#Alex is MILDLY awkward here

[faux-ecrivain]

Yan! Crossdresser

(First Official Post)

Yan! Crossdresser that only dressed up for fun or because he was bored. Then he sees you, he tries to approach you in his usual clothes, but you don’t even look at him. (maybe you have an aversion to men, maybe you get along better with girls, or maybe you just don’t like men.)

Yan! Crossdresser who, after seeing your reaction to his ‘normal appearance’, decides to approach you dressed as a woman. (He’s even wearing a dress in your favorite color)

It’s a bit awkward at first, it always is when you meet new people, but it’s especially awkward when the person you’re meeting is such a beautiful woman. This new person says her name is Alex, you shake her hand in a nervous manner (ignorant to the flush that graces her face) and then the two of you are hitting it off. It’s almost like Alex knows everything about you.

Yan! Crossdresser who just couldn’t believe it worked so easily, he expected you to be somewhat reluctant to meet new people. But you weren’t, you were so friendly and kind (that’s what he likes about you), but you’re just so oblivious. (He can’t believe how lucky he is that you aren’t the least hit suspicious about all the information he knows about you)

Yan! Crossdresser who goes out of his way to wear your favorite colors, to dress as your ideal partner. (No matter how irritating how those ribbons on his dress were, don’t even get him started on the hours he spends on his makeup)

Yan! Crossdresser who goes shopping with you, spending hours picking out the perfect outfit for you (maybe some of them are a size too small, just so he can help you put them on)

Yan! Crossdresser that goes out of his way to seduce the ones that are interested in you, despite how much he despises them, only to promptly get rid of them (probably hiding those love rivals in his basement)

Yan! Crossdresser who painstakingly prepares the perfect date to ask you out, he contemplates telling you who he truly is, but then he chickens out (he’s worried you might not like him if you knew the truth)

Yan! Crossdresser who decides to continue this facade of being a woman, cutting off those from his past, those who would recognize him. (He barely even talks to his family anymore) 

Yan! Crossdresser who becomes flustered once you express the worry you feel after seeing how distant he’s become to the ones he used to consider friends.

Yan! Crossdresser who has to resist the urge to shower you in kisses when you hold him close and tell him that you’ll be here for you, that if he’s going through trouble with his friends (and family) you’ll be here for him. 

His heart begins to beat ferociously the moment you embrace him, his face flushes an embarrassing amount and he almost squeals when you run a hand through his hair, trying to comfort him. 

He cautiously embraces you, his arms winding around your waist and he buries his face in your chest. 

(You’re mildly uncomfortable, but you’re trying to be a good friend, and Alex doesn’t mean any harm. At least, you don’t think she does, but sometimes Alex’s behavior if suspicious.)

He feels lightheaded (probably all that blood rushing to his face) and he never wants to let you go. 

Yan! Crossdresser who decides to drag out this facade for just a bit longer, he’ll tell you the truth one day, just not any day soon. 

(Alright, here’s my first official post, I’m not very proud of this post, but hey, I’m a beginner and there’s always room for improvement!)

[fazedlight]

Medal (post-canon Dansen)

That’s my wife, Alex thought proudly. She tugged Kelly closer as they entered the room - a large gala-style event, with Kelly’s name and face blazed on a poster. Alex smiled as she noted everyone who was already there - Kara loading her plate with potstickers as Lena whispered in her ear, James shaking hands with General Hanson who would be presenting Kelly’s award that night, Nia smoothing over a conversation with Brainy and a soldier where Brainy had almost certainly said something mildly awkward.

Kelly herself was all smiles as she entered the room, tugging at Alex’s side to point out an old buddy from bootcamp, waving across the way to a friend from her deployment in Afghanistan. Alex hadn’t gotten the chance to meet so many of these people - spread across the US after their time in the army - and found herself happy to finally be putting faces to names from Kelly’s stories.

And then Kelly’s jaw tensed.

Alex turned to her wife, noting her suddenly stiff frame and plastered smile. “What is it?” Alex murmured into her ear.

“Nothing,” Kelly said.

“Kelly…”

Kelly glanced to Alex. “I just didn’t expect that he’d be here,” she murmured. “That’s Dixon.”

Alex glanced over. Kelly’s former commanding officer, she thought, tensing. The homophobic, misogynistic bastard who had made Kelly’s time in the army hell - not to mention a large part of the reason she had to hide her relationship with her fiancee at the time. At least, as Alex had learned, the man’s career had crashed and burned years earlier.

“I’m not going to let him ruin my night,” Kelly said. Alex turned back and smiled.

They continued to make their rounds, meeting more people, eventually giving the superfriends a hug when they reached them, enjoying the cacophony of voices and the ambience of the evening.

“Dr. Olsen,” a voice said, as another man approached Kelly, “We’ll be starting soon, we’ll need you backstage.”

Kelly nodded, planting a kiss on Alex’s cheek before turning away, following the man for whatever prep work was needed backstage.

Alex - alone - wandered around the room, making a beeline towards the bar for a nice scotch. But she stopped when her eyes landed back on Dixon.

The man was exiting a corner door, out towards an empty and unlit balcony area that Alex had seen earlier in the evening. Alex’s jaw tensed, and she turned towards the door, slowly ambling through the crowd until she reached the quiet balcony.

Dixon was alone, the shadows only lit by the cigarette he had pulled out, burning smell dissipating in the cool night air. Dixon blew smoke out in a huff, seemingly annoyed.

The tap of Alex’s shoes on the tiles alerted Dixon to her presence, and he turned towards her. Disinterested, he looked away again. “Here with your husband?”

“I’m Alex Danvers,” Alex said, “Kelly’s wife.”

A sneer appeared on Dixon’s lips. “Suppose you are.”

Alex glanced at Dixon, mulling over the washed up man in front of her. She had been curious, once upon a time, to meet him - to understand the jackass that had once made Kelly’s life a miserable hell. 

But there was nothing to understand. No hill left to die on. Kelly had fought and won her own battles, and this man was left in the dust.

Alex turned to leave, but she paused when she heard footsteps coming towards her. “She’s here because of me,” Dixon said, standing toe-to-toe with Alex as he threw his cigarette to the floor. “It’s fucking biology, women aren’t cut out for military shit.”

If it had been a few years earlier, Alex would’ve thrown a fist in his face then and there. The insult, the gall, of a man trying to grab all the credit for Kelly’s hard work and brilliance?

But she didn’t throw a punch. Maybe it was the calming effect of age. Maybe it was the years of hearing Kelly’s psychological talk. Maybe it was that Dixon himself didn’t even sound convinced of his own words, trying to intimidate with desperate bravado. 

So Alex chose the weapon that all fragile men feared: She laughed. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

She didn’t wait to hear Dixon’s answer, turning to walk away and rejoin the party. But before she could go far, she felt a hand grab at her arm, roughly yanking her back. “Fucking dy-”

Alex didn’t let him finish his sentence, instead sending a swift knee to the man’s groin, causing him to grunt in pain and keel over. “You bitch,” he gasped.

“You’re done, dude,” she sniped back. “You realize there are cameras on this balcony? If you want to make a shitshow of how you tried to assault me and got beat, I’m happy to go there.”

Dixon gasped again, and Alex turned away, reentering the ballroom. Dixon is in Kelly’s rearview mirror, she thought to herself, watching as General Hanson took the stage, so he’s in mine too. 

“Good evening,” General Hanson greeted, as Alex made her way to the front of the crowd - between Kara and James, looking at the corner of the stage where Kelly patiently waited. Kelly glanced in Alex’s direction, smiling with nerves as Alex gave her an encouraging thumbs up.

“Dr. Kelly Olsen’s groundbreaking research has opened up new avenues in the fight against PTSD,” General Hanson said. “Her dedicated service to her country is only outshined by her endless pursuit of helping her fellow veterans. We present this medal to honor her astounding achievements in aid to our soldiers, and all who wrestle with this illness.”

The room burst into applause - Alex was the loudest - as Kelly strode onto stage, receiving her medal with a wide smile. That’s my wife, Alex thought again proudly, and she’s a fucking badass.

[porcelainmortal]

FirstPrince, Dancing with the locals!!!!!!

Thank you for the ask, Ash!!

💃🏻Dancing with the Locals

Alex dances like he was born to do it; his entire body moves to the beat of the music – hips swaying, head bobbing, curls bouncing, a blinding smile – and Henry is entranced watching him, every time. But here, on holiday in Mexico, dancing to the same music he likes to put on at home while he’s cooking, he’s magical. He fits right in with everyone around him, having a great time, laughing and singing along. He’s in his element. 

Henry stands off to the side, staying close to the bar, keeping his gin and tonic tight in his grip like a crutch. He doesn’t feel as out of place dancing with Alex as he used to, but here, in a sweaty bar off the tourist strip, where nobody is speaking English and everyone else seems made for it, he sticks out like a sore thumb. Henry had ducked away to use the loo about ten minutes ago and when he came back, Alex was chatting and laughing with another couple, his rhythm never faltering as they danced in a small circle. Henry felt a bit awkward, so he took the excuse to stay out of the way and let Alex have his fun.

He sips his drink, and it’s cool and refreshing and tart with an extra wedge of lime. The glass is sweating in his hand, and he brings it to his collarbone to enjoy the sensation of the cold condensation dripping down his overheated skin. It’s so warm in this bar, Henry is flushed and mildly sweaty, even just standing still. A bar stool opens up next to him and he takes the opportunity to sit down. 

As if he can sense it, Alex’s eyes are drawn right to Henry. His brow furrows before he says something to the couple he’s been chatting with and starts making his way across the dance floor. He pushes Henry’s knees apart so he can fit in between them.

“Hey, baby, what are you doing over here?” Alex brings one hand up, his fingertips grazing Henry’s jaw gently as he leans in to place a kiss on Henry’s lips.

“It looked like you were having a nice conversation, I didn’t want to intrude.”

“Intrude, Hen. We came here together, I want to dance with my fiancé.” His hand slides down Henry’s arm and finds his fingers, Alex’s fingertips fiddling with the ring he placed on Henry’s hand only a few weeks ago. Their eyes drop to it simultaneously and Henry’s lips quirk as they always do at the memory of Alex proposing. The trip to Mexico was a way for them to get away and celebrate alone, after several parties with well-meaning friends and family.

“I’m sorry, love. You know I’ve been learning but my Spanish is muy malo–” Henry says, cringing at his accent – “and I didn’t want to bring the conversation to a crashing halt.”

Learning French from a young age had been a piece of cake; learning a new language at 28 is proving to be much more of a challenge. Alex’s eyes soften immediately.

“First of all, your Spanish is coming along, just… slowly.” He grins. “And second of all, the man I was talking to, Ernesto, speaks perfect English and his wife Maria is conversational. So you could have joined right in.” He leans forward and kisses the tip of Henry’s nose.

Alex grabs Henry’s drink and downs the rest of it in two gulps, drawing Henry’s eyes to the long line of Alex’s neck and the bob of his Adam’s apple; to the bead of sweat that drips down right at that moment. He swallows hard before Alex puts the glass on the bar and gives him a knowing look.

“Come on, baby, I want to dance with you.”

“Alright,” Henry groans, rolling his eyes fondly. As if he could ever say no to Alex. 

Henry lets Alex take his hand and lead him back to the dance floor. He meets Ernesto and Maria briefly and they’re warm and friendly. But then the music is shifting to something slower and the couple excuses themselves and Alex is pulling Henry in close and pressing their hips together. And just like that, despite being surrounded by strangers, it’s only them in the room.

Ficlet Friday Summer/Holiday Prompt Game

[arwenlalaith]

Dating App Mishaps (Ch. 6)

Ship: Alex Blake/Reader

Summary: Alex didn't have Tinder by choice...but that doesn't mean it isn't going to come in handy.

Word Count: 1076

"Why did you make me come with you?" you whined, trudging along behind Quinn, "You know I think this place is elitist and snobby and brainwashing young adults into..."

Quinn interrupted your spiel with a 'yak yak yak' hand gesture. "God, do you ever shut up?"

"Do you?" you retorted, wishing you had something more clever to fire back with.

Quinn just rolled her eyes, but didn't dignify your retort with a verbal reply. "I need you to carry all my textbooks," she said as if that should be obvious.

"Umm, did you break both your arms?" you scoffed.

Rolling her eyes harder, Quinn replied, "I just got a manicure and you have horny lesbian nails, so you're not going to risk damaging a hundred dollars worth of acrylics."

"How the fuck do you afford tuition and still piss away money on spa days?" you asked, fully anticipating her to give you the finger in reply.

She surprised you then by seeming surprised. "You didn't know?" she said at length.

"Know what?" You hated her smug grin, the superiority in her smirk.

"My sugar daddy pays for everything... I thought you knew that."

Your brows leapt up your forehead. "Excuse me?"

Quinn shot you a look that seemed to suggest you'd said something intentionally obtuse. "You do not get to judge me, Miss Milf Horny," she said, surprisingly intimidating for her smaller stature.

You held up your hands in self-defence. "I wasn't judging!" you insisted. "I just...didn't know." You shrugged.

She seemed like she would have liked to say more on the subject, but before she could, she got a text message. "Speak of the devil..." she said with a waggle of her brows. "I'll be right back."

You rolled your eyes, leaning back against the wall to wait.

__________

You were typing on your phone (admittedly waxing poetic to your best friend about how you hadn't heard from your almost-hookup in nearly a week) and not paying attention to the pile of books you'd left on the floor...

And by the time you looked up from your phone, you realized a moment too late that said books were exactly far enough into the hallway that they were going to cause someone to trip.

You had exactly enough time to catch the victim of your inadvertent trap as she fell...bringing you face to face with Alex. Immediately, you felt your face heat up with embarrassment as you flashed back to grinding your bare cunt on her thigh.

"Al-Alex, I umm..." you stammered. "It's... It's umm...nice to see you again." You winced, hating how awkward your greeting sounded.

"Y/N," Alex said, sounding mildly surprised as well, but hiding it better.

"What are you doing here?" you asked, collecting the books that had been scattered when Alex tripped over them.

She watched you for a moment before responding, "I teach here. Are you a student here?"

Glancing up at from where you were kneeling on the floor, you were quick to insist, "Oh, no!"

"Those are the standard textbooks for a first year kinesiology student," she pointed out.

You looked from Alex to the textbooks and back. "They're my sister's," you said, "I'm just her pack mule." You watched as something that looked a lot like relief washed over her face. A few seconds later, your brain caught up to the situation. "What could possibly have been a 'work emergency' for a college professor?" you blurted out without stopping to wonder if there was a reasonable explanation.

For a brief moment, surprise flickered across Alex's face. "You didn't Google me," she said, unsure if it was a sentence or a question.

You shook your head. "Was I supposed to?"

"I just assumed," she admitted. "The work emergency was for my other job." A beat. "With the FBI."

"Does... Does that mean you aren't ghosting me?" you asked awkwardly.

"Ghosting you?" Alex repeated. "Heavens no!"

Of course, that was the answer you'd been hoping for. "Really?" you couldn't help asking, needing to be certain.

Rather than directly answer, Alex instead said, "Have dinner with me."

"Really?" you said again.

She couldn't help the soft little laugh that bubbled up. "Please?" she added. "It would be my pleasure."

Before you had a chance to reply, Quinn came flouncing back...and the moment she caught sight of Alex, a wickedly mischievous smirk crossed her lips. "Wellllll," she said, drawing out the syllable. "What have we here?"

"Get lost, Quinn," you hissed from between your teeth, attempting to convey with your eyes alone that if she didn't, you couldn't be held responsible for what you might do to her.

Quinn, of course, ignored you. Still grinning like the cat that got the cream, she turned to Alex and knowingly said, "Have you asked her out yet?"

"Quinn!" you squeaked, scandalized. You whipped your head around to fix Alex with an apologetic grimace. Turning back to Quinn, you attempted to be polite as you said, "Kindly go away."

She ignored you. "Don't get me wrong, Y/N is great and everything, but she really needs to get laid. Like the situation is critical..."

You had no idea what to say or do in this situation. The best you had to offer was swivelling your gaze from Quinn to Alex and back, mouth hanging open a little.

Alex, at least, seemed to find the situation amusing. "Is that so?" she asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Quinn, knowing full well what she was doing, nodded. "The last time I stayed at her place, she was in the shower for like forty minutes, if you know what I mean..." She winked, just in case her double entendre was unclear.

"Good to know," Alex remarked. She was clearly doing her best to quash a grin that threatened to break free.

"Oh-kay," you said slowly with an expression that quite clearly said you were going to murder Quinn, "That's more than enough sharing." You dug your fingers into Quinn's shoulders as you forcefully turned her around. Over your shoulder, you shot Alex an apologetic smile, half convinced you'd never hear from her again.

You were frog-marching Quinn down the hall when Alex's voice rang out, reminding, "You forgot the textbooks..."

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 7: WE MEET THE GOD WITH TWO FACES

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! For everyone else, here is an extra chapter this week to celebrate this mundane Thursday!

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Will was whistling cheerfully to himself as he flipped to the next chapter like he wasn't about to read of the most evil place right beneath his camp. Nico had spent immeasurable hours down there feeling so alone and wishing for Percy's company and the stupid jokes he'd crack and the great, protective warrior he was to help him.

Looking back on the running, terror, broken bones and constant isolation left him unsurprised how different he was from those around him in retrospect. His first friend had been a ghost who deceived him.

It was a nice thought for a moment as Will read the chapter title, that at least as he remembered the stenches and adrenaline rushes of his own in to vivid detail to come right along with Percy, at least he'd come out with friends now.

Alex's eyes were alight at once with whom Percy was set to meet next. "If I could vote for you to kill a god, it'll be this one!"

"Alex, no," Magnus said in vain once more.

"Where's the downside?" He demanded. "Nobody would ever get stabbed in the back again, the worst of cowardly moves!"

"That's not how that works, in the slightest," Thalia sadly corrected. "Just because you killed Zeus doesn't mean lightning wouldn't flash through the sky and storms wouldn't come." Though she suspected it was happening above at just the hypothesis being put in the world.

Percy got an amused look in place as he imagined Zeus in his chair spitting out his drink and glancing around suspiciously.

"Poo," Alex huffed. It was actually a bit worrisome a two-face god was going to get one over on Percy instead, as nice as he was. He swore right then if this god resembled Quintus for one second he'd have to face facts on that answer.

We made it a hundred feet before we were hopelessly lost.

"Life goals. I can't make it down the block half the time without forgetting where I'm going some days," Jason said sardonically.

"It's a maze," Thalia rolled her eyes, "and Percy! It's a miracle he didn't get lost turning around."

"Your faith in me is instilling," but Percy's voice was nothing but accepting facts.

The tunnel looked nothing like the one Annabeth and I had stumbled into before. Now it was round like a sewer,

"If you actually run into a ninja turtle, I will take back every crack I ever said about you," Alex promised.

"Eh, depends on which one," Magnus mock agreed.

I shined a light through one of the portholes out of curiosity,

"Your soul animal is officially a cat Percy," Will chuckled.

"I still say it's seaweed," Thalia scoffed.

but I couldn't see anything. It opened into infinite darkness.

I thought I heard voices on the other side, but it may have been just the cold wind.

"Already understanding why Chris lost his mind down there," Jason muttered.

Annabeth tried her best to guide us. She had this idea that we should stick to the left wall.

"If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it," she said, "we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course."

"Good in theory," Nico was already shaking his head though, "not an execution that can be followed." Which she already knew from her studying, mildly annoying him why she thought she was smarter than this place already.

Unfortunately, as soon as she said that, the left wall disappeared. We found ourselves in the middle of a circular chamber with eight tunnels leading out, and no idea how we'd gotten there.

Magnus made a very loud, awkward laugh that died quickly at this place literally mocking them in the face. It wasn't funny, but he wasn't screaming in terror, so this was better, right?

"Um, which way did we come in?" Grover said nervously.

"Just turn around," Annabeth said.

"If there is a brick wall behind you I will have no choice but to really laugh," Alex promised.

We each turned toward a different tunnel. It was ridiculous. None of us could decide which way led back to camp.

"Trippy, I actually like that answer better," Alex still laughed any ways.

"At least somebody does," Percy sighed.

"Left walls are mean," Tyson said.

"Tyson, still holding strong with the best lines in these," Jason applauded, and they couldn't decide how much sarcasm was in that.

"Which way now?"

Annabeth swept her flashlight beam over the archways of the eight tunnels. As far as I could tell, they were identical. "That way," she said.

"No consensus huh?" Thalia chuckled. "No voting, not even a flip of a coin?"

"Annabeth was our compass," Percy shrugged without surprise.

"I'm going to encase you in a magnet one of these days so you have to figure something out for yourself," Thalia mock threatened.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Deductive reasoning."

"So...you're guessing."

"Just come on," she said.

"See, exactly the plan I would have had. Bring the magnet on!" Percy laughed.

"Only you," Thalia shook her head at these two.

The tunnel she'd chosen narrowed quickly. The walls turned to gray cement, and the ceiling got so low that pretty soon we were hunching over. Tyson was forced to crawl.

"Poor guy," Will frowned, "I bet he was carrying all the heavy stuff too."

"If he could have smashed his way to the surface I wouldn't blame him," Percy agreed.

Grover's hyperventilating was the loudest noise in the maze. "I can't stand it anymore," he whispered. "Are we there yet?"

"Thalia, your kid wants you," Percy smirked.

"On the weekends he's still yours," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"We started this quest on a Thursday!"

"I'm taking an extended vacation," she said with an unamused air, this joke had officially gone to a level that wasn't funny as images of her mom came to mind.

"We've been down here maybe five minutes," Annabeth told him.

"It's been longer than that," Grover insisted.

"I actually believe him on that, considering it was a few minutes to you but hours last time," Will nodded.

"And time means very little down there," Nico needlessly reminded.

"And a magical satyr thing that knows the time of the day too probably," Magnus rolled his eyes.

"And why would Pan be down here? This is the opposite of the wild!"

"I bet he got lost too," Percy said in something close to sympathy.

We kept shuffling forward. Just when I was sure the tunnel would get so narrow it would squish us, it opened into a huge room. I shined my light around the walls and said, "Whoa."

"The good kind or the bad kind?" Magnus already had a pit in his stomach no matter the answer, with Percy one could easily mean the other.

"The mildly impressive kind," Percy shrugged with a small grin.

The whole room was covered in mosaic tiles. The pictures were grimy and faded, but I could still make out the colors—red, blue, green, gold. The frieze showed the Olympian gods at a feast. There was my dad, Poseidon, with his trident, holding out grapes for Dionysus to turn into wine. Zeus was partying with satyrs, and Hermes was flying through the air on his winged sandals. The pictures were beautiful, but they weren't very accurate. I'd seen the gods. Dionysus was not that handsome, and Hermes's nose wasn't that big.

"Yeah, but like," Will was shaking with suppressed laughter, "if you knew the gods were real, you wouldn't question how they wanted to be painted."

"I can't draw, I wouldn't know," Percy rolled his eyes. Even if he tried doodling stick figures, he wouldn't exactly be doing his best to care.

Jason didn't hear them, there was a low buzzing in his ears. Something about the way that was described, something he'd been absently wondering but didn't know how to put into words until this moment. That sounded Roman. Should he know this labyrinth existed? He was certain he'd never been in, but finally, at this moment, he had the tiniest bit of a guess wondering if he'd ever tried to find this place.

In the middle of the room was a three-tiered fountain. It looked like it hadn't held water in a long time.

"That was the part you said whoa too, another fountain," Alex smirked.

"Guilty, I still felt bad about mine," Percy grinned.

"What is this place?" I muttered. "It looks—"

"Roman," Annabeth said. "Those mosaics area about two thousand years old."

"It must be exhausting knowing everything," Nico huffed.

"Probably," Will said innocently. The Athena cabin was the worst about asking for help, but when he saw one to many sleepless nights on them, he was a tad guilty about slipping something into their meals and blaming it on Travis and Connor's pranks.

"But how can they be Roman?" I wasn't that great on ancient history, but I was pretty sure the Roman Empire never made it as far as Long Island.

"And you think the Greeks did?" Magnus asked in concern. The whole point of these odd books was their never ending migration here and how that mingled in.

"I didn't think they brought souvenirs from the Roman Empire that toppled them," Percy rolled his eyes while Jason looked like he was swallowing his teeth one by one in consternation.

Thalia cleared her throat sharply to keep them moving fast when she saw.

"The Labyrinth is a patchwork," Annabeth said. "I told you, it's always expanding, adding pieces. It's the only work of architecture that grows by itself."

"I wish those words to never be spoken in that order again," Magnus groaned.

"That is so cool!" Alex yelped.

"Or those," Magnus huffed, it never meant anything good in this lot.

"Like, like Daedalus really built a second layer into the earth that's as alive as this planet!"

"Man was a mad genius," Percy agreed with a kind of awesome dread as he pictured someone in a white lab coat with lightning crackling screaming about it being alive over the whole planet.

"You make it sound like it's alive."

A groaning noise echoed from the tunnel in front of us.

"Does anybody speak labyrinth?" Will asked with mildly less cheer than usual, he didn't at all like the idea of being underground. "Maybe it's trying to tell you which way to go."

"I wish we could ask the labyrinth if they prefer he or she pronouns," Alex tapped his chin in thought. "I know most people depict the earth as feminine, but that gets into a long line of stereotypical depictions of nurturing and-"

Alex was only one part taking the mickey and one part serious, so he laughed it off and shelved that for later as Will politely cleared his throat to keep going over an answer they couldn't get anyways.

"Let's not talk about it being alive," Grover whimpered. "Please?"

"All right," Annabeth said. "Forward."

"Down the hall with the bad sounds?" Tyson said. Even he looked nervous.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "The architecture is getting older. That's a good sign. Daedalus's workshop would be in the oldest part."

"And because she said that, I'm guessing it's going to remodel itself in twenty feet to look like a stainless steel lab." Jason frowned.

"I just hope there's not a monkey in there playing on the computer, I do not want to walk into an alternate dimension by accident," Percy wasn't sure he'd have the heart to fight cute animals if they were the dominant species.

That made sense. 

"I'm glad it did to you," Magnus muttered, now personally trying not to imagine Daedalus packing up a phone booth and carrying his workshop around to never be found no matter what logic was used.

But soon the maze was toying with us—we went fifty feet and the tunnel turned back to cement, with brass pipes running down the sides. The walls were spray-painted with graffiti. A neon tagger sign read MOZ RULZ.

"I'm thinking this is not Roman," I said helpfully.

"You never know, I bet some ancient Roman could have gone by the name of Moz and been way ahead of time on, um, pipework," Will snickered.

Nico couldn't really find the humor in it, Will would have to really try to make him laugh about anything to do with this place, but it was a tad amusing to see Thalia roll her eyes at someone other than Percy.

Annabeth took a deep breath, then forged ahead.

"I've found the best way is to ignore him too," Thalia mock agreed as if Annabeth were her to commiserate with.

Her cousin was, and he didn't bother to muffle a snort.

Every few feet the tunnels twisted and turned and branched off. The floor beneath us changed from cement to mud to bricks and back again. There was no sense to any of it. We stumbled into a wine cellar—a bunch of dusty bottles in wooden racks—like we were walking through somebody's basement, only there was no exit above us, just more tunnels leading on.

"Jeez, I'm getting claustrophobic just hearing about this," Alex tugged at the collar of his shirt.

"Can't exactly go outside and stretch our legs in the sun too," Magnus agreed with an uneasy twitch. This room was by no means unbearable or small, but he'd never thought he'd have to associate constant common amenities with entrapment. And that group had it even worse down there.

Alex clearly wasn't going to let that keep him down though as he bounced back and asked, "please tell me you nabbed one of those! I can't even imagine the vintage on a long-lost bottle of wine!"

"I bet it was a cellar only Dionysus uses," Percy shook his head quickly. "Do you want to find out what would happen if we disturbed one of those cobwebs?"

Alex looked very much like he was contemplating that answer, and Thalia sighed once again at what a bad influence all of these idiots were on each other.

Later the ceiling turned to wooden planks, and I could hear voices above us and the creaking of footsteps, as if we were walking under some kind of bar. It was reassuring to hear people, but then again, we couldn't get to them. We were stuck down here with no way out.

"You're telling me if Tyson really wanted to he couldn't smash a house down?" Alex scoffed.

"Not a hundred percent sure," Percy admitted, "the labyrinth might fight him, turn into something even he couldn't break and shrink on us. Do you want to make the sentient maze mad?"

Alex didn't seem as concerned at the implications of that as Percy would have hoped, but then, he really should have known better by now.

Then we found our first skeleton.

It was the first dead body Percy had ever seen, and it didn't look like those fake skeletons for a Halloween decoration. He'd been killing monsters for years now, and yet he never thought of the mess they left behind as their form of a soulless husk. He rubbed his fingers together thoughtfully, his mind flickering to his mother and her clear sight. What she saw through the dust. She probably would have shielded his eyes from this, but it made his head and stomach groan in symbiotic pain to imagine her down there.

He was dressed in white clothes, like some kind of uniform. A wooden crate of glass bottles sat next to him.

"A milkman," Annabeth said.

"Those guys actually existed?" Nico asked in surprise. "I thought that was a weird gag in cartoons."

"It was a real job," Thalia nodded.

"When the fridge was invented, they went out of business," Magnus added helpfully.

"Huh, learn something new every day," Nico said with a surprised smile.

"What?" I asked.

"They used to deliver milk."

"Yeah, I know what they are,

"Which kind of concerns me how much Annabeth thinks of you," Thalia told him with sympathy.

"She never knew with me after I told her I thought my TV just wasn't big enough to see some old cartoon character's faces," Percy shrugged.

but...that was when my mom was little, like a million years ago. What's he doing here?"

"Some people wander in by mistake," Annabeth said.

"Those poor mortals," Magnus said with sorrow. He couldn't imagine how many little kids had fallen down there and never made it out. Maybe a few horror novels of things beneath the surface of the earth had been inspired by getting a peak down there, like the Labyrinth itself had enticed a kid with a clown and red balloon.

"Some come exploring on purpose and never make it back. A long time ago, the Cretans sent people in here as human sacrifices."

"And yet sadly, we've let cretin fall off the insult radar," Alex shook his head as if taking personal responsibility for this.

"Something I hope you won't bring back with historic accuracy," Magnus muttered.

Grover gulped. "He's been down here a long time." He pointed to the skeleton's bottles, which were coated with white dust. The skeleton's fingers were clawing at the brick wall, like he had died trying to get out.

"Well I hardly thought he was casually walking around chugging milk," Jason winced in disgust for getting details.

"Only bones," Tyson said. "Don't worry, goat boy. The milkman is dead."

"The milkman doesn't bother me," Grover said.

"Dead bodies still bother me," Magnus offered in case anybody had been in doubt about this.

"I guess this is one of the side effects to falling asleep every night singing Circle of Life," Percy shrugged.

"It's the smell. Monsters. Can't you smell it?"

Tyson nodded. "Lots of monsters. But underground smells like that. Monsters and dead milk people."

"Oh, good," Grover whimpered. "I thought maybe I was wrong."

"I can't think of a good instance of being happy to be wrong about smelling something," Alex nodded. "Usually it's food and I'm entirely upset I was wrong my senses lied to me."

"You smell smoke and think your house is on fire but your mom's just a bad cook," Thalia said with a way to twisted smile for that to just be a joke.

"Point to Thalia!" Alex chuckled all the same.

"We have to get deeper into the maze," Annabeth said. "There has to be a way to the center."

"I'm guessing taking a shovel and just digging won't work?" Nico rolled his eyes at her still trying to apply logic to any of this.

"The shovel would melt eventually," Will helpfully reminded.

"We could give her a spare shovel, gosh Will, be more creative," Percy snickered.

"I'm going to dump you in a volcano head first," Thalia sighed at them.

She led us to the right, then the left, through a corridor of stainless steel like some kind of air shaft, and we arrived back in the Roman tile room with the fountain.

"Oh, so it even circles around! That's much worse than being lost forever in a maze of endless rooms!" Magnus's voice was choking up by the end as he tried not to sound hysterical.

"It had added some decoration," Percy didn't soothe him one bit with the uneasy frown he spoke with.

This time, we weren't alone.

What I noticed first were his faces. Both of them.

Nico tried his hardest to swallow the lump of jealousy and hurt in his throat. Percy hadn't been in there but a few hours and he got a visit from a god already? He'd been in there for weeks before he'd found Minos and gotten any handle on what to do. Afraid to sleep, starving, only surviving on water that bled from the walls from gods knew where as the ghosts whispered which way to go to get further down...

He told himself he should be grateful instead. He wasn't the child of the prophecy, nobody had cared what happened to him. He'd made his own way out eventually without anybody's help, not even Minos had been there every step of the way.

They jutted out from either side of his head, staring over his shoulders, so his head was much wider than it should've been, kind of like a hammerhead shark's looking straight at him, all I saw were two overlapping ears and mirror-image sideburns.

Magnus was poking the middle of his forehead to make sure his head hadn't actually fallen apart at that newly brain-melting image.

"Not going to lie, when it said god of two faces, I didn't think it was going to be literal," Alex sounded grudgingly admirable of choosing to look like that. "I was picturing, like, two totally different faces melted together. Like the Batman villain."

"I have a feeling the two would still get along," Percy already had that now familiar look on his face like they should brace themselves for him to make a life long enemy.

He was dressed like a New York City doorman: a long black overcoat, shiny shoes, and a black top-hat that somehow managed to stay on his double-wide head.

"Classy," Will said in admiration.

"Never trust a man in a top hat," Alex scoffed.

"Now there's a story I'm sure," Magnus grinned.

"Don't get me started on Abe Lincoln," he agreed with distant eyes and a scowl at the ceiling.

"Well, Annabeth?" said his left face. "Hurry up!"

"Don't mind him," said the right face. "He's terribly rude. Right this way, miss."

Annabeth's jaw dropped. "Uh...I don't..."

Tyson frowned. "That funny man has two faces."

Jason scratched awkwardly at his nose before stage whispering, "has anybody ever come up with a polite way to scold kids for doing that?"

"Um, let them be curious but make sure they're polite questions?" Thalia offered.

"I'm not putting Tyson in time out if he offends this guy," Percy rolled his eyes.

"The funny man has ears, you know!" the left face scolded. "Now come along, miss."

"No, no," the right face said. "This way, miss. Talk to me, please."

"I need to know real quick if you can sign a different conversation than you say out loud?" Percy asked Magnus.

"I suppose if you can have two conversations at once it's possible, but not typical," he shook his head.

"Yeah, good to know, I got no better answer than chopping this guy in half to shut him up," Percy scowled, already wishing to uncap his sword to stop this guy focusing solely on Annabeth.

The two-faced man regarded Annabeth as best he could out of the corners of his eyes. It was impossible to look at him straight on without focusing on one side or the other. And suddenly I realized that's what he was asking—he wanted Annabeth to choose.

Behind him were two exits, blocked by wooden doors with huge iron locks. They hadn't been there our first time through the room. The two-faced doorman held a silver key, which he kept passing from his left hand to his right hand. I wondered if this was a different room completely, but the frieze of the gods looked exactly the same.

Behind us, the doorway we'd come through had disappeared, replaced by more mosaics. We wouldn't be going back the way we came.

"The exits are closed," Annabeth said.

"Duh!" the man's left face said.

"Where do they lead?" she asked.

"One probably leads the way you wish to go," the right face said encouragingly. "The other leads to certain death."

"I—I know who you are," Annabeth said.

"Oh, you're a smart one!" The left face sneered. "But do you know which way to choose? I don't have all day."

"Why are you trying to confuse me?" Annabeth asked.

"He's, um, not," Nico looked from the book to the others in concern if he was missing something. "He's pointing out the obvious as of right now. Does Annabeth find that confusing?"

Percy gave him the very exasperated sigh of a teacher explaining the obvious. "Just because she accepted the responsibility of something didn't mean she was okay with every layer of it." He knew that feeling all to well from all this big bad prophecy talk.

Nico looked at Percy with interest for how he'd unintentionally put that. He doubted Percy knew that's how he felt about what he'd said the other night, but it was another kind of relief to hear it put into words.

The right face smiled. "You're in charge now, my dear. All the decisions are on your shoulders. That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"I—"

"We know you, Annabeth," the left face said. "We know what you wrestle with every day. We know your indecision. You will have to make your choice sooner or later. And the choice may kill you."

I didn't know what they were talking about, but it sounded like it was about more than a choice between doors.

The color drained out of Annabeth's face. "No...I don't—"

"Leave her alone," I said.

"That honestly took a page more than I thought it would," Will told him.

"I'm not fool enough to think Annabeth can't handle her own fights," but Percy looked plenty agitated enough to try right then with or without her approval.

"Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm your best friend," the right face said.

"I'm your worst enemy," the left face said.

"I'm Janus," both faces said in harmony. "God of Doorways.

"There's a god of doorways now?" Magnus asked, making the sign for door just to be sure. "What, did the Greeks have to stop and ask his permission and the owner before they entered?"

"He's not Greek!" Jason shouted at the top of his lungs like somebody had finally called on his name in class. He was more jazzed than if somebody had pumped him full of ambrosia...and yet so confused they might have put a Greek puzzle book in front of him for all the sense this made. "What the heck is a Roman god doing down there?"

"He's, ah, more symbolic than literal," Thalia was still watching Jason with mild concern as she tried to go on. "Let Will finish."

Beginnings. Endings. Choices."

"I guess that makes sense," Magnus agreed, though he still knew next time he walked down the block he'd get a twitch wondering about blood sacrifices and a crazy two-faced god throwing a key around following him. Gods forbid what someone was expected to do when a tree was cut down to make a door. Were you supposed to be making nice with Pan or the god you were using the wood for in that case?!

"I'll see you soon enough, Perseus Jackson," said the right face. "But for now it's Annabeth's turn." He laughed giddily. "Such fun!"

"We complete each other like two sides of a door," Percy grumbled, not looking remotely impressed that, for once, a god had the same reaction to seeing both of them.

"Shut up!" his left face said. "This is serious. One bad choice can ruin your whole life. It can kill you and all of your friends. But no pressure, Annabeth. Choose!"

Jason had a bad feeling he'd had his own reunion with this God too, maybe not so literal and in person, but the intense feeling circling the room of nobody disagreeing with that felt personal.

With a sudden chill, I remembered the words of the prophecy: the child of Athena's final stand.

"Don't do it," I said.

"I'm afraid she has to," the right face said cheerfully.

Annabeth moistened her lips. "I—I chose—"

Before she could point to a door, a brilliant light flooded the room.

Magnus instinctively didn't like that. He worried Hearth would get hurt and freak out, the light being too bright and temporarily blinding him, and he only usually saw Blitz at night, so he might have to step up real quick with no clue how if whatever this was ever found them.

Janus raised his hands to either side of his head to cover his eyes. When the light died, a woman was standing at the fountain.

She was tall and graceful with long hair the color of chocolate, braided in plaits with gold ribbons. She wore a simple white dress, but when she moved, the fabric shimmered with colors like oil on water.

"Are we meeting Iris?" Alex asked with immediate interest. He really hoped the rainbow goddess was cool. One of them had to be, right?

The disappointed sigh Thalia gave was an answer before she even said, "not even close."

"Janus," she said, "are we causing trouble again?"

"N-no, milady!" Janus's right face stammered.

"Yes!" the left face said.

"At least now I know which face I like better," Jason said as if this had been a serious concern.

"I still don't like any part of him," Percy huffed, he'd never like anyone who had hassled Annabeth.

"Shut up!" the right face said.

"Excuse me?" the woman asked.

"Not you, milady! I was talking to myself."

"I see," the lady said. "You know very well your visit is premature. The girl's time has not yet come. So I give you a choice: leave these heroes to me, or I shall turn you into a door and break you down."

"What kind of door?" the left face asked.

Alex gave an involuntary laugh like he'd been punched. And he was so sure he'd hate this god, yet that had been the first question to come to his mind too.

"Shut up!" the right face said.

"Because French doors are nice," the left face mused. "Lots of natural light."

"Shut up!" the right face wailed. "Not you, milady! Of course I'll leave. I was just having a bit of fun. Doing my job. Offering choices."

"Causing indecision," the woman corrected. "Now be gone!"

The left face muttered, "Party pooper," then he raised his silver key, inserted it into the air, and disappeared.

"Do I have to begrudgingly thank a god now?" Percy groaned. Apollo and Artemis had proved they weren't all bad, but he wasn't getting a good feeling from this one.

It wasn't very comforting Thalia didn't answer, but her scowl only grew.

The woman turned toward us, and fear closed around my heart. Her eyes shined with power. Leave these heroes to me. That didn't sound good. For a second, I almost wished we could've taken our chances with Janus. But then the woman smiled.

There had been something in that smile that reminded him of his mother. The kind of smile she'd given Gabe when she promised him meatloaf.

"You must be hungry," she said. "Sit with me and talk."

She waved her hand, and the old Roman fountain began to flow. Jets of clear water sprayed into the air. A marble table appeared, laden with platters of sandwiches and pitchers of lemonade.

"Who...who are you?" I asked.

"I am Hera." The woman smiled. "Queen of Heaven."

"I didn't know God was married," Magnus rolled his eyes. "No, wait, is she the goddess of nuns?"

"Stop trying to mix religions, it's more of a headache then we're already hearing," Nico groaned.

"Wrong heaven," Percy snorted, knowing full well Magnus had known that, but revenge was sweet.

"She obviously uses that title because she doesn't think much of herself," Alex agreed casually, while the others all twitched uneasily once more. They'd never quite get used to these guys being so flippant about how they addressed the gods, whether they were in the room or not.

I'd seen Hera once before at a Council of the Gods, but I hadn't paid much attention to her. At the time I'd been surrounded by a bunch of other gods who were debating whether or not to kill me.

"The real question is, do you remember if she was one of those to vote yes or no?" Nico asked with all the presumption in his voice of the answer.

Percy had to really think about it for a moment, and then shrugged and gave in, "no, not really. I remember who abstained though, so she fell into a lumpy category."

"She was lumped into a-" Magnus began, but he stopped with his own exasperated sigh as he realized Percy wasn't listening and back to humming a song that sounded suspiciously like something Jesse McCartney would sing.

I didn't remember her looking so normal. Of course, gods are usually twenty feet tall when they're on Olympus, so that makes them look a lot less normal. But now, Hera looked like a regular mom.

"Plus that whole they can change their appearance at whim thing," Will shrugged, he still wasn't over his dad, the homeless god Fred.

She served us sandwiches and poured lemonade.

"Grover, dear," she said, "use your napkin. Don't eat it."

"Excuse her, I live for that multi-purpose life," Alex scoffed.

"Yes, ma'am," Grover said.

"Tyson, you're wasting away. Would you like another peanut butter sandwich?"

Tyson stifled a belch. "Yes, nice lady."

"Queen Hera," Annabeth said. "I can't believe it. What are you doing in the Labyrinth?"

Hera smiled. She flicked one finger and Annabeth's hair combed itself. All the dirt and grime disappeared from her face.

"Gods, does she tuck your pockets in too and fuss about your weight?" Will's laugh was indulgent while Thalia looked like she was sucking on a lemon. More grateful by the moment this goddess would never give her faux motherly affection any more than her bio mom had.

"I came to see you, naturally," the goddess said.

Grover and I exchanged nervous looks. Usually when the gods come looking for you, it's not out of the goodness of their hearts. It's because they want something.

"I hope Athena has a little gold star waiting for you somewhere out there," Magnus told him cheerfully. "You do deserve it for moments like this."

"Stating the obvious?" Percy snorted.

"Not saying that out loud," Thalia scoffed.

Still, that didn't keep me from chowing down on turkey-and-Swiss sandwiches and chips and lemonade. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.

"And, now I'm hungry," Will huffed.

"I can usually tell how long when we've been at this when my butts gone numb," Magnus nodded.

"Food has been mentioned pretty frequently in the last few chapters," Percy agreed as he eyed the door to the rooms.

"We might as well take a snack break before anything to horrible in this Labyrinth does show up," Thalia agreed, and there was no more argument after that as they all took five. Before Hera could announce what she was there for, before the first monster showed up, before they realized how lost they were.

Will and Nico stepped back into the room where they'd set up their card game that indeed had not been disturbed one bit. They sat carefully on the bed, as far apart as normal on that couch, and split a plate of multiple different sandwiches with fruit-loops sprinkled on top, because the power of subliminal messaging had honestly left them craving exactly that.

Nico was clearly eating with reluctance, but he also didn't protest his half of the meal while Will found a way to talk about anything other than the Labyrinth for those moments. He talked about silly songs he wrote sporadically and his favorite color being orange and that time his sister Kayla had set the stables on fire while Nico watched with ever growing fondness for just being around him.

When they settled back down now prepared for the worst, Nico took the extra goofy minute Alex used to stretch and flex around like he was about to embark on the quest himself to share one last smile with Will when he opened the book up again whistling to find his place once more.

Tyson was inhaling one peanut butter sandwich after another, and Grover was loving the lemonade, crunching the Styrofoam cup like an ice-cream cone.

"All you're missing from that meal is bananas," Magnus grinned, he'd just housed five. He'd been taking full advantage of fresh fruit without a bruise on it here.

"I didn't think—" Annabeth faltered. "Well, I didn't think you liked heroes."

Hera smiled indulgently. "Because of that little spat I had with Hercules? Honestly, I got so much bad press because of one disagreement."

"A very large disagreement that caused multiple murders and is the most popular myth for a few reasons," Thalia muttered, not exactly Hera's biggest fan herself. It was a miracle she wasn't in the same boat as Hercules...and this goddess was definitely in her top five contenders of who might take Jason away to do gods knew what with all these years before Oceanus plopped him in here.

"Didn't you try to kill him, like, a lot of times?" Annabeth asked.

Hera waved her hand dismissively. "Water under the bridge, my dear.

"Is that bridge also on fire and broken in several places?" Thalia asked wearily.

"I didn't think to ask," Percy admitted, but he also didn't doubt it. He'd have to hear it from Hercules before he believed it, and even then, he'd still suspect something was up. Those stories were Not Pleasant, and even if they'd gotten lost in translation over time and they'd heard the wrong side of them, somebody had done something to make it all infamous.

His mind flickered to Zoe, and that snack of his tried to make a comeback. His instincts were still to distrust Hera, and Zoe had made him never wish to take Hercules's side without hearing every fact about what really happened, so this felt like a war he hoped to all the gods he'd never be in the middle of.

Besides, he was one of my loving husband's children by another woman. My patience wore thin, I'll admit it. But Zeus and I have had some excellent marriage counseling sessions since then. We've aired our feelings and come to an understanding

"I'm kind of wishing in this instance they'd taken the twenty-first-century approach and gotten a divorce though," Will sighed even if he knew that would never happen. Goddess of marriage and all that, gods forbid she ever admit she was wrong and should be in a real long term loving relationship, but man would it save a lot of demigods a lot of grief.

—especially after that last little incident."

"You mean when he sired Thalia?"

"Sired?" Thalia snorted fantastically. "What am I, a horse?"

"Just be grateful you came to mind at all," Percy chuckled, "I'm sure there are other much more famous kids of Zeus I could name instead. Like me!"

"How dare you," she sniffed, pressing her hand against her heart with wide blue eyes.

I guessed, but immediately wished I hadn't. As soon as I said the name of our friend, the half-blood daughter of Zeus, Hera's eyes turned toward me frostily.

"Percy Jackson, isn't it? One of Poseidon's...children." I got the feeling she was thinking of another word besides children.

"Sires," Magnus chuckled.

"Abominations?" Alex snorted.

"Minions," Thalia smirked.

"Disasters," Jason grinned.

Percy considered for a moment before shrugging and not denying any of those.

"As I recall, I voted to let you live at the winter solstice. I hope I voted correctly."

"Which does show some proof to her claim she doesn't hate all of us on principle," Will happily agreed.

"I'm sure she's still plenty selective about it," Nico said sullenly. He doubted if he'd been up for vote any god would have voted to let him live.

Will heard that in his voice, the reluctance, the edge of fear. He wanted to protest no god would dare vote against Nico after he'd helped save Olympus, but he could hardly argue that now. He stubbornly kept reading with the knowledge that he would.

She turned back to Annabeth with a sunny smile. "At any rate, I certainly bear you no ill will, my girl.

"I'm glad she sees that," Magnus said with a hint of relief, here finally was a god none of them were going to start on bad terms for merely existing. "A virgin goddess didn't technically have kids so she has no reason to dislike them."

"Loopholes for the win," but Percy only gave a halfhearted cheer. He had a bad feeling technicalities hadn't made his life easier much longer.

I appreciate the difficulty of your quest. Especially when you have troublemakers like Janus to deal with."

Annabeth lowered her gaze. "Why was he here? He was driving me crazy."

"Trying to," Hera agreed.

"Isn't Dionysus the god of the crazy people?" Magnus asked with a quiver of unease. "Does he have a deal with Janus to add to his list?" He clearly hadn't grasped from Jason's ever increasing gasping there was a significant difference at all, they wouldn't be making deals like that about anything.

"Just because he can turn people crazy doesn't mean he's responsible for all of them," but Will didn't sound so sure. Mr. D was supposed to be out here keeping an eye on these minor gods, and it seemed strange it hadn't been him to pop in and intervene...but would he even know this god existed? He knew the myths where his dad accepted the sun from Helios, the existence of other gods wasn't too world shattering in that regards, but not exactly at the same time like this was so casually being shown.

Alex, Magnus, and Jason sat right there though. So plainly Not Greek even before Rachel had confirmed it. A Roman god casually popping up wasn't the wildest thing he'd heard over the past few days.

"You must understand, the minor gods like Janus have always been frustrated by the small parts they play in the universe. Some, I fear, have little love for Olympus, and could easily be swayed to support the rise of my father."

"Your father?" I said. "Oh, right."

I'd forgotten that Kronos was Hera's dad, too, along with being the father to Zeus, Poseidon, and all the eldest Olympians. I guess that made Kronos my grandfather, but that thought was so weird I put it out of my mind.

"And I wish it would stop coming back!" Percy groaned, looking likely to rip his ear off if people didn't quit trying to name every branch of his family tree!

"We must watch the minor gods," Hera said. "Janus. Hecate. Morpheus. They give lip service to Olympus, and yet—"

"That's where Dionysus went," I remembered. "He was checking on the minor gods."

"Indeed." Hera stared at the fading mosaics of the Olympians.

"I will never get over the sheer audacity of you interrupting them," Will admitted.

"And yet here I sit, audaciting away," Percy shrugged. Magnus looked in physical pain that's not how that word worked.

"You see, in times of trouble, even gods can lose faith. They start putting their trust in the wrong things. They stop looking at the big picture and start being selfish. But I'm the goddess of marriage, you see. I'm used to perseverance. You have to rise above the squabbling and chaos, and keep believing. You have to always keep your goals in mind."

"What are your goals?" Annabeth asked.

"The perfect question at this time," Jason nodded without surprise.

"It's like she should be leading this quest or something," Percy nodded very seriously in agreement.

She smiled. "To keep my family, the Olympians, together, of course.

"Sounds like, the right answer," Alex said suspiciously, but then, he seemed automatically suspicious of everything.

At the moment, the best way I can do that is by helping you. Zeus does not allow me to interfere much, I am afraid. But once every century or so, for a quest I care deeply about, he allows me to grant a wish."

"A wish?"

"If you don't say world peace I'm going to have to revoke my friendship card with you," Magnus said. "That's like, The obvious answer!" He pulled out an imaginary card from his pocket and waved it around threateningly.

"Um, I'm pretty sure it has to be a wish she could do?" Percy said with a nervous smile like he thought he was serious. "I don't think the gods can actually do that without taking away free will, or something."

"Hmph, passable," Magnus agreed, stuffing the imaginary card back in his pocket.

"Besides, it would be Annabeth to ask," Alex reminded him in exasperation. "I have high hopes she'll come up with something good." His tone was almost threatening, like Annabeth better live up to those expectations. They weren't sure what would happen if she didn't.

"Before you ask it, let me give you some advice, which I can do for free.

"The day we can't give free advice is the day I lose faith in everything," Will said with an awkward smile.

"I'll make a mental list of how not to start the apocalypse," Nico grinned.

I know you seek Daedalus. His Labyrinth is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.

"Well that's, the opposite of encouraging," Magnus frowned.

"I'm sure it wouldn't help if she cheered and promised she wouldn't be any real help," Percy huffed.

But if you want to know his fate, I would visit my son Hephaestus at his forge. Daedalus was a great inventor, a mortal after Hephaestus's heart. There has never been a mortal Hephaestus admired more. If anyone would have kept up with Daedalus and could tell you his fate, it is Hephaestus."

Magnus blushed neon red as an awkward question came to mind.

Alex had no such reserves as she spat out an imaginary drink and shouted, "Wait, did Hephaestus and Daedalus do it? Or does she mean Daedalus is a child of Hephaestus? Or both?"

"A male god can have a child with a male mortal in the same way as Athena has brain children," Thalia agreed, grateful her answer surprised Magnus enough his gray eyes looked likely to never stop blinking at the implication. Alex was still staring at her for the other part of that question, weirdly as unphased by the answer as he was by everything that went on in here, but gratefully didn't pursue Thalia for more except for a strange smile.

"But how do we get there?" Annabeth asked. "That's my wish. I want a way to navigate the Labyrinth."

Alex and Jason both groaned at Annabeth.

"She did something I'd tell you was to impulsive," Jason huffed. "She could have asked a lot more questions!"

"And she should have been a lot more specific! Like asking for that string thing in her hand!" Alex huffed.

Percy didn't much like them criticizing her when she wasn't here, and he was still far more worried about Janus trying to terrify her than whatever Hera had done to let himself be distracted arguing with them.

"Cut her some slack guys, she's stressed up to her ears and won't always make the most rational decision every moment," Thalia did anyways with plenty of robustness.

Hera looked disappointed.

"Because she should have asked for world peace," Alex muttered under his breath to agree with Magnus, which he at least snickered in surprise over.

"So be it. You wish for something, however, that you have already been given."

"Oh come on," all seven of them yelped in surprise at that. In what world had that answer been laid out?! Now this goddess was just messing with them and calling it help!

"I don't understand."

"The means is already within your grasp." She looked at me. "Percy knows the answer."

"I do?" Percy managed to say at the same time as the book.

"He does?" The others all asked dubiously.

"You wouldn't hold out on that kind of information on Annabeth though," Magnus scoffed at once. "Let alone heard it and not, um, mentally, reported it?" Why was it suddenly so weird to describe what they were listening to?

"Glad you don't all think I'm keeping a hidden secret copy up here," Percy said with only a touch of relief as he tapped his temple. He kind of wished someone would call him an idiot again and get to the answer faster. Even Thalia looked dubious though why Hera thought he'd already been given the answer. The only link she could draw was their brief conversation that Rachel could see through the mist last winter, and even then, Percy yet had knowledge that was Ariadne's true ability, so she called bull on Hera's 'help' too.

"But that's not fair," Annabeth said. "You're not telling me what it is!"

"There is nothing stopping her from just, saying it! Make it clear as freaking day down there," Will agreed, looking personally hurt Hera seemed to be going out of her way to make this difficult after she'd just offered endless help.

Nico's touch of jealousy vanished at least. Turns out even if a god had cared enough to try helping him out of there, it probably wouldn't have done him any more good.

Hera shook her head. "Getting something and having the wits to use it...those are two different things. I'm sure your mother Athena would agree."

"Oh great, so the best advice we got out of this is be cryptic, thanks," Jason groaned with his hand pressed against his stomach like he was going to be sick.

He was sick. Of these Greek gods never making any sense. Why would Juno act like she'd done anything of value right now?!

The room rumbled like distant thunder. Hera stood. "That would be my cue. Zeus grows impatient. Think on what I have said, Annabeth. Seek out Hephaestus. You will have to pass through the ranch, I imagine.

Alex's mind flashed back to that Triple G Ranch that had been mentioned that apparently supplied scorpions Quintus had seemed so fond of. He didn't really believe in coincidences.

But keep going. 

Nico's heart quivered at that possibility. If Percy had never shown up, gods knew what could have happened. Maybe he would have murdered Daedalus, who knew what Geryon would have done to him.

But then, why had Percy shown up there? This seemed like actual useful advice he couldn't imagine them ignoring for any reason.

And use all the means at your disposal, however common they may seem."

"Is a toothbrush going to come in handy on this quest?" Percy grouched. "Is she saying we should start tossing our extra pair of socks around to get results!"

"Not exactly advice I thought a motherly goddess would give," Magnus agreed with his disdain. He'd hoped a godly symbolic representation of marriage would have been a little more, loving. Aphrodite hadn't fit the right bill either. How was it possible none of these gods seemed more maternal with all the kids and family they had running around?

She pointed toward the two doors and they melted away, revealing twin corridors, open and dark. "One last thing, Annabeth. I have postponed your day of choice, I have not prevented it. Soon, as Janus said, you will have to make a decision. Farewell!"

She waved a hand and turned into white smoke.

Percy scowled and fought the urge to kick his chair in frustration. He'd probably kick it through the wall and cause all of his friend's death. That thought was the only thing restraining him, but he still cussed a few choice words he knew Hera would at least want to escape from.

So did the food, just as Tyson chomped down on a sandwich that turned to mist in his mouth.

"Now that was just rude," Alex looked ready to go and personally make him another sandwich just to make up for that.

"I bet you guys are under Detroit or something, can't have anything there unless it's nailed down," Thalia said in something of a mild mannered tone just because she didn't like seeing everybody stressed out and scowling under her care.

Percy gave her a begrudging laugh and a reluctant smile. "At least I didn't come away from this one with another immortal enemy?"

"There's the bright side!" Will agreed cheerfully.

The fountain trickled to a stop. The mosaic walls dimmed and turned grungy and faded again. The room was no longer any place you'd want to have a picnic.

Annabeth stamped her foot. "What sort of help was that? 'Here, have a sandwich. Make a wish. Oops, I can't help you!' Poof!"

"Poof," Tyson agreed sadly, looking at his empty plate.

"Sounds like you made a wish with a genie," Magnus frowned.

"And it was just one wish! You guys need a contract or a lawyer or something next time you run into one of them," Jason agreed.

"Now if she'd offered us three wishes, I bet at least you'd stop complaining," Percy laughed at him.

"I'm withholding judgment," Jason shrugged.

"Well," Grover sighed, "she said Percy knows the answer. That's something."

They all looked at me.

"But I don't," I said. "I don't know what she was talking about."

Annabeth sighed. "All right. Then we'll just keep going."

"Which way?" I asked. I really wanted to ask what Hera had meant about the choice Annabeth needed to make. But then Grove and Tyson both tensed. They stood up together like they'd rehearsed it. "Left," they both said.

Alex looked very torn now if he wanted to go down the right side just to get a peak of what had made Grover and Tyson agree on something. Magnus gripped his hands together, trying not to imagine Alex's hand in his as they ran for their life.

Annabeth frowned. "How can you be sure?"

"Because something is coming from the right," Grover said.

"Something big," Tyson agreed. "In a hurry."

"Left is sounding pretty good," I decided. Together we plunged into the dark corridor.

"Finished," Will said in a sing-song voice like they weren't about to start running for their life. Good for him, he knew they were all alive.

Jason exchanged an uneasy look with Thalia and Percy before he could get up and get the book. There really weren't enough breaks in the world from this to cover how much time they felt like they needed to process before the next awful thing leapt out of the shadows.

[toxic-potions-productions]

Meeting Crimson (Rewritten with the Impsonas cuz I just wanna)

*In the helicopter, on their way to Greed. Moxxie was sitting next to the window, & Alexandra was in the middle between him & Blitz while Millie & Crystal sat across from them. But, Alex & Moxxie didn’t seem happy.*

Alex & Moxxie, in unison: Ugh. I hate this place.

Blitz: Oh yeah, this is your old stomping ground, isn’t it Moxx?

Moxxie: Yeah, unfortunately. I grew up just over there, swore I’d never come back & uhh.....

Alexandra: !!!......Wait....something’s not right. Where’s this thing goin’?

Moxxie: Uhh, w-w-w-where are we going?? What...Blitz......Who did you say this meeting was with?

Blitz: I’m not sure, just some rich somebody or other who wants to discuss biz at his place.

Alexandra: Wait........what?

*After landing in front of the estate, Moxxie & Alex’s faces both dropped.*

Alexandra: ......Ohh, no......

Moxxie: Oh, no. No, nononononononononononono!!

*They walk out & closer to the estate. Alex’s face looked angry & resentful as her arms were crossed. & out comes a familiar, to Moxxie & Alex at least, mafioso.*

Crimson: There he is! There’s my boy! Get over here & give your daddy a hug.

Blitz, Millie, & Crystal: Daddy?!

Crimson: I only let Moxxie call me that. Unless ya pay me! *Laughs as he approaches them*

Moxxie: Guys, um.... *Ahem* This is my father, Crimson. Sir, this is my boss Blitz. & my--

Millie: Millie! I’m his wife.

Crimson: & what a beautiful wife you are. Moxx, where you been hidin’ this pretty little thing?

Millie: Oh, I’m sure he would’ve introduced us. Eventually.

Crimson: Oh, I’m sure.

Moxxie: Right. Uhh..... Th-this woman over there with the glasses is someone Blitz does business with from time to time. This is Alex--

Alexandra, cutting him off: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ya don’t have ta introduce me ta yer dad, Moxx, I already know him. *Bends down by the hips to look at him with a cold look* I know Crimson all too well. *Stands upright* Crimson, I’m sure you remember Crystal.

Crystal: Ohhhhhh, so you were the guy that I talked to on the phone earlier. Heya, Crim...... *It was hard to tell if her tone was mildly resentful or just socially awkward. She didn’t know him as well as Alex did, but could already tell he was up to no good, she was just a bit in the middle of what she should feel.*

Crimson: *Tips hat to her* It’s always such a pleasure, doll. You haven’t changed a bit. *Shakes Alex’s hand as he looks up at her in the eyes* How have you been, Alexandra? It’s been awhile since I last saw your pretty face. *Crimson tries to hide a look of disgust on his face as he says that last part. It was a very backhanded compliment, with the intent of humiliating Alex in a subtle way, but also trying to keep his friendly persona that Moxxie & Alex already saw right through.*

Alexandra: *Forced chuckle as she tries not to snap* You’ve always been.....SUCH a gentleman, Crim. *What she said was ALSO a very backhanded compliment, but she didn’t even try to hide her own look of disgust as Crimson walks over to Blitz.*

Crimson: You gotta be Blitz, with the silent O. Right? I’ve heard alot of good things about you & your work.

Blitz: Really. What kinda shit has Moxxie been spreading about me? I’ll fucking kill you, Moxxie, don’t you FUCKING TEST ME!!

Crimson: No, no! From all over. Looks like you’re building a bit of a name for yourself here, kid.

Blitz: Really! Hah, well I guess it’s about time folks recognize my talent.

*Alex rolls her eyes as Crimson cackles & lightly punches Blitz’s arm.*

Crimson: I like your attitude. Well, I hope you’re all hungry, we put together a fabulous dinner for ya.

Crystal, lighting up like a Hellsmas tree: I heard dinner! What dinner? I’m hungry! *It was like seeing a parallel of Blitz lighting up after hearing about the pain games from the Harvest festival. She dashes off to Blitz & Crimson, while Moxxie, Millie, & Alexandra stayed behind for a bit.*

Alexandra: *Low grumbling*

Moxxie: ...........

Millie: .....Hey, baby? Why haven’t I met your pa before? & Alex? How come you look so on the edge, honey?

Moxxie: Well, uhh.....

Alexandra, softening at Millie’s question: Oh! Umm.....I-It’s a long story, Mills...

Moxxie: Y’know, it’s--it’s.....It’s--It’s just never been a--

Crimson: Hey! You three! Move it before it gets cold.

Crystal: Or before I get to your plates before you guys dooooo~!

Alexandra: ....... *Sighs*

Moxxie: .....L-look. Look, Millie. W-we can talk about it later.

Alexandra: Uhh, yeah. What he said. Now’s just not the best time for it.

*The three head inside with M&M holding hands & Alex burning holes into Crimson with her signature death glare. Alex snaps her fingers & a few of her own goons stand at the entrances & even follow her inside. Crimson’s friendly mask slid off for a second as he snaps his fingers & the two goons of his follow him inside & close the door. To say the goons from the Greed & Pride families had awkward, hateful tension in the same estate was an understatement, not just with the main crime lords running the gangs. But, it only got worse from there.* ------------------------------------------------ Why was this so fun to do?? XDD

@dorkygurl-89

[painterofhorizons]

Floating Day WIP - Unicorn Edition

@sheeplessthings so after breaking our hearts with plotting the LIFE chapters, I thought about how to make that up with a little snippet that ain’t drama. And because it is one of my all time favourite WIPs, how about a snippet of the Garcia gifts Alex a sprakling unicorn dildo and Alex is mildly buffled about it-story? Sorry for always bringing up the sex toy story, but it is much less PG-18 and much more hilarious than it sounds (okay, it also IS PG-18, but not in this snippet).

Have something to chuckle about. How about Dave and Alex going to a sex shop, which - to quote Alex - is the craziest shit they have done together (Dave would argue about that, most definitely)?

(Tagging you as well @chyrstis because it might make you laugh :D)

They had just entered the store when Alex leaned over to Dave and muttered quietly “This… isn’t exactly how I imagined it.”

Dave laughed. “Is that so?” With a surpressed smile #frozen to the corners of his lips he added “By the way, you don’t have to whisper, right?”

Alex cleared her throat, shooting him a somewhat annoyed, somewhat amused and somewhat embarrassed look. “Right. Of course not. I know, right? And I have no idea what you are even talking about.”

They had hardly been here for ten seconds and Alex wasn’t sure this could become more embarrassing at any point. She didn’t even know why it gave her so many unwelcome emotions at all, like - she was the least prude person she knew? And if she would be here with Tonks or Garcia, it would probably just be really fun and silly and -

No. Just imagining being here with Garcia gave her a stroke. But with Tonks? Fun. Totally fun. No doubt about that. With Dave though? Maybe that put a little too much unexpected pressure on her. Not only being here, but being here for the first time under the careful watch of her husband, who knew her better than she knew herself.

Dave could read her just like he always could read her. “Relaxe” he whispered. “And if you don’t want-”

“Shut up and let’s - yah. Whatever we are doing.”

Alex took a breath and told herself not to act out shy in here. There was literally not a single reason for that, right? So she could as well try to enjoy it. Considering she was generally someone who liked shopping as a leasure activity… Which she definitely did not. Part of her still did not see why they were here at all, but if it made Dave happy, she would give it a shot nevertheless.

At second sight, the shop still looked very different to what the part of her brain had imagined that had thought about it. This place was super straight and clean with white being the dominating colour of everything but the actual goods of demand. And still it made a rather welcoming and warm impression on her, maybe because of the cleanliness the place withheld. White walls, white straight furniture, nothing playful or pink or red - but it did not give the location a sterile feeling. It looked… classy. Even the toys that Alex could see were well chosen in their appearance, not too many different colours, not to speak of any really screaming colours. In the end, this place was the complete opposite of the intensely eye shocking thing Garcia had given her with best intentions.

With a smirk, Dave sideeyed her. “While we’re at it. Where did you think I would take you when we made this plan?”

Alex frowned, not getting how he could even ask that. “I don’t know, like - I mean I never thought any of this would happen between us, okay? Now that you ask and I think about it, yes, this is probably exactly where I thought you would take me, like, if I had ever thought about it before which I did not have so stop asking such dumbass questions.”

Another chuckle escaped Dave.

Alex’ sarcastic undertone stayed with them for a little while, while she tried to getting used to the situation. “Great. Awesome. So, now that we’re here, what do we do? Is there a directive for shopping in a place like this?”

“I strongly doubt that.”

“Great. Then go and lead the way or something.” Alex gestured wildly at no specific direction. “And just for the record, this is the craziest shit we have ever done, okay?”

Dave bit back a response. Considering all the things they had done, said and seen since they knew each other, he would indeed very much argue with Alex on this one. But not right now, and it was very amusing to see this quite unexpected side of Alex.

[alexturnerrain]

Jealousy

alex turner x reader | (mildly) rough sex | minors dni | infidelity if u squint | idk if this makes any sense i redid it like 5 times and don’t like proofreading |

You and Alex always had an interesting relationship. You lived together for 5 years, not quite close enough to be friends, but civil.

As you walked in the door of your apartment after your date, he was waiting for you.

Alex did seem to have a serious problem with your boyfriend, always waiting for your rant about how shitty your date was, but that’s what friends are for.

Today was no different.

Today, as you walked past Alex to get to the couch, you felt his eyes on you, questioning why you had seemingly ignored him.

“How was the date then, Love?“

He asked, his thick accent combined with his clear drunkenness made his sentence almost incomprehensible.

“It was great, Alex” You stated, the sarcasm in your voice being lost upon the drunken Alex.

“Oh. Was it really that good?” Alex asked with a tinge of sadness as he laid down on the coach, resting his head on your lap.

“No, Alex. It was fucking terrible.”

You stated, running your hands through his almost shoulder length hair.

“Isn’t it always? I just don’t get why you’re still with him.”

“Why are you still with your girlfriend then?” You asked, followed by an awkward silence from Alex.

It only took Alex about a minute to respond, but it seemed like hours before he finally spoke up.

“Same reason you’re still with him, right? Convenience.” He stated, closing his eyes as you continued playing with his hair.

“Convenience?”

“The convenience of having someone, right?”

“Yeah, same reason i’m with him.” You stated, hoping that the almost sadness in your voice wouldn’t be obvious.

But naturally, it was.

“Why are you sad, pretty girl?”

“I’m not, Alex, I just.”

He opened his eyes to look up at you as you trailed off.

“You just what, Love?”

“I just think we both know we’re lying. I think we both know that we’re not dating them out of convenience.” You stated, your voice quiet.

“Then why are we dating them? In your expert opinion?”

“Maybe we’re just cowards”

“You think I’m a coward, Love? Really?” He asked, sitting up next to you.

“That’s not what I meant, Alex. You know-“

“Then what did you mean? Cause I’ll prove right now that I’m not a fucking coward, Love”

He asked, cutting you off mid sentence, his drunkenness seemingly making him take offense to something he normally wouldn’t care about.

“Then prove it.”

His eyes scanned your face for any sign or sarcasm, and when he realized you were serious, he practically jumped on you, pinning you down on the couch as he harshly kissed you, moving his thing to be in between your legs.

“I always fucking love when you wear those skirts, always just wanna bend you over.” He said, voice almost a whisper.

He moved one of his hands from your side to your wrists, pinning your arms above your head, and his other hand went to your throat, applying harsh pressure.

You couldn’t help the moan that escaped your lips, causing him to let out a cocky laugh as he shifted, taking his hand off your throat to remove your thong, placing his thigh against your clit, causing you to grind against his thigh, whimpering at the feeling of the harsh fabric of his pants against you.

He harshly slapped your tits causing you to whine

“Did I fucking say you could grind on me? I have u pinned to the couch with my hand around your fucking throat and you think you deserve any control here?”

“I’m sorry, Alex”

He delivered an equally harsh slap to your face.

“Call me Sir.”

“I’m sorry, Sir.”

He smirked at this, brushing the hair out of his face.

“See baby, it wasn’t that hard now was it?”

You didn’t respond to this, which seemingly angered him as he grabbed your jaw and made you look at him.

“When I ask you a question, you better fucking answer me, okay pet?“

You nodded your head at this, which still didn’t seem to be enough for him.

“Use your fucking words, open your mouth.”

You didn’t hesitate to follow his directions as he spit in your open mouth.

“Swallow it. Be a good pet, and fucking swallow it.”

You hesitantly did as he said, which seemed to amuse him as he let out a small chuckle.

“If you’re gonna be such a good little girl for me, get on your fucking knees, okay?”

He got up and helped you to your feet as he sat down on the couch and you got on your knees.

He undid his belt as he grabbed your hand, forcing you to palm him through his jeans as he pulled your hair into a makeshift ponytail.

He gestured towards his pants for you to take them off. As you pulled down his boxers you were greeted with his cock, rock hard and covered in precum.

He put one hand on his cock as he slapped your cheek before quickly and forcefully shoving his cock down your throat, making you gag.

He didn’t seem to care as he used his hand to force you to take his cock as deeply as you could, letting out loud, aggressive moans and groans at the feeling.

You tapped on his thigh to let him know you needed air. He quickly pulled you off oh his cock, slapping you with it. Your face was covered in spit and tears as he took a moment to catch his breath.

“Get up.”

You looked up, taking a moment to process his request.

“Get up. I’m giving you the chance right now. If you don’t take this chance don’t expect me to care when I leave you full of my cum and send a photo of you fucked out to your stupid fucking boyfriend.”

You almost shot up at his comments, standing in front of him as he pulled you down to sit on his lap. You were shocked by his gentleness as he planted a few kisses to your neck, slowly getting more aggressive, leaving marks on your neck where the bruises from his choking were already forming.

He gave a small slap to your tits, grabbing them harshly.

“Lay on your stomach, baby, ass up”

You did as he said, scrambling awkwardly off of his lap.

He pushed your head down as he rubbed a finger against your clit, easily inserting two fingers inside of you.

“Of course you’re fucking soaked. I havent even touched you properly, you’re just that much of a fucking whore.”

You whined at his words and clenched around his fingers as he slowly spread his fingers inside of you, stretching you out.

He took his hand off of your head to slap your ass more times than you could count.

He roughly thrusted into you as deeply as he could, causing you to let out a loud mix of whimpers and moans as he continued his rough pace.

“Tell me I fuck you better then he does”

He said, voice gruff.

“You’re so much better then he is”

You whined out, eyes blurry with tears of pleasure and pain at his roughness.

“Tell me I’m the best you’ve ever fucking had.”

You couldn’t quite get the words out, coming out in strangled moans and whines.

He took this your struggle as a sign of disobedience as his thrusts stopped and he slapped your ass until it was red with his hand prints.

“Can’t even follow orders huh? You don’t fucking deserve this.”

“Please, please Alex”

“You can’t even follow basic fucking instructions. Turn around.”

You rushed to do whatever he said, turning around and almost falling off the couch in the process.

“You’re gonna take my cock until I’m done with you, is that clear?”

You nodded your head frantically.

“Yes Sir”

With that he thrusted his cock into you, pounding into you as you whimpered and sobbed from the pleasure and pain of him so harsh inside of you.

He continued this pace for a while, his groans becoming louder and louder as he approached his orgasm. You reached down between your body and his to rub your clit, stopped by his hand slapping yours away, before quickly rubbing your clit, bringing you to orgasm as a load of his cum shot deep inside of you.

He took a moment to pull out, but once he did, he collapsed on top of you, lightly messing with your hair as you did with his as he kissed your neck.

“I fucked you better than he did, huh?”

You could only muster up the strength to nod your head feverishly as both of your breaths slowed, inevitably drifting off to sleep together.

[carlando554]

Five Times Someone Realizes Carlos and Lando Are Dating and One Time They Do

1. Daniel

When Carlos woke up he immediately realized two things: he was laying on top of the comforter, and there was someone next to him in bed. He’d gone to Lando’s room for a movie night and had apparently fallen asleep there. It wasn’t the first time it had happened. Ever since Carlos had gone to Ferrari he and Lando had started weekly movie nights to keep in touch. They also had a weekly game night, went golfing in each new city and on occasion they went out to eat. Carlos had admittedly been a little worried that he and Lando wouldn’t stay as close as they had been, but he needn’t have, as they actually hung out even more now. Outside of work at least.

Carlos turned and looked at Lando, who was sound asleep next to him. His ex teammate looked impossibly younger when he was sleeping. He was on his side facing Carlos and was wrapped up under the comforter so that his face was only barely peeking out. Carlos tore his eyes away from the sight to glance at the alarm clock next to Lando’s bed, it was only 8 o’clock, he didn’t have any meetings with Ferrari until 11, so he could sleep in a little.

He lifted the comforter enough to slide under it and positioned himself so he was on his side facing Lando. Just as Carlos had settled in, a knock sounded at the door. He sighed, mildly annoyed because the knock would probably wake Lando, but he just snuffled a little, burrowing further into the blankets. He knew whoever was at the door would be looking for Lando, seeing as it was his room, but he just couldn’t bring himself to wake him up when he looked so peaceful.

Carlos got out of bed, careful not to disturb Lando, and padded over to the door. He opened it to find Lando’s new teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, on the other side. Daniel blinked at him.

“Er. This is Lando’s room right? I didn’t even think Ferrari were staying in the same hotel…?” Daniel frowned.

“Yes, this is Lando’s room. He is still sleeping, did you need him for something?” Carlos frowned back at Daniel. Carlos didn’t hate Daniel or anything, but he had lost his spot at Renault to him and then been replaced by him yet again at McLaren. Sure the second time had been his decision, but it still created some awkwardness between the two.

“Well, not really? We had plans to get breakfast this morning,” something hot flashed in Carlos’ gut which he refused to call jealousy, “but I guess we never did say what time, I just figured he’d be up by now.”

In fairness, it wasn’t that bad of an assumption. Lando had always liked to be up earlier, he’d told Carlos it made him feel more productive.

“Well we were up pretty late last night, so he’s probably still recovering.”

Oddly, Daniel appeared to flush at Carlos’ words.

“Oh. I see. Well. Uh. Guess I’ll leave you to it then.” Daniel chuckled awkwardly before turning and hurrying away, muttering something under his breath too quiet for Carlos to hear.

“Bye?” Carlos said to the now empty hallway feeling completely bewildered. He had no idea what had just happened. He turned back to look at Lando who seemed to be slowly waking up.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” He questioned, rubbing at his eyes. The sight was adorable.

“Apparently you were supposed to meet Daniel for breakfast, he was just here looking for you. I told him you were still sleeping and then he got all weird and left.” Lando looked as confused as Carlos felt.

“Weird. Uh.. I guess you should probably go back to your hotel and get changed, but then if you want we can get breakfast? Seeing as I don’t have any plans now.” He chuckled at the last bit.

“Of course, Cabrón, I will text you when I am ready, no?” Carlos forgot all about Daniel and his odd behavior at the sight of Lando’s answering grin.

2. George and Alex

Lando was feeling on top of the world. Both he and Carlos had gotten a podium today and he couldn’t have imagined a better outcome. His first win and he got to share it with his best friend.

They’d both snuck away from their team’s celebrations, because as fun as it was to celebrate with their teams they had wanted to celebrate together. They decided to just go to the first restaurant they came across, one which happened to be very fancy. To be fair, they were in Miami, so there were a lot of fancy restaurants.

Lando couldn’t contain his grin as he and Carlos were led to a small table in a quieter section of the restaurant. The lights were low with candles on each table, and Lando couldn’t help but think it would be the perfect place for a date.

Not that they were on a date, Lando wasn’t delusional, he knew Carlos was way out of his league. The idea that Carlos would want to take him on a date was laughable.

“Earth to Lando,” Carlos said, pulling Lando out of his thoughts, “You alright there, Cabrón?” Carlos’ eyebrows were drawn together, and his concern looked genuine.

“Yeah of course,” Lando replied quickly, “I’m just thinking about how I kicked your ass out there today.” Lando teased, smirking across the table at Carlos.

He’d expected Carlos to tease him back but instead he grinned back at him and replied, “you kicked everyone’s ass, Cabrón, you were amazing.” He said it so matter-of-factly that Lando could feel himself blush. He just hoped it would be hidden by the dim lighting.

Lando opened his mouth to respond when he was interrupted by his phone ringing. He checked the screen and saw that it was a group FaceTime request from Alex and George. He looked back at Carlos, ready to ignore the call, but Carlos just smiled softly at him and gestured for him to answer.

“Hey guys! What’s up?” Lando asked, hoping they wouldn’t keep him too long.

“Dude!” George exclaimed, “What else would we be calling about, congrats on your win mate!”

“Yeah, you were a total badass out there!” Alex added. Lando smiled, he had some great friends.

“Thanks guys, don’t worry I’m just getting started,” he winked at them which caused Carlos to chuckle from across the table.

“Oh hey who’s with you right now?” George asked, nosy as usual.

Lando rolled his eyes. “I’m out with Carlos, we’re celebrating together.” He flipped the camera so that it was pointing at Carlos who smiled and gave a small wave, the candlelight making his eyes practically sparkle.

Alex and George’s eyes widened simultaneously. “Oh! Sorry to interrupt then! We’ll quit bothering you. Congrats to you both,” Alex said before leaving the call.

“Yeah congrats, took you long enough! Be safe you two!” George left the call as well before Lando could even respond. Not that he even knew what he would’ve responded with, honestly he was kind of confused by his friends’ behavior.

“Took us long enough…?” Lando questioned, looking over at Carlos who just shrugged.

“Your friends are weird, Cabrón, I think sometimes I am the only normal person you know.” Lando just stuck his tongue out at him in response.

3. Zak

Zak cheered loudly when Lando bowled his strike, always proud of any of Lando’s accomplishments. Their relationship had been compared to that of a father and son, and while Zak knew it wasn’t the most professional, he couldn’t help but agree. In truth, Lando reminded him of himself. Only younger, funnier and with a bit more hair. Because of this he had made it his mission to ensure that Lando’s incredible potential wasn’t put to waste.

Right now they were in London, preparing for the Silverstone race. Lando had asked Zak and some of the other crew members if they wanted to come along with him and Carlos to go bowling like they used to. Everyone had eagerly agreed, they all missed Carlos, and especially the hilarity that was Lando and Carlos together.

The two didn’t disappoint either, the whole team had been laughing at their antics all night, and right now was no exception. Lando beamed as he walked back from his strike, looking smugly at Carlos who just looked back at him with a face that suggested he was unimpressed.

It was Carlos’ turn and Zak watched as he picked up his ball and strode confidently to the lane. He smoothly got into the proper stance, drew his arm back, brought it forward and released the ball. Everyone watched in disbelief as the ball went straight down the middle and Carlos scored his own strike.

Immediately everyone was in hysterics, especially Lando who cried, “oh come on!” Through his laughter.

Carlos laughed triumphantly and Zak watched as he ran over to Lando looking like he was going to tackle him in a hug. Lando dodged but started to trip and grabbed at Carlos’ arm effectively bringing him down with him.

As they were falling Carlos had reached a hand protectively behind Lando’s head, just before they hit the ground. Zak was thankful for it, the last thing anyone needed was Lando getting concussed while bowling.

The two had fallen with Carlos right on top of Lando and they were practically nose to nose. Zak expected them to scramble apart, as their position was pretty intimate. Instead they just looked at each other for a few seconds before Lando eventually burst out laughing. Carlos did the same and put his face in Lando’s neck as his whole body shook with the force of his laughter. Lando’s arms reached around Carlos to wrap around his back.

Zak suddenly felt he should look away. If he had thought their position was intimate before it was nothing compared to now. Zak couldn’t look away though, because it suddenly felt like everything was falling into place. The two of them looked comfortable in that position, like it was one they had been in many times before.

A lot of things started to make sense to Zak. Lando and Carlos’ relationship had always been special, they got along incredibly, their competition was always friendly, and they spent more time together than they did apart. It felt so obvious now that he noticed, they were clearly more than friends.

Zak’s first instinct was to be saddened that Lando hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him, but he got over it quickly. He could only imagine how it must feel, sure Formula One was putting out a message of inclusivity, but that didn’t mean that everyone agreed. Zak knew there was a lot of prejudice in Formula One. That was true of almost all men’s sports.

His second instinct was to protect them. The two were still laughing on the ground and Zak knew that the others would start cluing in sooner rather than later. If they were trying to keep it a secret then Zak would help them. He got up and walked over to them, clearing his throat.

“You alright gentlemen?” Lando released his hold on Carlos and Carlos immediately rolled off of him, the two flushing bright red as if they had only just remembered they had an audience. Zak shook his head. Young love.

The two stood up and took their seats at the bench, seemingly avoiding eye contact. It didn’t last for long though as Zak went and bowled straight into the gutter and they all erupted into laughter at his expense. Zak didn’t mind, he was glad he was able to take the attention off of Carlos and Lando for a bit, even more so when he saw Carlos ruffle Lando’s hair playfully.

Lando smiled up at Carlos and the look was so full of love Zak wondered how he’d never noticed it before. He hoped that one day Lando would feel comfortable telling him, but until then he’d be there for the kid anyway he could.

4. Max

Lando was thoroughly enjoying his time off. Well, it wasn’t really time off as much as it was a few of extra days that they were staying in London after the race had been delayed due to weather. Lando had been allowed to go back to his flat in Woking for a couple of days and had invited Carlos to come with him.

Carlos had agreed, saying that he’d missed visiting Lando’s flat when he’d had to move from Woking. Lando also missed Carlos’ visits, even though some of them had been unannounced.

They spent most of their time playing Fifa and sim racing. Carlos had just finished crushing Lando in a round of Fifa when Lando’s phone chimed with a text.

“Oh it’s Max, he wants to race, he saw that I was online earlier.” Lando looked at Carlos who shrugged and started to get up.

“You should play with him, I will make dinner, it is getting late.” Carlos ruffled Lando’s hair and left before Lando could protest. Not that he didn’t like Carlos’ cooking, it’s just that Carlos is Lando’s guest, and Lando’s mom had raised him to be a good host.

Lando sighed and texted Max back, telling him he’d be on in a second. He put his headset on and switched the games.

“Hey Lando, ready to get fucked?” Max Verstappen laughed as his voice came through Lando’s headset, causing Lando to jump.

“Jesus mate you scared me, I didn’t know you joined the channel!” Lando laughed back at him. He was glad that he and Max had been able to get closer after being teammates in Redline.

“Lando you idiot I invited you to play I was already on the channel,” Max said in a fake exasperated tone.

“Yeah yeah just you wait I’ll fuckin’ lap you!” Lando replied teasingly. He was distracted from Max’s reply by Carlos knocking on the door frame. “Oh hang on a second Max, what’s up?”

“Dinner will be ready in a half hour, just wanted to let you know, Cabrón.” Carlos said

“Awesome, can’t wait to see what you’ve cooked this time,” Lando replied honestly.

Carlos smiled. “Okay I will let you get back to your game now. Have fun.” Lando smiled and nodded in response.

“Alright Max, we’re good to go, sorry about that.” Max was quiet.

“Max? You still there, mate?” Lando checked his headset and confirmed that his microphone was still on.

“Yeah I’m still here… I thought you said you were going home for a couple days?” Max’s voice carried a note of confusion.

“Er… yeah? I did? I am? Why do you ask?” Lando frowned in his own confusion.

“Then why did I hear Carlos’ voice in the background…?” Max questioned.

“…Because he came home with me?” Lando had no idea why Max was being so weird. His mind flashed back to when Carlos had told him that he didn’t know any normal people. Maybe he’d been right.

“Huh. Okay. Damnit, Daniel was totally right.” Max muttered the last part under his breath but his microphone made it loud enough that Lando could just barely hear it.

Lando was going to ask what he meant but he realized that they didn’t have very long to play before he’d have to go eat dinner. “Right let’s play then shall we?” Lando said, hoping they could just move on from this bizarre conversation.

“You’re going down mate!” Max replied sounding completely back to normal, like nothing ever happened.

5. Charles

Charles liked having Carlos as his new teammate. Carlos was nice, and his competition pushed Charles to be better on the track. The two of them were making Ferrari a force to be reckoned with again. So yeah, he loved having Carlos as his teammate. Just not so much right now.

The walls in the hotel they were staying at were very thin, and Charles could hear everything that was going on in the room next to his, which unfortunately, is where Carlos was staying.

Carlos had Lando over and for a while it had only been a minor inconvenience, Charles had mostly been able to tune out their voices. But then suddenly something had changed.

“Carlos! Come on knock it off!” Lando’s voice rang through the wall, “I can—mmph! Mmmmm oh my god Carlos!” Charles’ face paled as he realized what he was hearing. Holy shit were they really-

“Is it good Lando?” Carlos’ voice filtered through next and it sounded suspiciously deep.

“So fucking good give me more please!” Aaaand that was it. Charles was done. He got out of bed and grabbed his phone before walking straight out of his hotel room. He sent a quick text to George to see if he could come to his room for a bit and was already halfway there when he got an affirmative response.

When he got there, Alex answered George’s door, took one look at Charles and quickly ushered him into the room.

“What the hell happened to you mate? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Alex sounded concerned for him which caused George to look up from his video game before pausing it and giving him his undivided attention.

“I could hear Carlos and Lando through my wall.” Charles said flatly. Alex and George looked at each other before looking back at him with twin grimaces.

“I don’t envy you at all mate, why don’t you stay here for a bit and play some Mario Kart? It’s not like they’ll be at it all night.” George shuddered at his own words before he started to laugh. Alex joined him and eventually, though still scarred for life, Charles did as well.

~~~

“Carlos come on knock it off!” Lando yelped, Carlos was trying to force feed him the paella like he was a child or something. Lando could do it himself. “I can-mmph!” Carlos had unceremoniously shoved the spoon into Lando’s mouth. Damn but it was good though. “Mmmmm oh my god Carlos!” Lando knew he was overreacting a bit but it was worth it for the expression on Carlos’ face.

Carlos looked hopeful, and then smug as Lando praised him. “Is it good Lando?” He asked even though he obviously knew the answer. Bastard.

“So fucking good give me more please!” Lando exclaimed, practically moaning it. He and Carlos looked at each other for a moment and Lando could have sworn that Carlos’ eyes looked darker than usual when all of a sudden they heard the door of the room next to Carlos’, Charles’, slam shut.

They both jumped and then erupted into uncontrollable giggles. The whole situation was just too ridiculous.

“Come on Cabrón, let’s go eat dinner like civilized people.” Carlos laughed at Lando when he grumbled about having to get up off the couch. “Or I could just keep feeding it to you?”

“Alright alright I’m coming.” Lando grumbled some more just to make Carlos laugh. Lando was pretty sure he would do anything to make Carlos laugh.

+1

“Hey Carlos!” Carlos glanced up from his phone where he’d been texting Lando about potentially going golfing soon to see an unhappy Charles coming his way.

“Charles, are you okay? Is something wrong?” Carlos put his phone down, worried about his teammate. Charles’ expression changed to a more neutral one.

“No, nothing is wrong,” he sighed, “I just wanted to say that while I am happy for you and Lando, truly,” what? “You should consider keeping it down next time. If you don’t want the whole hotel to know what you’re doing.” Charles patted him awkwardly on the shoulder and then scurried away before Carlos could ask him what the hell he was on about.

He thought back to the night before and recalled Charles’ door having slammed shut at one point, after Carlos had fed Lando - oh.

Carlos’ face flooded with heat as he realized what Charles must have thought. To be fair, Lando had been making some really pornographic noises over the paella. Carlos would be lying if he said he’d been completely unaffected by the sounds. Charles must have thought they were hooking up.

Wait. Charles said he was happy for them. Carlos was pretty sure you didn’t tell someone you were happy for them after they hooked up with their best friend. Unless Charles thought they were dating? But why would he think that?

Was Carlos so obvious with his feelings for Lando? But Lando was straight was he not? He’d never told Carlos any different. But Charles and Lando were practically as close as Charles and Carlos, Charles should know that Lando wasn’t interested in him like that.

Suddenly a thought occurred to him but he didn’t want to validate it until he had solid evidence.

Carlos figured Charles must have gone to get breakfast from the hotel buffet so he ran to catch up to him.

“Charles!” He called when he spotted him. Charles looked up and raised his eyebrows at him questioningly. “What made you think,” he started, “what made you think Lando and I are dating?” Charles’ face took on an incredulous expression.

“Don’t tell me you two are just hooking up! Carlos! I have seen the way you look at him! I have seen the way he looks at you! You both talk about each other non stop! The two of you are so obviously in love with each other you might as well be wearing neon signs that read ‘I’m with stupid!’” Charles looked nearly furious now. “If you are messing with him Carlos I swear to God!”

“No!” Carlos interjected quickly, “I am not messing with Lando, I would never do that to him. I-you know what? I have to go. Ciao.” Carlos left, his mind racing and the only coherent thought being that he needed to find Lando. Now.

Carlos got into the elevator and chose the floor number that he knew Lando’s room was on. As the elevator started moving Carlos started thinking. Was Charles right? Did Lando love him back? Was it even possible? Carlos had resigned himself to just being friends with Lando, he was happy that he got to be that much. Lando meant everything to him. Shit, what if Charles was just insane and Carlos ruins his friendship with Lando because of his insanity?

“Carlos? Carlos you alright there buddy?” Oh shit Lando. The elevator must have arrived at the floor without Carlos noticing due to his racing thoughts. Lando stepped into the elevator and the doors closed behind him. He reached out and put his hand on Carlos’ arm, the touch feeling like a brand. His face was full of concern.

“Yeah. I-I uh, I need to talk to you actually. Charles told me something and I need to know.” Carlos’ voice was shaking and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to get the words out.

“What the hell did he say to you? You look terrified!” Lando shifted so that he had a hand on each of Carlos’ shoulder and looked up at him with an expression of worry mixed with something—with—oh.

Before he could stop himself he brought his hands up to cup Lando’s cheeks, leaned down and kissed him. For an awful second Lando was completely still and Carlos was about to pull back and start cursing Charles’ name but then Lando threw his arms around Carlos’ neck and deepened the kiss.

Carlos moaned at the feeling of Lando’s soft mouth against his and took one hand off his face to wrap it around his waist and draw him in closer. And that’s when the elevator doors opened.

“Really guys? Can’t you two get a goddamn room?”

They jumped apart, wide eyed and panting, and looked at each other before turning to face the person that had spoken. Carlos froze when he saw how big the group outside the elevator was, but calmed considerably when he identified them all as the faces of his friends. Max, Daniel, Charles, George and Alex all stood there looking at them with varying degrees of amusement on their faces.

Carlos looked back at Lando who met his gaze and gave him the softest smile Carlos had ever seen. Lando then turned to their friends, flipped them off and pressed the doors close button as well as the button for his floor. The second the doors closed Lando yanked him back so they were nose to nose.

“Let’s go get a goddamn room.” Lando said before pulling Carlos down into another mind melting kiss.

[pastelwitchling]

If you want, could you please write about a dinner between Michael and Alex, with his mother and brothers and how they learn about the news and react?

***

               Michael felt nauseous, and they hadn’t even started eating yet. Still, it was hard to feel anything else as he sat at a table across from Alex’s mother. And now, technically, his mother. God, that was weird to think. Alex took his hand under the table like he could hear his thoughts. Alex’s mother, Mindy, glanced at the table as if she could see through it. This family was all way too damn perceptive.

               Luckily, Alex’s brothers, Gregory, Flint, and Clay, clearly didn’t care enough about Alex’s guest to pay him too much attention. Though secretly, Michael thought that they were watching him even more closely and were just pretending not to. Damn military.

               “See, Alex?” Gregory said, piling his mother’s plate with mashed potatoes before passing the bowl to Clay. “We’re all having a nice dinner. And you thought it’d be awkward.”

               “It is awkward,” Flint heaved, arms crossed as he hung his head back and stared at the ceiling.

               “Isn’t this nice?” Mindy said, smiling kindly. “The whole family together.”

               “Not the whole family,” Flint said.

               “Flint,” Clay sighed, sticking his fork into his roast chicken. “Shut up.”

               “Look,” Flint sat up, “if you guys want to pretend it isn’t weird to have him at the table”—he jerked his chin in Michael’s direction—“or that we actually do this kind of thing”—Flint gestured at the cozy dinner table—“you go ahead. I didn’t even want to be here, I have actual work to do.”

               “I asked you to be here,” Alex said calmly, “because you’re my brother and I want you to be part of my life.” His eyes darkened. “And because I’m doing you a very big courtesy, so I suggest you find some table manners. Quickly.”

               Mindy looked between Alex and Flint, probably wondering what this big courtesy was, and Michael had half a mind to tell her. But before they’d left, Alex had explained that his mother didn’t know about Flint kidnapping him at gunpoint, and he preferred that things stayed that way.

               Nonetheless, Flint seemed to know exactly what Alex was talking about because he stuck his tongue in his cheek and slumped again, refusing to touch any of the food.

               “Okay,” Alex said, and turned back to the table. “Look, the reason I wanted all of us here was because Michael and I have some news.” He looked to Michael, as if to draw strength, and Michael squeezed his hand and nodded once, encouraging. “We got married.”

               And as he said this, he held up Michael’s hand with the ring. None of Alex’s brothers looked surprised, and while Mindy’s smile widened, she didn’t look particularly shocked either.

               “Yeah,” Clay coughed, “we know, Alex.”

               “We all saw your ring the second you walked in,” Gregory shrugged. “Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”

               “To the groom and groom, I guess,” Flint said drearily. “Pass the wine, Clay.”

               Mindy pushed herself out of her chair, coming around the table eagerly. Clearly, she’d been vibrating to hug them since she’d seen the rings herself. “Well, if none of you are going to get properly excited, I will.” She hugged both Alex and Michael, pressing a kiss to each of their temples.

               The gesture was so motherly and foreign that Michael just sat there and blinked for a moment as Mindy held them both close.

               “Hey, I’m happy for you, brother,” Gregory said, reaching over the table to bump fists with Alex and Michael. “I just, you know, figured . . .” he shrugged, “well, obviously you’d get married.”

               “I honestly thought you got married, like, four years ago,” Clay said mildly.

               “And I’m just relieved you’re not pregnant,” Flint relented and grabbed a chicken leg. “We have any gravy left?”

               “I wanted you to tell me,” Mindy confessed giddily, “but when I saw the rings I almost screamed. I have another son now!”

               “Um,” was all Michael could say, and Alex seemed to expect it. His smile softened and he kissed the back of Michael’s hand.

               Mindy cooed, then gasped. “Champagne! I have a bottle in the fridge!”

               “I’ll get it,” Gregory offered as Mindy took Michael’s plate and piled it high.

“Eat, sweetheart!” she was saying. “Eat, this is your home now, too!”

               Michael slowly looked around at all the people at the table. Clay helped Gregory pour the champagne, Mindy was already talking with Alex about Christmas plans, (“Well, obviously, you’re coming here! So bring Michael’s siblings with you, so what? I already insisted Kyle and Michelle come for Christmas dinner!”), even Flint was getting into the meal and cracked a smile at one of Gregory’s jokes, and Alex’s thumb brushed Michael’s knuckles thoughtlessly as he spoke with his mother, constantly referring to Michael about his work schedule during the next two weeks and readying the guestroom. And Michael had a very weird feeling.

               A little bit scary, a little bit excited, and . . . warm. That was the most of it. A similar kind of warmth to when he and Alex had a late dinner with Max, Isobel, and Kyle out on the porch, or when he and Alex laid down on the couch every Sunday morning, alternating between watching cartoons and talking and laughing about something or another.

               That same, comforting thought visited now.

               I can’t believe I get to have this. I can’t believe I get to have this with him.

               “Oh, Michael, here,” Mindy said at once, piling her shrimp dumplings on top of Michael’s rice. “I made them from scratch, I hope they’re okay.”

               Michael felt the warmth of Mindy’s gaze, a mother’s gaze, and his eyes settled on Alex. His rosy cheeks and dark eyes and beautiful smile.

               I can’t believe I get to have him.

               “They’re perfect,” he said, squeezing Alex’s hand tighter. “Better than perfect.”

***

I really enjoyed writing this one.

[mommybard]

The Guild's New Fucktoy, pt.2

The Guildmistress was happy enough to accept their application for the job, and within a week they had started. The first few days were…boring. At least compared to their previous job as an adventurer. But, boring in a good way. They didn’t have to worry about where to camp for the night, since they had a room at the guild. Didn’t have to worry about hunting or how much longer their rations would last since they were right in town. No concerns about waking up to someone invading the tent or getting nabbed in the middle of the night. Instead, their days were full of meeting new co-workers, getting trained on how things work on the basic upkeep side of the guild, and getting mildly horrified at how messy some of the members were. Most of the cleaning stuff was fine, a few stray pieces of parchment or ink spill here or there, dirt from people's boots in the entryway, etc etc The most shockingly messy places though were under the tables in the guild hall, the bathrooms, and the shared showers/locker room. The bathrooms and showers, well that was to be expected a bit. It’s just…there was a weird smell in there. They could never quite place it, and it was almost like the place was soaked in it. It kind of reminded them of…well, of a brothel. At least the scent you could pick up walking by the place. Were there guild members who frequented them and just came back to shower afterward? Maybe they should bring it up to the Guildmistress… The tables though, that one was just odd. Oh sure, the place looked clean for the most part. Maybe some spilled drink at the end of the night, nothing too major. But under the tables? There were some nights where it was just caked in this…dried white substance. Except for a few places where they swore it looked like someone had been sitting there, under the table! They had brought up the peculiar nature of it to the Guildmistress but she had just laughed at said it was probably just people spilling potions or drunkenly casting spells, nothing to be too concerned about. It didn’t sound right to Alex but…well, she was the Guildmistress for a reason.  Outside of those oddities though, it seemed like just an average cleaning job. Come in in the evening once the main lobby area is closed, clean that, the offices, the tavern once done and closed for the night, and end the night in the showers/bathrooms. Then head home for the night. Pretty simple.

That might be why they were shocked a few nights into their first week. Alex had started to build a rhythm to their work, a flow to make things easier, so it kind of threw off their groove when they opened the door to the group showers and heard the water running. That was a first. Normally the faucets were enchanted to turn off if no one was in there to not waste water, so if it’s running…

“Hello?” Alex called out from the locker room entryway. They waited for a few moments, but there wasn’t any response. They sighed, seems like whoever it was couldn’t hear them over the sound of the water. Either that or didn’t want to hear. Which means going to tell them to clear out…well, was going to be a bit awkward.

As they made their way closer, they started to notice a strange smell it the air. It was stronger than the normal scent that seemed to hang in the air. Thicker, muskier…almost wild? Was this the person causing the brothel smell? Ohhhh, if this was the one to blame they were going to chew them out. They had worked so fucking hard to get that smell to leave and this person was just making it worse!

Halfway there they picked up a sound over the shower. Almost like, a soft cry? Whimpers? Was this person in pain? No, that didn’t sound right. They sounded…not exactly happy. Frustrated maybe. Ugh, helping someone through a crisis was not on their plans for the night.

Needless to say, they weren’t anywhere close to expecting what they saw when they turned into the shower room door. For one, the person in the shower was tall. Far taller than Alex. Compared to their tiny COMPLETELY NORMAL HEIGHT of 5’4”. If they had to guess the figure was at least pushing 7 feet, maybe even more when she stood up straight.

She was covered head to toe in a thick fur, completely drenched in the water beating down on her. From what Alex could see their face seemed to be a canine’s…a werewolf? There were a few weres in the guild, so that wouldn’t be too surprising. But what were they doing here this late?

Alex was about to call out to them again when their eyes drifted lower, and finally saw what those sounds were coming from. While one massive clawed hand was pressed against the wall holding the werewolf up, the other was between her legs, stroking the single largest cock that the former adventurer had ever seen. Granted, it wasn’t saying much given that they didn’t really have that much personal experience, but they had heard stories dammit! That should count for something!

If they had to guess it was the size of their forearm. At a minimum. Their eyes were glued to it even as the werewolf continued to run their hand up and down that angry red, pointed shaft. Was she cumming already? No…it was leaking. Already looking like the full loads that were drawn on the covers of the books in the lewder parts of the market.

Alex shook their head. They had to…had to get out of there. Yeah. That’s right. Just leave and maybe come back in an hour or so, after she was done. Simple! Then no one would get embarrassed and they could just file this away in some recess of their mind. It was the smart thing to do, right? Right?

‘Then why aren’t I doing it,’ Alex thought to themself, ‘I could just go. But…no. No. Think Alex! She’d be mortified to know someone was spying on her. Best to just walk away…’

That was the plan. That was totally the plan. Its not like their body chose that moment to betray them and slip on the wet floor. That would be ridiculous. Regardless of the reason behind it though, they fell, and they fell hard, letting out a yelp as they hit the ground. 

The werewolf stopped. She stood there, as still as a statue, before slowly tilting her snout up and taking a few sniffs of the air. Alex froze, watching her seem to laugh to herself before turning and staring right at them.

“Well well well, what do we have here~?” She asked, in a low, deep voice, “A little pervert thought they could spy on me taking care of things?”

[nicknellie]

@fireflyingaway requested: willex + waffle house pretty plz

So I did have to do “extensive research” on Waffle House because I don’t have one near me and have never been to one, and that led me to find an incredibly good dessert place literally a ten minute drive from me so thank you for that lmfao. But anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this, I went with getting together (kind of) fluff because that’s my jam, so I really hope you enjoy it!

Smooth Like Syrup

Somewhere along the way, Waffle House had become Alex’s favourite restaurant. He wondered if it was the childhood memories it brought back, weekend brunches spent there with his grandparents who cared for him and loved him far more than his parents ever had. It could have just been the fact that he loved waffles, and with a name like ‘Waffle House’ they couldn’t really put a foot wrong when it came to serving him. Maybe it was just the familiarity of it all – Alex had always found comfort in routine, after all. Whatever the reason he loved it there so much, Alex went to Waffle House at least once a week, more if he had the time. And it was absolutely nothing to do with the adorable new waiter who had started working there for the summer.

If anything, he was ruining it all.

Because he’d been going to the same Waffle House every week for as long as he could remember, Alex was pretty friendly with most of the staff. A few of them had been working there as long as he’d been a customer, so they were on first-name terms and always took a moment or two to catch up with each other once Alex had ordered his food (which never took long because he always ordered the same thing and they all knew that by now). Seeing the same people working there and having the same generic chitchat with them each week worked perfectly for Alex. It was normal, routine, familiar, a social situation he knew how to navigate.

Then they’d gone and hired Willie. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but it was. A problem for Alex at the very least. Not only did it disrupt his routine and catch him unawares the first time he’d walked into the restaurant to see a new waiter, but the waiter had to look like that. Willie was all dazzling smiles and sharp cheekbones and luscious long hair and it was, quite simply, unfair. Alex came to Waffle House to eat, not get flustered over some ridiculously good-looking boy.

For a few weeks, Alex had taken the admittedly immature approach to just avoid Waffle House altogether. Out of sight, out of mind. The only reason it hadn’t lasted long was because he missed the waffles, and he couldn’t find anything to fill that extra hour and a half of his Saturday. So after not visiting for two weeks, Alex returned to Waffle House and resumed his routine, still flustered by stupidly attractive Willie, but most definitely working on a way to stop it being a problem.

His next plan of action had been simply trying to avoid Willie which was foiled the moment he sat down in his usual booth one Saturday afternoon. He had been hoping that his usual server would spot him and come over for a chat, but as luck would have it, Willie got to his table first.

“Welcome to Waffle House,” he had said, beaming down at Alex, who tried to act as if the sudden appearance hadn’t scared the life out of him. He wasn’t sure how well he pulled it off, but Willie had made no comment. “My name is Willie, I’ll be your server today. What can I get you started with?”

Two things had thrown Alex then. Firstly, it had been the first time he’d heard Willie’s name. It was strange to be able to put a name to the face of an angel and he was certain he would never have guessed ‘Willie’ if he’d been given a million tries. Secondly, the fact that Willie didn’t automatically know his order bewildered him. He was so used to the waiters coming over, confirming he wanted the usual, and slipping into easy conversation. This was new and unexpected, and if there was anything Alex hated it was new and unexpected things.

As such, his mind went blank and he completely forgot what he usually ordered. A plain waffle and a diet coke shouldn’t have been easy to forget, it wasn’t anything fancy, and yet Alex made it work.

“Um,” he’d said dumbly, looking up at Willie’s expectant face with his mouth bobbing open and closed like a mildly distressed fish. He could feel his cheeks heating in a blush and looked away as Willie raised a concerned eyebrow.

“Do you need a minute to decide?” Willie had asked sceptically.

Alex had shaken his head vigorously, aware that probably made him look as frantically flustered as he felt and was trying to hide, which only made him more flustered. He took several shallow but slow breaths before forcing words out of his mouth because that was how conversations worked and he refused to lose the ability to speak over this boy.

“No, no, I know what I want,” he had said eventually. “Just a plain waffle and a diet coke, thank you.”

“Is that everything?” Willie had asked, jotting the order down on his notepad.

Not trusting himself to speak any more than that, Alex just nodded. Willie had shot him a bright smile and disappeared off to get his order prepared. The moment he was certain Willie couldn’t see him anymore, Alex’s head flopped onto the table and he let out a long, exhausted, frustrated groan. He felt like an utter mess.

For the rest of that visit, he’d kept it together by simply not talking to Willie unless it was absolutely necessary. Had he been a more confident person he might have found a better way to handle it, but Alex had been cursed with social awkwardness from the moment he’d been old enough to socialise and it wasn’t suddenly going to fix itself just do he didn’t make a fool of himself in front of Willie.

As time went on, things got simultaneously worse and better between Alex and Willie, enough that Alex both dreaded and looked forward to his weekly Waffle House trips. For one thing, he and Willie had got to know each other a bit better – Willie could anticipate Alex’s order now, Alex could just about talk without tripping over his words or saying something slightly embarrassing (which always felt to Alex like something utterly mortifying and worth overthinking because his brain hated him), and if both of them were in the right state of mind they could manage a very brief chat.

But on the flip side, Alex hated Waffle House now and it was Willie who had ruined it for him. Not for any sane reason like being a bad waiter (because he was actually a very good waiter, which Alex thought had something to do with the fact that he always wore Heelys so he could glide across the restaurant which was much faster than walking). No, Willie had ruined Waffle House for Alex because now he couldn’t go in there and see Willie without getting butterflies in his stomach and a giddy grin on his face.

Now that he knew Willie better, it wasn’t just his beautiful brown eyes and gorgeous smile that Alex liked about him. He was talkative, he was funny, he was sweet. He was extremely considerate – when Alex came in one day, Willie met him at the door, walked him to his usual table, told him they’d run out of diet coke and that he had just popped to the store and bought some just for Alex, knowing he would order it. And he laughed at Alex’s terrible attempts at humour, he drizzled the syrup onto Alex’s waffles in the shape of smiley faces, he made sure Alex’s usual booth was always free of people for when he came in. Everything about Willie made Alex’s heart beat too fast and his breath catch and it was starting to make going to Waffle House a very stressful experience.

So Willie was the reason that Alex loved going there and was also desperate to find somewhere else.

But Alex, despite his many worries about life, wasn’t the kind of person to give up on something just because someone else made it difficult. Sure, that rule had usually applied to very different situations, and he actually liked Willie so it wasn’t as if seeing him was a bad thing, but it helped Alex to remember that he’d always powered through things like this and that was what kept him going to the restaurant.

One day, he arrived to Waffle House later than normal. He had come straight from band practise which had gone on longer than normal because they’d spent the first forty-five minutes arguing about the dangers of fiddling with electrical equipment in the rain and decided to make up that time at the end. As such, Alex arrived almost twenty minutes after he normally would have left.

He didn’t spot Willie immediately as he came in and couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Nowadays, Willie nearly always greeted him at the door, knowing exactly what time he arrived. He supposed Willie had long ago given up waiting for him to get there – he had a job to get on with, after all. Alex tried not to feel too sad about it as he made his way over to his usual booth; Willie was a waiter, not a friend, not anything else, and Alex shouldn’t have expected him to wait forever or be there whenever he wanted.

But when Alex came to his usual seat, he was surprised to see someone already sat there. Even more so when he noticed that person was Willie.

Willie looked up as he approached, expression changing from bored to delighted in a second flat. The grin on his face was more than enough to snap Alex out of his sudden bad mood, lifting his spirits and bringing a smile to his face in an instant.

“Alex!” Willie greeted. “You’re here! I thought something had happened to you, man, you had me worried.”

Alex laughed and sat down opposite him, trying to keep his eyes wandering so he didn’t end up just staring at Willie. “Nah, I’m alright. Band practice ran over, is all.”

“I’m glad it’s nothing serious,” Willie said with a small smile. “But if it happens again can you text me to let me know you’ll be late? Just so I know I don’t need to worry about you and I can still keep your table free.”

“Sure, but I don’t have your number,” Alex said, ignoring the persistent fluttering of his heart and the alarms blaring in his head. It seemed as if his mind had pressed its panic button at something Willie had said but Alex was too distracted to figure out what.

“That’s easily fixed,” Willie replied. He dug his phone out of his back pocket and slid it across the table to Alex. “If you put your number in there I’ll text you so you can save mine.”

Heart hammering, cheeks hot, and smile so wide it hurt, Alex nodded and entered his contact information into Willie’s phone. He tried to act nonchalant as he slid it back across the table afterwards, but in his flustered state his aim was off – he pushed too hard and it fell over the edge of the table, right into Willie’s lap. That was one of those slightly embarrassing moments that Alex’s subconscious would likely rub mockingly in his face for days to come and he couldn’t help but wince at the thought.

“Thanks, man,” Willie said, beaming. “It’s just for peace of mind, you know. I really like you and when you didn’t show up earlier I just… well, I wondered where you were.”

Willie wasn’t meeting his eye all of a sudden. In fact, he apparently found the table top very interesting because he was staring at it like it held the secrets of the universe. Alex knew the signs well enough to guess how Willie was feeling then – nervous. But what did Willie ever have to be nervous about?

“Hey,” Alex said gently, lowering his voice in an attempt to calm Willie’s nerves. He leant over the table a little though so that he could still be heard. “I’m here, aren’t I? Nothing bad actually happened. You don’t need to worry about me, Willie. I promise.”

A small, bittersweet smile fluttered across Willie’s face. “Yeah. You’re here.”

The short silence then felt charged, electric, fierce. Why, Alex had no idea.

But Willie broke it, his usual bright smile back on his face as he said, “I hope you don’t mind me eating with you, by the way. I’m on my lunch break and I’d kept this table empty for you anyway so I thought I might as well sit here.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine by me,” Alex insisted. It was a half-truth. Was he happy to have longer to chat with Willie than normal, eat together as if they were friends rather than just a waiter and a customer? Yes. But did this feel too much like a date for Alex’s anxiety to handle, even though it was very clearly not a date? Also yes. He half wanted to ask Willie to sit somewhere else, but that would have been unthinkably rude, so he settled for trying not to be awkward.

Not long later, another server came and brought their food out. For a moment Alex thought it was weird because nobody had even come to take his order, then he remembered that everyone who worked at Waffle House knew what he got so it would have just wasted time if they’d asked. The two of them ate in silence for a while, Willie enjoying his break and Alex enjoying the first food he’d eaten all day.

Their conversation started up again when they were about halfway into their meals. Willie asked about Alex’s band practise, how things were going, what they had lined up. Alex was more than happy to talk about Julie and the Phantoms for hours on end and the way Willie engaged with his waffling on so enthusiastically only fuelled that fire. But in return, Alex made sure to ask how Willie was, how he was getting on preparing to start college, whether he’d had enough free time to skate lately.

It was weird, he thought, that this was their first proper conversation and yet they already knew so much about each other’s lives that it flowed as easily as it would have if Alex had been talking to one of his closest friends. Perhaps he and Willie were closer than he had realised.

He only stayed until Willie’s break ended, which was painfully short. They said their goodbyes, Alex jokingly promised he’d be on time next time, Willie laughed that beautiful laugh of his as he took their plates away, and Alex left the restaurant. He couldn’t shake the odd feeling in his mind, still wondering what had panicked him at the start of their conversation.

It hit him as he was crossing a road, stopping him dead in his tracks and causing an irritated driver to beep his horn at him: Willie had been worried about him.

It felt so much more personal than it should have. If Willie worried, it meant he cared, and if Willie cared then it could have meant any number of things. It could have meant that when he looked at Alex he felt the same featherlight giddiness that Alex did when he saw Willie. It could have meant that Willie spent his days wishing Alex was more than just a regular customer. It could have meant that when Willie asked for his phone number he was actually asking for more than that.

Alex had no idea what inspired him to do it, what unusual burst of courage gave him the ability to go through with it, but a moment later he had whipped his phone out and opened Willie’s contact. There was only one message between them, the one Willie had sent so Alex could save his information, but Alex quickly typed out another and hit send before he had time to regret it.

I know you said I only needed to text you if I was going to be late, but I figured I could text you about other stuff too. Like the fact I’m free next Friday if you want to hang out.

Something like that ordinarily would have stressed him out but he didn’t have the time for that because Willie’s response was almost immediate.

Sure! I hear Waffle House is pretty great, how about we go there?

Alex laughed at how dorky and cute Willie was even over text and replied quickly with: It’s a date.

Willie replied with three emojis – a smiley face, a heart, and a waffle. Even just from that, Alex knew Willie had understood him and that next Friday they would be going on an actual date together. He didn’t care whether it was actually at Waffle House or they tried somewhere completely new; as long as he was with Willie, nothing else mattered.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

One of the choices Druck made in s2 that I’ve never really been particularly enamored with is having Jonas fall apart instead of Hanna. Like... Here’s the thing. In Skam, Eva fell apart and started drinking more heavily to give Noora a reason to go to all these parties she didn’t want to go to because William would be there. Eva’s substance abuse was a plot device for Noora’s plot. Once Noora and William kiss, Eva’s substance abuse goes away because Noora now attends these events willingly. That’s why Eva’s substance abuse in Skam sucks, because it’s not a part of a larger arc for Eva. (In fact, after s1, Eva doesn’t have arcs anymore, really.)

In Druck, Jonas’ substance abuse is 100% a part of Jonas’ larger arc. Yes, it is partly used as a plot device in that he gets drunk with Axel and Sara that one time and they vandalize the school -- but it’s also the reason why Jonas doesn’t notice Matteo becoming more withdrawn, and is then referenced throughout s3 as Jonas stops smoking weed, starts swimming, starts hooking up with girls (because without weed, his nether regions are performing better... apparently), and is part of the scene where Matteo comes out to Jonas. Jonas’ substance abuse informs his actions in s2, s3 and tangentially even the Abiball ep, as he became involved with Abi Chaker because of his substance abuse. 

Meanwhile, not only does Jonas’ substance abuse do nothing for Hanna’s character, but, much like Eva, Hanna never gets an arc after s1 either. Sure, she gets plenty of solo social media content, but like Sam (who also gets a ton), this content never materializes into an arc on the show proper. After s1, Hanna really only exists to react to Jonas’ actions, date someone else to make Jonas sad, and talk about boysssss. Even the anniversary of her mom’s death is about Jonas! And how Jonas is the only one who gets her. 

Compare with Skam Austin, which also had their Eva abuse alcohol. Iirc, Austin also used it as a plot device to get Grace to go places (or at least, I can’t remember why else Grace would’ve gone to Daniel’s party that time he serenaded her). But then, it didn’t go away once Grace and Daniel got together, and at that point it became part of Megan’s larger arc. It is still going on in the s2 finale clip, and so we have to assume this was a thread the writers intended on picking up.

And the thing is, this is part of a larger pattern with Druck, where they’ll take traits and plot points that were given to girls in Skam, give them to boys, and then make them more interesting than they were in Skam. It happens with Eva’s substance abuse (which was given to Jonas as aforementioned), Noora’s panic attack (given to Axel), and then the Sam/Abdi sideplot, where Abdi is the one who gets to have an arc and realize he doesn’t like sex with no strings attached, whereas Sam remains static as a character.

Personally, and specifically when it comes to the Skams, I’d rather storylines where girls may do things that make them look pathetic, embarrassing, awkward, etc. but which make them better rounded characters with their own arcs and character development, over having them be flawless and flat while the boys get to have all the character development and interesting scenes that involve lots of character work.

That’s one of the things I wasn’t super sold on with Druck’s gen 1, and tbh, for me it has to do with Alex Lindh (a dude) being the head writer for s1 and s2, as well as a consultant for s4. It just felt like overall he was interested in boys being dynamic characters, and girls not being ~pathetic~. 

However, this is something that I noticed almost right away has changed with Druck’s new gen. Like, with the new kids, the things that happen are pretty much always to service the girls’ storylines or characters, and not the boys’. Nora, Ava, Fatou, Zoe and Kieu My are all flawed characters with their own bigger or smaller character arcs. Mailin is less developed, but she’s still more developed than Josh or Finn, for instance. And when Mailin is used as a plot device, it’s in the service of Nora’s or Ava’s storyline, NOT a boy’s. When Sporty Spice does something mildly interesting (like talking to Nora on NYE, or resurfacing in the countryside for a social media detox), it’s not to develop his character or give him an arc, but rather to create conflict for Nora and Fatou. It’s for the GIRLS’ arcs. The only (so far) male-identified character who seems to have an ongoing arc is Ismail, and for all we know, he won’t remain male-identified for long. 

[pink-flame]

Lucky it Was Hotdogs

So! This is my gift for the @jatp-gift-exchange celebrating 6 months since the show came out. I just so happened to be assigned my friend @tmp-jatp as my giftee. Which is awesome because she’s awesome. She asked for angst and my first thought was my reputation is just going to get worse. 😂 And then I started writing, started over, changed to a different prompt two more times...had a few breakdowns but here we are! Basically all of my friends had to hear about my spiral the last couple of days so thank you and my apologies. 🙏 

T, I hope you like it! 💜💜💜

In some ways Luke thinks that it’s lucky it was hot dogs.

Of course, if he had been asked to choose a way to go back in 95 he probably would have said old and in his sleep. Or maybe he would have been a smart ass and said jumping the grand canyon on a motorcycle or playing an epic show in bad weather and having some sort of electrical incident (Reggie wasn’t the only one who had been involved in that amp incident not that he was in a hurry to tell Alex that). Contaminated hot dogs in an alley on the night of their big break probably wouldn’t have occurred to him and it definitely wouldn’t have cracked the top ten list of his requests.

But now that he’s in the future, with his band and with Julie and with their dreams once again a real possibility...he thinks the hot dogs would have been the right choice.

The truth is it doesn’t matter how tragic it is that three kids had their lives cut short at the same time it’s always going to be at least a little bit funny that they went from death by hot dog. It lets him use the tragedy as a means of teasing Julie as she bites into her sandwich and it lets Willie give Alex an affectionate nickname that’s only a little in bad taste. It lets Reggie hover behind Ray when Julie’s dad gets the grill out and clutch his stomach dramatically in a reenactment for his friends amusement. It lets Julie look at Luke like the fact that he is a ghost is mildly exasperating but not inherently upsetting, not like it would be if he was a walking reminder of a car accident or the cancer that took her mom.

So yeah, it’s lucky it was hot dogs.

Except...sometimes Luke wishes that it wasn't.

Sometimes he wishes that he had died from an illness or an accident or anything that would prompt someone to look at him and ask if he wanted to talk about it. Because...he does. Just sometimes. Wants to talk about how much it hurt. Wants to talk about how scared he was. Wants to talk about how even though being able to make music still (being able to make music with Julie) matters most it does bother him.

It bothers him that Julie is the only lifer he can touch (even though she would clearly be his first choice).

It bothers him that he fades into non-existence as soon as they stop playing.

It bothers him that he can’t even thank Julie’s dad for hosting their garage gig or show her brother that he’s holding it all wrong when he catches him strumming lightly on Luke’s guitar one day.

It bothers him that he won’t ever be anything other than what he is, a teenager with a guitar and a longstanding suspicion about the consequences of wearing sleeves while performing.

It bothers him that Julie will always be what she is now (an amazing teenage girl with a wrecking ball voice and a heart big enough to keep them with her through sheer force of will) but she will also become so much more.

An adult.

Someone with a job and a family and…

He can’t think about it.

Except he does.

Not all the time but often enough, especially at night when Alex is off with Willie and Reggie is watching tv with an unsuspecting Ray and Luke is wishing more than anything that he could find the escape of sleep.

So usually he ends up writing when he feels like this, seeking out the familiar sensation of pen flying over paper, words tumbling from the deepest recesses of his mind to collect into the shape of a song.

I know I’m being selfish

But feeling alive isn’t being alive

Feeling you breathe isn’t breathing

I just want this feeling forever

Instead I count every moment I’m stealing

“Why are you writing in the dark?” Julie’s amused voice cuts through the silence causing him to jump, a remnant of a time when he had anything to fear other than his own uncertain future.

He’s not sure if it’s a ghostly superpower or just the fact that he had been peering at his notebook from only about an inch away but it’s true, he hadn’t bothered to turn the light on and he saw it just fine.

The dark felt more appropriate somehow when he felt like this anyway.

She flips on the light and crosses the room to sink down beside him where he’s spread out on the floor. He’s so distracted for a moment by just how Julie she always manages to be (beautiful and amazing and distracting in the best way) that he doesn’t realize that she’s reaching for his notebook until it’s too late. He tries to snatch it back fruitlessly as she turns her eyes to the words he has scrawled across the page. He hopes momentarily that she won’t be able to make out his infamously illegible handwriting but his hopes are dashed when she reads out the last few lines in a thoughtful tone. He has a brief flash of affection at the realization that she must be his soulmate if she can read his handwriting.

He’s distracted from that thought though when he sees the smile slide off of her face only to be replaced with a tight frown before she turns to face him, concern shining in her eyes.

“I’m fine,” He says quickly, hoping to prevent any of his dark mood from seeping into the girl beside him.

The girl who has already known enough darkness for a lifetime.

“Every moment you’re stealing?” She quotes back to him, setting the notebook carefully back on the floor. “That doesn’t sound fine.”

He considers brushing off her concern, playing it off, claiming he’s not even writing from his own perspective anyway, that he doesn’t know where the idea came from.

He can do that because he may be dead but the culprit was hot dogs and that gives him an out to make a dumb joke and change the subject and keep things the way they are now.

And if it was anyone else he would have. But it’s Julie. And he’s Luke.

She can read his handwriting.

And she can read him too.

If he lets her.

“You know how you said your dad made you talk to someone after your mom died?”

She tilts her head, clearly not expecting this question. She answers it anyway.

“Dr. Turner,” She nods. “Three times a week for a while.”

“Did it uh…” Luke swallows hard, his throat suddenly impossibly dry considering he was pretty sure he wasn’t actually producing spit anymore period. “Did it help?”

Julie’s hand twitches in her lap and he can tell she is deciding whether she should touch him. He reaches out to toy with the frayed edge of her jeans where they burst open at the knee. The answer to whether Julie should be touching him is always a resounding yes in his opinion but he also wants to let her come to him. It hasn’t been that long since they’ve even been able to touch each other and despite how much they crave it there’s a lingering awkwardness after all the build up.

“Talking to someone?” She asks carefully. “Yeah, it did. After a while I felt like I needed space to sort through things on my own but by then I was able to talk with my dad and Flynn too.”

He nods, keeps his eyes firmly on the hole in her jeans.

“Luke…”

Damn.

He has to look at her when she says his name like that.

He raises his eyes slowly, meeting her soft ones with nerves he can’t quite place.

“You know you can talk to me, right? Always.”

Her question is so small and yet so big at the same time. Such a simple offer containing such a big promise.

Always.

Wasn’t that the problem?

His always might not line up with hers.

He could forget that fact for a bit when the band was hanging out and laughing over nothing or rocking a crowd’s face’s off or when Julie was smiling in that certain Julie way that seemed reserved only for him.

But he couldn’t forget forever.

And he couldn’t promise always.

So where did that leave him?

“Luke?”

She breaks him from his thoughts again and he pushes past his caution this time, reaching out to link her hand with his, their fingers slotting together effortlessly despite the way one of them isn’t really there.  

He isn’t really there.

Is he...real?

Luke suddenly feels a strange rush of panic, all of the thoughts he’s been pushing aside for months crashing through him at once.

He must have squeezed Julie’s hand inadvertently because he sees her flinch.

“Sorry, sorry,” He says breathlessly (not that he needs to breathe, he’s breathless, literally, he’s dead), drawing her hand up to press an apology against the skin there, his lips lingering for a long moment before he pulls away.

She’s not unaffected by his sudden actions, the way her eyes widen for a fraction of a second is proof enough of that, but she’s also determined and she doesn’t let him off the hook.

“Talk to me, Luke,” She says like an order and a request and a prayer all at once.

And he can’t deny her anything.

Not even this.

“I’m fine, I am...it’s just...I’m so happy that we ended up here with you Julie no matter what. I need you to know that ok? I just..I don’t...I don’t want…”

She waits as long as she can for him to finish that sentence but when he doesn’t seem prepared to, she leans closer, squeezes his hand, gives him that last push off the cliff he’s been teetering on the edge of for months.

“Don’t want what?”

“Don’t want to be dead.”

The words escape him in a hurried rush, one blending into another until it sounds like one long syllable of pain rather than a proper sentence. Still. He’s pretty sure the message got through.

“I know,” She says simply, her eyes sad but her touch impossibly gentle as her free hand comes up to cup his cheek. “I know, Luke, I know.”

He doesn’t realize he’s crying until she’s brushing his tears away with the delicate tips of her fingers.

And maybe he is real, at least a little bit if his eyes can still muster up the ability to leak like this and damn it why is that what he’s thinking about right now when the girl, the living girl, he loves is waiting for him to say something.

He wants to think of the perfect thing but what ends up coming out leaves a lot to be desired.

“Julie...I love making music with you. I love y...I love being in your life. But I’m dead. And maybe...maybe it would be better…”

“No,” She cuts him off firmly, gripping his chin lightly to turn his face more fully towards hers. “Whatever you think you’re about to say, the answer is no.”

“Julie…” He tries again.

She’s already shaking her head.

“I don’t care if you’re about to suggest some noble sacrifice or push me away or blame yourself for something...just...don’t.”

Any protest he has prepared dies on his lips, the slightest quirk of a smile taking their place even as a few stray tears make their way down his face.

“Ok,” He agrees simply.

Julie brings her other hand down to grip his knee as though she’s trying to keep him with her by anchoring him physically, making him part of her, making him real.

And that’s that.

It takes time.

A hundred aborted conversations with half confessions and unspoken requests for comfort and love freely given if not freely spoken.

But eventually he gets used to talking to Julie the same way he got used to writing with Julie and singing with Julie and falling in love with Julie.

So steadily he doesn’t feel the progress until one day he looks up and there’s no going back, not that he would ever want to.

He’s dead.

He can’t get around that.

He ate some bad hot dogs, and that will always be a little bit funny. It’s also sad and scary and tragic.

He’s dead.

But he’s also so alive.

He can’t promise always but he can promise as long as I’m here.

And he does.

Over and over and over again.

[sapphosclown]

Kiss Him You Fool - Willex Oneshot

aka willie and flynn are best friends and she’s done with this mutual pining bullshit. (boys are alive bc i didn’t feel like thinking about ghost logistics today lmao)

so i didn’t get to participate in willex week nearly as much as i wanted to so this is my song fic/au fic (i guess? since the guys are alive? idk) for free day since i didn’t get the idea till last night at 1am. anyways i also didn’t sign up for the gift exchange but i still wanna dedicate this fic to @fairygclds for hosting this week bc she did an amazing job and i love her v much, ty mari <3

title is from Kiss Her You Fool by Kids That Fly, cute song highly recommend

rbs and comments appreciated :)

———

———

That was real right? He didn’t make that up in his head? That happened. Right?

Willie was abruptly knocked out of their thoughts as his board hit a crack in the sidewalk, sending him onto the pavement, scraping his knee. Although, the stinging did help them snap out of the daze he was in, making him realize that yes, this is real life, and yes, he and Alex Mercer almost kissed.

***

“Stop, you’re not allowed to be that good at everything.” Willie teased as Alex just barely completed a loop around him.

“I feel like we are experiencing different timelines here or something.” Alex let out a shaky laugh as he flailed his arms in an attempt to regain the balance he’d just lost. Luckily, Willie held out their arm for him to grab just in time.

“Come on, you’re doing great! Just need to have a little more faith in yourself.” Willie smiled gently, offering extra support with his free hand.

Alex scoffed. “I think I’m a roller skating kind of guy.”

“Well, I disagree but if that’s how you feel—”

Alex rolled his eyes, making Willies stomach flutter. He helped him off the skateboard and they sat down on the couch in the studio. Willie ignored the fact that despite having the entire couch to themselves, they sat right up against each other, and he especially ignored the way their knees touching made his heart beat faster than normal.

“Actually, I think solid ground is where it’s at.” Alex said, only half-joking.

“I guess, but the wheels add some spice that solid ground could never live up to.”

“Exactly. You know exactly what you’re getting with solid ground. Me and wheels have a complicated relationship.”

“Oh really? You guys have a falling out?” Willie teased.

“Ha, yeah. There was some falling.” Alex gave a sarcastic laugh.

“But that’s the fun part! You can get some pretty rad scars from skating.” Willie pointed out.

“‘Rad?’ What, are you from the 80’s?”

“Listen—” Willie shushed him, shoving his shoulder into him playfully.

They laughed for a moment before falling into a comfortable silence. Willie was really tempted to lay his head onto Alex’s shoulder, or hold his hand.

His hand was right there. It would be so easy... But instead he grabbed their own hand and started messing with their fingers.

“So, what are your plans for the rest of the day?” He asked lamely.

“We’re rehearsing for our gig tomorrow night. Luke and Julie are going over the set list one last time right now but we should be starting pretty soon.” Alex replied, checking the time on his phone before looking back at Willie. “Actually, if you wanna hangout while we rehearse, I don’t think they’d mind.”

“Oh, yeah! That sounds great!” Willie smiled.

“Cool.” Alex nodded, and maybe he was seeing things, but Willie could’ve sworn his cheeks were turning pink. That made him giggle.

“So, what’s the set list then?” They asked curiously. He shifted his body so that he could look at Alex, only mildly upset about the loss of contact, but being able to see the faded pink in Alex’s cheeks made up for it.

“Well, usually we start with Edge of Great, but Julie and Luke wrote this new song that is perfect to open with and I just know everyone’s gonna love it—”

Willie stared at Alex as he rambled on about the show and they couldn’t help the soft smile on their lips. Alex noticed almost immediately and stopped talking, almost embarrassed.

“What?” He asked.

“No, it’s nothing.” Willie said, waving his hand for them to move past it.

“No, I feel like you’re judging me!” Alex giggled.

“No! I’m not judging you!” Willie reassured. “You’re just really cute when you talk about music.” He said softly.

Alex went bright red. “Oh.” He replied in the same tone.

The air around them went quiet again, but this time filled with a different feeling. The feeling that there was nothing else in the world but the two of them. And suddenly their faces were a lot closer than Willie had realized. His eyes flicked down to Alex’s lips subconsciously and then back to his eyes, which he found were doing the same thing. There was nothing stopping him, all he had to do was lean in just a little bit more...

“WHO’S READY TO MAKE SOME MUSIC!” Reggie called excitedly as he entered the garage, making Willie and Alex jump apart. Reggie eyed them suspiciously. “Oh, hey Willie.” He said, eyebrows pulled together like he was piecing together what just happened.

“Hey.” Willie breathed uncomfortably. He felt like he couldn’t get enough air.

“Are you gonna hangout for rehearsal?” Reggie asked.

“Actually, uh, I gotta get going.” Willie sputtered before his brain could catch up to his mouth. They stood up and grabbed their things messily.

“I thought you said—”

“I just remembered I have to do something.” Willie cut Alex off. “I’ll see you tomorrow though?”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Alex said quietly, failing at hiding his disappointment and making Willies chest ache.

“Cool.” Willie said. “See ya.” He threw an awkward peace sign at Reggie (who gave him one back) and skated out of the garage as fast as he possibly could.

***

“You are a disaster.” Flynn scolded, grabbing a dinosaur band-aid out of her desk drawer.

“I know!” Willie yelled into her pillow. She plopped down onto the bed in front of him.

“Why didn’t you just kiss him! You had the opportunity and he clearly wanted to kiss you too!” She yelled.

“I don’t know!” Willie whined, throwing the pillow back down into his lap. “I wanted to but I froze! And then Reggie showed up and I couldn’t stay after that! What if he didn’t want that to happen, what if he hates me now!”

“He doesn’t hate you! He’s very clearly in love with you, I don’t know what you’re not understanding about this.” She peeled the paper off the band-aid and carefully stuck it to Willies knee.

“You don’t know that.” He huffed.

“Who do you think you’re talking to? He likes you. When have I ever been wrong?”

They hated to admit it, but there have been very few times Flynn has been wrong.

“Fine. But what am I supposed to do?”

“Go back there? Ask him on a date or kiss him or just literally do anything.”

“I can’t go back! He’s rehearsing! I don’t wanna barge in while they’re rehearsing. And I left so fast it’d be so awkward—”

“Stop making excuses!” Flynn shook their shoulders, as they pouted. “Call him and say you forgot something.”

“I didn’t forget anything.” He said plainly. Flynn shot him a look.

“Duh! I know that, but if you tell him you’re coming back to get something then you can’t chicken out.” She explained, exasperated.

“Oh! Well what should I say I forgot?”

“Your phone, that's a reasonable thing you’d need to get back.”

“Okay. Okokok.” Willie mumbled to themself pulling out his phone and scrolling through his contacts before Flynn snatched it from them.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling him like you said!”

“Use my phone dummy! If you call him from your phone he’ll know you didn’t leave it there!” She opened her phone and before Willie realized what was happening, the phone was ringing on speaker.

“Hello?” Alex’s voice cracked through the phone.

Flynn looked at Willie and then back to the phone when he just sat there mouth agape.

“Um, hi. It’s Willie, not Flynn, I, um, left my phone in the studio and I’m on my way back to grab it.” They stuttered, hitting his head at his awkwardness.

“Oh alright. See you soon, then.”

“Yup. See ya.” Willie threw his head in his hands, their face turning bright red. Flynn ended the call and leaned against her wall with their arms crossed.

“You really are a disaster huh.” She teased.

Willie threw his pillow at them playfully and jumped off the bed. “I hate you.” He laughed.

“Love you too.” She grinned slyly. “Now, go tell your boyfriend he’s cool and you wanna kiss him!”

Willie groaned as he grabbed his things as Flynn shooed him out of her room.

***

“He’s coming back.” Alex said quickly. His friends shared the same look as they all “ooooooo”d at him.

“Guys stop! What do I do!” He cried.

“Man calm down, it’s alright.” Reggie consoled him.

“Why’re they coming back?” Julie asked turning her keyboard off so she can lean on the keys.

“Said they forgot their phone.” Alex replied.

“Mhm, right. Sure he did.” Luke teased. If he were closer Alex would’ve shoved him but he felt like he was glued to his seat.

“What do I do?” Alex asked again.

“I mean, we can keep rehearsing till he gets here if that’ll take your mind off of it?” Julie suggested.

God bless Julie. Alex nodded.

“I don’t know, it seems like he and Willie have some unfinished business.” Reggie winked.

“No! Nothing was happening! Nothing happened, it’s nothing. He just needs his phone back.” Alex tried to ignore his friends snickering but his mind flashed back to Willie on the couch in front of him. He really thought Willie had wanted to kiss him, but if how he left says anything, Alex must’ve misread the situation. They probably hated him.

“Dude, I can practically hear your thoughts and I promise you, he likes you.” Reggie assured him.

“You can’t know that for sure.” Alex mumbled, watching his drumstick twirl through his fingers.

“Maybe not but, we’ve all noticed how they look at you.” Luke cut in.

“It’s not exactly a secret.” Julie said sweetly.

“I just... I care about them a lot and what if you’re wrong and that’s just how he acts with his friends—”

“No, dude, we’re not letting you talk yourself out of this one.” Luke laughed.

“Seriously, Alex, you should go for it!” Reggie said encouragingly, walking around his drums to clap his shoulder.

Alex thought about it, he really did. He really thought for a second that he could do it, he could just lean forward and kiss him and they’d live happily ever after. But he over thought it, as usual.

“I don’t know. Maybe someday.” He shrugged.

“You can’t just wait for someday! You gotta go after what you want!” Luke exclaimed. Julie nodded.

Alex smiled at his friends. He appreciated their support but he couldn’t help but be afraid. Deep down, he knew they were right. He knew if Reggie had been just a minute later... But he still didn’t want to get his hopes up too high. Because there’s always that what if that won’t leave him alone.

There was a gentle knock on the garage doors as Willie stepped into view, he was hugging his arms and had a soft smile on his face. They carefully waved at everyone before he made eye contact with Alex, and suddenly it felt just like they were on the couch again. Just the two of them.

You know what. Maybe it’s time for someday.

Alex stood up from his drums and walked over to Willie, trying to act nonchalant. He heard Julie clear her throat to get the other two to stop staring at them and at least pretend to do something else.

“Hey.” Alex breathed.

“Hey.” Willie replied. “Can I actually see you, out here?” He asked shyly, nodding his head out side.

Alex nodded and followed Willie out of view of his band mates.

“Sorry, I probably should’ve looked for your phone before you got here but—” before Alex could finish his sentence Willie had cupped Alex’s face and pulled him into a kiss.

Alex felt like his heart had just exploded and he wasn’t completely sure if he was real anymore, but then he felt his hand rest on Willies cheek and he could confirm that yes, this was happening.

It didn’t last longer than a few seconds before Willie pulled away again. Their eyes searched Alex’s face for any sign of his emotion but Alex had completely stopped functioning and didn’t quite know what to do until he felt Willies grip on his face loosen.

“I’m sorry—” He tried to retract his hands but Alex held them in place, and he couldn’t help but laugh. He saw Willie’s worry fade and Alex pulled him back into a kiss. This one much softer, less rushed. No longer a question, but an answer.

They pulled apart and Alex noticed Willie shrinking down a bit and smiled to himself.

“Do you have to stand on your tiptoes to kiss me?” He asked cheekily.

Willie raised his eyebrows. “That’s the question you have right now?”

Alex nodded, his smile unmoving.

“I’m glad you have your priorities set.” Willie laughed.

“Definitely.” Alex whispered. “Priority number one, make you stand on your tiptoes to kiss me again.”

“You’re mean.” Willie pouted. Alex laughed and Willie gave him a playful shove before Alex pulled him back onto his tiptoes.

“It’s about time.” Reggie whispered as he Luke and Julie peeked around the door and watched their friend.

“Luke,” He stood up straight and held out his hand.

Luke groaned and fished for his wallet in his pockets, handing him a $20 bill.

“Thank you.” Reggie said smugly, pocketing the cash.

Julie laughed and shook her head at her friends and they all made their way back to their respective instruments. Julie pulled out her phone.

Flynn: did he do it??

Julie: yup. reggie’s $20 richer

Flynn: about time!! took those fools long enough, geez

Julie: really tho

Alex walked back into the studio a blushing smiley mess and sat at his drums again, not saying a word despite his friends staring at him expectantly.

He scanned their faces from his seat behind his drums.

“From the top?”

———

———

a/n: let it be known that reggie used that $20 to buy a fish and he named it Gil and he is the best fish dad ever

[trekscribbles]

Triple Threat: A Stone Triplets Fic (Chapter 2)

Fandoms: Leverage/Leverage Redemption, Librarians, and Almost Paradise

Cross-Posted: Ao3 and FF

Summary: Eliot and Jake are both in the Philippines for separate jobs that turn out to be related. Kai takes the existence of Alex's brothers as a personal attack on her mental health. Ernesto happily goes along for the ride.

Read Chapter 1 here.

Chapter 2: Double Trouble

The last time Eliot saw Alex was when they were 16 years old. Alex had been living with Uncle Danny for 6 years at that point, so the brothers didn't have much of a relationship even then, and the reunion had been awkward and tense. Jake was the one who tried to keep them together, who talked their father into hosting Christmas that year. He was the one who'd called Alex and begged him to come home for a week. Just a week.

They'd lasted three days.

At the time Eliot had blamed Alex—immature, bull-headed Alex, whose verbal and then physical fights with their father had led to his living with Uncle Danny in the first place. If he could have just learned to keep his mouth shut, most of the fights wouldn't have happened. Eliot and Jake had learned that lesson—why couldn't Alex? He always had to have the last word, no matter what the cost.

That last visit was what finally convinced Eliot to leave home. He thought about college, but eventually decided to enlist as soon as he turned 18 (without telling their father). Jake was supposed to go with him, but he'd wanted to see Alex one more time before they left. When months went by and Alex didn't come back, Eliot left both his brothers behind.

Age had given Eliot perspective, but by the time he was ready to apologize, Jake wouldn't take his calls. Alex had already joined the DEA, and a series of undercover assignments for both of them made it impossible for Eliot to reach out. And then he got involved with Moreau, and getting in touch was no longer an option. It would have put them in too much danger, and that was one thing Eliot would never do. But after a while, even that became an excuse. After he escaped Moreau, after Nate created a team and a family for him, he let the silence continue. He'd made that choice on his own.

And now apparently Alex was in the Philippines. Permanently, according to the detective who introduced herself as Kai Mendoza. That was all she would tell him (through gritted teeth, as though Eliot had committed some unforgivable sin by asking). "We have to take care of this mess," she'd grumbled. "Then we'll take you to see Alex."

She hadn't asked if Eliot wanted to see Alex, and part of him was glad for that. If he'd been given the option, he wasn't sure he'd have said yes. It would have been easy to say that he was too busy, that he couldn't stay, that it was better for them not to meet. But now that the offer was there, Eliot couldn't turn it down. One way or another, he was going to see his brother today.

Kai and her partner Ernesto drove him and the two men they'd arrested to the police station, where Eliot was firmly told to stay in the car. Kai paused after giving the order as if waiting for him to argue, even after he nodded and promised to stay put. Apparently Alex hadn't changed much since they were kids.

While the others were inside, Eliot took a few minutes to call Hardison and update him on the job. It was just the two of them on this one, with Hardison pulling the strings from somewhere in Vietnam while Eliot worked on the ground in Cebu.

Hardison picked up on the first ring. "All done? I booked you a flight back to New Orleans on—"

"I ran into a little snag," Eliot interrupted.

"What kind of snag?"

Eliot explained most of his encounter with Kai and Ernesto, but he couldn't bring himself to include the fact that he'd been mistaken for one of his long-lost triplet brothers. Hardison knew he had siblings, but Eliot hadn't ever gone into details about them. He wasn't sure what he'd say now, and he knew Hardison would have questions. Best to leave it be. He'd give Hardison a more in-depth explanation later.

"So now what?" Hardison asked.

"Now we wait and see if they can salvage the sting. If they arrest Flores, our work is done."

"And if they don't?"

"I'll let you know."

There was a pause, as if Hardison was trying to decide whether or not to voice his next thought. "Is there something else?"

Eliot sighed. He tried not to lie to Hardison or Parker, but he didn't want to have this conversation now. "Not about the job," he answered. "I'll explain later."

To his credit, Hardison didn't argue, even though he had to be burning with curiosity. "Okay. Call back when you have more to share."

"Yeah."

It was another twenty minutes before Kai and Ernesto emerged from the police station, both wearing grim expressions. They were talking as they approached the car, and Eliot caught the tail end of their conversation through the open windows.

"I didn't want to bring him in on this," Kai was saying.

Ernesto shrugged. "We don't really have a choice anymore."

"Things get messy when his family is involved. It'll only complicate things."

Interesting. Which of his relatives had already come to the island? Evidently Eliot's family had a knack for disrupting the locals.

"Ocampo's orders," Ernesto said. He opened the passenger door and slid into the car, turning to look over his shoulder at Eliot. "We'll take you to see Alex, but you're going to have to come back to the station and explain what you were doing with Flores."

Eliot crossed his arms. "Figured you'd want to know that first."

"We do," Kai said, with a frown at her partner. "You owe the delay to Alex. He's helped us out in the past, and Ernesto thinks we should tell him you're here before he finds out from someone else."

"The surprise could kill him," Ernesto said mildly.

"You just want to see his face when we show up with his doppelganger."

"Don't you?" Ernesto asked. Kai huffed and dropped into the driver's seat.

They lapsed into silence during the drive, which Eliot appreciated. His stomach had begun an uneasy churn, though he told himself it was just because of the heat. There was nothing to be nervous about. Sure Eliot hadn't reached out, but neither had Alex. Neither had Jake, for that matter. Eliot had gone home once, just after he got out of the service, and found Jake had taken over the oil company. Their neighbors said that Jake was turning things around, digging out of debt and even managing a profit, and Eliot accepted the blessing and drove out of town without stopping by the house. It was enough that Jake was happy. He didn't need Eliot coming back and ruining things for him.

Kai pulled into the parking lot of another hotel, dodging groups of brightly dressed tourists as she went. "He owns the gift shop here at the resort," Ernesto explained, flashing a friendly smile over his shoulder. Kai didn't look at him as she got out of the car, but Eliot was happy to keep his silence. He trailed behind her as she led the way through the resort, winding around pools and umbrella-covered tables, slowing every few moments so Ernesto could greet someone. Apparently the friendliness wasn't an act—or else it was a very good one. But something about the man felt genuine, as if he couldn't be bothered to put up a front.

Kai, on the other hand... she was harder to read. Especially now that she wasn't giving Eliot anything to work with except the occasional glare.

Before long the bustle of the resort faded as concrete transitioned to sand beneath their feet. A small building rose ahead of them, still against the backdrop of gentle waves and lazy clouds. A soft breeze ruffled Eliot's hair, filling his lungs with salt and sunshine. He wanted to stop, to look out at the water and breathe in the sea spray and the silence, but the others kept walking.

No wonder Alex had picked this spot. If retirement was in Eliot's future, he could see himself in a place like this.

Ernesto reached the door, and Eliot took one last windswept breath to brace himself.

"You look nervous," Kai murmured.

No he didn't. He knew he didn't, because the only emotions he gave away were the ones he wanted people to see. And he was most definitely not nervous. But her eyes lingered on his, and something softened in her expression.

"Don't worry," she said, giving him a small, hesitant smile. "It'll be fine."

"Alex," Ernesto called, and Eliot's stomach gave another roll. This was a mistake. He shouldn't have come. He tried to back away, but Kai put her hand on his arm and cut off his retreat, guiding him inside.

The gift shop was empty besides one man restocking a rack of post cards. He stood with his back to them, but it was impossible to mistake him for anyone else. He had the same build as Eliot, the same brown hair he'd have to fight to keep straight in this humidity, the same scarred hands from years of work and fighting.

"Hey!" Alex said without turning around. "Check it out, I got new cards."

Ernesto started across the room, gesturing for Eliot to follow. "How come you didn't tell us you had a twin?"

Alex looked at him. "A twin? I don't have a tw—"

His eyes fell on Eliot, and his words died. Eliot could feel Kai watching them, waiting for a reaction, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Hey, how've you been the last 30 years? Oh, me? Well, first I was an international assassin, and now I work with a group of thieves who steal from the rich and give to the poor. I still punch people for a living though. How about you?

Something started beeping. Eliot started—no, not started, just looked around for the source—but Alex slapped his hand to his wrist and the sound stopped.

"Everything okay?" Ernesto asked. Alex made a noncommittal sound, glancing at him before returning his attention to Eliot. His eyes seemed bluer than Eliot remembered. It was probably just the lighting, but since it was the only thought that didn't spiral out of control, it was the one Eliot clung to. Blue eyes like their mother's, like the pond water in the back yard. Blue eyes that had been red with anger and hurt the last time he'd seen them.

"Which one are you?" Alex asked.

Behind him, Kai made a choking sound. Ernesto shushed her.

"But—" she sputtered. "Are there more of them?"

Eliot refocused on his brother. "You don't recognize me?"

"You both look the same," Alex deadpanned.

"Well, we're in the Philippines and I'm speaking English."

For a long moment Alex simply stared at him as if trying to read the details of their separation in his face. Then he reached out, and Eliot braced himself for the punch. He wouldn't fight back—not at first, not unless things got out of hand. He could take a hit or two, let Alex burn off some of his anger, and then try talking. They weren't 16 anymore. They could handle this like adults.

But Alex didn't hit him. His arms flashed out past Eliot's head, wrapping around his shoulders, pulling him tight. "Eliot," he murmured, crushing him in a hug that drove the breath from Eliot's lungs. He didn't care. He grabbed two fistfuls of Alex's shirt and squeezed, pressing everything he couldn't voice into the embrace.

"It's good to see you," Alex said at last, gruffly. He pulled away without taking his hands from Eliot's shoulders. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh... work."

Alex frowned at the hesitation. "What kind of work?"

Eliot sent a look over his shoulder, where Kai and Ernesto still waited. They clearly had some kind of relationship with Alex, but how far did that extend? Likely not far enough to keep from arresting Eliot for the half-dozen laws he'd broken to secure his meeting with Flores. "I'll tell you later."

"Now's as good a time as any," Kai said. "You can tell us now or at the station, whichever you prefer."

"We can give them a little longer," Ernesto argued.

"Flores is still out there. The longer we wait, the more time he has to act."

"Who's Flores?" Alex asked. He let his hands slide from Eliot's shoulders, a frown settling over his face.

Kai gave him a pointed look. "I'll tell you later."

"I think you should tell me now."

"I don't care what—"

Ernesto held his hands up, putting himself between the two of them. "Kai, we can give them a few more minutes to catch up. We'll be outside, Alex. Ten minutes." He looked at Eliot. "Then you come to the station with us. Understand?"

"Fine," Alex said. "Ten minutes. I got it."

Though Kai looked like she wanted to argue, she allowed Ernesto to guide her toward the door. "Nice friends you've got," Eliot muttered.

He'd meant it as a joke, but Alex gave a serious nod. "Yeah. They are. They're closer than some of my family."

Apparently they were going to fight after all. "I didn't know how to contact you," Eliot said.

"You're smart. You couldn't figure something out?"

"Couldn't you?" Eliot countered. "The last I heard you were undercover. Reaching out would have put you in danger."

"I'm retired now," Alex said.

"So I hear."

Alex crossed his arms over his chest. "I did try to find you. There was a rumor going around that you'd died."

"I didn't. Well, I did once, but it didn't stick."

"How long ago was that?"

"While you were still undercover."

Alex gave a frustrated growl. "Fine. We both could have done more, alright? Just... fill me in on the case."

The case was a safe topic, so Eliot embraced the change without complaint. He gave his brother the basics as he knew them: Robert Flores was looking to set up a base to smuggle drugs to the United States. Hardison had been tracking him throughout Asia, but when business kept him in Vietnam he'd contacted Eliot about finishing the job. "Should have been simple enough," Eliot said. "Set up a meeting, figure out his weakness, take him down."

"But you weren't the only one after him," Alex said. He heaved a sigh. "How mad was Kai when you showed up?"

An involuntary smile pulled at Eliot's lips. "She thought I was you. I think she wanted to kill me more than Flores's men did."

Alex chuckled, sobering a moment later. "So this is what you do? You go after international criminals?"

"More or less."

"With who? I mean—CIA? Interpol?"

"It's kind of a freelance operation."

Alex shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense."

"It's a lot to explain," Eliot said. "And I will, I promise. Soon as we have the time."

"Right." Alex gave him another long look, and a small grin appeared on his face. "It's good to see you, man. It's been too long."

Eliot didn't try to stop his answering grin. "You go by Walker now?"

"You'd already taken Mom's name. Didn't leave me with much of a choice."

"Yeah, but... Walker? As in Texas Ranger?"

Alex hissed and shot a look toward the door. "Don't say it out loud, man. I've got a reputation to keep up here."

Eliot laughed, but Ernesto chose that moment to knock and peek into the gift shop, effectively ending the conversation. "You two finished?" he called.

"For now," Alex answered. "Where's Kai?"

"She went to get some coffee. She'll be back any minute."

Alex nodded. "Good. I wanna be back before the afternoon rush."

"You're not coming," Ernesto said. "I don't think Kai can handle two of you."

Eliot folded his arms. "For the record, I'm not Alex's double. If anything he's my double. I'm older."

"By eight minutes," Alex snapped.

"That's older."

Alex huffed a wordless reply, and Eliot felt a glow of something familiar in his chest. This was an argument they'd had hundreds of times—Eliot, being the oldest, started it most often when they were kids. Jake had come next, and then Alex—Baby Alex, they called him, whenever he was being annoying. Eliot was pleased to find the joke still funny.

Even better, Alex seemed to still find it annoying. Eliot couldn't say why that felt so comforting. Maybe it was just that he was thankful to see a glimpse of the old Alex, the one he'd known before they let their father and their pride get in the way of their relationship. Maybe it was the fact that Alex was relaxed enough to have this conversation in front of Ernesto. Maybe Alex had found a team the way Eliot had.

Maybe it was a good thing he'd come here after all.