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flyingkiki · 3 years ago

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We played dangerously (1/?)

Because we need more stories that show us just how much of a dirty boi Timbo is. The more smtty #TimRae the better. So excited for this story and delve heavily into their drama and dirty deeds. Strap yourselves in, bbs. it's a steamy one.

The history between them ran deep and long, mostly unspoken, messy, and painfully raw. Years later, here they are - older and carrying just a little bit more baggage than necessary. Tim and Raven reflect on their dangerous history and sift through the extra baggage they acquired.

~~~~

“You’re quitting?”

Raven frowned and crossed her arms defensively. She steeled herself as Red Robin stared at her, a look of total disbelief on his face as he processed what she just told him. She ignored how a heavy feeling settled low in her stomach.

“I’m taking a sabbatical,” she said levelly.

“For an undefined period of time,” continued Tim, his voice strained as he drew his eyebrows together trying to process what he just heard five minutes ago. “That sounds like quitting to me,”

She pressed her lips together as she tried to ignore the harsh press of Tim’s emotions against her. She watched him stare at her from across the briefing room, the sound of their computer working on data broke the heavy silence between them. “It’s my life, of course it’s indefinite,”

Tim blinked and followed her stance, crossing his arms as he studied her intently. “I’m not trying to take control of your life, Raven,” he bristled.

Raven tilted her head in challenge. For whatever reason she felt annoyance crawl under her skin. “It sounds like you are,”

“I’m not,” Tim pressed, sighing loudly. With a huff he pulled off his mask and threw it on the briefing table. Raven watched it slide on the flat surface before looking back up at Tim’s confused blue eyes. “Look, I don’t want to fight. You can do whatever you want, Raven. You’re right, it’s your life. I’m sorry if I sounded controlling,”

Raven hummed in acknowledgement. She knew he meant well. She knew Tim well enough that he wanted to understand the situation at hand. She shifted under his gaze and ignored how her stomach gnawed painfully. “When are you leaving?” Tim asked, his tone softer as he slid into the seat across from her. Raven watched him grab his mask and fiddle with it absently. The atmosphere shifted and her stomach churned painfully.

“In two weeks,” Raven replied and sat down in front of him. She watched Tim press his lips together and frown at the news. “I got into a special program. School starts early in August,”

Tim swallowed and threw her a torn look. “I’m glad you’re going off to university,” he began. He paused to inhale as he tried to think. “And this is not something you could do, like part-time online or something?”

Raven frowned at the way he tried to find ways to make her stay. “No,” she said. “Our work is a tight schedule as it is,”

Tim nodded in agreement. He gave a halfhearted smile. “At least I tried,”

Her stomach lurched without her consent and she ignored the jumble of emotions in the room. Her decision was final. This conversation made the move incredibly real. Pain settled low in her stomach. She needed to pack and get things going. “I want a life outside of the Titans, Tim,” she said. “Most of you have lives outside of the Tower. Gar does his stupid acting. Jaime has his family and volunteer work. You run WE, Tim. You all get to do something outside of our uniform. I just want something as close to normal as I can get, whatever that is for Rachel Roth, even if it’s just for a while.”

Tim sighed. The tension was palpable as Tim frowned. His brows furrowed and he nodded. “Yeah, I respect that, Rae,” he said, voice low. Running his hand through his hair, Tim leaned back into his chair with a huff. “Yeah, okay. Yeah,” he breathed and looked deep in thought. She felt the faint press of his carefully controlled emotions. “We’ll make some preparations for your transition and make sure that everything is in order. I’ll let the Justice League know,”

There was a beat of silence between them. Raven was surprised how methodological the conversation was. Then again, was she really expecting an argument for her to stay? There was an inexplicable pin-like pain in her chest she could not shake off. Wasn’t this what she wanted? Sighing softly, she assumed their conversation was done and stood up. Tim probably had to file a report to the JL. She had to pack up and get going with her life – they all did. Raven swallowed a thought.

“Well, thanks,” she said and turned to leave the room. She heard Tim stand up.

“Hey,” Tim called, voice slightly strained. Raven paused and turned back around, eyeing him curiously. Tim swallowed and his brows pressed together and there was a cautious look on his face. “This is not about –”

“No,” Raven cut him off sharply. “It’s not.”

Tim sighed and his shoulders lowered slightly. He caught her blue eyes and Raven watched an expression she cannot quite place cross his face. He offered her a tentative smile and nodded, his brows still furrowed and still looking torn. “Okay,” he breathed. “Yeah, good.” He paused before continuing. “We’ll tell the team after dinner tonight.”

Raven nodded. Her stomach felt heavy, she had enough of this conversation. It was done. “I’m going to start packing up stuff,” she said and made her way towards the door.

“Everyone’s going to miss you, Raven,” Tim said as she opened the door.

She paused at the door, hand resting at the metal doorframe. Her finger tapped the frame thoughtfully as a few stray thoughts ran through her mind, before turning to look over her shoulder, catching Tim’s piercing blue eyes. She sent him a tight smile and buried whatever errant emotions tickled her heart. “Yeah, I’ll miss everyone too. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”

She did not come back anytime soon.

Tim forgot when he was last in the Gotham Public Library – perhaps back when he was still in high school, 11 years ago? He wasn’t all too sure. His high school memories were blurry, given how his vigilante life was far more exciting than high school calculus.

But he was sure that the Gotham Public Library did not look this modern or dazzling since he last stepped into it when he was 15. The large library atrium was cleared out from its usual chairs and tables and instead filled with cocktail tables, round tables with sparkling black and gold table settings, buffet tables lined the walls, upbeat jazz music and heavy conversations filled the usual quiet halls, and every single one of the Gotham’s elite was dressed to the nines.

It was a charity dinner with plates going for the thousands. There was a silent auction too, some collectors’ books were up for grabs. The library was launching a new exhibit with some new codex they found out of Gotham. Wayne Foundation was funding most of the research and restoration work that went with it, and tonight’s event was supposed to help cover costs for the library’s expansion projects.

He idly listened to some politicians talk to Bruce and his siblings, Damian and Cass. Jason had moseyed off somewhere (likely browsing through the bookshelves or bidding on some of the collectibles in the silent auction) – lucky for the asshole. Tim wasn’t really paying attention. There was a lot going on, Tim barely kept up if he was being honest. A business merger was keeping his mind preoccupied, he was flying out to Japan tomorrow morning, and tonight’s dinner was the last place he honestly wanted to be at – but press as CEO of WE was important, Bruce liked to constantly remind him.

“So I was saying to him, ‘Johnny, son, if you don’t pull your pants up, that’s gonna be a lawsuit waiting to happen,’,” said the old man, assistant city treasurer – or whatever – to their small group. The old man heartily laughed, wheezing into his champagne glass. Bruce looked like he just swallowed bad caviar and cleared his throat while Damian and Cass made no effort to hide their bewildered faces. Tim sighed.

“Well, it does sound like a lawsuit waiting to happen, Mr. Peters,” Tim absently fiddled with his scotch glass and wondered if he should get anything stronger to get him through the night.

The man made a wounded sound and said something before slinking off. Bruce and Tim shared an exasperated look. Damian clicked his tongue, absently tapping his glass of orange juice. “This party is terrible, father,” he sniffed and icily scanned the crowd. “May we leave early?”

Bruce eyed his teenage son blandly. “We came here together, we leave together,” he said.

“Tt,” Damian frowned and took a sip from his orange juice.

Tim glanced at Damian, mildly feeling sorry for the 16-year-old gremlin. He remembered how he felt over these galas when he was younger. Internally grimacing at the galas when he first became CEO back when he was 17, Tim hid his displeasure behind his scotch glass while taking a sip.

They milled around more, talking to investors and guests from Gotham’s elite and academe. Tim smiled politely and held conversations where necessary, idly wondering when the night would be over. The crowd soon gathered in the middle of the atrium at the soft chime of a bell, signaling the start of another round of speeches from the library. Tim and his siblings slowly followed Bruce and the rest of the crowd towards the atrium. Tim caught Damian and Cass sharing bored glances.

“We’d like to thank everyone for being with us tonight,” said the Gotham Public Library Head Librarian, a well-dressed elderly man. The man went on with library expansion updates and the latest figures on tonight funds that were raised. Tim barely listed as he checked his phone for his flight details Tam sent him earlier. Ignoring the polite applause that filled the room, Tim continued to discreetly scroll through his itinerary.

“Tonight we’re also delighted to announce the opening of our exhibit, the Life Codex: Ancient Celebrations of Life. The library is honored to house this latest discovery and carry out the research, restoration, and preservation work of these recent discoveries,” the librarian droned on about ancient documents and the restoration work involved. Tim felt Cass nudge him and he blinked, looking up from his briefer. He stared at her quizzically.

“Attention,” she whispered. Tim offered her a sheepish look and pocketed his phone. They both turned their attention back to the stage. He caught sight of Jason’s large built shuffle in next to them, looking utterly bored. Since Jason was ‘legally alive’ again, they had roped him into attending a few events once in a while – much to the older man’s displeasure.

Mr. Tompkins, the Head Librarian, went on to discuss the project details that had gone underway since last month. Documents from Africa had been flown in and the research team had been working on restoring paper and decoding the codex. Tim barely listened as the elderly man droned on and silently wondered if he could still catch some sleep before his flight in the morning. His phone vibrated and he pointedly ignored Cass' look as he pulled out his phone to check an update from Tam.

"Doctor Collins, Dean of Gotham University's history and anthropology department is leading this project and she has built an excellent team for this project. Doctor Collins?" The head librarian welcomed an elderly woman with salt and pepper hair up on stage. Tim drowned out the speech as Dr. Collins started talking about the project, briefly looking at his phone and going through the project document for tomorrow's meeting with the Japanese tech firm. Tim wondered if he could at least get some good sushi while in Tokyo. Perhaps he could ask Tam to squeeze that into his schedule, they could --

"Hey, isn't that…" Jason paused and squinted at the stage. "Huh."

"Tim, look,"

Tim closed his phone and glanced at Cass curiously before turning his attention to the stage. Tim stopped short at what he saw.

Dressed in a flowing halter gown with a modest v-neck and a teasingly stylish slit up her right leg, a strikingly familiar woman walked up on the small platform offering the crowd a tentative smile and a modest wave. Tim watched the small woman carefully shuffle across the platform as a few more members of the research team were introduced. He blinked and stared at the violet-black haired woman and felt his throat tighten.

As if sensing his stare, dark blue eyes caught his light blue ones from across the hall. They zeroed in on him, easily catching him in a sea of hundreds.

There was an inexplicable tightness that seized his chest briefly, as Tim stared back at the woman, watching transfixed as emotions flickered across her face before quickly slipping back into a small pleasant smile and keeping her gaze briefly at him before turning to her colleagues and chuckling at something they were whispering to each other on stage. Tim watched and stared at her, schooling the surprise on his face, and just drinking in every familiar slopes and planes of her face because it had been what? Five? Six? Years since he last saw her.

"That's -"

"Rachel," Tim cut off Cass, blinking away his brief surprise and instead stared intently at his (former?) teammate.

"Rachel Roth leads our research team. Is there anything you'd like to say, dear?" Dr. Collins asked, turning to the group on stage. Rachel looked surprised before shaking her head and waving her hand in decline. "Ms. Roth does excellent work in ancient runes and languages, and restoration work. It's a pleasure to have her on the team. She's a guest lecturer at Gotham U, so if you're lucky, you best sign up for her special lecture series on ancient runes."

Tim watched as Rachel blushed at the praise, ducking her head briefly before chuckling at something a blonde haired woman next to her said. The group on stage shared a laugh and Tim watched curiously at the familiar sight of Raven smiling. There were few more pleasantries on stage before the group had their photo taken

“If we could invite Mr. Bruce Wayne, Mr. Lucius Fox, and Mr. Tim Wayne, to come up on stage for a quick photo with the rest of the team? After which we can proceed with our evening, and hopefully get your support in our library’s expansion work,” the head librarian called.

Tim blinked as Cass nudged him and pulled him out of his thoughts. Clearing his throat, he handed Cass his drink and quickly walked up the stage, following Bruce and Lucius up the small steps. Pulling on his practiced Tim Wayne-CEO-of-WE-smile, he dutifully shook hands with Dr. Collins and the head librarian. He briefly caught Raven’s stare as he moved across the stage to shake hands with people on the stage. Their gaze briefly met and her lips quirked into a small smile before quickly turning away and shuffling to the end of the line and out of reach for any other contact without attracting too much attention on them. Photos were taken swiftly and before Tim knew it everyone was ushered off the stage and he was wrapped up in a rather lengthy conversation on library work and the ongoing renovation projects.

Tim discreetly tried to look over his shoulder, barely catching a glimpse of the familiar slope of Raven’s shoulder disappearing into the crowd.

“Bruce Wayne,” Dr. Collins walked up to them just as the head librarian excused himself. The elderly woman beamed and quickly shook Bruce’s hand.

“Julia, it’s nice to see you again,” Bruce smiled warmly. “You know my son, Tim,”

Tim smiled and shook her hand. “Dr. Collins, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, easily pulling himself out of his thoughts of trying to find Raven in the crowd.

“Mr. Wayne,” The elderly woman beamed and regarded both men in front of her.

Tim chuckled. “Just Tim, please,”

“I worked with you parents, Jack and Janet, many years ago on a few of their archaeological digs, back in their early years. I met you when you were a little boy once or twice. I must say I am impressed at what a successful grown man you've become, Tim,” praised Dr. Collins. The elderly woman hummed and smiled. “CEO of Wayne Enterprises,”

Tim chuckled, pulling on his best boardroom smile. “Thank you,”

“Also, this makes me realize that time certainly flies when the young boy you last saw in diapers has become the CEO of the world’s most successful conglomerate,” Dr. Collins chuckled, beaming up at Bruce with a mischievous smile. “That does make me feel old,”

Bruce chuckled as Tim politely made a face and their small group fell into an easy conversation. “The last eight years with Tim as CEO have been the best years for the company,”

Tim grinned playfully over his scotch. “Careful, is that praise I hear?”

The small group fell into an easy conversation discussing work and the research project. Tim quickly gathered that Dr. Collins was an old family friend of the Waynes, particularly of Bruce’s parents. He kept rapt attention to the conversation, nodding and chiming in where necessary, while occasionally glancing around the room for even a hint of purple or black.

Feeling distracted by tonight’s discovery of Raven, Tim was ready to excuse himself from the conversation and pretend to make a phone call. That seemed to be the best way to try to look around and catch Raven.

“There you are,” Dr. Collins glanced over Bruce’s shoulder and beamed. She beckoned for whoever was behind Bruce to come closer.

“I was looking for you,”

Despite the years that passed, Tim recognized the familiar voice in a heartbeat. He watched as Raven appeared from behind Bruce. He schooled his face, trying to fight away any signs of recognition and familiarity towards the black haired woman. Tim watched in a mix of curiosity and internal surprise as Raven smiled softly at their group and confidently walked up to them. From the slopes of her shoulder, the elegant movements of her hands, to her black-violet hair, deep stormy blue eyes, and that achingly familiar errant dusting of a few freckles just around the hollows of her neck, Raven looked exactly like how he remembered her. Tim blinked and absently tapped his scotch glass as he stared openly at her, a sight he had not seen in years.

“Rachel, please meet Bruce Wayne and his son, Tim. As you know Wayne Enterprises provides extensive funding for our work,” Dr. Collins said, waiving at both men in front of them.

“Mr. Wayne,” Raven began, moving her champagne glass into her left hand and went to shake Bruce’s hand. A smile appeared on her face as she and Bruce exchanged pleasantries. There was no air of familiarity between them, despite the schooled smiles that stretched across both of their lips. Tim knew that practiced look from all the undercover missions he had seen, been with, her. “It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for all your support,”

Raven turned to Tim and he watched as her smile immediately curled up just a tiny bit more in that familiar teasing way he had not seen in the last six years. There was that achingly familiar twinkle in her eyes he often saw back in the day, reserved for rare occasions, and Tim found himself smiling back at Raven and eagerly drinking in her familiar presence. “Mr. Wayne,” she said to him, a small quiver in her voice that no one but him seemed to pick up. She reached out and shook his hand.

Tim gave her hand a brief squeeze and he was pleased to see how the corner of her lips curled into a familiar amused smile he remembered. “Just Tim,”

Raven hummed and nodded, pulling her hand back. “Thank you again for supporting the research and restoration project,”

“What were you busy with before joining this project?” Bruce asked curiously. There were little updates from Raven throughout the years as she left the team for university and eventually work. While in the early years of her sabbatical Tim kept some updates on her, these eventually became less up to date as Raven eventually seemed to do her own thing.

“I was in Iceland,” Raven supplied and explained that she worked on an ancient runes translation project with the local university for six months.

Tim felt a distant memory tickle the back of his mind and he ignored the tight feeling that accompanied those distinct memories. He ignored the whisps of memories that teased his mind. Dark blue eyes briefly caught his stare and he watched that familiar curl in the corner of Raven’s lips appear. Tim smiled in return. “Iceland is a beautiful country,” he commented.

Raven stared at him, dark blue eyes intense as he remembered them. “It is,”

“We’re glad that Rachel has joined our project. She’s a fine addition to our team,” commented Dr. Collins. The elderly woman smiled teasingly. “And we’re definitely hoping she’ll considering staying in Gotham after the project ends,”

Raven rolled her eyes in amusement. “We’re just two weeks into the project. We have a long way to go,”

Tim looked at her curiously. How could he have missed her entering Gotham?. “You’ve been here for two weeks?”

Raven looked at him as if catching the slight jump in his emotions at this little discovery. “Three actually, if you count my moving in week,” she shrugged in amusement.

Three weeks. Tim stored that information for later, for a later conversation, and ignored how it settled uncomfortably in his stomach. He instead smiled at her and titled his head curiously. “I hope the transfer into Gotham wasn’t too difficult,”

Raven made a face. “It’s been interesting,” she said and Tim easily caught her familiar teasing lilt in her voice.

“Let us know if you need any assistance getting you settled, I’m sure we can send over someone to help you with your apartment,” Bruce offered, smiling charmingly at Raven.

Raven waved him off. “It’s just a few more boxes, nothing really major,”

Tim watched as a young woman tentatively approached them and offered the group an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said to the group and quickly turned to Raven. With a quick tilt of her head towards the right, she made a face. “The University Press wants to talk to you,”

Raven made a face. “Oh, Why?”

“Just stuff about the project and the lecture,” supplied the young woman. She offered Raven a wry smile and made a face. “Also one of them asked if you were single,”

Raven rolled her eyes before smiling tightly at Bruce and Tim. “I’m sorry, if you’d excuse me. It was really nice to meet you. Thank you again for all your support. I hope you’ll visit the library again and we could show you around our work,” she said. Quickly turning to Dr. Collins, she nodded politely. “I’ll see you later, Julia,”

Smiling at Bruce and Tim, she tilted her head and there was an amused glint in her eyes as she stared at them. “Gentlemen,” she then turned on her heels, casually drank the rest of her champagne with just a little bit more purpose and seemingly bracing herself for what was about to happen next. Standing a little taller and squaring her shoulders, Raven followed the young assistant towards the press. “So, what did you tell them?” she asked, amusement lacing her voice.

As the conversation between Dr. Collins and Bruce resumed, Tim took a long sip of his scotch and stared at Raven’s retreating form. A million thoughts ran through his mind and he silently wondered just how fast he could get through his business trip in Tokyo. Sushi would have to wait for another time.

#timrae #tim drake #teen titans fanfiction #raven roth #raven #timrae 2021 year of smut and steam #be ready for baggage #lots of drama #and lots of steam because WE KNOW THESE BBS

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jungxk · 5 years ago

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crush

filed under. i totally forgot i wrote this. also i like the name eunmi sue me

notes. thank you to @lonelyending for reading thru this crusty story and making me feel good enough about it again to post it. also @suga-kookiemonster bc im pretty sure i sent u this like a year ago and u told me to post it it but....i forgot abt it shdgjsgd. writing/life in general has been hard recently so pls accept this kookfic to hold yous over until i update just one

genre. fluff, light comedy, light angst, smut

warnings. smut (oral sex: f receiving, penetrative unprotected sex)

length. 5.1k

the first thing jungkook thinks when he sees you is wow.

he hasn't been up for very long, and you don't even know he's looking at you through the window. yoongi-hyung has wrapped you up in his arms as you sob and sob, muted behind the protective hospital glass. even with messy hair and wet eyes he's starstruck. it's why he recoils slightly when jimin and namjoon explain to him that you're his wife.

"my," he can't even say the word. "my..."

"your wife," namjoon repeats. "you know what a wife is, right? marriage?"

"yes," jungkook huffs, digging his nails into his scalp. "i lost my memory, hyung, not my fucking brain cells."

he suddenly registers the gold band glistening on his left hand, simple and heavy. he has to take a second to collect himself. "but...but i'm twenty-three. right? i am twenty-three, yeah?"

"yeah. you are," jimin says softly.

"then how the fuck am i already married? not that i'm complaining i just," he suddenly turns pink at the thought of you in a wedding dress, clinging onto his arm, breakfast dates, late night ramen runs at the convenience store, painting the living room in a house you probably share, naked in bed on top of him. jungkook clears his throat. "it just seems a little out of character for me. i can't commit to a pair of shoes for a week let alone-"

"i think it's best if you just spoke with ____," jimin finishes before jungkook can work himself into a frenzy, a comforting hand laying on his shoulder. "you two need to talk anyway and it's best if all these answers came from her."

jungkook gulps at the thought of speaking to you, seeing you face to face. suddenly he's a cripplingly shy fourteen year old again.

"okay." he croaks. "okay."

you were even more beautiful up close.

your tear stained cheeks are glowing and blotchy when you perch on the chair beside his bed, big eyes fluttering up at him nervously. you're soft and plush and shorter than he thought and jungkook has to fist his hands in the sheets and play a counting game with the heart rate monitor in order to maintain eye contact. he feels himself start to sweat when you smile sadly at him. "sorry, i just...i don't know how to be around you normally without making you uncomfortable," you say quietly, wringing your hands together to avoid touching him.

"uncomfortable?" he queries, gaze latching onto the ring on your hand. seeing it on you gives him a nice feeling.

you nod into your lap. "yeah, um..." you look at your scuffed shoes, searching for the word. "we're usually very...touchy."

he can feel himself turning red again. "t-touchy?"

you meet his eyes and a pretty smile breaks over your face at how bashful he looks, making jungkook's cheeks tinge even pinker than they already are. you nod cutely so your earrings tinkle, eyes shining, and suddenly he understands without any context why he fell in love with you, why he married you so young. you let a comfortable silence settle over the room before taking a deep breath, bracing yourself. "how much do you remember, jungkook?"

he tries not to cave under the weight of his guilt. "not a lot about...you, that is," he finishes with a wince, your sad eyes immediately making him wilt with shame. "i remember everything up until a couple of years ago. we had a show at the japanese dome, debuted in america, and then...nothing. and now..."

"and now," you echo softly. your eyes look distant, staring at the floor.

"i'm sorry," jungkook whispers, chin touching his chest. "hyung told me...they all told me how much i loved you and...and i'm sorry i don't remember any of it. i'm so sorry."

you shake your head gently. "don't be sorry, jungkook-ah," the pet name makes his ears perk up. its a familiar, calming sound. "none of this is your fault. you didn't ask to get hit by that car." your expression turns remorseful, tugging at his heart. "if anything, this is because of me. the only reason you were out was because i asked you to go and get eggs and formula even though i should've remembered to pick some up on the way home and-"

"no, no! please don't blame yourself," jungkook tries, wishing he was close enough or even brave enough to take your hand. you look up at him and he catches a glimpse of the endless pool of love you harbour for him, like a punch to the chest. "i don't ever want you thinking this was your fault. so ple-" he pauses. "wait, formula?"

the door bursts open before he can finish, pitter patter steps rounding his bed until it reaches the other side, where you sit. a little girl with big dark eyes and curls of dark hair stares at him in wonder and elation, her cheeks dimpling just like yours before she screeches, "appa!"

jungkook's mouth goes dry. appa?

you're quick to intervene, putting yourself in the toddlers path to scoop her up in your arms. her grabby little hands struggle over your shoulder, fingers wriggling in attempt to get as close to jungkook as possible. he only stares with wide eyes and an open mouth, heart hammering in his chest when he sees the uncanny resemblances: his round nose. your brown skin but just a twinge fairer. his hooded eyes. and his stomach lurches.

"shhh, eunmi," you coo as you carry her away even with her squirming. "remember what i said before? appa is sick. appa is sick, baby-"

"we have a child?" jungkook wheezes, eyes starting to glaze over. there's a bout of silence when you look back at him guiltily, the baby's fumbling grinding to a halt when she registers the tension in the air. jungkook's breath is barely a whisper. "is that my daughter?"

your face crumples with a fresh bout of tears and eunmi looks on worriedly. she pushes her little lips into your cheek in a baby's kiss, like she's seen her father do so many times to get your attention. the word "amma," is muffled into your skin until you get yourself together and press a short kiss to her head.

yoongi rushes in, face twisted in apology. "i swear to god i turned around for one minute and-"

"it's okay, yoongi," you say quietly, stroking the baby's head. "eunmi, stay with uncle just a bit longer, okay? amma will be back in a minute..."

"appa," she whines over your shoulder, reaching for jungkook who sits helplessly in his bed. he watches with tears wetting his eyelashes, heart twisting in agony at the sight of his child he doesn't remember stretching her arms out for him. she begins to cry when he doesn't react or coo her. like he used to.

"take her, yoongi," you say shakily, passing the baby to him. the sound of eunmi's crying makes your heart shatter all over again, yoongi's quiet hushing doing nothing to qualm her sobbing as the heavy door closes behind them.

the silence that falls between the two of you is nothing short of excruciating. jungkook's head spins, completely overwhelmed: is that why you both got married so young? because of a child? was this why jimin and namjoon wouldn't say a damn thing about his life until he spoke to you first?

and then all the other questions that followed: was he a good father? when was his daughter's birthday? did she like kimchi and banana milk too? did he sing to her? read to her often?

would she ever forgive him for not being able to remember her?

"her name is eunmi," you say, looking down at the floor when jungkook starts to cry.

jungkook doesn't understand how his baby could be so pretty. she's golden brown like those sandy beaches on postcards, with chubby cheeks and twinkling dark eyes that resemble yours to a t, and that's when he realises of course she's beautiful. she's yours. you balance eunmi on your hip while you make coffee - decaf, since you're still weaning - and despite the amnesia jungkook feels like he's been here before, in this warm, happy place that is the kitchen.

"she got your nose though," you remind him, dumping the baby in his lap upon her fussing. she always seemed to wind down under his touch, and although nervous about the sudden responsibility of fatherhood, jungkook is compelled to give it. eunmi doesn't understand anything's changed so he doesn't see why he should act like it. "she's whiny before her milk too. like you."

"hey!" he retorts, but can't exactly defend himself. he twirls his fingers around her curly pigtails until she catches on and tries to stand on his thighs, reaching for his hair to yank. jungkook lets her. he's barely known his daughter a week and he's already so smitten he'd let her gut him open with a butter knife.

"she missed you, you know. when you were in hospital all this time," you say, making him look up to watch you stare into your drink. the fear still lingers in your eyes, faint and persistent. he can see it every time you look at him and it makes his body yearn to touch you like he once did, like he once would have before his brain unlearned everything his heart didn't. you laugh while watching eunmi pull his hair again, making him hiss. "even yoongi tried but no one coddles her as much as you."

"really?" he asks, face lighting up. he's so happy to hear that. jungkook hates the way the question bubbles up in the back of his throat, like it'd make a difference or it'd change how he felt. but he has to ask it. "is that why...is that why we got married so early, then?" he says, trying to sound as offhand as possible. "because of eunmi?"

you chew your lip. "yeah. i mean, you said it wasn't a big deal. because you were going to marry me eventually so it didn't make a difference, but...it doesn't really matter i guess, because that's not what everyone else thinks," you pause, tracing the rim of your mug again. "that's certainly not what your fans think."

jungkook doesn't even want to think about it. the backlash, the gossip, the name calling and dehumanisation. for the first time in his life jungkook couldn't give less of a shit about his reputation. "i'm sorry," he says, feeling like the word has lost meaning by now with how much he's said it. "i'm so sorry. not for this, for us or for eunmi. i don't regret any of that i just," he shifts the baby in his lap, still getting used to her weight. "i can only imagine what you went through."

you look a bit bewildered. "...you said that last time too." you smile again reassuringly. "please don't feel solely responsible, kook-ah. you didn't exactly get me pregnant on your own."

he flushes tomato red and you giggle at him until eunmi joins in too.

jungkook can't keep his eyes off you while you play with the baby, comb out her hair, sing her lullabies while you bathe her together. he'd always wanted a whirlwind romance as a teen and it looks like he finally got it, because he can feel himself fall head first in love with you (all over again). it didn’t make sense for someone to be so collected and easygoing after having motherhood forced onto you so abruptly. you tell him often that he's a picture-perfect dad, but jungkook still doubts he compares.

"does she need a change?" he asks, struggling to keep all of eunmi's wriggling limbs in his grip.

"nope, just hungry," you say, reaching out when he passes the baby to you. you're about to stand up and go to the guest room to feed her, but jungkook is already arranging the pillows next to him for you, grabbing a baby cloth on the side too.

"do you need another pillow?" he muses aloud, but he's already grabbing the ones on his side of the bed before you can answer, forming a wedge for you to sit nicely beside him. he looks up at you when you fail to move. "are you okay?"

"yeah i, um," you chew your lip nervously. "you don't...mind me feeding here?"

you immediately regret the question once it leaves your mouth. jungkook's crestfallen expression hits you right in the stomach, round eyes glittering up at you. he hasn't looked this upset since he woke up nearly a month ago. "why would i ever mind?”

"oh jungkook," you sniff, sitting beside him. he pulls you into the nest of pillows beside him, arm winding protectively around your shoulders. your eyes brim with sympathy tears, tired and angry and upset with treating him like a stranger.

"if i make you feel uncomfortable, i can go," he offers quietly. "if it makes you feel weird i understand..."

"no, not at all," you rush to stop him, suddenly realising how close you are. you could kiss his pink little lips if you just tilted your head up. "i just didn't want to make you feel weird. all this new stuff is happening to you, you're suddenly a husband and a father with no recollection of signing up or it and i just...i don't know how much you want to invest the second time around," you scramble to finish your sentence when he pins you with a concerned expression. “as in, i understand if you don’t want to make the same choice twice. it’s a big decision.”

he shakes his head dismissively. there wasn't a thing in the world that could make him turn his back on his family but it looked like you still needed convincing. he peers at you curiously when you position the baby. "so i can stay?"

you smile at him eagerly. "of course," you undo the nursing strap of your bra before the baby finally latches. "i actually prefer it when you're here. it makes me feel safe."

jungkook watches quietly while you hum for the baby, playing with her little hand while she drinks. the adoration seeps out of him in waves, how serene you look while you rock her, how angelic eunmi looks while she blinks her big doll eyes up at you both. she won't stay this little forever. he feels so overwhelmed by it, gathering you further in his arms with the urge to hold his family in his hands like a diamond. you don't question the little sniffles jungkook buries into your hair, resting your head on his shoulder wordlessly. you missed being held by him, missed his cotton scent and gentle breath.

"i love her so much," he whispers into the shell of your ear, entranced by the baby's little gurgles and gulps. he reaches out to run his knuckle over the velvet of her cheek, round and stuffed with milk. "i feel like i'll die, i love her so much."

"me too," you smile. "it was scary and hard for a long time but...i'm so glad we had her. i wouldn't trade her for anything."

you feel jungkook's lips trace your temple, heart stuttering upon the sudden contact. you hear what he doesn’t say: i wouldn't trade either of you.

"why are you so sweaty?" jimin scowls, noting the dark patches under jungkook's t-shirt when he tries to take the baby from his arms. "it's not even humid today."

jungkook doesn't do anything but gulp and cuddle a sleeping eunmi closer to his chest. she's become somewhat of a security blanket for him; even if she wasn't awake to play, he was always itching to hold her and nuzzle into her head when he's tense or embarrassed. like now.

"leave him alone, you know he sweats when he's shy," yoongi grins.

"stop it," jungkook mumbles.

"shy? what for?"

"because he's got a crush on his wife," namjoon snickers, knowing jungkook would whack him one if his arms weren't around his kid. "why are you looking at me like that? it's true!"

"but you can't just say it! she'll hear!" he hisses.

"you're married," jimin deadpans but it only makes the younger boy curl in on his baby more. "god, this reminds of when you two met. remember how he used to hide behind manager hyung every time ____ came in? and then i had to listen to them fuck in the next room for a year only to end up back here all over again-"

"jungkook," you call. "where did these come from?" you walk into the sitting room with a bouquet of yellow roses nestled in your arms. "did a fan send them? i didn't see a note they were just on the worktop-"

"th-those are for you," he mumbles. "i got those for you."

you look so pretty when you stare it makes him sweat harder and the three older boys all but burst a vein in their head trying not to laugh when leaving the room. there's an awkward silence where you clutch the flowers and he clutches the baby. "thank you," you say finally. "they're beautiful, i love the colour yellow..."

his big doe eyes round up to look at you even though the lower half of his face is smushed into pigtails. "you're welcome."

"can i kiss you?" you blurt out, too fast to stop it. your cheeks are still stinging and you're pretty sure you have baby powder in your hair but jungkook looks at you with awe as he nods so vigorously his earrings shake.

so you do, leaning over the arm of the sofa to press your mouth over his long enough for both your breaths to catch. you pull away, moving to sit next to him so his free arm can wind around your shoulders when you kiss him again. "please," he mumbles when you part. "please don't ask to kiss me. just do it," he leans for another long, warm kiss that leaves you light headed. "stop tip-toeing around me, okay? we're married. i know i scare easy, but not that easy."

you feel giddy, finally feeling the weight being lifted piece by piece. "okay," you peck his mole endearingly before scooting up for another kiss. "i missed this."

"me too," he hums into your mouth. "it feels like the first time but also...not the first time, you know? not just because i don't remember but like," he doesn't know how to say it, wetting his lips thoughtfully. your chapstick is cherry flavoured, his favourite. "like we've been doing this for longer than both of us even realise. longer than this life."

"i know," you nod. "i know."

after a while, you forgot about jungkook's amnesia altogether. even though the chances of him making a full recovery were slim, it all felt so normal and back to routine, all the kissing and the cuddling and the playing with eunmi. there was almost no room for trepidation anymore. until now.

you moan into jungkook's mouth when he pulls you onto his thighs, big hands palming your ass when you grind into him. he's only mildly concerned that he'll cum in his pants at this rate but he doesn't fret too much: that was secondary to undressing you and touching you and pleasing you and making you scream as loud as he could make you without waking the baby. he has nearly three years of re-learning your body to catch up on and he's eager to start.

he's quickly reminded during this process that you are a master. you know exactly where to kiss him, exactly how much pressure to kneed into his cock with your hips, exactly how much tongue he wants in his mouth until he's whining and damp for you. of course you know his body like the back of your hand - your child wasn't conceived from thin air. it makes him all the more desperate to learn, almost antsy to get his mouth and hands on you until you're writhing and breathless beneath him.

you gasp when you feel his hand slip between your legs, rubbing his fingers over your shorts. you automatically rock your covered wetness into his touch, the long whimper you muffle into his neck sending jungkook soaring through the clouds with pride. you're so lost in the feeling, having missed it so much, you're barely able to squeak a stop! when he hooks his fingers inside the waistband of your panties.

his eyes shoot open. "what's wrong?"

"j-jungkook," you shuffle in his grip, feeling so embarrassed under his scrutiny you don't know where to look. "it's not that i want you to stop but. listen, just," you cling to his shoulders, shivering when his hands drag reassuringly up to your waist. "just remember that...i've had a kid, okay? i'm not gonna look like before."

he blinks. "i don't remember what you looked like before."

"no, i mean like," you lick your lips, tasting him there. "it's still something to keep in mind. i'm not gonna be as smooth and perky in places like all those idol girls you perform next to, so just-" he watches you fumble nervously in his lap, the growing disbelief making him blink. "don't expect too much okay? things might not look the way you imagine them to and i don't want you to feel-"

"stop," he cuts off, tugging you so you're seated over his erection again. the look jungkook pins you with is so intense you can feel your pulse thrum in your ears, the harsh rise and fall of his chest making him appear that much more passionate. "this body," he slips his hands up your top, palming your skin. "made my child. i take offence to it being spoken about with anything less than admiration, even by you."

"kook-ah," you say nervously, but still let him remove your pj top over your head before you laying you under him on the bed. you don't know why your eyes suddenly prick with tears when he traces over your stretch marks and discoloured skin with his smooth lips. "this kept my daughter warm," he kisses under your navel, sliding up to your heavy breasts. he kisses each darkened nipple, swollen from the baby's mouth. "these feed her." he rises further still, before planting his mouth on your forehead in a short peck. "and this raises her. so how can i be anything but proud to touch you?"

"jungkook, stop," you sniff, tears wetting your lashes. your eyes fall shut when he wipes them away with his thumb, lips ghosting over your cheeks and nose.

"what did i say about tip-toeing around me?" he whispers, forcing you to look him in the eye. only then do you see the tears there, all the ardour and respect he holds for you pooling in those brown depths. "i'm your husband. let me be your husband."

you kiss him before you can start crying again, letting him part your mouth and taste you long and hard before finally undressing himself and slipping your shorts off. this is all a first for him, and it's been so long since you've done this it's almost like a first for you too, frantic and messy and desperate to feel jungkook lodged inside you where he belongs. you know he must share the sentiment when he splits your thighs over the narrow of his hips, hooking them there while he gets a good look of his erection rubbing through your slick.

no wonder i knocked her up, jungkook muses faintly. i don't think i can ever stop doing this.

"jungkook, please," you run a hand through his hair, grinding against his cock in encouragement but he still won't take the plunge. instead, your voice reminds him of his initial objective, causing him to saunter down between your legs faster than you can process. he's licking into you before you can have a second thought about it, mouth falling open with a loud moan when he traces around your clit in firm circles.

he has your knees over his shoulders and his arms wound around your hips so you have nowhere to go, nothing to do but buck into his attentive mouth, jungkook's groans vibrating against you until you can barely keep yourself together - he's always enjoyed this as much as you have. which is why he takes his time, explores every crevice and subsequent response, relishing in the gush of wetness when he does something right. he even goes as far as holding his tongue stagnant against your folds so you have no choice but to rub yourself into him for friction, so entranced he is by your invigorating reactions. only when you're squirming and whimpering with deliriousness does he finally give in and resume a steady pace over your swollen clit, two fingers sliding in home so you have something to come around. and you do.

messy and wet and shrieking into the pillow by your head so that you're muffled enough to not wake the baby down the hall, your orgasm drawing out longer than normal as you do your best to ride it out. jungkook carries you through it, gulping down as much of your arousal as he can manage until your hips finally drop back into the bed in post-climax exhaustion. on the contrary, the only reason he stops lapping at you is because you tug him away by the hair, bringing him up to you and between your legs again before he can do anything about it.

he splutters with a moan at the sudden contact of your wetness against his cock again, eyes fluttering shut and allowing you to bring him in, arms and legs winding securely around him so that you're flush against each other, hips rocking in tandem. jungkook is so caught up in the feeling - not the sex but the safety of being held, being connected like this - that you're the one to reach down and position his tip against your hot center, before finally running your hands down your husband's back to cup his ass and shove him into you.

jungkook gasps, breath shaking at how tight you are. you're so hot, so snug around him his eyes shut upon instinct, letting your hands guide his hips and showing him how to move in that perfect rolling motion that you're only familiar with after years of practice. and jungkook, of course, is a fast learner. it doesn't take long for him to take the reigns and fuck you just how you like it, adding in a sharp snap of his hips every now and again just to listen to you squeak in surprise. the wet sounds of your joined arousal coupled with you moaning under him is near cathartic, sending him hurtling to his finish line.

but before he can get there you shift him over, thick thighs helping you roll and pin him under you on the bed. jungkook grapples at your waist when you resume a slower but harder rock of your hips that has his length grinding against your clenching walls, his head thrown back at the intensity of it. you ride him through it, peppering the moles on his pretty neck with kisses and sucks, mouth finding his stiff little nipple to give it a swirl too. it's exactly what he needs to finish off, fingers digging into your flesh as he bucks wildly, filling you full of his seed while he calls your name. you slow to a stop when his hands finally fall limp on your thighs, his chest heaving under you and covered in sweat. you giggle. he always got so sweaty.

"you did so well, kookie," you whisper, kissing his damp neck and collar bones. his arms are suddenly around you again for comfort. "you were so good for me...always so good to me..."

"you," he croaks finally, eyes half lidded and a little delirious. "you didn't finish?"

you giggle at his genuine concern, pecking his wet lips. "i got mine, remember?"

"how many times?" jungkook is suddenly alert, tugging your wrist to get your attention before you can climb off him. his other hand is still around your middle so moving was out of the question until he allowed it. he was still inside you. "how many times do i usually make you come?"

you blink in embarrassment. you never really thought about it, let alone counted. "um...i don't know..." he waits for an answer, awfully serious about it. "a-at least two or three, i guess."

you yelp when he flips you back over, fingers immediately prying your cum soaked folds apart to nestle inside. "then don't act like we're done."

#jungkook x reader #bts x reader #jungkook au #jungkook scenario #jungkook smut #myfic #dont we all love a memory loss au

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riversofmars · 4 years ago

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Oops forgot to post this on here last night when I updated lol. Hope you’re all happy with my choice of villain. And for those who don't know the Eleven/the Thirteen yet, you'll get to know them alongside the Paternoster gang as they're totally clueless themselves lol. So real hope you enjoy this next chapter, let's see where everyone is off to!

Chapter 8: Where We Started

Glasgow, 2021

Jack returned in no time at all, at least from the perspective of the team at Torchwood Two.

“You better be grateful, this took me all night and I’m starving!“ Jack announced after materialising in the centre of the room. He was crouching in between two dead bodies, holding on to a wrist each to pull them with him through the time vortex.

“Food is still warm.“ Mickey retorted and gave Jack a hand lifting the two men onto gurneys.

“What’s so significant about them?“ Ryan asked, stepping closer. There was no obvious cause of death. Both men were young, 20s, 30s maybe and looked healthy. There was no blood, no bullet holes…

“How did they die?“ Graham asked, noticing the same thing. “Who killed them?“

“We’re not quite sure on the who yet.“ One of the Osgoods answered, steppinganswered stepping up to the body on her right. She pulled a scanner from her lab coat pocket and ran it over the dead man’s chest.

“And not sure about theon the killing either.“ The other Osgood agreed as she stepped up to the other corps, mirroring her twin’s actions with a scanner of her own.

“Well, they are dead…“ Ryan couldn’t help but point out but by now he knew better than to judge a book by its cover.

“Yes, but we’re not entirely sure they meant to kill them…“ The second Osgood replied, frowning a little at the readings she was getting.

“What do you mean by that?“ Graham asked, looking around for answers. None of the others appeared surprised so he could only presume these were not the first two cases.

“These are not murders as such, we believe these are experiments gone wrong.“ Kate revealed and Ryan and Graham exchanged concerned glances.

“We’re just not sure to what end.“ Martha came to stand next to them.

“We’re not the first to notice.“ Kate carried on. It was time they filled them in properly. She had been worried about revealing too much back in Sheffield but they could talk freely now. “When dead bodies turn up, the police do tend to get involved.“

“That’s when people started disappearing from time, being erased.“ Jack concluded.

“For examining these murders?“ Ryan frowned, deeply concerned now.

“This is why we’re doing our best to keep off the radar.“ Gwen explained as they all gathered around now. “Someone is trying to cover this up and they’re using very advanced technology to do it. You can’t just erase people from time.“

“So far, whoever is behind this has not noticed our investigation.“ Kate stated, which wasn’t to say that they wouldn’t be found out eventually.

“Or at least they have not found a way to erase us yet.“ Jack interjected, more grimly.

“Like I said previously, people who have had dealings with the Doctor, particularly those who have travelled with them, seem to be less affected.“ Kate continued to explain and one of the Osgoods added:

“By travelling in time, you become a temporal anomaly, a complex space time event. Much harder to erase than someone who has only existed in one time period.“

“I guess that makes sense…“ It didn’t make an awful lot of sense to Ryan but he chose to just accept it.

“Either way, we have to tread carefully. Someone is using humanity as guinea pigs.“ Kate crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“And we need to find out why.“ Jack nodded. “Now that we have two bodies, we might be able to do just that. And once we know what they want, we will stop them.“ His voice was full of determination.

“I will need a while to analyse.“ The Osgoods gave apologetic smiles, indicating they would like to be left in peace to do their work now.

“You best get some rest. We will have a lot of work to do soon.“ Kate smiled at Ryan and Graham who could hardly refuse the request. It had been a very long night already.

——

In orbit around the Library, 52nd Century

Paternoster Gang

“So this Thirteen person, is it possible they’re the one that took the child as well?“ Yaz asked, leaning onto the control desk as they digested the news. “They are a Time Lord, we found Time Lord technology at your house.“

“It would be an extraordinary coincidence if it wasn’t.“ Vastra agreed, she was pacing the room. Even though they had no idea what their motivations were, they had to assume the same person was behind both kidnappings. She knew nothing of the dealings either the Doctor or Professor Song had had with this particular Time Lord but she decided it didn't matter for the time being. What mattered was that they found River and her son. With any luck they were being taken to the same place. They could ask questions later.

“We need to find a way of following them.“ Jenny concluded, watching her wife pace. As much as they had hoped for a conversation with the Professor, for a chance to make their apologies and to promise to make amends, at least they had a trail to follow now.

“Did our sensors pick anything up on our approach? Any other ships in the vicinity? Someone heading away from the Library?“ Vastra asked, looking to Strax who started working the controls with military efficiency.

“We were too far out at the time. Nothing on long range sensors.“ Strax growled seemingly displeased with the efficiency of the scanners. “This wouldn’t have happened on a Sontaran warliner.“ He huffed.

“What about the Library? Do they not have any sensors or CCTV or something?“ Yaz asked as she thought back to her police training. If someone was kidnapped, looking for CCTV footage in the area would be the first step, surely.

“Excellent idea, Ms. Kahn!“ Vastra gave her a kind smile. “Mr. Maldovar, any suggestions as to how we might establish a more permanent link to the Library?“

“It’s a closed system, trying to keep out intruders, probably a defence mechanism…“ Dorium mused, putting his feelers out. What he lacked in physical mobility, he was making up for with technological know how.

“If not a video link, at least some means of data exchange?“ She gave him a kind smile. “I have every confidence in your abilities.“

“She means: see if you can hack the system.“ Jenny chuckled, recalling Dorium’s rather impressive work at Demon’s Run. It seemed as though all their expertise would be called upon at one point or another.

“I don’t suppose CAL would mind once she realises what you’re trying to do.“ Vastra carried on. “Perhaps if you started with a reassuring message for her. Would you maybe be able to get information about ships that approached or departed?“

“I shall certainly try.“ Dorium agreed, his tone gracious, but he hardly had to try at all. “Never mind, she’s ahead of us, she’s sending something across.“ Dorium looked up to the screen. “I believe we can extrapolate the course from this.“ A diagram appeared on screen, green dots outlining a route away from the planet.

“Bringing us around now.“ Strax announced as the computer worked out the course. “We shall hunt them down and shoot them out of the sky!“

“Not with Professor Song on board, we won’t.“ Vastra pointed out and Strax huffed displeased.

“Ready to jump into hyper speed.“ He grumbled in response.

“Hang on, CAL is sending some more data across.“ Dorium announced. “Just wait till… There we are, all done.“ He nodded and nearly fell out of his box doing so.

“What is it?“ Vastra asked as the ship jumped into faster-than-light travel and the stars blurred outside. They left the Library behind.

“A file with everything the Library had to offer on the Thirteen and their previous incarnations, I’m sure that will make for exciting reading…“ Dorium almost sounded surprised.

“Clever girl!“ Jenny grinned.

“Perhaps we can learn who we are dealing with.“ Yaz felt a little better that they were all in the same boat. She wasn’t behind this time, they all had to start from scratch.

“Best to know your enemy.“ Strax grinned. “Give us the intel, head.“

——

The TARDIS

“Sorry, Doctor but I can’t take credit for that.“ The Master laughed at the look of surprise and disappointment on her face. She had hoped to get answers but there were none to be had.

“And you never will.“ It was a split second decision on the Doctor’s part as she pulled a gun from under the console.

She had always pretended she didn’t know where River had hidden her guns around the TARDIS but of course she did. She wasn’t quite sure why she had never stopped her doing it. Perhaps because she knew eventually, they would come in handy. River had borrowed the TARDIS plenty of times and if she ever got herself in a scrape, she didn’t want to leave her wife defenceless. While the TARDIS had redecorated since River had last been here, she had kept her guns where they belonged.

“Well, well, well Doctor.“ The Master smirked as she pointed the gun at him.

“Get out.“ She said.The weapon felt heavy and uncomfortable in her hand but that didn’t stop her. She couldn’t take the risk of the Master getting off Gallifrey. She had no way of knowing for sure whether he would be responsible for her son’s abduction in the future but she couldn’t take the risk. If it was the case, she would stop it here. She gestured to the door. “Now.“

“You’re not leaving me here.“ The Master laughed, shaking his head, he didn’t seem to be taking her seriously.

“Yes I am. You are not getting off this rock. You will never get the opportunity to hurt my family, ever.“ The Doctor retorted, her voice low and threatening.

“You won’t shoot me.“ The Master shrugged, taking a step closer, daring her to do just that.

“Yes I will.“ The Doctor snapped, taking proper aim.

“No you won’t. You didn’t last time and you won’t now, you’re weak.“ The spat, enjoying seeing her struggle with herself. Her kindness and reluctance to use force had always been her greatest weakness. “You think you can protect them when you can’t even find out who’s behind it all? You’re pathetic. Probably best if you don’t find your child, you’d be such a disappointment to them.“

A shot rang out and the Master staggered back. The Doctor was shocked herself but she tried her best to cover that moment of disbelief. She tightened the grip on the gun just in time for the Master to look up again.

“Wow…“ He grinned, in a maniacal sort of way and pressed his hand to his arm. She had only grazed his shoulder. She was a terrible shot that lacked the strength of her convictions. Or at least she thought she did. Part of her couldn’t believe she had shot him at all and the other part couldn’t believe she had missed.

“The next one will be lethal.“ She threatened, squaring her jaw. She pointed to the door, hoping he would leave already and not put it to the test. In a way, leaving him on Gallifrey was just as bad as shooting him. Both were a death sentence, one just felt a lot easier than the other. Either way, she had to protect her family and if she was strong now, perhaps things would find a way of resolving themselves.

“No, it won’t.“ The Master laughed and before she could follow through on her threat, he darted forward. The Doctor felt the ground move under her feet but not because he knocked her over. He hadn’t gone for her, he had lunged for the controls.

“What have you done?“ The Doctor shouted and crashed against one of the crystalline arms in the control room. The gun was knocked from her hand and skidded off somewhere. The TARDIS was spinning, somersaulting, they were launching into the vortex.

“What have you done? You tried to kill me!“ The Master shot back and was knocked to the ground as well. The TARDIS was out of control.

“Oh because you’ve always been so restrained?!“ The Doctor snapped over the racket of them catapulting through the vortex, hitting energy fields, chronon clouds and any other kind of obstacle the vortex had to offer.

The Doctor pulled herself along the floor, towards the control panel. She had to stabilise them. Just for the moment, the Master was not her primary concern. She managed to grab hope of the console and pulled herself up, hitting the blue stabiliser button. The TARDIS stopped shaking, steadying itself and the Doctor let go a sigh of relief. She got to her feet properly and turned back to the Master who was clambering to his feet as well.

“That was really stupid and incredibly dangerous, we could have been torn apart.“ The Doctor snapped.

“I couldn’t let you leave me there. Better to be killed than return to that isolation.“ The Master huffed, slightly calmer than before. “Do you know what it was like, Doctor? Just you with your own thoughts? Not a living, breathing thing in sight?“ His tone was surprisingly genuine and there was a bitter edge to it.

“You’re not the only one who’s had a tough few decades.“ She retorted but was in no mood to fill him in on her prison sentence so she changed the subject quickly: “Can’t have been all that lonely, you told someone about the timeless child.“

“For the last time, Doctor, I didn’t tell anyone!“ He groaned in annoyance, tossing his arms in the air. He hissed as the movement sent a jolt of pain through his injured arm. “I killed everyone that could possibly have known.“

“Then it was you that told Dorium!“ The Doctor snapped.

“I already told you, I didn’t! When would I have done that?!“ The Master yelled.

“What then? Someone else just found out about the Timeless Child and happened to have taken an interest in my child?!“ The Doctor was trying to wrap her head around it. She only trusted the Master as far as she could throw them but she was beginning to doubt her previous assessment.

“Why would you think those two things are connected?“ The Master shook his head at her shortsightedness.

“What do you mean? Of course they’re connected!“ The Doctor shot back angrily.

“Because you have the word child in both sentences?“ He laughed, gesturing question marks into the air. “Come on, anyone could have taken your child with no other motive other than to get to you. And there are a lot of people who would love a way to get to you, not just me.“

“What do you mean by that?“ The Doctor frowned, taken aback. This was not something she had considered before.

“You have a lot of enemies, Doctor, have you never noticed? None as brilliant as me, obviously, but they’re out there.“ The Master chuckled, giving her a patronising look.

“Is that a hypothetical or do you actually know something?“ The Doctor pressed on. There had to be more there than he was letting on.

The Master shrugged.

“Because if you don’t and you claim to have nothing to do with it, I might as well take you back to Gallifrey.“ She stepped up to the console, intent on changing the course.

“Don’t.“ The Master grabbed her arm and pulled her away. “You know I have nothing to do with this and I don’t know where your child is.“

“You’re gonna have to give me more than that.“ The Doctor shook him off. “You know something… what did you do?“

“Alright… I may be guilty of a teensy little fibette…“ The Master smirked, clearly enjoying this. “Perhaps someone did hear about the timeless child… so maybe it is connected to the kidnapping of your child after all… though, I wonder how they would have found out about your son…“ He mused but was interrupted when the Doctor grabbed him by the collar of his coat.

“What did you do?“ She growled, fresh anger shooting through her.

“I just wanted to play… create a little chaos…“ The Master grinned.

“What did you do?“ She repeated pulling him closer.

“Every species has their black sheep don’t they… apart from you and me of course…“ He smirked.

“You didn’t…“ The Doctor’s eyes widened as she sensed where he was going with this. So close to him, she could almost see his memory of it in her own mind.

“What do you think would happen if you free all of Gallifrey’s bad boys and girls in one go? I couldn’t create all that destruction just by myself, could I.“ The expression in his eyes was nothing short of madness.

“And you think someone fled the planet before you destroyed everything?“ The Doctor carried on and he shrugged:

“Who knows, I didn’t keep count.“

——

Space, 52nd Century

“It’s not much… bits and pieces of his misadventures… this bit is interesting, it’s a footnote from the Book of the Revenants, you know the Doctor has her own volume.“ Dorium flicked through the data in his mind, keeping quiet for a moment as he focused.

“Yeah she’s mentioned that…“ Yaz couldn’t help but smile at the fond memory. What a carefree adventure that had been in comparison to what was happening now. She wondered how the Doctor was doing. She had no idea River had been taken as well… Perhaps they should try to contact her…

“As if their head wasn’t big enough…“ Vastra sighed. “What does it say?“

“It’s a brief description of their personalities, stops at twelve, sadly.“ Dorium revealed and he started to recite: “Originally a member of the High Council on Gallifrey, the One fell from grace and became one of Gallifrey’s most notorious criminals. Suffering from regenerative dissonance, the personalities of their regenerations remain within their consciousness. Following incarnations are known and distinguishable. The One: the archivist, often pedantic and knowledgeable on many Gallifreyan secrets.“

“So he could have known about the Timeless Child?“ Jenny jumped in, listening closely and her wife nodded in agreement. They had yet to find out what exactly that phrase was meant to mean. The Doctor hadn’t filled them in but somehow, that secret from Time Lord lore seemed to be at the centre of everything.

“Indeed…“ Vastra mumbled. “What else does it say?“

“Brief descriptions of the others, make them more distinguishable I suppose…“ Dorium continued: “The Two: The charmer, a charismatic liar and manipulator; and the Three: The Juvenile, childish and self-centred, prone to tantrums and violence.“

“Not unlike the Master then, makes sense you would confuse them.“ Yaz wondered if the Doctor just attracted a certain kind of mad man to face off against. Despite the seriousness of the situation, it was an amusing thought.

“The Four: The intellectual, a sophisticated and arrogant game-player. The Five: The joker, a funny, wise-cracking and confident trickster. The Six: The psychopath, extremely violent and unstable.“ Dorium carried on as the others listened intently.

“A man after my own heart.“ Strax grinned.

“The Seven: The scientist, clever and calculated with vast scientific knowledge.“ Dorium chose to ignore Strax’s comment and skipped to the next one.

“It sounds like he would have quite the arsenal of abilities at his disposal.“ Vastra mused, trying her best to commit the different personalities to her memory. There was no way of knowing if and when it would become useful. If their hunt was successful, they would soon find themselves face to face with this mysterious Time Lord.

“The Eight: The good man, who unlike his other selves strove to do good.“ Dorium raised his eyebrows, surprised. He checked the data entry twice, just to be sure.

“Interesting…“ Vastra pursed her lips and Jenny added:

“People don’t have to be just good or just bad, there are two sides to everyone…“

“I’m beginning to see that…“ Yaz admitted, thinking back to the Doctor and the way she had been acting in Dorium’s bar. Her anger and fear had brought out the worst sides of her. She could only hope she was doing okay where she was now.

“The Nine: The kleptomaniac, driven by greed and prone to theft.“ Dorium continued reciting: “The Ten: The hypnotist, confident and able psychic.“

“Another useful ability…“ Vastra commented.

“The Eleven: The schemer, clever, patient and determined.“

“None of them particularly sound like a breeze to deal with…“ Jenny sighed.

“The Twelve: The matriarch, first female and last known regeneration. They are presumed dead.“ Dorium concluded at last.

“Imagine what that’s like, having all those personalities inside you.“ Yaz shook her head to herself. Anyone might go mad under those circumstances.

“I shall be glad to put them out of their misery.“ Strax announced, checking through his blaster rifle.

——

Unknown

“Wakey-wakey…“

River’s head was spinning. She was disoriented. The flood of sensation that came over her was painful in its intensity. She had a splitting headache. Her chest burned with every breath and she coughed. Light was blinding her, her eyes were refusing to adjust just yet. Her muscles were stiff and her joints ached, as if she was awakening from a long sleep.

That was when she realised she had corporal shape. She had a body. She tried to move but found her muscles wouldn’t cooperate, not just yet anyway. She was still getting used to breathing again.

“What…“ She tried to speak but she couldn’t produce sound yet. She felt utterly helpless but she was alive.

“There we are, slowly coming to.“ The voice seemed very distant and her ears were only just getting used to processing sound again.

“A Time Lord’s body is a miracle. Even one that has spent all their regenerations.“ There was another voice but she couldn’t place it either. Her mind was still trying to catch up to where she was, how she had got here, what had happened last. The Library… had it all been a bad dream?

“She’s not a Time Lord.“ The first voice grew sharper and was beginning to sound more familiar as her senses began to normalise.

“Close enough.“ The second sounded female.

“What’s taking so long?“ There was the first voice again but changed. “Patience, Three.“ River knew that she knew this person but her brain wasn’t at full capacity yet. She blinked against the light. If only she could make something out. She was slowly adjusting. “You did a good job keeping her body intact.“

“The machine will restore her, it might take a while but she will be herself soon enough.“ River knew she had heard the female voice before, too.

“I hope so, I do like them with a bit of bite.“ The Thirteen. The memories were coming back to River now. She had been in the Library and someone had hacked into the system. He must have taken her, brought her elsewhere, returned her to a body. How had he done it?

“No.“ River whispered, her voice horse as her vocal chords hadn’t been used in a long time. It was like she had to learn how to use her body all over again. That was when she realised how she knew the second voice, a voice that still haunted her nightmares.

“Hello Melody.“ Madame Kovarian smirked, leaning over and into her field of vision.

“What are you…“ River tried to reach and push her away, she managed to raise her hands but collided with a glass case. She pressed her hands against it, she was in a glass tube of some kind. Or was it a coffin? She looked at her hands, pressed against the glass, finding her skin red and raw from the electrocution she had suffered while connecting herself to the Library core. She should have been dead. She had been dead. They had brought her body back to life and it was painful.

“Easy now, Melody, dear. A few days and your body will be good as new.“ Kovarian smirked. “Lucky really we got there in time but you were right, Time Lords take forever to properly die…“

“What are you planning on doing with me?“ River managed to turn her head and spotted the Thirteen standing behind Kovarian, watching with a content smirk on his face.

“All in good time, Professor, get your strength back now. It’s no fun beating you when you’re already down.“

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thekillerssluts · 4 years ago

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We’ve Got A File On You: Win Butler

In a year when a lot of our plans have been on hold, Win Butler has been busy. In April, the Arcade Fire ringleader let us know that the band had been working on music shortly before lockdown, and then he let us hear some of it. Last week, on the night of the election, the band debuted a new song called “Generation A.” Apparently, Butler was one of the people who found quarantine more inspiring than suffocating. Just a couple weeks ago, he amended his previous hints with the update that he’s written “two or three” Arcade Fire albums thanks to having to stay still all year long.

It seems like there’ll be a whole lot of new Arcade Fire goings-on to parse sometime on the horizon, but that isn’t the reason Butler and I got on the phone one recent October afternoon. Butler’s not quite ready to talk about forthcoming music yet, aside from saying this era of writing gives him flashbacks to that which preceded The Suburbs and promising “The new shit is about some of the best shit we’ve ever done” as we say goodbye.

In the meantime, there have been some milestones this year: The Suburbs turned 10; Butler turned 40. There is, of course, a whole lot of rich Arcade Fire history between their early ’00s origins and now. There are too many high-profile collabs to dig through, too many pop culture crossovers to cover, in just one conversation. But before Arcade Fire’s next chapter begins, while we both had a moment of quiet at home in the year 2020, Butler and I took some time to dig back through highlights and surprises from across his career.

Appearing In Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020)

How did this happen?

WIN BUTLER: They were filming in New Orleans. I’m kind of the exact age where Bill & Ted really has a soft spot in my worldview. [Laughs] That was just like, yeah, of course I want to be in the Future Council. That’s the part I was born to play. No, it’s funny, it was just one of these random things that come through the email. Usually, it’s, “Nope, nope, nope, nope.” But this was, “Tell me when, tell me where, I’ll be there.” It was on soundstages. When we were filming it, Tommy Lee from Mötley Crüe was back there, and he sort of disappeared at some point. I got to bring my son, who’s six. He was hanging out and we were talking to Keanu about Canada and punk bands back in the day. It was a pretty sweet hang. It was a bright spot in 2020, let me put it that way.

You say you get these emails — is that random stuff they want Arcade Fire to do, or there’ve been other cameos you turned down?

BUTLER: Oh, no, it’s mostly random licensing or stuff that goes to the junk box. But every once in a while, it’s like, “Hey, that sounds like a nice way to spend the day.” I started out in film. I went to Sarah Lawrence College in New York around 2000. I had really wanted to go to film school, and I could never get in. [Laughs] Initially, the song “The Suburbs” was an idea I had for a film and it seemed easier to make a song than a film.

The Suburbs (2010)

That was a convenient segue. The Suburbs just turned 10. I was wondering if you have gone back and revisited it much amidst that anniversary.

BUTLER: The whole experience of Funeral was such a rollercoaster. We were on the road so long. We didn’t have much of a break going into the second record. For The Suburbs, Régine and I — I don’t think we saw anyone for a year straight before we even started demoing or anything for that record.

It was a time in my life… I don’t know, I was in my late twenties, and there were all these details of my childhood in Houston. You know, I moved to Canada when I was 19. [Houston] almost felt like this other life I had. I would close my eyes and imagine riding my bike through town and trying to find the edges of my memory. There was kind of all this emotion that came up through that, and I wanted to capture it. It’s funny, as a songwriter, most of the time I feel like my mind is living in the near future. You’re listening for these little signals in the air. This was almost inhabiting the emotional space of these memories but thinking about it as the future.

When you say it like that, I’m curious if the album feels different to you now that you’re a father yourself and another 10 years down the line. Like another layer to that refracted youth, sort of?

BUTLER: Totally. In a way, I feel like the last year has been a parallel to that year before The Suburbs. Then I was kind of a hermit by choice, and this has more been the world conspiring to make me a hermit, but it has been a really introspective. In a sense, the material that we’ve been working on feels the same way, this hybrid of your emotional landscape and the future.

It’s almost seasonal, like a trade wind that blows in once in a while. I remember we played with Neil Young when he was still doing the Bridge School Benefit and hearing him sing “Old Man” as an old man, almost like he wrote the song when he was 22 to sing when he was 80. I think there’s an element on that Suburbs record that’s like that as well.

Winning The Grammy For Album Of The Year (2011)

Obviously that was a huge turning point for Arcade Fire because you won the Grammy the following year. As a suburban indie fan at the time, I had no real grasp on how big certain bands were. From where I was, it was pretty trippy that you guys won that.

BUTLER: I mean, tell me about it. It was definitely pretty trippy.

There are very, very early moments of you guys getting linked up with some iconic artists. Arcade Fire got plenty of respect from the beginning. But at the same time, the Grammys is something different. That’s a moment of mainstream insurgency. Ten years on, you’re one of the big indie bands of your generation, but also one of the only rock bands to get to that level in recent times.

BUTLER: I don’t know it was the best record that year, but it was definitely the best record nominated that year. I mean, we were up against a Lady Gaga remix record and like, Katy Perry. We weren’t up against a great Eminem record, we were up against a not-that-great Eminem record. In a certain sense, I was like, “Well, I think we should win.” [Laughs] I think we had the best record.

I remember in high school Radiohead and Björk were the two [new artists I loved]. I bought The Bends the day it came out, I bought Homogenic the day it came out. And then everything else I listened to was artists that had broken up 20 years earlier. I remember watching the Grammys the year OK Computer was nominated and it didn’t win, and I was just like, “Oh, that thing must not mean anything then.” I remember Dylan won, and it’s a really great Dylan record, but objectively OK Computer was the best record. So if that didn’t win, then what the hell does that thing mean? After that, I didn’t think about the Grammys that much. It wasn’t on my list of my dreams of my career and what I could accomplish and what I wanted to do.

For me, I was looking more at a band like the Cure or New Order, these bands that were really just artistic entities but you would hear them at a pharmacy once in a while. Like, I’d hear “Bizarre Love Triangle” come on in the pharmacy in Houston and just be like, “Is this from outer space? What the fuck is this?” My dreams for our band was to do for other people what those bands did for me, which was just throw me a fucking lifeline. Because I was just like, “What is this world, and where are my people, and how can I feel OK existing?” My grandfather played in big bands and played with Louis Armstrong, and he bought me a guitar when I was 15. I held on to that thing — if I didn’t have that I don’t think I would’ve made it out of high school. It literally saved my life. I don’t think I could exist without that.

For me, the Grammy thing was strangely moving. Even up until the moment we won, I just felt like an interloper. Even when we won, people looked at us like aliens. Like, “Who? What?” You know, I’m a competitive person. It was really exciting. Cool, awesome, the universe makes sense for one second. It’s interesting, I didn’t expect it to mean anything until we won, and then it meant something.

David Bowie (2005, 2013, Throughout)

I alluded to this earlier but: The Grammys were like an industry stamp of approval. From the beginning, however, you guys were embraced by a lot of elder artists — particularly artists who were influences on the band. One I wanted to talk about was David Bowie. He was a very early supporter; you performed together in 2005, which turned into a live EP. Then he shows up on “Reflektor” in 2013. Somewhere around 2015, you talked about how you’d come to regard him as this professor-type character in your life. He came to your first New York show, right?

BUTLER: Our first headlining show, when we played at the Bowery, Bowie and David Byrne came to that show.

Wow, no pressure huh.

BUTLER: It sort of set the table. Like, “Well, I guess this is how it’s going to be right out of the gate.” [Laughs] It’s funny, I have a photo of David in my studio that I look at when I’m working sometimes. It’s just him in a dressing room with one of those kind of Hollywood mirrors behind him. He really… I don’t know, he felt some sort of spiritual connection with us. It wasn’t like he wanted anything from us. I just think he wanted to say, “Hey guys, you’re going on the right path, keep going.”

I was emailing him over all those years. I don’t know if you have anyone close to you that’s died and you go back and read those emails, it’s really these strange digital fragments of someone you care about. After he sang on “Reflektor,” Régine and I bought him a painting in Haiti as a thank you gift. We were supposed to mail it to him and we got busy and forgot about it, and in the interim he passed. I knew he wasn’t well, but I didn’t know he was dying. Maybe a couple months later I remembered the painting and I dug it out and it was a painting of a black star. A voodoo painting of a black star with rays coming out of it.

I didn’t know anything about his record being Blackstar or anything like that. Now it’s on the wall of my bedroom. Shit like that sometimes happens in my life. I take it for what it is. I don’t know exactly what that means and I just feel grateful… I don’t know man. Even just how inspiring, what he put into his art even in death. He’s someone I think about at least on a weekly basis.

Backing Up Mick Jagger On SNL (2012), Playing With The Rolling Stones (2013)

Obviously that was an ongoing relationship, and you’ve worked with David Byrne too, and you referenced playing with Neil Young. Still: Being onstage with the Rolling Stones seems particularly daunting.

BUTLER: We were Mick’s backing band on SNL. SNL is maybe one of my favorite American institutions. I don’t know if it’s the Canadian thing since Lorne [Michaels] is Canadian. The first time we did it, it was just like, “This dude is my friend.” I don’t know if Lorne’s kids like Arcade Fire or something. But I was in New York randomly and he was like, “Mick’s doing a thing,” and I said, “We do a pretty amazing cover of ‘The Last Time,’” and he said “Come on down, let’s do it.” Then we’re Mick’s backing band. I don’t know, pretty fucking cool.

What is Mick Jagger like to work with?

BUTLER: Mick is like: As soon as the light goes on, he’s a different person. When he turns it on, it’s like this muscle memory — like if you were with the greatest ballet dancer ever, and you say go and this energy comes out of him that is so practiced. It’s someone who’s an absolute master, after practicing something for decades and decades and decades. That was pretty amazing to see. You’re chatting with someone, we’re at the piano and we’re talking about an arrangement, “OK, let’s do a run,” and then, “Boom! Shit!” There he is.

It’s this other level. I feel like people at that level, music’s not something they’re fucking around with. [Laughs] Music is a spirit. You hear something, and if it strikes a chord with you, it connects something at your deepest core. People like that, when you see them do their thing, it really is this other plane. It’s not this show thing. It’s more of a possession. You can hear it in the music.

I feel like I’ve listened to more music during COVID than any time since I was like, 18. I had this moment when I was listening to these amazing records from the 1950s. You can hear the room. It’s almost like audio VR — you can hear the drummer here and the bass player over here. There’s a sense of space, particularly to that older music. It’s a snapshot. If you hear “La Bamba,” right now, that is what it is. It’s a spirit captured on vinyl, on a piece of tape. It’s alive within that.

With people like Mick, they’re a little bit closer to the spirit of rock ’n’ roll — a literal spirit, not a figurative spirit. Bowie was the same. When he played with us in Central Park, the second he hit the stage he’s illuminated. You’re like, “Oh, shit, that’s what it is.” He’s a human when you’re talking to him and as soon as he’s in it, he’s touched by another thing.

SNL (2007-Present)

I’m glad you brought SNL up, because you’ve been on it a bunch of times, but you’re also one of the musical acts they’ve brought into skits. Like, they actually wrote a game show around you. How does that work? Did they write that sketch with you guys, or you walked in and they’re like, “Hey, by the way…”

BUTLER: I can’t remember, I think we’ve been six or seven times. We’ve been there for a couple different casts at this point. The Lonely Island dudes, those are so my dudes. In another life, I would’ve been in Lonely Island, that would’ve been my dream to just fuck around with my friends; when we were first writing music we were kinda joking around because you’re too insecure to try. A lot of times [at SNL], we’ve played for the staff when we’re there, because you get so fired up to play one or two songs and you’re playing live so your endorphins are running so we just sort of keep playing afterwards. I feel like they appreciate that, it kinda feels like you’re on the same team or something.

I was backstage at SNL once last year, and it is pretty crazy to see it all from the inside like that.

BUTLER: It’s so crazy. They write it all that fucking week, and then to see the differences between the dress rehearsal and the live show. They do a little meeting in Lorne’s office. They’ve done the dress rehearsal and it’s still this tiny office and every cameraman and every cast member is crammed in this little office and Lorne’s like, “Make it a blue light instead of a green light at minute 23, and change this word to this word, I don’t think that’s funny, change that, OK, go,” and everyone’s got pencils writing this down. It’s still fucking that. And you know, it hits and misses sometimes, but they’re doing it.

How long did you have to work on your De Niro impression for that skit?

BUTLER: It’s actually more of a Billy Baldwin impersonation, but it seemed to work for De Niro as well. [Laughs] My only real impression is I can look exactly like Billy Baldwin if I want to. If there’s any casting directors reading this and you need a Billy Baldwin impersonator, I’m your man.

LCD Soundsystem’s Goodbye Show (2011)

You’re the one who ended up serendipitously coining the title of the live album.

BUTLER: [Laughs] That is true. That was genuine. He was being a little talky.

I moved to New York before I moved to Montreal, and I would go to the city and go to shows and I didn’t see one fucking thing that was good in the whole year. I was like, “Wait, I thought New York was the shit, where is it?” All I saw was bad, very industry bands. I couldn’t find anything, I wasn’t cool enough to figure out what was going on. There’s very few bands that I really think of, like bands of my generation where I heard them and thought “These are my people.” For me it was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD, and Wolf Parade. When I heard those bands, I thought, “These are my fellow pilgrims.” It was art, DIY, no bullshit, just trying to make something great that communicates to people. It’s real and emotional.

James is really just one of us. He’s just such a great engineer and really into the way things sound and really passionate about details. It’s rare to meet people like that. James was working with us when Bowie came in, when we were in Electric Lady. James had never met Bowie before. The first 7” he ever bought was “Fame.” We’re in this studio, and the last time Bowie was there he had cut “Fame” with John Lennon, in the same studio. We were all like, “This is the right place to be.”

James is just a man after my own heart. We did a tour with them on Neon Bible. We were playing to a thousand people in Salt Like City and I was like, “Man, in a couple years a lot more people are going to wish they were at this show.” What a fucking great live band.

Scoring Her (2013)

What kind of headspace did you have to get into for this vs. making an album?

BUTLER: Spike [Jonze] came to a bunch of our early shows on Funeral. The second I met him he was just immediately one of my best friends. He thinks about the world the same way. Even though we work in different mediums he was someone I knew I’d be working with in some capacity. I was visiting LA and I was staying with Spike just randomly one time, in the early days of him working on the script for Her. I was reading the script and immediately thinking about how it could sound, and I was like, “Well, we should fucking do the score to this movie.”

When you’re working on a record, it’s so rigid, what works on a song and what doesn’t work on a song. It can be so limiting in a way. Within the band, there’s so many different talents and color palettes and things people bring to the table, so it was cool to do something where the boss is the picture. It doesn’t matter how anyone feels about a piece, if it’s working for Spike, if it’s working in harmony with the picture, that’s what the boss is — the emotionality of the picture. It’s not about you, it’s in service to this bigger thing. It was a cool opportunity for all of us to use different aspects of things we do, and to work with Owen [Pallett], who had done a lot of strings on our records. It uses a totally different part of your brain.

Do you want to do more of that kind of work, or was it this specific story from Spike that spoke to you?

BUTLER: I can say pretty confidently that I’ll work with Spike in the future. It definitely takes a lot of energy. It’s definitely something I’m interested in, but I feel like while I’ve got the juice it’s good to spend as much energy writing songs as we can. It’s pretty fucking hard to make a record, believe it or not.

Future’s “Might As Well” Sampling “Owl” From Her(2017)

Are you a big Future fan?

BUTLER: I love Future. There’s something in the rhythm of the thing he does that actually reminds me of some music from Haiti, in this really deep, subtle way I can’t put my finger on. There’s something almost mystical in the way he sounds, and I thought that was really cool that they sampled that soundtrack. His shit does sound like the future still. I think it’s pretty special.

The Reach Of ”Wake Up” (2004-Present)

This song has had this big pop-culture reach over the years. U2 used it as their walk-on music in the ‘00s. It was used in the trailer for another Spike movie, Where The Wild Things Are. Macy Gray and John Legend both covered it. Microsoft ripped it off for a commercial. It was used in a commercial for LA’s bid for the Olympics.

BUTLER: That Microsoft money went to Haiti, by the way. They did rip it off. [Laughs] Thank you Microsoft.

As far as I know that’s far from an exhaustive list, too. It’s just one of those songs that’s gone out and become a part of the atmosphere. Even a lot of big bands don’t necessarily have a song like that. What do you think it is about “Wake Up” that’s registered in so many different contexts?

BUTLER: From the time we wrote that song to now, the biggest difference in my life is I’ve traveled the world and I’ve been able to play music in all these different cultures and feel the ways different countries feel music. Not only listening to the music in other countries but seeing how they feel the music I play.

I remember around The Suburbs we played in rural Haiti. It was our first time playing in a place where nobody in the audience had any of the reference points of the music we played. We were playing in the mountains, there were people walking in barefoot to the concert. We were playing these songs we had been touring the world with, and the energy from the crowd was so different. The things they responded to, the things they felt, it actually fundamentally changed the way I heard my own music. It made me start to think about music not just from my own perspective but culturally how people hear it and feel it.

I think the one thing that kind of transcends everything across all cultures is melody. Régine was playing that melody on piano in our rehearsal room. I hear it like it was yesterday. It was like, “That’s the shit.” [Laughs] Being present and being in the room, hearing something and really giving yourself to it, just singing that shit like it really meant it and feeling the power of that melody and trying to push it until it breaks. That’s something I think about, just how great it is to have people to play music with. To say it like you mean it.

I remember singing that song in Montreal, in these lofts. Most of our early fans, the first time we played that song, they were like “Fuck this shit, I want the acoustic shit.” People were so negative. I remember a lot of early fans didn’t come to our shows after that because we were suddenly screaming at the top of our lungs and playing electric guitars. It was like, “Everyone here hates this, that means we must be going in the right direction.” [Laughs] But yeah, don’t be discouraged if people hate something. It doesn’t mean shit.

https://www.stereogum.com/2105395/win-butler-interview-spike-jonze-arcade-fire-snl-mick-jagger-david-bowie/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/

#Arcade Fire #Win Butler #interview

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ex-vengeancedemon · 3 years ago

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A Night at the Opera

Main Pairing: Cordelia Chase x Winifred Burkle

Characters: Cordelia Chase, Winifred (Fred) Burkle, Charles Gunn, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Summary: Set after Fred is rescued from Pylea and Angel is gone to grieve Buffy's death. Someone needs to help Fred come out of her shell - her shell being her room. Cordelia was making great progress... until she was hit with another head-splitting vision.

I guess there's a total of like 10 fanfictions on ao3 with this pairing (a shame) so I had to write it myself. Chapter 1 below cut. Read here or on ao3.

Chapter Index (out of 3):

Check Back for Updates

Chapter 1

"So," Gunn said, tapping his fingers on the front desk and looking over his shoulder. "Has she come out at all yet?"

Cordelia looked up from the case file she had been perusing and gave a wane smile. "I think she's making progress. She peaks her head out of her room sometimes now."

"Ah, yes," Wesley said. "Progress indeed."

The truth was that the hotel's new guest had been almost completely confined to her room since Angel had left. It was understandable. Winifred Burkle had been a captive of the dimension, Pylea, for the past 5 years, during which she spent her time living in a cave and writing on the walls. In a way, her room was her new cave... and she had yet to break the whole 'writing on walls' habit. Angel had been her savior, the one she trusted most. And he had left to take some time to... well, to mourn Buffy.

Cordy, Wes, and Gunn had been taking turns delivering food outside her door, primarily tacos. They would knock. She wouldn't answer. And they would leave the food on the floor outside. When they returned to check, the food would be gone. Cordelia had spotted her a few times from down the hall. Just glimpses here and there. Fred was still skittish, even of them.

"She can't stay up there forever," Gunn said, shaking his head. He stopped abruptly, as if reconsidering his prior statement. "She can't. Can she?"

Wesley sighed. "She spent five years in a cave with no plumbing. What's a month in a hotel room?"

Cordelia smiled and raised her pen. "With room service."

Gunn rolled his eyes, his eyes again wandering to the once grand staircase as if Fred might come walking down. "I don't know. It just doesn't seem like isolation is the way to help her reintegrate, you know?"

Wes nodded, but he seemed more focused on searching for a tome on the bookshelf than the conversation at hand. "Agreed."

"Well then," Cordelia said, turning to Gunn. "Why don't you go help reintegrate her then?"

Gunn shook his head. "Can't. Told Rondell I'd help him clean out a vamp nest setting up roots in the neighborhood. Gotta head out in an hour."

"Alright Wes, guess you're up to bat then," Cordelia amended.

"Hmm?" Wesley asked, looking up from a thick text coated in odd runic symbols. "What was that?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes and groaned. "Never mind!"

If you want something done... Guess she would have to be vision girl, office manager, detective, and guide to the newbie. That was fine. She could multitask.

Cordelia stood up from her desk, straightened her case files, and walked up the stairs like she knew exactly what she was going to do when she reached Fred's door.

She didn't.

When she reached Fred's door, she took a deep breath and knocked. Then she waited. And waited. There was no answer. She couldn't even hear any movement on the other side.

"Fred?" Cordy called out through the door. "It's me, Cordelia. Are you in there?"

After a long moment, a quiet voice replied, "Yeah. I'm fine, just fine! Thanks for checking. Bye!"

"Good! That's good!" Cordelia said, registering the jumpiness in her voice. "Can I come in? Maybe we could talk for a bit?"

"Talk? Yes, I've been thinking about the acoustics of the hotel and how the sound wave frequencies often seem to match the resonance of the ventilation system creating the disturbing creaks that seem to be everywhere at once and-" Fred's voice cut off. "Oh... well I suppose that probably wasn't what you wanted to talk about."

Cordelia nodded her head slowly. "Uh...huh... Well, I think the sound waves might travel better if you opened the door."

"Oh, right." Fred chuckled nervously and Cordelia could hear multiple bolts being unlocked.

Fred slowly opened the door a crack and gave a small smile. She pursed her lips and finally opened the door all the way.

Motioning an awkward invitation with her arm, Fred said, "Come in."

Cordelia walked into the dim room with the lights all off and the curtains drawn. She would almost think this was Angel's room given the seeming aversion to the light. However the darkness wasn't the most interesting thing about the room. Neither were the food wrappers that were scattered around on the floor. No, the most interesting thing in the room was the wall. Or rather, the walls. They were covered in hasty scrawl, most of which was impossible to make heads or tails of. Cordelia had no idea what it meant, only that it covered an extensive amount of wall space from the floor to the ceiling.

"Sorry for the mess," Fred said, kicking away a few stray wrappers with a measure of embarrassment. "Wasn't expectin' company."

"No!" Cordy replied, trying her best to sound reassuring. "Really, it's fine. I just came barging in!" She glanced around at the walls. "I love what you've done with the place! Very artsy. Custom wallpaper is all the rage these days."

Fred smiled and looked down at the floor. She seemed like she was trying to make herself smaller, to hide even in plain sight. For someone who was already petite to begin with, she looked downright tiny now.

"I just...," Fred began, "I just have to write it down. Don't wanna forget. To lose it. You know, things get lost. You think it and then it's gone. The electrochemical responses of the brain just don't leave a long enough impression for you to capture it indefinitely and the memory is so fallible and-"

"Fred, Fred," Cordelia cut her off with an empathetic look. "It's okay. You don't have to explain yourself to me. If you want to write on the walls, you write on the walls." Cordelia put up her hands and grinned. "And you know what? If you run out of wall, we can paint the walls and you can start over again."

Finally, Fred laughed. It was a quiet, nervous laugh, but Cordelia could tell it was genuine. She thought it was the first genuine laugh she'd heard Fred make since they met. It was sweet.

"You know I could get you some notebooks though," Cordelia continued. "You know, if you'd like."

"Gee I almost forgot about notebooks," Fred replied, "and pencils. In Pylea, I just used a sharp rock and some cypril powder."

"What's-"

"It's the excrement of-"

Cordelia held up a hand. "Never mind! I'm good."

Fred nodded, unfazed by Cordelia's reaction.

"Do you know when Angel will be back?" Fred asked suddenly. "He's been gone for a long time. You don't think- Well, he is coming back, right? He didn't just leave forever...right?"

Cordelia was taken aback by the anxiety and fear in Fred's voice. She knew they had bonded in Pylea. She may have underestimated just how much.

Cordelia shook her head vigorously. "No, no. Of course, he's coming back! He just needed some time to process and grieve."

"Over Buffy?"

"Yeah." Cordelia frowned, the news of Buffy's death had hit Angel hard. She hoped the meditation was helping him... but she kind of doubted it. "Buffy was his first love. And then she died. And he wasn't there."

Fred bit her cheek. "His first love. Right. That...that makes sense."

Cordelia moved to put a hand on Fred's shoulder, but Fred flinched and pulled away. Cordelia hastily pulled her hand back.

"Don't worry, he'll be back," Cordelia said, trying to reassure with her eyes instead. "I'm sure he's-"

A blinding flash of searing, white hot pain shot its way through Cordelia's head and all the way down her spine. She screamed out and collapsed to the floor, no longer able to see. Her body felt like it was on fire. It was as if she were having a migraine, heart attack, and stroke all at once while simultaneously being hit by a bus, soaked in gasoline, and set on fire. No, it was worse than that.

She could faintly hear Fred somewhere in the distance, but she couldn't make out what she was saying. Then her hearing was overtaken by screams that weren't her own. Flashes of a scene played out before her unseeing eyes. A girl. Brunette, dressed in an unmistakable designer Tommy Hilfiger dress.

Cordelia relayed the specifics through the pain to whoever might be listening. The girl was being chased by a vampire dressed in a suit. In some kind of theatre? Cordelia snapped out of the vision and the pain subsided slightly. It left her exhausted and aching all over.

She blinked a few times as her sight returned. Wesley and Gunn where hovering over her looking concerned. She felt the pillow beneath her head shift and she realized suddenly that her head was resting in Fred's lap. Fred leaned over so Cordelia could see her and brushed some stray hair out of her face.

"Did you guys get all that?" Cordelia asked, closing her eyes as she fought back a wave of nausea.

"Yeah," Gunn replied. "You got anymore information on this theatre?"

Cordelia thought back to the vision, trying to get a feel for it. "Um, definitely upscale. I think it's downtown. It was during a performance. Um, an opera. Aida."

Wesley nodded. "Okay, I'll go see what I can find about a showing of Aida at the downtown theatres. Gunn, I think you have a prior engagement you should be getting to." He then turned back to Cordelia. "We'll be back soon. You should get some rest."

Cordelia nodded and Gunn and Wesley left the room.

"How are you feelin'?" Fred looked down at her with concern, her long brown hair dangling over Cordelia's face. "You really gave me a fright."

Cordelia sighed and closed her eyes again. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "The visions can be pretty... well, ugly. But it's over now. I'll be fine."

Fred bit her cheek again. Cordelia didn't think she had quite fooled the surprisingly perceptive physicist. Fred continued to run her fingers over Cordelia's hair in a calming gesture and Cordelia drifted off. She could sleep here... just for a minute.

#ats #angel the series #ats fanfiction #angel the series fanfiction #cordelia chase #winifred burkle #cordelia chase x winifred burkle #winifred burkle x cordelia chase #rare pair #a night at the opera #chapter 1 #masterlist #femslash

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linssikeittomies · 4 years ago

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The Place Between Here And There - Chapter 10: ...And Happiness In Private Life(cont'd)

Masterpost AO3 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 9(cont'd)

I've finally updated the status of the fic to ABANDONED, I was going to do that way earlier but I didn't want to admit defeat, and then I just kind of forgot... Time really starts flying by as you get older, it totally doesn't feel like 2 years passed by^^' I'm still writing scenes for later on in the fic, and I've had the general outline of the story planned for a long time, but I haven't been able to write complete chapters for any of my projects for over a year now, it's very annoying. Anyway, this is the rest of chapter 9, not my best work but at least I like the part with Toris. He's noticed Ivan's small efforts of being nicer and wants to encourage them. Thanks for everyone who read this story and sorry for not being able to bring it to conclusion for all of you who were invested!

Ivan sent Fredya home until Wednesday – claiming it was so he could concentrate on work, but he was sure Fredya could tell he was just fretting about the upcoming meeting. Ivan was terrified Katyushka would get carried away, and that was closer to certainty rather than possibility, and then Fredya would walk out of his life. He had known from the start that the time would come sooner or later, but he had much hoped it would fall on the later end of the spectrum. This was a wholly different case from that of his first girlfriend - the one he had been with all of three days before Katyusha started talking about weddings. She had left him the next day, not surprisingly, and he hadn’t really cared one way or the other - she had been far too practical to occupy his thoughts when she wasn’t in sight. But if Fredya left as suddenly, and he was certainly impulsive enough to do so on the spot, then... Obviously it still wouldn’t be the end of the world,of course it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, losing a home for example would be far worse than losing a companion, it really wasn’t that big of an issue when you thought about it – there was no reason to lose what little will to live Ivan had left over something that insignificant. No reason.

So Ivan would not worry about it – he slammed the door on the thought, and worked hard to put all his concentration on his notes. He had not yet studied Rogers enough, his files on the computer had sat abandoned for too long. Opening his folder, going over the routes again, verifying time codes, Ivan fell to a comfortable, familiar routine, cup of tea beside him growing cold. Rogers didn’t have much of a routine, which made observing him a challenge and data collecting a thrill. At least this was an activity that Ivan could still lose himself in despite whatever non-turmoil was boiling in his gut. Comparing coordinates, discovering overlaps, identifying patterns, data was something Ivan was good at. Data had no emotions, so it was easy to handle. Data didn’t mind his extracurriculars, didn’t judge him for his jealousy, didn’t snoop into his past. Though it also didn’t text him at 3 am to tell him about a silly dream it had. Even less it cared about whether he was coming home for the night or not. It not wanting to watch brainless, cliched superhero should have been a positive, but in the dark, the brain gets sentimental. Ivan suddenly wished he had a file on Fredya. Ivan certainly had enough data on him, though so far it was all in his brain and a few lines in his notebooks. One photo on his phone, a selfie Fredya had sent some weeks ago. It was taken with one of those filter things, Ivan wasn’t familiar with the apps so he couldn’t tell if it was instagram or snappychat or whatever others there were. Fredya had cartoon glasses on his nose, on top of his real-life glasses. He was doing a victory sign, and there was a badly drawn pink heart floating in the lower left corner, not anchored into anything. The composition of the photo was bad. A large dead space occupied the top left, a pile of dirty clothes was poking into the frame from the bottom right. The lighting was scarcely better, the only diffuser was the dust inside the light fixture. Fredya’s artistic ability was nil, though he did make for an attractive subject, harsh shadows and all. It would be nice to have proper photo of him, before he got out of reach. With a reference to guide him, it might be possible. Ivan quickly scanned his bedroom for inspiration.

Perhaps it was too much effort for 2 a.m., but Ivan rather liked the end result. The handful of stars drawn on the wall to form a suggestion of a halo – however wrong it looked on Ivan – and hands posed to form a heart on the chest, and some minor lighting adjustments on photoshop, he thought it near perfectly captured how Ivan saw Fredya. Bright, innocent, center of the universe, unashamed of his affections. Fredya wouldn’t put as much effort in to it, even if he did take his own version of the photo as Ivan had requested, but that was also good. It wasn’t in Fredya’s nature to try too hard at something he didn’t feel like understanding - such as art other than of the moving pictures variety. Together, the photos formed a piece – the fantasy and the reality. It was a commentary on expectations. Fredya may or may not look at the photo when he inevitably got up to go the bathroom sometime soon, but he wouldn’t take his own until afternoon if ever, so Ivan finally went to bed. He only had a few hours before his shift started.

-_-_-_-_-

Fredya had sent an emoji Ivan didn’t understand the meaning as response to the photo, followed by hearts and something that seemed to be an abbreviation, Ivan didn’t research the meaning. It likely wasn’t important. Ivan got coffees for everyone again, and Amanda gave him a incredulous look. It was getting suspicious, Ivan acting nice. He should dial down on the social interactions for the next few days. It would be good practice for when Fredya left him, anyway. “Oh, thank you for going through the trouble”, Toris commented smiling. Ivan studied the smile, trying to map out proportions and gauge timings, but again he failed to replicate the gesture. It kept coming out as sarcastic. He would prefer if both would just shut up and their coffees without scrutinizing his intentions. Let a man act civil to fellow humans beings in peace. “If everyone is done sitting around, we need someone to go interview Fowler’s parishioners.” Predictably, Amanda volunteered for the task. That left Ivan and Toris at the office, reading through statements, comparing alibis and viewing security footage, the same draining and pointless sinkhole of never-ending choppy black-and-white footage that glared a print of the screen in your soul, so that in the end when you lost everything else to dementia and cataracts, you would still see that stinging bright rectangle staring you in the eye, smirking gleefully, taking pleasure in removing everything one used to take joy in, and replacing itself in place of loved ones. That metaphor ran a little wild at the end, there. In all fairness, it could be intriguing work when results could reasonably be expected, but everyone and their mother knew the only thing learned from these particular ones would be just how much time were wasting on them. Even Toris, being his professional self, couldn’t resist glancing at the clock every few minutes. He would of course try to make it inconspicuous, just letting his eyes dart to his wrist and back again, but it was noticeable enough when one was more concentrated on the coworker than the work. It came to Ivan’s mind that perhaps this was another aspect of Toris he should try to simulate, rather than keep studying, his work ethic was excellent. Surely that was something most people would approve of. And Fredya did often complain Ivan was rather lackadaisical about his work, he would appreciate the effort. “How do stay so focused?” he asked sincerely. It was admirable, really, how Toris could throw himself at something so tedious. Toris blinked at him in confusion, probably surprised to see his colleague who was supposed to working beside him blatantly ignoring said work. “I’ve practiced it for years, there’s really no easy trick for it.” “Ah. Shame.” “I find that meditating regularly helps. And a good diet.” Well, that was already two things Ivan would not be trying out. “I could send you some articles if you’d like.” “You should spend your free time on yourself. You work too much.” Ivan went idly back to his files, not really feeling like working, but deciding to at least give it a shot, but feeling Toris’ curious eyes still fixed on him was too much of a distraction. After several seconds of silence he couldn’t take it anymore. “Yes?” “Thank you. That was considerate of you.” Ivan didn’t know how to answer that. It had been such a banal thing to say. Not warranting any response, really. Just a stock phrase, however true of some people and situations - such as this particular specimen. Toris must have heard the exact same statement hundreds of times in his life, knowing that he had an actual social circle who cared for him. Ivan was outside that circle, and people rarely care for the things outsiders say in matters like these - surely Toris should feel nothing particular about anything Ivan said. There was no need for him to smile like that, it was just embarrassing for a grown man to get so giddy about faint praise. Ivan scoffed and went back to his work.

-_-_-_-_-

U maek a habot of drawning on walls huh Outside of his brief childhood, Ivan had only ever drawn on walls three times - once in a drunk, misguided bout of creative frenzy, once to write his number on an intriguing man’s wall to annoy him, and once in an attempt to save a relic of happier times for the future. Mostly when you are involved, it seems. Perhaps you are my muse for wall-related artistry It had been a while since Ivan had drawn a portrait, but now might be the time to dust off that skill set. Ivan considered himself more of a photographer, but there was also something appealing about creating from scratch. Although... he would need to keep the portrait hidden, it would raise questions and pity later on. Ivan wished he was better at abstraction, that way it wouldn’t look like Fredya to anyone else, but his mind seemed to be too observational for it. It could only make sense of things that connected together in realistic ways, it couldn’t create anything out of feelings alone. Perhaps he simply didn’t have enough of them for that kind of art. The dinner with Fredya and his sisters was a few hours away, but Ivan was already nervously ironing his clothes. He once again pleaded Katyusha to control her romantic impulses, and of course she promised, but Ivan knew that meant little. She had very bad self-control. Tasha’s picking me up, we’ll meet you there Natasha was coming? Nataliya was coming?! Fuck - what was she - this was bad news - why hadn’t she said - oh god, forget about Katyusha ruining everything if Nataliya Grigorova was coming! She never mentioned wanting to come along That sneaky little girl, she told me you said it was okay, haha He would not survive this night sober. He wanted to make a good impression. He did not want to be drunk when the only three people who mattered to him were all in the same room. He wanted to be fully conscious, to enjoy an outing with his family while being fully genuine, not just sedated into calmness. But lord knew he would not survive the night sober.

-_-_-_-_-

Remembering the fit Fredya had thrown the last time Ivan had driven not-strictly-drunk-but-also-not-sober, he was glad that they had arranged beforehand for Fredya to pick him up. Because he was observant in the most inconvenient ways, Ivan had been sure Fredya would notice something was off, maybe a smell or the slow movements to counteract the unsteady hand-to-eye-coordination, but fortunately he was too stoked about meeting Ivan’s sisters again, officially, to notice Ivan’s oddly calm demeanor. He babbled excitedly the whole way there, and was halfway across the street before Ivan had even fully exited the car. “Come on you snail! They’re gonna think we ditched them!” “It’s only a few minutes away, you can afford to slow down”, Ivan chuckled. Fredya was so adorably excited, he resembled a puppy on a walk. “Being overeager is as bad as being late.” “Beg to disagree! Pick up the pace slowpoke!” Fredya sped up ahead, Ivan kept his leisurely pace. He missed the re-introductions, but it seemed like he hadn’t been needed for those at all - Fredya and Katyushka already looked like old friends, while Tasha regarded him with a haughty look, but nary a nasty word. She raised an eyebrow at Ivan, as if saying really, you chose this clown over me?, and he simply smiled pleasantly at her. As they waited for their food to arrive, Fredya and Katyushka were unsurprisingly the only ones to hold up conversation. They had found a common ground in Star Trek - in that Katyusha had heard a lot about it, but had never watched an episode and was interested, and Fredya was an expert in all the series and films and liked talking about them. They went through the pacifistic ideas on the original series and how it sometimes contradicted itself on it, analyzing the casting choices for the remakes, some more things that Ivan had no interest in. When their plates were brought, the were in the midst of trying to speak klingon - the attempts of both of them were saddeningly hilarious. Or perhaps they were both surprisingly accurate. Ivan had no way of knowing, the franchise being something he had never taken an interest in. Of course he liked space, but he was more fact-oriented than a fan of fanciful fiction. “You seem so young, it’s almost like you’re still in college”, Katyusha giggled, and Ivan could not agree more. The youthful energy Fredya exuded was refreshing, at least most of the time. “Never went to college, I went straight to work from high school”, Fredya explained, crumbs flying. That was the one habit that Ivan never found charming in Fredya, it was just plain disgusting. Tasha made a small chortle of contempt that passed Fredya by. “Our brother is a very intelligent man”, Tasha commented sharply, and Ivan knew exactly what she was going for – he had come to the same conclusion, himself. And truthfully, neither of them had been wrong - Fredya really was stupid. “Oh, tell me about it”, the insulted man chuckled, not understanding what was being implied. Ivan would have liked being able to defend Fredya, but the thing was that Fredya was not intelligent – intellectually or socially, and attempting to claim otherwise would have been pointless. He might have been considered smart in some useless areas, such as entertainment trivia, but faint praise is just as damning as admitting faults. Trivia! There was the opening Fredya needed to impress Tasha! “He has a master’s degree in movie trivia and celebrity gossip, if nothing else. Just give an actor’s name and he will tell you every movie they have ever been in.” “And not just that! I can also tell which year each movie came out!” Fredya exclaimed proudly. Ivan started with an easy one - Tom Cruise. Tasha did look reluctantly impressed as the titles and dates kept on coming, but refused to admit defeat. She tried her favorite actor, someone much more obscure. “Ken Foree?” “Hmm… The midnight man, 2017… Rift, dark side of the moon 2016, Cut slash pri- no wait, I think he was in Divine tragedies, 2015, Cut slash print 2012 –“ However, since

Tasha’s obsession with her brother refused to give way to respect for her perceived enemy, she realized that to claim victory she could simply ask about any non-American film star. “Anastasia Zavorotnyuk.” “Anastasia who?” Of course he pronounced the name the American way, but Ivan was still mildly impressed he could tell Анастасия and Anastasia were the same name. “Zavorotnyuk.” Tasha allowed herself a malevolent smirk as Fredya racked his brain for the name in vain. “A true expert wouldn’t limit himself only to Hollywood”, Tasha hmphed in triumphant malice, believing to have proved her superiority over him once and for all, despite not showing an ability to counter his. It seemed the point had only been to prove Fredya was not omniscient. In Ivan’s eyes, it was enough to be merely well-versed. “He does hate subtitles to the point where I thought he might be illiterate”, Ivan joked. “Hey, at least I speak the language of the country I live in!” “Verily, my darling, thou speakest with the most biting of tongues. Shakespeare himself would envy your prowess.” “The guy lived like hundreds of years ago, who gives a shit? Ivan Drago was famous in the 80’s.” “Ivan can sound almost native when he tries”, Katyusha said, trying to diffuse the argument, not knowing the workings of their relationship well enough to tell it was all said in jest. “I haven’t tried in years, I doubt I could anymore”, Ivan thought. He had tried training his accent away in high school, so he would sound less foreign in job interviews. Having a foreign name was bad enough in an application. He had never achieved a smooth, natural accent, he had to concentrate very hard which caused the words to come out very slowly and robotically, and still there was always a hint of foreign phonemes. Combined with his attempts to deepen his voice – an incredibly embarrassing failure on its own – had made him cringe, even back then. Tasha had encouraged him, of course, because in her mind anything and everything her dear brother did was the right decision. Excluding taking romantic interest in someone other than her, of course.

The rest of the evening went by in much the same fashion. Fredya and Katyusha got along swimmingly, Tasha made snide remarks about Fredya, Ivan defended him in mean ways, Fredya played along. It was all very pleasant. Finally the staff started dropping hints that it was time to vacate the table, so they got up and parted ways. Katyusya was enchanted enough to not wait long enough to be out of earshot before starting to gush about her baby brother’s relationship, which made for a perfect opening for eavesdropping. “Don’t you think Vanechka looks so much happier than usual?” Katyusya said, nearly clapping her hands in excitement. “Idiocy might be contagious”, Tashenka grumbled in response. “I never imagined he’d go for that type, but I guess it goes to show opposites really do attract!” Katyushka squeed. “It’s only for the moment. That American moron will start getting on Vanya’s nerves soon”, Tashenka claimed, not sounding too confident herself. Ivan had expected that to happen as well, in the beginning. “I hope he won’t, I think Alfred is good for Vanechka. He’s come out of his shell.” What did she mean by that? As far as Ivan was aware, he had never been shy around his sisters. Or other people, for that matter. “What’re you frowning about?” Fredya asked. “I’m eavesdropping. Katyusha likes you, and Natasha doesn’t despise you.” “Well that’s good news isn’t it?” Fredya smiled, and tried to hear the women. “Man, you got great hearing. I can’t hear them at all.” Yes, it did take some practice to achieve Ivan’s level of spying on other people’s conversations. And by then they had gotten far enough that Ivan couldn’t hear then anymore either, actually. “Your eardrums must be damaged from the all screeching you do.” “You’re walking home, asshole.”

Tasha + Katyushka = affectionate nicknames for Nataliya and Yekaterina. Tashenka + Katyusya = one level more intimate. Ivan is being drunk and sentimental so at the end of the evening, the way he feels about his sisters is something like most people do when seeing tiny kittens. Thanks again for reading! Maybe in like 10 years so I'll add a final "chapter" describing the rest of the plot, but I know myself and won't make any promises. I have some more snippets on the masterpost if anyone wants to frustrate themselves with a story that will never be finished.

#hereandthere #fan fiction #hetalia #RusAme #AmeRus #russiaxamerica #linssifanfiction #WIPtale

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solalunar-eclipse · 4 years ago

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Scars You Can’t See - Chapter 5

Chapter title: Ready to explode

Word count: about 3800 words (whoa)

Author’s Note: I think it’s about time I gave a shoutout to @teamxdark! Their comments have gotten me to start planning out some of the later chapters (and giving me a lot of inspiration), so I figured they deserved some credit!

And thank you to everyone who’s read this fic so far- every note I get is incredible and I hope you’re all enjoying the ride :)

First | Previous | Next

Sonic stared blankly at his phone screen for the fifth time this morning. The old texts and the name at the top of the messaging app blurred slightly as his eyes unfocused. He was waiting for...something. What, he wasn’t sure.

That was a lie.

Truthfully, he was hoping that the three little dots showing that someone was typing would appear like a miracle. He knew that wouldn’t happen, though. The hedgehog on the other end of the messages had turned off his phone entirely. Heck, Shadow was literally in hiding. There had been exactly one post on Chatter (which he and Tails totally hadn’t read over and over searching for hidden messages) and that was from Omega.

But chaos, how Sonic wished for just five minutes to talk to him. He hadn’t even realized before now how much he normally texted the hybrid in a day. The hero honestly just messaged whenever he saw something or found a funny joke that he thought Shadow would like. In dealing with his new absence, though, Sonic had come up with an idea to write down whatever it was he’d seen that he figured Shadow would enjoy and save it for later.

He was forced to stop this when he wrote nearly two thousand words’ worth of moments in half an hour.

Sonic cursed all the times he’d taken Shadow’s near-constant presence for granted. The hybrid had always been a punctual texter, despite Rouge’s repeated attempts to convince him that he didn’t have to answer right away. Even when the other hedgehog had been off on a mission, Sonic still had an idea of how long he needed to wait before he could start texting. But now, it could be days, weeks, or even months before he could talk to Shadow freely again.

What if you’ll never hear from him again? a nasty inner voice whispered. What if that call was the last time you got to hear his voice?

Sonic felt his stomach fall through the floor at that idea, before swallowing the sensation and shaking his head. He couldn’t doubt Team Dark like that! They were guaranteed to pull through, and kick G.U.N.’s butt in the process.

Speaking of which…

The hero was pretty angry at G.U.N., and that was actually a big deal for him. Sonic didn’t get angry, except sometimes at Eggman. Even when a bitter detractor had posted a lengthy essay on Chatter explaining exactly why Sonic was (supposedly) a terrible person, he hadn’t reacted in fury- or even close. He’d had his friends’ support, and honestly? He’d pitied the person more than anything. Anyone who was trying to tear others down had probably been hurt pretty badly themselves.

Sonic had even made a meme out of their misspelling of his name- “Sanic” was now a worldwide joke with a hilarious drawing to match.

But now, all he really wanted to do was beat someone up- some robots, some evil agents, whatever- and trash the whole organization until they were all falling over themselves to apologize. The fact that G.U.N. had dared to treat Shadow’s obviously painful past with no kindness whatsoever really got on his nerves. The hybrid had suffered a hundred times over, lost his memory, and even died to save the world, yet he still didn’t get the respect he deserved.

“Uhhh, Sonic? Is everything okay?”

The blue blur jumped, startled out of his spiraling thoughts. He heard a growling noise, and his eyes widened when he realized it was coming from him. Sonic could feel his lips curled back into a snarl and quickly straightened his face out, blinking and clearing his throat. “Yeah! Sorry, Tails…” he said, embarrassed at having been caught in that kind of state. The fox eyed him skeptically. “Really, I’m fine!”

“Are you su-”

“Yeah!” Sonic exclaimed, grinning reassuringly. No point in upsetting others with his own problems, after all. “Everything’s good here, buddy!”

“If you say so…” Tails muttered. He didn’t seem convinced, but accepted it despite this. “Anyway, what I came over to say was: we’re out of groceries- can you head out and get some? I made a list of everything we need, it’s right here!”

Ordinarily, Sonic would’ve complained loudly and with much drama about having to do something so menial as a grocery run when he was a hero, for chaos’ sake. But that wasn’t the case these days. “Sure thing!” Sonic agreed, feeling better already. With a distraction to keep his worries and negative thoughts away, he’d be back to normal in no time. “See ya soon!”

The blue blur dashed out the door- before returning a second later, a sheepish grin on his face. “Forgot the list,” he explained, rushing out again.

With the wind in his quills, it was almost too easy to forget everything that he’d been thinking about just moments before. Sonic grinned properly as he raced across fields and through side streets. This was his element, after all! He made his way to his and Tails’ favorite grocery store, bounding over obstacles and pulling a few awesome parkour tricks he’d picked up over the years. Shadow had always gotten on their case for not supporting a more local store- this one was a big name, after all- but Sonic had--

He shook his head, walking into the building. No more thoughts like that! There was only so much ruminating on bittersweet memories a guy could do in a day.

His presence here was relatively common, so he didn’t do much more than turn a few heads as he stepped through the automatic doors into the air-conditioned halls of the large grocery store. Sonic forced himself to walk through the aisles (instead of sprinting through them and accidentally whipping half the items off the shelves in his wake). As he did so, though, he began to hear people talking. And they weren’t just talking about the latest viral video, or boring politics, or any of those things, either.

They were talking about them.

Of course, everyone would always change the subject when he walked by, chatting loudly about their dog or their kids or whatever. It was almost as though they were saying, “Don’t look at me! I didn’t say anything about your friends! I’m just here, minding my own business!” But of course none of them really had been.

He recognized that he was spiraling down the path of thinking about it again, even though there was nothing he could do. And now no matter what, the thoughts of some of his closest friends were tainted. Which totally didn’t frustrate him at all.

It didn’t help, he thought irritably (not noticing the mild scowl that had appeared on his face), that G.U.N. was basically screaming in all the op-eds and information releases the organization could get their hands on that they weren’t in the wrong. They didn’t say that specifically, of course- that would be too obvious. Instead, they just published the same old news over and over again: Team Dark had stolen classified files and then run away.

This had all begun to grate on Sonic’s nerves a little, particularly when pundits and newspaper writers alike began to spout wild conspiracy theories about Team Dark having been spies for ‘the enemy’- whoever that was- or that one of them had finally lost it...or even all three at once. The most frustrating, however, was when once avid supporters of the former G.U.N. agents completely disavowed them and distanced themselves from the team as much as possible. It made him want to pull a Knuckles and punch a wall- how could people turn on the team so easily?

The hero pulled himself back to reality to realize that he’d been staring at a can of soup for the past few minutes. And were those dents where his fingers had been? He put the can in his shopping cart, took a deep breath, and continued on, giving himself a little ride on the back of the cart as a treat. Normally, he’d remember his various accidents and restrain himself, but lately the hero had needed to clear his head. He deserved this.

A few minutes later, a chime on his phone let him know that Tails had sent him a message. Sonic opened it up and read the text:

milesperhour: Sonic, I think you need to see this. Take a close look at paragraph 5. https://www.centralcitynews.com/team-dark-update

Sonic clicked the link, sighing, and began to scan the article. Another one? Really, he’d had enough of-

Oh boy. Oh wow. Okay.

They’d made a move. G.U.N. didn’t release much in the way of information- all they’d done was declare an official alert asking people to keep a lookout for Rouge, Shadow and Omega. And to tip G.U.N. off at a hotline that they’d provided for this purpose.

Sonic had learned how to read between the lines over the last few days, though, and on his second read-through, he saw what most would not.

...are in possession of multiple classified files…

So they’d stolen more info? That must’ve been what Omega’s post was about! Sonic began to squeeze his phone hopefully. Maybe this was it, maybe soon this whole nightmare would be over!

He practically flew through the rest of the store at the thought. Team Dark would give G.U.N. what for, the organization would apologize, and then everything would be fine!

Sonic checked out in a hurry, rushing home as fast as he could. Slamming open the door, he yelled out, “Tails! Did you see- oh right, you sent me the article. But still! Things are looking up, buddy!”

Tails had a slightly lopsided grin on his face, making the hero’s heart sink. “What’s that look all about?”

“I don’t know- it’s probably nothing! After all, Team Dark can handle any situation they come up against...just, G.U.N. has a lot of resources, you know?”

Sonic’s smile returned in full force. “Sure they do, but they also owe me for saving the world, like, a million times over! Once we’ve got the Edge Gang back with us, I’ll go talk with the commander and get them to straighten everything out!”

“That sounds like corruption, Sonic…” Tails said, a wicked smirk appearing on his face.

“Dude, what?! No! I’d never-! I just meant I was gonna see if I could talk some sense into them- hey, get back here!” Sonic screeched, seeing Tails run off with the groceries...including the donut he’d bought for himself.

…

Later that afternoon, Sonic was in the middle of finally enjoying said donut after wrestling it from Tails’s (evil terrible Sonic-and-sugar-hating) claws. It was a little squished, but it was still great- he wasn’t complaining!

That was, of course, when he heard a loud, sharp knock on the door.

He jumped up and zipped over to the entry hall, pastry still in hand. Whipping open the door, a shocking sight greeted him- one that made all of his battle-honed senses immediately scream danger danger danger. Two impeccably dressed G.U.N. agents stood before him, a human and a barn owl. The human seemed pretty awkward, wearing slightly rumpled slacks and overall looking a little messy. The owl, however, despite being about the same height as the blue blur, exuded an air of steely discipline that would make everyone she faced feel about two inches tall.

Everyone except Sonic, that was. He was secure in the knowledge that his friends were not wrong, and he maintained his usual relaxed demeanor without a hitch. The hero smiled fake-pleasantly at the two agents, ignoring the fact that he had sugar glaze at the corners of his mouth and all over his glove. “Sorry, guys, I wasn't really expecting guests.” He gestured to himself as an obvious example. “Anything I can do for ya?”

He didn’t offer to let them inside, though. These agents were hunting down his friends, he was absolutely sure of that. Sonic refused to help them in any way, not when Team Dark was still out there and being threatened by their organization.

The barn owl gave him a look that nearly pierced through his very soul. “Sonic the Hedgehog. I am Agent Toya, and this is my colleague, Agent Jones. We have a few questions that we would like to ask you. Inside.” Her voice was cold and clear, with no trace of an accent.

Sonic felt a chill run down his spine, but kept his smile up regardless. “Sure thing!” he chirped, despite very much not wanting to let them in. “The living room’s right this way- make yourselves comfortable, I’ll be back there in a sec.” He honestly didn’t think he could have refused them entry without...complications.

The hero zipped over to Tails’s workshop, flinging open the door with a little more force than he’d intended. The fox jumped up in a fright when it smacked against the wall, staring at Sonic. “G.U.N. is here. Two agents.” he said quickly. The imminent sense of danger in the back of his head wouldn't leave him be, despite the fact that he was one of the most powerful people alive.

...Despite this, don’t let G.U.N. take you or anyone else anywhere. You might not come back…

...These people aren’t crazy geniuses- they’re ruthless destroyers…

“Oh, chaos.” Tails breathed. “I’ll wait nearby, okay? Then I can do something if they start getting too intense.”

Sonic nodded, before speeding back down to see the agents sitting on his couch. “Hi! So whatcha guys want?” he asked perkily, burying his thoughts for now.

“Hello to you too, Sonic.” Jones said politely. “How are you?”

The hero tugged slightly at the cuff of his glove. “Pretty good!” he lied through his grin. “Been chilling around the house for most of the day- how ‘bout you?”

“Not bad,” the human answered. “Work is work though, you know?”

“Yeah, sounds pretty rough.” Sonic said, a little unconvincingly. Before he could stop himself, he thought of all the late nights Shadow and Omega had spent working on paperwork and various odd jobs for G.U.N., and the times when Rouge had to cancel her dates with Knuckles because she was just too exhausted from work to do much of anything. His smile became slightly strained as he worked to keep his frustration on Team Dark’s behalf under wraps.

The owl gazed at him silently for a moment, having watched this whole awkward transaction with a calculating look in her eye. Then she spoke. “I’m certain you have seen the news lately.”

“Uhhh...kinda, I’m not big on newspapers, but I try to keep up, yeah! Always nice to see an article about yours truly, hah.” He played it off, deciding to act dumb for now.

Agent Jones shifted in his seat, looking cautious. “Yeah…” he said, offering up an incredibly fake smile. “I’m a bit of a fan, myself.”

Sonic knew exactly what was going on. It was almost so classic he had to laugh- the old good cop/bad cop scenario. The human was clearly trying to play the good cop, and not enjoying it either. The hedgehog had to wonder, though, was he just a better bad cop or uncomfortable because he was helping grill a hero?

Oh, right- Agent Toya was talking again. “We know that you have seen the articles published about the betrayal of Team Dark. Even if you do not read the news, one of your friends will have told you by now.”

The hedgehog’s eyes narrowed a little. “And what’s that supposed to mean? What do you want outta me?”

“You. Know. Something.” she said sharply. “That team- in particular Shadow the Hedgehog-” He tensed at her flippant use of his name, as if they weren’t hunting him down like he had legitimately gone bad. “-trust you. You are very close with them. They would not have left you with nothing.”

Sonic shook his head, trying one last time. “I don’t think so, lady. I know about as much as you- if that. It’s not like we’re besties or anything.”

Agent Jones shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know- it looks like you guys are pretty close to me. Not that that’s bad, I mean-!!” he amended rapidly, realizing his mistake. In addition to having blown his role as the ‘good cop’, he was now being stared down by a very irritated pair of green eyes. The look he was being given contrasted sharply with the grin plastered across the hero’s face, and the agent began to sweat slightly and avoid his stare.

Meanwhile, Sonic turned his attention back to Agent Toya, sitting up straight and squaring his shoulders in preparation for more. He was a fighter, after all.

It seemed that the barn owl came here ready for a fight as well, because her own eyes flashed and she straightened her G.U.N. uniform. “Sonic. We need information. Our organization has been compromised. Twice. We are in a crisis and we are ordering you to tell us what you know.”

That did it.

“As if!” the hero exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “You think I’m the kind of guy who’d sell his friends out and watch them get carted off to jail- or worse?! I don’t know as much as you think I do, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you!” He had probably blown any semblance of ignorance up now, but Sonic couldn’t find it in himself to care.

The owl agent stood as well, glaring at him. “If that is the attitude you are going to take, then we have no choice but to take you into custody.” She began to reach for the Taser on her belt at the same time as Jones grabbed the gun from his holster. Sonic’s eyes flickered between them both- the human he could take on, but he wasn’t completely sure about Toya’s skill with the Taser.

Could he get around them? Sure, but not without breaking something...and he hated to bust up his house just because a couple of agents showed up on his doorstep and pulled weapons on him. He’d handled worse odds, hadn’t he? But then he and Tails would constantly be on the run, and that was no way for a nine-year-old to live…

A loud crash resounded in the kitchen. Jones shouted and jumped up, Sonic’s head snapped around so fast he tweaked his neck, and Toya took a step backwards.

Rubbing his neck and wincing, Sonic yelled out, “Everything okay in there?”

Tails dashed into the room out of nowhere, crying out, “Sorry! Sorry! I was just working and wanted a drink- and I heard- I heard-”

The fox then began to cry, sobbing and clinging to Sonic’s chest. “You’re not gonna take him away, are you? I need my big brother…” he sniffled. “Sonic, everything’s gonna be okay, right?”

The hero was trying his very hardest, meanwhile, to keep his jaw from hitting the floor as he watched his brother, a brave, intelligent sidekick and someone he was proud to fight beside, put on the most incredible show he’d ever seen. “I…I dunno, buddy…” he said honestly, uncertain about how to react.

This seemed to be a pretty good move, as Tails immediately began to bawl harder and gasped, in between sobs, “Please don’t take him away from me!”

It appeared that Toya would not feel comfortable using force against Sonic (or even resuming her interrogation) when the young fox was around. Instead, she gave him a very pointed, piercing look, before declaring, “We will be back at a later date to continue this conversation.”

She stalked out the door, Jones shoving his gun back onto his belt and following sulkily behind her. As soon as she had gotten into her car and driven off, the hero sagged into the couch and let out a loud sigh. “Welp.”

Tails flew out of the room immediately afterwards, whispering a quick “Wait there and chill for a second I’ll be right back” before he exited. Once he returned, the fox crawled around on the couch next to Sonic before letting out an “Aha!” and holding up what appeared to be a tiny piece of metal.

“It’s a shame to have to do this, but…” he muttered, before vanishing with it. A couple minutes later, a very loud noise boomed from Tails’s workshop and made Sonic panic before blasting in there at top speed.

“What was that?!” he shrieked.

“Just destroying this camera that human agent left in our couch.” the engineer replied lightly.

“Wait- what??” Sonic gasped. “He did what?”

“I thought they’d be crazy to leave without planting one, so I checked the camera feed, and it was pretty obvious! He must be a new recruit.”

“Wait- you have a camera? In our living room?” the hero asked, feeling slightly creeped out.

Tails shrugged. “Well, I didn’t until recently, but I figured that G.U.N. would have to show up at our place eventually, so yeah.”

They both stayed there in silence for a minute, before making their way back down to the main house.

“Well, what do we do now?” Tails wondered.

“I dunno- you’re the smart guy, pal.” Sonic replied quickly. “I just don’t want to have to escape from them! I like running, but not away from people. Especially bad people.”

“Well...does it count as running if we’re hanging out with Knuckles?” the fox suggested hopefully.

Sonic sighed. “I guess not...it’d be cool with him, too, since Angel Island is a pretty safe place and all. I still hate the idea of hiding from them, though.”

“Maybe you won’t have to!” Tails said, trying to be cheerful. “After all, I don’t think people will buy it if G.U.N. says you’re a...traitor…” He trailed off, remembering a particularly eventful moment from their past.

“Yyyeah.” the hedgehog said dryly, having thought of the same thing. “That’s exactly why I didn’t have to ride through the streets of Central City on a piece of helicopter.”

“Let’s not think about that for now though, okay?” Sonic asked. “ I don’t like the idea of being scared all the time.”

Tails nodded in agreement. “Besides, we’ve handled them before! We can cross that bridge when we come to it anyway.”

Sonic grinned. “How about we watch some TV for now, take our minds off things?”

“Sure! But I’m definitely gonna tell Omega- or whoever calls us next- about this. They deserve to know.” the fox answered.

“Okay…” the blue blur said. He felt a little guilty that he could just turn on a movie and forget about G.U.N. for a while- Team Dark didn’t have that luxury. Quickly, though, he added, “Anything on there you’ve been dying to watch?”

Tails smiled happily, and Sonic decided that this was totally worth it. “Well, there is this one documentary…”

#scars you can't see #sycs #team dark #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #*eggman voice* it's time for a change of pace!#i had to look up sonic characterization posts right before the final edit #i want to write him well!!#btw just to clarify #gun received word about the second heist directly after the end of chapter 4 #i can't believe we're at chapter 5 already!#wow #sol’s fanfiction

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flowerpowell · 5 years ago

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Unexpected (Drake x MC)

PART FIVE

A/N: Another chapter within two/three days? Who is she? I reallyyy hope I can update this series frequently but life’s kinda busy so we’ll see how I’ll do. I hope you’ll enjoy it! Feedback is always very appreciated! Characters belong to Pixelberry.

Rating: PG

Word count: 1811

Tagging: @gardeningourmet @delightfullypinkglitter @hopefulmoonobject @akrenich @blackcatkita @cora-nova @client-327 @desiree---1986 @jlpplays1 @dcbbw @kingliam2019 @the-soot-sprite @mskaneko @thequeenofcronuts @dr-ethanjramsey @missameliep @maxattack-powell @badchoicesposts @mymandrake @butindeed @burnsoslow @annekebbphotography @alesana45 @addictedtodrakefanfic @walkerduchess @ao719 @texaskitten30 @lodberg @cordonianroyalty @emichelle @siriusxxvideos @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @samihatuli @choices-lurker @i-miss-trr @of-course-went-to-hartfeld @nikkis1983 @innerpostmentality @msjr0119 @bascmve01 @mind-reader1 @edgiestwinter @drakesensworld @queenjilian @princessleac1 @saivilo ♥

“Ummm,” Riley hesitated, “could you repeat the name of that drink again because I don’t think I heard it right?”

“I didn’t ask for a drink, I asked you to marry me,” Drake repeated slightly embarrassed he had to ask her again.

“Right. Okay, bye,” she turned and started walking away. Drake grabbed her arm and lead her to a table in the back of the bar.

“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“I did and I decided to ignore it. It’s clearly a joke,” she shrugged.

Oh boy, this is embarrassing. I hate Liam.

“It’s not, listen--”

“Drake, listen,” she took his hand and he frowned. “I hate to break it to you, but I kinda hate you. I don’t know if you’re saying this because of a stupid bet you made or because you are drunk but I will never marry you, okay?”

Drake took his hand from her and rolled his eyes.

“Jeez, I’m not asking you to marry me for real! I don’t even like you. I am forced to do it.”

“You’re forced to marry me? Are you drunk? Because if you are, I am not serving you any whiskey tonight.”

“I am not!” he sighed. “Let me explain, ‘kay?”

“Yeah?”

“My sister and her husband went missing some time ago and they’re cosidered to be dead.”

“I’ve heard about that and I’m really sorry. I met them once and they seemed to be great people,” Riley smiled at him reassuringly, still confused what his point was.

“Now Bartie, their son, needs someone to take care of him. I had a deal with Bartie’s grandfather that we would take care of him in turns but he just filed for a full custody. He is an awful man and I can’t let him take Bartie, especially that his new wife is a witch. So I need to win the custody case somehow,” he finished and looked at Riley. She seemed unimpressed.

“Umm, okay. Good luck! Go for it? I still don’t understand why you asked me to marry you?”

“Because it’s gonna be nearly impossible to win the case when I’m unmarried.”

“Ohh, I get it now. Ugh, that sucks,” Riley nodded and patted him on the back.

“So... what do you say?”

“Well, I am very sorry for you, like, very sorry, but no way. I’m not marrying a guy I hate, no offence. I wish you all the best but I’m not doing that.”

“This is going to be a fake marriage! Liam, the King, will annul it a few weeks later, I promise! It’s just so I can take Bartie. This is what my sister would want. Trust me, it’s far from an ideal situation for me too.”

“Listen, I’m sorry but no. Find someone else who can pretend to be your wife but that’s not gonna be me.” Riley stood up, ready to end the conversation when Drake spoke again.

“Why are you here?”

She turned to him, confused. “Hmm?”

“Why are you here, in Cordonia? I saw your CV, you’re from the U.S., you have a college degree, you had a job, what are you doing here, working in a bar in a small European country?”

“I don’t see how’s that any of your business?” Riley answered calmly but Drake could see she tensed.

“It is, it’s my bar after all,” he raised an eyebrow and she sat back down.

“Change of plans,” she shrugged, “there’s no story. It’s just a dream I had and I decided to go for it.”

“Dream? To work in a Cordonian bar?”

“Well, no, I mean, kinda...”

“Well?” He asked and she sighed.

“I always wanted to have my own place. Restaurant, cafeteria, bar, whatever. My grandma was a great cook and she left me all her handwritten receipe books. I always dreamed of opening my place and serve everything she taught me. America is full of places like this so I wanted to try Europe and... that’s kind of how I found an American bar in Cordonia. It also helps that I’m far away from my overprotective parents,” she laughed but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“So you came here to take over my bar?”

“No! No!” her eyes widened, “I just wanted to gain more experience. Find out more about Cordonian cuisine. Find places without many restaurants,” she explained as Drake remained silent. He was thinking about something and Riley was chewing her lower lip wondering if she said something that would make Drake fire her. Finally, after a minute or two, he finally spoke.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” She was confused. Was he firing her or...?

“Okay. I’ll give you the bar, it’s gonna belong to you and you can do whatever you want with it if you agree to fake-marry me.”

Riley’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

“You heard me. This bar for a few months of pretending we’re married.”

“You’re crazy,” she murmured. At that moment, all her dreams seemed more real than ever. She almost heard her grandma’s voice to take the chance. But was it worth it if she had to pretend to be in love with a man she hated so much? He was good looking, yes, but too annoying. Would she have to kiss him on their fake wedding ceremony? Ugh, she hoped no. Would they--

“You’re drooling,” Drake interrupted her thinking.

“I am not!” She said but instinctively wiped her mouth.

“So... what’s the verdict?”

She looked around the bar, a place that could be hers in just one word, all of her dreams coming true (after she would survive her nightmare) and she thought that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. She could always make his life so miserable that he would divorce her sooner. And if that wouldn’t work, she could always kill him, right?

“Well, Mr Walker, you got yourself a deal.”

~~~~

The wedding was scheduled for a week after their conversation. Drake said he would handle everything and they hadn’t seen each other since that day. The only people who knew that the marriage was going to be fake was Drake, Riley and Liam.

Maxwell got nearly a heart attack when he was informed about Drake’s wedding but he was happy for his friend. Olivia didn’t believe Drake was actually getting married and she tried to start a bet that Drake was only joking. Madeleine and Barthelemy were clearly not happy about it but they congratulated him and promised to come to the wedding. Drake noticed how Madeleine whispered something to Kiara, angrily gesticulating, and he was proud that he ruined her plan, whatever it was.

“It’s a bit strange, I’ve never seen you with her. In fact, it’s strange she’s not here with you today,” Madeleine smiled at him when she approached him with Kiara beside her.

“She’s not interested in being around Nobles. Besides, she’s getting ready for the wedding.”

“And, as I presume, moving, right?” she asked sweetly and Drake almost spit out his drink. He had completely forgotten they would have to live together.

“Yes, we’ll be living in my cabin. She loved it there ever since she first visited me, the day we met,” he answered not even having to lie too much.

“Hmpf,” was all Madeleine said before abruptly walking away, Kiara sending one last glare towards Drake.

He quickly pulled out his phone and messaged Riley, “I hope you’re all packed to move into my cabin. Don’t worry, the guest room is ready”

The answer came a few seconds later:

“I’m not moving to your dumpster. I’ll stay in the bar.”

Drake rolled his eyes as he typed, “Everything is clean and neatly organized just for you. Besides, that’s a part of our deal.”

He smiled at the reply that came five seconds later. “I hate you.”

~~~~

“Ugh,” Riley groaned, throwing her phone on the table. She forgot she’d have to actually live with Drake under one roof.

“Whoaa, someone’s in a bad mood! What happened?” the bartender asked but she just shook her head.

“Nothing. I need to pack my stuff, I’ll be moving out of our apartement tomorrow.”

“What? Why? Are you going back to America?”

“Worse,” she sighed, “I’m getting married.”

“Now, whaaat?!” her friend asked and she realized she never really told him anything.

“Yeah, to Drake. I’m sorry I forgot to mention it to--”

“Now HOLD UP. The last time we talked about him you hated him. I knew you were lying! I knew you liked him! I saw it in your eyes, I knew it!”

“Umm, yeah. I was totally lying,” I was totally not lying. I hate Drake even more now.

“Good catch, R! I’m sure your wedding day will be beautiful and your wedding night even better,” he winked at her and she felt sick.

“Please stop, I’m going to throw up.”

“No way!!!”

“What?” She was confused now.

“Now I get it! The wedding so soon, you feeling sick... You’re pregnant, oh my gosh!!!”

“No, please, no!!! I am not, listen--” her eyes widened in horror as her friend hugged her.

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone! I’m so happy for you, girl! I’ll help you with moving out, you probably shouldn’t be carrying these heavy boxes by yourself now.”

“Seriously, it’s not like that, I--”

“Josh!!!” The bartender called out seeing the manager walking out of his office. “Riley is getting married! And she has a little bun in the oven,” he added quietly as the manager’s eyes went wide.

“I was aware of your marriage to Drake but I had no idea you two were already expecting. My sincere congratulations, to both of you.”

“Wait, no, I am not pregnant!”

“It’s okay, you can still work here until you don’t feel like it anymore,” Josh patted her on the back and left the bar before Riley could say anything else.

“Why does no one believe me?” she asked but her friend was already behind the bar making a drink. A few minutes later she got a message from Drake.

“Why is your manager congratulating me on having a baby? Am I missing something?”

She sighed as she typed, “It’s a long story.”

“Anyway. The wedding’s tomorrow at 6. Don’t be late.”

She sighed again as she shoved her phone back to the bag. She now wasn’t sure if she just made the biggest mistake of her life or not but it was too late to back out now.

The die was cast.

#the royal romance #the royal heir #drake walker #drake x mc #drake walker x mc #choices #playchoices #trr fanfic #choices fanfic #my fic

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dvp95 · 5 years ago

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quiet on widow’s peak (4)

pairing: dan howell/phil lester, pj liguori/sophie newton/chris kendall rating: teen & up tags: paranormal investigator, mystery, online friendship, slow burn, strangers to lovers, nonbinary character, trans character, background poly, phil does some buzzfeed unsolved shit and dan is a fan word count: 3.9k (this chapter), 13.5k (total) summary: Phil’s got a list of paranormal experiences a mile long that he likes to share with the world. Abandoned buildings, cemeteries, and ghost stories have always called his name, and a particular fan of his has a really, really good ghost story.

read this chapter on ao3 or here!

Phil did not invite Chris and Sophie to come to Rossendale with him. Not because he doesn't like spending time with them, but because he wouldn't know how to explain a situation to his parents that he doesn't even understand himself. To his knowledge, PJ also did not invite them.

"Change it," Chris whines from the backseat. He'd lost the scuffle against Phil to claim the front, and he's been complaining about Phil's music choices for half the trip so far in retaliation.

"You like McFly," Phil huffs, continuing his search for an album that won't elicit a loud sigh from behind him.

"That's fucking slander, is what that is. You hear that, PJ?"

"Oh, I hear you both," PJ says, flat. "Loud and clear."

They've only been driving for probably forty minutes and PJ already looks like he wants to kick them all out of his car. Phil doesn't exactly blame him, although he resents being lumped in with Chris in the 'annoying background noise' category.

He has no idea how they've managed to invite themselves along, but Phil was too polite and PJ was too smitten to tell them off when they came out to the car with their bags.

So, this is a group activity now. Phil's parents had been thrilled to hear it when he texted them the updated situation - they're taking it as a sign that Phil has a motley crew of good friends again, like he'd had as a kid and again in uni. He supposes that they're not wrong, exactly, but he's definitely anxious about introducing them to Chris.

"I like this song," Sophie says, mild, and Chris closes his mouth.

"Fine, this one is alright," he says begrudgingly. Phil glances at them in the rearview - Sophie is patting Chris' knee and giving him the sort of smile that always makes Phil feel like he shouldn't be present. He looks back down at his phone so he doesn't have to sit with that feeling too long.

PJ turns up the volume, probably to curb any more bickering before he has to toss them all out of his car, and Phil tries to just lose himself in the music for a little bit.

His friends sing along at varying levels of obnoxiousness and Phil tries not to keep opening the Tumblr app to see if someone has messaged him. Well, someone specific. I'm going north today!, is the last message sent between them, and Phil is still waiting for Winnie to offer to meet up or something.

After their non-starter interview, Phil and Winnie kept missing each other's free time to finish it over Skype. Phil kind of wants to hear more from them before he checks it out himself, but that's not looking likely at this point, especially if he's lugging his housemates along with him all weekend.

Phil opens a puzzle game on his phone and lets the mostly-mindless swiping distract him. It's a long drive up to Rossendale, and the last thing Phil wants is to be left alone with his thoughts.

Phil's parents love having guests round almost as much as they love to have him home, so Phil isn't at all surprised to walk in and smell a roast cooking. He expects that treats will be made as soon as the oven is free, because that's what his mum is like.

"Hello," Phil calls into the house, kicking off his shoes. His friends follow his lead - PJ puts his boots carefully on the mat that Phil didn't bother aiming for, and Sophie struggles with a particularly stubborn knot in her laces - as he hangs up his jacket. "Mum? Dad?"

"Child," his mum greets him happily, appearing in the entry to the kitchen and making grabby hands at him until he envelops her in a hug.

"Missed you," Phil tells her, quiet enough that his friends won't hear to make fun of him.

"Oh, I missed you," she says, giving him a kiss on the side of his face. She turns her beaming smile onto his housemates, who all pause in what they're doing like a frozen tableau. It's a little funny. "More children! Hello! I'm Kathryn, it's so nice to meet you. And so nice to see you again, PJ," she adds in that somewhat pointed voice that Phil hates so very much.

"Hello, Kath," PJ says, grinning wide. He gives her a hug, too. Chris holds out his hand for her to shake when she's done squeezing the life out of PJ, but Kath will have none of it.

"Don't be silly," she says, wrapping her arms tight around Chris' waist with a laugh. "We hug in this family."

"Really?" Chris asks, and the look he gives Phil is almost more embarrassing than if he'd asked 'so why isn't your son a hugger?' out loud. "Something smells absolutely delicious, Kathryn. Is that you, or is supper cooking?"

Phil stops himself from groaning out loud, but barely. He probably shouldn't be surprised at all that Chris' cheeky, flirtatious charm extends to mothers as well. Kath laughs and smacks lightly at Chris' chest before she turns to Sophie.

Skilled at making people feel comfortable in four seconds flat, Kath chatters away about supper and how lovely Sophie's curls are and how long it's been since she's seen Phil, did they know how long it's been? She herds them all into the kitchen like they're cattle and insists that Phil take their things upstairs while she puts the kettle on.

"Er, alright," Phil says, looking at the small collection of bags that they'd brought with them. Their clothes and toiletries are all there, of course, but so is all the filming and hunting equipment. He'll have to make at least two trips.

"Your father got the guest room and Martyn's room all set up before he went out," she tells him, either not noticing or ignoring his internal struggle.

Oh, wonderful. Phil had somehow forgotten about the part where they had three beds for four of them. He's positive that his housemates won't mind sharing with each other, but now he's been tasked with the anxiety-inducing puzzle of whose bags to put where.

"Okay," Phil says again, even though they've moved on to talking about their favourite kinds of cakes so that Kath can wow them all with her skills. He tries to catch PJ's eye, but PJ is too wrapped up in a conversation about strawberries to notice.

Alright, well. Phil grabs as many bags as he can carry and brings them upstairs, feeling some tension deep inside him get a little tighter as he notices that most of their personal effects are packed away, either in storage or already on the island, and his childhood home looks more like a show home than he's comfortable with. The stairs only creak a little under his weight, nothing like the old house in Brighton, but Phil still feels unsettled.

In the end, he throws PJ and Sophie in the guest room. It's a selfish move more than anything, because he's brought PJ for enough visits to be familiar with the way his parents look at each other every time PJ teases him.

They don't ask. They're not the type of people to pry, and Phil isn't the type of people to offer information unprompted. They've all been in this limbo for years where Phil doesn't tell them that he likes boys and they don't outright question if PJ is just a friend and, frankly, Phil is tired of it. So, Chris can sleep alone.

He takes his own bags up last, because he knows that stepping into his bedroom and seeing all the personality stripped from it is going to make him feel things he isn’t prepared to feel. Phil takes a deep breath before he goes inside, and releases it shakily as he drops his things on the floor.

The beige carpet is almost mocking him, telling him that it's time to grow up, and Phil leaves the room as fast as he can.

God it is so hard to get anything done here. Sorry to complain at you randomly but like... I forgot how hard it is to work when my parents are hovering and asking a million questions lmao

Winnie still hasn't responded to Phil's early morning message, but the frustration of his parents distracting him and his friends from their work is starting to get to him. Chris has completely charmed them, somehow, and both Sophie and PJ are too polite to put headphones on and ignore them the way Phil has decided to.

Surprisingly, he gets a reply right away: omg how have i never considered the fact that you had to tell your parents you wanted to hunt ghosts for a living thats so fucking funny also that sucks i live in a house full of students and i always have to go to the coffee shop to work on essays and shit

There's nothing good like that where my parents live. Your coffee place is in the city, right?

“No! He didn’t!” Chris is laughing, somewhere in the living room, and Phil has to turn up the white noise on his headphones. The idea of his parents and housemates trading embarrassing stories about him while he's holed up at the table with audio files he hates makes him itch.

yeah, Winnie says. Phil is so thrown off by the short message that his fingers pause on the keyboard.

Is he annoying them? He doesn't mean to. Phil thinks over the messages they've exchanged since talking on Skype, the wheel of worst case scenarios spinning quickly.

Before Phil can apologise or even really get his anxious mind to settle down, his laptop bloops again, once, twice, three times. Relief from the worry that Winnie doesn't like talking to him curls around Phil's shoulders, relaxing them.

It's a screenshot of Google Maps with an address pulled up, a different building circled in a bright blue. yeah i hella recommend and it's really close to wilkins as well, is the message accompanying the screenshot. Then, right afterwards, 10/10 hot chocolate if i do say so myself.

Phil isn't very big on hot chocolate on its own, but he is very big on quiet coffee shops.

It takes a lot of cajoling and promises that he won't be out too late for Phil to convince his parents that they'll be fine to drive to the city by themselves. His dad gets the same look on his face that he always does when Phil talks about work, but his mum merely pats his cheek and says, "Oh, love, be careful. I'll be cross if I have to get you from the police again."

"That was one time," Phil says, feeling his face flush as Chris looks at him with glee.

"One time too many," Nigel says, a bit too sternly to be a joke. Phil wonders if his friends pick up on it or if they just think he's banting like he's been all through supper, that same dry humour that Phil can see in Martyn making him funnier than his housemates had expected.

PJ and Sophie both laugh a bit, so... probably just Phil's knowledge of his dad making it more pointed than it really needs to be.

The coffee shop is open late, so Phil and his housemates decide to do some recon at the Wilkins place. The sun hasn't quite set yet, and the street isn't completely deserted or anything, so they have to wait for a good moment to leave the car.

They're careful. They've done this before.

The Wilkins place is an older townhouse in Rusholme with windows that have been boarded up since the early noughties because they kept getting broken. Technically, someone still owns the property, but the Wilkins family either didn't care about it or had forgotten it existed, because it's been abandoned as long as Phil can remember.

It also isn't very scary in his memory. It's draughty and has rats scurrying about, but the electricity and heating still worked, somehow, and the social situations he'd gotten thrown into at Martyn's shoulder were definitely more nerve-wracking than the house itself.

All of these things are still more or less true, according to everything Phil has been told, but when Phil climbs in through the loose boards of the kitchen window, the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up. He hesitates for so long on the sill that Chris pushes a bit at him, reminding him to move before some annoyed neighbour calls the police.

It's dim inside but not so dark that Phil's eyes strain; the streetlights and setting sun filter in through the boards and showcase the dust covering every surface.

Phil helps Sophie and then Chris through the window, PJ giving them boosts from the outside. They take the various bags from PJ and Sophie immediately pulls out the camera, ignoring the thuds that PJ's feet make as he launches himself up and clambers in like a monkey.

"Sexy," Chris drawls as PJ nearly tumbles onto his face. He's grabbing out equipment of his own, and so Phil is tasked with getting PJ through the window safely.

"At least I've got a modicum of upper body strength," PJ says. Neither of them are bothering to whisper, and that's making Phil anxious.

He can't put his finger on it, but... it doesn't feel like they're alone in here. There's probably someone hiding out from the chill of late October in one of the various empty rooms, and Phil's worst case scenario wheel is spinning so fast it's making him dizzy.

"Do you hear that?" Sophie asks, hushed. That stops PJ and Chris from continuing their bickering, and all three men freeze as they strain for whatever it is that Sophie's hearing. After a moment of complete silence, Sophie shakes her head. "It stopped. Hopefully the mic caught it over you lot."

PJ looks appropriately abashed, but Chris just shrugs. He's got a flashlight and an EMF meter, and he slings one of the bags over his shoulder before disappearing.

This is technically for Phil's channel - they're checking the place out, and Sophie is filming just in case something happens - but Phil still feels weird when PJ ducks off in another direction and Sophie stays at his side instead of following one of her boys, camera steady in her hands and the tip of her nose pink from the cool air.

"What did you hear?" Phil murmurs, beckoning her further into the house. The sound of creaking wood is so loud, like it's right above their heads, and Phil can only hope that it's one of his friends going upstairs.

"It could have been the wind," Sophie says mildly. "Or rats."

"Is that what it sounded like?"

Sophie blinks up at him and her mouth twists in an emotion that Phil can't place. "No. No, it sounded like a person talking."

Yeah, that's what Phil was afraid of. "Someone might be living here," he whispers, focusing on the dark hallway and trusting that Sophie is following.

The creaking again, this time from beside them, and Phil peeks his head around the corner to confirm that the staircase is what he's hearing. Chris is halfway up it, flashlight off between his teeth as he grips the railing like he's afraid the stairs are going to give out under him.

Phil hates this part. He'd rather do this completely alone than have to herd his friends like sheep. He leaves Chris to his own devices and moves into the lounge. This is where the majority of the litter is, empty bottles and cans and crisp bags everywhere. Phil takes a couple photos of it all and sends them to Martyn.

Remember your friend who used to bring a garbage bag to every party? Looks like he was the only one lol

He pauses. All too aware of Sophie's eyes and possibly the camera lens on him, Phil sends the photo to Winnie as well with a different caption: Does it always look like this?

Neither of them respond by the time Phil has picked his way through the first floor, which is at least good for his focus, but it doesn't explain why the house feels so much different than it had seven or eight years ago. Phil feels unsettled here in a way that he doesn't usually get anymore, goosebumps down his arms that aren't from the cold and the constant, unnerving feeling that someone is looking at him from the shadows.

Phil's phone buzzes as he and Sophie debate in whispers if they should go upstairs. Phil hates leaving anything to someone else, even if it's just a few rooms that surely PJ and Chris are capable of exploring on their own. He's in the middle of trying to explain that to Sophie when his voice catches in his throat.

"Peej says we should go," Phil says, interrupting himself. "He found something weird in the attic."

"What's he doing in the attic?" Sophie hisses.

"Dunno. I didn't even know there was an attic."

"We should go, then," says Sophie, like that decides it. Although it does rankle a bit to be lower on the totem pole of his own project, Phil has to admit that Sophie is right. If PJ is saying that it's time to go, then it's time to go.

Phil climbs out of the window first, taking the equipment with him, and then helps hoist Sophie safely down. She's so small that it's not even a strain, really, even with how little exercise Phil gets. They wait, huddled together, and Phil feels some of the knot in his chest start to loosen when he hears Chris and PJ arguing in whispers before the window boards get slid out of the way again.

"What did you find?" Phil asks immediately, and PJ hushes him on his way down.

"Let's go, I'll tell you at the café," he whispers, leading the way down the pavement with strides so purposeful that Phil wonders if he's been in this area before. It's all the rest of them can do to keep up with him, and Phil spares a moment to feel sorry for Sophie and her short legs.

He hangs back with her and lets Chris keep pace with PJ. Chris is still talking at a silent PJ in a hushed, passionate tone, like he's fighting with a brick wall, and Phil doesn't need to be involved in that.

The coffee shop is only a couple of streets away, but the tension that the Wilkins place and PJ's subsequent discovery has brought to the group makes it feel much further. PJ stops in front of a purple door, and Phil has a begrudging respect for his ability to remember where something is after simply being told the address. The shop is small and a little dingy, but the lighting inside is soft through the narrow windows and there's a fireplace that Phil longs to curl up in front of like a cat.

Chris scowls at PJ and holds the door open for him in the same breath. Phil doesn't understand their relationship and at this point he's too afraid to ask, but he ducks into the inviting warmth anyway to try to get the goosebumps off his skin.

The two employees behind the counter look at the door like they've been caught with their hands in a cookie jar. A girl with brightly-coloured hair is holding a bunch of marshmallows, a hand poised mid-throw, and an unreasonably tall guy with an unreasonably large mouth is gawping as one of the marshmallows hits him in the chin.

"You missed," Phil informs them, grinning a bit as he unwinds his scarf.

"Oops," the girl laughs, setting the marshmallows down and pulling up a customer service smile. "What can I get for you guys?"

While PJ and Sophie pore over the menu and Chris starts asking if she'll throw marshmallows into his mouth if he asks very nicely, Phil's eyes drift to the other worker.

His mouth is still open, a bit, and his face flushes when their eyes meet. "Er," he says, glancing behind him as if Phil is looking at someone else, and that's so endearing that Phil is sufficiently distracted from the mystery down the street.

Phil isn't extremely self-conscious or anything, but he also knows he's not going to be the hottest guy in a room, so he's a bit flattered and a lot confused about this guy's reaction to him.

The thing is, the guy is very attractive. A couple of perfect curls poke out from under his cap, and there's some type of shimmer on his face that Phil could not put a name to if you paid him. He knows literally nothing about makeup, but he knows that it makes this giant of a man look softer and his blush even more obvious when it deepens.

"Hi," Phil says, giving him a little wave. He can still hear Chris chattering on and Sophie debating the merits of a hot chocolate versus a cappuccino, so he's pretty sure nobody is paying them any attention. The guy twitches like he wants to look over his shoulder again, but he stops himself.

"Uh, hi? Sorry to be, like, weird, I just - I didn't expect -"

The voice is familiar, the rambling is familiar, and then it clicks. "Oh, hi," Phil says again, warmer this time. He steps closer to the counter and grins up at them - an unusual thing in itself, since Phil doesn't meet many people taller than him. "You didn't mention that you work here."

Winnie's shoulders slump forward in a kind of relief, and they scratch the back of their neck, looking awkward and out of place even in an outfit that coordinates with the colour scheme of the whole shop. Phil looks the uniform over and immediately regrets it, because he didn't mean to see Winnie's name tag and now he feels weird about knowing something he wasn't actually told. He doesn't feel too weird about being here, though, because - well. Winnie had technically invited him.

"Honestly, I didn't know you'd be 'investigating' so soon," says Winnie. They're still blushing and the finger quotes are somehow cute, even though they're being used to poke at Phil's career. Their nails are dark and sparkly, and Phil desperately needs to stop noticing things about their hands. "I would have told you, probably, or I'd just - I dunno, try to make a better first impression."

"You're making a fine first impression," Phil assures them.

Winnie snorts. "Oh, bullshit."

"Phil," PJ says, nudging him. Phil suddenly remembers that there are, in fact, other people around him, and he can't just keep looking at Winnie's long, dark eyelashes. "What are you having?"

Honestly, Phil hasn't even looked at the menu. He's so easily distracted by pretty boys with big hands and - oh, right, he's got to be careful about that, even in his own head. Especially in his own head. Winnie isn't a pretty boy, he really shouldn't be thinking about them like that at all.

"Uh," Phil says eloquently. He's very particular with his hot drinks, usually, but he's got a lot going on in his mind right now and it's easier just to shrug at Winnie than to look away and think. "Dunno, actually. Surprise me?"

Winnie smiles, and Phil's stomach twists. "I can do that."

#quiet on widow's peak #phanfic #phanfiction #dnp fic #words words words

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honeymoonjin · 6 years ago

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A/N: it came early! I was meant to publish this on the sixth but I’m just too excited to share it with you all :) Hope you enjoy!

Synposis: Your boyfriend, Kim Namjoon, has gone missing. After acting erratic for a few weeks, spending all his time locked away in his studio, he suddenly vanishes into thin air, leaving only an unreleased album behind. Zodiac.

chapter one - if there is one to be sought, it is he

“Did your boyfriend seem like the type to just up and leave?”

When the police had asked you that question less than two hours ago, you had immediately said no. Now you weren’t so sure.

You hadn’t seen him in over a week, but he had only been officially reported missing since this morning, and so, after contacting the police, your next pitstop had been the place he was holed up in all that time.

His studio was on the second floor of the Cypher Ent. headquarters, and although you knew the password to get in, you had never actually used it before. Namjoon liked to work alone and for long bouts of time. Early on in your relationship, when you were just starting to get serious, he had asked you not to visit him at work so that his work flow wouldn’t get disrupted, and you had respected that these past three and a half years. He was extremely gifted, a hard worker, and very successful, so you knew that if you wanted a relationship with him, you’d have to make those kinds of compromises.

Now, though, after all that had happened that day, you spared no second thoughts to letting yourself inside. There were no security cameras in the room, and the CCTV footage in the building had already been checked, showing him enter last Wednesday, and never exit. Yet when his younger brother Taehyung had stopped by to surprise him with a new painting he had just made for the studio, there was no one there.

It smells like him in here. It was often that he’d practically live in the studio, and so it didn’t surprise you to see that he had set up a fold-out couch and a little dresser with clothes and some toiletries. The rest of the room was dedicated to business; every square inch covered in producing equipment, strewn papers and post-it notes, a mess that was typical of an artist.

You got out your phone and dialed his number once more, something you had done over fifty times today, just in case. Nothing. Feeling the strange floaty apathy of shock, you pulled up his desk chair and booted up his computer on the main desk.

The log-in screen pulled up; his icon the cover of the album he released last year. There was a password required and no hint given. You sigh and tip your head back against the chair, drumming your fingers.

You knew his phone password was your birthday; he had told you once when he was completely drunk at a house party, and although you had let him know the next day in case he wanted to change it to keep it private, he told you he liked it that way.

But after typing your birthday in every arrangement you could think of to no avail, you gave up that avenue. Of course it would be something difficult. You didn’t know anyone more secretive than Namjoon and his other friends who were music producers. Keeping your beats and hooks on lockdown while they were being worked on was the only way to prevent plagiarism, and they took it extremely seriously.

The password was probably a random string of letters so as to be unguessable. That meant he had to have it written down somewhere, otherwise he’d forget it. In the end, it took you almost fifteen minutes of sifting around his stuff before you picked up an old polaroid of the two of you, only to notice a symbol he had drawn on the back in a red pen. You frowned, staring at the M-like shape with an extra hook on the end. It was…a star sign? Joon was a virgo, perhaps this was the virgo sign? You knew it wasn’t your star sign, and you didn’t know what else it would be.

Seriously doubting it would work, you scoot back over to the computer and type in virgo, pressing enter and straightening up in shock when it actually works. Namjoon had never been one of those star sign fanatics, or at least you didn’t think he was.

When his desktop appears, you pause again. Sure, you had never been in here, but you had seen his personal laptop several times, and you knew that he was the type of guy to have a completely cluttered desktop filled with shameless porn folders, random screenshots, and a million and one files he had named with key smashes.

Seeing a completely empty desktop was not right. You grabbed the wireless mouse and began trawling through his computer, but not coming across a single document, mp3, or even any browsing history on Chrome. It had been totally hollowed out.

That was, except for a little flashing red light sticking out the side of the monitor. A flash drive. You take it out and plug it back in, and a notification pops up, giving you the option to open the contents of the flash drive, which you do.

One folder, thirteen tracks. It was an album.

You let the cursor hover over the first track, pondering why this was all he had left. Was he clearing everything up and forgot it? But you didn’t recognize these titles, which meant it was new work. He always turned on some form of hyper-focus and obsession when he produced new tracks, there was no way he’d accidentally leave it. There must be a re-

You jump in your seat as your phone vibrates in your pocket. You pull it out. It’s a text from Taehyung, who’s been messaging you almost constantly since this morning, frantic with worry where you’ve become despondent with shock.

They’ve assigned detectives now, two of them. They should be almost at the studio to look over the place. I’ll be there once I’ve finished my statement. We’ll find him, Y/n <3

Your heart skips a beat again when all of a sudden you hear footsteps coming to a crescendo outside the studio. A solid three raps land on the closed door.

You bite your lip, hesitate for a moment, then tug the USB out and stash it in your pocket.

“I’ve already talked to the police.” You stare at the two detectives across from you. They must be around your age, with unblemished skin and glossy hair, but their eyes are hard and determined. You can tell from those eyes that they’ve both seen enough horror to last a lifetime.

The taller detective with chestnut hair, Jeon you think it was, lets his eyes trail over the studio as the other, Detective Park, crouches on the floor, rifling through the drawers of your boyfriend’s heavy mahogany desk. He flickers his gaze over to you with slightly narrowed eyes. “I’m aware. Park and I are simply investigating all possibilities at this stage. I find it’s preferable to speak with the persons involved myself, rather than reading a transcript. It won’t be a bother, I assume?”

The small solid device in your pocket digs in as you sit on Namjoon’s office chair. “It’s fine.”

Detective Park stands up, slipping Namjoon’s spare hair brush into a plastic bag with blue-gloved hands. “We know it must be awfully hard for you to keep talking about it, but we’re just trying to do our job, Miss.”

“I know that,” you snap back, then take a calming breath. “Sorry, I just…all of this hasn’t really sunk in yet, and I’m a little scared of what’s going to happen when it does. I feel barely functional right now as it is.”

Jeon clears his throat stiffly, working his tense jaw. “Right, then, let’s get on with this. Were you and Mr. Kim having any relationship issues prior to his disappearance?”

“No,” you answer automatically.

“But you hadn’t seen him for a week before he went missing?”

You curse yourself for shifting awkwardly under the man’s intense gaze. “Well, no, b-”

“His friend, Mr. Jung, said that he very rarely went home, and that he would often make up excuses to hang around the studio longer.”

Your lips part a little. “…I didn’t know that.” You take another deep breath, puffing out your cheeks. “I just always thought he was a workaholic. He told me he was busy, I didn’t…If we were having relationship problems, he never thought to tell me that.”

Jeon has the dignity to look a little remorseful for being so harsh, and he steps away from you, gesturing with a tip of the head for his partner to take over.

Park pats down his trousers and rests his butt against the edge of Namjoon’s desk, placing himself beside you. “Listen, Y/n- I can call you Y/n, right? Good. Well, normally we aren’t so frank with the victim’s loved ones, but I think you could really help us-”

“Don’t, Jimin,” Detective Jeon warned, “you’re not meant to give that kind of information away.”

The rosy-haired detective shook his head. “I get that, but we need her.”

You glance back and forth between them, unable to decipher the silent conversation. “What? Need me for what?”

After an entreating gaze from his partner, Jeon turns to you, hands in his trouser pockets. “We’ve arrested a suspect,” he admits, “we’re still in the middle of questioning, and he doesn’t seem interested in giving us any information on Mr. Kim’s whereabouts, but the details certainly add up. We can’t say anything for sure yet, but…”

“It’s promising,” Detective Park finishes softly, giving you a warm smile.

You almost can’t believe your eyes. “Are you serious? Already?”

Jeon shrugs. “This guy has it all. Motive, no alibi, has been in the area over the past week, previous convictions. We just need to get him to talk.”

Park nods and places a hand on your shoulder. “Which is where you come in, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t understand,” you confess, “what do I have to do with any of this? And who’s the guy who did it?”

Jeon sighs, tensing his jaw. “Mr. Min Yoongi. And he says he’ll only talk to you.”

TAGLIST Message me or send in an ask if you wish to be added to the taglist. You’ll receive a notification every time I update ZODIAC.

#bts x reader #bts au #namjoon x reader #bts fic #bts angst

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smkkbert · 5 years ago

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Mothers know best (8/22)

Summary: Since they have been kids, they have been best friends. Since they have been friends, their mothers wanted them to be together. After coming back from the east coast, Felicity takes over a position at Queen Consolidated, the company her best friend will soon take over from his father. Their mothers still push for them to be together, and they seem closer to that goal than ever because wedding bells are ringing. The only problem is that they both plan to get married to someone else.

Rating: Explicit

Previous chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Chapter 8 of 22: Merak

= The feeling of bliss and sense of oneness with the universe that comes from the simplest of things like daily pleasures that add up to a great sense of happiness and fulfillment (Serbian)

Just when he was about to take another look at his schedule to check if he had messed up the time again, Felicity came rushing into the room.

“Hi,” she said quickly and sat down in the empty chair next to him at the conference table. “I am sorry for being late. I was down in the Department of Applied Science and took a look at the progression that’s being made with our bio-stimulant. The results of the last tests looked pretty good and I was discussing all the ways we could still improve the product and suddenly I forgot all sense for time.”

“Don’t worry about it.” With a smile, Oliver handed her a mug of fresh coffee. “You just owe me one now. The next time I am late, you can’t hold it against me.”

“If anything,” Felicity said firmly, leaning forward and taking the mug of coffee from him, “You owe me one less after the 5214 time you were late in our childhood and youth.”

Oliver puckered his lips. “It wasn’t that often.”

When Felicity shot him a pointed look, Oliver rolled his lips into his mouth and looked at him with the cutest facial expression he could offer. Chuckling, Felicity put her hand to his face and pushed him away playfully.

“It was probably even more often.”

With a shake of her head, Felicity lifted the mug of coffee to her lips. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the smell of the steaming liquid for a moment. Only then did she take a sip. The taste made her release a quiet sigh of content.

Oliver smiled softly as he watched her. He had always admired Felicity’s love for coffee. She was like an addict when it came to her daily dose of caffeine. She could never get enough of it.

“Now, do you want to start or should I start?” Felicity asked and shot Oliver a brief look while she was opening the file that she had brought with her. “Please say that I get to start.”

Chuckling, Oliver leaned back in his chair. “Fine. You start.”

Since they had started working together, they had met every other day to update the other on what they were working on and where they needed to communicate more. As long as Felicity was learning the ropes of the company and they were both getting used to working together in the most powerful positions of QC, they were playing it safe with the regular meetings.

Though these meetings made it hard to schedule appointment with investors and partners outside of the company, Oliver enjoyed always enjoyed these meetings. Watching Felicity while she was talking about her work just infected him with this happiness and excitement. It was impossible not to be infected with it given how happy it made her.

After Felicity had told him everything about the progressions down in the Department of Applied Science, he informed her about the current developments on the market. He kept the fact that he had managed to increase the budget for her project until the end of his report. It got him exactly the reaction he had hoped for.

Naming the new number alone made Felicity’s mind go crazy. She started babbling about everything she would do with the money and how they would be able to reach their goals that much faster if they invested the money well.

Oliver had been seventeen years old when he had first started to get to know the company. He hadn’t really been interested in it back then, but his father had insisted that he was getting to know it better. Since Oliver had grown up saying he was going to take over the company one day, he guessed it had only been fair.

Anyway, through all the years, Oliver had talked to a lot of people. He had seen a lot of people talk about their work. Nobody had ever been even close to as excited as Felicity was about her work every single day. It was good to have her in the company. It needed her spirit.

“Half an hour,” Felicity said, stretching out her arms over her head and releasing a long yawn. “We are getting quicker and quicker here.”

Oliver smiled. “Yes, we are. We are good at working together.”

“We have always been good when we have been together,” Felicity replied, leaning back in her chair and holding her mug of coffee between both of her hands. “We are going to rock taking this company into the future.”

Even if hadn’t agreed with her, he wouldn’t say it out loud. Felicity was so convinced of this that no arguing would change her mind anyway. Her optimism was another thing the company could certainly need right now.

“Speaking of future,” Felicity added after a moment, cocking her head at him, “did you make progress with the wedding planning?”

“Yes, we did.”

Oliver smiled briefly before he turned back to his files and pretended to read some of the papers there. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Felicity frowning at him.

Of course Oliver knew that his reaction wasn’t what it should be. He just couldn’t talk about his wedding with Felicity. Her engagement had just been broken off. She had been very rational about it the night she had told him, but Oliver still felt like it was wrong to tell her about his wedding plans now. He didn’t want to hurt her.

“Oliver?”

Pursing his lips, Oliver shot her a brief glance. He tried to turn back to his papers, but Felicity was holding onto the armrest of his chair. She turned his chair around until he was facing her. Even if he tried, he couldn’t avoid her gaze. Felicity was looking at him intently, her eyebrows perked up while she was waiting for Oliver to tell her what was going on with him.

Oliver released a long sigh and took Felicity’s hand, holding it between both of his. He lowered his eyes for a moment before he looked back into her eyes.

“I shouldn’t talk to you about my wedding.”

“Oliver, I am fine,” Felicity said. “Of course it’s sad, but things like that happen. I am not heartbroken. I am not devastated. I am maybe a little bit disappointed, but that really is everything. Besides, even if I was heartbroken or devastated, that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be happy for you.”

Oliver scrunched up his nose slightly. “Still, I feel guilty.”

Felicity frowned, and her fingers fumbled with the end of her ponytail a little bit nervously.

“Guilty?” she asked. “Why? It’s not like you had anything to do with our break-up?”

“So you want to tell me that our little trip to BBB wasn’t what triggered this?” Oliver asked doubtingly. “Really?”

Since Felicity had told him about the break-up, he hadn’t been able to get this question out of his mind. He honestly wondered if he should go to Carter and talk to him about it again. He didn’t want to be the reason his best friend lost the love of her life if that was what Carter had been to her.

There was a moment of hesitation and for the break of a second Felicity even broke eye contact. Now Oliver was almost sure that there was at least some truth to his suspicion.

“Oliver, our trip to BBB might have triggered Carter and me to see the truth, but it wasn’t the reason we broke up,” Felicity said quietly. “That was bound to happen eventually, and it just happened soon enough for us to pull the breaks and hop off the wagon.”

Oliver looked at Felicity intensely, trying to find any doubt in her eyes, but she seemed to mean exactly what she had just said. Though Oliver still wasn’t completely convinced, he nodded his head with a long sigh.

“I am really happy for you,” Felicity assured after a moment, squeezing his hand. “You are my best friend, and I want you to be as happy as you can possibly be. I mean I remember those times in high school when you were so afraid of commitment that you were basically sleeping with every girl in school.”

“Hey,” Oliver said and pinched her side lightly. “Don’t be mean. I didn’t sleep with every girl in school.”

“Oh, really?” Felicity cocked her head at him. “Name one that you didn’t sleep with.”

Oliver puckered his lips, but it didn’t last long. A wide grin snuck on his lips instead as Felicity was perking up her eyebrows.

“Well, you. Obviously.”

Felicity chuckled. “Yeah because that would be gross.”

“Totally gross,” Oliver agreed, nodding his head. “Best friends don’t sleep with each other.”

“No matter what the modern movies are trying to sell today.”

Again, Oliver nodded his head and released a long breath. He had watched enough cheesy movies with Felicity, Thea and McKenna to know that romcoms were indeed taking that turn from friends to lovers quite often. Reality just looked different from that a lot of times.

“Anyway, Felicity,” Oliver said a lot more seriously now, “I am really sorry for what happened between you and Carter. I understand if being my best woman is too much for you or-“

“Hey, no.” Felicity shook her head firmly. “I will be here with you every step of the way.”

Oliver smiled with relief. “Like you always have.”

“Like I always have,” Felicity confirmed. “And like you always have for me and like you hope you will always do for me in the future too.”

Perking up his eyebrows, Oliver cocked his head. “Are you referring to something in particular here?”

“I will move into a townhouse I just bought and I could use your help,” she said, “so do you have some time tomorrow to help me?”

“Tomorrow?” Oliver blew out a breath. “That’s quick.”

Felicity nodded slowly before she shrugged her shoulders. “You know me. I don’t like living out of my suitcase.”

“True.” Oliver nodded. “I still thought you were going to take your time before you moved somewhere new. I mean if it’s just because you don’t want to stay in a hotel, you can move in with McKenna and me for a while too.”

“Oh, that’s going to be so romantic with me lying in bed between you two at night.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “You’d sleep in the guestroom.”

“I didn’t mean this literally anyway,” Felicity whispered back before she chuckled and shook her head. “No, really. The sooner I move forward with my life, the better. What I need now is a new place to call my home, something to build for myself. It’s the right thing to do.”

“Okay.”

Oliver just whispered the word almost under his breath. He had wondered for a brief moment whether her break-up with Carter would make her reconsider living here in Starling. She had denied that very firmly when they had spent the night together a couple of days ago, but Oliver hadn’t been sure if she had really meant it.

When Felicity had left for MIT all those years ago, it had been hard on Oliver. For weeks he had felt like he was walking around with a giant hole in his life. Before she had moved to Boston, Felicity had just always been at his side. It had been an unfamiliar feeling and it had taken him a long time to get use do it.

He had had her back for a couple of days now, but he already knew that he didn’t want to go back to having his best friend live that far away from him. He was just feeling better as long as she was here.

“So will you help me?”

“Of course I will,” Oliver assured her with a smile. “Whatever you need, I am here for you. Always.”

Felicity nodded her head and squeezed both of Oliver’s hand in a wordless gratitude. They had been friends for so long that there were no more words needed between them. Quiet gestures were everything that was needed to understand the other. They had a connection like that.

When a strand of hair loosened from Felicity’s ponytail and fell to her face, Oliver felt Felicity’s fingers loosening from his. He was quicker though. Leaning forward, he tugged the strand back behind her ear with a gentle gesture.

When his eyes found hers, he noticed that she was already looking at him. Her eyes were widened slightly and she had her bottom lip caught between her front teeth like she did so often. Without thinking about it any further, Oliver stroked his thumb over her bottom lip to free it from her front teeth.

His gaze lingered on her lips, and he could feel his thumb tickling with the desire of touching it again. Hesitatingly, he brought his thumb back closer to her lips and-

A knock at the door made both of them flinch and move apart quickly. Oliver pulled his hand back like he had just burnt himself. He still felt the prickling feeling linger on his skin, but it was different now.

Felicity didn’t look any more comfortable than he did as she was stroking her hair back with almost trembling hands. Her eyes met his briefly, but she looked away so quickly that Oliver didn’t know what she was possibly feeling or thinking.

Resting his hands flat against the tabletop, Oliver cleared his throat. Then he lifted his eyes.

“Dad,” he said with surprise when he found his father standing in the frame of the door and looking back and forth between him and Felicity. “I thought you were out to meet Ted Kord.”

“Ted had to cancel,” Robert said slowly, looking back and forth between him and Felicity once more. Though he tried to hide it, Oliver was sure he could see the slightly disapproving expression of a father who just got to know his daughter’s boyfriend in his eyes. “Do I bother?”

“No,” Felicity replied quickly, putting on a slightly nervous smile. “Absolutely not. Oliver and I just finished updating each other on what we are working on and wanted to-“

“-have wild sex on the conference table.”

Felicity shot Oliver an angry glare. When he only grinned at that though, Felicity rolled her eyes. Putting her hand to the armrest of his chair, she pushed it far away from her. The chair rolled over the marble floor to the other end of the conference table, making Oliver chuckle.

As much as Felicity tried to hold onto her anger, all Oliver had to do was wink. A smile broke through her frown, and she looked away with a shake of her head.

Oliver chuckled quietly and looked at his father, who had watched them with his arms crossed in front of his chest. From the expression in his eyes, he was still a little suspicious or whatever to call it. He was watching both of them closely, his eyes narrowed down on them.

Shaking his head, Oliver rolled his eyes. In all the years, his father had never joined in on this crazy dream of Donna and Moira that maybe one day Oliver and Felicity would suddenly discover that they had been in love all along. He better didn’t start now.

“So, everything is going okay here?” Robert asked, stepping closer into the room. “Or is there anything you need help with?”

“I think we are getting along quite well,” Felicity said and shot Oliver a brief glance. “Right?”

Oliver nodded his head in agreement. “We have already made some progress on reliving that project about the spine chip.”

“And with spine chip he means our bio-stimulant of course.”

Oliver looked at Felicity, but she just smiled innocently. Shaking his head, Oliver smiled too. He couldn’t be angry with her either. They just couldn’t be angry with each other. It was one more reason why working together worked well for them.

“And working together works well for the both of you?” Robert asked, looking back and forth between them once more. “No disagreements? No rivalry?”

“Since we are working on two completely different things,” Felicity replied with a shrug of her shoulders, “we are complementing each other rather than rivaling.”

“Just like friends should do,” Oliver added. “Really, we are working together even better than I thought we would.”

Robert smiled softly. “Luckily, I wasn’t expecting anything else.”

Oliver and Felicity shared another look, knowing exactly what Robert meant. Working with a friend could get complicated when business and friendship mixed. Luckily for them, this wasn’t the case here. They got along well in the office, so there couldn’t be any bad ramifications on their friendship.

If Oliver ever had to decide between working with Felicity and being friends with her, he would gladly leave the company to her and find something else to do. He could live without QC, but he couldn’t live without his best friend.

“Now, since things are going so well, why don’t we all go out to lunch together?” Robert asked. “I’ll invite you.”

Oliver pursed his lips. He had an appointment at The Geek Squad that he didn’t want to miss. He couldn’t tell either of them where he was going though and John couldn’t serve as his alibi this time around either. He had taken a few days off to go on a short vacation with his family. Since he was working for Robert, Oliver was sure that his father was very aware of that.

For a short moment, Oliver wondered if now was the right time to tell them the truth. He knew there was nothing he had to fear and both of them would keep this secret for him if he told them that he didn’t want anyone to know. He might not get another chance at telling them so easily anytime soon.

“I would love to,” Felicity said before Oliver could decide what to do, “but I promised Tatsu to pick up Akari from school today.”

Oliver almost released a low breath of relief. Now might have been the perfect time to tell them, but he hadn’t been really ready for that yet if he was being completely honest. He had kept this secret for so long now and he was happy about the way things were going there. He didn’t want anything about it to change.

“What about you, Oliver?” Robert asked. “Time to have lunch with your old man?”

“Sorry,” Oliver replied with a sigh, shaking his head. “I am busy too.”

“Okay.” Robert nodded his head. “Then I guess we will do this some other time.”

“Gladly.” Felicity replied. “But I insist on a good steakhouse or at least a restaurant where I don’t have to search for my food with a magnifier.”

“I would never dare to invite you anywhere else.” Robert winked at Felicity the way Oliver always did before he knocked his fist against the frame of the door. “I’ll see you two soon.”

Oliver lifted his hand to a brief wave. As soon as his father had disappeared, he glanced at his watch though. Knowing the traffic during lunchtime, Oliver decided it was probably better to leave early. He straightened up in his chair quickly and piled up the papers he had brought here with him.

He was excited to go back to The Geek Squad. There was a new girl that was going to introduce herself today. She’d come by with her godmother to take a look at the program they offered. Hopefully, he was going to convince her of joining The Geek Squad.

When Oliver had piled up his papers, he was about to grab the pile and get up to leave. The moment he turned to Felicity, ready to tell her goodbye for the day, he noticed that she was watching him though. She was leaning back in her chair, her arms crossed in front of her chest and her head cocked at hi slightly.

Oliver frowned. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you going out for this secret stuff again?”

As much as he tried to hide a grin, Oliver wasn’t able to. The fact that Felicity just knew that he was going there again made him smile. She just knew him so well, better than anyone else he guessed.

“I am,” he confirmed after a moment. “I have stuff to do there.”

“Secret stuff at your secret hobby in a secret place.”

Oliver shot her another brief glance, smiling. “That are a lot of secrets indeed, but they will stay secret for a while.”

Felicity perked up her eyebrows. “You still won’t tell me what you are doing there?”

“No.” Oliver shook his head. “Not yet.”

Maybe not ever he added in his thoughts, but he kept that part to himself. He couldn’t really see himself sharing this secret with anyone yet. Of course it was possible that this would change one day. For now, he liked it the way it was though.

“But you are going to tell me one day, right?”

With a sigh, Oliver got up on his feet. He lifted the pile of papers into his arms and started walking to the door. He was well aware that Felicity was following him with her eyes. He wouldn’t get around answering.

Only in the frame of the door, Oliver turned back around to Felicity. Just like he had known already, she was indeed still looking at him. Nosiness was written all over her face.

“I might tell you one day,” Oliver replied with a sigh. “Just not yet.”

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him even more. “I could just hack your phone or your laptop or both and figure this out all by myself.”

“I know you could,” Oliver replied, his voice showing no doubt since there wasn’t any. He knew Felicity’s skills, and she could easily hack him. “I just trust you enough to assume that you won’t do it.”

At that, Felicity’s eyes softened. She angled her head even more to the side as a soft smile spread on her lips. Warmth was sparkling in her eyes.

“You can trust me,” she promised. “Always.”

“I know I can.”

He really knew he could. He had never told a person as much about his life as he had told Felicity. She was the one who knew him the best because he had always told her so much about himself. Felicity had always been the person he had known he could trust.

To say Oliver was lucky to have her was an underestimation. He knew he could never find a better best friend. He would never meet another person like her, someone he could so easily be himself around without ever feeling uncomfortable.

Besides, having Felicity as a friend was much better than having her as an enemy. With her skills, she could destroy a person in a heartbeat.

“I gotta go now,” Oliver said eventually. “I will see you tomorrow to help you move.”

“Thanks.” Felicity smiled. “And have fun doing your secret stuff.”

“I will.”

Oliver had already taken a few steps when he got slower and eventually stopped completely. He thought back to the moment he had shared with Felicity before his father had interrupted. He didn’t know what had gotten into him in that moment, but he knew that it had made Felicity feel uncomfortable and he couldn’t say that he was feeling at ease thinking about it either.

Pursing his lips, Oliver turned back around and stepped into the frame of the door once more. Felicity was just grabbing her stuff to leave too. When she saw him standing there again, she stopped to just look at him though.

“Forgot something?”

Oliver hesitated briefly, but soon the words blurted out of him. “Are we okay?”

Felicity frowned like she had no idea what he was talking about. Oliver shot her a meaningful gaze, dipping his head forward slightly. He doubted that this was actually helping, but Felicity seemed to know what he was referring too. Of course she knew. She knew him like that.

Biting down on her bottom lip, Felicity lowered her eyes. She stroked her hands over the cover of her file like she needed to smooth out any wrinkles that were in the paper. Oliver knew that she was just trying to busy herself though. She needed time to think about her answer.

“Do you remember that day you convinced me to go skating with you and I fell on my butt so hard that one time that there were little scratches quite high on the back of my thigh?”

“Of course I do.” Oliver tried to hide a grin. “I felt terrible for convincing you to do that.”

“I hope you did because those bruises hurt,” Felicity replied, her voice soft. “Anyway, when we were home, I tried to apply that gel to the back of my thigh, but I couldn’t reach the right spot without hurting myself even more because I was already terribly sore.”

Oliver nodded his head. “I was the one who did it for you.”

How could he ever forget that awkward moment when he had had to touch his best friend’s butt? He had barely been able to look Felicity in the eyes the rest of the day because it had just been so weird.

“And you ask me if it made me uncomfortable that you touched my cheek?”

Again, Oliver nodded his head slowly since Felicity was right. He didn’t even know why he was making such a fuss about that little touch of before. It wasn’t like he had never touched Felicity’s cheek before.

“I mean what do you think should have happened?” Felicity asked. “That I’d freak out because you touched my cheek? Or that I fall madly in love with you all of a sudden?”

“Yeah, certainly not.” Oliver shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I am honestly not sure what I thought would happen. I am just glad that we are okay. I- I guess I will go now.”

Felicity nodded her head, not saying another word. Oliver just shot her one more smile and left.

* * *

“Hi, Ollie.”

Oliver had trouble not to groan. If there was one thing that bothered him about The Geek Squad, it was the fact that Carrie Cutter was working here. She always seemed to be flirting with him and it was just annoying.

Of course Oliver knew that he could just fire Carrie. The problem was just that she was really good with the kids. Firing her would take away a weekly annoyance for him, but it would also make a lot of the girls that were learning here sad.

“Hi, Carrie,” Oliver said, biting back a sigh. He put the plans for a possible expansion of The Geek Squad into the topmost drawer of his desk and folded his hands on the tabletop. “How’s it going today?”

“It’s quiet.” Carrie shrugged her shoulders, leaning into the door. “A few girls told me they have some tests coming up, so I guess they have to cut back on there time here a little bit.”

Oliver nodded his head. “Yeah, I remember.”

A lot of girls couldn’t come here regularly because their parents couldn’t or maybe just didn’t support them as much as necessary. They came here when they found the time, but often their lives were too busy and too unpredictable for regular visits.

Oliver wished there was something he could do to support those families at home too. Apart from sex and race, he was sure that the familial background was an important factor for success in school and career. Parents’ support was just too important to not be a factor.

Since Oliver wasn’t too proud to admit it, he could honestly say that his family was the main reason why he had been able to make something of himself. When Oliver had been lazy or disrespectful at school, his parents had kicked his ass. When his grades had become bad, his parents had made sure he was repeating the stuff. When Oliver hadn’t understood something new, they had asked Felicity to explain it to him.

Smiling, Oliver shook his head. Even during the time that Felicity had still been one grade behind him, she had been able to help him through his classes.

“Given how quiet it is, maybe we could drink a mug of coffee together,” Carrie suggested eventually. “I mean when else do we get the time to really get to know each other?”

Oliver had to bite down on his tongue to not start laughing or ask Carrie if she was being serious. It was one thing to flirt with your boss when he was single, but Oliver had never hidden the fact that he was taken. He hadn’t dived deeper into it because he was trying to separate between The Geek Squad and everything out of it when it came to his personal life, but it was no secret that there was someone in his life.

Carrie’s unashamed attempt of asking him out on a coffee date was just cheeky.

“Actually, I-“

“Mr. Smoak?”

Oliver almost released a sigh of relief when Rosalie stepped into the frame of the door behind Carrie. She smiled warmly like she always did. In some way, she reminded Oliver of Raisa, so he wasn’t surprised that he felt absolutely comfortable around her.

“Is our newest prospect already here?”

“Yes.” Rosalie nodded, still smiling. There was a little bit of confusion in her eyes though as she added, “Ms. Smoak just arrived with her.”

“Ms. Smoak?”

Carrie looked at him with a frown. Apparently, she had processed this news a lot more quickly than he himself had.

In these four walls of The Geek Squad, he had been Mr. Smoak. He had lived with his name here for so long that the bare mention of a Ms. Smoak should be weird to him. On the other hand, he had honored Felicity’s smartness and everything she had achieved from the very moment he had decided to build The Geek Squad. Hearing that she or any Ms. Smoak was here just felt so natural to him at the same time.

It was a weird feeling to be so torn between feeling absolutely familiar and comfortable with this situation and feeling like it was so irrational at the same time. It was hard to describe.

“Is that your wife?” Carrie asked when Oliver didn’t answer. “Are you married?”

Oliver released a sound that could mean anything. It could be a confirmation. It could be a negation. He wasn’t ready to answer. He wasn’t even sure if he really understood what was happening right now.

“They are waiting for you at the reception.”

With a nod of his head, Oliver got up from his chair. His thoughts were still spinning when he followed Rosalie aside and down the hallway to the reception. Was Felicity really here?

The question answered itself the moment he turned around the corner. Felicity was standing at the reception, looking through a flyer about The Geek Squad. Her eyes were narrowed down slightly. A young girl, Akari he guessed, was standing next to her, an excited smile on her lips as she looked around the foyer.

For the break of a second, Oliver wondered if Felicity had hacked him after all. He knew that she could easily do so. It wouldn’t take her long or demand a lot from her. She could basically do it on the way from her office to her elevator. She was that good.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, as quickly it faded away again though. If there was one person in his life that he trusted blindly, it was Felicity. He knew she would never cross a line like that, especially when she had promised him not to do so only an hour ago. She was the best friend he could have, so of course she wouldn’t do something like that.

It had to be a coincidence that Felicity was here, and he guessed that the girl by her side was the very reason for that. Oliver didn’t know much about Akari. What he did knew was that her mother had been at MIT with Felicity before she had given birth and that Akari lived in the Glades with her mother. From what Felicity as her absolutely unbiased godmother – she herself had pointed that out – had told him, Akari was a really smart girl.

“Ms. Smoak,” Rosalie addressed Felicity when Oliver stayed silent, just staring at his best friend. “Mr. Smoak is now ready to talk to you.”

Felicity shot a smile at Rosalie. Her eyes turned to Oliver briefly before she looked at Rosalie once more, and Oliver could have pinpointed the very moment that she had processed who she had just seen there. Her eyes widened slightly as she turned back to stare at him.

A long moment of silence passed. Oliver wondered how he was going to handle this situation now. He hadn’t been prepared to share this secret with her. He hadn’t even been sure if he should tell her or anyone at all.

It didn’t take long for Oliver to realize that he wasn’t feeling uncomfortable about it because he had never had any reason to feel uncomfortable around Felicity. She had always been the one person in his life who had accepted him and supported him no matter what. So he wasn’t uncomfortable. He was nervous at most because there was no way that Felicity could miss who had inspired him for this project. The name of this building as well as the name he had used to hide his real identity was as revealing to her as it possibly could be.

With Carrie still in the back of his neck, trying to take a look over his shoulder at Felicity, Oliver figured that maybe this was a happy chance for him.

“Felicity, Hon.”

Felicity looked slightly confused about the way he addressed her. There was a small cringe between her eyebrows that told him so, but Oliver doubted that the others could see it. They didn’t know Felicity as well as he did.

Oliver crossed the distance to Felicity quickly. Putting his hands to her hips, he brushed his lips against the shell of her ear and whispered, “Please play along. I need help here.”

Stepping next to her, Oliver wrapped one arm around her slim waist. Felicity was still staring at him, even more confused now he guessed. With the slightest of a nod towards Carrie, who was watching them intently, he tried to tell her what was going on. Felicity seemed to catch up quickly because, with only one brief glance at the nosy redhead, she leaned into his side with a warm smile.

“Hey.” She put a hand to his chest and rubbed her hand over his heart. “I hope I don’t inconvenience you.”

“You inconveniencing me?” Oliver winked at her. “Never.”

Oliver and Felicity smiled at each other. He hoped that she knew how grateful she was that she was playing along. She had to have a thousand questions about this. Yet here she was, helping him about something she didn’t even know fully about. She was just as remarkable as she had always been.

Clearing her throat, Felicity eventually leaned a little away from him. She reached out her hand for the girl she had brought with her and pulled her in front of her.

“Oliver, you didn’t get around meeting my good friend Akari yet,” she told him, a proud smile on her lips. “She is quite smart.”

“I just love mathematics,” Akari said, shrugging her shoulders. “And biology and tech. And chemistry.”

Oliver shot Felicity a brief smile. He guessed she and Akari were a lot alike. At least these last five seconds made it sound like it.

Getting down on his knees, Oliver brought his face on one level with Akari. With a smile on his lips, he reached out his hand. Akari looked at it briefly and took in a deep breath before she put her much smaller hand into his and shook it.

“Hi, Akari,” Oliver said. “I am Oliver Queen.”

“I am Akari.” She faltered briefly. “But you already knew that.”

Oliver chuckled. “Yes, I do.”

With a shy smile, Akari leaned back against Felicity, who wrapped her arms around Akari from behind. Oliver met her eyes briefly and smiled even wider when he saw Felicity smiling at him.

“So, you like science, Akari?”

Akari nodded her head. “Yeah. A lot.”

“That’s cool, and it’s a good thing you are here then because we love science here too.” Oliver tapped his fingers against Akari’s heart playfully before he shot a look back at where Carrie was standing. “This is my colleague Carrie. She is going to show you around here. If you find something that you are interested in and that you want to try, feel free to do so.”

When Carrie stepped closer, Akari shot a look at Felicity. “Can I go with her?”

Felicity smiled and nodded her head. “It’s why we are here. You go and have fun. I’ll be here when you want to leave.”

Side by side, Oliver and Felicity watched Akari leave with Carrie. The little girl shot another look back at Felicity like she wanted to make sure that she wasn’t going to leave. Only when Felicity smiled and winked at her, Akari took another deep breath and left.

When Felicity turned her head to look at Oliver, he didn’t say a word. He just laced his fingers with hers and tugged at her hand. He led her to his office, pushed her through the door and stepped in right after her.

The moment Oliver had closed the door behind them, still wondering what exactly to tell Felicity now, she was already right in front of him.

“What is all of this?” she asked him. “When did you build this? Why did you build this? How did you even get the idea? And why does nobody know about this? Or does someone know about this? But if someone knew about it, why would you use some other name? And why are you using my name of all the names possible?”

Felicity continued to fire questions at him, but she didn’t give him any time to answer even a single one of it. She just asked more and more questions. Meanwhile Oliver was trying to remember all of them, so he could answer them once Felicity allowed him to speak.

For now, that didn’t seem to be the case though.

Oliver waited patiently, taking his time to just watch Felicity. From the expression in her eyes, he was almost sure that she was at least a little bit excited about this. She might be confused, the deep cringe between her eyebrows proved that to him, but there was a sparkle of excitement and amazement in her eyes.

It was all the knowledge Oliver needed to feel safe about talking to Felicity. Since she just continued babbling, he put a gentle hand to her shoulder.

“Felicity.”

Felicity fell silent immediately. She took in one deep breath of air and pressed her lips together. With still wide eyes, she waited for him to answer her.

“I-“ Oliver pursed his lips, briefly wondering where to start with telling her. “A few years ago, I read another article about the Glades. There was a lot of focus on how the children growing up here, especially girls, had little to no chance of making something of themselves.”

Felicity nodded. She knew as well as he did what the Glades were like. Since she had spent a lot of time at the Queen Mansion with him, she certainly remembered the conversations his father had had with his friends about the Glades too. Oliver wasn’t the first in the Queen Family, who hoped to make some change here.

“Later that day, I overheard our mothers talking in the living room. Donna was talking about you and how proud she is of you.”

Smiling softly, Felicity lowered her gaze briefly. As much as she loved to talk about how smart she was, she still reacted almost a little bit shy when people acknowledged it, especially Donna. Mother and daughter hadn’t always been the best friends. They hadn’t even gotten along very well. Felicity had felt like her mother, who was so different from her, just didn’t understand her. At least when it came to her intellect and her interests, Felicity was taking a lot after her father.

“Your mother mentioned that, if it hadn’t been for my family, you and your mother might have ended up in an area like the Glades or maybe even worse.” Oliver remembered stopping dead in his tracks after he had heard that, imagining Felicity in some dark alley with dodgy guys. “And I realized that there might be girls out there who are incredibly smart, but they just aren’t given a chance to show that. Their talents get lost because they don’t come from a nice house in the suburb.”

Oliver shook his head. He had once been to a school here in the Glades to advertise for The Geek Squad. A lot of teachers were over challenged with handling the kids and surrendering. Many of them seemed to have given up hope on their students, and Oliver didn’t think that anyone could hold it against them. Kids mirrored what they saw in their environment. Kids of the Glades grew up in an environment of violence, so that was what they were mirroring a lot of times.

“I mean knowing how smart you are and how determined you have always been to make something of yourself and to learn so much more, I think you might have made it on your own.” Oliver nodded slowly like he needed to reassure himself and reassure her that he really meant it. “You would have probably managed to make it to the top of a company anyway. It would have just been more exhausting, and it would have probably taken some more time.”

“Or maybe I wouldn’t have made it?”

Oliver didn’t falter. “That wouldn’t have been possible.”

Felicity was touched by his words. Her eyes glazed over and she lowered her eyes for a moment. Oliver grabbed her hand. When he squeezed it gently, Felicity locked her eyes back with his.

“I know that this world is going to be better with you as a CEO of Queen Consolidated. If someone will make a change in this world or leave some meaningful footprints, it’s going to be you,” he said with certain voice because it was exactly what he was thinking and feeling. “The only thing I can do is trying to make sure that even more girls will have a chance of leaving their footprints on this earth in a good way.”

While a comfortable silence was spreading between them, Oliver’s thumb rubbed back and forth over the back of Felicity’s hand. She had lowered her eyes to the floor once more. Although Oliver was desperate to hear what she was thinking, he didn’t push. He could see from her frown that she needed time to think about this herself first.

Oliver’s heart was beating frantically in his chest. With every beat, his heart pounded against his ribs so firmly that Oliver almost felt like it would crack them. He was holding his breath, so he didn’t make any other sound that could make him overhear whatever Felicity would say. He was almost sure that she could hear his heartbeat too.

Finally, Felicity lifted her gaze back at him. The crinkle between her eyebrows had deepened even more.

“The Geek Squad? Mr. Smoak?” She shook her head slightly like she couldn’t find the right words. “Why?”

“Because of you of course,” Oliver said matter-of-factly. “Felicity, you helped me turn into the person I am today. I know you always respected me the way that I was and you never really wanted me to change, but you inspired me. That changed me, turned me into someone better. It’s why our friendship always worked so well.”

The corners of Felicity’s lips twitched before a smile spread there.

“The Geek Squad is my way of giving back some of what you gave me,” Oliver added. “This world gave me the best friend I could possibly have. Now I am giving the world something back for that. Since this was a sign of my gratefulness, I didn’t want the media or my mother to make a big fuss about this. When I was thinking about a codename, yours was the first that came to my mind. Honoring all of this to you always felt like the right thing to do. Besides, you are going to bring a lot of success to the name Queen by working for Queen Consolidated. It’s only fair that I will help your name to be recognized a little more too.”

For a long moment, Felicity’s eyes stayed locked on his. When she looked away, she was blinking several times. It didn’t keep Oliver from seeing the tears that were welling in her eyes though. She released a breathless chuckle when she finally looked at him again.

“Wow,” she whispered. With another chuckle, she punched her fist against his chest playfully. “If your vows to McKenna is going to be half as meaningful as the speech you just gave me, I swear you will make everyone cry.”

Oliver needed a moment to process the sudden change of mood and subject. He guessed Felicity didn’t exactly know how to deal with the situation either, so she did what she could do best. She was using humor to cover her insecurity.

Squeezing her hand, Oliver replied, “Let’s hope I will be able top this at all.”

“Of course you will.” Felicity smiled. “Talking about someone you love so deeply always adds a particularly emotional note to it. It will work like that.”

Oliver nodded his head slowly. Felicity was probably right. At least he hoped she was right. So far, whenever he had tried to think about his vows, his head had been all empty. Maybe it was just the pressure of knowing that everyone would listen to those vows that made it so hard to find the right words.

As long as it was just him and Felicity, it was different. He knew that, even if he expressed himself completely wrong, she would understand. Felicity always did.

“How did you even find this place?” Oliver asked eventually. “I mean why did you come here out of all the places possible?”

“I was looking for something near Akari’s home, so she could go there as often as possible.” Felicity chuckled. “The fact that a secretive Mr. Smoak had started this project had just felt like a sign for me.”

“I guess it was,” Oliver replied. “I am really happy you found this place.”

“Although it means that I found out about your secret?”

Oliver nodded. “I am glad you found out about it. I don’t like to keep secrets from you. I don’t like that we are keeping secret from each other.”

“Yeah, neither do I.”

Felicity’s answer had only come after a beat of hesitation. As short as that moment had been, Oliver hadn’t missed it. Something told him that they weren’t as honest with each other yet as he had thought they were.

Before Oliver got to ask about it, there was a knock at the door though.

Oliver shot another brief look at Felicity, considering to ask her about it, but Felicity was already pulling her hand from his and taking a step back. There was no use in asking her about it now. She wouldn’t tell him the truth because the trustful atmosphere with just the two of them was over.

“Yes?” Oliver said when there was another knock. “Come in.”

Rosalie stuck her head into the door. She smiled warmly like she always did as she looked back and forth between Oliver and Felicity.

“I am sorry to interrupt you,” she said, “but Akari saw everything and is ready to go now.”

Oliver frowned. “Already?”

Rosalie shrugged her shoulders. “I got the impression that she really liked what she saw, but she might be a little tired.”

“She had an exhausting day at school,” Felicity told Oliver, putting a hand to her forearm. “I considered delaying our visit here, but she was too excited.”

“Well, then let’s asks her when she wants to come back,” Oliver suggested, “and then you get her home to relax a little.”

Felicity nodded, smiling at him. “Sounds like a good plan.”

When they arrived back at the foyer where Carrie and Akari were already waiting, Oliver got what Felicity had meant. Akari looked like she was about to fall asleep right there. Her lids seemed to be tired as her eyes were barely opened. She blinked several times when Felicity stepped closer to her. As soon as she recognized her, she smiled though.

“How did you like The Geek Squad?” Felicity asked her. “Did you enjoy it?”

“It’s cool.” Despite her tiredness, there was excitement shining through her voice. “I love it here.”

“That’s good.” Oliver smiled proudly. “You are always welcomed here. Whenever you want to come by, the door is open for you.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Oliver promised and winked at her. “And if you ever need someone to pick you up at home or to take you back, you call Felicity. She has my number. If Felicity can’t do it, I will do it for you.”

“You are nice.”

Oliver chuckled. “I am trying.”

When Akari yawned heartedly, Felicity chuckled. Stroking her hand over Akari’s dark hair, she pulled the keys of her car from the pocket of her coat.

“Akari, you go ahead to the car. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

Nodding her head, Akari took the keys and already walked to the door. Oliver and Felicity exchanged a look, and they both had troubles to contain their laughter. Sleepy kids could be quite funny it seemed.

“Bye, Carrie,” Akari said at the door, turning back around once more. “Bye, Oliver.”

“See you soon,” Oliver replied, while Carrie just lifted her hand for a brief wave. “And get some rest.”

Yawning once more, Akari nodded her head. She didn’t say anything else though as she just turned towards the door and left.

Oliver couldn’t hold onto his chuckle any longer. He turned to Felicity, who was chuckling and shaking her head too.

Just when Oliver wanted to ask if she was getting along with Akari on her own or if Oliver should join them, so he could carry Akari into her bed, the expression on Felicity’s face changed. Glancing at something or someone behind him, she stepped closer towards him.

“What’s the deal about that redhead?” she asked in a whisper. “She’s staring at us.”

Oliver groaned. He didn’t have to look back over his shoulder to check what she meant. He knew Carrie long enough to know exactly how she was looking at them right now.

“I fear she’s into me,” Oliver whispered as quietly as he could. “She’s been trying to flirt with me since I hired her. No matter how many times I tell her that I am in a relationship, she continues to flirt with me.”

“Oh poor Oliver Queen,” Felicity whispered, an amused grin on her lips. “He’s just too handsome for the world.”

Oliver pinched her side, but he pulled her into his arms in the next moment already. While they were hugging and swaying from side to side slightly, Felicity rubbed her hands over Oliver’ back. The warmth of her skin sought through his clothes.

“I think I got an idea how to shut Carrie up eventually.”

Oliver whispered the words into Felicity’s ear, still not sure if he should follow up on that. When Felicity started to lean back and out of the hug, Oliver made a quick decision though. The moment Felicity had leaned her head back enough, so they could look at each other, he leaned forward and captured her lips in a kiss.

It was supposed to stop Carrie from flirting with him ever again. The moment his lips touched Felicity’s, all thoughts about Carrie vanished from his mind though. All thoughts he had had the break of a second ago were just like erased. His head felt empty like he didn’t know the meaning of a single word anymore.

Everything inside of him was focused on the feeling of Felicity’s lips against his. They felt even softer and fuller than they looked. It made his entire body tingle in the best way possible. Heat pooled in his stomach and spread through his body.

Oliver had to suck in a deep breath to stop this feeling from taking over completely. It only caused him to breathe in the sweet scent of Felicity’s skin though. The familiarity of it made the tingle inside of him only increase more. Another wave of heat rushed through his veins. He felt like he was running a fever, a fever that made want to open his mouth and pull her bottom lip between his so badly.

Before his fever pushed him to cross a boundary that would make it hard to come back from, Felicity pulled back though. Her eyes were widened as she looked at him with intense eyes. Her pupils were blown wide and she was panting through slightly opened lips.

Oliver gulped, unsure what to say. From the way she was looking at him, Oliver was sure that whatever had just happened inside of him, Felicity either knew about it or she had felt it too. And something told him that the feeling had nothing to do with the awkwardness of kissing your best friend.

“I gotta go now,” Felicity whispered eventually. “Akari is waiting for me.”

Oliver gulped once more. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, but he regretted it the moment he noticed the sweet taste of Felicity’s lips on his. Oliver had to clear his throat to be even able to say a single word.

“Sure.” His voice was so low that he was surprised that Felicity could hear him. “Bye, Felicity.”

They continued looking at each other for another long moment, neither of them saying a word. Oliver was holding his breath, unable to breathe. Everything inside of him was still focused on Felicity, almost like there was just the two of them on this earth right now.

Soon, too soon probably, Felicity stepped back though. His hands fell away from around her waist. She lowered her eyes, breaking eye contact. All of a sudden, Oliver became aware that there was so much more to the earth than just the two of them. Starting with his fiancée.

“Bye, Oliver.”

It was the last thing Felicity said, her voice raspy and barely audible, before she turned around and left. Oliver looked after her, and he couldn’t stop himself from letting his tongue swipe over his lips again. Her taste there was already gone though.

Oliver still had troubles processing what had just happened. Too much had happened in the last half and hour or such since he had left his office to meet another interested girl. He hadn’t been prepared for any of it and it just confused him.

When Carrie stepped closer to him, Oliver muscles tensed slightly. He was still looking at the door where Felicity had just disappeared. Though he couldn’t see her anymore, it was almost like he could still feel her here.

“You make a really nice couple,” Carrie said a little sourly. “I have to say that.”

In the past, Oliver had always denied that he and Felicity could ever be anything more than friends. Even now he felt the urge to make clear that he and Felicity were just friends. He knew he couldn’t do so now though, not if he wanted to keep Carrie away from him.

Clearing his throat, Oliver finally turned his gaze away from the door. He looked at Carrie only briefly before he turned to the hallway that led to his office.

“Thank you,” he said between clenched jaws. “I have some work to do. See you.”

With that, he disappeared into his office. Closing the door behind himself, he leaned back against it and closed his eyes for a moment. He thought back to the kiss and all the ways it had made him feel.

A chuckle rose inside of his throat soon though. Shaking his head, he rubbed his hands over his face and went behind his desk. He guessed he really needed John to come back, so they could train together again. His head was always going crazy when it was too busy and got too little compensation.

He and Felicity had been friends since they were kids. No faked kiss and no whatever would change anything about that.

* * *

Next Wednesday, I am going on my first solo-trip. I'll stay in Spain for one week, all by myself in a nice hotel at the beach of Jandía Playa in Fuerteventura. I will probably take my laptop with me, hoping to find my muse when I am drinking Mojitos while I am watching the sunset. My muse really tries to hide from me lately.

Anyway, what I am really trying to say is this: Because of my vacation, I won't be able to update the next two Wednesdays. Fear not, my friends! I won't hold back the updates for too long. I will just shift the posting a little. Here are the release dates for the next three chapters:

9 - 07/16/2019 (Tuesday) 10 - 07/25/2019 (Thursday) 11 - 07/31/2019 (Wednesday)

* * *

@fannaz @promiseyoullbepatientwithme @bytemegeekette @felicity-said-just-in-case @phanseptiic @orangeisorange @mspotatohead14 @whentheheavenfades @emmaamelia95 @smoakingskye @seaolicity @ourwritinginvein @1022bridgetp @felicityqueenforever @leagueofolicity17 @yryssss @myhauntedblacksoul @sherlock44 @sinceriouslybea @arrowsalways @olivyflavescentdeer @olicitys-castle @ofnothingcharming @vaelisamaza @smoakedandcharmed @alexisa1206 @mysaudadespt2 @florence-bubbles @addictiontelly @queens-of-arrows @memcjo @hysterical-for-joshifer @oswinelevenforever @olicitylovemaking @bandanab310 @mymusiclove101 @lynslogic @scarletqueen23 @olicityshipper19 @alex-wesley @arrows-4ever @unabashedlynerdypatrol @louehmysoul @ligiapimenta @chattyyana @charlie-leau @coal000 @samcrowleys @ishippolivia @julianegomesqueen @malafle @miriam1779 @charlinert @melaux @ontheolicityship @myshipperlife @wrightainsley @lexi9515 @ladygreenwood @multi-fandom-crazy-fangirl @morinamel @mje-thomas @kebarry @canadianheartgirl @nannett2307 @almondblossomme @paarti12 @kathrynelizabeth89 @imdfabulous @cutearrowgirl @mrt2501 @mecha1330 @arsipaci14 @mzminx @salasvia @brandis91 @cainc3 @morganmiguess @pr0fessi0nal-fangurl @iamisalima @nessafrancis-blog @jonhdiggle @niki-is-amazing @universed-posts @hopeful-warrior @senoritaswiftie @bellemmie @green-arrows-of-karamel @iheartarrow @olicityovereverything @oliverfel4 @navyaarsha @fandoms-breathe-life @simone4mcswarek @olicity-in-the-heart @fullychippedcreation @geemarie @everything-but-normal-cat @myarroworld @tjmartinez @pleasantfanandstudent @itsmagnoliagirl @j69confessional2 @scentedcolorpirate @icanica74 @javinancupil @tjmartinez98 @certainmentalityface @tatianadamaceno @ryelew @wildwillowzepplin @missafairy @letsplaymurde-r @lipizette @positivepiper @nuttymilkshakehologram @laksagirl @turnupthemusicandscream @pumpernickle93 @onceuponanolicity @1106angel @jaspertown @fadinglands @morganashimi83 @mochababychristy @omglovechrissie @mariejr88-blog @thetaufactor @onceuponanolicity @speakandseethetruth @bri206 @aglasgo @thats0klaroline @geemarie @pineprincess @nerdgirljen @peterpanslostgirl666 @eternal-olicity14 @allyouhadtodowas-stay-stay-stay @lovelycssefan @tsseract @flowerandsunshine @dcnmarvelgamergeek @blondeeoneexox @monetsmark @soaring-cities @bb-olicity @mashamarty @rulerofsilence @erika-amber @felicity087 @i-claim-only-emily @pattid1 @westallenandolicityshipper @babyolicityandwestallen @nothingmorethanmyotps @kayleenyc @tonto16 @olicityfluv @olicitea1990 @olicity5ever @haahaaa2408 @pattid1 @faegal04 @24karatgem @wrldtravler @readerkas @valery6488 @lemmyeatspeaches @olicity-beliver

(If you want to be tagged or untagged, just let me know. :))

#arrow #olicity #olicity fic #olicity fanfic #mothers know best

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jennifersylvesters · 6 years ago

Text

give a little - part two

Pairing: Chris Evans / Sebastian Stan x fem!reader Word Count: 3.6k~ Warning: swearing Prompt: fake dating ( @petalparker and @suncitydanvers writing challenge ) A/N: /whispers: yeet yoot. new part done. another couple to go. ( if i forgot to tag you, i’m so sorry! i’m in a loopy state at the moment ) hope y’all enjoy! as always, feedback is appreciated and loved!

You never thought much about the idea of having two boyfriends. After all you were fortunate enough to just have one. So nothing could’ve prepared you for the certain problems that arose when dealing with Sebastian and Chris.

It turned out that Chris was quite demanding when he wasn’t the center of attention. “I need you to come over.” “Do you remember which Mexican restaurant is my favorite? Not fake Chris’s, but mine? Lucy will expect you to know this.” “Can you tell fake Chris to stop bothering you so you can help me with something?” He wasn’t one for sharing, insisting he needed your utmost attention. Whether or not that was the truth wasn’t his concern. His demanding behavior was taking a toll on Sebastian whose patience was running thin.

“If he calls me “fake Chris” one more time, I swear I’m gonna knock him out” Sebastian threatened as the two of you walked to the parking garage one morning. He grumbled about Chris being an absolute jackass and how he couldn’t understand how you put up with his whining. You wondered how two grown men could act like complete children.

You sympathized with Seb reminding him that it wouldn’t be much longer dealing with this fake relationship. Just one coffee date and it would all be over. He wouldn’t be burdened with this mess anymore.

Unlike Chris, Sebastian wasn’t needy. In fact Sebastian complied with whatever you asked. Would he gel his hair back? Sure. Could he wear that dark brown leather jacket for the date? Okay. Did he mind coming over to discuss certain details Jake would expect Sebastian to know? No problem at all.

The only thing that bothered you were his constant reminders of the inevitability you would get caught.

“Don’t tell Jake, and we won’t get caught” you would irritatedly counter back. Sometimes he sat too high on his moral pedestal that you wanted to give him a swift kick off. But he offered you help in one of your weakest moments so you weren’t in a position to say anything. At least not yet.

Twenty-seven steps forward. Swivel on the heel. And start all over again.

“You alright there?” Glancing up you spotted Sebastian leaning against his apartment door with an amused smile.

You had been pacing back and forth in the hallway waiting for him. Smoothing down your skirt, you flashed him a tense grin. It was a tricky question. Technically you were alright. You were in good health and looked nice. You made sure to doll up knowing you were meeting Jake today. This time you were fully prepared for anything.

Except there was a sickening feeling in your stomach that something would inevitably go wrong. It gnawed away as you muttered that you were fine. Concern visibly read on your face as Seb burst into laughter.

“I’m not gonna mess this up for you” he promised.

The two of you walked side by side towards the designated cafe in nervous silence. A couple blocks before you reached your destination, you suddenly took hold of his hand.

He stopped walking and stared down at your interlocked hands.

“It’s for the date! Fake dating obviously! Erm, gotta hold hands before we get there so that this looks authentic, y’know?” you babbled.

Feeling rather embarrassed you began to let go of his hand when he gripped back.

“Makes sense. I just...It caught me off guard that’s all.”

You nodded at him and he mirrored your action.

It was clear the two of you needed to focus. You asked him to repeat your favorite drink and pastry, which he recited quickly. He gave your hand a squeeze as if to say “we got this”. You began walking once more - this time hand in hand - confident this could work. The two of you could totally fake this.

And at first it seemed plausible. The two of you greeted Jake in unison with ridiculously chipper smiles. Seb ordered for you and scooted his chair close as the three of you conversed. He slung his arm around your shoulder, laughing at all the right times while agreeing with anything you said. Yet the finer details began showing cracks.

As Jake offered his extra pastry to Sebastian, you shook your head and placed a hand out.

“Oh, Chris actually doesn’t like that” you stated patting your fake boyfriend’s knee.

“I, uh, actually really like blueberry scones” Sebastian mumbled under his breath.

“Wait, so that was...other?” you whispered so Jake couldn’t hear. Were you thinking of the actual Chris?

Sebastian nodded his head. Crap.

“Shoot. I must’ve confused Chris with...my...grandmother.” Sebastian pursed his lips, trying his best not to laugh at your improvisation.

“You mistake your fake boyfriend for your grandmother often?” he whispered in your ear. There was no way he would let you forget that.

“Didn’t your grandma pass away two years ago?” Jake tapped his chin as he recalled the event. So he couldn’t remember your best friend’s birthday party, but he could remember your grandmother’s passing? How convenient.

“Yes...But my other grandma...She’s alive…And she doesn’t like blueberry scones” you managed to piece together. Sebastian bit down concealing a smile that threatened to pop out. Neither of you were particularly good liars, which made this interaction all the more difficult.

Jake asked “Chris” what he did in his spare time and the other man rattled off various hobbies. The two of them found they both enjoyed hiking launching into a discussion of the best trails.

“Yeah, Y/N and I go hiking sometimes” Seb grinned causing your face to pale.

“Really? The last time I tried to do that, she was a wheezing mess when we finished. She told me that she’d rather have her foot sawed off than hike again” Jake raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Se-Chris and I only did it once” you quickly interjected.

“And she was very enthusiastic the whole time” Sebastian chirped.

You knew Sebastian was trying to make things better yet his additions only added to the cracks.

“Huh. That’s so funny. I tried seeing if she might give it a second chance at that path near Northview, and she told me she’d rather stab herself than hike again.” Fuck. Why was he fact checking so hard?

“Well, people do funny things for love” you replied, leaning into Seb. “Do not take me hiking” you hissed into his ear.

“Duly noted” he whispered back.

“What are you two lovebirds whispering about?” Jake forced a laugh as you both chimed it was nothing.

As the three of you continued chatting, you hadn’t noticed your best friend on the other side of the street waving in your direction. Tessa was about to shout your name when Sebastian pulled you close and whispered something in your ear. As you flirtatiously giggled in response, her jaw dropped. Who was this attractive man you were flirting with, and why wasn’t she informed about this sooner?

Despite her confrontational nature, she eyed the situation carefully. When she spotted Jake in the midst, she scowled. Something was definitely up.

Tessa decided she wouldn’t cause a scene. At least not today. She pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of you and Sebastian. She would ask when the time was right. Lucky for you, the two of you had plans to meet up on Friday.

Tessa’s presence never even registered on your radar, more preoccupied with muddling through this sticky situation.

As the conversation steered towards your job, you shared a concerned glance with your fake boyfriend. The two of you never discussed your careers. Hopefully Sebastian would keep quiet and let you handle the matter.

“Actually the reason I wanted to meet with you is because of your job at SHIELD Enterprises” Jake cleared his throat, straightening up as he placed his hands on the table.

“As you know both of our companies are launching co-branding products at the end of the month.” You nodded. Of course you knew. Your work inbox was full of constant reminders for the “monumental” launch. It was becoming so irritating that you resorted to sending those emails to your spam file.

You eyed Jake as he spoke about how excited he was for this launch, how good this would be for both companies. You weren’t sure if he was trying to convince you and Sebastian or speaking for the sake of filling space. Either way you wanted him to get to the point.

“I know both of our job’s departments will be working on a couple things as they finalize the deal.” You tried your best to keep a composed face even though this news took you by surprise. Perhaps you should’ve read all the updates.

“I just didn’t want things to become uncomfortable or turn unprofessional if we have to work together. And I know we didn’t end things on a great note-” You grunted, unable to contain your disdain about the subject. “-But I’m glad that you’re happy with Chris.” Sebastian mustered up a smile as he squeezed your hand. “And I can’t wait to see you both at the gala in a couple weeks.”

Wait. What?

“What gala?” you asked, head perking up at this news.

“Oh, you know. They’re planning on throwing a gala to celebrate the success of the co-branding. Everyone’s going to the party at The Ritz. I assume you’re attending?”

“I...am” you choked out. Suddenly those spam emails seemed more necessary than ever.

“And I’m sure Chris here is accompanying you” Jake added. Sebastian stared at your horrified expression that he didn’t notice Jake calling him. “Chris? Chris, buddy? You’re going, right?”

It wasn’t until Jake nudged Sebastian that he finally snapped out of it. “Oh. Yes. Me. I’m Chris. Yes” he rambled trying to focus on what had been said.

“You’re of course joining us at the gala, right?” Jake watched him expectantly. Sebastian froze. Jake’s question completely caught him off guard. He opened his mouth but nothing came out.

“You wouldn’t let your girlfriend attend that soirée all by her lonesome, would you?” Despite Jake’s teasing tone, there was an underlying challenge presented. “Chris” wouldn’t just abandon his girlfriend at one of her biggest work events, right?

“...O-Of course not. I’ll, uh, be there” Sebastian finally stammered out.

“Great!” Jake drummed his hands on the table as you and Sebastian stayed frozen in position. “Coffee’s on me. Can’t wait to see you both” he winked as he placed a couple twenties on the table. He pushed back his chair and walked out of the cafe leaving you both in a daze.

“So…” Sebastian started, unable to find the right words.

“So…” you echoed, staring down at your coffee. The two of you had been so close to pulling this off yet Jake pulled the rug right under at last minute.

You both internally questioned what this meant now.

“Guess I’m gonna be “Chris” for a little longer?” he realized out loud. Hearing the words slip out, he bobbed his head up and down. He didn’t like the idea of playing pretend - especially if that meant being Chris Evans - but he was starting to accept this sad reality.

“Guess we’re still fake dating then” you concluded as you slowly nodded your head along in rhythm.

“I guess so.”

The two of you continued nodding your heads, just a pair of idiotic bobbleheads stuck faking a relationship for a little bit longer.

So maybe you weren’t too confident you could pull this off.

“Too high. That’s too high.”

Chris scoffed at your comment, moving his hands down slightly. “How about now?”

“Still kinda high.”

“If I move my hand any further down, it might as well rest on your ass” he pointed out. You glared as he took his hand off your side only to hold both hands in the air. “I’m just saying…”

You shook your head muttering how unbelievable he was. Wheeling the grocery cart down the bakery section, you reckoned you should’ve just stayed home.

In fact you originally planned on relaxing after a long day at work, but Chris had other plans. He insisted the two of you needed to make the relationship look believable by spending more time together.

When he invited you to grocery shop with him, you initially declined. You didn’t have money to freely spend just to hang out with a fake boyfriend. That changed when he said he would pay for your groceries. Not a bad toss up.

Except it turned out that Chris could be annoyingly bossy. As much as you wanted free groceries, you weren’t sure it was worth dealing with his attitude.

He was in the midst of figuring out how to make it seem like you two were a naturally loving couple instead of complete strangers. Yet whenever he touched you affectionately, you couldn’t help but jolt away or instantly freeze.

“Stop tensing up” he instructed as you whined that you were doing your best. His actions were far too intimate for someone you barely knew. Your suggestions of just an arm around your shoulder or even linking arms were vetoed immediately.

“That’s something I would do with my relatives. It has to be believable” he urged. You internally groaned as you rolled your eyes.

Every time he complained, you found yourself throwing something into the cart. Why not? He was paying after all. If he wanted to be annoying, two could play that game.

“I’m not made of money like Robert Downey Jr., y’know?” he reminded you after you tossed in two bags of Doritos.

You let out a snort. Despite knowing the logistical name of his job, you still weren’t sure what he actually did. “I’m not expecting you to be a tech billionaire, but you did say you were paying.”

“That’s when I didn’t think you were buying the whole store” he complained. Staring him dead in the eye, you swiped another bag of Doritos into the cart.

Chris rolled his eyes before wrapping his arms around your waist. You stiffened at his touch prompting him to laugh. “Most women would kill for this. You know that, right?”

Taking in his features, you understood why women liked him. He had that all-American charm and was certifiably handsome. But you were finding out that beneath the dreamy smile was a man with a lot more bite than you initially expected.

He kept hold on your waist as you realized he wasn’t wrong. Perhaps it was a conceited notion but you saw the way others gushed and pined over Chris. Other women wanted that domestic lifestyle with him yet he would never even think about that possibility. You pointed out that you were in this situation because one woman in particular would legitimately kill for this.

“I’m gonna get murdered by her, aren’t I?” you worried out loud.

“I’ll start getting your funeral preparations ready. I’m sure one of these aisles has some flowers I can lay on your casket” he joked.

Meanwhile Tessa was doing grocery shopping of her own. As she debated whether she wanted carrots, broccoli, or to screw the healthy choices in general, she spotted you getting comfortable with Chris.

Her eyes widened witnessing him wrap his arms around you. He said something that must’ve been hilarious because you to burst into laughter. Tessa nearly toppled over the orange stand watching you flirt with another attractive man with such ease.

Taking out her phone, she snapped a couple of pics. The two of you had a lot to discuss this Friday.

Completely oblivious to your friend’s nearby presence, you gently shoved Chris away before turning back to the cart. He laid his head on your shoulders blowing a bit of air on the shell of your ear. Swatting him off, you began pushing the cart oblivious to Tessa rushing away. “You ever think that this Lucy situation might be a sign that you should settle down?” you questioned earning you a booming laugh.

“Absolutely not. If anything, it convinces me that I’d be stupid to do so.”

“Such an optimist.”

“I like to keep grounded in reality.”

“Then let me remind you that the reality is you have a stalker. And you probably should’ve reported her.” He laughed again and insisted you didn’t need to be so concerned. Chris never really worried seeing as he wasn’t on the receiving end of Lucy’s death glares. Lucky him. Kind of.

“Seriously, though. You really need to find a better girl” you advised.

“Too much work” he retorted tossing a box of cereal into the cart.

“Yet you’d put in the effort to have a fake girlfriend? Just imagine what you could get done if you actually tried.” Finding the box of protein bars on your shopping list, you placed it in the cart before wheeling around.

“You sound like my parents” he grunted, scratching the nape of his neck.

“Yes, that’s what every fake girlfriend likes to hear. She wants to know that she reminds you of your parents. God, that gets her all hot and bothered” you teased.

Chris gripped the cart near the handle, forcing you to stop moving. Had you gone too far?

Slowly he leaned in close making your heart beat quickly. With his serious manner, your mind went blank and got lost in those brilliantly blue eyes. His face was only inches away, his gaze never leaving yours.

He pulled away, revealing a can of pasta sauce in his hand. You turned your head realizing he grabbed the jar from behind you.

“Did that get you hot and bothered?” he cheekily asked with an eyebrow raised.

You scowled. Of course he was messing with you. Maybe men like Chris weren’t destined to settle down.

Grabbing the sauce from him, you put it in the cart before grabbing three more jars and two boxes of pasta. The only revenge you could do was to raise the bill. A cocky expression lingered on his face as he grinned at your flushed appearance.

“So it did?”

“Shut up, Chris.”

You typed away on your work keyboard, glancing at the clock every couple minutes. While you enjoyed Fridays, the anticipation for the weekend always made you antsy especially after lunch. The weekend was tangible but not in your grasp quite yet.

As five o’ clock rolled around, you quickly packed up and headed to your favorite cafe to meet up with your best friend. You hadn’t seen Tessa in a couple weeks so it was nice to finally catch up in person.

“Hey!” you threw your arms around Tessa, bringing her in for a tight hug.

The two of you settled into your seats before the waitress came by to take your order. Getting your usual, you asked Tessa how things were going. It was the typical response; everything was as good as they could be.

She watched you closely as the waitress set down glasses of water. “So...How are things with you?” she asked nonchalantly drumming her fingers across the table. You shrugged stating everything was relatively the same. The lie slipped out easier than you thought it would. While you didn’t like keeping secrets from her, the less people that knew about the circumstances the better.

“Are you seeing anyone?” she asked.

You hummed, bringing the cup to your mouth. “Not really” you played off casually.

“”Liar!” she shouted so loud causing you to choke. A couple people glanced your way but she paid no attention. Tessa yanked out her phone, smashing in her passcode before pulling up the photos of you with the two men.

You had two options: you could admit the truth or you could lie.For some reason you picked the latter. Trying to play it cool, you insisted that wasn’t you. “Th-That could be anyone” you nervously argued.

“Obviously that’s you” Tessa’s deadpan expression made it clear she wasn’t buying it. “You think I don’t know what my best friend looks like? Plus you’re wearing the skirt you borrowed from me two months ago with that coffee guy. I want that back by the way.”

You knew there was no point in denying any longer when she not only had proof but a tenacious attitude to back up her claims. So you admitted that you were in both those photos hoping she wouldn’t pry. Ever the optimistic thinking.

She stared at you expectantly, waiting for you to continue. There was no way she was dropping the matter without hearing a proper explanation. While she expected to hear that you were just getting back in the dating pool, her eyes widened at the elaborate schemes currently going on.

Tessa had you break down everything slowly so she could fully process the situation. She grimaced at the mention of Jake, sticking out her tongue in disgust. Even when you were dating, Tessa never liked him and made no effort to disguise her feelings. You ignored the her comment about how either men was an upgrade from your ex.

Once you finished, you looked fixedly at her waiting to hear her final thoughts.

“So you’re dating two men?” Tessa posited looking for clarity on the situation.

“Technically no” you answered slowly.

“Oh, so you’re…” she paused, raising her eyebrows with a smirk. With one hand, she held up her pointer finger. With the other, she made a small circle connecting her thumb to the other pointer finger. She proceeded gesture crudely in and out of the circle, causing your face to redden.

“No!” You swatted her hands as she giggled. “It’s not like that!” Your face heated up at the idea of doing anything sexual with either of them.

“I know there wasn’t much you could really do about the Chris situation, but you didn’t have to go that far with Sebastian.” You blinked, confused by her words. “You realize you could’ve just told Jake that “Chris” was sick, right?” You said nothing, letting this sink in.

She was right. There had been no reason to drag Sebastian this far along. It could’ve been a brief coffee meeting with a “see you at the mandatory meetings and then never again” ending. Perhaps both of you were absolute morons.

“So...Should I just attend the gala by myself then?” you wondered out loud.

“You could. But knowing Jake, he’ll probably give you grief about you being by yourself” Tessa pointed out. That sounded highly probable. You could imagine Jake acting sympathetic, He would shoot you “poor Y/N is all by herself” looks with his arm snaked around whatever hot chick he decided to bring that night.

“Honestly I think it’d be nice for you to have a bit of arm candy by your side. It’d probably drive Jake crazy. Plus it’d be a nice confidence boost” she suggested. You mulled the thought, figuring it would be a nice blow to Jake’s ego. “I’m sure both boys would look good in a tux. Well, whichever one you choose to bring to the gala” she added.

“Stop!” you smacked her arm.

With a tut and a shake of her head, she laughed “Y’all are messy.” She sipped her water as you heaved out a heavy breath. That was the understatement of the century.

tags list: @sleepybesson, @supernatural-girl97, @tomhaz, @sophiatomlinson23 | @achishisha, @almostrosadiazz, @allynalemons, @blueskiesbleakeyes, @jbarnes87, @kendratheweird, @kenzieiam (?), @sillydecoy

#chris evans fanfiction #chris evans fic #chris evans x reader #sebastian stan fanfiction #sebastian stan fic #sebastian stan x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans x y/n #sebastian stan x y/n #sebastian stan x you #chris evans #sebastian stan #seb stan fanfiction #seb stan fanfic #seb stan x y/n #seb stan x reader #seb stan x you #my writing #fic: give a little

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carrietrekkie · 6 years ago

Text

Crossroads - Part III

Fate, Time and Destiny.

The last part of this story. It´s kind of a sum up but I had to bring it forwards and it didn´t fit the next part so. Here are the “ending” of the night together, the morning after and a look through the following week. I changed the series story a bit, you´ll see.

Warning: Comfort, a touch of romance and sadly some hard decisions and death.

Please leave some fb! ;) Enjoy!

@bold-brave-courageous @allthetrek @reeselivesforeverinmyheart

Part I - I never wanted to do that.

Part II - Save in my arms.

I jerked slightly, but calmed down immediately, realizing that it had only been a dream. Well, this time anyway. I was still dead tired, but opened my eyes briefly and took a moment, until I had processed the picture in front of my eyes. Lying beside me, peacefully asleep and as relaxed as I'd ever seen him, was Captain Chris Pike. How did that happen?

I let my eyes wander through the dark room. The pale light was enough to make me realize that I was not in my quarters and consequently was not lying in my bed. The insight wiped the drowsiness a little aside, but unfortunately also left the reason why I was here. I sat up and took a deep breath. Right, I had lost my nerve and that was right down the line. He had insisted that I slept here and now I understood why. If I had been alone now, my thoughts would have started to turn around this horrible event of a few hours ago, now I pulled myself together, if only because I didn´t want to wake him.

I sat there for a while watching him sleep. His chest was rising and falling evenly, in between he made something that sounded like a growl. I had to clench my lips, otherwise I would have giggled. Then something else came to my mind. It felt so good to be here with him. I remembered the feeling that flowed through me as I lay in his arms, the warmth, his heartbeat, his scent. His voice and words keeping me sane. It was a long time since I felt that way and yes, it felt damn good. I sat back on the mattress, rolled over and looked out of the window for a moment. How big was the likelihood of finding someone like him in the middle of this huge galaxy, even through space and time? And yet he was right next to me and with every moment we spend together, the feeling that I should exactly be here, on his side, grows more and more, wiping away all the doubts and uncertainties I had, leaving just affection, warmth, love and everything that goes with it.

Right now he was moving. I glanced over my shoulder, sleepily blinking at me. "Everything alright?" He stroked his nose, totally drowsy. "Yeah, all right." I smiled, than I raised my hand and softly brushed back his hair. "Go back to sleep." "Mmh."

He slipped close to me until he was right behind me, he pushed his arm past my head, then put his other arm around me and cuddled up to me. I closed my eyes, it felt so unbelievably good and when I felt his breath brush against my neck, I had to pit myself together, not throwing all the rules of propriety overboard, kissing him and seeing where that leads. I felt his breath calm down again, so I took it as a sign that he had fallen asleep again. I closed my fingers around his hand, cuddling as close to him as I could, then I let myself be carried off again.

****

Later on the next day.

Tilly was impressive, I could not say otherwise, but it was certainly twenty light years ahead of me, at least, because for a good five minutes I didn´t understand a word she said.

"You look like you just had a little stroke." Her head moved into my field of vision. "Not that, I'm just trying not to look like I lost the lineup." I grinned at her. "Sorry," Tilly replied. "I forgot you're still in the beginning." "At the very beginning. That's when I lost the thread. "I pointed towards warp drive. "And I just get the feeling that this is not really my thing." "It doesn´t have to, but it's part of the basic knowledge." Silvia shrugged. "Then surely there are textbooks or something?" I pushed away from the console I was leaning against. "Yeah, that's a good idea!" I chuckled as her eyes widened. "I'll send you a list, let's say last high school year?" "I was never in high school. That means differently in Germany, but I think I should be able to cope with that. " "If not, you can ask." She started dubbing something on a data pad.

"Tell Tilly, is the memory of the ship's computer unlimited?" "No, not at all. Much of it relates to the network of the Federation, in which we are in contact and regularly updates itself. The memories of the Constituting class are huge, but that also depends on the way of they missions. So far out there, the contact with one of the homeworlds of the Federation is very difficult to impossible. " "Okay, you see." I pointed to her. "I understood that." "Small cattle are also crap." She returned it, then handed me the pad. "You should be busy for a while." "Most certainly." "I have to go to the bridge, will you come with me?" "I think I'll skip that." I raised my eyebrows. "At least for today." "Will we have dinner later?"

Together we left the engine room. "Yes, at the end of your shift?" "Yep, I'll ask Micheal." "I just wanted to suggest." Tilly entered the turbolift, I stopped for a moment. "See you!" "See you!" The doors closed and I moved on to my quarters. I had something else to do now. Since yesterday I pushed that before me. Since leaving Pike's quarters the morning after my collapse, I had somehow avoided him, that was mean and unfair, because on the whole I remembered from that night was, how I had slept in his arms and that he had looked after me wonderfully. I went to my bedroom and grabbed the little box on my bedside table. Somehow it seemed to me that a simple thank you was not enough.

"Computer, where can I find Captain Pike?" "Captain Pike is in his ready room." "Thanks." I grimaced, it still felt funny to talk to a computer. I made my way to the destination it had called me, avoiding the bridge and directly taking the turbolift to his office. I pressed the door opener, waited until he bade me in and then went through the door.

"Hello." He was kneeling straight in front of one of the cabinets on the side, but looked up as I stepped beside him. "Hi, am I disturbing you somehow?" I grinned at him. "No, not really. I try to work out something, and was disturbed by the crooked bottle. "Pike chuckled as I started to smile. "Okay, that sounded a bit crazy." "I strongly suspect that the problem you're breeding over either takes you pretty much or is a mystery." "Let's say a mix of both." He finally got off the floor. "But I think there is just some light coming into the darkness." I smiled at him. "You wonder why I'm avoiding you?" "A little." He reached out and offered me a seat on the couch where he sat down. “You were gone when I woke up.” "I´m so sorry about that, it was not really intentional." I sat down, stroked my pants and then took a deep breath. "To be honest, I was a little embarrassed to see you again." "Why?" He smiled so broadly that it showed his dimples. "Seriously?" I sighed slightly. "I honestly wondered how I can look you in the eye again. I didn´t even thank you before I left. "Now I peek carefully in his direction.

He was still smiling, but far more gentle. "Would that have been so difficult?" "I don´t know yet." I returned it, then hesitated a moment before placing my hand on his. "Thank you, Christopher." "I liked to do that." He closed his fingers around mine. "How are you?" "It's still a weird feeling." I pulled my shoulders up a bit. "But I'm not crying every now and then, if I have to remember that. " "Can you sleep?" "Shall I be honest?" I pinched my lips for a moment. No, I couldn´t say that and yet I wanted it.

"Not as good as the night with you." I inhaled a bit hectic. "It's getting better." I didn´t give him a chance to say anything about it, but if I hadn´t turned away at the moment, I could have seen him getting a little blushed. "I have something for you."

I pulled the little box out of my pocket, turned around and could only wonder for a moment about his confused face before he wiped it aside with a smile. "Here." I pushed the not even palm-sized box into his hand. "What's that?" He smiled at me, then looked at the gift box. "Open up."

Smiling, he opened the package and one of the small disks that they used to listen to music rumbled on his hand. He took it between two fingers and held it up with a questioning face. "Under normal circumstances, I would have baked a box of cookies, but on a spaceship you cannot bake cookies. I learned today. "I grinned at him. "What a pity, because I bake dazzling cookies."

"I believe you immediately." He lifted the disk smiling. "It may look like that, but unfortunately not edible." "I rummaged through my music collection and put on it, which I thought you liked." I tapped the piece of technology. "There are cheesy, snappy and horribly old-fashioned songs, but maybe you like it." He was really touched that I could see the way he closed his fingers around it. "Thank you." He got up, went to his desk and put it on one of the interfaces. "Your welcome, it should be my thanks."

Chris sat down easily on his desk and started calling up the data. "I hope it worked." I also got up and walked over to him. "Was my first try." He grinned, looked at me briefly, then went on searching. "I assume there is a story to each of these songs?" "Not necessarily." I stood next to him and looked over his shoulder. "Some are just good. May I?" "Of course." I tapped a file. "This one is great for driving." From the loudspeaker came the first notes of U2, The Unforgetable Fire, then I scrolled on. "I'll just believe you now." "Right." I shrugged my eyebrows. "Didn´t think about it." I tapped another file, anyway, I wanted it when he came before me and choses the song directly beyond it. I smiled. "I started with that."

"That haunted me as a catchy tune for a few days." "I'm sorry." I nudged him. "With this that doesn´t happen anymore." Chris laughed a little, then pushed away from his desk. "Or it gets worse." "Could happen." I walked around the table and was about to head for the door when I felt him reach for my hand. "Do you have a moment?" He looked into my eyes. "It certainly doesn´t hurt either." "Okay." I let myself be withdrawn from him. "I don´t have a whole spaceship waiting for me." "Are even two." I didn´t want to hear that, but I didn´t show it. "I just want to try something." Carefully, he pulled me close, put one hand behind my back, and with the other he reached for mine and held it up, I guessed what he was getting at and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Computer from beginning." The song started from the beginning and he looked at me now. "What will that be?" I grinned at him. "You know how to dance waltz?” "I could do it in the 21st century." "I believe that has not changed." He took a step and I followed him, as I had learned it from an eternity ago. Pike raised an eyebrow. "No, everything like always." "From your or my point of view?" I let him push me in a spin. "That's a good question." He just wanted to pull me back when the doorbell rang. I stumbled and slammed straight into him. "Oops." He caught me and held me tight. "I had planned that differently." "I believe you even." With his hand on my hip, he pulled me closer, started stroking his thumb up and down, a look in his eyes I could give up everything right now. I loved how he looked at me in this moment and I wished he would never stop it again.

"Somebody wants something from you." Why couldn´t I shut up, just for one time?

“Should wait.” Carefully he put his forehead against mine, closed his eyes and I couldn´t help but smile at the sight. Kiss him!

The thought took everything in my head and why not? I leaned against him and nudged his nose lightly. He didn´t back off, but started stroking my nose with the tip of his. But again, destiny wasn´t on our side. It rang again and with a sigh that sounded more like a little curse, he let me go, stopped the recording and then invited the visitor in. Ash Tyler entered the ready room and nodded at us. "Captain, can I talk to you briefly?" "Of course Mr. Tyler." He looked at me. "Thanks, that helped me a lot." "I have to thank you, sir." I nodded my farewell to the two men, then left the room through the access I had just entered through, not without first cursing Ash for his appearance.

****

Right after that moment I was ready to bet everything on it, that this following day could be ours, that we ended up together in some way. In this night I found myself again in his bed, but not the way I wished for.

I had barely left the ready room when the red alarm made me flinch. I turned on my heel and ran back to the bridge. I was not part of the bridge crew, but as part of these still mysterious events, I wanted to know what was going on. Another signal had arrived and it was supposed to lead us into the klingon territory, to a planet no one had ever heard of, and from the first moment we did, I felt it would have been better that it stayed that way. In the next few hours the events unfolded and I found myself with Christopher in the biggest dispute we ever had and will have. I couldn´t believe that he wanted to beam alone on a planet, of which little more was known, as there was a klingon monastery and something was preserved, which was known as timecrystals. My suggestion to accompany him, he declined with a very clear command, even my objections that it would be sure permitted for me as a civilian, he didn´t accepted.

So I just could watch helplessly as the transporter carried him away. It felt like an eternity till he came back and the look with which he looked at me, before he wordlessly left the transporter room, went deep down into my soul. Something had to happen down there. It took me hours before I found Chris, and the time after that was blurred into a cloud of fear and tears. Just when we thought we had fated fate, time had made it clear to us that we couldn´t escape it. I needed all my strength, warmth, and yes, in any way, love to sustain him, to prevent him from get lost in the gloomy thoughts that surrounded him in that night. I could only hold on to him and keep saying that everything would be fine, while the nightmares kept him from sleeping, finding peace for what was ahead of us.

Chris later told me that he believed that he could only pass this test, that he was only able to control his senses because he knew what this crystal would show him, and yet, it had changed him and it took a long time, until he had recovered to some extent. He also had not much time in the next few days for some calm moments. Tilly and Burnham came up with an unbelievable idea of how we could protect the data from Control and even I could come up with a proposal that would save the whole Discovery and its crew. An idea from an old sci-fi series, who would have thought that would be really useful? Nevertheless, the price was high. Chris had sacrificed his fate for it, we suffered heavy losses and Stamets was still recovering from his life-threatening injuries. The damage to the Discovery was considerable and the spore drive was destroyed. And we lost Captain Leland. There was no way to separate him and Control and so Georgiou and Pike had found no other way out than to kill him. When the shuttle, into which we had been able to load the Sphere's data store, disappeared into the wormhole created by Michael, Captain Georgiou, Chris and I stood in the engine room, watching Leland die. Despite everything that had happened, they had been friends and I could see Chris heart breaking as he could do nothing to save him. It was hard to join the party that followed Michael's return, and Starfleet's instruction never again to talk about the incidents that accompanied the signals didn´t make it any easier.

I hoped that time, as much as I cursed it, would gradually heal those wounds, and when I left my quarters the next morning, I even believed it for a while, but then a crossroads opened in front of me and I had to decide which way I wanted to take.

******

On the next day

Another branch appeared in front of me, I hesitated for a moment, then turned right and found the next checkpoint. I reached out and slapped my hand, waiting to see where it was going to send me. The path went towards the engine room. I turned around and ran again. That was a strange competition, but alright, it was supposed to test orientation under time pressure and load, and I found myself pretty good at it. Now it all just mattered what my time was. I accelerated even more, ignoring the scream of my muscles and shooting into the hallway that would take me to the engine room. The seconds passed and when I was almost sure that I had lost my way, I saw my goal. I grinned, made a final turn, and stepped through the light barrier that marked the finish line. "Huh." I stopped and leaned on my legs. A few legs were in my field of vision. One of them I recognized right away. "Hey Tilly." I briefly raised my hand. "Hey." She sounded too hurry, but was so fit that she could hold a water bottle in my face. "Just arrived." "Ah." I straightened up and took a long sip. In the background I got to see how my colleagues stormed into the room one by one. "Ms. Zimmer. "Saru's voice made me straighten up. "Commander." I smiled at him, well I tried. "Congratulations." He nodded to me. "You were second after Ensign Tilly." "No, seriously?" I stared at him, then at his pad, which he turned so I could see it. Tilly had arrived before me just ten seconds. "Wow, look at that." "Two weeks ago you get lost constantly." Tilly punched me. "You cannot do everything." I jabbed back.

"Well done, both of you." Saru nodded to us, then looked at me. "I release you, if you would like to attend the morning's shadow exercise." "Would I be qualified at all?" The rest of the content of the bottle disappeared inside me. "Well, maybe not one hundred percent, but there's no question you'd learn a lot." "Okay, I'm in." I grinned at him. "What should go wrong?" Saru's smile finally made me guess a little, that Tilly was chuckling next to me didn´t make it any better. "Didn´t I catch something?" "No, I'll tell you right away." Tilly grabbed another bottle, then handed me it. "Let´s eat something?" "Sure, I am dying of hunger." Saru dismissed us, than tell the others their results. "Would it be unreasonable to pull in a huge sundae now?" I unscrewed the cap of the bottle. "I think we burned enough calories." Tilly did the same. I was grateful for the distraction by the CTP the last few days. Since the mystery of the apparitions was solved and averted the impending disaster, I felt increasingly useless. I didn´t know yet what to do with myself here. Although I did a kind of internship with Dr. Culber, but without training at the academy, that wouldn´t get me any further, even though he never tired of assuring me how great I would be. The next few days I will have to decide and that was just incredibly difficult and actually I just didn´t want to deal with it. The hoped-for distraction came halfway towards the team café. Pike came swiftly towards us, but slowed when he saw us. "Let me guess." He spread his arms. "I am too late?" "So much." I raised my hand and held my thumb and index finger just above each other. "But yes Sir." Tilly grinned. "You´re late." "Commander Saru is still in the engine room." "We'll be meeting later anyway." Pike waved his hand. He was on amazingly good mood. Well, even in the worst situations he was hard to beat his positive mood, even after the last events, but just now he was almost too euphoric. Tilly and I exchanged a look.

"Um, Sir, are you alright?" "Yes, excellent Tilly, thanks for asking." He returned her smile. "Are you telling us what makes you so overjoyed or should we guess?" I raised my eyebrows. Now he laughed right. "I've just talked to Number One, the Enterprise systems are restored, the ship is ready to go." I hoped I wouldn´t let the smile fall from my face but I couldn´t prevent it from freezing. "We are expected in a few days on earth."

"You can go home." Tilly joined him smiling. "Well, as far as you can say that." "That's the way to say that." Pike's gaze moved in my direction. "And you are remarkably quiet Cathrin." "I'm almost run an hour around, I'm hungry. "I pulled myself together. "But yes, that's great! It lasted long enough, right? " "Just long enough." He looked at us, then past us as Saru turned the corner. "Excuse me, please." "Of course Sir." Tilly stepped aside and I watched him go past us. "That's unbelievable news, finally there are a few good ones."

Silvia went on, but I just saw myself unable to even move. Instead, I stared at Pike as he exchanged a few words with Saru, then the conversation ended and he turned to me. His eyes met mine directly and I struggled to pull away. I could see him tremble briefly, so I did the first thing that came to my mind, smiled at him, turned around and started to catch up with Silvia. The following hour seemed like an eternity and I was more than relieved when the doors of my quarters finally closed behind me. I knew that day would come, I knew it because I had seen it and I knew it because he had told me, but a part of me had hoped that something would change and he would be around for a while, stay longer on the Discovery. At least until I knew what it was or could be between us.

And now? A look out the window told me we were already on Warp, the destination was not hard to guess. Christopher Pike would be leaving my life in a few hours, and given the size of the galaxy and the enormous amount of spaceships, I would probably never see him again. Even if I completed the Academy successfully, no one could guarantee that I would end up on the Enterprise or back here. Maybe I had this, whatever that was between us, the last weeks just imagined and he would go without me hugging him, hold on or finally kiss.

I just felt lost, like never before since my arrival here, not even when I had to fear that Cornwell delivered me to Section 31, I still had hope and I was painfully aware of why I had had this hope. Chris had always been at my side, I never had to face these catastrophes and incisive events alone. I just sat down on the floor where I had just stood. I couldn´t believe that day should be tomorrow and I couldn´t do anything about it. I couldn´t ask a Starfleet captain to didn´t go back to his ship, especially if that ship was the USS Enterprise and the Captain, Christopher Pike.

The only thing I could comfort myself with was that I had probably prevented him from having to submit to this terrible fate, which had come up in my world as a particularly mean author. I lay down and stared at the ceiling. I could go to him now, it was only a few meters to his quarters. I could knock and finally put an end to this back and forth, and I surprised myself with it, as I put my legs back on, got up, and left my quarters. Then I stood in front of his door and then my courage left me a little. I didn´t know if he was there, actually, I didn´t know what I wanted to say, but I raised my hand and let it wander over the bell, then I pulled it away and took a step back.

I couldn´t, I just couldn´t do it, so I turned and walked back. This time, I went straight to my bedroom, changed my clothes, and fell completely to my bed. Thanks to the orienteering, I fell asleep immediately, but it was not going to be a particularly good night.

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