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lovenhlboys · 4 years ago

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From a Distance (E.Pettersson X Reader)

Chapter 4

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A/N: hello there!!! here is the next chapter, I'm so so sorry it took me so long, I was sick for 5 days and no feeling unmotivated, but I hope the others will not take nearly as long!! I really hope you like it and please LMK what you think!! And as always, thank you to my babe Ash ( @imagines-r-s ) for helping me with literally everything🥰💕💕

change in POV is signalized by:

Y/N= regular ELIAS= italics

(any other info is on the masterlist)

Warnings: lots of cursing, specifically excessive use of the word "ass", mentions of iCarly , I think thats it, if you think I missed a warning please inform me!!!

Summary: Brocks plan continues... more stuff happens

Word Count: 2.82k

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ———————— >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There was an awkward pause where, to you, it looked like Elias was thinking really hard about something.

“...wait,” he finally spoke.

“Yeah?”

“Okay, like a few weeks ago, we were in the hotel room and, you were upset with Marky because of the whole Gabe Landeskog thing,” he started.

You thought for a second and- oh, “Oh...shit. No. No, no Elias, I'm not having this conversation right now,” you knew exactly what he was talking about since that exact moment had caused about 3 panic attacks in the past month.

“You don't even know what I’m going to say,” he said with a little laugh at how you were reacting.

“Oh yes, I do.”

“Ok, Y/N wait just sit down.”

“BROCK,” you ignored him and got up, shouting at the door that you entered in about, hmm, yep, 5 years ago.

“Y/N,” he seemed like he wanted to talk when you really, truly did not.

“BROCK BOESER OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT FUCKING NOW,” you continued shouting at that damned door.

“Y/N...please,” he sounded sweet and calm. Which kinda calmed you down slightly, so once you realized Brock wasn't going to open that door any time soon, you sat back down on the couch next to where Petey was sitting. You sat a little too close at first, both of you looking into each other's eyes. Your faces were roughly a foot away from each other, as you looked in his eyes, you thought you saw a glimmer of something, something you knew he was seeing in your eyes. You snapped yourself out of it and pulled away, scooching yourself back about a foot. Right then, Elias reached for you and placed his hand on your arm. “Y/N, just...sorry. I was just going to ask what Quinn meant that day when he said ‘you really have a thing for swedes, huh,’” he tried to mimic your other American friend, his impression made you laugh.

You groaned and put your forehead on his shoulder. You stayed like that for a second, taking in his scent. Then you pulled your head back and started to speak, “Yeah, about that. Um, so, yeah, that-that thing, uh,” you cleared your throat.

“Are you going to say anything or is it just ‘um, yeah, so, um?’”

“Shut up” you giggled “I just never thought I’d have to say this to you,” you covered your heated face with your hands.

“Well, I always thought he was talking about Marky, but apparently thats not true. I just didn’t know you knew many other swedes.”

“...yo-,” you sighed. He didn’t realize what Quinn was saying, “oh my god, my dumbass brother is rubbing off on you. Ok, name the other swedes I know.”

“Well there's Marky, Oscar, Loui, Alex, and uh, Brock said you knew uh, Partick Nemeth and Johnny Oduya when you interned in Dallas during college. Oh, and Brock had mentioned you had a crush on Klingberg at one point, right?”

“Yes, but, uh- oh my lord,” you took a deep breath and tried to make sure you didn’t blurt anything out like an idiot would do, “I think you’re missing one.”

“What? Well, Nilsson before he got traded. And Brock was here when the twins were still playing, right?”

“Ok, Elias, you’re missing one person, one fucking person,” you were starting to get frustrated.

“I dont think I understand…”

“Ok, if you were to make it on team Sweden for the winter Olympics, Marky, and Landeskog too, ok?”

“Yeah?”

“Ok, who on that team would know me?”

“Well considering I dont know who else would be on that team it’s hard to say, but me, mark and Gabe would.”

“Ok, perfect. So that list of Swedes earlier was missing…” you gestured for him to finish your sentence.

“Oh, I’m stupid, I forgot myself,” you nodded and waited for him to process, it took longer than one would’ve thought but that's beside the point. His eyes got wide and his face turned red. He didn’t speak, you knew he knew now, but he wasn’t saying anything.

Shit, fuck, it’s exactly what you were afraid of.

WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK??? How did this happen, Elias is so completely and utterly stunned. Y/N Y/M/N Boeser had an actual, real-life crush on him? (God he feels like he’s in middle school again, freaking out about a “crush”)Ok, he’s definitely dreaming, that's the only thing he can think right now because he didn’t think this was a possibility. That’s when he realized, he hadn’t said anything yet, he’d just been staring at her with what he could only assume was an idiotic expression. He took in her expression, she was staring at her lap, her eyes wide, she looked tense, like she needed a hug.

Elias grabbed her and pulled her into his body, she tightened her arms around his waist and tucked her head into his neck. He could feel her heart racing, or was that his? He squeezed her tighter, trying to stall the inevitable. What was he supposed to say? “Yeah, Y/N I’ve had a massive crush on you, even before I met you in person. I’m pretty sure I might just be in love with you, sorry I never said anything. Oh, also, I can’t be with you because your brother and all of our friends would murder me.” Elias knew he wasn’t the smartest, but he wasn’t that much of an idiot.

Just then Y/N pulled back from the hug, looking much happier than before, her eyes met him and they both smiled fondly, just then Elias realized just how close their faces were. Shit, he really wanted to, he could feel her breath and his eyes flickered down to her lips. He unknowingly swiped his tongue over his, and she did the same and bit her lip ever so slightly. His heart was racing, she must be able to hear it. He leans in the slightest bit, to test the waters. To his surprise, she leans in the rest of the way and their lips finally connect.

It’s even more amazing than he ever would have imagined. Every nerve in his body is firing. He grabs her neck and they move together, in unison, and it's almost as if they’ve done this a thousand times before. It feels so easy, so natural, so perfect. He is by every definition, elated. He truly can’t believe this is happening. As he comes back to reality, he feels her hands siding up to his chest, she groans slightly as her hands settle on his shoulders. He slides his tongue across her lips and he can feel her shiver in reaction. They break apart for the first time, both panting into each other’s space, Elias is smiling bigger than he ever has. Their dilated eyes meet, he’s sure she’s probably noticed his flushed skin, his more-than-pale complexion doing no favors to hide it. Elias looks down and notices her smiling. Thank God.

She pulls back suddenly and speaks, “uh, sorry I just- um, I know you didn’t want that.” she stands up, “I-um- I’ll just-”

He touches her arm, making sure not to grab it. He doesn’t want to be controlling. “Hey, who said anything about me not wanting that” he was still smiling and looking up at her fondly, “trust me Y/N, I wanted that. I’ve wanted that for a lot longer than what you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have supposed that I may also have a “crush” on you too.”

“Fredrik? Are you going soft on me?” she teased.

“Ok, one: what is with you and my middle name, and two: I don't know if ‘soft’ is ever a word I would use to describe how I feel about you” he smirks, trying to mess with her. Which works as her expression clearly shows, her eyes widen and she looks away from him.

“Elias shut up, you’re such a douche,” though she’s grinning a little.

“Um, I don't know if you know what douche is, but if you want help, if you opened a dictionary, I’m pretty sure it would have a picture of Thatcher Demko, and Troy Stecher,” she laughs, there it is: that damn laugh. “You have the best laugh,” he says while giggling himself.

She smiles and looks into his eyes, purely beautiful as always. “Ok, well I will have you know, I like to call this a cackle” She eventually sits down next to him on the couch again, they’re facing each other, fully enthralled in each other’s presence. “Uh, so I’m not one to say these things, I have actually built up a reputation to explicitly avoid these conversations, but” she starts, “but- uh- what does all of this mean exactly? I like you, you like me, we kissed, I mean there’s obviously something here and I just- I guess, I’m not opposed to seeing where this could go, but you know, you could feel differently and that's ok-”

“Woah” he cuts her off as he’s laughing, “You’re rambling nervously, which is making me even more nervous than I already was, ok?” he placed his hand on her shoulder, “but I do have to tell you something,” this is where Elias took a pause and thought about what he should say, which he now realizes is a mistake due to how long it takes him to make decisions. But anyway, he had to decide if to tell you the entirety of the story, or to keep it brief and hope it comes up later at some point.

“Elias”

“Ah, yes.” he emerges from his thoughts, “so first I want to say that I also would love to see where this can go. I likes you-uh- more than a lot. But, I really have to figure something out before I can even think about doing anything with you, I just don't want to screw it up.”

“More than a lot, huh Fredrik?” you think about what he said. The fact that he felt the need to preface what he said with the fact that he also likes you and also wants to see where this can go, truly made you feel better. It felt like he wanted to make sure you didn’t misunderstand him, and that he didn’t want to hurt you. And obviously, you couldn’t let him get away with saying something like “I likes you- uh- more than a lot,” you did grow up hanging out with basically a shit ton of hockey guys, so you couldn't just let that slide. Plus, it was so cute how he said ‘likes’, instead of like, due to his language barrier.

“Yes, Y/N, more than a lot.” he rolled his eyes, “but is that ok with you, that I have to wait?”

“Yeah, that's fine. I mean as long as it’s not like a year, then that's fine,” you say, giggling.

“Oh god no, geez, not that long I promise. Maybe a month at most, I promise,” you both sit and laugh for a minute. You truly didn’t think he liked you, even as a friend, let alone as more than.

“You’re not going to go back to ignoring me, are you?”

“No, we can be friends until I figure that out. And I assume the reason we’re in here is that Brock thought I didn’t likes you. I mean he had mentioned it to me a few times but I obviously didn’t tell him why so,” he looked nervous, but you could see him try thinking of a way to change that. “ but hey, since we’re going to be friends now, your idiot brother will be pleased, and maybe he won’t lock us in a room again,” That makes you chuckle. You noticed that when you laughed, you could see Elias’s face light up, just a little bit, “I mean, not that it went horribly this time” and of course that made you laugh harder, which made him smile bigger. Then his face shifted a little bit, he looked more serious, “But hey, speaking of Brock, could you maybe not tell him, what we talked about in here?”

“Well, no shit. I wouldn’t tell him about this kind of thing on any day of the week anyways. He gets so nosey,” he looked relieved and smiled.

“Ok, so seeing as how we probably have some time to kill…” he grabbed a remote off of the table next to the couch and pressed a button. Then from the seemingly inconspicuous piece of furniture, a tv rose.

Your face was shocked, “I’m sorry, has it always done that??” you say, confused.

“Yeah. Y/N, you work here, how did you not know that?”

“Well I had seen a TV in here before but I thought they like took it away or needed to fix it or something, I didn’t know we had a magic tv in here!!” Elias laughed. “Wait, you waited till now to turn on the TV. we could have been watching TV this whole time!?”

“Yeah but then you wouldn’t have condensed your feelings for me.”

“Um, it was a mutual confession, jackass.”

Elias was smiling at your sass, “so what do you want to watch?”

“I know exactly what to watch,” you grab the remote from his hand and navigate to iCarly on the TV.

“Perfect,'' he says with a fond smile, and you both relax on the couch and watch the old nickelodeon classic. At this point, you both are sitting far enough apart so you look more like friends, just to make sure that if someone comes in, they cant think otherwise.

You watch 2 episodes and you are in the middle of the third when brock comes in. you both are laughing at spencer trying to tell everyone that a 13-year-old boy, Chuck, is torturing him, when you are both startled, “well you two seem to be having fun.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Brock,” Elias mutters, obviously scared from the sudden arrival of the jack-ass that you are forced to love and call your brother.

“Well if it isn't the champion of ass-facery, congratulations on the medal bro.”

“Ok, before you yell at me and hit me and tell on me to mom, it looks like it worked,” he says, gesturing to the two of you on the couch.

“Yes, it worked, he no longer hates me, blah blah blah.”

“Hey, I never hated you.”

“Suuuuuure,” you say, and you give him a wink only he can see, “well, either way-”

“Also,” Brock interrupts, “you technically did it to me first.”

“In fucking high school.”

“Y/N/N, high school was only 5 years ago. And technically should have been like 3 years ago for you but you went and graduated early so checkmate.”

“I think he’s got you there,” Elias spoke up.

“Wow, thanks ‘new friend,’” you said sarcastically, feeling teamed upon.

“You have no idea how happy it makes me that you two are friends now” Brock was smiling like an idiot at this point.

“Ok, well as much as I'd love to stay, I have to go and meet Hog, he doesn’t like to go to the store alone.”

“Aww, poor, sweet baby,” you said with a frown, "Tell him I say hi.”

“Will do!”

“Bye Petey.”

“Bye champion of ass-facery,” Elias shouts back

You laughed at that as Elias exited the room, leaving just you and your brother there.

“So are you really mad at me Y/N/N?”

You sigh “no, I guess not. I’m just glad he doesn’t hate me like I thought. And also he’s absolutely hilarious.”

“Right!! He’s so funny, and I just wanted you guys to get along. You’re basically the two most important people in my life and I didn’t want you two to be like you were forever. And if you didn’t notice, you two are so similar!”

“Aww Mr sensitive, you’re so sweeeeeet.”

“You’re such an ass,” he said chuckling.

You pull out your phone and check the time, “well, it’s time for me to depart. I do have a job and all.”

“Wait, that reminds me, why didn’t either of you use your phones and call someone?” he asked, “that was essentially the only flaw in my plan.”

Thought for a second, “shit. I mean we basically talked the whole time I guess neither of us thought to do that.” Brock smiled at you and giggled a little. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just a little sweet, I guess.”

“Shut up ass-munch,” you shove him as you walk out of the door with a small smile on your face. These past 2-3 hours went much better than you would have thought, and now you have a new friend. And maybe at some point, a little more than that.

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taglist: @habsfan @suffering-canucks-fan @calgarycanuck @suffering-canucks-fan @2manytabsopen @callllumhood @mellany1997 @all-time-fanatic @Fitnessfreak498 @peachyotps @teamcanadasimp @iwantahockeyhimbo @aeyyy-ohhhh @nhlindblom @teenagekook @hockeymockeryandlove

Sorry ☹️ these Won’t tag: @lmao-i-only-know-hockey @predshockeyfan @dolphinahabsfan @starswinheunderwoo @yourlocalgranolagirl54 @peteysimp

#from a distance: series #give feedback 😁#elias pettersson #hockey #nhl #vancouver canucks #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #elias pettersson imagines #elias pettersson imagine #elias pettersson fic #elias pettersson x reader #vancouver canucks imagines #vancouver canucks fic #vancouver canucks imagine #hockey imagine #hockey fic #hockey imagines

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writertitan · 4 years ago

Text

A Friend

pairing: kiddo!levi x kiddo! reader (platonic)

word count: 2279

themes: platonic friendship, wholesome pure childhood friend content

requested by anon

The stern shout of your name had your shoulders up to your ears immediately, eyes wide and panicked as you stared up at your mother.

“What have I told you about staying close to me? Please just do as I say,” she sighed. Her voice was softer and she reached down to affectionately pet your hair before turning back to the bread she was trying to haggle. Things were tougher in the new part of the city you’d had to settle into, now that your father was busier with work. You missed him, but your mother said he was busy trying to make enough money to go above ground and let you see the sky. She never told you more than that.

She grabbed your hand once she’d managed to grab a staler loaf, albeit at a better price, and led you back to the home you were still trying to settle into. It was louder and busy all the time, and it didn’t feel like home yet, but your mother promised you it would soon. The only thing that made it okay was that you shared a room and a bed with your mother, and she’d always soothe you back to sleep whenever loud bangs or shouting woke you up in the middle of the night, a hand always playing with your hair.

While she put away the meager food she’d been able to get, you settled down to play with your doll on the floor. Your mother hummed a familiar melody, the perfect background noise for your calm evening. She had been right; day after day, it was easier to grow accustomed to your new living situation. Mostly, though, it was because she was there as a constant despite all the changes you were going through. That familiar hum always calmed you down.

She stopped suddenly when a knock sounded at the door, the air growing tense with the quiet. You knew the drill. Without having to be told, you curled up under the bed and hugged your doll close, only able to see your mom’s feet as she slowly made her way to the door. She hesitated for a moment before slowly cracking it open.

The tension eased when you heard the voice of a woman greeting your mother. Before too much could be said, you watched as your mother stepped out and closed the door behind her. A prickle of anxiety shot through you and part of you wanted to crawl out and follow, but you knew better than to upset your mother like that.

Your ears eventually picked up muffled conversation, even a small chuckle, and your mind was quickly at ease once again.

Soon enough, the door opened again to reveal two pairs of feet. One you recognized as your mothers, the other pair was new. Only when your mother called for you did you decide to peek your head out shyly.

“Love, it’s okay, come on out. This is Kuchel. She’s a neighbor,” your mother said, coaxing you out. She extended her hand for you to take once you were upright and running over, and you gladly squeezed her hand with one of yours, the other hand clutching your doll to your chest as you bashfully peered up at Kuchel.

“Hi there,” Kuchel greeted you, a very subtle, very soft smile gracing her delicate face. You felt your own face get hot, the heat creeping up from your neck all the way to your temples, and you hid behind your mother before whispering a tiny, “Hi.”

Kuchel bent down to be more at eye level, her smile never leaving her, and you saw that her eyes were gentle and grey.

“I have a boy your age,” she told you, in a tone that reminded you of your mother’s when she was trying to comfort you. “I think you two should meet one of these days. He gets a little lonely. Only spends time with his mom.”

The only thing you could think to do was nod, but the prospect of a friend, a real friend, made you brighten up considerably. You looked down at your doll briefly.

“What’s his name?” you asked her, curiosity getting the best of you. Slowly, you moved just the tiniest bit back into view, but were careful to stay firmly glued to your mom. Your hand was given a reassuring squeeze in response.

“His name is Levi,” Kuchel replied. “I’ll bring him along next time, okay?”

“Okay,” you said, a smile tugging at your lips. You looked up to your mom, unable to contain the growing excitement. “When can they come over, mama? When’s ‘next time’?”

The two women laughed at your eagerness and exchanged a glance, and your mother bent down to kiss the top of your head.

“Tomorrow?” she suggested, and Kuchel nodded once in agreement.

“Tomorrow is fine.”

-------

A real friend. A boy, but a friend. A real one.

You looked down at your doll, knitting your eyebrows together as her button eyes stared back. Slowly, you hugged her to your chest and pet her hair, then looked up when a knock sounded at the door.

All last night you’d been talking about tomorrow, and tomorrow was today. And now that today had arrived, you’d gotten quieter and quieter, the time ticking, your nerves racking.

As your mother went to answer the door you hopped up and grabbed her skirt, looking up at her with wide eyes.

“Wait,” you whispered, doll clutched to your chest again.

Your mother stared down at you in confusion, a hand reaching to pet your hair before asking, “Love, what’s wrong? I thought you were excited to meet your new friend.”

“I am,” you whispered, but your voice faltered. Your eyes left your mother’s to meet your doll’s frozen gaze again.

Loving fingers affectionately brushed at your hair.

“It’s a little scary, right? But I have a feeling you’re going to really like meeting this boy.”

Your eyes met your mother’s in a flash, and you mirrored the small smile she wore.

“Okay.” You nodded, letting her know you were fine, and promptly let go of her skirt as she sauntered to the door and let your neighbors inside. She greeted Kuchel warmly, as if they’d always been friends, and you sat on the bed and hugged your doll close as Kuchel entered with a little figure right next to her, determined and slightly wary eyes framed by dark hair. He was small, like you, but didn’t shy away. It wasn’t until you saw his hand clutching Kuchel’s skirt tightly that it occurred to you that he might have been just as nervous as you.

You padded over to where your mom was, trying to mimic this boy’s determined stance, but couldn’t help the way your shoulders hunched up to your ears timidly. Still, you chose not to grab at your mother’s skirt for comfort and gave a little wave instead, letting him know it was alright.

“I’m Levi,” he said, his hand slowly dropping from his mother’s skirt. A small step towards getting more comfortable, but he stayed where he was.

You introduced yourself, and Levi seemed to relax a little. Your mothers slowly made their way to your kitchen table where the tea tray had been set up, the two of them chatting comfortably and leaving you and Levi to your own devices.

For a moment, a little bubble of awkwardness engulfed you, until Levi pointed to your doll.

“I’ve never seen a doll like that,” he said, voice low.

You looked down at her and smiled a little, holding her to your chest.

“She’s my friend,” you told him, feeling a little embarrassed to say it out loud. My only friend.

Levi didn’t say anything, his young face thoughtful for a moment before he shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out a little horse figurine, completely wooden and able to fit into his tiny hand.

“This is my friend,” he told you. “They should meet each other too.”

Instantly, a bright smile flashed across your face and you nodded eagerly, all nerves and timidity gone and now replaced with eagerness and willingness.

“Do you want some tea, too? Mama knows how to make the best tea,” you told Levi, sitting him down on your floor and placing your doll next to his little wooden horse.

“Okay,” Levi conceded, and you raced over and asked your mom for two cups, nearly bouncing in place.

“I’ll bring some over to you two,” she laughed, and then glanced at Kuchel, who sported the same soft smile from yesterday. Everything about her was so soft and, as you glanced at Levi, you realized he looked just like her. Just a little more...apprehensive.

As you bounded back to him and sat down across from him, you immediately began to launch into a conversation with Levi, all reservations now gone.

“I really like your mama, she’s very nice. How long have you lived here? We just got here. I miss my papa a lot, but my mama says he’s working lots and lots. Where’s your papa? Does he work a lot, too?”

Levi didn’t seem fazed by your rambling and calmly answered your questions once you were quiet.

“I’ve always lived here. I only have my mom.”

You tilted your head curiously and sympathetically, thinking about what he’d said. There were times now where you felt like you didn’t have a father anymore, or your imagination got the better of you. You’d never said that out loud, but you couldn’t help telling Levi about it now. Your new friend.

“I miss my papa. Sometimes, I make up stories about what he’s doing,” you whispered, and then got quiet when your mother set down two cups of tea by you and Levi on the floor.

“Thank you,” Levi said politely. He took the cup and stared at the contents inquisitively, tilting it to his lips to take a small sip of tea. You did the same, staring at him the whole time to gauge his reaction.

“Do you like it?” you asked him, genuinely curious, and then broke into a smile when he didn’t respond but took a bigger gulp instead. “I told you! My mama makes the best tea.”

To your surprise, Levi offered you a smile.

It was just as soft as his mother’s.

“Does your friend have a name?” you asked Levi, picking up his horse to inspect it closely. He let you, then took your doll into his hands to do the same.

“No,” he answered. “Does yours?”

“No,” you repeated. “Can I name mine after you? I want two friends named Levi.”

Levi carefully set your doll into his lap to take another sip of tea. You appreciated how gentle he was with her, and softened your grip on his horse.

“We can name my horse after you, too,” he said. At that, you hid your face shyly and busied yourself with your own cup of tea.

“And then we’re with each other all the time,” you said, galloping the horse in front of your lap with one hand. You looked up at Levi, into those very tentative grey eyes, and found a real friend there. “It was scary not having a friend.”

“Yeah,” was all he said, but that smile was back, and he put down his now empty cup of tea and turned to look at your mothers, who were still talking amongst themselves over their own steaming cups. “Do you think your mom will give us more tea?”

Your mother overheard and gave Levi a quick smile, beckoning him over with a tilt of her head.

“Of course,” she told him, then grinned at Kuchel. “How about you take some of my tea leaves before you go? I’m happy to share.”

And that was that. Levi and you played with the mini versions of yourselves after that, the occasional tea break interrupting your quiet game, until Kuchel announced it was time for them to leave. You whined in disappointment and Levi kept quiet, but he did look longingly at you and your little game, before standing up and tucking his horse into his pocket.

“Bye, Levi,” you said, and made Doll Levi wave at him as a goodbye. You sat on your bed, swinging your legs as you watched Kuchel say goodbye to your mother at the door.

“Bye,” Levi sighed, and again, you caught a glimpse of that soft smile accompanied by a small wave. His eyes, not so tentative now, regarded you for a moment before he quietly whispered, “Thanks for being my friend.”

“I think we’re gonna like being friends,” you told him, then watched as he stood by his mom to say goodbye to yours before they left.

As the door closed, your mother looked to you and you grinned at her.

“What did you think?” she asked with a grin, and you looked down at your doll, petting her hair softly before hugging her to you. You wished you had hugged Levi before he left, but now that he shared a name with your doll, this was close enough.

“I like having Levi as my friend,” you said to your mother, still peering down at the doll in your hands. “I like both of them.”

Your mom looked confused but let it go, and sighed as she bent down to pick up your empty tea cups.

“Help me clean up, please. Levi went through so much of our tea.”

As you helped, your mind wandered back to your new friend and his mother, and their soft smiles.

#levi x reader #levi ackerman oneshot #levi one shot #levi ackerman #levi ackerman x you #levi ackerman x reader #levi attack on titan #aot oneshots #aot fanfiction #aot #levi ackerman fanfiction #levi fic #levi fanfiction #levi fluff #snk fanfiction #snk

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livesincerely · 4 years ago

Note

im not feeling the best right now emotionally so i am here presenting you with a free space to ramble about whatever you want because your writing genuinely cheers me up so much

Hello darling!! I’m sorry you’re in a rough mindset, sending all the good feelings and well wishes your way 😘💕✨💗⭐️💕😊✨💗

So, I’ve been thinking a lot about that most recent, how would a proposal/wedding happen in the domestic au? prompt.

It’s so funny, I’d never really thought about a domestic au wedding until I got the ask, but now that the question was put forward, I’m finding that I have a lot of thoughts about it (because of course I do lol.)

I’m not sure yet if this will end up being a whole thing like the holiday fic did, but I definitely have a solid idea for a single moment/one shot that I’m excited about—hoping to get that finished in the next few days!

Here’s a sneak peek at what I have so far! Most of it is stuff you’ve seen before in that original ask but more polished, but there’s some new stuff in there too.... ☺️😉

00000

“So, when are you gonna get married?” Tony asks apropos of nothing, looking between him and Davey with keen interest.

Jack barely manages to keep from choking on his cereal. Davey, who’d been in the middle of spreading a bit of lox on a bagel, slowly sets down his knife.

Charlie aims a kick at Tony under the table.

“You’re asking them now?” he hisses. “I thought we were gonna ease them into the idea!”

“There is no easing them into the idea when it comes to Jack and Davey,” Tony says, his expression tight with the exasperation of the long suffering. “You gotta give it to ‘em straight, right from the get go, ‘cause they’ll never figure it out on their own.”

“Hey,” Jack says weakly, but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on and they all know it.

“So, I’m asking,” Tony determinedly continues as if Jack hadn’t said anything. “When are you gettin’ married?”

There’s a long pause where he and Davey just stare at each other, neither of them quite sure how to respond.

He gets this from you, Davey’s expression says, clear as day.

I know he does, Jack says with a commiserating look, holding back a sigh.

“Well?” Tony demands when the silence stretches on for too long.

“It’s probably a little soon to be thinking about marriage,” Davey eventually says, far more delicately than Jack would’ve managed. “We haven’t talked about it at all yet⁠—”

“Because we only just got together yesterday, Tony,” Jack dryly interjects. “In case you forgot about that little detail.”

“—And we should probably start with the question of if we want to get married before we jump to the when,” Davey concludes.

Tony’s nose scrunches up, obviously dissatisfied with this answer.

“Of course you’re gonna get married,” he says, as if this is plainly obvious. “You’re basically married already, I just wanna know when the wedding’s gonna be.”

“Um.” Davey’s gone faintly pink. “Well, like I said, Jack and I haven’t talked about anything like that yet. We’re comfortable the way we are now, no need to rush into anything⁠—”

“And since we literally only just got together yesterday,” Jack says again, a little more emphatically, just to make sure the point lands, “getting married right off the bat would be all kinds of crazy.”

Tony levels him with the flattest look in all of existence. “You’re crazy if you think you haven’t already been married to Davey for years.”

Jack’s voice catches in his throat, a little blindsided by the truth of that statement. Davey’s mouth opens and closes, the rosy flush of his cheeks shading a touch deeper.

“We’re not thinking about gettin’ married just yet,” Jack says once he’s steadied himself, in a tone that brooks no further arguments. “Dave and I will talk about it when the time comes, if⁠,” he stresses clearly, “we decide that’s what we want.”

“But what, exactly, is holding you back?” Tony asks, stubbornly brooking further arguments anyway. “Like, do you have any actual reasons?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s none of your business,” Jack snipes back. “Given that that’ll be a conversation between me and Davey.”

“I just don’t understand what the big deal is,” Tony says, crossing his arms across his chest. “Pretty much nothing would change, except that the next time someone assumes that you two are married, they’d actually be right instead of simply noticing what was so obvious that even complete strangers clue in to it⁠—”

“Tony,” Jack groans.

“—coming to the perfectly understandable conclusion that you’re together⁠—”

“Tony, that’s enough, we get it,” Jack says.

“—instead of the inexplicable reality of the situation which was that you were, in fact, not together, despite being in love with each other for eight entire years because you’re idiots⁠—”

Jack covers his face with his hands.

“—and given that, like, every aspect of your lives are already tangled together, it’s not really that big of a step for you to just go ahead and make it official.”

Jack sighs so hard he feels it in his bones. “If we promise to talk about this, will you please stop talking about it?”

“Eight years, Jack!” Tony cries, impassioned. “That’s half of my life! That’s more than half of Charlie’s life!”

“Do not bring me into this,” Charlie quickly interjects, “I am a passive witness and nothing more.”

“You’re such a fucking turncoat, Choo-choo,” Tony mutters with no real heat. “You’re supposed to have my back on this.”

“Maybe if you could ever actually stick to a plan,” Charlie grumbles back.

“We’ll talk about it,” Jack says loudly, interrupting their bickering before it can gain any ground. “Okay?”

There’s a moment of blessed silence.

Then Tony says, “So, like, right now? Or…?”

“Sure!” Jack says, throwing his hands up in defeat. “Why not? Clearly, I’m not gonna get any fucking peace until this is sorted��

“Finally!” Tony exclaims. “God, was that so hard?”

“—so go away,” Jack finishes.

Tony’s mouth falls open.

“What do you mean, go away?” he protests, looking genuinely shocked. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why? I’m not gonna let you sit here and fucking… moderate our conversation, dumbass,” Jack sputters. “Get out!”

“But I really feel like this is the kinda conversation that needs moderating,” Tony disagrees. “It’s not like either of you have a great track record for effective communication⁠—”

“Anthony Ethan Higgins,” Jack warns, nearly at the end of his rope.

Tony rolls his eyes so hard his whole body moves with the motion. “I am literally just trying to help, you don’t gotta get all defensive about it⁠—”

“Jesus Christ, Tony,” Jack says, completely and utterly done. “Will you please just⁠— Just go somewhere that isn’t here.”

“But are you gonna talk about it?” Tony insists, really digging in his heels. “Because if you’re just gonna not talk about it the second I leave then I think I should⁠—”

“Tonio, juro por Dios—”

“Tony, honey,” Davey finally steps back into the fray, far calmer than he has any right to be, and somehow, miraculously, Tony’s mullish expression softens into something a little chagrined. Jack gapes, wrong-footed by the sudden change. “I think you’ve made your point and given Jack more than enough heart attacks for one morning, yeah? So why don’t you go ahead and give us a few minutes, and I promise we’ll talk about it.”

Tony deflates. “Yeah, okay.”

“Thank you, baby.”

Tony shuffles away, mollified for now. Davey pauses, then says, “Charlie, that means you too.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” Charlie protests. “I’m just sittin’ here, tryin’ to eat.”

He takes an exaggerated bite of his bagel as if to prove his point, eyes extra wide and innocent.

“Charlie.”

“But my food!”

“Take it with you,” Davey suggests, very patiently.

Charlie looks as though that thought hadn’t occurred to him.

“Okay,” he says, scooping up his plate and scurrying after his brother. He hesitates in the doorway, then adds, “My vote is for an autumn wedding, if that counts for anything.”

“Charlie.”

“Going!”

Once he’s sure they’re both gone, Jack heaves another massive sigh.

“They’re such a pair of little shits,” he says, to Davey and the world at large. “Fucking hell.”

Davey takes a drink of his coffee, holding out his other hand to Jack in offering. Jack reaches over and laces their fingers together, most of his irritation slipping away in an instant at the simple contact.

“But he is right, you know,” Davey comments lightly.

“I know he’s right,” Jack grumbles, rubbing his thumb over Davey’s knuckles. “Don’t mean he ain’t a little shit.”

“Well, naturally,” Davey agrees. “He’s related to you.”

“Oh, please,” Jack says with a snort. “That little spiel of his was all you. ‘The inexplicable reality of the situation’,” he mimics, his voice landing in some strange imitation of Tony mixed with Davey, which ends up not really sounding like either of them. “It was like hearin’ your voice comin’ outta Tony’s mouth.”

“And it was a well thought-out argument,” Davey says pertly, the corner of his mouth quirking up into a wry grin. “His timing could use some work, though.”

“Ain’t that the fucking truth,” Jack says, taking a bite of his cereal⁠ and immediately making a face—it’s gone all gross and soggy during the craziness, because of course it has. He pushes the bowl away with a mournful look. “Didn’t even let us finish breakfast before pouncing.”

“Well, it has been eight years,” Davey says, and he’s definitely laughing a little now. “Guess he’s afraid of a repeat performance.”

“Sure,” Jack says with a shrug, because that part had been hard to argue with. More than half of Charlie’s life, Jesus. “But he was talkin’ like he expected us to walk down the aisle this afternoon. I mean, we can’t just get married. You don’t just get married.”

“Most people don’t,” Davey says, tilting his head. “But then, we aren’t really most people, are we, darling?”

It takes a moment for this statement to fully land for Jack⁠, and when it finally does, it lands with a boom.

“Are you sayin’ you’d marry me?” Jack asks, utterly floored, his heart pounding an unsteady rhythm in his chest.

“Are you asking me?” Davey asks, calmly sipping his coffee like he isn’t rocking Jack’s world, right here over breakfast, for the second time in not even two days.

#newsies #javid #*ask #*editor's note #bits & bobs #*the writing desk #the domestic au #i hope this helps a little!#😊✨💕⭐️💗✨💕

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shuwuwua · 4 years ago

Text

with you [mark]

in which anywhere is fine, with him. [friendship/romance/fluff]

word count: 2k

“dude, let’s go outside. i’m going crazy,” mark announces as his busts into your room which may as well be his room from all the times he doesn’t bother to knock. quarantine had you two, like many other people, cooped up at home. while you didn’t mind the downtime, you have to agree with his sentiment. you’d seen too much of your tiny apartment in the past half year. you wonder if you’ve seen too much of each other in the process.

you look up from your phone. “do you actually want to hang out with me or do you just need me to drive because you can’t?”

mark scoffs in mock hurt. “don’t ask me stupid questions.”

you weren’t actually going to deny his request, in the end. there’s not much you wouldn’t do for him, but you’re never going to let him know. you roll off of your bed, glance at yourself in the mirror to make sure you don’t look too unacceptable, and grab your keys. you two make it all the way down to the parking lot and in the car before you think to ask, “where are we going?”

mark fumbles with the seatbelt. “literally anywhere. just go. i’ll tell you if i see something.” you roll your eyes but smile a bit to yourself. he never has a plan. but you trust his gut, so you start the ignition.

you two don’t live right in the city, it’s a bit of a ways out. you’re familiar enough with the few coffee shops and shopping centers nearby, but you won’t be stopping in to those today. seems like this late afternoon is going to be a time for exploring. you head towards the city. on the drive up, mark rambles over the hum of the car about some class stuff, some total nonsense, as he usually does. he's the talker in this friendship. sometimes you bicker with him, most of the time you just listen, because you love everything he has to say. everything that funny little noggin comes up with.

“... like, they’re so cute, oh my god dude do you think we should get one? does our apartment allow—wait, turn here,” he cuts himself off suddenly. you lift the blinker to turn. “why, is something down here?” you ask. “no, i just... i have a good feeling about this right turn.” you snort. “yeah, ok.”

a few minutes later, he decides to turn right again. then left. “mark, you better remember all these turns.”

“don’t worry, i’ve got it. i’m a natural at directions.” (no he wasn’t, but it’s fine, you’ll GPS the way back.)

eventually, it seems you have made it to the edge of the city, but a side neither of you have seen before. by some miracle, you manage to find free parking. (albeit in a sketchy location, but something tells you towing management has long forgotten this area) the sun sits lower than it did when you left home, colors deepening into an warm pink and orange. sunset doesn’t seem far off. mark takes note of that. “let’s find a roof and watch the sky.”

“couldn’t we have done that at home?”

“i don’t know, something about being lost when the sun is going down in the city hits different.”

“oh, so you are planning to get us lost?”

mark gives you that cheeky grin of his. “i never plan for it, but even if it happens i’m not worried. we’ll find our way.” you believe him. he’d never actually put you two in crazy danger.

you two head off, commenting on the displays of the small shops that are closing. the outskirts of the city have a personality you can’t put a name to. quirky? unseen? the center of the city has urban outfitters or whatever, but here where the sidewalk is cracked and the brick is several decades old, the shops look timeless. there would always be a time and place for antique toys and custom stationery.

“yo, let’s come back here during the day. i need to see you wear that hat.” he points to some white, lacy monstrosity.

“i’d look so stupid.”

“that’s the point.” you shove him lightly. “i’m joking. i think you’d look cute.” he says things like that sometimes. you can’t ever tell if it’s just because you two are best friends and have that level of honesty with each other, or something else. you have never allowed yourself contemplate the latter possibility.

you pass a few more blocks before finding a parking garage. you regret not parking here, but it’s okay. the walk was nice. it’s not the tallest structure in the city, but it’s tall enough to have a nice view. you two take the elevator to the top.

“damn, it’s windy up here,” mark says once you step out. the setting sun seems brighter, more intense here. you glance over at him. it was indeed windy, the breeze tousling his bangs and exposing his forehead. he squints as he scans the area for a good place to sit. it should make him look silly, but you should realize by now you’re whipped for him, because all you notice is how prettily the sun highlights his cheeks.

“over there!” you’re jolted from your thoughts as he turns to face you. his eyes glow, a warm brown that shapes into crescents as he smiles. he grabs onto your sleeve and pulls you to sit on the ledge. it’s wide enough to stretch your legs out, but you’re thankful for the short railing. during construction had they considered activities like looking off at the sun from this ledge?

the two of you settle yourselves, sitting thigh to thigh and leaning forward onto the railing. it’s getting a little chilly, but his leg is warm. tints of blue have joined the pinks and oranges in the sky, sun continuing its descent onto the skyline.

you sit in comfortable silence, because even though it is mark, he’s not talking all the time. he knows how to appreciate the mood. still facing the sky, you glance over to mark at your side, and you admire how admiration looks on his own face as he looks out. he’s so in the moment. when he's focused, he develops a stillness that you’d never find from him any other time. when he’s focusing on work or studies, he has a furrow in his brow and his jaw is set, but in this stress-free sort of focus his features lack tension. his eyes are glazed over as his mind stirs with thoughts. he looks like he’s forgetting to breathe. (he probably is.) you poke him in the ribs. he turns to you slowly, raising a brow.

“you must be thinking up a storm, you haven’t said anything for like ten minutes,” you say, leaning back onto your crossed arms and peering at him over the folds of your pullover. he smiles gently and mimics you, faces not far apart, eyes open wide enough to see into each other’s souls, if you so desire.

“hmm... i dunno, like...” he glances up in contemplation, minimizing his need to say “like” five times. but he can’t help letting out another one. “like... i’ve just been thinking about the future, i guess.” it’s your turn to raise a brow, prompting elaboration.

“you know, like, after we graduate, what's life going to be like? i probably won’t be able to talk to all of the other guys like i do now.” pre-quarantine, he had a pretty hefty friend group he would hang out with, some he was closer to than others but he still really loved them all. some of them would still come over nowadays, but he has a point that things would be different in the real world. “i know we care about each other, but i noticed when you get older you kinda have to focus more and more on yourself. so then... we’re not gonna be able to talk to each other as much. and maybe i’ll never see some of them again.” his mouth settles into something shy of a frown.

“whoa there, don’t be dramatic. whenever you get married—if you do—” he pouts at you and you grin. “—you can invite all of them to your wedding, you can look forward to that at least.”

“haha, yeah i guess. well, i mean, i know i’ll get over it once the time actually comes. life moves faster than we do, you know? so it’s ok, i’m just overthinking.”

“damn, you sound so profound today.”

“thank you, i know it’s rare.” even though he doesn’t share his serious thoughts too often, you know underneath the rambles and high energy, he’s so intentional about everything in his life. you’re grateful to be part of it.

you move one of your arms out from under your head to fumble with the cuff of your sleeve, staring at your fingers as you ask, “what about us?”

“what do you mean?”

more fumbling. “i mean... do you think we’ll inevitably grow apart too?” a moment passes with only the fabric of your sleeve making noise. you look up to him to gauge his thoughts, only to find him staring at you. there it is, the set of the jaw. you blink, unable to hold his gaze.

“what’d i say about not asking stupid questions?” you thought your question this time was valid. his eyes soften. “well, i mean. i can’t imagine life without you. you’re always there. you’re always here. i never even had to consider it... the idea of us growing apart. so... if we suddenly don’t talk anymore, it’s your fault, because i have no plans on doing that.” he’s so confident in the two of you. it was just you afraid that he didn’t feel the same way. how could you have doubted him?

the sky’s more blue and black than orange now, but the sun is still there, a sliver that permeates the horizon. the light has receded from mark’s face, the remaining shadows contouring his small, prominent features. another breeze cuts through the air that has shifted from chilly to cold, and you put your hands together, sitting up.

mark covers your hands with his, straightening up to scoot even closer to you, which you didn’t realized was possible. he rubs his palms over your knuckles then brings your hands up and breathes warm air onto them. he touches you delicately, like something precious. he knows you’re not fragile, but he only wants to show you tenderness at the moment. his thumb swipes back and forth over your fingers as he seems to be lost in thought again.

making up his mind, in the last light of the day, he lifts your hand to his lips and presses a kiss to it. warmth spreads from the point of contact all the way to your toes. you hope your face isn’t as red as it feels hot. mark lifts his head to meet your eyes. even though the sun’s down, his eyes glow. you could lose yourself in them. you can’t help smiling widely at him, joy overpowering your shock and the palpitating of your heart.

mark looks out over the railing. he holds your hands to his chest, to keep them warm, or maybe just to have you close to him. “well, i guess the show’s over. should we go home?”

“yeah, okay.” the two of you hop off the ledge, mark still firmly holding your hand and your other tucked away in your pocket. once you make it to the bottom of the parking garage, there are only a few streetlights on and ahead the sidewalk is mostly lit by the moonlight. standing under one of the streetlights, you look at your intertwined hands and steal another glance at mark. you think that he glows in sunlight, moonlight, streetlight, anywhere. he’s simply always alight.

“how are we supposed to get back to the car now, mark? do you even remember the way back?”

mark laughs and puts up his hand not holding yours to your cheek. “it doesn’t matter, as long as i’m with you.”

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okayohay · 3 years ago

Text

BURNT VACANT RED

I’m sorry for the hold up, but it’s been a while since I’ve shared any type of fanfiction content that I’m struggling with getting back into it, mainly because I know how much I expect from myself with my writing and I don’t want to let this community down specifically. I’d like to explain this story for a second if I can. It is going to be broken down into around ten parts. The chapters will be long and the first one is world building, so please bear with me if you can. I kind of need to set the scene and dig into some history to set the rest of the story up and not have to deal with explanations later. I hope to have the second part up quickly for you all, and I promise you Van becomes more present in chapter two. I hope you enjoy this for what it is. Thanks for reading this crappy introduction. Word count is 7273, and you can also find this on my Wattpad along with my other fanfictions. Peace and love.

ONE

This story doesn’t start happy.

You can’t believe you said “no”.

You toss your handbag toward the couch and underestimate how far away it is, so it clatters to the floor instead where you leave it. As if the worst moment of your life needed theatrics, the rain streams down your ninth-floor condo windows violently and bits of lightning flash off Lake Michigan under the watermark of an evening sky. The Gold Coast of Chicago stretches beyond your window, dumping itself along the shoreline until you lose sight of everything other than lights of nearby suburbs.

You cover your face with your hands and that’s when you realize you’re shaking. You sink slowly to the floor and take a few deep breaths as the evening’s memories bite into your skin. You wince and the embarrassment of the situation sets in. You can’t get over the way Nick’s face looked, and the people around the two of you standing with mouth’s agape as they watch you back away from your boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

The word makes you want to be sick.

He’s not your boyfriend anymore.

At least, you doubt he is. Not after this.

Three hours ago, he wanted to be your fiancé.

But you…said…no.

In hindsight, you knew this was coming, but not like this. Not this quick.

Nick wanted to take you out for dinner and the two of you hadn’t been making very much time for each other lately. You’d finished off your internship in the winter and the company offered you a full-time position as the marketing coordinator. They were a small yet prominent, independent music company that hosted everything from small concerts to large scale festivals. When you took the job, you took away a huge chunk of your free time and it rubbed Nick the wrong way at first. But he eventually accepted a promotion of his own and spent three days a week traveling and you were lucky to get a phone call some nights. It sent the sane and patient part of your relationship into a quick demise. You nit-picked each other for things that wouldn’t have mattered before, and the glittery shine of what once was started to dull.

You’d been bickering more frequently than you should have been, especially for not seeing each other often. But you always came around because Nick knew everything about you. Nick was the boy you were never supposed to date, the rebound after the love of your life walked away from you. Nick had taken on the role of sewing you back up and keeping you together, and you stayed with him ever since. It seemed like the right thing to do. You loved him, but not in the same red way you loved the boy before him, but you did love him. That candle was lit, but the flame never seemed to burn quite right.

You’d been together for three years. It was time to get serious about the future and you knew that. The two of you were woven deeply into the facets of each other’s lives and it was only time before he popped the question. You just didn’t think it’d be this soon. You figured you’d at least be living together first. You figured you’d be somewhere exotic and you’d have time to pose for a photo afterwards. But your expectations prove how little you really know about life and the deep meanings of it.

You didn’t expect that you’d decline the offer when it was proposed to you either. But you did.

You always pictured the moment in your mind and it went exactly the opposite of what you expected. Playing out like a terrible movie you didn’t have the guts to walk out of early, so you suffer through it.

He took you to one of the upscale restaurants downtown, the kind where the waiter pulls out your chair for you and adjusts your cloth napkin every time you move it. You never liked the elegant parts of life that others longed for. You craved simple things, but Nick was the opposite. Nick grew up with money and a family who dined in eloquence. Nick pined for these types of places and things. Even though his music taste matched your alternative ones, he still needed the finer things in life. He didn’t pick this place for you, he picked it for himself, for his status. He seemed antsy so you did most of the talking which wasn’t out of the ordinary. You started telling him about your job and how there was potential for an opening in the Charleston office and the owner had personally recommended you to HR there. The excitement in your voice was evident and you rambled on about the endeavor. You’d been keeping it to yourself and tonight seemed like the appropriate night to share it. You loved the southern states, particularly South Carolina, and Nick knew this about you. But his reaction was less than positive.

“You can’t be serious. You would really move to South Carolina for work?”

You nod once, reaching for the Sauvignon Blanc with greedy, nervous fingers.

“You’d move, away from your family, from Tessa…from me?”

The mention of your family strikes a nerve and your stomach twists into a knot at the thought of not getting to see your teenage brother as often as you do now, and even that wasn’t often enough. The thought of leaving Tessa, your best friend, and the condo you share with her rips you in a million pieces. Every favorite memory of your short adult life was wrapped up in that place and with her.

“I haven’t given any of it much of a thought yet.”

Nick smirks. “Of course not. You just jumped…like you always do. Like you did when they offered you the position here.”

“Nick…it’s been my dream to be working in this field. You’ve known this since you met me. I was lucky to have been offered the position straight out of an internship.”

He shakes his head. “And you’re in love with what you do.”

“Yes.” You state flatly. This was nothing new. Everyone knew how much music meant to you. You could talk to a stranger from anything regarding 1970’s rock clear through modern day, indie-alternative. You gushed about music to anyone who wanted to listen regardless if it was a stranger or a friend. But Nick didn’t like the fact that you felt so strongly about your career. In the world he came from, girlfriend’s and wives held their career second to their relationships.

“More in love than it with me?” He leaned forward as he asked the question, splaying his hands against the table frantically.

You don’t say anything and you let the thought simmer in the back of your mind, dissecting his sentence and reading between the lines of his words. “Are you asking me to choose?”

He shakes his head. “I’m not asking you anything…yet. I’m trying to figure out what you want, because lately…I’m not sure.”

You lean forward to mimic his reaction, and do your best to maintain what little ground you currently have. It’s a small island, but it’s yours and you’re not the type to back down into the corner. “I guess that question can go both ways. I’m not the only one who buries myself in work. When was the last time you were home five days in a row? Between the conventions and the meetings, you’re in town a total of eight days a month. I know I’ve been wrapped up in work, but it’s because I landed the job I worked so hard for, a job that was my dream. You can’t blame me for that. Especially when you’re guilty of the same thing.”

“To be very clear, what I do at work is not my dream.” Nick confesses.

“Well then you should figure out what you want and do that.” You bite back with a knee-jerk response.

“I want to be with you. And you want to move?”

You turn your face to the side on a shrug and release a deep breath. “Yes. I want to move. I told Jacob I was interested in it. That’s why he made the call.”

Nick drums his fingers against the tabletop nervously. “I can’t go with you.”

You sip the wine and set it down softly on a shrug. “I didn’t ask you to.”

Nick narrows his eyes at you. “What, so we’re supposed to just make long distance work?”

You hadn’t thought about any of this, you were just excited to have a potential opportunity in a place you always wanted to be. “I guess.”

The two of you don’t speak much after that and Nick spends the time scrolling through his phone and glancing around every now and again nervously. You pick at your food, losing more of your appetite the longer you sit there. You don’t accept the to-go box when the waiter offers it and Nick pays the bill quickly and escorts you out of the building.

The walk to the condo you share with you best friend is tense and uncomfortable. Nick pauses at an intersection before deciding he wants to take the long way through the park adjacent to your building. You entertain his desire to take the long way to your door, figuring he needs to blow off steam and there’s only so many places you can find solace in a city. You’re two steps behind him until he gets to a small corner with concrete retaining walls that people use as benches. He sits and rubs the back of his neck. You watch him battle with words he doesn’t know how to say and you figure the least you can do is get on his level. You sit next to him and reach for his face instinctively. He snatches your fingers and eyeballs them before interlacing them with his own.

“I didn’t expect to be in a fight right now. It’s not how I wanted this to go.”

“It’s not a fight- “you say softly but he interrupts you and shakes his head.

“It feels like a war.” He whispers and your frown.

“Nick…I need to do this. I need to go. I haven’t wanted anything more than this in my life. It’s important to me.”

He laughs and rolls his shoulders, removing his hand from yours and you look over your shoulder, silently praying for a crowd of people to walk over and interrupt the hostility the two of you are facing. But only a few strangers dare to walk over to this section of the park, and they seem less than interested in whatever dilemma you two are hanging onto and more interested in their own stories. Nick reaches into his pocket and you turn back to him on a sigh, but your eyes land on the small box in the palm of his hand before fluttering to his face. He bites his lip and shakes his head.

“I planned to have a fantastic evening with you. I was going to ask you to move in with me, and after you said yes, I was going to order a bottle of champagne and then I was going to walk you home just like this, and stop here at this place and ask you why the good news should stop here. And then I was going to get down on my knee and tell you how much I loved you.”

Nick proceeds to do just that, and he takes your hand with him in the process. Everything below your neck goes numb and you can’t feel your fingers in his hand.

“And then I was going to tell you that I needed to be with you forever, and that in order to do that I needed you to be my wife.” He pauses and opens the box, revealing a large, square diamond matching the same one his brother gave his wife. It wasn’t your style at all, and maybe at one point in your life it would have meant the world to you, but in this moment, it feels wrong.

“I’m still going to ask that of you, because even in our worst moments, our most uncomfortable moments, you’re still worth it and I want to be with you forever. Please marry me. Because there isn’t a life for me without you, good or bad moments, I’ll take them.”

You freeze and hear a whisper from across the patio. A couple has spotted the proposal in action and is waiting for your reaction and they look prepared to applaud. You look back at Nick, at the ring, and then you exhale and pull your hand out of his slowly.

“Nick…”

He furrows his eyebrows at you as you lean away from him and tuck a piece of hair behind your ear.

“Can we talk about this?”

Nick doesn’t move out of his position and glances around nervously, raking his free hand through his wavy blond hair. “Is that your answer?”

You shake your head. “Nick…I can’t, we can’t.”

He snaps the box shut and the couple across from you turns away quickly after their jaw’s both drop habitually. You pretend not to notice and Nick stands up slowly.

“Oh God.” He whispers and presses his fingers into the side of his head.

“I’m sorry…” you confess, but it breaks out and you choke on a cry.

Nick shakes his fingers at you and closes his eyes harshly as if he’s wishing himself out of the situation. When he opens them, he looks nervous, and you don’t remember seeing this look on him before. It stones you and you sit up straighter before rising to your feet and walking toward him. You rest your hand on his arm and he shrugs you off of him quickly.

“I told my parents I was asking you. I figured you’d say yes…” His words trail off as he paces the area for something to do. “They figured you’d say it, too. And now I have to tell them…”

“Can we talk about this? Please?”

“It’s not really a question you need to talk about. It’s either yes or no.” His voice becomes a fortress and you realize you’re not getting in.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry but I’m not ready for this.” You admit breathlessly.

“Not ready for this, or not ready for me?”

You can hear the crestfallen tone his voice has taken on and deep down, you know that he knew this was coming, too. Maybe he thought he could heed it off, and curb whatever light from you flame back into his court. But it was over. It’d been over for a long time, and maybe this was the only way for things to burn out.

“It’s not you.” You admit loosely.

“Oh, it’s not me, it’s you, right? We’re going to have to that moment now?”

You shake your head. “No. I mean for me…it’s not you. You’re not the one for me and I’m not the one for you, Nick. We both know this.”

Nick shakes his head and looks like he’s going to cry. “Are you kidding me? When was I supposed to know this? Because for three years we’ve done everything together. Why would I think anything else?”

“I’m sorry.” You say again, but Nick stopped listening. He stopped listening when he stormed away from you with his hands in the air, and left you in the park with your thoughts without saying goodbye.

And now, now you were alone in your apartment with no memory of how you made it back, dissecting the memories of a few hours before, and trying to figure out if the night had gone like he wanted, would you have said yes to him? You chew on the thought before realizing that you would have said no either way. You weren’t sure what was supposed to happen in your life, but you knew one thing; you were not supposed to marry Nick.

------

You spend the next several weeks cramming your life into boxes and selling what you don’t want or need. You pack everything up and label what’s in each box with a bold sharpie. You ordered furniture for your new place in Charleston, leaving Tessa with pretty much everything. She helps you pack after work each night and the goodbye with her is harder than anything you could have imagined. Your goodbye to your family was difficult, but you were used to being away from them for weeks at a time by now, it’s saying goodbye to the person you’ve shared fifteen years doing everything with that forces you to breakdown. You spend the first few hours of the drive crying, and wondering if you’re doing the right thing. But by the time you make it into the Carolinas, the decision you made seems like the best one. You roll down your windows and let the air in, turning your music up in the process because some songs need air. You instantly feel relief when the humidity of the south laps at your skin and sticks to you.

Your new place is sandwiched along the Battery and the views of the water make you feel at home even though the Atlantic is much more appealing to you than Lake Michigan. It’s a small, two story home and the exterior is painted in pastel blue. The flowers from the previous tenant spill out of the boxes along the windowsill and you water them with a leftover bottle of water that grew warm from being inside of your car. It takes you seven trips to unload your car and you leave the boxes in the living room while you unpack your suitcase with all your clothes first. Your furniture is set to arrive tomorrow, so you plan to sleep on a pile of pillows and blankets that you throw on the floor. By the time you’re ready to move to the living room, the sun is almost down and the golden light spewing across the water stains your walls in hues of brass. You order food from a nearby sushi restaurant that delivers and quietly go about pulling things out of boxes and deciding where to put them.

You get to a box that Tessa packed for you and there’s a letter on the top. You pull it out and skim it, trying not to cry for the tenth time of the day. She tells you she is proud of you and how much she loves you, and the box is filled with some of your best memories with her, including photos and mementos from the last decade. You pull out a photo album you didn’t know existed along with a stack of photos underneath it, a handful of ticket stubs from the days before everything became digital, and lanyards from festivals you forgot you attended.

You fold your legs and sit Indian-style on the floor while you flip through the photographs. There are standard photos of you and Tessa at music festivals, blended within crowds of people, laughing wildly while bands that no longer exist play behind you on stage. You’d almost forgotten this part of your life. You were nineteen back then and a version of yourself you didn’t remember. Now, you were on the wrong end of twenty-six and you hadn’t been to a concert in this context in years. You smile at the photos of Tessa passed out along the festival grounds, surrounded by friends you hadn’t seen in too long. You’re interrupted by your food arriving and you accept it graciously as your stomach growls, reminding you that you hadn’t eaten all day. You pile a few bites into your mouth and sit back down, returning to your stack of photos. You flip through party photos, pictures from college that you’re shocked Tessa went to the trouble of printing, and laugh at the pictures of the two of you at high-school graduation.

You nearly drop the stack at what comes next, and you stop chewing your food for a moment as you narrow your eyes on the picture on top of the pile. You set the stack down as you bring the photo in your hands closer to your face, holding it with shaking fingers. It’s a photograph of you in your former life, with people who have since become strangers. But it’s you and the person whose face is pressed against yours that makes you physically ache. It’s a picture of you and your ex-boyfriend, the one who you loved violently and effortlessly at the same time. A picture that you didn’t realize existed because you’d never even seen it until now. You barely recognize yourself. Your hair was long and spilled around your shoulders in waves. You look happy and young, a cigarette dangling from your fingers as your ex-boyfriend clings to you for life. Your throat bobs with a nervousness that feels so foreign to you, you can’t even give it a name. You eventually start to chew on your food again before you swallow it, feeling your appetite wane.

You glance to the stack and see more photos from the same night. You flit through them anxiously, splaying them across the floor of your living room and bringing them close to your face to analyze them on a deeper level. These were moments of your life you hadn’t probed in years, moments of your life you’d done your best to forget. But here they were, printed in permanent reminders for you to tap into. Your ex is in all of them, wrapped around you, smoking a cigarette or strumming on a guitar while you laid on the couch next to him. Your chest tightens at the memory of that particular night, remembering how he confessed to you that he actually did love you, and then he played a song he wrote for you. You let yourself think about him for a moment, something you hadn’t done in years, and you’re shocked to find his ghost still eager to be summoned in the back of your mind.

Van. His name was Van and he had been the greatest love of your life.

You wince at the sound of his name in your mind. The last time you spoke of him was to Nick, early on in your relationship when you were explaining why you hadn’t dated in so long. You told him the truth; you loved Van deeply and it was the hardest blow to your heart you’d received. Nick listened with genuine interest, and at that point, you were in the very early stages of your relationship with him. Nick never experienced a serious relationship before the one he shared with you, but he shared stories of girls he’d dated and moments of his own life where he felt a connection to someone, but none of it held a candle to the relationship you had with Van.

His name sends another ripple through your chest and you feel like you could be sick. Every emotion you’d worked so hard at ignoring for the last three years came back like a hurricane and settled into your skin quickly. How could you have forgotten about this part of your life so easily? You blame Nick. He’d been a good hinderance to the feelings you had for Van. He picked up the pieces that were left of you and arranged them into some sort of version of yourself that made it so you could at least carry on. You’d let him become a distraction to your feelings, and parts of him reminded you of Van. His love for music being one of them. You’d become so wrapped up in Nick, that you could easily forget about Van, until now at least, when your distraction was no longer a part of your life. Nick was a replacement, or maybe a bandage and Van was the wound that didn’t heal properly regardless of how much pressure you applied to it.

The stack of photos begs you to go on, and you find more evidence of the life you’d left in the past. Van was the lead singer of a band from the UK, and you met him when you were working the office of a small venue in Chicago six years ago. He’d found you before his set when he locked himself out of his band’s dressing room. He’d spent the last fifteen minutes looking for someone to help him and you were the only person he had any luck tracking down. He introduced himself and told you a short version of a long-winded story regarding how this happened. Even though you should have fact checked him or went to find a manager, you felt sorry for him so, you obliged and unlocked the door for him. Maybe you were intrigued by his accent and the strange name of his band. Or maybe it was the iciness of his blue eyes and the way his hair spilled into them that made it easy for you to oblige. After your help, he made sure to invite you to the show and made you promise you’d catch part of it. He told you that you were witnessing history in the making and that Catfish and the Bottlemen were going to be the biggest band in the world. You laughed at his genuine confidence and even though you feigned interest with him, you watched from the balcony where no one was seated. They were good, and his energy on stage made it hard for you to look away from him. You were fairly certain he’d noticed you up there, but you blushed and turned away anytime you caught him glancing your way.

Afterwards, you locked the front doors and pulled your bag from the ticket booth, flicking off lights as you went. You shuffled out the side door, surprised to find Van, and two other people standing there sharing cigarettes and beers. He looked less nervous, more playful even, and gave you a hug when he recognized you. He offered you a beer and normally, you would have said no. You had plans the following day and you knew better than to mingle with acts when they came through. Your boss would have you by the throat if he knew that you were considering spending time with them. But something about Van was persistent, and you felt a pull in your gut to share a drink with him. He introduced you to some of his bandmates and his road crew, and you forgot their names quickly, wishing you’d paid more attention when he spoke. But Van made you nervous and you fumbled over your words and stuttered your way through group conversations.

You spent a few hours chewing on with him about their tour, their music, and similar bands you both liked. Van loved music. There was no denying that. When he spoke about writing or performing, he spoke quickly and moved his hands with animated motions. Music was his life, and he made sure everyone knew it. You couldn’t keep up with his energy. It was fierce and fiery, yet humble and authentic all in one. You continued drinking with him even after everyone else called it a night, and walked around the outside of the venue, sharing cigarettes at the picnic table out back and trying to keep up with the dialect of his thick accent that seemed to become harder to understand the more he drank. He did his best to dumb down the words and phrases you didn’t know, and you tried hard not to Americanize him. Eventually, the two of you wound back in his hotel room, ripping the clothes off of each other. Up until that point, you’d never done anything remotely similar to that and you wondered what Tessa would think. This was very out of character for you and you knew it. You stayed there until morning when you attempted to duck out before he woke, but little did you know, he was wide awake, writing in a black notebook, smiling lazily at you. You exchanged numbers habitually upon your goodbyes but never expected to hear from him.

He texted you five minutes after you left.

You and Van continued the messages for weeks, sharing photos and videos, and eventually making drunk calls to each other while his band finished the leg of their tour. You told your friends about him, and you talked about him with Tessa regularly. When he returned to the UK, he asked you to wait for him to come back and promised that he would meet up with you when he did. Like the believer in young love you were, you waited anxiously for Van to return, but it took a while. And during the months he was away, the phone calls and messages became less and less until they stopped entirely. He stopped initiating messages and eventually stopped returning your own, and that’s when you decided you hated him…sort of. You loved to hate him, crying on Tessa’s shoulder after a night out on the town and confessing your attraction to him in the moments where you were most under the influence, and promising her you’d never speak to him again after this. But eventually he came back, and he made it a point to hunt you down, and you fell right back under whatever spell Van McCann put you under the first time. You spent an entire summer following his band around on tour, and making long weekend trips with Tessa to cities he was playing in. You picked up right where you left off, and drowned the fear of him leaving again with drinks after his shows and shitty weed from one of his roadies. Van was different this time around, older and less animated when he spoke, and more concerned with what was happening around him. He still seemed happy, and he still loved music, but the stress of playing shows every night, mixed with the release of a sophomore album that sky-rocketed his band into a frenzy of fame, stoned him a little. He was reposed in a way you hadn’t seen him be before and it made you wonder what was going on with him beneath the surface. But you never did get the chance to ask, because Van couldn’t talk about his feelings as easily as he could spin them into songs, and layer them in innuendos. You’d pry when he’d have his moments of silence and pure aggression, but you never managed to get anywhere with him.

Your relationship was unhealthy, both of you using the other to bury your fears and worries into, and never really communicating properly about anything. After his tour wrapped up, he disappeared again, leaving you breathless and in pieces and losing all communication with you again, except this time it was worse because prior to leaving, he’d told you he loved you. You didn’t understand any of it and his absence hurtled you into an angry phase of life where you lost weight and picked yourself apart, but you’d get better every time he called or when he would eventually show up. You’d stalk him online, reading comments he’d leave to fans or girls from back home and torturing yourself to the point of madness. This went on for years. He’d come back to the US, and you’d fall right back into place with him. Then he would go away, and each time he left, a part of you left, too.

Eventually it all stopped though, some three plus years after it all began, but you weren’t ready to relive the ending yet. The ending was too painful to discuss, too awful to consider. You toss the pictures into the box haphazardly, and they coat the bottom with memories you wish Tessa never sent you with. Why would she do that? Why would she knowingly open a wound when you were already vulnerable about moving away and ending things with Nick? And why of all people, would she choose to spotlight, Van? She knew more than anyone how awful your official breakup with Van had been. She suffered through your darkest moments with you and here she was sending you off and into the world with boxes of memories that happened to be some of the sharpest objects you could touch. You consider calling her or at the very least sending her a message about it, but the thought of typing out Van’s name in a sentence fills you with dread.

You choose to open a bottle of celebratory wine your parents sent with you instead. You wonder if you have an emergency pack of Marlboros to chain-smoke and keep your nerves at ease, but you know better than that by now. The last thing you need is to pick up an old habit because you can’t manage your new life or the memories or your former one. You push the thought of smoking to the side and fumble with the cork of the wine bottle until a pop fills your kitchen and the scent of Cab Sav fills the air. You haven’t unpacked any dishes yet, so you insist on drinking from the bottle and it suits you fine.

You sip the wine as you try to talk yourself out of reliving your old memories, but the more you try not to think about your ex-boyfriend, well, both of them really, the more you realize that if it hadn’t been for Van’s dismissal from your life, you never would have met Nick or had to break his heart in the middle of the proposal. This makes you dislike Van more than you did fifteen minutes ago and you toss back the wine and guzzle it quickly. The burning sensation in your throat causes you to squint, but you keep going, wanting to forget everything until tomorrow. You’d rather deal with a headache than a head full of ghosts.

----

You wake up hungover, an empty bottle of wine acting as evidence in your peripheral vision. You groan at the scent of it as you toss it into a trash bag before stepping to the small patio outback. The wine did little to make you forget, and instead, you cried alone in your apartment for most of the night while streaming songs from Van’s band that you’d purposely ignored for the past three years. You knew they’d released a new album in 2019 and you never once gave it a chance. Not that you expected to find anything about your almost relationship there, but you didn’t want to know about anyone else’s love affair with him either. You didn’t want to know that he was happy and writing about someone else. You didn’t need that type of negativity in your life.

But you only found memories you shared with him, woven intricately into the verses of his songs, tidbits of your conversations bleeding into the spaces between the chorus and bridge. You bite back tears as you sift through the feelings you unpacked last night and wrap your head around some of his lyrics. Between mourning the loss of whatever was left from your and Nick’s devastating coda, to digging up the bones of Van McCann and his whole damn band, you had an intense breakdown.

You skim through your messages with Tessa, rereading the moments where you called her out for the photos and tell her you can’t stop crying. She tells you to call her when you’re sober, and you only repeat yourself over and over until she stops responding. You hover over her name and take a few deep breaths before calling her.

“Are you amongst the living?” Tessa’s tone is drenched in sarcasm and something else you can’t quite make out.

“I’ll be alright.” You’re a terrible liar and she knows it, but she doesn’t call you out on your bluff.

“What happened last night?” Her tone becomes concerned, and regret fills your mouth.

“I opened up your letter and saw all the pictures.”

“Well, I figured that much, but how did you get so drunk?”

You shrug as if she was with you in your living room. “I drank that bottle of wine from my parents.”

“You need a healthy hobby.”

You shake your head lightly, rubbing your temple with your free hand and sighing. “What prompted to you to send me off with those photos?”

“I thought you should have them. I’ve had them for years and they obviously weren’t doing me any favors. I figured I’d give them to you since they were of you mainly.”

“I didn’t even know you had them…”

“Why do you sound so sad?”

You cough. “Uhm, do I have to spell it out for you? You sent me with pictures of my ex-boyfriend who I haven’t thought of for years.”

“What’s the big deal? It’s not like you just broke up. If you don’t want them, toss them out.”

“It’s not a big deal…it just…it caught me off guard I guess.”

“Toss them out then, I don’t care.”

“Yeah, I could.” You admit.

You hear Tessa shuffling on the other end of the phone, and you imagine she’s in the kitchen, working on getting food out for breakfast. You miss your lazy weekend mornings with her already and you try not to think about the fact that you’ll never have them routinely again.

“How long has it been since Van anyway, like two years?”

“Three.” You say quickly. “Three and a few months. I met Nick the winter after we called it.” You wince at the memory and promise yourself not to think about it.

“Damn, where does time go? I wonder how his band is doing. Do you think he’s still in England?”

You close your eyes and your stomach rolls angrily either from the wine or the memories, or possibly a little of both.

“I don’t know Tess, and I really don’t care either.” There’s a bite in your tone.

“You know, I saw him last summer at a festival downtown. It was the weekend you and Nick were in Barbados. He asked about you, and I laid it on thick. I was gushing over Nick actually, and how you were away at some exotic island living your best life. I was really trying to make him feel bad. I think it worked.” She laughs.

You feel your mouth open slightly and you stutter as your words escape. “You never told me about that…”

“I know. I think I meant to, but I forgot. Plus, I didn’t want to ruin your trip by texting you and telling you that I ran into him. He looked good. Kind of awkward after I filled him in on your life, though.”

“Jesus, Tess.” You close your eyes tightly. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“You’re the one who messaged me about it last night and called now. It’s your past, what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe you should reach out to him. Maybe you need a rebound, and a familiar one at that. It’s better than dealing with a stranger”

“You’re awful. Do you know how bad that would hurt?”

“Hurt? Why would it hurt? You loved someone else since him. Maybe you should get back at him for all the hurt he did to you. Call him up, arrange to meet him sometime when he’s in the states again, and play with him the way he played with you for years.”

“That’s not how things work with Van McCann, Tess. You know this. Nothing affects him except music. And all that sounds like is a terrible idea. I don’t need to stir up emotions from years ago.”

“I always liked him. Even when I did hate him, I liked the two of you together.”

“Oh God, Tessa would you shut up? Please. I’m too hungover to be making a trip down memory lane with you especially if it involves Van. God dammit.”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. If I’d known you were going to react like this to the pictures, I would have thrown everything out myself. I figured you’d be over everything by now, it’s been a long time. And if anything, I guess I assumed that you’d hurt more about Nick than Van. I mean, Nick asked you to marry him for crying out loud. It’s why I didn’t send any photos of him. I guess I thought, if you could get past Van, you could get past Nick, too. It’s part of the reason I sent the photos. As a reminder what you’d been through.”

“I do hurt about Nick, but it’s a different type of hurt. Honestly, I think I hurt more for him than I do for me. I broke his heart, and that makes me feel terrible. But…but Van…” you trail off.

Tessa sighs. “Van broke yours. The ball wasn’t in your court.”

“Exactly.” You breathe out loosely, feeling like you’ve just confessed sins in church.

“I’m sorry I put these memories in your head…I really thought by now- “

“I know what you thought. I thought I was over it, too. But maybe it just hurt too bad and I never really dealt with it.”

“The plot thickens.” Tessa smirks. “So…what do you think you need to do about it?”

You look around your empty living room and bite into your lip. “Learn how to be alone, I guess. And figure out why Van still has this effect on me. Maybe it’s just unpacked emotions that I didn’t deal with because I had Nick to deal with instead.”

“Maybe you should reach out to Van?”

You choke and turn it into a cough mixed with some sort of laugh. “I’d rather stand in traffic. Besides I deleted his number a long time ago.” Thank God for that, or you would have been tempted to reach out to him too many times after too many drinks, at least until Nick took your attention away from him.

“Well, I guess you’ll figure it out. For what it’s worth though, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to make your first night down there so emotional.”

“It’s okay. I know you didn’t do anything on purpose.”

You chat for a few more minutes about things before ending the call and staring out the window as the morning light softens the edges of the day. You decide to make yourself busy with unpacking and arranging things so that when your furniture comes, you can put it right where it needs to go. Your phone dings once, signaling a text message and you see Tessa’s name light up your screen. You unlock it and open the message, reading it on a frown.

Enclosed is contact information with the name “Van” attached in bold lettering. Another message pops up below it and you read it quickly. I have it. In case you want to reach out.

You don’t respond. Instead, you turn your phone upside down and begin putting dishes away. When you finish you pick up the box of photos and random memories from Tessa and shove it in the hall closet. You try to forget about everything involving Van, but as the day goes on, you find yourself humming the melody of one of the songs you listened to the night before, and you hate yourself for it.

#van mccann #Bob Hall #johnny bond #benji blakeway #Catfish and the Bottlemen #catb #catbblogs #fanfiction #vanfic

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lopithecusfanfiction · 4 years ago

Text

Water Under the Bridge

Author: Lopithecus Pairing: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy Rating: General Audience Word Count: 1766 Alternate: AO3 Summary: Kakashi comes home after the battle with Hiruko to a very angry Gai Warnings:

Arguing

Unresolved Tension (sort of)

Established Relationship

Author's Note: I rewatched this movie about a month ago. I haven’t been able to get this story out of head since. So, I’m finally bringing myself to write it. If you can’t remember what the movie is about, basically Kakashi allows himself to be controlled (because the enemy is collecting shinobi with kekkei genkais) and he plans on sacrificing himself in order to kill the enemy. Neither he nor Tsunade tells anyone of this plan except for Shikamaru. Of course, Naruto, finding out what is happening, chases after Kakashi with Sakura and eventually Sai, with the other teams trying to stop them. The movie ends with Kakashi comparing Naruto to Obito and then Naruto getting creeped out over it. All the other members comment on it, with Lee saying (in the Japanese version), “Gai-sensei told me, that’s also part of youth.” and Tenten comments, “I figured you two were like that.” Naruto then runs away from Kakashi, thinking everyone is implying Kakashi is crushing on Naruto. This fic is about what happens between Kakashi and Gai after the movie. Please enjoy!

By the time the twelve of them get anywhere near close to the village, Naruto is acting like himself again and isn’t trying to avoid him. Instead, he walks beside Kakashi, talking away as usual, while Sakura walks on his other side with Sai beside her. The others trail behind them, chatting amongst themselves, and Kakashi is glad that everyone, for the most part, has seemed to forget about that very embarrassing misunderstanding.

Kakashi is enjoying listening to Naruto’s rambling — he doesn’t have his book, unfortunately — when the entrance to the village comes into view and more importantly, the person standing there waiting for them. Kakashi, even at this distance, can feel the anger radiating off of the man’s body.

“Uh-oh,” Kakashi mumbles, earning glances from some of the team members.

Lee squints into the distance, one hand over his eyes as he tries to make out the figure in front of them. “Is that Gai-sensei?”

Naruto mimics Lee’s stance, eyebrows furrowing. “Hey, it is! What is he doing here?”

“I don’t know but I will find out!” Lee announces, getting ready to charge forward.

Kakashi stops him. “Lee,” Lee looks in his direction, confused. “I’ll handle this. He’s here for me.”

The closer they get, the more Kakashi can sense Gai’s anger. It’s almost palpable and he can tell most of the others can feel it too. The other man has his arms crossed across his chest, hip cocked as all his weight is put on one foot, and his jaw is clenched tightly shut as he stares Kakashi down. It’s not very often that loud, optimistic Gai fumes so openly. It certainly is a sight to behold.

They all approach Gai hesitantly, Kakashi stepping up the closest to him. Lee hangs back behind Kakashi, eyeing his sensei curiously. “Ma, Gai, I know you’re angry.” Gai’s mouth twitches, eyes narrowing the slightest bit. He doesn’t speak. Kakashi is in a lot of trouble. “But can we discuss this later? I really need to go give a report to Hokage-sama.”

They stand there for what seems like ages, staring at each other, with the eyes of the other students watching them carefully. Gai’s hands are fists where they rest on his biceps, eyes narrowed dangerously, keeping his breathing measured and calm. Kakashi thinks the last time he’s seen Gai like this, was back when they were teenagers and Kakashi was half dead on a mission. Gai had to save him and he ended up killing all the enemy shinobi then.

Kakashi really hopes Gai doesn’t kill him .

“Gai, look-”

Gai steps aside, looking away from him. “Later then,” he says in a perfectly controlled emotionless, monotone voice. Definitely in big trouble.

“Gai-se-” Lee starts but Kakashi cuts him off, placing a hand on top of the boy’s mouth. Gai doesn’t even flinch at it.

“Not right now, Lee,” he warns, never letting his eye stray from Gai. It’s probably the first time Gai’s students have seen him like this.

Tenten sidles up to Lee, grabbing his arm, and giving her sensei a wary glance. “Come on, we have to go report in too.”

“We all should probably go now,” Sakura says to the group, waving them on. They all agree and follow her, passing glances towards Kakashi and Gai.

Naruto steps up to Kakashi, eyeing the two shinobi. He leans in closer to Kakashi, loudly whispering, “What’s up with Bushier-brow-sensei?”

“Naruto, go along with Sakura,” Kakashi orders, and Naruto pouts but does as he’s told.

Kakashi steps in front of Gai again, getting in his view. Gai is now shaking with anger. Kakashi doesn’t dare touch him. He can be pretty dangerous when he’s mad. “Gai, I really don’t have time right now, but I’m sorry. I’ll explain everything later. I promise.”

Gai huffs, refusing to look into Kakashi’s eye. “Right.”

Kakashi sighs but leaves him to stew in his anger. There’s nothing he can do for Gai right now anyway. It’s best if the other man went to a training ground and took his anger out there.

The debrief takes forever, much to Kakashi’s dislike. He’s antsy throughout the entire thing, knowing that Gai is waiting for an explanation from him. When they are finally told they can go, Kakashi is the first one out of the office, using the body flicker technique to get back to his apartment quickly. He hopes he’s guessed correctly and that Gai is waiting for him here instead of Gai’s own apartment.

He doesn’t even need to enter the apartment before he can sense Gai in it. Kakashi takes a deep breath at his door before unlocking it and entering. He kicks his sandals off and follows the light into his kitchen. Gai is there, washing up last night’s dishes that Kakashi had been too lazy to do that night. Gai always does chores when he’s angry.

“Are you ready to talk?”

Gai drops his hands with a loud thud, the plate in his hand giving a warning rattle of possibly breaking. Luckily it doesn’t. “I had to find out second-hand!” Gai growls angrily, letting go of the plate and turning around to face Kakashi. He’s definitely still mad, with his eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed.

His nose crinkles in a really cute way when he’s mad but Kakashi suspects Gai wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment at the moment.

“Are you absolutely insane, Kakashi?” Gai questions, leaning back against the sink and white-knuckling the edge of the counter.

“Gai, it was the only way.”

“Apparently not!” Gai points at him pointedly . “Considering you’re standing right there! ”

“Gai, I did what I thought had to be done at the time,” Kakashi explains. He really doesn’t like it when Gai is angry and he hates it, even more, when he’s the one making Gai feel that way. It doesn’t suit him.

“Why are you allowed to sacrifice yourself but I’m never allowed to sacrifice myself?” Gai asks, pushing off of the counter.

Kakashi furrows his eyebrows at Gai, feeling a bit of anger rising up in his own chest now. It’s an old argument that they always seem to circle back to when they do fight. “Is that what this is about? The fact that I’m a hypocrite?”

“No!” Gai takes a step towards him, still pointing, and Kakashi holds his ground. He knows Gai won’t actually hurt him when it comes down to it. “This is about you not telling me!”

Kakashi pinches the bridge of his nose. He’s getting a headache. “Because I knew you would try to stop me just like Naruto did.”

“You’re unbelievable.” Gai pushes past him, entering the small living room. Kakashi follows him. “So,” Gai starts in again, turning to face Kakashi. “I don’t even get to know that my boyfriend is going to die?”

Kakashi crosses his arms in defiance. He refuses to back down. “Like I would have any warning with you using the eighth gate?”

“That’s different!”

“How?”

“Yours was premeditative!” Gai yells. “You planned on sacrificing yourself without even giving me a second thought!”

“You don’t know what I was thinking,” Kakashi says calmly.

Gai’s voice calms, getting control over himself again. Despite Gai’s appearance and attitude towards most things, he really does have amazing control over his body. “I do know you didn’t trust me to help you. You didn’t trust me to come up with a different plan. If I were to use the gates, that would mean there was absolutely nothing else that could be done. I would be thinking of you, I would ask you for help until there was nothing but the gates. That’s the difference.”

The room falls silent, both of them seething with anger. They both stand there, Kakashi with his arms crossed and Gai with his hands curled into fists by his side. They face each other, neither of them willing to admit defeat. That was always their problem, Kakashi supposes.

“I’m going to bed,” Kakashi eventually says. He’s sore and tired and all he wants to do is not argue with Gai and to just sleep.

“That’s all? Really?” Gai asks, incredulous.

Kakashi waves him away and steps around him, making his way to his bedroom. “I really don’t have the energy for this right now, Gai.”

Gai follows him because, of course, he does. “Can you really not see it from my point of view?” He sounds hurt now and Kakashi refuses to look at him because he really doesn’t want to see that sad look in Gai’s eyes. “Kakashi.”

He feels a hand land on his shoulder and he stops walking, halfway to his bed already. The anger has dissipated from both of them. Another problem of theirs. They could never stay mad at the other for very long.

Kakashi sighs, spins, and faces Gai, engulfing him into a tight hug. Gai hugs him back, just as tightly, burying his face into Kakashi’s neck. “I was scared,” Gai mumbles after a while.

Kakashi reaches up, cards his fingers through Gai’s hair. “I know. I’m sorry.”

They don’t say anything more on the matter and Kakashi knows it’s just another one of their arguments that will end up being never spoken of again. It will be all water under the bridge until another flood of heated anger manifests between the two. The same argument they’ve had a hundred times already.

Kakashi pulls away, kissing Gai on the cheek. He grabs a hold of Gai’s hand and starts pulling him towards his bed. “Stay the night, will you?” he asks as he crawls on top of the mattress.

Gai’s smile is back and sometimes Kakashi fears he’ll never see it again, but for now it’s there and it’s real and it’s all for him. “Of course!”

Gai hops onto the bed, making Kakashi bounce a little and they lie down, ignoring the fact that they are still in their full shinobi garb. Gai reaches over and pulls Kakashi close to his chest so Kakashi’s back is pressed into him, burying his nose into Kakashi’s hair. He breathes in deeply and Kakashi lets him, knowing that Gai needs this right now. Next time it’ll be his turn to hold Gai like this when Gai decides to open the seventh gate and almost die.

Kakashi turns around and wraps his arms around Gai’s middle, scooting even closer to him. They hold each other in a way that if they could hold on tight enough, neither of them will ever leave the other and die.

Kakashi sighs into Gai’s shoulder, finally going to sleep.

—————————————————————————————————

A/N: Thanks for reading!

#KakaGai #GaiKaka #Hatake Kakashi #Maito Gai #Might Guy #Kakashi Hatake #Gai Maito #Guy Might #Naruto #Naruto Shippuden #Water Under the Bridge #My Fanfiction

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purplewhiteandgold · 5 years ago

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You’re the guy from the fragrance ad

(Based off of this post by @buginettez)

When the commercial break started, Alya excused herself to the bathroom, while Marinette and Nino chatted until the show came back on.

Until the familiar music started playing.

Marinette and Nino's heads snap to the TV, and, seeing the model slowly jogging over the rooftops, shout in unison, "ALYA THE AD IS ON."

The bathroom door crashes open as she comes stumbling out, rushing into the living room right as the voiceover starts. With exaggerated awe on her face, she mimics the audio.

"Radiant."

Nino sprawls across the carpet with the look of someone with not a single worry. "Carefree."

Marinette swoons dramatically over the side of the couch. "Dreamy."

In unison, and with massive grins on their faces, they sigh, "Adrien."

And then proceed to burst out laughing.

"That'll never get old," Nino snickers, wiping his eyes.

"Do you think," Marinette giggles a little. "Do you think the poor guy knows how much of a meme he is?"

"He has to, I can't imagine being that disconnected from society to not know," Alya chokes out, trying to contain her laughter.

Nino turns back to the TV, where another ad is running. "I wonder if we're the only ones who do crap like this whenever we see the commercial or billboards for the perfume."

Marinette snorts. "I mean, most of Paris is rabid for him, but I can almost guarantee that some other people see this as somewhat of a joke as well."

"Oh, I don't know, Marinette," Alya grins deviously. "Who's to say you're not also one of the people rabid for him? He looks like he could be your type."

Marinette smacks her leg, accustomed to hearing this every time they see the ad. "Yeah, sure, we'd be a great couple, especially since we don't even know each other."

She didn't feel the need to mention that there was another boy, clad in black leather, who was also her type and she did know, who held her heart. But as far as her friends knew, Ladybug was the one in a relationship with Chat Noir, not Marinette. But explaining that would bring a whole new round of questions and identity complications that she just didn't need.

The conversation might have continued, but they were interrupted by the show returning from commercial, and the topic wasn't brought up again.

~~~~~

Chat Noir was thrilled.

Who could blame him? After dating for a while, and after much discussion, he and Ladybug had finally agreed to reveal their identities to each other. He'd only been waiting for this since he met her.

No big deal, right?

Before they met that night, Adrien stood in front of his bathroom mirror, giving himself a pep talk.

"You got this, Agreste. This doesn't need to be that dramatic. Chances are, you probably don't even know her, so nothing will change except you can date her in your everyday life. You've got this. You've got this. You've-"

"Could you give it a rest, kid! Let me eat my cheese in peace."

He turned to glare at Plagg. "Aren't you always complaining about never seeing Ladybug's kwami? You do realize that if we start hanging out without being transformed, you can spend time with her, right?"

Plagg scoffed. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I should have to endure your lovesick rambling."

Adrien rolled his eyes before catching a glimpse at the clock. "We better go soon. Ladybug will be waiting for us."

With a few words and a cry of indignation from Plagg, he was out the window and off into the night.

~~~~~

They sit across from each other, legs crossed beneath them and hands clasped between them.

Chat stares at Ladybug's face, taking in every detail. In just a few moments, he'll be able to see the girl underneath the mask, the identity of the girl he fell in love with so long ago.

She squeezes his hands. "You ready, kitty?"

He nods, and in an unspoken agreement, they both close their eyes. In the back of his mind, he notes how in sync they are, in the heat of battle down to little things like this. How he can't wait to be like this all the time.

A few muttered words, and he can feel her hands in his, soft and gentle.

"On three, then?"

He smiles. "One."

"Two."

"Three." Together they open their eyes, and take their first look at each other's unmasked forms.

The first thought that crosses his mind is She's gorgeous. Her blue eyes are the same, yet completely different when not framed by her red mask. Her black hair is still styled the same, but contrasts differently against her dark blazer than her red suit. He watches as she observes his unmasked face, waiting for her reaction.

She gasps slightly, and then-

...she starts laughing?

"Wh-what's so funny?"

"You, you're-" she dissolves into a fit of giggles, pointing at his face. After a few moments, she blurts out "You'retheguyfromthefragrancead!" before falling onto her back, clutching her stomach as she continues laughing.

"Uh, yes? Why is that so funny?"

"Because me, Alya, and Nino, we-" she wheezes, trying to compose herself, before dramatically sighing, "the fragrance" and collapsing again in another fit.

"Why is this so funny to you?!"

~~~~~

"Alya!"

She turns to see Marinette running toward her. "You've been quiet all weekend, girl! I know something's happened, so spill."

Marinette grins. "So you know I've started dating this guy recently, right?"

"You mean the guy you refuse to tell us anything about?"

"Yeah. Well, the reason behind that was that his father wouldn't let him go to school, but I wanted your first impression of him to be when you met him."

"Wait. Are you saying that he's coming?"

Marinette beams. "I'm saying that he's in our class."

"You convinced his father to let him come?"

"It wasn't easy, but he eventually agreed." She nudges Alya's shoulder. "I'll wait for him out here, go find Nino and fill him in, I want both of you to meet him together. And I expect you both to be civil with him! He'll need friends after being homeschooled so long."

"Hey, if he's good enough for you, I have no doubt he'll be a great friend." Leaving Marinette at the front steps, she walks into the school to class.

Nino was eager to hear about Marinette's mystery guy, and after a few minutes, they were both intently watching the door, waiting for him to show up.

The minutes ticked by as the beginning of class drew closer. Alya and Nino eyed each other in concern.

"Maybe she's showing him around?" Nino questions slowly.

Alya nods slightly. "That does seem like something Marinette would do. I'm just hoping that his father didn't change his mind about letting him come to school." She snorts. "Although, if he's anything like Marinette, he's bound to be late."

Just before the bell, the door bangs open, and in rushes Marinette, dragging a boy behind her. "Sorry, sorry!" She turns to Ms. Bustier, panting slightly. "I was trying to show Adrien around since it's his first day, but I got a bit carried away and lost track of time."

Alya's mind was buzzing, and she didn't hear the teacher's response. Did she say Adrien?

She turns to the boy standing beside Marinette, still clutching her hand and looking around at the rest of the class. His hair is a golden blond, his eyes emerald green, and Alya can almost imagine the pure white clothes as he bounds across rooftops-

"- you introduce yourself, Adrien?" Ms. Bustier offers, pulling Alya out of her thoughts.

The boy looks a bit stunned, but quickly recovers. "Okay then." He turns to the class and puts on an award-winning smile. "Hello everyone, my name is Adrien Agreste, and I-"

He's cut off by raucous laughter as Alya and Nino, unable to contain themselves, burst out into giggles, mingled with dramatic sighs of "the fragrance" followed by even more laughter. Adrien looks terribly confused.

"Why do people keep reacting that way?!"

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ml fanfic #miraculous fanfiction #my writing

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artificialqueens · 5 years ago

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It’s the Little Things in Life (Branjie) - Mac

AN: Some cute Branjie with kids fluff! All the thanks to multifandomgeek for betaing this and keeping me from spiraling due to my crippling self-doubt.

Summary: Vanessa is a single mom to two adorable little ones. Brooke likes kids, but kids don’t usually like her. It is a process to introduce the two, but one Vanessa is willing to make work.

Vanessa and Brooke had been dating for a few weeks before Vanessa mentioned it. Brooke hadn’t understood at first and began gushing about Henry and Apollo. Only after a gentle shake of Vanessa’s head did Brooke learn that Lottie and Noah were in fact children, and not cats. Vanessa waited with bated breath for Brooke to respond. The older woman blinked a few times in an attempt to process.

Brooke didn’t dislike kids. Far from it actually. She loved their stupid little faces, and their tiny hands, and how they were just so clueless about the world around them. All of her closest friends had been having kids for a while now, so it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise that Vanessa had kids. Brooke wasn’t upset or mad, (both reactions Vanessa had gotten before), mostly she was just scared. Because while Brooke personally loved kids, they never really seemed to like her all that much.

When she shared this fear with Vanessa, the younger woman brushed off her concerns, saying that they didn’t have to meet for a little while, and even when they did, her kiddos were really loving of practically everyone.

While this bought Brooke some time, she still felt mentally underprepared when three months into dating, Vanessa brought up the topic again. They hadn’t mentioned it much. They had always just gone to Brooke’s apartment, and Vanessa had left afterwards. An occasional talk of a school talent show, or a soccer game would be as deep as it got. Brooke knew that eventually the time would come when she would have to face this fear head on.

Their four-month anniversary was when Vanessa asked her seriously about it. “I just gotta know if you’re serious about this, about us. All of us.” She said, knowingly. “Cause I can’t have me falling in love with you if you can’t do the same-”

It was the first time Vanessa had dared to say it out loud. Brooke could hardly process the rest of the sentence, too focused on pulling Vanessa’s body to her, placing a hundred tiny kisses all over her face as she repeated the three words back to the younger woman. Vanessa finally pulled away to look at her girlfriend, trailing a hand along her cheek. “That a yes? You wanna meet them?”

Brooke couldn’t think of a word any more perfect than yes at that moment.

It’s actually two weeks after their conversation that the official meeting is supposed to take place. Brooke gets off work at around six, provided her employees do their damn jobs for once, and is supposed to meet Vanessa and the little ones at Vanessa’s house by seven thirty.

The night doesn’t go according to plan. Brooke is still at the office when the clock hits seven fifteen, listening to some investor talk about market projections and margins that she really should be paying more attention to. Her mind kept plaguing her with worries that have nothing to do with her current firm’s projected growth for the next six years.

What if Lottie and Noah hated her? What if they didn’t even give her a chance? Would Vanessa still love her if they didn’t? Well that’s a stupid question. Of course not. If you can’t love her kids how can she love you?The voice in Brooke’s head chimed in, ever the helpful one.

She sends Vanessa a text under the table, telling her about the meeting, and apologizing profusely, saying she’d get there as fast as she could. Vanessa texts back a joke about her getting cold feet, that hits a little too close to home to be funny. Brooke could tell her girlfriend was worried, even over text. As soon as the man finished speaking, Brooke sent everyone home and made a beeline for her car.

Since she was so late, there wouldn’t be time to change out of her suit, but she had on good authority, from Vanessa herself, that it looked good, so she tried not to worry too much. Which for Brooke meant having the worst-case scenarios on loop in her head for the whole drive there.

But before Brooke could have another crisis about how Vanessa’s kids were for sure going to hate her, she arrived.

It was a quaint little home in the middle of nowhere. Nothing like where Brooke imagined Vanessa would live. Thinking of her girlfriend as more of a city gal, it surprised her to be all the way out in the country. But it was peaceful, and quiet. The perfect place to raise a family.

Brooke’s heart clenched at the thought.

She rang the doorbell, heart in her throat as she waited. She heard a sudden commotion and two pairs of feet bounding closer and closer to the door. She heard Vanessa before she saw her. “What are ya’ll doing? Y’all aint tall enough to even open that.” This didn’t happen to be the case as the door swung open so dramatically and forcefully that it hit the wall behind it, and the first thing Brooke saw was Vanessa’s face scrunched up from the sound of the property damage.

The next thing Brooke saw was two tiny persons looking up at her. She looked right back at them, unsure what to do with her hand or her feet or her limbs in general. They were beautiful, of course they were, Vanessa was their mother after all, but the light in their eyes was what really captivated Brooke.

“Hey, baby. This is Noah.” Vanessa grabbed the shorter kid and pulled him over with a hand to his head. He’s the younger one 3, no- four-years old.Brooke thought.Likes soccer and the color yellow.

“And Lottie.” Vanessa tried to do the same to the taller kid.Lottie, but Nessa sometimes calls her Lots. Seven years old. Likes blue and is the troublemaker, at least according to Nessa. But she is also incredibly smart. Nessa thinks she is smarter than she was at that age.

Lottie ducked quickly before her mom could grab her, and sprinted off into the recesses of the house, Noah following right after her in a run.

Vanessa looked nervously at Brooke. “Sorry, they aren’t usually like that.” Brooke shook her head to say it was fine, as Vanessa let her inside. “Sometimes, just being around people freaks them out.” Brooke saw Vanessa fighting with her hands, wringing them like laundry. She dropped her bag in favor of placing Vanessa’s hands in her own. The calm exterior Brooke held, gave nothing of her warring interior away, but it was clear she had to be the calm one for both of them tonight.

Brooke gave Vanessa’s hands a gentle squeeze and a soft smile, that was returned in kind. “Hey.” She said softly, getting Vanessa to look her in the eyes. “It’s just me, ok?” Vanessa nods and squeezes her hands once more. Brooke could already see a bit of tension leave her shoulders.

Brooke lets her hands drop and lets her eyes roam around the foyer. “Did you want the grand tour or something?” Vanessa joked, but it was mirthless.

Brooke nodded encouragingly and followed Vanessa as she gave a nervous, but adorable house tour. “This is the living room, as you can see. It’s a mess, but ya know…” She trailed off. It wasa mess. Toys and coloring books and stuffed animals littered the floor. It looked lived in. It looked like home. “And the kitchen, nice countertops and shit. At least that’s what the lady that sold it to me said.” Vanessa was rambling, it was adorable albeit a bit unnerving that the confident Latina ever dealt with emotions the way we mere mortals do. “And the bedrooms-Lots, didn’t I tell you to clean up. We got a guest!” Lottie looked up from where she was placing a fake stethoscope on her little brother and shrugged. Vanessa shook her head disapprovingly but couldn’t help the smile that ate at the corner of her mouth.

They continued walking. “And this is my room, you may be spending a bit of time here later.” Vanessa let her voice drop to a sultry whisper, as she traced her hands along Brooke’s dress shirt and pulled her closer by her belt loops, till the older woman was flush against her. Just as their lips were about to brush, a commotion from the kitchen made them jump apart.

“Lots I swear to the lord above if you-“

Brooke stared after her girlfriend with a small smile playing at her lips. She allowed herself to breathe for the first time since entering the house. She also allowed the feeling of relief wash over her.

She hated to admit it, but she had been worried that seeing Vanessa’s “mom side” might make her view the woman differently. But in reality, it only affirmed her already strong feelings for the young woman. Vanessa wasn’t different at home, she wasn’t harsh or commanding, or too sappy and sweet, she was just Vanessa. And the pride and love that bloomed it Brooke’s chest made her sure that nothing, not ever, could take her away from this woman.

Unless her children hated Brooke.

After dealing with whatever situation was happening in the kitchen, Vanessa poked her head around the door to beckon Brooke into the kitchen with the pretty countertops. There was a plate of cookies and what could only be considered a vat of frosting on the counter. Lottie was using her mom’s turned back to dip her finger in the massive bin of frosting. There were sprinkles of all different shapes and sizes lining the counters.

Vanessa looked nervous. “I thought we could decorate some cookies. If you want?” She was wringing her hands again. “I mean, they are kinda burnt, a bit. Sorry bout that. But in my defense this oven is crap, and-“ Brooke cut Vanessa off with a patient smile. “I’m rambling, aint I?”

Brooke nodded, but gave the slightly deflated Vanessa a reassuring smile. “I like it. It’s cute.” She couldn’t help the lovesick smile that made a home on her face. Vanessa couldn’t help but mimic it.

After realizing how long they had been just standing there smiling at each other like crazy people in love, (which they were), Vanessa broke the silence. “Anyway, let’s start decorating!” She turned to Lottie and Noah, who already had managed to spill an entire bottle of sprinkles on the floor. Vanessa gave an over dramatic sigh and looked back at Brooke as if to say, ‘can you believe them?’

Brooke could.

The rest of the decorating process passed in a daze. Brooke couldn’t quite figure out how it happened, but they ended up with three of the twelve cookies broken, all the sprinkles gone, and red icing on the tips of everyone’s nose. Brooke faintly remembers Noah coming at her with his tiny hands covered in red icing and being called Rudolph.

Noah had begged her to sing the song and Lord knows why, but Brooke acquiesced. She sung off key, and way too loudly, but the kids ate it up. Putting icing on the tips of their noses and joining in with their own made up lyrics.

When she finished her audition for American Idol, she saw Vanessa’s out of the corner of her eye and managed to tear her focus off the still singing kids for a second to see Vanessa looking at the three of them like they were her whole world.

And in that moment, they were.

“Alright, enough of that. We gon get a noise complaint. Y’all go clean up.”

Lottie and Noah groaned, and Brooke mimicked them, causing the two little ones to burst into giggles.

“You supposed to be on my side.” Vanessa scolded her. Brooke just laughed.

Lottie and Noah finally made their way out of the kitchen after much prodding from their mother. As soon as they left, Vanessa pulled Brooke into a kiss that felt like home.

Brooke smiled into her lips.

“What you smiling about?”

Brooke wanted to say so many things at that moment. I love this more than you will ever know. I’m so happy with you. I swear this family is all I want. If you let me, I’ll be the best parent to these kids. I’ll do anything to make them happy. I’ll do anything to make you happy. I love you.

But she settled for, “You.”

Vanessa beamed at her and kissed her once more, before walking her to the door. They made plans for another date, and another meeting for the four of them.

And as Brooke drove away, she found that she could hardly wait.

#rpdr fanfiction #vanessa vanjie mateo #brooke lynn hytes #branjie #fluff #domestic bliss #lesbian au #its the little things in life #mac

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phantomphangphucker · 6 years ago

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Questions Of An In-Between Existence - DannyMay - Day 25 Theory

Summary: What’s a bunch of Fenton’s to do when a mystery presents itself? Science!

Warning: injuries and healing, mild angst

(Sequel to my fic A Ghost! But Not?)

Danny wakes up with a jerk and winces in pain. But blinking as it hurts way less than he knows it should. Looking down at his left arm and hand, experimentally bending it slightly. It hurts a little yeah but the bandaging is almost more uncomfortable. Twisting his hand back and forth only confirms that. Muttering, “ok? I’m not complaining but I’m pretty sure this isn’t normal”. Sticking his finger under the bandaging on his chest and gaping at the white branch-like scarring. Breathing out, “oh yeah, not normal. Not normal at all”. He may not have a bunch of medical knowledge but even he knows scars don’t form overnight. Heck, he’s sure his chest was burned up yesterday and now it didn’t even hurt. His hand and forearm did, but that’s it.

Once again he’s left wondering just what the hell happened to him. Being a freaking ghost wasn’t some fever dream or pain induced hallucination, was it? Shaking his head as he swings his legs over the bed and heads downstairs, both thirsty and hungry.

Both the Fenton parents go slack-jawed as they watch their son bounce energetically down the last few steps and into the kitchen. He looks a bit awkward as he looks up and sees them gaping at him, “er, kind of hungry”. Maddie just nods as she points for him to sit down while she gets food for him, completely baffled because he should still be in tons of pain. He really shouldn’t even want to sit up, none the less actually get out of bed.

Jack closes his mouth and clears his throat before speaking, “you’re feeling better I’m assuming, son?”. Danny nods, responding while rubbing his neck awkwardly, “um, yeah but not, like, completely. Which while it is nice, it’s also freaky”. Jack can’t help but agree, no one heals that fast. Maddie nods at Danny as she gives him his cereal, “while I agree I’m glad you feel better, it is definitely odd sweetie”. Jack awkwardly eats a few bites of his pancakes before pointing his fork at Danny’s chest, “think you’re up for us checking you out again?”. Even though Danny nods, both of them can read the nervousness and reluctance on his face and in his eyes.

Danny’s not too sure about this, what if he really was a ghost but could like mimic a heartbeat and pulse? Or maybe ghosts still had those somehow but just slower? If that was the case then what? His parents were freaking ghost hunters, sure he’d like to think they wouldn’t do anything to him but still. Even if they didn’t hunt him or whatever, what if they started to view him as one of their projects or an experiment? That, that would almost be worse. But he doesn’t really see any way out of this, they would have insisted on changing the bandaging eventually anyway. And considering it had only been one night and his gut told him that everything not hurting was totally healed, no way they wouldn’t notice the freaky healing.

So he takes his time with his cereal and hopes they just think it’s because he’s not at a hundred percent.

Pushing his cereal bowl away before hopping onto the stool next to the sink. Lifting up his arms gently so his dad can cut away the bandaging on his chest, everyone hears his dad gasp a little, “oh wow, it’s, you’re, wow”. Danny can’t help but cringe a little both from his dad’s words and from the sight of the scarring and faint bruising on his chest. Danny pretty darn sure that scars just don’t heal or go away, even if his healing is completely jacked up.

He can feel his dads eyes on him so he tilts his head back up to meet his gaze, “wow, son. You weren’t kidding. I am glad you’re okay though”. Danny smiles awkwardly and holds out his arm, looking back at his chest while his dad cuts the rest of the bandaging off, only wincing after he cuts past the elbow. Jerking a little and clenching his jaw as his dad peels of the bandaging.

Jack winces apologetically, “sorry”. Danny just nods before examining his arm. Maddie shakes her head as her son slowly opens and closes his fist, it’s clear his arm’s still pretty bad but nothing like the charred black mess it had been only hours ago. “Well, we’re definitely re-bandaging that, but otherwise you’re ok. It ok if I check your pulse though?”, Danny nods but again he looks uncomfortable and like he doesn’t really want to. Jack and Maddie share a look of concern, Maddie’s officially a bit worried that he might be a bit traumatised and being reminded of what happened might not be the best thing for him. Jack shuffles slightly and is obviously making a point to speak gentility, “son, if you’re not ok with this that’s fine. You’re walking, talking and healing; that’s enough for us”. Maddie nods and ruffles Danny’s hair a little, which apparently makes him blush, “sorry? Just kind of freaked out I guess”. Though both of them can tell by how he looks around awkwardly, that there’s more he wants to say but that he’s also looking for an excuse to not say it. So Jack pats him on the leg supportively, while Maddie gingerly cleans Danny’s arm off. Danny winces a little but just seems to start rambling, which tells them he’s been thinking about this for a while now, “like this, this is really weird and with the whole dead or ghost or whatever thing earlier. What if I’m still like that but like faking stuff somehow or like slowly becoming like that again or like possessing my own corpse or something? And you’re hunters, ghost hunters. So just what?”. Maddie can tell he cut himself off, and considering the apologetic look, she’s sure he was about to ask if they were going to, going to hunt him. That thought makes Maddie’s stomach clench and she’s a bit worried he might have had a nightmare about that. Jack responds near instantly before Maddie even gets the chance to, “then we’ll deal with it like a family. A Fenton family but still family. We’ll figure this out, together”. Maddie nods and smiles at Danny, picking up that he didn’t hear quite what he wanted to, “and we’d never hunt you, sweetie. God, we never could”. Maddie can tell by Jack looking a little startled that he didn’t even think of that, “what?! Never! Danny-boy you’re safe here, no matter what. Human or ghost. You being dead was what scared us. I mean I thought-”, Jack cuts himself off to clear his throat, “-I thought our invention killed you. Hell, I’m not happy you got hurt at all!”. Both them can tell Danny’s smile is more genuine this time but Maddie feels the need to reinforce that they’re parents first, “you're more important than any of our work, hunting or research. Always”.

Danny smiles a bit more at that because yeah it could be easy to forget that, with how excitable his parents could be about their work, “thanks, I needed that”. Looking between them he can tell they both mean it and he likes that his dad apparently never even thought about even considering hunting him.

Pulling his hand and arm up and twisting it a little, the bandaging was still uncomfortable but better, “I’m guessing I’m still not going to school though”. He really hopes he doesn’t have to because dealing with classes is not something he feels like having to do. Both of them shake their heads rapidly, “of course not sweetie! We already notified the school you’d be out for at least a week”. He is damn pleased to hear that, though something tells him, he’ll be healed long before then. Rubbing his neck a bit awkwardly, “what’d you say happen to me?”. He’s seriously hoping it wasn’t remotely close to the truth, for oh so many reasons. His moms' smile is soft, which pretty well assures him that she or they didn’t give the school even close to the full story, “just that there was an accident and that you got electrocuted. That’s it”. Danny nods rather relieved, scrunching his eyebrows up at the feeling of all of his hair standing on end, but the feeling isn’t quite right. He doesn’t get a chance to check as his dad startles the crap out of him by jumping off his stool, for whatever reason that chases the feeling away. His dad’s slack-jawed again and he really has no damn clue why. “Uh, dad?”, his dad closes his mouth and shakes his head, before looking at his mom, clearly worried. Which only makes Danny worried, “okay? What’s going on here?”, Danny’s not really a fan of how confusing crap keeps happening.

Now both Maddie and Jack are certain that the ghost thing has clearly not gone away. Both officially worried that their son might have been on to something with his earlier worries about still being a ghost. Maddie not sure if it’s bad or good that Danny, clearly, has no clue what he just did, so she speaks softly aiming to not freak him out, “sweetie, you were just invisible”. She instantly feels bad as she watches him go wide-eyed, “what!?”. Both of them nod at him, while he looks between them for a moment before tilting his head back and groaning, “well that’s just great”. Bending his head back down and running a hand through his hair, before look back up to them. Maddie can clearly see the pleading in his eyes, “so what the hell am I then?”. Maddie hates that she really doesn’t have an answer for him, before it was easy to go with ghost but there’s no way he could be a ghost now, right? “I wish we knew but regardless, you’re family”.

Jack doesn’t really want to admit that he’s a bit excited to figure out this mystery, this could be some new discovery and the powers ghosts had were pretty cool; if a bit startling. But making sure his son’s ok, and not just physically, was more important. And it was pretty clear that, at least right now, his son was not finding the powers cool. His mental state was also, clearly, not ok. Jack pats him on the shoulder and smiles, “whatever this is we’ll figure it out. If you’re ok with that, of course. And I can’t say I’ve got any more ideas than what you already mentioned”. Chuckling a bit to try and make this all more light-hearted, “but I’m pretty sure we can rule out you possessing yourself or faking stuff. Ghosts can’t mimic the living on such a deep level”. Maddie nods, it would be kind of terrifying if they could actually, but no, a ghost having an audible and feelable heartbeat and pulse shouldn’t be possible, “I’d say we’re both positive you’re still alive sweetie”.

Jack taps his chin, “maybe the portal just infused you with ghost powers?”. Danny doesn’t really look like he believes that, “and what? Decided to make me a ghost or whatever for a few minutes, for kicks?”. Jack shrugs as he really has no clue on that one, but Maddie clearly has an idea, “near-death experience maybe? The portal just made it visible?”.

Danny tilts his head, because yeah that could make sense, “I mean, maybe? I don’t know. But yeah, I definitely want my heart and stuff checked now”. Once again hoping to everything that he actually has both. His parents look a bit apologetic and he’s not sure if that’s cause they feel bad for him, cause they feel bad that he’s freaked out, or that they feel bad about examining him. All three are pretty darn reasonable though.

Watching his mom listen to his heartbeat through his, now bare, chest and not seeing concern is extremely reassuring. She passes it off to his dad while she checks his pulse, “well it’s the same as last night. Slow but there”.

“How much slower are we talking?”

“Too slow, about half what it should be”, Danny frowns, not exactly liking the sounds of that. He’s pretty well sure that shouldn’t be survivable, none the less maintainable, “so...I’m not dead, but I should be? That’s ridiculous”. Both of them nod, clearly agreeing with him. But obviously there’s something else as they share one of their knowing looks, his mom pats lightly at his hand, which is not currently comforting, “and there’s something else, we don’t really know what but we noticed it last night too; we just didn’t want to freak you out more”, his mom shuffles a bit before continuing, which screams stalling and that’s worrying, what other weird thing is going on with him now?

“There’s also a humming sort of sound, it was possible the bandaging could have been causing it or maybe lingering electricity yesterday. But now that’s pretty unlikely, that sounds the same too”. Glancing down at his chest incredulously and trying to think if it felt any different. Thinking about it, yeah he could feel like an energy, kind of like when he feels giddy or like an adrenaline rush but localised and compacted inside his chest. There was a faint vibrating too, come to think of it, and a fullness. He had probably blamed that on the bandaging yesterday, at least if he had even noticed it at all, what with the pain and thinking he was dead. Shaking his head a bit before looking up quizzically at his parents, “I mean, I guess there’s sort of a vibratie fullness”.

Jack taps his chin, “well maybe you did get literally infused with ghost energy? I could see how that would vibrate and feel filling. Like eating too much”. Jack wonders if maybe this could happen if someone just absorbed an insanely high amount of ectoplasmic energy? If that’s the case then maybe it would eventually all just leak out of him or get used up? Danny snorts a little bit but then promptly confuses the hell of both Jack and Maddie, completely derailing Jack’s train of thought, “and I mean the portal’s a bunch of ghost energy, isn’t it? And that hums so?”. Both of them glance at each other before Maddie asks, “it, hums?”. Now Danny’s looking at them confused but then groans and seems to be more so talking to himself, “oh don’t tell me only I can hear that”.

Jack pats him on the shoulder, with the amount of energy that must be in the portal he wouldn’t be too surprised if it did make sound, “maybe? We weren’t exactly focusing on the portal last night”. Danny rubs at his neck, “oh yeah, point”. Jack chuckles a little bit and pats him again, he can’t really blame his son for being slightly out of it, “well, that’s something easy enough to check, if you want to”. Jack will admit he’s a bit excited by Danny nodding and Danny does glare at him a bit over that excitement. “Sorry Danny-boy, but we’re scientists, hard not to get a little excited. So long as you keep healing and are ok”, Danny sighs, “yeah I know, just, don’t start treating me like an experiment or something”. Jack blinks, a bit frazzled by that, what kind of father would do that? He was curious yes but not like that.

“What!? Of course not, I mean we’d like to run tests, you know, figure out what’s going on and that you’re ok. But again, you’re our son first”, Maddie nods with Jack as they all head down to the lab. Maddie ruffles Danny’s hair a bit, looking to make him feel more comfortable and like this is less freaky, “if you’re not comfortable or don’t want to do something then we won’t. All you have to do is say so. And we are absolutely not doing something if we even suspect it’s hurting you”. Both them are glad he smiles warmly at that, before rubbing his neck, “I think I can be ok with most things then, just please tell me what you’re doing first? Also yeah, the portal hums”.

Danny knows pretty well immediately that it’s just him who can hear it as his parents look at the portal and back at him, both looking slightly guilty. “Sorry sweetie, it’s just you”, which is just wonderful, something else completely weird about him. Though clearly his mom’s got some kind of idea, based on how her eyes practically light up, “maybe it’s because it’s the portal's energy that’s in you? So it’s just reacting to that”. Huh, she’s got a point there. Plus it’s not just that it has a sound, he can feel the humming too and it makes him feel kind of...comfy. Like the air around him is a thick soft blanket and like something is softly massaging or kneading the inside of his chest. Shrugging at them before Jack asks, “does it sound kind of like a deep humming in time with a powerful drum beat but inside of a cave?”. Danny blinks a bit because that’s pretty darn close before cluing in that that must be what they heard in his chest, “yeah but kind of soft, like a deep cats purr”. Obviously, that’s enough for them to pretty well decide these two things are related and yeah it does make sense. “Well maybe if it’s the portal's energy it will get used up or fade away over time, I could see it being possible that you got such a massive shock of energy that it’s enough to make you a bit ghostly”, his dad has a bit of a point, so what? Is he just going to do random ghost stuff till it goes away or something? What if it just doesn’t though? He really doesn’t want to voice that worry though, he’s got no clue what he’s going to do with all this odd if it is permanent. Though he guesses there’s not really all that much right now, but what if there’s more?

Danny raises an eyebrow as his mom pulls out this box thing, “it’s like a scanner, a regular hospital scanner that we modified to also pick up on all things ecto. All it does is scan though”. Yeah, Danny figures that might be a good idea. See what’s going on in there, regular hospitals are probably out of the question now. Oh man, yeah they’d freak over his vitals alone, assuming this was just his new normal anyway.

Shuffling to sit in front of it and nodding at her, “remember just tell me if you want me to stop, for any reason. And I mean that Danny”. Danny smiles at her, even if he’s a bit nervous. Though kind of wishing the machine wasn’t blocking his view of his parents' faces. Especially when he clearly hears his dad mutter, “woah”.

Jack and Maddie glance from each other to the machine's screen. Maddie taps on it a few times to make sure it’s not glitching. Shaking her head in mild disbelief as the image doesn’t change. Smack dab in the middle of her son’s chest is a ball of pure ectoplasmic energy, extraordinarily strong and condensed ectoplasmic energy. No wonder they could hear this! Actually, be more weird if they couldn’t. Though Maddie’s not exactly pleased that his hearts been pushed to the side a bunch and his lungs too, to make room for the energy ball. Jack mutters faintly, “well there goes the, just absorbed a bunch of energy and it’ll go away, idea. Plain energy couldn’t reorganise organs”. Maddie’s not sure what new idea he has got, as Jack snaps his fingers and starts rummaging through books, as Danny pipes up sounding rather worried, “um guys? “Woah” what?”. Maddie quickly takes a freeze frame on the image and waves for him to come over, feeling a little bad for worrying her son; but it was pretty hard to not be shocked by this.

Watching as her son goes wide-eyed and puts his uninjured hand over the centre of his chest, “woah, that’s, in me? What, what is it? Ghost energy? Ghost portal energy?”. Maddie nods patting him on the back before speaking, “yeah, it’s definitely ecto-energy, but other than that, I’m not quite sure”.

Jack nearly knocks Maddie over as he excitedly slides back over, plopping one of the potential theories journals down. Maddie feels kind of silly that she didn’t think of this as Danny leans over the book, “ghost cores?”. Danny shuffles a bit before speaking again, “looks like that’s kind of a flat out ghost only thing though. So what? Are we back to, ghost but not a ghost, somehow”. Maddie’s not even sure there’s another explanation at this point. Cores are supposed to be like a heart or the centre of a ghost. Let’s them form, holds their consciousness, grants powers, the most vital thing. Absorbing and feeding off the ectoplasm in the zone to sustain itself, so what is even sustaining her son’s? Not only that but he’s not like a ghost at all outside of the apparent powers and so far what happened earlier with the transformation thing, was just a one-off occurrence. He should be lit up like a lightbulb with this much ecto-energy in him. Maddie just mutters at him, rather stumped, “I don’t know”.

And that was not really the answer Danny wanted, but apparently, his body or core or whatever decided now was a good time to be invisible, as his mom pokes at him, “sweetie, you’re invisible, again”. Danny tilts his head down and yelps a little at his see-through hand, he can make out a weird outline but other than that. Shaking it before he just tries willing it away but the, invisibility feeling he guesses, stays, “well, I don’t know how to make it stop so”. His mom nods clearly sympathetic but then looks a little sheepish, “you think maybe you could go in front of the scanner again? See if anything looks different?”. Shrugging, he goes and sits back on the stool but promptly facepalms, realising she can’t freaking see him. “I’m on the stool again mom”, he feels a little bad about starling her as she snaps her head to face him. Clearly embarrassed as she talks, “alright sweetie, just give me a second”. It doesn’t take long before she pokes her head over, “it’s still the same, might as well come back over. Just tap on the desk so I know though”.

Danny feels incredibly awkward having to actually do that just so she knows where he is. Sure he can already think of so many sneaky ways he could use this, heck Sam would adore this. But right now he’d like to be able to actually control it. Trying again to make it stop to no avail. Danny’s a bit embarrassed now as his dad looks up from the journal and looks around a bit confused, speaking a bit awkwardly again, “I’m over here dad”.

“Oh! You’re invisible again. Well alright, I’m guessing you can’t control this can you?”, Danny damn well wishes he could, because it is beginning to annoy him. Shaking his head, “I’m trying to make it stop but no luck”. Both of them nod at him or, he guesses, more so in the direction of his voice. His mom smiles softly, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out sweetie, and you got us to help, as much as we can anyway”.

All three of them hear the ding from the oven, Danny chuckles, “lunch already wow”. His dad chuckles, “yup! Time sure goes by when there’s a mystery to solve!”. Danny smiles a bit but gets jostled by his mom bumping into him but that seems to be enough to get him back to visibility again, “oh sorry Danny and oh!”. Again Danny feels bad about startling her, “uh, sorry?”.

Maddie quickly waves off his sorry, he’s got nothing to apologise for, he doesn’t even have control over this. Though she’s seriously hoping she’s right about him being able to learn to control it. Smiling at him softly, “it’s fine, and I’m guessing you want food?”. Danny nods but it’s clear he’s a bit freaked out as he heads up the steps before her.

Maddie’s in the middle of serving out her own portion of spaghetti when Danny’s goth friend, Sam, full strength kicks the door in. Nearly making her drop the pot and startling Danny enough to phase through his stool; which clearly startled him even more as he scoots away from it and scrambles to stand up.

Putting down the pot, she joins Danny in glaring at them, Sam apparently doesn’t care though. Pointing at Danny while dragging Tucker in without even looking inside yet, “I had to hear from one of the teachers that you go- OH MY GOD!”. Tucker quickly joins Sam in gaping, “HOLY SHIT DUDE!”.

Danny can’t really blame them for being freaked and now he kind of wishes he put on a shirt, “uh, was kicking in the door really necessary?”. Sam closes her mouth and clears her throat before speaking, “what, what happened?”.

“Dude, just damn”, Tucker tilts his head a little, “looks kind of badass though”. Danny wouldn’t know, he hasn’t even looked himself over really and he can’t say he really gives a damn how it looks right now. Glaring at Tucker a little, “I don’t really care”. Blinking a bit as Danny realises that it’s only a little past noon, “did? Did you guys leave school?”. Danny’s pretty sure his moms crossed her arms and he can see his dad has, while Sam puts her hands on her hips and Tucker just looks unimpressed. “Danny, you didn’t even text us that something happened”, Danny does really care that they’re unimpressed when how alive he was is in question, “that wasn’t exactly a priority”.

“Dude, what even happened? You look like a lightning bolt assaulted you”, Danny would almost prefer that because at least then his body wouldn’t be doing all this weird crap. And what is he even going to say? He doesn’t get a chance to come up with something as his mom responds, “he’s supposed to be resting not texting, like I told the school, there was an accident and Danny got zapped”.

“Uh, no offence Mrs. F, but,” Tucker points at Danny’s chest, “that looks a lot worse than zapped”, oh it damn well was worse than zapped. At the very least he died for a bit and now there’s a ball of energy in his chest. Danny can’t help but look down at his chest though, officially glad they did not show up yesterday. Also officially deciding he’d like to actually know what’s happened to him before even attempting to tell his friends. Sam walks up to him but looks a lot more concerned than upset now, “there’s no way that didn’t hurt, while scarring is cool and all. There’s no way we could stay at school not knowing if you were ok”. And now she looks unimpressed again, “I mean Danny for all we knew you were in a hospital or something”. Danny admits she’s got a point there but both his friends worriedly hovering around him and scrutinising him, combined with his parents slowly looking more defensive; makes him feel like he’s just causing problems and how he’d really rather not be here right now.

And then his body decides to oblige him, and he’s not sure if he’s glad he recognises the feeling as invisibility near instantly. But even if he hadn’t, his friends both jumping and going wide-eyed would have clued him in.

Jack jerkily stands up and glances at Maddie just before everyone hears Danny yelp and practically shout, “oh come on!”. Jack glances down at the floor, quickly realising his son must have phased through the floor. He jerkily points at the lab door before running down, only catching Sam wave her hand through the air where Danny had been.

Maddie watches her husband retreat before looking back to her son’s slightly freaked friend’s, “now I know that was unexpected but Danny really needs to just rest. I’m not sure having friends over is the best thing”. Judging by how both of them gape at her incredulously, they’re not going anywhere. “Ok, I, no we, need an honest answer after that. Is Danny ok? Like actually ok? What just happened?”, Sam almost sounds aggressive while Tucker looks down and taps at the ground with his foot before looking, of all things, impressed. Whispering, “holy shit”, but then snapping his head over to Danny as both he and Jack come back up.

Maddie cringes a bit at how Tucker erratically points at her son before speaking, “dude! You have superpowers! Oh man, that’s cool”.

Danny blinks and gapes at his friend a little, cool was not the reaction he was dreading. Scrunching his eyebrows up, “cool?”. Letting his arms fall limp at his sides and staring at them incredulously as both of them nod, Tucker a fair bit more excitedly, “dude, what. You try your body doing random crap with no control. And that’s not even mentioning that dead not dead but maybe dead crap”.

Danny can’t even bring himself to care about his mom cringing, as he’s officially certain he has the worlds weirdest friends. Sam tilts her head at him, “last I checked corpses don’t walk around Danny. Again, what happened? No way this was just a zap”. Well at this point there’s really no point in even waiting, but considering literally none of them really seem to know exactly, “accident, electrocution, pain and bullshit”.

Maddie sighs and sits down, she’s both impressed and weirded out that her son’s friends aren’t utterly freaked, instead, they seem impressed by his little display. Clearly, they’re not satisfied with Danny’s response though, “he got caught inside the portal when it activated”. Danny rubs his injured arm a little, “I hardly even care about that after the whole ghost thing. I was literally dead”. Danny glares at Tucker, “and dude, I’ve been way too focused on making sure I’m not dead dead to find any of this cool”.

Jack pats his son on the back, but phases straight through him on the third pat, making his son jerk and glare at him a bit. Effectively ruining the comforting effect Jack had been aiming for, “sorry, but we are still positive you’re not dead”. But Sam looks a little impressed and Tucker looks excited, “dude! What does that even feel like?”.

Danny blinks at his friends, “it...tingles”. Why was that what his friends cared about? “So what? You can go through things and be invisible?”, Danny and his parents nod at them. Now Sam actually looks confused, which is finally a more expected reaction, “and did you say you were a ghost? So what? Are these like ghost powers?”. Well duh, Danny’s not sure what else they could possibly be.

Danny can tell his dads still clearly a bit excited over the whole researching and trying to find an explanation thing, which is still a little off-putting. As Jack talks a little animatedly, “still trying to figure out why, but making sure Danny-boy here’s ok was and is priority”. Danny blushes a bit but he likes the reminder. But it’s clear his mom is going to shoo his friends off, as she walks up to them again, “I know you kids are curious but you should be in school, and Danny really does need to rest. We’re figuring this out, you can pepper him with questions later”. Danny can read the protectiveness on his mom's face as she points her finger assertively at Tucker, “but only if he’s ok with it. No pushing him”. Honestly, Danny finds that a little embarrassing. He’s freaked and completely damn weird, not fragile. Well, ok he hopes he’s not fragile.

Danny is a bit surprised that his friends actually let her push them out, sticking his head out the door before she closes it though, looking at both of them, “obviously don’t tell anyone. I seriously can not deal with the whole school freaking on me. And I think all three of us have really earned the title weirdo trio at this point”. Tucker smirks at him, “how nice of you to finally join us, and dude, duh. We’re not idiots”. Sam pushes him on the shoulder with a wide grin, “the two of us have always been straight strange, you just came from a weird family. Now you’re straight strange too”. Danny wants to feel offended but she does have a point and her now soft smile makes it hard to be mad, “and Danny, your conscious and walking around. If you’re dead or a ghost, or just partly that way then who cares. Just makes you unique”. Danny has no response for that, she’s acting like he just got a tattoo or something. “I, um, see you after school I guess”.

Maddie’s honestly impressed her son’s friends didn’t freak, and he actually seems more okay as he turns back to them, “well, that was unexpected. Kind of nice to know though”. Maddie ruffles his hair up, “you’ve got good friends sweetie”.

Jack smiles widely down at his son, who he's glad to see returns it readily, “you know, powers are a bit cool. But well, you know us, anything ghost is cool”. Jack hopes that with his friends also agreeing that Danny will see this all better, even if they still don’t really know what’s going on. Danny sighs but there’s still a hint of a smile, “I guess, but right now it’s just freaky and annoying and startling and a lot of things. None of it even makes sense”. Jack titles his head because that’s not quite true, “well, we’re pretty sure you have a core. So that must be where the powers are coming from”.

Maddie blinks releasing that doesn’t quite make sense. Core’s are the heart of a ghost yes and their powers too, but from what she knows their cores are only directly responsible for more specific or unique powers. Not the general ones her son’s been displaying. Ectoplasm by its very nature can become invisible or intangible. That’s not to mention that ghosts use their cores power(s) by channelling it through their ectoplasm. Ectoplasm in their bodies, that makes up their form. Maddie looks at her son both worried and baffled, he really should need ectoplasm all over and in him to do what he’s been doing. Clearing her throat, “I might have an idea but, well, I’ll need a blood sample”.

Danny is both confused and freaked out, what would a blood sample solve? He guesses that’s a routine thing at hospitals but it’s not like he’s been bleeding or anything. Deciding it couldn’t hurt and it’s not like they haven’t taken blood samples from him before, shrugging, “I guess, but why?”. Clearly his dads a bit confused too, but seems to understand way quicker than him as she explains, “if theory is correct a core really shouldn’t be able to even give you powers that can actually be used. Unless there’s ectoplasm to act as a conduit and ectoplasm innately has invisibility and intangibility. So I want to check your blood for ectoplasm”.

Danny can’t help but glance incredulously at the veins in his wrist, they look pretty normal. But if he flat-out bleeds green that will honestly be freakier than phasing through the floor. Nodding at his mom a bit numbly and seriously hoping she’s wrong. Because could ectoplasm or whatever even actually support a living human?

Muttering as they’re back down in the lab again, “so what does it mean if there’s ectoplasm instead of blood? Because again with the, what am I question?”. His moms smile is clearly meant to be reassuring and it’s also genuine, which does make him feel a bit better, “it’s more that I’m looking for specks of impure ectoplasm rather than expecting straight pure ectoplasm”, she pats his hand before continuing, “see it’s already odd that you’re not glowing with likely having a core, but to also having nothing but pure ectoplasm goes from odd to impossible. At the very least, your veins would be glowing and green”.

Maddie watches him give an accusatory glare at his uninjured arm as she wipes the crook of his elbow with a cotton swab. Holding up the needle, “you okay with this?”. Watching him nod a bit jerkily makes her feel a little bad, but of course, he’s nervous. She’s pretty sure they all are, but if he does just have little specks then that further proves he’s very much alive and human. Plus it explains the use of ghost powers, and it’s perfectly possible to just decontaminate some impure ectoplasmic particles. Arguably the core should just fade from there, even he couldn’t, or possibly didn’t want to, be decontaminated; it’s arguably safe to live with a mild amount of ectoplasmic contamination.

However, everyone goes wide-eyed as a mixture of red and green fills the tube. Maddie gapes as she holds up the, now filled, first tests tube. Looking to be about an exact fifty-fifty mix, “I, I’ve got no explanation for this”.

Jack gingerly grabs the tube out of her hands and tilts it around some, it honestly looks kind of neat but he’s got a bad feeling this is pure ectoplasm. At the same time, he’s got no clue why it isn’t glowing. Even impure ectoplasm glows a little.

Danny’s honestly feeling a bit like a lab rat now, with the quizzical way he’s dads just staring at the vial before running off with it, doing who knows what to it. While his mom fills up the two other tubes, though he can’t help but watch.

He gets a bit startled when his mom offers him one, looking up at her confused. But he doesn’t even have to ask, “it’s yours sweetie, it doesn’t make any sense but I imagine you’re curious. Well, and freaked out. I’m going to go work on this one so you hold on to that one, maybe snoop it some yourself?”. Danny nods a bit numbly as he takes it from her.

Staring down at it, he can’t help but find the swirling of colours kind of...pretty. Beautiful even, it kind of looks like a little galaxy; a galaxy that was inside him. Feeling a little bit better, he clutches it to his chest as he walks over to his parents.

“So um, what are you doing to it?”, flicking his eyes over to his dad as he taps on a machine. “Separating it, hopefully this baby will separate ectoplasm from blood”, he turns and smiles softly at Danny, “that way we can all get a better look”. Danny nods, deciding that makes sense. Kind of hard to get good results or whatever, if the two are just mixed together in a swirling mess.

Tilting his head at his mom, who’s looking down a microscope. But the only response he gets from her is a gasp, at first he’s worried but at realising her gasp sounds more pleasant than freaked, he’s just confused. “Mom, what is it?”, his dad also looks more curious than worried; but Danny’s not sure if he finds that comforting or not.

Maddie’s not even sure what to say as she stares down at the, clearly intermingling, blood and ectoplasm. It’s pretty clear the ectoplasm is pure, which just makes this even more confusing. Watching as her son’s blood appears to be coating over the ectoplasm, like it’s hiding it. When the ectoplasm should logically be destroying the blood. Right now, she’d think the ectoplasm was the one being destroyed if she couldn’t clearly see it’s particles there. It’s almost like the two are...coexisting. But that’s completely impossible, isn’t it? It doesn’t take long for the whole droplet sample to be completely red.

Pulling her face up and gaping incredulously at her son, “I’m not sure how to even describe this”. Clearly seeing the mild panic on her son’s face, “but, it’s very obvious that the ectoplasm isn’t hurting your blood sweetie”. Danny looks from her to the slide, squinting at it, “it’s entirely red? Did the ectoplasm go away or something?”. Maddie glances back down at the slide still stunned, “or something, the ectoplasm’s still there. It’s just, you’re blood is covering? it up”. Turning back to her son, “I think, if we left this all here for a bit. It would all be red when we came back. But it would still have the same concentration of ectoplasm”.

Jack sticks his face over the microscope as Maddie moves aside, he’s shocked to see that she’s right. But there’s something else too, it looks like the blood and ectoplasm is sharing, sharing nutrients. Which is beyond illogical. But then it hits him, the ectoplasm, it’s being sustained and stabilised by the blood. And the blood cell walls and particles appear to be reinforced. Like, mutualistic symbiosis.

Patting at his son’s arm excitedly as he gets an idea, pushing a piece of metal at him without even looking away from the microscope, “give that a squeeze, like as hard as you can”.

Danny’s got no clue where his dads going with this, “uh, okay?”. Glancing at his mom who shrugs, obviously she’s got no clue either. Shrugging back at her before squeezing, only getting a second to dwell on the slight vibrating in his hand before both of them promptly gape at his hand, as he only has mild difficulty in completely crushing the pole. There’s no way that should be possible for him, at all.

Danny’s guessing the crunching sound is what gets his dad to turn around, and Danny only gapes more as his dad doesn’t even look surprised. Watching as his dad nods at the metal, “your blood and ectoplasm is doing more than just existing together, it looks like they’re supporting each other. Blood stabilising ectoplasm and ectoplasm strengthening blood. Making all of you stronger”.

“So what? Super strength? Ghost strength?”, Danny glances back down at the metal as his dad nods. Flicking his eyes over to his mom as she talks, “with that logic I think, no I’m sure, it’s more than just physical strength. Everything should be strengthened”, obviously something else hits her as she snaps her fingers, though Danny’s not sure where she could be going with this. Pointing at his arm, “you’re healing. Maybe it wasn’t because of what caused it but because of you”.

“Uh, well I’m not cutting myself or something to test that”, his mom looks flat-out startled by that. Shaking her head vigorously as she responds, “what?! No! Of course not sweetie. There’s a much easier way”. Now Danny’s just confused until she points at the cotton ball tapped on the crook of his elbow. Quickly going to peel the tape off but wincing, having forgotten about his messed up hand. “Sweetie I’ve got it, don’t hurt yourself”, Danny just nods as he holds his arm out to her, as she peels off the tape booth of them blink down at his unmarked arm.

Jack taps at his chin, “speed and your senses probably too”. Jack’s just going to assume that if his son’s senses are better he hasn’t really noticed, otherwise Jack’s sure his son would be very overwhelmed by that. It’s clear he wasn’t aware of the strength for sure, or maybe it has to be activated or something. Jack doesn’t really get to mull it over as the centrifuge finishes.

Popping it open and pulling out the vial, there’s a fine layer of fizzing ecto-energy, plasma, pale green ectoplasm, white blood cells and platelets, red blood cells, vibrantly glowing ectoplasm, with a small bit of painfully bright glowing blue something? at the bottom.

Jack wastes no time in getting out the blue stuff before it could possibly mix with anything. While his son tilts his head, “what even is that?”. Jack really has no clue and looking at Maddie, it’s clear she doesn’t know either. So the only response he gives is a shrug, which Danny is clearly not impressed by.

Maddie lets Jack deal with the unidentified stuff under the microscope, while she takes samples of the pale ectoplasm and white blood cells. Explaining to her son as she begins testing it for DNA, “I’m checking to see if your DNA’s changed or been damaged at all, as for the ectoplasm, I’m checking that against the portals samples. If they’re the same energy they should match”. Danny nods, “yeah that sounds like a good idea”.

Maddie’s glad he’s more ok with this but she’s flat-out freaked when the results print out. Grabbing the blood DNA profile first and finding that half his DNA is completely missing. Which is not only not maintainable but should be instantly deadly. It makes zero sense. Grabbing at the ectoplasm print out next and having no clue what to do with this. Not only does it have DNA, which it only should if it was taken from a ghost, but it also only has half the proper DNA. On top of that, it does not match the portal, which completely eliminates their only really good theory.

But somethings nagging at her and as she looks between the two print outs it clicks. The two samples, if combined, result in a complete DNA profile. Blinking down at the ectoplasm printout and tilting her head, each ghost would have unique DNA, like humans, and this ghost DNA matched the human DNA; which only left one possibility. They belonged to and were explicitly created by one person, this was her son’s ghost DNA, or half of it at least, not just some ectoplasm. His body would have to be creating more, actively maintaining these levels; this absolutely was not ectoplasmic contamination.

Danny is very much freaked out now, not just because of the startled and baffled expressions on his moms face. Side-eyeing what was left of the separated sample from him, as the ectoplasm seems to be foaming or something and the red blood is turning black. “Uh, um, mom?”, Danny honestly doesn’t care that he sounds a bit freaked out though his mom instantly bringing her attention to him does make him feel a bit better.

Danny doesn’t even bother with pointing as he can tell she’s followed his gaze by how she gasps, quickly taking samples of both the red, now basically black, and vibrant green, now mostly sticky looking foam. And practically shoving his dad out of the way to look at the new slides.

Danny just glances worriedly from the vial to his dad who now also looks deeply worried, but looks down at the slide he has. Tapping it on his fingers a bit, “well, son. You definitely have a core I’d say but I’m not sure how important that is right now”. Danny just points at the slide and blurts out, “core ectoplasm?”. His dad nods before his mom practically drags him back over to the microscope, and judging by how she looks a little teary-eyed when she turns to face him this isn’t good.

Danny fiddles with the one vial he’s still holding on to as she talks, obviously trying to speak gently, “sweetie, this, whatever exactly it is, isn’t going to go away and I really really think we shouldn’t try to make it”. Danny had a gut feeling that was the case but it’s downright freaky and daunting to know for sure. He was stuck with this, and he still didn’t even know what this even is. Gulping a little, “I, I had a feeling. That this, this was probably permanent”. His moms nods softly and glances back at the microscope, while his dad stands up straight, “son, I’m not sure how but your blood and this ectoplasm, they need each other. They’re not just helping each other, they’re codependent”. His mom blinks a bit before grabbing at the papers and shoving them at his dad. And now he really wants to know what that says, he hopes clearing his throat is enough to make that clear.

He has to clear his throat three times before his mom gets the message, “sorry Danny, sweetie. I’m just a little frazzled”. Danny is not happy to hear that, because that means whatever it is its either extremely weird or bad. She then clears her throat before continuing, “you’re DNA is messed up, really badly. And the ectoplasm, it’s not just ectoplasm. It’s your ectoplasm, as in specifically yours. With its own DNA matching your human DNA. But that DNA’s also messed up”. Yeah ok, that is both extremely weird and bad. So what? He had two different species DNA? Alive DNA and dead DNA? But both were screwy? Is his whatever going to start foaming or blackening suddenly? He’s not even sure either of them hears him whisper, “oh god, what am I?”. Because really, with this there’s no way he’s just human. So what, human and ghost? He doesn’t get a chance to ponder that as all of them hear his dad mutter, “like two halves of a whole”.

Jack rubs at the two papers, it’s clear to him that it’s like two puzzle pieces that click together. Two technically separate things but are meaningless and incomplete unless clicked together to make a whole. Flicking his eyes to the microscope, two things that don’t work apart. Flicking his eyes back over to his son, or where his son was, glancing down at Maddie makes it clear that Danny must have gone invisible again.

Immediately deciding not to mention it, just in case he freaks him out more.

Maddie scrunches up her eyebrows before leaning back to squinting down at the papers that Jack’s still holding, because something just struck her. This, it was like hybrid plants, to different plants combined to make something new but also not. Blinking as she remembers how Danny’s blood and ectoplasm looked, because it really was his ectoplasm wasn’t it?, it was pretty much exactly half and half. And his DNA was half and half. Looking back to where she thinks her son is, thinking she might just have an answer to the one question he’s asked repeatedly. But really how was that even possible? Humans and ghosts weren’t compatible, they were mutually exclusive, weren’t they? Human blood and pure ectoplasm shouldn’t even be able to be in physical contact as the ectoplasm would be corroding the blood, none the less be able to coexist; and certainly not be codependent. And yet the impossible clearly was possible.

Clearing her throat, “sweetie, with this I think it’s clear to say that you are still human and alive, but also a ghost”.

Danny can flat out tell she left out the, “and dead”, part; he doesn’t blame her because how does that even make sense. Dead and alive? At once? What? But what other possibility was there? All the other theories or ideas had been pretty well disproven. Plus, he had pretty well come to this conclusion himself already, human and ghost. “So what? I’m half ghost? Half dead?”, Danny scratches his head because, come to think of it, if he’s part way dead then what the hell is keeping him part way alive?

Danny can clearly tell the, “dead”, comment is what made his mom cringe and his dads, a fair bit forced, comforting smile really does the opposite of making him feel comforted. But remembering how Sam had just flat out called him dead or part dead like it was nothing, and Tucker clearly agreed that it was no big deal. Heck, they’d known about this situation for all of half an hour and had pretty well decided he was a little bit dead, a ghost, and that it was...cool. Danny’s not sure if he feels the same.

“Are we, like, sure I’m at least partly alive and staying that way?”, his parents near instant and confident nods actually do work to comfort him. So alive and dead, that was his life now or part life? Half-life?. Shaking his head as he goes to run his uninjured hand through his hair only to stop short. Blinking at the faint semi-transparent outline of his hand, which he knew no one else could actually see. Groaning, “well, okay then. I guess I’m just going to have to, have to learn to control this then”, Danny seriously hopes he can because there’s no way he can tolerate randomly going through things or being invisible.

Danny tries to make the hair-on-end invisibility feeling, feel more like hair being smoothed down and is actually a bit startled as he blinks back into the visible spectrum.

Jack’s glad he can actually see his son again, but he’s more glad that his son doesn’t seem too freaked. Aiming to be reassuring as he walks up at pats him on the shoulder, “well I’m sure you’ll figure it out Danny-boy. You’re a Fenton after all, and you’ve got us to help, of course”. Maddie comes up beside him and bends down to be on eye level with their son, “and I think you’ve got your friends too”. Both of them are glad his smile is a genuine one, “I really hope so, I know and I think they might actually like it. Which is weird in and of itself”.

“I can’t say I’m too surprised sweetie, you’re friends have always been a bit strange. But strange can be good”, Maddie tilts her head back at the equipment, “but I think this is enough strange discoveries for one day”. Turning back and smiling at him again, “besides I’m going to have to make a pretty big super, with your friends coming over”. She can tell that he’s a little uncomfortable about something as he rubs his neck. She elects to wait for him to speak as he gives her a slightly nervous smile, “um, do you think my strange is good?”.

Jack doesn’t even give Maddie a chance to respond, because really he does still find this a bit neat even if it’s also a bit startling, “so long as it doesn’t start doing you harm then absolutely, Danny-boy. Besides you’re still very much human, just enough ghost to have powers”. Maddie blinks a bit before nodding, “yes, I think saying you’re flat-out half ghost might be a bit of a stretch. You’re DNA might look to be exactly split but you don’t look anything like a ghost”, Maddie nods strongly because think about the hybrid thing, “if you really were exactly half like that you should look it”.

Danny’s not really sure he believes that, he did literally look like a ghost for a while and maybe all the ghost stuff was just inside or being covered up, like how his blood apparently hides his ectoplasm. “Well, what if it’s just hidden or not noticeable yet? What if I start changing?”, he can tell neither of them really thought of that. But his dad smiles warmly, “then we’ll just have to see, son. But even if you do change you’re still you, just a bit different”.

Danny can’t help but return his dads smile at that, though he’s hoping he doesn’t get any weirder. Dealing with having powers was enough of a mind trip and hassle, without adding ghost puberty or whatever into the mix.

Deciding he really could do with some normalcy, Danny points at the stairs, “so, food?”. Earning loose smiles from both of them, with his mom messing up his hair before heading up. Grumbling, “mooooom”, as he follows.

Danny’s not too surprised that his friends get over damn quick, Tucker finger guns at him before spotting the food, “nice! Thanks, Mrs. F!”. Turning back to Danny after sitting down, Danny can tell he’s got something probably stupid to say, “so, hows half-life or whatever treating you”.

“You’re awful, Tuck”, Danny can tell they can all hear the slight humour in his voice as no one even seems to look concerned. Shaking his head as he actually responds to his friend, “well besides this being a forever thing, I’m pretty well a superpowered hybrid thing with no damn control”.

“Sweetie, you’re not a thing”, Danny winces a bit because that is so not how he meant that. Sam puts her hands on her hips, “of course he’s not and I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean it that way”. Danny points at Sam and nods before starting on his noodles. While Tucker chuckles, “again, cool. Freaking spiderman but ghosts instead of spiders”. Danny can’t help but cough and laugh a little as the image of a ghost biting him pops into his head.

Maddie’s got a feeling that maybe his friends might be better at making him feel alright with this, their carefree and joking nature seems to be making him at the least less overwhelmed and pessimistic. Heck, they hardly even seem slightly bothered or even phased by this. If anything they seem almost proud, like this is a gift. Sam clearly picks up on Maddie’s assessment, “Mrs. F, Danny’s unique and unique is good. Besides pretty sure we’re still stranger than him”.

Maddie’s not sure what to make of that because being part ghost and having powers was definitely beyond strange, just how unusual where her son’s friends? Obviously very, as Tucker promptly baffles her, “so what can you do anyway? You can’t like vomit up ghosts or something? Even if that would be hilarious”. Danny starts cough laughing again, and puts his hands over his eyes as he wheezes, “god no, what? Tuck man, why, why is that the first, god, the first place your brain went?”. Sam points at both of them, “could you imagine if Spider-Man did that but with spiders? Or webbing?”.

Now even Jack is laughing because that is so absurd. Though it’s clear this is good for his son, “thanks for horrifying me, Sam. I’d think, think I’d rather die, again, over spider vomit”.

Danny’s still wheezing a bit as Tucker starts poking at him, “so powers dude?”. Danny goes to shove him but, based on the tingling, he went through him instead. Tilting his over and yeah his hand went through Tucker's head but Danny doesn’t even feel bad as Tucker just look animatedly excited. Watching as Tucker erratically waves his hand through Danny’s a couple of times before Danny can sort of tell he’s not doing the whatever anymore. Not even bothering to warn Tucker as he straight up slams his hand into Danny’s now solid arm. Smirking as Tucker yanks back his arm, “you deserved that”. Sam’s snort clearly means she agrees.

Tucker rubs his hand for only a second before poking at Danny again, so Danny rolls his eyes and decides its best to just indulge his friends. Even if he really has no clue what in all he can actually do or just how much it’s affecting his body, “Tuck, you are insufferable. But, outside of the stuff I’ve already accidentally pull on you guys, the invisibility and go through thing. We’ve pretty much come to the conclusion of at least super strength, speed, healing and senses. Though I haven’t noticed them, so no clue really”.

“Dude, that’s already better than Spider-Man!”

Maddie can’t help but shake her head, it’s like they didn’t see even a slight problem with this. But she guesses kids will be kids, heck maybe her son wouldn’t have been freaked himself if it wasn’t for the injury and actually caring about how alive he is. His friends seem to not care about that at all.

But Maddie is glad to hear some concern in Sam’s voice as she points at Danny’s arm and asks, “speaking of healing, how bad was that?”. Maddie’s not sure if she should be worried as Danny rubs at the centre of his chest, but the action seems more absent-minded than from discomfort, “pretty well everywhere there’s a scar I was burnt up. But I wasn’t exactly focused on how I freaking looked. I thought I was dead and not to mention in pain”. Both of them cringe a bit, but Tucker smacks him on the shoulder, “well I guess you have one damn extreme origin story then. The people with the wildest and most extreme backstories always make for the best superhero’s”. All three Fenton’s gape at him, before Danny flicks him in the head, “dude, what? I’m not about to go play freaking vigilante. Hell, I’m not even leaving the house till I’ve got at least some control over this crap”.

Sam points her finger at him, “so if a ghost popped up and started attacking people, you’re telling me you wouldn’t do the Fenton thing and beat it back to wherever?”.

Jack blinks as he hadn’t even considered his son actually using these abilities for something. But if he’s literally a bit ghost wouldn’t it be kind of messed up for him to be a ghost hunter? Even with the powers he’s displayed he’d still need weapons too and...Jack pales a little and he stares accusingly at one of the ectoguns lying on the counter. They were built not to hurt humans, but what about his son? He wasn’t completely human, these were made to hurt ghosts and he was a bit of a ghost.

Maddie can tell something’s bugging Jack but she’s much more concerned with the idea of her son putting himself in danger to fight ghosts. Sure it’s the family business but he’s still just a kid, and Danny looks a bit embarrassed. Meaning he absolutely would go fight some ghost, “while I’d be excited at the prospect of Danny being interested in ghost hunting, I don’t think you should be encouraging him to just go off and pick fights”.

Danny’s damn sure he actually would, if the ghost or whatever was putting people in danger. No way is he about to let someone get hurt, and no way is he just going to stand by and let that happen; when he’s possibly capable of stopping it. Blinking and tilting his head, finding his own pattern of thought to be a bit weird. Normally he was more of a flight not fight guy. And that was with humans not ghosts, ghosts which apparently all have powers. Sure he’d take Dash’s, and other bullies, hits for other people but bullies aren’t aiming to kill or majorly injure someone. A ghost would be, wouldn’t it? Yet that thought just makes him feel like he needs to get involved. Which is again weird and definitely not his mental normal.

Danny can tell that his moms noticed his mild confusion as she’s looking at him quizzically. Shrugging at his friends, “I mean I guess? Again, that’s not something I’ve been exactly thinking about”. Both of them roll their eyes at him but neither respond as his dad puts a small rock on the table, “uh, what’s with the rock?”.

Danny’s officially a bit worried at how his mom's face matches his dad's concerned face pretty quickly. And it’s just plain weird that a rock could be causing that. Tucker tilts his head while Danny’s dad clears his throat a little, “it’s a bit of ectorainium, and thinking of ghost hunting. Well, this stuff is what fuels a lot of our gear currently and it’s supposed to, well, hurt ghosts”. Danny doesn’t get to dwell on this as his mom speaks up quickly, “I think what your father’s trying to say is, that he is and now I am, worried our stuff might be able to hurt you”.

Sam instantly looks defensive and protective, which actually pleases Maddie, “if anything can hurt him now then you two better find a way to fix that”. Both Fenton parents nod aggressively, Jack speaking up, “of course! It’s bad enough our portal hurt him”.

Danny waits till they’re all distracted with borderline bickering about his safety, to poke at the rock. Promptly seeing green electricity or something jump all over his skin seconds before getting rather painfully shocked. Phasing straight through his seat and the table, fully assuming his body did that just to get away from the contract with the rock.

Danny grumbles incoherently as he gets back up, glaring at Tucker as he snickers at him. But the sound of him landing on the floor clearly drew everyone’s attention back to him, as his mom gives him a soft comforting smile, “you alright sweetie?”.

Danny mutters, “yeah”, before glaring at the rock, “but that thing definitely hurts me”. Which earns frowns from everyone, while his dad picks up the rock and throws it into a capped container. It doesn’t take long for Tucker to start snickering again, which Danny glares at him for, though slightly amused himself, “Tuck, you’re the one who makes out with his PDA, that’s way worse than me not being able to touch a rock”.

Danny can tell Tucker’s going to try to slug him in the shoulder so Danny decides to see if he can actually make himself intangible. Promptly smirking as Tucker goes right through him and falls on the floor, “HA!”.

Jack can’t help but feel a little proud as he’s pretty sure his son didn’t do that little stunt on accident but he’s also a bit worried. There’s a lot of anti-ghost stuff in the house and he certainly doesn’t want his son to accidentally get hurt by any of it.

Eventually, after Danny’s friends leave the two of them manage to shoo him off to bed. Looking at each other before Jack grabs the container, “obviously we’ve got to figure out if everything anti-ghost hurts him. What about shields? Would sensors pick up on him? I don’t know Mads, but our home is loaded with stuff that might hurt him now”.

Maddie nods as the two get to work gathering up everything that might or should affect ghosts in any way. Putting anything made to hurt them, straight into the weapons vault. Maddie sighs, full well knowing they’re going to have to ask Danny to test this stuff. Which she feels downright bad about but they really do have to know just what affects him and what doesn’t.

Looking up at Jack, “you think we could possibly isolate his ecto-signature? If he even has one? And use that to make all our stuff exclude him”. Jack nods a bit enthusiastically and snaps his fingers, “and if we make some modifications I’m certain we could even do that too the weapons. Though we definitely can’t leave any ectorainium laying around”. Both them nod officially deciding they have a new major safety rule in the house. No uncontained anti-ghost stuff unless it cannot harm or hinder their son.

Danny does feel a little bad that his parents are probably freaking out about their stuff being dangerous to him. But he’s finding that hard to really care about when he keeps phasing through either his blankets or his bed entirely. Electing to just sleep on the damn floor after the fifth time falling through the bed. Muttering at the ceiling, “I kind of hate this. Sure powers are kind of cool I guess but not when you can’t god damn control them”. And he doesn’t even want to think about if someone other than his family or friends saw this crap. He’s positive his friends are only okay with it because they’re weird and his parents are, well, his parents.

Putting his hand over his chest, partly wanting to will away the vibrating fullness but also feeling oddly comforted by it. Thinking on it, he could feel there was power there, making him shiver a bit at how he kind of really doesn’t want that to go away.

A little curious, because it was his so he’s allowed to be, he mentally pokes at it a bit. Feeling kind of like he can tug at it, but there’s a bit of resistance or something. Jerking and bolting upright as he seemingly gets it past whatever and feeling it pour out. Snapping his head down and scurrying to stand up as a cold white ring of light shoots out from his torso. Not even getting a chance to poke at it as it splits, one half going up and the other down, his body.

Instantly he starts flailing his arms because, holy crap, he’s floating again. Jerking his head around and spotting his feet, which are somehow back in white jumpsuit boots and they’re glowing. Yanking his hands in front of his face and yup, also glowing and white gloves. He attempts at swimming motions, running and just straight up willing himself to move towards the mirror in his room. Groaning as he just winds up spinning in a circle. “Well goddamnit, I’m-”, Danny cuts himself off at the sound of his voice. Touching his throat, “woah”. He’ll admit the echoing sounded really cool actually, ironically haunting but cool.

Getting startled as he feels his back touch the floor faintly and spinning himself around, placing his hands on the floor, “alright, ok, I can work with this”. Gripping at the carpeting and using that to pull himself along, the rest of him still floating in the air. Letting go and slowly righting himself once he’s in view of the mirror, and oh yeah definitely ghost again. He’s offically certain half-ghost is more accurate than a human with ghost powers. Muttering at the mirror while he spins slightly, “so what? Shapeshifting? To different bodies or forms or whatever? That I can just switch between?”. Shaking his head a bit because this is ridiculous but then laughing at his reflection, watching as his hair lazily floats or waves about. Shaking his head around as his hair can’t seem to decide between being completely unaffected by the motion and waving about like he’s underwater. Snickering, “even my hair doesn’t know what to make of this bullshit”. Glaring at the mirror a little as he promptly becomes invisible, “oh so what? I mock you and you run away?”. Sticking his tongue out and knowing there’s zero chance of him sleeping like this. Grabbing at random stuff to pull himself through the air, occasionally floating higher or lower, trying to get a feel for this. But eventually, he does wind up falling asleep, back against the ceiling.

Maddie’s not sure what to make of the little yelp she hears from Danny when she knocks on his door, “you ok?”. Maddie’s also not sure she believes his, “yup”, as he sounds clearly startled and a bit off.

She’s then flat out startled herself, as she puts down his cereal bowl and turns around, seeing a pair of white-gloved hands holding onto the wall, with white hair and glowing toxic green eyes peeking around; at least a solid seven feet off the ground. “Uh mornin, obviously things have happened”, Maddie nods as she closes her mouth. Pointing at his cereal before composing herself, because she’d really rather not freak him out, well, more than he likely already is. Clearing her throat, “do you, um, need help? And are you ok?”. She’ll admit his look is startling and his voice is pretty strange. But it’s still clearly her boy, though she’s starting to think half-ghost is indeed more accurate. Though she’s got no clue how he’s transformed again.

“I’ve been like this pretty well all night, so I’m ok. I think I activated it or something somehow. More or less figured out how to drive this floating thing, little awkward though”, even if he looks rather sure of himself Maddie still stands close by as he jerkily floats over. Grabbing his chair and pretty well pushing himself into it. It’s really obvious he’s using the table ledge to hold himself in place.

Jack blinks and jumps a little, caught off guard by his son being all ghost again, “woah, alright, not a one-time thing”. Watching as his son tilts his white-haired head back, “yeah, don’t ask me how though. The best I’ve got is that I can feel the power or whatever in the core thing and tug on it”. Danny waves his hands over himself, “then this”.

Jack taps at his chin a bit as he sits down, his son clearly watching him as he eats his cereal. The intense glowing green eyes makes his staring a little bit unnerving but they do accent his hair nicely and it is definitely very ghost. Tilting his head a bit as he takes in his son’s clothing, “I’m going to assume the jumpsuit just appeared on you when you changed? And maybe if you tugged this out, you could yank it back in maybe?”.

Danny can’t help but snort a little at the double maybe, plus he kind of already tried that. Well ok, he sort of tried that while figuring out the floating thing. But he knew he could change back, his mom startling him nearly made him faceplant into his carpet this morning. But it was kind of like he’d just changed back on reflex to avoid the impact. Nodding at his dad and responding after he swallows, “yeah, two bright rings of, I guess, energy and this just sort of appeared on me after they passed over. And maybe, was a little busy trying not to just float all over the place”. This lack of control thing is starting to go from startling and a bit scary to just annoying and embarrassing. He’s sure he looked straight up silly spinning around and bumping into shit.

Danny watches his parents share a knowing look and he’s just hoping it’s something good. “Those sound like the same rings that passed over you when you changed back human before”, Danny nods, as he remembers the cold feeling from them before. He’s not quite sure why his mom looks a little guilty, “do you think you’d be up to letting us check you out again? See if anything’s different when you’re like this?”. Ah now that makes sense, he’s kind of glad they still feel a bit awkward and cautious about testing on him and stuff. But yeah it does make sense to check, “yeah, it’s alright. But it’s just the same stuff, right? Heartbeat, chest scan thing, and blood or ectoplasm or whatever, samples?”.

Smiling at them as they nod, while his mom goes to grab the stethoscope. Danny’s not really sure what the hell to think if he doesn’t have a heartbeat while like this, and how would that even work? Hearts don’t just turn on and off.

Finishing off the last of his cereal and having to hold onto the table to keep from floating up, while his mom listens to his chest again.

Maddie’s more than a little glad to hear his heartbeat, it’s still way too slow but that’s probably just his normal now. Pulse is the same, “well all the same, which I’d say is good”. The chest scan is also the same, and the blood/ectoplasm samples seem the same, excluding that his ectoplasm is actually glowing this time, until Maddie looks at it under the microscope. Blinking as she watches the basically opposite of what happened yesterday. Now his ectoplasm is coating over and hiding his blood, once again without harming it at all. It’s literally flipped and eventually, the whole sample is green and glowing.

Sitting up and holding up the slide, while Danny’s floating over Jack’s shoulder and she’s pretty sure Danny’s holding on purely so he won’t float around. Danny tilts his head, “ok? So what, does my ghost hide under my human but I can change to make my human hide under my ghost? That is beyond weird”.

Jack can’t help but agree that it’s very strange, it’s like his son’s a coin; all Danny but one sides human and the other ghost. Which really, this all just eliminates him being only a little bit ghost, “I’d say so son, and those light rings must be like a switch. Flipping what half’s on top”. Danny nods and fiddles with his fingers a bit, “yeah, that’s pretty well what I’ve decided too. Two halves, so half human half ghost. Which is still completely weird”. Jack knew his son had pretty much already decided he wasn’t just a little bit ghost but it’s so hard to believe, obviously his son’s not finding it quite as unbelievable. Even if it’s rather impossible and absurd, he’s glad his son seems a lot better about all this. Whether that’s because of having answers or just getting a little used to it, doesn’t really matter to Jack. Hearing his son laugh a little and realising it’s actually cause he’s gone invisible again, but he pops back into visibility after a couple seconds, “oh and it seems it’s a lot easier to use and control the powers like this”. Matching his son’s faint loose smile with a large one of his own, “I guess that would be expected. You’ve probably got more access to anything ghost like this. And in the same vein have more accesses to human stuff while human”.

Danny’s pretty sure he agrees with his dad, he’s not even sure if he can float while human. Though it’s still very odd to think the phrase “while human”, “more than likely yeah, now just got to learn control”. Both his parents pat him on the shoulder, even if both of them have to lift their arms up to do so.

All three tilt their heads to the stairs as a knock is heard. Danny decides to stay hidden in the lab doorway, not really knowing who’s here and it’s not really worth getting spotted. A floating glowing teen is bound to startle the neighbours and start some new rumours. But Danny smirks as he hears Tucker’s voice, “the resident spooky superpowered teen up yet?”. Chuckling to himself a bit before forcing the invisibility and smiling down at his hand, with only a clear outline around it. Quickly floating next to Tucker as he’s got no clue who long he can maintain this, whispering “boo” in his ear and promptly losing his invisibility from laughing, as Tucker jumps a solid foot off the ground. Floating to hover just above the ground, curled up and laughing while Tucker shouts, “HOLY SHIT DUDE!”.

Jack’s actually a little impressed with himself that he didn’t jump from his son’s stunt himself and he’s straight up pleased his son has figured out enough control to actually pull that off. Maddie was pretty clearly caught off guard though, yelping, “Danny! Oh my god”, before laughing herself. While Sam bends down and pokes at Danny’s hair, “wow Danny, built in alter ego much”. This gets Tucker’s attention enough for him to go from glaring at Danny to looking excited, “dude, secret identity. No super-suit needed, you’ve already got that covered”.

Maddie will admit, her son having what’s essentially an automatic hazmat jumpsuit would make him a lot safer if he does have to deal with anything ghostly. It was pretty clear that his own ectoplasm was safe for him but who knows if other ectoplasm was as well. Both her son’s friends gape excitedly as he floats back upright and blinks open his eyes, “Tuck, did you just develop a recent obsession with superheroes or something?”.

Jack’s actually a bit glad that both Sam and Tucker seem to not be bothered by the unnatural toxic green eyes, Jack can’t even tell what one seems to find them more impressive as Sam speaks, “Oh wow, that is sick and very cybergoth”. Tucker quickly joins in, “man this just keeps getting cooler, do they work as flashlights?”.

Danny can’t help but start laughing again, because of course, Tucker would ask something completely unexpected. But at the same time, he was totally right. Nodding a little before being caught off guard by feeling that cold energy come out of him again. Quickly making a point to actually pay attention to how it feels this time so he can maybe figure out how this transforming thing works. He's not too surprised his dad was pretty right, feeling the power and energy being pulled or yanked back inside; before he promptly falls on his ass.

Glaring at his two friends as they both bend over laughing, Sam pointing at him, “that is really freaking bright Danny. Not to mention cold”. Rolling his eyes, “you don’t say, not unpleasant though”. Somehow he doubts his friends care about that really, well they do just not enough to really be worried about him feeling cold. Patting off his PJs as he stands up, “so pretty well positive on the half-ghost thing and I have two bodies now, I guess”.

Danny just stares at Tucker as he holds up his hand for a high five, “hurray for weird!”.

Maddie can’t help but laugh a little, she’s starting to think Danny’s friends are more that just a little bit odd, which might be good for him. Make Danny feel more normal and it’s pretty easy for weird to handle weird, “I’m pretty sure it’s more like one body but two states”.

Jack smiles at his son and his two friends, “but all Danny and I’m sure you’ll make this work for you. We aren’t a family of geniuses for nothing!”.

End.

#danny phantom #phandom #dannymay19 #dannymay #theory #danny fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #injuries #mild angst #science #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick

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bronzeflower · 5 years ago

Text

Small Talk-Coin

Also on ao3

Day 4: Opportunity/Chance/Risk

-----

~Caffeine, small talk

Wait out the plastic weather

Mmhmm, uh uh, discussing current events~

Hizashi sat across from an extraordinarily hot man that asked him on a date to a coffee shop. Hizashi could hardly believe it, especially given how stand-offish the man was when Hizashi first started talking to him.

"It's pretty rainy out, isn't it?" Hizashi said, feeling the sweat on his palms as he took a sip of the coffee he got, and that's when the floodgates opened. "You know, Earth isn't the only planet to have rain. Well, it's pretty much the only planet that actually rains water-water is pretty much exclusive to Earth, unless you count the frozen water on planets like Venus and Mars. There's also frozen water on the moons of planets, but that's pretty much exclusive to moons near the gas giant planets. Actually, both Neptune and Uranus are said to have water-though it's apparently supercritical, which I think basically means that it flows, like, really, really fast. But, yeah, rain-you know it rains diamonds on both Neptune and Saturn? And then Venus rains sulfuric acid. Oh! You know how Jupiter's Great Red Spot is because of a giant storm? Well, there's something similar on Saturn called the Great White Spot, which is the area of a huge storm that has so much lightning that the area looks white from space. Actually, the planets in general have a lot of storms. But, you know, weather doesn't just happen on the main planets-it also happens on moons, like Saturn's moon, Titan? It rains methane there, to the point where it actually heavily mimics the water cycle here on Earth, and..."

It then dawned on Hizashi that he was probably talking way, way too much. He paused and looked towards his date-Shouta, who was staring attentively at Hizashi.

"Uh..." Hizashi found that he was much too embarrassed to keep rambling on about the weather in outer space.

"Aren't you an English teacher?" Shouta asked.

"Oh! Yeah! I am," Hizashi grinned sheepishly. "But I talk a lot with some of the other teachers, and the Astronomy teacher, Mx. Thirteen, has been rambling about the weather on other planets and moons lately-I think they’re mostly just trying to get their lesson plan together, and they feel a lot more confident about it when they've hashed out the information to someone who doesn't really know anything about what they're talking about. I honestly can get that-it's pretty difficult to make sure that the material you give is going to be understood. It just so happens that I've retained some of the information regarding his lesson plans, so I guess it's kind of been of the brain lately.”

~I'll take my time

I'm not the forward thinker

You read my mind

Better to leave it unsaid

Why can't I leave it unsaid?~

Shouta managed to ask out the incredibly attractive teacher who was his co-worker and who taught his son. While Shouta was somewhat resistant to do so, Hitoshi insisted, citing that he couldn't stand the two ogling each other every time they saw each other.

Shouta found a coffee shop to be a simple, nice first date that they could go on to actually talk to each other outside of a work environment, and Shouta was starting to get the suspicion that Hizashi had a tendency to ramble when he was nervous.

Now, Shouta didn't really have any problem with the amount Hizashi was talking. In fact, it was very soothing to listen to-Hizashi had a very nice voice.

What Shouta did have a problem with is that he didn't want Hizashi to be so nervous on this date. It was supposed to be causal, nice, and low-pressure, and Hizashi looked like he was in a place that was excruciatingly formal, terrible, and high-pressure.

It was the exact opposite of the atmosphere Shouta had wanted for their date.

But how to get Hizashi to relax?

~You know I talk too much

Honey, come put your lips on mine and shut me up

We could blame it all on human nature

Stay cool, it's just a kiss

Oh, why you gotta be so talkative?

I talk too much, we talk too much~

"Ah, but I'm sure there's some stuff you want to talk about too," Hizashi interrupted his own train of thought after realizing that he was probably talking about himself a little too much. "You teach history and government, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Shouta answered.

"What's it like teaching that?" Hizashi questioned. "English has a tendency to be pretty subjective, especially when we're analyzing English literature in the more advanced courses. I guess history and government is a bit more concrete, yeah?"

"People often think that, but history and government are often more subjective than most might think," Shouta started, practically going into teacher mode. "In history, we have to use documents and stories and artifacts to tell us what happened. It's simple enough to talk about history that was ten or twenty years ago because nowadays we tend to write things down. It gets a bit muddier when it comes to thousands of years ago, where the only records we have are things that were left. However, even written history often has a bias, which can call into question the validity of a source, but, if it's the only source available to us, it can be difficult to eliminate that bias. There's also the issue of what events occurred to lead to other events. It's not always easy to tell what caused what, and there's always going to be more than one reason for an event happening. And we have similar problems with government and learning about how the government functions. There's a difference between how it's meant to function and how it actually functions. I often find that government is less a class about how the government works and more about how to participate in politics in a well-educated manner."

Now it was Shouta's turn to become embarrassed by how much he spoke. He looked down at his coffee cup.

"...Sorry, I don't usually talk that much."

~You know my type

Tightrope across the table

Mmhmm, uh huh

I can't keep holding my breath~

"No, no! It's fine. I did ask about it, after all," Hizashi grinned. Shouta might also be a nervous rambler, huh. "I can't say that I know too much about history or government other than the basics, not that I didn't pay attention in class, it's just been so long since I learned it that most of the details are kind of fuzzy. And, from what you say, it seems like the curriculum is different nowadays, so, even if I did remember everything from those classes, I'm not sure how much of the information is accurate anymore."

"Well, some things stay the same," Shouta admitted. "At this point, it's mostly going to be more minor details that we've corrected. And then, at least in the classes I teach, there's more of an emphasis on critical thinking skills and getting the students to form their own opinions about things. They're at that age where they're starting to actually think more about their political views, and I want them to come to rational decisions about what they believe in instead of simply parroting their parents.

"English is kind of similar in that regard," Hizashi responded. "At least the English literature course, and the other literature courses, as well. They're meant to teach students to analyze words. In those classes, they learn how to find the bias, the reason behind the bias, and how that bias can affect the way a piece of literature is read. So, in a way, it's teaching the kids to find bias in news articles and think critically about the way the information is presented."

~New wave, no time

Red velvet under pressure

Blah blah, green eyes

I never leave it unsaid

Why can't I leave it unsaid?~

Holy shit, Shouta was pretty sure he was in love.

"That's always a useful skill in this day and age," Shouta said without really thinking, his thoughts suddenly drifting elsewhere. Hizashi, almost sensing the drift in conversation, changed the subject completely.

"I guess we might be talking about work a bit too much. It kind of seems a little silly to go out to coffee so that we can talk outside of work and then talk about nothing except work, right? There's some kind of irony in that, I know. I could talk about some music I recently found! I don't know really know what your tastes in music are, but I've been listening to a band called Coin, and-"

Hizashi voice really was soothing. It was nice to listen to, like wind chimes on the front porch. Shouta knows he should probably be paying actual attention to what Hizashi is saying, but he's started to get lost in those emerald eyes, and Shouta is sorely tempted to kiss him.

~You know I talk too much

Honey, come put your lips on mine and shut me up

We could blame it all on human nature

Stay cool, it's just a kiss

Oh, why you gotta be so talkative?

I talk too much, we talk too much~

Would that be okay? They are on a date-it's not necessarily completely out of the question, but Shouta wondered if he would be overstepping his boundaries somewhat.

Or were kisses more reserved for when Shouta walked Hizashi back to his apartment as a goodbye?

Shouta barely registered saying something in response to Hizashi. He wasn't quite sure what he was saying, but he was pretty sure that they were words.

~Silence is golden, and you've got my hopes up

We talk too much

No hesitation, what are we waiting for?

We talk too much~

Eventually, the date ended, and Shouta did indeed walk Hizashi back to his apartment.

Hizashi started rambling again, clearly out of nervousness, which honestly didn’t weigh too well on Shouta’s conscious.

So Shouta did what he wanted to do for pretty much the whole date and kissed Hizashi.

~You know I talk too much (too much)

Honey, come put your lips on mine

And shut me up (shut me up)

We could blame it all on human nature

Stay cool, it's just a kiss

Oh, why you gotta be so talkative?

I talk too much, we talk too much~

Hizashi leaned back into the kiss, and, when they parted, they were both somewhat dazed.

At least they didn’t feel nervous anymore.

#erasermic #eraserhead #erasermic week 2019 #present mic #aizawa shouta #yamada hizashi

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dumbchickwrites · 5 years ago

Text

the end of the rainbow 🌈 — part 6

Pairings: Sam Wilson x OC! Iris Fury

Warnings: mentions of smut, plot within the plot ~ a subplot, if you will.

Words: 2257.

Summary: Former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Iris Fury, daughter of Nick Fury, is called by her father to assist the Avengers while agent Romanoff recovers from a few wounds. A certain Falcon catches her eye. Follow Iris and Sam as they take a walk on the rainbow and eventually find out what hides at the end of that beautiful path.

A/N: sorry, no keep reading tag since I’m on mobile. no, I haven’t forgotten about your requests! they’re coming, I promise! also, I got carried away lol, this part and the next will pretty much be an Avengers movie🤷🏾‍♀️

Please comment and reblog if you enjoy! <3

***

One last time, she thought, staring at her reflection in the mirror. One last time then she'd tell him the truth, and it will be over.

Sam wanted to have that romantic dinner tonight, since it was Iris' actual birthday. She couldn't say no to him when he asked her on their first official date. Not when he looked at her, smile bright and eyes soft with adoration. So she said yes.

He was already waiting for her at his flat in the city. He'd left the compound in the early afternoon to get everything ready up there. Now it was almost time for Iris to join him.

A car was waiting for her outside. It would drive her there on autopilot then come back to the compound. She made her way down the stairs discreetly, careful not to step into a member of the team. She couldn't handle their disapproving gazes anymore.

New York City, as always, was buzzing with lights and excitement as the car made its way through the packed streets. Iris found herself growing more and more nervous as the car approached the red dot on the map. How should she tell him? When? How would he react? Or maybe she should just... leave?

A sigh fell off her lips as she laid her head back on the headrest.

She never should have agreed to come back to the US in the first place. Now she had a lover on one side of the Atlantic ocean, and a family on the other. Selfish and cruel. That was what she was. Not sparing a thought to the people she hurt.

"You have arrived to your destination."

The voice snapped Iris out of her thoughts. Her eyes scanned her surroundings before she allowed herself to step out of the grey car. She stepped into the building, her heels clinking on the floor. The receptionist greeted her, a polite smile on his face. After introducing herself and telling him why she was here, he kindly directed her to Sam's apartment.

Sam was certain he'd never been this nervous in his entire life. Not even during the first flight test with the EXO-7 wings. His apartment was filled with mouth-watering smells from the food he'd prepared - a three course meal for his girl. He had an arrangement of blue irises and red roses on the the table, soft music was playing in the background, setting a romantic atmosphere along with a few candles.

The sound of the doorbell resonated in the home, and his heart fell to the bottom of his stomach. On his way to the door, he stopped in front of the mirror to check his reflection one last time.

Breath got caught in his throat as he opened the door. A simple navy blue flared dress and heeled sandals was all she wore. Her hair was pinned in her regular sleek bun while small silver hoops adorned her ears.

"Hey," she flashed her a smile, and Sam realized he'd been staring at her for way too long.

"Hey, come in," he stepped aside, not taking his eyes off her as she walked in the apartment.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Is this too much? I didn't know what to wear because you said casual but at the same time it's our first date and—"

"Baby," Sam cut her rambling with an amused smirk. "You look amazing. You always do. Now come give me a kiss."

Her body moved on its own, attracted to Sam's as if it was a magnet, pulling her towards his warm, loving embrace.

Iris' eyes started to sting as she walked further into the flat, seeing how much effort Sam had put into the evening. She really didn't deserve him.

"You like it?" Sam's hand came to rest on her hip.

"Sam... I love it. Thank you."

"You're very welcome, baby girl," he whispered before giving her another sweet kiss.

Bottle of red wine was uncorked and poured into glasses. Iris, quite the connoisseur, marvelled at Sam's choice. Sheepishly, he admitted that he went around asking the team about some of Iris' favourite things to make the night as good as possible — including her favourite wine which according to Tony was any vintage French red with sweet undertones.

First glasses of wine down, hunger made stronger by drinking alcohol on an empty stomach, they soon settled around the table. As the city went about its usual frenzy outside the large glass windows, Sam brought the first course to the dining table, an entrée worthy of a Michelin star restaurant.

"Are you sure you never went to a culinary school somewhere?" Iris mused, tastebuds raving in her mouth.

"Just like to watch a lot of cooking shows," he smiled.

"This tastes fantastic. And with the wine, ugh! You blew my mind, Wilson."

Main course, then dessert. All while talking and talking, as if they never grew tired of each other's voice and mimics and stories. Gulps of wine, second bottle uncorked, melted chocolate and notes of berries from the wine mixed together to form an elixir, an aphrodisiac, like being around each other wasn't already enough for their bodies to turn into lava. More talking, until it was time to clean up.

Bare feet on the wooden floor, heels discarded in a corner of the room for her, soft padding of socks for him, they waltzed around the room, plates and cutlery clinking as they loaded the dishwasher.

Then the familiar, world famous guitar air filled the room, the notes soft and resonating throughout their entire bodies.

"Dance with me," Sam said.

So Iris put her hand in his, abandoning her half full, half empty glass of wine on the table, right next to the irises and roses, and danced with him.

"Wise men say only fools rushhhh iiin..."

"You are a terrible singer," Iris giggled in the crook of his neck.

"My cooking makes up for it."

"It sure does, Sammy. It sure does."

They let the music surround them, guide their movements as they swung around, hands caressing each other's body, fingers drawing intricate shapes and paterns over their clothes, lips leaving feathery kisses over necks and jaws, trying to find a way to transfer the intimacy of the moment.

For I can't help

Falling in love with you

"I love you, Iris."

Like a river flows

Surely to the sea

Darling so it goes

She sucked in a sharp breath as if she'd been hit — burned. But it had to be the most pleasant burn ever.

Some things

Are meant to be

"You don't have to say it back," Sam murmured. "I wanted to tell you."

"I— I love you too, Sam," she said, tears already streaming down her face.

Not stopping their swaying, Sam pulled back just enough to allow him to take Iris' face in his hands. That's when she noticed that the song still hadn't stopped — or rather, had started over.

"You planned this," she scoffed through her tears, rolling her eyes.

"Damn right I did."

With his thumbs, he wiped away her tears then took his time admiring her. Every detail of her face and entire being.

Elvis kept singing, and they kept swaying.

Emergency mission. Get your asses back to the compound.

The lovely message which pulled both Iris and Sam out of their post coital slumber and forced them to go back to the Avengers headquarters as quick as possible.

Once they arrived, they only had time to make their respective protein shakes as breakfast before Director Fury called them in the conference space. Everyone else was already sat, waiting for Nick to speak up.

"I need you guys sharp on this one. We got the info a few days ago but there was a piece of intel missing from the brief, which I needed to give you guys the green light."

Nick pressed a button and an image appeared on the large touchscreen. Shock took place on some faces, pain on others.

"Oh my God."

"She's alive?!"

"Where is she?"

"For those of you who don't know, this is my second child, and Iris' twin sister."

Eyes still slightly wide, they all stared at Iris' identical twin. They had the same features. While Iris' face was free of scars, Dahlia had a large scar across the face, from the tail of her right eyebrow through the right corner of her mouth, ending at the chin.

"Steve," Iris called.

The super soldier snapped out of his thoughts, tearing his gaze off his ex-lover's face.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Fine."

"Dahlia —"

"What is it with you and flowers?" Wanda asked, genuinely curious.

Nick pinched the bridge of his nose, already annoyed by the wave of questions that was about to submerge him.

"That would be a question for their mother, a question that I, too, would like an answer to."

"Oh, dad, please! You called us Nicky and Nicolette, so I think you can save your rant on names for later," Iris rolled her eyes.

"Wait," Sam interrupted Nick just as he opened his mouth to speak. "I gotta ask, which one's Nicolette?"

Iris narrowed her eyes at him.

"That would be our dear Iris," Tony said.

A stiffled laugh came from the back of the room where Bucky sat, pinching his nose to contain his giggles. Iris raised a brow.

"What you laughing at Buchanan?"

Bucky snapped his mouth shut in a thin line.

"This is a matter of worldwide security, so I'm gonna need you to stop behaving like goddamn children," Nick scolded, giving a pointed look to his daughter. "Dahlia is a compromised former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. She'd joined the ranks of HYDRA long before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. She's a traitor, that is why you've never heard of her."

"I've seen her before," Wanda's voice was almost a whisper. "With Strucker, during our... experiments."

"But... we saw her in her cell in the Raft. Then she died of a seizure," Natasha said matter-of-factly.

"She escaped a few months ago."

"Told you I should've brought her to Asgard," Thor mumbled.

"A few months ago?!" Iris repeated in disbelief. "Dad, why didn't you say anything?"

"She was invisible to our radars until now. With what remained of the Insight protocols and Stark's tech, we were able to find her only a few days ago."

"Tony, you knew about this?" Steve, who still hadn't said anything until that moment, turned to Tony, lines creasing in his forehead.

"Sorry, Cap. Fury made me swear not to say anything."

"Dad... What's the mission?"

"Dahlia was seen at a facility located on the border between Ukraine and Russia," as Nick spoke, images appeared on the touchscreen next to him. "Packages were sent from this facility to Iraq and Syria. We have reasons to believe that weapons are curated in this facility, using the remains of the Ultron disaster and sent to the Middle East."

"But it's been years since Ultron happened," Clint chipped in. "How could she possibly still have access to Stark tech?"

"Veronica," Bruce blurted. "Veronica and the other satellites. What if she's using Veronica and the drones from the satellites we don't use anymore to create weapons?"

"But how?" Rhodey asked.

"Dahlia's access to all those things was revoked after she got in the Raft, but what if she's using Iris? The older satellites don't require a retinal scan to work, but they do have the same voice."

"Jesus Christ," Iris burried her face in her hands. "Dad. What's the mission?"

"Destroy Dahlia's facility, locate the weapons in the Middle East, get rid of them... Neutralise Dahlia Fury."

"Dad—"

"Two teams. Colonel Rhodes, Barton, Maximoff, Barnes and Romanoff as air support in the Middle East. The rest, in the Ukraine. We don't know how many men exactly but based on our sightings, more than Strucker had in Sokovia. You leave tonight."

Steve immediately walked out of the room, hands balled up in fists, jaw and shoulders tense. The rest of the team did the same, one by one.

"What's his deal?" Sam asked Iris in a hushed tone.

"Him and my sister... They were together. Their relationship was as serious as could be. We never knew what happened to Dahlia, you know? Maybe she was brainwashed, kind of like Bucky, but she still knows who we are... When she was sent to the Raft, Steve was inconsolable, first he hurt her, then he lost her..."

"What? The—" Sam gestured across his face. "He did that to her?"

Iris nodded. "He didn't mean to. The shield bounced off someone and she was in the way. He was furious with himself."

"How about you, baby?" he squeezed her hand. "You okay?"

"To be honest, my dad and I never believed she'd died. Something was off in her death certificate, but we still grieved and moved on, you know," she sighed. "I've got to check on my dad, okay? I'll talk to you later."

She gave him a peck on the lips before strolling down the hall to find Nick.

Iris felt like a building had fallen on top of her. Her heart was already troubled, tugging on two different sides, and now her twin sister, who was supposed to be nothing but ashes in the Atlantic ocean, was a terrorist and very much alive.

In her hand, her phone started to ring, the screen lighting up to display a photo of her fiancé holding their daughter, both smiling at the camera.

***

Tags: @wakanda-inspired

#sam wilson #sam wilson imagine #sam wilson fanfiction #sam wilson x black woman oc #sam wilson x oc #falcon #falcon fanfiction #captain america fanfiction

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writingstyle101 · 6 years ago

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When We Are Loved - Ponyboy Curtis x Reader Chapter 3: We’re Pretty Unique Boys.

Question: Would you guys rather have me posting more request or working more on chapters to my ongoing series?

chapter 2

“I’m not sure why I never really enjoyed Austen, just never did.” Ponyboy shrugged his shoulders.

“Is he not a good writer or somethin?” You looked over to him. You both were walking down an old gravel road towards the abandoned park not too far from your school. You weren’t sure why people didn’t hang around there, considering the town you were in it was in pretty good shape. People around here were weird in that way, everyone knew where they belonged and who they belonged with. That wasn’t something you just went and messed with, if you did you were just doing it to look for a fight.

“She.” He chuckled looking up at you from the ground.

You scrunched your forehead and looked up at him “She?”.

“Jane Austen. She’s a woman.” The side of his lips rose in a playful smirk. He has really nice lips.

“Wow.” You gave a sad chuckle, kicking a stray pebble. “I must really seem dumb huh?”

“I don’t think you’re dumb” he shrugged making you look up at him again “I just think books never really caught your interest. I’m sure you’re much smarter than me at other things.”

You gave him a small smile, heat slightly creeping up your cheeks but you shook it off quickly. “I just don’t know how ya have time to read so much. I would if I could, I’m sure it’s real nice.”

“What do you mean time to read? What do you do with all of your time then?” he scrunched his forehead at you as you passed through the opening in the rusted chained fence.

“What do I not do?” you chuckled shaking your head as you walked over to an old wooden picnic table. “I have cheerleading, and piano lessons, French tutoring, math tutoring, homework, social club.” You rambled shaking your head. Ponyboy stared at you as you sat your bag down on the table.

“What?” You raised your brow eventually when he didn’t respond.

He shook his head slightly, placing his bag on the table also. “That’s just a lot. What do you do for fun?” He stepped into the seat, you mimicking his actions.

“What do ya mean?”

“Fun? You know that thing people do to relieve boredom.” He smirked at you making you roll your eyes.

“I mean Justin and I go to the drive in sometimes.” You shrugged pulling out some papers from your bag. “That’s pretty fun.”

“The drive-in isn’t fun.” He mocked.

“Well what do you do for fun then, huh?” you challenged him.

“Man, all you can do on our side of town is have fun.” He put on a tough face and puffed out his chest playfully. “Haven’t you heard of us Greasers?” he loudly joked “We break into stores and steal cars and smash windows!” He started to laugh, breaking his act making you laugh out loud also, the hardest you’ve laughed in a long time. It was nice to see this playful side of the boy that was so quiet before. You liked that he made light of the situation of your guys' lives. If you didn’t, you'd just about go crazy in this town. You both laughed until you finally caught your breath. “No, but really, we do have lots of fun. Legally too.” He chuckled as you both sobered up from your laughing fit.

“What do ya guys really do?”

He sat up slightly “Well, we don’t really do a whole lot. Just bein around each other is fun enough. The gangs always got you on your toes.” He smirked.

“The gang? Like your friends? You guys are really that close?”

“Oh yeah.” He nodded “Were all super close. Practically blood. Some of us even are, my brothers I mean. Don’t ya have best buddies?”

“Well yeah I have close friends” you shrugged “but nothing like that. I mean there’s Lisa who I pretty much shared a crib with and Justin of course.” You nodded “I don’t know, I never really see it as fun when I'm with them.”

“That’s the saddest thing I've ever heard” he shook his head making you gave him a small smile.

“Tell me about them.” He looked up at you.

“The gang?”

You nodded completely forgetting why you guys even came to this park in the first place. It was nice hanging out with Ponyboy, you never would have imagined how much fun he was. “The way you talk about them, the must be pretty great. What are they like?”

“Well,” he sat up slightly clearly thinking of what to say “There's my brothers, Sodapop and Darry. Soda is one of the best guys you’d ever meet, truly. He knows how to make anyone happy, even Darry which is sayin a lot.”

“Whys that?”

“Darry’s just got a lot goin on. He’s only twenty but he takes care of us, makes sure we always got enough, the gang too.” He nodded. You decided to remain silent, not pushing too much. “Then there's Steve, Soda’s best friend.” He continued. “Steve works down at the DX with Soda. He’s pretty cool. And then there's Two-Bit.”

“Two-Bit? You boys really have some unique names.” You smiled. You hoped Ponyboy didn’t think you were making fun of him because you really weren’t. You liked their names, you liked that they weren’t the same as everyone else.

You could tell by the smirk on Pony’s face that he didn’t take your comment as an offense. “We’re pretty unique boys.” You smiled at his remark. “Two-Bit’s real name is Keith, but if you ever met the guy you’d know why we call him Two-Bit. We’ve called him that so long I sometimes forget its not even his name.”

“Then there's Dallas.” He continued “Dally’s all sorts of trouble. I’m sure you’d see his picture up in the sheriff's office. Probably even framed too.” He chuckled making you giggle. “And then Johnny, there's not much to say about Johnny. He’s real quiet, kinda like me. But he’s a real good buddy. They all are.”

“It sounds like quite a gang.” You smiled at the thought. You never thought that people could be that close, even you got sick of your friends after too much time with them. But the way Ponyboy talks about his friends, you couldn’t imagine him ever getting sick of them.

“We really are. We stick together.” He shrugged “When you don’t got much, you appreciate the little you have.”

The way he said that last statement gave you a nauseated feeling. You knew you had a lot, always the nicest food, the nicest clothes, cars, houses, all of that. But you never felt like any of it really mattered. Who cares if you drive a fancy Mustang when the people in the back seat aren’t the people you want to be around?

For a moment you both sat in silence, and you imagined what it would be like to actually care about people the way Pony described.

“You like Justin?”

You looked up, taken aback by his question. “Well, yeah, of course I like him. He’s a good guy.” You blinked.

“A good guy? That’s all?”

“What do you mean that’s all? What more is there?” you furrowed your brows at him. “You don’t think that’s important? Bein a good person.”

Ponyboy shrugged as he pulled out his own school supplies from his bag “I guess yeah. But I mean that’s usually not what you think of when you talk about your boyfriend or girlfriend.”

“What do you think about then Mr. Relationship expert?” You playfully mocked.

You watched a slight blush creep up through Ponyboy’s cheeks, but he quickly recovered. “I just think that when you're in love you don’t just think of them as a good person. I mean anybody could be a good person. I just think that, to the person I love, id wanna be more than just anybody to them.”

You stared at Ponyboy for a second, taking in everything he just said. “I’ve never really seen it that way.” You shook your head slowly. “Justin and I, we just make sense you know? So, I always figured I was lucky that he was a good guy.” You weren’t quite sure why you were telling Ponyboy, some greaser kid, this kind of stuff. You didn’t even talk to Lisa, someone you’ve known your entire life, this way. So why is it with him everything is so much more different? So much easier.

“So you're with the kid because it makes sense? What, because ya guys look really good on paper?”

“Justin is a good guy,” you felt yourself slightly get defensive. No one questioned your choices when it came to your life before, in fact, the choices you made were hardly even yours. You weren’t sure how to feel now that someone didn’t actually agree. “It’s not like a fairytale Pony. That stuff doesn’t exist.”

“How do you know that though?” He scrunched his forehead.

“Well,” you blinked slowly “have you ever had that kind of fairytale before?” you no longer felt defensive but almost curious. And you couldn’t understand why a small part of you was hoping he would say yes. That there is more out there than planned boyfriends and scheduled lives. But you knew by the expression he held after you asked, there wasn’t. This was it. This was the life you were born to live, and this is the life you’re going to.

“Maybe we should just start?” you spoke back up after a few moments of silence. The heaviness of the conversation becoming too much for your comfort. Ponyboy nodded in agreement, clearly feeling the same as you as he grabbed the book and opened to the first page. “Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals.” He spoke.

You listened to Ponyboy read the pages from the book. You never found interest in art, or movies or books. English class always was a bore to you and you never could make it through a school play to save your life, but as he read the words you couldn’t help but listen. You liked the way he spoke, his voice raspy but clear. He never stuttered and he read with a sense of confidence that he must have adapted from countless hours of reading.

You liked how he didn’t get too excited when he read, but he wasn’t mundane either. He didn’t feel a need to attempt to mimic the emotion the author was portraying, because he knew the words written were enough. He took these things, these complicated words and he did something you couldn’t even imagine. He didn’t try to water them down and make them simple, but he didn’t try to make them anything more. He just let them thrive in their own way.

“Maybe that’s enough for today?” He finally looked up from the pages. You blinked, taking in your surroundings. The sun that once shined high and beat down ruthlessly has now started to lower and the temperature has cooled with the upcoming evening. You didn’t even notice the time that ticked by while Pony was reading. You started gathering your stuff together, Pony doing the same.

“When do you wanna meet again? I know you’re busy and all.” He slung his bookbag over his shoulder before standing.

You stood up mimicking his actions “I’m free after five tomorrow if you'd like to meet then?”

He nodded his head as you both slowly made your way out of the park “I can meet ya here.” You agreed before Ponyboy nodded a goodbye to you. You gave him a small wave before turning in the opposite direction of him to go towards your home.

The entire walk was consumed with your thoughts and for the first time in a while, your thoughts weren’t about everything you had to do. Instead, you couldn’t stop thinking about Ponyboys’ words. Your head was spinning as you replayed every word, words that weren’t even his own. Yet, when he spoke them, your stomach twisted in a way you’ve never experienced before.

You took a deep breath as you walked through the large perfectly crafted wooden door of your home. Your house truly was beautiful, even down to the detailed carvings in the wooden trim. It was such a beautiful mask that perfectly covered the mess inside.

Your family wasn’t crazy out there or anything. Your parents were nice and they always got you what you wanted but lately, you couldn’t help but notice how much more frequent your dad’s crude remarks towards your mom were and how your mom seemed to be pouring herself more and more wine each night. No one would ever know this stuff though. Just like the house, everything on the outside was beautiful, down to the smallest details.

“Mom?” You called as you walked through the door and made your way into the kitchen where your mom usually was around this time, where you found a notecard on the counter.

At the country club, your father is working late. There's money In the drawer if you'd like to get dinner.

Love, mom.

You let out a breath and dropped the note back on the counter before making your way up to your bedroom and heading towards the phone.

“Hey baby.” You heard your boyfriends voice come through the line.

“Hey,” you fell back onto your bed “have any plans for the night?”

“Actually yeah, me and James are hangin out. What's up?”

You chewed your lip thinking about your next words. You didn’t wanna be alone tonight but you knew that if James was with Justin, they'd be drinking, and as soon as Justin knew you were home alone he’d be on his way over. You just didn’t have the energy to deal with him when he was drunk.

“Just curious. I miss ya is all.”

“I miss ya too hun. Listen, how about me and you grab some dinner tomorrow night? I feel like we've barely spent any time together.”

“I cant” you chewed your lip, a habit you’ve never been able to drop no matter how much your mother lectured you. You did it so often sometimes you’d even accidentally slice a cut into your bottom lip. “I have to work on my project after tutoring.”

“On a Friday night? I know it's for a project and all but I don’t like how much time you're spendin with this greaser kid y/n.”

You closed your eyes sighing slightly. You had a feeling you shouldn’t have told Justin about Ponyboy being a greaser, and right now you really wish you didn’t. “I’ll cancel ok? We can get dinner.”

“Okay. I’ll see you at school tomorrow. I love you.”

You heard the words and immediately thought back to Mr. Spite in class on Tuesday. The way he described love was stuck in your head, the words on a constant loop. He made it seem so much more than what it was. You loved Justin, your parents were in love, James and Lisa were in love. You knew what love was, but for some reason when Justin said the words, all you could think about was the way Mr. Spite talked about it. “You too.” You breathed before ending the call.

You felt flustered. You weren’t sure how you were gonna even cancel with Ponyboy since you didn’t know his number or where he even lives. You weren’t sure if you even wanted to cancel on Pony. You told yourself that your hesitation was logical. You couldn’t do badly on this project. But if you were truly being honest with yourself, you found yourself enjoying Ponyboy’s company. And spending the evening with him seemed much more fun than with Justin.

You got up and made your way into your father's study and dug around in a few cabinets until you found a big yellow phone book. You looked through the Curtis’s until you found a Darrel Curtis listed. You remember Pony telling you about his older brother Darry, and that was the only name that was somewhat similar.

You walked back into your room and dialed the printed number, waiting for an answer. You weren’t even sure if you were calling the right person. What if the phone number was listed under his parent's name? Why did you even agree to cancel in the first place? Before you had the chance to over analyze everything you heard a cheerful voice spill through the line.

“Hello?” The man's voice chuckled, clearly coming down from a laughing fit. The voice made you smile slightly.

“Uh hi? Is this uh- the Curtis home?” you scratched your head. That was stupid. Of course it’s the Curtis home, you just looked up the name in the phonebook.

“Yeah, who’s askin?” the voice didn’t comment on your stupid question and for that you were grateful.

“My name is Y/N I’m lookin for Ponyboy.” You listened as you heard the boy yell Ponyboy’s name away from the phone. You were relieved that you had the right number, but worry set back in when you listened to the chatter on the other line. You were sure Pony was gonna think you were crazy for calling him at his house. Would he be mad? Would he be upset at you for canceling?

You were starting to wish you didn’t give the man your name so you could have just hung up. “Y/N?” you heard Pony’s familiar voice.

“Hey, I’m sorry for callin you at home.”

“No, don’t worry about it. What's up?”

“I can't meet with you tomorrow something came up.” You chewed on your lip again.

“Oh. Okay well, that’s okay I guess.” You felt a pang of guilt. You felt like all you did was disappoint this kid and two weeks ago it wouldn’t have bothered you at all, but now you hated how upset he sounded.

“I'm so sorry Pony. What day is okay with you? Maybe this weekend?”

“I cant. I have some stuff I can't miss or I would.”

“Well,” you sighed ignoring the twisting feeling in your stomach you were feeling just a few hours ago “You could come over tonight? I mean, just so we don’t get too far behind.”

“Like to your house?” you heard the obvious surprise in his voice.

“Well yeah, I mean only if you want to. It really is fine if you don’t wanna.” You rushed.

“No, no I will. Let me just talk to my brother and I’ll head on over. What’s your address?”

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