#OH AND ABOUT THE BLURBS!!!! i'm still gonna post more of them!!! just had to pause for a bit because org stress was getting to me and ive

[hannie-dul-set]

taesan ft. my perpetually open event tracker!!!!

[f1amour]

✧˚ · . 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓 — 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎

pairing: daniel ricciardo x reader

warnings: angst (but happy ending <3), miscommunication , age gap (reader is 26 daniel is 35), jealous!daniel

authors note: very short and sweet part two of dirty little secret sorry it took me awhile to put it out, i was getting some writers block so it was a very rushed plot but it’s a happy ending hopefully that makes it up <3 i may write some small blurbs to this series since i really enjoyed writing this request but writing a full fic can take me some time and i hate keeping people waiting

part one

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MARCH 2025

It's been a year since you had last spoken to Daniel and while you see him around the paddock it wasn't the same. Despite being heartbroken from that night on the balcony and his words that cut into your heart you still sent him a congratulatory text when it was announced he would be racing for Red Bull along Max once again in the 2025 season.

It had been something he talked to you about hoping he could prove himself once again to a team he regrets ever leaving. The text was left on read for days until you received a one word response from him, "Thanks."

His response and behavior for the rest of the 2024 season was killing you and you decided you would never speak to him again. He didn't seem phased by that when you had seen him with a new girl at your brother's engagement party.

You wanted to hate him. Your mind hated him but your heart…oh your silly heart would always belong to him.

"I…I don't understand. You worked with us for two years now and you said working here was your dream after leaving Mclaren. Why are you going to Ferrari?" Max asks disappointed while you sit with him in your office.

You stare at Max and give him a smile with tears in your eyes, "I can't be around him, Max. I'll have to be around him 24/7 for social media duties and my heart can't take the pain seeing him act like I didn't even matter to him as a friend."

And I can't bear to see him with her.

Max can see this wasn't just an argument about Daniel being a shitty friend, no he knew something more had happened even though Daniel refused to tell him he knew deep down something more had happened between the two of you.

"I'm gonna miss you." He says truthfully, you had actually made his days where he would have to film and post things for social media fun. Max saw your passion for the job and knew it was better to do it in an environment where both drivers would make her feel appreciated.

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Going into the 2025 season was a breath of fresh air you hadn't felt in awhile and you were doing well on the Scuderia Ferrari team, getting close to both Charles and Lewis had helped heal the sadness you had carried over you.

You were finally moving on despite still being in love with someone who would never love you.

Your brother was at the first race of the season to support Daniel at his home race and back with Red Bull. You hadn't seen him in months so despite knowing Daniel would be at the restaurant Luka had reserved you went to finally catch up with your brother.

"Seriously, you look glowing. You sure there isn't a man in your life being that reason for the smile on your face?" Luka's fiance, Amelia asks you while you take another sip of your second glass of wine.

Daniel's expression falls when he hears her question towards you and your brother focuses on the now interesting topic regarding your love life, "Oh do tell dear sister? Finally got yourself a man?"He jokes with you, only for you to slap his head.

"No you dingus. The only men in my life are Charles and Lewis." You tell them with a straight face until you say Lewis's name and you break out in a smile.

"No fucking way! You and Hamilton?! Danny why didn't you tell me about this?" Your brother questions Daniel.

Daniel stares at you for a moment but you look away not seeing the sadness in his eyes, "Uh I didn't know they were together." He says flatly.

You roll your eyes and glare at the Australian, "No one said we were together."”

"Well the way you fucking smile over hearing his name seems like there is something there." He spits back. The table now grows silent tension obviously between the two of you.

"What's going on with the both of you? You used to be so close. I was shocked to see you leave Red Bull even though Daniel would be back on the team. Remember in 2019 when they offered you–."

"Fuck off Luka! People change and grow up. I did what was best for my career not to follow your boyfriend around.” You cut your brother off from revealing something you had kept from Daniel for years now.

"Please you're the one who's been in love with him for five years." He scoffs, his face drops after saying those words realizing the mistake he had made.

Daniel looks over at you, "What…what did he just say?"

You stand up from the table and throw the glass of wine you hsd left on your brother, "Best big brother ever!" You walk away from the dinner table and avoid the stares from other people.

"Y/n! Y/n wait up! We need to talk what he said back there–."

"Now you want to talk? After a year of ignoring me, you want to talk now? Well sorry but I don't have time for you anymore." You send Lewis a quick text asking to pick you up with an immediate reply saying he would be there in five minutes.

"He said you love me…was it the truth?"”

"Fuck danny I mean everyone could fucking tell but you! Yes…I loved you. Loved. I don't love you now, I don't love the Daniel in front of me. The Daniel I love would have never done what you did to me. What did you call me again? Oh, a dirty little secret? That's all I would ever be."

Daniel shakes his head holding back tears, “That’s…look my wording for that was fucking terrible. But I promise what you feel I feel as well. Fuck I lo—.”

“Don’t. Please don’t say it, Daniel. I’ve loved you for so long that I would forgive everything that has happened if you tell me you love me. But that isn’t fair to me. You have been terrible to me since that night. You’ve ignored me like i meant nothing. As if we weren’t friends before that night. I’m sorry but please don’t tell me you love me when your actions have shown the opposite. Good luck this weekend.” Your heart was hurting as you said the words but it was needed. If Daniel said he loved you then you would forgive everything and you can’t do that to yourself.

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It was media day for the Australian GP and Daniel hadn’t been able to sleep ever since you told him you loved him two days ago. He fucked up and he knew that but he also knew that he does love you.

His actions so far may not be proving that but he now has it set in his mind that he will prove to you how much he loves you.

“So I’m gonna ride in the car while Lewis drives and I ask questions?” You ask Charles who nods placing the helmet on you.

“Why aren’t you doing that? It would make more sense and I could get better content with both of you.” You tell Charles but he just shakes his head.

“No it’ll be fun just trust me. Now go!” He smiles widely shoving you into the car with Lewis already in the car.

You sigh and grab your planner going to the Noah where you had questions ready, “Alright Lewis, you better drive safe I wanna get back in one piece. So where do we—.”

The car takes off quickly and your planner falls to the floor, “Lewis slow down!” You yell at the Brit but when you look over you realize it’s not Lewis driving the car but Daniel.

“Daniel! I…what are—.”

“I love you! I’ve been in love with you for quite some time now. I met you in the Redbull headquarters looking lost on your first day and I knew you would mean something to me. I…I don’t believe in love at first sight but when I first saw you I felt a pull and an instant connection I never felt with anyone else. Our conversation flowed so well and god your smile…your fucking smile made my entire day. It makes me happy every single day of my life seeing that precious smile on your beautiful face. So when I realized I was the reason for the frown on your face and not seeing that smile on your face because of me for a year…I was a fucking idiot. An idiot who has been scared to love because of their own insecurities. I wanted to tell you for so long how I felt, sunshine. But when we were at McLaren I was living a fucking nightmare. A nightmare you helped me survive despite all the trauma they’ve left me and so I thought that confessing my feelings you’d leave me and I don’t know if I could survive not having you in my life.”

His eyes filed with tears still driving at a safe pace knowing you were in the car. His breath shaking at the mention of the team who crushed his confidence, your hand reaches over to his thigh and you give it a squeeze encouraging him to continue.

“But I was also conflicted with being your brother’s best friend. I thought it was could lose our friendship but that’s when I realized if he was my friend he would support us. Which he does…I asked him after dinner the other day what he would think and he says I’m an idiot for ever holding these feelings back. Because I met you first you were my best friend way before he was. You are the love of my life. You…I have to look you in the eyes. Fuck this.” He stops the car and gets out quickly running to your side and helping you out of the car and taking your helmet off along with his.

His hands cup your face, “Danny, there’s people that could be watching.” You whisper softly looking into his brown eyes.

“I don’t care. I’m in love with you. I love you. I love the way your eyes light up when someone is telling you some good news. I love the way your nose scrunches when you laugh. I love the way you cry every time we watch a romcom and the characters admit they’re in love with each other. I love how passionate you are for your friends and family. I love how you marched down into the Mcalren office and gave Zak a piece of your mind after they ended my contract. I love that you love me so deeply you denied working for Red Bull as the social media manager in 2019 because I would be gone the following year. Your eyes. Your smile. Your lips. Your hands. I’m in love with every part of you and more. I want you in my life forever. I want to come home with you and tell you how my day went. I want to share my highs and lows with you. I’m going to love you for the rest of my life whether you choose to have me in your life or not. As long as I’m alive you’ll always be loved by me.” Daniel lets out a deep breath finishing his confession and looking down at you waiting for a response. His heart beating 10 times more than if’s usual rate.

“I…I love you, Daniel. I love you so much it hurts me. I was such an idiot for not saying it sooner. So many wasted years we could have been together. You’re my life, baby. I breathe for you. I live for you. I could stay in your arms forever. You’ve showed me unconditional love as a friend but now I want more. Your smile brings sunshine in my darkest days. I want to love you for the rest of my life as well. Together and forever.” You ignore the cheers from half of the drivers that had all ran down the track to see why the car had stopped but seeing Daniel pulling you closer to him gave them an indication it was all good news.

“Let’s give them a show, sunshine.” Daniel whispers against your lips before pulling you into a deep kiss. Missing his lips after a year you pull him closer if that’s even possible, your hands tugging on his hair.

“If you tug on my hair some more I’m gonna get a boner in front of everyone.” He says against yours lips.

“Danny!” You slap his chest, pulling away from him only for him to lift you up and wrap your legs around him.

“Fucking hell mate took you guys long enough to finally admit your feelings.” Max says walking up to the two of you.

“Shut it, Maximilian.” You glare at him before smiling over at Charles and Lewis who were walking over to you with the biggest grins on their faces.

“Oh I’m going to give you guys do the most annoying challenges for the socials next week. How dare you set me up?” You get off Daniel to walk over to them, Daniel stays attached to you though.

The two Ferrari drivers shrug, “He called me last night to find out what our relationship was before he told me the plan he had to confess his feelings. I had to laugh when he thought we were dating.” Lewis chuckles.

You join him and look at Daniel, “Come on baby, you really thought me and Lewis were together? I smiled at his name the other night because the same night he had called me before dinner saying he got stuck in the car…turns out Charles had his keys and kept locking the door on him so he couldn’t get out. But it’s cute you were jealous.” You pinch his cheeks.

“I’m so getting you back for that.” Lewis glares at Charles who decides this was his best chance to run off.

Daniel smiles down at you, “I love you.”

You kiss him softly, “I love you, always.”

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[peachhcs]

feelings confessed

hughes!sister x will smith au (samy + will)

will and samy confess the feelings they’ve been dancing around for months at will’s draft party

2.3k words

here’s part 2 to samy and will in nashville confessing their feelings! comment or request what else you wanna see while i continue posting some blurbs and imagines from their timeline :))

au masterlist | part 1

so many people packed themselves into one of the many hotel conference rooms congratulating ryan, will, and gabe for going in the first round. large smiles sat on each of their faces with every person they talked to and thanked for flying into nashville for such a special occasion. samy and will lost one another when things started getting more crowded and people pulled the blonde away to talk. the brunette didn't mind, though. she knew will had to make his rounds and she'd eventually find him by the end of the night. the two always found one another later on at every party they were at together.

the youngest hughes stuck close to ryan's girlfriend most of the night knowing she was very knew to all of this and samy's done it three times already. the two perched themselves in one of the quieter corners just talking when ryan pushed his way through. he plopped down beside julianne, tugging his arm around her shoulder while samy sent the taller boy a smile.

"finally escape the questions?" the girl laughed making ryan chuckle.

"for a few minutes at least. there's an insane amount of people here. i don't think i even know everyone," ryan huffed out.

samy's eyes flickered across the large room, not even seeing will or gabe because they were lost in the crowd somewhere. "tell me about it. maybe it was a bad idea having a joint draft party?" the girl giggled and so did julianne.

ryan shrugged. "maybe, but we're saving money and we're killing three birds with one stone here," the brunette clicked his tongue along with a small wink.

samy rolled her eyes at the boy, shaking her head slightly. ryan and julianne began having their own conversation, so samy allowed herself to get lost in her thoughts for a bit. she couldn't stop thinking about the way will looked at her earlier. his eyes sparkled in a way she'd never seen before. something about the entire draft was different and she knew will knew it too.

"oh yeah, he's definitely down bad," ryan's voice pulled samy back into reality.

she glanced at him and julianne who snickered with one another. the girl raised her eyebrow, waiting for one of them to explain.

"will. he's so got a thing for you and you do too," ryan elaborated when he caught samy's expression.

her already rosy cheeks flushed some more. "i-i don't know," samy stuttered out nervously. believing it herself was one thing, but hearing someone else say it was completely different. it made it more real.

"oh come on, hughes. everyone's seen. we all know," ryan continued with a laugh.

julianne found samy's expression and the blonde knew exactly what she was thinking. "come on, don't be annoying ry."

"i'm not, i'm just saying," the brunette shrugged. samy just rolled her eyes and stopped entertaining ryan. she knew if she let him keep going he wouldn't stop.

"i'm gonna get another drink. you guys want anything?" samy stood, looking at ryan and julianne still cuddled up next to one another.

"i'm okay, thanks though," julianne smiled while ryan briefly shook his head.

samy began the journey back through the still tight crowd. she wasn't even sure where her brothers wandered off to or even her parents for that matter. all samy knew was that they were somewhere in the mass of people still talking and catching up with one another. she found her way to the massive drinks table, going for another lemonade and sprite mix.

will stood about five people down from where samy was talking with some of his old high school friends that flew down. as soon as the brunette got to the table, will's eyes glued to her. he'd been trying to find her all night, but anytime he got further into the room, someone else stopped him to talk for an hour. this time will was not letting samy get away.

"hey, sorry, mind if just..catch up with you guys in a second?" will didn't even really wait for an answer as he started pushing his way towards samy.

the blonde's eyes were locked in on the girl just a few feet away. samy didn't even see will until a tall presence came up beside her and her gaze quickly flicked to her right.

"oh, hey will," samy immediately giggled.

"hi. feels like i've hardly seen you," the boy smiled some, loving her little giggle.

"i know, you've been caught up with everyone," the girl motioned back to everyone mingling.

will's gaze scanned over the crowded room while samy's fell back on him. her eyes were glued to his slightly unbuttoned white undershirt where his tie and suit jacket got lost along the way when they got in. he looked good and what was once tamed curls were now going everywhere over his forehead and ears.

"it's kind of crazy, isn't it? all the people here," will muttered in disbelief still that all these people showed up for him and his friends.

"i mean..who wouldn't wanna be here for you, ryan, and gabe?" samy giggled a little and will finally tore his gaze back to her.

a little smile appeared on his lips with his flustered cheeks suddenly realizing how close they stood and the conversation that lingered between them. samy quickly got self-conscious under his longing stare, so her eyes darted away, looking at anything but will.

"would you wanna..maybe go somewhere quieter?" will got a little shy asking.

he searched samy's gaze that returned to his own, anxiously awaiting her response. her smile caused his heart to swell as it had been since october. "lead the way," the brunette said.

with will being taller than her, he easily surveyed the area trying to find the best escape path where they (hopefully) wouldn't get stopped by someone wanting to talk will up for an hour again. his search found a small path towards one of the doors that led into the hallways, so carefully, will reached his hand out for samy to take it so he wouldn't lose her in the crowd. the girl flushed as his fingers squeezed around her own and he began pushing his way through the adults.

the blonde's gentle touch had samy's insides doing somersaults. she's dreamed of things like this if her and will ever became something more than friends which was very likely by the end of the night.

finally, samy and will made it into the hallway without anyone stopping them. the two visibly breathed out in relief that they weren't stuck in the stuffy and crowded room anymore. samy's gaze found will's and a small laugh escaped both of their lips like reality just sunk in and will was officially a member of the nhl.

"feels like yesterday when we were kids and you talked with my brothers about getting drafted one day," samy drifted towards the large window at the end of the hallway.

they could see the entire city from where they stood on the fifth floor. will joined her a moment later, leaning against the windowsill. "tell me about it. i can't believe it's actually real now," the blonde mumbled.

samy's eyes were on him again, admiring his sharp jawline and gleaming eyes on the city skyline. "me neither. i can't believe we're not kids anymore," the brunette's smiled turned into a sad one.

the idea of their childhoods being far behind them now was a scary thought. how did they go from playing tag at the lake house to adults trying to find their way in the world? more importantly, when did those platonic feelings turn into romantic ones?

"come visit me at boston this fall?" will changed the subject after a quick silence.

"you know i will. i can't not see ryan and gabe for months on end," samy teased him a little, smirking.

will shook his head. she knew he hated when she made jokes like that. it became more obvious the past few months as samy slowly realized she had feelings for her best friend and his face hardened whenever she'd start talking about their other two friends whenever they were on call together.

"i'm kidding. i'll try to get out as much as i can with what my schedule allowed with soccer," samy answered more truthfully this time.

a grin spread across will's lips. "i except you out there every weekend," will joked this time.

"you know i would if i could," the brunette met the boy's wandering gaze.

the two held one another's gazes and a hundred thoughts ran through each of their minds. will's eyes flicked between samy's while her own glance did the same. the entire reason they stepped away from everyone was on the tips of their tongues, swirling around them. will opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again like he was looking for the right words. he broke their gazing, eyes back on the city below them.

"remember when ryan, gabe, and i drove out to see you at your senior homecoming?" will began almost nervously.

"mhm. it meant a lot that you guys came out," samy nodded.

will nervously pulled a hand through his messy curls. "for some reason, i hated seeing that guy have his hand wrapped around your waist. i didn't really understand why i was feeling that way, but all i knew was that i never wanted to see any other guy with his hand on your waist again like that," will admitted sheepishly. he probably sounded incredibly jealous and possessive, but he knew if he didn't say it now he'd never get it out.

a blush rose on samy's cheeks hearing will say that. she had a small inkling that something was up back in october, but back then, she couldn't believe will liked her like that, so she pushed every single one of those thoughts away. at least until senior prom rolled around and she was forced to acknowledge those feelings again.

"i had a feeling," the girl admitted softly.

will's head snapped her way so fast she swore he was going to get whiplash. "you did?"

"i mean..yeah. ryan also..he was talking to me about it like really vaguely..i kind of brushed him off at the time," samy shrugged lightly.

the blonde studied her for a few seconds before looking away again. "lean's always ratting me out," he shook his head with a small chuckle.

"yeah, he's got a bit of a loud mouth," samy giggled as well remembering how the brunette literally brought up will's feelings earlier.

"i never said anything because i just..i thought you'd never like me back," will continued, his voice falling quiet.

"well for the record, i do like you back. i think my feelings started at senior prom," the two began reminiscing on that night.

that night was probably will's favorite aside from this one now. he finally got his wish of taking samy to a dance and being her date. he got to have a small piece of a regular high school experience since all of his focus was put into hockey his last two years.

"i think i've been waiting for months for you to say that to me," will chuckled and met samy's gaze again.

"i just..i don't know. i was afraid to say something in fear that we'd ruin our friendship. i mean i'm still scared we'll ruin our friendship if things don't work out," the brunette admitted.

she knew if she lost her will as her best friend, she'd never forgive herself. he was the one person she knew she could always go to and if they lost that over some relationship, nothing would ever be the same and she knew will knew that too.

"what makes you think things won't work out?" will raised his eyebrow.

"i mean, i'm not saying things won't, but i don't know. you never know. i value our friendship above a relationship, you know that. i just don't want things to get ruined between us if things go south," samy shrugged. she was trying to speak realistically because if her and will tried dating and it didn't work for some reason, the dynamic between their families would get ruined. gatherings would become awkward and no one would enjoy the tension.

will understood. he knew he also couldn't lose samy as a friend because above everything, she was his best friend. his fingers drummed against his glass, mind racing, desperately searching for a solution to what was the hard parts about being best friends and having feelings for one another.

"what about a grace period? we go on some dates and see how it goes. if it's completely shit, we can go back to normal like nothing happened and nothing will be weird," will offered his idea.

even though it was quick, will caught the hesitation in samy's eyes. he knew her too well for her to hide anything from him, even if it was just a split second. "how can we know if we don't try, right?" because will desperately wanted things to work out between them.

he'd never felt such immense feelings for someone before and with samy, everything felt easier. the girl flushed under his stare, turning away before her entire face turned red.

"promise nothing will be weird if it goes to shit? best friends over anything?" samy held her pinky out. will quickly hooked his pinky around her own, nodding.

"i promise."

thus began samy and will's grace period as the blonde pulled her a tiny bit closer to silently request permission to kiss her. when she caught his eyes flicking between her own and her lips she nodded for a yes, he could kiss her.

the feeling of will's lips against her own was a feeling she'll never forget.

[tothestarsinvelaris]

(please no spoilers if interacting w/ this post. i have somehow avoided all TOG spoilers and know nothing more than the lil blurb on the back of the book and what i have read so far. thx <3)

{Finished reading Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn}

hahahahaahaahaah!!!!! nobody told me I would be sobbing!!! I should have known, but instead I blindly and happily danced through these books until my heart was ripped out and thrown on the ground!!

(major spoilers below bc I need to write it out in order to begin processing what the hell happened?!)

Maeve is so evil I literally cannot process it. The entire scene with her on the beach with Aelin, Gavriel, Fenrys, Lorcan, Manon, Elide.... oh my heart.. I don't think I breathed during that entire scene. I literally had to stop reading to ready myself when Aelin took those lashes...

Rowan getting to the beach and growling out "where is my wife" actually shattered my heart. Maeve talking about how she faked the mating bond with Rowan and Lyria, and that Rowan and Aelin were actually mates?! ughhhhh His Fireheart. His equal, his friend, his lover. His wife. His mate. stopppppppppp i'm sobbbinnngggg

Lorcan realizing what he had actually done, what he didn't do for Aelin and Rowan.. him sobbing because he realized he destroyed everything and betrayed them... the way I know his heart just shattered over and over at Elide saying she wished he suffered forever and then completely ignoring him. the way he goes to Rowan and says he will go with him to save Aelin... oh my gosh idk why I love him so much, but I really do and I'm gonna need a Lorcan redemption arc in the next book or I will create a headcanon that nobody will ever be able to convince me isn't real. fix it bro!!

Lysandra being willing to pretend to be Aelin, to take Rowan as her king and sire children with Aedion to keep up the guise if needed.... ohhhh... to willingly give up her freedom for Aelin, for the world, after everything she went through... that woman is amazing.

I'm so mad that I like Aelin and Dorian so much bc I don't want either one of them to die for this stupid bullshit Elena pulled 1000 years ago!!! I'm so mad that I love all these damn characters so much!!

Chaol and Yrene getting married is honestly so damn cute okay!?! The life-bond?! ugh I love them so much. such a cute little bright spot in these books. the way that she's the light for his darkness is so fucking cute (and so elriel coded). Chaol seeing the note that Yrene carries with her and recognizing the handwriting!! ohhhhh man

All the favors that Aelin called in, everyone showing up for her like the damn Avengers movie?! Literally everyone, every single person she showed kindness to over her life, everyone showing up and being there to fight for her and with her to save the damn world.. Ansel, Ilias, Galan, the thousands and thousands they brought with them... and Aelin doesn't even know it. Rowan's cousins turning on Maeve's fleet in the battle?! ohhhh my heart is made of tears.

The 13 showing up because Abraxos (sweetest lil flower sniffing bby) went and found them, and they all followed bc they knew he would bring them to Manon. And how they fought instantly, and fell into step with Rowan, Dorian, and Aedion!?

How when Gavriel was called to Maeve, he left his shield around not only Aedion, but also Lysandra because he just knows and cares about them even if Aedion wants nothing to do with him. :( The way Gavriel has been kind of a sweetie the whole time and I just want to hug everyone in this damn series.

and the godsdamned ships in these books!!! ohhhhh my gosh!!! (idk any ship names bc I'm desperately avoiding spoilers still holy shit) Rowan x Aelin | Dorian x Manon | Lorcan x Elide | Chaol x Yrene | Nesryn x Sartaq | Aedion x Lysandra oooooooohhh myyyyy goodness!!

gosh, the way that everything is just connected, even the gods are represented in so many of them. the way the threads are there and always have been, pushing everyone along, pushing the plot along and putting all the puzzle pieces together slowly and perfectly and now it's all coming together. Ugh a series in which a re-read is well worth it so you can pick up on all the little bits and pieces throughout!! I can't wait to read theories and breakdowns and everything that people have connected and figured out over the years once I finish Kingdom of Ash!!

[ghost-proofbaby]

GHOOOOST as much as maroon has taken over every single brain cell of mine, i can’t seem to stop thinking about 24 hours!eddie and reader lately! they still got me on a chokehold!

i was just thinking, like in the long run, were they endgame? i know they’re head over heels for each other but like.....are they in it for the long haul? what would happen if like the topic of getting married or having kids was brought up, how are they both going to react? 👀

i’m not asking or forcing you to write a blurb out of this or anything so please don’t feel pressured, i’m genuinely just curious about their lore!!! 😭 and i also miss them so much lmao might end up re-reading the series again while waiting for the next maroon chapter ���️❤️❤️

anyway i luv u and i hope you’re having a great day!

wanna know a secret? they definitely still live rent free in my mind as well.

they were definitely end game in the long haul of things. in my mind, it's actually funny, because i've thought about them watching their friends constantly getting into relationships and those relationships constantly ending, and yet they're still there and going strong as ever while everyone is just like "...what the fuck?"

nancy and johnathan would probably end up breaking up in the twenty four hours universe. that's actually canon based on a sequel idea i had. like, we're talking not very long after the events of the main fic. nancy would go to reader and probably rant in the midst of her heartbreak "i just don't get it. i thought me and johnathan - we were gonna make it, you know? i thought we had the perfect relationship. and, no offense, but compared to you and eddie, we did." (which she obviously doesn't mean, but she's just hurt and projecting. we all know nancy was a number one reader x eddie shipper). and reader could grow insecure about it and overthink, but when she ends the day getting to gossip all about it to eddie, he just scoffs and said "excuse me? what the hell does that mean? out of spite, we're definitely gonna end up growing old together. gonna mock them from across the retirement home as i kiss all your wrinkles. that'll show them." and she's just reminded that, oh, yeah. it doesn't matter what other people think. this is her idiot for the long haul. and spoiler: it isn't spite keeping them together. it's the way eddie looks at reader like she painted the night sky just for him. it's the way eddie is the first person reader wants to talk to in nearly every scenario, the way he's the first person her eyes draw to in every room no matter how crowded. they bicker endlessly, they aren't always acting the most lovesick and nauseatingly affectionate with each other in front of others, and there's certainly been plenty of fights where the gang holds their breath for the announcement of a breakup, but they always find a way to make it through. always. they're one of those couples, ya know?

and i could also ramble about the whole marriage/kid discussion, but i actually had a short one shot about it i wanted to write! i think i've avoided posting any of the excess content i had planned for them because i don't want to beat a dead horse, you know? it's been over a year now, and even though i love and adore them, i don't want to seem like i'm milking that universe haha. if that's something y'all would like to see now even though it's been so long, i am finally out of my funk with writing them and could probably post some of those one shots! especially because the way they go about conversations like kids/marriage is so fuckin funny to me.

i luv you even more, and hope you have the most wonderful of days, friend <3 thank you for not letting one, but TWO??? of my stories take up residency in your thoughts. it means the world to me and i'm giving you all the hugs and forehead kisses <3

[de4dlyniightshade]

heyy :) erm im gonna fangirl really quick and then the request will be at the end incase you wanna skip to that part or anything, lol. okay so this is very much unnecessary and unasked for and blah blah but i don't care! i believe writers need to hear how much we appreciate them and their works because whew mama! ive been trying to write fics for like months and it actually is so horrible. i genuinely start to angrily vibrate bc my thoughts don't flow on the notes app. but i just wanted to say, nightshade, (ehehe that's so cheeky and silly for some reason) that i reallyyy love your work. its actually like horrific how much your writing just makes me so 😜😊🤭 i know you're not like a celebrity or anything, so it's gonna be weird with this like mini parasocial relationship thing, but please know your work has an impact !! a few months ago, i did something extremely bad and out of character while i was spiraling, and i decided that the best decision for me would be to quit using social media. (and beforehand i had quit using tiktok for like 7 months already and i wasn't that addicted to my phone but i still was consuming negative media) so, ofc, i stopped completely for a good month or so and only ever using youtube every now and then. buttttt, one of the first social media platforms i came back to first... was tumblr! it's actually so silly too because i only used tumblr like 4 times beforehand so i was quite new. but anyway anyway (im a yapper UGH) i really found that your posts had made me feel happy :) idk they kinda reminded me of myself before i went big bad that one time and it made me inspired to go back to how i used to be... u get me?? you're writing literally haunts my brain oh my lord it should be illegal to read your stuff because afterwards i literally have this crazy ass urge to read more and more and more. im lowkey an addict cause i be having my deadlynightshade withdrawals. the way you write is just so 😫 gosh, it's beautiful. i also love ur sillyness because like ME TOO. your random little posts are so me coded and i love it. YOU'RE SO FUNNY 😭 uhmm i just wanted to say thanks for being super cool and talented because believe it or not, the stuff you put out makes me really happy! (that was so melodramatic like mf they write about spencer being a pathetic pussy drunk bitch why are you saying it changed ur life?? its true tho.) erm yeah that's the end of that part i just again wanted to thank you 🙏 i wish we were friends SO BAD like you're actually awesome what the fuck.... but like how do u even become friends w ppl?? LMAO ERM ANYWAY 😍 can you write a blurb or h.c or something (honestly anything will make me happy) about valentine's day?? 🤭 basically spencer being SO FUCKING SHY because you can't stop touching his hands or hair subtly or like kissing his cheek leaving marks from lipstick or like getting him his favorite snacks/drinks/books/textures/ basically a gift that made u think about him?? ugh or him doing the same with you like him being the best fucking nerd boy ever and spoiling you so much like he goes ape shit spending well over his funds limit but it's worth it because it's you? or like sweet soft cutie pie sex? at the end of the day and he's like... Erm.. Pussy for 1 please! you were so pretty today... You always are-! (I'm mentally ill and writing this at 8:37 pm on a thursday night.)

this is. the sweetest shit anyone has ever said to me i actually cried ngl to you.

i'm genuinely so thankful for the little community i have created here i never expected such an insane amount of positivity and love from people just for the whack ass shit i write but that's probably just my perpetual self hatred and disbelief that people enjoy anything about me🤞

i think it's crazy how people on the internet who have never met me, don't know me, what i look like, or anything can treat me better than any of my friends have and i'll always be thankful for that.

ALSO! i love being called funny pls kiss me i never think i'm actually funny istg

i was also planning on writing a valentines fic ALREADY but this made me wanna write it even more as a thank you for this message it genuinely made my week(can't promise it ON TIME for valentines but i can try!)

i'm also so glad that my work and blog makes you happy, there's no privilege greater than making someone smile even when they don't feel like it</3

[thorniest-rose]

babe. when i first came to you with the idea for jailbait steve i knew you would get it. at most i was hoping for maybe a bit of a smutty blurb that toed the line with age appropriateness and all that.

but you took that idea and fucking ran with it and it was so so so good! i honestly do not have that words but i’m gonna try!

i love all the weird, crazy hints to you dropped about eddie. him low-key stalking steve, him jerking off to the thought of him, just everything about him being that freak that he is made my heart so full!!

steve, the little minx, was absolutely perfect. loved that he was always finding a way to insert himself into eddie’s day and playing up the innocent act!

oh god i want more i want so much more. you’re sexy and incredible and beautiful and wonderful and maybe my favourite author in this fandom!! thank you so much for writing it! i may have to go read it again right now!

p.s. the bits with hellfire were spot on as well! i loved the subtle hints you made towards gareth being intrigued by steve! (would love to see how that plays out in this universe too because i know eddie would train steve good and share him with his best friend, he’s charitable like that!)

— jailbait!steve anon 🍭

hi there!!! oh my gosh original jailbait!steve anon, all I can say is thank you so much for giving me the idea that sparked the entire fic, I'm not sure I ever would have thought of it without you, so thank you.

It was really important to me when I was writing it not just to let it be a smutty, kinky fic, because I thought the potential for it to be so much more about yearning and forbidden desire was there. Near the start of the fic when they meet in the clearing, I also write that there's a sense of recognition between Steve and Eddie, and that was my little implication that it's canon Steve and Eddie meeting in another universe after both dying during the events of Stranger Things. And that's also why they're so inexplicably drawn to each other. I'm not sure if that really comes across because I wanted to keep it very subtle but in my head that layer was always there.

And yes, I'm so committed to a depiction of Eddie that's a little more wild than you usually see in fic. I like to hc him as having a somewhat feral childhood because his parents were never around and he grew up in poverty. I also see him a survivor of child abuse and neglect, and that's given him a thick skin. My Eddie is probably a little harder than the one in canon, but I hope he still feels like Eddie! He's the same, he just has a few more edges on him. The same with Steve. I didn't want him to be a one-dimensional sexpot, but a character who's complex and who feels like the Steve Harrington we all know and love from the show, who has the capacity to be cruel, entitled and prickly but who ultimately is vulnerable and kind, who more than anything wants to be loved.

Your words about me as a writer are incredibly lovely, and I'm honoured to be one of your favourite authors in the fandom, especially considering I haven't written much! But it's always my intention to bring a different point of view and to step away from accepted fanon where I can to explore the characters in slightly different ways, and to use them to explore themes and dynamics that interest me, which is very much what I did in this fic. I would love to write more when I can, so fingers crossed this won't be the last we see of this Steve and Eddie!

omg and DON'T tempt me re Gareth dhdhdhs I already have a little fic in progress where Gareth has had a crush on Steve for years so Eddie lets him fuck Steve. It's messy and yucky but sweet and tender and I can't wait to post it so you can read it!!!

Thank you so much again for the inspiration, I'm so, so happy the fic was all you hoped it would be and more 💖💖💖

[piningpercussionist]

(Not an rp ask)

What is your opinion on chau x kim? I'm not a shipper of it myself but I heard it was a proship since knives is 17 but also I saw she was 18 in the comic so I'm not sure where to stand on it honestly. But I'd like to hear your opinion about it !! Sorry if this is a bit of a random ask (ーー;

You're completely fine!! Do not even worry about it.

So, yeah- When Scott first meets Knives, and I'm not entirely sure how much time passes between then and when they start dating, it was *literally* her seventeenth birthday, as I am reminding myself reading back over these panels presently. And then at the start of book six, the first time we see (real, non-dream,) Knives, she has apparently been eighteen for a week!

Now, I'm going to preface with a little something before I go further into this: I am totally fine answering this ask and others like it I think! but, I will note, I do get like a (not fun) physical sensation in my chest- partly anxiety (lol) but also something else I think- thinking about them like 95% of the time- it's gotta be like. Handled The Right Way, if that makes sense. Let's get into it.

So, first off, I'm just gonna re: some of the stuff relative to this I've posted here before- both nonrp and rp, since I use RP to develop my read on Kim and shed some light on how I see things I guess!

These clips come from this ask (and reblog) here!

This rp ask here, which is simply too difficult for me to get in a good screenshot I feel, so I recommend just checking it and the tags for it out- I will share my Bonus Commentary reply though:

This ask as well! Tags less pressing, but still provide a little insight.

And this is probably a dumb inclusion if I really want to make a pseudonym to post fics under, but. I have posted my (very early) thoughts on the SPTO sparks scene to AO3 before, so- (and before going into this- I did remember that Julie and Gideon have that sparks scene after the fact!)

And here's the Barely Anything Lines hinting at the ship that I had in that fic that I used to justify that blurb, while we're here:

I think I've gone over my feelings a little bit in the discord as well, and there might even be more rp stuff relative to it, but I'm not going to go back and get any of that honestly- at least, not right now, or unless requested, since I don't really feel like it's necessary, if it does exist. This gives a pretty good glimpse in I'd say- especially that second to last one there.

So. Yeah.

Used to ship it; have expanded my horizons since then. I don't really want to knock it because like... for some people this is a legitimate life experience for them- one that might have even turned out well, miraculously. And there also a lot of minors in this fandom evidently, so like, any other baby gays out there just wanting to Project for a minute? I feel that. Sincerely I do. It's not the wisest choice but better to read fanfiction about it than go out and actually make out with a 23 year old, Gods forbid. (Genuinely felt sick thinking about that; fucking gross. Any minors out there: Please Make Good Choices. Look out for yourselves. Begging you. There are too many freaks in this world- I promise you whoever you're thinking of probably isn't the magical exception.)

But there are definitely things to consider about them that are very interesting to me, still, so like. I'm in this weird state of conflict; I don't know if it's just me being like "it happened, you can't escape it" or having been desensitized/some sort of Brainwashed by how many times I had to use Knives in the game to quick heal- maybe something else but I just don't feel like flaying myself open like that unprompted for just anyone- but like. Oh man.

Sorry, gathering/writing this that feeling like went away but came circling back for this last bit, it seems. Which makes sense I guess. I feel like I'm setting myself up for a Pyre right now eugh shfsgkjfhjg

I dunno. I'm not gonna lie and pretend like I know it to be some big formative ship for me in my early teen years, but it was kind of important in finally coming around to realizing how queer I was, I think. My memories of the time are fuzzy, but it would have been one of the things- there were likely larger ones, my current obsession could be recoloring my past here so I'm trying to acknowledge that.

But there is like. A dynamic that is posited by them that is also one I'm a really big sucker for. More so now than I was then, so I find myself grinding my teeth about that a fair bit at times.

I definitely still really like it as something unrequited no matter what I think; I like the idea of Knives having a really big crush on Kim, genuinely. I think it's cute and funny as hell for how uncomfortable it would make Kim, who's just trying so hard not to be a fucking creep while this ray of sunshine hangs off her- something she absolutely does not deserve (in her eyes.)

I'm obviously more partial to Kim resisting any advances made at her, but I can understand so, so badly why someone might be attracted to the idea of Knives managing to thaw some of Kim's frigidity with that. Ugh.

If they work for me, I think they'd have to work for me after Knives is gone at college for a bit. Kim would need to know Knives for longer than she knew her as a minor- and they'd have to be FRIENDS in that time, quite strictly. Kim would need to not feel (intensely, because frankly, she would unavoidably feel this way at least a little no matter what,) like she was a fucking groomer going into it, basically. I don't know what I think past that.

You know, I'll put my feelings like this: with the exception of a fic I saw recommended to someone that intrigued me, I have managed to resist reading any/many fics featuring them, despite it being a large majority of the wlw Kim fics that exist, and also kinda just Kim fics generally. It's kind of Insane, especially considering how much Kimona SCREAM at you from the pages of the comic itself- but I digress....

I've been working on this for like over an hour now I think so I really should cut myself off. I am like,, too hungry and mildly stoned to be rambling off about this maybe. If you want more concise/specific thoughts, I recommend prompting! I can try and channel the responses easier with a bit more direction, maybe?

...

actually another thing real quick- I like. Do not know that I could ever feel comfortable, truly, consuming content for them, not knowing if the OP has good intentions. I just Do Not trust people, largely, so that's just like. A little thing. Idk. "Death to the author" or whatever but I am still allowed to feel personally uncomfortable ya know! I don't want them taking my silent observation as like,, passive acceptance in the event that they were. Idk if that makes sense, I need to go eat already, I'm hitting post before i drag this out to TWO hours

[callofdooty]

45 "Almost kisses" for Louse, please and thanks.

In reference to this post (send me a number and a ship and I'll try and write a blurb about it)

I love writing crack for these two :) This has no background, I just kinda blurbed it out, but otherwise I hope it's entertaining LOL

-

"I need to practise my knife throws more." Mouse hums.

"I could teach you a thing or two." Logan offers with complete confidence, "I've been told I'm quite good at it, actually."

"Oh aye?" Mouse's chair swivels so she can face him, and she gives him a wide smirk. "I'd like to see you prove it,"

"Maybe I will," he grinned back, resting his hand on the desk and making a show of leaning down a little just to annoy her. Not having it, she grabs the collar of his shirt and pulls, knocking him off balance and forcing him to use the arm rests of her chair to catch and balance himself. They're staring, a little stunned, at each other for a second before they realise just how close they've gotten. If they leaned in any further they could almost--

"Hey- Uh..." Of fucking course, Kick chooses that moment to walk in. He stops short, processing the scene in front of him while Logan quickly straightens up in a practically cartoonish manner. Kick blinks once, twice, before a grinch-like smile forms on his face. "What's going on here?"

"Logan reckons himself a good knife thrower," Mouse supplies easily, seemingly not caring about the interruption as she had hardly moved from her place. She swivels her chair again, arms folded casually, so she can look at Kick, matching the smug look on his face with her own. "Thinks he can show me a few tricks," and then her head tilts, ever so slightly. The way she speaks next is curious, genuine: "Need sommat?"

"Oh, no, no," Kick shakes his head, still upholding his cheshire cat impression. Logan hates the both of them for looking so thoroughly amused by the situation. "Wasn't all that important honestly. I think I'll leave you two to it." God damn it, Kick. He's quick to wink and quick to flee; Logan can still hear his snickering and footsteps as they receed down the hall. He gives an annoyed sigh, glowering as Mouse turns back to him, still giving him that look.

"Well?" She prompts.

"What?"

"These knives aren't gonna throw themselves." She scoffs, as if it was obvious. With that, she stands up and leans up into his space. "Show me how it's done, doe-eyes."

[thedawningofthehour]

Hi, for someone who its just a beginner in writing fanfic do mind to share your process?

Oh god, I feel really bad when people ask me for advice because half the time shit just pops into my brain I had no input in really cultivating it. So when people ask me how I write dialogue-like, man, I don't know. There's a guy talking and I'm just taking down whatever they say.

Honestly, my biggest piece of advice is just to write a lot, and write whatever. Do you have a cool idea for a oneshot and you're not sure if you can pull it off? Write it anyway. You're thinking of a random scene in the middle of what should be a longer story? Cool. Write that. You think this idea is cringy and you would never want anyone else to see it? Write it and let it sit in your Google Docs. Write stuff and never publish it. Write stuff and drop it when it's no longer fun.

Seriously, I have so many Google Docs that are never seeing the light of day. Stuff that I never bothered to finish. Stuff that wouldn't make sense to anyone outside my brain. Weird horny stuff. Hundreds of hours I spent writing this shit. That wasn't wasted time because-well, for one, I had fun writing it, but I was learning what I liked, what sounded good. And don't worry about never having anything to show for it because you will in the process go "oh man, this shit slaps" with something. I've mentioned before that doth wasn't going to be publish originally. Literally every fanfic I have on AO3 started off as "I'm bored, let's get that idea that I've been thinking about while trying to sleep out of my head." Unlike all the other blurbs I've written, I wanted to return to them, hone them into something better, keep writing more. You can't force passion. It just kind of happens, and sometimes it won't happen. That's okay.

Another thing is: write badly. Seriously, your first draft is just a draft. Unless you're a professional author and it's the night before it goes to print, you can always change it. If you're sitting there thinking 'this is gonna sound so bad'? Write it anyway. Chances are it's not actually that bad. Even if it's not great, you have something to edit-you'll never have anything to make better if you never write it in the first place. And if you do come back to it the next day and realize that it's irredeemably awful-you can just delete it. Rewrite it later if you think of something better. But do not just sit around waiting to spontaneously think of the perfect execution for every scene, because it will never happen and then you'll be left with a blank document.

Oh, something I see a lot of younger, newbie fanfic writers do? Writing and posting the same day. I mean, I do it too sometimes, but generally you don't want to do that, even if you're not in the habit of going through multiple drafts. Your brain does get tired. At the very least do the final read-through on a different day. One of my teachers in high school said it was best to let a piece of writing sit for two days without even looking at it before doing the final proofread, because that's how long it takes for your brain to 'forget' what you wrote. You want to read what's actually on the screen, not what you remember writing. He was right. This is good advice for papers too, for all of you still in school.

Also, if you're planning to write fanfic in English then mad fucking props to you, I have a hard enough time speaking it half the time and it's the only language I speak and I have a fucking degree in it.

Writing is a hard thing to give advice for because everyone, and I mean everyone goes about it differently and wildly different stuff works for them. Some writers can only write first thing in the morning-I'm better at night. Some writers need to have a habit of writing X amount every day, no excuses. I can go between writing nothing and writing 4k words the next day-and those 4k dump days are typically where I do my best work. Nothing fits everyone. It's really a process of fucking around and finding out what fits you best.

Oh, and if you're struggling with anxiety or imposter syndrome? If you're too nervous to start the process, or too nervous to post? One thing that helps me is asking myself, what's the worst possible thing that could happen? Are planes going to fall out of the sky? Are you gonna die? Almost certainly not. What is likely to happen? I go through this pretty much every time I post a chapter. I think, "oh man, they've liked everything so far but this is the chapter where they Find Out and make fun of me." (find out what? I don't fucking know. anxiety isn't logical) I just think about all the other chapters I posted that I thought weren't up to snuff, where I thought people would judge me for it-no, they all liked them anyway. In some cases people even said that it was their new favorite chapter. So seriously, just push yourself over that hurdle. You will be glad you did. The most likely outcome is that some people will enjoy it, and the absolutely worst thing that could happen is that someone is mean to you. And honestly, that says more about them than you.

[rococodeco]

The review that inspired this post is for Bear by Marian Engel. Very spoilery (except not because the reviewer missed the point entirely) so I put it under the cut. If I remember others I've seen I'll add them. @annehackaway

She f*cked a bear.

She literally f*cked a bear.

No. This isn't some euphemism for a beefy gay man.

Lou, a shy and secretive young librarian is called to a remote Canadian island to inventory the estate of the recently deceased Colonel Cary. In a cabin on the island, she discovers the colonel had a secret as well. A bear is chained inside. Fascinated, Lou brings the bear into the house and slowly gains the animal’s trust. She sinks her fingers into the bear’s fur—and soon realizes her darkest desire is for this large, powerful animal to be her lover.

But there’s more to the story than the price to be paid for forbidden passion. This novel by award-winning author Marian Engel works within the logic of a fever dream as the young woman comes to an even greater, and unexpected, understanding of herself.

She motherf*cking literally f*cked a literal bear.

What. The. Hell.

Okay. So. I'm not a cultured reader. I read mostly YA and...well...that's about it. BUT, I am a reader. A layman reader. So, here is the review from a casual just-for-fun reader:

She f*cked a bear.

For the record: did I pick up this book knowing there will be bear-f*ckery? No.

I picked it because I wanted (for once) to read a novel. I wanted one of those fancy English-students-read-this sort of novels.

I found this 120ish page book on the "suggested reads" table of my local library. Here's the blurb from the back:

Marian Engel, one of Canada's most celebrated and provocative novelest, died...The short and controversal novel "Bear," her last and best-known work...

It sounded good - it had all the hallmarks for cultured reading, right? It won prizes, it's by a treasured national author, it was controversial. I was pumped - watch out world, I'm gonna get cultured.

The book started off okay. It's a bit pretentious but it was manageable. There's an isolated, island house donated to a historical society and it's filled with old books.

For once, instead of Sunday school attendance certificates, old emigration documents, envelopes of unidentified farmer's Sunday photographs and withered love letters, something of read value had been left to them.

A librarian (Lou) is sent there for the summer to categorize and catalog the collection. There's an old bear chained up that was the family pet that our Lou needs to care for.

At this point, the book wasn't too bad. It wasn't particularly gripping but hey. Not bad. Then we get to the "First Look":

As she sat down, she realized the bear was standing in his doorway staring at her.

Bear. There. Staring.

She stared back.

Again, not bad. She starts to befriend the bear, bringing him food, petting his fur, giving him anthropomorphic characteristics....essentially all the things that even a five year old knows NOT to do with a wild animal.

At one point Lou walks the bear on his chain to the island's edge and as the bear swims, she jumps in naked.

Yes, it was a bit odd - it was odd that she thinks of the bear with so many human emotions, that she goes skinny-dipping with him, that she notices his very "male-ness" when she first meets him....but I maintain that at this point, there wasn't any indication that things were going to go so far south.

I remember thinking, "Oh jeez. That's those fancy-novels. Free spirits. Wouldn't it be funny if..."

Turns out, that was not funny.

To summarize the rest of the book: (And note, I'm summarizing this in the blandest way possible but I'm still putting it as a spoiler - so you have been warned):

She lets the bear start to roam her house. He visits her at night. She initiates, luring him to certain areas of her body with sweet smells.

There are many couplings (oral). She goes on long walks (dates?) with the bear.

There's menstruation involved at one of their "couplings." It was a huge turn-on for the bear.

She tries to initiate further via stimulation and guiding him...but learns that there's mechanical differences between the two species.

To use one of the side character's words:

"People get funny when they're too much alone."

Did the side character know? Did anyone find out? What was the plot?

Honestly, from pg 80 on I skipped every page that involved genitalia and stimulation thus reading maybe 20 of the 40 remaining pages. It was just too much.

I didn't get the plot but I am not going back for it.

When a goodreads review begins with, "I usually only read YA but I decided to branch out," you know the review is going to be good (have the most unhinged opinions you've ever seen about literature)

[peachhcs]

how it all began -> podcast episode

hughes!sister x will smith au (samy + will)

a small podcast snippet where samy and will talk about how they got together

1.9k words

here are the small draft blurbs i wrote way back when i started this series that i told y’all i would share. i have a lot of them, so i’ll post them periodically :) this is from where i imagined will and samy talking about each other on podcast episodes they've invited to

au masterlist

"alright, so give me all the juicy details. how did this next step in your relationship come to be?" samy laughed mostly to herself as she fidgeted with the ends of her shirt.

"i mean..i feel like will and i are like..the exact of every best friends to lover trope right now..like i feel like we fit all the stereotypes," the brunette began making the interviewer laugh.

"i don't know..i mean something in our brains just flipped. we only ever saw each other as like..siblings. like we had a brother and sister relationship with one another, but the more i think about it, the more i think it might've just been us suppressing those feelings and playing it off as a family dynamic instead," the girl giggled.

"were your close friends and family ever like..why the hell aren't they together?"

"looking back on it, there was one night when i was like..sixteen maybe? will had just moved to michigan for his development program and he hung out at our house with some of his friends and like..we all had a great time. we just talked and caught up and i got to know his teammates, but after, when they left, my mom..she had this look on her face. i didn't know what look it was at the time and so i was like why are you looking at me like that? she didn't say anything, but she just smiled and shook her head and now, i'm pretty sure it was her seeing the connection will and i had that we didn't even know we had yet," samy explained.

"i feel like there's such a beautiful thing about that though. it's like you guys weren't even trying to be in a relationship, but everyone around you two knew how special of a connection you two have and they were just like..oh yeah they're definitely gonna be together one day," the interviewer nodded.

"i know. i know. it is beautiful because we weren't even really looking for a relationship and..one thing led to another. i always see those posts that say relationships come from the most unexpected person in the most unexpected time," samy smiled.

"i mean you can tell us whatever you want, you don't have to say anything, but if you want, can you talk about like how it happened and what changed?"

"it was this past summer..will was finishing up his dev program and he was like in a different place every weekend so we hardly got to see one another, but he still texted me and called me whenever he could to talk about his game like we always did, so that wasn't unusual..but like i don't know..there was this thought in the back of my head like..i don't even know how to explain it, but it was like i got this feeling in my chest every time will texted or called me and i started realizing that he didn't do this with everyone. really only like me and his sisters. anyways, the draft rolled around and obviously i was gonna be there. my family sat with his family and we were all dressed to the nines. will was locked in, nervous about his pick, all of that. it wasn't until after where we just found ourselves just with each other in the arena and like..we looked at each other and i think that's just when we knew something was changing between us."

"you both felt that change right in that moment?"

"i mean yeah. he looked at me like..a little too long and i was like..oh shit, this is..this is a way different feeling than i'm used to. it wasn't until his draft party in boston when everything sort of..like came out. i can't give too many details, but we ended up talking that night and like..the rest just went from there," the girl laughed a little.

"and i mean, you two have the same collegiate number absolutely coincidentally."

"yeah, i think that was our final tipping point when we found out we got the same number. it was like the universe telling us, okay yeah, you guys definitely belong together," the brunette grinned.

"so is it hard being long distance and like finding out all of this stuff right as you leave for college?"

"yeah, a bit. it was kind of like a punch in the face. we get something good, but it doesn't last for long because will's now states away in boston and i'm still in michigan, but we're making it work. we call everyday and we text everyday. it's also easy because we know how one another works, so we like skipped all the awkward parts of getting to know one another and figuring out each other's quirks because we already know it."

"i think that definitely makes things easier like you said. you don't have to spend time in the awkward stage because you guys already had that growing up."

"yeah, exactly, but yeah, it's been fun opening this side of one another and delving into it more. he's always been there for me and i mean it's like we danced around one another until the time was finally right for our lives to mix together in that way."

—

"so i don't know if you've seen the clips of sam talking about your relationship or not?" will smiled a bit, nodding to say he has seen it.

"i have and i mean everything she said was pretty spot on and i probably couldn't have said it better myself," the blonde chuckled.

"i don't wanna exhaust the subject too much, but i'd love to sort of hear your take on about the change and sort of realization about your relationship with her."

"yeah, just this past summer was when things just changed for us. she was at the draft in nashville with all of us and just like..it was really special having all of my close friends and family there watching me take on another big milestone in my life. samy's always been there for me, so having her there was really great. i think she said after i got picked we ended up in the arena with just us and we were talking briefly and like..yeah it just changed for us in that moment. i realized how lucky i was to have her there and that she took time out of her busy schedule to be there and support me and i was just thinking how no one else would do that for me but her," will said, his smile still painting his features.

"did you like ever have any past feelings for her in that way that you pushed away thinking it'd never be like that?"

"i think maybe when we were like..12 or something. it was like..peak puberty years so i had this thought in the back of my mind like..what if samy and i ended up as something more, but she never seemed into that ever. we were like siblings, so i kind of just let the idea go knowing we wouldn't ever be like that until it started just resurfacing this past year with her."

"i think i asked sam this, but were your close friends or family ever like..why the hell aren't they together?"

"well definitely my teammates knew way before i did. the first time they met her and hung around us and we went back to our places they looked at me and they were like: are you sure you've never thought about her in that way before? so they even knew before i had an idea. my mom at times was definitely suspicious and surprised that we never got together because i think she was secretly rooting we would at some point," the hockey player laughed.

"moms and friends always know. always trust what they say," the interviewer also laughed.

"i know, i should've listened to them more. even at sixteen where samy and i still saw each other as siblings they were skeptical. especially ryan. he was giving us eyes and anytime we hung out with her he was giving me these looks like you're for real right now? you have zero feelings for her? and i mean i thought our interactions were normal and i guess i brushed off a lot of them that looked flirty or came off that way and samy did too so that's probably why it took us so long to catch on."

"even though you guys are long distance right now, how are you two working through that while taking on this new territory of your relationship?"

"well, it's definitely easier because we know one another so well. it helps that we didn't have an awkward stage because we kind of already went through that when we were kids. plus, samy just makes it easy. we're very alike so we know why we are the way we are. she's always been there for me and i've always been there for her. we're constantly supporting one another and we call everyday just like talking about our days or games if we have them. if we can't call, we send like 10 voice messages explains our days. it's just easy because we know each other so well, so nothing has to be misread or miscommunicated because we already know. it definitely sucks we're not together like we were for two years, but it just makes seeing one another that more special when it comes around."

"that's really special. your relationship has always been really special to the fans who've been following you two for while now, so i know they love seeing you guys finally together. i'm sure they knew way before you guys did too," will and the interviewer shared a laugh.

"i'm sure they did. samy and i aren't the best at picking up clues like that," will chuckled.

view all comments

user1 OH MY GOD I CANT??? THEYRE BOTH SO ADORABLE AWWW

user2 IGE BEEN WAITING FIR THIS ONE!!!! i knew i knew i knew they'd finally end up together

user3 the best friends to lovers pipeline is so incredibly real

user4 WILL'S FRIENDS KNOWING BEFORE HE DID!!! god they must've been so painfully obvious back then to everyone but themselves

user5 golden retriever and golden retriever fr

user6 stop i love these two sm they truly did grow up together and seeing them try out a relationship is so cute i hope they work out!!!

user7 MY roman empire

user8 oh they're in love love

user9 them calling everyday is so cute oh my god

user10 THEM HAVING THE SAME NUMBERS UNPLANNED IS LITERALLY FATE AND DESTINY

user11 samy hughes and will smith make so much sense in my head

user12 THE WAY HE CALLS HER SAMY IS SO CUTE

user13 we need them in an interview together next!!!

user14 samy saying how will looked at her for a little too long and she just knew is so fucking real on god like i get you girl so bad if will looked at me the way he looks at her i'd fold immediately

user15 i love that they're so willing to share this with us bc we basically grew up with them too

user16 i'm actually obsessed with them

user17 THEYVE BEEN SOFT LAUNCHING EACH OTHER THUS ENTIRE TIME??!

user18 im definitely betting it was some sort of like drunk confession at will's draft party because samy said she couldn't get into the details meaning she couldn't tell the interviewer they were underage drinking GOD i love them sm

[luveline]

ah I saw that you were asking for poly!m and like <3 <3 <3 I love them so much. loved your blurb of them with r and the chicken wire <3 if you're still asking, what about remus and r cheering for the boys at a sports thing and they're literally disgustingly sweaty but they all just love each other I'll cry

thank you for your request! you and your guys after a rugby win <3 fem!reader cw suggestive

Remus' hand is the only warmth to be found for a half a mile. 

"Come on, Sirius!" he bellows, pulling your hand along with his incensed movement. 

You look out at the field to find your boy, Sirius making a sprint for the end zone. If he can score this last try —five points for the team— he'll win the game. James is right behind him, and you think for a moment that Sirius is going to pass the ball back. 

Sirius isn't even supposed to be playing today. James had begged him as a favour after a freak disaster wherein no other players were available, and when Sirius does play its as a back, because he's fast and springy. And yet. Two threes down the field, nearly three quarters, Remus' hand tightening in yours, and– 

"Go on!" Remus shouts, the two of you flying to your feet. 

You scream something completely incoherent and bounce up and down, a high-pitched squeal that can't be helped. You're drowned out anyhow by the team's followers behind you. James' team isn't a Top 14 contender or anything but that doesn't mean they aren't good, or that the fans aren't out in droves today to see the game, held in your home stadium. The feat of Sirius' accomplishment is clear — the stands shake with cheering, and the clock counts down. The game is finished, and James' team has won. 

You and Remus are so excited, you scream until your throat hurts. 

"Remus, he did it!" you shout unnecessarily, turning to Remus, throwing your arms around his neck. 

"Oh god, we're never gonna hear the end of it!" he shouts back. 

It's not Sirius who won't let you hear the end of it. 

"Did you see him?" James asks when you reunite, changed into his new clothes but still, undeniably, dripping with sweat and adrenaline. "Did you see? He ran like the fucking wind." 

Sirius stands behind him. It's very obvious he's trying not to smile. 

You can't decide who to hug first but Remus makes the decision for you when he practically knocks Sirius down. 

"You fucking did it," Remus says. 

Sirius lets himself smile, then.

You sidle into James open arms and frame his face with your hands. "You played so well, Jamie, you must feel so proud of yourself." You brush sweat-slicked curls behind his ear unflinchingly. 

"We played amazing," he agrees, leaning down for a kiss. 

It's celebratory and congratulatory and also just mushy. You pull back and lean in again straight away,  deciding what you have to say will have to wait. You kiss and kiss and stroke his hair away from his face. He's not nearly as nice, post game roughness in the way his lips part under yours. You yank back before he can involve you in some unsavoury public snogging. 

"You played amazing James," you say, "you always do." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

You look over James' shoulder at a Sirius' pout. Remus still has an arm around his neck, but that's never stopped you before. You laugh and pretty much jump at Sirius' lean chest, pleased when Remus puts a hand over your back to steady you. 

"You know you played well," you say, brushing at Sirius' clean shaven cheek with a loving thumb. You beam at him, burying your face in the crook of his clammy neck. "Oh, you played so well. You're amazing. I'm so proud of you." 

You pull away from the two of them, and all four of you stand in a love bubble in the middle of the room, which you try not to do. It happens more often than you'd think. 

"Woah, wait," Sirius says. "I'm a gentleman, and I don't believe in coercion, but I do believe in fairness, and we all saw the way Prongs just laid into you–" 

"If you want a kiss, Sirius, you only have to ask," James says. 

You nibble your lip and move to Sirius again, feeling the slightest bit shy at his proclamation. You know that he wants to kiss you, as you want to kiss him, or Remus or James, but what Sirius doesn't always realise is that he's intimidating in his manner. Like Remus in bed, or James when he's tired, Sirius is always a little stern. He brings out your timidness. 

"He's put her on the spot," James says sympathetically. 

"Look at how cute she gets, every bloody time," Remus laments. 

You laugh under your breath and screw your eyes closed. Sirius doesn't make you suffer, simply leans down and kisses you, his attention to your top lip. It's definitely not the kind of kiss you should share in public, not because it's especially salacious: it's charged. You worry the entire room is watching him melt you, but thankfully Sirius steps back before you can burst into flame. 

"You did play really well," you say. You sound as dizzy as you feel. 

Sirius laughs genuinely, his hand following over your head to behind your shoulders. "Thanks, doll." 

The boys spend some time talking to people you don't know and then you're homeward bound, James pulling a concerned Remus, two pale hands wrapped around his wrist. "Where's your brace?" Remus murmurs, not looking where he's going. 

"It's in my bag, it was too sweaty to keep on." 

Remus probes at James' wrist. "Doesn't it hurt?"

"Does when you do that, handsome." 

You grin and swing your hand in Sirius', right behind them. 

"You must be really tired, now," you say. 

Sirius looks down at you with a charmed smile. "Not too bad, my love… You know, after a game, you're supposed to do some light training. Relax the muscles." 

"Really?" you ask. "What kind of training?" 

"It's the high impact, you need something to wind down afterward. And it's all legwork, of course–" 

You make a disbelieving sound in the back of your throat. "Of course. I'm sure we can find something to save your poor muscles." 

He pulls you in by the arm and leans down to kiss you, but you stop him, dipping your chin away from his searching mouth. 

"Sirius? Recovery training usually happens the day after a match. You know what they recommend immediately after?" You lift your chin until he can feel each word against his lips. "Rest." 

His breath is hot against your face.

"Well," Remus says, cutting through the quiet, "it's a good thing I don't need to do that." 

He and you both burst into pleased laughter, leaving your gutted sportsmen to glare at you sullenly. 

"When have I ever needed rest after a match?" James argues. 

"That's true. James is back in." Remus beams at Sirius, your joking a lightness that brightens his entire face. "Guess you'll just have to watch, Siri." 

[runnning-outof-time]

Congrats on 2K you amazing human being! I thought I'd join in with the celebration, please can you use the prompt “I don’t like you.” and please can the character be Tommy? I'm happy for you to interpret it however you wish! xx

Thanks so much, Aimee! 🥰❤️ I’m so happy to have met you on here, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us!

Thank you for helping me celebrate hitting 2K followers! Want to read more blurbs from this celebration? Check out this post!

Late Night Confessions

Tommy Shelby

Warnings: language, blood, injury

(Y/N) knows just who it is knocking on her door late at night.

“What’d you do this time, Tommy?” (Y/N) questioned in a monotone voice as she opened the door to her home. “Oh shit…” she gasped as her eyes fell on the man standing in front of her. She’d seen Tommy Shelby with wounds so many times that she’d lost count, but never had he come to her while he was still bleeding. “Tommy what’s happened? Come in,” she asked him before ushering him inside and over to the couch.

“It doesn’t matter,” he brushed her off as he sat down, wanting desperately to put his head in his hands, but the blood on his face wouldn’t allow it.

“I’d like to argue that it does…” (Y/N) trailed off as she moved about the main living area of her home. She grabbed a rag and got it wet before coming back over to where Tommy was sitting on the couch. “What’s the best way to do this?” she asked herself aloud, thinking it over for a minute before she sat in the open cushion next to him.

She then placed her fingers underneath Tommy’s chin, titling his face up so that she could see his injuries more properly. There was an obvious cut above his brow, and his bottom lip was split. She wasn’t sure if his nose was also bleeding because of the amount of blood that had been coming from his forehead. She looked at him intently as she brought the rag up to start dabbing the blood away. Tommy hissed as the cold rag came into contact with the gash on his head.

“Hold still, please,” she told him in a soft voice as she continued cleaning his face. Tommy did as she said, his eyes fixated on her as she worked on wiping the blood away. “I’d still like to know what happened, Tommy,” she said once the majority of the blood had been cleaned off.

She stood from the couch to go back to the kitchen and grab some basic medical supplies to cover up the cuts he had. She then sat back down next to him and stared at him, deciding to not do anything else until he gave her the answer she was looking for.

A few moments passed before Tommy realized what she was doing. He let out a sigh before looking away from her, knowing that he’d have to come clean now. “There were some men at the bar. They’d come from the football game and thought that they’d get drinks on the house. Harry was tryin’ to tell ‘em that that wouldn’t be happening, but they weren’t listening to him…”

“So you took matters into your own hands,” (Y/N) finished his story for him, already knowing what route the story would go in. “Oh, Tommy…” she sighed, shaking her head as she carefully applied a bandage to the cut above his brow.

“Didn’t think the fucker was gonna break a chair and use it on me,” he sighed, sounding rather defeated.

“You can’t keep getting into fights like this,” she told him, sounding much like a parent who was scolding her child.

“They were acting a nuisance in the bar, (Y/N),” he pointed out, like it would justify his actions.

“That doesn’t mean you go and fight them,” she tried to make him see sense.

“Why do you care about what I do anyway, eh?” he asked her, his eyebrows raised. He didn’t sound angry when he said this he was just…curious.

“Because I…I…” she stammered out, becoming more frustrated by the second, “because I don’t like you, Tommy!” she finally got out, her words coming out a little louder than she expected.

“What?” Tommy was confused now.

“I don’t like you…I love you, and I can’t keep seeing you looking like this. You don’t understand how much it hurts me to see you bruised and bleeding. And I don’t want you to take that as a reason to stop coming here when you find yourself in situations such as this one, because I’ll still clean you up, but…god, Tommy…you’ve gotta stop picking stupid fights,” she rambled on, not even really knowing what was coming out of her mouth as she spoke. Really word vomit at its finest.

Tommy stared at her after hearing her declaration. His lack of response made (Y/N)’s eyes widen. Why did she admit that to him? She was now screaming internally at the fact that she’d probably just ruined their friendship. She was about to begin apologizing profusely when Tommy grabbed the back of her neck and brought her in so that he could crash his lips against hers. (Y/N) just about gasped at the contact before her hands fell against his chest, allowing her to clutch the fabric of his suit jacket in her hands so that she could steady herself.

“Tommy…your lip,” she whispered when they pulled away to breathe.

“It’s fine,” he dismissed her worry, his breath fanning against her lips as he stayed close to her. “I’m sorry I’ve been putting myself in these situations…if I’d known how you felt about me, I wouldn’t have been so careless with myself,” he told her then, his eyes finding hers as he spoke.

“It’s ok. Just…just next time please think before you go defending your bar,” she told him, a bit of a smile forming on her lips. She never thought that things would turn out this way, but being this close to him felt so right. “Let me fix your lip,” she said then once they’d pulled back completely.

“I think you’ve fixed it already,” he grinned, his words making her cheeks heat up.

———

Tagged: @mgcllovdrms @the-anxious-youth @cloudofdisney @look-at-the-soul @golden-hoax @elenavampire21 @peaky-cillian @mrsalwayswrite @julkaamazing @evita-shelby @lilyrachelcassidy @notyour-valentine @shelbydelrey @december16-1991 @onlydeadcells @peakyswritings @just-a-blackhole @watercolorskyy @strayrockette @peakyduchesss @alexxavicry @captivatedbycillianmurphy @yummycastiel @dark-academia-slut @tommystargirl @stevie75 @lyarr24 @signorellisantichrist @zablife @anotherblinder @midnightmagpiemama @cillmequick @rangerelik @lovemissyhoneybee @dandelionprints @letal-y-poetica

MASTERLIST

[morelikehoetchner]

Our Daughter

More blurbs from the ether of the dms I'll be posting up randomly. Again, none of these are really edited or anything like that. Just a stream of thoughts. Like I said before, I have a ton of these, so I'm probably going to put up a queue for them. I also take prompts :)

Hotch also wanted a girl. Thinks Jack would be an amazing big brother and he's a joy raising. But man. Hotch always kinda regretted not having a second kiddo. Then Reid is there. "You know. Adoption for two federal agents… they couldn't tell us no." and he's come prepared, brochures, research, statistics.

"She would be the safest baby adopted in the last 80 years," Spencer adds. "She?" Aaron looks up from the paperwork in front of him. "Aaron. You're an excellent profiler. I'm better."

Spencer is good with kids. But Hotch turns into a whole other person with that baby in his arms. Aaron Hotchner always felt like home. But this feels more like putting down his own roots. Jack is thrilled. A bit confused. But thrilled. Hotch had of course been right about him being an excellent big brother, viciously protective too.

When she starts walking. Reid thinks he's going to have a heart attack. "Was Jack like this?" He's lying on the floor, panting with Diana cooing in his arms. She had tried climbing the back of a kitchen chair. "You should have seen me when Jack climbed into the shower and got my shaving cream. Panicked and ended up slipping in the cream on the floor. Almost knocked myself out." "Wait you told us you got hit with a tree limb."

"My ego took a bigger hit than my skull."

Reid looks up at Diana. "Your papa is a typical alpha male. Can you say that?" Gives her a little playful jostle while she giggles. "Typical alpha male!" "Al-la" The men go very quiet and Spencer is still on his back, on the floor their daughter above him. "Reid… if you taught our daughter 'alpha' as her first word." "Oh my God, her first word. Di, can you say 'alpha'?" "Spencer, please," Hotch is sliding down onto the floor by his husband, grinning. "Al-la" she coos again around her fingers and Spencer beams with pride. Hotch has his head in his hands and he's laughing through a groan.

"Oh no," Spencer frowns slightly. "Jack's at camp. He's gonna be so mad he missed her first word." "Unless she says something else," Aaron reasons. "Anything else, sweetheart, please. For your papa. Any other word." He takes Diana off Spencer's hands and holds her against his side, giving her a little bounce. "What about da-da?" he tries.

"I don't think you can negotiate with infants, Aaron." All the while, Diana continues her little pleased chant of "al-la" over and over "I negotiated down a terrorist in Time Square." "Well, your daughter is going to be a bit more difficult." "Our daughter." Diana is still cooing and making little blubbery noises. "Yeah," and Spence looks at him from the floor as he brings the little girl to his chest. "Our daughter."

[love-fireflysong]

yIt's done. It took me waaaay to long to write this piece out but between June and my computer apparently deciding to kick me in the teeth this month, the fact I made it to 5 full squares completed anyways I will gladly take as a victory! And, just fyi, this WILL be the last piece for this month. I know that there is still another four days left of June, but I am sick and tired of dealing with my keyboard so this is the last fic you're gonna see from me until I get a new laptop hopefully fairly soon. (Unless I decide that I'm desperate enough to try and write things out on my tablet of course...)

Anyways, the First Date trope was specifically requested by @jesus-hotsauce-christmas-cake when I let her know that the one she did guess (road trip) was going to be a second chapter of a twoshot. Which you still might get because I'm very likely going to be sharing the short little summary blurbs I had written down for each trope so people can very easily bully me into writing them anyways if people still wanted to read them. And even though it would be like months and months late, still post them under this bingo board because I can and I had a cool idea for what I was doing with the colours and layout before life decided to say 'NO!' in a very firm voice. (Unless of course the three lovely ladies that came up with this idea in the first place say no obviously)

Rambling over though now I promise. Chocolate Covered Confessions can be read over and AO3 of course, with the full fic also under the readmore as well.

Chocolate Covered Confessions

Trope: First Date Fandom: Until Dawn Characters: Ashley Brown, Chris Hartley Words: 8214 Rating: General (though reader beware there is some almost scandalous hand holding and a couple of scandalously public kisses. You have been warned...) Authors Notes: Oh look, more chrashley fluff. Who da thunk it? Pride month? What pride month? This is just me apparently figuring out how many different ways I can get Chris and Ash to confess their feelings. Because you only read like three of them, I still have another two waiting in the wings. Plus at least three others if you count climbing chrash lol.

Something was...weird. It wasn't something that Ashley could put her finger on just yet, but something was definitely off that was for sure. The problem of course was that she didn't even know where to start looking in the first place, because for the most part her day had been extraordinarily ordinary.

She, Chris, and Josh had planned to go and see a movie Saturday morning a few days back and then hang out the rest of the day. But seeing as they were, you know, best friends that certainly wasn't the issue. Not even close. They always made plans to do stuff like that together. And yeah, okay, so maybe Josh had 'coincidentally' texted them just before the movie started to let them know that something unavoidable had come up and he wasn't going to be able to meet up with them. And when her and Chris had brought up just waiting until a later showing when he was free, he had immediately been quick to affirm that nope, he was going to be busy the whole rest of the day actually. So the two of them could continue with their original plans and they could make it up to him another time.

While certainly suspicious, that wasn't what was wrong though. Josh had been flaking out on their plans more and more, especially when it was plans that took up an entire day. Ashley Brown wasn't stupid. No siree Bob she was not! She knew exactly what Josh was trying to do by leaving her to spend the day with Chris. Alone . And she appreciated it (she really did!), but if Chris was going to make a move then he would have done it ages and ages ago, because she sure as hell wasn't going to do it! Ashley Brown wasn't stupid, but she also wasn't exactly what you would call brave either.

Not that Chris had seemed to notice what Josh was pulling though, he had just sighed and rolled his eyes with a grumbled "fucking typical", and then the two of them had entered the theater to watch the movie. And as per their usual shtick when Josh wasn't there with them, Chris paid for the tickets while she paid for the food and drinks. Or, at least, that was how it normally went. Instead, when she had decided to take a run to the bathroom while he held their spot in the long concession line, she had come back to Chris waiting for her with the pop and popcorn already in hand. After brushing off her flustered apologies, he had explained that shortly after she had left, another cashier had popped on till so the line had gone down in half the time either had expected. And it seemed like a dick move to just wait there until she came back so he had just decided to get the food instead.

She still felt a little guilty about it honestly, even after swearing that she would get both the tickets and food next time.

And, to be completely fair to Josh, he hadn't exactly been missing out on a lot by skipping out on the movie. It wasn't a horror flick (he would never even think of skipping out on that after all) so it wasn't one that he would feel the need to make the two of them watch again with him. Which was more than fine honestly, because if she was to describe the movie in a single word, well, that word would definitely have been 'dreadful'. If she was given a few more words, then she would have easily elaborated and stated that it was 'a boring, plot-hole driven mess, with only extremely over-the-top action scenes and explosions every five minutes to carry any semblance of the extremely loosely written plot'. In other words, she had lost interest in the movie barely half an hour in, and considering that Chris had started scrolling through his phone bored, she wasn't alone in this boat either.

Still, Ashley had resolved herself to sit through this over-budgeted explosion fest if only because movie tickets were horribly expensive. Not to mention the fact that Chris had shelled out money for both the movie and the food. But then he had turned to her, asked if she was as bored to tears as he was, and once he got that confirmation, asked if she wanted to just ditch the movie entirely. And she did—she really, really did—but didn't want Chris to waste the money he had spent more. And then yet another explosion...exploded on screen, and she realized that she was wasting precious hours of her life that could be used to do something more fun and less mind-numbingly boring.

Like watching paint dry. That at least had a semi-cohesive plot.

And so the two of them had walked out, continuing to share the extra buttered popcorn between them (the movie may have been awful, but the popcorn certainly wasn't) as they left the movie theater behind and wandered into the nearby mall. That wasn't the strange thing either. The mall and subsequent window shopping had absolutely been part of their day plans after, even if those had been unexpectedly pushed forward a couple of hours.

Admittedly the art show that the mall was running in one of the empty storefronts was unexpected, but  it had been simply a nice surprise and a great way to kill time. So after paying the $2 entrance fee, the two of them had continued to share the popcorn as they looked at some of the paintings and sculptures that had been on display, giggling childishly at most of them. And okay, so one of the curators had been glaring at them( or rather, at their greasy, butter-covered fingers) the whole time, but that had just been a little rude and insulting. Not strange. And that had stopped almost the moment they had run out of popcorn, Ashley nudging him in the stomach with her elbow as she licked her fingers clean, and the two of them laughing under their breaths at the curator who had looked exceptionally much more at ease once Chris had crumpled the empty bag into a ball.

The rest of their day in the mall had just been spent following the rest of their day's plan, wandering from shop to shop and browsing at all the things that caught their eyes, and then taking a break after a few hours to have a late lunch in the food court. The two of them checked out another couple of stores, these ones to try and get some ideas for Josh's birthday in another month, before moving onto the small arcade on the top floor. As part of their deal and agreement since it had just been Josh and Chris (Ashey not joining the duo until five years later), Chris bought the tokens needed while she scouted out the various games for an empty console and claimed it until he could join her in another couple of minutes.

They spent the next hour in there, trying to beat each other or work together depending on the game in question. They almost never played a game twice before moving onto the next one, in hopes to both try as many games as possible before their self imposed hour ended and to see if they could beat their previous high scores or make it onto the leaderboard in only a single try. But as the hour came to a close, they both made their way over to their final game: one of the racing simulators scattered around the arcade. And as had been done for ten years now, played to determine which of them would be paying for the tokens next time they came.

And once the race ended, with Ashley winning by photo finish for the third time in a row (and celebrating her winning streak by maturely sticking out her tongue and doing an awkward little shimmy dance in the seat while Chris jokingly sulked and pouted), they had finally left the mall altogether and got into Chris's truck. There, he had surprised Ashley with the novel she had been eyeing in the bookstore (or at least, eyeing closer than all the rest she had picked up) and that he had somehow been able to buy without her noticing. And that certainly hadn't been weird, because it had been so exceptionally sweet of him, sweet enough that Ashley had so badly wished that she could thank him properly. But as mentioned before, Ashley Brown was a coward pure and simple, so she had just clutched the book to her chest and beamed at Chris in heartfelt thanks instead.

He may have said something in reply, but Ashley had already settled into the passenger seat and opened to the first page of the book, so she was already long gone. A fact that Chris had anticipated, if the light chuckle he had let out before starting the truck meant anything. And no, Ashley reading a book while Chris drove them to their usual game store across town was not the strange thing either. If Chris hadn't wanted her to read on the drive over and talk to him, then he never would have given her the book now of all times. He would have waited until he had dropped her off home, or not even bought the book in the first place. After over a half a decade of friendship, if anyone knew what would happen after giving Ashley Brown a new book, it was Chris Hartley.

The drive over is done quicker then she had expected, and even then Chris still hadn't let her know that they had arrived until she had finished her chapter. Yes he had certainly teased her about it the entire time, joking about how she would never find someone as understanding of her reading habits then him (he didn't know how right he was, that she didn't want to find anyone else), but the fact that he had just continued to let the music play in the truck and distracted himself on his phone was so unbearably sweet that she decided to let it lie.

The fact that Ashley and Chris hung around in the game shop comparing dice and looking at new books while wincing over the prices for nearly two hours wasn't what was off either. Hell, if anything the fact that they only spent a couple of hours there before leaving was weird! Her, Chris, and Josh could easily spend almost half a day in there flipping through comics and rolling dice to test them out, only leaving because a tired employee was forced to ask them to leave for making too much noise and taking up a table when they weren't playing anything, especially when there was a group that had been waiting for a table for close to an hour now.

Which brought Ashley to where she was right now, sitting at a sticky plastic table under the shade of a cheap umbrella while Chris had run off to get them some ice cream before dropping her off at home. Her new book was open in front of her, the pages crisp white even in the umbrella's shade, but her mind wasn't on the book anymore. A random line had a character mentioning that something had been feeling off all day ever since they woke up ('like everything had been moved three centimeters to the left, so while it all looked normal, nothing felt right anymore'), and Ashley had also realized that hey, wait a second, her day was also feeling just a little wonky too! But no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was. Today had just been a normal day hanging out with Chris after all. They went to see (and bailed) a movie, spent hours hanging out in the mall and at the game store, and now they were each going back home. Nothing unusual had happened, so why did it feel like something hugely monumental had been going on all day?

"Oi. Earth to Ash, you okay in there?"

A light flick to the center of Ashley's forehead has her blink in surprise, and she finds herself back into the present once again. Chris is standing next to her, carefully balancing the two cones in his right hand and his left ready to flick again if needed, and a bemused smile on his face.

"Oh, uh, sorry Chris. Got a little too into the book I think." She closes the book, not wanting to get melting ice cream all over its crisp white pages (and she really hasn't absorbed a single word for nearly ten minutes now), but Chris doesn't hand her the cone just yet.

"Yeah, I'm not buying that," Chris says as he snorts in disbelief. "I know your 'praise be to books' look, and that was not it. That was your 'head full, too many thoughts' look."

"Excuse me? What? I do not have a reading look! Or a thinking look for that matter!"

"Oh you do. You really, really do. Trust me. You may have been staring at that book but there was no way that you were reading, I would bet my own ice cream here on it." Chris brandishes his double chocolate cone at her, then seems to reconsider and switches to show off her own dipped soft serve that he still has yet to actually let her eat. "Actually, you know what? I would eat your dipped monstrosity if I'm wrong."

Ashley sighs, but she can't keep the smile from her face. "It's not that bad this time, oh my god. It's chocolate ice cream dipped in blueberry syrup. This is actually a normal combination for people who go out of their way to order more exciting cones then two scoops of chocolate." She leans forward and places her elbows on the table to support her head in her hands. "But I wanna see you do it anyway, so tell me exactly why you're so convinced that I wasn't reading."

Chris opens his mouth, but immediately closes it a second later, as though he didn't realize exactly what he had signed himself up for here until now. Ashley of course takes it as a sign of victory. "I knew it. So let's see this Chris, I wanna see you eat something that isn't—"

"When you read you get, like, super attentive." Chris's face is pink, and not looking at her but at the book on the table as he bashfully continues. "You become so drawn in to whatever you're reading that you ignore everything going on around you, because all of your attention is now on that book. Pretty sure a bomb could go off right next to you and you wouldn't even notice sometimes. And it's always so easy to tell what's happening in the book when you're reading too, cause your face is always so expressive. Like your eyes get big when something exciting or surprising happens, and when you're really enjoying whatever it is you're reading, you start giggling like a loon."

Ashley is too stunned and, quite frankly, her heart is beating too fast for her to even think of a proper response to that . She manages to squeak out a quiet little "oh, um" but Chris doesn't notice. Not when he's still babbling and not looking at her at all.

"But when you get deep in thought, you're not like that at all. All of your attention goes inward, and everything around you disappears cause all the important stuff is going on inside your head right now. Your mouth falls open just a little, sort of like you're gaping at all the information in front of you. And-and sometimes you'll mouth out what's going on inside your head as you try to fit the pieces of everything together so it's neat and tidy like a puzzle. And even though you have the, like, blankest stare imaginable, it's not empty at all if that makes any sense. Cause your eyes narrow and your forehead scrunches just the tiniest amount so you have a small little wrinkle form like right here—" with his unoccupied hand Chris points at the bridge of his nose right between his eyes "—and it's weirdly, insanely cute? But when you finally figure out the puzzle in your head, your face lights up like a kid on christmas morning and...and..." He lets his words trail off and stops awkwardly there, as though finally realizing exactly what he's been saying this entire time.

His face is almost beet red now, and Ashley is pretty sure hers is too. "Oh, uh, wow. I-I didn't realize you paid any attention to me when I was like that..."

Somehow his face only gets redder, and though he mumbles the words under his breath, Ashley can still make them out. "I'm always paying attention to you."

But not close enough attention it seems, she thinks sadly. If you did then you would have noticed something way more obvious than that. But she doesn't want to embarrass him anymore than he already is (then she already is), and she isn't sure what else she could possibly say that wouldn't be her blurting out that she likes him, so instead she pretends that she hadn't heard a single thing and wordlessly accepts the ice cream that he hands to her, accepting her defeat as she takes a small bite of the blueberry covered chocolate soft serve.

...The blueberry covered chocolate soft serve that he had bought for her. Or, you know, the ice cream he had paid for himself. Just like he had paid for everything today. Kind of like it was almost a, uh, date. Like he had taken her on a date.

Oh .

"Oh boy, let me guess: I was right and your ice cream really is a crime against taste buds?"

Ashley comes crashing back down to reality to see Chris, his face still a little red but the playful smile back on his face as he teased her. And yet, that only makes it worse as she can't help but feel the usual gymnastics routine the butterflies in her stomach perform at that particular smile, only they're a thousand times worse now that's she's realized exactly why today had felt so strange. And she can't help thinking how much everyone else would classify what was just a day hanging out with her best friend as a date. And how much she really, really wished it was one.

"Nope," she unfortunately squeaks out, and clears her throat so she can continue in a more normal tone of voice. "Nope, sorry to disappoint Chris, but the ice cream tastes fine." She takes another bite for proof (and to her credit she's not lying, it tastes more than fine). "Just, uh, realized something funny that's all." And the moment the words leave her mouth she realizes just how badly she's screwed everything up, because there is no way in any world that Chris Hartley is just going to let that comment lie.

"Funny? Oho, well now I'm interested. You mind sharing your glorious epiphany with the rest of the class Miss Brown?"

Taking another small taste of her ice cream, Ashley averts her gaze as she gives what she is kicking herself for is obviously an extremely forced laugh. "Did I say funny? I meant boring, just super boring actually."

"Well now I just want to hear it more."

"No, you don't. Trust me, you really, really don't."

Chris's brows furrow in concern. "Ash? You okay?"

She isn't, of course she isn't. She's now realized exactly what a date with Chris would be like, and it would be exactly like this. With them going to all the same place and doing the same things but she's allowed to hold his hand and kiss him when he does stupid sweet things like buying her the book she's been eyeing and talking about all day. She's never wanted something to be so true so badly in her life. And it's likely this thought in her mind that causes her to blurt out "A date." before she even realizes what she's said.

That only makes the confusion on Chris's face go deeper, which is appropriate considering she's sinking deeper and deeper into her chair in a futile effort to hide or escape as well. "What? Are you saying that you just remember what date it is today? Or that you had something you were supposed to do today instead? I'm not really following you right now Ash..."

This is perfect. It's the perfect excuse, she could laugh and say that she totally forgot what day it was and that she had an essay due pretty soon, or that she was supposed to babysit for a neighbour tonight. Anything really, the sky was quite literally the limit. And instead she just bit her lip and stared at the ice cream melting in her hand before weakly admitting "No, a, uh, date. As in, the romantic kind. I realized that today probably looks like a date to anyone else. Funny, huh?"

She's not sure how Chris would react to that. Maybe a startled laugh, and hand wave as he brushes her off. A scoff as he assures her that this definitely isn't a date, cause they're just friends and that's all they'll ever be. Whatever the reaction she expected, it was certainly not the fumbling for his ice cream as he nearly drops it in his shock, and how absolutely flustered he sounds as he trips over his own tongue. "W-what? I-I-I, uh—I mean, th-this obviously isn't—Who would even—? Wh-what would even give you the idea that we could um, possibly be on a date?"

Ashley shrugs weakly. "Isn't it obvious Chris?" She ignores his even more flustered babbling that no, he absolutely did not see what was so obvious as she continued on, still too nervous to look him in the eyes. "You've kind of paid for everything today."

"I wha—? I mean, no I haven't!"

"You kind of have, Chris. The theater?"

"You know I always pay for the tickets, and it would have just been really rude to make the line even longer!"

"The art show?"

"It was just a couple of toonies! And you saw the face of the worker there, they would have kicked us right out if they'd had to break a twenty. It was just easier."

"Lunch?"

"They-they'd had a special on for a two-person meal at that stall in the food court, and they wouldn't let each of us pay half..." he neglected to point out that Ashley could have easily paid for their lunch, and probably should have, but before she had been able to offer he'd already been swiping his debit card.

"The arcade?"

"Okay, that was my turn to buy the tokens, you know that. That one doesn't even count."

Ashley lifted her eyes from the ice cream to the book that sat menacingly and innocently all at one at the center of the table, it's pristine cover mocking her. "The book?"

"T-that was just a gift! You seemed really into it at the store and friends buy each other gifts all the time—"

There was no describing how soft and nervous her voice got as she asked the question that would put the final nail in the coffin. "The ice cream?"

"I, uh, it was just—um..." Chris let out a breath in a weak chuckle. "Shit, I guess I kind of did, huh?"

Ashley doesn't say anything, and neither does Chris, as the table goes silent. She's bracing herself  for when Chris inevitably shoots her down and confirms that it doesn't matter. That the two of them will never be anything more then friends and that she never should have hoped for anything more and by revealing this she's ruined their friendship for good—

"Hey, uh, Ash?" He sounds so nervous that it immediately takes Ashley out of her anxiety driven thoughts of doom and gloom, but she can't do anything more than just shakily nod to let him continue. "It's, uh, probably like a really, really, really stupid question but—" he takes a nervous breath "—did you want this to be a date?"

Her head immediately shoots up as she stares at him with wide eyes, her breath caught somewhere in her throat where her heart is currently lodged. She frantically rakes her eyes over Chris's face looking for any hint that he's mocking her, or playing some cruel joke on her and her feelings, but all she sees is just nervousness all over a pale, shaking face with what she thinks ( prays ) is a glimmer of undisguised hope. But it's still too much uncertainty, and she's too scared to risk it all on a mere glimmer that she is likely only imagining because she wants it so badly to be real, so she throws the question back at him instead.

"...would you have been opposed if this was actually a date?"

"Nuh uh, I asked you first."

Ashley realizes that he's just as scared at what the answer might be as she is. She wants to tell him, has wanted to tell him for years and years and years. And maybe this is the chance she's been waiting for her whole life. The two of them sitting at a sticky plastic table under the early evening sun, long forgotten ice cream melting in their hands, and she can finally tell him that she's had such a huge crush on him since she was twelve.

"Yeah." The word is less choked out than it is released. Like it's a breath of fresh air and she feels simultaneously lighter and heavier for it. "I-I think I would have liked that. I would have liked that alot."

Chris snaps his gaze up to meet hers, and the glimmer of hope that she had seen earlier has now nearly taken over his face at the disbelieving smile that's threatening to crack his face in two. "Really? I-I mean, uh, I would have been alright with the idea too. More than alright actually."

She can feel her own smile start to nervously match his, and then the first giggle breaks out. His own ecstatic laughter quickly follows her own until the two of them are both giddily laughing at the table, but too embarrassed and bashful to even look at each other now. The giggling abruptly cuts off when Chris lets out a yelp of surprise when he realizes how much of his ice cream has melted onto his hand and Ashley joins him in trying to finish off their ice cream before it's melted entirely. But there's definitely a change in the atmosphere around them now. The contentness and laid back ease that always formed between them whenever they hung out was still there, but there is a charge that hadn't been there before either. An excited anticipation that only surges higher and higher whenever Ashley shyly glances in Chris's direction to find he's looking at her with the same disbelieving smile beaming on his face.

They never say anything more about it as they both finish off the ice cream, but Ashley knows. With that little agreement, the entire day had changed. This wasn't just them hanging out as friends anymore, this was an actual, factual date now, pure and simple. So when Chris hands her a couple of extra napkins to clean herself off, she may have let her fingers brush against his for just a moment. The resulting blush and dumbstruck smile on his face when he cautiously took his hand back so he could clean up the rest of the mess on the table was oh so worth it. And when he returned from his trip to the garbage can and held out his hand as an offer to help her up from the chair, she accepted it readily.

Once she's back on her feet, the two of them drop their eyes to stare at their still clasped hands, realizing that they could easily hold hands the entire short walk back to Chris's truck if they wanted. And she does want that—horribly in fact—but it seems it's still a little too early for either of them to make that teeny tiny but monumental jump to hand holding so they let go awkwardly and slowly, letting their fingers linger against the others before letting go completely. As though giving themselves a taste of what may yet actually come to pass in the (hopefully) very near future.

The short walk back to the truck is filled with both anticipation and dread alike, but unusually silent. Ashley knows it's because she's now a buzzing ball of nervous energy, terrified that saying anything at all will shatter this dream that's apparently coming true before her eyes, but Chris is different. He looks more like he's trying to work up the courage to say or ask something, and is spending all his energy on that alone. So when he reaches out to open up the passenger side door for her, Ashley can feel her heart pick up speed when he stops with his hand on the door handle and looks at her nervously. His mouth opens and shuts a couple of times as he tries to work up the courage to say whatever it is he wants to say, and all she can do is stare at him expectantly as she struggles to hold back an excited smile.

"Hey, Ash, ca—nevermind. It's, it's stupid. Don't worry about it." A second later, he has the door opened for her and the moment she can't see his face, she lets her smile fall crestfallen. But only for a second before a polite one replaces it as thanks when he closes the door for her and continues to his side of the truck. It's fine, she supposes as she buckles herself in, while the two of them have been hanging out all day, it's only been an actual date now for barely ten minutes. And once he drops her off home in just another few short minutes it's going to be over. The fact that she even managed to get this far is franky mind blowing, so expecting anything more from her dreams would just be extremely selfish. She can't have everything she wants all at once, no matter how long she's been waiting for it.

The drive back to her place is also quiet, filled with only the droning of the radio playing in the background. Ashley's returned back to her book, but she knows that Chris knows that she's not absorbing a single word, hasn't turned a single page even. She keeps glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as he nervously taps at the steering wheel, and then tightening his grasp when it looks like he's going to say something, only to return to the nervous tapping when he inevitably backs out at the last second and returns to the frantic pep talk he's likely giving himself. The air that fills the vehicle is heavy and thick with anticipation and it's taking almost everything in Ashley to not start shaking the question out of Chris at every red light they stop at.

But, eventually, they pull up in front of her place and Chris stops the truck. There's a moment where the two of them just sit there, not wanting to leave because leaving means the end, and Ashley schools her face into a cheery smile in an effort to hide as much of the disappointment as she can when she turns to face him and bid him farewell, only to have it fall to confusion when he starts fumbling at his own seatbelt.

"Chris? What are you doing?"

He struggles further at it, frustrated that the buckle's apparently decided that now is the perfect time for it to stick once again. "Trying to get this fucking thing off."

"Yeah, I figured that much. But why are you trying to take it off, you're just gonna leave right away again anyway."

He slows his fumbling as cheeks start darkening in embarrassment. "I, uh, I just thought that was something you were supposed to do after a date, walk them to their door to stay goodnight. I mean, at least I think this is a date now? And, and only if you're okay with it! I can stay in here instead if you don't want me to. I was just hoping..."

The once forced cheery smile on her face is certainly not being forced any longer, if anything she's trying not to show how much the idea of Chris walking her to her door thrills her. "N-no!" Well, so much for trying not to show how desperately she wants that. The startled look he gives her at the unexpected outburst had her trying to control her voice into something less desperate, but considering she doesn't think she's ever going tame the frantic butterflies that have been flapping around non-stop in her stomach ever since the ice cream realization, she's probably doing a terrible job of it. "I-I mean if you want to, it's completely up to you after all..."

"Cool. Cool cool cool. Just, just give me a second." He continues to struggle with his seatbelt buckle, letting out more and more agitated curses escape the longer the thing continues to stick, and Ashley is getting the feeling that if he was able, Chris would have ripped the entire thing straight out of the seat by now. Broken safety laws and ensuing repair costs be damned. The moment he finally manages to unstick the traitorous buckle it's with a cry of victory and relief so exuberant that Ashley finds herself laughing in disbelief and awe that he had wanted to walk her the short ten or so feet to her front door that badly. Thankfully, for both of them, her seatbelt unclicks easily and much more quickly in comparison, only taking another couple of seconds to grab her bag from the footwell and joining him.

The far too short walk up to her door is over before either of them realize it. One second the two of them had been standing awkwardly and nervously by the truck as she fought the urge to reach out and grab his hand, and the next they're standing just as awkwardly and nervously (if not moreso) in front of the front door. Both of them waiting for the other to say or do something to break the tension, but cleanly aware that doing so would signal the very final end of the day, and the date. In fact, just knowing that Chris doesn't want this to end just as badly as her, is what gives her the courage to look at him with a surprisingly heartfelt and soft smile.

"Today was fun."

Chris lifts his eyes from where they had been staring at the dried leaves on the doorstep to match her smile. "Yeah. It was."

"And thanks. For the movie, and everything else." Ashley raises her hand to give the new and still shiny paperback a small wave. "And, you know, the book too. Of course."

"Yeah, it was no problem. Anytime." There's something with how he says the last bit—not really emphasizing it but making it clear all the same that he means 'anytime'—that causes her face to flush giddily as she pulls her lower lip in between her teeth in a weak effort to fight back against the ecstatic smile that forms anyway. And when she sees his eyes lower just a smidge to follow the motion and the way his shoulders stiffen in reaction, Ashley very quickly also finds she's trying (much more successfully) to hold herself  back from just saying 'to hell with it' and throwing her arms around Chris so she can finally kiss him silly and until they're both breathless. But considering that she's too much of a coward to initiate something as innocent as hand holding apparently, there is absolutely no way that something as...as scandalous as kissing him on her doorstep is ever going to happen. Clearly.

And yet, she gives Chris another few seconds to try and work past that blockade in his throat, but when he still can't muster a single word, she decides to just put the both of them out of their misery. Or further into it. It's probably just the same thing really. "I guess I'll see you next time. I'll talk to you later, okay?" She turns away and puts her hand on the doorknob, and tucks the book under her arm so she can dig into her bag for keys, but is stopped when Chris's hand abruptly snakes out and wraps itself firmly around her wrist before she can reach into the bag. And it works—boy does it ever —turning back to him and the hand wrapped around her wrist as excitement just starts to bubble up inside of her.

A second later though, his brain has apparently caught up with the movement he clearly hadn't intended to make, because his face goes beet-red and he's dropped her hand so he can shove both into the pockets of his jeans. He averts his eyes so he's back to staring at the loose gravel and dried leaves under their feet.

"Oh, uh, sorry about that. I didn't mean to..."

"It's fine, Chris." Ashley tries to smile softly at him in reassurance, but it's considering she's gripping the doorknob in an almost vice-like grip in anticipation, it's likely far more eager than she would like. "What is it?"

Somehow, his face goes even redder and he blurts out the question so fast that it may as well have been one word. "CanIkissyou?!"

Immediately, Ashley's gaping at him wide-eyed and her mouth open in shock as her heart's beating so fast that she's pretty sure it's ready to burst out of her chest at any moment. "Wha—"

"I-I mean goodnight. Can I kiss you goodnight? That's what people are supposed to do on dates, right? A-a-a-and I think we agreed that this is a date now, or at least I really, really hope we did. Cause I've wanted to go on a date with you for the longest time and-and-and I didn't want Saundra or-or-or any of your neighbours to see cause I know that would just really embarrass you and me but I've been trying to ask you for the past thirty minutes now cause I've wanted to kiss you since forever but I was scared about how you would react cause I really, really, really like you Ash and I just wanna to kiss you so fucking bad right now you have no idea and—"

Ashley would like to believe that she's brave enough to throw her arms around Chris and drag him down into that searing kiss she's been dreaming about forever and ever, but she doesn't. Even with a confession that is everything she's ever wanted to hear and more. That's not to say that she doesn't want to do it—god does she want to do it—but she's so frozen in place from shock that she physically can't. So instead she just continues to gape at him as he (adorably) rambles on and on, and giggles out an elated little "okay".

His nervous rambling stops dead in its tracks, and he finally looks back up at her, nervous relief evident all over his face. "Really? I mean, are you sure? I'd understand if you didn't want to—"

" Chris ."

That immediately shifts the relief to a different kind of nervousness entirely, one of excited disbelief, but even then neither move to actually initiate this promised kiss for several seconds. Instead just staring at each other waiting for the other to be the first to move, Chris with his hands still in his jeans pockets and Ashley glued to the doorknob with her other hand frozen as it hovers over her bag. Finally, Chris is the first to slowly bend down to meet her awkwardly half turned body, and she unsteadily tries to rock herself onto the tips of her toes without losing her balance completely and falling over. And still, they both pause about an inch away from each other's faces, though whether to give the other an out if needed or just to work through the logistics of how to do this exactly without their foreheads or noses smashing into each other or Chris's glasses getting in the way is anyone's guess.

But finally, mainly due to the fact that Ashley can't lean forward anymore without falling completely on her face, Chris closes that final bit of distance and kisses her. It's a nervous brush of the lips really—a quick peck at best —but they jolt back from each other so quickly that the single action may as well have activated some hidden magnetic repel function that neither had been aware of until this moment. Both of them are staring at each other wide-eyed and breathless as the magnitude of what they had both finally managed to accomplish hit them. The kinda-sort confession and the almost hand holding meant absolutely nothing in comparison to this. Those she could have (and would most likely have) brushed off as her reading too much into innocent statements and gestures when she thought over everything that had happened today in the safety of her room later tonight. But this? This was physical proof .

Looking back, Ashley's not sure which of them moved first. One second they had been staring at each other in disbelief, stuck in the same awkward bent and leaning stature from before, and the next it's as if the magnetic attraction between them reverses its flow entirely. Chris is cupping her cheek with one hand as he kisses her in the way she always dreamed he would, his other hand slowly skating across the back of her neck so he can pull her up closer to him. The book that had once been clutched protectively under her arm was completely forgotten about—fallen to the ground with a sharp crunch as it crushed the dried leaves beneath their feet—as her arms wrapped possessively around his shoulders as she props herself as high as the tips her toes will allow her. She can still taste a hint of the chocolate from earlier on his lips, and the small part of her that isn't being blown away by all of this is wondering if he can taste the blueberry and chocolate on hers as well.

She's not sure how long the two of them stood there on her doorstep, kissing for all the world to see, but she does know that they still separate much, much too soon for her liking. Not that they fully separate of course. She may be back on the soles of her feet, but neither of them have removed themselves from the embrace itself. And with the way that Chris is lightly brushing his thumb over her cheekbone as he just stares at her with the same stupidly giddy grin she's got, Ashley would be perfectly fine if they could just stay standing like this forever.

"So..." she starts, and stops to take a moment to giggle when Chris bumps his nose into hers. "I think that was a perfectly acceptable first date if you ask me."

Chris doesn't let go of her when he leans back to consider her, the comically raised eyebrows in shock doing nothing to take away from the absolutely thrilled beam of his smile. " First date? Why Miss Brown, are you perhaps asking me out for a second one already?"

"I mean, if it's not too presumptuous of me, I suppose I am. I-if you're not opposed to it of course." She can't help the way her nervousness starts to bleed through with that last sentence, already panicking that she's somehow completely misread everything that's just happened and that maybe that kiss didn't mean as much to him as it did to her after all.

His next words completely derail those fears entirely. "Of course I'm not, I would love nothing more than to go on a second date with you. Followed by a third and fourth and even a fifth if you have the time for it."

"I mean, I'm a pretty busy girl but I think I can open up as many days in my schedule as it takes if I need to."

Before she knows it, the two of them are leaning in for another kiss when the sound of pot being dropped in the nearby kitchen through the open window jarringly brings them back to reality and the two of them let go of each other red faced and embarrassed. Oh no, how much of this had her mother heard? Or worse, saw? She wants to leave the doorstep (which is rapidly becoming her favourite place in the whole entire world) even less now, but the longer she takes the worse the excited interrogation from Saundra will be so she starts digging back into her bag to try and find her keys once again.

"I'll text you later, okay? And, maybe, we can talk some more about that second date...?"

The reply from Chris is flustered but eager. "Yeah, totally. I-I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Cool. And um, the next one's one me. The date that is. It's only fair after all."

"Yeah, right. Only fair. Totally. And, uh, your book..."

She finally finds her keys from where they had sunk to the bottom of her bag, and looks up at him and the paperback book that had fallen during their, uh, intimate embrace. "Oh! Uh, right. Thanks." She could easily leave it at that, but the last few minutes have made her bold so when she reaches out to take the book back from him, Ashley curls her fingers over his and bounces onto the balls of her feet so she can give him one last kiss on his cheek—almost the corner of his mouth really—before finally stepping back with the book and keys in her hand. "I mean it. Thanks . For everything."

"Yeah. No problem. It was my pleasure."

She lets herself have one last glimpse of the stupefied grin on his face just as he turns to walk just a little unsteadily down the path back to his truck. The only sounds being the leaves crushing underfoot and the jangle of metal as she sticks her keys into the door to finally unlock it. A sound that it quickly interrupted by not only the click of the door unlocking, but a muffled shout.

Alarmed, she turns quickly expecting to see Chris having accidentally shut his coat into the door as he is sometimes known to do when the weather gets colder, but instead watches in elated shock as he continues to keep energetically flapping his arms and fist pumping into the air and screaming what she can vaguely make out as 'yesyesyesyesYESYESYES' over and over again.

Suddenly it hits her. Despite the shy confession over ice cream, and then the much more rushed and rambled one only minutes ago, and followed by the kiss(es) that are still sending her heart into rapid fire, Ashley still hadn't believed what all the evidence had been saying. Chris liked her. He really, really liked her. Possibly as much as she liked him even! This wasn't just a one-off event that would now make things awkward between them for the rest of their lives. This was happening. They'd just had a first(!!!!) date and after Chris had kissed her goodbye, she had asked him out for a second one.

And he had accepted .

Ashley fumbled with the door and the moment she was in the house, slammed the door behind her, not even bothering to lock it. She let her bag fall from her shoulder to the floor with a soft thump and slowly slid down the door until she was sitting against it with her eyes wide and breathless. She ignored the surprised clatter coming from the kitchen as Saundra immediately dropped whatever it was she had been doing in and held up the book so she could stare at the once innocuous cover in amazement.

He had bought her this book and the ice cream because he liked her and he had gladly and excitedly accepted to go out on another date with her. And even more if he had been serious about that third date and beyond line.

And not that either would ever know it, Ashley mirrored Chris at that exact moment by placing her head into her hands and screaming as the built up joy and bliss finally exploded out of her.