out to her and when I heard no answer, I pulled back the curtain and that's when I noticed she was laying in the tub, lifeless. The proceeding moments are all kind of a blur, but I remember yelling at the top of my lungs for her to wake up, and repeating "mom" overs again. When my boyfriend who had driven me grabbed my shoulder, I kind of snapped out of whatever was making me wail the way I had been. He needed me to give the authorities my information so they could come help us. I remember feeling so guilty that I hadn't been there. I had been out having fun and she had been alone. One of my cousins had told me that they had had a conversation with her earlier that morning which made me feel a little better that it hadn't happened while I was at the concert. An aunt (her sister Irma) asked me "why weren't you here for her?" and that just killed me. I felt fortunate to have received a degree in social work because we had been taught what leads a person to addiction and whatnot. I feel like that was the only reason I didn't turn to drugs and alcohol after my mom passed away. My mom had bipolar disorder so sometimes I was her golden child and other times I was only someone who held her back in her eyes. I have a lot of trauma related to my mom like my lack of self esteem, my irrational fear of cockroaches which is also tied to being homeless, but I think finding her is the heaviest.

When my mom passed away, we had been living in public housing. The officials asked if I wanted to stay and let me know that I owed them money because I never reported having gotten a job, and that I would have to be added to a waiting list like everyone else since it was no longer me and my mother, but me alone. It was pretty obvious this wasn't the life I wanted to live, so I told them that I actually didn't want to live in public housing anymore. I couch surfed with my sister for a week until she asked when I would be leaving because she didn't want to get in trouble with her apartment officials. I then couch surfed for a few months between three locations: my cousin Pricilla, my boyfriend at the time, Gabriel, and my friend Amanda. Gabriel, my boyfriend of four years, got tired of me being sad all the time and told me "I dread coming home to you." So I ended that relationship. Some of my belongings at my cousin's house had been stolen, the most valuable being my mom's gold rosaries, so I left that place. Amanda had a whole family, and I felt from the very beginning that I was burdening them, so as soon as I could I left. Thankfully at this point, my friend Rick needed a roommate so we got a place together, and while I have lived in many places since then, I haven't been homeless since.

My relationship with my sister has always been strained. She's 11 years older than me so we don't really have much in common, and at some point in her young life had to take care of me because our mother was always working. She also had a very different relationship without mother because she was the first child, and because our mom was just a child when she had her. While with me, our mom had already matured and had experience being a mother. My sister had to grow up at an early age and didn't really get to experience her youth. I grew up seeing her take her frustrations out on her children, which made me dislike her to no end. Her daughter/my niece is one of my favorite people. On the night of my niece's graduation, my sister kicked her out. I was out of town when it happened but when my niece called me, I offered her a place to stay immediately. She stayed with me for about three months, during which time my sister convinced my mom's side of the family that I was housing a runaway. They all stopped talking to me, despite my attempt to clear up what had happened. When our mother passed (before the incident with my niece), my sister was living in Corpus Christi and needed a car because hers had been totalled. Because I needed my sister here with me, I agreed when she asked me to finance a vehicle under my name. She said she would be able to make the payments and that she already had a job lined up at a place she had previously worked at. I had no reason to not believe her, so I signed for the car. Three or four months had passed and she hadn't made a single payment, messing up my credit. When I confronted her about it, she said something along the lines of "if you're so worried about your credit, you can just take the car." At this point in life, I embarrassingly enough didn't know how to drive. Nor did I have the financial stability I needed in order to finance a car, I was couch surfing for fucks sake. She knew this, so there was nothing I could do. I have a brother from my father and his ex wife. He's older than my sister but I don't know by how much because I've only seen him a handful of times. I guess I should be grateful he hasn't had the opportunity to screw me over or hurt me other than by not being around.

At my current age of 29, my aunt Nancy (my dad's sister) asked me to drive her son/my cousin Michael to Dallas to pick up his son/my second cousin Jeremy. As soon as I met Jeremy, who I had never even known about up until this point, we became instant best friends. He became one of my favorite cousins, a favorite person, the brother I had always wanted. The two months that followed, we trauma bonded over the fact that we had both been touched as children. It was the night before halloween, and I figured since Jeremy was new to town, he probably hadn't made any plans, so I invited him to a halloween party I had been invited to. At this party, Jeremy and I partook in drinking as well as smoking pot. Weed was easy to come by because Jeremy works at a dispensary. Up until this point in life, I had only ever smoked weed once or twice a year because I didn't like how it made me more anxious than usual. By the time we left, we had sobered up from the alcohol but we were still high. I drove Jeremy to his fathers house. Jeremy said I could stay the night if I wanted to because he lived on the south side of San Antonio, and I lived in San Marcos, about an hour away. I had stayed at Jeremy's house before because sometimes I drove late, and both him and his father had offered me a place to stay with open arms many times before. I really appreciated them for that, and I didn't think anything of the offer this time around. I sat at Jeremy's dining room table for a bit, talking to him about a girl that he used to like who lives in Dallas. He said he didn't feel like he had feelings for her anymore, despite just recently seeing her, and crying because we had to leave her behind. I'm not really sure what my response was, but I remember being really sleepy and telling him I was gonna crash out already. I thought it was exhaustion mixed with the fact that we had smoked weed which has the common side effect of sleepiness. So, I went to sleep really heavy that night, as a lightweight when it comes to smoking weed. I was woken up with Jeremy towering over me, giving me little kisses. One of his hands was under my shirt stroking my breast, and the other was making its way into my pants. once I realized what was happening, I pushed him off of me and yelled "Jeremy what the fuck??" I remember pulling myself away from him and cradling myself in a fetal position while sobbing. I remember telling him how he ruined everything. He just kept telling me to calm down, but kept his distance. I grabbed my things and left as fast as I could.He betrayed me. Previous to this incident I had considered moving to Indiana with a friend who would have provided a support system for me outside of Texas. Lack of a support system was the only thing keeping me in Texas, really. This event with Jeremy solidified the idea of going.

I've done everything by the book up until this point, and I'm genuinely a good person. Despite being homeless, I excelled at my studies, ranking in at #7 out of about 450 students in high school. I even made time to volunteer, which I love doing. Despite the odds, I went to college and graduated with a degree in social work. I feel like I've been working so hard to keep my head up and stay true to myself, and still these bad things happen to me. I'm really hoping that these are all just signs I need to get out of Texas, and that Indiana will prove that by providing opportunities that I haven't had in the past, and by making me feel something other than betrayed and abandoned. We shall see.

[fairviewasylum]

Chapter Three

Edith took her time sitting upright as several people entered her room. Bennet the aide, a nurse with short dark hair and a turned around name badge warding her away from knowing, and a tall slender elderly woman. “This is your new roommate, Juniper.” Bennet informed Edith. Juniper stood behind the two aides, looking as confused and scared as Edith felt. She too had been stripped of herself and stood in the green robe, the common denominator amongst the new patients. She had noticed that Amy still wore them, while some of the patients had their own clothes. Maybe laundry aides would get her one outfit delivered to her, or maybe those lucky residents had families that loved them and brought them the creature comforts of home. Edith wouldn’t have been surprised if Tamino was at present burning everything she owned out of spite. 

 “Hi, I’m Edith,” she said to Juniper, ignoring the quiet nurse and Bennet. Juniper smiled a gentle smile and watched as Bennet, who had been carrying bedding, got to work making the bed. The nurse turned around and left without a word. “Edith just got here today like you,” Bennet told her, encouraging a connection between the two. “It’s just the funnest, isn’t it?” Edith smiled and sarcastically rolled her eyes Juniper’s way. Juniper chuckled and joined Edith in watching Bennet silently until he was done and left.  “What landed you here?” Edith asked her after the coast was clear. “I’m not really sure…” Juniper spoke softly and seemed to be looking for the words in her mind. It immediately reminded her of her own grandmother who had passed away over ten years prior. Edith had spent her childhood helping care for her grandmother, who happened to be named Juniper, just like the woman before her. The reality hit Edith as Juniper sat on her bed, looking lost. Her roommate was essentially her grandmother. She had dementia and her family was scared and didn’t know what to do to help her anymore. Edith’s family understood dementia, and caring for the elderly loved ones in old age. That’s how Edith spent her youth side by side with her grandmother and her grandmother’s friends, more time spent with the elderly than kids her own age.  Her mom, insistent she would develop a gift, pulled her and her closest in age sister from school to take it on herself. She was certain attending school would be distracting to her true purpose in life, and wanted to take her daughter’s education onto her own shoulders. “I’ll be honest, I’m not sure why I’m here either!” Edith chuckled, knowing full-well what led her here. It was a white lie, to soothe a scared elderly woman. That wasn’t a bad lie, but it was one nonetheless and it broke Edith to slip back into those habits. “I think my family is mad at me,” Juniper said softly as if her family could hear her. So the paranoia of being heard wasn’t exclusive to Edith, Edith thought to herself. “I bet they aren’t mad, but just worried. I think that’s why I’m here, someone was worried and wanted to make sure I’m okay.” Edith said, a little white-lie again. “Maybe,” Juniper said, her focus landing on the lighthouse painting. “Where do you think that is?” She asked Edith. “I’m not sure, but it looks more like a big lake than an ocean.” Edith observed. “You’re right… I feel like I’ve seen it before, in life, but can’t place it.” Juniper wondered out loud. “If it’s somewhere around here, I wouldn’t know. I’ve only lived in the area a couple years and haven’t gotten out much.” “Where’d you move here from?” Juniper inquired. “Emerald Valley.” Edith stated, the name said aloud increasing her stress levels.  “Oh wow, that is really far. My sister lived there, on the coast. Is that where you lived?”  “I lived in the actual valley portion, in the southern parts. Only took a couple hours to get to the coast if you went by car.” Edith explained, wondering how much Juniper would be able to remember. “It’s a beautiful place, I was able to visit her a couple times before she passed away.” Juniper said and broke her gaze from the painting.  “It really is beautiful.” Edith agreed, missing the mountains surrounding her own home. “Do you miss it?” Juniper asked. “I miss the scenery, and half the people.” Edith chuckled, imagining having to go back and depend on any of her family for help. It was an over-exaggeration. There were only several people who she would be content never to talk to again if that’s what life has instore for her.  “I understand that,” Juniper laughed, a genuine smile finally coming to her adorable aged face. “What about you, always lived out this way?” She asked. “I’m not sure where here is,” Juniper laughed again, this time it settled into a softer sad smile. “Well, I know we are in the town named Elspeth, in Fairview Behavioral Hospital, if that helps.” Edith offered. “Is that far from Liria?” She asked.  “I know where Liria is off the main roads, but I don’t know where it is in relation to Elspeth, I’m sorry.” Edith replied.  “I’ve always lived in Liria, I think I know where Elspeth is… not far, but I’m not sure which way.” “Well, then you know more than I do about where we are!” Edith joked; trying to assure the elderly woman she wasn’t the only one feeling lost, to the best of her ability.  “Glad I’m not alone, you seem very sweet.” Juniper sighed in relief and sat on the edge of her bed. “You thirsty? They keep some pitchers of water and juice out in the common room. I could get you a cup, if you’d like.” Edith offered, happy to find a job that would also give her new roommate a few moments of solace. “That would be lovely, I think I’d like water, thank you.” Edith didn’t waste a moment and hopped up out of her bed and left the room. She walked down the hall and into the common room, counting the doors passed until the entrance. Five was the answer, she passed five doors on her left between her room, room 110, and the common room.

Bennet was talking with a few of the patients that hung around the drink station, and Edith ignored their conversation to pour herself and Juniper a cup of water. “Just a heads up, not technically allowed food and drink in your rooms, but I see nothing.” Bennet said quietly before Edith could walk away. She smirked to herself, that guy reminding her of her elder brother with a very similar name, Benjamin. The correlation of names and who she was making conversation with, felt way too eerie. She shoved it off as the very paranoia that helped land her here. 

When she reentered her shared room, Juniper still sat on the edge of her bed and had a few tears streaming down her cheeks. Edith set the two cups of water on the shared nightstand between their beds, and sat beside Juniper on her bed. “It’s going to be okay,” Edith spoke gently and put an arm around the elderly woman for a half hug. “I’m going to take a little walk and give you some space, but there’s some nice cool water.” Edith said, motioning to the nightstand before getting back up and grabbing her own cup. “Thank you,” Juniper said. “I’ll come check on you in a bit, but in the meantime, the common room isn’t so bad if you want. Bennet, that aide who made your bed, he seems like an alright guy, he hangs around out there too, that’s probably where I’ll be.” Edith said confidently, but eagerly also wanting a break from this woman who reminded her so much of her own grandmother and the pains of her past. “Thank you,” Juniper spoke with warmth reaching for a sip of her water.