#Tim: yeah yeah Stockholm could work | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

flyingkiki · 4 years ago

Text

I Secretly Enjoy Trashy Books

Oh, boy, oh boy. Because I promised you a #TimRae 2021 Year of Smut and Steam, here is this hot piece of something.

ENJOY! *fans self*

Raven liked buying trashy books. And she was the least bit embarrassed over her dirty reading choices when Tim Drake-Wayne caught her leaning over a pile of trashy books that simply reeked of trash at an art festival in Star City.

Raven wasn’t sure if she spotted Tim Drake-Wayne at the art festival in Star City until she did a double take and watched the man bend over some fancy cutlery embellished with shiny stones and copper wires a couple of stalls down. Casually dressed in a pair of dark grey chino shorts and a white band shirt with a worn Gotham Knights baseball hat, Raven assumed he tried to blend into the summer festival crowd. She watched him push his Rey-Ban’s up his nose and wondered if that was even possible, given how popular the man really was as CEO of Wayne Enterprises. The stall owner talked to Tim with gusto, shoving some sparkly spoons under his nose, and Raven was sure the old man seemed to recognize Tim.

“You gonna buy that lady?”

Raven blinked and turned back to the elderly woman selling old photographs from 1920. “Oh, yeah.” Raven breathed and looked down at the selection of old photos of women dressed in fur and slinky dresses in her hand. She had no particular knowledge in photography, but the old black and white photographs were pretty to look at. Picking two photographs of an attractive couple dressed glamorously for a party, and a mysterious woman in a fur coat, she showed them to the lady with a small smile. “Here,” she said and handed over her money to the woman.

After stuffing the two photographs into a small manila envelope the woman handed to, Raven looked back to the cutlery stall and wondered if Tim Drake was still there, getting sidled into buying forks he may never be able to use. Much as she had expected, Tim was already gone. Probably off inspecting other embellished kitchenware, if that seemed to have become his thing.

“Thanks,” Raven smiled at the woman and ducked out of her tent. She immediately regretted that decision and internally groaned as the blazing summer sun beat down her back. Star City was hot and muggy. It was wrong for her to wear dark blue today – no matter if it was a crop top. The material was accumulating heat and sticking to her back. She could feel her ponytail stick to her neck. Ugh.

Despite the blistering heat, the festival was alive with live music blasting from the center of Star City Central Park. The park was filled with a good number of people, visiting stalls and tents that sold books, paintings, knickknacks, and a wide array of food. While Jump had a similar art festival annually, she discovered a few years back that Star City had a far more well curated festival. There were a couple of painters from whom she’d get buy small paintings from. At night it turns into a music festival, which on occasion Raven would attend.

Heading over to one of the bookstands, Raven idly browsed through some old and beaten copies novels. Raven snorted as the selection seem to lean more on the trashy romance novels as pictures of barely clothed women and men’s hips draped in starchy white blankets looked up at her. She quickly discovered that the selection was largely all about raunchy romance, she mentally shrugged and picked one. A book was a book, no matter how trashy it was. Starfire would love this anyway. The burly man on the book cover, who of course looked like Fabio, had a woman dressed in a windswept lace dress draped over his muscular arm. Raven scrunched her nose in amusement.

“How much for this book?” she held up the image of Fabio to the elderly stall keeper. She wasn’t sure what the book was about, but a trashy sex book was a trashy sex book.

“A dollar,” the man told her and pointed at the sign over their heads.

Raven returned his amused smile and nodded. “Right,” she said and momentarily dropped the book back on the pile that screamed of sex and trash. As she fished through her bag to pull out her wallet, another person came up to the stall. Raven immediately recognized the aura and pointedly ignored the amusement that rolled off of him.

Handing over a dollar to the stall owner, she smiled softly. “Here you go, thanks!”

“I didn’t know you were into these, Rachel,” teased Tim, as he snatched the book from the pile before she could get it back. He led her out of the stall and threw her an amused grin.

“‘Love blossoms in the storm. Young, innocent, Violet is the secret in releasing the kingdom from a decade-long draught. Prince Rolf, the lord of thunder, has every intention to bring Violet to their nuptial bed. Their passion of love and hate releases a storm so violent, that brings life back to the kingdom’,” Tim read aloud and his brows furrowed. “That makes no sense.”

Raven rolled her eyes and snagged her book out of Tim’s hands. She ignored the amused chuckle and that familiar press of emotions and roughly shoved the book into her messenger bag. “When do trashy novels make sense?”

Tim stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “I’m just worried over poor Violet. Sounds like the makings of a Stockholm Syndrome,”

Raven made a face as they walked through past stalls. “At the expense of bringing rain back to the kingdom,” she added.

“I wonder how they’ll bring back rain from the nuptial bead,” Tim laughed, as they rounded the corner and entered an area filled with stalls of paintings for sale.

Raven snorted as she idly looked at some of the contemporary paintings on display. “I’ll let you know once Kori and I are done reading it,”

“Don’t hold back on the sordid details,” said Tim, as they bent over a painting of a square orange. Raven threw him an amused look, eyes twinkling. There it was, that familiar press of curious emotions as she watched him grin down at a painting of a shoe. “Sure,” Raven’s lips quirked. “I’ll tell you all of Prince Rolf’s deeds of deflowering young virgins,”

Tim snorted very gracefully. They moved on to the next stall and Raven threw him a curious glance. “What brings you to Star City?”

“I had a meeting at Queen Consolidated this morning. Working on a merger for a biotech project,” Tim explained. He held up a small painting of a sad green unicorn and showed it to Raven. “Thought I’d check this out and forget all the science and money talk for a bit,”

Raven took the painting out of his hands and returned it to the table of other oddly colored animals while shaking her head in amusement. “Don’t you have a report to write or something?”

“I live to inflict pain on myself and write out the report and proposal at the last minute tomorrow morning,” Tim chuckled. He shrugged when Raven sent him an incredulous look. “There’s not much to write about. I sent Bruce and Lucius an email before I got here,” he said while following Raven towards a new stall. “What brings you to Star City?”

Raven eyed an abstract painting curiously. Red, green, and yellow paint splattered all over a black canvas. “I come here every year,” she replied. “Dick knows I take a leave for a couple of days for this. The art festival here is much better than the one we have in Jump,”

“So this is your…”

“Second day,” supplied Raven. “I’m going back to Jump on Sunday. I like the music festival at night. I usually buy one or two paintings here too,”

“And some very raunchy novels,” Tim grinned.

“Hah!” Raven wrinkled her nose in a way that Tim thought was adorable. “Especially those,”

Tim looked around the stalls, trying to find any painting that was interesting. “Is there anything you are particularly looking for?”

Raven shrugged. “Not really,” she replied. Walking up to a stall that sold flower paintings, she spotted a painting of a white calla lily against a black and purple background. Engaging in quick small talk with the stall owner and discovering the young woman painted the work, Raven was set in buying the painting. “I’d like to buy this,”

Tim watched as Raven continued talking to the stall owner, Nora, and proceeded to pay for the painting. As the artist handed over the canvas, he stepped up to Raven and easily took the medium-sized canvas from Nora. “I got it,” he said, throwing a quick smile at Raven.

“Oh, thanks,” Raven thanked Tim. Nodding at the artist, she smiled at the woman and offered her thanks. Walking up to Tim, she quickly shot him a curious look. “I could take that from you if it’s too much of a bother,”

Tim gently tucked the medium-sized canvas under his arm and nodded for them to continue walking. “It’s no big deal,” he waived her off.

They continued walking around the park while idly talking about the festival and teasing each other every so often. As the Teen Titans quickly outgrew their Teen moniker and became the Titans, Raven and the rest of the team had taken on larger missions with the Justice League and other teams. She had worked and met with Tim and the rest of the Bat family on several occasions, Dick and Kori’s wedding most recently. Raven had quickly learned that Tim was quite easy to talk to, extremely smart, and kindhearted. His emotions were tumultuous just as any other of the Bats, but this was something Raven had gotten used to. They easily settled into conversations. She did admit, that his soft press of emotions against her were surprising, something she was unsure of still how to settle with – but she was not complaining. It was nice.

“You know as much as I like going around the festival and checking out weird art, I’m getting really thirsty,” Tim threw her an amused look. “Also very sweaty, Star City’s heat is unforgiving,”

Raven wrinkled her nose, suddenly all too aware of how she felt and looked. Pushing her sweaty black hair away from her neck, she nodded. “There’s a café out of this exit we could get something cold to drink and get out of the heat for a bit,” she said, pointing towards the exit up ahead.

“Lead the way,” Tim followed the small Titan out of the park.

They settled in a small café just around the corner, tucked away from the bustle of festival goers. Sighing loudly in relief as they entered the air conditioned café, they made quick work of ordering drinks.

“WHY are you did you order hot coffee, didn’t you just say that it was too hot outside?!” Raven sent Tim a bewildered look as they settled into one corner of the café. Tim laughed as he gingerly set her painting on a steel chair across of them. He settled down next to her around the small wooden table.

Tim shrugged and tugged at the collar of his shirt, trying to circulate some air. “Force of habit,” he said and stretched a bit, muscles still sore from last night’s patrol and work out this morning. After the waitress dropped off their drinks and cake to share, Tim pulled off his sunglasses and rubbed some sweat off his face. “Ugh,”

Raven carefully pressed the large glass of unsweetened cold green tea against her cheek and sighed softly. Tim titled his head towards her and watched her in mild amusement as she leaned over their small table and pressed the cold drink against her cheek. He silently mused how different this Raven was from the 16-year-old he met years ago. His gaze followed the trickle of condensation that slipped down her cheek and neck, before quickly looking back up at her blissful expression. A brief thought crossed his mind before blinking and stowing it away. “Better?”

Raven lazily cracked open her eyes and eyed him mildly. “Much,” she breathed before straightening and taking a sip through her metal straw.

“I didn’t know you were into art,” Tim said and leaning back into his seat, stretching his legs a bit. Settling for some small talk, he eyed the painting before curiously turning to Raven. “Any particular style you like?”

Raven made an absent noise in the back of her throat and shrugged. “I enjoy collecting art from local artists. I like supporting their work, I think it’s important we support local artists in their craft,” she replied. Propping her chin on her right hand, she cast her new painting a quick glance. “I’m not well versed with paintings, but I like modernism and impressionism. Surrealism and expressionism too. I honestly just enjoy the pieces, no matter the style.”

Tim nodded and hummed in acknowledgement. “Bruce has a lot of impressionist paintings back at the manor. Most of them from his parents and grandparents,” he said. “Gotham Museum keeps a big collection of Monet paintings. You should check those out if you haven’t yet,”

There it was again, that pleasant press of emotions that made Raven smile just lightly. She tilted her head in acknowledgement and smiled at him. “Sure. I’ve never been to the Gotham Museum,”

“Let me know when you’re in town. I could take you there,”

Raven snorted playfully. “Aren’t you too busy running Wayne Enterprises?”

“Nah,” Tim waived her off and fiddled with his coffee mug. “I could make time for you.”

There was a soft pause between them and Raven looked up at Tim, tilting her head in slight wonder and taking in his warm emotions. She blinked and the corner of her lips raised into a smile as she caught his gaze. They shared a smile. “Okay then.”

Ignoring the warmth that spread through him, Tim hastily took a sip of his hot coffee to keep himself (and his wandering thoughts) busy. Wincing slightly at the scalding liquid, he nodded towards Raven’s new painting. “Why’d you pick that?”

“Calla Lilies are my favorite flowers,” replied Raven and fiddled with the cold metal straw.

“Oh?”

Raven shrugged in response and absently tapped the crude drawing of a dick on the table. “Yeah. When I was younger, my mother brought some to Azarath once when she went on a quick trip to Earth. I liked them. We did not have calla lilies on Azarath,” she explained.

“They mean purity and innocence, I learned,” continued Raven. She quirked her lips a little at the irony. “And apparently they mean death too.” She hummed absently and shot him an amused glance. “Seems pretty appropriate flower to have as a favorite, all things considering.” She straightened in her seat and titled her head. “And it symbolizes fertility too,”

Tim made an amused sound in the back of his throat and squinted at the painting. “Well, it does look like…”

“A vagina?”

He was going to say a heart. But yeah, she was right. It did look like a vagina. Tim released a breathy laugh and smiled, ignoring the pleasant warm feeling that spread in his chest. Leaning back and catching his breath, he stared at the painting with a mixture of confusion and amusement. He shot Raven a torn look. “I cannot un-see this now.”

Raven shrugged. “Well it’s true,”

She felt Tim’s amused emotions and she offered him a small smile. She was about to continue when soft guitar music filled the air. Their attention shifted to the small stage in the corner of the café and a singer with a guitar appeared on stage. An upbeat guitar song filled the café and everyone’s attention shifted towards the stage. Sharing a brief glance, they both turned their attention the musician.

The café grew just a little dimmer as the upbeat song filled the air, something about happiness and summer heat, and Raven could feel the relaxed emotions of the crowd. Getting comfortable after some relief from the heat, she leaned back into her seat. Stealing a quick glance at Tim, she felt his content aura. They settled into a comfortable silence, listening to the musician up on stage. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Tim relax – a rather rare sight. Dick had previously told her he had been worrying over Tim working himself to the bone with cases and work as CEO at WE. Raven did notice his driven work ethic the times the Titans had to work on cases in Gotham. Tim was a slave-driver on himself.

Midway into the third (or fourth, Raven wasn’t really keeping track) song, a young boy sidled up to their table carrying a bunch of paper flowers. She noticed the boy earlier moving from table to table when they entered the café. “Hey mister!” he called their attention. Tim turned to the boy curiously.

The boy held up a bunch of his colorful paper flowers – roses, carnations, daisies – a few lopsided, but still intricately made. “You want to buy your girlfriend some flowers?”

Raven blinked and colored immediately. She leaned forward and tried to waive her hand in dismissal. “We’re not –”

“Yeah, sure,” Tim smoothly cut her off and leaned towards the boy. Ignoring her bewildered expression, he fished out his wallet from his pocket. “How much are they, buddy?”

“Three bucks each,”

“Great,” Tim pulled out a 20 and handed it to the boy. The boy raised the bunch of flowers towards Tim, who pulled out the lopsided yellow rose, a pink dahlia, and the green daisy. “Keep the change,” he waived off the boy as he tried to fish for change in his pocket.

The boy, who looked around 12 years old, blinked and stared at Tim in awe. “Really mister?” at Tim’s nod, he beamed. “Thank you, mister!” he gasped before scampering away towards another table.

“Here,” Tim handed the three flowers to Raven, who accepted them with a surprised look on her face. “They’re a bit wonky but I figured it’d be better we got these since I doubt others might be interested in buying them from him,”

Of course he had to do something nice. Something warm spread through her chest and Raven fought off a blush. She absently fiddled with a paper leaf. “You didn’t correct him,” she said with an accusing tone.

Tim shrugged his shoulder absently. He gave her an amused grin. “I’m pretty sure he did not recognize me. He’s definitely too young to be a gossip column writer. I doubt he knows what TMZ is,” he teased. He eyed the flowers briefly before looking at her curiously. “Do you like them?”

She felt the familiar warm press of his emotions. Leaning into his space just a little bit, Raven offered a him a small pleased smile. “Thank you, boyfriend.”

Tim laughed, eyes bright and amused at her teasing. Raven enjoyed how his emotions pressed into her. “You’re welcome, girlfriend.”

They stayed at the café for another few hours, enjoying the music and talking about random interests. When the sun was slowly setting and the heat was not as unforgiving as before, they left the market and returned to the fair for another quick look around the place.

Raven ended up buying one more painting, a small scene of pink cherry blossoms, claiming that Kori would like it.

“Where are you staying?” asked Tim after Raven paid for her latest painting and they were mindlessly walking past booths. It was getting dark and he was getting hungry, perhaps it was a good idea to drop off all her things. “Do you want to grab something to eat?”

Raven blinked, mildly aware that she was hungry. But with the paintings they were carrying, it didn’t seem like a good idea to grab anything at the fair. “I’m at the Grand just by the West exit of the park. I can drop the paintings off,” she said and raised her free hand to grab the painting Tim was holding.

“C’mon, I’ll walk you. It’s no big deal,” Tim waived her off and started walking towards the west exit. “I saw a Thai restaurant close by, we could go there after we drop off your humongous shopping haul,”

“Hey,” Raven frowned at Tim. “My shopping is not humongous,”

“You bought two paintings, Rachel,” Tim teased. “I think you were about to buy another too,”

“I was not,”

Tim grinned. “I saw you eyeing that small painting of a teacup,” He eyed her curiously. “How are you even going home with this many paintings?”

“I have my ways,” Raven rolled her eyes.

Tim knew what she meant and just chuckled. They made it to the hotel and politely declined help from hotel staff. Raven stole a curious glance at Tim as they entered the elevator and she swiped her room card on the sensor and pressed her floor number. She silently thought what a surprise this day turned out to be.

They made it to her floor and reached her room with little distractions. Opening the door for them, Raven switched on the lights.

“Come on in,” Raven said, throwing an amused smile at him before depositing the small painting, her paper flowers, and her bag on the large TV console table. Toeing off her shoes, she sighed in relief and padded towards the balcony to open it.

“Fancy hotel,” Tim commented after placing the large calla lily painting on the other end of the table. He idly walked around, taking in the large hotel room with the modern furnishings and the dim lights. He watched Raven pull aside the curtains of the large balcony glass doors and open the doors to allow a comfortable breeze to slip into the room.

“It’s the least I can do to get a good vacation from living with boys for all these years,” replied Raven as she moved onto the balcony and leaned on the railing to look down.

“That bad?” Tim chuckled and joined Raven on the balcony. He stood next to her and his eyes widened at the sprawling sight of the park down below them. “Oh wow, that’s an excellent view,” he commented. “You got a better view than my place,”

Raven blinked, surprised. She imagined he’d have a far better place than hers. “Where are you staying?”

“We have a WE apartment a block away from here,” Tim supplied. He pointed towards the other end of the park. “Right by the business center,” he shrugged his shoulders absently. “I get a good view of the business district, nothing as nice as this. I’ll probably book a stay here the next time I have to come by,”

“Do you always travel for work?” Raven asked curiously. She always wondered how Bruce and Tim balanced their day jobs and vigilante life. Richard was largely hands off from the business and kept most of his time either at the tower or helping out the local police force.

Tim placed his elbows on the railing and leaned forward a bit, enjoying the warm summer breeze they were getting. He stared at the lights and movements pensively down below. “Once in a while. It’s usually for large business acquisitions or other boring stuff,” he shrugged. “CEO work has me more at the office these days,”

“I was always curious how you guys get to balance your work at WE and your,” Raven paused and tried to find the right words. She titled her head and smiled up at him in amusement. “Night job?”

Tim chuckled. “A lot of coffee, no sleep, and painkillers?”

Raven made a face and snorted. “Sounds terrible,”

He shrugged. After years of living this kind of lifestyle and working as CEO since he was a teenager, Tim didn’t really mind as much anymore. “It isn’t as bad as it sounds. There are days off, though rare and in between,”

“Like now?”

She felt that familiar soft press of emotions again as the mood shifted ever so slightly just as a warm breeze settled on them. She watched Tim smile softly as he continued to stare at the people down below. “Yeah,” he said softly. Tilting his head in her direction he offered her a warm smile. “How do you spend your day at the Tower?”

Raven hummed and looked thoughtful. “Nothing really as exciting as business mergers,” she said and she could see Tim out of the corner of her eyes slowly in amusement. She leaned over the balcony railing and watched the busy festival below. “I don’t think there’s a lot going on for Rachel Roth outside of work,” she made a face. “I read most of the time,”

“Raunchy novels?” Tim teased, grinning at her and leaning into her space just a little bit.

Raven chuckled. “Especially those,” her blue eyes danced. “I help Victor with some upgrades on our vehicles. I’ve become very good at fixing rocket boosters and particle beams,” she said. “Also, I can change oil,” she said teasingly. “Let me know if you need your oil changed,”

Tim laughs. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“There’s really nothing else. I go to festivals like these once in a while, or a café,” she said.

“Didn’t you finish college recently?” Tim asked curiously. At her surprised look, he continued. “Dick mentioned you finished a history degree?”

“History and Literature,” supplied Raven, surprised that Tim even knew this. “I finished last year. Took classes at Jump University, but did most of the coursework online, because crime fighting keeps tight schedule,”

“Sounds pretty amazing to me,” Tim said with an impressed note in his voice. “Juggling school and ‘work’ is tough,”

Raven hummed in agreement. Looking down she watched lights blink from the festival and distant music fill the air. “Looks like the music festival is starting,”

Tim looked down briefly before turning to Raven. “Did you want to go back down? You said you liked the music festival,”

Raven ignored how nice it felt that Tim actually paid attention to what she said earlier. Her chest warmed and she nodded. “Sure,” she said. “Maybe grab something at the Thai place first though, I’m hungry,”

Tim laughed and followed her back into the room. He watched her close the balcony door. “I was hoping you’d say that. I’m famished,”

They wound up sharing a large order of pad Thai, some tom yum, and sticky rice. Tim discovered Raven had a sweet tooth after ordering a Thai milk tea to go just before they headed to the outdoor music area. The crowd wasn’t all to large but seemed very much alive and into the music from the indie rock band up on stage, with people cheering, dancing, and jumping up and down in time with the music. The two of them shuffled through the crowd, barely hearing each other over the loud bass and guitar riffs. With her free hand, Raven grabbed Tim’s wrist and steered them towards the side of the crowd, close enough to the stage but with some distance from the thick center of the audience.

Tim stared at the stage, unable to recognize the music or the group of men with full beards and tie-dye shirts on stage. The music was fun, with a rocky edge to it, though he barely could hear the lyrics over the loud bass. The crowd did not seem to mind as everyone cheered and danced to the music. Awkwardly stuffing his hands into his pockets, Tim glanced at Raven and grinned as she bobbed her head to the music and lightly swayed to the beat. A smile played on her lips and Tim watched as the lights of the large LED screens reflected on her face and made her eyes sparkle. He ignored how his chest fluttered at the sight.

“Do you even understand what they’re singing?” Tim asked, raising voice over the loud inaudible singing. He had to lean into her, drawing closer just so she could hear him. There was a loud guitar riff and people screamed in delight. Tim watched as Raven laughed and turned her face to him, unfazed at the close proximity, her eyes bright in amusement. Tim felt his breath catch.

“No!” Raven replied and bounced on her heels. Her milk tea sloshed dangerously in her plastic cup and some spilled over her hand. She took a careful sip and looked at him, still swaying to some random song. “Does it matter?”

“Well, yeah?” Tim laughed, delighted to see this side of her. He watched her glance over his shoulder, taking in the happy crowd close to them. He shuffled closer as some concert goers brushed past him. Tim watched as Raven glanced at him, lips curling into a small smile before turning back to the stage and lightly swaying to the music, her dark hair flying behind her back. Tim released soft chuckle and turned to the stage, silently surprised at Raven’s interest in loud music.

The band shifted to some kind of chanting and clapping, to which the crowd replied in gusto. Tim thought the band was rather eclectic and awkwardly clapping along, lest he looked out of place. Raven stood in front of him, lightly swaying and clumsily slapping her wrist to the beat while juggling her half-empty milk tea cup. Tim thought this was definitely a sight and he grinned, finally getting just a little bit into the music.

They stayed like that, swaying and bouncing to the music. Raven occasionally raised her hands clumsily when the rest of the crowd did too. Tim laughed and joined when she turned to him to do the same. At a particular upbeat song, which again, they barely understood, the crowd went wild and everyone was jumping and dancing.

“C’mon!” she yelled, tugging Tim’s arm and bouncing on her heels. He laughed and quickly joined her. They could figure out the actual lyrics to the songs later.

He glanced at Raven, drinking in her amused face and the bounce in her movements. She caught his gaze and they shared a long smile, both caught in the moment. As the music shifted to another song, Raven squeezed his hand and slowly let go, she kept close this time, gently pressing into Tim’s side and swaying to the music. Instinctively, Tim placed his hand on her shoulder and stole a glance at her, watching as the corners of her lips quirked into another smile. Turning back to the stage, Tim felt that familiar flutter in his chest and smiled.

“Opfh!”

Someone accidently bumped into Raven’s side and they barely registered who it was and what exactly happened. Raven jumped as some of the milk tea spilled out of the cup and slid down her side. “Ugh,” she breathed, and tried to swipe some off he shorts and her crop top.

Tim steadied her, watching her shake off some tea from her hand. “You good?” he asked, keeping close to her ear.

Raven looked up, briefly surprised at the close proximity, before offering him a small smile and nodding. “Yeah, just sticky,” she said.

They stayed at the concert until it ended at a little before midnight. They joined the crowd as they trickled out of the concert arena. Raven laughed as Tim commented that his knees were starting to hurt from all the bouncing around. (“Getting old Mr. Wayne?” Raven teased.)

“Did you like the concert?” Raven asked as they left the concert area. They passed a garbage can and she dropped her empty milk tea cup in it.

Tim leaned in and teasingly grinned at her. “I’m sorry, what was that? The deafening bass guitar busted my hearing,” he said, raising his voice just a little bit.

Raven rolled her eyes and nudged him away with her shoulder. “Okay, I honestly did not understand a thing too,” she said, voice still a little bit raised from the deafening music earlier.

Brushing his sweaty hair out of his face, Tim glanced at her. “It was fun. I honestly cannot remember the last time I ever went to a concert that did not require formalwear,” he said and beamed as Raven laughed. “I didn’t know you liked concerts, let alone bands with terrible sound engineering,”

Raven laughed and rolled her eyes at the jab at the band. They stopped at traffic light as they headed back to her hotel. “Kori loves them. I tag along with some of the girls. I’m honestly surprised that I actually enjoy going to some,” she said. She glanced at the red stoplight before turning to a curious Tim. “After the whole ordeal with my father, it’s nice to indulge in emotions once in a while. Though, it’ll be a while before I’ll ever go to a crowded place again,” she added.

Tim nodded in understanding. This also explained her open emotions. He silently wondered if he could see this side more of her – he would love to see more of this open side of her. The light switched to green. As they approached her hotel, they lightly discussed the band’s songs and blindly tried to guess the lyrics.

“I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure the song did not go ‘flying turtled ‘yo back,’” Tim laughed as they stopped in front of the hotel’s entrance.

Dark blue eyes danced in delight. “Well, I could be wrong. But it definitely did,” Raven said.

“I’ll make sure to be on the lookout for this song on the radio then,” Tim teased.

They shared a smile, staring at each other momentarily before realizing that they had made it to their stop. Tim inhaled softly, awkwardly wondering if this was already goodbye. He wondered if there would be other chances to see Raven again.

“I had a fun today,” Tim said finally and offered Raven a gentle smile. Shuffling slightly in his spot, Tim thought perhaps they could go see each other again, maybe in Gotham? Or in Jump? The drive to Jump wasn’t all too bad.

“Yeah, me too. I had fun,” Raven breathed, suddenly flustered and just a tiny bit breathless. Her body was still buzzing from the high of a good time spent together, and somewhere in the warmth and high, she enjoyed Tim’s presence. She felt that familiar press of emotions from him, lingering around her. A thrill ran down her spine. Catching his long stare, she smiled. “Thanks for today, Tim,”

Tim returned her smile and nodded. “Yeah,” he breathed. Admittedly, Tim did not want this night to end. Because, there were so many discoveries and revelations – and he definitely wanted to know more about her. But perhaps at another time. “Well, good night. I’ll see you again?”

An open invitation. Her stomach fluttered and she nodded. “Yeah,” she breathed. Swallowing, she briefly glanced at the hotel’s entrance before turning back to Tim. She blinked and threw caution in to the window, heart suddenly in her throat and a tingle ran down her spine. “Actually, do you want to come up?”

Tim raised his eyebrows in surprise and watched Raven shift under his gaze, a tentative smile playing on her lips. He blinked and swallowed at the open invitation and what it held. A nervous jolt ran through his body as he thought of the possibilities and he quickly dismissed the images that came to mind. Inhaling softly and ignoring how breathless he felt suddenly, Tim smiled gently down at her. “Yeah,” he said. “Sure.”

Raven wordlessly nodded, her smile growing just a fraction, before ducking her head and leading the way into the hotel. Tim followed her into the hotel, silently crossing the lobby with her and joining her in the elevator. The elevator ride was filled with a heavy silence and Raven silently wondered if she felt her own nerves and Tim’s as she heard her heart beat loudly in her chest.

Their heavy silence was broken by the loud automatic lock of her hotel room door as it closed behind Tim. At the noise, Raven glanced at Tim, who in turn curiously looked back at her. As the silence settled again over them, Raven’s lips quirked into an amused smile. Funny how an afternoon of long conversations led to this moment of silence. Sensing her amusement over the situation, Tim offered a gentle smile in return.

“Do you want something to drink?” Raven asked, tearing away from Tim’s gaze as she suddenly grew warm again. She blinked and turned towards the mini fridge, wondering if there was anything to drink at all. Not really waiting for a reply, she pulled open the black fridge and grabbed one of the water bottles. Turning around, she noticed that Tim had silently crept up to her and was standing next to her. “Here,” she said and quickly pressed the cold bottle into his hands. Fingers brushed against her hand and she blinked at the contact.

“Thanks,” Tim chuckled and gratefully took the drink, at least it kept him preoccupied for a little bit. After taking a few gulps of water, Tim recapped his water bottle and watched as Raven pulled off her shoes and socks. Leaning against the console table, he watched Raven move around the room.

“So,” Tim breathed after Raven had neatly placed her shoes and socks into one corner of the room. She glanced at him as she walked towards the other end of the console and deposited her phone on the surface. “What are you plans tomorrow?”

Raven shrugged. “There’s supposed to be a pottery station tomorrow, I think I’ll do that tomorrow. Maybe buy a few ceramics for Kori and Jinx,” Her lips quirked teasingly and her eyes danced in the low light of her room. “Preferably something shaped like a dick for Jinx,”

Tim laughed, enjoying her teasing. “Good luck with that,”

“You’re going to miss out on the ceramic dicks,” Raven teased, crossing her arms and leaning into the table to face Tim.

“Ah,” Tim breathed and shook his head in mock disappointment. Moving away from his spot, he shuffled closer to Raven and grinned at her as the tension seemed to lift. “I think I’m good with what I have,” he blinked and immediately backpedaled once his brain caught up with his mouth. “I mean –”

Raven released a bark of laughter she had been holding and Tim felt heat rise to his face. He watched her snort ungracefully and Tim chuckled sheepishly in response. His laughter slowly died down as he watched Raven grin at him in total amusement, her eyes bright, and her nose scrunched up in that familiar way if she found something ridiculous.

“You’re weird, Tim Drake-Wayne,” Raven breathed as her chuckles subsided and she felt her cheeks hurt from all the laughter and smiling she had done today. When was the last time she actually thoroughly enjoyed someone’s company like this? She wondered as something achingly pleasant stirred within her.

“Hah,” Tim released a breathy chuckle. Stealing a quick glance at her, Tim surveyed her room and took in her how neatly she kept everything. His gaze briefly landed on her neatly made bed and he ignored how his heart leaped as he remembered where they were.

Turning back to Raven, he caught her staring at him in an expression he could not quite place. He swallowed thickly. “Could I see you again?” Tim asked tentatively, voice dropping just a little bit at the question. He watched Raven’s eyes widen in response.

“Tomorrow?” she asked a little breathlessly. The moment shifted. She felt it, that low press of flirting and desire, emotions she was not all quite too sure if they were his or her own. She shifted under Tim’s long stare and felt herself take a deep breath, as her body seemed to react all on its own.

Tim hummed and tilted his head to the right light, studying Raven under the pale light of her decorative lamp in the room. “I have a board meeting tomorrow,” he explained. Not one to wait any longer, Tim took a step towards her, and slowly crowded into her space. A thrill ran down his spine as he realized just how tiny Raven was she craned her head to look at him. “I was thinking some other day? For dinner? The museum? Or maybe coffee?” he paused and quirked his lips. “Milk tea?”

Raven was aware of the little space they now shared and she could see his gaze drop to her lips and back to her eyes. “Yeah,” she said and nodded. “I’d like that,”

“Great,” Tim breathed and drank in the pleased expression that crossed her face. “I,” he briefly stumbled and very tentatively touched her hand that rested on the table next to them. He stared into Raven’s blue eyes that seemed to darken under the light. Her fingers twitched as his calloused fingertips ran over the rings on her fingers. “I like you, you’re pretty amazing, Raven,”

“Oh,” Raven breathed and somewhere in the middle of his confession and where his fingers ran over an old scar on the back of her hand, she felt her body react and her breath catch in her throat. His fingers stilled on her wrist and Raven vaguely registered the little space between them and the warm press of his emotions into her. “How long?”

Tim’s finger wrapped around her wrist and she felt his index finger ran along the thin silver bracelets she wore. She watched him shrug absently, his expression turning light. “Since the mission in Peru,” he said, lips tugging in amusement.

“Two years ago?” she asked and she watched him nod. Or was it three? She wasn’t all too sure anymore as her mind slowly refused to work as she grew increasingly distracted by her own warm emotions, desires, and the little ministrations of his fingers against the inside of her wrist. She vaguely remembered the long conversations they shared in briefing rooms, the linger stares, and the stray smiles. Her chest tightened and stared up at Tim as he waited for her reaction.

She wasn’t all too sure what happened next – if she pulled him in or if Tim pulled her in. But she was sure that Tim’s fingers were dangerous as they teasingly slipped up and down the of her arm, sending shivers down her spine and stocking a heat low in her abdomen. She sighed into his lips, as long fingers curled into the nape of her neck and tilted her head in such a way he could better drink the soft whimpers that escaped her lips.

She felt him push her into the table behind her, the sharp edge digging into her back and drawing a soft gasp from her. Tim eagerly chased her soft gasps with long kisses, tongue swiping against her own and teeth sinking into her bottom lip. She could barely hear their heavy breathing and soft whimpers as her heart beat loudly in her ears.

Her fingers sunk into Tim’s shoulders, curling into the soft material of his shirt and pressing into hard muscle. Raven gasped as warm hands pressed into her bare waist, fingertips stroking old scars and pushing under her crop top. His fingers were a confusing mix of feathery and strong as they danced over scars, she faintly wondered what else his talented fingers could do.

Tim released her lips and pressed a soft huff of laughter into her cheek, as his hand pressed into the dip of her waist. “So sticky,” he chuckled into her cheek and Raven became vaguely aware of the sensation of sticky milk tea on her skin.

“Shut up,” Raven mumbled and she felt his lips spread into a languid smile against her cheeks. Clumsily reaching up and pressing herself against Tim’s solid body, her fingers curled around his neck and shifted his face to press their noses together. “Less complaining, more kissing,”

And kiss he did. As Tim greedily drank her whimpers, Raven was sure she was drowning. She felt teeth sink into her bottom lip, drawing out a long gasp from her and her fingertips clumsily slipped from his neck and caught in the collar of his shirt. She felt the low rumble in his chest as Tim groaned and pressed into her.

Unable to bare the sharp edge of the table press into her back anymore, Raven unsteadily tried to lift herself onto the table. Catching her movement, Tim grabbed her hips and pushed her onto the table, promptly filling the space between her legs. Pitching forward, Tim kissed her neck with teeth dragging slowly across her pulse point. Raven groaned in response, body arching into Tim and her fingers slipping into his hair. Tim hummed as she tugged his hair.

In the haze of her mind, she vaguely felt rough hands slip under her crop top and slide over her ribs, dragging the material up with them. Tim pulled away from her neck and Raven felt herself melt under his gaze as his dark eyes started at her, searching for a reaction. She watched his eyes drop briefly to her chest; his hands stopped on the sides of her chest and pooled her shirt with them – the beginnings of her black bra teasingly peeking out below her shirt. Tim swallowed thickly and looked up, gaging her response.

“Is this okay?” he whispered, his breath fanning teasingly over her face. Tim was sure his whole body was on fire, desperately seeking more of Raven. The little gasps and whispers of his name were driving him crazy and he was desperate for more. His fingers teasingly slipped under her bra, waiting for her reply.

Raven took in his hooded gaze and flushed cheeks. Her fingers curled into his shoulders, digging into muscle. Vaguely feeling the heat building inside of her, Raven inhaled sharply and nodded, thighs pressing into his hips. “Yes,” she whimpered.

Tim released an unsteady breath and he felt heat pool low in his abdomen at her breathy response. Pitching forward, he kissed her roughly before pulling away and made quick work on her clothes.

His hands were swift as they worked off her shirt and her bra, and Raven gasped as rough hands dragged agonizingly slow down her chest, slipping over her nipples, and sliding down her stomach. Her back arched, she desperately gasped for a deep breath as she leaned heavily against the wall behind her. Tim’s hands were addicting, fingers longer and gentle, yet rough and powerful at the same time. She whimpered as hands stopped at her waist and fingers dug into hot flesh.

Opening her eyes, Raven watched Tim stare openly at her. She sat there, bare and open and Tim seemed to drink in her nakedness – his gaze greedily drinking in her form. Her back arched as his hands made another slow and agonizing trek up her body. It was like she was on display and Tim took his careful time in cataloguing every bump, ridge and scar under the dim lights of her room. Raven felt deliciously exposed under his gaze as he studied every last inch of her. She hummed as fingers slipped over the swell of her breasts before feathering over perk nipples, and sliding over her collarbones and around her neck.

Raven was addicting, Tim thought. She was everything and more, he realized as he watched transfixed at her heady gaze on his hands as they travelled up her body and slipped over her breasts. He felt his cock ache at her soft whimper and he vowed that her whispers were like music he had been craving for.

Tim pulled her upright and Raven sank into him for another long kiss, groaning as fingers danced down her back and counted ever bump of her spine. Blindly sliding her hands down his sides, Raven slipped her hands under his shirt and made quick work to remove it from his body. Tim drew away from her, breathless as he pulled his shirt over his head and his hands dropped to the tops of her thighs to give them a moment to breathe.

Raven stared transfixed at Tim, drinking in the broad muscle and watching it contract with each movement. God it was a sin to look this beautiful, she thought as her fingers slipped over his sides and she listened to his sharp intake of breath. The old bullet wound scar in his right oblique contracted as her fingers pressed into the defined dips of muscles.

“Raven,” Tim breathed into her neck as she continued her careful ministration of memorizing every scar and muscle. Raven’s fingers left a trail of fire as they danced over his abs. Fuck. Tim breathed into her neck and felt her hips roll into his.

He caught her lips in another delirious kiss and Raven whimpered at the hot contact of hard muscle against her chest. She sank to him, trying desperately to feed the growing hunger within her. She could hear her breathy gasps and moans. His fingers slipped down her ribs and teased her old scars on her waist. As teeth greedily sank into her bottom lip, Raven was sure she was going to explode.

“Bed,” she whimpered, feebly pushing against his shoulders and gasping for breath. “Please,” she whimpered and her hips rocked into his clumsily. She heard Tim growl and pull away from her to allow her to get off the table. Raven stumbled off the table with her feet landing on the floor unsteadily, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders for support. Tim caught her, pressing a lingering kiss to her cheek and guiding her towards the large hotel bed.

Raven released a breathy laugh as they tumbled into bed, Tim’s weight pressing deliciously into her. She felt the low rumble of Tim’s chuckle against her chest, and she smiled as she relished the feeling of being wrapped up and held tight. Fingers danced up her ribcage and over the swell of her breast, before slipping under her chin and pressing her face up for another heady kiss. She arched her body into Tim’s, groaning at the needy press of emotions.

After another strong nip to her lower lip, Tim pulled away and stared at her breathless face. Grinning languidly, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her flushed cheeks. “You taste like Thai milk tea,” he mumbled with a soft teasing lilt into her ear.

Raven laughed, chest light and her arms wrapped around his broad shoulders. Tilting her head to offer better access to her neck, she felt him chuckle and press feathery kisses down her neck. Her breathing hitched as Tim’s lips slowly worked their way down, nibbling at the curve of her neck and slipping down to her collar bone and to the swell of her breasts. Raven gasped and slid her fingers into Tim’s hair as his tongue flicked her nipple before eagerly sucking and nibbling the pebbled peak. After a few sharp breaths, Tim switched to the other breast and Raven felt like her body was burning.

“You’re beautiful, Raven,” breathed Tim as he pulled away and hovered over her, his dark gaze sweeping over her writhing form. Tim was sure the sight of Raven pressed into white bedsheets, black hair flayed, body flushed, and completely on display to him would forever be etched in his memory. He watched her take in a shuddering breath as she looked up at him, blushing in response.

With how on fire her body was, Raven barely felt the heat that rushed to her cheeks. Releasing a soft huff, she watched Tim grin at her. Rolling her eyes playfully, Raven tugged Tim back to her for a languid kiss. She sighed at the welcome press of his weight and she felt his hips press into hers, drawing out a soft moan at the telltale press of his erection against her hip.

Raven shifted her hips against Tim’s, enjoying the hard friction and the whisper of relief that came with it. Tim groaned in response and rolled his hips into hers. Tim’s fingers slid down her stomach and hooked teasingly into the waistband of her shorts. His knuckles pressed into her abdomen and he pressed his thumb against the button of her shorts.

“Is this okay?” he mumbled into the crook of her neck. He pressed a kiss to her neck as he waited for a reply.

Unable to find her voice at this point, Raven whimpered softly and nodded. She released a breathy sigh and closed her eyes as fingers were fast at work on her shorts and underwear and slipping them down her trembling legs. She breathed unsteadily at the cool brush of air against her hot, wet center.

“Ah,” Raven gasped, back arching off the bed as fingers slid over her and her legs obediently spread open. Long nibble fingers stroked and probed her, Tim’s lips brushing gently against her cheek, coaxing long breathy moans from her. She felt his own hum and groan as Tim continued with his thorough ministrations.

The whole world seemed to melt away as Tim greedily drank in her gloriously naked sight. Tim inhaled sharply as he watched her eyes roll back as he spread her wide to him and brushed her clit with his fingers. His cock twitched painfully as she whispered his name with every quick stroke.

Heat pooled low in her abdomen and she rolled her hips into his hand as one finger slowly slipped into her. Raven moaned as she felt his long heated stare over her body, as if memorizing every reaction and storing it to memory. She burned under his gaze. “Tim,” she gasped, thighs spreading wider in invitation. Heat was consuming her.

One finger became two and Raven was sure she was going to burst into flames. She whimpered and her fingers curled into Tim’s shoulder trying to anchor herself. Tim pressed a kiss to her flushed cheeks, murmuring her name into her heated skin.

“Please,” her voice cracked embarrassingly and her right hand blindly reached down, clumsily hooking into the waistband of Tim’s shorts. Her knuckles pressed into hard abdomen and she felt the muscle contract.

She felt the low rumble of a groan in Tim’s chest and they shifted, bodies pressing together in a hurried motion. The material of Tim’s short’s rough against her thigh with every desperate little thrust she tried to make. They kissed once more, rough and languid, and Raven released a shuddering breath into Tim’s lips as she felt his fingers slip out of her. She whimpered as slick fingers pressed into her hips to pin her body down.

His shorts and underwear disappeared soon thereafter. Raven inhaled sharply as she watched Tim kneel in between her spread legs, his form large with muscles glistening and scars prominent as a thin sheen of sweat covered his body. His bright blue eyes roamed her body, eagerly drinking her in.

Tim was burning for release and he was dead set in making it as pleasurable for Raven as it was for him – and more. Tim loomed over her, his left hand dropping to her thigh to anchor himself as his gaze traveled from her dripping core to her face. He gave himself a few strokes as he consumed the sight of her spread legs and writhing hips.

Raven watched Tim give himself a few powerful strokes. Raven’s breath hitched at the movement, tearing her eyes away from his hand and the way his cock pressed into his abdomen to look up at his face. Tim’s lips quirked as he caught her stare.

Tim leaned into her and kissed her long and hard. Raven thought his kissed were that of a thirsty man, as he eagerly drank her breathy sighs and milked her for more with the feathery touch of his fingers dancing over her ribs and waist. She felt the hot press of his erection against her thigh and she instinctively rolled her hips into him, purring at the delicious feel of hot silky cock sliding against her inner thigh. Her legs spread wider for him, accommodating his hips in between her legs and she whispered his name in pleasure as he pressed his body harder into her.

Tim hummed and pressed his hips into her. He pulled his lips away from hers with a shuddering breath as he felt his cock brush against her wet center. Fuck.

“Raven,” Tim released a throaty groan as he felt Raven roll her hips against him again. He heard her whimper in response. He felt a whispered ‘please’ against his cheek and Tim groaned. Leaning back, he took his erection and lined himself up to her center. His body hummed in eager anticipation and he watched Raven writhe below him. He sunk in.

Raven saw blinding hot white wrap around her as her eyes sharply pressed closed and her back arched off the bed. She gasped loudly as Tim stretched her wide in the most delicious way possible. She felt his restrain as he hovered above her, arms on either side of her head quivering, as he slowly sunk deeper into her – stretching her wide and filling her. Her body burned and she moaned loudly as he finally, finally, filled her to the hilt and sunk his hips into her and pressed his face into her neck, groaning loudly into her ear in sheer pleasure. She was so full and hot – Raven was sure she was going to explode.

Tim whispered her name breathlessly into her skin, still delirious at the hot feel of pure Raven around him. His cock throbbed as he sought for more. Dragging his teeth over her pulse point, he slowly pulled out of her, earning a soft gasp from her lips, and sunk back into her. Tim cursed at the delicious friction and prayed that he would last as heat slowly flooded his veins with each stroke of his hips into her.

Raven gasped and her fingers sunk into Tim’s upper back as they found rhythm that stoked the fire that was settling lower and lower into her. She dragged her nails down his back as she released a strangled groan just as Tim filled her to the hilt, hips snapping loudly against hers. Tim cursed loudly into her neck as each push sent another shock of blinding pleasure through him, each press and stroke more powerful and addicting than the last. He could feel her tighten around him, his cock eagerly stroking her hot core.

They picked up their pace and Raven eagerly pushed her body up to meet his every thrust, stoking that burning fire within her. She moaned loudly as Tim adjusted her hips and dragged her right leg over his hips, hitting her just the right way.

“Fuck,” Raven cried and rolled her head back in pleasure as Tim rocked into her at a pace that had her racing towards the edge of a cliff. Her leg tightened around Tim’s hips and she dug her nails into his back as his hips snapped into her.

The sounds Raven was making were driving Tim wild. He hitched her leg higher up his hips, sinking his cock deeper into her and making her sing. He groaned as he felt her flutter around him, and he was stunned at how loud and responsive Raven could be. Tim desperately wanted to hear her more.

Life around them disappeared as the sound of flesh hitting flesh and their breathy moans filled the room. Their thrusts became more frantic as the build of fire burned their nerves. Tim growled and sunk into her, hips snapping into Raven and his fingers quickly sliding between them as she mewled in pleasure. He pressed his thumb against her clit and rubbed the sensitive nub. He watched mesmerized as Raven gasped, her mouth dropping open and her back arching off the bed as she released a loud strangled cry.

Raven cried out his name as she flew off the cliff and into oblivion. The whole world disappeared into a burst of bright light and her body soared. Her thighs quivered around Tim, thrusting frantically into him as his cock continued to stroke her, guiding her through a blinding high. She pressed herself into him, gasping his name like a mantra and her hips snapped wildly into him, as she felt his own release barrel into her. She felt his muscles contract as her fingers slipped over his slick skin and he continued to thrust into her, stroking a delicious hot fire as they rode off the edge. Tim shuddered as hot jolts of pleasure ran down his spine and he sank his teeth into her neck to muffle his groans.

Tim released a shuddering breath and pressed himself into Raven, careful not to crush her. Pressing his face into her neck, he breathed in the scent of lavender and sweat and listened to her unsteady breaths. Raven wrapped her arms around his shoulders, as she felt Tim’s loud heart beat against her own frantically beating heart. Her senses were slowly coming back, as the sweat and smell of the world around them slowly creeped back into her mind.

Raven opened her eyes and turned her head to watch Tim’s face. Catching her gaze, Tim gave her a breathless smile and clumsily pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. He slowly pulled back, pulling himself out of her. Raven shuddered at the sensation and sighed softly at the loss. Tim rolled over onto his back into the space next to her and sighed loudly. He quickly grabbed her and pulled her towards him. Raven immediately curled into his side, legs tangling into his and her arm draping over his chest. Tim tucked her under his arm, pressing her closer and allowing them both to catch their breaths and bask in the aftermath of the moment.

When the world finally fully came back to them, Raven inhaled deeply and tilted her head towards Tim’s face just to catch him staring at her intently. Tim reached out and gently brushed some sweaty strands of hair away from her face, the gentle action made her chest warm and her lips curled into a soft smile.

“Hey,” Tim breathed, his hand sliding down her chin and his thumb feathering over her lower lip.

“Hi,” Raven whispered. Her chest fluttered at the warm emotions that seemed to wrap around them. She knew that they had to talk about what just happened, perhaps once she could think properly. For now, she would enjoy the way Tim’s fingers danced over her shoulder and traced imaginary patterns into her skin. For now, she won’t overthink this and just bask in the moment, relish the confessions spoken earlier, and drink in every minute of tonight and the promise of tomorrow. They would talk, soon.

Raven woke up to loud knocking at the hotel room door. She groaned and pulled her face from her pillow as the feeling of tiredness and sore muscles kicked in. She was sleepy and exhausted – they had stayed up most of the night up until dawn before exhaustion finally kicked in and knocked them out. She turned to the empty space next to her, she could still smell hints of cedarwood waft from the pillow and tickle her nose. She faintly remembered rustling of bedsheets and clothes, and the gentle press of a kiss into her bare shoulder blade that morning.

The door knocked again, ‘Room Service!’, and Raven sighed. Ignoring the pang of disappointment of waking up alone, she hauled her naked body out of bed. Her muscles ached, a reminder of everything that happened. She grabbed one of the spare bathrobes from the bathroom and quickly attempted to to fix her hair to hide all evidence of her long night of debauchery.

The door knocked again and Raven frowned at the persistence. “Coming!” she called. Making sure her robe was secure, lest she wanted to flash the poor hotel staff, she marched towards the door and promptly opened the door. She stared in surprise at the hotel staff and the trolley in front of her.

“Good Morning, Ms. Roth. Breakfast time!” chirped the hotel staff, a young woman. Not really waiting for Raven’s response, she pushed the trolley into Raven’s room, set up the trolley next to the balcony, and made a few adjustments on the trolley. “Enjoy!” she said and disappeared out of Raven’s room as quickly as she came. The door locked behind her.

Raven blinked, utterly confused at the sight of a rather lavish breakfast trolley with silver serving covers and large pot of tea. Her gaze settle on the beautiful bouquet of flowers set in the center of the trolley – calla lilies. Her earlier disappointment dissipated and Raven found herself smiling at the bunch of white calla lilies. She felt her stomach flip and chest flutter at the sight of the flowers and she gingerly touched one of the silky petals. Noticing the small white envelope with her name on it. Picking it up, she pulled out a simple white card. Raven smiled.

“See you soon.

- T.”

#TimRae #Tim Drake #Raven #Teen Titans Fanfiction #TimRae 2021 Year of Smut and Steam

82 notes · View notes

friggsdc · 4 years ago

Text

Title: little delinquent pt ii

part i | part ii | part iii

Warnings: Female!reader (bat!sis), mostly family fluff, AU, hurt/comfort, language

word count: 4000~

It had Bruce and Dick sharing a look for a moment before the latter spoke up, “It’s not like I’m against continuing to expand the family, but…” he eyed the child you held nervously, “please don’t start bringing home every child you find…” he tilted his head, “he’s bad enough.” Bruce settled a light glare at his first son (that definitely wasn’t what Bruce was thinking), though Dick was stilled by the way your eyes narrowed at him instead.

“His name is Terrence,” that was all you said, brushing past as they were suddenly on guard at the inherited Wayne-scowl on your face.

a/n: still no jaybird lmao I’m sorry, but I brought in mamabat duke, because he’s the best at being a mamabat without smothering you like your other siblings. Steph too because she’s your sweet bean partner in crime u v u)9 For my sanity, Metropolis is in Deleware across the bay from Jersey (tho Gotham is still north of Atlantic City).

He wasn’t certain if he should be proud or upset at how quickly you’d turned Tim against him, the two of you now working in unison, playing ‘keep away from big papa Bruce.’ No matter when he tried to approach you, something always seemed to happen or come up, and it was actually starting to get on his nerves. Worse was Damian seemed to be joining in, his rebellious nature being nurtured by the influence of both Tim and yourself.

He knew it would be difficult to deal with you and your ability to hide anything, just like you could hide yourself, but… Now he had to deal with more than just you, and Tim wasn’t going to make it any easier for him. Oh no, this was going to be a headache with you two. And Damian… He couldn’t trust that his son wouldn’t give away anything he did to you, his loyalties giving out to the growing childish nature he was developing. Bruce was again at a loss, should he be happy Damian was acting his age, or upset that he was more interested in working with the ��opposition?.’

“It’s not a mission,” Damian had commented, so it was “fair game.”

He rested his head in his hands, fingers lightly massaging his temples as his elbows supported him, propping him up on the ornate desk in his study. Fucking hell, he had to outsmart both the tech sleuth and the stealth agent of the family. Information was literally their game. Rather than giving into the growing frustration in his stomach, he stood up, now a bat on a mission as he quickly headed down to the cave. He thanked his moody bat heart that it was just two of his kids (he wasn’t certain of Damian yet, the wild card), and not… more…

The League computers would definitely come in handy right about now.

He was gonna go full fucking vigilante detective bat mode on his kids.

Again.

He groaned.

[bigR] Dad took off for the League, bet you can guess why.

Flipping your personal phone closed with a light snort, you refocused your attention on buckling the toddler into the hand-me-down car seat. You’d definitely have to get him a new one on your shopping trip, you just hoped Duke’s car could fit everything…

Damian was securing his sword between him and the kid before he crawled in, closing the door and putting on his safety belt. You grinned at him as he avoided your smile, looking away instead, “hurry up.” Shaking your head, you leaned in to rub your nose against Terrence’s own, his chubby fingers coming up to grab at your face, hair, clothes, ears, and earrings ohgodstop. Having cooed at him enough, and having been assaulted by his little nails, scratches now on your chin, you leaned back and out of his reach, closing the door softly.

“Are you sure it’s okay to shirk off for the day? You’re the one usually patrolling at this time…” you headed to the passenger side, “Big guy said it was fine, besides…” Duke smiled and nodded his head towards the car with a wink, “wouldn’t want to leave you alone with a bunch of kids.” It’s not like he was wrong, but you were skilled enough to handle your brother and… son… ah… that was going to get some getting used to. A smile and spread on your face with a light laugh as you climbed in, settling, and closed the door behind you, “ready to get going?” Damian glared at you before refocusing his attention on Terrence, ignoring your obviously dumb question, “Pennyworth mentioned Todd having finally gotten back before I left.”

Duke had started up the car and checked over everything before heading down the manor drive, now officially on the road. Meanwhile, you hummed happily, “guess I’ll have to go see him when we get back.” Damian made a face, “gross.” You rolled your eyes in amusement, “you knew what my reaction was gonna be.”

The two were ridiculous in how they treated each other, honestly.

“It’s still gross.”

The ride down the ocean side drive was calming, the windows lowered to let the cool ocean breeze in. Damian was back to his “poking the toddler’s nose” game, having gotten used to the sound of a baby, and no longer acting like it wasn’t his fault when he made the toddler laugh.

Meanwhile,

“So, who made you the baby-sitter?” Duke kept his eyes on the road, the ever-responsible budding adult that he was, “Bruce, actually.” He grinned at the way you looked at him, catching sight from the corner of his eye, “surprising, I know. Woulda thunk Tim’d have asked, huh?”

Nodding, you leaned back, “well, I mean, yeah. He’s been pretty upset since the other day, he won’t leave Terrence and I alone at the manor. He’s been staying over...” You might have felt bad for lying to Duke, but the truth was that you were lying to everyone but Tim at this point. Not that it was the first time you’d lied to them. You told the truth so often that they took you at your word, never catching on when you did fib, but you were pretty certain this would blow up in your face.

They’d catch you eventually.

This wasn’t one of those easy to digest lies either, that was the complicated part. It terrified you how they’d react once they learned the truth.

Then…

Before that happened, you made the silent determination that you’d make your… son a part of the family. They won’t be able to decide anything for him then, they’d be in too deep, you’d make certain.

Yeah, you could be a little… manipulative sometimes.

Probably something you got from your father.

“What’s up?”

“Oh, sorry, nothing. My mind was just wandering,” Duke frowned a little, flipping on his blinker while coming to a slow crawl, “not believing you.”

Turning your head to him, your grin was a bit scary, “okay, so, I was just thinking about if your car can fit everything I’m going to want to buy.” It was enough to distract him, a groan finding its way out as he pulled into the ticketing line for the ferry.

“If..??”

Now, to really drive it home, you pulled something from your purse and waved it at him, “Is… is that…” he eyed it nervously. “Yes, yes it is, dear brother.” His ears burned as he turned his eyes from you, hand now outstretched in your direction.

“You’re paying the ferry, then…” he muttered.

You put your dad’s credit card on his palm,

“Rich little daddy’s girl.”

This time the snort came from the back seat, “I have one as well, Thomas. You need only ask father.”

Duke sputtered and refused to acknowledge either of you till after having crossed the Deleware Bay.

Rich kids. Honestly.

Metropolis always amazed you, honestly, the bright skies overhead and the amount of people without a care in the world was enviable. Still, it just wasn’t… home. By now you’d developed some serious Stockholm for the cesspit that is Gotham. Even so, you preferred to go shopping here, their selection of high-quality stores mixed with less people recognizing you, and your family, were boons.

As you stared up at the towering high rise in front of you, Damian having disappeared inside minutes before, there was one other reason for coming to Metropolis…

“You’re always so slow! I told you to hurry up!!”

“Who’s slow?! You’re the slow one!!”

“Boys, please—”

The loud sound of twin crashes echo’d out the opened lobby door, the two boys in question bounding out with plenty of energy and two very red chins. “That… looks painful…” you smiled, walking over to check Damian’s face for actual injury.

“Tt, I’m fine.” He smacked your hand away, glaring at the super next to him, rubbing his own, already healing chin. “Hey Jon, enjoying Metropolis?” The bright-eyed boy, sans cape, grinned at you from ear to ear, “There’s so much to do here!” he almost lifted off the ground in his excitement, “but I miss the farm.” A chuckle came from the entrance to the building, deep and warm and just as kind as the child now sticking his tongue out at your youngest brother. On the man’s broad shoulder was an overnight bag, and a sheepish smile on his face as if he felt guilty.

He probably did, the two boys were a handful.

Duke was leaning against the roof of the car with a huge dopey smile on his face, waving at the man approaching, “Hello, you must be the chaperone, Duke Thomas?” your newest brother nodded enthusiastically, almost at a loss for words, “Yup! I-I mean y-yes, it’s nice to meet you, sir!” Clark only chuckled, far too used to such formalities, “Clark is fine, our families are… close, after all.” He watched the boys pull at each other’s faces in mock battle.

“Ah, Clark! It’s been a while!” the older male smiled as he stopped a few feet from you and the car, hands resting on his hips, “Miss Wayne.” Near immediately, his eyes shifted to the backseat of the car and he leaned against the door, looking in.

“Bruce has another kid? He looks like how I always imagined him to look as a kid, suspiciously innocent,” you froze, and he would have laughed at the thought of Bruce with more secret kids, but he straightened. Looking at you in concern instead, he started, “I know he’s not… the most affectionate father, but…” you quickly shook your head, attempting damage control. “It… no, he’s not dad’s…” You laughed nervously at the look on his face, his hand raising to point at you as his mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to process.

“Yup. He’s… His name is Terrence, and he’s… my… son…” your tone turned warm and kind, and your eyes settled on the babe in the car with all the grace of a mother, just like Lois when Jon had been born, the older super nodded thoughtfully. “I’m glad it’s you, then. If anyone in that family can raise a good kid, it’ll be you.” The two of you shared an understanding smile, though yours was accompanied by a twitch or two, swearing he enjoyed his little joke, before he turned his head painfully in surprise, as if an enemy had suddenly appeared.

Following his sight, you had to laugh at the dark glare on Damian’s face directed at Clark, “well, I think it’s time I take my leave, then.” He scratched the back of his head, avoiding the kid’s gaze. He wanted to inquire more about the new addition to the family, but it would have to wait. Jon gave his dad a huge hug, getting his hair ruffled in the process as Clark waved at Duke, chucking the overnight bag into the car.

With a last good-bye to you, he turned high-tail and ran, as if he were almost eager to get away. Watching him jog slowly inside the building, you almost swore his steps were far lighter than his build, “probably prefers to float…” looking away, you missed him trip.

“Alright, c’mon you two. Get in.” when you’d opened the door, the two boys stared in horror, “I’m not sitting in the middle.” Damian ground out before Jon pushed him with more force than Damian could resist, “HE’S YOUR BROTHER!!! YOU SIT IN THE MIDDLE!”

“STUPID! HE’S MY NEPHEW!”

“Still, you sit next to him…” Jon pouted, and combined with your stare, Damian crawled in with a grumble, “Stupid super.” Jon ignored him without issue, and you’d have to ask Damian about it later, curious as to why his best friend was so used to his insults like it was a common occurrence? Then he climbed in after, shutting the door behind him.

“Nerves of steel, that one,” you mumbled, getting back in the car as Duke laughed lightly, starting the car up before heading a bit further into the city. After a few minutes and a few stop lights, Duke gave in to the side-glances you kept giving him, having caught them from the corner of his own eyes, “what now?” The growing devious grin on your face had him on edge, “speaking of nerves of steel…” a shiver hit the back of his neck, “please don’t.” His begging stopped nothing, “fanboy,” but of course you would, and he did his best to pay attention to the road, “don’t make me ignore you all day.”

“I thought it was cute though? Haha, Izzy would be jealous.”

“It’s… I mean, he was…” his ears were burning, especially at the mention of Isabella’s name, and he pouted worse than Jon had.

“I know, but still. You know you’ve met him before, right?” Duke looked like he wanted to disappear in his seat, “just… in costume…” you hummed in amusement.

It didn’t take long for Duke to pull into the parking lot at one of the high-end furniture stores, resting his head on the steering wheel for a moment after parking. The two boys were already out of the car, bickering and racing into the store, “you have no taste! It’s all dark! You can’t put a baby in a depressing room!”

“YOU WANT TO BLIND HIM WITH BRIGHT COLORS!”

“YOU WANT TO SCARE HIM WITH DOOM AND GLOOM!”

The two were practically racing at this point, shoving each other back and forth, though Jon often made Damian stumble through raw strength, and Damian often made Jon trip through dirty tricks.

“Aaaaand there they go.” You were already out of the car as you said it, heading to the driver’s backside door. Duke stepped out before stilling, his face falling at the straps in your hand, outstretched towards him, “you have got to be kidding.”

“Nope, you’re the babysitter today, Papa Duke.”

He took the child carrier from you, strapping the pack on with a depressed aura of resignation, “this so doesn’t look cool.” You snickered as you transferred Terrence over to the pack on Duke’s front, “yeah, but people won’t mess with a big guy like you. Besides, I can handle Damian better than you, can you take care of our son?” you teased him.

“Yeah, I can take care of… him…” Duke eyed the child looking around at everything he could, taking in every sight with silent baby contemplation skills, thumb in his mouth.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Izzy about us,” you thought for a moment as he ignored your comments, switching tactics. Eyeing him before patting him on the shoulder, you began heading after the two boys, “when you get back, tell Izzy you think she looks like a piece of candy.”

He had a confused look as he followed after you, catching up in a speed walk, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

Not only did his ears turn red, but his entire face and neck burned hot at the suggestive smile on your face, “Oh… wait, w-why out of nowhere though?!”

“You forget, I live with nothing but men. Harper’s not around often and Steph is the only female I see on a regular basis.”

“Get some friends,” he groaned.

“That’s what family is for.”

Ugh.

Shopping actually went a lot better than expected, and you were able to get a new car seat at the behest of Damian, “no way you’re using a hand-me-down,” he all but threatened. There were some smaller things you could easily fit into the car, a few boxes, one for a mobile, one for a few bed sets, a giant pregnancy pillow -- regardless that you weren’t pregnant, you wanted the giant horseshoe pillow. Jon was jealous of it, now wanting one of his own, as you picked up some non-essentials.

The bigger things would have to be shipped, a crib for a few months till he was big enough, small bed with side bars so he wouldn’t fall out when ready to swap out the crib. They even had a huge rocking chair! It was probably one of the most comfortable things you had ever sat in, its ability to “rock” you back and forth on its slides without losing much momentum was heaven.

And you could curl up in it.

Somewhere in all the chaos, just as expected, you’d gone and lost both the boys. Or, well, more like they lost you. Duke was still dutiful with Terrence, and he was also really amazing at looking at details and knowing what item was better than the next. Sure, you’d been taught the same skills, but you were preoccupied with Damian and Jon (until you weren’t).

“Hum… hey, I’m gonna go check out next door, okay?” Duke turned to you from the different curtains in his hand, having taken to looking at a few general things for the room; curtains, bookshelves, a desk or two.

Unlike your father and most of your family, you had far more free time to do these small things yourself, never needing to hire an assistant to do all the work. You only needed some help with moving things, of course. It was something you’d picked up from both Alfred and the Kents, the equally uneasy and comforting feeling of being humble.

“Sure, which one?”

“The clothing store, I think there’s a dedicated kid store a bit further down the mall strip, I’ll probably make my way towards that.” Duke pouted, “leaving me alone with the kids?”

“Just one.” To emphasis your point, Terrence decided to start pulling on the same curtain as Duke, though Duke swatted his hands away quickly. A one-sided glaring contest began as the kid kept his frown on Duke, not looking away.

Duke looked around ignoring him, “that’s… true…”

“Thanks Papa Duke!” you gave him a hug, burying your face in Terrence’s and pelting him with kisses, pulling back only when his laughter echoed around the three of you. Duke refused to look at you as you cooed at the child strapped to his chest, awkward, “I hate you.”

“You love me.”

He snorted and went back to picking out curtains, “and don’t you forget it.”

“You have my card still, right?” He nodded, not even bothering to ask if you needed it. He knew you didn’t carry paper notes around, having seen you use your phone to pay for things physically too often.

Taking that as your cue, you turned to leave, “text if you need anything, and keep an eye out for the boys, I’ll… look, too,” and a moment later you were outside the store, stretching in the sun with a big breath of fresh air. Dang you loved Gotham, but also? Dang you loved Metropolis, too.

[steph] hey, herd u like

[steph] have a baby now???!

[steph] ;)))))

The buzzing of your personal phone caught your attention,

[you] tim? also, switching over for a bit.

You switched recipients,

[you] ready.

Turning the phone off and flipping it closed, you began walking in the opposite direction that Duke had been told, popping the back of the case off and pulling out the battery.

You’d asked Tim to redirect a dummy signal for your phone, keeping it within a five-foot radius of Duke for the next forty minutes or so. He’d given you the thumbs up, your telling him everything when you got back being his payment for helping.

He was very curious as to why you were breaking in to the LexCorp building.

The rather fast-paced walk (almost a light jog) to the building wasn’t that long, you’d made certain the stores you chose were close on purpose. Taking out your business phone, you opened it to another text as you started up a rather… illegal app. Your phone’d been rooted from the moment you had it, and it was hooked up to a very specific closed network.

This outing was one of the only chances you’d get, having lucked out with the more lenient Duke, as your other siblings were far more vigilant. Damian meanwhile was distracted by Jon, the two acting more like brawling siblings than best friends. Though Damian preferred the term rivals, but Jon was just happy to have a close friend he could be himself with.

[splr] he couldn’t contain himself

[splr] was vibin’ like flash lol

There were very few people who had access to this phone, and unfortunately for Tim, it was a hazard for both of you to have any kind of connection to him on your work phone. Stephanie however was one of the very few people who got to have that privilege.

[you] remind me to thank him for stealing my thundr

The family had the Bat-computer, Batman had the League’s Womb mainframe, the Robins had their Nest, and you? You had access to something older, reborn too many times, and set up and now maintained by some genius mastermind you’d never heard of.

It was a mostly defunct information network by this point.

You’d met some really interesting people when you used to tail your father, and through repeated encounters, you’d met even more interesting uh... “friends.” Eventually you weren’t stalking your dad, instead, you were learning to do what you did best: Spy-games and recon.

And you’d impressed the wrong people.

But you didn’t mind, you liked the constant link to “their” information hubs.

[splr] lol

[splr] coffee tmrrw?

The Society’s Networks.

You knew your dad suspected some of your activities, but he never approached you about them. Probably because Batman enjoyed your access to these networks often when they were online, having come to you on multiple occasions to see if you could help with his detective work.

You were playing double agent, compiling what you could from the chatter picked up from specific phones hooked into the closed channels. Sure, they weren’t always active and so sometimes you had to go with information from recon, but you did what you could, your bias for your bats, and birds, too strong. For your family.

[you] the same-same

[splr] c u tmrw then ;)

[splr] don’t forget the kid lol

Not that you’d ever shown him, if Batman knew what kind of information the Society had in their databases, well… you were pretty certain the world would burn.

He once said it was best he didn’t know, something about helping to keep a balance between the good and the bad, causing both sides to stay in check.

The database’s app held all kinds of information, and as you downloaded the LexCorp building plans (sans recent modifications), you stared at the towering complex in front of you. Before you went further, you made certain the matrix encryption program was running, after all, “no reason to let anyone know I’m here.”

“Done this tons of times, can totally do this again,” but LexCorp was terrifying, Lex Luthor was terrifying, almost as much as Wayne Enterprises. Here’s to hoping your dad’s technology and Tim’s brain were smarter than anything Lex could cook up.

Besides, wasn’t he under house arrest right now?

It did nothing to calm your nerves.

“Nerves of steel, totally.”

You had to be fast.

#tim drake x reader #dick grayson x reader #jason todd x reader #stephanie brown x reader #duke thomas x reader #bat!sis

72 notes · View notes

abundanceofsoph · 4 years ago

Text

SkyFire 3: Chapter 10

I’m free as a bird when I’m flying in your cage: Nov/Dec 2017

Word count: 3k

SkyFire 3 MASTERLIST

Please for the love of god, if you like the story just hit the reblog button. I really don’t know how to say it nicely but it’s really starting to bother me and maybe that makes me a dick but so be it.

>Instagram posts

Thankfully, after a day and a half of vocal rest, Harry was ready to go for the Manchester show and he very much dialled his performance up to 11 for his hometown crowd. Just as she had told Grimmy, Aurora stayed off social media in the days following the interview, but she heard from others that a small section of the fandom was absolutely furious with her and the social media manager that Mark had hired years ago to clear out her comment sections was working overtime to keep some of the nastier shit from her feeds. As much as Aurora herself was able to avoid it all together, she knew that a lot of her fans would be reading the comments and she wanted to keep it safe for them. Harry’s team was also working to keep his own accounts clear as well, and while they couldn’t hide from what was being said about them or Louis and Elanor, they could try to filter out the worst of it. This was the one part of celebrity that they all agreed was the worst. It was the unfortunate consequence of having such passionate fans. Ella had no such inclination to avoid the comment sections and was spending her free time picking fights with Larries and attempting to set them straight on the reality of Harry and Louis’ relationship as nothing more than brotherly love. Aurora tried to urge her to let it go, but unfortunately her best friend was feisty and easy to anger which was not a good combination with how overprotective she was about her loved ones. By the time they stepped out onto the Manchester stage, both Rori and Harry were happy to put aside the drama and focus on the music. Things started to cool down over the following week which took them up to Glasgow and then on to Stockholm, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Milan. By the time they returned to London on the 11th, the music video for Kiwi had been live for 3 days and the fans had thankfully moved on from Aurora’s interview in exchange for raving about the new video.

They spent the first few days relaxing at home before Rori headed to North London to meet up with Liam at the recording studio he liked to use to work on the song he had mentioned at Niall’s launch party. Aurora had spent the last few weeks listening to the demo on repeat while pouring over the sheet music Liam had emailed her. She was obsessed with the song and the two had been messaging back and forth constantly, discussing the arrangement and which parts each of them would take. Stepping back into a recording studio, even one she’d never visited before, felt like coming home after weeks on the road and her face lit up immediately as soon as she caught sight of Liam, wrapping her arms around him in a rib crushing hug.

“Ready to jump straight in?” he asked after letting her go.

“Absolutely,” she replied excitedly before following him as he introduced her to the producer and technicians that they would be working with for the following few days.

With a full week before Harry and Rori were due to fly to Shanghai, neither she nor Liam were on a tight schedule to finish the song. This meant that the environment in the studio was very chilled and there were many tangents and breaks taken while they worked.

“How attached are you and Lou to the lyrics?” Rori asked on their second day in the studio.

“Of course, you want to change something,” Liam laughed in a response. “Wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Rori replied with a laugh of her own. “I am who I am.”

“I know,” Liam agreed. “So, show me what you’re thinking.”

“I’ve been tossing around the pre-chorus and I was wondering if instead of what you lads have there, instead we go with this.”

I'm free as a bird When I'm flying in your cage I'm diving in deep And I'm riding with no brakes And I'm bleeding in love You're swimming in my veins You got me now

“Well fuck,” Liam replied. “Think I need to stop writing with Louis and start writing with you more often.”

“You like it?”

“Rors, I love it,” he said. “It’s way better than what we came up with. Let’s get back in the booth and record it.”

They ended up spending four days finishing the song which left Aurora with a few remaining days to catch up with Ella and also relax at home with her husband before they were thrown back into work.

xXx

The day before they were set to fly to China, Aurora headed over to Ella’s flat in Wimbledon. “I brought cake,” she yelled as she let herself into the flat with the spare key Ella had given her when Rori first moved back to London.

“Fuck yes!” Ella cheered in response, her voice carrying down the hall from the kitchen. “I’m just making us tea,” she continued as Rori made her way inside. “Get yourself comfy on the sofa and I’ll meet you in there, babe.”

Rori made herself at home in the living room, Ella’s elderly tabby cat Elliot, immediately padding over to make himself comfortable in her lap.

“You were recording with Liam this week yeah?” Ella asked as she joined Rori on the sofa, placing mugs of tea in front of them. “How was it?”

“God, it was so much fun El,” Rori sighed. “I didn’t realise how much I missed being in the studio. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love touring and I’m having an incredible time on the road, but it felt so good to be back recording again and it just has me itching to write again.”

“You should make sure to do more of it over the Christmas break then,” Ella pointed out. “Speaking of which are you going to be in New York or are you coming home for winter?”

“We’re planning a bit of both. Christmas and my birthday in New York with my dads and then we’ll come back here for February before the tour kicks off again in March. I think Gemma and Anne are going to join us for Christmas too and then when we get back Liam and I have made plans to have a writing session together. ”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Ella nodded before taking a sip of her tea. “Selfishly I’m glad you’ll be spending a decent chunk of time here. I miss you.”

“Urggh,” Rori groaned. “I miss you too. Was thinking of maybe doing something for Harry’s birthday and getting you, Lou, Liam, and Niall over to our flat for a game’s night or something. I feel like Harry could use something a little more lowkey this year after the insanity of tour.”

“Don’t feel like you need to invite me,” Ella replied awkwardly. “I mean, if you’re inviting the band over, I’m not really part of that group.”

“Oh bullshit,” Rori laughed. “They boys love you just like I do. You all get along great whenever we were all together for wedding stuff or the album launch. Why on earth would you feel like I shouldn’t invite you too?”

“Rori,” Ella sighed. “While yes, I have gotten along with yours and Harry’s friends in the past, that doesn’t mean that I run in the same circles as they do. They’re celebrities, you are a celebrity and I just think that sometimes you forget that I’m just your old friend from school. It’s two separate worlds that you live in.”

Aurora rolled her eyes in response, taking a sip of her tea while she compiled her rebuttal. “That’s such a load of shit El. They are mine and Harry’s friends and so are you. When we are away from the paparazzi, they are no different to you and me. I get that we grew up with their pictures on our bedroom walls but once you put that aside they’re just a bunch of really great guys that I think could become your close friends too if you let them in and stop freaking out around them.”

“Ok fine,” Ella agreed after a moment of silent staring between the two women. “I’ll try to get over myself and give them a chance next time we’re all in the same room. Can we change the subject now?”

“That’s all I’m asking for and absolutely we can change the subject. How’s things with Tim? Feel like we haven’t talked about him in a while.” Ella made a face and Aurora felt her heart break for her best friend. “When?” she asked softly. “What happened, love?”

“He broke it off a few weeks ago,” Ella explained. “Said he didn’t feel a spark or something.”

“I’m sorry babe, things seemed to be going so well when I left for the tour.”

“They were. At least I thought they were. We barely made it past 3 months before he gave up.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were half a world away having the best time,” Ella replied. “If I’d told you then you would have just felt guilty for not being here.”

“And now instead I feel guilty for not even being able to be a sympathetic ear since I couldn’t provide a shoulder. How are you now?”

“I’ll be ok. I’ve been a bit down in the dumps, but I think it’s for the best. He made some good points about me not really knowing what I wanted and he’s right. I think I’m gonna swear off dating until I really figure out who I am and what I’m looking for.”

“Well if you ever want help figuring out who you are, I think I know you pretty well by now.”

“I might take you up on that offer,” Ella said with a small smile before changing topic. “Now enough moping, you said you brought cake with you? You are never going to believe the scandal that’s broken out amongst some of the girls in my Colonial History class.”

xXx

Occasionally something would happen in Aurora’s life that would give her pause and remind her how incredibly ludicrous her life had become. Standing behind her keyboard in the middle of a Victoria Secrets show in Shanghai while her husband sang and danced his heart out in front of her while literally supermodels strutted past them was one of those moments.

It was hard for her to believe that only 2 days ago she was sitting on her best friend’s sofa eating a chocolate cake from Sainsbury’s and discussing the latest high school drama playing out in Ella’s classroom. She found herself thinking about how her mother would react if she somehow had a way to travel back in time seven years and tell her about this moment and all the other life changing moments that had occurred since they parted. It was while her thoughts were caught on her mother that Harry turned, catching her eye, a mile-wide smile lighting up his face as he winked at her, causing her own smile to grow in response. No matter how strange her life had become and how much everything had changed since she was an average teenager living above a small bar, she knew that she wouldn’t change a single thing that had happened if it meant ending up here with Harry smiling at her like that.

xXx

Following the Victoria Secrets show, the band arrived in Singapore early and spent a few days exploring before their show there after which the flew on to Australia, a country that Harry had toured many times over the years with One Direction, but Aurora had never managed to visit herself. They had a week in the land Down Under, with shows in both Sydney and Melbourne and Aurora made it her mission to see as much as she could of the 2 state capitals, often dragging Harry or other members of the band along on her adventures. Given that it was the last week of November everywhere was getting into the Christmas spirit, however since it was the southern hemisphere the weather was scorching hot and the group found the combination highly entertaining, if somewhat baffling.

While in Sydney they took in the iconic sights such as Bondi beach, the Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge, as well as a day trip out to explore the Blue Mountains. In Melbourne they visited the Eureka Tower with it’s Skydeck that offered an amazing view of the city spread out beneath them. They also spent some time at the Melbourne Zoo and National Gallery of Victoria, then the day after their show at the Forum, they were taken on a drive out of the city and down along the coastal Great Ocean Road.

The tour stop in Auckland was similarly packed out with touristy opportunities where Aurora’s highlight was the art gallery Toi o Tāmaki. While the laid back vibes in both Australia and New Zealand captured Aurora’s attention, it was the week they spent in Tokyo that held Harry’s, so much so that while everyone else headed home the day after the last show, the young couple made a last minute change to their travel plans and extended their stay by an additional week to explore the city more.

Once again, Tokyo was somewhere that Harry had visited many times with the band while Aurora had never been, and he enjoyed to opportunity to show her his favourite parts. Something Aurora noticed almost immediately about Tokyo was that unlike in the US or the UK, people either didn’t recognize them when they were out and about or they did but respected their privacy and left them alone. She pointed this out to Harry on their second day wandering the city streets and he smiled back at her, agreeing that it was something he’d also noticed in a previous visit and had definitely played a role in him falling in love with the city.

They spent their days wandering the streets, ducking into quirky shops that caught their eye and just revelling in the normalcy of being together in public. As they walked, they both realized that they had never had this; a chance to be like everyone else crowding the sidewalks around them. Save for stolen moments in the early days of their relationship like their first date in Hampstead Heath or when they were able to sneak into galleries on quiet days, they’d never really been able to be themselves within a crowd. They’d always needed to wrap a scarf that little bit higher around their chins or wear a hat a little lower on their heads or glasses a little bit larger. To walk hand in hand like any other couple was freeing in a way that Rori hadn’t realized she’d been missing, and she soaked up every moment of their time in Tokyo. If only for a week she felt like she was living the life she would have had if her mother hadn’t died. If she had continued living as a normal girl from Wimbledon instead of being thrust into the spotlight, free to live her life without the scrutiny of the press and the public. Of course, it wasn’t lost on her that the man holding her hand wouldn’t be Harry in this parallel universe and for that she would happily trade in her freedom. She could accept that the price she paid to be married to Harry and be Steve and Tony’s daughter was that she would never really be allowed to have this normality, so she simply tried to make the most of their time before they flew on to New York for Christmas. They never spoke about any of this during their little vacation away from their lives but even without voicing her thoughts, Rori was certain that Harry was thinking the same thing and would willingly make the same sacrifices for the life they had built together.

xXx

Both Aurora and Harry were exhausted by the time they reached New York and were grateful to find Happy waiting for them as soon as they exited the arrivals terminal at JFK. He offered a quick hug to Rori before collecting their bags from them and leading them to the town car waiting for them. She leant against Harry in the back seat as they made the hour long drive into Manhattan. Her blinks began to lengthen as the airport shrank in the rear-view mirror and she was fast asleep before they reached Queens. Harry had to gently coax her awake once they finally reached the tower and she slowly made her way out of the car and into the elevator up to the penthouse. Tony and Steve were waiting up for their arrival and excitedly pulled their daughter into tight hugs the moment she stepped out of the elevator. It was Steve that noticed the way both Rori and Harry’s eyelids seem to droop and their gazes glazed over while Tony asked them a dozen questions about their recent adventures, and Rori was grateful when her Pops shooed them both off to bed with promises that they could catch up properly over a homecooked breakfast the next morning. They were barely conscious by the time they stripped out of their clothes and crawled into bed, however Aurora remained awake just long enough the think about how good it felt to be home.

NEXT CHAPTER

OR CONTINUE READING ON AO3

#skyfire fic #Husband Harry Styles #harry styles fanfiction #dad!tony #domestic fluff #iron dad #step dad steve rogers #aurora stark #harry styles #tony stark #live on tour

9 notes · View notes

othercat2 · 4 years ago

Text

Writing Update, Bunny, and Snippet(s)

So! While searching for porn I found a series called Taming Riki on Amazon, which is apparently original fan fic of Ai no Kusabi. It is not very good fan fic, and only semi okay porn. It reminded me very much of the kind of yaoi porn one used to be able to find on LJ in the early 2000s. I did end up reading it, but was very impatient with it. (Writer, have you ever actually met human beings? I wonder!)

This somehow led to reading Ai no Kusabi fan fic. Which was very odd since I was not impressed with the Ova! (I am probably not going to read the novel(s) since they apparently end in Bury Your Gays Under Piles of Rubble.) Anyway, the AnK fan fic seems to tend toward the "rewrite canon so characters survive" variety. And is often quite optimistic that the mains could have a relationship.

Bunny 1: Due to the part where Iason "Why is my surname a Mustelid, it must be because I fuck like Weasels" Mink is an android he was never actually in danger because all you need to do is down load a backup. Problem: he keeps crashing because Riki was made of meat, and he does not know how to grieve. Jupiter POV as they/it/she tries to get Iason back to operational parameters. (Ricky don't you lose my number plays ironically in the background.)

Bunny 2: Almost exactly like AnK except with Homestuck style quadrants. So much quadrant vacillation. SO MUCH.

Speaking of Homestuck, I've been working on Rebel and Conqueror! I have also been working on Pernstuck, and the next installment of The Yiling Almanac ("the young master most likely to be found disappearing into the kitchen garden") Wei Ying's love of potatoes is featured. (I need to find Ursula Vernon's rant on potatoes.) I've also managed to get some writing done on Build a Life from Scratch. However, I'm slightly frustrated because I can't segue over the GHB/Signless debate. And I hate debates.

Snippet the First: (Rebel and Conqueror)

Trolls had all kinds of mind control powers. They could terrorize you into catatonia or turn you into a puppet. It depended on the caste though. Lower castes tended to have telekinesis powers, higher up the scale started to be telepathy and fear projection. At the very top it was mostly resistance to the mind control powers (and you suspected, regeneration and other weird shit you've only heard rumors about). It probably made sense to trolls to keep you away from Vantas, if things like what happened to you happened a lot. “He’s fuchsia,” you say, and even as you say it, you know it’s a stupid thing to say. Vantas doesn’t need to have been the one to fuck with your head, with or without the pheromones. “Is there any proof he had anything done to my head? Aside from fucking with it just by being his normal asshole self?”

“No evidence was found in the initial investigation,” the Dolorosa admits.

"So he didn't do anything," you say. "So I think I should get to see him sentenced." You pause, looking down at your hands. "For closure. Since I'm not allowed to be in contact with him anymore." The Dolorosa gives you an odd look. It's part concern and part curiosity, and you realize what you said might sound like. "It isn't Stockholm Syndrome," you tell. "I don't feel dependent on him for safety or something." You just want to know what's going on with him. "And don't ask if I want to see him, because that opens the entire do you want to be his kismesis can of worms, and the answer to that is still and will always be fuck no."

The Dolorosa smiles a little at that. "That's understood," she says. "Would you want to be in contact? From what I understand that also seems to be an issue."

"So, troll doctors don't have confidentiality?"

"I think you've made it clear that it's an issue outside Doctor Coyotl's office," the Dolorosa says. "It would be hard to keep common knowledge confidential." Her tone is dry. "Wanting to see him doesn't necessarily correlate to wanting to be in a kismesis with him."

"I want to see him," you say. "I don't know about contact. Maybe I want to ask what he thought he was going to do, raising my kid and screwing with me at the same time. How he thought that was going to work. What was he going to tell my kid about me, if he thought he was going to get away with it. Maybe I want him to delete that fucking 'I hate you' wall he has. Maybe I want to point and laugh at all the 're-education' he's going to go through."

"He already knew he wasn't going to get away with it," the Dolorosa says.

"What's the Black Tower like?" you ask, veering slightly off the subject.

"A prison," the Dolorosa says. "Or in some ways a hospital. I'm sure Pyrope has explained some of the details."

"Re-educated, supervised visits, supervised everything, Earth still conquered but the Viceroy can't have a hate boyfriend, yeah."

"Among other possible punishments," the Dolorosa says. "But those are the most likely." She pauses. "Are there any penalties you'd prefer?"

"Be pretty stupid for me to ask for execution, wouldn't it? Maybe ironic after all the effort not to kill me." Probably also stupid to suggest it to his grandmother, but she asked. "Maybe freedom for Earth and he doesn't have command of anything bigger than one of those ships you stick in a bottle. But freedom isn't on the table either."

The Dolorosa doesn't lecture on the benefits of imperial rule. Instead she says, "Dr. Coyotl mentioned that you had been losing a considerable amount of time during your captivity." She decaptchalogues a data grub, and sets it down on a low table by the couch. It's stubs around a couple inches before curling up, mandibles opening and shutting. You absolutely do not want to pick it up. "This data grub contains the complete security footage from your time on the then-Viceroy's ship. After viewing this, we can discuss if and when you can see him."

"I have to watch the home movie if I want to see him?" you ask. The Dolorosa nods. You know that you're stalling. (You still don't want to pick the data grub up.)

"You can watch it on your own, or with your partner, Rose Lalonde," Dolorosa says, and gets to her feet to leave.

"Wait," you say. She gives you an inquiring look. "So, if this is the complete footage, that's a lot of hours. What's the amount of hours before you'll let me see Vantas?"

"At least seventy two hours within a twenty four hour time frame," Dolorosa says.

"Okay."

Something resembling manners has you get up and follow her to the door, and see her out. When she's gone, you lean against the bulkhead and shudder all over, face in your hands. You slide down the bulkhead to the deck. Take it in steps. There was a computer in the corner of the living room, built into a desk. It wasn't too organic or alarming in appearance. Get the grub to the computer, and open the files. Did you really want to watch it on your own? Did you want Rose there, knowing how badly she wanted to kill Vantas? (It takes a moment to wrap your head around the way the argument wants to phrase Rose's presence as a negative. You don't want me her to be hurt. You don't want her to hurt Vantas.) Did you want to watch it, already knowing what you were going to see? (All the parts you couldn't remember and all the parts you could.)

"This is bullshit," you say, half hoping for a comment from the intercom. "You're hoping I don't watch, which will prove I shouldn't see Vantas." You don't get an answer.

With cringing fingers you pick up the grub (soft squashy urgh) drive and stick it in the port. As the drive opens you send a message to Rose: so i have umptybillion hours of video footage to go through before they'll let me see vantas please come hold my hand. You don't get an immediate reply, so you start going through the files.

You see that you have lots of raw footage. As far as you can tell, no editing was done at all. You are going to be doing a lot of skipping and fast forwarding, is what you're saying. Opening the first file, you get started. It starts with him getting you into his ship, and his quarters. Your hands clench as you watch yourself wake up, the combination of anger and panic on your face as he fucks you, how it turns to lust and desperation. You fast forward.

You fast forward a lot. A lot of this, you remember, and don't much want to go over it again. From a third person perspective, it's weird watching him with you. Watching you with him. (You don't remember the times you tried to make a shank--three times--or biting him as often as you as you actually did.) You can see the moments of concern or confusion on his face, see him arguing with Egbert and Harley. Or meeting some official. (Those are the times when you can remember having been locked in your room. )

Snippet the Second: (Build a Life from Scratch)

After some more talk you all break camp and head west. As you all walk, you stretch your Aspects out, figure out what they can do. It's at least half way to sense for danger, half to practice. You might lay down a "beat" that Redglare joins in on, that Disciple sings along to, that Zahhak hums absentmindedly. Or Jade and Signless have a "song" that Dolorosa joins in on, accompanied by Disciple. Demoness can sound like an entire choir, with Highblood coming in over the top, "sounding" something like a theremin crossed with a bass fiddle. Dave joins in, and Roxy, doing odd little solos or "duets" with one of the trolls, or with Jade.

The next few nights not much happens. The terrain is uneven, the sky is endless, and the air is muggy and damp. There are a few high-flying clouds that disappear by morning. You can see mountains in the distance, and the glinting snake of a river edged with trees. On the third day, you get closer to the river, it starts to get cloudier and the wind kicks up. In the early evening, you can see the wall of an approaching storm. It's a solid green-black wall, and you can see the trailing mists of rain as it dumps down, along with flickers of lightning. "Well, that's going to suck when it gets here," you say.

At the same time you hear this huge sliding crunch off to the side. Exactly like someone pulled up a whole hell of a lot of chunks of ground, all at once. You turn in that direction and see huge chunks of dirt and rock floating around Jade and the Demoness. "Hopefully we can make it suck less!" Jade says cheerfully. The chunks orbit Jade and Demoness as they began to quickly create a shelter. Everyone helps with pounding the dirt and rocks into a rough shelter big enough to hold everyone plus the not-horses. Demoness and Jade (with help from Alter Dave and Dolorosa) smooth out the inside and make everything solid and waterproof.

You all get inside as the storm hits. Roxy pulls out a couple of battery powered lanterns, and sets them up. "Getting better at that," you say.

She grins. "This trick's kind of fun," she says. "Watch." She shows you everything she can make appear, and then disappear. She starts with green cubes, then goes on to various toys, a pair of shoes, a laptop computer, a 3rd Edition Dungeon and Dragons Player's Handbook and DM Handbook. And various sets of dice. And a DM screen. "So, how about a game?"

"That game's for nerds," you scoff.

She rattles one of the clear tubes of dice at you. "Dirk, you are in fact a nerd." She tosses the tube at you, and you catch it reflexively. She also tosses one at Alter Dave, who steps back and lets it fall.

"Nah," he says. "I want to be Debbie."

Roxy laughs, eyes a little bright. "Rose had a brief stint of leaving Chick Tracts in odd little places. I covered the door to her bedroom with a print of The Time of the Dark."

"The one with the wizard sitting in the kitchen with can of beer?" You ask.

"Yep!"

"Mean," Dave says. "Isn't Hambly kinda homophobic?" Quickly. "Not that I would know, except from what my Rose might have ranted about a time or two because she's read a few of the writer's series. I'm way too cool for wizards."

"Wizards are extremely cool," Roxy says. "And I'm not sure one way or another, except yes, if she had written certain books today the way she had then, she would be up to her ears in angry letters and tweets, because holy crap."

It turns out trolls also have roleplaying games. Redglare, Disciple and Signless join in. To your surprise, so does Demoness. Highblood, the Dolorosa and Zahhak do not.

#writing #homestuck #ai no kusabi #update #untamed #plot weasels

3 notes · View notes

bohemian-rhapsody-slash · 5 years ago

Note

I just has a heart wrenching idea, allow me to inflict it upon you: in the ddv, John and Roger are pregnant simultaneously and give birth in the same hospital. Ray doesn't know. Both John and Roger visit the nursery to see their babies at the same time and find their old friend standing their. Tears are shed, maybe a kiss

WARNING: mentions of forced/abusive relationship, tiny bit of Stockholm syndrome

*****

John can hardly believe his eyes.

He’s sure he must be dreaming, or hallucinating maybe- it could be a cruel side effect of all the painkillers he’s on.

“Deaky?”

But no...it’s him. He’s here. He’s real.

Roger looks tired. He’s dressed in the same flimsy hospital gown as John, but he really hasn’t changed that much in the last ten years. His soft blue eyes are still full of warmth, and his smile still makes John feel safe.

“Oh my god, Rog.”

It’s late; there’s no one else in the nursery, so John steps forward into Roger’s arms.

He’d forgotten how good Roger smells.

“Small world, eh?” Roger chuckles.

“Yeah,” John says with a smile. “Small world.”

Roger reaches out to tangle his fingers in John’s hair. “You have a perm now”

“Yep.” John laughs quietly, and they take a moment to just look at each other.

It’s so surreal. John has imagined this moment in his head a thousand times, but he never imagined it happening like this. The universe has a funny sense of humour.

Roger nods at the row of sleeping babies. “Which one is yours?”

John gestures towards his son. “This is Tim.”

Roger beams, leaning down to inhale the baby’s submissive scent. “He’s gorgeous, Deaky. All you of course. Freddie mentioned you were pregnant when he saw you at the opera a few months ago.”

John freezes, and suddenly the image of Freddie’s face appears in his mind and his heart sinks into his stomach. He thinks back to that night, and how he wished he’d spent more time with Freddie.

“Sorry” Roger says sadly. “I’m so...I’m so sorry-“

“Don’t be,” John says quickly. “Please. Which one is yours?”

He tries to change the subject, and thankfully Roger leads him over to see his baby girl. They chat for a few minutes about their other children, and for a while John feels like he’s living the life he was supposed to live.

“Is he here?” Roger asks, pretending to be casual as he strokes his baby’s cheek.

John doesn’t have to ask who he’s referring to.

“Yeah,” John says quietly. “He’s here.”

Roger’s expression hardens.

A few moments of silence passes between them, and all they can hear is the quiet breathing of all the babies in the room.

“Come with me,” Roger whispers. “Grab Tim and come with me. Brian’s here, we could leave now-“

“I can’t,” John says. “I have two other children at home. I can’t leave them. You know I can’t, Rog. I made a deal with him. He’d destroy you. I can’t do that to your family.”

Roger blinks back tears.

“I should get back,” John says, wiping away his own tears. “He’ll be wondering where I am.”

But before he drags himself away from his friend, he pulls Roger into another hug and brushes their lips together. Roger kisses back, gently at first, before it becomes more passionate. John tries to memorise everything about this- Roger’s scent and the warmth of his lips-

But then he has to pull away because he can’t take this, he can’t take another goodbye-

He’s running out of the nursery and back down the corridor towards his room, his heart pounding. He still feels like this is all a dream, and he wishes more than anything that he could have gone with Roger.

When he makes it back to his room, Ray is still slumped over asleep in the chair by the bed. John pads over softly and climbs back under the covers, wincing at the pain between his legs.

At that moment Ray stirs, blinking his eyes open as he focuses on his sub. “John. Everything alright? Have you been out of bed?”

John forces a smile. “I just popped to the nursery to check on Tim. Couldn’t sleep.”

Ray smiles back. “You know, I might just do the same. I’m missing him already.”

Ray is about to stand up when John remembers Roger is still in the nursery, and his heart freezes at the thought of Roger having to face Ray again.

“Before you go,” John says quickly, “any chance of a cuddle? I’ve just been a bit tearful all night because of the hormones and everything else.”

Ray gives the same warm smile he always does when John initiates intimacy between them. He seats himself carefully beside the sub on the bed and wraps his arms round him.

“You’ve been through a lot today.” Ray kisses John’s cheek. “I was really scared actually. I was worried...something might happen to you.”

John squeezes Ray’s hand. “I’m fine though. Me and the baby are both fine.”

“I know. Maybe we should do something nice as a family when you’ve had time to recover. A holiday perhaps? You’ve always loved Tenerife.”

“Mm.” John turns to rest his head on Ray’s chest.

It’s oddly peaceful and calming, and John chalks it down to the fact that he’s just given birth and his body is yearning for the presence and reassurance of a Dom.

“I was thinking I might pop home very briefly in the morning.”

John blinks up at his Dom. “You’re going to leave me on my own here?”

He hates how pathetic he sounds.

“I was only going to go and get the boys and bring them here to see you,” Ray says gently. “But if you’d rather I stayed then of course I will. I’ve told everyone at work not to bother me so I can take care of you.”

John sniffs and nods. “It’s okay, I’d like to see the boys. I’m sure they’re keen to meet their brother.”

Ray chuckles and kisses John gently. “Oh, they’re very keen, believe me.” He nudges John’s leg with his own. “I’m proud of you, John. I love you.”

“I love you too,” John says softly; a lie he’s told so many times that it’s effortless.

He hates how easily he’s fallen into this life. He hates that this feels normal. He hates that he actually wants Ray to stay with him in the hospital.

He hates himself.

#ibtyf!ddv #mpreg

29 notes · View notes

favescandis · 5 years ago

Photo

ICON Magazine: Cover Story: Million Dollar Bill (By Jessica Bailey)

Bill Skarsgård returns as the big-headed, balloon-toting demonic clown in IT Chapter Two. ICON sits down with the next big actor in Hollywood

NEW YORK CITY: Bill Skarsgård is talking me through how he mastered the sinister, bone-chilling laugh of Stephen King’s evil clown, Pennywise, in horror film It Chapter Two. “I wanted the laugh to sound like someone who is having a panic attack and is almost about to cry,” the 29-year-old Swedish actor explains. Suddenly, he begins cackling, his tall frame – which was seconds before slumped in his chair in the hotel room – rises and his eyes become so intense and fixated on something imaginary on the grey carpet between us. His voice is shaky, crackly, almost gasping for air. You feel like he could either lunge at you or burst into a million pieces at any given moment. It’s scary. “Even doing it out loud evokes a kind of unsettling feeling in myself,” Skarsgård says coming back to reality. “I kind of like it.”

Theatrical, serious and intelligent. It’s fascinating watching the actor come in and out of character; it seems as simple as flicking a light switch on and off. But Skarsgård insists the actual process on the It set – of which he, the human, disappears underneath layers of prosthetics – took more work than what I’d just witnessed. “I would scream and laugh hysterically before takes and reach a certain level of adrenaline to help me get into character for the scene,” he explains. By his own admission, Pennywise was by far the most physically and mentally draining character Skarsgård has played. But when I tell him I can’t seem to un-see Pennywise when I look at him, he almost shudders with distaste. “You see Pennywise in me?” he asks. “I think this is the first time anybody has said that. I don’t like to think too much about being associated with a murderous clown. I thought the makeup was my mask.”

While the wheedling and lethal villain is Skarsgård’s most notable role to date – and he’s brilliant in it, by the way – you might also recognise him from the 2017 mystery thriller Atomic Blonde (with Charlize Theron), the 2016 sci-fi film The Divergent Series: Allegiant (with Shailene Woodley) or Netflix’s supernatural drama Hemlock Grove. The actor has a slew of upcoming films, too, including thriller The Devil All the Time with fellow heartthrobs Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland, and drama Nine Days will see him return to fantastical fare alongside up-and-comer Zazie Beetz. To answer the obvious question, yes.

Skarsgård is related to 43-year-old Alexander Skarsgård, who is his older brother and is best known for his roles in True Blood and Big Little Lies. Both grew up in Stockholm in a family of 10, in which four of the eight children became actors. Their father, Stellan, is also a very famous actor in Sweden and starred as Professor Gerald Lambeau in Good Will Hunting. Post his ICON cover shoot in TriBeCa, NYC, we give the younger Skarsgård some pennies for his thoughts. Here, he discusses his titular character and the vast differences between his native Sweden, where no one locked the doors, and Hollywood, where men in clown makeup is a normal sight on the main strip.

ICON: Unlike Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker – an unhinged man in clown makeup – you essentially had to get inside the head of an evil and maniacal thing. How did you prepare for this role?

SKARSGÅRD: In a way, it’s even more abstract getting into the head of a madman because he’s not a man, he’s a thing. He’s a creature, an entity, so we had to come up with what the rules were for the character or the creature and then kind of humanise it in a way for me to be able to relate to it. He’s kind of the embodiment of evil – everything that’s nasty in people, he is. He’s a bully, he thrives off pain and fear and he’s mean. I used to draw on animals as a reference point a lot, like Jaws. The shark in Jaws is a monster, but it’s an animal. It’s going out trying to eat humans because it’s hungry and that element is in Pennywise as well; he’s hungry and he needs to feed. But what makes him evil and sinister is him taking pleasure out of feeding or pleasure of frightening and tormenting young children. In the first movie, the kids would cry and he would mock the kids crying and I thought that was like pretty much as evil as it gets, when you’re not only making a kid cry but you’re enjoying the fact that you’re making a kid cry. There are those people in the real world who are that bad, but I kind of wanted to go through the character mentally and think, “What is the most monstrous and evil thing I can think of?” and those things kind of came to mind.

ICON: Did you look to other famous clowns in history at all?

SKARSGÅRD: Not really. I watched Bozo The Clown and Ronald McDonald a little bit. There’s kind of a few of those iconic clowns, but the thing we didn’t want to do too much, or at least my entry way into the character, was not make him like this [makes goofy noises] doo-di-doo clown kind of a thing. Because I wanted Pennywise to have this really off thing about him. Also, Tim Curry’s clown [he portrayed Pennywise in the 1990 TV adaptation of King’s novel It) was very much more this villain, old-timey clown. That type of performance was great, but we wanted to do something different for this version. I didn’t go too far into the studying of a clown’s mimicry, but I took little pieces of what I liked and incorporated it into Pennywise.

ICON: At the time of your It audition, you lived with housemates and couldn’t practise Pennywise’s evil laugh in the house, so you had to do it in the car on the way to the audition. Tell me about that drive – in full clown makeup. Were people staring?

SKARSGÅRD: [Laughs] Yeah, that was for the callback audition. I had a version of what became his laugh pretty early on. I wanted it to sound like someone having a panic attack and it’s almost about to be a cry. That amplified became the laugh. Like it’s not someone who’s happy, it’s someone who maybe is miserable and almost having a crazy panic attack with its laugh. Even doing it out loud evokes a kind of unsettling feeling in myself that I kind of liked. But, yeah, I was driving around with this kind of basic clown makeup on and was just trying screams and laughs and everything. If it were recorded, it would have almost been a cliché of an actor’s life in Hollywood; it was so ridiculous. Going to the audition, there was only street parking, so I had to park the car and walk my way into the casting director’s office, which is right by Hollywood Boulevard, so there were construction workers out the front. When they looked at me, they didn’t even flinch. That’s just what Hollywood is, I guess. It’s like, “There’s a man walking around with a clown face laughing to himself” [laughs].

ICON: What was your experience like when you first came to Hollywood? Were there stray clowns?

SKARSGÅRD: I came to LA for the first time when I was seven years old and then again when I was 10. I’ve been travelling there since I was fairly young because of my dad, who would shoot movies out here as well. I don’t remember my perception of LA very much – I liked the weather, I liked the mall, the Beverly Center was the coolest thing ever. You know, Footlocker! At that time, you could get sneakers in America that you definitely couldn’t get in Sweden. I had all the Nike out fits.

ICON: Your brother Alexander has said he’s not a method actor when he takes on dark and dramatic roles. Are you a method actor?

SKARSGÅRD: No, I don’t need to stay in character. That approach doesn’t make sense for me. But everyone has different ways of reaching what they need to reach and I’m definitely not method, but I have my own methods. With Pennywise, it was less about character and more about the energy. You need to find a state of energy that is true for the scene that you’re playing. So say you’re doing a really emotional scene, you need to find that energy or that chemical in your body – which is all it is to me at least – and when you trigger it, tears can start. A talented actor can trigger it chemically. In your body you feel like you’re about to start crying, you make yourself start crying and it’s a chemical reaction to it, you feel it in your body. You need to reach that place before you go into the scene and that’s the sort of method that I work with.

ICON: How did this method work with Pennywise?

SKARSGÅRD: He was a very particular kind of character. He’s always so expressive and energetic. I would scream and laugh hysterically before takes and reach a certain level of adrenaline to help me get into character for the scene.

ICON: We’ve seen dark characters get to actors before. Australian actor Heath Ledger and his iconic role as the Joker – and his clown-like villain – is an extreme example of this. How do you get out of that Pennywise headspace when you arrive home at night?

SKARSGÅRD: I also heard it’s kind of a misconception; that’s a romantic idea that Heath died of the Joker performance. From all accounts I’ve heard, he really enjoyed it and he wasn’t method either.

ICON: He reportedly was very immersed in the character…

SKARSGÅRD: Oh, completely, but from actors who worked with him on the set, they were like, “He would talk about his daughter.” We have this romantic idea that “Oh, this man, he went crazy or he went to the darkest place ever and he couldn’t figure his way out.” As the public, we like those types of stories and sometimes they’re true and sometimes actors fabricate that truth in order for them to seem a little bit more remarkable. So you talk about his or her performance as, “Oh, they did all these things,” and that’s what made it so great. Sometimes I feel like some actors maybe want to feel a little bit extra special in that regard. If I go and I have a very particular type of scene, like if I’m hurting someone or if I’m being awful, that doesn’t feel good afterwards. I think the worst is not like a character like Pennywise or those kinds of villainous roles – they’re dark but they’re fun, the character enjoys what they’re doing – the characters that will really get to you are the characters that are depressed or inflicted by pain. Say you play someone who is so depressed that they are about to commit suicide. Like, if that is your day, every day going into that mindset, you’re not going to be a happy person, because your character is not happy.

ICON: Pennywise though…

SKARSGÅRD: Pennywise is enjoying what he is doing, and in the same way Joker is as well; they’re dark but they’re enjoying it. You’re playing a character who enjoys the darkness, so that is what you have to access, and you don’t have to access the lack of self-worth or characters who are paranoid or in their own head and stuff like that. There is a movie that I’m about to start doing and you read the character and he’s very unlikeable: paranoid, insecure, a pathological liar, mentally ill. As a result, he goes into this kind of schizophrenic state. I read that script and I was like, “This is going to be really, really tough for me to do. I’m going to feel like shit doing it because it’s a character who’s losing his mind throughout the whole movie.” That is the state I have to go into, so when I’m coming home from work and I’ve been in that mental state, I think those things will affect how you feel during the production of the film.

ICON: Some creepy things went down in Derry, Maine. You’re from Stockholm in Sweden – what was it like growing up there and in a household with, like, a million people?

SKARSGÅRD: It was great. Stockholm is a wonderful place for a kid. I grew up in what would be called an extremely gentrified neighbourhood, but it used to be a working class neighbourhood. It was very bohemian and we went to school with immigrants and people from different places around the world. It felt like a very diverse upbringing – at least compared to a place like LA, which is the most secluded, segregated place there is. So Stockholm was wonderful in the way that you were exposed to all these different cultures and people. You could attend different classes and we were all just going to the same schools, there were no private schools or none of that. I’m extremely happy that that was my background. It’s healthy for kids to be exposed to all of that, and my family – a big, big family – our home was always the home that you would bring your friends to. That was true for all of our siblings. Sometimes there would be like 10-15 kids hanging out in our rooms, because our parents very much had an open- door policy – nobody knocked and we never locked the doors. Everybody just walked in and out – it was a big party.

It Chapter Two is in Australian cinemas now.

Photography: Michael Schwartz Styling: Bill Mullen

https://icon.ink/articles/bill-skarsgard-pennywise-it-chapter-two-interview/

https://icon.ink/fashion-shoot/million-dollar-bill-skarsgard-tribesandtribulations-cover-photoshoot/

#Bill Skarsgård #Michael Schwartz #ICON #long post #bill skarsgar

105 notes · View notes

haberdashing · 5 years ago

Text

The End Comes Near (3/?)

TMA AU where Jon isn’t entirely wrong when he asks if Martin is a ghost in episode 39.

on AO3

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7

Jon looked like shit.

Martin knew why, of course, and he wasn’t judging, exactly. He was sure he didn’t look his best either at the moment, and he’d managed to avoid the worst of the worms’ wrath... somehow... with only a scraped knee to show for his troubles. Jon and Tim evidently hadn’t been so lucky.

Martin wondered, distantly, what would have happened if he hadn’t tripped in the tunnels, if he had been there alongside Jon and Tim to face the brunt of Prentiss’ attack. Would the worms have gotten over whatever had stopped them from... from injuring him when they’d gone after him in the tunnels, leaving Martin in as bad of shape as Jon and Tim now were? Or would the worms have died en masse in the attack, all of them that touched Martin perishing in the attempt like their comrades in the tunnels? Could he have protected his coworkers from it all, at least a little bit?

Whatever the outcome might have been, though, it wasn’t what had actually happened, and it’s not like he’d planned on tripping down there. What was done was done, and that was that.

Though Jon evidently wasn’t done with it all just yet, based on his insistence on taking Martin’s statement now, rather than after both of them had the chance to get some rest, reflect on some things, clean up a little...

Honestly, it was downright painful to look at Jon, to know how much he must be suffering right now, and to know that stupid, stubborn Jon would insist on getting Martin’s statement on tape just the same, no matter how long it took, no matter how much Martin pleaded with him to just call it a night already.

He did try, at least.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine. Painkillers are starting to wear off, but… it’s fine.”

It was not fine. It was obviously not fine, between the bloody holes that covered what looked to be the entirety of Jon’s body and the way he grimaced when he spoke. Martin wasn’t sure who Jon was trying to fool more, Martin or himself, but he doubted it was working much either way.

“Statement of Martin Blackwood, archival assistant, etcetera, etcetera. Go.”

It all really must have been getting to Jon, if he wasn’t even willing to say the full introduction before handing over the burden of speech to Martin. Jon was usually such a stickler for that kind of thing. Admittedly, Martin suspected that Jon had used the same tape when he’d pestered the rest of the staff into giving their respective statements, so the date and such would already be on it, but still... it wasn’t like Jon, to let something like that slip by the wayside, to just assume that he could flout a few technical requirements to save a bit of time. Usually it seemed like Martin was the one who’d try to find a way to cut through the formalities and Jon was the one who’d inevitably end up yelling at him for it.

He must really be hurting.

But Martin knew well enough that at this point, the only way he could help Jon was by telling his story as quickly as possible, get it over with sooner rather than later so they could all go get some rest.

“Right. Well, I was doing some background checks for case 0081709, when you and Sasha started screaming, so I went to ch-”

Jon interrupted, cutting Martin off without even a hint of hesitation, irritation evident in his voice. “Yes, yes, I was there! I was with you for almost the whole time, and that tape survived just fine.”

“Sorry.”

“Ah, it’s fine. I just… I only need from when you got separated. From when you got lost in the tunnels.”

“No, I mean...” Martin gulped as he considered his next words, though he was fairly certain both what the gist of them would be and that they probably weren’t strictly necessary. “I’m sorry I couldn’t keep up.”

Maybe it was silly, to apologize for tripping, to apologize rather than being the one apologized to when the others had been the ones who left him behind in the middle of the attack. But Martin had grown used to apologizing, over the years. Apologizing for mistakes, for accidents, for daring to take up space in the world... it came naturally at this point.

“...oh, Martin.”

And now that he’d started, he couldn’t stop, explaining and apologizing for actions that hadn’t been intentional in the first place but felt like some sort of grave error on his part all the same. “It was an accident. I mean, the worms came at us, and they were so much faster, and then there was the gas, and the running, and I just… I, I tripped, there was a rock and it wasn’t even that big but it was big enough to do the trick I suppose, and I wanted to catch up but by the time I got up you were gone, you were both gone. It was an accident.”

“I know. It’s fine, Martin. Everybody’s…” Jon let out a long sigh. “Everyone’s fine… I just need you to tell me what happened next, and then it’s finished.”

“Fine” seemed like a bit of an overstatement, in Martin’s opinion, seeing what damage had been done to Jon and Tim (and there was still a voice in the back of his head saying that he could have, should have, done something to prevent it), but Jon had a point. All Martin had to do was explain his piece of the puzzle, and then it was all over with, at least for tonight. Then they could all go home. Then they could try to put this whole ordeal behind them.

“Alright. So, um, yeah, I tripped, scraped my knee a bit, and one of the worms actually jumped on my arm-”

Jon looked up from his gazing at the tape recorder, his eyes wide with a sharp clarity Martin was sure hadn’t been there a moment before. “Did the ECDC check you out?”

“Yes!” Martin said, perhaps a bit louder than necessary, and Jon nodded, his gaze slowly sinking back downwards. “But they didn’t need to, really, because the worm barely touched me. I looked away, just waiting for- well, for whatever came next, I suppose, and then I saw the worm was on the ground, still and dead. There were a few others laying dead there around where I’d fallen--I guess they must have gone after me and I hadn’t even noticed, and somehow that had killed them, too?”

Jon looked back up at Martin, but he didn’t say a word, though Martin could read well enough the curiosity in his eyes.

“Reminded me a bit of how you asked if I was a ghost, really. Ghosts can’t get eaten by worms, can they?”

Jon groaned quietly and made a show of looking anywhere besides at Martin, and despite everything, Martin found himself having to suppress a snort of laughter.

“So once I got up I, I tried shouting, but you didn’t answer...”

It was surprisingly easy to explain the rest from there. Martin felt like it would have been a lot harder if it was just a normal conversation he was having with Jon, like he would have tripped over half his words then, but it was different, somehow, with the tape recorder sitting between them. Like he was just another statement-giver, and it was his job to make sure what he had to say made sense, as much as any of this made sense to begin with.

Jon interjected once briefly, to help keep Martin on track, but he only really began asking questions once Martin reached the bit about finding Gertrude Robinson’s body.

“Martin, how did Gertrude Robinson die?”

Martin was pretty sure he knew how Gertrude Robinson had died; her injuries had been obvious enough, and he had left that room feeling a deep certainty as to the cause of death, though any details beyond that still eluded him. But the officers he had spoken to hadn’t appreciated his making assumptions, and Martin proceeded figuring that Jon probably wouldn’t either, especially given how thorough he was being about this whole thing.

“I don’t know. Not for sure. It was so dark, and I only saw the body for a few seconds. The police were quite clear that the cause of death could be absolutely any-”

“MARTIN!” Jon’s near-shouting startled Martin, shook him out of his previous train of thought. “How did she die?”

Martin’s answer came like a reflex. “She was shot! Three times, that I could see. Three shots to the chest.”

“Right. Right. Thank you, Martin.”

“...sure.” Martin didn’t feel like reporting a murder was something to be thanked for, but he was willing to accept it to keep the conversation moving just the same.

As Jon’s hand moved towards the tape recorder, preparing to turn it back off, Martin spoke up again.

“Er, I know it’s not strictly needed anymore, but can I keep living in the Archives?”

Jon’s finger rested atop the button to turn the tape recorder off as he stared at Martin as if he’d just grown a second head. “You want to stay in the Archives. Where there are thousands of rotting worm carcasses? That Archives?”

Martin could feel the blood draining from his face; he hadn’t actually thought through that angle of things just yet.

“Why would you want to, anyway?”

“Well, I keep thinking about when you asked if I was a ghost-”

Jon sighed, but Martin pressed on just the same.

“-and it’s true that I haven’t left the Institute’s building for some time now. I just keep thinking, what if you were right?”

“I was joking.”

Martin was quite sure that Jon’s question hadn’t been intended as a joke, and after a moment of uncertainty, decided to continue as if Jon hadn’t just claimed otherwise. “What if, if something happens to me when I try to leave?”

Jon pressed one hand against his temple, which had to be all kinds of unsanitary, given that both were covered with still-bloody worm holes. “You’re not a ghost, Martin. You’ll be fine. Just... just go home.”

Jon clicked off the tape recorder, and Martin considered how easily it could have been him telling Jon to go home already rather than vice versa, given the situation. It was probably just a weird bit of superstition that kept him wanting to stay in the building, or perhaps some variation of Stockholm Syndrome. Certainly, the last thing Martin wanted was to spend another night surrounded by worms, even if they were all dead already.

So Martin got up, collected what things he had around the office that hadn’t been utterly destroyed by the worm infestation, and went home.

#tma #tma au #tma fic #tma fanfic #the magnus archives #the magnus archives au #the magnus archives fic #the magnus archives fanfic #personal #my writing

8 notes · View notes

gardenofedenuniverse · 7 years ago

Text

Interview Magazine: Bill Skarsgard.

Of the eight Skarsgård siblings, four of them—Valter, Bill, Gustaf and Alexander—are professional actors, each blessed with the good looks and distinctly rakish swagger of their father, Stellan. So the odds of 26-year-old Bill finding his footing in the industry weren't exactly stacked against him. More unexpected is the path he's chosen: neither through the mainstream (such as Alexander, a leading man since his star turn on HBO's True Blood) nor through auteur-driven projects (such as Stellan, who has appeared in six films by the Danish provocateur Lars von Trier), but rather through a series of unexpected, résumé-confounding detours. Take his biggest American role to date, as Pennywise, the demonic child-eating clown, in the upcoming remake of It, out thisSeptember. As the blood-curdling creature originally played by Tim Curry in the 1990 miniseries of the same name, Skarsgård spends the entire film hidden beneath layers of garish and grotesque makeup—a daring choice for any young actor with matinee idol features. But Skarsgård has been in the business long enough to know what he's doing. He spent much of his youth traveling the world with his father, from film set to film set, and his first role came at the age of 9, as the younger brother to Alexander's character in the Swedish thriller White Water Fury (2000). After being cast in a handful of roles, both big and small, back home—including an award-winning turn as a young man with Asperger's syndrome in Simple Simon (2010)—his first major appearance on Stateside screens was in the Netflix fantasy series Hemlock Grove. This July, he will begin his play for international stardom alongside Charlize Theron and James McAvoy in Atomic Blonde, a high-octane spy thriller set in a simmering East Berlin. After that, he'll appear in Assassination Nation, alongside cool-kids Hari Nef and Suki Waterhouse. But first: breakfast. Over a meal at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, Skarsgård submits to some words of wisdom—and a little gentle bullying—from his older brother Alexander. ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD: Did you take out the trash this morning? BILL SKARSGÅRD: No. Why? ALEXANDER: Well, as your older brother, I think I should make sure you do that. Routines, or lack thereof, are a pretty good way to get to know someone. So what have you done today? What time did you wake up? BILL: You were at my house last night. ALEXANDER: But I tapped out early, because I'm a responsible journalist. BILL: But being the gracious host that I am, I had to entertain my houseguests. People left around 1 a.m. and I went to bed, so it wasn't super-late by my standards. I woke up around 10. I had a cup of coffee; that's the first thing I do in the morning. ALEXANDER: How do you take it? BILL: Black. ALEXANDER: Like your soul? BILL: Like my soul. [laughs] And then I've been doing some really uneventful things. I worked on an audition that I have tomorrow and answered some e-mails, and now I'm here for this interview. ALEXANDER: I suddenly feel like maybe it was a mistake, as a journalist, to fraternize the night before with the person I'm going to interview. BILL: Everything that happened last night was on the record—is that what you're saying? Did you take notes? ALEXANDER: It was officially off the record, but as a serious journalist, I feel like maybe I shouldn't have done that. BILL: Well, that's on you. ALEXANDER: It is on me. But let's move on. You said 10 a.m. is not particularly late for you. It sounds pretty late to me. It's a Tuesday—shit, I even got that wrong. It's a Monday. BILL: Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. is usually when I get up. I've always been a night person. There's a sense of virtue attached to getting up in the morning and doing things and starting the day, and I always felt bad for not being that person. But as I've gotten a bit older, now I'm completely okay with it. That's just who I am. ALEXANDER: Because you feel like you get a lot of shit done at night when other people are sleeping? BILL: Yeah, or I just don't like mornings. The day feels way too long for me. ALEXANDER: Do you also feel that life is too long? Do you wish that life were a bit shorter? BILL: Just the day. ALEXANDER: What would be ideal for you, a four-hour day? [laughs] BILL: Stockholm is a good place for it, in the winter. ALEXANDER: What do you miss about Sweden, other than friends and family and all that? Is there anything specific that you miss when you're abroad? BILL: I miss being in my home country; here, I'm always a foreigner. America is, of course, built of people who are not from here. But going home, even just landing at Arlanda, the Stockholm airport, I think, "This is where I'm from. These people are my people." ALEXANDER: Does it make you even more proud of Sweden because you have that distance? BILL: It's not about being proud of Sweden; it's just a sense of belonging. Even if you've lived in a place for a long time, those first formative years are going to be a part of you forever, and it's something you can't replace. ALEXANDER: Why don't you have a home? BILL: I think it's a commitment issue for me. I have a hard time committing to stuff. ALEXANDER: What's wrong with us? I'm also homeless. Maybe it's a fear of missing out. Like, if I commit to one city and get a place there, then maybe there is something else out there. But wouldn't it be nice to have somewhere where you can at least drop your bag and unpack? BILL: 100 percent. I've been living like this for the past five or six years, so I'm looking for an apartment in Stockholm. Just like a two-bedroom thing. Every apartment I look at is so nice and tastefully renovated. ALEXANDER: Great furniture and beautifully done, but they all look identical. I think that kind of sums up the Swedish mentality in a way. It's all beautiful midcentury modern furniture, and they all have that Moroccan rug. You won't find originality. Swedes are very safe that way. So, what's your first memory from a film set other than with Dad when you were a kid? BILL: Well, my first film was with you. ALEXANDER: Oh, yeah. I didn't want to say it, but I got you into this business. I can take you out of it. [laughs] BILL: I would never have been here if it wasn't for the role of Klasse in White Water Fury. I was the only kid on set, and I remember I got upset for some reason. Do you remember the story? I ran away from set or something? ALEXANDER: Oh, I remember what it was. The fruit basket in your trailer wasn't fresh enough. And they got Evian instead of Perrier, so you stormed off and called your agent. BILL: [laughs] At 9 years old. ALEXANDER: You called your agent-slash-kindergarten teacher. I don't remember you being upset, but I do have a very vivid memory where you wrapped early one day, and they took you back to the hotel, and I had another scene. When I got back, you were just standing outside in the parking lot, waiting for me, and it broke my heart. It was just the two of us. We obviously come from a big family back in Stockholm. I never felt needed. It was always chaos with Mom, Dad, uncles, you know, we all lived in the same building. Dinner parties with 25 people every night. And for the first time, you and I went away together, and suddenly I wasn't just a big brother. I felt paternal. You were just standing in the parking lot waiting for your big brother to come home, because you didn't know anyone and you didn't know what to do. If I ever need a little sense memory for a scene, that vision of coming around the corner and seeing you standing there, this little boy in this massive parking lot, is really beautiful and heartbreaking. It was the first time I ever felt needed. BILL: That's a lovely story. ALEXANDER: We come from a family of musicians, artists, authors, creative people, and the only exception is our mom and one of our brothers—they're doctors. How often do you brag about them at dinner parties? BILL: There's definitely a sense of embarrassment about what it is artists really do, at least for me in terms of acting. We have a mom and a brother who literally save lives. ALEXANDER: He works at an ICU so he, on a daily basis, saves lives. Do you have a sense of guilt because he works his ass off and makes less money than you? BILL: Yeah, of course. It's not fair. I'm constantly embarrassed at the level of attention actors get and the level of money that we get. It's completely disproportionate. I think you have to feel guilty about it. I think it makes you a better person to keep reminding yourself. ALEXANDER: Your becoming an actor—was that the path of least resistance or was it a calling? BILL: All thanks to you for blessing me with the part of Klasse in White Water Fury. ALEXANDER: You're welcome. You might want to remind yourself of that more often, but I do appreciate it. BILL: I started acting when I was 9. I did smaller parts here and there as a kid, and then as I grew older I started resisting it, because I didn't like the idea of being, at the time, number four of the Skarsgård actors—Dad, you, and our brother Gustaf. So in high school I majored in science and was like, "Maybe I'll do something rebellious and become a doctor." [laughs] ALEXANDER: Did you seriously entertain that idea? BILL: I don't think I would ever be a doctor, but the reason I majored in science was because you could become a civil engineer, you could become a biologist, you could become a computer scientist—that was the point of it. I had no idea what I wanted to do. In my last two years of high school—because they would still reach out to me for auditions and I would read scripts—there happened to be these few scripts that I really responded to. One in particular that I read, I was like, "Oh, this is a real character. This is amazing." I was like, "I really, really want to do this." It was Hannes Holm's film, and I saw him at a premiere—I was, like, 19 at the time, I had probably been to three or four auditions, but I wasn't cast or anything—and I went up to him and was like, "I don't know what I need to do, but I need to be in your film." Eventually, I landed the job, and that was something that I felt transcended whatever other people would think of me. ALEXANDER: Do you believe you're a good actor? Do you think you deserve to be here because of your talent? BILL: 100 percent. ALEXANDER: Do you ever feel like a shit actor? BILL: 100 percent. I feel like I'm the best actor on the planet and I also feel like I'm a fraud. ALEXANDER: Simultaneously, or does it fluctuate? BILL: They're kind of simultaneous. I think hubris comes from insecurity. Confidence comes in a more rooted sense; part of being confident is being able to say, "I can be really shitty," and to accept that. But also not to crumble under it. ALEXANDER: So, the official It trailer has been viewed over 197 million times. It set a record for the most online views in a single day, when it launched. Why? Do we just fear clowns that much? BILL: I think it's huge for an older generation. Do you remember the original? ALEXANDER: I never saw the original. BILL: But did people talk about it in school? ALEXANDER: Yeah. BILL: I remember It being the scariest thing that existed for a kid. There were other horror films, like Friday the 13th or Halloween, but this was the really scary one because it was children and a clown. So many people go, "That film really destroyed my childhood," or, "I hated clowns after that." Hopefully, there will be a lot of 10-year-olds who will be traumatized forever based on my performance. [laughs] ALEXANDER: Is it R-rated? BILL: It probably will be, yeah. ALEXANDER: So those 10-year-old kids won't be able to see it then. BILL: Well, no, but— ALEXANDER: They'll still be traumatized by the poster. BILL: But not even that. The movies that they're not allowed to see are the movies that they're going to really want to see. ALEXANDER: Does it feel good knowing that kids around the world for decades to come will have nightmares about you? BILL: It's a really weird thing to go, "If I succeed at doing what I'm trying to do with this character, I'll traumatize kids." On set, I wasn't very friendly or goofy. I tried to maintain some sort of weirdness about the character, at least when I was in all the makeup. At one point, they set up this entire scene, and these kids come in, and none of them have seen me yet. Their parents have brought them in, these little extras, right? And then I come out as Pennywise, and these kids—young, normal kids—I saw the reaction that they had. Some of them were really intrigued, but some couldn't look at me, and some were shaking. This one kid started crying. He started to cry and the director yelled, "Action!" And when they say "action," I am completely in character. So some of these kids got terrified and started to cry in the middle of the take, and then I realized, "Holy shit. What am I doing? What is this? This is horrible." ALEXANDER: Was this your first interaction with a child where you realized how terrifying it would be for them? BILL: Yeah. But then we cut, and obviously I was all, "Hey, I'm sorry. This is pretend." [laughs] ALEXANDER: Last question: Have you called Mom? BILL: Um, I haven't called her today, no. ALEXANDER: No? Call Mom.

#bill skarsgard #alexander skarsgard #interview magazine #garden of eden universe

19 notes · View notes

theworstbob · 8 years ago

Text

yellin’ at songs, 4.14.2007 + 4.15.2017

the songs that debuted on the billboard chart this week and ten years ago this week. today: buttrock confessions

4.14.2007

40) "Ticks," Brad Paisley

So I watched the whole entire CMAs instead of Game 7 of the World Series and don't regret a single choice I made (the game went into extras, you don’t really have to watch baseball until the ninth inning tbh), and it struck me how much of a dorky theatre kid Brad Paisley was. He's objectively a great guitarist, like hokey as this song is and as little I know about music I think that's a dope fucking guitar line, but gosh darn, he was trying so hard the whole time at those CMAS! And that puts a song like this in perspective, because, like I said, it's hokey as fuck, but if you can just understand that Brad Paisley's sense of humor is that of someone who understands that being funny is a way to be Liked and is trying his best to be Liked, it sort of comes together and you can brush it off.

75) "We Takin' Over," DJ Khaled ft./T.I., Akon, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Lil' Wayne, Baby

FUCK DUDE LIL' WAYNE USED TO BE GOOD. Like OK I think we all know I wanted to come here and be like "look at the humble beginnings of the meme man! He wasn't such a meme in these days!" but then there was a Lil' Wayne verse where he wasn't fucking around with Auto-tune, he was just rapping, and he was such a good fucking rapper that I'm actually angrier at the two "verses" he had on those Nicki Minaj songs a couple weeks back. It's not even one of his more notable verses, I don't think, it was just a normal 10-year-old Wayne verse, but I'm still here like, what a treat, a Lil' Wanye feature I don't mind! How lucky we were in 2007!

78) "Little Wonders," Rob Thomas

it is good to remember things that are nice! the lyric video i watched for this song ended with this message from the editor: "Believe in yourself, follow your dreams, and never, EVER give up =)." i would have much rather someone had just repeated those words over and over for three and a half minutes than listened to this song. DANNY ELFMAN?! fuck are you doing here, danny elfman? are you lost?

79) "Hey There Delilah," Plain White T's

There is nothing I could say about this song that would be worth saying.

82) "I Tried," Bone Thugs-N-Harmony ft./Akon

a'ight, see, now i feel better about bumping pink and jordan pruitt from the top 20, because it won't be some buttrock heroes what bumps 'em, it'll be a legit impressive, heartfelt song. i'm kinda surprised i don't remember this! now i just gotta contend with the fact most of both top 20s are gonna be dudes. but like most of these songs are dudes. this week is all dudes. next week is a 7:2 dude-to-lady ratio. last week was 2:1. maybe less dudes? idk, recency bias is doin' work, but at least two weeks from now, we're gonna get some dope tunes.

87) "Get Buck," Young Buck

HOLY SHIT THIS FUCKING BEAT THE TUBA HAS NEVER HAD A BETTER DAY IN ITS LIFE. OK, this is the first 2007 track I think has been unjustifiably forgotten by time. “Say OK” hit me, but I think that was just a moment for me. This is objectively a classic, this fucking beat, man. Young Buck doesn't add a ton to the proceedings, but he doesn't ruin anything, his gruff, shouty flow is perfect for the beat, and I'll admit, I got a dark chuckle out of the "I can serve Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown" line. This was fuckin' rad, y'all, the best "new to me" song I've heard so far. Seriously this beat, how have we not found a better home for it, how did no one else latch onto it. A strong silver medalist in the "Southern rap songs with the word 'buck' in the title" category.

89) "A Woman's Love," Alan Jackson

Alan Jackson, last seen walking out on Beyonce's performance at the CMAs, is here singing a jaunty tune about how one time he fucked.

91) "Love Today," MIKA

i mean it's just a good song, man, i dunno. i'm allowed to just say when a song is solid and something i can jam to, right, when i don't think i have anything to justify? it's low-rent scissor sisters. I'LL TAKE THAT ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. solid week.

95) "Forever," Papa Roach

...oh goddamnit i love this song. No, you don't... Lemme explain. I need to explain, so lemme. So, I listened to a lot of the local buttrock station in my teens, because that's what the radio at the auto shop where I worked was always tuned to, was 93X. And, I dunno, there's a lot of bullshit I forgot and a lot of shit too horrible to purge from the mind, I've heard the acoustic version of Staind's "Outside" more times than any man ever should, but there were some songs where the Stockholm Syndrome hit, and you were like, "Well, maybe Chevelle isn't ALL bad." This was definitely the point where I was like, "Hey, this is the one decent Papa Roach song!" I was legit angry when I realized this was that song, I forgot I ever loved a Papa Roach song, I was 10000% sure this was a cover because there was no way I was going to go anywhere but IN on this song, but no, this is a song I shouted in the shower at least five times. I'm so disappointed in myself right now, but... But, yeah, this is, I can’t quite place where they cribbed the verses from but they cribbed well, the chorus is shouty and fake-deep like all the great buttrock songs, and I love that ending, the “one last kiss” thing over that bass line, without reservation. We have to be true to who we were, and who we are is never fully removed from who we were. I hate this. I hate having to admit this. THE ONE PAPA ROACH SONG I FUCK WITH, AND IT HAS TO BE PART OF THIS PROJECT. I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT A KENDRICK LAMAR SONG SOON, AND HERE I AM, FUCKING WITH A PAPA ROACH SONG, THROWING MY CRITICAL AUTHORITY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER.

97) "Breath," Breaking Benjamin

I have less reservations about loving a Breaking Benjamin song, though, because Breaking Benjamin wasn't fake-deep like Papa Roach. ("My feelings for you are forever." God, that's stupid. I love a very stupid thing.) No, Breaking Benjamin was legit dark, they were a buttrock band I knew was OK because my friend who ended up going to a semi-prestigious art high school of some renown was into them. Is it the same song as "The Diary of Jane?" Yeah, kinda, there's more than a little resemblance, "THE DIARY OF JANE" IS A LEGIT GREAT SONG AND BITING THAT SONG IS A SMART MOVE.

At least Papa Roach couldn’t crack the Top 20. 2007: gaining strength! 20) "Get it Shawty," by Lloyd (3.31.2007) 19) "Break 'Em Off," by Paul Wall ft./Lil' KeKe (3.10.2007) 18) "My Oh My," by The Wreckers (1.27.2007) 17) "Mr. Jones," by Mike Jones (1.27.2007) 16) "Settlin'," by Sugarland (2.17.2007) 15) "I Tried," by Bone Thugs 'n Harmony (4.21.2007) 14) "Movin' On," by Elliott Yamin (3.17.2007) 13) "U + Ur Hand," by P!nk (1.13.2007) 12) "Doe Boy Fresh," by Three 6 Mafia ft./Chamillionaire (1.20.2007) 11) "Breath," by Breaking Benjamin (4.21.2007) 10) "Beautiful Liar," by Beyonce & Shakira (3.31.2007) 9) "Cupid's Chokehold," by Gym Class Heroes ft./Patrick Stump (1.13.2007) 8) "The River," by Good Charlotte ft./M. Shadows & Synyster Gates (2.10.2007) 7) "Say OK," by Vanessa Hudgens (2.17.2007) 6) "Alyssa Lies," by Jason Michael Carroll (1.13.2007) 5) "Get Buck," by Young Buck (4.21.2007) 4) "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," by Jennifer Hudson (1.13.2007) 3) "Candyman," by Christina Aguilera (1.13.2007) 2) "Because of You," by Ne-Yo (3.17.2007) 1) "Dashboard," by Modest Mouse (2.17.2007)

4.15.2017

22) "The Heart Part 4," by Kendrick Lamar

I mean, with the way I do this thing, everything that's been said about this song has been said, and I'm hella late to the party, trying to get another round of Pin the Tail on the Donkey started. "You didn't have fun without me, I'm about to have fun WITH you!" No Bob! we already played that game Bob!. "BLINDFOLD ME!" I think it's vitally important that Kendrick Lamar remind everyone that he's the best MC alive right now, because he is, and gosh, he just fucking raps for four minutes. Barely a hook, just Kendrick Lamar verses and flows for a solid four minutes, and I'm really curious how many rappers could sustain a song for four (mostly) uninterrupted minutes just on their own. Minimalist production, it's just your voice and your words. I'd put Danny Brown in that category, but it'd be a bleak-ass four minutes. I want to put Killer Mike in that category, but I have to think there's a reason he works best in a duo. I'd want to listen to what four minutes of undiulted Young Thug would sound like?, but more out of curiosity than belief in his ability. And I mean Kendrick's the only one in the popular consciousness who could do it, no fuckin’ question, there's no one in the mainstream rap world anywhere NEAR his level. (Kendrick Lamar is barely mainstream, of course, and that fact is a source of much consternation on this song, like there's no way the entire Kendrick album breaks the Hot 100 like the entire Drake album did, but he was in a Tay Tay song the one time and that's enough.) Just listening to Kendrick Lamar rap is one of the most thrilling songs I've heard for YAS 2017. Honestly, I'm ranking it too low in the Top 20, but only because I have to think better things are on their way and am wary of that recency bias wave.

49) "XO Tour Lif3," by Lil Uzi Vert

Congratulations on being the modern rap song which followed "The Heart Part 4!" You were always going to suffer in comparison, and while I regret that it happened to you, I hope you understand it had to happen to someone. I mean, this is a three-minute song, and at some point I got bored enough that I forgot I was supposed to be paying attention to come up with an observation and/or a joke and did other things. Not even shit I needed to take care of, I checked Facebook and thought about getting a glass of milk until he started saying all his friends are dead, like what?, oh okay I guess that's how this song ends then, OH FUCK well prolly not worth dipping back in if I got that distracted.

61) "Speak to a Girl," by Tim McGraw & Faith Hill

So over the last four weeks, only three women have had tracks debut on the Hot 100. That's pretty cool. One of the three dudes who wrote this song, about what a girl REALLY wants from a man, was also a co-writer on Jason Derulo's "Wiggle," which is, I mean, I'm going off Wikipedia, I'm hopeful this is too awful to be true, but if it isn't, how does that dude sleep at night? What does that dude believe in? Who is his god, just, to what moral authority is our man Joe London holding himself accountable? Do Not Trust Joe London. Another of the songwriters worked with a band called Confederate Railroad. Country music is the coolest. I'm so proud to like this genre.

66) "Still Got Time," by ZAYN ft./PARTYNEXTDOOR

First of all, we need to take a minute to discuss the sheer disrespect for the concept of caps lock expressed by ZAYN and PARTYNEXTDOOR. This is a mumblecore pop song, and I must insist these dudes cease using all capital letters until they prove they're capable of expressing excitement. Other than that gripe, though, I dunno, I didn't have a bad time! I enjoyed it about as much as I did "Running Back" a few weeks ago, it didn't light this Tuesday evening on fire, but it was a chill groove, and I appreciated the B+ to which all involved contributed. Also, new favorite Wikipedia line: "Shane Lindstrom, professionally known as Murda Beatz." One, professionally known. Two, imagine ever asking someone to call you Murda. Gosh, what a stupid fucking stage name. (Stage name? Backstage name? Why do you need an alias bro you're a fucking producer, you don't get to have a fake name, the fuck makes you think you can have a fake name. Even Swizz Beatz rapped sometimes, what is your goddamned problem Murda Beatz.)

2017′s Top 20! I lowered “Run Up” again. I miss it dearly but I can’t pretend I liked it more than “Green Light.” 20) "Swalla," by Jason Derulo ft./Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign (4.8) 19) "Light," by Big Sean ft./Jeremih (2.25) 18) "Everyday," by Ariana Grande ft./Future (3.4) 17) "Draco," by Future (3.11) 16) "Guys My Age," by Hey Violet (2.11) 15) "Good Drank," by 2 Chainz ft./Gucci Mane & Quavo (2.11) 14) "Yeah Boy," Kelsea Ballerini (3.4) 13) "Selfish," by Future ft./Rihanna (3.18) 12) "Slide," by Calvin Harris ft./Frank Ocean & Migos (3.18) 11) "It Ain't Me," by Kygo x Selena Gomez (3.4) 10) "Now & Later," by Sage the Gemini (2.25) 9) "Shape of You," by Ed Sheeran (1.28) 8) "That's What I Like," by Bruno Mars (3.4) 7) "The Heart Part 4," by Kendrick Lamar (4.15) 6) "Chanel," by Frank Ocean ft./A$AP Rocky (4.1) 5) "Run Up," by Major Lazer ft./PARTYNEXTDOOR & Nicki Minaj (2.18) 4) "Green Light," by Lorde (3.18) 3) "Despacito," by Luis Fonsi ft./Daddy Yankee (2.4) 2) "Issues," by Julia Michaels (2.11) 1) "iSpy," by KYLE ft./Lil Yachty (1.14) how the fuck did “swalla” make it two weeks Also, I know there was a new Iggy Azalea song, and I’m just gonna say, if having to listen to 21 Drake songs was the price I paid to not have to hear 1 Iggy Azalea song, I will have been glad to have paid the toll. That is a reasonable trade, one I would never say no to. Boy I hope it doesn’t debut next week! Also: “iSpy” in the for-real top five! That’s so dope! I’m happy for that song!

Who won the week?

2007 had the stronger showing this week, and let’s be real, I think it’s out-paced 2017 at this point. 2007′s at the point where “Get It Shawty” is hanging on by a thread while “Grace Kelly” and “Outside Looking In” are outside looking in. 2017 needs to step its game up. We’re two weeks from “Umbrella.” Is that so much to ask, is for just one instant classic era-defining monster jam that shatters the world? Come on, 2017! 2007: 2 2017: 1

0 notes