#( dai: he went to josie and she got him the outfit )

[endawn]

the romantic evening outfit.

[pennyluna]

Misunderstandings Part 3

Pairing: Yoongi x Reader (18+) Wordcount: 2.482

Genre: Working together au. Cold Playboy au. Future something.

Warning: This story contains strong language and spicy scenes. be aware before reading it.

Y/N POV

"how are you feeling... about seeing him tonight?" Josie asked between sips of her margarita, she was sitting in my bed while I was looking for what to wear later today for the tonight show. I had told her about what happened between Yoongi and I and she was intrigued.

"I feel fine, is work. That was just a one time thing, It was nothing." I continue looking around my wardrobe unable to finding something I like. All I could think about was Yoongi, I had been avoiding him when possible and acting like nothing happened when I actually saw him. I didn't understand his change in behavior that morning, I felt like crap and was unable to focus on my job for a couple of days. He clearly was acting like it meant nothing so I decided to try and move on. I was going to do my job as best as I could, He would leave soon and soon after it would be a distant memory.

Josie walks to my closet moving me aside and hands me an outfit. She smiles softly at me.

"You are forgetting I know you. You don't sleep around and certainly not with a guy you just met. You like him and what happened is not nothing. The sooner you admit that to yourself, the sooner we can come up with a plan."

"I have nothing to admit" Josie exhales heavily hearing my words so I continue "..Okay.. lets say I like him! there is nothing I can do about it, He is leaving in 3 weeks and is currently acting like I don't exist."

"Plenty of time. You are gorgeous, he is a guy and Jealousy can work wonders. Now get ready, I got a plan." she smiles widely at me and sits back in the bed with her phone in hand. I love her confidence and she is almost always right but I have doubts about this one. Yoongi is not someone you can easily play mind games with.

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

A couple of hours later I was at The Rockefeller Center for The tonight Show , I had gotten there early to make sure everything was ready in the private waiting room waiting for min Yoongi to arrive and the filming to start. I stare at myself mirror and admire Josie's work. She picked a short red flowy dress paired with a large black blazer buttoned up to cover it until I got to the after party. Simple black heels, soft red lips and my dark wavy hair tied methodically in a bun I would have to undo once we were heading to the party.

Before Yoongi went in for the interview we practiced a couple of times in the waiting room, I caught him looking at my lips a few times but pretended like I hadn't.

I watched the interview from backstage, the way he sometimes moved his hand through his hair, made me have flashbacks of that night we spent together, of the way I moved my hand through his hair while he was going down on me. -DONT THINK ABOUT IT, NOT NOW, NOT HERE- I mentally yelled at myself.

Once Yoongi finished the interview and performance he came back to the waiting room looking godly with that smirk he gets every time he performs, licking the corner of his mouth and panting slightly, a bit of sweat on his forehead making some of his hair strands wet... me along with them just at the sight of him. I snap out of my thoughts and I notice everyone collecting their things and preparing to leave.

I made sure so sit in the back  of the SUV so I could get time to fix myself on the way there. I opened my blazer and placed it on my shoulders and let my long wavy hair down. I fix my make up and prepare to put the plan in action. Josie had instructed me to have a first short interaction with Yoongi once we arrived at the party, just to get his attention and then move on to find a guy to flirt with and proceed to have some fun, she said the rest would develop.

The SUV stops at the private entrance and while everyone gets off it, I wait a couple of seconds to calm my nerves and then do the same. -wish me luck- I say preparing myself mentally.

While walking through the entrance door a guy from Yoongi's team spots me "Woah Nuna... You look so good"

I smile thankful and notice Yoongi's eyes are on me, mouth slightly open while scanning me from top to bottom. I purposely use that moment to take my blazer off and hand it to the coat check girl, revealing my shoulders and the back of my dress.

I walk towards Yoongi, my heart racing a bit from the way he is looking at me. I find my calmest voice "You did great there." I show him a kind smile  "Enjoy the party." I walk towards the bar feeling his eyes still on me. -First Contact made-

Its been an Hour since we got here, I left my blazer at the teams table and I've been dancing with Nate for a while, we met at a different event some time ago, he is very handsome, fun and flirty which is exactly what I need right now.

While I was dancing with Nate I had noticed Yoongi talking to a girl closely and smiling at her, sometimes her hand touching his arm and it didn't seem to bother him, that had triggered some jealousy out of me, he had been looking at Nate and I dancing a couple of times but seemed unbothered. I wonder what he felt. Now at the bar I give a glance towards the table and see the team dancing but he isn't there anymore, she isn't there anymore either. I start looking around wondering if maybe they left together and the thought of him with another girl just made my chest hurt.

Nate catches my attention passing me a shot of tequila I seriously needed. I need to get my head out of Yoongi and focus on having fun. Maybe if I sleep with Nate whatever it is I feel for Yoongi is going to pass. I down another shot and while dancing with Nate I signal the bartender to pour us two more shots, I dance sexily against his chest, we are making eye contact and his hands starts moving around my hips and his nose is tracing my neck. When I grab the next shot I feel my hand grabbed and my body pulled abruptly from Nate's. My shot has disappeared from my hand and when I look at who is grabbing my hand, my body freezes.

Yoongi chugs down the shot and I can sense some anger in his movements "I think you had enough drinks and I had enough of this show" he says nodding towards Nate and I. I wasn't wrong, his voice gives out some anger. He gives Nate a mean look and I try to pull my hand away from his  but stop when he grunts. "Don't test me!"

I signal a worried looking Nate that its okay to leave me alone with Yoongi and once he is gone I decide to confront Yoongi on his behavior. 

"That was my shot." I state with a serious tone.

"You didn't need it." he laughs if off with a smug face. He seems calmer now that Nate is gone.

"Is this a game to you?" My voice exasperated. "We have sex then you ignore me for a week, now you come here stealing my shot and cockblocking me like nothing happenedㅡ"

He closes the space between us pulling me towards him surprising me when I bump against his chest, his breath on my neck and his hand playing with the hem of my dress, making me very aware of how short it is. "Oh come on. I just wanted a shot and you happened to have one" he looks into my eyes and smiles shrugging his shoulders. Goosebumps spreading around my body when i feel the cool tip of his fingers gracing my skin.

"whatㅡ" I shake my head trying to get some clarity. Taking my hand away from him I pass him the second shot that was meant for Nate "Fine. Enjoy this one too. I will go find Nate, I'm sure he wont be a jerk after we fuck."

Anger reappears on Yoongi's ayes but I don't stay around for long. Once I see where Nate is standing I start walking straight towards him. When I am about to reach Nate, Yoongi grabs my arm and pulls me through set of curtains.

"Yoongi What the fuck?" My scream slightly covered by the loud music.

"What did you say in there?" he signal towards the room past the curtains. We are now standing in one of the private VIP rooms. It has dark drapes, a table and some sort of couch.

"Nothing. I said Nothing" My voice mustering strength, his hand is still wrapped around my arm tightly and I am trapped between the table and his body. He seems enraged.

"Oh nono, please repeat what you said in there. Something about fucking Nate?" His voice daring.

My god this man is driving me crazy but if he wants to play, I can play too. " I Simply stated a fact. Why? Jealous?"

He smirks and his hand drops to my thighs and he starts making his way to my middle. Lust taking his angers place. "Just so we are clear. Nobody Is touching you tonight except me." His words like a threat and his mouth drops to mine then he ravages me with a short but passionate kiss.  "Turn around and bend over" Confusion covers my eyes searching his face for any sign that he might be lying but find none so I do as I'm told. He spreads my legs and my core already wet as excitement rushes through my body! I can feel his hardened member against my core while he trails kisses around my back and starts pulling my dress up to my waist then takes my thong off . His hand caressing my thighs and making their way to my core. His fingers start to play with my clit and move around my folds. A moan escapes my lips and he takes that moment to insert tow fingers inside of me. "Yoongi...What if someone walks in?" I question I between moans. "I don't care." His tone gives me a rush of adrenaline because I actually don't think I care either, my orgasm was building and I just wanted to feel him inside of me, the idea of someone walking in on us was exiting. "I want you inside of meㅡ. Please Yoongi." His hands working magic in my core. "Do you?... I thought you wanted Nate" I could sense some anger in his voice at the mention of Nate's name and the idea that he could possibly be jealous made it all worth it. "NO.. I want you. I want to come on your dick. Yoongi pleaseㅡ"  I start then I reach my orgasm mid begging. It was glorious and while I'm trying to settle my breathing I feel the tip of his dick rubbing against my core and I push my butt  back to meet him, to feel him more. "My Greedy little whore" those words send a warm chill through me and I feel my orgasm build all over again. He pushes himself inside of me and I can help but yelp at the sensation of his big thick length stretching me out! He doesn't wait for me to adjust to his member before he starts thrusting and I thank him for it. I needed this. He spanks my ass but then stops gets out of me abruptly earning an unhappy groan from both of us at the sudden separation and my eyes fly open thinking that maybe we've been caught but instead he spins me around to face him. "I want to look at you. I want to see your face while you come on my dick" His voice sounds desperate as he sits me on the table I was bent over against a few second ago. He spreads my legs and pulls my hips to the edge of the table and towards him then fills me once again with his perfect member. The music is loud but we can hear each other panting and moaning, his hand is in my hair while mine are in his and he is burying himself inside of me fast and hard, we kiss like our life depends on it and I wish for this moment to never end. Both our orgasms are building and a couple of thrusts later  I feel him twitch and we are both coming undone while his forehead falls on my shoulder!

"I'll hold onto those" Yoongi smirks while putting my thong on his pants pocket then gives me a small kiss on the lips. I look at him, wanting to ask a simple question -what does this mean?- but I find that the words won't leave my mouth. we finish fixing ourselves and He looks at me for a few seconds before his mouth opens to say something but he closes it right after. "We should head back in..." I say "You go first." We smile at each other and I stay back composing myself while he exists and goes back to the party. A few minutes later a follow, walking to the bar and getting a drink, I can see Yoongi is at the end of the bar talking to a group of people, including that girl he was being close with before, they seem closer now and jealousy washes over me, we locked eyes but he quickly redirects his attention to the girl once more. I chug my drink then head to our table grab my coat  and say my goodbyes before heading back home. I am exhausted and confused. I don't know what to think now. -Should i consider this as part one of the plan completed? I wonder if what Yoongi and I did in that VIP room was part of Josie's plan-

Once I got home I showered and decided to order some food and watch some TV in my couch since it was still early and we had the day off tomorrow.  I check my phone wanting an update on my food delivery but aside from the update telling me my food is on its way I see two more messages.

23:18 Min Yoongi: Where are you?

23:30 Min Yoongi: I'm heading to your house now.

-WAIT WHAT????- he must have sent the first message while I was in the shower but now he is coming over.  Half way throw my panic I am standing in front of my couch not knowing what to do when suddenly I hear a loud knock on my door.

A.N: I hope you like this part. It is a little longer than the past ones but I couldn't shorten it any more. please leave any feedback and let me know if you guys want the next part. I am working on publishing once a week but it depends on the attention the posts get. Thank you very much lovelies.

[sc0tters]

Who Thought | Mark Estapa

summary: wanting to get Marks attention is something you never thought would land you in his bed.

prompt: “you two were practically made for each other.”

request: yes/no

warnings: sexual themes, p in v, swearing, drinking.

word count: 2.41k

authors note: not often do I pay myself on the back after writing smut but i am seriously proud of this one. I almost sent @hischierhaze the entire thing I was so excited for people to see it. If you want to see more from the 500 celly you can do so here!

Everyone knew you were off limits.

Nick had told everyone the moment you walked onto that campus as a freshman when he was a junior that if they went for you they would have been as good as dead. Yet as he graduated some of the boys began to fancy their chances as they started trying to make moves on you. But you never cared for them as they never came from the one boy who you wanted them from.

Mark had been your partner during freshman orientation and from that moment the two of you hit it off. So to learn that he was in some of your classes too only meant all that much more to you as within months the two of you became friends.

Both of you had been with other people during the first two years of college but now as you were both finally single you prayed he’d finally see you the same way you saw him.

So that was how you landed up in your dorm curling your hair as your friends picked out your outfit “you always look unforgettable in this one!” Josie squealed as she handed you your blue bodycon dress “you sure he’s gonna like it?” Nerves ran through your body as you smacked your lips together fixing the ends of your hair in the process.

Clara nodded as she placed her hand on your shoulder “you two were practically made for each other y/n.” Your two best friends watched how you were able to bounce off of his energy and how you two were known as the couple who weren’t dating “maybe I shouldn’t do this.” Your words were met with another seltzer as the girls were doing predrinking in your dorm.

You were helped up as the dress was placed over your arm “go get dressed because once he sees you he won’t be able to get enough of you.” Josie explained as she tapped your nose making it scrunch.

Little did you know just how right they were. Mark hadn’t let his eyes leave your body from the moment you walked in and got pulled into a conversation with Luca he hated how you stuck to the sophomores side. The way your dress hugged the curves of your body and settled just over your ass would have made Nick kill you if he saw you in it. But tonight almost every guy found themselves taking a second look at you.

You had landed up playing against Mark and Ethan in a game of beer pong and at one point it seemed to be a game between you and Mark. It was the constant glares and smirks as the other person got their balls into the silo cups “drink up princess.” Mark smirked watching the ping pong ball land in the cup as it splashed the beer around the table.

It didn’t take you long to wrap your fingers around the cup as you chugged the dry drink not caring that it dripped down the sides of your mouth as you finished it “your turn Estapa.” You pointed out as you steadied yourself to throw the ball.

Luca met you with a celebration as he raised his hands to high five yours “there you go baby.” The Fantilli boy laughed as he wrapped his hands around your waist lifting you up in the process.

That was surprisingly not your first attempt to get Marks attention. As Mark pushed past you after the game all of a sudden your game plan changed “since when has he had an issue with you?” Luca asked crossing his arms not noticing the way your confused expression turned to a smirk “just a rough day I guess?” You shrugged noting how Mark was staring at you as he listened to something that another girl said.

The night had begun to grow old as you moved to the dance floor with a different boy and as alcohol began to cloud your judgement you let yourself dance against one of the guys on the football team. Mark let himself stare as his fists were clenched.

As tough as it was he let himself watch until you were pulled towards the staircase “I don’t think so.” Your blood went cold as you turned to see Mark stood with his hand on your shoulder.

It made the older boy laugh “don’t think that’s what she would want is it?” He stared down at you making you feel small. As both boys waited for your answer you couldn’t help but sigh “I’m gonna go with Mark.” You knew it was the best as he would have gone to Nick to tell him all about what you had done.

The boy next you didn’t stay for long as you glared at Mark “what are you trying to play at?” You furrowed your eyebrows as you crossed your arms.

Sure you wanted Marks attention on you but in this moment it felt like he was trying to protect you rather than trying to make a move on you “I’m trying to protect you!” His words made you scowl as the two of you pushed passed people to get to the door “god I’m an idiot.” You laughed thinking that he actually could have wanted you.

Mark had to remain hot on your tail all the way until the cool Michigan air hit your face “you make me sick.” As the words left your mouth it made him grab your hand as he pulled you close making your chest hit his “you wouldn’t have a clue how much I think about you.” Mark mumbled looking down at you.

It made you blink “then why the hell don’t you fucking act like that!” As you scoffed it all of a sudden made Mark smirk “you want me to show you how much I think about you?” He licked his lips as you nodded.

He didn’t wait for a second more to go by as the hockey player leaned down to kiss you “you’re gonna get me killed.” Mark moaned using his free hand to cup your cheek so that he could kiss you. Your hands wrapped around his shoulders as his tongue ran over your lips as he kissed you.

The two of you stayed there for a few more moments until you pulled away “I need you Mark, please.” Those words rang through his ears all the way until he pushed you into his room “god you’re gorgeous.” Mark groaned watching as you dropped to his bed.

It didn’t take him long to join you as he continued to let nip at the skin on your neck “Mark.” You whined leaning up to bring his head to yours “I need to taste you.” His words made you moan as you shifted up the bed allowing his hands to travel down your legs.

Mark kissed down your thighs making sure to be painfully slow as he loved each of your legs “god.” You propped yourself up on your elbows as your head dropped feeling your thighs tense.

He watched you as the light from the street lamps stared illuminated your face “is that what you wanted all along? My attention.” His words were soft as his breath fanned against your thong causing your hands to clench into fists.

As your body shook Mark hooked his fingers into the waistband of your panties allowing him to pull them down “I’m gonna make you feel so fucking good.” He mumbled finally being faced with your bare cunt “if I was with James I would have already-” Mark didn’t let you finish your words as he licked a stripe up your slit making you yelp.

His hands locked around your thighs trapping you on your spot “dear god.” You gasped slapping your hand over your mouth in an attempt to suppress your moans.

Mark smirked as he pressed a kiss against your clit “it’s just me pretty girl.” The nickname make your body turn to jelly “you’ve got such a sweet cunt.” He mumbled to himself as his tongue swirled around your clit.

You felt trapped as your fingers locked locked in his hair “don’t stop.” You begged feeling his fingers thrust into your cunt “Mark you’re so-” you cut yourself off with a moan as you grinded your hips against his face with the little bit of movement that you could do.

He felt himself grow hard as he replaced his tongue with his free fingers “you know how easily you could have had this?” Mark asked as he kissed the inside of your thigh “all you had to do was be a good girl and come to me.” Your cunt clenched at his words as your cheeks turned red.

The air in the room felt humid as his eyes practically took you apart piece by piece “but instead you wanted to play the hard game huh?” The hockey player curved his fingers causing them to hit deeper into your core “asked you a question sweets.” As the wheels in your brain began to visually turn again Mark lowered his lips back down to your clit as his mind began to grow jealous of what his fingers were doing.

You moaned as your mouth grew wet much like your soaked cunt that Mark treated like his last meal “just wanted your attention.” You mumbled feeling a wave of embarrassment coarsed through your veins as you felt your legs shake.

It made you feel like a fool as you came ever so closer to your high “look at you now having it and you can’t even handle it.” Mark laughed as his nose hit your clit “ah!” You gasped grasping at the sheet beneath you.

Mark wasn’t an idiot, the way your breathing became uneven and how the way you drove your hips became ever more desperate as you clenched your cunt with all of your strength. It was clear, you were close “I’m gonna.” You coughed using your strength to look at him.

What you didn’t expect was that Mark responded by dropping your legs to the side as he retracted himself from the bed earning a whine from your lips “surely you didn’t think I’d let you get away with acting like that this easily?”Mark laughed at you as you nodded swearing that Mark would have been good to you.

But before you could complain further his arms raised the ends of his shirt up to let you see his abs “you like what you see baby?” Mark smirked as you tilted your head up to nod. It took him a few seconds to get down to you as he kneeled in the gap between your legs “please Mark.” Your whines for the first time were met with him actually listening to you as he helped you get out of your dress as he bunched it around your waist “gonna make you feel so good.” His words echoed through your ears as you lay your head down against the mattress.

The sound of his belt unbuckling as his jeans dropped to the floor it made you gulp as you saw him grab the condom “been waiting for this for months baby.” Mark groaned as he teased your clit with the covered head of his cock “Jesus!” You moaned as his cock stretched your cunt out making sure to bottom you out as his torso hit your clit.

It made Mark grunt as his hand pressed against the mattress above you “you only got me in here pretty girl.” The hockey player kissed your neck letting his lips nip at the skin “need you to move.” You begged tapping his arms as you pushed against the sheet of his bed.

His thrusts began as your legs found themselves perfectly locked around his hips “Mark.” You whined feeling his chain hit your chin as he repositioned himself to hover over you.

With each move of his cock it seemed that he was hitting a deeper part of your cunt “making me feel so full.” Your hands found themselves against his back as your nails raked over the skin “god this cunt is perfect.” Marks compliment made you whine in a respond as your lips formed a pout attempting to find his lips.

Your nipples throbbed against the fabric of your dress making you only care about getting your first orgasm of the night “made for you.” You moaned as your eyes screwed shut struggling to remain focused “all yours Mark all yours.” Those words made Mark swear that he was going to die.

Mark groaned feeling your cunt clench around his cock “if you don’t shut up I’m gonna come.” He warned as his free hand went to your clit to try to help you come before him “‘m sorry.” You frowned as your words got caught in your throat.

It made Mark smirk as he shook his head “such a sweet baby aren’t you.” Mark cooed brushing his lips over yours “being such a good girl for me.” He groaned feeling your hands scratch his back sure to leave a mark.

The room felt sweaty as his hands were on you and your moans painted the walls of it “I’m close Mark.” You announced forcing your head against the pillow beneath you “want you to let the whole house hear how good I make you feel.” His words weren’t done kind of request, they were ordering you to be vocal and you weren’t going to deny him of that right.

Your throat felt raw as you cried “please don’t stop Mark.” You begged squeezing your legs tighter around his waist “right there oh!” You cried as you came feeling your body writhe between the boy and his sheets as your eyes screwed shut.

Marks orgasm wasn’t far behind as your cunts sporadic movements made his throbbing cock coat his load into the inside of his condom “that was hot.” You blurted out feeling his lips kiss your shoulder.

As he slid his cock out of your cunt your body shook “I’m just gonna get you a cloth.” Mark explained as he smiled getting up to see you still in your fucked out state as you lay on his bed barely nodding in the process.

Seeing you like that honestly made his day as Mark knew that he had you in just the way he wanted.

[ageofbajabule]

Roommates | Chapter 3

Danny x F! Reader

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: Swearing, Angst, Alcohol, Arguing, Oral Sex (F receiving), Slut Shaming?

Roommates Masterlist

Masterlist

If you haven’t read part 2

Author’s Note: Hey y’all! This next chapter is definitely inspired by this here picture. Outfit and all. This chapter is dearly special to my group of friends, you know who you are❤️

Next morning you woke with an excruciating hangover. It was 11:43am, you rolled over grabbing the bottle of water chugging it like you were dryer than the dessert. You sat up stretching out, you were still in the dress from last night. You shook your head, getting out of bed grabbing a pair of leggings, and a t-shirt to change into. You couldn’t exactly grasp what all happened last night, you weren’t even sure how you got into your bed.

You changed into clean clothes and made your way to the bathroom to brush your teeth, and fix your hair. You simply braided it after brushing through and detangling the knots. You then proceeded to make your way downstairs finding Josie sitting at the island eating some pancakes as Danny finished making bacon. He was shirtless, and wearing sweatpants. His curls looked messy as if he just woke up not too long ago as well.

“Morning there sleepy head.” Josie giggled, “Danny has been so nice to make us all breakfast.” She smiled, continuing to eat. “Wow, thanks Danny.” You smiled softly walking over to grab a plate and place two pancakes onto your plate with some bacon on the side. “Anytime…” He mumbled under his breath, you rolled your eyes going to sit next to Josie. “So, it’s your last week here… We should do something today. Before you leave.” You nudged Josie, as she turned towards you frowning. “I would love to stay longer… But you get it.” She smiled softly, as you nodded to her response, taking a bit of your food.

“I do. I’ll miss you. You better visit as often as you can, and I’ll do the same.” You giggled softly. “Of course! Now, what exactly should we do today?” She raised her eyebrow, “I don’t even know. I don’t know much about Nashville just yet, I just finally remembered how to get to work.” You laughed embarrassed by the thought. “How about we get a mani/pedi, and figure out the rest then?” Josie smiled at you, finishing up her food. “But I’m going to take a quick shower, and then we can go.” She smiled, putting her dish in the dishwasher, leaving the room.

It was now only you and Danny in the kitchen, he was finishing up cleaning the area. Fixing himself a plate, he sat on the opposite side of the island. You kept quiet, starting to remember last night's events. You watched Danny’s hands then looked up to his face, to catch him staring at you. “Staring problem much?” He smugly asked, “I wasn’t staring.” You bit back. He then rolled his eyes laughing cockily. “Last night was… Interesting.” He took a bite of his food, watching you. “Last night was simply a mistake.” You felt your cheeks get hot.

“A mistake… Didn’t seem like it when you're moaning for me to keep going.” He smirked, you looked at him with seriousness. “Danny, Josie can’t know about anything…” You looked behind you to make sure she wasn’t around. “We’re simply roommates, and that’s until I get my own place…” You finished your plate, putting it in the dishwasher. “Who said Josie needed to know? If anything you’re the one making a deal out of it.” He finished his food coming up behind to put his dishes in the dishwasher.

“Don’t try and act like you like me all of a sudden.” You looked up at him, he towered over you greatly. “Who said I had to like you to fuck around with you?” He smirked walking away. ‘What a fucking dick…’ You thought to yourself.

As you made your way to go upstairs, Josie was coming out of the bathroom. “I just finished, I’m changing, then I’ll be ready to go.” She smiled and went into her room, you nodded making way to your room to change into a better outfit for a day out. You had grabbed your car keys, and crossbody bag meeting Josie in the main entryway.

“Have fun ladies…” Danny said, smiling and giving you a wink. You gave him a silent ‘Fuck You’ and walked out of the house with Josie getting into your car.

The drive over to the nail salon wasn’t long. Once you had entered they had seated you right away, as the place was surprisingly not busy.

“So… Are you liking it here in Nashville?” Josie looked over at you. You smiled taking a seat in the chair after picking your color. “Yeah I am, it’s really nice here. Everyone is super nice…” “Everyone except Danny… Right?” She had a sincere look, “Danny is… A hard ass.” You laughed softly, “But I’m sure we’ll manage.” You looked over at her. “I’ll set his ass straight one way or another.” She laughed softly, “Whether it's me or one of the guys.”

“Are you excited to head home and see your parents?” You giggled as the worker started to scrub your feet after they were soaking for a while. “Yeah, I miss them. And it’s good to see them too for a while before I move. I really wish Danny would visit more often though… Mom misses him more than anything. And dad too.” She sighed, “Sometimes I think he has his head so far up his ass, ya know?” She laughed to herself. “I totally get it, I mean only he can work on himself though… There isn’t much any of us can do.” You shrugged.

“I guess you’re right, well enough about that. Have you met any cute guys while being here?” She smiled brightly. “No… A lot of them seem to be here for the same things…” You shook your head. “A lot of eye candy, but nothing that has caught my interest yet unfortunately. And besides, I like being single right now. I can do whatever I want.” You laughed softly as Josie nodded agreeing. “Yeah, I miss the single life sometimes. But I’m very happy with Adam.” “I’m glad you have him, I hope to have that one day.” You smiled softly, setting the massager setting on the chair.

The both of you just relaxed and enjoyed the relaxation and conversation between the two of you. The basic girl talk and reliving the memories from college.

After finishing up, you both decided to head out to eat. Picking a burger joint, and dining in. You both had seated on a terrace outside, when you had heard your phone ringing.

You looked to see who it was, and it was your manager calling. “Hold on a sec Josie.” You smiled, answering your phone standing up to walk to a quiet area.

“Hello?”

“Ah hello, Y/N. We have some great news for you!”

“What would it be Henry?” You asked nervously.

“We have your first big work trip coming up! I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Greta Van Fleet at all? But you will be heading on tour with them starting next month.” He sounded thrilled on the other end of the line.

You stood there shocked, “Wait I’m sorry, what?” You almost choked on your words.

“We’ve seen your work with us, and thought you were doing an amazing job and wanted to challenge you a bit. So this is your big moment! What do you say?” He chuckled lightly.

“Uh, thank you! This is absolutely incredible, I won’t let you guys down. Thank you for trusting me to do this project.” You smiled happily and nervously.

“We’ll be in contact over the next few days with details and such. So you’re in the loop of how things run for a world tour. We’ll talk soon Y/N!” He sounded chipper.

“Thank you again Henry! Talk soon.” You smiled hanging up and walking back over to Josie sitting down.

Josie smiled looking up at you. “What was that all about?” You smiled at her, “Well the guys are in for a surprise…” You laughed softly. “Tell me!!” You took a deep breath, “I’m going to be going on tour with the guys…”

Josie’s face lit up. “Oh my god! That’s absolutely incredible! We’ll have to tell them.” She smiled at you beaming, you nodded your head. “Wait… Shouldn’t we keep it a surprise?” You thought about the possibility of Danny freaking out over you working for them. He won’t like the idea, considering you get on his nerves by simply being his roommate.

“Oh yeah, good idea!” She giggled softly, and started to talk about what she had planned for next week. “So I was thinking of having a get-together at Danny’s for the guys' hard work. Invite their friends and such, and their crew too. And you can get to know everyone before heading on tour with them!” She smiled excitedly. “And it’s perfect to throw before I leave.” She turned towards you frowning slightly. “Do you think Danny will be alright with the idea?” You were nervous however he would take it.

“He could never say no to his little sister, and besides that dude throws a party at his place any other time.” She laughed softly. “Whatever you say then. Okay! I’m in.” You laughed softly, as you guys continued to talk about the planning for the party as you ordered your food and ate.

➳ ➳ ➳

A week had gone by, it was Saturday. And Josie’s flight left tomorrow afternoon to return home. The week had gone by fast, due to doing some required assignments for your upcoming gig with the guys. And during the week you and Josie pretty much did whatever you could to soak up the fun that you would have left together. Occasionally her and Danny would go out golfing while you worked at home, it was nice to work in a quiet environment. Not like Danny was ever loud, but sometimes he would be playing his drums or playing his records.

You had helped decorate the house a bit with Josie, nothing crazy, you both had just set up some tables to put some snacks on and set up wine, beer and whatever else you could think of. Danny had walked into the party room as you and Josie were finishing setting everything up. “Looks great, girls.” He flashed a smile, he had his hair tied back in a low ponytail wearing a blue snapback hat. He wore it backwards, and his blue bomber jacket, and some black skinny jeans with his white sneakers. The usual Danny fit that you and Josie liked to joke at. But you couldn’t help but stare at him for a bit.

In fact Josie noticed it, “Are you gonna gawk at him the whole night or are you gonna finish grabbing the solo cups before everyone gets here.” She laughed softly, which brought you back to her attention. “I was not gawking at him. In fact, quite the opposite, is that the only outfit he owns.” You laughed softly running into the kitchen to grab the solo cups.

“You were definitely gawking at me there…” You heard Danny come up behind you. You turned on your heels facing him, “I definitely was not…” You felt your cheeks flush. “Whatever you say princess.” He smirked, walking away, “You’re a dick…” You mumbled to yourself. “Heard that!” He yelled as he exited the kitchen, you bit your lip walking back to the party room bringing the cups and setting them on the table.

An hour had passed, and people had started showing up. The crew had shown up pretty much first, and the rest of the guys followed suit after. You had introduced yourself to the guys crew before any of them noticed to try and avoid speculation. You really wanted to keep it hidden that you would be working for them. As much as it bothered you to keep this from them, you just wanted to avoid any conflict with Danny beforehand.

The party seemed to be going well, everyone was talking, drinking and some were even dancing. You went to grab a drink, filling your cup up with vodka and adding pineapple juice. When you were suddenly met with some stranger you hadn’t met before. “Hey.” The curly haired man said, “Hi, I’m sorry we haven’t met yet. I’m Y/N, and you are?” You put your hand out to shake his, he shook your hand introducing himself. “I’m Dave, I’m Danny’s friend.” You felt your heart sink to your ass, “Nice to meet you. I’m actually Josie’s friend, and I’m currently staying with Danny until I get my own place…” You looked down taking a sip of your drink.

“Oh so you’re the roommate he’s been talking about?” He smiled softly, grabbing a beer for himself. What was that supposed to mean? “I’d hope good things…” You smiled nervously and Dave smiled back. “Nothing bad! I’m sorry if I scared you for a second.” You shook your head, “No, I just don’t want to make a bad impression to anyone… I’m still relatively new to this area. And not trying to have a bad rep.” You smiled at him.

Dave shook his head softly, “Trust me, the only way you could ever have a bad reputation here is if you were a complete asshole. You don’t seem to be one, at least in my opinion.” He started laughing softly, and you laughed with him.

But what you didn’t know is that Danny was watching the two of you from afar. Dave and you had talked for a couple of more minutes about how he met Danny and what he does. You’ve come to find out he is in his own band, and that they do little gigs for the time being as they try to get their music out there to be able to do a headliner tour soon.

“That’s absolutely incredible, I’ll definitely have to check your music out.” You smiled softly, and Danny came over to you guys.

“Oh hey Danny” Dave smiled at him. “Hey… so did you know Y/N has a staring problem?” You looked over at Danny. “What do you mean?” Dave asked in response.

“Well, she was staring at me earlier and got pissed off when I called her out on it. Probably because she wants to fuck me and I don’t want to fuck her. So now she’s over here acting like the little slut she is, trying to grasp any guy's attention” He smirked at Dave, that’s when you threw your drink on him. Storming off to your bedroom, shutting your door shut behind you.

Danny comes barging into your room. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Throwing a drink on me?” You scoffed walking up to him, pushing his chest. “Are you kidding me? You deserved it. You talked about me like I was some random girl Daniel. I’m not!” You ran a hand through your hair.

“I know, I did it just to get you wound up.” He smirked, “You know…you owe me.” You looked over at him, “I owe you?”

“Don’t play stupid. You threw vodka into my eyeballs.” You smirked at his response, “So?”

“So?” He mocked your tone, “I think I deserve an apology.” He walked up to you. “I’m not apologizing.” You laughed softly.

“Okay…so you’re not going to apologize?” He was now inches from you. “I just said that” You looked up at him.

“I At least deserve a taste of that pretty pussy.” He then moved his hand to wrap around your throat. “You would like that wouldn’t you? Me tasting you?” You were fighting a whimper, looking down to where his hand was placed.

“Poor thing… Getting all worked up?” He gripped a little tighter on your throat. “You gonna do something about it?” You looked into his eyes, and he smirked at you. “I think I have an idea…” Suddenly his lips were pressed against yours, as he pulled you closer into him.

You couldn’t fight against, but only cave in. For as much as you hated his guts right now, the alcohol in you was telling you otherwise. He slowly backed you into your bed, letting you fall onto your plush comforter as he crawled on top of you, kissing your neck leaving sloppy wet kisses. Letting the cool air hit where he left his trail.

You couldn’t help but let a moan slip out, he shot a look up at you smiling mischievously. “I haven’t even done much, and you’re already falling apart…” He chuckled lightly. “I’m sorry princess, but we can’t do too much tonight… We have a party to tend to.” He hiked your skirt up, ripping off your panties.

He started kissing your inner thighs, running his hands down your body resting them just above your hips. You sat up on your elbows. “Hold up. If you’re going to eat me out, I at least get to ride your face.” He smirked at you, “Well come ride it then.”

Danny moved over to lay on your bed, grabbing your body to pull you over his face. You were hesitant when hovering his face, when suddenly his hands grip onto your thighs pulling you down. Making him pressed directly into your core. He interlocks his one hand that is wrapped around your thigh, as you place your free hand to grip the headboard.

He licks a stripe causing you to tremble under his touch, you grip the headboard for stability. He removes his face for a moment, “Are you always wet like this for me…” He then dives his face back in, kitty like licks across your clit.

“Y-yes…” You whine out for him, starting to roll your hips slowly. You felt him smirk against you, as he continued to swirl circles around your bundle of nerves. You began arching your back and bracing yourself on his chest.

He then moves a little bit further down and the bridge of his nose catches your clit making you slowly move your hips forward trying to create friction. As he starts to move his nose against your clit giving you the friction you wanted, you jolt from the sudden movement.

Danny then grabs your ass pulling you back down, “Don’t move, unless I say so.” He growled at you. You moaned out again, as he smacked your ass giving you the sign to go again. This time you let him continue on what he did before, enjoying this overwhelming feeling.

Danny kept licking your core, sending waves of pleasure through your body. You couldn’t keep your lewd sounds quiet, he made you feel like you were on cloud 9. “Danny… Right t-there…” You cried out, gripping the headboard as you began to ride his face rolling your hips.

He used his tongue to trace circles around your bud, and moved his nose to help you chase your orgasm. You bite your lip suppressing more noises. He pulled away again, “Let them out baby… Let them know who's making you feel this good.” Within an instant he goes back to aggressively eating you out. You throw your head back, pushing his hat off to grab a hold of his curls tugging at them. Causing a groan to rip from him, sending vibrations through your body. Enough to break the barrier.

“Oh fuck…” You cry out, picking up the pace in your hips rolling against his face begging for more friction. He starts pulling your thighs more bringing you closer to him. He flicks his tongue in motions you can’t even describe, you feel your thighs starting to burn, getting tired. You start to tremble above him, nearing your high. He attaches his lips around your bud shooting a look up at your face.

The feeling is euphoric as you feel yourself release onto his mouth. You grip his hair one last final tug as you let your body calm down. Your breathing is heavy as you remove yourself from his face. Standing up on your feet beside your bed, you grab a pair of panties, putting them on and fixing your skirt. “I should’ve let you do that a long time ago…” You blushed looking over at him.

He smirked looking over at you as he was fixing his hair and hat. “Well… I’m always a dick as you put it half the time…” He chuckled lightly. “Well maybe if you started treating me better, you would have a better outcome of all of this.” You looked over at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He scoffed looking back at you. “Daniel, you treat me like an object! You act as if I don’t have feelings.” You felt your cheeks getting hot.

“I don’t treat you like an object! Where the hell did you get that from?” He was yelling now, making you scared. “You act like I’m a nuisance to you. As if I ruined your life by simply living here.” You raised your voice. “It’s not that easy to fucking explain Y/N!” He slammed his hand against the wall making you jump. You felt tears welling up, “I think you should leave the room…” You choked out.

“It’s my fucking house.” He looked over at you. “And I pay rent. Get out of my room!” You screamed at him crying now. “Fine.” He stormed past you, opening and slamming the door behind him.

You laid on your bed, crying to yourself feeling at your most vulnerable state. Why was he this way? What did you ever do to deserve to be treated this way? And now you would be facing him every day by yourself while Josie goes back home…

[rhaenizziettie]

Legacies 1x05 Rewatch:

The Dryad, I've missed her

I actually love how they show the evolution of the school with stuff like adapting to monsters and giving the students a voice

No because who takes over Raf's spot on the Honor Council when he dies

"YoU'rE nOt GoNnA lOsE tHe ElEcTiOn OvEr An OuTfIt." Why is it so hard for Josie to just support her sister for once.

"Lizzie Saltzman only cares about Lizzie Saltzman." You mean the Lizzie Saltzman, who does everything for her sister and sacrifices her life over and over again for every other student in that school?

"You still like it when I went low." "Oh, honey, you crush on me." Posie needed more than one season.

"We're not negotiating. Right, Ric?" "Uh ..." Dorian as headmaster would have been a great storyline.

Watching Rafael and Jed spar makes me realize that Finch never got to meet Rafael. What a wasted opportunity.

" You're mocking me." "Yeah but just a little bit." When I say Dorian and Alaric had more chemistry with the Dryad than they did with Emma or Mac ...

" Sometimes in the human world telling the truth can do more harm than good." OH THIS IS ABOUT THE MERGE. MM HMM.

"I see it in their smiles, in their laughter. I still see her sometimes." Going to cry thinking about that last scene in TVD

"You straight up refuse to swim across the lake." "Excuse the foster kid for never having swim lessons." And now he literally lives, immortal, ferrying across a lake.

Testing his ability to get away from you as fast as possible, Hope? Little Miss Hold on Tight?

So if Malivore's DNA showed up as literally everything, why did Landon's DNA show no supernatural history? Why didn't it raise any red flags?

"It's so nice to know you all love me as much as I thought you did." She's a comedian because I know she knows those kids hate her ass. They attended a book club reading of her diary. They laughed at her funeral. They did NOT love her and she knew it.

"Jackass Jed." If there's one thing the Saltzman twins know how to do best it's come up with nicknames.

"Say no more. I know how much it means to you and I would be happy to help." She needs a hug.

Tell me again how it's Lizzie who's getting in the way of Josie's romantic life?

What is the SBS sex ed class like because the amount of STD jokes those students make is kind of wild.

Not Josie giving away Lizzie's pink sweater ... like we never even got to see her wear it before you did that ...

"I've always wanted to be part of a power couple." Oh boy do I have news for you Lizzie

No, because Handon's "I don't want to be special" x "I need to be special" dynamic is so delicious

"You know, you can only hold out hope for so long and be hurt by so many people before it starts to seems impossible to trust someone new." "Do you trust me?" "Of course I do." Handizzie excellence.

Why did they have to do S1 Jed so dirty

"I'm trying to rise above it. So let me freaking rise."

"I'm a tribrid. The only one of my kind. No one can represent my interests but me." So does Lizzie finally get her spot on the council after becoming a heretic?

Did the Honor Council just disappear after Hope was forgotten??

Imagine if Lizzie had brought the truth orb with her when she hunted down Hope and confessed to being in love with her

Josie using her father and her sister almost dying since Landon arrived as an excuse to kick him out is kind of funny when you remember that later she kills her sister and doesn't care when her father stuck in a coma and on his death bed.

"This school is family." Guess nobody there can like each other now

That's TWO magical trees in the Legacies universe now ...

"What did I ever do to make you hate me so much?" No because one day I will write an essay on how all of Josie's love interests end up hating Lizzie for no reason and/or misinformed reasons and there's one common denominator.

"It's not about you. It's about how you treat Josie." Is that not literally about her. Like if your problem is that she doesn't exist solely to serve Josie, isn't that having a problem with her??

"Did you think to ask her if she wanted to run for council before you assumed you'd win?" DID YOU?? BECAUSE THAT GIRL LOOKED LIKE SHE WANTED TO DIE AS SOON AS SHE HAD TO MAKE A DECISION ON THE SPOT LIKE THAT.

The irony in Penelope telling Lizzie that she's left Josie with no room for herself when it's actually the opposite way around. Like real quick Miss Park, which one of them are you telling that they can't pursue their interests because the other twin might want it too?

I will never understand why Penelope acted like Lizzie and Josie couldn't both run for council. It was an open election. All she had to do was put her name in.

"She spends all her energy taking care of you." To recap in the past four episodes she has spent her energy trying to win over Rafael, trying to convince everyone to hate Penelope and not talk about her, trying to get offensive magic put into the school curriculum, trying to get everyone to lose the football game, and trying to drive a deeper wedge between Hope and Lizzie during community service. Now which part of that is taking care of Lizzie?

"You are a black hole of time and energy and love." Is the time and energy and love in the room with us right now?

"She won't ever burn you world down." The foreshadowing to her literally burning the school down ...

Every day I wish Penelope would have been around to see Josie in her black lipstick era.

No because what happened to pretty shots like the Handon kiss? When did TV shows stop caring about cinematic beauty and nicely lit shots and fantastic coloring??

Sandwiches are a Handon thing

"I have a family friend who's expecting you." The fact that we never see Landon with the Mikaelson family friend ...

Every time I see Raf and Lizzie's scene, I think about that post about how lesbians use hetero sex as a form of self harm and there has never been a better example to exist in all of history. Like what part of being told that you're the worst person in the world makes you horny??

Also Lizzie Saltzman kiss a guy without crying challenge. Like sweetie if you're crying every time you have to kiss them, maybe it's for a reason.

Every time I hear Someone to You on the radio I get chills because of this episode

[mayajadewrites]

Stained Red - Chapter Four

Chapter Four - Friday

La Reina

"Kiss me then."

Well that is one way to sober up.

You tilted your chin up, searching Matt's face for the right answer. There was undeniable sexual tension between you two - but did you want to indulge so fast?

The liquor swirling in your stomach says yes.

You slowly inch your mouth closer to his, snaking your right arm around his neck. Your lips brushed against his, refusing to make the first move.

Matthew Murdock was not one to be scared of making the first move. Obviously.

He breathed your name before pressing his pillow soft lips against yours, his hand gripping your waist.

His lips feel exactly like you thought they would. They tasted like a mixture of liquor and mint, a combination you didn't mind.

You pulled away slowly, wishing you could relive that kiss over and over.

"I'll be out here when you're done, go piss." Matt smirked, tapping your thigh with his fingertips.

You looked in the mirror after you went to the bathroom, grazing your lips with your fingers, savoring the feeling of Matt's lips on yours.

Did you just kiss the lawyer that works in the same building as you?

Yes.

But you knew you couldn't give it all to him that easy. He got a taste - a sample. He will have to beg you for more.

You washed your hands, reapplied your lip gloss, and checked yourself out. Your curves filled out your outfit, even the parts you don't love enough.

As you exited the bathroom, Matt was leaning up against the wall with a smug look on his face. You wanted to wrap your legs around him and kiss him for hours, but you stopped yourself.

"Thank you." You grabbed your purse from him, caressing his jawline gently. He leaned in for a kiss but you started walking back towards the table instead. You could tell Matt was not pleased.

But he loves a good challenge.

As you both sit at the table, you look at Matt's face, more specifically his lips. You could see the clear sheen from your lipgloss. He looked adorable.

You felt your phone buzz in your back pocket.

Karen: Please tell me you and Matt made out. He has been staring at you the entire time we've been here.

You: We kissed once. I'm not giving everything up that easy. ;)

Karen snickered as she read your text, locking her phone quickly. Foggy and Marci were playing poole together, laughing and joking around. They are so cute, you can tell they love each other.

Karen's date, Adam, showed up at some point - you don't remember when. He's a quiet journalist, mostly staying by Karen's side.

Matt pressed his chest into yours as you listened to all the sounds of Josies - the music, the conversations, the bottles clanking together, everything.

He dragged his fingertips up and down your sides, pulling you closer to him by your abdomen.

You felt your eyes start to flutter close, so you knew it was late. Especially for a week night.

1:44 AM

You gently grab Matt's face behind you, pulling him to you. "I'm gonna head out." You drag one of your almond shaped nails down his face. "Thank you for tonight. I needed it." You stood up, fixing your jeans.

"You're out of your mind if you think I'm letting you go home alone." He whispered huskily in your ear. "I'll walk you home, princesa."

You gave your goodbyes to everyone, promising to do this again soon. Foggy, Marci and Karen hugged you, which you were not expecting. You and your friends rarely hug, but it felt so good.

Instead of you leading yourself and Matt by your arm, Matt interlaced his fingers with yours, rubbing his thumb along your knuckles.

Thank god he can't see how big you're smiling.

"Goodnight, Matthew." You turn to Matt, kissing him on the cheek.

"Sweet dreams." Matt said softly, moving a piece of hair out of your face.

You wanted to kiss him again. And again. And again.

Tomorrow is a new day.

The sunlight intruded in your room as your eyes fluttered open, a slight headache coming on from the liquor last night.

6:30AM

It's Friday, last day of the work week (well, any day can be the last day of the work week for you) but you like to follow a 9-5 schedule.

Scenes from last night start replaying, the butterflies that Matt left you fluttering in your stomach.

Once you finished your morning routine (shower, makeup, hair, then outfit) you braced yourself for the inevitable.

Matt Murdock.

For him, you would throw off your routine. So you made a mental note to skip your coffee shop on the way to work, in case Matt wanted to go with you.

You locked your door (triple checked) and went to turn around, when you spot those red glasses.

"Good morning beautiful." Matt smiled. He looked so fresh, you wouldn't know that he was out at all hours last night.

He had your iced vanilla latte with cinnamon in his hand, along with his coffee.

"Matt, you didn't have to -"

"Please." He handed you the cup, swirling the ice around a bit. "It was my pleasure."

God, you wanted to kiss him right there.

Soon.

"Are you happy today is Friday?" You ask, sipping from the straw of your iced latte.

"Very. This week has been exhausting to say the least. Lots of cases, none huge but they are tedious. How about you? How's your new novel?"

"I've barely started it. My mind has been everywhere." You wave your hand, looking up at the falling leaves from the streets lining the streets.

"Mine too." Matt leaned down, whispering in your ear. He pushed a few of your curls out of your face with a smile.

You both enjoyed each others company, so much so that when you reached the building, you almost kept walking just to keep talking.

"I'll stop by for lunch." Matt kissed your forehead, opening the door for you. "Text me your lunch order."

"Okay." You nod, pressing the 'up' button on the elevator.

Matt was not like other men. You've kissed plenty of men in bars before, but all of them expected something from you after. Or the next morning. If you didn't give it to them, they dropped you faster than you could even say their name.

While you knew Matt wanted to kiss you and touch you more than anything, you knew he would respect your boundaries and choices. He wanted to learn who you are, what you love, and who you love.

You told him about how you speak spanish, thankfully both of your parents spoke english and spanish, so you were raised with both. He knew you were latina, but didn't know if you could speak full spanish.

You also told him how you love living alone and being alone so much that you don't know if anyone will want to be in your space like that.

The morning came and went, and you still were on page 1 of your novel. You got startled by your phone buzzing on your desk.

Matt: I'm about to pick up lunch, send me your order please.

You: Hmmmm... a caesar salad with a side of Matthew Murdock.

Matt: Coming right up.

The two of you spent lunch together listening to music, while talking about your favorite books and tv shows. It felt like you've known each other for thousands of years.

"I've gotta get back to work." Matt stood up, grabbing your trash and bringing it to the trash can. "I'll meet you up here at 5." He smiled, walking towards the door.

"Wait, Matt." You stood up, pushing your hair behind your ear.

"Hm?"

"Kiss me." You say, looking up at his sculpted face, watching your reflection through his glasses.

Without words, Matt leaned down and pressed his lips to yours once more. It felt like water after a drought. You cupped his face in your hands, deepening the kiss. One of his arms snaked around your body, while the other caressed your cheek.

"You are so beautiful." Matt whispered against your lips, pulling away slowly.

"You can't even see me."

"I don't need to see you to know you're the most beautiful woman I've ever laid my eyes on." Matt stopped, pointing to your chest. "Your heart. Everything about that tells me what I need to know about you."

Swoon.

"I'll see you later, Matthew." You press your lips against his once more, watching the corners of his mouth turn upwards.

The work day felt like forever, since all you wanted to do was kiss Matt.

He felt like home. He felt... safe.

And that scared you.

I love me some sweet Matt. Hope you're all enjoying Stained Red!

[imaginefan]

Mate Jealousy *Part 3*

Milton Greasley ‘MG’ X Fem!Reader

Word count: 733

Requested: Anon

Request: Can you do a part three of mate jealously  where the reader  gives birth to her  and  mg daughter  and rapheal  confess his love for her and she rejects him so he kidnaps you and  your daughter  to  make you love him and mg  saves you and your daughter AND can you do a part three of  mate jealously  where the reader gives birth to her and mg daughter and  rapheal confess his love for her and she  rejects him so one day where she  is  out  with her daughter  and  and gets a theartened note from rapheal and mg find outs AND Can you do a part three of  mate jealously where the  reader  is  mg mate and she finally gives birth  to  there daughter  rosa and  she find out she is a  dahmpir and  rapheal confess his love for her but then theanend her  throught a letter.

*Part 2*

Since your last conversation things were different, the protection squad was still around but now it seemed they were just doing it because you were pregnant and were there to make sure that all the rowdy kids didn’t crash into you in the hallway. Before long your daughter was born, she was named Rosa and she was a beautiful girl who took after her father in many ways, you still had yet to find out whether she was going to be human or vampire and if it was going to affect her growth at all.

One day you had made plans with Lizzie, Hope and Josie. You wanted to go shopping for some more clothes for Rosa, she was growing out of her clothes fast and you needed some new outfits and they were more than happy to help.

You leaned over the MG pressing a kiss to his forehead, he groaned as he looked up at you “where are you going so early?” He asked. “We’re going clothes shopping, remember I told you yesterday.” You smiled and leaned up wrapping an arm around your waist. “You didn’t say it would be this early.” He grumbled and you giggled. “I don’t think that 9am is early.” You dismissed him and he made a noise of disapproval. “It is when you have a child and it’s Saturday.” He argued and you looked at him and shook your head. You gave him one last kiss before standing up and detaching yourself from him to pick up your little girl and head out.

MG was up about 3 hours later and with both you and Rosa gone he found himself bored but that didn’t last long before he walked called on by Alaric who informed him that Rafael had been hit by a spell, they weren’t sure what it would do but he had disappeared and they needed to find him before something bad happened, MG went back to the room to try and call you and let you know what happened, but before he grabbed his phone a piece of paper on the bed that you both shared. He walked over and unfolded it, his face scrunching up as he read what was written there, it was a letter from Raphael declaring his love and his plan to take you for himself. MG quickly dialled your number “Hey-” “Stay away from Raphael!” He ordered. “Mil-” “No there’s a spell, I don’t know what the effect is but he left a letter for you, just stay away from him if he approaches you I’ll be there soon I promise.” He said as you confirmed that you had understood what he said. He didn’t waste time telling people what was going on, he just told them to meet him in Mystic Falls.

When he got to Mystic Falls he made his way to your favourite shop for clothes shopping, he scanned the shop catching sight of you and moving towards you, his eyes catching sight of Raphael who Hope was trying to hold back. “(Y/N) stay back.” He ordered as he moved forward to help Hope, with two of them it was easy to subdue him, MG wrestled him to the floor and the three girls used a sleep spell so that they could get him back to the academy. MG turned and walked back over to you taking your face in his hand “Are you okay?” “Yeah I’m okay.” You nodded and he looked down at Rosa. “She slept through the whole thing.” You said softly. “Good I don’t want her to remember it.” He said “come on, let's get home, you need rest.” “Thanks.” You breathe “Is there somewhere else that we can stay for a little while.” “I’ll talk to Alaric.” He promised “but we still have to go back to get some clothes and stuff.”

Alaric found somewhere for you both to stay for as long as you needed “How are you feeling?” MG asked as you cleaned up after eating and putting Rosa to bed. “I’m okay.” You answered. “Are you sure?” He asked. “I’ll be okay, I promise.” You corrected yourself. “You let me know if there is anything that I can do.” He said, wrapping his arms around you. “This is all I need.” You said, wrapping your arms around him as he buried his face in your neck.

Requests and general question!

[bigbadripley]

Chapter 2 - Jet

Marc Spector&Co. x Ex!Female!OC, Friend!Matt Murdock

Summery: Everything changed after Marc and Simone moved to New York. Being in a relationship with the Fist of Khonshu proved to be difficult enough without the added obstacles of normal relationships being forced into the mix. With seemingly irreconcilable differences overhead, fate’s plans continue to drive the pair back into each other’s lives, testing their patience, self-control, and new relationships. Is it truly written in the stars, or is it old habits taking over?

18+!! | Third-person omniscient | Dark elements | AU/AT |  Warnings: OC with religious trauma, childhood trauma, sexual trauma. Effects of trauma in adulthood. Alcohol mention, stalking, paranoia, suspense?, mention of pregnancy, miscarriage, and abortion, a brief firearm, minor SamBucky in my AU, major fear of parenthood

Words: 3K

A/N: I update warnings with each chapter. Only proceed if you can handle the themes included in the warnings.

Minors DNI, DL;DR, if I miss a warning, please let me know.

Chapter List

"All of our ears to the floorboards There's nothing left for anyone I know who is in the backyard But who's that living in our home?" -"Jet" by Citizen

"We all have scars from our own battles, James. Like the scars on my skin, your prosthesis is the same." Simone explained to her new patient after much talk about his war experiences, both in the 40s and modern times. He nodded with understanding before looking at her curiously. 

"And what battle was it that gave you those?" He questioned, motioning to her exposed arms. Watching his eyes wander over them caused chills from her fingers to her biceps and made her subconsciously rub her hands over her forearms. 

The story had come from Simone's mouth so often that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. She resorted to having people google it instead, given how much press the escape of John Walton and the requisite killing spree received. This was different, though.

"We aren't here to talk about me." She brushed the subject off, crossing one outfitted leg over the other and shifting to make herself comfortable for the remaining ten minutes of the session. "Tell me about your more-than-friend. Sam, wasn't it?"

"Sam Wilson. We've known each other for a while now, but the relationship part is still new." James explained with a slight shakiness in his breath. This contradicted what he told her before, and he knew it. 

"Yeah? During our last session, you mentioned he wanted to take you to Louisiana to live with him. That's a big step for something new."

"It is, and I'm still unsure if I wanna go that far right now."

"Does Sam know that?"

"I think so."

"So you haven't told him?"

"I've hinted to it."

James twiddled his thumbs awkwardly, knowing he hadn't done anything to make Sam believe he was against moving in. Simone caught this and studied the mannerisms for later sessions before making a suggestion. "What if you brought him in, and we did a couple's session? This way, you can get your fears out in the open, and I can help explain if Sam doesn't understand." She offered. The return she got was a hesitant nod.

With her final session of the day coming to a close as she watched the cyborg soldier leave, she decided to lock up her office and hang out across the hall in the office of Nelson and Murdock. 

"Evening, Dr. Fred." Foggy Nelson greeted her upon her entering, using the nickname only he did. He was the shorter but arguably better half of the duo and much funnier. 

Simone went straight for their coffee pot and pulled a disposable cup from the caddy, feeling the outside of the decanter for freshness. She decided it was warm enough and poured herself a cup. "Always showing up for our coffee." Foggy continued. Simone snickered,

"I'm all out, and I can always count on your two to have a hot pot waiting. Want me to make a cup while I'm over here?" 

"No, thank you. We're actually about to head out to Josie's if you're down to tag along." Foggy answered just as Murdock came out of his personal office space, taking notice of her long before he ever stepped through the door.

"Absolutely!" Simone accepted the invitation before the bitter beverage reached her lips. 

After nearly an hour of conservation at the bar, Foggy called it a night, and Matt took his absence to explain the events of the night before to Simone. She wasn't as shocked as she was mortified that Mr. Knight knew she was keeping tabs on him. More than that, she wasn't pleased about him watching her, either. 

"I don't think you should be alone tonight. Do you have a place to go?"

"I'm not running, Murdock. As always, I'll go to my place and keep my piece close. Besides, I don't think Mr. Knight is gonna hurt me. He wouldn't."

"And you're sure about that?"

"The others wouldn't let that happen even if he had a reason to." She insisted, referring to Jake and Steven as the others. Matt knew a little bit of the lore. Not everything, but enough to know who she meant. Simone didn't believe for a second that Marc or Mr. Knight would lay a hand on her.

The pair walked back to Matt's building, where Simone had to nearly fight him to go home instead of walking all the way to hers and back. She appreciated her friend's concern but found it needless.

"Good night, Dr. Fredrick," Matt said as he unfolded his cane. Simone crossed her arms,

"Don't be so formal, Matthew. Have a good one."

As she took off down the street, she strived one foot in front of the other and enjoyed the oddly quiet neighborhood. When she heard movement behind her, she clutched her bag a bit closer to her side, not for fear of being mugged, but for access to her toys.

The source of the movement gained momentum and overtook her on the sidewalk. Just a normal guy. Nobody she knew, nobody she needed to worry about. The man's form grew smaller as he crossed the street quickly, seeming to have somewhere he needed to be. 

"So, who's the blind guy?" A voice spoke up from behind her. Simone whirled around, and in one swift movement, she had her small .22 between her and the man who startled her. The familiar face that wore a newsboy cap threw up his hands at the sight without fear. "Easy, hermosa. It's me." 

Even pointing a gun in his face, Simone was a sight for sore eyes. He missed her terribly and cursed his host for driving her away. 

It wasn't a surprise now that she knew it was Jake, and it suddenly made sense that someone would be watching her. Whoever Matt heard on the phone must have been talking to him. 

She watched as Jake's large hand pushed the firearm down slowly. He was always so calm and level-headed; god damn, was it sexy. Simone had to shake the thought away for her own sake as she put the gun back in her bag.

"Stalkin' me now?" She questioned.

"I have my sources. If you can have someone watchin' me, I can have someone check up on you, doll." He attempted to explain it away, following Simone closely as she continued toward her building. "How ya been?"

"Fine," She answered shortly, trying to avoid too much talk. It occurred to Simone that Jake was looking right past her, not noticing anything unusual. 

"Marc is still gone, so I've been handling a lot of the Mr. Knight stuff. Also, Grant's been in charge of the money. Invests like a sumbitch, as always." Jake rambled. Simone wasn't surprised about Marc and was happy for Steven. As if Jake summoned the Englishman, his eyes changed, and he removed the cap before rushing in front of her.

"What were you doing in a bar, darling? That's not good conside-" The realization filled his glance as he looked her up and down, confused. Ever the observer. Simone decided her appearance was good enough to confirm and skirted around him. 

"For your information, I got a glass of water, Stevie." She said, starting back down the street. There weren't any stepping sounds behind her, and she didn't have to look back to know he was stunned. She didn't cover much ground before a grasp braced her arm, stopping her in her tracks. 

"How long ago, Moni?" The voice of the missing man appeared. No matter how much Simone ached to hear it for so long, the circumstances of his return made her want to regurgitate. She pivoted around and raised her brows,

"Oh, now you wanna talk? Fuckin' typical." She said, nearly yelling. 

"How long ago?" He repeated, more sternly this time. 

Simone didn't want to give him the satisfaction of saying anything, but something in her wanted to lay her cards down once and for all. 

"Two months ago." She admitted. Marc stayed silent almost long enough for her to start walking again. 

"And you didn't call?" He asked. His voice was softer, like he was genuinely hurt that she didn't tell him about it. She wanted to go home but knew he would just follow. 

Screaming match in the middle of the street, it is. 

"Like you gave a shit, to begin with. You ran. Didn't even talk to me about it." She spat, harshly over-enunciating each syllable. She wanted him to hear her this time. 

Marc knew she would be pissed at him. He prepared for it, but he still needed to explain himself. "You left before I had time to process." He said. His tone was still calm, hoping she would imitate it. 

"We should have processed it together. Instead, you dipped like always." She started, stomping her feet on the concrete below as she approached him. She wanted to hit something, but she couldn't let that something be him. "Three fucking days I waited!" She continued to bark, red-hot rage running through her veins.

As much as he hated her being upset with him, he was sure she was releasing six months' worth of pent-up rage. It reminded him of their last split-up and what ultimately fixed it. She just wanted an apology then, so he decided to give it a shot this time. "I'm sorry, Moni." 

The unfortunate truth was that Simone didn't want an apology this time. It was long past time to say sorry. Her reflex was to roll her eyes and turn away, refusing to look at his face. 

She still loved him to pieces, but forgiveness wasn't in her deck this evening after months of considering what she would do or say if he returned to her. "Don't act like it suddenly means something to you." 

Marc watched her lower lip quiver and her shakey hands hide under her elbows. Surprisingly, she was holding back, and that alone nearly made him fall apart. "Fuck, baby, I was scared." 

"And you didn't think I was? I was carrying the thing! Four months, I pondered what the fuck I was gonna do, and then it was over. Six months, you didn't reach out. Not to check on me, not to see if I was alive or if I got an abortion, nothing from you." Her voice began to pick back up, nearly as loud as before, and she didn't care who heard. "I know neither of us had model examples of parenthood, but I needed you."

"I know I fucked up by running off-" 

"And you fucked up again by showing up only after you realized I'm not pregnant anymore." Her voice cracked on the P-word. It sounded like the most pathetic thing in the world from her ears and made her want to curl up into a ball and stay there forever. "This is exhausting." She muttered, starting back down the street. She'd had enough. 

As for Marc, he wanted to follow, catch her, hold her, let her cry into his chest, but she would never let him. Moni got a few feet away before he had one last question buzzing in his brain.

"Did you want it?" He called out to her again. A sniffle and a crack of disbelief proceeded her answer, not turning around.

"What does that matter now?" 

"It's a question, Moni. One I should have asked forever ago." 

That was the most on-the-nose thing he had said all night to her. 

One I should have asked forever ago. Damn right, but you're still missing the mark here, my man. She thought as she stopped, pivoted, and answered.

"Not until after I lost it. Have a good night."

The confrontation brought her right back to that time of old. Being one day late for your period isn't anything to panic about. Being two days, for Simone, meant absolute denial and terror and refusal to give up on praying for it to rear its ugly head. 

It was day three. Day three was when she took five tests showing two lines. They were faint, but they were there. She didn't believe what she saw and even resorted to pinching herself to wake up from what she could only assume was a nightmare. 

She was still in her bathroom, a cup of pee in hand, surrounded by several white sticks with pink caps.

Fuck me. She thought, realizing she and Marc never even so much as discussed kids. She assumed it was off the table for him just as much as for her. 

Simone sat and considered how it could have happened. Of course, she was still on the pill, but even that method wasn't perfect. She googled the possible conception date, knowing there was a period just weeks prior when Marc seemingly lost his mind.

All the other times, they fucked like rabbits. The dates that fell in her palm told her the one moment of weakness during that time was all it took. Ovulation does crazy things to people. She was no exception, even if her lover was just coming down from nothing short of mind control during that time. 

I'll just talk to him. I mean, obviously, I'm getting an abortion. She thought to herself, palms braced on the vanity. Unless he wants to keep it. No, don't be an idiot. Do I really want this thing? Hell no!

As she walked back into the living room, she felt her hands go numb with nerves. One foot before the other, she approached Marc, who was talking a load off on their couch. She shook her hands to get blood flow to return to them. 

"Babe." She said simply. Marc lifted his head to look at her with a smile. He was always happy to see her. His grin drifted when he noticed her not return it. 

"What's up?" He asked, concerned. All the while, she was rehearsing it in her head. 

I'm pregnant. I'm with child! Oh, gods, no. I'm getting an abortion. Just skip the announcement part entirely? 

"Moni?" Marc spoke up again as he watched her eyes begin to water. She couldn't do it. 

"Bathroom." She said quietly. He was perplexed by the single word she seemed to have to force out of her throat. He realized she was telling him to go there in the least-demanding tone he had ever heard. 

Marc did just that, and when he flicked on the overhead light to find the scattered white tests with pink lines, he froze. 

No. He thought. She's not... no. 

Moni peered beyond the doorframe to find him staring blankly at the countertop. "Marc?" She spoke his name as a question. She wanted something, anything.

How did this... Me? A dad? 

He felt his hands begin to tremble. The man who had been close to death countless times and faced enemies bigger than he was, was scared of a mere embryo. Without thinking for another second or allowing himself to show that panic-

He vanished. 

"Marc?" Simone repeated, this time placing her hand on his shoulder. Steven was suddenly in the driver's seat and confused about how to respond. 

"Love..." He started, losing whatever words he meant to say before they came out. In the mirror before them, he watched Simone's face turn from concern to disbelief. It was clear that she needed Marc, not him or Jake, but he would be damned if he didn't try his best. 

"Did he really just..." Simone trailed off. Steven knew what she would ask and turned to face her and reassure her. 

"Marc just needs a minute, darling. He'll be back."

Steven didn't know if he was being truthful or not.

Day one without Marc wasn't anything to panic about. Day two, for Simone, meant absolute denial, terror, and refusal to give up on praying for him to return. 

It was day three when she gave up. Day three was when she started screaming. 

"Marc! Please! Stop being like this!" She yelled to Jake, who she loved just as well but was a shield for Marc to hide behind. They were standing in the kitchen, unmoving. Simone swore she saw his eyes for a split second, but when Jake spoke, it was it for her. 

"Hermosa, it's gonna be alright." 

Marc heard it loud and clear but couldn't face her. Fear of the pregnancy, fear of Moni, fear of himself took over like a dark cloud. He wanted to call for her when he watched her grab her bag and coat and take off out the door. The words stayed where he was. 

Simone marched into a clinic, sat in the waiting area for twenty minutes, then walked out with tears streaming down her face. She knew she couldn't do it out of anger for Marc. She needed to think it through. 

Eventually, she settled on adoption, unaware of why a crippling dread took her over whenever she got near the clinic. She did everything right: appointments, healthy habits, the works. Started gagging at the stench of liquor, smoke, and cooking meat, which never disappeared after the heartbeat did. 

Marc wasn't sure if he was relieved or not to see Moni without a bump. He knew he went about this whole thing the wrong way, and she hated him now for it. He wished he could have been there for her, but ultimately felt that if she kept the baby, they'd be better off without him anyway.

[carters-things]

Hi! I love your writing and I was wondering if you could do a little something with Matt inspired by Enchanted by Taylor Swift, please? 🤍

First off THANK YOU LOVE! I hope I did this justice! I could have kept writing but wanted to keep it semi short. Writing a fic based off of a song was actually REALLY fun and I'd love to do it again!!!

Send me your song/fic requests!

“Pleaseeeeeee come out with us! You won’t regret it I swear!” Your friend pleaded. Every weekend is the same old story. She begs you to go out with her and her boyfriend, and every time they end up getting drunk and going back to their place- leaving you alone wherever you are- and forcing you to call a cab.

“Why? So you can leave me again?”

“No, I promise it won’t happen again.” You roll your eyes knowing how the night is going to go but you reluctantly agree to go anyway. She rushes you to your room and helps you pick out an outfit before rushing you out the door. The two of you met her boyfriend at the bar down the road. A small hole in the wall bar called Josie’s. The three of you took the last booth in the building in the back corner of the bar. Laughter filled your booth as you and your friend took turns making fun of her boyfriend for his stupid college adventures. You found yourself smiling and thinking that maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing coming out with them tonight.

However after the first 2 rounds were finished, the two lovebirds ran off to play pool leaving you behind yet again. You watched as they drunkenly loved on each other at the pool table like they were teenagers in high school. The sight of them made you feel so lonely. You sipped your drink as you sat in the booth, tears beginning to roll down your cheeks. Your friends were too drunk to notice you pretending everything was ok whenever they stopped by the table to sip their drinks. The only thing worse than being here alone was being pitied so you continued to fake a smile as you let your lonely heart crack in your chest as the night went on.

________________

Matt sat in Josie’s with Foggy and Karen as they do most Friday nights. Talking and laughing about college days, client interactions, or just nothing, the way true friendships should flow. Tonight however Matt was distracted, there was something off about the atmosphere tonight. He listened around to the sound of all of the usual Friday night customers. Except tonight there was one more. A new heartbeat, a new voice, a new scent, and it captivated him. The sound of your laughter engrossing his attention. He listened to you without leaving his stool all night. Your stories were told in such a charismatic way he felt as if you were telling them to him directly, smiling and laughing right alongside your friends. He knew he had to talk to you, to meet you but he didn’t know how to approach you. Until he heard the slight skip in your heartbeat when your friends went off to play pool. He stayed at his seat wanting to go to you, to make sure you weren’t alone but he was still hesitant. It wasn’t until the taste of salt in the air followed by the sound of water hitting the table that told him you were crying pushed him over the edge that he knew he needed to be by your side.

“Hey guys, I’ll uh. I’ll be right back.” Matt says to Karen and Foggy who are having a drunken competition to see who can hold their breath the longest. They stop at his sudden departure and see him heading towards you in the back. He loosens his tie on the walk over to you, his heart starting to beat a little faster the closer he gets to your table.

______

You looked up from your drink with tear filled eyes to see a man in red glasses making his way through the crowd to you. Not a single patron paying attention to the blind man on a mission except you. It’s like he could tell you were looking at him as his lips curled into a smirk the closer he got to your table. You were unsure if he was actually coming to your table but you wiped away your tears and fixed your hair wondering why you were trying to fix your appearance for a blind man. He reaches the edge of your table and rests a hand on his hip. Your throat becomes suddenly dry as you search for words to break the silence when he beats you to it.

“Mind if I join you?” He says gesturing to the empty bench across from you.

“Uh, yeah, go for it.” You say composing yourself. “You are?”

“Matt.”

“I’m Y/N. What uhm.. What brought you over here tonight? Aren’t you here with your friends?” Your gaze moves to the man and woman he was sitting with earlier now seeing who can stack more creamer cups before the tower falls. You let out a small laugh as the woman’s tower falls first and the man just about falls off his stool in celebration.

“How did you know I came with them?” Matt says his head tilting to the side. You realize now you’ve been caught. You might have given Matt a few glances over the night. Enchanted by his smile that made its way out every so often.

“I saw you sitting with them earlier. I’m quite observant, you know. So what brought you over here?” You say running your finger along the top of your glass.

“I couldn’t let such a wonderful person be so sad over here by themselves now could I?” He flashes that killer smile again.

“H-How did you know I was sad?” Your cheeks fill with heat at Matt’s accusation.

“I’m quite observant you know” He tilts his head down raising his eyebrow as he uses your line against you. The smallest bit of his eyes peek over the rim of his glasses and just as you thought they are as kind as his smile.

The night goes on with the two of you exchanging stories, getting to know each other, laughing and talking for hours. Both equally enthralled with the other one you don’t even notice the bar has just about cleared out and is closing down. Your friends return to the table, unable to keep their hands off each other as they slur their words telling you they are getting a cab.

“I should probably head out too. It’s getting super late.” You say as you scramble to find your purse through your hazy vision.

“Can I walk you home?” Matt says laying cash on the table before you could.

“What about your friends?”

“They can handle themselves. I’ll have Josie call them a cab.”

“I mean you really don’t have to-”

“I want to” Matt assures you. He settles the situation with his friends before offering his arm to you as you step out the door of the bar. You make your way down the street towards your apartment, your hand holding tight to Matt’s arm as his other arm guides the way with the tap of his cane. You get a small shiver as the slight breeze runs across your exposed skin. Matt stops the two of you immediately giving you his jacket before you could even argue his chivalrous nature. Your cheeks yet again blushing at Matt. your hand slowly slides further and further down his arm with each step until your fingers intertwine with his. The alcohol most likely being the cause of your confidence tonight. Your head rests on Matt’s shoulder.

“Which way am I supposed to be going?” Matt laughs as you guys approach an intersection. You lie and tell him to go right, forcing you guys to take the long way home, buying you more time together, that unfortunately flies by faster than either of you were ready for.

“You know. I didn’t even want to come out tonight.” You laugh as you and Matt round the corner to your house.

“Oh really? How about now?”

“I’m very glad I did” You smile relishing in the last moments of Matt’s touch as you walks you to your door.

“Can I see you again?” He asks with the slightest bit of nerves in his underlying tone.

“I’d like that.” You say as you put his number into your phone, and programming his in return to say your name when you call or text. He waits at the door until you’re inside safe and sound. As soon as the door closes your back rests against it replaying everything that happened tonight.

“Please don’t be in love with someone else. Please don’t have somebody waiting on you.” You say as you slide down to the floor to undo your shoes. Your phone buzzes with a text message from Matt saying “don't worry- I'm not"

[sunmoonandeddie]

who you are and who you’ve been

pairing: bucky barnes x reader

word count: 8,490

summary: Sometimes love takes a little longer to find you.

warnings: SMUT.  Mention of past abusive relationship, drinking, swearing.

a/n:  Thank you so much to @zeilenkrieg for commissioning this and being so patient while I wrote it!!

“Mama!  Mama!  You here?”

You sighed as you looked up from your coffee, seeing your daughter coming through the living room.  She had on that pair of daisy dukes that she stole from your wardrobe—the ones you used to wear in the heat of summer, a white shirt tied to let the sun on your tummy.  You used to scandalize your own mama with that outfit… 

You had argued with her that she had worn the same kind of outfit back in the seventies, and that vintage was in.  But she liked to wear hers with cowboy boots and you preferred it with a good pair of sneakers.

God, you missed being young…  Your twenties had been absolutely wild, even if they had started out with that horrible pandemic in 2020.

You still washed your hands after touching almost anything.  An instinct that never went away.

That year and the couple years before had been… insane.  But at least it incited real change in the world.  The people had learned from their mistakes, at least for now.

History did have a habit of repeating itself.  Humans were fickle, forgetful creatures like that.

“Yes, honey bun?” You said as you stood up, moving to hug her.

At thirty-seven years old, she was the only good thing that ever came out of your marriage.  That, and knowing how to wash blood out of clothing.

The only problem was that by the time you’d finally left him, you had no friends left.  You were in your forties by then, with no family besides your daughter, and no friends left to speak of.  You hadn’t even had Facebook at the time to keep in touch with old schoolmates from university.  And by then, what was the point?  They were all leading completely different lives and probably hadn’t spared you a thought in at least a decade.

“When’s the last time you left the house?” She asked, her hands on her hips in a stance that reminded you so much of yourself that it scared you.

Now that… that was hard to answer…  You honestly didn’t think you’d be able to remember.  You got practically everything delivered, you worked from home… 

Shaking your thoughts away, you shot her a look.  “I’m fine right where I am.”

“Your doctor called and said you haven’t been taking your medication.”

“Fuckin’ snitch,” you scoffed, rolling your eyes as you turned back to the window, staring down at the now cold coffee.

Josephine rolled her eyes.  “He said you haven’t picked up your refill in over two months.”  She came over to stand next to you, staring out the window with you for a long time.  “Mama, you’ve gotta take your medicine…  You remember what happened last time…”

Ah, yes, the infamous incident.

Which was an incident in a long line of incidents.

There had been a… few times when you’d stopped taking your medication—either intentionally or simply because you had forgotten—and it had resulted in a stay in the psych ward at the local hospital.  It had happened far too many times for your daughter to not be in contact with your doctor so she would be informed if you had stopped getting your refills.

You didn’t blame her, of course.  But it did make you feel like a horrible mother.  One who couldn’t even take care of herself to the point where your daughter had to.

“Yes, I remember last time,” you sighed, staring at a cardinal.  “You know, my mama used to tell me that if you see a cardinal, a loved one who’s passed is visiting you…”

“Mama, I signed you up for a seniors’ social club.”

You blinked.

And then, you blinked again.

You turned to look at your daughter, disbelief written all over your face.  “No the fuck you did not.  I swear to all that is holy, Josephine Ann, if you signed me up for one of those… those… pre-death support groups, I’ll tan your hide!”  You gasped as some of your coffee splashed onto your sweatshirt.  “I brought you into this world, and I sure as hell can take you out of it!”

“You’ve been saying that since I was two,” She said, taking your arm and guiding you to sit down at the kitchen table.  “And it’s not a pre-death support group.  I feel like that’s offensive somewhere so make sure you don’t go running around the group saying that.”  Josephine used a paper napkin to dab at the coffee on your sweatshirt, muttering about throwing it into the wash and getting you a new one.

This was what you meant by your daughter taking care of you.

“Josie, really, I can get my own sweatshirt.”

“Doesn’t mean you gotta,” she said as she came back with a new one, helping you change.

Sometimes you felt like she thought you were a hundred years old.

“Honestly, mama…  I just want you to be happy…  You should have friends.  You shouldn’t be cooped up in this house all day, all the time.”

“What do I need friends for when I’ve got you?  And Danny?” You asked.

But you had been hit with the sudden reality that except for Josephine and her girlfriend, you were alone.  Completely, and utterly, alone.  Hell, they were the only people you had ever invited over to the tiny one bedroom you owned.

Repairmen didn’t count because they were there to do a job, not keep you company.

God, you had wanted more than this, once upon a time.  You had once had dreams, of maybe being a writer and making the New York Times’ Bestsellers List, of a husband who adored you and brought you flowers every Friday, of lazy Sundays eating waffles on the couch with the love of your life.

But life didn’t end up the way you had dreamed it.  There were no book signings or meetings with editors… there were no gardenias… and there was no smell of waffles and syrup.

And you’d made your peace with that.

Sort of.

Josephine’s arms wrapped around you as she rested her head against yours.  Like a mirror of yourself, she was, from her face down to her toes.

Thank god.  She didn’t deserve to have to look in the mirror and see reflections of her father.

“Will you at least try it?” She asked gently, her hand running up and down your arm, her freshly manicured nails tickling your skin.  “It’s not like a pre-death support group, as you call it…  It’s for seniors or people who are approaching seniority and are still active and want to go out and have fun, but maybe need some friends to do it with.  Please?”

And how could you say no when she wanted something so badly?

“Alright,” you said after a moment.  “I’ll go once.  And if it’s horrible, I’m not going back.  And I’m gonna tell Danny how you forced me to meet a bunch of strangers.”

She squealed excitedly, running off to your bedroom and going through your closet.  “Okay, the first thing the group is doing is having a first meeting at a bar, and we’re gonna get you all done up.”

Oh, good.  She was going all in.

“When’s the first meeting?” You asked as you sat on the bed, leaning back on your hands as you watched her.

“Tonight.”

Uh.  What?

“TONIGHT?!” You shouted in shock as you jumped up.  “What?!  You didn’t think to ask me about this a few days ago?!”

She snorted, picking out a few tops that you hadn’t worn in what felt like decades.  “I signed you up this morning, I didn’t know about it a few days ago.”

You watched in exasperation as she threw article after article of clothing onto the bed for you to try on.  “I don’t think I need to wear four pairs of jeans to a bar,” you said, beginning to pick up a few of the pieces.

Josephine gave you a look as she continued.  “Considering how long it’s been since you’ve been out, I think it’s fair that some of these might not fit anymore.”

Well, you had lost some weight…  Not necessarily in a healthy way, but she was right.

In the end, she ended up shoving you into the bathroom and forced you to do a full shower—which meant body and hair.

You hadn’t even gone to such lengths when you were going on your first date with her father.

She spent hours on your hair and makeup, chattering away excitedly about the vacation her and Danny were planning.  A South American cruise.

Josephine had never married, never had kids.  Never wanted to after seeing what her daddy had put you through.  It left a sour taste in her mouth, and even though it was legal now, her and her girlfriend hadn’t breathed a word of a wedding.

Though, you suppose they had a common law marriage at that point, if lesbians were included in it.

“Perfect,” she said as she got you to slip on an old jacket of yours that was a little too big.  “Come on.  I’ll drive you and pick you up.”

“Oh, honestly,” you snorted as you grabbed the purse Josephine had shoved all your things into.  “You’d think I could take an Uber.”

The bar wasn’t what you had expected when she had first told you that’s where the meeting was going to be held.  The last bars you’d been to had practically been nightclubs.

But this was… upscale.  Sophisticated.

Now you understood just why she had put so much work into making you look presentable.

It didn’t look like anyone else was there yet, even though most of the patrons were around your age, so you took a seat at the bar, the group’s site pulled up on your phone.

“What can I get for you, miss?” The bartender asked as he set down a coaster in front of you.

A snort erupts from your throat as you look at him.  “You always call women as old as me miss?”

“Oh, come on, you’re a catch,” he said, shooting you a playful wink.  “My dad’s single, you know.  If you were… looking.”

“Thank you, but I’m not,” you said gently, your cheeks flushed.  “Can I get a Manhattan?”

The bartender nodded, gracefully backing off the subject of you possibly dating his father.  And barely a minute and a half later, there’s a perfectly made Manhattan set on your coaster.

You’d barely taken a sip before someone came up beside you.  “Do you have Macallan’s 18 Year Sherry Oak?” A man asked.  At the bartenders confirmation, he hummed.  “Can I get a double on the rocks?”

The bartender dropped a large ball of ice into a glass before pouring two shots of whiskey over it and handing it to the man.

“Macallan’s, huh?” You said softly, your heart pounding.  Josephine had told you to make friends.  That was the whole point of this, even if the man wasn’t part of the social club you’d been forced into.  “You know your whiskeys.”

The tall man took a seat beside you, his eyes boring into the side of your face.  You hadn’t dared look at him yet.  “I’ve always preferred those who choose a Manhattan over a martini any day.”

“And why is that?” You asked, finally looking up at him.

And oh, you wished you hadn’t.  He was… stunning.  The very definition of male beauty.  His salt and pepper hair reminded you of the photos of the men in the forties…  The 1940s, that is.  Blue eyes so striking that you lost your breath, and broad shoulders that you knew would haunt your dreams.  He was wearing a glove on his left hand for some reason, but you didn’t linger on it too long.

But at least he was at least your age, if not a little older.  You’d die if you’d just sort of flirted with a twenty-something asshole who just bought expensive whiskeys for the sake of buying expensive whiskeys to show that he had money to blow.

“Martini drinkers think they’ll get some kind of award for their choice of drink,” he said, “as though choosing a drink that generally tastes like shit is some kind of accomplishment.  Unless you’re just taking a shot, a drink should taste good.”  He looked you up and down, letting his pretty blues linger on your lips.  There were faint crow feet at the corners of his eyes, but they just seemed to make him even more handsome.  “And a Manhattan doesn’t need a fancy whiskey.  It is steady and sure even with the cheapest five dollar bottle you can get from a gas station.  Someone whose drink of choice is a Manhattan is sure of who they are and what they want.”

You hadn’t felt this hot under a man’s gaze in decades.  “Really?”  Swallowing around the lump in your throat, you took another sip of your drink to buy you a moment.

“Mmm…”  He stole one of the two cherries from your drink, biting it off the stem.  You were transfixed as he slipped the stem into his mouth, sticking his tongue out about thirty seconds later with a perfect cherry stem knot on display.  “Really.  I’m James.  What’s your name?”

Butterflies filled your stomach as you gave him your name.  God, you felt like you were sixteen again and being flirted with for the first time.

His eyes flicked down to your open phone that rested on the bar, the social club’s page still up.  “You’re here for the meeting, too?”

“Um…  Yes,” you said, ducking your head.

“But, doll…”  He leaned towards you, a charming smile on his lips.  “You don’t look a day over thirty-five.  Are you sure you’re a senior?”

Blinking, your mouth hung open in a soft o.  “Are you planning on flirting with every woman in the club like this?”

James looked around dramatically, his gloved hand resting over his heart.  “A club?!  Is that what you call this place?” He asked, mockingly serious.  “Damn, what does that make all those dirty, gross places these young kids go to now?  Brothels?”

For some reason, you felt comfortable enough to shove his shoulder, surprised a little at the feeling of metal under his jacket sleeve.

For the first time, he looked a bit… uncomfortable.  He had flinched a bit, his bright eyes focused surely on his drink.  “Um…”

“You’re the Winter Soldier.  James Barnes,” you said curiously, your head tilting to the side as you looked at him.  “I thought I recognized you from somewhere.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Mmhm,” you drawled, taking the cherry left in your drink and biting it off in a way that you hoped was alluring.  “Though, I gotta say, it is a bit awkward to meet the man I wrote two papers about in high school.”

Shit, his laugh was beautiful.  Everything about him was beautiful.  Like Apollo or something...

James’s head was thrown back in laughter.  His cheeks were flushed, his eyes squeezed shut.  “Did you actually write two papers about me?” He asked as he tried to catch his breath.  At your nod, he smirked, leaning in close again.  “What did you write about?  How devilishly handsome I am?”

You couldn’t believe you were saying this.  “I mean, I can show you the papers and actually let you read them, but they’re at my place.”

Before he could pick his jaw up off the ground, there were other seniors in the group coming up to greet you.  Your throat was dry as the Sahara as you turned to face them, plastering on a smile as you tried to ignore the heated gaze on your face and the way he licked his lips.

The meeting was… long.  Boring.

Or at least, that’s how it felt when you had James’s dark, sultry eyes on you the entire goddamn time.

Mind fuzzy, you vaguely remembered agreeing to come to the next meeting, and even signing up for a hiking trip they were taking the next weekend.

As you headed outside, you felt Bucky’s hand slip into yours, his long, calloused fingers intertwining with yours.  “So…  Am I gonna get to come over and… read those papers?” He murmured, his lips brushing against your ear.

God, you could practically feel yourself bursting into flames.  You weren’t gonna survive.

Thank god your daughter had forced you into a full shower.

But what about how dirty your house was sure to be?

“Um…  Y-Yeah,” you said as you turned to look at him.  “But, my daughter is gonna be driving me home…  I don’t want her to know I’ve got someone coming over.  She’s nosey.  Real…  Real nosey.”

“Of course, darlin,’” he chuckled.  “Here, why don’t I give you my phone number, and you shoot me a text with your address when you’re ready for me to come over?”

Your head was swirling as you got into your daughter’s car, your phone burning a hole in your purse.

“How was it?” Josephine asked nervously once you got about halfway home.  She couldn’t tell from the look on your face.  “Did you like it?”

“Hm?  Yeah.”  Swallowing, you shot a text to James with your name, telling him you’d text him when it was all clear.

“Are you gonna go again?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

She seemed both dissatisfied and pleased by your vague answers.  At least you were getting out of the house.

Once you got home and said goodbye, it was a mad dash to ensure that your house was clean as could be.  Josie had put in some work while you’d been gone, it seemed.  She’d done the dishes and the laundry, as well as dusted.

Thank fuck.

You struggled for a solid twenty minutes to put fresh sheets and pillowcases on the bed, lighting two candles and placing them in a manner that you hoped seemed natural.

“Shit,” you cursed as you smelled under your arms.

Okay, quick body shower.  It seemed all that flirting had made you a tiny bit sweaty.

You turned the water to scalding and scrubbed your body down, exfoliating and using your best scented body wash.

And to be quite frank, you’d never shaved your lady bits as quick as that.

As you texted him your address and that it was safe to come over, you pulled on your clothing from the bar (though, you did put on nicer, matching lingerie underneath.)  By the time he’d gotten there, you’d downed two shots of tequila for a bit of liquid courage and had poured yourself a glass of wine.

“Hey, baby doll,” he said, a crooked grin on his face as you welcomed him inside.  His glove had been abandoned, and black metal fingers lined with gold glittered in the light.  “Woah…  You know, I wasn’t sure how your place was gonna look, but this is very… you.”

“Oh, really?” You asked as you offered him a glass of wine, which he gratefully took.  “How so?”

“I don’t know,” he chuckled as he swirled the deep red liquid in its glass.  “It’s cozy.  Sweet.”

Your throat was dry as you watched his adam’s apple bob as he took a drink.  “Um… so those papers…”

Bucky whispered your name, moving closer to you as he set the wine glass down on the counter.  “Baby girl, I’m not really here for the papers, am I?” He asked as your back hit the island.  “If I am…  If I am, then just tell me, and I’ll stop this.”  His slightly chapped lips ghosted against yours like the tease he was.  “Am I here just for the papers?”

“No,” you breathed out, before pressing your lips against his in a firm kiss at last.  His breath was minty and cool, with just a touch of the wine you’d been sharing, like he’d brushed his teeth before coming over just like you had.

Could it be possible he was just as nervous as you were?

But he was perfect?  Why the hell would he be nervous?

Your thoughts were cut short as he reached down, his hands firmly grabbing your ass as he lifted you up and set you on the counter.  “That’s a good girl,” he growled as he kissed down your neck, his hands working at your blouse.  “Couldn’t stop thinking about you during that whole stupid fucking meeting.  Just wanted to kiss you.  Just wanted to… to touch you.”  He pulled back, kissing you fiercely as his hands moved from your blouse to hold your face again.  “You gonna let me touch you, angel?”

A whine escaped your throat as you nodded, desperately yanking at his shirt.  Once it was off, you didn’t hesitate to run your hands over the broad planes of his chest.  He wasn’t quite as toned as you remembered from when you were younger, when you used to (occasionally) stalk (lightly) his social media accounts.  There’d been so many pictures of him on vacation with the other Avengers… all tanned and toned…

But you liked this better.  There was a softness to him now, a gentleness.

You were so distracted by his physique that you didn’t notice he’d gotten your shirt and bra off until the cold air hit your chest.  “Fuck,” you mumbled as his lips found your neck, trailing down to your breasts.

You couldn’t remember the last time you’d been kissed, let alone the last time you’d had such… attention.

Especially when his hands worked your pants off and he stood between your legs, moaning as his fingers tickled your thighs.  “You’re so beautiful,” he said as his lips wrapped around one nipple, suckling at it and teasing until it was diamond hard, and he moved on to the other.

Gotta be fair, after all.

“James…”

“Fuck, baby girl…  Never been with a woman as beautiful as you,” he growled, kissing down your tummy.  “You’re not making it out of here without orgasming at least twice,” he warned jokingly.  He was half bent over in front of the island, watching in wonder as he slowly pulled your silk panties down your legs and revealed your aching core to him.

“I-If you’re not comfortable standing like that, w-we can move somewhere else,” you stammered, suddenly growing self conscious.  What if he thought your pussy was weird?  Granted, you’d overcome thinking that when you were in your early twenties, after learning that each one looked different.

But he was born in the forties.

But that meant he’d probably seen an exponential amount of pussies!

Oh, god, there was no way you’d have anywhere near as much experience as him.  The only person you’d ever been with was your ex husband, and he wasn’t exactly the paradigm of lovers.

“Hey.”

You refocused with a shake of your head, your eyes meeting James’s.  “Yes?”

“You’re in your head,” he said softly, his forehead resting against yours as he slowly ran his fingers along your sensitive folds.  “There’s no need…  It’s just you and me, okay?  And you’re absolutely perfect.”

Your heart was melting inside your chest as you nodded, stealing a tentative kiss.  “Okay…  Just you and me.”

James nipped at your lower lip as he lifted you up, wrapping your legs around his waist.  “Come on.  I don’t want our first time to be on a kitchen counter.  Though I make no promises I won’t help christen every inch of this house after,” he said with a playful growl.

You whispered directions to your bedroom as he held you tight to his chest, his lips finding purchase on your neck.  “And here I thought you said the super soldier serum was wearing off,” you joked.

The man snorted as he pushed you up against the hallway wall.  “Trust me, doll, no lack of super soldier serum is gonna stop me from fucking you right,” he said, his voice husky and deep.

Before you could even open your mouth to reply, two thick fingers were slipping inside of you to slowly tease your cunt, his lips ghosting over yours.  “Does that feel good, sweetheart?”

You couldn’t find it in you to be embarrassed at the whimper that fell from your lips.  “Y-Yes.  Yes.  Please, I need more, James…”

James smiled into the kisses he’d been giving you.  “I’ll give you everything you want.”

“That’s a tall order.”  You threaded your fingers through his hair, shivering at the way his metal fingers dug into the plumpness of your ass.  “You sure you can fill it?”

He doesn’t respond with words, growling as he kisses you fiercely, carrying you to the bedroom.  You don’t have time to think before he’s crawling over you and kissing up your tummy to your lips.  “I need to be inside you,” He whispered as he stroked his length.

“Please…  Don’t wanna wait anymore,” you said.  Vaguely, you’re aware of the twinge in your knees from all the physical activity, and you knew you’d be sore as hell in the morning.

Fucking worth it, though.

James didn’t hesitate to line himself up, the head of his cock pressing against your entrance.  When he finally pushed in, unison moans fill the air.

“I…  I haven’t done this in… so long,” you finally admitted as he slowly pushed in more, taking his time.  Eyes locked, your mouth fell open in a soft ‘o’ as he bottomed out, his hips meeting yours.  “Oh, fuck…”

“Then I better do a real good job fucking you right.”

You weren’t quite sure how long you two lasted, but you do know he manages to pull three orgasms out of you in the space of just a few hours.  There’s snack and water breaks in between rounds, his cool metal hand running up and down your spine to cool you down as you two whisper in the dim light of your desk lamp.

You can’t remember a time that you’d felt so at peace.

A spark had been lit inside your chest as you two laid there in bed, legs intertwined.  Both of you were quiet, his fingers moving to caress your cheek.

There were no words that needed to be said.

His sea blue eyes are sparkling in the dim light, and your hand runs over the sharp stubble that lines his jaw.  It had certainly marked up your neck.

“I had intended on asking you on a date,” he said quietly as his hand found yours, bringing it to his mouth.  Chapped lips kissed each of your knuckles like you were something precious, something to behold.  “I didn’t think the five minutes or so before the meeting counted…  But I’d still like to take you on that date, if you’ll let me.”

“That sounds nice,” you said, a grin twinging at the corners of your lips.

“Yeah?” He asked, sitting up a bit as his fingers brushed against your forehead.

“Yeah.”  A giggle escaped your lips as he playfully tackled you, starting yet another round as his hips rolled down against yours.

The next morning, you woke up alone.  The sheets beside you were mussed, though the space James had been occupying was still a bit warm.

Jazz music floated down the hall, through the cracked door, and you could vaguely hear the clinking of pans.

It took you a minute to gather the will to get yourself out of bed and find your robe, but you finally did it.  As your feet hit the ground and you pushed yourself to a stand, you winced.

You had been right about feeling it in your knees.

You forced yourself to walk smoothly down the hall, despite how much it hurt.  Embarrassing yourself in front of James was the last fucking thing you wanted to do.

He was in the kitchen, standing in front of the stove and humming along with the old jazz song playing on the Bluetooth speaker.  He had a pan full of pancake batter in front of him, a whole stack he’d already made on the side.

Standing in the doorway, you couldn’t help but grin as you watched him.  He’s so handsome… and he seemed so at home in your kitchen.  In your home.

Maybe he’d like to move in…

You shook your head, knowing that it’s already too much.

But the thought was nice.

Him in his pajamas, making coffee…  Him in your shower…  Him in your bed every night…  

Yeah.  It’s a really, really nice thought.

“Hi.”

James jumped, his eyes wide as he whirled round to face you.  “Hi.  I thought I had another thirty minutes before I had to go and wake you up,” he said.  “I’m making pancakes.  For you.  For us.”  His cheeks flushed, turning a bright red as he turned back to the pan to quickly flip the pancake.  “I hope you don’t mind that I used your flour and shit…”

“Oh, no, I…  I almost never cook,” you admitted as you moved over to stand next to him, watching as he made two more pancakes.

As he carried the huge plate to the kitchen island, he teasingly grabbed your ass and squeezed.  “Maybe I’ll have to stay the night more often, if only so you get a homemade breakfast.”

It was sweet, and domestic, and somewhat terrifying.

You hadn’t had a man do anything for you like this since you were in your twenties, when your husband was still sweet and loving.

But even so, this was somehow better than anytime your husband made his famous burritos.

Maybe because James’s cooking actually tasted good.

Your first date was to a movie, a drive in.  Something that’s designed to be vintage but really just looked cheesy as all hell.

But it’s perfect.  Perfect and cheesy and romantic.

Your only complaint was that he didn’t kiss you at the door when he dropped you off.  He pressed his lips to your cheek and whispered a goodnight, and that was it.

It took two more dates within the same week for him to kiss you again.

Bright and early on the next Saturday morning, he knocked on your door, holding a bouquet of flowers.

“I figured I should make up for you having to be up so early with this,” he said as he came inside, kissing you quick before moving to put the flowers in a vase.

At this point, he knew your house almost as well as you did.  It felt good, when you two moved around like you were part of a team.

“Have you gotten your coffee this morning?” You asked, already pouring two travel mugs full of the good stuff.

He came up behind you, kissing your shoulder.  “I have, but you know I’ll never say no to more, doll.”

The rest of the group eyed you curiously as you got out of the same car, a few elbow nudges and whispers in the air.

“At least I know no old ass dickheads are gonna come hit on my girlfriend,” James growled in your ear, his calloused flesh hand squeezing your hip.

“Jamie…,” you whined, cheeks flushed in embarrassment.  No one had ever claimed you in such a way that made you feel so desired and… and worthy.

James made you feel worthy.

Which is something you’d only ever really gotten from your daughter.

It sent a bolt of arousal through you, and you were tempted to drag him back to the car so you could bring him right back home and do something about it.

Also…  Girlfriend?  Were you his girlfriend now?  Officially?

That just made you wanna find somewhere to fuck him even more.

But alas, you pushed the thought away as the lot of you boarded one of those white airport vans that took you out of the city to the closest state park.

“It’s beautiful,” you breathed out as you stared out the window, forehead pressed to the cool glass.  The morning air was a bit chillier than it had been lately, signaling the coming onslaught of winter.

Maybe Bucky would wanna make hot cocoa together… go sledding…  Would him, Josephine, and Danny would all come over for Christmas and New Years and—

Would he even want to meet Josephine?

Would Josie wanna meet him?

She had no idea that you’d found a—A boyfriend?

“Not as beautiful as you,” Bucky murmured against the shell of your ear as his vibranium fingers intertwined with yours and squeezed.  His stubble tickled your neck as he rested his head on your shoulder, watching the passing scenery with you.  “I’m really glad I met you, doll…”

“Me, too,” you said, grinning as you squeezed his hand back and leaned your head against his.

It was strange, falling so hard for someone so quick after everything you’d been through.

But you had a gut feeling.  One that you had never had with your ex husband.

James was a good one.  A really, really good one.

That reminded you.

When were you meant to tell him about all the shit you’d been through?

Despite the amount of time you had spent together already, you hadn’t found the courage for it.

Soon, you decided.

But first, you had to get through the damn hike.

Bucky was glued to your side the entire time, even though you were a lot worse at hiking than he was.  He would hold your hand, guiding you anytime there was a fallen tree or a creek.  His blue eyes were soft as he murmured encouragement, quietly praising your every move.

It was intoxicating.

So when you two fell behind from the group, watching them go around a curve and down a hill, you dragged James behind a large rock formation.

“Baby doll?  Darling, what the hell are you doing?” He laughed as you pressed a fierce kiss to his lips.

“Can’t a girl be spontaneous?” You teased as you dropped to your knees, ignoring the way a twig was poking into your left knee.  “Need to taste you.”

His eyes locked on you as you worked at his jeans, getting them down and off, his nails scratching at your scalp as he got a good grip on your head.  “Fuck…  Are you really this needy for me, angel?  Fuck, you’re so god damn gorgeous…  Look at you.”

Your heart pounded against your rib cage as you finally freed his length, a grin on your lips as you wrapped your hand around him and slowly stroked him.

Bucky’s eyes rolled back as your mouth wrapped around the head of his cock.  “Fucking shit…  Good girl…  Suck me off real good, baby.���

The group probably would notice your absence, not that you particularly cared.

Not when you had your man so weak for you.  And all you’d had to do was get on your knees.

His metal and flesh hands guided you to take more of him in, going at a slow pace so as not to hurt you.  He was so big there was no way you’d get all of him down your throat but what you couldn’t take in your mouth, you pleasured with your hands.

Pleasuring your partner like this was addicting.  You’d never felt the desire—no, the incessant need—to please your ex husband.  All you could think about was getting Bucky off, making him feel so good that he couldn’t see or walk straight.

You choked around him as you took him as deep as possible, your eyes glassy.  When you popped off, you stroked him as you moved down to carefully suck at his balls, fighting a grin as he gasped, his hips stuttering.  Before he could orgasm, you took him back in your mouth, wanting to swallow him down.

“Fuck, fuck—  Oh, shit…  Baby—  I’m gonna…  I’m gonna—”  Bucky broke off with a shout as he came, spilling down your throat.  His large hands stroked your cheeks as you swallowed all of it, barring the little bit that had gotten on your lower lip.  “You did so good, darling,” he cooed as he helped you stand, pressing you against the rock behind him as he kissed you.  “Are you okay?  I didn’t hurt you, right?”

“No, you didn’t,” you said, a faint smile on your lips as you helped him put himself back away.  “You were perfect, James…”

When you finally caught up to the group, a few of the others shot you knowing looks.

But Bucky just had a satisfied smirk on his lips, his hand tightly intertwined with yours even as you flushed in embarrassment.

“Once we get home, it’s your turn,” he whispered in your ear as you all headed back for the van.

Your relationship with James was… wonderful.

It was easy in a way you’d never had before.

Within just two months, he was living at your house almost full time, to the point where you’d been thinking about asking him to move in.

It was like you two were magnets.  Even when you both had work to do, you did it in the same room, slowly gravitating towards each other until you were sitting close, your foot running up his calf.

And he’d gotten you to start writing.

“It’s your dream, doll.  You’re never too old to chase your dreams,” he said one night as you two laid in bed.  His metal fingers were tracing shapes on your spine, a chill from the cracked window ruffling his sweaty hair.  “If you don’t mind me asking…  Why did you stop in the first place?”

Ah.

The conversation you’d been avoiding for so long.

Sitting up, you pressed your hands to your face as you tried to find the words to say.  “Um…  I was married before…  I know you know, but, uh…”  Your fingers fiddled together nervously.  You swallowed around the lump in your throat.  “My husband…  He wasn’t…  He wasn’t nice.  At all.”

Bucky immediately sat up behind you, his vibranium hand resting flat on your back to reassure you that he was there, and to give you something to focus on while you spoke.  He didn’t need to speak for you to know.  He was there and he wasn’t running.

“I married him young… and I had Josephine young…  He’d always been so… possessive, but I just considered it protective,” you continued, pulling strength from his touch to keep on going.  You needed to tell him this.  You needed him to understand.  “Then after Josie was born, he started getting violent.  He’d always been mean, but he’d never hit me until after I gave birth…”

James was tense behind you, slowly scooting over so he could wrap his arms around you, his legs resting on either side of yours as he held you.  He needed you close.  Needed to know you were safe in his arms and that man was long gone.

“Put me in the hospital a few times…  He at least didn’t do it in front of Josie.  That’s the one thing I asked of him that he listened to.”  You couldn’t help but snort as you slowly relaxed back against him.  “She always thought all the bruises and shit was just a side effect of how clumsy I am…  But she came home one day during college, to surprise us…  She walked in on him holding a frying pan above his head, about to swing again.  She jumped in between us and told him if he ever touched me again, she’d kill him.”  You let out a breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding as his lips pressed to your bare shoulder.  It was soothing, feeling his skin against yours.  “She moved me out of that house and into her apartment, helped me get the divorce, get back on my feet…”

“Remind me to tell Josephine thank you,” he said quietly as he squeezed you close.  “Thank you for telling me, doll…  I…  I can’t imagine how hard that was…  But he’ll never touch you again.  No one will ever touch you again if you don’t want it.”

“I know.”

He nuzzled into your hair, breathing in the scent of your shampoo.  “I love you.  So much…”

A peace settled over you as you rested your head back against his, allowing yourself to truly fall into him, to relax.  “And I love you…”

After that night, Bucky slept over at your place five to six nights a week, only going home to get more clothes and do his laundry really, even though you’d told him a million times he could do it at your place.

“Wake up, sweetheart,” he murmured in your ear one morning, pushing your hair away from your face.  “Time to get up…  I’ve got breakfast ready for you…”

Groaning, you tried to pull him down for more cuddle time, but he wasn’t having it.  He always woke up before you, too many years a soldier coming into play.  He’d go for a run and make breakfast before waking you up.

“Come on, doll,” he chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to your lips as he got you to sit up, your vision blurry from sleep still.  “Medicine,” he said, pressing your pills into your palm and putting a glass of water in your other. 

Ever since he’d found out about your prescriptions and how you had a hard time remembering to take them, he’d taken it upon himself to make sure you did, every morning and night without fail.

“What’d you make this morning?” You asked sleepily after swallowing your pills, letting him pull you to your feet.  His t-shirt clung to you as you followed him down the hall.  Your hand was tucked into his as you rounded the corner to the kitchen.

What neither of you had heard was the sound of the front door opening.

“Mama?!  What the hell?!” Josephine demanded, standing in the kitchen with Danny right behind her.  “Who the fuck is this?!  What is he doing here?!”

Oh.

Yeah.

You’d neglected to tell your daughter, afraid of how she might take it.

“Hello.  I’m James.  Or Bucky,” your boyfriend said as he held out his hand to you, clearly unashamed and standing his ground even though he was only wearing a pair of pajama pants.

“What the fuck are you doing here?!” Your daughter repeated angrily, ignoring his hand.

“Josie,” Danny began, trying to soothe her.

But your daughter was nothing but determined when she was in her protective mode.

Before you could open your mouth, Bucky supplied, “I’m her boyfriend.”

You felt a flush coming over you as she stared at the two of you, slack-jawed.  “He is,” you said, wrapping both of your arms around his metal one.  You were so nervous, you were shaking.

“When did this happen?!” She demanded, beginning to pace back and forth around the kitchen.

“Um…  The first meeting at the bar… for the club,” you said.  Seeing her so upset made your anxiety spike, and you knew James could feel it, could hear the way your heart rate increased exponentially.

Josephine whirled on you, her eyes—so much like yours—wide with disbelief.  No.  Betrayal.  “You’ve been seeing someone for almost three months and you didn’t tell me?”

“I…”  Tears pricked your eyes as you tightened your grip on Bucky’s arm.  This was not the way you wanted them meeting to go.  “I was scared… of how you’d react…”

At that moment, Bucky turned to meet your eyes, his forehead almost pressing against yours.  “Darling, I feel like this is a conversation you two should have alone, yeah?  So I’m gonna take—Danny, right?  Yeah—Danny to the living room with some coffee so we can get to know each other, okay?”

After a nod, and a squeeze of his hand, he got two mugs of coffee and led your daughter’s girlfriend to the living room.  You could see them sitting down from the corner of your eyes, but you were much too focused on Josephine.

“Mama, I—”

“I love him,” you said, before she could say anything more.

Her eyes were shining, locked on you as she waited for you to speak.  In her gut, she knew this was something you needed to get out.

“I love him more than I’ve ever loved a man.  More than I loved your father,” you whispered, your voice cracking.  “And I know…  I know you’re as protective as you are because you saw how he treated me.  You saw how much I hid that he was hurting you, but Jamie isn’t like that.”  Your fingers fiddled as you tried to keep yourself from pacing.  “He’s kind and adoring and gentle and…  and he loves me.  More than I thought anyone could ever love me.  And I know you feel like you need to take care of me and I am so grateful.  And I still need you.  Everyday.  But Bucky…  I love him.  I love him and he loves me and we take care of each other.”

Josephine reached out, slowly taking your hands in hers.  “He…  He makes you happy?  He takes care of you and you’re safe?” She asked, voice trembling as a few tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Yeah.  He takes real good care of me,” you insisted with a weak laugh.  “And I’ve never been so happy before, honey.  I promise.”

“Okay…,” she said, taking a deep breath.  “I’m still giving him the shovel talk.”

Bucky looked up as Josephine entered the living room, looking much calmer.  He wasn’t sure what you’d said, but it had seemed to placate her for the time being.

“Can we talk outside?” She asked him, keeping her chin high.

God, she looked so much like you.

He nodded stiffly, getting to his feet and leaving his mug behind as he followed her to the front door and out onto the porch.  The former super soldier watched as she paced back and forth, biting her thumb.  “I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said finally, breaking the silence.

Josie stopped in her tracks, listening quietly.

“Your mama loves you something fierce.”  Nervously rubbing his hands on his pajama pants, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so nervous meeting a girl’s family.

Though, he supposed it was a bit different when it was meeting your girlfriend’s daughter.

“And I love her.”

Your daughter, your mini me, stared him directly in the eyes.  “I’m sure she’s told you about my father.  What he did.”

“She did.”

“So you know that if you put one fucking foot out of line, I’ll filet you?”

“I do.”

She eyed him for a long moment.  “What are you in this for?  What’s the long term?” She asked.  “I’ve heard of elders just… settling for someone because they don’t wanna be alone in their twilight years.  Is that what this is?”

Bucky tried really hard not to feel a little bit offended.  He wasn’t that old.  “I’ve been alive since 1917,” he said slowly.  “I have no doubt you know who I am.  But I’ve been alive a hundred and something years, and I’ve never met someone who makes me feel the way your mom does.”  His heart clenched inside his chest as he thought of you, seeing your shy smile in the mornings, how you clung to him when you went out in public, the sound of your voice as you read an excerpt of your writing to him, so nervous about what he would think.  “And I…  I can say that everything I’ve been through…  Everything I’ve ever been through was worth it, because I got to meet her.  And I get to be hers for the years I have left.”

She looked absolutely speechless.  “Good,” she said, coughing to clear her throat.  “Good.  I just…  I can’t see her get hurt again.  Not after everything.”

“Trust me, I don’t plan to,” he said, his mouth dry.  “I…  I actually have something to ask you about…  Been waiting to meet you to talk to you about it…”

Inside, you paced the kitchen and living room, going back and forth and back and forth, sometimes moving to the window to try to hear what they were saying.  But they were keeping it all very hushed.

“It’s gonna be fine, mama,” Danny said, standing up and moving to wrap her arms around you.  “Josie’ll see how much you two love each other, and it’ll be fine.  She’s just gotta have her protective moment.  You know how she is.”

Sniffling, you hugged her tightly.  “I shouldn’t have kept it from her for so long…  I was just so nervous…  They both…  They both mean the world to me.”  You paused, snorting.  “I knew you’d approve of him.  I wasn’t so worried about you.”

“Oh, please, the way that man looked at you?” She said, laughing as she kissed your forehead.  “Mama, there’s no way in hell that man would ever hurt you.  He looks at you like you’re his entire universe.”

Heart warm, you glanced towards the front door, wishing they’d just come inside already.  “I’ve never felt something like this…  But fuck, if the whole shit show that’s my life wasn’t worth it for him…  I wouldn’t change a thing, as long as it means I get to end up with him.”

You broke out of her grasp as the front door opened and they came back inside, looking relaxed and even… happy?  “Well?  You aren’t gonna kill him?” You asked Josie as you moved to James, heart racing.

“Nah…,” she said, giving him what seemed like a secretive smile.  “As far as dads go…  He’d be pretty nice to have.”

“What?” You said, brows furrowing as you looked between the two of them.

Bucky chuckled, winking at Josephine as he led you to the stove where breakfast was still waiting, making you waddle as his arms wrapped around you from behind.  “Don’t worry your pretty head about it, baby doll.  It’s all good.”

You still couldn’t help but feel like the two were planning something as he made your plate for you, cutting up your pancakes and filling up your coffee.  “Why do I feel like you two are gonna end up ganging up on me?”

“Oh, come on, mama,” Josephine said with a smirk on her face.  Her and Danny had made their own plates and joined you and Bucky in the living room.  “How could you ever accuse us of such a thing?”

“Yeah,” James said as he fed you a bite of pancake.  “How could you ever accuse us of such a thing?” He asked, before leaning in and stealing a kiss.  “I love you.”

You’d never felt more relaxed, surrounded by the people you loved the most in the world.  What you’d said to Josephine had been true.

“I love you more,” you said, leaning back in for another kiss.

You’d never been so happy.

[silverjansims]

Generation Two: Business Bells

Week 4: French Business

Jessie and Abbie Bell welcome you all back for another quick visit as they share with you their recent adventures and accomplishments. Please join them in a belated birthday dinner for Jessie and their daughter, Josie. There's Jessie's favorite 'falafel', autumn salad and birthday cake on the buffet table, so help yourselves. Party games include a golf swing challenge and instead of 'Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, there's a dart board downstairs to see who can get their dart closest to the middle after being spun around. No blindfolds though as we don't want anyone becoming the 'dartboard'.

Meet Jessie and Abbie's daughter, Josie who is now already for school. This is her 'formal' outfit. If you haven't guessed her favorite color is 'orange' and she's become quite the 'perfectionist' and likes to see all the beds made. Her father has been too busy traveling and working to get his new clothes but should have a new outfit to show next time.

In other family news, Robbie has attended his first high school prom at the Hidden Springs High School and is now in a 'romantic interest' relationship with one of his classmates, Carlotta Shue. During his spare time this week, Robbie was able to find time to go fishing and catch a few lizards for his 'zoologist' lifetime wish. Lizards seem to be Robbie's favorite critter since he most often wishes to catch them for his collection. He now has five little critters out of the twenty required to complete his lifetime wish although one of them got loose and is hiding somewhere around the house. After celebrating her childhood birthday, Josie is now in grade school and is already one of the top students in her class.

This is Robbie who went fishing after doing his homework one day. His favorite color is 'pink'.

Jessie had a busy week in his business career but the hard work has paid off and he is now 'Chairman of the Board' with one promotion to go to reach the top. So far, Jessie's midlife is going well since he's already completed and surpassed his lifetime goal of becoming CEO of a Mega Corporation'. The old saying, 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again,' prove true for Jessie as it took him several attempts to finally create a 'great' bottle of nectar to complete the lessons Yves Bernard, who is France's nectar merchant was giving. After delivering the nectar to Yves, Jessie helped the Special merchant, Gustave Delven with his research into the disappearance of a young woman by finding some hidden documents at the Landgraab Chateau. He is now in the midst of helping Aimee Lefebvre prepare a big dinner and after resting for a few days, has to travel to Egypt to catch a couple of crocodiles for her.

Here are a couple of pictures from Jessie's time exploring the second part of the Landgraab Chateau. He also found out that flushing the toilet in the second floor bathroom disables the hallway traps. (Not matter how long one plays a game there is always something new to learn)

Last but not least, Jessie would like to congratulate his lovely wife, Abbie for reaching the top of the celebrity and now has her five stars. Although Abbie is famous, she prefers to work at the grocery store and tend to her garden especially now that she's a master gardener.

Jessie had some free time in between adventures, so he decided to explore the 'Smuggler's Cavern' part of the Forgotten Burial Ground.

Jessie chatting with Lea Dutiel before he checked the hidden room behind her.

That's all the news for now and hope you've all had a great visit with the Bell family in Hidden Springs.

Have a great day!

Jessie & Abbie Bell

[amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines]

Sweet Pea//the other one

Request: Where the reader is Josies sister, but best friends with Sweet Pea, Toni and Fangs and is secretly in love with Sweet Pea and well Josie does not know this and you can take it from here :)

hey! so this is angstyyyy, but it was fun to write! and just a warning, there is no happy ending, sorry! have a wonderful day/night! 

part 2!

Being a McCoy, you get used to knowing everybody’s business, whether by accident or on purpose (eavesdropping on your mom’s meetings), but something’s happened recently that neither you nor the rest of the serpents can figure out. 

Sweet Pea has changed, everyone has noticed it. Over the summer it was a relatively good change. Yeah, you didn’t really see him much because he was busy doing odd jobs at all times of the day, but when you did see him, he was the happiest he’d ever been. He actually smiled, and not just at you, Toni or Fangs, but to everyone...even Reggie. He was also chatty, and he’d never been chatty in the entire time you’d known him. 

It was like a whole new side to him and another side for you to fall for. 

His smile was as bright as the sun and made you feel just as warm, and you were so glad that other people were seeing it too. Because yes, the brooding bad boy act is very attractive on him...but a smile is just wonderful.  

But then as quickly as Summer was over, it just disappeared. School started again and he went back to being the same old Sweet Pea. He didn’t talk to anyone, didn’t smile. He just sat in the background, not really engaging in anyone’s conversations. 

If anything he seemed sad. He no longer smiled when Fangs told him a stupid joke, or laughed at Toni’s sometime’s questionable outfits she was only wearing to make Cheryl happy. He stopped hanging out at the the Wyrm on Friday nights and avoided going to the weekly bonfire’s at the Quarry. 

He was just existing. And to say you were worried was an understatement. For weeks you, Toni and Fangs had tried multiple times to try and get him to talk about what was happening. There was clearly something off and given Riverdale’s history, you were all worried he’d gotten himself into something he couldn’t get out of.

But whenever you asked he just seemed to shut down. He’d become cagey and short, dismissing whatever you’d said with a shrug and an annoyed ‘i’m fine’.

You asked around the other serpents, wondering if they’d seen anything odd happening but they were all as clueless as you were. And this time your problem couldn’t be solved by hanging outside of your mom’s meetings. 

Josie had told you multiple to just stay out of whatever was going on as he clearly didn’t want you to know. But she had never liked Sweet Pea anyway so she probably just didn’t care, and just wanted you to shut up about him. 

You’d been friends with the serpents for years. Even when everyone hated them you proudly called, Sweet Pea, Toni and Fangs your best friends. You sat with them at lunch, hung out with them after school, despite what your mom, sister and friends had to say. 

“Sweet Pea never showed up today. Did you see him?” Toni asks and you shake your head, despite her not being able to see. A cold breeze blows through your hair and you look around. 

Tent city looks far creepier at night that it does at day and you’re glad you can see Sweet Pea’s not so far away. 

“Nope.” You reply and rearrange the bags in your hand. “What about Fangs? He might have seen him.” 

“I already text him. He said he hasn’t seen him either.” She replies and you let out a disappointed huff. “Do you think he’s okay?” She asks after a few seconds of silence. 

“I dunno.” You say honestly. “There’s clearly something not right. But I’ve bought all of his favourite snacks, and I’ve brought my laptop so we can watch whatever he wants and hopefully that’ll cheer him up. Or maybe just get him to talk.” You smile down at the bags you’re holding, hope blooming in your chest. 

“Hopefully.” She mumbles and you hear her move around. “Did you get Fangs’ a snack too while you were shopping?” 

“What do you think?” 

“Hopefully yes? You know what he’s like.” She replies and the two of you laugh. 

“Yes, I got his favourite. And I got your favourite too.” 

“Aww. You really are the best friend a girl could have.” She teases. 

“I know.” You shrug. “It really is an honor to be my friend, I hope you know this.” 

“Of course I do.” She replies. “We all do. Wait, don’t you have an English project due tomorrow?” 

“Yeah? And?” 

“And have you started it yet?” She asks and you roll your eyes. 

“...no.” You mumble and she tuts down the phone. “Shut up...mom.” 

“Oh, if I was your mother you’d know about it. You wouldn’t be abandoning school projects for some boy.” She scolds, making you roll your eyes again. 

“Do you really think my mom knows where I am? She may have become indifferent towards the Southside but do you really think she’d approve of her daughter hanging out with a serpent instead of doing school work.” You ask and she hums in reply. 

“Fair enough.” She laughs. “Where does she think you are?” 

“She thinks I’m with Betty, having a study date.” 

“Clever.” She nods. “Y/n?” She asks, her voice becoming suddenly serious and anxiety rises in your chest. You hate that tone, no matter who’s using it. But Toni only ever uses it whenever she wants to talk about two things, your feelings or Sweet Pea. “Do you still like Sweet Pea?” She sounds almost like she’s forcing the words out and your mouth goes dry. 

Toni and Fangs weren’t ever meant to know just how hard you’d fallen for Sweet Pea. But apparently when you’re drunk you get sad and spill your guts about every feeling you’ve ever had for anyone. 

You told Fangs how you thought he was cute when you first met and how you thought Toni was very pretty when you first met her. By the next morning the could recite the names of all your crushes dating back to kindergarten and not even you knew their names, but apparently when you’re drunk you do. 

It ended in Toni and Fangs taking you back to hers and you telling them that you were in love with Sweet Pea before passing out on her bathroom floor. The next morning while you were hungover and dying, they made you have the most painful interaction you’d ever had with anybody ever. 

But through your liquified brain you told them the truth. 

Yes you did like Sweet Pea, you probably even loved him. 

Now there’s no probably about it. You know you love him. 

A part of you thinks you always have but you were just too afraid of what people would say. You’d never be allowed to date a serpent, especially because of who you were and what your family name meant to this town. You’d be the outcast, you already were because of the people you were friends with. 

Now though, the residents of Riverdale have been dragged to the 21st century and very slowly, they’re realizing that it doesn’t really matter what side of the town you’re from. 

Although you’re still not sure your mom would be very pleased if you came home and introduced Sweet Pea as your boyfriend...not that that would happen anytime soon anyway. 

“I er. Yeah.” You stutter.

“Okay.” She says awkwardly and both of you go quiet, not really sure what to say next. “I-” 

“Shhh.” You cut her off, the sound of twigs crunching makes you pause and look up. Your eyebrows furrow as you watch your sister walk towards Sweet Pea’s trailer. 

“Y/n? Are you okay?” Toni asks, panic rising in her voice with each word. 

“Yeah. I’ll er. I’ll call you back later.” You say, not taking your eyes away from Josie. You can hear Toni asking what’s wrong but you don’t answer, instead you hang up and can already hear the lecture you’re going to get from her the next time you see her. 

“Hey, Sweet Pea.” She smiles and disappears into the tent. You pick up your pace until you’re stood outside. You’re about to go in but something in you tells you to wait and see what happens. “Hope you don’t mind me dropping by like this?” 

“Always happy to see you, Josie.” Sweet Pea replies and you scrunch your face up in confusion. Since when has Sweet Pea and Josie ever hung out? They usually leave the room as soon as the other one turns up, even after the feud between the North and the Southside. 

You always assumed its just because they simply didn’t get along, that was fine. Not everyone is going to like each other, but something about this feels odd, you just can’t quite put your finger on it. “Especially if this is a...” He trails off, but there’s a playfulness in his tone that you thought was only reserved for you. You heart sinks and you look at the the brown leaves wet and rotting on the floor. 

“A booty call?” Josie replies and your eyes widen.

“Wouldn’t be the first one we’ve had since our Summer fling ended.” He laughs and the realisation sinks in. You’ve been so stupid. For years you’ve fawned over and followed Sweet Pea, constantly trying to cheer him up or make him laugh and get him to see the real you. 

And he has, he’s been looking at it all those years, he just didn’t like it. He preferred Josie instead. Smarter, prettier Josie who’s way more popular and talented and just better than you at everything, including liking Sweet Pea it seems. Tears prick at your eyes and you sniffle, wanting nothing more than to run away and hide, but you can’t. Your feet are stuck, despite the rest of your body screaming at you to run.

Run as far away from them as possible. Run until no one can find you. Just run.  

“Well, it’s not.” She says awkwardly. “Um...I don’t know if you’ve heard, but my mom is getting married, to Kevin’s dad. And I wanted to know if you would be my date to the wedding.”

“As your boyfriend?” He asks hopefully. 

“Does it have to be so official?” 

“Look, Josie...I like you. And I’d be all in with you in a second, but...but you sliding into my life whenever you don’t wanna be alone. I’m not built that way. Maybe that makes me needy, but I just, I gotta get off this merry-go-round with you.” He sighs and tears run down your cheeks. 

“Okay.” She agrees. “You are still invited to the wedding though...if you’d like to come.” 

“Yeah, I er. Y/n already invited me anyway.” He shrugs and anger fills your chest. You know you probably shouldn’t, but you just see red and the next thing you know you’re storming through the door, much to the surprise of them both. 

“Yeah I did.” You seethe.

“Y/n?” Josie asks, her eyes wide as she scrambles to think of an excuse. “I was jus-” 

“What are you doing here?” Sweet Pea jumps up from his bed and stands in front of you. 

“I came here to cheer you up, you ass.” You sob and throw the bags to the floor. “I brought all you’re favourite things and I thought we could hang out because you’ve been so sad recently and nobody knows why and we were all so worried about you. But now I do. It’s because of her. And you guys didn’t even tell me. Do you know how worried I’ve been about you?” 

“Sorry?” He asks and you shake your head at him, sending him a glare he’s only ever seen a handful of times and never directed at him.  

“All those jobs you said you were doing over the summer. It was just a cover wasn’t it?” You cry and he looks over at Josie before nodding slowly. 

“Unbelievable.” You laugh bitterly before turning your attention to Josie. She stands a little straighter when you look at her, trying her best to have the upper hand here, but she’s more worried that you’re going to go and tell your mom. 

“And you? Really Josie. You go for years hating his guts. You give me so much shit for even talking to him, and you’re screwing him?” 

“I er-I.” She stutters.

“I’m such an idiot.” You sigh. “You know a part of me thought you were happier because of me.” 

“Y/n.” Sweet Pea tries to reach you but you quickly move away from him. 

“Don’t.” You warn. 

“Wait, why are you so upset with us? We’ve been getting along, you’ve been wanting that to happen for ages.” Josie asks. 

“Because I am!” You shout. “Because you’re the worst sister in the world. You know when we were younger I could never have my own toys. If I had a doll, you had to have it. Even if mom got you one that was exactly the same. On my birthday you had to get your own present otherwise you would steal mine, and even then you’d still steal mine. And I thought, yeah that’s fine. That’s what sisters do and we were just kids then. But then we got older and we had to share friends and finally when I thought I would be able to be liked for being me. Everyone seemed to realize that you were the most interesting out of us. You had a band, and you’re so talented and pretty and just like-able and I’m none of those things.” 

“Y/n, that’s not true.” Josie starts, her voice remaining calm despite your loud cries. “It’s not true is it Sweet Pea?” She hisses and Sweet Pea jumps at the tone. 

“What, no of course not.” He says, also moving to stand in front of you. Each of them rest a hand on your shoulder but it does nothing to calm you down, if anything it makes you angrier. Years of resentment that’s been simmering under the surface has come to a boiling point. 

“Get off!” You shout and they quickly move away.

“And then I got my own friends, a group of people who liked me for who I was and who I could be myself with. I wasn’t just the other McCoy. You know, the mayor, the one in the band and the other one. But then nobody liked them and everyone told me I was horrible for wanting to be friends with them.” 

“Y/n. Please just breathe.” Sweet Pea tries again, resting a gentle hand on your upper arm and you suck in a breath. 

You’ve never seen him look so worried and you hate yourself for doing that to him, despite what’s just happened. Another set of tears roll down your cheeks and your shoulders slump. Sweet Pea wraps his arms around you, pulling you in for a proper hug and him and Josie share a confused expression. 

“Woah.” Fangs’ confused tone cuts through the awkward atmosphere and him and Toni glance at each other before looking and Sweet Pea and then Josie. “We thought you could do with some company. Plus Toni told me that Y/n bought me some Twizzlers and I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. ”

“Forget about the Twizzlers Fangs.” Toni rolls her eyes and he lets out a disappointed whine. “What’s she doing here?” Toni asks and Josie looks at the floor. 

“Leaving.” Josie nods at them. “I’ll see you around Sweet Pea.” 

“No you’re not.” You reply and move away from Sweet Pea to grab her wrist. “I know why Sweet Pea went from being so happy to being so depressed.” You fake a cheery tone. Sweet Pea and Josie sigh and look at the floor, while Toni and Fangs just look at you confused. 

“It’s because him and Josie were hooking up. But she’s dumped him and that’s what’s made him so sad.” 

“Wait really?” Fangs eyes widen. Toni grabs your hand and you send her a watery smile. 

“Okay.” You take a shaky breath. “I’ve had enough of chasing after things that clearly aren’t real. So, I’m the one leaving. I’ll see you at home Josie, and don’t worry, I won’t tell mom.” You watch as she lets out a relived sigh and gives you a thankful smile before quickly leaving. 

You turn to face Sweet Pea who’s already staring at you. His deep brown eyes scan over your body and it makes your face hot. He’s desperately trying to figure out what’s wrong and you have a feeling the tight feeling that’s settled in your chest, has a matching one sitting in his.  

“Goodbye Sweet Pea.” You say the three most painful words you can possibly think of. They taste like ash on your tongue but as soon as they’re out you feel the weight lift a little. 

Being in love is nothing like it is in movies. It’s not a secret language that only the two of you know, or spending the entire day with somebody and never wanting it to end. 

You thought it was, but it’s not. It’s far more painful than that, especially if the person you’re in love with looks at someone else the way you look at them. 

“Where are you going?” He laughs confused. 

“I really, really hope she changes her mind.” You smile through your tears and despite everything it’s a genuine wish. He’s still your best friend after all, and you want him to be happy even if it’s not with you. 

“What?” His voice breaks as he watches you leave. Toni follows after you and you force yourself to keep staring ahead. Focus on the run down sign up ahead that creaks in the wind and is one storm away from falling down.  

“Can someone tell me what I’ve done wrong.” Sweet Pea asks. 

“You went after the wrong sister, you idiot.” 

[amazingmaeve]

Leaving - Archie Andrews

Riverdale Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Summary: Y/N and Archie had a fling during the summer. Even though they promised no feelings she still fell for him. Then school came back and she starts feeling jealous of Archie and Veronicas flirting. Then Cheryl Blossoms party ruins everything. She decides to leave and go visit some family in California but before she goes Archie tries to stop her from leaving.

Request: Haii, I’m new to request, I was wondering can you do a Archie Andrews x Fem!Reader. The reader is Josie sister (Darkskin) and she fell in love with Archie. Prompts 76,78,79, 95. Archie and Reader had a thing before school started (Season 1. Before Veronica showed up and he’s not with Ms. Grundy) and kinda like how Veronic flirts with Archie she’s jealous but knows he’s not hers. (Sorry for the long request). During the 7 minutes in heaven that they played At Cheryl party how Betty left it’s the reader instead. Betty chases after her in attempts to calm her down. When The next day at school Archie catches her packing up her locker. She’s moving away to another school. In another state. maybe California or somewhere. She’s tried to leave before getting spotted until Archie catches her and they talk (The prompt numbers) And after they hug, she kisses him before walking out and not coming back.

Requested by: @theonequietblckgirl

Pairing: Archie Andrews x FemaleMccoy!Reader

Warnings: Angst, swearing, underage drinking, mentions of sex

AN: Hope this what you asked for 😊. Also this doesn’t follow the exact plot of the first episode of the series.

Word Count: 1853

Archie and Y/N had something in the summer. With her sister and her band she had no one else to hang out with. Then she started hanging out with Archie and hanging out turned into having sex. They both agreed to not involve feelings since it would make it more complicated and they didn’t want that.

But Y/N started to have feelings for him.

She knew that he didn’t feel the same since he was the one to recommend the no feelings part of their relationship. She knew he cared about her but just as friend he sometimes has sex with.

When the times they did hang out and didn’t have sex they had really meaningful conversations. They would make each other laugh and all in all they were happy with this arrangement.

But then the summer came to an end and so did their fling so it seemed.

When her and Archie didn’t hang out she hung out with Kevin and Betty. They knew about the thing between her and Archie and her feelings. She has known Betty and Keven ever since they were young and she knew she could trust them with this information.

Betty would lend a shoulder for Y/N to cry on when she talked about her feelings for Archie. And Kevin would always say the he had feelings for her to. But it was to hard to believe for Y/N.

She knew she shouldn’t have started his fling with him. She knew she would have a broken heart at the end of it.

Everything seemed to go back to normal at school except for the disappearance of Jason Blossom. Even thought Y/N didn’t know him she hope that he was ok. But she did know his sister Cheryl.

She didn’t exactly like Cheryl but wouldn’t start anything with. Y/N didn’t like Cheryl because she would always make fun of Betty and as friend of hers she would stick up for her which made Cheryl hate her.

Then Veronica Lodge came to the school.

She didn’t hate the girl but Y/N could sense that she liked Archie. But Y/N didn’t do anything since her and Archie weren’t even dating hell they weren’t even having sex anymore.

She couldn’t even hate Veronica for it. Since Veronica knew of her feelings and promised to stay away. But that didn’t help the nagging voice in the back of her mind that this wouldn’t end well.

Then the dance came.

Archie asked you which made Y/N’s heart race and could feel her body warm up and agreed to go with him a happy smile on her face.

Her and Betty helped each other with their outfits Betty didn’t go with anyone but that didn’t stop her being happy for Y/N.

Archie was a complete gentlemen, he held the door open for her, and held her hand.

The night was so magical.

The dance was romantic. Y/N could feel butterflies in her stomach whenever he looked at her. She hoped that her and Archie could have something more real.

Y/N and Archie talked the night away with smiles and laughs. She felt so much love for him and she hoped he felt the same for her.

Everything was perfect.

That was until they got into Cheryls after party were Y/N, Archie, Betty, and Veronica attended.

As the walked in Y/N sat next to Archie with Veronica on his other side.

When Cheryl started talking Y/N rolled her eyes at the red head not in the mood to deal with her.

She heard Cheryl talking about seven minutes in heaven. God this was such a sixth grade thing to do.

But unfortunately she saw that Archie would be going in the closet with Veronica which made Y/N take a deep breath to try and control her emotions.

She saw Betty give her sad look  and a comforting look in her eyes.

"So Y/N how was your summer," Y/N heard Cheryls condensing tone in her voice.

"Oh just great," Y/N answered Cheryl's question with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"What's going on with you and Archie," Y/N could hear humor in her voice which just made her roll her eyes.

"Why do you want to know," Betty stood up for Y/N which made her mentally thank Betty.

"Oh Betty I almost forgot you were here," Cheryl almost beamed with malice in her tone.

"I just don't think it's right for you to involve yourself if someone else's relationship," Betty snapped at Cheryl who just rolled her eyes in return.

Y/N felt bad for Cheryl after finding out Jason has been missing but times like this just made her hate Cheryl more and more. When she want after her friends and herself. Y/N doesn't know why Cheryl does this but it annoys the crap out of her.

"Listen before I get even more angry why don't just stick to your relationships and I'll stick to mine," Y/N stood up from the couch she had her voice at a steady calm breathing. She didn't want to get angry and focused on her breathing.

"Oh looks like times about up," Cheryl smirked as she walked over to the door to where Archie and Veronica were. Y/N hasn't notice it's been about 9 minutes which didn't follow the rules.

Y/N had a bad feeling in her stomach when Cheryl walked over to the door. She knew it was going to be something bad.

When Cheryl opened the door it revealed Veronica and Archie making out.

Y/N felt like she couldn't breath when she saw them kissing. She saw the two break apart and look at everyone in shock.

Y/N saw guilt flash both of their faces. She was about to cry and she didn't people to see her cry. She always prided her self in being a pretty confident girl. But right now she didn't feel like that.

Y/N didn't let either of them speak before she ran out of the door with tears rolling down her eyes.

Betty glared at Archie and Veronica. Then turned her eyes to Cheryl who had a malicious smirk on her face.

“This was your whole plan wasn’t it,” Betty asked while glaring at Cheryl.

“I just wanted to prove that Archie didn’t care for Y/N,” Cheryl shrugged not seeing with what she did wrong.

Betty shook her head before leaving running after Y/N wanting to comfort her friend. She left behind Archie and Veronica who let guilt set in.

Betty found Y/N in her car crying in her hands. Betty felt bad for her friend she had never experienced heart break herself but from looking at her friend she could feel it radiating from her.

Betty got into the car comforted her friend while hugging her for what felt like hours. When Y/N finally calmed down she dropped Betty off at her house and after reassuring her she was fine left or go to her own house.

Now she knew Archie didn’t have feelings for her.

For the next few days Y/N avoided Archie and Veronica which was hard since she had some classes with them.

After she went home she told Josie what happened which made her sister comfort her and to tell her everything would be fine.

During those few days her mother told her that there was this art school that Y/N got accepted in. She applied to this school during the summer with the permission of her parents. She only told Betty though.

She thought she wouldn’t get into that school.

Y/N was finally happy about something. She had been down ever since Cheryls party.

Her parents only allowed her to go to the school because there was some family close to the school that she wanted to go to.

The next day she told Betty who was overjoyed for her but sad that one of her friends wouldn’t be there. Y/N reassured her that they could talk and write each other which made Betty nod happy for her friend even though she was sad about that.

While she was packing her stuff out of her locker she felt someone walk up to her.

“Hey,” She heard Archie softly day. Y/N took a deep breath before turning towards him.

“Hey,” Y/N muttered turning her attention to her locker again.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Archie pointed out after an awkward moment between the two.

“I wonder why,” Y/N scoffed.

“Y/N-,” Before He could continue Y/N put her hand and speaking herself.

“No I don’t want to hear it. I thought you asked me out I thought you liked me. I just I can’t pretend anymore that we are just friends,” Y/N shouted at Archie angry tears running down her face.

“Why are you packing your stuff,” Archie asked seeing all the stuff in her bad.

“I’m leaving I got accepted into an art school,” Y/N answered his question closing her locker after she was finished.

“This isn’t you. You wouldn’t go pack your stuff without telling anyone,” Archie explained with furrowed brows.

“Well I did tell someone I told the people who actually cared about me,” Y/N explained while glaring at him.

“I do care about you,” Archie pleaded with Y/N trying to get her to understand that he really did care about her.

“If you did you wouldn’t have kissed Veronica,” Y/N pointed out. “You broke my heart,” She whimpered trying to not let any of her tears fall.

“I know and I just want to prove to you that I really do care about. And ok now you’re going to say that I don’t but you’re wrong,” Archie began to explain. “I know I can never make it up to I just hope that one day you can forgive me,” He ended trying to not let tears fall from his eyes.

Y/N herself tried to not cry as she nodded. Even though he did hurt her she was going to miss him.

“Maybe one day,” Y/N whispered and she heard her own voice crack as a tear fell from her eyes.

“Just one last hug and I’ll leave,” Archie smiles and Y/N nodded letting him wrap his arms around her and she did the same. She took a deep breath and she smelled his cologne that she always loved.

When he pulled away he pressed his lips against hers softly seeing if she was going to kiss back. When she did they stood there kissing for a minute before they pulled back.

Archie walked away from Y/N and leaving the school.

Y/N let out a sad smile and let out a sniffle before grabbing her stuff and left herself setting her self on a new journey.

[ageofbajabule]

Roommates | Part 2

Danny Wagner x F! Reader

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: Angst, Alcohol, SMUT ✰(Semi-public fingering f! receiving), Degrading Kink

If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, here it is.

It had been 3 weeks since that night out with the guys. Since then you have started your job, getting along with everyone in the office and getting a good start as well. You had been assigned to small local artists and bands to promote first, before they decided to put you into the sea of bigger artists. All you could remember from that night out was Danny’s words. You haven’t really exchanged much with Danny since then, and you would be speaking with him soon since rent was due next week already. You were absolutely dreading this encounter.

Also, Josie planned on heading home early to spend time with her parents before starting her job in the fall and moving in with her boyfriend. You knew she was leaving by the ending of summer, but you weren’t prepared for her to leave next week. Luckily you had met Jita about a week after meeting the guys. Once Josie had left you wouldn’t be entirely alone here, but it was comforting to have Josie here so there wasn’t as much tension between you and Danny. Not like she knew what was going on, but it made the situation ten times worse.

“So we’re going out to dinner to celebrate their upcoming album release.” Josie had come into your room, you spun around in your chair. “Oh really, where to?” You had just finished your work day, it was finally the weekend. “If I’m not mistaken I think the place is called Etch. So dress formal casual. We’re leaving at 6.” She smiled softly then exited your room. You looked at the clock, it was just five after 4. Giving you enough time to shower and get ready.

You had stripped off your clothes and put your robe on, grabbing your towel heading to the bathroom. As you went to head towards the entrance to the bathroom, Danny had been walking out bumping into you. “Sorry…” You apologized immediately, “Can’t you ever watch where you’re going?” He snapped at you, you looked at him angrily. He had just gotten out of the shower, his long curls wet and a towel wrapped around his waist. “Have you ever thought about watching where you’re going?” You snapped back at him, “If you’ll excuse me now. I need to shower.” You shoved past him, closing the door behind you.

You rolled your eyes, placing your towel on the counter. And turned towards the shower turning it on letting it get to the temperature you felt comfortable with. Once it was to your liking, you removed the robe, placing it on the hook outside of the shower stepping into it. You stood there, letting the warm water hit your body, letting your muscles relax and getting your hair wet. You’ve been neglecting self care lately, ever since starting the new job and that night with Danny.

But you couldn’t let him affect your mood, nor your lifestyle. You still need to enjoy yourself and make the most of everything. So tonight, you will be sure to enjoy yourself.

After getting out of the shower, you heard your phone ding. Checking to see who it was, it had been Josh texting you.

Josh: Hey you’re still coming out with us tonight right?

You: Yes, Josie practically said I was going.

Josh: That’s Josie for ya, but it will be fun. Trust me!

You: See you in a bit. :)

You sighed, placing your phone down. You dried yourself off and put your robe back on. Grabbing your things and walking back to your room. There was an outfit laid out for you, with a note.

‘I figured you didn’t have all of your wardrobe with you. So take this as a little gift from me. Josie xo’

You giggled and placed the note down. Josie always knew you better than anybody else, hence why you two got along so well. She is your best friend after all. Rummaging through your room you found your hair dryer and makeup bag. Sitting in your vanity, setting everything up. It’s been a while since you last went out, and considering the guys were celebrating the release of their upcoming album you wanted to look presentable.

After about an hour of doing your hair, makeup and getting changed into the new outfit. You were finally ready to head out for the evening. You opted for wearing platform sandals, considering heels weren’t exactly your best friend. And to also not break an ankle. You had grabbed your clutch and phone walking over to Josie’s room. You overheard Danny talking to her in there.

“I just understand why you have to invite her everywhere we go?” He sounded annoyed, “Because Daniel, she doesn’t have a lot of friends around here to rely on. And when I leave that’s one less person she has close to her.” Josie defended you, “Look I’m not sure exactly what your issue is with her. But you need to get over yourself. Ever since Jas-“ She tried to speak but Danny cut her off. “Don’t bring her into this!” He freaked out, “She has nothing to do with this, we’ve been over for how long now Josie. It’s not affecting me anymore…” He sighed, “Look I’m sorry. Everything’s just been happening all at once. Between finishing the tour, finishing the album, announcing another tour. It's been a lot…”

“Well try being a little nicer to her. I heard you earlier. She is someone you can trust and be friends with. And besides, she’s a good roommate, Danny.” You decided to walk back to your room, as if you never heard the conversation between the two. Once you were in your room, that’s when you heard Danny’s heavy footsteps descending away from Josie’s room. You then decided to make your way back, knocking softly on the door even though it was open. “Hey, I’m all set then whenever you guys are.” You smiled softly sitting on the edge of the bed. Josie was already dressed just finishing putting her earrings on. “Sorry, I would’ve been ready a couple minutes ago. But, you know how family is.” She laughed softly, and you nodded.

Danny yelled down the hallway a few minutes later stating he was starting the car. Making you and Josie finish getting ready and head out to his vehicle. The drive over was rather quiet besides some sibling bickering between Josie and Danny. Once arriving, Danny had parked, you and Josie exited the car walking into the restaurant together as Danny followed behind. The hostess directed you all to a table in a private area that was secluded a bit. The guys and their partners were already there. However Josh was the only one without a partner. Josh waved you down, “I saved you a seat next to me.” He smiled cheekily. “Thank you.” You smiled taking a seat next to him.

“You’ve already met Jita, thanks to Jake. But this is Sam’s girlfriend Natalie.” Josh gestured, “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Y/N.” You put your hand out to shake hers, in reply she shook yours. “Nice to meet you as well.” She smiled softly. “So how’s the job treating you?” Josh smiled, taking a sip of his water. “It’s going well. I’ve been promoting smaller bands here in Nashville. They’ve been talking about giving me an assignment of some sort soon. But they haven’t told me the details yet.” You shrugged and looked over the menu. “Sounds exciting.” He nudged you.

“Are you guys excited about the new album?” You smiled looking at them all. “Yeah, we’ve been working on it ever since we finished the last one.” Jake smiled softly, “And we couldn’t be more excited to finally have it finished.” Sam chipped in. “And hitting the road again soon!” Danny smiled, raising their glasses of champagne. “To new music and adventure.” Josh said smiling. “To new music and adventure.” Everyone cheered toasting their champagne.

Dinner was fun, everyone was talking about the new music on the album. And how excited and nervous they were about it, considering they were taking a different approach with it. But surely enough their fans will love their work no matter what.

“So are we heading out to the club tonight?” Jake questioned the group. “Why the hell not?” Danny smirked, as the bill was being taken care of. You smiled and looked over at Josie. “I’ll be the DD, because Danny you are not driving after we leave from there.” Josie laughed softly, confiscating his keys for the evening. Everyone got up from their seats, making way to their vehicles to meet up at the club that was downtown.

Josh had asked you to ride over with him, in which you did. Telling Josie you would just meet them there. Josh opened the passenger door for you to his Jeep Truck. “Thanks.” You smiled softly, getting in and buckling yourself. Josh got in, starting it up. “So, what’s been going on at home?” You looked over at him, “What do you mean? There hasn’t been much going on…” You laughed nervously. “Ah, see… I can tell you’re lying. Danny has been acting strange ever since you moved in. I’m not sure what it is, but I just want to make sure everything is alright? Are you okay there?” He looked worried.

“Josh, I am more than okay. It’s just, Danny may not exactly be thrilled about me living there…” You sighed, as he frowned slightly. “Has been nasty towards you?” You felt your nerves getting to you, “Describe nasty?” You made a face, “I mean. We’ve just gotten into little scrabbles but nothing that you have to worry about. Trust me Josh, I’ll be fine. It’s just until I can get my own place.” You smiled reassuringly at him. “Y/N, if you don’t feel comfortable there you can always stay at my place. I’m your friend now too, you know?” He looked at you with those caring eyes he had. “Thank you Josh, but honestly. I will be okay. It’s just for a little while longer.”

The rest of the ride to the club was filled with laughter and ABBA. If anything Josh was always ready to get down to ABBA. Which you were grateful for. You both walked into the club, finding everyone at a booth that you walked over too. “Hey we ordered everyone shots and some tequila soda’s for now.” Sam smiled, passing out the shots. You took yours in your hand, as everyone cheered before throwing them back. If anything these boys sure did love their tequila. Guess it’s something you’re gonna have to get used to.

You downed the tequila soda within minutes, and eventually ordered another drink. If anything, you didn’t want to be bothered by Danny at all tonight. In fact you kept your distance, you mainly hung out with Natalie and Jita throughout the night. Getting completely wasted, and occasionally checking on Josie as she opted to not drink with everyone. “Are you sure you’re having fun?” You smiled hugging Josie. “I’m positive, besides seeing you like this makes me think about the frat parties we went to.” She laughed softly, then you felt an arm drape around your shoulder, looking over you locked eyes with Danny.

“So, why the hell aren’t you guys on the dance floor. We’re supposed to be having fun…” He slurred his words, you laughed softly as the alcohol was keeping you numb. “Why are you lonely?” You looked at him cockily. “No, quite the opposite.” He gave a smug look walking off. You scoffed and went on your own way to the dance floor, finding somebody to dance with.

Sure enough some random guy that was just as intoxicated as you grabbed your waist to dance with him. You didn’t care and just danced with him, your bodies pressed together, as you moved to the beat. You were lost in a swarm of bodies, you had lost where everyone was. You were almost half convinced that they had left, but Josie reassured you earlier that she would find you herself when they were ready to head out. After dancing with this random guy, you had to go to the bathroom. As you searched your way to get there, you stumbled in luckily there was no line.

Once you were done, you washed your hands before exiting the bathroom. That’s when you ran into somebody walking out of the bathroom. “Hey! Watch it!” You yelled, that’s when your waist was grabbed. “What did I say earlier? Watch where you’re going.” Danny smirked at you. “Of course out of all the people here, I bump into you.” You snapped at him. “Do you ever shut that pretty mouth up?” He chuckled, keeping a firm grip on your waist. “It seems to get you worked up…” You smirked at him.

Danny looked at you, then your lips. Before you knew it, he pushed you against the wall in a dark corner crashing his lips against yours. You gasped against his lips as it caught you off guard, but instantly kissed him back. Your teeth were crashing against each other, your tongues desperate to find one another. It was like you were starving, craving to be touched.

That’s when you felt Danny’s hand move to the hem of your dress. He slowly lifted it up, you moaned against his lips. “Danny, we’re in public…” He smirked against you, kissing your neck hungrily. “No one is gonna see us… Just stay quiet.” He moved his hand to your core, rubbing you through the cloth. You felt the heat building up inside you. “Danny…” “Never thought I’d hear my name coming from you like that…” He chuckled, as he pushed your panties to the side. He ran his fingers between your folds collecting your slick. “All for me…” He muttered against your neck.

“Please…” You whined, “Please what?” He smirked looking at you. “Touch me…” You sounded desperate but you didn’t care. The alcohol had taken over your thoughts, and at the moment all you wanted was to feel his fingers. “I don’t know if I should, considering you're an annoying bitch…”

“Don’t call me a bitch” you bit back, “Well judging by the way your thighs just clenched…you liked it” He said with a smirk. He moved his hand to grab you by the throat, gently applying pressure. “Watch your tone princess, or else I won’t give you what you want.” You whimpered in his touch. “Please, Danny…” He chuckled, letting go of your throat, and moving his fingers back down to where you wanted him most.

He slipped a single digit in, teasing you slowly as he pumped and curled it. You moaned quietly, trying your best to be quiet so no one nearby could hear you. Granted the music in the club was loud enough to cover it up, you still didn’t want to get caught. As much as it turned you on even more knowing the possibility of it happening. He started to kiss your lips roughly as he slipped another digit in pumping his fingers faster. You placed your hand on his shoulder to hold yourself up as you moaned against his lips.

He kept pumping his fingers in and out of your at a strong pace, while curling his fingers hitting that sweet spot you were hoping he’d find. “Danny…” You slipped from your lips. “Does my dirty slut want to cum…” He breathed against your neck, as he picked the pace up. Using his thumb to circle your clit. “Please…” You whined out as your head rolled back. With the pressure he applied to your bud you felt the waves crashing into you as your body started to shake underneath him. “Oh fuck…” You whined as you rode out your high on his fingers. “Atta girl…” He smirked, pulling his fingers out.

You whined from the loss of his fingers, your legs shaking. He sucked his one finger, “So sweet… Open your mouth.” He smirked, as you opened your mouth for him. He placed both fingers in, you sucked on them giving him ‘fuck me’ eyes. “So the whore does listen after all…” He chuckled, removing his fingers from your mouth. He then kissed your lips violently to help you adjust your dress. Before walking away, you stood there in complete shock as to what just happened.

You eventually made your way back to the booth where everyone had made their way back. “I think it's safe to call it a night.” Josh chipped in, everyone nodded in agreement. “Everyone has rides sorted out? Don’t want anything bad to happen.” You asked, smiling softly. As everyone responded ‘yes’. “It was fun tonight guys, I’m proud of you all.” You smiled hugging the guys, then hugged the girls before parting ways and heading home. Josie had to help walk you to the car as you were stumbling a bit.

“Maybe you should watch how much you drink?” Danny smirked cockily, getting into the passenger seat. Not bothering to help his sister out with you. “What a dick…” You heard Josie mutter under her breath, “Ah. Fuck him, he’s just drunk.” You giggled to yourself, getting into the car. The car ride home was quiet, but you didn’t mind as you felt a headache coming on. Once you arrived you stumbled into the house, almost falling but Danny caught you. “Watch it now, Josie can you please help your friend to her room. I’ll grab some water for us.” He ushered you to her.

Josie helped you up to your room, “Thanks for being such a great friend. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” You smiled, hugging her tightly. Before sitting on your bed removing your shoes, Danny walked in putting a bottle of water on your night stand and a tablet of tylenol. “Thank you Danny…” You hummed, and he looked at you with stern eyes. “Goodnight ladies.” He walked out of your room.

“Goodnight Y/N, I’ll see you in the morning.” Josie giggled softly, putting the blanket over you. “Goodnight Josie.” You took the tylenol, drank the water and quickly fell asleep.

[glbertblyth]

AN: It’s been a long time shirbert fans... anybody still up for some fake-dating shenanigans? 

It was raining by the time Diana arrived—the sort of rainfall Anne might have basked in and even written a poem or two about if she’d had a mind for it. Instead, with Gilbert’s short visit still fresh in her mind, it only exacerbated her horrible mood.

Once out the door (slammed behind her, much to Marilla’s great woe), Anne threw her denim jacket overhead to avoid the inevitable ruination of the pretty outfit she’d decided on that day. The walk to the back door of her friend’s car was all it took to dampen her hair and muddy up her beloved white hightops. She didn’t even want to begin to imagine what the state of her hair might be once dry again. The half hour she’d spent on taming the wild red lockes surely going down the drain with every squelching step she took. She shuddered to picture the disobedient strands frizzing and curling annoyingly around her shoulders.

“Anne!” was the first thing she heard when she opened the car door, her hands cold and clammy from grasping the freezing handle.  

It was Diana who had exclaimed it, smiling brightly from her spot in the driver’s seat. At its most brilliant sight, Anne’s sour mood nearly melted away - she did so love Diana’s smiles. So for a fleeting moment it was as if it were summer again and they were having one of their lovely days of sloth, with the sun vibrant on their skin as they lay in the fields behind Diana’s house watching the clouds slowly drift across the sky. No school to worry about or boys to try and decipher.

Then thunder rumbled and she was brought back to the present. Sitting wetly in the backseat of Diana’s car next to Jane and catching the very last few syllables of words mumbled from the front.

The brunette beside Anne reached across the gap in the seats to pinch Ruby, who squeaked indignantly.

“We brought coffee,” Diana went on, pulling out onto the road. The higher octave of her voice gave way to the obvious—she was being purposely breezy. Acting as if Anne hadn’t just opened the door and interrupted a conversation in which they had most definitely been talking about her. “I had them put an extra shot in yours because I know that’s the way you like it. Ruby? The coffee?”

Ruby rolled her eyes as she passed the drink to Anne. But she didn’t turn back around when it was in the red-head’s grasp, instead hovering there with an oddly expectant look on her face. A look, Anne realized, that was present on the other girl’s faces as well. Even Diana, big brown eyes wide like a doe’s in the rearview mirror.

“What?” she asked, pausing with her mouth halfway to the straw of her coffee and glancing around awkwardly.

When the only response was the low and torrid voice of Harry Styles drifting through the stereo and a raise of Jane’s eyebrows, Anne’s lips thinned in realization. The very word she had interrupted when she’d opened the door hadn’t been a word at all. It had been a name. Gilbert’s name.

Anne flopped her head back onto the cushioned seat, “Oh god,” she bemoaned. Could she not escape it for five minutes? Not even amongst her most beloved kindred spirits?

But there was nowhere to hide. Not with the three sets of eyes watching her so curiously. Waiting for her to give an explanation that she surely did not have. She was beginning to grow tired of Avonlea’s uncanny ability to spread gossip like wildfire.

“Watch the road,” Anne snapped at her best friend,  “or you’ll kill us all.”

Diana gasped and averted her gaze, focusing instead on navigating the road through the pelting rain.

“You can’t deny it happened,” Jane said matter-of-factly. “It’s all over everything.” Then she whipped out her phone, pulling up twitter as a way to prove her point.

“Don’t believe everything you read.” Anne snapped at her.

“So you’re saying it’s just a made up rumor?” asked Ruby, almost hopefully—because while Anne had despised Gilbert since the time she’d first laid eyes on him, Ruby had simply adored him. While Anne would spend every single valuable and precious minute of her English classes poking holes in Gilbert’s foolish arguments, Ruby was sitting not two seats away, mooning. It was exasperating.

“I’m just saying,” Anne folded her arms defensively across her chest, “there was a lot more to it than that.”

“So it happened?!” Ruby exclaimed, with such force she knocked her binder into Diana’s lap and almost spilled both of their drinks.

“Ruby!”

“Well I’m sorry but—this is—you can’t just act like this isn’t a big deal, Anne! He’s Gilbert! ”

“I’m well aware of who he is.”

“You hate him!”

Anne bit the inside of her cheek. Of course she hated him. Of course. But it’s not as if she could tell the truth: that she had used Gilbert as a mere line of defense against dearest Diana’s cousin—her very own flesh and blood. Though how that was possible was beyond Anne considering he was so insufferably annoying, whereas Diana was so sweet and kind and considerate. She never would have pushed anyone the way that Roy had Anne. She never would have refused to take ‘no’ for an answer, never would have imposed so thoroughly on Anne’s personal space that she felt as if suddenly all of the oxygen in the world had run out except what was left in her lungs.

Hell, even Gilbert had taken Anne’s ‘no’ at face value. He had nodded and left, much to her great relief. And how terrible a concept to consider: Marilla inviting him to stay for breakfast! What would she have done then?

“Anne,” Jane poked her cheek. “You’ve got some serious explaining to do.”

Like hell she did. Maybe the decision to kiss Gilbert had been rash, but she wouldn’t have done it had she not felt as though she’d been forced into a corner. And while she did hate Gilbert’s guts, the mere aspect of her kissing him shouldn’t have been ground breaking news. He’d been there. She’d used him as a shield. That was it.

Even if the memory of his lips moving fervently against her own had haunted her dreams all night, it was nobody else's business. After all, he’d technically been her first real kiss. And even if she did think him an insufferable pompous ass, she wasn’t entirely incapable of admitting that he was a rather good-looking boy. She wasn’t blind for chrissake.

But even so, she had absolutely no intention of that little tidbit of information ever leaving the confines of her own mind. Nobody needed to know that she found Gilbert Blythe attractive. Or that she may have very mildly delighted in the fact that he’d been so quick to kiss her back. Or—or that she’d felt a bit of a thrill when she’d seen him again that very morning; a thrill that may or may not have caused her to even entertain the plan that he’d so eloquently presented to her.

The severity of the realization jolted her. Rose her blood levels to an alarming height. Had she just admitted to anticipating Gilbert’s presence?

“I don’t have to explain myself to any of you!” Anne exploded. Though she couldn’t tell if her anger was directed at her friends, at herself, or at the mere prospect of having anything but ill feelings toward her long time rival.  “What I do with my life is nobody’s business but my own! I don’t intrude on your private lives like this.”

Ruby shrunk back, but Jane wasn’t deterred. Everyone knew Anne had a terrible temper sometimes. When she yelled it was usually because she felt like she’d been backed into a corner and couldn’t see an escape besides pushing everyone else away.

“Sorry, Anne, but I’m your friend. Friends talk about this stuff. They don’t keep secrets.”

“It’s not a secret.” Anne grumbled. But she knew it was a weak argument. That her friend was right and that she had absolutely no excuse as to why she should keep the truth from them.

Because you’re actually considering Gilbert’s offer, a vexing voice said in her head,  And telling them you only did it as a way to escape Royal would ruin it. The voice only annoyed her more despite its truth.

Anne took a sip of her coffee with far more enthusiasm than necessary. Any excuse to avoid talking on the subject further. Avoid meeting the tense stares of her friends.

“I don’t see why it would be such a big deal that you kissed him anyway. Half of our grade has been expecting you two to jump each other’s bones for years.” Jane shrugged nonchalantly.

Anne felt the large gulp lodge in her throat as she choked out a cough, “What?”  

Ruby craned her neck around to face her, baby blue eyes wide and vulnerable. Diana released a quiet titter of laughter but didn’t take her eyes off the road.

Traitor.

Jane rolled her eyes exasperatedly, briefly meeting the hurt look of their sensitive friend,  “Oh give up, Ruby. He’s known you his whole life and hasn’t made an attempt at you,” When Ruby faced the front again, lower lip jutted out in a pout, her dark gaze swiveled back to Anne’s, “ You , however, caught his attention from the moment you arrived.”

Anne flared her nostrils indignantly, “Not true.”

The girl next to her threw her hands up in frustration, “It is too!”

“Is not.”

“What are we, five?” Jane quipped. And then her face turned smug, “Besides, you guys did end up kissing, didn’t you?”

Jesus, it was a good thing they’d barely missed seeing Gilbert at green gables. Anne hated to think how insufferable her friends might have been had they known he’d stopped by that morning.

She let out a dramatic huff, placing her coffee in the cupholder between them and then crossing her arms to her chest. “Do you just believe everything that Josie Pye posts?”

Jane opened her mouth to retort, but before she could, Ruby turned around in her seat again, “We don’t have to. You’ve been evasive enough to answer the question on if you kissed him or not for us.” She said with an adorable scrunch to her eyebrows. It was obvious she was stung but didn’t want to be left out of the conversation.

A loud clap of thunder sounded outside of the car, mirroring Anne’s emotions perfectly. Oh, how she wished she were a storm cloud sometimes. Floating above it all, no care in the world. No expectations except for that of releasing their torrential rage on unsuspecting passers-by. Perhaps if that were her, she wouldn’t have gotten herself in such a messy situation.

She watched as the windshield wipers slapped at the front window, avoiding looking her friends in their eyes. “How far are we from the school?” she grumbled. Though it was certainly going to be a tough task in it’s own, it would be better than sitting under the excruciating scrutiny of the three girls she was trapped in the small car with.

Diana cleared her throat. “Just another block,” she said.

“If you want me to make sure Josie stays off your back today, I need to have the details.” Jane stated simply.

Anne ground her teeth at the annoying tenacity of her friend.  “There aren’t any.”

“There aren’t any? ”

“That’s what I said.”

“How could there possibly not be—“

“Jane!” Anne snapped, teeth gnashing out like that of a caged dog’s, “Just drop it!”

There was a stunned silence for a moment as Jane snapped her mouth shut. No other sound but the constant pattering of the rain against the windows and the quiet hum of the radio. In the rearview mirror, Diana exchanged a sympathetic look with Anne.

“Fine,” Jane said finally, a cool resolve in her brown eyes, “But just because you hate Gilbert doesn’t mean everyone else does. If I can’t get the answer from you, I’ll just ask him.”

Anne stiffened—every muscle in her body pulling taut as she fought the urge to strike out with her constant weapon of choice: words.

Gilbert wouldn’t sell her out… would he? Not when he himself was riding on the possibility of a public relationship saving face.

God, would pretending to date him actually work? Could they even do it? Could she do it? Certainly he’d do something to piss her off. Something that would cause her to lash out and make it obvious that they were not, and would never actually be, in a relationship.

The thoughts tormented her as Diana pulled the car into the student parking lot. As she parked in her normal spot near the entrance. As she turned off the engine and they were swallowed by the sound of the falling rain. How fitting to see that Mother Nature bore such a pitiful mood—gray clouds swirling in the sky the very same way Anne’s feelings were swirling in her head.

As her friends giggled amongst themselves—already having moved on to the next subject of interest and opening their car doors—she took a shaking deep breath. Steeling herself against whatever the day might throw at her and clambering out of the car into sheets of cold rain.  

+++

When the lunch bell rang, releasing students from their third period classes, Anne’s relief was as palpable as a cool wave crashing against a hot sandy shore. She gathered her things hastily—stuffing them into her bag and barely zipping it back up before hurrying from her calculus class and out into the crowded hallway.

She had very little want of being left in the classroom with a certain tall, dark, and tousled boy. And since that was how things normally went—since Anne and Gilbert were usually the last two left in the classroom, quickly scrawling the last of their work out on the worksheets before them—her rush to leave the confines of the classroom wasn’t without warrant.

Not for the first time since being acquainted with Gilbert Blythe, Anne cursed the fact that they shared a fair amount of classes. (Or unfair if you’d asked her.) But this day… This day had taken her dislike to an entirely different level.

Or maybe dislike wasn’t the correct word for the churning she felt in her stomach every time she’d caught a glimpse of his disheveled dark curls across the room. Maybe awkwardness was the proper noun with which to describe the tension she felt pulled taut between them. If she could even assume it was a reciprocated tension in the first place, that is. She certainly felt it—choking the air around her like a thick and unwanted layer of dust. But… Gilbert hadn’t necessarily shown any discomfort at the sight of her. He’d backed off on making his usual snide comments or witty remarks, yes, but she wasn’t positive that it was because he was playing an angle or if he genuinely thought it better to leave her alone.  

Nevertheless, it made Anne’s gut twist uncomfortably. And because the whole school seemed to already know what had transpired the previous afternoon, she loathed to even look in his direction let alone exchange their usual haughty comments. She had, in not so many words, been avoiding him for the entirety of the school day—ducking out of shared classes with all the speed of a bulleting train and keeping her line of vision pinned straight ahead even when she felt his warm honey gaze settle on the side of her face.

This, of course, did not escape the notice of her ever so nosy classmates. In fact, the fervent silence between the two known rivals after such an unexpected public display of affection had only caused an even deeper upset among her peers. Anne liked to think she had learned to never underestimate the might of a small town’s grape vine, but she certainly hadn’t expected such… such backlash from one simple spontaneous moment in time.

To walk through the hallways of her familiar high school and notice the boisterous noise of groups dwindle around her felt much like her early days in Avonlea—except this time, instead of having smacked the town’s golden boy with a heavy textbook, she’d kissed him. And apparently that warranted an even more uproarious reaction.

Anne pushed through the crowd of students and scrambled to her locker—head down in an attempt to ignore the whispers around her. She’d thought that, after three and a half years, she had moved past the days of being an outcast; past the days of being a subject of interest on nearly every one of her classmate’s tongues.

Apparently she’d been wrong. All this time they’d only been hiding in the shadows, waiting for the precise moment she did anything out of the ordinary, so that they could pounce.

As she exchanged binders and textbooks with what had been stacked neatly in her locker, she was so thoroughly enveloped in her own vortex of thoughts that she hadn’t noticed the tall and skinny figure approach her.

“Anne,” the figure said. And despite the familiar trill of the voice, she startled, nearly slamming her fingers in the locker as she’d closed it.

“Dammit, Cole,” she hissed, but there was a smile beneath it.

She turned to her friend, a feeling of ease settling on her shoulders as it always had around Cole Mackenzie. He was leaning against the lockers with his hands wrung loosely around the straps of his backpack and his familiar blue eyes were warm with affection. After a moment, Anne realized there was a dark smudge just under his right eye—more than likely a result of wiping at his face after working with charcoal or graphite. A quick glance at his smeared hands confirmed just as much.

“You’ve got art on your face,” she said, gesturing at her own as a way to show him.

He released a breathy laugh before using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe it off. “Sorry I wasn’t able to get here sooner, I got caught up in class.”

Anne snorted despite herself. “Sure you did,” she said. “Keep acting like you weren’t flirting with that new exchange student.” She twisted her mouth into a feigned look of utter despair, “You left me to the wolves.”

Cole laughed as she schooled her features back to their normal, friendly state and swung her bag around her shoulder. She entwined her hand with his as they made their way in the direction of the cafeteria.

He fixed her with a faux imperious look. “I was only showing Gabriel the precise way of shading. Charcoal is a difficult medium to work with.”

“Don’t tell me,” Anne lowered her voice, acting as though what she was about to say was an absolute scandal, “You stood behind him and guided his hand with your own, heart pounding against his back as he leaned into you.” She caught at her chest with her free hand, “Oh, how romantic! ” she squealed, much louder than she’d meant to. A few students looked in their direction.

An exasperated laugh burst from her friend’s lips and he squeezed her hand lightly. “Not so loud, Anne.”

She shrugged. “People are gay, Cole. They can get over it.”

Cole wasn’t necessarily closeted. It was a pretty well-known fact within their friend group that he was very much homosexual—you have one conversation with him and he just couldn’t hold back his flamboyancy— but the world was still filled with small-minded bigots. And in a small town like the one they lived in, it was easier just to keep the knowledge of his sexual preference to a minimum.

“I suppose this means our vow to marry one another is broken,” she continued forlornly. It was a joking promise they’d made to one another when they were fifteen and certain they’d be deemed outcasts forever—no one but each other to lean on.

Of course, she’d had Diana. Beautiful Diana. But there were many things Anne experienced that her beloved best friend just couldn’t understand. Diana was popular, beautiful, a glittering star among the backdrop of the night sky—something with which Anne found little to no relatability being the scrawny ostracized girl that she was. But Cole’s friendship allowed a quiet solace; a person who knew what it was like to feel unwanted and unpopular.

Cole snorted. “You broke it first,” he said, “What do Gilbert Blythe’s lips feel like?”

Anne nearly tripped over her own two feet, having briefly forgotten the mess she’d gotten herself into. She snapped her head to look at the tall boy beside her and fixed him with a desperate glare. The look on his face was nonchalant, but she knew he was dying with curiosity.

“Why’d you have to bring that up?” she said, unable to help the whiny tone that had weaved itself into her words.

Cole clucked his tongue. “You left me on read last night. You deserve it.”

“I think I’ve gotten punishment enough,” she replied, a frown twisting at her lips. “It’s all anybody can talk about when they see me.”

He looked at her. “Anne. You kissed Gilbert Blythe . ”

“Yes, I know what I did.”

“Gilbert. Blythe.”

Anne unlatched her hand from Cole’s and threw her arms up exasperatedly. “Can people stop saying his name as if I don’t know who he is!?”

They turned down a slightly less crowded hallway, taking a shortcut they’d found halfway through their freshman year. “Can you stop brushing it off like it’s no big deal?”

“It isn’t a big deal.” Anne grumbled.

He ignored her. “How’d it happen anyway?”

There was a tearing feeling in her stomach—indecision on if she should tell him the truth of the matter or not. The small part of her brain that was hung on Gilbert’s earlier suggestion rioted at her to choose not.

It won. “It just—happened. Okay?”

Cole screwed his nose up. “What does that even mean? ” he said. “What, did you just randomly see him and say ‘fuck it, I’mma give into the three years of overwhelming sexual tension’ and decide to eat his face off?”

Anne blanched at him, stopping dead walk in the middle of the hallway. “Sexual tension?” she sputtered. “Have you been talking to Jane?”

Cole released a light laugh at the expression on her face. “No, but I’m not surprised she feels the same way. Everybody does.”

“I hate it here.” Anne said sadly, mouth turning down at one corner. What a piteous thing to confuse hatred with sexual desire. Because certainly— certainly —Cole and Jane were wrong. There was absolutely no sexual tension between her and Gilbert Blythe. None whatsoever. And she was positive in the fact that there never would be.

“Drama queen.”

“How observant of you,” Anne replied, beginning to make her way down the hallway again. “It’s as if we’re friends. Almost like you know me.”

Her blonde companion snorted, but followed after her.

“Apparently not,” he continued vexingly. “Not if you’re sucking face with Gilbert frickin’ Blythe.”

“Cole, I love you, I really do. But if you don’t shut up right this very moment, I will not hesitate to murder you.”

“Anne—“

“I’m serious,” she said, “I live on a farm—lots of sharp tools at my disposal, Mackenzie. Don’t push me.”

He laughed—a short and exasperated release of breath. “Has anybody ever told you you’re kinda scary when you want to be?”

She glanced over to where he was matching her stride beside her, smiling crookedly and impishly.

Cole’s mouth turned down at the corners. “Please don’t flash me your murder eyes. It gives me the creeps.”

Reaching across the space between them with her arm, she patted his shoulder lightly. “Good.”

They lapsed into casual conversation then, walking quickly the rest of the way to the cafeteria and occasionally bumping each other’s shoulders teasingly. She really did appreciate Cole, she decided. Well, she’d always appreciated him—but unlike the rest of her companions, he never pushed her to talk about the things he knew she was most uncomfortable with. Teased her relentlessly maybe—okay, certainly —but he always, always, knew when enough was enough.

As they passed through the metal-doored threshold of Avonlea High’s sorry excuse for a cafeteria, (even their library was larger than the sparsely decorated area—hardly even eight long tables adorning the length of the walls and smaller rounded ones few and far between) Anne startled at the absolute terror she was faced with.

Being such a small school, the majority of the senior class was pushed into the same lunch schedule. Meaning all the kids she’d grown with for the past few years—all the classmates that knew most definitely about Anne’s adamant hatred towards one Gilbert Blythe—paused fractionally when they noticed her fiery mane out of the corners of their eyes.

Anne’s heart rate kicked up, stomach twisting painfully as the cafeteria quieted ever so slightly and heads swiveled to gawk at her.

She felt Cole’s hand squeeze hers. “Christ,” he mumbled beside her. “They really don’t have any lives do they.”

She snorted, eased slightly by his encouraging and easy-going presence. “Our school doesn’t even have a total of five-hundred students. This is probably the most exciting thing that’s happened since you showed sophomore year and Billie Andrews made it his mission to torment you.”

Her friend winced. “Don’t remind me.”

“Shit, sorr—“

“Anne!”

The breath that had frozen in Anne’s chest upon realizing the upset she’d caused when first entering the cafeteria thawed the rest of the way at the familiar cadence of Diana’s voice. She could see her friend’s veil of dark hair, her infectious smile big and bright as she stood from their usual table tucked in the far corner of the room. The rest of her friends, still sitting, waved to her gregariously.

Friends, Anne reminded herself. Those are your friends and not even the disastrous evening before and whatever trouble Gilbert Blythe insights next can take them away from you.

She felt a warm smile tug at her lips as she moved toward the familiar corner, pulling Cole behind her as she went. But as she got closer, doubt crept into her mind. She saw the nervous glances Tillie, Jane and Ruby exchanged with one another—however miniscule they might have tried to make them seem. The scrunch of Diana’s nose, bringing her hand down from her enthusiastic wave and rubbing at a non-existent itch. Anne recognized it immediately as her bosom friend’s nervous tick.

Her steps slowed as she approached the table, nearly causing Cole to stumble into her from where he’d been following behind. Josie Pye—she was sitting straight backed, arms folded across her chest and an accusing glare flashing in her blue eyes.

Oh no.

Now this— this was the part she’d forgotten all about. Josephine Pye and her ridiculous aversion to amiable conversation. Her insufferable adamance on making Anne’s existence appear as a show for all the school to see. Josie fancied herself a puppet master, tugging at the strings on Anne’s back from the very first moment they’d met. And though a tedious friendship had developed between the two over the last few years, some things just never changed.

“Hey,” Anne squeaked out, instantly noticing how guilty she already sounded. She winced, sat stiffly on the stool across from her friends.

Cole rolled his eyes and plopped down beside her, shoved his bookbag towards the end of the table and folded his artist hands in front of him as he leveled Josie with a shockingly protective gaze.

“There will be absolutely no mentions of a certain happening with a certain someone taking place at a certain time yesterday afternoon, got it?” His voice left no room for discussion.

Diana nodded eagerly, reaching across the table and giving Anne a sympathetic squeeze of the hand. Jane pursed her lips, obviously wanting to say something, anything, about the unfinished conversation the girls had all had in the car that morning—but seemed to think better of it. Tillie and Ruby, always the more soft spoken of the group, simply sat quietly, glancing between Cole and Josie, the latter of which had narrowed her eyes in an obvious challenge.

The blonde grenade snapped her eyes to Anne instead. “I think that—“

“No.” Anne said icily, surprising herself. She’d never been one to overtly challenge Josie. But after dealing with Royal Gardner and Gilbert Blythe and every single pair of eyes that had followed and judged and questioned her all morning, she’d had enough.

She cleared her throat, “No,” she tried again, less hostile this time. “We will not be discussing the kiss because it’s my business and I owe absolutely nobody an explanation.”

“Periodt,” chimed Cole, snapping his fingers. Diana giggled, attempting to smother it with her hand but failing rather obviously.

Tillie’s eyes had turned wide as saucers. “So it’s true? You and Gilbert kissed?”

“Of course it’s true, I saw it with my own two eyes.” Josie snapped, “And obviously—“

“Josie, Anne literally just said we weren’t discussing it.” Diana huffed. It was the most annoyed Anne had ever seen her act with Josie—it made her want to tackle her best friend in a hug. “Please just drop the subject, okay? If she wants to explain herself then she will.”

“Must I repeat myself?” Cole raised an eyebrow at the blonde dragon across from him who was just barely containing the angry smoke Anne was sure to pore from her nostrils.

“Please,” replied Jane, amused.

“Periodt!” And he gave another flamboyant snap of his fingers.

Josie rolled her eyes imperiously. “You guys are dumb,” she said to the snickering gaggle of girls beside her, then she faced Anne again. “Look, I’m not one to really care all that much about your romantic life—“

Cole opened his mouth to protest but without even glancing his way, Josie cut herself off and snapped, “Shut it, Mackenzie.”

He raised his hands in the universal sign of defeat.

“But as your friend,” loosely Anne had to bite back from commenting as Josie continued, “I worry about what this means for your… reputation.”

“Oh, for the love of god, Josephine Pye. We’re in high school, not running for the frickin’ electoral college. I promise you, me kissing somebody is not that deep.”

Did any of them have lives?

A throat cleared beside her—Cole’s. “I mean,” he said quietly, “it kind of is when you’ve vowed to hate said kissee for the rest of your days. ‘So long as you bring air into your lungs’ I believe were your exact words.”

Anne snapped her head over to her traitorous friend, one who’d not moments ago was just defending her.

“Whose side are you on?”

“The gays,” he said solemnly. And then, upon seeing Anne’s unamused look, “Joking, joking—I mean, not joking obviously, but… Look, Anne. As overdramatic as Josie is being—“ said girl harrumphed impertinently, “—Everybody and their mother knows how much you hate Gilbert. I’ll fight tooth and nail for you, girl, but this whole situation is questionable in the least.”

“I just want you to know,” began Anne, “How much I hate all of you right now, nevermind Gilbert.”

“Hey!” Tillie protested, “I haven’t done a single thing besides ask if the rumor was true in the first place.”

“Tillie Boulter with-holding.”

Jane opened her mouth, “I—“

“You’re on thin fuckin’ ice, Jane Andrews.”

Anne was so incredibly and entirely tired of this entire situation. So much for not talking about it… God, she should just out and admit the reasoning already. Clear the air, make sure that everybody knew it was a farce. A ploy to get Roy Gardner to finally leave her alone.

Who was she kidding anyway? Even entertaining the idea that Gilbert had planted in her head earlier that morning was absolute insanity. Them? Dating? Imagine the uproar then. If her classmates were so nosy as to be absolutely entranced by the fact that they simply kissed, imagine if they announced they were dating .

Oh dearest Snow Queen, she asked of her longest comfort, What would you do?

She set her jaw then, determining it was time to come clean. “Listen, guys. Gilbert and I didn’t actually—“

“Anne?”

She froze. Didn’t blink. Didn’t take a single breath for what felt like a solid thirty seconds. Her friends all startled to look behind her, Cole craning his neck to meet the gaze of probably the absolute last person Anne wanted to see right then.

“Roy!” Diana chirped with false cheer. Her eyes flit between Anne and the monstrous cad that stood behind her, betraying the panic she felt on behalf of her best friend. “I thought you had B lunch?”

Anne refused to turn around, still frozen as she watched, horrified, as all her friends looked at each other confused and curious.

“Well, I did. But the adviser decided to switch some of my classes around. She thought it would be best if I stayed with the rest of the senior class even if British academia didn’t quite meet up with American—Anne, are you trying to hide?”

She was, she totally, full-heartedly was. She’d sunk into herself, almost as if she were trying to allow the lunch table to swallow her whole.

“Anne, sit up ,” Josie hissed at her. Was she—god, was she batting her eyelashes at the boy behind her? The boy in which Anne could very clearly feel inching closer to her with every second she didn’t acknowledge him?

She took a deep breath, turned around in her seat finally for fear that he might reach out and touch her, place his disgustingly delicate and nimble hand on her shoulder. “Roy,” she said, not meeting his eyes. “Hi.”

“Hullo.” Roy replied, probably smiling in a way he thought was enormously charming. “Your dress is quite beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the one wearing it, I might say. Almost .”

Oh, for the love of all that is good and— He was insufferable. Anger, white hot and immediate bubbled in her blood.

“What do you want?” She said, rather bluntly. Cole elbowed her in the arm, shot her a confused look. I’ll explain later, she hoped her face portrayed to him.

Diana, ever the mediator, cleared her throat. “Royal. These are my friends. Tillie, Ruby, Jane, Josie, and Cole.” Cole watched him hesitantly, the girls all exchanged giddy glances. “Of course, you already know Anne.”

“How could I ever forget.”

Anne had to resist the urge to feign a gag.

“Anyways. Guys, this is my cousin Royal.”

“Roy. Call me Roy,” he said. But he didn’t even glance at them, his eyes were trained solely on Anne’s. And Anne rather wanted to punch him in his obnoxiously pert nose.

“It’s nice to meet you, Roy—“ Ruby had begun, but the miscreant cut her off, paying sweet Ruby no attention.

“Anne, I was hoping we might talk?”

Anne clenched her jaw, fought to keep from squeezing her eyes closed in exasperation at the sheer audacity Roy had to even ask that of her.

Right. This was why she’d entertained Gilbert’s plan. This was why she had desperately kissed him. Because Royal Gardner had no boundaries and despite being related to her best and closest friend, every moment spent in his presence was a moment she knew she’d never get back.

“Talk,” she said stiffly. She stood up, grabbed a confused Cole’s hand and yanked him up beside her. “But make it fast because Cole and I still haven’t had a chance to get in the lunch line.”

“I am… so confused.” Anne heard one of the girls say behind her. Diana shushed her.

“Privately? Perhaps?”

She was seriously going to punch this boy in the face. Like, actually. Right there in front of everybody.

“Privately?” Anne snapped coldly, her fury like fire in her veins. She stepped around him, cornered him to the table, making sure her back was to the rest of the cafeteria. Too many rumors were already circulating around her. If she caused a scene, lord knew she’d never come back from it. “Are you joking?”

She saw Cole step back from the corner of her eye, scuttle to the other side of the cafeteria table with the girls. All their eyes were wide and unsure of what to make of the situation.

“Anne, there’s no need for such hostility. I was just trying to—“

“Deliberately make her uncomfortable?” a new voice chimed in from behind her. There was an unrecognizable hardness to it, incongruous to all of the other times she had heard it before. Across from her, her friends' eyes widened impossibly, gazes landing on the new addition to the already intolerable conversation.

Anne could feel as all the eyes in the cafeteria turned toward them, a sure spectacle to behold.

She watched as Roy’s jaw hardened, eyes trained behind her with a new intensity as he tracked the movements of Gilbert Blythe lazily sidling up beside Anne.

“I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of properly meeting,” Gilbert said as he threw an arm around Anne’s shoulders. She had to fight to keep from stiffening up, knew what he was doing, knew exactly what game he was playing at as he pulled her closer to his side and tucked her neatly beneath his arm. And while her blood boiled at his intrusion, at the audacity he had to come running in like he thought he was  some god-awful knight-in-shining-armor, at the way her friends’ expressions all changed immediately—all smirking and knowing and not nearly as surprised as she thought they’d be—the smallest part of her was relieved.

Relieved.

Like she’d still been gunning for that stupid, ludicrous plan that Gilbert had blabbered on about that very morning to actually work. Which in itself was most positively and unmitigatedly not going to happen in a million—

“Right. Is this him then?” The accusation in Roy’s voice broke Anne from her spiraling thoughts, solidifying the situation she was in. There, in front of all of her friends and essentially the entire senior class, she was facing off with one of the most impudent males she’d ever had the displeasure of meeting.

And, lord above, Gilbert Blythe of all people was the only person with the ability to make Roy leave her alone.

“Just a few months.” His words pinged around in her mind, “We get Royal and Winnie off our backs. And then we never have to deal with each other outside of class again .”

She scowled, resisting the urge to fidget beneath Gilbert’s arm. The heat radiating from his body where their sides were pressed flush together was rather difficult to ignore. She felt as though she could feel it fuse with her blood, travel through her veins and warm her cheeks, her toes, clog up her lungs.

“Is this who?” Anne replied, her scowl deepening.

“The boyfriend. The reason I can’t pursue you… or so you say.”

A choking sound came from her group of friends, though she absolutely refused to look in their direction. She was positive that the fire she felt across her cheeks no longer had anything to do with Gilbert’s body heat.

Roy raised a single brow when she opened her mouth, snapped it back shut immediately—a fish floundering on dry land. Gilbert’s arm tightened around her shoulder, probably meant to be comforting, reassuring, but it only made her want to elbow him in the side. The mortification leaching any and all relief she’d previously felt by his presence.

“I—uh,” she stuttered. Oh god, ohgodohgodohgodohgod. How in the hell had she gotten herself into this situation?

“My god, he broke her,” she heard Cole whisper.

“Anne? You did tell me you had one, right?” Roy’s eyebrow was still raised, the brazen confidence leaking from every pore. She hated him, she decided. Hated him more than the curly haired boy whose arm was wrapped around her and whose current silence felt like a ticking time bomb.

“I did,” she replied, and to her utmost horror it came out weakly.

“As much as I love being talked about as if I’m not standing right here,” Gilbert interjected, and Anne wasn’t sure if he’d noticed it but his thumb had started rubbing tiny comforting circles where it rested on her upper arm, “Anne doesn’t owe you an explanation. As a matter of fact, she doesn’t owe you a damn thing. So whether she has a boyfriend or not—whether I’m that boyfriend or not—is none of your business.”

Woah.

Wait a minute, not woah , what the hell? Had he really said that? Had it really made her heart rate kick up in her chest at the way he’d not only defended her but her right to make her own choices without explanation?

Royal blinked, opened his mouth, closed it. But Gilbert ignored him, turned his head to face Anne. The expression on his face said It’s up to you , the small curve at the corner of his mouth added, Carrots.

She closed her eyes, counted one, two, before opening them back up and meeting Roy’s gaze.

God help her.

“Yeah, Roy,” she said, swallowed thickly, “Gilbert is my boyfriend."

[keepingupwithfundies]

BuB Season 10 Episodes 4-7

It’s a rainy long weekend here, and I managed to catch up on the Bringing Up Bates recaps. From Christmas to making plans for Valentine’s Day, the Bates family is quite busy with four babies on the way and three budding romances. 

-T

*Episode 4: 'Tis the Season For Surprises

Katie is teaching Ellie, Addee and Callie how to curl their hair. Katie says she is the only older girl in the house right now, and so she wanted to do a fun bonding activity. Ellie, Addee and Callie are not sure about learning themselves, but Katie says they should learn now before she leaves. The girls say they will miss Katie, but Callie is looking forward to having her own closet in the girls room. Travis will be coming soon, and Kelly says engagement is inevitable. His sister is recently engaged as well. Kelly asks Katie if they have any timeline, and Katie says she'll know when Travis talks to her dad, since he'll tell her mom and her mom will tell her. Everyone laughs, but agrees that Kelly isn't great at secrets. Kelly says Nathan is bringing his girlfriend as well, and everyone is excited to meet them. Katie is glad the pressure will be shared. The family will be spending Christmas all together, since Alyssa is due in February, they're not sure she can make Valentines.

Meanwhile, the guys get to work decorating the house outside of the house. Jackson is just back from Alert and wants to get the lights up. Jackson is glad to be home for Christmas after Alert, and Zach is there to see Jackson but got put to work on the lights. Nathan pulls up with Esther, and the family is excited to meet them. The work stops, and everyone rushes over to meet her. Esther is excited to meet everyone, and Whitney in particular is glad to meet them. Esther is also from a big family, and she says "the more the merrier!"

The couples (also Trace) gather for a bonfire, and also for a chance to meet Esther. Nathan teasingly makes Carlin move so he can sit next to Esther. Everyone works together to try to start the fire, and John jokes that the fire just needs "more people with more ideas to get it going." Eventually it starts burning, and Carlin asks for Nathan and Esther's story. They met at a mutual friends wedding, and Nathan thought she had the bluest eyes he'd ever seen. A week went by of them chatting, and Nathan wanted to be more than friends, and they kept talking everyday. Esther told him she wanted to be with him as well, and they've been talking for about a year. They waited a bit to go public, but they seem very happy. Carlin says she wanted to support them, and they're all glad that Nathan is so happy. Nathan asked Esther to be his girlfriend on her birthday, and Nathan says they'll see about the timelines but Nathan knows Esther is the one. Nathan genuinely seems thrilled, and the night is a success.

At Zach and Whitney's, they are decorating gingerbread men for a gender reveal. Whitney says she is excited for their fourth baby, and the plan is to give blue or pink cookies as a gift to the grandparents at the Christmas family photos. There is going to be multiple announcements at that time, Zach says. Bradley hopes for a boy, and Kaci wants a girl (shocker). Whitney is excited to tell everyone at the party.

Josie and Kelton arrive at a parking garage to do their gender reveal with Willow. Josie is excited to share that they're having another baby, and they don't know if it is a boy or a girl. They are going to find out by doing a photo shoot with her friend. This time, they wanted it to just be their little family finding out together. So, they twist the poppers and celebrate, but the episode doesn't show the color. They plan to tell everyone at the Christmas party.

It is time for the Christmas party, and Kelly says they have tried to be careful during covid (ok) and so Tori's family is sick and unable to make it, but everyone else was healthy and there. Zach and Whitney get their cookies ready, and then it is time to head out for pictures. The family pictures begin, and then it is time for the big family photo. It is very cold out, but the family gathers together for the photos. Then, it is announcement time. Josie goes first, and gives her father-in-law a gift. It is an ornament, and one side says "Baby Girl" and the other says "Hazel Sloane Balka." Everyone celebrates. Zach and Whitney go next, but Zach gives them one without color first as a prank, and then they get the cookie with the blue frosting. Bradley is so happy to have a brother. Erin is announcing on behalf of Tori and Bobby, and Kelly is excited to learn they are having a girl named Charlotte Raine. Everyone gets out of the cold, and Gil gathers the family to talk about Jesus. The family then sings carols. Gil says there are four new babies on the way, and two new relationships in the works, and there is a lot to celebrate.

*Episode 5: Home Sweet Home & Nathan's Love

Michael is at Tori and Bobby's new house, and Zach, Whitney and kids walk over to knock on the door. They are excited to be neighbors. Bobby says it was time to look for a house, and they haven't had a lot of luck until Whitney let them know the house two doors down went for sale. Bobby and Tori jumped on it, and they got the house since the original homeowners loved Zach and Whitney. The cousins are so excited to be close, and Bradley in particular is excited. Tori has asked Erin and Chad to decorate the house. Bobby has been working from home, so he has a desk in the bonus room that will eventually be Charlotte's. The boys have a room, and then Tori shows of their room. Brandon and Michael are thrilled for the new homeowners, and Bobby and Tori are so excited to be close to the family again.

The family goes on an outing to the zoo, which is one of Kelly's favorite places, for Layla's first birthday. Everyone is wearing masks, and Carlin is excited for Layla to see the animals. The family walks through the zoo. Kelly says the monkeys are her favorite, since they're so active. Carlin says she can't believe Layla is a year old, and she remembers all the memories they have made. Carlin says that Layla is their sunshine, and they are obsessed.

Alyssa and John are getting ready for their new arrival, and Alyssa says you would think they would be ready but technology keeps advancing and they keep getting cooler new items. Alyssa says this time around, she will be in the hospital with a doctor instead of a birth center with a midwife. The hospital rules are strict because of Covid, so Gil and Kelly will have to meet the baby at home. They set up their swing, and Alyssa says they have reversed the order with having kids young so that they will be able to enjoy their adult kids and grandkids younger too.

At the Bates Sisters Boutique location, Chad and Zach are working on getting everything functional for the boutique. Whitney says they are lucky trying to run a small business with all the talents in their family. The sisters arrive, and they are impressed with all the work that has been done. Erin says she has been sick and missed a lot of what has been going on, but she is excited to get to be part of the progress now. They go into another room to discuss the location of the photo shoot wall, since that is very important to their online branding. Erin suggests a location, and talks about how to turn the storefront area into an actual storefront. Everyone is excited by how far the boutique has come in such a short time, and they are excited to see where it will go.  

Zach is back to doing tree work with the family, and he says it is like no time has passed. Nathan is there, and he says he isn't home very much but it is satisfying getting to do tree work with his siblings. Zach says he forgot how much work tree work is, and Zach says he wants to be 56 and moving around like his dad instead of 33 and moving around like he is. Carlin says her dad is getting older,  but he is still the man. Jud and Jeb joke that is is getting too old. The tree job goes smoothly, and the guys start talking about Esther. Nathan says he wants to be with her forever, and he is thinking about the ring. Nathan thinks about a spring engagement and a fall wedding. Nathan says he is ready to change her from a girlfriend to a fiance. Nathan wants to fly her to the Bahamas, and they talk about ideas, but Nathan says he thinks he should run them by some girls to get their opinions. They get back to work, so Nathan can catch his flight out.

*Episode 6: A DIY Date and a Delivery Day

Erin and Chad and Bobby and Tori are on a couples getaway in Gatlinburg. It was a gift to them from Kelly and Gil for Christmas. While there, Erin has brought them to a place called Board & Brush, where you get to DIY home decor. First up, they begin distressing their wood. Then, they stain it. They talk about Tori's pregnancy- she is just about halfway, and feeling good. Chad asks Bobby about having a girl, and they are excited. The instructor spends some time showing them how to use the drill, which Tori thinks is useful for herself and Bobby, but not that useful for Chad. Chad tells them about the boutique project, and they are looking forward to moving in in a week. They complete their projects, and Tori is excited about hanging it up in their house.

Alyssa is preparing for her baby, and she has her daughters pack their bags to get ready for when the baby comes. John comes in to help them, and he says being a girl dad is a lot of fun. Alyssa starts handing out plastic bag filled with outfits for them to go. They finish packing, and Alyssa says they picked the name Maci Jo, Maci they just liked and Jo is for her mother and grandmother Betty Jo. Kelly is super excited to have a grandchild named for her, and says she can't stop saying the name.

Effortless Beauty Co is doing a stylized shoot at Castleton Farms, and they are thrilled about the opportunity. Katie gets to work on makeup, and she makes conversation with the models about looking forward to her wedding. Katie says she is ready for the ring. The shoot goes well, the bride loves her makeup, and Katie says she can't wait until she gets to be in the client chair.

Brandon and Michael arrive at Zach & Whitney's, bearing lasagna and homemade bread. Zach and Whitney are thrilled to get to enjoy Michael's lasagna. Zach & Whit's house is crazy, since the boutique is taking up half their house right now. Michael talks about her sewing business, which took the back burner during school but it is growing fast. Michael is volunteering at children's hospital for now while she figures out what is next. Everyone agrees that it was a fun dinner and they need to do it more.

Alyssa calls her mom, and says she thinks she is in labor. Alyssa wants to give her mom some time to make plans. Alyssa is just in early labor but she wants her parents to start heading their way so they can meet Maci. Alyssa gets everything ready to go, but now she is wondering if it is labor or not. Alyssa starts walking because she just wants labor to get going so she can be done. Alyssa has usually had shorter labors, but this one is taking its time. Alyssa has been having contractions for a while, and so she is heading to the hospital to see if they can help her progress. In the hospital, Alyssa gets an epidural and is making quick progress. The doctor lets John help deliver the baby, and he is thrilled he got to help.  Alyssa is pleased with her hospital experience, but she is excited to go home and introduce Maci to everyone. Gil and Kelly arrive in Florida to meet Maci. Everyone is thrilled for the Webster family and wants to meet Maci.

*Episode 7: Lawson's New Love and the Boutique's New Digs!?

Chad has been working on an old camper since he loved camping as a kid and he wants to do it with his family. The camper is old, but it has good bones and they are completely redoing it. They step inside the camper and talk about what they want to change. Gil and Kelly joke that they are going to make the camper incredible like they always do. Erin says that with 2020, they look forward to getting out there and making new memories all together.

Kelly is preparing for Valentine's Day, but Kelly isn't as prepared as she usually is. Nathan and Lawson walk in, and Kelly says they need to pick about the theme. They debate different ideas, and Katie walks over to get involved. One of the little kids suggested animals, and Kelly facetimes their group text and Zach gets on to share his opinion. They joke that no matter what, Zach will come as a cowboy again, and Lawson jokes that he will be a better cowboy. Zach says he won't, since he doesn't have a girlfriend-and Kelly says Lawson actually might have some news in that department. Zach asks if he is bringing Nathan again, and Lawson says he has upgraded in the beauty department. Kelly says Lawson was traveling a lot to California, and she thought he was working but she then learned that there was a girl in California that he liked. Everyone agrees on the animal theme, and Kelly is glad to start getting to work on the party.

It is Boutique moving day, and there is a lot of clothes being transported to the new location. There was a huge moving sale where 5,000 dresses where sold which enabled them to move. It was a huge group effort to move the product. Trace and Chad load up a truck load to take to the new location, and then the team goes into the new location. Everyone is so excited by the new space- Chad has built a beautiful packaging station for the boutique. There is a lot of work still to go, but they are excited for the new space for their store.

Lawson and Trace are looking for Duke, Lawson's dog. Trace jokes that Duke likes Trace better than Lawson since he is spending more time with him. Lawson is preparing to take him to training for a few months. Jackson comes out on the porch, and he has unfortunately broken his arm snowboarding in Colorado. Jackson had surgery with 13 screws and two metal plates put in his arm.  Trace mentions that Tiffany was on the trip to Colorado, and he has been spending a lot of time in California. Lawson said his girlfriend Tiffany joined him on the trip. Lawson says it is early in the relationship but a great trip. Lawson says she is coming to Valentine's Day, and everyone is thrilled about that. Gil and Kelly are looking forward to spending more time with her. Nathan is glad they're both in relationships at the same time, and they are excited to see how this pans out.