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#( also since when do i only have twelve weeks left before i go home?? )
clochanam · 7 months
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hello my besties i intend to be here tonight!!! i also intend to write over the weekend!!! and i've also decided that several people on the multi are gonna be switched around! but i'm a good mun so here's who's leaving and who's being unwillingly abducted into the squad!
leaving:
etienne monet: the best and happiest and sunshiniest of boys is moving to vancouver to start his own bakery.
ramsay gordón: the king of spices and seasonings is joining the cast of judges in a new and lovely cooking competition, which he also happens to be co-directing!
tre.nt crimm: he's moving to ireland to be with ajay, so not leaving leaving?? but like. special guest status now!
bella raymond: bella moves in next door to the wwd.its family, after jennifer realized that at least 80% of her migraines stemmed from bella not being able to control her vampirism.
JOINING!:
mae.ve wiley (sex edu.cation): maeve joins as a waitress in order to gain insight into american livelihoods and relevant and current issues affecting the american people. she also happens to be fantastic friends with everyone there, which she didn't expect in the least.
edw.ina sharma, anth.ony bridgerton and kathani sha.rma bridger/ton: all three? yes. don't judge me, i have zero self control. also, they happen to be rani's ancestors, and they portalled in too, so there's gonna be so much fun to be had with them trying to adjust to modern life!
annal.ise keating: the squad's new lawyer and the only one who seems quite happy to meet them each time she arrives. they contain their crimes nicely, they have good alibis, they're a dream come true. she shows up for the specials and nate's hazelnut mochacinos.
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readsaboutreid · 2 months
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Permanent Solution | S.R.
cw: big big warning for suicidal ideation (first person POV so you get some of the full on thought spiraling) typical criminal minds violence (reader gets kidnapped by an unsub and tortured but it doesn’t get too descriptive), extreme angst, Morgan being a dick at first (I love him but he was the only person I could really see for the role he fills in the plot with his tell it like it is vibes) but he gets his redemption in pt 2 i promise
no request for this one i had a real bad day and needed to use my thought spiral in some sort of creative outlet to get myself out of it so i took it out on spencer and reader sorry in advance y'all
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"None of us like you."
The words rattled around in my brain as I walked absent-mindedly, my destination already in the back of my mind. I hadn't made this walk in five months. The five months before that had been focused on reducing the number of times I took this path.
First, the goal had been to reduce the number of times I felt compelled to take this particular walk. Walks overall weren't out of the question, and were actually encouraged. Especially walks where I shared the company with someone else. But this specific one was different. It carried a different weight. The initial goal set with my therapist had been to reduce how often I walked this path from nearly every night to no more than two or three times a week, substituting it with a different path through a different and more active part of town. After that, the goal was to move to only walking this path once a week. Then, ideally, none at all.
Ten months. Ten months of twice-weekly therapy sessions down the drain. With five measly words. I started to wonder what Spencer would say if he knew where I was headed, but shook my head free of the thought. He'd be better off in the end, anyways. The wind bit into my cheeks and I tugged the green cardigan that hung loosely off my shoulders so that it was tighter around me, the only protection from the cold that seeped down into my bones. I began to walk faster as I shivered, trying anything I could to warm up my body even just a little bit, and thought back to the encounter from earlier that had caused me to spiral so suddenly and severely.
"—none of us like you," Morgan said to me, cutting me off right as I was attempting to defend my previous decision to turn down the previous drink night invitations in the twelve months since I'd been at the BAU, resulting in Spencer also turning them down and going home with me, instead for the last eleven out of twelve of those months. The expression on his face matched the complete and utter disdain dripping from each and every word. "Not even Hotch, who got you the job in the first place, seems to want you on the team anymore. The only person who ever wants you to be around is Reid, and none of us can figure out why." When he finished I took a look around the table to see everyone else just looking down and avoiding my gaze, including Penelope, who had become somewhat of a sister to me in the past year.
"You—," my voice caught in my throat at that point and I cleared it, trying to sound as steady as I could as I asked, "A-all of you share this sentiment?" Despite strength I had tried to muster to ask that question, my voice only came out thick and wavery, and it was all I could do to keep my lip and lower jaw from trembling. I had tried as hard as possible to overcome myself since starting at the BAU, to believe that the people around me genuinely enjoyed my presence and didn't secretly roll their eyes and sigh in relief when I left the room, but apparently I had failed to make them like me and that's exactly what they felt.
"You'll have to excuse me, please," I gasped as the information presented to me sank in. I then stood, my eyes swimming with tears, and ran from the table they had all situated themselves into at the bar, only to run head on into Spencer, who grabbed my by the shoulders with a soft laugh and gentle smile.
"Easy there, (Y/N)," he chuckled while steadying me. It was only then that he realized something was wrong and his smile was immediately replaced with a concerned frown. "Hey, what's wrong, angel?" I shook my head, shook free of his grasp, and kept making for the door, my head slowing down a bit as I finally was able to take in a breath of fresh air as I made it outside.
Spencer hastily followed after me, right at my heels. "(Y/N)! (Y/N), wait!" He called after me, pushing his way through the crowd and finally out the door as well before wrapping me tightly in his arms. "Hey, now, what's wrong, love?" He cooed as he pressed my head into his chest and wrapped his cardigan around my shoulders when he felt me tremble.
I hesitated, debating what to say to him. I could either tell him the truth and earn the further ire of our colleagues by snitching or I could do what I do best: blow every thing up so there would be nobody else to blame but myself. I opted for the latter.
With a deep, shuddering breath, I finally managed to force the words from my throat. Each one stabbed into my chest with the force of a dull butter knife. "I— th-this—," I stumbled, "th-this isn't working, Spencer." My voice was barely above a whisper by the end when I finally met his eyes, which quickly filled with tears at hearing my words.
"Wh-what?" The word came out as nothing more than a breath but within it I swear I could hear the crack in his chest that echoed the one in my own. "Why— wh-what— I don't— where is this coming from?"
"I'm sorry," I said through soft sobs before I turned and ran off, leaving him standing on the sidewalk with tears slowly beginning to fall down his cheeks.
I had broken his heart, ensuring that he, too, would hate me. That was the plan. I had to push him away and make him hate me as much as the rest of them so that it would hurt him less when they found me. I made the last turn and found myself at my destination - the 11th Street bridge.
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Spencer stood on the sidewalk, staring after her long after she had disappeared around the corner up ahead. He ran through the events of the past hour, trying to figure out what he could have done.
"You can go without me, Spencer," she protested as he tried to convince her to go out for drink night with the rest of the team.
"Please come with me? It will be fun, I promise!" It was a strange reversal for him to be the one trying to coax someone else into going out. Usually it was Morgan trying to convince him to go out (Garcia had literally forced him to go out with her after a particularly rough case or two), but now he decided to pay it forward to get his girlfriend to come out with their team and have some much needed fun. "What's the worst that could happen?"
"What if they don't actually want me there?" She asked, her voice small and timid.
"That's ridiculous! Why wouldn't they want you there? You're amazing," he smiled at her, starting to pepper her face with kisses in an attempt to cheer her up. She giggled quietly, not really trying as she made to push him away. He continued his assault, kissing her cheeks, forehead, nose, and lips, over and over with light pecks. When she finally acquiesced, he was giddy with excitement and felt a swell of pride in his chest at the progress she had made since they met.
As they stepped out of his car he grabbed her hand and saw her face twist with anxiety. He gave her hand a soft, reassuring squeeze before his phone rang, the number for the mental facility his mother currently resided in showing on the screen. "I need to take this, head on inside and I'll be right there, okay angel?" She swallowed nervously and walked inside, and he took the call.
5 minutes and 29 seconds.
That's how long he had been on the phone. Whatever had happened had taken only 5 minutes and 29 seconds. And it ended his relationship.
Spencer found himself pushing the door open and walking back inside the bar. His blood rushed in his ears as he approached the table and stared at all of his coworkers.
"What happened?" He asked, his voice just loud enough to be heard above the music.
"Reid," Morgan started, but Spencer cut him off. "Don't look at us like th—"
"Whatever was said in the 5 minutes and 29 seconds I was on the phone with my mother's hospital resulted in me getting dumped on the sidewalk outside when not even 30 minutes ago (Y/N) was laughing, and smiling, and happy. So what. Happened?" He seethed.
"Alright, you want to know what happened, Reid?" Morgan snapped, preparing to stand up and tell him off before being stopped by Penelope, who looked as though she was still on the verge of tears. 
“Reid, I’m sorry,” she whispered as she stood up instead, standing in front of Spencer. “I should have stopped him,” she continued, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have let him talk to her like that.” 
“What did he tell her?” Spencer turned to Garcia, interrupting Derek as he opened his mouth to interject. 
“I told her the truth,” Morgan slurred, finishing off what the rest of them knew was his fourth glass of whiskey. Spencer opted to ignore his clearly drunk colleague and continued to address Garcia. 
“Garcia, what did he say to my girlfriend?” Spencer insisted, his anger being slowly replaced by a sense of growing dread. 
“He— he told her nobody wanted her around,” she admitted, her eyes closing and her face twisting with guilt before she hastily added, “which of course that’s not the case! I love (Y/N) like she’s my own sister...” Spencer felt his heart drop into the pit that had become his stomach as his fears were confirmed.  
“But?” Spencer added, tilting his head to the side, his voice growing quieter as the conversation continued. 
“...but the rest of us miss you, Spence,” JJ finally spoke up. “We haven’t seen you in ages outside of work! If she’s keeping you from spending time with your friends, that's a little bit of a red flag, isn't it?” She reasoned, standing to put a hand on his bicep to calm him.  
He angrily shook her off, the anxiety coursing through his veins shifting back into an icy rage. “She hasn’t kept me from doing anything, Jennifer,” he spat through gritted teeth as he held her gaze, which was a mix of shock and hurt at his tone.  
“Spence, I just meant that—” JJ started, but was immediately interrupted by Spencer, whose rage was steadily growing to the point where he was certain he was visibly trembling. 
“In fact, she has been continually insisting that I leave her behind to come out with you all, but given that I don’t drink much to begin with I usually just opt for a night in with her. I didn’t realize I needed permission from the rest of the team to make that decision for myself,” he bit back before turning to leave. 
“Where are you going, Reid? Reid! Come on, man, be reasonable!” Morgan called out, only for Spencer to ignore him and keep walking. If he stayed there any longer, he knew he would end up saying something he’d regret, and with the way most of them were talking about his girlfriend—ex-girlfriend—he figured they’d find some way to blame her for his outburst if he did.
When he finally exited the bar, he felt a hand wrap around his wrist and he turned on his heel, preparing for another round of arguing, only to be met with the now tear-streaked cheeks of Penelope Garcia. 
“What do you want, Garcia?” He snapped, his face softening as he took in her apologetic expression. 
“I— I’m sorry, Spencer,” she whispered. “I should have told Derek to shut up, I’m so sorry! I just— I hate when the people I love start fighting like that! I shut down and— and I know I should have stood up for her but I just— I just froze like a coward and—” her voice grew more frantic and upset before Spencer cut her off. 
“Garcia, it’s not your fault,” Spencer sighed, his anger fading away until the only thing he felt was the ache in his chest. “Derek was drunk and belligerent. You’re not responsible for his actions.” He paused as he took a deep, shuddering breath. “I just wish I could have been there to put a stop to it. She’s so sweet, and kind, and utterly terrified of people. I shouldn’t have sent her in by herself knowing that." His voice cracked as a fresh wave of tears started to fall down his own cheeks. 
“Spencer, you had no way of knowing any of this would happen,” Penelope wrapped Spencer in a tight hug, and he finally broke down. His body shook gently with soft, nearly silent sobs and he cried into her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Spencer. I know how much you love her.” Garcia’s own voice cracked as her heart ached for the crying boy in her arms.  
“Wh— what do I do, Penelope?” He mumbled into the sleeve of her sweater. “I just want to help her feel better.” That’s all he’d wanted since he’d first laid eyes on her. He’d never forget how emaciated she had looked, her skin pallid and her eyes nothing more than dim, lifeless pits with dark bruise-like rings underneath them.  
“Everyone, I’d like you to meet Dr. (Y/L/N). She just graduated from the academy and has expertise in psycholinguistics as well as a doctorate in neuropsychology, so I have no doubt she’ll be an excellent addition to the team.”
Spencer had tried his hardest in the two months after that initial introduction to get to know her, to understand why she looked like a reanimated corpse (albeit a very beautiful one) who had just wandered out of a morgue. Over those two months, the two of them had grown closer and closer, thanks to much insistent pushing from him. At first, it came in the form of attempting to get her to join the rest of them for drinks at their bar of choice (the others would never invite her themselves but Spencer would insist to her that it was okay, that she was a part of the team), but quickly he realized that all might be a bit too much for her. So, one night, he told the team he wasn’t feeling up to going out and instead privately asked (Y/N) if she’d want to join him for pizza and a movie at his place since he wasn't feeling up to big crowds and he had a feeling neither was she. He had been prepared to be turned down but was pleasantly surprised when her face showed the slightest expression of piqued interest and she agreed.
He then started to skip out on pretty much all of the future invitations to go out for drinks with the rest of the team, opting instead to go home for pizza and Doctor Who or Star Trek marathons with her, and he started seeing a whole other side to her that no one else had even suspected could have existed. She’d slowly opened to him, occasionally letting out quiet and restrained laughs at his goofy jokes and puns at the beginning of their friendship.
Eventually, those soft titters grew into ebullient, beautiful laughs that were like music to his ears. Her smiles went from being forced and never meeting her eyes to lighting up her entire face, at times so brightly that Spencer swore she could illuminate a dark room with nothing but her smile. She showed that there was a side to her that was goofy, outgoing, and full of life.
It was around then (November 17 at 11:57 PM) that their relationship had started officially with a soft, tentative kiss goodnight; but from the very first time he heard her let out a soft, breathy giggle at his goofy joke about Spock having three ears (‘a left ear, a right ear, and a final front-ier!’), Spencer knew that he would marry her someday.
Or at least he had thought so, until tonight.  
“Give her some space to sort out her emotions, Spencer,” the voice of Penelope Garcia in his ear dragged him back into the present, her arms still wrapped tightly around him. “She loves you more than anything, and we both know that.” She let go and gave him a teary smile before wiping her cheeks.  
“You’re right,” he replied, taking in another deep, shuddering breath. “Plus, she walked away with my cardigan, and we both know she’s a stickler about returning borrowed clothing!” He attempted a joke, but the laugh he tried to give after cracking it came out more like another choked sob.  
“If I were you, I’d just give her a quick phone call and let her know that you love her no matter what anyone else says or thinks, okay? She needs to know that more than she needs anything else right now.”  
“Right. Yes, you’re right,” he muttered, wiping his eyes on his shirt sleeve. “Thank you, Penelope.” 
“I’m always here for you, Spencer,” she smiled at him before adding, “both of you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go tear Agent Morgan a new asshole for getting you dumped and hurting my best friend.” She took a second to shake her head and rub her own cheeks to dry them. “Call me once she makes it home safely to you, okay? Promise?” He nodded quietly. “Uh-uh-uh, what was it that one kid had told you a while back? ‘A promise doesn’t count unless you say it out loud,’ right?” 
“I promise,” Spencer felt a small smile tugging on the corner of his lips. He then walked down the block to his car, got in, and drove home to wait for (Y/N).  
When he arrived and had walked through the doorway, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed her number. It rang four times and then went to her voicemail.  
“Hi, you’ve reached the voicemail of Dr. (Y/L/N), I can’t come to the phone right now but if you leave your name and number, I’ll return your call as soon as I am able. Thanks!” Beep. 
“Hi, (Y/N). So, Penelope filled me in on everything that happened,” he began shakily, and took a deep breath before he continued. “I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there to stop Morgan from saying all of that, but please, please know that no one hates you, I promise. Penelope assured me that she was going to tear him a new one for what he said, and I promised her that I’d call her once you made it home safely.” He paused, searching for his next words carefully, and settled on, “I love you so much, angel. Please, please never forget that.” And then he had to hang up the phone, his eyes filling with more tears.  
He made his way to the couch and sat down, turning the TV on and finding a marathon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer playing. Knowing it was her favorite show, he left it on and patiently waited. On the couch sat a small stuffed cat with a blue and white spotted mushroom for a head that he had gifted her on a whim, Dr. Mewshroom, as she had taken to calling it. He grabbed Dr. Mewshroom and hugged it close to his chest as he leaned back on the couch and eventually dozed off. 
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I paced up and down the 11th Street bridge for an hour before I decided to hop up and sit on the railing. My walking had warmed me up significantly, so I shed the cardigan Spencer had wrapped around my shoulders. Hopefully, it would be returned to him when they eventually found me. I stared down into the dark water beneath my dangling feet and tried to find the courage within me to jump, but I couldn’t give myself the final push I needed, just like all of the previous times I’d made this trip.  
I must have sat there for fifteen more minutes or so before I decided to give it up and go home to Spencer. Maybe, if I begged and pleaded with him, he’d take me back. I checked my phone to see that I had a missed call from him. Weird, I hadn’t even heard it ring. Before I could turn myself around to hop off the railing, I was grabbed from behind and a cloth was pressed to my mouth and nose, blocking me from screaming. My nose and throat filled with a burning sensation before everything faded to black... 
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sansaorgana · 26 days
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— LADY OF THE ROSES (IV)
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PART ONE || PART TWO || PART THREE
PAIRING — Ser Gwayne Hightower x fem!Reader // Tyrell!OC
SUMMARY — Gwayne and his wife visit King's Landing with their children, who are very jealous of the fact that their cousins own their dragons and they do not. In the meantime, Otto Hightower wonders if his daughter-in-law is truly loyal to his house.
AUTHOR’S NOTE — It’s written as an usual x Reader fic without describing anything about the Reader’s looks but I still classified it as an OC as well since she is a Tyrell. + You don’t have to know the previous chapters to understand this one and it's the last one of this story. 😊💚 In the show Gwayne mentions that it took him three months to get to King's Landing but I was using some website while writing previous parts where it says that it takes a week from Oldtown to Highgarden and, according to the same logic, it takes less than a month from Highgarden to King's Landing – that's why I decided to make the whole trip only a month long here. 🤔
WARNINGS — Alicent slapping Aegon's face, Reader's child getting hurt (nothing major)
WORD COUNT — 6,870
ENGLISH IS MY SECOND LANGUAGE.
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LADY OF THE ROSES (IV)
Past few weeks had been busy and spent on making all the necessary preparations before the long trip. Oldtown would be left without the Lord or Lady to look after it for around three months and it required lots of training and instructing all the servants and knights around the city what to do in your absence.
You had been summoned by your father-in-law and his daughter, The Queen Consort. They had invited your Lord Husband and you to King’s Landing to spend time together – even though you had a very weird feeling the sudden need to create a stronger bond within the family was dictated by some hidden agenda. Either way, you were rather excited for the trip even though it would take about a month on the road to even get to the capital city of Westeros.
What stressed you the most was travelling for so long with four children you had given Gwayne for the past few years. Your eldest son Edmund was twelve now and his brother William was ten. Your daughter Rosalynd was eight and her sister Florys was six. You were glad that the time when you had been pregnant nearly constantly was over now and you could enjoy the ups and downs of motherhood without many worries because your husband was a man devoted to his family. Gwayne had not only been raising his sons and teaching them all they needed to know about the sword but he also made sure to spend quality time with his daughters. And above that all, he was simply a caring and sweet husband. No matter how many years had passed.
Your trip started in the very early morning and you all were half asleep while getting inside the carriage. Rosalynd was sleeping with her head on your lap and little Florys was asleep in her father’s arms. Edmund and William were looking out of the window, excited and interested in everything that they were seeing although the road to The Highgarden was very well known to them. Because you lived so close to your parents, your children were often visiting their castle. 
What started peacefully, soon turned out to be a little nightmare. The children were very whiny and easily getting bored. When you reached The Highgarden a week after leaving Oldtown, you were seriously considering coming back home instead of going further down the Rose Road. 
“It is only the beginning of the trip and it is already exhausting,” you complained to your parents during supper when you were staying overnight at their place.
“You might not get a second chance to go to King’s Landing, my darling,” your father reminded you. “Endure it.”
“Easier said than done, I’m afraid,” Gwayne chuckled and shook his head.
“I do not understand,” your mother spoke up. “Look at them, my grandchildren,” she smiled at the four of your children eating their meals quietly. “They’re so well-behaved. Little angels, really,” she sighed lovingly.
“Perhaps we might leave them here for three moons, how about that?” Your eyes sparkled at the idea. “We shall leave for King's Landing on the morrow while you watch over them.”
“I would love to,” your mother grinned.
“I would not,” your father’s eyes widened at the idea.
“I do not think that is a good idea, my Lady,” Gwayne put his hand on top of yours gently and you looked at him, confused. “To spend three moons without my little ones would be a nightmare,” he explained and your smile dropped.
Gwayne was right. You would miss your children dearly, too. You were sending them sometimes to spend two weeks at The Highgarden with their grandparents and given the fact the trip lasted a week, it would be a month away from you. It was barely bearable already whenever it happened. Three months sounded like torture.
“My Gwayne is right,” you sighed and laid your tired eyes on your mother. “They must go with us. Also, just like Lord Father said, such a chance might not happen again. They should see King’s Landing, too,” you nodded.
In the early morning of the next day, you were already back on the Rose Road, which took you through the town of Bitterbridge to The Kingswood where you entered The Kingsroad and The Crownlands. You had never been there and only two times before you had been on the road for such a long time. Both times it had been to attend your sister’s weddings. One had taken place in Dorne and the second had been in The Vale. 
Once you entered The Kingsroad, it would only take you a few days to reach King’s Landing and you were more than grateful for that. Both you and Gwayne were exhausted after trying to entertain your children on the road and attempting to tame their tantrums caused by boredom and frustration.
The night before reaching King’s Landing you were sleeping at the castle of some lesser Lord who lived nearby the road. You had been given the guest rooms but you couldn’t fall asleep, both excited and anxious about the next day.
“What are you possibly scared of, my love?” Gwayne soothed you by caressing your face with his fingertips when you were laying in his arms and staring at the ceiling instead of drifting off to the land of dreams. “You had met my father already and he seems to be quite indifferent towards you,” he pointed out.
Otto Hightower had visited Oldtown a few times after your wedding to his son and what Gwayne had said was painfully true – he seemed to be indifferent towards you. Just like he was indifferent towards his own son. The only signs of affection you had seen in him were for your daughters. He hadn’t even thanked you for giving him two healthy grandsons and heirs – his attention had been fully focused on the girls. It was quite adorable, you had to admit. But it was also saddening for your husband and sons.
“What about your sister? The King? Will our children get along with their cousins?” You voiced out all your insecurities in a low whisper. “And The Targaryens… I do fear them, Gwayne. People say they are more gods than men.”
“I am sure they are men just like you and I,” Gwayne smiled and kissed your forehead while caressing your arm.
“They have dragons…” You sighed.
“We probably will not even encounter one,” he assured you. “And do not be afraid of my sister or her husband. Are you not always reminding everyone that you are a sister-in-law of The Queen? Now it is time to meet her personally,” he teased and you rolled your eyes.
You somehow managed to get some sleep on that night. In the morning you had your dress prepared already because you had been planning to wear it for quite a long time. Your maids helped you to put on the elegant green gown that was pretty low-cut. You were a daughter of The Highgarden and you had never stopped wearing such necklines. Your own Lord Husband had given up already on trying to change that – in fact, he enjoyed it. You decorated your exposed neck with a golden pendant of The Seven-Pointed Star to make Queen Alicent happy.
Gwayne found it quite funny but you gave him a scolding look.
Your children had green outfits, too. Pretty little green dresses on your girls and dark green tunics with The Hightower beacon embroidered on them on your boys. The Hightowers were coming to King’s Landing.
When you reached the city you were staring out of the window with as much curiosity as your children. Gwayne had been in the capital once before for the tournament when he had been very young so his excitement was not as big.
Lots of people were staring at your carriage with a hint of curiosity. They knew that The Hightowers were The Queen’s family and for that reason some of them waved shyly at you. You were trying to wave back but Rosalynd and Florys were the ones who actually enjoyed it the most – feeling like little Princesses greeting the crowd. So, you allowed them to have fun as you leaned back on your seat. Your hand found Gwayne’s immediately and you squeezed it.
“You better be on your best behaviour once we reach The Red Keep,” you told your sons. “All of you,” you laid your eyes on your giggling daughters.
“You do not need to worry, mother,” Edmund nodded at you and straightened his back, trying to present himself more mature.
“I cannot wait to train with my cousins,” William added. “Father, will we be able to?”
“I do think so,” Gwayne nodded with a smile at him and leaned in to fix William’s ruffled hair.
“I cannot wait to spend time with Princess Helaena,” Rosalynd sighed dreamily. “She must be so ethereal… A Targaryen Princess…”
“I want to see grampa,” Florys’ eyes sparkled and you chuckled at your sweet little girl.
You smiled nervously at your husband when you realised you were already entering The Red Keep’s courtyard and a few people were waiting for you. You spotted your tall father-in-law and that beautiful woman standing next to him had to be Queen Alicent herself. She had soft, curly hair in the auburn colour and her dress was of the same shade of green as yours. You sincerely hoped it would not be considered rude of you but you had no idea. There were three silver-haired children with them – two boys and a girl. They had to be Prince Aegon, Princess Helaena and Prince Aemond.
“Grampa!” Florys clapped her hands excitedly and already moved to the carriage’s door.
“Florys, mummy and daddy are leaving the carriage first,” you reminded her softly.
“Do try to behave like a big girl!” Her older sister scolded her. “We are in King’s Landing!”
“Rosalynd, you are not her Lady Mother,” Gwayne reminded his daughter.
In the meantime, the servant announced your family and opened the door of the carriage. You took a deep breath in and watched your husband get out before offering you his hand to help you. You took it softly and wore a nervous smile before facing your in-laws.
The moment your feet touched the ground, you felt something moving behind your skirts. It was little Florys jumping out of the carriage already and running as fast as possible towards her grandfather. Everyone froze for a moment and widened their eyes at the scene.
“Grampa!” Florys reached her hands out and Otto Hightower let out a nervous chuckle before crouching down to give her a tight squeeze.
“You are being impatient, Lady Florys,” he greeted her and she clapped her hands.
Rosalynd stood by your side with a sigh and an eye-roll. Meanwhile, your sons chose to stand by their father. Since Florys had broken all the protocols already anyway, you decided to simply walk up to The Queen without caring about the right order as you nodded at your husband. He nodded back and only then Rosalynd ran up to her grandfather as well to give him a hug, too.
You sighed and shook your head before walking up to Queen Alicent herself. Your sons followed you and Gwayne while Otto whispered something to the girls, which made their faces go serious as they joined your side, too. You all bowed down respectfully. 
“My Queen,” you greeted her.
“Sister,” Gwayne kissed the palm of her hand.
From the corner of your eye you spotted the older Prince yawning. Queen Alicent blushed and pushed him slightly with her elbow.
“I see we both struggle when it comes to disciplining our offspring,” she smiled at you but you noticed how she looked down at your low-cut dress and the religious pendant on your exposed chest. She chewed on the inside of her cheek at the sight but she decided not to comment.
“Lady Hightower,” your father-in-law kissed the palm of your hand.
“Lord Father,” you greeted him and he gave you a shadow of a smile.
At his son, he only nodded. Gwayne nodded back and clenched his jaw.
“My grandsons,” Otto approached your boys and shook their hands. “Let me introduce the young Princes to you,” he pointed at the silver-haired boys standing by Queen Alicent’s side. “Prince Aegon, Prince Aemond.”
“Lord Edmund,” Edmund introduced himself and extended his hand towards Aegon. Prince Aegon looked him up and down and after a while of hesitation, he shook your son’s hand.
“Lord William,” your younger boy introduced himself and reached out for Aemond’s hand. Prince Aemond shook it shyly.
“Are you Princess Helaena?” Rosalynd stood in front of the Princess with Florys hiding behind her. 
The silver-haired girl widened her eyes and looked pretty startled. She took a step back and Rosalynd furrowed her brow.
“Princess Helaena is of a… rather timid nature,” Queen Alicent explained.
“Let us come inside, you must be exhausted after the journey,” Otto pointed at the doors leading to the castle.
“Do not even get me started, Lord Father,” Gwayne chuckled. “And certainly do not get my Lady Wife started,” he added teasingly and you shot him a scolding glance.
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The first day was pretty chaotic because everyone was exhausted but also excited to see as much as possible of The Red Keep. Otto Hightower gave you and your children a tour himself. The only place he avoided were the chambers of The King who was ill and you had already been told you would not see him most likely.
Gwayne had already seen The Red Keep before but it had been before his sister was The Queen so now he was allowed in more places. He joined your little tour and kept his hands on your sons’ shoulders, while your daughters were holding Otto’s hands. 
To your surprise, during the supper, you quite befriended Queen Alicent. Of course she was still frowning upon your dress but you bonded over the experience of motherhood.
“The Red Keep is so green now,” your father-in-law pointed out happily at the sight of you, his children and grandchildren by the long table. All dressed in green clothes to show off their Hightower surname. “It makes me glad. Gwayne, I would like to have a word with you after supper.”
“Tomorrow, father,” Gwayne shook his head. “We are tired after the journey.”
Otto didn’t say anything to that but he gave his son quite an unpleasant look. You squeezed your husband’s hand underneath the table and caressed the palm of his hand lovingly to soothe him.
You retired to your chambers pretty early because you were longing for the comforts of a bed. Your husband and children followed and you made sure they all found their rooms and beds before you went to your own chambers.
“What do you think is the matter he wishes to discuss with you?” You asked Gwayne while brushing your hair in front of the mirror by the vanity table. He was sitting up on the bed and watching you with admiration in his eyes as every evening. “Do you think it is something about Oldtown?”
“No,” Gwayne shakes his head. “Those instructions have always been sent to us by ravens. It must be something about… the future and its possibilities.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” You furrowed your brow and turned around to see his face better.
“You know that my father wants Prince Aegon on The Iron Throne, not Princess Rhaenyra,” your husband reminded you. “And The King might die soon. We are not even allowed to see him.”
“They say he is slowly decaying with each passing day,” you winced when you imagined such a thing happening to a person.
“That must be a terrible fate,” Gwayne sighed. “However, his death will bring the conflict of succession.”
“What conflict?” You asked. “Aegon is his eldest son.”
Gwayne squinted his eyes and then shook his head with a chuckle.
“My father is underestimating you, my sweetling,” he hummed to himself. “Now, come here, since we are sleeping in The Red Keep, I want to make you feel like a Princess,” he opened his arms for you to join him but you only scoffed and put the hairbrush down before fixing your hair with your hands.
“I am not a child anymore, Lord Husband,” you teased. “You shall make me feel like a Queen.”
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You and Queen Alicent were sitting in the garden together and watching your daughters trying to befriend each other. Rosalynd and Florys were pretty grossed out and shocked to see Princess Helaena sitting on the grass and picking up all sorts of bugs and insects to examine with her curious eyes. She handed Rosalynd a spider once and your daughter nearly fainted at the sight.
Princess Helaena was of a gentle nature, though. She seemed to like her younger cousins and she was whispering to them all the details about every bug she was picking up. Florys was more interested in them than Rosalynd. Your eight years old daughter was often shooting you meaningful glances but you were only smiling at her in return.
The young princes and your sons were training together in the courtyard with Gwayne and Ser Criston Cole, whom you had recently met. You wondered how it was going, so you decided to finally put Rosalynd out of her misery.
“Shall we check on our sons, Your Grace?” You asked Queen Alicent but she seemed to be surprised.
“What for?” She inquired. “Are they not with the men who teach them?”
“I like to watch my sons while they train and cheer for them,” you told her and smiled softly. She visibly did not understand the appeal of it but she stood up from the bench and you followed. “Girls,” you looked behind your shoulder and extended your hand. “Come.”
Florys ran up to you to take your hand while Rosalynd and Helaena followed quietly behind you. You could hear your daughter desperately trying to start a conversation she was dying to have with a real Princess.
“You must own so many beautiful dresses, Helaena! What is your favourite colour?”
“Beige,” Helaena answered, clearly uninterested but also not wanting to make her cousin sad.
“Nice…” Rosalynd sighed and you could hear that she was disappointed in that answer. “Do you think you could give me some of your old dresses that do not fit you anymore?”
“Rosalynd!” You gasped as you scolded her.
“That is quite alright, Lady Hightower. We shall gift Rosalynd some of Helaena’s old dresses,” Queen Alicent nodded at you and caressed her daughter’s head lovingly.
“Thank you, my Queen,” you smiled at her and then you gave Rosalynd a meaningful look.
“Thank you, aunt,” the girl bowed down happily.
You reached the courtyard but to your surprise, your sons and the young princes were spending time together on their own, whispering and laughing about something, while your husband seemed to be in the middle of an argument with the other knight.
“Is that what you teach them, Ser Criston?” Gwayne was irritated. “Knights shall be chivalrous and rightful.”
“They are no knights, Ser Gwayne, for they are young princes,” Ser Criston answered.
“Gwayne,” you approached them quickly to stand beside your husband and rub his arm before intertwining yours with his. “How is the training going?”
“Oh, rather marvellous, Lady Wife,” he answered, his voice filled with irony and mockery as he looked Ser Criston up and down. “I have a fascinating conversation with Ser Criston here about the manners of a knight. Perhaps they do not teach them in Dorne.”
“You are from Dorne, Ser?” You tried to change the subject as you looked at the man standing in front of you.
“Yes, my Lady,” Ser Criston nodded at you.
“My sister Olenna married a lesser Lord from Dorne,” you told him. “A Toland,” you explained.
“I hope she has found her happiness with him, my Lady,” Ser Criston cracked a smile at you, which made Gwayne move uncomfortably.
“Barely,” you had to admit with a sigh and Ser Criston’s smile turned into a frown.
Before the conversation would become even more awkward, you were interrupted by Edmund and William running up to you and tugging onto your skirts, making both you and your husband turn around.
“What is it?” You asked them.
“Can we go to the dragon pit to see the dragons?!” William’s eyes widened out of excitement.
“I do not think that is a good idea,” you shook your head as your heart skipped a beat out of fear at the thought.
“We only wish to see them,” Edmund explained. “Father…”
“Your mother is right,” Gwayne agreed with you.
“But should not a knight be brave? I want to see a dragon and so does William!” Edmund insisted and sadly, the mention of the knighthood convinced your husband – especially after an argument with Ser Criston about the very same matter.
“Alright then, but be careful you two,” Gwayne nodded and you watched with terror in your eyes as two of your sons ran away to join their cousins and a few servants on the way.
“Gwayne…!” You gasped.
“Worry not,” Queen Alicent’s voice made you turn around. “The Dragonkeepers and the guards are there.”
After hearing this, your daughters seemed to be interested as well. Rosalynd gave you puppy eyes.
“Can we go, too, mother?” She asked.
“Are you a squire, Rosalynd? Or Florys – is she?” You shook your head.
“Let them go, my Lady. It is better to feed the curiosity instead of letting it grow,” Ser Criston spoke and you shot him a deadly glance but you were sort of forced to agree to your daughter’s request now.
You nodded, reluctantly and watched the girls run away to join their brothers and cousins. Princess Helaena remained by her mother’s side, though.
“What about the young Princess?” Gwayne asked her with a smile and lifted her chin up gently with his finger.
“I do not find pleasure in flying, uncle,” she admitted.
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You quickly regretted your decision to allow your children to see the dragons. They seemed to be mesmerised by the creatures and they could not stop whining about the fact they did not have their own beasts to ride.
“They are our cousins, mother,” Edmund kept whining to you on your way back from the supper. “Vhagar is so huge… It is so unfair we do not have any dragons and they do have so many!”
“They are princes and you are lords,” you reminded him. “They are Targaryens and you are Hightowers,” you added. “There is no shame in being different.”
“We are not different, Lady Mother,” Rosalynd rolled her eyes. “We are simply worse.”
“I am not jealous,” Florys saved the day with her sweet confession although her siblings shot her a deadly glance. She clinged to her father’s hand and sighed. “Dragons are big and I am small,” she explained and you chuckled because you found her reasoning adorable.
“You are just a coward because you are a girl!” William pointed out.
“I am a girl, too!” Rosalynd protested. “And I am not afraid. In fact, I would surely have a bigger dragon than you!”
“That is enough,” Gwayne shushed them. “Go to your beds, all of you. Sweet dreams about dragons – dreams, only,” he pointed out with a chuckle but the children did not find it funny.
“Goodnight, daddy, mummy,” Florys nodded and dragged Rosalynd with her to their shared chambers. Your older daughter only mumbled her goodnight.
“Goodnight,” Edmund and William both nodded and walked away, still frustrated and offended by the injustice of life and your light treatment of their situation.
You and Gwayne looked at each other and chuckled before going to your own bedroom.
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You were asleep in your husband’s arms. The bed you shared in The Red Keep was twice as big as the one you had in Oldtown but you still were sleeping close in the middle of it. Your face was buried in the thin fabric of his shirt and Gwayne had his chin on top of your head and his arms wrapped around you just like yours were wrapped around his chest.
Sudden, loud and rapid knocking upon your doors made you both startle in your sleep and open your eyes. Gwayne sat up and rubbed his eyes and you hid your yawn with your hand.
“What is it?!” Your husband grunted and left the bed to grab a robe laying on the chair and put it on loosely. You sat up as well and watched his silhouette approaching the doors in the darkness of the room. “Someone better be dying,” Gwayne opened the doors and looked the servant up and down.
“F-forgive me for the rapid interruption, my Lord, my Lady…” The man stuttered. He was holding a candle to light up the room a little. “It is about your children…”
Your heart skipped a beat at that and you jumped out of the bed to stand behind your husband.
“What is it? What happened?!” You inquired. “Which children?”
“Lord Edmund is hurt, my Lady. Lord William and Lady Rosalynd seem to be alright but they were involved in it, too,” the servant swallowed thickly after delivering the dreadful news.
“Hurt?!” You squealed and squeezed your husband’s arm out of fear.
“Involved in what?” Gwayne furrowed his eyebrow.
“Apparently, young lords and the lady attempted to claim their own dragons with the help of Prince Aegon,” the servant explained and you nearly fainted at the news. Gwayne’s face went a shade paler in an instant.
“Where are they now?” He asked.
“Everyone is gathering, my Lord. You are expected in the dining hall,” he explained and walked away.
“Gods…” You whimpered and grabbed the very first dress to put on over your nightgown. You did not care much about your appearance at such a moment. Your hands were shaking because you were worried about your children, especially Edmund who was hurt.
Looking presentable enough, both you and Gwayne hurried downstairs and straight into the dining hall. Queen Alicent was there, too and so were Ser Cole and your father-in-law. Your eldest son was being looked after by a maester while William and Rosalynd were standing behind him with their heads kept low. Florys was scared and clinging to Otto’s hand. Prince Aegon looked pretty terrified, too, and he was not even smirking or laughing as usual.
“What happened?! Edmund!” You left Gwayne’s side to rush to your son. Your heart clenched inside your chest at the sight of his cheek burnt slightly. His lips and eyes were unharmed and for that he was lucky but there was a long burnt line on his cheek that would surely not heal completely and leave a scar. “Oh, Edmund…!” You sobbed and pressed the good side of his face to your chest.
“I am alright, mother,” he whispered.
“What were you thinking?!” Gwayne lost his temper but you knew it was dictated by worry and fear. “Grown tired of living, have you?!” He addressed William and Rosalynd now and they both looked away, ashamed.
“I did not go, daddy!” Florys exclaimed proudly. “And I was telling them it was a bad idea!”
“Shut your mouth, Florys!” Rosalynd scolded her and Florys hid herself behind her grandfather. Gwayne clenched his jaw.
“Do not speak to your sister this way, Rosalynd. Do not speak at all, I advise,” he pointed his finger at his daughter and she looked down again. “Whose idea was it?!”
Both William and Rosalynd pointed their fingers at Edmund. Even Florys stuck her little hand out from behind her grandfather to point at her eldest brother.
“Traitors!” Edmund shouted at them.
You looked down at your son’s face. He winced while the maester was putting an ointment on his injury.
“You’re scarred for life,” you sniffled your tears back. “My sweet boy…”
“I have nearly gained a dragon,” he told you proudly. “And the scar does not bother me, mother, for I have survived the attempt. I shall try again soon.”
“You could never own a dragon, son! Only Targaryens can own and ride them! It is common knowledge!” Gwayne raised his hands up as if he was giving up.
Aegon moved uncomfortably while Edmund shot him a glance full of hatred.
“What is it?” Queen Alicent asked, already sensing her own son’s involvement in this whole thing being much worse than she had expected.
“It was Aegon!” Edmund’s lower lip trembled suddenly. “He told us we could gain our own dragons, too! That we can claim the spare ones or Helaena’s since she has no interest in it!” He confessed.
Now everyone’s angry eyes were laid upon the young Prince. He huffed with an eye roll but his cheeks turned crimson red.
“I did not know,” he whispered. “I did not know that only we can ride them.”
You were filled with rage. Your eldest son liked to pretend he was more mature than the rest of his siblings but he was only twelve after all – he was still a child. Prince Aegon was the eldest out of the cousins and he should had known better.
“You have cruelly teased my children to risk their lives… To… To possibly lose them and die!” You approached him angrily and began to shake him by his arms. You couldn't care less that he was a Prince. You wanted him punished. “And now you are playing a fool by saying such a stupidity! You insolent son of a–”
“(Y/N),” Gwayne stopped you as he rushed to you and put his hand on your shoulder but you shrugged it off.
“Edmund has a scar for life!” You sobbed again.
“Mother, I am alright!” Your son’s voice reached your ears.
“I did not know…!” Scared Aegon was trying to get out of your grip and Queen Alicent was attempting to help him by pushing your hands away.
“Lady Hightower, be reasonable!” She pleaded. “I shall punish my son accordingly but it is my punishment to give him, not yours!”
“My children could have died! All of them!” You screamed at her.
“Not me!” Florys squealed.
“Shush, my darling,” Otto scolded her gently. “All of us should calm down now. After all, everybody is alive, thank Gods,” he pointed out and you pushed Aegon away before angrily turning around.
The maester was no longer sitting by Edmund’s side and now you approached your boy to grab him by his shirt and drag him towards Otto.
“Look at him! My son nearly died!” You yelled at him. “Do not order me to calm down, Lord Father!”
“Mother, let go of me, it hurts,” Edmund whined and you stopped pulling him by his shirt but your whole body was trembling out of anger, fear and frustration. “Young Prince Aegon should learn how to treat other people, especially the weaker ones…” You patted your own chest with your fist and your son huffed at the word weaker. “...if you wish to put him on the throne!” You finished and the whole room went silent.
It was something that should not be said out loud. Thankfully, everyone inside the dining hall was on the same side when it came to the conflict of succession.
“That is enough, my Lady,” Gwayne shook his head and put his hands on your shoulders to walk you out of his surprised father’s sight. “I am sure Prince Aegon will be punished for his behaviour by his own parents.”
“I did not know, I swear!” Aegon whined. “I would not want cousin Edmund or cousin William to get hurt and especially not cousin Rosalynd!”
“Save it!” Queen Alicent scolded him angrily and slapped his face. “You have outdone yourself this time, Aegon!”
Gwayne was rubbing your arms soothingly and pressed you closer to his body by putting his hand in the back of your head. Your heartbeat was slowing down and your breath was coming back to normal.
“I think we should all agree to collectively remove Lady Hightower’s accusation from our memories,” Otto spoke calmly. “And that it is time to go back to our beds.”
All of your children approached you, clinging to your skirts, except for Edmund who felt stupid and guilty now, embarrassed. He was looking down and clasped his hands behind his back but Gwayne put his hand around his shoulders to pull him closer.
“Your grandfather is right, it is time to go back to our beds. If we manage to fall asleep after such a night,” he pointed out.
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Prince Aegon did not show up for the breakfast and you were glad he did not because you would tear him apart if you saw him. Now, after taking a better look at your son’s injury in the morning light, you were heartbroken. His scar would probably look intimidating when he would become the fearsome knight he wanted to be but you were his mother and your heart ached for him. 
The breakfast overall was pretty quiet and after the meal Gwayne took your sons to the courtyard to continue their training while Rosalynd and Florys followed Queen Alicent to Princess Helaena’s chambers for the girls to embroider together. Rosalynd also hoped to try on some of Princess Helaena’s dresses. You considered not allowing her to take any as a form of punishment for yesterday's stunt but you eventually decided it would be too cruel.
You were asked by your father-in-law to see him after breakfast and you kind of dreaded the conversation because you had a feeling what it would be about. Gwayne wanted to accompany you but you disagreed because it would make you look weak and scared. You had to face Otto Hightower alone. Gwayne had reluctantly agreed but he had assured you that he would remain by your side no matter what your father-in-law would say to you.
On your way to his chambers, you walked past Prince Aegon’s room. The doors were ajar and he was sitting on the edge of his bed. At first, seeing him brought back all the memories from the last night and all the anger. But after a short while of staring at him, you noticed that he was… sad.
It confused you as you kept staring and in the meantime, he spotted your presence. He got startled a little, knowing that you were alone now since his guard was nowhere to be seen and his mother was not there to push you away if you attacked him again.
He approached the doors to close them but he kept glancing at you like a beaten dog and even dared to speak.
“Is my cousin alright, aunt?” He asked quietly, his voice filled with guilt and worry. Suddenly, you started to have a feeling he had not been lying. Perhaps he truly had not known about the Targaryens being the only people who could ride dragons.
It would not surprise you because your father-in-law had been complaining about Prince Aegon not wanting to study his books and his knowledge of High Valyrian was… questionable.
“Edmund is quite alright,” you nodded at him and took a step ahead before he would close the doors. “Can we talk?”
Aegon hesitated but he looked down and nodded, letting you inside. You entered his chambers and looked around, humming at the sight of a wine goblet on his nightstand table.
“I truly did not know about the dragons, I am sorry,” Aegon confessed. “I know I am of a rather careless nature but I would not risk my cousins’ life,” he added and you sighed.
After a short while of hesitation, you approached him and caressed his hair before putting a silver strand behind his ear and lifting his chin up to make him look into your eyes.
“I am sorry for my outburst, young Prince. I do believe you now,” you assured him with a soft smile. “It still was irresponsible and foolish but I see now that your intentions were not malicious,” you nodded and his eyes sparkled at your words.
“Really? You do believe me, aunt?” He couldn’t be convinced and it made you sad to see it.
“I do,” you moved your hand away from his face. “To see a scar on my son’s face is painful for a mother but I do realise he does not mind it at all and he is proud of how he gained it. Let it be then,” you sighed. “It cannot be undone anyway.”
A short while of silence occurred between you two and you smiled at Aegon before approaching the doors again.
“You should join uncle Gwayne and my sons in the courtyard, my Prince. They are training with Ser Cole and young Prince Aemond,” you encouraged him. “And I shall leave now to speak with your grandfather.”
Aegon nodded at you and you left his chambers to hurry to Otto Hightower’s room where he was already waiting for you. He gave you a scolding look when you entered.
“What took you so long, Lady Hightower?” He asked, sitting on an armchair by the fireplace.
“I was stopped on the way, Lord Father,” you explained calmly and he pointed at the armchair next to his. You took a seat there and waited for him to start the conversation.
“We shall speak about last night,” he started.
“I do believe it was your idea to remove my accusations from the memory,” you reminded and he shot you an unpleasant glance.
“I need to know where you stand,” he looked deep into your eyes.
“Where do I stand?” You furrowed your brows. “What does it matter?”
“You have a great influence on my son. Much bigger than a wife should have on any man,” Otto pointed out. “I need to know I can trust you.”
“Speak plainly, Lord Father,” you challenged him with a head held high. “And I shall tell you.”
Otto hesitated as he looked at the dancing flames for a while. You waited patiently until he eventually laid his eyes on you again with the most serious expression.
“Do you support Prince Aegon as the future King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men?” Otto lowered his voice – his whispers were nearly audible.
“I believe you wish to know if I support your treason,” you raised an eyebrow and Otto clenched his jaw. “I do,” you nodded. “Prince Aegon is half-Hightower and I shall always support my family,” you added and stood up. “Does that answer satisfy you, my Lord? I shall join my sons and husband in the courtyard. I have promised them to watch their training,” you explained.
“You can go,” Otto dismissed you and you turned around but then you stopped.
“Lord Father?” You looked at him one more time.
“Yes?” He looked up to meet your gaze with furrowed brows.
“I shall ensure that my own Lord Father – Lord Tyrell – supports King Aegon when the time comes,” you promised.
Otto only nodded at you and you nodded back before walking out of his chambers and hurrying downstairs to the courtyard.
You smiled at the sight of your boys being instructed by their father. Prince Aegon joined them in the meantime as well and you waved at them all before taking a seat on the bench as usual – to watch and cheer.
After giving your sons their instructions, Gwayne gave them some space and joined your side as he sat next to you.
“What did my father want from you, darling?” He asked, worryingly.
“He wondered about my loyalty,” you scoffed and looked up at your husband’s face to fix a reckless auburn hair strand falling onto his face. “As if I didn’t give him four grandchildren to inherit his wealth and titles. As if I didn’t run Oldtown in his name for years. As if I didn’t love his son with every heartbeat of mine,” you finished quietly and a slight blush brightened your husband’s cheeks.
“Last night must have frightened him,” Gwayne explained. “You were rather furious with Prince Aegon.”
“Every parent would be,” you rolled your eyes. “Were you not furious, too?”
“I was but I did not show it,” Gwayne pointed out.
“Every person reacts differently,” you shrugged. “Either way, such conflicts always happen sooner or later between the family members. I shall not take them outside,” you assured Gwayne and took his hand to squeeze it. “I gave birth to four Hightowers. How could I play on any other team?” You asked, genuinely.
Gwayne squeezed your hand back and moved a little closer to you, as much as his armour allowed him. You both watched your sons train with loving smiles on your faces.
At one point, young Prince Aegon looked at you and smiled at you nervously. You smiled back and waved at him even, which caused his own smile to grow wider. Poor boy had no idea what responsibility was being plotted to be put onto his back.
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MASTERLIST
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sweetiepoison · 6 months
Text
Famous Baby Blurb (The Night Out)
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You threw your head back allowing the shot of vodka to burn as it went down your throat. You giggled leaning forward, placing the glass back down on the table.
“What number is that?” Willy yelled from across the table.
“8?” You questioned turning your head to look at Auston for confirmation.
“No!” He objected. “I think it’s 9.”
“No.” You protested back. “We had four at Mitch and Steph’s, two when we first got here, and then these two.” You gestured down to the four shot glasses on the table.
“Nuh uh” Auston shook his head. “We had one in the car over here too.”
You tried to remember the car ride to the bar but it felt like it was hours ago now and impossible to recall. “It doesn’t matter, we’re still tied.”
“You can’t admit you’re wrong.” Auston crossed his arms, smirking over at you.
“Yes I can.”
“Then say it.”
“Say what?”
“Say you’re wrong and I’m right.”
“Auston,” you sighed “please just be grateful that I’m even talking to you.”
“You should be the one that’s grateful. Do you know how many girls would kill to be in your spot right now.”
“Enough for your inflated ego to talk about it.”
Auston shrugged pushing your now empty shot glasses to the edge of the table for one of the workers to pick up. “I’m just saying you should feel special.”
You let out a sarcastic laugh, “I’m (y/f/n) (y/l/n), I don’t need anyone to make me feel special.”
It was now Auston’s turn to roll his eyes, “And I’m the one with the big ego?”
“Talk to me when you’re the number one artist in the world”
“Don’t need to worry about it, I’m the number one hockey player in the world.”
“Were options limited this past year?” Your sarcastic tone and tilt of the head didn’t phase Auston.
“They actually chose me based on my skill, not me performing with autotune and short skirts.”
“Sorry what was that” you cupped your left ear “I couldn’t hear you over my auto tuned song.”
Your song that has sat at the #1 spot on the charts for the past few weeks played through the speakers. It was perfect timing. You never got used to hearing your own voice or watching other people sing along to your words, but it was also the best feeling.
You smirked as Auston got up from the table without another word knowing that you won that conversation. You hummed along as ‘Thank u, next’ slowly faded into another song.
“Here.” Auston returned to the table sitting down another shot in front of you. “To inflated egos.”
You laughed, but raised your glass with his and threw the liquid back down your throat.
The night carried on much like the beginning, but somewhere along the way you lost count of your shots, but it got to a point where you no longer cared. You were beyond drunk, but this was the first time in a while you were actually able to enjoy yourself.
Your world tour was about to start up and you knew this was the only break you’d be having for a while. You planned to leave Toronto the next day, go back home to spend time with your family for a few days and then tour starts.
“She’s hammered.” Justin watched as you swayed to the music, holding onto Steph.
“At least they’re having fun.” Morgan commented, also watching all the girls giggle and dance together.
“How many shots did you guys end up taking?”
“Twelve, but she thinks it’s higher.” Auston explained, “she’s been cut off since midnight, I payed the bartender to replace all of her drinks and shots with water.”
Both Morgan and Justin shared a look and then put their attention onto Auston.
“What?” Auston asked noticing the way they were looking at him.
“That’s just a nice thing to do for someone you hate.” Morgan shrugged not wanting to make it a big deal.
“I figured her getting alcohol poisoning would put a hold on the whole tour thing. Consider it community service.”
“Well, thank you for your service.” Morgan chuckled standing up, “but I’m getting Tessa and we’re going to go home before she damages something.”
As morgan approached the group of girls to grab his wife you all immediately began booing and begging him to let Tessa stay a little longer. When it became clear your pleas weren’t going to work you all made your way back to the group.
You attempted to place your glass down on the table but it slipped out of your hand and landed with a thud on the ground.
“Okay.” Justin picked up the glass. “That’s it your done for the night.”
“No.” You pouted crossing your arms. “I out drank Auston, so now I’m celebrating.” You refused to take no for an answer leaning across the table to grab another glass.
“Nope.” Auston picked up the glass before you could reach it.
“Auston.” You glared at him from across the table.
“You won, there’s nothing else to prove, time to go home.” Auston leaned back, knowing there would be no argument and that his word would be final.
“Don’t talk to me like im a child.”
“Then stop acting like one.”
“Justin.” You huffed and turned too quickly toward your best friend causing you to stumble, but the mishap didn’t stop you, “Tell Auston to shut up.”
But before he could respond Morgan and Tessa were back, “We have a problem. Papparazi are outside and they aren’t leaving until you two come out. Morgan pointed toward you and Justin.
“She can’t even walk straight right now.” Justin pointed at you leaning against the table for support.
“Okay then what do we do because we have about 30 minutes until this place closes.” Willy reminded all of you looking down at his watch.
“I can call and get one of my guys to pick us up out front.” Justin gestured between himself and Hailey. “But I’m not letting her go out there like this.” He gestured toward you.
“Tell Mike to come around to the back.” Auston learned your drivers name from earlier when he dropped you all off at the bar. You insisted he take you, not trusting anyone else. “I’ve got an idea.”
Once the plan was set into place, Morgan, Tessa, Mitch, Steph, Willy, and a few of the younger guys all left first. Justin and Hailey prepared to leave next, preparing you as well without you knowing.
“Trust me. You guys go out the front and at the same time I’ll take her out the back, they’ll never know.” Auston reassured Justin.
“She’s gonna fight you, once she realizes what’s going on.”
“I can handle her.”
As Justin and Hailey walked toward the front door you frowned realizing that they were actually leaving not going to get another round like you thought.
Auston picked you up and placed you over his shoulder before you could react. You immediately began hitting his back and yelling at him to put you down. He got you to the back where Mike was waiting and placed you in the car getting in after.
“Don’t ever do that again!” You yelled stressing the first two words.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on it.” Auston put his hands up in defense.
“First off, I dont need you man handling me to get me out of a bar!” You yelled throwing your arms in the air, “Secondly, why did you wake him up?” Your finger flew toward the front seat.
Mike had been working as your driver since the beginning and more often than not where you went he followed. However, you never liked to make him stay up late just for you.
“You couldn’t stand up straight, let alone walk.” Auston fired back his voice also rising to match yours. “And it was either wake him up or your picture would be on the front page of every magazine tomorrow morning, drunk and stumbling.” Auston didn’t expect you to be overjoyed with how things went down, but he didn’t intend for you to be so ungrateful.
You knew you were wrong, but being stubborn was something you were good at. And you weren’t ready to apologize yet, so you crossed your arms and shifted your body so you were facing the window.
You weren’t sure if it was the alcohol or all the bumps in the Toronto streets but you soon began to feel sick.
“Mike, can I please have a bag?” You asked waiting for the plastic bag to be handed back. As soon as it was you were throwing up into it.
You felt hands that could only belong to Auston bundle your hair into a ponytail as he held it out of your face. You wished you only got sick once, but unfortunately it was three more times before you sat back up. You tied up the bag and placed it on the ground and wiped your mouth.
“Thank you.” You mumbled as Auston let go of your hair and sat back in his seat.
“Don’t mention it.” He replied. The car fell back into silence and that’s how it remained for the rest of the drive.
The next morning you left Toronto very early, but not before you dropped off a gift at Scotiabank arena. Auston arrived to afternoon practice expecting it to be a tough one, but what he didn’t expect was the envelope waiting in his locker for him. It was blank except for one sentence ‘thank you and I’m sorry’
He opened up the envelope and smiled at the contents. Inside were six vip tickets to your show in Arizona along with backstage passes.
It was over three months ago when Auston explained that his little cousins loved you and wanted to attend your concert but it sold out before they could buy tickets, of course this admission was also followed by a jab about him not understanding why anyone would want to see you. But you remembered the conversation and figured it was the start to an apology.
He tucked the envelope into his bag and sent you a quick text. ‘Thanks, I’ll see you in Arizona’
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drunknillawafer · 4 days
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right down the line: zuko x firebender!reader | part 6
You grew up close to the Royal Family due to your father's position as a General, but you ran away from home after the agni kai against your best friend, Zuko. Now, you've joined the Gaang and plan on doing your part in ending the 100-year war.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 7
hellooo part 6 oo we're in book 2 territory now... also i am changing stuff to fit my character into this world so just be open to those changes plzzz i do not own these characters and they are not mine! i hope you guys are liking the story so far! I'm so excited I'm already thinking about what I'm going to do when book 3 comes around... rmr to like reblog or comment, i truly want to know ur thoughts because this is my first fic so i hope I'm doing a good job. thank you to everyone who has supported it so far!! even if its 17 ppl idc like that's 17 individuals who bother to read what i write so... thank you!! enjoy >.< about 2000 words
⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙
It was a day like the others, the year before Ozai’s unfair punishment. I’d go to the Royal Palace after school to play or practice, whichever we felt like.
When Zuko and I opened the door that led to the duck pond, his little sister, Azula, was already there with her friends, Ty Lee and Mai.
Azula’s already proven to be ruthless for a 10-year-old. She’s constantly reminding Zuko of his ‘failure’ to live up to the responsibility of Fire Lord just because he’s not as vicious as her. In this home, they favored brutality over honor, and if you know Zuko, he’s all honor. Even at twelve years old, you can tell he won’t grow to be like his father before him and it’s a problem.
She’s only gotten worse since their mother disappeared 2 years ago. No one knows the specifics, but Azula says their grandfather ordered the Fire Lord to kill Zuko and she never lets him forget it.
As we walk toward our usual spot, the little girl comes up to us.
“Zuzu, come play with us!” she says with a hint of mischief in her voice.
“No! I’m busy.” Zuko replies, brushing her off. We continue walking to reach the other side of the pasture, far away from his sister and her friends.
“Fine.” With Azula, fine isn’t just fine. It’s code for I’ll get you somehow.
But I try to keep my thoughts about her to myself. She is younger than us and I’m not scared of her. It’s Zuko she doesn’t see as a threat. As for me, she’s known not to push it. Since we all have the same fire-bending master, she’s well aware I’m better than the both of them.
When we reach our spot, we sit to take our swords from their sheaths. Today it’s blades, yesterday it was bending. We almost forget Azula’s in our vicinity when Mai comes crashing down onto Zuko, making her blush.
Mai is a year younger than us, and she’s always had this crush on him. Everyone knows. I know.
But unlike Azula, I don’t humiliate her with the fact. Even if the thought of Zuko returning the feelings makes me uncomfortable.
Mai quickly gets up and apologizes for stumbling on top of him and Zuko, in all his emotional glory, yells at his sister. “Stop it! It’s not funny.”
She grins with her arms folded. “Oh, but it is, dumb-dumb. I told you to play with me!”
“That’s not how you get people to play with you!” I stand up for him, knowing it’s a losing battle if he’s all alone in his defense.
“Whatever.” She replies and focuses her attention on Ty Lee’s handstand. Probably thinking of a way to ruin that too.
It’s clear we won’t be left alone to spar in peace.
“Want to go to my room?” He asks. Familiar amber eyes gazing into mine.
Butterflies appear in my stomach. I’ve been to his room thousands of times, millions if it was possible. It wasn’t abnormal. But lately, I can’t stop these stupid butterflies.
My feelings for my best friend are changing, I hope his are too.
“Sure.”
A few weeks have passed since the failed ambush of the Northern Water Tribe by the Fire Nation. Admiral Zhao is presumed dead, and the empire retreated. They were long gone, and this loss was too shameful to ever attempt something like it again.
Though, the adrenaline from the win would be nothing compared to the loss felt by the masses. We lost some people, rebuilding was commencing, and the tribe had lost their princess. The Chief had lost his daughter.
While it pained Sokka and I to inform him of the news, what he said in return brought peace to all of us. He said he had a vision of a beautiful young woman sacrificing her life for her people and it wasn’t until that fateful day that he knew it was his daughter. Warmth embraced us all after he spoke. What better way to show your love for your people than to become the moon itself? It was bittersweet. To know she couldn’t walk with us but be with us wherever we go on planet Earth.
If only encountering Zuko for the first time in three years could be as acceptable.
I honestly didn’t know what to think, act, or be. It all happened so fast.
Having to save Aang in the middle of our encounter distracted me long enough. Letting down the Chief and Yue becoming the moon spirit distracted me long enough. Hell, seeing Iroh for the first time in a while distracted me long enough. But eventually, the dust settles and there’s nothing but his face in my thoughts.
His hair is different, and he looks… sharper around the edges. He’s stronger and his bending is different than before, more determined and intentional. He seems tired.
I replay our interaction in my head multiple times a day, sometimes in my dreams. Each time, I think about what I could have said instead. Other times he doesn’t strike me in the ribs. But then I wake up or come back to reality and the scar of his burn on my side reminds me: he’s no longer my Zuko.
I mourn the gentle boy I once knew.
All our good moments flash through my mind like an orchestrated play. Growing up together. Elementary memories of playing and later, practicing our sparring and bending together. Silent moments where we both sat and stared as the sun painted orange across the sky, once we were done for the day. Being the first person we looked for at a royal party and feeling relief when our eyes locked together, assuring that we won’t spend the night bored out of our minds. Silly things I didn’t think I’d miss so much.
But it was hard to feel bad for him when he was someone else entirely.
I shouldn’t have, but I took it easy on him. I thought there was some sort of silent agreement that we would never hurt each other, like when we were sparring. But at some point in time, practice became fighting, and nobody told me.
I spent three years thinking about this exact moment and I never once thought we’d be on two different sides of this war.
It was different for him, I suppose. He stopped practicing the moment Ozai told him to get up and fight.
The swirl of feelings dizzied me, going from I hate him to I missed him. From where is he? to I think I could find him if I tried.  
But I don’t know how that would land on Aang, Katara, and Sokka.
Zuko’s been terrorizing them since Aang came out of the ice, before they crossed paths with Jet and me. I’m not even sure how they feel about my past with their first enemy. I’ll make a note to ask later.
I’ve been in my head the entire time we went through the cave of two lovers. I think some badger moles got us out and the nomads went their own way once we made it through.
Apparently, we’re heading to Omashu so Aang can learn earth-bending from his old friend, King Bumi.
Sokka’s catching me up to speed, but his voice sounds like it could be a thousand miles away from my mind. “It’s pretty cool, I didn’t really like being trapped and thinking I was going to die but that’s not the point- Hey, are you okay?” He grabs my elbow and stops us in our tracks. His eyes look into mine, looking for me.
He shares a glance with Katara that prompts her to say, “Let's take a break from walking, guys. Aang, c'mon I think I see some water. I want to see what you know before you become an earth-bender.”
“Okay!” The young Avatar replies, eager for alone time with his favorite person. They smile at me before leaving, and I feel left out of a certain loop.
Once they’re far away enough, I reply to Sokka’s question. “I’m okay, why?”
“You’ve just been off… since the invasion.” He scratches the back of his neck as he confesses his concerns.
“It was a lot, I mean. Yue—”
“I know, but you’ve pulled away from all of us.” Almost shyly, he continues, “From me.”
“Oh.”
“But we all want to know if you’re okay.” He hurries to add.
“I’ve been thinking about some stuff is all.” I let out a sigh, a poor attempt at trying to let go of what’s bothering me. “I just hadn’t seen him in a long time. And when I do, he’s fighting me.” I look down at my boots, begging for the dry dirt to become quicksand. My cheeks are getting hot and the familiar knot in my throat is forming. This is why I didn’t want to talk about it.
“Yeah, he does that.” Sokka scoffs. “He’s a jerk. He can be mean to us, I get it! The Avatar and everything. But being mean to you was unnecessary.”
The knot in my throat quickly forms into a tone that’s harsher than I mean it. “Was it?” Sokka’s taken aback and instantly, I’m regretful for it. “Sorry… I don’t know what I feel.”
I investigate his icy stare and for the first time, I feel the distance I’ve put between us. Unfortunately, I think it’s there to stay.
He raises his hands in defense, “I get it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you like him?” I finally understand what he’s been saying. Why he wanted to talk. He wanted to talk about us and how Zuko fits into that equation.
“No—I… uh...” the words leave me.
“I see.”
"That's not a confession."
"Then say no."
“Does it matter?” I ask, becoming irritated with his attitude.
“Does it?” Sokka’s stern voice rarely makes an appearance, but when it does, it surprises me. Leave it to Zuko to cause an argument when he’s not even here.
Before I can answer, Katara and Aang return, looking chippier than we do.
“Break’s over?” she asks us, furrowing her brows as she takes in our body language.
“Yeah, it’s over.” Sokka huffs and walks away, leading us to our destination.
With Sokka guiding us, he proudly gestures towards the Earth Kingdom land. “Ladies and gentlemen, the city of Omashu!” When I finally intake what they’ve all been talking about, I know what we see isn’t what they were describing.
“Oh no.” Aang says for all of us.
The fire emblems are too loud to ignore. Omashu’s been occupied.
As the four of us stand in our fight mode, ready to negotiate Bumi for the Mayor’s baby boy, I see three girls in the distance. I see her first.
My heart drops down to my core, the way it did when I first saw Zuko after all these years. Just when I thought the reunions were over, the universe shows me exactly what it is I ran away from. Finally, after all this time, I have to face what I did.
“No.” I mumble.
“What?” Aang asks. They all turn to me. Now that they know who I am, they know I must know whoever is coming to negotiate on the empire’s behalf.
I should have known it would be Mai, but her little brother was not born when I last saw her. When we all went to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls.
I don’t have enough time to warn them, you never do when she’s involved.
“It’s Azula.”
------------------------------
tag list <3: @camilleverreault @staygoldsquatchling02
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vioartemis · 2 years
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Close your eyes and trust me
(Max Mayfield x fem reader)
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Summary: One day, the party find you in the woods, fighting for your life. When you wake up, you meet a beautiful redhead that catch your attention... || request here Warnings: none a/n: Wow it took me so long I'm sorry really TvT (English isn't my first language, I'm sorry if there are mistakes or if something doesn't make sense TvT)
Living alone was hard when you didn't know much about the world. That was not a choice though, you didn't want to be alone, really.
Since you escaped the lab, you lived with an old lady that found you in the woods and brought you home with her. She treated you as if you were part of her family. She even gave you a name: Y/n.
That sounded better than Twelve, and was more normal. She also taught you how to read and write, and helped you improve your social (talking) skills.
But she passed away 3 weeks ago.
You had to call anonymously whoever you were supposed to call so she could have proper funerals, to which you were the only one to attend as she had no family left.
Since then you were on your own, trying to buy "good food", as you called it, with the money she left for you. You now lived in a little cabin close to her house.
Until that night.
You were disturbed by weird noises not far away from the cabin. You had a bad feeling about that, but you still went out to check.
The party was on the track of what they thought was a demodog. The track led them into the forest.
"Are we even sure it was a demodog?" Max asked
"No, that's why we're here. To kill it if it's one, and.. not kill it if it's not one" Dustin replied
They were walking for more than an hour when they heard fight noises. They ran in that direction, only to find a h/c girl, you, fighting the demodog.
Growing up in the lab gave you abilities similar to El's, thanks to which you managed to kill the creature without being hurt too much.
Th fight was still exhausting. You weren't used to use your powers that much, and it was visible; your nose and your ears were bleeding, and it didn't take long until you faint.
You woke up in a room that wasn't yours, still exhausted because of your fight with the demodog. You propped yourself onto your elbows, looking around, until your eyes fell on a redhead girl sitting beside you.
She was reading a magazine (or something like that). She looked up, probably alerted by your movements, and planted her gaze into yours.
She was so pretty.. stunning, actually. Her blue eyes, her freckles, her red hair... She was the prettiest human being you had ever seen.
Not that you had seen many, but you were sure she was prettier than every other girl on this planet.
You stared at each other for a little time without a word being said, until someone opened the door.
"Okay you can rest, it's my turn to watch her.. I even babysit strangers now, great.."
The boy stopped when he saw you were up.
"She's up? Why didn't you say anything??"
"I- I just- I don't know.."
Her voice was amazing.
"Where am I?" you asked
"Oh uh.. let me just-" he exited the room and came back with a brunette "She'll explain better than us"
He then gestured to the redhead to follow him out of the room, which she did after one more look in your direction.
The brunette sat beside you on the bed.
"Hi" she said
".. Do I know you?"
She had something familiar, but you couldn't figure out what.
She rolled up one of her sleeves to show you something on her wrist: a 011 tattoo. Now that you saw it, you started to remember her.
"Oh.." you said, not knowing if she was with Papa or not
"We don't want to hurt you Twelve-"
"I go by Y/n now. Are you with Papa? If you think I'm going to come back-"
"We're not with him. Quite the contrary actually. You can trust us.."
With that, she explained to you everything that happened to her and the party lately, before asking you your own story since you escaped.
The two of you talked for one more hour, until you finally asked the question.
"Who was the other girl?"
"Max? She's a friend"
" A friend..?"
"Someone you can trust"
"Like... you and I?"
She nodded with a smile.
"You have other friends?"
"Let me introduce them to you"
<><><><> ♡ <><><><>
A month or two had passed since you met Max, and your feelings toward her were confusing and confused. You didn't understand why you didn't feel the same way around her and around others, so you decided to ask Joyce, with who you lived since the party found you, as no one else had room for you.
"Can I talk to you about something..?"
"Of course!"
"It's about Max.."
"Did something happened? Did you have a fight?"
"No no! I- it's just that- I don't understand why I feel weird around her.."
"Weird?"
"Yeah.. I overthink everything I say or do, my heart beats faster, my stomach feels weird.." you explained
Her lips turned into a big smile.
"What? Why are you smiling like that?"
"Y/n, dear, you're in love with her" she told you
"In love..?"
When you really really like someone, more than a friend. Someone with whom you can picture yourself in the future, for example"
"Like... you and Hopper?"
"U-uh... let's say like El and Mike"
"And um... H-how do I know if she feels the same..?"
"Confess to her, tell her how you feel. Maybe invite her to do something, only the two of you. And tell her"
"I'm going to do that, yeah! Thank you!"
You quickly pulled her into a hug before going out to find Max, who was at the skatepark.
"Max!"
"Y/n, hey! What are you doing here? Finally ready to try a skateboard?" she joked, a bright smile on her face
You felt you heart missing a beat. Her smile was so pretty and she was so beautiful...
"I- uh- I found a great spot to um.. watch the stars.. Do you.. do you want to go there with me one day..?"
"Yeah sure! Would tonight be okay?"
"Y-yeah of course!"
"Cool" her smile got wider "Let's meet around 10 at the edge of the woods?"
"Okay, see you tonight then!"
"Can't wait to be there" she said, before going back to skating with a smile.
You stood there a little while. You were a blushing mess.
<><><><> ♡ <><><><>
You were waiting at the spot you were supposed to meet Max, all stressed out. It didn't take her long to arrive though. Her smile made your cheeks redden a bit.
After greeting her, you started to walk toward your secret spot, when she took your hand in hers. I got you all flustered. Her hand was warm. It was somewhat comforting and nice.
"Is this like... a date?" she suddenly asked
"A.. date?"
"It's- uh.. when you go out with someone you really like.. in a more-than-friends way"
"Oh.. then yeah, it's like a date!"
You smiled softly, even though you weren't sure to fully understand what it meant.
"So.. you really like me?" the redhead asked
"Well- yes"
"Cool.. because I really like you too.. since day one. I- it might be cheesy and all but- the moment I laid my eyes on you I felt something.. something good of course! What I'm trying to say is... I'm in love with you, Y/n"
You were new to that concept, but according to what Joyce told you earlier, you felt the same way.
"I- I don't totally understand feelings and all but.. but I think I am in love with you too.. I- you make me feel things I don't feel for others.."
Thanks to the pale light of the moon, you would see her blush at your words. She seemed happy to hear you say that; her smile was brighter than before, and she squeezed your hand softly.
"Can I- can I kiss you..?" then, seeing you slightly confused expression "It's something that you do with your lover, to show affection in a special way"
You nodded, as she stopped walking, turning around to face you.
"Close your eyes and trust me" she said, almost in a whisper
You did as she told you, your heart pounding in your chest in anticipation. When her lips finally met yours, it just felt so right, making butterflies grow in your stomach, fireworks in your head, and heart beating faster than ever.
When she pulled away, you could see her eyes sparkling.
"Can you do that again..?"
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breaniebree · 1 year
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SNEAK PEEK!
Chapter 29 -- The One With the Beginning
Ginny knew that planning a wedding was going to be a lot and she also knew that being the only daughter was going to make Molly go a bit overboard with everything.  It had been one week since she and Harry had announced their engagement to their friends and families and Molly and Zee were already working together to put ideas forward on the how, when, why, what, and where of the Weasley/Potter wedding.
Molly had calmed down somewhat after the announcement and Ginny had been pleased when they’d gone home and all her mother had said was that they would chat later about ideas.  What she hadn’t expected was to be halfway to orgasm the very next morning, Harry’s tongue doing delicious things to her, only to be interrupted by a loud knock on their bedroom door.
“Ginny, dear?  Are you awake?  I brought the wedding scrapbook I made.”
Harry groaned into her thigh.  “It’s half past six, Gin.”
“Ginny?  Dear, are you awake?”
“I’ll be right down, Mum!”  Ginny called out, burying her face in her hands.  “Harry, it’s barely been twelve hours since we told her.  She’s going to drive me to drink.”
“I’ll be in the kitchen,” Molly called out.  “I’ll make you both breakfast.”
They heard her move away from the door and Harry kissed her thigh.
“She’s excited.  She wants to plan things.”
“It’s our wedding.”
“Yes, and we’ll have final say,” he assured her.  Then he ducked his head down and used his tongue again.
“Mmm, better be quick down there before she comes looking for us again,” Ginny warned.
His tongue circled her clit, flicking and twirling as his fingers joined in and she moaned.  She could feel it building, the pleasure coiling inside of her.  She was close enough to taste it and she reached down to grip Harry’s hair tighter, urging him forward just as Molly’s voice came through the door again.
“Ginny!”
“Bloody hell!”  Ginny groaned, shoving Harry away.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.  “You were close, I could feel it.”
“Breakfast is ready,” Molly called through the door.  “Are you coming?”
“Not anymore,” she grumbled making Harry laugh.
“We’ll be right down, Molly,” Harry called out. 
They heard her disappear again and Ginny rolled over, letting out a small scream into the pillow.  Harry kissed his way up her spine.
“I’ll make it up to you later.  Come on, we better get downstairs before she sends out a search party.”
A moment later, Harry was in the shower and Ginny had reluctantly pulled on an old worn pair of cotton shorts and one of Harry’s tee shirts before heading downstairs.  She found Molly sitting at the kitchen table with three plates of breakfast out and a huge scrapbook wrapped in white lace.
“Good morning, Ginny!”
Ginny gave her mum a small smile, kissing her cheek before she sat down.  “Morning, Mum.  This was nice of you.”
“Oh, it was nothing,” Molly said, waving her off.  “I wanted to catch you early.”
Ginny let out a slow breath.  “Mum, I love how excited you are.  Truly.  I’m excited too, but you really can’t just pop by at barely half past six.  I don’t live at home anymore, Mum.  I live here with Harry.  Harry and I are working out a routine.  We like to get up and have a run in the morning.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate the breakfast, but as I said we’re getting into our own routine and a huge full breakfast isn’t part of that and… Mum, you can’t just show up bright and early,” she finished lamely.
Molly’s brown eyes widened.  “Oh!  Of course, I didn’t even…  I won’t pop by so early next time.  I just… I’m sorry, dear, I’m just so excited!  I barely slept a wink after you lot left last night.  I have so many ideas!  I know that you’re not living at home anymore and I have to respect that.  Things are different.  I promise not to impose on you and Harry like this so early next time.”
“All right,” Ginny agreed.  “That would be appreciated and maybe you know, ask first.”
Molly chuckled.  “I’ll try, but that’s not the Weasley way, is it?”
Ginny shrugged.  No, it definitely wasn’t.  “Well, maybe not, but Harry and I would like some privacy.  You um… interrupted.”
“Oh!”  Molly exclaimed, her cheeks heating.  “I didn’t even think about that.  Merlin, Ginny!  You two snuck off last night to have sex during our family dinner and now you’re telling me that you were still at it this morning?”
“We’re engaged and we’re celebrating,” Ginny said, her lips twitching.  “And someone interrupted us this morning.”
Molly shook her head before her eyes twinkled.  “Yes, you’re engaged.  My baby girl is going to marry the man of her dreams.”  She tapped her hand on the large lace scrapbook.  “Does that mean we can chat about the wedding now?”
Ginny sighed.  “I’m going to regret saying yes, aren’t I?”
Molly waved her off and opened a small planner that she had stacked on top before pulling out a pair or reading glasses from her purse.  
“All right, so if we’re looking at July of 2000, we definitely want to do a weekend.  Obviously Harry’s birthday is out, but what about the first week of July?”
“Mum, if we make it to the finals next year, I could be playing Quidditch up to the first week of July depending how the matches fall.”
Molly pursed her lips.  “Well, that just won’t do.  We can’t have you jumping off of your broom and getting married the next day, you’ll need time to decompress and get the last minute things organized.  When do you start up again?”
“August twenty-first for training.”
Molly nodded, examining the calendar.  “So July twenty-third is a week before Harry’s birthday, almost three weeks before yours which would give you four weeks between marrying Harry and returning to Quidditch giving you time for a honeymoon as well.  Do you know where you’d like to go?  Paris would be lovely.  Or have you thought about some warm island?  You could go back to Antigua or go to Greece?  Maybe Rome?”
“Mum, let’s figure out the wedding first,” Ginny said, eating her bacon.  “The twenty-third sounds great.”
Molly beamed.  “All right.  The twenty-third of July, two thousand, the day my baby marries Harry Potter,” she exclaimed, tears glistening in her eyes.  “All right, I’ve written it down.  Godric, you’re going to be a beautiful bride.  Now, onto the venue.  I do think having it here at Clevedon Court is the best option unless you want to find an outside source somewhere but that makes privacy from reporters a bit harder to hold into play.  You’ll need a large venue as once we invite family and friends and plus ones, why just your cousins alone are going to be a big gathering and you and Harry are both becoming rather famous in your own right.  We’re probably looking at a few hundred people.”
“A few hundred?”  Ginny gasped.  “Who are we inviting?  All of Wizarding Britain?”
Molly scoffed.  “Well, your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, husbands and wives or plus ones, then children.  You have your brothers and nieces and your friends, your teammates, then we’ll have Harry’s family and Zee’s side is a bit large, isn’t it?  That’s not including Harry’s friends and colleagues.”
Listening to her mother list them off, she realized Molly was right.  There was definitely no way that this was going to be small wedding, not unless they eloped.
“Then you’ll need to think of how many bridesmaids you want and Harry will have to coordinate with groomsmen as we can’t have an uneven number.  Plus you’ll want a flower girl and a ring-bearer.  And of course we’ll have to find someone respectable to perform the ceremony.  The minister who did for Bill and Fleur was an old friend of the Delacour family.”
Ginny’s eyes were wide when Harry came into the kitchen.  She watched him peck her mum’s cheek and thank her for breakfast before he sat next to her in his full Auror uniform.  She grabbed his hand and mouthed, “save me.”
Harry chuckled as he dug into his breakfast.  “So, how’s the planning going so far?”
By the time they finished breakfast, Ginny was already feeling overwhelmed.  Harry stood up to leave for work and Ginny grabbed his arm.
“You can’t leave me!”  she hissed.
He grinned and kissed her.  “You’ll be fine, Gin.”
“You don’t know that.  I could have you wearing something atrocious by the time you come home and we could be getting married by a troll.”
“Don’t care,” he said against her lips.  “As long as you say ‘I do,’ I’ll be there.  Love you.  See you tonight.”
She watched him leave, softening at his words, but still feeling a bit of betrayal from him for doing so.  She turned back to her mum with a sigh and thought it was going to be a long day.
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ashs-random-writing · 5 months
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Mushroom Circles
Chapter Twelve
Ao3
When an accidental blood sacrifice leaves him in a strange new world, Roman has to hide
Logan would like to know what has been eating all the fruit
Roman, against his moral compass, was actually quite happy at the appearance of another human.
Not that he was happy with the how, the why, or any of that stuff, but… it was nice to finally see another person. It had been a while since he’d been able to properly talk to someone.
His new friend looked like they’d just robbed a hot topic, but who was he to judge based on clothing? To be quite honest, he knew he didn’t look very well presented after (how long had he been there?) a while of being in this realm
When he had been left alone with Janus, he’d not been excited. He knew that Janus hadn’t done any actual life-threatening things in the past few weeks. But he also knew that the main cause of that was the other two faeries watching him often
When he’d heard Logan leave the house, and Janus walked into the room, he’d forced himself not to freeze up. Despite the fact that Janus had not been putting his life in danger for amusement recently, Roman had still been subjected to a few smaller misdeeds since.
Janus liked to mess with him. Liked to poke and prod him and occasionally push him over because apparently it was funny, how much power they held over him, but they only really did it when the other two were out, because they told Janus off for it.
Roman had stopped reacting. He figured his lack of reaction had bored them, considering the way they’d stopped bothering him quicker than usual. Who knew that pretending not to be scared could do such good?
Patton and Logan were nice, but Roman was much more grateful for the way they kept Janus from hurting him. When Janus messed with him, he felt far too much like a mouse that was being toyed with by a cat
Now, it seemed that that cat (that horrible, snakey cat) had brought home another prey to toy with.
Roman spoke quietly to Virgil, who seemed to want to know as much as possible about their situation (Roman couldn’t blame him for that- he’d have loved to have someone to tell him what was going on)
“Yeah, so there’s those two,” he pointed out “that’s Logan, they’re nice, but, uh, a little hard to read,” Virgil nodded beside him.
“And the uh, snake one?” They said, only stuttering a little, clearly still terrified overall
Roman felt for them, and he nodded “That’s Janus. They’re my least favourite, but the other two keep them in check, so, not as bad as they used to be,”
Virgil scooted back slightly, away from the faeries as they looked at the two humans.
Roman kept his demeanour in check; Virgil had much more of a right than him to freak out at this point, and Roman didn’t want to fall apart in front of him. He needed to be reassuring.
“Y-you, uh, you mentioned a third?”
Roman drew his eyes away from the faeries
“Oh, yeah… um, there’s Patton as well. They’re nice, but they can be a little overwhelming. I’m pretty sure that this is Patton’s house, actually..” he mused quietly
He hadn’t really been conscious when he’d been brought here, but it seemed logical that he’d be brought to Patton’s house, since it was the closest to his tunnel.
Virgil stared at him a few seconds “How?”
Roman looked back with a tilted head
“Hm?”
“How are you so calm?”
Roman pursed his lips
“I suppose if you’d really like to know,” he started quietly, bringing his hand to the back of his neck sheepishly “I’m not. I’ve just gotten better at hiding it,”
He still felt his heart racing every time one of the giants looked at him. He still couldn’t stop the mile-a-minute thoughts when he was carefully picked up, as though he was made of extremely fragile glass. Especially not when Janus was involved.
He and Virgil talked for a little while, before the sound of the door alerted them to Patton’s return. Roman watched the two other faeries, look at each other before hurrying towards the door, likely to explain their new find. Roman informed Virgil of everything he could understand from what they were overhearing (it wasn’t much, but still)
Patton had walked in with wide eyes, and thinly veiled excitement and perhaps concern. Roman knew firsthand how overwhelming it could be to be faced with three giants, so he didn’t comment on the way Virgil had frozen up behind him, or the way he could hear Virgil’s breathing speed up ever so slightly
——
Patton hadn’t known what to expect when he’d left Logan and Janus alone for the day. But this was certainly not on the list
He’d only gone to take care of plants for an old friend, he’d never expected for him to come home to the chaos that he did. Logan and Janus had rushed towards the door as he entered; Patton was almost expecting them to tell him about an argument they’d had
But for them to tell him that they’d found yet another tiny person (and that “Janus scared them quite badly when he found them”), and that Logan had found quite a big discovery on what exactly they were, and why Tiny had not shared their name
Patton didn’t have time to read any part of the old-looking book that Logan had shown him, before he was ushered into the kitchen to the table. The new tiny person (or “human”, as Logan had informed him) was even smaller than Tiny, almost hiding behind them with wide eyes as he approached
Patton was careful not to move so suddenly, or not to be too loud. He approached, trying to suppress his natural reaction of seeing something small and cute and trying to scoop it up to hug. He tried to hide his upset for the way they froze up, the way Tiny used to.
They were slightly paler than Tiny, though he wasn’t sure if that was natural or because of fear. He hoped it was natural.
He couldn’t find any words to say. He knew they wouldn’t understand him. After a few minutes of just watching them, letting them realise he wasn’t a threat (it was a bit like when he found a baby bird) and slowly calm down.
Logan carefully led him towards the living room, to where the big, old book was sitting. Logan flipped to a page near the end, and pointed him to a paragraph about names. Control.
Patton swallowed down his deep discomfort at the idea of controlling the little guys. Yeah, they’d have to stick with nicknames for now.
@betamash @a-chilly-pepper @da3dm
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the-knightmare · 11 months
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Rudy's Trick (Louise's Treat)
Happy Halloween! Here is my fic for the @roudiseshipweek Halloween warm up prompt cult classic/picking out costumes. I mixed the two together, and hope you enjoy:
AO3
“Come on, Rudy, the popcorns going to get cold, and I’ve listened to the Halloween theme at least five times already,” Louise called.
She had popped the bag of kernels, drizzled a liberal dose of butter and nacho cheese seasoning over the final product, and set up the DVD minutes ago. All the while Rudy was, as he has told her before disappearing down the hall, putting the ‘final touches’ on his costume for tomorrow’s party.
He had not told her what it was, even after she had pestered him all week. Not even after Louise had promised to tell him her what her, Tina, and Gene were dressing up as before they showed up to Zeke’s Halloween party. And so, Louise resorted to guessing. Each time Rudy just smiled and even if she guessed correctly, he wouldn’t tell.
“If you don’t hurry up, I’m playing the movie without you.”
“Okay, okay,” Rudy said, suddenly behind her and making her jump, “careful, you almost dropped the popcorn.”
Dramatically clutching her chest to hide just how much he had scared her in the growing dark of the evening, Louise twisted around to look up her boyfriend.
Rudy hadn’t been regular-sized since grade nine, which happened to be when Louise had stopped growing. She was the shortest Belcher, which she could live with if she weren’t also the shortest in her friend group.
“Geez, Rudy, way to sneak up on a girl. Is your costume Michael Myers or something?”
Laughing, Rudy shook his head as he sat on the couch next to her.
“I’ve never seen Halloween, or any other slashers, you know that.”
She did. Which is why they were correcting that now. Movie nights had been a staple long before they had started dating halfway through grade twelve. This being their first Halloween as a couple, Louise was determined to start Rudy’s education on classic horror movies.
“And honestly, that’s a shame.”
Neither mentioned how that was technically untrue, as Rudy had been one of the kids traumatized by a certain deli zombie flick back in fourth grade. It was something they didn’t talk about.
Hitting play. Louise settled into the couch. The bowl of popcorn was emptied before Laurie spies Michael Myers watching her from behind drying sheets, leaving an empty space between them. Louise looked at it from the corner of her eye.
“You know,” she started, “if you get scared, I’ll protect you.”
Rudy glanced up from the screen and flashed her a smile, and only said:
“I’ll remember that.
And didn’t move an inch.
Louise turned back to the movie. Watching as Annie got strangled in the garage. She wasn’t scared, she’d seen plenty of scarier movies, but Rudy seemed far away in the dark.
Without making a sound, she moved a hair closer. She kept doing this, shifting just enough to not be noticed. Her plan at getting closer without him nothing was working. Until:
“Oh man.”
Rudy had been silent most of the movie, but Laurie stabbing Michael with knitting needles got a reaction. Which would have been fine, funny even as his uneven reaction to someone being stabbed in the eye, except for Lousie’s position. She had managed to get so close that his mumble sounded much louder in her ear.
Jumping across the couch, Louise felt her face flush. Twice. That was twice tonight that she had been startled by Rudy. A guy so unscary that birds didn’t even fly away when he approached.
Laughing, Rudy turned a lamp on.
The rest of the movie passed with Louise and Rudy on the opposite sides of the couch. Occasionally, Rudy would look at her and giggle. She would respond by scowling with her tongue out in mock indignation.
When the credits finally rolled and the eerie Halloween theme filled the silence, Louise was left to think of what to say next. She was just about to suggest another scary movie when Rudy beat her to the punch.
“My mom won’t be home for another few hours. If you’re interested, we can watch Hocus Pocus next?”
“That’s not even scary,” Louise argued.
“But it’s a Halloween cult classic,” Rudy said, “and we can cuddle, I was missing it a little during the last movie.”
Louise smiled, then quickly turned it into a smirk. Even though they had been dating for almost a year now, and had been friends for much longer, she refused to acknowledge how soft she had gotten when it came to Rudy.
“Well, in that case, sure. Why not? I’ve never actually seen it anyway.”
Rudy clutched his chest dramatically, “you’ve been trying to educate me, when it seems it’s you who’s been deprived of true Halloween must-watches.”
Rolling her eyes, Louise scooted towards him on the couch.
“If you count baby movies as a must-watch, then sure, educate me.”
He assured her it was not a baby movie as he changed the discs. Settling back onto the couch, Rudy didn’t even give her a chance to move before he pulled her into his arms. Louise felt the warmth of his chest against her back and relaxed without a fight. She only squirmed a little, and that was more to settle herself better than defiance.
“Much better,” Rudy said, his voice a low vibration along her spine.
This time, the movie was watched with more of their usual chattering. Quips about the Sanderson Sister’s thinking a sprinkler system was going to kill them and how cool an immortal talking cat would be passed between them with ease.
The next day, she, Tina, and Gene showed up in their costumes, a medley of Studio Ghibli characters, to Zeke’s a little early. They had brought sliders their dad had made, and Tina had roped them into setting up. Louise had only agreed because she liked Zeke, and it seemed like a good idea to be nice to her future brother-in-law.
Zeke, dressed as Ashitaka to match Tina’s Mononoke, had promised her the ability to setup a haunted hallway equipped with all of the affects he and his cousins had put together.
She also got two full sized candy bars of their choice for the help. Which Louise wouldn’t say no to, especially when her Chihiro costume had so many pockets. Who knew working in a hot spring for spirits would have better pocket options than most regular clothes?
Gene, dressed as Howl, had been promised full control over the music. Something he was taking seriously, with a small DJ station that consisted of a laptop and speakers’ setup in a corner.
Alex and Courtney arrived soon after them. Courtney insisted on adding some songs to Gene’s playlist, which devolved into the old argument of her music major versus his natural talents and composition schooling.
“But you guys always come up with something great together, why not work together?”
Alex’s appeal was just another part in the typical argument that formed the trio’s friendship.
Louise only laughed as she passed them on her way to get Zeke’s approval on her hallway setup, only to groan when she turned the corner. Wrapped in Tina’s embrace, Zeke looked a little busy. Which meant that, with only ten minutes until more guests were supposed to arrive, that her handywork would have to do.
It also meant that she would be able to finally see Rudy’s costume.
Except he didn’t show up. At least, not in the first few minutes like he normally did for parties. Not ten minutes late, which he would smile and say made him fashionable late.  Jimmy Jr., Andy and Ollie, Kaylee, Susmita, Henry, Arnold, and the rest of the usual suspects filed through the door, but no sign of Rudy.
After twenty minutes, she found Millie and Jessica, dressed as Norman Bates and Mothman, in the corner chatting about horror movies, and joined them.
“Hey, if you wanna take a look at this, we got an illusionary visionary in the house tonight, the Amazing Rudy, and he’s kind enough to perform a trick as a treat!”
Zeke’s voice cut though the sound of conversation and music, catching Louise’s attention at the mention of her boyfriend.
“Tonight, I have one trick, a costume change from man to beast!”
Rudy’s voice had his customary magicians’ cadence, and Louise found herself smiling as she made her way towards the front of the crowd to see. It was almost like he was waiting for her to be in sight before he continued, but Louise knew that timing was a big part of an act, and it wasn’t for her benefit.
But her smile grew even more when she finally caught a glimpse of him. He looked a little silly in the green-black wig, but Rudy’s Haku costume was good. She wondered which of her siblings had told him about their costumes, since she hadn’t revealed it.
“I stand before you as a simple boy, but what you don’t know is,” Rudy raised his arms in a flourish, “my true identity is that of a river spirit!”
Shocked silence, followed by applause and cheers filled the room as Rudy dropped his arms and his costume suddenly changed into a green and white dragon, complete with a detailed mask and horns over his head.
Louise’s jaw dropped. She’d helped with some of his tricks over the years, but this was the best one yet.
“Wow, that was so cool…”
“How’d you do that?”
“…think I saw something like that on YouTube, do you follow…?”
Louise waited until the cluster of people who had swarmed around Rudy dissipated before she approached.
“Some trick, Rudes,” she said, catching his attention.
“Thanks, I made it all myself. I even got to build this cool dragon head hat to go in my collection.”
“Yeah, it is cool,” Louise agreed, “so how did you come up with the idea for your costume?”
Rudy flushed, rubbing his arm, and looking away. He stuttered out the start of an answer, but Louise just punched his arm with a laugh.
“Easy, Rudes, it’s fine. I know I said no couples’ costumes, but this makes me reconsider that. Especially when you can do cool transformations.”
After that, Jimmy Jr. pulled the attention to the dance floor with a dance-off that Gene’s sound effects only made better.
“Hey, you want climb on my back, and I can carry you like in the movie across the dance floor?” Rudy asked, after they watched the Pesto twins spin around.
“Hell yeah!”
Louise launched herself on Rudy’s back and cackled as he took off across the room. They burst into laughter after making their second crossing, Louise sliding off his back to lean against him.
The rest of the night was spent eating treats, dancing with their friends, and watching people get their pants scared off by Louise’s haunted hallway. In all, she would count it as one of the best Halloween party’s she’d gone too.
Later that night, after her shower, Louise returned to her room and saw that a photo was laying on her pillow and remembered someone had brought a polaroid camera. Picking it up, Louise smiled as she saw what it was: her, eyes closed, laughing, as Rudy carried her around on his back.
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love-kurdt · 8 months
Text
... Then Who Am I Related To? (byler)
it's thanksgiving 1990. shit inevitably goes down at the wheelers' dinner table.
this is a prequel of sorts to this is me trying, which you'll need to read before this, as context from TIMT is used throughout.
word count: 4,680
warnings: underage drinking, use of the f slur
ficlet ao3 link
Tumblr media
I’d been home for less than 48 hours, and I was already itching to get back to Indianapolis. I’d forgotten what it was like to have a curfew. I’d forgotten what it was like to share a bathroom with multiple females. I’d forgotten what it was like to not have an individual landline. I’d forgotten what it was like to sleep alone. I’d forgotten what it was like to live in a small town and therefore be unable to go to a random shop and use my fake ID to get liquor. I’d forgotten what it was like to have to sit down at family meals and listen to my dad rant about the AIDS epidemic and how fags were ruining America. I’d forgotten what it was like to live a singular mile away from… him, and to not be able to do anything about it. To put it simply, home didn’t feel like home anymore.
Which was why it was so strange that I was in the kitchen, helping my mom prepare Thanksgiving dinner. Well, one dish for Thanksgiving dinner. I had volunteered to make the mashed potatoes, and for some fucking reason, Mom had let me. I felt badly for her, and was surprised when she accepted my help so willingly. It made sense, though, since Mom was always the only one making the food, as Holly was still a kid, Nancy couldn’t cook for shit, and Dad couldn’t be bothered to lift even a pinky finger. Besides, I had a decent understanding of one specific recipe I’d learned a few years ago. So, as simple as mashed potatoes were, I figured my help could take a small burden off her shoulders.
It also helped me avoid the urge to go up to my room and drink whatever alcohol I had left in my bag until I saw double. I’d been on a good streak: twelve hours. Twelve whole hours. The last time I’d had anything was when I’d first arrived in the driveway of my childhood home a day prior, taken a swig of vodka from one of my many flasks, shoved a piece of gum in my mouth, and vowed to myself that I’d never drink again. And so far, I’d kept to my word.
“Mike, can you call the others and set the table for me?” Mom asked from where she stood at the stove, whisking the dark brown gravy in a saucepan. I pulled the hand mixer I’d been using out of the pot, resting it on its side on the counter. I took a few steps toward her and peered over to the saucepan, the scent of pure sodium and chicken broth meeting my nostrils and bringing a smile to my face.
Being away for so long gave me a much stronger sense of appreciation for my mom and all she’d done for me growing up; I definitely took Mom’s cooking for granted when I was a kid. I missed eating food that wasn’t boxed mac and cheese on a regular basis. “You’re doing an awesome job, Mom,” I said, surprising myself with my own words. Mom looked up at me with an even brighter smile than my own, her eyes lighting up with a kind of joy that I hadn’t seen from her in a long time.
“Oh, thank you, sweetie! You’ve been a really big help, too!” she replied, and reached up and brought her hand to my cheek. I leaned into the touch before lightly shaking my head.
“They’re just mashed potatoes. You made a fucking feast.”
“Language,” Mom habitually reprimanded, smile noticeably remaining on her lips.
“Yeah, yeah,” I chuckled, sauntering out of the kitchen and into the foyer. I took a deep breath before bellowing, “DINNER’S READY, Y’ALL.” I headed back into the kitchen to grab the dishes and fix the place settings on the dining room table.
Once everything was in position, all of us pulled our chairs out and sat down; Dad at the head of the table, Mom and Holly on one side, and Nancy and I on the other. The next few minutes were madness as we loaded our plates with food that we knew we’d have leftovers of for the next week. Mom cleared her throat, folding her hands as if saying “grace” was an everyday thing. I couldn’t even begin to recall the last time I’d prayed. Wait. Actually…
“Enough. You’ve done enough.”
“Please, God, help me wake up. Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, whoever the hell you are, if you even exist at all… if this is real life, please kill me. I can’t live like this.”
Yup. The last time I’d prayed was in March. The 22nd of March, to be exact. I may have sought out this memory on my own accord, but now, I had no desire to remember it anymore. Fuck, why didn’t I bring my flask with me to the table? Oh, right, because I’d promised himself that I wouldn’t drink again.
“Dear Lord, bless the meal we are about to receive,” Mom began, and I shut my eyes tightly, shielding my face with my interlaced fingers. “Thank you for this time spent with all three of our children together under one roof. Thank you for keeping them safe and protected while they are away at school. Please watch over them as they return for the last few weeks of the semester. Amen.”
“Amen,” Dad and Holly repeated, and I took note of the fact that Nancy and I were the only ones who hadn’t said “amen” out loud. Weird. I felt Nancy’s foot nudge mine, and I realized that the prayer had ended and I still had my head in my hands. I could have easily fallen asleep like that.
“Yet here we are, baby. Time flies when you’re blackout drunk.”
Feeling a little uneasy at the idea of Elvis Kuiken’s voice infiltrating my thoughts, I shifted my gaze back to my mom in order to engage in the small talk that was currently happening. Hopefully the conversation at the table wouldn’t veer too much into How’s School™ territory. Because I wouldn’t have much to say. I was still trying to figure out how to announce the fact that I was most likely going to be dropping out of college at the end of the semester. And I wasn’t even near ready to explain the reasons why I was doing so.
How could I even attempt to explain? “Hey Mom and Dad, I’m dropping out of college. You’re probably thinking, Why are you dropping out of college, Michael? Well, for starters, I fell in love with and was subsequently rejected by my best friend in the entire world– you know, the kid who was always coloring at our kitchen table– yeah, that one. Then, when I moved to Indy, I tried to fill the void that the loss of him created by drinking and hooking up with a series of men who– fun fact– all had the same initials as my ex-best friend. And then, at one point or another, the drinking and sex morphed into addictions rather than emotional crutches, and I got so depressed that I stopped going to classes, and I flunked out of literally all of them. Anyway, let’s get back to Thanksgiving, I’m fucking starving.”
Nope. I’d at least wait until after dinner to break the news. I needed to have this one last memory of my parents being proud of me, and the last thing I wanted was to ruin Mom’s hard work with my… drama. If I could even call it that.
Nancy nudged my foot again, a little harder this time. I snapped out of my thoughts to look at her. What crawled up her ass and died? I knocked my foot back at hers, a little harsher than she had, and her expression suddenly turned… hurt? What did Nancy have to be hurt over? She… Oh no. She was probably just trying to help me come back to reality. Ever since the events of the Vecnapocalypse, she’d become very familiar with my spontaneous mental dissociations. I moved my leg so our feet met gently; an apology for snapping. Silently snapping, but still. Nancy met my eyes, and offered up a light smile. Forgiveness.
“Everyone doing okay…? Everyone has something to drink? How’s the food?” Mom addressed the table, and we all nodded, unable to speak. I felt like I was in a restaurant, and the waiter or waitress had just approached our table as soon as everyone had a bite of food in their mouths. It was almost like they did it on purpose.
“Everything is delicious, mom,” Nancy reassured our mom. “The mashed potatoes are exceptionally good.”
“Aw, thank you, Nance!” the corners of Mom’s eyes crinkled as she took the compliment, “But I can’t take credit for the potatoes, those were all your brother.”
“Mike?!” Holly balked at me from across the table, her eyes going comically wide. “I didn’t know you could work a stove!” The rest of the family laughed, and I placed a hand over my heart as I feigned offense. 
“Hey! I know my way around a kitchen!” Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a little bit. Time to backtrack. “Well, all the recipes I know are pretty basic, but that was because W–” I felt my stomach twist and contort at the next word that was about to come out of my mouth. A name. His name. I hadn’t spoken it out loud since–
“Please don’t go. Hear me out. Will, you’ve got to believe me.”
“Well, I don’t, Mike. I don’t believe you.”
“Because…” Nancy prompted, leaning towards me slightly and placing a tentative hand on my shoulder. She didn’t know anything about what had gone down in August. Or did she? Well, Will probably told Jonathan, and Jonathan probably told her. Maybe it was a good thing that Nancy knew. She clearly didn’t hate me, or else she wouldn’t have put a Moral Support Hand™ on my shoulder.
All the dots in my head connected, the more I thought about it; Nancy had called to check in on me multiple times throughout my first year at the University of Indianapolis. Granted, I was usually… busy (drinking, hooking up with a guy, drunkenly hooking up a guy… or going to class, sometimes) and as a result couldn’t talk for long, but she seemed a bit… curious about my love life and well being during what was supposed to be pleasantry-filled, surface-level conversation between siblings. I never told her much, but maybe that was the key. Nancy was a journalist, after all; she probably used the process of elimination or some shit. Any girls? No, God, no. Any guys, then? Not really, no. Let’s talk about that ‘really.’ I’d rather not, Nance. Have you talked with Will lately? Oh-shit-gotta-go-bye-love-you. Yeah. She’d definitely figured it out.
“Because W–” Why was it so hard to say his name? It was one goddamn syllable. My mind certainly didn’t seem to have any trouble playing Will’s name on endless fucking loop for the past three months I’d been away. And not to mention, up until August 1989, I’d been saying that name out loud since I was five years old.
“Because W-Will…” There we fucking go, was that so difficult? Yes. I wanted to die. “Will didn’t trust me to not burn down the kitchen.” I let out a shaky breath, expelling the rest of the air I hadn’t been aware I was holding in my lungs. I cleared my throat, gripping the fork in my hand with an iron fist, and stabbed it into the gigantic pile of stuffing on my plate.
“Hmm, come to think of it, Michael… I haven’t seen Will around here in a while,” Mom said more to herself than to me, but the second our eyes met, my stomach plummeted out of my ass. “Are you guys still not talking? I would’ve assumed you two had made up by now. I know you two were inseparable.” Way to rub salt in the wound, Mom. Jesus.
“Yeah, no. We still aren’t talking,” I said, but figured my mom’s next question would go along the lines of me and Will reconciling eventually, so I added, “And I don’t think we will any time soon. We…”
“Broke up? About time,” Dad joined the conversation for the first time since we’d all sat down, not counting the grunts and hums any time someone addressed him directly. Dad’s bluntness caught me so off guard that I choked and nearly sprayed cranberry sauce out of my nose.
“Ted!” Mom exclaimed– her response to anything out of pocket that my dad said, which was pretty much any time he ever opened his mouth. I grabbed my glass of water and chugged it, still recovering from my near death experience by cranberry sauce.
“What?” he tossed a hand in my direction. “You can’t seriously tell me those two weren’t… gay… together.” Well, he got one of two things right, and not the one I preferred.
“We weren’t,” I replied, keeping my voice as steady as possible. “Will and I were never together. And I’m… I’m not gay.” Will Byers, Elvis Kuiken, Wyatt Bowman, Wes Butler, Walker Brooks, and Warren Blakely would beg to differ. But Dad didn’t have to know about any of that.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Dad shrugged, shoving an abnormally large chunk of turkey in his mouth. I narrowed my eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Dad waved his fork around, pointing it at me as he replied oh-so-nonchalantly, “I’ll believe that you aren’t gay when you marry a woman.”
I gulped and desperately shot my eyes across the table to my mom, hoping that she would come to my defense somehow. It turned out that she had already been looking at me, and we gained eye contact accompanied by a silent understanding.
Please don’t tell him.
I won’t, baby. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to get him to stop.
Right then, I had never been so glad my mom had found me having that panic attack on the day Will left. If she hadn’t, she never would have known about my sexual identity, and we probably wouldn’t be as close as we were now.
“Ted, don’t be ridiculous. You don’t know what you’re–”
“Of course I do, Karen! I’m not blind!” Dad effectively cut Mom off. “Michael isn’t in his right mind, hasn’t been for years. That boy corrupted our son with his… homosexuality.” My mom drew her focus back to me, her expression apologetic. Well… she tried.
“Dad, tell me you’re not truly that dense,” my older sister piped up from her spot next to me. My neck nearly cracked with how fast I whipped it to look at her. Was Nancy standing up for me?
“This is none of your concern,” Dad muttered with a tone that said, that’s that, end of conversation, but Nancy shook her head, lifting her elbows up so they collided with the surface of the wooden table with a sharp thunk.
“It is when you’re acting like a bigot and ridiculing my brother at the dinner table.”
“Thank you, Nancy,” I breathed, and she only nodded back at me, as if calling our father a bigot was comparable to a fucking walk in the park.
“Seriously, Dad,” Nancy continued, reaching out to her wine glass, “what is your problem?” I tried not to think too hard about the glass of red wine meeting Nancy’s lips, because Jesus Christ, of all times to lose sight of the situation at hand in favor of a glass of motherfucking merlot, this was not it.
“Maybe we should all just–” Mom, ever the peacekeeper, tried to diffuse the tension.
“I’ll tell you what, Michael,” Dad’s droning voice caught my attention, “I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these days you walk in and tell us you’ve got that disease. If not from the Byers boy, then from some other faggot.”
Mom shocked everyone at the table when she slammed her fork down onto her plate, the gold-plated utensil clanging against the expensive china. “Ted, that’s enough.”
“What? I’m just saying, Karen, all this gay nonsense is gonna… you know.” Another piece of turkey, down the hatch. “Bite him in the ass, literally speaking.”
I had finally had it. “Fuck you.”
“Michael,” Dad said, not looking up from his food, “Again.”
“Yeah, language. I fucking know,” I retorted with a roll of my eyes, pushing myself back from my spot at the table and standing up, so I towered over the rest of my family. My focus reached my father’s eyes, and I wanted nothing more in that moment than to pull a Vecna and explode them with my mind.
“Michael James, sit down. Now. It’s a holiday, for Christ’s sake,” Dad stared back up at me with a sense of mutual disdain, and I slammed his hand down on the back of the chair.
“No. No goddamn way. I’m not going to just sit here and take your shit anymore. I’m done. Happy fucking Thanksgiving. How’s that for language, Theodore? Fucking prick.”
With that, I stalked away from the table, taking the stairs two steps at a time up to my room, and slamming the door behind me. So much for announcing my status as College Dropout™. They were probably better off basking in their ignorance. I leaned against the door, dragging my hands down my neck and shoulders in an attempt to contain my boiling rage. But it didn’t help.
Fuck it.
I shuffled through my backpack, muttering to myself while trying to find… where was it? What if someone… Oh, thank God. It was still there. I pulled my bunched up socks out of my bag, unfolding them. I twisted the top off of my flask quickly, not even flinching at the sensation of straight tequila flowing down my throat as I tipped the flask upside down. The alcohol didn’t even burn anymore. Mike from a year and a half ago would have freaked the fuck out at this realization, but current me simply couldn’t bring myself to care.
I finished the flask off within the next few minutes. I sat down on my bed, waiting for the buzz to set in. Fifteen minutes went by, then twenty. Nothing. The flask had been full. My tolerance must have increased again. I let out a groan of frustration as I got off my bed once more and reached under my bed for my duffle bag. I pulled out my untouched bottle of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky and chuckled wryly to myself. Fireballs were always Will’s spell of choice. I unscrewed the cap, raised the bottle with cheers to Will, wherever the fuck he was on this fine Thanksgiving evening, and drank until I passed out.
I woke up a while later, and thankfully, it was still dark outside. It was always the worst when I’d knock out, wake up at the ass crack of dawn, and not be able to fall back asleep. Fuck, what time was it? I glanced over at my alarm clock, which read “11:16.” I’d been out for almost four hours.
I took a look around my room and sighed down into my hands. I had a mild headache, but not enough to warrant going to the bathroom cabinet to grab an Advil. I’d survive. I dropped my hands into my lap and took a deep breath in. Tonight was a fucking shitshow. I leaned down to grab my backpack, pulled my spiral-bound notebook and a pen out, and opened up to the next clean page. The notebook itself was getting thin, since I’d pulled so many letters out of it over the past year. I uncapped my pen, set the felt tip down on the paper, and began to write.
Dear Will, I think my family might have set the record tonight for the worst Thanksgiving gathering in all of Indiana. Maybe even the Midwest. Dare I say the U.S.? I should call Guinness and try to set up a meeting. But in all seriousness, I think I’ve reached the final straw with my dad. He’s so homophobic, Will. I–
I brushed a few tears away that had gathered in my eyes. God, I hated crying.
I have no idea what I’m gonna do. It’s so hard to wrap my head around. And the only reason why I have to maintain contact with him is because of my mom. They unfortunately come as a package deal, or not at all. He can never know about me, which I’m fully aware is a given, but like… how am I supposed to keep my dad in my life if he can’t accept the biggest part of it? And it physically hurts to think about if I eventually have to cut my mom off. I–
A light knocking at the door startled me out of my groove, causing me to slam my notebook shut at lightning speed. Who was knocking at the door? It couldn’t be my mom, because she still didn’t knock. It couldn’t be Nancy, because her knocks were more frequent and persistent. And it obviously wasn’t my dad. So that left…
I got up from my bed and turned on my lamp, padding toward the door and opening it a crack. Holly. What was she doing up so late? And what was she doing in my doorway, of all places?
“Can I come in?” she whispered, anxiously picking at her fingernails in the dim light of the upstairs hallway, teetering back and forth in her pink fuzzy socks. I couldn’t say no, even if I wanted to.
“Of course, Holls,” I smiled, stepping aside and pulling the door a bit further so she could tiptoe into my bedroom. She surveyed the space, which she probably regarded with disgust at how cluttered it was. I crossed my arms over my chest, sniffing involuntarily. The sound prompted Holly’s head to whip upwards and peer up at me with narrowed eyes.
“Are you crying?”
I quickly denied any and all accusations, slapping my palms onto my face in an attempt to dry the tears that apparently still lingered there. “No, God no,” I muttered, “I just… got some hairspray in my eye.”
“It’s 11:30pm,” Holly stated, point blank. “You’re crying.”
Well, no use in lying now. “You caught me,” I confessed, and Holly crossed her arms with a satisfied expression plastered across her face, as if to say, I told you so.
“Is it because of Dad?” she asked, and I slowly nodded in confirmation.
“Kind of, yeah,” I said, walking back to my bed and sitting on the edge, patting the spot next to me. “But I don’t want you to worry about this kind of thing. You’re–”
“I’m ten, Mike,” Holly said as she sat down beside me, and my eyes went wide at that absolutely batshit insane fact, “Only one year younger than you were when everything started with the Upside Down.” Yeah, Holly, I get it, you’re not my baby sister anymore, and that hurts like a bitch. Your point? “Whatever you’re upset about, I promise I can handle it.”
Well, that hit him like a load of bricks. My little sister had grown up. I nudged her shoulder with my own. “When did you become so wise and well-spoken?” I teased.
“I have a kickass big brother to look up to,” Holly smiled back up at me, and my heart sank a little bit. “He’s gonna be a famous writer someday.” If only she knew the reality.
I shook my head, shifting back a little bit in order to face her completely. “First of all, I’m not kickass, I’m an idiot on steroids. Second of all, you’re being way too nice to me when I absolutely do not deserve it. And third of all, lang–”
“Fuck, shit, bitch, ass, twat. See? God didn’t smite me dead,” Holly replied, as if she’d had that locked and loaded in her mental arsenal, ready to use on the day that I finally scolded her use of profanity. I burst out laughing. The two of us relished in that moment before the mood shifted once more back into a much darker, melancholic state.
“I stand by my original statement: you are kickass, and I look up to you,” Holly confessed, her eyes focused on the wall in front of her. She reached out for my hand, and I looked down then. My hands really were giant, Will wasn’t kidding.
“Well, you shouldn’t,” I replied, my voice low. I reached over to my nightstand for the Fireball bottle, taking a swig to try and prove my point.
“Why not?” Did she seriously not get it? Because I’m drunk right now and have been since March, I wanted to say. But I wouldn’t. That was too much to unpack right now. So I told her a… partial truth.
“Because… because Dad was right.”
“Right about… what?”
“That I like guys.” A beat of silence followed, the air thin as my will to live.
“What’s wrong with that?” my sister asked, and I huffed out a sigh at her innocence. She probably had no idea what our dad and I had been talking about earlier. I debated ending the conversation right then and there, but if I knew one thing about Holly, it was that she was headstrong like no other.
“I like them romantically, Holly.” Another pause.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
I went to take another sip of whisky, but then Holly said something that made me choke on air before I could.
“Is it actually Will?”
“God, Holly!” I exclaimed, setting the bottle down as I glared at her. “What the hell?!”
“I’m— I’m sorry!” she raised her hands in surrender. “It’s just, I thought… I thought you were just lying to Dad as a cover.” I shook my head. “So you two never dated?”
“I loved him— still love him,” I admitted, “But… we never… He broke my heart.”
“I’m so sorry,” Holly said, and lifted a Moral Support Hand™ to my shoulder. I had never felt so relieved that Dad hadn’t gotten to her yet. There was still hope.
“It’s fine,” I said, practically on default, and Holly frowned in response.
“Not really,” she looked down at her fidgeting hands– something we had in common with each other. “You’ve been sad for a while now. I can tell.”
“Yeah, well… I deserve it,” I shrugged. But that only made Holly’s grip on my shoulder get tighter. She evidently wasn’t planning to let this go any time soon.
“No you don’t. Mike, you deserve so much b–”
“Forget it, Holly, okay?!” I snapped then, shoving her hand off my shoulder in a quick burst of anger that came and went in a second. “I did this to myself. I– Fuck. Just… go away.”
“O…kay,” Holly hesitated, getting up and walking towards the door. I didn’t want her to go, but I’d scared her away. I’d done the same thing with the rest of the Party (They’d called me the other day, trying to make plans to hang out over the long weekend. When I asked if he would be there and they said yes, I snapped and said, “I don’t know why the hell you’re even asking, then.”), My friends knew that Will and I had ended things on a terrible note, but my response was totally unwarranted, and I knew it. I regretted my words the second they came out of my mouth, and right now, I felt like I was experiencing déjà vu.
“Um… goodnight, Mike. Please know that I’m here if you ever want to talk. I hope things get better for you.”
I lowered my head down onto my pillow, and waited for Holly to close the door before whispering a quiet and remorseful, “Me too, kiddo.”
18 notes · View notes
silver-hwaberry · 2 years
Text
TWELVE: happy birthday
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Warnings: entire chapter is smut! handjob, oral (m receiving), fingering, under-the-clothes touching, protected sex, brief dom and sub interactions, minor hair pulling, very very brief and very light spanking. pure 100% mingi and OC.
Word Count: 5.5k
Taglist: @kiwibaekie @fudgeflyssworld @kodzukein @elk-1998 @khjcoo @pepperony-7 @ateez-babygirl
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“Happy birthday.” I smile. “Make a wish!” I hold the cupcake I had bought from the convenience shop earlier this morning while Mingi had been in the shower. He blows out the candle on top of the cupcake. “Did you make a wish?”
“I did, but it has already come true, so not sure if it counts.” He chuckles. “You were my wish.”
My eyes look over at him as he smiles fondly at me. I feel flutters inside me at the way his eyes are looking into mine. I can feel his fingers play with my hair at the back of my head. His arm had been draped over the back of the sofa since I sat down beside him with the lit cupcake after singing happy birthday to him as I walked from the hallway to the lounge while he giggled in delight.
“Thank you Luna. For the presents you gave me and for spending the entire day with me.” he says. “I’ve had an amazing day.”
“I am glad!” I remove the candle from the cupcake and lick the icing that had got on my finger. “Your 4th win for Guerrilla and on your birthday too.” I take the paper wrapping off the cupcake and hold it up for Mingi to take a bite.
We are alone in the lounge. After the guys were done with their performances and another round of fancalls, Mingi and I had gone to the office so he could do his birthday live. The others had gone back to the apartment while Hongjoong insisted on going to his studio for a couple of hours.
When we had arrived home, everyone was upstairs, either in their bedrooms or hanging out. Only Wooyoung was downstairs. He was putting dinner out for us. 2 places set at the dining table, a lit candle between the plates. While Mingi had put his presents in his bedroom, Wooyoung gave me a lingering hug and kiss to the forehead before thanking me for making Mingi happy today. Before I could reply, Mingi came back downstairs and Wooyoung left us alone, telling us to enjoy our meal.
It was so nice of him to cook us dinner. I had tried to make sure the others didn’t feel like I was ignoring them today, while also making sure I spend the day with Mingi. It was hard juggling it all, but thankfully, they all knew that. Wooyoung and San weren’t as clingy to me as they usually are. Seonghwa and Yunho only gave me kisses in the morning before Mingi had come downstairs. 
It wasn’t like they were all staying away from me, as they were still talking to me like they usually did. Yunho was still playing with my hair as usual, Wooyoung would give me quick hugs instead of long ones and Seonghwas hand would brush against my lower back when he was nearby. San was the only one who didn’t initiate any physical contact but was still giving me the same amount of attention he always does. 
As for Mingi, he was holding my hand at every opportunity and giving me a lot more hugs than he usually did. After we had finished the food Wooyoung had cooked for us, we did the dishes and then I surprised him with the cupcake on the sofa.
Mingi leans forward and takes a bite from the cupcake. Some of the icing going on his face causing me to smile. 
“You made it an amazing day for me. The win was just a bonus.” I use my thumb to remove the icing from the corner of his mouth. “So now in international age I am older than you.” he chuckles lightly 
“I guess you are right, but we are in Korea right now. Therefore, we are the same age.” I reply, playfully sticking my tongue out at him.
“When we go to America for kcon in 2 weeks, it will be international age so I’ll be older.” he grins
“So does that mean I have to call you oppa when we are there?” I wiggle my eyebrows.
“I am not saying you HAVE to, but if you wanted to, I wouldn’t object.” His beautiful, wide smile appears on his face.
“Ok… oppa.” I smirk at him, causing him to chuckle. “Just practicing.” I laugh.
“That is slightly weird, but I like it!” he smiles. “Honestly, though, spending the day with you was exactly what I wanted. Waking up with you beside me, being at the performance, celebrating the win with us, being there during my birthday live, waiting for me while I spoke to Atiny on fancafe. You spent the entire day with me, taking care of me and making sure I have a good day.” He says. “I don’t want the day to end.” I notice the change in his expressions 
“What is with the frownie face?” I ask, reaching out to hold his hand.
“It has been such a good day. I’ve enjoyed every second. But selfishly, I don’t want it to end or for you to go away tonight.” He answers. “Or for me to go to bed alone.”
“Hey, I am not going anywhere.” I say, one of my hands cupping his face. “I don’t want this day to end either.” I place the half eaten cupcake on the coffee table and move my other hand to his leg. “And I don’t want to go to bed without you, either.”
His face leans towards mine, his eyes dropping to my lips. “Luna, if I am misreading things here, please tell me.” 
“You aren’t.” I close the gap and press my lips against his.
There is an instant spark between us. One that causes the kiss to go from 0 to 100 in an instant. My hands move to his shoulders and pull his body to mine. He pins me against the corner of the sofa, my legs moving apart to accommodate him.
“Is this ok?” He asks pulling back from my mouth
I respond by wrapping my legs around his waist and pulling him back. I can feel him smile into the kiss. His teeth nip at my lower lip before his tongue runs along it, as if asking for permission. I open my mouth and he instantly deepens the kiss, causing me to moan. All background noise fades as our hands paw at one another. I unbutton his shirt as his hands move under mine, grasping at my bare skin.
I place my hands inside his shirt as it opens. His skin is warm, abs are hard, but the skin is soft. Mingis entire body tenses as his hands pull my t-shirt upwards. Our lips separate briefly so Mingi can pull my top over my head and he removes his own shirt, both garments being thrown onto the floor. I watch as his tongue runs along his lips, wetting them as he stares down at my body.
“You are so beautiful.” He smirks. “And tonight, all mine.”
“Only yours.” I giggle lightly as his lips latch back onto mine.  
The feeling of him on top of me, his tongue massaging mine, his hands touching me. The subtle movements of his hips grinding into me and the low groans he is making turning me on more as we continue to kiss. His hips push further against me, causing my nails to dig into his back as I get a small wave of pleasure at my core and a flutter in my tummy.
“Fuck.” He mumbles against my lips.
He repeats the movement, but a little harsher, causing a bigger reaction in me. My fingers not only dig in but they involuntarily drag along the skin too, as a small moan escapes from me.
“So you are a scratcher, then?” He says, looking down at me. “Tell me princess, do you bite too?” His hips jut into me again and I can now feel the outline of him against me.
“Mingi!” I moan as he repeats the movement again. 
“Answer me.” His voice is firm.
My eyes close, my head dropping back against the cushion behind me. My mind is drawing a complete blank right now from his touches and movements.
“Luna, look at me!” He commands. My eyes snap open and look up at him. “Answer my question, princess.” One of his hands moves under my head, his fingers wrap around my hair, and he pulls it firmly yet gently at the same time. “Do you like to bite?”
I never would have imagined Mingi would be this authoritative. He is like a gentle giant and loves to be looked after. I had pictured he would be rather submissive in bed, so this side of him has me perplexed.
“Yes.” I nod, suddenly feeling submissive to him. “But I won’t bite you and I’ll try not to scratch you either.” I add quickly, flattening my fingers against his back so as not to dig into his skin.
“Why not?” I feel his fingers tighten in my hair.
“You are an idol. You can’t have scratch and bite marks on your body.” I answer. 
“It is my body. Who says I can’t?” his lips connect with my neck.
“Erm.. won’t the.. erm.. stylists see?” his movements begin again and I am fighting to not dig my nails into him again. “Don’t..  wanna get you into trouble.”
“I don’t give a fuck if the stylists see them. They’ll know I am making someone feel so good that she has no choice but to scratch me and leave marks on my body.” He pulls my hair a little harder. A small whimper of surprise escapes me. I can see the thought of what he just described has turned him on a bit more and, to be honest, it’s turned me on, too. Knowing the stylists will see and not know the culprit of the marks is me. “As long as they aren’t visible when I wear clothes in public, you can bite and claw at me all you want, princess.” 
Hearing him give me permission to mark him turns me on even more. The vampire in me may come out tonight at this rate.
“You have taken care of me all day. Now it is my turn.” His kisses move down my neck to my chest as his fingers let go of my hair. I feel his hand stroke my head where he was pulling at me. “I didn’t hurt you did I?” He asks softly
“No! You didn’t!” I reply, cupping his face and kissing him. “I don’t mind my hair being pulled, baby. I like it.”
“Lee Luna! You surprise me.” He chuckles 
“How so?” I ask.
“It appears you are a little minx in bed. You like the rougher side. Scratching, biting, and your hair pulled.” He smirks. “Never would have guessed you were like this. Not with that innocent face and those big, round eyes of yours.”
“I could say the same about you, Mr Dominant!” My breath hitches slightly as he leaves wet kisses over my chest. My legs move higher around his waist when he kisses at my breasts over my bra. I thread my fingers through his hair as he continues down my body, his tongue licking me and teeth nipping delicately at the skin between kisses. 
“Can I take this off?” He asks, his fingers sliding under one of my bra straps. “It’s really pretty, but I think it would look better on the floor.”
I arch my back to give him the space to slide his hands underneath and unhook it. The straps fall down my arms as he removes it. His eyes looking intensely at my topless body, his hands move to cup both of them, his thumbs playing with my nipples causing me to bite my lower lip.
“These are perfect.” He mumbles, leaning down to kiss at them. “Love the tattoo as well.” He adds before moving his kisses lower painstakingly slowly
When he reaches my trousers, his fingers move to unbutton them, slowly pulling the zip down. My legs wiggle involuntarily at my lack of patience and the pure desire coursing through my body, wanting to be touched by him. His hands move to my hips, pinning them firmly onto the sofa.
“Stop wiggling, or I’ll need to go slower.” His dark hooded eyes look down at me and immediately I stop moving.
His hands rub circle’s on my hips before moving back to my jeans. He opens up the material, his hand sliding inside. I whine quietly as his fingers run the length of me through my underwear before he pulls the material to the side and slides a finger inside me.
“Already so wet for me.” He groans. “Do I turn you on that much?” He moves his hand against me. 
“Yes, baby.” I moan as he slips a second finger inside.
My hands move to my jeans, trying to pull them down to give him easier access. I am desperate for more.
“I love when you call me baby!” he growls before his lips crash against mine. I only manage to get my jeans down my hips when the sudden noise of the door chime unlocking makes us jump. As Mingi quickly pulls his hand from my jeans, his fingers harshly flick against my clit by accident, causing a moan to escape me. I clasp my hands over my mouth as he grabs his shirt from the floor and covers me with it.
The corner of the sofa we are lying on is closest to the doorway to the hall. The backing of the sofa hides us from view. Mingi lies on top of me and puts his finger to his mouth.
We hear Hongjoong let out a long sigh from the hallway as the front door closes. My heart is racing as I hear his footsteps coming closer to the lounge doorway. If Hongjoong comes into the room, he will see us and there will be no denying what we are up to. Both of us half naked, Mingis shirt covering my top half, him lying on top of me, both our faces flushed, lips red and swollen from our hungry kisses and our hair messy from all the pulling.
Mingis wide eyes look into mine as we hear Hongjoong stop at the doorway. It would take him only 5 steps into the lounge and to look down for him to see us. I can feel Mingis heart beating fast against my chest, so I move my free hand to his cheek, hoping the gesture calms him. I think it does as he places his head on my chest, but his eyes still looking up at me. I don’t want Hongjoong to see us just as much as Mingi doesn’t.
Our eyes both widen when we hear Hongjoong come into the lounge. Mingi pushes further down on top of me, as if trying to cover me with his entire body. 
“I am constantly telling Woo to turn off the lights and he never fucking does!” Hongjoong growls lowly, switching the light switch off. The lounge goes dark, the only light source coming from the large bay window behind the sofa and the light in the hallway. Seconds later Hongjoong leaves the lounge and we hear him go towards the stairs. Before heading upstairs, he switches the hall light off. Mingi and I stay still for a few more minutes as we hear him reach the second floor, then begin to ascend to the top floor.
“I seriously thought he was going to see us.” Mingi is the first to move. 
“So did I!” I reply as Mingi goes up onto his knees and looks around the now darkened room. “Poor Wooyoung is going to get scolded tomorrow for something he didn’t do.” I feel bad knowing Hongjoong is annoyed with him now.
“He is used to it.” Mingi laughs, looking back at me
“I guess we got a little carried away out here.” I sit upright, place my hands on his hips as he moves his shirt from my chest and holds it up for me to wear. I place my arms into the sleeves and it feels massive on my body, but also comforting.
“You look so cute wearing my shirt.” he smiles at me. I lean forward to kiss his abs, which are right in front of my face. I move my hands to his belt buckle to undo it.
“Luna..” he groans as I pull his belt off and drop it down the side of the sofa. His hands cup my cheeks as I open his trousers just enough to free his hard on. From the limited light coming in from the window, I can’t see much, but I can feel how big he is as my hand runs along the length of it. 
When my hand reaches the base of it I wrap my fingers around it and slowly stroke him. I begin to kiss his abs again, one of his hands moves to the back of my head. He gathers my hair in his fingers again as I lower my kisses and place them along his shaft until I reach the tip.
I feel his entire body tense up in anticipation of my next movements. I lean forward and take his tip into my mouth, swirling my tongue around it.
“F-fuck, that feels good.” He groans deeply.
I put more of him in my mouth. His fingers tightening in my hair as I move. 
“Hold on princess, move back against the cushions. I don’t want you to hurt your back.” He says. 
I remove my mouth from him as he plumps up the cushions behind me, then suddenly lifts me off the sofa and puts me down so I am sitting upright and leaning back on the cushions. He leans down and kisses my lips. It is soft and sweet.
“You don’t have to do this, princess.” He whispers against my lips.
“I want to.” I whisper back, kissing him once more.
“You are too good to me.”
“You deserve it.” I smile up at him as he pulls his face away. He moves his knees between my legs so I can take him in my mouth again.
I kiss at his tip as I stroke him. I look up at him through the darkness and can just about make out his face. He is biting his lower lip, his eyes are closed as his hair falls over his face. He looks so pretty at this moment. One of his hands reaches for the back of my head as his other braces himself on the back of the sofa. As I put the tip into my mouth and suck on it, he sighs deeply. My free hand reaches behind me to hold on to the wrist of his hand on the sofa. I move my head in time with my hand strokes, taking a little more of him in every few bobs of my head. After a few minutes, I feel him move his hips, slowly thrusting into my mouth in time with my own movements.
“Princess..” he sighs, looking down at me. “You drive me crazy.”
“You taste so good, baby.” I say, increasing my hand movements as I give my jaw a small rest. 
As if he knows, the hand from my head moves to my jaw, rubbing it gently. He moves his body back slightly. “Kiss me.” he says as his face leans down to mine
I tilt my head to connect our lips and he kisses me so delicate, his hand still softly caressing my jaw. My hand continues to stroke him as we kiss one another, our tongues playing together. The beautiful pants he is making between kisses are turning me on.
“Gonna come princess.” He suddenly whines, pulling away from me.
“Where do you want to come, baby?” I ask him.
“Fuck, I don’t… don’t know.” he pants deeply
“My mouth?” I ask, slowing my movements ever so slightly to give him time to think, but not losing his impending orgasm in the process. “My boobs?”
“Can i.. come on your stomach?” he asks, his eyebrows knitting together as he holds back
“Of course, baby. Help me lie down.” I say, then suddenly squeak in surprise as his hands grab my hips and yanks me down onto the sofa. In my surprise, my hand lets go of him and he pulls my jeans off, leaving me in only my underwear and his open shirt. My hands quickly pull at his trousers. Thankfully, Mingi helps me to take them off of him before he leans over me again.
He takes over stroking himself as he places his knees on either side of my hips. He leans down to kiss me and I can feel him pumping himself against my stomach. I bury my fingers in his hair as I feel the friction of his movements on top of my core. With every pump, his hand is rubbing against me at the same time, causing me to whimper into his mouth. I want to move, but he has my legs trapped. All I can do is return his frantic kisses until I feel the warm liquid hit my stomach. His kisses stop as he breathes heavily into my open mouth.
“That felt so good.” he pants, his body collapsing on top of me. I move my hands from his hair down to his back. We stay like this as his body calms down and stops shivering.
“You did so well, baby.” I soothe, my fingers softly running up and down his back.
“I can’t believe we just did that on the sofa.” he chuckles, his nose nuzzling into my neck. “Even after Hongjoong nearly caught us.”
“Well, we need to find ways to be naughty from time to time, you know.” I giggle as his teeth delicately nibble the skin on my collarbone. “At least we didn’t get the sofa dirty.” 
“Fuck, Seonghwa hyung would be out for blood if that happened.” he laughs loudly then covers his mouth, realising the others are just upstairs and some are possibly still awake. I cannot help but laugh quietly with him. He leans down and kisses me softly.  
“Mingi...?” I hum 
“Yes, princess?” he replies
“Can you take me to my bed and fuck me?” Mingi gasps at my directness but quickly breaks into a smile
“Whatever my princess wants, my princess gets.” he smirks. “But first, let me quickly clean your stomach.” he adds as he sits upright and grabs the roll of kitchen paper I had brought in earlier with his birthday cupcake
I watch closely through the dark room as he takes a sheet and wipes my stomach clean, then does the same to his own. A loud giggle escapes me when he suddenly picks me up with complete ease and puts me over his shoulder, taking me into my bedroom. He drops me onto my bed, climbing on top and kissing me. His hands move down my body and pulls my underwear off. Our lips staying connected the entire time. He throws them onto the floor as my hands move to his boxers. He helps me to remove them and puts his hands on my inner thighs, squeezing the flesh, moving closer to my core.
“Shit, our clothes!” he suddenly says, pulling away from my lips and running back into the lounge. I can only watch and laugh lightly as I see his naked figure run from my bed out my door. I switch on the fairy lights above my headboard, giving my room the soft glow that I love so much, grab a condom from my bedside drawer and quickly fluffy up my hair. Sitting upright, I move to the middle of the bed. I lean back, using my hands behind me for support. I place my feet flat on the mattress, bend my knees and open my legs so when he comes back in he can see me open and exposed for him. Just him.
Mingi runs back in, our clothes bundled up in his arms. “Fuck!” He gasps when he sees the position I am in.
He smiles at me widely before throwing the clothes on the floor and running back over to me. “The door!” I say
“Oh, fuck.” He turns sharply and closes it quickly before jumping back onto the bed. “So pretty, sitting for me like this.” He grins as he cups my cheeks. “Wearing my shirt as you are ready for me to take you.”
“Please Mingi, take me.” I whine as his lips ghost over mine.
I fall flat onto the mattress with him on top as he kisses me. I can feel his hard length grinding against my core, my arousal leaking out and coating his tip as he moves it through my folds. With every little thrust, his tip hits my clit, causing my thighs to tighten against his hips.
I am desperate to feel him inside of me, making me feel smaller than I already do. As much as I want to feel him completely, I was still waiting for the results of my sexual health test, so I pull my lips away from his and pass the condom to him.
“Is my princess ready?” He smirks down at me. I watch carefully as he opens the foil packaging, removing the condom and unrolling it onto his hard cock. I swallow hard as I now get a proper look at how big he is. I look down as he places the tip at my entrance and I suddenly feel nervous. My hands hold on to his shoulders as I brace myself, whimpering lightly as he pushes his tip inside.
“So pretty.” He pants, his forehead touching mine as he slowly rocks his hips into me. “Tell me if it hurts.” I nod in reply, gasping as he pushes in more.
Apart from the stretch of his girth, it feels good. No pain.
“You feel so good.” My head is completely clouded with pure desire.
“So do you.” His deep voice turning me on. He sits upright, still thrusting slowly into me, and his thumb connects with my clit, harshly rubbing it. “Shit…” he mumbles, as I clench sharply around him.
“S-sorry..” I whine as I grab his wrist to slow him down.
“Too much?” He asks, taking his thumb away 
“Just too fast, go slower, or I’ll come too quickly.” I reply, my hand moving his back onto me.
He is more delicate with my sensitive bud, slowly rubbing it. “I want you to come though, princess.”
“So do I, but not this quickly. Wanna feel you inside me more.”
It feels really good as he moves his hips further into mine. I place my hands on his thighs as I move my legs further apart. His free hand holds onto the thigh of one of my legs and pushes it upward and flat against the mattress.
“My princess is flexible!” He smirks as I move my other leg to do the same.
“3 years of yoga!” I giggle, then gasp, digging my nails into his thighs lightly as I feel his tip brush over my sweet spot.
“I wonder what else this pretty body of yours can do.” He says.
“You have plenty of time to find that out.” I say as he slows his thrusts down
“You are taking me so well, princess, but I don’t want to hurt you.” He says. 
“You aren’t.” I reply.
And it’s true, apart from the initial sting from the stretch, it isn’t hurting and he’s taken his time with him, not rushed it or pushed too far.
“You are so small and I am big. That’s not me being big-headed. I know I am and it… it’s been an issue in the past.” He replies, his face looking sad for a split second. 
I move my hand from his thighs to between my legs so I can feel how much of him is left to go. I see his eyes close as my fingers touch where we are connected to one another and feel along him. 
“I can take it.” I say. “One slow thrust in.”
“Are you sure?” He asks looking down at me
“I am, but there is one thing I need while you do it.” I reply.
“Anything, just name it.” He responds 
“Kiss me.” I say
He smiles softly and leans down. With our faces in front of one another, he laces one of our hands together and puts it beside my head, the other stroking my cheek.
“Hi.” He whispers, smiling softly, rubbing his nose off mine
“Hi.” I reply back moving my spare hand to his shoulders.
“Tell me to stop if you need me to.” He tilts his head, capturing my lips with his. The kiss is soft and slow, his tongue massaging against mine. His hips slowly pull back a little, then gently push forwards. I feel the last of him push into me, his pubic bone now against mine. A small whimper passes from me to him. His lips part from mine but are still faintly touching.
“Are you ok?” He pants softly. My fingers dig into his shoulder, my body shudders at the feeling of him fully settled inside me now. “I’m OK.” I assure him.
After a few moments, he begins to move slowly, his lips back on me. With every thrust inside, I can feel him rub against my spot. I pull my legs up further as he goes at a faster pace. I kiss him feverishly, our fingers tightening in one anothers hands. 
“You feel so good!” he groans. “Are you ok to change positions or are you happy like this?” He places kisses on my chest
“I am ok with changing positions if you want to.” I answer.
He pulls out of me, his hands on my hips as he rolls me onto my side. I think he is going to lie behind me, but positions himself in front of me, also on his side. He pulls my leg over his hip and he slides back inside of me. His eyes stare into mine as he thrusts again. From this position, I can hold him closer and his hand moves along my thigh and around my waist. The position also gives me the leverage to move against him as well. We quickly get into a good rhythm together, his forehead touching mine. “Min..mingi..” 
“Yeah?” He asks looking deep into my eyes
“K-kiss me?” His lips ghost over mine before pulling back as I lean forward. “Please!” I whine as he smiles at me, almost smirking. 
“I love hearing you beg like this.” he says before capturing my lips. I let out another whine as he kisses me exactly how I like to be kissed. My arms wrap around his waist as I begin to feel fuzzy all over, and I know my orgasm is building.
His hand moves to my ass, squeezing it and controlling my movements. Loud pants coming from us both as I feel about ready to come. My nails dig into his skin, my body starts to shake and my leg tenses around his waist.
“Are you close?” he asks
“Y-yeah.” I moan. “Please don’t stop.”
Mingi suddenly rolls us over so he is on top again and moves quickly. His head buries into my neck. He bites into the skin and sucks hard as I roll my head to the side to give him more access to my neck. My legs lock around his waist as my orgasm hits hard. He doesn’t slow down his movements, in fact it causes him to go faster and harder. I moan his name loudly as my orgasm becomes more intense.
Suddenly, his lips capture mine, and he kisses me through my orgasm. His grip on my ass loosens, and I gasp as his hand collides with it. It wasn’t sore. I just wasn’t expecting him to hit me like that. He hits it once more, causing my nails to dig further into him with pure pleasure. A deep groan escapes him, his entire body tenses as he comes too. His body beginning to slow down.
“oh my god!” I gasp, trying to catch my breath
“That was good.” He exhales, his sweaty face looking down at me. 
“It was.” I smile at him. 
“Was I too rough at the end?” he asks, taking short deep breaths
“Absolutely not.” My hands move to his face, touching it gently as he leans in to kiss me, and before his lips touch mine, I whisper, “Happy birthday.”
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Silent Laughter Chap 10
Chapter 1 Chapter 9
One week later:
An entire week had gone by and nothing had happened. The creature didn’t make itself seen again, no windows would mysteriously open and shut, no music playing all of a sudden, no creepy images or messed up photos. Nothing. By now I had twelve X’s marked down on my calendar, and I was on my thirteenth day of survival. 
It was on this very day that I realised I was running very low on food. I had been running out before, but that was a whole week ago. Now I needed to get more food supplies. So I guessed I had made it long enough. 
I made the decision to go out and walk to the local supermarket. I would take a knife with me. I knew, realistically, it probably wouldn’t do anything against the creature, but carrying it gave me a sense of safety and protection. 
As I was mentally preparing myself to shove into the outside world, I convinced myself that this could be a good thing. Not only would I get more food, but maybe I could possibly find some people who were actually alive. Ever since this had all started, I hadn’t actually gone past my street. I had no way of knowing if anyone outside of that was alive or not. 
When I stepped outside, I noticed everything was very dark, like it came straight out of some sort of horror movie. It was cold. I walked down the street, cautiously glancing over my shoulder and looking left and right every now and again. I rubbed my arms to keep me warm, but it didn’t do much. I wished I’d bought a jacket. 
I was about halfway down my street when I first noticed them. They hadn’t been around my house, but bodies were hanging from the trees, just like they had been in the nightmare I had. 
I felt my heart rate go faster. The atmosphere seemed similar to the one in my dream. I felt my chest constricting and felt like I was going to have a panic attack, or pass out. But I kept on walking, and tried to ignore the eyeless bodies. There was also a lot of blood pouring into the drains on the side of the road, and some sort of meat in the gutter, but I paid no attention to that, just kept on walking. 
When I made it to the streets with the shops on it, the darkness hadn’t cleared away, and there was still no one in sight. The bodies weren’t hanging anymore, instead they were scattered around on the ground, or hanging on fences, and there were more of them. It looked like some sort of massacre had happened here. The smell was horrible, and I brought up my hand to cover my nose and block out the stench.
The supermarket glass sliding doors had been smashed, and one was leaning on an angle. Most of the lights inside were off, apart from the occasional flickering ones. The creepy atmosphere was even worse inside, and I wanted to run back out, and keep running all the way home, but I pushed on and forced myself to step over the glass shattered on the ground.
Despite the darkness, I knew where everything was, and I easily made my ways to the different aisles, grabbing the food I thought I would need. I grabbed about two loaves of bread, a bottle of milk, some butter and spreads, a bag of fruit, a box of muesli bars, and some junk food snacks, because if I was going to die, why not spend my last days feasting like a king?
I was walking out of the chip aisle and all of a sudden I felt my foot fly up and I fell to the ground, dropping most of my food. I groaned as I stood up slowly and felt something wet and sticky on my hands. Blood. I slipped in blood. I quickly hurried away from it and hit something behind me. I turned around and saw a dismembered and bloody body of a store clerk. Black goop was leaking from where their eyes had been. I screamed, and grabbed up the food I could, before running out of the store, almost tripping up again and landing in glass. Ignoring the corpses on the street and in the trees, I ran all the way home, tears running down my face the whole time.
Next Chapter ->
Woo hoo! Back to back chapters. I've pretty much got the same message and reminders down here as always. Please comment if you liked it and if you have and feedback or suggestions please tell me. If you have any requests for stories or questions, just send them to my ask box and I'll get to them. Hope you liked it! -Kenickie
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cheeriecherrymain · 2 years
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The flooding of the "domestic/relationship situation prompts that make my heart warm" prompts (1 of 5) #5 - bringing them their favorite hot drink in bed
(Specifically the reader bringing Viktor his favorite drink)
someone pls take care of this man
Viktor x Reader
-So we all know this man will work himself to the bone. He wants to be productive, he wants to do something with his life and leave his mark on the world, he wants to make life in the undercity better. Even through sickness, he’ll work. He’s an unstoppable force.
-Which is why you need to be the immovable object.
-Over time, you’ve gotten him to shorten his work days to twelve hours. It took a lot of reasoning and a lot of pouting for him to agree to your terms, but agree he did. He knows it’s better for him in the long run, but he really doesn’t like having an idle mind. He has so many ideas, so many problems to solve.
-You let him bring work home sometimes, but your one rule is that he still comes to bed with you. “If I can’t wake up with you every day, then I’m sure as shit going to get to fall asleep with you,” you told him once, way back when you were trying to get him to better balance his work/home life.
-All of this context to say: it’s very weird when one morning, you wake up, and he’s still next to you.
-You’re still bleary from slumber, so at first you wonder if you’ve forgotten about a holiday of some sort. But you’d just passed the usual winter festivities a week prior!
-Did he have a day off, and you’d forgotten? Not likely - you always tried to mold your schedule around his. He would have told you if he’d taken time away from the lab.
-Which only leaves one option.
-You quietly reach out towards him, and set the back of your hand on his forehead.
-Yep.
-He’s under the weather.
-You’d seen him work through illnesses in the past - through colds and flus, and numerous other viruses. Before you’d started dating, you’d tried so hard to convince him to go home and rest, to get better, instead of tiring himself out and prolonging the process.
-He’d only listened to your pleas after you showed up to work a couple days later, shivering and wheezing. He had then been the one to beg you to go home, despite still being sick himself, but you’d dug your heels in. If he wanted to be stubborn, then you would also be stubborn.
-Eventually you’d come to an agreement, though, when you both realized how utterly miserable you were. You would go home if he would go home, and vice versa.
-You hadn’t been able to take care of him then, since you’d lived separately. But now?
-Now, you tiptoe out of bed and into the kitchen to percolate a pot of decaffeinated coffee. You knew he’d whine a little bit when it didn’t wake him up, but you could cope with such. You’d much rather he be able to sleep on and off throughout the day.
-As a loving touch, you add a little bit of sweetmilk to the coffee, and a dollop of whipped cream on top, before returning to him.
-Unsurprisingly, the smell emanating from the kitchen has roused him. He looks rumpled and miserable where he’s tucked up in bed, but his eyes are open and peering around the room.
- “Do you want the curtains shut?” you ask him softly, coming over to sit beside him on the bed. He nods silently, and you have to hide a smile while you darken the room. You know that he’s fully capable of caring for himself when he’s under the weather, but ever since feeling the touch of your loving hand, he’s become…clingy…in times of discomfort.
-You don’t mind in the slightest - you’re happy that he’s finally able to reach out for help sometimes, even if it’s only to you.
-When you come back to sit beside him again, he’s already found the drink you left on the bedside table. He’s wiggled his way upwards so he can lean back against the headboard, and is sipping quietly on the hot liquid.
- “Is this decaf?” he asks suspiciously, after a couple mouthfuls.
- “It always is,” you reply, biting back a grin when he crinkles his nose. “You need to rest,” you tell him, “So I’m not giving you caffeine until you’re feeling better.”
-He doesn’t gripe any further after that, knowing that you’re ten times more persistent than he is. He worries about his work, of course, but at his core he’s relieved to have someone in his life that will look out for him and not think less of him because of it.
-Plus, no one makes sweetmilk lattes like you do.
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Question: how do you exercise when you have chronic pain?
answer: in the pool—a heated pool if possible.
Today was my first class in the hydropool at my hospital with the pain clinic, and omg
OMG
I’m like…I wanted to cry because it was just so incredibly good. and I didn’t hurt once. the guy literally said out loud that pain is not gain.
he said it!
the class is an hour long, and I lasted 30 mins which is way longer than I thought I would. I hope that wasn’t pushing myself too far, but I think it will be ok. I paced myself inside of that 30mins, so I’m hoping I didn’t fuck up (I was having way too much fun in the warm gravity-less state, and could have gone much longer, but I just know that would have been so bad)
basically here is what I can remember from the workout:
they do a lot of gentle work that for other people counts as stretching or just the warm up but that is the work out for us. the physio did sets of five (and only one set of five) but was adamant that we had to pace (as opposed to every other person who has spoken to me about exercise ever in my life) so I only did two or three reps out of every set unless it was something that I do at home on land—and even then I generally did three or four.
the main points was that the pool was quite hot, they have it at human body temp. and he had us stand at a depth where it was up to our mid-chest, so that the water supports your movement. for shoulder stretches I think he wanted us to stand even deeper, but I left before they got to that
the second is the course is twelve weeks long, and you can come back after that. so if you’re thinking about seeing improvement, that’s the kind of timeframe (and longer) that we’re talking. you’re not going to see immediate results because you need to move extremely slowly and carefully
the concentration for his excercises started with what I’ve talked about before; building up your glutes and core muscles so that they are taking the weight that they are designed to, which takes strain off of your back. I’ll poke around and see if I can find any diagrams the kind of excercise that he did but it was just really good. he didn’t really ask where people had pain because he concentrates on conditioning the whole body—though as I left he was asking if anyone had an injured shoulder so he must take things into consideration so no one is exacerbating their pain but also he’s adamant that very gently working on the whole bod is important
being in the pool was just really lovely. it’s been ages since I felt so happy getting into my bikini and getting in the water but I practically skipped to the pool
because of the event I went to on saturday I was sure I wouldn’t even get wet today but when I saw the water I was like I can’t not.
when it had been 30 mins I spent some time watching and just went into this bit down the back where the water was extra deep and just floated, barely feeling any pain, it was so nice
anyway so I’m way too excited. tomorrow will probs suck but I actually miss exercising and the sore muscle feeling that is earned more than most things in my life, so hopefully it will feel like that and not like punishment. fingers crossed
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Miles and Pavitr chat part 2!! Also, you know that feeling you get when you’ve been away from home for a bit and then you finally go back? That’s Miles right now, hahahahaha
@hobiesgender @royallydivinelesbian
Masterlist
Miles was facedown on his bed when the door opened behind him. He almost didn’t want to get up; he had only been gone a week, but that entire week was spent with more physical exercise than Miles had ever had in his life, and at least seven nights of sleeping in awkward places and positions all over the city. His mattress was the most comfortable thing he’d ever laid on in his entire life, and there wasn’t really a lot he was willing to get up for right at that moment.
“I come in peace?” Came the quiet voice, and he turned over quickly for one of the very few (he could not stress that enough, the mattress was so comfortable…) things that could grab his attention right now. Pavitr was standing inside the doorway, looking uncertain as to whether he’d be welcomed in or not, and Miles felt himself smile. As he sat up again, Pavitr smiled more fully and closed the door behind him before taking a running jump onto the bed. He slammed into Miles, laughing at the slightly pained grunt he let out at impact, and Miles was reminded again how long it had been since he’d been able to hang out with Pav. “You didn’t finish telling me about the city, earlier!”
“Pav, you don’t even know!” Miles sat up quickly, beaming at his friend. “It was great, honestly it was. I ran into Hobie and his group like, almost right away. I was practically set, put in the city, man.”
“So Hobie is a person?” Pavitr asked, and Miles lit up.
“Yeah, Hobie’s a person, he’s a really cool guy!” He said. Pavitr lifted an eyebrow at him, and Miles missed the warning sign as he barreled on. “He runs this group of, like, kids and stuff? There were two kids, younger ones I mean, Peni and Ham. And there was Gwen and Margo, too, and they just, like, roamed the city and stuff?”
“Roamed the city?”
“Yeah, but in a helpful way?” Miles frowned as he thought of how to explain to Pavitr without going into the more…illegal things he’d noticed them all doing while he was with them. He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened to Hobie, yet, or how the group was supposed to work now that he’d been taken into custody by Miguel. “Like, Hobie would have us divide and conquer the marketplace, and we’d pick up groceries for the elderly in the city. And he had us volunteer in shifts at a food bank!”
“What’s a food bank?” Pavitr asked, and Miles couldn’t help himself; he delved into the whole adventure, starting from when he left (though being careful not to mention how he’d made it out of the castle in the first place) and segueing into his week with the whole group. He even told Pavitr about the close call they’d had with the guards, when they’d had to split up because they’d almost gotten caught squatting in an abandon apartment complex, and he’d gotten stuck following Gwen and Peni over rooftops.
“That shit was scary, though,” he told Pavitr, who was staring at him with wide eyes, “but only because some of those buildings are so tall! And, like, Gwen and Peni had absolutely no qualms about it. I couldn’t get shown up by a twelve year old!”
“But across the roof?”
“I know!” Miles laughed. “But like, Hobie took forever to get back to their base, and like halfway through I started getting worried, cause like, what if he’d gotten caught then, you know? It was wild, man.”
“You really liked this guy, huh?” Pavitr asked softly, and Miles groaned as he covered his face in his hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk so much about someone before, Miles. You spent a whole week with one guy and you suddenly can’t stop talking about him?”
“There were other people there too!” Miles protested. Pavitr shrugged playfully, shaking his head to contradict Miles. “Didn’t you hear about Margo? Or Gwen? C’mon, man, I just finished telling you about a whole chase scene with Gwen and Peni, I’ve talked about the rest of the group!”
“Not as much as you’ve talked about Hobie.” Pavitr sang his name out teasingly, and Miles groaned even louder. He fell back against the bed again, covering his face with his hands while Pavitr laughed good-naturedly at him. “Come on, Miles. There were, like, eight people here, at the palace, for almost three weeks specifically to appeal to you for marriage, and absolutely none of them got you going on and on about them. You even ran away to get a moment’s peace!”
“That wasn’t exactly — ”
“And then!” Pavitr said loudly, as if to cover Miles’s attempt at defending himself with his own words. “And then! You come back, and your focus is not on meeting with your parents to discuss what you saw, no! You don’t want to talk about how you got out of the castle, or what you saw in the city, why would you? Your one and only trip out into the general population on your own, and you don’t even want to take two minutes to assure your best friend that you’re ok!” Miles protested that, sitting up so quickly a bone popped in his lower back, but Pavitr was on a roll; there was no stopping him. “Nope, your focus is on making sure that everything turned out ok for Hobie!” There was a pause, finally, as Pavitr took a breath and Miles stared at him.
“Are you done?” He asked, and Pavitr snorted. Miles did the same, the both of them collapsing into giggles together. “Like, was that it? Are you finished now? Got it all out of your system?”
“Shut up!” Pavitr whined, smacking him gently. “I’m just saying.” Their giggles died down, and they sat in silence for a moment before a though occurred to Miles.
“Do you think he’s mad at me?” He asked, and Pavitr hummed questioningly. “Hobie.” Pavitr rolled his eyes so hard that his head followed through with the motion, mouthing Hobie’s name as mockingly as he could; Miles ignored him completely to stare at the ceiling, brows furrowed in concern. “Do you think he’s mad, because I lied?”
“Did you lie though?” Pavitr asked. He titled his head back and forth as he thought about it, lips pursed together. Miles watched him from where he started laying down again, waiting for him to come to a verdict. “You just didn’t tell him you were royalty, right? Does that count as a lie?”
“I mean, I guess?” Miles shrugged. “Lie by omission, maybe. But, I mean, I did, sort of, maybe, possibly tell him my name was, uh…” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his head and avoiding Pavitr’s intense look as he muttered, “I may have told him my name was Michael.”
“Oh, then yeah, probably.” Pavitr said. “He’s probably mad. Sorry, Miles.” Miles sighed and closed his eyes, dropping his head against the mattress.
He hoped, that if he saw Hobie again, he wouldn’t be too mad at him.
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RHW: Chapter Ten
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PLEASE READ: I don't quite have the words to describe how I feel right now. After 14 months of planning, writing, editing, reading, and editing some more, Right Here, Waiting is finished. Other than the epilogue, which comes out next weekend, the story of Liliana and Taron has come to a close. I have had the best time with this story and I love that you have all loved it the way I have.
And I just want to throw an extra special thank you to the one and only @brayndilyn. Not only has she become a close friend this past year, she has also held me up at times when she didn't know I needed it. Without her and her dedication to this story, it wouldn't be half as good as what it is. She gave me knowledge on New York, and she's been the smut queen for me.
Word Count: 7.8k
Warnings: Smut, explicit language
May 20th, 2022
It was early evening by the time they drove into Fort William. Both Liliana and Taron were exhausted and wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed and sleep until the following day. They had been on the road for almost twelve hours, and they hadn’t slept much the night before. 
After spending so much time thinking about things that they could potentially do on their weekend excursion, it was nice that they were finally close enough to rest and spend a couple of days together just the two of them. They had nothing else to worry about except one another.
Taron had intended to surprise Liliana with the trip at the beginning of the month, but with conflicting work schedules and commitments that they couldn’t get out of, they weren’t both free at the same time until a couple of weeks later. He had planned for them to celebrate six months since they first reunited at the book launch. 
He also wanted to celebrate Liliana and her having handed in the first chapter of her second book. She had worked tirelessly to come up with a new concept, and had spent more time in meetings and at coffee shops writing than she had anything else. Taron wanted her to have a couple of days to relax and not have to think about anything.  
When he’d come up with the idea to surprise her with their first trip away as a couple, Taron had talked to his mum constantly trying to think of places to go for the weekend. It wasn’t until Liliana had suggested they head up to Edinburgh for the Christmas Markets that Taron thought of the Scottish Highlands. 
Liliana had spent some of the most pivotal years of her life in Scotland, but had never managed to take a trip to the Highlands like she’d always wanted to. She had mentioned to Taron that it was a place she would love to visit, so Taron knew that he’d found the perfect getaway for them. 
It also gave him the perfect excuse to introduce her to one of his favourite pastimes, weekends in the campervan where they could stop wherever they wanted to take in the views or have a break. 
He hadn’t wanted to tell Liliana about the trip until the day before they left, but when he’d left a tab open on his laptop on the one day that Liliana got home from work early and saw it a week before the trip, he had to tell her. Liliana couldn’t have been more excited if she tried. 
For days she researched things that they could do, and the best places to eat. They were only going to be in Scotland for three days but she wanted them to have options and to know where things were so that they didn’t have to spend much of their time looking for places to eat. 
The closer the trip got, the more Liliana’s excitement grew. She kept looking at photos of places where they could park the campervan and she would show Taron each of them. When she wasn’t looking at photos, she was looking up the best service stations that they could go to on the drive for bathroom breaks and to buy more snacks to get them through. 
On the morning that they left, Taron made sure that they had enough fuel to get them a decent way up the country and made all of the necessary checks to the campervan so that they knew they would be safe, and Liliana made them both a flask of coffee to help them stay awake on the journey. 
They left the flat at six thirty that morning but didn’t pull into the Morrisons car park in Fort William until almost six in the evening. Taron had hoped to get there a couple of hours earlier, but on their lunch stop, they ate and then decided to have a quick nap to refresh themselves for the afternoon stint of driving. 
The nap wasn’t enough to stop them from being exhausted when they got to Scotland. Liliana couldn’t imagine how much more tired Taron was than her, as he’d been the sole driver. Many of the stops had been so that he could stretch his legs and gain feeling in his bum that had gone numb multiple times. 
A little while before they got to Fort William, Liliana had compiled a list in her phone of things that they should buy to put them on for the weekend. Taron let her take charge in the shop, following her around as she put food in the trolley. 
‘So we’re only getting stuff for breakfast and lunch?’ Liliana asked as they got to the sausages. 
‘Yeah,’ Taron nodded. ‘I was thinking we could grab pizza on the way to our first stop tonight, and then tomorrow we could go to a pub or something. Then Sunday we’ll be on the way back so we’ll be getting food on the road.’ 
‘Fair enough. Do you have a gas cooker or something in the van?’ 
‘Yep. But the pans in the van are quite small.’ 
‘That’s fine.’ Liliana grabbed a pack of sausages from the fridge and started to head towards the bread section. ‘Sausage sandwiches for breakfast tomorrow? We could use the leftover sausages to make that hash that I cook and you love?’ 
Taron’s eyes lit up and he nodded dramatically. ‘We could have that for breakfast on Sunday before we set off home? That way we’ve got something hearty in us. There’s some spices and stuff already in the cupboard too.’ 
‘That sounds like a plan. I just need some tinned potatoes and a tin of beans then and that’s breakfast sorted.’ 
They continued around the shop getting bits that they would need, and a few extras that they could enjoy. Liliana grabbed some marshmallows and digestive biscuits. Having not had S’mores in years, she felt it only fitting that they have them at least once while they were away. 
While Liliana was looking at bottles of wine, Taron slyly put a bottle of Champagne in the trolley underneath the rest of the food. He knew that Liliana wouldn’t pay attention to anything that happened at the tills so she wouldn’t see it until he wanted her to.
Taron had already planned where they were going to stop that first night, and it was only a short drive to get there. Once they were a safe distance away from the side of the road, and in an area where it was legal to park overnight, Taron opened the back doors of the campervan so that they could eat while looking out at the River Lochy. 
Liliana grabbed two plates from the storage box and plated their pizza. The bottom of the pizza boxes were covered in grease from the pizza and she didn’t want them to stain the bed sheets. 
As they lounged on the bed eating, they enjoyed the gentle breeze that floated across the water and into the van. A few leaves that had fallen to the ground danced around in tiny swirls before they landed on the water and drifted to waters unknown.
Liliana rested her head against Taron’s shoulder once she’d finished her pizza, and Taron let his hand move to her knee where he squeezed it gently. 
‘Thank you for this, my love,’ she said softly as a leaf found its way into the campervan. 
‘You are more than welcome, Love Bug. What do you think? Should we make a campfire tonight? It’s still quite early and the sun will set soon so we’ll have plenty of time to relax and enjoy it?
‘I meant it that I wanted you to have this weekend to relax. I want us to be able to spend forty eight uninterrupted hours of us. You, me, the waters of Scotland, the campervan, sex. Lots and lots of sex.’  
Liliana let out a laugh before she leaned up to press her lips to Taron’s. His tongue ran along her bottom lip and she granted him access, twisting so that she could climb over him and straddle his lap. 
Taron chuckled into the kiss as his hands roamed down to grip onto Liliana’s bum. She gasped into his mouth and he swallowed it whole, leaning forward just enough that Liliana had to wrap her arms around his neck to hold herself upright. 
Pulling away just enough to rest her forehead against Taron, Liliana moved her hands to cup his neck softly. ‘A bonfire sounds good.’ 
‘All of that and all you got out of it was that a bonfire sounds good?’ Taron questioned with a guffaw that filled the camper. Liliana basked in the sound, and wished that she could listen to it on repeat for all of eternity. ‘Really?’ 
‘The sex sounds alright too, I guess.’ Liliana teased Taron and she knew it worked when he squeezed the flesh of her behind. ‘Forty eight uninterrupted hours of sex with you?’ 
Taron nodded against her before he pecked her lips three times in quick succession. ‘Who else would you be having sex with?’ 
‘Nobody as good as you.’ 
‘Fuck, Lil, where have you been hiding all this time?’ 
Taron tensed the second the words left his mouth. Liliana tensed at the same time and pulled away from him slightly. But she remained on his lap, looking at him with an intense concentration that left Taron concerned and curious. 
It had been a while since any conversation relating to the time where they weren’t talking had been brought up. They’d gotten into a good routine of being able to ignore it, but Taron knew that mentioning hiding would have Liliana reeling and her feelings all over the place. 
He looked at Liliana who looked back at him. She bit the inside of her mouth and took a deep breath before reaching a hand up to cup his cheek. Taron immediately leaned in to the touch and Liliana smiled at him a little. She had tears in her eyes and Taron wished for nothing more than to be able to reword everything. 
‘Lil, I’m so sorry.’ 
‘It’s fine,’ Liliana sniffled through a tiny smile. 
Taron shook his head firmly. ‘It’s not fine, Liliana. I should have thought about what I was saying more. I didn’t mean it like-’ 
‘I know you didn’t. That’s why it’s fine.’
A tear managed to escape down Liliana’s cheek despite her best efforts to stop herself from crying. Taron wiped it away as fast as he could, and Liliana shook her head at him gently. 
‘I worried that coming to Scotland would bring up a lot of old memories for me. That’s why I went really crazy about looking at things that we could do and eat. I didn’t want to have a moment to think back to being a teenager and everything.’ 
‘Oh shit,’ Taron sighed. He pulled Liliana into his arms and rocked her softly. In all of his haste to plan the perfect trip for them, he hadn’t even thought about what being back in Scotland could do to Liliana and how she would feel. ‘I didn’t even think about that. I am so sorry. Do you want to go back home?’ 
Liliana shook her head with as much firmness as Taron had previously. She curled into him a little tighter but tilted her head up so that she could look at him. Her hand was still on his cheek and she could feel his heart beating against hers. 
‘Don’t be sorry. I promise I’m okay. I’m a little embarrassed because I’m emotional and trying to hold back the tears, but they aren’t the kind of tears that I expected.’ 
Taron’s eyebrows wrinkled in the middle and Liliana rubbed them away with the pad of her thumb. ‘How so?’ 
‘I expected being here to make me feel like the person I was back then. I felt small and unseen. My entire world came crumbling down when I got on the train. But it wasn’t my world of being at home. It wasn’t because I was leaving my family behind. It was because I was leaving you behind. You were my world, and leaving you broke me. 
‘It took a lot of therapy time to come to terms with everything I went through, as I’ve told you before. I’m not going into that because this is our holiday and I’m trying really hard not to be a party pooper right now.’ 
‘You could do no such thing,’ Taron whispered. He kissed the top of Liliana’s head and her eyes fluttered closed for a short second. ‘I mean it, if you want to talk about everything that happened, then by all means tell me. If you’d rather not, then you don’t have to.’ 
Liliana took a moment to respond. She looked out at the river and allowed her breathing to sync up with the slow current. Everything she said here would be whisked away by the breeze and the water. The thought alone made her feel a little better. 
‘I always wondered what it would be like to have you in Edinburgh with me,’ she continued after she was sure she wouldn’t cry any more. ‘Or what it would be like if I hadn’t left when I did. The past few months have been amazing and it makes me wonder if we would have admitted our feelings earlier if we’d have been together.’ 
Taron’s chest rose and fell against Liliana’s cheek as he looked out over the water. The sun had started to set and filled the campervan with a beautiful orange glow. 
‘I don’t know,’ he answered truthfully. ‘I was so scared to confess how I felt back then that I potentially wouldn’t have said anything in pure terror that you’d have laughed in my face.’ 
‘I would never,’ Liliana said quickly. 
‘I know but I wasn’t much to look at back then, was I?’ 
‘Yes, you were.’ 
Taron laughed as though he didn’t believe a word she was saying, and Liliana twisted again so that she could look at him face to face.
‘You were the most gorgeous boy in our year,’ she told him truthfully, her hands moving to cup his cheeks. ‘I didn’t look at any other boy but you. Nothing has changed in that respect.’ 
She laughed to herself and leaned forward just enough to capture Taron’s lip with her own. 
‘Don’t flatter me like that, Love bug.’ 
‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’ Liliana smiled up at him and kissed him once more before moving to straddle him again. ‘You were, and continue to be, the most beautiful man I’ve ever known. And it’s not just your looks, because you are stunning beyond belief, it’s how whenever we’re in a room full of people, you’re always already looking at me when I glance at you.’ 
‘It’s the way you send me songs when they remind you of me. It’s the way that you pull me into a dance whenever there’s music playing and we’re out, or when we’re at home. It’s the fact that you’re my best friend. 
‘It’s you driving me around on a night time when I’ve had a shit day and just need to cry. It’s the way you caught me when I fell. The way you kiss me like your life depends on it. 
‘It’s you buying books I love and reading them just so that you can talk to me about them. I know you didn’t think I knew, but I knew, and I love it. But most of all, it’s the fact that I know you’re here to stay. After everything we’ve been through, I know that you’re not going to let go of me just as much as I’m not going to run away again. 
‘There’s no genuine evidence for thinking that. Because we don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know what’s going to happen two days from now, or two years. But I believe it anyway. I love you.’ 
Taron blinked back the tears that had filled his eyes. Liliana cupped his cheeks and wiped the ones that fell away as she leaned forward to kiss his lips. Taron sniffled quietly while he held Liliana impossibly close to his body. 
Her heart beat hard against his chest, and his eyes fluttered softly down at her. She looked at him with big eyes as she continued to wipe away his tears. 
‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled against his ear. ‘I didn’t mean to make you cry.’ 
‘They’re not sad tears.’ Taron sniffled again and moved Liliana so he could kiss her again. 
Her lips were soft against his and she granted him immediate access when he traced her lower lip with his tongue. Liliana ran her hands through the hair at the nape of Taron’s neck, and he roamed his hands down the length of her back until he cupped her bum again. 
Liliana moaned into his mouth and he chuckled softly, pulling her hips tightly over his. The response in his dick was almost instant, and Liliana ground against him on her own to try and get Taron to make the moans that had her weak at the knees. 
‘I can tell what you’re doing,’ he mumbled against her lips when he pulled away for breath. 
‘I am merely loving on my boyfriend,’ Liliana smirked, grinding her hips once more. Taron held her hips tightly to still her movements so that he could lean her backwards to lay on the bed. ‘I can tell what you’re doing, mister.’ 
‘Me? I am merely loving on my girlfriend.’ 
Liliana raised her eyebrows at Taron who simply winked at her before leaning to capture her lips once more. He was hard against Liliana’s core and she moaned into him when he moved their hips together. Taron loved the sounds that left her, and wished for nothing more than to be the one to make her moan that way for the rest of her life. 
‘Love on me all you want, T.’ 
‘Well if you insist.’ 
Liliana hadn’t realised just how small the campervan was until they attempted to undress one another in the space. Taron’s head hit the roof multiple times, and Liliana almost knocked over everything on the one shelf as she lifted her arms when Taron removed her top. 
In the end they decided against trying to be sensual and to just undress themselves to save from anymore injuries. They both laid on the bed and shimmied their bottoms and underwear off at the same time which made them both giggle like school kids. 
When they were naked, Taron tucked a piece of hair behind Liliana’s ear and let his fingers drift down her neck and to her collarbone where he leaned down to kiss. Liliana’s eyes closed shut and her hands found their way to Taron’s hair. She tugged it softly and Taron groaned delicately onto her skin. 
His lips planted kisses down her chest until he got to her breast. He let his tongue run around Liliana’s nipple before he sucked it into his mouth. Liliana moaned loudly and tugged his hair tighter. 
‘That feels so good,’ she whimpered when he took her other breast in his hand and pinched her nipple. ‘I need you, Taron.’ 
‘Patience, Love Bug. I want to take my time with you today. I haven’t had the chance to do that recently, and you deserve all of the love and care I can give you.’ 
Liliana peered down at him and protruded her lips into a small pout. Taron, used to her always begging for the end, was not deterred by her action.  
‘Not yet, sweet girl. Like I said, we have forty-eight uninterrupted hours of just us, and I am going to savour every single one of them.’ 
Taron continued his tour of Liliana’s body, kissing all of his favourite parts of her. Because that was all of her, it was a long, drawn out expedition that had Liliana moaning next to him. Taron loved every second of the journey, and he loved it more and more each day. 
By the time he got to the tops of her thighs, he was laid between her thighs and Liliana squirmed above him, but he took extra time licking and kissing her skin on his way to her centre. Though he never kissed exactly where she needed him to. 
He used one free hand to steady her squirming underneath him and the other to rub small, delicate circles into the thigh he wasn’t kissing and nipping. 
‘Taron, please. I need you, baby.’ Liliana begged Taron as the inferno grew hotter between her legs. She was desperate to feel the fullness of Taron inside her. It was her favourite feeling. 
‘I haven’t quite finished my worship of you. Now, if you please, stop squirming and let me continue this or I promise, it will take a lot longer than you’d like. I could do this all day.’ Taron looked up from between her thighs and grinned as though he were the devil. It was a sweet smile laced with desire and passion. 
‘You are such a tease, Egerton,’ Liliana whimpered above him. Her hands had found their way to his hair and she massaged his scalp, smirking to herself when he struggled to keep his eyes open. ‘But just know the next time I get my hands on you, you are getting the same treatment.’ 
She huffed in playful frustration before she pushed herself back into the covers to begrudgingly admit defeat. Taron only smirked at her with a wink so small it was almost unnoticeable. 
‘Oh, baby girl, I very much look forward to it.’ 
With Liliana still above him, Taron continued to kiss down her leg until he got to her ankle. The hand that had held her stomach trailed down her leg until he could squeeze her foot lovingly. Liliana sighed above him before tilting her head to look at him. 
Taron looked up at her through thick eyelashes and the sight was enough for Liliana to need to press her legs together to get some friction. But Taron stopped her, using his hand to anchor her legs apart. 
‘I don’t think so. You’re going to be a good girl and let me do this, or you don’t get to cum until I say you can.’ 
Liliana gulped as her eyes widened slightly. Her heart beat ten times faster in her chest as she looked at Taron. He watched her for a minute before he started to kiss back up her leg where he settled himself comfortably between them both. 
He held onto her thigh as he leaned down to press a kiss to her entrance. His nose brushed against her clit and Liliana’s legs jerked under him. Liliana’s hands gripped the covers by her side. The sensation sent her into overdrive and all the pent up emotion and teasing pushed her close to her release. 
Taron let his tongue run from her entrance to her clit where he licked and sucked at a pace that he thought would tease Liliana. But along with everything else she felt that night, it brought her orgasm on faster than she had been expecting. 
Liliana moaned above Taron and her hips lifted away from the mattress and into Taron’s face more. Taron grabbed onto her bum and held her in place as he continued to kiss and suck her core to help her ride the waves of her orgasm. 
He watched her chest rise and fall rapidly as she came down from the high, and he let his thumbs massage the sides of her thighs to help calm her down. 
When Liliana had come back down to earth finally, Taron moved himself up her body so that he could kiss her. Liliana tasted herself on his lips and her eyes fell closed. It was such an intimately erotic action and she couldn’t get enough. 
All of the teasing had affected Taron as well, and he was harder than he thought possible. He’d started to leak pre-cum and was getting increasingly uncomfortable the longer he waited to do the one thing he wanted to. His patience had worn thin and as he looked at Liliana, the desire was bright in his eyes. 
‘I’m not quite finished with you yet, Love Bug. Ready for another? Maybe two?’ 
Liliana nodded through a dazed look. ‘Always ready for you, my love.’ 
Taron lined himself up with Liliana’s entrance and let out a deep groan at the feeling that shot through his body. Liliana gripped the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss her again. He obliged and let his lips linger as he entered her. He pushed up into her so hard that the bed shifted and Liliana knocked her head on the metal wall that separated them from the cab. 
Liliana rubbed her head to ease the pain that formed while she let out a strained laugh. Taron’s eyes widened and he stilled inside her while he pulled his lips into his mouth. He tried to hold back a laugh while he placed his hand on top of Liliana’s. 
‘Are you okay?’ 
Liliana slapped Taron’s chest playfully. ‘You need to be more careful. There’s less room here than at home.’ 
‘You’re the one that jumped me in this tiny van.’
Liliana’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock. ‘Piss off. You know that you’re the one who started this.’ 
‘Touché,’ Taron laughed softly, leaning down to kiss Liliana once, twice, three times. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ 
Liliana nodded. ‘Yeah. Please move, you’re killing me here.’ 
Taron pulled out of her until only the tip of his dick teased her entrance. 
‘T, what are you doing? Stop teasing me and get on with it already,’ Liliana whimpered. She was so riled up from one orgasm already that having the full feeling of Taron buried inside her being snatched away so quickly made her need for him even stronger. She clawed at his back to hold him close. ‘Please.’ 
Taron leaned in close to her ear, grabbed a fistful of her hair and tugged it slightly while growling, ‘I told you before, be a good girl for me…or I won’t let you cum until I say so.’ 
Liliana had seen Taron take control with her before and she loved it, but he had never been so dominant. She didn’t think it was possible considering how sweet he was, but it was making her even more soaked. No matter how much she tried to squeeze her legs around Taron, he used his hips to keep them apart. 
His eyes were a deeper shade of green when he pulled away from Liliana’s ear, and she looked at him with a shaky breath. ‘I’ll be good, T, please let me cum.’ 
‘We shall see,’ Taron said as he cocked an eyebrow and slammed back into her at the same time. 
To keep her in place, Taron grabbed both of her wrists and pinned them to the pillow next to her head while he thrust in and out of her. Not having control of her hands normally would have made Liliana uncomfortable, but with Taron she felt safe and it turned her on more than she cared to admit. 
‘Fuck, Taron, that feels so good,’ she moaned loudly. Taron kept his pace but thrust into her so hard that she could feel him in her stomach.
Taron moved his hands from her wrists and intertwined their fingers instead, kissing her with a ferocity that caught him off guard just as much as it did Liliana. He knew that he wanted to coax at least two more orgasms out of Liliana before he reached his own climax, so he slowed his pace slightly and reigned himself in so he could last longer for her. 
He could tell that Liliana was close to her second orgasm thanks to the constant stream of moans that Taron adored so much. Her walls clenched around him and he kept the pace as he leaned down to kiss her once. 
‘That’s a good girl. Now, cum for me, Lil.’ 
It was unusual for Liliana to orgasm from penetration alone, but Taron’s commands had her coming undone for a second time. This second one was stronger than the first. Their hands were still intertwined next to her head and all Liliana could do was absorb the pleasure. She let out multiple, noise defying moans with some expletives mixed in. 
While it was unlikely with how remote the area they were in was, Taron leaned down to swallow her moans with kisses just in case someone was around and could hear them. The back doors of the campervan were still open and a chill breeze drifted in and whispered against their clammy skin, but they were so caught up in each other that they couldn’t care less. 
‘That’s my gorgeous girl.’ Taron continued to thrust through Liliana’s orgasm so that she had no time to recover. Watching her come undone underneath him made his entire body ignite in a fire he hadn’t known before. ‘Keep going.’ 
‘I can’t,’ Liliana whimpered pitifully. ‘I can’t.’ 
‘You can,’ Taron nodded. ‘I know you’ve got it in you. You could let go at least four more times.’ 
Liliana shook her head. 
‘You can. I know you can. Just give me one more, baby girl. Gimme one more like the good girl you are.’ 
Holding himself at bay through two of Liliana’s orgasms was not an easy feat for Taron and he now became a man on a mission, keeping his thrusts at a constant pace. Liliana moved her legs up to wrap them around Taron’s waist to pull him in deeper and to keep her knees from hitting the side of the van. 
‘Feels so good, T. You make me feel so good.’ 
‘Fuck, yes, Lil, you feel amazing.’ Taron could feel himself getting close to his own climax and he knew that it wouldn’t take long for Liliana to fall into her third orgasm of the night. He moved one of his hands down between them where they met to rub circles on her clit, knowing that it was the fastest way to get her going. 
Liliana wrapped her arms around Taron’s neck and arched her back off the bed so that they were chest to chest. She could feel the pleasure building in her core as Taron continued to rub circles into her clit and she let herself fall into an abyss of pleasure, shouting out Taron’s name. Her orgasm squeezed Taron and his own orgasm washed over him. He emptied himself inside Liliana and rode out both of their orgasms with a few final thrusts. 
Completely spent, they both laid there for a few moments, their breaths heavy and their skin sweaty and sticky. After a few moments, Taron very carefully flipped them over so that Liliana was laying on his chest. 
Taron landed a playful slap on Liliana’s bum and praised her, ‘Good girl, you took me so well. Told you that you could give me another.’ Liliana’s wits were still too scrambled to form a coherent thought so she just let out a few moans and mumbles while she nodded into his chest. Taron chuckled and kissed the top of her head. 
They laid together in complete silence, just letting the soothing sounds of nature surround them. Liliana couldn’t help but notice how peaceful the moment felt. By all accounts, she should have felt incredibly shy. She just had three orgasms with the doors of the campervan open, while Taron commanded her and she enjoyed it. She had never known this side of her, but instead of feeling awkward, she only felt safe and loved. This was the life she was supposed to be living and it felt calm. 
After a few more moments of silence, Taron leaned his head up, ‘What do you say we just skip the bonfire tonight and get some sleep?’ 
‘We were going to have a bonfire? I thought you just wanted uninterrupted sex?’ Liliana looked up and winked at him as she said it. Taron chuckled softly and rubbed his hands up and down her back until Liliana drifted off to sleep in his arms. 
When Taron was sure that Liliana was fully asleep he moved her as gracefully as possible so he could get up and shut the campervan doors and close the curtains. Once that was done, he climbed back into the bed and pulled Liliana’s back to his chest and covered them both. She adjusted slightly and scooted her bum right up to his hips, but didn’t wake up. Taron shook his head to himself and whispered, ‘Sleep well, my love’ before drifting off himself. 
May 21st, 2022
Liliana woke to the sound of the rain that pelted against the roof of the campervan. She pulled the covers around her to keep out the chill that had made its way into the space despite the doors being closed and the curtains being drawn. Taron remained tucked tightly at Liliana’s back, and his light snores mixed with the rain lulled Liliana back to sleep. 
The rain had stopped by the time she woke up again. It was silent outside besides the rushing of water at a small stream that had formed off of the river, leading to the campervan. The silence was loud, and Liliana grabbed her phone in an effort to stop her mind from racing. 
She’d taken a series of photos the previous day of the drive through Scotland and she wanted to post them to Instagram, but before she could, she saw a post that stopped her in her tracks. 
In all of the excitement of getting to Fort William and spending time with Taron the previous day, she’d somehow forgotten that the new Harry Styles album had dropped and she’d missed it. For six weeks she had listened to As It Was on repeat and had done nothing but talk about her excitement for the full album. 
It was just past seven and Liliana knew that Taron wouldn’t be awake for another hour or so at least, and then the chances of him falling back to sleep were high, so she knew that she would have time to listen to the album the way she’d wanted to, song at a time with a short break between each one to really think about it.
When she opened Spotify to listen to the album, the rain started up again and created a gentle beat against the metal roof above her. The sound of the rain and the comfort of Taron being curled up into her back made for the perfect time to listen. 
Her earphones were in her bag and with Taron’s arms wrapped around her naked middle as tightly as they were, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to get them to listen. So she turned her volume down even more on her phone before she pressed play on the first song. 
The opening notes of the first song had her hooked immediately. It was upbeat and fun, and by the time Harry belted out ‘You know I love you, babe’, Liliana had a huge grin plastered on her face. She thought about the man who slept so peacefully behind her, with his breath tickling the back of her neck, and how much she loved him. 
The second song took her back to the beginning of the year when they spent many a late night talking on the phone. When they weren’t on a phone call, they were texting or just sending photos to one another to describe their evenings. Liliana had loved every second of that time. 
‘Now you’re in my life / I can’t get you off my mind’ had Liliana reeling. Two lines of a song had never summed up how she felt so perfectly. She wondered how Harry had managed to inject everything she felt into the album, and she was only two songs into the album. 
The first few songs had her bobbing her head softly and wiggling her feet to the beats of the songs. When Liliana’s phone lit up with a text message notification from Evelyn, she did a double take at the title of the song that just started. 
Matilda. 
It took a matter of seconds for Liliana’s emotions to get too much for her and for tears to stream down her cheeks. By the end of the song, her entire body shook as she sobbed. She tried her best to calm her breathing so that she wouldn’t wake Taron, and she had to pause the album so that she didn’t miss anything while crying. 
Liliana couldn’t quite comprehend how one song could make her feel so many conflicting emotions. For a second she was tempted to wake Taron so that she could talk through it with him, but he got so little time away from work and was always the first person to comfort her so she let him sleep for a little longer. 
She played the song for a second time so that she could be sure she heard it properly the first time. The second listen made her cry even more. It was a song that spoke to her on a visceral level, and she was unsure how she would ever be the same again after hearing it. 
When Harry crooned ‘You can let it go / You can throw a party full of everyone you know / You can start a family who will always show you love / You don’t have to be sorry for doing it on your own’, Liliana’s breath caught in her throat. 
Taron had gone above and beyond for her for so long, and it took until then for Liliana to know just how badly she needed everything he’d offered her. She finally took the time to acknowledge that she was ready to accept everything he offered her, no matter how scary it was. 
One of her favourite quotes from university pops into her mind. ‘It doesn’t take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go’. Listening to Harry tell her that she can let everything go made everything click into place. 
She’d spent so much of her life worrying that she’d been weak for leaving and running to Edinburgh. To Liliana, she had left the hard life to move on to a new life. But now she knew that wasn’t the case. It had taken strength to leave. 
Liliana stared at the curtains on the campervan. Tears still clouded her vision but she was a little more in control of her emotions by that point. She thought about everything that had happened with Taron, and what could still happen. 
Liliana was finally ready to open up completely. She wanted to start a new life with Taron, and to let all of the pain from her past go. The thought of being free from the guilt of leaving and not seeing Matilda made her shake a little in her spot. 
In the past few months, her relationship with Matilda had grown even more, and they were closer than ever. Liliana had bought Matilda her own phone so that she didn’t have to use Eliza’s to contact her, and they texted at least once a day, if not more. 
Liliana also accepted the fact that she could spend time without having to spend time near her mum too. The two weren’t mutually exclusive. Liliana could go to Wales and take Matilda out for the day. Eliza never had to be a part of her time with her sister. 
The final song in the album was yet another moment where Liliana stopped in her tracks, and her breath caught in her throat. Yet another song had Liliana wondering how Harry had managed to inject her life into it. 
‘Baby, you were the love of my life / Maybe, you don’t know it’s lost til you find it / It’s not what I wanted / To leave you behind / Don’t know where you’ll land when you fly / But baby, you were the love of my life’. 
Taron was the love of her life. They had only been dating for a couple of months, but everything from their past led Liliana to believe that she would never love anybody the way that she loved Taron. She hadn’t realised how much she loved him when she left for Edinburgh, until she was there. 
Now that she had him back, she wouldn’t let him go. Not if she could help it. Taron was everything Liliana had ever needed, and she was willing to do anything she could to show Taron that she wanted him and that she would love him with everything in her being. 
***
After an afternoon of hiking up Ben Nevis and an evening eating food in a local pub before they headed to their second stop off for the night, a bonfire by the water was just what Taron and Liliana needed to unwind. 
Liliana had listened to the album another two times during the day, once on her own when they were headed up a particularly difficult part of the mountain, and once with Taron. The entire time he listened to it, Taron looked at Liliana. 
He had just as many conflicting feelings as Liliana had the first time she’d listened. And when he heard Matilda for the first time, his shoulders dropped and he pulled Liliana into his body to hold her close. 
While they listened, he had whispered numerous times how much he loved her, and she’d reciprocated that love. It wouldn’t be the last time that they would listen to the album together. 
The heat from the bonfire warmed Liliana through to the bone as she looked over Loch Eil. It had grown chillier near the loch as the evening drew closed and nighttime ascended upon them. The moon shone bright in the sky and lit up the water’s surface with glitters of silver and white. 
It was silent except for the crickets in the hills across that surrounded them, and the breeze that still wrapped around the area as though it were a warm blanket. Liliana basked in the serenity she was bathed in while Taron added more sticks to the fire to keep it alight for a little longer. 
Liliana had grabbed blankets from the campervan that she and Taron could curl up in while they sat around the fire. She showed Taron how to make the best S’more and he ate so many that his stomach hurt. Liliana could only chuckle at him as she took another bite of her own with a huge grin on her face. 
‘Those are good,’ Taron smiled at her. He kissed her lips and then licked his clean from the melted marshmallow that had transferred. ‘I’m just going to go grab another drink. Do you want one?’ 
Liliana shook her head and held her mug up at him. ‘Still got some. Thank you though, babe.’ 
Taron nodded as he stood from his seat and walked over to the campervan. Rocks crunched under his feet with each step. Liliana watched as he went, and bit the inside of her cheek when he wiggled his butt at her. She tittered softly and turned back to the water as he climbed into the back of the camper. 
‘I’ve been thinking a lot about something,’ Taron said when he made his way back to Liliana a few seconds later. ‘I love you.’ 
‘I love you too,’ Liliana responded instantly. She never had to think about whether she loved him or not, it was just a fact. ‘But what’s got you thinking about that?’ 
Taron shook his head as he sat back down. He held his arm at the side of him and Liliana eyed it curiously. Taron ignored her glances and continued to talk. 
‘I’ve been thinking about us–don’t worry, nothing bad. It’s just…what you said yesterday really struck a chord. About me and how you just know that I’m here to stay? I realised I never answered anything you said.’ 
‘Yeah because you were too busy giving me three orgasms,’ Liliana mused. 
Taron smirked but quickly shook his head, ‘I could have made it four. Anyway, as I was saying, you are the best person I’ve ever known. You make me feel like the happiest version of me. And I honestly think that had it not been for our time apart, we wouldn’t be where we are now.’ 
Liliana smiled knowingly. ‘I know. I keep wondering what would have happened if I’d have stayed but I think we would have been stuck. I wouldn’t have admitted anything to you because I never would have gone through the things I did when I was in Edinburgh. I wouldn’t have gone to therapy and pieced everything together.’ 
‘I was so in love with you back then that I was scared I would have scared you away if I said anything. It took me losing you to realise how big of a pedestal I’d put you on back then. Not that I was wrong to, I mean, look at you.’ Taron paused to look Liliana up and down. Her cheeks grew a deeper shade of red and she pulled her lips into her mouth. ‘You are, and have always been, perfect. And you are by far the strongest person I have ever had the privilege of knowing.
‘When we listened to the album earlier, I listened and all I could think was, there’s this woman who has gone through more than I could ever comprehend and she’s still going. You’re so strong that you left and did what you needed to. Leaving made you stronger, and if I’m being honest, it made you an even better person. 
‘You’re no longer the person you were back then. You’re an adult who is whole. You know what you need in a person and I hope that I can be everything for you.’ 
‘You are,’ Liliana whispered as she wrapped her arms around one of Taron’s and rested her head on his shoulder. ‘You’re more than everything. Everything I’ve ever wanted and needed, you are.’ 
Taron beamed at her words and grabbed the champagne bottle that he had been hiding and popped the cork with a flourish. ‘I bought this yesterday to celebrate six months together and all of your achievements with the second book.’ He filled his cup and Liliana’s with champagne and raised it to toast her.
‘Cheers to you Liliana, and to us, I’m so glad that we found our way back to one another,’ Taron said sincerely. ‘You are the love of my life.’ 
Liliana kissed his shoulder and looked at him, ‘And you’re mine. Forever.’
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