#I’m also 40 days sober which is not a lot but it’s nice too

[disownedbytiime]

Now I know I was 100% drowning in burnout.

During this month/month and a half of rest, I’ve had so many ideas and plans for wips—more than I had in the entire past year. Basically, I feel like I’m once again new to writing; new worlds are in front of me and I’m excited and everything feels novel and it’s not stressful.

I’m still dealing with brain fog (especially on the day-to-day/while talking to people), but I know it’s not something that will get fixed overnight. I’m dealing with it slowly and steadily.

But in any case, I’m very excited to start writing again soon.

[callme-barnes]

Drunk Crushin’

*GIF is not mine*

Summary: You have a night out with the girls to get your mind off of your ex. Now your in the tower confessing things you wouldn’t be if you were sober.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem!Reader (with powers)

Word Count: 1,842

Warnings: None

A/N: Please do not repost my work anywhere! I wrote it for Tumblr so it stays on Tumblr. I’m trying to get back in the swing of writing things because well, I love writing. It’s been literal years since I’ve written anything so please be kind. I kind of just put this out as it goes. I don’t want to think about it too much or I will never publish anything. Anyways, for this pic I gave the reader the ability to manipulate nature but it doesn’t play a huge part in it. All mistakes are mine. Enjoy otherwise!

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The euphoric feeling of the satin dress on your skin was mixing in nicely with the feeling of too much alcohol in your system. The alcohol heightened the smooth sensation on your skin and the music caused you to sway from side to side to the rhythm, flashing lights dancing across the exposed skin of your legs, arms, and chest. Natasha and Wanda surrounded you, the pair of them a lot more sober than you were.

“Y/N/N...how are you feeling?”

You managed to open your eyes at hearing your name, although it sounded muffled due to your intoxication.

“I feel...amazing! Who...who needs men. Right? Right!”

Wanda couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped her lips at your response

“Babe maybe we should have you drink some water. You’ve been on the dancefloor for hours” she mentioned in slight concern but also was amused at how carefree and happy you were in that moment.

“I’ll take...I’ll take another shot” you said blissfully, looking at Natasha and Wanda before you reached over and moved your arms around each of their shoulders

“Thank you guys so much...I...I needed this so much. I can’t believe...believe he would do something like that. I mean...what...what the fuck was he thinking?! And in my bed for fucks sake”

Wanda and Natasha moved to walk you towards a small corner booth, Wanda excusing herself so she could get you some water.

“Don’t worry about him babe. He was a fucking asshole. I couldn’t stand him. If I had a chance to cut his head off I would”

Y/N laughed to herself as she leaned into Natasha, resting her head on her shoulder, her own head spinning.

“I love you Natasha. And you Wanda!”

Wanda laughed at your coo and she slipped into the empty seat next to you helping you get your water bottle open

“I love you too babe. Now, let’s get you sobered up just a little and get you back to the compound”

You don’t even know how the conversation was started due to your head not really remembering any complex thoughts, but your mouth was running as if you knew exactly what you were talking about.

“He’s...holy fuck, if I could get my hands on that man. He is probably...probably the hottest man I have ever laid eyes on. I’m glad he managed to get into this era because...I mean, the 40’s didn’t appreciate him much”

Natasha had her arm wrapped around your waist, your heels clacking on the hardwood floor and your dress had ridden up dangerously short above your thigh. You were smiling to yourself as images of Bucky Barnes flooded your mind, your intoxicated brain flashing the most sinful, perverted thoughts.

“Have you seen the man workout...when he’s all sweaty and...out of breath”

Wanda set your stuff down on the counter with a small smirk on her face as she listened to you go on about the super soldier, having known all this by now. She had always agreed not to read your mind but you didn’t exactly make it hard to notice sometimes. She was pretty sure everybody in the tower knew about your crush on Bucky.

“Sorry Y/N, you’re the only one who has noticed that I’m afraid”

Natasha set you down on one of the stools, Wanda moving to stand next to you to keep you upright. You swayed a bit to yourself, looking around in a haze.

“Oh come on! Don’t tell me. We’ve all been in the same room with the guy! He once took his shirt off during a sparring match with Steve and I haven’t stopped...thinking about it since. But you gotta....you gotta shhh because my boyfriend would get mad if he knew”

Natasha laughed slightly as she took some snacks from the cupboard noticing Bucky walking into the kitchen Before he got a chance to ask what you guys were up to, you let out a scoff as you looked over drunkenly at Wanda

“Oh wait….I almost, forgot! I don’t even...have a boyfriend! Not anymore. Fucking bastard. He...you know what. Fuck that guy. I think I’m pretty hot, I am a...I can make life grow with these hands!” you say as you hold up your hands in front of both you and Wanda, Wanda reaching over and grabbing onto them causing you to lean into her chest, your eyes looking up

“You think...you think I’m hot don’t you Wanda?”

Bucky watched the display in front of him, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge then looked over at Natasha

“What’s all that about?”

Natasha ate a chip and looked over at Bucky speaking quietly, “She found Leo in bed with another woman this morning”

Bucky’s eyebrows shot up, a bit in surprise but more so in disdain. He figured that’s how that guy would go out. Bucky would constantly see his wandering eyes when you would bring him around, even go far as catching up all up on some girl once. Leo had just laughed it off and said it wasn’t what it had looked like before before walking back to you. Since that day Bucky made sure to keep a close eye on him, which put Leo on his guard and just made it harder to catch him

“Asshole. How did she take it? Why didn’t she tell me?”

Natasha looked at Bucky with a knowing stare, “You know why she didn’t tell you. She hasn’t exactly been that open about her relationship since that day you told her you caught him on some girl at the BBQ last year”

Bucky drank more of his water and sighed, his gaze moving up to see you interacting with Wanda. He couldn’t help the slight smile that was on his lips as Wanda pushed hair from your face and spoke to you in a quiet, calming voice.

“Whose Natasha talking to? Hey Nat! I’m the drunk one here you’re not supposed to be the one talking….to yourself”

Natasha smiled in amusement as she ate more chips from the bag, “I’m not babe, I’m talking to Bucky”

Your eyes widened immediately as you straightened up from Wanda’s body and fumbled around with your hair, “Holy shit! Why didn’t you...tell me. Wanda how do I look?”

Wanda let out a laugh and shook her head as you loudly whispered to her, her hand going to hold onto you and smooth out your hair

“You look lovely Y/N/N”

You looked in Bucky’s general direction, a smile on your face at his words. You brought your chin to rest on your open palm on top of the counter, your eyes closing and opening so you could try to focus

“Y/N, Wanda and I are going to get out of this clothes and we’re going to bring you a change of clothes. Are you okay with Bucky for a few minutes?”

You let out a soft grumble in agreement, your eyes now just staying shut.

“Yeah. I mean as long as...he doesn’t take off his shirt because I wouldn’t remember it in the morning and that would be...a waste of a strip tease”

Bucky laughed a bit as he walked over and stood next to you to keep you upright, “Don’t worry doll my shirt will stay on”

Wanda and Natasha laughed to themselves before making their way to their rooms to change. Y/N felt her body sway to rest against Bucky’s torso, her head on his chest before Bucky moved to rest a hand on your waist

“Come on Y/N we should get you in a more stable seat”

You groaned as Bucky helped you up off the stool and made his way to the couch

“Bucky, you were right. I’m sorry, I should have...listened to you”

Bucky moved to set you down on the couch, taking a seat next to you “Right about what sweetheart?”

“About Leo...he was, he’s an asshole. That day at the BBQ, I knew...I knew you were telling me the truth. I just..do you know I had caught him talking to other women all the time? On his phone, when we went out. I just...I was so embarrassed. I didn’t want it to be true”

You moved to lay your head down in his lap and sniffled, “I tried everything, he just...I should have accepted that he didn’t want me”

Bucky moved his hand to push your hair out of your face, his other hand resting around your form “Don’t beat yourself up Y/N/N. He never deserved you. He’s an idiot if I’ve ever met one. And I’ve met many. If you want I can go scare him for you. You know, rough him up a little bit”

You laughed softly and shook your head, “It’s okay. Thank you though”

Bucky looked down as he continued to run his hand through your hair, watching as you held up one of your hands, “I should’ve choked him out with a vine when I had the chance”

He let out a loud laugh at this, his hand reaching up to take yours and set it down on your hip, “Calm down there Little Shop of Horrors”

Nat and Wanda entered the living area, clothes in hand, “Alright little lady let’s get you out of these clothes. Thank you Barnes”

Bucky helped you sit up, getting up when Wanda and Natasha sat down,“Bucky can’t leave. He smells nice, and he’s comfortable”

“Bucky can’t watch us change you sweetie. Remember, waste of a strip tease?”

Bucky smiled and turned around as Nat and Wanda helped you out of your dress and into a large t-shirt and shorts, “It’s okay I’d strip for that man any day”

Wanda scoffed with a laugh, Bucky’s smile growing into a happy little smirk at your words

“He’s still in the room lady behave”

“Oops, sorry”

You let out a drunken giggle as Wanda and Nat finished up, “Alright Bucky you can turn around. You’re welcome to join us. We’re just going to pop in a movie so we can keep an eye on her for the night”

Bucky nodded as he took his seat next to you again, letting you get comfortable in his lap again, his hand finding a comfortable spot on your waist.

“Psst...hey Nat you think I...got a chance with Bucky?”

Bucky looked down with a small smirk since Natasha was on the other sofa turning on the TV, “Absolutely doll”

You let out a content mumble of ‘thank god’ before stretching out your arm across Bucky’s lap.

“You know she’s not going to remember any of this when she wakes up right?”

Bucky looked up at Wanda before looking back down at your form

“Oh I know. That’s what’s going to make my days so much better for what I have planned”

[bombshellbois]

Mommy Issues

@harringroveweekoflove

Harringrove Week of Love Day 4: School Dance

Rating: T

Words: 1633

Summary: Steve and Billy have a philosophical discussion that they're both way too sober to have.

“Are you a Mama Bird or a Mama Bear?”

The question comes way too early in the dance when the kids are only just barely beginning to cross party lines and venture into the neutral ground that is the dance floor. Steve has only had one cup of punch and he barely spiked it because he’s trying to make the flask in his jacket pocket last. So he still feels way too sober for this brand of bullshit. 

“Hargrove,” he sighs. “We’re the only people between the ages of 16 and 40 at this dance.” He doesn’t have a follow up for that. He could end it with ‘Could you not be a dick?’ but he’s honestly not sure that’s in the cards when it’s Billy. Sure, he’s trying to be ‘better’ in some vague and unidentified way, and he is here with Steve acting as emergency chaperones for the school dance since there’s a shortage of people willing to be out after dark in this town these days. He just still doesn’t do the ‘nice’ thing. Ever. So Steve just kind of leaves the sentiment hanging and hopes Billy takes something away from it. 

“Please. You’re a 40-year-old woman at heart,” Billy scoffs, pulling a cigarette from the packet in the breast pocket of his white dress shirt. Which looks annoyingly good on him. He even buttoned it all the way up. Steve isn’t sure if that’s because of the formal setting or the scar on his chest, but the end result is the same. Billy Hargrove can absolutely pull off shirts with high collars and Steve has to live with that knowledge. “So. Are you a Mama Bird or a Mama Bear?”

“Dude, I don’t even know what that means,” Steve groans. “I’m not a mom at all.” Glorified babysitter who doesn’t actually get paid and spends more time fighting monsters than trying to monitor who’s watching a scrambled porn channel, sure. Mom? No way. 

“I saw that dish towel over your shoulder at Byers’ place. You’re a mom.” Billy looks at his cigarette like he’s really contemplating lighting it. 

“You can’t smoke in here.” Steve realizes a moment too late how that sounded, and Billy is already grinning widely. No taking that back now. 

“Yes, Mama Steve,” he says, tucking the cigarette behind his ear. 

Steve downs the rest of his punch. He’s kind of surprised that Billy remembers he was wearing a towel over his shoulder almost a year ago when he’d be hard-pressed to remember a single thing Billy was wearing that night, much less some accessory. But then again, he’s pretty sure he got a concussion that night too so… that probably has something to do with it. 

Halfway through the night, Mike and El have ventured out onto the dance floor. They’re probably a little too warm and snuggly for Hopper’s preferences but he’s been remanded to staying home and watching The Magnificent Seven again. Steve has no doubt he’s watching the clock to get a head start on beating the traffic on that 9 pm pickup time. 

Dustin and Will are huddled in the safety of the boys’ side of the gymnasium, heads together like they’re forming some kind of strategy. Except they never actually make any attempt to move or anything. Steve isn’t even sure if Dustin has permission to dance at this thing. Long-distance relationships have too many nuances and kudos to Dustin for trying one right out the gate. He’s a brave kid. 

Max and Lewis are loitering by the punch bowl and every time Max makes a vague motion towards the dance floor, Lucas appears to look around and then decline. Steve pauses in his kid check to follow one of Lucas’s covert glances to where Billy is staring the kid down from across the room. Well, that’s probably something he’s gonna have to deal with because who else is going to? 

Steve comes back to stand beside Billy, pulling the flask from his pocket and offering it up. “So… what does that stuff mean?” he asks, because he has to make conversation about something, and what do he and Billy even have to talk about that’s not horrifying? 

Billy reluctantly pulls his eyes away from where he’s glaring at Lucas. “What?”

“Bears and birds. What was that about?”

Billy takes the flask, shakes it experimentally, and pours a large amount into his cup of punch. Steve’s hopes of even getting a mild buzz to offset the pain of this whole affair drain into Billy’s cup with too much of his stash. “Christ, Harrington, didn’t you even pass the animal chapter in biology?”

This is going great. “Pretend I slept through most of it.”

Billy rolls his eyes and takes a sip from his punch. Then he empties the flask into it entirely before handing it back to Steve. “You some kind of superhero or something?”

“Sorry?” Steve tucks the empty flask back away, making a mental note to never try and share with Billy again. 

“No parents, no sleeping, chasing monsters with a fucking bat…”

“I’ve got parents.”

Billy takes a longer sip from his punch and sighs out through his nose. “You’ve got landlords. That’s what you’ve got.”

Steve takes a breath. Counts to five. Reminds himself that dealt with a Russian interrogator for longer than he’s dealt with Billy so far, and if that didn’t kill him then neither will this. And he only has to deal with him for another 90 minutes. 

“What’s the difference between a Mama Bird and a Mama Bear?” he asks again. 

Billy looks him up and down, and for a second, Steve thinks he’s going to refuse. Make some snide comment and put them right back at the place they’ve been stuck for weeks and months now, with Billy hovering around the edges of Steve’s life while trying to re-integrate himself with Max. Seems like if anything, he’s at least realized that Max is something good in his life and that he’s a little short on good things so he should probably hold onto that. 

“It’s like… a mama bear is gonna protect her kid, right? Baby bears are all cute and hikers think they can just go pet it because it’s friendly and then the mom shows up and rips them apart,” Billy says. Steve is sure he notices that Max grabs Lucas’s hand and drags him onto the dance floor, but he doesn’t comment on it, and that’s some growth right there. 

“That’s horrifying,” Steve says in a conversational tone that implies he understands and Billy should continue. 

“Where the mama bird straight up shoves her kids out of the nest so they’ll learn to fly.”

“That’s… also horrifying,” Steve says, in a new tone that implies that… that’s horrifying. “Mama birds are assholes.”

“You gotta show the kids the door sometime, or they’ll sit in the nest forever and eventually starve when winter comes,” Billy says, like that somehow makes it less terrible. Send a kid plummeting towards the ground to teach them to leave home? Nest. Whatever. 

“Well, I wanna be the bear then.” 

Billy looks him over, a look on his face that Steve can’t for the life of him decipher. “Yeah. You are a Mama Bear, aren’t you? You chase all the monsters away.”

Steve shrugs. “I mean, I’m not gonna leave that up to Dustin. Have you ever seen him swing anything? That kid is a goalie at best.” And not a great goalie either. Passable, but he’s definitely not someone you trust with hitting anything. 

“What happens when the monsters come and Mama Steve left for college?” Billy presses. 

“I’m not going anywhere.” Steve has a stack of college rejection letters that speak to that, but Billy doesn’t need to know that. But he’s also stopped applying because one, he’s not smart enough to get in. Obviously. And two, seriously, none of these kids can get any power behind a swing. Someone with a decent batting average has to be around. “You talk like you’d rather throw a kid off a ledge and hope for the best.”

“Yeah, because that’s how you find out if they’re gonna make it,” Billy says, taking another swig from his punch. 

Steve doesn’t think that’s remotely true. Billy is no bird, even if he’d like to be. He did a lot of damage overstepping every boundary ever while he was trying to keep an eye on Max, and maybe he’s scared of doing it again. Maybe. They don’t exactly talk about stuff like fear and emotions. Or much of anything unless they’re really bored and forced to make conversation because they’re stuck around a bunch of kids. Conversations like this feel like poking the surface of a lake with a stick and trying to guess where the deep parts are.

Steve kind of wants to ask if Billy was once the baby bird in this weird National Geographic metaphor they have going. He doesn’t because he thinks he knows the answer and he also thinks that Billy will probably take a swing at him if he pokes. They’re not there yet, and Steve hasn’t figured out if they’re heading there or not. 

“Well I know they’re gonna make it,” Steve says, taking Billy's cup of punch and draining it because he really needs at least a bare-bones burn down the back of his throat to finish this conversation. “Because I’m gonna be here.”

Billy eyes him, but he doesn’t argue. Eventually, he just scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Fine. Whatever. But I’m kicking all of these brats out of Hawkins when they go to college. We’re not staying in this hick monster town forever.” 

Now that is a level of Mama Bird that Steve can work with. “Deal.”

[tlbodine]

It’s a quiet holiday....

...Which means it’s time for my favorite activity, “sneakily playing games while working!” 

Between phone calls at the day job today I’ll be sampling my way through more games on my Itchio account. Come along and join! As always, the tag to follow is “#fen plays the itchio bundle”

Sheep Dreams is a horror platformer about a man with a recurring nightmare of being a sheep and forced to run through a never-ending platform while confronting memories and trauma. 

That’s some heavy Catherine vibes right there, and I am SO here for this. 

Download here: https://minichimera.itch.io/sheep-dreams-are-made-of-this

After a very brief tutorial (you can low-jump or high-jump) we’re dropped right into the story. 

I am really, really loving the graphics here. It’s got such a neat “twisted storybook” kind of animation, vibes similar to American McGee’s Alice, kind of? Also I’m not super sure if I’m supposed to be collecting these boxes or not but I’m just smashing into them and it seems fine. I haven’t died yet, despite falling a lot -- it seems like when you fall you just, fall. Which is kind of nice for someone like me who finds platformers very punishing. 

Whoa sometimes the screen goes sideways, aparently. I think that counter in the corner is how many blocks I’ve smashed, so I assume that’s good? I’ll try to smash more blocks. 

So a few things I’ve discovered so far: 

The colored column things seem to teleport you to other parts of the map

There are different colored doors, but I’m not sure what difference they make

Sometimes you’ll see yourself running in the background when the map is twisted around, and if you base your jumps on that one it’ll navigate the twisted puzzle for you the same (helpful for the spatially challenged like myself) 

This sheep hates his job and it’s too late to start over. There’s a girl he likes but who “doesn’t need” him and he’s afraid of dying alone. He doesn’t have any friends. He’s been sober for seven years but misses drinking. So far, so good for common angst issues. 

The colored blocks and doors seem to match up to something, because the counter changes depending on the blocks. Sometimes I see doors with numbers on them like 11/40 or something. I wonder if I collect enough blocks of a certain color and run through the matching door if I get an ending? 

I will report back on my findings. 

[snowdice]

Road Trips and Missing Persons (Part 5)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Virgil, Virgil & Deceit, Logan & Patton, Emile & Remy

Characters: Patton, Virgil, Deceit, Remus, Roman, Logan, Emile, Remy

Summary: Patton was just getting groceries. The next thing he knew, there was a knife at his throat and he was an unwilling uber driver. Virgil’s on the run after the murder of his dad, and it’s not just his paranoia that’s telling him he’s being chased down. He has to get somewhere safe, somewhere he can trust, and all he has is a couple of stories from his dad and a name: “Green Bellow Foods and Dispensary.”

Notes: Secret Agents AU, knives, carjacking, kidnapping, murder mentioned, guns mentioned, pepper spray, blood mentioned, drugs mentioned (more to be added)

This is a fic I’ve been writing on study breaks that you have probably all already seen at this point. I’ve affectionately named it the Goblin Brain Fic because it’s helping my brain actually get motivated for studying. I’ve slightly edited it for wording and grammar, but not for content from my previous posts. Feel free to send in asks to direct it because I’m not 100% sure where this is going and you can help decide if you feel so inclined! You can see the process I went through to build this at this link.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 My Master Post

Emile hummed a quick tune as he pulled into the grocery store parking lot near his apartment. He’d just finished his last session of the day with Kai and Remy had asked that he watch Virgil this evening after work and possibly this weekend, so Emile was picking up something to cook for dinner before heading over there. He was going to grab ingredients to make Virgil’s favorite dinner, spaghetti and meatballs (well his actual favorite dinner was pineapple pizza from the local pizza joint, but Emile wanted to serve the boy something at least somewhat healthy for once in his life.)

That in mind, he went straight to the pasta aisle. While contemplating which of the spaghetti noodles he should grab, he noticed a man with a cart also perusing the aisle. He glanced at the contents of the man’s cart. “That’s a lot of cheese there friendo,” he commented.

“I’m trying to make homemade macaroni and cheese,” the man divulged with a smile.

“That’s always fun,” Emile replied, smiling back himself.

“I’ve never done it before. Do you have any suggestions for noodles?”

“Hmm… how about shell ones?”

“Ooo, like the boxed Velveeta shell macaroni, but better!” He enthused. “Aw! They have mini ones!” He snatched the box excitedly. “They’re so cute!”

“They are,” Emile agreed as he finally selected the whole wheat store brand spaghetti and slid it into his cart.

“Thanks for the suggestion! Have a nice day,” the man said and turned to leave.

“Bye!” Emile called after him.

He then continued on his quest, grabbing pasta sauce and a lot of fresh vegetables to sneak into the canned sauce as well as to leave in his brother’s home with the hopes that either his brother or his nephew might actually eat something healthy for once if it was right there. (Doubtful, but Emile could hope.)

He then spent an inordinate amount of time, debating which popcorn to get. Emile was thinking tonight would be a good night for movies with Virgil, and Virgil’s favorite snack was popcorn. He really should get the less buttery one, but he knew that Virgil liked buttery popcorn more. Perhaps he should compromise and get plain popcorn, but that one healthier ranch flavored powder topping that he liked. Decided, he grabbed the popcorn and the topping and went to exit the snack food aisle. “Hey,” a man with a mustache drew his attention away from his task. “My friend lost his little brother in the store. Have you seen a younger teenager walking alone around here? We think he might have gone to the snack food aisle.

Emile frowned. “Nope I haven’t seen anyone. I hope you find him soon.”

 “Thanks,” the man said already distracted with looking around again.

“Maybe try the front desk,” Emile suggested. “They could call over the intercom.”

“My brother’s already there,” the man replied waiving the suggestion off. “But thanks.”

“Well good luck!” Emile said as the man walked away towards the back of the store.

Gee, it took him almost 40 minutes to get groceries, he realized when he glanced at his phone in the checkout aisle. He shouldn’t let himself get that distracted.

Once he’d paid for the groceries, he took everything to his car and shoved them in the backseat. Right as he was about to stick the key in the ignition, he got a text message from his secretary.

‘Kai forgot his phone in your couch again, but your office is locked. Are you able to swing by really quick to let him in?’

He texted back ‘Sure! I’ll be there in 5.’ He wasn’t going to keep Kai away from his phone for the night and it wasn’t like the groceries he’d grabbed were extremely time sensitive. So, he drove back to the office.

Kai seemed thankful for his willingness to drive all the way back even if his ‘thank you’ was rather distracted as he was already typing something on his phone the moment after Emile handed it back to him.

He said goodbye to Kai and to his secretary and hopped back into his car intending to drive to Remy’s house. He’d just started the car when his phone started to ring.

“Yello,” he said cheerfully.

“Emile,” the serious voice greeted on the other end of the line. “This is Logan Sanders.”

Emile sobered immediately. “Hi Logan. Is something wrong? Do you have a patient for me?”

“No, actually,” Logan said. “It’s… about your brother.”

Emile froze. “What about my brother?” he asked. “Remy is on light duty.”

“He was yes,” Logan said. “However, there was a complication.”

“What type of complication?” Emile said and a bit of anger came to his tone unbidden.

“He was specifically targeted,” Logan said, and despite the calm way he spoke, Emile could detect the distress in his tone. “I’m very sorry, but he’s dead.”

“Oh, god. What about Virgil?”

“That’s the other thing,” Logan continued. “As soon as I heard of Mr. Gates death, I dispatched an agent to his home for protection, but when he arrived, his son was not there. There were signs of a break-in, but the perpetrator’s car was still there, and my agent believes Virgil fled the scene and was followed on foot. My agent is currently searching for him…”

“There’s a ‘but,’” Emile concluded.

There was a slight pause, just enough to tell Emile he wasn’t nearly as unaffected as he was pretending to be. “I haven’t heard from that specific agent in over half an hour.”

“Okay,” Emile gulped, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. There were hundreds of explanations for that, but many of them were bad. “Okay. I’ll go look myself since I know him and where he might go. I’ll,” his voice cracked a bit. “Call you if I find anything.”

“Alright, and I’ll…” but whatever Logan was going to say was lost as a hand touched Emile’s shoulder.

Emile screamed and tossed his phone as he accidently slammed his elbow into the car horn making it blare.

“Calm down! It’s just me,” said a voice.

“Frickin Frozone shitake mushrooms terrible tigger fish paste and cabbages, Remington!”

“You could curse like a normal person, Emile.”

“And you could not break into my car like a normal person,” Emile shot back turning around in his seat to face his older brother. “I’ll presume you’re not dead then.”

“Aw, were you worried about me?” he asked.

Violence is never the answer. At least that’s what he told his patients. Emile punched his shoulder the best he could from this angle. It clearly didn’t hit too hard as Remy just laughed.

“Sorry, Em,” he said reaching forward to ruffle his hair. Emile slapped him away.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Mega Bitch Ex decided she wanted me shot in the head and I decided I didn’t want that.”

“What does that mean?” Emile asked.

“It means,” Remy answered. “I faked my own death and while she thought I was dead,” he dug something out of his pocket and dangled it in front of him. It was a flash drive. “I stole this.”

“What is it?”

“Super-secret spy business.”

“Remy.”

“All that matters is she really shouldn’t have it and Logan will be very happy I got it away from her.”

“Speaking of Logan…” Emile had dropped his phone when Remy had surprised him, and the call had ended. He picked up the phone. “I should call him back.”

The phone was slapped out of his hand the second his picked it up.

“What the kriffing kriff Remy?”

“Please just say fuck. I beg of you,” Remy groaned. The phone starting ringing again from its place on the floor. Doubtlessly it was Logan since the last thing he’d heard was Emile screaming like he was being murdered.

“I need to answer that, Remy,” Emile said with a frown.

“You can’t. It’s too risky.”

“You literally just said you stole it for Logan. Why can’t I just answer the phone, say Remy’s fine actually, and he has a super-secret spy flash drive to give to you?”

“Because you don’t say shit like that over the telephone,” Remy told him while starting to wiggle his way into the front seat. “We’re going to take this thing to Logan in person and no one can know I’m alive until then.”

“I know you’re alive,” Emile pointed out.

Remy grabbed Emile’s phone when it stopped ringing and hit the power button to turn it off. He stuck it into his pocket. “Family doesn’t count,” Remy said. “…Also, I needed a ride.”

“Are you really going to keep my phone hostage this whole time and also what happened to your car?”

“It… uh… blew up,” Remy said. Emile stared at him blankly. “Yeah… so, anyway.”

“What do you mean it blew up?” Emile asked.

“I said ‘anyway.’”

“Saying ‘anyway’ doesn’t mean I just magically forget what you just said.”

Remy waved that off. “Anyway,” he said again. “We’ll have to pick up Virgil and … do something with him. I’m not leaving him home alone during this.”

“Right. I assume since you’re not dead that Virgil isn’t actually missing,” Emile concluded.

But instead of agreeing and telling Emile where Virgil was to go pick him up, there was silence. “Virgil is what?”

Want to read more? Click below!

Part 6

[wondersofdreaming]

Let’s get the party started!

Characters: Henry Cavill times 26 x female reader

Word count: 2.288

Warnings: Alcohol intake. Drunkenness. Hollering. Catcalling. Lack of confidence-ish. Teasing. A teeny tiny sexual encounter that isn’t written but hinted.

Author’s note: This is somewhat of a prequel to my emotion series. The scoring is pure fiction, so please don’t be offended or think I scored too low on your favourite Henry-character.

You can find my emotion series here: MASTERLIST

I do not own any of the characters in this flash fiction besides the reader, her dog, and friends, who are figments of my imagination.

Tag: @littlefreya​​ @katerka88​​ @mitzwinchester​​ @hell1129-blog​​​ 

Feedback is appreciated.

The day started with you waking up to someone knocking hard on your front door. You had been asleep. Your big bear of a fiancé was softly snoring next to you, not hearing a thing.

“I wish I was a deep sleeper like you, love.” You whispered to him, grabbed a robe and walked towards the door with the dogs right behind you.

The knocking got louder, and you could hear yelling on the other side.

“I’m coming, geez, take a chill pill.” You said and opened the door. You were attacked by your future sisters- and brothers-in-law, and a large crowd of your and Henry’s close friends.

“Morning sleepyhead. My key didn’t work, so we had to knock. Where’s Supes?” Jason, a good friend, asked.

“Still sleeping. Wait, you have a key?” You asked pushing at his chest, which was harder than you thought since he was the size of your fiancé.

“Yeah, got one from Supes last year, when he locked himself out.”

Jason moved you and wandered down to your bedroom, where you heard a scream. Jason had jumped on top of Henry, who showed hundreds of emotions in matters of seconds.

“J, what are you doing here?” Henry asked as he managed to push his bearded friend to the floor.

“It’s your bachelor party!” Henry’s older brother declared.

“And your bachelorette party.” Your colleague, Cecilia, told you.

“So, you two take a shower, separately please, get dressed and meet us in the living room in 30 minutes.” Selena, another colleague of yours, said as she walked towards the kitchen.

“We’ll feed the dogs. Dress comfortably.” One of your sisters-in-law yelled from down the hall. Cecilia shoved you into the bedroom and pulled Jason out the room before she closed the door.

You looked confused at Henry.

“What just happened?” You asked and went to sit on the edge of the bed. Henry pulled you into his broad chest and kissed your temple.

“I think we’re having a joined bachelor and bachelorette party in our house, love.” He chuckled.

“Oh boy, I saw at least twenty people out there.”

“Let’s go shower and see who has arrived, don’t stress, darling.”

“We don’t hear any water running!” Another one of your sisters-in-law said through the closed door.

“We’re going!” You yelled, you heard snickering and someone mentioning ‘morning sex’ as they moved away from your bedroom.

You shook your head and leaned into your fiancé’s embrace.

“If we’re quiet, we can shower together and have a little fun,” he whispered into your ear. You scrambled to the master bathroom with Henry right behind you.

40 minutes later you walked into a transformed living room. Your friends and family had attached banners with half-naked men and women on every available wall. Cecilia threw a sash over your head that said ‘Bride-to-be’, while the one she put on Henry said: ‘Groom in training’.

The sofa had been moved to the wall, the coffee table switched with the dining room table, and had been filled with drinks and snacks. You saw beer everywhere and lots of tequila.

“Come on guys, it’s barely noon and you want to do shots now?” You whined.

“No, we’re making lunch first, the tequila is for later,” Selena told you and put a plastic tiara on top of your wet hair.

“I had no idea your hair was curly too, shorty.” Jason teased. He threw an arm over Henry’s shoulders and gave him a tight squeeze, while he pulled you into his chest with the other arm. “You two are my best friends, and I’m so happy you’re getting married to each other.”

“Thanks, J. It means a lot coming from you.” You said.

Your friends had turned the backyard into a party place, lucky for them that the weather was nice and sunny. You all sat down with open-faced sandwiches on rye bread, not the bread made purely of rye flour, no, this was rye bread filled with sunflower seeds, dark and delicious.

“And for those who aren’t into the bride’s rye bread, we have normal sandwiches and the grill is on, so we can make sausages and burgers as well.” Henry’s older brother announced.

“You know that rye bread is healthy for you, right? It boosts your immune system and is low in calories.” You retorted with a smile.

An hour into the backyard party, some of the men had pulled out a projector and a blank white screen. You and Henry were pushed onto the two chairs in the middle of everything. Your loved ones surrounded you as Cecilia went to stand next to the white screen, she had a little black remote in one hand.

“May I have everyone’s attention please?” She started, everyone started quieting down. “Thank you. Well, first of all, thank you all for coming to this joint bachelor and bachelorette party for these two turtledoves.” She motioned towards the two of you. “We decided to join these two parties, as most of us have busy schedules, and this was the only available time you all had. So, let’s get to it. Pass down the drinks, especially towards the bride-to-be, she’s going to need it.”

Cecilia held up her beer and cheered with everyone.

“Now, our beautiful bride-to-be here was born on an island far, far away.” A picture of you as a baby appeared on the screen.

“NO! Where did you find that picture?” You screeched, horrified that people were looking at you as a toddler with your curly hair and a mischievous look in your eyes.

“We called your family, and they were generous enough to send a tonne of photos of you. Now be quiet.” Selena said. You laughed and shook your head, defeated.

“I’m ready for those tequila shots now!” You said and motioned for the bottles of tequila in the living room. Jason laughed and handed you a bottle with a few shot-glasses. You downed two shots before Cecilia continued. Your entire life was shown on the screen, from your toddler days to when you became a teenager, you had a rebellious period, where you wore black, dyed your hair black, wore black nail polish and so forth. Then the pictures changed into your twenties when you met Henry, and the last picture was of when he proposed on the beach.

“And that concludes our bride’s story. Now onto a fun game. The bride and groom are going to have a little contest on which look through the ages is better.”

You groaned, already thinking you knew where this was headed but you were pleasantly surprised. Selena handed you and Henry a mini chalkboard each and some chalk.

“Let’s first, take a drink for the lovely couple!”

“CHEERS!”

“This is Henry in ‘Laguna’ from circa 2001, now give this look a score from zero to five, where five is the best score. These are gifs by the way.”

You squealed.

“Aw, look at you, honey. Baby Henry.” You teased. Henry just huffed as his brothers and friends laughed at him.

You gave it a 5, while Henry gave it a 2.

“Interesting, now onto the next Henry-look. This is from ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ around 2002.”

You gave it another 5, while Henry was still on a score of 2.

“And this is from the series ‘The Inspector Lynley Mysteries’, also 2002.”

Another 5 from you, and 2 from Henry.

“This is from the movie ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’, again, 2002.”

You looked long and hard before you just showed your 5, Henry was still on a 2.

“From ‘I Capture the Castle’ in 2003.”

You continued the 5, Henry still on the 2.

“This is from the series ‘Midsomer Murders’, from 2003.”

“You two are definitely going to have very curly-haired babies.” Jason teased from behind you, ruffling your semi-dried hair.

You giggled and showed your number 5, Henry didn’t budge on his 2.

“This movie is called ‘Hellraiser: Hellworld’ from 2005.”

You turned your chalkboard, still, a 5, and Henry showed his 2.

“And this is from ‘Tristan & Isolde’ premiered in 2006.”

You showed another 5, while Henry continuously showed his 2.

“‘Red Riding Hood’ from 2006.”

“Look at those pearly whites.” Another friend howled from the back.

Another 5 from you and another 2 from Henry.

“And here he is with reddish hair in ‘Stardust’ from 2007.”

The entire crowd laughed, even Henry had to release a burst of roaring laughter, where he leaned backwards and grabbed his chest. He dabbed his eyes with his sleeve as tears were about to spill.

You gave that look another 5, while Henry deleted his 2 and changed it to a 1.

“Moving on to ‘Whatever Works’ from 2009.”

You nearly swooned at the smile young Henry was giving you from the screen.You wrote down another 5, while Henry changed his 1 to a 2.

“This is from ‘Blood Creek’ in 2009.”

You showed your 5, which was turning bigger and slobbier the more tequila you drank, while Henry’s score continued to be 2.

“And we move on to ‘The Tudors’ series, there’s going to be a new gif from each season. This is from season 1.”

With the first one, you scored it another 5, while Henry continued his 2. He was being really hard on his own looks. You had to have a stern talking to him when you were sober.

“Season 2.”

You gave it another 5, Henry was still stubborn on his 2.

“Season 3.”

You continued your 5, and Henry continued his 2.

“Season 4.”

“Holy moly!” You let out.

“What?” Henry asked.

“I just forgot how hot you look with a man bun thing and a beard.” You hiccupped, obviously very drunk.

You scored it another 5, and Henry gave it a 3, having gotten a little confidence boost from you.

“This is from the movie ‘Immortals’, premiered in 2011.”

“I love that movie! I love Greek mythology in general.” You slurred and showed your 5, while Henry kept his 3.

“A movie with Bruce Willis, ‘The Cold Light of Day’ from 2012.”

“Babe, your smile is panty-melting.” You giggled.

You kept your 5, while Henry deleted his 3 and wrote down 4.

“And since Henry had three looks in one movie, and he played this character in three movies so far, there’ll be three gifs. This is the first from ‘Man of Steel’ premiered in 2013.”

You sucked in your breath and waved your chalkboard with the 5 on it, Henry deleted the 4 and wrote 3,5.

“Number two.”

You obviously continued with the 5, while Henry stubbornly showed his 3,5.

“Number three.”

Both your scores didn’t change.

“This is from ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ premiered in 2015.”

“My favourite movie so far!” You hollered.

You deleted your 5 and wrote down 6.

“You can’t write 6, 5 is the highest you can score.” Cecilia laughed.

“I don’t care about your rules. I’m the fucking bride, and if I say that Henry’s ‘Napoleon Solo’-look is a freaking 6, then it’s a freaking 6.”

“Whatever the bride wants the bride will get, Napoleon is a 6.”

“Thank you.”

Henry changed his score to a 4. He kissed your temple; happy you loved that movie.

“From ‘Sand Castle’ premiered in 2017.”

You wrote down a 5, which surprised everyone. Henry gave you a shocked look.

“I still love that movie, but the fact that you shaved your head without talking to me about it, pissed me off a little. The beard is a bonus point though.” You giggled and downed another shot. By this time, you had already drunk half a bottle of tequila by yourself, without lime and salt.

Henry wrote down another 4.

“This doesn’t need an introduction but premiered in 2018.”

You almost drooled. You had loved that moustache on him. It had changed the aura around him during filming, but he had still been your goofy boyfriend at the same time.

You wrote 6, Henry wrote 4,5.

“And some know this as ‘Nomis’ other’s as ‘Night Hunter’, it still premiered in 2018.”

You catcalled at the photo, making everyone laugh. You deleted the 6 and wrote 7, while Henry wrote 4.

“And last but not least from the series ‘The Witcher’ from 2019.”

“One million billion trillion…” You cheered and took another shot. The alcohol clearly going to your brain. Everyone laughed, while most of the women awed at the head-tilt Geralt did in the gif.

The rest of the evening was a blur for you. Alcohol was consumed and pizzas were ordered around dinner time. Around midnight you were ready to collapse anywhere, you could have fallen asleep while standing up, you were that drunk. Henry, who could handle his alcohol intake, threw you over his shoulder and carried you into the bedroom.

You were already snoring loudly before your head hit the pillows. Henry removed your clothes and with a little luck, he managed to put you into one of his T-shirts that you loved to sleep in. Your dogs walked in and jumped on the bed, cuddling close to your sleeping body.

“Goodnight, my love,” Henry whispered. He kissed your forehead and walked out to the still ongoing party. Most of the women had gone to sleep in the tents that had been put up in the backyard, and the men had rid the dining table for bottles and snacks and were setting up for what looked like advanced beer pong.

“It’s a fusion game between beer pong and flip cup. Losers have to down a whole can of Guinness.” Jason answered Henry’s confused look.

“Alright, I’m assuming we’re on different teams?” Henry smiled.

“Oh yeah! Let the game begin!”

[sunnixsunshine]

Sniper Headcanons because I'm bored and crave Oldman Shooty-shoots content

• Despite his tendency to be alone he actually craves attention from others. He's learned not to seek it and instead wait for it. His mother said "begging for attention is impolite" and has lived by that since he was a kid.

• He's a real mama's boy but you didnt hear that from me... >>

• Really loves cinnamon flavored anything. Cinnamon bread? Yes please. Cinnamon tea???? You'll have to pry the cup from his cold dead hands!

• Does really stupid Spy impressions with Scout.

• His French accent is awful but he can pull off an American accent surprisingly well; he just can't hold it for long because he'd crack up about it after five minutes. Especially if he's trying to copy Scout's accent.

• HATES doctors. Told Medic this the first day. Medic was surprisingly understanding of this— then forgot about it .5 seconds into the uber heart surgery. Now all Sniper can see whenever he has heartburn is that terrifying smile Medic had when his freaking heart was in the madman's hands.

• Has dressed in drag for a rare undercover job once. Does not regret it. He looked good in sparkling scarlet red.

• Terrible fashion sense. I'm talking awful. Ugly. God-save-this-man fashion. Old man fashion. Will wear suspenders and will be proud of it.

• Knows a bit of Māori. He learned it while on an extended job. Would like to learn more out of respect of the Māori people, just hasn't found the time to do so.

• He's met quite a lot of people as an assassin; either they were his victim, just some locals, or some one off partners. Despite getting to know an amalgamation of people, Sniper swears he's met Spy from somewhere else.

• Has never had the chance to actually play in snow. He had a job in London and was lucky enough see the first snowfall, which was also his first snowfall as well.

• Now in New Mexico, he was quite surprised to find it actually snowed there! He, Scout, and Demo all got out there and had a nice game of snowball fight. Sniper was even able to bury Demo in the snow before he woke up after Scout "accidentally" put a rock in his snowball.

• Really bad at poker and gambling. Doesn't stop him though.

• When he's drunk he often litters his speech with Australian slang. It confuses everyone more than Engine's or Scout's slang. Hell, Demo is more understandable when he slurs.

• Although sometimes he'd just randomly say it too, drunk or sober.

• "Hey, Snipes, you know what time it is?"

• "Its, uh, 40 past the arvo mate. Hey you wanna grab some grog later? Gotta pick up a new pack of durries in town, might as well have a cold one too."

• "Wh.... What?"

[our-time-is-now]

June 10, 2019 (2): To all the anniversaries and the petrified killer-hippopotamus

(previous play)

You can find more information about the authors, translators, content warning and additional information about the plays in the pinned post on our blog.   

Monday, 4:24 pm:

Matteo: *has spent the entire morning in bed with David* *making out, more than making out and simply cuddling and talking* *after David's stomach had growled for the third time he said that he'll go make something to eat under the condition that David stay in bed and be lazy* *came back half an hour later with a light lunch on a tray* *they ate and watched a series and made out some more* *now it's almost 4:30 and Matteo notices David get antsy* *laughs and nudges him when he squirms around again* Okay, okay... we can get up if you want to... look up one of those old pools, then we'll take a tour.

David: *has really enjoyed the morning with Matteo and has managed to stay in bed for quite a long time without feeling bad about it* *doesn't really feel bad, yet, but feels the urge to move and immediately sits up when Matteo suggests they could go out* *beams* Really? Do you still want to? *takes his phone from the nightstand and says* I've wanted to go to the Wernerbad for quite some time... but it's quite the distance by bike... but if it's too far for you we could also take the train... *quickly looks up a few photos and gives his phone to Matteo* (https://www.abandonedberlin.com/2014/08/wernerbad-freibad-swimming-pool-hippo-kaulsdorf-hippo.html#more) *gets up and searches for some clothes* Maybe we could stop on the way and get one or two beers to celebrate... *smiles and looks at Matteo scrutinizingly to see if he really wants to*

Matteo: *smiles when David is so excited* *sits up slowly* *only nods with a grin when he asks if he really wants to* *only draws up his eyebrows a little when he says that it's quite the distance away* Well, it's almost 4:30, how far is "quite the distance"? *takes the phone and looks at it* Looks cool... and outdoors... *puts David's phone on the bed and gets up to also look for clothes* Beer always sounds good... *found a shirt, one of David’s, and briefly holds it to his nose to sniff it* *shrugs one shoulder and puts it on*

David: *laughs quietly when Matteo asks how far quite the distance is and shrugs* Depends on how fit you are... I guess somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes... *smiles and nods when Matteo says that it looks cool* I think the figurines are quite nice... allegedly if it rains a lot the water still collects in the pool... but I guess considering the temperature during the last few days there shouldn't be much in it... *in the meantime has found a shirt he feels like wearing, puts it on the bed and wavers between shorts or long pants* *usually doesn’t like to wear shorts outside, but then figures that he'll only be with Matteo and that hopefully they won't run into too many people and that the temperature definitely calls for shorts and therefore puts them on* *briefly looks at Matteo, who sniffs one of his shirts and then puts it on, and laughs* You can also take a clean one out of the wardrobe... *grabs the new button from the nightstand and fastens it to his backpack with a smile* *takes his binder and the shirt he has chosen and murmurs in Matteo's direction* I'll just be in the bathroom... *still doesn’t like putting on the binder in front of Matteo*

Matteo: *nods slowly* That means an hour... *laughs slightly* *then shrugs* But we can do it however you want... *laughs and shrugs when David talks about the shirt* That one's still okay... *doesn't mention that it smells like David and that's why he doesn't want a clean one* *grins when David fastens the button to his backpack* *nods when David says that he'll be in the bathroom* I'll go pack a bottle of water and a package of cookies... *sees David disappear and then goes to his wardrobe to take out clean pants* *gets a bottle of water and cookies, probably Laura's, and puts them in his backpack*

David: *quickly puts on his binder and shirt in the bathroom and smiles when he sees Matteo already waiting for him in the hallway when he leaves the bathroom* *loosely puts his arms around his hip and kisses him briefly* *murmurs* I'm happy... *grins slightly and bumps Matteo's head before slipping his shoes on* Let's go? *sees Matteo nod and leaves the house with him to unlock their bikes downstairs* *it really takes them 45 minutes – but they probably would have managed in 40 if they hadn't stopped to buy beer and water on the way as Matteo had already emptied half of the water on the way* *locks up his bike on the fence once they arrive and takes a look around* *grins slightly at Matteo and tilts his head* Well, at least the fence isn't as high as the one to our pool...

Matteo: *laughs* 1-0 for Werner... then show me what you got... *grins when David jumps over the fence with complete ease* *has to exert himself a little more but he's also the one with the backpack and manages quite well in the end* Looks quite huge... on the pictures it looked somehow smaller... *looks around and then at David* Which way?

David: *climbs over the fence and waits for Matteo on the other side* *has a bit of a deja vu and has to smile slightly* *only looks around once Matteo is with him and nods in agreement* *murmurs* Pretty overgrown... *returns Matteo's look and quietly laughs at his question* No idea... straight ahead? *shrugs and simply starts walking* *almost automatically reaches for Matteo's hand when he's walking next to him* *after a few meters and some bushes really discovers the pool and the slide which they saw on the pictures* *stops at the edge of the pool and first looks down and then up at Matteo* *whistles briefly and then grins* No echo here... 1-1 I'd say...

Matteo: *nods and laughs when David suggests that they go straight ahead* *reaches for David's hand at the same time he does and smiles* *laughs when David whistles and once again thinks that he's pretty wonderful* *looks down into the pool and then at David* 1-2 there's water in here... boring... *grins and then points at the slide* Wanna have a beer up there?

David: *laughs at Matteo's words* A pool with water! That's really outrageous! *follows Matteo's gaze to the slide and smiles* Okay... *goes over to the slide with him and lets him climb up first* *laughs quietly and while he watches him asks* Is there even enough space for the two of us up there?! *but simply climbs up after him and waits on the top of the ladder until Matteo has sat down properly*

Matteo: *climbs up the slide* Sure! *sits down so that he can lean his back against one of the walls and the actual slide is to his left* *has the backpack on his lap and waits for David to sit down next to him* *takes out two bottles of beer and a lighter* *opens the first one, hands it to David and opens one for himself* *grins at him when they clink bottles* To us!

David: *eyes the top of the slide and sees that there is enough space for the two of them* *sits down next to Matteo and also leans against the slide's metal wall* *takes the beer from Matteo, murmurs "thanks" and waits for Matteo to open his beer* *looks at him, smiles and clinks bottles with him* *nods and says* ...and to abandoned pools and the next anniversaries... *takes a sip and leans his head against the wall* *closes his eyes for a moment and smiles to himself* *briefly remembers that a month ago tomorrow is the first time that they slept together and has to grin slightly because that day is really easy to remember* *then wonders if they really will celebrate many more monthly anniversaries and realizes with a beating heart how much he wants this* *takes another sip*

Matteo: *nods at David's addition* To all the anniversaries... *takes a sip* *turns his head and sees that David has closed his eyes* *sees him smile and wonders what he's thinking about* *would actually like to ask him but then somehow doesn't want to ruin the moment and rather watches him for a little while longer* *thinks that he looks beautiful and once again can't believe how lucky he is* *was just about to lean over and kiss him when David takes another sip* *has to laugh quietly and waits until he's finished* *sees him look at him questioningly and only shrugs* *then leans forward and kisses him briefly* *leans back again, takes a sip and turns his head to him* *asks him, after all* So? What are you thinking about?

David: *hears Matteo laugh quietly when he drinks and looks at him questioningly after putting down the bottle* *but "only" gets a kiss and grins briefly* *then watches him as he drinks and sometimes still finds it unbelievable that they have really made it and that Matteo really wants him* *feels so comfortable and secure with him and smiles slightly when Matteo looks at him again* *hears his question and briefly lowers his head in embarrassment and picks at the label of his bottle* *doesn't know if it's way too soon to tell him that he wants more anniversaries* *vaguely remembers that they had been talking about something similar at the lake when they were drunk, but now they're sober and he doesn't know how serious Matteo had been about it at the lake the other day and if he even remembers* *looks at him again, opens his mouth, laughs quietly, closes it again and looks away again* *shrugs a little and without looking at him quietly says* I was thinking about the fact... that I want more of this... more anniversaries... with you... *twists the bottle around in his hands a little nervously*

Matteo: *immediately notices that David is embarrassed and gets even more curious about what he had been thinking* *laughs slightly when David opens his mouth but doesn't say anything* *then hears his answer and feels his heartbeat speed up* *holds his beer and with his free hand reaches over to put it on David's cheek so that he's looking at him* Hey... hey... *doesn't only smile but practically beams at him* And why exactly is that a bad thing? *grins at him a little wickedly and pulls him a little closer* I want all the anniversaries with you, ok? And I'm already really looking forward to tomorrow's anniversary... *wiggles his eyebrows* ...and I'm looking forward to all the anniversaries that we'll add in the future!

David: *feels Matteo's hand on his cheek and looks at him* *has to smile when he sees him beam like this* *shrugs at his question and thinks for a moment* I don't know... I'm so sure about it after such a brief time with you... that's a little scary somehow... isn't it? *laughs quietly when he mentions tomorrow's anniversary and kisses him briefly* Well that's one that even I can remember pretty easily... *kisses him again and murmurs* We'll definitely celebrate that one as well!

Matteo: *slightly shakes his head* *but then shrugs one shoulder* Don't know... maybe? But also good, isn't it? *smiles into the kiss and then laughs* THAT you can remember, well that's interesting... *wraps his arm around him when he kisses him again and pulls him closer* *kisses him again and again and then murmurs* If you want, I'll find an anniversary for us to celebrate every week...

David: *shrugs at Matteo's question but then nods* *sighs and quietly says* Yes, also good... really good... *smiles* *is a little relieved that Matteo seems to have a similar opinion and that he doesn't think that it's somehow too fast and too clingy and too constricting* *grins when Matteo teases him about the sex anniversary* Well, I've got today as a pretty good reminder... so if we continue to celebrate the monthly anniversaries then I can't possibly forget the sex anniversaries... *lets himself get pulled closer by Matteo and loses himself a little in Matteo's kisses* *puts his hand on the back of Matteo's neck and holds him tenderly so that he doesn't even thinks about stopping the kiss* *smiles slightly at his murmurs and looks at him* Okay... *kisses him again and then lets go of him* *leans against him and scoots down a little to better fit into his arms* *asks with a grin* And what do we celebrate next week? *takes another sip of beer*

Matteo: *puts his arm around David and still holds his beer with the other one* *takes another sip* *laughs slightly at his question* Hmmm... well next week starts with the 17th... that was the Abi-prank... or we could celebrate the sandwich-feast on the 22nd... *feels his phone vibrate* *puts the beer down next to him and pulls his phone out of his pocket* *sees a message in ok.cool* WhatsApp ok.cool.: Jonas: Hey brudis, what's up today? Feel like doing something. Ping pong and a few beers? *reads the message to David and says* I'll simply send a picture of us and tell them that we already have plans... *holds the phone up in front of them, takes a selfie a little awkwardly and sends it* Matteo: Today we're out, we're already celebrating :)

David: *looks up at Matteo with raised eyebrows* Ey, now you're kidding, right?! *laughs quietly* You can't possibly remember all those dates... *also feels his phone vibrate but since Matteo is already taking out his phone he figures that it's some group chat and waits for Matteo to inform him* *nods at his suggestion and takes another sip of beer* *grins into the camera with his beer still in his hand and watches Matteo as he sends the picture and the text* *a moment later sees several messages pop up and laughs quietly when he reads them* Carlos: You're celebrating?! Without us?! Abdi: Cheers, guys! Jonas: Where are you roving about? Looks very chill! Enjoy the sun, guys! Carlos: Now I also want beer... but ping pong during this heat?! If Luigi and David are out, we'll have to run even more... Abdi: What are you even celebrating? Maybe we could join you. *looks at Matteo* Should we enlighten them? Or let them guess? *then has an idea* Hang on... *takes his phone out of his pocket and frees himself from Matteo's arms* *kneels down and, holding his phone over Matteo, takes a photo down the slide* *sends it and adds* David: We're celebrating fate #sappytimes10

Matteo: *laughs when David doesn't believe him* Of course I can... somehow my brain is weird like that, I'm good at remembering events combined with numbers... you can quiz me if you want. *grins slightly* *reads the answers in the chat and has to grin* *shrugs at David's question* *doesn't think that they'll figure it out* *grins at the photo David takes and reads the chat* Carlos: Huh? Where's that? And why fate? Abdi: Is that a pond? Jonas: Old pool? Matteo: New hobby Abdi: And what fate, exactly? Carlos: Don't do anything in the water, guys, that only looks hot in movies *only laughs and shakes his head* *nudges David slightly* Just tell them, otherwise they’ll never stop.

David: *reads the messages and grins* *nods at Matteo’s words and quickly types* David: We’ve been together for exactly a month today – that’s what we celebrate. Have a nice evening, and we’ll gladly join you at ping pong in a few days! Abdi: Oh, how nice! Congratulations! Carlos: Sick! Only one month?! Seems longer to me…. Jonas: I should have figured! Congratulations from me as well! Have a nice evening! *smiles when he reads the messages but then puts his phone away again and takes another sip of beer* *looks at the sinking sun and then at Matteo* And now I want to go look for the hippo and the penguins!

Matteo: *smiles at the answers* *quickly types a smiley as response and then also puts his phone away again* *murmurs* Seems longer to me, as well… *then laughs* Okay… but only if I’m allowed to take pictures with you and the stone animals for Insta… *stretches slightly and takes his beer again before he slowly picks himself up*

David: *smiles when Matteo says that it seems longer to him, as well* *feels exactly the same* *presses a quick kiss on his forehead and smiling runs a hand through Matteo’s hair before getting up* *laughs when he hears Matteo’s condition* Dude, soon there will be more photos of me than you on your Insta… but okay, one more or less doesn’t matter… *holds his hand out to Matteo when he starts to get up and pulls him up* *starts to climb down the ladder and jumps down the last meter* *searchingly takes another look around while he waits for Matteo and wipes the sweat off his forehead* One should think that it would cool off once the sun has set but somehow it almost got even more stifling… a shame that the floor of the pool and the water look so disgusting… otherwise we could have put our feet into the water to cool down… *thinks that they should put the kiddy pool back up at Matteo’s balcony if the weather stays this hot*

Matteo: *shrugs* Yes, and why exactly is that bad? *grins and lets David help him up* *waits for David to climb down and then follows him onehandedly because he’s still holding his beer* *nods* Yes, you’re right… but the pool really doesn’t look good… we’d probably catch several foot fungi… *then simply starts walking with him and looks around for any hippos or penguins* We could hold our feet in the bathtub at your place…

David: *grins slightly* I think foot fungi might be the most harmless thing we could get there… I’m more afraid of stepping into some shards or needles or something like that… *walks next to Matteo and looks around searchingly* *nods at the comment about the bathtub* If it stays this hot it’s worth it to put the kiddy pool back up on your balcony – unless Hans wants some strange things in return again… *grins slightly, empties his beer and steps behind Matteo to put the empty bottle in his backpack while they continue walking* *thinks that he can see the hippo from the corner of his eyes while closing the backpack, nudges Matteo and points his head toward it before he picks up his pace, walks around a bush and then really stands before the hippo* *simply climbs on top of it, spreads his arms out and grins at Matteo* Tadaaa… *laughs* What pose do you want!?

Matteo: *nods to the kiddy pool* Hans shouldn’t make such a fuss… we share our food with him often enough… *stops when David steps behind him so that he can put the beer bottle away* *only has a sip left in his own bottle, as well* *quickly drinks it and hands the bottle back so that David can put it away as well* *sees that David has apparently found something and follows him* *isn’t quite as fast as he is and sees him already sit on it when he walks around the bushes* *laughs and takes out his phone* Whichever you want… *turns on his camera and quickly takes a few pictures* *grins slightly* You always look good…

David: *strikes a few different poses for Matteo – lies down on the hippo, stands on it, hugs it etc. – and has a lot of fun with it* *then tilts his head and looks at him ironically when he says that he always looks good* Ha-ha… *hops down from the hippo where he was standing on, and takes Matteo’s phone out of his hand* And now I’ll take one of you where you put your head into the hippo’s mouth… *grins and steps closer to the mouth to get a close-up* *grins* Or even better: We’ll make a video… The hippo has grabbed your head and won’t let go. And just as you are about to free yourself it petrifies and your head has to stay in the hippo’s mouth forever until… ummm… *shrugs* …you’ll just have to improvise the ending…

Matteo: *laughs while David poses and takes quite a lot of pictures* *grins when he takes the phone out of his hand* Okay… *then hears that he has another idea and laughs* Okay, Mister director… *takes the few steps to the hippo and laughs* You’ll just have to improvise the ending… funny… *stops next to the hippo and waits for David to call action* *puts on quite a dramatic show of someone being eaten by a petrified hippo* *ends it with a desperate cry for help, then leaves his head in the hippo’s mouth, closes his eyes and quite impressively feigns his death by hippo*

David: *grins in anticipation when Matteo really wants to play along and loudly calls “action” when he turns on the camera* *laughs a lot about Matteo’s dramatic performance and cheers him on to defend himself against the hippo* *is still laughing when Matteo feigns his death and holds the camera closely to Matteo’s head in the hippo’s mouth* *grins when Matteo really stays dead for pretty long and eventually improvises theatrically* Thus, many moons passed and the brave knight Matteo had almost been forgotten – the dreaded killer-hippopotamus’ country got evermore overgrown… *moves the camera over the thicket and turns in a circle* …one day, however, another brave knight fought his way through the thicket. He could never forget his true love Matteo and never ceased his search for him. He cried bitter tears of loss once he found his love’s dead body in the petrified hippopotamus’ mouth until he recalled an old tale according to which only a kiss is able to undo the hippopotamus’ petrification and thus bring the beast’s victims back to live… He gathered up all the courage he could find within himself… *is now filming himself getting closer to the hippo’s head* …and kissed the petrified killer-hippopotamus… *kisses the hippo* … and looo and behooold…

Matteo: *had assumed that the story would end with his death* *but should have known better* *really has to pull himself together to not laugh when David continues* *bats his eyes open at the appropriate moment, pulls his head out of the hippo’s mouth and holds out his arms* Taa-daa. I am alive. Through the kindness of my noble savior and knight! *theatrically wraps both arms around David* I am forever indebted to you, my knight! *looks into the camera* And so they lived happily ever after… bing bang bong, the end.

David: *grins when Matteo bats open his eyes and repeats* Taa-daa – he is alive! *laughs when Matteo theatrically wraps his arms around him and nods in affirmation at Matteo’s words* *then adds a drawn-out “The End” and turns the camera off* *grins at Matteo and presses a kiss to his cheek* That’s gonna be our big break-through! *lets go of him and points back to the hippo* But now I still need a picture of you inside the hippo’s mouth for the movie poster and one of me kissing the hippo… *already tries the best pose for the picture*

Matteo: *laughs* Oh, yes, for sure…worldwide fame! *sighs theatrically and puts his head back into the hippo’s mouth* One day, you’ll have real, proper actors to do that for you… *grimaces a little for the picture and then pulls his head back out* *takes his phone back and takes a picture of David kissing the hippo* *wipes the sweat off his forehead* Man, it’s really quite hot… do you really still want to find the penguins?

David: *takes a few pictures of Matteo and then hands him the phone so that he can pose for the kiss-picture* *grins* You’ll have to send me the pictures and the video later, ok? *has completely forgotten about the heat while he had fun filming and only now that Matteo mentions it realizes again how hot it is* *looks around and shrugs* *smiles slightly and looks at him pleadingly* Yeees?! *goes to him and kisses him briefly* If we haven’t found them within 10 minutes we can leave… *quickly checks the time and realizes that it’s almost 9:30* *grins slightly and waggles his eyebrows* I promise not to make another movie there… only a few pictures… *grabs his hand and simply pulls him along*

Matteo: *automatically has to smile when David smiles* *grins into the kiss* Well, how can I say no to that? *sighs slightly and then shoulders his backpack again which he had put down before the filming* Only a few pictures, okay… *gets pulled along and simply tags along behind him* *5 minutes later they really find the penguins and Matteo’s heart swells a little when he sees how happy David is about it* Didn’t know that you were such a fan of penguins…

David: *is happy that Matteo doesn’t protest and lets himself get pulled along and is even happier when they really manage to find the penguins after only a short search* *takes a few pictures of them and a few selfies of Matteo and him with the penguins* *smiles slightly at Matteo’s comment and shrugs* I’m not… I’m more a fan of abandoned places… *briefly gnaws on his bottom lip, looks to the penguins and adds* I somehow like this… this overgrown and abandoned and forgotten. If you think about the fact that here… or in our pool, as well, there really was life and stories that happened there… and one day those places were simply forgotten. I simply like the thought that once in a while someone comes by… like with a short visit and that they remember… *looks at Matteo, grins slightly and shrugs* *isn’t sure if Matteo understands this but doesn’t think that it’s that important right now*

Matteo: *nods slightly when he says that he’s a fan of abandoned places* *thinks that it somehow suits him* *listens to him and begins to beam slightly* *not really because he shares his fascination, but simply because it’s so wonderful to see him being so enthusiastic* *pulls him closer when he looks at him* You really are pretty wonderful! *grins and kisses him* *then moves away again because he’s really sweating* And can we now please walk somewhere where we can cool off? How can it still be this hot at 10 at night!

David: *smiles when Matteo pulls him closer and sheepishly lowers his gaze at his words* *doesn’t know what makes Matteo say that right now but knows that there’s no use in disagreeing with him* *therefore only mumbles insecurely* Okaayyy… *gets kissed and briefly puts a hand to Matteo’s cheek – but takes it off immediately because it’s really way too hot for physical contact* *can therefore understand that Matteo pulls away again* *laughs quietly* Walk!? The heat’s messing with you, my friend… we cycled here and I was hoping for at least a little bit of airflow… *slightly nudges Matteo in the direction of where he suspects the fence and their bikes to be and grins* But you’re welcome to walk if you don’t need any airflow… or jog… *hugs him from behind and presses Matteo to him* …or I could warm you up a little if you’re cold…

Matteo: *rolls his eyes* Haha, you know what I meant… *starts to walk when David nudges him* *groans when David hugs him from behind* *grabs David’s arms and leans forward and lifts David up a little* Oh… oh… or I’ll throw you in the pool and then you can cool off!

David: *laughs when Matteo leans forward and he gets lifted up in the air and wiggles slightly so that he’ll put him back down* Arghs… I’d rather have the foot bath in the bathtub… will you carry me? *laughs when Matteo groans and puts him back down* *slightly punches him in the side* Come on… pretty please! Piggyback to the fence… I’d do the same for you if you’d ask that nicely… *wiggles his eyebrows but is actually only kidding because Matteo is already carrying the backpack and he probably wouldn’t even fit on Matteo’s back together with the backpack* *quickly wipes the sweat off his forehead*

Matteo: *laughs and shakes his head* I just carried you, that has to be enough… *slightly punches him back* *shakes his head* Nooo, then I’ll collapse… *longingly looks at the water when they walk past it* Really a shame that it’s so gross, otherwise we could just hop in there for a moment… would be perfect… nobody there who would see us, just cool off for a moment and then go home…

David: *grins and huffs when Matteo says that he’d collapse but then gets serious again and tugs at the backpack* Should I take it for a while? Would only be fair… *takes a moment to realize what Matteo is talking about and follows his gaze to the pond* *nods hesitantly and is quiet for a moment before he says* Cooling off would really be nice… but… I don’t have another shirt and another binder with me anyways… so even if it weren’t so gross you’d first have to go home and get some fresh clothes for me… *grins slightly* …and I’m sure you wouldn’t want that when it’s so hot… if you don’t even want to carry me… *looks back at the murky pool again and then walks toward the fence*

Matteo: *shakes his head when David tugs at the backpack* That’s okay… *listens to him and nods slightly* Yes, you’re right… *stops in front of the fence and watches David climb over it* *has an idea* *waits for him to get to the other side and says through the fence* What if we go to the Kaulsdorfer lakes? We could get a change of clothes at your place… I mean, yes okay, it would be quite the detour and even more cycling… but swimming… and cooling off! Last week we said that we wanted to try it, didn’t we?

David: *climbs over the fence and then turns around to Matteo* *tilts his head at his words and grins slightly because at first he thinks that he’s kidding what with all the additional cycling and such* *but then realizes that he’s really serious about it* *thinks about his suggestion for a moment and about the fact that today’s Monday and that at this time of the day there probably really wouldn’t be anyone at the lake and eventually smiles and nods* Okay… *laughs quietly* This really goes with the anniversary perfectly… we couldn’t have planned that any better… *lovingly and smilingly looks at Matteo and is already looking forward to probably being able to hug him in the lake without sweating himself to death*

Matteo: *is happy when he agrees* Okay. *also laughs* You mean because we’ll actually go swimming and not only pretend to? *climbs over the fence and groans slightly when he lands next to David* Okay, let’s go then…

(next play)

[littlesliceofmarvel]

I’m Here For You

Request: Hi! Can I please get one where the reader is friends with Steve and is introduced to Bucky. They both feel an instant connection but Bucky tries to push her away because he thinks he's not worthy of her. So she does little things like puts a blanket over him when he falls asleep and other things to make him feel more comfortable and to be there for him and help him. Then eventually it leads to them getting together (which also makes Steve very happy). Thank you!

Warnings: Swearing, HELLA FLUFF

Pairings: Bucky x Reader

A/N: Listen this idea is SO CUTE ok enjoy, it’s also really long, sorry not sorry. x

Calling Steve Rogers your best friend was an understatement, the guy was practically a brother to you. You had been his neighbour when he got his first apartment, waking up 70 years after falling under ice. The two of you grew close and when he joined the Avengers, you grew close to them as well. Tonight, he had invited you to Stark’s Christmas party because in his words, you ‘don’t party enough.’ You agreed, loving the chance to get dolled up. You wore a floor length red dress and had your hair styled very 40s - what can you say? Steve rubbed off on you. 

You stepped out of your apartment and came face to face with the soldier, who wore a clean tuxedo.

“Look at you, you stud,” you grinned at him, causing him to blush slightly.

“Me? You look amazing, (y/n).”

You winked at him and thanked him, before locking your door and making your way out of the building, calling a cab. Tony insisted on sending you guys a limo to pick you up, but that luxury was so not your style, so the two of you hopped into a cab and took off. 

Once you arrived at Stark Tower, the two of you made a beeline for the elevator and up to the top floor. Steve seemed clearly nervous about something, so you gave him a small nudge of the shoulder.

“You seem antsy, what’s up?” You smiled up at him.

“Sharon’s going to be here,” He sheepishly admitted, causing you to smirk.

“Oooooh, I see, I see,” You chuckled, “Is that why you got extra glammed up? You trying to woo her with your fashion sense?” You teased and he shook his head, laughing slightly.

When the elevator reached your floor, Steve let out a long sigh before the two of you stepped out. There were already a couple dozen people in the room, the music blasting, and a large Christmas tree stood dead center. You immediately noticed Tony standing by the window, a large crowd around him, as usual. 

“Hey, man,” Steve stuck his hand out and fist bumped a brunet who approached the two of you. His long brown hair hung in his face, and your eyes immediately went to his left arm, which was metal. This must be Bucky. You had heard a lot about the infamous James Barnes, but because of his past, he was always being monitored, so you never got to meet him.

“Buck, this is (y/n), my neighbour,” Steve grinned to you and you smiled at Bucky, who kept his eyes on you without saying anything.

“It’s really nice to finally meet you,” you smiled, “I’ve heard so many stories about you from Steve here,” you gave the blond a small nudge.

“I’ve heard a lot about you too, it’s nice to finally have a face to the stories,” Bucky smiled and you chuckled slightly. You had seen images of Bucky back in the 40s from Steve and the museum, but there’s something about him in person that’s breathtaking. His blue eyes were warm, yet cold at the same time, and his hair was quite luscious. 

“Oh, shit, there’s Sharon, what do I say?” Steve pulled the two of you closer and motioned in the direction of Sharon Carter, who you had also heard about waaay more times than you care to admit. 

“Be yourself, Steve,” you gave him a thumbs up.

“But not too much,” Bucky smirked at him, to which he rolled his eyes before walking off, leaving you and Bucky grinning at him as he approached her like a teen boy with a crush.

You turned your attention back to Bucky, “So...”

Bucky chuckled, “Yeah, Steve really isn’t that great at introducing people, I’ll do it better, I’m Bucky.”

“(Y/N),” you smiled up at him, taking in his facial features as he swooped his hair out of his beautiful face, “This must be weird for you, huh? You know, not being in the 40s.”

He nodded his head, “Yeah, it’s really something. I still wake up sometimes expecting to be back home in my bed in Brooklyn, it takes a while to adjust.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed an empty couch by the corner of the window, and nodded your head in it’s direction, “You want to go sit?” He nodded and followed you over. Once you sat down, the bustle of the party was no longer surrounding you, so maybe you could get a chance to know this guy.

“So, what do you do for a living?” Bucky asked, turning his attention to you.

You smiled, “I’m sort of in between things at the moment. I recently got fired from my job at the New York Times for refusing to write about the Avengers, actually.”

“No shit,” Bucky said, “Well, I’m sorry to hear.” He smiled at you, moving his hair out of his face once again.

“Nah, it’s okay,” you shrugged, “Boss was a twat anyways, so it was about time I got out of there.”

You sat there for another half hour, maybe more, getting to know the man in front of you. You understood why Steve was so fond of him, he was a genuine, kind man, and he had been horribly misunderstood. It broke your heart to think of how he had been treated, and you knew he deserved so much better than that. You felt a connection to him from the moment you met him, and you knew that it was something you wanted to pursue, but you didn’t want to overstep your boundaries. Bucky clearly had some personal issues he needed to deal with first, but you really wanted to get to know him.

“(Y/N)!” Steve came rushing over to you, phone to his ear, “There’s been a break in, in both of our apartments.”

“What?” You stood up, eyes wide, “Why? Who was it? What did they take? Should we go?” You waited for Steve to get an answer before pestering him with more questions.

“No, I don’t think we should,” he pulled the phone away from his ear, “They found two guys in your flat, both Hydra. They need to do a scan of the building, they say it might take two days.”

“Two days?!” You shouted, “I can’t afford a hotel, Steve, where am I going to stay?”

Steve hung up the phone and put his hands on your shoulders, “Tony’s got loads of space, don’t worry.”

You rolled your eyes, “I’m not going to impose on Stark, I can’t do that.”

“You’re not imposing,” Tony walked up behind Steve, smiling, “I’d be honoured to have you stay here. Fair warning, you’ll be getting the room next to mine.”

You smiled, “Thank you, Tony. But I don’t have anything except this dress, heels, and my phone.” 

Tony grinned again, “I’ll take you shopping tomorrow, done deal. See you then!” Just like he arrived, he disappeared back into the crowd and you shook your head, smiling, before sitting back down, noticing Bucky was no longer on the couch next to you. You looked around and couldn’t find him anywhere, he must have left.

-

The next couple of days went by without a hiccup. Tony got you a change of clothes, toiletries, and new shoes, keeping his promise. You stayed in the room next to Steve, much to Tony’s dismay. Across from your room was Bucky’s, who spent a lot of time in there. The past couple of days you hadn’t seen him much and when you did, he didn’t talk to you that much. You were worried that the only reason he spoke to you at the party was because he was drunk, and that in his sober reality, he didn’t actually want to talk to you.

This was keeping you up one night, and after tossing and turning for about an hour, you decided to get up and get a drink of water. You stood up and threw a shirt on, and slowly walked down the hallway, not wanting to wake anyone up. When your reached the kitchen, there was already a light on, but no one in sight, so you shrugged it off and walked over to the fridge. Out of the corner of your eye, you spotted a hand resting on the back of the couch, but your heart picked up it’s pace when you noticed it was a metal hand. You slowly walked towards the couch and what you saw melted your heart. Bucky laid passed out, one arm thrown over his torso and the other on the back of the couch. He clearly didn’t plan on falling asleep here as he still had his shoes on. You smiled at the sight and picked up a blanket from the back of the couch, lightly placing it on top of the sleeping soldier, being careful not to wake him.

You walked back to the kitchen and poured yourself a glass of water with the utmost care, not wanting to disrupt Bucky. Once you finished your glass, you turned to place it in the sink when you heard a small whimper come from the couch. Looking back, you noticed Bucky’s fingers twitching.

“No...” he mumbled, and you realized he was having a nightmare. Your heart shattered and you placed the glass in the sink before slowly walking over to the couch. His face showed signs of distress and you softly placed your hand on top of his.

“Bucky, hey, wake up,” you whispered, rubbing his hand lightly. He jumped out of his slumber and faced you, instantly relaxing and taking a deep breath once he realized it was a dream.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

You shook your head, “Don’t apologize, it’s alright.”

He smiled softly at you before closing his eyes once again, sighing, “This happens all the time.”

You smiled sadly, “I know, I’m sorry.”

He sat up and scooted over, making room for you as he didn’t take his eyes off of you, “I hate it, you know? I feel so guilty all the time, everything is my fault. People keep trying to comfort me telling me it wasn’t me, but I still have to live with the visions of what I’ve done. It doesn’t just go away.”

You sat silently, letting him vent.

“During the day I can at least try to push the Winter Soldier out of my mind, but at night, it hits me and I can’t escape it.”

You placed your hand on his metal one, causing him to tense up slightly, “Bucky, I can’t imagine how you feel about all of this, really, because I haven’t been through that, but you need to know that everyone in this building is willing to help you. We all care for you and you’ve been through enough shit to last a lifetime, and you don’t deserve that. I’m so sorry this happened to you. I really am, but I’m here if ever you need me. I helped Steve through his dark times so I’m good at that sort of thing,” you chuckled slightly and he smiled, still never taking his eyes off of you.

“You don’t need to deal with my shit,” he grumbled before standing up, tossing the blanket aside with a confused face, and starting to walk off, but you grabbed his hand and stood up too.

“Hey, you don’t deserve to deal with that stuff either, but doing it alone is so much worse than having someone there for you, I’m not going to let you suffer,” you said, eyes locked on his.

He shook his head, “I can’t drag you down with this, my guilt is too much for a lot of people, I don’t deserve someone like you to help me.”

You placed a finger to his lip to shush him, “I’m here for you, Bucky.”

He turned away from you, “No, I don’t deserve it, leave me alone.”

-

The next couple of days went much better. Steve still didn’t feel safe with you returning to your apartment so Tony agreed to let you guys stay as long as you wanted, and now that you knew Bucky well enough, you wanted to stay to help him. You often rushed to his room in the middle of the night while he had nightmares, or stayed up late with him when he was too afraid to sleep. You never left his side when he was down and Bucky will never understand how he got lucky enough to have you help him. He knew you were sad about his situation, but you kept a smile on your face around him and because of that, he felt a smile more often.

You would wake up early in the morning and be the first face he saw before going for his morning run with Steve, and when he returned, you had made them a nice breakfast. You knew Bucky didn’t take care of himself so you did it for him. He hated that you were taking up your time to take care of him, not because he didn’t like you, but because he didn’t feel worth it.

He felt himself being drawn to you, he felt a strong connection to always want to be with you, and you with him. Steve constantly asked you if there was something going on, and you’d have to brush him off before you found yourself blushing and imagining what that would be like.

It’s a night when you thought about these things the most, naturally, so you found yourself being kept awake a lot more often than you’d like. Deep down, you knew it was because you wanted to be awake for Bucky’s nightmares, but you couldn’t admit that because when you accept your feelings, it’s just a downward spiral from there.

This night, you were doing just that, and no matter how much tossing and turning you did, your thoughts didn’t drift from the mysterious soldier once.

“Miss (y/n), I sense high levels of stress coming from Agent Barnes’ room,” Friday’s voice broke your thoughts and you jumped out of bed, completely forgetting pants, and rushed across the hall to Bucky’s room. You opened the door and saw him tossing in his sleep, small groans coming from the sleeping soldier. You sat next to his figure and placed a hand on his forehead, and his eyes opened instantly.

“Fuck,” he groaned, shoving his face down on the pillow, “I’m so sorry, you need to sleep, go back to bed.”

You shook your head, smiling, “No, no, I’m not leaving just yet.”

He pulled his face from the pillow and looked you dead in the eyes, a small smile on his lips, “You’re amazing, I’m sorry. Thank you.”

You placed a light kiss on his forehead and he shivered under your touch, “I’m here for you, Barnes, remember?” he nodded, “Do you want a glass of water?”

He shook his head, “No, no, I’m alright, I have one,” he motioned to his side table where there was indeed a glass of water. You smiled down at him and started running your fingers through his hair, something that you found soothed him instantly. His eyes fluttered shut and your heart soared at the thought of you being the only one who can calm him down like this. You continued to do so for another couple of minutes until you noticed him drifting off.

“You need to get back to sleep, Buck,” you whispered, “I’m gonna go back. I’ll see you in the morning,” you started to get off the bed, but Bucky grabbed your arm and looked up at you.

“No,” he mumbled, “Can you... uh, can you stay... for tonight?”

“In here?” You asked and he nodded, cheeks slightly rosy. You grinned at him and nodded, climbing under the blankets. Your heart was going absolutely wild, and you mentally cursed because you know he could hear things like that. You tried to keep still, not showing how excited you were to spend the night with Bucky. 

Before either of you could say anything, Bucky’s arm wrapped around your torso and he pulled you closer to him so that your bodies were touching. His arm was cold - it was metal, so no surprise - but his body was extremely warm and you found yourself leaning into his touch, resting your head against his chest as he rested his head on top of yours. 

“Thank you,” he mumbled against your forehead, placing a light kiss to it that sent you over the moon. You didn’t answer, but you smiled up at him before cuddling back up to him. Within minutes, the two of you were fast asleep.

-

“Bucky, wake up, man,” Steve’s voice broke the two of you our of your slumber. You woke up with your head shoved in the crook of his neck, his arm around your torso and your legs all tangled within each other. Your head shot up and Bucky groaned, pulling you back down.

“Go away, Steve,” The brunet grumbled, nestling his head against yours. You were lucky that your face was covered because your cheeks felt bright red. You managed to sleep through the night in the comfort of Bucky’s arms and you really didn’t want it to end. 

“Dude-” Steve opened the door and you gasped, pulling the blanket up above your head so he didn’t see you there, “Oh, my god, I’m sorry.”

Bucky chuckled, running a hand through your hair, “I told you to go away.”

“(Y/N)?” Steve’s mouth dropped as you waved a hand at him, not daring to face him, “I KNEW IT!” he shouted with a massive smile on his face, running out of the room and shutting the door behind him.

“Ugh, that was embarrassing,” You groaned when Steve finally left, turning to face Bucky who had a look of awe on his face.

“I don’t care,” he smiled at you, “I didn’t have a nightmare. The first sleep in years that I didn’t have a nightmare.”

You shot up, a huge smile on your face, “Really? That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you, Buck. That must feel nice.”

“Not as nice as sleeping next to you, I can say that,” he smirked and pulled you back down, snuggling up to you once again as the two of you drifted off. Guess your apartment was going to have to wait...

[lockdownuk]

Lockdown Diary Part 10

A personal account during the lockdown in the UK due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

23/03/2020 8:30pm Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, gives a live address to the nation to, effectively, put the country on lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus strain, Covid-19.

Many of us have been self-isolating for days but this latest development within the UK in reaction to the pandemic feels very serious and very scary. I decided to keep a simple diary and where better but online. Day 271: Work was dominated by Qfiniti again, including a meeting with Jon and staff from the States, where I found my self taking control to get the next steps in process (and then, Dave Stewart, the SCCM engineer fucked off and put an OOO message on Teams telling me he’s off until Tuesday (it’s Thursday)...and I am off on Monday!) But, I have to say this project does float my boat. Got a text message and then a call from PCH for another laser eye appt this coming Monday at 12.30pm. I mentioned to the lady that phoned that I will have to square it with work (I won’t, but she doesn’t know that) as I can’t afford to lose my job - it just seems the hospital, while under pressue with the admin and the clinic availability - I get it! - just aren’t seeing the issues for the patients. Plus, Peterborough has been declared a Tier 3 from Sunday under the new lockdown scheme, the highest tier. Great...I really want to travel to a highly infected area! managed to find an online booze shop that does Gordon’s and Famous Grouse and will deliver beforee Chrimbo, so I’ve placed the order for dad and Rita’s gift. I spoke with Dad today, he hasn’t heard about his vaccination yet which is a surprise (he’s in the first draft being over 80)

Day 272: Typing on day 273. Work was that manic shit at the end of the dya when I’ve got time off. I am only off on Moday but still had to tie up loose ends, complictaed further by Jon being off next week and Sueanne off this week and the Qfiniti project! In the evening I only mamaged three beers. I ate too much. Plus my sugars were all over the place and way too high! I ordered a torch a couple of days ago (£17), it arrived today. It takes rechargeable batteries or 3 AAAs. Apparently, to get the best performance (i.e. brightness) you need the rechargeable batteries in it, so i charged ‘em. Fucking hell, I’m glad I did - it’s brighter than the sun. It opens up my late walks in winter, for sure.

Day 273: While it was a very late (but sober) night yesterday (gone 4am before lights out) I was up before midday. Usual walking etc. plus gave the bathroom a clean (albeit with wipes, but I did mop the floor - and used the water to also mop the kitchen). Now I am about to stick a pizza in the oven, plus wedges (to have with microwaveable chip shop curry sauce) and watch This Is 40 which is coincidentally on telly tonight - the coincidence being clips of it are on TikTok a lot right now. I am on my second beer and am going to have a smoke right now as well. Lastly for this entry, I have been using my AudioPro speaker today, it pisses me off it’s not WiFi capable but, thru Bt, it does sound fucking good - revisiting James works very well to demonstrate the speaker’s prowess.

Day 274: I have another Paypal a/c. I have been getting emails to my standard gmail account from Paypal saying they are going to charge me £9 for an inactive account which I have been largely ignoring since my paypal a/c has a specific email address. Anyway, I tried to log in, after a password reset and, hey presto, I do have another one, with £35 in it, having just been fleeced of £9 for the aforementioned inactivity, fuckers. It’s registered with the old Market Place address and phone. When I try to transfer the £35 to my card, it wants to confim it’s me by calling the phone, which I can’t amend. Oh, and you can’t contact Paypal direct. Fuck knows what to do! Other than that, usual Sunday, a tad more relaxed since I have tomorrow off, but not that much now I have an eye appointment in Tier 4 Peterborough (it’s been up’d from tier 3)! Up at 1.30 pm (I watched This is 40 and The Guvners last night with lots of beer), feeling worse for wear but, stair climb and a 6 miler acheived!

Day 275: I was at the hospital for 3 hours. The laser clinic didn’t start until 1.30pm so, why my appointment was at 12.20, not even the consultant could understand. 15 minutes of lasering - horrible but I am used to it. It took so long it pretty much fucked my day off up completely. I got a Christmas card from Karen, in the actual post, so, a mail shot. It’s depressing.

Day 276: Back to work and it’s definitely in wind down mode. I’ve decided to compile a list of things I have done this year. It will be on the postive side, such as all the steps I’ve walked and getting an article published about my photography, but it will also include randon facts like getting bitten by a dig twice and not having a haircut. I’ll get it done so I can post in at new year, hopefully be a little inspiring, a little silly and a lot of showing off!

Day 277: Work, again, was quiet. It’s fucking pissing down now, as I type at 21:50, and has been all day. It’s causing havoc and there’s flooding everywhere. I could walk down St. Peter’s Road tonight ‘cos of it (had to go up New Road, Springfield Road, down Latham Road). Soaked a lunhtime and tonight! With a new variant of Coronavirus, France stopped frieght crossing the border. That’s now been resolved but tyeh back log has/is affecting certain food stocks in the shops, of which, fresh veg might affect me for Christams dinner (I plan to do a chicken breast with stuffing, pigs in blankets, yorkshire pud and shed loads of veg. I’ll nip to Co-Op tomorrow morning and see what’s vaialble. It’s a half day at work ‘cos of Christmas Eve, so I can nip out somewhere in the car if need be, as ong as the flooding has subsided. Or I could just get shitfaced and have burgers and pizza.

Day 278: Christmas Eve. Sueanne let me finish at 11.00am so, very shortly thereafter, off for a walk I went; it turned out to be a stop/start affair - flooding as the Nene had burst its banks, ended up doing more of a circuit round town. Bumped into Andy Smith (and his son) and, after that, Ash and Denise. Ended up doing just under 11.5km in 2 and a half hours.Knackered! As I type, I have a chilli on the stove, beer on the go, all the veg and chicken breast bought with no shortages, as feared, for tomorrow’s lunch and looking forward to eating. getting drunk, smoking, listening to music, watching telly....all over the next two/three days.

Day 279: I don’t even remember going to bed last night. As a direct result I got out of bed at 2.30pm. I couldn’t even be bothered with Christmas dinner, let alone anything else like exercise. I’m just about to have chilli for dinner (it’s 8.10pm). Watch some telly then try an go to sleep before midnight. No booze! I did talk to dad earlier. Day 280: Typing on day 281. A better, more productive day. Up @11.00am exercise and walk as usual, although the walk was a different route due to flooding. In the evening I could hear ‘storm Bella’ raging, so windy! I cooked a christmas dinner of sorts, chicken breast with Thyme, all the veg, roasted spuds and parsnip, stuffing (a first for me, albeit co-op stuffing mix), Yorkshie and pigs in blankets. It was smashing! A few beers and The Hitman’s Bodyguard, alays a fun watch. A better day, as I say, but I am feeling particular deflated this Christmas. Day 281: Typing on day 282. I realised, about mid afternoon, that Monday (tomorrow) is a bank holiday so no work. It was a great realisation but, also, worrying that it dawned on my like I’m an old person! Nevertheless, a nice long walk - bumped into Baz & Kate and had a nice long chat, then El & Camila, Aaron and Eva for another, shorter chat. I also saw Denise & Ash along the way. Fog video called later in the evening for a chat too (he told me how he fell asleep at the dinner table, fuck he makes me laugh - unwittingly - when I need it most!) A regular social fest! A repeat of last night’s dinner and a few beers - it was a good day albeit I am in a proper low ebb.

Day 282: Up at midday after a 4am-er. A very long walk (1.75 hours) and a hodge podge dinner (remaining chilli, roasted spuds and peppers, steamed cauliflower and runner beans, grated cheese) - it’s nearly ready, I’ll type the review tomorrow. I realise that this is the first time in 21 Christmases that I have at least talked to K. Is that connected to my mood slump? I reckon so. So, as that fact dawned on me, I then considered, should it be the case next Christmas, it will not be the first in along time and, as such, more manageable....fuck knows how I manage to accentuate any little positive but, thank goodness I do. Day 283: Work was a sedate affair today, fuck all to do really. Sueanne is now follwing me on Insta...I shall invetsigate on how to exclude posts to individuals, methinks. Tea, last night, was fucking lovely. More of the same tonight-ish - currently I am roasting spuds, peppers, garlic, chillies, tomatoes - it’ll all go with left over pigs-in-blankets (5) and a burger. I’ll have bisto beef with mustard on it. I can’t wait! Day 284: Typing on day 285. That meal was fucking lush! Checked on the car todfay and it would not start. Something is draining the battery so I will have to give it a run every day until I can get Julian to sort it. So, I WhatsApp’d Karen to borrow the portable starter. She dropped it off for me. We had the briefest of chats at the doorstep, first time we’ve spoken in weeks. She mentioned my hair! Day 285: NYE. I have just got back from walking to Cottersock and back. I would not have been able to do so without my new torch! I finished and published my double letter quiz on FB, including to the Virtual Pub group and the Oundle Chatter. It’s had some good feedback, I’m rather proud of it. I am going to make chicken casserole now (with dumplings - a first for me, I even bought some flour), have some beers and get a bit stoned. Before that, I am going to finish off my list of things I’ve done this year, including steps wlaked and hours listening on Spotify. I am quite proud of that list too.

Day 286: I fucked the dumplings up, added too much water, so that didn’t happen but the chicken casserole was good, just about to finish it for tea tonight. I also had pizza last night and went to bed at 5am. I have had a lot of good feedback on my list of 2020 achievements. I proud of it. K sent a happy new WhatsApp last night, around 00.30.

Day 287: No booze last night, so I was up before the alarm today (about 10.00am) Two walks, one on my own, another with Fog with a couple of beers. I fucking loved it! Watching datrts (World champs semi finals - been texting Dan while the first one has been on). Going to watch The Aviator later...I’ve not seen it before which surprises me. Why it surprises me I do not know, since I know I haven’t seen it. How the fuck can I be surprised by a fact I’m completely aware of? Day 288: I didn’t watch The Aviator ‘cos Logan Luck was on at 11:55pm on ITV4. Great fildm...I can’t believe that I very nearly paid for it (rent from Sky or Amazon). A late one last night and quite pissed. Thinking about it, having afew beers with Fog in the afternoon made it quite a long sesh for me! Up at just gone midday today, nice long walk (Cotterstock) which was mde long by a painful right ankle - I must have turned or twiested slightly sometime. Still, it survived. Back to work tomorrow - Chrimbo and New Year all done and dusted for the 55th time in my life!

Day 289: First day back at work of 2021. Boris announces another full lockdown in England (there’s a new strain of Covid19 which is seeing huge numbers of infections every day, over 50,000 per day).

Day 290: Something is up with my right foot, the little toe pad. It’s bloody sore. If it gets any worse it’ll affect my walking and exercise. I phoned Anne Bennison to talk about it, she just wants me to go and see her which i donlt want to do if poss, pandemic and all that.

Day 291: Wearing my sandals instead of the M&S slippers and my foot/toepad is already feeling bteer. However, I did inspect my Merrell boots, just in case, and the sole on te right is really worn down, in just three months. I have sent a WhatsApp to CotswoldOutdoors, where I got them from....let’s see what they say! It’s all kicking off i  the US - pro Trump protestors have storm the Capitol Building, where congrees was being held. Only in ‘Merica.

Day 292: Busy at work with rolling out Qfiniti - all that project work was pretty much for fuck all since the SCCM package has to hand held. It’s feckin’ freezing today, below freezing, slippy af on my walks. I have been shopping tonight, £106 in Corby Tesco. That does include 8 cans of sapporo.

Day 293: The fracas at Capitol Hill on Wednesday left 5 dead, it looks like Trump will be impeached. He’s already said he’ll not attend Biden’s inauguration. In a fucking world gone mad, it’s another level of madness. It’s really cold -3℃ tonight, more of the same tomorrow. Makes for brisk walks. I’ve just had chicken balti pie and chips for tea. It was so nice that I burnt the roof of my fucking gob. I’m on the Sapporo and about to have a smoke then watch Jack Reacher. I’ve (kinda) earnt after the first 5 day week for a while.

Day 294: Well, last night saw another late one...5am by the time I :went to sleep. Up at 2pm today with no instention of any exercise or walking or housework or fuck all, really. But, I did my exercises and a 9 mile walk. While I walked I came across Banners, quick 15 min chat and listed to Stage by David Bowie. He’s all over the radio right now as it’s his death’s anniversary tomorrow and his birthday yesterday. It’s a fucking good live album. A few beers tonight, eating trash, watching FA Cup highlights then End of Watch later.  Posh played today (first time in a while due to Covid infections) drew away to (shitty) Lincoln 1-1. Good point as Posh were down to ten men after 67 mins for a second yellow for handball in the area. Lincoln missed the pen. Fucking funny. Chorley, the non leaguers who knocked Posh out in round 2 of the FA Cup, beat Derby in round 3 today (albeit derby fielded an academy side of 11 first timers due to Covid ) - a great day for them!

Day 295: Up at 2pm swearing blind I’d not walk or exercise (again!) but, of course I did. I’ve done over 25 miles this w/e! End of Watch was brilliant last night. Well worth a rewatch, so emotional. I am making butter chicken as I type. I’ve added extra onion, garlic and, of course, chillies. It’s the spiciest butter chicken I have ever tasted! 

Day 296: One of those frustrating days at work when no problem of request I try to resolve goes without a hitch. After a 7km walk in the evening, took the car for a spin and cleaned the bathroom. Fucking knackered. It’s 11:30pm and I’m in bed typing this on the iPad! despite getting up so late, I feel knackered. 11pm bedtime for me, I reckon.

Day 297: Fucking busy at work, the States rolled out a new Okta trust policy and it caused mayhem. Meant my evening walk didn’t start ‘til gone 6pm. When I got back, clened the hall and stairs, made chilli (which I am about to have for tea (gone 10.15pm!) and showered. I’m, again, fucking knackered! Posh played Portsmouth in the EFL Trophy 3rd round at home. Won 5-1. Nice.

Day 298: Had an electrician rouind for the EICR cetrt. He was here until 2pm and it was a pain in the arse, having to work upstairs plus, with having to cut the electricity, all the smart devices lost their settings. And it was freezing up there.

Day 299: Work was impossibly infuriating. Not one pc remote session went to plan! It was pissing down a lunchtime during my walk but, I have to say, the cheap TargetDry coat copes fine in heavy rain for short periods. Everywhere is flooding again even though the rain turned to sleet. By my evening walk, it was dry but bloody cold. Then, when I got in I cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floor and the bathroom’s as well. I fucking done in! Chatted to dad today - same as ever!

Day 300: What a fucking work at week! I am so glad it’s Friday. To celebrate, I ordered new walking boots: Scarpas £121!

[datingintampafails]

Chapter 22: Jaden*

“Better Together” Jack Johnson

I matched with Jaden*, and based on his main picture, a professionally taken headshot, I got the feeling this guy was out of my league for sure. I matched with him one time, my opening message being about his eye color, with some adjective I cannot remember, but the 24 hour window expired before he responded. A couple days later I saw him profile again, matching for a second time, my opener this attempt was simply “hello again.” He answered with “Let’s hang out.” I ask him about his intentions and he says no clue, asking me about mine. After explaining myself, he says he is “in the EXACT same boat.”

After that, I tried to get him to fill out the dating application. He refused, despite me telling him essentially I’d be asking the same questions anyway. He said he would rather learn about each other in person, which is fair. Since this is more or less the same time as Allen*, I tell him the same thing regarding waiting to get tested before I go out and meet anyone. He says “that’s nice of you.” I suggest instead a virtual drink and he just replies that he hates these times. I agree but acknowledge that at least I’m trying and once I’m negative we can get drinks in person. He asks when I took the test and I admit that I haven’t taken it yet and am getting it the following day. “At least you’re honest” he tells me. I tell him I don’t see the point of lying, which he says is a “good trait.” I make a joke about him being a realtor and that his job is not lying but putting positive spins on things and he finds that really funny for some reason.

I request that since he wouldn’t take my dating application, if I can at least ask him the most important question. He says “Yes” then “I do not like anal.” I sent him a full line of “haha”s. “Oh wait that wasn't the question sorry haha” was what he said next. Funny. “That’s a very important answer too… I’m glad” I tell him. Then I asked the actual important question, regarding children, and at first he said “I want kids, couple, not for at least 5 years or so.” I give him a “womp womp” essentially saying, wrong answer. I explain myself and then he says “Lol that'll probably be my path. [Kids are] too pricy and I want to travel and build my career.” The question with this 180 remains, is that how he really feels or is he trying to appease me? Either way it seems one of the answers was a lie or at least less truth.

After this, I send him five messages, two related to what he said, one saying I like his vibes and want to go out once my test is back, a follow up after he doesn’t reply a day later saying “if you’d like to of course,” and then “officially no rona” two days after the previous message when I got no responses. I figured this dude was bored, but he hadn’t unmatched me yet so I figured I’d still sort of try. He finally responds to that last message with a “yesssssssssss.” He tries to make plans for that afternoon but I tell him I’m working. I ask him about Saturday night, he says he has no plans so far and I say “You do now” with a wink emoji. We plan the night, settling on me cooking dinner and having some drinks at my place. I thank him for motivation/a reason to clean my house. The reason that I chose night, is I actually have a date scheduled as well with another guy for lunch.

He asks me about weed, if I smoke, getting Peter* flashbacks here. In my blurb about my feelings on weed, I specifically tell him “I prefer not on one on one time that someone be high.” He simply says “I dont act like a little stoner but I get it” I ask follow up questions which lead me to finding out he habitually, daily, smokes marijuana. I ask him about how that works during the COVID pandemic, he says that the price has gone up but otherwise it’s the same. I then inquire about what he’s up to that night. No response.

Then it’s past midnight and officially Saturday, the day we are supposed to meet up. I ask “Sooooo gameplan?” No response. I don’t want to keep messaging and messaging, so I just see if he will come back out of the woodwork. The guy that I was supposed to have lunch with messages me around that time saying unfortunately he cannot make lunch anymore, so that’s cancelled. I don’t see the point in telling Jaden* that my afternoon has freed up or anything like that.

When the day comes, my friend invites me to the beach and I say I’ll come since my daydate was cancelled and “I’m pretty sure that I’m being stood up for my nighttime date as well so I don’t care.” As we drive up to the beach, I see that lady and her two kids from when Ethan* and I was at the beach. I’m sure it's them. I’m weak in my vulnerability so I actually break down and text him, telling him that I spotted them. I do not expect a response. My friend and I had a good time at the beach, but got rained out so our four hour trip turned into only two. It was really hot outside though so we were okay with it being cut short. Still no word at all from Jaden*.

Now when it is 6:30pm, I feel that officially I have been stood up. By this point, I'd already cooked dinner and had finished it, so even if he did magically appear I would tell him too bad. I message him to redeem myself, “Well if you actually wanna meet up let me know. I’m pretty busy so my time is valuable” I also add a stone faced emoji, because I’m sick of this shit, frankly. An hour after that, he messages me “hey!!” I for some reason don’t get the notification, and when I check my phone about 40 minutes later, I just reply “lol hi.” An hour and a half after my response, he gives me his number and asks me to text him. Here’s some screenshots.

My phone rings and it’s him. “Are you in an SUV?” I am and I jump as a figure appears to my left, it is him. The lightning storm going on has transgressed into a full on rain. We quickly hug hello as he escorts me to the door and the safety of no rain.

Once inside, I am greeted by his lab, a really nice pupper that I give lots of pats to. I’m then introduced to his friend. Jaden* offers me a drink, I let him make me a drink with some local rum. It is made way too strong, and I add some of my sparkling juice to the mixture to try and soften it up. It marginally works, but I just slowly sip on it.

Both Jaden* and his friend are outgoing and friendly, we talk about random stuff, shoot the shit. Honestly, thus far I am getting along better with the friend, not in a romantic way, but just a regular way. Jaden* is a little too talkative, occasionally interrupting, and loud. I cannot tell if he is drunk, high, or whatever, but he just seems a little off. Since I have no baseline of what he is like sober, it’s hard to tell. Jaden* brags about me, essentially saying that I was so nice and awesome and was going to make him dinner, which I make a point of adding “oh don’t worry I still made it, I just ate it myself” to be cheeky. He continues talking about miscellaneous other stuff, mostly things I cannot connect to at all, as it relates to other mutual friends the other two have.

He stops at one point and says “oh! You said I have some explaining to do so here you are” and he goes on to say that he went to watch the Barcelona soccer game with friends, and upon them winning, continued the celebration with drinking all day, he repeats a few times, “it’s not a good excuse, but it’s an honest one.” I shrug and say “I mean that’s okay.” He goes on to tell another similar story about when he was in college and skipped hockey practice, again like “it’s not a good excuse but it’s an honest one.”

Then another friend comes by, it’s a female. She is nice and seems to be long time friends with them both. They (meaning the two friends of Jaden*) are discussing plans to go to another bar or something in a little, but they end up sticking around for another hour and a half. Jaden* mentions he’s hungry (munchies??) and upon looking in his fridge, there’s nothing to eat except literally lunch meat. He eats the lunch meat, offers me some, which I decline, and actually goes back a second time to eat the rest of it after 5 minutes. He complains he’s still hungry so I say I’ll look up food options for him. He orders food (McDonald’s) and offers me to get whatever I want, I’m barely hungry so I opt for some small fries and a small frozen coke.

Jaden* has prepared some weed and puts it in a vaporizer, him and the male friend partake, both myself and the other woman decline. He now brings out a guitar and tries to play the beginning of a song, making us all guess what it is. He plays so sloppily and in combination with the guitar being out of tune, I have no clue. He repeats the set of notes like five times before revealing it’s the beginning of “that one Jack Johnson song.” Upon later googling, it was “Better Together.” He asks everyone if anyone knows anything on guitar, I sheepishly go “oh I used to play as a kid, I know like one song.” I take the guitar and play the one song I know by heart on guitar in fast succession, Beethoven’s Fur Elise. They’re all just staring at me blankly, confused that this quiet chill chick just whipped out legitimate guitar skills out of nowhere. I also continue to just strum on the guitar while everyone talks, just to have something to do. Jaden* takes the guitar back to try and tune it with some app on his phone. He complains about how the app doesn’t really work to tune it and that it is still out of tune. The guitar gets put away.

Jaden* now is complaining about how he “ordered his food an hour ago and it’s still not here;” it has been fifteen minutes. His friend believes him; “it has not been an hour” I say so as to not sympathize with him. He is again bragging about me, and talking about how nice I am and that he liked that when we were talking on Bumble. The flattery is something I’m immune to but I thank him. Next he goes into a long winded story about when he partied with Justin Bieber back when he was dating Selena Gomez, “he could have had any girl he wanted at that party” he attested, “but he didn’t and he even went upstairs to talk to her on the phone. Biebs is loyal.” Also don’t really care about Biebs so I was not impressed by this anecdote. We did randomly bond over liking old Adam Sandler movies, specifically my favorite, Little Nicky, and agreed we’d watch that tonight. Randomly his dog jumped up on the couch next to me and I noticed that the dog had a boner, which was awkward and I pushed him away so I wouldn’t get humped.

The friends finally left a little before 1 am, I told Jaden* that I wanted to get going by 2 since I had stuff to do the next day and needed to get back to my dog. He says that’s fine and then gets mad about his food still not being there after at this point long enough to bitch. Now that he’s a little closer to me, I can smell his breath and it is horrid. It smells just like butt. I assume from a mix of the smoke and alcohol he had been drinking all day.

He calls McDonald's and gets in an argument with the lady. It’s really weird and off putting. On the phone he is saying how he’s worked at restaurants and know how the system works with delivery services, and the fact that they’re “still working on it” means such and such. They claim it’s already been picked up despite the app saying it hasn’t. He says he is just going to order from somewhere else. I’m arguing with him that nowhere he orders food from is going to get there quicker at this point and to just wait. Finally the UberEats updates and it will be there in 10 minutes which calms him down. He remembers he has a cookie and goes to eat it. I do find it pro status that he microwaves the cookie for a little bit. He asks me if I want some, I say sure, but then he tries to spoon feed a piece to me. I go with it; the cookie is actually pretty good. He offers me another piece, again spoon feeding it to me. A little weirdly intimate.

We go back to the couch to finally start Little Nicky. I’ve seen this movie countless times at this point so it’s not super important that I pay attention. He briefly rubs my shoulder and it feels good, I try to convince him to give me a full shoulder rub, and offer one to him as well. He gets his, I successfully break out a knot in his shoulder. When it's presumably now my turn, I get that same shoulder rubbed for maybe one minute, then he stops. Disappointing. He attempts to kiss me quite a few times, and I unenthusiastically peck/kiss back, but again, his breath is rancid so I’m not trying to get too close to that.

The food finally arrives. There’s no straws so I tried to open the top of my coke and it accidentally splattered on the (brown) couch. I run to the kitchen to get paper towels and come back to clean it. I apologize and he says it’s ok.

He’s eating his food, and is of course to my dismay chewing with his mouth open/smacking his lips, so if it wasn’t already a no go, it now officially was. I stay with my promise to just hang a little longer though. He snarfs down his food, I eat some fries and eat my frozen coke with a spoon. He’s done eating and we go back to spooning to watch the movie. He keeps lighting kind of humping me, which is just super weird, and I ignore that it’s happening. He seems to be completely flaccid which makes it even stranger.

After maybe 15 minutes, I notice that he’s no longer really laughing at the movie or doing anything, I peer back and realize this dude is sleeping. Great. I just lay there and continue to watch the movie. Honestly, I almost drift off to sleep a few times too; it’s late and I’m bored/tired. I check my watch and it’s now 1:58am. I start to get up and say “ok it’s almost 2, I gotta get going.” He awakens and grumbles at me.

He becomes legitimately angry at me for actually following through with what I said I was gonna do. “What the hell I thought we were gonna hang?” I tell him that like I came over but told him we weren’t hooking up so that shouldn’t have been an expectation. “I see, leaving at exactly 2, wow.” I’m just gathering my things and not saying a word. He mumbles at me and I cannot make out half the words he says, but says something like “I don’t think I’m the guy you’re looking for.” I respond, “I can’t really understand you right now, but yeah that’s okay.” It is clear to me this guy is not compatible with me whatsoever.

I’m still trying to be more or less not a total bitch, so I give him a peck on the forehead goodbye. I was holding my open frozen coke, so unfortunately in leaning over I again still had a little of the drink on the sofa. Whereas last time he was calm about it, now he is pissed. “AND YOU JUST KEEP SPILLING SHIT ON MY COUCH! GET IT TOGETHER!” He is being a jerk and I am no longer standing by and being friendly, “I’m gonna fucking clean it up again chill out, damn. You don’t have to be such a fucking asshole” He repeats yelling at me about his couch, that is the same color as the beverage so besides it looking wet, it will not stain. “Whatever” I say. I double check I have all my things, as the last thing I would want to do is have to come back here to get a belonging of mine. He is staring at me as I do this like “hurry up and leave. ”As I have my things and I’m about to head out the door, he randomly becomes nice again, “alright catch you later” “probably not,” I respond as I close the door behind me.

I shake my head to myself as I leave and at least the rain has stopped. I actually even feel tears sort of welling in my eyes. I am tired of having such terrible experiences, getting slack from guys I barely even know, having to put on a smile, some make-up, and put myself out there, just to be treated like shit. I drive home without incident, I think about blocking his number, but I figure that can wait until tomorrow. I get home a little before 2:30am, greet my dog, let her sniff me since I smell like another dog at this point, before changing into my pajamas again.

Later that morning, I get a text from Jaden*:

I have no reason to continue the conversation after that. I figured I would be honest because, why not. If I can at least try and teach him a lesson for the next woman, then my suffering will not be for nothing. Another night I won’t forget, similar to Peter*, but at least he did have a clean apartment before I came along.

[nadjastersurveys]

General Womanhood

1. Do you like the color pink? I like every color so I like pink as well

2. How easily do you cry? Lately I’ve been crying a lot hahaha

3. What food do you eat the most of when you’re sad? I tend to lose my appetite when I’m sad. But when I do eat while being sad I go for something unhealthy like most people lol

4. How often do you experience boob sweat? Everytime when I sweat a lot, the boobs leak too lmao

5. What time of month is your time? Like at what time of month is my period in? I don’t know/remember, I don’t track my period which is something I should learn to do

6. How moody are you when you are on your period? I’m not any moodier on my period that I am when I’m not

7. Have you ever thought you were pregnant because your period was late? No

8. Have you ever been on the pill? No 9. Have you ever thought about having children someday? What is your current opinion? I haven’t really thought about that. It’s not something I have to think now anyways lol. I have time

10. Have you ever given birth? If not, would you ever want to? No and i’m not that sure tbh

11. How much do you like decorating for holidays? My family doesn’t do it that much. Nor do I 12. How good of a cook do you consider yourself? I can’t cook 13. What is your favorite thing to cook? ^ 14. Do you prefer cooking, baking, or both equally? Baking is more fun 15. Can you sew? I did that when I was in school but I hated it 16. How feminine do you consider yourself? I don’t know, But I don’t think I’m super feminine 17. Have you ever been told that you are too girly or feminine? No, it’s always the other way around. Like people telling me to be more girly or them saying that girls can’t wear/say things that. It’s really annoying tbh 18. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Yeah 19. How do you define “girl power”? I think it’s just women supporting and appreciating/accepting other women  20. How much of a neat freak are you? I like things to be neat but I wouldn’t say I’m freak about it 21. How you ever wished you were born a male? No 22. Breastfeeding or formula? I don’t know, whichever is better for the baby? 23. What is your opinion of equal pay? I think everyone doing the same job should be paid the same amount and your gender shouldn’t have to do anything with it 24. What is one profession you think needs more women? I’m not sure 25. Are you pro-life or pro-choice? Pro-choice 26. Have you ever experienced any sexism? If so, please explain. I’m sure I have, I just can’t think of any examples 27. Have you ever been called a blabbermouth or a chatterbox? Yeah because sometimes I just can’t shut up

28. What is one thing about women you think most men don’t know? I don’t know 29. Is there anything you dislike about being a woman? Nah, I ike being a female

30. Complete this phrase: I’m so glad I am a woman because ______. we are amazing.

LIFE EXPERIENCES:

31. Did you ever play with Barbie dolls as a child? Yes

32. Have you ever dotted lowercase Js and Is with hearts or smiley faces? As a joke only lol

33. Have you ever been a Girl Scout? Nope, I was never interested in it

34. Have you ever been a ballerina? No but I did other dance styles though

35. Have you ever been a cheerleader? No

36. Were you ever voted as homecoming or prom queen? No

37. Have you ever hosted a sleepover? I’ve had friends stay at our house so yes?

38. Do you belong to a sorority? No

39. Have you ever kept a diary or a journal? Not really

40. At what age did you get your first period? I was 12

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

41. What is the longest your hair has ever been? Would you ever grow it that long again? This length I have right now is the longest it’s ever been. So a bit past my boobs. I want to cut my hair a bit though

42. Have you had a hairstyle above the eyebrows? Bangs? Yes, when I was like 2

43. What hairstyle do you wear the most? It’s either down or up in a high ponytail

44. Have you ever died your hair? If so, how often? I have but I haven’t done it in a while. I have my natural color now

45. What is the heaviest you remember ever weighing? I’m the heaviest now lol. I’m something like 48kg

46. How muscular are you? Pretty muscular? I don’t know 

47. Do you have any piercings anywhere besides your earlobes? I have my nose pierced. And piercings on my cartilage as well

48. Do you have any tattoos? If you, where are they and what are they of? I don’t

49. Do you like wearing lipstick or lip gloss? If so, how often do you wear them? I’ve never worn lipstick but I’ve worn lip gloss, it makes my lips look yummy lol. Anyway I rarely wear gloss on my lips however

50. How often do you paint your nails? Never

51. Have you ever worn any fake nails? No

52. Have you ever worn fake eyelashes? No, I don’t think they would look good on me

53. How often do you shave or wax your legs? I shave them couple times a week, so like every other 3 days or so. I’ve never waxed them

54. How white are your teeth? Pretty white

55. Have you ever been told that you look like a certain celebrity? No

56. How much do you look like your mother? Lmao I don’t look like her at all. I was adopted from Asia to a European country sooo

57. How much do you look like your father? ^

58. What do you think is your best physical feature? I like my legs and butt, they’re pretty nice haha

59. What do you think is your worst physical feature? I don’t like my smile and eyes

60. How good are you at communicating through facial expressions? I’m not sure

FASHION STYLE: 61. What type of clothing do you own the most of? I own a lot of different t-shirts I guess 62. How big is your closet? It’s pretty small for a walk-in closet 63. Have you ever looked through your closet and though “I have nothing to wear”? Well not like that because I have a quite a lot of clothes but yeah sometimes it’s hard to decide what to wear for that reason 64. What is your favorite fashion brand? I like Nike, Adidas and Fila 65. Do you wear skirts and dresses at all? If so, how often? I never wear skirts. I wear dresses in super formal situations so like once every three years lol 66. What is your dress size? XS or S 67. What is the shortest length of skirts and dresses you are comfortable wearing? I don’t think I would wear a dress that’s not reaching my knee. Or that goes past my knee, so knee length dresses are my style 68. How expensive was your prom dress? I’m not in high school yet, so 69. What is the most expensive piece of clothing you currently own? My winter jacket 70. Do you wear high heels or stilettos at all? If so, how often? No 71. Have you ever worn high heels casually? I haven’t 72. How often do you take an OOTD (outfit of the day) selfie? Never 73. Have you ever worn the exact same outfit from head to toe more than once? Yeah of course

74. How often do you wear a bra when out in public? I always wear it 75. How often do you wear a bra when bumming it at home? Always 76. When you get home from work, how soon does your bra typically come off? I don’t take it off unless I’m showering or changing it lol 77. Have you ever carried a spare bra with you in your purse? No lol 78. Which are you more likely to go without: A bra or panties? A bra, going out without panties would feel super uncomfortable 79. Does it matter to you if your bra and panties match or not? Nah, they pretty much never match 80. What type of underwear do you typically wear? The only type of underwear I wouldn’t wear is lace. The style doesn’t matter to me, the material/fabric does  81. How much of your underwear is white? I think I have couple 82. Have you ever carried a spare pair of underwear with you in your purse? No 83. Do you like eyeshadow? I don’t wear it  84. Do you like mascara? Or that, I don’t wear any makeup 85. How much makeup do you typically wear? I don’t wear it lol 86. Have you every gone out in public without any makeup on? Yes everytime 87. How much jewelry do you typically wear? Just my earrings and my nose ring 88. Is there any kind of jewelry you pretty much always wear? Well yes ^ my piercings 89. Do you carry a purse at all? I don’t own purses, I mostly use tote bags 

90. Do you like tube and halter tops? No

91. Do you like crop tops? I wear them sometimes, yeah 92. Are you comfortable showing off a little cleavage? I wouldn’t say it’s that uncomfortable but I never show cleavage lol especially when I go out in public 93. One-piece swimsuits or bikinis? Either way is fine 94. Does it matter to you if your bikini top matches the bottom? No

WEDDING CRAZE:

95. Have you ever been a bridesmaid? If so, how often? No

96. Do you have any desires to get married? Not yet anyway

97. For how long have you thought about your wedding? I haven’t thought of it

98. How much of your wedding do you have planned out already? I haven’t planned anything

99. Would you rather have a big or a small wedding? Small

100. Would you rather have a lot of bridesmaids or just a couple? Just couple, nothing dramatic lol

101. Would you rather have an indoor or an outdoor wedding? Does the same go for the reception? I guess indoor, the weather is so unpredictable

DATING & RELATIONSHIPS:

102. What is your current relationship status? Single

103. What is the longest relationship you’ve ever had? I’ve never been in a relationship

104. Do you consider yourself a hopeless romantic at all? Nah, I’m not romantic

105. Are you a virgin? If not, which gender did you lose your virginity to? Yes

106. What personality trait are you most attracted to? I people who make me laugh, it’s the best feeling. I also like cool people haha

107. Have you ever been on a blind date? No

108. Has anyone you know ever tried to set you up on a date? No

109. Do you use any dating apps? If so, have they ever worked out for you? Nope

110. Do you kiss on the first date? I haven’t been on a date

111. How often do guys hit on you? Never lol

112. Have women ever hit on you? No

114. Have you ever kissed another woman while sober? If so, did you like it? Well I’m always sober lmao. Anyway, I’ve kissed a girl and I liked it because it was with the right person

115. Have you ever dated another woman? No, or a boy like I said

116. After how long of dating do you typically consider a relationship to be serious? I don’t know

117. Would you rather your lover give you chocolate, flowers, both, or something else? Something else haha, like a hug and a kiss?

118. Are you friends with any of your exes? I don’t have any exes

119. Is sex before marriage wrong? No

ENTERTAINMENT: 120. What celebrity do you most admire and why? Hmm I don’t know who I really admire 121. Do you like romantic comedies? Do you have any favorites? Noooo, I hate them 122. Do you have a favorite romantic movie? Only romantic movies that I liked are Titanic and The Two Faces of January 123. Who is your favorite Disney princess? I like the story of Cinderella but I wouldn’t say she’s my favorite princess. I don’t have one?

124. What is your favorite Disney song? I don’t know 125. Do you watch The Bachelor or The Bachelorette? Nope 126. Have you ever watched Sex & The City? Never 127. Have you ever watched any shows such as Project Runway or America’s Next Top Model? I have seen couple episodes of them both but that’s it 128. Do you like watching any beauty pageants such as Miss America? No 129. Do you like watching the red carpet arrivals before award ceremonies? I don’t watch them 130. Beyonce or Taylor Swift? Beyoncé 131. Oprah Winfrey or Ellen DeGeneres? I used to like Ellen but now I’ve learned some things about her haha, I don’t know that much about Oprah but she seems nice and intelligent?

A PILE OF RANDOMNESS: 132. Are you named after anyone? No 133. How many male friends do you have? I don’t have any close male friends 134. Have you ever been considered the mother of your group of friends? No, the opposite ‘cos I’m the youngest so I’m like the baby lol 135. Have you ever called your friend friends your ‘girlfriends’? No 136. Have you ever called a non-lover a term such as honey, babe, dear, or darling? Yes my friends 137. How many items do you own that are of a floral print design? I don’t think I have any? 138. Have you ever scoffed at something because you thought it wasn’t feminine enough? No lol 139. How healthy do you eat? I eat pretty healthily. Not all the time like I have my “slips” but I’m mainly pretty healthy 140. What is your preferred way to carry a purse: Clutched in your hand, on your elbow, or on your shoulder? On my shoulder 141. Besides you phone, money, wallet, and keys, name five things you always have with you in your purse. Umm nothing else? Bunch of receipts I put to my bag after I bought something and never throw them out? lol

142. Have you ever lost anything inside your purse? No 143. Have you ever used your bra or your cleavage as a purse or a pocket? Just sometimes when my hands are full lol 144. Do you consider shopping a sport No lol 145. Do you shop more in physical walk-in stores or online? Lately online. It’s something I enjoy more actually, even though I like trying on clothes as well 146. What is the most amount of money you remember ever spending in one single shopping trip? I’m not sure actually 147. How often do you have a girls’ night out? Never?

148. Do you prefer coffee or tea? I like both, idk which one I prefer more 149. How polite do you consider yourself? I’m pretty polite 150. Can you do the splits? Yes 151. Do you like doing any yoga? I like stretching but I’ve never done yoga 152. Have you ever been told that you have cute handwriting? Yes

153. How well can you write in cursive? Pretty well I guess, but I prefer print 154. Have you ever successfully been on a diet? I’ve never been on one

155. Do you currently or have you ever belonged to a book club? No 156. Have you ever talked yourself out of a driving ticket by using your looks? I don’t drive 157. Have you ever drunk a non-alcoholic beverage from a wine glass? I don’t remember, I guess not? 158. Do you prefer showers or baths? Showers 159. Have you ever snorted while laughing? Yeah haha 160. How strict are you about manners? I’m not super strict about them

[papa-1-rights-activist]

Papa I - Headcanons

ok since Papa I doesn’t seem to get nearly as much love as his brothers imma list a bunch of headcanons i have:

[only slightly NSFW]

he’s the only Emeritus who doesn’t like Abba, and his brothers give him a lot of shit for that

he often twists english idioms, so for ex. instead of “I played you like a fiddle” he says “I played you like a needle”. He claims it’s on purpose, but everyone knows it’s really not. His youngest brother makes fun of him for that

his actual name is Flavio

a true bookworm

he’s way more introverted than his brothers

bc of that he doesn’t go to many parties, unless Dante (Papa II) drags him there since he thinks that Flavio is too old to waste his remaining time away in his room

in his younger days he used to have long, brown hair that he would tie in a low ponytail

he went completely bald in his late 40′s. mostly due to genetics, but also bc of stress

a hopeless romantic, his favourite genre of books is romance, next to horror

tends to get very invested in fictional relationships

which is a direct cause of him going to his brothers and going on angry rants about “that bitch Cecillia who gets in the way of MC confessing her feelings for Robert”. Both Dante and Alessandro (Papa III) are so tired of this, but will listen anyway bc they love their big bro and support his interests

anyway, when Flavio discovered so called “web-novels”, Alessandro almost had a stroke

he always had been supportive of his younger brothers, even if they weren’t at first

he’s the kind of person who helps others in need, but doesn’t notice his own suffering. Even if he’s in the similar situation as the person he just gave advice to.

he taught his brothers how to growl and now they’re better at it than him (or at least that’s what he thinks)

Dante and Alessandro started calling him “goblin” once he lost all of his hair

(it got a bit long so i’m putting the rest under the cut)

he and Alessandro often as a joke threaten other people to send Dante their way if they won’t consider changing their behaviour

and sometimes they do

his brothers didn’t trust him at first, as he was introduced to them as this authority figure that will teach them the ways of papacy, so they’ll be ready when their time will come (and you know how they hate authority figures, having their father be one as well)

it wasn’t until Flavio helped out Alessandro when he was in a vulnerable situation that he and Dante realised that maybe he’s not all bad

it took Dante a lot longer to get to that point, but eventually he came to a conclusion that if his younger brother trusts him, he should at least give it a try

his superpower is getting past people without them noticing

“i just went past the security and no one gave a shit”

“um, i’m sorry to bother you, but i just wanted to make sure that the doctor is still available bc i’ve been waiting here in line for 2 hours after all patients had their turn...just making sure”

he just doesn’t really talk to people if he doesn’t need to

he’s like a criptid, on a daily basis no one seems to encounter him besides his brothers

it might be correlated to him staying in his office and reading books all day, but who knows really ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

anyway he’s about 17-18 years older than his brothers

he’s good at logical games, puzzles and such. maybe not as good as Dante, but he often manages to win when they play cards

he might come off as a nice fellow but really, he can be pretty nasty if he doesn’t like someone

you would think that he and Copia would get along considering how both of them are kind of awkward. HA! wrong!

it’s not clear why exactly he doesn’t like him, or what did he do to Copia to get on Imperator’s nerves, but as of now he’s considered the biggest asshole from all three papas according to Sister and Cardinal

Imperator: ...and this is Papa Emeritus I

Papa Emeritus I: *bullies Copia*

Imperator: ok guess what, new fucking idea

and this is how “super asshole first emeritus” was born

he hasn’t been in a lot of relationships. again, he doesn’t socialise a lot

but he sure fucks if he wants to lol

ofc not nearly as much as his bros (or anyone in their church for that matter)

just to be clear, he hasn’t been in a lot of relationships not bc of anxiety or sth. he’s a bit awkward, yes, but he doesn’t spend much time with people not bc of anxiety - that’s just how he chooses to be. He just doesn’t spend enough time around people to click with someone

despite all of this, Alessandro felt more confident asking him for relationship advice than Dante when he was younger

sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad, but it sure was advice

also also, Flavio was the first person that Alessandro came out to as bisexual. he was very supportive about it and encouraged him to go and also tell Dante (to which he replied “yeah no fucking shit”)

he has absolutely no fashion sense (outside of what he is required to wear as papa) but worry not, bc Alessandro is here to help

also, he doesn’t drink alcohol outside of rituals - like at all.

he got drunk once and he regretted it the next morning. he decided it’s not for him

his brothers won’t let him forget about it

on occassion he makes an exception when being drunk seems like a better alternative than being sober in the moment

he’s a cat person, though he doesn’t own one

he has nothing against dogs - they’re just a bit too overwhelming to him

loves flowers and knows flower language fairly well

if you want to increase your chances with him - bro, just buy him a bouquet of flowers (even better if you arrange it to say something nice...or naughty kljhdgh)

anyway, ritual sex is his favourite kind of sex (which he doesn’t get much these days, as his brothers get more attention)

he has a weird fascination with blood (these rituals sure awakened sth in him)

not in a “i will purposefully hurt ppl just to satisfy my lust for blood” but more like...when he sees it he’s more curious than terrified compared to most ppl

as in, if he had a S/O he wouldn’t mind licking blood off from small cuts n’ stuff (and by “he wouldn’t mind” i mean he offers it himself lol)

one would say that he even looks at blood as something beautiful

anyway, he loves horror with lots of gore (books, movies - doesn’t matter)

sometimes he insults people via flower bouquets (this is the most vulgar he will ever get)

his brothers already learnt certain flower combinations bc they’re the ones who get those the most

well until Copia showed up. he was veeery confused at first

Dante and Alessandro hate it to bits, bc they always end up looking irrational to ppl around them when a ghoul delivers them one. and also it’s annoying when your oldest brother is smugly showing off like that when the last time you talked you ended up fuming with rage

he’s the ebodiment of “still waters run deep” - he’s a calm, asocial old man who loves the smell of flowers and reading cheesy romantic novels, but then you remember he likes to taste some blood from time to time

one time he and his brothers were casually walking in a park when suddenly they encountered some bloody corpse of a bird. while Alessandro was freaking out, he decided to put it on the side and make a proper burial. his brothers were completely on board, until they realised that by burial Flavio meant “let’s make a flower bed and put the massacred corpse on top of it for all to see”

it was supposed to be artistic. and he kind of wants the same treatment when his time will come

boi did that go well

[roboticonography]

Fic preview: The Fixed Foot

Pals, I regret to inform you that the fic I had planned to post today is not done. I was hoping to put the finishing touches on it today, but out of nowhere it got a lot longer and somewhat sexier, so I hope you’ll forgive me for posting just this first part, a small taste of things to come.

The title is a reference to John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” which has been in the back of my mind ever since Agent Carter’s S1 finale episode.

Extended metaphors about compasses for the win.

This is for Day 1 of Steggy Week 2019: It’s Endgame, Baby!

===========

He starts with a date range. He doesn’t want to risk making things too complicated. This is going to be tricky enough as is.

He reads up on Peggy. He’s avoided knowing some of the details thus far; she wasn’t able to tell him directly, and using the internet felt intrusive.

There isn’t a lot of detailed information to be had through official channels. Employment forms and tax forms give him a dry chronology of cities, addresses, changes in marital status.

Howard’s butler’s unpublished memoirs are more illuminating. Edwin Jarvis uses pseudonyms for all of Howard’s associates, but it isn’t hard to figure out the identity of “Nancy,” who nearly knocked Jarvis unconscious the first time they met. In spite of that—or maybe even because of it—he seems to have really liked Peggy. (Steve can’t imagine meeting her and not liking her, but he is, of course, biased.)

Steve discovers that Peggy and a friend lived in one of Howard’s Manhattan penthouses for a period of time in the late 40s, after both of them were “asked to vacate” a women’s boarding house. He suspects there’s more to the story than that. He hopes he’ll get to hear it in person.

In one entry, Jarvis specifically mentions that Peggy is single. He seems to be one of those types who loves being married so much that he thinks everyone ought to try it at least once.

Steve decides on a date.

He collects the things he’ll need: a set of clothes, a paper map, some valuables he can hock for cash when he gets there, and a few keepsakes that won’t give him away.

He debates whether to get a different haircut, whether to grow a beard or get a pair of glasses. He wishes Natasha were here to help him with this part.

He wishes Natasha were here for a lot of reasons.

He reads everything he can get his hands on: what’s happening in politics, movies, music. Who made it to the World Series. It’s a sobering reminder of the time he’s returning to, and the battles that will lie ahead.

He has Bruce explain how time travel works, again and again, until it finally feels like it might be starting to sink in. He doesn’t want to do anything that might cause harm to his loved ones—those in the here and now, or those in the past. But he also knows himself. He knows he won’t be able to sit idly by.

Bruce assures him that there’s nothing he can do in the past that will alter what’s already taken place. His actions will create a new timeline, with its own outcomes; once he’s there, he won’t be able to take anything for granted.

Last but not least, he makes sure he has a backup plan. He loves Peggy, and he knows Peggy loves him, but it’s got to be her choice.

Bucky figures it out, of course. 

Sam doesn’t.

*

The one thing he should have thought to check was the weather report. The night he lands, it’s raining in sheets. The sidewalks are flooded.

He finds a spot to disable his quantum suit and change into the clothes he brought, which are instantly soaked as soon as he goes outside. Naturally, he didn’t think to bring an umbrella.

By the time he makes it over to Howard’s building, he looks like a drowned rat. The concierge eyes him suspiciously when he asks if Miss Carter is in.

“Who?”

“Margaret Carter. I know she lives here. She’s a friend of mine. Please.”

“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t help you.”

He scans the cavernous lobby; he doesn’t particularly want to have their reunion here, under the watchful eye of the building’s staff, but he may not have much choice.

Mercifully, the place is empty, aside from a single resident. Her back is to Steve, but her arrow-straight nylons and her tidy blonde pincurls remind him of Peggy, and he feels a heady rush of longing and anticipation. 

Watching her collect a letter from a bank of tidy pigeon-holes along one wall, he has a brainwave: he’ll leave Peggy a note. She might not believe it, but it’ll probably at least make her curious enough to want to meet him. And it’ll give her time to adjust to the idea before seeing him in person.

He borrows a sheet of paper and a fountain pen from the concierge, and makes an effort not to drip on the counter as he ponders what to write. He tries to think of a place nearby where they could meet.

“Is there an all-night diner anywhere around here?”

The concierge has just opened his mouth to reply when Steve is distracted by someone tugging on his sleeve.

It’s the woman who was picking up her mail. She’s young, and looks strangely familiar, though Steve has no clue where they might have met. Hopefully not at a USO show.

Fortunately, she doesn’t seem especially star-struck. “If you’re just looking for coffee and pie, I know an okay place,” she tells him, pointing to the waitress’s uniform under her rain slicker.

“Great, thanks.”

“Did I hear you asking for Peg earlier?”

Steve nods.

“She went to the pictures. I’m the roommate.” The blonde loops her arm through his. “You can wait upstairs, it’s okay. I’ll even scare up a cup of coffee for you, pro bono. Come on.”

He knows he shouldn’t; he needs to get his story straight with Peggy before he starts interacting with her social circle. But he’s been on the move for days, and it’s miserable outside.

“Sure. Thanks.”

*

The apartment is huge, a carefully curated monument to old-school wealth: antique furniture and oil paintings, dark wood and heavy fabric. The only thing that keeps it from being oppressive is the elegant simplicity of the architecture: long, clean lines and tall windows.

Angela—Angie—has the kitchen send up a tea tray. It’s enough food for six people, which is a blessing, because Steve is starving. He has to force himself not to be a pig.

“Nice spread,” he observes. He’s trying to remember the way he used to talk. It feels like he’s back in his USO days, playing a parody of himself.

Angie doesn’t seem to notice anything amiss. “I know! Oh, how the other half lives,” she says, comically, shoving half a raisin scone into her mouth.

Steve suddenly realizes where he knows her from: a 1951 movie musical called Life of the Party. She was billed as Ella Martin, but the cheeky grin is the same, and the strident voice. She couldn’t sing worth a lick, but she had razor-sharp comedic timing.

“So what’s your story?” asks Angie, still chewing. “How do you know Peg?”

“We met overseas during the war.”

“Oh yeah? What’s your name?”

He hesitates before replying, “My friends call me Steve.”

“That your way of telling me you want to be friends?”

“I’d like that a lot,” he tells her, with absolute sincerity.

She licks her fingers and eyes him suspiciously.

“I promise I’m not…” All the euphemisms he can think of are modern ones. “Trying to get anywhere with you,” he finishes, awkwardly.

“Good.” She nods in agreement with herself, and tops off his teacup.

Angie supplies the deficiency of the small talk, while Steve quietly polishes off most of the pastries. For the first time in days, he feels like he can let his guard down a little.

He starts to sink deeper into the plush sofa, his mind drifting pleasantly as Angie regales him with a story about a customer who tried to smuggle a cat into the automat in a briefcase.

Down the hall, the elevator dings.

“Angie?”

The sound of Peggy’s voice hits him like a sucker punch. It must show on his face because Angie asks, “You okay?”

“Fine. Thanks.” He sits up straighter, suddenly uncertain of where he should put his elbows.

“In here, Peg!” Angie hollers.

Steve can hear Peggy talking quietly—and a distinctly male voice whispering back.

“There’s someone with her,” says Steve.

“Probably just Daniel.”

“Who’s that?”

“Oh boy.” Her voice is suddenly soft, sympathetic. “Been a while since you saw her, huh?”

Before he can get the answer out, Peggy strides into view.

Her hair is different—longer than he’s ever seen it, swept over to one side in soft waves, like Veronica Lake. Her burgundy dress is perfectly molded to her magnificent figure, and has a very appealing neckline. She even has a tan, as though she’s just come home from a long beach holiday. 

She looks youthful, beautiful, vital. Happy.

“How was the picture?” calls Angie, oblivious.

“Absolute rubbish,” Peggy proclaims.

“It wasn’t that bad,” says her companion, helping her off with her coat. He’s young, good-looking, also tanned, and clearly smitten. “You’re just not very romantic, that’s all.”

“Oh!” She tosses the coat over a chair before turning to smack him on the arm. He chuckles, jokingly fending her off with his crutch.

Steve suddenly regrets not leaving a note.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

[lasercruz]

@quarterdollar​ fuck you and im sorry that i took so long to answer and i hope that im mostly coherent because i am. very tired as im typing this

1: Full name Nicky Jackie Marie Cruz !!

2: Age 21

3: 3 Fears Mold, tall heights if I’m not secured (like, I’m not scared of rollercoaster heights but I’m scared of like, cliffs), and balloons esp balloon animals

4: 3 things I love I love so many things uhh hh h. Jjba, adventure zone, and my friendssss 💞

I know turn ons/offs aren’t inherently sexual but i never know what to say for them so im skipping them :0

7: My best friend you 🥺🥺

8: Sexual orientation bi

9: My best first date ive never really been on a actual date :0

10: How tall am I 5′3

11: What do I miss being with my friends physically and just watching stuff or goofing around on the floor 😭

12: What time were I born 11:02pm

13: Favourite color Dark blues

14: Do I have a crush yes shh

15: Favourite quote there so much sappy quotes that are on uquizzes a lot that i like a lot the first that comes to mind is “ You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you.” and so on and also “if i loved you less i might be able to talk about it more”

16: Favourite place As far as just physically and not like people or other stuff that comes with with a place, I miss VT campus a lot tbh more than I thought I would. To pick a more specific place, the gazebo at the duck pond cause its where I’d go if I wanted to be alone or like if my roommate was sleeping or working and i didnt want to worry about being quite and it was always super peaceful

17: Favourite food I dont really have One favorite food it just depends what I’m in the mood for but my go to answer for favorite food category wise is either chinese or seafood

18: Do I use sarcasm Depends who I’m with ?? Generally no not often but if im close with someone and just goofin yeah

19: What am I listening to right now My love song playlist. its my go to thing to listen to cause my playlist with all my music has so much on it that i end up skipping half the songs until i find something im in the mood for and this one has a lot less that i end up skipping. the current song its on is day without you by keep for cheap

20: First thing I notice in new person It depends on the person like if they have something that stands out about them, thats what I tend to notice but like. How they carry themself i guess ? cause i feel like thats a easy way to get a read on somebody before talking to them

21: Shoe size 5 mens / 7 womans

22: Eye color Brown

23: Hair color Naturally dark brown but currently dyed black with rainbow bangs

24: Favourite style of clothing this question is on so many ask games and quizzes and I never know how to answer it cause i feel like i dont really have one specific style,, I like colorful and fun stuff i guess ?

25: Ever done a prank call?  No and if you prank call a place of business youre annoying. i used to answer phones at work and we didn’t get them super often but GOD i hate prank callers

27: Meaning behind my URL emu is an old nickname and what i mainly went by until i settled on Nicky and this. is my blog.

28: Favourite movie Baby driver !!

29: Favourite song my go to answer for this is community gardens by the scary jokes

30: Favourite band THE SCARY JOKES

31: How I feel right now sleeby,,,,

32: Someone I love i love , my friendz ,, 🥺🥰

33: My current relationship status single ✌️

34: My relationship with my parents im close to my mom but i dont really get along with my dad ,

35: Favourite holiday Christmas !

36: Tattoos and piercing i have no tattoos, 3 piercings in each ear (2 on each earlobe and 1 on the top on each side)

37: Tattoos and piercing i want I want a interrobang on my wrist and an Aquarius symbol on my ankle and MAYBE the joestar birthmark, i wouldn’t mind more ear piercings and i want a septum piercing but ive seen videos of them getting done and they make me squirm i dont know if id go through with it

38: The reason I joined Tumblr sdklgkjgh i had a my little pony roleplay blog before i made my personal account

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other? no we’re good friends !!

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? no not regularly at least

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? no

42: When did I last hold hands? my mom tried to hold my hand when i was half asleep on the couch the other day but like i was so out of it so like it was more our fingers together and the rest of my hand just loosely dangling so if that doesnt count, you

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? i give myself about 2 hours if im doing full makeup but thats purposefully longer than i need so i dont have to worry about rushing and i can relax and take my time

44: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days? no i only shave them if they’re gonna be showing or if the Urge to be Smooth comes over me

45: Where am I right now? my room at home on my bed

46: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? probably Kaylie cause she doesn’t drink and i assume if im drunk with other friends there she’d be the only sober one

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? Reasonable, if i have it too loud i cant think so the only time i  have my music loud is if im doing nothing and want to Not Think

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad? Ye

49: Am I excited for anything? short term im excited for the ai crushes all banks stream tonight and long term im excited to move into our apartment 

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? no im not a tell everything to someone type of person .

51: How often do I wear a fake smile? i smile most of the time like, at work (before we wore masks) id always be smiling to look nice and like. just in general if i want to Not Look Unhappy or whatever

52: When was the last time I hugged someone? my mom probably like, yesterday

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? ive never kissed any1     .

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not?  nope i don’t think i really trust easily so like this doesnt rlly happen,

55: What is something I disliked about today? i woke up late cause i was up late last night so ive been tired all day I dont like the feeling

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? language barriers aside itd be super cool to meet hirohiko araki

57: What do I think about most? Whatever media im currently most into so right now adventure zone and magnus archives

58: What’s my strangest talent? umm i dunno im kinda flexable i guess ? not like ~contortionist~ level but like enough that i can freak people out sometimes

59: Do I have any strange phobias? i mentioned balloons as a fear in an eariler question so yeah that but im a lot better about it than i used to be

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? in front tbh

61: What was the last lie I told? i was on phones for the last hour and a half of my shift on friday and like. when people call and ask if an item is in stock and i can’t confirm it i, just tell them its not. like, someone asked if we had a specific kayak and i usually just search the walmart app or run over to where itd be to check but the kayaks are to far for me to run to and the app said limited stock which usually means little to none so , i just put it on hold for a bit then tell him we’re out.

62: Do I perfer talking on the phone or video chatting online? i like video chatting in theory cause its nice to see people visibly react to stuff but i tend to get too self conscious about how i look so i  just do audio only

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? yes to both !! i am both

64: Do I believe in magic? yes in some ways i suppose

65: Do I believe in luck? yes im v superstitious

66: What’s the weather like right now? its a pretty good day its sunny but not too hot :oo

67: What was the last book I’ve read? its been ages since i last read a book in full 😔  i honestly dont knwo what the last one would of been 😔 😔

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? yes !!! love it

69: Do I have any nicknames? not anything i get consistently called no

70: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? ive never gotten super hurt that i can think of ??

71: Do I spend money or save it? save it

72: Can I touch my nose with a tounge? no

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feets from me? doppio bean plush ,,,,

74: Favourite animal? hedgehogs!!!!

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? on my phone probably on tiktok or something waiting for jojo to come on toonami

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? I? dont think he has one i guess ??

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? butterflies by samsa but it makes me happy in the “im crying now” kinda way itss cute

78: How can you win my heart? just by being nice and respectful tbh ,

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? idk i dont really want anything fancy just my name (chosen name please god im so scared of dying and geting my birth name on my tombstone if that happens i WILL come back as a vengeful ghost) and my birth and death dates

80: What is my favorite word? saccharine

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr by my tumblr crushes (which its been YEARS since i looked at) ; frostios, 27names4tears, smollpurrito, happynaru, and warpedlamp

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? if we being real id just get so scared dsjkfsldjglg  theres so much i could say i dont know :((

83: Do I have any relatives in jail? not ? that i know of 

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? why are all the questions worded super basic except this one skdlskdjfj. Shape shifting

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? i can really think of anything really as long as a friend is asking i tend to answer truthfully ?

86: What is my current desktop picture? Sobble BUT this reminded me that i wanted to change it to a xenoblade pic so its this now :

90: Failed a class? no

91: Kissed a boy? no

92: Kissed a girl? no

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? no but oh god just thinking about that im 🥺🥺🥺🥺 id die id melt 🥺🥺

94: Had job? ye i was a cashier for a year in highschool and then i work in wamlart apparel in the summers

95: Left the house without my wallet? not when I know ill need it no, but ive left it home if im just going to a friend or family member’s house or i have my mom’s card or some cash in my pocket

96: Bullied someone on the internet? no !!

98: Played on a sports team? no lmao i dont do sports

99: Smoked weed? no

100: Did drugs? i had a weed brownie like once but it was such a small piece i didnt really feel anything

101: Smoked cigarettes? no

102: Drank alcohol? Ye

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? not currently i was vegan for a little bit to encourage a friend that was doing it though

104: Been overweight? no

105: Been underweight? no

106: Been to a wedding?  yes three, my grandma’s when she got remarried, and both my brothers

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? probably yes lmao often

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? not TV TV but if netflix and the like count then yes

109: Been outside my home country? no :(

110: Gotten my heart broken? not ? really no

111: Been to a professional sports game? ive been to a handful of Yankee games

112: Broken a bone? no

114: Been to prom? yes i went to my highschool’s and a friend’s highschool’s my senior year

115: Been in airplane? no

116: Fly by helicopter? no

117: What concerts have I been to? none :((((

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? ye

119: Learned another language? i took 3 years of Spanish in high school but i wasn’t any good at it and dont really remember much of what i did learn

120: Wore make up? yes i do often :0

123: Dyed my hair? ye a lot

124: Voted in a presidential election? yes ever since iv been old enough to i vote

125: Rode in an ambulance? no

126: Had a surgery?  dental surgery yes

127: Met someone famous? Not anyone i’d count no

128: Stalked someone on a social network? depends on what you count as stalking i guess but like not ever in a creepy way like ive been on people’s social media to find out stuff about them like. if theyre in a relationship or especially after highschool ill wonder about someone i havent talked to in awhile and ill see what theyve been up to and what theyre doing with their life and stuff

129: Peed outside? no

130: Been fishing? yes like once

131: Helped with charity? donation wise yes

132: Been rejected by a crush? ive never confessed to anyone and been rejected but once a friend told my crush i liked them and they confronted me about it and rejected me but it made me more mad at the friend that told them than it made me sad about being rejected because i knew it’d probably go like that  and it justmade thing awkward between us for awhile  😔

133: Broken a mirror? ive broken the little mirrors inside eyeshadow pallets but i havent broken full ones

134: What do I want for birthday? usually just money lol or something thoughtful and cute

135: How many kids do I want and what will be their names? i aggresivly do NOT want kids BUT hypohetically Elliot or Xander for a boy and idk what i’d nam a girl

136: Was I named after anyone? no

137: Do I like my handwriting?  its messy so no not really but if im writing something for myself like a not or whatever i dont mind as long as i can read it

138: What was my favourite toy as a child? even as a little kid i always played computer games but other than that, this guy :

139: Favourite Tv Show? Jojo

140: Where do I want to live when older? New york or japan

141: Play any musical instrument? i can kind of play harmonica

142: One of my scars, how did I get it? i burnt my thumb kinda bad on the oven a while ago its still kinda healing but right now it looks like its gonna stay a scar

143: Favourite pizza toping? i like everything/suprieme pizza but if i have to pick one single topping pepperoni

144: Am I afraid of the dark? yes :((

145: Am I afraid of heights? mentioned it earlier but yes if im not strapped in or secured etc

146: Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad? no im so scared of being caught doing something bad that i just. dont

147: Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end? i mean yes but thats life babey

149: What my greatest achievments are ive gotten awards for grades and stuff but that boring BUT i got the english department award or whatever that was called im very proud of that

151: What I’d do if I won in a lottery i donate some and save the rest tbh

152: What do I like about myself i can be pretty  sometimes 👉👈 im cute or whateva ,,,

153: My closest Tumblr friend i dont really havent “tumblr friends” aside from friends i know irl and also tey have tumblrs ,,

154: Something I fantasise about just. growing up and having my own place maybe with someone and. being comfortable and  okay and not having to worry ,,

155: Any question you’d like? dkfjhdskhf japan :000

[otomebois-bb]

Surprise - Day 29 of Gavin Month

Title: Birthday Surprise (real creative, I know)

Pairing: Gavin & MC

(Tagging: @that-wasnt-so-bad @mlqcdokidoki @ceres-zephyr )

Notes: This is short because apparently I like to slack off and write stuff last minute, but I'm honestly pretty satisfied with it. Also, this is the last thing I'm writing for Gavin Month, so the only thing I have planned after this is the Soulmate AU and then... nothing. My requests are open though, so feel free to send me anything from my (#request info) tag and I'll get to it as soon as I can. I didn't participate in Gavin Month as much as I had originally wanted to, but nonetheless, I still had a lot of fun with it, and it was nice to see so many people enjoy what I wrote for it. I think my followers upped by like, 40 or more this month ALONE because of Gavin... so I suppose we all really love Gavin, lol. Anyway! Feel free to send in requests my way after this, I'm happy to write more pieces :) enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"MC, where are you taking me?" Gavin asked as I led him over a bridge, heading for the hill in front of me. I had him wear a blindfold as to not ruin the surprise.

[[MORE]]

"You'll love it, just wait!" I giggled. Once we reached the top of the hill, I told him, "You can remove the blindfold now."

He did as I said, and though his expression didn't change much, I could see the amazement in his eyes, which had widened slightly. Below us, the view of Loveland City shining in the sunset was certainly a sight to behold. The evening breeze was perfect, and the cherry blossom tree next to us made it all the more better.

After taking everything in, Gavin turned to face me at last. He seemed to be speechless, but eventually managed to mutter, "You... you planned all of this?"

"Yep!" I replied with a smile. "I wanted your birthday to be special today, since it's the first one we're celebrating together. I also packed a light picnic and two blankets; one for eating on, and the other so we can lay down and gaze at the stars. Of course, I also have some candles, in case the sun completely sets before we finish eating."

It seemed that only made him even more at a loss for words, since all he did was blink at me. Finally, his lips cracked into a huge grin. "You really went over the top just for me?"

I pouted. "Over the top? I just wanted you to enjoy—"

"Shh," he shushed me, placing his index finger on my lips, effectively silencing me. "Today was already going to be amazing with you to spend it with, but now... this is definitely going to be unforgettable." He planted a kiss on the top of my head, sending my cheeks a burst of heat. "Thank you."

I smiled shyly. "Of course, Gavin. Let's dig in!"

We ended up lighting the candles first thing, since the light was fading faster than I thought it would, and the flames gave the atmosphere an even more romantic vibe. I'd brought with us a basket containing some simple sandwiches, but I made sure to use everything Gavin liked on sandwiches, which I'd learned from the year I spent around him and the months I spent dating him. I also remembered to bring cake, of course, and two wine glasses and one bottle of red wine. We touched the wine a little, but it seemed Gavin wanted to be mostly sober so he could enjoy this moment more.

I lit the candles on his cake and sang "happy birthday" to him, which he enjoyed even though I thought I sounded like a dying mule. When I finished singing, I urged him to blow the candles out and make a wish. He closed his eyes, seeming to think, before he blew them out a second later. Curiously, I asked, "What did you wish for?"

"More moments like these," he replied casually, staring into my eyes deeply, a smirk on his face, while my cheeks very likely turned as red as strawberries.

After spreading the second blanket down, I settled in next to Gavin, resting my head on his chest as we stared up at the twinkling night sky. I didn't know too much about constellations, but I knew enough to name a few. Reaching an arm up, I pointed at the sky. "I believe that set of stars right there makes up Ursa Major."

Gavin nodded, then pointed. "That's Hercules up there."

"You know constellations?" I asked, shocked.

He shrugged. "A few." He continued pointing wherever he noticed something. "That's the Big Dipper, that's Sagittarius, and... I don't know any more."

We laughed at our lack of education on stars, enjoying each other's warmth. "You know," Gavin started, "I hope every birthday of mine can be like this. Just you and me, together, relaxing."

I smiled, and moved closer to him. "Yeah." I pushed myself up on my elbows so I could stare at him. "Happy birthday, Gavin. I love you."

"I love you more," he breathed, before pulling me in for a kiss so quickly, it made me squeal and giggle like a schoolgirl. He peppered my face with kisses, tickling me and fueling my laughter. Eventually, he settled down, going back to simply holding me in his arms. "Here's to another beautiful year with you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

END.