#// plus anna been in and out but luckily she's back now !

[lukin08]

Up In The Air Chapter 4

Kristanna Modern AU

Rated T

WC: 2740

Also available on AO3

Previous Chapter

Anna had to admit she was having fun.  She sang karaoke twice, something she had never done before.  Then she cheered on several of the doctors as well.  The group was lost in their little world enjoying themselves and not caring if the whole scene was cheesy or not.  She also had a slight buzz going on.  It wasn’t anything crazy and she thought another round was in store.  

After taking orders, Anna made her way to the bar, glad that she had stayed with group all night instead of listening to Sue.  She didn’t have the time or desire to force herself to hit on some random guy at bar.  He didn’t ask for that and she probably would just have annoyed him anyway with her horrible ability to flirt.  Plus, if he had noticed her, nothing was stopping him from coming up and talking to her and that clearly had not happened. 

It didn’t matter anyway.  At some point, she noticed the table they were at was filled with new people.  He was gone.  Although, she did catch the brown haired one leave alone.  Anna assumed she just missed seeing the blond walk out.

Luckily, there was an opening at the bar and Anna was able to get her order in quickly.  She looked down at the glasses and bottles and realized she may have been a little overzealous in thinking she could carry all the drinks back.  Only one way to find out.  Several beer bottles fit snug between her arm and torso while she picked up three glasses, holding them like a triangle between her hands  It would be a balancing act the whole way back and Anna wasn’t exactly known for her grace.  She turned away from the bar, looked toward the table when she thought she heard her name and took a step.

She was stopped short, making a sudden impact with something solid and knocking her a step back.  It happened so fast, Anna was surprised she managed to stop from falling to the floor, square on her butt.  Somehow the bottles had stayed tucked in her arm, but the glasses weren’t as fortunate.  

“What the- “

Horror washed over her when she registered it wasn’t something she ran into, but someone.  She looked up and was met by a clenched jaw and cold, sharp eyes.  Anna jumped back, letting out a squeak when realized who she had slammed into.  Out of all the people in the bar, she had to run into the one she was ogling earlier with Sue and Camila.  Guess he hadn’t left after all.

His eyebrows were lowered and pulled close together.  “Did you even look where you were going?”

Anna slowly looked down from his eyes and saw his shirt was soaked.  Her brain clicked into triage mode.  “Oh no.  Oh no, no, no, no, no.”  She ran over to the bar, dumped the bottles on the counter and frantically grabbed two fistfuls of napkins.  Anna was back at him in a second patting the napkins on his shirt furiously and trying not to notice how solid he felt.  “I am so sorry!  I am.  I should have been paying attention, but I got distracted and… I’m just really, really, really sorry.”  She was going through the napkins at a breakneck speed.  “I am so clumsy.  Sorry.”  Anna was rambling now, but she couldn’t stop her mouth from moving.  “My dad used to say when I was a kid that my special talents were tripping over my own feet, falling off chairs and running into things.”

“Hey.”

“Sorry again.  Oh jeez, where are the glasses?  I didn’t cut you, did I?  Are you bleeding?”  She pulled at his shirt looking for signs of blood.

“Hey.” A hand came down on Anna’s arm, forcing her to still.  She looked up again.   His eyes were still sharply focused, but there was a hint of warmth behind them now; almost a slight amusement to them.  “Take a breath, ok?”

Anna nodded and inhaled slowly.  Then it all rushed to her on how near she was to him, her hands pressed against his frame and entirely too close to be appropriate.  She stepped back quickly.  “Sorry!” fell out of her mouth again as she thrust the wad of half damp napkins towards him.

“Thanks,” he said slowly taking the napkins from her.  He took a long gaze at her, his face relaxing.  Anna stared as he pulled his shirt out pressing the fabric to the napkins.  “At least I have a dark shirt on.”

“The drinks were clear.  And hopefully not too sticky.  I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

The man flicked his eyes up from his focus on his shirt.  There was a hint of amusement on his face.  “I think it would take a little more than that to do any damage.”

“I meant, are you cut?”

“No.”

That caused her to urgently scan the floor in earnest for any shards.  “The glasses!  Are they everywhere?”  She crouched down quickly, the blond following her.  “The last thing we need is someone getting their foot cut on a shard.  You have no idea how easily it is to get an infection from cut glass like this.”

“Be careful.  I’ll get a broom.”

“No wait.  Ah ha!”  Anna found all three quickly and help one up triumphantly.  “They didn’t break!”  She took a good look at one.  “That was impressive.  What brand are these?”

“I’ve got those.”  He easily plucked the glasses from her hands, slotting them between his fingers in one hand to hold.  Anna stood up with him, noticing him pick up a box from the floor and hold in it in his other hand.  She followed him as he walked over to the bar.  

“Craig!”

A slightly older gentleman walked over.  Anna watched as the man next to her put the glasses down then take the box in both hands and lift it over the bar.”

“Jesus, Kris!  Give an old man some warning.” Craig said as he took the box, clearly struggling a little with the weight of it.  “Couldn’t you have walked this around the bar?”

“Faster this way.  That’s the last case of Yachtside I could find in the back.”

Craig let out a whistle.  “We are really flying through things tonight.  Thanks for the help, bud.”

“Sure.”

Anna was staring at the beer bottles trying to remember what everyone ordered, when she noticed he had turned to face her. 

“Are you ok?”

“If you exclude my embarrassment, I’m fine.  I’ll just have to order another round.  Shit that cost a lot.  Guess that’s what I deserve.”

“Hold on a second.”

Anna watched as the man next to her called the bartender over again.  In no time she had a fresh set of drinks.

“I made these doubles for the wait,” Craig said setting down the drinks.

Anna went to hand him her card, when he waived her off.  “No charge.”

“Are you sure?  

“No sense of paying for drinks you didn’t get to enjoy.  Plus, Kris asked nicely.” He smiled and winked at her.

Anna looked over to the man next to her.  His face had softened.  He was even better looking now than she had seen from afar.  “Thank you.  You didn’t have to do that.”

“Not a problem.”

“Now I have to figure out how to get all these moved without dropping them a second time.”

“Keep your head up this time.  Or better yet-“ He raised his arm and a waitress was over a minute later, putting all the bottles and glasses on a tray and whisking them over to the group.

“That was a much better idea!  Thank you.  And I’m sorry again.”

“Consider it forgotten.”

He stood there, leaning against the bar just watching her.  Anna had to be careful, or she could get lost in those eyes she felt boring into her as if he was trying to figure something out.  She looked down, fiddling with her glass before taking a sip of her drink.  “How is it you were sitting at the table earlier and now you’re carrying cases of beer around?”

His raised an eyebrow.  “You were watching me earlier?”

Anna’s cheeks flared red, but she flashed him a flirty smile.  “Just being observant.”

He chuckled, looking down then catching her eyes again. “It’s my uncle’s bar.  They’re short staffed tonight, so I stayed to help for a bit after my friend left.

Anna rested her elbow on the bar top, her head leaning in her hand.  “That was nice of you.  So, Chris, is it?”

He nodded. 

“Is that short for something?”

“Just Kris for now.  And it’s with a K.”

“Ooh intriguing.”

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

Anna went back to the group, but she found herself drawn back to the bar, talking to Kris whenever he came back from whatever task he assigned himself to help out.  Eventually, they found themselves sitting on the bar stools, in conversation about nothing in particular. 

At some point Sue came over to say goodbye.  “Remember, you’re here to start over, not become a nun,” she whispered in Anna’s ear.  

He gave Anna a look when her face flushed red.  Then she had to cover her mouth to stifle a laugh, when Sue turned around, walking backwards towards the door, giving Anna two thumbs up.  Kris turned to look behind him, but Sue was already out the door.

“Something funny?” he asked, his attention back on Anna.

“No.”  Anna put her hand on top of his that was on the bar top.  “I’m just having a good time tonight.”  The smile he gave her, made Anna’s stomach flutter.

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

The group dispersed, one by one, some finding Anna to say goodbye.  Anna was floating on a high.  Her whole body felt warm and cozy.  

“Is that a band?” She asked, looking at the back of the bar.

“It appears to be.  They should be set up soon.”

 “Ooh exciting!”  Anna turned back to Kris.  “I hope they are good and play something you can dance to.”

“You like live music?” He asked. 

 “Not sure.”

His eyes crinkled with an amused look.  “How can you not be sure?”

“Don’t know yet.  It depends on the band.”

“Are you sure of anything?”

Anna leaned forward.  It was nowhere near as seductive as she had in her head, but it would have to do.  “I’m sure I could get you to dance.” 

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

Everything seemed to be twenty times as exciting as it was an hour ago.  It had taken Anna awhile to convince Camila she was ok on her own.  Yes, she promised to call when she was leaving and yes, of course she’d take an Uber, and yes, she’d call in the morning as well no matter where she ended up.  Anna was fine and Camila needed to stop treating her like a child.   Ok. Anna maybe had one or two drinks more than she probably should have, but she was good at hiding it.  She was twenty-nine and perfectly capable of taking care of herself thank you very much.  She wasn’t that naïve girl anymore that she had been in college.

The band was playing her favorite song and Anna was signing along, sipping on her drink whenever her brain came up short with remembering some of the lyrics.

He was smiling and laughing with her, and she desperately needed to kiss him.

Then she was.  Anna was floating on a high at how amazing it was.  Sue’s parting words drifted in her head, and she could only think of one thing. 

More.

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

Everything was spiraling around Anna.  She was trying to focus on what happened, but her thoughts were foggy and blinded from her rage.  Everything was going so well, then… just crumbled away.  When Anna suggested they go to his place, he deflected.  She didn’t stop, sure it wouldn’t take much convincing on his part.

It was only the smallest slurring of her words, but his hands dropped from her as soon as he heard it and he stepped away.

“I don’t do one-night stands,” he said coolly.

The rejection stun.  Something in her gut churned at the thought of her throwing herself at him only to be told she wasn’t good enough.  Had she ever been to anyone?  When she looked up at him, pity and judgement was all over his face.  It was the same look she had seen from her sister when they were younger, and Anna saw red.

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

“Stop following me!  I don’t need a babysitter!”  Anna spit her words out as hard as she could.  She looked behind her tripping and nearly falling to the blacktop in the process.

“Not until you give me the FOB to your car.”

“Fat chance.”  Anna hit the button in her hand unlocking her car.

Kris was right behind her.  “If you try to drive, you’re going to have to run me over to get out of the parking lot.”

“Tempting.” Anna wrenched the door open, but he wouldn’t go away.  “For Pete’s Sake.  Here.  Catch!”  She threw the FOB with her keys as far as she could.

He had to duck out of the way as they flew past his head.  “Oh, come on!”

She hopped in the car, knees on the driver side seat, while she dived to the floor of the passenger side searching.  Anna’s diversion of throwing her keys didn’t last long.

“Anna…” Kris was right next to the car.  She could hear the exasperation in his voice.  “What are you doing?”

“What does it matter?”

“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Why do you care anyway?”

“What?”

Anna ignored him.  “Yes!” she exclaimed and sat up holding up her phone.  Anna jumped out of the car and slammed the door, almost losing her balance and falling again.  “See.  Told you I wasn’t gonna drive.  Now give me my stuff back.”

Kris dropped the keys in Anna’s hand when she held out her hand for them.  She looked down and fumed.  “The FOB too.”

He was already walking away.  “No way.”  Anna followed him when he held up the FOB and she heard the door look.

“Give ’em back!”

“Get an Uber, call a friend.  I don’t care.  But you aren’t getting this back until then.”

“I told you; I’m not driving.  Why won’t you give them to me?”

“I was working here tonight and am responsible for your wellbeing.  And that includes making sure you don’t get in that car tonight.”

Anna’s hands balled up into fists.  “You are such an asshole!”

Kris barked out a laughed.  “Not the first time I’ve heard that.”

She fumbled with her phone, trying to pull up the Uber app.  There was no way she was calling Camila now.  Everything from the night started crashing on Anna.  She forced her anger to keep her tears at bay.

“Please stop pretending like you care.  What was your angle anyway tonight?  Just to have a little fun and kick me aside?”

He stopped on the sidewalk and turned to face her.  “I – “

Anna held out her hand cutting him off.  “You know what?  Nevermind. I don’t need to know.”

Kris’s mouth drew a hard line.  “Guess you never will then.”

“Don’t care.”  She held her phone out.  “Look.  The car is 5 minutes away.  I’m being good.  Can I have my FOB back, pretty please?”  

“Sure.  Tomorrow.”

“Wait, what?”

“There will be someone here by 10.  Just knock on the door.”

He was already walking back inside.  Anna’s frustration boiled over.  “Ooh, you are… you’re…such an ass!”

“An ass that doesn’t trust your judgement!  And you told me that already!”

Anna stood there fuming, not bothering to follow him into the bar.  She sank to the curb and buried her head in hands, desperately trying not to cry.  

Kristoff walked into the bar and watched out a side window until a car pulled up and Anna got in it.  He went to the back of the bar and tossed the FOB in a jar.  

Kristoff’s uncle came from the kitchen and slapped him on the shoulder.  “Thanks for the help tonight, bud.  You stayed late.  Fun night for you?” 

He could see the look in his uncle’s eyes.  Kristoff grabbed his keys from a back cabinet and went to walk out.  “Not the words I would use.”

[sclskinn-archived]

oh, hi. sorry for my quietness on this blog, haven't been here since late august. i'm moving anna to a new blog tonight, it hasn't been all set up but it will carry the same user which is sclskinn. just want a fresh start, nothing against anyone here. but i have been working hard at my job which is second shift so it does drain me a bit though it's been going great. i'll do another post here when the blog is like completely done. but feel free to follow if you want to see the mess. i don't think i will carry on the plots i have now, sorry but if you want to keep the relationships between my anna and your muse then that's fine !

[cassandraclare]

The Whispering Room: James’ POV

Here it is finally — James’ POV of the Whispering Room scene from Chain of Gold. I wanted to wait until Chain of Iron was released to give more people a chance to read the book, and also because what we learn in COI does inform the scene. I hope you enjoy!

*art by Cassandra Jean

Cortana wove with her words, underlining each one with steel. She turned as her sword turned, and her body curved and moved like water or fire, like a river under an infinity of stars. It was beautiful—she was beautiful, but it was not a distant beauty. It was a beauty that lived and breathed and reached out with its hands to crush James’s chest and make him breathless. — Chain of Gold

James had felt a strange emotion when Daisy first took the stage at the Hell Ruelle. It was a mix of several feelings...

worry on her behalf, annoyance at Kellington, curiosity, and admiration for her bravery and poise. It was unfair of these Bohemians to force her to caper for them, and, he thought, a bit insulting to Shadowhunters in general. He supposed that Matthew had given them a rather unusual view of what the Nephilim were like in such circumstances.

And then she had begun to dance. And suddenly she was not Daisy, his old friend. She was Cordelia, whose name meant heart, whose every gesture was fire. Every earthly worry he’d had had been swept out of his mind. He was conscious only of Cordelia, whirling back and forth across the small stage. Cortana danced around her, shedding light like embers. The dull glow of the lamps illuminated her body, describing her every movement, her every curve as she danced. Her scarlet hair whipped around her in time to the music, and the golden light of the lamps in the Ruelle slipped across her skin, slow and hot, like beads of honey. The cadences of her voice, rising and falling, seemed to weave a cage of silken thread about her audience, and James was no exception.

Later, James would think it was odd that he had not compared her to Grace. Grace had never entered his mind at all. Cordelia danced, and by the end of her performance, James’s entire life had been disassembled and put back together in a new and different shape. He was conscious of Matthew, beside him, also staring as the crowd cheered, his sharp cheekbones flushed. He looked dazed; James couldn’t blame him.

Cordelia descended the stage and slipped through the crowd to come back to them, blushing at the looks and murmured comments she was drawing from the audience now. James could see the desire in the eyes that followed her. Everyone wanted her. He felt a dull fury. They had no right. They did not know Cordelia. She was more than just that dance.

When she reached them she let out a long breath of relief and smiled. She glowed with the exercise of dancing. Sweat beaded along her collarbones, shimmered between her breasts. Her eyes were bright as Cortana’s blade, strapped to her back.

“Bloody hell,” Matthew exclaimed.  “What was that?”

A look of uncertainty crossed Cordelia’s face. James said, “It was a fairy tale, Math,” and Matthew nodded. His dark green eyes searched Cordelia’s face, as if looking for the key to a locked room he had only just discovered.

Cordelia looked uncertain. James couldn’t bear that. She’d been magnificent; she should know it. But he couldn’t say that, of course. It would only make her self-conscious.

“Well done, Cordelia,” James said instead; when he unfolded his arms; his wrist hurt and he wondered if he’d been clenching his hands.

Cordelia. He hadn’t called her Daisy, and she looked a little surprised. It seemed inappropriate, somehow. Daisy was Lucie’s friend, the Merry Thieves’ compatriot; he found it a smaller name than she deserved. Cordelia, though—she had been a queen, hadn’t she? Queen Cordelia, daughter of Leir, ruler of Britain before the Romans had ever landed on those shores. Like Boadicea, a legendary warrior queen. A blazing white fire behind fathomless black eyes.

“Anna has disappeared with Hypatia,” James said, noting the empty settee, “so I would call your distraction a success.”

Cordelia’s lips twitched into a smile. “How long does a seduction usually last?”

“Depends if you do it properly,” Matthew said, with a wink. James felt it as a spark of relief, a bit of lightness amid the feeling that something heavy was sitting on his chest.

“Well, I hope for Hypatia’s sake Anna does it properly,” James said. He registered, with the reflexes of a parabatai, that Matthew had gone still next to him, and wondered what was wrong. “Yet for our sake, I hope she hurries it up.”

All hint of Matthew’s jocular tone from before was gone. “Both of you,” he said urgently. “Listen.”

Did he mean all the muttering about Shadowhunters? Was he only noticing it now? It had followed them since they came into the place. But when James followed Matthew’s gaze, he found Kellington staring with an expression of vexation, not at them but at the door. All questions were answered as through the door came Charles Fairchild, looking around him with a haughty expression. He looked like was about to raid the place; so much for whatever work Matthew and Anna had done for Downworlder-Shadowhunter relations here.

Matthew narrowed his eyes. “Charles,” he sighed. “By the Angel, what is he doing here?”

Charles was, James thought, probably looking for them. He was making his way through the crowd and gazing around him. Luckily for them, the crowd was not interested in letting him through, and he was moving very slowly.

“We should go,” James said. “But we can’t leave Anna.”

In one way, at least, Charles’s arrival was helpful; it threw a bucket of cold water on the roiling heat that had gripped James’s heart since Cordelia had begun her dance. Back to the matter at hand: a demon, a Pyxis, a plan.

“You two run and hide yourselves,” Matthew said, still keeping his eyes on his brother. “Charles will go off his head if he sees you here.”

“But what about you?” said Cordelia.

Matthew shrugged, but James could see the tension in his jaw and his shoulders. “He’s used to this kind of thing from me. I’ll deal with Charles.”

Not for the first time, James wished that his parabatai wasn’t in such a hurry to sacrifice his own reputation. He exchanged a long look with Matthew, but Matthew was sure, and determined, and his desire to rush into his own humiliation was an issue that would have to wait. Nodding, he turned and caught Cordelia’s hand with his own. “This way,” he said, and she nodded back in acknowledgement. As he pulled them into the crowd he heard Matthew’s voice calling, “Charles!” in a hearty tone of pleasant, if entirely false, welcome.

James didn’t know his way around the place, and the crowd made orientating himself even more difficult, but after some trial and error he and Cordelia managed to get behind Kellington and slip into a corridor leading away. This wasn’t safe in itself, since from the main chamber one would have a clear view down the entire corridor. In fact, they were temporarily more exposed than before, and James’s hope for the hallway to take a quick turn or to contain large statuary to hide behind was quickly dashed. He continued to hold onto Cordelia’s hand, not that he needed to; she seemed to know her way better than he did.

Partway down the corridor, James caught sight of an open door — its silver plaque labeling it the entrance to THE WHISPERING ROOM. Swiftly he drew Cordelia inside, out of sight. He slammed the door behind them, causing a loud noise, but he thought it couldn’t possibly be heard over the crowd in the main chamber. Only then did he release Cordelia’s hand and take stock of their surroundings.

The room was dimly lit, but not cold: a scented fire burned in the grate, filling the space with the smell of sandalwood and roses. It was a study, he guessed, based on the gigantic walnut desk against the wall and the bookshelves opposite, but it was too richly decorated to be solely a place for studious contemplation. Phoenix feathers and dragon scales danced across the gilded wallpaper; there were no windows, but the walls were hung with patterned tapestries, the floor covered with a rug so thick James felt his boots sink into it as he moved further into the room.

Cordelia had leaned her back against the wall next to the door. Her eyes were closed and she was taking deep, full breaths, calming herself down. Cortana gleamed gold over her shoulder; the firelight gleamed a deeper gold on her skin, which seemed to take and hold its warmth. James curled his fingers in against his palm.

He wanted to touch her. He half-turned away, pretending to study the books on the wall. Any other time, he would have been fascinated by the titles. Now they seemed distant, neither immediate nor imporant. He could have sworn he heard his own heart hammering. He said, “Where did you learn to dance like that?” surprising himself with the roughness of his own voice.

His gaze snapped back to Cordelia as she opened her eyes and gave a little shrug. There was something magical about the dress she wore: it followed the shape of her own body rather than the shape of corsetry or whalebone petticoats. It slid softly against her skin as she moved, just as her dark red hair tickled the bare skin of her throat, her shoulders. “I had a dance instructor in Paris. My mother believed that learning to dance aided in learning grace in battle.”

The word grace pierced James like an icicle. He could not quite picture Grace at the moment, it was true; could not quite envision her face. He had given Grace his heart — that was an immutable fact, something he knew as he knew that two plus two equaled four. But he had to admit that at the moment his heart did not feel given. It felt like a thrumming machine inside his chest, pumping blood and heat.

“That dance,” Cordelia added with a quirk of her soft mouth that struck James like a blow to the stomach, “was forbidden to be taught to unmarried ladies. But my dance instructor did not care.”

“Well,” James said, keeping his voice steady with practiced control, “thank the Angel you were there. Matthew and I could certainly not have pulled off that dance on our own.”

Cordelia turned away from him, the smile still on her face, as though she were keeping it secret from him. She trailed her hand along the top of Hypatia’s desk. At one end was a stack of papers held down by a large copper bowl of fruit, and she brought her hand up to trace its rim.

James may have been distracted beyond the capacity for distraction he’d known before, but he was still a Shadowhunter. “Be careful,” he said warningly. “I suspect that is faerie fruit. It has no effect on warlocks—no magical effect, at least. But on humans…”

Cordelia pulled her hand back as though stung. “Surely it does not harm you if you do not eat it.”

“Oh, it does not. But I have met those who have tasted it. The say the more you have of it, the more you want, and the more you ache when you can…have no more.”

Cordelia was looking at him now, and though it took a great summoning of courage, he returned her gaze. In her dark eyes the silver and blue flames of the fireplace danced. James could not catch his breath. He had never felt this before, this breathlessness. It was like pain, but with a sweet, sharp edge. Like licking honey from a knife. He said, in a low voice, “And yet. I have always thought…is not knowing what it tastes like just another form of torture? The torture of wondering?”

The door shook on his hinges suddenly, making a clatter that made both he and Cordelia jerk their heads around to look at it. The knob was starting to turn.

Cordelia paled. “We’re not meant to be in here —“

James’s world closed down to just this: Cordelia was here, she was with him, and she looked frightened. He would do anything to stop that look on her face. He caught her in his arms, and the relief was incredible — he had not realized how much he wanted to be touching her until he was. Until he was holding her, and her strength and warmth and softness were all pressed against him, and her face was so beautiful it hurt, and her lips were parted in surprise and without another thought he kissed them.

He could feel her sharp intake of breath with his hands, clasped together at her lower back. She gasped, but did not draw back, or away — he thought he would have died if she had — she leaned into him, her full lips opening under his. She was kissing him back. He tasted honey, smelled jasmine and smoke. His hand slid up her warm cheek and into the soft fall of her hair.

Time stopped.

Cordelia’s arms were around his neck. Her lush mouth opened a little against his, and the kiss deepened. He moved his hand to the back of her neck to bring her closer. Her teeth grazed his lower lip, and he couldn’t help it; he moaned, and felt her tremble against him.

Very far away, a voice chuckled and the door closed with a soft click. This whole thing had been intended as a ruse, he knew, for the benefit of whomever was trying to get into the Whispering Room. Probably some Ruelle attendees, Downworlders most likely, who had snuck off for a rendez-vous.

Ruse accomplished, then. With intense regret, James drew back from Cordelia. Her hand, warm and soft and wonderful, was against his neck; her fingers stroked his pale white scar. Her eyes were fixed at the level of his shoulder. He could hear himself say her name — Daisy, my Daisy — instead of responding, she whispered, “I think more people are coming.”

He knew it wasn’t true. He didn’t care. He knew what she was saying: that she was asking and giving permission at once. All James’ life, he had struggled for control: control over his sudden falls into shadow, control over the dark world he could see, that was invisible to everyone else. He had worked and fought and trained for control every day, and for the first time in as long as he could remember it deserted him.

The walls he had put up burned to the ground in an instant as he caught Cordelia to him. He groaned against her mouth, his hands slipping over the silk of her dress, the hot satin of her skin. He undid the strap that held Cortana, got rid of it somehow — carefully, he hoped — and let himself fall back into delirium.

He did not ask himself why he had never felt desire like this before. He could not. He was lost in the feel of her, the incline of her waist, the flare of her hips, the rise and fall of her chest as she gasped. They were kissing wildly, uncontrolled; they fetched up against the desk, Cordelia’s back to it.

Her body bent backward in an impossible arch, her hands going behind her to brace herself. Her eyes half-closed, her head fell back, revealing the bare column of her throat. He pressed his lips there, eliciting a gasp of surprised pleasure.

His hands trailed up the sleek material of her dress — he could feel the heat of her skin through it — from her waist to the neckline of her gown. His palms followed her curves until the tips of his fingers were pressing into the bare bronze skin just above the neckline of her dress. She was sleek and soft and hot all at the same time, like nothing else he’d ever touched. He heard her whimper; she was saying his name, and his heart beat in time with her words: James, James, Jamie please.

The please undid him; shrugging off his frock coat, he caught hold of her around the waist, lifting her until she was perched on the edge of the desk. The material of her dress bunched around her knees, her thighs, as she took hold of his shirt by the starched front and kissed him. His mouth drove against hers, hot and demanding, even as he clambered onto the desk after her. She reached up her arms for him and he sank down on top of her, bracing his weight with a hand above her head.

He paused, just for a moment, looking down at her. Her scarlet hair fanned out across the desk, her eyes glazed, her full lips red from kissing. He was cradled by her body, her legs on either side of his hips, her skirt rucked up nearly to her waist. She wrapped her long, bare legs around him and he shuddered. What was in him, what he wanted, was inchoate but insistant, a force he’d never known. A yearning like hot wires in his blood, the pain-pleasurable ache of unbearable wanting that drove him to kiss her again, kiss her harder. She tangled her hands in his hair, pulling at it as he kissed her breasts, flicking his tongue over the sensitive skin until she gave a low scream and clutched at him with desperate hands.

He sank down against her and kissed her, hot and deep and hard. She arched into the kiss, her breath coming in gasps. He felt her through the thinner material of his shirt: the heat of her, the swell of her breasts against his chest, her hands smoothing over his chest, his sides.

His hands aching to touch her in kind, to find out what she liked, what made her gasp, and do it again and again . . . Nothing had ever felt like this, nothing. He’d known desire before; so he remembered, so he had believed. It turned out he had stepped into a puddle and thought it was the sea. As Cordelia moved in his arms, as her lips, he realized there was a depth to desire he hadn’t even guessed at: that it was more than just desperation, but joy and need and wanting and being wanted back. It was a fever dream, his hands sliding up under the heavy satin of her skirts, the salt-sweet taste of her skin, the soft sounds of her pleasure as she urged him closer, urged him onward, the desk seeming to spin beneath them.

He heard, as if at a great distance, the sound of the door opening. He lifted his head, saw the slim fair-hared figure in the doorway. Ice washed through his veins. Cordelia stiffened, began to scramble to sit up. No, he thought, but he couldn’t stop her, couldn’t blame her. It — whatever it had been — was over.

He slid off the desk. Already the fever was vanishing, that feeling —the glorious freedom from the burden of his own will — receding. Grasping at his control, he drew it around himself,  reaching for his coat, turning to calmly meet the gaze of his parabatai.

“James?” Matthew said.

[f1uckinghell]

Sandcastles (VV family fluff :) )

for Anna 🧡

read here on ao3 and check out the Virtues series

_____________________________________________________

“Okay, everyone got sunscreen on? Hats?” 

Jasper chose this exact moment to pull on his; luckily, it had little straps that secured it around his pudgy little chin. Max handed him off to Daniel who grabbed him and showed him towards his beach toys, distracting him from an impending hat crisis. 

A chorus of “Yes, mama!” echoed back at Max while he glanced across six heads (plus three that technically didn’t belong to him but still counted) to check if they were telling the truth. “Alright, nobody step on a jellyfish. And remember to drink water!”

The last words were already lost as the horde of children (or teenagers, actually, he supposed) swarmed out to cause mayhem somewhere else. 

“Leah darling, take the good hat,” Nico fussed, “The UV-protection one.”

Leah rolled her eyes at him. “Mama, it’s so ugly.”

“Sunburn is even uglier, and it’ll give you wrinkles!” Nico was already reaching for the sun lotion again, “Your skin can get really sensitive after your first heat-”

“Mama-” Leah’s cheeks darkened as she glanced around shyly. Max gave her a sympathetic smile. Next to him, Isabel acted like she hadn’t heard but Max could tell she was just pretending. Max still hadn’t quite gotten used to her broad shoulders, her big frame, how muscular and tall she was now. She was Michael’s daughter after all, and now, post-presentation, she looked it as well. The many hours of her crying from pain as her body pulled itself into its new proportions before and during her first rut were still fresh on Max’s mind.

Nico, meanwhile, was dabbing more sunscreen on Leah’s nose while Lewis handed her a fancy, stainless steel-cooler bottle of water. 

Sometimes, Max wondered if it was better or worse for his children that he simply didn’t have the time to be this attentive with them.

Michael, who had just finished setting up the beach tent for Jasper, stepped next to Isabel and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, talking to her in a low tone. Isabel was almost as tall as him now. Max couldn’t make out what Michael was saying; he sounded gentle but authoritative. Max guessed it had to do with Leah, and Isabel’s behavior around her, because even though Isabel was nodding dutifully, she was also blushing. 

It was a tricky situation with these two. 

They’d always been best friends, and of course, there’d been the occasional “Aw, they’ll get mated when they’re older!” comments from older relatives. When Isabel had told Daniel, at seven, that naturally she would get married to Leah, they had dismissed it as a cute thing a child would say. 

But over the years, their friendship had stayed so strong that it now felt almost inevitable. They’d gone from Isabel’s wall being absolutely covered in drawings Leah had done for her at ten, to Isabel picking flowers for Leah everytime she came over at twelve, to Isabel confessing to Max that they’d shared a tiny kiss at fourteen, to… this.

A few months ago, Leah had presented, and almost immediately after, they could tell Isabel was on her way to her own first rut like a domino. 

While Riley wasn’t there yet, Isabel’s body had rushed her into her first rut as if to keep up with Leah. Massive growth spurts, mood swings and hormonal acne had plagued her for weeks until it finally happened. As far as teenage ruts went, she’d been easy to have, and both Michael and Daniel had taken great care of her, giving her guidance and an outlet for her aggressions when she needed it. Meanwhile, Max had done a lot of very dubious laundry which he did not want to think about too hard. 

Anyway.

The first time Leah and Isabel were allowed to meet up again after both of their presentations, both had to douse themselves in scent neutralizers. However, what had been more or less obvious for years now had become clear instantly for everyone with a nose: they were, indeed, meant to be. 

It was very sweet, very romantic, and also mildly stressful for all the parents involved, because even though Leah and Isa were probably two of the most responsible teenagers Max had ever experienced, they were still just that: teenagers. So there had been many a conversation about boundaries, about open doors, curfews and the consequences of an accidental mating. Nico and Lewis had provided Leah with the pill, while Daniel had supplied an XXL pack of condoms for Isabel (which had almost killed her from embarrassment) and bite guards. 

So far, it seemed like they were trying to behave. 

Finally, Nico let Leah go, and she dashed away from her parents’ grips to grab Isabel’s hand and pull her away so they could play volleyball together. 

“Don’t you want to join them?” Max asked Riley, who was curled up in the shade of the parasol they’d brought, swiping through his e-book reader. 

“No,” Riley said, shaking his head, “I can’t deal with their clumsy flirting.”

Max laughed, and reached out to smudge a streak of sunscreen on Riley’s shoulder. He tanned like Daniel, even and gold, making him look beautifully sun-kissed. Riley was pretty enough that it gave Daniel nightmares about what would happen once he presented, with Riley being as sensitive as he was. Hopefully, they were still a long way away from that. 

“Ri!” Jakob had broken away from Evie, Flynn and Luna, who were currently on the hunt for seashells and possibly even disgusting things, and was hopping up and down in front of Riley, flapping his hands excitedly. “I think there’s a seashell buried in the sand, one of the pink ones you like so much, help me dig it up!”

Riley let out a little noise that Max knew meant he really wasn’t feeling it, but obviously couldn’t bring himself to say no to Jakob.

“I’ll help you, buddy,” Daniel chimed in, picking up on the vibe as well. “I think we’ll let Riley read for a little and then he can join us when he wants to. We’ll dig up the prettiest seashell for him in the meantime.” He stood from his space next to Jasper, who was happily digging a hole in the sand with his little shovel.

Max shot Daniel a grateful smile; Daniel winked at Riley who sighed happily and went back to his book. Max reached out to tousle his hair, and Riley leaned into the touch with a soft purr. 

In the shade of the beach tent, Jasper was contentedly shoveling the sand from left to right. Lucía had come to sit by his side, helping him with her own shovel. She was always a little “in the middle” with all of her siblings and packlings; the triplets and her sister were teenagers now, and oftentimes, Lucía couldn’t keep up. Luna was an incredibly caring sister, and tried her best to include Lucía, but eight and fourteen was a big developmental difference, and as such, Lucía often got stuck playing with Jasper or one of the adults. 

There was a screech from the direction of the triplets, and Max looked up just in time to see Evie kicking the water in the direction of Luna, who already looked like she’d been doused before, her beautiful thick black hair clinging to her shoulders with ocean water. 

Daniel, who was closest to them, still digging through the sand for seashells with Jakob, looked up with an attentive expression, but didn’t intervene right away. Instead, Flynn pushed himself between the two girls, and said something to Evie which had her roll her eyes but turn away. Daniel called her over to him and Jakob, and she started helping them sift through the sand as well, an unhappy expression on her face.

Max sighed quietly. 

Evie and Luna constantly swung wildly between best friends and mortal enemies, and sometimes, it was hard to know where to intervene. 

Luna was trudging over to them now, looking like a wet cat. 

“Mummy, I need a towel please,” she sweetly said to Lando. 

“Why don’t you just go swimming?” Carlos asked, “We’re at the beach after all.”

Luna rolled her eyes at him; Max was glad it wasn’t just his kids giving attitude. “I don’t like the ocean water!” she said like Carlos was stupid for asking.

“Watch your tone, princesa.”

“Sorry, Papá.” Luna blew him a kiss before turning to Lando with an expectant expression.

“Here.” Lando handed her a towel, completely undermining what Carlos had told her. Luna dried off her hair and face. 

By the water, Max could see Daniel exchanging some words with Evie, who looked unhappy about her own actions. Daniel was gesturing, speaking to her with furrowed eyebrows while Evie fidgeted with one of the seashells. 

A moment later, she came wandering over to them, chewing on her bottom lip.

“Lunie…”

Luna acted like she couldn’t hear. 

Sometimes it was hard watching them work their way through being a teenager. 

“Lunie, I’m sorry I splashed you.” 

There was a pause in which Luna kept ignoring her. 

“...you can splash me back?” Evie suggested hopefully. Max saw the corner of Luna’s mouth twitch. 

“Three times,” Evie added, and apparently, that was enough of a deal for Luna. She tossed the towel at Lando, who caught it with a little headshake. 

“Four,” she said, holding out her hand towards Evie. 

The relief on Evie’s face hurt Max’s heart a bit. 

“Yeah, okay,” Evie agreed, and grabbed Luna’s hand, and off they went. 

Sometimes, having children really made Max relive all the awkward phases of his own youth. 

But as he watched his kids, Evie and Luna skipping down to the beach hand in hand to where Flynn was waiting for them, Jakob still picking up seashells with Daniel, Jasper happily digging a hole and baking sand cakes with Lucía’s help, Isabel, shyly showing Leah the right way to turn her wrist to get the ball into the air, and Riley, absent-mindedly wrapping a curl around his finger while he was reading, Max thought:

we’re doing an okay job.

[helloalycia]

my patient’s neighbour [five] // wanda maximoff

summary: Wanda decides to ruin your chance at moving on, which doesn't go down well with you.

warning/s: none

author's note: jealous!wanda is one of my favourite wanda’s 👀 also your comments/feedback always make my day so thank you so much! ♥️

part one | part two | part three | part four | part six | part seven | masterlist | wattpad

Meeting Anna's granddaughter wasn't something I'd ever imagined, since Anna rarely mentioned her unless it was to recall a memory that eventually made her quiet for the rest of the day or to make a snide remark out of annoyance. So, to have her here in front of us was definitely... new.

"What are you doing here?" Anna asked with disbelief.

Sasha blinked awkwardly. "I, er, got a call from the nurse. She said you'd hurt your back, so I thought I'd check in." Her gaze fell to Wanda and I. "I see you've got company."

"Sorry, we'll give you a moment," Wanda blurted, before looking to Anna reassuringly.

I did the same before eyeing Sasha suspiciously then following after Wanda into the hall. When the door closed behind us, I wondered what exactly would happen in there. To say I was overprotective of Anna was an understatement.

Taking a seat on the chairs outside her room, I became acutely aware of how stupid I looked in my trainers, Mickey Mouse pyjamas and raincoat. Especially when Wanda sat beside me, knee brushing mine.

"Do you want a drink or anything?" she asked suddenly, earning my attention.

I shook my head, crossing my arms and leaning back into my seat. "No, thank you, I'm good."

She hummed in acknowledgement but said nothing else. The awkwardness that lingered between us was overpowering, but nowhere near as overpowering as the scent of Wanda's shampoo that was drifting up my nose from how close she was sat to me. I tightened my crossed arms, trying to think of something else. Then I remembered what had happened in Anna's room before Sasha interrupted.

"What were you and Anna arguing about?" I asked, glancing at the witch.

She winced, but didn't look my way. "Nothing. Just neighbour stuff."

I smiled bitterly. So, she didn't want to share. Fine. No big deal. Who was I but her neighbour's carer anyway?

After ten minutes of waiting, we decided to head back inside to make sure Anna was okay. What we saw was Anna and Sasha crying happy tears as the latter sat at her bedside, clutching her hand.

"Damn, sorry," I apologised for Wanda and I, realising we'd interrupted a special moment. "We can–"

"No, we're done," Sasha said, wiping away her tears with embarrassment. "Sorry about that."

"Devushki (girls), this is my granddaughter, Sasha," Anna introduced, and I'd never seen her look happier.

As Sasha stood up and rounded the bed to approach us, I realised she seemed familiar because of the photographs I'd seen around Anna's apartment.

"It's nice to finally meet the two people who have been taking care of my grandmother," Sasha said, before putting out her hand.

I bit back from retorting with something along the lines of 'we wouldn't have to if you had cared for her yourself', and instead shook her hand. Wanda glanced at me, probably sensing the negative thoughts in my mind with her powers, but she said nothing as she smiled politely at Sasha and shook her hand.

"It's nice to meet you, too," Wanda spoke, realising I wouldn't. "Anna talks a lot about you. I was hoping we would eventually meet."

Sasha sighed regretfully, smile fading. "Yes... well, I haven't been around as much as I should have been. I know that now."

"Took you long enough," I muttered under my breath, it slipping out without me realising.

Wanda shoved me in the arm in response and I frowned, rubbing the sore spot.

"You're right," Sasha said, looking to me apologetically. "But I'm here now. And getting that call earlier... it made me realise that I've treated Anna horribly. That's why I've invited her to live with me. To make up for lost time."

Certainly not expecting that, my jaw dropped with surprise. "What?"

Sasha sat back down beside Anna's beside and I exchanged startled looks with Wanda before looking to the older woman in question.

"No offence," I started, glancing at Sasha, before focusing on Anna again, "but are you sure this is the right move? It's not too sudden?"

Anna shook her head and grabbed Sasha's hand. "She wants me to be around her family. And I want it too, Y/N. I miss them."

I nodded, but chewed on the inside of my mouth anxiously. It's not that I didn't trust Sasha (okay, maybe it was a little), but I was scared for Anna. I didn't want her to get heartbroken all over again.

Be supportive, Wanda's voice filled my mind, and I looked to her to see her eyes fading from red to green.

I clenched my jaw. Stay out of my head.

With a bright smile, she ignored me and looked between the grandmother and granddaughter duo.

"I think that's wonderful, Anna," she said kindly. "I mean, of course I'm going to miss having you as a neighbour, but this is all you've wanted. I'm thrilled for you. And so is Y/N."

When she looked to me for confirmation, I felt a familiar anger in the pit of my stomach, only reserved for Wanda Maximoff. But this wasn't about us, this was about Anna.

"I am," I agreed, eyes flickering to Anna. "It sounds great."

"You can both visit whenever you want," Sasha said, nodding enthusiastically. "Anna loves you both so dearly."

"You can't get rid of us even if you tried," Wanda joked, flashing Anna a teasing smile.

Anna chuckled. "I knew you would both understand."

I smiled halfheartedly, glad that everything was working out for Anna but knowing I would miss caring for her greatly.

"We should leave you to rest," I said with finality.

"Thank you," Anna replied, and by the way she looked at me, I knew she was thanking me for a lot more.

"Get well soon," I told her in my 'nurse' voice that she hated, a playful smile on my lips. "I'll check on you tomorrow."

Anna nodded. "Tomorrow."

After saying an awkward goodbye to Sasha, I left the room and headed for the lift down the hall, not bothering to wait for Wanda. Thankfully, she must have known I didn't want to speak to her, as she didn't speed after me.

—

Since Anna moved in with her granddaughter, the last time I saw Wanda was at the hospital. Two more months passed and I had no need to bump into her at Anna's apartment since Anna didn't live there anymore. And the one time I visited Anna since she moved in to Sasha's house, Wanda wasn't present.

I guess it made it a lot easier to attempt to get over her. Six months since she broke up with me was long enough to move on, I think. I'd been on a few dates, none really going anywhere until Natasha decided to set me up with someone a few weeks ago.

It was a family friend of her Avenger's teammate, Clint Barton, and though it was a blind date, it actually worked out well. The woman was called Elise and she was very sweet and charming on our first date, having a similar sense of humour to mine and a killer smile. It was actually the first time since Wanda left that things felt like they were falling into place. We went on a few more dates, deciding not to rush things, and I found myself looking forward to going out with her.

It was a few weeks into our dating relationship when Natasha gave me a call, inviting me as her plus-one to Clint and his wife's vow renewal. They were having a whole celebration at their homestead in Missouri and Natasha figured I'd enjoy it, able to take a weekend break and join her at the lavish hotel she'd be staying in. And also because Elise would be there.

"Oh?" I said with surprise. "Elise didn't mention anything."

"She wanted to," Natasha said with amusement, "but she didn't want to bring it up in case you didn't want to go."

I quirked a brow, despite her being unable to see me. "And why wouldn't I want to go?"

Natasha hesitated. "'Cause Wanda will be there...?"

A sigh escaped my lips as I massaged my forehead. Elise knew about Wanda because it came up when she asked how Natasha and I became friends. She was actually really chill about the whole thing, which I appreciated, but I could only imagine how she must have felt knowing that Wanda would be at the vow renewal.

"You should still come," Natasha encouraged when I didn't say anything. "I already spoke to Wanda and she said she won't cause a scene or anything."

"I doubt that she would," I mumbled.

"She just wants you to be happy," Natasha finished. "So, be happy as my plus-one and get a cute date in with your girlfriend whilst you're there."

I tried to stifle the smile on my lips. "Elise isn't my girlfriend."

"Yet," Natasha added knowingly.

Rolling my eyes, I said, "Look, send me the details and I'll be happy to be your plus-one."

"Yes!" she exclaimed, and I could just imagine her fist-pumping like an idiot. "I'll see you then, Y/N."

"Goodbye," I told her, though a smile of amusement was playing on my lips.

After that call with Natasha, I didn't hesitate to give Elise a call, hoping I wasn't bothering her whilst she was at work.

"Hello?"

"Hey," I greeted, smiling to myself. "Is this a bad time?"

"Well, luckily for you, I'm actually just starting my lunch break," she said in a joking manner. "What's up?"

I scratched my head uncertainly. "Well, Natasha just called and invited me as her plus-one to Clint's vow renewal. She said you would be there, too, obviously, but I just wanted to check in and see if it was okay that I went."

I left out the part about her not telling me about it, but she seemed to pick up on it anyway as she breathed out slowly.

"I just don't want to step on your toes," I quickly added, before chewing on my lip.

"You could never," she said reassuringly. "I actually wanted to ask you to be my date, but I thought it may be too soon. Y'know, a vow renewal when it's only what, the sixth date in?"

"It's not too soon," I said, before adding, "I can just come as Natasha's friend and we don't have to make it a date."

"There's also the fact that your ex will be there," Elise added, and I frowned at the mention of Wanda. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"It's been six months," I told her with certainty. "I'm as comfortable as can be."

She paused. "If you think you'll be okay, then I'd love to see you there, Y/N."

"I know I'll be okay," I said promisingly. "And I'd like to go and maybe see you, too."

She laughed quietly and it made me smile. "In that case, I guess I'll see you there."

"It'll be fun," I said knowingly.

"It will," she agreed. "And now I can't wait."

It was my turn laugh. "Me either."

And fun it was... along with many other words.

The day of the vow renewal came by quickly enough and as promised, I went with Natasha as her plus-one. She made it as enjoyable as she could for me which I appreciated, with the two of us getting first-class tickets which Natasha was happy to pay for, and checking in to a beautiful hotel for the weekend. And that was just the accommodation.

The actual vow renewal was a stunning affair, as Clint and his wife, Laura, had gone all out with decorating the homestead and it's fields in a traditional, romantic way. A flower arch stood front and centre, with rows of seats set out for guests. Bouquets lined the outside and lights were strung above and all around the trees which I could only imagine would look stunning once the sun set.

"They really went all out," Natasha said, impressed as she took in the scene before us.

I hummed in agreement. "It's beautiful." I glanced at her adding, "Bet you wish you brought an actual date now."

Natasha smirked knowingly. "What's to say this isn't one? This could all be a plan to steal you away from Elise."

"Because that makes sense," I played along with amusement. "The woman who set me up with her best friend's family friend is trying to steal me away from said family friend. Makes complete sense."

"True," she said with a shrug, walking forward. I followed her as she continued, "If I was trying to make a move, you wouldn't see it coming."

I tried not to laugh. "Sure, Natasha."

"Trained assassin, expert in espionage, master of lying and hiding in plain sight," she listed off her skills one by one on her fingers. Shooting me a knowing smile, she repeated, "You wouldn't see it coming."

I rolled my eyes playfully and the two of us made the rounds, myself reacquainting with the other Avengers whom I hadn't seen since, well, since Wanda and I were together. It was a little awkward, since I was never really close with them and vice versa, but they were polite and kind and made me feel comfortable (probably because of Natasha, which gave me yet another reason to be grateful to the redhead).

Eventually, it got to a point where Wanda was the next person to say hello to and I truly thought six months would be enough to get over her; oh, how sorely mistaken I was.

She was talking to Sam Wilson, the two talking about something or the other that was clearly entertaining enough to warrant a laugh from Wanda. As we approached them, the sound of her laugh taunted me, melodic and dancing around my ears like a terrible reminder of what I couldn't have.

They spotted Natasha and I soon enough, their conversation ceasing and Wanda's laughter silencing as her eyes met mine. I tried not to let her effect me, but it became increasingly different when I noticed how beautiful she looked today, wearing a maroon-coloured dress and wearing her brown-red hair down in curls. Of course, all of that didn't compliment the giant scar on her forehead.

"Y/N, it's so good to see you!" Sam exclaimed, trying to prevent an awkwardness from occurring. "How have you been?"

I smiled his way. "I'm good, Sam. You?"

We talked for a little while, catching up, before Natasha decided to drag Sam away for a stupid, fake reason that was clearly said on purpose. Knowing I couldn't exactly stop her, I let her get away with it, figuring I'd have to face Wanda at some point.

"You look good," she spoke first, making me push a stand of my hair behind my ear to give my hands something to do.

"Thanks," I mumbled, before clearing my throat and meeting her gaze. "So do you. That's, er, that's always been your colour."

She smiled in response and I cursed inwardly, wondering why the hell I said that.

"You sound like you've been doing well," she said, referring to the conversation I had with Sam.

I nodded. "Yeah, I have."

A silence filled the air that none of us knew how to fill. I stared at my shoes so hard that I'm surprised a hole didn't form. Wanda hugged herself, unsure whether to speak or not.

"What happened to your head?" I finally thought of something, nodding to the scar.

She subconsciously reached up to touch it, though she didn't seem affected by it. "Oh, nothing. Just happened in a recent mission."

I nodded uncomfortably, never responding well to when she got injured. But she knew that.

"So, Nat said you've got a date," Wanda said, and the way she said it made me think that maybe she'd been wanting to mention it for a while. "Elise, right?"

I swallowed. "Yeah. She's just helping the Bartons out with some stuff then I'll be seeing her after."

Wanda nodded, eyes flickering between me and the floor. "That's nice. So, is it new?"

God, this was awkward.

"Kind of, yeah," I answered, not even sure why. "It's not, like, exclusive, but it's nice to move on, y'know?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Oh, so you're moving on?"

I pressed my lips together firmly. She was watching me curiously, green eyes bright with intrigue.

"I'd hope so," I answered, cocking my head to the side and watching her. "It's been six months."

She nodded, looking down. "Yeah, okay... so you're not in love with her?"

I clenched my jaw. "Is that really any of your business, Wanda?" She didn't answer, so I straightened up and avoided her eyes. "I should go. Ceremony is going to start soon."

Walking away, I left with tense shoulders and more nerves than when I headed in. She had no right to be jealous. She left me.

I found Elise just before everybody was told to take their seats for the ceremony. She apologised for missing me before, mentioning how she was helping Laura with getting ready, then proceeded to shower me in compliments which sent me into a blushing mess. After catching up, we took our seats for the ceremony and waited for it to begin.

Feeling someone's eyes on me, I glanced to my left and saw Wanda sat on the other set of rows, but she was staring right at me, lips pressed together thoughtfully. I rolled my eyes and looked ahead, ignoring her stares. As if sensing my mood, Elise grabbed ahold of my hand gently, glancing at me with a small smile as if to check that was okay. I squeezed her hand in response, letting her know it was.

Are her hands sweaty? Because they look sweaty.

I clenched my jaw and shot Wanda a glare, seeing the amused smile on her lips as she watched me.

Stay out of my head, I told her mentally, knowing she was listening, before rolling my eyes. And her hands are soft, thank you very much. Yours are the sweaty ones.

Though it was a terrible comeback, Wanda lost her smile and rolled her eyes before looking away. I tried not to let her annoying self bother me as Elise and I sat together, watching the ceremony.

It was short and sweet and though I didn't know Clint and Laura too well, it was easy to see they loved each other very much. Their vows were beautiful and it was adorable when their kids ran up to them at the end to give them a giant hug. I didn't know much, but I knew that I'd love to have a love like theirs some day.

After the ceremony came the reception, and there were loads of tables and chairs set up for guests, including a stage and dance floor next to it, perfect for a nice celebration after the vow renewal. It was all wonderful and I was excited, until I learnt that I was sat on the same table as Wanda.

Me, Elise, Natasha, Sam, Wanda and Bucky Barnes were all sat at the same table, which definitely didn't help with the awkwardness as Wanda eyed me from across the food. I tried to ignore her presence and focus on having a great time with Elise. Natasha promised that Wanda wouldn't make a scene, so I just had to believe her.

"So, what can I get you all to drink?" a waiter said, stopping by our table.

Everybody told him what they wanted and when he looked to me, I shrugged.

"Literally anything is fine with me," I said, before quickly adding, "Well, anything except gin. Not a fan of gin at all."

The waiter nodded and smiled politely. "I'm sure I can get you something good without gin."

I returned his smile as he nodded to us all once more before walking away to get our drinks.

"So, what did you think of the ceremony?" Elise asked, giving me her attention.

The two of us erupted into conversation, as did everyone else, and I was genuinely having a good time with her. The food was good, too, as were the drinks when they arrived. But the one problem was Wanda bloody Maximoff who couldn't keep her eyes away from me and was agitating me with her mere presence. I tried so hard to ignore her, but God forbid my eyes flickered over to her and she was already looking my way.

After a delicious meal and lovely conversation with the others, everybody began to get up and mingle with the other guests. I took this as my chance to steer away from Wanda and instead catch up with Natasha and hang out with Elise, who got on with everyone wonderfully. Sadly though, she had to keep nipping away to help the Bartons with some stuff for the party, but I didn't mind. I figured that was also part of the reason why she didn't invite me as her plus-one, so I didn't take it personally.

About an hour into the celebrations, I was mid-conversation with Natasha when we were interrupted by Wanda. I rolled my eyes as she looked to the redhead questioningly.

"Have you seen Clint around?" she asked. "Laura wants me to take everything from the gifts table inside and I need the key."

Natasha pursed her lips, shaking her head. As her eyes looked around for him, she said, "I'm not sure where he is..."

Before either of them could come to a conclusion, Elise appeared by my side with an apologetic smile and a drink in her hand.

"Hey," she greeted, squeezing my hand gently. "Sorry for ditching you before. I had to make sure the bar didn't run out of alcohol."

"It's all good," I told her with a small smile.

"I got you this gin cocktail to make up for it," she said sweetly, making me eye the drink like it was a bomb.

Wanda snorted suddenly, making me look to her with a glare. She tried to hide her laughter behind a smile as she looked the other way, though that didn't stop her from commenting in my mind with her obnoxious, intrusive powers.

Real good listener this one. Didn't you say you didn't like gin earlier?

I refrained from smacking her. Go away, Wanda.

"Thank you," I said to Elise gratefully, accepting the drink. "It looks great."

"Oh, I think I see Clint," Wanda said, before shooting us all a smile I'd love to punch. "Catch you later."

"See ya," Natasha said, as Elise waved and I rolled my eyes.

—

Dancing was fun and I liked to think I was good for an average person. So, when the DJ put on some fun music and encouraged guests to have a little dance, I immediately asked Elise to join me. Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly the most confident of dancers. She was adorably apologising as she held my hands, letting me take the lead.

"It's okay," I reassured her with a laugh. "You're doing fine."

But as she stepped on my foot for the millionth time, I could tell she thought she was doing anything but. I didn't mind though since it was amusing and cute all at the same time.

Be careful over there, Y/N. You may have been better off wearing some steel-toed shoes.

At the sound of Wanda's voice infiltrating my mind, I searched around me until I caught sight of the familiar green eyes over Elise's shoulder. She was stood to the side, entertained smile adorning her lips, as she watched Elise and I dance.

Why don't you piss off and mind your own business before I buy a pair of steel-toed shoes just to kick you with!

She didn't respond, so I focused my attention back on Elise and paused as something a little slower and more romantic played in the background. Offering an encouraging smile to Elise, I held out my hand which she accepted happily.

"Luckily, this one is pretty easy, so you might avoid bruising my feet," I joked to lighten the mood.

She flushed with embarrassment but let me pull her close as I took the lead. Subconsciously, my eyes wandered back to Wanda, who was now crossing her arms with annoyance and watching me with glowing red eyes. She had absolutely no right to be jealous. But I didn't care. It wasn't my business.

After sharing a lovely dance with Elise, the two of us took a seat at our empty table to have some water and talk. Of course, as we were chatting, our conversation was interrupted by none other than–

"Wanda," I got out through gritted teeth.

She grinned as she took a seat next to us, crossing her legs and resting her intertwined hands on her knees comfortably.

"I figured I'd introduce myself properly since we haven't really met before," Wanda explained, eyes dancing with mischief before she looked to Elise. "I'm Wanda Maximoff."

Elise smiled politely. "I'm Elise Fey. And I know who you are. A really impressive Avenger at that."

I narrowed my eyes as Wanda waved her hand dismissively. What was she playing at exactly?

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," she said bashfully. "But I guess, since you know who I am, it's only fair I return the favour. After all, you're here as Y/N's date, and as Y/N's friend, I thought it would be nice to get to know you."

"Friend," I repeated the word bitterly. "So, that's what we are now?"

Wanda chuckled, brushing off my words, before focusing on Elise. "So, what do you do, Elise?"

"I'm a veterinarian," she quipped proudly.

"How cute," Wanda said, tilting her head to the side and smiling. "How long have you been doing that?"

"Only a few years," Elise said, glancing at me with mild confusion. "It's a really rewarding job."

"I can imagine," Wanda said, before pulling a puzzled expression. "But wait, how does that work with you both? Since Y/N is allergic to pets an' all?"

Locking my jaw with agitation, I stared at Wanda's doe-eyed face. Elise looked to me with surprise.

"You are?" she asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I shook my head, smiling at her. "No, not really... I mean, well, rabbits. I'm allergic to rabbits. I didn't think it was a big deal."

"It kind of is," she said playfully. "What if I had treated a rabbit at work and then went on a date with you?"

I chuckled awkwardly. "Hmm, yeah, okay, maybe it's a little bit of a big deal."

She hummed disapprovingly before looking back to Wanda, who watched us both curiously.

"So, you work as a vet in New York?" she asked Elise, and I couldn't tell if she was actually interested or just trying to piss me off. When Elise nodded, she continued, "Are you from New York?"

"I'm originally from here actually," Elise said, motioning around us. "My family knew Laura's family before she married Clint. That's how I know the Bartons."

"Oh, so your parents still live here?" Wanda asked, leaning her head in the palm of her hand as she continued to question her.

"Yeah, not far from here actually," Elise answered with a smile.

Wanda nodded. "Cool... so how would that work, the whole visiting them thing? I mean, Y/N works a lot, right? And I assume you're close with your family. So, how does taking the time off to visit your parents work with you both when it's, like, 16 hours away?"

I squeezed my hands together to contain my frustration towards Wanda. Elise opened her mouth to respond, then closed it when she realised she didn't know how to answer. Her eyes darted to mine, asking for help, and I knew she was too polite to call Wanda out for her bullshit.

"We're still newly dating, Wanda," I answered through a fake smile. "We haven't even talked about meeting each other's parents, so it's not an issue right now."

"Right now," Wanda echoed my words, as if adding a double meaning. "But it will be in the future?"

I tried not to react harshly as I said, "That's not what I said."

Wanda nodded slowly, smirk tugging at her lips. Saying nothing more on the subject, she looked to Elise with dark eyes.

"It was lovely meeting you," she finished. "I'll see you around, I guess."

Elise nodded uncomfortably. "You, too, Wanda."

Shooting me a smile, she got up and left Elise and I sat there in mixed emotions. I was peeved at the Sokovian woman, not understanding why she had to try and ruin my one chance at moving on.

"I'm sorry about that," I said to Elise, a frown on my lips. "I don't know what the hell happened, but I definitely didn't expect it."

Elise chewed on her lower lip with thought. I waited patiently, wishing I knew what she was thinking. Finally, her blue eyes met mine apologetically.

"I don't think Wanda is quite over you," she said quietly. "And maybe you're not over her either, Y/N. At least not as much as you think you are."

I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Elise, she's just being a dick to piss me off. It's not like that."

Elise winced. "I think it is. And honestly, you're a lovely person, but I just don't want to get involved in something like that right now."

I knitted my brows together with confusion. "What do you mean?"

She rested her hand on mine atop the table. "It's probably better we stay friends. Easier."

"Elise... c'mon. We just– we only just got to know each other." I frowned, feeling bad that she didn't want to see where this would go.

"For what it's worth, today was really fun," she said with a smile, trying to make light of the situation. "And every date we've shared has been fun, too. But I can't compete with the history you share with Wanda. And I don't want to."

I didn't know what to say, speechless, unable to understand why she was doing this. Taking that as her chance to leave, she leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek before standing up and letting go of my hand.

"I'm gonna leave early," she explained. "I hope you work stuff out for yourself."

I looked up to her, watching as she smiled once more before leaving me be. We'd only been dating a few weeks, I knew that, but I still felt saddened to know she didn't want to keep things going. And with the realisation that it was because of Wanda, my sadness was quickly replaced with anger. It always came back to her.

Scowl on my face, I stood up and knew one thing: Wanda Maximoff was dead meat.

[intubatedangel]

Cold Snap: Chapter 4

Chapter 1 |  Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |

Anna walked through into the large living room, turning to the TV. Carl was stood beside the counter, phone to his ear, gaze locked on the screen. A newscast was showing aerial footage from a helicopter. A banner along the bottom was headlined with MOMENTS AGO, and scrolling text described the scene. Not that it needed much describing. The boat was pouring with smoke, people crowded on the fore deck. Anna watched, gasping as the fuel tank explosion sent a gout of flame into the air and shook everyone on board.

"Anna?" Sara asked on the phone.

"I saw." She gulped, exchanging a glance with Carl. They both nodded. Their plans for the day would have to wait. "We'll be right there." Anna told Sara, before hanging up, she headed into the bathroom, grabbing two towels. She tossed one into the sink, soaking it in warm water. She gave her chest a quick scrub to remove the lingering gel, then wiped away as much sweat as she reasonably could. It was an old trick nursing school trick, when you had a short break and needed to freshen up. It would have do. Carl entered the bathroom behind her, and she handed him the wet towel, using the other to dry herself.

They didn't say anything, both processing what they had seen. Not in the way that someone in shock might have to process an event. They were going over the details they had seen. The footage wasn't great, but the signs of blood and bandages were pretty clear. There was the fire factor too, and given how cold the river was, hypothermia could be a big complication. Carl's mind was focused on treatments for the worst case scenarios. Anna thought more about the bigger picture. Triage and dividing her nurses to cover as many bases as possible safely and quickly.

Once dry she slipped around Carl and went to the wardrobe. Grabbing her last set of spare underwear and scrubs. She changed with a sense of urgency, Carl joining her soon after. Anna didn't waste any time sorting her hair. She ran a brush through it a couple of times, then fixed it in a basic ponytail. She went to the living room and looked through the window, down to the road. Traffic was already slowing down, with the river road likely blocked and emergency vehicles overriding lights in multiple directions. The police department would be clearing routes to the hospital, but none would pass this way.

She heard Carl coming though, dressed and ready. She looked at him and shook her head as she went to the front door. "Walking will be quicker." He nodded and they both left the apartment.

The kettle finished it's 5-minute boiling cycle.

* * *

 Jones ran towards the back of the boat, waving his arms at one point as the boat rocked, presumably a patrol boat pushing off. It wasn't big enough to be another explosion. He hadn't considered the prospect but thought it unlikely. What was left to explode? As he neared the back of the boat, he could feel the tilt getting more substantial as the rear compartments flooded first. A part of him hoped that the luggage area wasn't one of them. A hope that was dashed when he reached the top of the rear stairs.

The waterline was already halfway up the stairs, which with the tilt of the boat were now almost vertical. It was murky too, not the horribly polluted mess it had been in years gone by. For a city river it was remarkably clean. This was just the standard murk of a natural river, suspended silt and foam, plus whatever dirt was being pulled from the inside of the boat. He couldn't see any sign of the girl. He would have to go in. He pulled off the life jacket, which would only hinder him here, but grabbed the small waterproof flashlight.

Just looking at the water made him feel cold. He took a couple of deep breaths, gritted his teeth, and jumped in. He did his best to contain a half-scream-half-growl, as the cold water shocked his system. The initial shock over, he swore. Loudly. Then turned to the task at hand. Placing the flashlight between his teeth, hooked a foot under the steps, rotated to face down wards, then pushed off, cutting through the water.

It stung his eyes as he kept them open, looking for any sign. It didn't take him long. The girl, Shona the kid had said, had long blond hair that was spread out in the water, acting almost like a flag, guiding him to her. She was dead. Clinically at least. That much was obvious. Motionless, blue lips. He didn't bother checking for a pulse or trying to give her some air. It would be pointless with her lungs full of water. Her only hope was that the cold would prevent any major damage. Jones knew that cold water drowning was one of the best-case scenarios for a full recovery. He just had to get her out and get her to help as soon as possible.

He grabbed one of her arms, pulling on it, hoping it would be simple. But she was trapped. He pushed himself closer, down her body length, to get a good view of the cases covering her legs and waist. He could feel his own air starting to run low, but realigned himself, planting his feet against the floor, grabbing the heaviest case in both hands. He pushed off, taking the case with him, moving it just far enough to roll it away from the girl. He did the same for another case, then, lungs starting to burn, he took a chance. He got one arm around her waist, pulled her upper body closer to his shoulder with the other. Then, cradling her tightly, he pushed off in a smooth firm motion. The was a moment of resistance, as the bags and cases tried to keep hold of their prize, then they relented. Shona was free.

As soon as he felt it Jones kicked off the bottom, but his legs were almost fully extended already and there was no dramatic rush to the surface. He had to swim with his legs, each motion needing more oxygen. He could see the light from the stairs, and swam towards it, spitting out the flashlight, letting it sink away. He felt desperate as he crossed the final few yards.

With a great gasping breath he broke the surface, dragging in few deep lungful’s of air, remembering to breath out steadily and expel the co2 that must have been building. He rearranged the body in his arms, getting a better look at her. In the open air her hair had fallen and clung to her face. He brushed it away, without any tenderness, feeling how cold her skin was. He knew there was absolutely nothing he could do but get her out. And there was the problem. Submerged in the water he had been unable to really sense direction. During the short time he had been under, the boat had tilted further, enough that there was no chance of climbing the steps, not with a pulseless young woman in one arm.

* * *

 Lucy watched the cop go rushing off, shaking her head. She wanted to go with him. Help him. But she was the only proper medic on board. And as she had told Jones, Patients come first. She got the splint wrapped around the young man’s arm. She didn't dare try to reduce the fracture herself. She had no idea how many knocks it taken. Instead, she used the splint to stabilise the bones as they were, loosely wrapping anti-septic coated bandages over the wound. It would do.

She followed it up with a neck brace, then waved over a cop. "I need a spinal board from a patrol boat, and some spare hands." She requested. The cop nodded, immediately going to do as she asked. She checked the young man’s pulse while she waited. It was rapid, a little thready, but not excessively concerning. The head injury could become a problem, but there wouldn't be anything she could do if he did have a brain bleed. The best thing would be to get him to a neuro unit as soon as possible, and in the meantime try to reduce his pain and stress levels. To that end she shot him up with a moderate dose of morphine, which seemed to calm him.

The cop returned with the orange board and two others. They should have all had training in spinal boards, it was part of the required first aid course for river patrol, but Lucy coached them through it just in case. They log rolled the young man, placing the board before rolling him back, then they tied down the straps, crossing his body and making everything secure. By the time they were done and Lucy could look around, she could see that they were the only ones left on board.

"Ok, nice and easy." She said, standing up slowly and in concert with the other three. It was only when she was standing that she realised how badly the boat was faring. Luckily the patrol boat was level with them, so they could shuffle sideways along the tilted deck, instead of having to walk up a 30-degree slope. They reached the edge of the boat and she directed two of them down into it, while she and the other balanced the spinal board on the rail.

Carefully they eased the board down into the patrol boat. Lucy looked out at the river. All the other boats were on their way to shore. She looked at the sinking rear of The Beetle. There was still no sign of Jones. "Do we wait?" A cop asked, clearly tracking her thinking. They were the last boat. The last chance for Jones and the possible casualty. She cursed, looking out over the river avoiding the eyes of the cops. They were putting the decision in her hands. Patients Come First.

She opened her mouth to speak, when she noticed something odd. One boat wasn't heading for shore. It was making a mad dash in their direction, skipping and bouncing on the waves of the river. "No." She ordered. "Get this one to shore. Go as fast as you smoothly can." She said starting to turn away.

"Wait, what about you?" The officer asked,

"Patients come first." Lucy told him. She rushed towards the cabin without looking back.

[annaofthenorthernlights]

It´s your life

Chapter 7 (last one)

our life...

Word counting: 2861

Previous chapters (AO3)

Summary: Anna had just handed in her change of address at the college´s administration office and was now heading towards home. Nervousness started to stir within her, when she was overthinking the Professor´s introduction about examination starting within a few weeks.

Note: I´m not acquainted with studying law. Therefore, I took some information from the internet about preparing yourself for the law-finals (https://www.barbri.com/law-school-final-exams-tips/#expect). It surely is not very profound, but then the study topic is not meant to be plot centred. Still it is a part of Anna´s path at the moment.

Anna had just handed in her change of address at the college´s administration office and was now heading towards home. Nervousness started to stir within her, when she was overthinking the Professor´s instruction about examination starting within four weeks.

Professor Olsen had been clear. They would have to get their thoughts straight at his question (the case issue). Organization is critical to writing a strong essay answer. After all, if he couldn´t follow their analysis, how could he grade it fairly and appropriately?

All in all, Anna knew she was basically well prepared. Kristoff had made sure that she would not brood over finding a job at this time of semester but focus on her books. She would get all the time she needed after writing her essays and then finally receiving her certificate. He had encouraged her not to worry, because he was convinced, she would find some nice occupation in no-time. So, the race towards the end of this semester made her realise of how far she had already come. At the same time, it was a start into a new world, she had yet to discover. And she would. Anna couldn´t wait to launch in.

Anna smiled to herself. After these few days in her new home, she had felt more at ease and comforted than ever before in her life. She still wondered secretly about that little purple box. But then, Anna was super proud not having peeped in yet…

She had just turned into the road that led to the carpentry when her mobile rang. It was Susan, Sven´s sister.

“Hey Susan! What´s up?”

“Hi Anna! Say, are you still looking for a job?”

“Well, yes. Why, would you ask?”

“You know the elementary school where I´m teaching?” Susan exclaimed all excited. “Well, guess what?!”

“What is it?” Anna got curious and listened eagerly.

“Our principal´s secretary has just announced today that she´ll be leaving us by the end of the month. Now, Mr. Oaken is at the end of his nerves already because he´s terrified not having anyone at his side by the time Lucy, the secretary, will be gone. When I got notified about the disaster, I told him to relax! Becaaause, I have THE woman at hand!”

Anna had come to a halt by now and blinked a few times. Had she heard correctly? Susan was suggesting her to take over a complete school´s administration office?

“Susan, that´s so kind of you. But are you sure? I mean, I have never….”

“Oh, come on, Anna, you must be kidding. Hey sweety, you are about to become a certified lawyer. Correspondence of all sorts with parents and community plus supervising some kids will be no deal to you. Besides, a secretary with knowledge of legal business is just the icing on the cake of it all. Why don´t you come over tomorrow afternoon and have a look. You will like Mr. Oaken and he is eager to meet you!”

******

“Living Rock” was an elementary school, situated at the other side of town. Kids of all sorts and various families attended the neat little place.

Anna´s visit had been a pleasant occasion, with a great deal of questions about her hobbies and personal interests. According to Mr. Oaken it was important to get to know someone on his or her personal interests, because that´s what this person would be about. Mr. Oaken had been a sight to himself. Anna had been fascinated first sight about the giant and broad fellow with his Nordic cardigan (albeit the already warm weather) and bunch of curly red hair.

He had been kind and Lucy was showing her around and explaining this and that about her duties. All in all, it sounded like Anna could handle. Susan had showed up and winked mischievously, welcoming her already to the team of “Living Rock”.

So, when Anna left the schoolyard, she carried the signed contract copy within her handbag, starting at the beginning of next month. That would be two days after her exams. Mr. Oaken had not cared if she would be possessing a passed certificate or not. He intended to listen to his intuition and that signed him very well to engage the vivid and genuine redhaired girl.

She couldn´t wait to tell Kristoff. He had been so encouraging the day before. He had been certain that she would know “within her” if this employment would be right for her. If only she would not rush into it because she felt like having to. No, she had not. Anna was sure, she could do a good job there. For one, the job description was various and contained not only paperwork, but personal contact to parents and kids in the first place. That´s what she was intrigued about. Then, her studies would indeed be of help when it came to handle complaints or even accusations.

So, when Anna practically stormed the workshop´s office, Kristoff grinned at her, already knowing. Susan had messaged Sven, and he had told his friend of course. Anna was disappointed and felt like the surprise being spoiled. But then, Kristoff had got up from his chair and taken her into his arms, telling her how proud he was of her and that they should celebrate this good news.

It was just another sweet moment where Anna felt confirmed in her new life and that made her sinking into those strong arms just a little bit more….

*****

The day of Anna´s exams came rapidly by now. Kristoff drove her to the campus, promising to wait outside in the late afternoon. It made her smile, knowing that the reason for her new chosen life was him and only him alone. Anna leaned in and pressed a soft kiss onto his lips, murmuring a genuine “thank you”, just to leave the car without thinking to much about what was to come.

She surveyed and analysed the given case and started her essay with the best plan she could make up in the given time. She got asked to set a defending plan for the accused, just as well as for the accuser. And then, according to the law, how would she describe the judge responding to the presented plaidoyers?

Luckily, she could go on with the spoken exam in the same afternoon, not needing to come in on another day. Professor Olsen had always been a patient but clear teacher. He disliked talking around the bush, so Anna headed into her spoken plaidoyers for both sides the moment he had asked her for it. She didn´t have much time, so she had to summon up best she could, despite having so much on her mind that seemed important to add. But a plaidoyer was meant to be cut short to the minimum facts and pleading for reason.

“Well, Miss Rendelle,” Prof. Olsen began, after she was done, “I will not keep in mind of which family you come from. This is my professional opinion about your performed debate. Surely you like people, one can tell. You´re passionate about your clients getting treated the best way possible. That´s a positive source, that unfortunately can get you into trouble. In our profession, you better leave your heart enclosed beyond the cases and keep a neutral line towards your client, no matter if accused or accuser.”

Anna tried to blink her tears away. Hadn´t she assumed it already? She must have screwed it all up… “Thank you, Professor Olsen. Yes, I do like people. And I think that´s why I can´t do this. You see, because I like people, I´d rather work at the school´s administration and then encourage parents and teachers to raise the kids to the most positive of life, so they would never get into the situation where they need a lawyer.” She pressed her hot tears away, overwhelmed by her exhaustion and only tired of this dreadful moment. “If you could please tell me if I have clearly failed, so that I can leave now and head back into my real life again?!” She wiped her tears away, smiling faintly at the older opposite.

Professor Olsen weighed her words and understood. “Whatever you will be up to, Miss Rendelle, I truly wish you all the best and a good lot of success. According to your spoken exam, I expect your written essay to turn out just as fine. So, for now, I hope you can live with a B-?”

As soon as Anna entered the parking area, she´d spot the beloved Pickup and Kristoff leaning against it. She made her way over and when he sighted her coming, he went to meet her on the way. Anna had told herself to control her emotions, but upon coming closer the dam would break and tears started to spill. Kristoff halted for a moment, scared of what might had happened. But Anna just launched forward and practically flew at him, clinging to his waist and burrying her face into his chest.

They stood a while and Kristoff would not say anything but hold her tight and caressing her back with one hand. After a felt eternity Anna would relax and breath evenly and loosen her grip, looking up to her boyfriend with a faint smile. She had made it and should be fine. That was all that mattered for now.

And on their drive home, she would tell Kristoff about the case and her attempt to do her best. She would tell him about her answer to the Professor and that she couldn´t wait to get to her new job which beheld a sensible purpose.

Kristoff had listened to her for a while and could not help but pull over at some point to park the car. He turned in his seat to pay all his attention to her retelling of the day. His breast swelled with pride of what his sweetheart had achieved in those hours. He would tell her, but first, she had to let it all out!

“I´m so happy this is over for now and to face the path I´ve chosen. Do you think that´s all unrealistic or will I make it?”

Kristoff smiled and reached to cup her cheek with his hand and lean closer to her. “Anna, I´m so proud of you and I know you´ll be great. I´ve told you before and I believe in you! Go ahead and do what you think is right. And in case, it turns out not to be, you´ll figure it out. And if you let me be part of it, it will make me even happier!”

Anna gasped and put her hand over his and pressing a kiss to his palm. “Yes, of course!”

*****

Anna felt light-hearted and checked in the mirror a last time. Her sunflower summer dress looked pretty and flowy and her hair fell nicely around her shoulders. She grabbed her pumps and headed to the living room, answering her ringing mobile.

“Hey Anna! Congrats, well done!” Elsa called to give her sister credit to her achievement.

“Hi Elsa!” Anna chirped, fully in good mood. “Congrats on what?”

“Your passed spoken exam today, silly!”

Now, Anna was bewildered for a moment, but it dawned on her, that the Professor must have called at Rendelle Estate soon after her spoken test. “Thanks, Elsa. I´m glad it´s over. I think I did okay. Though, surely not with merit. Surpriiiise!”

“Come on, Anna!” Elsa sounded disappointed, but still encouraging in her way. “I´m proud of you. I know it was a hard time for you. So, enjoy the results and I hope you get a nice treat for all the effort?”

“Well yes, thank you. Kristoff is about to take me out for dinner. So, we´re practically off… Hey Elsa, please greet Grandpa for me, will you?”

“Yes, I will. He´s proud you did it, you know? And Anna, don´t forget, you can always come back, remember?”

“Yes, Elsa, I know that. But you know the conditions, and that won´t work. So… please take care and we´ll meet soon, yes? Because you don´t have to worry about any acusations. I got a job and can provide for myself. But I´d love to see you sometimes!”

“Yes, Anna. We´ll do that. Off you go now and enjoy your evening! Greetings to Kristoff.”

Anna laid her mobile on the desk and sat down on the chair to put on her shoes, all in thought. She hadn´t talked to her sister in a long time and was glad that she could now face Elsa without needing to rely on her help or advice. She was heading on her own life. It felt strange, but a good strange.

Kristoff was still occupied in the bathroom and Anna´s eyes stared at the drawer. She would need only a second… But she shouldn´t… And when Anna pulled at the handle her eyes widened for a second with a slight shock that sent a bolt into her chest.

The little box was gone…

*****

Anna felt guilty first when Kristoff had appeared ready to go. But then, she scolded herself for being nosy and decided to enjoy the following treat.

They had eaten at their favourite Italian restaurant and enjoyed the familiar atmosphere. Nothing fancy, but cosy and friendly. It was such a welcoming change, to chat about this and that, without the deadline pressure lurking over her. Anna felt the urge to thank Kristoff just one more time for his support and love. She would not know how to have succeeded otherwise. He had faintly shaken his head and confirmed that had been nothing. Of course, he was so considerate and respectful, had always been.

So, they raised their glass of red wine to lavish in each other’s friendship!

Before sunset, they had driven up the hills and parked the Pickup overlooking the valley. Kristoff heaved Anna on the loading area (which he had cleaned and washed thoroughly during the afternoon). He remained standing and Anna was wondering why he would not join to be sitting next to her. He still held her hands, looked like he was thinking about something. He took a deep breath, just to tell her to hang on a second. Then, he disappeared around the car to the front, opening and closing the glove box and came back to her.

With one hand he took hers while the other was behind his back. For some reason, Anna got all nervous and within her abdomen it felt like a swarm of bees swirling around. She tried hard not to bubble some unintelligible nonsense and sat all still, waiting.

Kristoff cleared his throat and took another deep breath, all the while rubbing his thumb along her fingers.

“Anna, there is something I wanted to ask you already such a long time ago. But then, it never felt right for some reason. There was so much for you to decide, and I was so proud how you took your steps towards your freedom. I didn´t want to interfere with your newfound life. But now… I hope you understand… I have this for you…”

He then showed what he got for her… a little purple gift box!

There it was – he hadn´t forgotten – he had waited for the right moment!Anna was overwhelmed and gasped excitedly. She took the little box (finally) in her hands and, with a reassuring glance to Kristoff, she opened it carefully. There was a cute golden ring with a tiny orange stone on top, surrounded by little leaves, looking like an autumn star. Now, all got kind of blurred, and Anna had to concentrate on the words that came dreamingly to her hears, from somewhere far…

“Anna. You´re the most wonderful person I have known all my life. I love you from the bottom of my heart. All I can think of is to be with you for the rest of my life, if you want that, too. Anna, will you marry me?”

By now, she had to blink away the mingling tears, and she would not know what there was to say, so all Anna could do was to exclaim a loud “Yes!” and throw herself into Kristoff´s arms! They would cling to each other and laugh and cry all at the same time. And when he lowered her down, they kissed and embraced this intimate moment.

And when they sat on the loading area again, and Anna would admire this wonderful jewellery on her finger, all seemed so peaceful and like time had come to a short halt – just for them – just for this special moment.

“You remember how you urged me to think of my life as my own, on our way to Disneyland?” Anna mused.

“Yes, of course. And it still is.” Kristoff confirmed.

“I know,” Anna remarked, looking up to him, “but I´d rather like to call it "our life" now. Would that suit you?”

Kristoff smiled. Yes, it would! And to seal this wonderful idea, they kissed again.

And because it was such a mild evening, they lowered themselves and went on to live out their love!

*****

Note:This was it for now… I hope you liked it 😊. I´m thinking about going on with a short sequel, having Anna getting acquainted with her new job and “their life”…

[got-to-love-a-badboy]

The Interview

Pairing - Dacre Montgomery x Reader

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

You are part of the cast of stranger things season 3, your character is Anna Harrington, twin sister of Steve Harrington/Billy's love interest.

You, Joe Keery and Dacre Montgomery we're being interviewed just after season 3 aired.

The three of you were sitting on chairs in a room waiting for the interviewer to come in, you were making so much noise because you were messing around and being silly, Joe was doing impressions of Dacre.

Joe - I'm Dacre ... Montgomery I'm from Australia.

Y/N - Oh god that is so much like you.

you burst out laughing

Dacre - It sounds nothing like me!

He laughed

Dacre - I'm glad you find it funny though, ok let's do y/n, Dacre! Dacre can you grab me a Fanta, I couldn't possibly move!

He said in a high pitched voice.

Joe - You do have him running errands for you y/n, good impression man

Joe laughed as he patted Dacre on the back

The interviewer walked in as Joe and Dacre were laughing.

Interviewer - Hey guys nice to meet you, I see you are enjoying your time here.

He said motioning towards the three of you laughing

Dacre - Yeah man it's good.

Y/N - Be even better if I was alone, I'm been victimised ... again, picking on a small defenceless woman, the pair of you should be ashamed!

You covered your face and pretended to cry

Joe - God you are so dramatic!"

Joe laughed over at you, earning a middle finger from you

Dacre - Oh poor baby

Dacre pulled you over to him and placed a kiss on the top of your head as Joe and the interviewer raised their eyebrows at each other. After a moment you sat back up and smiled at Dacre, but gave Joe an evil stare.

Y/N - See, Dacre knows how to be nice! Thank you Dacre.

Dacre - Anytime

he winked at you.

Interviewer - Ok!, let's get this interview under way. I have some questions here sent it by fans, So Dacre, what can you tell me about Billy in this series I've heard he has a huge character change.

Dacre - yeah, he becomes victim to the mindflayer, it takes control of him and makes him do horrible things, he isn't the nicest person to start with so I don't feel he is much different in that sense but he is definitely not himself.

Interviewer - wow another victim in Hawkins, I bet that has a huge effect on the relationships in his life, with his father and Max and then with yourself Y/N, and your character Anna.

Dacre nodded his head towards you to take this one.

Y/N - yeah I mean Anna and Billy have an up and down relationship anyway because of how Billy is, but this will definitely be the test for them, I feel Anna is a kind and caring person, so she will naturally be there for Billy no matter what, but with his own demons and then the Mindflayer taking over him, we will have to see if he lets her in.

Dacre smiled at you, fascinated by how you answered the question.

Dacre - yeah I agree with what Y/N was saying he is a tough guy and can't deal with most things so, he probably won't let anyone in, especially his dad and Max but Anna may have more chance.

Interviewer - Joe your character, Steve, hated Billy dating his sister last season does that change this season?.

Joe - um maybe, but Steve hates Billy and Billy hates Steve, I think that is something that will never change, but how is with his sister is a different story.

Interviewer - it must be hard changing from hating someone on set to how you are now, because you guys seem so close, I mean, I heard you before I came in here, the room was filled with laughter.

Joe - we have amazing relationships with the whole cast but it's very rare you see one of us three alone.

All three of you laughed.

Y/N - yeah we are like one big family, I couldn't imagine been with out these guys, they are total nerds but they're my nerds.

Dacre - you know you love us Y/N!

Joe looks at you and raised his eyebrows, you narrowed yours at him as though to say 'do not do it!' But he did!

Joe - yeah some more than others.

You rolled your eyes at him and Dacre just looked straight forward at the interviewer.

Interviewer - what is life like off set for you guys?

Dacre - it's nice because we spend so much time at each others places, like Joe said you rarely see one of us alone, it's usually me and Y/N because everyone else has some family visiting, but with us been from Australia and the UK ours can't be here.

Y/N - yeah like lastnight Joes sister came over so you went out with her didn't you Joe.

He nodded in response

Y/N - so me and Dacre had a movie night at his place, it was nice.

Interviewer ok I'm going to ask this guys so please don't be offended, they are from fans, Dacre and Y/N, fans have seen you spending so much time together but as you say neither of you have family around often, is that the only reason?.

Neither of you answered straight away, you looked at Dacre with big eyes, he decided to speak up assuming you didn't want to.

Dacre - I mean we are like best friends would people find it weird you spending time with your best friend? I think it's because Y/N is the opposite sex, but that doesn't have to mean you are sleeping together.

He looked over at you wanting approval he said the right thing, you smiled at him and nodded.

You had always loved Dacre, the minute he walked on set you couldn't believe how handsome he was and when you got to know him and how kind he was you fell in love with him, you never told him because you didn't want to ruin the amazing friendship you two had, plus you always thought he could do better than you.

When the interviewer was about to ask another question when your assistant waved to Dacre informing him he had a call.

Dacre - sorry I have to take this

He got up from his seat touching your leg on the way past.

Joe looked at you waiting for you to speak.

Y/N - what?

Joe - lets address the elephant in the room shall we? because I'm going to explode.

Y/N - I don't know what you mean

Joe - in the words of Nancy Wheeler, thats bullshit Y/N, when are you and Dacre going to just admit your feelings?

Y/N - JOE!

Joe -oh come on Y/N, Dacre has told me how he feels about you but because you haven't said anything he doesn't want to make the move and ruin your friendship, all you need to do is say how you feel!

Y/N - damn it Joe! Yes I love him ok! But I don't know how to tell him.

Joe - just say what is in your head, don't even think about it, here practice on me, tell me what you like about Dacre.

You covered your face and laughed.

Y/N - god this is embarrassing but ok here goes.

Out of the corner of his eye Joe saw Dacre walking back into the room, luckily so did your assistant, she put her arm out stopping Dacre from entering and pointed over to the 3 of you then put her finger on her lip, telling Dacre to be quiet.

Y/N - I would love to tell Dacre that I love how caring he is, how he will do anything for me without even been asked, I love that I don't need to tell him I have had a bad day, he just knows, and then shows up at my place with my favourite snacks and a movie for us to watch.

My favourite time with him was last summer when he invited me to Australia and I spent a whole 5 weeks with him and his family, he planned everything, he took me places he though I would like, not him, he does all of this without asking for anything in return.

And then there is him as a person, god his ambition and determination is mind blowing, Dacre the most talented person I have ever met, I didn't know this until after, but last month he missed an audition because he was helping me prepare for my own!, who does that!....Joe, I'm so in love with him it scares me.

Before he could answer you Dacre walked back on set and sat right next to you, you turned to face him and he just smiled at you.

Y/N - you didn't!

Dacre - I did, Y/N you want to know why I do all that?

You simply nodded at him.

Dacre - because I'm in love with you Y/N, the minute I saw you I knew you were going to be a huge part of my life and you are. You are the first thing I think about on a morning and the last thing on a night, the amount of messages I get from my family daily asking if I have asked you on a date yet is a joke, so Y/N can I take you on a date tonight?

Y/N - 100% yes

Dacre smiled the biggest smile you have ever seen on his face, his hand found your face and he caressed your cheek, you leaned closer to him and whispered

Y/N - kiss me idiot

Dacre - yes ma'am

Before you knew it his lips were on yours, the kiss soon became much more romantic than it started.

The whole room erupted into clapping and cheering, when Dacre pulled away you stared into each others eyes before been interrupted by the interviewer.

Interviewer - possibly the best interview of all time!

Joe - oh my god I need to message Nat!

Joe pulled out his phone and you all started laughing, you smiled as Dacre grabbed your hand.

——————————————

[forkanna]

[AO3 LINK]

The restaurant they ended up going to wasn't in Dell Valley. Anna wasn't sure if it was because it was a nicer restaurant that the ones her town offered, or because Elsa wanted to go somewhere they wouldn't be recognised. Or, it may even have been a combination of both. Either way, she wasn't going to complain.

They were seated by a window with a view over the garden behind the restaurant, which also had tables but it was a bit chilly to dine outdoors. Elsa ordered a single glass of white wine, and asked for white grape juice in a similar glass for Anna.

"We can pretend, at least," she whispered once the waiter had left. Then she sat back and picked up the menu. "Hmm… linguine?"

"Mom, I'm not a little kid; I can just get a soda."

"But I wanted you to have something similar so we can toast each other. I just don't want to go to jail when they ask to see your ID for ordering us both wine. Besides…" a slight smirk, "who is 'Mom'?"

Anna rolled her eyes, though she was smiling. "You're right, Elsa. Sorry. Not playing my part."

Their drinks were brought soon after, and they ordered. Anna got spaghetti because she was too distracted by the whole situation to think of anything specific and panicked when asked, and Elsa did end up ordering linguine. They also got an order of breadsticks, and a platter of stuffed portobello caps to share.

"Where did you even find this place?" Anna asked.

"Oh, a client took me to lunch here once. I think he was hoping to close a deal of another kind, but I wasn't interested, and he was still a gentleman so the evening wasn't a total loss."

Anna looked aghast. "Elsa!" she cried, though still low enough not to carry to another table. There was a grin on her face as she continued, obviously joking, "I'm offended – do you take all the 'never gonna happen' dates here?"

"Please," Elsa snorted. "Just the one. Plus, the food is quite good – I've been saving this place for a special occasion. Even Kristoff's never been here."

Perhaps the intention was to continue joking, but Anna found that she couldn't. Not when Elsa was – unintentionally or not – being so sweet. She hadn't even told her husband about this place. Aside from a lunch date that happened who-knows-how-long ago, Elsa hadn't brought anyone else here, either. Just Anna. The very thought filled her up with bubbly warmth, and she was grateful when the breadsticks arrived because it saved her from saying something stupid.

Though it also meant that a silence grew between them as they nibbled on the sticks. It wasn't entirely comfortable, but Anna wasn't quite sure how to break it. This wasn't a date – Elsa had made that clear with her "I can't take you on a date". The thought was a little souring, despite it being in the best interests of them both.

However, just when she was about to make up an excuse to hide in the bathroom, Elsa raised her glass. "Ahem."

"Hmm? Oh!" This was the first time Anna had been expected to take part in any kind of official toast, so she didn't catch on right away. In her haste to pick up her wine glass, she almost knocked it over, but caught it in time.

"Oh, Tori." The tone was fond and affectionate. Elsa's eyes were only for her. "I know this is more difficult than we wish it were. But I'm happy you're back in my life. And that we can begin moving forward together."

Clinking her glass with her mother's, she beamed and whispered, "Me, too." They drank deeply before she asked, "You're really sure we have to go back to 'familial only' after tonight? Not trying to be a butt, just like, it seems like it's gonna be hard."

"Yes. Like I said, I'm not comfortable parenting you and dating you at the same time. And since I can't stop parenting you for another few months, we have to sacrifice the other thing." But she was still smiling. Which was explained when she added, "For the time being."

Anna felt giddy. Dating! Elsa was completely willing to give it – give them – a go. Even if they had to restrain themselves for a while, at least it wasn't a hard 'no'. She had something to hold onto.

They both made the effort to enjoy the night, and each other's company. It was all relatively chaste, too – even if Elsa's reaction to Anna's foot accidentally nudging her seemed a bit extreme. But they could do things like that with no expectations of it going further. Anna was unsure if she would ever be able to fully accept that, but that was okay. It didn't matter what kind of relationship they had, or how far they were willing to go, because it was always going to be infinitely better than what Anna had in her old life.

And she still had Punz. Throughout it all, perhaps the most surprising thing was that, not only did she still have Punz, but she also loved her as much as she ever had. More, actually, if she were entirely honest. Her heart ached for her girlfriend in the same way it ached for Elsa, and that… wasn't a bad thing. Just new.

On their way home, Elsa smiled over at her. "I hope this was as fun for you as it was for me. Probably not, but…"

"Elsa, it was great," Anna told her right away. "Honest. I don't want you to ever think I don't like just hanging out with you! It's… I get frustrated, because now I like you in a different way and we have to… y'know, conceal that."

"I know. But we can, and we will for a while yet." Biting her lip as they got back into Dell Valley proper, she was silent for a moment or two. Then she said, "You're the most important person on the planet to me. I know, I know, you're supposed to love all your children equally, but I don't. Because you're the only one I love two ways."

Snorting, Anna joked, "That's probably for the best."

"I agree. I can scarcely handle how our relationship has changed since you came back from your trip; I don't want to think about anything more."

Still, Anna glowed with pride at being the most important person to Elsa. She snuggled down into her seat and looked out the window, watching the scenery move past. "We should do something tomorrow morning," she said. Elsa lifted an eyebrow in question, and Anna felt compelled to shrug. "I mean, I get a day, right? But I didn't see you until after school so it's been less than a day…"

Elsa smiled. "I technically said a night, not a day."

Anna shrugged again. "Okay, how about… you owe me for making me worry?" she tried. It wasn't true – the mere fact that Elsa had come back more than made up for the fact that she left in the first place. Anna tried to tell her this with her tone, and the small smile, but Elsa seemed oblivious to both.

When her mother pulled up to a red light, she actually let out a sigh. It was a sad sound that had Anna's ears pricking up because Elsa should never be sad. Not because of Anna.

"Elsa…?" she asked softly, lips wrapping around the word. Elsa turned to her, and though she smiled, it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"You're completely right, An- Tori. I owe you. We can keep this up into tomorrow if that's what you like."

The words sounded so stiff and formal that they actually cut Anna a little bit. Which was silly and not fair, but they certainly did make it sound like Elsa wasn't really that into what they were doing. Which was a total lie.

God. She had no right being this sensitive. None at all.

"Nah, I was just kidding," Anna lied. And the lie felt even worse, so she followed up with, "Well, I wasn't, but… you said one night, and I shouldn't be a brat about it."

"I already said I don't mind."

Now Anna felt like a bitch. Elsa kept telling her over and over that she wasn't comfortable with them doing anything besides being mother and daughter for now; she liked it, sure, but those weren't the same thing. And now she was guilting her into extending a night that was already probably making Elsa as nauseated as it did happy.

"Just sleep with me tonight," she compromised. "N-not in the sexy way; I mean, I want to sleep next to you, wake up with you. Not just because we fell asleep on accident, either. A-and then we can say we had eight-ish more hours, and… call it done? Is that okay?"

Elsa turned to glance at her, a little surprised. As it turned out, not by the words as much as by Anna's tone. Her smile turned quite watery, but she didn't reply right away. It wasn't until they passed through another green light that she did.

"Despite all this, sometimes you can still surprise me with how much you've grown up."

Instantly feeling less grown up because of that phrase, Anna blushed and smiled down at the floorboard, heart beating a little faster. It was the kind of tenderness she had always wanted from her mother. This moment was no longer about Elsa and Tori, even if the night was.

"Can you say something for me? It's dumb, but…"

"What?"

"Just… 'I'm proud of my gay daughter'. Please?"

Elsa let out a light chuckle – but it cut off rather abruptly. And was quiet for a moment. She waited until she had pulled up at a stop sign to turn fully and look at her.

"I'm so proud of everything about my beautiful, courageous, intelligent, lesbian daughter. And that's the God's honest truth."

Tears started immediately, and Anna felt silly for not realising they would. She had been waiting so many years to hear those words, and hadn't really convinced herself that she didn't care anymore.

Elsa pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek and the side of her head over and over, not letting go until someone honked for them to move. It took her a few seconds to let go, and by that stage the car had driven around them. Luckily it was so late, there was barely anyone else on the roads and they could afford to take a little more time.

Never before had Anna felt so completely… beloved. Accepted. She tried to wipe her eyes without it being obvious to Elsa, but she doubted that she succeeded. It didn't really matter.

Once they trundled in through the front door, and before Anna could even speak, Elsa had bundled her up again in a tight hug. It was what she needed. The sexual stuff and teasing was nice – the complimenting and the yearning. But this?

She needed this. Was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. There truly was something to be said about just… being held. That skin-to-skin contact that came with no expectations or potential for a 'further'. And as Anna was held, she came to another realisation: now that she was in this moment, she didn't want it to change. Earlier she may have had something else on her mind other than just 'sleeping' next to Elsa, but now, her whole body just craved comfort and reassurance.

She just wanted her mother.

"Mom…" she sighed. Elsa didn't comment on the name. Instead, she just sighed and buried her face in Anna's hair.

"My baby girl…"

They took their time getting ready for bed, but did it together. Her mother never left her side as they took each other's makeup off, got into a nightgown and PJs, brushed teeth. It was a weird middle ground between mother-and-daughter bonding, and coupley behaviour; they shared private smiles about briefly seeing each other's bodies, but didn't pursue anything. Then they were curled up in Anna's bed.

"You sure you don't want to move to your room?" Anna asked her softly as they snuggled in.

"Not at all. That room is where your father and I sleep, and I think he would appreciate me keeping it separate from where you and I sleep."

"Makes sense."

Yawning, Elsa nuzzled her neck. It took her a moment to whisper, "I've had so many dreams about this…"

"You have?" She felt the nod, and her cheeks bunched with a satisfied smile. "Oh… wow, it's… you know, sometimes I forget that for me, this is a new crush, but for you it's a love that's been burning for…"

"Right. Thirty years."

"Sorry, Mom… I really am sorry this happened. And like, that I let it hap-"

"Shhhhh." Anna calmed, snuggling closer and trying to release her hangups, her anxiousness. "Just rest. We both love each other, and we both did our best. And we'll keep doing our best. That's… all that matters."

"It's all that matters…" Anna echoed. It wasn't until this moment that she realised how truly tired she was. Snuggled next to Elsa, she was asleep within ten minutes. Elsa was asleep within five.

~ o ~

Elsa had never been more grateful for it to be a weekday. Granted, it was a Friday, but it still meant Anna had school and she had errands.

They had awoken almost at the same time. Much to her relief – and Anna's dismay – there had been no sleepy groping or half-awake make-out sessions. Both had very much felt the pull, but at the same time… the night was over. And Elsa was a woman of her word and Anna respected her enough to even try.

Instead they had a pleasant breakfast of fruit and yoghurt before Anna got dressed for school. Elsa didn't bother getting changed – she had nowhere to be this early in the morning.

"See ya, Mom," Anna said, placing a tender, but chaste, kiss on her cheek. Then she headed out the door. Elsa remained in that spot until the sound of the truck vanished down the street.

"Right… I can't put this off any longer."

Elsa took her time getting ready, taking a longer shower than usual. Letting her mind be distracted. She still had the day off, given that she had taken the time to deal with the situation regarding Anna. Now that she was back in 2015, she felt no compulsion to resume daily life.

In fact… she had a question regarding the whole situation. One better put toward an old friend.

Before lunch, she was at Doc Pabbie's home, knocking on his door. At first, he didn't seem to be home, until she wrote a note and began to stick it to the front door. At that instant, it was jerked open.

"Ah, right on time. If you could just add the current time to the note you were writing?"

Blinking at him for a moment, she almost asked why… but then shook her head. She had long ago learned to simply do as Doc asked unless it felt like a step too far. This was a minor matter, and she was only too happy to add the time to her note.

"Thank you." Taking it at once, he put it by the phone and turned to her. "For myself to find in three days. It's much easier to check in with this present day timeline at spaced-out intervals, then backtrack to the moments in time that I was needed. What might I do for you?"

"Ah. Well… I've been mulling this over. The situation; we've discussed it before."

"Between you and your daughter? Yes, yes. My own hubris is to blame, I'm afraid." With a sigh, he turned in the general direction of the kitchen. "Yoohoo?"

"No, thank you. But I'll take a glass of water if you don't mind." Nodding to her, he swept off to the kitchen for his chocolate drink and she followed, having no need to linger. "It's about the time machine. Would you be willing to… loan it to me again?"

Emmett didn't look nearly as surprised as she thought he should. He just turned to her as he opened the fridge, blinking slowly at her.

"And may I ask why you need it?"

Elsa understood his need to ask – he wasn't doing it to be nosy. This was his baby; his greatest invention. She had been lucky that he let her borrow it the first time. Moreover, he had impressed upon her only too well the dangers of time travel before he let her venture forward, promising not to visit the past.

Despite this, she didn't answer straight away, and Doc sighed, "Mrs McFly-"

"Elsa, please."

He looked at her, then turned back to the fridge to pull out two bottles: one Yoohoo, and one of supermarket brand water. "Elsa, yes. Well, Elsa, I would be willing to loan it to you again. I've observed no marked disruptions of the timeline after your last venture. However, forgive me, but I am allowed to be concerned with what your plans are for whatever time you find yourself in."

The scientist was right, as usual. It was no surprise. When he held out her bottle, she took it gladly because it meant she could take a few moments to drink, gathering her thoughts. He didn't seem to notice – if he did, he kept his mouth shut about it.

"It's hard to talk about," she tried at first. "I'm sure you understand…"

Instead of nodding or agreeing, though, Doc's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm not sure I do," he said. "Surely everything you have is right here now, anyway? Wasn't that the purpose of your last visit?"

"Well… physically, yes. I have everything I ever needed. Or wanted. But… there's something else that only time can give us: me."

"I'm afraid that if you want to go back and interfere with-"

"Not back!" she hastily reassured him with a gentle, nervous little laugh. "No no, I have no interest in further interfering with the past. Too worried about ruining the good things about the present. Here's what I was thinking…"

Elsa spoke for several minutes, laying out her hypothesis and her proposed strategy. It was quite a lot for either of them to take in; Elsa herself had half-convinced herself not to bring this up because it sounded insane. By the time she was finished, they had returned to the living room and the Yoohoo was gone, as well as half of the water bottle. Doc's expression moved through several stages, some of which included sharp interest.

"Well… first of all, the procedure itself is one that I had been considering," he told her after her words had come to their end, and he had a minute or two to digest. "But the rest… I will have to give it some thought. After all, in a way, this is thwarting the natural laws for personal gain. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much water my viewpoint holds when you likely wouldn't need this if the natural laws hadn't already been fractured by our young Anna."

"Did you have to say 'young'?" she sighed, rubbing her temples. Then she shrugged helplessly. "Alright. Take all the time you need. For now, I mostly wanted your thoughts on if it's doable, and if it would work without hurting anyone… and to ask whether or not the machine itself could handle that."

"Ah, yes, absolutely it can. Now that it has the Mr Fusion unit to generate its nuclear reactions, all it will require is ordinary gasoline and routine maintenance; no further plutonium necessary. But while I'm considering, I would urge you to do the same; this will mean a huge change within your life. One that I will not be able to undo once you've finished it; that would run far too high a chance of creating an irreparable paradox."

Nodding her understanding of his warnings, she pushed to stand. "Thank you. For listening, even if you don't decide in my favour. I'll… be talking it over with her, and Kristoff, too, but I didn't want to offer unless it was possible."

"Ah!" he said, holding up an index finger to punctuate the word as he also stood and reached to guide her arm toward the door with the other hand. In some ways, he was still a bit old-fashioned; a product of the time period he grew up in, she supposed. "A wise precaution. You're quite sharp, and I've truly enjoyed our chats over the years."

"As have I. To be honest, I'm surprised you're not a cousin or uncle of some kind to me; you feel like family."

"Hmm, destinies that are intrinsically linked? Could be that, could be any number of factors. Something else to ponder." Then he gave her shoulders a brief pat as she readied to leave. "Give Anna my best. She's still welcome to stop by, of course; anytime. Though I have been sidetracked of late."

"Of course. Take care, and… thank you."

He gave a genuine smile and a tip of his head. "You're quite welcome." With that, Elsa took her leave.

So. Her plan was possible – and, not only that, but it was also entirely doable. She had to bite her lip to stop a wide grin from bursting forth, at least while she was in public. As soon as she slid into her car, she found she couldn't contain it any longer. Even her heart swelled, more than in recent weeks – and that was saying something

Of course, she had to talk to Anna about it. And Jennifer, too. After giving it more thought because now that she knew she could enact her plan, she also knew that she had to fully consider the consequences. Doc had said this decision was final, which meant that everyone had to be really sure it was for the best. Elsa already knew what she wanted; after all, aside from the five or six years halfway through, this was something she had been wanting for three decades.

Thirty years was a long time to carry a torch for someone who had vanished. She was one of the lucky few to get a second chance. No way she would be wasting that.

                                           To Be Continued…

[qsdblogging]

Top 10 TV Shows You Need To Watch Right Now

Now, I watch a lot of television. I always have and frankly, I’m much more of a binge watcher than a wait-around-for-a-week-for-the-next-episode kind of watcher. 

And with everything the past few months, there wasn’t all that much to do other than start rewatching some of my favorite shows and some that I’ve never seen or haven’t seen in a while.

So, that’s what I did and here I am giving you some recommendations for shows to add to your own watching lists. 

Warning, though, some of these don’t end the best way and may end up more as a disappointment. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

I. Fringe.

I cannot recommend this show enough to people. It’s got five full seasons (although the last could’ve been a little better, but it’s honestly not that bad of a final season) of high-risk scenarios revolving around almost unexplainable phenomena regarding a tear in the fabric of reality. It deals with experiments that gives superpowers (basically), advanced technology, and a parallel universe. 

Plus, there’s a cow.

What more could you want from a show?

Some familiar faces that are in the main cast or show up at some point include John Noble, who you may recognize from Sleepy Hollow and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lance Reddick, who was in The Wire, White House Down, American Horror Story, and played Charon in the John Wick franchise, Leonard Nimoy, who you should know from the original Star Trek series, and Anna Torv from Mindhunter. 

II. Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector.

Now, if you know crime books, you may know exactly what this is based off of. If not, fear not, I am here to tell. This series (which, like a lot of the others down the list, unfortunately, got cancelled and won’t get to see a second season) was based off of The Bone Collector, a first in a series of novels by Jeffery Deaver. 

If you like crime shows, you should definitely give this a shot. Don’t let the fact that it’s only one season stop you.

Things get pretty wild in just one season as it revolved around a retired forensic criminologist, who had been trying to catch the Bone Collector only to get injured, that gets back into the game three years later when an ambitious young detective is determined to help solve the case when a new body shows up.

You might even recognize a face or two, like Arielle Kebbel (the ambitious young detective) from her role as Lexi in The Vampire Diaries and Olivia Charity in Midnight, Texas, and Russell Hornsby (the retired forensic criminologist) from Grimm, The Hate U Give, Proven Innocent, and The Affair.

III. Manifest.

Luckily, this show is said to be getting a third season and so far, isn’t going to get cancelled. It focuses on passengers from Flight 828, who show up five years after their plane went missing. Some passengers start experiencing what they call ‘callings’ and try to figure out if they were chosen for some sort of duty that the callings led them too, but things get a little confusing when someone who wasn’t on a flight seems to have a year missing of their own life after being deemed missing.

Things get a little weird and dangerous along the way, and not everyone is happy about how things turn out.

It’s pretty interesting and I’m really looking forward to what else they come up with. There’s a few familiar faces that play a part in the show that includes Daryl Edwards, who you may recognize from the first season of Daredevil, Ellen Tamaki who is also in the reboot of Charmed, Athena Karkanis, who’s been in The Expanse and Lost Girl, and Josh Dallas, who one may recall playing Prince Charming in Once Upon a Time, and Fandral in Thor.

It’s a rather good show to get lost in and I definitely recommend giving it a go.

IV. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

If you don’t have an idea as to what this show is, I don’t know what to say. The title kind of gives it away. It’s the only Marvel Show (as of now since none of the shows in production have come out as of yet) to technically be connected to the MCU itself.

That’s found in one of the main characters, Phil Coulson, who you’d recognize from Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Avengers. Plus, Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill) and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) both give a cameo in the show. 

The show was rumored to have been set in a different, but similar, timeline to that of the MCU movies, but I don’t know for sure if it’s true or not. 

It follows its own set of issues, including a deeper dive into the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., issues with HYDRA, and so on and so forth. The last season, which I honestly cried during, gives such good twists and callbacks to previous seasons and the MCU movies that you can’t help but enjoy how it’s handled.

As a show, it probably has one of the best final seasons possible and I highly recommend giving the full seven seasons a watch if you haven’t already.

V. Primeval.

Now, if you like dinosaurs, this is a show for you. It’s BBC, so obviously everyone has an accent. It gave a run of five seasons (which is kind of funny because I didn’t realize that until just now writing this as the show is listed as number five on the list) with different episode amounts. 

The show centers around anomalies that seem to open up a window to the very distant past of Earth when dinosaurs still roamed the land. It causes a lot of issues, especially if one person has anything to do with it.

It’s pretty interesting and honestly has got some great characters (my personal favorite is Captain Becker, played by Ben Mansfield) and while it can get pretty serious, it’s also pretty entertaining. It’s one of the three shows on this list to get to end on a good-ish note. (AKA, no cliffhangers!)

Obviously, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It’s kind of the point of this list.

VI. Terra Nova.

Now, like Primeval, this show technically has to do with dinosaurs. Dinosaurs aren’t the main focus, but they do play a part in this one season (because cancellations) story. 

Terra Nova is focused on both the future and the past. In the distant future (2149), the Earth is dying. A group of people, researchers, and military as well as some of their family members, are sent to the past (85 million years) to inhabit Terra Nova, a colony of humans given a second chance to build civilization. 

So, obviously, dinosaurs are going to make an appearance now and then. And unfortunately, the show only got one season and ends on a cliffhanger. Which I hate, because I really enjoy this show and wish it had been able to at least get a second season.

Plus, there are some familiar faces amongst the cast. Jason O’Mara, who plays one of the main cast members, played Jeffrey Mace in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Christine Adams, who plays Lynn Pierce in Black Lightning. Allison Miller, who played Sonya in 13 Reasons Why. And Naomi Scott, who is known for her roles in Lemonade Mouth (one of my all-time favorite DCOMs) and Aladdin. And this was just to name a few of the cast members. 

Shame it got cancelled, truly, but I recommend giving it a shot.

VII. MTV’s Scream.

I think you can figure out the basis of this show. While it doesn’t have anything to do directly with the movie franchise, it is kind of similar and a lot of the characters reflect those from the show. Neve Campbell even said that if the show did well, she would be willing to do a cameo.

It revolves (at least the first two seasons as season three is an entirely different set of cast and premise that I refuse to watch because of that) around Emma Duval and her group of friends as they’re picked off one by one by a serial killer going around town. Things get bloody and suspicions arise amongst the crew when things are revealed as the show continues, but things eventually work out in the end.

And personally, I really enjoyed the show even when the second season ended on a cliffhanger. I have theories about that cliffhanger, however, so watch out for a possible post regarding it. 

I highly recommend giving it a chance if you haven’t seen it. 

VIII. The Society.

Now, the title doesn’t give you much. A group of teenagers, who were sent off on a trip, suddenly are dropped back off in their town to find it completely empty aside from themselves. They have to form their own society to survive and figure things out.

Once you know that, it makes a little more sense.

It seems really similar to the Pied Piper tale, but it doesn’t seem like we’re going to really know for sure. Season 2 had been given a go-ahead, but not too long ago Netflix announced the cancellation of the show.

That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the first season like I do. Plus, if you’re a fan of Supernatural and the character of Claire Novak, Kathryn Newton plays one of the main roles in this show.

It’s a shame the show got cancelled, especially on a cliffhanger, but what can we do?

IX. The Mysteries of Laura.

Laura Diamond, a Homicide Detective, cracks case after case while trying to raise twin boys and locking horns with her less than helpful Police Detective ex-husband. At least, this is according to IMBD and frankly, it’s not really wrong. 

For two seasons, it’s packed with comedy and crime. It’s more of the former, but it still gets pretty serious every now and then, and unfortunately ends on a cliffhanger. 

However, some cast members may be familiar. Like Josh Lucas, who voices Home Depot commercials (and trust me, it made my family laugh when we first heard one after watching the show), Laz Alonso who plays MM in The Boys, and Debby Ryan, from Disney Channel. 

If you like light-hearted crime shows (like Brooklyn-Nine-Nine) you should definitely give this a watch.

X. Warrior Nun.

As far as I know, this show has been renewed for a season two. I’m really hoping for it because it’s honestly kind of interesting. You can kind of tell by the title what it may be, but I’ll dive a little deeper.

After waking up in a morgue, Ava, an orphaned teen, discovered she now possesses superpowers as the chosen Halo Bearer for a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns. (Taken from IMDB). Interesting, right?

With characters like Shotgun Mary, Sister Beatrice, and Sister Lilith, you know the show’s going to be interesting. But the premise is pretty interesting on it’s own too.

There’s even a character called JC, who apparently has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, but I still like referring to him as such because it’d be pretty funny if that’s how it turns out. Also, someone gets beat up with a whole chicken at some point.

It’s only got the one season so far, but it’s pretty funny and action packed. Like everything on this list, I definitely think you should watch it and find out for yourself if you want to add it to your list if you haven’t already.

[crystalwillow]

Nightmares

Pairing: Noah Harris x Anna-Rose Price (MC)

⚠️ Warning/disclaimer: Violence, death & large amounts of blood ⚠️

Word Count: 4.1K

====================================================

It had been a couple of days since Principal Jennings had invoked fear into Anna-Rose Price and those she loved the most. 2 days without her childhood friends Mason, 2 days having minimal contact with Ava, 2 days away from her sister. Luckily, their father was protecting them both the best he could. But it had also been 2 days by Noah’s side. He was terrified to go back to jail. The first time he had been shot by Principal Jennings and not even stolen anything, this time it was pretty much the same minus the shooting. Noah was terrified because he knew the power the principal held. He could bribe anyone with anything. So Noah pretty much knew this was it, he had come back to Eastridge, found who he believed to be his one true love, and now he was going back to jail for ‘stealing’ when really the only result of their plan was breaking and entering as he and Mason hadn’t stolen anything from the office. And if he was being honest with himself if he was going to jail, Mason should too. They were accomplices in this instance, plus if Principal Jennings was going to have Mason on house arrest, they may as well go to jail together. After all, if you do the crime together, you do the time together. Right?

Noah was currently sat in the backyard staring at the grass as Anna-Rose stepped outside, closing the door gently behind her and taking a seat next to him.

“Hey.” She whispered, gently taking his hand in her own.

Noah sighed and took his hand from Anna’s and wrapped it around her shoulders, kissing her head. He was scared and worried, and Anna could sense it as she wrapped her arms tightly around his torso, squeezing tightly.

“We’ll prove you’re innocent for stealing and the only thing you and Mason are guilty of is breaking and entering the office.” she mumbled into his chest. He squeezed her tightly in response as a tear ran down his cheek and got absorbed into her hair. Moments passed in silence before Noah could form words.

“I’m scared, Anna-Rose” he whispered.

She sat up and looked him in the eyes, only to see the pain, hurt and torment that was swirling around in them. He had the most gorgeous blue eyes she had ever seen. They were almost as clear as crystal skies but now they were the shade of a stormy ocean in the eye of a storm. Carefully, Anna-Rose reached out her hand and cupped Noah’s cheek, tears pooling in her eyes as he leant into her touch, closing his eyes and letting his tears fall into her hand. This was the Noah she wish everyone else could see. Not the hardened and heartless criminal everyone thought he was from rumors, but the kind, caring, loving, and amazing big brother and son he is. He does so much for his family, he is such a good person, but nobody sees that but Anna-Rose. Partly because he didn’t want anyone but her to see that side of him, because again, he was scared. But mainly because when everyone’s expectations and views of you are so set in stone because of rumors they heard, why bother worrying yourself with the stress of trying to bring them round to seeing who you really are. That’s why he’s so thankful for Anna-Rose. She shoved the rumors aside and relentlessly got to know the real Noah Harris.

Suddenly the back door opened, and Noah’s mom stepped outside holding the phone.

“Someone called Jeff is on the phone for you two.” She informed them, holding the phone towards Noah.

Anna and Noah frowned at each other lightly before Noah took the phone. “Thanks ma.” he said, and she smiled sadly with a small nod then headed back inside.

“Jeff. I don’t know a jeff so what’s your actual name?”

But no response came, and Noah frowned at Anna-Rose who was looking at him curiously. Suddenly she gasped and snatched the phone from Noah.

“Jeff, this is Agent Penelope reporting for duty. What’s the mission? ... Uh-huh... okay. But what about the security system? ... what time? .... No, I’m leaving him behind. I am not putting him in the crossfire. This is a solo mission. I’ll secure the getaway and send the signal. Of course. Yes sir. Agent Penelope out.” she spoke almost robotically but had a childlike glow about her, then she hung up with a smile as Noah looked at her curiously with an amused smirk and quirked brow.

“What?” Anna-Rose asked him.

He chuckled. “You’re a secret agent and got us busted? Man... I’d hate for Jeff to hear about that.”

Anna-Rose laughed. “Jeff is Mason. We used to play secret agents in the front yard and woods when we were younger. He was always the person in charge because I always wanted to take part in the espionage.”

“So you’re the natural born troublemaker in our group.”

“Oh no. That’s Mack. Have you seen the change she convinced me to make?” Anna-Rose retorted as she flicked her hair over her shoulder and Noah laughed.

“I don’t think she had to convinced you somehow. I think you made the decision alone.”

“...yeah. You have a point there.”

They continued to laugh until the severity of the situation settled back into their reality.

“So... what did ‘Jeff’ need?” Noah asked.

“I’m busting him out of his house and heading to the safehouse with him tonight. I promised to secure the perimeter and give him the thumbs up when everything’s good to go.”

Noah chuckled again. “Really adventurous there, Anna-Rose.”

“Thank you.” she grinned before getting up. “You’re coming to help me.”

“What?” Noah gasped.

Anna-Rose held out her hand. “Didn’t think I’d leave you. Did you?”

Noah smirked as he grabbed her hand, hauling himself up. “Maybe for a moment. But I should know better than that.”

“Yes. You should.” She scolded playfully, turning around and heading inside with a slight sashay, leaving Noah smiling after her as he chuckled in some sort of disbelief he’d found someone so genuine who was also a lowkey badass, like himself.

 “I have no idea what I’m doing.” Noah mutter under his breath as he followed her inside, as if pulled by some unseen magnetic force. He had never felt such intense feelings before. Even as a kid, he didn’t have crushes of the girls in his class, they were all just friends to him. So what was so different about Anna-Rose?

 “I’m serious,” Anna-Rose continued as Noah shut his bedroom door and sat beside her on his bed. “You’ve been such a low-key and mysterious character. In my eyes.” Her voice softened. “So I don’t really know who you are.” She paused. “You’re so protective, in the sense that you will literally do anything to protect your friends. But yet, you’re actually pretty nice when you don’t have to be.” Anna-Rose tilted her head. “You’re like the best of both worlds. And I think I see a little bit of you in me.” Anna-Rose smiled, making the moment feel lighter than a feather. Noah felt intoxicated by her smile and found himself leaning towards her, next thing he knew Anna-Rose was laying on his bed as he hover over her, covering her in sweet pecks of admiration as she giggled from the slight tickle of his light stubble.

“Noah, you’re stubble tickles.” She giggled and writhed beneath him as he started tickling her with it purposefully. Soon the room was full of laughter and happiness and the weight of their current situation was lift once again. Anna-Rose hugged her side as they started to ache from so much laughter as Noah switched from using his stubble to tickle her to his hands.

They were so caught up in the moment, neither of them heard the door open which made them jump when Hazel spoke up.

“Aw! You’re having a tickle fight and didn’t invite me?” she pouted, and Noah stopped briefly to look at her as he sat on top of Anna-Rose to stop her from escaping.

“Hazel, help me! The big mean troll caught me and said I’m his dinner!” Anna-Rose quivered.

“Don’t worry Anna-Rose! I’ll save you from the troll!” Hazel declared with a sort od battle cry as she dumped her bags by Noah’s door and ran forward, tackling Noah to the mattress beside Anna-Rose.

“No! I haven’t eaten in weeks and now my meal is getting away because of you. You- Never mind. I’ll just cook you instead!” Noah roared, ceasing Hazel by the arms and putting her over his shoulder. “Ha ha! I’m not going hungry tonight!”

“Anna-Rose!” Hazel called out.

“Hey!” Anna-Rose threw a pillow at Noah. “Pick on someone your own size! Ugly!” she shouted.

Noah turned around with Hazel still over his shoulder, and glared at Anna-Rose who gulped loudly before shrieking then slipping past and running out into the garden. Noah followed her outside with Hazel punching his back. “Let me go you smelly troll!” the young girl protested with a frown.

Noah chuckled as he placed her on the porch and pretended to tie her to a pole with rope.

“I can’t do that I’m afraid.” He grinned evilly as he patted her head, before turning his attention to the garden behind him. Luckily for him, he spotted Anna-Rose hiding behind a bush in a matter of seconds, thanks to her now blue hair and stealthily approached from behind. Anna-Rose watched as Noah left Hazel unattended and snuck out from her hiding spot, unaware Noah was basically almost on top of her.

“MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” he shouted as he quickly wrapped his arms around Anna-Rose whi shrieked and thrashed against his restraint.

“No! Let me go!” she wailed as Noah mimicked tying her to a pole next to Hazel.

Hazel turned her head and looked at Anna-Rose with a fearful look in her eyes. Anna-Rose returned the sentiment and gulped just as the door opened.

“I’m trying to sleep. What is all this racket?” Noah and Hazel’s mom asked with a frown.

“Sorry ma. We were playing trolls, we can play more quietly.” Hazel apologized.

“Yeah. Sorry ma.” Noah added with a frown.

“Sorry ma’am.” Anna-Rose said.

Noah and Hazel’s mom gave them all a grateful smile before heading back inside and the three went back to their game. Noah crouched in front of the girls, a sly grin on his face.

“Now. Lucky old me. I’ve got two meals. My only problem is... which do I eat first?” he whispered menacingly.

“Not me! Eat her. She’ll keep you fuller for longer!” Hazel whisper protested with urgency.

“Hazel!” Anna-Rose whisper yelled is disbelief.

“And give you chance to escape? I’m not taking that risk.” Noah grinned as he ‘untied’ Hazel and carried her to the ‘cooking pot’.

“No! Anna-Rose you’ve gotta help me! please!” Hazel said quickly.

Working quickly, Anna-Rose freed herself from the invisible rope and snuck off to ambush the troll and save her friend. Quietly and with stealth, Anna-Rose managed to position herself perfectly behind Noah and gave Hazel a subtle nod before launching herself with a fierce roar.

“HHHHHHHRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

“Wha-!” Noah exclaimed with surprise as he splayed out on the lawn beneath Anna-Rose.

“Quickly Hazel! Make your escape to safety!” urged Anna-Rose and Hazel wasted no time in running up the back porch steps and inside, closing the door behind her, Leaving Anna-Rose and Noah wrestling in the lightly snow covered ground in fits of laughter. Eventually the laughter died down and they laid side by side staring up at the almost dark sky.

“I love spending time with you and Hazel. It’s so much fun.”

“She is a bundle of joy.”

A comfortable silence stretched for a few moment before Noah spoke up again.

“I guess it’s time for you to be Agent Penelope now.”

“Yeah. I should get moving if I’m to make it in time. ... But, you’re coming with remember?”

Noah nodded with a small smile.

--- 45 minutes later ---

Noah looked around as he followed Anna-Rose deeper into the woods. “Are you sure we should be out here Anna-Rose?”

“Pssshhh... Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the potential ghosts out here?”

“No. why would I be scared of a few ghosts?”

“Don’t worry. They’re friendly. I promise.” she winked and laughed as Noah gulped and went pale.

Finally they reach the cabin and entered. Inside Anna-Rose started a fire and Noah sat cautiously on a chair. A few moment later after Anna-Rose had done a sweep of the area and the cabin a warmed a little, she used the old phone in the cabin and called the Jennings house, hoping Noah would pick up.

“This is Jeff.”

“Jeff, this is Agent Penelope. Zebras and Lemons. I repeat, Zebras and Lemons. Location, Coffee 13.”

“Copy that Agent. Jeff out.”

Anna-Rose smiled as the line went dead.

“So you speak in code now?” Noah quipped.

“Hey. It’s not my fault you hung around by yourself as a kid. Maybe if you broadened your horizons you’d have found us cool kids sooner.” She teased, sticking her tongue out at him. Which earned  hearty chuckle.

“Zebras and lemons. what does that mean?”

“Area secured and ready. And before you ask, Coffee 13 means meet me at the coffee shop we made the pact to keep this place a secret when we were 13.”

“... I see.” Noah nodded with a confused look on his face.

“Anyway. I should get moving. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

“I’ll be sure not to have too much fun.”

Anna-Rose chuckled. “You’re really just an adorable dork under that gruff exterior huh?”

“I’d move it before I move myself.” Noah warned.

“Hint taken. Agent Penelope out!” she saluted and ran out of the door and towards the coffee shop.

She sat inside upon arrival and ordered a normal coffee with almond milk to drink as she waited. 35 minutes later the bell above the door tinkled and footsteps stopped in front of her.

“Agent Penelope.”

She looked up with a smile. “Jeff!” she jumped up and gave him a hug. “Come on. Let’s move.”

After she paid for her coffee, Anna-Rose and Mason made their way to the cabin in the woods and burst trough the door panting heavily, startling Noah out of his peaceful trance.

“Jesus!” Noah exclaimed.

“Not who I see myself to be but...” Mason teased, and Noah scoffed as a smile spread onto his face.

“I’m glad to see you’re okay.” Noah said and Mason wrapped him in a hug. “Oh!” Noah further exclaimed, then clapped Mason on the back.

“Okay. Now that we’re all here. It’s time to hunker down for the night.” Anna-Rose announced. “I suggest we all cuddle in front of the fire for optimal yet even heat resourcefulness.”

The 2 boys looked at Anna-Rose and chuckled. “What?” she asked.

“You may not have the best vocabulary rage at all times...” Noah started.

“...But never change from being our Anna-Rose.” Mason finished.

Then the three hunkered down for the night in front of the fire, using their jackets for blankets and huddling as close and possible to maintain warmth.

=================================

Later that night, Anna-Rose and Mason were startled awake by a blood curdling scream and looked around the room in alarm to se Noah sat up, panting heavily in a cold sweat.

“Noah?” Anna-Rose croaked as Mason fished around for his phone to shine some light in the room.

Noah snapped his head in the direction of her voice. “A-Anna-Ro-Rose?” he stuttered.

“I’m here. What happened?” she asked, pulling his head to her chest as Mason put his phone face down on the table shining a dim light into the room. As she rubbed soothing circles on Noah’s back, she felt how badly he was trembling. “Noah. You’re shaking. Are you cold?” she asked but he just shook his head.

“What’s wrong?” Mason asked.

“We need to leave. We... We need to get back to my place. Ma and Hazel... they’re in danger.” He urged as he scrambled to his feet.

“Noah. It’s the literal middle of the night.” Mason commented, confusion on his face.

“All the more reason for use to hurry!” Noah exclaimed and ran out into the night leaving his shirt and jacket behind. Mason and Anna-Rose scrambled to gather what little belongings they had, and gave chase to him finally coming to a stop outside Noah’s house minutes later, and collapsing into a heap on the front yard.

“Keys.... Ke- pass my jacket.” Noah said with urgency.

“h-hhhhhh....” Anna-Rose panted as she held out his jacket.

Noah snatched it and pulled his keys from his pocket and rushed into the house, finding his ma and Hazel snuggled on the couch under a blanket sound asleep with a movie playing on the TV. Relief flooded into his chest and then he felt guilt as he thought of his two friends passed out, breathless in his front yard.

“You guys. I’m sorr- Okay. That’s... surprisingly cute.” He whispered with a smile as he spotted them fast asleep again. Noah carried them inside to his room one at a time and made sure Anna-Rose was comfy in his bed and he took a spot next to Mason on the floor. “Sleep well, Agent Penelope. ... Jeff.” He grinned to himself.

========================================

The next morning as sunlight crept into Noah room Anna-Rose and Mason started to stir silently as Noah re-entered the room with breakfast on a tray. The smell completely pulling them from their slumber. Anna-Rose looked around confused.

“Huh?” she mumbled as she took in her surroundings.

“nnngghhhh.” Mason groaned from the floor.

“Morning Jeff. Agent.” Noah grinned.

“You told him didn’t you?” Mason asked Anna-Rose.

“How else was I supposed to explain what we were doing last night?” she argued.

“Speaking of. Where are we?” Mason asked.

“My bedroom.” Noah answered. “I had a nightmare that ma and Hazel were in danger and being threatened and hurt by... by Jim and I was so scared in the moment. The thought of no longer having my ma and little sister.. Sorry. It’s just... they’re two of the brightest lights in my life. I can’t lose them.”

“Noah. It’s okay. We understand.” Mason smiled kindly.

“Yeah. I’d be the same if I had a nightmare about Mack.” Anna-Rose added.

“... Thanks.” Noah nodded and slid the tray into the middle of the floor. “I made you two breakfast as a proper way to say sorry for making you run so far in the middle of the night, half asleep.”

“Would you... mind telling us about the nightmare? ... Only if, it’s not too harrowing to relive though.” Mason questioned.

Noah thought it over for a few moments and then nodded. “Sure.”

Anna-Rose joined them on the floor and Noah took a deep breath.

“So it started out like any other normal day that ma has off and is able to have Hazel here, and I can got to work alone. I was working happily under a car when I heard my name being called out by the boss. A note for me had been delivered. I finished working on the car and then collected the not from the work bench, where I’d asked for it to be left.” Noah started, pausing to collect himself.

“What did the note say?” Mason asked and Anna-Rose slapped his arm. “Ow!”

“Tick Tock. You have fifteen minutes. Hand yourself in....... or start- start saying your goodbyes. I’d start with that lovely m-ma of yours. Oh, and maybe your sis-sister too.” Noah struggled, pain etched into his every feature.

Mason sat with his mouth agape and Anna-Rose took Noah’s hand in her own. He squeezed it gratefully as he took a deep breath. “But when I got home... in the dream... they- they were gone. And I- I couldn’t find them. Anywhere. Until I came to the last place I could think they would be. And all there was on the floor was two life-lifeless bod-“ Noah broke down, unable to continue and Anna-Rose done her best to console him. Mason left the room and caught a woman saying goodbye to a little girl in the kitchen.

“Ah! Stranger!” Hazel shouted.

“No. I’m no stranger. I’m Noah’s friend. Mason. I um.. I’m guessing you’re mom?” he guessed pointing to the woman.

“I am. Is everything alright?” she asked

“Noah. He... he needs you.” Mason said pointing back in the direction of Noah’s room.

“Oh!” the woman exclaimed and then sprinted into Noah’s room. He looked up and his reddened eyes met her worriedly gaze.

“MA!” he shouted and sprung up into her arms sobbing violently. “You’re okay. You’re really okay.. You...” he trailed off, sobbing into her shoulder as she stood their caressing his head and whispering to him. She looked up to Anna-Rose and furrowed her brows with a slight head tilt.

“Nightmares.” Anna-Rose mouthed, and his mom nodded understandingly before continuing to console her son. Anna-Rose collected the tray and mug and made her way to the kitchen where Hazel was interrogating a terrified looking Mason at the kitchen table.

“Anna-Rose! Help me please. This child is relentless.” Mason begged.

“Help you? Nah. Hazel’s a cutie. She doesn’t mean no harm. She’s just protective of Noah.” Anna-Rose grinned as she cleaned and dried the plates before putting them away.

Soon Hazel’s interrogation of Mason was over, and she sat at the table with Anna-Rose and Mason as he mom came back. “Okay. He gone back to sleep, but could you just keep an eye on him for me? It’s been a while since he’s been like this but-”

“NO! MA! HAZEL! HAZE-” Noah shouted from his room.

Ma sighed wearily. “Hazel knows my contact if you need me urgently. But when he gets like this. it’s really bad.” She explained.

“No worries ma’am. We’ll make sure he stay water and fed.” Anna-Rose reassured.

“And I’ll give him my favourite stuffy to cuddle!” Hazel added with a grin.

“Oh, he’ll love that sweety.” Ma smiled, brushing her daughters hair from her face and giving her a quick kiss before leaving for work.

The rest of the day passed slowly, they eventually deemed it safe to venture back to Anna-Rose’s house and left a note for Noah and Hazel’s ma so she wouldn’t panic when she came home to an empty house.

When they reached Anna-Rose’s, she was greeted by Mack and their dad with a massive hug. Mr. Price opened his eyes and looked onto the porch as he pulled away from the hug and took in the sight of a tired Mason, Red eyed Noah and a scared looking little girl and ushered them all inside. They spent the rest of the day snuggled together in the living room, quietly watching movies. They were so engrossed by them that they didn’t notice day turn to night and suddenly there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll come with you dad.” Anna-Rose whispered. And together they stopped at the door and took it in turns to look through the spyhole.

“It’s Noah and Hazel’s mom.” she told her dad, and he unlocked the door, opening it just as the woman turned away. “Ma’am.” she called out and the woman turned back around. “Come inside. Hazel’s asleep.”

The woman smiled and stepped inside, following Anna-Rose and her dad back into the living area. Anna-Rose took her seat back in between Mack and Noah as ma sat in the chair, smiling at the sleeping Hazel and Mason on the floor.

“Thank you for giving my children a warm shelter for the day Mr. Price.” Ma smiled kindly.

“It’s no problem. Noah’s a good kid really. I was too harsh on him at first, I should know better than to believe rumors and stereotypes.” Mr. Price admitted.

Anna-Rose and Noah discreetly smiled at each other and huddled closer together.

“Noah?” Anna-Rose whispered.

“mmm?” Noah quietly hummed back.

“I love you.” Anna-Rose confessed.

“I... I love you too, Anna-Rose.” Noah whispered back, smile spreading on his face as his arm snaked around her waist. It was in that moment that Noah knew, no matter how scared he was, how harsh Principal Jennings would try to have the law come down on him, he had the best support network around him. And he couldn’t wait for the right moment to take the special someone in his arms on a proper first date, without stresses of anything else weighing on his mind.

[flappypineapples]

Escapism Ch. 4

Anna cleared a path hastily through the main room of the Hell Ruelle while Matthew trailed behind her carrying a limp Cordelia in his arms. The looks they were shot ranged from concern to mirth but Anna didn't have time to dwell on that now.

She quickly climbed into the carriage barking orders to take them to the Institute as quickly as possible.

Matthew clambered into the carriage after her handing up Cordelia to Anna for support. Once inside the carriage without thinking he hastily gathered her back into his arms, holding her across his lap and propping her head up on his left shoulder.

He robotically reached up and placed his fingers under the crook of her jaw feeling her pulse. Weak but holding on. Her lovely skin was turning a sickly beige color now.

He fumbled around in his jacket pockets looking for his stele and only finding his flask.

"Damn it!", He cursed at the flask and tossed it unceremoniously to the floor.

When he looked back up he found Anna leaning forward to place an iratzi on Cordelia's arm. Matthew cursed himself for not having the foresight or responsibility to remember to take it out of his green jacket from earlier. All he remembered was the stupid flask.

"Matthew." He looked down and watched what must've been her second or third iratzi sink into Cordelia's skin like a name written in water.

Matthew cursed again, it seemed it was all he was good for. He couldn't protect her or James or his family or himself all he could do was curse and drink and pray.

Anna urgently rapped on the roof of the carriage, "We need to go faster!" She leveled her eyes with Matthew, "Cordelia is strong, stronger than the lot of us."

The carriage lurched forward picking up speed.

"And we are not giving up on her now."

Matthew nodded but barely heard her over the pounding of his own heart. He leaned forward to press his face once again into her hair, taking in the scent of patchouli and lavender.

He let out a small whimper.

"God not again. Cordelia please breathe. Please forgive me. I only wanted to bring you into my world to share my love of it. You love things like I like them I know you do, I see it in your eyes when we walk together. I may be poison but I never meant for it to touch your lips."

Matthew mumbled whispers unintelligibly into her hair for a few antagonizing minutes before it seemed he himself couldn't even stand his own voice anymore and he resided to listening to her shaky breath against the hard sound of wheels on brick.

-----------

The carriage stopped short in the courtyard of the institute. Matthew, however did not wait for this full stop to swing the doors open and start shouting for help. Luckily a servant had been in the entrance tending to the witchlights when they'd arrived. He ran out and quickly gauging the situation rushed to help Matthew transport Cordelia to the infirmary.

Hearing the rucuss Tessa came rushing down in her dressing gown followed by a hastilly clothed Will clutched a half doused witchlight.

"By the angel what is all this rucess. Anna what is happening?" Will shot a confused look at her and then a look of horror as he watched Cordelia be carried hastily away.

Anna quickly approached them.

Will looked tired, a thick layer of concern painted on his face, his wife Tessa was concerned but controlled, forever poised in the face of danger.

"Matthew Cordelia and I were out tonight when she collapsed. I suspect some kind of poison. Iratzis don't seem to work. We must call the silent brothers she's fighting now but by the angel even the fiercest warriors tire."

Tessa quickly nodded to her husband. She went after the men to the infirmary while Will went to signal the brothers.

 

---------

Lucie came running like a thunderstorm down the hallway; stricken concern sunk into her face. She looked as if she had been deep in a chapter or dream, her hair a mess and a quickly drawn dressing gown tied around her. Her feet were bare but Matthew could still hear her pounding his way.

She had stopped short seeing Matthew there in the hallway and the closed door that served as a clear sign neither of them were welcome in there with the brothers. Without thinking twice she threw herself toward his grabbing him by the shoulders, her eyes barring into him.

"Daisy, my Daisy", she choked out "What's wrong, is she going to be okay". Clearly she had appeared in such a hurry no one had explained the full situation to her.

Matthew must have betrayed some of his own fear in the face of her question for she pushed him away and started head surely for the door.

"She needs me there Math! I'm her parabatai, I can make her stronger, make her better!" He quickly caught at her arm keeping her from yanking the door nob off the already locked door.

"Lucie the Silent Brothers are in there with her now you know there's nothing you can do. Everything you try to do will only get in there way." Matthew cringed at the harshness of his words and amended them quickly. "She's strong, she's going to get through this okay." Matthew sounded as sure as he could muster.

Lucie turned toward him quickly brushing off his hand like it burned her. "And exactly what is this." She said gesturing to the door. Her anger was obvious and glaring but Matthew doubted it had anything do with him specifically.

He ran his hand over his face lazily, suddenly very tired. "Anna suspects she may have been poisoned, some sort of demon sourced poison so thats why iratzis didn't seem to work." He leaned against the wall and slid down it crouching there and letting his head fall into his hands.

Lucie felt her anger towards him start to melt away. She had to admit she hadn't seen many things touch Matthew so much since he had started drinking and building stone castles between the world and his heart but this was touching him now. Cordelia had touched his heart someway like she had touched Lucie.

Lucie walked over and sat down next to him reaching up an arm to sling around his back as she leaned into his side.

"You're right Matthew, she's been through much worse than this. Plus she's my Cordelia, strong and resilient. Some poison won't be the thing to take her down." Now it was Lucie's turn to muster up assuredness.

Matthew ran his hands through his hair for the thousandth time this hour. He let out a frustrated groan and dug his head between his knees. He reached yet another time for a flask that wasn't their, forgotten on the carpet of the Lightwood carriage.

He was crouched now outside the infirmary door next to Lucie. Lucie, dear and loyal Lucie who had comforted him in time of her own distress and now was trying to convince him that none of this was his fault and that she would be alright. It all fell on to numb ears though.

He had poisoned his mother, murdered his sister and now had led yet another person he loved to the same sickness. She had trusted him, put her night in his hands and he had played the wrong move.

Checkmate. It seemed no matter what move he made he could never escape his past.

--------

Alastair had gotten the news about Cordelia promptly after she was delivered to the Institute. Will had sent a servant to ride over and alert the family to the situation best they could. Alastair had regrettably not been sleeping that night. He had been staring blanking at what seemed like his hundredth letter. Well no not letter, almost letter. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't find the right words to right Thomas.

His desk was littered with failed attempts and hastily crinkled up wads containing apology after apology. Sometimes he let his apologies drone on further to hopes or words of endearment, but he smudged the ink quickly before his words left a mark truly. But they just left behind another failed attempt at redemption.

He felt as if he was caught in a huge game of chess and Matthew had wiped out his king. Matthew was staring down a checkmate while Alastair had done nothing more than cry.

The pounding at the door jolted him out of his trance though. He took once final look at his most recent attempt and quickly bunched it up, tossing it heavily to the floor. Looking out the window he had seen the cress of the Institute and knew then and there something way wrong. The Layla was in trouble.

He threw on a waistcoat that had been slung over the edge of his bed and quickly made his way downstairs.

He flung open the door as the servant was walking up the walkway. Before they could open their mouths to speak Alastair blurted out, "What's wrong?" He had come so fast down the stairs he was out of breath and it came out as a fast and breathy order.

The servant hesitated breifly before telling him that Cordelia had fallen ill and they suspected some kind of cultivated demon poison to be behind it.

He tore out of the house not bothering to wake up his mother. Any moment longer spent away from his sister's side may be a moment too late. She would find out in the morning one way or another. He hopped into the back of the Herondale carriage as it quickly took of towards the Institute. He bathed in the irony of a Herondale carriage and Herondale servant aiding him of all people in his time of need be he didn't let himself dwell on it long. He simply didn't have the emotional strength.

--------

To say Matthew Fairchild was tired would be an understatement. He wished for nothing more than to thunk his head back on the wall and fall blissfully into the escape of sleep like Lucie. Lucie sat with her legs out infront of her and her head propped up against Matthew's shoulders. Matthew on the other hand was wide awake and itching to know what was going on in there. He was also itching to find out where James was. Mrs. Herondale had left moments ago to hastily fetch him from the townhouse he and Cordelia had been residing in the past couple months just a few moments earlier. She had first stopped in to check on Matthew and Lucie shooting Matthew a right and sympathetic smile and Lucie a look of pure motherly worry.

Finally given time to think about it he wondered why on Earth James had been with Grace tonight. Matthew was under the impression that James intended to stay faithful to Cordelia during their arrangement. James was nothing if not loyal and the thought of him betraying Cordelia's trust filled him with a sudden flush of anger. James was the unknowing catalyst to this whole situation yet it was Lucie and him sitting outside fretting over his wife. Though the marriage itself was fake James obviously cared for Cordelia as a close friend. None of it made any sense. But then again, Matthew amended, not much James had done in a long time has made much sense.

His train of thought was interupted by heavy and swift footsteps on the carpet. Expecting it to be James's dad he simply let his head hang again. Not wanting Mr. Herondale to see all the plain emotions of anger and worry he knew were clearly plastered on his face. The hasty iratzes he'd applied earlier had done their job and now Matthew had no safe guard of inebriation to cushion the blow of everything around him.

No alcohol to shield his emotions.

The footsteps stopped abruptly infront of him in a very un-Will Herondale like manor. Matthew raised his eyes and was met by an extremely disheveled and angry Alastair Carstairs. His chest rose and fell quickly as he looked from the closed door to Lucie asleep next to Matthew to Matthew himself, dressed in evening clothes. His necktie was now untied and stuffed half heartedly in his best pocket. His shirt was untuck and his waist coat draped open revealing a wrinkled dress shirt. His hair was rumpled and flattened down and his eyes were clear as glass.

"Are they with her?", Alastair blurted out suddenly. "The brothers I mean." For being someone who seemed to have a very urgent and angry demeiner about them Alastair had no trace of blame or disgust in his voice when he spoke to Matthew. Only a thick drawl of concern.

"When they brought Layla- Cordelia in did they say how long they'd be? Did they say anything about her condition? What happened? Who was she with?" His words spilled out of him in a very not Alastair way. Matthew hesitated to meet his eyes, scared that one look from Alastair and he'd know exactly how Matthew felt for his sister.

But he did, he mustered up the bravery and met his eyes.

"She was with me and Anna. They suspect someone slipped something in one of her drinks and that it might have some sort of demonic origin and that's why runes wouldn't work for her."

Alastair looked halfway between confused and raging as he asked, "You were with her? Where were you?".

Matthew took a deep breath, fixed his eyes warily on the wall across from him and explained Cordelia's odd entrance into Anna's flat and how she had wanted them to take her to the Hell Ruelle again to lift her spirits. He of course left out the part about James being unfaithful and he and Cordelia themselves being unfaithful to James in turn.

When he finished his tale he shifted his eyes back to Alastair. For once he didn't look angry, just incredibly tired. He didn't quip back or accuse Matthew for being a careless drunk that had let his sister be hurt. Matthew had been ready, been expecting it, and now for it to not come it almost felt even more concerning.

No what Alastair did instead was walk to Matthew's side and sit himself next to him against the wall. Neither of them said anything they just stared ahead. Waiting.

Matthew saw Alastair shift slightly at his side and glanced toward the man. He saw that Alastair had began to tear up. He watched him hastily wipe them away and bury his face in his hands. For the first time Matthew didn't feel anger toward Alastair. What he felt instead was much more uncomfortable. It was a sort of pity verging on the feeling of recognizing how gray of a person Alastair truly was.

Alastair raised his head and turn it towards Matthew meeting his gaze. They both pretended like he had not seen Alastair cry and that Alastair in turn did not see how completly vulnerable Matthew was right now worrying over his sister.

"When we were little she used to go up to the case where father would keep Cortana and talk to the sword for hours." Alastair smiled, "She'd drone on about her most recent letter from Lucie or the new weapon she'd learned about in lessons. But most frequently she talked about how one day when Cortana was free and in her hands she'd be a hero like father."

Alastair hissed out a harsh breath before continuing. "My father is a drunk, Fairchild. Cordelia never knew that though. I spent my whole childhood hiding bottles and feigning that father was just ill when he was stuck in bed the morning after dragging in from a bar at 3 am. I spent my childhood making sure she had one, one where she could love her father like I never could."

"When I came to the academy there were question I couldn't answer. People asked me what was wrong with my family that we moved around so much and why my father was constantly sick and of course the unspoken but clearly intended why was I darker than the other boys, different."

He flicked his gaze from The door to wall again and continued. "I learned very quickly that the only way to keep myself from being bullied and the rumors about my family to stop was to start and stress rumors about others. To fake interest in all the devious gossip of young boys at the academy. If I could diverge attention away from my mother and Cordelia, our family maybe I could survive."

He turned his head fully to Matthew again and locked eyes with him, "I was miserable out of my mind. And then you came along and you didn't have to do anything to get them to like you or leave you alone. All you did was smile and everyone would eat it up. I was so jealous of you and Thomas and hell even Herondale."

He emphasized the last name with a flick of his wrist as he with drew himself back and continued his staring match at the wall.

"He had a charming and present father who loved him all of you do. All I wanted was to look like you. And have people love me like you. I was jealous."

"I did horrible things because of that jealousy. Jealousy makes fools of us all. Those actions haunt me every single day of my life. They're things that I am trying my best to make up for. And that's why I'm telling you this." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"I'm ashamed of my father. I've done everything in my power to distance myself from him and bury his true nature under layers and layers of smiles and charm. But I am absolute rubbish with my words."

He opened his eyes and winced. 

"I'm ashamed of myself."

Alastair ran his hand through his hair and pulled at it anxiously. "The hundred smeared and crumpled up letters to Thomas that litter my desk and floor only seem to prove how much of a coward I still am. I don't expect immediate forgiveness from you Fairchild I simply wish for you to understand."

He turned toward Matthew.

"I was a scared and foolish child then but I am no longer that boy and I am trying my very best to be a man to be proud of. A man that would make Thomas forgive me." He seemed to choke a but in his words towards the end but he covered it up by suddenly clearing his voice. Matthew thought it odd that he and James were Herondale and Fairchild and yet Thomas to Alastair was just Thomas. 

He looked tired but most of all he looked like a man deprived of joy. Like someone had knocked the bite out of him completly.

Matthew was at a complete loss for words. He let his mouth open and close multiple times trying to come up with the proper thing to say in this situation but failed.

Luckily Matthew was saved from his reply by the infirmary door swinging open and brother Enoch stepping out.

Alastair shot up from the ground and let his face be taken over by pure worry as he waited to here was Brother Enoch had to say. The only thing that kept Matthew too from shooting up was the still very sleeping Lucie on his shoulder whom he didn't wish to disturb at the moment no matter how famous of a heavy sleeper she was.

She is doing much better. We were able to extract the poison with little long term damage. She is very lucky, any longer and perhaps we would not have been so successful. 

Matthew paled and thanked the angel silently that Anna had been such a pill to the carriage driver.

But she is tired. She asked for you however. He turned his robed head toward Alastair and nodded. She is ready for you when you are available.

With that Brother Enoch walked silently down the hallway as another brother silently slipped through the door and followed him.

Without another word Alastair entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him.

Matthew was left reeling in the hallway. Had that really just happened? He felt as if he hallucinated the whole encounter and if not for the distinct lack of alcohol in his body he'd blame it on being pissed out of his mind.

But no, Alastair had beared his soul to Matthew, trusting him with extremely private information and for what? Forgiveness? He couldn't understand it. How this man's truth seemed to save him when Matthew's truth would only damn him further. They all had albatrosses and perhaps he thought, speaking on his would free his neck of the bird's heavy pull like it had seemed to do to Alastair.

And it did Matthew realized. Alastair sharing his mariner tale had helped Matthew realize this bit who was the catalyst for his damnation was not a malicious devil but complicated and sad. He was far from forgiving the situation as a whole but understanding Alastairs perspective had atleast laid the groundwork.

Perhaps everything was a little less black and white than Matthew had allowed himself to believe.

[oh-boleyn]

dreams of her

words: 4007, one shot, language: english. f/f (parrlyn)

tw: alcohol, drowning, angst, if I forgot one just tell me

Catherine Parr met Anne Boleyn on a rainy midnight, while passing through the tower of London.

Anne’s dress was a mess, all white and out of fashion. Still Parr couldn’t stop watching the girl. She had bright green eyes, and long dark brown hair that almost got to her waist. A lost, confused look on her face got Catherine worried.

“Are you okay?” She asked. The girl saw her and smile.

Her smile was so bright it could light up the world.

“Yes, yes I am.”

(…)

Writing poetry is not quite a Catherine Parr thing, but she still does it.

Something about the white dress in the middle of the night that she can’t shake, not without pouring it into words.

(…)

It’s over a week before she sees the girl again. Just like she remembered her, but this time a choker on her neck catches her attention. Is white, the whole look is, just like last time. It matches almost perfectly with the porcelain skin.

“Good night.” Parr tries to sound casual, cool.

“Good night.” The other replies.

Cathy turns, heading to the tube. Without wanting to do that again, and lose back the gorgeous girl, she gives a glance back, but can’t find her again.

(…)

She dreams of her, which is something completely weird.

There is so much detail on the dream, things she can’t even quite put a finger on. They couldn’t possible have exchanged more than seven words, but in her dream, she knows exactly how the brunette would laugh and talk.

Even more strange, she wakes up with an ache on her neck.

(…)

Catherine hated having to cover in the bar, one of the advantages of being the goddaughter of the owner was having the best hours, and escaping dealing with drunk guys past ten. But since Jane had his son, little Edward, she had been pleading for a change of hours and Parr couldn’t just say no.

Staying in the bar late meant she had to write there, hiding behind the counter, wishing to be in her way too small apartment with the peace and quiet of her favourite Spotify playlist. Between college, bartending, and trying to write at least one good thing before finishing her studies she was constantly on the border of a mental breakdown.

The only thing she was glad about, was that apparently every time she made extra hours the white dressed girl would be standing near the tower of London. Catherine wished to be able to talk more to her, but was too anxious to create any more conversation that just casual greetings. Like written on stone, every night she would see the girl, a dream about her would come.

(…)

“Goodnight!” Cathy screamed, passing beside the other girl.

“Wait!” The paler responded. “I was wondering if I could have your name.”

“Yeah.” She is taken aback, slowing her peace. “I’m Catherine Parr.”

The writer extends a hand, which the other takes without hesitation. The touch is soft, almost like silk, but so cold that it could be ice.

“Anne.”

Anne fits her. Even if Catherine is not sure if the name fits her or the way she says it, pronouncing slowly, needing the time because every part of it is important. It’s a really short name, but still sounds so elegant and distinguished coming from her. Parr is sure she is not going to be capable so pronounce a name so elegantly ever in her life.

(…)

“What are you thinking about, Cathy?” Anna asks.

“What?”

“You have your head in the clouds, what’s going on?” The German questions again.

“Nothing it’s just I’m having crazy days. With changing hours with Jane everything became catastrophic.” Parr excuses herself. “Do you want the usual?”

“It’s almost too late for that, I would prefer something stronger, what you got?”

Catherine smiles, mischief clear on her face.

“We have a new drink, it’s called bridge. One of these and you will be on the other side.”

She takes a long glass and starts mixing different alcoholics beverages, plus some other stuff like sugar and some fruit juice. Anna drinks it quickly, not bothering by the name of it.

“It is not that strong.” Cleves accuses Cathy.

“Try to stand up.”

The German does it quickly, stumbling on her feet and guiding a hand to her forehead in an attempt to drown the sudden numbness she feels.

“You were right.”

“I always am, linda.”

(…)

That night Anna is uncapable of standing up by herself, less to go home alone. Catherine dismisses her early, under the promise she will take her friend back to the apartment. Going through the streets of London with a really drunk woman, who is at least half a head taller than Parr it’s not quite easy task, but she manages.

“Friend of yours, Catherine?” Anne asks, smiling.

She almost shines, her white dress floating with the cold wind of the night. The clouds above them are grey, almost black, announcing a rain coming, but Catherine can’t bring herself to care, not even when Anna moves towards a trash can.

“Yes, you can say so.” Parr says, before adding: “She is your namesake, almost. It ends with an A.”

“Well, I’m Anne with an E.”

Cathy laughs.

“Why are you laughing?” Anne questions.

“You made a reference, to that show.” Cathy responds.

“What show?”

The girl seems confused, and for a second Catherine feels like that too, but when Anna takes her arm and request to please go home, the smaller complies.

“Good night, Anne!” She screams.

(…)

When the storm breaks, Catherine had barely time to get back to her house. She luckily didn’t catch the rain, or else her house would probably be a mess.

She wonders about Anne, Anne with her white dress and precious smile. With her cold touch and pale skin. Anne who is just as enchanting as anyone could be, elegant but still playful. Just thinking about her name makes Catherine have her head over heels.

Catherine Parr was not one to fall in love so abruptly, a first sight. Her love was usually slow, getting used to the person, knowing them completely. But it was not the case, outside the things she could got from their short talks, she knew nothing about Anne.

But she was still falling.

(…)

“Goodnight, Catherine!” Anne calls, voice clear in the not so populated street.

“Goodnight, Anne.”

(…)

There was something strange, a sickening feeling when Catherine got closer to Anne.

Just the sight of her pale, even slightly green, skin made Parr feel giddy and shaky. Her hands would start tremble, and her mouth would run out of words quicker than it usually did. Even the temperature seemed to get lower near her.

Catherine still felt attracted, an uneasy feeling of belonging. A need to get closer, even if it sickened her to the very core, letting her so tired that the only thing she could do when arriving home was sleeping.

And have nightmares about her.

(…)

“Yes, godmother, I’m getting to the bar right now.” Catherine says on the phone.

Arriving, she takes the key to the back door, letting herself in the vast place. Cold hits her skin while she changes into her uniform. Going into the bar, the music starts sounding more and more loud, until she shows up there.

A girl with brown and pink hair is singing for the karaoke night, totally careless but hitting the notes.

“There you are.” Catherine of Aragon calls. “I thought I had lost you to your books.”

“Funny.” Cathy said, straight-faced. “Who is that?”

“I’m not sure, Katherine something, but she is good.” Aragon explains. “You should go and sing.”

“I don’t think so.” Parr replies.

“Whatever you say.” She makes a pause. “I was wondering if you were going to take again Jane’s turn.”

“Yes, yes I will.”

(…)

Walking back home makes her stomach turn when thinking about watching Anne. It must have been a prediction, because when she finds the other woman, she doesn’t exactly look like always.

Her green eyes are not bright and gleeful, instead there is something obscure apart from the tears falling. Her white skin is left untouched, not a single mark of redness, still it is puffy and demonstrates signs of crying. The white dress is different, looking like a dirty white, almost grey, and the choker is thicker, wrapping itself tighter on her neck.

“Anne?” Catherine asks, getting closer. “Are you okay?”

“I’m so lost.” The woman cries. “Have you ever felt like that? Like you are slowly drowning? Is like there is just so much water weight on me, my lungs can’t take the pressure.”

Parr slowly moves, sitting beside her, she wonders for a moment, before putting a hand on Anne’s back. As expected, her skin is freezing, but the other doesn’t care. Slowly drawing paths in her back, she waits for words to come out, but they don’t.

“I am just so tired.”

“Let’s go out.” Catherine suddenly reacts.

“What?”

“Let’s do something. Right now. We deserve a free night.” Catherine slowly guides a hand to Anne’s face, attempting to dry the tears with her thumb. “What do you say?”

A timid smile appears on Anne’s face.

“I think you are right.”

Catherine quickly stands up, offering a hand.

“Lady…”

“Boleyn.”

“Lady Boleyn, would you do me the pleasure of being my companion for tonight?”

“Of course, your majesty.”

Both of them interlock their hands, while laughing at their silly manners.

Walking the streets of London never felt more magical to Parr. Everything seemed prettier, brighter. In her dream like state, everything is better, and she is no longer tired. She wonders if it is another fantasy of hers, but decides against it, even if it was, everything was just so wonderful that it wasn’t worth it to not relish it.

They get to a club, with dark lights and loud pop music. Anne smiles at Parr, who takes her lead. They start to make silly moves in the middle of the dance floor, not caring about the consequence of embarrassing themselves. Anne’s eyes have a certain gleam, shining every time she smiles for a move Cathy makes.

The atmosphere makes Cathy feel drunk, everything brilliant, dazzling, under the blue lights. People are moving in a blur, and the only static thing are green eyes watching her, attentive at every move she makes. It feels right, she keeps telling herself so, but at the same time an insanity to the whole situation keeps her out of that train of thought.

“Would you like to drink something?” Catherine questions, to which Anne gives half a smile.

“Of course.”

“I think I know a better place.”

Taking back Anne’s hand, they start making their way outside. An hour has already passed, and even less people can be found in the streets.

“Tell me about yourself, Catherine.” Boleyn questions.

“I’m not an interesting person.” The shorter claims.

“Don’t say that.” She fakes pouts. “Please, I want to know.”

“Okay.” Cathy laughs. “Where to begin? I am the oldest of three siblings, and we used to live in the north, in Cumbria to be more exact. I am good with languages, since I really love anything that has to do with words.”

“You sound like a bookworm.” Anne proclaims.

“I am! But really, I just love it.”

“I am not good with languages.” The taller explains. “But I speak French.”

“For real? I do too, and Italian. And Spanish. And I can translate from Latin but I haven’t practiced in a long time.”

“How long? Since somebody actually cared and talked Latin?” Anne mocks her.

“Shut up! It’s really interesting, and important. A lot of languages come from it.”

“What is your favourite word? In Latin, I mean.”

“I think vigil. It means sentinel.” Cathy makes a pause and signals the sky. “It can also mean stars. You know, they watch us.”

“The starts watch us?”

“Totally. So does the moon, and the sun.” Catherine slowly strokes Anne’s hand with her own. “I moved with my godmother when I was still young, departing was really hard. My mum told me that starts will be everywhere, watching over me even if she couldn’t. It was good to know, like a protection.”

“I used to live in France, my dad sent me there for boarding school.” Her voice grows darker. “I didn’t saw any of my siblings for a while and it was… It was really lonely. Still I found comfort in the sky too. I don’t think starts can see me, but I do think I can see them. Like stars, the moon. It doesn’t matter where you are, the moon is always the same.”

Anne hides her face.

“That’s a nice thought.”

“It’s dumb, Catherine.”

“It’s not.” Cathy reaffirms with a squeeze to Anne’s hand. “It’s something good to think. Like every person that has ever been on earth has known the moon. A million of civilizations, people we don’t even know their names. Every hero and villain saw the same moon.”

“The moon is beautiful.”

“No more than you.”

Anne gives a surprised look to Parr, who looks away.

“Keep telling me about you.”

“I told you I love words. I want to be a writer.”

She is trying hard to keep her breath under control, but deep inside her heart is racing. The sickening feeling makes her feel that she could overshare at any moment, which is something she would rather not happen.

“I am currently in University, and I am trying to write this book, but it is just so much and so hard. It’s like I can write a thousand pages, but when I proof read it, I hate it.” Catherine explains.

Way to go with no oversharing, Parr. She blames herself.

“I think you are probably just too perfectionist.” Anne’s voice is sweet, familiar. “I used to write, and I loved it, it was messy, a strange kind of poetry.”

“Really?” Cathy questions. “Since I met you, I have been writing little poems here and there. I was never one to write literal poems, maybe sonnets but nothing more.”

“That sounds really structured from you, Catherine.”

“Why do you always call me Catherine?” She burst out.

It’s Anne’s way to say here name, pronouncing it whole, making her feel so important and personal. Maybe it was something about living in France, having another language for so long, but still it doesn’t quite explain why.

“It’s your name; isn’t it, Catherine?”

There is a playful smirk on her face, which brings Parr to her edge. Saying her name into the conversation feels so intimate. She considers that the only other way to make her feel like that would be if Anne ran her fingers through her arms, through her face. It is confidential, affectionate.

“Yes, but people call me Cathy.”

“Well, I am not people.”

Fortunate or not for the shortest, the moment Anne finishes saying it is when they arrive to Aragon’s bar. Nobody is there, counting that the clock indicates 2AM, and it closes at one, but the mess is still there. Some chairs out of its places, while others are neatly sitting in tables. The floor is dirty, and there are glasses still sitting on the scenario.

Still, she can’t appreciate it more, with the fairy lights, and Anne by her side, the chaotic scene looks like something irreal, out of a dream.

“Welcome to my job, you wanted to know about me? I’m here most of the time.” Cathy grabs a clean glass. “What do you want to drink, milady?”

“What do you recommend me?” Catherine nods, but doesn’t say a word. “So, bartending. I couldn’t possibly have guessed it.”

“Well, it’s not my ideal job. I don’t enjoy crowds to be honest, but my godmother is the owner and I used to do my homework in the back, so I’m used to being here. It’s good.”

“Is it? Really?”

It takes Parr for surprise, how easily she asks, a smirk on her face. A nervous feeling creeping on the back of her mind.

“It is. Really.”

“Would you be a bartender forever?”

“Of course not!”

“Then why is it good?”

Catherine stays in silence while she finishes preparing the drink.

It feels tense, the atmosphere getting heavier instead of better, and none of them talking. Anne has a stern face, with her eyes fixed on Cathy’s hands. From being intimate, the talk became invasive, way too much for both of them to take.

Catherine finishes the drink, and hands it to Anne. She takes a sip, and makes a face.

“That was too much salt.” She jokes, a slight smile appearing on her lips.

“That was a great done margarita. If you can’t handle salt, I hope I see you trying to manage your tequila.”

“Alcohol and salt are two different things, Parr!” Anne slams her first on the table, dramatically. She makes a pause. “I’m sorry if I made things weird.”

“It’s alright, I don’t care.”

“It’s just… Lately nothing is what I expect. I wish I made things because they made me happy, and not because I felt obligated to.”

“I know that feeling.” Catherine explains. “I feel like I’m constantly running out of time, as if I sleep when I wake up there will be nothing there. It keeps me at edge most of the time, like I can’t just experience one moment, I have to do something else, and when I finish there is another thing to do. I think this is the first night I feel alive and living the moment in a while.”

“I feel the same Catherine.” Anne explains. “And you are a great bartender.”

“If you keep calling me by my whole name, I will start to feel important.”

“You should feel important, you are.”

Anne Boleyn was most definitely a flirt.

She didn’t sound forced, or uncomfortable, but it was rather just a way to be. With her long eyelashes, frisky smirk and porcelain complexion, it was impossible to resist. Elegant movements, a way with words, and the warm feeling she irradiated even if her skin was icy.

Catherine could feel herself painfully falling.

They talk about it all, play silly games with the cups and dancing slow dodging tables.

Deciding it was more than what Catherine could take, they opt to go and grab coffee at her apartment. The chill of the night still present, Parr gives Anne her jacket. Light revealing it was almost time for the sun to shine again, something dreadful for them, knowing their night off was about to end.

When they get to the spot where they usually part ways, the sky starts turning a pink colour, indicating the dawn.

Anne stays for a moment, watching the reflexion of the light on the river. She looks almost like a statue, firm, almost as if her chest is not breathing. Catherine takes out her phone, taking photos of Anne, until she realizes and turns her head, smiling.

“You are giving me a breath, Catherine. I never thought I would see another night like this one, but I can’t be any other thing that thankful.” She plays with her hands. “I know it was so brief, only a night when a year have so many, but there is nothing more I could’ve ask for.”

They stare at each other eyes.

“One last night.” She mutters, not loud enough for Catherine to hear. “I have to go.”

“Can I get a kiss?” The other one wonders.

Anne impacts her lips with Catherine.

The world suddenly goes on mute. There is no other sound, except the blood running through their veins. Anne’s lips are soft, softer than what Cathy remembered lips were, and her skin feels as if might break if she grabs it too hard.

Still, it is tender, caring. So warm despite everything being so cold around there.

Anne is the first to pull away, giving Catherine a smile.

“I hope the best for you, Catherine Parr.”

Catherine takes just a moment to get her eyes open again, and Anne is no longer there.

(…)

It drives her almost crazy at first, doing research about Anne Boleyn, but there is almost little to no information about her online, nothing about the past few years.

The pictures on her phone are still intact, and it is the only thing that keeps her from thinking it was a dream.

She waits for hours at midnight on their usual spot, but Anne never shows up again. There is no sight of her white dress or kryptonite eyes.

There’s nothing, as if she never existed.

(…)

Katherine Howard becomes a regular on the bar, singing almost every night.

She is young, around eighteen years, but she still becomes friends with Catherine and Anna. Aragon even becomes fond of the girl, offering her a weekly payment in exchange of singing. Jane is enamoured with her, but opinion biased since Edward was probably in love with her, not crying when he was on her arms.

(…)

Catherine has nightmares about it, followed by the feeling of being underwater.

She has nightmares of Anne, both of them lost in the middle of a sea, or a river, and when they are about to reach each other, they can’t. She can’t even clearly hear Anne talking on her dreams, but instead it is so much pressure on her chest she might faint from it.

But at least she remembers.

(…)

Times goes away flying.

It’s been two months, and Catherine haven’t seen Anne.

She almost even prayed to see her again, to hear her voice, a sight of her smirk, but it never comes, all she has is nothing, and three photos of that night. Parr wonders if she moved back to France, if that was why she was crying. If she is alright, writing poetry on a café. If her dress is still white and her choker still wraps around her neck.

Her mind can’t stop missing her.

(…)

“What’s up with that face, Cathy?” Katherine asks, Anna rolls her eyes.

“She has been painfully pinning on this girl for almost four months now, even if they only went out once.”

“Shut up, Anna!” Catherine bickers. “You don’t understand.”

“Keep saying that, is not my fault you dearest Anne Boleyn isn’t anywhere to be found.”

“Wait, what?” The younger’s face is pale, drained from any colour. “What do you mean Anne Boleyn?”

“Do you know her?” Cathy wonders, hopeful. “Look, I have these photos.”

She quickly goes through her gallery, showing the three pictures.

“Where do you get those?” Kat’s voice is panicking, and she is not bothering to hide it.

“Near the river, four months ago, why?”

“Anne was my cousin.”

“Was?” Catherine asks.

“She has been dead for seven years.”

(…)

Catherine can’t process it at first, but then it starts to make sense.

Weird dreams.

Not knowing a show from three years ago.

Pale skin.

Disappearing.

Always cold.

Never blushes.

Is like there is just so much water weight on me, my lungs can’t take the pressure.

Catherine feels sick to her very core, almost as much as she felt when she was with Anne.

(…)

It is the morbid thing to do, but Catherine begs her namesake to take her to Anne’s grave.

The cemetery is cold, rows and rows of grey pieces of stone laying around. The grass is almost as green as Anne eyes, and Catherine has a bouquet of white margarita flowers on her hand.

She wants to believe it is just another dream.

Dreading the moment, they get to stay on front of a grave, which clearly says Anne Boleyn, stating her death on the 19th day, of the fifth months of 2012.

What comes as a surprise is Parr’s jacket sitting on the grave.

“I hope you the best for you too, Anne Boleyn.”

[ahtohallan-calling]

chapter 14 of don’t read the last page is here!

masterpost

[kristanna / m / multichap / modern au with actress!anna and vetstudent!kristoff]

t-rated version of this chapter on tumblr, m-rated version on ao3

There was confetti in his hair, big silver flakes of it, but he didn’t seem to care. Instead he leaned down to press his forehead against hers.

“It’s okay,” he said, his voice husky as his breath ghosted over her lips. “Seriously, it’s still yesterday in Alaska.”

chapter 14: confetti

On the nights Anna fell asleep before he did-- which was most of them, really, considering how hard she was working on the movie-- sometimes he just watched for a little while, the slow rise and fall of her chest, the flicker of her eyelids as she tumbled into dreams, the way her hands would instinctively reach for him across the sheets if he pulled away. And he would marvel for a moment at the fact that he had almost said no to this, that he had entertained the idea that it was somehow wrong, that somehow the way they loved each other wasn’t enough to make this work.

And then, inevitably, he would have to lean over and kiss whatever part of her face wasn't hidden by her masses of tangled red hair, and she would smile without waking, and he would fall a little deeper in love with her each time.

He wouldn't have minded doing just that as the year rolled over into the next; he couldn't think of a better note to end an old era and start a new one on anyway.

But Hans Westergaard had invited Anna to some huge party at his massive, hidden mansion, and the invite said she could bring a plus one.

"And it's important, baby, otherwise I would say let's just do our own thing," she called from the bathroom. "To spend time with everyone else doing the movie outside of work, so we get along better at work."

"I know, I know," he sighed, fiddling with his tie. "I just…"

He trailed off, but her voice, reassuring and gentle, came down the hall anyway. "I know. But it means a lot to me that you're coming. And I'm serious, the RSVPs all had small print on them saying 'no photos posted online' and these people take any kind of NDA shit seriously. So we're good on that front, too."

"But tomorrow…"

"Tomorrow we're staying in bed all day and ignoring the whole rest of the world. I promise."

He sighed and looked at his reflection again, wondering why the hell a grown man had decided to throw a theme party. At least it was "decades", and Anna had assured him she had no intention of showing up in bell-bottoms or a godawful windbreaker, either. "We'll do the fifties," she had reassured him. "Or, uh, forties or whatever. Old Hollywood shit, mainly because this is the best opportunity I have to see you in a tux."

Because he had already been thinking about another day-- hopefully sooner rather than later-- when she'd have a chance to see that, he had gracefully acquiesced. And it was worth it, really, to see the way she had beamed up at him in gratitude.

Still, parties weren’t really his thing, all the small talk and crowds and trying to decide the best place to stand or sit or whatever, especially when he often stood at least half a head taller than everyone else in the room. He knew they weren’t Anna’s favorite, either, that she loved to spend time with people but only in smaller settings.

But this was important. And so they would both put on a brave face and get through it-- or at least they would, if he could figure out what the hell he was doing wrong with his hair.

It was overlong right now, but Anna insisted she liked the way it hung down over his eyebrows. He had a feeling it really had more to do with how it was just long enough for her to tangle her fingers in it when they kissed, but he’d been forgoing a trim for couple of weeks now for her sake. It definitely didn’t scream “Old Hollywood”, though, and so Anna had helped him pick out pomade at the drugstore, which he had applied as best he could based on the tutorial Google pulled up for him. Something about it didn’t look quite right, though, the way it revealed too much of his forehead. Frowning, he removed his contacts and put his glasses on, hoping that would help to hide at least part of the vast expanse of his face that had suddenly been revealed. Anna liked it when he wore these, at least, but what about the rest of the world? Especially all these famous, gorgeous people; what would they think when they saw him wearing, as Ellie so kindly called them, “old man frames”?

(“Okay, so they are a bit...old-fashioned,” Anna had finally admitted one day. “But they look perfect on you, really. Very handsome.” He hadn’t believed her, so she’d gone on to prove it-- now he knew for certain that she at least really did like them.)

As he was about to switch them out for his contacts again, he heard the bathroom door swing open and Anna come darting down the hall. “Don’t look yet! I’m not dressed!”

Of course he turned to look, and when he did for a moment he could have worn his heart stopped. Anna was in just a skimpy bra and panties, but her long, coppery hair fell in deep, even waves; her makeup was simple, but it brought out her eyes, and she was wearing a bright red lipstick he had never seen on her before, and she was so incredibly gorgeous for a moment he couldn’t quite believe this was real.

He blinked, and to his surprise, she didn’t disappear. Even more shocking was the fact that the way he felt was mirrored in the expression on her face. “Kris,” she said finally, stepping forward to press her hands against his chest. “You look amazing.”

“Have you looked at yourself lately?” he said, and she blushed. God, he wanted to kiss her, but he didn’t want to ruin all of her hard work. Luckily, she seemed to realize what he wanted, and so she turned her face and tapped her cheek. Grinning, he leaned down and pressed his lips there.

“Did I do alright? Seriously, be honest,” he said.

She stepped back, surveying him. “Lean down a little,” she instructed, and he did. 

She ran her fingers through the front of his hair, just enough to loosen the pomade’s grip a little, and then beamed up at him. “Perfect. God, how’d I get so lucky, huh?”

He kissed her cheek again. “You look gorgeous, baby. Wish I could keep you here all to myself all night.”

“I’m not even dressed yet!”

“Exactly.”

Anna laughed and held up the silver dress she’d laid out on the bed. “Well, the sooner we go, the sooner we can leave, yeah? So help me get dressed.”

“We can’t leave before midnight no matter what, so why not aim to get there around eleven thirty, eh?”

“People have to see me there and know I don’t think I’m above it all,” she explained as she stepped into the dress. 

Kristoff helped pull it over her shoulders and began tugging up the short zipper. The dress fell to the floor, but it clung to the curves of her body and left most of her upper back exposed. She turned to face him, looking almost nervous. “Do I look okay?”

“Anna, baby, you look so gorgeous I seriously, seriously do not have words for it.”

She laced her fingers behind his neck, rising up on her toes. “Will you kiss me? Just one time won’t fuck up my lipstick. Probably.”

He did, as gently as he could at first, but then she pressed closer against him, deepening the kiss as his hands fisted in the back of her dress. He was tempted to keep on kissing her like this, party be damned; they could call Hans and tell her she had food poisoning or something-- but then her phone buzzed, and she pulled away with a regretful sigh. 

“That’s our ride,” she said. “At least I requested a car with the little divider thing, hey? So we can sit in the back and keep doing this.”

He carefully reached down to wipe off a smudge of lipstick at the corner of her mouth. “You worked so hard on your makeup, though.”

“That’s what makeup wipes are for. I’ll take it off and put it back on in the car,” she said cheerfully, putting one hand on his shoulder to keep her balance as she tugged on a spindly-heeled shoe. “I mean, if you want to kiss me, that is, otherwise I can sit up front or something.”

“When do I ever not want to kiss you?”

He proved his point in the back of the car, immensely grateful that the driver had “the little divider thing” and was playing music at a pointedly high volume. When the car began to slow as it mounted a long, winding driveway, Anna was still on his lap, her dress rucked up around her thighs as he pressed kiss after kiss on the long, graceful line of her throat.

“I gotta-- put it back on--” she panted. “And you--”

“Yeah, you gotta get off my lap if I’m not going to go in making a fool of myself,” he said with a laugh, pressing one final peck to the corner of her jaw.

“We can ask him to slow down a little more, give us time to take care of that,” Anna said sweetly.

“Not helping.”

She slid off his lap and pulled out her phone, quickly checking her reflection. "Okay, I'm good-- oh, shit, Kris you're covered in lipstick!"

He bolted forward and grabbed the phone. "Fuck, but you didn't-- oh, damn it, Anna, very funny."

She was laughing so hard for a moment she couldn't respond. "Sorry-- trying to help-- your face--"

After a moment he realized what she was trying to say and broke out into a fit of laughter, too. "Okay, well, nothing works better than sheer terror to kill a hard-on."

The driver pulled to a halt in front of the biggest mansion Kristoff had ever seen outside of pictures. “Jesus,” he mumbled.

Anna was too stunned for words. He reached over and squeezed her hand, and after another moment of shock she turned to meet his eyes. Suddenly she was the one who looked nervous.

“It’s gonna be good,” he said quietly. “You know this guy, you said he’s nice. And you know these people. Plus I’m here, yeah?”

She nodded. “Okay. But if I say ‘sofa’, that’s code for ‘we’re making a run for it’, okay?”

“Got it.”

He got out and jogged around to help her down; she wobbled for a moment in her heels, but he kept his hands on her waist steadying her. He grinned; as much as he worried about her tripping over herself in these torture devices, it was kind of nice that for once she was taller than his shoulder, which put her at the perfect height for him to kiss her forehead, something he immediately took full advantage of.

Anna smoothed his lapels and straightened his tie one last time. “Ready?”

“No. But let’s do it anyway.”

She had already been immeasurably grateful to Kristoff for stepping out of his comfort zone and agreeing to come with her to such a big party, but it turned out he was a physical support, too, as they made their way across the gravel-covered driveway to the front doors of Hans’s-- well, manor was the word that kept coming to her mind. It was hard to keep her eyes on where to place her stilettoes next when there were so many windows to count, so Kristoff’s steady, guiding hand on her waist was quite probably the only thing that kept her from breaking an ankle. 

The shoes were already killing her, but keeping them on meant having an excuse to lean on Kristoff all night, and she was always grateful for that, too. Just as they reached the door, she squeezed his hand, wanting to thank him one last time, but then it swung open and Hans was there, wearing a perfectly-fitted suit, his green eyes glittering beneath his perfectly coiffed auburn hair.

“Anna!” he crowed. “You made it!”

“Hi!” she chirped back, relieved that at least she was being greeted by a friendly face. “Your house, it’s-- it’s amazing.”

“Thanks, but it’s a little too ostentatious for me,” he said with a dramatic grimace. “I’ve always been about the simple pleasures. Come in, hey? Everyone will be so happy you’re here.”

She had dropped Kristoff’s hand as they had been speaking, but now she wished she hadn’t as Hans set a hand on her back, though at least he was being a gentleman about it and kept his fingers over only the shimmery material and not the exposed skin of her spine. “Hans-- this is my boyfriend, Kristoff,” she said, turning and mouthing “come on” over her shoulder.

He did after a moment, still looking somewhat shell-shocked. She couldn’t blame him; it felt like they had walked into a circus with all the roiling masses of people and sounds and colors. There were Polaroid cameras scattered over every available surface, people dressed in everything from turn-of-the-century gowns to parachute pants, waiters darting in and out with impossible fancy looking drinks, and above it all what sounded like a dubstep remix of “My Way”.

“Kristoff! Nice to meet you, man,” Hans said, turning back with a proferred hand. “Haven’t heard much about you yet. Looking forward to getting to know you.”

Anna’s brow furrowed; should she have told Hans more about him? Before she could say anything, though, Kristoff took Hans’s hand and give it a firm shake. “You, too.”

There was a beat of awkward silence, and then they both turned and looked at Anna expectantly. “I need a drink,” she blurted out.

Hans immediately snagged one from a passing waiter’s tray and handed it to her with a little bow. “Your majesty,” he teased, a little inside joke they’d started in between takes.

Anna giggled. “Thanks, kitchen boy.”

“So, Kristoff,” Hans said, turning to the larger man with a smile. “What do you do?”

“Veterinary student.”

“Really? Wow! How’d you manage to meet our Anna, then?”

Kristoff looked like he wanted to protest at the word our, but he smiled anyway. He was trying, but it was clear he was straining to do it. “Grew up with her.”

“So you’ve been together for years, then? God, what a dream. I’m starting to think about turning to Tinder before I die alone,” Hans said with a laugh. 

“Um...no. Since May.”

Hans raised an eyebrow. “Really? Anna told me this was a longterm thing.”

Anna chose that moment to take a long slurp of her drink. Mercifully, the actor playing Rasputin chose that moment to sweep by and engage Hans in a discussion about the canapes. The moment they both looked away, Anna pulled Kristoff aside.

“You like him, right?”

“He’s, uh. Okay?” 

“Oh, god, are you upset about him saying I don’t talk about you? I mean, it’s true that I don’t, but that’s more because, y’know, kind of a habit to keep it all secret these days. It’s not ‘cause I don’t want to talk about you, because seriously I could go on for days, but--”

“It’s not that. It’s that he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio in that one movie where he gets shot in the pool. It’s about money or something.”

“The Great Gatsby?”

“Yeah! See, the way he like, waved his hair and shit. And before you say anything--”

“Sven?”

“Yeah. We had to do a whole marathon the day after he finally won the Oscar. I liked that one way better than the cocaine one.”

Anna giggled and leaned against his shoulder. “Now I can’t unsee it. Do you think he did it on purpose? I mean, it is a decades party, and you can’t get more twenties than Gatsby.”

“I think so. I mean, he’s already got the massive house and the crazy party.”

“Do you think he knows how the story ends?”

“Who knows,” Kristoff muttered, snagging a drink of his own. “Jesus, what does he do with all this space? Is he married or anything?”

“Nope. Perpetual bachelor. Not for lack of trying, though.”

“I’ve noticed,” Kristoff said drily.

Anna blinked up at him in surprise. “What does that mean?”

“He’s into you. I can tell. I mean, I can’t blame him, but--”

“We’re just friends, though, really, I promise you don’t need to--”

“I know,” he reassured her. “I trust you. Just...watch him. Guys like this are used to getting what they want. Not that he’d hurt you or something, just...I don’t know.”

Anna was quiet for a long moment, weighing his words carefully. He truly didn’t sound jealous, and not even close to angry, just genuinely concerned. She was about to ask him what he thought she should do when Hans waved her over. “Oh my god, An,” he said between laughs, “come hear what Phil just told me about his last shoot!”

She stepped forward, but Kristoff didn’t follow. She glanced back at him for a moment, worried, but he just shook his head. “Gonna stay here so I can lean against this wall and finish this drink,” he said good-naturedly. “Come back when you get a chance, hopefully by then I’ll have enough of this in me to be fun.”

“You’re always fun,” she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Five minutes, no more.”

Five minutes quickly turned into ten when Phil transitioned into another long story, but she glanced over her shoulder and Kristoff was still there, raising his glass with a wink, and so she let herself be sucked deeper into the conversation. Another five minutes as the director Destin joined them, and this time when she glanced back to her great relief Honey, wearing a knee-length black dress that could have counted for just about any decade, had joined Kristoff in his wallflowering. She gave them both a grin, wishing she could go over, but Destin was in the middle of a slightly tipsy explanation of how he’d built his career from the ground up, and she really was interested in it.

At last, when her drink had been drained of even the remnants of her ice, she managed to make her excuses and dart back over to the pair of far more familiar faces. “Honey!” she enthused, launching herself into the other woman’s arms. “I didn’t know if you’d be here.” “I’m surprised myself, honestly. I know this was supposed to be for the ‘important people’,” she said in a spot-on imitation of Hans’s drawl. “But apparently Hans realized you and I are friends, so that makes me important enough. And I agree with the boyfriend by the way. He’s definitely into you.”

“You know my name, shortstack,” Kristoff said, elbowing her with a laugh. 

“And you know mine. But anyway-- seriously, Anna, he’s making heart eyes at you right now.”

“He is not!”

“You’re not even looking.”

“I looked at him enough. I want to hang out with you guys now.”

Honey let out a snort of laughter. “I keep forgetting you’re new. You’re gonna have to mingle with everyone whether you like it or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the star of the movie, babe. Half these people only came because they’re hoping they can make a stronger impression on you and get to be part of your next project.”

“But I--”

“And they know it worked for me. Which I’m grateful for, by the way, but now they know you’re nice enough to help your friends out. So everyone wants to be your friend now.”

Anna bit her lip. “You know it wasn’t like, to pity you or anything, I know you have plenty of job offers and besides--”

“Anna. I know. I just want you to be aware of how the night’s going to go down.”

She looked helplessly up at Kristoff; he always knew the right thing to say. Surely he would at least have a suggestion now.

But he only offered her a small smile. “Just three more hours ‘til midnight,” he said softly. “And then we’ll kiss each other when the ball drops and head straight home.”

The thought of that was all that kept her spirits up as she was dragged into conversation after conversation, more often than not with Hans grinning by her side and offering her another drink. After her college years, she was hardly a lightweight, but between the cocktails and the sheer number of people she was talking to she was starting to feel dizzy. She tried to keep her eyes on Honey and Kristoff as much as possible, even stealing a moment or two to talk to them when someone new showed up that Hans had to personally welcome, but that was proving to be more and more difficult as the night wore on and the party grew rowdier and rowdier.

At ten minutes to midnight, she hadn’t seen either of them for close to an hour. She had tried texting them both when she got a free moment, but apparently neither of them was looking at their phones. She set down her empty glass and began wandering through the crowds, wishing she’d worn even taller shoes so she could see over everyone’s perfect hair. Just as she caught sight of a familiar blond head across the room and started to make her way over, a hand closed over her wrist.

Instinctively she jerked away, but the hand only held on tighter. She turned and saw Hans grinning at her. “Just me, An,” he said reassuringly. “I was wondering if you wanted to give a speech with me?”

“I-- what? A speech? Why me?”

“Well, this is a party for the cast and crew of the movie you and I are starring in. So this is kind of your party, too, right? I thought you might want to thank everyone or let them know your hopes for the movie or whatever.”

“Oh-- oh, um, yeah. Sure.”

“Great!” 

He didn’t drop her arm as he led her over to the sweeping grand staircase in the middle of the biggest room-- what the hell is this even for, Anna found herself wondering, feeling nervous laughter bubble up in her chest, just for all his big parties? Is this a weekly thing? Is this just all he--

“Everyone!” Hans called, his voice ringing out clearly over the masses; there was his Julliard training, perfect projection, and the room grew quiet as everyone turned to look at him. 

Her eyebrows raised in surprise; had his bowtie been silver all night? She could have sworn when she’d first gotten here it had been burgundy, but then he was talking about how honored he was that everyone had come and how excited he was for the new year and the rest of filming, and she looked away from him to give everyone her biggest, brightest, star-in-training smile. 

She had lost sight of Kristoff again; she was starting to worry she wouldn’t find him in time to give him the midnight kiss he’d promised. She had almost drowned Hans’s words out entirely as her eyes swept the crowd, but then his voice came back into focus as he squeezed her shoulder.

“And I’m so grateful for Miss Anna Arendelle!” he said, and a little cheer went up from the crowd. “Without her, there would be no Anastasia-- literally. We’re lucky to have her, aren’t we?”

He grinned and looked down at her, his eyes bright, and for a moment her blood went cold; all of a sudden it occurred to her that Kristoff and Honey were terribly, terribly right. “Um,” she said, realizing he was waiting for her to speak. “I’m-- we’re-- lucky to have you too, Hans.”

“A toast to Anna!” he cried, and then they all raised their glasses and echoed him, and she was flattered, really, but she’d finally spotted Honey’s head in the crowd, and for some reason Kristoff wasn’t there, and now her stomach was really starting to tie itself in knots.

“Anything you want to add, An?” Hans asked, giving her another fond smile.

Oh, fuck, she thought; she hadn’t expected this at all. Time to improv her ass off like she hadn’t since sophomore year.

“I’m just so grateful for all of you,” she said with another bright smile. “You’re all such amazing, gifted, talented people, but more than that you’re incredibly hard-working. Each of you is integral to the success of this movie, and I’m so glad to be on such an amazing team.”

She lifted her glass. “To...you guys! To everyone!”

Everyone laughed and raised their glasses in return. She took the brief moment of silence to search the crowd for Kristoff again, and at last she sighted him, standing at the far end of the room, raising his glass higher than anyone.

She held his gaze, and he offered her a reassuring smile. She glanced up at Hans, hoping that he was done so she could make her way down the stairs, but for once he wasn’t looking at hers.

“Thank you, Anna,” he said with a grin. “What a great way to end the year-- and great timing, too! Thirty seconds, everyone!” Another cheer rose up from the room, louder than ever. Anna bit her lip; in these heels, it would be difficult, but she was pretty sure she could make it across the room in time. Just as she started to step forward, Hans caught her wrist. 

“Hey,” he said, “you gotta help me do the countdown! And leading everyone in singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’, it’s not the new year without it!”

“But I--”

“Ten--” he started, and she joined in with him on nine, turning back and meeting Kristoff’s eyes once more, hoping he could see the apology in her own.

“Three-- two-- one-- happy New Year!” Hans called out, and she realized with a jolt that he was somehow standing closer to her than before, his eyes on her mouth. 

Just as he leaned forward, she turned away with a bright smile, forcing herself to laugh as silvery flakes of confetti rained from somewhere. “Should auld acquaintance be forgot,” she began, thanking her lucky stars when someone at the base of the stairs joined in.

Mercifully, no one seemed to remember the words to the second verse, and so as soon as everyone started clapping, she gave a quick bow and hopped down the stairs, not bothering to even give Hans a parting smile. She slid through the crowd, ignoring the people who tried to stop her and give her thanks or a grin or a drink, and didn’t stop moving until at last she had reached Kristoff.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” she panted, already reaching up to loop her arms around his neck. “I-- fuck, I had no idea he would do that.”

There was confetti in his hair, big silver flakes of it, but he didn’t seem to care. Instead he leaned down to press his forehead against hers.

“It’s okay,” he said, his voice husky as his breath ghosted over her lips. “Seriously, it’s still yesterday in Alaska.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” she promised, leaning up on her toes. “But I’m not waiting a whole ‘nother hour to finally kiss you.”

He was grinning when their lips met, and she couldn’t help but smile back. When at last they pulled apart, breathless, she said again, “I’m really sorry, Kris, I’ll spend the whole rest of the year making it up to you, and the next one if you’ll let me have that one too, and the next one, and--”

“You can have them all,” he promised, wrapping his arms around her waist. “You don’t even have to ask.”

“I want to remember this moment forever,” she said, giving him another quick kiss. “Even if it’s two minutes past midnight.”

“Well, that’s what all those cameras are lying around here for, right? We can just grab one and take a picture.”

“Or our phones,” she teased, but he shook his head.

“This way, we can have it printed out so we can stick it on the fridge,” he explained, pulling away from her so he could grab a camera from where someone had dropped it on a sofa. “Our first actual decoration.”

They managed to snag one of the camera operators who was all too willing to take their picture. Anna thanked him profusely, and he actually blushed before darting off. She started shaking the printed square immediately, too excited to wait, and Kristoff laughed. “I don’t think shaking them actually works.”

“Well, I gotta get this nervous energy out somehow.”

A few more moments, and it was there in their hands; both of them grinning so broadly it made something tighten in her chest to see it. Kristoff’s arm was draped around her waist, and she was leaning into his side as closely as she could, both of them with confetti everywhere.

“Perfect,” Anna breathed, and somehow suddenly all of it really, truly was. 

They left the party shortly afterwards; they lingered only long enough to give Honey a goodbye hug before meeting their driver outside. Anna, exhausted by all the mingling, spent most of the ride with her legs slung over Kristoff’s lap, leaning close to his side. She sighed, and he reached with the arm that wasn’t draped over her shoulders to squeeze her hand.

“This is just...so much better than all of that,” she said softly. “I just...wow. I don’t know if that part of Hollywood is for me.”

“Me either. But I’ll do it again if you need me to.”

“Why are you so good to me?” she asked, nuzzling her head against his neck. 

“Because I love you,” he said, kissing her forehead. “All of you. On nights like this and on nights where we’re home trying to program a microwave and on nights when we don’t even do anything but lay on the sofa and whine about how bored we are.”

She laughed at that. “I love you, too. I hope I’m doing an okay job of showing it.”

“You are,” he reassured her. “And it makes me love you even more.”

They were quiet the rest of the way home; he thought at first that Anna had dozed off on his lap, but then as soon as the driver made the turn onto their street she sighed and pulled away from him, reaching down to pull her shoes on. “Just a few more steps in these,” she muttered.

“You don’t have to put those back on if you don’t want to.”

“Then I’ll have to walk in barefoot, and then I’ll get dirt all over my feet and--”

“So I’ll carry you. Problem solved.”

And he did, while she draped one arm over his shoulders and let her shoes dangle from the other hand. “I seriously,” she said, punctuating each word with a kiss to the underside of his jaw, “don’t deserve you.”

“‘S’okay. You can carry me in next time,” he teased as he crossed the threshold.

[eponymous-rose]

The Briarwood Arc: A Summary (with timestamps!)

With all the excitement over CR’s new Kickstarter stretch goals including an animated series covering the first campaign’s Briarwood Arc, I thought it might be handy to have a little reference for folks wanting to jump in at this point (which, as it happens, is a great jumping-in point for the first campaign). This arc is a fan-favorite because it really marks the starting point of a lot of the more serious character development in the show, while setting the standard for bringing a character’s backstory front-and-center into the main plotline. It also happens to contain a ton of especially cinematic moments.

If you just want to jump in now, the Briarwood Arc is generally considered to be episodes 24-36 of the first campaign. Be aware that earlier episodes contain the chat (often a bastion of complaints; a strategically placed post-it note on the screen goes a long way) and also a player who leaves the show permanently after episode 27 (more info here). While there are good moments and context provided earlier on, it actually works just fine to jump in on episode 28 as the start of the arc.

If you’d like a summary of the arc, complete with timestamped links to key moments, read on!

The Briarwood Arc is tied in with the backstory of Taliesin Jaffe’s character, named (deep breath) Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III.

Before meeting up with Vox Machina, Percy spent most of his time inventing and tinkering. One night, the de Rolos took Lord Sylas and Lady Delilah Briarwood in at their castle in Whitestone, invited them to stay for dinner... and the Briarwoods promptly started killing everyone, with the help of some of those inside the castle. Percy’s younger sister Cassandra helped him escape the attack, but she was shot down in a hail of arrows, and Percy barely survived by jumping into a freezing river. Not long after that, Percy started having dreams where a cloud of black smoke demanded vengeance... at which point he promptly woke up and started designing his first gun.

He’s been traveling with the rest of the group for some time now, studiously ignoring what’s been going on in the north and mostly trying to keep a low profile.

Things start taking a turn when, in episode 14, the party has a meeting with Sovereign Uriel Tal’Dorei, one of their most powerful political allies. Uriel casually mentions the Briarwoods’ names in passing (1:02:49). Percy manages to rally from that moment of shock and takes Uriel aside to fish for more details (1:25:28); he requests that any further information about the Briarwoods be sent his way.

Radio silence ensues until the party returns to Emon in episode 23, when Seeker Asum Emring (Uriel’s spymaster) approaches Percy to let him know the Briarwoods are coming to town in a week for a feast in their honor, celebrating the opening of a new trade route with the northeast (3:04:45). Asum’s clever enough (and has by now had enough northbound spies “mysteriously retire”) to be suspicious of the Briarwoods and is determined to keep an eye on them.

The start of episode 24 has the party finally talking about all this as a group; Percy explains his past history with the Briarwoods (0:20:48), and reveals that his Pepperbox revolver has names scrawled across five of the six barrels: the Briarwoods, plus three individuals who’d helped them in their slaughter. He mentions that he’d already tried to confront one of the three, Dr. Anna Ripley, but that her guards threw him into prison before he could even get close enough to see her face, which is how he wound up in the jail cell where the party first met him. Vox Machina pledge their support (0:28:47) to a tearful Percy, and start preparing for this unknown confrontation with the Briarwoods.

The plan (such as it is) is to have Scanlan turn Vax invisible during the feast, so he can do some snooping around. Percy will enter the feast disguised as Vax, just in case he gets put in a position to be recognized. They’ll play it by ear from there, following Percy’s lead.

The party runs into Asum at the main gates, and he instantly sees through Percy’s disguise when he doesn’t quite manage an imitation of Vax’s voice. (2:49:30)  Asum mentions that Vax should meet him in the foyer while the feast’s underway to help him out with his reconnaissance.

Vox Machina watch as the Briarwoods make their appearance (2:59:10); they seem extremely self-possessed and charming, and a very tense dinner ensues. In the suspense, Vax completely forgets about going to reconnoiter with Asum, and then decides to follow the Briarwoods to their room at the end of the night to see what he can find out (3:39:00). After dispatching their guards, he opens the door to their chamber... only to see both of them looking directly at him. (3:43:10).

Episode 25 picks up after that cliffhanger, with an increasingly desperate Vax trying to talk his way out of the room (0:14:00). Sylas reveals himself to be a vampire, and he and Delilah attack. Vax manages to jump out a window and yell a warning to the rest of the group through the Earring of Whisper, but soon finds himself bleeding out alone at the Briarwoods’ feet (0:39:15). The rest of the party arrives in the courtyard just in the nick of time (complete with a legendary couple of rolls from Vex - 0:58:48) to rescue Vax from the brink of death, and to pull a baffled Asum out of the effects of a charm spell. In the battle, Vex is nearly killed in one shot by a particularly powerful spell from Delilah.

During the confrontation, the Briarwoods recognize Percy (1:16:38). They attempt to flee via carriage, then successfully flee via magic, but invite Percy and the rest of the party to join them in Whitestone, casually mentioning that it would be nice for him to visit his family once in a while (1:52:50).

Frustrated by the Briarwoods’ departure, Percy brutally interrogates the Briarwoods’ carriage driver, a terrified young man named Desmond (1:55:10). The party decides to lock Desmond up in their keep, mainly for his own protection. On a little side venture to help out Lillith, an ally who emerged unexpectedly during the fight, Percy snaps and completely annihilates a baddie (3:06:15), which understandably worries the group even more.

Unfortunately, after this big Percy-centric episode, Taliesin unfortunately is too ill to participate in episode 26, and Percy spends it working feverishly in his laboratory. For the rest of Vox Machina, the order of the day is having to explain to Uriel Tal’Dorei why they attacked important allies out of nowhere, which doesn’t go over super well (0:39:31). Asum reveals to the group that he’s keeping an eye on things and is trying to act like he’s still under the Briarwoods’ charm. In a frustrated attempt to improve their image by helping out some farmers, shit gets a little weird for Vox Machina (2:34:38).

Episode 27 opens with Percy waking up from a horrific nightmare about his family being slaughtered... that promptly takes form when he goes to check on Desmond and finds him being strangled by an invisible presence in the cells (0:17:07). Luckily, with Trinket’s help (and the rest of Vox Machina returning home at an opportune time), Desmond is saved and the ghostly presence is defeated, but it’s clear that there’s only one way forward: the party starts on the road to Whitestone.

In episode 28, after battling a behir along the way, the party arrives in Whitestone and cautiously scopes it out to find a city composed of an exhausted, downtrodden populace working in fear of the “new nobles” (1:39:00), with zombified giants patrolling the streets. The party’s plan right now centers around the city’s central symbol of hope: if they can bring the Sun Tree, a holy tree to the sun god Pelor in the town square, back to its earlier splendor, they hope to be able to thwart this vampiric assault on the city.

Unfortunately, as they get closer, they realize the Sun Tree has become a gallows. And the bodies are a very specific message. (2:39:13) 

From an underground hideout, Keyleth uses her druidic abilities to attempt to commune with the Sun Tree, but discovers that it is, in fact, dead (2:54:05). Welcome to Whitestone.

Episode 29 starts with Keyleth attempting to resurrect the Sun Tree (and Travis and Laura battling traffic to get to the show), while Percy, Scanlan, and Vax check out a temple Percy remembers from his youth, the Zenith (0:26:27). This is the start of Vox Machina’s epic battle against doors, as it takes the three of them multiple spells and half an hour in real time to defeat... an unlocked door.

Once inside, they find the remains of Father Reynal and square off with a banshee that nearly kills Percy twice before Scanlan manages to finish it off (1:07:45). They discover that this temple has become a laboratory for someone who lost their hand attempting to replicate Percy’s firearm technology. At Percy’s request, Vax carves the de Rolo family crest into the altar, along with “Pelor lives in Whitestone”.

The party reconvenes and decides on the next course of action: attacking one of the “new nobles” of the town, one of the names on Percy’s List. Kerrion Stonefell. The party spends the night in their underground hideout, and Percy emphatically Does Not sleep well (1:29:45).

Before scoping out Stonefell’s mansion, the party decides to sow some seeds of rebellion in the city and chats with Keeper Yennen, a religious leader in the city, at his temple, the Lady’s Chamber. Percy doesn’t outright reveal his identity (the party’s been proceeding in disguise), but makes ambiguous statements that pique Yennen’s interest (2:04:30).

The party proceeds to Stonefell’s mansion and manages to infiltrate completely successfully, surprising Stonefell and launching into a vicious battle with perfect timing before he can set up his defenses (2:31:40). When Stonefell sees Percy’s weapon, he’s immediately confused and utters, “Ripley?”, revealing her to be the one who has been experimenting on Percy’s technology. Throughout the battle, dark smoke begins pouring from Percy’s body, and things get decidedly creepy as he dons a bird-faced mask to make the final blow on Stonefell (3:21:55). He promptly huddles in a corner of the room and tries to carve Stonefell’s name off his Pepperbox.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party brings around Vouk, Stonefell’s lieutenant. They try to get some information from him, and Vouk offers to take them to the Briarwoods’ “project room” below the castle in exchange for his life, which they decide isn’t very valuable information and is more likely a trap. Percy, coming out of his stupor as he discovers that Stonefell’s name has actually vanished from his gun, decides it’s best to set Vouk free, on the condition that he is marked and his tongue taken. Grog is only too happy to oblige, and Percy brands him with his gun (3:45:17). Grog and Scanlan are on board with this violence. The half-elves (Keyleth and the twins) are getting increasingly unnerved. The party carries the survivors out of the building, and Keyleth lights the mansion on fire once they’re out.

Episode 30 (which features everyone’s Halloween costumes) begins with a much-needed heart-to-heart among Vox Machina in their underground hideout about the nature of morality and trust (0:16:30). Their sleep that night is interrupted by a vampire attack that is in part thwarted by... Scanlan pissing on one, because running water (1:00:45). Even after the party relocates away from directly under the Sun Tree for the rest of the night, Percy has another restless night’s sleep, awakening with an even more heightened sense of corruption and sadism (1:31:08).

The party meets up with Jordana Whisk, the daughter of Simon, an enchanter Percy once knew who’s now working in the castle for the Briarwoods. They reveal that Percy is alive, although he can’t drop his illusion in front of her; she gives them some supplies and recommends they return to the Lady’s Chamber to speak further with Keeper Yennen. They do so, and wind up in a private conversation with Yennen and Percy’s father’s former chancellor, Archibald Desnay.

In front of these two allies, Percy finally reveals his true identity (2:35:20). But there’s another bombshell ready to drop: Archibald reveals that Percy’s sister Cassandra is alive, and has been secretly helping with the rebellion from her seat in the castle.

The party splits up past this point; there are three more nobles’ mansions remaining, so the party sends Scanlan alone to one to create a distraction while they attack another, leaving the fourth mansion for last. Scanlan... promptly turns into a triceratops (2:58:45).

Episode 31 opens with a truly epic segment in which Scanlan, working alone, just... annihilates the mansion through an increasingly bizarre sequence of events (0:14:55). It’s a glorious and surreal half-hour that culminates with the goliath Duke Goran Vedmire, one of the Briarwoods’ allies, getting thrown off a flaming rooftop in the middle of a thunderstorm. As you do.

The rest of Vox Machina, meanwhile, attacks Count Tylieri’s mansion, and discover the Count to be a vampire. Not to be outdone, Trinket rips off his head in the battle that ensues (1:32:00). The party starts interrogating a surviving guard, but when they discover that these guards were responsible for killing the people strung up on the Sun Tree, including a child, Vax slits his throat (2:07:55). Vex, meanwhile, confronts Percy, who still has smoke swirling around his ankles (2:11:32).

Once again, Keyleth burns down the mansion, and as the party reunites, they find people rising up in the streets, townsfolk beginning to hack down the zombie giants. This, it seems, is a point of no return: the rebellion has begun. Vox Machina make their way to the Sun Tree, where they find that the bodies have been cut down. In the midst of the storm, though, they see dozens, hundreds of skeletons approaching; the Briarwoods’ answer to the nascent rebellion (0:49:47).

Episode 32 opens with the unexpected return of a friend in spectral form: Pike crashes into the battle and starts annihilating skeletons (0:24:55), doing what a cleric does best. The party then splits into two groups to help the townsfolk deal with the remaining zombie giants. These dispatched, they regroup and learn that Pike’s been having visions of Whitestone, particularly of Percy; thanks to her goddess Sarenrae’s aid, she’s been sent in this spectral form to assist the party. 

Heartened by the return of their friend, the party starts toward the castle itself. They find the hidden passage Percy and Cassandra used to escape during the attack and start in toward the castle. Very conscious of her friends’ concerns, alongside her own, Pike casts a restoration spell on Percy, who isn’t completely recovered, but seems a little less shaky (2:32:30).

Resting for the night in the tunnel, Percy and Vax have a heart-to-heart (2:42:45). Percy dreams again that night, this time hearing an ominous voice: “Don’t forget our deal.” (2:47:10)

Moving ahead the next day, the party emerges into the castle’s dungeons, where they find an old woman locked in a cell. After some awkward questioning, the group decides it’s probably best to come back for her later. At the old woman’s insistence, Vex pretends to try to pick the lock, and when she messes it up, the woman grabs her with both hands... except she doesn’t, because one of her hands is an illusion (3:32:40). Vex remembers that Anna Ripley lost a hand trying to reproduce Percy’s technology.

Coming off that realization, episode 33 begins with Vex revealing what she just figured out to the party (0:14:55). Keyleth dispels the woman’s illusion, revealing Anna Ripley, who immediately wants to join the party in taking the Briarwoods down. She explains that she helped the Briarwoods kill the de Rolos and seize power five years ago, but was just brought in to help out with some sort of mysterious construction project under the castle. When the work was finished, she claims, the Briarwoods were finished with her and locked her up to languish in the cell. Percy, bolstered by magical means, convinces her to lead them to Cassandra and further demands that she tell them how to find Professor Anders, his former teacher who turned on the family in the attack (Anders, Ripley, and the Briarwoods are the remaining names on the barrels of Percy’s gun).

When Percy reveals his identity to her, Ripley is frightened, but also unabashedly delighted (0:31:45). Unfortunately, around this time, Pike’s astral form dissipates.

The party, shaken and uneasy, allows Ripley to lead them to her chambers to get some of her things. Ripley reveals her latest project: a firearm she’s created based on Percy’s designs, working based off secondhand accounts. The party confiscates that, as well as a few potions, but lets her keep her armor in case of trouble.

They continue on to Cassandra’s chambers, where they find correspondence with Archibald Desnay about the ins and outs of several failed rebellion attempts. Percy starts to get impatient that they still haven’t found Cassandra (1:06:30). Ripley reveals a little more information: the Briarwoods have been working on some sort of distillery, used to melt down and focus the eponymous whitestone found in the region into “residuum”, which has powerful magical properties. The Briarwoods are using this residuum to do something with an old Ziggurat located beneath the castle, but she knows nothing more about that side of it beyond that it involves some third party. She hazards a guess that the Ziggurat is located right underneath the Sun Tree itself.

When the party expresses an interest in skipping over Anders and going straight for the Briarwoods, Ripley starts baiting Percy, reminding him that Anders was his sister’s keeper, and convinces him to go after Anders instead (1:11:55). Vex, frustrated and keeping an arrow nocked at Ripley’s throat, tells Vax to sneak ahead and check out the study.

As Vax gets close to the study, he sees a frantic-looking Anders holding a knife to Cassandra’s throat. As Vax jumps in to intervene, Cassandra calls out that it’s a trap (1:19:46). Anders promptly slits her throat. The rest of the party hastens to catch up, with Vex tasking Trinket to hang on to Ripley. Keyleth heals a very confused Cassandra (a detail the party misses: when Cassandra is healed, there’s suddenly no more blood on her skin or clothing). Grog gets caught in a Dominate Person spell and is ordered to kill Vax, which he nearly succeeds in doing; a couple more hits from magically animated suits of armor take Vax near to death, but Keyleth and Vex bring him back from the brink.

Meanwhile, Percy, bird-shaped mask concealing his face, wreathed once again in black smoke, confronts Anders (2:00:00). It does not end well for the professor. Anders’ name flares and vanishes from the barrel of Percy’s gun. Vex grabs Percy by the hand and tells him to take off the mask (2:09:15).

When the last enemies are dispatched, the party realizes that Ripley’s making an escape; Grog, Scanlan, and Trinket nearly catch up with her, but she uses magic to evade capture and disappears. A badly shaken Vax approaches Keyleth: “You know I’m in love with you, right?” (0:04:00)

Percy castigates and then thanks Vax for his rash action, then turns to Cassandra for the first time in five years. “...hi.” (0:17:57) Cassandra reveals that the Briarwoods took her in after the arrows felled her, healed her, and set her up as a caged figurehead in the castle to earn them legitimacy. They talk about the Briarwoods’ plans, and Cassandra insists that she’ll be accompanying the group, wearing her mother’s armor, especially since she’s been working against the Briarwoods by aiding rebellions for so long. She and Percy have a great little sibling moment (0:21:30). On their way down into the cellars of the castle, Cassandra reveals that Delilah isn’t a vampire like Sylas, but is instead an extremely powerful human necromancer. The two of them speak frequently of this third party, “The Whispered One”.

The party fights spirits of the de Rolo’s ancestors on their way down; one ghost comes very close to killing Percy outright. Scanlan heals him, then literally mocks the ghost to death... again. (1:59:30)

Episode 34 has the party at a crossroads, with one path leading toward the acid pits used in the residuum distillation process (Pike has also returned, in spectral form). The party finds a bronze room with several small gemstones built into the floor. After some experimentation, with each member of the party touching a gemstone, Cassandra finds a gemstone next to a door nearby and touches it... and two large walls of green glass slam down, trapping Vox Machina in the room. 

Behind Cassandra, the Briarwoods walk through the door. Vax immediately notices a placard behind them and uses his magical cloak to teleport to it, slamming one hand on the button. The Briarwoods are amused as the button, horrifically, causes acid to be pumped into the room containing the rest of Vox Machina... (1:19:14). Lord Briarwood promptly uses charm magic to pull Vax to their side, and they bring him with them as they leave Vox Machina to be dissolved.

And Cassandra? Cassandra confronts Percy through the glass: “Your sister left us the day those arrows found my chest. She did not die from those wounds, but to watch you leave me there in the snow. I have a new family. I am a Briarwood, and I have a destiny with the Whispered One.” (1:26:40)

Once Vox Machina have been left alone, Pike notices that the acid melts whitestone, and that the ceiling of this room is made of whitestone. Using a flying potion confiscated from Ripley, Vex manages to turn the tubes delivering the acid so they burn an escape route into the ceiling.

As the party begins to trail after the Briarwoods, Cassandra, and Vax, Percy realizes that there’s a new name on the previously blank barrel of his gun: Cassandra de Rolo. (2:07:42) 

The party manages to surprise the Briarwoods on the stairs leading up to the top of the ziggurat, and the fight begins in earnest. In the fray, Vax manages to break out of the charm spell, and while Cassandra begins the fight on the Briarwoods’ side, she eventually drops her sword, torn and uncertain. Keyleth nearly annihilates Sylas with a couple of well-placed Sunbeam spells, and Scanlan thwarts Delilah’s attempt to teleport him to safety with a Counterspell.

Percy manages to shoot Delilah, but Cassandra runs to her with a healing potion. Keyleth and Pike take that moment to destroy Sylas Briarwood once and for all. (3:44:46)

Delilah is devastated. “You can’t... I broke the world for us! No...” (3:47:11) She uses short-range teleportation to get out of the immediate line of fire. Vax and Grog knock out Cassandra and tie her up, to confront later.

Still able to fly thanks to the potion she took earlier, Vex gets a bird’s-eye view of the inside of the ziggurat: a room with the shape of a hand carved into the floor. Delilah’s standing at the center of it, reading some sort of scroll.

The party jumps into action, taking shots at Delilah from the top of the wall into the room, but she’s focused on her spell and splashes some of her own blood on a black orb in the center of the room.

The orb starts to spin. (4:04:30) All around Delilah, the walls are covered in a tapestry of hundreds of dead bodies, each missing their left hand and/or left eye, and they begin to writhe.

Vex, still flying, dives down to try to get the orb out of there. Delilah turns and casts the same spell on her she did back in episode 25: Finger of Death. (4:13:49) Vex comes within 1 HP of being permanently killed by the spell.

Delilah turns back to the orb, which spins faster and faster... and suddenly flashes, in an instant, down to the size of a dime. Her terrified anticipation turns to horror. “It can’t be too soon.”

The writhing walls stop. In fact, all magic within the ziggurat stops... including Vex’s flying spell. (4:16:40) She hits the ground with enough force to knock her out, and it takes the frantic party a moment to realize that they can’t heal her with magic, and she’s now bleeding out. Percy shoots Delilah, but manages not to kill her outright, instead shooting off her arm. Fortunately, Vex stabilizes on her own.

A terrified Vax stays with his sister while the rest of the party drags the unconscious Lady Briarwood away. Keyleth stays behind, experimentally poking a piece of residuum glass into the orb... and promptly takes a massive amount of damage and is nearly sucked into it (4:33:21). Vax realizes she stayed behind and runs back toward her... but she recognizes that her initial plan of collapsing the ziggurat isn’t going to work if she can’t use magic. The party flees.

Episode 35 starts with Vex being revived and healed outside the antimagic effect of the orb. A dazed, exhausted, and overwhelmed Cassandra explains her part in all this: the Briarwoods didn’t just keep her around for legitimacy, they kept her around to find out about and quash rebellions like the ones that Archibald attempted. (0:40:38) She finally makes eye contact with Percy, realizing that even with the (magically and non-magically) charming influence of the Briarwoods and her fury and fear at how Percy left her for dead, her family deserves to be avenged.

The familiar black smoke begins to billow out of Percy’s sleeves, and the smoke entity that’s been speaking to him begins demanding revenge. (0:41:30) Percy points the gun at Lady Briarwood’s head and demands that the entity take Cassandra’s name off the gun. “Did I even want revenge before I talked to you?”

The party’s very unnerved by this entire conversation, especially considering they can only hear Percy’s side of it and they see him occasionally putting the gun to his own head. Percy fires the gun at Lady Briarwood’s hand, revealing that the gun was broken in the fight. “I’m not satisfied. I want my money back.” The entity tries something, but Percy shrugs it off.

Lady Briarwood regains consciousness and Percy demands answers, creating the illusion of Sylas’ death to torment her (0:46:00). Delilah, boiling with fury, just mutters that the Whispered One gave her Sylas back, and Percy took him from her again. The group knocks her out again.

Pike and Scanlan recall some information about the Whispered One: it’s a phrase used to refer to the name “Vecna”, a powerful archlich, who once, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, tried to ascend to godhood and was halted in that process.

As the conversation continues, Percy begins to reach for his rifle, but pushes away the urge, and actually manages to expel the strange smoke creature from his body (0:59:19). The party very literally battles Percy’s demon, and Grog and Trinket manage to destroy it (2:02:05). A little remnant of darkness remains in Percy, but the creature is destroyed.

Percy defers to Cassandra when it comes to executing Delilah (2:03:50). Cassandra stabs her. “You took them away from me. And now we’re taking everything away from you.”

The party walks back past the acid pits. As they do, Scanlan uses magic to convince Percy to hand him his gun, the Pepperbox, and promptly throws it into the acid (0:05:26). That last little nugget of darkness in Percy’s chest vanishes as the gun is melted. Percy is somewhat more alarmed at how expensive the gun will be to replace.

Vox Machina emerge back into the city of Whitestone, where the townsfolk have gathered up the last of the Briarwoods’ powerful allies (minus Ripley, who is nowhere to be seen). Grog executes a Countess Jazna Grebin, but Vedmire (who survived his fall off the building) is kept alive, in keeping with Percy’s determination that Whitestone is now a city of mercy. Vox Machina also discreetly let some people know about the horrific scene below the castle, and start gathering people to study the orb and its antimagic effects.

Keyleth goes to check on the Sun Tree, and determines that the tree isn’t so much dead as dormant, and is now starting to awaken again. Vax finds her there, and after some awkwardness (mostly out-of-character flailing by the rest of the group), tells her that he’ll give her all the time she needs to process his confession: “If you’ll have me, I’m yours.” (0:59:14)

The sun finally sets on a clear night in Whitestone, and the rebuilding begins. (1:05:34)

(Episode 36, you ask? Episode 36 is Whitestone celebrating its first Winter’s Crest Festival in a very, very long time.)

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (21/?)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

a/n: I technically don’t have a horse in the race for the World Series that’s currently happening (tonight could be the last game 🙀), but since this lil’ universe exists because of @wellhellotragic​, I’ll be pulling for the Astros to actually win a game at home! 

@resident-of-storybrooke​ remains the best for reading these words, which include some more meeting of the fam jams! 

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current

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-/-

New York City in the summer is both the best and the worst.

There are approximately a million things to do, which is pretty much always true for this city, but things seem to multiply this time of year compared to any other time. Well, maybe besides around Christmas, but then every street is so full of tourists that Emma can’t do anything for fear of losing her temper and yelling at a middle-aged couple simple trying to enjoy their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary trip.

Bah-humbug.

And as much as Emma likes the way she can wear her jeans with a cozy sweater and coat draped over her with a warm beanie covering her ears, summertime is pretty much the prime time for her with so many baseball games happening and with the US Open coming around at the end of August. But it is decidedly not the end of August since it’s more like the end of July, and all she feels right now is like a big puddle that’s ready to melt whenever she walks outside. Also, that she smells like garbage, but that’s more likely the city than her considering she showered this morning and used vanilla body wash that she can smell on herself.

As well as sunscreen.

And sweat. There is definitely some sweat involved despite the fact she is only wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top with a hell of a lot of deodorant. She literally has deodorant in her backpack next to her laptop and notebook full of stat sheets.

Her hair is really gross too despite the braid it’s in, and the game hasn’t even started. It’s going to be a long day. For a multitude of reasons.

David, Mary Margaret, and Leo walking toward her in the hallway is near the top of that list.

“Emma,” Leo gasps when he sees her, quickly running toward her and leaving his parents behind in the dust. He’s got on a Captain America shirt and the signed Killian Jones hat gracing the top of his head. They didn’t explicitly tell Leo that she and Killian are dating – kids being kids and not being able to keep secrets and all that – but he pretty much knows. And he’s definitely going to after this.

“Hi, bud,” she laughs, squatting down the slightest bit (he’s getting too tall) to wrap him up in a hug that she knows is far too tight. “Long time no see.”

“I saw you for dinner last night.”

“That is too long.”

“You’re clingy,” Leo scoffs before pulling back from her hug to look at her with those furrowed little brows of his.

“Clingy? Who taught you that word?”

“Mom said that about dad.”

“Hey,” Mary Margaret huffs, sliding her arm around Emma in greeting, “don’t be telling tales.”

“It’s true.”

“I’m clingy?” David questions, his forehead wrinkling when he raises his brows. “Since when am I clingy?”

“That’s a conversation for another time.”

“But I – ”

“Okay,” Emma claps, breaking up the argument that is very inevitably about to happen no matter how small it’s going to be, “so I’m going to show you guys to your suite before I have to go out onto the field for a bit.”

“Emma, I know my way around the stadium,” David grumbles like he always does when there is any implication that he does not know absolutely everything that he needs to know, but then he’s kissing her cheek in greeting and gently patting her back in that David way of letting her know that he’s teasing even when she already knows this. It’s, like, a whole full circle thing. “Why is it that you are taking us to a suite today instead of us just sitting in my seats?”

The scorecard keeps ticking higher on David mentioning his investment in baseball by mentioning his season-ticket seats, but honestly, she can’t even say anything.

“Because,” Emma sighs, wrapping her arm around Leo’s shoulder and pulling him forward, “you are a workaholic who needed to get out of the office and spend some time with your family, and I made some special arrangements for that. Also, it’s crazy hot outside today, and the suites have air-conditioning.”

They’re in one of the first suites that Emma comes to, and she unwraps her arm from Leo’s shoulder to flash her badge at one of the security guards in charge of the player family suites before a door is opened for them to go inside. Liam, Elsa, Anna, and Kris are already inside sitting down on the couches that are in front of the TV monitor, and Addy and Lucy are watching something on an iPad, pink headphones covering their ears.

“Emma, are those?” Mary Margaret asks, trailing off at the end.

“Yep, that’s Killian’s family.”

“But we haven’t even met Killian yet.”

“Oh,” Emma sighs, smiling a bit to herself at them reacting to this exactly the way that she knew that they would, “I know. He’ll be up here when he finishes with the game though, okay? I’m feeding him to the lion’s den while I’m working, but he’s going to take us all to dinner afterwards so that you guys can do your creepy interrogation like Liam did to me.”

“He did what now?” David fumes, reaching forward to gently grab her elbow while Liam himself turns around, finally spotting they they’ve entered the room.

Emma can’t help but roll her eyes while her stomach does that twisting thing that is pretty much becoming its trademark. All of these people are ridiculous. “It’s fine, David. It was a joke. But seriously. I might be in and out depending on how the game goes, but Killian is going to come up here after he finishes his cool down, and afterwards, we’re going out to dinner.”

“How is that going to work if you guys are keeping things quiet?”

Emma shrugs her shoulders, a little bit of nervous energy washing over her. It’s something she and Killian have talked about a lot in the past week now that everyone important knows about everything important, and while they’re still figuring things out, they’ve decided that it’s probably safe to go somewhere low key for dinner as long as they’re in a group. Maybe eventually they’ll be able to go to dinner with just the two of them without Emma looking over her shoulder. It’s not like Killian is Brad Pitt or anything, but her worries of being spotted are legitimate. She’s in a very happy little bubble right now, and even though a bit of it has been burst, it’s still holding strong.

She deserves this. Killian does too.

“We’ve got it figured out,” she tells David before walking toward Liam and greeting him with a hug and doing the same with everyone else. Killian’s family are a bunch of huggers, even for people they don’t know very well, and that’s something she’s figured out very quickly. “Okay, so I’m about to do some quick introductions, so everyone brace yourself.”

“David Nolan,” David interrupts, reaching forward to shake Liam’s hand in what Emma can tell is a far too hard handshake to show off some kind of weird masculine authority. “It’s nice to meet you – ”

“Liam Jones. And this is my wife Elsa, her sister Anna, and Anna’s husband Kris. The two munchkins ignoring us are my daughter’s Addison and Lucy, and I bet they will be great friends with your son.”

“How old are they?” Leo asks. “Because I don’t want to be friends with anyone younger than four.”

Elsa actually snorts while Mary Margaret’s intake of breath might as well be a sign that death is coming with how dramatic it was.

“Leo,” Mary Margaret admonishes, “that is not very nice. You should apologize.”

Elsa stops laughing to wave Mary Margaret away, a kind smile on her face. “It’s fine, I promise. I get it. The girls do stuff like that all of the time, and luckily for Leo, they are both a little bit older than that. Plus, Addy really likes Captain America too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, why don’t you go over there and talk to her?”

Leo smiles and nods his head before sprinting over to the girls, plopping down on the couch hard enough that Addy and Lucy might as well bounce off of it.

“I’m really sorry about that,” Mary Margaret says again. “He was stuck with me working with a bunch of younger kids the other day, and I think that’s scarred him.”

“It really is fine,” Elsa smiles. “At least he’s a kid and there’s a bit of an excuse. Anna here sometimes says things like that, and she’s an adult.”

“Only technically,” Anna laughs.

“This is true,” Kris adds in.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to talk about me like that.”

“What? It’s true. It’s how you are. You have the enthusiasm of a kid with a bag of skittles. It’s wonderful.”

“Yeah, but you guys aren’t supposed to say things like that when we’re trying to make a good impression with Emma’s family. We’re supposed to look normal.”

It’s Emma’s turn to snort and shake her head before reaching forward to squeeze Anna’s forearm. “There’s no such thing as normal, which I’m sure you guys will realize as soon as I leave you all here to make some awkward small talk.”

“There isn’t going to be anything awkward about it,” Kris smiles before bumping his hip into Anna’s, “unless Anna keeps talking.”

“You are something else today.”

“You guys are all something else,” Emma laughs, hoping to everything that this is going to go well. This isn’t something she’s ever really had to do before, and it’s kind of terrifying. “But I trust that you can all get along with your spouses, since that seems to be a problem today, and each other. Now I’m going to go sweat my ass off outside, but you guys have a good time up here. And if they bring in those cheeseburger sliders, save me some.”

With that, she turns to walk out the door, knowing she doesn’t have time to go through proper goodbyes with all of them (she’d be there forever), and quickly makes her way to the elevator so that she can get to the tunnels that are going to take her out to the dugout. She always loves the days where she gets to spend some time in there, to really get a behind the scenes feel at it all, and while she’s a bit wary of some of the players now, she knows that it’s all going to be fine.

This is a game, but it’s also a job.

Al nods his head at her when she pushes open the door and walks toward her designated spot at the end with the water cooler and bat racks. August and Lance greet her, the rest of the guys sitting around ignoring her, and she’s thankful when she finds Jeff already in his seat.

“Hey,” he mumbles, his legs shaking up and down.

“Hey, why do you look nervous?”

“I’m fucking hot.”

Emma laughs and takes her seat next to him, and Jeff hands her the microphone pack and her earpiece, which she immediately turns on even though she knows Ruby is probably about to bombard her with questions.

“We can go inside for a bit when the first inning is over. I don’t plan on being out here the entire time.”

“Thank you.”

Emma knocks her knee into Jeff’sJeff’s,but he ignores her and turns his head to look out at the field. He’s always such a character.

“So,” Ruby teases, her voice breaking through the static, “how did the meeting go?”

“Fine. I bolted pretty quick, though. Also, Rubes, we can’t really talk about this stuff while I’m working.”

“Why not – oh, wait, never mind. I got you. There are a lot of people around who can hear you.”

“Yep,” Emma sighs, shaking her head a bit, “so tell me what kind of coverage you want me to get for this game. Jeff and I are already dying of heat.”

“Fine,” Ruby grumbles, and Emma can practically imagine the roll of her eyes, “I guess I will give you instructions for your job instead of gossiping about your life.”

-/-

Killian only pitches three innings, and while it’s a bit unusual, Emma doesn’t think anything of it. They’ve got their first road game in Boston next week, and she imagines Al doesn’t want anything to happen to Killian’s arm. And there’s no reason for him to overexert himself when they’re so easily winning and have already got this series in the bag no matter what happens the rest of the afternoon.

Plus, he winks at her when she finishes doing a quick interview with him after he’s pulled from the game, and the smile on his face tells her everything that she needs to know about how good he’s feeling.

She hopes that he feels that way after he goes upstairs and meets most everyone.

They probably should have eased everyone into it, but honestly, she thinks Killian will be more comfortable with his family around.

“Are you going to make me do one of those Instagram filters again today?” Will questions, as he plops down on the bench next to her, tilting the water cup back and drinking it down in one gulp. “Or am I playing twenty questions? Do you want to talk about my wedding? Or maybe even the game?”

“Shut up, asshole,” Emma laughs before reaching up to fan her face and wipe the sweat from her brow. “You’re the worst.”

“Um, actually, I believe you quite like me.”

“That’s debatable.”

Will hums as there’s some shuffling in front of them with Arthur King reaching around Emma to get his bat and helmet. Anxious shivers run down her spine when she sees him now, and her entire body stiffens until there’s a gentle pressure on her forearm from where Will is squeezing it.

“Hey,” he whispers, dipping his head down to look up at her, his goofy grin replaced with a soft smile that she usually doesn’t see with him, “you okay?”

She nods her head, wishing that her stomach wasn’t twisting like this. “I’m fine.”

“He’s not going to say shit like that again, Emma,” Will promises as his hand squeezes her arm again. “You are a member of this team, just like me and Killian and Rob, and we’ve got your back no matter what happens. I don’t let people talk shit about anyone but especially my friends.”

“Are we friends now?”

“Jones told me that we had to be.”

Emma scoffs and rolls her eyes, but she still knocks her knee into Will’s, a smile curving at the corner of her lips. Who knew that Will Scarlet was going to be so in her corner this early on? Or at all.

“Thanks. I’ll let you pick the filter you use the next time I do Instagram stuff simply because of that.”

“Sounds like music to my ears.”

-/-

Emma doesn’t get any chances to go back up to the suite during the game, but afterwards, when she’s wrapped up all of her work stuff and told Jeff goodbye, she finds herself walking through the suite doors only to find Killian standing at the counter wrapping sliders in a paper towel while talking to David.

Should she focus on the fact that she knows that Killian’s wrapping those up for her even though she asked everyone else to do it or the fact that Killian is talking to David?

Probably both.

“Hey,” she says slowly, stepping up to the two of them so that they both glance over at her, small smiles gracing both of their lips. Okay, good, that’s a good sign. “How are things going?”

“Just dandy,” Killian tells her, lifting his arm so that she can step into his space and press up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Dave is telling me about how he makes me look good on TV.”

“Dave?” she questions, and all Killian does in response is brush a kiss over the hair at the crown of her head.

“That is not exactly what I was saying,” David clarifies. “Killian asked me about work, and I explained it to him. Him thinking that he needs help to look good is all on him.”

“I mean, I get it. I help him look good every week when I could very easily make him look awful.”

“You are so kind to me, darling.”

“I know.”

Killian smiles down at her in that way that makes her heart stutter and her breath hitch, and there are so many emotions flying through her right now that she’s not entirely sure what to feel. There are also a million questions she’s going to have to gulp down, and Emma already knows that she’s going to have to ask Mary Margaret or Elsa for all of the details how everything went.

She really, really, really  wants Killian and David to get along. That’s, like, everything to her even if she didn’t realize it when this whole thing started. Ruth and Mary Margaret will like anyone who is nice to her, but David has seen so much of the shit that’s happened in her life that he’s a little bit more particular.

Okay, a lot.

“Are these sliders for me?” she asks even though she already knows the answer.

“Aye. I figured you’d want something to eat on the way to the restaurant since I didn’t see you eat during the game. Were you avoiding it so as not to get on camera again?”

“Kind of. It was also too damn hot to eat.”

Killian’s lips tick up on the right, his brow arching high on his head, and she knows that there’s a dirty joke rumbling around in there. It must be hard for him not to be able to say it, but they are most definitely not at a comfort level where he can talk about having sex with her in front of David. In fact, it’s probably best if they never get to that comfort level.

“Dad,” Leo groans as he walks over to the them, “Mom said to ask you when we can go eat.”

“I think we can go now since Emma’s all finished with work.”

“Thank goodness. I thought I was going to starve to death.”

“You know, kid,” Killian laughs, dropping his arm from around Emma’s shoulder, “you sound a lot like your aunt.”

What can she say? She and Leo like to eat.

They go to a low-key pizza place six blocks over from Liam and Elsa’s townhome. All of them are so spread out in different boroughs of the city that it’s pretty much impossible to meet in the middle, but Liam suggested the place since he knows that it’s quiet and that the girls like it a lot. Emma’s honestly pretty nervous walking inside, Killian following right behind her with his hand ghosting over the small of her back. It’s odd to have been dating someone for this much time and never really been out with them, but this relationship is never going to fall into the category of ordinary anyways. It’s always going to be a little off and a little funky, and that’s fine with her because it works. She’s never been one to need to be wined and dined anyways.

And maybe she’s also nervous because of the fear that someone is going to see them and that connections are going to be made, but Elsa quickly talks to the hostess and has them moved to a large corner booth in the back that no one else in the restaurant can really see. Bless Elsa. Honestly and truly. Emma knew she would be great for how Killian always talked about her, but Emma had no idea that she was going to so quickly hit it off with the woman so that they almost feel like friends now too.

It’s been a week since they met, but everything goes so naturally that it feels like so much longer.

This isn’t her or her life or the way things usually go. Emma doesn’t just make friends with people she meets and doesn’t integrate her life with others. The only constant friend she’s had over the past six years that isn’t somehow quasi-related to her is Ruby – toss Graham in there too – and if it wasn’t for Ruby pretty much demanding that she and Emma get along, Emma would probably still think of the woman as just her producer.

How different life would be.

So Emma is definitely not the type of person to have multiple people texting her throughout the day or asking about plans, knowing and understanding that the rigorous game scheduling makes those plans kind of difficult to make. But here she is at a table with ten other people where the conversation is easily flowing from subject to subject because all of these people are making an effort to get along for she and Killian.

She’s got some pretty awesome people around her, the man whose hand keeps inching up on her inner thigh included.

Emma twists her head to look at Killian and tell him to stop teasing her by squeezing her thigh, but instead of seeing the smirk she was expecting, his free hand reaches up to cover his mouth as he yawns.

“Are you tired?”

Killian nods as he keeps yawning, small tears escaping the corners of his eyes, and when the yawn finishes, he has to keep blinking the tears away. “Exhausted. I could go for an entire vat of caffeine.”

“Or get an IV of coffee in your arm.”

“What?” he questions, very obviously not getting her reference.

“Gilmore Girls reference, twenty-nine,” Emma sighs, patting his hand on her thigh. “Gilmore Girls. I know we’ve talked about it before. You should watch it when you have time. It’s, like, a peak early 2000’s show. But you can skip the last season.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when I inevitably forget about this conversation and the show.”

“Do you need to go home? We can leave whenever.”

“No,” Killian promises even though he yawns when he says it, “I’m good for a little while longer.”

“Is it past your bedtime?” Lucy asks quietly from her seat next to Emma.

“Do you think your uncle goes to bed before you, sweetie?”

“He looks sleepy. Do you want my pizza?”

Emma’s not exactly sure where the correlation is there, but that’s kind of how kids are. It’s much more entertaining than talking to adults sometimes.

“No, Luce,” Killian promises, leaning over Emma to talk to her, “I don’t want your pizza, but thank you. That’s very sweet. I think it’s past your bedtime though.”

“It’s not Lucy’s bedtime for another hour,” Addy helpfully adds in, much to the amusement of everyone else. “Mine isn’t until eight because I’m older.”

“Mine is at nine,” Leo says.

“I wish I could go to bed that early,” Elsa sighs as she reaches down to pick up her glass of water. “You guys don’t know how good you’ve got it sleeping that much.”

“I don’t like to sleep,” Addy laughs.

“Me either,” Leo says back to Addy, giving her a high five.

Mary Margaret is probably already planning their wedding or something ridiculous like that for how much fun they seem to be having. Actually, Mary Margaret is probably planning hypothetical weddings for several people at this table, but that is not something Emma is going to start thinking about. Nope. Not anywhere near to even being close to being ready and the little thoughts need to chill the hell out. So, if Mary Margaret is going to plan creepy hypothetical weddings, it can be her son’s.

They’ll probably have Captain America-themed plates with baseball hats and stuffed animals from the zoo lining the aisle.

Okay, now Emma is the crazy one.

Maybe she’s a little tired too.

“So, Killian,” David starts, very obviously changing the subject, “I mean to ask earlier, but why did Al pull you out of the game so early?”

Killian’s hand squeezes her thigh, nails digging into the skin a bit roughly, but then he’s letting out a breath and releasing her thigh so that he can scratch at his jaw. “Ah, preservation for the Sox series. Nothing to worry about. I wasn’t feeling top notch, and it’s better not to risk it, you know?”

“That makes sense. I feel like I spend so much time simply making sure things run smoothly on camera that I never get to actually pay attention to the game, so today was nice.”

“See,” Emma huffs, looking between the two of them and pushing down that little feeling of worry over Killian not feeling well today. It was probably just the heat. “I told you that it would be nice. You got all defensive about sitting in the suite.”

“To be fair, I had no idea we would be meeting Killian’s family today.”

“Yeah, hon,” Mary Margaret sighs before picking up a slice of pizza and taking a bite, “we were blindsided a bit, and apparently everyone else already knew.”

“I didn’t want you to prepare questions or some kind of actual interrogation or something else ridiculous beforehand. You have a tendency to be a little too much on the friendly scale.”

“I do not.”

“You totally do.”

“How?”

“Marg,” Emma laughs, “you probably would have been like Ariel and tried planning a vacation for all of us before you even shook Liam’s hand.”

“I would not have.”

“I bet if I looked at your phone right now there would be flights pulled up to Aspen or something.”

Mary Margaret narrows her eyes at Emma, but then Anna is clapping her hands together and making everyone look at her. “Oh, I just love this too much! I think a group vacation would be the most fun.”

Everyone starts laughing, and Killian picks up his bottle of beer to tilt at Anna. “Emma was right when she said that you and Mary Margaret get along swimmingly. It’s uncanny, actually, how similar you are.”

“Friendly people make friends, little brother.”

“Liam, I don’t know how many times I have to say that there is nothing little about me. Ask Emma.”

“Oh my God,” Emma gasps, reaching back to slap his chest, “no. We are not talking about that. You’re an idiot. There are children here.”

“To be fair,” Kris starts, and everyone turns to him, “they got here by the either little or not-so-little attachments we’re alluding to.”

Nothing like alluding to dicks to make a group of people come together.

Okay, that thought could be taken a lot dirtier than Emma intended, so it’s a good thing she’s not thinking out loud.

They all quietly leave the restaurant half an hour later, the conversation and laughter not at all slowing down for the rest of the time there. Maybe it was the bit of alcohol that most everyone had or maybe it was simply hitting a stride in conversation, but it doesn’t really matter. All Emma knows is that her stomach hurts from laughing and she’s got this smile on her face that she hopes stays for awhilea while.

“Today was nice,” Mary Margaret sighs as the two of them stand outside the restaurant while David and Killian settle the bill inside. “I like Killian a lot. I really like that he makes you smile.”

Emma blushes, and her smile increases despite her best efforts not to let it. Who in the world is this woman who is smiling all of the time? This is not her. But maybe it is now.

“You are such a mom, Marg.”

“Literally I am.”

“You know what I mean, though.”

“I do, I do,” she sighs, wrapping her arm around Leo’s waist and pulling him closer so that he doesn’t wander off the sidewalk and into the street. “But you’re basically my first baby even though this one came so close after I met you. All I want is for you to be happy, and that man makes you happy.”

“Yeah, he does.”

“Emma,” Leo asks, looking up at her as the restaurant doors open behind him, “can I meet Will Scarlet now too?”

“We’ll see, kid,” Emma laughs. “We’ll see.”

“You ready to go, love?”

Killian walks over to her and moves to wrap his arm around her shoulder before stopping himself, eyes glancing to the few people around them, and Emma’s heart sinks at that. But she knows that this is for the best, and Killian not being able to wrap his arm around her shoulder when they’re about to get in the car isn’t that big of a deal. It’s really not a deal at all, and Emma pushes down her worries so that she can look up at Killian and smile.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

The two of them say their goodbyes to everyone else before walking two blocks over to find Killian’s car where it’s parked, Killian opening her door for her even when she insists that she do it herself so that Emma can quickly slide into the passenger’s seat.

“You and David took a million years to pay.”

“Did we?” Killian hums, very pointedly taking a little too long inspecting the gearshift.

“You did. Did he go all big-brother on you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Swan.”

“You, Killian Jones,” Emma scoffs as Killian pulls out of the parking spot and onto the street, “are a liar.”

“And obviously not a very good one either.”

Emma sighs as Killian twists his head and winks at her, a mischievous smile painted on his lips. “What did David ask you?”

“About my intentions with you.”

Groaning, she sinks down further on the leather seat, wondering if it’s acceptable to unbutton her shorts because she’s eaten pizza and cheeseburger sliders in the past three hours and has food babies inside of her stomach. Multiple. That’s how much she has eaten.

“Seriously?”

“Yep,” Killian laughs, turning the blinker on before reaching over to grab her hand and bring her knuckles to his lips to brush a kiss there, the charmer.

“What’d you tell him?”

“That I love you and am very much in this for the long haul as long as you’ll have me. Now do you want to go to your place or mine?”

“Mine,” Emma tells him as her heart stutters in her chest at his words and all of the implications behind them. “Let’s go to my place.”