#I am: incredibly sunburnt
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icallhimjoey ¡ 4 months ago
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I found myself noticing that I think Joe's best side is his right. The fact that that's a thing that I know, or even have an opinion of, makes me feel like I need to go outside some more 🤣
Enjoy Italy btw!
his best side is his backside AYOOOOO
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setsuntamew ¡ 6 months ago
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SO!!! Wife and I went on an impulse trip over the weekend and ended up in the small beach town near the Renaissance Festival I worked at right out of high school. And along the way we stopped at a. very familiar rest stop- as in we got out of the car and I was like "WAIT I'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE!!!!"
To make a long story short, I dug up a picture of myself in the exact same rest stop, from 2008, and had Liz help me recreate it ✌🏻
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(if I had planned better, I would have brought the same Gaia Online plush kitty along because I still have it lmao)
BUUUUUUUT honestly even better than being back in the same spot, many years later, is that now I have a wonderful wife to take 6+ hour long road trips to Ohio with, just cuz 💜💜💜
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tl;dr I love my wife and we had a GREAT weekend getaway :D
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kiwibirb1 ¡ 7 months ago
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When your empathy levels are high enough to figure out something is wrong and ask what but not to comfort:
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valley-of-headcanons ¡ 5 months ago
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Hi! So...I was reading your harvey x bold!farmer and I know the request didn't want "a downright flirty farmer who winks at him and teases him" but now I keep wondering how Harvey would react to this...
harvey with an aggressively flirty!farmer || headcanons
our favorite doctor is certainly showing his bashful side now ...
warnings: suggestive hinting, nothing explicit but definitely implicit.
requested by: @gangrelispunk , hi!! tysm for the request!! definitely had me thinking about this too after i was done with the request! super cute, and the harvey stans are definitely getting fed. hope you enjoy! <3
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• Harvey is an incredibly put together man! He's a doctor, he's very accomplished! He seemingly has all of his shit together, and wouldn't be phased by a lot! ... but, he does have a few weaknesses. And when you come to town, a farmer who has an incredibly flirty attitude towards him ... oh, he's in for it now. This poor boy honestly doesn't know what to think!
• When he first met you, Harvey was trying his best to keep his cool. He found you very attractive, and you had a good vibe! However, Harvey really didn't want to mess this up! He is not one to come on too strong, or to really 'come on' at all. But you ... you were certainly a different story. During your conversation, you were VERY flirty. There were tons of statements that were just suggestive enough to make him think. The last note you left him with was a gentle wink as you walked away.
• “Hello, it's nice to meet you! I'm Harvey, the town's doctor. Please stop by if you need anything ... oh, you'll be stopping by quite often? Do you have a medical condition ...? Oh ... just to see me? Well- ah- that's- ... that would be nice, I believe, as long as there's not someone I'm already working with ... you know just how to distract me? Well, not while I'm working, that's my only request! ... huh? What does that mean? ... oh- ... goodbye?”
• As you two start getting friendlier with each other, you turn the flirting up a couple notches. More suggestive remarks, more winking, maybe a few playful nudges thrown in once you know that he's comfortable with it. Some of these flirtatious remarks go over his head, but when he catches onto a few of them? Oh, he's done for. His face morphed into shades of red you'd never seen before, and his speech was pretty broken. Harvey, a put together man, was spiralling in front of your eyes. What a sight to see.
• “Wh-what? That was ... that wasn't an innuendo, was it? ... only if I want it to be ...? What does that even mean?! I- ... it's not written all over my face, that's just my natural complexion ... I am ... sunburnt ... in ... winter ... okay, maybe that wasn't the best excuse, but just- ignore it! It just does that sometimes, uh- uhm ... I apologize for my behavior, what you said just took a toll on my brain ... wait- what does that wink mean?!”
• As your time together passes, you two inevitably start dating. With your flirting, it was bound to happen eventually! Harvey is still a mess, but it gets better as he gets used to it. He loved how much you show your attraction and love for him with absolutely no shame. He finds it sweet, oddly enough. He does, however, get super embarrassed if you flirt in front of other people. He loves you, but he likes to keep that stuff private!
• “Hi, my love. Are you making sure to take enough breaks today? You can step by my office if you need to rest in air conditioning, I don't mind ... you'd come by? That's great! ... y-you'd what?! N-no, not in my office! You- no- that's irresponsible and would possibly get my license revoked! ... f-fine, we can when I get home- ... wait- what does that mean?!”
• Harvey's brain is certainly short circuited. He's incredibly flattered, though. This man is not used to being loved so unapologetically, and he adores every second of it. He may get flustered sometimes, but he wouldn't trade it for a moment. You have to admit, he's pretty adorable when he's flustered. It seemed like a win-win for both of you!
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roodles03 ¡ 5 months ago
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Huntlow Renders - Bathing Suits
Hopefully, I'll actually make the beach date drawing this year unlike when I made the winter coat renders last winter for a "The Knee" date drawing and then never fucking made it-
Anywayyy, behold, Huntlow bathing suit designs! My gut just told me Hunter would wear a wetsuit to the beach. After I finished the drawing I realized that perhaps Hunter wears wetsuits because his scars are sensitive and he wants to avoid getting sunburnt as much as possible. Then I realized "Wow I'm projecting on Hunter again," because no joke I am the palest mf in my entire ass family. I may have dummy thick Maltese hair from my great grandfather on my dad's mom's side, but my damn mother's father's side gave me the stupid ass pale irish skin with a million fucking freckles. I will turn into a lobster at the beach and I barely tan, I literally wear long sleeve bathing suits just because of that. Just so I have to put less fucking sunblock on lmao. Hunter is cloned off a British man so I suppose he can relate to getting burnt like a lobster LMAO.
Anyway, for Willow I of course, wanted to amplify her body positivity by putting her in a bikini. Listen, Willow may be insecure about a lot, but I don't think her weight is one of them. I don't think she'd mind wearing a bikini at her weight. Seriously, she is not once made fun of for her weight. Not even by Boscha, and Boscha makes fun of her for wearing glasses at one point! Think about it, in any other piece of media, the mean girl would 100% make fun of the bullied, stereotypically "unattractive," girl for being overweight. There was no way the crew didn't ever have Boscha make fun of Willow's weight for no reason. This was a deliberate choice, and I'm all here for it.
Representation of bodies like Willow literally saves lives. It's okay to have weight on you as long as you take care of yourself and are healthy overall!
Remember, eating disorders have an incredibly high morality rate. It's never worth it to starve yourself. Please don't do start yourself down that path because society says you must be skinny to be attractive or loved, because people like Willow exist in real like and are valued and loved for who they are, not what they look like. Because I am one of those real life people. I am overweight and wear glasses just like Willow and I still found love and are valued by my friends and family. And if you don't have those people in your life, beileve me, there are people out there that will love you and your body for who you are. You just have to let yourself find them.
That being said, any body shaming comment is an INSTANT block! No body negativity is tolerated here!
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its-in-the-woods ¡ 6 months ago
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The Woman Who Couldn’t Die Part 5
master list
Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,
Pairing: The Ghoul/Cooper Howard x Original Character 
Alternative Universe where I make things up cause I can only research so much
Synopsis: Getting out of town can be tricky, but is out of the settlement any better? Murmurs in the woods have both our traveler's ears perked.
MINOR GET OUT. Rating/Warning: This is based on fallout except typical: Canon divergence, hints of SH/SA/NONCON, Slow Burn,
Note: These will be spaced out as I am heavily editing and researching them. Each chapter will be 2-3+k words. Tags will be edited based on the chapter, please make sure you read them.
Also, note that I will not be spoiling any of the reading. I will keep my tags relevant without spoiling what is happening in the story.
Thank you all for the love <3 You're likes, reblogs and comments keep me posting.
***
It was so warm, as light poured into the room. Jade tried to move but found herself completely enclosed in arms. Panic set in and she froze her breath caught up in her chest. Opening her eyes she took in her surroundings, peeled water-stained paper, and a duster hanging on a hook. Her eyes looked down to see large red hands wrapped around her, the Ghoul. Sometime in the night, he had pulled her tight against his chest. She could feel and hear the sound of his breath at the back of her neck. A small whistle every time he would exhale, he was incredibly warm. Like a small furnace against her back, Jade figured that was due to the radiation. Just like a sunburn would feel hot, a Ghoul was permanently sunburnt. Trying to relax Jade untensed her shoulders and shifted slightly, as she did this his hands pulled her in tighter. It was almost hard to breathe. She knew that Ghoul had mentioned having excellent hearing, but when was the last time she saw him asleep?
There was also a huge chance that if she did wake him, he’d be out the door faster than she could roll out of bed. If the way he had moved the previous night was any indication. Ideally, she didn’t want a repeat of the kiss incident, she also would greatly appreciate breathing. Jade wanted to continue whatever this was, her learning how to bounty hunt from him. At least that’s what she was chalking it up to be, a companion, a friend, or something. Though right now, her mind lingered on ‘something’, she could feel how ridged his body was. Tight lines of muscle could easily crush her, but at the same time, she felt safe. Why? She wasn’t going to dwell on that. 
Her head felt foggy and the decision to wake him was taken away when his arms loosened and he rolled away from her. Jade didn’t move waiting to see if he would be the first one to get up. After a moment she let herself slide to the edge of the bed and stand up. Jade tried her best to be as quiet as possible. Her bones ached from lying in the same spot, but it was the best night's sleep she had in weeks, probably months. Stretching she made her way to the bathroom, at least it had a bathroom, not some hole to squat over. She only briefly glanced at the Ghoul, who had already placed his hat over his face. At least he hadn’t taken off this time. Sometimes you had to take the tiny victories where you could. 
***
The Ghoul heard the door close and was immediately up, waking up wrapped around Jade was not planned. Hell he had slept for the first time in months, usually he dozed, maybe drifted a bit. But actual unconsciousness was not normal for him, he grabbed his inhaler and took a breath. The numbing sensation fills his lungs, and he relaxes rolling his shoulders with a few clicks. Grabbing his pack he sat on the bed dumping the content beside him. He moves through the stuff mentally going over what they need. Ammo was a top priority and a good amount of it. Thread, stimpaks, chems, maybe see if someone in town sharpened knives. There was also food. He went over in his mind how far they would have to go. Maybe they’d go north a bit, hit more of the central area, and see what had been happening up there. He hadn’t ventured that way in years. 
He grabbed his cleaning kit, dismantling and cleaning each weapon with practice ease. It felt good to do something with his fingers, to be moving. It didn’t stop his mind from drifting to the morning. Shifting slightly in his seat, she smelt nice like the herbal soap bar. The way her body fit against his, molded tightly against his, the sound of her breathing. Feeling her move against him. Swallowing, he pieces his weapons back together feeling tension run down his spine. 
It felt nice.
“Yeah you can fuck right off,” He muttered to himself, starting to put all the various pieces back into their place.
You are allowed to feel lonely
“Not lonely with you rattling around in my brain,” He cussed, as he grabbed his inhaler. The Ghoul wanted the voice gone, the last thing he needed was a second opinion from his mind. 
Stop lying to yourself
“The only person lying is you,” He spat, anger sneaking out as Jade entered the room.
“You okay,” She said, standing there looking at him confused, her hand laying on her weapon that rested against the set of drawers. It was unloaded but he got the gist. 
“Fine,” He bit out, his words harsher than he meant them to be. “We need to get going, wasting daylight.” 
He grabbed his inhaler and took a drag, rolling his duster onto his shoulder the heavyweight felt comforting. He grabbed his saddle bag and headed to the door. Jade had wrapped her jacket around her waist with her backpack, gun, and machete on her as they made their way out of the INN. 
The town was bustling, and Jade kept close to him moving more like his shadow than a person. The place was a constant buzz of people moving back and forth, so many eyes following them around. The girl had adapted to things quickly, probably why she had made it this far. In some ways, she was like him, adapt or die, kill or be killed. Maybe she would outdo him as a bounty hunter one day. That is if she lived long enough to get to that point. 
The first stop was to drop off their knives and machetes. The blacksmith gave them a deal on them as they had so many. Then it was over to the armory, they swapped out their weapons for something with a wider selection of ammunition. Meaning they could buy in bulk for less. Ghoul had grabbed a handful of explosive rounds just in case, one never knew what one might run into out in the Wastes. Next, it was off to look for meds and chems. 
The Ghoul pushed open the door, the place was just as pieced together as anywhere. He walked over to the counter, taking in the man standing there. He wore what would have once been a white doctor’s jacket. The name tag had long faded away, the wisps of hair sticking out the top of his head as he looked at the ghoul over his glasses. The man snorted as he took in the Ghoul and his companion. 
“Not welcome Ghoul,” He spit gesturing at the door dismissively looking back up from his papers. 
“Say who,” Piped Jade, pushing right up to the counter, and standing in front of the Ghoul. She was small but her voice carried. She crashed some caps onto the counter, more than a fair amount for what they were interested in, “Caps are all the same from everyone.”
The man rolled his eyes, moving to leave the counter, “Yeah, yeah, monster fucker. Get out too.”
“Or what?” Jaded snapped, glaring at the man, placing her gun on the counter. It was enough to stop him in his tracks. “You give us what we need or we will take what we want.”
The Ghoul felt a grin tug at the corners of his face, the girl was not taking no for an answer. He leaned against one of the shelves watching her get into the man’s face. She stood near tiptoes, gun aimed right at the man's crotch. Despite the baggy clothes Jade still looked good like this. 
“I’d listen to her, girl is small but she is five ferrets in the bag when she’s pissed.” He smirked, making sure that the wannabe doctor saw his sidepiece. The man’s eyes went between the two of them.
The doctor grimaced, looking between the two of them, he huffed and raised his hands in defeat. “What do you want then?”
“Some of that snazzy Ghoul Jet, make it twelve we got a long way to go, and half a dozen stims for the lady.” The Ghoul spoke, making sure to watch as the man moved, if the good doctor tried to do anything he had no qualms about blowing a hole through him. 
The doctor busied himself grabbing what they had asked for, before slamming the meds onto the counter, nearly crushing the vials, “I should have you rounded up, no better than raiders.”
Jaded cocked her gun, the Ghoul wasn't looking to be sidetracked so he grabbed the meds and stuffed them into his bag. Adding a few more caps to the pile Jade had already left. His free hand worked on moving Jade out the door. 
“There you go asshole, a few extra for you to keep your mouth closed” He clicked his tongue, Jade keeping her weapon and eyes on the man as they moved out the door. The street outside was busy enough that they blended in with the crowd. 
“Well, fuck, Tiny, didn’t take you for the hold’em up kind, ” the man grinned making sure to stuff the stim-paks into Jade’s bag. 
“Guy was being an asshole, had no reason to be treating you any different from anyone else,” Jade's face set sternly, as they moved towards the food vendors. 
“Used to it,” The Ghoul shrugged as they went over to grab some food for the trip. Ghouls had always been outcasts of society, humans didn’t like anything different from their box. A noseless, rotting, talking corpse was well outside their box. There was also the feral aspect of things, it wasn’t until recently that there were even chems that could stave off the feral process. It wasn’t perfect, nothing was out here, but it sure took the edge off. You didn’t live this long without side effects, but if the chems staved off those effects so be it. 
***
Once outside the town, the Ghoul felt himself relax, his companion seemed to do the same. She had still been pissy about the Ghoul hate comments, to the point where she almost stabbed a lady for looking at him wrong. He wasn’t sure why she was so adamant about it, but he didn’t mind. Something about her getting so pissy over him made him, well it made him feel something. He wasn’t about to dwell on that, nope, the wasteland had enough complication without adding in some fluffy fuckin’ feelings. Make his teeth rot faster than they already were. 
He watched his companion walk ahead, her clothes baggy and loose. Pocket loaded with various bits and bobs, her black hair braided and curled into a small bun. Her backpack was just as heavy, yet she walked with her head held high. She didn’t care about people commenting on her scars and never tried to hide them either. How she was okay, he wouldn’t have known. Then again how was anyone okay here, the whole world was one big dumpster fire. Kill or be Killed. Adapt or die. She was adapting, surviving, and maybe even enjoying herself. The Ghoul let himself enjoy the moment, it would only be a moment. Before long something would crawl itself out of the dirt looking to kill anyone that crossed its path. 
They camped out in a big field high on a ridge, it was a good spot for the evening. Jade didn’t seem to mind, besides the wind blowing through the clearing. She had inquired about sleeping closer to the tree line, but the Ghoul had heard things moving through there as the light had fallen. Even with the wind, it was best to have a quiet camp for now. 
“Fuckin cold,” Jade grumbled bundling herself up and laying the other coat over her legs. Trying to make herself as small as possible. 
The Ghoul chuckled, “No fire tonight, pip-squeak. Somethin' been moving around out there.” 
“Doesn’t mean it isn’t cold,” Jade mumbled from beneath her layers. It was almost hard to see her underneath the mountain of material she had buried herself under.
Sighing the Ghol scooted over to her, he took the duster and draped it over her. Jade’s brown eyes looked up at him as he sat closer to her. “You gonna freeze to death old man,” 
Ghoul raised his non-existent eyebrows at her, he pulled off his gloves and placed his hands right beside her face. “Radiation keeps me warm,” 
He watched her eyes follow his fingers as he moved them around in the dirt before she snuggled in closer. “If you’re dead in the morning I am keeping the duster.”
Wheezing slightly the Ghoul pulled his hand back placing it in the glove. He watched the last of the light disappear, more rustling came from the woods. Something was moving through there, he took a hit of the inhaler and continued to watch. Without the moon as full, it was hard to make out exactly what it was, west of Appalachia could have a world of weird shit. He hoped it wasn’t those giant toads, they were big slimy, and took a lot to kill. He was loaded up on ammo, but it would be a while before they saw another town. Another disadvantage of traveling north was fewer settlements. The scorched plague had left a lot of places empty, which meant more critters and taking up residences. He had heard about settlements pushing in and trying to take back space, but it was slow. 
He dug around in his side pocket, checking that all his vials were still there. If he wanted to stay up, he’d need to hit more chems. Humming he continued to listen, the place had gone quiet. Crickets and other bugs buzzed but besides that it was silent. He lay down looking up at the stars, a little napping couldn’t hurt. 
***
He woke up when he heard buzzing, his hand immediately tapping Jade’s shoulder. Looking around he couldn’t see anything but the trees were swaying. It was not in the direction of the wind either. Either something big or a lot of things were moving through the trees at a good clip. 
The Ghoul wanted to be in the other direction of whatever it was. 
“Time to go, Tiny,” He spoke, Jade sitting up grabbing her bag and swinging it on before standing. How did she have all the clothes tucked away so quickly? His duster pushed into his hand. 
“What yah think it is?” Jade said swaying a bit, her eyes a bit glassy from sleep. Eyebrows knitted as she tried to peer into the forest. 
“Not sure, but I think we shouldn’t wait to find out,” The Ghoul said, swinging on his duster and saddle bag and heading in the opposite direction. 
They decided to backtrack northeast, skirting around the forest. The buzzing was starting to fade, but it was still there. The Ghoul wasn’t sure but it seemed like they were heading south, what it was he didn’t want to find out. There was going to be enough trouble anyway.  The road they were on was going to be entering into the forest. Something at the back of The Ghoul’s neck perked up. 
“I do not like this,” He said, the woman beside him slowing down a step. She looked as concerned as he felt, her goggles pushed into her hair. The two of them looked at the destination ahead of them.
“Something wrong isn’t it?” She replied with her hand resting against her pistol. “Felt it all morning, like something is watching us. But I can’t see it, or hear it.”
The Ghoul nodded, the little lady’s instincts were correct, something was wrong. Something was waiting for them to enter that forest. He gritted his teeth, normally he’d reroute, maybe head back east then circle south, but it wasn’t like they had endless supplies. Plus whatever critters had woken them were heading that way. Go too far north they’d end up near Reavers or Slavers. None of it was good. 
“We don't got alotta options here, we can go south but probably run into whatever woke us up. Go too far north, reavers or slavers. Back east maybe find a place to hole up in. Or we go there.” He stated, he knew there weren't many options. 
“Well let's go kill some forest mutants,” Jade said, her hand resting on the pistol. 
Ghoul nodded, as much as he liked her confidence he was worried. The emotion felt almost surreal.  After years of looking out for himself and himself alone, he was worried about her. About the tiny fragile human, who couldn’t just shrug off gunshots like he could, who could easily be killed by a falling tree. 
“Jade,” He said quietly as they started into the forest, his heart hammering in his chest as he watched her move ahead. 
“What?” Jade asked her eyes looking forward to scanning the roadway. Always on the look for whatever was coming next. 
“Nothin’, ladies first.” He bit out, he wanted to tell her to turn around. Go back east and find a place to hole up in. That if something happened to leave him, that if she needed to run to, to run fast and far. But he didn’t. Instead, he made a sarcastic remark and pushed forward. 
“Pretty sure it's Ghouls before girls,” Jade smirked striding along the road with a small smile.
“Keep with me and you'll be both,” Ghoul chuckled, his jaw clicking as they took steps towards whatever was next.
part six
*little plot-heavy, in next chapter we have some action coming
*as always thank you so much for reading, let me know what you thought of it.
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seenoversundown ¡ 5 months ago
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Allure : Part Two
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Jake Kiszka x Charlotte (Fem OC)
Warnings: 18+ Smut !! (IT'S SO SEXY GUYS) Oral (M & F receiving) Penetrative Sex (it is unprotected but wrap it up- do as I say, not as they do!) VERY Suggestive Language, Possibly not the safest of sexy activities 👀(this is fiction-don't try things at home okay?) some cute as hell aftercare and per usual, some silly little jokes.
Word Count: 3k
Summary: As they're on their way home from the lake, Jake is a little too eager about the days events. So, they make a familiar pit stop to get some energy out.
Author's Note: PART TWO IS HERE AND BOY IS SHE FIIIIIIINE 🤭 Not going to lie, I was making myself blush writing this one! They just match each other's freak a little too well or whatever that saying is. Happy Tuesday 😮‍💨😉
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It Will Come Back - Hozier "Don't let me in with no intention to keep me, Jesus Christ, don't be kind to me, Honey, don't feed me, I will come back."
After being the last ones to leave— as you can imagine, he had to make sure no one forgot anything, so we started the trip home. 
We spent most of the day staring longingly at each other from a distance, and we both had a tough time once we got to be together, which is why I’m now suffering in the passenger's seat, just watching him as he drives. 
His little sunburnt cheeks, paired with the sunglasses perched on his nose, only loosely distract me from his completely unbuttoned shirt. A thing I’ve loved since I met him is the fact he always has his chest exposed. I can always see it to some degree, and the necklaces that always sit there to compliment it.  I see the goosebumps on his skin from the air conditioning. The way he drives with only his left hand so the right can stay on my thigh, gently squeezing and rubbing, which I know he’s doing mindlessly, but it’s making any thought I have foul. 
I found myself glancing down at his legs, hard to avoid the fact of how incredibly short the shorts were when he was sitting down, leaving almost no room for imagination. It reminded me how lucky I am that I don’t have to imagine what’s underneath. I’ll thank my lucky stars for that. 
“Are your parents at the lake house by any chance?” He asks, bringing me back to earth. 
“I don’t think so,” I tell him, “Why?”
He hands his phone to me, “Can you put in the address?” 
Looking at him for a second before taking it, “Okay?” Glancing down at his lock screen, oh my heart. One of the many pictures he’s snuck of me, sitting across from him with my head in my hand as I lovingly stared at him. He’s the cutest man on the planet, I swear. I genuinely don’t think there’s anybody who compares. 
I typed the address into Maps and handed it back to him. 
“Why are we going there?” I ask quietly. 
“Don’t worry about it,” he says; his free hand found mine, patting it a few times before lacing his fingers into mine. The longer I look at him, the harder he fights a smile. 
“No, there’s a reason,” I persist, “tell meee!” 
He just shakes his head as the pink on his cheeks deepens. Oh, what a little shit.  His thumb rubs against my knuckles, only slightly distracting me. 
“Oh, never mind; I know why.” 
He cocks an eyebrow, glancing over at me for a second, “Do you now?” 
“Mhmm,” I hum, gently tracing the veins in his hand. Following the one that runs down into his wrist. “Someone’s a little eager today, hmm?” I love nothing more than to get him riled up. 
“What if I just have to pee?” He argues. Poorly, to be clear, he giggles while avoiding looking over at me.
“Oh, I’m sure,” I tease. Turning in my seat to face him more, propping my elbows up on the center console between us. Deciding that maybe if I lay it on thick, he won’t be able to deny his little plan. 
“Hey you,” he whispers. He pulls me closer to him and turns quickly to kiss me, almost missing my mouth entirely. 
“Hi,” I whisper back, snaking my hand onto his leg. “You really look so good today, babe.” I lean closer to kiss his cheek, feeling him smile as I do. Just letting my lips linger against his skin, anything to have contact with him. 
“Thank you, honey,” he quietly mutters. He’s still so shy to compliments, even though I shower him with them constantly. He’s gorgeous, and he needs to know that. 
I look at the screen, seeing we only have a few minutes before getting to the house. He can handle a little teasing, surely. 
I crept my hand further up his thigh, watching his eyes dart down. I made it to the hem of his shorts, gliding my hand over him just to see how far I could go. I let my hand rest on top of him, feeling him twitch. Putting a little pressure, his hand grabbed my wrist and kept my hand from moving. 
“Charlotte,” he tried to stop me; unfortunately for him, his stern voice was always so sexy to me. 
Stroking him carefully through his shorts, his hand grips me tighter, “I’m just trying to help,” I coo into his ear. Watching the goosebumps flood his neck, placing a kiss just behind his jaw. 
“You’re killing me,” his head drops back against the headrest. I glance back and see we only have five minutes before we make it. I can work with that. 
I hook my finger into his waistband, tugging down a little. His face whips over to mine, his eyes wide, and I just press a kiss to the tip of his nose. 
“Lift up, baby,” I tell him, my lips hovering over the shell of his ear. He shifts himself so I can tug down his shorts. His cock resting against his stomach; a mouthwatering sight, really. 
Unbuckling my seatbelt, I lean over further, wrapping one hand around his length, stroking him a few times. I look up at him from his lap before wrapping my lips around him. 
“Fuuuuuck me,” he moans as I sink further down him. Bobbing my head slowly, I feel his hand running down my back, firmly grabbing my ass as I take more of him into my mouth. Lingering there, I swallow gently and listen to the sweet sounds that come out of him. 
His hand moves over and presses against my already-soaked bottoms, giving me the slightest relief. A moan sneaks out of me; he needs to drive faster.  Encouraging me to really go for it, I slowly sink as far down as I can before dragging my lips back up. Swirling my tongue around him and listening to his little moans sneak out. 
“We’re almost there,” his breathy voice rings through the car while patting my ass a few times. My head moved a bit quicker, pumping him with my hand. I can feel the muscles in his body tensing as I try to get him there. 
His hand sneaks under my chin, tilting my face up towards him. I sit up, my hand still slowly stroking him as he looks at me. He grabbed my arm, stilling it as he put the car in park. 
“Honey, honey, please—“ he starts, his head tilted back against the seat. “God, you’re incredible, and wow, I’m so lucky, but please, can we go inside?” 
“But,” I whine, pouting my lip, “you were so close.”
He giggles at me, pulling his shorts back up before leaning in, kissing my pouty lip, and opening his door. He quickly walks to my side, pulls the door open, and grabs me from my seat. 
“Jake- oh my god,” I yelp as he’s hoisting me over his shoulder. The fact he’s strong enough to toss me around causally will always slip my mind until situations like this. 
Letting ourselves in, he pushes the door shut with his foot, setting me down in front of him. My hands pulled his face to mine, desperate to taste him. Gently biting on his bottom lip, my hands find his waistband again, eager to pick up where we left off—practically giggling into him as I feel his skin against my knuckles. 
“Mm mm,” he hums in between kisses. Slowly walking us back, until I bump into the counter. He smoothly unbuttons my shorts, letting them fall off my hips, and I kick them off. His hand found its place between my legs, softly tracing along me. 
“Hold on,” he tells me, lifting and setting me on the counter. He squats down, littering kisses on the insides of my thighs, sending shivers through my body. Pulling my bottoms to the side and placing a kiss on my clit first before swirling his tongue around it. My grip on the counter gets stronger as moans start falling from my lips. 
I feel his finger swipe up, and he smiles into me. 
“Oh, my sweet girl,” he taunts. His tongue flattened against me, licking a few long stripes and then kitten-licking at my clit. Sliding his middle finger into me slowly, I can’t stop the noise that comes out of me. 
His hands are slender but strong and large. His left hand is holding onto my thigh as he gently moves the right one. 
“Mmm, feels so good,” I moaned. 
He groans at the praise, vibrating against me. 
“More, please,” I beg. 
Looking up at me, and god, what a sight that is. His smirk was devious as he stood up. Propping himself up with his free hand and leaning in close to me, he slowly pumps his one finger into me. 
“What was that, hun?” He teases, nuzzling his face into my neck. 
“Please, please, please,” I whine, “more, baby.” He adds his ring finger, pumping his hand a bit faster and holding his palm against me for friction. Feeling his breath against my neck in between kisses, one of my hands holding onto him as he inches me closer. He curls his fingers up, hitting that spot over and over. I can feel my orgasm about to break, and he knows it. 
“God, I can’t wait to feel you, honey,” he whispers into my ear, the sultry tone of his voice sending me over, “Come for me.” The pleasure overwhelms me; his raspy voice, mixed with whatever magic he does with his hands, has me fluttering around him. The only word in my vocabulary right now is his name. 
He lets me enjoy the moment, slowing his hands until he finally pulls me into a hug. The warmth of his lightly burnt skin mixed with his scent; this is what heaven must be like. I cuddle my face into the crook of his neck but let my hands wander. Landing on his already hard cock, I can’t help but smile. 
“But I’m the eager one?” He teases, pulling my hips to the edge of the counter. My hands quickly pressed behind me to support myself, watching as he pulled down his shorts just enough, lining himself up with me. 
He tilts back up, watching my face as he slowly pushes himself in. My mouth fell open as he did, and he mimicked my face, letting his jaw slack. 
“So good, huh?”
What has gotten into him today? 
I can’t respond fast enough before he picks up one of my legs to rest against his chest, his arm holding it tight to him as he starts rocking his hips into me. 
“Jacob, holy shit—“ the way he’s angled, just pounding into the right spot. He turns his head, leaving sloppy kisses down my calf. Watching the muscles in his arms flex to hold me still and the way his jawline is so prominent. I carefully moved one of my hands to hold his jaw, just for a second. I let my fingers trace over his cheekbone, moving a stray piece of hair that was sticking to his face. 
He snakes his arm around my leg, letting his fingers find their way to my clit, making it harder to resist coming again. Putting just enough pressure as he makes tight circles on it, I can feel the tension about to snap. The sound of his hips smacking my ass feels like it’s getting louder as he picks up his pace. 
He looks down, watching the mess he’s creating, his mouth starting to hang open. Tiny drops of sweat form on his forehead, his eyebrows pulled together as he focuses. I can’t stop staring at how plump his bottom lip really is and how badly I want to bite it. It's a delicious moment to witness until he starts mumbling under his breath. 
“Come on, come on, come on, fuck-“ 
My hand grips his shoulder as my orgasm releases like I’d fall over if I didn’t hold on. I swear I could see sound in that moment. 
I pull myself closer to him as he’s still slowly moving his hips into me and littering his face and neck with tiny pecks, holding the back of his neck. His hand ran down the back of my head as I leaned against him. 
“It’s your turn, babe,” I whisper in his ear, wrapping my legs around him. He lifts me with a smile plastered on his face. Peppering his cheeks with kisses, leaving them on his cheekbones and down his nose, not caring that his skin was damp with sweat. 
He sits back on the couch with me in his lap, his cock still inside me. I rock my hips gently, starting slowly so I can make him feel as good as he deserves. His sweet face as he just watches me; holding his jaw and pressing kisses into his plump lips. 
I start to lift my hips, bouncing slowly on him, which makes him moan louder. I was inching my way up and carefully bringing myself down to his lap, stroking him painfully slowly. 
“Faster,” he mutters, his eyes fixed shut. Picking up my pace, I can see him fighting for his life as I continuously drop back down on him. I start letting out my own moans, knowing it will only help him. He grabs my waist tighter as he gets closer, his moans falling from his lips. 
“Come in me, baby,” I moan. “Or do you want your pretty cock in my mouth?” His head drops back as I ask.
“Holy shit, Charlotte,” he groans. 
 Where did that come from, Char, Jesus? 
He holds my hips still and starts fucking himself into me hard. I grip the back of the couch, trying to steady myself, but my god, it feels so good. 
“Jake- oh my,” slips out. His eyebrows pulled together; his mouth hung open as he was almost yelling with every thrust.
 “Let it go, baby.” 
The moment the words leave my lips, I can feel the release, his thrusts sloppy as his orgasm rips through him; loud profanities fill the air as he rides out his high, slowly becoming little whimpers under his breath as he comes down. 
I sat on his lap, his head hung back on the couch with his eyes gently shut. He’s so beautiful. I brush the baby hairs away from his face, clinging to his damp skin. I lean forward, snuggling close to him and feeling his arms wrap around me, keeping me tight against him as we sit in comfortable silence. 
“Hey,” he whispers after a few minutes.
I sat up to look at him, letting him rest his face in the palm of my hand. “Hi there, handsome. You doing okay?” 
“I’m going to be honest with you,” he giggles. I think I might need another minute.”  
“Really?”
“Well,” he starts, “I’ve been trying to figure out how to not make a mess when we get up.”
A laugh escapes me when I look down to realize the situation we’ve put ourselves in.
“I didn’t really think that part through,” I tell him. I can see the gears going in his head; the smile slowly growing on his face tells me everything I need to know. 
“What if I just hold you against me when I stand? Maybe it’ll just stay in-”
“BABE,” I bark out a laugh at the idea. 
“I’m not trying to get …stuff… all over your parent's couch!” He shyly rebuttals, “If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.” The smug look on his face should make me mad, but he’s too pure to get angry at. 
“You know what, go for it.” 
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
We giggle as we clean ourselves up. His plan didn’t work as well as he’d hoped, but we managed to get the worst of it into the bathroom. 
Naturally, it takes me a little longer to take care of things, so he let me have a minute. I take a second to fix my hair, pulling it up into a high ponytail. It looks terrible between the lake and getting laid. 
I flip the lights off to the bathroom as I walk out, going back to find him leaning against the kitchen counter. His shirt is still completely unbuttoned as he scrolls on his phone. I’m sure he’s checking in on the bar. 
Despite the very recent events, he looked so good. His tanned skin against the light blue denim shirt was enough to have me fold. His legs crossed in front of him as he stood there. Finally glancing up, his eyes light up, and tucking his phone back into his pocket. 
“Well, aren’t you just beautiful?” He says, holding his hands out towards me. 
“Oh hush,” I grab his hands, shuffling myself close to him. “I probably smell gross and I feel a little slimey.” 
He giggles before planting a kiss against my forehead, “I don’t know, you could still get it.” He mumbles against me, fighting his laugh. 
“You’re so dumb,” I tell him through a laugh, looking up at him and kissing his stupid lips. 
“Ready to head home?” He asks, squeezing my hands. 
I nod quickly, practically pulling him out the door. He’s made a habit of opening my car door for me, which is possibly the most adorable habit he has. 
We settle into our seats, and he hands me his phone to put music on for the drive home. I’m scrolling through his playlists looking for something when I realize we haven’t moved in a second. I look up to see the stop sign at the end of the road, and he’s just staring over at me. 
“What?” 
His hand reaches over, pulling my chin gently towards him until his lips are hovering over mine before whispering, “One more for the road.”
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Part One
FDOG Master Post | Masterlist | The Caravel Tavern Series
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thatoneluckybee ¡ 10 months ago
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Because I want to hop on the trend but I am incredibly unoriginal…
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lun4rb1te ¡ 5 months ago
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guys i am so incredibly sunburnT HELP ME
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unclewaynemunson ¡ 1 year ago
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And suddenly we're Thelma and Louise
Yaaayy my fic for Lex's Spicy Six Summer Challenge is finished, time for some lesbian romcom roadtrip summer vibes 💖
The sun is shining, Blondie is blasting from the speakers and Robin is riding a sugar high from the overdose of M&M's she's been eating. She looks to her left, where Nancy is sitting behind the wheel, and is struck for the millionth time by what a gorgeous sight she is to behold: her usually perfectly styled hair is blown all messy by the breeze coming in through the open windows and the tip of her nose is just a little bit sunburnt. Her pale, thin fingers are loosely resting on the steering wheel, absentmindedly drumming along to the music. And her eyes – those goddamn enchanting eyes – have that bright twinkle in them while they both sing along to Go through it at the top of their lungs.
As the trees and the rolling hills flash by, and more miles of asphalt disappear underneath the wheels of the car, Robin ponders how different Nancy looks compared to her graduation night a few weeks ago.
🚙
It was a perfect evening in the way everything about Nancy's life was to the outside world. But after having known her for more than six years, Robin knew better. She was one of the few people who got to see the Nancy behind the scenes; behind the robes and the valedictorian speech and the brightly shining sun and the big party with all her family and friends and fancy appetizers. She had seen Nancy's fake smile faltering and witnessed her tears while the two of them were hidden from view near the end of the party.
'I accomplished nothing,' Nancy had told her with wet cheeks and trembling hands.
Robin didn't remind her of her diploma solely consisting straight A's, or her internship at the New Yorker, or the job offers she received from at least three big players on the journalism market. She knew that that wasn't what Nancy meant.
'I wanted to see the world, remember? And here I am, with a degree and literally nothing else.'
Everything Robin could tell her felt like the wrong thing for this particular conversation. She knew how incredibly hard Nancy had worked, how much she dreamed of a career and success. But there was no room for what she had accomplished in her post-graduation doom spiral, which was merely built of the things she had not done over the past six years. The things she'd had to give up to get where she was now. The things Robin did get to do: parties and hookups and the stupid mistakes everyone makes when they're in their twenties; random jobs she enjoyed instead of jobs that looked good on her resume; trips to different states, even to different countries sometimes.
'You still got time to do that,' was what Robin settled on saying. And when Nancy shot her a look filled with disbelief, she decided to double down on it. 'I'm serious, Nance, it's not like your life is over after graduating. You still got years ahead of you to see the world! You know what? This is actually the perfect moment: for once in your life, you have zero obligations – you have the ultimate freedom right now! You'll find your dream job literally whenever with that perfect resume of yours, you still have tons of shady hush money sensibly saved away... There's literally nothing stopping you, right?'
It was illustrative of Nancy's determined nature when her tears made place for a small smile right after Robin finished talking.
She sniffled and wiped her fingers over the wet skin underneath her eyes, with careful precision in order not to spread her mascara all over her cheeks.
'I mean, I'd probably need to find someone to come with me,' she said.
'Really? That's the only thing holding you back?'
Nancy nodded.
'Okay, in that case, I'm sure we can arrange something,' said Robin. 'Aren't more of your journalism friends finishing up right about now? Or maybe Max wants to spend her holiday going –'
'I was talking about you, you idiot,' Nancy cut her off, her smile widening. 'You wanna go on a roadtrip with me?'
It was a proposal that knocked Robin's breath out of her lungs.
'You wanna go see the world – with me?'
'Yes, of course,' said Nancy. She let a hand trail over Robin's arm. 'I can't think of anyone I'd rather share an adventure with.'
And how could Robin ever say no to that?
Read the rest on ao3
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lonely1006 ¡ 8 months ago
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I am incredibly sunburnt, but here are a few of my wholesome favorites from Cancun, Mexico!
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for-valour ¡ 2 years ago
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Have you heard the rumour that the Queen Mother hated sex? I find it hard to believe.
Thank you for the question! ❤️
The fact is, we’ll never really know the truth to this, and even if there was evidence documented in diaries, it will unlikely ever see the light of day!
What we do know is that Elizabeth had two difficult pregnancies, both resulting in Caesarians, and which were performed under much more dangerous circumstances for both mother & baby back then. Forms of birth control were also, at best, incredibly unreliable and uncomfortable! So with this in mind it might have been that it was too risky to have sex (simply for pleasure!) regularly, and that once their family of ‘Us Four’ was complete, her focus was on helping raise the princesses, being incredibly busy with royal duties, and of course, the later additional strain that came with supporting Bertie in his kingship as George VI. They were also both very religious, and attitudes to sexual behaviour might have additionally been influenced by their faith and Elizabeth’s own aristocratic upbringing.
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There is an account from a letter written to Bertie’s friend (& later courtier) Louis Greig: ‘Everything was plain sailing, which was a relief,’ Bertie wrote. ‘You know what I mean. I was very good!!’ This refers directly to their honeymoon in 1923, and, while it doesn’t suggest anything about the frequency of their intimate life between and after having their children, it could suggest that sex was at least an enjoyable experience… in Bertie’s opinion anyway! 😂
In another letter written to Elizabeth whilst he was in Balmoral and she only ‘across the hills’ in Glamis, Bertie sweetly stated, ‘Don’t get frightened at night sleeping all alone darling in that enormous bed.’ She replied with, ‘I miss you dreadfully and am longing for Monday, when I hope you will arrive here sunburnt, manly & bronzed…’
Again, this isn’t proof of their sexual relationship, but it does definitely show that there was a deep affection between them that almost certainly amounted to a bodily closeness of some kind.
I truly believe that The Queen Mother and Bertie absolutely adored each other; and that in loving (and emotionally trusting) someone so much, there was therefore no reason why there wouldn’t be physical intimacy on some level throughout their life together.
Sorry for the super-long answer! Obviously I’m guessing as much as the next person, but I wanted to take time to write a sensitive reply out of respect for the question and the fact that I’m commenting on something that isn’t really anyone’s business to know. So I hope this kinda helps! :)
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Quotes cited from: The King Maker: the Man Who Saved George VI, by Geordie Greig The Queen Mother: the official biography, by William Shawcross.
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jtl07 ¡ 1 year ago
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home is (where you are; now)
(also on ao3; a continuation of sorts of lets you see the wonder of it all)
When Ava lands in Lisbon, she expects … Well, she’s not sure what she expects, but she doesn’t expect the sun, doesn’t expect the beach. It feels more like arriving at a vacation spot than it feels like coming home. (She knows why, though she doesn’t say it; knows that home isn’t here, now.) 
(But it was, then.)
Her aunt, Rosa, is there to greet her, gathers Ava and her things into a hug that Ava burrows into, hoping, wishing to unearth some latent memory now that she’s standing on soil she once knew. Understands, suddenly, how a person could be compelled to kiss the ground, holy and consecrate. 
She’s ushered into a car and while they sit in traffic, Rosa tells her about the cousins she’ll meet, the sights they can see, places they can visit, including - 
“Only if you want to, of course,” Rosa says, glancing hesitantly at Ava before focusing back on the road. 
Through the window, Ava watches glimpses of the ocean from in between the crush of buildings, wonders if she’d ever shared this view with her mother, back then. (Back when she was a child and everything was simple, a slate wiped clean, untouched, unharmed; a child, loved.)  
“Yes,” Ava answers and smiles at her aunt because it’s true, because she’s grateful - for the offer, for being here, for being alive, again. She nods for herself, both now and then. “I want to.” 
*
That night, Ava meets her uncle and her cousins, eats a ridiculous amount of food, drinks an incredible array of wine, goes to sleep laughing. They gather again the next day, this time with her cousins’ children in tow and they give Ava a grand tour around the city - she, though, insists that she pay for tickets to the museum, sneaks an extra order of pastel de nata when they get dessert after lunch, splashes and squeals along the shore as the little ones chase her in and out of the waves. (She makes sure to take pictures, for herself and for Beatrice, stories to retell and relive.) 
They’re having dinner by the beach (Ava knows it’s obvious how much she loves the ocean; she wonders if it’s a shared trait because her relatives don’t seem to want to be too far from it either), sunburnt and water spent, sharing the most amazing spread of seafood Ava’s ever seen when she notices her aunt watching her eat. Her mouth is full so Ava tilts her head and raises her eyebrows in askance. 
The smile that crosses Rosa’s face reminds Ava of an expression she’s seen before on Beatrice: a curious, cautious concern. “You pause sometimes when you’re eating,” her aunt says, the low light flickering across her face. Ava’s struck for a moment by how much Rosa and her mother look alike. They’d gone through photo albums during breakfast, pictures of the sisters as children, Ava as baby. Her mother, then, hadn’t been much older than Ava was now. Rosa pauses, looks away, then finally meets her gaze. “It’s like you’re waiting for something.” 
Ava swiftly ducks her head even though it’s too late, even though she’s already been seen. She finishes her bite, washes it down with wine (thinks once more how she wishes Beatrice was here to taste it, to be here and feeling all of this with her; something in Ava is quick to believe that there’s a part of her that can). “I guess I am,” Ava admits while pulling at her napkin. Across the table the youngest child, a toddler, babbles as she bounces on her mother’s lap. It tugs fiercely at something deep in Ava’s chest.
“I keep waiting for a memory to come,” she softly explains, fiddles with the food on her plate. “I keep thinking that maybe this will be the bite, this will be the place that makes me remember.” She shrugs, eyes flickering up briefly. Sighs. “But I guess that’s too much to expect, you know? I was just a kid. It was a long time ago.” 
When Ava finally looks up, her aunt’s lips are pressed tightly together, jaw trembling as she nods in understanding. “Well,” Rosa says, and her voice sounds like it’s being pulled from one, from somewhere deep, someplace fundamental, a shared wellspring that wets Ava’s eyes as well when Rosa continues, “You’re here now.” 
Rosa takes up her glass - wine, and Ava wonders if she could turn water into wine, she’s already brought someone to life, what’s one more miracle in a life that’s been full of them, what’s one more life - and raises it towards Ava. 
Ava lifts her own glass in response, and they tip towards each other. The sound of their meeting rings softly within the din of laughter and conversation, of being with family. Of being here. 
(Here, where her mother is, and yet not.) 
*
Ava had said yes when Rosa had asked but it takes three more days before they’re both ready. They climb into the car, just the two of them, and set towards the house Ava had once called home. 
The traffic is light today, the sun high in the sky, and Rosa tells her about the house from behind a pair of sunglasses that shine in the sun and mirror Ava’s reflection. Every time Rosa turns to glance at her, Ava gets a glimpse of her own face as well, a shifting scene of nerves and grief, uncertainty and grim resolve. 
When they arrive, it’s exactly as Rosa’s described. It’s more of a cottage than a house, worn with age but well-loved. There’s no one to greet them at the door, just old furniture and boxes as the family uses it mostly for storage now; a place for things to go when they can’t let go.  
Her mother’s room remains the same, however. Rosa had told her in the car about the crooked quilt her mother had made covering the bed, the small statue of the Virgin Mary in the corner, the vanity that Ava would sit on as she giggled and did her hair and makeup together with her mother every morning. The room is bright and Ava tries to picture it, tries to feel what it was like, being here, being her - who she was then: young, a child, a daughter. 
She tries, here where the boundary between past and present feels whisper thin, as if she could press through it if she stands just so, looks at the sun just right; as if she could hear her mother’s voice and answer with her own. But it’s all wrong - Ava’s older now, will be older than her mother was back then (will be older than she ever had the chance to be). Ava stands at the vanity and looks at her reflection in the mirror. Wonders briefly what her mother would have thought of her hair, her makeup, of her.  
(She doesn’t know, now. But she knows, then, what was true, two simple truths that she had held in her heart: that she was loved, that she was not alone.)
They don’t stay long. Ava takes a couple pictures of the house, including one of the backyard with it’s overgrown garden and a bench nestled underneath a tree. She’s looking through the photos on her phone, deciding which ones to send to Beatrice as her aunt locks the front door. Rosa’s muttering and jiggling the finicky lock when something finally comes. 
It’s not a memory, not really. It’s more a feeling, something familiar slipping over her, a blanket tucked under her chin, turning the page of an oft-read book. Something that once was known and is known again - like how the sky is blue, how sand feels between her toes, how her life has been and will always be filled with love. 
“Ava?” 
Rosa’s sunglasses are on top of her head and the resemblance strikes Ava again. ‘It’s the eyes,’ she realizes. Recognizes, because she’s inherited them too. It warms her, standing at the door to her old home, not like blood spilled but blood shared. Ava had been so sure, before, that she would be the last. She’s not, now.  
Ava breathes in and smiles, tremulous and true. “I’m fine. Let’s go home,” she says, bursting and full - of love, of gratitude, of then where home was first learned here on these steps, of now where she has not just one, but many. 
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evilwriter37 ¡ 11 months ago
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I would love to hear more of your Vigcup ideas! Maybe even some Vigcup brat taming scenarios. I got severely sunburnt yesterday because of a stupid decision. This would make me feel so much better.
Oh my gosh, I am so sorry I’m getting to this late. I’m so sorry about your sunburn! I burn incredibly easily and badly because of some meds I’m on, so I completely get it. I hope that heals soon. Ouch!
And hm… I’ve written quite a lot of my Vigcup ideas.
Though I love the idea of Viggo introducing Hiccup to kink, I also like the idea of Hiccup already knowing about kink and what he likes when he comes into the relationship. He leads Viggo on into thinking he’s inexperienced and innocent, and reveals at some point during a scene or play that he actually understands this and understands his own masochism. Viggo is taken aback, but also quite pleased to have a sub who knows what’s up from the start. That means he can escalate what kinds of things they do much faster than “starting from scratch”, so to speak.
Another idea that’s growing on me is Viggo allowing Hiccup to tie him up and ride him. It would be super gentle and more like lovemaking than anything else. Viggo has never trusted anyone with this before, as he wants to be the one in control. I really do think Viggo likes control to a fault while doing anything sexual, so this idea is just enticing to me.
As for brat taming? I do love Hiccup having Viggo wrapped around his little finger with that, but I also adore the idea of Viggo very sincerely taming him after Hiccup does something against their usual set rules in bed or a scene. It’s genuine punishment. There is aftercare in this scenario, of course, and Hiccup is a little humiliated coming out the other side of this, but it worked. Gotta teach your brats some respect! (I can see he and Viggo talking it out in this kind of thing if it really does bother Hiccup, especially since it’s consensual here.)
Thanks for asking! This was fun to think about!
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chaotic-super ¡ 2 years ago
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Live With Me - Chapter 10
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Read Live With Me on AO3 here!
Lena stares out of the kitchen window that looks out over the backyard, her eyes not bothering to stop and look at any of the greenery or views around, pinning right on the person out there that always seems to be the centre of her attention.
Kara is kneeling beside a slightly raised flowerbed, planting what Lena knows to be rows and rows of violas, pansies, and poppies. She can’t make out which is which from here but she knows exactly what Kara’s doing because she insisted on them making a day trip to a local nursery to find pretty flowers for her to get started in their garden together.
The together part fell apart pretty quickly after they got outside to actually plant them. By the time they had all of the flowers laid out on the lawn beside the flowerbed, Lena was already feeling the sun beating down on her so harshly that she was getting a headache and it started making her cranky so instead, Kara sent her inside to go and fetch her a hat and a drink and she’s going to meet her back outside and sit in the shade and supervise instead.
She’s just making a quick pitstop to do the few dishes left in the sink from lunch that they forgot to do before heading out to go and buy the plants and making good use of the pretty view of her person.
Lena could honestly just stand here and stare all day, all the while completely mystified that she’s somehow managed to bag this incredible woman, a woman who she spent so long pining after all because she’s been her best friend and was so certain that she’d been in the friend zone that she’d completely refused to say anything until the truth eventually came out, the pair of them much better off for it.
She thinks back to that fateful day when they came clean to each other, or rather, Lena drank too much wine in Kara’s apartment and ended up telling her how beautiful her eyes are and wishing she could wake up to them every morning and Kara, also as wine drunk as she was, agreeing to do just that.
Of course, when they sobered up, they ended up having a proper conversation about it all and officially declaring their feelings for each other, but every time Lena looks into those eyes, she remembers the compliment she drunkenly gave to Kara and Kara’s promise to her, to always be next to her so she can wake up to those eyes.
Those eyes that are now meeting hers through the window, an eyebrow raised and her dirty hands resting on her hips in a way that tells her that she needs to hurry up because she’ll be in trouble otherwise.
Lena just smiles and finishes up the dishes in record time, heading out with a glass of fresh orange juice in each hand, a floppy hat sat atop her head and a well-worn grey cap tucked beneath her arm, one of the things that Kara had been really glad to have gotten back from the storage locker, something she had since she was a teenager and didn’t want to say goodbye to.
“You were hiding in there!” Kara accuses with a shit-eating grin. “I saw you hiding because the fancy CEO can’t stand to get her hands dirty!”
Lena’s mouth drops open to argue back but instead, she just uses the toe of one of the sneakers she’d stolen from Kara’s side of the closet to kick up some of the soil at her girlfriend.
“Hey!”
“What’s wrong? Doesn’t the fancy reporter like playing in the mud?” Lena grins down at her, passing her a glass and slipping the cap on her head, adjusting the brim right after so it doesn’t sit too low.
Kara can’t help but swoon at the way Lena takes care of her, even when she’s simultaneously teasing her. “I do, but I don’t like playing alone so you better be good or else we’re both going not be rolling in this flowerbed and you’re going to be washing mud out of all of your crevices for the next week.”
“Please don’t talk about my crevices.” Lena grimaces, taking a seat just a few metres away from Kara, firmly in the shade so she won’t get sunburnt. “However, I am willing to come to a compromise. Truce?”
“Truce.” Kara agrees before grabbing some of the flowers she needs to plant. “Now, poppies at the front or the violas?”
“Poppies in the middle since they’re the tallest, so violas at the front.” Lena answers, glad that Kara is still including her, even if she’s not physically helping her anymore. “You’re doing a great job, darling, you got more done than I thought you would while I was inside.”
Kara shrugs. “Yeah, I was on a roll. It does help that you were inside for quite a while, what were you doing, quickie with a mistress?”
“Totally, she was so hot, you really missed out by not walking in on us,” Lena smirks for a moment, sharing a playful look with Kara before dropping the act. “As if I could have time for a mistress on top of my work at L-Corp and wrangling you. You’re awfully high maintenance, Kara Danvers.”
“That’s just one of the many things you love about me though, right?”
“Whatever you say.” Lena shakes her head. “I was just washing our dishes from earlier, it’s your turn to cook dinner and I know you hate having dishes piling up when you cook because it stresses you out.”
Kara drops her trowel and turns around to sit cross-legged on the grass facing Lena, content to take a little break for a couple of minutes. “You know, you’re not all that low maintenance yourself, especially when I’m constantly trying to stop myself from getting whiplash from how quickly you go from being all nice and loving to teasing me.”
“I resent that, I’m always nice and I’m not high maintenance, that’s definitely you.”
Kara nods her head slowly, “uh huh, and who is it that insists on having at least fifteen minutes of snuggle time every night before we sleep and also requires a good five to ten minutes when we wake up just so she’s not so grumpy that she fires everyone that annoys her at work?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course not.” Kara gazes into Lena’s eyes, half wanting to kiss her and half wanting to knock that ridiculous floppy hat off her head. “I hate that hat.”
“I know, darling, that’s why I wear it.”
“High maintenance.”
Lena just scoffs. “Call me what you want, we both know that you’re a hundred times higher maintenance than me.”
Kara smiles so wide that her cheeks actually start to ache. “That’s alright, we both know you like maintaining me.”
“Luckily.” Lena grunts, a hint of a smile still gracing her lips.
Kara’s smile shrinks but the feeling in her chest doesn’t, the one that begs her to never let this beautiful creature go, to hold her until her arms stop working. “Luckily, I like maintaining you too so it’s ok.”
“It’s more than ok. It’s perfect. Who would have thought that we managed to find this amongst all of our faux platonic angst?”
It’s amazing that they can even joke about it, their past of pining and self-hatred and the longing for something they didn’t think they would ever have, now nothing more than a bad dream, a memory they look back on with fondness and jest for their oblivious actions. They spent years acting as a couple with none of the…perks. A true crime if there ever was one.
There were years of nights in and nights out, day trips and lunch dates, all of them under the guise of friendship. Both of them too buried in their own thoughts and insecurities to see that the woman right next to them that they didn’t see the connection forming between them, the one that couldn’t be further from platonic.
“It certainly caught me by surprise.” Kara shifts up onto her knees and does a slow, completely unsexy crawl over to Lena, leaning up when she’s close enough to press a kiss to her lips, just because she can.
The brim of Kara’s cap nudges Lena’s hat up on her head, sending it off centre and Lena’s hand shoots up to stop it from being knocked off completely.
When Kara pulls back, Lena can’t help but just stare at her in awe for a second, completely blown away by Kara for the millionth time. Every time she looks at her, it feels like the first time and she has butterflies floating around in her stomach just because she kissed her, it makes her feel like a teenager kissing their crush beneath the bleachers.
“What was that for?”
Kara just grins at her once more, “Because I love you and I still can’t believe that I get to do that whenever I want to.”
“I keep telling you, you’re a huge sap and I think you might actually be getting sappier by the day,” Lena says, her voice low but light.
“I’m ok with it.” Kara sits back on her knees but doesn’t take her eyes off Lena.
-
Lena huffs a little as she walks into L-Corp to start her day. After such an incredible weekend with Kara, she really doesn’t want to be back here, especially because she knows there’s way too much paperwork to go through and when she’s here, she has to stop herself from going back to her file. Her file of everything that has happened with Kara and Maxwell Lord and the government.
She promised herself that she will never take it home with her unless it’s a true emergency, other than the backup she keeps on a USB hanging from her keys, so she only works on it when she’s in the office but it takes a lot of self-restraint to stop herself from just spending her entire day going through it in search of a way to end the nightmare once and for all so she and Kara can get back to their ordinary lives as an overly loving couple that makes everyone around them jealous.
Still, she does have a company to run so she has to at least make it to lunchtime before she lets herself indulge in her overprotective habits. Of course, she does get a lunchtime phone call from Kara if she doesn’t have time to drop in and share the break with her in person and she has to have another hour to recover mentally from that and stop swooning so it’s usually around two in the afternoon before she gets around to looking at it, but once she opens it, she hardly shuts it before she leaves for the day, engrossed in it from the moment she starts rereading each stupid page in it.
Today is a little different though, she’s going to be adding more pages to her file because she’s due to have some information back from her private investigator today, specifically, the identities of the people shown in the video recording from the storage locker and not only that but she’s also had it confirmed that the videos she watched are the only times there were people in the locker so she doesn’t have to wonder if she missed anything anymore, she had two guys watch every second so now she’s absolutely certain that she did a good enough job the first time she watched it.
She won’t be getting them until after ten when she has her appointment with her PI and he comes bearing her new information, but it does make her feel slightly better about being in the office again.
It’s strange how much she’s actually come to hate being in the office, it used to be her life, her escape from life when she had nobody and then it was something to just fill her time with, something to fill the void until her next blocked off bit of time with Kara but now, now her life is with Kara and work is just something that feels a little bit left over from her life before, something she still has a very strong emotional connection with but doesn’t have the same need to be here all the time the way she used to. Now she has a life outside of L-Corp.
Jess greets her as she walks out of the elevator, the woman already sitting dutifully at her desk. “Good morning, Ms Luthor.”
“Jess, how many times do I have to beg you to call me Lena?”
Jess shrugs. “Until you give up and just allow me to call you Ms Luthor.”
“Not going to happen, one day you’ll call me by my first name and it will be the happiest day of my life. I don’t see why you insist on calling me that anyway, you refer to Kara by her first name now. Why am I different?” Lena’s hands fall to her hips in a stance she’s accidentally picked up from Kara, the position one that Kara once told her she started doing to try and look more intimidating when she’s in pitch meetings at CatCo so she gets taken more seriously.
Jess’ eyes dart to one side guiltily. “She brings me coffee and doughnuts.”
Lena’s eyes widen. “You traitor, if I’d known that’s all it takes then I would have started bringing you breakfast a long time ago.”
“Well, the coffee is to make me call her Kara and the doughnuts are to make me call you Ms Luthor.” Jess clarifies, looking equal parts guilty and amused.
Lena’s never felt so betrayed in her life and with a family like the one she was not-so-blessed to be born into, that’s really saying something. “What?”
“What?” Jess repeats, turning and taking a seat at her desk, attempting to go back to her work but Lena’s not about to let her.
“Jessica Huang, tell me right this instant, are you accepting bribes from Kara so you call me Ms Luthor instead of Lena?”
A silence follows.
“You little traitor.” Lena looks at her, disgusted by her behaviour. “I’m calling Kara.”
She pulls out her phone and sets it to speaker as she calls Kara up, hoping that she will actually answer since Kara should be just getting to her desk right about now.
Kara answers quickly, her voice bubbly and way too chipper for the time of day. “Hey, baby! What’s up? Did you forget something? We only said goodbye like forty-five minutes ago.”
“You have some explaining to do, Kara Danvers,” Lena smirks a little when she hears Kara audibly gulp down the phone and it only grows when she sees Jess do a matching gulp too.
There’s a moment of silence before Kara summons up the courage to ask, “What have I done that has made you mad at me?”
“I’ve just had a riveting conversation with Jess and she’s just thrown you under the bus, so I suggest you just come clean now and save us both some time,” Lena says, a devilish lift in her voice that lets both Jess and Kara know that Lena is not going to forget about this any time soon and she’s going to hold it over their heads for eternity.
“Lena, I—” Kara starts, ready to make up some excuse to try and get out of it but Lena just cuts her off by clearing her throat and then Kara is certain that the jig is up. “Alright, I always bring Jess coffee and doughnuts so she will call me Kara.”
Lena just waits for her to continue, she knows there’s more and she’s not letting Kara get away with a half-truth.
“And I also asked her to only call you Ms Luthor too.”
There it is.
Lena smiles wryly. “Would you like to explain why you would do such a thing?”
“I’m sorry, you just look so cute when you’re scheming and I love lunch times when I come over to see you and you talk about your latest idea to get Jess to call you anything but Ms Luthor so I bribed her to keep calling you that so I can watch you be all cute, you’re like a cute little panda.”
Lena’s eyebrows shoot up and her cheeks redden in a blush, not appreciating being called out for her scheming in front of Jess but also aware that Kara doesn’t know that Jess can hear the entire conversation. “I fail to see the correlation between scheming and pandas.
“Oh, that’s easy, pandas are cute and cuddly so nobody expects them to be able to pull off a good plan, it’s like Kung Fu Panda.”
“It’s like K— right, ok.” Lena sighs, pressing a finger and thumb to either side of the bridge of her nose and pinching, her head ducked down. “I’m going to get you back for this, you do know that right?”
“Oh, I’m aware, it was worth it though.” Kara answers, a little giggle ricocheting down the line and making Jess roll her eyes because seriously, this is the woman that her super smart boss chose, the woman that bribes her only so she can have an excuse to see Lena being ‘cute’. The woman that shows up with a massive smile and a cheery wave whenever she wants. The woman that now has her badass boss blushing and smiling when she never used to. They were made for each other. Pair of idiots.
“Well, I’m ordering lunch today and I think we’ll both have kale salads.”
“Wait, no!” Kara shouts out before Lena ends the call with a quick kiss noise and the stab of a finger.
Lena then turns back to Jess. “Please put that lunch order in for us and if you don’t mind, please forward me today’s schedule.” With that, Lena turns on her heel and starts heading directly for her office, not sparing Jess another glance until she calls out from behind her.
“That’s it? You’re not going to say anything about me accepting a bribe from your girlfriend?”
“No,” Lena says. “I don’t have to because from now on, you’re calling me Lena, and you’re going to call her… snookums.”
Horror spreads across Jess’ face. “You— you can’t do that to me, you can’t make me call her that!”
“I can and I think it’s an appropriate name for her, perhaps you can call her Kara again when she stops blushing at the name.”
“Lena, she’ll never stop blushing if I call her that.”
“You have a long road ahead of you then, Jess. Good luck and get back to work.” Lena sends her one last smirk before ducking into her office, clicking the door shut and letting out a boisterous laugh that could put the laughs of every cartoon villain to shame. Checkmate.
She heads for her desk, unable to get rid of the absolutely gleeful look that’s sitting upon her face and suddenly a lot happier to be in the office.
Plopping down into her chair, she looks over the files spread across her desk, opening up the one of financial reports while whistling a happy little tune, something that no sane person has ever done before.
Lena maintains her good mood throughout all of the paperwork she filters her way through right up until Jess calls through to her so she can announce the arrival of her PI.
“Mr Williamson has arrived.”
“Send him in please, Jess.”
Jess doesn’t just send him in but walks him to the door, peeking around the doorframe so she can see if Lena is still in her evil mood or if she’s subdued a little since they last spoke. She has not subdued.
Mr Williamson sticks out his hand as he casually strolls across the office, a cocky smirk taking up half of his face. “Good morning, Ms Luthor, wonderful to see you again.”
“Likewise, I trust you’ve gotten me some good results with a smile that wide.”
He smiles wider. “You put your trust in the right man.”
Lena smiles back but the smarmy, self-righteous attitude is diminishing her good mood rather quickly. Maybe it will come back when she sees what results he has managed to get for her. He might be a dick, something she’s always known, but he’s never failed to pull through for her on the information side of things. “Show me what you’ve got.”
He drops the file he’s holding onto her desk, “Here, that’s everything and it’s good stuff. We do have a problem though.”
Lena glances up at him, “And what’s that?”
“I don’t do government corruption cases, I don’t want to be involved in any of that so this is the last thing I’m doing for you. You’ve got enemies that I don’t want to be my enemies. I’ll take my payment as usual and then we part ways amicably, alright?” He says, some of his cockiness gone.
Lena’s eyes drift between the man and the folder she has yet to open before standing up and offering her hand out, shaking his once more. “Alright, Mr Williamson. Thanks for your work with L-Corp and while I’m sad to see you go, I wish you only the best. You will receive your payment the usual way within the next seventy-two hours. Have a lovely day.”
“You as well, Ms Luthor, you as well.” He turns on his heels and swaggers to the door, not once looking back.
She watches him go, keeping the disgust off her face that she’s been hiding since he came in until the door shuts. He might be good at what he does but he’s a cocky asshole that has really bad B.O. He needs to invest in some good deodorant.
With him gone though, she can focus on the new file she’s just gotten but her fingers don’t let her open it immediately. There must be some real danger involved in whatever the file holds because Lena has used Mr Williamson before and not always for the safest of jobs so this is really bad. Maybe it’s because it’s the government this time, that makes it worse?
She was already aware of the government being involved, that was kind of obvious before anyway because of the video footage but they must be more involved than she first gave them credit for.
Unconsciously, she holds her breath as she opens it up, her fingers certain where her brain isn’t. The first page is exactly what she expected, snapshots of each person from the recording she picked up from the camera with a page of notes detailing their names and a little bit of information about them.
Beneath those few pages, there’s more paperwork and at first glance, Lena isn’t really sure what she’s looking at but after reading through it properly, taking her time to really take in the words, she sits back in her chair, letting out a strangled breath. “Oh shit.”
It isn’t just the government they are up against but also people they really don’t want to be up against. People so high up in politics that they probably have dinner with the president and brush shoulders with that many important people that Lena has no doubt that she wouldn’t be the first or last person they made disappear if she stirs up too much trouble.
Lena takes a moment, her hand pressed to her chest, as she tries to calm her thunderous heart. Her heart barely slows but she has things to do. She’s cracking out that file earlier than usual today. She reaches for the phone, “Jess, please reschedule my meeting with the finance department for tomorrow instead, I have something important to address.”
“You got it, Lena.”
-
Kara wanders in at lunchtime to find Lena scrunched over her desk, a usual position for her. She immediately makes her way over to her, her cheeks flushed bright red because, for some reason, Jess just called her Snookums. “Hi.”
“Hey,” Lena replies, not looking up from her work, the file still lying across her desk. Usually, she would hide this away so Kara doesn’t see and worry but she can’t hide this, it’s too important for her to hide it. “How are you?”
“Good, not a bad morning, what about you? You look busy.” Kara takes a seat opposite Lena, dropping her bag beside her. The food Jess has ordered hasn’t arrived yet so she’s just got to wait patiently for the salad she’s about to choke down.
Lena sits up, her eyes tired. “Yeah, I am. I had a meeting with my PI this morning and got some new information on the case.”
“Oh?” Kara doesn’t have anything to say, trapped between wanting to know and wanting to bury her head in the sand, followed promptly by the rest of her body.
“Yeah. He quit right after giving me the file because he found out some things that are kind of dangerous.” Lena says carefully, trying to word it in a way that won’t scare Kara but finding herself unable to because the situation is genuinely scary and there’s not much they can do but deal with it. “The government were more involved than we thought to the point where Lord was actually just a pawn, not the mastermind as we had thought.”
Kara closes her eyes, disappointed in the news, “And what does that mean exactly?”
“It means that we took out the government’s toy and now we should be expecting a tantrum to be thrown our way. The plan they had with Lord and the prison, that was just one thing they had planned with him and I think they might actually have plans with multiple other companies, plans that involve the military and some very much illegal things. We’ve been openly messing with those plans and they aren’t going to take that sitting down.”
Kara’s eyes flit over the papers, finding no real answers in them. “I don’t understand.”
“The government have been using a lot of companies to build technology that could hurt a lot of people and I believe that they have been testing it on people they shouldn’t be testing it on, innocent people.”
“Like, civilians?”
“Yes. I think the prisoner situation was their way of seeing if they could make their illegal operations above board, it didn’t work and we’re to blame. I think we need to be ready for retaliation.”
Kara’s lips press together tightly. “What would that likely look like?”
“If we’re lucky, maybe just a little intimidation, if we’re not so lucky, assassination.”
“What?” Kara practically yelps out. “They could try and kill us?”
Lena nods. “That’s the worst-case scenario but yes, it’s a possibility. I think we need to figure out how to protect ourselves and I think that there’s someone we need to talk to about that.”
“Cat?”
“Cat.”
“And maybe Alex.”
“Oh yeah, her too.”
-
Lena’s palm sits in Kara’s and she’s not sure if the sweat is from hers or from Kara’s nerves, or maybe it’s a mixture of both. She’s not sure but she has the files in her other hand so hopefully, it’s not her because it will be super embarrassing if she gets exposed by putting the files in front of Cat Grant and there being a sweaty handprint left on them.
“It’s going to be ok, darling.” She squeezes Kara’s hand.
“I second that,” Alex says, leaning against the opposite side of the elevator, breaking them out of their nice little moment as a couple, ever the third wheel. Lena frowns at her and Alex shoots a confused look at her after that. “Why the nasty glare?”
“Can’t you see we’re having a moment? I thought you were being nicer since you started talking to Kelly?” Lena flips into teasing mode, using it to distract herself from the upcoming storm.
Alex shrugs with a tiny smile. “Have your moment, don’t let me interrupt your obsessive behaviour towards each other and just for the record, Kelly and I have only been on one date so don’t hold your breath for me being nice to you any time soon.”
“You’ve been on a date and haven’t told me?” Kara whips her head around so fast that both Alex and Lena almost get whiplash just from watching her. “Alex!”
“I’ll tell you about it later.” Alex brushes her off, something Kara isn’t appreciative of but the elevator doors open with a ding and they have to get out. They have an important meeting with Ms Grant that they can’t miss.
Kara hums unhappily as Lena leads her out towards Ms Grant’s office, not bothering to knock before letting herself and the others in. “Good afternoon, Ms Grant. Thanks for seeing us on such short notice.”
“I only agreed to it because you people are terrible at keeping yourselves out of trouble.” Ms grant pins a glare onto them. “So, want to fill me in on what’s happening this time?”
Kara sighs and sits on one of the couches, pulling Lena down next to her and gesturing for Alex to do so too. “Lena, would you mind explaining?”
“Not at all,” Lena says before launching into her explanation, bringing Ms Grant up to date and also giving Alex more detail than she was given before because they didn’t have enough time for them to have a full explanation ready to go before.
Ma Grant just ends up sitting across from them completely dumbfounded for a minute, thinking the situation over in her mind as thoroughly as she can. “So, we want to make you less likely to be murdered. That’s our goal so let’s just focus on that for now, since there’s a lot of things for us to figure out.”
Kara looks to Lena for support, finding it immediately as she attempts to repay the favour in kind. As they share a look, they both have one shared thought, I wish we were still in the garden planting violas.
“How do we do that though?” Alex asks, “Send them into hiding?”
“No, just the opposite.” Ms Grants says, sliding her glasses off her nose and folding them neatly on her lap. “We make noise and a lot of it. I think we need to let the public know about every ounce of this information and we need to keep them updated on every little titbit we get our hands on because the only way we have protection is by having the public on our side. They won’t dare hurt us because if they do, nobody will ever believe it’s an accident.”
Lena bites her lip, “That’s the aim we had last time, are you sure it will work again? The stakes are a lot higher this time.”
“I know but I have been in this business for a long time and I know that the only way we all get out of this one alive is by making yourself so loud that you could trip over on your way to work and you’ll have conspiracy theorists saying that the government planted a kerb there to try and murder you.”
Alex rests her head on her hand. “Any chance we can up the security anyway?”
“Of course.” Ms Grant answers right away. “It’s already been done, I did it as soon as you called to schedule this meeting. My gut told me you people had gotten yourself into a mess you need help getting out of so I called reinforcements a while ago and I have properly vetted the team, there’s no corruption this time.” She sends a quick look to Lena, one so quick that Lena almost missed it but she does catch it and it sends a little pang of guilt into her chest.
She was the one to vet the last team of guards and they ended up corrupt. It’s probably a good thing that Cat has taken over that now because it would just be embarrassing if it happened a second time. “I think that’s a good idea but I think that we should just have the team at CatCo,” Lena says. “Our home is not going to be invaded with guards the way it was before.”
“You could be opening yourself up to a lot of danger if you don’t have guards.” Ms Grant warns.
“So, we’ll have a couple of guards just outside of the property and I’ll make sure we have the best security system money can buy, or build, I might just do it myself, it seems like the smartest option. That is unless you’d be more comfortable with having guards again, Kara?”
“Not in the slightest.” Kara is quick to answer. “I’m all for the security system at home, I wouldn’t mind the ramped-up security here though, especially in areas like the parking garage.”
They fall silent at that. The parking garage is a bit of a sore spot for everyone. Nobody is happy with what went down that day in the parking garage. Not at all. Kara should never have been in that position and there should never have been a chance for a bomb to be input into a car. It should have at least been difficult for the asshole that did it but instead, thanks to James and thanks to the lax security in the garage, it was an impeccably easy job.
“Of course.” Ms Grant says after a moment. “I’m going to assign you a couple of guards to escort you to your car every day, Kara. What happened to you before is never happening again. Not on our watch. Now, let’s organize those new files and get a new article written up, this time, I’m going to take the lead on it. Kara, you did great last time but this is very much a partnership, give me your input, I’ll probably ignore it but you’re welcome to give it anyway.”
Cat carefully puts her glasses back on, plucks the files off the table in front of her and rounds her desk, splaying the papers out across her desk before sitting down and getting right to working on the article as though the three other women aren’t even there.
Alex coughs, annoyed that they are being ignored and prompting everyone to look at her, including Ms Grant. “Oh, you’re still here. You might as well make yourself busy and go and photocopy these files, then you can highlight the most important parts. Chop chop.”
It’s not until Lena is helping Kara photocopy page after page of papers that she realizes that she just instinctively followed Ms Grant’s orders, she supposes that’s just because of the aura around that woman, there’s nobody quite like her.
“How are you holding up?” Kara asks, resting a hand over Lena’s, stopping her from grabbing the next sheet of paper.
“Me? You’re the one in danger.” Lena’s eyebrows raise in surprise and confusion.
Kara shakes her head. “No, at this point, I think they are probably after us both, especially since you bought out Lord Industries, baby. You have to up your security at L-Corp too. This isn’t just about me, not anymore, so, how are you holding up?”
Lena’s heart begins to pound again, panic and anxiety filling her chest painfully. “I think I need to sit down.”
Kara wheels a chair behind her, pushing her down into it once she has it positioned behind her. “It’s going to be alright, baby. We handled it before and we can handle it again. This time though, we won’t pull any punches, we have work to do and we’re going to do it so well they won’t know what hit them. We’re in this together, me and you, and we have got this.”
“Me and you,” Lena repeats as Kara leans down to press a kiss to her forehead.
“Always.”
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ninacarstairss ¡ 2 years ago
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hello cece my beautiful wonderful beloved soulmate <3
i hope you have been well and looking after yourself! i don’t want you overworking yourself 😭 but it has been two days since i have come back from my trip (i have been exhausted plus i had work and uni to catch up on) so now i am going to sit down and tell you about my trip!! please grab a cup of tea and a snack while you read :)
so i went to sydney again, and i had a much more enjoyable experience this time around. i think it was because i knew what i was getting into, and i stayed in the exact same place, so it was all familiar to me.
although i did try to use the public transport this time, instead of ubering everywhere, and the buses were so bad, but the trains were INCREDIBLE! they were double decker and the back support moved so you could have a single row or two rows of seats face each other??? SO COOL
anyways, me and my friend caught the train to the airport at 4am in the morning 😭😭😭 (and i finished work at 12am!!!!) to get our flight. once we landed in sydney, my friend wanted to get merch from the early presale stand outside the arena and we were outside in 30 degree heat FOR TWO HOURS, with our luggage. good news, my birthday is coming up and my friend didn’t know what to get me, so he bought half my merch 🤭 bad news, i’m ginger and i get sunburnt in two minutes, so think about two hours… the worst thing is we had an umbrella for sun protection, but my right arm and the back of my neck was out so they were FRIED. i’m currently peeling like a reptile but worth it
we got some food from maccas because we were dehydrated and getting heat stroke, and then checked into our room after we managed to get our stuff. we both ended up napping in the afternoon, which we were both surprised about, because i had my phone in my hand still attached to the charger next to my bed and he still had his genshin impact loaded up onto his ipad 😭😭😭
unfortunately the place i wanted to take him to for dinner, the really good japanese place from last time, was under renovation, so we had dinner elsewhere but we had such a good time the rest of our trip
because we went to see stray kids, a kpop group, we had a lot of activities we could indulge in. they had this thing called a cupsleeve event, where someone in the fandom designs a cupsleeve to represent a kpop idol’s birthday, group anniversary or in our case, coming to the city. and i got so many freebies! we went to this kpop store that doubled as a cafe and the drinks were so good! i bought way too much but i have to remind myself that i can’t get it at home 😔
we also went to the biggest bookstore i have ever seen in my life! it took up a whole floor of the shopping centre and it was brilliant. it had books upon books, categories after categories. they even had an entire chinese and japanese section! i also spent a lot of money there BUT my best find was the entire completed infernal devices manga trilogy!! it’s so beautiful and such a rare find, i grabbed it immediately. i couldn’t find the tmi graphic novels though, but they have them on their website, so i might order them in :)
alright, the main event! the concerts! so i went and saw the kpop group, stray kids, two nights in a row! it was amazing. i was and still am a huge fan of their work, but especially because they got me through a really hard time in my life and really were my serotonin while i was at school 😔 i wasn’t allowed to see them when they first came here four years ago (parents: maybe next year, they’ll come! *next year being 2020.*) so i feel like i finally made up for it.
me and my friend also matches outfits! we did black and green (the concert colours) on the first night, and red and white on the second (to match the stray kids colours). i wish i could send you photos, we looked so slay 🤩
i do not have one concert video without me screaming the lyrics (yeah the korean ones too!) in the back. but i don’t care, it was so fun, i had a blast. and it was even better because two of the members of stray kids were from sydney and they just made it feel more homely :) do not regret how much money i spent on them or the sleep i lost at all! i’m so glad i can slowly start to give myself the experiences i missed out on as a kid/teenager :’)
anyways, enough about me! how have you been? what have you been up to? how is simba? 🥺 i adore you so much and i am enclosing this letter with a warm hug <3333
hello nero my amazing perfect beloved soulmate <3
yay i’m so happy to finally hear about this trip!!! i just made myself a cup of tea and brought out some biscoff cream!!
how was the catching up part?? did you manage to catch up without exhausting yourself too much??
nero that’s so great!! i think that having a familiar surrounding is always helpful, and staying in the same place makes it all less scary somehow. i’m really happy it went much better!!
NO WAY THEY HAVE THOSE TRAINS THERE??? they look so cool!!! i’ve seen them on instagram once and i was so jealous of every city who had those trains!! you can literally choose if you want to sit alone or have company and that’s so cool!!! it’s basically a buildable environment!!! i’m getting way too excited about this lol
so you only had like three hours of sleep?? 😭😭😭😭 and you even had to stand in the heat for hours 😭😭😭 but yay!!! merch!!! that’s a really great birthday gift!!! (also when is your birthday??? only if you want to share of course <3)
anyway merch is so amazing and so expensive. this has got to be one of the best presents ever!!! even if it means you’re skinning like a reptile now lol at least it’s just two small spots instead of your whole self 😂 but i get the struggle. i’m not ginger but my skin is so light i always get sunburnt in 0.5 seconds too. definitely not fun, but worth it for some merch :D
that was probably a really fun situation to wake up to, but you both deserved a nap for catching a bus at 4am!!! especially since you had only a few hours of sleep after work!! at least you were rested enough to really enjoy the trip!!
oh no 😭😭 i’m still dreaming about that place!! i went to a my favorite japanese restaurant in my city a few days ago and i really wanted to try that beverage you told me about but i was driving so i couldn’t 😭 i hope this other restaurant was really good too though!!
no way!!! nero this is all way too cool!!! i’m so happy it was so fun and there were so many things to do!!! also this cupsleeves event sounds so cool!! i’m so happy nero, you’re making my day just by telling me about all these freebies and amazing drinks!! and you know i’m always gonna be the little devil on your shoulder telling you that spending money is good and you deserve all that amazing stuff :))
the tid manga trilogy??? how is that even possible omg you can’t find that anywhere!!!! i’m so jealous, i wanna live in this bookstore now 🥺 it’s got to be so amazing!! (you always find the best bookstores, i had no doubt there would be one in this letter too and i was so excited to read about it!!) and let me know if you do order the tmi graphic novels!! i’ve been trying to collect those too hehe
the fact that *next year* was 2020 is so painful. but you saw them two nights in a row!!! that’s amazing!! and it must have been so good to see them after so long, after they’d been by your side in a really tough time 🥹 i’m so happy you got to finally see them live!!
also, the matching outfits?? I LOVE THAT!!! i bet you looked so slay!!! that’s literally the best idea for what to wear to a concert!!!
nero i’m so so happy for you!!! you’ve made my whole day, i’m not even joking!! i’m so happy you’re finally getting to enjoy trips and concerts you couldn’t before!! and this one really sounded so perfect!!! also the videos with you screaming at the top of your lungs to every song are literally the best. i love it when i rewatch a video from a concert and i can hear myself screaming and crying and dying more than i can hear the band or the singer. it just makes me live all those memories and those amazing feelings again!!!
the money spent on this is totally worth it!!! and you can sleep now, uni can wait lol really nero i’m so happy this trip was so good!!! i’m so happy for you!!!
i’m good!! i got three days off from work this week so that was great, and i started to reread chain of iron so that i can reread chain of thorns right after :) i miss them so much already 🥲
anyway i just booked a trip for may, because a friend is coming to visit me and i’m gonna be off work for two weeks so i’m really looking forward to it and now i just wanna skip work and plan the itinerary 😂 and i want to book more trips too. which isn’t great because my bank account is already crying and begging me to stop buying stuff. did i tell you i got the illumicrate edition of chain of thorns with the alternative dust jackets? yeah so my bank account still hasn’t forgiven me for it :,)
simba is also doing really good, he’s eating a lot and sleeping a lot as usual 😌
also, ever since you told me about the rina sawayama concert, and because you always talked so much about her, i kinda started listening to her music a lot more and i’m obsessed with some songs now!!! i adore her style so thank you for this new obsession :>
i’m enclosing a warm hug for you too and a little bouquet of flowers <3
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