#I'm so sorry to drop such an iconic chapter on you in such an iconic way and no one in your life will know why youre so stoked

[averagejoesolomon]

lmao, no this is not a reblog. Yes I did write this chapter in two days—fast enough that I still owe some replies on comments from the last chapter. But between you and me, this chapter has been in my head for years and I couldn't wait any longer. Have so much fun, gang. And if you're new here, you can read all of Full Circle on Ao3. Heads up! While not overly graphic, this is a Bridgerton-level sex scene between Rachel and Matt. If that's likely to make you squeamish in any way, feel free to skip this one! While there are some cool character things happening in here, you will not miss anything crucial to the plot. If you skip this chapter, this sequence will read as a fade-to-black.

Chapter Eleven

Like everything else between them, Rachel takes charge of this, too.

Matt’s in no state to lift her up the way he really wants to, with his grip tight around her thighs and her legs wrapped around his hips, but that’s all well and good. Rachel’s already walking him back, back, back—lips working him like he’s a lock she desperately needs to pick—until the backs of his knees come against the mattress. He falls obligingly to the edge of the bed, chin up and reaching for her when their connection breaks, and she dutifully returns to the urgent work of kissing his Goddamn lights out.

His lap provides a convenient place for her to perch, as she eases into an eager straddle. His beaten body protests, but Rachel shuts down every objection without a word. The pressure of her lips eases a cut on his own. Her weight helps keep him upright. Her hands card through his hair and leave warm, soothing streaks along a bump on his head. “Is this okay?” she asks, voice breathy and hopeful.

She doesn’t wait for his answer before she’s kissing him again, willing, wanting, and he lets out a low, grumbling laugh between breaths. This is okay the same way sunsets at the farm are okay. The same way the first snow of the season is okay. The same way acts of God and everyday miracles are okay. It’s just a little bit of a prayer when Matt says, “God, yes. Yes.”

It’s all the permission she needs to drop her hands to the hem of his hoodie, pulling it up his torso. She’s careful, mindful of the cuts she spent hours tending to, but Matt ain’t got that kind of patience. He helps her along, their hands brushing and fumbling in a shared fervor to tear his top off and let it fall to the floor.

He returns the favor by reaching around and under her shirt, fingertips brushing along every inch of her spine until he finds the lacy strip of fabric he’s looking for. Finally, he gets to unlatch her the way he’s wanted to since the Bolshoi, with all the precision of an expert marksman. Her bra snaps loose, and Rachel’s moan fills his mouth from front to back, tangible, thrilling, the sweet taste of cranberries landing in his throat.

“That dress,” he manages, recalling the sight of her sleek black silhouette, with his fingertips at her bare, plunging back. “God, you looked so good in that dress.”

She makes her way down his jaw, into the cradle of his neck, leaving a trail of lipstick in her wake. She’s right in his ear when she admits, “I wore it for you.”

That’s a dangerous thing to say to a fella, so early into whatever it is they’re doing here, because it’s the kind of confession that sends his blood pumping, an electric zing racing down his spine, settling in his gut, and standing everything up on end. It’s one thing to witness that kind of knockout beauty firsthand, but another thing entirely to think that it was custom tailored to suit him—that it might, in some small way, belong to him. A piece of her, for one night only, gifted by the girl he’s falling hard for. “Christ,” he breathes. “Christ, Rachel.”

The anticipation builds to his breaking point, coiling tighter and tighter in his chest until he can’t take any more waiting. He pulls her top over her head, bra and shirt together in one fell swoop, and leaves them both to join his own discarded top. The movement knocks her bun loose, wild curls toppling over her shoulder, and Matt’s rewarded for his efforts with an eye-level view of her bare chest.

Rachel doesn’t have scars—at least, none that he can see in the low golden light of the nightstand lamp. He might have the sense to be curious about that later, but for now his only thought is that it’s a damn shame, because he was so looking forward to trailing his lips along every last one, feeling the ridges of rough and storied skin. He’ll have to settle for bone and muscle instead, and he starts with the spot where her sternum shows.

Rachel’s arms fall to his shoulders, wrapping around his head as she pulls him in closer. He sweeps kisses up the center of her chest, along her collar bone, down her rib cage, until goosebumps spot her skin.

“Don’t tease,” she says. It’s every bit the instruction she usually gives him, and Matt follows it as faithfully as he always does. Acting on her orders, he takes her nipple in his mouth, rolling its point around his tongue. He must be doing something right, because Rachel’s hands rake through his hair, holding him in place as she throws her chin toward the heavens and lets out a catching, guttural sigh. The longer he goes, the harder she rocks against his waist, and Matt realizes with some urgency that he ought to slow all this down, if he plans to enjoy this moment much longer.

So he pulls apart and beckons for her lips once more. She answers his bid the moment he makes it, attuned to him through years of shared training, joint mission objectives, and good old-fashioned friendship. She’s good at this. She’s good at him. She’s good at everything.

His hands fit along her hips exactly the way he expects, fingers pressing into the soft spots just above her belt loops. When he leans back, back, back, she follows and shifts her weight to rest on top of him. Somewhere in his rattled mind, he registers an excruciating soreness in his side, but this sensation comes second to anything she offers and anyway, the swollen bruise is soothed by the feel of her icy hand running along his ribs. The pain works in strange harmony to amplify his pleasure.

“You’re hurt,” she remembers, though any concern she has is undercut by the fact that it’s expressed right after her tongue has just been in his mouth. “You’re—”

“I promise you,” Matt cuts in, finding a spot along her jaw that quiets her, “that I have never, in my life, felt better than I do right now.”

She lets out a sound that seems to echo the sentiment and Matt’s satisfied smile spreads across the craning arch of her neck, exposed for his benefit. Always a gentleman, he anticipates her wants, her needs, and continues down the path she’s laid out for him, her pulse pounding against each lingering kiss. She sinks deeper into him with every touch, more and more at ease as she gains confidence in his ability to support her, and there’s no better feeling in the world than Rachel Cameron deciding to trust him.

He glances up, searching, desperate to find her. And ain’t it something, that she’s already found him? 

Their eyes catch, her gaze more intense than he’s ever seen it—which is saying something given their track record for heated, furious fights. But this is different than all that. This expression is new to her, wrapped up in short, heaving breaths and the flush of her cheeks. Her eyes dart between his, assessing something he can’t name, before they finally drop down to his lips. 

She raises a gentle hand toward the cut that splits his upper lip into two uneven halves, her thumb grazing the raw, bloodied edge. “I can’t believe you.” Only when he hears the tremor in her voice is he able to finally identify all the worry that floods her features. “This was so—so reckless, Matthew.”

Her, worried about him. How about that? “Are we fighting now?”

It’s his best attempt at a joke, trying to bring her back around to the part where she’s kissing him, and holding him, and doing anything she wants to him. But it has the opposite effect, drawing out her not-quite dimples and sparking something new in her dark eyes. When she does finally kiss him again—thank the almighty God—it’s with a renewed strength. A frenzied, needy sort of affair that puts her want on full display. Like she’s trying to get enough of him to last her whole lifetime.

And in an instant, he realizes she’s thinking—even now, even in this moment that so clearly belongs to impulse. She’s thinking days, weeks, months ahead, stockpiling love just in case she needs it someday. There’s a calculation in every touch. A strategy in every sigh. He can sense it in the way she moves, this frantic feeling that she needs to plan this moment, just like she plans any other.

So Matt does what he does best. He catches Rachel Cameron off guard.

He’s not sure this is what Langley had in mind when they taught him how to flip an opponent and land on top, but it’s a skill that proves mighty handy in this particular moment. Under most circumstances, he can count on Rachel to be the one person to get out of his hold, but with all of her leverage sunken beneath the weight of him, melting into the mattress, she’s got no choice but to succumb to his strength.

Through occupied lips, he says, “Stop thinking,” and threads his fingers through hers for good measure, pinning busy hands to the sheets where they can’t make any more decisions.

But Rachel’s not likely to give up control that easy. “Make me,” is her answering challenge, but she beckons upward against him, her body begging for more, and he’s known her long enough to hear her plea just below the surface. She wants him, and that drives him absolutely crazy. She wants him, and he can think of at least one way to switch off that persistent voice in her head she can’t seem to shake.

One thoughtless kiss at a time, he eases his way around her neck, past her shoulder, across her collar, and down, down, down the tender white skin of her torso. His hands trail close behind, leaving more goosebumps along her ribs, her stomach, her hips, until he reaches a small brass button that unlatches without effort. As he slips her jeans off, he kisses another trail along the bright red indents left behind by her seams, down to one knee, then back up from the other, until her thighs part the way for Matt to leave one last kiss atop more lace. He might keep going here, except he hears Rachel’s voice in his thoughts, Don’t tease.

So he makes quick work of taking these off, too, until it’s just her—Eve in the Garden of Eden, right before his very eyes. He sinks eagerly into the sheets and settles into the bittersweet taste of her, a mouthful of her heartbeat melting like sugar on his tongue.

With her own hands free once more, Rachel reaches into his hair, pressing him deeper into herself. He tends to her wanting whimpers by adding the slightest bit of pressure, more and more, right up until the moment her back arches with the kind of pleasure that stops every last thought in its tracks. She’s gasping against her own absentminded ecstasy, and Matt reckons he could spend a lifetime chasing after the way she sighs, “Matthew,” in that moment.

It’s quite a sight to behold, when Rachel Cameron finally surrenders to her intuition.

She’s just as bossy in bed as she is out of it, and Matt relishes in the simplicity. Every time he follows one of her instructions, he’s met with the immediately thrilling feedback of her obvious delight. A little this way. A little that way. Up, and up again. Faster. More. Yes, yes, yes.

Together, they bring her close enough to the edge that she shakes and writhes, gloriously oblivious to the world around her. Her hands twist instinctively in the sheets. Her moans are loud and her language is crude. And he’s pretty certain she ain’t aware of the way her hips buck roughly, messily against his mouth. He’s never seen her this far gone—never seen her let go of this much, all at once, and it’s got him all sorts of turned on to think that she can only do this because she’s with him. It’s all so new, new, new, and he wants more, more, more, and he wants it forever and ever.

“Stop,” she gasps. “Fuck, stop, I’m—get up here. I still want you.”

He certainly ain’t gotta be told twice. It’s with an outright and admiring obedience that he breaks away from the slick, shining strands snapping between them. He starts to drag his lips back up her body, but her wild, wanting hands find him first, guiding him forward. She skips past all the slow, prolonged touches and straight to the moment their lips meet once more, his own still dewy with a job well done. It might just kill him, the way she devours her own taste on his mouth.

“Mmmon top,” she huffs. “I have to be on top.”

She says this with the same compulsive certainty that he feels a deep-down need to challenge, but he’s already had his fun with her and anyway, it’s getting harder to hold himself up against the mounting aches in his body. For now, he wraps an arm around her waist, rolling her back into his lap as he leans against the pillows that rest along the wire-frame headboard. She eases back into her usual sense of control with a relieved sigh, and Matt makes a mental note to keep working on this part with her, next time.

But until then, Rachel makes good use of her reinstated power. Her hands are already at his drawstrings, untying the knot that holds them up. He knows she can feel him through the sweats, because she’s sitting on just the right spot, in just the right way, with a small grinding motion that has him longing for the moment there’s nothing between them. 

He realizes, with a gutting dread, “I don’t have a—”

“I’m on birth control,” she says because, of course, she’s already thought it through before Matt even realized there was anything to think about.

He could kiss her just for this, but he leaves her to the far more appealing task at hand. She strips him down with the same efficiency she uses to disarm a handgun, following a methodical order as she removes one intentional piece at a time. When he was younger, Matt always pictured himself with a wild, free-spirited type, but now he sees how much hotter it is when a woman knows exactly what she’s trying to achieve and exactly how to achieve it.

He’s ready for her, in every way he can be.

When she climbs back onto his lap, she lifts his chin and wraps her hands behind his neck. All he can do is hope, pray that she’ll kiss him again. She does, this one harder, hungrier, greedier than the others, and when she pulls back, her eyes find his and stay there. 

She reaches down to position him and this single touch is enough to send his brain buzzing, every good memory he’s ever had now dwarfed by this one. In a life like his, run on instinct and intuition, there ain’t many things that can make him feel like this anymore, but Rachel is the exception. Rachel is always the exception. Eyes still locked, she sinks onto him—wet, and warm, and relaxed. She starts slowly, not sure how they’ll fit together, but it ain’t long before she finds her small, maddening rocking motion.

Matt winces against a pang in his side, but it passes the moment Rachel’s hand falls to his chest. “Does it hurt?” she wants to know, eyes wide and endearing.

He shakes his head. “No,” he says. “No. You?”

Her forehead falls to his as she shakes, too. “No.”

It’s all the confirmation she needs to replace soft, exploratory rocking with harder, more rhythmic pulses. She’s got this steady, determined look in her eye, reading him like he’s a meter on display to measure her performance. Rachel fucks the same way she does everything else—thoughtfully, purposefully, and with a strategy in mind to reach her desired result which, in this case, seems to be getting Matt to call out her name as many times as possible. “Fuck, Rachel.”

This sends her smiling, and when she’s satisfied that she’s found the right pace and pressure for him, she finally breaks eye contact to fall into his shoulder. Her arms wrap around his back, using him for leverage, and he rests his hands on her hips to steady her. Sweet, sensual moans land right in his ear. Damp, dark curls mat against the back of her neck. She picks up speed, relying on the same stamina that gets her through high-stakes sparring matches and do-or-die chases across European cities. She’s all out for him. She’s got nothing to lose.

“I thought you were dead.” Her breath rolls along his neck, sending shock waves down his spine. “I thought I lost you.”

“I know,” he says, nuzzling her neck with a fresh batch of kisses. “I know.”

“Don’t ever,” she says, “do that to me again."

"Yes ma'am."

"I mean it, Matthew... Matthew... Matthew…”

Her words dissolve into his name over, and over, and over, like it’s the only thing she knows. He could get used to the way it feels in his chest, when she calls out for him like that. “I’m here,” he tells her, and he means it. He ain’t ever leaving her again. “I’m here, Rachel.”

At the sound of her own name, she pulls him impossibly closer and rides him into breathlessness. Her nails leave fresh scratches along his shoulder blades as she grips him, every moan pitching upward into heavenly whines. She’s tightening around him, back on that thoughtless edge, closer with every easy pulse, so he whispers an encouraging, “Good girl,” in her ear. “God, you’re so good.”

And he hopes she’s close, because he’s not gonna last much longer with the way she’s breathing all heavy and heated. His own heartbeat penetrates down to his nerves, lighting him up wherever Rachel touches him—which is damn near everywhere. She’s the feel of frostbite before it numbs. She’s the zing of pouring, horizontal rain. She’s the strike of lightning directly from God’s finger. In an effort to buy himself a few more seconds, he finds her lips again, their kisses careless and sloppy now, but that proves not to be much of a problem anyway.

Rachel pulls away first, back arching, breath hitching, teetering until the moment she finally falls, contracting around him with wavering, rippling pulses. He takes this as a cue for his own release, finally letting his nerves spike as she leans back into him, quivering, trembling, with plenty of come down kisses to spare.

“Matthew,” she says, one last time.

“I’m here,” is his automatic reply.

Her eyes find him again, and he brushes the curls from her cheeks, her forehead. She’s still heaving, still caught up in the rush running through her veins. “I’ve loved you…” she starts, but she runs out of breath before the end. It’s the past tense that sparks his interest. Not love, but have loved. “I’ve loved you for I don’t know how long.”

And he knows exactly what she means. Maybe their love didn’t start on day one, but it did start sometime soon after. Sometime between then and now, when they were too distracted by the rest of the world to realize they had a good thing right in front of them. “Rachel Cameron,” he answers, catching his own breath. “I’ll love you ‘til the day I die.”

[lizardboiii]

At The Tone ┃ DCU

Barry Allen x Spider-Woman!Reader

┃ Summary: Sometimes bad things happen to good people - and that’s where the Justice League comes in. Too bad you weren’t interested.

“Think I forgot how to be happy Something I'm not, but something I can be" Billie Eilish, "What Was I Made For?"

│cw: SFW, alcohol abuse, unhealthy coping mechanisms, grief, hurt/comfort, violent themes

│wc: 3.9k

│chapters: One shot

│notes: This fic has been sitting unfinished (with 2k words!!) in my drafts for a WHILE. randomly decided it needed to see the light of day ig. was gonna make it nsfw but i low key hate it and just wanted too move on oops. enjoy <3

・❥・

│One Shot: At The Tone

You have five new messages.

“Good afternoon, Spider-Woman this is Cla-”

You heard a throat clear.

“It’s Superman. I see you still aren’t picking up any of the team’s calls,” He swallowed thickly, “I understand your recent loss was… hard. Something none of us would have wished for anybody.”

You could feel the tension in his voice.

“Please take all the time you need. The league is more than capable of taking care of New York in your absence for the time being.”

The sound of a pen clicking disrupted the message every so often, “But at least give us some indication you're alive…and well. The team cares about you,” He chuckled warmly, “Even “Mr. I Work Alone” Batman himself.”

His laugh dropped abruptly with a soft sigh, “Call me back when you can.”

Beep

You crawled out of bed slowly, dragging your duvet behind you like a cloak. The plush cotton laid heavy on your shoulders. You wondered if this was how Big Blue felt every morning - the weight of knowing everything depending on him once he bore his iconic red cape. 

You knew what that weight felt like, and you knew what it felt like to have it all come crashing down.

You have four new messages 

“How’s it hanging, Spidy? Haha, you get it?” A dramatic sigh escaped the machine, “Sorry, poor timing.”

He took a moment to regroup, “It's Green Lantern, just calling to check in. Headquarters has been depressing without you. I mean even Martian Manhunter is down in the dumps. It's a total bummer.”

Another sigh, “Listen you don't have to call me back if you don’t want to, but at least let Flash know you're still alive. He needs you more than he lets on.”

Beep

You groaned at the shrill ring of the answering machine. The outdated tech was too cherished to be discarded but the pulsing headaches you received from it almost outweighed the fond memories of Aunt May.

Thoroughly woken up, you entered your kitchenette. Your eyes shifted between the week old coffee pot on your stove to the half empty Hennessy bottle next to it. 

Maybe this time you would make the right choice. A sober evening is a good evening. However, the battle was always rigged to begin with and the winner already predetermined.

The Hennessy felt burdensome in your hand as you took a long swig. It burned violently down your throat, eating at your skin, before finally settling warmly in your stomach. Though you hated to admit it, it satisfied you more than any pot of coffee could.

Staggering to your couch, courtesy of one of New York’s finest sidewalks, you flopped down. The cushions were well used and musty. But who were you to pass up a free couch?

You have three new messages

“Spider-Woman.”

There was a lengthy pause.

“Your recent inactivity has caused some concerns regarding your whereabouts. The league seems to be having a hard time focusing on missions with your absence.”

Bats’ uncertainty leaked through the phone as he thought of his next sentence, “You have my condolences, Webs. However, the league cannot continue to work with this distraction. Please report to the Hall of Justice immediately.”

He hesitated, “We are worried.”

Beep

An involuntary snort escaped you. Bats’ attempt at comfort was interesting to say the least. He was surprisingly awkward for a leader of the Justice League. Though you supposed dark and brooding was his brand.

You have two new message

“Greetings, Spider-Woman, Wonder Woman speaking.”

You could hear muffled arguing in the background.

“Batman may have been a bit…straightforward in that last voicemail,” She attempted a fake laugh, “Please do not mind his bluntness, he is merely just as concerned as the rest of us. In his own way at least.”

A loud slam made her curse under her breath.

“I apologize I must go, the “children” are fighting again. Don’t hesitate to call back. See you soon, Webs.”

Beep

Lifting the liquor to your lips, your brows creased when only a drop hit your tongue. Out already?

You let out an exaggerated sigh before placing the empty bottle on your coffee table. A quick glance at your barren pantry told you everything you needed to know. You’d have to go out and get some more. You felt your face scrunch. That means you have to go out in public.

You weighed your options. 

You could stay inside and continue to peacefully hide from the world, but you're guaranteed to sober up eventually.

Or you could make a quick trip to the convenience store down the road and pray the minimum wage employee can’t smell the alcohol on you from a mile away. 

You hummed thoughtfully. Though, now that you think about it, there’s a off chance you might run into the supe that’s covering your city for the time being. Then again, there’s a very high chance it’s not someone from the Justice League, a member from The Team at best. 

Massaging your forehead, you tried to remember the last time a Justice League member took a leave of absence. A blonde goatee flashed in your mind.

That’s right. Green Arrow was out for a while when he got busted up pretty bad. His protégé, Speedy, ended up babysitting Star City in his absence. You bit your lip. 

But you didn’t have one of those anymore.

You have one new message

“Hey Webs! Sent me to voicemail again, huh?”

An awkward laugh made the machine crackle.

“Just calling to check up on you. How are you doing? Feeling alright? Just say the word and I can grab you anything from anywhere. I mean literally anywhere. They don’t call me the fastest man alive for nothing!”

You could practically hear the large smile embedded on his face.

A large sigh passed through the speaker, “It’s been a month now. The team misses you…I miss you. A lot actually.”

He paused.

“Just call me back alright? I need to know if you're okay.”

Beep

Your hand paused over your front door handle. Flash’s deep voice was like a siren's call, beckoning you in. 

What you’d give to turn around. What you'd do to call him back. It took everything in you to force yourself away from his voice.

Your best friend. 

Your confidant. 

Your everything. 

You have zero new messages

・❥・

You weaved through the bustling sidewalk with a slight wobble, managing to dodge a third of the people you almost crashed into. Night was quickly approaching. That meant the streets were only going to get busier. 

More people = More crime = More superheroes.

Fumbling into a dimly lit alley, you avoided Main Street completely. It was too risky. Even in your civilian disguise there was no guarantee your voice wouldn’t be recognized - mainly by your teammates but especially by… Flash.

You recalled how often you sought each other out in the Hall of Justice. Whether it was meddling in the business of others, or simply enjoying the company of one another.

His hand always seemed to find its way to the small of your back. Gently resting. While his thumb delicately circled the thin fabric of your suit. 

He leaned in closer than he should. The dull smell of his cologne inevitably picked up by your heightened senses. 

It wasn't how friends should behave - but that's all you ever were. Friends.

Thwack!

You slammed yourself against one of the side walls in surprise, extinguishing your mind of complex thoughts. Creeping closer, you cursed in your head when harsh thumps and muffled grunting filled the air. 

“Where’s my money, Huey?”

Crack!

“I-I don’t know! Please!”

Whack!

You recognized the tell-tale sound of blood splattering against the ground, akin to paint splashing. The sound made you nauseous. Chewing on the inside of your cheek, you thought of your next move. 

Now, on any normal occasion you’d swing in all heroic and save the day. But today was different. You were different. 

Excuses flooded your brain as you tried to explain to yourself why you felt little desire to help the abused man. 

Your suit was at home crammed somewhere in between an ugly Christmas sweater and a latex bodysuit you practically begged Cat Woman not to give you. 

Even if you had the energy, you were still considered MIA to the league. You’d basically be spoon feeding them your location. 

Your internal dilemma didn’t last long as the pummeling swiftly came to an end. Peaking around the corner, you watched the assistants retreat into an adjacent alley. They moved lazily. Clearly they didn’t expect to be caught.

You could still catch them.

You found yourself making an internal description. Two Caucasian males both wearing black beanies and disgustingly outdated puffer jackets. The taller one sported purple and green. While the shorter preferred yellow. 

Your foot shifted before you felt yourself hesitate. Maybe you shouldn’t. They’d probably be caught soon enough anyways. 

If anything, the supe covering your city would swoop in and haul their asses to the local jail. Especially when you called an ambulance for the man who was passed out on the ground. It would put this area on tonight's map. You sighed and finally allowed yourself to relax. 

This was fine. 

Everything was fine. 

Shifting your eyes to the ground, you located the poor soul who suffered the attack. His breathing was ragged and wet. You were quick to put two fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse. A wave of relief crashed through you when you felt a steady beating.

Pulling out your phone, you immediately dialed 911 and requested an ambulance, anonymously of course. You stayed with the man until you could hear loud sirens growing closer. Your sign to leave. 

Exiting the alleyway, you reached the small convenience store in record time. The adrenaline in your system was starting to make quick work of the alcohol in your bloodstream. 

You could feel your senses beginning to come back. Eyes clearer. Ears sharper. You could practically hear the heartbeats of everyone in the store. 

Groaning at your misfortune, you beelined for the alcohol section in the back. My god was it beautiful. Itching to return home, you grabbed a random bottle that had the highest percentage. Taste didn’t matter. Only the effect.

Glancing at your selection you choked on your own spit. 30 dollars?? The glass bottle was swiftly put back as you grabbed the cheapest one you could find. Tucking the Shitty K under your arm, you turned to walk to the register.

“PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS UP, OLD MAN.”

You froze. Extending your neck out, you caught a glimpse of the register. 

Purple, green, and yellow.

You had to be fucking kidding.

You watched as the two assailants from the alley held the elderly cashier at gunpoint. His form shook like a leaf. 

“Please! Just take the money and leave!”

You caught his eyes as he begged for his life. Tear filled and shaking. You could have prevented this. If you would have just stopped them when you had the chance none of this would have happened.

You could have saved the man in the alley. Saved the poor cashier.

You could have saved Uncle Ben too. 

Your eyes watered. Fucking pathetic mistake. What the hell were you doing? You weren’t a teenager anymore. You were a grown adult who should have learned from your mistakes by now.

Shifting your eyes from the vodka to him, you pressed your lips in a thin line. You didn’t know what hurt more. The fact that you were repeating past mistakes or the fact that you wanted to take the more expensive alcohol and leave unnoticed.

When did you become this? 

No wonder you let Spider-Girl die.

You needed a drink. Desperately.

Abruptly, a whiplash of red and yellow snatched you from your daydream. The streaking shape blew over the newspaper stand before spinning around the starstruck perpetrators. You knew those McDonald's colors from anywhere. 

Kid Flash.

Like any speedster, he removed the gun in milliseconds before tying up the confused robbers. They stood no chance against the meta-human.

Dusting off his hands, Kid Flash smiled smugly at the dumbfounded duo, “Guns aren’t currency, you know?”

The man in yellow thrashed violently, “What the hell-Kid Flash!? Why are you in New York? Spidey taking a break or something?”

You cringed.

Kid Flash’s boyish voice laughed awkwardly, “Something like that.”

You need to get out of here. Now.

Slowly backing into the aisle, you clenched your teeth when your elbow hit the shelf. The bottles tinked in a symphony, altering everyone in the store of your presence. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Instantly, you snatched your coat hood and covered your face and hair. Staring into the grime covered tiles, you prayed Kid Flash wouldn’t think too much of it.

“Hello?”

Of course. The one time he’s actually thorough.

“Are you alright?”

Bright yellow boots came into your vision as you tried to conceal yourself further. You hunched into yourself with clenched fists. Mistaking your actions for something else, Kid Flash placed a gentle hand on your shoulder.

“Hey, hey it’s okay! You don’t have to be sacred!”

You bite into your lip eager to escape the conversation, “I’m not. Please let go.”

Kid Flash laughed, sounding a little too similar to Flash in your opinion. Removing his hand from your shoulder, he stood next to you with his hands on his hips. 

“Then why are you hiding?” A red glove entered your vision. It was headed straight for your hood.

You slapped his hand away, “Didn’t your parents tell you not to talk to strangers.��

He shrugged, “That rule doesn’t really apply to superheroes.”

You couldn’t contain the breathy laugh that left your throat. You hate to admit it but you actually really missed the kid. 

However, you failed to realize your mistake. If anyone knew your laugh it was Kid Flash. You spent way too much time around him and Flash for him not too.

There was a long pause. 

“…Webs?”

You flinched hard, “Wrong person.” You internally cursed at yourself for the obvious slur in your voice.

“Are you drunk?”

“…No.”

His hand grabbed your upper arm tightly, “Where have you been? Are you okay?”

You gently pulled against his hold, attempting to break free without force, “I’m fine.”

“No you aren’t,” Kid Flash raised his hand to his ear piece, “Just let me notify Flash-”

“NO!”

Your arm flew up to the communicator without thought. Taking advantage of his surprise, you were able to snatch the high tech earpiece from his loosen grip.

“Hey!” 

Kid Flash grabbed at you. His lanky limbs attempting to reclaim his lost device, “Let go!”

“You let go!” You shoved his face away with the palm of your hand. 

Kid Flash merely continued to grab at the air around you, “Never!”

If this was any other situation you would have laughed. The pair of you looked like children fighting over the last dessert.  

However, this wasn't just any situation. This situation involved Flash. 

“Listen to your elders you brat!” Finally, after a well fought struggle, you managed to hold the device out of arm's reach. A much needed success after the month you've had- 

“Webs?”

You halted in your tracks.

The small communicator in your hand blinked on and off, identifying an unstable signal. 

“Webs is that you?” Flash was urgent, “Wait there! I'm coming-”

You crushed the device in your hand. Terrified.

Small fragments engraved themselves into your skin, dotting your hand red. What have you done? 

“Batman’s gonna kill you for that, you know?” Kid Flash laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood. 

You frowned, uninterested in entertaining him. Kid Flash merely smiled awkwardly. It was evident the boy was taken aback by your unusually serious demeanor. 

The thought didn't take up much space in your mind. You could only think of one thing. When would Flash decide to appear out of thin air?

As if conjuring the hero, a red bolt flew through the mostly empty convenience store. The glass doors shook from the force. While newspapers scattered through the air, Vogue landed atop the cashier's head. 

Though he moved faster than the speed of light, he stood before you still. Unmoving. It was as if you might fade away if he got too close. 

“Webs,” His voice was laced with reverence. 

Your mouth went dry, “Flash.”

The tension between the two of you was thick enough to cut with a knife, suffocating you. Maybe this was how Flash planned to get back at you for ignoring him. Slowly killing you with hypoxia. A metaphorical death pertaining to how he felt during your absence. 

“Woah, this just got really awkward.” 

Kid Flash’s voice suddenly reminded you of his presence. He swayed uncomfortably. Trapped between you and Flash.

The younger male pointed his thumbs at the door, “Should I leave…or?”

“Yes.” 

Startled at your synchronous voices, Kid Flash quickly shuffled toward the door, “Alright. See you later?”

Flash nodded his head in response, ushering his protégé away. Kid Flash couldn't leave fast enough. Magazines, once again disturbed, twirled around the ground from where he left.

You stared at the loose paper. Preferring the sight of perfume ads then whatever expression Flash held. From the corner of your eye you should see him shift. He moved with unease. Your mouth curled slightly. He never was able to stop moving for long. 

“Webs, I-”

You cut him off, “I’m sorry.”

Flash furrowed his brows in confusion, “You don’t need to apologize. It's not your fault.”

“But it is,” You clenched your teeth in frustration, “It's always been my fault.”

The taller male crossed the space between you hesitantly. You flinched when he placed his large hands on your shoulders, completely engulfing them. 

“It wasn't your fault, Webs. Nobody could have known.”

“I could have saved her,” you finally met his gaze, “I was right there.”

You saw his eyes widen slightly, clearly used to your masked form more than your real face. 

Your name spilled from his lips. 

Not just Webs - your name.

You took a shaky breath, “Barry.”

The name was foreign on your tongue. You had tried to keep your personal life separate from hero work. Though that only lasted a year. Barry managed to weasel his way into your home life before you knew it.

You wouldn't have it any other way.

Barry’s hands slid from your shoulders down to your hands, caressing them softly. “Believe me when I say this,” He took a deep breath, “I’ve been in your position before. We all have.”

Breaking eye contact, your stare bore into the wall of cheap booze, “I know.”

“And I know,” He cupped your cheek, “That drinking away your problems won’t help. It only makes it worse.”

You bit your lip, “I just want to forget.”

“I know. God, I know. I want to go back and change that day every time I open my eyes,” He placed his head in the crook of your neck, “But I've been down that road before. And it's not sustainable.”

Your eyes felt hot, your throat dry, “I don’t know what to do.”

Barry pulled your smaller frame into his arms, “No one does.”

You sunk into his embrace, inhaling his scent.

“Let me take you home, Webs.”

“Okay.”

・❥・

You held tightly onto Barry, arms circling his neck, as he brought you home. You had barely enough time to blink before you were standing in front of your apartment’s door.

Barry hesitantly let you down from his hold. Though his arm stayed wrapped around your waist for support. You gave him a gentle smile as a thank you. 

Unlocking your door, you were immediately reminded of the state of your apartment. Dirty laundry and loose items scattered the floor. 

Shame crept up your neck. The uncaring attitude towards your humble abode seemingly disappeared.

Barry entered slowly, taking in the messy state. His eyes were quickly drawn to the empty bottles strewn about your floor. Unsurprisingly, he began to pick one up. Then another. And another. You snapped when he started to replace your trash bag.

“Barry.”

His head whipped toward you, only focusing on you.

“That's enough,” You tried grabbing the bag from him, “You don’t need to.”

Barry held onto the plastic tightly, “I want to.”

You shook your head, “It's my mess. Leave it.”

“No.”

You jolted in surprise at his commanding tone, “Why?”

He tossed the bag to the side, “Why?” 

Laughing dryly, he shook his head, “Why not? Why wouldn't I take care of you?”

You averted your gaze, “I don’t need you to take care of me.”

“But you do,” his voice was imbued with desperation, “If you didn’t, I wouldn't have spent a month doing everything in my power to find you!”

Your face felt hot, “I didn't ask you too!”

Barry closed in the space between you, “You didn't have too!”

You weren't sure when the tears began to pour down your cheeks, “I never wanted you too! I just want to be alone! Why can’t you let me be?”

“Because I can't let you be!” Barry’s hand slammed down on your tiny island counter, “You're all I think about! From the moment I wake up to the time I go to sleep, all I know is you. I would rather you hate me for the rest of my life just to see you for a moment than ever ignore you.”

You felt like a deer in headlights, “What?”

“That day when Spider-Girl died,” He gripped the counter, slightly cracking it under the force, “I felt like I lost a piece of you too. And I could bear it.”

You felt like you lost your breath when Barry met your gaze again. His eyes were laced with anguish. Bloodshot rims already forming.

“I know you're hurting. I know what I am experiencing is nothing compared to what you are going through,” He searched your eyes, “But I'm in love with you! And I have been for as long as I can remember.” 

The start of a cry made his voice waver, “And this is definitely poor timing for a confession, but I can’t lose you-”

You weren't exactly sure which one of your muscles was still intact enough for you to move. However, the feeling of plush lips against your own thwarted any other thought.

Barry stood rigid for a moment. Hands clenched at his sides. Then, he dominated the kiss like his life depended on it. His hands held onto your waist tightly, before slowly making their way to your face. You couldn't remember the last time you felt this happy.

Pulling away, you took shallow breaths, “I love you.”

Barry smiled and swiped a loose teardrop from your cheek, “I love you too.��

The warm moment didn't last long. Your mind was quick to remind you that there was a reason Barry had to confess in a messy studio apartment rather than someplace special. That reason was because you were broken.

You pressed you mouth into a thin line, “Do you still want me even if-”

“I want you no matter what,” Barry didn’t allow you to get another word in, “We can go through this together.”

He placed a soft kiss on your forehead, “You're not alone, Webs. You never were.”

You swallowed hard, “Together?”

"Together."

・❥・

[sankta-starkova]

THE OUTSIDERS

001; start of something new

previous chapter | next chapter | masterlist

summary: the one where daisy returns to camp from college and is blinded by her love for him, even as the world ends

wordcount: 1.8k

The winter Solstice was creeping up on Daisy Valance. She knew she had to head to camp to see her friends again and it helped that her mums new boyfriend Nick had taken her on a trip so she didn't feel so guilty.

Last summer had been her fifth at camp and she loved it like it was home to her. Because it was.

She felt safest there. Although she loved her mother and she loved going to NYU, she still loved Camp Half Blood.

She was wrapped up at in a coat, her suitcase in her hand as she looked around at the place she called home.

Daisy waved at Chiron as he walked over, or galloped, she was never quite sure how to describe it.

"Miss Desdemona," he said, bowing his head.

She chuckled, "You are the only one that calls me that Chiron," she said, walking alongside him as he walked further into camp.

She remembered coming into camp years ago and seeing it all for the first time. The feeling never went away.

"Look who the minotaur dragged in," a voice said and she turned around when she heard the voice.

She recognised him in an instance. It was her best friend in the whole world, the only person who ever truly understood her.

"Luke Castellan, charming as always," she said, dropping her suitcase down as she walked over.

He pulled her into a hug, holding her tight. The last few weeks had been hard without her.

She was his best friend and that was it. But he had always wanted more.

His dreams were getting worse and worse. He could see him standing there, taunting him, telling him that he had things that he needed to do.

He was torn between it all. He wanted to fulfill what he thought was his destiny but he wanted her as well - that's something he hadn't even managed to say to her yet.

"Good to see you again," he said, wrapping his arm around his shoulders.

"You too Luke," she said, "I'm sorry I missed your wins at capture the flag,"

"It's fine, a boy doesn't wins twice in a row often," he joked, looking down at her.

"Shut up," she said, stepping away from him and hitting him on the arm, "Now, help me with my bags?"

She looked over at where her bag was to see Chiron standing there, a smile on his face.

He had been working at this camp for years and had never seen a couple quite like them. Having spent years to admit their adoration for one another.

The issue was that he had heard of Lukes fate. That something bad would happen to him even if he didnt know what it was.

He hadn't told anyone but knew that something tragic would occur. He didnt want the couple to falter because of that.

He leaned down and picked her bag up, handing it over to the boy.

They started walking, side by side. It was like they were joined at the hip and couldn't seperate.

They didn't hear the whispers of their camp mates as they walked past. Luke and Daisy were icons in camp so to see them together was news to them all.

They walked into the apollo cabin and they cheered when she walked inside of the room.

She laughed, a blush spreading over her cheeks as she listened to the cheers of her coming in.

Daisy loved her cabin. She had never felt a home like the camp before and they all meant a lot to her.

A little blonde boy rushed up and she pulled him in for a hug.

"How was college Daisy?" He asked, looking up at her.

He was the closest thing she had to a little brother. She had been the one to bring him here and she looked after him fiercely.

"Good Will, its nice there," she said.

She couldn't tell any of them how lonely it felt sometimes, being the only demigod there. Always watching her back to make sure there weren't any monsters.

"I don't get to see you enough," Luke said, leaning against the empty bunk bed. He knew the top one was hers.

She shrugged, a sad smile on her face, "You see me often enough,"

"You don't come back enough, I agree," Will said, walking closer to Luke.

Luke smiled, leaning down and ruffling the kids hair, "Thanks for standing up for me kid,"

"Where's Lee and Michael?" She asked, changing the subject. 

"They're somewhere, dealing with the new kid who just joined," Luke explained.

"Very nice," Daisy said, looking at Will, "You should tell me all about what's happened since summer,"

He started talking and then Luke looked down at his watch. He really needed to talk to her.

"Actually, can i borrow her for a minute Will, I need to talk to her," he said.

He had a solemn tone to his voice and she knew that meant that something was wrong.

She worried about him all the time. She didn't want something bad to happen, for those nightmares to take affect him him.

Will nodded and then Luke turned to Daisy, "Can we go for a walk?"

He was serious. Too serious. Her smile faded, "Sure,"

There was silence between the two as they walked through the woods, muscle memory taking them to their favourite spot.

When she saw the lake, she remembered all of her best memories that occurred here. Her eighteenth birthday party.

The moment she realised she loved Luke.

It was here, at this very lake and now, as she sat down next to him on that very same log, she knew something was wrong.

There was a prolonged silence. It was awkward and neither knew what to say and that was new for them. They were always comfortable around one another so what changed?

"You okay?" She asked, looking over at him.

He shook his head, silent. There was this moment where he looked like he was going to say it but he didn't.

His Adams apple bobbed as he fought back the urge to tell her everything. He had to be careful with what he was going to say.

"You gotta tell me what's going on here," Daisy said after a while. She couldn't wait for him forever.

He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see her reaction, "I had another one of those dreams,"

She scoffed, "Luke. I told you not to listen to those," she said, almost scolding him.

These dreams had been occurring for years, ever since he was 17 and went off on that quest his dad sent the two of them on.

She could remember him afterwards. She had been injured but his internal problems were worse than anything she sustained.

Daisy had told him that those dreams were dangerous, that he should tell Chiron but he had ignored her ever since; his pride was getting the better of him.

"They're making sense. They all make sense," he tried to explain.

He reached over, hand on her knee as he tried to convince her that these were right.

She shook her head, "They don't. He's trying to manipulate you,"

She was desperate at this point, trying to reason with him. Nothing good would happen if he kept on going the way he was.

Daisy couldn't lose the man she loved. She had lost so much in her life and he was the only one that stuck around. She loved him, even if he didnt feel the same.

"He is right, our parents don't care about us," he said.

She scoffed at his incredulous statement, "I could have told you that," she knew they didn't care but that wasn't reasoning for war.

He reached forward and took her hands in his. Only then did she realise that she hadn't been looking at him.

Luke rubbed his thumb over her knuckles and she looked up at him, eyes meeting his. She could see the vulnerability in his face - he really thought he was doing something important.

Her face blushed a little bit at the intimacy of the moment, her hands in his, his eyes locked on hers.

"Come on Des, this is it, this is our time to take charge of our future," he begged, desperate.

This was Lukes moment to achieve everything in his life that he had wanted. But the other thing he wanted was the girl in front of him.

He couldn't let her down.

"Don't listen to him," she begged, feeling the tears burning up behind her eyes at the thought of losing him.

He brushed his thumb over her hand again, trying to sooth her as he heard the break in her voice, "I should. He's right about everything,"

He wasn't looking at her. He couldn't bare to see the pain in her eyes.

"Luke," she begged.

He looked up at her now, seeing the tears welling up in her waterline. She never cried so to see her like that meant that this was important to her.

"Please, listen to me." He asked, desperate to get his point across, "He wants me to take something from the God's and I'm going to do it,"

Her heart pounded in her chest. This could completely ruin his life and the world. She couldn't let that happen.

"Promise me you won't," she begged.

He hated seeing her like this, "I have to," he muttered, voice breaking.

"Prmoise me you won't. You're my best friend Luke, promise me," Daisy was desperate. She had to stop him.

He watched the tear slip from her eye and roll down her cheek. Luke reached up, the pad of his thumb brushing across her cheekbone.

"Okay, for you," he said, hand staying on her cheek, "I promise,"

She pulled him in for a hug, holding his against her for a little while.

Daisy wanted to believe him, she wanted to hope that he would stick to his promise and maybe it was the rose coloured glasses that prevented her from seeing the truth.

"I won't let anything happen to you, ever," he promised, words muffled as he spoke them into her shoulder.

He pulled away, brushing a strand of hair away from her face so that it was behind her ear.

"Okay," she muttered, hoping that this was all real. That he wouldn't hurt her because why would he?

The nightmares that she had after his quest came back that night.

The image of the man in the middle of the woods came back again, cloacked in darkness, covered in fear.

She woke up in a sweat, eyes pooled with tears. She didn't know that this was the start of the end for her, that this man would ruin her life.

Daisy closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep in blissful ignorance about what was soon to come.

If you would like to be added to a tag list then you can comment here or send me an ask :)

[arty-holly]

I never thought I'll enjoy Ep Nagi so much, but this spinoff has me feeling all kinds of things.

Stalker Reo 😭. The extents he goes to be Nagi's friend. Nagireo was never my thing, but I'm starting to see the appeal.

I think we as a fandom collectively ignore how funny Nagi is. The "legs broken" , " cells dead" 😂, Relatable icon.

The expression in his eyes... they did such a great job with the art. And Reo clearly didn't understand how much of a big deal Nagi saying this was, bcz from a person who considers existing a pain, this is HIGH praise. Yep, definitely shipping Nagireo now.

God really isn't.🥲 Why does my boy Niko have to go through this?? From his perspective, this must look so horrifying. "Hugs Niko through screen".

Glad we have zantetsu's backstory now. I am LIVING for this friendship.

The Nagi- Zantetsu scene in the bath was so so cute. A depressed weirdo and a ostracized idiot finding a tentative comfort in each other. It really makes me wonder how Zantetsu is doing in PxG with all the ...interesting combination of people there. He seems like the type to straight up ask Loki why is a 17 yr old teaching them. Wonder how he'll bond with members like Tokimitsu and Rin. And his whole dynamic with PxG.

Protective Nagi!!

The "Nagi-kun" 😂 . Even Reo is sweating at how unnaturally angry Nagi is at Barou for hurting Reo. And I don't blame him at all. Bcz this chapter reminded me of why I dislike Barou so much.

I mean his behaviour here,

My heart is breaking for the other team. The desperation in the eyes of that blond kid , the bangs kid's sobbing... It really makes you feel for the rest of players who got locked off like Naruhaya and had an even worse time bcz of a bitch like Barou. Worst part is he meant every word he says here.

I'm sorry to all the Barou stans here, if you don't like what I'm saying, simply block me.

Ppl can call on-field Isagi and Rin rude all they want. Hell, even Sae does’nt bring people down in this manner. But nothing comes close to Barou spouting this kind of trash to his team. That they shouldn't even consider themselves human bcz they couldn't score a goal against Nagi.

And the way he was so insensitive to Snuffy opening up about Mick's death. Who tf actually tells a grieving person they won't end up like said dead guy bcz they're better or whatever, high key insulting Mick. Not a drop of compassion in him. Snuffy has the most patience in this entire facility for putting up with his bs.

Sae is rude to reporters, Barou is simply a deplorable human being with no excuse for his actions. I will be cheering Isagi on when he humiliates this guy in my reread. The only good thing I can say about him is that he's a great antagonist. If you stan Barou, atleast stan him as the jerk he is and not excuse his actions.

You tell him, babe! ( the way he caught Reo I- )

What. A. Badass.

Said it before and I'll say it again. The art in Ep Nagi is absolutely phenomenal. Esp, the shading on the other side of Nagi's face is stunning. Well, that's abt it for the first part of Ep Nagi.

[sky-eira]

I finished reading The Shining & Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Many years ago, I tried reading The Shining by Stephen King and dropped it after the first chapter because I couldn't understand a thing the man was writing. I'm an EFL and whoever that internet person who told us that Stephen King was an easy read for non-native speakers must be lying /jk.

Last month, I tried Stephen King again. I was already grateful that I could finally comprehend his writing. I started with Carrie (really good read), then I tried Misery (ONE OF MY FAV BOOKS OF ALL TIME ARE YOU KIDDING ME IT'S A MASTERPIECE). I was fully in by then. I wanted more Kings, so I returned to where I started: The Shining.

Where have you been all my life, The Shining? Because this book and its sequel were incredible. The only thing I mourned about was that I couldn't experience this duology sooner.

The Shining was a beautifullly-crafted horror. I had chills. Heck, I was worried I'd get nightmares from it (I didn't). But what surprised me (and not at the same time) was the characters. I knew at this point that King is masterful in delving deep into a character's psyche. I think what he did here with Dan, Wendy, and Jack was amazing. Danny was fascinating and incredibly insightful in a believable, five-year-old way. Wendy was a badass. Jack--can we talk about how the movie removed the complexity of Jack's character because book Jack was so real and raw with very believable problems and emotions, that I even empathized with him?

Talking about characters, let's move on to Doctor Sleep. I liked child Danny, but I think I loved adult Danny. He was clearly living with the ghosts of his past (literally and figuratively), and that just made a lot of room for character development, and guess what? Leave it to King to develop a character and let them struggle and meet new people and then leave you teary-eyed because of how meaningful their journey has been. Oh heck I even felt sorry for the villain. Rose was a fantastic villain, I can't believe someone like her doesn't become more iconic.

I had a great reading month in December 2024 for sure (Carrie, Misery, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and a romance book I'm also eager to talk about later).

[agirlwithdemonblood]

The Broken Fan - Chapter 7

Pairings: Jensen Ackles & Reader (Read as first person!)

Series Summary: Always a nobody, always invisible, will this convention change things?

Chapter Summary: New life, New house, overwhelming isn't it?

Warnings: Panic attack, panicked reader, panicked Jensen, swearing

Series Masterlist here! Main masterlist here!

"How did it go?"

Jensen sulked in the doorway with a disappointed look and my heart nearly shattered in my chest. Today was the day he was telling Jared, his best friend, his brother, about us.

He was so excited, but so terrified. He wanted Jared to understand, to listen and really hear him out but to be fair, that is a difficult thing to do when your not in the situation. He was scared Jared was going to disapprove, or tell him he's being stupid. He was scared that his brother wouldn't stand behind him, wouldn't be there after this.

And from the look on his face, he was right. Jared didn't like us being together. He didn't approve at all. Jensen ducked his head as I rushed over with tears in my eyes, hugging him tightly to my chest. "I'm sorry Y/N." he spoke with a light giggle.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I pulled my head back, noticing the smirk on his face. Before I could say anything, he burst into laughter and raised his hands in defense. "I'm so sorry Honey, I was trying to mess around but you looked so cute and sad that I didn't know when to tell you I was joking."

My mouth gaped open and I had to hold back from laughing to get my sweet revenge. I plastered on the best hurt face I could and pushed my hands through my hair. "Wow Jensen... I can't believe... Why would you do that to me?"

His laughter stopped as his expression dropped, concerned eyes boring into mine. "Honey, I'm sorry, it was a stupid joke..."

I spun away from him to hide the smile. "Yes! It really was, actually it was cruel. Your a jerk." He reached out to touch me but I knew I had to present the grande finale before I could let him know I too was joking, so I rushed away to the bathroom and slammed the door.

A mere seconds later his knuckles were tapping on the door, his voice coming out soft and desperate. "Please come out, Y/N I'm so sorry, honey talk to me."

I shook my head and smiled before standing up and facing the door. "No, I'm sorry!"

"For what?"

Laughter started pouring out as I opened the door, watching the shocked expression appear on his face. "Sorry for getting you back."

He was frozen, his eyes darting around like he was trying to figure out how to react, but as soon as the wide smile appeared, we both burst into laughter, leaning into eachother.

"You are so evil!"

My head tilted back as laughter poured through me, "How am I evil? You started this!"

He shook his head as the laughter died down, eyes boring into mine with such love and adoration to the point where I could barely breathe just staring at him.

I cleared my throat and a nervous smile ghosted over my lips, "So seriously, how did it go?"

His smile nearly lit up the room as he pulled me into his chest, hugging me tightly. "It went really well. At first he was kind of silent and in shock, understandably, but he said he's never seen me this happy and just wants the best."

"That's amazing!" My heart was pounding in my chest and the relief soaked through. I knew Jared was the one person Jensen really counted on for their opinion and if he didn't approve or support this, I really don't know if Jensen would still be here with me.

"We should get ready to leave." Jensen mumbled in my hair, "I love you honey."

My heart melted, my eyes glancing up to face him, "I love you too Jensen. So much."

You know those iconic movie scenes where the couple takes their very first road trip, and there's a whole montage of them singing together, sharing food, messing around with each other, and you just stop and think, my god how I want that?

I always thought those movie scenes were so cheesy and ridiculous. You can add romance to anything with the right music. But two hours ago, Jensen and I got in the car together and... well, there definitely should be a montage on our lovely road trip together.

Somehow, I felt closer to him than I've ever been, and we have only been driving for three hours now. We shared stories of our hardships and held each other's hand when it was too much, we laughed and made jokes and sang our hearts out and cried together.

These were the parts of our relationship that people didn't understand, from the outside it seemed so fast and stupid, I've only known him for two weeks.

But if they sat in this car and watched how we talked and loved each other, it would seem like we have been together for years.

I have been driving for the past two hours while Jensen napped on the sat beside me, head resting on the window. I couldn't help but allow my eyes to linger on his sleeping form, cringing everytime his head smacked against the window when I hit even the smallest of bumps.

My hand came on his shoulder gently as I shook him awake, "Hey, Jensen, c'mon lay your head on my lap, it's more comfy."

He smirked sleepily as he moved closer towards me, his head moving downwards to rest onto my lap, hand on my hip holding his place. Honestly, staring at the way he was laying on me, i had to hold back the tears at how adorable he was, how amazing it felt to be able to take care of him for a change.

It's insane how many things have changed since I came to the convention. I had a shitty job with an asshole boss, no friends or family, nobody to count on or talk to. I was alone and forgotten. Yet here I am, side by side with somebody amazing, somebody who genuinely cared about me, the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever baggage I had he was prepared to be there, and god I've never loved somebody more.

And I'd prove that to him, every single day.

The GPS chimed through the silent car announcing that we were approaching our destination. I couldn't help but frown at the idea of the road trip being over, even as excited I was to start our new lives, I'd miss this.

I pulled on the side of the road, my hand resting on his cheek gently to wake him up. His eyes fluttered open and he yawned deep in his chest causing me to giggle. "You feel better?"

He nodded and kissed my leg before sitting up in his spot. "Thank you for letting me sleep honey, I'm sorry I didn't entertain you more."

"It's totally fine, you were tired." I reassured, leaning closer to peck his lips. "Also, staring at your cute face while you were sleeping was entertaining enough."

He smirked against my lips and deepened the kiss, making my head dizzy with lust. "Oh really?"

"Mhm."

He pulled away and winked, leaning back against the seat, "So instead of paying attention you decided to risk our lives because I was too cute?"

I nodded as a smile pulled on my lips, "It's worth it. Anyways, we are almost there, so I need you to let me know what I'm looking for"

"It's a house." He spoke, looking out the window, "Your almost on our street so just keep going and than turn left, it's the first one there."

The car rumbled back to life as I pulled onto the road, anticipation flowing through my body as the GPS announced we were pulling up. I was so excited yet every part of me was screaming in fear, this was it, the moment we started our lives offically.

I turned onto the street, my jaw dropping and eyes widening at the sight of the biggest house I've ever seen, surrounded by a beautiful white gated fence. There's no way that this is...

"This is it." He read my mind.

I pulled into the driveway and rolled down the window, staring at the place I was about to call my home, the emotions were overwhelming and nerve wrecking, yet filling me with unbelievable happiness at the same time.

"Wow Jensen.." I whispered nearly inaudibly, "Your house.. holy shit, this is gorgeous."

He chuckled deep in his chest as he leaned on his seat, pecking my head sweetly. "Our house baby."

i shook my head and turned towards him, the fear becoming more evident on my features causing him to frown. "I-I don't even know what to do with a house like this, I've only ever lived in my car."

His hand reached towards my cheek, brushing the skin with his thumb gently, "All you need to do is look pretty and get a good night's sleep, and you could never fail the pretty part."

I blushed deep in my cheeks and took a breath before I slid out of the car, waiting for him to join me. My heart was pounding with every step towards the door and my head was spinning, was I dreaming? There was no way this was real.

His hand reached to mine, squeezing tightly as he unlocked the door and gestured me inside.

My eyes were darting right and left, unsure where to land, or what to focus on first. I could feel my chest growing tighter as I waited for him to take the lead and thankfully he did.

He lead me room to room showing me around, and every room was just as much overwhelming as the next. I was confused, and unsure of myself. I've never lived in a house like this let alone stepped into a house like this before, how was I going to stay here everyday? What if this panic feeling inside my chest never goes away?

Don't get me wrong, the house was gorgeous, every little detail put in just opened my eyes to who Jensen really was, and I loved it, I could die happy in this house but the thought of me fitting in here was unsettling, how in the world was I going to even find my way around without Jensen being my personal tour guide?

"Jensen..." I whispered as my head grew dizzier by the second. He looked back at me with concern and worry in his eyes, stepping closer to hold my arm. "Can I sit down for a second?"

He nodded as he brought me to our new bed, sitting on the edge beside me. I took a shaky breath inside and leaned onto my knees.

His gaze stayed on me, hand rubbing my back gently as possible, "If it's too much we don't have to stay here honey, trust me it's fine."

My eyes shot to his in confusion, why would he ever leave this place for me? That would be selfish and wrong, terrible for me to ask, I could never do that.

I shook my head and sat up, my hand moving to my chest to try and ease my pounding heart. My eyes darted around the bedroom, it really was amazing. There were balcony doors right across the bed, a large in suite bathroom and a massive closet-not that i could benefit from because I have a maximum of two pairs of pants and 3 shirts.

Jensen leaned closer and grasped my hand in his and I could feel him staring me down with concern even if he didn't need to. I'd be fine, I was fine just overwhelmed and panicked about the feeling inside of me.

"Honey, talk to me please." He pleaded.

"It's stupid Jensen, seriously don't worry about it, I just need a second."

He pushed himself off the bed to in front of me in between my legs. I started into his eyes and swallowed the lump as the anxiety was ready to pour out like a cup that was being filled beyond the brim.

His eyes stayed locked in on mine, such heartbreak and fear overflowing them, and I realized i had to tell him, I had to open up even if it was scary, i owe that to him.

"I'm just... overwhelmed, it's a lot."

He nodded understandably, leaning down to press a kiss to my hand. "I know, i have no problem moving baby, I swear you matter more than four walls and a roof."

I shook my head frantically and stood up away from him. My chest was ready to explode, my air was being cut off and I couldn't see straight, it was too much.

"I-I don't want that, the house is great, gorgeous really. It's just... I've only lived in my car really, and I've never been in a place like this. I'm terrified that I don't fit in this lifestyle, that you made a mistake picking me."

He stood up quickly and wrapped his arms around me from behind, holding me to his chest tightly. His lips pressed down on my head over and over, physically trying to reassure me that he had me, and I wanted it to work, but god it felt like I was being held underwater and nobody could pull me up.

i tried to focus on the way he was telling me to breathe, saying that everything was okay but i was having a difficult time grasping what the hell I was doing here. My mind was swarming with awful thoughts the more I stood here, my eyes taking everything in.

Suddenly the room felt smaller and suffocating, I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe.

Jensen stilled against me as he heard my breathing cut off, his head turning to check my expression. He sucked in a harsh breath as he saw my expression, noted how I was pale and struggling to let air inside my lungs.

Without thinking he turned me towards him, pulling me down to sit on the floor in front of him. His hands came on my cheeks as they fluttered in exhaustion. "Honey, Breathe, please breathe."

With a shaky hand, I grabbed the coller of his shirt and held as tight as I could, "I-I can't..."

His concern only grew as he watched the weakness settle in, the light dim from my eyes, and my lips turning light blue.

"Look at me!" He all but yelled causing me to jump, "Look. Take a deep breath okay, Count to 5 and inhale... good now exhale."

I followed his direction the best I could and what felt like forever later, a huge breath of air shot down my throat. We sat in silence as i came down, Jensen waiting until I was breathing stable to relax himself.

"I'm sorry... Jensen." my throat croaked out.

He shook his head and pulled me tight into his lap, "Don't apologize, ever, for feeling the way you do. It's a lot, especially for somebody who's never been in a place like this. Whatever you want to do to make this place more homey for you, let's do it. We can put your clothes away later so it feels a bit more like yours, small steps."

I scoffed and shook my head, "I have no clothes, no stuff, not really."

"He smiled gently, "You will tomorrow, we are going to go shopping."

"No." I nearly yelled, "Your not buying me stuff, I wouldn't be able to pay you back and I don't want you to do that for me."

He rolled his eyes and laughed, "Sweetie, your my girlfriend and I love you. I want to take care of you and that includes making sure my lil lady has clothing and stuff for our new house, right?"

I nodded as my thoughts wandered. How was it that after two weeks, we were so serious. How were we moving this fast? How was he so perfect for me... ME?

"Jensen, can I ask you something?" I whispered.

"Of course."

I sighed and turned towards him. "Do you think we are crazy? I mean... we just met two weeks ago and we are living with eachother, your buying me things and we are saying I love you. Are we completly out of our minds?"

Laughter rumbled out of his chest like thunder as he leaned back, face filled with amusement. "Yeah. I think we are. But what we feel inside is real. I know that i love you, and yes your right it is fast but I think we are making up for lost time. You mean a lot to me Y/N and I really do love you, I don't understand how i fell so fast but all i know is that when I look at you, I know this is meant to be."

My heart swelled as I leaned forward, kissing him deeply with every emotion I could, "I love you too, so much Jensen. Your right, this is meant to be."

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Like, comment & reblog -feedback is my fuel ❤️

The Broken Fan taglist: @magssteenkamp @creative-writing92

[virgo-mess]

Silver Thread Chapter 6 Part 4

Ah, we finally made it a day late! Sorry about that. Guys, some unexpected things came up, but everything is fine now! I told you I got carried away, and I meant it! The total word count for this part is 13,329........🫣 They're so cute I couldn't help it! there is finally some mild smut in this part, I thought Terry deserved a little something after doing allllll that. so, grab some popcorn and get comfy, I guess, for this long-winded mini romance novel. I am uploading this at 1:30 am my time so I'm really sorry if you're trying to read this now.

Also, all the places mentioned in this part are real locations in LA but some of them weren't even open in 1985 so let's just pretend they were....😉

I hope you enjoy reading this part as much as I enjoyed writing it!

TW: Fluff, Romance, Reciting Shakespeare, Terry casually dropping a small fortune on Veda and acting like it's completely normal, smut, Fingering, Oral (male and female receiving), Terry's first grievance against one Daniel LaRusso is born at the very end ( at least in this story)

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Veda's Pov

Veda couldn’t bring herself to lift her head off Terry’s thigh during their short drive to the Beverly Willshire, the way he was stroking her hair had her feeling incredibly blissed out. She didn’t even notice they had pulled up to the valet, jumping slightly in surprise when a valet worker opened Terry’s door. The valet boy gave her an awkward smile but there was a hint of judgment in his eyes as he looked at the way Veda had her head pressed against Terry’s thigh. Veda shot up, a blush dancing on her cheeks, when she realized exactly what the boy assumed she’d been doing there. Veda suddenly felt abashed as the boy looked her over slowly before giving her a withering look.  Veda tried to shrink away from Terry, but he wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder making reassuring circles on it before kissing her cheek. Veda relaxed a bit, avoiding eye contact with the valet boy, she missed the sinister glare Terry gave him on her behalf.

“Sorry, Good afternoon, sir, welcome to the Beverly Wilshire. There’s another guest.” the valet boy called out giving Terry a polite smile. Terry looked at Veda with soft eyes as he leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek, running his fingers through her thick waves gently with a reassuring smile before getting out of the car. Another valet opened up Veda’s door for her giving her a warm smile.

“Good afternoon, miss, welcome to the Beverly Wilshire, apologies, we didn’t see you down there” he said offering her a hand, Terry cut in quickly, offering his hand instead giving the valet an intense look. Veda looked between them for a long moment as neither of them retracted their hands, slightly amused as it looked like they were having a show down. Veda giggled under her breath.

“It’s alright, I nodded off for a bit there. I’ll just stick with my boyfriend’s hand but thank you anyway sir” Veda said deciding to just take Terry’s hand, Terry gave the man a triumphant looking smile and Veda couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Terry’s hand was the only one she wanted to take, and she hoped that was the case for him too. Veda glanced around taking in the hotel for a moment, she’d only ever seen it from a far on their last shopping trip. The valet entrance wasn’t quite as pretty as the main entrance, but Veda quite liked the iconic stripped awnings over the windows and the large iron gate was elegant.

“Of course, Miss, you both enjoy your stay” he said with a courteous bow, Veda gave him a small courtesy back just to be polite before sending the ruder valet boy a withering look of her own. She was satisfied to see him shrink away looking abashed himself before he hopped in the car to move it. Veda felt Terry place a kiss on her temple, gently pulling her to walk with him.

“Have a good rest of your day, sir” Veda said before walking in step with Terry glancing up to see he was looking at her with a slightly bashful smile and rosy cheeks. “What” she giggled playfully as a doorman came down the stairs to take their bags for them.

“That’s the first time you’ve called me your boyfriend, baby girl” he cooed with a giddy smile, Veda felt her cheeks flush, she hadn’t even thought about it before she said it the word just kind of fell from her lips. Though she wasn’t quite sure what else to call him, they were way more than friends at this point. They’ve talked about marriage and promise rings, they professed their love for each other for the first-time mere hours ago. Terry said he couldn’t image his life without her, and Veda definitely couldn’t image hers without him either. She supposed calling him that was rather presumptuous, he hadn’t introduced her as his girlfriend to anyone either.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it I just said it, I forgot we hadn’t talked about labels yet” she said letting go of his hand to fidget with her bracelet, but Terry stopped her. Relacing his fingers with hers, pulling her to a stop right before they reached the doors.

“No need to apologize Veda, I loved hearing you call me that sweetheart. Until today I just thought you weren’t comfortable with labels like that, but I already consider you, my girlfriend. When I talk to my friends about you, I always refer to you as my ‘Bright gorgeous girlfriend, Veda’, okay” Terry said wholeheartedly, stroking her hair with his free hand and placing a tender kiss on her forehead. Veda felt her heart flutter as she gave him a bashful smile.

“You talk to you friends about me” she said timidly, Terry chuckled still stoking her hair.

“Baby girl, I boast about you to my friends, to everyone and anyone. You are the light of my life” he cooed pulling her into a loving kiss that Veda wholeheartedly returned. Once again feeling like she was floating, she wasn’t sure how he could possibly make her feel any happier than she already did but somehow, he always managed. Terry pulled away silently motioning towards the doors, Veda gave him a dreamy smile nodding her head eagerly. Letting Terry walk her into the grand lobby Veda gazed up at the ceiling with a sense of child like wonder. She gaped at the elegant chandelier, the imposing columns, and the grand staircase in awe only stopping when she could hear Terry chuckle under his breath. Veda blushed looking at him with shy eyes.

“You’re so cute, sweetheart” he crooned tugging her gently towards the front desk where they were greeted warmly by a receptionist.

“Welcome to the Beverly Wilshire, I can get you all checked in here, what name is it under” she asked with a polite smile, Terry leaned onto the desk slightly.

“Terry Silver” Terry said pulling Veda a bit closer to his side, Veda leaned her head on his arm slightly flashing him a sweet smile.

“Alright I’ve got you marked for the Wilshire Presidential suite for two guests. It also says we’re celebrating a birthday, who’s birthday is it” she asked excitedly, Veda blushed slightly finding it very sweet Terry even put that on the reservation.

“My beautiful girlfriend here” Terry boasted with a proud smile spread across his face, Veda beamed blissfully at him with rosy cheeks feeling positively elated at him calling her his girlfriend again.

“Happy Birthday miss, I see we also have you both booked for a Spa appointment in about thirty minutes. The Spa is on the second floor in the Beverly Wing get there about ten or so minutes early and then your suite is in this wing on the eighth floor. So, you have time to get settled into your room or go enjoy a drink in The Blvd lounge if you want. If you need anything don’t hesitate to ask, my name is Martha, just call down or come up I’ll be here for you. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy your stay and have a great birthday” Martha said with a bright smile.

“Thank you” Veda and Terry chorused in unison; Martha chuckled at them with the same bright smile. Veda and Terry shared an amused look at the way they seemed to be so in sync with each other all the time, it was almost like they could read each other’s minds.

“You guys make such a cute couple, truly” she said waving them a goodbye which they both eagerly returned as they walked back towards the bellhop who took their bags.

“Do you want to go to the room or the lounge?” Terry asked, Veda glanced up at him for a moment with an excited smile on her face.

“The room” she said, Terry chuckled softly, placing a kiss on her temple.

“I figured as much, we’re in the Wilshire Presidential suite” he said to the bellboy before steering Veda to the elevators with the bellboy trailing behind them. They rode up to the eighth floor in a comfortable silence with Veda holding Terry in a side hug as Terry softly ran his fingers through her hair. Veda was practically vibrating with excitement when the elevator finally came to a stop and found herself resisting the urge to drag Terry down the hallway with her. Terry seemed to sense her excitement, quickening his pace to keep up with her bouncy steps with a delighted smile on his face. Terry made quite the spectacle as he turned the key in the knob before pushing the door open dramatically just to feed into her excitement. Veda giggles softly under her breath but it quickly dies in her throat at the sight of the room, they did call it the presidential suite after all, and it was indeed fit for the commander in chief himself. Veda ventured past the large pilers with crown molding heading further into the room, her eyes as wide as saucers, wondering why Terry booked a two-bedroom suite that she could fit her 800 square foot apartment a total of five times when they were only staying until Sunday morning. Veda wandered around aimlessly tuning out Terry’s conversation with the bellhop as she walked into the living area catching sight of a kitchenette and dining room to her left. Everything was done up in elegant shades of gold and cream with a large array of potted green plants. Veda walked past the fireplace and caught sight of the master bedroom to her right, she guessed Terry wasn’t lying about her getting the full princess treatment this weekend. Veda didn’t resist the urge to launch herself on the king-sized canopy bed, feeling practically overwhelmed as she stared up at the ceiling.

“Don’t get too comfy on me, baby girl, you can do all the relaxing you need down in the spa with me” Terry chuckled leaning against the doorframe, Veda turned her head to look at him for a long moment still feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the emotions coursing through her veins at the moment.

“I thought we were only staying until Sunday morning, this is a lot to…” Terry rushed to the bed to shush her, staring deeply into her eyes, Veda felt butterflies and that warm bubbly feeling of arousal in her stomach at the way he placed one long index finger over her lips.

“Stop worrying about what things cost, my sweet girl. You’re worth more than all of it and so much more, you deserve to feel as special, as beautiful, and as loved as you are, okay. So come on” Terry said softly placing a sweet kiss on her lips before snaking his arms underneath her. Veda blushed with a bashful smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, her heart was racing about a mile a minute by now and the sweet nothings Terry was whispering into her ear were only intensifying her desire for him at the present moment. Veda took a few deep calming breaths, trying to not let her mind wander back to the recurring wet dreams she’d been having about him practically every night. Veda had been thinking about taking that next step in their relationship, thinking about throwing caution to the wind and letting her love for him do the talking but sex was still scary to her. Part of her wanted to touch him that way and to let him touch her that way so badly but that nagging fear of him leaving after she finally gave herself to him was still very real in her mind. Her heart told her Terry really did love her as much as she loved him but her brain was still telling her this was all make believe. She knew her past relationship with Dutch was the catalyst for this deep-rooted insecurity and it only made her hate him all the more. Veda was pulled out of her thoughts by Terry peppering her face with kisses and drawing soothing circles on her back. Veda met his eye to see a growing amount of concern in them, Veda gave him a reassuring smile.

“I’m sorry, I was daydreaming, my love. Did you say something” she asked cheerily happy that her wave of arousal was curbed for the time being, she knew she’d have to tell him all these fears of hers eventually, but she wanted to enjoy the rest of this weekend with him first. Terry gave her a reluctant smile, he was getting way too good at reading her, soon she wouldn’t be able to get anything past him not that she really wanted to anyway. She was happy to see Terry wasn’t going to try and push her on it.

“Just wanted to know if you wanted me to carry you all the way to the spa, you know I don’t mind all the attention we get but I know sometimes it makes you uncomfortable” he said with a warm smile on his face, Veda felt her heart flutter at him always being so gallant he truly was her knight in silver armor. She thought about the looks they might receive from older patrons but she doubted they would be as harsh or judgmental as that valet boy downstairs.

“I suppose I’ll allow you to do it, Romeo but only because I’m now fully embracing the full princess treatment. Onward, my noble silver steed. If we miss this appointment, I may have to put you in the stocks, don’t force my hand” Veda said with an impish grin, Terry raised his eyebrows at her with an amused grin playing on his face, chortling under his breath.

“Yes, my princess. Right away, my princess” Terry said teasingly, carrying her out of the suite.

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Upon arriving at the Beverly Wilshire Spa Veda was whisked away from Terry by a very perky spa attendant. Veda glanced back at Terry for a moment who gave her a reassuring smile and a motion for her to follow the attendant. Veda turned back to the attendant and followed her down a long hallway.

“Don’t worry honey, you’re both just getting changed into something more comfortable, you’ll see him again shortly I promise. He specifically requested that you get all your services done together, he very clearly adores you” the attendant chirped with a bright smile, Veda blushed with a coy smile on her face as she followed the attendant into the women’s locker room.

“Here is a robe, slippers, and a headband for you. Your first service is a massage, so I’d recommend taking your bra off if you’re comfortable with that, it just makes it easier for the therapist. Nobody will look I promise, you can put your stuff in here and I will be waiting for you just outside the door” she said in the same chipper tone, Veda nodded accepting the items almost sheepishly from her watching her walk out into the hall. Veda quickly undressed folding her dress and bra neatly before she put it on the locker shelf, lazily throwing her wedges on the bottom shelf. Before pulling on the plushy white robe tying, it as tight as she could, feeling a bit self-conscious that she’d be right next to Terry half naked in a few minutes. Veda placed the headband in her hair, taking a quick glace in the mirror before meeting the attendant in the hallway and following her to one of the massage rooms. Terry was already standing by the door when she walked in with a warm smile on his face as he leaned in to kiss her cheek affectionately. Veda beamed at him, her cheeks still rosy, as she reached out to hold his hand tightly letting him lead her toward the massage tables in the middle of the room.

“Your therapists should be knocking on your door shortly just hang your robes on the hooks, enjoy” the attendant said closing the door softly. Veda but her lip nervously as she looked at the tables, she’d never really had a massage before and wasn’t sure how to go about it at least not with Terry here, as she looked up at him timidly. Terry brought his hands up to stroke her cheeks his thumbs before placing a tender kiss on her lips. Veda melted into him instantly, feeling her nerves disappear as a wave of contentment washed over her. Veda pulled away with a dreamy smile on her face as she leaned her head further into his hand. Terry returned her smile with bright blue eyes as he moved his hands to her waist. He gently spun her to face one of the beds, Veda felt a new wave of arousal over taking her as his hands slowly tugged at her robe ties.

“Aright baby girl, just pull that sheet down, okay” Terry cooed placing a comforting kiss on her cheek, Veda felt her breathing pick up as she pulled the sheet back. She tensed slightly when she felt his long fingers brush against her stomach as he finished untying her robe, gently tugging it off her shoulders one at a time. Terry took a moment to pepper each shoulder with multiples kisses before removing her robe completely in one swift motion, moving to hang it on the hook. Veda gasped slightly at the feel of the cold air hitting her exposed skin and nipples, crossing her arms over her exposed breasts as she stood in nothing but her underwear, suddenly unable to bring herself to plop on the bed even though it was right in front of her. Veda couldn’t decide is she was scared, shocked, or simply overwhelmed her brain wasn’t quite working at the moment. She jumped slightly when Terry ran a comforting hand down one of her arms, pulling her eyes away from the bed to look into his.

“I promise I didn’t look, it’s okay baby girl, here” Terry said gently guiding her onto the bed as he held her gaze, never letting his eyes stray from hers. Veda relaxed onto the bed letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, her cheeks tinting in embarrassment when she realized he was shirtless too. This was the first time she could see the chiseled muscles she always felt when she was pressed up against him, finding them comparable to that of roman sculptures. Terry placed a soft kiss on her temple, pulling the sheet up to her waist, trailing his hands up to draw soothing circles on her exposed back.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened” she said softly, Terry shushed her giving her a quick peck on the lips and a reassuring smile that made her heart flutter.

“Stop apologizing my sweet girl, that was my fault I should’ve asked you before I did that, I put you on the spot, I’m sorry. You were just uncomfortable and confused, that’s nothing to be embarrassed about baby girl” he said, stroking her hair and giving her one last kiss before he climbed into the other bed. Keeping his head turned to face her, Veda smiled back at him moving her arms out from underneath her.

“It’s really okay, Terry. I love you.” she said reaching out her right arm over the table towards him, Terry didn’t hesitate to lace his fingers with hers.

“I love you too, Veda” Terry cooed flashing her a dazzling smile.

Veda was left feeling incredibly blissful after the massage, it was equal parts relaxing and romantic, and intimate. Whenever she opened her eyes, she’d find Terry staring at her, it was like they were sharing silent conversations with each other, talking only with their eyes, and sharing content smiles. Somehow it made them feel even closer to each other than before. After the massage they got facials before heading to the salon part of the spa for manicures and pedicures, which Terry happily joined her for as well though Veda didn’t find this surprising Terry definitely cared about his appearance. Sipping on champagne and feeding each other chocolates and hors d’oeuvres as they laughed and shared stories like they always did.

“So, this is why your skin is so soft, huh” Veda said teasingly, leaning her head back against her seat as she stared at him dreamily. Terry chuckled mirroring her expression with a slight blush on his cheeks.

“Having great skin is important, Veda. How else would I have landed a woman like you” he said nonchalantly, Veda giggled rolling her eyes at him.

“You literally look like a roman statue, Terry, you’re also rich. I think you would’ve done just fine landing women even better than me. Please, you could be with Cindy Crawford and Iman right now if you wanted to” Veda said downing the rest of her champagne, which an attendant instantly refilled for her. Terry let out a sigh.

“Veda, there are no women better than you. You already know I only pick the best and most beautiful things and you, baby girl, are just that. I will never find anything better because I already have the best taste” Terry said sincerely grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze of reassurance as he stared into her eyes. Veda pulled his hand up to her mouth placing an adoring kiss on it.

“Awwww” a few of the attendants sighed out dreamily as they looked between the two of them. Veda blushed with a bashful smile, she always seemed to forget other people were around when Terry said stuff like that. Sometimes she really did feel like they were characters in a romance movie, or story….

They spent another hour or so in the spa as Terry sat with Veda for a bit while she got her hair and make up done, he disappeared for about twenty minutes, coming back with her evening gown and the heels she picked to go with it. Veda was surprised to see him all dressed up in a black tuxedo with a red vest that matched her dress, looking very much like a model himself. Veda blushed as smiled at him, eyeing him suspiciously for a moment as the girl finished her hair, deep old Hollywood waves with one side tucked back. Terry smiled back at her with eager bright eyes as she stood up from the chair, resisting the urge to pounce on him at the moment. Wondering what right he had to look this good.

“I already grabbed your clothes out of the locker room. So, all you have to do is put this on and we’ll be on our merry way, baby girl” he said with a giddy smile on his face, Veda giggled at his excitement as she grabbed the dress and shoes from his hands batting her eyelashes at him. “Nope, you still don’t get to know what the surprise is, we’re going to dinner first anyway” he said answering her unasked question. Veda pouted slightly before rushing to the locker room to change, which she did in record time, nearly tripping over her heels as she stumbled down the hallway. She took a minute to straighten herself out and bottle in some of her excitement before she walked back into the salon nonchalantly, hoping nobody saw the spill she almost took.

Terry was standing at the end of the hallway waiting for her, watching her approach with a dazed look in his eyes, scanning over her body several times before meeting her eyes. Veda blushed giving him a playful smile before capturing him in a passionate kiss, giggling against his mouth at the fact Terry didn’t seem to know where to put his hands. His whole body vibrating with lust, passion, love, and excitement as he pulled away to look at her.

“I can’t mess up your hair just yet, you’re so gorgeous Veda, dinner is going to be hard for me” he breathed out with a genuine blush gracing his cheeks as he gave her a bashful smile. Veda giggled feeling her heart racing as she laced her fingers with his, staring up at him with shy eyes.

“Dinner is going to be hard for me too, Romeo” she said coyly, Terry bit his lip slightly staring at her with hungry eyes, Veda was beginning to wonder if they were even going to make it to dinner tonight or if they’d skip it, run back to the suite, and ravish each other for the rest of the night. Seemingly forgetting about her insecurities, about intimacy as she stared up at him breathless and in need.

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They did manage to pull themselves out of their amorous staring contest and fetch the car from the valet. Though Veda noticed the longing gazes they made towards the elevator and each other, she was heavily reconsidering her position on intimacy and throwing caution to the wind just for tonight. Terry had told her in the car that they’d be eating at an Italian restaurant dubbed “The most romantic restaurant in Los Angeles”, IL Cielo Beverly Hills. Upon arriving, Veda thought the title was well deserved as she stared up at the stary Los Angeles sky through the glass ceiling in awe. Terry, however, had, of course, booked a private dining room experience with a seven-course meal and champagne. The room was covered in bright red rose petals, burning candles, and long strands of greenery reminiscent of their first date at the rooftop restaurant but still a completely new heart-to-heart experience that they both would remember forever. Because this time their feelings for each other were known, they loved each other, and they were no longer afraid to admit it out loud nor were they afraid to show it to each other. It was like they each were the center of the other universe. Nothing else in the world seemed to matter anymore. Not Dutch or any of the other women Terry had amours connections with prior to meeting her. They spent most of that dinner on the loveseat cuddled up as they fed, hugged, kissed, and caressed each other in their own little world. Veda couldn’t think of one way it could’ve been any better. Nothing was ever going to top the way she felt when she was with Terry.

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Terry’s Pov

Terry pulled Veda out of the restaurant almost begrudgingly, something in him never wanted that moment to end and if the staff hadn’t told him someone had booked the room after them, he would’ve happily lived out the rest of his life there as long as Veda was by his side. Terry assured himself they’d have many more moments like that to come because their love was everlasting regardless of time or circumstance. Even if they parted ways at some point in the future, though Terry can’t imagine ever letting that happen, they’d find their way back to each other. He was prepared to do whatever it took to keep her forever even if that meant ruining her for anyone that ever dared to try and take his place.

Terry glanced over at Veda repressing a chuckle at the way she was looking at the window trying to pinpoint just where they were going. Terry knew she said she didn’t like parties, part of him felt like it was just because she hadn’t been to a good one. Probably a couple of lame frat parties, it angered him to think his angel was ever in a house like that with a bunch of volatile pigs, but it was soothed by the fact she didn’t like them enough to return especially with him around. Veda deserved something as classy, sophisticated, and beautiful as she was. A birthday masked ball would be perfect for her, Terry had it slightly planned out as soon as she labelled him her Romeo. Terry was so happy when she did that he could sing, even more so now with her casually calling him her Knight and her Love on more than one occasion today, he felt like ripping his heart out and handing it to her right then and there because it already belongs to her anyway. He couldn’t wait to see her face when she saw the Greystone Mansion as dressed up just for her, in shades of red, black, and gold with a slight old Hollywood twist because he loved the dress they picked out and wanted his Juliet to look like the queen of the ball and also because Veda talked about old Hollywood films with him religiously. Terry didn’t know why he was shocked she caught onto him picking out little babydolls for her was because of the Carrol Baker movie. His heart fluttered at her not seeming the least bit scared or offended by him boasting about bedding a freshly nineteen-year-old, Veda’s age was never the primary source of his attraction to her anyway, it just added another layer to his kink. A kink that only developed because of her, only for her.

Terry turned down the long winding driveway purposely driving unnecessarily slowly. Only because he found her trying to contain her excitement incredibly adorable. Veda looked at him with bright eyes that made his heart skip a beat, Terry flashed her a charming smile.

“There’s a box under your seat, princess” he said nonchalantly, Veda raised her eyebrow for a moment before reaching down and pulling out the velvet box he had placed there. He was surprised she hadn’t noticed it while they were museum hopping. Veda gave him a shy look.

“You’ve already gave me so many gifts today, Terry” she said softly, Terry ran his thumb across her cheek in soothing motions giving her a reassuring smile.

“It’s part of the surprise my sweet girl, please open it” Terry cooed, Veda sighed slowly opening the box to find red opera gloves, a black fur shawl, two black and gold masks, and the promise ring he picked out for her hung on a white gold chain like she requested; Terry really wanted to have one custom made for her but it wouldn’t have been done in time for her birthday. He opted for a rare Argyle Pink Diamond because that’s exactly how he saw her, rare, innocent, and beautiful; he’d save the custom design for her engagement ring instead.  Veda pulled out the necklace slowly examining it before looking at Terry with one of her cute shy smiles.

“Do you like it, I can take it...” Veda cut him off, throwing her small arms around him in a firm embrace, peppering his face with hundreds of soft kisses before nuzzling her face in the crook of his neck. Terry chuckled placing a quick kiss on the top of her head.

“No don’t take it back, I love it and you so much, thank you Terry” she whispered letting out a content sigh against his shoulder, Terry let out a content sigh of his own feeling his heart flutter at her saying those three words to him again, he’d never get tired of hearing them from her. Veda pulled away with rosy cheeks as she tried to clasp the necklace on but struggling due to her hands still vibrating with excitement.

“I love you too. I’m glad you love it, baby girl, hold on a second. I’ll help you put it on” he cooed with an adoring smile, Veda beamed at him before glancing back in the box suddenly remembering there was other stuff in it, the fact that a symbol of his love and devotion was her top priority had Terry feeling like he was floating.

Veda furrowed her brows adorably, turning back to Terry sharply presumably to interrogate him. Terry couldn’t help but chuckle at the puppy dog eyes and innocent smile she flashed him; finding her manipulation attempts so endearing. Luckily, they pulled up to the Greystone mansion before she really laid it on him, Terry didn’t want to have to disappear to the bathroom as soon as they stepped in the entrance hall. Veda’s mouth dropped open a bit as she gazed up at the mansion, Terry loved seeing the child like wonder in her eyes. He’d never had much of that as a kid but felt like he was getting a taste of it vicariously through her and it warmed his heart in a way he didn’t know was still possible. Terry stepped out of the car, casually opening her door for her before reaching out a hand. Veda blushed accepting it, stepping out of the car to see the mansion in all its glory.

“What are these for” she managed to get out as she looked up at him with big innocent brown eyes. Terry chuckled clasping the promise ring around her neck pulling the smaller mask out of the box, gently tying it under her hair.

“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

As a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear — 

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.

So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,

As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.

The measure done; I'll watch her place of stand

And, touching hers, make blessèd my rude hand.          

Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight,

For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.”

Terry recited Romeo’s soliloquy from act 1 scene 5 to Veda softly, he’d been memorizing it for days now just for this moment. Finding this monologue resonated with the thoughts and feelings he had for Veda from the very beginning, Terry’s heart truly hadn’t loved till now and he had yet to discover what true beauty was until finding it in her. Terry finally met her gaze finding tears welling in her brown doe eyes, feeling a wave of concern wash over him running his hands in soothing circles down her shoulders.  Veda gave him a teary smile before pulling him into a very passionate kiss which Terry returned eagerly feeling his concern dwindle as it was replaced with a new wave of adoration. Veda pulled away with a few soft sniffles.

“They’re happy tears, Terry, I’m so happy” she said with a soft chuckled, Terry grinned letting out a sigh of relief. Helping her fan her face, so she didn’t smudge her make up, not that Terry cared all that much she looked beautiful regardless. Veda gave him a bashful smile as she pulled his mask out of the box for him, Terry beamed at her bending down slightly because even with heels on she barely met his shoulder.

“I hope you don’t mind the colors. Margaret thought the red ones were more fitting for ‘trollops’ not for her sweet, darling Veda” he said jokingly, Veda giggled tying the string under his ponytail playing with the ends for a moment as she gazed up at him.

“That’s alright, I think the gold and black is more classy, very old Hollywood glamour” she chirped letting her hands fall from his hair so she could slip on the opera gloves and shawl. Terry tossed the box back in the car before shutting the door.

“You really don’t miss anything do you, baby girl. Your surprise is an old Hollywood themed masquerade ball because Romeo first laid eyes on his beloved Juliet at a ball. Technically it isn’t a party and I’m keen to be a wallflower with you tonight because you are the belle of this ball, my angel” Terry said extending his elbow towards her with a charming smile, Veda looped her arm with his giving him a shy smile as they walked towards the front door.

“And you picked the Greystone Mansion because it’s an iconic filming location that screams old Hollywood glamour. You do know there was a murder suicide that took place here, right. If I bring any spirits back to my apartment Terry, I’ll put you in the stocks for sure” she said nudging him playfully, Terry chuckled.

“No, I had no idea that happened here, why do know all this stuff. This is the second time you’ve threatened to put me in the stocks, babydoll. I’m starting to think you might be into bondage” he said playfully with a slight smirk, he could see the deep blush that spread across her face even in the dim lighting.  

“How else will I keep you with me forever” Veda said, Terry could tell she meant it to come out jokingly, but he could make out the seriousness in her big brown calculating eyes as they stood in the doorway. Terry felt that growing rage in his stomach again, he knew this insecurity of hers wasn’t either of their fault and even with the constant reassurance he showered her with it might always be there. Terry took a deep breath pointing to the ring hung around her neck as he raised his left hand to show her the one, he got for himself, a simple white gold band with a small Argyle Pink Diamond that matched her larger one in the center.

“What does these mean Veda?” Terry asked softly, Veda looked at his ring with wide eyes for a long moment before meeting his gaze and snaking her arms around his neck.

“Love, devotion, and fidelity” she replied to him softly, Terry nodded slowly reaching to stroke her cheek tenderly.

“Yes, and who am I pledging my love, devotion, and fidelity to?” he coaxed gently, still stroking her cheek tenderly as he looked at her with soft sincere eyes. Veda took a deep breath.

“Me and I’m pledging mine to you” she said, Terry nodded again kissing her forehead softly.

“It’s not temporary, baby girl. It’s forever, regardless of….”

“Time or circumstance” she said letting go of his neck to unclasp her necklace. Terry watched as she gently pulled the ring off the chain; like it was the most precious thing in the world to her. She looked at him momentarily, asking a silent question, Terry beamed at her feeling tears prick his eyes as he took the ring and slid it gingerly over the satin glove that covered her left ring finger. Terry held her gaze as he slowly brought her to his face letting the soft fabric brush against his lips briefly before finally tugging her through the front door of the Greystone mansion.

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Veda’s Pov

Veda spent the rest of the evening feeling like she was on cloud nine, Terry had said he wanted every birthday of hers to be the best she ever had, and she was really struggling to see how anything could ever top this one. Everything was perfect, from the museums to the spa to dinner and to this extravagant birthday ball. He must have spent every waking moment from that first date at the rooftop place planning this entire weekend out for her because he truly loved her that much. And this was only the beginning, Veda didn’t know what he could have possibly planned for them tomorrow, but she did know how she wanted to end this evening with him, she knew it from the moment he slid the ring on her finger. She wasn’t sure if she’d be ready to go all the way but she knew she really wanted him to touch her.

The Greystone mansion was all dressed to the nines in red roses, gold candle holders, and diamonds while soft string music filled the air. Terry had invited the entire Dynatox building, his staff, and numerous other people Veda didn’t even know. She couldn’t find it in her to care she spent the whole evening with Terry, Rob, and Zoe laughing, dancing, and eating numerous pieces of the ridiculously large cake Terry ordered to counter act all champagne she drank. Zoe all but forced Terry to coax her into drinking some water after Veda tumbled down the iconic grand staircase after coming back from the bathroom.

“You’re getting really clumsy on me LaRusso, perhaps we should call it a night after we take a stroll through the gardens” Terry chuckled holding the straw from the glass of water he fetched her to her lips. “Come on baby girl, I don’t want you to feel sick when we head out tomorrow, I know how much you want to see Shakespeare Bridge” he cooed, Veda giggled as she rolled her eyes, taking a long swig of the cool water. She wasn’t sure either of them would be getting out of bed after tonight, it was already nearing midnight, and she knew they both had been thinking about having sex with each other far too long. She even asked Margaret if she’d go fetch those babydolls from her apartment, Margaret had all but been halfway out the door before she’d even finished asking the question. Veda wondered how fast she had gotten Larry to drive because she was gone and back in less than thirty minutes when it took twenty just to get to downtown LA from Beverly Hills in good traffic. Veda was less nervous about finally taking this step with him their moment on the porch helped a lot, but Margaret and Zoe also had an open and honest discussion about what to expect when they disappeared to the bathroom. Assuring her it wouldn’t be quite as painful as she was imagining though there would be some discomfort, Terry was already so careful with her anyway, Veda knew he wouldn’t hurt her on purpose.

“I’m not even a little tipsy, my shoe just slid on the marble. I’ve had way more cake than I’ve had champagne” she said happily taking another swig of water. Terry chuckled again placing a soft kiss on her flushed cheek.

“Well why don’t you take them off, you know I like carrying you anyway” Terry crooned, Veda didn’t hesitate to kick her heels off, wedges were her preferred shoe of choice they added height and were much easier to walk in. Zoe and Rob chuckled, amused, from the chairs beside them.

“Yeah Veda, you don’t want your legs to ache anymore than they already do or will” Zoe quipped quietly with a wink, Veda flushed narrowing her eyes at her, Zoe stifled a laugh before looking at Rob. Veda couldn’t help the scowl that made its way across her face as Rob wiggled his eyebrows at her, clearly knowing exactly what Zoe meant. Terry for once seemed the odd one out having no idea what they were really talking about and for that Veda was grateful, she really wanted to see the look on his face when he walked out of the bathroom to see her lounging on the bed in a babydoll he bought for her. She already knew which one she was going to wear.

“Are your legs still sore from your fall earlier? I can get you some ice baby girl” Terry said looking down at the bandages still plastered across her bruised knees. Veda felt her heart melt, leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek and a sweet smile.

“I’m alright, I promise, maybe we should take that stroll now. I really want to see the gardens while they’re all lit up” she said coyly, feigning a small yawn knowing Terry would make their stroll a bit shorter if he thought she was tired. Terry nodded eagerly, handing her shoes to Maragret who gave Veda a knowing smile.

“If you’re already heading out, Maragret, would mind tossing these in the car please? I left it unlocked” Terry asked politely, Maragret nodded.

“Of course, Mr. Silver, I’ll see you on Sunday. Happy Birthday Veda darling” speaking to both of them in a motherly tone, Veda smiled standing to pull her into a quick hug.

“Thank you so much for coming to celebrate with us Margaret and well you know” Veda chirped in her ear before releasing her from her tight embrace, Margaret chuckled giving Veda an affectionate pinch on the cheek.

“No Thank you, Veda. For taking this boisterous lad off my hands for a while” Margaret said throwing Terry a smug smirk, Veda giggled watching Terry through his hand over his chest in mock hurt.

“Am I really that bad to be around Margaret” he chuckled standing up as he pulled Veda into his chest, Margaret rolled her eyes playfully taking a moment to look between the two of them.

“You’re not so bad now that this little one is around, she keeps you in line and I adore her for it. You two be safe and have a great rest of your evening” Margaret said coyly giving Veda a quick wink before turning to leave.

“Goodnight Margaret, why do I feel like everyone knows something I don’t, doll” Terry said raising an eyebrow as he gazed down at Veda. Veda shrugged looking up at him with big innocent doe eyes.

“Don’t be silly, Terry, why would we be keeping something from you my love” she said with an innocent smile and rosy cheeks before feigning another yawn. Terry smiled as he wrapped her fur shawl around her shoulders.

“We’re going to head out too, thank you for inviting us to this amazing ball Mr. Silver. Happy birthday bean, see you both on Monday” Zoe said giving Veda a quick hug and a reassuring smile. Rob bid them both a farewell giving Veda an awkward pat on the arm before hesitantly shaking Terry’s hand.

“Thanks for coming Rob, I promise we’re square now, alright. I won’t fire you if you hug her.” Terry said playfully, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Rob chuckled, shaking his head.

“I’m not taking any chances; Veda will be getting nothing but awkward pats on the arm from me for the rest of her life. I never make the same mistake three times. See you guys on Monday and be safe.” Rob said wiggling his eyebrows as he followed Zoe out of the ballroom.

“Alright my Juliet, off to the gardens we go and then we’ll get you to bed. You’ve had a very long day, and I can tell you’re tired” Terry said scooping her into his arms bridal style, Veda did her best not to giggle as Terry carried her out of the mansion. They did a lap around the garden going over the bridge and down the concrete staircase making small talk. Nearly everyone was gone except the cleaning staff by the time they reached the car. Terry sat Veda gingerly in the passenger seat before hopping in on the driver’s side of the car. Veda gave him a shy smile as she looked over at him.

“I really had a lot of fun today, Terry, thank you so much” she said softly, raising one of his hands to her lips to kiss it. Terry beamed at her the way he always did, and Veda felt her knees go weak as he stared at her with loving eyes.

“I’m so glad you had fun baby girl, you’re so very welcome. What is that?” Terry said placing a tender kiss on her forehead before pointing to the bag next to her feet. Veda blushed knowing it was the lingerie Margaret grabbed for her, quickly thinking up a line because she wanted to surprise him and make him feel as special as he had made her feel.

“Oh, I just forgot my toiletries on the coffee table this morning, Margaret went and grabbed them for me” Veda said nonchalantly catching the way Terry furrowed his brows as he pulled out of the driveway and onto the road.

“No, you didn’t baby girl, I saw it in the side of your duffle when I went to grab your dress and the hotel also provides those in case you forget” Terry said calmly, Veda sighed slightly defeated.

“Alright you got me detective Silver; my toiletries are not in this bag, but I will not be telling you what’s actually in this bag either. You can’t make me talk.” Veda said playfully crossing her arms over her chest hearing Terry let out a soft chuckle.

“Veda, why can’t I know what’s in the bag, huh” he pouted glancing at her with puppy dog eyes with a mock tremble of his lower lip. Veda narrowed her eyes at him teasingly.

“If I tell you it won’t be a surprise, baby boy” she said throwing his own words back at him, Terry chuckled a little louder this time pulling back into the Beverly Wilshire Valet. Veda clutched the bag tightly when Terry came around to carry her out of the car, forgetting she didn’t have shoes on.

“You can’t give me surprises because it isn’t my birthday” Terry said trying to peer into the bag as he stepped into the elevator, Veda giggled keeping the bag out of his reach as she pushed the button for the eighth floor.

“Technically it isn’t my birthday either” she said motioning to the big clock in the lobby that read 12:04 before the elevator doors closed gently. Terry sighed, still chuckling softly under his breath.

“Technically it is because I declared this entire weekend your birthday celebration, I have that power. Now show me what you have in the bag baby girl” he said teasingly, Veda rolled her eyes, discreetly pulling the suite key out of his pocket before wiggling out of his arms. Terry looked at her in disbelief as she clutched the bag tightly to her chest as she gave him an impish grin.

“Nope, you’ll just have to wait, Romeo” she sighed as she shrugged her shoulders innocently, Terry looked at her suspiciously as the elevator doors slowly slid open. “You dropped your wallet, honey” Veda said sweetly, knowing she put it where it was currently sitting on the elevator floor. She was really rather surprised he hadn’t felt her pick pocket him at all. She waited until Terry bent down to pick it up before making a silent sprint across the carpeted hallways to the suite door.

“Veda Noelle” Terry in whispered yell as he took off after her, Veda giggled under her breath as unlocked the door in record time, leaving the key in the lock for him as she darted to the master bedroom. Pulling out the one she wanted before shoving the bag under the bed and rushing to the bathroom, knowing Terry wouldn’t come in if the door was closed. Veda bit her lip anxiously stripping out of her evening gown, slipping on the babydoll and the matching panties. Turning to fully look at herself in the mirror and gently setting her promise ring on the sink so she could take her gloves off; the slip was a deep rose-pink color with a satin cups with floral embroidery that accented the decent amount of cleavage she already had. The rest of the dress was a flowy sheer tulle skirt with the same floral embroidery on the hem, soft, feminine, and romantic. Veda slipped the ring back on her left finger, she picked this one because it matched the color of the stone perfectly. Veda for once fully understood what people meant when they said she looked like a doll as she pulled on the matching knee socks. She really did look like one, but she couldn’t help but feel she didn’t look quite like herself with the heavy makeup they put on her at the spa, she usually only wore some coverup with some blush and mascara.

“Are you okay in there, baby girl? Did the champagne make you sick, can I get you anything” Terry’s concerned voice came flowing in from the bedroom, Veda smiled to herself as she wiped off the glittery eyeshadow and bright red lipstick, they put on her. Having a growing need to look natural for him now knowing she didn’t need to impress him.

“I’m fine, do you need to get in here?” she asked innocently, hearing Terry chuckle and let out a relived sigh.

“No that’s alright, I used the other bathroom already. Do you want me to sleep in the other room or with you?” he asked, Veda could hear the hopeful tone in his voice that he usually seemed to hide from her. Any of the remaining nerves she had melted away as she realized he wanted to be as close to her as she wanted to be with him, she threw away her idea of lounging for him on the bed as she opened the bathroom door slowly. Terry had his back to her as he looked out the bedroom window staring off at the Beverly Hills landscape in deep thought, already dressed in a pair of black silk pajamas. Veda stepped out of the bathroom fully walking over to wrap her arms around his torso tightly.

“With me please” she cooed with her cheek pressed against his back, Terry stroked her hands with his thumb aimlessly.

“Absolutely, my sweet girl” he cooed back, Veda bit her lip loosening the hold she had around his torso as she stepped back from him.

“Do you want your surprise now…” she trailed in an innocent tone, Terry chuckled shaking his head for a bit but made no effort to turn around trying to anticipate what the surprise would even be.

“I told you; you can’t give me surprises on your birthday weekend Veda. This is all about me making you feel special by giving you things you want and love” he said teasingly, Veda rolled her eyes with a coy smile playing on her lips.

“Well, I love this surprise that I’m giving you and I was hoping you’d give me something I want in return” she said lowly, Terry let out a sigh still looking out the window.

“And what is it that you want in return for me accepting this surprise of yours, baby girl” he chuckled under his breath, Veda bit her lip leaning into to whisper seductively in his ear, letting her lips brush his ear in the same teasing way he always did to hers. She felt quite prideful when she heard his breathing pick, glancing down to see he was already hard through the thin fabric of his pants.

“My first orgasm” she said with rosy cheeks, slowly backing away from him. Terry stiffened for a moment clearly caught off guard by what she proposed, she wondered what he’d been expecting her to surprise him with.

“Wait, what” he asked whipping his head around to finally look at her standing in the warm glow of the bed side lamp, her hair still done up in the deep old Hollywood waves that she was sure would be a bird’s nest from all the product in it, but she couldn’t find it in her to care. Especially not with the way Terry was looking at her right now with blue eyes filled with equal amounts of lust and love as they raked over her body slowly before meeting her timid gaze. “Oh, are you sure, baby girl?” he asked above a whisper closing some of the space between them, reaching to cradle her face in his hands, caressing her cheeks in soft strokes with his thumbs as he looked down into her eyes. Veda let her fingers trail over the exposed skin of his chest peeking out from under his silk shirt before slowly undoing them, Terry chuckled softly helping her undo the rest before quickly shrugging the shirt off his broad shoulders. Veda watched the fabric pool on the floor behind him before training her eyes back on his sculpted torso, running her hands over every defined muscle gingerly. Terry leaned in to capture her in a tender kiss which Veda returned without hesitation, tangling his fingers in her thick hair pulling away to rest his forehead against hers.

“I’ve got to hear you say what you want, sweetheart. I didn’t get the sense you were quite ready to go to third base when were at the spa and that’s perfectly okay” he crooned reassuringly, his blue eyes looking deeply into hers as he searched for any sign that she didn’t want what she asked him for. Veda smiled shyly nodding her head slightly, her heart fluttering because of how well he really knew her.

“Well, I at least want you to touch me and I want to touch you” she cooed back, gliding her hands to the waistband of his pants, Terry chuckled gently swatting her hands away. Veda pouted up at him playfully jutting out her lip the same way he had in the car, Terry rolled his eyes pulling her into another brief tender kiss before moving to kiss and nibble down her neck teasingly. Veda let out a soft moan digging her nails into his back impatiently feeling Terry smile against her neck, digging his own nails into the flesh of one her ass cheeks, firmly. Giving the other cheek a soft playful pat.

“Stop teasing me, Romeo” she scolded with an impish grin as she gave his ass a playful pat of her own as she moved a finger to tug on his waistband. Terry chuckled against her, pulling his head out of her neck to gaze at her as he moved her hands away, gripping her small hands on his large ones.

“I’m not teasing you, my sweet girl. I’ve got to warm you up first even if we aren’t doing that. I love that you want me to touch like this but I don’t want you hurting. You’re my first priority always, so, let me take care of you.” Terry cooed with a sincere smile, Veda sighed feeling her heart flutter as she smiled back at him coyly, nodding her head in acknowledgement. Terry let out one of his pleased rumbles, a giddy grin playing on his lips, guiding Veda to wrap her arms around his neck, scooping her up and gliding over to the king-sized canopy bed. Veda giggled feeling a bit nervous now that this was actually happening, she’d been dreaming about it for months and it oddly played out somewhat like this. Terry set her gently in the middle of the plush bed, Veda shivered slightly at the feel of the cool silky sheets against her nearly bare body. Terry gave her a soft warm smile, removing her arms from around his neck gingerly setting them on her sides as he knelt beside her. He ran his hands in tender soothing motions up and down her arms leaning a little closer so she could feel his body heat. Before his eyes raked over her body again, this time with a glimmer of hunger in them, moving one of his hands to stroke her hair and the other to trail up her exposed thigh. Leaning in to pepper her neck and shoulder with hundreds of soft, hot opened mouthed kisses nibbling some sensitive spots and soothing them with his tongue. Veda let out a string of sultry moans and cries, that familiar warmth spreading deep inside her stomach as her clit throbbed eagerly. She gripped the fabric of the sheets in her hands so tight she was sure her knuckles were white.

Terry moaned against her neck, pulling back and placing a sweet kiss against her flushed cheek moving the hand on her thigh up to grip her breasts over the cup of the babydoll.

“Can I..” he started to ask but Veda abruptly cut him off with a dazed sort of smile, nodding her head frantically.

“Yes” she said almost desperately, bringing a hand up to play with the ends of his hair. Terry made a pleased noise, quickly pulling his hair out of the ponytail for her, shaking out some of the loose curls. Veda made a few gentle strokes through it before tangling her fingers in his dark ringlets being careful not to snag it with her beautiful promise ring, she had yet to see him with his hair down, but she found she really quite liked it. He looked softer, more reminiscent of the side of him he seemed to only reserve for her, a true romantic hero. Veda smiled at him dreamily fluttering her lashes at him, loving the faint bashful blush that danced upon his cheeks.

“I love it” she whispered, leaning up momentarily to place a sweet kiss on his temple. Terry’s eyes softened before capturing her in a passionate kiss filled with so much love and devotion Veda thought her heart might burst as she returned it tenth fold. They parted for air after what felt like forever.

“I love you, baby girl” Terry breathed out, gently tugging the cups of the babydoll down baring her breasts to him. Terry locked eyes with her, she felt her clit throb again with the intensity of his gaze, as he rolled one of her nipples between his fingers and closing his mouth around the other. Never breaking eye contact as he suckled and nibbled until it was hard and sensitive. Veda threw her head back slightly, letting out a loud moan, fighting to not roll her eyes into the back of her head because the moment was far too romantic and intimate not to watch. Terry released the one from his mouth with an audible pop before closing it again on her other nipple. Repeating the cycle so many times Veda lost count, letting out a plethora of indistinguishable moans, whimpers, and cries, feeling nothing but endless waves of pleasure and arousal. Terry stopped for a moment resulting in Veda letting out a needy whine at the loss of contact. Terry let out a breathy chuckle, moving up to capture her in a sweet kiss.

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to get one of these in my mouth, baby girl. They’re so pretty and perky and the perfect size” he praised pinching and twisting them firmly, repeating his cycle two more times. Veda found herself flushing at the compliment even though she knew he always looked at them when they weren’t making eye contact. Terry leaned back letting his hands roam underneath her tulle skirt, caressing the curves of her waist and gently squeezing the flesh of her hips with a pleased rumble.

“You really do have a great body, my sweet girl, you’re truly so gorgeous. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen” he cooed, raising the skirt to place kisses up and down her stomach, Veda arched her back enjoying the teasing bushes of his lips on her flush skin. He placed an opened mouthed one right below her navel and she mindlessly clamped her thighs together unintentionally, her clit was practically pulsing at this point begging for some attention. Terry locked eyes with her again asking a silent question, Veda nodded managing a noise of approval because she was too hot and breathless to speak proper English at the moment, as a wave of nervous anticipation crept up on her.

Terry drew a couple gentle soothing circles on her hips, hooking his fingers in the waistband of her panties and tugging them down her legs. Veda brought her knees to her chest, so he didn’t have to move too far down the bed, wanting him to be close to her as she felt another wave of nerves wash over her. Veda wordlessly reached out towards him, Terry immediately moved back towards her laying on his side so he could stoke her hair and place reassuring kisses on her cheek and forehead. Veda relaxed placing an arm around his neck so she could play with his hair and straightening her legs back out.

“Are you okay, baby girl, I can stop” Terry said softly, Veda shook her head at him.

“I’m alright, please don’t stop. I want to do this with you, I love you” she said sincerely, Terry smiled softly at her giving her a peck on the lips as he continued to stroke her hair soothingly.

“I’m just going to use my fingers right now, tell me if anything feels uncomfortable or hurts, okay” he cooed in her ear, Veda nodded parting her legs for him a bit, Terry gave her a reassuring smile bringing his free hand up to his mouth, getting his long fingers wet while he held her gaze. Veda bit her lip, her wave of arousal quickly reigniting as she watched him remove his fingers from his mouth silently offering them to her. Veda opened her mouth for him without even thinking about it sucking on his fingers without a second thought. Terry let out a low moan and a pleased rumble peppering her face with kisses.

“You’re such a good girl, baby” he crooned, pulling his fingers out of her mouth, Veda gave him a shy smile feeling her cheeks flush at the compliment. She let out a soft whimper as she felt him run his fingers over her already wet slit, before settling them on her clit, making small slow circles. Veda moaned softly, digging her fingers in the back of his neck, as the circles sent waves of pleasure through her body finding herself mirroring his circles with her hips. Terry let out a noise of approval, planting open mouthed kisses up her jawline, moving his fingers to toy with her entrance. Using his thumb to continue rubbing her clit, dipping a long finger inside her slowly. Veda gasped feeling a dull burning sensation at the intrusion, tensing up slightly but relaxing as soon as Terry started whispering sweet nothings into her ear as he stroked her hair. Pumping his finger in and out of her slowly and quickening the pace of circles he was making on her clit. Veda moaned softly finding that the quicker pace helped ease the discomfort she was feeling, even when he added another finger inside of her, gently stretching her out.

“How are you feeling” Terry whispered in her ear, quickly stroking her cheek with a finger before resuming the comforting strokes in her hair. Veda gave him a blissful smile, feeling a warm pressure slowly building up deep inside her stomach.

“Good, feels so good” she moaned tightening her grip on the back of his neck, Terry let out a content sigh into her ear, trailing kisses across her jaw again, giving her cheek a soft nudge with his nose. Veda turned her head towards him instinctively knowing that he wanted, capturing him in a passionate kiss, moaning against his mouth when he angled his fingers inside her, hitting a spot that had her toes curling. Veda broke the kiss desperately needing air as he continued to hit that spot, seemingly loving the response she gave him for it as he watched her throw her head back and moan out his name. Terry removed his fingers from inside her and Veda couldn’t help the displeased whine she let out. Terry chuckled giving her a sweet peck on the lips hovering over her as he moved back to a kneeling position.

“I’m not stopping baby girl; I just want to see and taste all of you. Can you spread out for me” he coaxed huskily, running a hand down her thigh softly holding her gaze as he moved over. Veda nodded wordlessly spreading her legs further apart, biting her lip as she watched him lower himself between them. Toying with her folds with his long fingers.

“You have such a pretty pussy, baby girl. You’re perfect” he cooed, gliding his tongue from her entrance to her clit letting out a groan before sliding his fingers back inside of her. “You taste like heaven, angel” he purred before latching his mouth onto her clit. Veda squealed feeling the pressure building back up with every quick suck and swipe his tongue over her swollen bud. Veda clutched the sheets tightly and curling her toes, letting out a string of sultry moans and cries as he angled his fingers inside of her again. It didn’t take long before she felt the pressure bubble over as she came to her first climax with a shriek, her walls clenching around his fingers vigorously, her legs trembling as she struggled to catch her breath. Her mind seemingly blank, completely spent and dazed. She hadn’t even noticed Terry had lifted her into a tight embrace, cradling her as he stoked her hair and peppered her face with kisses.

“It’s okay, baby girl, you’re okay” he cooed, Veda nuzzled her face into his neck wordlessly, trembling as she gripped his cock for the first time through the thin fabric of his pants. Letting out a soft gasp at how big it felt. Terry moaned shuddering against her at the contact. “Are you sure baby girl, that’s a lot, you’ve done so much tonight already. I don’t mind waiting for you, this was already an amazing surprise. Thank you” he breathed out reassuringly, Veda removed her face from his neck to look deeply into his eyes.

“I want to take care of you now, please” she cooed running her fingers through his hair, Terry’s eyes softened as he stared back at her nodding his head slowly.  

“Okay baby girl, where do you want me” he said with a teasing smile, Veda giggled moving a few of the pillows up against the headboard, gently guiding him to sit against them. Veda gave him a shy smile before getting to work, trailing opened mouthed kisses down his neck and shoulder and down his sculpted torso in the same way that he had done to her. Stopping right above his waistband, Terry moaned tugging his pants down for her eagerly, tangling his fingers throw her hair as he pulled her in for a fiery kiss. Veda pulled back for air biting her lip as she let her hand stroke his large cock glancing down to see it already oozing with precum. Terry threw his head back against the headboard, never taking his eyes off face as she moved to lay on her stomach between his legs. Staring up at him as she placed the tip of it in her mouth, Terry let out another moan as she took a little more of him in her mouth giving it a teasing suck.

“Oh, good girl. Fuck…” he breathed out, stroking her hair as she bobbed her head up and down his long shaft trying to take more of him in.

“Don’t do more than you can take right now, baby, it’s okay, this still feels amazing. Thank you, my sweet girl.” he said gingerly stroking her cheek with a thumb. Veda felt her heart flutter as she stared up at him with loving eyes, swirling her tongue around him. Terry hissed at the feeling before pulling her off him gently.

“Terry” she protested softly; he chuckled giving her an affectionate kiss on the forehead.

“I just want you to move, baby girl. Lay like this” he said guiding her to lay on her side on top of his leg, as he smiled at her. “Now keep going” he said happily, Veda rolled her eyes playfully before resuming with what she was doing. Watching Terry bite his lip, running a finger along her slit, Veda moaned spreading her legs for him eagerly hearing him chuckle as he slid his fingers inside of her. Angling his fingers as her made circles over her clit with his thumb quickly. Veda moaned bobbing her head faster, almost feeling like it was a competition so see who could finish faster, as their shared moans melded together. With her walls clenching around his fingers again, feeling completely breathless as she continued bobbing her head taking a little more of him in with each pass. Terry let out a growl bucking his hips slightly making her gag as tears blurred her vision just as her climax washed over her as Terry finished, attempting to pull out before she tasted anything but was unsuccessful. Veda trembled against him still feeling dazed from her high, not noticing him tug her onto his lap and raise a tissue for the nightstand to her mouth.

“I’m so sorry, baby girl. I didn’t mean to thrust up like that, did I hurt you” Terry said frantically trying to wipe her mouth out, Veda blushed realizing she swallowed his cum in her haze some how as she looked at him sheepishly.

“You didn’t hurt me, I swallowed it somehow” she said timidly, her voice sounding a bit horse as she relaxed against him exhausted. Terry let out a sigh of relief peppering her face with adoring kisses, Veda smiled at him tiredly letting out a genuine yawn this time as she stared at him dreamily. Terry smiled back at her for a long moment before gently laying her down on the pillows beside them, feeling a slight wave of panic wash over her as he moved down the bed.

“Please don’t leave me” she croaked; Terry quickly moved to sooth her stroking her hair gently.

“I’m just grabbing the blanket, sweetheart. It fell on the floor” he said reassuringly, Veda relaxed a bit nodding in acknowledgement. Terry moved to grab it at lightning speed, tugging her onto his chest and pulling the plush duvet around them. Veda let out a content sigh as he resumed stroking her hair, feeling her eyes grow heavy as she stared up at him.

“It’s okay baby girl, go to sleep, I’m not going anywhere. Remember, regardless of” he said showing her his matching ring.

“Time or circumstance” she said letting her eyes flutter shut.

🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤

They did end up spending most of Saturday morning in bed, showering each other with endless kisses and orgasms managing to keep their hands off each other long enough to take a shower and get dressed. Terry took her to Shakespeare Bridge as promised but they both agreed on her waiting to see the Ennis House, partly because they weren’t sure they’d head back to the hotel to check out on Sunday morning if they ended up in his bedroom. Opting to take a stroll down the Hollywood walk of fame, stopping for a quick lunch at Casa Madera, before heading back to Beverly Hills and doing some shopping on Rodeo Drive. All the while feeling unbelievably close to one another. They ended the day with a quick trip back towards Terry’s house to do some stargazing at the Griffith observatory before heading back to the Beverly Wilshire. Sharing an intimate room service meal, cuddling and kissing in the living room as they sipped champagne well into the early morning hours both of them silently dreading parting ways the next afternoon even if it was only a few hours. Part of Veda wanted to invite him to go to dinner with her mom, Daniel, and Mr. Miyagi but she wasn’t too sure how he’d feel about it. Even though he’d have to meet them eventually.

🖤❤️🩶🖤❤️🩶🖤❤️🩶🖤❤️🩶🖤❤️🩶🖤❤️🩶

Terry’s Pov

Terry smiled at Veda lovingly as they headed up the stairs to her apartment, her duffle and new shopping bags slung lazily over one of his shoulders. So, he could hold her hand the whole way up, feeling positively over the moon about the events of this past weekend. Watching her come apart for him like that was truly the most beautiful thing he’d ever experienced, and he knew nothing else would top it, she truly was the sun. The light of his life, she warmed every fiber of his being and soul, and he would do whatever it took to keep her shining for him.

Veda smiled back at him leaning up to give him a sweet kiss on his cheek before turning the key in her lock. He loved the way her eyes lit up upon seeing the flowers her brought her two days ago on her kitchen table, quickly rushing to change the water in the vase.

“Hold on baby girl, I’ll help you that’s heavy” he said, quickly heading to place her bags neatly in her bedroom before rushing to help her pour the old water out and fill it with fresh tap water and a plant nutrient packet.

“Thank you, my love,” she chirped happily wrapping her arms around his torso the same way she had Friday morning, when Terry had been contemplating uttering those three words to her. It seemed so far away given the number of times he hasn’t hesitated to say it to her in the last 48 hours.

“Of course, my sweet girl, I love you” he crooned kissing her forehead, loving the blush that spread across her pretty face.

“I love you more” she said kissing his shoulder, Terry chuckled kissing her nose.

“I don’t think that’s possible, baby girl” he said stroking her hair gently, Veda let out one of her cute giggles just as her phone rang, she let go of him to answer it and he swore he’d never felt this jealous of a stupid phone in  his life. Terry glanced at the clock realizing it was probably her mom coming to steal her away from him for a few hours. They had spent a lot of time cuddled up when they stopped for a quick lunch.

“Hello, oh hi momma. Yeah we just got back, mommm” Veda whined into the phone glancing up at Terry with sheepish eyes.

“My mom says hi” Veda said shaking her head slightly, Terry beamed at her walking over to her, he didn’t know she knew about him and Veda having a relationship outside of the office.

“Hi Mrs. LaRusso” Terry said wrapping his arms around Veda’s waist tightly, he could faintly hear her excited shrieking on the other end of the line as he sat his chin a top of Veda’s head.

“No, I will not be telling him that. What you call for anyway aren’t we still going for dinner. Oh, okay” Terry could hear the note of sadness in her voice as she said the last part. Instantly flying into comfort mode as he turned her to face him; there were tears welling in her eyes already.

“What is it baby?” Terry asked in a hushed tone, frantically wiping away the ones that spilled over. Veda held the phone away from her ear for a moment.

“My brother, Daniel, didn’t tell Mr. Miyagi they were supposed to go to dinner for my birthday he forgot, I guess. So, they’re on a fishing trip up in San Francisco. It’s not a big deal” she said softly, Terry felt a small wave of anger overtake him. His sweet angel helped raise this ungrateful brat, even gifted him all the money she earned so he could go to college and have a better future instead of following her dream. And couldn’t be bothered to remember her birthday dinner? He couldn’t even afford her a five minute phone call to tell her himself, made his mom do for him and Terry bet he didn’t even give her a quick one to tell her Happy Birthday on Friday either.

Terry took a deep breath as he gently stroked Veda’s hair, placing a kiss on her forehead.

“It is a big deal if you’re upset by it baby, how about I take you and your mom out for dinner? There’s a couple shows going on at the LA music center we could check out” he said, giving her another kiss on the cheek. Veda gave him a teary smile as she nodded her head.

“Hey, momma is it alright if Terry comes, he said there are a few shows at the music center he’d like to take us to. Alright, we’ll be around to get you soon okay”

❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️🖤🩶❤️

[dipplinduo]

Seeing the multiple update drops, looks like I'm in for a feast now that I managed to pass my exams and is now entering a new term after enjoying a pretty decent holiday

So without further ado,

S&S D Chapter 18 thoughts:

1. I could tell we're going for a roller coaster ride based on the Chapter Summary alone.

2. That discussion is much needed to keep things in check among the Area Zero Crew. I especially love it when Penny speaks up her points to prevent Arven and Nemona from going overboard with their concerns.

3. PENNY. THE MVP THAT YOU ARE. I love the amazing progress being made on the Toxic Chain Investigation X3

4. Drayton finally said the "IcOnIc" line 🤣😂

5. Oh no... oh dear no... what's going to happen to poor Kieran- 😭😭😭😭

6. RIBOMBE NOOOOOOOO 😭😭😭😭😭

Man, the cliffhanger for this chapter is INSANE. Time to go read the next chapter to see what happens next.

- ☕️

Congrats on passing your exams!!! <3 Hell yeah!! 1. LOL really??? I actually double checked that. I tend to write them in like 10 seconds because they're always the bane of my existence, I forgot people might be reading them and I can see where you got that xDD (I try to keep them spoiler-free but exciting)

2. I wanted to take a realistic route with the Paldea Squad. They're loyal and protective as Juliana's best friends (all in their own ways), and tbh, the kind of relationship foundation that Kieran & Juliana have formed is pure at the end of the day, but it is hosted on a very rocky and tumultuous road. (What no one knows is that 99% of it is tragically thanks to the stupid peach). I'm glad it's coming across well, because imo any good friend is gonna care about intervening when they're concerned about you.

3. Penny is lowkey an MVP and having someone with her skillset is invaluable for these kinds of mysteries LOL. She'd be unusually good at Clue, probably.

4. Sometimes I really just like to fuck around and break the fourth wall with Drayton in not so subtle ways. Ahhh, Drayton. xD

5. I am so sorry :')

6. I AM SO SORRY LOOOOL </3

Your reviews are iconic as always, coffee god asker. Thank you for sharing your lovely thoughts :) <3

[iviarellereads]

The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 55 - What is Written in Prophecy

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Dragon icon) In which this is the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny, and I'm not sorry for the earworm.

PERSPECTIVE: Rand enters the silent chamber slowly, and something flashes ahead: Callandor, revolving, scattering the light in the room. Waiting for him, if he's not just some half-mad man, not just some puppet.

A voice tells him to take it and he spins. The tall man with close-cropped white hair looks familiar to him, though he has no idea who this is. He's seen him in dreams, putting the wondergirls in a cage. The man says they're less than nothing, but he's not so surprised, Lews Therin was always willing to follow his heart before true power. Now, it's time to do what he's meant to.

Rand asks who he is, and the man laughs, saying he doesn't remember Lews Therin looking this way. Call him Be'lal, then, and take the sword. Once, they rode to war together, and for that he gives [Rand] this one chance, the sword might even be enough to help him survive. Rand laughs, saying Ba’alzamon himself has hunted him, does Be'lal think he will grovel now, when he's denied the Dark One to his face? Be'lal says [Rand] knows nothing, now take it, take Callandor, three thousand years it's waited, one of the most powerful sa'angreal they ever made. Take it! Instead, Rand grasps saidin and wields a sword of flame, with a heron-marked blade.

He knows he once faced a true blademaster and barely survived, and Be'lal is surely even greater than Turak was. Be’lal keeps taunting Rand to take Callandor, but Rand hesitates. He's not even sure he IS the Dragon Reborn, and even if he is, Be’lal could cut him down from behind while he runs to grab it. His old wound is dripping blood down his side.

Be’lal yells at Rand again to take Callandor, but Moiraine shouts "NO!" from the back of the room. Be’lal says she's nothing, a stinging fly, but Mo raises her hands and uses a weave of a bar of fire hotter than the sun, and Be’lal dissolves into shimmering specks of light.(1)

The fighting has stopped dead, and silence falls. Mo says Be’lal was right about one thing: Rand must take Callandor, his birthright. There's no more time to learn before he does it. Then she's struck by black lightning, thrown away from Rand by “Ba’alzamon” (Ishamael), clothed all in dead black, with even darker shadows clinging to him. Twice he has offered Rand the chance to serve him living, and twice he has been denied. No more. t's time to die, Lews Therin Kinslayer. Die, Rand al'Thor.

Rand throws himself desperately at Callandor, sure that it's his only chance now. Ishy's weave hits Rand as he flies through the air, crumpling something inside him. His hand closes convulsively, on Callandor's hilt.

The One Power surged through him, a torrent greater than he could believe, from saidin into the sword. The crystal blade shone brighter than even Moiraine’s fire had. It was impossible to look at, impossible any longer to see that it was a sword, only that light blazed in his fist. He fought the flow, wrestled with the implacable tide that threatened to carry him, all that was really him, into the sword with it. For a heartbeat that took centuries he hung, wavering, balanced on the brink of being scoured away like sand before a flash flood. With infinite slowness the balance firmed. It was still as though he stood barefoot on a razor’s edge above a bottomless drop, yet something told him this was the best that could be expected. To channel this much of the Power, he must dance on that sharpness as he had danced the forms of the sword. He turned to face Ba’alzamon. The tearing within him had ceased as soon as his hand touched Callandor. Only an instant had passed, yet it seemed to have lasted forever. “You will not take my soul,” he shouted. “This time, I mean to finish it once and for all! I mean to finish it now!” Ba’alzamon fled, man and shadow vanishing. For a moment Rand stared, frowning. There had been a sense of—folding—as Ba’alzamon left. A twisting, as if Ba’alzamon had in some way bent what was. Ignoring the men staring at him, ignoring Moiraine crumpled at the column base, Rand reached out, through Callandor, and twisted reality to make a door to somewhere else. He did not know to where, except that it was where Ba’alzamon had gone.(2) “I am the hunter now,” he said, and stepped through.

PERSPECTIVE: Egwene, the Stone shaking in TAR. She gets to the cells, and finds another Black Sister, even less substantial than Joiya had been. Amico is drifting in and out of sleep, playing with one of the ter'angreal. When she appears to be most substantial, Egg shields her from the source, and she doesn't disappear again. She uses a weave of earth to weaken the lock.

She wakes up to her aches, but realizes that of course, non-living things aren’t affected by TAR.(3) She says Amico, outside, won't bother them, and they should be able to walk out. The three can almost feel the Power, but they're still shielded. She decides she has to go back, and try again. Nyn sings her back to sleep.

PERSPECTIVE: Mat enters a hall and sees a woman, who Juilin says is one of the ones who took the wondergirls. She begs Mat to help her. She doesn't seem to be able to move, and she looks asleep but her voice sounds awake. He takes the key off her belt, and opens the door to Nyn and El, who ask what under the light HE'S doing here? He came to bloody rescue them, that's what! They wake Egg, and then they all notice Juilin behind Mat, and glare. Juilin explains that Liandrin spoke to him and he had to, and Nyn says Lia has many tricks, and they can apportion guilt later.

As they leave, Amico begs for help again, says she'll swear herself back to the light with the Oath Rod and all, and Nyn decks her one. Mat asks what she's doing, hitting a defenceless woman, and one of them uses a weave of air to lift him off the ground. Then they all say he doesn't understand, and until he does, he'd best keep his opinions to himself. Mat says they’re showing no gratitude for him being there to help them out of a situation they had no way out of themselves. Nynaeve says it hurts her to say it, but he’s right, and lets him out of the air prison.

Mat suggests they hightail it out of the Stone, but the Wondergirls want to stay and punish the other BA that hurt them, and they walk away. Mat calls out that he’s leaving, but when the Wondergirls show no sign of stopping, he chases after them with Juilin.(4)

PERSPECTIVE: Perrin, still searching for Faile. He's rescued her twice more, now, and he's weakening, from being here so strongly without his body. But he's close to finding Faile again, so he toughs it out, and smashes open a bronze door. Inside, a falcon is chained to a perch, and as he walks toward her, other falcons emerge from the shadows and peck and scratch at him. Just as he breaks the lock on the chain, everything goes dark...

He opened his eyes to stinging agony, as if his face and arms and shoulders had been sliced with a thousand knives. It did not matter. Faile was kneeling over him, those dark, tilted eyes filled with worry, wiping his face with a cloth already soaked in his blood. “My poor Perrin,” she said softly. “My poor blacksmith. You are hurt so badly.” With an effort that cost more pain, he turned his head. This was the private dining room in the Star, and near one leg of the table lay a wooden carving of a hedgehog, broken in half. “Faile,” he whispered to her. “My falcon."(5)

PERSPECTIVE: Rand, in another version of the Heart of the Stone, with no fighting, no dead men, just himself. He hears three great gongs (Perrin smashing the bronze door) then all is still.

Still, that is, until a shaft of balefire comes for him from behind a column. He lifts Callandor, instinctively as much as anything else, and the balefire splits and travels around him, singeing his coat. Behind him, the two prongs strike two columns, shattering them into nonexistence.

A snarl of rage from the shadows. Rand hears boots on stone and gives chase. There are obstacles, and Rand uses instinct and dream-logic to fix, disappear, or overcome them, with no idea on the conscious level of what he's doing. He's also channelling an awful lot of the One Power. He can feel the razor balance between just enough to be safe and just enough to burn him up.

Eventually, he's at the Heart of the Stone again, and Ishy cries that he will not be undone, he cannot be defeated! Rand says Ishy is destroyed, and plunges Callandor into Ishy’s chest.

Suddenly, Rand is back in the waking world. At his feet lies the body of a man with a hole burned through his chest, and his mouth and eyes are black pits.

I have done it, he thought. I have killed Ba’alzamon, killed Shai’tan! I have won the Last Battle! Light, I AM the Dragon Reborn! The breaker of nations, the Breaker of the World. No! I will END the breaking, end the killing! I will MAKE it end!(6) He raised Callandor above his head. Silver lightning crackled from the blade, jagged streaks arching toward the great dome above. “Stop!” he shouted. The fighting ceased; men stared at him in wonder, over black veils, from beneath the rims of round helmets. “I am Rand al’Thor!” he called, so his voice rang through the chamber. “I am the Dragon Reborn!” Callandor shone in his grasp. One by one, veiled men and helmeted, they knelt to him, crying, “The Dragon is Reborn! The Dragon is Reborn!”

=====

(1) Only slightly more climactic than the end of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, my landmark comparison for poor resolutions to villains. (2) Copying weaves just like the girls do, only, different. (3) Still, worth the trip to take out Joiya and Amico. What's next? (4) Say one thing, and do the other: the Mat Cauthon road to success? (5) WAS THAT SO HARD, SIR?! You had to go and get clawed to hamburger by a buncha dream birds just to finally acknowledge that actually you're super into the tsundere thing Faile's got going on? (6) Those lines… hit different after the Game of Thrones finale, don't they? But uh, sure Jan, er, Rand. Sure, this was the last battle, despite no fanfare or armies, and eleven books to go…

[chronically-ghosted]

Hello you 🩵 first of all you already know this but I’ll say again how much I LOVE your new theme. The icon is so cute & I love how dieter is looking up at himself bc of the header placement lol it makes me happy!

Now, 💖 & 👻 & 💥 for the writer goal asks?

thank you for mentioning my new theme! 😭 i love it so much -- i get so happy when i see my little dieters hanging out!

💖 What is your primary writing goal for this year?

write (and finish) more series, instead of just one offs. those requires less frequently published fics, but ones maybe with a little more thought and care.

👻 Is there a new genre you'd like to write?

i dont want to overextend, but uhh, maybe sci fi + ezra? i've been listening to Ghost Radio, the book that Pedro narrated and I am now achingly obsessed with his voice. And given that ezra is easily his chattiest character, i'm curious how to capture that tone.

💥Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're most excited to write? Share a snippet or tell us about it!

v glad you asked because i am SO excited to share the Choose Your Own Adventure fic with y'all but I haven't because a) the first part isn't done and b) i lit-ch-erly don't even have a title! 😅

Here's a snippet tho 👀

“Can I help you?” His accent hails from the east, North Carolina most likely. However, his manners are not reflective of that famous southern hospitality. He looks at you like you’re a bad dream and it unsteadies you. “Y-yes. I, uh, I’m hoping that you know a-a Miller. Joel Miller? I have his advert and I’m, um, I’m looking for work.”  The man’s thin eyebrow jumps mockingly. Aren’t we all, sister? But eventually, he shakes his head. “Look, I don’t know what you’re doing all the way out here, but this ain’t no place for a young lady out on her own, job or no job. Where’s your husband?” “Dead.” Your voice doesn’t waver, but then again, why would it?  The clerk’s eyes soften, if only slightly. “I see. But I’m sorry to say, there is no job here for you.” Your mouth instantly dries out. “What do you mean? Where’s Mr. Miller?” “He’s a mean ol’ sunuvbitch, in a place about twenty miles from here. Comes in twice a month for supplies and he’s back out into the prairie.” “I’m sorry, I don’t see why that’s a problem –,” “He ain’t fit for civilized life, ma’am.” The clerk drops his nose, eying you seriously over the rim of his black glasses. “Whatever he’s offering, you don’t want no part of it.”

thank you for asking my love!

Ask me about my new year writing goals!

[silver-wield]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review Chapter 10

Okay, this collection of posts will be filled with spoilers, including clips and screenshots, so if you don't wanna see things, then don't look. Some of the things I'm gonna highlight will include references to Remake and other sources to link with the overarching plot. This is a straight path playthrough with no sidequests or extra content.

Time to howl at the moon 🤣

We meet Cid at the airstrip and for a fee he'll take us all over. Yuffie is her overly enthusiastic self and winds up airsick lol

Once we reach Cosmo Canyon there's a dramatic change in Red, who drops his tough guy act the second he spots a friendly face. Barret's reaction is worth everything here!

The story progresses the same as OG with our first meeting with Bugenhagen and Tifa's adorable surprise at hearing how old Nanaki is.

It's worth noting from this point on, the team switches between Red and Nanaki, although nobody says his name that much anyway. Red also switches between voices depending on the situation and how he feels. Like when facing down the Turks or corneo, he'll sound tougher, but with his friends he's more gentle.

After a tour of the planetarium, where you literally have to climb several floors and interact with items to progress, bugenhagen treats Tifa's eyewitness account like she's seeing things. He arrogantly says he'll educate them and leads them into the SIM.

The standard explanation about the planet follows, with how the lifestream works as a river and reservoir for life energy. This explanation is in harmony with part of Sephiroth's grandiose statements about how some branches of the lifestream ultimately wither or rejoin the main body.

Basically it's stating that there's no alt timelines, just pathways not taken that die off because there's no energy used to maintain them over a more logical path with stronger and more positive results for the planet.

It's all about the planet's survival, not the people on it.

Bugenhagen sends Tifa to a "seminar" where she can learn more about the planet because she wants to know if there's more than one way for lifestream energy to rejoin the planet. She wants to know if people's souls aren't truly lost.

She talks about her experience in the lifestream and wants to encourage people to do something for the planet. She doesn't know what they can do, but she feels frustrated about it.

There's another choice convo event later at the fire where Cloud can say he understands her pov and that she shouldn't worry so much about what others think.

The other characters get their relationship development with Cloud, and it finishes with Aerith standing before the fire going on about how hard and sad her life is as the last cetra. Honestly, this came off whiny to me, especially when you consider the worst thing that happened to her is her mom died and Zack went missing. Cloud, Tifa and Barret lost their homes and families. Red was experimented on for two years by Hojo. Yuffie saw Sonon murdered in front of her and grew up in a warzone and had to witness the destruction of her homeland and culture.

I'm sorry, but Aerith being poor me pity me because she didn't have friends just ain't it.

Some lanterns are let off at the end of the scene and then we head down to the challenge of the Gi so Red can be recognised as a Watcher of the Vale.

You're stuck with just Red and Barret for this part. It's fine. There's minimal struggle with these two and they combo well. Barret's dialogue gets a bit repetitive whenever Red goes wall climbing, but it could be worse.

Bugenhagen explains the history of the Gi and the Vale and Red's family as we head deeper into the caves. There's some creepy looking gates that replace the spider webs from OG, and we have to raid a tomb to get an icon for a pedestal, so it's pretty faithful to the OG section of the game. The wall climbing is fun and let's us take short cuts that means we're alone until Barret catches up 🤣

Bugenhagen tells us the cetra used to talk to the imprisoned Gi and then we have to kick some ass!

I'm not gonna spoil the scene with Red and his dad. Y'all need to watch it. It's perfection and Max Mittleman did as good a job with this as John Eric Bentley did with Barret's part in Corel. I love those character arcs best and that hasn't changed for Rebirth ❤️

Anyway, Bugenhagen hits regret after having a think and then the Gi reappear and beckon us into a dark cave. Sephiroth appears and Cloud is very eager to follow.

And we're going on a boat ride. Gi Nattak wants us to be quiet because the planet is listening and that means the cetra are too. He definitely has no love for them or Aerith when she does her stupid hand raise question time thing again. Is she in middle school?

We leave the A team on the boat and hit up the B team over in Zack's interlude. He's having a nice chat with Biggs about how they both dodged death and how weird it was. They talk about Cloud and have contrasting character profiles for him, and neither can tell time.

Biggs has set up a recruitment for Avalanche, but the only person who turns up is a mocking Kyrie. Discouraged, Biggs leaves and Zack heads home.

Zack goes to see Aerith, calls to her and holds her hand.

Back over in the real world, Aerith can feel his touch and is startled. Tifa looks worried, but nothing comes of it because we have arrived at our destination 🤣

The Gi village.

There's a lot of info dumping happening between battles here. The main points are:

The Gi aren't of the planet. They're aliens. We don't know how they got here, but it turns out they arrived before Jenova. That's explained in the temple of ancients, not now. It's possible their actions drew jenova to the planet.

The Gi can't die. Because they're not of this planet, she refuses to accept their energy. Like a blood transfusion that's the wrong type it would make the planet sick if she absorbed their energy.

The Gi really want to die. They're sick of existing. They're not alive, they're not dead, they're stuck.

The Gi created the black materia using the planet's energy and their own desire to die. We know it summons meteor, so basically they wanted to die so much they infused their will into a piece of materia, which is of the planet, and that results in the planet taking on the consequences of their wish to die. It's kinda like a murder/suicide.

The cetra stole the black materia to protect the planet, but didn't do anything to help the Gi. Red's father promised to help them too, but they turned him to stone. Red then takes on the task. They group agrees the Gi shouldn't have the materia, but they need help.

Cloud now has the urge to get the black materia. He thinks it's to get hold of it before the bad guys do, but we know better.

Once we finally leave the Gi village, which is a section I think was needed to expand the Gi and fill in some gaps in the lore, Cait Sith wants to access a Shinra terminal to look for the temple the Gi said hides the materia. Bugenhagen got creative with it and now they're up shit creek without a paddle.

Until a guard says a black robe is at the entrance. And this one has something different to say than the others. This one says "Nibelheim". It's almost like he took a detour to tell them to go there and find a terminal because Cosmo Canyon isn't somewhere they need to be.

But we've got our next destination and some gil in our pocket to pay the airfare!

This chapter was good. The lore and all the new content with the Gi and expanding on all the back story and everything made this one fun to sit through. The cut scenes get a bit long, but it's FF, they do cinematic 🤣

Red and Barret as a team is fun, but I wanted more banter. Zack's interlude is getting more interesting and I can't help but wonder at the inconsistent accounts and personalities of the npcs. The Kyrie we know didn't seem to be quite such a mean spirited bitch as this one is, and Marlene is also pretty bratty actually. Since when is she the type of kid to stick her tongue out and push people? In Remake she was a shy lil cutie. And Elmyra. Since when is she so defeatist? Where's the woman who went to the station every day to wait and pray her husband was safe? Everybody seems slightly off.

I guess we'll see what happens in part three with all that.

Our next stop is Nibelheim, and it was somewhere I was looking forward to a lot, and it didn't disappoint! The game really did pick up after we left Costa del Sol. It's like they started switching off from vacay mode and going back into "oh shit my life is fucked" mode 🤣

[rawliverandcigarettes]

For the fanfic director's commentary, I'd love to hear your thought process behind Anetha—especially (if you're willing to share) hints about her side of the story post–Chapter 8 of Halfway Home. If that's too spoilery or involved, more general rambles about Chapter 8 would be cool as well!

Hey thank you so very much for the ask!! I'm super sorry about the time it took me to get to it!!

Actually, I kind of wanted to have Chapter 17 out so I could dive deeper into her psychology without revealing anything about her attitude towards The Event and without spoiling anyone. But now it’s done, it’s here, it’s messy: I think we have enough pieces to start unraveling what’s going on in her brain.

That being said, spoilers for Halfway Home below for those who may dabble --and beyond the plot spoilers: I think that if you want to keep your opinion on Anetha neutral, or decide for yourself first by reading the whole thing and then potentially coming back, it might be a wise thing to do so because we're truly vivisecting my girl in the reply.

(edit post me writing the answer to the ask: WOW I rambled like CRAZY, so also beware that I do ramble like crazy oops)

So Anetha… Honestly kind of appeared in the story as I was drafting it?

The very very first draft that I ever did, that was actually in French (!), initially only explored Rhanda and Shandri (and Rhanda and Nagatha used to be the same person too), and Anetha was added compulsively because I felt like there was a giant room for conflict begging for someone to take up that space and act a little cooler and more rebellious than the rest of the cast, and that Shlee needed that sort of energy in his life (though the stakes were much lower at the time –or rather, they were as bad, but I had yet to understand just *how bad*). I think that, partially because she erupted into the story rather than being carefully placed there, she was the first character to click for me and the rare beta-readers at the time. Her motivations and psychology didn’t really change since 2017, I merely streamlined them over the course of the drafts –the scenes with Anetha in the spotlight may hold the prize for highest percentage of scenes that barely changed since draft 1 actually!

In the first draft, the breaking point between Shlee and Anetha used to happen in much more defused way. The moment when they were separated was extremely different: chapter 8 used to have a much more traditional Mass Effect flair and involved an attack by batarian slavers, fucking Jondum Bau was there (fun fact: Accano used to be Jondum Bau for a very long time –Accano is actually the conglomerate of two different turian characters that were both scrapped, Jondum Bau and Mordin Solus that were all squished into the blackpink icon that we know and love the slightly unnerving STG agent with a Mission TM), and Shlee was forcefully separated from Anetha during the attack.

Then, it was while Shlee tried to contact her from Omega that the first seeds of doubt about her intentions were planted, especially since the story used to have one of Anetha’s exes showing up and trashtalking the hell out of what she was like as a girlfriend, forcing Shlee to see his sister from an outside perspective for the first time (I still kept her setup in Chapter 3 because I think it still reveals some of these dysfunctions and they're interesting as a pattern). Then, there was the “hey” scene, that cemented the fact that Shlee kind of hated her guts now.

Beyond the fact that I made strides to make the story punchier and more compact by dropping a lot of storylines, and this could be condensed significantly while making my point clearer (deepening not widening etc), I decided that dropping the attack for something that was much more… mundane, in a way, helped to reveal an uglier interior facet of Anetha’s brain –though one that I, sadly, believe to be much more relatable than it may seem at first glance.

(I mean, traveling semi-illegally via a spaceship that side-hustles by smuggling batarian refugees from point A to point B and then being caught by border control is not exactly a regular or normal occurrence, but it could have just been a weird anecdotal bleep on their journey if Shlee didn’t brutally discover that he has much more in common with these batarians than his sister through his absence of administrative existence and being, therefore, inherently illegal).

.

So I’m going to be relatively vague with the details since Anetha will be dissected further both in The Empire of Preys (though not a lot since she was younger and kind of existing in the background) and Override (where she will be a PoV character yaaay I’m excited for thaat), but to keep it simple: Anetha’s circumstances were already messy as hell before Shlee even showed up.

This is all hinted at in Chapter 8, but I do get into deeper details here, so… vague spoilers? I don’t think they are, but I do expose the events from her perspective, which I didn’t really do before so beware!

The relationship of her birth mother Priin and Rhanda was very complicated (and not even because of Rhanda!! wow), forcing Anetha to build up huge emotional walls to protect herself from her mother’s wild strides in the mental health department since she was a child, culminating in the moment where she had to take care of a SA emergency all by herself –leading to Rhanda taking the ONE (1) good responsible decision of her life and breaking up with Priin, which unfortunately led her to become unstable and distant and then pushed her to the breaking point when Priin ended up taking her own life years later, even though they had not spoken in years.

So Anetha was holed up to her aunt (not yet a bajillionaire at the time) and her weird human boyfriend while the only parent she had left went to fuck off somewhere to avoid exploding in front of her daughter and making the damage even worse. Anetha hated that move, feeling abandoned and burdensome and reacting by becoming as spiteful as she could towards her Dad, especially when said Dad returned with a small child and another failed relationship, a child she also dumped on her lap to go work on Illium soon after (this moment is much more complicated than this, Anetha understood what she wanted to understand, but TEoP is a lot about that exact moment so I'll keep it vague for now).

And then, just a few years later…… Rhanda returns, pale as a ghost, wrecked with something she will not speak about, only for Anetha to discover that her Dad has a literal stolen child stored in the trunk of their car, then transfered to the bedroom of the apartment they all share.

.

Anetha’s aloofness is a survival strategy. It is basically all she has to defend herself from the people in her life, who should know better yet do not, consuming themselves in extreme behaviors at the slightest opportunity (Priin being Priin, Rhanda being Rhanda, even Nagatha deciding to Uno Reverse the free marketplace and becoming a kingpin for the Great Kapital qualifies I think –I could talk for hours about the two T'selvi sisters and how they mirror each other but that’s what TEoP is for so I will calm down and focus on the ask sorryyy). There’s a reason why Edwood, of all people, is probably the best influence in her life (shoutout to Edwood for being the only normal, not-unhinged person in this entire clusterfuck) and why she took after him so much.

I think what’s complicated with her, is that while she’s developing this whole rebellious, no-strings-attached, too-cool-for-you persona to master her emotions and avoid hurt at all cost (especially anything tied to abandonment and grief), she’s also constantly put in situations that demand her to be responsible: beyond her upbringing, she was effectively the adult in both Shandri and Shlee’s life for a good chunk of it, as Rhanda was unable to provide the basic necessities of safety and care more often than not. Not to mention: she knows full well her family is doing serious criminal things that nobody bothers explaining to her, and she must shoulder the burden of being put in constant danger for reasons she can’t begin to fathom. Every time she tries to grasp some normalcy in her life, the people who are meant to protect her put everything in disarray, and then demand her to be mature and practical and unflinching as if that’s, like, a reasonable thing to ask of a teenager forced to brace through the notion that everyone she loves is being tracked down by government officials. Even something as simple as her last name, she’s asked to abandon.

So THEN comes Shlee, and this makes everything so much more complicated for her.

Shlee is the literal representation of everything going wrong in her life: a growing organism forcefully brought in from outside; alien, diseased, destroying every safety net she may have built for herself, soaking up Rhanda’s attention as well as being the direct reason her Dad became the most deranged version of herself to date, something that may drop dead if not cared for correctly, and worst of all –something that demands that she acts as an example for his own growth, forcing her into a caretaker role whether she wants to or not through imprinting.

And he will die in like 30-40 years, which, fucking great, that's like in five years for her, and so the last thing she wants to deal with emotionally on top of everything else. So this is why she refuses to engage with him for such a long time: it’s too messed up on too many levels, and she wants to preserve herself from the general madness (understandable honestly).

During the first brush with Accano, Anetha basically has the exact same thought process that would come back to haunt her in that fateful chapter 8: Accano represents the authority of the state. The STG agent may be a maniac that will destroy her and everybody else, or he may be normalcy and order offering her a way out a situation that is getting more and more out of control. Maybe Rhanda did kidnap a salarian child in a crazed frenzy, and the best course of action would be to reunite him with his people.

And what a relief that would be.

So of course, that doesn’t happen and then Shlee starts becoming an actual person in her eyes, one she has to spend time with and care for; in so many words, a new constant in her life. There’s the component of being won over in spite of herself as he becomes sharper, wittier and a partner in their survival and co-raising of Shandri, aaaand of course there’s the other component of Shlee being her only concrete way to get back to Rhanda in any significant way.

She does want to help Shlee become his own person, like Edwood helped her once; her behavior is not manipulative on purpose, but her subconscious also sees this opportunity to take back control over the narrative by overpowering Rhanda’s influence over Shlee’s life and becoming his new reference point, his new everything, in no small part for the spiteful pleasure of ripping the last shreds of stability her Dad still has after being forced to survive her whims for so long. She really wants to sweep Shlee away and save him from Rhanda, preserve him from the unbearable fate of rotting by her side, but Anetha also wants to know that for once in her life, she won’t be the one to mend the pieces of what once was.

.

So OKAY now we’re here (sorry this has basically turned into a short story length-wise, I think this is a result of concentrated blorbo frustration of not being able to talk about them with that level of details accumulating over 7 years; expect the same kind of outbursts once I am allowed to talk about Nagatha, or Jurlan, or even Rhanda in greater details 😭).

Chapter 8. The Citadel Border Control has her brother pinned down as everything he technically is: someone that will inherently destroy her life through the simple fact that he exists. At this point, Anetha’s brain is overridden with the refusal to be shoved back into Rhanda’s crimes kicking and screaming. She’s livid. She feels trapped and overwhelmed, and she’s been training her emotions to initiate shut down upon meeting a critical point of fear, powerlessness and general absence of safety. Empathy is the first thing to go when it comes to protecting herself. Maybe, if Shlee didn’t take the snap decision of running away, she might have calmed down and figured things out with him in a detention cell somewhere, but both of them are basically as emotionally triggered as it gets, and so Anetha shuts down while Shlee panics and makes a drastic decision to not trust her and save himself.

And Anetha does not take kindly to being abandoned and left to puddle in Shlee and Rhanda’s mess Yet Again.

There’s other reasons why she doesn’t reply to his texts to begin with –having to deal with Citadel Border Patrol to begin with, and then more that will be explored in Override. But in essence, once she’s let out, Anetha is pretty much… free. Free to figure herself out without the pressure of her insane family getting in the way (oh no does that sound like someone else we know having a similar character arc somewhere else surely not, a foil in my fanfiction it's more likely than you think etc).

Of course, there’s that pesky guilt and her complete refusal to handle grief in any way, and that feeling does linger, and so her willingness to handle the situation upfront is very much hindered by this (beyond the practical reasons why she might not be able to help). The whole “hey”/”hey” fiasco really does nothing for either for them (I think it was the best she could do and the most she was willing to leave herself open, and Shlee shutting that down meant every single one of her walls was back up and reinforced). The passive-aggressive nature of their conversations through bank expenses made mostly off her own paycheck is also a very bad way to communicate, and most of what Anetha sees for a year are receipts for ridiculously expensive cocktails and cheap bomb shots from Afterlife. Doesn’t really help our frog’s case as far as she’s concerned (even though she does realize it’s probably a bad sign and probably her fault that a shy nerd like him would be taking that hard of a plunge towards alcoholism, regardless of the reasons why –but she’s also pretty much there herself sooo not the best at recognizing the pattern).

Also she’s having mercenary times and they are Bad Times. Doesn’t help with the whole numbness/detachment problem either.

Speaking of Eclipse: the whole mercenary thing comes from that urge of trying to reconcile her desire to be independent and freed of responsibilities with that yearning for safety in a world where she’s always yeeted out of what is normal and safe without her consent anyway, starting with the fact that she’s pureblood and inherently looked as wrong –and just the general romanticizing of herself as a stone-cold badass as a way to one-up Rhanda on her own field, aaaand maybe a little bit a way to feel closer to her/make her react, because to be frank a lot of Anetha’s bullshit is about wanting Rhanda to react to said bullshit and act like a responsible parent, and be there, and not abandon her/de-prioritize her constantly, and be a source of stability rather than an endless distress generator.

(the seed being planted by the mercenaries hired by Nagatha at one of the most stressful points of her life is actually a rather late addition, but I think it works!)

But yeah, Anetha has SO MANY similarities with Rhanda it’s both hilarious and pretty tragic, but I’m really discovering how badly that's the case while working on The Empire of Preys, and… yeah. Generational Trauma. It’s a thing.

To conclude my ridiculously long answer to your ask: I’m sorry I spewed an entire essay about Anetha’s brain, but also I’m so happy you gave me an opportunity to pry her open for everybody to see the gunk there. Honestly a good half of the joy of getting other eyes than mine on Halfway Home is to watch them grapple with their emotions towards Anetha, as she can make herself so easy to love, and then immediately sooo hard to love. But I do love her (but I’m biased since I love literally every character except maybe… like one and a half? fuck içalec all my homies hate içalec), and so I’m really happy you were kind enough to encourage me to deepdive into her edgy brain!!!

[transsexualhamlet]

ok girl this is for the thang. I know you haven't read yuumori in over a year but do liam for 13 & 23, hannibal for 20 & 27 n atsushi for 3 & 24 have fun!

answering this because i now have reblogged the ask game a second time... i forgor

ask game

Liam:

13. Your favorite friendship they have

Can I say him and Bond because I know they have barely spoken to each other in canon but in my mind they are besties and Bond tells Liam to "slay" and he gets all teary eyed and looks at his sword and bond is like IM SORRY

23. Future headcanon

Yeah the thing about this is that I'm not super caught up on the manga and the last chapter I read had barely started the current arc. So I'm not sure what's going on or what the situation even is but I sure do know the faggots live together. I think they just kind of safely fade into obscurity exactly how they want to except for when sherlock is a fucking attention whore but well, if they've made up their minds to live in fuckin america (sigh) when they're middle aged and prohibition is going on and there's a whole gay scene and everything I think they do VERY well for themselves. Liam will be just a well behaved little guy at the underground gay bar and sherlock will just drop "oh yeah liam used to kill people way back when it was pretty hot. you know how it is with [insert zodiac sign]" and twenty people and the drag king singing will go WHAT

Hannibal:

20. A weird headcanon

I think Hannibal gets invited to the Met Gala. Once. They do not appreciate his dedication to the craft and the theme by sewing a "flower suit" exclusively out of 1600s silks gotten by bribing museums and ethically sourced human skin from hospitals which is actively growing, you have to admit, really stunning flowers. They do not invite him again yet somehow this garners absolutely no suspicion

27. If they could meet a character from another show/movie/etc, who would be the most fun for them to meet?

I forgot this was for hannibal and was about to answer I would love to see liam meet light yagami because it would be HORRIBLE however this is in fact hannibal and I can actually be serious. god hmm. I honestly think I need to see him meet Melkor? It would be. A very interesting experience. I am imagining him smiling sitting cross legged at a fancy table inside of a comically large cage as Melkor studies him like a bug and watches as the bloodied and beaten corpses he shoves in get magically transformed into five course meals. Needless to say I think they would hit it off disgustingly well. And even if it didn't, Hannibal is just too hard to torture because he'll just be into it. Good situation for Hannibal no matter what like? Get to have a thoughtful correspondence with a spiteful, gory eldritch mass of a god for the low low price of Mairon poking at you like a dead animal a little bit

Atsushi:

3. A song that reminds me of them

Pinkish by Gerard Way and Sorry About Your Parents by Icon For Hire. The former because god. I really don't know how to explain it I have emotions. It's kind of about him and Akutagawa and it's kind of just about him and himself. And Sorry About Your Parents is just yeah that ones about Akutagawa lmao.

24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?

Atsushi once accidentally witnessed Dazai sucking Fyodor off and well. Couldn't bring himself to bring it to the attention of the ADA because well how fucking could you . How would you bring that up. He's decided he just needs to stay silent forever

[cryptid-crowish]

HI, so sorry out of the blue-- I'm hoping this is cryptid_crow from ao3 (I just looked up the same url on tumblr and noticed this account in the suggestion drop down had the same icon. IF I'M MISTAKEN, I apologize and please ignore this) So I'm xXDNHXx from ao3, I often commented on "one hundred muggles" by A_Valen, and I remember you leaving in depth comments as well, and your url was the only one I remembered rip. If you haven't in the last week, you should check the fic. I'm sorry to say it's not good news....

hi!! yes that's me and sadly i saw 😭😭😭 I am so confused and heartbroken, I've been looking for answers everywhere and a way to get the chapters back but to no avail. Overall I am very concerned for the author because it seemed so sudden too!! she was replying and thinking about the future of the books like a week ago, I am just hoping we can get some of it back :(

[casspurrjoybell-20]

FOOLS IN LOVE - Chapter 28 - Part 1 BOOK THREE: 'Fools Fall in Love' Trilogy

*Warning - Adult Content*

Noah Wright

I was on cloud nine.

When I got home from dropping Sam off at his dorm, Ciera and Kaitlyn were getting ready for their date while I zoned out, my mind replaying last night with my hands on Sam's naked body, my lips on his.

It was perfect and in a matter of hours Sam will be knocking on my door and informing me that he broke up with Boring Benjamin.

"I don't think I've ever seen you look this happy," Ciera commented while she leaned into the bathroom mirror and carefully drew a long line of eyeliner onto her eyelid.

Kaitlyn was picking clothes in Ciera's bedroom.

Then Ciera added.

"The sex must've been good."

I chuckled.

"The best. You don't even know."

"I promise you, it wasn't as good as the sex I had last night," she spoke confidently.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh yeah?" I questioned with a sly smile.

I watched through the bathroom mirror as Ciera smiled softly to herself.

"Yeah, she was..."

I shook my head.

"I'm gonna have to stop you right there. I'm happy for you guys and whatever but that's my ex-girlfriend you slept with and I'm not trying to hear details on that."

Ciera rolled her eyes.

"Okay, loser, then tell me about your night because I know you're dying to."

I grinned with a hint of a laugh because that's how happy I was as I explained my night before with Sam.

I didn't go into what transpired between Sam and Jude, I wanted to burn that memory and hope Sam does too.

"And right now," I said after finishing up.

"He's breaking it off with Boring Benjamin and we won't have to deal with anymore bullshit."

Just the thought of being able to kiss and hold and touch Sam whenever I want had my head feeling light and my heart feeling full.

"I'm happy for you guys. Just don't fuck it up over dumb shit this time and actually talk things through."

"We did talk. We talked about taking it slow this time."

"That's good. I think that's smart."

Ciera was still talking when I got a text message from Sam.

To: Noah Wright [I wasn't able to do it, I'll explain later.] From: Samuel Moretti

My heart dropped and I stood up.

"What's wrong?" I heard Ciera ask but I was too confused with Sam's messages to respond.

To: Noah Wright [Please don't be upset.] From: Samuel Moretti

"What the fuck?" I muttered to myself and pressed on the call icon in his contact and brought my phone up to my ear.

After two rings, the call was declined.

To: Noah Wright [I can't talk right now, I'm with Ben.] From: Samuel Moretti

Ciera stopped putting on makeup and turned to me with a concerned look.

To: Samuel Moretti [What the fuck do you mean don't be upset? Sam, call me right now.] From: Noah Wright

To: Noah Wright [I will. Give me an hour.] From: Samuel Moretti

To: Samuel Moretti [You can't be serious.] From: Noah Wright

To: Noah Wright [I'm sorry.] From: Samuel Moretti

"What the fuck?" I questioned out loud.

I wanted to throw my cell-phone against the wall.

"What just happened?" Ciera asked me.

I took a deep breath and handed her my phone.

Ciera read the messages as I tried not to get too worked up over Sam's vague fucking texts.

I shook my head.

"Of fucking course," I muttered before exclaiming...

"Of course. God, why can't anything just go my fucking way? Just once. Fuck."

Ciera set down my cell-phone and turned to me cautiously.

"Hey, just take a deep breath. Clearly there's a reason why Sam couldn't break up with Ben right now, that doesn't mean he won't."

"Oh really? And what fucking reason could Sam have for not breaking up with Ben right fucking now?"

I knew I shouldn't take my anger out on Ciera but I couldn't help the curse words that flew out of my mouth and the rise in volume in my voice.

"I don't know but don't get so worked up over it just yet, okay? Go sit down and take some deep breaths."

"Fuck this," I said, grabbing my phone and was about to walk out of the bathroom when Ciera grabbed my arm.

She gave me a stern look.

"Chill, Noah. Relax and wait for Sam to call you. Don't do anything irrational when you don't even know what's going on, got it?"

I took a deep breath 'in through my nose and out through my mouth' before nodding and Ciera released me but I couldn't sit still.

Sam wouldn't text me back after I messaged him to explain through text and Ciera and Kaitlyn left for the day, so I was stuck anxiously waiting to figure out what the hell Sam was talking about.

Until he called me two hours later.

"What the fuck, Sam?" was how I answered his call.

"I know, I know. I'm so sorry. Benjamin's Grandma just passed away and Ben was really close to her and he asked me to go to the funeral with him."

I groaned.

"Fucking Hell and you obviously said yes."

"What was I supposed to do?" he asked me with his voice rising.

"Say, 'go to it yourself, she's not my fucking grandma?' I don't know."

Sam scoffed.

"I couldn't do that."

"Clearly not," I spoke bitterly.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm just going to be gone for a few days with him and then I'll do it when we get back?"

"Do what?" I asked because I wanted him to say it out loud even though I knew Sam rolled his eyes at that.

"Break up with Benjamin, you asshole."

"Right, I'm the asshole," I scoffed.

"I'm sorry Noah. Do you think I want to be here?"

"You tell me," I muttered but I knew I was overreacting.

"Noah," Sam said my name like he was disappointed.

I sighed.

"No, I don't think you want to be there but please, Sam, end it after this," I said with edge to my words.

"I know, I will. I'm sorry Noah, I didn't expect this to happen."

I knew he was right but I still hated this.

"I know."

But the thought of Sam and Boring-Benjamin together for the next couple days.

'Ugh.'

"Please don't kiss him."

"Noah, I want to be kissing you, not him, okay? I'll end it once we get back. I gotta go, I can't be on my cell-phone too much or he'll know something's off. I'm sorry."

And then Sam hung up.

[kuro4thegays]

HELLO SWEETHEART HOW R U TODAY? haha im hypersensitive because yuck last night i didn’t sleep at all, stayed up till 7am to edit/fix my newest update. i was too depressed in may and whole month i didn’t post or touch wattpad. i was surprised that it actually took me only 2 nights to finish my planned writing. i tend to write between 1k-2k words for 1 chapter because i do long series. only prob is do i have the mood for creative ideas or not. it needs to match my vibe of that fiction.

oh and tbh i crave for smut but i rarely write them (mostly avoid them intentionally) because it hurts my back (whole body). writing smut is a bigger form of art and yeh i usually enjoy eating up than cooking. 1 smut chapter tends to be somewhere between 3-6k words so... i... i mean... 😓 sorry for my readers. tbh i was sooo happy that they all greeted me when i came back after disappearing for a month without any warning 💀 (i feel so bad but at least i survived and served them hehe). 🤓💖✨ lucky and grateful to say that they love the newest chapter so much. they said i did so well (im so proud of myself and them 👽🚀 literally wrote that in 2 nights wtf).

sorry honey i talked too much again. just im very happy today ✨ u can totally tell cuz i usually do not use so many icons hehe. expressing love!! anyway i gain courage and support and yeh most importantly the mood from you after sending in the latest ask (i went to wattpad right after that ask to note down my ideas then fucking went feral with speed running) hope you’ll receive the same energy and have some good free time to write your lovely words down! writing and imagining is my way to relax/run away from reality/save myself so i usually use it as method to calm my unstable mental health hehe. wish you a great day/night honey. ily 🐰

That actually so cool for you. I can definitely relate to the speedrunning part because since I started this blog I had to do it an embarrassing amount of times. It's not my fault that Alhaitham was born so close to Valentine's day. Sadly all nighters aren't possible for me yet, but as soon as this shit is over I'm becoming a nocturnal creature.

And yeah, smut is hard to write. My biggest thing is that I'm scared of getting repetitive, like how many ways is there to describe a hole? I was actually planning to ask if I was becoming too repetitive.

I've already told you this, but I really don't think you need to worry about your audience. Like, if someone like me who disappears for a month after dropping each work can sustain decent following I don't think that you're in any trouble. But I'm really happy your readers like it. You should be proud of yourself.

I love reading your rambles, please don't stop sending them. It warms up my heart whenever I see you in my inbox it's genuinely insane. I'm glad my writing is having a similar effect on you. Coping with life has been becoming harder with each day, so many things going on at the same time, you know? If my presence means anything to you then I'm content with this blog.