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atlafan · 5 years ago

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It’s Electric - One Shot

a/n: I have no idea what this is or why I thought of it, but enjoy CEO!Harry with a blue collar!Y/N

Warnings: Smut (slow burn, I’m so sorry.) Not proofread, sorry!

Words: 15.2K

Being a female, blue collar worker was interesting to say the least. Most of the guys you worked with were either fresh out of college and starting their apprenticeship, or they were in their mid-forties, married with kids. You did the college thing, and got a degree in mathematics, but you didn’t want to be a teacher, and you sure as hell didn’t want to go into computer science. Your father was an electrician, and you asked him for help getting into his union. Electrical work involved a lot of math, especially trigonometry.

You were in your mid-twenties, able to live alone, and working a job that had good benefits. A lot of your friends didn’t quite understand it because you sometimes had to work traditional holidays, and you really couldn’t take time off. But the overtime pay was incredible, and when you were able to take a vacation, you had plenty of money for a good time. The one thing you were sort of missing was companionship.

Most of the guys on the job just assumed you were gay. It was a stupid stereotype. To be fair, you did have to wear a lot of flannel and you never wore makeup, and you constantly had hat hair from your hardhat. Again, a lot of stupid stereotypes.

Your union had gotten a contract together to do maintenance on a specific building in the city. It happened to also be where one of your best friends works so you’d be able to go on lunch together.

“Y/N!” She squeals. “Look at you, I’ve never seen you on the job before.” She tugs at your flannel. “I think you’re the reason mom jeans came back into style, you look so cute.” She was the best hype man there was.

“Thanks, Stacey.” You chuckle. “I don’t wanna get in trouble, I’ll see you at lunch, okay?”

You had never changed so many lightbulbs in one sitting. You hated maintenance work, but it beat being on unemployment. Next on the list was to run some tests on the electrical outlets. You make your way through specific people’s offices. You see your friend again, her desk was outside the CEO’s. She was his executive assistant.

“Let me just make sure he’s not on a call.” She says and you nod. She knocks on the door and opens it. “Mr. Styles? The maintenance crew is here to run inspections in your office.”

“Thanks, send ‘em in.”

She smiles and gestures for you to go in. She grabs you first, pulling you back.

“Remember, he’s British, and very hot.”

“Stacey…you have a boyfriend.”

“I’m well aware, I’m just preparing you.”

You roll your eyes and walk in.

“I’ll try to keep it brief.” You tell him and he nods. You click your pen and make a few notes on your clip board. You grab your outlet tester from your tool belt and get to work. He tries to continue typing at his desk, but curiosity gets the better of him.

“This might sound rude, but I was expecting some old guy to come here for this.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” You smirk at him and continue around the room. “This office is huge.”

“Well…it should be. Worked hard enough for it.”

“Right, you’re the CEO?”

“That’s right, darlin’.”

“Don’t call me that.” You make a disgusted face.

“Sorry, it’s just something I say.” He blushes.

“I need to get under there.”

“Excuse me?”

“Under your desk, I need to check the floor outlets.”

“Oh.” He stands up and moves his chair out of the way. He looks away as you get on your hands and knees, but he’s a man, so his eyes flicker down to your ass. He looks away immediately. You stand back up and make some notes.

“Alright, all set. Have a good one.”

“That’s it?”

“Pretty routine inspection. You all take good care of your offices. Nothing to worry about. We replaced all the lightbulbs that needed it, made them all LED.”

“Thanks.” He smiles.

You walk out and confirm with Stacey where you’ll be meeting her for lunch. Harry notices this. After you’re gone, Harry goes out to Stacey’s desk.

“Stacey, you’re friends with that woman?”

“Yeah! We go way back, Mr. Styles. She’s my best friend, actually. We’re having lunch in a bit, would you like to join us?”

“No.” He chuckles. “No, that’s alright. Um…so she’s an electrician?”

“Mhm, she’s really smart. She was top of her apprenticeship program a few years ago. She’s part of some union now that he dad was in. She likes it.”

“Ah…” He looks away for a moment. “You and I know each other pretty well at this point, right?”

“I’d say so. I mean, my boyfriend and I have been to your house for parties.” You giggle. “Why?”

“Is she single?”

‘Y/N? Yeah! Totally single.” She beams. “Not that she can’t get a date, she can. She’s just been busy lately.” She bites her bottom lip. “Do you…want me to give you her number?”

“Only if she wants to. See what she thought of me on your lunch, would you?”

“I’m on it.”

You and Stacey meet up at a Panera Bread not too far from the office building. You’d be doing inspections there all week, on every floor.

“Alright, I’m just going to come right out and say it. Harry wants your number!” She squeals.

You nearly choke on your salad.

“Who?!”

“Harry! Mr. Styles, my boss. The CEO of-“

“Okay, okay. What the fuck, I talked to him for like two seconds. He also called me darling, I didn’t like that.”

“He calls everyone darling, or love. He’s British, remember.”

“What does that have to…? Never mind.” You shake your head.

“He must think you’re cute. He hasn’t dated in a while, as far as I know. He’s super sweet, Y/N. Can I give him your number, please? He could really sweep you off your feet.”

“I’m not looking to be swept, I’m looking for a partner, someone to spend time with. Not someone who flashes cash around.”

“You’re making excuses.”

“Fine.” You shrug. “Give him my number.”

Stacey can’t wait to get back up to her office to give Harry your number. She knocks on his door and enters. He’s just finishing his lunch.

“Here.” She slaps a piece of paper on his desk. “That’s her number. I’ll warn you, she’s stubborn, so…play it cool.”

“Don’t I always?”

“I said cool, not suave. She hates that shit.”

“When should I call? I don’t wanna seem too eager…”

“She might think you’re playing around if you don’t call her tonight. Call her after work.”

You were hanging out on your couch, fresh out of the shower in a tank top and shorts, digging into a pint of ice cream. Your phone goes off, and you see it’s not anyone you know. You swipe to answer and stick your phone between your cheek and shoulder.

“Hello?”

“Hi, uh, is this Y/N?”

“This is she.”

“It’s Harry.”

“Who? Oh! Mr. Styles from the office building.”

“Yeah.” He chuckles. “That’s me.”

“Stacey gave you my number?”

“She did. I hope it’s alright that I asked her for it.”

“Hey, however your relationship works is none of my business.” You take a bite of your ice cream. “So, why’d you want my number anyways?”

“So I could ask you out.”

For the second time today you choke on your food.

“Excuse me, one second.”

He hears you coughing and he tries not to laugh. You get a glass of water, and sit back down.

“Sorry about that.”

“No worries.”

“Why do you want to ask me out?”

“I, well, to be blunt I’m attracted to you.”

“Why?” You scoff. “Got a thing for girls in loose jeans?”

“They weren’t that loose.”

“What?”

“Nothing, listen, I think you’re pretty and I just thought-“

“Pretty? Wow.” You scoff.

“You’re really going to make me work for this, aren’t you?” He sighs.

“Hard work doesn’t seem foreign to you. It’s how you got that nice office of yours isn’t it?”

“Y/N?”

“Yes?”

“Would you like to go out for dinner with me some time?”

“I’m free Saturday if you are.”

“I’m free.”

“Pick me up at seven, I’ll text you my address when the time comes.” You hang up before he has a second to say anything else.

You text Stacey to let her know you’d be going out with Harry on Saturday. You were actually sort of excited.

On Saturday, you go to your hairdresser for a blow out, and to have your nails done. It was a very nice treat. You get your make up on and pick out one of the dresses you never get to wear. It was black and simple, but you were exited to wear it. You get a call from Harry right at seven.

“Hello?”

“Just pulled up, I’m downstairs.”

“Be down in a second.” You grab your purse and head down.

Harry had a suit on and was standing outside a black car. His jaw nearly drops when he sees you. All he had to go on was that day in his office. You looked like a completely different person.

“You look…lovely.”

“Thanks.” You smile. “I don’t get to dress up very often.” You blush slightly.

He opens the back door of the car for you and you raise an eyebrow.

“I have a driver.”

“Oh…fancy.”

You slide into the car, and Harry comes around on the other side. He taps on the partition, and the car moves.

“I hope you like Asian food.”

“Love it.” You say. “Oh! Are we going to that hibachi place?”

“No, but it’ll sort of be like that.”

“Do you always use a driver?”

“For city stuff, yeah. When I’m out at the beach or upstate I drive myself. Sometimes I get my picture taken when I’m out, learned a long time ago it’s best to just have a driver.”

“Like…paparazzi?”

“Yeah…sometimes. Not that often anymore. There was this, uh, model that I dated a few years ago-“

“Tell me again, why were you so attracted to me?”

“You caught my attention. Not a lot of people do.”

Your cheeks grow slightly red. You feel the car come to a full stop. The driver gets out and opens the door for you. Harry slides out after you. You watch as he tells the driver how long you’ll roughly be. As you walk into the restaurant, the hostess greets Harry almost immediately. You follow her past the main dining area, and are brought into a private dining room. There was a table for two set up already. You give him a confused look.

“I like my privacy.” He pulls your chair out for your and you sit down.

“Is there any particular reason we’re sitting next to each other.”

“The chef is going to make our food for us in a few minutes. Told you it was sort of like hibachi.” He grabs the bottle of wine on the table and opens it. “Would you like some? It’s plum wine, it’s delicious.”

“Um…sure.” He pours you some and you take a small sip. “Hm, different.”

“So, how does one become an electrician?”

“How does one become a CEO?” You smirk. “Lots of hard work, school, and luck.”

Before Harry can speak again the chef walks in, and a few other follow him in with a cart. There was a flat top where he’d be able to make whatever you wanted. One of the waiters brings over a tray of sushi to start with. You grab your chopsticks and take a piece.

“Oh, that’s good. I love sashimi.” You say.

“Good evening, folks.” The chef smiles. “Tonight I’ll be preparing a delicious steak, kale salad, and for dessert fried banana ice cream.”

“That all work for you? I sorta had to tell them ahead of time.”

“Sounds amazing.”

You watch as the chef prepares the steak and the kale. It smelled delicious already, and it was cool to watch as it was done. You and Harry continue to enjoy the sushi in the meantime.

“Are you going to answer my question?”

“About what?”

“Becoming an electrician.”

“Oh…well, my dad was one, and he was in a union. I have a B.S. in Mathematics, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it, so I asked my dad for some help getting into the union, and the rest was history. I get to use my degree every day. Not a lot of people can say that.” You smile and take a sip of the wine. “Do you always do this?”

“Do what?”

“Schmooze on a first date.”

“I’m not schmoozing.” He gasps.

“I’m just saying…this is, like, really fancy. You could have taken me to a burger joint, I’m not picky. I just don’t want you thinking you to need to flash your cash around. I get it, you’re reach and do well for yourself, you know? I wanna know what’s underneath all that.”

Two plates are put in front of you.

“Thank you.” Harry says to the chef and everyone else leaves the room. “I wasn’t trying to flash my cash.” He cuts his steak and takes a bite. “I just wanted to show you a good time.”

“By booking a private room at a really nice restaurant?” You smirk and take a bite of your steak. “Although, this food is delicious.” You use your napkin to pat the corners of your mouth gently. “How’d you get into the business that you’re in?”

“Well, I always wanted to be in sales, do a little bit of traveling, that kind of stuff. When I was in uni, the idea of property management sort of intrigued me, so I looked a little more into that. I started off in the mail room while I was getting my MBA, and then just sort of worked my way up. I bet my company has provided a lot of work to your union, other than just maintenance.”

“It definitely does, I recognized the name. You guys have put up buildings all over the place. You’re kind of like Richard Gere’s character in Pretty Woman.”

“I suppose I am! I love that movie.” He clears his throat. “So, you didn’t want to become an engineer or anything?”

“Nope, I like working with my hands.” You shrug and take a sip of your wine.

“Is it hard being in a male dominated profession?”

“Isn’t it pretty male dominated up in your office?” You raise an eyebrow at him. “Most of the women up there were either assistants or other low ranking positions.”

“Are you saying your friend works a low ranking position as my executive assistant?”

“Stacey likes what she does, she feels fulfilled and needed, at least that’s what she tells me. I’m just saying, anywhere I would have gone, it would probably look the same. Besides, I’m not the only woman on the job, I’m just one of few, and I’m one of the younger ones. The guys are all nice enough.”

A few moments later a waiter comes in to clear the plates and someone else brings out the fried ice cream.

“I’ve never had this before.” You smile. “I’m excited to try it.”

“Fried ice cream is delicious, especially after eating a steak with so many spices in it.”

You both dig in. You lick your lips after taking a bite.

“Mm, that is so good.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

Harry squared up the bill, and out the two of you went. You thanked him over and over for paying. He wanted to ask if you felt like grabbing another drink anywhere, but he wasn’t so sure if you’d be into it. Maybe that could be saved for a second date. His driver brings you home and Harry gets out to walk you up the steps of your building.

“I had a great time.” He blushes. “I’m glad we could do this.” All you do is smile and nod. “Um, well, so I have your number, I’ll give you another call sometime?”

“Okay.” You get your keys out of your purse. “Thanks again for dinner.”

You key into your building and he watches you disappear inside. He was stunned. Not even a goodnight kiss, hell, even a hug would have sufficed. Usually when Harry took a woman out on a date at the very least he got a kiss on the cheek, if not that most of the time he would get invited up. Did he do something wrong? Were you not as attracted to him as he was to you?

“Tell me everything! I wanna know what to expect tomorrow morning and if I need to add a caramel swirl to his coffee.” Stacey giggles over the phone with you the next morning.

“It was…okay.”

“Just okay?! Didn’t he take you to that nice Japanese place?”

“Yeah, the food was excellent, but the atmosphere was weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“He had us seated in a private room and we basically had this personal chef. It was awkward when things got a little quiet. There was a little music in the background, but I would have felt more at ease in the main dining area.”

“He likes his privacy.”

“So he said. Apparently sometimes paparazzi follow him?”

“Yeah, about a year ago he was dating this Italian model. He started getting photographed. They followed him around a bit after they broke up, but we haven’t seen too many in a while.”

“I don’t know why he’d want to go from a model to me…”

“Oh, stop it. You’re gorgeous! So…are you saying you won’t see him again?”

“I don’t see why I would. I didn’t feel any sparks flying between us. He seems sort of hollow, Stace.”

“No! He’s so sweet! He can just be sort of…I don’t know…awkward. He’s amazing when he’s making a deal, but outside of work I know he can be a little social awkward.”

“I don’t think I wanna be with someone as rich as he is.”

“He was just trying to impress you, I’m sure. You didn’t have any fun?”

“I had a little…but not enough to go on a second date.”

Stacey swallowed hard. Harry was a very sweet man, and extremely respectful…but he wanted something he worked for it. There was no way he was going to let this, or you, go.

“Morning, Stacey.” He says to her with a smile. He grabs his coffee from her desk.

“Morning, Mr. Styles.”

“Have a good weekend?” He asks as she follows her in. He looks at the mail she’s already put on his desk.

“Yeah, Dan and I visited his parents out at the lake. It was nice.”

“Good for you guys.” He looks at her and smiles. “Been together a few years now, right? When’s he popping the question?”

“Oh, Harry.” She swats a hand at him as he chuckles. “Soon. Anyways, you’ve got a meeting at nine, and then this afternoon you’re to go to that new property we just bought. The construction workers will be there, it’ll be good for you to meet the crew.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. I’m dying to see the place again. Haven’t been since we saw it last.” He sits down at his desk. “Hate wearing those hard hats though, they always mess up my hair.” He smirks.

“I don’t think anything could mess up your hair.” She laughs and turns to leave to go back to his desk.

“Wait, uh, did you happen to speak with Y/N at all?”

“Oh! Um, was this past Saturday the big date?”

“You know it was, quit playing.”

“We spoke, yeah.”

“Did she mention me at all? Trying to gauge when I should call her next.”

“Oh, so you wanna see her again?”

“I do.” He smiles. “So, she say anything?”

“Yeah…um, she said she had a nice time.”

“Was that it?”

“Pretty much, but to be fair, we talked more about my weekend. Barely let her get a word in, you know how I can be sometimes.”

Stacey walks awkwardly back to her desk. She prayed that if he did reach out to you, you’d at least let him down easy.

Harry leaves around one in the afternoon to head to the property. He and the COO go together in a car. When they get there they both shake the foreman’s hand and walk around the property.

“The electrician’s showed up this morning. They’ve certainly got their work cut out for them.” The foreman says. “Great workers though, union contract just how you like.”

Harry nods and continues walking. He notices the electricians on their afternoon coffee break.

“Check out the suits.” Frank says to you. You smirk and look over your shoulder. You immediately look back at Frank. “What?”

“I know that guy…the one in the blue suit.”

“No shit, how?”

“He, uh, took me to dinner on Saturday.”

“What?!”

“My friend is his executive assistant, she gave him my number after we met last week doing those inspections.”

“No offense, but I thought you were gay.” He rubs the back of his neck.

“Frank.” You pinch the bridge of your nose.

“So…some big wig took you out? How was it?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it, and I certainly don’t want to-“

“Y/N?”

You turn around slowly to look at him.

“Hi Harry.”

“Y/N, you should address him as Mr. Styles.” Your foreman says.

“That’s quite alright, we know each other.” He smiles at you.

“We sure do, excuse me.” You grab your hard hat, stick it on, and head inside with Frank.

“How do you know her?” The foreman asks Harry.

“She’s good friends with my assistant.”

The foreman brings Harry and the COO inside to show them the bit of progress that’s been made on the interior thus far. Harry sees you up on a ladder helping a wire get fed through a hole.

“Got it!” You yell up, and secure it.

Harry and the COO stick around for quite some time making sure everything was to their liking. He’s there until the end of the work day and sees you walking with your toolbox to your car. You wave goodbye to Frank as you get everything in your trunk. It was a nice size SUV. He watches as you unclip your tool belt and slightly rub at your hip bones. He decides to come over to you.

“Hi again.” He smiles and you nearly jump.

“Jesus, you’re just everywhere.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, darling.” You scrunch your face at the word. “Sorry.”

“You apologize a lot.” You shake your head and throw your hard hat into your trunk. You take your hair out of its bun, and shake your hair out. “Can I help you with something?” You close your trunk and lean against your car, crossing your arms.

“I just, um, well, I was wondering when I could see you again.”

“You’re seeing me now.”

He chuckles and shakes his head.

“I mean, when can I take you on another date?”

“Harry…” You look down, then back up to him. “I…”

“I should have texted you afterwards, right?” He sucks his teeth. “I didn’t wanna seem too eager.”

“You really had that good a time with me that you wanna take me out again?”

“Well, yeah. Didn’t you?”

You had two choices. You could either crush the man in front of you and walk away, or you could cut the guy a break and give it another go. Would it be so bad to let him take you out again? Maybe this time you could call the shots.

“I did.” You swallow. “I’d like to go out again.”

“Great!” He beams at you. “I was thinking we could-“

“I’d like to plan it.”

“Oh…well, alright. What did you have in mind?”

“You’ll find out Friday night. You’re free then?”

“I can definitely make myself available.”

“Perfect.” You turn on your heel and get into your car. Once again you leave him standing there, stunned.

“You’re giving it another shot?!” Stacey practically screams through the phone.

“Mhm.”

“What made you decide?”

“Well, he was just standing right in front of me. I felt sort of bad. I figured maybe I was being too harsh before. It can’t hurt to go out again.”

“Where are you going to take him?”

“I haven’t decided yet. I was thinking of going to that bar I’ve been to with Frank. I’ve taken you a couple of times.”

“Oh! That place with the darts and the live music?”

“Yeah! I think he needs a night to be a little less fancy, don’t you?”

“Definitely! He won’t know what hit him.”

Harry was on cloud nine all week. He couldn’t wait to see you again. He even had flowers sent to your job site. You were thoroughly embarrassed. The guys all gave you shit for it. He was a little surprised when you didn’t even text him to thank him for them, but he just brushed it off and kept his cool. When you did finally text him Thursday evening, he nearly squealed.

You: what’s your address? I’ll be picking you up around eight tomorrow

Harry: late start to the evening, where we headed?

You: that’s for me to know ;)

His stomach filled with butterflies all because you sent a winky face. He was having a few doubts that maybe you didn’t like him that much, but you were being playful with him now. This was good.

Your hair was down and wavy, you had a white tank top on with a dangly necklace, and some jeans. You drive to Harry’s building. It was much nicer than yours, naturally. You text him and let him know you’re on the street. He comes walking out moments later in a black silk shirt and a pair of yellow patterned dress pants. You squinted through the window and noticed they were sort of tight around his thighs. He waves at you and you wave back.

“This is fun already.” He says as he buckles up. He looks down at you. “I’m overdressed.”

“Not at all. You’re dressed like you, that’s good. This is how I like to dress.”

“You look cute.” He says.

“Thanks.” You start to drive off towards the bar.

“So, now will you tell me where we’re going?”

“To a bar, hope you’re thirsty.” You smirk at him.

As you continue to drive Harry takes note of the music on the radio and even the way you drive the car. You were only using one hand, on the bottom of the wheel. You were so easy going.

“This is a nice car.”

“Thanks, bought it last year. I used have a dinged up old truck.”

“Do you miss having a truck?”

“Not really.” You shrug. “I wanted something more like this. When you have a truck everyone always wants your help with stuff. It’s bad enough that I’m the handy friend.” You chuckle. “I’m always being asked to help repair stuff or whatever. I don’t mind, but sometimes it’s a lot.”

You get over to the bar and find a place to park.

“Can’t remember the last time I was on this side of town.” He comments as you walk inside.

There were a lot people around, and the bar itself was packed. There was some sports game playing, but it wouldn’t be on long once the live band would start. There were people playing darts and munching on popcorn.

“Go snag a booth, I’ll get us some beers.”

“Oh, uh…”

“What’s a matter?”

“I don’t really like beer.” He takes his wallet out. “I can grab the drinks, tell me what you want.”

“I want you to go grab us a booth. I’ll get you something other than beer.”

You turn and go up to the bar. You greet the bartender who knows you pretty well. You decide that if Harry didn’t want beer, then you wouldn’t get one either.

“Two long islands.” You grin.

You get your drinks and find Harry at a booth. He stuck out like a sore thumb, he wasn’t hard to find. You place the glasses on the table.

“I’ll grab us some popcorn. We’ll grab some real food later.”

You go up to the popcorn machine and grab a bowl to fill up. You say hello to some people you recognize and head back to the booth.

“What made you decide on a long island ice tea?” He raises an eyebrow at you.

“Thought it would be fun to just get drunk.” You smile. “What sort of mixed drinks do you usually get?”

“I don’t. I usually just get a scotch or something.”

“Ew.” You grimace and then take a sip of your drink. “This is much more fun.”

“You could have gotten a beer still.”

You toss a piece of popcorn into your mouth and take another sip. Harry takes a sip as well and coughs when he’s done.

“Bit heavy handed.”

“I can get you something else…”

“No, it’s fine.” He smiles. “Do you come here a lot?”

“Sometimes. Some buddies from work brought me here, and I liked it. They have free darts, and live music. The band should be starting soon.”

You were two drinks in, and you both were giggling messes. The band was loud, but fun. You had gotten into a little game of getting popcorn into the other’s mouth. Maybe Harry could let his hair down a little and act like a normal person.

By the time you each were on your third drink, you definitely knew you were drunk, and so did Harry. He was having a great time.

“I’m hungry, are you hungry?!” You had yell over the music.

“Starved!”

“Come on!”

You grab his wrist as you walk out of the place. It’s a bit chilly outside, and without thinking, Harry wraps his arm around your shoulders as you walk. You wrap yours around his waist, and he feels butterflies again. You lead him to a McDonald’s and walk in.

“Two medium big mac meals, please.” You slur as you walk up to the counter.

“I’m paying.” Harry insists.

“Nope, I got it.” You slap your credit card down. “Go fill up our drinks, I’ll wait for the food.”

Harry shuffles over to the drink station and fills the paper cups up with coke. You come over to the table he found and you both dive into the greasy food.

“Mm, I can’t remember the last time I had McDonald’s.” He grunts as he eats the food.

“Right?! It’s like, the perfect drunk food.” You suck down the coke. “I would have gotten us some flurries but the machine’s broken.”

“I have ice cream back at my place…got stuff to make sundaes actually.”

“Are you kidding?!”

“Nope, always keep that stuff around. Never know when you’re gonna need some hot fudge.”

“Well, I know where we’re going next.”

“What about your car? We’re both way too fucked up to drive.”

“It’s called uber.”

“Nonsense, I’ll call my-“

“He’ll be here in two minutes, finish up your fries.” You say, looking at your phone.

“You’re very impulsive.” He chuckles and throws some fries into his mouth.

“Live a little.” You yank him out of the booth and go outside.

You both crawl into the uber, and giggle during the ride. Harry hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. When you get to Harry’s building, he says hello to the doorman, and you just smile and wave. He keeps his hand on the small of your back as he leads you into the elevator. It was a beautiful lobby. You watch, through your foggy eyes, as Harry presses the button for the top floor where all of the pent house suites were. He leads you down a hall and keys into his place. You jaw nearly hits the floor.

“I didn’t know they made apartments this big. It’s like…a house in here!” You walk around. “Is this a staircase?!”

“Yeah, it’s two stories. There’s four bedrooms total. My main guest room is down here, and then upstairs are the rest. Got an office down that way, nice big balcony.”

“What’s a single guy need all this space for?”

“Got family and friends that come to visit. I end up hosting functions quite a bit too. Catered events, and all that.” He grabs your hand to lead you into his massive kitchen. “Can I get you some water?”

“Nope, got any alcohol?”

“You want more to drink?!”

“We’re going to have ice cream right? How about some kalua?”

“You know, I do have some. I could put it into some shot glasses.”

“Works for me.” You smile.

Harry get everything out for the sundaes. His kitchen looked like it belonged in a restaurant, but it made sense since he did say he had catered events. If he had cooks come they’d need state of the art equipment. He runs the scoop under some warm water, rolls up one of his sleeves and scoops the ice cream into two bowls. Your eyes widen as you see the veins in his hand and forearm peek out. He adds the warmed up fudge, sprinkles some nuts, and then adds some whip cream.

“Why do you have all this stuff?” You ask as you make up the shots.

“We had an ice cream social here a week or so ago. I like having themed parties.” He bites into his ice cream and moans. “I hate throwing out leftovers.”

“This fudge is really rich.” You lick your lips after taking a bite.

“Shoulda made milk shakes with this.” He takes his shot of kalua and so do you.

“Next time.” You spoon my ice cream into your mouth.

“Next time, eh?”

“Sure.” You smile. “I’m having a good time.”

“Better than last time?”

“Harry.” You put your bowl down and put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical, but when you let your hair down, you’re a lot of fun.”

“So…you didn’t have any fun last time?”

“It’s not that I didn’t.” You say, shoveling more ice cream into your mouth. “But I feel like I got to know you better tonight.” You hop up on his counter and sit there comfortably as you finish your ice cream. A little bit of hot fudge lingers on the corner of your mouth.

“You have a little, uh…” He taps the corner of his mouth to show you. He moves to stand between your legs and you look up at him.

“Did I get it?”

“Not exactly.” He cups your cheeks and leans in. You can feel his breath on you. He runs his thumb over the spot. “Got it.” He sucks his thumb into his mouth and smirks at you.

Just as he’s about to turn to grab the bowls you grab at the collar of his shirt, and pull him to you, crashing your lips to his. He sinks into it, only for a second before backing away. He presses his forehead to yours.

“What’s wrong?” You breathe.

“I don’t want this to happen like this.”

“Like what?”

He steps away and looks at you.

“We’re both pretty out of sorts, Y/N.”

“It was just a kiss…”

“But it could lead to more, and I don’t feel comfortable with that.”

“Are you really going to tell me you’ve never hooked up drunk?”

“I have.”

“So…I’m sorry, I’m just really confused.” You hop down so you can stand on your feet.

“Y/N.” He cups your cheeks so you’ll look at him. “I want to be completely sober so I can fully enjoy you.”

“You’re…such a weirdo, Harry. Who says shit like that?” You step away from him.

“You know, most people find me charming.”

“Well, then I guess I’m not most people.” You roll your eyes at yourself. “Ugh, I didn’t mean for that to sound like I’m not like other girls, that would be a weird thing to say. I feel like you say things you think I’d wanna hear.”

“No, I really feel that way. I don’t want…look, if we decided to do it, I’d wanna remember it, that’s all I was trying to say.”

“So just say it like that!” You start laughing. “That I can understand.”

“I don’t know what to say around you. It’s like everything I do is wrong.”

“Not true.” You grab the whip cream can and spray some into your mouth. “You make a mean sundae.”

“Don’t hog it.” He opens his mouth and you spray some whip cream into his mouth. You both giggle.

“So…you don’t even want to keep kissing?”

“I do, but I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“What do you wanna do instead? My car’s all the way back at the bar, I’m way too fucked to drive…”

“You could stay here if you want. I could give you some pj’s and-“

“No, I’d rather sleep in my own bed.”

“I could call my driver.”

“This late?!”

“He’s on call.” Harry takes out his phone and sends a text. “It’s his job.”

“You’ll come for the ride?”

“Of course!” He smiles. “I have a question for you…”

“Alright.”

“Did you get the flowers I sent you earlier this week?”

“I did.” You move some hair from your face. “I’m sure you meant well, but you shouldn’t do that while I’m working again.”

“Why?” He frowns.

“It was embarrassing. Some of the guys gave me shit for it. Just…if you do it again, I mean, I like getting flowers, just have them sent to my apartment. I don’t need gifts at work. I didn’t even know where to put them.”

“So, we’re definitely seeing each other again?”

“I’d like to.” You smile.

“Great.” He smiles back. “Sorry…I didn’t mean to embarrass you. Do you want me to have someone fired? Cause I can do that.”

“No.” You laugh. “But thanks.”

Harry leads you down to the car and you both get in the back seat. You sit really close to him. You were incredibly riled up and horny. It was the alcohol, but you were sort of disappointed that you wouldn’t be getting laid, and it sort of turned you on that Harry was being such a gentleman. You look up at him.

“Harry?”

“Yeah?” He looks down at you.

You move his arm to put it around you, and you look up at him with big eyes. He sighs and leans in to kiss you. His lips were so soft, and he still tasted like the hot fudge. Your hands slide up to his hair and tug on his curls. You just wanted his tongue in your mouth, but he was being so timid. His other hand goes down to your thigh, and he squeezes it, his thumb digging in to your inner thigh. You whimper slightly and then he lets go of you. The car comes to a stop, and your door is opened by the driver. Harry gets out to walk you up to your door.

“I’m going to be out of town for the next ten days.” He says, tucking some hair behind your ear. “But when I get back, I’d love to see you again.”

“Me too.”

“Good.” He gives you one last kiss before getting back into the car. He makes sure you’re inside the building before he lets the driver go. He presses the button for the partition to go down. “Charlie, I had my doubts, I really did, but she likes me, mate.”

“That’s great, sir. I’m glad she agreed to see you again.”

“Me too. She’s so…different! She’s sort of blunt too. I like that. I feel like women always just like me for my money, but she could care less! This could really be something, I can feel it.”

You told Stacey all about your date with Harry, and how good of a kisser he was. You weren’t sure how’d you last the next ten days without his lips on yours again, but you’d find ways to manage. Work was a great distraction. However, your friends continued to shit on you. One of them snuck a magazine that had Harry on the cover into your toolbox.

“Very funny.” You roll your eyes as they laugh. “What’s so funny that he likes me?”

“It’s not funny, think they’re just jealous.” Frank smirks and looks at the magazine. “It’s just odd that you’re into him.”

“He’s not exactly the type of guy I’d usually be interested in, but he means well. He’s sweet…in his own weird way. He’s quirky. I took him to that bar we’ve been to on Friday, we had a great time.”

“Look at you, trying something for a second time. When do you see him next?”

“I don’t know. He’s out of town for a couple of weeks.”

“Doing what?”

“How the fuck should I know? I didn’t ask.”

“Why not?”

“It’s none of my business. It’s not like he’s my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, but he is the guy you’re seeing.”

“I’ve been on two dates with him, nothing’s set in stone.” Your morning coffee break ends you sigh. “Great, time to go into this stupid basement.” You put your hardhat on and a mask and head in with Frank.

On Thursday evening, you were just hanging out, watching TV after a long day of work. Your phone goes off and you see it’s a call from Harry.

“Hello?”

“Hi, beautiful!”

You’re sitting there with your hair up in a messy bun, pimple patches on your blemishes, and a raggedy t-shirt with stains all over it. You roll your eyes.

“What’s up?”

“Well, I finally got a free moment, and I wanted to call you. Are you busy? Should be about eight o’clock, right?”

“Yeah it is…where are you?”

“I’m in London.”

You think for a moment and you gasp.

“Harry, it’s like two in the morning over there!”

“Like I said, I finally got a free moment. I’m just getting into my flat, getting cozy.”

“What did you go to London for?”

“Business of course…and to see some family. Killing two birds with one stone.”

“Do you travel a lot?”

“Sometimes. There were some buildings I wanted to look at out here.”

“How come you didn’t bring Stacey?”

“She doesn’t always need to travel with me. We’ve connected, don’t worry. I’m not one of those helpless idiots who can’t survive without their assistant. Besides, need her there to hold down the fort.” You hear some shuffling and then the creaking of a bed, and a big sigh from him.

“So…what kept you out so late?”

“Business.”

“What Business could you possibly need to conduct at two in the morning?”

“Things operate differently over here. People like to go out late. I actually left early because I was tired.”

“That’s wild.”

“Very.” He chuckles. “What are you up to?”

“I was just watching some TV before I hit the sack.”

“Anything good on?”

“Not really.” You laugh and turn the TV off. “Kinda like hearing your voice.” You slap your forehead because you literally don’t know what possessed you to say that.

“Like hearing yours too. Sorry I haven’t been able to text much.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not, really. I wouldn’t want you to think I wasn’t interested or something.”

“I didn’t.”

“Good, because I’m still really interested.”

“When do you come back?”

“Monday evening, then it’s back to the office Tuesday.”

“You never stop, do you…”

“It’s hard not to, but I like what I do.”

“I would hope so.”

“How’s your week been?”

“You should get some sleep.”

“Can’t, too awake now. Tell me how your week was, how’s the building coming along?”

“I’ve been in a dimly lit crawl space in the basement feeding wires all week. Tomorrow’s the last day of doing that. Then next week my group of people will move up to the regular basement, and then after that we’ll move on to the lobby. Other people are working on the outside as well, and then once all that’s done we’ll be able to move on to the individual offices inside.”

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

“Mhm, but it’s honest work. I can take a step back at the end of the day and see what I’ve done. I like that.”

“You’re a visual person, then.”

“I am.”

“So am I.”

“Nice to know we have one thing in common.”

“We have other things in common.” He sounds offended.

“Like what?” You giggle and sit with your knees hugged to your chest. His voice over the phone was oddly soothing to you.

“Well…I’d say we both enjoy a good joke. We both like food, although, I have to say, my stomach was pretty angry with me after I had that bic mac.”

You burst out laughing.

“So was mine. It’s always good going in.”

“Mhm, and we like each other.”

“Oh, we do?” You ask sarcastically. “Teasing. I like you.”

“You didn’t at first though.”

“You didn’t make a great impression by calling me darling in your office.”

“If I knew how derogatory it was going to come off, I never would have said it. It’s just…part of my vocabulary.”

“It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”

“When I get back, I’d love to see you again. Maybe we could have lunch or something.”

“On my jobsite? I don’t think so.”

“We could go out for dinner, then? I mean, I’ll be coming by the site next week to check out the progress.”

“Please, don’t even acknowledge me if you see me. I want things to be professional.”

“Reputation to uphold?”

“Sort of. I have a couple good friends, but not all of the guys are so accepting of women on the job. I don’t want any of them thinking I’m getting special treatment or anything because I know you. Someone put a magazine that had you on the cover in my tool box as a prank.”

“I’m sorry…I don’t really know what the big deal is though.”

“It’s like I’m in elementary school and everyone found out about my cruck. Boys never really grow up, so I’ve come to find out.”

“Can’t say I can argue with that. We’re an immature lot.” He chuckles and then yawns.

“You should really go to sleep.”

“But I like talking to you.”

“You can call me this weekend.”

“Oh, that sounds nice.”

“Goodnight, Harry.”

“Goodnight…sweet dreams, Y/N.”

You sigh as you hang up. Your stomach felt weird. Did you have butterflies? You never had butterflies. Harry was definitely growing on you.

Wednesday morning, Harry came to the jobsite to check things out. He stayed in the trailer with the foreman with quite some time before going inside the building. He didn’t see you, and he was sort of sad about it. He hears a whistling noise and sees a bunch of people filing out and taking their hard hats off.

“Morning coffee break.” The foreman explains. Harry nods and squints at everyone. His eyes widen when he spots you.

He watches as you grab your thermos and pour your coffee into the little cap that works as a cup. He desperately wants to go over and say hi, but he also wanted to respect what you asked of him.

“Hey, Y/N, isn’t that your boyfriend?” One of the guys says and makes kissy noises. “Go say hi, give him a big wet one for us. Show him some appreciation for giving the union so much work.”

“Very funny.” You roll your eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. We’ve been out two times.”

“That guy’s dated models, what’s so great about you?”

“Bob.” Frank says, warningly. “Don’t be a prick.”

Harry watches as the group laughs, and Frank puts a hand on your shoulder.

“Everything alright over there?” He asks the foreman.

“Yeah, they’re just giving her a tough time. They seem to think you’re her boyfriend.”

“And what if I was? Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No, sir, of course not…it’s just…up until a couple weeks ago everyone thought she was gay, or at least, just not into dudes.”

“Why? Because she didn’t try to fuck one of the other guys? She’s a beautiful woman, and-“ Harry stops himself. He can feel his blood boiling. He wasn’t your boyfriend, and he knew that, but he still wanted to defend you.

“What’s it like fucking a dude with so much money? Surprised you haven’t quit yet to become his live in lady.”

“Bob, I’m about two seconds away from ripping your balls off.”

“Not a very nice thing to say.”

“You’re being a dick, Bob.” Frank says. “Why do you wanna know what it’s like to fuck Mr. Styles for? You like him too?” He smirks.

“Frank.” You pinch the bridge of your nose. “What’s happening here, you’re going to turn this around to make some gay joke to defend me? Not cool. You all need to grow the fuck up.” You finish your coffee, put your hardhat back on and storm off.

Harry watches the scene and goes over to the group of men since you now left.

“Everything alright over here?” He asks them. The foreman was shaking behind him.

“Just fine, sir.” Bob says.

“Are we sure? Because that worker seemed a bit upset. I hope you’re all working as a team, I hate to see people not being team players. It makes getting a job done well very difficult.”

“The guys have been ragging on her because of you.” Frank says. “Apparently they think it’s funny that you’ve been out a couple of times.” He turns to all of them. “I think you all forget that she works with us and has fun just like the rest of us, but she’s still a woman. She’s allowed to go out on dates with people not like us. Just because she doesn’t want any of you doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve to find someone.”

Frank huffs and storms off himself. Harry was impressed by him.

“I don’t have much to add to that other than that her personal life is just that, personal. Please remember that, and keep things professional. Then, none of his will have a problem.” He says sternly and walks away. The foremen glares at all of them and follows Harry.

He just wanted to make sure you were okay. He saw you inside, back to work, as if nothing had happened. Frank was holding the latter you were on. He still wanted to respect what you had asked, so he turns and walks back out of the building.

Stacey had her phone out when Harry got back to the office. She was texting furiously with someone. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she had a frown on her face.

“Everything alright, love?” Harry asks, concerned.

“With me, yeah.” She looks up at him and smiles. “I’m proud of you.”

“For what?”

“For not stepping in to defend her. She’s good at taking care of herself.”

“So that’s who you’re texting?”

“Mhm. I’m gonna meet her after work for some drinks. When do you see her next?”

“Friday.”

“Good, that’ll be nice.”

“So I shouldn’t show up while you’re having drinks?”

“No! She needs girl time. You mean well, but keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t suffocate her.”

“It was so hard to not run over to her earlier. We chatted a bit over the phone while I was gone. It was so nice.” He sighs and leans against her desk.

“You’re a romantic, Harry, and I love that about you. But…Y/N…well, she prefers to save that for the movies.”

Harry’s eyes widen and he gasps.

“I just figured out what I’m gonna take her to do Friday!” He hugs Stacey quick. “Thanks, Stace!” He rushes into his office and closes the door.

By the time Friday rolled around, you were exhausted. You really didn’t want to do anything crazy, and Harry assured you that you’d just be hanging out at his place which put you at ease. His car comes for you around seven. You come out in a pair of jeans, a nice shirt, and your hair down. He gets out and practically runs over to you. He takes you in his arms and kisses you.

“Missed you.” He says against your lips before kissing you again.

“I guess I missed you too.” You smile. “Thanks for being so cool at the site the other day.”

“No worries, I just hope those guys have cooled it.”

“They have.”

“Good.” He smiles and leads you into the car.

“One of these days I’m going to see what you look like behind the wheel.”

“That just means you’ll have to come out to my beach house.”

“That doesn’t sound too terrible. It’s getting warmer out by the day.”

“I hope you’re hungry, I’ve got something good prepared.”

“Did you cook?”

“God, no. I’d burn the house down if I made something other than a frozen pizza.” He chuckles. “No, I had someone come and make everything I wanted.” You make a face at him. “Oh, stop it. You’ll be thankful once you see it, trust me.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Once you’re at Harry’s place, he leads you inside. You take note on how he always says hi to all of the workers. You liked that he was so kind to them. When he gets you inside your jaw drops. There was a popcorn machine full of popcorn, hot dogs on a rotisserie, and all of the fixings on a table next to it, a nacho station, and homemade candies and chocolates.

“So, this is, like, the concessions area, and then down the hall is my home theater. Thought I’d bring the movies to us. Do you like it?”

“This is so…extravagant.” You walk up to where all of the sweets are.

“I had my chef make up those chocolate covered cookie dough bites, I thought you might like them.”

“I love those…thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He kisses you cheek. “Well, let’s make up what we want and then we can go find our seats.” He chuckles at his own joke and it makes you giggle.

You each make up a tray of snacks, and head down the hall. You gasp when you see a movie poster on the wall outside of the door.

“Pretty Woman?”

“I remember you mentioning it on our first date. Would you like to watch it?”

“Sure!”

You walk inside the room. He wasn’t kidding, it really was a home theater. Three rows of luxurious recliner seats, a large screen and a projector in the back.

“Where would you like to sit?”

“Middle row?”

“Works for me.” He smiles and follows you up. He sets his food down on the chair next to him and takes his phone out. “There’s an app linked to the projector so I can just it play from here and even dim the lights.”

“Pretty cool.”

“Very cool. Makes things so much easier.”

The lights dim, and previews start playing.

“Previews from when the film first came out, makes it more immersive.”

“Nice touch.” You saw, biting into your hot dog. “Oh, wow. This is delicious.”

“All freshly made with a natural casing. Still not the best for you, but at least it’s made with good ingredients.”

You sip on your soda and toss some popcorn into your mouth as well. Once you both finish up some of the cookie dough bites, you set your trays aside, recline the chairs, and get comfortable. Harry lifts the armrest between you and puts his arm around you.

“This alright?”

“Mhm.” You cozy up to him and sigh as you watch the film.

Even though you thought he was flashing his cash again, you knew he wasn’t doing it for bad reasons. He wanted to give you a nice evening, and this was how he knew to do it. You appreciated him putting all this effort in just for you. It made you rethink your first date completely. He was just trying to show you a good time, and you felt bad for being sort of rude. You’re happy you gave him another chance.

You sling your arm over his lower stomach, and put one of your ankles over his. His cologne smelled so good, you just wanted to have him closer to you. Harry was swooning. He hadn’t felt this happy in so long. His hand strokes your arm and shoulder mindlessly as the movie goes on. You both laugh and giggle at the funnier parts. When it gets to the part of the film where Vivian goes down to where Edward is playing the piano, and she sits on top of it and they start having sex.

You bite your bottom lip and look up at Harry whose eyes are glues to the screen, but you could feel his heart beating rapidly. He notices you looking up at him and he looks down at you with a slight smile. You reach one of your hands up to the back of his neck to pull him down to you. His lips brush over yours, and then you both sink into it. You tug him by the collar of his shirt so he’s hovering over you on the large seats. You wrap your legs around his waist to have him as close as possible. You swipe your tongue along his bottom lip and he opens up for you. You both groan into the open mouthed kiss, happy to feel the other’s tongue.

He kisses down your jaw and makes his way to your neck. Your hips buck up towards his when he starts to suck on your skin. You crane your neck to give him more access, and you practically push his head further into you. You whimper and bite your bottom lip as your hips move up towards his again. He sits up and pulls you on top of him so you can straddle him. Your lips find his again as you roll your hips down on his growing bulge. You tug at his hair as you suck on his bottom lip. His hands were press on your back to keep you close.

“Y/N?” He breathes.

“Mm?” You mumble as you kiss on his neck.

“Do you wanna take a break so we can finish the movie?”

“What, why?” You pout with your now swollen lips.

“Well, it’s just, that scene where Jason Alexander tries to…um…you know, is coming up and I’d feel weird making out while that happens.”

“Oh.” You chuckle and move off of him. “Makes sense.” He puts his arm back around you as you both catch your breaths.

Eventually the movie ends and the lights come back on. You have to blink a few times to get used to it. You and Harry grab your trays and go out the kitchen to clean everything up.

“Did you enjoy that?” He asks as he loads up the dishwasher.

“Yeah! I mean, I love that movie, and it was cool to watch it privately like that.”

“That room used to be another bedroom, I had it renovated shortly after I moved in. I’m glad I did. It got difficult to go out once the paparazzi started following my every move. Plus, it’s fun for parties. My family loves it when they come to visit.” He dries his hands on a towel and tosses it on a counter.

“Do they still follow you around?”

“Not as much anymore, thank god. At least, not to see who I’m dating. Sometimes after I do an interview for a magazine they follow me to see if I’m going out to get drunk or something.” He scoffs and shakes his head.

“You end up on a lot of thirty under thirty type magazines.”

“Yeah…I’ve done those, made it onto Forbes too, that was pretty cool. Then in a couple of years when I do turn thirty, it’ll be forty under forty. It never ends.” He shakes his head.

“How’d you end up dating some Italian model?”

He steps closer to you and tucks some hair behind your ear.

“Is that something you really wanna talk about?” He asks, just above a whisper as he starts to kiss on your neck again.

“No.” You gasp as his hands squeeze your hips. “Can we go to your bedroom?” You hear him sigh against you and he leans back against the counter.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Not ready for that yet?”

“You make zero sense!”

It’s true. Harry wasn’t making much sense. He was used to moving too fast with women, and it always went wrong. He really liked you, and he didn’t want it blowing up in his face.

“It’s not that I don’t want to.” He squeezes your hand. “I just think we should go out on a few more dates before we get to know each other like that…don’t you?”

“No, I’d like you to take me to your room and fuck me.” You cross your arms.

“Y/N.” He chuckles. “I promise, it’ll be worth the wait.”

You knew he was right. You felt his fully erect dick when you were grinding on him earlier.

“I just want us on the same page, make sure we both want the same things before diving into all that.”

“God, of course you’re, like, a good person.” You roll your eyes. “Fine, let’s go out a few more times.”

“Great.” He smiles. “I want you to know, too, I’m not seeing anyone else.”

“Neither am I.”

“And you won’t start, right?”

“Why would I?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs.

“Harry, I barely have the time to juggle one guy, I don’t think I’d have the energy to entertain more than one.” You laugh.

“Alright.” He blushes slightly. You step closer to him and wrap your arms around his neck.

“I’m surprised there isn’t a line of women knocking at your door.”

“Oh, there is, I just ignore it.” He smirks and you roll your eyes. “Kidding.”

“Mhm.”

You both smile and stand there kissing for a little while. Harry makes sure you get home, giving you a ride in his car. Just like last time, you spent most of the ride making out in the back seat. You really didn’t want to leave, but it was late and you needed to sleep. You say goodnight to each other, and he makes sure you’re inside before letting Charlie drive away.

“Mr. Styles, don’t forget you’ve got that gala this weekend.” Stacey says to him Monday morning.

“Shit, I’ve completely forgot about that.” He sighs. “Do I have to go?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I saw the guest list and…Carina’s going to be there.”

“Of course she is!” He groans and slumps into his chair. “Fuck, and I don’t have a date.”

“You could ask Y/N.”

“Do you think that’s something she’d wanna go to? She’d need a ball gown and-“

“She’s an electrician, but she’s still a woman. She has a lot of pretty clothes. I actually borrow a lot from her when I have events to go to.”

“She’s having me over for dinner tonight…I suppose I could ask her then.”

“Wait, she’s having you over?!”

“Yeah…” He raises an eyebrow of confusion at her.

“Wow.” She smirks. “She must really like you. She never invites guys over.” She winks at him and leaves his office.

After work, Harry has Charlie drive him over to your place. He rings your buzzer and you let him up. Your door was open a crack for him already, so he goes tight in, loosening his tie.

“Hi, Harry!” You smile.

Your hair was up in a messy bun, and you still had all your work clothes on, but your flannel was unbuttoned, revealing your white tank top and plenty of cleavage. You go over to him and give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Not as big as your place, but it has what I need.”

“It’s lovely. One bedroom?”

“Mhm, and two bathrooms.” You say proudly. “I hope you like food from the crockpot. I set up some chili this morning before I left.”

“Chili sounds amazing, I love spicy food.” He takes his suit jacket off and throws on your couch.

“Great.” You smile and grab some sour cream and cheese from your fridge. You grab a couple of bowls and some spoons and you both serve yourselves. You both sit down at the small table you have in your kitchen.

“This is delicious, thank you.” He smiles.

“Oh, I’m so glad you like it.”

“I’m happy we could get together tonight.”

“Me too.” You smile.

You had fully warmed up to Harry at this point. You’d been seeing each other for a few weeks, and you had let many walls down. You liked him, you really liked him. You two also hadn’t done more than make out, and it was absolutely killing you.

“Do you have plans Saturday evening?”

“I don’t believe so, why? Another movie night?” You ask sort of excitedly and he chuckles.

“No, I wish. I have this charity gala to go to that I actually forgot all about until Stacey reminded me this morning. I’d love for you to join me.”

“Oh…a little fancier than I thought, but, sure.” You shrug. “I could do that. I’ll have to call my hairdresser to see if she can squeeze me in, I’m assuming I’ll probably want my hair done?”

“Only if you feel comfortable…”

“Will I need a gown?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, I have a couple to choose from in my closet. Do you know what suit you’re wearing?”

“Uh, yeah, here.” He takes his phone out to show you. It was pink with a design on the front. It was beautiful.

“Hm, I think I have a green dress that would look good with this. Pink and green look so nice together.” You use your napkin to wipe your mouth and stand up. “Come on.” You nod towards the hallway.

“Come on what?”

“I wanna show you the gown I have.”

“Oh, alright.”

He follows you into your room, but he stands in the doorway as you go into your closet. It was much smaller than his, but he liked the way you decorated. You utilized a lot of space. You can always tell when a tradesperson lives somewhere because everything always looked really nice. Here were built in shelves and storage units.

“You make those?”

“Mhm, and I made this closet twice as big.” You find the gown you’re thinking of and hold it up in front of your body to show him. “What do you think? Will it do the trick?”

“It’s beautiful, Y/N. Why do you have it?”

“When I was younger I used to participate in pageants. The scholarships were super helpful for college. Anyways, past winners get invited back pretty often and you’re supposed to dress really nice when you go, so I have a couple of formal gowns for when I get those calls.”

“I never would have taken you for a pageant girl.”

“I’m not really…but I needed the money, and I figured out how to play the game. I came in first twice in two different competitions. However, the girls I participated with weren’t very nice, so I wasn’t exactly sad when I got too old for it.” You hang the dress back up. “Don’t worry, I’ll be able to look the part with all your fancy friends.” You smirk and walk out of your room. You sit on your couch and he sits next to you.

“A lot of them aren’t really friends. Acquaintances really. Um, Stacey showed me the guest list today and my ex is apparently going to be there.”

“The model?”

“Yeah.”

“Wonderful.” You scoff. “So are we finally going to have the conversation?”

“What do you mean?”

“She was your last relationship right? Tell me what happened.”

“Not much to tell. We met at a dinner party for a mutual friend. We met in London, actually, but we both had places here in the city, so we kept seeing each other. I didn’t realize how well known she was, so that’s when the paparazzi started. We were together almost a year before it just got to be too much. She wanted me to basically give it all up for her so I could travel with her, but I thought it was selfish of her to ask me to do that, so we broke up.”

“Did you love her?”

“I did.” He says bluntly. “But it wasn’t the type of love I wanted. I don’t have any feelings for her whatsoever, I want you to know that.” He places his hand on your knee. “I just know she’s going to come over to me and look you up and down, and she’s going to be really snotty. She’s…well, she’s a bitch, to put it simply.”

“And you dated her for a year because?”

“Vanity. On paper, we were the perfect match, but I realized it felt like I wasn’t living my own life anymore. I’m much happier now.” He gives your knee a squeeze.

“Alright, well, I’m sure we’ll have a good time. Is it a sit down dinner?”

“It is.”

“Open bar?”

“Yup.”

“Dancing?”

“A little.”

“Sounds like a good time to me.” You smile.

“You’re amazing, thank you.” He leans to kiss you and that was that.

The day of the gala, your hairdresser was able to squeeze you in for an updo. You showed her the dress you’d be wearing, so she gave you an elegant bun. You had your nails done as well. You were glad you did because you had a nasty bruise on your thumb. That’ll be the last time you use a regular hammer and not just a nail gun.

When you get home you take out an old pearl necklace that was your great-grandmother’s that would go perfectly with the green dress. It was strapless and fit to your form, with a nice slit starting at one of your thighs. You found a pair of heels that went perfectly with it, and a white shall. You apply your makeup, and take a step back to take yourself in. You looked perfect. You take a selfie to send to Stacey.

Stacey: omfg!!! You’re gonna give Carina a run for her money, have fun!

You smile at the text and find your clutch that goes with the dress. Harry picks you up around seven. You gasp when you see a limo, and not just the regular car he usually picks you up in.

“All this for the two of us?” You ask as he gets out of the car. His suit looked so good. His jaw drops when he sees you.

“You look stunning, Y/N.” He gives you a gentle kiss on the cheek, and help you into the limo. “The limo’s just to keep up appearances. We’re essentially walking down a red carpet into the building. Know how to pose?”

“Oh, I can give face when I need to.” You smirk. “It was fun getting all dressed up since I don’t get to often.”

“I like your flannels too, I hope you know how sexy you look in your work clothes.”

Your cheeks heat up. Harry didn’t really talk like that to you often.

“I’ll have to wear my tool belt for you sometime…just my tool belt.” You whisper in his ear and then face forward. You send a shiver up his spine. He couldn’t wait for that.

When you pull up to the event, Harry gets out first. Cameras start flashing, and he extends his hand out to you. You stand up and nearly feel blinded, but you get through it. You walk with him, his hand on the small of your back. You’d stop occasionally to be photographed. There were reports asking Harry what your name was and other questions, but he didn’t answer a single one. Once you were inside you took a deep breath.

“You did amazing, thank you.”

“No problem. How come they wanted to know who I was?”

“So they can print some story about us. I don’t wanna give up your privacy, so my lips are staying sealed for now.”

You’re brought into a large ball room. There were silent auction items all around the perimeter that Harry would need to put some money down for.

“I hate these things. I’d be happy to just donate without having to get anything in return, you know?”

You walk around with him to look at the items.

“How come you’re not writing anything down?”

“I’m waiting for other people so I can put a larger amount down. They deduct the value of the item from the actual donation, so I wanna make sure enough money gets put down.”

“That’s…really philanthropic of you, Harry.”

“All the proceeds tonight go to inner city schools to get them new computers and other technology they’re in desperate need of.”

You weren’t sure if you’d ever meet Harry’s mother, but you hoped you would just so you could thank her for raising such a kind man. You both mingle with a few people, and eventually Harry puts his bids down for a few different items.

“If I win I’ll just donate this shit. I don’t need anything else.” He shrugs.

Waiters come around with h'orderves and drinks. You snatch a flute of champagne and a shrimp puff.

“Good, babe?” He smiles at you as you lick your lips.

“Very.” You giggle.

His smile fades when he sees Carina from across the room. She had a lovely blue gown on, and some man’s arm was snaked around her waist. She sees Harry and she sends him a small wave. He clutches your hip a little tighter. You look up at him.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, uh, wanna find our table?”

“Sure.”

You find your table and you both take your seat. You chat with the woman sitting next to you, and other people begin finding their seats. As the event gets started, waiters come around with food. Someone on a stage comes out and announces who has won what items. People clap. Harry won a couple of the items he bid on. He stands as people clap, and you clap as well. You kiss him on the cheek as he sits back down. Once dinner is through, some people start going out to the dance floor, and others stand around to mingle.

“Well if it isn’t the CEO himself.” Harry turns around the second he hears the accent. “Hi, Harry.”

“Hi, Carina.”

She takes him in for a gentle hug, and kisses him on both cheeks. You want to gag, but you know it’s just a cultural thing.

“And who might this be?” She looks you up and down.

“I’m Y/N.” You extend your hand and she shakes it. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same to you.” She smiles and looks at Harry. “I’m surprised to see you here with someone.”

“Could say the same to you.” He nods over to the man she came with. He was over talking with some other people.

“Oh, that’s Richard. He’s lovely. We met a few months back. He works remotely so he’s able to travel with me. It’s perfect.”

“Good for you.”

“What do you do?” She asks you.

“I’m a union electrician.” You say with a bright smile. “I got a degree in Mathematics and then I joined the trades world.”

“Oh my…I never would have guessed.” She smiles nervously. “Harry, may I borrow you for just a moment? Andrew is here too, and he misses you so much.”

“Um…sure.” He looks at you.

“Go ahead, I need to use the ladies room as it is.”

He watches you walk away and turns back to Carina.

“Andrew’s not here.” Harry says to her.

“I know, I just said that so we could chat. She’s not for you, and you know it.”

“What makes you think you have the right to say that to me?”

“Harry, you can’t be with some blue collar worker.”

“And why not?” He scoffs. “I’ll have you know she’s lovely and elegant, but she’s also not afraid to go to McDonald’s and stuff her face. In fact, she’s not afraid of food at all.”

“I’m on a very strict diet and you know it.” She huffs.

“Why don’t you worry about yourself and Richard?”

Harry turns on his heel and walks towards the restrooms. You were just coming out when you see him waiting.

“Are you alright?” You ask him.

“Yeah, feel like having a dance?”

“Definitely.”

You take his hand as he leads you back into the ballroom and onto the dance floor. The band was only playing slower songs, but that was just fine. Harry was really light on his feet. It made you smile as he led you around.

“You about ready to get out of here?” He whispers in your ear.

“Mhm.”

He smiles at you and leads you out. He says goodbye to a few people, and gets you outside. There were still reporters, but he gets you into the limo quickly.

“So…your ex…was she civil with you?”

“Yeah, nothing to worry about.” He throws his arm around you and kisses your hairline. “Okay to come back to mine?”

“Definitely.”

He gets you up into his place and gets you a glass of water.

“I had a lot of fun tonight.” You tell him.

“Me too, you definitely made it more fun. Those things can be so dreadful.”

“I just look at it as a free dinner.” You laugh.

“Oh, is that all it takes with you?” He smirks.

“Pretty much. I’ll go to a party like that with you anytime.”

“Good to know.” He wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you close to him. Yours go around his neck and you start kissing. You giggle when you let go of him and see your red lipstick all over his mouth.

“Sorry.” You try to rub it off with your thumb.

“No worries.” He chuckles. “Would you like to come upstairs?”

“I would.” You take your heels off, and follow him up.

He leads you into his large bedroom. You gaze at the beautiful furniture.

“I’ve got a walk in closet too.” He says. “You’d probably appreciate the craftsmanship.”

He opens the door for you and you step inside.

“It’s beautiful. I love built ins. Whoever did this did a great job.”

“I only hire the best, but you knew that.” You grip at his suit jacket and push him up against the doorframe of the closet. You slot your lips over his and he welcomes it.

“I want you, Harry.” You say against his lips.

“I want you too.” He kisses on your neck and bites down on your shoulder.

He walks you over to his bed until your legs his the frame. He keeps you steads as his hands find the zipper on the back of dress. You push his suit jacket off his shoulders and let it fall to the ground. He unzips your dress, but holds it up.

“Are you okay with all this?” He asks.

“God, yes.”

Your dress falls to the ground and pools at your feet. Your fingers work to unbutton his shirt. His eyes widen as he looks at the underwear set you’re wearing. You were wearing a strapless black bra with a black lace thong to match. Of course you still needed to wear a bra, your breasts were too large to without. You get his shirt off and you take a step back to admire his tattoos.

“I didn’t know you had so many.” Your hands trace off the ones on his collar bones, his torso, and his hips. “Even your arms.”

‘Got a few on my legs too.” He loves the way your hands felt on his body.

“I thought you just had the cross and the anchor. These are so cool.”

“Thanks.”

Your hands move to his belt buckle and get it undone, his pants drop to the floor moments later. You lick your lips when you see his tight boxers.

“Fuck, Harry, I want you so badly.”

You push him down on the bed and straddle him. His hands go to your hips, rubbing circles into your skin with his thumbs. He reaches up to unhook your bra, and tosses it to the floor. You switch positions so you’re lying on your back. He caresses your breasts and kisses on each of them. He puts his face between them and just enjoys the way your skin feels on him. You start giggling and he looks up at you.

“Breast man, huh?”

“Sorry, was that weird? You just have such a beautiful body.”

“Not weird at all, they’re yours to play with.” You grin.

“Oh, I like the sound of that a lot.”

He takes one of your nipples into his mouth and sucks harshly. You gasp as your hips buck up towards him. He does the same thing to the other before kissing down your body. His hands tug your thong below your hips.

“Can I take this off?”

“Please.”

You lift your hips to help him. He looks down at you and then up to your eyes.

“Can I?”

“Can you what?”

“Make you feel good.”

“Sure, but I wanna hear you say what exactly is going to make me feel good.”

His eyes darken as he looks at you.

“Y/N, I’m going to lick into your cunt until you’re screaming that you can’t take it anymore.”

Your mouth falls open as he parts your legs. He kisses from your knee to your inner thigh. Sucking on where he pleases. He uses his forearm to hold your hips down when he finally gets his tongue on you. He licks a flat stripe from your center up to your clit. You clutch at the soft blankets on his bed as you watch him. He makes eye contact with you when he starts to suck on your clit.

“Oh my god.” You moan as your head falls back. You feel him smirk against you. You start to tug at his curls when he swirls his tongue around you and then flicks it quickly on the nub. “Christ.” You say through gritted teeth.

His tongue moves back to your center where he licks into you. He groans at the taste of you. His middle and index finger move to rub your clit in circles while he uses his tongue to essentially fuck you. Your body was starting to feel hot all over, and you could feel a familiar knot tightening in your lower stomach. He assumes you’re starting to get close because you were starting to tighten around his tongue. He licks back up to your clit, and plunges his fingers inside you.

“Oh, fuck!” You cry out as his fingers work your insides. Your eyes roll into the back of your head when you feel him knuckle deep. “Harry, it’s so good, don’t stop!”

He groans his response as he sucks on your clit again. He curls his fingers up against your front wall where he knew you needed it. He feels you pulsating around him. He could hear you panting and it was music to his ears.

“Shit, oh, fuck, oh my god!” You scream as your orgasm washes over you. He continues to pump his fingers slowly to help you ride it out.

He sits up on his knees and wipes the slick away from his chin with the back of his hand. He licks his lips and smirks at you. You catch your breath and look up at him. You sit up slightly and grab at the band of his boxers.

“Do you want me to-“

“Next time, I really just want to fuck you.”

You bite your lip and nod at him. He takes his boxers off and your eyes grow wide when you see his full length. You spread your legs back apart for him, and he lines himself up.

“Shit, uh…condom.” He backs away from you and rummages through his night table for one.

“I’m on the pill…”

“Found one!” He looks at you. “What did you say?”

“I’m on the pill…if you didn’t feel like using one.” Your cheeks were starting to grow red. “I’m clean. Wouldn’t have let you go down on me if I wasn’t.”

“I’m clean too. So…you don’t want me to use one?”

“Nah, I kind of want you to come inside me if I’m being honest.”

“Jesus.” He grunts and tosses the condom aside. He gets back between your legs and rubs his tip along your slick folds and clit. “You’re positive?”

“Yes.”

He leans down to kiss you as he slowly pushes inside. He swallows you gasp and moan once he bottoms out. You tighten around him involuntarily. He gives you a moment to relax and adjust to him. You hadn’t been stretched out like this since god knows when.

“Go on.” You whisper.

He smiles into your neck as he starts to rock in and out of you. Your arch up into him. Your hands search for a nearby pillow.

“Hold on.” You tell him and lift your hips up, sliding a pillow under you. “Okay.”

“You’re killing me.” He breathes.

He sucks your bottom lip into his mouth as his thrusts pick up the pace. You wrap your legs around him and move along with him. Your hands slide down to his ass so your nails can sink into the fleshy area. He bites down on your collar bone as you keep moving along with him. He was used to women just starfishing under him, this was so nice. He felt really connected to you.

“Oh, shit.” You press your forehead into his chest. “Harry.” You moan.

“Gonna come again?”

“Mhm.”

He snakes a hand between the two of you so he can rub your clit, and that pushes you over the edge. Your nails rake up from his ass to his back as you come, making him moan out at the overwhelming feeling of being marked up by you.

“Can I bend you over the bed?”

You moan out your response. He pulls out of you and gets you on your feet, bending you over. He grips your hips and slips back inside you. All you can hear is his skin slapping against yours. You prop yourself up on your elbows and arch your back. He was hitting so fucking deep, and his tip was brushing against your g-spot. One of his hands goes back to your clit while the other grips the back of your neck while he pounds into you.

“Taking it so well, Y/N.” He grunts.

“Feels so good, fuck!”

He watches as your back arches more and sweat slides down your spine.

“I’m, I’m close.” He says.

“Yeah? You wanna come?”

“Yes, fuck.” He moans out and fills you up while you come again with him.

He had you screaming just like he said he would. He hold you close to him for a moment, his chest flush with your back. He kisses your back before pulling out. You clamp your legs together before anything has a chance to make a mess.

“Let me get you a rag.”

“S’okay, I’ll just use the bathroom.” He helps you stand up and you turn to face him. You grab him by the back of his neck to kiss him. “That was really nice.” You giggle.

You waddle to his bathroom while he grabs a fresh pair of boxers. You clean yourself up and come back out.

“Can I give you something to wear?”

“Please.” You smile. You couldn’t stop smiling, really.

He hands you one of his bed shirts. It had his initials embroidered on the chest pocket. He watches as you button it up.

“Comfortable?”

“Very.” You crawl onto the bed with him. You throw a leg over his and rest your head on his chest. He looks down at you and cups your cheek, pulling you in for a kiss.

“You make me really happy, Y/N.”

“You make me happy too, Harry. I may even let you stay over at my place sometime.” You chuckle.

“I’d like that.” He kisses your forehead. “But only if I’m staying over there as your boyfriend.” He grins.

“I think I’d feel comfortable with that.” You kiss his soft, swollen lips.

“Really? You’re into all this, you’re not just saying that because we had some hot sex?”

“Harry.” You giggle. “The sex was really hot, and I may have had my reservations about you, but we’ve gotten to know each other well, I’d like to be your girlfriend. Let’s make it official.”

“I have to warn you, I’m gonna want to spoil you rotten. You may get annoyed with me.”

“You can’t buy my affection, just remember that.”

“I know, I just can’t help wanting to just give you everything you want.”

“You’re what I want. I don’t care about all this.” You gesture to his extravagant bedroom.

“I know you don’t, I think that’s why I like you so much. You could care less!” He laughs. “It’s amazing. You’re totally not shallow. It’s refreshing.” He settles down further into the bed and you kiss him a few times on the cheek.

“I get busy a lot. When there’s over time I take it. I may have to break dates once in a while.”

“Same here.”

“If you’re traveling, I won’t be able to just drop everything to go with you.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to. I like that you work hard and that you actually want to work. You have an honest job, and I really admire that.”

“Thanks.” You kiss on his chest. He liked that you were a kisser. Harry loved being loved on. “However, if you want to plan a trip to that beach house of yours…I certainly could put in for some vacation time.”

“You’d love it out there. It’s nice and private, we’d have our own beach. I have a boat too with a kitchen and bedroom below deck. It’s great.”

“This will definitely take some getting used to.” You laugh. “I’ll have to keep bringing you to dive bars so to knock you down a peg.” You joke.

“Whatever you need to do.” He smirks.

“I’m also going to teach you how to cook. We don’t need to have a catered meal every time we hang out here.”

“That seems fair. Could we start with that chili you made? It was so fucking good.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

You sigh happily and snuggle into his chest as he holds you. You both slept really well that night. You weren’t sure what exactly being a girlfriend to a CEO would entail, but as long as the both of you stayed on the same page about your values, you saw this relationship lasting for a very long time.

#harry styles #harry styles one shot #harry styles imagine #harry styles fic #harry styles fanfic #harry styles x reader #harry styles slow burn #harry styles x y/n #harry styles y/n #harry styles fluff #harry styles fluff fic #harry styles smut #harry styles smut fic #ceo!Harry #harry styles au #pls tag if you reblog #feedback is always appreciated!!

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heloflor · 4 years ago

Text

Me : “I don’t think I should write characters that are explicitly neurodivergent because I don’t know that much about neurodiversity and I never take the time to know more. If I were to make a character who happens to have neurodivergent traits and call them neurodivergent, I might get it wrong and I don’t want to give a fic with bad or stereotypical representation in it, it’s unfair for those who can and wish to identify with the character. So if I write about a character that the fandom sees as neurodivergent, I will simply try to write them close to their canon personality; and if they happen to have traits that people can identify, I’ll just let other people do their own headacanons around it without touching on the topic myself.”

Also me : “So :

- Vinnie Dakota absolutely adores animals. In the future, all animals are extinct, so in order to see animals, you either get a robot pet or you pay to have some time in a “place simulation” room and order it to simulate a field with holographic animals. Dakota learned about animals through books and often went to the simulation place or bough some stickers and other stuff from the rare places that still sold animal merch. He never got a robotic pet or never kept it for long because it’s too dull compared to a real animal, or should I say his thoughts of real animals.

- During his first mission, Dakota was ecstatic to see animals for the first time and, after the mission, spent a few hours looking at and petting the ones he could. In his house in the future, he has a room in which he displays animal-related stuff he got from his missions through time, like art or figurines or ornaments or even plushies etc. He might also sometimes take pictures of animals and put them with the souvenir he got from the same mission. He takes extra care of the stuff he has in this room and organizes it a certain way. He has the money to have a place with several rooms : as we see in “Picture Day”, once they got fired, Cavendish and Dakota had the money to go to Hawaii for an entire week and without knowing when and how they will get a new job, since Bob Block met them as they were about to leave for their vacation. Also Cavendish mentioned studying for 20 cycles, so this job doesn’t seem like a given. So being a time traveler seems to pay well.

- When he and Cavendish started dating (I headcanon them as starting to date 2 years after meeting a marrying 3 years later, so 5 years after meeting), everytime they went through a century they never or barely visited, Dakota would get a random souvenir, not always animal-related, along with a picture of either him, Cavendish or both of them. He puts these souvenirs and pictures in a different part of the room. The picture we see in their car in “Fungus Among Us” is from a mission in a place they visited before, but Dakota found the situation too funny to not take a picture.

- Every celebration (holidays, birthdays, dates important to them), Cavendish and Dakota would give each other gifts. Dakota always tries to find something related to Professor Time while Cavendish forces himself to break a few rules and go back in time without being ordered to so he can find something animal-related to Dakota. Dakota is always genuinely happy about these gifts, though he learned not to tease Cavendish about the whole “breaking the rules” situation. Those gifts are either stuff like fossils or skulls/bones or they’re stuff related to the culture of the time-period like watching tournaments in ancient Rome.

- When the two get married and buy a place together, Dakota makes sure it has a room large enough to put his growing collection. As time went by, it started to be less about animals and more about what they find during their missions, though the animal part is still very much there. Dakota refers to the room as “The memory room” while Cavendish calls it “Vinnie’s room”. Cavendish doesn’t spend that much time in it, though he absolutely loves the feeling of reminiscence the collection gives him. If he has guests at home, he tries to keep them away from the room. He knows how important it is for Dakota and doesn’t want it to be disrupted. Cavendish tried to get into Dakota’s passion but, while he found some stuff to be interesting, he’s not really into it compared to Dakota.

- After the events of the episode “We’re Going to the Zoo”, Dakota brought back tickets for his collection, along with a picture of him holding squirrels in his arms while another one has its head coming out of Dakota’s pants, near his feet. Dakota went back to the zoo several times and ended up learning what every animal was and in which section of the zoo they were.

- When the two are fired and banned, they only get like an hour to pack all their stuff. So Dakota uses some future deus ex machina technology, making their house surrounded by a barrier that only the two of them can open. That way, nobody can touch the house and, if they were to be able to go back to the future, which seems to be the case if season 2 was already thought of when “A Christmas Peril” was made, Dakota could find his collection intact, along with the rest of the house.

- Once stuck in the past, Dakota kind of gave up on doing a collection. They don’t have enough space and the realization that Cavendish could now die anytime put a lot on stress on him and most of his thoughts were on Cavendish. This stress started to dim out after the events of the second half of the season, when Dakota realized that maybe the world was done trying to get rid of Cavendish, given how the man was able to survive alone for about a month. During the first celebration they had since getting banned, Cavendish bought something animal-related as usual and it led Dakota to wish to start a collection again. Given the space and their current situation, this collection would mostly be pictures that he can keep in an album in a drawer. Cavendish would probably be the one to buy the album after realizing that Dakota started taking random pictures again.

- At some point, Cavendish learns that there’s a petting zoo in Danville and decides to use it as a birthday gift/surprise. Dakota has never been more in love with him than during the moment when he stepped out of the car and saw the place’s sign (with the exception of their wedding and honeymoon).

…aaaannnd I just made Dakota have an hyperfixation, didn’t I ?

Though, to be honest, I really do want to write characters that are diverse, not only in terms of sexuality like I already do but also in upbringing and neurodiversity. Thing is, to write a neurodivergent character, I need to have the answer to these questions : How often do they stim ? What are the most common stims and what is and isn’t considered as such, aka what does the character does in the show that seems to be a stim ? How does the character acts/should act with others ? Which social cues do they understand ? Which ones do they not understand ? How to write a character that you can tell is neurodivergent without having to make them scream ‘I’m not neurotypical’; with instead having the only ‘confirmation’ of it being in the tags ? How to make them very excited about something without falling into the ‘autistic people are children’ stereotype ?

As long as I can’t answer these questions, I refuse to be an idiot and try to write about something I know I will mess up. And while I do have the curiosity and will to learn more, if not simply because I’m curious about neurodiversity, don’t expect me to write about it anytime soon. Right now my priority is to ‘digitalize’ all the dozen fics I wrote on paper (two of them had been in my writing pile for two years, and several for a year) while making the eventual post that comes to mind like this one.”

Edit : So a few weeks after making that post, I started to learn more about neurodiversity because being autistic makes you curious to know what kinds of behaviors are due to you not being neurotypical. And, as it had been pointed out, I’m not using the correct term here. I didn’t give Dakota a hyperfixation but a special interest. From what I understand, the difference is that hyperfixations stick to you constantly for a while (a few weeks or months), leading you to easily hyperfocus on the topic, before you suddenly start to get less invested in that interest. On the other hand, special interests can stick for months or sometimes years. And even if you’re not constantly thinking about your interest, it’s still there in a corner of your mind and you never get tired of it and keep the knowledge you accumulated to talk about it anytime.

So yeah, I gave Dakota a special interest. The reason why I thought it was a hyperfixation is because I see this term be very often associated with ADHD and a lot of people see Dakota as having ADHD. But still, my bad for mixing up the two. And the reason I didn’t edit the post sooner is because it kind of slipped out of my mind until I made a new post today that mentions this one. Sorry for that too.

#Milo Murphy's Law #Vinnie Dakota #Dakavendish #long post #I guess ?#headcanons #bonus headcanon : Cavendish has a mug collection #but never uses mugs #so Dakota uses them #sometimes taking a certain mug depending on his mood #so that Cavendish knows if he's mad or something #me : I don't know shit abour neurodiversity #also me : *was literally diagnosed as autistic*#though that might actually explain it #maybe I want to know more because of my 'collecting info' side #on top of wanting to be respectful #and curiosity

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sweetestreyes · 4 years ago

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Farsante (Angel Reyes)

Request: hey girl! i was wondering if you could do something angsty with coco or angel, like maybe reader and (whoever you chose) have a long history but things never worked out in their favor so now they have to deal with the baggage that comes from that? i really hope that makes sense

a/n: THIS IS PURE and long ANGST. That’s all i have to say... i got carried away so you can take a look at my very dramatic side

Inspired by the song El Farsante by Ozuna

Check out my masterlist. Requests for mayans mc are open ↴

MASTERLIST | Join my group chat here (taglist)

It all started when you came back to Santo Padre to spend the holidays with your parents. After two long years of college, you finally managed to schedule a visit to your hometown. Your friends convinced you to have girl’s night at a small bar downtown, and the least you expected was to end up having drinks with a group of strangers, which you later found out they were the Mayans, the infamous MC your dad told you to avoid at all costs since you were a teenager. But here you were, sitting at a table surrounded by half-drunk men who weren’t as dangerous as everyone told you they were.

You spent the last two months going out with the club, especially Angel who made it very clear from the start that he liked you, but you were hesitant to even talk to them since your father constantly told you how the Mayans were a treat to this town, breaking the peace of Santo Padre. Truth be told, you liked him too and you weren’t willing to stay away from him since you diddidn’t know how long it will take for you to be back at town.

So there you were, sneaking out with him every night for the rest of the summer on long motorcycle rides or just sitting at an empty park to be close to each other... Angel was your first everything and it was perfect, you loved each other and you understood what your mom said: “It’s about connection, not time”.

However all good things have and end and you left town to go back to college at the end of your vacations. Both of you were devastated, but made a promise to stay in touch and you did so, texting each other constantly and having long conversations at night just hearing about each other’s problems and preoccupations.

And when you had to leave college because your mom illness was way too expensive, Angel was by your side every single day when he could, holding you close and whispering in your ear that your mom was a strong person. But it all went down when your dad saw you two kissing outside the hospital: the night it all went down to pieces.

Angel ended up with a big bruise on his cheek and a black eye while your father angrily yelled at him.

“You star away of my daughter or I’ll call the fucking cops and fill a restraining order! I’m not letting you corrupt her with your nasty club shit!” Dad said, every word more poisoned than the previous one.

Angel face went red. Covering his cheek, his free hand was clenched and his knuckles turned white, containing himself to not say something disrespectful to the man in front of him.

“I love her, and i’m not staying away because she loves me too”. Angel’s voice was pure anger, but somehow, he managed to stay calm. And you knew he only did it because you were a crying mess overwhelmed with the situation.

“I’ve warned you”. That’s all you old man said before gripping your wrist tightly and dragging you across the parking lot.

He gave the talk about “how bad would be for someone like you to be with an outlaw like him”, but you didn’t listen any of it, already planning a way to escape with the man you loved.

Contrary of what you imagined, you could barely go out, not even when mom was back at home. You were living in a prision, no cellphone, no computer and no way to get out. You were suffocated, not handling the situation anymore. So one night you escaped, just like that.

Driving your dad’s car and parking a few blocks from Angel’s house, you knocked on the door and the surprised look on his face made you smile, tears falling down your face as he hugged you tightly and let you in.

“I want to be with you, mi amor” He kissed your forehead, hands gripping your hips tightly. “But no matter how much I love you, i’m bad for you and you know that. Maybe your dad is right”.

“Bullshit” The exclamation left your mouth with anger. “You don’t get to make that fucking choice Angel”. You both were now standing up, facing each other.

“But I can make that choice for myself, and I want you to leave”. His voice was serious and you couldn’t believe the words he was saying. You scolded him, pushing his chest slightly to make him fall on the sofa.

And just like that you ended up wrapped between his body and the sheets on what you didn’t imagine it would be you last night together.

You left the next morning without a previous warning. It was unexpected but necessary as you had to take care of some paperwork to be able to resumen you college year without any problem, and you couldn’t miss the opportunity of that scolarship since it was the monetary help you needed in that moment. You felt guilty of not having the opportunity to say goodbye to Angel, so you texted him the news and promised to call him at night... but he never answered. Not that day, not on weeks and neither the next few years.

You lost count of the nights you spent crying over him and his sudden lack of response. You couldn’t wrap your head around the idea of Angel ignoring you, tossing you like a piece of trash. It couldn’t be, you didn’t want to believe it.

But you didn’t know his side of the story. It took all of him to not respond those texts and calls, he spent the nights looking at the pictures you sent him and how happy you looked. And that kinda reminded him of his brother... a brilliant person who ended up not having the future he deserved because a thoughtless bad decision. For Angel, you were in the same situation and he felt that you being with him compromised your future, that maybe he was that thoughtless bad decision that would make you lose the good path. Angel didn’t want that for you, he wanted you to be happy even if that meant that he had to stay away from you.

Somehow you remade your life without him on it. You missed him everything, there wasn’t a day when that his name and face didn’t crossed your mind. Years felt longer than ever and there still was a small hope in your chest that once you were back in Santo Padre, things would be good again, just like that summer.

But that didn’t happen.

When you stopped by Reyes’ butcher shop, EZ and Felipe were there, but was Angel and you catched a glimpse of a woman behind him. Your face went blank when she appeared in front of you, revealing her pregnancy with a smile.

“(Y/N)?” Angel asked with a shocked expression.

“I was passing by and...” You couldn’t even talk. The woman gave you a confused look and introduced herself as Adelita, Angel’s partner. “Sorry, I just wanted to say hi”. And with that, you left, leaving everyone behind as the tears streamed down your face.

“Is she okay?” Adelita asked. Felipe looked at his older son with a shocked expression on his face.

“Let’s go for a walk, come on Ezekiel”.

Angel stood there, his heart pounding in his chest with the speed of light, his mind still processing the look on your face and the fact that you were back in town, he always thought you would hate him by now, but no, you came looking for him and that broke his heart.

He always thought that being with someone else would be enough to erase your memory.

And when he saw you again, he understood that if you still loved him like before, nothing seemed to be interesting for him anymore.

He lost you and he couldn’t do anything about it.

#mayans #mayans fx #mayans mc #mayans mc imagine #mayans mc x reader #angel reyes #angel reyes x reader #angel reyes imagine

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official-weasley · 4 years ago

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The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley: Pt. 4, Ch. 10

PART 4: THE YEAR WHEN EVERYONE HAS A CRUSH Chapter 10 - Away With Mum

Nova

After our Tonks incident and us finishing the exams, we could finally relax. It was the first year that I wasn't afraid of what the results were going to be. I knew I studied and did my best to pass. To everything that happened this year, I didn't care how my grades were going to turn out.

I couldn't say the same for Percy, Charlie and Bill's younger brother, who was a First Year. For the first time in the whole year, he decided to sit with us and when he got his exam results envelope he was shaking so much that Bill had to open it for him. It was the first time he showed any real emotion compared to his usual facade of grumpiness and he was adorable. Of course, he had nothing to worry about as he got an O in every subject except an E in History of Magic. Something I will probably never achieve.

I had to focus on next year since it's our O.W.L.s year and I was grateful to have Penny as a friend as I knew she would want to study all the time and I wanted to do my best.

Me snatching the Snitch in front of Charlie's face wasn't enough for us to win the House Cup as we came second to Gryffindor yet again. If Charlie wasn't so determined to work with Dragons, I would say that Quidditch was his second-best choice.

While corresponding with my mum all year, we have decided to spend this Summer together as much as we could. I still don't know how she did it but she managed to get the whole Summer off and I was over the roof about it.

Of course, that meant I wouldn't be able to see any of my friends, not spend time playing Quidditch at the Burrow with Charlie and the twins, and not see Angel or my aunt in Scotland. However, I was okay with that. I always understood that my parents were busy and I knew they did their best to spend as much time with me as possible but only when my dad passed away did I start to appreciate the time I had with mum and I couldn't wait to be with her for 2 whole months.

We were planning to visit our relatives in America, much to my displeasure. However, when she told me that we are only going to spend a couple of days with them, as they are planning to go somewhere, and that they have offered us to stay in their house, my mood greatly improved since the only good poshy thing about them was that their house was next to the sea.

When I told Penny about it, she was more excited than I was. She told me about all the Muggle things I have to experience as this was going to be my first proper vacation. I couldn't help but be intrigued by her ideas of sunbathing on the beach and just chatting with my mum and going out for dinner to a Muggle restaurant.

This year, Bill was replaced with Jae in our compartment. Penny and I asked him to join us as we knew Tulip would be able to spend some more time with him. We asked Bill if he was okay with it and when we told him why we have to ban him he laughed and was completely okay to sit with some of his Prefect friends.

Speaking of Prefects! Next year Bill will probably become Head Boy and they will assign new Prefects. I was really curious who they were going to pick and I couldn't help but wish to be the Ravenclaw Prefect. Of course, that was the last thing on Tulip and Tonks' minds as they wanted to stay as much away from the responsibility as possible.

Tonks, however, pointed out how amazing it would be if Penny and I would be Prefects as we could get them out of trouble. I was on board immediately but Penny scolded us all that if we do get the position, we have to be responsible. The second she was looking away, I winked at Tulip and Tonks so that they knew I was on their side.

I couldn't stop staring at Tulip and Jae, that were sitting across from one another and kept eyeing each other. Penny and I made a bet when they are going to start dating. She said that they will be a couple by Christmas holidays I said that they would start dating by the end of next year. The reward for the bet, as always, was Butterbeer.

I also couldn't help myself stroll down the corridors a couple of times while on the train back home, as I wanted to see Murphy and wish him a good Summer. Of course, I chickened out when I passed his compartment and we exchanged looks. Much to my surprise, he opened the door and for the first time didn't use numbers when he said “Hey, Nova! Have a great Summer” and he actually winked at me.

I decided to go to the bathroom and wait for my cheeks to turn to my normal color again as I didn't want to answer any questions when I got back to my friends. I have managed to hide my crush for the entire year and if I had any say in it, that's how it was going to stay.

Nothing made me happier than seeing my mum and Molly waiting for us at the Station. I ran in my mum's arms, her brushing my hair with her fingers, which put a smile on my face as it was exactly what I wanted.

I said goodbye to the girls and they wished me an amazing Summer. Penny told me that if I would have any other questions about my Muggle vacation, that I should send her Pip.

Molly brought Ginny with her because she knew I wouldn't be able to come to the Burrow and Ginny wanted to give me a hug and tell me she missed me, which was just the sweetest thing. This was going to be the first Summer of me not going to the Burrow at all and I was sad about it as it became my second home, just like Hogwarts.

Charlie was grumpy for a week when I told him that I wouldn't be able to visit this year. He eventually came to terms with it and I knew he was happy I was going to spend some quality time with my mum but I knew he was going to miss me in a house full of siblings and nobody to talk to about animals.

To make it up to him I promised to write every day and tell him all about America and I asked my mum if we could take the Weasley's for ice cream. Mum and Molly exchanged looks which made me and Charlie roll our eyes and we went to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour before we said goodbye.

I hugged Ginny and Bill, Percy groaned just as I got close to him but I gave him a little squeeze just to tease him. I then turned to Charlie and gave him a tight hug.

“I will miss you, Weasley.” I ruffled his hair.

“Yeah, right.” He rolled his eyes. “I'll miss you too.” He mumbled anyway and I chuckled as his skin turned a light red color under those cute freckles of his.

END OF PART 4

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kerikaaria · 4 years ago

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If I Never Met You: Chapter 26

(??? X Reader) Idol!AU, Manager!Reader

Genre: (PG13) Angst, hurt/comfort, and topped with some fluff

WC: 6.1k

Warnings: Detailed descriptions of a strong panic attack

Series Masterlist

Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27

A/N - If you are having a difficult time, it can be really easy to want to deal with it on your own. But having a support system is so crucial in helping you feel better and getting through the toughest of times. Don't be afraid to reach out to someone if you need it!

Over the holiday season, Bang practically forced me to go home to see my family. It was nearing a year and a half since the last time I saw them and honestly, I was feeling homesick even if I never mentioned it to anyone. Bang PD told me I was not going to have any work to do starting from December 20th until just after the new year, so unless I wanted to sit at home bored I should take the time to see my family. He even handed me plane tickets he had already bought just to drive the point home.

There was basically no way I could say no at that point, so I did what he suggested and went home. Of course I was in contact with my family frequently since I had moved to South Korea and when I explained how busy my job was they understood why it was hard to get time to be able to go back to visit. But talking over the phone or texts was very different from getting to see them in person.

My family was thrilled to see me, and my sister was surprisingly talkative when she asked me a million questions about the boys and what it was like living and working in South Korea. And of course, I had just as many answers and stories to give her.

I got to see my best friend Ari while I was on vacation, and she was more than happy to hear about my new family. She never really listened to K-pop before but I tried my hardest to get her to become a fan of my boys. She wasn’t entirely convinced, but I knew I’d get her one day. I also tried contacting another friend of mine, Jordan. He had been one of my closest friends since we were five years old. But he didn’t respond to me at all, so I guessed he was busy and I could see him next time.

By the time the last few days of my vacation came around, I felt rather strange. I was happy to be home and it had made my homesickness feel better at first, but the longer I was home the more I realized I was feeling homesick again but for Korea and the boys instead. Probably because that’s where I had been for so long, and I spent almost literally every day with them so it was so weird to be away.

But of course our group chat was more active than ever while I was at home. I got messages every day from at least one or two of them about how much they missed me and about what they were up to. And they sent a lot of pictures. Particularly the ’95 line was sending me lots of candid and goofy pictures that they captured both of themselves and the rest of the members. They definitely kept a smile on my face, especially when the others would respond, complaining about the pictures they shared.

Soon enough, it was time for me to go back to my second home. I was still sad to leave my family again, but I was even more excited to get back to my boys and to being busy – which I had become way too accustomed to.

I arrived back in South Korea on January 2, and Sejin even had time to pick me up from the airport himself. We casually chatted about my vacation while he drove me back home and he walked me up to my apartment.

I opened the door to my home, expecting to just lay down and relax for a little while. But when I turned on the light, I was immediately met with seven boys and a whole feast laid out on my table.

“Welcome home!” they all said before taking turns hugging me and telling me how much they missed me.

I was happily surprised, but the significant jet lag didn’t let me show it and made me just look tired. “Hey guys,” I greeted with a tired smile. “This is a nice surprise.”

“We missed you!” Jungkook said, refusing to let me go after being the last one to give me a hug.

I chuckled and gave him a kiss on top of his head. “I missed you guys too. But I can’t believe you guys prepared this for me. It’s not like anything special happened, I was just visiting my family.”

“But you were gone for two whole weeks!” Tae pouted.

“I was starting to feel withdrawal,” Jin said. “I need my honey to be complete.” He blew me a kiss.

Jimin pretended to catch the kiss midair and throw it away.

“Yah!” Jin yelled as Jimin hurried next to me and gave me a peck on my cheek to tease Jin.

“I got to her first,” he sing-songed before running away and Jin started chasing after him.

Meanwhile, Jungkook was still clinging onto me as if I was his lifeline. I looked over to Sejin, silently asking for assistance. He just smiled and shrugged. “They missed you, what can I say?”

“Did I really miss this?” I questioned myself. “Maybe I should just go back home.”

“No!” Hobi yelled, coming behind me to hold me from behind while Jungkook tightened his grip from the front.

“It’s official,” I said. “I’m a prisoner.”

“Yeah, I warned you a year ago that you’re stuck with them whether you wanted to be or not,” Sejin oppa said, chuckling.

“Come on noona,” Joon said. “You know you love us.”

I hummed, pretending to think about it. “I don’t know, maybe you guys just brainwashed me into thinking I do.”

“I have done no brainwashing,” Yoongi said. “If you love us then you’re just crazy.”

“Well I mean, me being crazy is definitely accurate,” I said.

Even though I was tired from the jet lag, I couldn’t let the hard work they put in for this surprise go to waste so I humored them in eating and chatting for a little while. Until they couldn’t help but notice just how exhausted I was and they reluctantly left my apartment to let me get some rest.

As I saw them out of the house and they took turns saying goodbye, Jimin paused for a moment. “In all seriousness though,” he said, “we are super happy that you’re back. And not just that, but hyung is all healed now and is going to be able to do the showcases with us. I kind of felt like our family was a little broken last month without the two of you. But now everything’s back to normal.” He smiled sweetly.

“Aw, Chim,” I said, returning the smile. “It was never broken. But of course, I’m glad things are going back to normal too.” I gave him a strong hug before saying goodbye one more time and he left to join his brothers across the hallway.

There were just a couple of days after I returned before we would go back to Japan for the boys to have two showcases, one in Tokyo and the other in Osaka. The boys (including Yoongi) were practicing and preparing for those performances, while I went back to doing the usual routines at the company with Sejin to make sure that upcoming events were all in order and their comeback for next month was on track.

I easily became re-immersed into my work, but there was a thought that kept lingering in the back of my mind – one that had started before I even returned to Korea.

I was sitting in the dance studio, waiting for the boys to finish their practice for the day so we could all walk home together. Having watched the same routine over several times and being a little tired, my mind started drifting on its own. That tiny inkling of a thought that was hiding in the back of my mind started surfacing more and more the longer I sat there.

I looked again at the message on my phone. “Hey! Long time no talk! I am in town so I wanted to know if you were able to hang out so we can catch up. I miss you!” It was the one I sent to Jordan and hadn’t received a reply on. I knew he was difficult to get ahold of, his family had even told me that they have a hard time reaching him most of the time. But it still bothered me that I received absolutely no reply.

“Noona?” Hobi startled me out of my thoughts when he waved his hand in front of my face. “Everything alright in there?”

“Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine,” I responded. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“Jordan?” I jumped when I heard Joonie’s voice literally right next to my ear. “Is that a friend from home?”

“Yeah, he is,” I said simply, turning my phone in my hands a couple of times before locking it.

“You’ve never mentioned him I don’t think,” Jin said. “Are you guys close?”

“I’ve mentioned him, just not by name,” I said. “He’s the one who I’ve known since I was five.”

“Ooohhh, that friend!” Hobi said. “You’re always smiling when you talk about him. Did you get to meet up with him?”

I looked down at the black screen of my phone and shook my head. “No, he never responded to me when I texted him.”

“Maybe you should call him, see if you can catch up?” Yoongi suggested. “You look like you miss him.”

“I do,” I admitted easily. “I feel like it’s been ages since we’ve talked but he is easily one of my closest friends.”

“Why don’t you call him now?” Tae said. “It’s a reasonable time there, isn’t it? And it’d be nice for us to talk to him a bit if you guys are really that close.”

I thought about it for a minute before deciding it may be a good idea. “Yeah, maybe I should. He does prefer phone calls over text messages anyway so that might help.”

Everyone seemed to agree they’d hang out to say hi and gathered around me while I hovered my finger over the call button on my phone. “Alright, I’ll introduce you guys before you start talking okay? And please only talk one at a time.” I gave them each a jokingly serious look before and got nods of agreement in return. I finally pressed the green circle and waited for him to answer, placing the phone on speaker. It seemed like it was about to go to voicemail, but he answered at the last minute.

“Hello?” I heard Jordan’s voice for the first time in what felt like forever through the phone.

“Hey, Jordan!” I said, excited to talk to him. “How are you?”

He was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry, but who is this?”

I pinched my eyebrows together in confusion, feeling uneasy. I knew for a fact that I messaged everyone my new number when I had gotten a new phone. “This is (Y/n).”

“Oh!” he said. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize your number. How are you?”

“I’m doing well,” I replied. “I thought I let you know I changed my number. Well, I messaged you last week asking if you wanted to hang out but you didn’t respond.”

“Yeah sorry,” he said. “I didn’t reply since I didn’t recognize the number.”

“Ah, okay. I guess that makes sense.” I noticed that Namjoon was quietly telling the others what we were saying so they weren’t lost. “Well I just figured I’d see if you were able to chat so we could catch up. A lot has happened since the last time we talked.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice,” Jordan said, but he sounded distracted. I was about to reply, but before I could he continued. “But I’m actually kind of busy right now. Can I call you later?”

My heart sank. I’d heard that before. Many, many times before. “O-okay, yeah sure,” I replied. “Talk to you later then.”

“Mmkay. Bye!” Jordan said before hanging up.

“Bye…” I murmured even though the call was done.

A number of memories started zipping by through my mind, slowly connecting dots together. Something I felt like I had known all along, but had refused to believe up until this point. He wasn’t going to call me back. He was never going to call me back. There was no more denying it. I vaguely registered the boys trying to get my attention, but I was too lost in my thoughts to reply.

I suddenly stood up, grabbing my bag and coat before walking out of the room and not saying a single word. I knew what was about to happen and I wasn’t about to let it happen in front of the members of BTS. Not in front of my friends. I didn’t want them to see this side of me.

All the regular staff were gone for the day since it was getting late, so I freely jogged down the halls, letting my feet guide me to wherever they may. My heartbeat was speeding up and breathing becoming ragged, more from the speed of my mind rather than that of my body. I ended up in one front of one of the vocal lesson rooms and deciding that should be a safe enough place to wait out my attack, I entered and leaned against the wall next to the door without turning on the lights.

Now feeling as secure as I could from the possibility of being found, I let my emotions overwhelm me. Tears started streaming down my cheeks as choked sobs escaped my throat. Jordan wasn’t going to call me back. How stupid could I have possibly been? How many years had it been since he’d been playing my emotions like a fiddle?

At least five years, that was for sure. That was my first memory of this pattern developing. My 16th birthday party, when he promised he’d be there but hours passed and he wasn’t answering any of my calls. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought something came up, he was just busy and forgot to tell me. That is, until one of my friends called him from her phone and he didn’t realize she was at my house for the party so he answered. As soon as she asked him why he wasn’t there, he quickly hung up and didn’t answer any more calls after that.

I cried my eyes out that night. My best friend, the person who I trusted more than anyone else. Who had been by my side since we were five years old, and went through years of school with while we were considered weird and didn’t fit in at all. We were there for each other and didn’t care what other people thought because we were happy being as good of friends as we were and even finding a few other friends along the way who were just as odd. That same friend had purposely ignored me on my birthday.

It wasn’t until two weeks later that I called him again, and he actually picked up. He profusely apologized and came up with some kind of explanation as to why he couldn’t make it. I asked him why he wouldn’t tell me that straight up instead of making me feel terrible that he was ignoring me on a day that was important to me. But he just apologized over and over, promising he wouldn’t do it again and he’d remember to keep in touch with me.

I was too naïve, too hopeful and clinging onto my friendship with him to see that for what it really was: excuses. Just excuses.

My face had to have been a mess by now, completely tear-streaked and all shades of blotchy reds from how much I was already crying. My thoughts were still racing as I recalled various events and empty promises from the years identical to the one I just experienced. I was hyperventilating, and started hitting the back of my head against the wall behind me as if that would rid my mind of all the thoughts swirling around.

When that didn’t work, I gripped onto my hair, pulling tightly. I couldn’t believe I was so blind all this time. I wanted to believe so badly that someone I knew and trusted for that long couldn’t lie to me like that, that I left myself completely oblivious to what was really going on. What was wrong with me? How could I have been so dumb?

But more importantly, what was it that I did to make him do this to me?

Suddenly, the door to the room swung open. It happened too quickly for my overwhelmed mind to comprehend what was going on, much less react before someone’s hands were on top of mine, trying to loosen them from my hair. I knew someone was right in front of me and witnessing my breakdown; the part of my mind that was still logical knew it and wanted me to stop. But my emotions were running the show right now and they weren’t going to listen – they were going to keep going in the spiraling direction they were already headed.

“Oh my gosh, noona!” they said. “What’s wrong?” I recognized it as Hobi’s voice. Our hope, our sunshine. He was seeing me a mess. He surely wouldn’t want anything to do with me after seeing me in this state. “Please, talk to me noona.”

I curled up even further into a ball, hiding my face behind my knees and keeping my hands tightly gripped onto my hair despite Hobi’s best attempts to remove them. I was unable to help myself from continuing to sob, finding it even harder to breathe than before in this new position.

“Guys! She’s in the vocal lesson area!” Hoseok yelled. “Please come here, quick!” he turned his attention to me, starting to make shushing sounds. “It’s okay, noona.” His voice was suddenly quiet and calming, but wasn’t doing much to aid in my racing mind. Although he did finally loosen my hands from their vice grip in my hair. “Noona, it’s alright. We’re here for you. Just please, talk to me.” He was stroking my hair in what I recognized was an attempt to soothe me. But again, I was still too far gone for it to help right now.

I shook my head, face still hidden. “No,” I said. “N-no. no,” I stuttered through hiccupped breaths. “He… He’s n-not… He’s a-a li-liar.” My mind was stuck in English mode so I don’t know if Hobi understood what I said. I started rocking back and forth, beginning to have difficulty maintaining control over my own muscles.

Hoseok continued trying to console me by shushing and stroking my hair, at a loss for what else he could possibly do. I heard others enter the room, pausing when they saw the state I was in.

“What’s wrong?” Jimin’s normally calmingly melodic voice sounded far away, as if I was inside of a fishbowl.

“I don’t know,” Hoseok said. “I found her like this and she won’t talk to me.”

“I think she’s having a panic attack,” a deeper, somewhat raspy voice said, but I could barely hear it.

I thought there were others and that they talked a little bit more but their voices were being drowned out by my mind. More memories, more thoughts. I felt like I wasn’t myself, and I knew I needed to calm down and come back down to earth. But that part of my mind was locked behind metal bars and my emotions were in control now. How could I have been so dumb? I knew what was going on but I refused to see it. It was my fault, I had to have done something for him to do this to me.

My fault. Something was wrong with me. Everyone left me. It had to be me. What was it? Why couldn’t people stay? Why did they always leave? Why, why?

I felt out of control of my own body as I lifted my head and started hitting it against the wall in synchronization with repeating the word “why” through my mind over and over. At least until something held onto my head to stop it from moving.

I was aware of everything I was doing. I knew it was silly and I needed to stop. But I couldn’t, I didn’t feel in control. I started mumbling those same short sentences that had been running through my mind, still being hindered through the hiccupped breaths from hyperventilating. By this point I was feeling dizzy from the lack of sufficient oxygen making it through to my lungs.

One of the hands holding my head still moved to rest on the back of it, gently stroking my hair. Someone else was running their thumbs over my cheeks to wipe away the tear stains. Another hand gently ran up and down the calf of my leg in a calming motion. The combined efforts of these actions started bringing the voices around me back into focus as I slowly opened my eyes.

“Noona,” Jimin’s sweet voice broke through first. I looked at him. “There you are. Hey, it’s okay.” He repeated the last sentence a few times. I realized he was the one caressing my leg.

I heard Jungkook’s calming voice singing a soft song somewhere close by.

“Noona, are you coming back to us?” Hoseok’s voice a little to my left spoke up and I looked his way. He was the one wiping my tears. It took me some effort, but I found the control to shakily nod my head to respond to him.

“You have to breathe, okay?” Jimin said.

“Let’s count in sets of four, noona,” Yoongi’s voice came from my right. “You’ll breathe in, hold your breath, and then breathe out for four counts each. And we’ll keep doing that. You think you can do that?”

I closed my eyes and nodded once more. Yoongi started counting and I did my best to follow the counts, although it was challenging with the short, uncontrolled breaths I had been taking for who knows how long by now. But each time the cycle restarted, it got a little bit better. I was able to focus my mind on the song Jungkook was singing, which kept my thoughts at bay as Yoongi helped my breathing come back to normal.

By the time my breath returned to normal, I felt in control of myself again.

“Welcome back,” Hoseok said with a soft smile as he removed his hands from my cheeks.

I started crying again, hiding my face in my hands.

“Noona,” Hoseok gently called me as he came closer to wrap his arms around me. “Hey, shh it’s okay. It’s okay.”

“Oh my gosh.” I could barely even recognize my own voice. It was so weak from all the crying and hyperventilating. “I can’t believe you guys saw me like that. I didn’t want you to ever see me like that.”

“It’s alright,” Jimin said as Yoongi ran his hand along my back to continue trying to comfort me. “We don’t mind. We just want you to be okay.”

“Noona, has this happened to you before?” Yoongi tentatively asked.

I slowly nodded. “You guys think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“No, of course not!” Hobi assured me. “Why would we ever think that?”

“Because I literally just acted crazy,” I said, lifting my head to look at Hoseok. “I wasn’t in control of myself. My emotions went absolutely haywire and I had no power over my own actions. How does that not make me look crazy?”

I heard sniffling coming from somewhere nearby.

“You’re not crazy, noona,” I heard Joon’s voice but when I looked for him I couldn’t see him.

“The others are standing outside,” Jimin told me when he noticed me looking. “We couldn’t all fit in here.”

“Just because you had a panic attack, that doesn’t make you crazy,” Yoongi said.

“Do you think you can stand up?” Hobi asked, holding my hands with his own.

I responded by slowly raising myself off the floor, bracing my hands on the wall behind me to help. I was a little wobbly on my feet at first, but could still support myself after a moment.

Hoseok kept hold of one of my hands as I turned to walk out the door, and the first person I saw was Jin. He was holding a wet towel in his hands and used it to gently wipe my face. The water was cool and refreshing, helping my swollen eyes and hot cheeks to feel a little better, and I was sure it helped me look at least a tiny bit less of a mess than I was. He gave me a soft smile after he was done.

“Thank you, Jin,” I said. I looked next to him and saw the other three members, realizing where I heard the sniffling coming from. Tae and Kookie’s eyes were red and somewhat swollen. I gently let go of Hobi’s hand to walk over to them and wrap them both in a hug, and they quickly embraced me back, holding onto me tightly. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t want to worry you guys. I’m so sorry, please don’t cry.”

“Don’t apologize, noona,” Tae said. “I should apologize. I was the one who told you to call him. It’s my fault.”

I let go of them to grab his face and make him look me in the eyes. “None of that. It’s not your fault. None of us knew what was going to happen. And my fragile mental state is not your responsibility.”

I heard one of the boys make a disapproving whine at my statement, unhappy with how I described myself.

“Let’s get back to the dance studio so we have room to sit and talk, yeah?” Namjoon suggested.

I nodded in agreement, and Jimin was quick to come to my side and entwine his fingers with mine. We walked back in silence and Jimin gently guided me to sit on the couch once we were back in the room, sitting next to me. Hobi took the seat on my other side while the others sat around the floor in front of me.

“Do you want talk about it?” Joonie asked, placing a hand on my knee.

I exhaled a long breath, gathering myself. “I will. I’m sorry, guys. I know that must have been so out of the blue for you and I didn’t mean to scare you. I ran off because I felt the attack coming and didn’t want you guys to see it. I had hoped you wouldn’t have looked for me there.”

“Don’t apologize,” Yoongi was quick to say. “You don’t need to apologize for feeling your emotions. Sometimes they can get the best of you, but that’s okay. It’s not embarrassing. And it’s better to have someone there to help you through it than to go through it alone.”

“I’m glad we did find you,” Hobi said. “Who knows how long you would have been there like that if we didn’t.”

I nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“What was it that plagued that beautiful head of yours, (Y/n)?” Jin asked.

“I know Namjoon was telling you guys what Jordan and I were saying so I’m sure I don’t need to explain that,” I started. They nodded in confirmation. “Well, it definitely may seem like that was nothing to trigger me. But when he said, ‘I’m busy. I’ll call you later,’ it was as if I had an epiphany. I realized that I had heard that from him countless times. So many times that he gave me promises of keeping in touch, of calling me or texting me later. Always to end up being empty. He never kept those promises.”

Jimin started running his fingers through my hair, and I rested my head on his shoulder. I continued, “The first time I noticed something being off was at my 16th birthday party, about five years ago. He was supposed to come but didn’t show and ignored my calls. I talked to him two weeks later and he had this excuse that I just accepted because he was my best friend and I wanted to believe him. But really, he had no reason to ignore me and if he really did have a reason to not show he should have told me from the start.”

I wouldn’t stop fidgeting my hands, so Hobi took one in his and rubbed comforting circles on it with his thumb. “After that, I started getting more and more empty promises. I think I knew for a while, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself. But when he told me that this time… I just couldn’t deny it anymore. That I realized every time I got in contact with him, or we managed to meet each other it was by pure coincidence, and it was always me reaching out. Today, he answered my call because he didn’t know it was me. And that wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened.”

I closed my eyes, trying to keep myself from crying again. “Over and over and over again, he apologized for not being the one to reach out or not keeping in touch. And he’d promise to change that. But he never did, not even once. For five years. Five. Years. He didn’t have the guts to just tell me that…” I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. Saying this out loud, admitting it outside of my thoughts made it too real. “That he just doesn’t care about me or want to be my friend anymore. Is it really that hard to not string someone along, to not lie to them and keep giving them hope that everything’s still okay?”

Hoseok wrapped his arms around me as I leaned further into Jimin’s shoulder, getting his shirt wet with my tears. “How could he just decide it was okay to do that to me? I trusted him and believed in him. He was there for me when no one else was for such a long time. When no one else wanted to be my friend, when I was oblivious to the other kids making fun of us, he was always there. And I was stupid enough to believe he always would be. But that’s the thing – the only thing that’s a definite when it comes to me is that my friends will always leave me.”

“Don’t say that,” Tae said. “Even if that may have happened up until now, you can’t say that’s what will always happen. Because no matter what, we’re not going anywhere, noona.”

I really wanted to argue that there’s no way he could know that, but I didn’t have the energy to debate on that right now.

“What was going through your mind when you were having your attack?” Yoongi asked. “Other than having that realization about him, I mean.”

I bit my lip, not wanting to voice it out loud. The state of my mind definitely amplified them but that didn’t mean that they weren’t things that I didn’t think of more often than I cared to admit. I was hoping we could move onto something else, but my silence spoke volumes. Yoongi seemed too familiar with what I was going through, he must have known that the destructive mannerisms had to come from destructive thoughts as well.

Jimin pulled away a little so he could make me look him in the eye. “Noona, please. We know there are things you may want to keep to yourself, but we really want to make sure you’re okay. Please tell us.”

I sighed, knowing I wasn’t getting out of this. And I wasn’t in a state to come up with a quick lie. “At the worst part,” I started, “the part when I was hitting my head against the wall.” I saw the others cringe or make sounds of displeasure at me recounting that. “I was thinking how it’s my fault. That there has to be something wrong with me that makes people always leave. Because I’m the common denominator, I have to be at fault. And I was asking myself why, what it is that causes it and why I’m like this.”

“Oh, noona,” I heard Jungkook say in a very sad tone.

“How often do you think those things?” Yoongi asked.

“Is this a counseling session or something?” I responded.

“Basically, yeah,” he said without missing a beat. “Please, answer my question.” His sentences may have been short and to the point, but they were full of care.

“I don’t know how often but,” I paused while thinking of how to phrase it, “I wouldn’t call it uncommon.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you, (Y/n),” Jin said. “We told you this before. Those people just don’t know how wonderful you are. But we know, and we aren’t planning on giving you up for anything.”

“You say that now,” I mumbled under my breath in English.

“I heard that,” Joonie responded. The others looked at him curiously. “Basically, she implied that we think that way now but it doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way.”

“We won’t leave you, noona,” Tae said, almost sounding desperate. “We would never want to.”

“It took Jordan eleven years to start to get sick of me,” I replied. “Others only took a few months, some a year or two. But he took eleven years.” I could see on their faces that they knew what I was implying. That even if we were good friends for a very long time, it still didn’t mean it was permanent.

“You are right about one thing,” Hobi said, gently turning my head towards him. “You can’t predict the future. None of us have any idea where we’re going to be in five, ten, or fifty years in the future. But there is something we do know. That right now, you are one of our closest friends. And we all love you and don’t know what we’d do without you. We know that we want you in our lives, and we don’t see that changing any time soon. Just as you don’t know if later down the line we may drift apart, you also can’t say that we won’t be just as close in fifty years as we are now. I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to bet on the latter.” He touched his forehead to mine as he finished his speech.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, closing my eyes. “I really do love you guys. It just scares me. I’ve never talked much about it with you all because I thought I had it under control, but I have battled anxiety for quite a few years now. I thought it was more or less gone but I’ve been fighting the negative thoughts again lately. I’m doing what I can to keep them under control but that’s sometimes easier said than done.”

“You should be open about it with us,” Jin said. “If you tell us something is bothering you then we can help.”

“I’ll try to be,” I said.

“Noona,” Taehyung maneuvered his way through his hyungs to sit right in front of me. “We love you. And we’re here for you. You’re always here for us, so let us be there for you. Hmm?”

I gave him a soft smile. “Okay, Taetae. I love you guys too.”

He extended himself toward me to include himself in the already tangled embraces of myself, Jimin, and Hobi. And the rest of the boys took that as their cue to pile in for a big, chaotic group hug that ended with us all laughing because of how awkward of a fit it was.

“Oh!” Jungkook exclaimed as we all righted ourselves again. “Can we have a sleepover again? It was so much fun last time.”

“I live right across the hall from you guys, it is literally unnecessary,” I said.

“We don’t care,” Joonie said, grabbing my things. “I vote yes for the sleepover.”

And soon enough the rest of the boys were all voicing their agreements to the notion as well.

My anxiety really might get the best of me sometimes, but one thing was for sure. Where I was right here, right now, surrounded by these people – this was a place I could be happy. And I planned on cherishing it for as long as I possibly could.

Series Masterlist

Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27

Tags: @calling-dips-on-j-hope @misohime @netflix-batman-sleep @smallbaby-cat @leitholdwithlove @ramyagovindraj @leesalts @rjsmochii

Send me a message or ask if you want tagged! And also feel free to leave comments or send asks to just talk to me!

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nhu-ngo · 4 years ago

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Prompt 6 & 7: Countries/Cities You’ve Visited and Want to Visit

Update 2/15/22: I’ve decided to scrap my older posts bc this was a failed project lol. But I wanted to keep this one.

A lot has unfortunately happened in the last two weeks that made me miss last week so I’ll be doubling it up for today.

Before I get started on the prompts, I want to talk about aging. So last week, I was fortunate to complete my second dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. The side effects of the second dose were known to be extremely reactive and this was certainly the case for me. I felt awful: body chills, headache, fever, body aches. It was basically the flu, without the head cold portions, but still pretty bad. The strange thing is that the side effects seem to affect younger people much more reactively than older people. Which made me think further about how weak the immune systems of older people probably are.

My uncle/God Father and his wife and son actually all contracted Covid about 3-4 weeks ago. He’s a 80 year old multiple stroke survivor and his last stroke that happened about 2 years ago handicapped him a bit - when I heard he had contracted the virus, I knew it was futile but had a beacon of hope that he would come out fine. He was just at our house the week before this news and so we ourselves had a Covid scare but luckily were all fine.

Throughout the week, we were receiving notice from my aunt that he was “getting better” but the thing about Covid is that while the virus itself may be overcome, the illnesses that arise after you test negative still have the capacity to kill you. And that’s what happened to my uncle.

I’ve known Bac Sy for my entire life, there isn’t a holiday party or family gathering where I didn’t see him. He was a photographer for one of the first Vietnamese publications in the city and he used to take pictures at all these gatherings. He’s such a stable and stagnant part of my life and his passing made me incredibly aware that my parents and family are aging all too rapidly.

See, I’m actually a big worrywart and sometimes when I lay in bed, all I can think about is the impeding death of my older family members. It’s a way to prepare myself for the inevitable, but it’s also a way to make sure I don’t waste my time with them. In 2020, I lost two people who had compounding impacts on my life and it crushed me; I actually had a whole life trajectory change due to that feeling and today, I think this is the right course because my values lie in my deep rooted love for my family.

I never want to regret not telling my loved ones that I love them enough or not letting people know that I appreciate them.

I actually had a dream a few nights ago about Bac Sy. I was on my way home from whatever and when I walked through the door, I saw him sitting on the couch with a huge smile on his face, arms out stretched for a hug. I hugged him and woke up soon thereafter. This dream happened after we were told that he was in a coma and two days after this, we were told that he was no longer cognitive. I wonder if this was my subconscious trying to comfort me or some supernatural premonition. Either way, I appreciated it.

I reflect on my family and how lucky I am to have been raised in a family that supported be throughout all my good and occasionally dumbass decisions. One thing that they allowed me to do was to travel which is why I was able to visit:

1. Nicaragua

2. Japan

3. Hong Kong

4. Vietnam

Bac Sy was actually fluent in French and so I want to dedicate a trip to France just for him. Fuck, I’m crying thinkin about it lol. But um, I need to bring my little cousin, his only son. Another thing I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is if I’m a good influence on my little cousins and if I’m a good big sister type. I personally think I’m not, and I feel like I need to step up my role as the mediator in my family.

My parents and most of my family gave up a lot to raise us and never got to travel. I want to dedicate future vacations to them - we actually talked about a trip to the Northern parts of Vietnam, which surprised and excited me.

I want to take them to the snow (Lake Tahoe) and see the mountains (Yosemite). Along the way, I also am reminded that I have so many trips I need to plan too.

This post was a bit of a ramble, but I needed an outlet for my emotions. I am incredibly sad today.

#journaling 2021

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adenei · 4 years ago

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Next Steps - Chapter 3

Woo hoo! Finally had a chance to return and continue this story. Full thing is on ao3

It started as a one-shot for a Platonic Rarry moment where Harry goes with Ron to pick out a ring, and they book a trip to Italy. Chapter two was of Ron asking the Granger’s permission for their daughter’s hand in marriage, and then him telling his own parents of his plan. And now, Harry and Ron reveal the news that they’re taking a holiday to Italy to Hermione and Ginny!

This is probably as some of you would call a filler chapter, but sometimes they’re necessary. Oh, and since I turned this into a multi-chap, I had to find a problem and include some angst somehow. Enjoy :)

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Surprises & Suspicions

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny flooed back to Grimmauld place after dinner at the Burrow. Harry and Ron were finally going to surprise the girls with the trip. They were all sitting in the living room, when Harry and Ron gave each other a silent nod.

“So,” Ron cleared his throat. “We have a surprise for you.”

Hermione and Ginny both looked up at Ron in confusion. “Oh?” Hermione asked. “What kind of surprise?”

“Well, we’ve never exactly been on a proper holiday together and thought it might be fun to go somewhere,” Harry told them.

“Ginny’ll be in off season soon, and we’ve all got vacation time that needs to be used up before the end of the year, so we booked a trip to Italy!” Ron said, not bothering to hide the grin on his face.

“Really?” Hermione said excitedly. “Oh, I’ve always wanted to go!”

“That’s so cool!” Ginny agreed. “When is it for? My last match is Thursday!”

“Our portkey is scheduled to leave Saturday at 2:00.” Ron told them.

Ginny squealed with excitement, starting to chatter about packing, but Hermione excitement turned into a furrowed brow and she now had a worried look on her face.

“What’s wrong, Hermione?” Harry asked.

“It’s just that, how will I know if I can get the time off? I just started at the Ministry this summer. What if it looks bad that I’m already taking vacation time? I’ve got so many projects going on right now, too.. I don’t know if this is a good idea-”

“Hermione, I went to talk to the head of your department already. I knew that you’d probably feel this way so I cleared it to make sure you’d be set. There’s nothing to worry about,” Ron attempted to reassure her.

“You talked to my department head?” Hermione looked at him scathingly. Apparently that was the wrong thing for him to do.

“Er, Ginny, maybe we should go..” Harry said awkwardly, and they made a quick escape out of the room.

“I was just trying to be helpful, Hermione. I knew you’d be resistant, but you’ll never get the time back after the first of the year, and I knew you wouldn’t willingly take it on your own!”

“But I only just started! I’m still trying to make a name for myself within the department,” she argued.

“Would you be saying the same thing this time next year? Or would you find some other excuse not to go. C’mon Hermione, we haven’t had proper time to be able to relax. Harry and I are mid-way through training, Ginny’s got a break, surely you can take a week off of your job to take a holiday!”

“I’ve got so much work to do though!” she complained.

“You’ve got all week to get ahead! Plus, don’t you have a partner that you work with?” Ron countered.

“Yes, but Steven likes to work on things together! He won’t be happy knowing I’m taking off a whole week.”

A surge of jealousy shot through Ron. “Really? If the tables were turned and he was the one taking off, how would you feel? The same?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Exactly! He’ll get over it. Hermione, I don’t know what you want me to say. I wanted to surprise you, thought you’d be excited. Especially because I thought ahead and tried to make things easier for you. Bring the work for all I care! Unless-”

“Unless what, Ron?” Hermione asked.

“Unless you don’t want to go at all… I should have known,” Ron turned to leave the room. He should have known she wouldn’t want to. He tried to quash the feelings that it was always him or her work, but it was getting harder to ignore.

“Ron! No, wait! I-” Hermione collapsed back onto the couch realizing how much of a mess she’d just made things.

*******************

Hermione stayed in the sitting room for a while, trying to digest all of the thoughts that were flowing through her mind. She wanted to go to Italy, there was no doubt about that. She also couldn’t deny how thoughtful Ron had been to even schedule the trip. But why not wait a month or so? It was only October.

She knew the answer to that, of course. Ginny had two weeks off before she went back to train. They all knew her holiday schedule would be hard to work around, and then once January came, there wouldn’t be a break in her schedule until at least April. Even still, he should have talked to her about it first. Her work was important. She’d only been working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement since July, and she had been paired with another new colleague, Steven, who was a transfer from a different department. Right now, they had three open cases they were consulting for with the Department of Magical Creatures, and she wasn’t sure if she could step away for a whole week and trust that the work would be done properly.

Steven was nice, and split the workload evenly with Hermione, which was a vast change from always trying to do everything herself, but he always insisted that they work together on everything. They often took working lunches, and he managed to convince her to stay late at the office a couple of times a week. Hermione appreciated the shared drive and commitment they had to the workload, and felt sorry for him since he must not have anyone to go home to at night, since he willingly spent so much time at the office.

He always seemed so disappointed when Hermione would go to lunch with Harry and Ron on certain days, or when she did leave the office on time at the end of each day. She’d tried to invite him to join them for lunch, but he always declined for some reason. She knew how upset he’d be when she said she’d be taking a full week off. I’ll just make sure all of my work is done ahead of time, Hermione resolved.

She had to take this holiday with Ron. No, not had to, she wanted to. Of course she wanted to! Their careers made it lucky if they were to spend regular evenings together, and it was a rare occasion when they had a full weekend together. Hermione had jumped right into her Ministry job only a week after graduating Hogwarts, and Ron was already established with the Aurors, so they didn’t get a relaxing summer.

Hermione got up then and made her way to their bedroom, where she found Ron laying there, despondent. She walked over and sat next to him. “I’m sorry I reacted the way that I did,” she started. “Of course I want to go. You were right, I’ve got all week to get ahead on my cases, and I’ll talk to my department head to make sure I don’t get any new cases assigned before we leave on Saturday.”

“Does that mean you’re going to go, then?” Ron asked her, his voice lacking any emotion.

“Of course it means I’m going to go! You honestly didn’t think I’d choose work over getting to spend a whole week with you?” Hermione asked him.

“Hermione, did you just hear yourself?” Ron gave her a look.

“I’m not the same as I used to be in Hogwarts. I know there are more important things in life than school and work,” she tried to defend. “Most of the time..”

“Exactly. Most of the time,” Ron said. He lifted his arm up, inviting her to lean into him, which she did with much relief. “I knew you’d put up some sort of resistance, you know.”

“I know. It’s hard to imagine just walking away from work for a full week, and not having to worry about anything. I know Steven will be upset, too..” Hermione trailed off.

“Don’t you think it’s a little odd?” Ron asked. He didn’t like to bring up her colleague because he didn’t want to seem jealous. But that didn’t stop the concern he felt whenever she’d send a note to say she was taking a working lunch at Steven’s request, or when she’d tell him that ‘Steven wants to work a little later tonight to finish this report.’

“What’s a little odd?” Hermione looked at him in question.

“That he’d be upset because you’re taking a vacation.”

“Well, we are the youngest in our department. He’s probably just looking out for me,” Hermione reasoned.

“I don’t think it’s that, Hermione,” Ron said seriously. “Are you ever the one to suggest a working lunch or staying late? I know you don’t mind them, I’m not saying that. I’m just curious.”

Hermione scrunched up her face in consideration. “Well, now that you mention it..”

Ron was silent for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “Just be careful, okay? There’s something about him that doesn’t feel right,” he said as he looked at her in concern.

The Hermione from a few years ago would have immediately argued with him that he was being ridiculous, but the Aurors had strengthened his knack to read people, and his senses were incredibly strong in that respect. “I’m always careful,” Hermione said as she snuggled into him. “I love you,” she said to him as she began thinking of what else he might have planned for their trip.

“I love you, too,” Ron said as he kissed her.

#romione #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger

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avengerscompound · 5 years ago

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The Tower: The Queen of Asgard - 27

The Tower: The Queen of Asgard An Avengers Fanfic

Series Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Pairing: Avengers x OFC, Bruce Banner x Bucky Barnes x Clint Barton x Wanda Maximoff x Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff x Tony Stark x Thor x Sam Wilson x OFC (Elly Cooper)

Word Count: 2990

Warnings: Being naked, sex talk

Synopsis: The twins are now three and while the Avengers know that Clint and Thor are the biological father’s none of them know or care which blond, blue-eyed baby is related to which man. When Riley gets the power to control wind and it becomes evident that she is the heir to the Asgardian throne, Elly, Steve, Thor, and Tony take the twins to Asgard to train her.

Not every Asgardian is happy with their king’s choice of consort, nor the impurity of the heir’s blood. While others expect Thor to make things more official. What’s clear is, the role of Queen of Asgard is not easily filled.

Author’s Note: Written with my very sleepy daughter @fanficwriter013

Chapter 27: Friends and Loved Ones

The following week and a half passed with little incident. Since the Fenestare things had settled a lot. The threat of some sibling taking the crown seemed to pass by forgotten completely and everyone had just fallen in line with Thor’s leadership. For most of us, it had become like the vacation none of us had ever taken. We were relaxed and enjoying the planet and each other. Tony had made his little bots that followed us around but aside from the fact I would need mine to tell me where I was, no one ever used it.

It was only really Thor that was kept busy and he was kept very busy. Between the Bonding and training Riley and running Asgard he was out from early in the morning until late at night when he would come back exhausted. We had started talking about one or two of us staying with him on Asgard at a time but we didn’t know how to organize that system. There was already so much time that got taken from us as a family, to add weeks on Asgard to that too meant that we’d always be in a state of flux. Not to mention deciding who would stay.

Being in a long-distance relationship with a king wasn’t easy.

The day we had set to have our joint bachelor party I woke up engulfed in Bucky and Steve’s arms. I stretched like a cat and they didn’t stir at all. It had only taken a week for them to completely enter a relaxed holiday mode. It was probably a little concerning, but I was still impressed. It was nice seeing them like that.

When I opened my eyes that wasn’t the only thing I saw though. Phil Coulson was standing near the bed looking at us.

“Phil!” I yelped covering myself with a sheet.

Bucky and Steve both sat bolt upright and looked around startled and on alert. “Phil?” Steve said confused.

“What the hell?” Bucky added a little angrier sounding.

“Sorry!” Phil said raising his hands in surrender. “I was told you were in here, so I came to see and you were sleep and… I’m sorry.”

“Does that mean everyone is here?” I asked.

“Yeah, we arrived this morning,” Phil answered. “You’re getting married?”

“Bonding,” Steve said. “But essentially. Now if you don’t mind…”

“Right. I’ll go back to the others.” Phil said apologetically, retreating from the room.

When the door closed I leaned my forehead on Bucky’s shoulder. “I think I just aged 5 years.”

Steve chuckled softly and kissed my neck. “Well, in good news, you’re about to get 4,900 extra years. So you can afford them.”

I turned and kissed him gently. “Two days.”

He made a soft sound and his hand flexed on my hip.

“Okay,” I said pulling back. “I’m gonna get dressed and go say hello.”

“That’s a good idea,” Bucky said stretching.

I dressed and headed out into the living room. It was at capacity, with almost everyone else up and eating as well as our friends, some of the Dora Milaje and even Carol Danvers who we saw once in a blue moon.

“Gurl!” Clark said, jumping to her feet, her violet eyes twinking. “We gonna hafta talk. This is fucking Asgard!”

“Right?” I said coming over and hugging her.

“Everyone is so pretty. How are they all so pretty?” She asked as she pulled back from me.

“They’re gods?” I said. “But it’s much more open here if you and Jax want to get busy.”

“Mmm… we’ve already decided on a competition. I’ve got my eyes on a few people.” She teased. “So come on, explain to me what’s going on.”

I came and sat next to her and Jax and ran through the whole series of events from the day Riley’s powers come in, coming here, being attacked and the bonding ceremony. Around me, a similar conversation was had by small groups of the others in the room.

“You sure you want this?” Jax said. “We always spoke about what your parents wanted for you…”

“Yes, what they wanted for me was marry rich have kids. Which I guess I am doing, but I don’t think they envisioned this. There are things that scare me, and I’m sure you’re going to have your work cut out for you when I get back. Living for 5000 years is scary. But...” I said. “I’m so happy.”

“Well, then I’m happy for you.” He said.

“Sweetie, you’re not at work now,” Clarke said in a playfully patronizing tone, letting Jax know to stop analyzing things. He held up his hands in surrender and she turned back to me. “So bachelorette?”

“It’s a group thing because we don’t really have a lot of people otherwise,” I said.

“Alcohol? Strippers?” She asked.

“Yes to both. But go easy on the mead.” I said. “I had to take Sam to the healers.”

“Yikes. Okay. I’ll try and remember that.” She said. “I’m excited to try the food.”

“Well, it should be here soon. I’m sure there will be enough for everyone.” I said.

“Oh, nice. I bet it’s super weird and decadent.” She sat up straight all of a sudden and looked around the room. “Wait, where are my kiddos?”

“Asleep I guess. They sleep like the dead here. I think it’s the air.” I said. “Do you want to go get them.”

She raised an eyebrow at me. “Of course.”

“Before you do,” Loki said, appearing behind me and making me jump.

“Jesus, Loki!” I gasped holding my chest. “How many times can you do that and find it funny?”

“Every time, Elise,” She snarked. “There is a tight schedule today. You have about an hour and a half for breakfast and to … socialize. Then final fittings for your garments. Then there will be initial preparations for Henhalda. That’s the body painting. You will be bathed and then your artists will do the outlines on your arms and legs. You will have lunch during that time because it will take you until dinner and then this party of yours tonight.”

“Thank you, sister.” I teased.

“Do not make me break the truce and stab you, Elise.” She snarked.

“Fine. No, that’s all good. I’ll go and get the kids then?” I said. “Will you be taking care of them?”

“Myself and the Lady Sif shall take turns. I assure you they will be fine.” She said.

I nodded and got up and headed into the kids’ rooms with Clarke trailing behind me. As we came into the room we found Riley already climbing out of the bed. She squealed and ran over to Clarke. “Aunnie Cwarke!”

“Hi, baby!” Clarke said scooping her up. “Tell me all about Asgard.”

I went over to Pietro and start to rub his back to wake him.

“Umm… dey calls me a pwincess.” Riley said, thinking hard. “And uhh… daddy’s been teaching me to do da wind.”

“And are you getting good at controlling the wind?” Clarke asked.

She nodded vigorously as Pietro groaned and sat up. “Aunnie Cwarke?” He said in a sleepy voice.

“Hey, baby,” Clarke said gently.

“You came to Asgawd?” He asked.

“Yeah, buddy. Lots of people are here. Uncle Phil and Auntie Maria. Uncle Scott. Uncle Rhodey. Uncle Jax.” I said and he started bouncing on his bed.

“Come on, kiddo,” Clarke said. “Come out and see everyone.”

Pietro ran out and stopped dead looking at the room full of all the people he loved best. The food had arrived and Riley pointed at Magnus. Meanwhile, Pietro had started dancing on the spot like he didn’t know where to go first. Wanda looked around at him and smiled. “Hey, little one. How are you doing?”

“Good, daj,” he said, happily. “Deys all here.”

“Are you happier now that family is all here?” Wanda asked.

“Dis Cwistmas?” Pietro asked.

Wanda squeaked and her hand went to her mouth. “El. El! That was adorable!”

“Not quite Christmas, kiddo,” I said ruffling his hair. “How about you go say hello to everyone though.”

He ran over to Rhodey first and gave him a huge hug. I went and got a plate of breakfast for me and the kids and sat. The room was completely alive with talk and excitement. It was good. Everything felt like it was falling into place. There were just a few more pieces to go.

My final fitting was done under the supervision of Loki, who was very particular about where things still needed to be taken in or up. She’d hiss things in Asgardian to the tailors and then swept out of the room to do the same with the next person. It looked beautiful though. Everything I never imagined a wedding dress could be. Not that it was a wedding really, but there was no way that whatever dress I chose to wear when I married Tony would be able to match the way this shimmered in the light and looked like it contained magic itself in it. I decided then and there, whatever Tony and I did would be small, and more casual. A little celebration just to make what we were doing here as a group, as legally recognized as we’d be able to back on Earth.

When I was done and back into my regular clothes I came out to the living room. A moment later a group of people of varying ages came in and they were directed by Loki to each of our bedrooms. She turned back to face us.

“Now is Henhalda. You will need to follow the directions of your artists. They may ask you to stand, lie down, sit. Or they might be happy for you to decide. Each artist has been chosen to deal with you specifically. Whether you need a firm hand, someone to work in silence, a reassuring presence, a gentle touch, or someone who is less attached to rank and tradition.” Loki said looking from Clint, Natasha, Wanda, Bruce and I in turn. “They have briefed about who you each are and who they are working with specifically so they understand what reservations you might each have. Particularly when it comes to the nudity required for Henhalda. Those fine with nudity will most likely be asked to strip off right away so that the artwork can be carried out from the inside out. Those that need time to become comfortable will have their arms and legs worked on first.

“Voice your reservations so they can put them at ease. But this must be done apart from each other. You may take a friend with you but it can not be one you are to bond with.”

Steve looked a little uncomfortable but gave a small nod, while Bruce looked from Loki to me with panic in his eyes. “I don’t think I can do this, El.”

I moved over to him and caressed his jaw. “Yes, you can,” I said firmly. “The big guy knows how important this is. You just have to get out of your own head.”

“I can come with you if you like,” Jax offered. “Go through your relaxation techniques.”

Bruce nodded a little. “If you’re sure.”

“I’d be honored,” Jax assured him.

“Bruce, if you really can’t handle it, let Hulk out. Just… let him out before he takes over on his own. You know that he’s always calmer when you do that, and I think he’d quite enjoy being painted on. Besides, it will let him be a real part of this.”

Bruce winced and gave a nod. “El,” he whispered. “I might need a buffer for the party. I mean, after this.”

I leaned in and kissed his cheek gently. “Of course, honey. You’ve got me.”

We separated into pairs. Coulson went with Clint. Hill with Natasha. Jax went with Bruce, Wanda with Vision. Scott got super lucky when Steve agreed to let him go with him. Bucky had the honor of T’Challa agreeing to go with him. Sam took Rhodey with him after Tony agreed to share his best friend and took Happy with him instead, and Thor took Sif. Clarke was coming with me and everyone else was going to either see the sights of Asgard or take turns looking after the twins.

I went into my bedroom to find a young woman, who looked around 18 in Earth years but could have been any age really, set up with a table, brushes, and inks.

“Where would you like me?” I asked.

“Where ever you feel comfortable.” The girl replied. “We’ll be here for a while so I’d suggest lying but I can work however you like.”

“Do you want me naked right away?” I asked her.

She nodded. “If you’re comfortable doing that. You can go face down first too if that helps.”

“Alright,” I said taking off my clothes. “It’s okay to tell me what to do, you know? I don’t want to make this difficult for you.”

“So, it is true what they say.” She said as I lay down on the bed face down and Clarke went to my wardrobe and began looking through it.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That you are like us,” she said. “You don’t see yourself as Royalty. Or better than us.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, well I don’t think I’m better than you, that’s for sure.”

“Some of the elders don’t understand.” She said. “I like it though. It’s nice.”

She began to wash my back down with a warm cloth that smelled like roses and Clarke came back and sat down beside me, leaning on the bedhead. “I’m gonna steal some of your clothes.”

“Go for it,” I said as the girl began to trace a pattern out on my back with her finger.

“Awesome. Gonna look like a princess at your party.” Clarke said. “What’re you doing there?”

“Oh, I uh - I’ve never done a Henhalda before. I just want to get a picture of it in my head before I start.” She said. She kneeled on the bed beside me and pulled her little table over closer and began to paint.

The ink was cool on my skin and she was painting such fine intricate lines that it put me into an almost trance-like state of relaxation, my skin tingling.

“You should see this, blue,” Clarke said. “This girl is crazy talented.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Will the others be the same? Or is this unique per person?” I asked.

“Some of it will be identical. It’s supposed to represent your lives together. And some of that is shared. Some is individual.” She explained.

I hummed. “I can’t wait to see everyone’s.”

“And of course the private paintings meant only for each other.” She said.

“What will they be?” I asked.

“You will have symbolic images, representing your lovers, painted in your most intimate places.” She said.

“Oh wow. That’s going to be so fun to explore with each other.” I said. “What will the one that represents me look like? Do you know?”

“It is a flower made of blue flame, that’s roots run out and join with the other’s symbols and one to the heart of each person it is painted on. Worked into the flower is the rune Gebo.”

“What does Gebo mean?” I asked.

“It means, gifts and relationships. Sacrifice and exchange.” She said.

I liked that and wondered if the others had runes in their symbols too and if they did what they stood for. “Who designed them.”

“We did as a team using psychics who mapped out your futures.” She answered. She moved down to my legs and then seemed to change her mind and came back up to my shoulders. “Sorry, the way I paint is more unconventional. This is why they assigned me to you. The others are more stuffy.”

I chuckled. “Oh no. I’m the difficult one.”

“Just untraditional. But I am the youngest. So I don’t care for tradition.” She said. “I like working with you. I think we could be friends.”

“That would be nice. I could always use more friends.” I said. “What’s your name?”

She almost squeaked in excitement. “Katveil. Can I call you Elise?”

“Or Elly. My friends call me Elly.” I said.

“I don’t. I call her blue.” Clarke said.

“Why do you call her that?” Katveil asked.

“I don’t know. She’s just … blue.” Clarke said.

“What is your name?” Katveil asked.

“Clarke,” Clarke said giving Katveil a nod. “Here to share in naked time.”

Katveil started laughing. “It is a little odd, even for here.”

“Feels nice though. Soothing. I could probably fall to sleep.” I said.

“You are welcome to if the urge comes. Go with your feelings.” Katveil said.

We stayed talking until lunch where I ate lying on my stomach while the ink dried on my back. When Katveil was satisfied with the ink being dry enough she had me roll over and started painting my front. I watched her for a while as the design got smaller and more intricate and eventually I did doze off and was awoken abruptly by Katveil shaking me.

“You’re finished.” She said when my eyes snapped open. “I have not painted the special symbols yet. They are to wait until tomorrow.”

I looked down at myself. I looked like I’d become one giant mandala. “Holy shit.” I gasped.

Katveil smiled. “Just wait until it’s colored. You won’t believe your eyes.”

“I’m really excited,” I said.

Katveil gave a little bow. “I shall see you tomorrow. Enjoy your party, Elly.”

“Thank you, Katveil. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said.

“Please, call me Kat.” She said.

“Kat is is.” I agreed.

Katveil left the room and Clarke shoved me. “Come on, lady.” She said. “We gotsta get ready. It’s time to party.”

// NEXT

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purplesurveys · 4 years ago

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1041

survey by chasingghosts

What is the age gap between you and your parents? 27 for both. Technically, 26 years with my mom since she had yet to celebrate her birthday when she had me, but she was going to turn 27 all the same. Guh. I can’t believe I’m just five years away from that and I’m still nowhere near building my own family.

How many bathrooms does your house have? Is this enough? Two. I’d say it’s enough. Two people in the family rarely have to go to the bathroom at the same time so it works out for us.

Have you sent a letter to anyone in the past year? Yeah. I used to give Gabie a handwritten letter every Christmas along with her gifts. I still plan on writing her one, but obviously the content will be vastly different now.

Have you ever video chatted with someone you met online? I did this with Carley a handful of times; we’d video chat when I came home from school which was around the time she would get ready for school. She was such an extrovert who was so lovely and bubbly around me, and I’ve always felt bad that she had to contend with my shy ass with my mic always muted lol.

Are you hungry or thirsty right now? I’m neither but I can go for a light meal right now, which is great because I got myself a chicken barbecue sandwich and a caramel macchiato from Starbucks as a treat for myself tonight :) I went through five video call meetings just for today alone, went through several breakdowns while at work, and am also on my period, so I thought I deserved a break.

When was the last time you ate something, and what did you eat? Literally just had a bite from my sandwich.

Have you ever seen the film Boondock Saints? Nope. Sounds nothing like my type of film.

Do you own a pair of gumboots? Nah. I don’t like walking in floods anyway, so I don’t plan on getting a pair.

What colour is your favourite mug? Copper.

How far away from your town/city is your state's capital city? I already live in my province’s capital.

Have you ever worked somewhere where you had to clean the toilets? I haven’t.

Do you know anyone named Doug? No, not really a common name here.

What cut of jeans is your favourite and why? Do mom jeans count as a cut? I’ve been all over those throughout 2020. They’re stylish and yet so comfy, which are two words that seldom go together.

Do you rate people's attractiveness on a scale of 1-10? Uhhhhhhhh unless a friend asked me to rate someone they know, I don’t really think in these terms.

Name a few of your favourite actors. Kate freaking Winslet. Also Kristen Stewart, Emma Stone, Audrey Hepburn, Brie Larson, Florence Pugh, and Eddie Redmayne. I’d name Timothée Chalamet but I have yet to see a work of his.

Do you collect anything, or have you ever? The first item I ever collected was notebooks. In my past relationship (is it obvious I’m not over it yet and probably never will be? Ha) I initially liked to collect receipts from places we went to and ate at. I’d also like to be able to grow a collection of wrestling memorabilia, particularly action figures and belts. It’s not really a life goal of mine but it’d still be a cool thing to achieve.

So, how has your week been so far? I mean it’s only Monday, so nothing much. I cried and broke down a lot today which wasn’t a good start, but tomorrow’s a holiday so no work; and for Thursday I was invited to the Christmas party of the department I initially interned at and apparently they’ll be sending over a Christmas kit over to my place so I’m looking forward to these! It’s super touching they remembered and still invited me even though I’m not a part of the team anymore, so I wouldn’t have missed the party for the world.

Is there anything that you could cry about right now? Definitely, and being on my period at the moment makes it so much easier to cry. But I already cried too much and too hard earlier today and it felt exhausting, so I’m trying to avoid it tonight.

How old were you when you learned how to tie your shoelaces? I was five. I probably would’ve made myself learn later but one of our ‘exams’ in kindergarten was to show that you know how to tie your shoelaces, so I had to ask my grandma to give me a crash course.

Have you ever slept in a car overnight? Why did you have to? Yeah. I had to pull several all-nighters in college and work at 24/7 coffee shops, but I usually gave up by around 2-3 AM and would sleep in the car by then.

When was the last time you used Facebook? Earlier this evening, but I couldn’t scroll too much because spoilers for Start Up are everyyyyyyfuckingwhere and I’m still several episodes away from the finale, which aired last night.

Do you have a PO Box or does your mail get sent straight to your house? Our mails and parcels get sent straight to our door.

Are you interested in entomology? Do you know what that is? Never been. I think it’s great that insects have a lot of capabilities and contributions that we often take for granted; but I personally find a great deal of them icky as well lol so I wouldn’t say I’m interested in this branch.

Have you ever had to claim insurance? What for? Hmm I don’t think so. Not my own nor my parents’. Do you like to listen to albums start-finish without skipping or shuffling? I’ll do this sometimes with my favorite albums, yes. Fuck knows how many times I listened to After Laughter from start to finish with no skips; it was my favorite for a while.

Do you have any unspoken enemies, or maybe frenemies? I’m not the biggest fan of Patrice, but it’s not something I broadcast to people because why would I? I’m sure she slightly does not like me too, so we’re even.

What was the last thing you broke? That would be my last phone charger cord. I’ve since had it replaced though.

Do you have a favourite state/province/territory in your country? Not necessarily an overall favorite but I do have a favorite place I’ve traveled to, which is Sagada. I need a second vacation to see if it still lives up to my expectations and if it would still be able to give me an experience as cathartic and therapeutic as my first trip there, but for the last five years it has sat on the throne.

How many vowels are in your street name? Is this question too mundane? Three. I mean I’ve never been asked this on a survey before, so I wouldn’t call it that.

What are your three top favourite flavours of ice cream? Cookies and cream, chocolate chip cookie dough, coffee.

How far away is the nearest Target? At least a couple thousand miles away.

Do you prefer Target, Kmart or Walmart? Idk and idc.

Have you ever farted in class or somewhere else you shouldn't have? No. I suppress my farts, even when I’m alone haha it’s just my least favorite bodily function.

What's your middle name? Would you change it? I’m not giving it away. I wouldn’t change it and I’m definitely not giving it up even if I get married. I’m keeping my middle name then just hyphenate my surname so that I get to keep all three names.

When was the last tie you wore heels? What was the occasion? September. Job interview for a position I didn’t really want but still chose to undergo because it was still an interview.

Do you find yourself lost for words often? I guess yeah, depression does tend to do that to me.

Did you share baths with your siblings/cousins when you were a child? Yep, I remember sharing the shower with my sister as late as when I was 10. Then puberty happened to me and I did not want to continue the practice anymore, haha.

Have you ever been a member of an online dating site? How did it go? I joined Tinder while I was in a relationship (she made an account as well at the time so it was fair game) literally just to people-watch. I wasn’t interested in cheating; I was just genuinely curious to see how the app worked. I put on a fake name, age, location and my profile photo was of a cat I saw in school so it was impossible to tell it was me.

Do you know what your neighbours even look like? I would not be able to recognize them if you lined them up with a bunch of other strangers, to tell you the truth. I’d probably be able to recognize the carpenters working on the house currently being constructed in front of ours though; they’re super nice and they’re crazy over Cooper haha.

How many siblings does your best friend have? Angela is an only child.

Do you put ketchup on your fries? No. Ketchup does not go anywhere near my fries.

Have you been lucky enough to make out with anyone in the past week? LOL lucky enough...but no, I haven’t done that in a while.

Have your parents ever worked in the agriculture business etc. on a farm? Neither have.

Do you have an ex that makes you angry with literally everything they do? No.

Are you easily susceptible to brain freeze? No but tooth sensitivity, yes. I have a certain tooth that acts up whenever I eat ice cream, and it can get soooo inconvenient and uncomfortable for a few seconds.

#survey #surveys

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kuratoki · 5 years ago

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Distance 01

It’s finally here! I hope you guys enjoyed Changes but I hope you enjoy the sequel even more~ My ask box is open for Charas and personal (and I would low key love some anons uwu) Enjoy!!

If you haven’t checked out changes yet, you can find it here.

There wasn’t a day Jeno didn’t regret not making things official with you sooner. What he also didn’t expect was his soon to be ex best friend to act on his feelings towards you either. Now a whole continent away with a ten hour time difference, will the two of you survive the distance and all the obstacles that come with?

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Pairing: Ballerina OC x Dancer Jeno

Words: 3488

Warnings: Swearing

~Updates Ever/other day at 8AM PST~

“Happy New year everyone!” Hana said brightly, waving at Yeeun and Yukhei who were sitting in the lunchroom before class started.

Seeing her new good friend, Yeeun squealed, engulfing Hana into a hug and the two girls started jumping around as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.

“Didn’t you guys just see each other for a girls day two days ago?” Jaemin asked walking up behind Hana and giving Yukhei a bro hug before giving Yeeun a small hug.

Ever since you and Renjun departed, things had gotten progressively better between the two couples. Despite the rough past, Yukhei and Yeeun were the addition the group needed. Yeeun was actually really fun to be around and you got to bond with her a bit at the Selects Christmas party before you left. You also encouraged Hana to talk to her more which resulted in the friendship they had now.

“Can you like not?” Hana asked looking at her boyfriend with a playful glare, “We’re the only girls now because Y/N and Mia are gone.”

“Yea and with all the trouble you guys get into without us, we kind of have to stick together.” Yeeun said, taking Hana’s side, “Anyways, did you guys have a good holiday?”

“We spent it with Jaemin’s parents.” Hana said, smiling bashfully, “They invited us to this….”

As Hana recounted her winter break to Yeeun, Jaemin looked at Yukhei and playfully rolled his eyes.

“Who would have thought.” he said as Yukhei nodded.

“Who would have thought.” he agreed and looked around, “Any idea where Chenle is?” It wasn’t like him to be at school so late in the morning but then again, it was the first day back so classes started a bit later.

“He mentioned something over winter break about taking care of three transfer students from China.” Jaemin said and raised his eyebrows as he saw said boy walk into the room with a girl and two boys trailing behind him, “Speak of the devil.”

“You guys really shouldn’t talk about Jisung while he isn’t here you know.” Chenle commented as he approached the group, making Hana and Yeeun break from their conversation, “How was everyone's vacations?”

Once everyone responded, Chenle motioned to the three behind him, “I’d like to introduce you guys to Xiao Dejun, Liu YangYang and Chou Tzuyu. They’re from the transfer program and the schools asked me to act as their guide.” he then motioned to the two couples in front of him and tried to hold back his sigh, silently wishing he wasn’t the fifth wheel in this case, “Everyone, this is Wong Yukhei, Jang Yeeun, Kim Hana and Na Jaemin….” he paused for a second and looked around the room, “Where’s Jeno?”

“He told me that he was taking a later flight so he might be in later today or for sure tomorrow.” Jaemin answered and looked at the other three, “It’s nice to meet you guys. If you need any help at all, don’t hesitate to ask. I was a guide myself this past year.”

“Yea for what? Two weeks?” Hana snorted, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes, “Then Jeno and Jisung kind of took over no? You were probably a shitty guide since she doesn’t attend the school anymore.”

“You have spent way too much time talking to Mia over the phone. Now I know how Renjun feels.” Jaemin commented with a pout, “And that’s not true. Timing just sucks.”

“Are you guys all couples?” YangYang asked curiously and Yukhei shared a look with Jaemin.

“Kind of.” they both said, thinking about the situation between you and Jeno.

As the guys got to know YangYang and Dejun, who said to call him Xiaojun, Hana and Yeeun went to get to know Tzuyu who seemed a bit more reserved.

“So what department are you entering?” Yeeun asked curiously.

“Dance.” Tzuyu responded and the two other girls looked at each other.

“That’s cool, that’s….pretty much everyone here.” Hana said with a bright smile, “Except Chenle. So we’ll be able to help you if you need it.”

“I don’t think I will but thanks.” Tzuyu said flipping her hair, making Yeeun inwardly grimace while Hana tried to maintain her bright smile. This was going to be interesting since it seemed like the guys were getting along with Xiaojun and YangYang just fine.

While the girls continued to converse with Tzuyu with mostly her giving one word answers, they were about to give up before the doors to the cafeteria opened and her attention was pulled to the person that walked in, approaching the group of boys next to her.

“Who is that?” Tzuyu asked, putting on a flirtatious smile and tried not to let it falter when he walked right by her.

Hana and Yeeun turned around to see who she was talking about and Hana almost choked on her spit, “Holy shit what did Europe do to Jeno?”

“Europe? You mean Y/N?” Yeeun asked, eyes wide and looked at Tzuyu, “He’s off limits by the way.”

“Completely off limits.” Hana emphasized, “Untouchable.”

“Plus, you're not his type.” Yeeun said bluntly. She didn’t like the predatory look Tzuyu had on her as she watched Jeno converse with the others and knew that Hana was not going to be a big fan of this girl at all. They both had promised you that they’d keep an eye on Jeno and they weren’t going to let one person get in their way this tie.

“And how would you know? Are you friends with him?” Tzuyu asked slightly offended. They didn’t even know her and yet they were already calling her out. When the guy gave her a side glance and a light smile, she swore she felt her heart flutter and melt at the same time.

“He’s my boyfriends best friend so yes, I can confirm that you aren’t his type.” Hana said with a fake smile before watching Jaemin literally fly across the room and she had to laugh at his clinginess to the new blonde.

“Oh ho ho ho ho! Look who it is!!” Jaemin said excitedly going to give Jeno a big bro hug, “Who are you and what have you done to my best friend.”

“Blonde suits you dude.” Yukhei said, doing the same as Jaemin, “Wasn’t your flight supposed to land later today?”

“Y/N made me take an earlier one cause she didn’t want me to miss school.” Jeno said before greeting Chenle, “I drove here straight from the airport so I made it just on time.” He then turned to the two unfamiliar boys who were looking at him curiously and waved, “Hey, I’m Jeno.”

“I’m Xiaojun, this is YangYang. The girl over there is Tzuyu” he said pointing at the long haired brunette that had yet to take her eyes off him, “We’re from the transfer program.”

“Ah yes, I remember listening to Chenle whine to Jisung over the phone about how Renjun ditched him for Europe again.” Jeno said, chuckling slightly and turned to the girls, “Ladies, how were your breaks.”

Both Yeeun and Hana got up and gave him a big hug leaving Tzuyu wide eyed, so they were actually friends with him.

“Someone seems well rested.” Hana teased, “So I guess going back with Renjun for break instead of spending it here was worth it then.”

Jeno smiled thinking back to the last two weeks. It was a spontaneous decision but after talking to Renjun and Soonyoung, he decided to take a chance and fly to Europe to surprise you for winter break. He knew you would be busy with your new duties but it was all worth it. It had taken you and Jisung completely by surprise when he walked through the apartment door with Renjun and he remembered what it felt like when you jumped into his arms although it had been a literal two weeks since you had seen each other.

“Uh oh, someones thinking about Y/N again.” Jaemin teased, nudging Jeno lightly.

“WHIPPED.” Chenle called out and Jeno raised his eyebrows at him.

“And for that comment, you can ask Renjun for the sheet music you need for the performance. I’ll just tell him you lost it.” Jeno shot, making Chenle stick his tongue out at him though in reality, Jeno had the full binder of all the pieces in his locker that he stopped by on the way to the lunchroom.

“Speaking of performance, does this mean you’ll be part of todays lunch show with us?” Jaemin asked and Jeno nodded.

“As long as Yukhei is okay dancing Jisung’s part.” Jeno said with a nod and addressed the two others, “You guys should come check out the performance. I’m sure Chenle will tell you about it later.”

“Dude, I was practicing all winter break for this!” Yukhei said with a fist pump, “I cannot believe I’ll be performing with the ACTUAL dream team.”

“They’re part of this dance club called NCT.” Chenle explained when he saw the confused looks on the transfer students, “They put on various performances throughout the week here in the lunchroom. You’ll see later today.” he looked at his watch, “If you guys are ready, I can show you where your classes are. Unfortunately, the other Junior Dance major is in Europe right now so outside of the academics, I’ll leave you guys to them to show you where everything else is if that’s okay.”

“I offered.” Jaemin said, “Which dance classes do you have?”

“All of us have contemporary first period and freestyle third.” Xiaojun answered, “We tried getting into the advanced contemporary class but they said we couldn’t.”

“Yea, that’s the class Jeno, Hana and Yeeun have together. It's a reference class and only one other person got in without it. But I have freestyle during third so you won’t be alone” Jaemin explained, “Anyways, why don’t we start heading in the direction. We’ll see you later Chenle.”

“I’ll meet you guys there.” Jeno said, “I need to give Chenle the binder with all of the performance pieces that he has to practice. Y/N and Renjun say thanks again for taking this on by the way, it takes a lot off their shoulders.”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I couldn’t do it.” Chenle answered shrugging offhandedly, “I’ll meet you guys after class then to go to second period. Take care of them guys.”

“See you guys in a bit.” Jeno said, “It was great meeting you guys too.” he said to the three. Though he didn’t really talk to Tzuyu much, he was getting an off vibe from her and the look Hana gave him was telling him to stay far away.

As the group entered the dance studio, YangYang couldn’t help but ask the question which was on everyone's mind, “Who is this Y/N and Renjun everyone keeps talking about?”

Hana and Jaemin looked at each other, unsure of how to respond. There was a part of them that was uncomfortable sharing something so personal with people they just met but Hana also felt like she had to get a point across to Tzuyu who seemed to be eye fucking Jeno when they were in the lunchroom but she also didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

“They’re our close friends.” Jaemin answered as he stretched, “Y/N was actually the person that I was assigned to guide earlier this year but we only had two classes together. That’s why Hana said Jeno and Jisung eventually took over. They both had three classes with her so it made more sense.”

“Now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure Jeno would’ve fought you to be her guide had he known that she transferred back first.” Hana commented with a giggle. Yeeun and Yukhei had split off fairly quickly to go to their own classes so it was only the five of them, “But things were rough between them for a while.”

“Oh so this Y/N chick and Jeno are dating.” Xiaojun said, making Tzuyus eyes widen, there was no way someone that looked like Jeno could already be in a relationship, he didn’t seem like the type but what did she know?

“I wouldn’t use that term when you reference her around Jeno.” Jaemin warned, he didn’t even like that term being used on any of the girls in his friend circle, “And no...they aren’t dating.”

“It’s complicated...like six degrees of separation. Y/N, Jeno and Jaemin all grew up together and attended the same dance school. Y/N left four years ago to attend a ballet program in Europe and she came back home for summer dance camp and met me and Jisung who is also part of our group. Some stuff happened over the years that tie into Yukhei and Yeeun. When she transferred back this year, things kind of...started making sense?” Hana asked looking at Jaemin who shrugged, “Anyways, she, Renjun and Jisung are in London for the semester. They’ll be back before summer though”

“They’re actually in Germany right now.” Jeno said coming up behind them, changed into his dance clothes and his phone tightly in his grasp. Tzuyu just thought he looked like a whole snack. The black T-shirt, sweats and cap added to the aesthetic of this image of him that was building in her mind. “There's one week left till Jisung has to be at training camp so the five of them are doing one last travel before lockdown.”

“Of course you would know this.” Hana said, rolling her eyes, “Anyways, we can talk more later. I need to know what Jeno got Y/N for Christmas so I can beat his gift.”

“You won’t” Jeno said with a large grin, “Nothing will beat my gift. She said so.”

“That’s a lie!” Hana gasped, “Now I really need to know!”

“I got her new pointe shoes and took her to the NutCracker ballet performance on Christmas.” he grinned and Hana scoffed, “Good luck.”

By the time lunch came, the three transfer students and Chenle were all making their way to the lunchroom where cheers could be heard. Leading them to the center where most of the NCT Club had gathered along with Yeeun and Sicheng along with the transfer student, Kun whom he was assigned to. From what Tzuyu could see, there was only the Jaemin guy and Yukhei, but where was Jeno? He was the only one she was looking forward to watch.

She had seen him lead the choreography during their first period class and she was so mesmerized by his dance style and movement. The way he made comments to various people, telling them how to improve like a true leader. It made her temporarily forget what Hana had said before about him not being in a relationship yet and Tzuyu was positive that she could change his mind. It was obvious Hana’s warnings from earlier were going ignored.

An up beat started playing from the speaker behind Jaemin and Yukhei and Yukhei let out a big breath, “HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! LETS MAKE SOME NOISE FOR OUR NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!”

A group of the NCT Club split in two and Jeno came running, doing a backflip into the center, causing cheers to erupt from all around the room. Gasps were heard throughout as they realized that their national champion was now blonde, many complimenting how it suited him perfectly.

“Are you recording this for Y/N?” Tzuyu heard Hana ask Yeeun who nodded, “She’s going to scream when she sees this performance.”

“Jisung is going to be so jealous that Yukhei took his spot.” Yeeun commented with a giggle as the performance started.

As the boys danced, Tzuyu couldn’t keep her eyes off of Jeno. This was a different style of dance then she had seen earlier on. It was so strong, powerful and there were so many flips involved. The look on Jeno’s face too said so many different emotions and the way he flowed with Yukhei and Jaemin was on another level. It was obvious he was the lead since he was in the center for most of the performance but it didn’t mean the others couldn’t shine.

When the performance was over, applause erupted around the room and the group gathered around the trio, Hana and Yeeun handing water bottles to their respective boyfriends while Doyoung ran to the center to engulf his favorite junior in a hug and suddenly the bad boy she had seen turned into a puppy.

She tried to make her way to Jeno once everyone was done congratulating him but he had looked down at his phone and was quick to make an excuse to leave out the cafeteria doors.

“Probably Y/N.” Jaemin said with a smile, watching the blonde literally sprint, “Isn’t it like a ten hour difference between here and Germany though?”

“Seven actually.” YangYang commented, “I lived there for a few years before going back to China for school. So it’s around 6am there right now.” he said looking at his watch, “Are you sure he isn’t dating her?”

“Nope.” Jaemin said, “Their schedules won’t let them right now but he can wait, he’s already waited four years. He can wait a few more months.” he explained and changed the subject.” What did you guys think of the performance?”

“You guys are so cool” Xiaojun gushed, “Is this a normal thing?”

“Weekly? The seniors of the club organize the performances and we meet almost everyday after school.” Yukhei explained, arm around Yeeun, “If you guys want, you could come check it out with us today. Hana’s our manager so I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. Yeeun also hangs out too.”

“Not at all.” Hana said and looked at Tzuyu, “You’re welcome to join us too. There isn’t going to be any practice since there was a performance today but everyone just kind of hangs out....” her eyes widened and she slapped her hand to her face, “Frick, I totally forgot about the retreat too. I need to find Jeno. I’ll see you guys later.” she said and ran out the doors.

Afterschool came faster than anyone had suspected and all the transfer students were gathered in the NCT Practice Room. Hana had called the meeting to order and the only other person that wasn’t there was Jeno.

“Is this to discuss the weekend retreat or spring break?” Ten asked as the group gathered but there were still people talking above Hana that she couldn’t even get a word in..

“HEY! Just because Y/N isn’t here doesn’t mean that you guys should be disrespecting Hana.” Jeno called from the door as he walked in with his bag and keys swinging around one finger, “She’s just as much as our manager as Y/N is.”

“Thank you Jeno Lee.” Jaemin huffed, happy he didn’t have to say anything, he couldn’t believe the disrespect.

This made the whole room go silent and the people who weren’t used to Jeno’s outburst actually looked scared, especially the transfer students.

“Did you talk to Y/N? Is she letting us use her place?” Hana asked since she couldn’t find him during lunch, it had turned out that it was his mom that called and not you. Because it seemed private, she didn’t want to interrupt instead, opting to text him instead.

“She gave the okay. Unfortunately the date is right in the middle of rehearsals so she or Renjun won’t be able to make it.” Jeno said nodding with a frown, “I have the keys at my place and we planned it over winter break. I’ll give you and the leaders the plans after but I actually have to run to my place in Gangnam for a bit so I wanted to let you know I won’t be present today.”

“Meeting up with Soonyoung?” Jaehyun asked knowing that the Selects foreign rep and Jeno got close after you had introduced the two.

“Forgot something that needs to get to my parents actually.” Jeno said with an awkward smile and looked at Sicheng, “I’ll stop by after if that’s okay.”

“You’re the only one who has another key so I mean I can’t stop you.” Sicheng commented, “Can you bring me back some stuff I need then?”

“Text me.” he said with a nod, “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Jeno is definitely up to something and it has nothing to do with his parents.” Jaemin whispered to Yukhei as YangYang and Xiaojun picked up on their conversation, “They’re with Y/N’s parents on a cruise in the Carribean right now so they wouldnt even be able to contact him to send them anything.”

“Who knows what he’s doing.” Yukhei said sighing, “Sometimes I wish Jisung was here to read him.”

“So do I, Xuxi...so do I…”

25 notes · View notes

wild3flow3r · 5 years ago

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Holidays 2023

December 21st, 2023

When Lorelai and Harry spoke about their Christmas trip to Hawaii this holiday season, most of their relatives started off jealous that they would be able to celebrate in warmer weather. But then each time they would see the jealousy fade as they realized the couple was going to put themselves through it by bringing a seven month old baby along for those long flight times. Including the layover in Los Angeles, the trip would take well over twenty hours, and they’d have to do it twice in a matter of two weeks.

Yes, when they got off the plane in Hawaii, the parents were well exhausted while their son, Wyatt, looked like he was prepared to keep them awake for as long as possible. But the joke didn’t feel like it was on them, because they were still in Hawaii, were going to spend the next two weeks together as a small happy family on the beaches while their families had to suffer through the miserable cold. Oh no, they won big time.

“This is it,” Harry mumbles with half lidded eyes. He’s carrying most of their luggage on his back and rolling three suitcases around them. He dips the hotel key card into the slot on the door and opens it after the beep. He gestures Lorelai to head in before him with a sleepy smile.

Lorelai carries one of their carry on bags on her shoulder and Wyatt against her chest. The baby’s taken to pulling her hair lately and currently he has a huge chunk of her hair grasped in his little fingers. She steps into the room first and flicks the lights on. The first room was a living room, equipped with a sofa, chairs, a coffee table, a television, and a fireplace. A balcony was attached to this room with a small sitting area so they could look over the beach in front of the hotel. They walk into the bedroom, which was filled with a king-sized bed, a baby crib as per requested, a closet, dresser, the typical hotel room things.

Harry pushes their suitcases to the side for now until they can find the energy to unpack later. He sticks his arms out towards Lorelai after she tries, and fails miserably, to hide another painful gasp. “Come on bugger, come to daddy. Mumma likes her hair on her head.”

Wyatt only lets go of the hair after a little coaxing, and then joyfully falls into his father’s arms. Lorelai collapses on their bed with a soft thud. She lets her eyes shut momentarily, feeling the bed dip under Harry’s weight right next to her. She opens her eyes to him bouncing Wyatt on his knee, the baby falling into a fit of giggles at the bumping motion.

“He needs to be fed, and then a bath,” Harry murmurs while brushing back that boys short curls. “You sleep, I’ll take care of him.”

Lorelai starts to sit up, ready to refuse, but Harry places a hand on her thigh.

“It’s okay. You entertained him for most of the plane ride, I can take over for now.”

“I’ll just take a quick nap,” she relents.

But a quick nap turned into nearly four hours. She honestly would have slept longer, would have never woken up, if the last time she’d eaten was on the plane, and even that she barely touched what the flight attendants had given her. She rubs her hand over her face, slightly miffed that Harry never bothered to wake her so he could take time for himself to rest, but as she padded into the living room any negative feelings she had melted away.

Harry sat on the sofa shirtless, his nose stuck in a book he had tried reading on the plane, but thanks to Wyatt, never had a moment to open it. He peeked up over the pages when he heard the door open, and his mouth twitched up in the smallest smile at the sight of his wife. Wyatt laid on a small rug not far from Harry on his stomach, playing with a few of his toys that were set in front of him. Both of his parents know he’s going to be a menace as soon as he learns how to crawl, and although he hasn’t succeeded to do so yet, he tries to every day. He screams in delight at the sight of his mother and shakes a chubby fist at her before focusing back on his rattle.

Lorelai sits next to Harry, stretching her legs out on the couch so that her toes poke against his thigh. He grabs one of her ankles and squeezes, going back to reading his book.

“I’ve ordered room service. It should be here soon.”

“You’re a true gift from God, Harry Styles.”

He smirks, but says nothing more. His thumb and forefinger begin to knead into her ankle. Lorelai sighs in content, leaning further back into the couch. Even before all of the traveling, they really needed this vacation. They haven’t been on one since their honeymoon two years ago, and ever since the two of them have been working non-stop. First with their respective jobs, and then Lorelai got pregnant so they put all of their energy towards that, and then even more energy towards Wyatt once he was born. They had meant to wait until the summer to travel somewhere, when Wyatt was over a year old, but they had been wearing themselves too thin.

The only reason they were here now was because Harry demanded they do it. The couple had started snapping at one another more often than they used to before. But unlike before when it would end at snapping and the two would makeup, heated arguments would start instead. With all of the stress from their jobs and keeping Wyatt happy and healthy, they forgot to take a second for themselves, for each other. Harry sprung the idea of Hawaii out of nowhere, at least for Lorelai, because he’d already booked the plane tickets and hotel when he told her. At first Lorelai tried to refuse, she was even a little annoyed with him, that is until he gave his reasoning.

“We’re going to fall apart if we don’t go. And I don’t mean that in any funny sort of way like an exaggeration that our bodies are going to give up on us. I mean our relationship. I have no idea what projects you’re doing at work anymore, you don’t know that I’m thinking of opening another office for my firm somewhere else in London. We need to regroup somewhere not here, because I can’t lose you Lorelai. Not now, not ever, and you can throw a fit all the way to the beaches, because you and Wyatt are coming and that’s final.”

His bottom lip had wobbled, his eyes red from frustrated unshed tears. Lorelai hugged him then and started crying herself against his chest. They talked that night, talked about anything and everything. It’d been the most they talked to each other in months about something other than Wyatt.

Lorelai’s eyes were drooping again by the time the food arrived. Harry went to answer the door and Lorelai picked Wyatt up so he didn’t get in the way. He, of course, grasps onto her hair.

“I should cut it again,” Lorelai mutters while Wyatt plays around, acting like he’s going to tug and then doesn’t.

Harry tips the service and shuts the door. He looks over them with fondness. “You’d have to go bald then. He’ll like the challenge of shorter hair.”

Lorelai huffs, agreeing. When Wyatt lets go of her hair, distracted by his father’s tickling fingers, Lorelai ties it back and out of reach. She wraps her arms around Wyatt and pulls him closer to her chest. “Let me nurse him and put him down to sleep, and then I’ll be ready to eat.”

Harry nods and moves around to get the meals ready. Wyatt latches on Lorelai’s chest, and she massages the back of his head with soft fingers. He falls asleep within no time, and when Lorelai deems he’s had enough milk, she carefully moves him to the other room and into his crib. She shuts the door halfway as she leaves him. Harry had the food set up on a small table now. Lorelai sits next to him.

“We’ve got that couples spa thing that you wanted booked for tomorrow. The hotel reassured me again that their hotel daycare is the best around.” Harry murmurs before he starts eating.

“Are you still going to be taking those surfing lessons?”

“The day after next,” he confirms. “You can still join me if you’d like.”

Lorelai snorts and shakes her head. “It’ll be more fun on the beach with Wyatt watching you fall over.”

Harry pouts. “What do you mean. I’m a pro.”

“Not if you’re getting lessons babe.”

“They’re just to remind myself how to do it properly. I used to surf a lot on family vacations when I was younger.”

“Yeah, when you were fifteen and didn’t have any back problems.”

Harry shifts in his seat, as if just the mention of it caused a flare up of pain. “Oi, just shut it and eat your food.”

Lorelai grins, trying and failing terribly to hold back a laugh. They eat in a comfortable silence for the rest of the meal, taking their time scanning over each other and then the view from their balcony, and then back to each other. Harry’s left hand is holding onto Lorelai’s right one over the table, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. He nudges his foot against hers and she nudges his right back.

“It’s been a while,” Lorelai mumbles, not outright saying what it is, but knowing full well that Harry will understand what she is talking about.

“Have we at all since Wyatt was born?” His eyes look up, trying to calculate how much time has passed since they last had sex.

“We’ve done little things, but nothing much since I was pregnant. My whole body hurt for weeks after the birth, and we’ve been too tired to even think about it.”

“I’ll plan something special then,” Harry says, lifting her hand to kiss the back of her hand.

Lorelai rolls her eyes playfully. “It doesn’t have to be anything special.”

“For you, I want everything to be special.”

Lorelai grins and eventually nods. They finish eating and Harry stands to put the dishes outside of the door to be picked up. Lorelai moves back to the couch and picks up Harry’s book. It’s one she’s read before and bothered Harry for weeks to read himself so they could talk about it. She scans over the page, and nearly turns to the next one before it’s plucked out of her hand.

“Hey,” Lorelai pouts, looking up at Harry.

“You’re gonna lose my spot,” he fake moans. He sits next to her and wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

Lorelai places her hand against his bare chest and thrums her fingers against the skin. She nuzzles her head against the crook where his arm meets his shoulder. Harry leaned his cheek against the top of her head and holds the book open.

“You’re at a good part,” she whispers.

“Shhh, don’t spoil it.”

“I would never.”

Lorelai looks up so she’s watching him. His eyes flick down to hers momentarily before back to the book. He’s smiling. “You’re distracting me.”

“Well I want to see your reaction.”

Harry lets out an amused breath. She watches as he mouths the words silently to himself and his eyes flick over the page. She kisses his chest once and goes back to reading with him when she hears him turn the page. They stay like this for a while, Lorelai reading the pages faster than Harry and then turns to see how he reacts. When Harry finishes the chapter he realizes Lorelai’s soft breathing and that at some point she had fallen asleep.

He presses her nose against her hairline. “I love you,” he mumbled. He sets the book aside and then carried her off to bed.

December 25th, 2023

“Merry Christmas, baby.” Lorelai picks Wyatt up and out of his crib, talking in a hushed tone to make sure she doesn’t wake Harry up yet. Wyatt grabs onto Lorelai’s teapot charm necklace and stares at her with wide green eyes. “Let’s wake up daddy, and then we can see what presents Santa brought you, yeah?”

Lorelai maneuvers them so she’s kneeling on the bed beside Harry. He’s lying on his stomach, his head facing them, and his breathing slow. Wyatt had decided he wanted to stay up and see Santa Claus arrive himself, at least that’s what the two of them joke to each other. Either way, Harry was on night duty, and Wyatt kept Harry awake until the early hours of the morning. Now the baby was well rested, and Harry probably felt like he’s only been asleep for only five minutes. Lorelai knows the feeling well.

She places the chubby baby on the back of Harry’s neck. Wyatt practically screams with glee and loses his hands in his father’s curls. “Da!” He squeals, something that made Lorelai only a teensy bit jealous. Wyatt only knew two words so far, Da and Waf, as in Waffle for their dog.

Harry groans momentarily and slowly blinks his eyes open. At first he can only see the red and green stripes of Wyatt’s pajama bottoms, but as the baby kicks his legs Harry can spot Lorelai’s amused grin in the background.

“Da. Da. Da. Da. Da.” Wyatt repeats over and over again, wriggling around so he’s practically jumping on Harry’s head.

“Hey mate,” Harry mumbled, holding onto his son’s legs so he doesn’t tip over. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Lorelai replies, scratching a hand over Harry’s back. Harry hums in delight.

“Think it’s time to open presents, hm?”

Lorelai picks Wyatt back up, but immediately he wants back to his father. Harry holds him upright before twirling the both of them around the room. Wyatt laughs and hits his father’s bare chest.

Harry had ordered a small, pre decorated tree from the hotel services the day before. Now, it was filled with presents underneath that the parents had set up the night before. Wyatt marvels at the shiny wrapping paper. It’s a slow morning and they take their time letting Wyatt open his presents and inspect them. He’s pretty pleased with all of them, but he loved playing with the wrapping paper even more. Eventually, they started getting ready for the day.

By the time Lorelai emerged from the shower, Harry had himself and Wyatt ready. They were in the living area, Harry kneeling behind Wyatt and holding him so he could play with his new blocks. They were in the new shirts Lorelai had picked out for them a few weeks ago. It was a shirt Harry would never pick for himself, usually preferring simple shades to wear, but Lorelai demanded he wear some ‘tropical’ clothing for their trip.He was donning a yellow button up she bought with a black undershirt underneath.

“Remember what we’ve been practicing, hm?” Harry says to Wyatt, unaware to Lorelai’s presence.

“And what have you been practicing?”

Harry jumps and his eyes flick to Lorelai’s immediately. “Oh, nothing.”

Lorelai raises an eyebrow. “Nothing?”

“Nope.”

“You sure?”

“Yes I’m sure.” He stands and picks Wyatt up. “Come on now Skipper, let’s get to the beach.”

Lorelai eyes him suspiciously but follows Harry out of the room with their towel bag over her shoulder. On the elevator, she starts spreading the sun cream on Wyatt’s skin, much to his dismay. After another wriggle and more missed skin, Lorelai sighs.

“Look Wyatt. Daddy’s getting it too,” Lorelai hums.

“Wha-”

Lorelai presses the sun cream against Harry’s cheek. Wyatt burst out in giggles at his father’s shocked face. While distracted, Lorelai was able to finish rubbing all of it into the baby��s skin. Then she rubs in the white streak on Harry’s cheek. Harry playfully glares at her, but says nothing.

The beaches here are beautiful. The one they’ve been going to has been pretty exclusive to the hotel guests only. They set up in the spot they’ve claimed at their own over the last few days. They take out their towels and settle down onto them. Lorelai holds Wyatt while Harry sets up their beach umbrella. He strips out of his shirt and then he takes out the first pair of sunglasses he sees, Lorelai’s, and puts them on. And then he hands Wyatt a shovel and a small pail. He didn’t really know how to use it yet, but he enjoyed knocking over whatever towers Harry was successful in making.

“I’d say today’s been a hit so far,” Harry starts after a while of comfortable silence. He builds another castle for Wyatt to knock down.

“I would agree,” Lorelai hums and pushes some of the curls out of the baby’s face.

Harry leans over and presses a kiss against Lorelai’s knee. “I love you.”

Lorelai grins. “I love you too.”

“So me and Wyatt have been practicing something,” Harry finally admits.

Lorelai laughs. “And what is it?”

“Sort of like an extra Christmas present.”

“Well you two have already gotten me so much.” Lorelai nearly burst out crying from all of the presents that were labeled to her this morning from Wyatt. She got about a dozen different things telling her she was the number one mum in the world. Harry himself let a tear drop when he opened similar presents ‘from’ Wyatt.

“Well this is kind of different.”

Alright. I’m ready.”

Harry sits back now and brings Wyatt up into his lap. Harry leans down towards Wyatt’s ear and starts humming a ‘m’ sound. It takes about a minute, but finally Wyatt claps his hands together and screams, “Ma!”

This time Lorelai does cry. Wyatt falls into her arms easily, giggling against her chest. “Good job baby,” she whispers in fear that if she were to talk any louder than her voice would crack.

“Merry Christmas.” Harry rubs his hand against Lorelai’s leg. “To the best one I’ve had yet, and to many more just like it.

December 31st, 2023

Lorelai and Harry weren’t drunk, but they were certainly tipsy. Wyatt’s been asleep for a while now, and one of the best things about Wyatt at this age was that once he fell asleep he usually stayed asleep until morning. Harry had started the fire about an hour before. Lorelai had laid out some blankets and pillows in front of it. They dedicated this night to themselves, something they haven’t done in so long.

They were both naked under the blankets, breathing heavy as they both come down from their highs. Harry was to her side now, but still hovering over her. He’s got a hand wrapped around one side of her neck as his mouth nibbles at the other.

Lorelai scratches down his back. “At least you haven’t lost your touch.”

“Never lose it for you, Skipper,” he mumbles against her skin.

She grins, a dopey look on her face. “We should go on more vacations.”

Harry hums and nods. “I agree. Although maybe next time it should be just you and me that way we can do this all the time.”

“We should let my parents babysit more often. They always let us know that they can. We could take a weekend trip around Valentine’s Day.”

Harry lifts his head far up enough just so she can catch his grin. He presses his lips against hers in a soft kiss. “That sounds good to me.”

“We should also see a counselor, I think. Just in case.”

Harry squeezes her hip. “I’ll set up an appointment as soon as we get back.” A few years ago Lorelai knows Harry probably would have never agreed to that term, but after a few years of going to therapy himself and seeing how it’s helped him it’s easier for him to agree to it now.

Lorelai loses one of her hands in his curls and pushes him back towards her neck. He chuckles and obliges, nibbling on the skin again. But then he kisses lower to her shoulder, and then her chest until he disappears underneath the blankets. Lorelai shifts in anticipation, but Harry holds her body down with his hands as best he can.

“Harry,” Lorelai whines and reaches down to hold him. He intertwines her hands with his own.

“Happy New Year Skipper,” He mutters against her thigh.

After a bit more fun, and quite a bit more drinking, the couple fell asleep on the floor. This was probably a huge mistake for Harry’s back problems, but when Lorelai opened her eyes the next morning she knew she was in the absolute best place in the world. They are facing each other, and Harry’s arms are wrapped tight around her. His nose is pressed against her hairline and he’s snoring softly. It takes a moment for Lorelai to realize what had woken her up. Wyatt is moaning for his parents from the bedroom.

“What’re you doing?” Harry mumbles when Lorelai shifts in his grip.

“Wyatt,” Lorelai responds simply. She sits up too fast and then has to take a moment to gather her bearings. She and Harry haven’t drunk like that in a long time. A pre Wyatt time. It was hitting both of them hard.

Harry hums in response. He presses his palms against his eyeballs before slowly sitting up himself. “Are we going to try the bottle today?”

They’ve been trying to wean Wyatt off of breastfeeding recently because they knew if they waited until he was older it would be harder to do so. Lorelai nods.

“Alright. You get the bugger and I’ll warm up a bottle.”

Lorelai puts Harry’s t-shirt on before walking to the bedroom. “Welcome to the New Year darling,” Lorelai says while picking up her son. Wyatt still cries, but they lessen when he’s in his mother’s arms. “Should we go see what Daddy’s making for you?”

“Da?” The baby whimpers.

“Mhmm. Dada is making you an extra special treat.”

After Wyatt’s diaper has been changed, Lorelai takes him out into the living area. Harry’s already sitting on a chair with a bottle in hand. He’s wearing pajamas Lorelai had bought him for Christmas, a yellow t-shirt and a pair of pants that she thought would look funny on him. They do, but also he somehow makes them work that that makes her furious to some extent. He’s also wearing his pair of white sunglasses. His hair is sticking out all over the place.

Wyatt practically bursts out of Lorelai’s arms to Harry’s. Harry adjusts him in his lap before pressing to bottle to his lips. For a few minutes he refuses, but eventually Harry can coax him into drinking from it.

“Don’t know how you do it. I would have given up by now and just let him latch on.”

Harry smiles at her, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. An oncoming headache, she presumes. Harry has never been good with those. She goes to grab him some aspirin.

“Thank you Skipper,” he mutters before taking the pills. He shifts Wyatt over to one leg and then pats the other. Tentatively, Lorelai sits. Harry presses a kiss against the back of her shoulder.

Lorelai knows Harry can feel it too, the happiness, the peace, the calm, the love. The love the couple held for each other, that they held for their baby boy, and the love the baby boy shared right back with them.

“Happy New Years.”

Harry kisses her shoulder again. “To many more happy years with the two of you. And maybe some more of us.”

“Don’t get cheeky. I told you, not for a while.”

“I can wait. I’ll wait forever for you.”

“Oh, don’t be such a sap,” Lorelai hits his shoulders playfully. Wyatt watches up at them with wide green eyes.

“There’s no other way I can be, Skipper, not around you. I love you too much.”

#1dff #cmiyc #merry Christmas guys!!#if you celebrate! if you don't then I hope your holidays/your day went well!#a special holiday treat!!#I hope you guys enjoy!!#post cmiyc #harry styles #harry styles au #harry style fic #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fic au #harry styles fanfic au #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfiction au #one direction #one direction fanfic #one direction fanfiction #one direction fic

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bobasheebaby · 5 years ago

Text

Hoping For Snow Part Three (Fin)

Pairing: Drake x Liam; Drake x Julie (OC); Liam x Olivia; William Walker (OC) x Katherine Rys (OC)

Word count: 2,181

Warnings: pure angst

Summary: AU where MC doesn’t exist and Drake leaves far before the social season.

Song inspiration: Hoping For Snow by The Vamps

A/N: Third and final part. When writing the original part the thought for this piece came to me, so of course since I wrote part two I had to do part three. 🙈 Please don’t be mad at me. A huge thank you to @sirbeepsalot for helping me with names and dealing with all my screams, especially when I realized the pairing I unintentionally wrote.

Disclaimer: I only own my OC’s, the rest I’m simply borrowing them from PB for a bit.

Twenty years later ...

“Dad, we have to leave now or we’re going to be late meeting William and his parents!”

“I still don’t understand why they couldn’t come to the palace.” Liam said not looking up from the document he was reading.

Katherine let out a drawn out sigh. “Dad, I told you, we didn’t want to overwhelm his parents with the fact that you’re a king.” And they have no clue …

“I’ll be out shortly Katherine.”

It felt like he blinked from being happy and in love to marrying for the good of his country. In no time at all his youngest daughter had blossomed into a beautiful young woman who was getting married. The idea of his baby girl marrying so young made a pit grow in his stomach. At least she’s happy.

Tap tap tap

Liam looked up with a sigh. Katherine might look like him but she had the fiery temper of her mother. “I’m almost done.”

“Mom says if you don’t get your ass out here in the next five minutes she’s chucking a dagger at your head.”

Liam chuckled. He may not have been in love with Olivia when they married but, as time wore on, he grew to love her. Her fiery spirit is what had set her apart from all the other suitors.

His father and the council had tried to fight his choice, touting that Madeline would be the more reliable and safe choice. He explained that by marrying Olivia he would finally be joining Rys and Nevrakis, putting to bed all worry and hate for the later family.

He’d been right that Olivia was the right choice for him. Growing up together, she knew when things were bothering him but she also knew when to pull him out of his own head. She pushed him when he needed it and knew when to leave him be.

Most of all, they both agreed that their daughters should marry whomever they love.

They were curious about the young man she’d fallen in love with in Europe. Their whirlwind relationship had caught them both off guard, they worried she’d end up with a broken heart. At least we are finally meeting the young man who stole our daughter’s heart.

Tap tap tap

Liam let out an exasperated breath. She really is her mother’s daughter. His eyes met her icy glare. “Okay, fine.” He stood, placing his papers down on the desk. “I’m coming.” He froze momentarily as he caught the only picture of him he kept out of the corner of his eye. He felt the familiar sharp sting in his heart that always came around the holidays. I hope you’re as happy as I am.

Twenty five years had passed since Drake left. It had taken Liam time but he’d finally come to live with nothing more than a gentle tenderness in his chest. The past is the past, it’s time to leave it there.

Liam glanced at his watch, his other hand idly tapping the arm of the Davenport he shared with his wife.

Katherine shifted in her seat across from her parents. “They probably hit traffic.” She twisted the modest diamond ring on her finger. Her stomach had been twisted in knots for weeks from the worry that their families wouldn’t get along. What if they hate him?

“We’ll wait however long it takes.” Olivia responded patting Liam’s hand.

“When did my queen become so accommodating?” He leaned in and kissed her cheek.

“It’s the man our daughter is marrying … I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt,” she smiled, pausing as she patted her handbag “… until I meet him.”

Drake nervously tapped his foot against the threadbare carpet of the taxi. Leave it to my son to bring me back here. When William had informed him the woman he loved came from Cordonia his heart had clenched in his chest. Hopefully I’ll be able to avoid any reminders of Liam while we’re here visiting her family.

His fingers curled into the worn leather of the seats as he caught a glimpse of the palace in the distance. Hopefully Liam will be in Lythikos. He always did love a white Christmas.

He sighed as they pulled in front of the Royal Ruby. Of course they would show off their wealth. The bougie hotel was far from modest, with the ornate building decorated with extravagant Christmas decorations for the holidays.

He stepped out of the taxi and smiled as he took his wife’s hand. He could do nearly anything with Julie by his side.

Katherine jumped up. “Will!” She shouted as she sprinted across the lounge towards her fiancé.

“Katie-bear!” Will pulled her into a warm and loving embrace. He turned towards his parents and younger sister, his hand resting at the small of her back. “Mom, Dad, Lydia, I’d like you to meet Katie.”

Drake stared at Katherine for a moment; she felt oddly familiar to him but he was unable to place where he’d seen her.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My parents are in the lounge. Unfortunately, my older sister Bridgette is still out of town, but my parents can’t wait to meet you.”

Drake shook his head. He was seeing things; there was no way he could know the young woman his son had fallen for. It’s just ghosts of the past making you see things.

Drake scanned the room as they entered the lounge. Who are you looking for? You won’t recognize her parents.

“Mom, Dad, this is Will and his parents Drake and Julie, and his sister Lydia.”

Drake froze in place as his past stood staring him in the face. His heart pounded in his throat as his eyes locked on Liam. He was older, touches of grey in his obsidian hair, but he still made his heart race. Katherine is Liam’s daughter?!

Olivia grasped Liam’s hands in hers. “It’s been awhile Walker.”

“Dad?” Will looked between his father, and Katherine’s parents and back. “Do you know Katie’s parents?”

Drake nervously scratched his neck. “Uh yea … ”

“We grew up together, until Walker left for Texas and never came back.” Olivia said, her tone harsh as her eyes fixed on Drake.

She knows. Drake swallowed the lump in his throat, as he begged the earth to open up at his feet and swallow him whole. “My father was the head guard to Liam’s father, the king.”

Julie stared stunned. “Wait … does that mean … William Walker!” She gasped. “How could you not tell your own mother you were marrying a princess?!”

“Does that mean Will is going to be King?” Lydia asked bouncing on the balls of her feet. She had thought visiting a foreign country over Christmas would be a drag, but meeting actual royalty …

“Oh, no. I’m just the spare. Bridgette is the heir.” Katherine replied quickly.

“Katherine, you know you aren’t just anything. You were just as wanted and loved as your sister.”

“Your mother is right.” Liam said squeezing Olivia’s hand. He worked to keep the smile on his face. He remembered how trapped he had still felt when Olivia was pregnant with Bridgette. Bridgette was his light, but it wasn’t until the day that Katherine was born that he realized he needed to completely let go of old wounds and live in the present. If Bridgette was his sun, Katherine was his moon and all the stars in the sky.

Drake leaned over the sink, his palms flat against the porcelain top. Of course my son would fall for his daughter. He turned on the tap, catching the cold water in cupped hands, and splashed it on his face. Pull it together.

The tension in the lounge had been nearly suffocating. So you have to face him. You moved on and are happy. This was the right move for both of us--he has to see that. He grabbed a paper towel and dried his face.

He looked up into the mirror, freezing when he caught sight of Liam behind him. It's now or never. He turned clearing his throat, his mouth suddenly as dry as the Sahara. “Hey Li.”

Liam shoved his hands in his pockets. All his training never prepared him for facing the man who had once broken his heart. “You did well for yourself. You have a beautiful family.”

“Yeah.” Drake rubbed the back of his neck. All the years apart stretched between them, the once lovers and friends were now strangers. “So you picked Olivia … I bet Constantine loved that.”

“Oh, he hated it. But Olivia really was the best choice for both myself and the country.”

Drake finally allowed his eyes to lock on Liam’s, a subtle pain reflecting back at him, one he felt himself. “I don’t regret leaving if that’s what you wanted to ask.”

“No.” Liam shook his head. “Twenty years ago maybe, but not now.” The truth in his heart flowed freely, releasing the pain he’d once felt. “Now I know it was for the best … I just wanted to ask if you were as happy as I am.”

Drake stared at Liam stunned, he never expected Liam to yell or shout, he was far too calm to start a scene, but he’d thought he’d question if he’d regretted his decision. “Yeah … I really am.”

Julie looked around the lounge. Katherine was entertaining Lydia who finally stopped groaning about wasting her Christmas vacation in a country no one ever heard of now that she knew her brother was engaged to a real life princess. William was busy talking to the king and queen. “Drake, can we talk?” She had noticed the air was heavy with tension and she was ready to learn what had her husband on edge since learning they were going to Cordonia.

Here we go. The moment Drake laid eyes on Liam and Olivia he knew this conversation was coming. He’d buried it so deeply that he never explained why he moved to Texas or who gave the ornament that always sat in the box year after year. He’d become so happy he didn’t want to bring up old wounds. He stood and nodded; it was time for him to explain.

They moved to a quieter corner of the lounge. Julie looked down at her hands, the knot in her stomach nearly stopping her. “The old ornament we never put up,” she paused, unsure if she was truly ready to hear the truth. “ … was it from one of them?”

Drake let out a sigh, his hand absentmindedly running through his hair. “Yes.”

Julie swallowed, she’d expected that much, the next question made her chest grow tight. “Which one?” Olivia had been slightly defensive, but she couldn’t miss the small glances between Liam and her husband.

“Liam.”

“Would—would you—” she trailed off as her throat constricted, not allowing the rest of her thought through.

“No no no. Oh Julie.” He took both her hands into his. “There have been times when I wondered what life would have been like if I hadn’t left, but you and the kids are my life and I wouldn’t trade the life we made together for anything.” He pulled her into his arms, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “You are my everything and there is no place I’d rather be.”

Liam smiled as he stepped out of the hotel, Olivia’s arm looped through his own. The day had surprised him; he had never thought he’d lay eyes on Drake again. The way he’d left had left him reeling. It took time but he soon found himself exactly where he was supposed to be.

He never thought of a life outside of Drake, but he wouldn’t trade his life with Olivia for anything. She and their girls made him happy when he’d been at his lowest. They had picked him up and helped him heal.

He’d long since learned to live with a dull ache around the holidays. Christmas was the only time of year he’d felt the pain that had lingered for so long.

He’d long since stopped staring out the window wishing for Christmas magic to make Drake appear and come home to him once more.

His eyes met Drake’s as he looked over the door of the sleek black SUV. The pain he thought might never leave now suddenly disappeared even with Drake standing feet away.

He nodded his head at Drake before sliding into the car behind Olivia. He never dreamed that he would feel at peace with Drake’s decision. Watching their children together, he saw the wisdom he never did in Drake’s choice to leave.

“Liam, look.” Olivia gasped as she clutched his arm.

He followed her gaze out the windscreen, his lips turning up once more. Large fluffy flakes landed on the glass, melting from the warmth emanating from the interior. A white Christmas.

He slipped his hand into hers as a calm settling over the car.

They could finally stop hoping for snow.

Feedback fuels me, please like, comment or reblog to let me know how much you like it. I can handle the screams, so scream away.

Masterlist can be found in my bio.

Permanent taglist will be reblogged.

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something-tofightfor · 6 years ago

Text

He’s Not Here - Part 15

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader

Word Count: 6100

Rating: NSFW. zesty. steamy.

Parts 1-14 + the interludes can be found on my Masterlist (link in bio)!

Summary: New Year’s Eve with Billy... there’s nothing more to say.

Author’s Note: I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while. And... I think I’m gonna throw up.

Tagging: If you want to be added or removed, let me know.

@banditthewriter @breanime @obscurilicious @padfootagain @madamrogers @ooo-barff-ooo @agent-bossypants @suchatinyinfinity @chibiyanai @songtoyou @ethereal-heavcns @editboutique @marauderskeeper @drinix @ilkaeliseb @delicatelilyflower @king4thesirens @likethetailofacomet @blah-blah-fuckit-shit @ymariejp @mr-robot-x @rageshots @shinebrightlikeafanbase @littlemermaidprobz @jovialyouthmusic @zaffrenotes @introvertedlibrary @writing-for-a-chance @yesixoxo @ilikebeachessushiandsmallanimals @likeorions @swiftyhowlz @dylanobrusso @dreamwritesimagines @waytoobsessedwithmyfandoms @lexxierave @ms-delos @elanor-of-imladris @lynne1993 @dreams-with-thoughts @fireeyes-on-teller-dixon-grimes @traeumerinwitzhelden @bucky-is-my-precious @weallhaveadestiny @ladyblablabla @sweetybuzz25 @luminex3

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve passed uneventfully - Billy returned to work (on light duty only, supervising his clients but not actively sparring with them), and you were able to get a great deal done on your end, too. The office was always less busy during the holidays, and you were thankful for the quiet because it gave you time to think, to plan and to relax. On the 30th, you received a text from Billy that he was going to be late getting back to your apartment because he had a stop to make on his way home. Ok, vague, but that’s fine. You didn’t have plans, but he’d offered to bring over dinner, and you appreciated the heads up. Sending out a few final emails, you turned off your computer, flipped the light switch and left the office. Though you worked the week between the holidays, you’d chosen to take the following week off, meaning that you had ten glorious days of vacation to look forward to.

You took the subway back to your building, grabbing the mail before you took the elevator up to your apartment, and when you opened the door, you were surprised to see Billy sitting on your couch, an arm draped over the back as he turned to look at you. “Hey you.” You grinned at him, again struck by how normal it seemed to have him waiting for you, and as you set your stuff down he stood, walking to you. “Excited for your vacation?” With a nod, you leaned in and kissed him quickly, turning to look at the kitchen, where various pots and pans were bubbling on the stove. He’s cooking.

“Thought you were gonna be late, Billy?” He shrugged, arms going around your waist.

“Took less time than I thought… and since we’re going out tomorrow night, I thought I’d cook tonight.” He squeezed once before stepping away and into the kitchen, reaching up to the mounted magnet and pulling off a knife so that he could chop an onion. “Nothin’ special, though. Just making lasagna. It’s Maria’s recipe - she wrote it down for you.” You’d gone through the recipe book Maria had given you, marking down the dishes you’d wanted to try, and that one had been one that Billy could vouch for, so it had been at the top of your list. “Go change, get comfortable. I’ll get this in the oven and we can watch a movie while it bakes.”

The lasagna had been delicious - even Maria had been impressed with the picture you’d sent to her - and you and Billy had spent a lazy night on your couch, watching movie after movie, his arms wrapped tightly around you. “So, Billy…” You’d finally climbed into bed around 2 am after pulling the new drapes tightly shut, and were laying on your side facing him. “What are we doing tomorrow night?” You could barely make out his face in the darkness of the room, but you felt his breath as he inhaled, the stiffening of his shoulders. “I just need to know what to wear.” He laughed quietly, his long fingers slowly stroking up your side beneath the blanket and was quiet for a long time.

“What you wear doesn’t matter.” He moved his face closer, lips next to your ear. “You’re gonna be the most gorgeous woman in the room no matter what.” His voice caught as he spoke again. “We’re not goin’ anywhere fancy, though. Just - I wanna spend my… New Year’s Eve with you.” You nodded, mentally running through your closet and when he spoke again, you were caught completely off guard. “The first New Year’s I remember was with my mom.” Oh, shit. “I haven’t told you much about her, have I?” You swallowed, heart beating erratically.

“No, Billy. But… you don’t have to.” He sighed - a deep sound, one of resignation. “Do you want me to turn the light on?” His response was immediate.

“No. Keep it off, this is easier for me in the dark.” Billy shifted in the bed, moving into a half-sitting position against the headboard and you moved with him, leaning your head against his shoulder as his arm went back around you. Your eyes were adjusting to the darkness, and you could make out the lines of his body next to you, the paleness of his skin. Carefully, you reached out with a hand, putting it against his hip, the other one winding around his waist. “My ma used to have people over on New Year’s, she’d have a party, and when I was five or six - I can’t remember - she let me stay up until midnight for the first time.” He paused, taking a shuddering breath. “I don’t remember much about her, but I remember that night. The clock hit 12, and she picked me up, and she kissed me on the cheek and she said ‘It’s a new year, William. A new year for us. She never called me Billy, always William.’ There were people celebrating around us, loud and yelling, cheering, laughing… but she looked at me like she never had before, she looked … like she wanted me.” He scoffed. “I know now that’s a lie, but there were moments like that that I held onto even when I was in the system, moments like those and her rubbin’ my neck when I was sick that got me through the hardest days. My ma didn’t want me, couldn’t handle raising me, and she did what she thought was best - and maybe it was.” Billy was talking quietly and you could hear his heart hammering in his chest with each word. “I donno if she’s even alive now, or what happened to her after she dropped me off at that fire station, but I know damn well that if I ever got to see her again, I’d thank her first and then get mad at her.” What? “I might have been miserable for a lot of my life, and I might have had it rough with the other kids and the people like Arthur…” At that, your hand moved up, unconsciously tracing over the scars on his shoulder before your fingers settled onto it, squeezing gently. “But she gave me a shot to make my own decisions and to be who I wanna be, she got me to this point - right here, right now.” Billy took a deeper breath, letting it out slowly. “I’m gonna make somethin’ of myself, and it’s all because of her and what she did to me as a kid. What she forced on me.”

You were silent, not knowing how to respond for a minute but then you sat up, raising your hand to his face. “You already have, Billy. You’re a Lieutenant, you’re a Scout Sniper, you’ve proven that you’re brave and strong and…” You frowned, thinking. “You didn’t let your childhood define you. Yeah, you want more, but who wouldn’t, Billy? Who wouldn’t… want to be something, to have something worth fighting for?” He laughed quietly and you felt a dampness on your hand. He’s crying. Do I say anything? What… “You made it through, Billy. Through the hard parts and the pain and the… the bullshit. You’re here right now, right here, and you made it.”

“I did, didn’t I?” He laughed again, reaching up with one of his hands to swipe at his face, knocking your hand away in the process. “Anyway.” He cleared his throat. “I wanna take you to some of the places I spent my New Years Eves growing up tomorrow… well, today. Nothin’ fancy, just dinner and some drinks, out of the city and … I donno, it’s fuckin’ dumb, maybe I shouldn’t…”

“No, Billy. That’s perfect. I hate being here while there are so many people, getting out and being somewhere else is the best idea.” Your conversation trailed off after that, Billy sliding back down onto his back and pulling you close, one hand curled around the back of your neck, the other firmly against your hip. As you drifted off to sleep, you could have sworn you heard him mumble something, but you were too out of it to hear him clearly.

---

“Alright, so this is my absolute favorite thing on the menu.” Billy pointed down at the laminated plastic in front of you. “After I turned 21, we’d come here after the bars closed and I’d eat an entire plate of them by myself… soak up the alcohol, you know?” Billy was absolutely beaming, biting on his lower lip as he jabbed at the menu. “Will you eat them?”

“Disco fries? Aren’t they just… poutine?” He laughed, and you watched as he shoved a hand through his hair, rolling his eyes.

“Yes. And no. No cheese curds.” He shook his head. “I promise that you’ll like them, they’re my goddamn weakness.” You nodded back at him, smiling, and he signaled the waitress over, a smile on his face. “Ok, so we’ll take an order of the disco fries, extra gravy. Two plates, though, and…” You let your mind wander as he continued to order, thinking back to the previous few hours.

You’d woken up at 11:30 am on opposite sides of the bed, but with Billy’s hand still flat on your back as he slept on his stomach. After showering - separately, because you needed to get ready, you walked out of the bathroom to Billy taking a phone call as he laid on your bed wrapped only in a towel. “Yeah, Frankie. Thanks. Not yet. We’re going out tonight to Jersey.” That had been the only hint you’d been given, and when Billy pulled you out of the house at 4:30, both of you dressed casually in jeans - him wearing the green shirt you’d bought him for Christmas - he’d been more excited than you’d ever seen him. The places he’d taken you had been simple - a bar in Manhattan, a quick walk along the waterfront before you caught a train over the Hudson and into Jersey, another bar for a drink, a movie … and by the time you’d settled into a booth at the Tick Tock Diner, which was Clifton, New Jersey’s prime spot for comfort food, you’d thought Billy’s face would crack open from how broadly he was smiling. It was only 9:30, but the place was nearly empty - it seemed that many people had made their way into New York City for the holiday, which was fine with you.

You were seeing another side of Billy with each place you visited, because he was freely telling you stories about himself - about his childhood and his early adulthood, about his friends, kids that he’d grown up with. Unlike other times when he’d said only a little and then immediately shut down, this was different - he was opening up to you, willingly filling in the pieces of his past, and you drank it in. When the waitress delivered your food, she winked at Billy and walked off, but he only had eyes for you, staring at you and holding out a fork. “You first.” Shaking your head, you reached out to take the utensil from him, gathering a forkful of potatoes and gravy and cheese before raising it to your mouth.

“Oh my God, Billy.” You spoke with you mouth full, eyes rolling back and he laughed loudly, finally picking up his own fork and digging in. “You weren’t lying.” Your conversation continued throughout the meal, and when you finished a little after 10, Billy helped you into your coat, brushing the hair away from your face as he stood in front of you, the diner lighting giving his eyes a chocolate brown look instead of their usual black. He’s different tonight. “Where next, Billy?” As far as New Year’s Eve went, this was entirely different from what you’d expected, but his next words still caught you off guard.

“Back to New York.” He sniffed, zipping up his jacket. “We should have enough time to get back to my place before the ball drops.” He was right - you made it to his building just after eleven, stopping only for a moment at his apartment to grab a spare blanket, a six pack of beer and two folding chairs, and then Billy tugged on your hand, guiding you back to the elevator and pushing the button for the top floor. “Last thing I wanna show you.” You followed him down the hallway, carrying the blanket and he pushed through the emergency exit door, which opened onto stairs that led to the roof.

“Holy shit, Billy.” You looked around as the wind blew, eyes taking in the lights of the city. There were remnants of a rooftop garden, scattered items that other tenants had left during the warmer months, and Billy led you over to the south facing wall, setting up the chairs next to each other. “This view… why have you never brought me up here before?” His building was taller than yours by nearly 20 stories, giving you a bird’s eye view of New York City, and you were stunned at the sight of it.

“I was saving it.” Billy sat, waiting for you to do the same, and he opened a beer for himself before handing one to you after you’d pulled the blanket around your shoulders. “I wanted to be sure that I could bring you here.” He swallowed. “And I am.” Billy took a deep breath and leaned into the back of his chair, his free hand moving through his hair. “I’ve lived in this building for nine years, and I’ve spent every single New Year’s Eve up here, alone with my beer and my memories. I visit with Frankie and Maria for a little while, but when the ball drops, I’m always here.” He looked over at you, a forced smile on his face. “I never wanted to spend it with anyone else before, you know? None of them...And now you… you’re here, and you… fuck.” He took a deep breath and turned away again, looking out over the city. You watched as his jaw clenched, one eye narrowing, tongue poking into his cheek. Billy opened and closed his mouth a few times, and you watched him straighten up, take a deep breath and start talking again.

“I told you about the first New Year’s Eve I remember, with my mom.” You nodded, but stayed silent. Billy took a breath and another drink of his beer before continuing. “But it was all of the ones after that that stuck with me. The two with her and the ones in the Home, and even the ones after.” Billy sighed, and with it, he sounded so tired that you wanted to tell him to stop, to tell him to be quiet, but you couldn’t, knowing that whatever he was leading up to was big. “I loved the parties. I loved watching the other kids decorate and play and gather around the TV to watch the ball drop. We always got a great dinner at the Ray of Hope, and it was just… nice. I liked it because everyone was together, everyone was excited, everyone was in the same room for once, talking and laughing, and making resolutions, wearing those stupid hats… we even had noisemakers sometimes.” He smiled, the expression on his face softening. “Christmas was nice an’ all, but it wasn’t the same. Everyone was lookin’ forward to the presents and the possbility of it bein’ their last Christmas without a home, without a family… but every year, I knew that that wouldn’t happen for me, no one wanted a gangly boy when they could have a cute little kid, then no one wanted the teenager with the shitty attitude. And so I accepted it. But I always looked forward to New Year’s, because I remember my mom’s words ‘it’s a new year, William’, and for me it always was.” He fell silent again, and you leaned over, reaching out with your hand to squeeze his.

“I get it, Billy.” He turned to look at you, eyes wide. “I can’t imagine what it was like for you to grow up like that, but I get it, a new year is a new start for everyone, no matter where you’re living or who you’re with.” He nodded, leaning over and cupping your cheek with his hand, pulling your face closer to his so that he could kiss you - softly, gently, such an unbelievably un-Billy kiss that it took your breath away. You breathed his name out, feeling his lips again press against yours. He pulled back, finishing his beer and opening another one, taking a long swig as he checked his watch - it was 11:40. Almost time. Almost…

“It’s not just a new year for me.” Billy spoke again after a few minutes, and his voice was steady, the words certain. “It’s not about the changing of the year or the resolutions.” Billy turned his head toward you, tongue darting out to wet his lips. “Today’s my birthday.” Your jaw dropped, eyes widening and you gasped, but he only smiled. “Frankie and Maria are the only ones who matter that know… and now you do, too.” He took a deep breath, shrugging his shoulders. “I never had a birthday party, but it was always like… everyone was celebratin’ for me anyway. We never made birthdays a big deal in the Home, but since everyone was together, it was better than a party, and I could pretend that they were all there for me. I was surrounded by people - by happy people, and that was enough.” You couldn’t control your heartbeat, and felt tears gathering in the corners of your eyes. His birthday? And he didn’t tell me until it was almost over? “I got to spend today with you, doin’ exactly what I wanted to do. This is the most perfect birthday I’ve ever had to go along with the Christmas you gave me.”

He stood, reaching out with one hand for you and you allowed him to pull you to your feet, right up against his chest. You reached up, wrapping your arms - and the blanket around his shoulders, cocooning both of you together. He looked down at you, hands at your hips, his fingers holding on tightly and an anxious expression on his face. “Billy…” You paused, wanting to be sure that you said the right thing, that you didn’t spoil the moment. “Happy birthday, Billy Russo.” He laughed, ducking his head to press his forehead against yours, lips parted in a grin. “I hope that this year is everything you want it to be.” He nodded and you tilted your head, lips moving closer to his. “I hope you never have to spend another birthday alone.” You won’t, if I have anything to do with it.

The blanket fell to the ground as you gripped his shoulder with one hand, the other moving up the back of his head so that your fingers could tangle in his hair, and Billy’s grip on your waist tightened as your mouths met, a long, slow sigh escaping from his throat as he kissed you. You’d been kissed by him many times and in many ways, but this felt like the first time, like he’d finally given you all of himself, and you groaned against his lips as he pulled you closer, fingers interlocking against your back after sliding from your hips. I love you so much, Billy. So goddamn much, and I can’t wait to tell you. You were startled apart by the booming of fireworks, and as you turned your head outward, lowering yourself so that you were no longer on your tiptoes, Billy pulled you closer, the thudding in his chest mirroring your own.

As you watched the city around you light up in celebration, you thought back through everything you and Billy had been though, everything that it had taken you to get to that point, and you realized how much it had taken out of him, how much he trusted you - how much his honesty had likely cost him in terms of the walls he’d built around himself over the years he’d spent alone. You realized, as you looked up at him, your fingers moving over his cheeks, eyes staring into his, that he might never be ready to tell you that he loved you - but he was showing you without words, proving over and over again that you were different, that he was different with you - and it was enough. “Billy.” It was a whisper, barely audible over the wind and the end of the fireworks, but his eyebrow quirked, inviting you to continue. “Let’s go to bed, Billy.”

---

Not even ten minutes later, you and Billy were back in his apartment, hands quickly ridding each other of your coats and clothing, but it was with a determination and precision. This is going to be different. You could feel it in his actions, feel it in the way he paused after removing each piece of your outfit - first the sweater, then the tank top, followed by your bra. He gazed at you, eyes darkened and focusing on each newly exposed part of your body but always moving back to your face before he continued on, his fingers stroking over your skin. Billy got you down to your underwear before he worried about his own remaining articles of clothing, undoing his belt and the button on his jeans before pushing them off. He was already straining against his boxer briefs, the outline of his length clearly visible to you as you stepped closer to him, skin against skin. His hands slid down your back, over the curves below your waist and settled at your thighs, squeezing as he bent slightly, picking you up off the ground. Your arms went around his neck even as your lips met his, legs wrapping around his waist.

As he carried you toward the bedroom, you realized that if what he’d told you was true, he’d never been with a woman on his birthday - never taken anyone to bed on a holiday - and had never shared such an important part of himself with anyone, except maybe Frank. You kissed him harder, biting down on his lower lip and he pulled sharply on your hair, already having removed one of his hands from your lower body. “None of that.” He nipped back at you, teeth catching on your lip. “Not tonight. Tonight I want…” What do you want, Billy? He set you down, hands moving to your hips and then upward as he nudged your head to the side with his nose, lips moving down over your cheek and to your jaw - slowly making his way down against your throat before he continued, kissing your shoulder, one hand tangled in your hair and the other gripping your bicep. “Let me take care of you,” he whispered with his lips against your clavicle, and then you couldn’t help but let out a low gasp as you felt his tongue moving along your skin, teeth barely grazing it, too.

Billy pushed you backwards and you fell onto the bed, looking up at him as you propped yourself up on your elbows, waiting. What’s next, Billy? He winked at you, leaning over to open the top drawer of his nightstand, reaching in with one hand to grab a few condoms, tossing them onto the bed next to you. That done, he reached down, hooking his fingers into the waistband of his underwear, pulling them down and stepping out of them in a single, smooth motion. Billy straightened up, bringing a hand up to his hair as he rolled his shoulders back and you cocked your head to the side, smirking at him even as your heart continued to pound in your chest. He leaned forward, one hand flat on the bed on either side of your body and kissed the center of your chest before pulling back, looking up at you through his eyelashes. “Lift your hips.” You did as he asked, and Billy wasted no time ridding you of the final piece of clothing you wore, his eyes never leaving your face even as his fingertips danced over the skin of your thighs, causing you to shiver beneath his touch.

Billy stood up again, his hands falling to his sides and he looked down at you, his usual smirk replaced with a brilliant smile - one that you rarely saw in the bedroom. The mattress dipped as Billy raised one knee and then the other, climbing into the bed with you and lowering his body so that his chest was pressed against yours, his elbows resting on the mattress right above your shoulders as his hands smoothed your hair back, exposing your face to him. “Billy, what -” He cut you off with his lips, silencing you completely as his tongue delved into your mouth - not with the ferocity that you’d come to know from him, but instead with a purpose, as if he was still trying to talk to you, to tell you what was just beneath the surface without speaking.

Lowering yourself onto your back, you raised your arms, consciously choosing to follow his lead, to let him have the moment, and you allowed yourself - for the first time in weeks - to run your fingers tenderly over the bare skin of his back, fingers easily picking out the scars and marks on his skin but not lingering. You thought of your conversation from right after you’d started sleeping together about the scars on his body - back when Billy was still looking for a reason to cut you off, an indication that you were like all of the others; so focused on his looks that you didn’t care what was underneath - that you didn’t care about him. “I don’t think of them. They’re there, sure.... But everyone’s got scars, Billy....I’d like you just the same with or without them, I’m indifferent.” It was still true - and even moreso now that you knew the real him.

He kissed you deeply, the friction from his beard rubbing against the skin of your cheek the roughest thing about the whole interaction, and you felt a moan escape from your lips as your hands moved up to grasp his shoulders, holding him closer. He whispered your name as he pulled back to breathe, his face hovering over yours and you shook your head slowly, hand against his cheek. “What?” You licked your lips and he stared intently at you, waiting. This isn’t him, this isn’t…

“You don’t… “ He rocked his hips against yours once, which distracted you momentarily, but you took a deep breath, continuing. “Billy, this isn’t you.” He looked surprised for a moment but swallowed, telling you to go ahead. “Nothing you say or do to me is going to scare me away.” You moved the hand from his face, dragging your nails down his chest lightly, which caused him to hiss in pleasure, nose wrinkling. “You wanna be gentle with me, that’s fine, but I don’t need it.” You arched your back slightly, raising your hips to meet his. “You’re overthinking this, Russo.” Circling your hips against his, you continued. “It’s not too much, not with you, not ever.” His eyes widened, and you continued to move your hand down between your bodies. “You don’t have to treat me with kid gloves, Billy, you don’t have to try to be something that you don’t...” He gasped and then groaned, eyes closing as your fingers circled around him, sliding up and down slowly, thumb curled in toward your palm so he could feel the knuckle. “I’m right here with you, Billy. No matter what.”

“Who are you and how did I find you?” He was speaking in his normal voice, but it had an edge to it, as if he couldn’t believe you were there, that you were saying the things you were. “Fuck.” He ducked his head, pressing his lips to yours in a bruising kiss, pulling back far too quickly. “You just want me, right?” You nodded, watching as he ran his tongue over his lower lip again, reaching to his left for one of the small, square packets he’d put on the bed, ripping it open as he sat straight up. “Just me, no matter how fucked up or closed off or broken I am?” You nodded, not daring to look away from him, even as you removed your hand, fingers squeezing once final time. “Then that’s what you’re gonna get.” He rolled the condom onto himself, hand wrapping around his length as he shifted his hips slightly, his free hand flattening against your abdomen, thumb pointing downward and circling slowly over your skin. “But you gotta know somethin’” Billy looked down at you, head angled to the side and tilted slightly back, the same look in his eyes that he’d had in the diner. “There’s a lot of me that you haven’t seen yet.” The hand that was grasping himself moved slowly, and you tore your eyes away from his to watch it, whimpering and averting your eyes back to Billy’s face as you felt his thumb find its destination, parting the skin between your legs and pressing down momentarily before moving lower. “And I wanna show it all to you.”

His voice was low - loaded with need, and you gripped the blankets next to you, eyes squeezing shut and your back arching off of the bed as he replaced his thumb with a finger - then two - pumping slowly in and out, curling gently at the ends every few moments. “Billy, please.” You didn’t recognize your voice, but forced your eyes back open, meeting his even as your mouth fell open. “Billy, I need -” He groaned too, and you watched him wrinkle his nose as he bit down on his lower lip, a lock of hair across his forehead. “I w-” He shook his head twice and removed his fingers, using his hand to urge your legs apart and then moved between them, still holding himself.

Instead of watching him enter you, you kept looking at him, resisting the urge to shut your eyes as he slid in - slowly and deliberately, the movement calculated. Billy’s eyes widened as you bent your knees, lifting your lower half to give him a better angle, his hands moving to grip the tops of your thighs as he moved his hips slowly, giving you time to adjust. You nodded after a few moments, reaching for his forearms, and it was the only go-ahead that he needed. The lights in the room were all on, meaning that you had a perfect view of his body as he moved, the defined muscles of his chest and stomach flexing as he rocked his hips into you - gently at first and then with more ferocity, the rhythm familiar. You finally broke eye contact and turned your head to the side, crying out softly at how good it felt, how right it seemed to have him inside of you. Billy’s hands tightened on your legs and then moved down toward your hips, supporting you easily as he lifted you a few inches off of the bed, your calves pressed against the backs of his thighs just above his knees, even as your toes curled.

The two of you had always meshed well in bed, but like the rest of the day, things felt different. He wasn’t just fucking you, he wasn’t just in bed with you… he was with you completely. As Billy changed positions, he lowered himself down to you, mouth closing around one nipple even as he used an arm to prop himself up by the elbow, that hand sliding beneath the back of your head and cupping it. The sensation overwhelmed you - his hips didn’t falter once, and until one of your hands made its way into his hair, he kept his composure. But at the feeling of your nails raking against his scalp, tugging on the ends of his hair, he looked up at you, mouth still on your chest, tongue moving back and forth, thouh you couldn’t see it. You saw something pass through his eyes but he didn’t speak, instead using his free hand to find yours - linking your fingers together as he lowered his gaze back to your skin wordlessly. As he moved his mouth from your breast to the valley between them, kissing his way upward, Billy changed the speed of his thrusts, lengthening them. It’s like it’s two different people, he’s… I’m … I can’t…

Your joined hands ended up somewhere above your head, and as he straightened his body out, Billy again changed the positioning of his lower body, using one knee for leverage as he also changed the pace of his movements. His lips pressed into the hollow of your throat, the skin there taut as you looked to the side, and then he whispered your name, causing you to turn your face toward him. The hand that had been pulling on his hair slid to the back of his head, the tips of your fingers visible through the silken black strands. He was breathing hard - you could feel and see his chest moving rapidly but he was still focused. “I’m here. I’m not goin’ anywhere.” You nodded; it was all you could do, and then he tightened his grip on your hand, pressing your arm down into the bed and opened his mouth once more - but nothing came out. You breathed through your nose, the tip of your tongue poking out between your lips, just watching, eyes still locked on his as your bodies continued to move together, stroke for stroke. This is it, I can - he’s waiting, he - You widened your eyes slightly, taking a deep breath.

“Billy, I-” The moment he heard your voice his hips finally faltered, jerking against you once and then he broke eye contact as he lowered his head, kissing you hard and cutting you off - a kiss that you were used to, one that you expected from him. Even as you felt him deep inside you, muscles twitching as he came, Billy continued to kiss you, his lips and tongue moving against yours with determination and finality. He broke the kiss after only a few seconds, sliding his mouth down to your ear, lips moving slowly but clearly, and as he spoke, you felt your own body tip over the edge, two words that you wouldn’t have been certain he’d said, save for the fact that he made sure to say them loud enough that you could hear them over the beating of your heart and your labored breaths.

“I know.” He kissed the side of your face once more, his fingers tightening with yours again before his body relaxed, his forehead pressed to the pillow next to your head. Oh God. He... You were both breathing hard - both spent, bodies warm and sweat-slicked, but you knew that a line had been crossed - and he’d been the one to take the first small step. Neither of you spoke for a long while, but when his breaths had evened out, Billy cleared his throat, voice a little higher than normal. “Happy New Year.”

---

Three days later, you were in your apartment, curled up on the couch with a book in your lap when Billy walked in from work, the door closing behind him as he stepped into the apartment. Turning to look at him, your face broke into a smile as you saw the snow dusting the top of the black knit cap he wore along with the shoulders of his jacket. He paused in the doorway and you laughed as he reached up, swiping one gloved hand at his head, revealing his hair as he pulled the hat off and tossed it onto the table. “Dinner’s gonna be ready in a few. Welcome home, Billy.” The words slipped out of your mouth before you could stop them, and Billy froze for long seconds, the hand still near his head before crossing the few feet of space from the door to the couch in only a few steps. Shit.

He leaned down, pressing his cold lips to yours, but before you could even begin to enjoy the sensation, he’d pulled away, mouth open slightly. Billy licked his lips, took a deep breath and then, without breaking eye contact with you, he spoke. “I love you.”

---

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