#I’m gonna start giving these asks their own tag in case anybody doesn’t wanna see em

[plugnuts]

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(•ૢꆤ ˙̫̮ ꆤ•ૢ)

[tinyboxxtink]

"Weird Secret Friends" *Chapter 8*

Chapter 7

Chapter 9

I know, I wait almost 4 days and now you gotta go through this bullshit. I can already hear your cries of anguish and suffering.

I love it so much. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

That being said I promise regular chapters for the rest of the week! Okay I don't promise but I promise to do my best.

Note: Alright it's a fanfic people, alternate universes and all that. So you know what we're saying that all the Carisi sisters are younger, and Sonny was the big bro. Kay? I can't deal with all the continuity stuff.

Tag List

@madamsnape921

@lolliepopsicle

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@milkshqke

@wanniiieeee

@word-scribbless

@gibbs274

@sassyada

@aprildecker-blog

@bookishfanfic

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@stars-trash-18

@omgsuperstarg

@objection-argumentative

@thatesqcrush

@shittanyy

@mrsrafaelbarba

------------------------

Sonny was watching TV with Amanda when his phone went off. He paused the movie and answered the phone:

“Barba it’s kinda late--”

“What's wrong with your cousin?” he flatly said.

“Excuse me?” Sonny asked. “What kind of question is that?”

“Just answer the question, Carisi,” Barba insisted.

“Well it's a loaded question, Barba.” Sonny replied.

“Okay then just answer me this,” Barba sighed. “Why did I come back to my apartment to find her halfway through my once full bottle of vodka and pouting on the couch. Oh, after she had gone through all of my things of course,”

“Aw shit,” Sonny muttered under his breath. “That's kind of on me, Barba,”

“One second babe,” He muttered to Amanda, while he got up and went into his kitchen.

“Babe?” Barba asked.

“It’s just Rollins,” Sonny dismissed it.

“So you have feelings for me, but you’re fucking Rollins?” He asked in a snarky tone.

“What, are you jealous or somethin’ Barba?” Sonny smirked.

“No, don’t be stupid,” Rafael rolled his eyes. “Why is it on you?” He changed the subject.

“I should have never filled her head with doubts and suspicions and then sent her back to your place; when I should have known that you would keep a full bar in your apartment,” Sonny sighed as he ran his hands through his hair.

“Well of course I would keep a stocked bar in my apartment Sonny, I entertain people and I'm a grown man,” Rafael scoffed.

“Yeah, again it's on me,” Sonny repeated.

“Okay so what is wrong with your cousin?” Rafael asked.

“I think that pretty much answers it, don't you think?” Sonny asked in a “duh” tone.

“... I see,” Rafael glanced at his bedroom door wearily.

“Where is she now? Did you send her away? Please tell me you didn't send her away,” Sonny begged.

“No I didn't send her away, she's sleeping it off in my bedroom,” He got up and walked to his bedroom door. “I didn't want to just kick her out because she was upset. I'm not that big of a dick,” He whispered as he watched you sleep. You looked so calm and peaceful, that’s the girl he remembered.

“ You know, this should probably be better explained in person,” Sonny walked back into his living room where Amanda glanced over at him. He motioned for her to get her stuff together.

“Can I come over?”

“Yeah okay, not like I have anything else to do,'' he rolled his eyes as he shut his bedroom door and walked back to his living room.

--------------.

Sonny showed up to Rafael's apartment with a loaded head and a semi heavy conscience. He knocked on the door and Rafael let him inside.

“Okay so what kind of long story is this,” Rafael asked while he poured himself a glass of scotch. He noticed Sonny giving him a weird look.

“What? It's not like she's in here now,” he rolled his eyes.

“True,” He nodded. “Do you have beer?”

“Yes, dark or light?” Rafael made a disgusted face while he asked. He couldn't stand the taste of beer but he always had it on him just in case he had barbarians over such as Sonny.

“Shiner Bock, if you have it,” Sonny requested. Rafael nodded as he went into his ‘party fridge’ and handed him one before sitting on the couch across from him.

“Alright so where do I start?” Sonny thought out loud.

“Well I guess first of all I wanted to say I don’t wanna say I told you so, but this is exactly why I didn't want you and Y/N to get involved in the first place. It had nothing to do with my feelings for you. It’s because I know that you tend to keep relationships with guys and girls chill and casual, but Y/N is a special case and special to me,”

“Yeah.. I wish you had expressed that before,” Rafael groaned.

Well what was I supposed to say in front of her, Barba? ‘Oh hey by the way, you probably shouldn't get involved with my trainwreck of a cousin? Sonny asked defensively.

“Maybe? I don’t know…” Rafael sighed as he put his head in his hands.

“Look, Rafael,” Sonny put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not like she’s some kinda degenerate junkie,”

“Oh well, that’s great--” He started to roll his eyes.

“I’m serious Rafael!” He pounded the table.

“Okay okay, I’m sorry Sonny,” He finally used his first name, trying to be as soft with him as possible. He could see how much you meant to him, and it was really endearing. “Go ahead,”

“Alright,” Sonny sighed, ready to tell your life story. You would probably kill him later for it, but there was no hiding your...issues now, he might as well get the whole context.

“Well, first of all-- her dad died before she was born, overdose,” He began. “Then she was stuck with her junkie mother, my auntie. Who by the way at this point, nobody had heard from in years,” He took a sip of beer.

“So anyways,” He began again. “One day, she showed up at my mom’s doorstep with Y/N, and told her that she can’t take care of Y/N, or that she didn’t want to,” He sighed. “She was three years old by then, I don’t even wanna think about what happened before then,”

“Jesus…” Rafael muttered.

“I was eight years old at the time, my sisters were even younger. My mom and dad had enough on their plate with just us. So, I kinda took her under my wing,” He went on.

“We became so close, she wanted to go by “Sunny” just so she could be like me. I told her it would be confusing for the two of us, so I called her Sunshine, Sunny for short. That way if I’m calling her sunny, then obviously it’s not myself,” He chuckled. To this day, he still called you Sunshine.

“But as she grew up, she just...kinda had a rough go. She didn’t really interact with kids her own age, she was really defensive and untrusting with anybody but me. Not even my parents. And then we got the call that her mother died, and it ripped me up inside to see her body at the funeral. It was so fucked up, she was so fucked up. That’s why I-- I think something really bad happened to her when she was with her mother, Rafael. Like-- really, bad.

“Fuck..." Rafael muttered while glancing at his bedroom door. He didn't want to imagine what you had been through at such a young age. He wanted to run in his room right now and just hold you, but he kept his composure.

“So then I went off to college when she was ten years old, just about to start junior high. She begged me to stay, but I told her she had a good family and that my parents and sisters loved her as much as I did, and to stay out of trouble. But...kids are cruel. They made her harder, and harder. Without me there to be her-- I dunno, her guiding light or her-- protector, she just kinda fell into a bad crowd by the time high school rolled around,” He sighed while taking another swig of beer.

“...Right,” Rafael nodded.

“So when i came home from school my mom told me she was going to kick Sunny out. I asked her why, and she went on and on about how she had gotten in with these local girls who were like, I dunno some kinda girl gang, and they’d knock over liquor stores and then get drunk and stoned. She said she was never around anyway, unless it was to steal money out of her purse; And she just didn’t wanna deal with her anymore,”

“...But she was only fifteen at the time,” Rafael was stunned.

“Yeah, and that’s what I told her!” Sonny exclaimed. “Look Barba my mom is the salt of the earth, but like I said she had a lot on her plate and my dad wasn’t around a lot-- and she had three other daughters to watch out for,”

“Three of her OWN daughters,” Rafael clarified with a judgmental tone.

“HEY,” Sonny warned. “I know how it sounds. And maybe-- maybe you’re right, maybe that’s why she washed her hands clean of Sunny. Because she was just a by-product of her fucked up sister. But I-- I’m not gonna condemn her for it. And you sure as hell don’t get to judge her,”

“You’re right,” Rafael nodded while sipping his scotch.

“So I took Sunny in,” Sonny finished his beer as he wrapped up his story. “I took her in while I went through the police academy. I made sure she got sober, quit hangin’ out with those girls, I got her to do well in school, hell I got her to graduate high school!”

“And…?” Rafael pressed.

“...And when I started bouncing around precincts, she was finally a productive member of society so she started living on her own. She had a few jobs, but never really going anywhere. So once I got placed here in SVU and started making better money, I started helping her out with rent and her car, as long as she promised to start going to community college. Which she agreed to because she really does wanna make something of herself,” He half smiled thinking about how far you had come and how proud he was to call you his cousin now. You were so full of life with dreams and ambitions he never saw in you as a scared little kid.

“Okay so-- how does all of this lead to what happened tonight?” Rafael leaned back and crossed his arms.

“Because she’s still an addict, Barba!” Sonny tried not to yell, but didn’t understand why Rafael was still so flippant about you.

“Just because she got her life together-- I got her life together, doesn’t mean that she just got ‘better’. She’s on a daily see-saw of sobriety. I do weekly ‘drop ins’ just to check on her. It’s gotten a lot better as time goes on, and the less and less I worry about her, but--” He took a breath and looked at the floor.

“....Deep down she’s still that little girl with all of her walls and her distrust. She doesn’t have friends, I really don’t think she’s ever had a stable ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend,’ I mean she-- she doesn’t, talk to people,” He paused before looking up and into Rafael’s eyes.

“...Which is why it has been yankin' my chain tryin’ to figure out just why in God’s name she was so-- open, to you,” He finally admitted. “She’s never been that close to anybody else but me, not in her entire life,”

“Wait,” Rafael put a finger up. “So...you haven’t actually been jealous of Y/N this whole time, you’ve been jealous of me?” He half laughed.

“I mean, it’s a little of both,” He shrugged with a small smile, able to joke about his feelings now. “But I meant what I said when I first got here, I know the main thing that Y/N needs in her life right now is stability. And you-- you are not stable, in the least,”

“Oh I’m the unstable one?” Rafael raised an eyebrow.

“Relationship wise, yeah,” Sonny pointed out.

“....Fair point,” Rafael nodded as he finished off his scotch. He knew the longest relationship he had ever had was with the cute barista he saw every morning who knew how to make his coffee just right. And that relationship only took him five minutes a day to maintain.

“So…” Sonny knocked Rafael from his thoughts.

“So...what?” Rafael quirked an eyebrow.

“So, I think that--” Sonny took a deep breath, knowing you might hate him for this. But it was for the best, and it needed to be said.

“I think that if you care anything about her, or me for that matter, that you let me take her home, and forget about this whole weekend,”

“....I mean…” Rafael rubbed the back of his neck. He didn't want to let you go. Well, he didn't want to let go of the girl he had met at Forlini's. The girl who made him laugh, who he could be his true self around, the girl he might---

“Look the bottom line here Barba is that Y/N is-- a lot of work. I should know, I’ve been taking care of her for 19 years. But I don’t mind it, because I love her more than anything else in this world. Well, her and the rest of my family. But still-- I love her,” Sonny now stood up.

“And I get that you like her, but she--- she has gotten way too serious about you way too fast, and way too hard. And this?” He gestured around the room, referring to the whole night. “This ain’t even the tip of the iceberg with her, if she’s really fallen off the wagon,”

“...God dammit,” Rafael stood up and began to pace in his living room. He thought about every single second he had spent with you since he met you; you had never seemed so...broken, as Sonny was describing you.

“What I’m saying is, unless you’re ready to-- ‘deal’ with her, and everything that comes with that, please for the love of God, just walk away now,” Sonny pleaded.

“Because she won’t listen to me if I tell her to stay away from you. And if things get too ‘real’ for you, you’re just gonna freak out or-- or get bored, and throw her away. Her self worth will drop to shit. And if that happens, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get her back from that,”

“I would never just throw her away, Carisi,” Rafael rolled his eyes.

“You can’t say that, Barba,” Sonny debated.

“And why the hell not?” Rafael narrowed his eyes.

“Because you’ve never NOT just ‘thrown away’ someone,” He chuckled. “That front door might as well be a garbage chute,”

“You son of a--” Rafael started to yell at him but Sonny cut him off.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Barba. Look me in the eyes and tell me I have no idea what I’m talking about, and I’ll leave here and let you deal with her the way you want to,” Sonny looked at him pensively. Rafael looked at him for several seconds, then softened his glare into a sad concession.

“....Take her,” He muttered softly while looking at the ground.

“Thank you,” Sonny mumbled softly as he turned to go retrieve your passed out self from the bedroom. However, he was instead met with the most unsettling sight:

You were standing in the doorway of the room, glaring at the two of them.

“...H-Hey, Sunshine--” Sonny tried to appease you with an awkward smile.

“Don’t,” You growled, stomping into the living room and began packing your bag.

“Y/N, what are you--” Rafael went to put a hand on your bag but you snatched it away before you shot fire out of your eyes into his gaze.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I misunderstand what you just said?” You barked at him with tears in your eyes. “Because I’m pretty damn sure I heard ‘take her’. You know like I’m some sort of defective Amazon package,”

“That’s not what I meant---” He softly spoke, the guilt of his words being heard by you was quickly eating him alive.

“No I know what you meant, Rafael,” You zipped your duffel shut angrily.

“I heard the whole god damn spiel. Which, by the way, thank you so much for detailing my entire little sob story, cousin,” You glared at Sonny as you started walking towards the front door, shoulder checking him.

“But neither of you have to worry about anything anymore, okay? You’re released from your ‘duties’. This trainwreck is leaving the station, so you can relax,” You looked at the both of them with pain in your eyes, tears cracking your words.

“Sunshine--” Sonny started after you.

“DON’T,” You glared at him while putting a finger up. “Don’t ever call me that again,”

“At least let me drive you home--”

“No,” You shook your head. “And you know what, cuz? I didn’t realize I was such a financial burden, so you know what? Cut me off. Because I’d rather be homeless again than take any more money from you,”

“What did I do?!” Sonny was now angry. “All I did was come over and try to protect you, that’s it!”

“I don’t need your protection!” You screamed. “This whole time...this whole time, I thought you were proud of me. That you trusted me,”

“I do trust you--”

“You don’t!” You stomped your foot while tears streamed down your face. “Y-You think that if . one single thing like a boy not liking me is gonna set me off, like I’m some kind of bomb you’ve kept from detonating for years. My life is not your responsibility anymore, Sonny! I don’t think it ever was!”

“Well who’s else was it gonna be?!”

“NOBODY’S!!!!” You finally dropped your duffel bag and kicked the wall, leaning your head against it. You were strangely quiet for a long pause before you spoke again in an eerily calm voice.

“...Do you know why my mother “dropped me off’ with your mother?”

“Because she couldn’t take care of you--”

“No I heard what you said,” You sniffled with a sad smile. “Because she didn’t want to,”

“Sunshine--”

“But leaving me with your mother, was her plan b,” You cut him off, still looking at the floor.

“What do you mean?” Sonny asked cautiously while looking at Rafael who had a terrified look in his eyes.

“She didn’t want to ‘burden’ her sister with me, but she had to when I wouldn’t die,”

“...W-What?” Rafael almost choked on the words in disbelief.

“She tried to smother me with a pillow, but I wouldn’t die. I kept screaming and crying, and I guess it touched her strand of humanity, so she stopped,” You rolled your eyes with the same sad smile.

That memory was forever imprinted in your brain. The terror of being woken up in blackness, unable to breathe. The smell of the cigarette smoke covered pillow being shoved into your throat and nostrils. Your mother crying and telling you it would be over soon, just to let go. And finally her sad, pathetic whimpers and sobs when she finally lifted the pillow from you, disappointed in herself that she couldn’t do one good thing in her life. That now she was going to have to pass you, her problem, onto her sister.

“Y/N, baby girl--” Sonny stepped towards you again.

“I wasn’t supposed to be raised by anybody, Sonny. I’m not even supposed to be alive!” You stomped your foot again while tears continued to flow.

“That’s not true!” He ran over and grabbed you in a hug. “You are not a burden,”

“Really?” You laughed sarcastically into his shoulder as you pushed him away from the hug. “You just said your mom didn’t even want to deal with me. Nobody did,”

“I did!” He argued. “I do,”

“Yeah well, maybe I’m my mother’s daughter. I don’t wanna be your burden,” You picked up the duffel and opened the door.

“Okay well you have no choice in that so you’re gonna have to let that go,” Sonny grabbed your hand before you could walk away.

“Fine,” You finally conceded with a blank expression.

“Guess I’ll just have to let a lot of things go, won’t I?” Your voice cracked as you looked at Rafael one more time with the saddest eyes.

He stared back at you with a stone cold face. He wanted so badly just to go and hold you in his arms, telling you how you didn’t deserve any of what happened to you, and that you deserved everything good and all the love in the world. But Sonny’s pleas were still in his head.

He didn’t know if he wanted the responsibility of your entire self worth and happiness, let alone your sobriety on his shoulders. He didn’t even like to get close to clients with that many issues, the pressure was too much. So instead he just stood there, trying not to show how much this was killing him, sending you away like this.

“Come on Sunshine, just-- let’s go, okay?” Sonny pleaded with you softly, pulling at your hand. You didn’t answer, you just nodded and started walking down the hallway towards the elevator, leaving Sonny at the door.

“...Thank you, Barba,” He mumbled softly, nodding at Rafael. Rafael barely nodded back before Sonny closed the door.

As soon as it was closed, Rafael dropped on his knees and began to cry. He didn’t know why exactly, was he crying because he felt horrible for all the shit you had gone through? Was he angry at himself for not being able to get over his own bullshit to actually open up and care about someone for more than a week? Was he really that big of a hypocrite, showing empathy to clients all the time but shutting out the one person he felt he might-- he couldn’t even think it. He wouldn’t let himself think it. He just composed himself and poured another scotch while turning on the TV, trying to forget what just happened.

His NETFLIX menu popped up; it asked him if he wanted to continue watching Bojack Horseman. He closed his eyes and muttered obscenities in spanish while memories of the night before flooded his brain, making him cry angry tears once more. He finally decided just to go to bed, maybe his brain would release him from torture if he could turn it off.

He wasn’t sure he could ever turn it off now.

[razorblade180-heated]

Warmth

[Smut! Also I’m aware of the canon, and? Read my tags]

Nice guys finish last, a common phrase tossed around to any dude with dipshit friends that clearly fumble their way into relationships. At least that’s what Ilia thought. She also wondered why it was just guys? It’s not like they’re the only ones striking out or being told to act rude. She should know. Unfortunately, she’s been both the worry wart, and the dipshit. You would think romance had clear instructions by now. After all, love comes for everyone given enough time. Even her, but there lies the problem. Ilia couldn’t admit it. Not to the only person that it matters to. Ilia could fight grimm, be a terrorist, a good person, and stand outside a hotel room an entire kingdom away with luggage held tight like she is now, but for the love of everything not annoying, Ilia couldn’t tell one nice guy that he makes her feel like she’s walking on air.

It had been several months since her and Sun got a little more serious. The emotional soul searching definitely took time, and every choice felt like do or die for her, but Ilia was finally in a place emotionally that truly felt good. Most of that was thanks to Kali. The woman was always there to lend an ear. All that searching though put several things temporarily on a back burner. One of those things was visiting Sun. Expenses to Vacou was one thing, but Ilia didn’t want to visit him while feeling completely out of sorts. It wouldn’t be fair to him. That didn’t stop Sun from blowing up her scroll with facetime messages. That dork worked out a time zone schedule and everything. It was sweet; the kind Ilia wasn’t used to but definitely wanted more of. It had been far too long since she saw that cheeky monkey boy in person.

Ilia stared down the door as she psyched herself up. “Don’t be nervous. Dooooon’t be nervous.” She muttered to herself. She finally knocked on the door and waited in brief suspense as the door swung open aggressively. Ilia was effortlessly pulled into the room and more importantly, into a hug. It took her a moment to realize she was less than an inch away from pecks and wrapped in warm arms. She tilted her head up to see shiny white teeth smiling at her.

“Hey Ilia. Have a safe trip?”

Her freckles turned a little pink and she pouted. “We’re skipping over the fact that you just surprised me? How’d you know it was at the door?”

“Ummm you were mumbling out there for a few minutes.”

“Oh…” Ilia lost the nerve to look at him and choose to hide her face in his chest. How much did he possibly hear!? It was too embarrassing to think about. “How’ve ya been?”

“Oh ya know, missions. Scarlet had a party yesterday, obviously things got out of hand.”

“Fire?”

“No it was actually bandits. He didn’t help fight. Him and Neptune song Toxic while Sage and I handled everything.”

Ilia looked back up at Sun. “That sounds awesome! Man, I should’ve booked an overnight flight!”

“Yeah we could’ve used another fighter.”

“We both know I would’ve been drunk onstage with them.”

“Listen, you could’ve let me dream.” Sun said, laughing gently. It was criminal to be this endearing. Ilia wasn’t sure how Neptune or anybody could deal with this brightness so easily. However, Ilia would love to learn.

“Uhh, Sun? You’re still hugging me.” Ilia stammered.

The boy's face turned a little red and he quickly let go. “Whoops! Hehe, my bad. Got a little carried away.”

“That’s nothing new.” She jabbed at him. “Wearing your heart on your sleeve is what you do best.” Ilia stepped further into the room. “Or maybe it’s picking rooms…”

The hotel room had a glass door on the other side that led to a balcony to look out at Vacou’s desert beauty. A huge couch was smack dab in the middle of the room that faced a wide screen. Sun clearly brought his own things. Wires from the bottom went down the wall and connected to a game system with tons of things to play and watch. Ilia walked to the back of the room to a door that led to another big room. This one had dressers, a door that most likely led to the bathroom, and a massive bed that looked softer than a cloud and covered in pillows.

The thought of sleeping in it was both heavenly l, and a little too much to deal with. It was a big bed, and the only bed. Ilia jumped a little as she felt Sun poke her back to get her attention.

“You alright?”

“How much did this all cost!? This is Atlas grade stuff right here.”

Sun folded his arms and smiled with confidence. “Funny you say that. This is the room Weiss gets when she’s here. I asked very nicely for her to let me use it. The missions I went on for the company definitely helped with a discount.”

“Discount?”

“Yeah Weiss said she isn’t paying for room service.” Sun let out a sad sigh. “Weiss said it’s the only way we wouldn’t order nothing but lobster.”

Ilia was soul crushed. Weiss was right but that didn’t make it better. Lobster is great. “I don’t blame her, but I’m offended. I was gonna go all out.”

“Well now you can do that, but on a budget.” Sun walked back to grab Ilia’s bags. “Feel free to take a shower. I still have things I wanna set up.”

“Alright, thanks.” She grabbed her things from him and went to the bathroom. It was much bigger than she expected. Ilia was used to a bathroom the size of a closet. Not another room! It was half the size of the bedroom and magnificent. The entire thing was tile and the tub was deep. With a removal shower head and other things Ilia couldn’t begin to know what they were for.

“Really glad he didn’t pay full price for anything.” A heat rose to her cheeks. Sun totally would’ve paid full price if it came down to it. Nobody is worth this much effort. Then again, Kali would beg to differ. She would think going all out would be just enough. How Ghira surpassed all expectations is beyond her.

xxxx

Sun finally finished his set up of movies and games and was ready for the hard part. Not screwing things up. Hanging out came naturally to him but it was much harder when he could tell Ilia had a lot on her mind. Maybe he was trying too hard. Should he ask her about it, or give her space. Months to think about this and he let it slip through his fingers. “I wonder if she’s reading me as much as I am her? Huh, maybe I should stick to being straight forward?”

“How’s the set up going?” Ilia called from behind him.

Sun started to turn around. “I’m finish-fin...umm.” He had lost his train of thought. Ilia had derailed it completely by walking around in a white bathrobe with her hair down. Sun’s eyes drifted to her toned legs and didn’t leave them.

Ilia noticed the distraction and blushed. “Ahem!” Sun snapped out of the daze, embarrassed and rubbing his head in embarrassment.

“Sorry, caught me by surprise.” Not that he was complaining. By any means, and his tone made that very clear to her.

Ilia sat down on the couch and carefully kept her legs crossed. “Don’t get used to this. My hair always ruins my clothes when it’s wet so I’m letting it dry is all.

“You know I never noticed, but your hair and size is kinda like Weiss. It’s kinda fortunate. Don’t think that bathrobe would work for me.

“You’re shirtless all the time. All you need is a towel.” She looked passed him to see his setup. “Games or movies first?”

“Choice is all yours. I’m perfectly fine owning you in all of these games.” He boasted. Ilia wasn’t gonna take that at all.

“Famous last words, banana breath. I’m about to be eating lobster and kicking you but for the rest of the evening! Pass me a controller.”

Sun laughed confidently and tossed her one. She seemed to be in a better mood than before. Deep conversation can wait. Now was the time to enjoy each other’s reunion. “Winner decides the movie.”

Ilia grinned. “You’re on!”

xxxx

“Rematch!” Ilia declared, for the tenth time. She was not about to admit defeat and watch Speed Racer. Though at this point the amount of food she ate would probably knock her out before the halfway point.

“I think you gotta accept the loss here. I don’t know why you thought you’d beat me in a fighting game finally. Should’ve chosen racing.”

“Whatever. It’s no fun if a bet is one sided. I totally would have won though.” Ilia let out a sigh and handed her controller over, shooting him an evil look at his victory. Sun could only smile. “That’s a weird response to a glare.”

“Can’t help it. I’m just really glad you’re having a good time with me.”

That was sudden. Ilia blinked twice then began to play with her hands. “Why wouldn’t I…?”

He shrugged. “Earlier you looked a bit spaced out. Like your mind was somewhere else. Couldn’t tell why. I almost asked why but you know, trying to be better at letting things go at their own pace. Being a leader doesn’t mean I have the most tact hehe.”

That was an understatement. It never mattered what was happening, if Sun was a part of it then he was all in. Helping, fighting, everything. True, it made things feel a little overwhelming at times; but it was a pleasant change for people like Ilia. Having a person that was always in your corner was a stark contrast from her time before the White Fang and during it. Blake wasn’t even always around. Not that it was a problem. But Ilia would be lying if she said she didn’t used to wish that would be the case between her and Blake. Oh well. Life goes on.

Ilia leaned closely to Sun, then flicked his forehead hard.

“Ow!” He flinched.

“Blame yourself. Your brain needed a jumpstart apparently. I could’ve sworn I told you not to hold back around me once upon a time. Be greedy, stay outspoken. Even if I seem sensitive about it.” Ilia knew she had a bad habit of putting up walls. That’s why she was thankful for her friends. The only tactful person was Blake. Everybody else would just try crashing right through any wall. A crude approach, but Ilia knew herself well enough to admit she doesn’t leave people many other options. “What did you wanna ask me?” Being caught up in lecturing Sun, Ilia had legitimately forgotten her little crisis outside the door. Knots in her stomach hit hard the moment she remembered. “Me and my big mouth!” Ilia screamed, internally.

“You were outside my door for a good while. Then it took you some time to process the hug. I wasn’t sure if you were worried about seeing me or if there’s something in general that had you distracted. Heh, I guess you can say I got worried about you worrying. So, what was on your mind.”

“Oh you know, things…” her voice trailed off and it was hard to look at him again. Why was this so hard! Ilia hated this. Confessions weren’t anything new to her, and yet Ilia genuinely felt scared to even work up to it. Her skin changed between gray and pink constantly as the room went painfully silent. Sun was waiting for an answer and Ilia was left with her throat feeling dry. She came all the way here to get this off her chest in earnest and now it felt like she was being crushed flat by it.

Ilia continued to be mad at herself for saying nothing as she felt Sun take her hand and rub his thumb across it. Amazing how simple touches like this could change the atmosphere. Against his, Ilia hadn’t realized she had been shaking. She looked up to see Sun staring at her, concerned while remaining patient. It wasn’t fair, those eyes. The way they built her up and disarmed her all at once. Ilia never wanted them off her.

“Take your time with it.” Sun said with reassurance. It was easy to see he was anxious as well from the way his tail couldn’t keep still behind him.

“I...it’s….” she gripped his hand tighter. “I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

“Of this. Us. I’m scared that if I tell you exactly what this means to me, it’ll end. I don’t know how or why but I know no matter how badly I wanna say the words I want you to hear…” she holds her head down and clenches her robe. “I probably sound so stupid right now huh?”

“I wouldn’t say so. Listen, I know that no matter what I say you’re gonna beat yourself up about this. Me being understanding or not, wasn’t gonna change that fact; and you know that I was going to understand.”

Ilia let out a small pity chuckle. Sun tilted her head up gently. Even with misty eyes, Ilia remained completely beautiful. “I don’t hear the words, but I’m smart enough to know they’re there. I haven’t said them, but do you think for a second you don’t know how you make me feel?” He placed her hand on his heart. Even he couldn’t escape the uneasiness of this situation. Sun could feel the heat go to his face and could do nothing but gently place his forehead against Ilia’s. “You know how I feel, right?”

The gray from her skin went away inch by inch, only leaving pink and red freckles. “Of course I do.” Her voice trembled. Their eyes didn’t remain sad, but switched to something equally intense. Pleading. Ilia’s expression softened. Her hand let go of her robe and found its way to Sun’s face. His own hands rested on her hips and he began leaning forward because of Ilia until she was on her back. The trembling didn’t stop from earlier but it was okay. She was okay.

“How many times have we’ve found ourselves like this?” She asked, rubbing his face.

“Not enough.” Sun whispered. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, so much. You...are beyond word to me.” Ilia couldn’t wait a moment longer. She closed her eyes and was met with Sun’s lips, tenderly pressing on her own. Ilia carefully bit his bottom lip as he pulled away, aiming for her exposed neck. Ilia let out a gasp at the contact. Her hands began rubbing up and down his back from the inside of his shirt. Her own legs instinctively parted in order to draw him in closer. Each nip and kiss was brutally slowly and methodical. As if he was letting her know the depth of his feelings.

Ilia kept exploring his back torso. Every groove felt like magic. Muscles were never something she was into on anybody. What really had her was the honest fact the body on top of hers belonged to the person that had completely captured her feelings. His hands slipped into her robe and made her body shiver. He never stopped being gentle but somehow was firm enough to let Ilia know how badly he wanted her. She was absolutely defenseless against the way his left hand groped her chest. As for the right, it wasted no time drifting to her wet folds, continuing the trend of slowly rubbing Ilia’s body; before she felt his middle finger open her up.

“Mmmph~” her nails dug into him a little. She could feel him curl his finger as he pumped in and out.

Sun could feel Ilia squeeze tightly around the digit. Her chest started to rise higher, her breath becoming sharper by sucking in air through her teeth. Sun finally let her neck free and kissed her, adding another finger in the process. His movements became faster and hid her face the crook of his neck the moment the kiss ended. She couldn’t stop her legs from fidgeting and the girl tried her best to repress her whimpers by any means. She even bit down on his neck briefly. All the while, Sun kissed and breathed on her very red ear.

“Let me hear your voice Ilia…”

He made it sound so easy. Ilia couldn’t stand sounding so needy, even with him. It just wasn’t her to give in and he knew that. “You’re the worst.” She whined. Her eyes shut themselves and her body clung to him as if she was falling. His fingers split from each other. Ilia could feel them press down as they went in, before sliding up to the top and pulling out to the entrance, connecting and splitting apart to touch everywhere.

“Mmmmm aaaahhaaa~ Sun!” Ilia couldn’t hold that one back at all. The first of many, until she had no will left but moan as her face turned beat red. He really was the worst. “Suuuun~ aaha!”

“I knew you could do it.” He managed to make her free himself enough to be able to kiss her face and neck again. His labor bore the fruit he wanted as Ilia kept moaning freely. Her body finally caved from his touch when she arched her back and Sun felt both fingers being squeezed tightly. Ilia’s entire body was tense and she couldn’t even make a noise until her body went limp on the couch. The breath hit heavily against his body as she tried catching it.

It didn’t take too long because she quickly went back to kissing him passionately, even moaning into it. If there was anything she loved most, it was kissing. It didn’t matter how skilled a person could be in anything else, a kiss had a way of showing exactly how much the other person really cared. There was no dying a spark when it was there. She learned that the hard way.

Sun could feel Ilia’s tongue all but dominate his own as he tried to do the same. He couldn’t help but groan from the pleasure. Ilia’s leg presses against his erection, stoking the flames further, but it was still only second compared to their lip locking. A subtle warmth hit his cheeks. Sun reluctantly pulled back to see why and witnessed Ilia panting,tears falling down her face. Sun put his hand against her face and Ilia pressed into it. He traced over the tear track and kissed the path of the other one away. “You okay?” He said quietly, earning a nod.

“Yeah. I’m just...you’re so warm, safe. I can’t remember feeling this...happy.” Her own words threatened to make herself shed more tears. He was looking at her again. That same gaze that never failed to make her heart jump and want to continue growing if it meant being even closer to him. “Please,touch me deeper.”

Sun’s face went redder. He sat up briefly and officially took off his shirt. His pants came next. Ilia tried removing her bathrobe but Sun quickly took her hand. “Wait, I uhh really like you in it.” He confessed, embarrassed. “It suits you.”

Ilia felt her heart flutter again. Sun’s infatuation with her legs and hips was flattering for sure, but Ilia never imagined how much. “Well, if we’re doing things that excite us.” She reached for his red boxers and slipped her hand between the seams, fishing out Sun’s hard six inch shaft. A simple grab had him throbbing and breathing deeper. “Having you like this is more my style.” Keeping underwear one while having sex just felt more intense and made Ilia ache. “Need me to get you slick enough.

“You tell me?” Sun pressed the tip of cock past her entrance and was welcomed with Ilia’s body dripping at the touch. He pressed further in to be guided with ease. She more than wet enough on her own. He was already halfway in and still felt no real resistance. Only Ilia spreading around him before clamping down. “Gods, your pussy is so wet.”

He really knew how to push her buttons just right. Her body betrayed her mind by gripping him even tighter for his choice of words. “I hate that word so much. It’s-mmmmph! Ahhh! S-Sun!?” He couldn’t wait any longer and hilted himself inside her completely. His hips began thrusting on their own and Sun found his way into Ilia’s arms yet again. Unlike her, Sun had no shame in letting her hear just how good she made him feel. His groans and grunts invaded her ear willingly, and passionately.

“Mmmmgh ahhh~ fuck. Ilia…” Sun couldn’t keep his thoughts straight anymore. All he wanted was to feel her and let Ilia feel him. He panted roughly and did his best to satisfy the woman beneath him.

Ilia was more than being satisfied. There wasn’t a moment she wasn’t feeling full by how wide his cock spread her apart. Her moans came back in full force to sing with his own. Ilia’s legs felt their strength drain from them and could only react to Sun’s hips. They once again kissed deeply and Ilia’s right hand was pressed against the sofa by Sun’s left, interlocking tightly with each finger around one another. It wasn’t long before Sun held the other one as well. The stimulation made Ilia feel alive with energy that was dead set at reaching its peak. They hadn't been going any longer than nine minutes by her guess, but yet they were near their limits already. Neither could help it. Today, it was nothing short of what they wanted. There wasn’t one touch or look that didn’t shout “ I love you with everything I have.”

“Ilia! I’m-“ he couldn’t contain himself long enough to speak. Ilia wrapped a leg around him as he came inside her. The feeling of it all knocked her past the point of no return and Ilia came as well; her body squeezed all it could as she cried out in pleasure. Sun’s hips rocked slowly to draw out the ecstasy of it all until they were left tired. Both found themselves staring yet again, smiles plain to see.

“Am I still the worst?” Sun chuckled.

“Without a doubt.” Ilia jabbed. “Kiss me again already will ya?”

Sun playfully rolled his eyes. “So needy.” He gave her what they both wanted and more. After all, he had a lot of love to give.

xxxx

They must’ve gone at it at least three times. The sun had set, food was ordered once again, and Speed Racer played for Sun’s viewing pleasure while Ilia slept peacefully. The boy was on his side while his girlfriend’s arms remained around him, her head resting on his chest. Sun couldn’t help but brush her hair out of her dreaming face and remain connected to her. Every so often she’d laugh quietly in her sleep.

“Always up to something. Even in your sleep.” Sun was only proven right by her body holding him closer.

“Mmmmmm love you.” Those words stopped Sun in his tracks. He had no choice but to look down at her once again and kiss her head. “I love you too.” A confession neither of them would officially remember, unburdened by the fear or memory. When it was right, they’d both say it. And what a day that would be. Until then, there was no rush.

[mynumberfivethings]

Little!five and separation anxiety??

“Hey, I’m headed out, does anybody need anything from the store? I’ll stop by on my way back home tonight.” Vanya announces to the room at large. 

Five peeks up from his morning newspaper with a raised brow. “You’re leaving?” he asks. Allison is in California for the next two weeks with Klaus, who convinced her he’d behave if she let him tag along. Diego’s consulting on a case with the PD at the moment, so he hasn’t been home much the last few days. And Luther is working a double today at the local boxing gym-he left early in the morning after making some elaborate protein shake Five poked fun at him for. 

Vanya nods, “New client downtown and then I’ve got practice with the orchestra-I’ll be home in time for dinner though.” she throws her bag over her shoulder and then straps her violin case across her chest. “So, anything from the store?” 

Ben hums. “Can you get more of those vanilla cookies for the pantry? I think we’re almost out.” 

“Gotcha. Alright, see you guys tonight.” she waves goodbye and strolls out of the room, leaving Ben and Five to their own devices for the rest of the day. 

After a few minutes of silence Ben pushes his chair back and puts his plate in the sink to soak. “Five, I think I’m gonna visit the library today,” he decides. “Need anything?” 

Five sits up straight and puts his newspaper down fully. “Why? We have a library here.” he furrows his brows in confusion, frowning. 

Ben chuckles. “Well, Dads library isn’t exactly full of books for leisurely reading.” 

Five would beg to differ-”Cosmological Inflation and Large-Scale Structure” was a rather leisurely read, in his opinion. But he knows Ben’s recently gotten a taste for comic books and there’s absolutely no way in hell Reginald would have ever allowed such childish things in his library. “Right.” Five scratches the back of his head anxiously. He’s not sure exactly why he’s suddenly got this weird tightening in his chest, but he does. 

“When will you be back?” 

Ben shrugs. “Not sure. Probably before dinner, though.” 

“Do you mind if I come with you?” Five blurts out. “I-” he clears his throat. “There’s a book I’ve been looking for but I don’t think we have it here.” 

Ben tilts his head. Five is a homebody, Ben’s discovered, in the last few months since he was brought back to life. He enjoys sitting at home and reading books, occasionally he’ll watch Jeopardy and put the contestants on the show to shame with the odd amount of trivia he actually knows, but mostly he really only goes out if it’s necessary or if Allison plans a fun family outing and Five is in his little headspace.  

“Sure, I don’t mind. You wanna drive?” 

Five rolls his eyes. “I can just blink us over there.” 

Ben sighs, “Fine, but try to teleport us somewhere at least kind of inconspicuous?” The last time Five agreed to bring him somewhere Ben got an earful from a woman they scared half to death by suddenly appearing out of seemingly thin air not two feet away from her in the bread aisle of the grocery mart. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The library is quiet today, which isn’t too surprising considering it’s before noon on a Wednesday. 

“I’m gonna go check out the upstairs.” Ben half whispers, already going towards the stairwell. 

Five watches Ben walk away with a longing he can’t quite place. He rests his palm against his chest-there’s an ache there he can’t identify. All he knows is that he wants to follow his brother, but he also knows what odd behavior that is. He’s not in his little headspace right now, after all. He doesn’t need to be chaperoned like a child, despite the body he’s in. 

Instead, Five decides to roam about the History section a bit. 

There’s a giggling that calls his attention about fifteen minutes into his browsing; he looks up to find across the library in the Childrens Books section a young mother and her toddler. She’s shushing the child, but there’s a smile on her face and she’s holding up a Dr. Seuss hardcover and pointing out the silly rhymes and the even sillier made up creatures. She’s sitting down with the boy in her lap and he’s curled up against her looking the picture of warm and snug and...happy. 

“Shit.” Five gulps. He can feel it coming on, can feel his control coming apart at the seams. Not here, he thinks, not now. But the tears prickling at the edges of his eyes tell him he’s got little say in the matter. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben thought Five might join him upstairs after a while but it’s been about a half hour now and his brother’s nowhere to be seen. Curious to see what’s gotten Fives attention, he heads back downstairs. 

Ben looks practically everywhere-first in the sections where he thinks Five would most be drawn to-when he’s had no luck he starts to worry. Five knows better than to teleport without letting one of them know if he’s going elsewhere. It took him a while to learn that, in fact. 

“Um, excuse me, sorry to bother you,” he begins, speaking to the woman at the front desk, “But is there a chance you saw where my brother might’ve gone? I can’t find him anywhere. He’s thirteen, about this tall, black hair-” 

Thankfully there are so few people in the library at the moment that it doesn’t take much for the librarian to recognize who he’s talking about. “Oh, I think I saw him head for the restroom, right that way, to your left.” 

Ben thanks her profusely before heading in that direction. He steps foot inside and he can see Five’s shoes peeking out from under the one stall that’s not empty. “I’m gonna check out a couple of books and head to the Starbucks across the street, so meet me there when you’re done here, ok?” he calls out. 

He’s expecting an annoyed. “Fine.”-no one, Five most of all, likes to be interrupted while in the bathroom, after all. 

But instead he’s surprised to hear a stifled sob and a small, nearly inaudible. “Kay.” 

Ben immediately marches up to the stall, his concern coming back tenfold. “Five? Hey, you ok? What’s wrong? Did something happen?” 

Another stifled sob. “N-no.” 

That’s definitely little Five in there, no doubt about it, Ben confirms in his head. “Five, can you open the door for me, please? I just wanna make sure you’re ok.” 

It takes a second and some fumbling with the latch but when Five does open it, it’s only to reveal a splotchy red face streaked with tears and a runny nose. 

Ben pulls him into his arms without a second thought and squeezes. “What’s the matter?” Five melts into him, his little hiccups turning to sobs. 

“Don’t leave.” Five cries. “Don’t wanna be alone anymore. Please.” 

Ben’s heart shatters and he holds his baby brother all the tighter. Five has been acting a bit out of sorts since Allison and Klaus left, and then with everyone else in the house so busy lately that they’re barely ever there during waking hours-well, Ben can see now why Five’s been extra attentive when his few remaining siblings decide to leave the house. 

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise. I’m sorry I didn’t realize you were feeling this way sooner.” He manages to pick Five up pretty easily-the kid, unfortunately, doesn’t weigh much-and Five latches on instantly, his legs wrapping around Bens waist and his arms around his neck. 

He tucks his face against Ben’s neck and huffs out another sob. “Wanna go home.” 

Ben rocks him gently back and forth, rubbing a hand up and down his back comfortingly. “Of course.” They’re going to have to take the bus, seeing that they didn’t bring the car, Ben is thinking, just as suddenly they’re transported from the library mens room to Ben’s bedroom back at the Umbrella Academy. 

Ben blinks. Five doesn’t often use his powers when he’s in his little headspace-big Five has explained it to them before that when he does, it’s more of a reflex than anything, and oftentimes he ends up three feet to the left of where he’d intended to land, which doesn’t seem like too bad of a miscalculation, until it is. 

Ben sets Five down on his bed, intending to go into the kitchen and prepare him a nice warm bottle, but that’s a mistake, if the look of absolute devastation on Fives face has anything to say about it. Ben holds out a hand. “C’mere buddy, we can go downstairs together, ok?” 

Five takes the offered hand with both of his, gripping on like it’s a lifeline. 

Ben gives in once they’re in the kitchen and picks a sniffling Five up and props him up on his hip while he goes about heating up the milk. “You know,” Ben says quietly. “You can tell us if you’re ever feeling lonely or scared or...anything, really. I know you were alone for a really long time.” 

He can feel Five stiffen up in his arms. “Scary.” he mutters. And that’s all he has to say to that. The milk boils and Ben does some kind of magic trick in order to fill the bottle up while also holding onto a little. They end up back in Ben’s room and this time he sits down on the bed with Five on his lap. “Don’t wanna nap.” he whines softly, even though his eyes are already fluttering as Ben rocks him gently. 

“But you’re so sleepy already.” Ben chuckles at the yawn Five tries to stifle. 

Five shakes his head stubbornly. “Don’t want you to go.” 

Ben tugs Five in closer to his chest and leans down to kiss him on his forehead. “I won’t. I swear I’ll be right here when you wake up, ok?” 

Five looks up at him with big, teary eyes. “Ok.” 

Ben decides the milk is just at the right temperature now for Five to drink and so he places the bottle at Fives lips and sure enough the little opens up and sucks on the teat hungrily. The milk they feed Five is a special milk full of proteins and a decent amount of calories-it’s honestly the only way to get their brother to eat most days. So Ben is relieved when Five ends up drinking the entire thing instead of leaving it half full, as he’s prone to doing. 

Five is clearly drowsy, his eyes closing and then opening abruptly as he forces himself to stay awake. “Here, let’s try this.” Ben says, adjusting them so that they’re both laying down on the bed. He pulls Five in towards his chest and Five goes willingly, more than happy to be engulfed in Bens warmth. 

Vanya finds her two brothers sleeping in exactly that position a couple of hours later-her practice having been postponed for a later date. She grins and takes her phones out to snap a photo-ok, several photos-and sends them to the family group chat. 

[imjustthemechanic]

A Romantic Night at the Museum

Happy valentine’s day to @tytythepilot, who wanted a Pepperony HSAU in which they start out hating each other!

💘 - 💝 - 💌 - 💝 - 💘

It was a requirement for graduation: every senior at Triskelion High had to do thirty hours of volunteer work at one of a number of school-approved venues.  It was a duty a lot of students complained about, but Pepper Potts had known right away which she would choose.  There was a soup kitchen, a retirement home, a recycling centre, the humane society, and a few other places, but on sign-up day her eyes had gone right to the bottom of the list: the Empire State Museum of Modern Art.

It seemed ideal.  Pepper was planning to major in accounting, but she was interested in art and art history, and enjoyed visiting the ESMMA.  She was already familiar with all their permanent exhibits, so she probably wouldn’t even need an orientation.  The people who worked there would doubtless be impressed with her dedication.  When she put her name on the list, she did notice that nobody else had chosen the museum yet, but since she was one of the first to choose a venue, she didn’t think much of it.

On November first, Mr. Coulson the history teacher called the seniors down to the gymnasium to get the permission paperwork for their assignments, and to hand out the lanyards and tags where they would log their hours.  Pepper set impatiently in the folding metal chair while the various venues were called out. Red lanyards for the humane society were popular, as were green ones for the recycling centre.  By the time he got close to the bottom, there didn’t seem to be very many people without lanyards, and Pepper was starting to wonder if there would be anybody else volunteering at the museum at all.

As it turned out, there was one other.

“Finally, for the ESMMA,” Mr. Coulson read out at last, “Potts, Virginia, and Stark, Anthony.”

Pepper bounced to her feet and looked around, blinking in surprise.  Tony Stark?  She knew he went to Triskelion High School – who didn’t? – but so far she’d only ever glimpsed him from afar.  From the gossip that surrounded him she knew he was the son of a wealthy and powerful businessmen, that he’d dated most of the cheerleaders but couldn’t remember their names, and that his picture had been on the front of the October issue of the Triskelion Shield newsletter because he’d won some sort of state science prize.  He wanted to work at the museum?

She didn’t see anybody else standing up, though. The other students were all chatting together and comparing lanyards… maybe Stark wasn’t here today?  Pepper grabbed her canvas backpack, covered in pins and buttons for various causes she supported, and hurried to the front.  Mr. Coulson was waiting at the bottom of the stage, holding out the orange lanyard for her.

“There’s nobody else for the museum?” she asked.

“Word gets around,” he replied, ticking her off on his list.  “You and Stark were the only two who signed up.”

“Great.”  Pepper hung the lanyard around her neck with a grimace.  “I get to babysit the rich kid all by myself.”  From what little she knew of Stark, she had no illusions that he would do anything during their volunteer time.  As far as Pepper had ever been able to tell, he didn’t even do anything in his classes – she’d seen him sleeping in Ms. Hill’s Calculus course. He probably paid somebody to take his exams for him.

“Depends on where the museum needs you,” Mr. Coulson said.  “You might not even see him.”

“God, I hope not!” Pepper snorted, and turned around… only to find herself face-to-face with a boy.  He was about her own height, with unkept dark brown hair that needed trimming and brown eyes, and wearing an expensive-looking blazer over a Pink Floyd T-shirt.  She recognized him immediately, of course.  It was Tony Stark, in the flesh.

The colour drained from Pepper’s face.  How much had he heard?

“At least the babysitter’s cute,” he said.

That answered her question – he’d heard all of it.  Pepper stepped past him and walked away as fast as she could, shaking.  Now she was in for it.  The whole school knew everything Stark said and did… it would be a miracle if they weren’t all talking about her by this time tomorrow. And she was going to be stuck with this guy at the museum for two hours a week, the rest of the semester!  Maybe she could catch pneumonia or something and be excused from the rest of the school year.

Her friend Betty was waiting for her at the gym exit, wearing the red humane society lanyard.  “You’re going to be volunteering with Tony Stark?” she asked.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Pepper informed her, and kept going.

💘 - 💝 - 💌 - 💝 - 💘

Tony watched the girl disappear in a huff of ginger hair and oversized sweater, then turned to Coulson for his own lanyard and badge.  “What crawled up her butt?” he asked.  There were lots of girls in school who didn’t like Tony – there were lots of girls outside school who didn’t like him – but most of them at least knew him.  As far as he could remember, Tony had never spoken to that one before.

“I don’t think she believes you know anything about art,” said Mr. Coulson.

“Yeah?” Tony asked.

The truth was, he didn’t really.  Tony’s parents were patrons of the ESMMA, along with several other museums in the city, so he’d figured the employees there would be nice to him – but he wasn’t into art for its own sake.  Tony preferred things that could be quantified and figured out, while art, particularly modern art, was the exact opposite of that.  He’d signed up on the assumption that the museum would give him flash cards or something so he could lead tours and answer questions.  He could memorize things like that in a few seconds and be fine. Now, however, he’d been given a challenge.  Who was this girl to judge him when she’d never even met him properly.

“Well,” he said, “she’s gonna find out how wrong she is.”

That evening, Tony sat down in front of his computer – he’d built it himself, out of parts of several others – and pulled up the museum’s website.  With a can of Red Bull at one elbow and a package of pretzels at the other he sat up almost until dawn, going through the online collection and reading about artists, movements, and styles.  Tony could handle being called a lot of things but nobody was going to think he was dumb.

By Friday afternoon, after a couple of additional trips to both the public and museum libraries, he felt he was more than ready. He’d even dug out an old ESMMA t-shirt he’d gotten for free at one of Mom’s fundraisers, and was wearing that and his lanyard as he leaned against one of the metal pillars outside the museum entrance.  The museum wasn’t expecting them until four, but there was no way Tony was letting the girl be earlier than he was.

It worked, too – he’d been waiting nearly fifteen minutes when she finally got off the bus.  Her long ginger hair was in two braids, and her slender figure was absolutely lost under an enormous camo-green cardigan.  Tony was gratified to see her surprised to find him there.

“Afternoon,” he said.

“Hi,” she replied warily.

Tony smiled at her.  “What’s your favourite piece in the ESMMA collection?” he asked, as if making polite conversation.  “I’m partial to Csaky.  Picasso’s a little too abstract for my tastes.”

She frowned for a moment, then shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve never thought about it. Probably the Water Lillies.”

“Monet, cool,” Tony nodded.  “Nobody else I asked at school had signed up for the museum. It’s good to know there’s somebody else around who’s got some taste.  What do you think of Monet’s red paintings?  Are they artistically interesting, or just medically?”

The girl began to smile.  “They can be both,” she said.  “With impressionists it was all about how they saw the world, right? It was their impression. Both Monet’s cataracts and the removal of them affected that, so it should be reflected in his art.”

Tony had expected her to be squirming by now, having realized she was wrong about him, but that didn’t seem to be the case.  He tried to go a little deeper.  “What do you think of the idea that after his surgery he could see into the ultraviolet?” he asked.

“I hadn’t heard that before,” she replied.  For a moment Tony felt triumphant, but then she continued on, apparently oblivious to the fact that he’d just shown he knew more about impressionists than she did.  “I wonder what effect that would have… could we even see it?”

Tony was about to cite a Journal of Art History paper he’d read on the subject, but then one of the big glass doors opened and a man in a blue shirt and white tie, wearing an ESMMA nametag that identified him, appropriately enough, as Art, looked out at him.  “Are you two the kids from Triskelion?” he asked.

“Yes,” the girl said, reaching to took the guy’s hand. “I’m Virginia – people call me Pepper.”

“And I’m Tony,” he stepped up to do the same.

“Oh, I know who you are,” said Art, and shook Tony’s hand with enthusiasm.  “I’ve seen you here with your folks.  Come on in! We’re always happy to have kids from the school.”  He held the door open for them.  “We look forward to it all year.”

“I’ve been looking forward to it, myself,” said Pepper. “I’ve been to the museum quite often, and I know the layout pretty well.”

“And I can identify every piece in the place!” Tony bragged, not to be outdone as the followed Art inside.  The foyer of the building was spacious, with high ceilings, white walls, and abstract-shaped red couches.  “That one behind the admissions counter, for example, that’s Matisse’s Two Masks.”  He snickered. “The one that looks like a mantis shrimp wearing cool sunglasses.”

Pepper looked at him as if he’d just sprouted a second head, but didn’t say anything.

“Man, it kinda does, doesn’t it?” said Art, grinning. “Great, now I’ll never unsee that! Right this way.”  He led them to a door marked staff only, and touched his employee ID card to a panel to unlock it.  The inner side had a complicated push-bar arrangement on it, the sort that would probably set off an alarm if somebody tried to open it without permission.

“Ohhh… are we gonna be working in the off-view collections?” Pepper asked in a reverent voice.

“Sort of,” said Art.

They went down the stairs to the basement level, and through a maze of rooms full of shelves and boxes and things carefully stored in glass cases, to a door with no special signs or locks on it, just an ordinary lever handle.  Beyond that was a little room with one tiny, dingy window way high up in the wall, looking out on a parking lot, and a lot of metal shelves stacked high with what appeared to be garbage.  There were cardboard boxes full of paper, trash bags bulging with heaven knew what, stacks of old magazines, packages of unopened paper plates and plastic forks. Tony frowned as he looked around. He hadn’t seen anything like this on the website?

“Is this art?” he asked.

“This is our surplus from last year,” Art replied. “Menus and leaflets and merch.  We need you guys to sort it out – what we can still sell, what we can recycle, what we can donate, and so forth.  We save it all year so you kids will have something to do.”  He looked so proud of himself, as if he were expecting them to be excited about this.

Tony glanced at Pepper.  Her mouth was open in astonishment.

“The café and vending machines will give you sodas and snacks at half price with your lanyards,” Art said cheerfully.  “If you need anything, you can call somebody there.” He pointed to a set of buttons below a speaker on the wall.  “See you at six!”  And he walked out, whistling.

Pepper’s backpack fell out of her hands and landed on the floor.  “Word gets around,” she said aloud.  “Nobody told me.”

The look on her face and the mournful tone of her voice would have been full as hell if Tony hadn’t been feeling pretty betrayed, himself.  “This is bullshit,” he declared.  His parents had donated thousands of dollars to the ESMMA over the years.  He’d studied for this, and they thought all he was good for was sorting garbage?  “I’m going to call my Mom,” he said darkly.

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Pepper felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach and all her insides had gone splat on the gritty concrete floor.  She’d been looking forward to this for a month, as a chance to work in the stimulating environment of the museum, enjoying art and helping other people enjoy it, too.  Now it turned out they expected her to spend the whole time shut in the basement?  No wonder nobody else signed u for the museum! Why hadn’t she asked around? Clearly somebody was telling the seniors to avoid the assignment!

It was Stark’s statement that snapped her out of her moment of shock.  Pepper had kept her head down the last few days at school, waiting for the ridicule to start, but it never had.  It seemed like nobody had overheard the exchange, and Stark must not have told anyone about it.  She’d begun to hope that he just wanted to forget about it, too.  Her hopes had risen even further when he’d actually seemed to want to talk about the museum and the collection, and when she’d noticed his parents’ names on the big granite slab in the lobby floor.  Maybe they were going to get along after all…

Now it was clear after all that he really was just a spoiled jerk.  He was here because he thought his family’s involvement would get him special treatment and he was pissed because it wouldn’t.  Well, maybe it would do him good to live in the real world for two hours a week.

“Is that what you do every time you don’t get what you want?” she demanded.  “Go crying to Mommy and have her fix it for you?”

Stark scowled at her.  “Oh, and I guess you’re totally fine with it?  You were geeking out a minute ago!”

“I am not fine with it!” Pepper informed him.  “I am bitterly disappointed, but some of us don’t have rich parents who can make sure we get our way!”  She looked around again at the room’s ill-organized contents, then picked up her backpack and set it on a chair.  The sleeves of her cardigan wouldn’t stay up, but she made a show of rolling them anyway before she dug into the first box of magazines.

“What are you doing?” asked Stark.

“I’m doing what I was told to do!” she snarled. “Because I need the credit to graduate, and unlike some people I can’t just nap through all my classes and bribe the school to pass me anyway!”

For a moment Stark just stood there as if she’d slapped him. Then he drew himself up to his full height, which was not impressive when he wasn’t any taller than Pepper, and demanded, “what is your problem?  I never even met you until the other day, and you already hated me!  You honestly think I can’t do this?” He gestured to the piles of junk.

“I think you won’t,” Pepper replied primly.  “I mean, look at you – you’re just standing there! Your parents are so rich you’ve probably never had to do anything in your entire life!  I bet your Dad pays off the teachers to give you good marks!”

“I get good marks all by myself!” Stark huffed.  “I happen to be a genius!”

If that were supposed to make her think more highly of him, it failed miserably.  Pepper threw a magazine at him.  “You’re an egotistical twit!” she said.  “If you can work, prove it!”

“Maybe I will!” he said.  He stood there a moment longer, looking around, and Pepper wondered if he would refuse after all, out of sheer spite.  But then he grabbed a box of merchandise from a now-defunct special exhibit on Lichtenstein and started sorting them, rather violently.

Pepper smirked.  At least she’d gotten him to participate.

“You’ve got no right to pass judgment on me when you don’t know me,” Stark said after a while.

“Maybe you shouldn’t worry so much about what other people think of you,” Pepper retorted.  She opened a second box, and found it was full of old calendars.  The guy named Art had said they saved things all year for the Triskelion volunteers, but these were fully three years old.  Whoever had been conned into doing this in the mean time couldn’t have been very thorough.

“I don’t care what other people think of me,” Stark said.  He was stacking souvenir water bottles into two pyramids, one of bottles that had last year’s date on them, and one that did not.

“Obviously you do, or you wouldn’t be mad at me for not liking you,” Pepper pointed out.

She looked around at the mess, and felt her jaw muscles tighten.  This was clearly a job that desperately needed doing and, just as obviously, nobody wanted to do it.  The museum staff didn’t want to deal with it, so they left it for the students.  The students didn’t want to deal with it, so they didn’t  sign up for the volunteer work.  Pepper certainly didn’t want to do it… but that in itself awakened a weird form of rebellion in her.  Fine, then. She would do it, and she would do a spectacular job, so that nobody else could ever do half as well! She dumped the calendars back in their box, and got out a marker to write the word recycle on the side.

“I’m not mad,” said Stark.  “I couldn’t care less if you like me or not.  I’m just saying you have no right to an opinion.”

“Of course I do,” Pepper said, “and you’re not making me like you any better by whining about it!”  She grabbed another box.

“Maybe I don’t like you, either,” he retorted.

“Good thing I actually don’t care what you think of me,” sniffed Pepper.  After their interactions so far, she would have been disappointed if he didn’t hate her.  The last thing she wanted was to appeal to a spoiled brat like Stark!  She looked over her shoulder at his pyramids.  “What are you doing with those?”

“Seeing how high I can stack them,” he replied.

“We’re not here to play,” Pepper informed him.  The next box contained multicoloured stress balls. For a moment she wrestled with temptation, then she threw one at Stark’s bottles, as if they were a setup pin a carnival game.  They wobbled, then crashed down.

“Hey!” he protested.

“We’re here to work,” she told him.

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That interaction seemed to have set the tone for the entire evening, Tony observed.  This girl was absolutely determined to do the job they’d given her, even though it was a stupid rip-off of a job, and if Tony hadn’t been so determined to hate her back he would have found it kind of admirable.  If she had that kind of work ethic in her classes she might well end up valedictorian… and since the school was in the habit of choosing one valedictorian of each sex, that meant Tony might find himself sharing a stage with her in June.  That sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.

Art had promised to let them out at six.  He’d also told them they were welcome to go for snacks or bathroom breaks, but Pepper – why was she called that? Because of her freckles, maybe? She certainly was peppered with those – didn’t stop.  Tony was getting hungry and cranky, but he didn’t stop, either.  Pepper had thought he’d know nothing abut art and he’d proven her wrong.  Now she thought he wasn’t willing to work hard, so he was going to prove her wrong on that, too.

Six o’clock came and went.  Upstairs the museum was probably closing up, and Art would arrive any minutes.  Pepper kept at it, though, tossing vaguely cubist plush animals around like she planned to do it all night, using her phone as a flashlight to peer into dark corners of the room looking for more.  Tony wondered if he ought to say something, but if he did, she might think he was being lazy and he wasn’t going to let her have that.  He continued taking bundles of pamphlets out of their elastic bands and dumping them in the ‘recycle’ box as his watched ticked past six thirty and approached seven.

Then the lights went out.

For a moment the two of them just stood there in the dark, blinking.  A little bit of light came in through that high-up window, but it wasn’t really enough to see by.  After a few seconds, Pepper turned her phone flashlight back on, which made Tony yelp as she shone it directly in his face.

“Hey!” he protested.

“Sorry!”  She quickly moved it.  “Did you do that?”

“What?” asked Tony.  “Turn the lights off?  Why would I do that!  They probably went off because it’s way past six and the museum is closed.”  He went and moved a box so he could stand on it and look out the window.

Pepper stared at him, then looked at her phone screen. “Why didn’t you say something?” she asked.

“Because you would have gone aww, is the little rich boy tired?”  Sure enough, there was nobody moving out in the courtyard.  The café tables had been put away, and he thought he could make out somebody on the opposite side locking a door.

“So you do care what I think of you,” she said, but didn’t seem interested in arguing the point.  As Tony opened his mouth to reply, she turned away and shone the light around the room.  “Which way to the stairs?”

“This way.”  Tony hopped down from his box and turned on his own phone for extra light. A fat lot of good it had done him, he thought, to memorize those museum maps.  None of them had included the basement!  But by the light of the LEDs the two young people managed to wind their way through the maze of rooms.

“Oh, Jesus!” Pepper exclaimed, grabbing Tony’s arm.

“What?” he turned around, and nearly jumped out of his own skin as he saw what looked like a winged, humanoid figure looming over them.  Then he realized what he was looking at was the shadow of a sculpture in dark stone, projected on the wall and ceiling by the light, and recognized it from the website catalogue – at least that had done him some good. “That’s Csaky’s Messenger,” he said.  A black granite cubist angel.

“I knew that,” said Pepper, relaxing her grip.

“No, you didn’t,” he teased.  “What did you think it was, Mothman?”

“Shut up and let’s get out of here,” she said. “This place is creepy in the dark.”

It had been kind of creepy in the daytime, Tony thought, with all the old sculptures covered in sheets and so forth.  When he moved his own light around the room the shadows seemed to come to life, and it did make the statues look terrifyingly animated. He tried not to think about that as they continued to the stairs.

It was an effort not to cheer when they finally sighted the red EXIT sign.  Tony took the stairs two at a time and pushed on the bar handle, not really caring if it set off an alarm.  It did not – in fact, the only sound was a dull clunk, and the door did not move.

Tony tried again, wondering if he’d simply pushed it too hard.  He got the same result.

“Now what?” asked Pepper.

“It’s locked,” he said.

“What?”

“Don’t panic, it’s not like we’re gonna run out of air or anything,” said Tony, rolling his eyes.  “It’s just a locked door.”

“Yes, but that means we’re stuck in here!” she protested.

“It’s not like the museum’s empty!”  Tony put his shoulder against the door to rattle it. “Hey!  Hey, we’re locked in!” he shouted.

“Help!” Pepper chimed in.  “Anybody out there?  Help!”

They continued shouting for a few minutes, but it got no reply.  If anybody were out there, they couldn’t hear them – or they were just ignoring the cries.

“Why didn’t that guy come back to tell us it was time to go?” Pepper wailed.

Tony very much wanted to know that, himself.  “I guess he forgot about us.”  He rattled the door one last time and waited a moment, but there was still no response.

She grabbed his arm again.  “You can call your parents!”

Tony pulled free of her grip.  “Oh, now who wants to call my rich parents to fix everything?” he couldn’t resist saying.

She narrowed her eyes.  “That was a tantrum.  This is an emergency.  I’m sorry I made fun of you, okay?  Please call them.”

The apology was startling, but it didn’t change one important fact.  “I can’t,” Tony said.  “Or if I did, it wouldn’t do any  good. They’re in Vienna this week.”  He scowled.

The light on Pepper’s phone shut off with an unhappy buzzing sound, but by the light of his own Tony could see that she looked disappointed.  “So you were just ranting when you said you were gonna have your Mom yell at the museum people?”

“No, I was gonna talk to her, it’s just that it’ll probably take ages for her to do anything about it, because she’s out of the country and she doesn’t like staying up all night to make phone calls,” Tony grumbled.  “Why don’t you call your parents?  At least they live here in town.”

Pepper nodded and looked down at her phone, then swallowed when she saw the screen.  “Uh… actually, I don’t think I can.  I’ve had the flashlight on too long and the battery is dead.”

He reached into his pocket.  “You can use mine.  You know their numbers, right?”

“No,” she admitted, squirming a bit.  “We haven’t had a land line since I was twelve. I’ve always had their numbers in my phone.”

“Well, that’s just great!”  Tony kicked the door and then went to sit down on the top step. “So what do we do, just sit here all night?”

“You said you were a genius!  Can’t you figure something out?” she asked.

Tony huffed.  There she was again, thinking he was dumb.  He knew that she was doing it on purpose, and that if he kept reacting the way she wanted, she would quickly come to decide that she could make him do anything she wanted by saying she thought he couldn’t or wouldn’t… but at the same time, he couldn’t let her think she was right.  He thought back to the museum maps he’d looked at… this stairwell hadn’t been marked on any of them, which meant the public wasn’t supposed to use them.  All the exits probably locked the same way.  What he needed was a way to pick the lock, which was going to be difficult when it was inside the bar apparatus.

“Well?” Pepper asked.

“Shut up.  I’m thinking.”  Tony turned and directed the light from his phone onto the bar.  There were some screws that would be easy to take out, but they were in the push panel at the hinge end of the door… he’d need to reach inside somehow.  “Okay,” he said, standing up again.  “There’s gotta be some tools in that basement, right?  I need a screwdriver.”

“Is this a good idea?” asked Pepper.

“I won the Pym Prize for Robotics last month!” Tony reminded her.  “My picture was on the cover of the school newspaper, and you don’t trust me with a screwdriver?”

She threw up her hands.  “Okay, okay!  Do your genius thing!”

Tony checked the battery on his own phone.  With the flashlight on it was draining fast.  If they didn’t want to be in here with no light but the EXIT signs, he was going to have to find another source of illumination.  “And a proper flashlight,” he decided.

“That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all evening,” said Pepper, and followed him down the steps.

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Pepper realized she was being mean and snappish, but she couldn’t help it.  How was she supposed to feel when they were locked in a basement?  They couldn’t just stay here all night.  What about dinner?  Her stomach was already growling.  She’d been ignoring it earlier because she had wanted to show that she was willing to work.  Where would they sleep?  There was nothing soft down here to lie on.  And good lord, what was going to happen when one of them needed to pee?

All that nervous energy had to go somewhere and the only possible target was Stark – and he was doubly convenient in that capacity because this was his fault.  He’d noticed the time passing while she had not.  He couldn’t have said something.  If he’d spoken up, they could have decided it was time to go and done so, but he hadn’t, the staff had forgotten about them, and now they were stuck down here!

Back at the bottom of the stairs, Stark located a janitor’s closet.  This seemed a good place to start looking for emergency supplies – there was a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall, and on a shelf above them he found a utility flashlight.  He gave the latter to Pepper, and had her hold it while he rooted around inside a cupboard, looking for something else.

“What are you doing now?” she asked.

“I’m looking for tools,” he replied.  “A screwdriver.  A hammer.  Something. I’m gonna take the door apart and open the lock from the inside… and don’t ask me if I can do that,” he added, pulling his head out of the cupboard to look straight at her.  “I told you, I’m a genius.  I can figure it out.”

Pepper sniffed.  She would wait and see how he did at getting them out of the basement, but she knew one thing for certain.  “You may be a genius, but talking about it all the time still makes you sound like a jerk.  Why do you care so much that people know how smart you are?”

“Because it’s important!” said Tony, going back to his rooting around.  “Fine, I admit it: yes, I want people to know I’m smart, okay?  I’m proud of it.  Why shouldn’t I be?”

“It’s fine to be proud, but if you go around talking about it, you’re bragging,” Pepper said to his butt, which was the only part of him she could see.  “What happened to humility?”

“False humility is just another kind of lying,” he said.

“It’s polite,” Pepper insisted.  “You don’t see me go around bragging.  I could be standing here going, oh, they gave me this job because nobody else wants to do it so I’m going to be awesome at it just to show them.”

This time, he actually wiggled back out of the cupboard and sat up, frowning at her in evident confusion.  “Is that really what you’re proudest of?” he asked.  “That you’re willing to do crappy jobs?”

“I’m willing to do them well,” Pepper clarified. “The people who left all those three-year-old calendars in the box sure didn’t do a very good job of it.  Just because nobody wants to do something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it properly.  I’m a Hufflepuff,” she said firmly.  “I believe in doing things right.”

“Yeah, but that seems like a weird thing to brag about,” he insisted.

“I just said I don’t brag about it,” huffed Pepper.

“No, I mean, it’s a weird example of a thing you might brag about,” Stark said.  “Most people would say something like, I’m good at math, or I  can beat a new video game faster than anybody I know, or I’ve won prizes for my robots.  Your thing is doing terrible jobs?”

His mention to the robotics prize made Pepper wonder if all three of his examples were things he personally considered himself amazing at.  “No, they wouldn’t say that, because most people don’t go around bragging.”

“If you asked them,” Stark said, frowning in frustration.  “If you go up to somebody and ask them what are you best at they’ll always tell you something!  Like, my friend Rhodey is really good at building model airplanes.  He’ll tell you all about how he changed them to be more accurate than they were on the box.  Or there’s Janet from my physics class who’s really good at her fashion Instagram.  What’s your ‘thing’?”

Pepper winced, wishing now she’d never spoken. Everybody had a ‘thing’, didn’t they? Something they were really into. With Jane it was astronomy – everyone knew she’d been accepted to Culver for astrophysics and she could take you out on a dark night and show you three planets, nine constellations, and tell you about how people could figure out the date of supernovas from tree rings. Pepper never understood half of what she said.  With Natasha it was ballet and gymnastics, and the phys. ed teachers said she’d probably be in the Olympics someday.  Pepper was madly jealous of both of them for having something they were so good at and so passionate about… because she didn’t.

She was silent for a moment – and her very hesitation must have told Stark all he needed to know.  “Oh, come on, you must be good at something,” he said.  “How about art?”

Pepper shrugged awkwardly.  “I like art, but I can’t do it.  I took art in freshman year but I wasn’t any good at it. I never felt inspired.  I’m more interested in the history than in actually doing it, but that’s not really… not really something you can make a career out of.  I guess I could be a museum curator, but…”  She looked around the dark room, with that unsettling statue still looming in a corner of it.  “A museum doesn’t sound like a great place to work right now.”

“I hear that,” Stark grumbled.

“I’m gonna do accounting in college,” she went on, “because I’ll be able to get a good job that way.  I get decent grades in math, but they’re not any better than the grades I get in anything else.  My Dad was always one of those if you put your mind to it you can do anything people, and he’s right, because I can do a lot of things well but there’s not really anything I’d say I’m good at.”

Pepper stopped there, because… why had she told him that?  It wasn’t something she ever discussed, even with her friends or family.  They wouldn’t understand.  All of them had a ‘thing’, but Pepper was just… Pepper. She worked hard because if she couldn’t be good at something, she wanted to be decent at as many things as she could. Jill of all trades, mistress of none.

Stark was looking at her like he didn’t know what she was talking about.  He probably didn’t.  If he was so damn smart, he was probably good at everything and couldn’t imagine what mediocrity was possibly like.  What would he know about insecurity?

“Look, just find your tools and get us out of here,” said Pepper.

He crawled back into the cupboard, while she knelt down to shine the flashlight over his shoulder.  After a minute or two of sorting around amid cleaning supplies and a set of wrenches, he sat up triumphantly.  “Aha!” he exclaimed, holding high a beat-up screwdriver with an orange handle.

“Finally!” said Pepper.  “Let’s go!”

They returned to the main floor and Pepper continued to hold the flashlight while Stark knelt down to turn the screws.  He tried for a few moments, then stopped and muttered a bad word under his breath.

“Now what’s wrong?” Pepper asked.  She could feel her stomach sinking again.

“It’s a Phillips,” said Stark.

“What’s that?” Pepper wanted to know.

“It’s a Phillips head screwdriver!”  He pointed it at her like a magic wand.  “The screws are all flat heads!”

“Can’t you still use it?” she asked.  Pepper admittedly knew very little about tools but she had assembled furniture with her parents, and she was sure her father had once said she could still use a particular screwdriver even if it was the wrong shape.

Stark appeared to disagree – he tossed the screwdriver back down the stairs, and she could hear it clink as it bounced off the concrete steps.  “No. You could use a flat head screwdriver in a Phillips screw, but not the other way around.”

“The Phillips… is that the one with the plus, and the flat head is the one with the minus?” she asked.

“Yeah.”  Stark sat there for a moment, then examined the screws again.  “You got a dime?”

“Nobody carries cash in New York,” Pepper scoffed. She thought for a moment, herself, and then unzipped her backpack and started sorting through it, looking for her keys.  “Here!” She pulled them out.  “I have nail clippers on my keychain!”

“So what?” he asked, annoyed.

“So they have a flat end!”  She took them off the loop and lifted the lever to show him. “Will that fit in the screws?”

Stark blinked, then snatched them out of her hand, grinning.  “You’re a genius!” he said, and turned around to start removing screws.

“Oh, like you?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

“Maybe not quite like me,” he said, but he glanced back over his shoulder to smile at her, and something inside Pepper gave an involuntarily little flutter.  Stark was clearly joking, but when he’d said you’re a genius, it had sounded so sincere and spontaneous she couldn’t help but think he meant it.

“There we go!” Stark dropped one screw on the floor, then removed another, and took the entire bar off the door.  “Shine the light in here, would you?”

Pepper directed the beam over his shoulder, while he first peered in and then reached to feel around.  For a moment he frowned, and Pepper started getting worried again, but this time he seemed to figure out a solution quickly.

“Another equipment run!” he declared.  “I know I saw wire cutters in there… I need a coat hanger.  I’m gonna snip a length of it so I can manipulate the lock from the inside.”

“There were coat hangers in the junk room!” said Pepper. “They had a box of souvenir sweatshirts that were already on them inside the plastic!”

She pulled open one such packet, and Stark cut himself a length of wire about six inches long.  Pepper was starting to feel quite pleased with their collective problem-solving abilities.  Stark could find, or at least make, whatever tools they needed, and Pepper had a good memory and could tell him where to find things.  When they returned to the door, Stark stuck his makeshift lock pick into it, his hand disappearing into the bar mechanism right up to the wrist, and within a few second there was a clunking sound, and the door creaked open. The light that flooded in was faint, just the evening glow of the city and the fading November sky reflecting off the white walls and tile floors of the lobby, but Pepper was so happy to see it, she almost cried.

“Ta-da!” said Stark proudly.  There was a clink from inside the bar as he dropped the piece of wire.  “There we… ow!” he exclaimed, and quickly yanked his arm out… or tried to. Something clearly went wrong, because he stopped short and howled!

Pepper almost dropped the flashlight. What?  What happened?” she asked.  Her imagination offered up horrible possibilities.  Maybe there was a mouse or a spider or something in there. Maybe he was going to need her to suck the venom out.  Maybe she wouldn’t be able to do it, and she would be known as the girl who let Tony Stark die…

“I’m stuck!  I’m caught on…” he gritted his teeth and swore again.  “I’m caught on… I think I stabbed myself.”

Pepper felt herself go cold.  She set the flashlight down on the floor so that its beam would still illuminate him.  “Okay, well, don’t panic,” she said.

“Don’t panic?  You’re the one who screamed because you thought the statue was Mothman!” he pointed out.

“Only for a moment!  When you’re hurt,” she explained, “you shouldn’t panic because it’ll only make you freak out and do more damage.  Now, take a deep breath.”

He breathed in, hard.

“Let it out,” said Pepper.

It came out in a woosh.

“Now tell me what happened.”

Stark grimaced in pain.  “I dropped the coat hanger wire,” he said, “and I think it got caught on something.  When I tried to pull my arm out it poked me, and when I tried to yank it out fast it went in really deep and I think I’m actually sort of impaled right now.”

In the dim light, Pepper couldn’t see his face very well, but he sounded like he was on the verge of passing out.  She thought fast – if he did that, he would go limp, and the weight of his body would pull on that arm, and if what he’d just said was accurate, that could make things much worse.

“Okay,” she said.  “Can you back your arm up so it comes out?”

He tried.  “I don’t think so.  The bar isn’t long enough.”  Stark looked at her hands, held up in front of her as she tried to reassure him. “You’ve got small hands.  You think you can reach in there and move it?”

“I’ll try,” said Pepper.  She took off her cardigan and examined the situation… how would she do this?  Stark was right up against the door and couldn’t exactly move over to give her space. She was going to have to practically sit in his lap.  “Don’t get any ideas,” she said, moving into place.

He snorted.  “I’ve got my arm stuck in a door!  Getting ideas is about the last thing on my mind.”

She settled down, sitting on his knee, and wiggled her fingers in around his arm.  Immediately she felt something wet and sticky.  She pulled her hand back and held it in the flashlight beam, and was horrified to see the red on her fingers.  “Oohhh,” she said.

“What?”  Stark looked over her shoulder.  “Oh, no. You’re not gonna faint, are you?”

“I don’t know if I’m the best person to do this,” said Pepper.  She almost stuck the fingers in her mouth, but that wasn’t a good idea when it wasn’t her blood.  She couldn’t wipe it on her clothes, either, it might stain.  How much more blood would there be if she managed to pull the wire out?

“There’s nobody else here!” he protested.  “That’s the whole problem, remember?”

“Yeah, but…” Pepper said helplessly, and stopped there because he was right.  It was just him and her.  Like sorting the garbage downstairs, it was a terrible job but nobody else was going to do it.  It was up to Pepper.

“Right.”  She tried to wipe her fingers on the floor, which didn’t work very well, then took a deep breath and tried again.  Stark’s chin was on her shoulder watching as she stuck her fingers in between his flesh and the edge of the opening, feeling around for the problem.  She could follow the piece of wire for about two and a half inches, the length of her thumb and index finger, and then had to stop. There just wasn’t room to fit the rest of her hand inside and go any further.

“Don’t tug on it,” said Stark weakly.  “It’s definitely under the skin.”

“That’s so disgusting,” she whimpered.  The blood had been pretty awful, but she could handle it. The phrase under the skin, however, was horrible.  Pepper hated things like needles and IV lines.

“Can you get it out?” he asked.

“No,” was Pepper’s immediate reply.  “That’s as far as my fingers will go.  I’m gonna see if I can find the other end.”  She felt her way back, trying to ignore the feeling of warm, damp blood between her fingers.  The other end of the bit of coat hanger turned out to be stuck under a lip of metal at the edge of the piece next to the one Stark had removed.  She tried to pick at it with her fingernails, to no effect. “I can’t.  It’s stuck.”

Pepper wanted to pull her hand back, but realized if she did, it might be covered with blood.  For a moment, she didn’t move.

“Okay,” Stark said in her ear.  “If pulling it out won’t work, can we push it a little further in?”

“What?” Pepper asked.  “No, I’m not going to do that!  I wouldn’t do it even if I could!”

“I didn’t mean into my arm, I meant into the space!” said Stark.  “I’ll push my arm in as far as I can, and you see if you can get the other end loose and hold it there so I can get out without it getting stuck again, okay?”

“I can’t do that!” she insisted.  “What if it pierces something major and you bleed to death?” There was already enough blood on her. The idea of more made her feel ill.

“You won’t if you’re careful,” he said.  “Even if you do, I don’t think there’s any major blood vessels in that part of an arm.”

“You don’t think there are?  You mean you don’t know if there are?  I thought you were a genius!”

“That doesn’t make me an encyclopedia!” he protested. “Being smart doesn’t mean I know everything.  Intelligence is a stat – knowledge is a skill!  You have to roll a check for it!”

“What?” Pepper asked.  The statement made no sense whatsoever for the first few moments, until she realized what he was talking about.  “Is… was that a Dungeons and Dragons joke?”  His arm was impaled on part of a metal coat hanger, and he was joking?

“Yes!  I’m trying to distract us,” Stark said.  “Just do it, okay?  Stop thinking about it.  The faster it gets done, the faster it’ll be over with and we can both get out of here.”

“Right.”  Pepper took several breaths in and out, the way she’d told him to do only a few minutes earlier.  “Keep distracting me,” she said.

“How?” he asked.

“I don’t know.  Tell me about… tell me about your parents.”  It was the first thing that occurred to her.  She worked her fingers further into the space, to press the piece of wire against his skin.

Stark snorted.  “What’s to tell?  My Dad’s the smartest guy in the world and nothing I do is ever good enough for him. Have you got it?”

“I hope so,” she replied.  “I thought you said you were a genius.”

“I am a genius, just not as much of a genius as he is,” said Stark.  He moved his arm a little further, but it wasn’t enough for the wire to come loose.

“Keep going,” said Pepper.

“No matter what I do,” Stark went on, “he’s like, oh, I did that when I was younger than you, and I didn’t have all this money or this fancy edu…” he hissed through his teeth as something hurt, and Pepper began to ease off the pressure she was putting on his arm.  “No, hold it there!” he said.  “All this fancy education.  I didn’t even… oh shit… I didn’t even tell him I won that prize or that I was on the cover of the school newspaper, because he wouldn’t have… oh shit… wouldn’t have cared…”

“Am I hurting you?” Pepper asked.  The end was still, just barely, under the lip.

“No, it just hurts!” he said.  He moved a little further.

It was only a fraction of an inch, but it was enough. Pepper felt the end of the wire come free, and held it as tightly against his arm as she could.  “I got it!  Pull it out now!”

He yanked his arm out of the bar.  The door, now free to swing, fell open and dumped both young people onto the lobby floor.

Pepper held up her hands.  The lobby was semi-dark, but there was enough light to see that her fingers were smeared with blood.  It was getting sticky as it began to dry, and the metallic scent stung in her nostrils.  Her stomach lurched.

“Oh, man,” said Stark.

She knew she didn’t want to see his injury, but she turned and looked anyway.  It wasn’t as bad as she was picturing.  The end of the piece was very sharp, but it was only under perhaps half an inch of skin and so close to the surface that the dark metal was visible through the translucent layer of tissue.  It was still horrible to look at, but impaled was an exaggeration.

“I gotta… I gotta…” Stark stammered.

“Lie down!”  Pepper pushed him onto the floor.  “Don’t you dare pass out on me.  Wait right here, and I’ll be back.”

She ran back down the steps and grabbed the first aid kit out of the janitor’s closet.  When she got back, she found Stark lying there with one cheek on the cold tile, but his eyes were wide and he was still very much conscious.

“I’m gonna pull it out,” she told him.

“Tie something around my arm first, so it doesn’t bleed too much,” said Stark.

“Got it.  I think that’s what this is for.”  Pepper pulled out a stretchy strap and tied it around his arm above the injury. “There… now like I said, keep talking. Your Dad isn’t impressed by you. Is that why you want everybody at school to know you’re a genius?”  Honestly… it would explain an awful lot.

“I guess,” said Stark.  “I didn’t think about it that way, but… yeah, probably.  It’s nice to be able to brag a little without him telling me how much better he could have done it, you know?  He actually wanted to send me to boarding school. Mom talked him out of it, but he just wanted to get rid of me.”

Pepper nodded.  “You ready?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

“Me, neither,” she admitted.  With her left hand she held his, while gripping the wire with her right.  Should she pull fast or slow?  If she were doing this to herself she would have done it at slowly as possible, probably crying the whole time, but this wasn’t for herself… so she decided to just yank.  She held on tight so it wouldn’t just slide through her fingers, and pulled.

It came right out.  Pepper tossed the wire aside and grabbed a wad of gauze out of the kit to press against the wound.  “How’s that?” she asked.

“Way better,” said Stark weakly.  “I don’t think I could have done that myself.”

“That’s my thing,” Pepper said, her voice shaking. “I do stuff nobody else is willing to do.”

“You sure do,” he agreed.  “That’s a really great thing to be good at.  Go ahead and brag about it, okay?”

Pepper of couldn’t wouldn’t do any such thing, but she nodded, giggling a little in relief.

“What the hell is going on here?” demanded a voice.

A light was suddenly in their faces.  Pepper shrieked and grabbed Stark, as he hollered and grabbed her back.  Both of them looked up, and then relaxed again as they realized it was just a museum security guard.  He was a tall white man with a shaved head and a mustache, staring at them both in horror.

“Who are you two?” he asked.

Pepper couldn’t help it – she started giggling again. “We’re the kids from Triskelion High!” she managed in between bouts of laughter.  “We were sorting the stuff in the basement, and they forgot about us and locked us in!”

“Why are you covered in blood?” the guard asked, aghast.

Pepper looked down – she’d now gotten blood from her hands all over Stark’s shirt where she’d grabbed him, and he’d smeared it on her arm.  He was also now wiping his face, which got more blood on his cheeks and forehead, but whether because Pepper was setting him off or just because he was relieved, too, he was also laughing.

“I cut myself trying to take the door apart,” he said. “She helped me get unstuck.”

“Why didn’t you call 911?” the guard demanded.

Pepper blinked.  That was a good question – why hadn’t they?  They could have done that before they even started trying to open the door. They definitely could have done it when Stark first got his arm stuck.  Pepper’s phone had been dead, but Stark’s had some time left on it.  It just hadn’t occurred to either of them.

Stark laughed louder.  “Yeah, why didn’t we do that?”

“I don’t know!”  Pepper said.  “So much for being geniuses!”

“We’re idiots!” he agreed.

💘 - 💝 - 💌 - 💝 - 💘

The security guard was not laughing.  He dialed 911 himself, and summoned the janitorial staff to repair the door and clean the blood off it and the tiles.  When the ambulance arrived – along with someone who had the front door key to let them out – the EMTs bundled Tony into the back for inspection.  Since it was a chilly evening, they let Pepper sit inside with him while they slathered disinfectants on his arm.

“Are you put to date on your tetanus shots?” one woman asked him.

“Yes, absolutely,” said Tony.  “I work with metal all the time, so I keep an eye on that.”

She nodded.  “You said your parents are in Austria.  Who is your emergency contact?”

“Mr. Jarvis, my Dad’s old butler.  I’ll give you the number.”

The medic went to make the phone call, and Tony looked up at Pepper, sitting next to him.  He smiled at her, and was gratified to see her smiling back.  Apparently she… well, she obviously didn’t dislike him anymore.  He’d take that.

“I have a confession to make,” he said.

“Oh, really?”  Her thin ginger eyebrows roses.

“Well, you’re sitting there with my blood on your shirt, I figure you deserve the truth,” Tony said.  “I don’t know anything about art.  At least, I didn’t before last week.  Mr. Coulson said he thought the reason you were upset was because you didn’t think I knew anything about it, and I decided to prove you wrong, so I did a bunch of research.”

“To impress me?” asked Pepper.  “You didn’t even know me!”

“Well, as we established, I do kinda care what people think of me,” said Tony.

She shrugged.  “If my Dad thought I couldn’t do anything right, I’d probably want everybody at school to think I’m a genius, too.”

“I bet everybody at school does think you’re a genius, if you work at everything as hard as you worked at sorting that garbage.”

“Then I’ve fooled them all,” she sighed.

Tony gave her another smile.  “No fooling me,” he said, “you’re awesome.  Maybe not as much of a genius as I am, but not every girl would get covered in blood to help you get your arm out of a door.”

Pepper shook her head.  “Never ask me to do anything like that ever again, okay?” she said.  “Next week, you tell me when it’s six o’clock!”

“Yes, Ma’am,” said Tony.

A car horn honked outside, and the EMT peeked back in. “Miss Potts?” she said.  “Your parents are here.”

“Tell them I’m coming!”  Pepper stood up and grabbed her backpack.  “See you next week, Stark.”

“Maybe sooner,” said Tony.  “We both go to the same school, after all.”

“Yeah, we do,” she agreed.  “Maybe sooner, then.”

He reached out and took her hand, and pulled her a bit closer for a kiss.  She ducked out of it.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she said, pulling her arm free. “I know what you’re like with girls!”

“Do you?”  Tony asked.  “You don’t know me, remember?  Give me a chance!”

“Pepper!” a voice called from outside.

“Please?”  He pouted and showed her his best puppy dog expression... the one that always worked on Mrs. Jarvis.

She hesitated a moment, then smiled. “Maybe.  See you on Monday, Tony,” and leaned back down.  She only kissed his cheek, and then she was gone in a hurry, her cheeks flushed as she ran off to meet her parents at the car.  Tony, however, was grinning as he watched her go. As evenings when he’d nearly stabbed himself went, that one hadn’t been too bad at all.

[densi-mber]

Just For Show

A/N: This prompt came via @mashmaiden once again. She’s probably getting sick of me tagging her in everything. Takes place pre Neighborhood Watch and contains lots of pre-Densi shenanigans, but stays fairly PG.

For the prompt: Kensi and Deeks undercover pre All-In.

***

“Mr. Deeks, Ms. Blye, I have your wardrobe,” Hetty announced, appearing in the bullpen. Deeks glanced up from the file Nell had given him 45 minutes ago for his latest alias, Justin. Kensi had a similar file on Justin’s wife, Melissa. Hetty stood next to a clothes rack with several garment back hanging from it with an expectant expression.

“What do we need a wardrobe for? I figured we’d just wear our own clothes on this case,” Deeks said, turning to Kensi who shrugged her agreement.

“Ah, these clothes are not for your undercover case, but rather for your photo shoot.”

“What do you mean photo shoot?” Kensi asked suspiciously as she got up to look through the bags.

“I mean that you and Mr. Deeks will be posing for a variety of pictures to use in your alias’ house,” Hetty explained reasonably.

“Can’t we just have Eric photoshop some?” Deeks suggested. “I mean, it’s not like anybody’s probably gonna get a close look at them.”

“No. You never know who will be looking.”

“Hetty, there’s a wedding dress in here,” Kensi said, sounding alarmed as she pulled out a bunch of white gauzy material from one of the bags.

“I know. Justin and Melissa had a lovely wedding. Now, I want you to change into one of the more casual outfits and meet me in the gym. Nell will handling hair and makeup.”

***

“Deeks, lift your chin a little and then look at Kensi,” Nell instructed, peering past the tripod set up several feet away. Deeks muttered under his breath, but tilted his head, looking just past Kensi, and plastered on a smile. She stood behind him, one forearm braced on his shoulder, the other arm wrapped around his chest.

It was already too intimate; he had no idea how he was going to handle “living” with Kensi for a couple weeks. Nell ducked back down and snapped several pictures.

“Mr. Deeks, look into your partner’s eyes,” Hetty interrupted after a couple minutes.

“I am,” he lied. Against his will, he made direct eye contact with Kensi. There was something a little too raw and vulnerable in her gaze and he looked away almost immediately.

“No you’re not. You may as well be gazing at a 2 by 4 for all the chemistry I see.” Kensi snorted and Hetty wagged a finger in her direction. “And you don’t hold your lover as though he’s a tree, Kensi. You embrace him.”

“But we’re not lovers,” Kensi reminded her in a strained voice, forcing a laugh. “I mean, we’re partners and we care about each other of course, the way that partners do.”

“Yeah, completely and totally normal,” Deeks muttered under his breath. Shooting him a dirty look, Kensi dug her elbow into his shoulder blade. Hetty ignored their bantering, regarding them with an unimpressed and possibly judgmental expression from behind her glasses.

“Yes, but you’ll be playing a married couple and in order to avoid any suspicion, we must cover all our bases,” she said gravely. “Now, Kensi embrace your partner. Better yet, sit on his lap.”

“Hetty, I don’t really think that’s-“ Hetty gave him another look and he snapped his mouth shut, not making another comment as Kensi released her grip on his neck. After a moment of hesitation, she perched on the edge of his knee. He was immediately overwhelmed by her scent and watched a faint hint of red spread across her cheeks.

Hetty nodded in approval.

“Good. I need to get your wedding outfits for the next set of shots. I expect you to be in the same position when I return.”

“This is ridiculous,” Kensi muttered under her breath, but she didn’t move.

Figuring that the sooner they went along with Hetty’s plan, this uncomfortable, if highly intriguing, situation would be over, Deeks wrapped his hands around Kensi’s waist and tugged her lightly against his chest.

Kensi let out a surprised gasp, grasping at his thigh for balance. Warmth radiated from her palm straight through his black slacks.

“Deeks, what the hell are you doing?” she hissed. He gave her his most charming smile and shifted so she was now balanced horizontally across his lap with her legs hanging over the chair.

“Just getting into character,” he told her innocently.

“This isn’t funny.”

“I know. But we both know that Hetty isn’t going to give in until she gets what she wants. So we might as well get it over with. And it’s good practice for the next couple weeks.”

“I guess you’re right,” she sighed. After a moment of hesitation, she moved her hand further up his thigh.

“Yeah, uh, that’s not exactly what I meant,” Deeks stuttered. Kensi ignored him, looping her other arm around his neck, and scooted even closer.

“I thought you wanted to go method.” She smirked at him, clearly pleased to have rattled him. “This doesn’t make you uncomfortable, does it?”

“Not at all,” he lied, leaning in so only an inch or two remained between their faces. He saw Kensi’s eyes widen, but she didn’t back down. She lifted her other hand and passed her fingers through his hair, letting them tangle in the strands at the very back of his head.

“Oh, you are so full of it,” she said. He didn’t think she was even aware of how close they were. Taking advantage of her distraction, he tugged her straight against his chest.

“You wanna bet?”

“Ahem!” They both turned at the sharp sound of someone clearing their throat. Nell, peering above the tripod, was watching them with a mixture of interest and discomfort. “Just thought you guys should know I’m still here,” she said with a little wave.

“Yeah, that wasn’t what it-“ Kensi started, quickly sitting up and smoothing her hair away from her face.

“We were just role-playing, for our aliases,” Deeks added. “You know, since we’ll be playing a married couple and should probably be comfortable around each other.”

“Uh-huh.” Nell nodded, not looking at all convinced. She glanced pointedly t Kensi, who was still sitting on his lap, and she hastily stood up, brushing at her perfectly fitting jeans.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” she announced abruptly. She hurried from the room as fast as she could without actually running. There was a moment of awkward silence and then Nell asked,

“Sooo, you wanna talk about what just happened?”

“Nope,” Deeks said firmly. “No, I do not.”

It was going to be an exceptionally long few weeks.

[ella-se-vuelve-loca]

Chapter 21

Grand Masterlist

Series Masterlist

This is kind of short guys 😬💕 you’ll find out what’s in the package really soon 👀

Previous Chapter

~~

Joel’s P.O.V.

“You don’t think he knows, do you?” I asked Richard as we were on our way to go meet up with the rest of the guys downstairs for breakfast. “I don’t think so. Nobody has said anything about what had gone down between you two yet, so I’m assuming Johann doesn’t know jack – shit.”

I nodded as we kept walking downstairs. “How.. how was she?” I asked. “Well, she wasn’t expecting any sort of package, that was for sure.”

“I know, but you know why I couldn’t be there to deliver it myself.”

“Yeah.. well, she looked fine. You’re lucky we had a couple days of break and I didn’t get caught. Clara would’ve had my head if she found out I left in the middle of the tour for your dumbass.”

“I know I know and I’m sorry! It’s just that.. I wouldn’t have trusted anybody else to deliver it to her other than you..”

“You owe me.”

“I know.”

“I felt like I was a spy or somethin’, ya know? Like I had to get in, get out real quick and head back to base ASAP.” He chuckled and made himself a cup of coffee. “I think she almost recognized me, so I left before she could figure out who I was.”

We made our way over to where the boys were now eating and placed his cup on the table. “Zabdiel still not here yet?” Richard asked as Chris shook his head, laughing. “No, but I woke him up and told him to come down earlier. I bet he’s still knocked out.”

Richard playfully rolled his eyes and went to go and grab himself a plate of food as I followed after him. “So, she was doing okay? Did you see Johann anywhere? You hear his voice?” I asked him and he shook his head.

“Woah woah woah hold up.” He chuckled and started plating some food on his plate. “Give me a chance to wake up first and then answer your questions.” I smiled and nodded. “Sorry, I’m just.. this is the first in a while I’ve heard from her.”

“I know man, I know. We’ll get there, okay?” I sighed and put some batter in the waffle maker machine and waited for it to be done cooking. “I’ll answer your questions, just give me a few minutes, yeah?”

He took his plate and started walking back where the rest of the guys sat. I sighed and tried to envision what (Y/N)’s reaction was if she opened the box.

I wondered if she would be happy. Would she be upset that I sent her something even after she told me that she wanted nothing to do with me anymore? Is this a big mistake? I heard a ding and took my waffles out and placed it onto my plate.

I grabbed a cup of orange juice as I walked back towards the table where the rest of the guys were sitting. “Hey, look who decided to show up!” Richard laughed as Zabdiel came down with a smile on his face.

“What did I miss?” He laughed as he grabbed himself a plate. As him and Richard were talking, I looked over and saw Christopher slowly reaching his fork across the table to try and get some of Richard’s food without him noticing. I chuckled and shook my head. Aye Chris, what are we gonna do with you?

“We have a little bit of time left before we go to – hey wait!” Richard looked at Chris bringing his fork up to his mouth giggling. “Dude, you have your plate right there!” He laughed and shook his head. “Well, yeah but.. you got something different and I wanted to give it a try. No harm done.”

“You didn’t want to go up and get some?”

“… You’re already here, it’s just easier.” Rich rolled his eyes and chuckled. “You’re something else, you know that?”

“Why are you even surprised?” Chris laughed and took a bite of his own food on his plate. “You know I love food.”

“I’m not that surprised.” I looked between the two and smiled. Zabdiel came to the table and set down his plate. “Hey bro, watch out. Chris is gonna take a bite out of your food when you aren’t paying attention.”

“No!” They both laughed as Zabdiel shrugged his shoulders. “I had a feeling, so that’s why I put more on my plate just in case.” Seeing them like this almost makes me forget about (Y/N) and Johann – almost. We continued to eat until we had to go back up into our rooms to change.

Me and the boys are gonna go out and explore for a little bit before our concert tonight. Ever since I sent her that package, I’ve been on edge. What if she ends up telling Johann? What if she just threw it away without looking inside?

That gift… is my last attempt at getting her back. It’s up to her now if she’ll take it.

Richard and I came up with this little plan that night we had a talk. Even though he’s helped me come up with a few more ideas to try and win her back, I honestly don’t know if they would even work.

I don’t want to waste our time if she really doesn’t want anything to do with me. I got an answer when she didn’t come to the airport and now it’s like déjà vu all over again.

If this doesn’t work, then that just tells me that she’s really done with me and I should learn to drop it. It means that I’ve lost her for good and I’m just wasting my time.

If this last attempt doesn’t work… then I won’t try again…

~~

Johann’s P.O.V.

Things are going according to plan.

Kind of, at least.

I know she hasn’t moved on if she still has that fucking picture of Joel in a frame just sitting in her house. I thought that kiss would’ve worked.

Why doesn’t she feel anything for me yet? How long does it take for people to fall in love with someone else?

(Y/N)… beautiful, sweet innocent (Y/N). If only you knew the truth.

I need to find a way to get Joel out of the picture for good. I need to start pushing it a little more if I’m gonna get what I really want. I want the spotlight. I deserve it, not them… not him… me.

I looked at (Y/N) and saw her lying down, a book in one hand and a bitten red apple in the other. I rolled my head back and I could feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, breathing in the fresh air. “This is nice..”

“Mhmm…” She mumbled as I heard the crunch of her biting into the apple. “I haven’t gone to the beach in a while.” I said, reaching down to grab one of the grapes and put it in my mouth.

“I haven’t had time to go because of my music career and stuff, but.. I made time today.” I chuckled and looked back down at her. I couldn’t help but admire her figure. She’s beautiful, I’ll give her that.

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“Mhmm when was the last time you went to the beach and felt this calm?”

She stayed silent for a few moments before she cleared her throat. “Um.. it was actually with Joel..”

“Oh.”

“Yeah..” She stayed glancing down at her book as she kept talking. “We.. we actually went late at night.” She smiled as she kept talking.

“It was just us two. He had a whole little picnic planned out for us and we talked and laughed about the stupidest things.” She chuckled and she flipped the page to her book. “Oh, really?” I rolled my eyes as she continued, nodding her head.

“I remember um.. being nervous as fuck because that night we..” She shook her head and sighed. “What?” I asked. “What did you guys do?” Oh please… enlighten me. Like I actually want to know. Pfft.

“He kissed me for the first time and.. hmm…” She bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows. Joel, you smooth motherfucker. “That was the last time I went to the beach, since you asked.”

Just how long is she gonna be stuck on him? It’s been a few months… like what the fuck? “Well, since we’re on the topic of kissing..” I rolled my shoulders back and reached down, grabbing another grape. “Can we talk about your birthday?”

“Oh.. that..”

“I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything, but I just.. I gotta ask how it was on your end.” She cleared her throat and turned to face me. “It wasn’t… it wasn’t bad, if that’s what you were asking.” She paused for a second before continuing. “It was definitely unexpected.” I chuckled and nodded. “That's for sure.”

She became quiet and I wondered why she all of a sudden stopped talking. “Did it make things awkward between us? ‘Cause if that’s the case, I’m so sorry.” She shook her head. “No no don’t be uh.. I mean, it was just a simple kiss, right?”

“Yeah! Yeah no I just.. it was in the heat of the moment. It was just us two and.. I just had to know – ”

“I get it. It’s not a big deal.” She smiled and looked back at the water in front of us and sighed. “I’m not.. quite there yet, you know?” She said. “What do you mean?”

“I mean.. I’m not.. I’m not trying to lead you on if you felt something. Quite frankly, I’m not looking to be in another relationship right now..”

“I know and again, I’m really sorry if it caught you off guard.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled and got back into reading her book. So… it wasn’t bad. Okay, I can work with that. At least she didn’t push me off that night. That means she’s kind of moving on.. right? I’m glad it’s not as awkward as I thought it would be after that kiss because if it was, then I wouldn’t be able to try again.

I’m not backing down. Why should I? This is just something to keep me occupied until I find a better way to get my name in sparkling lights. Yeah I’m a little hurt that Joel and I aren’t friends anymore, I did like him, but I like my career a little bit more than our friendship.

After some time, she had ended up lying down on her back with the book covering her face. She looks so peaceful. I sat up and took out my phone, going straight to camera mode and held it above her. “I can’t believe I forgot my sunglasses.” She chuckled as I snapped a quick photo. “You’re a dork for that.”

“I’m aware.” I laughed and looked down at the picture, going straight to Instagram. Maybe if Joel sees it he’ll flip his shit.

johannvera: What a plot twist you were, @y/n ♥️

My dear old friend, sorry about this.

Let the heartbreak begin.

Next Chapter

~~

Wanna be tagged for future fics?

@apla-o-eaytos-mou @pretendcnco @cncos-baby @theweirdsideofstuff @littlestripmix @ericksmamita @urafakebetch @cncoaddicted @shordyfromdablock @chellybear98 @boundtobreakk @pizzaspirits @guitargirl006 @cncoawo @ash-zahira @brightdarkeyes @ashhemmingsstylesvelez @prettymuch-cnco @cncohhhhwoah @pimentelssmile @h-bea92 @xxxstormyninixxx @buttercup-chey @cncogirl18 @sacredmercvry

If I forgot anyone, please let me know! 💛

[chaoticspacefam]

OC Music Meme

I was tagged for this by @actualanxiousswampwitch ! Thank you & sorry it took so long, didn’t have time to write this out before I left for holiday stuff so here we go! I shall tag: @actualanxiousswampwitch (go on give us another one XD), @a-muirehen​ , @kyber-heart​ , @thedinalixlegacy​ (no pressure as always, I know I’m kinda late now sksjkshskhs!) and anyone else who wants to do this, yes, I promise I mean you!

art is by @ ocellifera on deviantART! :D

Let’s do Aria this time, shall we! Since her playlist is the second-longest, and her and Vano’s ship playlist is the longest, we’ll have the most (probable options! Long post so goin’ under a cut. Additional TW’s for: drugs, alcohol, alcoholism, drug addiction and murder, in case I’ve forgotten to add it to the song-specific sections. If you click past this cut, know that this is what you may find there.

reminds you of them most: It was super hard to pick just three for hers, there were so many others I wanted to include here, but couldn’t, as I wanted to make sure I included songs that covered as much of her over-arching characterisation as I could. Honourable mentions to: Miss Jackson - Panic! At The Disco feat. LOLO, Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) - Fall Out Boy, Beekeeper - Keaton Henson, and Bones Of A Rabbit - Young Heretics, which can all be found (and more) on her Spotify Playlist - catch-all warning for: sex, drugs, violence and murdering of parents applies here, be aware her playlist is very dark, just as dark as Rai’s but with differing subject matter, proceed with caution if you find anything like that triggering!)

You’re Going Down - Sick Puppies :: This one is kinda self-explanatory. I heard it on a Spotify or Youtube shuffle at some point a year or so ago and immediately went “Oh, hey Aria!” so onto her playlist it went XD “Because I'm hyped up out of control If it's a fight, I'm ready to go I wouldn't put my money on the other guy If you know what I know that I know.”  don’t mess with the Tiny Sith, guys, she will put you in the medbay. She’ll do it, she’s done it before ask Vano what happened to the last guy *nods*

Liar - The Arcadian Wild :: This is a relatively “new” song in comparison, which was sent to me by a good rp/writer friend on Discord (who afaik doesn’t have other socials!) that I often discuss plot points etc. with among other things, saying “hey this reminded me of Aria thought you’d like it!”. I listened to it and yep, sure enough, it’s an Aria song. A big part of Aria’s character is that at the start, she really is quite a bad person. She’s nasty, and cantankerous and she really doesn’t care about anybody except for herself (and maybe her dad. A tiny bit.), as things progress, however, while she is still inherently quite rude and selfish, she DOES learn to value other people...provided they are people she cares about, like Vano, and her friends, and so on,  as well as (sometimes, she’s working on it still) taking the blame for her own actions and learning it’s not “weak” or bad to a) admit you care about people, b) make mistakes and c) admit those mistakes and take responsibility for them. "I sense there’s trouble ahead, it’s clear by the signs and warnings. That should tell where all blame is due, So why are they pointing at MY head? [...] I sense deception to come. Honestly, truth and I are never one. 'Cause I am the lying man and I have made you my next victim. I need you to see through my act, to tell me I'm wrong, to take off the mask, or else I'll be left in the lie. And I'll deceive my way straight to demise! Cause I’m not in the right state of mind, I just wish I had strength to admit it. My stubbornness will put up a fight! But I don’t deserve to win it... I’m left in the dark, pondering my mistakes But in the light I swear I will, deny it all...” 

I didn’t mean to post like half the song but woops it’s done so have it anyway lmao

Brutus - The Buttress :: TW: intense violent imagery in the lyrics. This one is very relevant but contains spoilers for upcoming and as of yet unposted/incomplete chapters (as in...like 3 ish chapters time at most) of Creeping Shadows, so I’ll post this quote as “explanation” and let you theorize who it’s about

“My name is Brutus and my name means “heavy” So with a heavy heart I'll guide this dagger into the heart of my Enemy! My whole life you were a teacher and friend to me Please know my actions are not motivated only by envy I too have a destiny! This death will be art! The people will speak of this day from near and afar This event will be history, And I'll be great too! I don't want what you have, I wanna be you!!“

reminds another character of them:

Where’s My Love? - SYML :: (Vano) I think the acoustic version is especially emotional : ))) Vano looked for her for years but couldn’t find her and genuinely thought Aria was dead. You can understand why she was so fucking angry when she found out that was a lie...but at the same time, she just wanted her love to come home :( “Did she run away? Did she run away? I don't know If she ran away, If she ran away, Come back home Just come home“

Mothers - Daughter :: (Myla, her mother) “Love all you need to love before it goes... When your face becomes a stranger’s that I don’t know. You will never remember who I was to you [...] I’m called “mother”, but they’re called “home”.”

Myla raised Aria for the first few years of her life, and really wanted to keep her away from both the Jedi and the Sith but as it became more and more clear that Aria’s Force affinity was as strong as her father’s, the situation rapidly spiralled out of Myla’s control. She tried to hide Aria, but in the end her father Noctis did find them and take Aria to train with the Sith. She didn’t see her daughter again until she was a teenager, suddenly turning up with the task to kill her for treason against the Empire (Myla is not the canon Imp Agent, but follows the general trajectory of the LS!Agent storyline i.e. an agent disillusioned with the Empire who eventually defects to the Republic with the help of the SIS.). Though she’s a Senator on Onderon now, Myla carried a blaster for personal protection and ofc knows how to use it, except...she couldn’t shoot her own daughter and that was all she wrote. I imagine her thought process during her final moments went something like in this song, especially the bit that I highlighted up there.

reminds you of a relationship of theirs, doesn’t have to be romantic, can be paternal, friendly, etc:

Tongues & Teeth - The Crane Wives :: Aria & Vano (Romantic). Aria’s relationship with Vano is incredibly messy and complicated. On one hand, she knows Vano deserves better, but at the same time she doesn’t want her to go anywhere else and it seems like no matter what she does to try and “warn her off” about what a “bad person” she is, Vano keeps coming back anyway. Ergo, this song. "Oh, I will ruin you. I will ruin you. It’s a habit...I can’t help it. I know that you mean so well, but I am not a vessel for your good intent. I will only break your pretty things, I will only wring you dry of everything! But if you’re fine with that, if you’re fine with that [...] You can be mine.”

Colours - Halsey :: Aria & Merak & Ziri (Friendship/Platonic Love) “You’re only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope, I hope you make it to the day you’re 28 years old...”

Aria “coped” (i.e. not very well but she did it) with the guilt of killing her mother and the stress brought on by the night terrors by self-medicating with glitterstims (spice) and alcohol, and this is how Merak in particular remembers her. Though she got clean from spice after they picked up Ziri, she still continued to drink (and still does) quite heavily, though at least it’s easier to manage that habit. Both of them supported her through this the best they could and it’s probably a big reason (other than Merak being Vano’s little brother) that they’re still Aria’s friends to this day, even if she doesn’t actively travel with them anymore.

(honourable mention to Agnes - Glass Animals which also falls under this “category” but I didn’t want this to get too crowded lmao, it is once again a super long post woops) You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring :: Aria & Roan/Darth Noctis (Familial/Familial Love) Listen, he may have taught her very bad emotional habits and turned her into a tiny attack dog, but her father did love & protect her the best way he possibly could. He was very proud of her and always envisioned her taking his place as a Darth one day (and it takes her a longass while, but eventually she does! Congrats dad!). That’s all I’ve got to say about this one 🤷‍♀️ Monster - Willyecho :: Aria & Satele Shan/The Jedi Order (Enemies to Begrudging Respect (eventually) “I can see the truth. No, you don’t have to lie to me. Don’t fill your head with things and think you’re free~ [...] You don’t believe in monsters, do you~?” ”Of course not!” ”Well, I do...” See me change...into something...darker....” My personal favourite from this “round”. It’s not until Ilum that Satele and the Jedi finally realise they have not “converted” Aria as they thought they did, but rather...they’ve had a Sith hiding under their noses, a Sith related to a Dark Councillor well-known for murdering Jedi no less, and that perhaps...the “deaths” she had convinced them were accidental, were in fact, not an accident at all. 😈 Aria, of course, gets her ass thrown in jail for a few years for this lmao When the schtick with the Revanites happens and Theron needs someone who can “negotiate in a civil manner with Sith”, he and his mother agree Aria is the best bet - if it works, the Sith will respond more positively to her than any other Jedi, if they kill her instead then they’re “rid of” her and don’t lose one of their own - when Lana’s point-of-contact happens to be Vano and the pair reunite after another several years apart, Aria refuses to return to the Republic after Yavin IV. By then, she’s developed enough of a begrudging respect for Satele (and vice versa) that the Grand Master lets her go (not that she was willing to try and fight Vano, Ni’kasi, Marr & Lana to try and take Aria prisoner again anyways). They haven’t seen each other since and though Aria is neutral to the Jedi who have joined the Alliance, she doesn’t care for those who are still loyal to the Republic and would rather have nothing to do with them if she can help it.

[kainetestament]

Falcon and Winter Soldier Episode 1 and 2 breakdown.

My oh My, Marvel is really giving us some sort of like a reality check in here. They added twists here that our current society are facing to hopefully “probably” teach us about our humanity as an individual.

In Episode 1, the series started out with Sam being on a mission in Tunisian Airspace to save Captain Vassant, who is now help hostage by LAF, there’s no reference to LAF in the comic, but here in MCU – it is describe as a criminal organization who is taking advantage of the commotion of the reverse blip in order to make profit. And here, Batroc makes his appearance once again after his first appearance in Captain America and Winter Soldier. Just a quick fact, Georges Batroc is portrayed by Georges St-Pierre, who not only shares his first name, but St-Pierre is a MMA Champion with a record of 28 matches of 26 wins and 2 losses, *woooot*, no wonder his moves are so fluid.

Moving on, Sam is now in Washington giving his speech as he surrenders Captain America’s shield, in which he believed will be put in the museum in honor and respect for Steve Rogers, but little did her know, there was a conspiracy behind it (which we’ll discuss later). James Rhodes still tried to talk some sense out of him, but Sam’s always reply with “It feels like it belongs to someone else. That someone else is Steve.” But let’s try to pay attention to what Rhodey say’s to him back.

World’s a crazy place right now. People are… Well, nobody’s stable. Allies are now enemies. Alliances are all torn apart. The world’s broken. Everybody is just looking for somebody to fix it.

It makes me think that Rhodey is specifically referring to Wanda when he said nobody is stable, not the people of the world specifically, because when we speak to someone, we know that everyone else are experiencing hardship, but we will always use someone as an example for the conversation, but on this case, they avoided referencing Wanda directly. Also the series takes place “months after the blip”, we don’t have the exact timeline yet, but we do know it takes place after WandaVision (two months earliest) and before Spider-Man Far From Home. So Rhodey receiving a report of Wanda’s actions, and Vision’s revival and Westview rampage is not impossible. The “Allies are now enemies. Alliances are all torn apart.” reference can have double meaning, considering what they did in WandaVision where they made the audience feel there’s more to that statement. But this can be an easter egg to Dr. Strange where they use the same tagged line for the movie prep while the alliances could referring to Avengers itself (though it already is, but they still considered that HQ as their home till Thanos destroyed it), S.H.I.E.L.D (we know this is not the same SHIELD of Nick Fury as he is now in space as hinted in SM:FFH), S.W.O.R.D (with Hayward abusing his authorities), and possibly the Sokovia Accords because of what Wanda and Vision did in Westview. But as I said, because of what Marvel did in WandaVision, in the end , they could probably just dismiss it as some government related stuff.

We now have Barnes who is reliving in his nightmares of the killing. Plate Number 10872 FQ is a reference to Marvel Comics called Introducing the New Captain America and Bucky that was publish in October 1987, where John Walker is now the new Captain America as shown at the end of the episode. Other think I actually like about Bucky’s therapy session was when the doctor asked for his phone, he is using a flip phone, not just any flip phones, looks like a AT&T Cingular Flip 2 (I guess it pays off learning about phones because I used to work for them, ahahaha), and since its year 2023-24 in this timeline, it’s quite fun to see this small detail done so perfectly because AT&T no longer service 2G signals since January 2017 (if I remember it correctly), to give way into 5G services. Anyway, this attention to detail about Bucky using a 4G flip phone is pretty amazing. And how am I guessing this is an AT&T phone? Well, in Infinity War, the phone Steve gave Tony is also another AT&T Flip Phone which I think is a Z223 (a 3G flip phone – not to be confused with Z222 which is a 2G version and both phones look identical). It’s quite funny actually that AT&T, who is the parent company of WarnerMedia (WB who owns DC) is very present here.

Then now we see Sam going back to his family whom he hasn’t visited for quite some time. Here he sees the struggle of his sister, and tried to offer his help. We can probably assume as per his behavior that when they go to the bank, their loan request will be approve because of his affiliations of saving the world and for being the Falcon, but reality check slapped him hard, the guy didn’t even bother listening to their plans and straight out denied their loan application – which was made clear in Episode 2 as to what the problem could actually be.

We now also see Bucky answering the set-up date Yori made for him with the woman name Leah, who works as a waitress at the Japanese Bar/Restaurant called Izzy. As their conversation proceeded, Bucky ran away to find Yori under the pretense of owing him his lunch, when in reality, it was his guilt of killing his son who became witness of his assassination.

Episode 1 ends by introducing the new Captain America, holding the shield Sam surrendered in the museum.

Episode 2 started with John Walker visiting his Alma Mater, Custer’s Grove High School. His full introduction even played Captain America’s theme song only re-arrange to match modern era. During his interview for GMA, he mentions that “I’m not Tony Stark, I’m not Doctor Banner, okay? I don’t have the flashiest gadgets, I don’t have super strength. But what I do have is guts.” Mentioning these lines could probably a way of him to get the sympathy of the people, by saying I’m not Tony Stark is like an indication that he doesn’t have the money, brains (to invent), or Iron Man suit that can make him powerful. By saying he’s not Doctor Banner, who have seven PhD’s and can transform himself into the Hulk, and debatable as the strongest Avenger, he can make almost like an assurance to the people that as an ordinary human, he have the guts to fight to the best of his abilities.

Bucky who is watching the whole interview, have a smirk on his face for disbelief and disappointment that his best friend’s shield is now in the hands of a wanna be. It then cuts to Sam who is also in disbelief that everywhere he go, he is seeing the face an unfamiliar guy wielding the shield that Cap gave him. He got ambushed by Bucky to told him he shouldn’t have surrendered the shield to which Sam replied “No, of course I didn’t know that was gonna happen. You think it didn’t break my heart to see them march him out there and call him the new Captain America?” – which I believe is his wholehearted feeling as he was cheated and betrayed by the government. But let us also pay attention to what Sam said after Bucky told him “This isn’t what Steve want.”

Oh my God. So what do you want me to do? Call America and tell ‘em I change my mind?

It’s easy to assume that the government and him probably had a conversation about becoming the new Captain America, but more than likely he declined, that’s why in Episode 1, Rhodey told him “I see you’re gonna make me ask. Why didn’t you take up the mantle?” Well, it’s probably more complex than his “It feels like it belongs to someone else.” –but we’ll talk about it in a bit.

I find it really funny about Bucky jumping off the plane feeling nervous, yelling even. I think the purpose of the director and writers are doing this is basically to give Bucky the opportunity or making the audiences feel that, even though he was an emotionless, robotic-like assassin, he can change and by including the rules his therapist gave him, can help him gain his humanity back.  

1.    Can’t do anything illegal.

2.    Nobody gets hurt.

3.    Unspoken (probably to introduce himself not as the Winter Soldier but Bucky Barnes or just simply smile). Dr Raynor only says that “The whole point of making amends is to fulfill rule number three.”

Also I really just wanna guess who those under 10 contact numbers are. We are sure its Dr. Rayner and Sam, I’m guessing it also has Steve’s old number, I wanna guess T’Challa too, so that’s four of them. Hmmmm, can’t really think of anybody else.

By the way, the SMILING thing. Right now, Bucky’s smiling is so unnatural, but even so, if he keeps on doing it, one day, he can smile naturally. And now we can also see him showing another kind of emotion, NERVOUSNESS – when he was about to jump down the plan. I'm pretty sure if he is his former Winter Soldier, he won’t even feel the slightest nervousness jumping off the plane, let alone landing gracefully, in contrast to here where he landed, let’s admit it, quite shamefully, even Torres will surely agree with me here. Then there's also the AGGRAVATION towards the new Captain America because of the shield. And the most important part of his humanity that’s resurfacing is his GUILT or CONSCIENCE, where his nightmare and Yori’s presence speaks very loudly.

While Bucky is stealthily walking, Sam references him as a White Panther, which is basically him being Caucasian and came back from his like rehabilitation in Wakanda, he has become like opposite of T’Challa’s Black Panther. And now Bucky corrects him by saying his new moniker is now White Wolf, a name that T’Challa bestowed on him (if not referred only).

Now for the action part, we get to witness once more Bucky’s Super Soldier ability by seeing how he outruns the second truck and catch up with the first truck, and these are 14-wheeler trucks (they’re scary in real life ahaha). Anyway, the battle began after the suspected hostage turns out to the head of the group, threw Bucky onto the windshield of the second truck, then pulled up by the other two members on top of the truck and John Walker and Lamar Hoskins joining them after.

I’m pretty sure STACKIE fans out there went nuts with a bit of that fan-service they did, when Falcon dive under the first truck on the way to the second truck to save Bucky, but I think the wings got caught on the ground making Sam loose his balance that’s why they went rollin’ on the yellow flower field – which looks like either chrysanthemum or daisy, which is in flower language, Yellow Daisy means a good friend while Yellow Chrysanthemum can mean neglect of love or sorrow. It actually looks more like daisy, it’s just that the leaves kind of looks like chrysanthemum… I could be wrong, but if it is daisy, then putting a yellow daisy here will be could actually mean that a good friendship is about to start and the chrysanthemum could mean their sorrow stemming from Steve and living up to his expectations.

We now have Bucky and Sam being invited by John and Lamar to ride with them on their jeep stating that it’s about 20miles to the airport and they need a ride. After joining them on the jeep, we now can see finally having a proper conversation. But we can see that Sam actually have to asked them twice about what are they doing there, they have successfully avoided the first time by stating that they checked their location thru Red Wing and on the second time, Lemar responded with “Well, they provide the resources and we keep things stable.” Then John followed it with “Yeah, violent revolutionaries aren’t usually good for anyone’s cause.” –which from my understanding, still doesn’t answer Sam’s question, that why Sam sarcastically responded with “Usually said by the people with the resources.” Then now John offered the two to join them, in which Bucky frankly declined, the Lemar tried to rub salt on their wound by saying their asses were getting kicked till they show up, that starts to tick off Bucky, until he mentions he’s called Battlestar, which pissed Bucky off even further. I’m not really sure why he got pissed after hearing that, but I’m guessing (yes, guessing, meaning I'm not sure) that the reason he got pissed was because Lemar have a hero name, pretty much like Bucky being the Winter Soldier/White Wolf and Sam being the Falcon, and of course Steve being the true Captain America, Bucky probably felt insulted that not only America made a new Captain America, they even gave him a side kick with a hero name.

Bucky got off the jeep first then John apologizing to Sam by saying he’s not Steve and is not trying be like him, but trying to be a Captain America in his own way. Sam left the jeep as well after he felt insulted when John wanted Sam and Bucky, who are Steve’s best friend and partners, to be his wingmen. John clearly have no idea of what their relationship really is and calling them Steve’s wingmen rather than Steve’s friend or partner, but he used wingmen, that John interprets as they are just someone that supports Steve, he’s clearly belittling them, that’s why Sam scoffs and responded with “It’s always that last line.”

We now see the Flagsmashers arriving on a place of one their group’s supporters to get some rest. Their leader Karli received a text message saying “You took what’s mine. I’m going to find you and kill you.” –which I think is a message from John Walker. Because in the comics, John became like a super soldier from Powerbroker, and in here, we can probably theorized that the real reason he is in Munich is to get his hand on the serum but Karli stole it from him before he could get his hands on it.

We now have Sam and Bucky on military plane and Bucky telling Sam that they should take the shield back, in which Sam told they can’t do it just like that cause the last time they did (also in Germany), Sharon – Peggy’s niece who was also a CIA, helped Steve and Sam get their weapons back (shield and wings before the airport battle in Civil War), then they went on hiding until Thanos came, and Bucky was taken in by T’Challa to cure him at Wakanda. Sharon was punished for her actions, and she will be making her appearance any time soon since the ED also have her picture included but her name is not yet present since she hasn’t made any appearance yet.

Bucky brought Sam to Baltimore, MD to meet the Black Super Soldier, Isaiah Bradley. As they walk thru the neighborhood on the way to Isaiah’s house , looks like the show have already hinted what’s about to come in the future. The kid upon being introduced called Sam the Black Falcon, instead of just simply the Falcon. Sam played with the kid by asking him “Is it because I’m black and I'm the Falcon?” and the kid confusedly replied with “Well, technically, I mean, yes.” Then Sam playfully responded with “So are you, like, Black kid?” and they started laughing it off. But if you look at it from a different perspective, it is kind of like the premonition, because within their conversation, it can only be done by them, because if a white person actually say that phrase? I’m pretty sure, that laugh in the end will not be present. There’s more to it but I’ll discuss it after.

Sam and Bucky arrived at Isaiah’s house, and Bucky introduced him to Sam by saying “He was a hero. One of the ones that HYDRA feared the most, like Steve.” As their conversation proceeded, Isaiah explained that others like him that were sent in Goyang never came back, so the military sent him to deal with Bucky and he won that battle. But instead of being celebrated as a hero, the military or government decided to brand him and put him in jail for 30 years. I’m not gonna use his comic s counterpart since MCU have their own story retelling. But as I mentioned before, it’s a premonition.

Then Bucky and Sam left the house and Sam feeling a bit frustrated due to disbelief that other than Bucky and Steve, there’s another Super Soldier still alive for decades. Then here comes a bit of reality check in America. A patrolling police catches them having an argument. Soon after, the police asked for Sam’s ID but didn’t asked for Bucky’s but instead asked Bucky if this man is bothering him. Now this is actually quite a very, very good reality check and I applaud the Malcolm Spellman and Kari Skogland for putting this kind of a wakeup call here. These scene or event is very powerful and it mirrors the reality of the black community experiencing the racial profiling from the police brutality in America. We can also see the house behind Sam that says STOP THE VIOLENCE, then on board beside it reads words like, HEAL THE SICK, STOP KILLING, PLANT A SEED, LOVE, TRUST. It was not until Bucky dropped the hint by saying “Do you know who this is?” and one of the police recognizing them as the Avengers and the police stared at Sam for bit and realized its Sam Wilson aka the Falcon and started apologizing by saying he didn’t recognized him since he isn’t wearing his goggles. With the police instead of just letting it go, still tried to look for a loophole, but sadly the loophole is not with Sam, but with Bucky, who missed his therapy session because of going with Sam on Munich then to Baltimore.

We now see Bucky being released thru John Walker’s authority and Dr. Raynor summoning both of them for a therapy session. The scene started out quite funny but later on, it hit hard again. Dr. Raynor asked Bucky why Sam aggravates him.

Bucky: Why did you gave up that shield?

Sam: Why are you making such a big deal out of something that has nothing to do with you?

Bucky: Steve believed in you. He trusted you. He gave you that shield for a reason. That shield, that is… that is everything he stood for. That is his legacy. He gave you that shield, and you threw it away like it was nothing.

Sam: Shut up.

Bucky: … So maybe he was wrong about you. And if he was wrong about you, then he was wrong about me.

Sam: You finished?

Bucky: Yeah.

Sam: All right, good. Maybe this is something you or Steve will never understand. But can you accept that I did what I thought was right?

         We can now also see that before Bucky leaves, it dropped yet another hint of what’s about to happen by asking his doctor, “What was rule number two again?” which is more likely will be broken and even Dr Raynor acknowledges that it will.

         I’ll skip John Walker scene, and now we have Karli loadingthe plane with their Super Soldier serum supply. When a member of Flagsmashers stay behind to delay the Power Broker’s, one of Power Broker’s men who is seen wearing a bullet proof vest was seen talking over the phone saying “They got away.” whom I think he’s reporting to John Walker.

         Now let jump back with Sam and Bucky. Sam asked Bucky what he’s thinking, Bucky responded with “When Isaiah said my people”… Sam understood that when he said “my people” – meaning white people that’s why Sam said “Oh, don’t take it to heart. That’s not what he meant.” To which Bucky corrected him saying “No, he meant HYDRA. HYDRA used to be my people.” And now they are off to see Zemo and now we see Zemo inside his cell.

 Pheewwwwww, that’s a long post… ahahaha, see you on the next one, still working with Snyder Cut but im still considering of I should post it or not, after all, so many groups out there already made a video and article out it…but we’ll see…

[mithranqueersmusings]

Baby, You’re A Rich Man XI

Chapter: 11/28

Rating: U

Summary: Ringo could never understand why that group of three boys made him feel so uncomfortable, or why the way George looked at him sent him into a panic. After a chance encounter Ringo discovers the truth and has no clue what to do with the information.

Tags: AU - Gangsters, Slow Burn, Smut, Eventual Romance, Violence, Angst

Pairings: George Harrison/Ringo Starr, John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AO3 link here / Fic masterlist here

The next few days were an absolute drag, Ringo even called up work and asked if anybody needed their shift covered cause he just wanted time to speed up. He hadn't seen George since they went out to get his suit fitted, at least that was the last time he'd seen him in person; he'd seen George a lot in his mind. Ringo started to really miss him, and the flowers beginning to wilt in his kitchen only made his sadness all the more intense. It was still two days until the wedding, but Ringo felt like he really couldn't wait any longer. He kept hoping that George would visit him at work but he never did, and Ringo wondered if he ever would again. Eventually he caved in and decided to give George a call. He finished work at 3 and plucked up the courage to call George after only 20 minutes of pacing and debating. The sound of the phone ringing made him nervous, and once again he considered hanging up, he had no idea what George's schedule was and he could be busy, he might not even be home. After a few moments of Ringo pacing as much as he could without pulling the phone out of the wall, a voice answered but it wasn't George's.

"Hello?" It was Paul, and Ringo instantly felt nervous.

"Oh- Hi, Paul. It's Ringo. Is George there?" Ringo fiddled with a loose strand of hair.

"Oh, hi Ringo. Yeah, he's just in the loo, don't expect he'll be too long. How are you, anyway?" Paul had such a soothing voice, and Ringo easily calmed himself listening to it.

"Yeah, yeah, not too bad. And yourself?" Ringo tried to sound casual.

"Yeah, alright... Did you need George for something?"

"Not particularly. Just haven't seem him in a few days, wanted to check up on him." The nerves were coming back now.

"Aw, that's well sweet of you." He paused "He won't want me telling you this but he's been going on about you non-stop. He's been so excited about this wedding, keeps gushing about you in a suit." Paul chuckled lightly and it made Ringo blush.

"Oh really? I hope I'm worth the wait then." Ringo smiled "Will you and John be there?"

"We sure will be. You practically get disowned if you miss events like these. They're alright, John has a tendency to get a bit drunk and start a row. But- Oh, here's George now I'll pass you on." Paul didn't have a chance to say goodbye because George rather quickly snatched the phone, Ringo could hear Paul and John laughing in the background.

"Hey Ringo, they weren't chatting any shite were they?" George sounded a little flustered, it was a side to him Ringo hadn't really seen.

"No, not at all. I just wanted to see how you were, but if you're busy that's fine I can call back la-" Ringo began.

"No, I'm not busy!" George said hastily, then paused and Ringo imagined he was cursing himself "Are you alright?"

"Good, yeah. Just, er- Haven't heard from you in a few days, you know?" Ringo chuckled nervously.

"Missing me already, are you?" George lowered his voice.

"Suppose I might be... What have you been up to?" Ringo wished he'd thought of something to say before he rang.

"Not much, just business stuff really. That same family's been kicking up some trouble again, but we seem to have it under control." George explained, he'd returned to his normal self now.

"Oh dear, you haven't been hurt or anything have you?" Ringo winced when he thought about the state George had gotten into last time.

"No, no. Don't you worry your pretty little head about it." George chuckled.

"Pretty?" Ringo scoffed.

"Well, I'd like to call you something else but I've got company you see." George's voice grew huskier.

"You're not half a bleeding flirt, George." Ringo tried to sound like he didn't like it, but that wasn't the case.

"Oh right, and what's the other half?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Do tell."

"You'll have to wait to hear that one."

"Aren't you a little tease?"

"I'm not a little anything."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

Ringo let out a spluttered laugh at the comment, as much as he'd love to talk dirty to George over the phone right now he couldn't contain his laughter "Look, I shouldn't keep you from your mates."

"Who says they're my mates?"

"You do, you pillock. I should get going, I'm pretty knackered from work. What time are you gonna pick me up Thursday?" Ringo really wanted to stay, but he didn't really want to let anything on to Paul and John - even if George hadn't been too good at hiding it.

"Probably around 9, I'll bring the suit and all that and we can get to the wedding about 10?" George had a twinge of hopefulness in his voice, and it made Ringo smile.

"Now when you say 9, do you mean 9? Or do you mean showing up an hour earlier so you can catch me being a sweaty mess?" Ringo chuckled.

"Well, I do mean 9, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see you a sweaty mess again." Ringo could hear the grin on his face.

"I'm sure that be arranged." He didn't give George a time to respond, as much as Ringo knew he wanted to "I'll see you Thursday, then. Bye, George."

"Goodbye Ringo. Don't forget to wear those rings." George joked, but there was a darkness behind his words.

Ringo just smiled, said his goodbyes again and hung up the phone. His mood was immediately lifted after speaking to George, it was like it transported him to a whole other world. As much as he'd rather see him, he didn't dare bother him again, especially if he had important stuff to deal with.

Paul's words kept echoing in his mind the next couple of days, and every time he thought about George talking about him it made him smile. Ringo wondered why he didn't tell these things explicitly to him, like the things he'd heard when he was outside his front door, and he expected it was the same reason Ringo hadn't been completely honest either - they just liked each other so much they were scared of ruining it. It was stupid really, but a strange sort of tradition when getting to know someone.

Ringo debated in his mind whether he should tell George how he really felt, he had no fear of rejection since he knew George's true feelings, but still something told him to take things slow. Ringo was fairly happy with the stage they were at now, it was comfortable, and if feelings became explicitly involved it might take it to somewhere a bit stranger. He hadn't thought about anything that serious with George, but maybe now it was time to start; he was going to be his date after all. George was going to show him off to the rest of his 'family' without any shame, it seemed like a pretty big step for Ringo but he wondered whether George just did this all the time, like it wasn't that big of a deal. It wasn't a pleasant thought, so Ringo tried to avoid it. For now he was just going to see how things went, there was no use planning for a future that might not happen after all.

All Ringo was sure of was that this whole wedding ordeal was going to be a large step for him, especially for his relationship with George, and he just had to go with the flow and see where it took him. In all honesty he knew where it was taking him: straight into George's bed, and Ringo had no issue with that at all.

Thursday finally came around, and Ringo had luckily remembered to book the time off work. He made sure to wake up nice and early, which was a struggle, so that he could hop in the shower and freshen up before George showed up. This time, he arrived on time, and Ringo couldn't help the excitement bubbling in his stomach when he heard him knocking on the door. He'd gotten dressed even though he knew it was pointless, a part of him just wanted to look presentable. He swung the door open probably a little too excitedly, and George was standing there with his arms full.

"I believe you ordered a suit, sir?" George chuckled, plonking a shoe box into Ringo's hands as smoothly as he could.

"I believe I did." Ringo smiled as he led George into the living room once more.

"In the end I decided to just get you the one, so if you can try to tone down your handsomeness I'd much appreciate it." George lay the suit on the back of one of the chairs.

"I suppose I'll have to try." Ringo joked, standing in the doorway when George gave him a funny look.

"Well go on then, what are you waiting for? Try it on!" George scoffed as he unzipped the suit cover.

Ringo shifted his weight "Oh... Right now?"

"If you wanna make it to this wedding then yes, right now." George tutted sarcastically "If you want to close my eyes or something I will, but I was kinda looking forward to this bit."

Ringo blushed, then sheepishly walked further into the room and put the shoebox down on the floor. He walked over to the suit and took it out of its cover, holding it up in the hanger so that he could see it in the mirror. It was a very nice suit, nicer than anything Ringo ever thought he'd ever own. There was a tie and a handkerchief too, but they were of clashing patterns, not that Ringo was a fashion expert of any kind but it did seem an odd choice. He looked up at George and... Oh. He realised that the handkerchief of his suit was identical to the pattern of George's tie, with his tie matching George's handkerchief. Ringo blushed.

"Sorry if its a bit cheesy, I thought it'd be nice... Funny y'know." George turned away to look in the mirror, Ringo could've sworn he saw hints of red on his cheeks.

"No its nice, was just a bit confused at first." Ringo smiled reassuringly then began to undress.

He felt George's eyes on him as he lifted his jumper above his head, he felt the sudden urge to cover himself up or to ask George to leave the room, but he powered through the embarrassment and continued to take off his clothes. Standing in his boxers and his socks, he took the suit off the hanger piece by piece and worked his way into it. Even the shirt was nice, Ringo guessed it probably cost more than his entire wardrobe put together. He lay the tie undone across his neck, he was a little embarrassed that he wouldn't be able to make it look presentable enough, so decided to leave it until last. The whole time he felt George watching him, and while his gaze was somewhat predatory it didn't make him feel uncomfortable, at least not in the negative sense, and whenever he looked up at George he would give him a small smile. He squeezed into the shoes, the first real leather shoes he'd owned, and wiggled his toes in them as he walked around the room to break them in somewhat.

"Does everything fit?" George cleared his throat before speaking.

"Feels like it. I hardly recognise myself." Ringo chuckled as he stepped up to the mirror.

"You look good." George breathed, taking a step closer to him "Who knew I had such good taste?"

"In suits or in men?" Ringo winked, fiddling with his tie hesitantly.

"Looks like both." George smiled darkly "You need help with that tie?"

"Uh... Yeah, I do. Bit embarrassing but even in school I could never do it properly, was always getting yelled at for it." Ringo continued fiddling with the fabric awkwardly.

"Come 'ere." George laughed, his quick fingers getting to work as he tied Ringo's tie for him.

Ringo gulped rather obviously as he looked down at George's hands, he couldn't help remembering how he had been thinking about them last. George pulled his focused gaze away for a second to glance at Ringo, and Ringo suspected that George knew exactly what he was thinking. George just chuckled, then turned Ringo to face the mirror with him.

"There, we make quite the pair. Don't you think?" George grinned widely, his arm across Ringo's shoulder.

"Huh, we sure do. Could give Paul and John a run for their money." Ringo chuckled but then panicked when he thought he might be insinuating something.

"Urgh, don't mention them. You know how hard it is to find a fella when you've got those two as the shining example? You shouldn't even worry about meeting my parents, them two are the real test." George let go of Ringo then, who only blushed at the thought of meeting George's parents.

"How long have they been together?" Ringo started fixing his hair that had been ruffled out of place.

"It's hard to say. As long as I've known them they've practically been inseparable. Technically I think it's 3 years this year, but I could be wrong." George stood behind Ringo then, and ran his hand quickly through his hair to mess it up.

"Funny." Ringo rolled his eyes "Was it easier around them, then? I mean, being... You know."

"Being a flaming queer?" George laughed "Yeah, I suppose it was. I mean we all messed around quite a bit when we were younger and it just stuck."

"Messed around like, with each other?" Ringo was almost looking presentable.

"Scandalous, I know. It was just boys being silly, or at least that's what we pretended it was. Then suddenly it stopped, and Paul and John were dating so I had to find my fun elsewhere."

"Have you been with a lot of guys then? If you don't mind me asking." Ringo tried to not sound as curious as he felt.

"Depends what you mean by 'been with'. I've been around the block a few times, but never anything serious. Never taken one to a wedding, let's just put it that way." George smiled somewhat sheepishly.

"Well aren't I lucky?" Ringo felt comforted by George's answer, even though he knew he shouldn't care about his past.

"With a face like that, I'd say so." George stepped closer to him again and lifted up Ringo's chin gently to stare into his eyes.

"You're one to talk." Ringo whispered.

"You better shut me up, then." George rubbed the stubble on Ringo's chin gently.

Ringo smirked and leaned in to the other man, one hand going for his hip under his jacket and the other caressing his neck. George hummed happily against his lips, Ringo smiling into the kiss. He wondered if he'd ever get tired of kissing George, or if it would ever stop lighting a fire in his stomach, because it certainly didn't seem to be happening any time soon. George put his hand on the small of Ringo's back and dipped him backwards slightly, pushing his chest up against him. Ringo moved his hand to George's face and he felt him jerk slightly at the feeling of the cold metal of Ringo's rings on his skin which made Ringo chuckle. He had gotten used to that reaction, but seeing George respond like that instantly made him smile. George deepened the kiss, grabbing the fabric of Ringo's jacket and taking a fistful of his hair at the back of his head. Ringo moaned lowly as George pushed his tongue into his mouth, feeling his sharp teeth teasingly nibble at his lip.

Ringo was the one to break the kiss when he felt himself getting a little flustered, he didn't want to end up being late because they had pushed the late night entertainment forward, that certainly wasn't a good way to make a first impression.

"Shouldn't we be heading off?" Ringo panted, his face still only inches away from George's.

"I suppose we have to." George smirked "But I expect to pick up where we left off once we get back to mine."

"If you insist." Ringo smiled awkwardly, and it made George smile too.

George stepped back then, adjusting himself for a final time in the mirror before heading out of the room. Ringo remained in front of the mirror, the nervousness of this important social event was beginning to sink in, and he worried that he wasn't going to fit in there. He remembered how the tailor had regarded him, how he could sense that Ringo wasn't one of them, and then imagined it on a larger scale with every one of George's friends turning their noses up at him. He had been so concerned with handling George that he hadn't even considered the magnitude of the situation. He looked pretty sharp, or so he thought, but was it good enough? He let out a sigh and saw George waiting for him in the doorway.

"Ringo, stop being ridiculous. You look gorgeous, now let's get driving or I'll get a belting from Paul for being late." George's words were serious but his smile was warm and it helped Ringo relax.

As Ringo walked past George into the hallway, George seized his hand swiftly and raised it up to lips, pressing a soft but long kiss on the back of palm, his gaze unbreakable from Ringo's before heading to the front door. Ringo blushed and followed behind the other man quickly, once again having the door opened for him and stepping out into the cold morning. George's car was waiting across the street, and the two of them walked towards it briskly. Before Ringo opened the car door, George tapped on the roof of the vehicle to grab his attention.

"You've got no need to be nervous. I won't know half the people there, and the other half I don't like." George chuckled "Just see it as an opportunity for free food and a lot of free drinks."

"How much is a lot?" Ringo forced a smile, but he couldn't fully hide his nerves.

"Well last time I went to one of these things, I woke up in the next town over with all my money gone and a headache that lasted a week." George smiled a toothy grin.

"Sorry I thought you were supposed to be convincing me to go?" Ringo raised his eyebrow.

"Ha ha." George said sarcastically "Look, we only really have to show our faces for a little bit. We can leave as soon as you've had enough of it all. But I don't think you're gonna wanna miss seeing John picking another fight with a lamppost."

Ringo sniggered "Well, I can't miss that now can I?"

George just smiled then climbed into the car, Ringo following suit. Before they set off, George placed his hand on top of Ringo's and squeezed it tightly. Ringo let out a breath he wasn't even realising he was holding, then turned his hand around so that he could interlock his fingers with George's. It only made his heart race faster as he felt George's skin against his own in such an innocent and affectionate way. It was reassuring to know that he didn't have to hide this, at least not right now, or for the rest of the day. Even if it was living in a fantasy world somewhat, he would enjoy it for now at least. George squeezed his hand once more, running his thumb slowly across the back of Ringo's hand before pulling his hand away and starting the car.

Ringo had a feeling that this was going to be one of the best day's of his life, and it was only the beginning of a whole series of things. The beginning of his life with George. He could get used to saying that.

[lifemuchgreener]

Lovers Trust - Chapter Seven

STORY SUMMARY: After a fallout with your now ex friend/roommate, you decide to spend your third year of college at Kingston University London in order to further your education and be closer to your boyfriend, Tom Holland.

CHAPTER SUMMARY: It’s Valentine’s Day! You celebrate in bed with your boyfriend and your boyfriend’s best friend. ;)

WARNINGS: Threesome between yourself, Tom, and Harrison. Harrison and Tom do not ignore each other during this event if you know what I mean. There’s dirty talk, there’s some voyeurism, Harrison gets a blowjob and Tom fucks you sans condom. This could very easily be the smuttiest thing I’ve ever written. 

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Why the FUCK did it take me so long to write this? Because it’s been so long since I updated I just want to remind everyone that the chapter of this story is taking place in 2020. Also, I’ve scrapped the tag list because if I tagged people I wonder if they’d ever remember this story. So there’s that. I hope you enjoy and if you have any requests feel free to send an ask!

WORD COUNT: 2190

Chapter One: here

Chapter Two: here

Chapter Three: here

Chapter Four: here

Chapter Five: here

Chapter Six: here

The holidays wrap up and in no time at all you and Tom are back in London with you returning to school and Tom working on numerous projects. His 2019 was extremely successful with the releases of Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spies in Disguise. 2020 will hopefully also be another successful year for him.

It’s the third day of February, a Monday, and the thought of what to get him for Valentine’s Day is in the back of your mind while you sit between the spread “v” of his legs on the floor with Tessa snoozing beside you. Harrison came over for dinner but he’s been sleeping on the couch while you and Tom have been watching a movie.

While it will be your second Valentine’s Day with Tom as a couple, it’ll be the first that you’ve been able to spend together since last year you weren’t in the same country. You know it’s a trivial holiday but you can’t help but want to do something special for your boyfriend. He definitely deserves it.

“What do you want for Valentine’s Day?” you ask Tom, craning your head to look at him.

He shrugs. “Just you. Maybe we could have sex if you’re up for it.”

You roll your eyes. “That would just be like any other day. Hey Harrison, what do you want for Valentine’s Day?” you add, not expecting an answer since he’s been asleep as far as you could tell.

“Mmm. Wanna watch you two have sex,” comes his sleepy reply.

You turn around in Tom’s lap to stare at him. Tom seems unphased by his best friend’s answer.

“Oh my god. You guys have talked about this before,” you say, looking between the two of them.

“So have you and I,” Tom insists.

“Since when? I seriously do not remember having this conversation with you.”

“Back during that first Skype call where things got sexual. Before we were even dating,” he explains.

You think back to that night.

“You didn’t specifically mention Harrison,” you protest as you recall the memory.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else I’d be comfortable with watching us and know they’d stay quiet about it other than Harrison,” he explains. “Him and I haven’t exactly been subtle in hinting that we’ve had some experiences together.”

“I just thought…” You shake your head. “I didn’t want to ask in case I was wrong and you got upset. And I never wanted to suggest that Harrison join us in case he was off limits.”

“Why would he be off limits?”

“He’s gorgeous!” you exclaim. “I didn’t want you to think that I liked Harrison the way I liked you before I started loving you.”

“I’m gorgeous?” Harrison asks with a grin.

You roll your eyes. “Don’t be cocky.”

“Love,” says Tom, squeezing your hips gently. “I’m secure with the knowledge that you love me and not anybody else. I don’t love Harrison either -- at least not like I love you. But it is true that before you, back several years, Harrison and I would fool around. I’m comfortable around him and I would trust him with my life. Hell, I’d trust him with your life. If someone were going to join us in the bedroom I would want it to be him. You can absolutely say no though.”

Harrison nods. “Please don’t feel like you have to say yes.”

You blink between the both of them. Your response requires no thought at all.

“I want it.”

Tom and Harrison look at each other.

“Where do we start?” Tom asks, positioning his hands at the bottom of your shirt.

“Nuh uh,” you say, getting out of Tom’s lap. “It isn’t Valentine’s Day. And I have class tomorrow morning and I know I’m going to want to have a day off after this happens.”

“What about this Friday?” Harrison suggests. “That’s a week sooner than Valentine’s Day.”

You shake your head. “Nah. I’m going to make you boys wait for it.” You sling your bag over your shoulder and lean down to kiss Tom’s forehead. After a moment of hesitation, you do the same to Harrison.

“I’ll talk to you later,” you call over your shoulder, heading for Tom’s door. “Goodnight guys!”

The door closes behind you and Tom and Harrison look at each other in awe.

In the week between that night and Valentine’s Day, you went shopping for a cute new outfit and some new underwear. A fan had recognized you while you were out and asked for a picture with you. A lot of articles mentioning you as Tom Holland’s girlfriend had come out the previous year after the releases of Tom’s big movies but the attention you got from it still caught you off guard. You snapped a photo with her and had a nice conversation before leaving the store with a bag full of items that made you feel confident and sexy.

On the actual holiday you make Tom and Harrison wait in another room while you take your time getting ready. It doesn’t take you a ridiculously long time to make sure everything meets your approval but you can tell the boys are impatient so you sit on the edge of the bed and make them wait an additional ten minutes before you finally send a text to the groupchat you share with them to let them know they can come in. The door swings open immediately to reveal the two standing in the doorway.

Harrison nudges Tom with his elbow. “Holy shit.”

Tom licks his lips. “Come here, sweetheart,” he says and you quickly cross the room so you’re standing in front of him. He settles his hands on your waist and pulls you in for a deep kiss. When he pulls away one of his hands moves to the back of your neck while the other goes to the back of Harrison’s.

Of course multiple conversations had occurred since the night in Tom’s living room about what everyone was and was not comfortable with. You knew it was going to happen but that doesn’t stop you from shivering a little as Tom gently pushes your heads together for a kiss.

It takes you a moment to adjust but soon your arms are around Harrison’s neck and his hands are all over your body. He guides you to the bed without taking his lips off of yours and a few seconds later you feel the bed shift as Tom sits beside you. The sound of him unzipping his pants has you pulling away from Harrison to look over at him.

“I think he likes watching,” Harrison says, kissing your neck. “Such a voyeur.”

“Your exhibitionist ass is one to talk,” Tom counters, shoving Harrison off of you so he can take his place.

“Rude,” grumbles Harrison, sitting back to watch you and Tom kiss.

“What do you think of Haz’s kissing?” Tom asks, pulling away after a minute.

“It’s good,” you answer. “Very good.”

“I wonder if he’s improved since the last time I kissed him.”

Harrison laughs. “God, I’d hope so. How old were we? Fifteen?”

“Kiss each other,” you say without even thinking about it.

Tom and Harrison share a look. The latter gives a little nod of his head and then Tom is leaning towards him, pressing their lips together.

The sight nearly takes your breath away and you watch them. You don’t even notice that your hand has snuck its way into your underwear until the wet sounds your fingers make startle both you and the boys, who break apart to look at you.

“Wanna touch her?” Tom asks Harrison.

He nods.

“Ask her nicely,” your boyfriend recommends, nudging his side.

Harrison blinks at you. “Can I touch you? Please?”

“Yes,” you say breathlessly, lifting your hips up off of the bed as he removes your underwear. A finger slides through your wetness instantly but is quickly pulled away so Harrison can look more closely.

“Wow,” he whispers, and Tom grabs Harrison’s wrist to bring his finger to Tom’s own mouth and suck the taste of you off of it.

You squirm against the bed. “Touch me. One of you. Both of you. Please. Just give me something.”

“You fuck her while she sucks me off?” Harrison suggests.

“Is that good for you, sweetheart?” Tom asks you. “Because you already know it’s good for me.”

You can’t hide the eagerness from your voice as you give your approval. As the boys finish taking off their clothes, you figure out how you want to position yourself. You decide to lay on the bed with your head hanging just a little off of the edge so Harrison can have access to your mouth when he’s standing.

“Fuck, your girl’s pretty,” Harrison says to Tom, admiring you.

“Isn’t she?” Tom agrees, joining you on the bed and situating himself in between your thighs. “You good, babe?” he asks you.

“Yeah. I’m ready,” you reply, relaxing as he slides his cock into you. Even though you’ve done this many times before, it feels different knowing that Harrison is watching you. You turn your head slightly to see that he’s just staring at the two of you and you clear your throat.

“Gonna let me suck you off?” you ask with a teasing smile that finally snaps Harrison out of the daze he was in. In an instant he’s moved to the edge of the bed where your head is. You open your mouth obediently for him and he slowly gives you a little bit of his cock at a time until you’ve taken him completely.

Harrison’s length in your mouth stifles your noises of pleasure but both his and Tom’s moans are unashamedly loud. The sensation of being fucked by your boyfriend while his best friend also participates is even better than you imagined it would be.

“You’re so lucky,” you can hear Harrison say above the sounds of him using your mouth.

“Right? She’s so good,” Tom hums, and for whatever reason hearing the two of them talk about you like you’re not even there turns you on even more.

You come hard when Tom starts paying attention to your clit which sets off both him and Harrison, who come one after the other. Before you can even move at all, the boys pull out of you simultaneously and switch sides, with Harrison’s head now inches from where Tom’s cum is dripping out of you and Tom kneeling so his face is level with yours. Tom kisses you and it’s a little awkward because your head is still slightly off the side of the mattress, making the kiss kind of upside down but not entirely. Harrison’s tongue licking up the length of your slit makes you moan against Tom’s lips, who eagerly starts seeking out Harrison’s cum with his tongue.

By the time Tom pulls away there’s barely anything left for you to swallow. You’re staring speechlessly at him as he gets to his feet and grins down at you. At the opposite end of your body, Harrison finishes lapping up Tom’s cum and kisses each of your thighs before standing up as well.

You shakily push yourself up into a sitting position and look between your boyfriend and his best friend with wide eyes and parted lips.

“Do you think she liked it?” Harrison asks Tom, retrieving his clothes.

“Oh yeah. Sometimes she gets a little inarticulate after a really good orgasm. Give her a minute.”

“Goddamn,” you say after another half minute of silence. You fall back against the pillows and rub your eyes as if waking up from a dream, but you know you’ve been awake the whole time. “Holy fuck.”

Tom, now in his boxers, lays by your side and smiles at you.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he says.

You say the same to him and give him a sweet kiss.

Harrison is busying himself by buttoning his shirt when you break from the kiss.

“Not staying the night?” you ask, frowning.

“I don’t know…”

“Come on, Haz. It’s dark out and freezing,” Tom argues.

He sighs. “Alright. Your couch is pretty nice. Probably not as good as Sebastian Stan’s based on the way Anthony Mackie raves about it, but it’ll do for tonight.”

“No! No couch. You can sleep in the bed with us. Here, I can sleep in the middle if that will make it less weird,” you offer. “But you’ve totally slept in the same bed together way before you met me, I’m sure, so we can arrange ourselves however.”

Harrison smiles at you. “You in the middle is fine.”

You each take turns washing up and brushing your teeth in the bathroom. When all that is done, you find yourself snuggled in between Tom and Harrison. Fortunately the bed is more than big enough for all three of you (plus Tessa).

“Goodnight guys,” you say, kissing Tom’s cheek and craning your neck to kiss Harrison’s.

“Goodnight,” they echo, and you’re asleep in the middle of two boys you care about so deeply in no time at all.

[breanime]

Tiny Little Increments (Part Three)

Sorry it’s been so long, and sorry this chapter is so short, I just wanted to give you guys a lil something-something since I’ve been out of the game for so long. Let me know what you think!

*gif not mine*

The kids were coming back in, and it would be time to put Liam down for a nap soon.

“Your boyfriend’s really nice,” Emma said, dropping the bags off on the kitchen counter.

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Y/N doesn’t date,” Cam said easily, carelessly dropping his bags on the floor, “I bet she’s not even gonna go out with Logan tonight.”

“That’s cold, Y/N,” Jeremy said, placing his—five?—bags onto the counter, “At least get a few free dinners out of him before you break the guy’s heart.”

“Oh, please,” you rolled your eyes, pilfering through the bags, “You’re being dramatic. Hey,” you looked up, “Can you put Liam down for his nap?” Jeremy nodded, picking up your youngest brother and taking him upstairs, “Emma, Cam, start putting these up—and be careful with the fragile stuff like the eggs, Cameron,” you motioned to the groceries, “Ethan: living room.”

Ethan followed you into the living room, a confused expression on his face.

You spun around, hands on your hips. “What did Logan give you?”

You watched your brother go through a cycle of faces: surprised, embarrassed, nervous, and then finally: defiant. “What are you talking about?”

You resisted the urge to roll your eyes. “Just now, what did he give you?”

“Who?”

Now you did roll your eyes. “Logan. Ridiculously handsome, unnervingly charming, he just dropped a couple of bills on groceries for us…ring a bell? What did he give you, Ethan?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, his go-to move when he was on the defense. “That’s between me and him.”

You stepped over to him, and even though, at 16, he was taller than you, he still shrank back when you approached him. “Wanna try that again?” You asked carefully.

He swallowed, looking over at the stairs, and you knew he was hoping Jeremy would swoop in and save him, as he often did. But he was busy putting Liam down, so Ethan was on his own. “It—it’s nothing,” he blundered, “He just recommended a place for a job is all…”

Your eyes narrowed. A job? “You already have a job,” you said. Ethan stocked shelves at the local corner store; he’d been working there for free hotdogs and chips up until he was 14 and they officially hired him as a cashier/stock boy. It wasn’t great money, of course—he was making below minimum wage, actually, but still… You blinked. “Did Logan offer you a job at his company?” You asked, aghast.

He shook his head. “No, Y/N, he just—”

“—Because we don’t take handouts, not from anybody!” You went on. You put your hand on your forehead—this is why you wanted to keep Logan at a safe distance. You’d be damned if you let your family become somebody’s charity case. “This is what I get for letting him stay the night,” you said, more to yourself than Ethan, “You know what—I’m cancelling the date. I have too much to do, and I’m not about to sit across the table from this rich guy who probably thinks him and his money are the answer to our problems,” you whipped your phone out, preparing to pull his number up and call him.

Ethan stepped over to you quickly, putting a hand over the phone to stop you. “It’s a gay club!” He blurted out.

You froze, eyes wide.

He moved back, hands in his pockets again and eyes on the ground. “I… I’m gay, Y/N,” he said lowly, “A couple of nights ago, after work, I went to this club, and I guess Logan saw me there, so he recommended this other club I can go to, with guys more my age, and I…” He looked up at you, eyes wide and a little watery, and your heart broke for your baby brother. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I didn’t—I don’t—I didn’t know how to tell you, and I just told Jeremy a week ago, or he found out on his own, actually, and I’m sorry, Y/N—”

You silenced him with a hug, pulling him to you and holding him fiercely. “There’s nothing to be sorry for,” you said firmly, “I love you, Ethan. I’ll always love you, no matter what.” You heard him sniffle and felt him relax against you. Smiling, you pulled back, your hands on his shoulders. “Hey, buddy?”

“Yeah?”

“I knew you were gay.”

Ethan’s jaw dropped, and you laughed, putting your phone in your pocket and heading back towards the kitchen. “But hey—next time you go out, bring Jeremy or a friend with you, okay? I don’t want you going out alone!”

You heard Ethan’s shocked chuckle as you walked away.

Hours later, after Liam had woken up from his nap, you’d made lunch for the kids, helped Cam with his homework (that was due last week), and sent Jeremy and Ethan on the hunt for a new water heater, you were sitting at the kitchen table, doing bills, when your phone vibrated.

Logan: Been thinking about your tight pussy all day. Just a few more hours till I see you again.

You smiled and rolled your eyes. The man was insatiable—but then again, so were you.

You sent back: Are you going to tell me where we’re going?

Logan texted you back right away.

Logan: Nope.

Logan: Just wear something nice and tell the kids you’ll be home late.

Logan: Bring a bathing suit. Or don’t.

Logan: On second thought, nix the bathing suit.

You bit your lip. What exactly was he planning—and how much time did he think you were going to spend with him?

You wrote: We’re going swimming? I thought you wanted to talk.

Logan: I do! We can talk, and eat, and swim and fuck and fuck and fuck and fuck and….

You laughed. “Jesus,” you whispered to yourself as you typed out a response.

You know you only have me for a few hours, right? You asked.

Logan: We’ll see about that. 😉

Logan: Go get ready, princess!

You sighed, standing up. “Em,” you called out.

Emma came into the kitchen, her clipboard at the ready. “Are you leaving now?” She asked, punctual as always.

“Getting ready to,” you answered, “I might be out longer than I thought, so if you need anything, just call or text me and I’ll right home.”

“Everything’s taken care of,” she said, consulting one of the lists on her clipboard, “With all the groceries we got, we’re good for days, and I used a bunch of coupons, so we saved a lot of cash. I already put it in the Secret Place.” She smiled up at you. “We’re almost at our goal for winter!”

“Nice, Em!” You high-fived her. “I’ll bring back a doggy bag from wherever Logan takes me.”

“Tell him we said hi!” Emma said, clutching her clipboard to her chest. “And he’s welcome here anytime!”

You rolled your eyes, bending down to press a kiss to the top of her forehead as you walked past. “I will,” you said, “and he’s not.”

You went upstairs and did your hair and makeup. You called your friend, Vee, and she brought over a pair of heels for you to borrow. Logan texted you to say he was on his way, and you surveyed yourself in your cracked mirror. You looked good. When you walked back downstairs, purse packed full—in the off chance you ended up staying the night—you sighed. Frank was at the table, five empty beer bottles in front of him, and another on his lips.

“What are you doing here, Frank?” You asked, crossing your arms over your chest.

He grinned; flashing a smile with missing teeth. His eyes were red, like usual, and you could tell he was drunk—obviously—but couldn’t be sure how high he was. “Just came to see my kids, make sure the house is in order.”

“You mean you came for food and booze?” You went to the fridge and pulled out the pan of meatloaf you’d pre-made for the kids, placing it on the counter. “Or did you get kicked out of the bar again?”

Your father scoffed. “They can’t kick me out—I’m the best business they’re ever gonna get.” He leaned back, raising his drink to you. “I hear you’ve got a rich new boyfriend.”

You rolled your eyes, even though your back was to him now. “You heard wrong,” you said back, “And you can’t stay here, Frank.”

“I’m not,” he stood up, knocking over a few bottles as he did so, “Emma—the only one of my kids with a beating heart—told me you were going out tonight, so I just wanted to stop by and wish you luck.” He grinned again, and you wanted to hit him. “But now that I’m here, I guess I could have some dinner.”

You glared at him. Frank was always down to take, never willing to give—not that he had anything to contribute, anyway. “Kids!” You yelled, smirking when your screaming made Frank flinch. “Dinner!”

The kids descended down like a herd, Emma running happily into Frank’s arms, and Liam giggling at the sight of his father—dressed in rags like a ghetto clown. Jeremy walked past Frank without saying a word; he just plucked the beer out of his father’s hand and downed it himself. Cam wordlessly began to clear the empty bottles from the table while Ethan went over to the stove.

“Why are you here?” Ethan asked his father.

Frank’s goofy smile evaporated immediately, and he narrowed his eyes, glaring at his son. He’d always been hard on Ethan, and you and Jeremy both stepped in front of Ethan.

“He was just leaving,” you said, matching your father’s glare with an icy stare of your own, “Em, pack up some meatloaf for Frank and say goodbye.” Your sister, sensing and recognizing the tension, quickly obeyed. You didn’t take your eyes off of him, even as he gave Emma a final hug and ruffled Cam’s hair. You followed him through the kitchen, to the living room, and out of the front door.

He was just about to walk past the gate when Logan pulled up.

******************************************************************************************

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[dwaynepride]

Carrot Cleaning Is Good For The Soul

discreetly. + jimmy boyd

Words: 1,011

Warnings: None

Tags: @pageofultron @stanathanxoox @starryrevelations @thebeckyjolene @diaryofafan17 @specialagentlokitty

It was always a little weird, being in the Tru Tone during its off hours. Seeing it empty with the lights turned off and no music playing. The bar itself was always a place to relax after a hard day, but it loses a bit of its homey feeling when it’s so silent and still.

Though, just being here is enough. Sitting in the stool closest to the back room, hidden in the dark, just looking around and breathing and thinking. Maybe you should be home, getting some rest to prepare for the day. That’s what the rest of the team is doing; hell, it’s what the entire city is doing. The light of dawn is just starting to creep in through the windows, driving all the party people indoors to prepare for the bustle of day-life in New Orleans.

But even though you know you should, you don’t have the will to leave the bar, just yet. If it were possible, you’d stop time. Keep this moment in the present for as long as possible, if it meant postponing the inevitable phone call you’d get from Hannah to head to the office.

You loved your job. You really did. But some days, it was just a little too much.

The silence is broken when the front door opens, a shaft of morning light silhouetting the newcomer until he closes it, and then he’s just as dark as you are. He’s whistling an unknown tune, and the rustle of plastic bags tell you he’s probably been awake for a while now.

He’s coming around behind the bar, switches on the lights right above it, and gives away your presence. A shocked expression comes over Jimmy’s face, and he jumps a little, not expecting you to be sitting there in the darkness like a cheesy Bond villain. “What the hell?” He exclaims, huffing with irritation. “You coulda told me you were there.”

You should’ve. Your head dips with guilt, standing from the stool. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I, uh - I didn’t expect anybody to come in so early,” you explain lightly.

Jimmy looks a bit doubtful. Had it been any one of Dwayne’s other million friends sneaking around in the dark, he might’ve made a bigger deal out of it. But he knew you. He liked you. So he sets his bags on the counter with a hum. “I wanted to get started on the gumbo. It takes a while to cook, ya know.” Jimmy sets some of the ingredients out before looking over. “Why’re you here? You agents don’t usually come around ‘til it’s late.”

You knew he’d ask that question sooner or later. A part of you was hoping he wouldn’t, or maybe you’d be able to leave before he did. But Jimmy was co-owner of the bar. He had a right to be here so early - you didn’t. “It’s, uh, a little complicated,” you answer, taking a step back toward the door you came in through. Maybe you can still escape without spilling your guts to Jimmy.

“Lotta things might seem complicated, but sometimes, talking about them puts things in perspective.” Yeah, he was definitely Pride’s brother.

“I don’t think you wanna hear about it.”

“Who else am I gonna talk to? Myself?” Jimmy pulls all the vegetables into his arms and makes toward the kitchen. His head motions for you to follow, and you do. Maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe you should just leave and push down your feelings and try to work the case, but following Jimmy into the kitchen was a lot easier.

He sets the vegetables down, separating the carrots and pushing them toward you. “Wash those for me, will you? Then cut ‘em up about half an inch thick.”

You take the carrots and start on your task, taking them to the sink and starting to wash them off. And you almost start to think Jimmy wasn’t going to push for you to talk before he proves you wrong. “So, am I gonna start seeing you in here every morning? Or is this just a one-time thing?”

The first clean carrot is set aside, and you reach for the second with a shake of your head. “No, it’s just- this case is really bugging me. Digging up a lot of old feelings I thought I was past, but I guess I’m not.” Wow, being honest was easier than you thought it’d be.

You hear Jimmy’s thoughtful hum, but you don’t look at him as the second carrot is finished and you reach for the last. “I can relate to that,” he replies. “And the Tru Tone helps?”

Well, when he asked as simply as that, it sounds stupid. But you still nod your head slowly. “Ever since I’ve been in New Orleans, the bar has just been a...happy place? Somewhere I know I can go and feel comfortable. Home was starting to feel like a cage, so I came here.”

With all the carrots cleaned, you bring them back to the table in the center of the kitchen. Jimmy seems pleased at the sight before he hands the knife over. But when you take it from his grasp, he doesn’t pull away. Instead, a bit of his hand overlaps over yours. Squeezing tightly, as if Jimmy was about to hold your hand but he didn’t fully commit to it.

Regardless, his eyes are set squarely on yours. Soft and friendly, but still completely serious. “Well, you can come by any time of the day, understand? And if you gotta talk, I wanna be there to listen.”

His hand finally pulls away to continue chopping up his own share of the vegetables, and you didn’t even know you missed his touch until you watched him grip the knife handle and move the greens this way and that.

You came to the Tru Tone to relax and try to clear your head. In a way, you got your wish. But trading in your troubles of the case with Jimmy Boyd didn’t really seem like a win.

[arthurandhispendragons]

For @quoderospero: You asked for this

Under the cut is my full list of Taylor Swift lyrics that hurt me and make me think of Merthur mostly, but also other characters. Enjoy and feel pain with me!

Also tagging @violetchachkii in case you get bored and ever want to hurt me with gifsets :)

Don’t Blame Me: 

“For you, I would fall from grace, just to touch your face”

Breathe: Honestly, this whole song is just Merlin directly after 5x13

“Now I don’t know what to be without you around”

“I can’t breathe without you, but I have to”

“Never wanted this, never want to see you hurt. Every little bump in the road I tried to swerve.”

“Nothing we say is gonna save us from the fallout”

King of My Heart:

“And all at once you are the one I have been waiting for, king of my heart, body and soul”

Last Kiss: a lot of this doesn’t fit lyrically, but the general feeling is very post 5x13

“Never imagine we’d end like this. Your name, forever the name on my lips”

“The life of the party, you’re showing off again, and I roll my eyes, and you pull me in”

The Story of Us: 

“So many things that I wish you knew. So many walls up I can’t break through”

“I used to know my place was the spot next to you”

If This Was A Movie:

“Six months gone and I’m still reaching, even though I know you’re not there”

“Come back, come back, come back to me like you would, you would, if this was a movie”

“If you’re out there, if you’re somewhere, if you’re moving on. I”ll be waiting for you, wary since you’ve been gone”

“But if this was a movie you’d be here by now”

The Other Side of the Door:

“I said leave, but all I really want is you”

“And don’t you leave, cause I know all I need is on the other side of the door”

“I can’t even look at you, I don’t need you but I do, I do, I do”

Mine:

“You are the best thing that’s ever been mine”

Treacherous:

“Put your lips close to mine, as long as they don’t touch. Out of focus, eye to eye, til the gravity’s too much. And I’ll do anything you say, if you say it with your hands. And I’d be smart to walk away, but you’re quicksand.”

“I can’t decide if it’s a choice, getting swept away. I hear the sound of my own voice, asking you to stay. And all we are is skin and bone, trained to get along. Forever going with the flow, but you’re friction.”

This Love: Actually, fuck this song because it’s gonna make me cry. Literally post 5x13 until Arthur comes back

“Clear blue water, high tide, came and brought you in...current swept you out again, and you were just gone and gone, gone and gone.”

“In silent screams, in wildest dreams, I never dreamed of this.”

“Your smile, my ghost, I fell to my knees”

“These hands had to let it go free and this love came back to me”

Stay Beautiful:

“If you and I are a story that never gets told, if what you are is a daydream I never get to hold, at least you’ll know.”

You Belong With Me:

“Been here all along so why can’t you see you belong with me?”

Sad, Beautiful, Tragic:

“Words, how little they mean, when you’re a little too late”

“In dreams I meet you in warm conversation. And time is taking its sweet time erasing you”

FIfteen: This is Merlin arriving in Camelot

“Count to ten, take it in, this is life before you know who you’re gonna be”

Superman: This song is more Arthur as a character and Arthur/Gwen as a ship

“He’s got his mother’s eyes, his father’s ambition”

State of Grace: 

“And I never saw you coming. And I’ll never be the same”

“These are the hands of fate, you’re my Achilles heel, this is the golden age of something good and right and real”

New Year’s Day:

“Don’t read the last page, but I stay when you’re lost and I’m scared and you’re turning away”

“Hold on to the memories they will hold on to you”

Delicate:

“I pretend you’re mine all the damn time”

Superstar:

“I’m no one special just another wide eyed [boy] who’s desperately in love with you”

“You smile that beautiful smile and all the girls in the front row scream your name”

I Did Something Bad: This whole song is Morgana but here’s the highlight

“If a man talks shit than I owe him nothing. I don’t regret it one bit cause he had it coming.”

I’m Only Me When I’m With You: Once again, basically the whole song

“And sometimes we don’t say a thing, just listen to the crickets sing. Everything I need is right here by my side.”

“And I know everything about you, I don’t wanna live without you”

“Well you drive me crazy half the time, the other half I’m only trying to let you know what is and isn’t true. And I’m only me when I’m with you.”

“When I’m with anybody else, it’s so hard to be myself and only you can tell”

Everything Has Changed:

“Cause all I know is we said hello, and your eyes look like coming home. All I know is a simple thing, everything has changed.”

“Come back and tell me why I’m feeling like I missed you all this time”

“You’ll be mine and I’ll be yours all I know since yesterday is everything has changed”

A Place in This World: Again, Merlin in Episode 1

“I don’t know what I want, so don’t ask me, cause I’m still trying to figure it out. Don’t know what’s down this road, I’m just walking”

Look What You Made Me Do: Whole song is Morgana

“The role you made me play of the fool, no I don’t like you.”

“But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time.”

“Maybe I got mine, but you’ll all get yours.”

Come Back, Be Here:

“And this is when the feeling sinks in, I don’t want to miss you like this. Come back, be here.”

“If I had known what I know now, I never would have played so nonchalant”

“This is falling in love in the cruelest way. This is falling for you when you are worlds away”

“I can’t help but wish you took me with you”

Change:

“But I believe in whatever you do, and I’ll do anything to see it through.”

“It was the night things changed, can you feel it now? The walls that they put up to hold us back fell down”

Holy Ground:

“And right there where we stood was holy ground”

“And sometimes I wonder how you’d think about it now, and I see your face in every crowd”

I Know Places:

“And I know for you, it’s always me”

“And I know for me, it’s always you”

Haunted:

“Come on, come on, don’t leave me like this...something’s gone terribly wrong you’re all I wanted”

Call it What you Want:

“Bridges burn, I never learn, at least I did one thing right”

Gorgeous:

“You should think about the consequence of your magnetic field being a little too strong”

“You should take it as a compliment that I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk”

Long Live: Strap in folks, this is another one that almost made me cry

“It was the end of a decade, but the start of an age.”

“All the kingdom lights shined just for me and you”

“I was screaming long live all the magic we made”

“One day we will be remembered”

“Long live all the mountains we moved, I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you”

“Can you take a moment-promise me this. That you’ll stand by me forever, but if God forbid fate should step in. And force us into a goodbye-if you have children someday-when they point to the pictures, please tell them my name?”

Innocent:

“Who you are is not what you did”

“You wouldn’t be shattered on the floor now, if only had seen what you know now then”

Today Was a Fairytale 

“You’ve got a smile that takes me to another planet”

“All that I can say is now it’s getting so much clearer. Nothing made sense till the time I saw your face.”

Dress:

“There is an indentation in the shape of you. Made your mark on me a golden tattoo”

“My hands are shaking from holding back from you”

“I don’t want you like a best friend”

“All of this silence and patience, pining and anticipation”

“Even in my worst times you could see the best of me”

Dancing With Our Hands Tied:

“I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us”

“Oh, cause it’s gravity keeping you with me”

“I’d kiss you as the lights went out, swaying as the room burned down”

Fearless:

“And I don’t know how it gets better than this, you take my hand and drag me headfirst, fearless”

Out of the Woods: 

“We were built to fall apart, then fall back together”

Sparks Fly:

“I’m on my guard for the rest of the world but with you, I know it’s no good.”

Tied Together With a Smile: Arthur and Merlin at alternate points in the series

“And you cry, but you don’t tell anyone, that you might not be the golden one”

“I guess it’s true that love was all you wanted, cause you’re giving it away like it’s extra change.”

Cold As You:

“You put up walls and paint them all a shade of gray. And I stood there loving you and wished them all away.”

I Wish You Would

“I wish you knew that, I’d never forget you as long as I live.”

Come in With the Rain: Merlin post 5x13

“I’ll leave my window open cause I’m too tired at night to call your name. Just know I’m right here hoping that you’ll come in with the rain.”

White Horse: post 5x13

“I had so many dreams about you and me, happy endings, now I know.”

Ours: Honestly, the whole song

“If you were here we’d laugh about their vacant stares, but right now, my time is theirs.”

“People throw rocks at things that shine and life makes love look hard”

Red: Another one that hit me like a mack truck

“Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you’re already flying through the free fall”

“Losing him was blue like I’ve never known, missing him was dark gray all alone. Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met. But loving him was red.”

“Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes, tell myself it’s time now, gotta let go, but moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head, burning red.”

Stay, Stay, Stay: The tone of the song is very them

“All those times that you didn’t leave, it’s been occurring to me I’d like to hang out with you for my whole life.”

Enchanted:

“The playful conversation starts, counter all your quick remarks like passing notes in secrecy”

“All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you”

“Please don’t be in love with someone else, please don’t have somebody waiting on you”

--

If you made it through this, you deserve a prize but I hope you enjoyed!

[races-erster]

knight in shining armor (davey x reader)

Requested: yep! by anon!

Word Count: 3185

Warnings: Violence

A/n: This is the longest fic I’ve ever written, and I’m very proud of the outcome! This is also my first time writing for Davey, and i feel like it’s pretty in character, so I hope you all think the same! also, thanks for the anon who requested this! I ad a lot of fun writing it! 

Prompt: “you make me cliche, but I love it I guess.”

Materlist

How to be tagged

Request

—

David Jacobs had read hundreds of books. Some were scientific, others had been plays, but his absolute favorite were fairy tales or anything romantically cliche.

When David started to sell newspapers, his time for reading was diminished. He longed to read anything other than the news. He longed for a cliche story to read. He longed for the stories of a knight in shining armor, saving someone, and them living happily ever after.

David wanted his life to be like those stories he wanted to be the hero for once in his life. He wanted an epic love story. Little did he know, he was about to have all of that.

—

You noticed him as soon as he walked through the circulation gate. There was a new kid, and for some reason , he was incredibly intriguing: the way he carried himself and the way he dressed was different from all the boys you had gotten used to. He seemed reserved and worried about the strange new company around him and about the small kid who trailed closely behind.

You had been talking to Jack when your attention was further drawn towards the new kids. The smaller of the two made a comment about also being new to Wiesel as if he was offended for not being noticed.

After that, you all turned to see the situation unfold. The older boy had claimed that he was missing a paper, and the Delanceys looked like they were getting ready to soak him for the accusation. Jack started to go over to the kid, but you stopped him and went over yourself.

The kid looked startled when you went over and abruptly took his papers to count them.

“Hey, the new kid’s right Weasel. You only gave him 19. I’m sure it’s an honest mistake though, on account of Oscar can’t count to 20 with his shoes on,” you teased.

Oscar looked ready to fight you, so Jack drew the attention away, “Give the new kid 50 more papes!”

“I don’t want more papers. I’m no charity case. I don’t even know you.”

The older kid grabbed the smaller one’s hand and began to pull him towards the exit of the square, but the latter pulled out of his grasp and climbed up on a stack of papers.

“His name is Jack! And that’s Y/n!”

“Yeah! This here’s the famous Jack Kelly! He once escaped jail on the back of Teddy Roosevelt’s carriage. Made all the papes. Y/n’s smuggled food and things to the kids in the refuge all their life and they get kids out of there sometimes. They’re the best newsie in the city too,” Crutchie boasted.

“Guilty,” you admitted. “How old are you, kid?”

“I’m 10...almost!”

“Well kid, if anybody asks, you’re 7. Younger sells more papes, especially if we’re gonna partner.”

That got the older kid’s attention really drawn in on you and the younger kid, “Who said we wanna partner?”

“Selling with Y/n is the chance of a lifetime. You sell with them, you sell with the best!” Crutchie boasted again.

“If they’re the best, what do they need with us?”

“Cause you got a little brother and I don’t. With that puss, we could easily sell a thousand papes a week,” you countered.

“This is my brother David! And I’m Les!”

“Nice to meet you Davey. My two bits come off the top, we split everything 70 30. Y’know what? I’ll do you even better than that. 60 40.”

“50 50. You’re trying to pull a fast one on a little kid!”

“60 40 and that’s my final offer. Deal?” You asked, spitting in your hand and sticking it out for him to shake.

“Deal,” he said, spitting in his hand and returning the handshake.

“That’s disgusting,” Davey inquired.

“That’s just business,” you protested. “We better go before the Delanceys try to kick us out. Come on.”

—

Les was a natural born seller. Davey on the other hand, wasn’t as good as he could be. You had sold out of papers long before he had. Les had even run out of them and sold one of Davey’s last two.

Davey tried so hard to sell the paper, but it was to no avail. He wasn’t able to make up headlines or make the stories sound interesting. You decided that you would just sell his paper for him and give him the money.

“Extra, extra! Terrifying flight from burning inferno! You heard the story right here!” You called, and a man came up and paid you for the paper.

“You lied,” Davey gawked.

“I did not,” you protested. “I said he heard it right here and he did.”

“Yeah well, my father told me not to lie,” Davey said bluntly.

“Theirs taught them not to starve,” Jack said coming up behind you.

“We should get going if we’re going to find them a place to stay, Jack,” you said turning to him.

“Oh, yeah. Right. Hey,” he started addressing Davey and Les, “how about we divy up the money? We’ll get you some food and find you a place to stay.”

“Oh, we gotta get home. Our folks will be waiting with dinner.”

“You have folks?” You questioned.

“Doesn’t everyone?”

Les’ question made you sharply inhale and look down at the ground. Les was too innocent for his own good. You only hoped he would never have to go through losing one of his parents while he was still young.

“Les,” Davey warned once he saw how your demeanor change. “Why don’t you come over for dinner? Our folks would be glad to have you.”

“Thanks, but I just remembered that Jack and I have a meeting with somebody soon. They’re probably waiting for us now,” you lied.

Les pointed further down the road and asked, “Is that the guy you’re meeting?”

You turned and saw Snyder coming toward you. He noticed you and Jack and called out your names. You told Davey and Les to follow you as you all ran down the streets of the city.

You were still being chased by the time you got to the Bowery. Jack ran up the fire escape followed by Les and then Davey. As you started to climb, you felt a hand grab you ankle and start to pull you back towards the ground.

Davey noticed that you were taking longer than everyone else had, so he turned to check on you. He saw Snyder pulling you down by your leg and he gave you his hand to pull you up.

Once you were finally free from Snyder and up the fire escape of the theater, Davey still had ahold of your hand and you had a strange feeling in your chest.

—

You all entered the theater though a back window and ended up on the catwalk.

“Why am I running? I have nobody chasing me,” Davey muttered.

“Believe me, if you knew who that was, you’d have a reason to run,” you replied.

“Then, who was it?”

“You were about to answer when Jack spoke up instead, “That was Snyder. He runs a jail for underage kids called the Refuge.”

“Do yourself a favor and stay clear of him and that god awful place,” you added.

He nodded as you heard Miss Medda call out from the stage “No kids allowed in the theater!”

Jack climbed down from the catwalk, and the rest of you followed in suit. You and Jack both greeted Miss Medda and you introduced Davey and Les.

When Davey greeted her, he bowed as if he was meeting royalty, and you couldn’t help but laugh to yourself a little. It was kinda cute.

Davey heard you laugh quietly, and shot straight up from his position. He could feel the heat rising to his face, but turned when he noticed that Les was staring at the Bowery Beauties.

“What’s wrong with you?” He asked Les sternly.

“Are you blind? She’s got no clothes on!” Les responded.

You, Jack, and Medda all tried to hold back your laughter while the conversation between Davey and Les was unfolding. You had lost focus on what was happening around you as you looked at Davey, until you heard Miss Medda say, “Theater’s not only entertaining, it’s educational. Got your picture kid?”

Les nodded frantically as Miss Medda had began to acknowledge the backdrop Jack had painted her. Les and Davey began to admire and compliment him on his work, but he just brushed of the comments as if painting something that intricate was child’s play.

Suddenly, Miss Medda’s stage manager ran up to her, telling her that she was supposed to be on stage. She made a joke about and laughed, which you and Jack went along with as well.

Miss Medda told you to stay as long as you all needed to before she went on stage to perform. Jack went to sit with the audience, while you, Davey, and Les stayed behind and watched from backstage.

After Medda went on and introduced the Bowery Beauties to the audience, you noticed that Les looked exhausted. You nudged Davey from his spot beside you to get his attention.

“Y/n, I think I’m going to take him home,” Davey whispered to you in order to not interrupt the show.

“That’s probably a good idea. I’ll walk out with you since I can’t find Jack.”

—

The three of you went outside of the theater after you made sure Snyder wasn’t still out there waiting for you.

“Y/n, do you want us to take you back to wherever you’re staying?” Davey asked.

“No thanks, Davey. I’ll be alright. Besides I don’t want to keep you guys from getting home. Your parents are probably worried.”

“Okay. Goodnight, Y/n.”

“Goodnight, Davey.”

—

The walk home between Davey and Les had been silent. Les was thinking through the day, and thought of a question for Davey.

“You like Y/n don’t you?”

“They’re nice. Is that what you mean?” Davey replied.

“No. I mean you love them, don’t you?”

Heat rose up to Davey’s face for the second time that night and stuttered out, “People don’t fall in love in one day, Les.”

“But that’s how all your books go. The one guy, I can’t remember what they’re called, saves somebody and then they fall in love right after.”

“They’re called knights in shining armor. And I haven’t saved Y/n from anything. Besides, people only fall in love like that in stories,” Davey defended.

“You have saved them though. When that guy was chasing us and he grabbed Y/n, you went to get them,” Les added.

Davey never responded and spent the rest of the night contemplating what Les had said. Even when he was trying to fall asleep, he couldn’t get your name out of his head. Maybe Les was right.

It would explain why he was so embarrassed when he greeted Miss Medda and it would explain why he didn’t let go of your hand after he knew you were safe when Snyder grabbed you.

Meanwhile, back at the lodge you were having similar thoughts. You kept thinking back to that feeling of Davey’s hand in yours, how your hand felt empty without his, and how he offered to take you back to the lodge. He sure was something else.

—

The next day, you woke up feeling great, until you saw the new headline. They were going to make you pay 60 cents for 100 papers instead of the usual 50. You all decide that no one was going to sell papers until they put the price back. You were one strike.

The boys all decided that you and Jack would be the presidents of the strike. Davey was the only one who was apprehensive about joining though. You explained to him why you all had to go on strike, and he finally agreed.

Later that day, you were all sitting around the tables at Jacobi’s Deli discussing who would tell the other boroughs about the strike. It was decided that you, Jack, and Davey would take care of Brooklyn.

While you were all determining who would go where, a young woman walking in asking why everyone was so afraid of Brooklyn. Jack seemed to already know her, and you sort of recognized her from the day before.

She said that she would be able to get all of you in the paper, front page even, if she had an exclusive story about the strike. That got the attention of everybody, and soon you were all wondering if you would actually be able to be on the front page.

You all left after that and decided to head to your designated boroughs the next morning. You and Davey bid each other goodnight just as you had the night before.

—

Waiting for the circulation gate to open the next morning felt the same as torture. Brooklyn wasn’t coming, and you were losing hope that anyone else would.

Race came up and asked if you had seen Brooklyn and you couldn’t help but groan.

“Sure we seen him,” Jack exhaustedly said.

“Him and about 20 of his gang,” Davey inquired.

“And those Brooklyn boys is big,” Les added.

“Yeah, everyone except for Spot,” you said, sarcastically. “At least he was impressed though. Not with us, but impressed.”

“He’s really not gonna help?” Race questioned, his tone filled with discouragement.

“That all depends on how you look at it. If you look and see Brooklyn, they’re with us,” Davey explained.

“Yeah. They wanted proof that we weren’t going to fold at the first sign of trouble,” you scoffed.

The rest of the newsies came by, and said that each borough was only going to join once Brooklyn would. Needless to say, everyone was ready to quit.

Jack had Davey launch into a big speech about how we had to strike in order for everybody to see that you all weren’t just kids. By the end of it, you were once again ready to face Pulitzer and Hearst and get the rights that you all deserved.

—

Suddenly, three scabs pushes passed everyone and bought papers. Jack spoke up to get them to join the side of everyone else, and soon after, everyone was speaking in order to get them to join your side.

The scabs decided to ditch Weasel and the Delanceys in order to fight for what was right, and the strike looked like it would end in your favor.

You were by Davey when you heard Les calling for help. You both turned, and saw the Delanceys shoving Les around. Davey ran over and pushed the Delanceys away from him, and he gave Les to you.

All the newsies in the square cornered the Delanceys and pushed then down, so Les was able to hit them together. Once they were able to get up, the Delanceys ran out of the gate.

You all threw papers around after they left, and you ran to find Davey in the crowd. Once you did, you threw your arms around him.

“Thank you, Davey. Without you none of this would have happened,” you said.

You kissed his cheek and he returned your hug. You stayed in each other’s embrace until you noticed everyone had gone silent. You lifted your head off of Davey’s shoulder and saw Weasel surrounded by strikebreakers. Davey noticed the look on your face, and followed your gaze to once again see the large amount of strikebreakers. Instinctively, his arms wrapped tighter around your waist.

“Y/n, I need you to take Les and get out of here.”

“Davey, I’m not leaving without you. Either we both go, or someone else takes Les,” you protested. “What if Katherine took him? Or at least hid with him?”

“Fine. But if anything happens, come find me, okay?” He asked, as Jack told all the newsies to fight.

“I will.”

You ran to find Katherine to two her to keep an eye on Les. She grabbed his hand and ran with him to hide in the nearest alleyway.

—

You had been fighting one of the strikebreakers when you heard Romeo thanking a cop for showing up. Next thing you knew, Romeo was on the ground, and Davey had been hit by the bull.

You rushed over to his side to make sure that he was alright, but all he said in return was, “Y/n, you have to go now. Please.”

“Davey. I’m not going. Everyone needs me here and besides, I wouldn’t leave unless you did too.”

“Okay. Just don’t get hurt.”

You ran off to help Elmer, but ended up being grabbed by Oscar. He punched you and knocked you to the ground. It ended up knocking all of the air out of you and it took you a few minutes to remember what was going on.

You were still on the ground when you saw Davey over you, getting Oscar away from you the best that he could. Eventually, Oscar got tired of his efforts, and moved on to fight someone else.

Davey picked you up, and you tried to protest, but by the time you started, you, Davey, Katherine, and Les we’re out of the square.

“What happened to them, Davey?” Les asked, worried about you.

“One of the brothers just messed with them a little bit. They’ll be okay though,” he answered.

You looked up at Davey and couldn’t help but admire him. Eventually, you felt a wave of exhaustion take over you, and fell asleep in Davey’s arms.

—

You woke up and felt something on your head. You removed the wash rag, and looked over to your right. Davey was next to you, tending to another one of your wounds.

He noticed that you had woken up, and moved so he could help you sit up in the bed.

“How’re you feeling?”

“I’m okay, Davey. Really.”

“I’m glad,” he started. “When you fell asleep, I got a little worried.”

“You don’t have you be worried. I’m okay.”

You moved so you could rest your head on his shoulder. After sometime, you finally said “You know, Davey? You make me really cliche, but I love it, I guess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just, thank you for saving me.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say that I saved you,” Davey said, blushing at your words.

“I would. It’s the second time you have, really. First you saved me from Snyder, then you saved me from Oscar. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re like my own personal knight in shining armor,” you joked.

Although it was a joke, there was a lot of truth behind it. Davey had saved from any tough spot you had been in since you met. In a way, he was your hero.

“Well,” Davey started, “when a knight in shining armor saves someone, they usually end up falling in love. Does that mean you’re falling in love with me?” Davey asked you, nervously.

“It just might.”

—

Tag List:

@blytheandherbrain @adderall-anon @well-the-kids-do-too @writer-of-camelot@viennaleia@sunshinecrutchie @sapphire–love @midnight-finch @crutchieee-morris@dpslover4life-blog @newsieswearingheelies @fishtankfullofpennies@musicalidiotthe3rd @ben-cook-can-cook @pandalfthesmol@carryingthedaveyjacobs @sunshine-musicals-yea @just-go-and-get-her@ilovebway @thebroadwayaesthetic @was-it-the-nargles-again @fandom-fangirl07 @newsies-plaza @i-got-personality @awwwwwwdang @c0ronas@ughwaitwhat @thecaptainsgingersnap @the-woild-is-my-what-now @you-thinks-wrong-romeo @suddenly-im-respecsable @racinghiggins @bennie-badeend @ilovejoshburrage @val-dani03 @newsie-fics @newtieparker @seasickdolphin @happy-little-musician @the-story-of-the-tucks @the-world-has-buttery-smiles @spot-conlon-king-of-brooklyn @the-real-king-racetrack-higgins @c-taylor-wanna-be-a-glader @rsis0811 @iwantsomesleep @nverkept @constantly-singing @happy-little-musician @bastille-smedry @king-of-nyc @jd-sammy @farfromjustordinary

[raywritesthings]

Dear Friend, 6/?

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Laurel Lance, Oliver Queen, Thea Queen Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen Summary: When Felicity decides to get serious about Ray, she knows it won’t be a good idea for Oliver to be hanging around. So she turns to the world of online dating to keep him distracted. Unknown to the both of them, over the summer Joanna had set Laurel up with an online dating account in the hopes that her friend could move on from past failed relationships. There’s only one way this can end. *Can also be read on my AO3* ***ADDITIONAL NOTE*** So I have a question for you all: I had a shorter, simpler ending initially planned and written, but some discussion in the comments on AO3 caused me to reconsider and possibly extend things further. That being said, I don't have any of that material written and I am looking to be incredibly busy this summer between work, summer assignments, and internships. So would people prefer that I just post everything that I have, including that original ending, on schedule, or would they prefer I write the alternate ending which might cause this story to go on hiatus in a couple of weeks? Please let me know your preference in replies, tags, askbox, however you wanna do it. Thanks!

As he’d told Laurel, Oliver was preparing for the inevitable clash against Ra’s, and that meant preparing Thea. He’d been relieved to finally tell her the truth about his identity, and even more so that she’d accepted him despite everything his being the Arrow had done to her life.

But to tell her the rest, he couldn’t do it here. Thea needed space away from the others, and from Malcolm, to learn the truth of what she’d been forced to do. So he’d decided to take her to Lian Yu, partly to start his own training of her and partly to provide her that space. To do that, of course, meant leaving again.

This time, he thought he’d go about it the right way.

KingOfSurvival: just wanted to let you know this time, I am going on a trip without WiFi. Should be a week. Don’t organize any search parties while I’m gone

Sure enough, she replied.

JusticeIsAWoman: haha very funny

JusticeIsAWoman: but thanks for telling me, really

JusticeIsAWoman: and have fun

Despite knowing he wasn’t planning much fun by a long shot, he found himself smiling.

KingOfSurvival: we’ll see

KingOfSurvival: I’ll miss you

Oliver licked his lips as he watched for her response. He’d typed that on an impulse, not really thinking through the implications. Would she find that weird? Clingy?

JusticeIsAWoman: miss you too

He breathed a sigh of relief and put away his phone.

On the plane ride over and in the initial calm of their stay on the island, he caught himself scrolling back through old conversations of theirs, just to read her words again. And in the aftermath of their confrontation with Slade, he found himself wishing he could just be home again so he could talk to her.

She’d become such a part of his life it was hard to believe sometimes. He thought of her as a friend the same as John or Felicity or Roy or even Laurel, even if he’d known this person for only a fraction of the time he’d known her. Yet it also gave him some hope; Slade may have been right that he’d lost some of the most important people in his life, but Oliver had to be doing something right if she was in it.

—-

Ever since Thea had learned the truth —about herself, about Oliver, about Malcolm — it felt like she’d been training nonstop. She couldn’t complain; training her body, pushing it to the limit and working herself to exhaustion kept her from thinking. If she slowed down, she’d have to face to truth at the heart of it all: what she’d done to Sara.

She didn’t know how to live with this kind of guilt.

Thea went down to the base one late afternoon and found it mostly vacant. Laurel was working with her gloves at the mats, a whirlwind of movement. She wished she could be like that, training with a sheer iron will instead of having a target on her back. Even her initial training with Malcolm, part of her wondered now just how much of it had really been her idea or if it had all been his careful manipulation.

Thea didn’t know whether to call out to her or not; she knew Laurel didn’t blame her, but she found herself mostly keeping out of her way regardless.

But Laurel stopped, going for a towel to wipe at the sweat on her forehead. She nodded to Thea. “Hey, Speedy.”

“Hey. Um, looking good.”

“Thanks.”

There was a pause. There were always pauses now around Thea. She didn’t know what to say and people didn’t know what to say to her. It sucked, and she didn’t know what was worse. She would never want to take back not knowing the truth, but in some ways it had brought her closer to the people she cared about and in some it ways it had only pushed them further away.

“Think you could show me how to do that?” She blurted unexpectedly.

“You want me to train you?”

“Well, sure, Malcolm and Oliver aren’t boxing experts.”

“I wouldn’t call myself an expert,” Laurel deflected.

“But you’ll be better than me. And maybe teaching somebody will help you, too. It’s okay if you don’t want to,” she added, looking down. Thea ought to consider herself lucky Laurel still talked to her at all, if she were being honest with herself. But she couldn’t stop herself missing her.

Maybe Laurel read some of that on her face, because she stepped forward and placed a hand on Thea’s shoulder. “Of course I want to. I just figured with Oliver and Malcolm already training you, you wouldn’t need my help.”

“Are you kidding? Laurel, you throw guys against walls. No way Ollie’s gonna teach me that.”

Her friend’s lips pressed together, an attempt to hide the pleased smile she wore. “Well, let’s start with the basics, first.”

And she really meant the basics. Laurel showed her how to put on the gloves properly, how to hold her fists, the right stance, and none of that involved throwing a punch yet.

Laurel got herself ready but threw Thea for a loop when she strapped a couple pads onto her gloves.

“What’re those?”

“Focus mitts.” She tapped the center of one. “You’re gonna be punching right here.”

That proved to be harder work than she’d thought. Laurel wasn’t punching back, but she didn’t stay still either. She showed Thea the difference between various combinations and then had her practice them one after the other. It was a good way to work up a sweat.

Laurel’s phone buzzed, and she held up a hand to signal a pause so she could go check it. Thea ventured off the mat for her water bottle, and she glanced at Laurel out of the corner of her eye.

Her friend’s eyes were sparkling as she typed out some reply, her lips pressed together like she was holding in a laugh. It had been a long time since Thea had ever seen her smile like that.

Curiosity piqued, she asked, “Who’s that?”

Laurel looked up with wide eyes. “Um, nobody.”

Thea raised an eyebrow. “Right, that’s why they have your number.”

“It’s kind of a long story.” Laurel looked around the currently empty base, then sighed. She took two steps closer to Thea. “Can you promise not to tell anybody?”

“Yeah, of course,” Thea agreed even as she tensed slightly. Secrets among this group never seemed to turn out well.

But to her pleasant surprise, what Laurel eventually said was, “I’ve been talking to this guy on an anonymous dating app.”

“No way!”

“It’s not like that. I mean, we’re friends. And he’s a great guy, but I don’t even know his name. And anyway…” She trailed off and shook her head, though Thea didn’t miss the way her eyes had drifted over to Oliver’s suit in its case.

“But you like him?”

“Him? Oh.” Laurel glanced back down at her phone. “Yeah. I mean, it’s just been nice to have someone to talk to who’s a little distant from it all.”

“It doesn’t make it harder since you can’t get into the details?”

She shrugged. “We work around it. But even if I can’t say everything, I’m still being honest. And it’s nice to have somebody listen to what I’m saying instead of deciding what I must be thinking because of my past mistakes.”

When she put it that way, it sounded great. “Where do I sign up?”

Laurel chuckled. “I got really lucky finding someone who wanted something similar out of this to what I did. And it took a while and a lot of unwelcome messages before that.” She set the phone aside. “Besides, I know you guys are here for me, too, just like I’m here for you.”

Thea smiled. “Thanks, Laurel. I don’t know how you even still want to care—”

“Hey, we all know this wasn’t your fault.” Laurel held her gaze until she nodded once. “And I’m always going to care about you, and Ollie, and the others.”

“I’m glad you and Ollie are better friends than last year,” Thea said before she could really help herself.

But Laurel didn’t look offended. “So am I. I think we’re all getting better from last year. Knowing the truth helps. And he’s been...different.” Her gaze went far away again, probably thinking of the different things Thea’s brother had apparently been doing. “It’s been nice being able to talk to him, too.”

Laurel gave herself a little shake, then reached for the training mitts.

“Let’s get back to work.”

Thea agreed with little fuss, though her mind remained on what she’d just learned. She wanted Laurel to be happy, no matter what form that took, but wondered at the choice the other woman seemed stuck between; take a chance on a stranger, or hold onto what was familiar yet no more guaranteed. Maybe she ought to try sounding Ollie out discreetly for her to see where he stood. Thea didn’t want Laurel to lose an opportunity with this new guy just because her brother was giving off his infamous mixed signals. But she wanted Oliver to be happy, too. Maybe it was better not to meddle and let whatever happened happen.

Even if a relationship wasn’t in the cards, Thea was glad to know her friend had someone in her life to make her smile like that again.

—-

Oliver stared at the popup on the screen.

You have earned one-hundred stars with JusticeIsAWoman! Show her your photo? Y/N

He had completely forgotten that aspect of the app, which Felicity had only mentioned once in passing. She clearly hadn’t thought he’d ever reach this point. He hadn’t meant to reach it at all.

Oliver closed out of the little box and pulled up the chat screen.

KingOfSurvival: you didn’t happen to get a notification about stars, did you?

It was a few minutes after that that she sent a reply.

JusticeIsAWoman: just saw it

JusticeIsAWoman: So...pictures

KingOfSurvival: yeah

KingOfSurvival: I’m not even sure I ever uploaded a picture

JusticeIsAWoman: I know I didn’t

JusticeIsAWoman: so what do we want to do

That wasn’t as easy a question as it sounded. On the one hand, he’d been talking to her and wondering for so long, it might be nice to have a face to match to his idea of her. Maybe even a name. Something that would make this deep familiarity she seemed to hold with him feel more tangible, more explainable.

On the other hand, whenever things became tangible, that was always when they went wrong. When he made them go wrong.

KingOfSurvival: I guess I’m afraid it will ruin what we have

JusticeIsAWoman: funny, that’s what I was thinking

Well, at least he wasn’t the only one worried about screwing up.

KingOfSurvival: I’m sure you’d do fine

KingOfSurvival: I’m the one who can never see when I have a good thing going

JusticeIsAWoman: you really gotta stop beating yourself up about that one failed date

Oliver blinked. He hadn’t even been thinking of Felicity in that moment.

KingOfSurvival: I meant the other friend-ex

He always meant the other friend-ex, didn’t he? No matter what he said or did, it always seemed to come back to Laurel. He’d probably talked about Laurel twice as much as Felicity on this app, gotten more advice, done more to try and heal what he’d broken.

JusticeIsAWoman: I thought you weren’t still interested in her?

He’d said as much in his real life, hadn’t he? But why did his thoughts always trend back in that direction? What was it that always brought him back to her?

KingOfSurvival: it’s not really a matter of whether I’m interested

KingOfSurvival: I screwed things up too badly between us for her to ever be interested again

JusticeIsAWoman: she said that?

KingOfSurvival: not in so many words

KingOfSurvival: but I’m not trying to decide things for her, promise

JusticeIsAWoman: well, I’m sorry things ended up that way between you

KingOfSurvival: me too

Oliver felt like his head was spinning. He’d never gotten over the regret for his actions regarding Laurel, but over time he’d tried to tell himself that was just because it had been wrong. Not that he still missed what they’d had.

But he did miss it. He missed being the one to make her smile or laugh, missed the quiet nights where the most serious thing they had to discuss was what to order in for their study dates, missed how she used to pretend to get scared at a horror film so he had the excuse to pull her into his arms.

No matter how many times Laurel told him now that he could have a life and be the Arrow at the same time, Oliver realized it would never be enough, because he could never have the life he really wanted ever again. He’d lost that long before he ever put on that hood, and he’d be a fool to think he could ever get it back.

KingOfSurvival: I guess that’s why I’m on here

KingOfSurvival: because I kept trying to move on with real dating, but it never worked

KingOfSurvival: and I knew it was me but I didn’t want to admit why it was me

KingOfSurvival: why I didn’t want to move on

JusticeIsAWoman: it’s hard to admit when you’re not over someone

KingOfSurvival: but I need to be

Not for himself, but for Laurel. He could see now how his feelings got in the way of rational decision making when it came to her. John had always warned him. If he hadn’t been so worried or protective, maybe he would have agreed to train her and she’d be better off in the streets than she was now. Maybe he’d have been more forthcoming with information about Sara’s case if he hadn’t been so concerned with sparing her pain, so she wouldn’t have felt she needed to do things so on her own.

KingOfSurvival: I keep setting myself up to fail because I think it’s what I deserve. But all it does is hurt other people

JusticeIsAWoman: yeah, I’ve been there

JusticeIsAWoman: but what does your friend-ex want? Like really what she wants, not what you think she wants

KingOfSurvival: I know, I’m learning

Oliver couldn’t quite believe himself, that he was back here even considering if Laurel...but no. He felt it was fair to say she wasn’t looking for a relationship with him, or perhaps anyone, at the moment.

KingOfSurvival: she wants to be friends, I guess

KingOfSurvival: she said we should hang out more, outside of work I mean

JusticeIsAWoman: how’s she doing at the new job?

KingOfSurvival: good. Great, really, considering she hasn’t been at it that long

He hadn’t allowed himself to say that nearly enough. He’d been tougher on her than Roy or Barry, and he knew that was because he’d been trying to keep her off the field and safe. Because he cared about her so fiercely he didn’t know how to handle it sometimes.

JusticeIsAWoman: so will you ask her out?

KingOfSurvival: just as a friend

KingOfSurvival: things are too hectic right now to even consider anything else

JusticeIsAWoman: I can understand that

JusticeIsAWoman: so what about us?

What about them? If he knew he was still struggling with moving on, it wouldn’t be fair to take a new step with this not-quite-a-relationship. But then was putting whatever they had on hold for something he knew would never happen fair?

KingOfSurvival: don’t get me wrong, I like what we have

KingOfSurvival: but considering our dating histories, maybe it might be a good idea to take our time on something like this?

It was a while before she answered. He wondered if he’d scared her off by mentioning dating. After all, they’d promised. And pictures didn’t have to mean dating, but they would mean...something. Something more.

JusticeIsAWoman: ok

JusticeIsAWoman: how about if we hit another hundred stars, we’ll show each other our pictures then

It was reasonable.

KingOfSurvival: sure

It was probably a cowardly move, but he wasn’t sure how to be brave in this sort of situation. He never had been. As long as they were still talking, that would have to be enough. At least for now.

He had some unfinished personal matters to finally get some closure on.