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slapshot-to-the-heart · 4 years ago

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Breakable Heaven (pt. II) - p.l. dubois

Part I

Part two is here! Things start to heat up in this chapter, exciting stuff’s happening! I hope you guys like reading it as much as I’m loving writing - please slide into my inbox, let me know what you think! Reblogs are amazing too, it’s how we know people are liking what we’re putting out and helps to reach more people! (Plus it’s one of the joys of my life to read the tags. Seriously, so much fun.)

Part II (7.2k)

June 18 (fri)

“If we’re going to do this, we’ve got to sell it,” Laurel said, running a hand through her hair. “The fewer people who know the truth, the better.”

Pierre nodded. “Agreed.” He sat back in his chair. “What do you think your parents will say?”

Laurel laughed. “Uh, they think I’m seeing someone, actually.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, “it was easier to just say I had a boyfriend than deal with their endless pestering, you know?”

“So they’d buy it if you just told them you were getting married?”

She shrugged. “I think so. You know we’re not particularly close, they haven’t met any of my boyfriends since I was in high school. So if I told them I was engaged, I don’t think they’d bat an eye, if I’m honest.” Pierre could sense there was more to the story, more that she wasn’t telling him, but he didn’t want to press. “What about yours?” she asked.

“Well, we’ve got a couple options,” Pierre said, cracking a smile and leaning back into the cushions. “It was a drunken mistake.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Then they’d just tell us to get a divorce.”

“We fell in love after the first date.”

“Even less believable,” Laurel said, the corner of her lip twitching.

“Or…,” Pierre said, kicking his feet up on the ottoman, a wicked grin on his face, “I got you pregnant and want to do the right thing.”

Laurel snorted. “Little issue there.”

“What?”

“I’m not pregnant.”

Pierre ducked his head, blushing. “Right. There’s that.”

She nodded. “There’s that.” She tapped her fingers on the coffee table. “I’ve got it.” Pierre looked up. “We’ve been friends for a long time, couple years or something. Madeline went to York, so we met when you and Patrice came to visit. We realized we had feelings for each other a few months ago, everything moved super quickly since we already knew each other and had that foundation.”

“So we thought ‘why wait,’” Pierre finished.

“Exactly,” Laurel said. “Why wait, if we already knew.”

“It’s a classic friends-to-lovers story, a tale as old as time,” he sighed wistfully.

Laurel slapped his shoulder. “This is serious,” she said, but she was smiling all the same. “Okay, so we’ve at least got that worked out. Madeline and Patrice will obviously know, but other than that…” She trailed off.

He nodded, and an understanding passed between them. “It’s a need-to-know basis.”

“It is.” Laurel shifted her laptop on the coffee table, squeezing closer to Pierre so he could see the screen. “So, we have to go down to the courthouse for a meeting with the court clerk who will perform the ceremony, bring birth certificates and ID, and —”

He glanced over at Laurel, her tongue caught between her teeth. “And?”

“You have to publish a declaration of intent to marry twenty days before the wedding. Online. In public.”

Pierre looked oblivious. “So?”

Laurel rolled her eyes. “So, it has the date of the wedding and our full names and our whole entire addresses. And in case you’ve forgotten, you’re kind of a professional hockey player.”

He shrugged. “All due respect, Laurel, but,” he glanced at the website, “who actually checks these things?” He had a point there, she thought, but she wasn’t about to let him win.

“But your address, you’re not worried about that getting out there?”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted. “But my building’s got a receptionist and I’ve got locks on my doors. And plus,” Pierre added, “I’ve really never had much of a problem flying under the radar here. When I go back home, back to the suburbs, sure. And a little bit in Columbus, obviously. But there’s what, two million people in Montréal? I’m not on the Habs, so even the hockey fans here really couldn’t care less.”

She laughed. “Fair enough. Also, uh, living situation. We should probably talk about that.”

“You’re moving in with me?” He said it like a question, but not as if it was something that would surprise him, or something he was opposed to. He said it like it was something he already knew the answer to. “I’ve got three rooms, plenty of space, Phil and Georgia would love to have a new sister. You and Piper would fit right in,” he said, reaching down to scratch her behind the ears. “Plus it’s got a great gym in the lobby, you can cancel your membership to that seedy place downtown with that trainer who always stares at you when you do weights.” Laurel’s ears perked up; she was surprised he remembered. She did have a gym downtown that she tried to make it to a few times a week, and there was that one creepy trainer, but she had only mentioned it to him once in passing. “Plus it has hot yoga once a week, and I know you’ve been dying to try.” That much was true.

“At least let me help pay for rent,” she tried to bargain.

“Nope!” he said, wincing a second later. “I didn’t mean it in like a patronizing way, I know you’re perfectly capable of pulling your own weight. I meant like I bought it outright, so there’s no rent to be paid. I’ll let you pay the electricity bill if you want?”

Laurel grinned. “That would make me feel better, thank you.” After looking at her computer for a minute, she spoke again. “How long have you had the apartment for?”

Pierre scratched his chin. “Couple years? I bought it after signing the contract this year. Some guys buy a Lamborghini, I bought an apartment. I don’t own the place in Columbus though.”

“How come?” Laurel asked, though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

“Even with the contract, so much is up in the air. I could get traded in the middle of the season, or in the summer or whenever, and I don’t want to have just bought a house when I’ve got to move to Vancouver or wherever when the ink hasn’t even dried on the papers.”

This time, it was Laurel’s turn to leave with an unsaid question. “Is tomorrow good? To go down and get everything squared away at the courthouse?”

He bobbed his head. “Yeah, I’ve got some off-ice training in the morning, but any time after noon or so is good for me.”

Laurel nodded, making a few taps on her computer. “Okay, I’ve got us booked in at one, that good?”

“Yeah,” Pierre said, nodding in affirmation. “Now I’ve got to come up with an excuse to drive to my parents’ and get my birth certificate.”

---

It didn’t actually turn out to be all that difficult for Pierre; he made the drive back to Saint-Agathe-des-Monts later that afternoon, telling his parents he needed it to renew his health insurance card. He wasn’t sure they actually believed him, but his mom didn’t bat an eye before handing it over. Pierre spent the rest of the evening at home, cooking pasta, petting the dogs, and wondering what in the hell he had agreed to. He wasn’t second-guessing himself, not by a long-shot, but when she clicked that button to book their appointment, the gravity of the situation finally started to hit him. In less than a month, he was going to be getting married.

June 19 (sat)

Laurel met Pierre on the steps of the Montréal courthouse at a quarter to one the next day, clutching the straps of her tote like a lifeline. “Woah, Laurel, you’re holding that like you’ve got a bomb in there,” Pierre said.

She flashed him a nervous smile. “No bomb, just very official very legal documents. Don’t want to lose it.”

He held out his hand. “You ready?”

Laurel was surprised at the gesture. Not shocked that he was being kind, but that he was cognizant enough to recognize that she was nervous, and wanted to do something about it. She took his hand. “Ready.”

It only took a minute to find the office, and a few more before the receptionist called them back to the clerk’s office. She introduced herself as Juliette Bergeron, congratulated them on their engagement, and asked to see the paperwork. Passports and birth certificates were handed over, signatures were signed on dotted lines, and half an hour later, they walked out of the courthouse with an appointment for a wedding on July 10.

“Well, there’s that crossed off the checklist,” Laurel said, leaning up against the handrails as they stood on the courthouse steps. They had actually made a real checklist, a series of tasks on a shared Notes page of everything that needed to be completed before the wedding. Book the ceremony and post the public notice were done, but there were still a dozen-odd tasks left before they actually could get married. Starting with telling their parents. While they had developed as airtight a cover story as she supposed one could when they were committing what would charitably be referred to as citizenship fraud, they had agreed it was going to be far less messy to “come clean” as fiancés than after the wedding. Laurel had wanted to text them the news, or call so early they’d still be asleep and she could just avoid the conversation altogether, but Pierre had convinced her to FaceTime. “I know you guys aren’t super close, but I think they deserve that much, Laurel,” he had said, and he was right. Deep down, she knew he was right.

“Ready?” Pierre asked, rubbing her back soothingly.

Laurel flashed him a tight smile before pressing her mom’s contact. “As I’ll ever be.” Three agonizingly long rings later, her mom picked up.

“Laurel? What are you doing calling, honey? Is everything okay?”

She let out a nervous giggle. “Does something have to be wrong for me to call my parents?”

“No,” Cheryl clucked, “but to be fair, you don’t call often.”

Laurel rubbed the back of her neck in discomfort. “That’s true. Uh, anyways, is dad there?”

“He’s in the kitchen,” her mom said, starting to catch onto the fact that maybe this wasn’t quite your run-of-the-mill check-in call. “What’s this all about, pumpkin?”

The old term of endearment, one she hadn’t heard in years, brought tears to the corners of her eyes. “Can you call him in? I’d rather tell you both at the same time.”

Cheryl nodded, worry crossing her brow. “Doug? Laurel’s on the phone, she’s got something to tell us. Sounds important.”

“Coming,” Laurel heard her dad say in the background. A moment later, he padded into view. “Hey, Laurel, Mom said you’ve got some news?”

Laurel nodded. “Yeah, just something I thought you guys should know. It’s not bad, you’re just going to be surprised, so I need you to keep an open mind, okay?”

“Who is he?” Doug asked, rubbing his forehead with an exasperated expression.

She blanched. “He? Who’s he?” There’s no way he guessed...right?

“The jackass who got you pregnant, who else?”

Laurel almost choked on her own spit. “Pregnant? Who said I’m pregnant? I’m not pregnant!”

Both of her parents let out an audible sigh of relief. “Well, Laurel, what conclusion did you expect us to jump to when you called us out of the blue and said you had important news?”

Laurel bit her lip; they had a point. “Fair. But, uh, rest assured, I’m not pregnant. I’m smarter than that.” She paused, steeling her nerves. “Remember that guy I told you I was seeing a few months ago?”

Her mom squinted like she was looking into the sun. “Vaguely? You didn’t really tell us much about him. Just that he was tall, nice, you met through friends.” It was a believable enough explanation back then, and Laurel was beyond grateful it dovetailed perfectly into the story she and Pierre had conjured up. “You didn’t even tell us his name.”

Laurel reached out her free hand, the one that wasn’t holding the phone, and made a grabby motion for his hand. He interlaced his fingers with hers. “Well, his name’s Pierre-Luc Dubois—”

Doug interrupted. “Very French.”

She grimaced. “I do live in Québec, Dad. But anyways, his name’s Pierre-Luc Dubois and we’re getting married.”

They sat still on the other end of the call, so still that if it weren’t for her mom’s rapid blinking she would have thought the call had been dropped. “Married?” her mom asked softly.

“Yes, married.”

“How long have you even been seeing each other?” Doug asked, dumbfounded.

“A little under six months. I know it’s not long, and I know it seems sudden, but we’ve known each other for a long time, you know? We met when I was still back in Toronto at university, Madeline introduced us.” Her parents nodded; Madeline, they knew. Madeline, they had met. Madeline, they trusted. “And we finally realized a little bit after New Year’s that we had feelings for each other, and it’s sort of been zero to a hundred ever since. We thought, if we knew we loved each other and we knew we were done looking, then what was the point of waiting for a year or two for it to be a ‘socially acceptable’ time to get married.” Laurel finished.

Cheryl wrapped her hands around her mug of tea, eyelids still shooting rapid-fire blinks at the screen. “But, Laurel, we haven’t even met this boy, we barely know anything about him!”

Pierre squeezed her hand. “Actually, he’s just off-camera. Want to say hi, P?”

He walked into view, waving politely at the screen. “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Klerken, it’s so nice to finally meet you. Laurel’s had nothing but wonderful things to say.” A little flattery never hurt anybody, he thought.

“Lovely to meet you, Pierre-Luc,” Cheryl said. “Forgive us if we’re still a little shocked, Laurel’s not normally one to spring things on us like this.”

He laughed. “Perfectly fair. I’m sorry we haven’t had a chance to meet until now, but we’ve been trying to get used to the idea ourselves.”

Her dad leaned forward from his spot in the couch, giving Pierre as much of a once-over as he could from nearly 1500 miles away. “I’m not able to give you the normal talking-to I have with any of the other boys Laurel or Maggie have introduced us to, so this is going to have to do.” Maggie? Laurel had primed Pierre for the inevitable grilling, telling him that if it was anything like it had been in the past, it would be all bark and no bite. “So what do you do for work, Pierre-Luc?”

“I’m a professional hockey player in the NHL, I play for the Columbus Blue Jackets.”

Doug’s eyebrows went up. As much of a front as he tried to put up, he was still a middle-aged man from Minnesota, and there were few things that impressed middle-aged men from Minnesota more than their daughters being suddenly engaged to NHL players. “NHL, huh? That’s very impressive. So you’re from Québec, then?”

“Yes, sir,” Pierre answered. “My hometown’s a little outside of the city, but I live in Montréal now. My mom’s from Georgia, though, so I’ve got dual citizenship and some family still down there.”

Her parents didn’t take too kindly to the news that the wedding was in three weeks, since it was too tight a fit to be able to get time off, but promised to visit later in the summer to make a proper introduction to their new son-in-law. Her father continued to pepper him with questions about his hobbies, family, and how he takes his steak — according to the Doug Klerken rules, any man who orders anything above medium is not to be trusted — until Laurel mercifully cut him off, telling her parents they were late to meet up with some friends. “That wasn’t so bad,” Pierre said as Laurel slipped her phone into her purse, immediately plugging it into her portable charger as the FaceTime had drained all but 18% of her battery.

Laurel made a face. “They’re good people and they care about me, but…” She trailed off. “They never really understood why I’d want anything more than I was given. Anything more than the status quo. And it’s just caused a lot of friction between us.” Her eyes flashed as she remembered something. “One more thing.” Pierre’s ears perked up. “If and when you ever talk to my parents again, just...don’t bring up politics.” Laurel grimaced.

“Republicans?” he asked sympathetically.

She nodded. “Trump-supporting Republicans. It’s another one of the reasons we don’t talk much anymore. I’m liberal, I’d probably be NDP if I could vote here, and we just don’t share the same values on a lot of things.”

“That’s got to be pretty rough on you,” Pierre said.

“Yeah,” Laurel admitted. “Probably more than I want to let on, but I think it helps that I’m able to get some distance.”

Pierre took a deep breath in. “Your, uh, your dad mentioned something that I wanted to ask you about.”

Shit. Laurel had been able to avoid the conversation for long enough, but she was beginning to push her luck, and she couldn’t run forever. “Maggie?”

He nodded. “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, but I thought I should ask.”

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Laurel said. “Um, long story short, Maggie’s my sister. It’s July, so…” she did the mental math in her head, “she’d be almost 31. Total free spirit. She left town pretty soon after she graduated, came back every so often but not nearly enough. Last I heard, she was an au pair in Italy.”

“And when was that?”

“Two years ago.” Pierre figured that was as good a time as any to drop the subject, so he did. They had decided that, while they were still downtown, it would be a good opportunity to get the ring shopping out of the way. Pierre looked up the highest-rated jewelry store on Yelp, and they set off on foot.

Pierre opened the door for her as they stepped inside, greeted by a slightly over-enthusiastic salesman. “You paid for the ceremony fee, so I’m paying for the rings, okay?”

Laurel scoffed. “Hardly a fair trade, don’t you think?”

“I’ll live,” he said, smirking.

Laurel had been wandering around by the solitaires for a few minutes when Pierre walked up behind her. “I know this isn’t going to be the wedding you’ve always dreamed of,” Pierre said, “but we’re going to make it the best we can.” He looked down at the cases, Laurel’s fingers dancing over the edge of the glass cover. “When you were in high school, or university, did you ever think about what kind of wedding you wanted?” Laurel gave a small nod. “And what kind of ring did you have?”

“I’ve always liked halo cuts,” she said softly.

Pierre inched his hand towards hers, wrapping his fingers around hers. They tensed for a second, but then relaxed into his grip. “Then let’s go get you that halo cut.”

There was no one else in the store aside from the salesman, so the couple was enveloped in a comfortable silence as they browsed. Her eyes stopped on a beautiful floral halo ring with an oval diamond. Pierre nodded to the salesman, who carefully took it off of its stand and handed it to Pierre, who carefully wiggled it onto Laurel’s fourth finger. If she closed her eyes, she was almost able to pretend that it was a proposal. Laurel brought her thumb to the ring, delicately running it over the pavé band with the ghost of a smile on her face. “What do you think?” Pierre asked, as if he couldn’t already tell her answer from the look on her face.

Laurel looked up at him. “I love it. It fits perfectly.”

“Like Cinderella’s slipper.” He turned to the salesman. “Combien ça coûte?” (How much does it cost?) Laurel heard a number that made her swallow hard, more than anything she’d ever have bought for herself, but Pierre insisted it was a non-issue as he handed his card over. “He said that they’ve got another sample one in the back, and you’re welcome to just wear that one out if it fits.”

“Sounds good.” The salesman handed over the bag with Pierre’s ring and her matching wedding band, thanking them for their purchase before opening the door back into the sunny Montréal afternoon. Laurel craned her neck to try and sneak a peek inside the bag. “Don’t I get to see yours?”

Pierre cracked a wry grin. “Gotta wait until the wedding, babe. Can’t a man have a little mystery?”

“Fair enough,” Laurel said, not missing his use of the pet name but brushing it off as simply a spur-of-the-moment choice. “Do you want to do the honors?” she asked, referring to the all-important checklist.

Pierre opened his phone with his spare hand, deftly navigating to the app and tapping twice. “Four down, seven to go. We’re on a roll.

June 24 (thurs)

Surprisingly, telling Pierre-Luc’s parents hadn’t been nearly as intimidating as breaking the news to her own, at least for Laurel. They were shocked — and confused, and had a lot of questions — but were welcoming nonetheless. Patrice was almost like a second son to them, and the fact that she already came with his stamp of approval went a long way into calming them down. “He’s always been quite the romantic, the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. And he cares deeply about the people in his life. That’s you, now,” his mom had said. They drove up to meet them that Sunday, having brunch in his childhood home. That was, in essence, their first real “test” as a couple. They had never had to sell their relationship to anyone before; even when going out with Madeline and Patrice after their “engagement,” nothing ever seemed like it had changed. This time was different. This time had to be different.

His mom fawned over her engagement ring, asking her to spare no details in retelling the story of the proposal. Lucky for her, however, Laurel was the former president of the University of Toronto improv club, and coming up with background stories with exactly zero minutes to prepare was something of a specialty for her. Laurel immediately gushed about how unexpected it was; she was just expecting an evening walk through downtown until they turned down one of the piers by the basilica, reached the end overlooking the river, and Pierre dropped down on one knee. “I think I knew that he was the one way sooner than that, but it’s nice to finally have it be official,” she had said.

Laurel shook herself out of her memories, turning the door into the locker room. She grabbed a pair of scrubs out of her shared locker — she had never met Alice, the other nurse who used it, but they had made a habit of leaving each other Post-it note greetings — and stripped off her t-shirt and jeans. Shimmying on her scrub pants, she tied them, leaning back into the locker to get her bag as the door shut behind her. She glanced over to the door, waving to Claire. Claire was sweet, a transplant from Vancouver who had lived in Québec as a child and decided to come back to work. She was sweet, having just started working at the beginning of the summer, but she was young, even younger than Laurel. And while her perky and energetic nature lent itself well to the dynamics of the floor, it was a lot for her to get used to. “Hey!” Laurel said, waving as she pulled a chain out of her purse, trying to discreetly unhook it.

“Hey!” Claire responded, perky as ever. “How has your week been?” She worked Mondays and Thursdays with Laurel, but had the Saturday night shift as well.

Laurel threw her hair up into a bun. “Good, good, busy. Met up with some friends yesterday, so that was nice, but not much. Took Piper to the dog park.” With my fiancé, she neglected to add. She twisted her ring off, trying to slip it onto the chain without Claire noticing. Like most of her married colleagues, Laurel had taken to wearing her engagement ring on a chain around her neck while at work instead of on her finger. It was under her scrubs most of the time, keeping at bay the questions she wasn’t yet ready to answer, and made it much easier to pull on and off gloves when the occasion called for it. But Claire was eagle-eyed, catching the sparkle of the diamond just as she slid it onto the chain.

She audibly gasped. “Is that an engagement ring?”

Laurel had to think fast; once again, her improv skills were called up to bat. “No? It’s, uh, it’s a family heirloom, it was my grandma’s. Guess I didn’t think too much about which finger I put it on.” She could tell Claire didn’t quite believe her side of the story, but thankfully, she didn’t press.

“If you say so,” she said, giving a not-so-subtle wink.

June 27 (sun)

Laurel was sat in her living room, her TV on in the background as she scrolled absent-mindedly through her phone, savoring her last few hours before she had to go to bed for her 5:30 wake-up call. On a whim, she opened her Twitter. It wasn’t an app she used all that often — mostly just to keep in contact with the handful of high school and college friends who didn’t use Instagram — and she was well aware that she’d probably have to limit her use for her own sanity when she and Pierre went “public” after the wedding, but she liked being able to keep up with everyone. She followed her friends, a handful of celebrities and a few journalists, but her timeline wasn’t flooded with updates. Then she saw the little blue alert on the bottom. One new message. Clicking to her inbox, Laurel saw that it had been sent by Madeline four minutes earlier, a link to a tweet that just had the caption: “you should probably see this.”

Chewing the inside of her cheek, Laurel pressed the link. What could be so important that Madeline would have sent a message with that kind of urgency? And why didn’t she just text it? God, I hate puckbunny blogs, Laurel thought as she read the handle. Her eyes raced across the screen. So I was looking up the address of my friend’s wedding earlier since I lost my invitation and didn’t want to tell her, and saw this under??? I know he can be a private guy, but tell me you guys don’t think this is for PLD. Her eyes froze as soon as she finished reading, praying that somehow they were talking about a different PLD, that they hadn’t been found out and their cover hadn’t been blown and she wasn’t about to have a panic attack for the first time since junior year — and then she saw the screenshot. Of their wedding announcement. Their public wedding announcement that not only had their full names and places of birth, but the location of the ceremony, the time, and their addresses. God, this is exactly what Laurel had been worried about. She immediately reported the tweet for exposing personal information, then made the poor decision to look at the comments section. Some people insisted it was legitimate, some convinced it was just photoshop, some were convinced that it couldn’t be Pierre-Luc even it looked like him, because he was training in Columbus for the summer, right? Thank God, it didn’t seem like anyone had done a deep enough dive to figure out who she was; there weren’t any screenshots of her accounts or photos of her in the comments section. It was eight minutes from the time she reported it to when it was taken down, and while Laurel was grateful for the quick response, she felt like she was on a cliffside, one foot off of the edge, until it had been deleted.

Her phone lit up with a text notification from Pierre. Funny thing happened today.

Oh God, Laurel thought. Had he seen it? He hadn’t.

My mom asked what you were planning to do about flowers and got very upset when I said we didn’t have any plans. She let out a tense breath. Flowers, she could do. She wanted to get your number to send over the names of a few florists she knows in the area, but I thought I should check with you first to make sure that’s okay.

Laurel smiled, her right hand draped over the side of the couch to scratch Piper behind the ears. That sounds great, P.

As promised, his mom texted Laurel soon after, coming armed with recommendations of Montréal florists. She echoed her son’s words almost identically; You deserve to have the wedding you’ve always dreamed of even if the circumstances are different, she had written. Her eyes pricked with tears as she fell asleep.

July 3 (sun)

It was a week before the wedding, and Laurel had started to pack up her apartment. It seemed much more practical to do it in stages then try to finish everything the weekend of the wedding. So she sat with Pierre on the floor of her bedroom, moving boxes between them as they packed away into the next season of her life. Some things, she obviously couldn’t put away yet — she still needed clothes and toothpaste, and they hadn’t been able to get all of her pots and pans down to the Goodwill yet. But books and keepsakes could be boxed up, and unless there was a snowstorm in July, she didn’t need her parka either.

“Oh, what’s this?” Pierre asked as he pulled a few more volumes off of her bookshelf. Laurel groaned when she saw what was in his hand.

“The 2013 Cloquet Senior High School yearbook. My sophomore year.”

He burst out laughing. “This, I’ve got to see.” He opened the cover. “Your mascot was the Lumberjacks?”

Laurel ducked her head, her cheeks heating. “Regrettably, yes. That’s what happens when your whole area used to be milling towns.”

Pierre’s brows furrowed. “I thought you said everything was about the mines, doesn’t your dad work in the mines?”

“He does,” Laurel said. “They had to figure out something to do after all of the trees had been cut down, you know?”

Pierre got the feeling it was really more of a rhetorical question. “What was your school like?”

She placed one of her old Harry Potter books into the box. “Small is the first word that comes to mind. My graduating class couldn’t have been much bigger than 150 or so? We’d get snow days a couple of times a year, most of the time if it wasn’t a blizzard everyone would end up going down to the school anyways, we’d all have big snowball fights on the football field. Actually,” she said, pulling out her phone from her back pocket, “I think I might still have a clip of one.” She pulled up her videos, scooting over to Pierre and leaning into his side so he could see the screen. Raucous laughter filtered through the speakers; the only things in sight were snow forts and the tiniest bits of beanies peeking over the top.

“THIS. IS. WAR!”

Laurel snickered. “I think that sounds like Nicholas, he was the varsity quarterback for a few years. Usually was the one leading the sieges.” She put her phone away a minute later after the clip ended. “But other than that? There were actually a lot of pretty interesting elective classes, I got to take photography, work in the preschool on campus, take a class on Anishinaabe studies.”

“Anishinaabe?” Pierre questioned.

“There’s a Native American reservation in town, the tribe’s Ojibwe so that’s the language family we studied. A lot of kids at the school, including one of my best friends Kristen, live on the reservation, so I think they wanted to not only have the class available for Native students who maybe wanted to learn more about their culture, but also for non-Native kids like me, so we’re able to gain a respect for whose land we’re living on,” Laurel explained.

“Makes sense,” he said, flipping through the pages. He snorted. “This photo might be the best thing I’ve ever seen.”

Laurel peeked over his shoulder, cringing at her school picture. “I really couldn’t have dressed any more 2012 if I tried, Pierre. Aggressively off-the-shoulder top, one of those godforsaken hair feathers, I bet you’d find dark wash skinny jeans if you could see from the waist down.”

“Hey, don’t talk about my fiancée like that,” Pierre said. “I like the look, I swear. You were such a cute kid, oh my God.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know. What happened to me, right?”

He looked at her from the side. “Nope.”

June 9 (fri)

It was the day before the wedding, and Laurel was trying to find a dress. She had been planning on wearing one — even if it was a courthouse wedding, she still wanted to look nice — but then she had spilled red wine onto the light blue one she had been thinking of wearing as she ironed it in the living room, and she didn’t want to put all of her eggs in one basket if the Oxiclean didn’t end up working. She called Madeline in a panic, who promised to be over as soon as she could with a few dresses of her own to see what she could do. There was a knock on the door, and Laurel practically flew across the room to fling it open, gathering Madeline in a hug even before she had crossed the threshold. Madeline patted her clumsily on the back. “There, there, Laur. It’s going to be okay, we’re going to fix it.”

Laurel ran one hand through her hair, her curls as frazzled as her mind. “It’s got to be. Half of my stuff’s already over at P’s place, what, do you want me to wear a,” she opened up her dresser, eyeing its meager contents, “bralette and lacy thong to my own wedding?”

Madeline shrugged. “I doubt Pierre would mind,” she said casually.

Laurel almost choked on her own spit. “What do you mean?”

“Men are visual creatures, and you’re hot as hell, Laurel,” she stated matter-of-factly.

“Still,” Laurel said, opening her closet and grabbing every single left over dress from its hanger, trying to distract herself from Madeline’s words, “I’d rather not be arrested for public indecency. I’m trying to stay in the country, remember?”

Madeline rolled her eyes. “I remember.” She thumbed through the dresses on Laurel’s bed. “You’re not wearing a black dress to get married,” she said pointedly.

“It’s pretty?” Laurel tried to reason.

“It is, but it’s a wedding, not a funeral.” She moved onto the next one. “Bright red bodycon is great for the club, but not sure coquettish seductress is the look you’re going for.” The next one was a striped sweater dress; it was the middle of summer, so according to Madeline, that meant it was out. There was a navy shift dress that “could work, but it’s a little too much work and not enough play,” her friend had said. Laurel tried on Madeline’s dresses, but seeing as how she had three inches on her, the hemlines weren’t exactly in her favor. Madeline pulled out the last of the stack, gasping softly. “This one’s beautiful, where’s it from?”

Madeline looked at it, a knee-length ivory lace dress, rolling her eyes good-naturedly at Madeline. “It was for Aurélie’s bachelorette party last year, probably explains. You were drunk off your ass that night.”

“I’m hurt by that characterization, but I don’t remember enough to correct you,” Madeline said. “It’s perfect though, why didn’t you choose this one in the first place?”

Laurel rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not sure?” Madeline gave her a look. “Fine, it just seems...It seems too much like an actual wedding dress. It’s white, or close enough, anyways,” she noted, fingering one of the delicate straps, “and gorgeous, and formal, and I’m worried if I wear it it’ll seem too real, and I’ll start thinking this is more than it is. Because all it is at the end of the day is a friend doing me a really, really big favor,” she finished, huffing and falling back onto her mattress.

“At the end of the day, it’s still a wedding,” Madeline corrected, laying down next to her. “And you’re still a bride and he’s still a groom and you deserve to feel beautiful and cherished and special on your wedding day, no matter its circumstances. And who knows? Maybe you two stay married, and fall in love, and you live happily ever after with your half-dozen dogs and 2.5 kids on some farm out in the suburbs.”

Laurel snorted. “As if.” But two hours later, long after Madeline had already left, she sat back on the bed, hand ghosting over the lace of her now-wedding dress, thinking that maybe, just maybe, Madeline had a point.

June 10 (sat)

It was the morning of the wedding, and Laurel was pacing her room in her sweatpants, Piper looking at her in confusion from the doorway. It was just past 7 and the appointment wasn’t until 10, but she still had to get dressed and do her hair and makeup and pick up the flowers and eat and — her internal monologue was interrupted by the doorbell. Still half-asleep, she ambled over to the door, pulling it open without even really checking to see who it was.

“Surprise!!” Patrice shouted, walking through the door, followed by Madeline and Pierre. “Madeline mentioned that you seemed a bit overwhelmed yesterday, so we thought we’d come over and get ready over here!”

Laurel shuffled out of the way as Piper jumped on Pierre, who laughed and calmed her down with a few scratches on her chin. She had really taken a liking to him and his two dogs, which had initially been a point of nervousness for Laurel. But they got along great, shared space well, and she seemed to love her new brother and sister. “That’s really nice of you guys, I appreciate it,” she said sincerely. “Um, I don’t have much food left because of the move, but I think there’s some cereal in the cupboard?”

“Silly you,” Pierre said, holding out a paper bag. “Did you think I’d leave my bride hungry on our wedding day? I got you sourdough french toast, should be on the top.” They had gone out to brunch once and she had ordered it, audibly moaning at how incredible it tasted. He remembered.

“And raspberry mochas!” Madeline said, presenting her with a cup.

Laurel took it, wrapping her spare arm around Madeline and kissing Pierre on the cheek. “This is incredible, guys. Really. I didn’t expect anything like this.”

“Exactly!” Madeline said, a perky expression on her face. “It’s a surprise!” She drifted into the kitchen, pulling out plates from Laurel’s cabinet and forks from her drawers. “Breakfast is served!”

Laurel let out a laugh as she grabbed the box with her french toast, taking a sip of her mocha. “I think the credit goes to the chefs at the restaurant, but whatever you say, Madi.”

Madeline rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but we ordered it.

By the time they had all inhaled their breakfasts and cleaned the kitchen — Laurel and Pierre tag-teamed the dishes — it was almost eight, and Madeline whisked her into her room to get ready. “There should be a couple beers in the fridge, help yourselves!” Laurel shouted out the door as Madeline tried to wrestle her into the ensuite. For the most part, Madeline was good at listening to Laurel’s pleas against a dramatic makeup look. Muted rose lipstick, filled in her eyebrows, delicately pulled back her hair into a twisted bun. “Where’s your setting spray?” Madeline asked, rooting through her makeup bag.

“Top drawer on the left. Are you finally going to let me see?”

Madeline pulled the drawer out, uncapping the bottle and spritzing it over Laurel’s face. “Go for it.”

Laurel turned around, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror. “Oh my God,” she said, turning her head so the glimmer of her highlighter caught in the early-morning sun streaming through the open window. “You’ve outdone yourself.”

“Don’t say that until you’ve put the dress on,” Madeline said, pulling it off of its hanger and draping it across the chair. Sweats came off and the dress went on, Madeline carefully pulling up the back zipper and straightening out her hem. Laurel bent down to put on her shoes, threading the silver straps through the tiny metal clasp before giving her leg a good shake. Madeline looked at her sceptically.

“What?” Laurel asked innocently. “I don’t want it to fall off halfway down the aisle.”

There was a knock on the bedroom door, Patrice’s voice floating in from the other side. “It’s 9:20, you two about ready to head out?”

“Coming!” Madeline called back, pulling Laurel up from the bed. “You ready, Laur?” Laurel gave a nervous nod. “Let’s go get you married.”

She stepped out into the living room, reaching up to her neck and fingering the silver filigree of her grandma’s wedding necklace, one of the only things she had left to remember her by. If she wasn’t able to complete the whole rhyme, at least she’d have her something old. “Who’s driving?” she asked.

Pierre wheeled around, mouth gaping like a fish when he saw her. Laurel immediately looked down to her dress, wondering if she had spilled one of her pre-wedding mimosas. “What is it?” she asked frantically. “Is there something in my teeth?”

He shook his head, tugging at the sleeves of his navy blue suit. “No, there’s nothing in your teeth, it’s perfect. You look beautiful.” They were in the car five minutes later, picked up the bouquet from the florist five minutes after that, and were outside of the courthouse by 9:50. Laurel took a deep breath, looking up at the glass doors of the Palais de Justice. Pierre threaded his fingers between hers, giving a reassuring squeeze. “You good?”

Laurel nodded, nervous but determined, sure that she was making the right decision. “Ready.” She barely remembered signing in, barely remembered going back to the clerk’s office, barely remembered her reading the mandated articles of the civil code. She gripped Pierre’s hands, giving him as much of a reassuring smile as she could, as the vows were read.

“Pierre-Luc Dubois, do you take Laurel Elizabeth Klerken, here present, to be your wife?” Juliette asked.

“I do.”

“Laurel Elizabeth Klerken, do you take Pierre-Luc Dubois, here present, to be your husband?”

“I do,” Laurel said, voice steady.

Juliette continued. “By virtue of the powers vested in me by law, I now declare you, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and you, Laurel Elizabeth Klerken, united in the bonds of marriage.” Patrice passed over the rings; Laurel slid Pierre’s onto his ring finger, he gently twisted hers to rest on top of her engagement ring. “You are now legally married. Allow me, on my own behalf and on behalf of all those present, to offer you our best wishes for your happiness. You may now kiss the bride.”

Laurel panicked for a moment, before looking up and meeting Pierre’s eyes. In the span of a second, she communicated her unspoken agreement with the tiniest nod of her head, and his lips were on hers. His arms were against the small of her back, hers wrapped around his neck, and even enough it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, it felt like hours. It felt like coming home.

#pierre-luc dubois #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #hockey smut #nhl writing #pierre-luc dubois imagine #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #nhl smut #nhl #hockey #hockey fanfiction #hockey fic

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youngbugandtonystank · 4 years ago

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Hi, good mornining! I saw your recent post, and I have few questions. 1) have you previously done a review of Og!MJ's character or anything about her actress' interview? Bcs its my first time hearing (reading) that she is like that. I would like to know more about it, please? 2) i've been looking for ages for more information regarding michelle's family, where did you find the deleted scene? I've never heard about that. :( Thank you for your help and contribution to this fandom!

Hi♥

have you previously done a review of Og!MJ's character or anything about her actress' interview? Bcs its my first time hearing (reading) that she is like that. I would like to know more about it, please?

Instead of supporting the new Spider-man (and yes, she’s entitled to her own opinion but c’mon, this comes as really petty from her part), she decided to criticize him back when everyone was criticizing the new spider-man. Back then everyone was doubting Tom; saying he was either too young, looked too skinny to fit in the role, or didn’t have what was necessary to be spider-man. This happens almost all the time with all kinds of actors. This happened with Gal Gadot when she got the role of Wonder Woman, same with Candice Patton when she got the role of Iris West, etc. Kirsten was one of them, she even suggested Tom was doing it only for the money. She didn’t stop and see the effort he was putting into the character, she could’ve even reached out to him or Laura Harrier (who was the female lead at the time) to congratulate them. Andrew Garfield didn’t have a problem doing that;

"If I am being totally honest, I am so excited Spider-Man is back in the hands of Marvel. I think that's a really awesome move.”

This happens a lot with cancel culture too, people are quick to judge something they usually don’t even know.

She told Marie Claire magazine, “We made the best ones, so who cares? I’m like, ‘You make it all you want.’ They’re just milking that cow for money. It’s so obvious. You know what I mean? I don’t care. Everyone likes our Spider-Man. Come on, am I right or what? Listen, I’d rather be in the first ones than the new ones.”

And this was Holland’s response to her:

“She’s entitled to her own opinion and I’m not one to judge at all. I definitely am not doing this movie for the money. I mean, it’s a job that I think anyone would do regardless of what you were getting paid, you know? All I know is I had the greatest time on this movie and I absolutely loved it and, you know, if she doesn’t want to go and see it, I don’t really care. I don’t dislike her in any way for what she said and she’s entitled to her opinion, so it’s all cool,”

She could’ve handled this with more class tbh. But still, I’m guessing she can change her mind anytime she wants.

i've been looking for ages for more information regarding michelle's family, where did you find the deleted scene? I've never heard about that.

"There was a moment when they come back from Washington in Homecoming — I don't think it made it into the movie — where you get the sense where she clearly doesn't have someone there to pick her up and meet her at the bus and May and Peter offer to give her a ride home. You get a sense maybe there's some sad home life going on." writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. They wrote the script for Spider-man: Homecoming.

This is the part that bothers me about her character. They don’t even bother with her. Like, this scene was not even filmed because it’s not between the deleted scenes in the DVD, or at least they didn’t consider the scene to be worthy to be there. If she was going to be an important character, why don’t they let her have a storyline or at least let the audience know more about her?

Take into consideration that we knew Mary Jane Watson’s family (Philip and Madeline), inspirations and daily life (She was a waitress, a former actress, a Jazz club singer, was in the broadway theater, she loves modeling and worked to develop independence and smarts, etc) and story (In order to escape her abusive, alcoholic father she pursues a career in acting to find more freedom and self-direction) in the Raimi’s films.

Mary Jane: Oh. They said I needed acting lessons. A *soap opera* told me I needed acting lessons.

Peter: Lemme buy you a cheeseburger. The sky's the limit.

We knew Gwen Stacy’s family (George, Helen, Philip, Howard, Simon), inspirations and daily life (She was a lab assistant to Dr. Curt Connors before becoming the senior research officer at Oscorp Industries, she was the valedictorian of her school, one of Midtown's star students, she’s in the debate team, she used to help Flash with his homework, got the antidote to replace the reptilian serum, she was going to go to Oxford with a scholarship in molecular medicine, etc) and story (her father was the captain of the New York Police Department who strongly wants Spider-man not to involve her daughter in his superhero life while she’s head intern turned senior research officer to Dr. Connors who is the world's foremost authority on herpetology and is studying to follow her dream career in molecular medicine) in the Amazing Spiderman.

Gwen: I have to go to England, Peter. It's important to me. I mean, maybe we're on different paths right now. You know? I don't know. Maybe we're just going different ways.

Peter: Gwen. Good luck.

We knew Liz Allan/Toomes’ family (Adrian and Doris), inspirations and daily life (academic goals, has parties, discusses normal things with friends like crushes and superheroes, Betty is her best friend, wants everyone to have a bright future, reads coaching books and watches TED talks to motivate her team, she’s also the head of the dance and planning committee, one of the top students in Midtown, she’s the captain of the decathlon team, she mentioned she struggled to balance school and other priorities as a sophomore, etc) and story (While she was busy studying and building a career for herself, her father was selling illegal alien weapons and was in the trading business behind her and her mother’s back) in Homecoming.

Peter: Wow, you really... This is really important to you.

Liz: Yeah. It’s our future. I’m not gonna screw it up.

It feels like they’re involved in the story, like they’re actually main characters instead of being the love interest only. And take into consideration that I don’t even like Mary Jane from the Raimi’s films.

Isn’t it weird that we don’t know anything about Michelle?

We know:

She likes to read.

She is fluent in sarcasm.

She likes to go to protests.

She’s in the academic decathlon.

But I could say the same about the extra kids in the decathlon team.

I could go around the excuse of ‘some things happen off-screen’ when it comes to the romance between Peter and Michelle (something that they didn’t even take time to develop either), but what’s the excuse for her character development? We know even more about Flash than her. We know Flash likes being a DJ, he studies hard to be #1, he’s rich, he feels jealous of Peter, his parents are never around and make him refer to them in a detached manner, we even saw Flash’s date in Homecoming and the fact that he took her to dinner first before going to the dance. We even know Flash’s butler lmao. This is why part of me believes she’s only there as fan-service, given that fans love the connection between Tom and Zendaya, and because the actress herself is popular.

This could also be happening because Spider-man belongs to a bigger world now. He’s part of a big franchise and maybe these details aren’t necessary anymore. Maybe romance is not a big deal because they need to focus on Peter. But I still think it’s unfair. I hope we can see more of her story in SM3.

#peter parker #tom holland #spiderman #marvel #mcu #zendaya #michelle jones #emma stone #gwen stacy #kirsten dunst #mary jane watson #liz allan #laura harrier

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doyouever-daydream · 4 years ago

Text

Friends with Kids.

A/N I re-watched Friends with Kids for the firs time in years and I came up with this, if you, like me, love rom-coms I highly recommend it, therefore if you don't want spoilers for the movie, go watch it and then come back here to read this! For the sake of the story there might be some OOC moments, don't kill me. Also there are many time-jumps so I hope it’s not too confusing. English is not my first language so bear with me, I try my best, I'm still working on it. I enjoyed writing this so much! I started last month and it was a blast so hopefully you enjoyed it as well, if you did, let me know! Thank you for reading this super long oneshot. P.S. This is the first work of the Movie AU series that I've been planning (if you pay close attention, without intending to I wrote a couple clues about others stories I'm working on (Movie AU's as well) 👀

P.S. 2 You should go and check this post and this post and help if you can ❤

ALSO this is another entry for my @cmbingo card, the square is Friends to Lovers.

Summary: After seeing all of their friends having kids, Penelope and Luke decide that since none of them seem to have found their person, they agree to have a child of their own. Having a kid with your best friend can't be that bad, right? (Movie AU: Friends with Kids)

Pairing: Penelope Garcia x Luke Alvez (with a little bit of Jemily 🤭)

Warnings: Cursing, mentions of sex, bad jokes, SLOWBURN, some angst I guess, some grammar mistakes.

Word count: 15410 (y’all told me to post it as a one instalment lmao 🤯🤯🤯)

Masterlist (You can also find this and other fanfics in my AO3 acc )

Luke didn’t need to look up to know that Penelope was finally down in the lobby, the sound of her high heels gave it away, he pocketed his phone and got up, ready to go and meet their friends.

“Hello chica” He kissed her cheek and she returned the gesture.

“Hi newbie, I’m sorry it’s so late, I got caught up at work, let’s go”

“After you” Once they were outside their apartment building, they called a cab, eager to get to the restaurant and catch up with their friends.

“How was work?” Penelope asked him as she put on lipstick.

Luke shrugged “Same as usual, nothing exciting happens, what about you?”

“Terrible day, I can’t wait to drink a couple glasses of wine” Luke snorted and raised an eyebrow “Or five”

“It’s Friday so I’m also thinking about getting a little tipsy” She placed her lipstick in her purse and rested her hands in her lap with a smile on her face.

“It’s been so long since the eight of us have gone out to dinner, I miss everyone”

“I know, I don’t think I’ll recognize their faces anymore” Penelope rolled her eyes instead of going along with it.

They remained in a comfortable silence the rest of the time, saving everything else they had to say until they were with the rest. Penelope and Luke saw each other much more often than the others, mostly because they lived in the same building, just an elevator ride apart, Penelope’s place was on the third floor while Luke’s was on the seventh. Another reason as to why they didn’t see each other that much was because half of the gang, Matt, Kristy, Derek and Savannah were now parents and they didn’t have as much free time time as before.

Once in the restaurant, Penelope walked as quickly as she could, Luke following close behind careful to act if she tripped or something. Penelope’s smile fell just a little when she only saw Emily and JJ sitting at the table.

“Hey, you guys are here” Emily and JJ quickly rushed to them, and after a round of greetings and hugs, the four sat down.

“Where's the rest of the gang?” Luke asked, looking around to see if they were by the bar or coming from the bathroom.

“Yeah, we can’t be the awesome eight when there are only four of us here” Penelope stated as she nicely signaled the waiter to come over.

Emily bit her lip and looked at JJ “They called to inform us they can’t make it tonight” The blonde woman informed them.

“Kristy’s not feeling well and Matt has to be there to take care of the kids and Derek and Savannah couldn’t find a sitter” Emily added carefully watching Penelope, they all knew she had been looking forward to this dinner for a few weeks now.

“Oh” Penelope forced a smile “It’s ok, I get it, things happen” Under the table, Luke took her hand and squeezed it, she looked at him and smiled a little less forced this time.

“We’ll be the fabulous four tonight” JJ raised her glass and Penelope remembered she hadn’t seen them in a few months so it was still exciting getting the chance to see them.

“I’ll drink to that” They all proceeded to order their drinks and dinner, ready to make the most of the evening.

They spent the next hour and a half talking about how life was, JJ and Emily told them about the trip they made to Italy to celebrate their three years of marriage, Penelope told them a funny story about a blind date gone wrong, Luke shared he was getting promoted at work, overall life was good for all of them and it made the evening much more pleasant even though four of their best friends weren’t there.

“There’s this guy at work who I think would be great for you” JJ commented while eating her dessert.

“I don’t know if I should trust you to set me up anymore, last time was horrible” Penelope replied remembering the last date she had with one of JJ’s prospects for her.

“No, this time it’ll be better, I promise”

“I think you’d like this guy, Pen” Emily said while sipping on her glass of wine.

Luke nudged her with his elbow “Come on, chica, let JJ set you up, it can’t be worse than the time the guy bursted into tears when you told him you were a Libra”

They all laughed, followed by a loud sigh from Penelope “God, I missed this so much, being with you, laughing at my terrible luck when it comes to dating”

“I missed it too” Emily interjected “Being together not laughing about your love life”

“I gotta say it” Luke started “I love our friends’ kids so much but I miss the times when it was just the eight of us, you know?”

Before JJ or Emily said anything Penelope spoke “I know, I mean I’m also super grateful those little sweethearts joined the fam but on nights like these I get all nostalgic reminiscing the pre-babies era”

JJ and Emily shared a look and both Penelope and Luke knew something was up “What’s that?” Luke wondered.

Emily took JJ’s hand “Well, one of the news we wanted to share tonight was that JJ and I are adopting” Penelope and Luke were wide eyed “We actually started the process a few months ago but didn’t know when we were going to be matched and we didn’t expect it to happen soon but we’ve been matched, it’s sweet one year old girl” JJ finished telling their news to their friends.

“Her name is Emerson and she’s coming home with us in a couple weeks” Emily waited anxiously to see their reactions.

Penelope was the first one to speak “Oh my God, you guys, congratulations, a new addition to the fam” She was genuinely excited with her news and so was Luke.

“It’s great to hear this, you’ll be amazing moms” He turned to Penelope “We’re getting a new niece”

“I know, I know, look about what we said earlier-” JJ cut her off.

“Oh, it’s ok, we know kids aren’t really your thing so it’s alright” Luke was the only one who noticed how Penelope’s face changed for one second, she quickly smiled again, hoping no one noticed the flash of disappointment in her face at JJ’s words.

After saying their goodbyes and promising to reunite once Emerson was settled with JJ and Em, Luke and Penelope took another cab to go back to their apartments. She was silent and Luke didn’t know if it was a good idea to ask what was on her mind, he debated whether or not to start a conversation.

Before thinking it twice he started “So was it true?” Luke questioned and Penelope tilted her head.

“What do you mean?” Luke licked his lips.

“What JJ said about kids not being your thing” Penelope sighed and bit her lip, of course Luke had noticed her expression when she heard their friend saying this.

“She was referring to both of us, Luke” She tried to avoid answering his question.

“I know but in my case she’s wrong I would like kids” She looked at him with raised eyebrows and a smirk in her face.

“I didn’t know that, newbie” Luke shrugged “I honestly assumed you were the no kids kind of guy”

“Are you kidding me? My mom would never forgive me if I never gave her grandchildren” Penelope laughed imagining Elena, Luke’s mom, lecturing him to give her grandchildren.

“So you’re doing it for your mom then?”

“No, I really wanna be a dad, someday, a tiny human that’s half me, that would be great” She patted his shoulder.

“You’re right, that would be great” He looked at her expectantly “What?”

“What about you, Penelope? Would you like to have kids?” She pressed her lips together.

“Yes, I would love that” She admitted after a few seconds of being silent “The thing is I have no one, sometimes I think I should’ve said yes to Kevin when he proposed, I’d have children by now”

“You’re gonna find someone” She rolled her eyes “You will, you are gorgeous and an amazing woman”

“Have you ever wondered if you’ve already met your person? You know, the one you’re gonna end up with?” Penelope questioned.

“No, I haven’t met my person, I know that much, but I will and so will you, Pen, you’ll see” He put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder, starting to feel sleepy, they remained like that until they got home, said goodnight and went to sleep to their apartments.

Almost four months later, Luke and Penelope were hosting a baby shower for Matt and Kristy, it turned out that time they had cancelled dinner with them was because Kristy was having a hard time during the pregnancy.

Everyone was there, including friends they hadn’t seen in a while, all of them with their significant others: Spencer, Tara, Alex, Kate, David, Aaron and Elle.

At one point of the party, Penelope escaped from the conversations about marriage and kids, and she stood in a corner trying to go unnoticed, during the entire gathering Luke had kept an eye on her, since they were planning the party, he noticed the subject was still a sensitive for her.

“We did good” He said as he leaned against the wall.

Penelope looked around his place, everyone seemed to be having a good time “Yeah, I think it turned out pretty well” He offered his glass of wine, it was almost full “Thank you”

“I’ve always known we were a dynamic duo” This earned him an eye roll from Penelope, he expected her to say something else but she remained quiet and so did he.

She took in the scene of her friends with their children, the look on their eyes were like nothing she had ever seen before, she knew these people from a very long time and there was always a huge difference between the before and after having kids.

“I want this” Penelope said out of the blue.

“Ok” Luke said unsure as to what she was referring, he thought about it for a second “I can plan a birthday party for you next year, Pen”

“Not a party, I want to have a baby” He didn’t know what to say to that but just in that moment JJ walked over to them with Emerson in her arms.

“This little one is looking for her fairy godmother” Emerson reached her arms to Penelope and she happily took the one year old in her arms.

“Did you, little Em?” She kissed her goddaughter’s head “I was missing you too” The baby babbled, content to be with her auntie.

“I’ll go grab some cake” JJ turned around and walked towards the kitchen and Kristy came to join the three of them.

“Thank you guys so much for this” She offered a warm smile “I promise you we’re done after this one” She announced while she rubbed her round belly.

“Oh don’t mind us, you have as many babies as you guys like” Luke joked and when they laughed, little Emerson joined them with a giggle.

“No, we’re definitely done, it’s your turn to find someone and start giving us nieces and nephews, right, Emerson?”

“I think this one will get a little sister or brother before we know it, Em and JJ are over the moon being moms” Penelope stated.

“I know” Kristy agreed “It’s been really touching seeing them in this new phase”

“I hope someday you guys get to see me being a mom” The nostalgia was obvious in her voice.

“It’s gonna happen” Kristy assured her “And I can’t wait, Penelope” She smiled to her and then proceeded to go with her husband.

Seeing Penelope with Emerson and the rest of their friends’ children left him thinking, after the baby shower was over Penelope stayed to help him clean even when he told her to call it a night and go to get some rest, but she refused, they spent the next couple hours tidying up the place, once they were done Luke offered to order takeout but she didn’t accept and went to her apartment.

Luke tried to get some sleep but he kept turning and tossing in his bed, his thoughts not letting him rest, he tried everything but ultimately failed, he looked at his alarm clock, it was almost 2:00 AM. Unable to get his idea out of his mind, he got up and walked towards the elevator, he needed to tell Penelope what was happening on his mind.

Once he got down to her floor, he stood outside her door for a few minutes thinking maybe it was too out of line to make her the proposition he was thinking about. He pressed his lips together and rubbed his palms in his pajama pants, trying to muster enough confidence to knock on her door.

He sighed and knocked a couple times.

Luke tried a few more times, wanting to tell Penelope what he was thinking about, after all it was his best friend, if she didn’t accept, they could laugh it up and continue as if nothing happened.

Penelope opened the door “What’s up, Luke?” She put on her glasses as her eyes adjusted to the light.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” Penelope yawned.

He stared at her and took a deep breath “I want a baby” Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Are you… Drunk?” She questioned and he shook his head.

“I want to be a dad” He blurted.

“Ok? Well I know everyone calls me the fairy godmother but it’s not like I can make a baby appear and give it to you”

“What if you could?” Luke objected.

Penelope let out a frustrated sigh “Are you high?”

“No, Penelope, you want to be a mom and I want to be a dad, we haven’t found our person but we’re best friends I thought maybe we could try this”

“How would that even work? Luke, what the fuck?”

“Look, there are different types of families, two best friends having a kid and then finding their person doesn’t sound too crazy to me” He insisted.

“Are you being serious right now?” Penelope wondered, trying to examine his face to see if he was messing with her.

“I am” He walked to her and took her hand “Think about it, we’re best friends, we have a baby and we split everything 50/50 costs, responsibilities, and it will be good because we’re not attracted to each other, we won’t get to have married couple fights and all the complicated part” He offered a small smile to his friend who looked at him open-mouthed trying to process everything he was saying.

“I need some time to think about it” Luke smiled when he heard those words and let go of her hand.

“Alright, that’s ok” He walked towards the door “Let me know what you decide on, you know where to find me” As he was about to leave, he turned around and quickly walked to her to hug her.

“Go to sleep, Alvez”

“Garcia-Alvez has a nice ring to it” He whispered in her ear before she swatted at his chest, he rushed to the door and closed it behind him, leaving Penelope standing there, shocked at his proposition but also thoughtful, she walked to her bedroom and snuggled once again in her bed, trying to regain her sleep before Luke came to disrupt her mind.

Penelope and Luke were busy with work for the next couple weeks, until one night she texted him if she could come up to see him, he instantly replied with a yes and Penelope was on her way with an answer to his proposition. She let herself in and walked to his living room, he was watching TV.

“Hello stranger” He patted the couch, inviting her to sit beside him.

She plopped next to him and Luke put his arm around her without taking his eyes from the screen “How’s… life?”

“Good I guess?” He quickly shot her a look with an eyebrow raised “How about you?”

Penelope played with her hands “Did you mean what you said that other night?” Luke turned to her and took the remote control turning the TV off and giving her his undivided attention.

“About having a baby with you? Absolutely” His voice was firm and his face was serious.

“I’ve thought about it” She looked at him and he was waiting for an answer.

“And?” He questioned with raised eyebrows.

“Ok” Penelope stated in a whisper.

Luke smiled “Ok?”

“Ok” She returned the smile “You are right, there are different type of families and two friends having a kid doesn’t sound like the worst idea”

He leaned forward to her “Should we get to it? Like now?” Penelope jumped.

“No, not now but soon I guess, I’m not sure” She was suddenly self conscious, thinking that in an attempt to have a baby together, they’d need to have sex.

“We could do those fertility tests to know when you’re ovulating” Penelope looked surprised.

“How do you know about those?” She asked with amusement.

“What? Because I’m a guy I can’t know? Come on, Pen, I’m a modern men” She chuckled and looked at him waiting for the truth.

“Ok I saw it on a movie but I do want to know more about this, I plan on being there for you during the pregnancy, Lamaze classes and all”

“Alright, we can talk about all of that later, I’ll just go have dinner now” As she was about to get up, Luke took her hand.

“Don’t go, we can order something or I could cook something for you”

“Didn’t you already had dinner?” He nodded

“But you can have dinner here, you don’t need to eat all by yourself”

“Alright I’ll go check your fridge, I’m sure there’s some leftover takeout I can eat” Penelope went to the kitchen and Luke started to look for something she could also enjoy on the TV, this was their routine, having dinner at each other’s apartments whenever they could, talking about life, family, dates they’ve been, adding a baby to their dynamic didn’t sound like the worst idea.

“We are having a baby” Penelope announced to their friends, Luke was a little bit terrified of Derek’s reaction to the news, Penelope and him were very close.

“So you’re finally together?” Savannah said with a smile on her face.

Derek who was sitting beside his wife started grinning, he knew this day would come “I’m happy for the both of you”

“Uhm, no, we’re not together, we’re just having a kid” Savannah’s and Derek’s face changed into frowns.

“Oh” Savannah said smiling again, trying not to show her confusion, she wanted to be supportive of her friends, especially Penelope, she was Derek’s best friend.

“So how far along are you, baby girl?” Derek wondered with a more serious expression.

“I’m not pregnant yet, we just decided to have a baby”

“It’s because we both want to be parents so w-we came up with this idea” Luke added.

“Well, that’s great, isn’t it, babe?” Savannah squeezed Derek’s knee for him to say something supportive.

“Yeah, yeah, it is” He tried his best to offer an honest smile “Hank would love to have another cousin, especially coming from his fairy godmother”

Penelope smiled at Luke reassuring him that everything was ok, he had expressed his concerns over Derek’s reaction but as close as Penelope and Derek were, this was her decision.

Later that evening Penelope offered to help Derek to do the dishes and he was glad he would have a moment alone with her.

“Are you sure about this, baby girl? The whole having a baby with Luke thing?” She noted the worry in his voice, she finished drying the last plate.

“I am, it’s not like we are getting any younger” She shrugged and leaned on the kitchen counter, he shot her a concerned look “Hey, if you weren’t married I’d go to you for this” She joked nudging him with her elbow “Just imagine your DNA and mine, that kid would be something else” They both laughed.

“I can only imagine how that’d conversation would go” Derek commented while drying his hands.

“I actually can’t, I mean Luke was really the one that came up with the subject”

“Was he now?” He asked with an arched brow

“Stop it, it’s not like that” She rolled her eyes “We’re friends, that’s all we are and all we’re going to be”

Derek shook his head and let out a sigh “Alright, if you’re sure then just know you have us for support, questions, help, anything you need, sweetness, and I better be godfather”

Penelope got teary eyed, it was really important to her to count on Derek for this new adventure, he was her most precious friendship, so listening to him saying those words made her feel more at ease, she was sure of her decision but that didn’t mean she wasn’t terrified of the changes coming up.

Soon all of their friends heard the news from Penelope and Luke, Matt and Kristy were very supportive, mostly because in their eyes those two belonged together, they thought that maybe for them the baby had to come first then they’d realize how perfect they were for each other despite their differences. A contrast from Emily’s and JJ’s reaction, JJ had always been super protective of Penelope, and she thought this was a terrible idea where Penelope would end up being hurt, Luke was her friend as well and knew he wasn’t a bad guy but raising a kid with someone was complicated even when you were in a serious relationship with someone you were in love with, Emily wasn’t a fan of the idea either, someone was bound to get hurt and no matter who, their kid would have to pay the consequences, they didn’t explicitly voiced their concerns but neither did they applaud their decision.

Kirsty, JJ brought their kids at Savannah and Derek’s for a playdate, and it was only a matter of time before the subject was brought up.

“So what do you guys think about Pen and Luke’s plan?” JJ asked watching Hank helping Emerson to get the toys she wanted.

“Well I hope she gets pregnant soon, so their baby can be close to this little one in age” Kristy replied while rubbing her stomach.

“It’s gonna be interesting” Added Savannah while taking a sip of wine.

JJ squinted and looked at them “Don’t you think it’s crazy for them to go through it? Penelope is too sensitive, I’m not even sure she’s not feeling something for him already, what if she gets her heart broken?”

“It may not be ideal but…” Savannah shrugged her shoulder and pressed her lips “It’s their decision and I don’t think anything we say will change their minds”

“They want to be parents, they are planning this and seemed excited, I don’t think it’s the worst thing”

The blonde woman remained silent, she was still unsure it was the right choice but everyone seemed to be on board so she tried to be supportive of Luke and Penelope, hoping with all her heart they they’d prove her worries were silly and that they would make it work.

The day had finally come, they were trying tonight and Penelope was a bundle of nerves, Luke on the other hand was excited, lately his desire to be a father was getting stronger, all of his co-workers talked about their experiences in fatherhood and even though they shared both, the good and the bad, he was anxious to experience it firsthand.

“Alright I’m ready” Penelope announced as she entered his apartment in her mermaid nightie and fluffy robe with unicorn slippers, Luke smiled at the sight of her, soon with all the confidence she had mustered, Penelope straddled his waist.

“A ‘hello, how are you?’ would be nice” He joked and she lost all confidence, the blood traveled to her face and she stepped away from him but Luke took her hand and pulled her so she was sitting next to him “I’m kidding, it’s j-just I don’t know, I’m using humor to lighten up the mood”

“I’m mortified, Luke” She admitted with closed eyes “We’re having sex”

“It can’t be that bad, I know it won’t be bad” Penelope opened one eye.

“How could you know?” Luke shot her a smirk and a wink.

“If we’re comfortable enough to have a baby together then I’m comfortable enough to confess I’ve had some dreams”

Her eyes shot open “LUKE!” Penelope’s voice raised with surprise.

“That’s exactly how it sounded” He joked and if Penelope wasn’t red before she was now.

“Oh my God, stop, I don’t know if that makes me feel better or not” Luke laughed, not really understanding why she was so worried.

“Come on, chica, it’s gonna be alright” He placed a strand of her out of her face.

She sighed and sat up straighter “Ok, let’s do it”

Luke caressed her cheek “Are you sure?”

Penelope swallowed and nodded, he went on to kiss her and after a few seconds she started laughing.

“Pen, this is not helping my confidence” He commented as he pulled away, Penelope rested her forehead on his.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, you know I laugh when I feel awkward” Luke softly placed his hands on her shoulders and got up.

He extended out his hand to her “Let’s go to the bedroom” Penelope looked hesitant “If you don’t feel like doing this today, we can do it some other day, it’s ok”

“No, I want to, it’s just… Weird”

“So I shouldn’t have lit the candles or put a million rose petals on the bed then?” Penelope rolled her eyes, he was teasing her to that one time a guy had done that and it was a huge turn off for her.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, I hate your mouth so much”

Luke loved to mess with her “I bet you a hundred bucks you won’t be saying that in a few”

“Fuck you, newbie” Penelope spat.

HIs hands signaled to himself “Be my guest” This time he saw the eye roll on her face accompanied with annoyment and he decided to stop his teasing “Alright, alright, look, I know you like fresh sheets and I even used that softener you like, let’s go to bed and… Do this”

“I need a minute” She went to the bathroom and Luke sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for her, he licked his lips, hoping she wasn’t regretting everything, soon Penelope came back and stood between his legs.

“Ok, shut up for real this time and let’s do this” She placed her hands on each side of his face.

“One baby coming up” Penelope facepalmed “... In nine months, th-” She kissed him in an attempt to shut him up for good, Luke immediately responded and placed his hands on her hips.

Once they were done, they remained on his bed, both were hopeful that everything was on their side so within the next couple months they could see a positive pregnancy test, Penelope’s awkwardness was all gone, she figured she was making a big deal of the whole thing, having sex with Luke wasn’t bad and she actually had enjoyed it more than she thought she would.

“Shouldn’t you lift your legs up or something?” Luke suggested.

He didn’t see her rolling her eyes “Is this another thing you saw in a movie?”

Luke turned to her “Maybe”

“Let’s go to sleep Luke” She turned to the other side and fell asleep easily.

That night Luke had another dream with Penelope, except this time, in his dream they were a family, they were even married and had twins, he woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it, he remembered the joy he felt in his dream and allowed himself to imagine how life would be if that scenario became a reality, after a few minutes he shook his head, Penelope was just his friend, there was no interest in being more than that from either side.

They decided to give it a few tries, to increase the chance for them to get pregnant, the next times weren’t awkward except for one time where Luke came in unannounced.

“Pen” He called for her entering her apartment “Chica, let’s get to baby making, there’s a game I really want to catch later” As he finished his sentence he reached Penelope’s living room only to find her sitting there having dinner with a guy, Luke’s eyes widened, she was going to kill him probably.

“Uhm, I think you already have plans for tonight” The guy said while getting to his feet.

“Wait, Joe, it’s-” Penelope didn’t know exactly what to say.

“No, no, it’s ok, I’ll go, it was nice meeting you” He hurriedly got his messenger bag and walked out of the apartment.

Luke immediately apologized “I should’ve knocked, sorry, I’m really sorry” Penelope waved him off.

“A mutual friend set us up, she insisted a lot and I ended up saying yes” She sighed “But right now, I’m not interested in dating, not when I’m trying to have a baby with my friend, so it’s ok” He still felt terrible so he decided to skip the game and stayed to have dinner with her.

“Pen” Luke squeezed her hand “Are you actually gonna take the tests or are you just gonna stare at them?” She looked at him.

“Maybe if I stare them long enough they’ll get some sort of vibes from me and show us if that week of trying worked or not” He smiled sympathetically, six weeks had passed since that week and Penelope avoided taking the pregnancy tests, even though her period had been late, she was scared of seeing the results, Luke was understanding and supportive, he had a good feeling but he put himself in Penelope’s shoes.

“Come on, let’s go” He took the bag of pregnancy tests he had bought and tried to guide her to the bathroom but she didn’t move an inch “It’ll all be ok”

“What if it’s not?” Penelope asked in a whisper.

“Then we’ll get through it, together” She felt tears coming to her eyes, she was terrified of the results, whatever they may be, she knew they would have an impact to her.

Luke was open to keep trying if the results were negative but he didn’t know what Penelope wanted so he wanted to know what the tests actually ended up showing before bringing up the conversation. A few minutes later, he was waiting outside the bathroom for her, he was starting to get worried, she was silent.

“Penelope, can I come in?” No response, that didn’t help his nerves “Ok, I’m coming in” When he entered, he saw her face filled with what he believed to be surprise.

She barely smiled “It’s positive, all of them are actually” Luke’s lips spread into a wide smile.

“I knew I had a good feeling about this” He hugged her and kissed her hair, they were going to be parents.

The next few months flew by, soon they were getting ready to welcome the little one, true to his word Luke had been with Penelope as much as he could, whenever he wasn’t at work he was beside her learning together, reading books, attending classes, building baby furniture, reading Penelope’s favorite children’s books to the baby, feeling the baby kick for the first time, discussing names, imagining how life would be once the baby arrived.

None of them had been really interested in meeting new people during the pregnancy, until Phil, Luke’s friend insisted on setting him up with a doctor, after much insistence Luke accepted, not without asking first Penelope for advice on whether he should go out with her or not.

“She sounds great, you should do it, it’s been an eternity since you’ve gone on a date” Penelope mentioned rubbing her belly “I miss listening to your disastrous dates stories, they are quite entertaining” Luke glared at her and handed her the ice cream pint she had asked for.

“Ha-ha, you’re very funny” He pursed his lips together “I think I’m gonna tell Phil yes”

Penelope winked at him while licking ice cream off her spoon “Great, I’ll help you choose a nice outfit”

A week later Luke was out with Lisa, Phil’s friend, she was really nice, easy to talk with and gorgeous, she didn’t seem to freak out entirely when he brought up that he was about to be a dad, he was actually enjoying the night, for a second he saw that she seemed distracted and looking behind him.

“I’m sorry, Luke” She cut him off “I think there’s someone trying to get your attention” His brows furrowed as he turned around to find Penelope carrying her hospital bag, this immediately made him panic as he rushed to her.

“Are you in labor?” He took her by the shoulders and examined her.

“Yes, my water broke” Luke was in shock for a second “An hour ago but it is until now that the contractions are getting frequent and…” She placed her hands on her shirt and clutched the fabric “...Stronger”

“Oh my God, you should’ve called me the minute it happened, let’s go” He tried to take her hand but she managed to remind him to give an explanation to the nice woman that looked at them with empathy in her eyes.

Soon they were settled in the hospital room, Penelope wasn’t ready to push yet but both her and the baby were doing fine.

“You were supposed to go into labor in two weeks” Luke was scared this was a sign something was wrong but after some tests, doctors and nurses assured them everything looked normal.

“I guess we already know newbie junior is antsy like daddy”

“We don’t even know if the baby’s a boy”

“Oh newbie is gender neutral, I’ve been calling them this without actually thinking it’s a boy or a girl”

Luke smiled and started to push some strands of hair out of her face “You’re being a champion, Pen, you’re handling everything amazingly”

Penelope laughed as she took deep breaths “Oh, don’t be fooled newbie, I’m freaking out and I might pull one of those ‘what have you done to me? I hate you’ lines just like in the movies”

“I’ll take it, chica, you can even punch me if you want, so I can experience at least a little bit of pain with you”

“I’ll keep that in mind” She joked.

Soon Penelope started to push and not even once she cursed at Luke, he held her hand, cleaned the sweat off her forehead and kept encouraging her to trust her body, Penelope was exhausted and sometimes she felt like she couldn’t go through it but then she remembered that after all the pain she would finally look her baby in the eyes and fall in love like she had never done before, she tried to remember everything she had learned from her doula, and within the hour she heard her baby’s cries.

Luke swore it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard, while Penelope’s eyes focused on the baby who was being all cleaned up.

“Congratulations, it’s a boy” Doctor Kim said as she placed the newborn on his mother’s chest.

“Hello you” Penelope whispered with tears on her eyes, and Luke stood over her head watching his son “You couldn’t wait to meet us, little one” The small baby fuzzed.

“It’s alright, we couldn’t wait to meet you either” Luke said while seeing him open his eyes for a brief moment before he closed them and nuzzled to her mom’s chest.

“He’s here, Luke” She stated without taking her eyes off her boy “We did it”

The following morning, the new parents were still living in their own bubble with their son, he was healthy and so was Penelope.

“Ok so we agreed on Bowie, right?” Penelope tried to see if Luke would budge.

“No, sorry chica, we didn’t”

“Alright, Ziggy then” Luke laughed softly, she kept suggesting those ever since she got pregnant.

“Nope”

“Ok…” She tapped the baby’s little nose “David it is”

“What about Julian?” He suggested and Penelope felt in her heart that was perfect for him.

“Julian” She bit back the smile and thought about messing with him for a little “I guess we’ll go with your suggestion”

“Hey, I’m trying to-” Penelope finally looked up to him and smiled widely.

“I’m kidding, I love it, he looks like a Julian” His tiny lips turned up in what looked like a tiny smile “See? Jules agrees” She passed the tiny bundle to Luke and he happily held his son.

“Hello young Julian Garcia-Alvez, we love you more than you could ever imagine”

Later that day Derek and Savannah came to visit, they couldn’t wait one minute more to meet the new addition to their lives.

“Hello, hello” Savannah announced as she carefully opened the door and peeked her head “We’re here to meet the handsome boy”

“Ah! We were waiting to see you” Penelope was beaming at the thought of her found family meeting her boy “Come on in”

Derek entered eyeing the three of them, he was glad for her best friend, she had always wanted to be a mom and now she had finally become one.

“Look at that, my baby girl had a baby boy” Derek saw the tiny baby in Luke’s arms, he was familiar with the look on Luke’s face, it was one of pure love and adoration, the one he had for Hank when he had been born.

“Let me present to you to Julian Garcia”

Derek raised an eyebrow at Penelope “It’s Julian Garcia-Alvez but I guess Luke’s too lazy to say the full name”

Luke didn’t even seem to hear them mention his name, he was to absorbed in his son “I love the name, he’s gorgeous, congratulations guys” Savannah squeezed Penelope’s shoulder.

After a conversation about how Penelope had to interrupt Luke’s date and how was Julian’s birth, all while his auntie held little Jules, Savannah suggested Luke to go and get some tea and muffins, she wanted to give Derek and Penelope a moment so they could have a conversation of their own, ever since she had started dating Derek she knew him and Penelope shared a really special friendship and that sometimes they needed a moment just them alone to talk about life.

“We’ll be right back” Luke glanced at Penelope and Julian and smiled at them before closing the door behind him.

They remained silent for a few minutes as they only focused on Julian who was now wide awake.

“How are you feeling?” Derek asked softly.

“I feel like I’m in a dream” She admitted “I can’t believe this sweet little boy was given to me”

He placed his hand in the side of her face “I already know you’re gonna be the most amazing mom to Julian” Penelope leaned into his touch.

“Thank you for being there, both you and Savannah were the two people that were the most supportive, I’m still not sure JJ and Em are totally on board with this and Matt and Kristy they have five kids now so we don’t get to see them much but you and Savannah were always there for us”

“And we plan on continue being there for the three of you” Penelope couldn’t hold back her tears “May I?” She carefully handed Julian over to him.

“Can I confess something? I’m scared about how this is gonna go, I mean with Luke, how we’re gonna make this dynamic work”

“Baby girl, are you sure you don’t have feelings for him?” Penelope smiled.

“I love the guy, I mean he’s the father of my baby but no, there’s no feelings there” She was being honest but still Derek felt uneasy, thinking the situation could change and Penelope would end with a broken heart.

“Ok, well I’m sure you will make it work, maybe it won’t be easy but both of you are very determined and at the end of the day it’s this little guy you’ll be doing everything for so I’m sure you’ll be ok”

“Oh, chocolate thunder, you always know what to say” Penelope stated seeing Derek smiling at Julian “I wanted to ask you something, well, Luke and I did”

“Anything”

“We were wondering if Savannah and you would like to be Jules’ godparents?”

“Oh, Penelope, I would’ve disowned you if you hadn’t asked, of course, we would be honored to be his godparents”

“I love you, Derek Morgan” She reached out for his hand.

He looked at her and squeezed her hand “And I love you Penelope Garcia” He looked down at his new godson “I love you too Julian”

That day after Derek and Savannah, Luke’s family, and the rest of their friends had visited them to meet Julian.

Penelope came out of Julian’s room, she had put him down to sleep, already knowing he was going to wake up in a few hours, three months had already come and gone, neither could believe how fast time was passing by, they had adjusted quite nicely.

“Ok, I have some more things I need you to store in your apartment” She signaled some things next to the door, they were some coats, a pair of skis, shoe boxes, even her ukulele was being forgotten at the moment and since it was taking space it had to be stored on Luke’s place, they had been doing that ever since they’ve brought Julian home.

“Have I ever told you you own way to many shoes?” Luke commented rubbing his eyes.

“All the time” She smiled “I still don’t care”

“Alright, I’ll take them now and don’t worry about waking up later, I’ll come down to feed him” She raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, it’s around 2 when he wakes up, right?” Luckily for them, Julian was the greatest baby, he easily fell into routine, he woke up around the same time each night, so Luke had alarms and he came down so it wasn’t only Penelope waking up at night.

“Yeah”

“Ok, goodnight”

For Luke it felt as if he had just closed his eyes when the alarm went off, he quickly got up and went to Penelope’s place, he opened the fridge to find the different bottles, each of them were labeled:

One glass of wine.

Couple of Margaritas.

Pure.

Stressful day.

Pure.

He snorted and grabbed one of the bottles labeled as ‘pure’ and proceeded to warm it, he didn’t hear any crying when he came in so he assumed Julian had yet to wake up demanding to be fed, a few minutes later the three month old woke up and Luke was ready to feed him, he sat in the rocking chair with the baby to his chest, once Julian was done with the bottle, he burped him and sat a little bit more with him, he loved those moments were he could hold his son and sing the lullabies his mom and grandma used to sing to him when he was a kid.

He was loving being a dad and co-parenting with Penelope, he practically lived there, he would leave only at night but even then, he’d come back and sometimes would end up crashing at the couch waking up at Penelope’s. Luke placed Julian on his crib and left the room, as he walked out of the room he saw a photo of the three of them in the hallway and smiled, everything felt right.

Luke hurried through the stairs, he was coming home from work and Penelope was calling him nonstop to get home, he didn’t wait for the elevator and took the stairs, once he opened the door, he was met by a crying Julian and a crying Penelope.

“I’ve done everything and he won’t stop crying, he hates me, Luke” She said through her sobs.

Luke felt bad for Penelope, she was more sensitive than usual, the hormones were to blame, he went to them and took Julian in his arms.

“I’m his mom and he already hates me” She cleaned her tears off her face.

Luke started to sway him from side to side “He can’t hate you now, wait until he’s sixteen”

“LUKE!” Soon Julian stopped crying in Luke’s arms “How the fuck did you do that?” She asked in surprise.

“Oh, I don’t know I guess he loves me but he hates you” He saw the tears on her eyes “I’m kidding, I’m kidding”

Penelope sighed and sat on the couch “I’m returning to work soon and we don’t have a nanny yet”

“I know, I asked around some of my coworkers and they recommended me some agency” She smiled.

“That’s great, but we need to be clear on something” He looked at her with a frown “You can’t fuck the nanny”

“Penelope! I wasn’t planning on doing that”

“Ok, just saying, newbie”

By the end of the week they had hired Max to be Julian’s nanny, Penelope was faced with another challenge, learning how to manage going to work and being a mom, soon she discovered it was hard but she could handle it, she missed going to work, seeing her co-workers and having an excuse to actually put on some decent clothes and makeup.

Matt, Kristy, JJ, Emily and their six children were visiting Luke, Penelope and Julian, they hadn’t seen them since the hospital, they were curious to see how ‘the experiment’ as Emily called it was going.

“I’m not gonna lie, I think the reason they didn’t invite us over sooner it’s because they’re having a hard time adjusting” Emily spoke up.

“You think? I don’t know” Matt replied.

“I mean it wouldn’t be a surprise, becoming a parent it’s not easy” Kristy added to Emily’s comment.

“We’re about to see” JJ said as they all stepped out of the elevator, it took five seconds for Penelope and Luke receive them, he had Julian on a baby carrier close to his chest.

“Hello!” They said in unison, after a round of hugs and greetings, they went to the living room.

“Please, get yourselves some drinks, I made some tapas, I’ll go get them” Penelope announced and JJ joined her in the kitchen.

“Hey, everything looks great” She meant it.

“Thanks, we manage to keep everything in place but Jules is about to start crawling so next time you won’t find a tidy place” Penelope laughed.

JJ frowned “Is Luke living here?”

“No, well, kind of, he spends a lot of time with Jules” She shrugged it off, it wasn’t a big deal for them.

“Penelope…” JJ sighed “What’s this that you have going on?” Penelope rolled her eyes at her words, it wasn’t the first time she questioned it and certainly wouldn’t be the last.

“We’re raising a baby, he stays over, sue me” JJ’s eyes widened “No, he stays over but nothing happens, I’m not attracted to him and he’s not attracted to me, it’s all fine”

“Ok, then it’s time for you to get yourself out there again”

“Actually I’ve been thinking about it”

“Say no more” Her friend winked at her and Penelope just went long with it, JJ said about a co-worker of hers that sounded dreamy. Once they returned with some appetizers, everyone was settled, Luke had taken the older kids to the other room where they put on a movie for them and gave them some sandwiches and toys so they could be entertained.

“It looks like you’re doing amazing, man” Matt said as he placed Rose on the ground, she was eager to follow Emerson,

“Yeah, it is, Pen and I are convinced we got very lucky with Julian, he’s great”

“Wait until he starts walking” Emily commented while she watched Emerson closely, she was walking around the adults, observing what she could grab, unfortunately for her, the apartment was childproof so there was nothing she could really play with other than Julian’s toys and her own.

“I know I told Luke that by then I’m sure I’ll have to give up my high heels” Penelope said while sitting down next to him and absentmindedly resting her hand in Luke’s thigh “Can you imagine me running around a kid in five inch heels?” They all laughed and Luke placed an arm around her, everyone could see the look on his face as Penelope continued talking, Matt and Kristy shared a knowing look and JJ was just starting to think Penelope was lying about “nothing going on”.

The rest of their visit went by quite quickly, all of them enjoying their time together, at some point, Penelope realizes it’s their first time her and Luke can relate to the parenting experiences and struggles, even though Derek, Savannah and Hank couldn’t make it, her heart fills with joys as she sees most of her found family together.

“You’re almost there, buddy” Luke was sitting on the floor, multitasking, he folded laundry and watched Julian as he tried to stand using Luke’s arm as support.

“Breakfast is ready for my favorite guys” Penelope announced carrying two plates “Here, put these on the coffee table, I’ll go get Jules’ plate” She leaned down to carry him “Come on little guy, let’s get those hands clean”

While Luke and Penelope both sat on the floor, Julian used the coffee table for support and finally managed to stand up and grab some of his breakfast, he was a good eater, they stared at him, amazed by the little boy who owned their hearts.

“Can you believe he’s almost nine months? He’s getting so big” She sighed nostalgically.

“I know, I feel like in no time he’ll be going to preschool” Luke added as he took a bite of his own breakfast.

“Don’t even start” Jules looked up to his mom “Yeah, baby, what if we slow down a little with this whole growing up so fast? Can you do that for mommy?” Luke was also looking at Penelope, he was thinking about how wonderful the last year and a half of his life had been, since finding out about the pregnancy to that very moment, he felt extremely content to have Julian and Penelope in his life.

“Ma!” He exclaimed and went back to grab a fistful of scrambled eggs.

Luke smiled at his son then he turned to Penelope “You know? I don’t think it’s been that hard, all of this”

“Right?” She took a sip of juice “I feel the same, we make a good team, newbie” Just as Luke was about to say something else, Penelope’s phone dinged, she quickly took it and smiled at the screen, he remained silent and took Julian and sat him between his legs and put his plate in front of him so he could continue eating his breakfast.

“You’re done, Julian” He said to his son as the baby looked up to him with wide eyes “Yeah, it’s gone, it’s all in your tummy now, come on, let’s get you changed”

“Oh, I can change him, don’t worry” Penelope took her eyes off her phone.

“Alright, I’ll go wash these” He said as he took the dishes into the kitchen, trying to think who was Penelope texting.

A very happy Penelope entered the kitchen carrying a very happy Julian, they went to stand beside Luke as he finished drying the plates.

“You’re in a good mood” Luke stated trying to seem nonchalant.

Penelope couldn’t hold back the smirk “I am, I need to tell you something” She sat Julian in the kitchen counter “I’m going out with someone tonight”

Luke wasn’t sure why he felt a stinging sensation in his heart “Oh” He couldn’t think of something else to say.

Her smile soon changed into a frown “Is that ok? I thought this was my free night, but if you’ve got plans I can- “ Luke interrupted her.

“No, no, no, no plans at all” He tried his best to fake smile “It’s great, I’m happy for you, who’s the lucky guy?”

“His name is Sam, JJ set us up, we’ve been texting these past couple weeks and we decided to go out today”

“Great” Luke said without looking at her nor sounding very cheerful but Penelope failed to notice that.

Later that evening Penelope was a nervous wreck, she had facetimed JJ and Emily to voice her concerns about going on a date, she felt like she didn’t even remembered how to go on a first date, she remained sat on her bed, with her robe on, looking at the outfit her friends had helped her choosing, she thought about calling Derek, he was great at helping her when she wasn’t feeling her best self, as Luke passed her bedroom after putting Julian to bed, he stopped and saw that she didn’t have the happy look she had that morning.

He opened the door a little bit more and peeked at her “Hey, how is getting ready going? Everything good? Did he cancel?”

Penelope quickly looked up “No, it’s just that I’m nervous” As soon as she said she felt a little embarrassed “That’s stupid, isn’t it? Oh God” Luke entered and sat beside her and took her hand.

“Not at all, it’s normal to be nervous before going on a first date, but I’m sure you’ll be fine, from what I gathered he’s a great guy”

Her eyebrows raised “Did you eavesdropped my conversation with the girls?”

“Pen, you were literally sitting across Julian and I”

“Oh, that’s true, sorry, I was a little distracted then” She confessed running her hands through her hair.

“Should I prepare some tea for you and your nerves?” He suggested, not liking to see her stressed and thinking she shouldn’t be worrying, it was impossible she wouldn’t blow the guy’s mind, she was a catch.

Penelope placed one hand on the side of his face “Luke, that would be wonderful, you are a gift”

“Alright, you continue getting ready and I’ll bring your tea in a moment” Just as he was about to leave, Penelope called him “Yeah?”

“Nevermind” She sighed and stood up to start doing her hair.

“Penelope? Come on, you can tell me anything” He leaned in the door frame, waiting for her to say something, instead she turned around and opened her robe, she was in her underwear.

“Do you think my body is ready to, you know, get out there?” Luke ignored the sensations the image in front of him caused to his body and walked to her, putting his hands on either side of her face.

“You are beautiful, Penelope, don’t ever think you’re not, you could’ve gone out on a date the next month after having Julian for all I know” She blushed and looked down “I mean it, you are the whole package, you’re smart, kind, witty, and sexy as hell so stop doubting yourself and if for some reason this guy doesn’t seem to be into you, then we’ll tell JJ, her friend is out of his mind” He kissed her hair.

“You really have a way with words, Alvez” She managed to look up and smiled “We need to find you someone as well” He pressed his lips together and that’s when he knew he didn’t want someone else, he wanted Penelope.

As he prepared her tea, he sat on a stool and tried to think when his feelings for her had changed, he was sure he didn’t feel that way before, or maybe he was but didn’t realize? He was so deep in his thoughts he didn’t listen the kettle whistling, he rushed to it so it wouldn’t wake Julian up but he was late, he went to get him and later appeared in Penelope’s room with Jules attached to his hip and nuzzled in his neck in one arm and a mug in the other.

“Here you go” He said placing it on her vanity.

“Oh thanks” She glanced at him through the mirror “And thanks for getting him, I can’t exactly stand up fast and move freely with these attached to my boobs” She laughed.

“It’s ok”

“Isn’t this sexy?” She joked “Hair curlers on my head, makeup half done and pumping breast milk” Penelope laughed, she felt much more relaxed after Luke’s words.

He managed to smirk, it was an amusing image but in that moment it was also a beautiful one to him, even though in some part of his heart he felt it was wrong seeing her getting ready to go out with someone else.

“Your mom doesn’t believe what I tell her, Jules, please don’t be like her when you grow up” Penelope swatted his stomach.

“Hey! Don’t put my baby against me” She reached to Julian and Luke got him closer to Pen “Go to sleep, my sweet boy, I love you” The sleepy baby barely registered his mom kissing his forehead.

Luke put Julian to sleep and half an hour later saw Penelope walk out the door, he tried to watch TV but got distracted every few minutes by his thoughts who were set on Penelope and how her date was going, he glanced at the clock every frequently and even at the door, hoping to see her come in and say she wasn’t going out anymore because she had realized it was him she wanted to be with.

He leaned back on the couch “Stop, Alvez” He said to himself, he thought about calling Matt but it was kinda late, so he decided against it, after what it seemed like an eternity, Penelope walked through the door, she quickly took off her shoes and coat, she didn’t see Luke until he spoke.

“Hey, how was it?” He said rubbing his eyes.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to wake you”

“It’s ok, I wasn’t sleeping well anyway, so did you have a good time?” Penelope smiled widely and nodded.

“JJ was right, he’s amazing, I-I think he could be the one, and I know it sounds precipitated to say that but...” Luke felt his heart break and couldn’t even focus on what she was saying, he felt his world starting to crumble down “Luke? Are you hearing what I’m saying?”

He snapped out of it “Yeah, yeah, I’m glad, Pen, uhm I guess we won’t have to complain to JJ about it” He rubbed his palms against his jeans and got up “I’m gonna call it a night, I’m gonna go up, ok? I’ll see you guys tomorrow”

“Ok, have a good night” She replied with the smile that had never left her lips since her date started, she really felt a connection with Sam.

A few weeks passed by and Luke called Matt to ask him if he wanted to go shoot some hoops with him, Matt found the urgency in his voice odd and was sure it was a bad sign, he agreed and met him at the basketball courts they frequented. As they started, Luke tried to tell him how he had felt ever since Penelope had started seeing Sam, he was going around about other things without saying what he actually meant.

At one moment when Luke tried to take the ball from Matt, he abruptly stopped and went to the bench signaling Luke to go with him.

“So you have feelings for Penelope” It was a statement not a question.

“That’s not what I-” Matt rolled his eyes.

“Cut the bullshit, Luke, I wasn’t asking, I know for a fact you do, it was bound to happen and that time we all went to your house, you looked at her the way I look at Kristy, the way Derek looks at Savannah”

“You should’ve told me then, maybe then she wouldn’t have gone out with mr. Wonderful”

“Hey, it wasn’t up to me to get your stubborn ass to come to terms with your feelings, it was something you had to figure out on your own, unfortunately you did until you saw her with someone else” He drank water as Luke sat beside him running his hands through his hair.

“Should I talk to Derek? Ask him some advice?” Matt snapped his head at him.

“About what? Winning her over? I hate to say this but if she’s happy with this Sam guy, you shouldn’t interfere” Luke looked at him feeling almost betrayed “Dude, I know she’s feeling very happy, she’s talked to Kristy and she seems hopeful to see where it leads”

Luke sat with his head in his hands, not liking what he was hearing but knowing Matt was right, Luke himself had witnessed Penelope’s new happiness and excitement over the relationship “Why do I have to be so fucking stupid? Imagine if I had known before, maybe it would’ve been us in a relationship” Matt patted his shoulder.

“Hey, their relationship is fairly new, no one knows, maybe they’ll be done in a few months and you’ll have your chance, don’t lose all hope but don’t interfere”

He sit up “I guess you’re right”

“You should try and find someone as well, give it a try and see where it goes”

“Yeah, maybe I will, I don’t know” Matt got up.

“Alright, let’s resume the game ‘cause I’m beating your ass, Alvez” Luke rolled his eyes and followed his friend.

A few days later, after getting some groceries Luke had encountered with Lisa, the woman he was on a date with the day Penelope had gone into labor, he remembered how nice she was and they agreed on meeting again sometime, soon after that they were dating and although he knew he still had feelings for Penelope, she was very happy with Sam, he had met him and he hated the fact that there wasn’t much to dislike about him. He was amazing to Penelope and Julian, he was attentive, very respectful, kind, and the list went on, Luke was starting to come to terms that maybe Penelope and Sam were going to become permanent at some point and it did hurt him to think about it, but then he remembered he had Lisa, who was also an incredible person that was very understanding of his co-parenting situation.

It was almost New Year’s and the entire gang were going to a cabin to spend it together, it was the first trip since Julian was born and Penelope and Luke brought significant others, everyone was excited to spend the holiday together.

Penelope was packing her suitcase for the trip, Luke had packed Julian’s the day before so she only had to worry about her stuff, she remembered Luke had her skis and went up to ask him if he could take them in his car. As the door opened she was met with a smiling Lisa, the one year old in Penelope’s arms squealed happily.

“Isa!” He extended his arms to her and Lisa looked at Penelope to which the blonde nodded and allowed Julian to go with her before asking to be down.

“Pen! You’re here, are you ready?” Luke greeted her.

Penelope swallowed unable to get her eyes off Lisa who was helping Julian to walk “Uhm yeah, almost ready, I was wondering if you could take my skis?”

“Sure thing, I already loaded them in the car”

“Alright, we’ll get going” Penelope announced wanting to have his son back in her arms.

“Hey, if you want we can take Jules” Luke suggested and before Penelope could say anything Lisa spoke.

“Oh, absolutely, we could do that” Penelope gave them a tight lipped smile and clasped her hands together.

“Alright if you want to, it’s alright, I mean, if you’re sure”

“Of course, he’s the sweetest boy, aren’t you Jules?” Julian hugged Lisa’s leg and Penelope felt something she didn’t know how to label.

“Ok then, I’ll see you guys later”

“Wait Pen, I’ll go down with you to get Jules’ stuff” Luke walked with her to the elevator and for the first time in years, there was an awkward silence, at least that’s how it felt to Penelope whereas to Luke was just a normal silence.

“Is it okay that Julian goes with us, right?” He turned to her.

“Oh, yeah, totally” She mirrored his actions.

“I’m really looking forward to this trip, it’s the first time JJ, Em, Derek and Savannah are gonna meet Lisa” Penelope shot him her best forced smile and nodded.

Luke was in fact, telling the truth, his relationship was in a good place, he felt hopeful about a future with Lisa, she was very clear by telling him that she was looking for something serious and it came as a surprise to him when he found himself telling Lisa, he was also expecting to be with someone for the long run and that they should work towards a relationship of that kind, he was finally moving on from Penelope.

Or so he thought.

The cabin they rented was beautiful, it was big but cozy at the same time, everyone, adults and kids, were excited to be spending the next few days there, getting to know Sam and Lisa a little bit more since everything indicated they could eventually be more present in their lives. Matt and Kristy entered carrying, what it seemed like twenty bags, followed by their five kids, David holding little Rose’s hand who was excited to be walking in the house.

“The Simmonses have arrived” Derek yelled as he walked over to them to help with their stuff.

“We have and we are ready for the kids to be with their uncles and aunts while mom and dad rest” Kristy joked placing the bags on the floor.

“You definitely deserve some relax time, you guys are saints” JJ said hugging the kids.

“Where are the others?” Mat asked.

“We’re here!” Penelope announced appearing from the kitchen walking hand in hand with Sam “I’d like you to meet Sam”

“Oh we’ve heard great things about you, it’s great to finally meet you, I’m Matt, this is Kristy, and these are Jake, David, Lily, Chloe and Rose” Sam shook hands with the married couple and high fived the kids.

“Nice to meet you all, I was looking forward to finally see you, I have two boys myself that are actually your age I think” He said to Jake and David “So if you want to play something maybe I can join you” Both kids eagerly nodded.

The next couple days, almost everyone seemed to be having a great time, except for Emily and JJ, they seemed a little bit off but no one dared to ask why, it was only at moments they would be quiet than usual and seemed to be a little bit out of it, they tried to put pieces together but no one seemed to have a clear idea of what was going on, they didn’t look distanced from each other nor from Emerson, so they tried to not interfere.

“Oh, I’m happy to see you’re feeling better, babe, are you joining us for breakfast?” Penelope said to Savannah who had missed previous breakfasts.

“Yes, I’ll be down in a minute” She replied while tapping Julian’s nose.

Penelope went down and found Sam helping the kids with their breakfasts, it was a funny and sweet sight, Jake, David, Chloe, Lily and Hank gathered around him as he placed pancakes on all of their plates.

“Look at you JJ, you finally got it right with Sam” Kristy teased her, JJ had the worst record setting up Penelope and it was a never ending joke between the group of friends.

The blonde woman rolled her eyes and smirked “If you ever decide to have a kid, Pen, I must be the godmother” She half joked.

“I don’t know, maybe eventually” Both Kristy and JJ snapped their heads at her “What? I think this is going somewhere, he has two kids, I have one but I don’t know”

“I can’t believe there’s something you don’t know, Pen” Luke’s voice made them turn around to see him walking from the hallway, having listened only the last part of what Penelope was saying “Good morning ladies, I made some coffee if you want”

“Thanks Luke, where’s Lisa?” Kristy questioned.

“Oh, she’s getting ready for the day, she’ll be out in a few”

Once they were all sitting in the large dining table, Derek called their attention, both him and Savannah had big smiles on their faces.

“We would like to tell you that next year we’ll need a bigger cabin” Savannah taking her husband’s hand.

Derek continued “There’s going to be not one, but two new Morgans causing trouble” The entire group erupted in cheers and congratulations, JJ’s eyes went immediately to her wife, she knew her and knew that it took everything in Emily to smile, they were going through some stuff.

Part of the group had decided to go skiing while the others preferred to stay at the cabin and drink some hot chocolate, Matt, Derek and Luke walked a few feet behind Sam, Lisa and JJ.

“So Morgan’s party of five? How are you holding up?” Matt asked Derek, he remembered the surprise, nervousness and excitement that came when receiving the news he was going to have twins.

“Oh man, I can’t believe it, I still am processing all of it, Hank’s four so I’m not even sure I remember exactly how life with a newborn is, let alone two” All along Luke and Matt noticed how his features softened.

“I bet you and Savannah will get the hang of it” Luke assured him.

“You know we got you guys, so anything we can help with, I’m sure there’s some stuff we have that we don’t use anymore but it’s in great shape that you could use” Matt added and Derek felt thankful for them, all of them.

“Now that I have a son maybe you’ll finally trust me to babysit”

“I’m not sure, we’ll see, we’ll see” Derek teased him and Luke scoffed.

“I vouch for him, Derek, I’m actually sort of proud of you, dude” Matt turned to Luke “It’s really warming to see you with Julian”

“I gotta agree with that, I was just messing with you Luke, what Matt is saying it’s true, I’ve loved to witness both you and baby girl, as parents to Jules”

“Thanks guys, it means a lot to have your support and to have you as a part of Julian’s life” Luke spoke from his heart but he also needed to point something out “Not to end the soft moment here, but did you see Sam’s face the other night when you called Penelope ‘baby girl’?”

“Oh I did, it took everything in me not to burst into laughter, Kristy actually kicked me in the shin beneath the table” Luke laughed.

“Honestly I’m so used to it that I didn’t notice but Savannah did and she told me to do something about it but Penelope assured me that she had explained everything to him and that he seemed fine with it, but I’ve toned it down a lot, I don’t know, I think this could be it for Penelope you know?” Luke swallowed, he had thought about it but wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Matt spoke up “They seem to be very serious, I like him”

“I guess I do too?” Derek shrugged, his mind remembering how just a few months ago he was convinced Luke was the one for Penelope, Luke and Matt eyed him curiously and that made him rephrase his words “I-I do like him, it’s just I’m super protective of her but he makes her happy so yeah” Luke refrained from offering his thoughts on Penelope’s relationship, he wasn’t sure what he made of it, how he felt, just then Lisa called out for him and he remembered he had an amazing woman in his life.

It was finally New Year’s Eve, the kids were all asleep and the adults were planning on enjoying dinner and drinks together, they were halfway through their dinner when Sam brought up an interesting subject.

“I have to say, I’ve been curious how did you come up with the idea of having a child together? Whose idea was it?” He wondered genuinely interested in listening the story.

“I… Don’t remember” Penelope tried to shrug it off, not wanting to discuss that in front of everyone.

“It was me actually, I had the idea, she had talked to me about wanting to be a mom and I wanted to be a dad and next thing we know we had Jules” Luke replied nonchalantly.

“The truth is he wanted this genepool for his kid, I mean, can you blame him?” Penelope joked while signaling herself.

“And have you thought what exactly are you gonna tell him when he’s older? About his parents being with other people” Lisa inquiried, her tone wasn’t rude at all.

The rest listened and focused on their plates, that was until a tipsy Emily decided to jump in the conversation.

“Oh, I want to listen to this, I bet they didn’t think about it”

“Well we might have talked about it once or twice but didn’t came up with a plan exactly” Penelope replied nervously, thinking it wasn’t any of their business, except Luke and hers.

“I’m sure you’ll do great, at least you were always aware that you were going to have the conversation, I never believed I had to until I got divorced” Sam interjected, regretting bringing up the subject.

“No, but that actually makes more sense to me, I mean why you decide that you’ll bring a child into a world with someone you don’t love” The alcohol started to make Emily talk way more than she intended to

JJ tried to stop her, she took her hand “Babe, stop” Emily shook her hand and ignored her suggestion.

“You were in love with your wife I assume, I understand shit happens, people get divorced all the time and have to talk about this with their kids but doing it deliberately? I can’t fucking understand it”

Luke cleared his throat “Em, with all due respect, that’s how you think but-” Emily cut him off.

“No, not only me, everyone on this table believed you were crazy for doing this” She slurred “We all thought having a kid with someone you don’t love wasn’t the brightest idea”

Penelope who had remained silent, couldn’t hold it anymore and started to speak “Ok Emily but how are you so sure we don’t love each other? I’ve known Luke for more than half of my life, he’s one of my closest friends” She took a deep breath trying not to raise her voice and continued “He has been there through the good and the bad more than any of you have, sure it’s because we’ve been practically neighbors for years but that doesn’t make it less valid, I know pretty much anything there is to know about him and I love him for who he is, I know why when we first met him he was kind of a loner, I know he’s not a great cook but he does a mean lasagna, I know he’s loyal and honest and has one of the kindest hearts ever, we have the same values, we have the same sense of humor, I know his position on just about everything and I wholeheartedly agree with him, what better man could I have possibly chose to be the father of my son? Huh? So please refrain from giving your opinion on something that’s not your business at all, Em” Luke seemed to be at loss of words, many different emotions were going through his heart, for a second he forgot why was Penelope telling all of this, because of Emily, and everyone else seemed to fade into the background, he wasn’t moving on with his life, he was deeply in love with Penelope Garcia.

“Well-” Penelope cut Savannah off

“And I know, I just know that no matter what happens in a year or two or ten, we’ll be fine, because we love each other” She finished feeling how her pulse had quickened.

Emily snorted “Alright if you say so, but let me tell you something, you seem fine now but life gets complicated, friends” She addressed the entire gang “You don’t know it yet but it does” She rushed to their bedroom and JJ goes after her not before muttering apologies to Penelope, Luke and the rest of their friends, everyone is uncomfortable and confused by Emily’s outburst.

Penelope is excited to see everyone and celebrate Luke’s birthday together, she’s rushes out of the cab to the restaurant, only to find Luke in the waiting area of the restaurant.

“Hi, happy birthday” Luke hugged her “Where’s everybody? I thought I was going to be the last one here?” She breathed out.

“Oh, it’s just us tonight” Penelope frowned but didn’t say a thing “Julian seemed really happy to be with his grandma” Luke tried to change the subject so she wouldn’t question him.

“Aw, he does love her, how’s your mom?” He took the chair out for her and then proceeded to take his sit.

“She’s doing alright, she asked me to say hi to you” He passed the message, knowing his mom wouldn’t forgive him if he forgot to do so.

“I should go and visit Elena one of these days, talking to her always lifts my spirits”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’d be thrilled to see you, she loves you, Pen” He leaned against the table and took her hand in his.

“She’s the sweetest, really” She adjusted her glasses and opened the menu “And where’s Lisa?”

“No Lisa tonight, she’s on duty” He lied, rubbing his beard.

Penelope pouted “Oh, I’m sorry, Luke” When he saw her sympathetic look he decided to cut the act.

“Don’t be, because it’s actually not true” Her face filled with confusion.

“Oh no, what happened?”

“Nothing, everything was great, she’s great” Luke looked down and felt it coming.

“Then what’s wrong?” Penelope asked with a furrowed eyebrows.

“Nothing’s wrong, I’m sure my mom would’ve loved her but…” He looked in her eyes and once again grabbed her hand “All I do when I’m with her is think about you and only you” Penelope mouth fell open, she felt the air removed from her lungs “I didn’t want her here tonight nor anyone really, I broke things off with her, I wanted my family with me and I realized you are my family” His voice broke “You and Julian are everything I need to get through life” The moment Penelope realized there were tears on his eyes, her own vision became blurry, she moved her chair to be next to him and leaned her head in his shoulder.

Next thing she knew Luke was lifting her chin and searching for her lips, she pulled away even before their lips touched “Luke, I’m with Sam”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I should allow you to talk to him before-” Penelope closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“We’re moving in together” Luke forgot how to breathe for a moment “I met his kids a few months ago and we’ve been talking about taking the next step ever since and we found a great place, I’m sorry, Luke”

He looked confused “But what about all you said that time Emily questioned us?”

Penelope look dumbfounded “I-I, it wasn’t a lie, I meant everything that I said, I love you but I-I’m not-” She took the hair out of her face “I love you so much as a friend, I thought we were on the same page, I don’t know what-” Luke let her go and got up, he needed to get out of there “Luke, wait” Before Penelope could walk to him, he was gone, and she was left there not knowing what to do of his confession.

The truth was her and Sam were in a great place, they were looking forward to start a life together, they had even discussed marriage, Julian loved him, she loved Taylor and Benji, Sam’s kids, everything seemed to fall into place with him.

The next months after that, Luke and Penelope barely spoke unless it was regarding Julian, the times where they would just spend weekends together with their son were long gone, Julian still spent a lot of time with his parents just separately, Penelope was starting to pack their stuff, she felt terrible and she wanted Luke to lash out at her, to tell her off, yell at her for taking Julian to another house, instead all Luke ever did was remain distant, she couldn’t blame him but she missed her best friend.

Penelope sighed “What’s going on in that beautiful mind of yours?” Derek said, he had offered to help her packing the last stuff before she was out of the apartment.

“Do you think I’m making a mistake by moving in with Sam?” He frowned, not knowing exactly where that was coming from, she had seemed when she told him and Savannah the news.

“I think you should do what makes you happy, if-” Penelope didn’t let him finish his sentence.

“Do you think I should’ve given Luke and I a chance?” Derek’s eyebrows raised, he was surprised at her question.

“Why are you asking this?” Penelope bit her lip and then sat down on the floor, since there was no couch or chairs left, and proceeded to tell him what had happened a few months ago, as Derek listened he didn’t have it in him to be surprised by Luke’s feelings nor Penelope’s second guessing her decision.

“Look, baby girl” He started as he cleaned the tears falling on her cheeks “I still think you should do what makes you happy, and follow your heart, you shouldn’t do something because you feel obligated to, you know? Moving in with Sam because you already leased the house or give Luke a chance because he’s the father of your son” Derek wrapped an arm around her “There’s nothing more I want than to see you happy, whether is with Sam, Luke, only you and Jules, look, even if you wanna go back to what’s-his-name let’s go live in a farm guy?” She laughed through the tears “I want you to be happy and I’ll be there for you, ok?”

“Ok” She managed to say “Kevin, he was the one that wanted me us to go and live in a farm”

“Alright, well if you wanna go live in a farm I’m sure Julian will love all the free space to run around” They laughed and Derek kissed her forehead, hoping she’d follow his advice and go with whatever made her truly happy.

Penelope was meeting Emily for drinks, she entered the bar to see Emily already sitting there, she greeted her and they started to catch up, it had been a really long time since they last saw each other, once again, life making it complicated to hang out more often.

“So” Emily started “I don’t think I ever actually apologized about that one time” She felt embarrassed reminiscing her behaviour during that New Year’s.

“Come on, Em” Penelope waved her off “It’s ok, you don’t have to say anything”

“No, but I do, I was- we were going through a difficult time, JJ and I were going through the adoption process for Nick and we weren’t getting matched and there were a lot of setbacks, that’s why we didn’t tell any of you at the time but it was difficult for us and of course, JJ was way better than at handling everything and I just let out my frustration that time when it wasn’t my place to say anything, I was an asshole to you” Penelope placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t say that, Emily, we all snap sometimes, I’m sorry you were going through that but now you have Nick and he’s a great kid” Penelope smiled remembering the curly boy.

“I didn’t mean anything that I said, I mean, we did have our doubts but you proved it was possible to do what you did”

“Oh no, I actually think you were right, it’s a bit of a mess right now” Penelope looked away.

“I... Know, and even though the situation is not great right now, I’m sure you’ll get through it” Emily gave her a sympathetic smile and Penelope nodded “I gotta say one more thing though, I’ll never understand why you guys didn’t even try”

The blonde woman just shrugged, at that point neither did she “It’s just, we’ve been friends for half of our lives, it would’ve been, I don’t know, weird? We’ve seen each other at our worse and our best, he’s like always been there” As much as Penelope tried to convince herself it wouldn’t have worked out, she never actually did it.

“Babe, I don’t see how that’s bad” Emily commented taking a sip of her drink, her words echoed in Penelope’s head.

Luke opened the door and Julian immediately launched himself at him.

“Daddy!” He clung onto Luke’s neck while Penelope awkwardly stood there.

“Sorry I couldn’t pick him up tonight” Luke said, looking at Julian instead of her, he was still hurt but really trying to move on this time.

“Don’t worry, it’s ok” Luke expected to see her turn around and go back to her place but she remained there “I found this at my place, it’s your birthday present from last year, you never actually got it so I thought I should bring it” He saw the bag in her hands and it just reminded him of the day he had gotten his heart broken.

“Oh, Penelope, I appreciate it but I’m fine, I don’t need anything”

“Please, I insist” She offered it to him and Julian was fast take it.

“Open it, daddy!” He started to kick his legs so Luke would put him down.

“I’ll open it tomorrow, bud, it’s time for bed now” He could see Julian was not happy about it.

“NO!” Julian dropped to the floor “Open it! Open it!” The terrible twos were not a joke, he started to throw kicks and Luke kneeled to his level.

“Jules, it’s time to go to bed, come on” He grabbed him in his arms.

“Open the pwesent” Luke sighed.

“I’ll make you a deal, we open it and then you go to bed” Julian seemed to calm.

“I’m gonna get going now, good night Jules, have sweet dreams, my love” She took a step to them and leaned to kiss Julian’s head, when she was about to step away she grabbed her sweater.

“Stay!” Penelope softly took his little hand and let herself free from his grasp.

“I can’t, I gotta go, baby” Julian started to cry.

“Maybe you can stay and help us with bedtime” Luke suggested, Penelope silently agreed.

They walked towards Julian’s bedroom and Penelope felt like an outsider, it had been a long time since she had walked inside Luke’s home, once they got there, she helped Julian to put on his PJ’s while Luke watched them and untuck his bed covers.

“Pwesent!” Julian said once he was underneath his blankets, each of his parents sat on either side of the bed next to him.

Luke opened the bag and put out something that look like a binder? Photo album? ‘Luke + Jules + Pen’ was engraved on the cover, when he opened it, he saw it was a scrapbook, it had photos of him and Penelope when they first met back in college, ticket stubs of that time when Penelope was in different plays, from when all of the gang had gone to see the Yankees, Luke’s favorite baseball team, photos of them with their friends and then it was Julian’s first sonogram, photos of Penelope pregnant, photos of their baby shower, their first picture the three of them that Savannah had taken at the hospital, all of it was filled with memories.

Luke closed it abruptly, it was all too much for him “Alright, bud, it’s time for you to sleep, we’re picking up Roxy from the shelter tomorrow, remember?” A sleepy boy nodded and just when Penelope and Luke thought they had won, Julian spoke again.

“Mommy, stay!” Penelope tried her best to smile.

“I have to go to your other home, remember?” Luke noticed how Penelope’s voice faltered and decided to back her up.

“Julian, remember what I told you about your two houses? That only the most special little boys get two, so Mommy needs to go and take care of your other house”

“I want Mommy to stay!” He demanded, starting to cry again.

It took everything in Penelope not to tell him that he wanted to stay as well so she just held him and sang the lullaby Luke used to sing to him when he was a baby, it didn’t take long until he fell asleep, Penelope kissed his forehead and silently left the room with Luke behind her.

Before she could speak Luke beat her to it “Drive safe, I’ll take him to you on Sunday” He said and Penelope could only nod as she walked out of the door an to her car.

She sat there for a few minutes, not realizing tears were rolling down her cheeks, when she calmed down she started to drive home, it took her ten minutes to decide she was not going home, she made an u-turn to go back to Luke’s place.

She knocked, unsure what she was going to say but trusting it would be the right thing.

“Penelope? Did you forget something?” Luke asked, confused as to why she was back.

She walked right past him into his apartment “Remember when I asked you if you had met your person?” She said with tears in her eyes.

“Yes” He breathed out.

“We both said no” Penelope stated “Can you ask me if I’ve met my person, please?” Luke felt some sort of anger form in his chest.

“Why? So you can tell me it’s perfect Sam? I don’t under-”

“Please” She interrupted him “Please ask me”

“Have you met your person?”

“Yeah, I have, for a long time now, but I was an idiot and I didn’t realize it until just recently” She said through her sobs, Luke forgot how to breathe, playing her words over and over again “When I found your present and looked through it I realized it’s you, it has been you all along, Luke, you’re my person”

Luke didn’t waste no time and kissed her, feeling his heart being mend with every second that passed, when they pulled away, he asked “What about Sam?”

“He’s been out of the picture for months” She admitted and Luke resumed their kiss only to pull apart immediately.

“You’re my person, Penelope, always have, always will” He choked out.

“I love you, Luke” She caressed his face in her hands.

Luke closed her eyes, her words giving him a joy he didn’t knew existed “I love you too, Penelope”

“So… Can I stay?” She chuckled through her tears.

“Only if you stay forever” Luke answered and took her in his arms, planning to make up for all the lost time where he wasn’t able to show her how much he loved her.

“Home, let me come home, home is wherever I’m with you”

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

#cmbingo20 #cmbingo #garvez #penelope garcia #luke alvez #criminal minds #luke x penelope #garcia x alvez #garvez au #garvez imagine #garvez fanfic #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fanfic #i write things

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ultrahamilham · 4 years ago

Note

You tagged me in a thing and I had a stroke, bless you

I get all Pikachu meme whenever I see you in my dash and you've referred to me and acknowledged my existence because it is literally the best thing ever, I have a mini stroke every time

Three ships: Jamilton, Jamilams and Jamilmads (would've said lams but then it just sounds like I'm saying the same ship in three different ways lol)

Last song: Uhh, I don't listen to music much, but Ultimately by Khai dreams

Last movie: The Hunchback of Notre dame

Currently craving: Sushi, oddly enough (I haven't had it in about nine years but still, want)

Currently reading: The Da Vinci code, and about five different fanfictions

About a very late answer to your question (My family has COVID, which is shocking to hear, or so I'm told, but they're recovering and they fortunately had a mild case and no one has any history of disease so they're going to be okay! That's what the doctor said and I'm praying), Taco hell made me laugh really hard when I read it and really lifted my spirits because I remember being in not a great place when I started it but it made me smile which was like, a thing for me, and don't judge me but I think The three way was probably my favourite and I don't want to think about what that says about me but it was really because I love works that are that long (around 50k is always my sweet spot). I'm not sure if I'm remembering right and I'm so so sorry if I'm getting the title song wrong but that one Jamilton fic with uh, Gucci and fendi in the title was really fun to read ;-;

I also remeber the first work of yours I ever read was this comfort Whamilton around 1.5 or 2k where it starts raining and Alexander is on edge but George comforts him- Okay, I'm ranting now, apologies. ;-; (idk You're super cool and I want to talk to you like, normally, but you'll hateee me and I don't want that and so here)

I never really get a chance to respond as soon as I'd like, BUT I never get to and if you don't want to know/care about my life- please skip to the next paragraph thank you. So, I did end up watching Snowpiercer! I watched all ten episodes in one day which is iffy to say the least, but I'm still alive! I did love it. And I've been alright- a bit anxious with everything, but I've been giving my tests and uni and stuff. Yesterday, I was about to go to the vet when u realised about two minutes into the ride that I forgot my dog so that was embarrassing. Almost competing with the time I dropped my phone and then followed it, dropping to my knees and immediately bursting into tears (Nothing even happened to my phone!). So if you read this, thank you again.

I wanted to ask how you were doing too! If you don't mind xxx

And as for the fanfic writer asks, would you mind answering 50 ;-;

Wgjfvqkcwkh also I heard about you and Henni getting married so CONGRATULATIONS that is the most amazing, sweetest thing and in honestly so f*cking happy for both of you. I audibly awwed when I saw that post and I can't believe I just remembered.

I'm so sorry this got out of hand with how long it is, I didn't mean for it to be ;-;

-shy anon, sincerely apologising for possibly ruining your day by oversharing and/or overstepping (also with love and congratulations for you and her)

I get the surprised pikachu face whenever you show up in my ask box ;-; It always makes me happy!!!

Okay but sushi is always good. The craving comes randomly for me as well. I didn’t crave it at all when I used to make it for a living, because I got so tired of it, but now I crave it every once in a while lol it’s really good ;-;

I really hope everyone is doing okay! COVID is scary and it’s no joke. Having it before was horrible for me and I would never wish it on anyone. I hope everyone including you is okay ;-;

I’m glad Taco Hell did what I was meaning for it to do! It’s meant to be lighthearted and make people laugh. It’s based off of my life and it’s actual situations I end up in all the time. It’s quite amusing lol

I would never judge you. The Three Way is literally the one fic I am most proud of. I could never judge you. I literally go back and read it every once in a while and go like “I made that... Holy fuck...”

Oh! Gucci Not Fendi is the title. I’m glad you liked it!!!

Rant all you want! I adore that Whamilton fic ;-;

Seriously, my dear, I can promise you that I won’t hate you at all. Believe me, I really won’t. I’m probably the most awkward and annoying person anyone will ever know and I overshare like everything. People know more about me than they really should.. Lol

I care about your life, I was the one that asked you to tell me! But honestly, snowpiercer was soooo good... Like I tried to binge it all in one day but I was trying to write as well and it didn’t go over well lmao, snowpiercer ended up winning! I’m really glad you watched it!!!

That whole forgetting your dog thing is a mood. Today I forgot to turn on the food heaters and I realized it right before it was too late. Almost lost $200 worth of meat... Oops... Lmao

I do that with my phone if I drop it even if it’s okay. I just freak the fuck out and cry before I know if there really is an issue

Also I’m doing good! I decided to just lay back and relax tonight so I’m having a few drinks and I’m gonna watch random shit lol I was up for 33 hours the night before last and slept for 15 hours after. I can’t recommend doing that, especially not when you’re like 24. I’m too old for that shit.

Hell yeah I can do 50! I will give you a sneak peak at the 3rd part of the three way... .-. It will be posted on Oct 19th!!!

Here it is. This is seriously NSFW lol:

Alexander looked down at Thomas and ran the fingers of his free hand through Thomas' hair. He licked his lips as he watched Thomas work his tongue expertly inside George. "You're such a good boy Thomas, you're already wrecking him." He purred.

Thomas let out a low moan and kept up the work, getting a little more aggressive. Alexander could feel himself getting hard in his pants at the sight coupled with George's shameless moans. Alexander looked back at George's face and grinned a bit. "Are you proud of us, Daddy?" He asked.

George pressed his forehead against the headrest and panted as Thomas wrecked him. He tried to push back against Thomas to no avail. "Fuck… Y-yes… Yes you two did so good… Please… Please do as you wish… Whatever you choose, do it… I will take whatever you give me, you de-deserve it…" George bit out desperately.

Alexander grinned in delight at that. He looked at Thomas who looked just as excited from what George just said. He then touched Thomas' shoulder. "Alright, that's enough babe. I'm going to stretch him, then we can give him a good spanking. Why don't you undress for me? I have a little treat for you." He purred. -END of the preview.

Thank you so much! We are so freaking happy that it’s happening. We were planning it more today! It’s so amazing ugh.

I appreciate it all the same! It’s not too long for me at all!! Don’t you worry my dear <3 you didn’t overstep at all!

#shy anon #sweet bean

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faunahudson · 4 years ago

Text

The Hudsons Strike Back

Who: Sawyer & Fauna Hudson @sawyer-hudson (guest appearances by Molly Sheridan and Tommy Deluca)

When: 26th of November 2020

Where: Ohio

What: Fauna and Sawyer meet up with two blasts from Sawyers past, with explosive consequences

Warnings: Slut shaming, mild violence, threatening language, references to unsafe practices, homophobia and an almost slur

“I’ll admit you Americans do decorate for Fall better.” Fauna conceded as they passed shop window after shop window filled with Thanksgiving themed displays. “Obviously Ireland is superior in every other way. But I’ll give you this one thing.” She teased pressing herself a little tighter against Sawyers side. The bright smile on her face having been stuck there practically since they’d left their claim interview.

Sawyer supposed that, growing up with Thanksgiving, he'd never had been one to notice the decorations, but spent a good look at some of the display windows that Fauna had pointed out. He wrapped his coat-laden arm around her tiny waist, laughing slightly at her teasing words. They had barely stopped laughing since the moment their claim came through, and he couldn't see it stopping anytime soon. "We really love Thanksgiving over here," He told her, "but yeah, Ireland is definitely superior. I was amazed at seeing all of the Belfast Christmas decorations last year."

She felt so warm despite the wind, as he wrapped his arm around on her waist her body alight with her own delight at the world right now. “I like the american commitment to going as big as possible with everything, so you made up a holiday and now you're gonna like.. do it hard." Fauna agreed knowing it was about time that she gave her new homeland it’s dues. "So remind me.. what was your hang out around here when you were in high school? I need to contextualise all those fun pictures that your Mom showed me this morning."

Sawyer furrowed his brow at Fauna's subtle dig at Thanksgiving. "Made up a holiday?" He repeated, "Surely, all holidays are made up in some way or another. Is this the whole Irish Catholicism thing about it being something not centred around Jesus?" Sawyer knew that, the actual reality behind Thanksgiving was a lot more grim than sitting around with family to share thanks and eat turkey, but sadly, his patronism had to win out against this one. Her other question made him laugh, and roll his eyes. "I still cannot believe Mom showed you all those pictures. They're super embarassing." He shook his head. "Um, there's a Barnes and Noble I spent a lot of time in, over that way. There's also this record store -- Groamy's CD's and Tapes -- it's not in here, but we can head over later if we can be bothered?" Sawyer suggested, directing her towards the stores he and his friends hung out in their youth. "There's also this, like, froyo place. I spent a lot of time there with --" He trailed off, noticing someone not even three feet away from the couple, "-- Molly." That wasn't who he had actually spent time with at the frozen yogurt shop -- that was actually Leanne -- but Molly was the person in front of time, who had noticed Sawyer in the same awkward way he had noticed her, with neither of them pretending they hadn't just seen the other. Basically, Sawyer's worst nightmare.

“If the holiday doesn’t have deep roots in Celtic paganism then I’m afraid it doesn’t hold much appeal for me.” Fauna shrugged with a teasing little giggle. “If I don’t feel the mood includes having been able to celebrate it in the woods like witches then I’m afraid it simply doesn’t get me going.” She declared, patting his chest through his coat as she reached to adjust her hair a little. “I can’t wait for her to get out the second album, apparently you went through a phase of holding up books in photos and I definitely think you should go back through that phase so you can self identify as a nerd.” She giggled, nodding along with him describing the places they could visit. “I like froyo.” She started and then noticed him staring at something, and with a little curl in the bottom of her stomach she noticed Molly. It was odd, seeing her in the flesh when she’d spent so long pouring over her instagram pictures. Without really thinking about it the brunette leaned in closer to Sawyer unsure if this was a motion of support for him or an act possessiveness. “Do you want to say hi?” She asked quietly.

He shook his head with a laugh. "I always knew you were a witch, this basically confirms it." He told her with a laugh, cringing at the memories he knew that photo album would brings. "I mean I can self-identify as a nerd without such a cringey practice, thank you." However, after he noticed Molly, he admittedly didn't hear what Fauna said at first, and it seemed like time had stopped around him, his heart beating erratically. He heard Fauna's question slightly too late, feeling her body lean in even closer to him. "Hmm, what?" He asked, it suddenly registering to him. "Uh, I don't know if it's best...." The Dominant trailed off when it was made apparent his decision had been made for him, as Molly closed the space between them. "Sawyer?" Molly asked, almost as if hoping it wasn't him, that it was Finn with a haircut, or some third dopplegänger wandering around the Lima, Ohio mall. "Hey, it's good to see you." She stepped towards him as if to give him a hug, faltering slightly, and settling for just making it seem like she shifted her weight instead. "Molly!" Sawyer said, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. "Yeah, good to see you too." After a moment, he glanced down at Fauna. "Oh, so, Fauna, this is...Molly, my...er..." He felt rude to refer to her as her ex, but he also felt rude if he didn't acknowledge their relationship, so he took the coward's way out and said nothing at all, just trailed off. "And Molly, this is Fauna...my...claim."

Fauna tried not to let her face be pinched by the nerves and jealously that she was feeling. She knew it was a poisonous habit to compare yourself to other women, to survey Mollys outfit and wonder if she looked better than her. If she’d heard any girl she knew doing such a thing she would have given them a dressing down. So she painted on a soft smile, hoping that her malice played as nerves. Though she kept her body tight against Sawyers frame as she spoke. She waited to see if Molly really would go for the hug for a moment, and was relieved when she didn’t. Seeing the tension in Sawyers frame, and noting that his face seemed tight. He was uncomfortable, and so it was her job to make this more comfortable. To put him first even though she quite wanted to drag him down and kiss him until he wouldn’t remember Mollys name. “Pleased to meet you. And kinda weird to see you come to life.” She chattered offering Molly her own hand to shake. “I’ve seen you on Finns insta.” She explained in what was a partial lie.

A part of Sawyer was amazed that Fauna and Molly -- two very different parts of his life -- were speaking, and kinda jus stood there as Fauna offered out her hand to shake. Molly took it with a warm smile, always so infectiously nice to everyone she met. "Pleased to meet you too, that reminds me I need to hit up Finn, haven't caught up with him in a while. And, uh," She glanced between the two of them, "congratulations! On the...the claim." Sawyer's heart ached at the way she had stumbled over her words, not even bearing to imagine how it felt to see someone so happy an content. "Thank you," Sawyer said, biting his lip, not knowing what else to say. It was a lie, he knew what he wanted to say. He was saying to Fauna less than 2 months ago how he wanted closure with Molly for that night, for the way their relationship ended. But a busy mall the day before Thanksgiving wasn't the time or place to discuss his past, especially when he was with Fauna, his future. "Do you, still live here, in town?" He asked. "Yeah," Molly said, with a nod, seemingly suspicion. Sawyer nodded in response. "Good, we're here until Wednesday. If um, if you want to catch up sometime?" He suggested, heart racing, clutching round Fauna's waist as if his life depended on it. There were many ways it could go. She could say no, make up an excuse and that be that. She could say yes, and it'd be awful and open up old wounds that'd take longer to heal. Or...she could say yes, and it'd go surprisingly well. The risk of it all was in the asking, he supposed.

Fauna turned off the part of her brain that wanted to overanalyse every word that Molly was saying for now, hating how much she resented how sweet the other girl was being. “He’s knocking about town somewhere.” Fauna added as she shook the other girls hand. Glad that Sawyer was far too distracted to note the fake quality to the smile that she was giving. She was sure Molly wouldn’t know the difference, but Sawyer knew her too well usually for this shitty performance to pass. “I’m sure he’d be pure thrilled to see you.” The brunette confirmed continuing her barrage of friendliness. “Cheers. It’s a fun time of year for it to happen. Whilst the yanks are giving thanks.” Fauna rhymed, wondering why she had suddenly become Doctor Suess. He invites her, and Fauna can feel how tense he is. Her little hand smoothing across his back in comfort. She wanted him to know that she supported him, that she understood why he needed to have this conversation. “Please take him off my hands.” She encouraged gently. “I’ve got Christmas shopping to do, and all these limbs can occasionally get in the way.” She added, taking the cheap shot at her boyfriend to let Molly know that it was okay to say yes, and that she would be far out of the way if this little meet up were to happen.

Sawyer relaxed at the way Fauna was soothing him, knowing his laugh at her silly, yet adorable rhyme, and the teasing about his height sounded way too fake and tight to his own ears, trying to calm himself from the panic, to not let the troubled inside bleed through onto the put-together outside. Half of him wanted Molly to say no, the other half yes, and the few seconds between him asking, and her answering was driving him mad. Molly had laughed at Fauna's joke, "Tell me about it, I was always scared about him accidentally catching himself on a railing and knocking a display over. Or bumping his head on one of those ceiling beams." She agreed, and Sawyer found it nice they were bonding over...something. Even if it was his tallness. She turned back to Sawyer. "Yeah, I'd be up for...grabbing a coffee or something? Maybe Friday?" She suggested, before turning back to Fauna to ask, "That's okay, right? No special plans or anything?" He supposed she either asked Fauna for some special 'girl' thing, or maybe her own experiences with Sawyer knew that, no matter the designations, Sawyer was never the one to make the plan in the relationship, and even now, as a claimed Dominant, he knew Fauna would be the one making the bulk decisions on how they'd be spending their day or night.

Fauna was glad Molly laughed, she really did want the other girl to feel like she was okay with everything. Because objectively she was. She wanted them both to be able to get closure on what was clearly a very painful chapter of their lives, she just didn’t want them to get too much closure to a point that they missed one another or wanted to start over. “He’s a danger to himself and society when he gets going. It’s why him and his brother have to wear so many layers.. to kinda cling film their limbs.” It was a weak joke and she’d probably apologise for it later, but it was the best that she could come up with while she was so distracted. Molly looked to her and the nasty little Tinkerbell buried deep down inside smirked. As if to say ‘yes nothing happens with him without my say so’ but she pushed the fairy into the drawer and smiled the best and softest one that she should. “No special plans. You kids have fun, maybe I’ll let Finn persuade me into that Maize Maze he’s so convinced that I should visit.”

Sawyer felt himself blush at all the height jokes, ducking his face into his scarf so they didn’t have further ammunition regarding his reddened face. “Coffee sounds good,” He said, slightly delayed, nodding when Fauna gave the go-ahead that Friday was fine. Molly nodded, smiling politely still. “I mean, the Maize Maze is the only selling point of Lima, so you may as well go see our famous landmark. I mean it’s no Statue of Liberty or anything but it’s something.” Sawyer laughed at this, thinking back to all the times Finn had begged to go to that maze, with a reluctant Sawyer and Molly joining him, knowing his brother would be really grateful for Fauna to take him up on that offer. “Honestly I’m sure if he could, Finn would have moved into that maze a long time ago.” He commented, “Um so, Friday...at the Starbucks on the corner?” He suggested, wanting them to meet up in a neutral place that meant nothing to either of them, that also granted them some privacy. “Sure. Two-ish?” Molly asked, and a part of Sawyer wondered if she was hoping that time was too inconvenient for him, and a part of him wanted to lie and say it couldn’t work, but it was true that he had no plans that day. So he swallowed down the lie and grinned. “Two-ish works. It was...um, it was really good to see you.” He said hesitantly. Molly’s smile formed into something that, whilst genuine, was tighter. “Yeah, you too. And uh, it was really nice meeting you too, Fauna.” She said with a wider smile, and Sawyer wondered if he imagined the sad glint in her eyes for a millisecond.

“Well I guess I can perform some kind of study on the difference in Maize Maze foliage between Ireland and Ohio.” Fauna found herself saying without really knowing why. Finn had seemed very excited by the idea of them all going into the Maze together and would probably be disappointed that Sawyer had made plans without him. But Fauna was sure as long as Alexis went the other Hudson brother wouldn’t really care. The tension between the two other people standing there remained in the air, and Fauna reached over with her spare hand to subtly take his much larger one in hers and to gently squeeze it. To say, it’s okay I’m here, you’re doing so very well with all of this. Seeing Molly here must have been something akin to bumping into Charlotte and instead of running Sawyer was doing everything in his power to face this all head on and for that Fauna had to support him. Molly addressed her, and Fauna made sure she was smiling when she said. “Lovely to meet you too Molly. I hope you have a wonderful holiday.” She nodded, trying not to sound as distracted by Sawyers discomfort as she actually was.

Sawyer let out a small contorted laugh at Fauna’s randomness. He knew she had her moments, it was the Flanagan gene, but she rarely caught him by surprise like this. His heart was pounding in his chest, smoothed only by Fauna clasping his hand in hers and squeezing it. I’m here, she silently told him. He squeezed back; an I know, a thank you, and I’m here too. They finally shared their awkward goodbyes with Molly and she shuffled away, Sawyer purposefully walking past the store they were originally heading for to collapse on a bench, feeling nauseous, limbs heavy. “Jesus Christ,” He murmured, his large hands supporting his head. “That was the worst thing to have ever happened.”

She was simply glad that he’d squeezed back, there was a part of her that had worried he’d be too nervous to care about their little signal. She kept hold of him as she watched Molly go, silently hating the other girl for having made the day take this turn. She let him pull her along, heart aching as he collapsed into the bench, small hands finding his shoulders as he sat down, standing over him protectively. “Hey.. you did so well Sawyer. Honestly you were so brave, inviting her out like that. I couldn’t be more proud of you.” She promised, rubbing her thumbs over his shoulders. “You were so kind and open. It literally couldn’t have gone better. Even if it was bloody awful to get through.” Fauna promised him, feeling like she wanted to shield him from the world while he took a moment to recover.

He gave himself a moment to compose himself, to slow his heartbeat, and control his reddened face. Fauna's very presence there helped immensely, and he didn't know if he could have done it without her by his side. "Yeah?" He asked, looking up at her, feeling uncharacteristically small in this moment. "I'm just...I'm just glad it's over." Sawyer offered a small grin to his submissive, "Hopefully that litle detour down Memory Lane is the only one..." He trailed off as he noticed someone else make their way down through the mall, and Sawyer just watched with a blank stare, in disbelief that he had just jinxed himself. But there he was, Tommy de Luca, in the flesh. Sawyer silently prayed the other man wouldn't see him, but apparently the universe was ignoring his pleas today, as the high school bully of the Hudson-Hummel clan beelined towards Sawyer and Fauna.

Fauna just continued to smooth her thumbs over his shoulders as he composed himself, she would give him all the time in the world if he needed it. “Yeah, you were friendly and open and you left things open for her and that’s all anyone could hope for.” The brunette promised him, reaching to take one of his big hands. “It is over and you don’t have to think about it for a while. I think we need a winter warmer.. come on I’ll buy you the biggest gingerbread latte that Starbucks does-“ She started. “Oi Hudson. Didn’t know you were in town.” Tommy called coming all the way up to them. “Having a cry already? Sad that drunk old Dad won’t make it to Thanksgiving.” He taunted trying to look around Fauna. Who turned to him with a little scowl gracing her face. “I don’t know who you think you are, but you can get fucked. Stat.” The Irish girl demanded waving her hand as if to direct him to leave. “Aww it’s cute that you’ve got this little girl standing up for you Hudson. That’s a pretty short skirt she’s got on, I can practically see her ass hanging out.”

All of Fauna's soothing words of encouragement didn't register to Sawyer as Tommy came up to them, taunting them. It had been years since they had last seen each other, and honestly, Sawyer pitied the other man. He was so scared of his feelings and himself, and just had to take it out on others. A part of Sawyer, the nasty high school jock who stirred when Tommy's voice was heard, wanted to loudly point that out and embarass him, but he pushed it down. No matter how vile Tommy was, Sawyer was to show him some compassion. And he was willing to ignore him until he could feel his legs again and he and Fauna could carry on their day. Until he came for Fauna that was. Then it was all cards off the table. Sawyer stood tall, all 6"5 of him towering over Tommy, dropping Fauna's hand as he did, scowl etched on his face. "That little girl, Tommy, happens to be my claim, Fauna," Sawyer informed him, voice low and dangerous, "normally I'd list her accomplishments, like how she graduated high school early back in Belfast, or how she finished med school with top grades, or her list of amazing extracurriculars, including being a flyer on the cheer team of one of the best finishing schools in the country, and captaining science club." His scowl turned into a nasty smirk, a piece of vital information the couple had laughed about months earlier suddenly popping into his head, "But I don't need to, because she informed me last month you seemed to have liked a photo of hers from 275 weeks ago. So it seems like you pretty much know our deal. Now," He clenched his fist and his jaw, "Get out of my fucking face, de Luca, or the 'ass hanging out' of my submissive's skirt will be the last thing you ever fucking see."

Tommy seemed pleased when Sawyer stood, obviously having hoped to gain a rise out of him when he mentioned Fauna. Willing to do anything to capture the Dominants attention. Though there was a flicker of something akin to fear in his eye when Sawyer mentioned that he'd liked Faunas picture. "Well.. I'm a fan of her work. As I'm sure is every fucking guy in town, I've seen her little videos. Makes sense that the only girl you'd manage to get is a fucking slut- but then it's probably the Daddy issues that bonded you." Tommy sneered. Fauna put a little hand on Sawyers chest, she didn't care if he hit Tommy but she felt like he would care. Like he would feel like he'd let himself down or something. Tommys words stung because he was repeating one of her more significant fears. That all of Sawyers friends, and relatives would see her videos and wonder why he was ever with her. That they would all think he'd done rather badly for himself, their all American boy, and yet it was more sad to her that Tommy had taken the time to watch her video at all. Considering the fact that he was most likely a gay man. "Thanks for your views Tommy, bit sad though that you spend your time stalking me rather than- I don't know finding a submissive or a life of your own. I think it's time we all moved on from high school.. don't you? Or is your life really so fucking empty that Sawyer and I's relationship is the only thing you have to think about." She snapped.

Tommy bristled again, his face briefly twisting with an expression of something akin to shame as he looked past Fauna at Sawyer. Fauna almost felt bad for him because she could almost see the pining buried deep underneath all that bravado. She more than anyone understood what it was like to want Sawyer more than anything else. "You really are pathetic these days Hudson, letting your whore of a submissive fight your battles for you. Did you finally end up on drugs like your deadbeat Dad? Drinking to get yourself through the day. Reflex's too slow to take me on like in high school, or maybe you're scared that even she'll leave you if she see's what a fucking psychopath you are. That's why every other fucking girl you ever dated left you right, scared you'd fucking snap on them. Because you're a fagg-" While Tommy had been speaking Fauna had removed one of her mittens from her hand, and curled her fist in the exact way that Percy had once taught her after a few too many. Then she simply pulled back her arm and punched him as hard as she could possibly muster in the nose, her fist meeting his face with a satisfying crack. Tommy recoiled but Fauna advanced on him. "Don't you ever fucking speak to him like that again you vile little cunt. He's too fucking nice to ever ruin you but I'm bloody not. You ever so much as breathe in my Dominants direction ever again and I'll break your fucking arm and I'll make sure you never so much as take out a pizza in peace. You hear me?"

Each word hit Sawyer like a tonne of bricks, and he could feel the anger practically burning in his veins. His fists were clenched, and he stepped closer, fully aware he was going to give Tommy exactly wha the other wanted to get out of his taunting. However, Fauna was too quick for him. He looked in shock horror as her small fists made contact with Tommy's face, and he winced as he heard the definite cracking of the other man's nose. The threat Fauna made to him wasn't pretty either. Sawyer frantically looked around, noticing some people were beginning to stare, and he knew he had to do something before they got in trouble. Without thinking, he picked up Fauna and put her aside, before pushing Tommy against the wall in a blind mix of panic and rage. "If her hand is fucking broken from what you made her do, you're finished De Luca." He growled, before dropping his grip on him. He then swooped Fauna up and began to briskly walk away from the scene, muttering the word 'fuck' repeatedly under his breath until they were safely back in Sawyer's mom's car, luckily not followed by Tommy or any security personnel. "Fuck!" He then exclaimed once he could breathe again.

Fauna couldn't stop herself from smirking just for a minute when she saw how completely she had broken Tommys nose, the doctor inside of her told her he'd need it reset pretty pronto. Her smirk faded when she saw the panicked look on her Dominants face, and felt pretty terrible for scaring him. Surprised when he lifted her up and put her aside, an apology dying on her lips. She tried really hard not to be aroused by the way that Sawyer pushed Tommy up against the wall, and instead just sort of stood there until he pulled her off her feet again. She didn't say a word as he carried her out of there, flexing her hand a little. It wasn't broken, Percys advice had proved once again to be solid, it might need icing later though she'd hit Tommy as hard as she could muster. "I'm sorry Sir." She said in a small voice once they were in the car. "I know you didn't want to hit him, but I couldn't let him say all those things to you that weren't true. I know I was a bad girl."

Sawyer’s heartbeat was slowing from the adrenaline rush he received during those few moments interacting with Tommy. In response to Fauna’s apology, his heart panging at the softness in her tone, he leaned over and kissed her hard. “Thank you,” He murmured, “don’t be sorry. He deserved it. You were amazing.” Sawyer promised. “I just really didn’t want us to get arrested a few days after being claimed.”

The tiny brunette felt a sense of relief when he leaned over and kissed her, her hand coming up to touch his cheek. “Oh good.” She responded breathlessly. “I mean I don’t want to get arrested either, I’ll be honest I wasn’t really thinking about it. My brain was more focused on making more nobody ever spoke to you like that ever again. I don’t know how you managed it in high school. He’s a class A cunt.” She said without remorse.

He let out a short laugh as she explained her reasoning behind the actions. "Honestly, that's how I managed it in high school," He admitted, "I'm surprised his nose isn't permanently bandaged up." Sawyer let out a sigh as he thought about Tommy again. "God, you have to really feel sorry for a kid like that, so angry at himself he takes it out on others in that way." He glanced down, gently taking Fauna's hand. "It's not broken, is it? Because I will make good on my promise and go back and kill him for you."

Fauna laughed too. "I mean I hardly blame you, if anyone ever spoke to Ror like that I'd have made damn well sure they didn't have teeth by the time the bell rang." She shrugged. "It is sad.. and so weird that he's still stalking you hard enough that he knew that much about me. I mean I get it because I'm also like obsessed with you but still I wish he could just come to terms with himself." She said quietly, shaking her head as he took her hand. "No it's not broken, it'll bruise but that's a given considering how hard I hit him. Percy taught me how to throw a punch without breaking my hand when I was like nine, it was some of the only useful knowledge he's ever shared with me."

Sawyer nodded in agreement, imagining the visual. "Well, that was the case for me in school, especially with Finn. Tommy tortured the poor guy. It's just...I keep remembering the day he approached me, and how normal and friendly he was," He shrugged, "Sometimes I feel like hooking up with him was the wrong call. Like it just made him feel worse about himself, confirmed it for him all those feelings were slightly more complex than he hoped to be." Truthfully, Sawyer didn't know much about how Tommy was truly feeling, his therapist even said that she couldn't diagnose him from a second-hand account, but that's the conclusion they had 'hypothetically' reached. "Well, let's go get some ice on it. Maybe something with sugar in it. Your dad really taught you to punch like that?" He paused,thinking about Percy, and laughed. "You know what, yeah, I can see it."

Fauna reached with the hand that he wasn’t holding to push his hair off his face tenderly. “You couldn’t have known.. people start relationships out of things like that. Like people who get married... Hooking up with him could have ended with you guys even just being friendly.. but it didn’t and that’s his choice. You gave him a chance that he didn’t deserve by even getting a hot dog with him... one day probably when he’s like 48 and finally ready to accept himself. You’ll get some weird apology via Facebook messenger. Or maybe you won’t, but either way he’s the one that not only did you dirty here but also did himself dirty. Because hooking up with you is literally the third best thing in the world.” She pressed a kiss against his left cheek. “Getting to know you, that’s the second best.” Fauna pressed a second kiss against his right cheek. “And getting to love you is the greatest privilege in the world.” She told him with her impish smile. “Sugar! Yes please.” She agreed happily. “Perfect thing to teach your nine year old after you’ve had a pint or eight. How not to break your hand when punching someone.”

"I can't wait to read out the weird Facebook message when we're sat on our porch watching the sunset," He teased lightly, her words washing over him in a soothing manner. Fauna always knew the right thing to say, and Sawyer was ultimately grateful. He grinned as she listed the top three favourite things about him, feeling himself blush at the words. "That's funny, because loving you is the greatest privilege to me. Guess our lists are pretty similar." He murmured, before catching his lips against hers. "Okay, let's head to a grocery store. Who knows, maybe Cassidy will be lurking in the deli aisle, or Brad is hiding among the cereals." He joked with a weak smile, shaking his head at the idea of Fauna's dad. "Well it came in handy. We should send him a bottle of whiskey as a thank you." He deadpanned, not sure where this random bout of dry humour had come from, probably still in shock from the rollercoaster he had been on today.

She was glad that he seemed less tense, that she'd managed to soothe over some of the hurt of this particularly jarring little trip down memory lane. "As long as he doesn't hope you'll run into his arms in the sunset I'd enjoy that very much." The little brunette agreed, kissing him for a long lazy moment before smiling when he returned her compliment. "I think we have a lot of similar lists which is good, considering you agreed to be my prisoner for life once after I held you at knife point." Fauna laughed at the idea of Brad lingering in the cereals. "It's okay Sawyer the wild Brad is more scared of you than you are of him." She giggled, and then let out another stream of giggles when he joked about the bottle of whiskey. "Or just the half drunk one in our kitchen?"

Sawyer chuckled at the imagery. "If he ever ran down towards me, I'd honestly sock him, it's my knee jerk reaction." He admitted, feeling safe and secure that Fauna didn't care about his past, especially now he watched her throw a punch of his own. "Well, as you can tell, I held up my end of the bargain. I'll gladly be your prisoner until the end of time. Knife of no knife." He promised her, momentarily holding his fingers up in Scout's Honour. The words about Brad made him huff in amusement, mostly because they were true, but at least Brad's internalised homophobia was presented in him being overtly nice, too considerate about personal space and boundaries. It was still a shitty thing, to be hiding away like that, but at least Brad had some compassion. "God, that would drive your dad crazy, returning a half-drunk bottle of whiskey, maybe a note on how you do prefer 'that swill' after all," He joked in reference to Percy's dismissal approach to Fauna's usual drinks of choice. "Come on, Kitten," He then said, "let's blow this popsicle stand, before the cops hunt us down."

Fauna giggled at the image of Tommy trying to run into Sawyers arms, and Sawyer just panicking and smacking him one. "I mean I would also have that reaction to a lot of my past hook ups so maybe it's natural." The irish girl suggested lightly. "I let you collar me so I think I'm keeping my end of the deal too." She agreed, returning his scouts honour with her tongue stuck out for effect. "God, he's such a dick about alcohol until he's had a couple in him and then he's suddenly willing to do a shot of bathtub gin." She sighed, and then nodded. "Rodger that Sir, on the run we go. Bonnie and Clyde for life!"

#(( adventures with sawyer ))#(( ft molly ))#(( ft tommy ))

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hargroves-angel · 5 years ago

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Cookies And Cream 🏹🍪

Chapter 4 ~ Devil’s Food Cake

A/N - Hope you like 😈, Contains sexual references and swearing.

// Chapter 5 - Ice cream // Cookies And Cream Masterlist //

Soft music played from Y/Ns house. She was baking again. Billy had noticed how she liked to hum along to the song, whilst placing some sort of ingredients into a bowl and turning it into a delicious treat. He smiled at the thought of her dainty fingers icing cupcakes, or cutting cookies into various shapes.

How she would bite her lip in concentration trying to make sure she got everything perfect. Billy couldn’t help himself day dream as he worked out, looking out the window, a small smile on his face.

El let out a small giggle as her and Max peaked from her room at Billy. “Shh!” Max hissed.

Billy head moved up to see the two girls heads looking at him.

“Maxine! You little shithead” billy shoved the his weights down and stomped to her door. She shoved El back into her room and told her to hold the door closed with her powers so Billy couldn’t get in.

The girls giggled as El held it closed, Billy banging on it.

“I swear to god Maxine if you fucking tell anyone I’m gonna!” He got distracted by seeing Y/N at her window sill, she placed a pie on it. Her eyes glancing up to meet Billy’s. He let out of forced smile and a wave, leaning against the door as if he was just casually standing there, his cheeks were bright red.

Max noticed his shouting stop, she’d planned this out exactly, “c’mon!” She giggled, pulling El with her to the window as they clambered out.

Y/Ns smile made Billy feel warm and fuzzy inside as she gave him a small wave and went back into the kitchen. Leaving him to go back to yelling at Max.

He pushed against the door and practically fell in as it was no longer supported by whatever weight used to be there. He looked at the window, it was open.

“Fucking bitch” he muttered. This was getting out of hand.

The next day rolled around quickly after that little fiasco. It was Friday thankfully, Billy wouldn’t have that ‘hungry’ feeling he got all day. It was all Y/Ns fault, she kept making him feel like that, he hated it but at the same time it made him feel fuzzy and it was like a natural high, he was addicted to her. Not that he’d admit it of course, the problem was that Billy hadn’t bedded her yet. His sexual desires and fantasies were getting too much for him, his hand simply wasn’t enough.

He needed to get laid, and fast but unfortunately he hadn’t as much glanced at the other girls at Hawkins, who would try to drape themselves across him at every given chance, a chance which was quite rare, as he was always with her now.

Billy knocked on Y/Ns door. He’d come over early for those bacon and eggs you’d mentioned. He heard shuffling coming from the other side of the door, her face making him stand up a bit straighter, act a little more manly.

She smiled at his presence.

“Billy! You’re here for bacon and eggs I assume?” He nodded happily. She let him inside.

He knew her house so well, well mostly the downstairs, he had yet to venture into the bedrooms upstairs, in particular her own but he got a basic idea from what he could see from his window.

“Here you go” she handed him a large plate with 4 rashers of bacon on it and two eggs. “You have the basketball game later so I wanted to make sure you’re extra fed, protein and all that” she grinned.

He took a bite from the bacon.

“You can bake and cook! These are amazing” he beamed up at her. “You not having anything, beautiful?” She giggled at the name.

“I’ve already eaten mine, had a bagel, it was actually quite nice” She opened up the fridge to get some orange juice. Billy noticed the amount of ingredients in one fridge.

He finished the breakfast in mere minutes. Licking his lips. “Your an Angel Y/N” he let slip.

“Pardon?” She asked, not hearing his quiet words.

“Y-You coming to the basketball game then?” He switched the subject.

“Obviously, wouldn’t miss it for the world especially since you’re playing, you ready to go?” Billy nodded and they headed to school.

Y/N was surrounded by various girls the minute she stepped out of Billy’s car, even with all of those girls with her she made time to say goodbye to Billy and Make sure he’s ok. For Billy it was the little things like that, that made him feel important, like someone cared, mushy shit like that. He didn’t like it but he also did... things were confusing.

Eventually the basket ball game arrived. Billy ran out onto the court with his teammates, his chest was already glistening with sweat from pure excitement to win the game, he was the teams star player after all, so why deny the inevitable.

His eyes scanned the room, he didn't know why he was looking for her it wasn't as if he cared about her but maybe she would be impressed by his muscles... he had been working out even more for this game, and this game only obviously.

He saw her sat with Carol on the bench. She was so effortlessly enchanting, no! - She was hot just hot... the whistle shoved him out of his thoughts.

The game started off with Billy allowing the other team to think they have the upper hand and let them score two points, then he completely smashed them, scoring his team 5 points.

After every shot he made his head whipped round making sure she saw him, she always did, a proud smile on her face and a cheer of his name leaving her lips.

In the end Billys team ended up winning by miles. His teammates all congratulated each other with the students cheering. He had a huge smile on his face, the rush of the game fueling him. Y/N rushed down the steps and engulfed him a hug, Billy could've sworn time stopped. Everything else went fuzzy the only thing he could focus on was her. his heart beating exceptionally fast. He didn't know where to put his arms, he stood near enough stiff with that ‘hungry’ feeling again. What was happening to him, was he... was he dying?

“Im so proud of you Billy!” she pulled away from the hug, reality hit Billy back in the face as he realised that must've been really awkward on her part. “You good?” He nodded feeling a little light headed.

“Yeah, just... hungry that's all” he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

“Y/N!” Carol yelled from across the gym. “Come on we are going to yours right?” Y/N put her finger up as to ask Carol to give her a minute.

“Carol is driving me and the girls home tonight, I should've told you earlier but you were getting changed...” Billy chuckled, regaining his confidence.

“Don't worry about it angelface, see you tomorrow” He smirked. She smiled at him and walked to Carol, stopping half way and turning around.

“One last thing” She got on her tip toes and gave his cheek a small kiss. “You did great in the game today” she went back to Carol and the girls again, they were all squealing at what Y/N had just done. Ok that hungry feeling Billy kept getting, now made him feel starved, he didn't know what to do, what to say?

He felt a slap on the back of his shoulder. Tommy slung an arm around his shoulders. “Did well out there Hargrove!” he smirked. Billys eyelids fluttered a little.

“Yeah, nothing really” he said calmly.

“Say, you got a thing for Y/N?” Tommy enquired a smirk played on his lips, hoping to catch Billy out and get him to confess.

Billy raised his eyebrow, letting his ego get the best of him “Nah, just trying to get laid” he winked. Tommy shrugged

“You sure about that, after that little peck on the cheek you were blushing like a virgin”

“What?” he chuckled, of course he didn't like her “Trust me, that was for show, let her know im down when she wants to get dirty” the guilt came back with those words.

“Oh, I get it... you mind sharing after?” he smirked.

“You got a girlfriend anyway” Billy shoved off the question, and headed back to the locker room.

He needed to go home, let off some steam, and eat he thinks so anyway.

He heard giggling coming from her room as he stepped into his bedroom. He peered through his curtains, creepy much he thought.

Y/N was sat on her bed surrounded by a quarter of the cheerleading team and Carol and Tina. They were laughing and chatting, Girl stuff probably. he went to go shut his window and curtains, aware of the fact that he was probably missing out on most teenage boys dreams, an all girls sleepover right next door.

“Who do you like then Y/N?” Emery asked, putting a chocolate in her mouth. Billy stopped shutting the window, he got a little curious...

Y/N giggled. “I can't say, you’ll tell him!” she was getting flustered. Billy felt his heart drop, wait why did he feel his heart drop. like he gave a shit who she liked the only thing he cared about was her secret kinks.

“ughhh fine! Hargrove” she muttered.

“sorry who was that Y/N I didn't quite catch that?”

“Billy! ok Billy” she giggled.

Billy would've heard that, if he hadn't already accepted defeat and let his ego get the better of him, shutting the window and walking out his room to go workout just before she said his name, apparently not caring about who she liked because in his mind he was definitely only in it to bed her. Even if he was forgetting the fact that she did kiss him earlier and she hugged him so maybe there might’ve been a small chance that she liked him but either way this is Billy Hargrove and his ego is more important.

#billy hargrove fanfiction #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove x y/n #billy hargrove x you #billy hargrove #billy hargrove fanfic #billy hargrove fluff #billy hargrove angst #billy hargrove smut

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the-gunslock · 4 years ago

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Amanda 3 - Hammer

Third canon-deviant fic about Amanda Holliday and her journey to being greater, from a mini-series of four.

"This one would be pret-tyyy cool…"

The burnt-blonde Shipwright scrolls through the 'Collections' of Exotics Guardians found in their journeys, analyzing their perks as she patiently waits to be called inside the most envied library in the City.

For some seconds, her emerald eyes fall on a pair of knightly silver Gauntlets that could be what she looks for. She ‘hmm’s to herself for a second, trying on some shaders, and nods in approval.

"Amanda, let's go."

Her head moves to pay attention to the Warlock that has just arrived at her usual spot at the Bazaar, greeting her with a nod as she stows her tablet away and is transmatted into the library. She makes a mental note of the name ‘Stronghold’. Shaxx would probably appreciate her dedication to swordplay.

Other pieces like Fr0st-EE5 and Transversive Steps, which do not require Light usage, would also benefit her while she fought. Good to know, good to know. So many loopholes to be exploited.

Ikora Rey had devoted the day to silent studying and rewriting of her books, still not completely updated after the Traveler’s awakening in recent times. In order to focus better, she does most of it quietly and alone in the library, save for the Hidden that appear to report to her on occasion. Today was an exception, for she allowed the Tower’s Shipwright to keep her company under the pretension that she wanted to learn, and there was no better teacher for that than Ikora.

Ikora’s library has dim, yellow lighting and a rustic aesthetic, with bookshelves and flooring made of dark wood covered with blue and white tapestry. The overall layout of the place was circular, the center having her desk and simple chairs and couches disposed about.

"So, Amanda." Ikora begins, making herself comfortable at the table and suggesting Amanda to do the same, across from her. "What do you seek?"

Amanda quietly taps her fingertips at the table, fidgeting as she tries to formulate a good reason.

"I wanna learn how to… to fight. Like y'all Guardians do."

Ikora doesn’t turn her head, but smiles.

“Is that so?”

“Uh… yeah?”

Ikora gives a chuckle as she finishes rewriting a page.

“I think not.”

“...Why not?”

Not faltering, Ikora turns her head to face her friend as she hovers her hand above the book. “Because if you wanted to learn how to fight, you would have asked Zavala. And, if the words I received are true... you already did.”

Amanda doesn’t have an answer to that, only looking at the desk and pressing her lips together, the inquietude only building up. She observes Ikora using an emanation of Solar heat to dry the ink on the pages.

“Ikora, I… want to be a Guardian. I thought I could ask you to teach me how to think like one.”

As the Warlock turns to the book again, she turns a page and looks at a previous version of the book, also spread open on another part of the table, for reference. “Okay. And why aren’t you?”

She is caught off-guard by this question. She struggles to let out her answer, and the next sentence comes out a bit more condescending than she’d hoped.

“Because I’m not a Lightbearer?” Amanda replies as if it was something obvious.

“During the Red War, we weren’t either.” Ikora says as she starts writing once more. “And I went through the same dilemma. I was lost. I looked to the ashes emanating from the City, and vowed… never again. And since I had nowhere left to go, I found myself on Io, in search for answers. As time passes me by, I realized I was left without answers, without Light, without my team... without anything to hold on to.”

“And then?”

“A Guardian found me. One of those who had made the pilgrimage to the Shard of the Traveler and recovered their Light. They could have refused, but they didn’t. They could have quit the fight, but even if they knew they were going to die, they didn’t. And their very presence reminded me that, while the terms are, indeed, very associable to the outside observer, they are not the same.”

The Shipwright listens intently as Ikora recounts her tale. There were many angles to this. Most, she didn’t consider. Multiple viewpoints are a virtue Guardians must possess.

“It took me some introspection and some... unprecedented incidents, for me to believe that I am more than just my Light, and in being greater than the Light, protecting it and the people who live through its influence is what made me who I am. So, as long as you strive to perfect yourself, you’ll always be one."

Ikora eyes her friend without turning her head this time. Her eyes are amiable, as fierce as they looked.

"A Guardian, Lightbearer or not... is always a Guardian.”

The Warlock delivered each part of that sentence in a very light, but thorough manner, a way that Amanda didn’t even think was possible. It was a nail she still had to hammer, that Guardians are more than just their Light.

During the Red War, Amanda had argued with Zavala after the Traveler was imprisoned and the Light lost. “There are thousands of people like me stranded down there in the City", she had said; “We're all the same now, Holliday. The Light is gone.” She was too angry to realize at the time, but looking back, she realizes she had taken the Guardianship for granted.

While she still didn’t like having to obey Zavala and leave citizens to die, it was paying off, in a way. Everything they did, they did for mankind. And it was beginning to thrive again, the best they could. She could feel it, even if her mission was far from over and new threats were still bound to come.

With a deep breath, she promises to face them gladly.

"Thank you, Ikora." The Shipwright says, eliciting a smile and a deep nod from the Vanguard that was still focused on writing the page.

Amanda pulls out her sketchbook and starts drawing over a sketch of herself. But before she continues, she has an idea for the final part of the 'secret-unnamed-project'.

"Can I, ah, look around for a book?”

“Do you need help with anything?”

“Yeah, actually. Wanna know where the name ‘Leviathan’ comes from.”

Ikora pulls up her own tablet, doing a query search for the word on the archive. It narrows down to multiple editions of a religious book from the old world, called ‘Bible’. Taking a break from writing, she hovers over to a particular section of the library, taking an intricate, gold-foil crafted book, meticulously turning its pages to where the query told her. “Job 41:1–34”, it said. She floats back to Amanda, laying the open book in front of her, before going back to her own seat.

She devours the verses, at first barely making heads or tails of what was on the pages. 'Why'd people back in the day write so weird?' She thought to herself. But eventually she managed to understand what it was about, and suddenly the name of Calus' ship made much more sense.

"Did you gather something new, my friend?"

Amanda recaps in her mind, making sure to try not to miss anything.

"Right, so- uh...” Amanda begins to explain her thoughts, trying not to let anything pass her by. “There was this man named Job, whose faith in this god couldn't be waived. In this part, the god is tryna teach Job how questioning a powerful being is futile by presenting him beasts so powerful that only he can control, one a them being a sea monster called, you guessed it, the Leviathan."

"How awfully appropriate."

"Yep. Apparently there were two beasts, a sea one, and a... land one."

Realization came into Amanda's mind as a name for her project finally snuck through her hands and into the paper.

"Reminds me of the World Serpent..." She adds nonchalantly, having doing some reading on the Edda in her free time back at Hiver’s place.

Ikora finally perks up from her book, stretching her writing hand. "You've been doing some homework."

"Hard not to, when you date a Warlock."

"And you are going to tell them about this… when?"

The one question Amanda dreaded, and it shows. Her 'Lightless Guardian' idea was nothing short of life-threatening, it's amazing she's got this far without being stopped.

Amanda had survived her whole life on the road, fighting off Fallen and hiding with hers and other families, but she would never, ever get rid of the pain of losing them. She survived and is happier than she's ever been, even if it's not a perfect life. Now, she was Hiver's family, and cannot bear the image of her lover having to go through the same — because of her own incompetence, nonetheless.

There was no telling how Hiver would react, the woman is already being a pile of anxieties, but of one thing she was sure.

It wouldn't be pretty.

“I don’t... know.“

"I can help if you'd like. But remember that this is your responsibility — and your burden."

She nods with a nervous face and gives a deep sigh.

“I’ll think of something. Can you take me back to the Tower?”

“Yes. And Amanda?”

“Yes?”

“Congratulations on finding love. Hold on to it. It is powerful.”

As nervous as she is, she nods smiling.

“Ophiuchus?” Ikora says to no one. Her Ghost, white and red and with spiking protrusions on the back of his shell, appears in the air next to her shoulder.

“One second.” He replies, spinning.

With a flash, Amanda is back at the Tower’s bazaar. Eyeing the drawing she has just finished, she runs to the Courtyard, in search of a person who could help her make it look much better.

Trying to ignore the built-up tension, she runs.

The Awoken woman stationed at the Tower Courtyard is, as usual, cleaning up dust and reorganizing her inventory, because it’s not home yet, but it would be. Then she hears a familiar voice calling to her.

“Tess!”

“Oh! Hello, Amanda. What can I do for you today?” Tess greets the Shipwright, assuming her usual hands-behind-back posture and giving her usual, welcoming smile.

“See, I got a lil’ project o’ my own, and wanted an expert’s opinion on how ta make it look the sharpest it can.”

Amanda presents the sketchbook with her sketch to Tess, who analyzes it meticulously.

It’s a suit of armor. Titan armor, to be more precise.

“Gothic knight inspiration… baroque decor… exquisite. Practical, but carries a lot of elegance. This looks incredible. Also, you draw extraordinarily well.”

“Thank you,” The Shipwright says, blushing. “But it lacks color. What would ya say works?”

“Excuse me.“

Tess takes the notebook into what appears to be a scanner, converting Amanda’s drawing into a digital projection that can easily be colored, and bringing it to the desk where they both could see it.

“Right, in my opinion the ornaments and trim should definitely be gold.” She says, quickly selecting the decorative parts of the plates and changing their colors to a light golden color. “The style reminds me of Gjallarhorn and the old Iron Lords’ armor. Maybe we can make it a bit more orange…”

“Would black fit with it, maybe?”

She changes the main plate colors to black. Tess and Amanda look at each other in disapproval.

“How about…” Tess changes the color to a deep blue.

“Can you try dark gray?” Amanda asks, and Tess obeys. However, it still seems to not fit, and they experiment with a midpoint between blue and gray.

“What do you think?”

“I like it.”

“Me too.”

Amanda scratches her nose, taking some time to think. The girls mix and match palettes for a while until finding one that fits the armor well.

Dark gray plates with crimson details, gold ornaments, and a white, gold-trimmed mark.

“Whew… Thank you, Tess. Anything I can do to repay ya?”

“The pleasure is mine. Although if you have some Silver on you…” Tess says, smiling smugly. “Just kidding.”

“My girlfriend does. She’ll probably come by again, she wants that duster you’re selling. Says she wants to look like a cowgirl.”

Tess laughs at this, eliciting a grin from Amanda, who picks her sketchbook and transfers the colored illustration file from the Awoken vendor to her own tablet, almost walking off and ready to send it to Crux/Lomar for forging.

“Oh, Amanda.”

“Yeah?” She turns back to face Tess.

“Does it have a name?” She asks in genuine curiosity.

Amanda smiles contagiously in pride, remembering what she read from the Bible in Ikora’s library. She had the perfect name for her project, given what was going down on the System — and how she’d fight it, if need be.

“The Behemoth.”

#destiny 2 #destiny fic #amanda holliday #hiver the gunslock #ikora rey #oc x canon

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dalamjisung · 5 years ago

Text

the picture worth a thousand words ❊ kim seungmin

genre: fluff

word count: 3902

pairing: reader x kim seungmin

description: people say a picture can be worth a thousand words, but you are a writer and that ain’t flying with you. Until you met him; photographer Kim Seungmin.

There was nothing particularly wrong with you. At least not that you knew; but you still felt like there was something missing. Every night, before going to bed and after doing your usual n nightly routine, you’d sit down on your bed, and think. You have a great job. You graduated from a good university. You have amazing friends. You have a beautiful house. But why did you feel like there was no reason in celebrating all that? Why did you feel so alone? You wanted to share all of that with someone; to wake up in your apartment to the sight of made breakfast and the love of your life in an apron, laughing the kind of laugh that would make happiness bubble in your stomach. You wanted someone to pick you up at your job so they could take you to an impromptu date, or someone who you could talk about the good old day of college. Being alone was fun, but just for a little while. You were older now, and you missed that companionship that all your friends seemed to have.

No, you would alway chastise yourself. You don’t need a man to be happy. And you really didn’t; you knew you were thankful for all you had, for all you achieved. You could easily be happy on your own, but you didn’t really want to. And that made all the difference.

Sighing, you gave up on yet another sleepless night. The night left as quick as the morning came and it was time for you to clock in to work. As you ran to the office, you couldn’t help but feel your stomach growling, complaining about not receiving any breakfast.

“I’ll eat after the meeting,” You promised yourself, hoping your body would somehow understand and behave during your presentation.

You worked in a magazine, writing for the arts and culture section, and this meeting would decide on a very important pitch you had been pushing forward for a while; a personal interview with the up and coming photographer, Kim Seungmin. You were a great admirer of his early work, loving the simple way that texture and color mixed in his pictures, managing to really evoke some feeling in you– some feeling you couldn’t quite name it, just feel it. This interview could change your career, as well as his, and you truly believed it could benefit both of you. You were tired of having to always write about the same things and the same people; it was time to write about things that were truly new, truly inspiring. You deserved this, and so did many other people.

“Good morning,” You say, smiling as you walk into the meeting room where your boss, supervisor, and assistant sat. “Shall we begin?”

They all nod, smiling too. Your company was incredible like that; it was casual, with spaces where you could work with your colleagues without the pressure of deadlines. They re-enforced that friendships in the working space optimized the workload in half, and that colorful and open spaces made the workers more engaged, instead of separating people in cubicles. You had your own table, but there was no wall separating you from your peers. Everyone smiled. Everyone truly enjoyed what they did. This was your dream job, and if could simply convince these three people that it was time for a content upgrade, you’d be on cloud nine. You could feel it; it would change your life.

“And that it why,” You say, concluding the presentation with a couple of Kim Seungmin’s pictures from his last exhibit. “I believe we need this change. It is not only a chance to connect with a younger audience, but to also introduce a new artist to our older public. We can widen our publication to encompass more than a select number of people; we can get bigger and better, while staying true to our morals and still conveying informative and captivating content.”

They all nod, looking at each other, and your boss gets up. “That’s why we hired you, isn’t it, Y/N? That crazy mind of yours is one of your best. Go ahead; we’re giving you as much time as you need. I believe this project will work out really well for everyone.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” You say, smiling wide and trying to contain your excitement.

“Ma’am my ass,” She laughs. “Back in the days you’d refer to me as senior sister…”

You laugh with her. Your boss wasn’t that much older, but actually very close in age to you. She had been the senior responsible for you during your orientation and freshman year, and as soon as she heard you graduated, she offered you a job. You started low; just an unpaid intern, and in the passing two years since the, you managed to climb your way up to payed columnist. You were proud of you and of her.

“You got it, didn’t you?” Your friend, Lisa, asks as you sat on your table. She was a reviewer for the magazine, enjoying the life of testing out new products for the magazine. She called ‘pampering herself while getting paid.’ “I can see it on your face, you did. Wow! Congratulations!”

“I’m so happy,” You squeal, looking at your friend laughing at you. “This will be great!”

“You finally get to meet your idol,” Lisa jokes and you throw a pen at her.

“I simply admire his job,” You say, squinting your eyes. “That’s why I insisted on this pitch so hard.”

“Pff, sure,” Lisa rolls her eyes. “Let’s not focus on the fact that he is drop dead gorgeous.”

“Oh my gosh Lisa,” You mumble, facepalming yourself. “He is not a product to be tested.”

“You never know,” She says winking. “Maybe he is interested.”

“Don’t you dare hit on my assignment!” You gasp, laughing.

“I would never!” Lisa says, and you two are almost rolling on the floor at this point.

You knew she’d never hit on Kim Seungmin (unless he started it, of course.) She always joked like that, complaining about how her job never introduced her to hot people like yours did. It’s not fair, she’d whine playfully. You’ve met all of my favorite idols! Kim Namjoon, Ahn Hyoseop, Jackson Wang! Should I keep going? You’d shrug and chuckle. Sure, it was really cool talking to all of those people, their stories were simple incredible, but you knew about the restrictions placed on them through their companies. You knew the reservations they had, and that half of the information was just generalized answers to questions they weren’t allowed to answer. This is why you were so interested in Kim Seungmin; he wasn’t represented by an entertainment agency nor was he under any contract– he was an independent artist.

You had a response to your initial email right as you came back from lunch.

Dear Ms. Y/N Y/L/N,

Thank you so much for contacting me. I’d love to help you with whatever you might need. However, I am in the middle of photographing for my new exhibit, so I’m afraid I won’t have time to sit down properly and answer all your questions. If you don’t mind me suggesting, you could tag along for a few days to experience my day to day life first hand, and ask your questions as well.

I hope to hear from you soon,

Kim Seungmin.

“Holy shit!” You gasp. This was much better than you expected. You’d be lying if you said that the thought of asking to accompany him on his daily routine as he photographs didn’t cross your mind, but you refrained yourself from pushing too hard, very aware that some artists are not enthusiastic of sharing their muses and inspirations with others.

“What?” Lisa runs to your table, leaning on the back of your chair and reading the email carefully. “Holy shit!”

You both start brainstorming for quick and efficient questions, skipping the obvious ones and going straight for the ones that dwelled deeper into his work and exhibitions. This had potential to be your best work so far, and you could feel it. Once you both came up with a list of about thirty questions, it was almost the end of the day.

“I’ll get going,” Lisa said waving. “Don’t stay here too late!”

“I’ll just answer some emails and leave,” You smile. “See you tomorrow!”

Cracking your fingers, you tried to control your emotions.

Dear Kim Seungmin,

Thank you for your quick response and for the great suggestion. I’d love to tag along, if it won’t be a problem for you!

When would it be a good time to start?

All the best,

Y/N Y/L/N.

You were about to close your laptop when a new email came in.

Dear Ms. Y/N Y/L/N,

I’m starting to photograph for a series tomorrow! If you’d like, we could meet at 10AM at the coffee shop right by the corner of Main Street?

Let me know!

Kim Seungmin.

You smiled.

Perfect! See you then.

————————

Waking up was not hard simply because once again you didn’t sleep. Getting out of bed, though, was incredibly difficult. You were super excited, but once again your body felt like it had no energy, the two hours you seemed to have managed a light sleep not serving for much. When you finished getting dressed, you notice you barely had time to make it to the coffee shop, so unfortunately, no breakfast would be possible.

You run all the way there, cursing your laziness that led you to be this out of shape. Getting inside the shop, you sigh, looking to the sides while putting your hair up in a ponytail. It’s then that you hear a sharp, dry snap! Your head whips to your right and you finally find him, with his camera pointing at the coffee mug. Kim Seungmin. The tip of his tongue is showing through his teeth as he absentmindedly looked at his pictures.

“Hi,” You say gently as you approached him. His eyes, sparkling and large, look at you and he blushes intensely, gulping down. “Kim Seungmin, right?”

“Y-Yeah,” He stutters a bit, and you chuckle. “Look, abou-“

“I’m Y/N Y/L/N,” You clarify, not wanting him to think you were a fan bothering him on his free time. “We emailed yesterday?”

“You’re Y/N???” He gasps, putting his camera down and offering you his hand. “I didn’t expect you to be so… young.”

You laugh at that. “It’s fine, I didn’t really expect you to know what I looked like.”

“Yeah,” He laughs. “Sorry about that. Do you want anything to eat? I went ahead and ordered coffee…”

“Oh,” Your stomach grumbles. “I’d love that actually. Do we have time?”

He shrugs. “I don’t really have a time table to follow, so sure.”

You guys start talking about yourselves, and you do what you always do; you try to establish a connection to you interviewee so that they feel more comfortable talking to you, and that means also talking about yourself, in the most superficial level possible. This time, though, was different. You felt as if not only you were doing that, but him too. He asked questions about you and your life, and he seemed genuinely interested in what you told him. You felt really comfortable with him, and you were excited for the rest of the day.

“Are you done?” He asks, with a small smile. You nod and you two leave, walking side by side.

With your eyes on him, you noticed his stance; camera in hands, always at chest level, ready to snap pictures at the slightness movement that caught his eyes. In between, while you guys walked around the city, you asked some of your prepared questions.

“What is this series about?” You ask, notebook in hand. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course…”

He chuckles. “The mundane life,” He says looking around, eyes laying on you, hair up, looking down at your notebook. Snap. You look up and he is staring at the children ahead. “I want to portray the beauty that people ignore everyday. It’s a new theme even for me, I don’t know if you are familiar with my past work but-“

“I am,” You say, smiling wide. “I love your pictures, really. They were one of the few I’ve seen that actually talked to me.”

And you could’ve melted at his smile. “Thanks!”

He keeps talking about his work and you guys walk, and you kept hearing snap! snap! snap! but it always seemed to be when you were writing. You were a little upset that because you had to do your job, you couldn’t watch him do his, but you were sure you’d see those pictures later.

“What I’m looking for,” He said as you two sat down on yet another coffee shop, now with the sun already gone. and a sandwich instead of breakfast in front of you. “Is for that one picture, yeah? The one that people always talk about– the one worth a thousand words. And I think I’m on the right path to find it.”

You’d definitely quote him on that one.

For three days, both of you followed a routine; meet at the coffee shop at 10AM, walk around a different neighborhood each time, have lunch, walk some more, and then talk a little more over dinner, although dinner time was reserved for you two to bond as friends and not work assignments. You grew to enjoy his company, in these past days, and enjoy your dinners even more. You found out he is a fan of Day6 and that he sometimes can look like a puppy when he smiles. You learn that he has an older sister and that being a photographer was always his dream. But Seungmin also learned new things; he got to know who much of fan you were when you accidentally mentioned on of his first famous pictures. He found out that you are allergic to cats but that you still adore them, although your dream is to one day raise a Corgi named Moose.

As you talked, you barely noticed his hands on his phone, stealthily snapping away. You were simply too into your memories of when you would write people’s essays in college for a small fee that you barely noticed him doing his thing. Actually, this was one of the things he loved to found out the most; how immersed on an assignment you could get, that you would barely notice the world around you still spinning. Or him taking pictures of you.

It was now the last dinner; your week over. This had been the best week of the past few months, if you had to be truthful. You would wake up energized because you finally could sleep. You would eat delicious food slowly because you finally had someone to talk to during meals. You adored your days with Seungmin. But they had finally come to an end. And you feared that so would your friendship.

————————

Dear Y/N,

I hope you haven’t forgotten me yet (it’s been only three weeks since we last saw each other.)

I read your article about me. I loved it! You definitely painted me in a light I’ve never seen myself, but I still want to thank you for being truthful and inspiring when you talked about my work.

I am emailing you to finally announce that my exhibition opening will be tomorrow, at 7PM at The Gallery. I hope you can make it! I organized everything so that your name will be on the VIP list with a plus one; you can bring your friend you talked so much about, she sounded fun! I hope to see you there!

Love,

Seungmin.

“Love?” Lisa asks, as you both read the email for the fifth time. “What the-“

“Language,” You shush her. “Oh my gosh, what does he mean by that?”

“Love.” Lisa tries again. “Love love love… you guys really hit it off, didn’t you?”

“Lisa, no!” You whine, blushing intensely. “I mean… there were times when I thought we were getting closer, but after the week ended he never texted me! Not even to talk about the article, so I don;tknow what to think anymore.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” She shrugs. “Now let’s go, girly. We need to get ready for a very important event tonight.”

With the permission of your boss, you two leave early, straight to your house. On the way, you kept stressing about which dress to wear, or which shoes would match, and you’d sigh in frustration. That wasn’t you. You didn’t stress about things like this; you were cool and collected.

It took a couple of hours and you were sure you’d make it there a little bit late, but as soon as you two were ready, Lisa having borrowed some clothes from you, you left. The taxi ride was terrible; you were so anxious that you could throw up. Something in your gut told you that tonight would be… a surprise. And you weren’t sure if that was good or bad.

“Okay, we’re at the door,” Lisa whispered smiling to the security and giving him your names. “You have to calm down. You look like you’re about to run.”

“That’s because I am!” You whispered, looking at your friend as you walked in.

“Don’t be an enjoy the show!” She winks and walks away.

Sighing, you start roaming around, noticing one room in particular was closed off. Some pictures on the wall made you want to laugh, because you knew that as soon as he snapped that picture, Seungmin tripped and feel on his butt. The next one made you smile fondly, watching the two kids on their bikes. The sunset gave off the perfect lighting and you could only see one hand from the right side, a worried mother that ran after her babies. You went through the exposition like that, remembering each and all moments with the photographer. Once you were done, you were a little confused. You could’ve sworn he took more pictures than that.

“Excuse me!” Seungmin called from the center of the room, his back to you and Lisa, who brought you a glass of champagne. “I’d like to say a few things tonight. First of all, thank you all for coming. It means a lot to see all my friends and family united to support me. Secondly, I wanted to talk a little about this series, and about the surprise series in the next room.”

So that’s what it was. A surprise collection. Intrigued, you listened carefully.

“For the past days I have been working endlessly to make this dream come true, and I finally did it. I managed to capture moments of the daily life that, for us spectators, don’t mean much when we see them on the street, but that printed and edited seems to mean a lot. This is a calling; please pay more attention to your daily life. Smell the flowers. Listen to children laugh. Have fun as you walk to work everyday at 6AM.”

People laugh at that. He did too, and you smiled, watching as his cheeks puffed out in pride.

“The next room, though, was inspired on my own daily routine for the week I was taking these shots. I wasn’t alone that time; I was lucky to have an incredible companion with me, and unfortunately she doesn’t seem to be here, but you still get to see what I did for seven days straight.”

Lisa elbows you and your mouth is agape. You are sure you look like an idiot, but you couldn’t believe this. Was he talking about you?

“I promised this person that I would find what I was looking for– a picture worth a thousand words. How funny is it that she’s a writer?” People laugh yet again, but you can’t even muster breathing at this point. “And I did it. In the next room, you will see a series of shot of this person who now has turned into my muse. And in the center, the thousand words. Have fun, and thank you!”

Following the crowd before he could spot you, you enter this mysterious room, feeling lightheaded as you did. Your face was everywhere.

A picture of you writing on your notebook, the sun hitting only half of your face.

A picture of you sipping on your coffee while looking out the window. A thunder illuminating your face, contradicting the peacefulness you remember feeling that one stormy afternoon.

A picture on you laying on the grass, relaxing a little as he hunted more pictures.

“Holy shit, Y/N,” Lisa gasped. “How?”

“I don’t know.” And you really didn’t. How didn’t I notice this before?

And in the center, hanging from the ceiling, bigger than the others, you. Your eyes curious and wondering, arms up, putting your hair on a ponytail, and a coffee bar behind you. You had to admit, you looked ethereal; like a faraway beauty. And the name, written in small print, the picture worth a thousand words. Not ‘a picture,’ the picture. To say you were about to cry was an understatement.

You walk away from the room, heels clicking on the ground and suddenly a deja-vu hits you; snap! snap! snap! The sound of the camera shutter echoing on your mind.

So that’s what that was, you think, still walking, decidedly. He was taking pictures of me.

You find him talking to a waiter in another room, soon dismissing him with a wave and a smile.

“Ya Kim Seungmin!” You call loudly, making him jump from the scare. His eyes go wide as he sees you approaching, stuttering nonsense and and pointing at you. “Are you crazy?”

And as you say that, your hands go to his chubby cheeks– the same ones you’ve been dying to squeeze– and pull his face towards you. Your mouth touches his and there is nothing smooth or delicate about it. It’s urgent, desperate almost, and you blush at the thought. He is quick to get out of his trance and to bring you closer with his hands on your waist. He slows down the kiss, leading you, coaching you. He does what he’s been wanting to do since he saw you and he entangles his hands on your hair. It takes a while for you two to separate, and when you do you hide your face on his chest, laughing lightly. His heart is beating like crazy.

“Warn a girl first,” You tease, raising your head to see his eyes shine in the way you love so much.

“Look who’s talking!” He gasps. “You just attacked me!”

“I just… had a lot to say.”

“And what was that?”

“A kiss is worth a thousand words,” You whisper in his ear, laughing as he shivers. “Didn’t you get the memo?”

“I don’t think so,” He pretends to think about it. “Do it again and see if it works.”

Laughing, you start approaching him again. Foreheads touch first. Eyes make contact. And just as your lips were about to touch you hear-

“Is that the girl from the pictures?!”

And if you could hit Lisa, you would.

149 notes · View notes

bonsaiiiiiii · 5 years ago

Text

FabFiveFeb 2020 - Virgil

Prompt 1, 2, 3, 4 - Hard, Yesterday, "I'm trying!" and Shimmer

THIS FIC IS DIVIDED IN 2 PARTS. PART 2 IS BEING POSTED JUST AFTER THIS. TUMBLR WON'T LET ME POST THE ENTIRE FIC

(I took this part from my original story, Dust, which should be published in a few weeks more or less {too busy with exams}. rereading this chapter I thought it would be a fabulous fic to display, also because it has many of the prompts inside. I know, major spoiler for when the fic will be out, but this chapter will be out so far in time that you will forget about it! [Lol I hope] I hope you like it! Prompts given by the amazing @gumnut-logic ♡)

"Where am I?" and "Who am I?" are the two questions that have been ringing most frequently in my head since I arrived here. Here, though, where? Where exactly is 'Here'?

I don’t know how I got here, and the weirdest thing is, I don’t even remember my name anymore. The man who took me always refers to me as Alice.

Alice. What a beautiful name! But I don’t remember it being mine..

Of course, the man never told me his name; he keeps telling me that I would have remembered it and that I would have recognized him if my memory had gone back, if it ever happened. For some strange reason, he was pretty sure I’d never get my memory back.

So all I did was spend eight months in this dark cell, trying to remember every detail of my life.

Yeah, I’ve been here eight months. The only thing that’s changed with my body is a concussion to my head, a scar on my forehead, and my belly was growing out of all proportion every month that went by; yeah, I’m pregnant with a baby, but I have no idea what sex it has and if it's still okay. The man who kidnapped me refuses to let me do a medical check-up.

The only thing I know for sure is that the man told me that I was already 1 month pregnant before he kidnapped me and carried me into the bowels of the earth.

If I think about it, it makes sense. It’s true that I woke up in the cell, but I don’t remember being passed out that long. I don’t know how I know this, but I’ve been unconscious, alas asleep, for a short period of time, like the time of a surgery.

The man doesn’t seem to want to hurt me, or at least that’s what I think. I’ve been stuck here for 8 months and I’ve only seen him twice. The first time was when I arrived here; I remember just waking up, remembering nothing of my past in the cell. I remember looking up and seeing him right in front of my eyes. We just looked at each other, also because I was very confused and he didn’t speak, his mouth was reduced to a very thin line. If I had the gift to go back in time, I would have cried.

The second time he came down was five months later, after me complaining all the time.

He came down to my cell, simply explaining the reason for my kidnapping: he practically locked me here because he simply wanted to take me away from the family I was with, as a sign of revenge against them.

When I asked him why he was so mad at them, he turned around and just said, "They took something of mine."

I said outraged, "So if they took something of yours, you have to do something as bad as kidnapping a pregnant woman? Can’t you get over it? I’m sure this family isn’t even looking for me!"

Only when my anger vanished I realized that I told him that I was pregnant. I shut my mouth with a hand in horror.

To my answer he smiled at me, but it seemed more like a melancholy smile rather than the evil one he wanted to let out.

"Believe me, they’re looking for you. And I won’t let them find you."

With that phrase, he went up those stone stairs that I’ve been seeing for eight months, blocking my cell again. He hasn’t been around since.

So now I just lay on the little bed in my cell, holding my belly and stroking it with my hands, with the comfort of the silence and the ticking of a clock in the distance, which marked 13 o'clock in the afternoon. Lunch time, Yee.

Ever since I told the man I was pregnant, he’s had a bed brought down, and he brings me more food than he gave me before. I’m almost treated like a queen, and it’s a little ironic considering the situation I’m in right now. Even if I’m treated like this, he insists on not letting me out, not even for trivial things like taking a bath. I mean, Ugh! I’ve been washing myself with sink water for 8 months straight, do me a favor! But for some reason, I never had the courage to ask him.

But, as I was saying before, he brings me more and more food as time goes on. He also brings a lot of water to drink. Maybe he doesn’t want me to starve to death or die from malaria? Maybe he needs me alive, or at least he needs me just until the baby’s born. Will he kill me when the baby is born? Or..

As if it had intercepted my thoughts, the little one began to kick into my belly.

"Hey, calm down, baby, I swear I won’t think about that anymore. As long as I’m here, no one will hurt you, I promise."

But the little guy wasn’t of my idea, maybe he doesn’t have the calm genes in his DNA.

It was when I heard contractions that I opened my eyes wide.

"No, hey, listen, you can’t be born now. Please, wait. Wait till Mom gets out of here, which I hope is soon."

I started breathing small and fast because of the pain, puffing like a locomotive.

Then I was filled with fear. The primitive fear that they would take my baby away from me, or that they would kill me, so that he would be left without parents. The little guy never met his father, he never had the pleasure of feeling the caress of a different hand from me and the warmth that that hand conveyed, and the words of comfort of his father. I may have known him, but I can’t remember him anymore; if I’m killed, he’ll be alone. It didn’t even occur to me that they could kill my baby. If that had happened, I don’t know what I would have done.

At that moment I heard the sound of the blinded door above opening, making a female figure appear from the darkness wrapped in a sort of purple armor. I remember her. She was one of the people I met with the man who kidnapped me and another man, maybe her brother.

I don’t know much about her, only that she calls herself Havoc, and that her brother is called Fuse; they both always turn to the kidnapping man with the term Boss, so they work for him.

Since I was kidnapped they have been charged with bringing me food and drink, more often after the 5th°month. And in fact, she had come down with a chicken sandwich in her hand and a bottle of water, but she suddenly widened her eyes when she saw the puddle of amniotic fluid that had formed on the ground.

Shit, my water just broke! No, baby, I told you to wait! Not now!

Havoc gave me a look that I could clearly not decipher, something halfway between the concerned and the softened. Strange, it was the first time I saw her so...vulnerable.

After a second she went out, coming back upstairs. A second later she came back with the man.

"So, you’re going to give birth, huh? Congratulations!"

I was shaking from the pain, the breath coming out of my lungs, leaving me breathless. "Please." I sincerely watched him whispering, ".. Please don’t take him away from me. Don’t kill him. I’ll do whatever you want."

"This is very interesting. I could get you to do a lot of things, but of all the bad things I do, I’m actually very loyal to the family, so you can go."

I widened my eyes. "What..?" then I thought about it. If he wants me to leave so easily..

Like he was reading my mind, he just looked at me.

"Now I’m sure no one’s looking for you anymore, you can leave, and they won’t even know if you died anywhere. Well, they don’t know that on principle. I’m gonna leave your cell bars wide open, and I’m gonna open the blinded door upstairs, so you can leave whenever you feel more comfortable to do so. Remember that I can always find you anytime if I want to."

And with those words he made a gesture with his hand to call out Havoc and went out with her. Like he said, he left the bars and the blinded door wide open.

I was about to get up, when he turned to the first step, stopping on the stairs.

"Ah, I forgot. Try to wear something heavy, it’s snowing outside."

I looked at my clothes. I was wearing the same skinny jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt I was wearing since the first time in this cell.

He also looked at my outfit, and then threw me a long-sleeved dress and a wool sweater. Then he disappeared upstairs again. I didn’t waste any time and tried to get dressed, barely putting on the dress. Fortunately the sweater was very wide and, even with my belly, it reached my knees. That was very easy to put on.

As I was slowly climbing the large stone stairs leading to the armored door, I did some calculations in my mind. I distinctly remember that when I was kidnapped eight months ago, the man wished me a Merry Christmas, so it was December when I was taken away from the world. If 8 months have passed now, we should be in the middle of August, if not towards the end. So why is it snowing? Has it been much longer than I’ve counted?

I finally got to the big door that I could only see from my cell until recently, wide open to a big hallway. The pain of labor made my head spin uncontrollably, but I tried to bear it as I headed into a very long hallway.

I also managed to pass the very long corridor, finding myself in front of a little door like those that are at the entrance of every house. Considering that the door was wet to the touch, and being able to feel the cold permeating from outside, I felt that was the famous exit door that I had been dreaming about for 8 months. I shrugged myself, taking courage, and opened the door to the outside world.

I managed to get out, and I have to admit it’s too comforting to breathe the air from the outside, even though it's too cold. The man was right, it had just finished snowing, the inch of snow that had formed a white curtain on the ground was still fresh.

I could look around, as much as the pain would allow me, and I realized I was in the middle of a little city. I could hear the chatter of people passing by me, the sound of the horns of the various cars passing on the street, the lights of the signs near me flashing; the wind, which made my blonde hair dance slightly, I could feel it on my face, it almost tickled me. For a moment I forgot the pain I felt in that moment, watching everything around me.

I looked at the store signs, written in a language I couldn’t quite understand, and a billboard, alone between the little stores. The poster drew my attention: it represented 5 figures, 5 guys, all in a blue suit.

"Thunderbirds...meet and greet here in Iceland on August 30th." Fortunately this poster was written in English. So I am in Iceland.

Strangely enough, even that name, those Thunderbirds, they rang a bell inside my head, causing a distant memory, a voice, inside my head. A voice that whispered 'I love you'...

Suddenly the pain that I forgot came back to bother me and take my breath away. I tried to stop a few people for help, to get them to take me to a hospital, but none of the people I stopped could understand English, not even I could understand their language.

So I walked alone to some building that could even remotely represent a hospital or a medical practice, but I involuntarily left the city, finding myself on a desolate path, lined only by a road.

The pain was too intense, so I retreated behind a bush, kneeling.

And giving birth in the snow.

#fabfivefeb2020 #fabfivefeb #virgil tracy #alice kim

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thespeedyreader · 6 years ago

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The Oxbridge application process

Hey, stxdywarrior here! I’ve recently just applied to Cambridge University to study English, and I wanted to share my tips and experiences to help you if you’re interested in applying. First of all, if you’re applying to Oxford or Cambridge, that’s great! They’re both amazing universities, and applying is going to be challenging but so rewarding. I have no doubt that you’ll excel, whatever you want to do.

Please share this and add to it if you wish to!

A quick note: While this masterpost is general, I have to stress that lots of these tips may only apply to humanities subjects. I don’t have much to say about the sciences, I’m afraid. If you are applying for a science, however, I still hope you can find some great content in here for you.

UCAS application

Okay, first thing’s first: the application itself. Applying to Oxbridge is different because you have to have your UCAS form sent by October 15th (while everyone else has the luxury of waiting until January), and while that sounds stressful, it’s a great feeling to get it done early, trust me. And this means having applied to ALL your chosen universities, not just Oxford or Cambridge.

Another thing that’s different about Oxbridge is that they’re collegiate universities, so you’ll have to choose a college. Or, you can choose to make an open application, meaning you’ll be assigned a college later by the university. Don’t stress too much about this stage - people choose certain colleges for all sorts of reasons, and they’re all good anyway. I chose my college because it was small and had good student wellbeing services.

Because the deadline is so early, I would recommend you start thinking about your personal statement by Summer, so that when you get back in September, you can hit the ground running. Here are a few tips I have for your personal statement:

Get all the help you can. And by this I mean: ask everyone you know who might be helpful to have a look over it. This means teachers, family members, classmates, and anyone you know who’s recently been through the same process you are going through.

That being said, make sure all of the opinions don’t leave you at see. I found it really hard when one person was telling me one thing and another was telling me the opposite, but I learned to balance my OWN judgements with other peoples’.

Don’t worry about the character count until your last drafts. Make sure you nail the content first.

It doesn’t matter how many drafts you have to get through, as long as you save all the drafts. I think I got through like 14 drafts?

Don’t JUST write it for Oxbridge. What I mean is, the other universities on your list matter too. So even though Oxbridge don’t care much about your extracurriculars, that doesn’t mean you should ignore them.

It isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality. Even if you’ve only done a few things, if you write about them well, then they’re still just as impressive.

A tip not everyone hears is that the universities want to hear about your personal response to things. Don’t just say you read a book; say how it made you feel, and why you were interested in it. Use phrases like ‘I was fascinated by’ and ‘this intrigued me’. I’m serious.

Remember that your personal statement is literally the hardest piece of writing you have to do. It’s easy to feel daunted by it, but there are plenty of resources out there to help.

Supplementary Application Questionnaire (Cambridge only)

If you’ve applied to Cambridge, you’ll soon get ask to do the SAQ. This isn’t a big deal, but it’s quite a long form to fill out, so it’s best to do it carefully and start early. You’ll be asked things like what modules you’ve studied in your a levels, and you have to include a profile photo of yourself. At the end, you can also write an additional personal statement. This is optional, but just for reference, my one included some things I’d done that I hadn’t included on my personal statement, and I related them to some of the specific modules on the Cambridge course.

Entrance exams

Depending on which subject you’re applying for, you may be asked to sit an exam. This will be typically registered through your school or college, and it’s important to make sure you sign up before the deadline (which will be set by your school). The exams happen around late October.

As I was applying for English, I took the ELAT (English Literature Admissions Test). In the ELAT I was given six texts (poems or novel excerpts), all linked by a theme, and I had to pick two to ‘compare and contrast’. So there was no set structure, and I couldn’t strictly revise for it. In terms of preparation, you can find past papers, and it also helps to do language analysis of some unseen poetry just so you’re used to it. You will NEVER be tested on things you don’t know; they’re more looking for the way you form and present an argument.

Essay submission

Depending on which subject you’re applying for (mainly humanities), you may be asked by email to submit essays to your chosen college. I was asked to send in two essays that I’d done in a school setting (I got to choose, whew), and I needed to print four copies of each (no idea why) and get my teachers to sign it to prove it was my work. The essays can’t be edited.

One thing to note is that, while Oxford usually let you email them, Cambridge are still in the Dark Ages and will only receive them by post. So if you’re applying to Cambridge and are a confused millennial like me, who literally never uses post, I’d get the essays in early.

Another thing is that my college constantly emailed me reminders about the essay deadline, so unless you live under a rock you can’t miss it.

The interview

As the final stage of the application process, you will (hopefully!) be invited to interview. They’ll let you know by email in late November. Cambridge typically invite about 80% of applicants, whereas Oxford invite less, which I think is about 50%. So if you get an interview, congratulations! And don’t panic. People say it’s the biggest factor in the process, when in reality the universities treat each part of your application equally.

Interviews are done differently by each university. In Oxford, you’ll be asked to stay at your college for a few days, because not only do your college interview you, but your application is sent around other colleges, so you could be invited to interview at another college at any time. (Sorry I can’t shed more light on this, as I didn’t apply to Ox.) In Cambridge, you only get interviewed by one college, and you have the option of staying overnight or just going for the day.

How to prepare:

While you don’t need to go overboard with this one, do read a lot around your subject in the few weeks beforehand, so that if they ask, “so, what have you been reading lately?”, you’ve got a lot to say.

If you have the opportunity to do a practise interview, take it. My school organised one for me, but even if your school doesn’t, find someone - like a teacher - who can do it for you. Even if it’s them just grilling you on your personal statement, at least you’ll be used to articulating your arguments in an interview setting.

If you sent in essays, make sure you read over those essays beforehand. They asked me about one of mine.

Map out some generic questions that they might ask you. For English, for example, I researched questions like, “is it better to read a play or see it in production?” and “what’s the difference between literacy and literature?” and even “what is literature?”

You’ll be notified by email the professors who will be interviewing you. I’d recommend looking them up (they’ll be on your college website) and finding out what they specialise in.

Read over your personal statement as many times as you have to. They’re very likely to ask you about something on there.

This sounds cliche, but PLEASE look after yourself before the interview. It always takes place right at the end of a really busy term, so watch out for colds and things (I’m telling you this because I was recovering from a chest infection when I interviewed, and had only just got my voice back RIP)

The interview itself

If you’re doing a humanities subject, you might be given a source or written extract to look at before one of the interviews, and then they’ll discuss it with you. I’d bring lots of highlighters for you to annotate. (I was expected to just be given a poem for English, but I actually got a poem AND part of a critical essay. Go figure.)

No one cares what you’re wearing. I mean, wear sensible stuff, but there’s no need to try to hard.

This is a bit random, but my teacher told me to make a list of all the things I love about my second choice university the night before, to remind myself that Oxbridge isn’t everything. Believe it or not, it worked.

You have to expect to be put on the spot, and this means on-your-feet thinking. I heard they can smell a rehearsed answer from a mile away.

When you’re waiting to interview, you’ll probably meet loads of other applicant like you. It’s up to you whether you chat with them or not - I know some people like to keep themselves to themselves to keep their focus, while I personally loved getting to know people, as chatting helped me stay calm. Either way, everyone’s in the same boat, so don’t worry.

If you’re like me, and easily get distracted by social media, I’d recommend staying off it for the whole day if you can. I did this, and it helped me protect my mental space and keep out negative thoughts.

Some of your interviewers might come across as a bit scary. They might also disagree with everything you say, which can be off-putting. Try not to worry too much if this happens - stand your ground.

When you make an argument, be prepared to justify it, but also, if you want to change your mind, do it. The interviewers are looking for a teachable mind, not someone who’s right all the time and knows everything, so show you have an open mind.

Once the interview’s over, all you have to do is get some well-deserved rest and wait! Try not to overthink how it went, because in reality you have no idea. Some people think they did awfully, but end up getting an offer, so.

The decision

Okay, here’s the truth: Oxbridge is not the be-all and end-all. It just isn’t. Your worth and intelligence cannot be defined by an institution.

For when you’re waiting for a decision: think of Oxbridge as a bonus. This is what I did: I had another university as my ‘first choice’, so that Cambridge was just an extra.

If you don’t get an offer: You will be so happy at wherever you decide to go instead. Think of it as Oxford or Cambridge’s loss, not yours - hundreds of applicants who are very much smart enough to get a place don’t, and that isn’t because they aren’t good enough.

While it’s okay to feel disappointed, it’s best to focus on the amazing learning experience that applying has been. You’ve shown yourself that you can handle all that while still maintaining your priorities and sense of self. So you should STILL be proud.

If you do get an offer: Congratulations! Party time. Except it’s not time to party just yet, because you’ve still got to get the a level grades to secure your spot.

I hope this helped! Don’t hesitate to ask me anything else you want to know.

Just tagging a few people who have been through the same process/have asked about it: @rebeccaravenclaw @littlebitofstudy @lesbianlondongrammar @sectumsempracurse

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ritualmichael · 6 years ago

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Internship - Duncan Shepherd x Male Reader

based on this ask: “duncan hitting on a male intern? yes”

(yes,, thats all it took for me to write a whole fic on it kdkdj)

this is very canon divergent because i only watched duncan’s scenes in hoc so im changing things up a bit since i didn’t know what was happening half of the time. also sorry that this is hardly male focused,, i’ll do better next time oops.

warnings: none really?

“That’s not his order,” the blonde lady stated as she read the cup, shaking her head. You didn’t actually know her name, never properly introducing herself on your first day but instead already giving you tasks when you walked in.

“You’re the new boy? Okay, this way. You’ve got a lot of catching up to do. The last intern walked out without a word to anyone,” she said with an ironic laugh, leading you through the maze of cubicles and desks. You mentally noted to yourself to dress nicer the next day in order to blend in with everyone.

“What?” you asked, appalled that you had messed up something as easy as a coffee. On the way to the coffee shop, you had repeated the order over and over in your head and was sure you got it right.

“He’s never ordered this a day in his life,” she said, raising a well manicured brow at you. You could feel the ground trying to split open and swallow you whole. It had been a stressful day and now messing up Duncan Shepherd’s coffee order was just the icing on the terribly made cake.

“I’ll go get another one,” you said hurriedly, turning to head back to the elevator but she grabbed your arm gently, shaking her head.

“You’ve got better things to do. Don’t worry about it,” she said and you were unsure if it was her being generous or just tired of your mishaps.

“Why can’t he just use one of the twenty coffee makers in this huge building?” You asked, shrugging off your jacket as you both walked through the busy office.

“Because he has the money to drop and a lovely intern that happily gets it for him whenever he wants,” she said in a sarcastically sweet tone, making you groan.

“Just tell Mr. Shepherd I’m sorry,” you said, making your way to the small desk that was tucked into a cramped cubicle.

“You can call him Duncan,” she said, leaning against the partition wall, the dreadful coffee cup still in her hand.

“I don’t think we’re on first name basis quite yet, it’s only been two weeks,” you laughed nervously, scratching the back of your neck. Even the thought of him made you intimidated.

He wasn’t just your boss but he was everyone’s boss, even the blonde lady’s. You were just an unpaid intern, hoping he would sign off on all of the work you’d done at the end of your time there. Praying, really.

“Suit yourself,” she shrugged, walking off and leaving a trail of her expensive perfume behind.

You forced yourself to get over the embarrassing coffee situation and focus on the work you were assigned. It was a bunch of mindless filing and sorting, but it gave you something to do.

You often times found yourself pridefully walking out of the Shepherd Freedom Foundation building, knowing that any bystanders would assume you worked there - one of the most successful foundations in Washington. Little did they know, you were really making coffee runs and scans all day.

The day was nearly coming to an end, your brain swimming with names and numbers which you could hardly comprehend anymore. There was a knock on your cubicle, the blonde lady standing there and looking at you expectantly.

“Duncan has asked to see you,” she said cooly.

“Me? Are you sure?” You asked nervously, standing up and straightening out your shirt. You had only met Duncan twice, once on your first day and the other when you had caught the same elevator as him.

“You’re the new intern right?” He asked, making you do a double-take at the rest of the elevator, as if you were checking that he was actually talking to you.

“Yes, I started a few days ago,” you said, trying to stay composed and nonchalant. Duncan tried to guess your name, miserably failing which only caused you to laugh.

“Y/N, actually,” you said, smiling politely.

“Well, Y/N, congratulations on lasting this long,” he said, his voice smooth but humorous as he bid his farewell, stepping out of the elevator as it opened to his floor. A whole floor for his office. Your small cubicle suddenly felt the size of a airplane bathroom.

“Positive. Floor 26,” she said, directing you to his office before walking away again. You already knew the floor number, having memorized it after your interaction with Duncan on the elevator. It was mostly out of fear that you would press the wrong number one day and show up uninvited to his office.

Now, you actually were invited and pressing the “2” then the “6” made you cringe. You nervously ran your fingers through your hair, silently wishing you had spent more time styling it this morning.

The dreadful ding of the elevator filled the small space and the doors pulled open, revealing the spacious floor. Stepping out, you noticed the full wall of windows with an amazing view over the streets of D.C. The room had a sleek, dark mahogany table stretching out over the floorspace and nice luxuries scattered around. Everything looked expensive and you knew you were nowhere near the salary that was probably required to sit at the conference table. You actually had no salary, you bitterly reminded yourself.

“Impressive, right?” Duncan’s voice pulled you out of your daze, making you instantly straighten your posture. He stood in the doorway, a glass of dark liquor in his hand.

“Much better than the other floors,” you laughed, your eyes still skating around the room. You felt like you were a kid again, your parent’s voice in the back of your head reminding you to not touch anything, worried you would break something and they’d have to pay for it.

“There’s more,” he said, cocking his head in the direction of the other room and began to lead the way. You followed him, nearly stopping in your tracks when you saw his actual office.

Everything looked priceless, from the books lining the walls and the expansive desk down to the pens, “Shepherd Freedom Foundation” engraved into the steel. You suddenly felt very out of place.

“After my mother handed down the foundation to me, I did a little remodeling,” he said casually, taking a sip from his shallow glass and you couldn’t help your eyes from glancing at the way his stubbly jaw flexed as he swallowed.

“It’s amazing,” you said, cursing at yourself for your lack of sophisticated vocabulary. This was one of the richest men you had ever met, yet you still spoke as if you were with a casual friend.

Duncan caught you eyeing the leather chair, chuckling softly. “You can sit down,” he said, gesturing to the chair that neatly sat behind his desk.

“Really?”

“Go ahead, see what it feels like,” Duncan said, sipping the remaining liquor in his glass.

You didn’t want to reject his offer, that would be rude. Also, you just really wanted to sit at the desk and feel as luxurious as Duncan did everyday. So you did. Carefully sitting down, you pulled yourself up to the desk, your hands running over the smooth varnished wood.

Duncan walked over to his desk, seating himself on the corner and giving you a smile. You caught a glance of his pants tightening around his thighs and you swore you saw him briefly bit his bottom lip out of the corner of your eye.

“You could have something like this one day,” Duncan said.

“I’ve got a long time until that happens,” you scoffed, shaking your head and relaxing back into the chair.

“You’re not that much younger than me, let me remind you,” he chuckled. You flushed, not meaning to suggest he was old or anything. You were actually impressed that he could handle such a big business at such a young age.

“I’m sorry,” you laughed nervously, rubbing your red face. “I just mean, I’m an unpaid intern amongst hundreds of employees who could probably buy six of my apartments while I struggle to pay for one.”

“A lot of them started out like you,” he said, moving to sit even closer to you on his desk. It was a strange contrast, seeing him casually lounging on the desk when you were nearly scared to touch it. “Interns who were messing up coffee orders and jamming the printers,” he continued, making you laugh at his blatant reference to your coffee mishap earlier.

“Sorry about that, by the way,” you said.

“It happens to the best of us,” he shrugged, giving you another warm smile.

You were really surprised at how relaxed he was. It was a little laughable now how stoic you expected him to be. Some serious, uptight guy who would hardly cast much of a glance your way. Instead, he was having a casual conversation with you, sitting atop his desk like a kid in the lunchroom. The first few buttons of his shirt were popped open, revealing his warm skin and his leather jacket was draped over one of the chairs facing his desk. It definitely lessened your nerves.

“Can I ask why you called me up here?” You asked, the question gnawing at you.

“I just wanted to see how you’re adjusting. I hope I didn’t scare you,” he said, a playful smile still gracing his lips. “I know the boss calling for you can be a bit intimidating.”

“It was surprising to say the least,” you lied. “The blonde isn’t the warmest person to receive that news from anyway.”

“The blonde who wears too much perfume and wears short skirts everyday?” Duncan said, receiving a nod from you. “Of course she didn’t introduce herself. That’s Caroline.”

“Are you two together?” You asked, instantly regretting the question. Who were you to pry into Duncan’s private life?

He let out a laugh, shaking his head in amusement. “Absolutely not. Not my type,” he said.

“Ah,” you said simply. You didn’t know what to say, feeling too embarrassed from practically asking your boss who he sleeps with. Before, you were convinced they were because of all of the time she spent in his office.

“Let me make you a drink,” Duncan said, slipping off of his desk and walking leisurely to the small table across the room, bottles of expensive liquors and delicate glasses sitting on top. You watched as he poured two glasses and stood up to join him. He turned to you, handing you a glass with a slight smile just barely crossing his full lips.

“Is this a test? Drinking on the job…” you asked, taking the glasses from him, your eyes flicking down to his hand when his brushed against yours.

“Internship,” he corrected, taking a sip and giving you a shrug. “Don’t tell the boss… Oh wait,” he said, causing you to chuckle and take a sip from your own glass.

It tasted more expensive than anything else you had drank, even when you splurged on a $50 bottle of champagne when you turned 21. Duncan would probably laugh at your idea of expensive, you thought.

Duncan stepped over to the large window, his gaze fixed on the buildings beyond the thick panel of glass. You joined him at his side, your arm brushing against his accidentally but you didn’t do much to distance yourself from him. Glancing over at his hand that held his glass, you noticed the lack of a wedding ring on his finger.

“Everyone looks for that,” he mumbled, bring his glass to his lips. “They expect me to have some housewife with a kid at home, being passive and submissive like everyone else’s wives.”

“Why don’t you?” you asked. You figured you might as well indulge in hearing about the life of someone much successful than you while you had the opportunity.

“It’s boring,” he glanced at you, his eyes looking brighter in the natural light and up this close. “I’m already running this foundation on my own, I don’t need a trophy wife at my hip. My work should show my success, not an imprisoned woman like the other people here have.”

You nodded, letting your eyes linger on him a little longer than you probably should have. His nose was rounded perfectly at the end, his lips full and defined, wrapping around the brim of his glass with ease, his hair a mess of curls that somehow looked neat and sophisticated.

He turned to look at you, causing you to glance away from a moment and you could feel your face heating up. It was the alcohol, you told yourself. Definitely the alcohol and not your boss.

But then his eyes fell on your lips and you couldn’t stop yourself from dodging your tongue out to wet them. You knocked back the rest of the liquor in your glass, Duncan gently taking the empty glass from your hands and setting it down on the table.

“Think you can handle all of that?” He asked, laughing under his breath.

“I can handle a lot of things,” you lied, shrugging as you turning back to the window to avoid his gaze. You were a lightweight and you could already feel your skin warming up and legs getting weak.

“Is that so?” Duncan said, his voice airy and playful. “Well, hopefully you can handle your time here. I don’t want a boy like you getting too overwhelmed on the job.”

“What kind of ‘boy’ am I?” You quirked a brow at him.

“Hopefully one who comes to me if he’s having problems,” he said, emphasizing the last word.

You turned away from the window, facing him instead and crossing your arms over your chest, a smile tugging on your lips. “Are you typically this generous with your interns?”

“That’s assuming any interns have made it this far. Plus, there’s something about you,” he said, tipping his glass in your direction before taking a sip. “You’re modest. You didn’t come in here trying to brag about everything you’ve accomplished and show off to me. It’s refreshing and admirable.”

“I didn’t think you’d be interested,” you shrugged, willing yourself to not blush at his compliment.

“But I am now,” he said, stepping even closer to you, his chest brushing against your folded arms. He held out his glass to you and you took it from his grasp, sipping the rest from the same spot he had. It was extremely suggestive on both of your ends.

“What do you want to know?” You asked, all of the nerves completely dissolved from your body and replaced with a bit of confidence. Duncan was clearly coming on to you and you didn’t want it to stop, no matter how wrong it might be.

“What are your goals?” He asked, throwing you off with such a serious, blunt question.

“Um,” you stumbled over your words as you thought. “To be successful, maybe run my own business and-” you tried to finished but Duncan cut you off.

“None of that college essay bullshit,” he said, the curse word seeming strange coming from him but you kind of liked it. “What do you want? Be greedy for a second,” he said, shrugging.

“A nice office like this with the view of the Washington Monument,” you said, Duncan nodding as he entertained your ideas. “An apartment that has a concierge,” you laughed and Duncan planted one of his hands beside your head against the glass, a playful smirk on his face. “A vacation,” you said, it nearly coming out as a groan as you leaned your head against the glass. Duncan had leaned even closer, a smile on his lips.

“Where do you want to go?” He asked, it seeming like an offer more than a curious question. It made your heart race and you mindlessly reached up, fixing the collar of his shirt that didn’t actually need fixing, you just wanted an excuse to graze his neck with your fingertips.

“Somewhere with white sand and the ocean,” you said.

“I like a boy who is easy to please. There’s plenty of beaches to choose from,” he said, tilting his head at you.

“Maybe you could make the decision, I’m sure you’ve been to some great places.”

“We could go somewhere far, where it’s warm and there’s a resort that’ll give us endless drinks and the biggest suite they have,” he suggested, biting his lip as he smiled at you. He knew what he was doing and it was absolutely working. You legs were weak and your almost wanted to grab onto him for support.

“What would the tabloids have to say about you taking some boy across the world only to be seen getting couples massages?” You said, smirking as Duncan not-so-subtly leaned in closer to you.

“They’d be impressed that I scored such a catch,” he said, his voice dropped to a low mumble due to your close proximity and his eyes stayed trained on your lips.

“Yeah, right,” you blushed, Duncan reaching up and cupping your face before leaning and connecting your lips. You melted into his touch instantly, your hands going to his chest as he moved his lips against yours gently. His lips tasted of liquor and you knew that you own did too, only fueling you to kiss him even more eagerly. Your tongues met and you let out a content sigh when his teeth caught your bottom lip.

“You better start buying some summer clothes,” Duncan mumbled against your lips with a smirk, going back to kissing you even harder.

You were too lost in the man to think about how unprofessional or reckless this was, you fingers gripping the expensive material of his shirt and pulling yourself even closer to him. Duncan Shepherd might’ve been your boss but he was also an amazing kisser.

tags:@dudesorriso @silkyhoneybaby @avesatanaslangdon @lucifer-owns-this-pussy @sodanova @romanoffkittens @heelsamizayn @lovely-langdon @langdonpilots @cryptid-coalition @cherryberryann @omnipotentdemoness @marzipan-romanoff @featherpool-852 @langdonsdemon @slasherloversposts @lxngdonscoven @01-800-mary @mcenziehughes @kylolangdon @kinlovecody @sammythankyou @duncvn @fernshorrorstory @amytakesmanhattan @queencocoakimmie @yourkingcodyfern

#duncan shepherd #duncan shepherd x reader #duncan shepherd x male reader #hoc #duncan shepherd fanfic #i dont want to out unrelated tags so thats literally it yeehaw

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