#Hanna's writing

[hannaswritingblog]

Imagine: Jack Sparrow and James Norrington getting jealous of you

Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean

Suggested by anon [x] – I really hope that this imagine is at least close to what you had in mind and that you like it! And if you have any other suggestions, my inbox is always open. 😊

You're walking down a pier in the Port Royal harbour, trying to clear your mind. Everyone's been waiting for James Norrington to be promoted to Commodore for a while now and today, on a day of the official ceremony, the area is buzzing with excitement.

Being a part of James's immediate circle, you should feel that excitement too. Deep in your heart you certainly do. But at the same time you can't help but wonder how your life would've gone if you didn't abandon your life at sea. Your life as a pirate...

Lost in your thoughts, you don't realise you're not alone anymore until you feel a tap on your shoulder, forcing you to turn around only to see the soon-to-be Commodore next to you.

"Is something bothering you, Y/N?" Norrington says, smiling softly.

"Oh, it's... nothing, James. Nothing's bothering me. I was just thinking about... my past."

His smile immediately fades away, but he manages to keep his composure as he tells you:

"You don't have to worry about your past. Nobody around knows that you were a pirate except me, and I intend on keeping your secret safe, just as I promised."

"Thank you. But... you know who was my captain during my time as a pirate, right?"

A solemn expression crosses his face before he says:

"Yes. Yes, I know. And it doesn't change a thing."

Deep down you know it changes a lot, but neither of you is going to admit it. But even though his pride must be hurt, you appreciate that James is steady in his promise.

"I'm glad. If you could give me one more minute alone though. I'll join you soon."

"Of course."

He bows to you slightly and walks away. You wait for Norrington to be gone from your sight before reluctantly following him.

On your way out of the harbour you pass a familiar figure. It takes you a second to realise where you know the person from, but once you do, you can't help but turn around and call out:

"Jack!"

"Oh. So it really is you, Y/N," Jack Sparrow says, walking back to you. "Didn't expect to see you around, sweetie."

"As if it wasn't where you dropped me off last time we saw each other," you respond.

"Okay, so maybe I knew I'd find you here. But not in the company of an officer of the Royal Navy, for sure."

"Oh, Norrington? He's just a..." You stop for a second when you notice that Jack's usual sly smile is now gone. "Wait... are you jealous?"

"What, me? Jealous? Of some officer? Never." Only when you raise an eyebrow at him, he admits: "Okay. I might be just a little jealous. But if this is how you live now..."

"Yes. I believe it is."

"...then I won't try to change your mind."

Something in your heart stings, as if you wanted him to try. You almost ask him to, but instead you catch yourself saying:

"Thank you. I still hope you'll stick around; Norrington is promoted to Commodore today, it's a chance to have some fun."

"You should stop tempting me, Y/N. A chance to have a good time and be in your presence? I reckon I shall stick around."

Jack sends you a smile before you part ways. And that smile is how you know he's back to his usual self and besides the fun, you can definitely expect some trouble.

[fluentmoviequoter]

Bradford Has a Princess

I used one of the amazing Tim Bradford ideas posted by @nevereclipse for this!! I hope you like it and it's along the lines of what you were thinking!☺️

Pairing: Tim Bradford x younger(24-26y/o)!fem!reader

Summary: Tim Bradford is whipped for you, treats you with nothing but the best princess treatment, and when his fellow officers call him out on it, he realizes how he truly feels about you.

Warnings: fluff! princess treatment and Tim being a SOFTIE™

Word Count: 1.6k+ words

You blow your hair out of your face before you tug it painfully behind your ear.

“Easy,” your boyfriend mutters, reaching over carefully. He gathers your hair much gentler than you had, pulls it loosely behind your ears, and uses the hair tie he wears around his wrist to secure it. “Better?”

You hum before you say, “Thank you, Tim.”

His hand moves down your back, resting comfortably against the base of your spine. After you finish your project, you take a paper towel from the nearby roll and wipe your hands.

“Need anything else?” Tim asks.

You smile over your shoulder as you rest against Tim’s chest. He’s older than you, and though some people might frown upon your relationship, you love him, not only because of the selfless way he treats you. Tim places his arm around your shoulders, then uses his free hand to pull your hand closer to him. He traces his thumb over your knuckles, then looks at your nails as his calloused palm holds you like you are the most precious thing in his life, in the world.

“I can make you an appointment at the nail salon you like,” he offers. “Tuesday?”

Tim shifts his hands, running his fingertips up and down your palm as he smiles.

“I can wait,” you answer. “I actually saw a kit online that lets you make your own nail art. Maybe I should try that next time.”

“Send me the link.”

Tim kisses your temple, then twirls the ends of your hair around his fingers. He decides he could spend forever here and wouldn’t even care what his friends thought about it.

“Tim!” Angela calls. “We’re all going to Andre’s.”

“Actually,” he begins.

“No, you skipped out the last three times, you’re coming with.”

“No arguments,” Nyla adds. “We might even make you pay.”

Tim sighs, his shoulders dropping as he nods. He follows them out of the station and is unsurprised to see Lucy, Nolan, Aaron, and Wesley waiting in the parking lot.

“Tim, you’re coming too?” Wesley asks. “I thought you’d finally sworn off fraternization.”

“Ha ha,” Tim deadpans.

“Can I ride with you?” Aaron asks. “My car’s getting a new wrap and Wesley’s backseat is a little tight with the carseats.”

Tim doesn’t answer but doesn’t say no, so Lucy nods and encourages Aaron to go. Aaron climbs into Tim’s passenger seat and buckles his seatbelt without a word.

“Oh,” he exclaims as Tim backs out of the space. “Who’s the Dior lip gloss belong to?” He lifts the tube out of the floorboard and recognizes it as part of a set his mom has. “This is expensive, they must be missing it.”

“She knows it’s here,” Tim grumbles, extending his hand to take it.

“Your sister?” Aaron guesses as Tim places it in the center console. He sees several other items, like a scrunchie, a receipt, and powder.

“None of your business,” Tim snaps. “Why are you getting an expensive car wrapped, anyway?”

“Because I can.”

Tim and Aaron fall silent, Tim thinking about you as Aaron wonders if the others know about the woman taking up space in Tim Bradford’s truck and in his life.

During your next date night, Tim opens the door for you, then wraps his arm around your waist as you enter the restaurant. He moves to his left to stand slightly behind you as you wait to be seated, and you smile over your shoulder at him.

At your table, Tim pulls your chair out for you, but you stop before you sit when someone says his name. You turn, and Tim’s shoulders tense beneath his blazer.

“Angela,” he greets tightly. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m on a date,” she answers with a smile. She looks at you before she asks, “And you?”

You sense the tension and interrupt to introduce yourself. You provide your name and shake her hand, then look to Tim.

“My girlfriend,” he tells Angela. “We’re on a date, so…”

“I’ll ask more later then. I mean that Timothy, you have a lot to tell me.” She turns toward you again and says, “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too.”

Alone, you take Tim’s hand across the table and apologize for interrupting him and his friend. He promises that he wasn’t bothered by that and assures you that he wasn’t avoiding introducing you on purpose but was just surprised. You fall into easy conversation, as usual, and the date is over far too soon.

When the waiter leaves the check on the corner of the table, you ask, “Going Dutch?”

“Going insane if you think I’m letting you pay for a date,” Tim mumbles before speaking up to say, “My treat.”

Tim offers his blazer before you walk out into the windy Los Angeles night, and you wrap your hands around his arm as he leads you to his truck. You’ve never felt as loved and as cherished as you do with Tim Bradford.

As you enter Tim’s house, he uses your joined hands to pull you back toward him. He dips his chin, gesturing for you to sit on the couch, then lowers to the table before it. With a gentle touch, Tim runs his hands down your leg, from your knee to your ankle. After he hooks his finger under the strap of your heel, he pulls your foot up, resting your calf on his knee to unhook the small buckle against your ankle and remove your shoe. He repeats the process with the other shoe, then lays his hands on your knees and leans forward.

“Hi,” you whisper with a smile.

Tim smiles in the proximity, then runs his hands up your legs to rest on your thighs.

“I love you,” you add.

“I love you,” he replies before he moves beside you on the couch, cups the back of your neck in his hand, and pulls into a kiss that proves it.

Tim stops mid-step as he enters the roll call room the following morning. Angela and Aaron are perched atop the tables to watch him with matching looks.

“What?” Tim asks.

“You have a girlfriend,” Angela says.

“That I’m thinking you bought Dior for,” Aaron adds.

“Who are you and what did you do with Timothy Bradford?”

“Yes, I have a girlfriend, and I bought her some makeup,” Tim admits. “What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal?” Aaron repeats incredulously. “You, Tim Bradford, are whipped.”

“He took her to an expensive restaurant last night,” Angela tells Aaron without looking away from Tim. “I bet he footed the bill, too.”

“There is no reason to be discussing this at work,” Tim points out. “So, drop it.”

“Drop what?” Lucy asks from the doorway.

One word, Tim mouths to Aaron. Aaron nods, but Angela smiles. Tim knows he has no power over her, but when she changes the subject, he sighs and nods once. She’ll bring it up again when he least expects it, but for now, the ‘news’ of his ‘being whipped’ for you is contained. He isn’t ashamed of you, of course, but some things need to be private.

Immediately after walking into Tim’s house, he kisses you so hard that you can feel the sticky texture of your lip gloss as it smears from the corners of your lips and onto your chin. When he pulls back, holding you up as you blink at him, breathless, he uses his thumb to wipe away the shiny mess he made.

“I missed you too,” you say.

“I was told today that I’m whipped,” Tim replies.

You furrow your brows, and Tim taps his knuckle against your forehead and smiles as he shakes his head. You relax but hold his side as you wait for more information.

“Aaron and Angela know about you, and he told me I was whipped. I realized that he’s right.”

Terrified that Tim is about to break up with you after this realization, you pull your bottom lip between your teeth. He huffs and tugs it free.

“I am more in love with you than I ever dreamed of being capable of. So…”

Tim is clearly trying to find the right words, and you smile as you offer, “Incandescently happy?”

“Completely and incandescently happy,” he agrees. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Tim smiles, then notices he disturbed your outfit with his sudden affection. He tugs the ridden-up fabric down over your hips before dragging his fingertips along your upper arm to fix your top.

“Remember when you bought me the makeup wipes?” you ask.

Tim nods and inquires, “Do you need them?”

You try to contain your smile but fail. “No, you just proved you can take off lip gloss without them.”

Tim tugs you closer, hooks his arms under your hips, and lifts you up. You gasp in surprise before gripping his shoulders. After he carries you to the kitchen and sets you on the counter, he takes your shoes off and stands between your legs.

“Should I make dinner or are you going to keep distracting me?”

You tap your finger against your jaw and pretend to ponder the question. “That depends… will your friends still be okay with this relationship when they find out you’re a cradle robber?”

“Maybe I should give you back then.”

You pout, and Tim kisses your forehead before he turns away. He passes you a bouquet of red roses, then sets a glass of your favorite beverage beside you. It’s the response you hoped for, and after you gently place the flowers aside, you pull Tim closer by his collar and smile against his lips.

[dazzlingjaeyun]

𝐱𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 – 𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐢 ⊹˚꙳⁺⋆₊･*❅

bf!riki x gf!reader

୨୧ genre: fluff | words: 998 | cw: none ୨୧

₊☃️‧₊˚❄️˚₊‧🌨️˚ ⋅

a half-eaten cake sat on riki's desk, its frosting smudged where someone (you) had playfully smeared it on riki’s nose earlier, and the 'happy birthday' balloons you'd carefully taped on the wall now pooled on the floor.

the two of you had spent the day together, grabbing lunch at his favorite ramen shop and playing arcade games (where, of course, his ego refused to let you win and you would not hear the end of it, ever).

now, as the day came to an end, you were standing in front of his bed with an envelope in your hand.

"what's that?" riki asked in confusion as he looked up from his phone.

"open it and find out," you said with a smile, sitting down on the edge of his bed and handing him the envelope.

your heart beat just a little faster when he took the paper and carefully began to open it. he shot you one more glance before slowly pulling out the content, his eyes widening in shock when he processed what he held in his hands.

his eyes snapped back to you, a look of disbelief on his face, almost as if he didn't trust his own eyes.

"you haven't seen your family in months, so... surprise," you said hesitantly when he didn't say a word.

riki wordlessly dropped the envelope and pulled you against his chest, squeezing you so tightly he might as well have suffocated you. "how did you think of this?" he asked, his words muffled by your hair.

you gently pulled away, just enough so you could look at him. "i know you're trying to hide it and act all nonchalant, but sometimes it's obvious you're homesick, love."

you chuckled as riki winced in feigned disgust. "don't call me cute names. you'll make me blush and all that shit," he mumbled.

you just playfully stuck out your tongue before you got up from his bed and stepped on his desk chair to pull down the suitcase that he kept on top of his wardrobe.

"start packing, love," you said, making sure to put special emphasis on the nickname, "we're leaving tomorrow."

while riki started to throw almost his entire closet into the suitcase, you explained to him how you'd gotten in touch with his sister to plan the trip with her. you'd met her before, during the one time she'd come to visit riki abroad. back then, you hadn't been officially dating – you hadn't even really been friends yet. you'd just shared a few dance classes but you rarely spoke outside of them. when konon had come to visit, he'd been giving her a tour of the campus and the dance studio, barging into the practice room with the subtlety of a hurricane just as you were in the middle of rehearsing.

"i think i'm done," riki announced with satisfaction, having added practically half his room into the suitcase that dared to overflow.

the next day, when you arrived to japan, you could see the excitement on your boyfriend's face as soon as the plane landed. he was quick to show you the way to the baggage claim, and just a few minutes later, you were scanning the arrivals hall for his parents.

once riki caught sight of them, he gently took your hand in his and guided you toward where they were standing. you stepped back while he happily hugged his parents, wanting to give him enough time and space to greet them first.

you only saw him from the side but he smiled more than he had in a long time and that alone was enough to know you'd chosen the right birthday gift after all.

after riki introduced you to his parents and you exchanged warm greetings, you made your way to his family home. riki was holding your hand in the middle seat, mindlessly brushing his thumb against your knuckles as he looked outside the window and took in the snowy scenery.

you looked outside too, not through your window but through his so you could catch a glimpse of the sparkle in his eyes whenever you passed a place he probably had made memories in.

when you arrived to his place, you only brought the suitcases inside, before riki gently grabbed your arm and pulled you outside again.

"i wanted to show you so many places, we'll start right away," he announced with excitement, taking your small hand in his bigger one and tucking them both into the pocket of his warm jacket.

you were walking through his neighbourhood while riki told stories about almost every corner, and when he wasn't speaking, the soft crunch of snow underneath your feet filled the silence.

"wait, stay here," riki said suddenly, letting go of your hand and pulling out his phone from the pocket of his pants. he took a few steps back and shot a picture of you smiling into the camera.

"cute," he said with a grin. "now, look over that way," he instructed, motioning toward some distant trees as he adjusted his phone, pretending to find the right angle.

just as you posed, a cold lump of snow hit your shoulder, and you spun around to find riki grinning, the remnants of the snowball still in his hand.

you squinted your eyes. "you little shit," you gasped, quickly crouching down to form your own snowball and throw it at him.

later that day, when he'd shown you his room, you were sitting in his bed, your back resting against his chest. "you look different when you're at home," you said with a soft smile, and though riki couldn't see it, he knew you were smiling.

he wrapped his arms around you a little tighter and placed a quick kiss on the top of your head.

"i feel more like myself here," he replied after a while, his voice just a hint softer than usual, "that was the best surprise i could have asked for."

part four of my xmas special. tap here to get to the other members!

© dazzlingjaeyun, 2024. please do not copy.

join my taglist here | masterlist

❥ perm. taglist: @sudi109 @woniesun @leov3rse @simpjay @jayparked

[jayparked]

Congrats on 1k ahhhh!! Can you do 5 + 10 with Jay please?

warnings: boss!jay x assistant!y/n, office sex, pillow princess y/n

wc: 536

"we-we shouldn't be doing this," jay moans but doesn't stop his mouth from peppering kisses along the side of your neck, his knee rutting against your clothed core.

"i don't care. the second i saw you when i walked in for that interview i knew i wanted you."

jay groans against you, almost whimpering at your words. it's true you were hired to be his assistant and being here with him, pressed against the wall of his office late at night after everyone else has gone home is so cliche, but you don't care. having him all over you is all you've dreamed about for weeks now, and you'd be stupid to give that up just for simple office decorum.

a tap on your thigh encourages you to jump, wrapping your legs around his waist while he carries you over to his desk, lips feverishly smashing, biting, and pulling against yours.

jay holds you with one hand, using the other to push everything on his desk off to the side and onto the floor. the clang of the miscellaneous items falling to the floor does nothing to interrupt the way you're both clawing at each other.

the desk is cool beneath your skin as jay lays you down, taking a moment to let his hands and eyes roam across your body. the electricity of his touch, the suaveness of his words, and the way he looks at you has your body in a state of desperation that you're never experienced before.

"wait. let me get down." you sit up and start to scoot to the edge of his desk.

"is everything okay? do you want to stop? did i do something wr-"

"i want to suck you off, jay."

"oh! oooh," he exhales with a relieved look on his face. but he stops you just before you're about to get down on your knees.

"as much as i would love that, let me take care of you. i'll do the work. you already take care of me enough during business hours. it's my turn now." jay tilts his head so that his eyes are level with yours, demanding you to hold his gaze. he says his words softly, but with confidence, his low leveled tone sending vibrations throughout your whole body. at this point, you don't care what happens. all you want, all you need, is him.

"just sit here and look pretty. wanna see how you look when you come undone under me." jay's hands trail up your thighs until they're pulling down your underwear. he doesn't even have them all the way down your legs before his fingers are gliding through your slick. "just look at you. this all for me?" his eyebrows quirk up as he raises a digit to his mouth, slowly licking his fingertips clean while maintaining eye contact with you.

"all for you," you sigh. jay doesn't waste anymore time, throwing your legs over his shoulders as he kneels down in front of you. the next few hours are spent with you both exploring one another. whispered promises fill the space between the sounds of your bodies connecting, knowing that this will be the first of many between you two.

for part of my 1k follower celebration send me a member and a number from this list and i'll write a short drabble about it ♡ masterlist

[moonliteve]

an analysis of the dance of death murals in act 3 of pentiment

So I finally finished the game last night and it absolutely wrecked me :') the Chapter House scene in act 3 left a huge impression on me and since I couldn't find much on the deeper meanings of the murals Andreas drew, I tried to analyze the symbolism and what they each represent :) I'm not an expert by any means so if anyone has more insight on something I haven't mentioned please feel more than free to add your own thoughts, I'd love to see them

[chaoticfuryfest]

Liebe TS Community,

los geht es mit der Stalker Story!

Es erwarten Euch elf Kapitel und ich plane ein Kapitel pro Woche zu veröffentlichen. Ausnahme wird das zweite Kapitel, das kommt wahrscheinlich schon am Sonntag, weil das erste so kurz ist. 😉

Die Zeit bis November will schließlich überbrückt werden.

Ich wünsche euch viel Spaß beim Lesen und hoffe, dass Euch die Geschichte gefällt!

[hannamoon143]

Tired- beabadoobee

Han jisung with "Tired" from beabadoobee, for the fall series

Genre: Angst

Warnings: su?cide, depression, unhealthy eating habits, crying

Word count: 766 w

a/n: We r starting into the fall series with this angsty drabble, inspired by „Tired“ by beabadoobee. Hope yall like it. Soon other members will follow, with more angst and also  some good fluff ^^pls give me some songs tho, I need some more🙏🏻 (just write into my inbox) Have a cozy fall, now take your fluffy blanket, a hot cocoa, and read<33

It was freezing. The cold autumns breeze was seeping into your bones. The rooftop was empty. It felt like there was only you, your thoughts and the clear night sky in this world. Well that was until you heard the door creak open behind you. You didn’t have to turn around, there was only one person that would be searching you up here. You heared han’s quick footsteps approaching and then he grabs you by the shoulder, pulling you back a bit so you turn around to him. He looks at you, his breath coming out in little white clouds. „Why are you up here again y/n?“ His voice was quivering, both of you knowing the answer. You just looked at the citylights around you again.

„You could have called me y/n. I told you before that you can call, text or even facetime me when you can’t sleep.“ He spoke, his voice urgent. He made a little pause, probably expecting you to say something. „Is it the sound of your own thoughts keeping you up again?“

You stared at the stars and the moon, so beautiful, so perfect, but so far away you couldn’t reach them. You let out a little hoarse chuckle, at wich han looks at you a bit irritated. You know he hates when you are sarcastical. But this time, your words aren’t. No, you don’t have the energy for your snarky comments.

„Maybe it’s time to say goodbye Hannie.“ You still didn’t look at him, your voice was calm and your gaze in a small smile, looking somewhere far away from here.

Han let’s out a shaky breath and stares at you. „Y/n, stop saying shit like this and let’s go home okay? You can come to my apartment and you can sleep in the one sweater from me you love so much, and we can cuddle alright? I’ll let you sleep in my bed, and we can listen to my records that you always want to listen to.“ He desperately spoke, gripping your arm. He didn’t want to hear your words, no he just couldn’t believe you were serious.

You remained quiet, gaze just calmly elsewhere. It frustrated han. It frustrated him you were like this, that you wouldn’t let him help you. „Come on y/n! Don’t be like that. Don’t speak in this calm voice with this neutral face, when we both know you want to cry, to scream, to punch something. Don’t bottle it up y/n. Please, please talk to me!“ His voice grew loud and desperate. He was scared. Scared because this wasn’t you. He felt like you were fading slowly somewhere else, and it scared him so fucking much. He didn’t notice the tears running down his cheeks. He wished it was you who cried. But you were just looking all neutral, like your mind was in a deep, numb slumber.

He didn’t think and wrapped his arms around you from behind, his tears dropping onto your sweater. He wanted to actually drag you into his apartment and just make you understand what you were doing to yourself, and that he wanted to help you more than anything else, when he felt your slim figure in his arms. This wasn’t you. This was a girl, only skin and bones, with seemingly no emotions. He buried his face deeper in the crook of your neck, and whispered: „Were you even eating at all…“ More to himself than to you. You kept being quiet.  Wouldn’t it be poetic if the last thing you saw on this world were the moon with it’s beautiful little stars around it?  

„I’m just getting pretty fucking tired.“ You said. Your voice was clear, yet so far away. Han was sobbing now, his arms remaining around you, mumbling things to try and comfort you, or maybe even himself. You heard a few words and sentences between his sobs. „No that’s not true. I love you, please i can help you, please let me i-… This is not you, you just need some rest and….and…“ You smiled at the moon. You were realeasing his trembling arms, and before he could react you stepped closer to the edge. He wasn’t able to stop you anymore. And oh, how poetic, that the last thing he saw of you, was a smile, pretty but tired like the moon. And you, you saw the moon, and it’s stars, before you gently closed your eyes. „Bye my love.“ You whispered, before the cold ground hit you.

taglist: @0omillo0 @lina-linny @darqlys @onementally-unstabel-kid

[nondelphic]

if writing today feels like trying to run a marathon in heels, remember that hanna marin pretty much did that through 7 seasons of pretty little liars

[apparitionism]

Bonus 4

First, a PSA: If you are eligible to vote in next week’s US election, please VOTE FOR HARRIS as well as every other Democratic candidate on the ballot, and do what you can to persuade as many other people as you can to do the same. I assume anyone who bothers to read my writing is smart enough to understand why that’s necessary—and why engaging in any sort of protest-vote or sit-this-one-out charade is counter to the interests of most living breathing people at this point in history.

Anyway. Here I offer the final part of last year’s Christmas story... again and as usual, where were we? I recommend the intro to part 1 for where we are, canon-wise (S4, essentially, but diverging); beyond that, Myka has just returned to the Warehouse after a holiday retrieval in Cleveland (Pete, in town visiting his family, was tangentially involved), where Helena, whom Myka hadn’t seen since the Warehouse didn’t explode, served as her backup—a situation facilitated by Claudia as something of a Christmas bonus. Post-retrieval, Helena and Myka shared a meal at a restaurant; this was a new experience that went quite well until, alas, Helena was instructed (by powers higher than Claudia) to leave. Thus Myka returned home, both buoyed and bereft... and here the tale resumes. I mentioned part 1, but for the full scraping of Myka’s soul, see part 2 and part 3 as well.

Bonus 4

Late on Christmas Day, Myka is heading to the kitchen for a warm and, preferably, spiked beverage, intending to curl up with that and a book—well, maybe a book; a restless scanning of her shelves had left her drained and decisionless, hence the need for a resetting, and settling, beverage—and to convince herself to appreciate the peace of these waning Christmas hours. She peeks into the living room, just to assess the wider situation, and regards a sofa-draped Pete. He returned from Ohio barely an hour ago, which Myka knows because she had heard Claudia exclaim over his arrival. Then things had gone quiet.

Now, he appears to be napping.

Myka tries to slink away.

“Claud mentioned about your backup,” he says as soon as her back is turned, startling her and proving she’s a terrible slinker. Small favors, though: at least she hadn’t already had her beverage in hand and so isn’t wearing it now. “That had to be weird,” he goes on, sitting up.

She’s been wondering whether the topic would come up, whenever they happened to get beyond how-was-your-trip pleasantries... she entertains herself for a moment with the idea of referring to Helena, specifically with Pete, as “the topic.” So she tries it: “‘Weird’ does not begin to describe the topic.” It is entertaining, as a little secret-layers-of-meaning sneak. But there’s yet more entertainment in the offing, with its own secret layers: “Incidentally, speaking of weird—which I’m sure was also mentioned—I met your cousin. Thanks for giving her an artifact. Very Christmas of you.”

He rounds his spine into the sofa like he’s trying to back his way through the upholstery and escape. “Don’t be mad. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know it was an artifact.”

Myka is tempted to keep him guessing about her feelings, but she doesn’t really have the energy; she gives up on entertainment and tells the truth: “I’m not mad. I’m serious: thank you.”

“I think you’re trying to trick me,” he skeptics. “Soften me up for something. But if that’s for real, then you should thank my mom more than me.”

Pete’s mother. The extent of Jane Lattimer’s role in Myka’s life is... surprising. Then again the extent of her role in Pete’s life has turned out to be surprising too, and that’s probably a bigger deal, all things considered.

Pete goes on, “Because I was gonna blame her, but should I give her props instead? It was her idea to give the little feather guy to Nancy, because of how after I got it I saw that it’d probably PTSD you.”

“I appreciate the seeing, but... wait. After you got it. How’d you get it in the first place?”

“I was in this antique store,” Pete says.

As if that explains everything—when in fact it explains nothing. In further fact, it unexplains. “Why were you in an antique store? According to you, you hated those even before the Warehouse turned them into artifact arcades.”

“Mom was picking something up there, and this guy showed it to me.”

“Your mom, this guy...” Myka is now beyond suspicious. “What did this guy look like?” A pointless question. As if knowing that could help her... as if anything could really help her. This is madness. “Fine. It doesn’t matter what he looked like, because I’m stopping here. I can’t keep doing this. For my sanity, I can’t.”

“Keep doing what?”

“Tracing it back. You win. You all win.”

“Do we? Doesn’t feel like it. And that doesn’t seem like a reason you’d be thanking me.”

“No. That isn’t. But as of now I’m trying to keep myself from focusing on... let’s call it the causal chain.”

“I’d rather focus on the popcorn chain.” He points to the strands that loop the Christmas tree.

They are the tree’s only adornment. Every prior holiday season of Myka’s Warehouse association, Leena has decorated the B&B unto a traditional-Christmas Platonic ideal; this year, in her absence, Myka, Steve, and Claudia, trying to replicate that, had purchased a tree. And transported it home. And situated it near to plumb in the tree stand, which was an exhausting exercise in what they earnestly assured each other was complicated physics but was really just physical incompetence.

They had then settled in to do the actual decorating, starting with popcorn strings... but once they’d finished those, they were indeed finished, pathetically drained of holiday effort. And they’d succeeded in that initial (and sadly final) project only because, as they’d all agreed once they’d strung the popcorn, Pete hadn’t been there to shovel the bulk of their also-pathetic popping efforts into his mouth.

“Take them down, slurp them up like spaghetti if you want,” Myka says now. “Christmas is pretty much over.” The statement—its truth—makes her stew. At Pete? But the situation isn’t ultimately his fault, no matter what part he played. And why is she so set on assigning, or marinating in, this vague blame anyway? She got something she wanted: time with Helena. It didn’t work out as perfectly as she’d wished it would, but she got it.

She tries to resettle: her heart to remembrance, her brain to appreciation.

The doorbell rings, its old-fashioned rounded bing-bong resounding from foyer to living room and beyond, bouncing heavily against every surface. Myka lets the vibrations push her toward the kitchen; she’s had enough of interaction for now. Her beverage and book, whichever one will provide some right refuge, await. As do remembrance and appreciation.

She hears Pete sigh and the sofa creak; he must have shoved himself from it in order to lurch to the foyer. A minute later, he yells, “Guess what! Christmas might not be over!”

Still kitchen-focused, Myka yells back, “If that’s not Santa himself, you’re wrong!”

“Never heard of that being one of her things!” Pete shouts, even louder.

“Quit shouting!” Myka bellows, so loud that she drowns out her own initial registering of what he’s said, which then starts to resonate in her head, a stimulating hum that resolves into meaning... her things? Her things... Myka’s torso initiates a turn; her body knows what’s happening, even if her brain—

“Hey, H.G.,” Pete says, and now every part of Myka knows.

Except her eyes, but once she moves to the foyer to stand behind Pete, they know too: There Helena is. Her body. Embodied. The illumination of her, in the foyer semi-dark... her bright eyes catching Myka’s, warming to the catch... oh, this.

Seeing the sight—greeting, once again, her perfect match—she is struck dumb.

There’s movement behind her, though, and she turns to see Steve and Claudia poking their heads into the space like meerkats—well, no, in South Dakota she should think prairie dogs... but they’re both built more like meerkats than prairie dogs, so she should probably keep thinking meerkats out of... respect? Whatever: they’re animal-alert, heads aswivel, faces alight. It surely signifies something.

Turning back to Helena, trying to get a voice in her mouth, she coughs out, “You’re back? Now? I mean, already? How did you—”

“To quote myself: ‘when I can, I will,’” Helena says, as matter-of-factly as anyone could possibly speak while maintaining intense eye contact with one person, and Myka thanks all gods and firefighters above that she is herself that person. “Now, not forty-eight hours later, I could. Thus I did. I should note that I’m unsure as to why I could, but perhaps it’s a gift horse?” Her focus on Myka does not waver. Pete and the meerkats might as well not exist, and Myka in turn is mesmerized.

“Maybe that’s the horse you rode in on,” Claudia says. Is she trying to break the spell? Myka wishes she wouldn’t... she ideates shushing her, even as Claudia goes on, “But better late than never, Christmas-wise, right?”

“Did you enjoy your additional portion of squash?” Helena asks Myka, ignoring Claudia’s interjection. Her tone is formal, presenting public, but her question is for Myka alone.

“It was very good for my heart,” Myka says. She doesn’t add, though she could, And so was that question.

Helena smiles like she heard both good-fors—like she’s grateful for both—and Myka thinks, for the first time out loud in her head, She feels the same way I do.

It’s... new. Different. Perfect? Not yet, the out-loud-in-her-head voice instructs.

But she can make a move in that direction. “Please put your suitcase in my room,” she says. Out loud, outside her head. Realing it.

“I will,” Helena says. She takes up her case and moves toward the stairs, presumably to real that too.

It renders Myka once again enraptured. She is taking her suitcase to my room. My room. She is.

The first stair-creaks that Helena’s ascent occasions sound, to Myka’s eagerly interpretive ears, approving.

Claudia and Steve don’t even blink. Pete does—well, more the opposite; he widens his eyes in the cartoony way.

But then he turns on his heel, Marine-brusque and not at all cartoony, and exits the space. Myka doesn’t know what to make of that. She’ll most likely have to address the topic—in fact, “the topic”—with him later. Fortunately, later isn’t now.

She does know, however, what to make of Steve and Claudia’s aspect: “I’m sensing some ‘aren’t we clever’ preening,” she accuses.

“We are clever,” Claudia says, dusting off her shoulder. “More Fred. Don’t sweat it.”

Exasperating. “Don’t sweat it? As I understood the situation, Fred was a retrieval and an insanely expensive dinner. Are we doing that again, or is she back for good?”

“She’s back for nice,” Claudia says.

Steve jumps in with, “To answer your question: we’re not a hundred percent sure.”

“See, we made a deal,” Claudia says.

“With whom?” Myka asks.

“Santa?” Claudia says, but without commitment. Myka’s response of an oh-come-on face causes her to huff, “Fine. Pete’s mom and company. And Mrs. F. And even Artie, in absentia.”

“What kind of deal?” Myka asks, because while she can’t dispute the indisputably positive fact that Helena is here, she mistrusts any deal involving Regents. Pete’s mom aside. Or Pete’s mom included: She can’t stop her brain from stirring, stirring once again to life those causal-chain questions: What’s being put in motion this time?

“A kind of deal about which things they’re willing to let us—well, technically Steve—say are nice,” Claudia pronounces, as if that explains everything.

Myka is very tired of proffered explanations that actually unexplain.

Steve says, “Claudia finally found the file on the pen. Seems that Santa’s list, once made, is kind of ridiculously powerful. And it turns out you can put a situation on the list.”

“For example,” Claudia supplies, “H.G. and you. Getting to be in each other’s... proximity.”

Steve adds, “And yours isn’t the only one I put there. That was part of the deal.”

“So you’re letting the pen reward nice situations with... existing,” Myka says. “And are you storing it on some new ‘Don’t Neutralize’ shelf? So nobody accidentally bags the existence out of them?”

Claudia says, “Kinda. At least for a while.”

This all seems deceptively, not to mention dangerously, easy. “But: personal gain, not for,” Myka points out.

“Right,” Steve says. “So here’s a question: what does ‘personal gain’ actually mean? The manual doesn’t have a glossary. So we’re trying to work it out. Let’s say Claud uses an artifact and then makes this utterance: ‘My use of this artifact was not for personal gain.’ And let’s say I assess that utterance as not a lie. The question remains, are the Warehouse and Claud and I agreeing on the definition of ‘personal gain’?”

“The question remains,” Myka echoes, fretting. “And the answer?”

“We’ll see,” Steve says.

It’s destabilizing, but that’s the Warehouse’s fault, not Steve’s. “I just hope the artifact won’t downside you for any disagreement. Because you’re remarkably nonjudgmental, and—”

“With a Liam exception,” Steve notes. “Or several. Ideally, though, the Warehouse and I can work through these things like adults. Unlike me and Liam.”

Myka respects his honesty. And yet: “I’m having a seriously hard time ideating the Warehouse as an adult.”

“We’re working through that too,” Steve concedes.

“You clearly have the patience of a saint.”

Steve chuckles. “Pete’s your partner, right? And in another sense, H.G. might be too?” Myka waves her hands, no-no-too-soon, because suitcases notwithstanding, she has certainly in the past thought she was making a safe all-in bet, only to lose every last copper-coated-zinc penny of her metaphorical money. “No matter what we call anybody,” he continues, “I think you get a lot more patience practice than I do. I’m just dealing with one little Warehouse and its feelings.”

“Aren’t its feelings... unassimilable?” she asks. “Or at least, shouldn’t they be?” It’s a building. Whatever its feelings, they should be talking about it like it’s an alien, not somebody who’s in therapy. Or somebody who should be in therapy.

“Maybe,” Steve says. “Or maybe not. That was part of the deal too, that I would test out how it feels. About personal gain specifically here, eventually maybe more. But if it has a meltdown...”

“Ah. We cancel the test, neutralize the pen, and face the consequences.”

Steve nods. “But ideally, if that happens, we will have leapfrogged whatever the looming Artie-and-Leena crises are. The two of them coming back here safely are the other situations we niced, as part of the deal.”

Claudia adds, “My big fingers-crossed leapfrog is over their stupid administrative ‘keep H.G. away from Myka and everybody else who loves her’ dealy-thingy. We’re hoping they’ll just forget about whatever their dumbass reasons for that were when they see how great it is for her to be back.”

“Dealy-thingy? Have you been talking to Pete?” Myka asks, trying for silly, for light—so as to deflect that “love her” arrow.

“Not about that. But wait, are you saying he loves her too? I mean I figured he was okay with her after the whole Mom-still-alive thing, but his Houdini out of here just now makes me think he’s not quite all the way to—”

“Never mind,” Myka says, as a command.

Claudia squints like she wants to pursue it. Myka crosses her arms against any such idea, in response to which Claudia says, “Fine. Here’s some funsies you’ll like better. Making that list, you’ve gotta have balance. Naughty against the nice.”

“And you think I’ll like that because?”

“I talked to Pete’s cousin, a little pretty-sure-we-don’t-have-to-tesla-you-but-let’s-make-super-sure exit interview. Heard some things about a guy. Bob? Seemed like a good candidate.”

Well. Pete had been right on several levels about Christmas not being over yet. “That’s the best news I’ve had in the past... I don’t know. Five minutes?” Other than the Pete-vs.-“the topic” question, it’s been an absurdly good-news-y several minutes.

Claudia goes on, “Personal gain, what is it? There’s also a warden from that place I don’t like to remember being committed to who’s about to have a Boxing Day that’ll haunt him longer than he’s been haunting me.”

That definitely raises questions—flags, even—about “personal gain” in a definitional sense, but letting all that lie seems the better part of valor, so Myka asks Steve, “Any Liam on there?”

“Too personal to let the Warehouse anywhere near,” he says, but with a smile.

Myka smiles too. “Would that I could say the same about my situation.”

Claudia snickers. “Your situation is Warehouse-dependent. Warehouse-designed. Warehouse-destined.”

“All the more reason said Warehouse shouldn’t object to easing the pressure,” Steve says.

“Are you kidding?” Claudia says. “Its birth certificate reads ‘Ware Stress-Test House.’”

Myka appreciates their positions—Steve’s in particular, even as she internally allows that Claudia’s is probably more accurate—but she would appreciate even more their ceasing to talk about her situation like they’re the ones whose philosophy will determine how, and whether, it succeeds. Or even proceeds.

And she would most appreciate their ceasing to talk about her situation entirely. So that she can go upstairs and be in her situation, because Helena hasn’t come back downstairs, a fact for which Myka’s rapidly overheating libido has provided a similarly overheated reason: she is waiting, up there in the bedroom, for Myka.

Which thought is of course followed by Helena’s preemption of same: she descends the stairs and presents herself in the foyer.

Damn it, Myka’s disappointed libido fumes.

Sacrilege! an overriding executive self chastises, and it isn’t wrong, for again, here Helena is. To fail to appreciate that—ever—is an error of, indeed, biblical, or anti-biblical, proportions.

In any case, now four people are just standing here, awkwardness personified.

Helena flicks her eyes briefly toward Myka—it seems a little offer of “hold on”—then turns to Steve and Claudia. “I didn’t greet either of you directly when I arrived. I apologize. Claudia darling, it warms my heart to see you... and this is of course the famous Steve, whose acquaintance I’m delighted to make at last.”

Striking to witness: Helena has essentially absorbed the awkward into her very body and transmogrified it into formality.

Myka loves her.

“Famous?” Steve echoes, like she’s said “Martian.”

“I’ve heard much of you,” Helena says, with an emphasizing finger-point on “much.”

Steve smiles his I’m-astonished-you’re-not-lying smile, through which he articulates, “Likewise? I mean, likewise, but with more. Obviously.”

Yes, Myka loves her: for her charming self alone, but also for how that charm extends; her sweet attention to Steve has him immediately smitten. Myka’s the one to catch Helena’s gaze now, intending merely to convey gratitude, but to her gratification it stops Helena, causing her to abandon her engagement with Steve.

Maybe she and Myka can stand here and gaze at each other forever. It wouldn’t be everything, but it would be something. Second on second, it is something. It is something.

Claudia interrupts it all, saying to Helena, “Can I hug you?”

Myka doesn’t begrudge the breaking of this spell, particularly not with that; she had been selfish, before, greedy to keep Helena and her eyes all to herself. She also doesn’t begrudge the ease of the hug in which Claudia and Helena engage; getting a hug right is simpler when its purpose is clear. And clearly joyful.

Over Claudia’s shoulder, Myka’s and Helena’s gazes lock yet again, and it’s spectacular.

However: it also seems to introduce a foreign element into the hug, some friction that Claudia must sense, for she disengages and says, “So. I have to go. I just remembered I have an appointment to not be here.”

Steve says, “I feel like I was supposed to remember to meet you there, wasn’t I,” Steve says, and Myka has never been able to predict when he’ll be able to play along instead of blurting “lie” (even if he does often follow such blurts with some version of an apologetic “but I see the social purpose”).

“I don’t think you were,” Claudia says, “because I’m revising the gag; it makes more sense if I just now made an appointment to not be here. So you couldn’t be remembering some nonexistent-before-now appointment.”

“But I still think the appointment ought to be with me, gag-wise and otherwise,” Steve says, doggedly, still playing. “In the first and second place.”

“Is this the first place?” Claudia muses, faux-serious, now rewarding his doggedness. “Is the appointment in the second place?”

They could who’s-in-the-first-place this for days, so Myka intervenes, “In the first place, if this is a gag, it desperately needs workshopping. But in the second place: Scram!”

“You mean to the second place,” Claudia sasses.

Myka scowls, wishing she could growl proficiently.

 Claudia’s eyes widen. “Scramming. Best scrammer,” she says, sans sass, proving the actual growl unnecessary. Interesting.

“Except that’s about to be me with the gold-medal scram,” Steve objects and concurs.

Myka pronounces, “I’ll be the judge of who’s what. Once you actually do it.”

“You’ll award the medals later though, right?” asks Claudia. Her words are jokey, yet her tone is weirdly sincere, as if Myka might forget they had scrammed on her behalf, and that such amnesia would be hurtful.

“Participation trophies,” Myka semi-affirms, “in the form of a healthy breakfast.” She adds, internally, Take the damn hint.

After much winking and nudging, the comedians at last absent themselves, and Myka and Helena are alone.

Unfortunately that doesn’t immediately yield the perfected situation Myka seeks, first and foremost because she doesn’t know what comes next. Take your own damn hint, she tells herself, but... how? They need privacy, and the only reasonable place for that is where Helena’s suitcase rests: upstairs. Myka can’t magic them there, so what incremental movement will be recognizable as an appropriate beginning?

She casts a wish for Helena to ease it all, as she had with Claudia and Steve, but Helena is stock-still, offering no increment. For both of them, upstairs seems to have become a different place... the promised land?

Nothing is promised, she reminds herself. Some things are newly possible, but nothing is promised. Certainly not when the Warehouse is involved.

So maybe the point, probably the point, is that it’s incumbent on Myka and Helena to realize the possibility.

Nevertheless, here they stick.

After a time—most likely shorter than Myka feels it to be—Helena announces, “Pete and I have had a chat.” Her articulation of “chat” shapes it into a synonym for “fight.” “Who won?” Myka asks.

“I believe it was a draw. He opened by saying he ‘didn’t get how far along this thing had got.’” Hearing Pete’s diction in Helena’s mouth is disorienting. “He then said he wants to protect you.”

That’s so Pete. “I don’t need protecting.”

Eyebrow. “I noted that I want to protect you too.”

That thrills Myka. At the same time, she wants to object to it nearly as much as to Pete’s assertion... internal contradictions, what are they? She lands weakly on, “I hope that persuaded him.”

“Pete finds deeds more persuasive than words,” Helena says. “Thus I’m ‘on probation where Myka’s concerned,’ until he determines I won’t damage you.”

That’s so Pete too. But. “That is my determination.”

“I expressed a similar sentiment. He responded, ‘And how’d that go last time?’” Helena’s wince after she says this is awful, and Myka dares to assuage it, stepping toward Helena with open arms, drawing her into an embrace.

This time, their hug—simpler because its purpose is clear—works, bodies soft-querying at the start, then firm, intentional. Not quite catching fire, but this is a palpable first cut into whatever membrane of uncertainty is obstructing their movement.

Slow, slow, they move apart. Yet they stay close, the embrace’s softness lingering as Helena says, “Selfishly, I didn’t concede his point, which is in any case indeed down to your determination. But I did note that circumstances have changed since then. And to be fair I must report that he allowed they have.”

“You’re both right,” Myka says. But: “Was this Cleveland mission contrived to... further change the circumstances?”

“I didn’t contrive it,” Helena says, fast. “I would have, if I could, but I didn’t.”

“I’m not saying you did. I’m saying I always wonder, because I can’t help it, how much, or how little, of what happens just happens.”

“And the rest—or if I’m understanding your implication, the bulk—would be...?”

“Some sort of social engineering.”

“On whose part?” Helena asks.

That’s disingenuous. “Your engineers of choice. Regents. Mrs. Frederic. Mr. Kosan. Ententes thereof.”

Helena runs a hand through her hair—frustration at the thought of those entities? Or just showing off? Then she shrugs, as if to dismiss both possibilities. “I favor any engineering that places me in private proximity to you.”

The words are beyond welcome. And yet. “I’m not objecting to it. I’m just...”

“Objecting to it.”

“No. Questioning its provenance.”

“Why?”

That brings Myka up short. “What?”

“If it produces an outcome you desire, what does the provenance matter? In this case, at the very least.”

It’s a reasonable question, and Myka’s most-honest answer would have something to do with the ethical acceptability of poisonous-tree fruits. For now, though, she goes with, “Because I don’t like being manipulated.”

“Don’t you?” That’s flirty, a near-whisper, compelling Myka to lean even closer. Helena knows—she’s always known—the power she has over Myka. And she’s always known how—and when—to wield that power.

“The manipulator matters,” Myka says, responding to the flirt, accepting the push away from ethics.

“Then would that I could in truth say I contrived that relatively banal retrieval. And sabotaged the elevator, so as to draw our attention to... that to which it was drawn.”

“I can’t say I was displeased with the drawing,” Myka allows. “So if you had...”

Helena moves her lips, a sly hint of curve, and says, “Oh, but perhaps I’ve manipulated you into that sentiment.” Again, an ostentatious flirt.

Myka’s knowing that flirt-show for what it is? That’s Helena-specific. In the past Myka has always had to be told when she was being flirted with: “He was interested in you,” an exasperated friend would explain of an interaction Myka found incomprehensible, and she would cringe internally at her inability to recognize such an apparently basic, obvious display. But with Helena she’s never needed a flirt translator. From the first lock of gaze, unto this night’s myriad connections; from that first brush of finger, unto the way Helena has just allowed their hug to linger; from the first just-for-you conspiratorial grin, unto this very moment’s slip of smile—all the advances, heavy and light, have been legible to Myka.

And based on what she is now reading, she has no ground left. “Fine. I like being manipulated if it means.” She clears her throat. “If it means I get closer to you. You win.”

“Do I?” Here’s the disingenuity again, but now Myka understands its intentional irony. Helena follows up with, “This establishment has no elevator,” Helena says, like it’s nothing more than a structural observation that checks a box on a form, a minor note in an overall architectural assessment.

“No,” Myka agrees.

“How fortunate,” Helena says.

Myka waits for the conclusion, the help... but it’s not forthcoming, probably in a that’s-down-to-your-determination-as-well sense. The next cut is clearly Myka’s responsibility too. So: “It has stairs though,” she offers. “That go. Up. Well, both down and up. Of course. As stairs do.” Stop talking, she tells herself, but her nerves don’t heed the advice. “As they have to? I don’t know; do they? Escher?”

“Ess-sherr,” Helena echoes, clearly uncomprehending. That she lets Myka hear her knowledge gap is a gift. For Christmas?

“He’s an artist. I promise I’ll explain later. Eventually. Anyway the stairs. I think you just used them? Without incident?”

Myka expects a comeback. She gets none, which leaves her in some non-place, absent as it is of Helena-attitude... but what form had she expected such attitude to take? Aggression? Naughtiness? Or “naughtiness”... does the lack of all that mean Helena is offering a self more authentic than the one who charms and flirts? But that doesn’t seem quite right, for the charms and the flirts have always seemed clearly intrinsic Helena-talents. Deployed, yes, but not inauthentic. So if this Helena is deploying fewer such talents, maybe it’s that she’s... less?

Ironically—of course ironically, because all of this is so, so layered like that—a reduced Helena is an even greater bonus.

All of this, which Myka had better figure out, fast, how to appreciate and accommodate. “Of course that’s no guarantee that travel will go well,” she begins. “So we should try not to trip on the stairs... wait, no, that would make it our problem, which I don’t think this ever was. Maybe better: we shouldn’t let the stairs trip us.” She considers. “But no again: what I really mean is, we shouldn’t give the stairs a reason to trip us. Right?”

Helena looks at her and blinks, charmingly blank. “I have no idea. Are you through?”

“I have no idea either,” Myka admits, still directionless without Helena’s attitudinal lead. Is this, like the semi-botched hug of two days ago, a seemingly terrible sign?

“Merely delay.” A little head-shake follows. Signifying disappointment? Making light of Myka’s inability to get through? Then Helena says, “And yet I don’t know how much more delay I can withstand.”

Those raw words are mediated by nothing more than molecules—the nitrogen-oxygen-argon-et-cetera invisibilities conveying waves to Myka’s ossicles—and for the second time, Myka ideates, in full awe, She feels the same way I do.

“Me either,” she says, literally heartfelt, sending the words back, a final push through everything, molecules and otherwise, that has stood between them.

Testing, she offers Helena her hand. Helena takes it.

These hands together: not a first. Not even a second. In the present circumstance, that translates to something very like “comfortingly familiar.”

Under the aegis of that comfort, they ascend the stairs, Myka leading the way, marveling that she can. Against her pulling hand, Helena offers what seems a single erg of resistance, a display, an I-am-letting-you affirmation.

They cross the threshold of Myka’s room, and then. Then, after Myka makes one turn and twist, a closed non-elevator door stands, for once and at last, between them and the rest of the world.

Closed, the door is, but not locked. In the door-closing instant, turning the lock—adding its presumptive click—had struck Myka’s hand as overly brazen: that’s a frustrating flinch her hand will have to work out with whatever part of her brain-body complex was certain enough to start this, start it by saying what she did about the suitcase... the same part that keeps telling her that Helena’s feelings match hers.

As Myka turns her back on the now-closed door, she sees her bed. She sees her bed. Disconcerting, in this new now, how large a percentage of the room’s space this one piece of furniture seems to be occupying...

But she’s self-aware enough to know that she’s overlaying the bed’s current brain space, the desires it signifies, on the physical. Whatever’s going to happen—or not—will happen, she tries to force into that space in her brain, pushing it down... for desire, sometimes indistinguishable from expectation, has devastated her before. But she tries too hard: missing the mark, she slips and falls into some past-obsessed cerebral fold, once again lost, quietly but deeply, in that devastation.

“Here we are,” Helena remarks into the silence. “Or, harking back to engineering: Here we are? I continue to be unsure as to why. I can accept unclear provenance, but I’d prefer more explication regarding my allowable movements.”

That’s help. That’s rescue. But oh: movements. The word nearly derails Myka in a different direction, but she gathers herself, resetting to reply, “It’s explicable, but I honestly don’t have the energy to explicate even my minimal knowledge of the mechanism. The most basic base is, Claudia and Steve worked out a deal to use that pen, and there’s a list that you and I are on. As a ‘nice’ situation. Anyway if you want real details, you probably should sit down with Steve.”

A mind’s-eye image comes to her, of Helena and Steve leaning toward each other, bringing complementary concentration to bear on some topic large or small... and then an incipient sound strikes her: the chime of their voices together, both seriously and lightheartedly, ringing notes she hadn’t before this new instant thought to anticipate. “Actually I think you and Steve sitting down would be really pleasant. Even productive. Given that you’ll be sticking around. I mean, if you’re willing, and if, or at least until, some definitional issues get worked out. As I understand it.” As I devoutly hope, she doesn’t quite utter.

“That addresses... some issues, I suppose. Yet a question remains.”

This is a bonus of a day: Helena turning into the queen of understatement? It’s freeing; Myka laughs and says, “Tons of questions remain. Which one’s on your mind?”

Head-tilt. “You said you didn’t have the energy... to explain the mechanism,” Helena says.

More delay, Myka knee-jerks... but she knows the reflex immediately as wrongheaded, for this is conversation, the value of which she should have learned by now not to discount. “Right. Sorry, I’ll try: so the pen, and honestly speaking of questions and provenance, I still have some questions about provenance, which I’m trying to ignore, but anyway, Claudia found the file, and—”

“That is not the issue I had in mind.”

“Sorry. I’m not getting anything right, am I?” Because of course she isn’t getting anything right.

“We’ll see,” Helena says.

“So what did I jump the gun on?”

“You don’t have the energy to explain.”

This muddles Myka; it will probably require another reset. “I did say that, but I can try to—”

“Myka,” Helena says, and her name in that mouth will never cease to be a singular wonder. “What do you have the energy for?”

Here again is the difference between the attitude that Myka, in her more cynical moments, might have thought Helena would maintain, and the reality she is instead offering: the question is suggestive, but guilelessly, graciously so; its import is genuine, not manipulative. “How do you do that?” Myka asks.

“Do what?” This question, too, is guileless, gracious.

“Stop me.” It’s the best definition Myka can produce of what Helena has in fact done, what she seems consistently able to do.

Helena breathes several breaths, like she’s waiting for the right words to arrive... no, more like they’ve already arrived, but she’s preparing herself, gearing up to deliver them. “I don’t want to stop you,” she eventually says, and Myka should have used that windup to prepare herself: for the admission this is, for how this don’t-want utterance nevertheless is want.

They are the most vulnerable words Myka has ever heard.

New, new, new... the fact is that historically, people have tended to twist and shy from revealing weakness to Myka. Fallout from her tendency to judge, no doubt, but it means that this, too, is new: here is Helena, and maybe in some other world someone else might have made such a mattering move but here in this best one it’s Helena, Helena ignoring that character defect, Helena blowing past it for a chance to change everything.

Everything. “It’s Christmas,” Myka says, because it is. And because now it is.

“So give me this gift,” Helena rejoins.

“You too,” Myka says.

For the space of one breath, they both wait—bracing for whatever fate intends to use to stop them this time.

But this time nothing stops them, for in the ensuing instant, they both give that gift, blowing fast past everything that, slow, might stop them, grasping at this chance to change.

The jolt of their contact reminds Myka of—no: the shock of it strikes her as—artifact activation, that calling of vested power into being, that enabling of such longed-for release. Before the Warehouse taught her to recognize this transubstantiating, she would not have understood this moment’s raw unleashing, its summoning and compelling of stored potential to manifest as what it has lain in wait, in desperate wish, to become.

But also: all the blood in her body knows she has never felt such power released nonartifactually before now, before this.

Before this world-encompassing, world-creating first kiss.

“You’re thinking,” Helena murmurs into the space of a pause for breath. “I can taste it.”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Myka scrambles, kicking herself for not staying in the unprecedented moment, for letting thought intrude, as she always does, and it’s always bad, and Helena is now rightfully offended and disenchanted and—

“It’s delicious,” Helena says, punctuating—proving—by meeting Myka’s lips again, again again again, as if determined to never stop.

Myka would be perfectly happy, oh so perfectly happy, with that forever-continuation, but something in her brain has begun gesturing wildly, demanding her attention... something about her hand... brazen... she rips her lips away and yelps, “Wait! I have to lock the door!”

“The thinking continues,” Helena says, stepping back, freeing Myka, and spreading her arms in a ta-da endorsement. “You’re brilliant.”

A memory: “Bunny, you think too much.” No I don’t, she can now answer. Not for her. In time, given time, she’ll tell Helena how much this matters, but now is not that time. Not when Helena is saying, “However, as we’re behind a locked door, I’ll wager I can make you stop thinking... for at least one consequential moment...”

To Myka’s extremely consequential—and utterly, blissfully unthinking—delight, Helena wins that bet.

****

Later. Lazily, later: “I genuinely cannot believe we were stuck in an elevator,” Myka says. A thing to say, said. “As the prelude to all this.” Which is what she really means.

Against Myka’s neck, newly and blessedly intimate, Helena says, “Your limited capacity for belief is noted. Are you equally incapable of believing that we had the apparently obligatory, if not preordained, chat?”

“Obligatory... preordained...” Myka is still so lazy, she’s practically drawling, and the out-of-character surprise of it pricks at the edge of her ability to stay in such a state. Stay, stay, stay... “Honestly... just clichéd.”

“And yet I was able to add a reference to my Myka-index. Entry: Mirrors, your artifact-related discomfort with.”

Myka’s heart seizes: Helena has a Myka-index. That, plus their proximity now, surely requires her to do better than the little falsehood she’d rested on with regard to the mirror-discomfort. Pushing laziness aside, with something too much like relief, she acknowledges, “I misled you. There was an artifact, but that isn’t what bothers me. The real thing is that mirrors make me observe myself too closely. Too much. Which I do all the time anyway.”

“I wish you’d delegate that observational task to me.” Sweet. Helena sounds so sweet. And not just sounds: Myka can tell (hopes she can tell) Helena means it. Which is even sweeter.

And which in turn entails a need for Myka to think seriously about being observed. Being protected. Being willing—but more important, able—to delegate in the correct spirit, even minimally. “I can try.”

“I can accept that,” Helena says, and the approval is better than sweet: it’s buy-all-the-books-you-want indulgent. “But I must ask: do you honestly think any part of the Cleveland interregnum was the elevator’s doing?”

The true answer references Myka’s entire Warehouse experience, from day one: “Yes and no.”

Helena nods, her hair sliding mink-soft on Myka. “I can accept that as well.”

“And whoever’s at fault, our chat was interrupted,” Myka says.

“As it was poised to progress beyond ‘chat’... but in truth I would rather this happened here than in an elevator. Better environs for still further progress. Don’t you agree?” Helena moves her unclad limbs against Myka’s, in transcendent emphasis.

Of course Myka agrees. Which leads her to a painful realization: “So maybe the elevator wasn’t as judgmental as I... judged it to be.”

Helena bestows a kiss to Myka’s shoulder—small, intimate—bringing Myka’s mind back, sharp, to what those bestowing lips have so recently accomplished, which threatens to render her again overcome. She shudders, which reduces her to embarrassment instead, but Helena is kind enough to feign obliviousness as she says, “You did note your own judgmental nature.”

Myka’s soul twinges in genuine regret, collapsing her lip-recall. She regrets that too. “Do you think I need to go back and apologize? I feel all guilty now.”

“The elevator has most likely moved on,” Helena says, quite dry.

“You’re saying it doesn’t have my memory.”

“I’m saying that even if it does—an open question, though the lack of elevator memoirs argues in the negative—it’s unlikely to care as much as you do about what it does remember.”

“Story of my life,” Myka sighs out. Now she’s really saying it, because memory, and caring too much about it, is that story.

“For the best, I suspect. Your life story and an elevator’s shouldn’t be entirely congruent, should they?” Helena questions, and that makes Myka laugh and want to read an entire library shelf’s worth of elevators’ memoirs. Feigning seriousness, Helena continues, “Although we might revisit so as to investigate whether its conveyance of Bob proceeded properly after our visit. That could be revealing.”

“Speaking of Bob, I feel bad for Nancy. Because of course he’ll blame her.”

“For elevator mischief?”

Ah. Helena doesn’t know. “For naughty.”

“Naughty what?”

“The list. He’s back on it, thanks to Steve and Claudia.”

“Is he.” Her satisfaction is evident, and for a moment she and Myka are one in their schadenfreude. That, too, is delicious. “Better they punish him than we do,” Helena then says.

This sends Myka back to guilt. “It feels like cheating. We didn’t use the artifact, but we get the personal gain.”

Myka’s shoulder now receives an indignant exhale. In its wake, Myka is dwelling on how she would have preferred another kiss, but Helena says, “I was speaking of soul-consequences, not this personal-gain fetish you all seem to embrace. Or perhaps it’s an anti-fetish, but in any case was no hard-and-fast dictum in my day.”

“I’ll reiterate that you should sit down with Steve,” Myka tells her, and Helena accedes with a nestle that erases the exhale.

Are words about such things—ambiguously motivated elevators, deserved punishments, fetishes of undetermined valence—a waste of time? No... for again, they are conversation... the value of which, Myka has lately learned, is even greater when the words it comprises land as soft breath on skin.

In fact Myka has learned a great many things in this locked-door recent while. There is, for one, the gratifying fact that she and Helena are physically compatible, at least as evidenced by this first performance, in terms both of wants and of abilities to satisfy them. But nearly as important, particularly in its physical component but not only that, is her new understanding that while her life has offered her several circumstances with which she’s been reasonably satisfied—that she hasn’t minded—this right-now is orders of magnitude above such contentment. She must have in some soul-stratum known this would prove true, or she would not have been panting in its pursuit so seemingly hopelessly, with such dogged desperation.

She says, with gratitude, “This is what I wanted.”

Getting what she wants: that, too, is new. And very. very nice.

“I would hope so,” Helena says. As if she had some genuine doubt about Myka’s motivation? “No, that’s rhetorical; rather, I did hope so. You’ve realized that hope, and... well. I should be clear: this is more than I dared to want.”

Myka, endeavoring to bring everything together, says, “So what you’re saying, want-wise, is that it’s a bonus. A nice one.”

“I’m saying, want-wise, that my wildest hopes have been exceeded. Surpassed. Transcended.”

It’s something, that reply. Also more than a little over the top, rhetorically, which Helena obviously knows. “Pleonast,” Myka accuses.

Helena laughs. “Not inaccurate. I suppose your ‘nice bonus’ translation is technically correct, if a bit... with apologies, pedestrian?”

“It’s less pedestrian than ‘Fred,’” Myka says. A “hm?” from Helena reminds Myka that she hasn’t yet made that translation evident. “I guess ‘Fred’ counts as esoteric instead, so never mind. You’re right, ‘bonus’ is pedestrian. So is ‘nice.’ But maybe it’s a good idea to call our whatever-it-is something pedestrian. I don’t want to scare it away.”

“And what precisely do you think would ‘scare it away’?”

“Bigness,” Myka offers, weakly. It’s what she means, but—

“‘Bigness?’” Helena says, quotes evident. “From the woman who so recently deployed ‘pleonast’? Should I fear that you’ll regularly revert without warning to Pete-reminiscent locutions?”

Myka chuckles. “Spend enough time with him, it’ll probably happen to you too.” The laziness is back. Earned back?

After a time—or perhaps Myka only after a time processes the sound—Helena says, “God forbid.”

A further lag ensues before Myka manages to respond, with a drowsy “I agree.”

Sleep follows. That is certainly earned.

****

Consciousness resumes for Myka with a banging on her door and a shout from Pete: “It’ s really not Christmas anymore, because Artie’s back!”

“Being Artie about it!” Claudia shouts in addition. “He says get to work!”

“I’m awake,” Myka says as she becomes more fully so. This is a Warehouse morning, and Warehouse alarms ring as they do.

Then: I’m not awake; I’m dreaming, because the back of Helena’s head and her naked shoulders greet Myka’s opening eyes. That’s a bracingly new alarm.

Helena’s voice comes next. “He says get to work,” she quotes, playfully, and Myka would be willing to wake to such an alarm with joy for the rest of her life.

But assuredly, if the content of that alarm is the dictate, then no one is dreaming. There’s really nothing for Myka to say except, “Sorry, but one more time: Story of my life.”

“Now? Our life,” Helena corrects.

That is a literally life-story-altering assertion, and a self-deprecating impulse tempts Myka to scoff it away. Behind that impulse, however, lies a clear-eyed recognition that she must meet what Helena has said. How, how, how...

...and then her mind starts fully working. She begins to formulate a plan. One that will, if possible, manifest her gratitude, but also, display her difference from the Myka she used to be, that one from so few hours ago, who had not yet known the dream-surprise of this awakening’s sight.

“I’m going to tell them I can’t get the door unlocked,” she says. Steve isn’t there. She can get away with it. She sits up, ready to head for the door and tell that story.

Helena touches Myka’s shoulder. “Would it lend credibility for me to suggest out loud that I genuinely can’t believe we’re stuck in your bedroom?” More play, but the touch is becoming a don’t-leave-this-bed grasp.

Myka leans to kiss the restraining hand. “I think that would make them think you planned it. And were being nefarious about it. Shocked incredulity isn’t really your strong suit.”

“It’s true that my capacity for belief outstrips yours.” She pulls down on the sheet, exposing both her body and Myka’s.

Talk about overdetermined. Or is it, in this as-yet-unmapped terrain, underdetermined? To be determined later, if at all... Myka somehow marshals sufficient will to rise from the bed, while telling herself that she is not, conceptually at least, actually leaving it. At the door, she fiddles with the lock, expressing frustration to support her claim, after which Pete and Claudia make noises about toolboxes and battering rams, respectively, and then mercifully depart.

“They’re going to try to get us out,” Myka reports as she returns to bed. “Maybe violently?”

“Let them,” Helena murmurs. “That elevator and its manifestation of mischief... comparatively amateur. You’ve bested it handily.”

That jolts Myka out of a back-of-mind consideration of whether she might be able to jam the bedroom door’s lock with something easily to hand, or perhaps whether her dresser might be pushed across the room to block the door entirely. She then considers, front of mind, the possibility that Helena—her physical presence, her physical provocation—is a bad influence... or at the very least a naughty one... for these thoughts are so, so out of character.

“That, on the other hand, is not the story of my life,” Myka says, and the fact of it does make her more than a little nervous.

“A new chapter,” Helena counters, reading Myka’s mind and setting it right—in three words. Such economy.

****

Myka and Helena are engaged in adding to that new chapter (or at the very least, drafting a steamy interlude of same, even if it isn’t essential to the plot) when a banging on the door interrupts them yet again. As does shouting: “We’re back!” yells Pete, unnecessarily.

“Hey, Myka, what’s going on?” That’s Steve. Far more quiet.

“I brought Steve,” Pete says, also unnecessarily.

“I gathered that from his voice,” Myka notes.

“But!” Pete says, in aha-I-got-you mode, “what if it turns out all I brought was his voice?”

“Then I guess he’d still be here in some sense?” she says; she’s thinking on the Helena-hologram, on what a lack of visual might have meant, on how a more ontologically disembodied voice would have made her believe Helena was there, there but standing on the other side of a door. How she would have wanted to take her own battering ram to that door. The hologram’s present non-presence had stranded her, stranded them, in a strange shared space, offering no barrier Myka could use her body to break violently through.

“But!” Claudia exclaims, jokey, fighting with Myka’s ache of reminiscence, “what if it’s just me, doing my Steve impression?”

“That’d be a different thing,” Myka concedes.

“You do a me impression?” Steve asks Claudia.

Who exhales so dramatically, Myka’s surprised the door doesn’t just blow open. “You have stood next to me while I did it.”

“I have?” Puzzled-Steve is honestly Myka’s favorite Steve.

“Are we not a team?” Claudia demands. “Myka does a Pete. Pete does a Myka. Naturally they both suck, but the point is, why don’t you do a me?”

“Because you’d kill me?”

“Guys,” Pete says, “this isn’t getting Myka and H.G. out of the bedroom.”

Claudia says, “But let me just. Myka, H.G., you guys do impressions of each other, right?”

Helena raises her arms, a gesture of observe-this!—or maybe it’s at-last!—and exclaims, “I feel compelled to express disbelief about this circumstance!”

It takes Myka a second to get it, but once she does, she shouts, “I love blooming onions!”

For quite some time, there’s silence from the other side of the door.

Then Steve says, “Am I the only one who’s extremely confused?”

“Usually, yes,” Claudia says. “Except now, no. I’m with you. Pete?”

“Myka loves blooming onions,” Pete says, slow; he’s the one having trouble now with belief. Myka can picture his gobsmacked face. “There’s my endless wonder for the day. Also, I gotta rethink a whole lot of stuff she said about what she was willing to eat.”

Myka presses an apologetic kiss to Helena’s lips (and how nearly unbelievable it is to feel comfortable with such a touch being swift, to not need to hoard, to believe there will be more), then extricates herself yet again from the sheets, the bed. She heads for the door: to make a show of unlocking it, to send them away temporarily so she and Helena can reassemble themselves to rejoin the world—but. Problem. Big problem. “Guys. I really can’t get the door unlocked now.”

“‘Now’?” Pete echoes.

“You mean you actually could before?” Claudia asks.

Moment of truth. So, fine, truth: “I didn’t actually try before.”

“Ha!” Claudia barks. “Are we still on impressions? That might’ve been a decent one, for real, because the attitude? Way H.G.”

“Thank you so much!” Helena chirps.

“H.G.,” says Claudia, with a whiff of pedantry—and that she feels free to express such an attitude toward Helena is most likely because she’s on the safe side of a closed door—“I was complimenting Myka’s impression.”

“But in it, you recognized my attitude.” Helena’s words are a full preen, and as she speaks, she’s rising from the bed, approaching Myka, slipping arms around her, such that Myka loses her ability to track what’s happening on the other side of the door, even as splinters of sound catch in her ears—“hinges inside,” “lock plate solid,” and finally, “break it down”—whereupon she realizes anew that neither she nor Helena is clothed, and that being caught and seen in that state will constitute a disaster that outstrips a great many of the others in her experience.

“We have to get dressed,” she breathes at Helena.

“Wait,” Helena says. “I suspect a realization is about to occur.”

At times, Helena can be eerily prescient. But what is it this time?

As if in answer, Claudia says, “I have a really depressing theory. Myka, can you get the window open?”, whereupon Myka understands Helena’s deduction: this isn’t mechanical; it’s artifactual. More specifically, list-artifactual.

She cannot open the window.

“Yeah,” Claudia says, a defeated I-knew-it. “I’d be all ‘try to smash it!’, but since I can’t see you try it and, like, bounce off the glass, what’s the point? I mean, go for it if H.G. wants the lulz.”

“I don’t know what that means!” Helena informs her. That too is a chirp, and Myka’s pleased to note it’ll probably head off the slapstick.

“Kind of a shame,” Claudia says, but with a drag, like she’s picturing it, and Myka is less pleased to have to devoutly hope that picturing involves everybody fully clothed. “Anyway I hate to say it, but it’s pretty clear this is on us, the list-makers.”

Pete groans. “You were supposed to check it twice! It’s right there in the song!”

“Listen, we seriously argued about the wording,” Steve says.

“And oh guess what!” Claudia says, defeat apparently tabled for the moment. “Everybody in the world is going on about their day as usual due to the unshocking news that I was right.”

“No, I was right. I was the one who said ‘proximity’ was likely to be too vague,” Steve says.

Myka’s inclined to agree with him.

“Bro, I was,” Claudia says, “because I said it was likely to be not vague enough.”

Well. Now Myka’s inclined to agree with Claudia.

She sees the conundrum. “I appreciate it either way,” she says, and that quiets the combatants.

“Regardless, we obviously need different wording,” Steve diplomats.

“I think our first mistake was thinking an artifact would word like we thought it should. You need to get more into its head than you did before.”

“I was in a hurry before,” Steve says, a little less diplomatically. “Because you were yelling at me.”

“I am so so so so glad,” Pete hosannas, “that none of this is on me.”

Myka cannot let that stand. “Who gave his cousin a thing?”

A pause. Then, “Whoops,” Pete says, very sad-clown.

Later, she’ll thank him again, but for now, she doesn’t mind having wielded this little shiv, inflicting this little nick, so he’ll remember that there is, or should be, always a downside.

“How fortunate they’re not asking for our help,” Helena says, bringing her back to the upside.

“Who’s better with words though? You certainly are,” Myka says.

“You hold your own, Ms. ‘Pleonast.’ But ssssh. Don’t remind them.”

“We’ll fix it, we promise!” Claudia says.

“Don’t feel compelled to hurry!” Helena directs, cheerily.

Steve says, “I think she means ‘Don’t yell at Steve this time.’” His hopefulness is clear.

“He isn’t wrong,” Helena notes into Myka’s ear.

Pete announces, “I think she means bow chicka wow wow.”

“He isn’t either,” Myka notes back. “Even less so?”

Helena answers by kissing her with intent.

Claudia snorts. “I think no matter what she means, Artie’s gonna kill us.”

“Alas, the least wrong of all,” Helena grants with a sigh.

The wrecking crew’s voices fade, and they may still be making non-wrong statements, but for Myka and Helena there is at last, again, peace. And once Myka pulls Helena back to bed—a delectable spin she is now bold enough to put on their dynamic—there is at last again not-peace.

Lazily later—and these lazy laters are vying to be Myka’s favorite at-last—she says, “Not to overinterpret the artifact’s thinking, but this feels very nice. As an in-proximity situation.”

“This particular proximity seems more than a bit naughty, however,” Helena says, incongruously matter-of-fact. She isn’t wrong. “Pete obviously made an inference to that effect. Perhaps if Steve and Claudia can use that as a way of writing us out of the current situation.”

“I’m sure that’s for the best,” Myka says, with no small amount of regret, first attached to her embarrassment at Pete, Steve, and Claudia’s involvement in that inference, but even more due to the sad fact that this beginning must come to an end.

“Are you...” Helena’s words are a smile.

“No. I’d much rather stay here forever with you.” Her practical side then takes over, as even Helena’s body twined around hers can’t prevent. “But if they don’t fix it we’ll die—pretty soon, unless they can figure out how to get food in.”

“Would the artifact allow us to starve? That seem the antithesis of a situation that might be termed ‘nice.’”

“‘Termed’? Isn’t problematic terminology why we’re still here?”

“Granted. But of course we’ll die regardless.”

The casual, literal fatalism trips Myka up. She temporizes, “The artifact might have something to say about that,” placeholding, as she finds her way to a real response: “But artifact aside... will you though?” It’s a question about... well, about whether Helena is, for want of a better word, real. Speaking of terminology. “Die,” she adds, not as a word she must expel, for its terrible taste, but one she feels a need to place. As a marker.

Helena takes a moment. Before, Myka would have read that pause as censure; it would have pushed her overboard into I-have-overstepped agony. But the plates have shifted, and her footing feels—strange but nice (oh, nice!)—sure.

The answer, when it comes: “Here with you, I don’t want to be bronzed again. So yes.”

That leaves Myka warm, yet shaking her head. “I honestly don’t know a lot about romance.”

“Don’t you?” Helena asks, all of her limbs beginning to move again against all of Myka’s.

Which, for the moment, Myka resists: “So I’m not sure if it’s weird that I find it incredibly romantic for you to have said yes to dying.”

Now Helena’s smile is a smile; she rears away, back and up, showing Myka her face’s full measure of delight. “Weird or no, whatever you find romantic, I’m inclined to approve. If that’s acceptable to you.” Helena bows her head, as if to formally request Myka’s benediction.

The very idea of such an ask floods her with happy tenderness. “Is it okay for me to find that romantic too?”

“‘Okay’ seems a sadly weak word to convey the extent of my approval,” Helena says. “Further, I find it romantic for you to ask my permission to find any thing romantic. Unnecessary, yet romantic. Is that ‘okay’ as well?”

“It’s a relief,” Myka understates. “Can I call it a romantic relief?”

“I don’t see why not. However, to what extent is it romantic, or non-, that we seem to be finding—or placing—ourselves in recursive loops of romantic-allowable querying?” Helena accompanies this academically focused, seemingly serious question with yet more limb movement.

Myka is actively in bed with someone who’s questioning the romantic quotient of recursive loops of romantic-allowable querying. It is a level of “nice” that she could never ever have ideated on her own. “I genuinely cannot believe any of this,” she says.

“I can assure you that I will be taking some time—if allowed, and thus perhaps only in an ideal world, some great length of time—to determine whether your incredulity will ever cease to be tedious and elevate itself to ‘romantic.’ Some great length of time,” she repeats, playfully.

Myka knows Helena’s appreciation for time’s length is far greater than any ordinary individual’s... so this smacks of a promise. Myka’s gratitude rises, as does her willingness to pursue any and all romantic activity, despite her apparently romance-dampening incredulity... but then the limbs pause. “However,” Helena says.

“What’s this ‘however’?” Myka asks, now selfishly impatient.

Helena has, obviously and of course, heard and felt the impatience. Myka’s neck receives a press of lips, a curve of smile. “However: fortunately, at this juncture, belief isn’t required. Participation, on the other hand, is. So?” This is something Myka has always suspected was a Helena tactic, but here in intimacy she recognizes as true: challenge not for its own sake, but as an attitude in which to wrap something different, deeper, some authenticity Helena isn’t fully willing, or doesn’t quite yet know how, to express.

Myka moves her own limbs, her limbs that are even longer than, and just as flexible as, Helena’s. She moves them against Helena’s. She cannot believe she is doing so; nevertheless, she is. She is participating.

She places a chock under this particular incredulity, for unlike facts, the quality of emotions can escape her if she doesn’t consciously tie them down. She paints the word “bonus” on the emotion-wheel as she secures it, to ensure she elevates that felt quality too. Then she eases herself back to the full experience of the physical, this smooth beauty—and that is the word for every touch-heat-rise their bodies execute—that she and Helena together are creating... are enjoying.

She sighs soft against Helena’s neck; in return, Helena offers again her lips-on-skin smile.

They are participating. In this. Together. Lips on skin.

“So,” Myka agrees.

END

[faustiandevil]

It's 5 AM We feel so good, it's almost frightening It's 5 AM I'm made for you, we can't deny it

Look I’m not beating the DeviantArt kid allegations with how many song lyrics I use. Anyway the one before last marker drawing post for the year. There’s only one more left and I swear I’ll stop (for a while). I am also not going in order with these, because the first page is one I did as an early test, but I had some blank space and went back to fill it in with oranges and that one logo from Boardwalk Empire that really cracked me up. I made it into Wally Gator, because guess who is a Florida princess in my headcanon. Penny is shown next to gators a lot tho, and she didn’t freak out in Wacky Races either, so I’m big galaxy brained with this one, trust me. The second page is just more random stuff from the show. One being a screenshot redraw from ep 16 Game of Peril, which has some of my favourite jokes and the ship interacting a bit as well. I do like the simple line drawing of Penny the best tho.

[fromtheboundlesssea]

Neither Gods Nor Men Chapter 78

The Smith

[hannaswritingblog]

Imagine: spending an afternoon in Hogsmeade with Luna Lovegood

Fandom: Harry Potter

One of the most awaited days of the year finally came around: the day of the first trip to Hogsmeade. You made plans to go there with Luna all the way back on September 1st, when you first met after the summer break.

Marching hand in hand with your friend, you point at all the shops you pass, wondering where to go. Remembering you wanted to send an owl to your parents, you make a quick run to the post office, and Luna, in need of a new quill, stops by the Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop.

When you're both done with your errands, you find yourselves walking around Hogsmeade again, unsure what to do next.

"How about a cup of tea?" Luna asked, pointing at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop.

It's totally Luna's style to pick the dating hotspot for Hogwarts students, when neither of you has ever suggested that you're anything more than best friends. The blood rushes to your face as you say:

"I don't think we should... go in. You know most people meet here for dates, right?"

"Oh, really? I went here on my own last year and it was really nice," she says, shrugging her shoulders. "And we still can go on a date, if that's what you prefer. A friendly date, of course."

"I mean..." you try to think of any argument against going, but Luna's innocent, faint smile is enough to convince you. You sigh and tell her: "Sure, we can go. As friends."

Luna's smile grows bigger as she grabs your hand and drags you into the tea shop. At the end of the day, you don't regret going with her; your conversations somehow got even more enjoyable than usual over a few cups of delicious tea. And the surprised glances from the couples surrounding you, clearly meeting there for "regular" dates, couldn't ruin the experience.

[fluentmoviequoter]

My Wife

Requested Here!

Pairing: Tim Bradford x fem!secret wife!reader

Summary: While you're out running errands, a man takes a special interest in you. When he grabs you and thanks a police officer for finding you, his wife, he doesn't expect it to be your husband.

Warnings: angst?, stalking, non-consensual touching (not sexual), protective and angry Tim Bradford, fluff

Word Count: 2.2k+ words

Picture from Pinterest (the req said 😑 but this is 😐)

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The small band on your left ring finger is the only evidence that you are married. Your husband doesn’t talk about you, yet it is clear that he loves you. When you wake up and find yourself alone in bed, you aren’t surprised. There’s a jewelry box on your nightstand with only one piece of jewelry in it, and you smile when you see there is a piece of paper lying across it.

Meet me at noon.

Tim Bradford is a man of few words, you know that well, but the idea of seeing him during a workday excites you. His secrecy regarding you and your relationship is understandable, but that doesn’t make it easier or help you miss him less. With the prospect of lunch with your husband to look forward to, you happily get out of your warm bed and begin getting ready for the day. You have several errands to run today, but you hope the morning goes quickly. Tim’s note is just as short as most of his speech, but you know exactly where you’re supposed to meet him.

While Tim leaves the station to go on patrol, you leave your house to go to your first stop. The store is nearly empty this early on a weekday, but you enjoy being able to browse without a rush. After finding everything you need, plus a few more items, you head toward the front of the store to pay for the items. In all the time you’ve spent moving through the store, you haven’t noticed one other customer.

From the moment you walked in, a man lurking in the center aisle took a special interest in you. He stayed back far enough that you wouldn’t get suspicious. When you pass him on your way to the checkout area, he decides that following you around the store isn’t enough, he wants to know where you go next and if the ring on your finger is worth anything. Monetary value or sentimental value, he doesn’t care, he just can’t let you out of his sight.

While loading your purchases into your car, you feel the unmistakable sensation of eyes on you. The area is growing busier, however, so you brush it off as someone trying to decide if they recognize you or are zoned out. Tim wouldn’t be happy about the lack of situational awareness, but he also knows what it is like to have people stare shamelessly at him.

The man drives his unassuming sedan two cars behind you and follows you to your next stop. It’s clear that you are shopping for a man, now, and the creep behind you is getting jealous. Your thoughts are completely consumed by Tim and what you are getting for him, so you don’t take notice of any of the men in the store. When you unlock your phone to check your list, you sigh at the time. 10:58 a.m. Noon is taking forever, and you are ready to see Tim.

With time for another stop or two, you leave, once again oblivious to the man following you. The pet store isn’t on your list, but when you see a sign for a buy one, get one sale on dog treats and toys, you make a sudden decision to get Kojo a few things as well. His dad can’t have all the attention, after all. In his car behind you, the man curses at your sudden turn and finds another entrance into the parking lot. Rather than following you in and risking losing you, he parks down the row from your car and waits for you to exit. You have two overflowing bags in your hands, and he considers for a moment jumping out and offering to help, but you stop by your car and set a bag down to open the door. It’s clear that you can take care of yourself, but you seem prone to having lapses in attention and failing to take in your surroundings, so the man decides to wait for a better opportunity to make something of you and the ring on your finger.

You are giddy with anticipation of presenting Kojo with all of his gifts. Now that you have more for him than you’ve purchased for you or Tim, you get back to your planned errands. There’s one store close to the place where you’re supposed to meet Tim, and with half an hour to spare, you decide to browse there. At ten ‘til noon, you park beside the small circle of food trucks. Living in Los Angeles has taught you never to leave anything visible in your car and the trunk liner Tim installed to hide your belongings is properly concealing your innumerable bags. Confident that everything is secure, you lock your car and walk toward Tim’s favorite truck. You’re early, so you take a seat and wait for him.

The man from the first store orders something from a food truck to blend in and sits almost directly behind you. He can tell that you are waiting for someone, but when he sees a cop approaching, he has a brilliant and devious idea. You stand as the police officer – your police officer - enters the dining area, and the man stands immediately after.

“Hey,” Tim greets with a smile. His smile drops as he watches a man move behind you, and his face remains impassive as he begins speaking.

“Officer,” the man behind you says. He releases an overly dramatic sigh as his hand wraps around your upper arm. His thumb digs into your skin, and your eyes widen slightly as you watch Tim. “Thank you for finding my wife, Officer… Bradford. She wanders off sometimes. What have I told you about paying attention, pretty girl?”

Tim’s face hasn’t changed since the man stood, and anger flares in his eyes. You watch as his jaw clenches, anticipating what he is going to do.

“Get your hand off my wife,” Tim demands lowly.

The hand around your arm tightens harshly, and he jerks you backward in his anger. He’s also confused because all of his hard work is slipping away; he doesn’t believe that a cop’s wife would be as careless as you and miss someone following her. So, he pulls you back as he moves and prepares to say more.

Tim expected a similar reaction, and the moment you step to the side to catch yourself, he surges forward and shoves the man off of you. When the creep hits the concrete, Tim rolls him onto his stomach and plants his knee directly between his kidneys. As the man groans in pain, Tim secures his handcuffs on his wrists and quickly recites his Miranda rights before calling for backup. Tim stands and you move to press a hand against his back. It’s a reminder that you are there, and that you’re safe because of him.

“Tim,” you begin quietly. “Do you want me to leave before everyone gets here? Or give them my maiden name?”

Tim shakes his head, but his eyes remain on the cuffed man writing in pain below him. “No. You’re my wife,” he answers.

You smile, and when Tim turns to check on you, some of the tension drains away. He moves a hand to your shoulder, and you know what he’s saying without speaking. You nod, a confirmation that you love him too.

“Bradford,” Nolan calls as he exits the shop. “What can we do?”

“Someone get him to booking, and we need statements,” Tim answers, effortlessly shifting into cop mode rather than husband mode. “Charge him with assault.”

“And stalking,” you add. “He’s been following me all morning.”

“You knew?” Tim and the man ask together.

“Suspected it after the second store, and I have a picture of him watching me when I left the pet store,” you explain.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Tim asks.

“I was going to, but he beat me to it.”

Nolan asks you to step to the side with him and give him your statement. Tim nods to remind you that you can tell the truth. The secrecy is to keep you safe from people who would hurt you, not other cops.

“Can I get your name first? And any ID you have?” Nolan begins kindly.

You say your name and pass your driver’s license to him.

“Bradford?” Nolan asks. His shock is evident, and you press your tongue to your cheek, so you don’t laugh.

“Yes, sir. Where should I start my statement?”

“Uh, at- at the beginning. Just run me through your day.”

Nolan clearly has trouble listening, but he powers through the distraction and takes thorough notes. When Tim moves to your side and says he’ll bring you by to sign it later, Nolan wants to ask countless questions.

“So, that guy said he was your husband to your husband?” Nolan clarifies.

“Yep,” you answer.

Nolan turns to Tim and lowers his voice to ask, “You have a wife?”

“And I’m sure you will tell everyone,” Tim replies. “Just go file the report and we’ll be by in a bit.”

Nolan nods and rushes back to the shop. Tim waits until the other officers pull away to wrap his arms around you. Safe against Tim’s chest, you move your arms to circle his waist and sigh against him.

“Thank you,” you whisper. “I love you.”

“I love you,” he replies without hesitation. “Are you okay? How’s your arm?”

“I’m okay,” you promise.

“What’d you get at the pet store?” he asks with a smile.

“Too much.”

“Kojo will be a happy boy.”

“What now?”

Tim leads you to your car and tells you to drive home. He follows you in his shop to take you back to the station. The moment you walk in with him, someone throws a handful of rice.

“Great,” Tim grumbles. “I didn’t think he’d start blabbing this soon.”

“I kinda like this,” you say. “About time I get to show you off.”

Tim rolls his eyes but lays a gentle hand on your lower back to lead you through the station. He introduces you to several people and endures jokes and teasing from each of them. If he wasn’t so grateful that you’re safe and uninjured, he’d put an end to the comments from his fellow officers, but he’s too distracted by you at his side to care much.

“So, you’re the secret wife that got assaulted while standing with your cop husband,” Wade muses.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” you ask.

He shrugs and pulls you into a quick hug. Lucy and Nolan gasp from beside him.

“You knew?” they ask loudly.

“Course I did. I was at the wedding.”

“I was too,” Angela adds from her desk. “It’s nothing personal, you know. Tim just doesn’t like you as much.”

Tim shakes his head before asking everyone to be quiet. He stays by your side until you finish signing your statement.

“I’m not end of watch yet,” he says as he returns to the shop. “But I can try to leave early.”

“It’s fine- I’m fine, Tim,” you promise. “Just be careful and come home to me when you can, okay?”

Tim promises to do just that. When he does finally get home, though, you can see that he is still tense. He pulls you into a warm hug, but his shoulders are rigid, and his grip is that of a man who is guilty of something that isn’t his fault. You slide your hands up to his shoulders and rub gently.

“Hey, do you want a fashion show?” you murmur. “I bought some clothes today.”

Tim pulls back and smiles. He kisses you deeply to show you just how glad he is to be back in your arms. Your safety is one of the most important things to Tim, and you know it.

“Wait,” Tim says against your lips.

You are breathing heavily when you pull back and look into his eyes.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Tim’s fingers move gently up your arm and his grip is the complete opposite of what you felt earlier. He looks at you for permission, and when you nod, he pushes your shirt out of the way to look at your upper arm. There’s a red mark surrounding it, and Tim’s brows crease when he sees it.

“I’m fine,” you promise quietly. “Thanks to you. I don’t want to imagine what would’ve happened if he’d done something sooner, but I know I’ll never have to with you around.”

Tim’s hand slides away from your arm, opting to hold your waist instead.

“You’re going to lock me in the house, now, aren’t you? Secret wife will take on a whole new meaning.”

Tim chuckles, and your eyes brighten at the sound. He kisses you again, not as slow or long, but just as impactful. You grip his shirt before leaning against him again.

“Did you give Kojo his new toys yet?” Tim asks.

“No. I was waiting for you.”

Tim rubs his hand along your back before whispering, “Was the fashion show a serious offer?”

You tilt your head back and laugh. “As if you’d sit through a fashion show, Tim Bradford.”

He leans in like he’s going to kiss you again, but instead says, “Try me.”

[dazzlingjaeyun]

𝐱𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 – 𝐣𝐚𝐞𝐲𝐮𝐧 ⊹˚꙳⁺⋆₊･*❅

bf!jake x gf!reader

୨୧ genre: fluff | words: 851 (0.8k) | cw: none ୨୧

₊☃️‧₊˚❄️˚₊‧🌨️˚ ⋅

you were walking through the almost empty hallways of the company building, relieved to finally be off after a draining week of deadlines, stress, and pure chaos, when your phone started vibrating in your bag.

you pulled it out while walking towards the elevator and picked up the call the same second you pressed the elevator's button.

"hey," you greeted, your voice laced with exhaustion even though you tried your best to mask it.

"hey love," jake greeted you happily on the other end of the line, "are you on your way home already?"

"i was just about to head out, why?"

"okay, stay there, i'm picking you up," he announced.

you shook your head slightly although he couldn't see it. "you don't have to, i'm fine taking the bus–"

"absolutely not," jake interrupted. although filled with affection, his voice was firm enough to not leave any room for argument. "it's snowing and i don't want you to catch a cold. you're always freezing and i bet you forgot your scarf again."

his ramble made you chuckle slightly, knowing well you had in fact forgotten your scarf.

"just wait inside, i'll be there in five. love you," he said and hung up before you could reply.

you smiled to yourself as you put your phone back into your bag and finally stepped inside the elevator.

true to his words, it really took only another five minutes until you saw jake's car parking in front of the building.

as you approached the car, jake quickly stepped out from the driver’s seat and started walking toward you. when he was close enough, he cupped your face, his warm hands contrasting the cold air that surrounded you. he leaned down to press a soft kiss on your forehead, the tip of your nose, and finally your lips.

suddenly, the world felt a little warmer, as if jake's presence was enough to chase the cold away.

after he pulled back, a soft smile spreading across his lips, he opened the passenger door and waited for you to get in before jogging around the car and getting in the driver's seat.

he turned on the heating before pulling out of the parking lot. the drive was silent, only the radio quietly playing in the background and jake softly humming along to the songs.

you already felt yourself relaxing, sinking further into the heated car seat and gently placing your hand on top of your boyfriend's that he'd rested on your thigh.

jake glanced over at you as your hand found his, his thumb automatically tracing soft circles against your skin. “tired?” he asked, his voice gentle, eyes flickering between you and the road.

you nodded, letting out a small sigh. “long week.”

he gently squeezed your hand and gave you a soft smile. “we'll make the evening extra cozy, yeah?"

you just nodded tiredly, not yet anticipating what he'd meant.

when you opened the front door of your shared apartment just a few minutes later, you heard the familiar sound of paws against the floor, and a moment later, layla appeared, her tail wagging in excitement.

"hi baby," you greeted her as you crouched down to gently ruffle her soft fur. jake smiled to himself as the dog licked your face in excitement and you backed away with a laugh.

"i have something to show you," he caught your attention after some minutes. you looked up at him, your eyebrows shooting up in curiosity.

"come on." he offered his hand and guided you to the living room, where you immediately noticed the empty christmas tree in the corner and the boxes of decorations on the floor.

"i know how much you love decorating the tree and i thought we could do it together this year," he explained before you could say anything.

"i hoped it could cheer you up, i know how hard you've been working and it was killing me i couldn't do much to help," he added, a little more hesitant.

jake scratched the back of his neck. “i just... wanted to do something that would make you smile.”

your vision blurred as tears started to fill your eyes, but you quickly blinked them away. jake smiled softly, pulling you into his embrace and wrapping his arms around you tightly, as if he'd never let you go again.

"it's perfect," you mumbled against his chest.

jake chuckled, pressing a gentle kiss on the top of your head, "not yet, but it will be."

while jake started untangling strings of lights, you placed ornaments on the lower branches, not without letting layla sniff them approvingly. you decorated together in silence, both only humming along to the christmas playlist you'd started playing, until you hung the last ornament.

you stepped back, admiring your work for a minute, before you turned to look at jake. the soft glow of the fairy lights illuminated his features perfectly.

"now it's perfect," he said as he wrapped an arm around your waist to pull you closer. then, he tilted his head down to kiss your temple.

“merry early christmas, princess.”

part three of my xmas special. tap here to get to the other members!

© dazzlingjaeyun, 2024. please do not copy.

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[hungrydogs-if]

had an acquaintance ask me why i don't just use ai writing to finish my book (it's not a book, it's a game, hanna) quicker and i just.

*inhale*

[swansongofalyre]

A reminder that the Lit for Lebanon auction is live! Below, a fraction of the very cool things up for bid thanks to the generous support of these fabulous authors, editors, and agents, with all proceeds going to the displaced people of Lebanon.

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