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sansaorgana · 5 months ago

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— LADY OF THE ROSES (IV)

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

MASTERLIST

#gwayne hightower x reader #gwayne hightower x oc #tyrell oc #lilysfiction

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starlostastronaut · 1 month ago

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NEW YEAR TRADITIONS WITH SKZ

ot8 × reader - fluff, headcanons

summary - what new year traditions would you do with stray kids

links - masterlist

note: this is a scheduled post i've had prepared for about a week. writing hiatus is still ongoing. also traditions are taken from this website

happy new year my loves! ✨️ i still have few hours until midnight left, but i'm posting this a little early, so i don't flood it with end of the year posts. may your new year be as amazing as possible and i'll see you all in 2025 <33 enjoy reading! <3

BANG CHAN - jumping seven waves

chan took you to spend new years with him in australia

to welcome the new year, you decided to have a picnic on the beach and watch the sunset

which was when chan suggested the tradition

he read online how people in brazil jump over seven waves for good luck and wanted to try it

well, the sea was right there and everyone could use a little extra luck anyway

you held hands as you stood in the water together

LEE MINHO - eating twelve grapes

as soon as minho heard about the spanish tradition, he had to make it a competition

and being just as competitive, you agreed

it was a tradition meant to bring good luck, but it also looked like a fun activity

minho prepared the grapes in pretty bowls for when the midnight comes

you sat opposite each other as midnight approached, both treating as a serious matter

you both managed to finish in time, but you were a few seconds faster (which meant you were absolutely going to bring it up any chance you got in the following year)

SEO CHANGBIN - smashing peppermint pig

changbin heard about the tradition from one of his friends

at first he thought it was a little funny, but it was supposed to bring good health and happiness and you get to eat the candy afterwards, so why not?

you laughed when he showed up with the pig and explained the tradition to you, but seeing how excited he was, you agreed

it turned out to be pretty fun when you eventually broke it and fed each other pieces of the pig

you made a mental reminder to do this again next year, and maybe try out some other traditions

HWANG HYUNJIN - midnight kiss

hyunjin is nothing but a romantic

he always wanted to do the midnight kiss tradition with his partner, so when you decided to spend new years together, he immediately started planning

he decorated his place perfectly and you had a lovely evening

when he asked you about the kiss, you agreed immediately, since you wanted to ask him the same

he sets at least 3 timers to not forget and miss midnight

HAN JISUNG - new year movie marathon

jisung and you are both homebodies, prefering to spend new years together at home, rather than partying out with your friends

but you spending time lazying around in the comfort of your home was pretty much a standard and you wanted to do something special still, since it was new years after all

so jisung proposed a movie marathon, but only movies that would match the vibes

you searched up top new years movies, making your own list of what you and jisung liked the most

and so new years was spent in jisung's bed, cuddling and watching movies all evening (and the following morning)

LEE FELIX - watching fireworks

originally felix wanted to set off your own fireworks, but you quickly shut that idea down

luckily for felix, every year there was a big firework show and your balcony had the perfect view

felix came over in the afternoon, working hard to turn your balcony into the most perfect coziest spot to sit together

when the sky got dark, you two went out on the balcony, felix poured champagne into glasses while you prepared some snacks

cuddling under a blanket, you watched the firework show together

KIM SEUNGMIN - writing new year resolutions

everyone knows seungmin is organized and likes to plan things

and when he suggested making a resolutions list to follow, you thought why not

before midnight you sat down together, writing down your wishes and challenges to tackle in the new year, decorating the papers so they look pretty

right before midnight you pinned your lists to the fridge so you can be reminded of them every day

(and it wouldn't be you two if you and seungmin didn't make fun of certain resolutions you each wrote down)

YANG JEONGIN - light sparklers

jeongin wanted to do something fun for your first new years together

so he went out and bought (probably too much) sparklers for you to light together

as soon as it got properly dark, he was tugging you outside

at first you took some aesthetic pictures, both solo and together

jeongin ended up running around and drawing shapes into the air with the light and after taking a video of him, you joined the fun

#( all works⎯ 🗃 )#( headcanons.skz⎯ 🏷 )#neverendingdreams #stray kids x reader #stray kids fanfiction #bang chan x reader #lee minho x reader #seo changbin x reader #hwang hyunjin x reader #han jisung x reader #lee felix x reader #kim seungmin x reader #yang jeongin x reader #stray kids imagines #headcanons #fluff

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readsaboutreid · 7 months ago

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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

"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.

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.

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...

#criminal minds fandom #criminal minds #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid x fem!reader #criminal minds fanfic #spencer x reader #spencer reid #heavy angst #spencer reid angst #spencer reid fic #angst

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drunknillawafer · 5 months ago

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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 bugs.

My feelings for my best friend are changing, I just 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 I knew how I felt about encountering Zuko for the first time in three years.

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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sweetiepoison · 11 months ago

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Famous Baby Blurb (The Night Out)

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’

#famous reader #hockey #maple leafs #nhl blurb #nhl #toronto maple leafs #celebrity reader #hockey imagine #justin bieber #william nylander #mitch marner #morgan rielly #steph marner #tessa virtue #bar #nhl imagine

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onpurposeilovehimonpurpose · 1 month ago

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Rating: Explicit Chapters: 1/1 Series: Forever

Fandom: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston Rating: Mature Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox, Shaan/Zahra, Nora/June/Pez, Martha/Philip, Ellen/Leo Characters: Alex Claremont-Diaz, Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, and other characters who appeared in the book. Post Book / Henry's Chapter Spoilers / Divergent: Red White & Royal Blue (2019), Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Happy Sex, Hurt with lots of comfort and support, Angst, Indomitable love, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon

AN: I haven't been feeling well enough to write much this year or do much here. But I wrote a little something earlier today, so I'm gonna share that while I can. Thanks to all who have been patient, encouraging and inspiring. I wish all of you a safe, healthy and happy New Year.

It’s 2024, and nobody knows they’re engaged.

Except for their closest family, friends, and security, which amounts to fourteen people, they’ve managed to keep it a secret from the public for a whole year. It would be twelve people in the know, but Philip figured it out, and that meant Martha had to be looped in, too. Somehow they’ve all done it, they managed to go a full year without the press finding out. Most of them have dodged questions about it, and they have never deviated from their prepared responses. Alex and Henry have worn their engagement rings since they simultaneously proposed last New Year’s Eve. Henry wore his engagement ring on a necklace that also had the key to the brownstone on it. Alex wore his ring on his necklace beside the key to his childhood home.

Back in May, Alex slipped up and forgot to take off the engagement ring when he left the privacy of their home. He had been in a rush to get out of the car waiting to take him to the airport because his dad had been in a minor car accident. Even though he had spoken to Oscar himself, and his dad had assured him he was fine, Alex was shaken and not thinking clearly. Thankfully the back of their brownstone had a private car entrance and Cash, sitting in the back of the car beside him, casually covered Alex’s hand with his own and tapped the ring to remind him of it.

Henry’s slip-up happened back in March when Alex and Henry were staying the week at Kensington to attend Martha’s birthday party. This led to Philip figuring out the status of his and Alex’s relationship. They were in the music room, and Henry was playing a song that one of his favorite composers had written for his girlfriend. He told Alex the story of Rumahn spending months perfecting it, only for Helena to refuse his offer of marriage after he played it for her. Henry confessed to Alex that he had been working on a piece for him and was nervous to show him, but joked that Alex hadn’t refused him, so it was probably safe to let him hear it. At that moment, Philip had cleared his throat, alerting them both to his presence, and asked when they planned to inform the Crown.

Henry was no longer a working member of the royal family, and informing the Crown, if he chose to, would be a courtesy, not a requirement. Once Philip was reminded of this, surprisingly, he had been on board with keeping the secret on the condition that he was allowed to include Martha. He and Martha’s daughter, Sara, was born last year, and becoming a father softened Philip and helped bring the royal siblings closer. They were trying to have an open, honest relationship, and this meant that Henry had to trust his brother not to tell anyone else.

Initially, they hadn’t intended to keep their engagement a secret for as long as they had. They wanted to wait a little while, to have a wedding date and a general plan in place before the Crown, the Whitehouse staff, other than Zahra, and the rest of the world found out about it. But every time they planned to announce it, something got in the way that would make such an announcement seem like it was in poor taste.

It was Alex’s mom’s last term as President, and she was doing everything she could to tie up loose ends and leave the country better off than she had found it. After nearly two years of negotiations and strategic planning, Ellen secured a landmark trade agreement with Canada that would provide hundreds of thousands of American jobs. It happened to come through the same week Alex and Henry planned to announce their engagement. As soon as Alex heard the news, he knew there was no way they could go public and risk the President’s amazing win being buried under the insane amount of press he and Henry’s engagement would garner.

Alex honestly didn’t care that their next planned announcement date happened to be three days before the first anniversary of the previous monarch’s death. Henry’s mom had been concerned with backlash from the British public when they told her the planned date. Even though Alex and Henry both secretly liked the idea even more when they realized this, they agreed that it was best for Catherine if they chose another date.

The next date, the next, and then the next were thwarted for various reasons. By September, they had gotten used to shoving their rings onto their necklaces, avoiding questions about the future of their relationship, and never referring to the other as their fiance in a public setting. Alex and Henry concluded that they were fine with not ever making their engagement public.

They were also fine with never making their wedding date public, too.

-continued in 2025 Pt-1

#rwrb fanfic #red white and royal blue #rwrb #rwrb movie #taylor zakhar perez #firstprince #nicholasgalitzine #alex claremont diaz #prince henry fox #My RWRB fanfic: Forever Series

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vioartemis · 2 years ago

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Close your eyes and trust me

(Max Mayfield x fem reader)

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..?"

#max mayfield #max mayfield x reader #stranger things #max mayfield x fem reader #max mayfield x female reader

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breaniebree · 1 year ago

Text

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.

#harry potter fanfiction #breanie #hinny #the world of asc #chapter sneak peek #the kismet trilogy #the kismet trilogy by breanie #third times the charm

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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 7 months ago

Text

Prologue Part Two: May 1-3, 2005— Zoe’s First Case: The Boston Poisoner

Season One Masterlist

Previous Post in Series: Prologue Part One

Next Post in Series: Extreme Aggressor

Summary: It’s Zoe’s first case with the BAU, going to Boston which she hates more than any other place, stopping a serial poisoner and Zoe shows hints of having a constant darkness looming around her.

Warning: Mentions of Suicide; Blood; Pain; Slight insight in the thinking of a suicidal person; Possibly incorrect pharmacology; Hints at past trauma; Hint at a stalker; Description of COPD; Slight unethical behavior; Possible slight inconsistency at some point I think

"There is nothing more dangerous than a smart woman who is focused and unimpressed."

"Boston's got a serial poisoner." JJ said, Zoe refrained from making a face, she hated Boston more than any other city in the world. She had a guttural instinct to get the hell away from Boston—despite her going to Harvard—thinking about Boston made her want to vomit and she knew why but… it was complicated. Alexander could’ve lost his job if she told and she had no wish to revisit that particular area of Boston sooner than necessary and one day it would be necessary. "There have been twelve bodies in the past six months."

"Twelve bodies? Why is this the first we're hearing about it?" Spencer asked.

"Because up until the last victim they were deemed suicides. The last victim was found with defense wounds before he punched the floorboards until his hands were bloodied and he died." JJ explained.

"Why'd he bloody his hands?" Morgan asked.

"They don't know but he had the same poison that the last eleven victims had so they've deemed all of them as possible murders."

"When do we leave?" Alexander said.

"Wheels up in thirty. Alexander, you help Valdez with her go bag." Hotch said and they all left the father and daughter.

"I know what goes in a go bag, Dad." Zoe said. "This was like a second home to me."

“Zoe. Make sure—” He started to list to his daughter who listened anyways. “Several packs of clothes, your medicine, your guns, your self-defense tools, your stimulation toys, your inhaler…”

“Dad, I don’t need an inhaler.” She sighed, irritatedly.

“You had cardiac asthma. It relieves the acute symptoms!” He said, loudly, speaking over her irritation.

“Dad, I’m a medical doctor. I have an MD attached to my name. I know what an inhaler does to cardiac asthma and it’s not very effective against fluid buildup in the left side of my Frankenstein heart.” Alexander went to protest against this description of her heart but she continued to speak. “And I only had it when I was a baby and toddler. I haven’t needed it in thirteen years. My heart got stronger as I grew.”

“And remember to also bring your notes, bring some of your mum’s books…”

“Dad, please. I’ve been on the jet more times than I stepped into my high school homeroom, and it’s better than when it was road trips.”

She faltered, images flashing back of being in the car with… with Zarah.

“Dad, I’m fine. Go. And don’t tell anyone!” She hissed.

She kept her body language ambiguous, she could feel other members looking at her. Ten minutes in and she had already had an argument with the only co-founder currently not on medical leave, granted Alexander tended to argue with people. It was no secret that he wasn’t as mentally stable as most of the other FBI agents. Alexander had been considered for the Unit Chief when Gideon went on medical leave by the section chief, a haughty, arrogant, and rather unpleasant lady named Erin Strauss who Zoe despised deeply since the Amerithrax case in 2001 when Strauss blamed Alexander Noble, Alex Blake, and some other agent when the wrong suspect was arrested in order to save her career. There had been a huge trial and Zoe, barley two months from escaping an eight-month torture she largely couldn’t remember had to fly from Harvard back to Quantico to vouch for her father some weeks after the ordeal.

The only reason this hadn’t hurt Alexander’s career was the fact that since February of that year, both his children had gone missing and only one showed back up, clearly traumatized from the experience and not the same. Zoe had always been stoic and violent but after she came back, she rarely showed signs of her other personality traits. She had gotten better but now it was happening again with her recent trauma again.

Alex Blake hadn’t been so lucky, she and the other agent had been demoted, their reputation damaged while Strauss’ remained “clean”.

Alexander wasn’t deemed mentally suited for the job. Strauss claimed it had nothing to do with his bipolar disorder even though no one had said anything about that until she brought it up but it was also due to the fact that the BAU was aware that Zoe intended to join and she had helped before as a child. So if that came true, that would be a conflict of interest as anything remotely concerning his daughters, always was.

——————————————————————————————————

Zoe stepped onto the jet, fifteen minutes later, she hadn’t stepped onto this plane since she was found four years ago. Her memory flickered back to the car rides. While the car rides had been longer than the very fast jet, they had been wonderful family moments. Zarah would be reading the books Zelena had left behind while Zoe sometimes would stick her head out of the top of the car so she could feel like she was flying.

“Trouble flying?” Asked a voice and she turned to see Spencer Reid, smiling politely at her.

“No. Just remembering something.” She shook her head and got on board.

——————————————————————————————————

"What I don't understand is why he kept punching the floorboards if the poison was only mildly painful." Morgan said as Zoe stared at the picture of the dead boy with bloodied hands, he was around fifteen or sixteen with red hair.

"Maybe so it would look less like a suicide." Zoe suggested, softly.

"What was that?" Hotch asked her.

All the attention was on Zoe now.

Zoe sat up and explained her theory. "Maybe he was trying to make it look less like a suicide as possible. Maybe he realized that the other eleven weren't suicides either and knew unless he proved otherwise his death would be considered a suicide as well so he went all out. People never listen to words until dramatic actions are taken, then they ask why no one said anything. That's the mindset of most suicidal people. So he had to take dramatic action to prove this wasn't a suicide. He fought his killer, giving himself defensive wounds and then bloodied his fists to prove that he wasn't trying to commit suicide."

"How would you prove it?"

"The poison is relatively painless. At most, it feels like an overdose."

"How do you know that?" Morgan asked.

"I have a degree in toxicology." Zoe said, like it was no big deal, "You would take this if you wanted a relatively painless death, so why put yourself through the pain of punching the floor until your fists split open and the last bit of life drained from you? It's true. People don't listen unless dramatic actions are taken; only then do people start asking questions. Some people don’t listen when suicidal people try to explain things to them but they still ask why they didn’t say something when they were alive. Only in this case, it's to explain why it's not suicide."

——————————————————————————————————

The Boston police department was familiar with Hotch and Alexander from a case in the late nineties; Zoe, to avoid being recognized had held back.

“You okay?” Spencer asked, noticing Zoe staring at a Wanted poster for the aforementioned serial killer.

“Yeah.” She lied, “Just not a fan of Boston.”

Understatement of the year.

“They never caught him, you know. You know, according to his biography, the reason he stopped killing was because he was either dead or in prison for an unrelated charge” Spencer rambled.

“That’s bullshit.” Zoe said, sharply shook her head.

“What?”

“He’s not dead and he’s not in prison.” She shook her head, still staring at the poster with what Spencer deduced was almost personal distaste, “He’s too methodical for that.”

“Then why’d he stop killing if he’s not dead?” Spencer asked.

“Maybe someone made a deal with the devil.” She said, darkly.

Spencer was about to ask what she meant when Hotch called them over.

“Valdez. Reid…”

“Please, Zoe.” She said.

“Zoe, you have a degree in toxicology and pharmacology, you check the coroner's reports, Reid, you go with her.” Hotch said and Alexander looked like he wanted to protest but withheld himself from doing so.

——————————————————————————————————

"Are you okay?" Spencer asked Zoe during the cab ride. She looked at him from her six-minute stare out the window. "I know I don't really know you and something tells me you're..." He changed his wording, "Something tells me that that's not going to change soon and not because Garcia tried to snoop in your file and couldn't find anything."

"I'm fine, Reid." She said, "Just... the last time I was in Boston... wasn't exactly a positive experience."

"When was this?" Spencer asked.

"Oh, about eight weeks during January and February in 1998."

"This didn't by any chance happen to be during..."

"Oh, about." Zoe cut him off.

"Yeah, how old were you then?"

"Twelve." She said.

She considered telling him what else happened but due to circumstances she held back. She would surely be questioned about what she saw and why she never said anything. It was too risky, it’d get her dad in trouble and could get people killed.

——————————————————————————————————

The coroner showed them the body of the last victim.

"Richie Rousseau, age seventeen. Shame. Kid had four-point-zero GPA, full-ride scholarship to Harvard. He had an IQ of 165."

"Impressive." Zoe said, "did you determine what drugs were in his system?"

"Toxicology report should be back within the hour."

Zoe examined the broken fists of the dead teenager with a gentle and professional touch. "Wow. He shattered his bones. His bone must've fractured at least a full minute before he died. He kept on punching. And I thought I was persistent.”

"Could he have been hallucinating?" Spencer asked.

"They emailed me the toxicology report but the network is down. We're waiting for the computer specialist."

"Well, I have a degree in computer science, I could take a look.”

"No need. He's here." The coroner said, waving the specialist in which neither young genius paid much attention to.

"You have a toxicology degree, a pharmacology degree, and a computer science degree along with the degrees needed to become a profiler?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah, I have twenty-four degrees." She said as if this were perfectly normal.

The former twelve-year-old high school graduate's jaw dropped. "No way. You're only nineteen years, six months, and one day old."

Zoe quirked an eyebrow at him.

"I, uh, I... I time things. I didn't mean for that to come off as creepy but Garcia did send me a few things about you like that your birthday is on Halloween. My birthday's that month too. The twelfth. How do you have so many, by the way?" Spencer rambled, awkwardly.

Zoe just smiled at him, finding his quirk of rambling rather endearing, she was always happy to meet another social outcast or at least someone who felt like one.

"I, uh, I started college classes when I was five. A… the daughter of a family friend helped." She shrugged. "I'm a bit of a genius, in everything except math really."

"You don't like math?" Spencer said as if he couldn't understand that. Statistics were his life.

"I despise math, but I was apparently qualified to be a genius in most types of intelligence." She said, rolling her eyes, she would rather be tortured than do math.

"Did you ever take an IQ test?" Spencer asked, he wouldn't be surprised if she was as smart as he was at the very least.

Zoe's eyes went past Spencer and to the specialist—a guy in his late thirties who looked familiar.

She walked past Spencer and to him, "Hi. I'm sorry but you look really familiar."

His eyes went to her and she resisted the urge to shiver. She didn’t know why but…

"Oh, I think we met once or twice, little one."

This time she did shiver as a voice that haunted her dreams came back to her. "Pequeño".

"I don't..." She started when she spotted a horrible scar peeking out from under his collar and it clicked. She refrained from having her body language change.

"You know, I think we have..." She looked at the nametag, "Kevin Baskin."

"There you go, the network should be up and running." The man told the coroner and went to leave, giving Zoe a knowing smile that unnerved her. It wasn't one she'd expect from him, it had more confidence and arrogance to it, like how some people (usually feminists) metaphorize the big bad wolf's relationship towards Little Red Riding Hood. "Have a nice day, Zoe." He said in an undertone.

"How'd he know your..." Spencer started.

"Are these the tox reports? Do you have any for any of the other victims?" Zoe cut him off.

"The drugs were all the same." The coroner said, handing over the report.

Zoe raised her eyebrows at the paper, "Alright. Wow. That's a lot. Uh..."

Zoe fumbled with the pockets of her black leather duster coat and pulled out a small notebook and reached into her satchel, searching for something before pulling out a steel pen with a sort of handle before she started writing down all the drug names, ignoring the odd look from the coroner and the scrutinizing look from Spencer.

"Are you neurodivergent?" Spencer asked bluntly once they left.

Zoe looked at him with a deadpan look and asked, "Are you?"

——————————————————————————————————

"Did you determine what kind of drugs poisoned the victims?" Hotch asked once they returned and Zoe immediately flopped into an office chair with wheels.

"Yeah, but to my knowledge no drug has all these effects. There's Benzodiazepine which is in anxiety pills like Xanax which explains why only the last victim died in stress, I looked into Richie, the last victim's medical history, he had severe anxiety and insomnia and he may have built up a tolerance for it which is why he freaked out. There's both fluticasone and beclomethasone, both of which belong in the Corticosteroids class of drugs or more simply Inhaled Steroids, this mostly causes hoarseness of the voice and possibly even voice loss, making it a bit difficult to scream for help. Ketamine..." Everyone had noticed how she had started with a chain fidget thing.

Morgan looked at Spencer, still skeptical of Zoe who pursed his lips.

"Why does that sound familiar?" Morgan asked.

"Because it's a date rape drug. Most likely in this, it's used to weaken and/or disorientate the victims so they can't run off for help.” Zoe responded “And... cyanide."

"But then Richie wouldn't have time to bloody his fists like that."

"It's... it's a different kind of cyanide I've ever seen. It's slow-acting but painful. No single drug has these effects and there's only evidence of one pill being taken.”

"So the UnSub has been making their own drug out of other drugs." Hotch summed up.

"Yeah, basically..." Zoe said and she took the notebook from Spencer who was accidently reading the profile she wrote.

——————————————————————————————————

They had mapped out the locations the victims were last seen before being found dead and where they had gone missing but there was no apparent connection other than "random spots in Boston."

Zoe had been paired up with Hotch, Spencer, and Morgan. With Hotch, it was a time that could only be described as "deadpan". He often had to remind her to be professional due to her impulsiveness and natural instinct to rebel.

She conflicted the most with Morgan, who had trust issues with even those he’s worked with for years. Despite working with Alexander for six years, he only knew that Alexander had two grown up daughters and there was a situation with them four years ago, where they went missing but only one came back just a month or two before Morgan joined the BAU.

Morgan though he had to admit he liked her. She was observant, quirky, sarcastic, funny, and highly intelligent. She had a tendency for rebellion which he had to warn her against. They had similarities in their background too, what with being born the child of law enforcement, Zoe claiming that most of her family were law enforcement but she didn't specify which parent was in law enforcement and what kind of law enforcement or that most of the other half of her family were criminals. She too had a parent die when she was young, all she said was her mother had been murdered when shew as a baby. Little did they know, they had even more similarities in their childhood trauma-wise than they thought, both determined to never let the team ever know and pretend it never happened.

She got along the most with Spencer which was an unusual occurrence to both of them, due to their neurodivergence, socially awkward antisocial introvertedness, rather geeky interests like science or science fiction or even philosophy, and their high genius-level. Their personalities clashed at the same time, Spencer was shy and never spoke up when he was interrupted (which was a common occurrence), he was also quite modest with his intelligence, his showing off being more habitual and accidental than on purpose, he was obedient and followed the rules. He was often serious, seldomly making jokes, and quite kind to everyone, even those who were being rude to them.

Zoe, while being shy and having insecurities of her own, she masked it with sarcasm, smiles, jokes, and false apathy, she snarked when people interrupted her which was often since she was short, young, and a girl. Zoe often showed off her superior intelligence (occasionally after playing dumb) to embarrass those she felt deserved it but she was clearly also modest with it as she didn’t boast or show off about it for no reason, she seemed to be allergic to obedience and rebellion seemed to run through her veins but Spencer could see she was kind to those who were kind, she was empathetic, especially to those she could see were struggling or in pain or hiding something.

It became clear to Morgan and Spencer that had ADHD—hence her constant need to be doing something and difficulty at paying attention and focusing—and having Cyclothymia Bipolar which was essentially a mild version of Bipolar disorder.

Alexander walked into the evidence room where Zoe was putting copies of the profile into a box to transport them.

"What are you doing?" Alexander asked, handing his daughter a highly caffeinated hot chocolate with extra chocolate and her pill bottles for her ADHD, Cyclothymia, PTSD, anxiety, and depression.

"I thought we could visit Tom Shaunessy, you remember him?"

"Do I remember him? You're joking right?" Alexander asked his daughter, sarcastically.

"He retired in 2000 but you know, we're not Hotch." Zoe said.

——————————————————————————————————

The father/daughter duo knocked on Shaunessy's house door and a woman opened it.

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Hi, I'm an old colleague of Tom Shaunessy and I was wondering if we could use his help on this new case."

"What are your names?"

"I'm Special Agent Alexander Noble and this is Special Agent Doctor Zoe Valdez."

"Oh, yes. He's mentioned you two a few times."

"How is Shaunessy?" Alexander asked as they were let inside.

Zoe heard a soft sound behind her and trained to always be on high alert, Zoe glanced behind her at a bush that was moving slightly. It could've just been the wind but she could swear she saw a dark mass moving behind the bush before it stilled.

Uneasily, she tore her eyes away and she went inside.

"His health started to worsened at the end of 1998, he had to retire in 2000, since then it's been steadily getting worse." Shaunessy's nurse explained.

"What is it?" Zoe asked.

"COPD."

COPD was short for Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; it was a chronic inflammatory lung disease that obstructed airflow from the lungs.

People diagnosed with this may be able to live up to ten or even twenty years after the diagnosis, but that was only with mild COPD and if well managed. Zoe knew that Shaunessy had had a fit at work in 2000 which resulted in him collapsing and being rushed the the hospital and being diagnosed. She didn't think he would make it twenty years after diagnosis as much as she hoped so.

"Oh." Zoe said.

Alexander and Zoe entered his room to see Tom Shaunessy, an elderly man in around his late sixties to early seventies. The room was decorated with awards that had been presented to him—a Service award in 1996, newspaper clippings of his cases, and an Outstanding Service Award.

"Detective Tom." Zoe greeted.

"As I live and breathe, little Zoe." He smiled, his hand shook as he gripped his can. Zoe could feel his overly sympathetic look that made Zoe feel like a victim—she hated that feeling, she trained her whole life to not feel that feeling.

"I told you..." She deflected, "smoking kills. COPD's most common cause is cigarette smoking and the risk increases with the amount and duration of smoking. Passive smoking or breathing in secondhand smoke can also contribute."

"Still as smart as you were." Shaunessy said. “What are you two doing here?”

“There’s a poisoner in Boston.” Zoe said

They showed him the files and everything they figured out as they consulted the retired detective but eventually they had to leave, Zoe felt like something was just on the tip of her tongue but she couldn't figure out what it was, she was distracted in the car from her father's theorizing but an absent-minded recognition that she didn't fully process was that the taxi driver had been the same every time she took a cab.

——————————————————————————————————

Zoe looked over the files while she messed with an ADHD fidget hand massage ball.

She dropped her head on the table in frustrated laughter, "I had graduated from the best colleges in the world with Master degrees before I even started having my monthlies and wearing bras and I can't figure this out..." She picked her head up and slumped back in her seat. "I blame Boston. It's distracting me too much." Then she grabbed a chocolate from the L.A. Burdick Chocolates that Alexander had bought and Spencer and Zoe had eaten the majority off.

"What's wrong with Boston?" Spencer asked.

"Boston's shit!" Alexander said, walking past them.

Then her comment before that came back to her. Colleges.

She rifled through the files of the victims, the youngest victims from fourteen to eighteen, all had high GPAs, most had full-ride scholarships. The young adults from ages eighteen to early twenties went to the best schools. Zoe knew, she had graduated from the majority of them. The older ones had graduated from them too.

"It's... it's about intelligence." She realized.

"What?" Spencer asked.

"Look. Richie had a full ride to Harvard," She rattled off the rest of the colleges of the other victim.

"The UnSub wants to be clever. Prove that he's cleverer than them."

"I'll run this by Hotch." Spencer said and went off to give a longer explanation of this to their Unit Chief.

She watered the chocolate down with her highly-caffeinated Mexican hot chocolate, letting the hot cinnamony beverage burn her mouth as she thought, the world melting around her as she got lost in her thoughts.

The killer likely interacted with all of the victims but it's likely the UnSub was someone no one would've noticed. They had found footage of them all getting into taxis but none where they were seen afterwards... the taxi driver... of course, no one pays attention to taxi drivers. Her phone beeped and she checked it to see a message.

Unknown Number: He said you'd be the one to figure it out. That you were smarter than everyone else. I'd like to meet face-to-face and see it for myself.

Her eyes darted about the station, no one was paying attention to her, so she stood up and walked to the window, moving the blinds with her fingers to see a taxi in front of the station.

She texted back: Who's he?

She got a call instead...

Her eyes flicked up to the rest of the police station and she answered. "Hello, taxi driver from hell?" She quipped.

"He said you were a snarker too."

"Who is he?" She repeated her text.

"You know who."

She clenched her jaw. "Yeah, so he's still alive? Not in prison or dead?" Her tone had a sardonic mocking bite to it.

"You know he's too good not to."

"I wouldn’t use the word ‘good’.” She growled. “What's to stop me from telling everyone here that you're the killer?"

"I can drive off, you can't see me, you don't know my taxi number and I'll kill more people. Maybe I'll sneak some poison into the coffee your team loves so much."

She turned looking at her team, fear mingling in her eyes.

"Don't you dare touch them." She growled.

"Then come out, little one."

Her nose scrunched up at the nickname and her eye twitched. He hung up and she looked at the team and she made a call to Quantico as she collected her things, casually, stoic even to a profiler.

"The All-Knowing Penelope here." Garcia quipped.

"Garcia, I need a favor but don't tell the others yet." She said as she picked up Spencer’s rather nineties-like phone. Her phone had protection, she was a talented hacker with secrets that she didn’t want people to know but Spencer wasn’t. His phone was easier to track.

"Why?"

"Because I'm about to be the killer's next victim. They can follow me, this is the only way he'll confess, if he’s bragging about his plan to his next victim to show how much smarter he is than me. I need you to tell them in a few minutes and to track Spencer’s phone which I just stole."

"What are you going to do? He'll kill you." Penelope panicked.

"No, he wants to be smart. He thinks I won't be able to figure out his trick. He thinks I want to prove I'm smarter. I just need to stall while he confesses." Zoe said, "If I fail... I'm going to send you a picture of either a license or an ID."

"Wait, Zoe..."

"Goodbye Garcia." Zoe said and hung up.

She started to leave, "Zoe, where are you going?" Alexander asked, concern for his daughter.

"Going out for a bit of air. I'll be fine." She lied, her tone steady as can be. That what happens when you’re the daughter to two of the young co-founder/profilers of the BAU and are raised by one of them and the others—Alexander Noble, Jason Gideon, David Rossi, and to a less extent, Max Ryan. (And David Rossi, practically being compulsively unable to take a break from the life, read criminal profiles to her instead of bedtime stories, and then she begged the others to do it—only Gideon refused). She was able to profile since she was a toddler and knew how to keep from people knowing she was lying.

She arrived outside and got into the taxi, seeing the man.

"Hello, Zoe."

"Serial Killer." She addressed in an almost pleasant greeting tone as she brought up the camera on her phone and took a silent, subtle picture of the taxi ID in the back, his name was Ian Keller. “So... it's obviously not a money thing since this cab smells like a urine factory." She sent the picture and the snarky comment to Garcia as he started to drive off.

"I'm not a serial killer. I never killed anyone. Those people killed themselves. I simply spoke to them."

"What's stopping me from texting the agents upstairs now or arresting you myself?" Zoe asked as she pressed the recording feature on her phone.

“I won’t run. I’ll sit quietly and they can arrest me.” But she had no evidence. Only circumstantial evidence. And while they dug into his past, someone else could get hurt. "I'll never tell you what I said to make those people kill themselves. You'll just be as stupid as everyone else. What do you really care about?" He asked.

He thought she was arrogant in her intelligence like him, but she wasn't. She knew knowledge was infinite and it was impossible to know everything. If she knew everything, where was the fun in that? She didn’t need to validate her knowledge. She didn’t feel threatened by Doctor Spencer Reid’s knowledge. Like him, she didn’t believe IQ tests could accurately quantify someone’s intelligence. She only showed her intelligence when needed and to tear someone down a peg. She didn’t like bullies, even if they don’t meant it; doesn’t mean their words don’t hurt others.

"But you're going to kill me like the others." She said.

"I didn't kill them. They killed themselves..."

"But you spoke to them. Blah. Blah. Blah. This isn't a TV show. Answer a question like a normal person!" She said with irritated sarcasm, "How'd you know the moment I figured it out."

"He likes you. You know that." Keller said, she speculated that was the only reason he wasn’t lashing out at her sass, she could tell he wanted to, but he was scared. "He's been watching you."

Zoe had moved the phone so the rustling covered his words and she pressed the pause button. "I noticed. I thought he wanted to stalk the other one." Zoe spat out bitterly in a dark undertone.

"Where's he gonna go? He was watching you and I've been following you." She pressed continue.

"Why me? I'm not the only genius on this case." She asked, ignoring the “he” as she had and would for years now.

"But you're the only one who can get into the mindset of a serial killer. He said you'd make a great one. That you’re his other half.”

Zoe’s eyes darted up to him, darkening. It had started to drizzle during their conversation and Zoe took the opportunity to wipe her phone and cover up his words.

“Are we going to stand here all day and talk like high school students or are you going to show me the cabbie’s impressive intelligence?”

The cab driver returned to the driver’s side of the car and opened the passenger’s door and got into the driver’s seat.

As Zoe circled the car, she took a picture of the license plate and sent it to Garcia before she got into the passenger’s seat.

She took a picture of the taxi driver’s ID too and sent it to Garcia.

The car ride was quiet, just full of him, mentioning "him" and Zoe had given up on pausing the recording, if she kept covering it up, it'd be suspicious.

Zoe, however noticed a photo on the dashboard. A worn photograph of two kids and presumably their mother but she was cut out. The kids were about mid-teens, mid to late middle school to early high school, but they'd be around Zoe's age by now based on Zoe's math.

His clothes were out of date and... ah, there is was. Those red dots on his skin. And he was sweating. Her eyes went to the spot in front of the gear shift where people often put things. There were tissues crumpled up and spots of red on them. Zoe leaned to the side and saw on the floor of the front of the car were even bloodier tissues. He was hiding the most obvious signs.

"Not much of a talker, huh?" He asked.

"I tlak when needed. I prefer to observe." She said.

Penelope called Morgan, "Talk to me, baby."

"She... Zoe made me promise not to tell you but she found out the murderer is an Ian Keller, a taxi driver and she got into his cab as it was the only way she could get an actual confession from him." Penelope explained emotionally.

"Zoe went with the killer!?" Morgan asked out loud.

Spencer looked back to see Zoe gone as Alexander grabbed the phone from Morgan and asked loudly, his only heart pounding so hard and quickly, it could be mistaken for two hearts, "What!? Where is she?"

"In the cab, she's recording the conversation, she took Spencer’s phone and I'm tracking his phone as we speak."

"What are we doing sitting in this shitty station! Crappy fluorescent lights and cockroaches and loud cell phones and the smell of urine!" Alexander was raging, his Scottish accent thickening.

This was not exactly out of character for him.

——————————————————————————————————

"Where the hell are we?" Zoe asked as if she were annoyed that they were lost and buddy-buddy, when Keller stopped the cab. It was full-on raining by now.

"A Boston education college." Was all Keller said before getting out, circling the cab and opening the door.

"As opposed to what? Boston baking college? Refrigerator college? Clown college?" Zoe deadpanned before lighting up in a sarcastic way just like her dad does, "I got it! Taxi college. Because you're clearly not great at your job, it felt like it took us an hour to get here while you droned on and on and on and on." She dramatically lulled her head side to side with every “on”

"We're going in." He said, shortly, clearly irritated with her.

"What? You late for class?" She snarked.

He pulled out a gun and pointed it at her, but she just looked at him, annoyed, rather than showing any sign of fear, not even a flicker. The only reaction she had to the gun pointed at her head was a half-eye roll and a soft exasperated sigh.

"As if you're the first to hold a gun to my head." She scoffed and got out, muttering, “It’s honestly starting to get boring…”

She followed him inside the empty college, glancing at a nearby security camera.

——————————————————————————————————

"I'm running facial recognition as we speak." Garcia said after Alexander had nearly shouted at her to hurry her eccentric butt up.

"Why would she just go with him?" Spencer wondered in the backseat between his frequent squeaks and squawks of fear at Alexander's dangerous driving.

"He probably offered her an ultimatum." Hotch said as he clung to the top of the seat belt.

"LOOK OUT FOR THAT PEDESTRIAN!" Spencer screamed.

"Oh, she's on the street. She knows the risk she's taking." Alexander said, dismissively.

——————————————————————————————————

"What do you think?" Keller asked as they entered a math classroom. Zoe's least favorite place to be.

"Umm...” Her tone was already dripping with sarcasm as she looked around as if she hadn’t already realized what kind of classroom it was and hated it as she did with most things associating with math—the most boring of all the shapes. “Well, I'm being held hostage by the most boring serial killer ever, who takes like an hour to finish a sentence and I'm in the math classroom, being forced to socialize with someone I don't know." Zoe deadpanned, "I can't think of a worse place to be."

After what was actually a fifteen-minute car ride (Zoe’s ADHD and made it feel like an hour) of her making constant snarky, sassy, sarcastic, and sardonic comments, he should’ve expected a reply like this.

"Well, you're the one who's going to die here." He said, making another attempt to take control of the situation but Zoe rarely let people do that.

Zoe tilted her head at him, giving him a calculating look and said, "No, I'm not." She didn't sound cocky or arrogant, just calm as if stating a fact.

"That's what all the victims say."

Victims. She hated being thought of as a victim.

"That's what all the serial killers say." Zoe retorted as if sassing a bully. "So, is this where you bore me to suicide?"

Keller sat down. pressing his lips together and Zoe sat down across from him, sitting casually, if slightly disrespectfully.

"Bit risky, taking me away in front of the Boston police with the FBI?" Zoe asked.

"Nah. This is a risk." He placed a bottle with a pill capsule on the table.

Zoe looked at it for a mere few moments but didn't react in any way, her amber eyes darted back to Keller with no sign of fear in her eyes. Her expression was utterly impossible for him to decipher.

"Ooh, I like this bit. ‘Cause you don’t get it yet, do you?" Perhaps he was trying to convince himself of that.

I have an inkling and by that I'm pretty sure I know your whole—or at least most of—your plan.

"But you’re about to. I just have to do this." He put down another bottle, completely identical to the other.

Zoe still didn't react. In fact, she barely even looked at the second bottle.

"Weren't expecting that, were you?"

"No. That's exactly what I was expecting." Zoe deadpanned.

Keller's eye twitched as he realized Zoe was telling the truth.

"You're a proper genius, aren't you?" Zoe said, her voice dripping with patronizing sarcasm.

"Don't look it, do I?" Keller asked, "Driving a taxi. But you'll understand in a minute.

"I think I understand plenty but clearly it's desperately important for you to think you're the smartest person in the room." She said in deadpan honesty.

"Chances are it'll be the last thing you'll ever know."

"Explain your little game, taxi man, and we'll see what the chances are." She challenged.

"There’s a good bottle and a bad bottle. You take the pill from the good bottle, you live; take the pill from the bad bottle, you die." Keller explained to a still rather unimpressed Zoe.

"Both bottles are of course identical.”

"In every way." Keller confirmed.

Oh? What interesting phrasing.

"And you know which is which."

"Course I know."

"But you think I don’t."

"Wouldn’t be a game if you knew. You’re the one who chooses."

"Why?"

"Because I'll kill you."

She leaned forwards, placing her folded elbows on the table, still showing no fear as she spoke with a dark undertone, “You think I fear death? I've accepted the inevitability of death a long time ago. I'm accustomed to accepting my death."

"I haven’t told you the best bit yet. Whatever bottle you choose, I take the pill from the other one—and then, together, we take our medicine." He said and then placed a water bottle on the table, she look just a moment longer to examine this seemingly ordinary bottle of water—ordinary to any ordinary person but she was not an ordinary person. This water bottle had been open before and sipped from.

"Who said I wanted you to die? Trust me, you deserve it more than any of your victims, you're a by-proxy serial killer. I reckon your victims suffered the effects for about an hour before a slow and painful death."

"It's this or the gun. I won’t cheat. It’s your choice. I’ll take whatever pill you don’t." Liar! "You didn't expect that, did you, Miss Zoe?"

"Yeah, I did actually," She said and she leaned forth, "And it's Doctor Zoe Valdez, to you mister taxi cab man." She leaned back in her chair. "Is this it? This is your master plan? I'm so overwhelmed... at how underwhelming this plan is."

"You think it's just chance?" Keller asked.

"No, I think you cheat. Now I try to use as little math as possible because it hurts my head and I find it numbingly boring. Thirteen bodies from a fifty-fifty chance. It's not probable. There's something you're not telling me here. Something you didn’t tell any of the victims.” She reasoned.

"You tell me. You're the genius. He told me that your IQ is estimated to be in or near the two-hundreds."

Zoe licked her lips, a glint of hatred and resentment flickering in her amber eyes, simultaneously.

"Let's put that to the test, I'm going to profile you." She challenged.

"That's not the game."

"My turn, my game!" She snapped in a tone of slight childish pettiness but still dark sternness.

"Profiling's just intellectual guesswork." He stated.

"Oh, you think so?" Zoe asked with a mocking questioning lilt in her voice as she smirked, loving to prove people wrong and she was born into this lifestyle. "You have kids, I saw a picture of them with the mother cut out, if she were dead, she'd be there, so she got custody, the photo was old, I'd say about five years. And it hurts, not being able to see your kids. Neither wants contact with you. Why should they? You always indicated you were smarter than them; you pushed them and made them feel less than when they didn’t do as well as you thought they should. You're wearing that stupid cabbie hat so clearly you're not in the habit of being around other people. Your other clothes are just as stupid. Your skin is pale and you have petechiae—those tiny red dots on your skin—that only appears when capillaries bleed, leaking blood into the skin. You're sweating despite it being raining, night, and spring, you have some bruising and it's fair to assume that you get out much and you drive a taxi, therefore most likely your skin is sensitive to bruising, I saw bloody tissues in the taxi, they're always there, so nosebleeds and possibly you’re coughing up blood. Your cervical lymph nodes are swollen, and your liver is visibly enlarged. Leukemia. Cancer of the blood. How long do you got? You're in your older years of middle-aged, I'd say sixty and given by the state of you, I'd say you have less than a year?” She changed her mind, shaking her head only half a shake, “No, less than half a year."

"Four and a half months."

"Oh, dearie. And you get off on the fact that you've outlived the people you killed. Not only that but most of them have all either been quite youthful men and women or middle-aged women, so given that your kids don't want to see you, not even now that you're dying. You resent them but you don't want to hurt them. They're intelligent, really intelligent like you, despite the constant criticism you called parenting, so you kill young geniuses. But why, a cabbie? You could be a college administrator? A scientist. But why a cabbie?" She tilted her head, sorting through the possibilities in her head, crossing out the ones that didn’t hit at rapid speed, “You couldn't afford college growing up, did you? Then your wife made you drop out when she was pregnant, didn't she? You've always resented her for that and now you're going to die without having done anything with your life so that resentment has turned into an all-raging hatred—loathing, so you're killing surrogates of your children and your wife.” A small pause. “Do you still think profiling is just intellectual guesswork?"

Instead of admitting he was wrong, he nodded at the bottles, "Time to choose."

She didn't even look at them, just continued to look at him.

"What if I don’t choose either? I could just walk out of here." Zoe said, "They might have realized I'm missing by now."

Her father definitely knew and was most likely freaking out. He was such a drama queen.

Keller just sighed and raised the gun to her head, but she still didn't seem impressed or even fearful.

"You can take your fifty-fifty chance, or I can shoot you in the head. Funnily enough, no one’s ever gone for that option."

Zoe’s lips curled into a smirk. "I’ll have the gun, please."

——————————————————————————————————

"What is she doing!?" Hotch demanded Alexander outside as they listened to the recording live due to Garcia's hacking skills into Spencer’s phone.

"She has a plan... I hope." He said, hopefully.

——————————————————————————————————

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely. The gun." She nodded.

"You don’t wanna phone a friend?"

"What friends? I’m a violent antisocial tomboy who could’ve graduated high school by age nine if I wanted." She asked, "The gun.” She put on a mocking tone with a mocking pout, “You do know how to use it, don't you, old timer? They did have guns when you were growing up right?”

He pulled the trigger and a few bubbles came out. Zoe couldn't help but try to catch one like when she was a child but they all popped.

"I know a real gun when I see one." Zoe said.

"None of the others did."

"Well, they didn't grow up around firearms and violence like I did." Zoe said, sassily.

——————————————————————————————————

The BAU team breathed out a breath of relief.

“Good call. Good call.” Alexander breathed, his hand on his heart. She was going to give him a heart attack.

——————————————————————————————————

"Well, this has been very interesting. I look forward to the court case and hearing what a shitty dad you were to your kids. I rather enjoy seeing the looks on remorseful serial killers' faces when they see the trauma they've inflicted on their families or the looks on the abusive parents' faces when they realize their abuse contributed to their child becoming a serial killer." She said, she thumped her hands against the table in a rhythmic way and pretended like she was going to leave... purely for humiliating him more with her superior intellect.

One may think it’s cockiness and arrogance, but it was just fact and the benefit of constantly being underestimated.

"Just before you go, did you figure it out... which one’s the good bottle?

"Yep." And then she smirked, "Child's play. Noble effort though.” She said her first last name with a bit of an accent between South British and Scottish like her dad’s accent.

——————————————————————————————————

"That's the word. We're going in." Alexander said and was the first through the door.

"Does Noble seem a little off?" Morgan asked Hotch.

"Off?"

"A bit more... neurotic?" Spencer added.

"More off and neurotic than usual?" Hotch deadpanned, as he knew and understood why, and then headed inside after Alexander.

——————————————————————————————————

"Well, which one, then? Which one would you have picked, just so I know whether I could have beaten you?"

Zoe knew what he was doing. Trying to goad her into proving how smart she was. But she wasn't that arrogant. She faked arrogance sometimes but she was rather modest about her intelligence compared to how she could be. She only acted like that to take arrogant people down a peg.

"Come on. Play the game."

Zoe slowly walked back to behind the chair but made no effort to sit back down, not even glancing at the pills.

"Really, what do you think?" He asked, standing up and approaching the young woman, "Can you beat me? Are you clever enough to bet your life? What's the point of being clever, if you can't prove it?"

The door burst open with everyone (minus Spencer who wasn't authorized to have a gun at the moment due to his terrible aim) pointing their guns at Keller.

"Ian Keller! FBI!"

"How?"

"Did it not occur to you that I went missing and no one bothered to call." Zoe asked as she took out her phone and stopped the recording feature.

"What's that?"

"It's a recording feature, old man." She said, "I got your full confession. You wouldn't tell the police but you would tell a victim who you deemed smart enough to rival your intellect."

"But you don't know the answer."

"I'm not some egotistical detective determined to prove that I'm the smartest. I don't need to know everything. I can't. It’s impossible and I’m fine with that. But I do know that neither of those pills are poison. They're placebos. It's improbable that you win a fifty-fifty chance thirteen times but there's one common denominator. The water. You didn't create the drugs, you turned drugs into poison."

"How long did you know?" Keller asked, grimacing.

"I suspected literally the moment you showed me the first pill." She said and turned to the others, “Did y’all have fun storming the castle?”

"Ian Keller, you're under arrest." Hotch said as he handcuffed the man.

BANG! CRASH!

A bullet went through a nearby door window and hit Keller in the shoulder.

Zoe spun around to catch a glimpse of the shooter, a man dressed in all black except two slits for the eyes.

Her memory flashed back to her childhood. Twelve years old and she had a gun in her face. She glared up at him with no fear in her eyes.

Zoe leapt into action, she opened her mini first aid kit around her waist and pulled out a cloth and pressed it against the wound.

"Spencer. Spence, come here. Press this against the wound, firmly. I'll be right back."

She bolted to the door with the bullet hole in it and raced after the man, knowing full well who he was, ignoring the screams after her.

She put up quite the chase, moving with aggression and strength like a bear but also grace and speed like a wolf.

"Stop! You son of a bitch!" She shouted as she cornered him and he turned the gun on the for once in her life unarmed young woman but she showed no fear, just as she had before.

"I see you haven't changed, Hermosa."

This simple Spanish nickname sent chills down her spine and made her freeze up in fear as echoes of various Spanish nicknames of endearment stirred in her head.

"Zoe!" Hotch's voice shouted and she turned to look at him for ten seconds before he entered, "Where'd the shooter go?"

She looked back but he was gone, "He-he was right here."

"Did you get a good look at him or the mask?"

"No." She lied. There wasn’t any point anyways. She ran past him and back to the room with the bleeding body. She was a medical doctor after all.

"Zoe, I know I have the title of doctor, but I am not a medical one." Spencer said, worryingly.

"Yeah, yeah. Move it. Alright, Keller, are you awake? Keller, I’m going to have to pack the wound but, I'm not sure if I can give you dilaudid so this is going to hurt. A lot. Spencer, apply pressure while I get the gauze.”

Spencer did so as she pulled her medical kit out and she pulled out some hemostatic gauze and pulled on some rubber gloves on her hands.

“Have you ever done this before?” Spencer asked.

“Uh, do those blood training dummies count? She asked, “I’ve shot a few people, does that count.”

“No!”

“Hush!” She turned back to Keller. “Ready, on three, one…” Then she plunged her middle and pointer finger into the wound with professional precision.

“AHHH! What happened to three!?” Keller shouted.

“Quiet! No serial killers talking allowed!” Zoe shouted back at him.

She felt from the source of the pulsating of the wound—the area where the wound was bleeding the most from and applied pressure to ease the bleeding as she took the gauze with her other hand and replaced the spot her fingers her at and she continued to feel the gauze into the wound as Keller screamed in pain, she fed it into all corners, switching fingers to act as a guide until it was full and she applied pressure on the excess of gauze against the wound until the ambulance arrived.

——————————————————————————————————

Zoe was sitting on the back of the ambulance as they put the shock blanket around her again, she raised her hands in question as Hotch and Alexander approached.

“Why have I got this blanket? They keep putting this blanket on me.” She asked.

“Yeah, it’s for shock.” Alexander responded.

“I know what it’s for, I’m a medical doctor. I saved that horrible man’s life.” Zoe said. “I’m not in shock.”

“Yeah, but the press wanna take photographs.” Hotch deadpanned and she huffed in annoyance.

"So, the shooter. No sign?"

"No. Must've cleared off before you could get anything to identify him with." Hotch said.

"Sorry." She said and changed the subject, "Are you going to yell at me for going rogue? The profile said he wouldn't talk to the police—he'd want to brag about it when he thought it was on his terms but only to someone he felt was as intelligent as he was and had better luck with their gifts than he did. And he called me and told me he would drive off and kill more people if I refused to go with him or tell anyone, besides when it comes to me, Dad's not exactly... subtle. Besides, unless I got his confession, there was only circumstantial evidence."

“That’s an understatement.” Hotch muttered and he sat next to her on the ambulance platform, "It was... quick-thinking. I'm aware of your impulsiveness."

"I would hope so. You've known me since I was ten and I'm ADHD and Cyclothymic. You'd be a pretty bad profiler." Zoe said.

"And I know especially with what happened four years ago..."

"Four years, two months, and twenty days." She said, her voice broke slightly.

"You were brave to do so. Not a lot of people who were kidnapped for eight months could've let him take you and with what happened a few months ago.”

Zoe huffed again and fidgeted uncomfortably at the mention.

"I'm not a victim. I mean, I am but I don't want to just be just a victim anymore. I want people to see me as what I am. A fighter. A survivor. My fear doesn't matter when others are on the line. Same reason, I'm going by only Valdez for now. I don't want to be seen as the daughter of two of the co-founders of the BAU, I want to be seen for me. I don't want people assuming I only got this part because of my parents. The only reason I'm so successful at nineteen is because of nepotism. I want to prove myself first and then I'll tell Spencer, Garcia, JJ, and Morgan. I promise."

"You grew up a strong woman, Zoe. I didn't know your mother but I think she'd be proud." Hotch said.

"No, I think she'd blame me for not finding Zarah." Zoe muttered.

"Hey, we'll find your sister. Contrary to what Strauss thinks, we never stopped looking. It's the least we could do since you made the BAU the way it is today."

"Thanks. So am I an official member of the team?"

"Considering Spencer won't shut up about how knowledgeable you are and bunch of other words I don’t really understand? I think he and your dad combined would annoy me to death if I didn't."

——————————————————————————————————

Zoe was talking to Spencer and Morgan when a deputy slipped her a folded piece of paper.

"What's this?"

"Some guy requested I give it to you." He said, shrugging.

Zoe unfolded the paper and read it. Her body language didn't give much away but it was clear she was unnerved by this.

"What is it?"

"Uh, nothing." She said, crumbling the note and pocketing it. "Just some stranger's number. Must've been someone with the press. I-I gotta speak with... Agent Noble."

"Are you sure?" Spencer asked, stopping her as she tried to go to Alexander.

"Yeah."

"You seem... a little unnerved."

"That's just the shock. I'm in shock! Look, I've got a blanket!" Zoe said and brandished the sides of the blanket as if to prove her point and she walked over to Alexander.

"That is one strange little bird." Morgan said to Spencer.

"I like her." Spencer smiled.

Alexander turned to Zoe once he saw her approaching and noticed the somber look on her face, "What happened now?"

She nodded so he would walk with her, she was quiet for a few moments, "He's been watching me."

"Well, you're still in danger while you're in Boston." Alexander fretted. “You’ll always be in danger while you’re in Boston.”

"I’m always in danger period. But he won't hurt me." She sighed.

"How do you know?"

"Because I do." Zoe said, sternly.

"But..."

"Daddy, please. I suppressed those memories for a reason. And one day I will have to uncover them so we can catch him but now's not the time. I just know, okay." Zoe pleaded. "We're leaving tomorrow morning. As far as you're concerned, I'm just a bargaining chip for your cooperation."

"Zoe, angel..."

"Dad, I'm fine." She said but she was lying. She's not sure there was ever a time in her life where she's said that and truly meant it.

——————————————————————————————————

The next morning, as Zoe was packing up the room, she received a package from a delivery man who seemed rattled but left at once.

"Okay." She said, passing that off and she set the package on the bed and opened it and pulled back the paper wrapped around it and she flinched.

The box had a bouquet of blood-splattered white lilies with a card with the same words as on the note: See you soon, mi belleza.

There was a knock at the door and Hotch's voice called, "Zoe, time to check out."

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm almost done. I'm almost done packing." She called as she wrapped the flowers back up and shoved them into her suitcase.

Translations (Via Google Translate)

"pequeño" — "Little One" — Spanish

"Hermosa" — "Beautiful" — Spanish

"Mi belleza" — "My beauty" — Spanish

Notes:

Inspired by Sherlock pilot episode: “A Study in Pink”

Richie Rousseau’s face claim is KJ Apa with his red hair for Archie Andrews from Riverdale

I hope the foreshadowing wasn’t too heavy in this.

Gif Sources:

Crowley: @wearecrowley

*Any suggestions for songs to attach to this story?*

Extreme Aggressor

#the eccedentiast #david tennant #2005 #spencer reid #criminal minds #selena gomez #aaron “hotch” hotchner #derek morgan #Criminal Minds Rewrite #criminal minds season one #Criminal Minds Season One Rewrite #Zoe Noble-Valdez #Xiomara Alexandra Noble-Valdez #Boston #Alexander Noble #Valentía #Penelope Garcia

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ashs-random-writing · 9 months ago

Text

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

#sanders sides gt #sanders sides fic #sanders sides story #sanders sides g/t #giant/tiny #giant tiny #sanders sides au #g/t #sanders sides #sanders side fic

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the-knightmare · 1 year ago

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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.

#roudiseweek2023 #roudise #louwheeze #louise belcher #regular sized rudy #bob's burgers fanfic

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love-kurdt · 1 year ago

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... 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

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.”

#byler #byler fic #byler tumblr #byler fanfic #mike wheeler #will byers #will x mike #mike x will #mike wheeler is 6’3 and i will die on this hill #stranger things #stranger things fic

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here-have-some-stories · 11 months ago

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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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holdmeclosertinytaron · 2 years ago

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RHW: Chapter Ten

Story Page / Playlist / Wattpad / AO3

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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