#( I’m visiting my family and my sister and her boyfriend are arguing about my mother’s dish washer system )

[soulmateprinciple]

Also a lil’ meme call! 🌚

[lukeevangelista]

being joe burrows girlfriends sister and he’s protective of you because you’re like a little sister so when he finds out you have a boyfriend (and he’s a hockey player) he gets extra protective ?

Protective Joe - R. Donovan

Wisco days 😌 photo cred to @llhughess

Obvi protective platonic Joe

And idk if ryder was in a frat house, but just go with it

———————————————————————————-

“I’m here!” You shouted, “Come love me! It’s only a few times a year you get me!”

It was Christmas break for you at school and you were home for almost a month this visit.

“Y/N!” Olivia squealed as she ran towards you from the kitchen where she was helping your mom cook dinner for everyone, “I’m so excited you’re home.” She swayed back and forth with you, “We have so much to catch up on it’s not even funny.”

“That we do, my dear sister.” You grinned as you pulled back from her to see Joe walking up to you, his arms open for a hug.

“Shiesty.” You laughed as you pulled away from Olivia, tucking yourself into his arms, “When’s my sister gonna be the Mrs. Shiesty?”

“Nice to see you too kid.” He chuckled, “and when you actually lock one down.”

“Hey!” Liv glared at him, knowing he was just joking.

All the banter and jokes quietened down as your mom called for dinner, your other sister running into the kitchen. She had been studying for an exam, to which your mom excused her from having to eat with the family.

“You never let me do that.”

“You moved away for college.”

“Touché mother.” You playfully glared at her as you dad chuckled from his seat at the table.

“When is Ryder coming in?” She asked as you all sat down at the table.

“Mom-“

“Who is Ryder?” You sister grinned as she sat down next to Joe, “Is this a new boy toy?”

“Something… like that.” You grimaced as you stuck your spoon in your mashed potatoes.

You quickly changed the subject to how Joe’s season was going, how work was for your sister and parents, making sure to keep the subject off of you and your potential love life.

**

“So is he a boy toy or an actual boyfriend?” Liv asked after dinner was over; you, her, and Joe settled on the couch.

“And there goes peace and quiet.” You sighed, “He’s a boyfriend.” You said, “He’s in some frat house and my sorority did a fund raiser with them. He’s a really sweet guy.”

"I know exactly how those frat boys are." Joe argued with you, "Did you really think you'd get by me with this one? Especially the ones that live out of state. He’s even worse!”

Olivia let out a cough as Joe corrected himself, "Us. Did you think you would get this past us?"

"Nice save babe."

You were Olivia's little sister and Joe treated you like the sister he didn't get. You were the closest thing and honestly, even though you weren't biological, you two sure acted like it.

"I didn't expect anything." You shrugged, "because whether you like it or not, I'm with him."

“What does this punk even look like?” Joe grumbled under his breath.

“Yeah, what does he look like?” Liv asked as you pulled out your phone.

“That punk has a name.”

“What is it? Kyle?”

“Clearly you weren’t paying attention earlier at dinner, but it’s Ryder.”

“Even worse.” Joe dramatically flopped back on the couch, “Just by his name, I can tell you he’s bad news!”

“Good thing I didn’t ask.” You quickly scrolled through your phone, finding a recent photo of you two from a surprise date he had taken you on.

“Oh okay.” Liv smirked at you, “I see you pulling.”

“She better not be pulling anything!” Joe grumbled.

“Okay Mr. Protective, chill out.” You chuckled at his antics, “I know you care and I know you’re just looking out for me, but I’m smart. I know what I’m doing.”

Joe continued to grumble under his breath about it causing you to roll your eyes.

“Tell me about him.” Liv smiled as she adjusted to be able to see you better on the couch.

“Well like I said, he’s in a frat house-“

“Terrible move.” Joe commented.

“-he’s an absolute sweetheart-“

“Don’t care.”

“- he can cook really well too-“

“Can you get on with it already? Get to the good stuff.”

“Joe?” you said his name sweetly.

“Yes?”

“Shut the fuck up.” You hissed, “Thank you. As I was saying, and he’s gorgeous.” You continued, “oh!” you exclaimed, “and he plays hockey!” “Nope!” Joe said as he stood up, “It’s a no from me! Already hate him.”

“You haven’t even met him, you dumbass.”

“I don’t care!” Joe defended, “I was a college athlete once with college athlete friends. I know how this entire charade works!” He continued, “He lures you in and then he’s cheating on you or you get hurt.”

“Well then, that's my decision to make then, huh?” you said, “Besides, I don’t think he’d do that. I’m not worried about it at least. It’s a college relationship. We’ll either get married at a frat party or we'll break up.”

“Or you’ll get married in real life.” Liv chuckled. 

“I think you should reconsider it all.”  “You know, you’re better when your mouth doesn’t move.” You grumbled as you watched Joe roll his eyes before glaring at you, “Joe, I’ve known you too long for you to scare me. You look like I ran over your puppy more than you are scary.” you chuckled, “Either way, I’ve got to run in a few.” You said as you saw the text come through that you were waiting for. 

“Why?” Liv pouted, “We were getting to the good stuff.”

“Well the topic of this conversation just landed so I've got to go handle that.” You said as you stood up, tucking your phone into your back pocket.

“I don't believe it. I don’t think he’s coming.” Joe said as he stood up, “You’re full of it today.” 

“He’s literally on a plane now.”

“And? I don’t think you’re actually dating. There’s no way he’s coming to visit you. He’s good looking- you’re you.” Joe said, “and I really hate the fact he’s an athlete!”

“Joe! You’re a fucking athlete!”

“Watch your mouth young lady.”

“Liv, please control him before I handle him myself.”

“I’ve been trying for years.” She chuckled as she watched you walk towards the door, “Be careful, We’ll see you and Ryder soon.” She grinned. 

**

Ryder followed you to the car, his hand on the small of your back, the other tugging his suitcase through the parking lot. 

“So he doesn't think I’m real?” Ryder asked. 

“Nope. They think you’re fake.” You said, “Probably because of how hot you are.” 

Ryder let out a loud laugh at your bluntness as he got into the passenger seat.

The drive home wasn't terrible, but you knew the moment you got there, it was going to be a good show between Joe judging Ry and your family meeting him for the first time.

It wasn’t the technical first time for your parents as they had met him over FaceTime, but not in person.

You pulled into the driveway, you helping Ryder get his stuff out of the car.

“I’ve got it babe.” He said as he pressed a kiss to the side of your temple, “Go on inside.”

You listened, only grabbing his carry on as you walked into the house, seeing your family sitting there.

“Behave.” You said, mainly aiming your statement towards a certain tall brunette.

**

“I think we should get to know you better Ryan.”

“Ryder.”

“Whatever. How about dinner tomorrow? Mine and Liv’s treat.”

“I think a double date sounds pleasant!” Olivia agreed, her looking hopeful at you. 

“I guess.” you said as you looked towards Ryder who reluctantly agreed. 

It wasn't long after that that Liv and Joe had went to their own home, you and Ryder heading upstairs to your childhood bedroom. 

“I told you they’d somehow rope us into something.” You said as you brushed your teeth, “It never fails!” You continued, slightly waving your toothbrush.

“Babe as much as I love you and your dramatics, you’re getting toothpaste everywhere.”

“Are you even listening to me?” You asked after spitting in the sink.

“I am, but I’d like to not get toothpaste in my eye either.”

You rolled your eyes at his comment as you rinsed your toothbrush before putting it in its holder and popping your retainers in. 

“I'm just warning you, he will be judging you hardcore tomorrow.”

“So is he your brother or?”

“Something like that.” You sighed as you crossed over to the bed, tugging the decretive pillows off, “Wow, sleeping next to me and you dont even know my last name.”

“I’m just messing with you.” He laughed, “You’re not a Burrow; you’re a Hubbard, right?”

“Ryder!”

**

“Did you see the way he looks at her?” Liv asked Joe as you and Ryder were off in the bowling alley, trying to find the right size balls, “He adores her.”

“I don’t see it.” Joe shrugged, “I don’t like him.”

“Give him a chance.” She said, “At least he wasn’t late like someone was on our first date.” She grinned, “Matter of fact, he was early and he held the door for everyone.”

“I apologized for that already!” Joe defended himself, “and I hold the door for you all the time!”

“I think you’re being dramatic.” Liv sighed as she turned towards her boyfriend, “Give him a chance. You can tell she really likes him.”

You all had moved on from bowling after kicking everyone’s asses, finding yourself at the pizza parlor next to it for dinner.

“After you.” Ryder grinned as he pulled out your chair before giving your shoulder a squeeze.

Joe was not going to let some twenty one year old in a new relationship show him up.

“Here babe.” Joe said as he pulled Olivia’s chair out, you letting a chuckle fall from your lips as you watched her fact twist from confusion to realization of what he was doing.

“Be careful, your jealousy is showing.” She whispered to him.

“I am not jealous!” He harshly whispered back.

“Yeah okay.” She chuckled.

“So Ryder, what are you plans after college?” Joe asked as he looked at the menu, even though he knew exactly what he was going to get. He just didn’t want to make eye contact with you or Ryder.

“I’m planning on playing pro hockey.”

“Sounds interesting.” Joe commented. Ryder gave a nod to him.

“You’ve had an incredible season this year.” Ryder said as he watched Joe almost break, but keeping his composure, he retaliated the nod.

Joe was determined not to like this kid.

He really wanted to be able to say ‘I told you so’ to you, but it wasn’t the case right now. He actually was starting to like Ryder; as much as he didn’t want to admit it.

Ryder didn’t talk over you, he was well mannered, he didn’t give you an attitude if you disagreed with him, and most of all, he truly adored you and Liv and Joe both could tell it.

It wasn’t long that you all parted ways, Joe and Liv still talking about you and Ryder; even a hour later.

“I like him.” She said as she snuggled into his chest, “He’s sweet.”

“It’s a facade.”

“Give it up, Burrow,” she chuckled, “You like him too, especially after he commented on your season.”

Joe groaned, knowing she was right, “Will you let it go if i say it?”

“Yes.”

“I like Ryder and I think he’s good for Y/N.” He grumbled, “Are you happy now?”

“Yup!” She grinned, “and I cant wait to tell Y/N.”

“Don’t you dare!”

On the other side of town, you were having a similar conversation with Ryder.

“Do you think he likes me?” Ryder asked as he snuggled into bed beside you causing you to prop up on your elbow.

“I think so,” you said, “but he won’t admit it. He’s still going to act like a hard ass to you.”

“Do you realize that’s okay? I met Joe Burrow and he likes me?” Ryder chuckled as he looked towards you.

“You’re just with me because my sister is dating him.”

“I am not.” He softly smiled as he brought his hand up to move the piece of hair that fell in front of your face away, “I’m with you because I love you.”

“That’s- that’s uh the first time you’ve said that to me.”

“I know.” He whispered, “but I wanted to wait until I meant it and I truly mean it.”

“I love you too Ryder.” You said as you softly pressed a kiss to his lips before laying down in his arms that were outstretched towards you.

Moments had went by of you two just lying there, waiting for sleep to overtake you both.

“I can’t believe Joe Burrow likes me.” He grinned as his head whipped towards you.

“You realize you’ll never live this down, right?”

“Oh I know.” He said, “but it’s worth it.”

[wonderstruckocs]

Wendy Hicks

Age: Scream (2022) - 17, ScreamVI - 18

Love Interest: Kurt Parker (formerly); Ethan Landry

Best Friends: Carrie Riley-Weathers, Tara Carpenter, Mindy Meeks-Martin, Anika Kayoko, Chad Meeks-Martin - Close with Sam Carpenter

Family Member(s): Wes Hicks (brother), Judy Hicks (mother)

Three Songs That Represents Her:

BRAINWASHED by Waterparks (title has no meaning to her storyline - lyrically though it does)

You’re On Your Own, Kid by Taylor Swift

All I Wanted by Paramore

Faceclaim: Olivia Scott Welch

Edit May 12th 2023 this is so highly unedited I am going to be so damn for real but anyways here’s Wennie’s Backstory: As the daughter of Judy Hicks, sister of Wes Hicks, and practically the niece of Dewey Riley, Wendy is a very humorous and charismatic girl who can put up a good fight.

During Scream (2022): During Tara’s attack, Wendy was at home with Wes, Matthew Bishop, and Rebecca Bishop - Wendy’s boyfriend Kurt Parker, calling mere minute before he was suppose to show up saying he suddenly couldn’t make it. The four were watching a 1980s horror film, originally suppose to watch Gremlins but Becca pushed for Prom Night, “Come on Jamie Lee Curtis is a horror icon!”. The next morning Wendy get a call from Judy telling her Tara was attacked by someone in a Ghostface mask, Wendy drops her phone and looks over at Wes. Wes immediately calls Sam, and Wendy calls Carrie Riley-Weathers.

The four of them go to school and are seated at a picnic table outside with the rest of the group talking about Tara’s attack when Kurt walks up to the group and sits next to Wendy. Kurt goes to kiss Wendy, but Wendy turns her face so he kisses her cheek instead. “Baby, what’s up?” Kurt asks her but she just shakes her head. “Trouble in paradise little W?” Amber asks Wendy who just shakes her head, Wes rolls his eyes. Amber points out Kurt’s bruises, “I got these at football practice, ask Chad he has the same ones.”

When the group is visiting Tara at the hospital Carrie shows up around the same time as Sam and Richie, Wendy immediately hugs Carrie - instead of the duo + Becca going to the bar, Carrie offers to drive them home.

At the Meeks-Martin house, during Mindy’s monologue, she accuses Wes and Matt of being the killers - like a Billy and Stu duo, but Wendy and Becca quickly come to their defense and explain how they were there with them that night. “It can’t be them unless it’s all four of us.” “Okay but what about Kurt, Wendy? Where was he during the attack?” “I don’t know.” “Exactly, and where is he now?” “… I don’t know.” “Wendy, darling, you are smart, but never trust the love interest.”

After that, Wendy mentions to Wes that she needs to pick up something from Kurt’s, Wes immediately tells her no and that he doesn’t trust Kurt. Carrie intervenes offering to drive Wendy there and bring her home right after, Wes reluctantly agrees and hugs Wendy telling her he loves her, “Ew, Wes… I love you too.” she tells him as she hugs him. “I’ll see you when you get home.” “Promise?” “I promise.” - A promise Wes intended to keep but couldn’t.

At Kurt’s house, Wendy is only greeted by his mother, “Oh Wendy dear, Kurt’s not home, he said he had football practice.” “But football practice got cancelled because of the attack on Tara… look Mrs. Parker, I’m just here to pick up some of my notes for algebra, can I just run up to his room and grab them?” “Sure, dear.” Wendy ran up to his room and grabbed her notes but noticed a ghostface mask sitting in a pile of dark clothing on the floor. Backing out of the room she bumps into Kurt, “Baby, what are you doing here?” “Just grabbing my… notes…” Wendy was visibly nervous, “Everything alright, baby?” “Yeah, Kurt, everything is fine absolutely fine.” “Do you want to stay the night? You know I could protect you.” “I really should go home, Kurt, my mom and Wes are waiting for me there.”

The two argued some more before Wendy leaves with Carrie… when they arrive at the Hicks house Wendy sees the bodybag in the front and hops out of Carrie’s car (her dad’s old vehicle) running towards the body before Dewey stops her. “No?” Dewey nods his head, “Wes?” Wendy asks through tears, Dewey nods again as Carrie walks up and Wendy’s legs gave out. “Dad, what’s going on?” Carrie looks over to the crew pulling out another body bag, “No…” She looked back at her dad as she holds Wendy, “No. No. NO!”…….”Carrie, take Wendy and go.” “But da-“ “Go Carrie!”

At the party at Amber’s, for Wes, Wendy is distraught the deaths of Judy, Wes, and Dewey all hitting her hard but she, Matt, and Becca decided to go to the party. She runs into Kurt, “Baby, hey let’s have some fun!” “Kurt, I’m really not in the mood.” “Seriously, Wendy, let loose live a little.” “Kurt fuck off.” “Listen, baby, stop being such a crybaby.” “Are you fucking kidding me, Kurt? My mom and brother fucking died and you’re telling me to stop crying. Grow the fuck up, we’re done.” Kurt grabbed her wrist harshly, “Baby, you don’t mean that.” “I’m pretty sure she made it very clear what she means, Kurt.” Matt had stepped in, Wendy doesn’t remember the rest of the fight, opting to walk away as Matt dealt with the problem and grabbing another drink. - Somewhere in there is when Richie stops the party. When walking to the living to sit with Mindy, Wendy sees Ghostface, as Mindy is telling Stab Randy to turn around Wendy is trying to get her attention, going to scream at her to turn around before Matt covers her mouth to stop her from getting the Ghostface’s attention, Becca beside him shaking. They watch as Mindy gets attacked Matt before runs towards the same time Sam scares him off. Matt immediately puts pressure onto Mindy’s wound and Wendy looks around when Liv runs in, everythings a blur to her until Amber shoots Liv in the head. Matt yells at Wendy and Becca to run, as he tries to help Mindy out. The duo ran outside, finding Chad on the ground. “Oh my god, Chad.” Wendy runs over to him, “Wendy, hey.” Chad coughs, “Chad stop talking,” Wendy looks at Chad’s wounds, before pulling off her shirt, “Ha, nice.” “Chad serious shut the fuck up,” Wendy says as she rips her shirt up and tying tourniquets to stop the bleeding, “Becca, put pressure on these I’ll be right back.” “Where are you going?” “I’m going to try to find a fucking medkit and find Matt I can’t let another brother figure die.” As Wendy enters the house, she slowly makes her way upstairs, “God Wendy you fucking dumbass, Wes would so kill you himself if he was here.” Wendy mumbles to herself before opening a closet door, Ghostface waiting for her, Wendy screams and turns to run away before she’s stabbed in the side, “WENDY!” Matt yells running upstairs and throwing Ghostface back into the closet, picking Wendy up and running past Sidney, “DON’T GO UP THERE HE’S UP THERE!” Matt shouts to Sidney who’s on the phone, “Matt where’s Mindy?” “She’s fine, she’s safe.” “Matt don’t lie to me.” “I’m not lying Wendy.” “You’re not working with Amber?” “Wendy why the hell would I be working with Amber?” “I don’t know… We need to get to Chad.” “Get to Chad… where?” “Outside, he was stabbed multiple times… he’s with Becca…” “Wendy keep your eyes open for me, I can’t lose you Wen, Wes will come back from the dead to kill me.” “Hmmm, he’s already gonna kill me…” Wendy’s eyes shut slowly, Wendy doesn’t remember anything else from that night not even arriving to the hospital, but she does remember Sam apologizing to her because Richie had been the one to stab her.

Between Scream (2022) and ScreamVi: Wendy lived with Matt and Becca until she moved with them to New York for college, Wendy and Kurt never got back together but he followed her to New York, Wendy gets roomed with Anika Kayoko and they instantly became friends. Wendy and Quinn Bailey do NOT get along, stemmed from a fight about Taylor Swift and the fact that Quinn briefly dated Becca and broke her heart by cheating on her. She’s still close with Carrie and Gale by proxy. She didn’t officially meet Ethan Landry between the events but they do know of each other, and Wendy did develop a small crush on him, Chad even encouraging her to go for it, “Wen, he’s your type to a T. Like your dream boy manifested into one person, go for it! Talk to him.”

During ScreamVI: Wendy attends the halloween party dressed like Reputation Tour Taylor Swift, immediately finding Mindy and Anika on the couch.

“Wow, Wendy, you look hot.” Anika whistled, “Do I? I feel very perceived right now…” “Where’s Becca and Matt and Carrie?” “Becca didn’t want to risk seeing Quinn.” “Quinn was never gonna come to this party, she knows that” “I know but she still doesn’t want to see her and as for Matt and Carrie they’re hanging out at Carrie’s tonight, studying for some exam…Where’s Chad?” “With Ethan probably doing shots somewhere” Mindy wiggles her eyebrows, “Mind, stop, you know I’ve never had a conversation with him.” “So go talk to him! I know Chad’s been encouraging you to anyways.” Wendy rolled her eyes before walking off, “Have fun but not too much fun Wen!”

Wendy eventually finds Chad and Ethan, “What are you suppose to be, Wendy?” Wendy gasps at Ethan’s question, “Reputation Tour Taylor Swift, Ethan… oh my God don’t tell me you don’t know who Taylor Swift is?” Wendy shuts her eyes, the only red flag to her she’d see in him is if he says yes to her question. “No, I know who she is just have never seen Taylor in an outfit like… that.” Chad smirks at the two of them, the two completely oblivious to it. “Guess I’ll just have to show the tour documentary then.” Wendy smiles at him before sipping her drink. “Yeah… guess you’ll have to.” The two continued their conversation not even realizing Chad had walked off, “Guys, we’ve gotta go.”

On the way to Tara and Sam’s apartment, after Sam was attacked, Ethan and Wendy continue talking, “You okay Wennie?” Ethan asks her, some of whatever drink was thrown at Sam splashing her… “Huh?” “What?” “The nickname… no one’s ever called me Wennie before.” “I-I can stop calling you that if you want, it’s just you’re kind of sickeningly sweet like honey.” “I think it’s cute, Eth.”

Jump skip to at the apartment because I’m becoming lazy writing this: Wendy is sitting next to Ethan, watching the news with the group, Sam’s phone rings and Wendy quietly gasps, “Why is everyone freaking out about her phone ringing?” “Dude, catch up.” “Wennie…” Wendy looks down at her phone to see a text from Kurt, ‘Wendy, I saw the news are you okay?’ “I’m going to be sick.” Wendy quickly got up and ran to the bathroom, calling Matt as she walks.

“Wendy?”

“Matt…” Wendy sobs

“Wen, what’s wrong?”

“You’re with Carrie right?”

“Yes, Wendy tell me what’s going on?”

“You’ve heard from Becca, right?”

“She’s with me, she has been all night. Now Wendy, seriously why are you crying? I thought you went to that halloween party with Chad and the girls.”

“Turn on the news.”

“Wen… I’m coming to get you.”

“No Matt, stay with Carrie and Becca… they need someone to protect them too, I’ll be fine I’m with Chad and Ethan at Tara and Sam’s. I’m safe.”

“You know if anything happens to you W-“

“Wes will come back from the dead and murder you. I know Matt…”

“There’s something else going on isn’t there?”

“… Kurt texted me.”

“I thought you blocked his number?”

“I did, and I never fucking answer him… but he just changes his number and texts me again. It’s exhausting.”

“Just don’t respond Wen.”

“Don’t worry I won’t… I better get back to the group before they start getting worried. Love you like a brother Matt.”

“Love you like a sister Wen… prepare for 200 texts from both Becca and Carrie.”

Wendy giggles before hanging up and leaves the bathroom. “Everything okay?” “Yeah… just needed a minute.” She smiles at Ethan before sitting down next to him again, Chad raises an eyebrow and at her and she mouths “later” before getting comfortable. She listened to the conversations around her as she slowly leaned towards Ethan, his arm slowly making its way around her. She felt a pair of eyes on her and she looked up to see Quinn glaring at her. ‘What the hell is that about?’ Wendy thought to herself.

The next day on Campus, the group is sitting together minus Matt, Becca, and Wendy. “Where’s Wennie?” Ethan asked as he sat, “Who?” Chad questions him. “Wennie… Wendy.” “Oh dude you are so down bad.” Mindy says, “Who’s down bad?” Matt asks. “Chad for Tara.” Anika quickly covers for Ethan and gives him a thumbs up as Matt teases Chad. “Hey.” Ethan says to Wendy as she sits down, “Hey.” Wendy yawns, “Did you get enough sleep last night?” “None actually and class was super boring… I’d rather be anywhere but here right now but Mindy begged me to show up for her horror movie monologue.” “You can nap on my shoulder if you want to, Wennie.” “You sure, Eth?” “Positive.” Wendy slowly started to drift off after her head met his shoulder only to wake up when Ethan mutters out “Am I gonna die a virgin?” Wendy’s eyes opening and she looks up at him like ‘wtf did you just say’ before looking over at Quinn who’s glaring at her yet again.

After Mindy’s monologue, the group splits off, Ethan offering to walk Wendy back to her dorm, the two are having a lovely conversation before they’re stopped by none other than Kurt Parker. “Wendy, hey you never responded to my text.” “Maybe because I was busy and maybe because I don’t owe you a response, Kurt.” “Wendy there’s a killer on the loose again, you need to be safe, who’s this Nerd anyways?” Wendy rolls her eyes, “The ‘nerd’ has a name and it’s Ethan,” Wendy grabbed Ethan’s hand, “and he’s my new boyfriend so fuck off Kurt.” Wendy drags Ethan with her toward her dorm. “I’m so sorry you’re getting dragged into this Eth… it’s just Kurt never leaves me alone, I’ve blocked his number god knows how many times and he just changes his number to text me again.” “It’s fine Wennie… want me to beat him up?” Ethan half jokes causing Wendy to giggle, “No, Eth, it’s okay, there’s already a line of people - even the dead, who want to do that. Besides wouldn’t want your cute face to get harmed.” She smiles at him as they continue walking. “I have a weird question.” “Shoot.” “Have you noticed how Quinn glares at me whenever I sit near you?” “Yeah… it’s a little weird right?” “I guess… it might be because I’m best friends with her ex, she’s always been kind of mean to me.”

Later that night Wendy arrives to the Carpenter sister apartment by herself, “Wennie you’re here by yourself?” Mindy teases her as she opens the door. “Haha funny, Eth had class and Matt is with Carrie and Becca, and we all agreed to stay in at least pairs…” Wendy trailed off, “I’m joking Wen, also Eth? That’s new. Still don’t trust him.” “Okay…” Wendy sat with Anika on the couch as Mindy went back to the dining room to set the table, the duo minding their own business as they worked on school assignments, when they heard the core four conversation, “Does it hurt?” Anika asks Wendy quietly, “What hurt?” “Them seemingly forgetting you were there and that you survived with them.” “Not really… they were more Wes’ friends than mine to begin with, I only got close with them when we all moved here. Though if you ask Matt he will definitely be hurt from being excluded in the core four.” Wendy and Anika laughed together before they heard noises coming from Quinn’s room, “Oh my god does she ever not?” Wendy jokes causing Anika to laugh harder until their phones went off and Wendy looked at the photo, “Oh my god.” The four core run out into the living room all standing before “Quinn’s dead body” is thrown at Anika. Mindy and Anika started fighting Ghostface, Wendy hitting Ghostface with one of her textbooks after he stabs Anika, subsequently getting stabbed in the same spot she was stabbed by Richie about a year prior. “Oh fuck.” Sam leads them into the room, locking the door, Mindy running to lock the other door before seeing a dead body in the bathtub and screaming. Ghostface easily finding them before Mindy and Sam shut the other door and put Quinn’s dress in front of the door to try to block him from getting in. Sam climbs the ladder across first, followed by Mindy, Wendy is holding the door while putting pressure on her wound. “Ani you have to go. I’ll be right behind you.” “I can’t go Wen, you have to go please go.” “Ani, I’m not letting you die. I can’t lose another person.” Wendy begs her and Anika nods before going to the ladder and starting to climb, Wendy losing strength to hold the door and runs over to the window to hold the ladder down. Across the way, Wendy can see Chad and Tara inside Danny’s apartment helping Mindy, Wendy looks back at the door and sees that Ghostface is almost in, “I don’t want to die.” Anika cries, “You won’t die Ani, I won’t allow it.” Wendy shouts to her, “Just keep going.” Chad and Sam get Anika in and Wendy gets onto the ladder looking down “Oh fuck.” She whispers, “Wendy come on!” Chad shouts at her. Wendy starts crawling trying not to slip on Anika’s blood, she gets over halfway through before she almost slips off “Shit!” “Wendy, you’ve got to hurry come on!” Tara shouts at her before she’s pushed out of the way, “Wennie!” “Eth?” Wendy questions before she feels the ladder get shaken, “OH MY GOD!” She screams, tears streaming from her face. “Wennie grab my hand!” “I can’t Eth!” She tells him and she crawls closer. The ladder jolts again and Wendy looks down, accepting her fate was likely death. “I’m going to die I’m going to die.” Wendy whispers, before the ladder jolts again as she’s crawling closer to the window, she feels herself slip before there’s two hands on her wrists, “Wennie, I’ve got you just climb a little closer.” Ethan tells her and Wendy nods climbing slightly closer before her leg slips, Ghostface takes the chance to try to get her off the ladder, “Chad some help!” Chad runs over to the window and helps pull Wendy in the window before she clings to Ethan. “I thought you had Econ.” “I got out earlier, saw Sam and Mindy crawling over the ladder before running inside and finding Tara and Chad running to… what’s his name…. his apartment.”.

Wendy sits in the back of an ambulance with Mindy watching one drive off with Anika, Ethan rubs her shoulder as she leans into him. They watch as Detective Bailey walks out of the apartment building, crying. “Something seems off.” Wendy says to Mindy. “You’re right… still don’t trust Ethan though.” “Mindy he’s standing literally right next to me.” “Still don’t trust him.” Mindy glares at him, “Ghostface.”

Skip to the shrine, “Holy shit.” Wendy mumbles as she walks around, her hand dropping from Ethan… her breath hitched as she looks at two outfits next to a case, a drawing of her mom inside of it. “Wennie…” “It’s my mom.” She whispers, hearing Mindy call Chad over and talking about their uncle Randy. “Dewey…” Wendy turns to Matt, Carrie, and Becca. Wendy watches as Carrie walks over to her mom, immediately hugging her. Wendy feels Matt touch her shoulder, “Wen…” Wendy shakes her head before walking away.

FBI VAN: Wendy sits next to Ethan, listening to Mindy talk to Kirby, Ethan offers his cheetos to Wendy and she shakes her head. She’s also not surprised when she finds out Tara and Sam stole Detective Bailey’s car.

The subway: Matt, Becca, Tara, Chad, Danny, and Sam all get separated from Wendy, Ethan and Mindy. Mindy still gets stabbed, Ethan and Wendy get her help before they tell Mindy they’re still going to help the others. Ethan about halfway there stops Wendy, “Wennie I don’t think you should go…” “What are you talking about Eth, I’m going, they’re my friends.” “Wennie I don’t want you to get hurt.” “I’m not going to get hurt, you’ll be there, my knight in shiny cardboard.” “Wennie…” Wendy looks at Ethan for a second before dropping his hand. “Ethan… no…” “Wennie I’m sorry I wanted to tell you.” “No Ethan, you don’t get to just say sorry.” “Wen-“ “Leave me alone Landry.” She shook her head as she walked away tears streaming down her face as she sped walked to the theater/shrine. “Wendy, where’s Mindy? Where’s Ethan?” Sam asks her, “Mindy was stabbed, and Eth-“ the two are cut off by the sounds of Tara’s screams, “TARA!” They both shouted running towards the screams. Matt close behind them, Chad had taken care of one Ghostface killer before another one came up behind him and stabbed him, Matt running over to defend Chad before getting stabbed multiple times. Sam dragging both Tara and Wendy out, Wendy zones out during Kirby and Sam’s shouting followed by Detective Bailey’s before he shot Kirby. Two Ghostfaces appearing next to him, Wendy gulps, knowing one of them is probably Ethan. The first of the two ghostfaces pulls their mask off revealing Quinn “hey roomies”, Sam immediately assumed the other Ghostface is Becca, but before the other Ghostface could pull their mask off Wendy feels someone grab her from behind and hold a knife to her throat. The other Ghostface quickly pulls his mask off, “You promised me she wouldn’t get hurt.” “Promises were meant to be broken son.” “Son?” Wendy whispers before the knife is pressed harder into her throat. “God Ethan, this lovesick puppy bullshit is getting gross. Why do you think we got a replacement for you?” Quinn gags as she looks at the way her brother stares at Wendy. “Replacement?” Ethan turns towards his dad. “Yeah, brother, you disappointed us by falling in love with the enemy so we replaced you. Wasn’t that hard really, right dad?” Detective Bailey nods before turning towards the Carpenter sisters, “There’s a special bond a father has with his first son.” Ethan looked upset as he looked towards Wendy, Wendy motioned with her eyes for him to go, Ethan reluctantly sneaks out while his father argued with Sam and Quinn was distracted. “It’s Richie.” Wendy whispered, “What?” Tara asked, “Their brother, his son, it’s Richie.” Wendy repeats the knife to her throat drawing a little bit of blood. “Then who’s holding you?”

“Surprise, Wendy… or should I say baby” Kurt laughs as he pulls his mask off the knife still to her throat. “Go to hell.”

“Nah uh, huh.” Kurt gripped her again, “You’re the one going to hell, slut.” Kurt dragged Wendy off as Tara and Sam screamed for her, Wendy cried as she gets dragged. “This is going to be so much fun.”

“For who?” Wendy asks a slight smirk to her face as she sees Ethan out of the corner of her eye.

“Me, obviously baby, I’m going to have my way with you and then I’m going to gut you like the bitch you are.” Kurt replies before stabbing her in the stomach, Wendy screams out but asking him “Yeah but how will you do that if you’re dead?”

“Me dead? How would that happe-“ Kurt was cut off by a knife going through the side of his throat, Wendy covered in his blood. Before he’s tackled off her, “That’s how… Wennie, come on, I’ve got to get you out here.” Ethan put pressure on her wound. “We have to help Tara and Sam… and Chad and Matt… where’s Becca?”

“Becca is fine, she got out after Quinn stabbed her, she’s with Danny.”

“But how?”

“Wennie now is not the time for questions.”

After the rest of ScreamVi: Wendy spends a few days in the hospital, Ethan by her side despite being question by the police multiple times, though Kirby is helping with his cover story. The two were still not official a few months after, in fact Wendy was still upset with Ethan for not telling her sooner. Until Wendy’s birthday, April 29th, Ethan still wasn’t on the best of terms with the rest of the group, especially not Matt who became Wendy’s protective older brother after Wes’ death but Wendy still wanted him at her birthday get together. “It’s not much but it’s still something” “Eth, you didn’t have to.” “I know I didn’t but I wanted to…” Wendy opened the present and looked at it in awe, “Is this?” “A bracelet inspired by Taylor’s different eras? Yes, because I know you were bummed about missing out on buying one from her merch sale… so I found someone selling one on ebay and I got it for you.” “Eth…” Wendy trailed off, a single tear flowing down her cheek. “I probably should go now, Matt and Chad are death glaring at me.” Ethan goes to leave, “Eth wait!” Wendy grabs his wrist, he turns to face her, “Can I kiss you?” she asks, Ethan hesitates but he nods, Wendy leans in and kisses him AND THATS WHERE WE ARE AT UNTIL SCREAM7 THIS TOOK TOO LONG TO WRITE SO GOODNIGHT!

[avalanchesumich]

mastermind! au

november 8

cameron picked at her nails nervously as she sat on her bed, her laptop open in front of her. her mouse had been hovering over the join call for about three minutes.

it was time for the weekly family video call. normally, cam looks forward to it, as everyone’s always away from each other, but currently, she was dreading it. she was about to tell them she has a boyfriend.

taking a deep breath, she finally joined the call, a smile involuntarily forming as she saw the four faces she missed.

“it’s about time,” taylor tsked. “four o’clock our time, cameron. can’t be slipping up now after being the picture perfect princess for eighteen years.”

“oh, shut up,” cam rolled her eyes, laughing at him. “how is everyone?”

“we’re good honey,” gary makar answered for him and his wife.

“good over here too,” cale added in.

“yeah, same,” taylor nodded. “cammy you good?”

“yeah,” cam nodded, scrunching her nose at the nickname. she’d always hated it.

“so tell me,” laura makar told her kids. “what’s new this week? and what’s everyone got planned?”

“it’s been good,” cale said, shrugging. “just busy with practicing and stuff

“yeah, same,” taylor agreed. “just busy with school and hockey.”

noticing his daughter’s quietness, gary furrowed his brows. she was usually the first to speak up, always excited about something. “cam honey, what about you? everything alright?”

“yeah, yeah, everything’s good,” cam nodded. “i have to tell you guys something though. please don’t be upset,” she said the last part quietly and directed it to her older brothers, who had a knack for overprotectiveness after her senior year of high school.

“cameron what’s going on?” cale demanded, worried. “are you okay?”

“yeah, i’m good,” cam rushed out. “i have a boyfriend.”

laura was the first to react, grinning ear to ear. “you do?” she asked excitedly. “that’s so lovely, sweetheart! tell us everything?”

“can he fight?” taylor blurted.

“probably,” cam mumbled, her eyes darting away from the computer to her wall, where a picture of her and gabe was taped up. “um, his name is gabe. he’s on the hockey team.”

“you’re dating a hockey player?” cale asked. when she nodded, he shook his head in disagreement. “i think that’s a bad idea, cam.”

“i think you don’t even know him,” cam snapped back unintentionally, upset he’s already disapproving the relationship. he hasn’t even met the guy.

“guys,” gary warned. “don’t fight. not now,” he demanded. “cam, i think this is nice. me and your mother will have to come up and visit soon so we can meet him.”

“yeah, i’ll be doing that too,” taylor grumbled. “so, he’s on the team?”

“he is,” cam nodded in confirmation. “if you do visit, please tell me; especially you, tay. i will not spring a family meeting on him.”

“how’d you even meet him?” cale asked sharply.

“we met at school,” cam dumbed down the story, knowing cale won’t be having any of it no matter what she says. “i know what you’re thinking, cale. he’s not like that. gabe is not like him.”

“you can’t be too sure,” cale said dismissively.

“i am sure,” cam whispered. “can’t you be happy for me, cale?”

“not if it’s going to get you hurt in the end,” cale denied immediately. “you’re my baby sister, cam. i won’t sit around and watch you get hurt over another boy like that,” he added on. “and he’s a hockey player; he isn’t good news.”

“you’re a hockey player,” cam defends her boyfriend. “taylor’s a hockey player. your argument is poor.”

“yeah, we are hockey players, that’s why i know that he’s no good for you. you deserve a better guy than that.”

cam opened her mouth to argue back, but there was a knock on the door, and gabe came in. he smiled at her as soon as she made eye contact, but his smile dropped as soon as he recognized the look in her eyes.

“whatever, cale,” she mumbled. “i have to go. love you guys.”

with that she ended the call, not waiting for anyone to respond. she closed her laptop and pushed it to the end of her bed. she looked up at gabe once again, a relieved smile falling on her lips.

“hi,” she whispered, watching as her boyfriend came and stood by the edge of her bed.

“hi,” her parroted. he watched as she moved to the edge, her legs hanging off her bed. he stepped between them, placing his hands on her knees. “is everything okay?”

“yeah,” she shrugged. “i don’t know about you, but i am hungry.”

“oh yeah?” gabe laughed. “and what would you like to eat, pretty girl?”

cam sent him the sweetest, most innocent smile she could. “chipotle?”

“you and your goddamn burritos,” gabe playfully rolled his eyes. he patted her knee. “let’s go.”

cam grinned and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him in. “thank you,” she giggled as his arms came around her waist, lifting her off the bed. her legs wrapped around his waist as he started to walk.

“yeah, yeah,” gabe playfully rolled his eyes, walking them over to ger closet, where her shoes were. “you okay? you seemed pretty tense when i came in.”

“uh yeah,” cam nodded when gabe set her on her feet. “i told my family about you. they wanna meet you.”

“oh,” gabe nodded, his heart rate picking up. “when?”

“i don’t know,” cam shrugged, kneeling down to put her shoes on. “my parents said they’d visit soon. so did taylor, so soon i guess,” she stood straight and noticed how tense he’d gotten. “hey, don’t worry. they’ll love you,” cam leaned up and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “and i’d never let them ambush you. you’ll have full warning of them coming here, i promise.”

“right,” gabe said quietly, clearing his throat. he shook his head, clearing his thoughts. “well, we should go and get dinner, yeah?”

cam nodded and smiled softly, grabbing his hand, allowing him to lead her out.

[messers-moony]

Secret Boyfriend | R.B

Paring: Regulus Black X Lupin!Fem!Reader

Summary: Keeping secrets seem to run in the Lupin family but one of the two twins has a bigger secret than the other can imagine. 

Pitter-patter could be heard inside the Gryffindor Common room. The Scotland weather never really seemed to make up its mind during the period between winter and spring. Nevertheless, it brought a calming atmosphere to the red and gold common room. The five Marauders sat in front of the fireplace, speaking to one another. Remus, Y/n, and Sirius sitting together on a couch. James on an armchair, and Peter sitting on the ground in front of the sofa. 

“So, Little Lupin.“ James drawled, “When are you getting a boyfriend?” 

Remus chuckled, quickly putting an arm around his twin sister, “Hopefully, never.” 

“Maybe I already have a boyfriend, and you lot just don’t know.” Y/n snipped as she elbowed her brother in the ribs slightly, “Oh, come on, paws!” James exclaimed teasingly. 

Paws was Y/n’s Marauder name. Her animagus was a Siamese cat, which resembled her personality quite well if you asked Remus. Y/n was quick-witted, independent, intuitive, curious, and affectionate when comfortable. She and Sirius were known to flirt all the time but recently - meaning a couple of months - they hadn’t done it at all. Perhaps Y/n was actually avoiding his flirtatious remarks. Nevertheless, Y/n’s animagus was a direct correlation with her personality. 

“Yeah, paws, you’ve been neglecting me recently. I’m not too happy with it either.” Sirius added with a fake pout, “Oh hush it, you two. Leave my sister alone. She’s got no hidden boyfriend.” Remus defended, looking at his sister. 

“Right, Y/n?” Remus coughed, and she jumped out of her daydream, “Mhm! Of course.” 

Conversation went on as usual. They began discussing new pranks, but Y/n’s jumper pocket felt heavier than usual, knowing what’s inside. It was a cream-colored envelope with the Black family crest as a seal. Y/n knew more than anyone that Sirius wouldn’t be happy to see the familiar logo, but this wasn’t from his parents. It was from his little brother, and Y/n was anxious to give it to him. So when James, Remus, and Peter went upstairs, Y/n pulled him aside before he could leave. 

“Padfoot, wait.” Y/n called, and he turned back, “What's up, paws?” Sirius queried, turning to face her. 

She sighed and pulled the envelope from her pocket, “Please, read this. It isn’t what you think it is despite the seal.” Y/n stated, handing him the parchment. 

“Where did you get this?” Sirius asked as he opened the packaging, “Regulus.” Y/n’s answer was firmer than expected. 

Nonetheless, the letter inside seemed essential to his fellow Marauder, so he opened it. Inside he was met with his little brother's prominent handwriting. The black ink treaded so seamlessly across the brown paper. Y/n remembered watching him write it at his desk, desperately trying to collect his thoughts while his hand shook relentlessly. She couldn’t do anything but sit from his bed and watch. Regulus needed to do this alone. 

After reading, Sirius slid the letter back inside its packaging, “Well, it’s his fault.” 

“Actually, it isn’t.” Y/n quipped, “Listen, Sirius, Regulus is trying. He really is.” 

“You would know this how?”

“Because we’ve been friends for a long time.” 

“Oh really?” Sirius questioned sarcastically, crossing his arms, “Since when did you and Reggie become so close?” 

“He began tutoring me in third year for Potions.” Y/n answered, “You couldn’t have asked Remus?”

“No. “ Y/n shook her head, “Slughorn wanted Regulus specifically.” 

“Well then. Full moon tomorrow, hope you’re prepared.” Sirius chirped as he began walking up the steps to his dorm, “I’m always prepared.” Y/n replied to essentially no one. 

She sighed. It was apparent Sirius didn’t want to believe what Regulus had written. It would’ve been hard on anyone. But Regulus wanted it to come from him instead of Sirius finding out. Since Y/n’s third year - Regulus’ second year - she felt attracted to him. He always made time for her. It wasn’t until their fourth year when she realized it. In her fifth year, they made it official. Regulus Black and Y/n Lupin were a couple but hidden beneath an invisibility cloak. 

Seventh year wasn’t easy. The upcoming war, her brother's lycanthropy, N.E.W.T.S, and Regulus getting the dark mark. Nothing seemed to be working in her favor. Books didn’t even seem to please her anymore. Her eyes wandered while she began to daydream about anything rather than reality itself. People began to notice how lost the girl appeared. 

Especially her brother. 

Study sessions with her weren’t the same. Some days her eyes would appear glossier than usual as if someone put a coating of lip gloss over them. Maybe they were rimmed with a pastel pink seeming tired and unhappy. The tremors in her hands were hard to ignore as she wrote with her quill. If there’s one thing Remus Lupin was good at, it was being observant; however, there wasn’t time, and he didn’t have the patience to deal with this right now. The full moon approaching meant that Remus’ patience tolerance was down to about none. 

There was one thing that brought her clarity. Regulus Black. The Gryffindor common room was always a warm and welcoming atmosphere. In contrast, the Slytherin common room was cold and damp, but it brought her comfort because of the person inside. Y/n padded quietly inside of his prefect hallway, which was beside the Slytherin common. She walked into his bedroom, which was dark. 

No candles lit. Just dark. Regulus always felt comfort in the dark, but it wasn’t dark because of that. It was dark because he was absent. Y/n peered over to his desk, where letters sat from his mother and some cousins. Andromeda seemed to try and reach him, but the letter looked unopened. There was one that caught her eye. It was Remus’ handwriting, and it was from him. It was also opened. Y/n knew she couldn’t stay all night. The full moon was due to rise in just two hours. 

Picking up the parchment, she began to read:

“ To Regulus Black, 

You need to step up. I get it. Sirius has been disowned, but he tries to make an effort. Can’t you see that? Sirius really needs you, and I know that you miss him too. This whole stubborn game of not wanting to talk to each other has gone on long enough. 

I know what it’s like to argue with a sibling, and it isn’t pleasant. Suck it up, swallow your pride and talk to Sirius. You don’t have to ultimately make up, but please, he’s trying. 

From, Remus Lupin. “

Y/n swallowed down her anger. Who was Remus to get involved in their affairs? If Sirius and Regulus didn’t want to interact, that was their problem, not his. It infuriated her. But she didn’t have time to babble around. Y/n pointed her wand at her and became a cat. Perks of her animagus being allowed at Hogwarts, she could roam around freely without suspicion. Quickly she sprinted down to the Whomping Willow, where she was met with her three Marauders in human form. Y/n transformed back. 

“Where were you! I was worried sick!” Remus scolded, “Nowhere, but we need to talk later.” Y/n answered. 

They got Remus in the shack and changed into their animagus forms. A stag, a rat, a dog, and a cat. The dog and the cat had the most interaction with the werewolf. Sometimes the dog and werewolf would cuddle up beside each other, whereas the cat would sleep on its own along with the other two animals. The following day Y/n and Sirius lugged Remus up to the hospital wing. Y/n sat beside him the entire time while the other three went off. Sirius and James were off to Quidditch practice. Peter was off to see his girlfriend in Hufflepuff. 

Y/n tapped aimlessly on Remus’ hand, “M- Morning.”

“Morning, Moony.” Y/n greeted, “How are you feeling?” 

“Phenomenal.”

“Sorry.”

“What did we need to talk about?” Remus questioned, and Y/n tilted her head, “You said we needed to talk before going to the shack.”

“Yes, I did. Um- uh- did you send Regulus a letter by any chance?” Y/n stammered, “I did. Why?” 

“I saw it.” Y/n replied shortly, “You saw it?” Remus repeated incredulously. 

She nodded, “How did you see it?” 

“Regulus and I are friends. Sometimes we hang out in his dorm.” The words seemed like nothing as they rolled off her tongue, “You hang out in the Slytherin dorms? Is that why you always know the password so we can do pranks?” 

“Of course.” Y/n chuckled, “I use my privilege to its advantage.”

Remus began to get up but grimaced, causing Y/n to jump up to help him. Gently she eased him to a sitting position. A new scratch on his cheek and multiple on his arms. It’s evident that the cat and the dog had to stop him. The thin scratches on his arms were a cat's nails. The thicker scratch on his cheek was a dog's nails. Remus looked down at his arms. 

“I’m sorry.” Y/n muttered, “Not your fault, paws. Who was it this time?” Remus asked. 

“Prongs. Apparently, you wanted Prongs.” Y/n answered, and he kissed the top of her head, “Thank you for stopping me.” 

“Anything for my brother.” 

“Just like anything for our Moony?”

Y/n laughed, “Yeah.”

Paws began to tap on his hand again, until a voice echoed through the hospital wing, “Y/n?” 

“Y/n?” The voice called again, and Remus quirked his eyebrow at his sheepish sister, “Y/n!” 

Suddenly a black-haired, grey-eyed, pale figure was beside her. He didn’t realize what he was doing until he had already kissed the top of her head worriedly. Y/n turned pink at the affection and the embarrassment of it happening in front of her brother. Remus coughed, and the male stood straight. 

“Regulus, what a surprise.” Remus retorted, “Didn’t think you’d ever visit me in the infirmary.”

“Remus, please-“ 

“I wouldn’t.” Regulus snapped, “Then why are you here?” Remus inquired. 

Regulus’ hand was playing aimlessly with the ends of Y/n’s hair, “Moony….” Y/n began at a whisper, “Regulus is my boyfriend.”

“This-“ Remus pointed at them both with a laughing smile, “Is funny.”

“Nice prank, paws, but it isn’t going to work.”

Y/n sighed, “It isn’t a prank, Rem.” 

“We’ve been together for about two years now.” She confessed, and Regulus stiffened, “Friends, my ass.” Remus scoffed bitterly. 

“Remus, please-“ Y/n began, “No, please just leave. We can talk about this later when I’m in the right frame of mind. Because if you don’t leave, now I might throw a punch.” Remus replied. 

She sighed and reluctantly left with Regulus trailing behind her. Y/n didn’t want to cry. It was pitiful. Regulus never had a good relationship with Sirius since Hogwarts, yet he didn’t seem to care. Thankfully, after building the Marauders Map, she knew every little crevice and hiding spot. Pulling back a tapestry, she sat down on the cement floor. Regulus doing the same beside her. Hesitantly he pulled his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his chest. 

“This is pitiful.” Y/n chuckled bitterly, “I’m sorry, Reggie.”

“It isn’t pitiful. You and Remus have a close relationship. It’s okay to be sad about him telling you off.” Regulus replied, placing his chin on the top of her head, “Sirius and I are different. Don’t compare you and Remus with us.”

Y/n nuzzled into his chest, “I saw the letter Remus sent you.”

“I- I saw the way he spoke to you, and I’m sorry.” Y/n stated, “I hope he comes around.” 

“I do too, love.” Regulus kissed the top of her head, “ I do too.”

It was quiet for a moment until two figures pulled back the tapestry, “Oi! Get off, little Lupin!” James exclaimed, and Y/n sighed, “Sirius, James, please just leave.”

“What are you doing with my mate's little sister, Regulus?” Sirius interrogated, “Comforting her. She needs me.” Regulus retorted, tightening his grip on her shoulder. 

Y/n stood up and pulled Regulus with her, “Come on. We four need to talk.” 

The four of them walked into a broom closet. It was a quiet walk. Eerily quiet. It brought shivers down Y/n’s spine at how silent the walk was. The tension was so thick you couldn’t cut it with a knife. The pressure felt like sludge. It was thick and mush. But when Y/n opened the door, the lot of them walked inside. James and Sirius stared expectantly. 

“Regulus and I have been dating since my fifth year.” Y/n began, and Regulus intertwined their hands. 

“Little Lupin!” Sirius exclaimed, “You weren’t lying when you said you had a secret boyfriend!”

“You scandalous little thing!”

“I can’t believe this.” James stated after running his hand through his hair, “How did Remus take it?”

“Not very well.” Y/n replied, “He kicked me out of the hospital wing when Regulus showed up. “

“He’s- He’s not in the right mindset, though. He’ll come to. I know he will. He has to.”

Sirius’ eyes softened, “Moony will come around. It might just take him a minute.” 

“Regulus.” James called, and grey eyes stared at him, “Y/n is a Marauder.”

“I know that.” Regulus interrupted, “She is my little sister as much as she is Remus’” James continued. 

“And mine!” Sirius added, smiling brightly, “Y/n is our little sister. The lot of us depend on her. We can’t, and we won’t have her heartbroken.” James explained sternly, suddenly looking a lot like Mrs. Potter. 

Regulus’ cheeks flushed with pink, “I love her, I really do. I don’t plan on breaking her heart anytime soon.” 

“You’re gonna be my sister-in-law!” Sirius squealed, hugging Y/n forcefully, almost knocking her over, “Oh, little Lupin.” He cooed. 

“You’re all grown up!” 

They laughed, and Sirius kissed her forehead, “Take care of him, will you?” He whispered so only she could hear, “Of course.” Y/n smiled. 

“Alright, alright, I’d like my girlfriend back,” Regulus replied, taking her away from Sirius’ arms. 

Sirius gulped, “How’s mum going to take this, Reggie?” 

“I don’t care.” Regulus retorted, “Mums gonna have to deal with it.” 

The smile on Sirius’ face was brighter than the sun, “Oh, Reggie!” He wailed, pulling Regulus into a tight hug. 

The two brothers smiled as they hugged each other. Regulus sleeve slipped up, and James stepped back, pulling out his wand. The two Black brothers pulled apart, and that’s when Sirius saw it. The dark mark on his brother's sleeve. Y/n stiffened as Sirius lifted his sleeve up further to see it clearly. 

“Reggie…” 

“Sirius, please, I didn’t want it.” Regulus pleaded, “She- They- Please.”

James watched intently at them. Sirius’ eyes had filled with tears as he embraced his younger brother. For the first time in a long time, Regulus felt protected in his brother's arms. James walked closer and joined them. Hugging both Black brothers as close as he could. James Potter, the man who never stops giving. They pulled apart, and James took Reggie into his own arms. 

“You need anything, you come to me, okay?” James informed sternly, and Regulus nodded, “Ye- Yeah.”

“Remus and Y/n always come for the holidays. You won’t be alone.” James stated smiling, “My parents already have one Black; they won’t mind another.” 

The Black brother smiled, “Thank you….”

The days went on, and Regulus still avoided the Marauders altogether. Remus glared at him from the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Deep emerald green eyes were flashing at the grey ones that sat at the Slytherin table. Until Y/n jabbed him in the ribs, taking his attention away from the younger Black brother. 

“Remus.” Y/n scolded, “Stop it.”

“I think you’re too hard on him, Moony.” James began, “He loves your sister. Maybe talk to him.” 

“No.” Remus snapped, “You guys can accept this, but I can’t.” 

They didn’t push any further. Y/n and Remus had been distant from each other. It was weird to watch the twins who were typically attached at the hip to be so - abroad. Regulus didn’t like that he was now the cause of their fussing. After all, they were the reason Sirius and him were on speaking terms now. So Regulus and Sirius made a plan. It involved them being locked in a broom closet, and so it happened—one night after dinner. 

Remus was shoved into a cupboard, not by his own liking either, “Come on, Sirius! This isn’t funny. I have prefect duties to do!”

“Actually, someone else has taken them over.” Regulus informed, and Remus whipped around, “What are you two doing here?”

“Remus, explain it to me.” Regulus began, “Why you don’t approve of me with your sister.”

“Because! You’re a bloody death eater! You probably forced her to be with you.” Remus exclaimed. 

Y/n scoffed, “A pureblood forcing himself with a half-breed? Doesn’t seem likely.” 

Remus ran his hand through his hair, “Okay, he’s still a death eater!”

“I was forced!” Regulus exclaimed, “They strapped me to a chair and embedded the mark into my forearm. You don’t think I wasn’t thinking of her the entire time?! I was scared out of my mind!”

“The entire time, all I could think about was ‘How is Y/n gonna take this.’” Regulus admitted, “My heart aches for her. I didn’t want her to be scared.”

Remus’ green eyes turned soft, “Does she accept you? Does she love you? Do you love her?”

“Yes, Remus. I love him for who he is. James offered him a place to stay at the Potters.” Y/n replied, “And yes, I love her.” 

Tears filled her eyes, “Remus, please. I don’t want to lose either of you.”

Remus held out his arms, and she walked right into them. He placed one hand on the back of her head and one on the small of her waist. Holding her close to his heart, rubbing his thumb through her hair. Regulus’ grey eyes stared at the two siblings before him. Remus’ heart softened at his crying sister. He never wanted to hurt her, ever. 

“Paws.” Remus began as he pulled away slightly, “Does he make you happy?”

Y/n sniffled and nodded; Remus wiped her cheeks, “Okay.”

“Does he know you, for you?” 

“Mhm.”

Remus turned to Regulus as Y/n parted with him, “Where’s paws favorite place to be scratched?”

Regulus chuckled, “Behind her ears.”

“Take care of my little sister.” Remus pleaded, “Please, Regulus.” 

“Of course. I wouldn’t expect any different.” Regulus answered. 

Remus walked forward and put out his hand. Hesitantly Regulus shook his hand. Grey eyes met green ones. Remus couldn’t help the smile that placed itself on his face. Without hesitation, he pulled Regulus into a tight hug.

“Take care of my sister, and I’ll take care of you.”

“Always.”

[mystic-writings]

destination weddings | stiles stilinski

PAIRING — stiles stilinski x fem!reader

REQUEST — anon - oh hey again I requested 16 17 18 from trope list and 34 from trope list 2 :)

SUMMARY — you need a date to your sisters wedding in hawaii, and stiles is the only person available

PROMPTS — trope prompt 16 - i need a date for this wedding, trope prompt 17 - “i think i’m in love with you”, trope prompt 18 - fake dating au, trope prompt 34 - vacation au

WARNINGS — mild angst, fluff, a twilight-inspired love confession, pining

WORD COUNT — 4,674

NOTE — nonnie you have no idea how much of a genius you are, i hope i did your idea justice!

masterlist | navigation

You were sure you hadn’t chosen to take a plus one to your sister’s wedding. Why would you have? Fresh out of college, single, there was no reason for you to take anyone to her wedding.

Yet here you were, arguing with her over the phone about if you had checked the little box or not.

“You did too! Look, I have the invitation right here,” she flipped the facetime camera, showing the black mark over the plus one option. “You chose a plus one. And you can’t cancel it, either, because the tickets are already paid for.”

Cursing, you said your goodbyes to your sister and hung up the phone. Thoughts about what you were going to do ran through your mind running through the options. You could bring a friend, although you weren’t sure who would be up for taking a few days off work and flying to Hawaii. Your first thought was Lydia, who almost never denied the possibility of dressing up and going on vacation.

Before your train of thought could go any further, the ringing of your phone cut through the kitchen. Picking your phone off the marble countertop, you rolled your eyes when your mother’s caller ID flashed across your screen. Of course, she heard about the plus one incident.

Bracing yourself, you pressed accept and put the phone to your ear, greeting your mother with a sweet, “Hi, mom.”

“Hi, sweetheart,” she said, and you could almost picture the excitement in her tone. “I just got off the phone with your sister. She said you were bringing someone to the wedding!”

“Yeah, mom, I am.”

“Well, who is it? Is it a boy? Or do you like girls? Are you bringing a friend, or have you finally found someone to settle down with?”

The questions spilled out of her mouth, further adding to your pressure. And, before you could even stop them, the words spilled out of your mouth. “I’m bringing my boyfriend.”

It was truly idiotic, but you weren’t in the mood to handle your mother’s well-intended interrogation. Internally cursing yourself, you had to take the phone away from your ear when your mother squealed on the other end, elated that her youngest daughter had found someone. Even with the phone away from your ear, you still heard her call out to your father to tell him the news.

“So, who is he?” She asked after calming down.

Biting your lip, you responded with a simple, “You’ll find out on the day of the wedding, mom. It’s a surprise.”

The woman huffed. “Oh, fine. I hope it's Stiles. He always treated you so nicely, he’s a good man. And he’s already so close to us, it makes sense.”

You groaned inwardly, trying to tame the heat on your cheeks. “Okay, mom, I’m hanging up now. I have to make dinner.”

After saying your goodbyes, you groaned. What the hell were you going to do now?

You’d spent a good while calling your friends, trying to figure out a solution to your problem. Scott wasn’t able to come since he had plans to visit his mother that weekend, Isaac wasn’t generally liked by your family after you took him to the last gathering, wherein he got drunk and hit on your mom. The thought of having to take Derek with you was, if you were being completely honest, uncomfortable. And, since your friend group was so close, none of the girls had any guy friends that they thought would be available.

Which left you sitting on your couch, sipping on your second glass of wine, working up the courage to call Stiles. Normally, you would’ve been fine with taking him to a family gathering, especially since he was so close with you. He knew most of your family members and was practically one himself. But there were two things preventing you from calling him. The fact that he would have to act as your boyfriend, and the fact that you were completely, undeniably, in love with him. You have been for years, but this was a different ballpark.

Sighing, you downed the rest of your glass before slamming it onto the coffee table and picking up your phone, pressing Stiles' contact.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“I need you to come to Hawaii with me next weekend.”

“Oh? Why?” Stiles drawled, sounding confused.

“My sister’s getting married - you remember when I told you about that a while ago, right? - and apparently I checked plus one on the invitation. I can’t cancel it because she already bought the plane ticket for us.”

There was a pause before the boy answered. “Why don’t you ask one of the girls, then? They’d love to go.”

“That’s the other issue,” you gnawed on your lip. “My mom called me and asked who I was bringing to the wedding. She was asking so many questions that I panicked and told her I was gonna bring my boyfriend.”

“But you’re single.”

“Thank you for reminding me, Stiles,” you bit, “it’s not like I called you because I already had a boyfriend and wanted to let you know.” Sighing, you hang your head. “Look, it’s only for a few days, and I really need you to come. The guys already have plans.”

“Fine, I’ll go.” He relented.

“Thank you!” You exclaimed, relief flooding through you. “Come over tomorrow and we can talk more about it, okay?”

“Alright, I’ll see you then.”

The week came and went quickly, but the nerves bundling in the pit of your stomach persisted. This weekend would be the most stressful and uncomfortable one of your life, but you were partly glad to have Stiles with you. He always calmed you down.

Which led you here, sitting in the passenger side of his Jeep as he drove you both to the airport. The sun was setting slowly and your duffel bags were sliding around in the back as the radio played some new song that you weren’t familiar with.

“Okay, so run it by me again. What’s our history?”

“Well, since everyone knows you so well, it shouldn’t be hard. But we didn’t realize we liked each other until a few months ago, remember? I was on a date and got stood up, you picked me up and brought me home and confessed your undying love for me, and we’ve been dating ever since. It’s simple.”

Stiles scoffed, a smile playing on his face. “Got it. And you said that we’re allowed to hold hands and hug and stuff, but I’m not allowed to kiss you?”

“Yep.” You nodded, avoiding the man’s gaze.

“But how are we supposed to make it look real if I’m not allowed to kiss you?”

You simply shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out, I guess.”

The man didn’t respond, only sighing and fixing his eyes on the road.

Spending almost six hours on a plane with Stiles Stilinski was not a good experience. On his good days, Stiles was moderate with his movement and general energetic tendencies. But on a six hour long, nonstop plane ride? He was practically buzzing in his seat.

Whatever time you weren’t spending entertaining the man with chatter, small games, or a movie that he only paid attention to half of, you were reading. In the back of your mind, you wondered how things were going to go tomorrow, when you arrived at the wedding on Stiles’ arm. You could already see the shock on your sister and mother’s faces.

Since your job was so demanding, you were only able to leave early on Friday instead of booking the Thursday off. Along with that, all the two-bed rooms at the hotel your sister chose were booked, so you had to get a room at a different hotel. You also promised yourself that there was no way you were seeing your family until the wedding, just so you could see everyone’s reactions at once.

A ding echoing through the cabin drew you from the pages of your book, right as things were taking a turn in the plot. As usual, the Captain’s voice announced the arrival of the plane as the wheels touched down on the tarmac, dark sky surrounding you.

Stretching your limbs as you stood, you packed your book and phone into your bag. Stiles followed, exiting the row with you behind him. Shuffling out of the plane and into the humid night, you whined, “I’m so tired,”

“You can sleep when we get to the hotel.” Stiles said. “We have to get our bags first, then stop somewhere to eat because I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

Nodding, you adjusted the strap on your bag as you welcomed the air conditioned air of the building. “That’s fine. Just don’t buy anything here, airports always overcharge for their food.”

Stiles took note of your words before grabbing your hand, dragging you over to the baggage claim, where you waited for an agonizing 15 minutes for both of your duffel bags to show up on the conveyor belt. After that, you spent half an hour talking to an associate to get a rental car. It was only then that you were on the road, watching the streetlights overhead pass as Stiles tried to find a McDonald’s nearby for the two of you to order at.

Thankfully, there was one nearby the hotel. After ordering what felt like half the menu for just the both of you, Stiles sped away to check into the hotel. The city felt so calm, despite how busy you heard it could be. And, maybe it was just how tired you were, but you felt so calm sitting in the car with Stiles. So calm that you didn’t even wonder how tomorrow would go.

That morning was a hectic one, to say the least. The wedding ceremony was at 11:00 and you had to wake up early - at least, earlier than Stiles - to give yourself enough time to get ready. It started with breakfast downstairs, then to the shower, where you scrubbed yourself clean of last night’s travel fatigue. That was when Stiles woke up, heading to the free breakfast so you could freely get dressed.

You were wearing something new, the kind of dress you normally wouldn’t be caught dead in. But, it was your sister’s wedding, and you knew you had to look nice. In fact, she was the one to help you pick it out, many months prior. It was beautiful; light blue with a skater skirt and a corset-tie backing and mesh top, with small blue flowers embroidered into the shoulders and the bottoms of the half-sleeves. You had to admit, it felt amazing to wear something so beautiful (link here). But you were having an issue. You were able to lace through the first few corset holes and do the button at the top of the mesh, but you couldn’t reach the rest.

As you struggled profusely, cursing the beautiful dress, you heard the keycard activate the lock and the door creak open behind you. “Hey, Stiles, could you help me a little here?”

His footsteps were dampened by the carpet, but you felt his hands brush yours as he took the silk ties from your fingers. Delicately, he pulled at the strings like a puppet master, securing the dress to your torso. The room was oddly quiet as he did so, not saying a word. And, when he was done, Stiles simply pulled away, quietly saying, “I’m gonna- I gotta take a shower.”

Your eyes followed him as he spun on his heel and went toward the bathroom. A sinking feeling settled in your gut as you occupied yourself with your hair and makeup, trying as hard as you could to perfect your eyeliner and the curls falling around your shoulders. With some bobby pins, you pulled a lock of hair back from each side of your head, pinning them to the back. Framing your face were the locks of hair that you had purposely been cutting shorter since you were 13.

Stiles stepped out of the bathroom as you were slipping on your grey heels. “It’s almost 10:30, we should go before we’re-”

You cut your sentence short when you looked up at Stiles. He wore a proper suit, a simple black tie and white shirt underneath. You had never seen anything like it on him before, especially since he complained that they made him uncomfortable. You were sure that the tie and jacket would end up abandoned less than half an hour into the reception, but he looked good.

“What? Is there something on my face?” Stiles wiped his mouth and cheeks, trying to get the imaginary speck of food off his skin.

Shaking yourself back into reality, you said, “No, no, you’re fine. It’s just… I’ve never seen you in a proper suit before. You look good in it.”

“You, uh- you look really nice, too.” Stiles fumbled, scratching the back of his head. After a beat of slightly uncomfortable silence, he moved to grab his things, ready to head out the door.

Checking your small, light grey purse, you made sure everything was there before following Stiles, getting in the car and going to the church. The nerves had increased tenfold as you approached the time to greet your family, and you could only hope that you were some of the last people to get to the church.

You were right. Miraculously, you had avoided almost every family member, prolonging their reactions. Throughout the ceremony, Stiles had comfortingly held your hand as you watched your sister become someone you always thought she never would be: a wife. It was beautiful, the written vows and artwork on the walls. You couldn’t help but think about how it was a perfect place for your sister to get married in.

The wait between the ceremony and the reception was a few good hours, and all interactions between yourself and your family so far had somehow excluded Stiles. Whether it was him having to use the bathroom as you exited the church with your family, or the greetings in the parking lot as he went to get the car, he had yet to be seen by your family.

But when the reception came, there was no avoiding it. Sitting in the car, you looked at the building with a boulder of nerves resting at the bottom of your stomach. Exhaling, you wrung your fingers, wondering how bad you would look if you faked being sick and went back to the hotel instead.

Stiles grabbed your hand, halting your movements as he caught your attention. “Hey, you’re gonna be okay. It’s just a few hours, and they’ll love it. In fact, I’m pretty sure your mom loves me more than she loves you.”

Suppressing a smile, you scoffed. “That’s not true,”

“It is! She told me herself,” Stiles smiled. “But, all jokes aside, we’ll be just fine. And if you really want to go back to the hotel, we can. Just say the word and I’ll take you back.”

With a final nod, you squeezed the boy’s hand in thanks before opening the car door and getting out. Stiles locked the door, slipping the keys in his pocket before reconnecting your hands, walking up the stairs to the venue. There were quite a few cars, so it looked like most, if not everyone, was already there.

And, sure enough, you were right. Everyone was either milling around at other people’s tables, talking to one another, or sitting at their own and waiting to eat. When you stepped in, you first thought that no one had seen you, everyone generally occupied by their own conversations.

That was, until you heard your sister’s delighted squeal.

In all her glory, she came running up to you, still wearing her large, slightly shimmering, ball gown dress. She pulled Stiles into a hug, thanking him for coming. When she pulled away, she smiled and said, “Mom said you were bringing your boyfriend but I didn’t know it was him! How long have you guys been dating for and why didn’t you tell me?”

“About four months,” you responded quickly. “And I didn’t tell anyone because of this exact reason. I also thought it would’ve been funny to see how you reacted.”

The girl smacked your shoulder and you scoffed at her, knowing you couldn’t hit her back today. After some chatter, she let you go, where you went over to the table you were sharing with your parents and your sister’s new husband’s parents as well.

And once your mother caught the sight of yours and Stiles’ intertwined hands, you were sure that the shock on her face was well worth the wait. Immediately, she was out of her seat to greet the both of you with tight hugs.

“I knew it was going to be Stiles! Didn’t I say so, honey?”

Barely looking up from the book he had brought, your father said, “You did, dear,”

Awkward smiles stretched across yours and Stiles’ faces as you took your seats, chatting with everyone at the table. Despite not really needing to show off, the boy beside you never let go of your hand, holding it under the table like a pair of high school lovers.

The dinner began, and everything went smoothly. For a moment, you forgot all about the fact that you and Stiles were fake dating, merely playing a role for the night. A role you had wanted for well over five years. As you ate, you couldn’t stop glancing to your left at Stiles. He looked so happy, right in place with your family, and you couldn’t prevent the clench in your heart when you were reminded that it was all fake.

He kept his hand on your thigh lovingly for most of the speeches, thumb rubbing against the fabric of your dress. And when it was your turn, he smiled happily the whole time, encouraging you and making sure you felt comfortable, since public speaking was never your thing.

Then came the dancing. Neither of you were the most coordinated, but you did well enough. ‘Well enough’ meaning that you didn’t bump into anyone or step on your own feet. Stepping on each others’ feet, however, seemed completely unavoidable.

As most things did, however, dancing quickly grew boring. But when your mother pulled you and Stiles into a tiring conversation with her brother and his wife, you would wish for nothing more than to go back to the dancefloor. There was nothing to be done except to nod along and keep your arm wrapped around Stiles’ waist as he wrapped his around your shoulders, loving smiles plastered on your face.

“So, how did you two get together?” Your aunt, Grace, asked. You were wondering when that would come up in conversation.

Before you could answer, Stiles opened his mouth to speak. “Well, I guess I’ve always kinda known that I wanted to date Y/n,” his words caught you off guard, but there was nothing you could do to stop the brunette. “But a little while ago, she was dating this guy. He was awful, but she wouldn’t listen to me. Until one day, he stood her up and she called me to come get her. It was pouring rain and when I got there, she was basically drenched,”

The group chuckled, and heat bloomed across your face. Stiles continued, “And I took her home, but I didn’t leave. I couldn’t. I thought she would get sick, so I slept on the couch that night. And I couldn’t sleep… I couldn’t stop thinking about her. So, the next day, I just… kissed her. It was the greatest decision of my life.”

Your chest clenched as you painted a smile onto your face, keeping your eyes on the boy beside you. Even you couldn’t have come up with a story like that, especially not on the spot. You wished that it was true. That he could love you the way he acted like he did.

“Aw, that’s adorable!” She gushed. “You know, a lot of people these days aren’t as affectionate anymore. At least, not like you two are, you’re both so in love. I can see it in your eyes. I hope the next wedding I get invited to is yours.”

You forced a laugh as your aunt excused herself to talk to another one of your cousins, but you didn’t move from your spot. The words she left in the air were clinging to your consciousness like flies to honey, killing you softly. ‘You’re both so in love. I can see it in your eyes.’

For the next half an hour, you and Stiles mingled with the rest of the guests, talking about boring topics and little details about their lives that you were bound to forget before you left the venue. You were still stuck on your aunt’s words, and it didn’t help that Stiles continued to praise you as his girlfriend and vice versa to everyone you talked to.

Soon, all the loving words weighed too heavily on the reality that it was fake and, when you returned to California, you and Stiles would simply go back to being friends. With a feeble murmur, you excused yourself from the room under the guise that you needed air, which was almost fully true. The room was warm due to the capacity, and the weight of the truth that rested on your chest made it feel like you were struggling to breathe.

Stepping out into the night, you instantly felt better. There was a chill in the breeze that blew past, sending goosebumps up your arms and calming you down. Walking down the concrete steps, you decided to clear your head and take a walk through the garden behind the building.

It was truly beautiful to be surrounded by nature at night. Lights embedded in the ground lit the stone path and the flowers around you, highlighting their best features. Over to the left, a large stone fountain bubbled, making sure that you weren’t surrounded by complete silence to allow the thoughts you were running from to take over.

The stone path in front of you split in two, veering to the left and to the right. Curious, you went toward the right side of the garden, which was shrouded from your view by a willow tree. There you found a gazebo, its white-painted pillars wrapped in fairy lights. A pond lay a few feet away on the other side, water lilies resting on the surface. It didn’t have a place to sit, so you simply leaned your arms on the rails and admired the garden.

You were clueless to how long you had been standing there, watching the forced nature peacefully, when a voice spoke behind you. “I figured you’d be here,”

“Jesus!” You placed a hand on your chest to calm your racing heart, turning to find Stiles standing in the middle of the gazebo with his hands stuffed into his pockets and a playful smirk parting his lips. “Stiles, don’t do that!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it. You’re just such an easy target.”

Rolling your eyes, you turned back to the garden. Stiles came to stand beside you, taking a similar stance with barely an inch between you. For a moment or two, silence was the only thing that passed between you as you admired the scene in front of you.

“So why did you leave?” Stiles asked, pulling his eyes away from the garden to look at you.

You did the same, furrowing your brow as if you hadn’t lied. “What are you talking about? It was getting stuffy and I needed some fresh air, so I-”

“I know you, Y/n. We’ve been friends for years, okay, so just tell me the truth.” If it weren’t for the pleading look buried in his honey eyes, you would’ve persisted with your lie.

“Fine.” You sighed, trying to think of a way to tell him the truth without ruining everything. “I couldn’t keep pretending like I was in love with you anymore.”

Stiles froze as you pushed away from the railing and began to pace, his heart shattering in his ribcage. “What?”

“I couldn’t keep pretending I was in love with you, Stiles. I mean, hearing you talk about how I was the best girlfriend you’ve ever had and how amazing I treat you, it was killing me!” You admitted. “It was killing me because I have to go home tomorrow knowing that I’m in love with you and everything you said wasn’t true, because I’m not your girlfriend and I probably never will be.”

Straightening himself, Stiles made his way over to you, stopping you in your tracks. His hands rested on your biceps as he locked eyes with you, something swimming in them that you could’ve sworn you’d never seen before as a smile stretched across his face. “When are you gonna realize that I love you, too, dumbass?”

This time it was your turn to freeze. “What?”

“I said, ‘I love you’.” He repeated, smile growing with every word. “I love everything about you. I love that when you start talking about something that you’re passionate about, no one can get you to stop; I love the face you make when you eat anything sour and how you say you don’t like sour things but you’re somehow always carrying sour candies with you; I love your hair and your eyes and your lips and how you can’t stand onions. I love that you know what I want at restaurants before I know myself, and that you’ve memorized my Chinese food order like it's your own name. I love everything about you, Y/n L/n.”

Tears welled in your eyes as Stiles talked, pointing out the things he loved most about you. Your smile matched his as you took his hands from your arms, tangling his fingers with yours.

“I love you, too, Stiles. I love how you somehow always know exactly how I’m feeling; I love when you drop anything and everything, no matter how important, to be by your friend’s side when they call, and how you somehow always have a joke to make or something sarcastic to say, even in the most serious situations. I love that you’ve managed to learn my habits, and know me inside and out, how you’ve gotten so close with my family that they’ll always see you as one of their own. I love it when your nose twitches in your sleep and how determined you are. I love everything about you, Stiles Stilinski.”

Everything seemed to fall in place as Stiles reached up, brushing a hair away from your face before tangling his fingers in the delicately styled locks, pulling you closer to his body. Slowly, you both leaned toward the other, as if you couldn’t help but gravitate toward each other.

The first kiss was a simple brush of the lips, you and Stiles still nervous to take the step. But once you got the first taste of his lips, it was like you would never have enough. You leaned back in, kissing Stiles with more urgency and need than before. You reached up to wrap your arms around his neck as Stiles brought his other hand to your waist, pulling you as close to him as possible.

You never wanted the moment to end, but when it did, neither of you pulled away, simply resting your foreheads together with giddy smiles on your faces. You couldn’t help but laugh when you noticed your lipstick smeared all over Stiles’ lips, but he didn’t seem to care.

Right now, and possibly forever, you felt truly happy in the love of your life’s arms, and there was no better feeling in the world.

Permanent taglist: @simonsbluee @reeseswritings @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @mazerunnerrose @theboldandthebootyful @miraclesoflove @queen-asteria06

Stiles Stilinski taglist: @jessimay89 @wandas-wife

taglist form is in my navigation!

[thesolferino]

Favor

⤷ dream x f!reader.

⤷ genre: angst, fluff

⤷ word count: 8.4k

⤷ requested: yes, by this lovely anon!

— summary: dream asks you to pretend to be his girlfriend for a day. things only seem to go downhill from there.

It started as a favor.

On a quiet night in your apartment when you stared at your phone for way longer than your eyes could physically take and rolled around on the bed, talking to one of your best internet friends, Dream, he asked you for a favor. His voice was muffled through the mic on his phone, the one connected to his computer way cleaner, but neither of you could bother getting off FaceTime and call on Discord instead - yet you still heard him loud and clear, because you burst out laughing right after.

“What the hell did you just say?” you laughed, turning on your stomach and opening the call, now entirely focused on the timer that counted every second you spent talking to him instead of your Twitter timeline.

“It’s embarrassing, don’t make me repeat it!” And for that sole reason, you wanted him to repeat it, loud and clear.

“Is this why you were so insistent on me coming down to Florida? So I could pretend to be your girlfriend at your cousin’s wedding so your family doesn’t think you’re a loser?” you laughed, finding the situation entirely absurd as he sputtered, words mashing together, trying to defend himself.

“No! No, I wanted you to come here because we’re friends and I-I wanna meet you, this is just a… benefit, of sorts.” he replied, and you couldn’t help but laugh even harder at his poor attempt of trying to save face.

“Alright, I’ll bite.” you chuckle. “What’s in it for me?”

“Whatever you want.” he responded, much too quick. Your eyebrows raised.

“Whatever I want?” you parroted.

“Yes.” he confirmed. “I’ll buy you something, if you want; I’ll even pay you-”

“Pay me?! I’m not a whore, Dream!” 

“That is not AT ALL what I was saying!” he cut in, yelling as you burst into a new fit of laughter. “It’s just… I sort of already told them I have a girlfriend and I was just hoping you’d say yes ‘cause it’s gonna be very awkward if I show up without the girlfriend in question.” 

You put your head in your hands and he sort of dryly laughed at himself when he heard your palm hit your forehead. “What is wrong with you, man?” 

“Listen, it’s not gonna be so bad! Just stay by my side for a bit, look pretty, we’ll get some drinks, and then dip. That’s it, I promise.” he reasoned.

“And here I thought we were gonna make out in front of everyone. What’s a fake relationship if we don’t make a show out of it?” you sarcastically snickered, and could practically see his eyeroll from miles away.

“If that’s what you want, then we’ll do it, by all means.” he replied and you laughed, shaking your head in mild disbelief.

“Alright, well, if you already told them, I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” you huffed, pretending to be way more bummed out about it than you really were. “I’ll do it.” 

“Thank you so much, oh my God.” he replied and you chuckled at the sheer relief in his voice.

A few seconds of silence pass. “What’s the catch?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“How do you want me to publicly embarrass myself in exchange for this favor?”

“Personally, I think that forcing you to tweet that tweet about pissing yourself in bed again and also tweeting that everyone should subscribe to me isn’t “publicly embarrassing” at all.” 

“Maybe I should’ve picked a different fake girlfriend.”

“Sucks to suck, pissbaby.”

The weeks leading up to your meetup felt like years, with every treacherous minute of you two talking over muffled mics and shitty webcams feeling longer than it should, your empty apartment feeling emptier and emptier by the day. Was it even possible to miss a person you hadn’t even met yet? 

It turns out that it very much was, because as soon as the painfully long weeks were up and you were finally metres away from him, you jumped in his arms like a woman finally seeing her soldier husband after the war, standing on your tiptoes while he bent down the best he could to hug you back. His chest rumbled with a warm laugh when you turned your head ever so slightly towards his ear.

“Hello, boyfriend.” And just like that, the warm turned into a groan of faux annoyance while you burst into laughter and he pulled away, scanning your face with an equally annoyed look.

“I should’ve never asked you for that. You’re never letting it go, are you?” Yeah, you were kind of annoying with the amount of corny boyfriend jokes you threw his way - you had to give him that. But then again, he crafted his own fate and now he must accept the consequences.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realise your majesty wasn’t appreciating the work I’m doing! I just won’t show up at that wedding, how about that?” you bit back, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“You’re such an idiot.” he laughed. “Give me those bags.”

A blissful week had passed, and he hadn’t pissed you off in real life nearly as much as you thought he would. It took a bit of getting used to to his family calling him Clay instead of his beloved internet username, and you did get a couple of suggestive looks from his mother the first few times she visited - you had a couple of “eye conversations” in which she never exactly asked if you were his girlfriend, and you never exactly denied it, but you knew both of you felt the weight of the unspoken words yet you had to keep everything secret and ambiguous. Or at least you thought you did, before he revealed to you that he told his mom the two of you were dating already. Seems like the glances were knowing and not questioning. Maybe you weren’t as good at eye conversation as previously thought.

Living with him was fine, mostly because he had godly air conditioning and a house that was probably way too big for him, and also a very cute cat that followed you everywhere and made living with a man for a full two weeks way more bearable. Finding out that he can’t cook was one of the most bizarre revelations about him that you’d had in the years of your friendship, and you demanded he watched as you made chicken wraps. You complained about how he was 21 and couldn’t cook for himself, he complained about how it’s 2021 and he can just order from Chipotle or something, dude.

A week of goofing around and trying to hide the fact the two of you temporarily lived together from the internet had passed quicker than it should’ve, and for the first time in seven days, Netflix was turned off and the two of you were dressing up for the wedding, ready to set off with his parents and younger sister. He spent ages trying to convince you to match with him, which was quite literally impossible because he wore a black suit and you brought a red dress, which resulted in the two of you roaming around a local mall at 10 am, half asleep, looking for a reasonably formal black dress, because of course Dream always got his way.

An hour of arguing and your fashion tastes clashing later, you picked an off shoulder black dress with a high slit, along with a pair of pumps, both of which you forced him to pay for, and went back home, ready to glam both of you up as much as humanly possible because you were not ready to let him show up in some horrendous pair of shoes and claim to be your boyfriend. 

“Is this okay?” you questioned, turning from the mirror to face him and let him be the judge of your shimmery black and white eyelids, spending way too much time on a makeup look for a wedding of someone whose name you didn’t even know. He blinked at you as his judging gaze washed over you like a wave, scanning you up and down while you nervously cocked your head, leg tapping in faux impatient annoyance to cover up the fact that you felt like prey under his eyes. 

“It’s… yeah, it is. You look good.” Dream confirmed, nodding his head at you in a movement that was way too quick and snappy and you turn back to the mirror with a huff, watching him stare right back at you. 

“Too much, right? I should try something else.” You say, grabbing your makeup remover wipes, but he cuts in before you can even wipe a single smudge.

“No, no, it looks good, I promise. Really good. Don’t touch it.” Something way too sincere in his voice makes the air tense, more tense than usual, but you drop it, deciding to just take the compliment with a tight lipped smile.

“Okay. You ready?” you ask, and he nods, nervously straightening out his suit before looking back at you with an anxious grin.

“Yeah, I think so. Do I look fine?” 

He did. He looked more than fine. You’d never seen him actually dress up for something and put proper care into his looks - he was practically forced into doing it by you this time as well - so seeing him in an actual black suit, all formal and expensive looking, messy dirty blond hair properly combed for the first time in ages, made you gulp and look away. You sort of never understood the argument that women and men can’t be friends because you were never attracted to one of your male friends, ever. Dream was born to be an exception to every rule, it seemed. 

Realising that you abruptly looked away, you attempted to awkwardly clear your throat and smile at him.

“Yeah, you do. Let’s go.”

During the ride there, his mother seemed to finally explode and the words that have clearly wanted to pour out of her mouth for ages finally came out. You supposed it was better for the poor woman, and did your best to suppress a laugh when Dream dramatically sighed and leaned against the window when she nosily spoke up. 

“So… since when have you and Clay been together? He’s told us absolutely nothing!” She spoke up from the passenger seat, shifting to look at you, excited smile plastered on her face and you politely smiled back, mentally noting that you’d have to bully the shit out of him for acting like his mom is embarrassing him in front of his 8th grade crush.

“Ah, we’ve been friends for a long while, but we only started dating a month or so ago, because it’s hard doing long distance and all that.” you said, hoping it would sound believable enough because the two of you rehearsed this a few days ago, writing out a whole backstory from how you started dating to what exact words he used when he asked you out. There were a couple of arguments here and there, such as the fact you refused to say you confessed you’ve been in love with him for years and he refused to say he admitted he’s been your “bottom bitch” for 3 years but in the end, you somehow managed to agree on a cohesive timeline of events.

“Oh, does that mean you’re going to move here?” she questioned, and that one didn’t surprise you either, Dream having prepared a full list of answers to questions that people might ask in your notes app. He was a perfectionist to the point it got on your nerves, but that had its own perks.

“No, but I’ll definitely visit more often, and if it goes well, I might as well move here.” you smiled back at her and she nodded, going back to staring through the windshield. You and Dream exchange a relieved glance that you hope his younger sister doesn’t notice.

“Let me tell you, I was waiting for you two to get together! He always talked about you, I was getting tired of him, you know that?” she giggled and you widened your eyes at Dream who, snapping out of somewhat of a daze, immediately jumped to protest, light blush adorning his pale cheeks. 

“No, I didn’t! I did not, mom, don’t lie to her.” he argued while all she did was laugh.

“Oh come on, it’s not embarrassing now that you’re together!” she kept going, and his younger sister joined in, to make it even worse.

“Yeah, you do talk about her a lot, not gonna lie.” she spoke up and his cold glare directed her way told you everything you needed to know, hanging on by a thread not to burst out laughing. He refused to even look your way, turning back to the window as his cheeks started heating up. You couldn’t help but let out at least a bit of a giggle, placing your hand on his arm in fake comfort.

“It’s okay, you can admit it now.” your tone borderlined on mocking and he knew you’d make fun of him for days to come so he stayed silent while the rest of the car burst into laughter.

The wedding was truly beautifully set up, set in a hotel wedding venue, walls painted in pure innocent white with hints of gold here and there, and you nudged Dream as the two of you observed in awe, asking what sort of money the groom had to be able to afford this sort of expensive venue. Nudging him proved to be way easier now, because you linked arms - you originally made fun of him for suggesting to walk like that instead of holding hands like normal people, telling him you’d look like you were at your high school prom, but he persisted, and you didn’t end up looking as goofy as you thought. 

“He’s a doctor or something, pretty sure.” he replied, quick feet trudging down the long hallways, your own struggling to keep up with him, especially in your heels. He seemed to be in a rush to sit and get it over with as soon as possible so he could avoid any nosy family members, but bad luck followed him everywhere, it seems, because as soon as you two entered the place where the bride and groom would unite, at least three different pairs of eyes locked on you, and you immediately saw a fairly elderly woman get up with open arms, staring at Dream with a grin on her face. You saw him immediately tense up, and almost laughed right then and there.

“There’s my boy! Oh, you’ve grown so much, come here!” The woman looked to be in her fifties and Dream let go of your arm to nervously laugh and fall into her hug, the two rocking from side to side as she kept going on about how it seemed that he grew taller and taller every time she saw him. 

When the two pulled away, her eyes fixed on you, judgingly scanning from head to toe and you suddenly realised why Dream tensed up the way he did - old white women sure had a way to make you anxious. Thankfully, he stepped in. 

“Aunt Bessie, this is Y/N, my girlfriend. Y/N, this is aunt Bessie, my mom’s older sister.” he generously offered the explanation you were so obviously lacking and you grinned, as if that information helped you in any way, and stuck out your hand in an offer of a handshake. However, she seemed to have different plans, because as soon as she heard the words “my girlfriend” her face lit up as if she won the lottery and her lips stretched into a smile, opening her arms for you the same way she did for him. 

“Oh my God, you finally got a girlfriend? Come here!” she said, shaking her head at your outstretched hand and gesturing you to return the hug which you quite hesitantly did, politely laughing as she hugged you tighter than you’d deem appropriate. Dream came from a family of huggers - that much was apparent from him, you guess, but you weren’t exactly prepared for this.

Aunt Bessie seemed to be way louder and screechier than expected, because the word “girlfriend” boomed through the room and off the snowy walls, and at least five other family members of his turned around to check who the lucky fellow that finally got a girlfriend was. Another one of his aunts seemed to notice the commotion and suddenly, another older woman with shoulder length, dyed blonde hair, along with her two younger kids, was hurling at you as well. 

“I always complained to him that it was about time he got a girlfriend! He’s a fine young man, no wonder you picked him, honey.” Aunt Bessie shot you a knowing look and you closed your mouth in a tight lipped smile in a feverish attempt to keep down the laugh that threatened to escape you. 

“Oh yeah, he definitely is.” you giggled, looking up at Dream again who looked like he wanted the earth below his feet to open and swallow him whole. Before you could nudge him in the ribs and tease him for hours to come, the other aunt suddenly spoke up.

“Clay! Oh my gosh, is that you?” she exclaimed, shocked grin on her face, and you briefly wondered if Dream ever even visited his family. He nervously smiled, obviously not really sure who this woman even is, but he hugged her back anyway, clearly walking the line between ‘happy to see his family’ and ‘insanely uncomfortable’.

“I haven’t seen you in so long, your dad hasn’t visited since we moved to Toronto! Look at how tall you are, you’re taller than my husband now! You used to be so tiny, whatever happened to you?” Upon hearing the word Toronto he seemed to realise who he was talking to as his eyes softened, and you wondered if he really was so expressive or you could just read him that well.

“I grew up, I guess.” He awkwardly laughed and she laughed harder than she should’ve before turning to you.

“Oh, and who is this?” She said, gaze periodically switching between him and you, a knowing smile on her face which told you she definitely knew who you were.

“Ah, this is my girlfriend, Y/N. Y/N, this is… my dad’s cousin, Mabel.” He introduced, large hand landing on your back, and you felt like you were experiencing déjà vu at the way her face lit up at the mention of a girlfriend. 

“Wow, it’s so nice to meet you, Y/N!” She said, energetically shaking your hand, before turning back to Dream. “You never told us you got a girlfriend! You’re finally planning on settling down, huh?” 

Your head snapped in his direction at the speed of light when she mentioned settling down, and you could see him tense up as well as he nervously laughed.

“Yeah, we haven’t visited in a while, so nobody from the family really knew. And, uh… we haven’t really thought of that yet, we’re taking it slow and everything.” He said and you were almost in awe at how good he was at bullshitting. The woman did nothing but laugh.

“Ah, don’t lie to me, I see the way you two look at each other! It’s your wedding we’ll be attending next!” She winked, and just as Dream got ready to fake laugh once again, her family called her over and she excused herself, walking off.

The two of you hurried to your seats as well, sitting down next to his younger sister. 

“Your family is insane, man, holy shit.” You laughed in disbelief, staring at him as he shook his head, clearly as distressed as you were.

“Literally nobody in this family gives a single fuck if I’m single or not except the old aunties. And I seem to have a shit ton of those.” He muttered under his breath. “The way you look at each other - I literally didn’t even look at you properly that whole time!” 

You cackled at that one, hitting his arm. “She’s right, Clay. You’re one fine young man, eh?” You nudged him as he groaned in embarrassment, only turning your way to glare at you. 

You didn’t get to tease him for much longer, though, because the organ started playing and the bridesmaids and groomsmen lined up, the groom standing at his designated place. The bride walked in, arms locked with her father, thin white veil covering her face as she walked down the aisle, looking angelic in her puffy wedding gown. Silky brown hair fell down her shoulders, curled towards the ends, and you could see the hint of blood red lipstick beneath the veil. She looked beautiful - the groom seemed to think so as well, because you could see him tapping the corner of his eye lightly, wiping any stray tears.

She finally made it to the end and stepped to face her soon-to-be husband as her father moved away, sitting back in his chair. The wedding officiant stepped up, and held a speech much longer than it should be, which just led you to zone out. 

One day you’d be beneath that veil, wouldn’t you? One day, you’ll face your fiancé the same way she is, and you’ll let your hearts link with a string that nobody but the two of you could snap. Who would that be, though? Who could you even trust with your heart in their hands? And you’re not aware of how and why and when, but your eyes shot up at Dream, whose eyes also glinted in that way where you knew he wasn’t paying attention, and maybe he was thinking about the same thing as you. Maybe one day, you’ll be attending his wedding, forcing one of your friends to play a fake boyfriend as he wipes his tears, waiting for his bride to get to him. 

It was disheartening, the thought of being a bystander while he locks lips with somebody else. You supposed you just liked being the center of attention, so you let yourself pretend you were his bride in your daydreams. Separating daydreams from rational thoughts was mandatory, because you weren’t sure how you’d explain to yourself that you can’t stand seeing Dream marry someone else. 

Dream, the infamous hopeless romantic, still seemed out of it, maybe even a little emotional, despite not being that close with either of the two. He was probably thinking about his own wedding as well, thinking about his future, the face he’d see when he pulled back the veil.

Just then, his eyes darted to yours, and you realised you were caught staring, snapping your head back to the couple that started reading their vows by now. You started going red from the neck up, cheeks on fire as you could feel his gaze burning into you. He turned back after a few seconds, though, probably assuming you stared at him because you were bored, and neither of you spoke, even though you kind of wish you did. What even is there to say, though? 

By the time you snapped back, the “I do”s were already being said, and her veil was getting lifted, showing her beauty to everyone present, and as they kissed the whole room bursted into cheers and applause in support of the newlyweds. The two exit, teary eyed, their parents follow close behind, and that’s when Dream’s family rushes both of you to your feet, following the two into the reception hall where the actual party would take place. 

From then on, the wedding is the same as any other. The two have their first dance, they give a welcoming speech, and Dream lets you stuff your face with cake and repeatedly refills your wine glass as repayment for dragging you into this whole thing. At some point, he stretches his hand out to you and asks for a dance like a rom-com main character, and you’re not sure exactly why he did that because he’s mostly terrible at dancing, but you had fun letting him twirl you until you got dizzy anyway.

You also realised just how much he did actually need a fake girlfriend, because it seemed like every twenty minutes some sort of relative of his would walk up to the two of you and congratulate him on “finally getting a girlfriend”. You ended up bullying him for that as well, wondering just how long he’s been single for if they’re all this surprised that he’s got a girlfriend, to which he just downed the glass of water he’d been sipping for half an hour and asked you about the weather.

His family took a few pictures with the new couple - you even got to speak to the bride at some point, congratulating her and wishing the two of them well, but in the span of a few hours, the wedding was over and the newlyweds made a great exit, signifying the end of the party. The two of you were driven home by his parents, and you waved them goodbye as you stumbled to the front door, your heels insanely uncomfortable and the red wine in your stomach weighing down on you; you just wanted to get out of this dress and into a pair of pajamas and pass out on his couch in the living room. 

That’s sort of exactly what you did - you half-assed taking your makeup off, wiping down your face a couple of times, deciding that was enough before changing into some worn pajamas and plopping down on the couch next to Dream who already claimed his place and sunk into the cushion while a random movie played on the TV. The two of you basked in the comfortable silence that surrounded you, the exhausted, tired type. You both appreciated the quiet and fell asleep sitting next to each other, wedding already forgotten.

That night, he went from Dream to Clay.

The departure was bittersweet. You left two days after that, your hug at the airport tight, warm, filled with a sugary sweet feeling you couldn’t quite place and sour acid that ate away at you because you didn’t want to leave in the slightest. His arms were warm, inviting, whispering for you to stay but you left anyway, waving him goodbye, setting off to home. 

It seemed like all your problems came and went with him, because a week later, at 3 in the morning while you were up editing a video, you got an all caps message on your Discord from Sapnap.

“YOU’RE DATING DREAM?”

You blinked at your computer screen, white letters blinding you in the dark, brain trying to keep up with why he even thought that. Within 10 seconds, another message, this time from Dream.

“so i told george and sapnap that we’re dating”

“don’t kill me pls” 

Yeah, you weren’t going to kill him, per se, but he definitely made your life a lot harder than it should be. You opened Discord, Premiere Pro and the unedited video abandoned, typing back to Clay quickly.

“WHY”

He responded immediately, as one panicked man does.

“they’ve been making fun of me for being single for ages now :(“

“we already did this fake dating thing before and it went perfectly fine”

“just play along for a month or so”

“pls”

You audibly sighed. And as if he could hear you, he started typing again.

“i’ll promote you on my channel more”

“just pls do it”

“you love me, right” 

Another sigh fell from your lips before you could stop it. Of course you did, because if you didn’t, there’s no way you would be playing into this. You typed back.

“fine”

He messaged back immediately.

“THANK YOU”

“LOVE YOU <333”

With a shake of your head, you mumbled “idiot” with the ghost of a smile flashing on your face, switching back to your video, opting to ignore Sapnap for a little bit. He could wait. 

Fake dating seemed pretty damn easy during the first week - you thought you were killing it by sending corny tweets and staged selfies so he could screenshot them and send them to the groupchat, giggling on call about how oblivious they are and how you’re fooling them so good, both of you opting to ignore the parts where they claimed they knew the two of you were gonna get together eventually. It was fun, lighthearted, and an excuse to flirt with someone you had nothing official with.

As much as all your problems came and went with Clay, though, they came and went with his friends as well, especially that hopeless man Clay called his best friend. 

Because yeah, of course Sapnap was the one to accidentally spill to the public that the two of you were “dating”.

George was streaming at what was apparently a normal time in the UK, not so much for Florida, and Clay was sleeping while you were watching his stream while making some food for yourself. It was going fine, a bit of a chill stream, and you leaned against the fridge as your oven preheated, tired eyes following his Minecraft skin. 

“Sophie, thank you for the dono! ‘Hey George, I love your videos, just wanted to ask if you were speedrunning with Dream today?’” he read out, and you could faintly hear Sapnap join the stream through your headphones. 

“No I’m not, Dream’s… I don’t know what Dream’s doing right now, actually. He’s not responding to me, though. Probably talking to his girlfriend still.” he continued, exaggerating the last part mockingly, still playing into the whiny role of being upset that Clay was ditching the two of them for you. That majorly woke you up, though, as you stood straight on your feet immediately, because oh no, nobody was supposed to know.

You exited out of the Twitch app quickly, letting the stream play in the background as you tried to fish for Sapnap’s profile on Discord and text him as quick as possible, trying to warn him to not let anybody know, but before you could do it, you heard his laughter clear in the stream.

“Yeah, Y/N, his sweetie poo.” Sapnap said, causing George to laugh even louder, before moving onto the next topic, and your heartbeat picked up an insane amount, nails loud and probably damaging your phone screen as you typed as quickly as humanly possible to yell at him because this was not planned, at all.

You heard him go quiet after you shot him a couple of messages over Discord (“SAPNAP” “ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID” “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU” “NOBODY KNOWS YET” “IM GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU”), type something to George who then fell quiet as well for a few seconds, pure horror on his face, and then went back to streaming as if nothing happened while Sapnap profusely apologised to you on his and George’s behalf.

No apology could fix what had already been done, though, and you were left alone with the warzone that was Twitter who had already speculated the two of you were dating long before while Clay peacefully slept somewhere in his house at 4 am in Florida. You bombarded him with messages and waited until he woke up ‘cause what were you even supposed to do?! 

You chose to spend your time finishing the pizza you were originally supposed to make and almost burnt your whole apartment down because you forgot the oven was on for a whole hour while yelling at Clay’s idiotic best friends. You yelled at Sapnap, who kept apologising to you, you yelled at George, who yelled back that it’s not that big of a deal because people were bound to find out anyways, and you yelled at Clay, because he was the guilty one somehow for not being awake during your breakdown. 

He did eventually wake up though, to the shitshow that were his notifications with at least thirty messages from each of you, messages from his other YouTube friends who were fairly surprised, and his entire fanbase going ham on Twitter. He was surprisingly calm about it - calmer than you were, anyways, and sheepishly said over the phone that the fake dating thing may have to go on for a little longer since you couldn’t just date for a month and then break up, and you were sort of okay with that.

And of course, the business side of him awoke at that moment, and he giddily told you about the amount of views the two of you could pull if you did the same shit you do with George and Sapnap anyway, but on livestream. 

You rolled your eyes.

And then agreed anyway. 

And so, the charade began.

His Twitter statement was up shortly, telling the people that you’d been dating for a couple of weeks and weren’t planning to tell anybody yet until a certain someone spilled their guts live, and the fact Dream was dating someone, let alone another popular streamer, took the internet by storm. You expected hate, and you got quite a bit of that, but the people that had shipped the two of you before were certainly more than delighted and a lot of Clay’s fans were supportive. 

Now, both of you had excuses to do chill streams together and just hang out and you took the opportunity and ran with it. 

You’d sit and play Geoguessr or just try and speedrun Minecraft a bunch of times for hours on end, doing stupid bits and things you’d be doing offline anyways, with a little more flirting than usual, because that’s what made it interesting.

“Oh this is France, for sure.” you claimed one night, two or three weeks after the secret was officially out, chewing on the fries you bought for this specific occasion, streaming on his alt to a few thousand people. 

“You think so? It could be Belgium, too.” he responded, humming in thought as he looked around.

“I know so.” you responded.

“How?” 

“I just do. Gamer intuition, babe.” you said, and he wheezed at your response, repeating the words gamer intuition under his breath.

“No, seriously. It is France, I know it is, I’ve seen so many pictures of that place I know it like the back of my hand now. That’s Lyon, or something.” you continued, plopping another french fry into your mouth.

“You have? Why do you know so much about France, that’s so random.” he responded, opening the map and pointing to France, although he keeps looking around, unsure of his decision.

“I dunno, I like it there. I wish I could move there.” you replied.

“Why, though?” 

“It’s pretty and heavily romanticised! Just like me!” you joked and he laughed, before letting you continue. “I dunno, it’s the city of love. Be a little romantic.” 

“The… the city of love is whatever city the two of us are in.” he said, and it took a few seconds for you to process the joke before letting out a fake disappointed sigh.

“I can’t believe I’m dating someone as corny as you.” 

At that, he bursts into wheezes, and you follow along, enjoying the sound of his laughter coursing through your headphones more than you used to a few weeks back. It feels nice, feels right, acting like this. You like calling him your boyfriend more than you think you should. 

A few weeks go by, and it feels all too natural. It feels too natural, talking to him first thing in the morning when you’ve barely even had your coffee, calling him pet names, throwing sweet words at each other publicly like they mean nothing. It feels all too natural, and nice, and all too right, and you don’t even notice when the two of you cross the line between public and private, and you’re stuck making stupid jokes about making out when you first see each other when there’s nobody to witness them except the walls of your rooms, but you don’t like thinking about that, because you know it’ll bring nothing but confusion. The current this that the two of you have is perfect to you, perfectly lighthearted and funny and fun, and you intend on keeping it that way, refusing to think about it in any way past jokes.

That is, until you can’t anymore.

It’s late, again, and you’re staring at his contact name on your phone screen, lazily lying on the bed. It reminds you of a night from roughly 3 months ago, when your whole friendship seemed to change in the few seconds it took you to process what he’d asked of you, and it feels weird, but nice.

“My mom really likes you, you know?” Clay breaks the quiet that you’ve learned to appreciate in his presence, and you exhale through your nose, the noise just short of a chuckle.

“Yeah?” You laugh, and he does as well.

“Yeah.” He reaffirms. “She thinks you’re a great girlfriend. Apparently I seem brighter ever since we got together.”

You laugh again. “I am a great girlfriend, to be fair. She’s totally right.” 

“Well, I wouldn’t know that. If you’re as good of a girlfriend as you pretend to be, though, then you’re amazing.” He says, and words fly out of your mouth before you can stop them. 

“Yeah? You wanna find out?” The flirty nature is nothing strange to the two of you, but this time it feels kinda different, it feels like you’re stepping into dangerous territory that there’s no coming back from. You feel like you’ve ruined everything, for some reason.

He laughs, like normal, though. He laughs like nothing happened at all, and you’re so, so grateful for that.

“Sure, let’s do it. You’re about to unpack the full Clay boyfriend experience.” He snickers and you laugh as well. 

“That means I just unlock the dick as well as the personality.” you respond, quick as always, and the wheeze that escapes him is so loud that it makes you laugh too.

“...Unlock the dick…” he repeats through another wheeze and you nod, laughing.

“Yeah! I mean I’m literally experiencing the boyfriend experience without actually having a boyfriend, it’s fuckin’ great.” you say and he hums.

“You could have one, though.” 

The implications are crazy, his words are crazy, he’s crazy and everything that he could mean and couldn’t mean by that is driving you crazy too, brain faltering and heart seeming way too big for your chest to contain it. It’s silent.

“I could, I guess.” 

You choose to say, and he switches the topic naturally, like he never said anything.

Things are never the same again.

It’s not in a bad way. Sure, it is kind of a bad way for the feelings you’re trying to push down inside you, a bad way for hot nights when the unbearable heat forces you to stay up even when you don’t want to and you have no choice but to think about why you feel the way you feel as you melt into the burning sheets below you, a bad way for when he jokes about finding somebody else and you feel your stomach churning. A bad way for realising that this fake dating thing is really getting to you, but not a bad way in general.

Maybe it’s in a good way. Maybe the underlying implications whenever he makes jokes about making the relationship real are good, maybe the way he calls you in the middle of the night when he’s anxious and freaking out and defends himself by saying: “You’re my girlfriend, you’re always there for me, I just figured I could call you.” and you end up wondering if it’s possible to say jokes in such a vulnerable state or if he’s serious is good, maybe the way it’s been a few months and he won’t tell his own best friends that it was a joke the whole time is good, maybe the way you confronted him about it and he said he likes having you as his girlfriend is good. 

Maybe the way the two of you are always walking the line between joking and being serious, between being friends and something more, between lies and pranks and emotional investment and fear of committing, and the way you’re always trying to push the other off, is good. 

The fans love it. The fanart is incredible (serves especially well for those hot nights when you can’t fall asleep and you scroll, watching yourself fall in love with Clay in every universe, tales told by people who observe your story and find it worthy enough to retell in their own words, to take the love you pretend to have and turn it into something real), people love to gush over the compliments he sprinkles in at random times during conversation and the general flirty dynamic is loved by many, pulling in more views and attraction for you. 

And you suppose that’s good too, but at some point, the good warps into bad, bad warps into terrible, and you wonder if this is all even worth the sleepless nights, wondering if he feels the same way.

Those thoughts haunt you more and more often every day. When you wake up, and text him first thing in the morning, your brain acknowledges that the camera is off - nobody’s around, people aren’t listening, so why are you still playing the role of a girlfriend and starting up a conversation with him when you haven’t even brushed your teeth properly? When you’re editing in the middle of the day and he calls to keep you company, making more stupid boyfriend jokes, your stomach flips in a weird way that makes you hate him, hate the way he can joke about these things so freely, like it doesn’t hurt him. Like it doesn’t affect him like it affects you. 

But, as much as you wish you could hate him, you couldn’t bring yourself to, and that was the worst part. Because, in reality, whenever he laughed you’d smile without realising you did, whenever anything exciting happened to you he was the first one you went to, whenever you wanted to laugh or cry or sit in silence for hours or complain you always went to him, the one person who you know would listen. In reality, whenever he made a joke about giving up on the fake dating and making it real, you wished so bad that he was serious this time, that this was what it took and he’d crack and all of your suffering would end.

It eventually happens.

It’s a pretty chilly morning, birds chirp outside and the sun that slowly rises is covering the kitchen floor in a golden hue as you pour milk into your cereal with one hand and hold your phone in the other, letting Clay ramble about whatever it was this time, when he brought it up.

“So, when do you wanna come down to Florida again?” he asks casually, and you almost drop the gallon of milk in your hand. 

“What?” 

“I said, when are you coming down to Florida again? Last time you came was pretty fun.” he says, and an empty silence follows. There’s an unsaid “I miss you” that you don’t hear, and he’s too afraid of saying it. 

“Florida wasn’t exactly on my schedule this month, man.” you say, placing your phone on the counter for a second. Clay sure knew how to surprise a person.

“Well put it down, then.” he jokes, and you hum.

“What, you got another wedding coming up?” you giggle and he groans - you never really stopped making fun of him for that wedding.

“No, I don’t. Can’t a man just miss seeing his beloved girlfriend?” It’s unbelievable how quickly dread can wash over you as soon as he makes one of those jokes. You were convinced the mix of anxiety and butterflies that appears in your stomach was gonna kill you sometime soon.

“He can, he’s just being weirdly insistent.” you argue nonetheless. “But sure, I’ll consider it.”

You do more than consider it - in a few weeks, you’re back at the airport, and falling into his arms has never given you such an adrenaline rush in your whole life. Something about having him wrapped around you, close to you, the warmth of his body radiating into yours sent you spiraling, head clouded with nothing but love and the fact that you wish you could stay there forever. You wished you could press pause and cherish the moment, let yourself bask in that feeling of pure love, pure adoration that you helplessly drowned in. But you couldn’t, and you left his arms feeling oddly empty. 

Hiding the fact that you were unapologetically head over heels for him proved to be a hundred times more difficult when you were right there, next to him, talking to him, when you could just kiss him any second, feel his lips on yours and nobody would stop you - the opportunity was right there, looming over you, the devil on your shoulder taunting you, telling you to do it. 

You got to wake up in the same house as him, watch his hair stick out in different directions and his raspy morning voice as he complained about the smell of your coffee, watch his eyes glint whenever he talked about something he liked and observe as he carried around Patches like a little baby. You got to experience every bit of domestic without the consequences of committing, and you wondered just how far this would go. For how much longer would the two of you blatantly ignore the fact that you were a couple that slapped the title “fake” on it because you were cowards who refused to admit what this truly was. 

Not for long, apparently, because you grew tired, and decided to put an end to everything on one random Thursday night - and if he hated you forever for it, then so be it. 

You were sitting on his couch, watching a random movie together, drowning in one of his Dream hoodies while you chewed the popcorn he made. It was dark outside, just past midnight, and you could see the branches of a tree swaying calmly through one of the nearby windows - the silence while he scrolled through his phone lazily was comforting too, everything was lazy and serene and it would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t for the constant anxiety that gripped you by the throat whenever you were in his close proximity, the nervousness that killed you, the upset feeling of wanting to cuddle up with him but knowing you can’t because you guys are just friends, and nothing more.

The couple on the screen kiss while a violin plays in the background - how fitting. Maybe that’s what pushes you to the edge, or maybe you were just that sick and tired.

You were exhausted, beyond exhausted. Your eyes were tired, the anxiety was morphing into annoyance and anger and you were ready to give up on it all. If this ended the friendship, at least you two had a good run. Your heart couldn’t take it anymore.

“You know, you still owe me a favor in return for pretending to be your girlfriend.” you say, and you sound gone, zoned out, more than you wish you were. You hear his phone turn off with a click.

“Yeah? What do you want?” Clay asks, and you blankly stare at the TV for a few seconds before turning to face him, eyes burning. 

“Kiss me.” 

It’s silent. The characters on screen are arguing. You hear the wind through one of his open windows.

“What?” he asks, voice cracking, and his expression falls. You’ve fucked it. Oh well.

“I want you to kiss me. Kiss me like you mean it. Kiss me like someone’s watching and you wanna make it believable.” you say, eyes boring into his, your words having nowhere near as much of an effect on yourself as they do on him. Your eyes sting like they’re being lit on fire, and your throat is sort of closing up, but it’s fine. “Let me have this before I go, because once I leave, I don’t wanna do this anymore, Clay. I can’t pretend like I don’t want you to introduce me as your girlfriend and fully mean it. I can’t lie to your face anymore.” 

Silence. Deafening silence, once again.

“I love you.” he blurts out, and you don’t even register it at first. “I don’t want this shit to be fake either. God, I really don’t. It hasn’t been fake for a while now, at least not on my part. I’m sorry, it’s just- it was easier to keep this bit going than it was to actually admit that I’m… into you.”

And once again, the room falls into silence, much like it always does whenever the two of you share moments like these.

And then, you burst into laughter.

“So… so you mean to tell me, that both of us have liked each other this whooooole fucking time, and just refused to admit it and ‘pretended to date’ instead?” you burst into giggles, and he looks sort of hesitant to laugh, but he does anyway.

“I mean… yeah? I was waiting for you to call me out for doing all that when nobody was watching! Why did you never call me out?! Don’t blame me, I made it so damn obvious that I wanted you!” he protests, and you almost can’t believe what you’re hearing.

“Excuse me? You should’ve just fucking told me instead of making a million and one jokes about how I’m your girlfriend! We’re not in middle school, Clay!” you argue.

“Yeah, but I thought you’d catch on and talk to me about it at some point! You never called me out for anything!”

“So what, I’m supposed to just read your mind now? You’re fucking unbelievable.” you huff, crossing your arms over your chest and turning away in annoyance. As soon as a warm hand lands on your shoulder, though, the annoyance melts like wax under fire, leaving nothing behind.

“I still haven’t returned that favor, you know?” he whispers in your ear, breath fanning your neck, closer than he should be. The hairs on your neck stand up as you turn back to Clay, who wore a mischievous grin and a glint in his eyes that suggested no good. 

You suppose bad can be good, sometimes. 

As his lips press onto yours, that theory is proven true, because he sends a flicker of fire burning down your spine, spreading into your limbs, making your fingertips electric as you pulled him in closer, hand snaking up to grip at his hair - the everlasting grin against your own proves, once again, to be no good as his hands slip under your hoodie and grip your sides, but you think you enjoy this sort of bad. 

They sneak up further, and you hear him chuckle into the kiss as your insides melt at his touch. The two of you silently agree that maybe he should ask for favors more often.

[fossntwriter]

Fakers, Liars, Lovers - Pt 1

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Summary: You tell your mom that you have a date to your sister’s wedding even though you haven’t dated a guy in years.

Warning(s): none?

“Hi Darling!” You mother cooed as she opened the front door of her’s and your dad’s house, excited to see you.

“Hi mom,” You said back, a small (and slightly forced) smile on your lips as she greets you with a hug, “I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve seen you.”

“That’s because it has!” She stated matter-of-factly. You couldn’t argue with her. It had been quite a while since you had last seen anyone in your family. Not that you purposely avoided them- you were just busy doing your thing. You had taken up a travel nurse job in the UK, which took you away from the the United States for a long time, leaving FaceTime and Skype as the only ways to visit with your family.

However, despite hardly ever seeing your family, you were thankful you went to England for your job. It had given you some much needed time to figure out who you were and what you wanted your life to be like. Not only that, but it was such an amazing experience, that you were thinking of moving there permanently when your contract with the hospital ended! The added bonus of being in the UK, was that your mom couldn’t bother you about your love life.

You laughed half-heartedly as you followed her inside the house and set down your bag on the kitchen table. You slipped your shoes off on the welcome rug, when you heard the padding of feet coming from down the hallway.

“Hi pumpkin!” Your dad’s cheerful and excited voice filled your ears, and a real smile found its way to your face as you went to hug your dad.

“Hi dad!” You wrapped your arms around him as he did the same to you and squeezed tight.

“I’ve missed you.” He said, and your heart pulled- this was something you missed. Your dad had never bothered you about anything in your life. He always told you to follow your heart and do what makes you happy- don’t settle for anybody or anything that was less than what was perfect for you.

“I’ve missed you too.” You pulled away from each other, and smiled at him, happy to finally be home with your family again, despite loving your life back in your small apartment in London.

“So, how have you been sweetie?” You dad asked as you both, along with your mom sat at the kitchen counter in order to catch up.

“I’ve been great actually. My apartment is fantastic, my job is awesome, and I’ve made some amazing friends. I’ve never really been happier.” You told them, proud of how all your hard work has payed off.

“You do seem very happy,” your mom noted, she rested her elbows on the counter and rested her chin on her hands, “Are you sure it’s only because of your job and your friends?”

She winked at you, causing you to immediately roll your eyes, knowing that she was wondering if there was a handsome mystery guy in your life.

Before you could even shut down her typical interrogation about your love life, you older sister opened the front door excitedly.

Squealing when she saw you, she enveloped you in a tight hug, and for a second you thought she had squeezed all the air out of your lungs!

“It’s so great to see you! I’m so glad you’re here!” She squealed, and quickly went around the counter in order to give your parents kisses on the cheeks before she sat down next to you.

“And here’s the girl we’re all here for.” You smiled, recalling how happy you were when she called you two weeks ago and told you about how her long-time boyfriend had proposed to her and she said yes!

“Oh stop!” She blushed, waving it off as no big deal, but you couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealously when you saw the giant diamond of her engagement ring on her finger.

For as long as you could remember, the only thing more you’ve wanted than to become a successful nurse was to marry a dream-boat of a guy and have the perfect family. You spent your entire childhood thinking of the perfect engagement ring, the perfect wedding venue, and the perfect household with the most perfect children of your own.

And now, you’re finally living the nursing dream, but you have yet to stumble upon your Prince Charming and fulfill the other part of your life that you longed to have.

So seeing the ring on your sisters hand, sparked a little jealousy inside of you. She was going to soon be living the life you dreamed of living.

What was taking you so damn long?

“So honey,” your mom started, grabbing her hands over the counter, “What are you thinking so far for the wedding?”

She smiled a wide smile, eyes lighting up at the question, and you just knew that she had been thinking about this all day and all night for the last two weeks.

“I’ve come up with a lot of ideas, but I’m not sure how set I am on all of them. I just need to run some of them past you guys so you all can help me pick.” She said.

You nodded, ready to listen to her ramble about all the ideas she had for the wedding that you knew she’s also dreamed of having.

“I wanted to start with my bridesmaids.” Your sister said, and she started to dig around in her purse, seemingly looking for something before she continued.

“Ah, there it is.” You heard her mumble quietly, as she pulled something out of her purse and set it on the counter.

She slid the wrapped box along the smooth marble countertops towards you. You looked up at her, clear confusion clouding every feature on your face and all your sister could do was laugh in response.

“It’s for you,” she motioned to the beautifully wrapped box with shimmering pink paper with a bright pink ribbon wrapping around it, “Go on, open it.”

You shook the shock from your face and delicately slid the ribbon off the edges of the box and gently tore into the pink wrapping paper to reveal a black box.

Slowly opening the box, you found what seemed to be tons of pictures of you and your sister throughout all the stages of your lives. One of you two at the beach thirteen years ago on your family vacation to the Bahamas, one of the two of you from your last elementary school concert together, one from the Halloween were you had coordinated your outfits to be Carly and Sam from iCarly because it was your favorite show at the time. You laughed as you looked through all the memories, not realizing what this all had to do with her wedding until you saw the small note inside that said, “Every older sister needs her younger sister like every Bride needs her Maid of Honor… will you be mine?”

“Aww,” you cried, tears of joy prickling in the corners of your eyes, blessed and overjoyed for your sister to have asked you to be her Maid of Honor, “Of course I will!”

She leaned over to hug you, and you hugged her back, thanking her for asking you.

“And don’t worry about your date,” She said, “You’ll have all night with him and he can even sit at the head table so that you guys can be together.”

You froze at her words. Your date.

“Oh don’t worry about that,” Your mom said to your sister, “(Y/n) doesn’t have a date.”

You don’t know why you said what you said next. Maybe it was the way your mom assumed you didn’t have a guy in your life. Maybe it was your ego who refused to let your mother walk all over you again and pester you about your dating life. But it didn’t matter, because no matter what the reason for it was- you had already said it.

“What are you talking about? Of course I have a date.” You bluffed, face going red quickly as the shock of how quickly you told such a bold-faced lie to your mom, when in reality, you hadn’t dated since high school!

You sister and mom initially stared at you in shock, apparently unbelieving that you had managed to find yourself a man all on your own in the big pool of fish across the Atlantic. And as soon as their shock wavered off, their glee shone through as they began to squirm in their seats, giddy noises coming out of them as they celebrated. Your skin began to crawl as you plastered on another fake smile, acting as best as you could to celebrate as if you had a real boyfriend to be your date to the wedding.

“What’s his name?” You mom asked.

“What does he do for a living?” Your sister asked.

“What’s his family like? Does he have siblings?”

Their questions overwhelmed you, finding it difficult to answer especially since you didn’t actually have a date!

“It’s a surprise!” You lied through your teeth, trying your best to get them to shut up, “You’ll meet him at the wedding, but until then… it’s a surprise.”

They groaned at your secrecy. But their disappointment didn’t seem to last long when you said, “He’s a great guy though, and he can’t wait to meet you all.”

“We’ll I can wait to meet him.” Your sister told you gleefully.

“Me neither.” Your mom chimed in, smiling a big genuine smile in your direction, making you feel guilty about how proud she looked that you had finally found a good man.

You let out a small nervous chuckle, tucking back some stray strands of hair behind your ears. ‘I can’t wait ‘til I meet him either.’ You thought.

————————————————————————-

Sighing, you dragged yourself over to the luggage department, finally getting off your flight from the States back to the UK until your sisters bachelorette party. You were not only exhausted from jet lag, but also from trying to keep up with the lie you had told your family. You still couldn’t believe you had said that you had a date!

Spotting the violet suitcase on the conveyer belt, you heaved it up and started rolling it across the airport floor avoiding the occasional wrapper and spilt meal that the janitors had yet to clean up.

It was dark in London right now, arriving at the airport early in the morning and you couldn’t help but be grateful that you didn’t have to work the next morning, but couldn’t sleep in instead.

Seeing an empty coffee shop, you couldn’t help yourself from grabbing a coffee before leaving since you were tired and still had to stay up for probably at least another hour as taxi drive you home.

“Thank you.” You told the barista after telling her the order and tipping her. You walked to the other end of the coffee bar, and sat in a chair at a table while you waited for her to finish making your drink.

Pulling out your phone from your pocket, you sighed when you saw a text come through from your mom.

“Hey Sweetie! I just wanted to say how proud I am of you for finding a sweet boy! I hope he’s been treating you right! I can’t wait to meet him and hear all about the two of you at the wedding reception!”

You sighed, quickly typing back a fake response and bidding her good night before putting your phone back away.

“You look like you’re havin’ a bit of a long night love.” You heard a deep voice say close to you. You looked up to find a handsome stranger sit down across the table from you. He had gorgeous brown locks of hair and captivating green eyes. But it was nothing compared to the million-dollar smile he gave you when you looked at him.

He was one good-looking man.

“Oh… yeah well it’s kind of a long story.” You said, a small smile on your face as you looked down and fiddled your thumbs in your lap.

You could feel the curious stare of the stranger across from you, wondering why he was watching you and how he could tell you were having a long night- you thought you were doing a good job of hiding how your day had gone.

“We’ll I don’ know ‘bout you, but I have time.” He said in his accent, and you laughed and looked back up at him as he shut you another glimmering smile that seemed to make your heart beat a touch faster.

“Well… I might as well. I’m not working tomorrow and maybe I could get your opinion in this.” You replied, sitting upright in your chair.

He nodded, giving you his full attention as you began to tell the story about that day.

“I’ve been living here in London for almost nine months now, and two weeks ago, I got a call from my older sister who told me that she had just gotten engaged.” You said.

The man’s eyebrows raised, “Wow, that’s incredible.” He said, genuine interest in his voice.

“Yes it is. And two days ago I flew back home to meet with my parents and my sister in order to talk wedding details. That was when she asked me to be her Maid of Honor.” You continued.

“That’s also incredible.” He commented.

“Yeah it is and I was so happy…” You trailed off.

“But…” He asked curiously, egging you to continue as he wondered what was wrong.

“But I was also jealous of her,” You finally told him, “I’ve dreamed about my wedding since I was a little girl. I drew up this picture of the perfect man who would one day sweep me off my feet and deliver me to my dream wedding. And then I dreamt about having a family. My perfect husband and I buying the perfect house and having children who looked just like us running around it.”

You looked at the stranger across from you, surprised to see how intently he was listening to you. His eyebrows were creased in concentration as he listened to you spill out bits and pieces of your heart out to him.

“And I was just jealous that she was about to get her dream wedding and start an amazing family like I’ve always wanted. And then when she asked me to be her Maid of Honor, she started talking about how she would work it out that my date would be able to sit with me at the head table. And I froze.”

“Why?” He asked, sincerely curious at why I had frozen at such a simple statement.

“Because… because I don’t have a boyfriend.” I said, “But then my mo started saying to my sister how that wouldn’t be a problem because I don’t have boyfriend and while that was true, it just stirred something in me and then next thing I knew I was telling them all that I had an awesome boyfriend who was going to be my date.” You finished.

You looked at the man across from you, who looked shocked. “You lied to them?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why either, it was so stupid, and I don’t know what I was thinking-“ you rambled on to the guy who sat across from you.

“I’ll do it.” He said, interrupting you from your tangent about your stupidity.

“Do what?” You asked, unsure of what he meant.

“Be your date. Be your fake boyfriend.”

[everlesslahote1]

‘So Your like Harry Potter?’ (Paul Lahote) -Request

Hello! Can I make a request? Something like Paul's imprinting is a witch and never told him because she was afraid the pack would hate her like they hate vampires? Happy new year and feel free to not write this one If you don't feel comfortable! Thank you ^^

-I’ll try, Thank you❤.

I hope you like it.

Paul Lahote x Fem!Reader 

(warning: none)

Y/E/C = Your eye color

Enjoy!

-

-

-

“We could watch some movies” Y/N called out as she hung upside down in Emily’s living room while the rest of the pack were either on the floor or in chairs.

It was a Sunday and everything was clear in the woods, not a leech other than the normal one’s so Sam gave the pack a off day from patrol.

With only one problem... they were bored.

Jacob was with Nessi while Sam and Emily went to visit some of Emily’s family across town.

“Nah” she heard most of them mumble from their places around the room.

“I’m tired of movies” Jared said as he laid his head on Embry’s shoulder making him push it off while everyone agreed with him.

Y/N flipped the right way up now running out of ideas and looked at her boyfriend who was at the other end of the couch dosing off.

“Paul...” she whined and put her head back.

He took a deep breath and opened his eyes to look at her beady y/e/c one’s, he smiled a little seeing the fake stress she was under before leaning on his hand.

He only smiled because this is the longest he ever saw his small rambunctious imprint sit still, ever.

No matter if it was her climbing the stair rail...she was ANYWAYS moving.

Its like she had around the clock jitters.

Of course Paul quickly adapted to his lovers personality because if he was being honest, it only made the love he had for her stronger.

Though he couldn’t argue with the fact that she tired the 6′8 foot wolf out on most times.

She wasn’t like Emily or Kim, she was the smallest other then Claire and she always wanted to fight with the boys. 

Y/N was known for getting a good laugh out of annoying the pack and they couldn’t do anything about it for two simple reasons.

One, because of the rule “no wolf may harm the imprintee of a fellow pack member” stand’s tall and Two, Paul would kill them dead if they so much as leave a scratch on Y/N.

Seeing she wasn’t getting anywhere with her imprinter she groaned loudly which caught Quil by surprise making him fall out the chair he was in.

Everyone looked up with wide eyes as Quil slowly got up rubbing his hind quarters and glaring at the small girl.

“Jeez Y/N, I think you broke Quil” Jared said chuckling making Quil throw the closest pillow he could grab at him.

Y/N rolled her eyes and stood up making her way to the back yard.

“Where smalls going?” she heard one of them ask on her way out.

Y/N plopped down in grass and stared at the sky trying to think of anything to do a this point.

She sat up and looked behind her to see if any of the boys were on their way out but saw the coast was clear.

She took a deep breath before remembering the words to one of the first spells her late mother taught her when she was a child.

“crescere” She said making a rose start to grow out of the spot of ground she was next to.

Y/N mother was a coven leader to witches in the south, she was kind, fair, loving, everything a leader was but she was a mother first.

When Y/N mother was pregnant with her she fought hard to keep peace with the wolves and vampires in the area they lived in.

Peace was a common factor between the three supernatural species.

When Y/N was six years old that all soon changed when the vampires wanted all of the land and the witches and wolves refused to give up what was theirs.

Not much longer the red eyed monster’s forced a attacked on the wolves when they least expected it.

Killing them all in a blink of an eye.

Y/N’s mother knew her coven was next on the leeches list but refused to bow, Y/N would say that her mother’s pride costed her a lot but if it didn’t she wouldn’t have everything with Paul.

As the vampires moved in on the witches, killing every witch they could get their hands on but not before Y/N’s mother put a cloaking on her so she could make her escape.

Six year old Y/N ran fast and hard from her home land as she heard her mother’s screams for mercy.

She soon found her self in Minnesota where she was raised in a foster home, it was there when she stopped using her magic.

 When Y/N was 17 she ran away from her abusive foster home and made a 23 year old friend by the name, Avery Carson who was on vacation to the small city.

Avery soon had to go back to La Push with her family and didn’t want leave Y/N behind, the 17 year old cried and begged the girl to take her with her and even explained why she couldn’t stay.

Y/N knew that if she didn’t leave then and there she would be found and forced back into her foster home only to be beaten and spat at again.

She didn’t want to go back to that horrible place, ever. 

Avery gave in and flew back to La Push with the soon to be legal girl on her side, she even took it as far to put her in school on the rez.

It was then she met and was imprinted on by the well known hot headed wolf, Paul Lahote.

People told the girl Paul was no good for her pure soul and let to her ‘simple crush’ go, not knowing that she found her soulmate.

Y/N thought Paul was over looking her but in all honesty the large boy was just scared to approach the small figured girl.

She would sit in the room that Avery gave her so she would have a place to stay just thinking about the tan boy.

How at lunch he would stare then after she would look back or try to hold eye contact he would quickly look back to his friends and act like he wasn’t paying attention.

After awhile the pack took notice to the odd silence their friend was giving then soon grew tired of Paul always thinking about the new girl on patrols but not acting on it.

So his bestfriend Jared and pack brother Quil gave him the push he needed to at least hold a conversation with Y/N, literally.

As Y/N was walking past the group of boys Jared and Quil pushed Paul into her, just as she was about to fall back on her butt Paul grabbed a hold of her belt loops pulling his warm body to hers.

It was then they became friends and later became something more.

Eight months into knowing Paul and his group of friends that everyone thought was a ‘gang’, he told her what he really was and what made him go into shock the young girl simply replied with....

‘I kinda figured’ 

Now a year later she was like the littlest wolf and a little sister to the pack but she never told anyone of her powers.

Not even Emily, Kim Or Avery.

She repeated her act of making the roses grow out the ground before she heard Embry’s voice speak.

“OH MY GOD!” he shouted as he ran back in the house yelling for Paul.

Y/n shot up off her spot in the grass and tried to catch the boy but it was no uses, his wolf speed was much greater then her little legs.

He was already in front of a slightly panicked Paul trying to explain what he saw his pack sister do with her bear hands.

“S-she just said it a-and i-it came up and- SHE’S A DAMN WITCH!” he said stumbling over his words.

“Okay Embry do it with me, deep breath in” Quil said taking a deep breath which Embry followed and then they both let it out.

“now what the hell happened-”

“she-”

“SLOWLY!” everyone shouted at him.

Y/N just laid her forehead on the door frame as she listened to one of her bestfriends freak out bout what she did.

“-and I ran in here” Embry said finishing and turn his head to Y/n who smiled nervously and waved at the boys.

Paul looked at Y/N as she started to turn red in the face, she knew not to lie about anything because she couldn’t keep up with lies and soon get caught in them.

Plus she knew Paul would know when she’s lying because he knew HER like the back of his hand.

“come” Paul said to his imprint.

Paul wasn’t mad or anything he is however disappointed his little ball of energy didn’t tell him about her powers sooner.

Y/N slowly made her way over to Paul so tear brimmed her eye’s, she was scared.

Scared of what her only reason of living would say, she couldn’t live without him or bare the thought of him hating her because she wasn’t fully human. 

“Look at me mama” Paul said as he saw a tear slip from her eye.

She tilted her head back to look at the tall boy in front of her and she saw no change in the way he looked at her.

Y/N thought he would look at her in pure disgust or anything of that nature but he didn’t, he still looked at the small girl with love in his eye’s.

“This true?”

“yes... b-but I didn’t want you guys to h-hate me l-like the leeches so I hid it and now-”

“woah woah woah” Quil said waving his hands to slow his little friend and reminding her to breathe.

“that’s what your scared of? that we’ll hate you because your not human?” Jared asked.

She nodded trying to stop the tears from coming but they wouldn’t stop.

“we don’t hate you smalls ,we never would” Embry said said with a little small to calm the girl.

“We love you” Paul said making her put her head down. 

He grabbed her chin gently making her look back up at him and planted a small kiss on her lips.

“I love you Y/n” he said.

The young girl looked from her lover to her friends and took a deep breath as she wiped her face.

“okay just so we’re clear you do magic.... So your like Harry Potter?” Jared said making the group laugh.

“umm, I- well, not quite buddy” she smiled and wiped her wet face.

“Group hug!” Embry and Quil yelled as everybody closed in on her and Paul.

They all hugged for a minute before pulling away.

Bonus

“can we see a little something?” Embry asked plopping down on the couch as Paul wrapped his arms around Y/N.

Y/N smirked and with a wave of her hand a pillow hit Jared dead in the face making him look at her and a hurt look.

“Hey!-”

She chucked another pillow at his face before he could say anything else and leaned on Paul as she laughed.

“that’s my girl” Paul said, smiling in her ear making chills go up her spine.

Jared got up and pretended to storm towards Y/N making her squeal and hide behind her lover.

“That’s not fair, you can’t hide behind Paul!” Jared said laughing.

“who says” Paul said.

“we do!”

“who is we, I don’t speak French” Embry said.

“Paul would let Y/N get away with murder because she’s small” Quil said shaking his head as everyone laughed.

Paul just smiled and sat down, pulling Y/n into his lap and kissing her lips sweetly.

“I Love you little witch” He smiled.

“I Love you Wolfie” she giggled.

“OH MY GOD!”

“ugh, gross”

“yeah just do the do with clothes on will ya”

-

-

-

-

[shit-scfandom-did]

so i have a few questions

1)i cannot understand how you ship k*ramel. their relationship was FILLED with toxicity. from mon-el failing over and over again to listen to what kara had to say to him basically telling her to give up being kara danvers. convincing her that "being supergirl and having you is enough” was absolutely horrible. karamel had their moments but overall it was toxic. then in s3 mon el was married and the whole point of season 3 was allowing them to move on. accepting the toxicity from s2 and pushing past that romanticized time. mon el was a better person by 3b but he was still married. even if mon el and imra did break up in the finale there’s no future for karamel. even during 5x13 kara went to ask on advice about lena. and when winn came to visit from the future not a word about him. she’s moved on and it just wouldn’t make sense for kara to end up with him.

2) how can you hate lena so so so much?? it’s been said over and over again that all she’s ever wanted to do is good. though she’s designed to be this morally grey character. she has FLAWS but that’s what makes her so good. she’s a victim of abuse and you can see her struggle with that especially in seasons 4 and 5. in 5 she definitely goes down a questionable path but how can you expect her not too? after being emotionally abused by her brother, betrayed by her family, andrea (this did happen before kara), and then eve. finding out that kara and EVERYONE she loves has betrayed her as well. I mean how could you not go mad?? and even when she “went mad” she was trying to rid humanity of PAIN. something she later realized was a necessary part of life. her hurt blinded her from reality and lex’s manipulation pushed her down further. she’s been hurt and broken so many times and while that’s not an excuse for what she’s done you have no sympathy for her and that I find appalling. lena has realized what she’s done is wrong, that she’s made mistakes, what she did to kara, and she will have to live with that isn’t that punishment enough? she’s apologized and is trying to make up for everything she’s done by saving the world (again). your unnecessary hate towards her infuriates me. cant you take a step back and see the whole picture?

3) why DONT you ship supercorp or accept the queerbaiting? (watch this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C2w2GBXd_Pg) They are the core relationship of the show while the danvers sisters are the heart. they’ve gone through so so much together and practically dated in early season 2. they love each other it’s just oh so apparent. i like to believe one of the reasons lena reacted so strongly in s5 is because she was in love with kara and she couldn’t handle the person she was in love with lying to her. and kara flew around the world to get lena’s favorite food!! if that’s not romantic idk what is. I feel like you’ve developed such a clouded view of supercorp that you need to take a step back and understand what lena is the love of kara’s life.

wow what a long message. im not here to hate. im here to inform & undertand. i get it. karamel had their moments and even MY perception of them might be a little cloudy. im not going to hate you for liking them. hell I even shipped them for a little! my brother thinks 3b mon el and kara would’ve been perfect but he understands that supercorp is just where the show is leading and he wants them to be endgame. but what I will hate is your hate. what’s the point of all this? this thread, this account is going to do NOTHING. so why bother? I debated sending this and I hope I’m not too harsh at times but I really wanna see what you say. I hope you can open your eyes to lena and supercorp. maybe even become a supercorp shipper yourself!

- thanks and supercorp endgame 💙❤️

First of all, if you want to discuss ships in the future send this type of anons to facepalming-since-chernobyl, this blog is not for this, but for gathering receipts.

1.I just ship it, I don’t get why you have to understand it. It’s shipping. But if you insist:

No, it was not filled with toxicity. Count me when he failed to listen to her when they were in a relationship. Secondly, he is not a dog, he has his brain, he is his own person. People don’t always do what others asked them to do. It’s not slavery.

He has NEVER said to her to give up being Kara Danvers. How did he exactly convince her? How can you read the scene that he convinced her that being supergirl and having him is erasing Kara Danvers? In this scene he supports anything SHE WANTS to do. Also, Kara Danvers doesn’t equal Kara being a reporter in CatCo. On that moment she had her blog. She change people’s live with it like a real reporter. She took the risk and met consequences of her actions aka being fired by Snapper. Also, remind me who told her to create a blog? With your logic Lena was erasing Kara Danvers too.

Friendly reminder that he was forced to the marriage to keep peace. Also, friendly reminder Imra and the Legion out him in this situation without telling him about her plans. She and Brainiac put him there, knowing exactly how much he loved Kara and how much she meant to him. Imra knew that, that’s why she asked him to stay and solve his feelings. She said if he had come back, she would have known he had no doubts. But he wanted to stay, that’s why they broke up. He came back because once again he sacrificed himself for the greater good, like a real hero. Maybe watch the Argo eps because they clearly show that no, it was no about moving on.

It was not accepting about so called toxicity. First of all, she already forgave him that he lied. Secondly, all of she was screaming in that scene, when she was infected with M’rynn’s powers, happened before they got together and it was already approached in the musical ep. Aka, this scene had no point.

There is no future for karamel because you say so?

Kara went to asked him, because she truly believed and trusted him and his judgment. And yes, she asked about Lena and what did he said? That Kara deserved the same compassion she gives others, something Lena never gave her. And sorry, I know all scs scream the 100 ep was about sc, but it was about Kara fully realizing she is not responsible for Lena’s horrible choices. That’s it. And friendly reminder she called her a villain in the last scene. Also, the ep showed than no matter what, Lena always ends screwing something, because she has too big ego, always knows better, doesn’t stand criticism and doesn’t trust anyone.

It doesn’t make sense for you. Suit yourself.

2.Her fans made me hate her :) Thanks to them and how they excuse her every horrible action, how they treat her as a victim, while she abuse everyone etc. I started to watch her more carefully. And well, she is a horrible, white, privileged capitalist, who plays god, judge, jury, has mommy issues and acts like typical Luthor while crying she is not one, while still using Luthors money and resources.

Yeah, many people want to make good and end doing evil things. Common people pay for their sins, she has never. Since allowing hostile Daxamite army to invade the Earth (also, her portal affected the other aliens who destroyed the NC), producing a device that could recofnize aliens without their consent (and it was used by Children of Liberty,)producing and lying about Kryptonite, trying to make people superpowered without any supervision, killing Adam during illegal experiment, supporting openly alienphobic president and in a way Agent Liberty, killing Lex and then blaming Kara and finally manipulating Kara for months, lying, gaslighting, yelling, making her steal Lex journal, trying to lobotomize her and tortured with kryptonite, hurting every way possible, physically and mentally. Working with mass murderer, enslaving 3 people (kidnapping Eve, without her consent putting AI into her mind, basically RAPING her brain and making her a puppet in her own body; enslaving end experimenting on Malefic and Russel – threatening to kill him to steal Andrea’s necklace) – none of it are flaws. It was horrible abuse and violating every human right and the fact some people excuse it is disgusting.

First of all, being victim of abuse doesn’t give you the rights to HURT other people. The fact I have to explain pains me. Secondly, what abuse exactly? Lillian didn’t love her? Lex kidnapped her? Said he was going to kill her? You know what? Winn HAD HORRIBLE past and he didn’t turn into a murderer. Mon-El was abused by his mother and never tortured Kara with Kryptonite. J’onn killed a lot of white martians but last time I checked he doesn’t feel good about it. Also, never said the things he has done were GOOD. See a difference?

Yeah, and all of it, still doesn’t give her the rights to torture people. Also, friendly reminder she lied to Supergirl about Kryptonite in s3, much before the whole drama. Remember how she destroyed the life of a girl that stole boyfriend in middle school? It clearly shows she always had THAT in her. Plus, sorry not sorry, if she wanted different life, outside her family she could have easily done that. She was in Star City, with Jack, doing her researches, making her career. And she threw it all away, because she WANTED to be a Luthor.

Plus, sorry not sorry, if you feel betrayed and hurt because your friend didn’t tell you something she didn’t OWE you, you go to therapy, not trying to lobotomize entire planet.

Mate, she wanted to lobotomizer entire humanity, without ANYONE’S consent, because SHE, one single Lena, felt hurt. This is playing a GOD. Nothing explains it.

Planning a cold ass revenge for months is not being blinded by feelings.

Once again, even if could argue about how many times she was broken, most of that was a white privileged life she chose herself but whatever, it still doesn’t excuse her. All of she has done should meet consequences. Paying for shit you have done, accepting it, fully realizing what you have done is a part of redemption. Still in s5 she didn’t even apologize to Kara. Because she still didn’t understand what she has done and doesn’t feel sorry about it.

Feel appalled as much as you want, because I’m not going to feel sorry for a white, privileged woman who has never paid for her actions and is basically a living avatar of the worst Karen you can imagine.

She realized Lex was using her horrible experiments (remember? She experimented on puppies too) to his own agenda, that’s why she went to Kara. That’s not grasping a thing. Mhm, if you call that an apology then suit yourself. She is not saving the world, she is helping once again other people fixing the shit she created.

Feel infuriated as much as you want, because I don’t care? Especially when it comes from a person who tells others to take a step back while being totally narrow minded about Mon-El and karamel.

3.Because actors, prodcuers, writers call SC a female friendship. Mel did that in her last interview. See whatever you want but maybe stop forcing people to ship a horribly abusive ship.

Well… no. Kara is the heart and soul of the Supergirl. Alex is her most important relationship. Lena is an important friend, who doesn’t deserve it yet, but we all know Kara is the Paragon of Hope so of course she is going to forgive her.

I know you people think sc dated because they breathed in one room, but in s2 Kara dated, had sex, kissed, cuddled and enjoyed her time with Mon-El.

Yeah, they love each other as friends. It was said more than once.

That’s your delusion, you are free to do it.

Kara done that to Alex too, so you are saying she is romantically in love with her sister or something? If bringing people food is romantic and damn, most of the people I know loves me, god.

No, lena is not Kara’s love of her life.

Cool, you are not going to hate me because I ship karamel, I’m touched.

Sorry that you are going to be super disappointed in the end of the show I guess.

You will hate my hate – what’s the point of it?

Once again, because I don’t think you understand the point of this blog or read the description – it’s gathering receipts of assholes who cross tag and hate on the actors. Maybe go and search #gross hate or #cast hate on this blog so you can see how amazing your fandom is. Have fun.

I would rather eat my own shit than starting shipping the victim of abuse with her abuser.

Thanks and no :)

[moral-turpitudes]

Little White Lies:

Masterlist | Rules | Peaky Prompts

Trigger Warnings: Angst, Dysfunctional Family, Unsupportive/Jealous Family Members, Fighting, Swearing, Fluff, etc.

Word Count: 4,266

Characters: Thomas Shelby x Female!Reader 

Requested: Yes

Requested by: Anon, you can find it here. (this was such a fun request, I hope I did it justice lol)

Summary: From dealing with unsupportive and envious family members, to being caught in a lie, Y/N is forced to face her family and confront her feelings about her boss, all thanks to a wedding invitation.

“What do you mean you’re working as a secretary? I put in a perfectly good recommendation for you last month at the hospital!” Y/N’s father yelled as she made her way into the living room of her parents house. The old walls poorly concealing their loud arguing.

“Did you stop and think about how maybe I don’t want to follow in you and Margaret’s footsteps? I thought you’d at least be happy I’ve found something I like! But no, it’s not good enough for you aye? Nothing I do ever is...” Y/N yelled back, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked, his eyes boring into hers.

“Let’s face it, you and mum both like Margaret better because she has a “respectable job” as a doctor just like you. You pushed her off to the best schools, and only approve of her boyfriend because he’s a classy businessman.” She said lighting a cigarette.

“See? You’re already picking up bad habits Y/N. We just want the best for you.” Her mother said, plucking the cigarette out of her fingers and throwing it into the fireplace as her father looked to the ground with his arms folded.

“A secretary job is respectable. I keep the company from crashing down half the time.” She said.

“And what company is that? One where they shove you in a dark room to type papers all day?” Her mother scoffed back.

“Shelby Company Limited. It’s quite nice actually.” She said with a smirk.

“Isn’t that where the Peaky Blinders run the streets? I bet you’re dating one of them for christ’s sake!” Her father yelled, turning away from his daughter in disgust.

“What if I am?” She asked, balling her hands into fists at her sides.

“Who is it? I’ll get you transferred out in no time. No daughter of mine is working as a damn secretary in fucking Small Heath.” He said.

“Thomas Shelby.” She said, his name escaping her lips before she could think about what she’d done.

Her father tensed up at his name. His face paling in complexion as he sat down, his wife eyeing him with concern.

“The Thomas Shelby?” He asked, more quietly than before as if he was being watched.

“Mhmm. What is there a problem?” She asked, folding her arms over her chest.

“No...are you sure it’s him? He practically owns half of Birmingham. Although his reputation is not something I’m fond of...I guess if you legally work for him that’s...respectable.” He said, his tone softer and more accepting than earlier. 

“Right, so now that I’m dating an infamous businessman, I’m more respectable as a secretary? Why the sudden change? I’m doing quite well on my own with this job.” She said as she observed his rigid body language. He hesitated to speak, remembering when the two older Shelby’s came in half-alive after being shot up by a rival gang.

“Well, given his reputation and my practice, I may have had a few run-ins with him at the hospital. It’s common knowledge not to get in their way but I did. I made him and his bastard of an older brother stay a week to heal after saving their asses.” He said, an annoyed look on his face.

“He threatened your father Y/N. We couldn’t even tell the coppers. But...please don’t get too proud over your position there darling. Your words could come back to you and he could find someone else by sundown.” Her mother said with a nice tone, trying but failing to take the sting out of her words.

She’d always been jealous it seemed. Seeing her daughters getting to achieve things that she couldn’t. Being led to a life of homemaking and hosting parties for her wealthy doctor of a husband. They never amassed the wealth like the Shelby family had, but they were able to afford a decent sized house in London, if that was any indication of her family’s status.

After a long, tense silence, she decided to leave. Saying a quick and frustrated goodbye to her parents before heading back to Small Heath. Her heart racing at the realization that she just openly told her parents she was dating her boss. It wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it were true, but alas it was nothing but a white lie. She had always been quiet on the subject despite them getting along well. Polly could see a connection, which she’d mentioned to her over tea various times, but she always shrugged it off. And now she knew it was only a matter of time before she had to tell him the truth.

As a few weeks passed, she continued with her clerical duties. Filing papers and reporting things to Thomas as usual. Until she got a call from home once again, requesting her presence immediately.

“Why do you all need me here anyway? I could be working right now.” Y/N said, impatiently tapping her foot on the lavish rug lining the hardwood floors of the living room.

“We wanted to give you this.” Her father said, flicking an envelope at her that she barely had time to catch.

The envelope was a light green color - her older sister Margaret’s favorite - with an intricately written invitation inside.

“Thomas Shelby and Y/N Y/L/N,

We cordially invite you to attend the union of Matthew Reynolds and Margaret Y/L/N. Formal attire will be expected at both the ceremony and reception.”

Her eyes grew wide at the invitation as she realized her parents must’ve told her sister about Thomas. Knowing nothing she did was ever kept private, unfortunately. But in that moment she knew she messed up, thinking about how she’d have to tell them it was all a lie. That she wasn’t dating the infamous gang leader. A feeling of panic and embarrassment washed over her as she realized the gravity of the situation.

“Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Her mother said.

“Y-yeah. Wasn’t expecting Margaret to invite me, let alone um...Thomas to her wedding. Are you all attending?” She asked nervously.

“Well of course! We can’t miss our best daughters wedding day.” Her mother said, not knowing how her words cut into Y/N.

“You’re loved as well. Your mother didn’t mean that. No one would dare disrespect a woman associated with Thomas Shelby. Right dear?” He said, hastily reassuring his daughter and looking at his wife with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh darling I didn’t mean it like that. We love both of you. I’m sorry...I’ll do better I promise.” She said giving her daughter a light hug.

“Please do. I’ll see you at the wedding.” Y/N said harshly, leaving the house in a hurry as she clutched the green envelope in her hand.

A week had passed since she’d set the invitation on her desk at work. The paper easily seen from anyone near her desk as not many envelopes were that color. It cost too much to make them given the financial troubles of the past few years, but of course her sister could afford it.

It was midnight though when Thomas walked by her desk out of habit, the lamp still on while Y/N had left for the night. The faint yellow glow illuminating the envelope as he raised an eyebrow at it. He quickly picked it up, reading the intricate handwriting on the letter inside as he noticed his name next to hers.

The next morning, Y/N walked to her desk to see that the invitation was missing. Her stomach doing flips as she wondered where it had gone.

“Y/N, can I see you in my office?” Thomas said as he leaned against the doorframe, his tailored suit catching her off-guard for a moment as she glanced at the man her heart ached after. Polly giving her a questionable glance and a small, knowing smirk as she walked reluctantly into his office.

He knew. He knew about the letter and she was dumb enough to leave it there last night. Dumb enough to lie to her parents. Dumb enough to harbor any feelings for the man who certainly wouldn’t admit any himself.

“Y/N...” He said, his low voice ripping her from her racing thoughts as she stood by the door.

“Y-yeah sorry. Busy morning. What do you need Tommy?” She asked, nervously fiddling with her hands.

“I need to discuss something with you. Please sit.” He said, walking over to his plethora of whiskey glasses and filling two of them with the brown liquid he loved so much. If anything, he’d probably marry a bottle of whiskey if he could.

“What is it you want to discuss?” Y/N asked, sipping from her glass as it burned its way down her throat.

“I found this on your desk. I know it wasn’t my business to go taking things, but I couldn’t help but notice my name was mentioned with yours...so now...it is my business.” He said, observing how she grew uncomfortable under his gaze, drinking more as she shifted in her seat.

“It’s a long story.” She said blankly while setting the glass down, wanting to flee out the door never to come back.

“And for once I have the time.” He said leaning backing in his chair and lighting one of his many cigarettes.

Y/N sighed and relaxed back into her seat, her heart skipping a beat as she thought of the best way to explain it to him.

“Alright...so my family is a bit backwards as you know. And happen to just adore my older sister Margaret. They funded her schooling, attended her graduations and awards ceremonies, and they uh...like that she’s dating - I mean - engaged to a businessman now. He’s what they consider successful.”

“Successful aye? What...they don’t think some razor-gang from Birmingham is successful?” He asked.

“No.” She answered, looking out the window as she continued.

“Anyway, when I visited them, they started saying things about the company and how my job wasn’t respectable. I tried to shut them down but um, my father accused me of dating one of ya, like it was a disgrace to the family. So I panicked and said that I wasn’t dating just any of them, I was dating you.” She said, looking down at the nearly empty glass in her trembling hands.

“What’d he say to that aye?” He asked, a small smirk playing on his usually stoic face.

“Oh his whole demeanor changed. Looked like he’d seen a ghost. He um...said he knew of you. Said he treated you and Arthur for a week after a bad night on the job.” She said, nervous he’d go after her father.

“Aye I remember him. A bit mouthy that one.” He said.

“You threatened him though. Why?” She asked, her nervousness turning to a bit of anger at the thought of him harming her parents, even if they weren’t the best.

“They wanted to report it to the coppers. And as you know now, we don’t deal too kindly with snitches. So I had to threaten him. To keep the peace.” He said, blowing a cloud of smoke towards her.

“I wouldn’t say peace. Fear would be a better word.” She said, sipping the last of her whiskey.

“It’s worked out for me so far.” He said.

“Yes it has Tommy...but I have one question.” She said.

“Mhmm?”

“Are you wanting to go to this bullshit wedding or not?” She asked bluntly, hoping her interrogation would be over soon.

“That depends. Are you going? You don’t seem too fond of your family.” He said.

“I’m only going out of love.” She said.

“Well in that case, I am too.” He said, jotting down the address to the ceremony on his calendar with a star on the day, his heart racing despite his cold exterior. He’d harbored feelings for her too, and Polly could see it, often questioning him when Y/N would leave for the night, but he always blew her off due to peaky business.

“Wait...you actually want to go to such a horrid thing...with me?” She asked.

“And pass up a date with my favorite secretary? Wouldn’t dream of it.” He said, a small smirk hinting at his lips which seemed almost out-of-place.

“Date? Are you sure this isn’t some small business deal? You aren’t just agreeing for money or to pity me?” She asked.

“No Y/N...I’m agreeing because I like you. Always have...just never had the time to tell you till now. Now go back to your work before Polly gets even more suspicious.” He said, admitting his feelings like it was nothing as she stood there dumbfounded.

“R-right.” She said sheepishly as she made her way back to her desk, a small smile on her face as Polly watched her. Knowing something had finally gone down between them.

A week into their newfound relationship, the day had finally come and Thomas escorted her inside the wedding chapel, her black dress complimenting his suit nicely. Her mother scoffing as she sat near her, wondering why the hell she’d wear a black dress to a wedding.

“You know black is for funerals...didn’t I teach you anything?” She asked quietly to where only Y/N could hear.

“I’m just marking the death of any peace that was left between this family. I know you both will start hounding me with questions in no time now that Margaret’s spoken for.” She said quietly, staring into her mother’s cold eyes. There’s always been a tension between them, but it seemed even a joyous occasion such as this couldn’t cut it.

“You alright love?” He asked, holding her hand in his as she stared blankly at the alter, waiting for the ceremony to start.

“It’s just my mother. She can’t put aside our differences for one fucking day.” She said quietly. Her mother leaning over to insert herself into the conversation.

“It’s nice meeting you Mr. Shelby. You’re more than welcome to sit with us at the reception.” Her mother said as she watched her daughter talk to the infamous blinder.

“Thank you Mrs. Y/L/N, we’d love to. Right Y/N?” He asked, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

“Love is one word for it I suppose.” She said, her jaw tensing as she saw her father approaching their seats.

“Glad to see you again Mr. Shelby, given this time it’s under better circumstances.” He said, shaking his hand firmly.

“Indeed it is Mr. Y/L/N.” He said, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket and sticking it between his lips.

Her father soon resigned himself from the tense situation by sitting near his wife, who was eyeing the dashing blinder who smoked where he pleased.

“Can you believe she’s dating him? They look like they’ve only just started.” She whispered to her husband.

“If I have to accept him for professional reasons, you can accept him for our daughter. Enough with the snide remarks. Our lives might as well be at stake if he were to hear us...his threat still stands.” He said, knowing that his youngest daughter and her mother always had a tense relationship since her birth. It wasn’t particularly successful, only saving them in the knick of time from complications. Little did he know he was more so the heart of the family, albeit a dysfunctional one.

“They’re talking about me I know it.” Y/N said, fidgeting with her hands as they waited for the ceremony to begin. Margaret taking more than her sweet time getting ready.

“Let them talk then. It can only hurt you if you let it.” He said.

“Now, she better be dressed to the nines because this is the longest I’ve ever waited for a wedding ceremony.” He added, seeing a smirk forming on her face.

“Oh just you wait.” She said jokingly. The music catching everyone’s attention as they all looked on, and surely enough she was dressed to the nines, the whole tailoring industry probably coming together to complete the lavish gown.

“What is this the royal fucking wedding?” She asked, hearing him chuckle quietly under his breath.

As Margaret neared the altar with her father handing her off with a kiss on the cheek, she took a look at her fiancé and then turned toward Y/N, giving her a small smirk that made her stomach churn.

“What was that for?” Thomas whispered quietly, noticing the interaction.

“She’s rubbing salt in an old wound. She’s as bad as my mother.” She said, flicking her off silently. Thomas quickly placed his hand over hers to stop her from escalating the already tense situation. Her mother giving her a scolding look that she ignored, her blood boiling with the fact she was flaunting her status in front of her.

It seemed like forever before the vows ended, the tired crowd clapping and dispersing after the couple ran happily out the door of the church and to the nearby reception. With Y/N and Thomas lagging behind, not wanting to enter the horrendous venue.

“We can leave the reception early if you’d like. Maybe go somewhere more entertaining.” He suggested as they watched the couple parade around the room. Her sister quickly bringing her husband over to where they were standing.

“Y/N, love I’m happy you made it! We were scared you weren’t going to show.” She said giving her younger sister a careful hug as not to disturb her dress.

“Why wouldn’t I? You’re my sister...I can’t exactly avoid you forever.” She said a small smile on her lips.

“You never told me you snagged such a......man. Where did you two meet?” She asked, shaking Thomas’ hand as her husband did the same. Margaret wary of the cold stare he gave her and Matthew.

“At work.” Y/N said shortly, not appreciating her attitude.

“Look at that, my baby sister finally has a job. What is it? A teacher? a factory worker? a nurse perhaps?” Margaret asked.

“A secretary.” Y/N said, staring the bride down the best she could hoping her gaze could silence her before she made a show of it all.

“A secretary? Hmm. Well that’s good I guess. Just be careful though, those secretaries have to sleep their way to the top you know.” She said. Y/N’s face burning as she turned away from Thomas, wanting to run out and never look back.

Thomas cleared his throat and put his hand on the small of her back as she tensed her jaw, reluctantly turning back to her snake of a sister.

“How would you know? Is that how you got to your position?” She snapped back, the anger rising in her chest. She wished she could have captured her sisters expression in a photograph, her words finally cutting into her like she wanted.

“I assure you she isn’t doing anything of the sort. In fact, she’s an integral part of the company already. But if I were you I wouldn’t say too much else.” Thomas said, a dark tone to his voice as he kept a level head between the sibling rivalry that was happening by the second.

“Oh and who are you to threaten me? What’s this company you speak of? My parents never mentioned it.” She said, her husband whispering in her ear that they had to go. The poor man hated the situation just as much as Y/N.

“That was probably to protect you Margaret. You see...you’ve always been a bit reckless with new information. So I doubt you knew what father got himself into.” Y/N said.

“What are you talking about?” She asked, grabbing a glass of expensive champagne as the server walked by.

“He got in my way...and no one gets in Thomas Shelby’s way. It cost me some of my men. So, like I said, if I were you...I wouldn’t say much else.” He threatened again, her fiancé swallowing hard as he led his flustered wife away to mingle with the other guests.

“Why can’t you both get along?” Her father asked, walking over to the pair.

“I’ve done my part with both her and mum. But...I’m not staying where I’m not valued. I love you all but, we have to go. Send Margaret and Matthew our....warmest regards, yeah?” She asked taking Thomas’ hand and leading him out the door. Her father stood there with a tense look on his face, knowing his family had gotten themselves on bad terms with the Shelby’s once again.

With frantic footsteps she walked to the car, tears flooding down her face as she got in herself, not bothering to wait for him to open the door.

“You didn’t have to stick up for me, but thank you.” She said wiping her tears away as he started the car.

“Yeah.” He said, lighting a cigarette before taking off. He wasn’t much for accepting thanks, at least since the war.

“Are they like that all time?” He asked after a long pause.

“Mhmm. Now you see why I don’t see them unless I have to. They just remind me of everything I’m not.” She said, looking out the window at the evening sky.

“That I do. I’ll be sending them something later, don’t worry.” He said.

“What do you mean?” She asked, her stomach dropping as she pictured him killing her family.

“You’re not going to kill them are you?” She asked.

“No...they’re not worth my time. At least not now anyway. And besides...I wouldn’t want to hurt you more than they already have.” He said, blowing a cloud of smoke from his lips.

“Tommy look, I know my father got in your way on a mission and I know he made you stay longer than you wanted to...but you can’t blame him for doing his job. He was trying to help. He may not be the best, although he’s far nicer than my mother and sister, so if anything, please spare him at least. That’s all I ask.” She said.

“Like I said, they’re not worth my time now, love. If they continue bashing you and my family for how we do business I’ll let you know first alright? But I can’t let them off without a warning, so I’ll send them a letter alright?” He said.

“Well it better be good then. That’s the last I want to hear of this feud. I can deliver it to them if it will help...to make a point at least.” She said.

“Take this then, it won’t be good.” He said giving her a handgun from his jacket.

“I’m not shooting my family Tommy!” She said loudly as they approached the Garrison.

“It’s not for them. It’s for you. They’re not the nicest people and I want you safe. Especially since you work for us now. If they hurt one of us they hurt all of us alright? I know that’s not what you want to hear but it’s how this business works. Now...let’s go have some fun aye.” He said, helping her out of the car and into the bar that was teeming with people from the shop.

“Oi! How’d the wedding go? You’re both home early.” Arthur asked, handing them both a glass of whiskey.

“Terrible. Tommy’s writing a letter tomorrow to put them on their toes.” She said.

“Did they say summin’ about ya?” He asked.

“Yes...and about the company.” Thomas added.

“I thought we told him last time that we’d blind him.” Arthur said, an angry look in his eyes.

“Aye we did. But that didn’t account for her mother and sister. They have a way with words don’t they love?” Thomas asked.

“Mhmm. I’m delivering it, maybe then they’ll take what they say more seriously next time.” She said.

“We can only hope.” Thomas said, snaking an arm around her waist as they spent the rest of the night at the Garrison before going to their respected homes, too worried about the mission to do anything else.

The next week, Thomas signed the end of the letter, his hand cramping from the amount of things he’d written. Wanting to make sure his threat came off clear as day.

“Here Tommy, put this in with it.” Y/N said, handing him a lone razor blade, making him raise an eyebrow.

“Just in case they want to make anymore remarks, they can do us a favor and blind themselves. Like you said, they’re not worth your time now.” She said with a small smirk.

He took a sip of his whiskey and pointed to her with a grin, ushering her to come over to him.

“I like how you think.” He said, pulling her close and kissing her lips ever so lightly. The feeling between them almost electric as they departed.

“I’ll go take care of this, you go on with your business.” She said, as he handed her the letter.

“You know how to shoot?” He asked.

“Mhmm. Been practicing with John.” She said with a smirk.

“Alright, love you.” He said, as he caught himself muttering those words out sooner than he wanted to. But the truth was he couldn’t stand to see her go, not without knowing she was safe.

She stood there for a moment, looking at him as a smile spread across her face.

“I love you too.” She said before walking out the door to drive to the dreaded house she grew up in. Hoping this letter would keep them at bay for once in her life. Knowing her only chance at freedom from her family’s binds were through the doors of the shop and in the arms of the man she loved.

Thomas Shelby Tag List:

@msbzowy, @nofckingfighting, @aranoburns, @sighonahurricane, @ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes, @gaytommyshelby, @wowjeena, @fifty-shadesof-tommyshelby, @inglourious-imagines, @thebloodyshelbys, @tsolomons, @blinder-secrets, @reveparade, @shelby-fanatic, @ta-ka-shi-ma, @psychkunox, @peakyxtommy, @captivatedbycillianmurphy,@dreamwastakenx, @lovemissyhoneybee @thomashelbyswhore, @xxbeckybeexx-blog

If you’d like to be added/removed, just send me an ask/message! :)

[nothingbutimagines]

The Set Up (Tom Holland)

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Warning: Cursing, mentions of drug use, sibling bickering, a bit of angst

Summary: When Y/n comes back home for the holiday season to visit family after another long semester at Uni, her family takes it upon themselves to invite her old crush, Tom, to Christmas dinner in the hopes of setting the two up together. 

Author: Dizzy

A/N: Oh geez, Christmas is approaching very quickly! Hope you all have been able to get all your Christmas shopping done (I know I haven’t)! Tomorrow is going to be a cute little Harrison Osterfield fic, so keep your eyes peeled, and today is Tom Holland as well as a few other fics I hadn’t gotten the chance to put together until today since I fell ill for a few days. 

Masterlist Request Any Of These Peter Parker/Tom Holland Masterlist

__________________

“Y/n, what are you wearing?” Your mother asked, causing you to turn away from the plate of cookies you were eating off of. 

“Uh, a hoodie and jeans?” You muttered, your statement sounding more like a question as you paused, mid bite.

“Are you really wearing that to dinner tonight? We’re going to the steakhouse.”

“I mean,” You swallowed, “I have a sweater on underneath.”

“What happened to that cute little dress I left for you on your bed?” 

“Mom, no one else is wearing a dress. Why would I?” You asked, brushing your hands off before sighing. “Lucy and Charlie are wearing sweaters and jeans too.”

“Your sisters are younger, they’re hard to get into dresses.”

“They’re 16 and 18. Not that young.” You argued. “I’m not wearing a dress. It’s just dinner with the family. You, me, Dad, Lucy, Charlie, and David. And you have all seen me at my ugliest.”

“Well, what if you run into someone you’re interested in?” Your mother asked, following you closely as you walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway. 

“Like who? Tom?” You scoffed. “Mom, I know you love Tom, but I don’t. And I know you want me to get a boyfriend, but this is getting ridiculous. Last Christmas you set me up on a date with Ms. Chasten’s nephew and now you’re telling me to pick up a guy at a restaurant?” 

“No, I wasn’t saying Tom. I know you said you no longer have a crush on him, but I’m just saying, what if you see a man you might want to date? Wouldn’t you want to look your best?”

You turned around, placing a hand on your mother’s shoulder as you smiled at her warmly. “Mom, I love you, but I’m not going to get a boyfriend just because you want me to. And I’m sure as hell never seeing Tom again, as much as I know you’d like me to.”

“Are you two ready to get going? We have a reservation to get to.” Your father interrupted, pulling his coat tighter around him. 

“Yeah, yeah. Let me get my coat on.” You pushed past the two, making your way to the door and grabbing your coat off the rack. 

You quickly pulled your hoodie over your head, hanging it up in place of your coat before pulling your coat over you. You quickly wrapped a scarf around your neck as the rest of your family began congregating by the door. 

“I thought you were going to wear a dress.” Lucy stated, looking up at you as you followed everyone out the door. 

“No, I wasn’t. Why is everyone trying to bully me into wearing a dress?” 

Lucy shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you’re ugly.”

“You’re ugly.” 

“No, I’m not. If anyone is the ugly, it’s David.”

“I heard that.” David grumbled as you piled into the car. “And for the record, if anyone is the ugly one it’s you, Luce. That’s just because you have a bad attitude and make unfunny tik toks.”

“I thought you said you liked my tik toks!” 

“I lied.” David stated, turning back around in his seat, now facing forward.

You laughed as he turned, only to receive a small pinch on your arm from Lucy, who was pouting beside you like a child. 

“Ow! That hurts, you brat!” You gasped, pushing her away and knocking her into the side of the car. “Luce, you’re like 16, cut it out!”

“And you’re like 21 but I have a boyfriend and you don’t!” 

“That’s not even a valid argument in this conversation.”

“I know, I was trying to be a bitch.” 

“You’re already a bitch. You don’t even have to try.” David interrupted, turning back around to face you both. 

“Dad! David called me a bitch!” Lucy whined as you rolled your eyes, gazing into the eyes of your younger brother who had the same expression on his face.

“David,” Your father gazed back into the rear view mirror, “it’s not polite to talk about other people’s shortcomings.” 

You started to laugh loudly, giving your younger sister a shove as the car slowed to a stop in the restaurant parking lot. 

“I hate you all.” Lucy pouted, shoving you back as you all climbed out of the car. 

“I can’t believe I still have to say this,” Your mother shook her head as you all walked into the lobby of the restaurant, “be on your best behavior, all of you, okay?”

“Hey!” Charlie spoke up, making you realize you had forgotten she was even there. “I didn’t do anything!”

“I didn’t say anyone did anything, I am just reminding you all that this is a very special evening, okay?” 

You nodded, still chuckling as you glanced over at your brother, who still had the same smirk on his face as he had in the car. You followed the group along with the hostess to your table, taking a seat before realizing there was an extra place setting beside you. 

“Oh, uh, I think there’s a mistake here.” You waved the hostess over. “There should just be six place settings.”

The hostess frowned slightly, confused. “Oh. I thought the reservation said seven people.” 

“It did.” Your mother interrupted. “The other guest will be here shortly, thank you.”

You watched the hostess nod and walk away. You turned back to your mother, furrowing your brows as you looked at her, confused. 

“I’m sorry, who else is joining us?” You asked, the confusion evident in your tone. 

“Tom!” Your mother smiled, her line of sight leading above you as you followed it, to come face to face with the boy she was referring to. 

“Hello, Mrs. L/n, and everyone else. Sorry I’m a bit late, there was some traffic.” Tom explained shyly, slipping his coat off and hanging it on his chair as he took a seat beside you. “Hi, Y/n.” 

“Hi, Tom.” You nodded at him as the inner turmoil had begun to stir in the back of your mind. 

“Oh, honey, don’t worry about it, we were just seated.” Your mother waved, almost as if she was apologetic herself. “I’m just glad you could make it.” 

“I think I’m going to go to the bar to get something to drink.” You announced, rising from your seat as you grabbed your small purse. “David, why don’t you come with me?” 

“Oh, I don’t think I’m all that thirsty.” 

“I wasn’t asking.” You muttered, giving him a look as he rose from his seat, now following you away from the table and in the direction of the bar. 

“Before you say anything-”

“How could you not have told me Tom was coming?” You snapped, causing the younger man to flinch.

“Uh.” David averting your gaze, trying to find something to say.

“Since when do you keep secrets?” 

“Since when do you cower at the sight of men?” David retorted, taking a seat on a bar stool as you followed in suit.  

“You didn’t answer my question.” 

“And you didn’t answer mine.” He huffed. “Ladies first.” 

“Ugh, fine.” You groaned, rolling your eyes. “I cower at the sight of Tom since he came with to drop me off at uni last year.” 

“Why? I thought that went really well.” 

“No, it didn’t. You were high the entire trip anyway, I doubt you remember it at all.”

“Wait, so you didn’t share a kiss with Tom?” He asked, scratching his head. “Cause I didn’t think that was a weed hallucination, but now I’m not sure.”

“No, I did kiss Tom. But, that’s not the problem.” You shook your head. “I kissed Tom outside my building when you and Charlie were still packing up the car, which is why you remember seeing that, but then I ran off before he could say anything because it was obvious how he felt about me by the way he reacted to the kiss.”

“The way he reacted? What does even that mean? Like he didn’t kiss back?” 

“Uh, yeah. Not at all. So I ran off and avoided his texts and calls forever and I haven’t talked to him since because it’s embarrassing.”

“Don’t you think maybe he didn’t kiss back because he was in shock?” David suggested, letting you think for a moment as he turned away to order a few drinks. 

You thought for a moment, unsure of your own memories from the trip. You could only remember small portions of events, such as smoking with your siblings and Tom, Tom pulling you aside to talk, and you kissing him. You paused, going back to the earlier memory of Tom asking to talk to you. What was he wanted to talk about? You couldn’t remember and didn’t get the chance to dig around your own thoughts as David snapped his fingers at you. 

“Hey, earth to Y/n. I got our drinks, let’s get back before Mom sends a search and rescue team.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” You got up from your seat, drink in hand as you followed him to the table and took your seat beside Tom. 

“Y/n,” Tom glanced over at you, a bright smile on his face, “your mother was just telling me you got on the Dean’s list?”

You swallowed the lump in your throat, placing your drink down on the table and placing your napkin in your lap, attempting to avoid eye contact. 

“It’s not that great, I mean, as long as you get over a 3.5, you’re on the list.” You explained, shrugging it off. 

“No, no, that’s way cooler than anything I’m doing. I mean, I’m just an acting major. You’re doing what? Pre-med?”

“Pre-law.” You corrected. “Pays about the same and is not as much schooling. But, acting sounds really cool. Sounds more fun.”

Tom shrugged. “I guess. I mean, I’m taking this improv class and it’s absolutely the worst thing I could’ve taken.”

“Oh! I take improv at school!” Charlie chimed in, excitedly bouncing in her seat. 

“Oh yeah?” Tom raised a brow, taking a drink from his glass before setting it down beside yours. “Maybe after we have dinner, you can show me some of your skills.”

Charlie shook her head. “I never said I was any good.”

The table erupted in a bout of laughter as you gave a small chuckle, your mind elsewhere while you picked up your glass, taking a drink of it. 

“Uh, I think that’s mine.” Tom leaned over, his breath hot on your ear as he spoke lowly. 

You choked on the drink a bit, coughing slightly as you set the glass down and looked at him apologetically. 

“Shit. Sorry.” 

“It’s alright. It’s not like we haven’t exchanged spit before.” Tom stated coolly, smirking slightly.

“I don’t backwash into drinks.” You retorted, attempting to not acknowledge his last statement fully. 

“I don’t know, you might.” Tom said, picking up the glass and swirling it around with his hand, pretending to inspect it. 

“Well, if you’re so worried, I’ll buy you another drink.”

“Oh, I’m not worried, but if you’re offering another drink, I will gladly take it.” 

“Hey, lovebirds, I’d look at the menu if I were you, otherwise Mom’s going to order for you.” David interrupted, nodding towards the waitress that was at the table. 

You gave him a glare before looking down at your menu, deciding to order the first thing you set your eyes on since you didn’t have much time before the waitress’s attention was on you.

“I see your brother is still snappy as ever.” Tom muttered after the moment of silence you shared. 

“You know how he is. He’s not so bad with me, definitely on his last straw with Lucy, though.”

Tom opened his mouth to speak before being interrupted by the waitress. You quickly ordered your food, Tom doing the same before you turned your attention back to the conversation. 

You weren’t sure what the young man’s plan was, why he was so insistent on talking your ear off when you had practically ghosted him like an ex-boyfriend for almost a year prior to the current exchange. You wanted to shrug it off, but you couldn’t get past it and it tortured you more for Tom to be so kind to you than it had ignoring him. 

It’s not that you were okay with ghosting him in the past, in fact, you felt like it was a true breakup without you having ever been with Tom. It was a stupid, little interaction that you could’ve talked about and explained away had you actually given him a chance to speak to you, but instead you let your own pride get in the way of that. 

“Y/n, did you hear what I said?” Tom asked, his hand resting on yours. 

You blinked for a moment, clearing your throat and slipping your hand from under his as you shook you head. “No, sorry, what did you say?”

“Oh, don’t take it personally, Tom,” Your father started, “Y/n’s always in her own head. She never really hears anyone.”

“Dad, it’s fine.” You shook your head again. “What did you say, Tom?”

“I asked if you wanted to get a drink and speak privately for a moment.” 

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” 

“I think it is,” Your mother stated, now interrupting. “You two go ahead. We’ll come get you when the food comes.”

You mentally cursed yourself and your parents as you followed Tom’s motions, setting down your napkin alongside his and rising from your seat. You allowed him to place a hand on your lower back and guide you away from the group and to the bar, much to your own internal dismay. 

“We need to talk.” Tom stated, taking a seat at the empty bar as he looked at you.

You crossed your arms over your chest. “Is that why you came tonight? Just to confront me? You could’ve just called if you wanted that.” 

“I would’ve if you didn’t block me.” Tom asserted himself before pointing to the empty seat beside him. “And have a seat, please, it’s weird that you’re just standing there.”

You took a seat beside him, leaning away from him and against the bar, as if you wanted to put as much space between you both. 

“I came tonight because I wanted to see you, not just talk about how you drop kicked me out of your life.” 

“I wouldn’t say I drop kicked you...” 

“You kissed me, ran away in a split second, and then proceeded to block me. I think that is the definition of drop kicking someone.” 

“Actually, I think it’s when you jump up and kick someone.” You joked, attempting to redirect the conversation away from your mistakes. 

“I’m about to drop kick you if you don’t take this seriously.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“For what? Drop kicking me or making a joke out of it when I’m trying to be vulnerable with you?”

“Both.” You shifted in your seat, uncomfortable and feeling as though you were a child about to go to the principal’s office. “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, I think I’m just trying to protect my own.” 

“David’s right, you are selfish and trying to talk to you was a mistake.” Tom shook his head, rising from his seat. 

“Tom, wait.” You grabbed his arm, only for him to shake you off. 

“I have been waiting, Y/n. I’ve been waiting the past year for you to talk to me or be willing to see me and every time I think you will, you disappoint.”

“Tom, I-”

“You know, I begged your parents to let me come here to see you, to spend time with your family? They didn’t ask me. Once I realized you were never going to speak to me again over something so stupid, I had to swallow my own pride, unlike you, just to see you again.” Tom ran a hand through his hair, attempting to calm down as he looked away from you. “I swallowed my own pride to see you choking on yours and still acting as if I was the one in the wrong somehow. You kissed me, you blocked me. You didn’t even let me assess the situation before you did it for me and now I’m the bad guy?”

“I don’t think you’re a bad guy.” 

“Really? Because both Charlie and David have said multiple times that you claim that I rejected you when I never did. That you could just tell that I didn’t like you so you pushed me away when the truth was that I did like you. God, Y/n, I’d been in love with you since primary school and the one time I realized you reciprocated feelings, you ran away like you hadn’t.” 

“I’m sorry, okay?” You cried, falling back into your seat. “I didn’t think it would be a huge deal until it was and I was scared that the outcome of my actions wasn’t going to be the one I had been hoping for. When I kissed you, you didn’t seem to like it and when I ran, you didn’t chase after me and I took that as you not liking me and wanting to get the fuck out of the situation.” 

“But that’s what I’m saying, Y/n! You’re always so focused on yourself that you don’t even realize how other people are feeling. I tried to run after you, I did, but I lost you halfway up the stairs and I couldn’t remember your room number.” Tom explained, exasperated. “I even tried to call but you didn’t pick up and your brother and sister convinced me it was best to just go home so we did. I thought you needed space, but once it got to be so long, I didn’t know what to do.” 

“You really chased after me?”

“Of course I did. I loved you, Y/n. I wanted to be with you. I’m here because I still do, but I’m starting to think this was a mistake. I should go, I shouldn’t have come in the first place.”

Tom straightened up before turning on his heel and starting to walk back to the table to collect his things and leave. 

You watched as he did so, something in you pulling you up off of your seat and making you grab him by the arm even though you wanted to cower away like you once had before. 

Tom turned towards you, about to say something when you collided your lips with his, the action feeling more natural than it had the first time you kissed him. He melted into you, his free hand resting on your hip as he kissed back, causing you to smile at the gesture before pulling away. 

“Please, Tom, don’t go.” You whispered. “I want you to stay. I want to make it up to you for all the heartache and lost time. I never meant to hurt you and I was being selfish and that wasn’t fair. I want to try to work something out with you.” 

“If I stay will you buy me that drink you promised?”

“I’ll do anything if you stay.” 

Tom looked away for a moment, as if he was pondering something. “Hmm. I’ll think about it.”

“Tom, please.” 

“Fine, I will stay, but only because I already ordered food.” Tom joked, raising his hands defensively as you pouted and gave him a look. “I’m kidding! I want to stay and work something out, I swear.”

[rintarous]

you arrived at kageyama’s house a bit earlier than planned only because you wanted to spend some time together right before you meet his whole family. taking off your shoes, you suddenly notice a pair of sandals on the front porch. your eyes shot open. 

it surely had to be miwa’s right? 

shaking off this weird feeling, you rang the doorbell and waited for your blueberry boyfriend to answer the front door. the door opens and to your surprise, it wasn’t kageyama who answered the door.

you stared at the girl in front of you in confusion. who is she and why is she at kageyama’s house. there was a burning sensation in your chest and you couldn’t pinpoint what it was. is this anger? betrayal? 

“oh hi! it’s so nice to finally meet you!” the girl exclaims, suddenly pulling you into a hug. “i’m miyako! kageyama’s childhood best friend” she introduces herself right after pulling away. you gave her a small smile. “um hello” 

“so, what are you doing here?” she asked, inviting you inside of your boyfriend’s home. you tilt your head to the side, watching her actions as you sat down on the couch, waiting for your boyfriend to come out any moment now. 

“oh i’m visiting my boyfriend” you answered her. putting emphasis on the word ‘boyfriend’. miyako suddenly gasps, “how long have you and tobio been dating hmm?” she sits down next to you and grabs your hands.

“umm... over 2 months i guess..” you answered timidly. “oh no wonder you’re visiting him” she giggles. “i can’t believe he never told me about you” she waves a hand. ‘why would he?’ is what you wanted to ask.

“it’s so weird cause we used to be so close until recently” miyako rambles on, ‘maybe because he’s too busy talking to me’ you thought to yourself as you stared at her again. “so anyway, have you met his sister yet?” she asked yet again. who does she think you are?

“i’m meeting them tonight actually” you say, playing with the keychain kageyama got you that’s dangling on your bag. “you’ve been dating for awhile but you haven’t met miwa-neechan?” she faked a gasp. it almost sounds like she’s mocking you.

“i’m like her little sister from another mother you know” miyako brags, smiling proudly at how she knows more about kageyama’s family than you do. “ah i see” you nod, slowly regretting why you even came here in the first place.

“like we would go out on cafe dates and stuff since she never had a sister and as we all know tobio has his own world” she laughs. as you continue to listen her brag about the kageyama’s, the smaller your presence becomes. 

by now you just wanted to go home.

you grabbed your phone and sent a quick message to tsukishima, hinata, yamaguchi and yachi if they wanted to go out tonight. 

after what feels like forever, kageyama finally comes down from his room. “y/n!” he beams, walking up to you. you stood up from the couch, ignoring miyako’s gaze at you before turning to kageyama to give him an apologetic smile. 

“i think i have to cancel our dinner date with your family, kageyama” you bit your lip, trying to not make it obvious how hurt you are. kageyama raises a brow. “but miwa is finally coming home after a while! my whole family will finally meet you” he argues, trying to grab your hand only for you to swat it away.

a look of confusion and hurt flashed over his face. “what’s wrong?” he asked, scanning your face for any sign. “i’m just.. not feeling so good at the moment” you lied. 

your phone vibrates indicating your friends are right outside. “i have to go now” you murmured, pushing past kageyama. you quickly put on your shoes and made a beeline towards tsukishima’s car. “drive tsukki” you say, entering the car. 

“i thought you were finally meeting his family today y/n?” yamaguchi asks from the front seat. it took all your willpower to not snap right there. “that’s what i thought too but someone ruined it for me” you mumbled, staring off at the window.

"and who is this someone?” tsukishima looks at you from the rear view mirror. “his childhood best friend named miyako” you snapped unintentionally. it then turned quiet inside the car making you feel guilty for popping off like that.

“sorry.. i’m just a bit.. mad or something i don’t know” you bury your face into your hands. “it’s okay y/n-chan..” yachi says, giving you a hug “let’s just go somewhere to make you feel better” hinata smiles at you.

—

kageyama can only stare at the street right in front of him. what even happened to cause you to cancel the date he’s been waiting for. he then turns to miyako who’s right beside him.

“did you say anything to her?” he asked harshly. miyako blinks, “nothing! i swear i was just talking about you!” she defends. “what are you even doing here? i don’t recall inviting you to family dinner?” kageyama clicks his tongue in annoyance.

miyako puffs out her cheeks. “i just thought it would be just us having dinner again since miwa-neechan is back in town” she says in a small voice. “miyako we haven’t talked in ages. you just showed up right in front of my doorstep today” kageyama points out. 

“plus we’re not even a thing, why do you act like we are?” kageyama adds. miyako suddenly snaps her head towards kageyama. “just for old time sake, tobi-” 

“don’t call me that. we’re not kids anymore. things have changed. i have a girlfriend now” kageyama cuts her off. miyako opens her mouth to say something but kageyama wasn’t finished. “we’re just friends. that’s that. so just go home miyako” 

with that, he leaves miyako standing outside his house heartbroken.

[sisterspooky1013]

Only One Choice, Part 2, Chapter 16

Read it here on AO3 / Tagging @today-in-fic

May passes into June and they quietly acknowledge that it has been one year since the day Mulder walked into the autopsy bay. They spend their weekends watching movies, making love, and hanging out with the Gunmen, Missy often in attendance as she and Byers become somewhat of an item. Every other Sunday they have lunch with her mother, Mulder meeting Bill by way of an awkward phone call and a promise that they will come out to visit San Diego sometime soon. The moratorium on weekday overnights fades away and the days they spend in each other’s beds begin to outnumber those that they don’t.

One day in early August, Mulder laments how lonely Priscilla gets when he’s gone for the night, crying and following him from room to room when he comes home and plaguing him with guilt. Scully suggests that he bring her over with him, setting up a litter box and food bowl in an unused corner of the living room. Without the daily need to care for a cat, he spends more and more time at her apartment, his suits taking over half her closet and his T-shirts occupying one of her drawers. He still has his fish to feed and so they can tell themselves that they don’t technically live together, though it’s been weeks since anyone slept at his apartment. The excitement of new love gives way to the familiar comfort of domesticity, questions about their lives prior to meeting morphing into what they’re having for dinner and whether someone can pick up toilet paper on the way home from work. They each visit the doctor for a full workup and, everything coming back clear, stop using condoms, relying on the progestin shot Scully goes in for every three months to prevent pregnancy.

Far from boring, they find worthy sparring partners in one another, debating everything from whether the moon landing was a hoax to the merits of String Theory, arguing their points of view passionately before they agree to disagree and then let their clothes fall to the floor. They discover the things they love best about one another; Mulder’s unrelenting curiosity and Scully’s bottomless compassion, as well as those they like the least; his forgetfulness when he’s focused on something and her tendency to shut him out when she’s upset. Whether completing a crossword puzzle together or watching Jeopardy, they embrace the ways that they are different and how they balance one another out; his creativity to her order, her planning to his impulsivity, his acceptance to her skepticism. Yin and yang, tall and small, bold and tempered; there is a completeness in their union that makes them each feel whole.

Even in their intensity and their commitment, Mulder has never again uttered the words ‘I love you’ and Scully has never said them at all. Far from a red flag or a hesitance to be vulnerable, they simply don’t feel the need to express it aloud. She knows he loves her when he drives forty minutes out of his way to pick up her favorite donuts or reads the latest issue of JAMA just so he can discuss the articles with her. He knows she loves him when she indulges him in theoretical discussions on the mating rituals of Sasquatch, not bothering to point out that the creature doesn’t exist, or wastes entire Saturdays watching movies that were bad enough to earn Razzies because he finds poorly made films entertaining.

Scully has never met Mulder’s parents, accepting his explanation that his mother is cold and his father distant, which is why she feels caught off guard when he calls her at work on a Tuesday to tell her that his mother had a stroke, and he is on his way to the hospital. He doesn’t ask her for anything, but she leaves work anyway, approaching the reception desk of the emergency department with a level of calm only a doctor is capable of.

“I’m looking for Teena Mulder, she should have been admitted within the last few hours,” she says to the young woman behind the desk.

“Yes, she’s here,” the woman answers, “but visiting hours don’t start until 4:00 and someone is already with her now. Are you family?” The woman looks at her expectantly.

“Um, no, I’m not,” she replies, not bothering to explain that Tenna Mulder is her boyfriend’s mother, who she’s never met.

“You can take a seat then,” the woman says with a well-practiced smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.

She finds an empty seat and pulls in a deep breath, taking out her cell phone in hopes she can reach Mulder, though cell reception in hospitals is notoriously bad.

“Excuse me, are you Dana?” someone says from a few seats away, and she turns to see an older man, perhaps in his sixties, with receding dark brown hair and tired bags under his eyes.

“Yes,” she replies, eyeing him skeptically as he rises from his seat and takes the one just beside her.

“I’m Bill Mulder, Fox’s father,” he says, offering his hand.

She takes it, scanning him for similarities to Mulder and finding none, other than his complexion and hair color.

“Oh, hello, it’s nice to meet you Mr. Mulder,” she stumbles, a bit confused. As Mulder tells it, his parents are divorced and not on friendly terms.

“Please, you can call me Bill,” he says with a small smile, and she nods. “Fox is with her now, though I don’t think she’s awake,” he offers.

They sit in awkward silence, Scully realizing she has absolutely no information with which to start a conversation. Mulder has told her nothing about his parents, aside from the details relevant to his sister’s abduction. She doesn’t know what Bill Mulder does, or did, for a living, or where he lives. Just when she’s considering going home, Mulder emerges from a set of double doors.

He was clearly looking for his father, but when he sees Scully his eyebrows knit and his chin puckers in relief. She stands and he scoops her up, squeezing her so tight it hurts.

“Thank you for coming,” he whispers hoarsely into her ear.

They part, hands clasped, and he addresses his father.

“Mom just woke up, you can go see her soon, but since Scully is here I’d like to take her back first.”

Scully gives him an incredulous look.

“Mulder, I’m sure your mom doesn’t want to meet me for the first time from a hospital bed,” she pleads.

“I know, but I want you to look at her chart. I just want to make sure that what the doctors are saying is accurate,” he says with desperate eyes, and she nods.

He leads her back through the double doors and into a room where a tall white-haired woman is reclining in the bed, an oxygen cannula tucked under her nose. While she saw little resemblance between Mulder and his father, the likeness to his mother is almost jarring; her stately nose and hooded eyes curating in Scully an immediate fondness for her. She blinks slowly at them, confusion furrowing her brow.

“Mom, this is Dana,” he says, and her expression shifts into one that is slightly pained.

She attempts to speak, one side of her mouth rooting for words that she can’t quite find.

“Hi Mrs. Mulder, I’m sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances,” Scully offers, “I’m a medical doctor, Fox asked me to take a look at your chart, if that’s okay?”

Teena nods and closes her eyes, and Scully goes to retrieve her chart from near the door. After she’s looked it over, they say goodbye and return to the lobby to find Mulder’s father.

“Go ahead, Dad, I’ll see you in there,” Mulder says, and then walks Scully to her car.

“So, what do you think?” he asks as they stand next to her open car door, worry crumpling his features.

“I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, Mulder. Her stroke was significant, you can see that by the degree to which it’s impacting her speech and gross motor function. It shouldn't get any worse, but she’ll need to go through rehab, and likely need some in-home care for a bit until we know the long term impact. It’s very possible that she’ll be able to continue living independently, but not right away.”

Mulder heaves a big sigh and nods. “I’m gonna stay here for a bit, but I think I’ll be home before you go to bed.”

“Of course, whatever you need,” she replies, bringing her palm to his cheek. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. Thank you, again, for coming down here. You didn’t have to.”

“Mulder, of course I did,” she says with concern. “I’ll see you when you get home, okay?”

He kisses her one, two, three times, pulling her close for a beat, clinging to her for dear life.

“I love you,” he chokes out, and she hugs him tighter.

“I love you too,” she replies, her chin tucked tight into the crook of his neck.

When he releases his grip on her, she brings her hands to his jaw, brushing her thumbs over his cheeks.

“We’ll get through this, okay? We’ll figure it out,” she assures him, and he nods tersely.

———

She’s in bed reading, Priscilla curled up on her stomach, when she hears the thunk of the deadbolt.

“Mulder?” she calls out, and he pokes his head through the door.

“I’m gonna take a quick shower, I’ll be in in a minute,” he says, then disappears again.

He returns ten minutes later, shower-fresh and warm. She sets her book aside to envelop him in her arms, his head finding a home on her chest as his arms snake around her ribcage.

“How is she?” she asks as she strokes her fingers through his hair and down his neck soothingly.

“The same,” he says with a defeated tone, “they might release her to rehab tomorrow.”

“And how are you?” she asks, giving his neck a little squeeze.

He groans. “I don’t know. I’ve been thinking a lot.”

“About your mom?”

“No,” he says, propping up on his elbow to look at her, “about life, I guess.”

She lifts her eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to continue.

“I don’t want to toil away in the BSU for the rest of my life, Scully. If I die tomorrow, what will I have to show for it?”

She frowns at him sympathetically.

“You make a difference in the BSU, Mulder. You help catch murderers, prevent further loss of life. It may not seem like it because you’re so far removed from the people it impacts, but you do.”

He flops back onto the bed, eyes on the ceiling.

“You’re probably right, but it still feels pretty pointless.”

“What would you rather be doing?” she asks gently, rolling on to her side to face him.

“Honestly?” he steals a glance at her before continuing, “investigating The X Files. Making progress in understanding what happened to my sister. Working to expose those who are responsible for the coverup of secret government operations.”

“Maybe you should talk to AD Skinner, try again. Maybe The X files could be reopened,” she says softly, brushing her palm over his arm.

Mulder shakes his head. “Nothing has changed, Scully. They won’t let me operate without a partner and no one wants to work with me.”

“I’d work with you, but that’s against bureau policy,” she says with a small smile, and he looks at her with an affectionate gaze.

“I’m sure you’d have a field day debunking all my work,” he says coyly.

“I would never,” she retorts sarcastically.

He rolls back towards her, pulling her close with her head tucked under his chin.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he says, his voice full of emotion.

“Well you do have me, so there’s no point in thinking about it,” she replies.

He sighs deeply, reaching past her to turn off the bedside lamp, and they sleep.

[boopsterliv]

Hi, I was wondering if I could request some Canaryfire as a Single Parents AU? Only if you're interested of course!

(You came at the perfect time! Writer’s block has been kicking my ass. But here is the story! Don’t have much to say as an opening statement, except that I love the oc I have created. She doesn’t even show up in the story, but I love her. Hope you enjoy it! AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38856489/chapters/99049293)

Laurel had gone through the ringer. She found out her boyfriend and sister were dead at the same time she found out they had been sleeping together. She decided it was easier to drink the mixed emotions she had away, but that only lasted for a few weeks. Because lo-and-behold, she was pregnant with her dead ex’s child.

The only bright side to that she saw was Ollie wouldn’t be around to argue about it with her. Only her opinion would matter here. Having a kid would surely make it harder to get through law school. Not to mention her parents (who were already going through enough shit) would probably freak out. So, she did the only thing she thought she could do. She got out of Star.

Transferring to Central was rough, but Laurel loved the city. It was so cheery compared to back home. So full of life. Plus, it had a pretty decent nightclub scene.

Her mom drove her to all of her appointments. Laurel had always wanted a kid, and she’d go through with the pregnancy even if she didn’t have Ollie to help her. Besides, it was easier when she lived in a house with a woman who had two of them before. Still, the pains and cravings and no access to caffeine wasn’t very pleasant.

Cerise Lydia Lance was born in early spring 2008 after a few hours in the hospital. As far as the world knew, the father was unknown, although there were many, many rumors. The Queens were aware that Oliver had gotten her pregnant, but outside of Laurel’s family, that was about it.

---

Mick hadn’t wanted to be a dad ever in his life. He’d rather pretend to be stupid and follow Snart around having a good time. He had gone to the High School Reunion on a whim, had sex with Ali on a whim, forgot to ask if she was on the pill, and now she was visiting him in prison telling him she was pregnant. He couldn’t tell her he was mad. Couldn’t tell her to fuck off. He wasn’t his father. He wouldn’t hurt his ex-girlfriend like that. The mother of his child.

They found a way to make it work.

True, most of his daughter’s visits took place in safehouses (Snart and Lisa loved spending time with his kid), but Mick loved Lita to death. He didn’t know what story Ali spun (she said she could take care of it, and Mick trusted her to do just that), but Lita didn’t start asking about his life of crime until later in life.

He couldn’t show up to school events, though. Couldn’t go trick-or-treating most of the time. Mick was selfish, and if anybody found out he had a daughter and was spending time with her in secret, then he could lose any and all contact with her. Forever. 

So, he’d take advantage of the visits. Pick up some gifts for Lita along the way (Snart always tried to one-up him on birthdays). Give her the childhood and father he had always wanted. He’d do his best to take care of her. He loved her; more than he thought he was capable of. 

---

Laurel was pissed.

Just like she was after Sara’s death. Apparently, she’s so pissed off she’s been banned from going on patrol for a while!

“We don’t need you doing anything you’ll regret later,” Ollie had said.

“I won’t regret it if it helps me find her!”

“I’m not going to let you violently interrogate criminals.”

“I haven’t-”

“But you could.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I miss her too.”

Laurel had moved back to Star when she found out her sister had died. She became a vigilante to avenge her death and protect the innocent. Protect her daughter. She had told Ollie he had a kid, got him to spend time with her, helped them develop a relationship. 

But then Damien Darhk had the fucking nerve to kidnap Cerise. And she was going to kill his immortal ass if it’s the last thing she does. 

But, again, she had been told to take a break from patrol. She was pissed but could understand the reasoning. Which was why Laurel was taking her gear and heading to her mom’s house in Central City. She was taking leave from work in order to make this happen. She was going to drop off her luggage at her mom’s and take her equipment to STAR Labs. 

Laurel got out of the car and went into her mom’s house, setting her suitcase in the guestroom, hoping she could get out before-

“Laurel?”

-that.

“Hey, Mom.” She slowly turned around to face her mother, who was standing in the doorway to her room disapprovingly. 

“Not even going to say hi?”

Laurel scratched her neck nervously. “I... I’ve gotta get to the lab-”

“You can at least eat some lunch first.”

She internally groaned, but let her mom guide her into the dining room. She tapped her fingers against the tabletop anxiously. Her mom came back into the room, holding a closed paper bag.

“Some grilled cheese for the road.”

Laurel mumbled a ‘thank you’ and took it quickly.

“One more thing.” She looked up to meet her mother’s gaze. Her mom sighed before continuing. “I know you’re scared. And I don’t blame you. But you’ve gotta keep a clear head. I want Cerise home safe just as much as you do. Be careful out there. I love you.”

“Love you too.” Despite the crippling fear, Laurel couldn’t help her smile, even as she was shooed out the door. She got into her car, took a deep breath, and started driving towards STAR Labs.

---

Mick had started taking Lita to STAR Labs as part of their visits. Mainly because she had figured out about him being a Rogue, and also because she was a fan of the Flash (ugh). She also liked spending time with Blondie.

Sara had come into their lives a little after they ‘went straight’ (knowing Snart, there were bound to be some heists here and there), and suddenly, the Boss had a girlfriend. Not that Mick cared all that much. He liked Blondie. She was fun. She was also giving his kid self-defense lessons (Ali had given the go-ahead a few weeks ago).

But today was a relaxing day. One of the nerds was helping Lita with her math homework (the one with glasses and a punchable face) while Mick sat next to her trying to follow along. Just as they were getting done with the worksheet (seriously, why were these things so long?!), a woman stormed into the cortex.

Blondie stood up, meeting her half-way. “You got here fast.”

She huffed, holding a duffel bag of sorts. “Where’s Allen?”

“At work. I’ll go get Cisco.” Sara jogged out of the room, leaving the other woman standing there. She set her bag down on a nearby empty desk and opened it, rummaging through it.

“I believe that’s all we have to do today,” the nerd told Lita before walking off. 

Lita took a deep breath and closed her book. “Ima run to the bathroom. Be right back.”

She then walked towards the restroom, leaving Mick alone with the stranger. She had long blonde hair and green eyes, wearing a pantsuit and fidgeting with the bag on the table. It might’ve been the beer he had earlier or pure curiosity (probably a mix of both) that made Mick stand up and sit down next to her. She looked up at him.

“Uh...”

“What’s got ya so riled up?” He tried to make himself look as nonthreatening as possible (even though that was pretty difficult). 

She scoffed, looking back at her bag. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Mick didn’t take offense to that. A lot of people thought he was stupid. Instead, he leaned in a little closer, giving her time to lean back or push him away (surprisingly, she didn’t), and gave her a toothy grin. “Try me.”

She looked down at her hands and sighed. “My daughter’s been kidnapped.”

He felt his blood boil. “Who did it?”

The woman tilted her head, looking him in the eyes again. “Damien Darhk. Immortal asshole. And if he lays a finger on her, he’s going to wish he was dead after I’m through with him.”

“Mind if I help?”

She blinked a few times, shocked. “You don’t even know my name.”

“Well why don’t ya tell me it so I can help?”

She laughed after a moment, holding out her hand. “Laurel Lance.”

“Ah, Blondie’s sister.” He shook her hand with a small smile. “Mick Rory.”

“So, do you mean that? You’d help me?”

“If he hurts your kid, I’ll help you do whatever you want to him. Now, you need Sunglasses’ help?”

She nodded, not even pausing at the nickname. “Cisco might be new to his powers, but if there’s a chance for me to get another lead, I’m taking it.”

Mick didn’t want to admit it, but if Lita were kidnapped, he’d probably (and begrudgingly) get the nerd squad’s help. And they’d have to help him, otherwise Central’s gonna be lit on fire. “Mind if I tag along on the rescue mission?”

“You...” Laurel shook her head, eyes wide. “You’d do that for me?”

“Look, I get what it’s like to have a kid. And I know if Lita was kidnapped like your daughter is, I’d do anything I could to find her. So, I’ll help ya as long as ya let me.”

She smiled a little. “Huh. Guess you do understand. Alright, you can help. You sure you can keep up with me, though?”

Mick grinned, hearing the challenge (and was that a little flirting?) in her tone. “Never know unless ya try.”

She laughed. “Roger that partner.”

They quickly said their goodbyes, and as Mick drove Lita home and sped back to STAR Labs, he couldn’t help his intrigue. He meant what he said. He’d help her.

He just didn’t know at the time how important that little girl and her mom would be to him in the future. 

[calwrites]

The Gala (Spencer Reid x Reader)

Summary: Reader is dreading spending the weekend with her family. Of course, even a gala is interesting when you’re a member of the BAU.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Reader

Warnings: none

Word Count: 6.7k

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

Time seemed to move slowly around you as you watched helplessly as your team moved around you. Surely there was something that you could be doing. Some way that you could be of use. But all you could do was sit there and watch.

It certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. You had gone around asking everyone if there was something that you could do to help. You had even asked Penelope if you could clean her computer screens for her. She had very firmly told you never to touch her computers. It was probably the most scared you had ever been of a woman wearing a neon pink dress and a headband with cat ears. 

Really, it didn’t make much sense. How were you so on top of all your paperwork, while your coworkers were so behind? And why wouldn’t they just let you do more of their paperwork for them? You had already managed to spend most of the day doing some of Emily’s, but she had eventually cut you off. Apparently she had told the rest of the team not to let you help out too.

This was a betrayal you never thought you would face. Of everyone in this office, you thought Emily would always have your back when it came to avoiding family. The two of you had similar relationships with your mothers. Of course, you couldn’t even admire your mother for being a diplomat like she could. Instead, you just had to pretend to be impressed by the charity balls and silent auctions that your mother organized.

That was how you found yourself in this situation. Prentiss continued to work, trying her best to ignore you, as you continued to glare at her. You didn’t even notice that you had been furiously clicking your pen until Reid spoke.

“Uh Y/N, are you okay?” You jerked a bit in surprise, having been so focused on trying to make Prentiss feel your anger. Setting the pen down quickly, you looked over at Reid a bit guiltily. “You’ve been clicking your pen a lot, which you only do when you’re nervous or upset.”

“Sorry, Reid,” you apologized. Reid’s desk was right next to yours. When you had first started at the BAU almost a year ago, it had been obvious that Reid wasn’t thrilled to have someone at the desk next to his, though he tried to hide it. You still weren’t sure if it was because of a germaphobe thing or Reid not wanting to get distracted by a deskmate or what, but, thankfully, the two of you worked together well. Most of the time, you ignored each other unless one of you had a question for the other. You kept your desk organized, so Reid didn’t get distracted by a messy desk in his line of sight. If anything, Reid distracted you more than you distracted him. You didn’t really mind when Reid would start telling you facts about something he had just read, though. It was always interesting.

“She’s just avoiding leaving the office because she doesn’t want to go home.” You turned back to glare at Emily as she spoke. “Oh come on. Really? It’s not my fault.”

“Well you’re the one who won’t let me do your paperwork. I’m going to remember this the next time you ask for some help.”

“Why don’t you want to go home? Trouble with your neighbors again?” Giving Emily one last glare, you turn back to Spencer. He had the most adorable confused expression on his face. Not that you should be finding your coworkers adorable.

“Not my apartment. I have to go to my parents’ house.”

Reid opened his mouth, no doubt to question why you were going and why you didn’t want to and why you were going even though you didn’t want to, but you were saved by Hotch exiting his office. With any luck, there would be an important case that could be your excuse not to go. Although you probably shouldn’t be hoping that there was a serial killer that needed to be tracked down.

Hotch’s eyes met yours as he walked down the stairs. Probably not a case, then. “Y/N, what are you still doing here?” Definitely not a case, then. “You’re going to miss your flight if you don’t leave soon.”

“Tragic,” you mutter. At Hotch’s blank stare, you continued, “I was just sticking around to see if I could be of any help.”

“Yeah, sticking like gum on the bottom of a shoe,” Emily interjected. She gave Hotch an exasperated look. “I keep telling her to leave, but she won’t.”

Truly, this was the officially the greatest betrayal you had experienced. It was one thing to stop giving you paperwork, but telling on you? Unbelievable.

“Well what if there’s a case and I’m at the airport? It would just be a hassle to get back.” Hotch continued to look stoically at you as you pleaded your case. You had always found it a little unnerving how he managed to keep his face like that all the time.

“If there’s a case, then you won’t be going on it either way,” Hotch said slowly, like he was explaining something to Jack. You glared at Emily, who was wearing a smug grin. “You asked for this time off, so you’re going to take this time off. Now, get out of here before you miss your flight. You can’t take the jet. It doesn’t matter how many times you ask.”

“Well it’s just sitting there,” you grumble. Still, you start gathering your things. It was useless to argue with Hotch. He was right. When your mother had asked, well begged really, you to do her one favor, you had foolishly agreed before hearing what the favor was. It was a mistake you hadn’t made in years, but you blamed it on the fact that you were in the middle of a case when she had called.

“Why are you so upset about getting to leave early, sweet thing?” Morgan asked. He had been a silent spectator of your struggle. Maybe if you had gone to him for paperwork first you could have lasted longer. He was probably less likely to cut you off than Emily was. “I would love to be able to start my Friday night early.”

“No one wants to know what you do on a Friday night,” you quipped as you slung your bag over your shoulder.

Derek raised an eyebrow at you. “Are you jealous that I’ll be spending my evening with someone else? Are you just going to miss me that much this weekend?”

You put your hands over your heart as dramatically as you could manage. “Yes! Whatever will I do? I won’t be able to see Derek Morgan all weekend. How will I survive?” If your mother had been there, she would have scolded you for being overly dramatic. Your team, however, rolled their eyes and smiled.

“Get out of here, sweet thing. And have a good weekend.” You glared at Derek, then Emily, then Hotch, but you couldn’t keep it up. A small smile tugged at your lips as you made your way to the elevator.

“I hate you all. I hope you have a boring and safe weekend.”

“What did I do?” you could just hear Reid ask as the elevator doors closed.

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

“Oh I’m just so happy that you finally took time out of your busy life to come by for a visit. Of course, I would love if you came to see us in the city. New York is so much closer to DC than the Vineyard is. It is so nice to have all of my girls here for the weekend. We really should do this more.”

You tried your best not to look like you were ignoring your mother as she continued to chatter while she finished doing your hair. It had been a long day and you hadn’t even made it to the gala yet. Your mother had insisted on having an early morning tennis tournament with your sisters. It was something you had done most weekends growing up, but it didn’t work as well now. It was a little hard having a tournament when two of your sisters were pregnant and the third never woke up before ten. So you woke up at 7 to play against your mom.

At least afterwards you had gotten to have brunch with your family at your favorite brunch spot in Martha’s Vineyard. It had been nice to catch up with your sisters, though you mom still had a tendency to rule over all conversation. Brunch was more chaotic than it had been in years. Your older sister already had two kids, with the third on the way. Luckily, her husband was always quick to chase after them whenever they tried to make a break for it. You wished you could run away with them.

You had tried to act surprised when Kelly announced that she and her boyfriend were engaged, but you had known for two months. Kelly had let it slip when you were talking on the phone. You had also known exactly what your mom would say after the congratulations stopped.

“Well, I guess it’s Y/N’s turn.” All eyes turned to you. Your father and sisters looked apologetic, though Kelly also seemed a bit annoyed that you were stealing her thunder. Not that you wanted it. “Rachel, my first born, is about to have her third baby. And now my babies,” she smiled at the twins, Lily and Kelly, “are both going to be married. I just want you to be taken care of, Y/N.”

“I can take care of myself.” You tried to sound as civil as possible, but this was a conversation you and your mother had already had. You didn’t think she meant anything by her comments, at least that’s what you chose to believe. She just had antiquated ways of thinking. Growing up, you hadn’t realized just how antiquated. It wasn’t until college, when you and your roommate had been watching Gilmore Girls. The two of you had laughed about something Emily said. Of course, she was laughing because of how ridiculous it seemed that anyone would think like Emily. You were laughing because your mother had done the exact same thing the other month.

“We know that,” your father tried to save you, but your mother cut him off.

“You’ve just been so focused on your job. Now you’re in the BAB-”

“BAU.”

Your mother waved her hand like there was no difference. You had to focus on steadying your breaths to keep yourself from interrupting your mother as she continued her speech. It wasn’t anything new. You’ve reached a good spot in your career. You’re almost 30 and not getting any younger. Surely you wanted kids soon.

“So is there anyone in DC you’re not telling us about?” Kelly asked. You shook your head as you continued to eat. Any minute now your family would remember that you were the middle child and therefore should be ignored.

“What about that Spencer guy?” Rachel asked, immediately making you regret telling her about Spencer. Unfortunately, you couldn’t stop your cheeks from heating up as you thought about him. You had had a crush on Spencer since you started at the BAU. After almost a year of working with him, you thought you had it under control. “You talk about him a lot.”

“We work together. I spend a lot of time with all of my teammates.” Hopefully, they would let it go and start talking about baby showers or something. Of course, you weren’t that lucky.

“Not all of you teammates are hot geniuses who are the same age as you.” Of course Rachel had looked him up. She seemed to think that it was her duty as your older sister to find a boyfriend for you.

You were saved from responding by your phone beeping. “It’s a text from Spencer Reid!” Lily gasped, leaning over you to look at your phone.

“It’s work,” you snapped. You quickly excused yourself, going outside before opening the text. The team had a case. Hotch wanted you to be aware, but had forbidden anyone from telling you any more than that so that you wouldn’t hop on a plane to meet them. He seemed determined to make you spend time with your family.  Not that he knew what he was subjecting you to. The only person who knew that you came from a family of Manhattan socialites was Emily, and you had only told her because the two of you had actually met at some event your mothers were both attending before you started working at the BAU.

So now you were stuck here, sitting still while your mother pulled your hair in an attempt to style it. About to be forced into a dress that your mother had assured you was “absolutely perfect.” Emily had shuddered in sympathy when you told her that. It didn’t get any better once your mother was done making you look presentable. She rounded up you and your sisters, so that she could take pictures. Luckily, you all still knew the drill so pictures didn’t take too long. You couldn’t wait for this night to be over. The dress was uncomfortable, the shoes pinched your feet, and you had already been reprimanded for touching your hair and face.

“Oh look at my girls. I feel like I’m in Pride and Prejudice.” You mother fanned herself as she looked at the four of you.

“There are five girls in Pride and Prejudice. You’re thinking of the four girls in Little Women. And both of those families were poor,” you corrected her before you could stop yourself. Your mother threw you a glare, but then ignored you, choosing instead of focus on getting everyone out the door and to the gala.

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

The night didn’t get any easier once you were there. It was just like all of the other events you had attended at the Vineyard. A bunch of snobby people you had known since you were little pretending to like each other. It was the first event you had attended since joining the BAU. You passed the time profiling whoever your mother was talking to. She seemed determined to keep you with her at all times tonight. It was becoming increasingly apparent why.

“So what did you think about the Malcolm boy?” she asked as said boy walked away.

“I thought he was boring. And I think you should stop trying to set me up with all of the men at this party.”

“I’m not trying to set you up with all the men. Just the single ones who are around your age.” You tried to respond, but your mother was already off to the next man, dragging you along behind her.

“Thomas,” she called, approaching a group. Your breath caught as the man turned around. “Y/N, you remember Thomas Barnes?” You smiled politely, though you wanted nothing more than to wring your mother’s neck.

“Of course,” you replied tersely. Your smile became much more genuine when you met Tommy’s eyes.

“That’s a relief,” he joked. “We only dated for six years.” The two of you embraced warmly. It was the first time you had seen him since you broke up. He looked even better than he had back then. “How’s the FBI? I don’t know how you do it. I get nervous just reading about your cases.”

“You read about my cases?” you asked in surprise. Part of you had always assumed that Tommy would resent you for joining the FBI. After all, that was what had caused you to break up after you both graduated from college.

“Of course! I get to brag about how my ex girlfriend is a badass FBI agent. It gets my friends to shut up when they start telling me that I was an idiot for letting you go.” You were so caught up in your conversation that you didn’t even notice your mother slipping away into the crowd, a pleased look on her face. She had never made it a secret that breaking up with Tommy was the worst mistake you ever made as far as she was concerned. Joining the FBI was a close second.

You cleared your throat a bit uncomfortably. “The FBI is good. Keeps me busy. This is the first time I’ve seen my family in months.”

“Oh, I can let you get back to them.”

Your hand shot out to grab his arm as he began to turn away. “Please don’t,” you begged. When Tommy laughed it felt like you were kids again, sneaking champagne glasses when your parents weren’t looking. “How’s New York? I’ll admit that I don’t read about your financial world, but I hear you’re doing very well in it.”

“New York is good. We don’t have to talk about my job. It’s boring.” The two of you stood in an awkward silence for a few seconds. You tried to ignore some part of your brain that was telling you that there were eyes on you. No doubt your family was watching you like a hawk. Not to mention all of the other guests who were probably curious about the FBI agent. “I heard that Kelly is engaged. Tell her congrats.”

“I will. So anyone back in New York? I’m hoping that my mother hasn’t resorted to trying to set me up with men who aren’t single.”

“No. No one in New York. You know, my parents tell me all the time that I should have married you when I had the chance. They want grandkids.”

“I get that. My sisters have the grandkids taken care of already, but my mother won’t rest until I’m finally married too.”

The two of you laughed and chatted. It was strange. It felt like no years had passed and suddenly you were eighteen again, but it also felt like there was some unspoken gap between you two now. Despite all of your history, your lives had taken you to such different places. Still, it was nice to have a friendly face.

Tommy sighed before taking a big gulp of his champagne. Your stomach suddenly twisted when you realized what he was about to do. “I should have just said screw it to New York and moved to DC with you. I was an idiot for letting you go. And none of my relationships have worked out because I think I’m still in love with you.”

Any words that you could have said were stuck in your throat. You thought about how you had turned down a position in the New York field office after you graduated from the academy because you didn’t want to be tempted to go back to Tommy. You thought about how you had turned down the chance to run the New York field office a month before you made it into the BAU. And suddenly, you were thinking about Spencer. How he smelled like coffee and old books all the time. How fun it was to annoy him by arguing about the interpretation of books. How cute he looked when he was working on a particularly hard crossword. How he was looking right at you right now.

You blinked in surprise. Across the room was Spencer Reid. Standing there in a suit like it was obvious that he was supposed to be here. Surely that wasn’t real. It had to be your brain playing tricks on you. Why would Spencer be here?

“Y/N?” Your eyes snapped back to Tommy before flicking back over to where Spencer was standing. There was no one there. Shaking your head a bit, you focused on Tommy again.

“I...I, uh…” You just couldn’t say any words. Tommy’s face fell as your mouth continued to open and close.

“Hey, sweet thing.” An arm was casually thrown around your shoulders, causing Tommy to frown at the man now standing next to you. You didn’t even need to look to know who it was, though it made no sense for him to be there. “I think we need to talk.”

“Hey man, leave her alone,” Tommy said, puffing out his chest a bit. Your heart warmed a little bit for Tommy, who was trying so hard to seem like he could protect you.

“It’s okay,” you told him, causing him to frown even more, before turning. “Derek, what are you doing here?”

“Come with me and I’ll tell you.” The look in Derek’s eyes made it clear: this was not something Tommy, or any of the people eavesdropping, should hear.

“Y/N, do I need to get security?”

“No, Tommy. This is my friend Derek. I have to go. I’ll see you later.” Before Tommy could say anything else, Derek was leading you away from the party and into the kitchens, where the rest of your team was gathered.

“If you missed me this much you could have just asked me to meet you for the case,” you said as they looked up at you.

“Y/N? What are you doing here?” JJ asked. Her eyes widened as she took in your dress. “Are you a guest?”

“My mother organized this gala. I have to be here. What are you guys doing here?” You didn’t need to ask. You knew what the answer would be.

“Trying to catch a serial killer.” Hotch’s face was as stoic as ever as he answered. “Morgan, did you see anything?”

“No. Reid is still out there, but I saw Y/N and thought that we should bring her up to speed. She could have some valuable information about the unsub. I also thought that she could use an excuse to get away from lover boy out there.”

You groaned as everyone raised their eyebrows. “My ex just told me he still loves me, but I think we should focus on the serial killer first.”

JJ pulled out a picture of the unsub. “She’s been killing men around New York City that we believe are surrogates for a man here. The overkill is getting worse, so she’s devolving. We think that tonight is her endgame. Profile says she’s after an ex boyfriend.”

“We haven’t been able to find her here though,” Emily added.

You kept looking at the familiar face. “Yeah and you won’t. She’s banned.”

“What do you mean?”

You looked at Hotch. “Two months ago she caused a big scene at a charity auction. She’s been blacklisted from basically all events thrown at the Vineyard. My sister was telling me about her a few weeks ago.”

“The killings started two months ago. Y/N, do you know why she caused a scene?”

You shook your head. “Something about her ex being there. I don’t know who her ex is though.”

JJ pulled out another picture and handed it to you. A string of curses fell out of your mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Emily asked urgently.

“This is my sister’s fiance.” Everyone’s faces paled. Your mind started running a million miles a minute. “They got engaged two months ago. She had to have been stalking him to know that, though. They didn’t tell anyone until today. They didn’t even tell my family until this morning. I have to go find Kelly.”

“Morgan, go with her. Prentiss, JJ, and I will come up with a plan in here and let security know what’s going on. If you see Reid, get him up to speed, but don’t be suspicious.” Everyone nodded as Hotch gave the orders. You were a little grateful when Derek took her arm, steadying you as you wanted to rush out to get to you little sister. But it was important that you look like nothing was wrong. While the unsub shouldn’t be able to get inside, that didn’t always stop them.

Derek, like Spencer, was dressed in a suit, so he didn’t stand out. The two of you meandered through the room in search of your sister and her fiance. Finally, you managed to locate them. Of course, your mother was with them too. Her eyes lit up when she saw you walking arm in arm with Derek.

“This is my coworker-” you began before your mother cut you off.

“You must be Spencer Reid, the hot genius my daughter was talking about earlier.” Your cheeks felt like they were on fire and you could basically feel the grin on Derek’s face.

“Spencer Reid the hot genius?” he questioned, turning to look at you. You refused to meet his eyes, but you knew that he wouldn’t let it go later.

“First, Rachel doesn’t know what she was talking about. Second, this is Derek Morgan.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I can see where Y/N gets her beauty.” You elbowed Derek, but the damage was done. Your mother would definitely try to set you up with him.

You looked at Kelly’s fiance. “Have you seen your ex here?” He looked caught off guard by the question, which was fair to be honest. Kelly looked furious.

“I can’t believe you. Are you trying to ruin our night? You know that she can’t be here after that fit she threw a few months ago.”

“We also know that she has been murdering men who look like your fiance, and she’s probably here tonight. Does anyone want a drink?” You followed Derek’s eyeline to the bar, where Spencer was standing.

“Do you need help with the drinks?” your father asked. It wasn’t clear whether he was trying to be helpful or whether he just wanted an escape from the serial killer conversation.

“I’ll find some help at the bar,” Derek told him. Then he was off, leaving you with your family.

“Are you saying my ex is here to kill me?” You met his eyes, a look of practiced sympathy on your face.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. My team is here to make sure that doesn’t happen. So I need you to tell me everything that happened with your breakup. My team will be listening.” You brushed your hair slightly to show the earpiece you had picked up when you were in the kitchen. “I also need you to act like everything is fine. Grab Kelly’s hand and smile.”

Thankfully, he seemed to understand the importance of what you were saying. The quick explanation was nothing that the team didn’t already know, but it was helpful to hear it in his own words. Maybe there was something in there that could help them. Kelly’s glare continued to be fixed on you, but that was kind of normal. If anyone saw anything, they might think that it was just two sisters fighting.

“Is that the only reason you came?” your mother asked once he was done. “You’re just using us to catch a killer?”

“Be quiet.” It was hard to force the words out without breaking your pleasant smile. You let your eyes harden for a second as your mother met your eyes. It was the same look that had made a number of unsubs confess during an interrogation, but it was the first time you had used it on your mother. “I didn’t know that my team’s new case was here. I came to this stupid gala because you asked me to. Now I need all of you to pretend like everything is fine.”

“Drinks for everyone. And I found an extra set of hands to help me at the bar.” Derek and Spencer passed everyone a glass. As he handed one to you, Spencer let his other hand rest on your lower back for a moment. His eyes seemed to ask you a question. Are you okay? You nodded once. Your mother, of course, was looking quickly between the two of you.

“Is this one Spencer?” she asked. You had to press her eyes closed tightly to keep yourself from glaring at her again. Someone was trying to murder her future son-in-law and she was still worried about setting you up.

“Yes, this is our resident hot genius,” Derek answered. You both ignored Spencer’s “What?” as you turned to Derek.

“Morgan, go with my parents to get my other sisters. If the unsub gets desperate, she could go for them. Reid and I will stay here. Thank god the kids aren’t here.”

“Kids?” Spencer asked as your mother led Derek away. Despite the threat to your family, she continued to pause to give a quick words or smile to her acquaintances. She certainly played her job of host well.

“My niece and nephew. They’re at home with a nanny. My other sisters are pregnant though. I want to make sure they’re safe in case anything happens.”

“How many sisters do you have?” Spencer asked at the same time Kelly questioned, “Aren’t you going to get us out of here? I mean, there’s a psycho on the loose.”

“The profile actually doesn’t suggest that she’s a psychopath.” That did little to calm Kelly, but it was a typical Reid response.

“I have three sisters, Reid. Kelly, we can’t get you out of here without setting the unsub off. If she thinks that you know anything is going on or that she’s losing her chance to get even, she could devolve even more and this could all get much worse. We have to keep you here, pretend everything is fine, and catch her before she has a chance to hurt anyone. If you see the unsub, don’t react. Just calmly tell us where she is. Reid and I will be right here.” The tone of your voice made Kelly’s eyes narrow. It was the tone you had always used when you both were younger and you were telling Kelly to do her homework or to pick up her mess. Now it was also the voice you used when you were trying to calm down a victim while still trying to get them to do as you told them.

Still, she listened to you. If anyone had looked at her, holding onto her fiance’s arm and sipping champagne as she gave a running commentary of everyone’s outfits, they wouldn’t have thought anything was wrong. The fashion commentary was a good excuse to inspect everyone, so you put on your best snooty face and critiqued accessories with your sister. It was hard not to focus on Spencer. After seeing you act like this, would it change his opinion of you? Would he think that you were just some spoiled rich kid? You hoped not.

After a few minutes, your parents and Derek returned. “Your sisters are on their way back to the house now. Officers will be staying with them until we catch the unsub.” You nodded a thanks to Derek. “Mrs. Y/L/N, the security knew explicitly not to let her in, right?” They were well aware now, but it was important to rule out her points of entry from earlier in the night.

“Of course.” She said it like it was an insult to her to even think that security might have let her in.

“It’s not that hard to sneak in. All it takes is a decent wig, some colored contacts, and maybe a new makeup style. It probably wouldn’t fool the guests for long, but it would get you past security.” Kelly nodded in agreement. It wasn’t uncommon for teenagers to try to see how long they could stay inside without getting caught by someone they knew. All of your sisters had done it many times growing up.

“Everyone here knows about her, though,” your mother protested. You nodded in agreement. “If she did sneak in here using a wig, someone would recognize her within minutes. They’d tell me.”

“So it’s unlikely the unsub came in that way,” Derek concluded. “What about the back? Guests can wander the garden and there’s no security at the back door. If the unsub climbed the wall, she could get in through the back easily.”

“The wall is ten feet high. It would require athletic ability that the profile doesn’t suggest the unsub has to get over it. And even if she did, her hair would be covered in leaves or vines. Her dress might be ripped. It would ruin her appearance, so she couldn’t blend in.”

“Actually, Reid, you don’t have to climb the fence. There’s a gate along the southern wall. It’s hidden a bit by some bushes. Teenagers use it to sneak out of boring events here. The unsub would probably know about it. I remember seeing her around when we were younger.”

“You get that, Hotch?” The three of you heard your boss’s affirmative. They would go check the gate to see if it looked like anyone had used it that night. Until then, there was nothing your group could do except look for the unsub.

“You know, this isn’t what I imagined when I thought about meeting your family,” Reid said quietly to you. Not quietly enough, though. You could almost see her mom’s ears perk up, like she was a dog who had just heard the word treat.

“You’ve thought about meeting my family?” Reid’s face turned red as he realized what he had just said. The butterflies in your stomach made you almost forget about the serial killer on the loose, but you blamed that on all of the champagne you had earlier in the night.

“It seems to happen sooner or later with this team. I guess I just hoped I, the team really, would meet your family because you were giving them a tour of the office or something. I should know better, though. I didn’t meet Morgan’s family until he was arrested.”

“Wrongfully arrested,” Derek interjected, more for your family’s benefit than yours or Spencer’s.

“You know, Spencer, I’m throwing a wonderful fundraiser at an art gallery in the city next month. You should have Y/N bring you.” It was a testament to your mother’s persistence that she continued to worry about your love life even when your sister’s fiance was being targeted by a serial killer. Of course, she was also probably trying to pad the guest list.

“I’m not going to that,” you told her. “I already told you multiple times. Besides, we’ll probably have a case.”

“Hopefully not at the fundraiser,” your mother huffed. Her face brightened again. You didn’t like the sly look she shot at Spencer. A voice crackled in your ear. The gate was open. The unsub was probably here. The three of you perked up slightly, eyes focused on the crowd around you.

Of course, your mother didn’t know the news you had just received, so she continued. “Y/N, I saw Thomas when we were looking for your sisters. He looked quite glum. He asked me to tell you that he wanted to finish your conversation from earlier before you leave. You two were looking very cozy. It reminded me of old times.”

“That conversation is already finished. I don’t have an answer that he’d like.” You felt Spencer jerk slightly when he interpreted the meaning of your words. He had seen you two together. He knew from your body language during that conversation that you were comfortable with Tommy.

“I will never understand why you didn’t just move to New York with Tommy after college. You could be married with kids by now, you know. That boy was mad about you. Goody Williams says that he still is. I haven’t been able to get his mother to confirm it, but you should see her face any time you get mentioned. Oh, you two would have been such a successful match. Such a shame.”

“Quiet,” you hissed, not because of how tense Spencer had suddenly gotten, but because of the face you had finally spotten. “Unsub is wearing a black dress. She’s across the room, heading this way. Stay behind us.” You turned to look at your sister and her fiance. The profile suggested that the unsub would be focused on the fiance, but considering how much she had devolved, you had to be prepared for her to lash out at your sister.

You could see security moving in on her as she made her way across the large room. They weren’t being subtle about it, but she seemed too focused on the man behind you to notice them. You could see the rest of your team moving towards her too. Just a few more seconds and Hotch would reach her.

It was unclear whether the unsub realized she had been caught or whether she couldn’t wait any longer to strike. Suddenly, she was holding a gun. You could see Derek and Spencer both reacting beside you. Your hand immediately went to your waist, where your own gun would normally be sitting. Of course, you didn’t have it though. It wasn’t exactly black tie appropriate.

They wouldn’t have a clean shot. There were too many people between them and the unsub. But through some bad luck, the unsub had an almost clean shot of Kelly’s fiance. The only thing standing in her way was you.

Some part of you minds realized all of that in the fraction of a second it took for the unsub to shoot. Without thinking, you pushed Kelly’s fiance to the floor, waiting for the bullet to strike you instead of him.

But the bullet never got to you.

Instead, Spencer was on the floor in front of you. You dropped to your knees as Derek tackled the unsub before she could get off another shot. You barely even heard the screams around you as you ripped open Spencer’s shirt. 

A kevlar vest.

A sigh of relief escaped your mouth. The tension left your shoulders as you helped Spencer sit up.

“Thank god you’re wearing a vest,” you said. Spencer’s eyes met yours and your breath was taken away by the earnestness in them.

“I would have done it even if I wasn’t.” His voice was quiet. Serious. No one was meant to hear his words but you. In that moment, you didn’t care whether or not your mother was listening. You didn’t even know if she was still standing there or if she had already been led away.

“You would have jumped in front of a bullet even if you weren’t wearing a vest? Spence, do you know how stupid that is?”

“I’d do anything for you.” The two of you just stared at each other. You had never heard Spencer sound that vulnerable. Your hands found his, squeezing tight. You had to make sure that this was real. This was real life. You hadn’t been shot and this wasn’t some cruel trick your brain was playing on you before it shut off.

A look of panic shot across Spencer’s face when he realized what he had said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I think it’s just the adrenaline from, you know, jumping in front of a bullet. I’ll go. You probably want to finish your conversation with Thomas.” He stood up quickly, and you followed. Neither one of you let go of the other’s hand.

Instead, you pulled him closer to you, your other hand grabbing his suit jacket, like you were trying to make sure he couldn’t run away. And maybe you were. You wouldn’t put it past Spencer to try to run away from this. To just ignore it. He would show up for work on Monday and act like he had never said anything.

But that wasn’t what you wanted. And you didn’t think it was really what he wanted either.

“Do you want to get dinner sometime?” The shocked look on Spencer’s face made you laugh. 

“Like a date?”

You nodded, smiling widely at him. “Like a date.” Spencer’s grin melted your heart. He nodded eagerly before wrapping you in his arms.

“I still think she should have married Thomas when she had the chance. I guess a genius will do, though. At least he’s handsome,” you could hear your mother saying. Of course her voice managed to make itself heard among all of the other conversation ringing through the room. But you didn’t really care at that moment. All that mattered was Spencer.