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hyperfixated-gvf · 3 years ago

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Steal Some Covers, Share Some Skin

On the eleventh day of Tropemas, hyperfixated-gvf gave to me:

An “AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED” Josh fic combined with a certain request from a Nonnie.

Christmas Song Pairing: “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” by Bing Crosby

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Pairing: Josh Kiszka x Reader

Warnings: Language, smut, voice kink, squirting, light overstimulation, kinda unedited, I’ll fix things as I over-criticize it 😂

Words: 5.9k

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“Josh?”

You were still shaking snow off of your coat when you approached the curly-haired man in the white sweater hesitantly, not having seen the man you were looking to find for…well, a long time.

He glanced up from his phone, and smiled pleasantly, eyes drifting all over your face. “Y/N! It’s nice to see you, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

The bottom-heavy suitcase in your hand thumped upright as you took a rest, leaning on the locked handle. “Yeah, it has.” A small silence stretched between you as you took your phone out to check your ticket for the 20th time since you’d woken up. “Do you have your ticket?”

Josh nodded and tapped his screen a few times, tilting it towards you so that you could see the screenshot.

The whole situation was a little bit wonky – you didn’t know Josh all that well, he was just an acquaintance/friend of your friend’s that was travelling along the same route as you. Your friend knew that you hated travelling alone, so she’d sent a couple of texts, grouped you two in a chat, and bada-bing, bad-bam, bada-boom – you had a travel buddy.

And you did appreciate having him with you, despite not knowing him super well – you’d met a couple of times at various parties, events, and had even gone to one of his shows with your friend – you weren’t sure why he wasn’t travelling with his band, but that wasn’t your business, so you weren’t super concerned.

“Great! We should go get through security now, I guess.”

“Yeah.”

The wait in line was a little bit awkward, but not horrible – conversation was pretty much confined to small talk and a discussion of movies, books, and pop culture that you were both interested in. The wait was long and rather taxing, though – the holiday rush definitely not working to your favor, but you made it through, finally finding two seats in front of your gate.

“So, where have you been most recently, then?”

You finally started conversation up again after having spent the last half an hour doing body checks and wading your way through the crowds.

“Oh, we actually finished up a US tour just a few months ago. Since then, we’ve been petering around Nashville – writing songs and making plans and just…taking a small break.”

One leg was crossed over the other as you reclined in the seat. “Where are your brothers, then?”

Josh smiled. “Off doing their own things. Jake is flying home with Jita in a couple of days, Sam is already back home with Danny just hanging out with our families, and…I’m here,” he finished.

“Well, at least you—”

The rest of your sentence was cut off by the intercom, a voice announcing delays due to a snow advisory that was just put in place across the Midwest, and that flight times should be checked on the screens that were littered around boarding areas.

Knowing your destination, you ominously locked eyes with Josh and then stood up at the same time, walking over to a mounted screen that already had a crowd of people accumulating.

Delays for: Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Kentucky, and…shit. Michigan.

And not just by a couple of hours.

“You’re gotta be – eragh!”

Josh’s muttered exclamation was a sentiment you shared, looking at the board that was telling you that your flight was being delayed until 10 am the next day, when the snow advisory would hopefully lift.

You blew your own sigh out and ran your tongue over your teeth, making a game-plan for the next few hours. You’d have to text your parents, but that could wait until you found a hotel nearby – you really didn’t want to spend the night in the airport seats and force Josh to stay awake while you slept and then have to wake up so that he could, and you were already so exhausted.

Your phone pinged with the notification from the airline of the delay, along with a code for a free taxi to one of the hotels surrounding the airport.

And despite the inconvenience of the delay, you were grateful that the airline was trying to do something to compensate, even if the weather really was out of their control.

“Well,” Josh sighed, phone going off with assumedly the same message, “I guess we should go get a taxi, then.”

You made your way back across the airport, passing by the stupid security line that had taken you hours to get through.

There was a long line of shivering travelers lined up at the curb, taxis being loaded up and leaving nearly as soon as they pulled up. You grabbed the first of that you could for you and Josh after waiting 10 minutes to get to the front, and after showing the cab driver your code and processing his questions of, “Where to?”, told him that the hotel didn’t matter, just one that would get you guys a couple of rooms.

And looking back on it, you probably should have specified “not the one closest to the airport” because that would obviously be the one that filled up the quickest and would obviously be the one he took you to in order to transport as many people possible.

But you didn’t, so here you were, at the back of the line with even more people trickling in behind you, trying to keep up with the deluge of texts from your family and hoping to all things good and holy that you could get a room before they all filled up.

The head of curls in front of you was also talking quite animatedly on the phone, sighing out, “Look, I’m sorry, okay? Just…just tell Mom and Dad that I will be home, Y/N and I – no, no, Y/N is the friend I said I was flying with, she’s not – okay, well, if you stopped interrupting me, Samuel, maybe I could – you know what, fuck you, I’m hanging up.”

A long-suffering sigh escaped him and you chuckled, sending off you own text. “Taking a break probably doesn’t hold much weight when your band members are your brothers, does it?”

“You have no idea.”

You were slowly moving up in line, only three people left – two singles and one couple – and the front desk worker was looking wearier and wearier by the second.

“I just want a shower and a bed,” you sighed. “That’s all.”

Josh smiled. “We’ll get there. Eventually.”

The first person in line received a key and you took a couple steps forward. One single, one couple.

A few minutes later, one single.

Before she helped the customer, though, she looked apologetically at the line that was still extended nearly to the entrance. “Hey, everyone, I’m sorry, but we only have two singles left. It might be better if you started making plans at another hotel.”

There were grumbles and sighs, and immediately, most of the line dispersed, hoping to catch a stray cab. Josh turned to you, blowing a breath out. “Well, that’s not ideal, now is it?”

You huffed out a humorless laugh and pressed your eyes into the heels of your hands. “No, it’s not.” You only spent a second pitying your situation before you pulled out your phone, bringing up the Uber app. “But it is what it is. You get the room here, I’ll call an uber and go to one of the hotels nearby, and we can meet up at the airport again tomorrow.”

Josh looked taken aback for a moment, but immediately protested. “No, no, we can both find a different hotel – it’ll be easier to stay together now that we’re here.”

“Next?”

The front desk worker blinked and blushed a little bit as Josh glanced her way.

You were surprised that she had been the first person to physically recognize Josh – you figured there were others, but at a busy airport, there was only so much you could do. Still, you’d expected a few waves or glances thrown his way.

He turned back to you, lips twisted in thought. “Actually, hold on a sec.” Back to the front desk. “Hello there! You said you only had one single room left, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“What kind of bed is it?”

The worker squinted and searched the screen. “One double.”

Josh nodded. “And would this room happen to have a pull-out couch? Or is there any way that a couple extra comforters could be delivered to the room?”

The worker frowned and clicked a few things on the desktop in front of her. “Let me see…oh! Okay, yes, it looks like this particular room does have a pull-out couch since it’s technically a suite.”

Josh clenched his fist in victory before meeting your eyes. “What do you say? It’s just one night, and it’s just a place to sleep. I’m tired, and I’m pretty sure you are too, and if this is what –”

“Let’s just take it,” you said, cutting Josh off. “You’re right, I’m so tired, and I really don’t care if I sleep on a pull-out couch or a waterbed at this point,” you laughed.

Josh smiled. “Don’t be silly, I’ll take the couch.”

You couldn’t argue back because he turned and gave the worker his information, taking his card out and waiting for the transaction to go through.

“Thank you,” you said softly, “for paying. I’ll Venmo you or something, just let me know how much the total is.”

Josh waved your off. “I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s no big deal, I got it. It’s only one bed, afterall.”

You smiled as Josh was handed the key. “Still.”

He returned your smile in response and then looked at the key. “Room 412,” he muttered, eyes searching for the elevators.

The ride up was quiet, exhaustion seeping into the late hour, nothing but the roll of wheels against worn carpet and the soft hum of the heating system accompanying the two of you to your room, Josh inserting the keycard into the reader on the door, the light beeping green.

“Home sweet home,” Josh sighed, flicking on the light.

It was noticeable immediately. The size of the room was not that of a suite, and there was no couch in sight – in fact, other than the standard bed, nightstand, and hutch with a TV and small coffee maker, the only furniture in the room was a scratchy-looking armchair in the corner of the room.

“Okaaaaay,” you drawled, “I’m gonna make a quick call to the front desk.”

Josh’s bottom lip was sucked in between his teeth. “Yeah.”

The dial tone to the front desk turned into elevator music, and you waited in silence for a few minutes until the worker picked up. “Hello, this is the front desk.”

The poor girl sounded frazzled to all hell, and you were sure with a full house, she was probably busier than ever, and you felt bad that you had to bring a problem like this to her.

“Ah, yes, hi. I’m currently in room 412, and my friend and I were informed that since it was a suite, it would have a pull-out couch, but there’s not one in here.”

There was a small pause. “And are you here on reservation?”

“No.”

“Okay. Well, and this is for certain my fault, because I had to be the one to tell you it was a suite, but I must have been looking at another room. I’m afraid we don’t have any more rooms available. I’m sorry, is there anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable?”

You pinched the bridge of your nose. “Uh. Do you have any extra comforters that could be sent to the room?”

“Yes. I can have one arranged to be delivered in a few minutes.”

“Okay, that would be great, thank you.”

Once you had hung the phone up, Josh raised his brows, waiting for the resolution. He still held his bag in one hand, ready to have to up and move out to another hotel.

You shrugged, sitting on the bed. “She said she must have been looking at the wrong room when she told us it was a suite, and of course there’s no other room we can move to. They’re gonna bring up an extra comforter, so if it’s okay with you, I’ll just make a little makeshift bed with the two comforters on the floor for tonight.” You already knew he was going to protest, so you shut him down before he could say anything. “You’re already paying for the room, so you get the bed. Now,” you said, standing up and ruffling through your suitcase, “I’m gonna go brush my teeth and everything, I’ll take a shower in the morning.”

Josh looked uncomfortable and like he wanted to say something, but set his bag down as you went to the bathroom.

You weren’t in there very long, maybe 10 minutes at most, and when you came back into the room, Josh was sitting, looking rather detached on the bed. When the door opened, though, he shot up.

“There was another mix-up,” he said lowly.

“Uh-oh. What was it this time?”

Josh pointed to the waffled blanket sitting folded on the end of the bed. “They don’t have any more comforters. I guess there were more people who had the same idea as we did.”

You eyed the double bed – considering what surely both of you had thought about over the course of your time at the hotel. “I mean—”

“Why don’t we—” Josh paused and cracked a smile when you both started talking at the same time. “Sorry. I was just gonna suggest – and I know we don’t know each other super well, but like, if you wanted to, because it would be a lot more comfortable than the floor, we could always just share the bed.”

You swallowed, playing cool even though your stomach was squirming a little with nerves. Only because you weren’t used to sharing a bed with anyone, much less a famous almost-stranger.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I was about to say. We can do that – we’re not in middle school anymore,” you joked.

Josh left with his pajamas and toiletries, and you glanced at the bed, suddenly anxious.

Which side did he sleep on?

Would he care that you moved around in your sleep a lot – twisting and turning and such?

Would it be awkward trying to fall asleep?

You shook the thoughts out of your head, shuffling around aimlessly until Josh reappeared, glancing from you to the bed.

“…are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“Uh, yeah,” you said, eyes wide, “are you?”

“Definitely.”

The two of you stood there for a second longer, and you finally asked Josh, “So which side do you want?”

He smiled. “I usually take left, but it doesn’t really matter to me.”

You let out a chuckle that was mixed with a sigh of relief. “Sweet. I’m a right-sider. I do move around a lot, though, just a fair warning, sorry. It takes me a bit to fall asleep, and so I’ll start out on one side and then turn to the other and then my back and then my belly and then end up on the side I was originally on.”

He crossed the bed, setting his bag down on the floor and plugging his phone in before untucking the blankets and sheets and sliding under. You took the same actions, settling in and trying to ignore the strange feeling of the weight of another person next to you.

It wasn’t as awkward as you thought it would be, though – you’d been able to talk to him throughout the time you’d spent together, and he was a nice conversationalist, which is why the lamp stayed on for a couple hours after you got in bed talking about everything and nothing despite both of you having previously complained of your exhaustion.

“I don’t know where this second wind came from,” you chuckled, tapping the bedsheets with contained energy. “I really was so tired before, but now I can’t stop moving. Ants in my pants.” Josh laughed out loud, shifting next to you. You chuckled back, glancing at him with a smile. “What?”

“I’m not sure you really want to know,” he teased. “Just an old piece of gossip I heard somewhere along the road.”

You made the full turn towards him, curiosity prompting you to lean in closer. “Ooooo, tour gossip? Please, continue.”

The smirk on his face build anticipation, but the gleam in his eye told a different story. “Well, I’ve heard two different versions, one is a general version, the other…specific.”

“Tell me both,” you demanded, watching Josh’s expression brighten.

“You asked for it.”

“I did.”

He paused, eyes searching your face, and suddenly you had a small amount of difficulty breathing. Josh inhaled once before starting.

“Well, the specific one pertains to the feeling right before going on stage, when you know what’s going to happen but are still jittery, just a little nervous energy with nowhere to go. I won’t go into details, but—”

“No,” you complained, “I want details. I’m not a rockstar, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

You decided that if you wanted to be embarrassed for acting like you’d known the man for years instead of having met him in passing only a couple of times, you figured you’d do that later, but now, you were fully invested in what he was saying, and this was the most fun you’d had all day, particularly after the one you’d had.

Josh cocked his head, arching a brow and licking his lips. “You don’t want details, I promise. Some of the rockstars I’ve conversed and traded tips with are…salacious, and their particular pieces of advice and stories are less than savory,” he murmured, and the space between you became charged.

You met his eyes, controlling your breaths so that he wouldn’t pick up on the change. “I wanna know.”

He hummed, drawing the noise out before continuing. “Well, everyone has their vices, especially in the music world. Performing gives you a high, but instead of getting the jitters when you crave it, you get them when you have it in the palm of your hand. And, while there are healthy ways to deal with it, like meditating, talking to a friend – most of the time, those vices chase you, and being famous with money to spare, they’re available whenever you might need them.”

In that moment, you knew that you could have listened to him talk forever – voice low and slightly gravelly, methodical and soothing and hypnotizing. So you didn’t interrupt.

“Drugs, alcohol, a warm body, material objects, fame and fan worship – whatever it may be, most of the rockstars out there will tell you the same thing.”

“Mmm. What is it?”

His eyes lit up with mischief. “That little piece of advice I always hear – most of them, mostly men, will tell you that there’s nothing a woman’s mouth can’t fix, and that in our line of work, there’s always a willing one to be found somewhere.”

A high-pitched laugh bubbled out of your throat and you felt your neck warm with the beginnings of a blush. “How…charming,” you giggled, and he laughed right alongside you, a flush in his cheeks as well. The tension diffused marginally.

“Hey, you asked. And just as a disclaimer, I’m not one of those people – I don’t just use people like that.”

“Never?” you asked teasingly, and his blush heightened, words and excuses sputtering out before he redirected your attention.

“Stop prying,” he accused. “Don’t you want to know the other thing?”

You couldn’t help yourself. “I wanna know everything.”

Josh’s expression morphed into something that told you that you might regret asking.

Or not.

“Well, it’s a little more general. And a little dirtier.”

“You just told me that most rockstars get blowjobs before they go on stage, and definitely just exposed yourself, too, by the way—”

“I did not! I specifically said that I didn’t do that.”

You grinned. “Did too. Maybe not religiously like the other rockers, but you just couldn’t lie, could you,” you teased.

“I was young and had more people throwing themselves at me than I had ever had before,” he explained. “And as awful as it sounds,” he mumbled, eyes dropping, “it does work.”

Images flashed unbidden through your mind of what Josh would look like from below, from your knees – what faces he’d make and if you’d be able to see them from your position.

“I won’t tease anymore. Please, continue on,” you offered, settling in for what was shaping up to just be Josh putting you under a spell with nothing but his voice.

He collected himself, blush receding and laying his head back on the pillow. “I don’t know if I want to, anymore,” he pouted, but as soon as you started pleading with him to finish his second story, he rolled his eyes and relented. “Begging me to tell you the dirty tales I know? I’m not the only depraved one in this bed.”

You shrugged as best you could, lying on your side. “I never said you were,” you said simply, and Josh stared blatantly.

The tension was back.

“Well, then, if you insist.” You could have sworn you saw him shift his hips infinitesimally, but he started speaking again, and you focused in on his voice. “You were talking about ants in your pants – the second wind.”

“Yeah?”

“That’s sort of like the energy you get before a show. I said I’d heard two versions: there’s the blowjob, and then there’s the…extended edition. They always say that the nervous energy – ants in the pants, whatever you wanna call it – is just nature’s call to fuck.”

You blushed again, this time because you were now aware that when you said that, as innocently as you had meant it, to Josh, you’d basically admitted that you felt the need to fuck. Even though he hadn’t interpreted it literally, you understood why he’d started to laugh.

“They say that jitters is one thing, a milder sort of feeling, but that kind of energy is another. Therefore, jitters call for a blowjob, pent-up energy calls for a fuck. The all-encompassing feeling and exertion that comes with it, where you aren’t just the receiver, but a giver, as well. A full-body release,” he breathed, and you fell deeper into his words, the trance you were 100% certain had never happened before, even when you’d seen him in concert.

Your words were soft and genuine and dare you say suggestive. “You make sex sound euphoric, but in my experience, it’s incredible, but nowhere near as—"

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, fingers inching up from the blankets and gently dragging down your mouth, the pad of his middle finger catching your bottom lip, and you stopped talking at his boldness. He continued, “The transfer of your energy into another person in an explosion of cosmic relief – from the natural build-up of emotion and human desire and zeal for life itself. Everything fucks, it’s only natural.” His mouth twitched up in amusement at his reference. “And those rockstars, they never fail to deliberate on the matter, going further to make sure you know that that little piece of advice is applicable to any situation – anytime, anywhere, anyone.”

He noticed that you were no longer meeting his eyes, and that was because you didn’t want him to recognize any of the desire that you knew would be advertised in yours.

You let out a weak chuckle, very aware of his fingers, still poised on your chin. “Damn, rockstars really know how to tell it, don’t they?”

Josh hummed. “Not all of them. It takes a certain…incentive to draw those kinds of things out.”

His voice dropped a register and you couldn’t keep your eyes off his lips. “Incentive, hmm?”

“Everyone always wants something. Incentive for them, perhaps incentive for yourself.”

He shifted closer, feet tangling with yours, and you ran your arch up his calf. “And what is it that you want, Josh?”

Your faces neared each other, and you wanted to kiss him, so badly. You could tell he felt the same.

“Only what you want,” he admitted.

You thought back to his words, how he described sex and wondered if he was just buttering you up, making it sound other-worldly just so that you’d want him or if that’s really how he perceived it.

“I want you to show me sex as you know it. Right now, right here, with me.”

He caught your lips as soon as you finished your sentence, your bodies beginning to wrap around each other like a flower in reverse bloom – legs and lips and hips and chests and arms all coming together like one disfigured being.

Josh took the upmost care peeling your pajamas off your body, his eyes rarely leaving yours, and you wondered, if having to give an answer, if his voice or the intensity of his eyes were more mesmerizing.

“Just focus on me, Y/N, I’ll show you the best I can. Best I can,” he promised, his pajamas joining yours on the floor.

His fingertips grazed your skin, lighting the nerves up for a fleeting moment and then leaving to skate across another expanse of skin, electrifying your entire body in anticipatory energy. You were rather occupied with his lips to watch, so each touch was a surprise, and in no time, he had you asking for more, body starting to warm up and require a heavier caress for stimulation.

“More, Josh, please, more,” you breathed, returning each touch with one of your own, moving your body in tandem with his.

“I’m right there with you, sweetheart, don’t worry.”

You huffed out a soft laugh. “Not worried. Just wanting.”

Josh rectified the fact with a flick of his thumb across your nipple, trailing his hands down your body, heavier and with intent. The energy you’d been holding in your body was exacerbated by Josh’s hands and mouth, tension building and building from his hands touching you everywhere but where you needed him, mouth following closely behind.

“Josh,” you whined, squirming in protest from his ministrations that were not relieving you.

“We’ll get there. If you want to feel what I feel, you need to feel the energy. Let it run through you, don’t try to fight it.”

You tried to even out your breathing, re-tuning your attention to your entire body rather than the dull pulse of arousal at your center. There was still a pull of energy and arousal trying to draw you back, though, but you held onto Josh’s request, letting the tension roll through you.

“Good. Now, just – feel.” He worked you over then, mouth on your neck, breasts, collarbones, pulse – anywhere he could reach. His fingers teased through your wetness before sinking into you, pausing when you clenched around him. “Relax, Y/N, don’t fight it – work with it.”

It wasn’t necessarily a new sensation, but you were experiencing it in a new way, and the difference was, well, strange and erotic and pleasurable all at the same time. He added another finger, curling them into your G-spot, and forcing you to relax every time your body wound itself too tightly.

After a few more minutes of letting the pleasure and endorphins rush throughout your body, Josh withdrew his fingers. “Can I fuck you, Y/N?” he asked softly, kisses peppered all over your torso.

You nodded, giving your consent and brushing your fingers down all the sensitive spots you knew, keeping the thrum of pleasure vibrating through your nerves as Josh rummaged through his bag for a condom.

When he slid back into the bed, he was naked and the condom was in place.

“Come here for a second,” he prompted, and you leaned up to him, kissing him deeply once more. Josh trailed his fingertips down to your hips, twisting lightly. “Roll over, sweetheart,” he cajoled, “on your hands and knees.” You went willingly, fighting the urge to rest your head on the pillows. You felt the bed shift, then Josh pressed flush against your ass. “Relax.”

The nudge of his cock against you, and then the pressure as he pressed forward came, and you welcomed it, welcomed him.

Deep breaths, letting all the lights from them different nerves – the pleasure, the pain, the dull stretch that wasn’t either – all flashing like strobe lights through your body. You weren’t focused on that one point of contact, you were aware of Josh’s lips on your shoulder blade, one of his palms running down your arm and one your hip, the scrape of him against your back.

And it felt exquisite.

Like the pleasure was coursing through your blood – spreading to the very tips of your fingers. Without the concentration on your center, you were able to feel it everywhere. Full-body, just as Josh had described.

Eventually, Josh leaned back up on his knees, changing the angle and rhythm of his movements, his cock catching your G-spot as he pulled back.

He was panting softly behind you, a rather quiet lover – you loved his voice so much, you wouldn’t have been opposed to his lips at your ear, words meant for your pleasure spoken in low tones, but you’d take what you could get. And since you were so attuned to his every touch, the flex of his fingers and stutter of his thrusts were just as fine a means of communication as words.

Josh’s hand wandered once again, sliding up your spine, slow and sensual. You really hadn’t ever thought of that particular part of your body as erotic, but Josh was in the process of convincing you otherwise.

Until he pulled out completely.

You felt the loss of him pointedly, the flow of pleasure disrupted.

“No, no – Josh, come on,” you whined, trying to find him again.

He reappeared next to your face, swallowing your cries down with his lips on yours. “Just changing positions,” he promised, laying back on the pillows. You took the initiative and straddled him, tightly wound again in pursuing your objective to get Josh back inside you. Josh’s absence had made you very aware that you had been well on your way to climax – not desperately close, but close enough that you felt empty and under-stimulated without Josh touching you.

Without any pomp and circumstance, you lined him up and sat down, taking him all at once. The relaxed, collected approach Josh had been keeping you under was interrupted for a moment as Josh hissed sharply, hands flying to squeeze your hips as you began to ride him, fast and hard and forgetful of how Josh had instructed you to feel everything, everywhere. You had reverted back to chasing your high instead of feeling it in the moment and letting it come to you.

“Oh, Y/N, fuck – darling, baby, slow down. Remember what I – I –“ He moaned then when instead of listening to him, you just rode him harder, wanting more of those beautiful sounds.

But you were unsuccessful – Josh gripped your hips with enough strength to stop your rhythm, guiding you to a slower pace.

“Josh,” you complained, and he chuckled breathlessly.

“It’s gonna be worth it, I promise. You were doing so well, Y/N, let’s go back to that; remember, work with yourself, not against. We’ll get there eventually; let’s just feel what we’re feeling now.”

You took a deep breath and recentered yourself, listening to your body and Josh’s. Grinding down put pressure on your clit, enough to feel restart the path of pleasure, and from there, it was an experimentation of figure 8s, up and down, rocking, letting Josh thrust up into you in gratifying collaboration.

This time, Josh wasn’t as quiet – murmuring praises and curses, words of encouragement and guidance – and you soaked it all right up, integrating it into your arousal. A familiar anticipatory sensation started building within you.

“Josh, I – I’m almost there,” you huffed. The escalation of your pleasure had been gradual and all-encompassing and slow, but no less intense than what you’d get by the fast, relentless pursuit of it.

Josh grunted, snapping his hips up harshly, a stark contrast to the pace you’d been indulging in. “I – me too, Y/N. I’m there, I’m gonna come, but I promise I’m gonna make you come, too, baby, I promise,” he babbled, and you believed him.

“Okay,” you panted, pulling out every trick in the book to make it good for him. He gave one last, strangled moan and then twitched inside of you, hips sporadically pushing up.

“Keep – keep going,” he cried out, sweat beaded on his forehead. “Keep going, please.”

“Is that –“ you furrowed your brow, “is that something you want? We can finish me off once you pull out.”

Josh shook his head desperately. “No! No, I like it, it’s something I’m into – please, just – just keep going.” A flush of heat ran through you at the admission of one of his kinks, and you started moving again.

He shakily brought his hand to where you were connected, where you were still riding him, post-orgasm, before shifting upwards and pressing circles into your clit. The added stimulation ramped up the feeling of impending release, but it was different from all the other times you’d come, by your own means or someone else’s. It was building, almost physically from within you, and you gasped as the pleasure started rolling through more intensely, tipping you over the point of no return. You tried to keep relaxed, just as Josh had instructed, but the instinctive jerk of your hips was difficult to repress.

“That’s it, Y/N, just like that,” Josh murmured, voice breaking, and you came, pleasure plugging up your throat and only allowing breathy, choked moans out, hips shifting and rolling as you clenched around him, and a burst of wetness more than you’d ever felt before soaked your thighs as you peaked.

Josh let out a long, low groan. “Fuuuuuck,” he vocalized, throwing his head back, “there it is.”

You collapsed, boneless, on top of Josh, and he gently rolled you both over, pulling out with a tortured hiss and cry. He had to have been overstimulated at that point.

You both stayed quiet, basking in the rush of endorphins and catching your breath before either of you moved. Josh rolled the condom off carefully, wrapping it in a tissue, and then took a few more, swiping them as best he could across your thighs.

“I’ve never done that before,” you admitted quietly.

Josh tried to repress a proud smile, but failed. “Experienced cosmic relief?” he asked, exhaustion seeping back into his features.

You giggled, eyes heavy. “I think you just have a way with words, but it was…something else. Memorable, for certain. And before you ask, yes. Some of the best sex I’ve had.”

“Good,” Josh said, satisfaction settling into his expression. There was a moment you thought you might both go to sleep, but then you became very aware of something.

“You know, we might want to switch out this blanket,” you said. And Josh hummed in agreement, the both of you rolling out of bed, out of the wet spot underneath you.

Josh held up the extra blanket that was originally supposed to be a comforter. “This’ll work, right?”

You nodded, beginning to strip the sheets. “Yeah, definitely.” Josh joined in, peeling the material off the bed.

“See? They had ended up having exactly what we needed.”

~~~

Note: Lordy lordy only one tropemas fic left (thank goodness). This was inspired by the anonymous request:

“ I feel like.... personally....you could probably write a great squirting fic. That seems like something you posess. “

Idk, I hope I didn’t disappoint, you’ll have to be the judge of that, Nonnie ;)

~~~

Taglist: @theweightofstardust @theatrekidjosh @fleetsonfire

#12 days of trope-mas #josh kiszka x reader #one bed trope #josh kiszka smut #josh kiszka fanfiction #greta van fleet fics #gvf smut #greta van fleet smut

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softie-rain · 3 years ago

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Meet me at the Hanging Tree

Hunger Games au

previous chapter: Chapter 3

next chapter: Chapter 5

Pairings: Peter Maximoff x fem!reader

Series Summary: Panem, governed by President Magnus, is getting ready for the 75th Hunger Games. It's in this Memory Edition that the reader will learn how far one can go for the loved one, even if that could bring her to certain death.

Series Warnings: Murdering, described death and violence, suicide, death for natural causes such as starving, hypotermia, dehydratation and wounding infection.

Disclaimer: The story is wrote in third person as I'll add other point of views outside the arena. Also, romance will began later in the book, as the characters won't immediately interact!

Chapter Four: Training Session

warnings: mention of fighting and knives

summary: first day of training, and y/n seemed to already have found an ally in the last person she'd expected to.

a/n: a bit obvious and cliché, i know, sorry. My original idea was to make an enemies to lovers kinda trope, but i gave up at the end. sorry :,)

two more chapters and in the arena we goo

Darwin was right: the shower was amazing.

After the three washing they gave her before the parade she had taken another one before going to sleep and after she woke up, and made sure to fully enjoy it. Having clean hot water dripping directly over her head was probably one of the best feelings she had ever experienced.

She closed her eyes and let the water run on her face, as she gently rubbed her hair. For how long could she have enjoyed those small things? The showers, the food, the fancy dresses, even that dark beverage that if she remembered well was… Coffee? Yes, yes it was coffee.

She didn't like the taste the first time, but now during breakfast Charles told her to try it with a bit of milk. She didn't quite get how exactly it was made or the name, but she admitted it was better than the last one.

"Did you sleep well?" Darwin asked her. She nodded, but deep down he knew that she was lying, and she knew that too. Besides, he had a terrible sleep too. As Effie poured more… tea? In her cup, she spoke to both of them. "First day of training! How are you two excited?"

They shared worried looks, not knowing what to answer. "Effie, why don't we talk about how they impressed everyone yesterday? What's your response?" Charles changed the subject, which they were very grateful for. "Like I said yesterday, you were wonderful! What Emma did with you two surely left the sign, it's not every time you see a District 12 tribute dressed that properly for a parade!"

Y/n preferred not commenting on how that could have been considered offensive instead of being a compliment, and she just thanked her. She knew that deep down Effie wasn't being mean or anything, and she seemed to actually care about her and Darwin.

Darwin too just thanked her and smiled, immediately turning to her to give her a knowing look, that made her understand they were thinking almost the same thing.

A few hours later they were being dragged to the training center, where they would have spent the following five days. Y/n wasn't really listening to the woman explaining the rules such as "Don't attack each other, you'll have plenty of time for that in the arena", she was too busy observing the other tributes.

She had already seen the favorites, Scott, Ororo, Kurt and Rogue. Truth be told Kurt looked even more scared than her, and she wondered if he'd actually be a threat to her during the Games. She came to the conclusion that he'd probably be anyway if he went with the other three, which he would probably have.

She didn't know much about the other tributes, the male form 11 seemed very strong, and so did the guy from 5 and 7. The speech was finally done, and so they all parted to start they're training.

She noticed that Darwin was going to the fight spot, but she kept observing. Excluding Ororo and Rogue, the other girls looked pretty much "weak", and they would have hardly made a serious danger in the arena.

But then she remembered what Charles had told her on the train, and how that was probably how she looked in their eyes, and they obviously didn't know about how good she was with knives. She shook her head and decided to go trying to do the knots. She was already good at it, giving that back to the District she did it often, but she still decided to give it a try.

She passed by the couple from the six, who were fighting over how to make a decent bait. She met the eyes of the girl, and she shyly smiled at her. Why would she do that? She had no idea, but she didn’t even have the time to smile back that she was already resuming her argument with her companion.

She kept walking to the trap-making desk just to find it already occupied by Peter Magnus. "The President’s son is already so good at fighting that he goes straight to the trap uh?" God did she really say that?

He turned to face her, embarrassed blush covering his cheeks. "And I'm not really good at it apparently. Are you?" He asked her, trying to hide his embarrassment with the only way he knew: flirt. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I'd rather not tell everyone what my specialities are, that would just benefit the others and not me." He chuckled in response. "True. You know my name but I don't know yours. Would knowing your name benefit me too?"

She shakes her head. "Guess not. Y/n Grey."

"Beautiful name for a bea-"

"Don't you even try."

She stopped him. He raised his hands in surrender and looked around. "Where's your friend?" He asked. "Fighting. Yours?" His eyes started scanning the room looking for Lorna. "Ah, there. With knives."

She followed his look to the black haired girl aiming for the targets. She was really good at it, even more than her.

And no matter what happens, do not compare yourself to the other tributes. You are an amazing hunter and great with knives, don't let yourself down.

Her mother's last words were more harsh than Jean's one for sure, but certainly useful.

She was good at throwing knives just as that girl, maybe even better. "Thinking much?" She kept staring at the girl without answering, and then totally changed the subject. "It must be hard for your sister." His smile dropped for a few seconds, just to reappear an instant later. "It is. But at least she's not the one in here and trust me, I prefer it like this." Y/n had to admit she wasn't expecting that answer.

Not that she didn't believe he had any feelings but, for sure she had thought he'd be more selfish than what he was showing.

"She's up there." He signed, directed to the room where all the gamemakers stayed. And there she was, wearing the most beautiful red dress she ever saw. Honestly, she was incredibly beautiful herself. "Woah. Your sister's hot." She commented. Peter frowned. "I guess? I never exactly stopped thinking about how hot my sister is." He joked, making her laugh.

"Fair enough." She looked at him, meeting his eyes again. She then thought that maybe he could know something about the other tributes, and tried asking him about the girl who smiled at her previously. "Uh, that's Kitty Pride if I'm not wrong, from District 6. And the guy's name is Bobby." He explained. "He volunteered for a kid, it was very touching." He said, still working on his trap.

She raised an eyebrow. "You talked to them?" "No, I just saw their reaping ceremony. And, between you and me, I got to look in the files of the gamemakers. A lot of stuff about everyone, you included dear." He said winking.

Well that was interesting. Sure, what he did was probably against the rules but, now that he already did it why couldn't she take advantage of that? Besides, Peter seemed like a nice guy.

Seems.

"Alright I have an idea. You tell me everything you know about the tributes, and I help you set up a trap and give you some personal survival tricks. Deal?" "So you do know how to make one." "Deal?" She repeated again. He accepted without even thinking about it.

"Ok so, I suppose you already know the ones from District 1 and 2?" She nodded. "There's nothing much more to say about them other than they're lethal but Alex, the mentor of the first District, is Scott's brother. And Raven, mentor of District two? Apparently she is Kurt's and Rogue's mom, but she left them because she had them at a too young age. Ok ok, this one is just a Capitol rumor, no idea if it's true." He cared to add when he noticed her unconvincing expression.

"Then, uhm, let's see. Ah, Jubilee, District 5. Her family isn't as poor as one would think by how skinny she is, and she's very fast. Oh and be careful with Warren, District 3. He could easily become a deathly threat with the smallest sword."

He went on and on with all the tributes and even if the information wasn't much, now the girl felt like she had a bigger advantage over the other tributes. A much bigger one. Finally Peter stopped at District 11 and, even if she fought the urge of asking the whole time, she eventually gave up and went with it. "And about me? And Darwin?"

He chuckled. "Darwin's family work at the market, not the best but he manage to survive. You… your father died, you live with your mom and sister, too old to play in the Games." She looked down, a wave of sadness rushing over her at the mention of her family.

He probably understood his mistakes because he immediately apologized. "Sorry, didn't mean to-" "No it's fine." She lied.

She just wanted to drop the subject and talk about anything else, and she was thankful for Peter because he didn't brought it up again once she started teaching him how to prepare a small animal trap. "I knew you were good at this. He teased, making her shake her head.

What in the world she was doing? Befriending him? He was an enemy, just a few nights before she promised herself she would have killed him if she had to. And now they were having a normal conversation like two old time friends do?

This wasn't her at all. She had to wake up from that state the boy put her into before it was too late. And yet, she couldn't help the words that escaped her mouth.

"You know Magnus, you're not as bad as i though." "Back at you, Grey."

tags: @raincoffeeandfandoms @sweeter-innocence-fics @septicrebel

comment or reblog if you wanna be added :)

#hunger games au #peter maximoff #evan peters #peter maximoff imagine #evan peters imagine #peter maximoff x you #evan peters x y/n #peter maximoff x y/n #evan peters x you #peter maximoff x reader #evan peters x reader

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audiofanficpod · 3 years ago

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Trope Series, Part Four

Slow Burn Fics

Tempest by Missy Pennington

Never Trust Atoms by Stelgibson

Today Series by @storybycorey

Arizona Highways by Fialka

Sweat and Margaritas by @anonstarbuck-blog

Truth in the Dark by @alienqueequeg

Amish Country by Lolabeegood

12 Rites of Passage/12 Degrees of Separation by Anne Haynes

What Hands Do by Mish

Universal Invariants by @syntax6

Tethered by @cultureisdarkbeer

Seventeen by @scapegrace74-blog

Laws of Motion by @syntax6

Life Series by @tatooedlaura-blog

The Art of the Game by 2momsmakearight

Apex by @syntax6

Your Place or Mine by @tatooedlaura-blog

Bearings Series by @spookydarlablack

Leap Series Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 by Donnilee

Once Upon a Time in a Basement by @storybycorey - Audio

14 Days by @kyouryokusenshi

Inappropriate Conduct by @gaycrouton

Vox Mulder: Fired and Wired by Darwin_XF

Snakebitten by @onpaperfirst

Release Valve by @slippinmickeys

Most Wanted by ViceVersa

#slow burn #afp tropes #afp trope fest #audiofanficpod #audio fanfic podcast #podcast #episode 17 #audio fanfic #audio fiction #the x files fanfic #audio fanfiction #xfiles #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #the x files #podfic

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absolutebl · 4 years ago

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This Week In BL

January 2021 Part 4

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series Thai

You Never Eat Alone Eps 1-6 - not BL, too weird for me. Only recommended if you really love YYY’s style.

Manner of Death Ep 10 - things are looking grim for our heroes, they’ve been shot and jumped off cliffs - as they should. Still fun.

Cupid Coach Ep 3 - we got some actual plot at last, but it’s rough going, I might be checking out of this one.

Gen Y Ep 12 FINALE - ended, not with a bang but with a: whaaat just happened? (Series recap here.)

TharnType 2 Ep 12 FINALE - ended, it was fine. The actual TharnType wedding will be released as a special ticketed streaming event because... BEAT THAT DEAD HORSE, BEAT IT!

1000 Stars Ep 1 - we are in proper drama territory at last, this is gonna be fun, not very tropey, but FUN. (Remember UWMA is my favorite BL, I like a heavy lifter.)

Ongoing Series Not Thai

We Best Love: No. 1 For You Ep 4-5 (Taiwan) - singing the feels (one of my least favorite tropes) does not stop this show from being unfairly adorbs. Confession & rejection time. The TONE on this BL is just so pitch perfect. I love them both so much, but Sam Lin is a fantastic actor. Also GOOD KISS.

To My Star Ep 4-6 (Korea) - pivoted hard and went all in on BL, we stan a gay af boy, even if he is a weirdo - especially when he is a weirdo. Plus grumpy/sunshine is one of my favorite combos. However, it still doesn’t make ANY sense. But hell, Gen Y just ended in utter chaotic confusion. Do we need sense from BL? Do we need it from life? I don’t know anymore. I don’t know about anything... help me.

You Are Ma Boy Ep 4 (Vietnam) - no eng subs for the first few days but they eventually dropped; pacing still good, we had a seme confession and an uke panicked freeze out. (Not sure on the total # of eps as MyDramaList doesn’t include Vietnamese shows, but my feeling is 6-8.)

Stand Alone

The Boy Foretold by the Stars (2020 Pinoy Film currently on YouTube, catch it now, it’s hard to find) based on a play this has (miracles of miracles) and out femme gay main character who meets the bi jock of his dreams in Catholic school. In classic coming-of-age fashion this is more about identity, friendship, and first love than it is a true BL (like I Told the Sunset About You). I struggled with the religious themes but if God (with a MASSIVE G) is okay with you then you’ll probably enjoy this.

Gossip

Honestly what universe are we in where Korea and Taiwan are knocking BL out of the park and Thailand keeps dropping the flipping ball? What’s happening 2021? I am so confused.

I really hope Taiwan can get their secondary distribution in order and go with reconfigured movie style (like Korea) with sub rights to Netflix or something. I enjoy seeing Rakutan taking on Netflix & Prime but their Vikki platform is pants. We Best Love would make a GREAT little movie, I hope it does and I hope it sells like gangbusters.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

Next Week Looks Like This:

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soclonely · 4 years ago

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My Trash Inventory

Hello and welcome to the mixed dumpsterfire that is my page of Star Wars appreciation. So feel free to browse around, check out some of the finest products of my brain, hit the recycle button if you see something ya like, and have a good day!

Writings

1. Strategy-

a short story about Palpatine and his love of a good game of chess with a padawan.

2. Check-

A sequel to strategy. An emperor and a memory

3. Follow My Advice-

A medic so hellbent on others listening to his suggestions, he forgets to take care of himself

4. Pest Control-

Even the barracks need a professional to clean up the mice. Wolfpack short.

5. When We Survive

-The Domino Twins take some time to chat before an important mission.

6. Quiet-

A small Bad Batch piece

7. The Collection-

Hunter’s way of unwinding after a long mission

8. Teardrops-

A short story on Tup’s tattoo and post Umbara feelings

9. The Tangled Tooka-

a new business opens up in Coruscant

10. The Bad Batch’s First Day of Autumn-

Hunters blade is missing and Hardcase is cooking up a meal!

11. The 501st’s First Day of Autumn-

Fives and Hardcase are on leaf raking duty

12. Twas the Night Before Space Thanksgiving

13. Hardcase’s Pipe Dream-

A flooding in the Barracks

14. The Stylist-

Tup makes a new friend

15. The Petting Zoo-

Tup and Fives and a day at a petting zoo .

16. The Petting Zoo Part 2: Electric bogaloo

-Maybe people just shouldn’t go to petting zoos with Fives

17. Cody and His Fear Of Ferrets 18. Something Else-

Jesse x reader and a night out gone a little too astray.

19. Dogma Doing Your Dishes

20. Texas Roadhouse Rolls

Dont Recognize Me(Complete)-

an 8 part series where everyones favorite 501st captain travels back in time to the clone wars to try and change the outcome of the war and warn the Jedi of the chips in the brains of their comrades

1.Raptor

2.The Commander

3.The Domino Duo

4.The Medbay

5.Guilt

6.A Shiny Opportunity

7.The Order

8.Brothers

A Life Day Carol-

Commander Cody empire era (final few chapters in the works I swear)

1.The Unwelcome Visitor

2.The General

Life Day Moments

- Small acts of kindness throughout the Galaxy, even in times of turmoil

1.Echo and Fives

2.Cody and Rex

3.Padme and JarJar

4.Boba Fett

5.Jabba and Rotta

6.The Bad Batch

7.The Organas

8.Battle Droids

9..Skywalker and Kenobi

10.Palpatine and Mas Amedda

11.Small Acts

Crossing Over

- Crosshair and his bizarre adventure to the underworld

1.Where there is hell...

2.There’s Lucy

3.Stab to The Heart...

The Clones As

****These are just a few of my favorites, most of them can be found on my page under the tag “khai come get ya juice”. There are a ton if you are into that nonsense.****

1.The Clones As Kitchen Messes

2.The Clones as Science Experiments

3.The Clones as The Circus

4.The Clones as Target Shoppers

5.The Clones as Middle Aged Suburb Moms

6.The Clones and Their Top Internet Searches

7.The Clones as Inspirational Quotes

8.The Clones as Preschoolers

9.The Clones as The People You See On Tumblr

10.The Clones as My Impulsive Quarantine Purchases

11.The Clones as Inconveniences and Annoyances Part I

12.The Clones as Inconveniences and Annoyances Part II

13.The Clones as Inconveniences and Annoyances Part III

14.The Clones as My Inner Excuse For Missing Social Events

15.The Clones as Gordon Ramsey Insults

16.The Clones as What R2D2 Thinks About Them

17.The Clones as Tropes

18.The Clones as Things I Do To Avoid Family At Thanksgiving Get Togethers

other fun tags to check out on my page:

parenting clones pointless posts sw headcanons incorrect clone wars quotes

#pinned post #my master list

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let-it-raines · 5 years ago

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let-it-raines cs fic masterlist

AO3: |Here|

Multi-Chapters:

Betting on the Bullseye: Emma Swan loses a drunken bet that means she has to ask her celebrity crush - if you can call him that - to be her date to her office’s annual fundraising gala for Boston’s Children Shelter. Killian Jones is that celebrity. She expects all kinds of humiliation and for her dignity to be completely lost all because of the ridiculousness of the situation. What she doesn’t expect is for him to say yes.

What she truly doesn’t expect is to actually like the man.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Bonus Scenes: 1 | 2 |

Catch Me If You Can: 298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40

Extra scenes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

Not Your (soul)Mate: Killian Jones doesn’t like the idea of soulmates. He sees how happy his friends are with theirs, but he still doesn’t like the idea, not when he’s found love and lost it time and time again only to still not know his sign. He has no markings on his skin, no voices in his head, but then one day he meets Emma Swan and everything changes. Because, well, he may not have ink on his skin to tell him who to love, but the very first time that he hears Emma’s voice he knows that she’s the one for him. Then again, that could simply be his desire talking. After all, for every word she speaks, he becomes aroused.

It’s not the worst thing in the world to be incredibly attracted to a beautiful woman, but things aren’t that simple when she doesn’t have any interest in being his soulmate.

He’s screwed. And not in the good way.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

Rising From the Ashes: When her husband died, Emma wasn’t sure that she could ever move on. He left her with a broken heart and a baby who was only three-months old. It’s enough to take most people down, to make them not want to keep going, but Emma Swan isn’t most people. She’s stronger than she has any right to be. And after years of heartache, she’s found ways to move on…one of those being in Neal’s best friend, Killian Jones. As she’s always known, however, things are more complicated than they ever seem to be.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21

Second in Command: Life as the “spare to the heir” isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be when you’re the supposed screw-up of the family, but people don’t know what really happens behind closed doors.

Found on AO3 | Here |Tumblr Chapters: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | Sequel (epilogue) Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

Extra scenes on AO3: | here |

Extra scenes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

another kind of green: Emma Swan spends her days in pretty white dresses and heavy layers of makeup. Day after day and dress after dress, she poses for pictures and acts like she’s in love and having the happiest day of her life with the man standing next to her.It’s not. This is all a gig, and at the end of the day, she’s no longer the girl in the pretty dress who’s faking getting married for a magazine cover or a wedding convention. Instead, she’s the girl who probably never wants to get married.Little does she know, she already is.

| Based on two-trope game forgotten first meeting + accidentally married |

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Single Riders Won’t Stay Single: Emma Swan gets in the “single riders” line for a rollercoaster only to be paired with a handsome stranger for what turns out to be the ride of her life.

Found on AO3 | here |

Found Tumblr with artwork | 1 | | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | Extra

Christmas one-shot: A Single Riders Christmas

One shot: Look Ma, I’m on the Internet

No Longer Blue: Killian Jones met Emma Swan on one of the worst days of his life. That day continuously plays over in his mind, and as much as he wants it to stop, he never wants to forget.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Sea Dogs: Emma Swan and Killian Jones met as children and have been friends ever since, learning to navigate all of life’s ups and downs together. They’ve always known that when they have no one else, they have each other. It’s been a constant in their lives, so when their futures are up in the air, will that constant stay the same?

Found on AO3 | Here |

One, Two, Three Shots:

At Least For Now: Detective Killian Jones is fond of his partner on the force, David Nolan. They work well together, and he thinks it’s a nice partnership. He’s also fond of David’s sister…who he didn’t realize was David’s sister when they met. He and Emma have an entirely different kind of partnership that David knows nothing about. At least for now.

Found on A03 | Here |

Indirect Deposit: It’s the oldest story in the world, isn’t it? Falling in love with your neighbor. Killian’s sure that he’s seen hundreds of books and television shows starting off that way, and he’s always thought them all to be entirely unrealistic. That is until he started getting to know Emma Swan, who just so happens to live across the hall from him, and he has absolutely fallen for her in a way that he hasn’t fallen for anyone in a long time.

It’s the oldest story in the world…until it isn’t. Because it’s not just Emma he’s fallen in love with. It’s her unborn child too, and while everyone he knows thinks he’s crazy for falling in love with a pregnant woman, he knows that he’s not. Some things in life are worth taking the risk.

Some people are worth loving. And some things about life may surprise you.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Drabble | Here |

Additional Artwork | Here |

Frozen Peas: Emma Swan and Killian Jones are not coworkers. Okay, they kind of are. Emma Swan and Killian Jones are not friends either. Okay, maybe they kind of are. Honestly, Emma’s not sure what’s up and what’s down when it comes to Killian Jones…well, that’s also not true. She knows one thing that’s up.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Seasick: Sometimes moving home when your life falls apart isn’t a bad thing. But sometimes moving home does lead to things you never thought were possible. Or so Emma Swan learns.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found Tumblr with artwork | Part 1 | | Part 2 |

Palms and Recreation: Bartenders at hotels are just supposed to serve you drinks, not change your entire life, but Emma Swan’s life never seems to go as planned.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found Tumblr with artwork | Here |

His Voice Keeps Calling: They were together…and then they weren’t. But just because you’re not with someone anymore doesn’t mean you stop loving them. And it doesn’t mean that their words stop playing over in your head, even if new ones are being said.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr with artwork | Here |

Lunchboxes and Taxicabs: Sometimes strangers steal your cab from right under your nose. And sometimes those strangers aren’t strangersanymore.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found Tumblr with artwork | Here |

Unraveling the Thread: Returning home is never something anyone wants to do when they’ve been trying to leave for their entire life, but it seems to happen to most everyone. It’s just not something Emma ever thought would happen to her. But after getting let go from her job and refusing to work in another office answering phones for the next ten years of her life, she moves back home to Storybrooke and has to deal with all of the loose threads that she left behind.

It’s easier said than done. She’s still going to do it.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

Magical Rings and Mystical Donuts: Discovering you have magic in a world where it doesn’t exist is scary enough. Having yourself exposed as some kind of magical being because onion rings are falling from the sky might be even worse.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found Tumblr with artwork | Here |

A Simple Favor: Killian Jones is a pirate. He’s no longer a Naval man or an admirable man as he once was. He’s a pirate, and that’s all he’ll ever be to the outside world. That is, until he meets a woman who changes his entire world…and then who changes it again when he has an encounter with her father.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr with artwork | Here |

Mistress of the Sea: He comes into the tavern whenever he’s docked in Misthaven, always following his crew and settling down at the table in the center of the room, ordering a rum before falling into telling a rousing story that has the entire room roaring with laughter. It’s like that for years, and Emma gets used to watching Captain Killian Jones in his element on land, idly wondering what he must be like when at sea. They speak to each other, enough to know names and to be comfortable in conversation, but he’s rarely around long enough for her to truly know him, his mistress of the sea always calling him home.

And yet he always returns to Emma.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Striking Out: For someone who has never picked up a bat, Emma Swan knows more about baseball than some of the guys on the field. To be fair, she’s that way with every sport. It’s her job, and it’s one she takes seriously. She’s been an on-air sports broadcaster for the past four years, and she’s damn good at it, better than some of the former professionals and pundits that she works with every day.

So when she gets a chance to cover the World Series, a chance to follow her home team, she knows that nothing is going to stop her from doing her job.

Well, except for Killian Jones asking her out on live television.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

Another Bad Christmas Movie: Emma Swan’s life is not a Christmas movie. Sure, there are some aspects of it that are similar, but that’s true for everyone who has a pulse and has ever heard All I Want For Christmas is You (don’t lie, you probably sing along to it). So maybe she’s a little frustrated and annoyed with some holiday traditions, especially the cheesy ones in the movies, but Killian Jones is going to help change all of that.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr with artwork Part 1 | Part 2

I Have a Method: Finding your neighbor drunk and nearly passed out in the snow isn’t exactly a great way to become friends. But that’s exactly how Killian Jones becomes more of a friend to Emma Swan than he has been in their years of knowing each other. And it’s exactly how the both of them learn to be a little less alone.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

The Writing is on the Other Side of the Wall: Emma Swan’s favorite author is her next door neighbor, but just because she loves his writing doesn’t mean she loves him. She doesn’t even like him. In fact, one could say that she absolutely hates Killian Jones and the way he blares his music through their shared walls and how he is always incessantly flirting with anything that breathes.

He drives her insane, and she’s about one three am wake-up call away from breaking into his apartment and throwing his speaker out the window. Or maybe she’s one three am wake-up call or one knock on her door away from her life beginning to change forever.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

Pitching A Tent: Emma Swan does not want to go camping. Who even goes camping anymore when things like air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and the internet exist? Why would anybody in their right mind sleep on the ground instead of the softness of a mattress? David says that it’s an adventure, and while she doesn’t believe him those first few hours of trekking through the wilderness, she does once she drunkenly wanders into a British man’s tent in the middle of the night.

Created by the 2 trope game of | wilderness + awkward first meeting |

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

Every Monday Morning: Emma Swan likes her routines. She wakes up at four in the morning, goes to work as a host on The Morning Show, spends her day doing segments about cooking and this season’s fashion trends, and then she goes home to spend time with her son and help him with his homework. She’s finally found something stable, and she doesn’t like change.

So when the show’s regular chef retires and is replaced by Killian Jones, it throws Emma for a loop that she doesn’t necessarily like.

At least not at first.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

Storybrooke Haunted Farms: “Want to be chased through a corn maze? Take a ride in a trailer full of hay in the middle of the woods? Play paintball with zombies? Explore a haunted ghost ship? If this sounds like fun to you, come to Storybrooke Haunted Farms where the fun is cheap and the thrills are terrifying. Open from October 1st - October 31st.”

Emma Swan has been working at Storybrooke Haunted Farms for the past four years, and she’s done everything from work the haunted hayride to chasing paying customers through a corn maze with a fake chainsaw. It’s always been a good way for her to make a little extra cash for the holidays for her son, and it’s most likely the best time she’s ever had working.

That is until her assignment changes and she’s made to work on the pirate ship exhibit with Killian Jones, quite possibly the most obnoxious man alive.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

it’s all an act (until it isn’t): High school drama teacher Killian Jones doesn’t have time for drama off the stage. He’s had enough of it in his life, and no part of him is searching for more. But then the day before his theater class’s modern day interpretation of a fairytale begins its four-week run, his two leads get sick. There are no understudies, no one to fill the roles, but as they say, the show must go on.

With him in it, apparently.

Having Emma Swan, the music teacher and woman who has avoided him since her first day of work at Storybrooke High, fill in as the starring role opposite him is the complete opposite of what he expected.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

Yellow Flowers In Your Hair: Emma Nolan has been raised in a privileged household and has never wanted for anything other than freedom to live her life on her own terms. Her parents want that for her as well, at least to a certain extent, but when her father unexpectedly passes, Emma is left with two options: marry a man she doesn’t love or lose the home filled with memories of her beloved father as well as memories of her first love, a man with blue eyes and a kind smile who left for the Navy years ago and hasn’t been home since.

But what if her first love were to come back?

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Tell Me It’s Real (it’s real): Killian Jones has done a lot of stupid things in his life. The stupidest, however, was telling Liam that he and his best friend Emma Swan are dating after Liam presses him on why he hasn’t started dating again after his last breakup. It’s fine. Liam lives an ocean away, and Killian has time to figure out how exactly he’s going to deal with this before there are any actual consequences.

That is until Liam shows up at Emma’s parents’ house in Storybrooke four days before Christmas thinking that Killian and Emma have been dating for months.

Emma’s going to murder him.

(A Fake Dating AU)

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

what a plot twist you were: Emma’s life is solid. She has her few friends, a job that pays decently enough, and a schedule that works for her. She doesn’t want any of that to change. But when she gets a call saying she’s been left a house in Storybrooke, Maine, she ends up leaving Boston intending to deal with the house and then return to her life like nothing has changed.

Intentions never quite work out, however, especially when she runs into a blue-eyed bartender who just might entice her to stay.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

The Spectacular Ms. Swan: 1959. New York City.

Women aren’t supposed to have their own voices and opinions, and they certainly aren’t supposed to be funny. Emma Swan, however, has a lot of opinions and is damn funny. She also doesn’t care what anyone thinks.

Except maybe Killian Jones, a comic who has been her supporter since the day she bailed him out of jail after one of his comedy routines.

Found on AO3 | Here |

Found on Tumblr | Here |

Tumblr Prompts:

Found on AO3 | Here |

On Tumblr on my page under the header “prompt stories”

I’d list them here, but Tumblr won’t let me add in all of those links on one post 😊

#cs fic #cs ff #cs fanfic #captain swan fic #captain swan ff #captain swan fanfic #let-it-raines #let-it-raines masterlist

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hyperfixated-gvf · 3 years ago

Text

Déjà Vu

On the eighth day of Tropemas, hyperfixated-gvf gave to me:

A fake-dating Josh fic that’s got a bit of everything.

Christmas Song Pairing: “Fall in Love at Christmas” by Mariah Carey, Khalid, and Kirk Franklin

~~~

Pairing: Josh Kiszka x Reader

Warnings: Language, angst, masturbation and references to sex

Words: 9.3k

Josh: I need help.

Josh: Please.

The text came through late one night, and it terrified you. You woke up from the semi-conscious state you’d drifted off to and dialed a number you hadn’t really interacted with much over the past three months.

“Hello? Hello? Josh – Josh are you okay?”

“What? What do you mean? Y/N? Are you okay?”

You frowned. He didn’t sound like he needed help. “Josh. You just texted me ‘I need help’ with no context – what the fuck did that mean?”

Josh made a noise of understanding across the phone. “Oh shit, I didn’t mean I was in – yeah, no, it wasn’t that kind of help. Sorry, Y/N, I didn’t mean to worry you.”

You collapsed back against your pillows with an audible sigh of relief. “I thought you’d finally found yourself drunk and in a ditch.” He laughed quietly. “Are you drunk?”

There was a shuffle and the dissonant twang of something hitting the strings of a guitar, and you weren’t surprised that he happened to be around one instrument or another.

“No, not drunk. Just…a little guilty. Angry at myself.”

“Mmmm,” you hummed, the spike of adrenaline that had appeared with Josh’s cryptic text message settling back into your bloodstream, “why?”

“I – fuck. I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I – fuck.”

You frowned again. “Josh, you’re worrying me. What happened?”

He sighed, his mouth right by the phone, so you heard him muttering more curses. “I never told my family that we broke up.”

“Oh…kay?”

“And tomorrow, I’m leaving for Michigan to stay until Christmas. My mom texted me just now. She thinks you’re coming with.”

You didn’t see the problem. “So…tell her that I won’t be there. If you haven’t told them, now would be a good time.”

Even after the months you’d been broken up, you could still see his expression – chewing on his lip, fiddling his fingers, bouncing his leg.

“I would have. But then she said she’s had your gift since June and that she’s so excited to finally give it to you and – and I just went along with it. I don’t know why,” he admitted. “So, since we, you know, since we’re still on relatively good terms, I thought – maybe if you were free, you could come with – just for the hell of it –”

“Josh,” you started.

“—just to not make a big deal out it. I know –”

“Josh,” you said again, and he sighed.

“I know. Sorry for bothering you. Happy Holidays,” he said, voice dripping with humiliation and something reminiscent of regret, but it couldn’t be.

He had been the one to break up with you. Well – you liked to consider it a mutual thing, but he’d been the one to initiate it.

You weren’t over it. But your pride still stung and your sense of self-preservation still tried to make you hate him, and while the very notion of admitting it made you reel – in all truth, you missed him.

“Josh,” you said quietly, hoping he hadn’t hung up.

“Yeah?” He sounded tired. Down.

“Will this be easier for you?”

He was silent for a second. “Not if it would be harder for you.”

His words struck a chord of indignancy in you. Harder for you? As if you were over here, wilting away like a flower without water?

You were no one’s to ruin. He didn’t have that sort of power over you.

(At least, you didn’t want him to know that he did.)

“You know I love your family, Josh. And…yeah, we’re still on good terms. I wouldn’t be talking to you right now if we weren’t. If you really don’t want to deal with – with breaking up a second time right before Christmas, I understand. And I’ll do it, if that’s what you really want.”

You heard a few chords being played softly on a keyboard from his end, and knew that if he started playing now, he wouldn’t get to sleep for a few hours.

“You’ll really do it?”

You turned over in your bed, heart clenching dangerously, whether in a misplaced hope or a preemptive grief, you weren’t sure. “Sure. I’d like to see your family.”

One last time.

“That’s great, because they’ve been bugging me about you visiting since we left the last time.”

His words struck up memories of the 4th of July, watching the boys set off fireworks in the unsafest manner they possibly could, drinking yourself silly, and playing card games until the wee hours of the morning.

You really did love his family, but you knew that the real reason you said yes with so little convincing was that deep down, you recognized the flimsy reasoning Josh had presented and hoped that maybe he felt the way you did. That maybe he’d been presented with the opportunity to rekindle your relationship and was offering you an olive branch.

“So are we…we’ll be pretending that we’re still dating? Or that we’re just friends?”

“I mean…yeah, yeah, we’re still dating. Like we were last time.”

Stolen kisses around corners. Secret glances at the table, cuddling on the couch as his family told stories. It wouldn’t be like last time, but you looked passed that detail.

“Like we were last time,” you repeated softly, “okay. Um - well, when are you leaving tomorrow, then?”

“Probably around 11 am.”

Your mind raced through things you’d need to pack and potential gifts you could bring for everyone, and then looked at the time.

“Could you swing by and pick me up when you leave? I’m gonna have to pack, so…”

“Oh yeah, of course.”

You didn’t know what else to say after that. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”

“Yes,” Josh said, voice sounding considerably more upbeat, but still rough with exhaustion. “Yes, I’ll see you then. Thank you so much, Y/N, I know that you didn’t have to do this, and – and I just hope you know how much I appreciate you doing this.”

You smiled. “I know. Now get some sleep, Josh, you sound exhausted, and we have a long drive tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” he said, and you could hear the smile in his voice. “We do.”

…

You wanted to say that you were composed and waiting for Josh when he inevitably showed up an hour late, but you’d be lying if you did. Except, who could really blame you when you’d had less than 12 hours to pack for a week-long winter vacation and Christmas shop for an entire family you hadn’t been planning on shopping for.

Which is why you were still scrambling to wrap presents when the knock came at 12:06 pm.

“Just a second!” you yelled, securing the piece of tape on the seam the wrapping paper made against the box. You jumped up and unlocked the door, pushing any wayward emotions down before you opened it up.

You smiled and tried your best to not let your gaze wander, instead meeting his eyes and taking in what you could from there.

His hair was a little fluffier, his eyes the same kind brown, his smile still wide and toothy. But the dark bags under his eyes had gotten deeper, and there was a stiffness in his stature that was inconsistent with his easy-going attitude.

“Hey, Y/N,” he greeted softly. “It’s been a while.”

You shrugged, trying to disperse the rush of unconscious affection that rushed through you at his gentle tone. “It’s no longer than you’ve had to be gone for tours and promotions before. Come on in,” you said, turning back to your wrapping station, “I’ve just got to finish wrapping Jake’s and Ronnie’s gifts.”

“Oh.” Josh sounded surprised. “Were you sending them gifts?”

“No,” you said, refocusing on pressing corners in and folding sides over. “I ran to the mall this morning to do some frantic, last-minute shopping. I found something for everyone, though – it’s not a big deal. I figured if your mom got me a present, it would be rude of me to show up empty-handed.”

Josh immediately started protesting. “You know they wouldn’t have cared –”

“Yes, yes, I know, but I – if we were still dating, I would have gotten them gifts,” you said, not looking up from your work. “And we’re supposed to be dating still.”

“Right.”

You finished the wrapping job on Jake’s present and then setting Ronnie’s in a spare gift bag you had, fluffing some tissue paper on top of it and calling it a day.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

Josh took some of the gifts in his arms. “I’ll get the gifts, you get your bags?”

You nodded, picking up a tall gift bag. “I’ll take Sam’s gift, though. I’m not sure I trust you with an armful of gifts not to drop it, and it’s definitely not something we want to drop.”

Josh took one glance at the bag and smirked. “I wonder what could possibly be in the bag.”

“Yeah, big surprise, I’m sure,” you deadpanned back, rolling your eyes.

Josh maneuvered the door open and tossed a quick, “I’ll meet you in the car,” behind his shoulder, and then he was gone.

You licked your lips and went to retrieve your bag from your bedroom, slinging it across your shoulder and doing one last check around your apartment for anything you missed.

Everything was alright.

So…normal. Of course it was a little bit stilted, but all in all, everything really did seem just as it had been. Except you were quietly drowning in the knowledge that it wasn’t real.

You made you way down to Josh’s car, where the trunk was already popped open and waiting for your stuff. You arranged it so that the bottle of alcohol was nestled between the back seats and your bag and went to the passenger’s side door, peeking in the window and frowning when you saw Josh with his eyes closed, leaning against his hands which were braced on the top of the wheel.

He lifted his head and smiled when you opened the door, but it morphed into confusion when you didn’t get in. “Did you forget something?”

You twisted your lips. “You don’t have to drive, you know. I’ve got a GPS and my feet reach the pedals. Why don’t I take first shift?”

“No, no – I wouldn’t make you –”

“Stop it, Josh,” you said heatedly. “You’re not making me do anything. I agreed to this trip and I offered to drive – stop trying to make a martyr out of me.” You didn’t mean for it to come out as harshly as it did, and Josh looked taken aback, but you were tired of this weird tiptoeing that was passing for normal but devoid of the natural comfort and give and take that your relationship had subsisted on before.

It wasn’t that you expected it to be the same; of course it wouldn’t be. But that didn’t mean it had to be like this.

You sighed. “Look, Josh. If you’re going to act like I’m gonna snap at any moment and – and catch an uber from Michigan to Nashville and leave you to explain to your family that we’ve been broken up for a few months now, I might as well not go. They’ll know something it up and it’ll be much more awkward trying to explain why you didn’t just tell them in the first place while I’m there, too. So please – stop treating me like a time bomb.”

“Sorry,” he apologized, looking more nervous than you’d seen him in a while. “Sorry. I’m not meaning to, I’m just – I’m just tired. Maybe it would be better if you drove for the first few hours; I’ll drive after we stop to get gas.”

You nodded in satisfaction at his complicity, and as you passed by each other at the front of the car, you grabbed his wrist, causing him to stop in his tracks and turn towards you, only to be pulled into a hug.

He was stiff at first, but then he returned it, and as much as you had meant for it to be quick – just a reintroduction to casual touches – you found yourself without a desire to let go, and Josh’s tight hold told you he didn’t mind either.

The bubble of hope in your chest grew.

“It’s good to see you again,” you said against his shoulder.

“You too,” he said back, and you released him shortly after, smiling and then getting into the driver’s seat, readjusting the position as Josh buckled himself in, leaning his seat back.

“Ready?”

He met your gaze. “Ready.”

…

Josh didn’t take the second shift.

In fact, he snored right through getting gas and food, and only woke up once you were only a couple of hours away from his parent’s house.

“Shit, Y/N, I didn’t mean to sleep that long,” he murmured sleepily, inhaling deeply and looking out the window. “Where the are we?”

“About to enter Michigan. You just had about a full night’s worth of sleep,” you teased. “Haven’t been getting many of those, lately?”

He rubbed his forehead, stretching up and twisting his back. “Unsurprisingly, no. You could have woken me up.”

You shrugged. “I was fine. Stretched my legs when we got gas. I also ran into the Subway to get some food – there’s a sandwich there for you, by the way.” Josh was quiet, and when he opened his mouth to speak, you beat him to his thought. “And if you tell me, ‘Y/N, you didn’t have to’ – yes, I know. But I did. Thank you will be just fine.”

He laughed – a real laugh. “Thank you,” he said, unwrapping his sandwich. “You remembered my favorite!”

You snorted. “It’s not hard when it’s what you ordered from every single sandwich shop we ever visited.”

“I’ll pay you back for gas and food.”

“Do, don’t – it’s no skin off my nose. I’d have paid for half, anyways.”

Josh spoke through a mouthful of sandwich. “No you wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t have let you.” He swallowed his food. “You’re doing this for me – it’s the least I can do for you. And I am not trying to make a martyr out of you, it’s just common decency.”

It kinda amazed you how well you knew each other still; how you knew what he was gonna say before he got the words out and vice versa.

The observation caused a pang in your chest, and you refocused on the road. “So what have you been doing the past couple of months?”

Josh flicked the edge of the sandwich paper. “Oh, you know. Writing. Playing. Recuperating. Drinking,” he chuckled. You didn’t return his laugh – you hoped he didn’t mean more than usual. He must have caught your expression. “Not, like, heavily or anything. Just the normal – you know, beers with my brothers.”

You nodded. “Yeah, of course. Not my business, really,” you said lightly.

He cleared his throat. “What about you?” he asked, and then took a too-big bite out his sandwich.

“Oh, you know,” you said, unintentionally imitating him. “Working. Writing. I did start taking a yoga class at the gym a couple blocks over – I think you’d really like it, actually.”

“Sounds nice.”

“It is. A nice way to pass the time.” There was a stretch of silence where you let Josh eat his food in peace and you navigated the car from one interstate to another. “We’ll have to stop and get gas one more time before we get to your parents,” you said, glancing at the meter.

Josh nodded. “We should…talk, you know, before we get there.”

“About?” You were feigning confusion. You knew exactly what you needed to talk about, but just the thought of it made your stomach squirm and skin itch with possibilities.

“Once we get there, I don’t want to overstep any boundaries you might have.”

You sighed, and despite everything in your being resistant, or perhaps looking forward to, the reinstitution of intimacy between the two of you, you wanted to get it out and over with. “Josh, let’s just – let’s just act like a couple. This doesn’t have to be difficult.” You swallowed the bitter taste of a lie on the tip of your tongue. “This doesn’t mean anything.”

You’d wanted to say ‘this doesn’t have to mean anything’ more than you wanted air, but you didn’t.

You’d gotten the impression that Josh wasn’t totally over your relationship either, but it was the principle of the concept. It was the lingering hurt and wounded pride and perhaps a little bit of masochistic, self-defacing vindication that you wanted to prove to yourself that you weren’t under this man’s thumb anymore.

“Right,” he said quietly. “You’re right. This doesn’t mean anything.”

Your heart broke a little bit.

…

You arrived at the Kiszka household late that night, trying not to shiver at the colder Michigan weather as you both grabbed your bags and as many gifts as you could manage so that you could make it in one trip. You knew someone would still be awake – it was before midnight, after all. But you didn’t expect everyone to be awake.

Karen popped her head around the corner when you closed the door and smiled so brightly that you would have come just to see her. But then Josh dropped everything with a, “Hey, Mama,” and you knew your expression went soft.

Shit.

“Josh and Y/N are here!” she yelled into the living room, where you heard a chorus of hellos from different voices – you could pick out Sam, Ronnie, and Kelly, and you assumed the other two were Jake and Jita, but you weren’t sure.

“Look what Santa brought to town,” Jake said, rounding the corner. He gave Josh a quick hug and then moved on to you, quickly letting you go and looking at the present in your arms. “Something for me?”

You rolled your eyes and started to continue to the living room to drop them off under the tree. “Maybe. Here I was thinking that I was the present this year.”

Jake wrinkled his nose and took some of the gifts from you. “You’re a given, not a gift.”

All the breath whooshed out of your lungs, and your eyes met Josh’s, who had come up next to you. Jake hadn’t intended to disorient you, but the level of ignorance really hit you out of nowhere. You’d thought Josh had at least told Jake – there wasn’t much they didn’t tell each other, and the fact that Jake had called you a given at Christmas pushed the ache and longing that you had been squirreling away to the forefront of your mind.

Karen took the rest of your gifts with a hug and a kiss to your cheek, leaving you and Josh to take your bags to his room. As you unpacked a few necessary toiletries, you inhaled deeply and cleared your throat on the exhale. “You didn’t tell Jake?”

The soft sounds of clutter being moved around paused for a second and then resumed. “No. No, I never did.”

“What did he think when – I mean, didn’t he wonder why I wasn’t around?”

You turned just as Josh shrugged. “We’ve been busy. I just told him that you were too. And he believed me, so, you know, that was that.”

“Oh.”

You weren’t sure if you believed him. Jake was more observant than that, and both twins were stubborn as hell when it came to each other, but you didn’t say anything more on the matter.

You pulled your pajamas out of your bag and took your toothpaste and toothbrush in hand. “I’m gonna go do my bedtime thing – I’ll see you out there?”

Josh sent an affirmation your way and you headed to the bathroom, feeling a little bit detached. What were you doing here? Why did you go along with these flimsy-ass plans based on a flimsy-ass excuse if not for the hope that Josh would get over himself and maybe – maybe fall back in love.

Two and a half months hadn’t been nearly enough time for you to have fallen out of love with him, and some part of you wanted to believe that that was the case for him too.

You poked your head into the living room where everyone was still congregated once you’d finished and were met with smiles all around. The only seat left was an armchair settled near the fire, even though it was the best seat in the house.

You settled into it happily, though.

“So where have you been, Y/N? Josh said you’ve been really busy with a new project these past few months,” Jake said casually, arm draped across Jita’s shoulders.

You chuckled. “Oh, just a personal thing that’s been a work in progress for a while now. I just happened to have gotten inspired one day and kinda got lost in my own little writing world, I guess. Sorry I stopped coming by.” You could play this off – lying wasn’t something you liked to do, but you were pretty darn good at it.

Jake laughed. “Well, Josh spent enough time at your place to have made up for it.”

Your blood turned to ice at the prospect of Josh not spending his nights at his apartment, because you could only guess where he was and what he was doing otherwise, but you forced another smile onto you face. “Exactly. Still, it’s nice seeing you again, finally. I’m glad Josh talked me into taking a break and spending some time out of my apartment.”

“You were thinking of not coming?” Ronnie asked, acting offended. “How dare you.”

“How dare she what? Are you causing problems, already, Y/N?” Josh said, walking into the living room, and you saw his eyes searching around the room for a free spot.

“Me? Problems? The only problem I’m gonna cause is a ruckus if you don’t come here.” He smiled, but it didn’t meet his eyes.

“I would never keep a lady waiting,” he said, moving over to where you were seated and holding out his hand. You took it and let him tug you up, knowing that he preferred holding you on his lap than sitting on yours.

You curled into him once you got settled in and pressed a kiss to his temple.

Just like last time.

His fingertips flexed against your thigh, drawing you towards him.

Just like last time.

You sat there and laughed and conversed like everything was fine and ignored that insistent, deep ache that was exaggerated by all the ‘just like last time’ little things until eventually, you yawned and kissed Josh on the cheek.

“Well, I’m going to head to bed. It was nice seeing everyone tonight, I didn’t think you’d all still be up when we got here.”

Kelly waved his hand. “Had to show you we could still hang with the youngsters. Looks like the youngsters can’t hang with us,” he teased, nudging Karen.

You grinned and ruffled Josh’s hair. “Well, I had a long day of driving with Sleeping Beauty over here.”

“—I offered to drive, don’t even,” he protested.

“I know, I know. I’m just glad you got some sleep,” you said affectionately. “But now its my turn. Good night everyone!”

They each bombarded you with good nights and you walked the hallway to the bedroom, about to push the door closed until only a crack remained, and almost jumped when Josh put his hand on the wood to keep that from happening.

“Shit – you scared me. I don’t remember you moving so quietly,” you chuckled. “You can stay out there with everybody, you know; you don’t have to babysit me.”

He shut the door behind him as he entered the room. “I think everyone else was about ready to call it a night, and I know I don’t need to babysit you, but a good boyfriend would never let his woman go to bed alone,” he said, and you caught the double entendre that laced his words and rolled your eyes, smiling, your underlying bond of friendship bubbling to the surface with the warmth of family and friendship still flowing through your veins, making you happier than you’d been in a while.

“Is that so?” you hummed, walking to your side of the bed and plugging your phone in. You pulled the covers back and stared at the ceiling. “Well then, you’d better get here before I conk out.”

You didn’t watch as he climbed into bed as well, instead feeling his weight dip the full-sized mattress in his direction and hearing his breaths.

“Good-night, Y/N. Thanks again for doing this.”

“Good-night, Josh. You’re welcome.”

It wasn’t just for you.

…

“Up and at ‘em, already!”

The loud voice was followed by a louder pounding on the door, and then you heard Kelly sharply say Sam’s name and a few other mumbles, and the jarring presence outside the door left.

“Little brat,” Josh slurred from the other side of the bed. You were rolled over, not facing Josh, but hummed in agreement.

“It’s supposed to be Christmas break – I thought he would be the last one up. What – hang on, what time is it?” You fumbled with your phone and squinted, laughing once your brain actually comprehended the time on the screen.

“What? Did we sleep in?” Josh asked, and you felt him roll over to face you. You turned your head as well and nodded, getting caught up in his gaze.

“Yeah, we’re a couple of late risers today. It’s already 1 pm,” you said, closing your eyes for a second. “It’s been a while since I’ve slept in this late.”

Josh shifted the blankets. “You always were the first one up out of the two of us.”

You blinked your eyes open to see him smiling, so of course you smiled back. “You just can’t ever get that head of yours to stop working early enough at night to get up at a reasonable time.”

Josh’s eyes softened, and he smiled. “You always made the late nights bearable.”

Your breath caught in your throat and you glanced away, the intimacy of the moment weighing heavy on you.

You rolled over and unplugged your phone, sitting up to stretch. “Well, I’m sure there’s plans for today, so I’m gonna get out there.”

Josh groaned and threw the blanket over his head. “Will you tell them I’ll be out in a minute?”

“Of course, Sleepy the Dwarf.”

“Hey!”

You laughed as you shut the door behind you, wandering first to the bathroom to brush your teeth and then to the kitchen, where Josh’s parents, Ronnie, and Sam were.

“Good…afternoon, I guess,” you greeted with a smile. “Sorry we were lazy this morning. I was just telling Josh, I can’t remember the last time I slept in like that.”

“It’s Christmas, everyone deserves a little extra rest this time of year,” said Kelly. “Would you like some coffee?”

You accepted their offer, and then on a last-second decision, grabbed another mug for Josh. His mom looked from the pair of mugs to you and gave you a soft smile.

You pretended not to see it.

Instead, you made up your coffee first, then Josh’s, hoping his taste hadn’t changed in the past two months. “Where’s Jake and Jita?”

“They ran to the store to get some candy for the Gingerbread house competition tomorrow.”

Your eyes lit up. “Gingerbread competition? That sounds like fun.”

Ronnie laughed. “It used to be a tradition until they got all famous and couldn’t come back for Christmas, and we don’t do it if someone’s missing.” She shot a glare at Sam, and he stuck his tongue out at her.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I win every year, anyways.”

All three other Kiszkas protested at that, and Ronnie started listing off previous winners. Josh rounded the corner and smiled at the scene, then caught sight of the mug beside you, coming up behind you and placing a soft hand on your lower back.

His lips at your ear sent goosebumps racing up your arms, even underneath your sweatshirt. “Is that for me?”

“Of course it is,” you said softly, leaning back into him. He accepted your weight willingly and even pecked you on the cheek.

Karen was the first to notice Josh had come into the room. “Oh, good afternoon, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?”

“Better than I have in months,” he said. “Must be that childhood bed charm.”

Sam coughed, but it sounded suspiciously like ‘sex,’ and Kelly backhanded him lightly on the head while Ronnie hid her smile in her mug.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Sam said, flinching away from his father, but not expelling the shit-eating grin from his face. “I know what they sound like having sex, and there was nothing going on last night!”

He had to raise his voice after the first part of the sentence to be heard over you, Josh, and Karen all throwing various phrases of disgust at him, batting at Kelly’s returning backhand. You tried not to let your face heat, but you could have fried an egg on your cheek – you knew every single other member of the band had most likely heard you and Josh going at it at one point or another in the time you dated, but you didn’t want it to be acknowledged, much less in front of his parents.

You leaned back and turned your face into Josh’s neck. “Were we really ever that loud?” you asked quietly.

Josh chuckled, hand sliding to loop around your waist. “I mean…” He left it at that and you groaned in embarrassment, but Josh just chuckled.

“I never minded.”

You felt the vibration of his words in his throat and shifted on your feet, pulling your face away, your stomach tightening at his admission. “Of course you didn’t.”

His thumb stroked across your lower belly once before it stilled and Josh stepped back, putting a few inches of space between you two.

You missed his warmth.

…

You had never loved anyone more than you loved Karen and Kelly Kiszka for keeping extra snow suits and thick gloves and scarves at their place and Ronnie for being roughly the same size boot as you.

Because trekking up this steep-as-hell hill would not have worked out in your favor had you been stuck with only the clothes you had brought. But the payoff would be worth it, you were assured. You and Josh had been dating this time last year, but you had friends coming into town, so you hadn’t been able to go with Josh, and were therefore quite unprepared for his family’s Christmas activities.

“So doesn’t having double the weight on one sled give you an advantage with increased momentum?” you huffed, any exercise you may have been doing previously not seeming to help in your climb. “Wouldn’t that be unfair to any single people?”

Josh laughed. “Oh, couple races are only one part of the event. We have singles, sibling, backwards, tied together, and then non-competitive runs. That’s why you had to bring a sled, too.”

You looked behind you in defeat. “I have to climb this hill again? Multiple times?”

“Only on the races you participate in. So,” he paused to calculate, “like, four or five times minimum, yeah.” He turned a smug gaze on you. “What, not up to the Kiszka challenge?”

You wanted to snark back about the things you did for him, but no one was really in earshot to hear, so it would take on different meaning if you did. “There’d better be more of that hot chocolate when we get back to the house,” you grouched good-naturedly instead.

“Papa K’s special. I’m sure we even have some liquor to add into it, if you need.”

“Fuck yes, I need,” you scoffed, your fingers having already gone numb.

There was a thump and a laugh from behind you, and both you and Josh turned to see Jake facedown in the snow, shaking his head while Ronnie and Jita giggled and ran as fast as they could toward you

“Hey Jake,” Josh called with a grin, “you, uh, got a little snow there.” He gestured around his face and Jake didn’t look amused, swiping his face across his sleeve, which was also snowy from the fall.

“Fuck you,” he called, starting up again.

You finally reached the top of the hill and felt a swirl of excitement when you realized that the sled down probably would be worth it.

“Okay!” Sam called out. “Individual round first, then?”

There was a call of agreement and you settled your sled next to Josh’s, still a safe distance away, Jita on your other side.

“Three, two, one, go!”

Kelly gave the countdown and as soon as the last word was out, you kicked off, trailing behind most of them since you hadn’t gone sledding in a hot minute.

You grinned as you picked up speed, attempting to drive the sled, but ultimately just letting it go where it pleased. You passed by Jita and then Josh, laughing all the way down the hill you’d just spent the last seven minutes hiking up and feeling the sting of snowflakes that sprayed up from the front of your sled.

You and Josh were neck and neck, but at the last second, you pulled out in front of him, flattening yourself to the sled to give you more aerodynamic speed. The slope finally flattened out and you slowed down, coming to rest right behind Sam in a respectable fourth place, Kelly taking first and Ronnie taking second.

As you crawled off your sled, you grinned back at Josh, red-cheeked and laughing. “You know, for a Michigan native, you sure know how to lose,” you joked, and Josh started forming a snowball. “No!” you screeched, grabbing your sled and running as well as you could up the hill again.

You heard the snow crunching behind you and Josh’s maniacal laugh, and your heart kicked up a notch, the feeling of being chased sending adrenaline through your veins.

You were leaned so far forward in an attempt to combat the snow pulling at your boots and the incline of the hill that the impact of the oddly-shaped snowball was all it took to bring you down. You tried to twist your torso so that you wouldn’t eat snow in the split second you realized that you weren’t going to be able to keep your balance, but it was so deep it didn’t matter – half of your face disappeared into the ice anyways.

You recoiled from the chill immediately, and Josh tried not to kick more snow at you as he approached you, offering a hand.

The sky was white-gray and bright, so you had to squint to look at his face, boisterous and happy against the dreary background. You took his extended hand and let him pull you up just as Ronnie, Jake, and Jita passed by.

Ronnie gave you a secret smile and then smashed a snowball over Josh’s hat, the snow falling down to settle in the crevices between his scarf and neck. He yelled out in surprise, spinning to find the culprit, and Ronnie laughed. “Justice for Y/N!” she said, giving you a gloved high-five.

You laughed. “You see where allegiances lie.”

Josh shot you a loaded look, and that alone made you regret voicing the quip.

Because it was the last time.

Your mood dipped, but you quickly dispelled the feeling and smiled again. “What race is next?” you asked, stomping up behind Ronnie and Jita.

“I think Mom and Dad were saying couples next,” said Ronnie. “I just want to be up here for the race afterwards. Sam’s staying down there to judge.”

You nodded and glanced back towards Josh. “Are we using your sled or mine?” you asked.

“Well, obviously you slicked yours up before we came, so yours,” he said, still pouting from his loss.

“Uh-huh, that’s definitely the reason I beat you on your home turf.”

He stuck his tongue out at you and then poked you with his sled. You were all too busy huffing and puffing to say much after that, reaching the top of the hill and settling your sled in the same place you’d been before.

Josh immediately picked it back up, settling it to the side of the hill you trekked up, which had a treeline bordering it. “We can’t set it in the same place, or else the paths get all wonky, so we have to pick fresh spots until there aren’t any left.” He shrugged. “Family rules.”

“Well then, who am I to argue.” You stared at the sled for a second. “So how’s this going to work?”

Josh hummed. “It’s also been established that there can be no horizontal stacking – couples must be in a sitting position.” You smirked and Josh raised his eyebrow. “For safety reasons, Y/N.” He couldn’t hide his smile, either though, so you didn’t feel attacked.

“You want back or front, then?”

He sat down on the front of the sled. “Front. I’ll try to steer.”

You sat down behind him, letting a couple of inches of space exist between your bodies. The other couples – Kelly and Karen and Jake and Jita – all got situated, and then from behind you, Ronnie yelled out the countdown.

“Go, go, go!” Josh said, furiously pushing his heels into the snow to get you going. You tied to help, but one boot got caught in the snow, throwing your sled sideways right as it tipped down, gathering speed. “Oh, shit!”

Josh tried to get it back on track, wrestling with the wet, flimsy cord attached to the front, but the damage was done, and the sled started to veer off towards the trees halfway down the hill. As it crossed the hiking path, Josh let go of the string, grabbing your leg instead.

“Abandon ship! Abandon ship!” he shouted, rolling you both off the sled and into the snow while the sled skidded across the path and into the trees.

You didn’t realize you were laughing until breath became hard to come by – except that might have been Josh, who had landed on top of you and was cackling right along with you.

“That was totally your fault,” he wheezed, face within inches of yours.

You didn’t care.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you said you could steer!”

“Not when you’re sabotaging me!”

Your giggles trailed into heavy breathing, and you blinked into the brightness, once again only seeing Josh’s face. He was heaving, but not laughing anymore either. His eyes dipped to your lips, and you could have sworn he moved in infinitesimally.

Your lungs were stuck – frozen like the snow beneath you until Sam’s voice broke into your little bubble.

“Hey! No horizontal sledding!”

…

“Aw, shit.”

The words falling out of Josh’s mouth made your blood run cold. “What? What happened? Is everything okay?”

“Uhh…”

Well, that wasn’t promising at all. You were three sides and three and half hours into the gingerbread house competition, and supplies had been relegated to couples instead of individuals, so you and Josh were tasked with building a house together – and you knew from experience that Josh didn’t do well with delicate things.

“What did you do?” you moaned, thinking about all the time you spent painstakingly putting details into the design. The house was not professionally decorated by any means – you didn’t bake and decorate all that often, but you were still proud of the relatively neat and pretty design you had managed this time, and if all your hard work was for nothing, well, you might end up calling that Uber after all.

Jita broke out in giggles from across the table as a roof piece that Sam had been trying to stick to his walls slid off, prompting a panicked yelp from the other man. “My roof!”

There was icing all over the table – drizzled and dropped and smeared and spilled – and mounds of miscellaneous candies scattered between houses.

You had been arranging one of the last candy wreaths to stick to the front of the house when Josh had let out his curse.

“It’s nothing bad, I swear! I’m trying to get this icing out, and a dried piece of it fell into the roof design – I’m trying to get it out without messing it all up.”

A wave of relief swept through you. “Oh. Okay, well, I’ll get the piece out, and you keep trying to unclog that tube.”

Josh made a noise of disgust. “’Unclog’ is such an unattractive word.”

“You’re an icing-plumber,” you joked, grabbing a toothpick and trying to push the dried crumb of gluey royal icing out of your nice, neat rows of green and red icing patterns. “Try rolling the tube a little more,” you suggested.

In your peripheral, you saw Josh put the tube on the table and begin to roll up the remaining contents until the top was stiff again. He pressed down and shifted his hand up, the pressure pointing the open tip up, and tried flushing the dried stuff out.

“I got it!” you said in satisfaction, brushing the errant icing piece away from your work and turning back towards Josh just as he picked the tube up and tried squeezing it as hard as he could. “Josh, the second the dried icing comes out, you’re going to make a huge—”

Josh’s hand was jerked up the tube with a sudden release of pressure from the tip, and with the position Josh had it in, the resulting explosive shot of white icing was shot straight across your face, landing first in the hair at your hairline and then draping diagonally across your nose, touching the corner of your still-open mouth.

You pursed your lips and nodded your head. “—mess.”

Everyone at the table burst out in laughter, and you couldn’t help but join them, thumbing as much icing from your skin as you could and licking it off – grateful that it at least tasted good.

The sexual innuendos that could be taken in the situation weren’t lost on you, and you couldn’t help but glance at Josh, who was laughing along with everyone else, but whose eyes also never left your face, watching the icing disappear with your finger between your lips in ill-contained rapture, pupils dilated.

You took no small amount of joy knowing you still had that effect on him.

“I bet that’s not the first time Jo–” Sam started, but you turned to him with a glare, finger pointed at him across the table.

“Don’t. Even.”

His comment the other morning was one too many on your sex life, and you didn’t need another joke at the expense of your (secret) lack now thereof.

“Or what? You’ll sabotage my house?”

You watched as the newly-repaired roof started sliding again since Sam had gotten distracted. “You’re doing just fine on your own, actually.”

Sam glanced to his forgotten house. “My roof!”

You returned your attention to Josh, who was still smirking in your direction – at least he was until you swiped a fingerful of icing that had dropped onto the table from the explosion and darted your hand to swipe it across his cheek. He tried to avoid it, but you grappled with him until he had the sticky sugar smeared from cheekbone to jawline. “Just a little bit of retribution before we continue.”

He pouted, wiping it off. “Menace.” You grinned as you turned back to your workstation.

Falling back into that casual intimacy during the past couple of days was easier than you thought it would be – you’d had your doubts that you wouldn’t be able to fully get past the knowledge that everything was fake, that you’d be too rooted in reality to be able to commit to believable interactions.

Except despite having the knowledge that it was, it sure didn’t feel fake.

And that was exactly what would make it so much more difficult to settle back into reality – the tumultuous hope that maybe it could have been real if not for the fact that neither of you had the courage to confront the ambiguity.

…

You woke up silently – disoriented and blinking into the darkness and feeling your breath even out from the abrupt change of conscious state.

You were tempted to grab your phone and see what time it was had you not already taken in the fact that there was no light peeking in from the spaces between the slats of the blinds on the window. You were also entirely too tired to want to squint into an LED screen when you were almost certain that it was before 5 am.

In fact, you weren’t quite sure what woke you up. The night was still and quiet and for once, Josh wasn’t even snoring.

Snuggling back into the mattress, you sighed quietly and relaxed again, drifting off again when you heard exactly what it was that woke you up.

A quiet, yet violent exhale of breath. The shift of the blankets came next, and then you felt the mattress dip near your feet where Josh must have dug his heels in, ever so slightly, so that he – so that he could –

You knew those sounds. Josh was jerking off, right next to you.

He’d always been vocal in bed, so you knew it was a respectable task for him to be as silent as he was being. You were turned away from him, and fought to keep your breathing even and body relaxed – you were certain he’d been listening for any telltale signs you’d woken up, so when you had, he’d stopped until he was convinced you were asleep again.

You kept listening, a voyeuristic streak flaring to life at his sounds and making you wet. The room was filled with harsh breathing and the soft scrape of skin on skin and the slightest grunt you’d ever heard from him; the minute shifts of his body that you wouldn’t have paid any attention in a normal situation took on new meaning.

He worked himself – you could only assume slowly, or his movements would be more detectable – and as much as you would have liked to claim to have fought the images that came to mind, you welcomed them like an old friend.

His thumb brushing over his tip, putting a pressured slide to the underside of the head, right where that vein was most prominent, lightly callused fingers scraping against skin. The twist of his wrist on the way up. The caress of his fingers against his balls once he’d reached the base of his cock.

You knew his preferences intimately and he, yours - during the course of your relationship, you had each witnessed the other pleasuring themselves – both by accident and by request.

A vicious jerk of his body was the only way you knew he’d come, and his body relaxing afterwards made you want to clench your thighs together.

What you’d have given to watch.

He sighed into the room, and you wanted to kiss the air out of his lungs and drink in all his noises, wanted to swallow down all his sounds so that he wouldn’t have to work so hard to stay quiet.

You hadn’t felt this kind of arousal since the last time you slept together, and it was intense.

So intense that your pride and hurt were battling tooth and nail against the idea of rolling over and having your way with him, consequences be damned.

But the longer you laid there, pros and cons racing indecisively through your mind, you couldn’t help but think back to all the loaded looks he’d given you over the past three days. Of the way he’d almost kissed you in the snow yesterday. Of his flimsy excuse for you to come with him to his family’s Christmas and the very little convincing that you’d needed.

You were still in love with him. You knew that. And you were almost certain he still held feelings for you, too.

Your heart kicked up a notch as you made a decision, and let out a measured breath.

“Josh?”

He wasn’t asleep – his whole body stiffened at the sound of your voice, but the room remained quiet for a second.

“Yeah?” His voice was tight – he knew he’d been caught.

There were some things you needed to know, first, though, before you acknowledged his getting off. “Why didn’t tell your family? Not even Jake? I want the truth.” You rolled over to face him, but he kept his gaze on the ceiling, letting the soft buzz of the night stretch between you.

“I was hoping you’d continue to let me…I thought maybe you wouldn’t ask me. Hoped you wouldn’t,” was what he finally whispered.

“Why?” Time seemed slowed down in this moment – words lazy and quiet and the desire for a response faint, the pace of conversation sluggish.

Josh sighed. “Because I don’t have a reason.”

But there was more to it – you just knew it. He was keeping something back, and you were pretty sure you knew what it was, and emotion built up in your chest at the prospect. “Josh.”

“I was wrong.”

His voice was quiet, and for all his stubbornness, he’d always been able to apologize to you – always except for that last time. So now, with his words of admission, it almost seemed as if the past few months hadn’t happened – like you were laying in bed after a round of make-up sex and the two of you could finally reach past your pride and into the love you held for each other to find the words of apology.

“I am too,” you offered back, but he disagreed, finally turning on his side to face you.

“No. No. You – it takes two to argue, but I was the one who – it was my fault, Y/N, that everything happened and that I’ve been...that I’ve been so damn miserable ever since we – fuck, I can’t say it even now.”

Broke up.

“I didn’t tell my family because not even a week after you left, I thought – I hoped that maybe things would resolve themselves. It was stupid, and I should have just apologized, and maybe things would be different.”

You nodded. “I’ve been miserable, too.”

Josh’s intake of breath and harsh swallow were magnified by the silence, and your chest almost hurt when he reached out to take your hand in his, but didn’t say anything, so you continued.

“I was hurt. And that was the only thing that kept me from knocking on your door to apologize. I…I wanted – want – things to be different than they are now. Want them to be the same as they were before.”

“Just like last time,” Josh said, voice impossibly lower.

He started to lean in closer, but there was still something that Jake had said on your mind. “Josh?”

He stopped immediately, cocking his head. “Yeah?”

Your hand made it’s way to his face, and he leaned into the touch. You felt bad bringing this up now, not wanting to throw the time you were apart back in his face. Because you had been broken up, miserable or not. Regrets or no regrets. But still, the words were seared into your brain.

“Jake said you didn’t sleep in your own bed some nights. And I know that it isn’t my business—”

“It is your business, though.” Josh kissed the palm of your hand. “Jake did notice something was going on. About two weeks out, he mentioned you and I – I obviously hadn’t come to terms with it yet, so I lied. I went and drove around. Almost wound up at your door. I went to the studio and played around. I’ve become more acquainted with that couch in the past few months than I have since we moved to Nashville.”

You let the relief sweep through you and closed your eyes, shifting closer to him and curling your hand around his neck. “I won’t say that I’m not relieved,” you chuckled softly.

“I felt like I was still cheating any time someone even looked at me, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to—”

You cut him off with a peck. “Do that?”

He answered with his lips and hands, dragging you over by the waist so that you were draped half on-top of him. “Not with anybody else but you, darling.” He pulled you down for another kiss, a deeper kiss, the kind that you’d been longing to give and to get from him.

You hummed in contentment, making the final move and shifting to hover over him, opening your mouth to him and beginning to breath his air, to breathe him.

His hands began to wander and you were shed of your clothes within the space of a few minutes, making quick work of his flannel pants, too.

“Y/N,” he breathed. “I love you. I hope you know that I never stopped.”

You smiled against his lips and snuck your hand down to where he was growing against your thigh, but you thumbed his hip instead of wrapping your hand around him, not wanting to take the moment away from your words. “I love you too. Perhaps in the future, we both let go of our pride – to save us from our own self-inflicted misery.”

Josh grinned. “What are we without our choice of the seven deadly sins?”

You decided the moment was over, and took him in hand, basking in the lovely gasp that escaped him.

“Well, right now, I choose lust.”

Josh nodded vigorously. “My hand’s just not the same, baby. Lust has been the sin of choice for the past few days – fuck – every time the urge struck, it was you and your face –”

“—let me guess, covered in white icing?”

Josh’s fingertips gripped into your ass and he buried his face in your neck, trying to stifle his laugh – too loud for the hour.

“You were a menace for that, by the way. Do you know how difficult it was trying not to fuck up a sprinkle dusting trying to hide a hard-on from hell?”

You ground down into him, cutting off his giggles. “About as difficult as it was for me not to give myself any friction knowing you were jerking off right next to me.”

He groaned quietly. “Well, feel free to now.”

The temptation was there, and this time with no reservations, so you reached over to fumble at his bedside table. “Are there condoms in here that didn’t expire when you were still in high school?” you laughed.

“Probably not. Let me up and I can see if I can sneak one from the bathroom. I know my parents usually keep a box here for when the girlfriends visit – they don’t want a conception in their house and they know what goes on – it is sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, after all.”

You rolled your eyes and then flopped down next to him, trailing your fingertips down your body to the wetness between your legs. “Well, then, I’ll be waiting.”

Josh groaned again and made a mad dash, naked, to the bathroom.

…

“Merry Christmas Eve!”

You went around the room exchanging the informal greeting, tired eyes accompanied by a yawn.

“Did you not sleep well last night, sweetheart?” Karen asked from by the stove.

Josh appeared behind you with a hand wrapped around your waist and a kiss rather inappropriate for polite company, taking the handles of two mugs in his hand and setting them on the counter.

“I woke up to a weird noise around 1 am, actually, and couldn’t fall back to sleep for a few hours,” you said, faux-confused, and felt Josh’s fingertips rake down to your hip from your waist, the quiet huff of a laugh escaping his lips.

Karen frowned. “Huh. I didn’t hear anything – did you guys?” She turned to the table where everyone was hanging around, and Sam’s eyes lit up in mischief, bringing his elbow up to his mouth. You knew what was coming, and you would have said something to stop him—

Except you didn’t like to lie.

“Sex,” he coughed.

Kelly backhanded him on the head.

~~~

NOTE: Hey guys! A new publishing schedule will be implemented for the final four fics - every other day instead of every day (I bit off a little more than I could chew during one of the busiest times of the year...whoops).

Also, given the chance, I may come back and edit this fic to turn it into a multiple-part series, since the fake dating trope tends to feel rushed if the slow burn aspect of it is smushed into a one-shot. If that happens, it won’t be until I can finish a couple other projects and requests that have been put off.

~~~

Taglist: @fleetsonfire @theweightofstardust @theatrekidjosh

#12 days of trope-mas #josh kiszka x reader #fake dating #josh kiszka fanfiction #gvf fanfiction #greta van fleet fics #gvf smut #gvf angst #gvf fluff

417 notes · View notes

misdre · 4 years ago

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hello i am doing this shipping meme (ignoring it being a 1 like=1 answer thing) for no other reason than it being fun, and i have nothing of substance to post here rn anyway

1. List 3 shipping tropes you love friends to lovers, complements (sun/moon, dog/cat, light/darkness, contrasting colours etc), and forbidden relationships of all kinds. yes feed me that problematic shit

2. List 3 shipping tropes you don’t love actually there aren’t that many i’d say i don’t like at all… not very into tsunderes these days, and i don’t like one-sided unrequited love that goes nowhere. aaanndd anything involving cheating

3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you p i n i n g

4. One physical aspect of a ship that always get you actually don't really know if i have one that would be consistent with my ships. but i enjoy one being more buff and the other a twink

5. Multiship or Monoship? well i do multishipping but like, for OTPs you won't really see me writing a fic where they actually don't end up with each other tbh. so it's kind of a combination of both because i’ll multiship up to a point of certain seriousness and then it turns into a monoship

6. Rare pairs or Mainstream? i don't pick my ships based on rarity or anything, but i do feel special sympathy for rarepairs

7. Polyamory or Monogamy? some threesomes are fun but generally i just want it all to be monogamy

8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not? YES!!! nothing's weirder to me than people being super AGAINST it like why

9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms? i do not! but! having a ship certainly makes me more engaged ngl, extremely unlikely to write fic for something that i have no ships for.

10. How important is the sexual part of your ship? wouldn't call it important, but it basically adds another level of fun in shipping and a ton of headcanon opportunities so generally i do wanna go there HA

11. Opinion on platonic ships? i like all kinds of relationships between characters, doesn't always need to be romance

12. List 3 ships you currently love well rei/max is obviously always in ma heart. because of the digimon frontier rewatch i found myself in a kouji/kouichi hell suddenly. and one newer ship that's been in my mind lately is dr.stone senkuu/gen

13. List 5 OTPs from past fandoms ironic but takuya/kouji from digimon frontier, 8059 from katekyo hitman reborn, yuuri/wolfram from kyou kara maou, england/japan from hetalia, gon/killua from hxh. i still like them all tho but i guess they count as past stuff.

14. Opinion on the importance of marriage? can't think of many things that would have less importance tbh

15. Opinion on OC kids? not a fan of them. i generally don't like characters having children in either canon or fanworks. that stuff is too difficult to relate to for me.

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mudtomagic · 4 years ago

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Novel Prep Tag

Thank you @leah-yasmin-writes for the Tag! I’m happy to share.

First Look

1.) Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences:

A mage and a wolf shifter meet as captives of the Cryptozoology Research Corp (CRC), they escape - but the mage, Swae, is lost and presumed dead. Years later, they are reunited by a common threat - once again they are being hunted by the CRC, but they won't go back without a fight.

See more of my WIP Intro Here

2.) How long do you plan for the novel to be?

70,000 - 80,000 words

3.) What’s your novel’s aesthetic?

Dark, fire, sunrise/sunset.. somehow work a wolf into the backdrop

4.) What other stories have inspired your novel?

Everything...

I was first introduced to mages in Wild Magic by @tamorapierce over twenty years ago. I went on to read everything from the Tortall Universe. I still see her portrayal of mages and magic as the truest form and I can't go too long without revisiting Tortall.

I developed an interest for shifters from J.D. Tylers racy romance series Alpha Pack.

Then anything with a strong female protagonist, unlikely love story or fated mates trope.

5.) 3 images that get the feel of my novel:

Main Characters

6.) Who is your protagonist?

Swae - Mage

Rafe - Wolf Shifter

7.) Who is their closest ally?

Rafe’s Friends: James, Declan and Reese

8.) Who is their enemy?

Cryptozoology Research Corp (CRC)

Dr. Gerald Guyse - Lead Scientist

9.) What do they want more than anything?

Freedom. Security. Revenge.

10.) Why can’t they have it?

The CRC is targeting supernatural creatures and they are being hunted by CRC as subjects of unique significance and importance to Dr. Gerald Guyse.

11.) What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

Rafe sees his shifter nature as a weakness when it is actually his greatest strength. Swae believes she is better off on her own not understanding the benefits of having friends and especially not love.

12.) Draw your protagonist!

Nope. I can't draw... like AT ALL!

Plot Points

13.) What is the worst thing that could happen to your protag?

Recapture by the CRC

14.) What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?

Wouldn't you like to know!

15.) Do you know how it ends?

Yes indeed I do.

16.) What is the theme?

Survival, Perseverance, Love and Sacrifice, Reunion, Self-realization, Trust, Friendship, Loyalty

17.) What is a recurring symbol?

Burning/Fire as a symbol of rebirth and renewal - Rise from the ashes

18.) Where is the story set?

Present day New England - Bridgewater Triangle, Massachusetts (hot spot of Paranormal activity); Boston, MA; White Mountains, NH

19.) Do you have images and scenes in mind already?

Several - I will share excerpts as they are written

20.) What excited you about this story?

Fire, Magic, Shifters, Love story, Strong Female Protagonist and most importantly its MINE

21.) What is your usual writing method?

Plot point outline - summary outline - Write

Presently my goal is to write 500 words a day.

Tag You’re It!: @fae-academia @hazedartisan @littleleaf25

#tag game #novel prep #novel prep tag #My WIP

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goldeneyedgirl · 5 years ago

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Happy December + 12 Days of Christmas

Hello everyone! Another unscheduled absence. I hope everyone is having a peaceful holiday season. In honour of Christmas - and I still hope to get one more chapter of Shadow to Light posted before 2020 - I presented ‘12 Days of Fic-Mas’: 12 extracts from current WIPs, abandon pieces, random ideas etc. Because, guys, I have SO much unposted fic, it’s ridiculous.

One will be posted every single day until Christmas. All of them will be about Alice, or Alice and Jasper. If you like it, let me know - whilst Shadow to Light, and Memento Vivere are top priorities, I like to know which projects to continue and which to shelve. These fics are unbeta-ed, and as-is. I haven’t decided whether I’ll publish this compilation on AO3 or FF.Net yet. And if another wants to join me in Fic-Mas, please do! I’ll do a round of post of my fics, and any other contributions after Christmas (tag it TwilightFicMas2019, and probably @goldeneyedgirl so I don’t miss it!)

So, Happy Christmas, and welcome to 12 Days of Fic-Mas ;)

Day 1. Folie A Deux

(In which Jasper is human, and Alice is not; I do love this trope and found a total lack of fics with this specific dynamic.)

He sees her out of the corner of his eye and when he turns, he can only stare.

She is exquisite, like a china doll, with alabaster skin and ruby lips, soft black hair brushing her cheeks in soft waves. She wears loose black pants and an oversized white t-shirt. She doesn't smile, just collects her books and shuts her locker.

“Don’t get your hopes up.” He blinks, turning to see Mike and Peter appearing at his side. “That’s Alice Cullen,” Mike continued. “She doesn’t date. Hell, she doesn’t talk to anyone. None of the Cullens do.”

“Why?” Jasper asked. Alice had sidled up to the red-haired boy. The boy quirked a smile at her, but neither of them said a word as they turned and walked down the hallway.

“Too good for us,” Mike said, an edge in his voice.

“Don’t be a dick,” Peter interrupted. “Alice, Edward and Emmett are all foster kids, they live with Dr and Mrs Cullen. Rosalie is Mrs Cullen’s niece. And Mike’s just sore Alice and Rosalie shot him down. It was kind of hilarious, actually.”

“She’s dating the dude she lives with. Her brother practically. It’s weird,” Mike grumbled.

Jasper’s eyebrows rose.

“Rosalie and Emmett are a thing,” Peter said, scowling at Mike. “And Edward’s dating a girl called Bella, she’s in my history class. Leave ‘em alone.” He turned back to Jasper. “Alice isn’t dating anyone we know of, but you won’t get within a foot of her without Edward appearing.”

Jasper looked back at Alice Cullen, slipping away with her red-headed brother. “Whatever.”

Something about the Cullens fascinates him. Especially Alice Cullen.

Even within her family, she stood out. The entire family are gorgeous, yes. Rosalie Hale belonged on a runway, in expensive designer clothing and towering heels. Her brothers, too, are the kind even Ava looks twice at. But the smallest girl, she lacks something. As if she is only half there. She wears neat clothing, but with a sense of carelessness, as if she isn’t really paying attention. She is insubstantial, yet magnetic.

She is quiet in class, sitting in the middle of the class. She doesn’t ever look like she’s paying attention, but never misses a question from sharp-eyed teachers, and her notes are perfect. She doesn’t talk to anyone, and the only person who approaches her is Edward – her lab partner in Chemistry turned out to be Bella, Edward’s girlfriend, and she seemed ill at ease with her beau’s sister.

At lunch, she sits at the end of the table, a soda open at her elbow, and a sketchbook open, her pencil floating over the page. Occasionally, she will lift the soda to her lips, but she doesn’t engage with her siblings, with Bella.

Jasper wonders what she’s thinking. He is entranced by her red lipstick, her enormous golden eyes, the way she moves – like a dancer. By her soft voice, her articulate responses to questions.

He sits with Peter and Mike, and are later joined by Peter’s girlfriend, Charlotte, as well as Ava, Jessica and Angela. Ava is still in a foul mood over having to add a few Junior classes to be able to graduate but seems to like Jessica and Angela.

“You’ve gotta stop staring, man, or Emmett Cullen is going to bury you in a shallow grave,” Peter said, snagging fries from Charlotte’s plate.

“Shut up,” Jasper said, flicking a piece of lettuce at him.

“Staring at who?” Ava said suddenly, whipping around to look around at the Cullen table.

“Alice Cullen,” Peter said with a grin. “The small one.”

“Is she a freshman?” Ava said, a twinkle of mischief in her eye.

“Just a very tiny Junior,” Jessica giggled.

“She’s in the foster system, Jess. We don’t know how bad her life was before the Cullens took her in,” Angela said, frowning. “She’s quiet, but nice. I have Art with her.”

“Baby brother has a crush,” Ava crowed, grinning. “She’s pretty, Jazzy.”

“Jazzy?” Peter jumped on that.

“I hate you,” Jasper said conversationally to Ava, before turning back to this lunch and trying not to think about the golden-eyed girl.

“Jasper Whitlock?”

He shuts his locker to see the giant Cullen – Emmett – standing there, looking fairly affable.

“Yeah?”

“Emmett Cullen. I’m here to tell you,” Emmett began, speaking very precisely, like the choice of his words was important, “that you should probably leave my sister alone. That it’s a really bad idea to pursue Alice.”

Jasper frowned, repeating the words in his head. “So, are you telling me you don’t want me to go near your sister?”

“No, I’m just here to tell you that you need to stay away from her,” Emmett said, looking frustrated.

“So… this is someone else’s advice,” Jasper leant against his locker.

“It is a general consensus that it would be a bad idea,” Emmett continued.

“Consensus? Okay, so I’m guessing your brother sent you,” Jasper said, irritated. “Was Alice polled on her opinion in this ‘consensus’? Because that’s pretty much the only person who gets an opinion.”

Emmett grinned. “I told them you were a good one. Good luck, man.”

#TwilightFicMas2019 #twilight fic #alice cullen #jasper hale #jasper whitlock #alice/jasper #my fic #fic: folie a deux #extract #WIP

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damianfitz · 5 years ago

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MEET DAMIAN

1. Full Name?

Damian Elliot Fitzgerald.

2. Preferred Names or Nicknames?

Damian doesn’t have any nicknames and he’s not really the type to go by one.

3. What does their name mean? Does it have any significance in their family? Do they like their name?

Damian means “to tame”, chosen by his father who took inspiration from St. Cosmas and Damian -- the patron saints of pharmacy and medicine. Context: the Fitzgeralds are a hoity toity family full of doctors, at least on his dad’s side. Elliot is his father’s name. Damian very much enjoys his name and likes to think that he’s very special and great things are meant for him because he carries his father’s name. (Unlike his ridiculously perfect older brother who is only named after their grandfathers, ha!)

4. Age and Date of Birth?

He is 18 years old and his date of birth is April 19, 2001.

5. Gender and Pronouns?

Cis Male. He/him.

6. Hometown?

Boston, MA.

7. Does your character fit into any well known archetypes or tropes?

The Chief? The Gentleman? I’m bad at archetypes. He’s also a very stereotypical Aries dude. (Me, pretending I know anything about zodiacs.)

8. How long have they been at Broadripple?

Damian has been enrolled at Broadripple since Freshman year.

9. What led them to apply to Broadripple? Was it a decision made by them or by their parents/guardians or somewhere in between?

Before his father even graduated from Broadripple, he planned that his children would attend the academy. They’re a staple there; it’s tradition and the Fitzgeralds are all about that.

10. Whether they’ve been at Broadripple four days or four years, do they enjoy it? Do they like Broadripple?

Damian absolutely adores Broadripple. He’s been fed stories about house Fenwick and the academy since he was old enough to understand words. Growing up, he fantasized about Broadripple the way some kids fantasize about attending Harvard or Yale. Every school he’s attended prior to Broadripple was just a stepping stone as far as he’s concerned.

11. What house are they in? Do they care very much about their house?

Fenwick. And abso-freakin’-lutely. He treats the house like he’s their dad and often refers to its members as his ‘Fenwick family’. He tends to go out of his way to befriend and develop close bonds with them, whether or not it seems like they’ll get along. Damian fully believes that the best kind of leadership is respect-based, so he’s relentlessly proactive -- always trying to take care of and encourage his Fenwickians with the hope that all of his hard work and toil will pay off in the long run. He 100% intends on winning the Clary Cup and getting his name engraved on the Clary shield before graduation so it’s important to him that his ship is always tight and out of trouble. #fenwickpride

12. Who do they share a dorm with, or are they on their own for the moment? What are they like to live with? Are they clean or messy? Early risers or night owls?

Damian shares a dorm with Connor Roberts, who he decided he quite likes so he’s been making an effort to develop a friendship with him. Damian likes to consider himself a very good roommate -- an ideal roommate even. He’s always mindful that his side of the room is tidy, with everything in its place and that his bed is always made when he’s not sleeping in it. He sleeps early and rises early. Since the start of November, he’s been a little restless for obvious reasons so he’s gotten a bit... nitpicky. If he sees something of Conny’s that’s on the floor or seems out of place and Conny’s not there, he’ll pick it up and put it where he thinks it belongs. He’ll also like, fluff a pillow if he thinks it looks a little flat, smoothens out the sheets if it looks a lil creased. You could leave your books open to random pages all over your bed and leave, and when you come back, they’re all neatly stacked on your desk and bookmarked and Damian’s just like :) I hope you don’t mind. You might have wanted to rest on your bed upon return so I took the liberty of tidying up for you. He’s just a little more intense than usual since Izzy’s disappearance.

13. How is your character’s dorm decorated? Is it bare or bursting at the seems with personality? Any particular sentimental items from home?

It’s very classic and masculine. All of his desk accessories are matching and made of tan leather and accented with brass. His mattress is fitted with fancy white Hotel™ bedding but his duvet is deep red because #fenwickpride. There’s a large monthly planner that adorns the wall that his bed is pushed against so he can review what’s in store for him tomorrow/for the week before he falls asleep. A bi-fold picture frame sits on his desk. One half holds a photo of him, his sister, and their parents. (Where is Joseph? We just don’t know.) The other half holds a photo of the 3 Fitzgerald beagles looking cute as hell bc obvi. Everything clearly has its place except these 3 photos that are stuck to the wall in front of Damian’s desk with tape (gasp!). One of the God Squad being pure having a picnic somewhere, one of Alpha being cute just because, and one of him and Eliza that he took that she doesn’t like because her face is in it and she’s laughing and that obviously isn’t allowed but like it’s Damian’s favorite so sucks 2 suck.

14. What is their favourite subject at school? Do they even have a favourite? Why?

Of all of the classes he’s taking right now, Damian’s favorite is World Culture. He likes learning about other cultures and ways of life; he thinks it’s interesting.

15. Are they involved in any clubs? Which ones?

He’s been a member of the Buddy Club since his second half of his Freshman year. He’s Vice President of the Student Weekend Activities Team. He’s also the secretary for the Student Council.

16. How does your character feel about Broadripple’s Unofficial Clubs? Do they know about them? Are they a part of any of them?

Damian thinks the Broadripple Boys Club is childish and in poor taste. He avoids associating with them if he can help it but he’s civil with them for the most part even if he thinks they need new hobbies other than destroying property, lives, and their livers.

He’s a member of the Unofficial Chastity Club because celibacy is important and you should always leave room for Jesus. 👀 (It's also a very good reminder that he shouldn’t listen to his hormonal teen body no matter how incessant.)

He doesn’t know about Broadripple Unsolved but if he did, he’d think it was a waste of time.

17. Does your character participate in any sports? If so, what made them join the team?

Damian is Swim captain and a member of the Cross Country team.

The Fitzgeralds think it’s important that their children grow up involved in at least one sport because the physical/social/mental benefits are far too great. Swimming just happened to be what Damian naturally gravitated toward and was best at, so it was no-brainer that it’s the team that he wanted to join upon arrival four years ago. (It may have also been about wanting to assert dominance since he’s been swimming competitively and kicking ass since the age of 8.)

As for Cross Country, Damian’s parents have always encouraged a healthy lifestyle. They’re the type of parents that jog in the morning and make the family run a 5K every year. It was familiar. He also just wanted to be able to workout and not worry about becoming a prune.

18. What afternoon activities does your character do? Do they just do the one mandatory one or are they involved in multiple? Why?

Damian is an animal shelter volunteer. He’s a big dog lover and he cares a lot about the city’s furry friends so it was the obvious choice. He’d honestly do more than one if he had the time -- he was a nursing home volunteer during his Junior year and he loved it -- but considering his involvement in literally everything else, he decided to stick with just one.

19. Do they miss their home when they’re at Broadripple? Do they often go home for the weekends or do they only go home during holiday breaks?

Funnily enough, not really. Damian isn’t the type of person to miss places. The person he would miss the most from home is his sister, Eliza, and since she attends Broadripple with him so he doesn’t really ‘miss home’. He does go home every weekend though unless there’s a SWAT outing planned because he misses his dogs and his parents think it’s nice if the family sits and has a meal together at least once a week. Also often, there’s a schmancy event the Fitzgerald kids need to show up at so their parents can boast of their achievements and show off what good parents they are, so :)))

20. Did your character know Izzy De Santis or Maggie Monroe?

Yes. They were all part of the same Bible-loving group of buddies that the Weekend Warriors cleverly dubbed the God Squad. Izzy was also Damian’s best friend and right-hand man, so he’s terribly saddened by the sudden hole the Melleray Senior left in his life. And while he wasn’t as close with Maggie, Damian does feel quite disturbed by her sudden departure as well. He just finds it rather difficult to keep in mind that her disappearance is just as important as Izzy’s when Maggie wasn’t the one who spotted Damian at the gym every other day.

21. Has your character heard of Edith Lynch? Do they know the story?

Yes and yes. It was a topic of conversation at the dinner table once and never again because his parents think it’s that ridiculous that people have made it some ~haunting tale. His parents, having both attended Broadripple, described it as a ‘terrible mishap that people have blown out of proportion’ and that’s exactly how Damian chooses to describe it if he hears anyone speak of it and need his two cents on the matter.

22. How does your character feel about Nighmore? Have they noticed the recently closed shops yet?

To Damian, Nighmore is just your everyday quaint little town. He doesn’t see anything wrong with the fact that they’re all very friendly and always willing to engage in a bit of conversation. He just thinks it’s good manners. He would even go as far as to say the rest of America needs to be a little more like Nighmore.

Yes, he’s noticed they’ve closed down. Though, he’s more bothered by The Kettle being closed than Hill’s Wholefoods. He was a really big fan of their lattes so it’s a bit disappointing to him that he can’t enjoy that product anymore. He quickly got over it though and hasn’t paid much of a visit to Nighmore since then.

23. Have you made any aesthetic Pinterest boards/WeHeartIt collections for this character? Or playlists? Anything you would like to share!

Pinterest / Playlist / Musings / Schedule

#listen i've been meaning to do this for 2342 years but things get away from you when you have one brain cell ok #smack that like button and i'll boop you for plots 🎉#bahq:task1 #damian ; musings #bahq:task

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