#Tyler Carter writing

[bartxnhood]

mayberry | t.o

tyler owens x fem!reader

based on this request: Requesting one, where Tyler and his crew chasing the tornado as casual but there's a twist (it can be a happy or angst ending) what if the tornado they chase was heading to where reader lives, today he was planning on asking her to move on with him after they finished another successful on making the tornado gone yet when he noticed where it was going he drives faster and trying to outrun the tornado.

warnings: descriptions of tornadoes, reader loses her house, blood, cuts.

w/c: 1.8k

requests open

not proofread

Copyright © 2023 bartxnhood. All rights reserved. This original work is not allowed to be reposted on any platform in any format.

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“shes a pistol, ty. hope you can handle her” javier begins, removing his sunnies and leans against his white truck while looking at tyler across the driveway of your mothers house.

tyler smiles to himself at the mention of you. he looks in his wallet, a picture of you and him at a rodeo. you’re wearing his red flannel and white cowboy hat as you kiss his cheek.

a picture he treasured most. no one knew about this picture in his wallet. it was his own little secret, you didn’t even know he had the polaroid.

tyler and you both majored in meteorology throughout your time in college. storm chasers had a limited dating pool. nobody was willing to chase after these monstrous storms in such a way and then return to laugh about it over a few beers.

that’s why he took such a liking to you.

tyler didn't try to hide his feelings first. he would constantly try to convince you to go out with him or do something else, but you would never accept his advances. you didn't believe that you could put up with his ego.

till you began chasing with him.

since then, you saw a side of him that you didn’t know. tyler was a kind hearted man, caring for the people that fell victim to these storms. he was so intelligent that it made you rethink your own decisions, that was rare.

before you knew it, you started falling for tyler owens. the rest is history.

“i’m thinkin bout asking her to move in with me after we get this storm tonight.” tyler confesses to javier, a sly smirk on his face. javier’s eyebrows raise, cocking his hip to the side and crossing his arms.

“you think she’ll say yes?”

tyler presses his lips into a thin smile, stuffing his wallet into his back pocket where it belongs. “i hope so.” he answers, looking up towards the house.

tyler had decided it was time to take the next step with you. he had been thinking about asking you to move in with him for a while now, and he was sure it was the right decision.

he loved you deeply and couldn’t imagine his life without you. he wanted to wake up next to you every morning, cook breakfast together, and spend evenings cuddled up on the couch watching movies.

the thought of you living together filled him with excitement and joy, and he couldn’t wait to see the look on your face when he popped the question.

“guys!” lilly hollers, exiting the rv, running towards the pair. “we have huge activity southeast. we gotta move, now!”

there’s a tension that settled in over the group as they all scrambled to get their things together and radars ready.

tyler’s first thought was you. he takes off, boots stomping in the puddles as he swings the screen door open.

“y/n?” he hollers, taking his sunglasses off.

“up here!” you answer, drying your hair after a shower.

you watch in the mirror as tyler appears in the doorway, “whats up?” you ask, dropping your hand by your sides. “there’s one southeast. big one.” he’s almost grinning hoping to get you excited but his smile drops when you don’t react.

there’s a silence as you begin to rake product through the ends of your hair. “cmon, we don’t wanna miss it. lilly says it’ll touch down in an hour at least.”

“m’not goin” you reply, looking into his eyes from the mirror. “what? whaddya mean?”

“it’s mom” you answer, followed by a sigh. “she’s doing bad again, she’s freaking out over it and i’m just gonna stay with her. the house isn’t in the path so it should be fine” you say, turning to him.

you can see a soft frown on his lips as he looks down at you, “we always chase together.”

you smile sadly, and nod. you let your hand come up and caress his cheek. “i know, darlin. we’ll get the next one i promise.”

you press a quick kiss on his lips, “be safe, baby.” he replies, kissing the top of your head and heading off with the crew.

the atmosphere was thick and heavy with a sense of impending doom as the tornado began to take shape. the clouds churned and wracked, twisting into a massive, menacing funnel cloud. the noise was deafening, a high-pitched roar that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

gusts of wind howled like a beast, tearing at anything in their path. this was no ordinary twister; this was an EF5, the most powerful and destructive tornado there was. it loomed on the horizon, a sinister harbinger of disaster.

tyler, now chasing the storm, was strapped into his well-worn red dodge. his eyes fixed on the churning sky as he chased a massive storm through the southeast landscapes. his truck was a trusted companion, having borne him through countless weather events.

its engine roared confidently as tyler navigated the treacherous terrain, seeking the perfect position to observe the storm up close and capture its raw power. he was fueled by a deep passion for the spectacle of the weather and driven by the adrenalin rush of being in the heart of the swirling chaos.

“you seein this, T?!” boone hollers from the passenger seat. “i’m seein it boone!” he yells back, knuckles white on the steering wheel.

tyler doesn’t remove his eyes from the storm raging in the wheat field, but something feels off. something isn’t right.

“what is it, ty?” javier calls over the radio noticing his decreasing speed. tyler is too mesmerized by the black clouds, he doesn’t reply. “T?” boone calls.

“something’s wrong.” he mumbles, “the path..the path is changing!” he says hurriedly watching the surroundings.

lilly pipes from the backseat, “its moving northwest! heading straight for mayberry!”

“shit.” tyler hits his steering wheel before making a sharp turn, turning around.

“the path is shifting!” boone alerts over the radio.

tyler’s heart launched in his chest watching the twister hurtling towards the small town where you lived. he’d often worried about this, and now his worst nightmare was unfolding before his eyes.

his grip tightened on the steering wheel, and his eyes darkened as he gunned the engine, pushing the red dodge to its limits. he had to get to you, had to make sure you were safe. his mind raced as he calculated how much time he had, the seconds ticking away in an excruciating countdown.

there was no warning, the storm was moving too unpredictably. you should’ve monitored it closer, you should’ve been more prepared.

the house trembled violently as the tornado tore through the neighborhood.

the windows shattered, spraying glass everywhere. the walls creaked and groaned, buckling under the immense pressure of the onslaught.

pictures fell from the walls, their frames splattering on the floor. furniture was hurled around like toys, breaking apart as it smashed into the remaining walls.

“mom!” you holler, staying low to the ground reaching out for her. she takes your hand and you pull her close to your body.

“hold on tight!” you scream.

the two of you huddled together, their screams blending into the cacophony, their eyes wide with terror. outside, the world had become a blur of debris and chaos, the swirling vortex ripping everything apart in its path.

tyler stepped out of his truck followed by boone and lilly. his heart thudding heavily in his chest as he saw the destruction hoping beyond hope that she was safe. but the sight that greeted him was a nightmare. your once-cheerful home had been reduced to a pile of rubble, the remnants of your life scattered among the wreckage. the tornado had ripped through the property, leaving destruction in its wake.

the property wasn’t recognizable, the only way he knew it was your home was your white jeep wrapped around the willow tree.

tyler’s hands come up and run thorough his hair, “oh god..” he breathes. “jesus christ..” boone says just above a whisper.

tyler can’t let his emotions get the best of him. he needed to find you.

“y/n!” he hollers.

“y/n!” lilly screams. “ms.l/n” boone calls for your mom.

tyler pushes his way through the debris, his eyes scanning the rubble for any sign of you.

he continued to pulled lumber, pillars, glass and furniture for what felt like hours. “y/n!” his heart thudding against his chest with every moment that passed. panic clawed at his gut as he continued his desperate search.

finally, he heard a faint sound, like a whimper. he turned, and there you were, buried under a pile of rubble.

his breath caught in his throat as he carefully dug you out, his hands trembling.

as your face came into view, it was smeared with dirt and blood, but your eyes widened with relief as you saw him. “t?” you rasp.

he gently picked you up, cradling you against him like a fragile doll.

"i'm here," he whispered, his voice rough with emotion. "im here, and you're going to be okay."

you wince, standing on the unstable ground. “mom..” you croak, tears brimming down your eyes again. “she’s down there..”

tyler nods, he looks back at boone and was about to go down and search for her but boone stops him. “i got her.”

boone disappears in the pile of rubble, then he emerges with your mother in his arms. “we need an ambulance!”

tyler nods and leaves you with lilly to call for first responders.

“‘m fine, t.” you say, say in the back of the ambulance. “just makin sure..” he whispered taking your arm in his hands and scanning your skin. he needed to make sure you weren’t seriously injured, even though you were just checked out by ems.

“t..” you sighs as he continues, his hand snow on either side of your face moving your head around still checking. “tyler.” you call him again, this time your hands gripping his wrists.

his eyes meet yours, the sign of tears still staining your cheeks. “i’m okay, i promise” you assure, smiling. “jus glad you made it to me, how’d you know?”

tyler shrugs, “the wind started morning north, learned it from you.” he answers, coming to your side and pulling you in.

you stay there for a while, the sirens flooding your ears and the lights illuminating the place where your home once stood. tyler rubs your shoulders and pulls the emergency blanket tighter around your body.

you lean your head against his shoulder and wrap your arm around his. “is now a bad time to ask if you want to live with me?” he looks down at you.

“what?” you look up at him.

and maybe it wasn’t the right time, but he didn’t know if he’d ever get the chance to ask you.

“live with me. hell, bring your mom. i don’t care, just..” he reaches for your hand. “i just know that i love you and i want you around even more than you already are.” he laughs lightly, continuing to rub your shoulder.

“i would love to live with you.”

tyler smiles proudly, squeezing you closer to his side.

“now i just needa marry you.”

[artist-issues]

I like that when Tyler goes to help the guy getting left behind during the night tornado, Kate tries to come with, and he waves her back and says, “no, go back!” and she actually does. It’s such a tiny moment. But she listens, and stays where it’s relatively safe, while the man does the more dangerous thing.

They didn’t have to do that. They had already checked the “Tyler is a nice guy who helps people during a crisis” box. Twice. They could’ve had Kate crawl out there and be the hero (actually they couldn’t, because that moment is supposed to come during the climax, but they could’ve at least had her insist on being able to do as much as the man can.)

I mean, they had every excuse to strong-female-character it and make her be like “no I’m helping!” Or have him make the wrong call during the rescue, and she pops in and saves the situation with the right call. Or they could’ve forcefully sidelined her—shown that she wanted to help and would have, but some debris or something blocked her from helping. Or they could’ve had her just plain argue with him more, show that in that quick moment she doesn’t think the YouTube hotshot, big-strong-man can do it without her help, something like that. But no.

Instead, by having him tell her what to do, they give her the opportunity to trust him. Trust that he knows what he’s doing, trust that he should be the one to double back into danger, trust that his insistence that she go back is what’s best.

The filmmakers do this great back-and-forth, share-the-load synergy between Tyler and Kate from the moment the tornado hits. They go, “she led them to the pool, now he’s going to help this guy get to safety—she’s going to grab his hand and pull him to the pipes, now he’s going to shield her.” They take turns in the hero-role. They team up. Even in a crazy crisis they’re two equals who respect each other. The movie could’ve made Kate disproportionately smarter or more courageous than her male co-Star character. Instead, she’s markedly not, and learns something from him about riding your fears.

And in the meantime, he steps right out of the way to let her get the glory with the news story. Even though he’s the dude with his face on a T-shirt, YouTube famous. So it’s not like she’s introducing nothing to his character arc, to improve him. They’re equals, not overcompensating for perceived inequalities like all the other characters our culture loves.

And this is just the weather thriller movie?

It’s the winds of plain-good storytelling. Without letting garbage progressive-culture ideas screw up the characterizations.

[wrangleandtame]

Clouds Don't Perish (They Dissipate)

Think you could get off this road?” Kate hollered, “feel like I’m in a paint shaker.”

Tyler glanced at her with that mischievous smile, the one her mom had deemed his “shit-eating grin.”

“Short cut!” he yelled back.

“I can see the map, you idiot, this is twice as long!”

He shrugged, “I got you alone in this truck for the first time in a week. I’m goin’ the long way ‘round.”

“Your plan is to fuck me in some random field, isn’t it?”

He snorted, “sure as hell is now!”

He released his full-throated laugh, revealing all of his perfect teeth, crow's feet splaying out from his sunglasses. She loved that laugh; it should be labeled a contagion. The man could suss out the fun in nearly any situation, and his exuberance nearly always stirred Kate from her occasional tendency towards re-erecting emotional barriers. 

This was one of THOSE moments wherein Kate perceived her own contentment: bouncing around the cab of his truck, Tyler singing (not well) along to Lydia Loveless blasting, windows down, kicking up a trail of rocks and dust behind them. 

Backward cap, button-up green flannel, and the now ever-present perfectly manicured two-day scruff (possibly motivated by Kate mentioning the pleasing sensation of his unshaven face between her thighs) were absolutely doing it for her. He caught her gazing and leered back suggestively, waggling his eyebrows over the top of his sunglasses. She dissolved into laughter. 

She felt her phone vibrate so she lengthened her torso and yanked it free of her side pocket.  The lit screen displayed, “Mom.”

  “I was just thinking about you,” she said by way of a hello.

Tyler’s head whipped back to her in interest, tipping his head low enough for his eyes to be seen over his sunglasses. He raised his eyebrows in question.

Kate mouthed “mom,” and the easy smile returned to his face. He twisted the dial, lowering the volume of the music and raised the windows with a flick of his finger.

“Hi Cathy!” he called.

“And where are you guys at today?” Cathy questioned.

“Close actually. Like, uh, 20 miles north of Tulsa,” Kate peaked at the radar projections again, hoping for something more promising. “We’ll probably stay in that area today, unless things change.”

“Well, if things don’t change and you want to come home, you can invite your crew to save a few dollars and stay at the farm.”

“Did she say hi back?” Tyler nagged, and Kate scowled and waved him off. Her mother’s aloof demeanor brought out a rare obsequious quality in Tyler, and this usually amused Kate. At the moment, she just wanted him to shut up.

“That would be amazing.  I’m sure they’d appreciate it.”

Tyler interrupted, “appreciate what?”

“Mom invited us all to stay at the house tonight.”

“Just made my day Cathy,” he yelled at the phone.

“It’ll be nice,” Cathy continued. “I’ll make a mess of barbecue.”

Kate’s mouth watered at the thought of real food, “that sounds so so good.”

“Call me later and let me know.”

“I will.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She hung up, stowed her phone in her pocket, and Tyler asked again, “did she say hi back?”

“Yeah, she says hi,” she lied, and then swung her head towards the backseat to tell Addy and Praveen about the barbecue food waiting for them. 

Later, even with hindsight and self-awareness intact, she would be astounded by her certainty that they had been an arm's length away, faces lit with excitement. Addy even pushed her glasses up with her wrist, just as she always had, her glasses ever-slipping and her hands ever-full.

Kate gasped and caught a peripheral of a smiling Jeb at the wheel. She threw herself against her passenger door and screwed her eyes shut, pressing the palms of her hands into her sockets.

“Kate?” Jeb said, concern lacing his voice. No, not Jeb. TYLER said, concern lacing HIS voice. Tyler Owens, she corrected her stupid brain. 

“You okay?”

She didn’t look up, keeping her palms planted firmly against her eyes. A sob escaped her mouth instead of the reasonable explanation she intended. Why did she sound like that?

“Whoa, whoa. Kate? Hang on.” She felt a hand on the top of her head, but she still didn’t move. If she didn’t move, she reasoned, perhaps this nightmare would conclude quickly.

She felt the truck swerve and stop, the rumbling of the engine cut out. What should have been silence overflowed with the sounds of hyperventilating and an approaching freight train. 

She felt sure her death was imminent. Her body shook uncontrollably, and her heartbeat pounded ferociously, attempting to break out from her chest. She had unconsciously pulled her knees up and had formed a tight ball with her body.

“What’s going on? Can you hear me?” Tyler sounded as if he was in a tunnel. Shit. Maybe an underpass.

She thought she might be able to speak, but gasps and sobs colonized the space where words should be.

“Can you try and look at me?”

Kate released the pressure on her eyeballs and attempted to tip her head up to see Tyler but her vision was completely blurred by tears. Was she crying?

Her teeth chattered, and Tyler placed a hand on her cheek, “I think you’re having an anxiety attack.”

“No,” she sobbed, “I don’t, I don’t have them anymore.”

Was that her voice? Kate doubted it. That didn’t sound like her. 

Blurry Tyler’s head nodded, “Let’s say we just try to take some deep breaths anyway.  It can’t hurt.”

She realized that the thunderous freight train was an oncoming tornado. People always describe the sound of a tornado as a train, but she wouldn’t have described it as such before now. 

For her, tornadoes sounded like monsters, growling and roaring. She looked out the windows, frantically searching the bright horizon. Where was it?

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Tyler cooed, “You’re okay.”  

It wasn’t okay. Nothing was fucking okay. 

HER tornado was coming for them, and she couldn’t even see it! She could hear the change of the roar to the cacophony of whooshing and clanging when it’s devoured Praveen and clamoring for Addy. The bellowing while yanking Jeb from atop her. The deafening barrage when it’s aiming to suck Kate out from an underpass. Fucking stop. Stop. STOP!

“Kate?” Tyler tried again. 

“I can’t. Can’t make it stop,” she cried, her thoughts jumbling, her mind jumping time. Past, present, past, present.

She suddenly launched herself forward, peering into the back seat to see if they were still there.  They weren’t, of course, because they were dead. They wouldn’t be eating barbecue today. Not any day. They were dead. She knew this. She’d known this for a long time.

She planted herself back in her seat, and looked into Tyler’s face, clenching with concern. Maybe worse than concern. Shit, he thought she was crazy. He had a point. Sane people don’t see ghosts.  Sane people don’t hear invisible tornadoes. 

She clamped her hands over her ears, trying to dampen the bellowing and keening, “Stop. I just…please stop.”

Tyler carefully pulled her hands from her ears, “Kate, look in my eyes. Can you see me?”

She focused on his vivid seaglass-green eyes. Where did his sunglasses go? She nodded and stammered, “Yes. I. Yes.”

“Okay, good. You’re doing good. Now listen to me. Stop trying to make it stop.”

Stop trying to make it stop. What the fuck was he talking about?

“Just focus on me if you can. Be here with me.” He kept her trembling hands in his, but she pulled them back from his grasp. She quickly checked the backseat again. Empty.

“Keep your eyes on me.” 

She refocused upon his face, nodding. 

“Atta girl, okay, we’re going to breathe together now.”

  His movements seemed exaggerated, his chest and mouth moving slowly, “okay, breathing in two three four, and out two three four, breathing in two three four.” 

She attempted to mimic him but couldn’t figure out the actual mechanics of breathing, and this terrified her even more than riding shotgun with her dead friends. 

“Can’t,” she shook harder, her teeth clacking together. How do you breathe!? How?

“That’s okay, that’s okay. I’m going to breathe and you just listen. You’re doing fine.”

“Not fine,” she stammered. 

“You will be. Y’hear me? This won’t last much longer. It’ll be over soon. You’re gonna be okay.”

She shook her head; nothing was okay.

“C’mon Kate, let’s get some air. It’ll do you good.”

“No!” she grabbed his forearm, frantically looking outside. Didn’t he know how much danger he was in? A new wave of fear rippled through her body.

“You’re safe. I promise,” the sincerity in his voice almost made her believe him. “Let’s look at some clouds. You’re not in any danger. It’s going to be okay Kate. Trust me.” 

He placed his rough warm hand over hers, and she looked at his arm where she clutched him, knuckles white, fingernails plugged into his skin. She felt paralyzed. She couldn’t even rotate her eyes off the soft hairs on his tawny arm. 

“I’ll be with you, and we’ll just look at some clouds. Just you and me. Just Tyler and Kate, okay?”

She had no memory of agreeing, of releasing his arm, or of him exiting the truck and moving to her door. She blinked, and he leaned in the open passenger-side door, expectantly waiting for her. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do or say. Did he ask her a question? 

His face was achingly soft, eyes balmy with affection. He slipped his arm around her back and one under her knees, “this okay?”

She nodded, and he scooped her into his arms, lifting her from the truck cab and using his booted foot to close the creaking metal truck door.

He crossed the road and ambled into a low-growing field of green.  He carried her, but she was the one panting in uneven sporadic bursts, clutching handfuls of his soft flannel shirt.

He murmured softly to her as he walked through the field, “it’s alright. You’re alright Kate. I’m right here. Just going to look at some clouds. Just breathe. You’re alright.”

She tucked her head against his chin, desperately attempting to anchor time to his voice.

“This looks like a good spot. We’re going to sit for a spell and see if we can find some clouds, okay?”

“K,” she mumbled, and she felt him nuzzle her forehead with his scratchy chin.

“Smell that?” He lowered them to the earth with a soft grunt, her body draped across his lap.

“Do you smell the clovers, Kate? They’re blooming. Love these. White ones smell better than the crimson ones.”

She could smell them. The growing ground heat released the morning petrichor from last night’s rain - wet and sweet with a light floral perfume. 

“Smells nice,” she mumbled, and he gave her a praiseful squeeze in response.

“Bumblebees are louder than the damn birds. You hear em?”

He was purposefully engaging her senses, she realized. How did he know what to do?  Why couldn’t she remember? She was the one who had over forty of the damn things. New York rules: if at work, run to the restroom, hide in the stall, and endlessly flush the toilet to cover sounds of crying and panting.  Fucking useless skills in this situation.

He considered the sky for a moment and then smiled down at her face, “look up Kate.”

She tilted her head back, neck cradled in the crook of his arm, and saw the sky bluer than it had a right to be. To the east, she spotted a big bouncy cumulonimbus tower with a bulbous bottom layer. 

“What are you seeing?”

“Mammatus,” she whispered.

He chuckled happily, “yep. What else?”

She watched them move for a moment, a gorgeous slow roll. Her eyes caught another edge of the sky, and she lifted her heavy arm, which felt weirdly unattached. She wiggled her fingers. They did what she told them, so they must be hers. Raising her thumb to the sky, she measured a cloud.

“What time is it?” She croaked, throat dry, her voice slightly foreign to her.

He raised his wrist, “let’s see, it’s uh nine fifteen am.”

“Altocumulus.”

“Damn straight, altocumulus. Beautiful, huh?”

“Beautiful,” she agreed. She knew they were beautiful, but she didn’t actually feel the beauty.

He shifted her off of his lap, arm still curved under her neck and tentatively lowered them both to the soft bed of green clovers, “better vantage.” 

She barely noticed, following the white clouds with her eyes like a meditation.

After a few moments, he pointed at the sky, “dragon.”

She followed his finger and spotted the dragon in the clouds, “I see it.”

She pointed next to it, closing one eye to better focus her vision, “banana.”

“Yup.”

The dragon’s torso elongated and detached, and its head resembled a dot to a dot from her childhood activity books.

Tyler pointed at the dissipating dragon head, “oatmeal.”

“Cheating.”

“It’s not cheating. It’s oatmeal. Oh, oh, wait, no, now it’s grits.”

She smiled - the impulse natural, the action dull and stiff.  She only heard birds tweeting, Tyler’s soft breathing, and an occasional bee buzzing by. 

This was when she realized that she wasn’t panting, crying or hallucinating. She felt slowed like moving through water, and a debilitating mix of shame, embarrassment, and guilt settled within her chest.

“We should go,” she frowned and tried to sit up, seized by dizziness.

“Should we?” Tyler sat up and placed his hand on the middle of her back. She pulled away with none of the subtlety she intended. 

“We were supposed to meet up at that QT off seventy-five ages ago Tyler.”  Look at Kate, stringing a full coherent sentence together.

“I called Boone. Remember? Told everyone to meet us at your mom’s.”

When did that happen? Tyler’s face telegraphed that she should easily recall this memory, and she hadn’t even a hazy version floating around in her mind. Nothing.

“Oh,” she said dumbly.  “Sorry.”

“For what?” He asked, cupping her elbow with his hand. 

“Don’t,” she pulled her arm from him.

“Okay,” he scooched himself back a bit with a kindness she interpreted as pity. 

“Sorry,” she snapped, knowing she sounded irrationally angry, but completely unable to control her tone.

“S’okay Kate,” he folded his elbows over his knees and picked a white clover flower, spinning it between his index and thumb. 

She lay flat on her back so she could again stare at the sky and not his sweet ridiculously understanding expression.

“It’s not okay. I’m sorry I freaked out.”

“Not your fault.”

“It really is,” she glanced at him.

He cocked his head, “a panic attack isn’t your fault.”

“Maybe not that.”

He tentatively lowered himself alongside her, giving her more space than she now actually wanted. A moment ago she felt too ashamed to have his hands on her, and now she wanted to climb inside him and disappear.  Make up your mind, Kate.

After a bit of silence, he asked, “your friends? Is that what you think is your fault.”

“That was my fault,” she scoffed. “It’s pretty well universally agreed that they died as a consequence of my reckless actions.”

“Who the fuck would agree with that?” His outraged tone astonished her. She found it unnatural to see the fire in his eyes presenting as fury instead of desire. “Someone blame you for what happened? Who?”

Instinctually, she tempered his anger with vague assurances, “it doesn’t matter. It’s stupid. My point was that I don’t need you to tell me that it wasn’t my fault. Can’t change it anyway.” 

He sighed audibly, “I know you’re freakishly good at finding tornadoes, honey, but you don’t got dominion over ‘em. Got some omnipotent power I’m unaware of?”

They quieted, and she tried to not mentally replay her panic attack in a feeble attempt to avoid a self-conscious rut.

“It’s just so beyond fucking humiliating.”

Surprise flashed in his expression, “but, Kate, it’s just me.”

She couldn’t look at his face, so she looked at the sky again, “I don’t want you to see me like that.”

“Beautiful and brave?”

“I’m not sure I’m either of those things at the moment.”

“This is grief and trauma and your body reacting to that.”

“It’s been almost six years!”

“Not a set time for this shit, Kate. So just try to be gentle with yourself, will ya?”

She reached for his hand, grasping at his rough fingertips.

“Hasn’t happened in so long. Just surprised me.

“Do you know what happened?”

“I, um, I saw them. In the truck.”

“Saw who?”

She blinked and tried to say their names.

Tyler filled in the blanks like he majored in it, “oh, Addy and Praveen?”

She nodded.

“Jeb too?” 

Their names sounded wrong in his mouth, but she drew comfort from his familiarity with what mattered to her.  They mattered.

“Mmhm.”

“I figured.”

“You figured?”

“Yeah.”

She almost laughed, incredulous, “you FIGURED that I hallucinated my very dead friends sitting in the backseat of your truck?”

He smirked, “Something along those lines. My brother, he had panic attacks. PTSD from Afganistan.”

“I didn’t know that; you never talk about him.”

“We don’t see each other much; he lives in Idaho. I was only ten when he came back. Brain injury from an IED. I sat with him a lot during his panic attacks.”

She mentally conjured an image of child-Tyler, “that’s an awful lot for a ten-year-old.”

He winked, “well, I was an exceptional kid.”

“I bet you were,” she smiled genuinely, her face now just a foot from his.

“Once we figured out most of his triggers, that helped loads.”

“I think it was the barbecue.”

“What?

“Barbecue.  My mom, when she called, she offered for the team to stay over and said she’d make barbecue, and she said the same thing the day they died,” her speech gradually took on a frenetic pace, “and just like I was on automatic, I started to tell them, Praveen and Addy, you know, and they were there, and then it was happening all over again, and you know the shittiest thing? It’s that really here I am, and they’re not. And did I learn anything, no, I’m just doing it all over again really, just in a truck with you, taking people I care about to their deaths and am I doing the same thing, did I learn a fucking thing? No, no, I just keep doing what I want to do because I’m so goddamned selfish and -“ 

Her chin started to quiver, and she became breathless again when Tyler interrupted, “you’re the least selfish person I know.”

He brushed her hair back from her face, “also the most logical, so listen up: the team was here doin’ our thing before you met us. We’d be here if we’d NEVER met you. But Kate, with you, we just do more good, get more accomplished and generally have more fun. All because YOU are with us.”

Her eyes began leaking again, and she whispered, “want you to be okay.”

“Me? I’m here, next to you, on this gorgeous day. Kate, I’m better than okay.”

  With the shuddering breaths of a child all cried out, “I’m so fucking scared. I just. I don’t want. I don’t want you to die.”

She couldn’t fathom why she would say this out loud, when she barely recognized the truth herself. She felt pathetic and vulnerable, a combination she attempted to avoid at all times.

  “Oh Kate, darlin’ I’m not going anyplace.” He smiled his sweet little smile, soft wet eyes pleading with her, “thought I told you to be gentle to yourself.” 

She leaned her face into his hand, and inched closer to his chest. Tyler wrapped his arms around her pulling her flush against him.  She buried her head in his chest and wept, grateful he didn’t shush her. They let the tears and the little hiccups fade in their own time, his hand tenderly holding her head against him.  Her body relaxed into him, and she didn’t feel out of control. Just absolutely fucking heartbroken and so incredibly exhausted. 

She didn’t remember falling asleep; all she knew was awaking sweaty and confused within Tyler’s embrace.  

“I fell asleep.”

His voice was deep and rumbly, “sure did.”

She rolled onto her back, studying the grey sky, the sun’s blanketed halo in a confusing position.

“Jesus, what time is it?”

“One O’clock.”

“Oh my god.”

“It’s fine Kate.” 

“It’s fine?”

She peered up at his ridiculously handsome face, “where’s the team?”

“Remember, they’re at your moms?  I texted them to meet us there.”

“Are they angry? That we missed an entire day?”

“No one expressed anything other than being thrilled to go to your mom’s house.  Everything fizzled out anyway.”

“Do they know? That I…?”

“Hm? Oh, no. That’s your call to make.”

She kissed his jaw and he peered down at her, “okay?”

She answered him by climbing onto his lap, straddling him. He sat up, clutching her, thumbs rolling around her hipbones.

“Feelin’ better, honey?” 

“I don’t know,” she responded honestly. “I don’t want to think about it right now. Just so tired.”

She brushed her thumbs along the grey hairs at his temples and kissed him slowly, stilling her mind to focus only on his soft salty mouth.

He ended the kiss after a moment and pulled his face back, examining her expression.

“What?”

“Just catching up,” he whispered.

“What does that mean? You don’t want to -“

“I want you now and always,” he pulled her hips tightly into his hard-on to punctuate his point. “Just checking in first.”

He captured her mouth with his, asserting his desire, and they made love in that clover field, just as Kate had predicted at the beginning of this unexpectedly fraught day.

A comfort-cloaked drive to her mom’s house further eased any remaining anxiety. Tyler played Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co, (for her, she knew) the windows down and warm air whipping her hair around as they distanced themselves from the morning’s pain.

When they approached the signs for her hometown, she turned down the music, “Tyler?” 

Her voice hitched, and she swallowed down tears that threatened a comeback.

“Yeah?”

She summoned all her sincerity, “thank you.”

“Anytime, Sapulpa,” he smiled, “You know that, right? Anytime. Anyplace. Whatever you need. Whenever. I’m all yours.”

She ran her hand lovingly down his arm, shoulder to wrist, “ditto.”

When they pulled up to a stop in the driveway, the sun rested low in the sky.  Besides daybreak, this was Kate’s favorite time of day, even as a child. All the work usually done, the day’s heat assuaged, dog-day cicadas quieted, and the sticky air would a call for iced sweet tea in jelly jars and unchallenging conversations on a creaky porch. 

Tyler and Kate walked together through the cool grass. As they approached the picnic table flush with their friends, everyone turned towards them like flowerheads to the sun.

“What kept ya?” Boone yelled as they got closer.

Tyler began to answer, but Kate cut him off neatly, “I had some trauma hallucinations, an enormous panic attack, passed out for hours and then seduced Tyler in a clover field.”

Tyler held up the grocery bag in his hand, “and we brought chips.”

She only let the awkward silence, shocked stares and open mouths sit for half a minute, “so, is there any of my mom’s potato salad left?”

Lily recovered quickly, “yeah, totally, Kate hand me one of those plates, and I’ll get you some.”

Kate passed her a plate, and Lily smiled as she scooped a generous glob, “sorry bout your panic attack. I got them for awhile back in the day. They suck. Hard.”

“They do. Thanks Lily,” Kate nodded grateful for the generous normalization Lily offered.

Dexter, adept at all types of navigating, added, “It's a good thing you got here when you did. I was going back in for another helping. Your mom could tempt angels with this potato salad.”

“Right?” Kate laughed, “where is she, anyway?”

“I think she was getting watermelon,” Dani said and jumped up from the table, “I’ll go help her. I gotta pee anyway.”

She quickly squeezed Kate’s arm affectionately as she passed and raised her eyebrows at Tyler when she sauntered passed.

“So tell me, what did this clover field seduction include?” Boone queried.

“It includes you shutting the fuck up,” Tyler’s voice was playful, but he shot Boone a disapproving look, as he pulled a plate from the stack and began piling on ribs, brisket and chicken drumsticks.

Boone raised his hands in surrender, “that’s fine, that’s fine. I’ve got an imagination.”

Lily rolled her eyes, “don’t be gross, Boone.”

“What?” he laughed, and with every passing moment, their usual ease of comradery returned. 

While she was conscious that evening, Tyler positioned his hand either upon her shoulder or entwined in her fingers, tethering her to the moments in front of her. At night, he settled in her bed, ready to pull her back should she start to slip into the past. 

He was generous, loving, kind, and patient. So, of course, she didn’t believe it could possibly last. She consciously tried not to stew in the terror of its inevitable end (their relationship, not his life, she isn’t thinking about that.) 

Instead, she attempted to soak in the (likely evanescent) Tyler minutiae: memorizing his specific expressions and predictable reactions, the dust and detergent smell of his soft flannels, his thin pink lips, his stiff jeans that invited lascivious thoughts, and that devastatingly infectious, nearly ever-present smile. 

**AUTHORS NOTES

I saw Twisters a couple weeks ago and came home and wrote this and three other stories. Then I went on AO3 and read EVERYTHING, and saw that others had written goddamned BRILLIANT pieces on the same subject. Discouraged about my own writing quality, I wasn’t going to post it. Since then, I’ve read nearly everything else posted in this fandom and realized that maybe creating and sharing imperfection is part of our fanfic social contract. This is writing potluck. As in, consume < create. In that spirit, here was one of my little fics. Hope it brought you a few minutes of the joy so many others bring me in their writings. 

[jakeotters]

Would you be able to take a request for Scott from Twisters and a reader who is new to Storm Par? The plot and everything else can be up to you

omg yes ofc!! the “scott x reader who’s new to storm par” has been one of my favorite self inserts tbh

An Ego Problem (scott miller x reader)

this ended up being longer than i anticipated

warnings: swearing, scott being an ass (per usual)

a/n: this is my first time writing in a while so i apologize if it’s not the best! also writing for scott means i can use all of my fancy weather knowledge (i’m a meteorology major) and that’s very special to me <3

You aren’t new to storm chasing. You’d grown up in tornado alley— you were more than used to the hell that the sky unleashes.

Tornadoes don’t scare you, you’ve always been fascinated by their power; the way that the atmosphere is capable of creating something that can produce catastrophic damage in a matter of seconds. You were so drawn by it.

But, here you are, driving through the middle of nowhere Oklahoma, and you’re nervous. You don’t know the last time the thought of chasing made you nervous.

“Y/n?”

The sound of your name snaps you out of your thoughts and you blink, your head perking up.

“You nervous?”

Your friend Javi turned his head to look at you, eyes leaving the road momentarily. You’d known Javi since college, and you’d chased with him before, but you were chasing with his crew for the first time this season.

“Nervous? No.”

You turned your head to meet his gaze and managed a smile. You tried to keep from fidgeting, feeling more and more uneasy as you neared the gas station his crew was waiting at.

“You sure? You seem awfully quiet.”

Javi knew you better than anyone, it wasn’t hard to tell that you weren’t yourself. He knew that chasing excited you more than anything, it was weird for you to be so reclusive.

“I’m fine. Promise.”

You didn’t mean to be short with him but you couldn’t help it. Javi shrugged, not believing you but not pushing any further. You swallowed thickly as he pulled into the gas station.

Javi parked before shutting off the truck and hopping out. He opened your door, helping you out of the passenger seat. You stepped out and looked around. Storm chasers were crowded in the parking lot, preparing their instruments and looking at laptops. You watched the groups of chasers as Javi walked you towards where his crew was standing.

You turned to look at his crew as you were introduced. They were dressed in white button downs, Storm Par sewn onto the front pocket of their shirts, shirts tucked into their black pants. You’d never seen storm chasers dressed so neatly. They looked so professional— it was a stark contrast to the chasers around them. Even you could admit that it was a little… odd.

Javi told you where everyone had gone to school, who was with the National Weather Service, who had PhDs, this and that. You scanned the group until your eyes landed on the guy standing in front of you. He was tall, iPad in his hand, hat on his head, and sunglasses hiding his eyes. He was looking at you, the expression on his face serious. Javi said something about him going to MIT. You instantly felt intimidated by him.

“This is Scott,”

Javi put his arm around the tall man, but his expression never changed.

“He makes up for it with his beautiful, amazing personality.”

Scott gave an insincere smile before his face went back to his stern, blank expression. You wondered what his eyes looked like behind the veil of his sunglasses.

“So, y/n, where are we headed?”

Javi took the iPad from Scott and handed it to you. You looked at Javi before looking at the tablet in your hand. A radar image was pulled up, the colorful blobs of developing thunderstorms dotted along the screen.

“I, uh- um-”

You stuttered. Your mind couldn’t seem to focus, it was like you’d forgotten everything you knew about weather and storm chasing. You immediately felt embarrassed as you felt the eyes of Javi and his crew on you, but the feeling of Scott’s eyes focused on you made your cheeks flush bright red. He was standing close to you, too close—

“What’s wrong? Can’t read a radar screen?”

Scott’s voice rang out above you. He raised an eyebrow when you looked at him. He’d taken his sunglasses off and tucked them into his shirt pocket, his blue eyes bearing into yours. The condescending tone in his voice pushed out any embarrassment you felt.

“Excuse me?”

Scott looked at the iPad and looked back at your face, a sly smirk forming on his lips.

“Need help knowing what you’re looking at? Do I need to teach you how to read radar?”

You stood there. You knew he was trying to push your buttons, obviously testing you. You knew you were good, you’d been chasing longer than most of the people in this parking lot, but his comments stung. You pushed the iPad into his hands and walked away, not wanting to show your emotions in front of the crew.

It wasn’t long before Javi found you, standing on the grass at the edge of the parking lot, watching the sky. You felt his hand on your shoulder.

“Hey, don’t let Scott get to you. He’s like that with everyone, must be an ego problem.”

You chuckle at Javi’s comment.

“Am I riding with you?”

You didn’t take your eyes off the tall clouds that formed the building storms in front of you.

“Actually, no. You’re gonna have to ride with Scott.”

Your head immediately snapped towards Javi. You felt like the air had been taken out of you.

“What?”

“Don’t worry, it’s just for today.”

“Oh.”

Your voice became small and you swear you could feel your insides coil up.

“Javi! Time to go!”

You heard Scott yell from the distance. You didn’t want to move from where you were standing, in fact, you wanted to run in the opposite direction. You wanted to get as far away from this place, and Scott, as possible.

“Sorry, y/n. It’ll be fine, just listen to what Scott tells you to do.”

Javi sounded sincere with his apology. He squeezed your shoulder as the two of you walked towards the vehicles.

———

You sat in the passenger seat of Scott’s SUV, Javi’s truck not far ahead. He hadn’t said anything to you, minus the grunt of disapproval when you got in the vehicle with him before the two of you pulled out of the parking lot.

Scott kept his gaze on the road, eyes occasionally traveling to look at the towering supercell that took over the sky in front of you. You watched his jaw move as he chewed his gum.

“So, how’d you start chasing?”

You attempted to make conversation, even though he intimidated you, you hated to sit in a silent car. Scott made a noise in his throat.

“I’m surprised you picked the right storm.”

He finally spoke. His tone was flat, just like the expression on his face when you’d first seen him. You weren’t sure how to answer.

“What’s wrong? Don’t like what I said?”

That stupid, sly smirk played at Scott’s lips again.

“You have a lot of words for someone who isn’t calling the shots here.”

Scott scoffed at you.

“Not calling the shots? Honey, I’m the reason Javi has Storm Par. I’m the reason he’s able to do any of this.”

You stared straight ahead, watching a wall cloud lower just a few miles away. The rotation was evident and you tried to focus on the counterclockwise motion in the sky.

“Can you tell me what we’re looking at or do you need me to teach you that too?”

You could see Scott’s eyes move to look at you from under his sunglasses. The smirk was still on his lips, he looked so cocky.

“Wall cloud with rapid rotation. Supercell has a defined meso. Tornado is imminent.”

Your tone was serious, almost as stern as Scott’s. You wanted to tell him to fuck off, to pick on someone else, but you didn’t. You could tell you shut him up by the way his jaw clenched. His stare was fixed straight ahead again.

It wasn’t long before a funnel emerged from the wall cloud, condensation meeting the ground in a beautiful, perfectly lit cone. That was the perfect tornado, the tornado that made chasing worth it. For a few seconds, you forgot that Scott was in the car with you. You felt as mesmerized as you always had. It was peaceful.

———

Scott pulled into the parking lot of the motel you were staying at. He shut off the ignition and got out without saying anything, you were weary to get out but you did. You hadn’t realized just how tired you were until the drive back, you almost fell asleep in the car.

You got out of the SUV, ready to get to your room. You began walking past Scott, not in the mood to talk to him— or deal with him.

“Hold on.”

You felt Scott grab your arm as you walked past. He was strong and his grip was tight, almost too tight. You sighed and rolled your eyes, not wanting to hear what he had to say.

“The fuck do you want?”

You didn’t care that you swore at him, you figured he deserved it. You stayed in his grasp, afraid he’d only make it tighter if you did.

“You don’t like me.”

His blue eyes were focused on yours.

“How’d you know?”

You scoffed, wanting to laugh at how stupidly obvious his observation was.

“Javi made you out to be the best there is. He painted a picture of you that made you seem like you’re a saint. I can’t say I agree with that.”

Scott’s stern expression didn’t change. He was sharp and direct with his words and you felt yourself squirm.

“Well, I’m sorry that I think you’re a dick-”

“Uh-uh, honey. You’re gonna be on this crew, then you’re gonna have to learn to like me. After all, I’m the one who calls the shots here.”

Scott’s eyes looked over you before he let go of your arm. You watched him walk away, joining the other Storm Par members next to their vehicles. It was clear he wanted some kind of authority over you. You sighed, too exhausted to let him upset you. You walked off to your room, glad to be away from him.

An ego problem, you thought to yourself.

my inbox is open for requests! rules for requests

[sapphic-terror]

headcannon - Tyler totally kisses Kate’s scar.

Okay, so this is a few years down the line, they’re an established couple and marriage is this distant but not far thing, the important thing is they’re happy and content and okay and that’s a rare thing for people like them. Over the years everyone’s slowly healed, Kate got therapy, Javi got therapy, they actually talked and slowly dealt with everything. So, she eventually starts wearing shorts more and more often. The scar is still this big reminder of everything that happened, but she’s slowly learning to accept it. Then, Tyler starts doing this thing where when the two of them are together, (Kate’s watching the news or reading and his head is in her lap, just cuddling her because that man’s love language is gifts and touch) he presses a kiss to her scar. At first she doesn’t even notice because it’s a quick barely there thing, like it’s a subconscious movement almost.

And then Kate notices, and she notices it happens so damn often. Like Tyler’s barely aware and at the same time it’s almost worshiping, like it’s second hand nature to love the thing that for years she hated with a passion. And he just keeps don’t it, and brushing his fingers against the scar, and staring at it with this barely concealed awe and she doesn’t not get it.

So Kate finally snaps and asks him why? And she’s really asking, why do you love the worst part of me, because the scar to her represents her failure and how it lead to her friend’s deaths. Tyler just stares at her, because to him it is so simple and easy he stopped questioning it years ago, because it means you survived. And he’s really saying, because it means you’re here and alive and I got to love you, I got to be loved by you.

And he’s really saying, your survival is beautiful and I love you for it.

(Somebody steal my computer and phone, I have so many thoughts about these idiots.)

[adalindofcabinsix]

miscellaneous masterlist

“i believe in all kinds of things. ghosts. gnomes. true love.”

DUSKWOOD

that kind of love never dies

↬ a few months after discovering the truth about the man without a face, barbara receives text messages from an unknown number inviting her on a date on the outskirts of duskwood.

[jake x mc]

chapter one | chapter two | chapter three

MARVEL

find some way to remember me

↬ five times peter parker has to save sage stark and one time she returns the favor.

[peter parker x stark!oc]

coming soon

TWISTERS

wildest dreams

↬ tyler can see in jasmine an expression of his own restless spirit.

[tyler owens x oc]

coming soon

SUPERNATURAL

one last time

↬ sam continues his efforts to save dean from the mark of cain with the help of an unlikely ally — katherine.

[sam winchester x oc]

coming soon

DEAD BOYS DETECTIVES

the good witch

↬ the one where violet, a powerful young witch, meets charles, a cute ghost with a perfect smile.

[charles rowland x witch!oc]

coming soon

LOCKWOOD & CO

trouble

↬ genevieve is no stranger to near-death experiences, but this time lockwood has gone too far.

[anthony lockwood x oc]

coming soon

[tempesttamers]

What if Javi didn’t leave the military entirely, instead coming off Active Duty and going into the Reserves. After the events of the movie Storm Par is disbanded and Javi didn’t really have anything lined up, so he made the decision that he would return to Active Duty. He breaks the news to Kate and the Tornado Wranglers who are all shocked and honestly pretty disappointed he didn’t want to stay with them. Javi had always felt like a bit of an outsider so he never knew they wanted him to stay and Kate is obviously beyond devastated.

Kate asks him to give them one week to convince him to stay, but Javi isn’t sure. She brings up how she had agreed to help him with Storm Par for one week, so it was only fair that he gave her one week now in return. Cue a week of Tornado Wranglers & Javi bonding with plenty of angst and hurt/comfort and feelings.

[mermaidxatxheart]

The First Time

A/N: this is in direct response to @hederasgarden I hope you enjoy it. You can blame her or thank her 😂😂

Summary: the first time Javi, Tyler, Scott, and Kate fuck you.

Warnings: dumbification (slightly), public sex, drinking, fingering, oral. Probably more but we’re all adults. Minors DNI

Scott knows you’re smart. You’re a fucking engineer for fucks sake. He has no faults with your work. It’s you. You drive him crazy, you might not say much but when you do it’s smart, quick, cutting. More than once you’ve taken him down a peg or two and it pisses him the fuck off. The first time he fucked you was after months of watching you in your little tight jeans and that shirt that rides up just a tad too far. He knocks on your motel door long after everyone has gone to bed. He shouldn’t be there but he spent a little too much time imagining you stripping to get ready for bed and now he’s hard. You let him in and he’s kissing you. But it’s not caring. It’s dominating. You’re gonna do what he wants, and you’re gonna fucking love it. So with the frantic kisses, there are lip bites, he grips your ass, hard enough to leave rough handprints on each cheek.

“Take my cock out, honey. There’s a good girl.” He says lowly. He’s trying to be quiet, no one else needs to know how good he’s gonna fuck you. Your fingers are on his belt, fumbling as he gives your ass a sharp smack. He licks his fingers, sliding them down the front of your short sleep shorts. You let out the softest whimper as he swipes your clit teasingly.

“Aww. Is dumb baby so sensitive?” He taunts, giving it another brushing swipe. “Did pretty dumb baby forget what she’s supposed to be doing? Can’t think and do at the same time?”

**********

Tyler would show up after a particularly bad moment. A dangerous storm, seeing something that could leave a person shell shocked. He brings tequila or whiskey to help soothe your nerves. You both sit on the bed talking for a long time and somehow it always turns personal when you talk with him in those early morning hours. But this time, he has an intensity to him. Before you know it, he’s kissing you, easing you back onto the bed, his weight on you as he kisses down your neck, taking his time to find all those spots that make you moan. Your legs are wrapped around his hips and he grinds into you. He’s panting just as hard as you are, just as affected by you. He holds you there, taking just enough time to shuck off his Levi’s. Then he’s kissing and kissing, down your jaw, neck, the front of your throat, your breasts, down your hips, bunching your shirt in his hand as he nudges your legs apart. You’re laid out before him, a private feast just for him. And he indulges for as long as you’ll let him. Tears streaming down your face, you almost can’t remember your name. Then he’s kissing you, letting you taste yourself as he whispers what a good girl you are for him, but he’s not done yet. And then he’s pushing inside you, gently, slowly, letting you feel every ridge and every bump of his big cock. He takes it slow, letting your over sensitive body adjust. He speeds up slowly, making sure the only word you know anymore is please before he’s even close to being done with you. After, you’re nearly passed out. He cleans you up, climbs into bed next to you and holds you through the night. (He might wake you up for round two later. “Come on, sweetheart. You can take it, darlin. Let me in.”)

***********

Javi would be sloppy. More drinking. Sitting on the back of his pickup truck, contemplating life in the middle of a field. You’ve both nearly finished a bottle of tequila. Maybe you get into an argument about whether he can find the g-spot or clit and he’s like I’ll fuckin prove it. Take your shorts off. And you’re both just drunk enough to do it. And he throws his sleeping bag on the ground and you lay down and he eats you out to an impressive five orgasms, his face drenched with you as he sits back on his heels, proud as fuck that he won until he realizes that he’s really hard and hearing you moan his name did something deep inside his soul bits. So he kisses you, hovering over you, claiming your mouth as you undo his pants. He’s kissing down your chest, shoving your shirt up over your tits as he kisses any bit of skin he can find while you’re trying yank his shirt off over his head. It’s messy and sloppy, neither of you are sober but that doesn’t mean he didn’t satisfy

***********

Kate would be a dare. A lame party with some friends of a friend or something. She doesn’t want to be there, it’s not her scene anymore. But. They’re playing 7 minutes in heaven because why not? Only… the bottle doesn’t land on a boy. It lands on the pretty girl across the circle. You give her a reassuring smile and you take her into the closet. You turn the light on and smile at her.

“It’s okay to be nervous.”

“I’ve never been with a girl.”

“I’ll be gentle.” You wink and kiss her lips so softly that her only logical response is to kiss you back. You coax her into it, she arches, leaning into you as you kiss her, licking into her mouth as your hands ghost the swell of her ass. You only have seven minutes so your fingers are already unbuttoning her shorts, tugging them down. You kneel in front of her, taking them off just one leg. You guide her leg over your shoulder and look up at the gorgeous girl above you. She’s biting her lip, looking for all the world like she’s terrified of you. You kiss slowly up her thigh, nudging her slit open, dragging your tongue along her entrance, following right up to her clit. You keep your eyes on her as you start a little more aggressively than you would have wanted to for her first time. In a more casual setting, you would want to take your time, remove each layer one orgasm at a time. She gasps, her hand flying to the back of your head as you very quickly build her up. You don’t make her cum just yet. You have a little more time to tease her. She’s moaning, covering her mouth, her thighs are shaking and you grip her thighs, waiting until the very last second before making her cum. She grinds her pretty cunt against your mouth, chasing more. You pull away, smirking. You help her get redressed and kiss her again slowly.

“You know where to find me if you want more, gorgeous.”

She shows up at your door after the party ends.

“I thought I might return the favor.”

[brainddeadd]

Scars

Kate Carter x Tyler Owens

Tyler's P.O.V

I think we were robbed of Tyler seeing Kate's scar so I had to write about it

Knocking on Kate's door hesitantly, waiting patiently for her to swing the door open, face softening when I see her red eyes, lingering from her earlier tears. My heart does something funny in my chest.

"Tyler..?" Her voice is quiet and her head tilts slightly in confusion.

"I'm sorry," lowering my head slightly, I run the palms of my hands along my jeans. "I shouldn't have- I should have stopped-"

"It's fine, Tyler." Her voice is tired and she steps back into her room, opening the door wider for me to slip in. Following her movements, I stand across from her while she closes the door and pulls the chair out from the desk, gesturing for me to sit.

"It's not fine," sitting across from her, my eyes catch on her legs as they move, a scar on her thigh drawing my attention. "I made you upset. I'm sorry."

She looks down at her fingers before nodding and looking back up at me.

"Thank you." She smiles slightly but it doesn't reach her eyes.

"Tell me to fuck off if you want.. but that scar.." I trail off, hands twitching on my thighs, "are you ok?"

Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting that to be my question. Hesitantly, she nods.

"It's from.. the," her voice gets quiet and I see the tears forming in her eyes. Standing, I shuffle forwards so I can crouch in front of her, my hands hesitantly reaching for hers.

"I'm so sorry," she lets me take her hands in mine, her fingers tightening around mine. "I can't imagine what that would have been like."

"It-" her breath is shaky as she speaks. "It was terrifying. It's why I stopped chasing."

Tears begin to fall over her cheeks again and this time I allow myself to pull her into a standing position, my arms wrapping around her waist to hold her close as she winds her arms around my shoulder, her tears wetting my t-shirt and her body shaking.

"I can't promise that you won't lose anything again, but I can promise that I will be there with you.." my voice is gentle, hands stroking her back soothingly. "I won't let you go through it alone."

[undyingghoul]

It's fair season where I am, and it's got me thinking. I think Tyler would love fairs He'd go by himself, sure, but most times he's dragging at least one person with him or the entire crew (Kate and Javi included of course). He loves everything about the fair: rides, food, trash games, and the shows that come around at night. Tyler has no fear when it comes to the rides and is determined to ride them at least once. You will not catch him on the merry-go-round however, at least not by his own choice (Kate still laughs at the one time she made him go on it). He'll wreck you in bumper cars too, that man has zero mercy when it comes to that. He loves the spinny rides the most. Universally, his favorite is the tilt-a-whirl, but he finds it hilarious that the one called 'Tornado' comes in second given his profession. He's dragged everyone onto the tilt-a-whirl at least five times in the span of an hour and will tell you to lean to get the cart to spin faster. He also likes the Ferris Wheel and typically goes on it with Kate. He doesn't get stuck at the top often but the times he does he's pointing out things to Kate who joins in. Sometimes they'll play eye spy, too. And you can bet Tyler plays every game but the win a goldfish game. He's good at the dart games and ring toss, and loves the shooter games. He seems to always win some sort of prize no matter what game he plays and everyone walks away with some sort of stuffed animal by the end of the night. Sometimes he'll win things and hand them out to kids as well, especially the ones that crowd around him and watch him play said games. The food is just as important for Tyler as well. He swears he's tried every single food there over the years. It takes a while for everyone to pick a food, a sweet treat, and a drink but once that happens it's off to the stands to watch his favorite fair show: a rodeo. Having competed in the past he'll sometimes see familiar faces in the ring that shoot him a smile and a wave before getting back to their tasks. He always enjoys the rodeo and sometimes gets a little to excited about them, his friends think it's adorable and always giggle. By the time Tyler leaves the fair he's exhausted and if he brought people with they're equally as exhausted- but the memories they made, the laughs they shared, and the time spent together all make it worth it in the end for Tyler.

[forasecondtherewedwon]

get ya thinkin' (that you need me)

Fandom: Twisters Rating: T Word Count: 6028

Summary: Kate, Javi, Tyler, Lily, Dexter, Dani, and Boone—they're all one crew now, and they need funding. Trying to look more responsible on a grant application, they come up with an unconventional solution: two of them should get married. But which two? Javi and Tyler prompt Kate to consider what her friendships could become.

“I know it was me,” Tyler prefaces. “I know I’m the one who said our crew didn’t need PhDs, but…”

“But it might be nice to have one right about now?” Lily guesses.

There’s a collective sigh as they all stare at the screen together. Javi, controlling the touchpad, scrolls down and back up again, like the words might have changed, like this grant application isn’t punishingly particular and hopelessly intimidating.

“If we type it up in the wrong font it gets rejected?” Lily checks, jabbing a finger at the line she picks out of the blur.

Boone shifts and turns to Kate. “You’re doing your PhD, right? How soon you gonna be done?”

Kate gives him a look that asks if he’s shitting her. “Not by next Monday, which is when this application’s due.”

“Fuck,” Javi groans, rubbing his forehead.

“Well, hey, you gotta be good at this kinda thing, Storm Par,” Tyler reasons. “Your old crew had money comin’ out its eyeballs.”

“That was from investors. Highly unethical investors,” he clarifies, with a glance at Kate, who frowns sympathetically. “Private money. We never held a government grant.”

“We need more time,” Kate declares, like just saying that could possibly extend the deadline.

She shoves herself up and away from the motel bed they’re all gathered on the end of. If any of them were responsible adults, they’d be able to admit that they don’t need the deadline to be later, they need to have started working on this sooner. A lot sooner. The trouble is, they’re the furthest thing possible from responsible—at least, not in any way a government grant application would define the term (and, Jesus, does this application ever love defining terms—Definition of Terms is a whole section of the instructions, right at the top). They’re storm-chasers, risk-takers, and no, no one has yet seen fit to bestow upon them large amounts of money to fund their research, so it’s tough to prove they’re a safe bet, a good call, a fast horse.

“The only aspect we may be able to exploit,” Dexter pipes up, “is format.”

“It’s all online, I thought,” Dani says, seated beside him.

“Most of it is, but… could you scroll back up?” he requests of Javi. “Right… there. In the research proposal section, there’s an option for delivery method.”

“Thirty minutes or it’s free?” Boone quips.

Lily rolls her eyes at him.

“No,” Kate says, pacing. “No, it means we might have a better chance if we submit an audio recording of us explaining our research, maybe Javi talking through the data to make the significance really clear. Or we make a slideshow, or film a video.” She pauses to smile. “You guys would be great at that. The point is—”

“The point is,” Tyler picks up, meeting her eyes, “we could convince them on our own terms. No PhD necessary.”

“Though we’d still have to seem stable,” Kate stresses. Everyone nods back at her. “Professional.”

“Who says we’re not professional?” Javi demands.

“Do I need to bring up the pants thing?”

“…No.”

“Everybody in this room knows their shit,” Tyler says.

“Right,” Dani says slowly, “but you can’t say we aren’t… slightly erratic. Not that it’s a bad thing, for what we do. But Kate did say ‘stable.’”

“To be clear,” Kate says, “I’m not telling anybody to quit driving like a total jackass, or making up catchphrases that promote reckless behaviour—”

“Or shooting fireworks into a tornado,” Javi contributes.

“These non-criticisms feel oddly specific,” Tyler says tightly.

“Our roster’s not even stable,” Lily points out. She folds her legs on top of the bland coverlet and the mattress’s springs shriek. “Kate’s only been part of the crew a couple days longer than Javi, and that hasn’t been very long.”

“That is a valid point,” Dexter says.

Kate sighs. “It is. So, I’m asking honestly,” she finishes. “What can we do, by next Monday, to convince some government committee”—she slaps the back of one hand into the palm of the other as she lists criteria—“we are sane, we are stable, we are going to go the distance with this research?”

Into the silence that follows, Javi says, “We could get married.”

There’s another second of absolute quiet before Tyler asks, “Was that an open proposal, or is there a happy couple you had in mind?”

What Kate thinks they’ve probably all been enjoying about the new (or just newly expanded) crew is the lack of awkwardness. Javi’s Storm Par crew was rife with it. While having zero members with a PhD is sometimes a challenge, Kate saw how too many PhDs could be even worse; there was a hierarchy amongst those guys, and if anyone dared offer a suggestion, the rest of them would throw sidelong glances at one another. Kate figured a few of them could straight-up go to hell (particularly Scott), but she still doesn’t know how Javi stood it.

But even that awkwardness was clearly power-based. Javi’s suggestion is different, more personal, and definitely more awkward.

The vibe in the motel room is immediately screwed up. Some people look like they want to laugh, others are frowning in contemplation, and Javi’s just blushing, not looking anyone in the eye. Still, because he’s Javi, he doesn’t chicken out. He tries to make his case.

“You guys heard of Jo Harding?”

“Fuck yeah, I’ve heard of Jo Harding,” Dani announces. “Who in the tornado game hasn’t?”

“Well, she’s an Oklahoma girl, so I was just checking.” Javi shrugs. “Her husband was her partner when she chased.”

“Yeah, but she had a whole crew,” Boone says.

“Yeah, but she also had a husband.”

“Stop mansplaining Jo Harding,” Lily complains, flinging herself backwards on the bed.

“It’s not like having a husband made her a good scientist, or a good storm-chaser,” Dani says.

“I’m not saying that!” Javi protests.

“Yeah, dude, Jo’s husband isn’t the most interesting thing about her,” Boone adds.

“I can’t believe we’ve now spent more time talking about Jo Harding’s husband than Jo Harding,” Lily groans.

“They won the grant!” Javi bursts out. “They won the fucking grant!”

Tyler, who’s mostly just been observing the crew with amusement up to this point, looks at Javi and cocks an eyebrow. “This grant?”

“Yes! This grant! I’m just trying to say they’re a powerful team. Formidable. I’ve read, like, every article ever done on them—”

“Woah, woah, woah. You have? That’s intense.”

Kate glances at Tyler and explains, “He had a crush.”

“Sounds more like an obsession.”

“I admired their work,” Javi says defensively.

“Oh, is that what you were admiring in that one article where you cut across the text and just kept the photo of Jo?” Kate checks, smirking.

“What have I done to you, Kate? Goddamn.”

“Finish your point,” she prompts.

Javi sighs and braces his hands behind him, leaning back carefully so the laptop doesn’t slide from his lap.

“They always talk about how they make each other better. Not that the other person is why they’re good at their job in the first place,” he clarifies, shooting glances at Lily, Boone, and Dani, “but that they look out for each other, stop each other from making stupid decisions, keep each other safe. And yeah, a crew can do that too. A good crew. But a married couple just sells devotion and, and conviction in a different way. All I’m saying is it’s something to try.”

“It’s not an unreasonable proposition,” Dexter allows when it’s clear that Javi’s done. Dexter’s calm, steady voice giving the idea his tentative approval strengthens its merit for everyone in the room. Kate can see it. She exhales.

“Alright,” she says. “Well, we don’t have a lot of time to mull this over before the deadline, but let’s give Javi’s suggestion some thought. And any other ideas you guys come up with. Maybe reconvene on this tomorrow?”

There are nods and murmurs of approval.

The room they’re in is Lily and Dani’s, so the crewmembers not hanging around to chill file out onto the sidewalk that lines the motel. Kate’s just thinking about going back to her own room—well, hers and Javi’s, with matching twin beds in baby-blue coverlets that make her think of the Shining twins—and getting some sleep. They chased yesterday, then stayed up late last night going over the data. They’ve all been eating at weird hours, and now with the stress of the grant application… Kate runs a hand over her face. She can hear Javi and Tyler talking behind her, but she doesn’t think anything of it until she’s unlocked the motel room door and Tyler follows her and Javi inside.

“We need to talk,” Tyler states the second the door’s closed.

“‘We could get married,’” Kate quotes. (Sarcastically, but yeah, she’s beat.) “‘We need to talk.’ You’re both so dramatic today.”

“That’s what we need to talk about,” Tyler says, ignoring her sarcasm.

“What?”

“Getting married.”

Kate gives him a slow blink.

“We just did,” she says. “That’s what that conversation was.” She points in the direction of the other motel room.

“But we need to decide,” Javi says.

“We will. Everyone needs some time to think.”

“No, they don’t,” Tyler says.

“Uh, yes, they do. If they’d either thought it was the best solution or a total flop, they would’ve said right after Javi explained.”

“I know our crew better than you do, Sapulpa—just a fact. Trust me, they had an opinion.”

“Then how come nobody said anything?” Kate asks skeptically.

“Because it isn’t about them,” Javi says.

“What? Of course it is! The grant is for the team. We can put it towards a new drone for Lily and get Boone some more—”

“Not the grant. The marriage.”

“The marriage would be for the grant.” Kate has a bad feeling that she’s started talking to Javi like he’s an idiot, but she’s seriously just not getting it. Why isn’t he just saying what he means? She’s tired.

Tyler laughs. He laughs! She stares at him.

“Come on,” he says, “you have to know why they all clammed up.”

Kate looks to Javi. Javi, the guy she basically ghosted until he showed up at her workplace to drag her back here. Javi, who’s still her best friend, no matter what. Javi, who she really needs to make sense right now.

“They didn’t ask any questions,” Javi says gently.

“Most importantly,” Tyler cuts in, “nobody asked who this hypothetical marriage would be between. You catch that?”

“That’s just because we need to decide whether or not we’re doing it first,” Kate says, crossing her arms.

“You really think that’s why? And not that it’s because of the way Storm Par here looks at you, or the fact that he’s the one who suggested getting hitched? It’s not just a grant application, Kate. There are other stakes here.”

Kate flushes lightly, and when she chances a look at Javi, he is too. Tyler’s not exactly wrong, but he isn’t quite right either; she and Javi go back a long way. They care about one another—which is natural, especially after what they survived. Kate would also be lying if she tried to tell Tyler she hasn’t noticed those looks of Javi’s, that she���s blind to the way his steady brown eyes linger on her when she speaks, find her when she’s still, working out the math for their next planned chase. She doesn’t hate it, that way he has of looking at her.

Javi temporarily saves her from responding. Once he’s made his point, she’s not entirely grateful.

"Me?" he says to Tyler. “Those guys aren’t keeping their opinions to themselves because of some obvious claim I was staking on Kate. I’m subtle.”

The remark is so pointed that it’s no wonder Tyler reacts to it, even as Kate has a private, silent panic.

“I never staked a claim on Kate,” Tyler assures him.

“Sure you did,” Javi argues. “You stayed at her house. You met her mom. You basically poached her from Storm Par.”

“I didn’t need to poach her. She came willingly. And I bet you’ve stayed at her house and met her mom! You’ve known each other, what? Forever? That about right?”

“Well, what about you two?” Kate interrupts, gesturing between the men. “Old rivals, new allies. Some unresolved tension from chasing the same storms, maybe? How do you know the crew weren’t picturing you at the altar?”

While this seems to genuinely bewilder Javi, Tyler hitches his jeans and shrugs. “Wouldn’t be my first rodeo.”

“I just don’t think anybody’s thinking anything.”

“They might not all be thinking the same thing,” Tyler allows her, “but they’re all thinkin’ something. The two people getting married to give us a shot at this grant are standing in this room right now. I guarantee it.”

The three of them eye each other.

“If there’s going to be a marriage,” Javi says.

“Oh, there is,” Tyler says. “You made too good a case for it. Whole lotta money on the line. Seems too logical not to try.”

“Nothing about this is logical,” Kate decides, and goes to brush her teeth in the tiny bathroom.

When she comes back out, Tyler’s gone. She cedes the bathroom to Javi so he can get ready for bed too. They exchange a look as he passes her, but she waves him on, pats his shoulder as he passes. They can talk when he’s ready. Well, maybe not ready, but ready for bed. She goes to her squeaky twin and sits down to wait.

“It’s insane,” Kate says a little later.

They’re lying down, facing each other across the divide between their narrow beds. There’s an old movie playing on the perhaps equally old TV that sits against the opposite wall; they’ve turned the sound way down. The screen’s glow provides the only light. Kate thumps her pillow for emphasis rather than elaborating. She just doesn’t have anything smart left to say on this topic.

“It’s also not,” Javi counters. He’s run out of more sophisticated arguments too.

“So, two of us are really going to get married?”

“Hey, we do crazier shit literally every day. And it’s not, like, real. Whether or not it helps us get the grant, the marriage can be annulled, or they can get divorced, or whatever. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

Kate laughs, and then Javi laughs too. She likes watching him laugh; his smile hangs on for such a long time after he stops. It’s sweet.

“Who do you think it should be?” she wonders.

“I mean, I would do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I suggested it, right? Gotta put my… I don’t know, my vows where my mouth is.”

“So rational,” Kate notes, sort of joking, though she does also admire Javi’s pragmatism. He’s thinking of the crew, how to look out for them, both by securing this grant and by sparing them the need to enter into this plan which is—regardless of what he says—a little insane. When she thinks of it that way… “I guess I would too.”

“You would get married?”

“Why not? Since it has to be somebody. You’re my best friend, anyway,” she says, sending him a soft smile. “It wouldn’t be like marrying a stranger. Besides, nothing would really change.”

“You don’t think so?” Javi asks earnestly. Which is not the easiest question to answer. But Javi has more to say before he’ll let her try. “You know… I mean, I told you…”

“That you would’ve done anything for me, back then,” Kate fills in. She sees Javi nod against his pillow. She exhales slowly. “Yeah. I didn’t really pick up on that. I just thought we were friends.”

“We were friends. We are. I just felt a little more for you than that. Not that I ever would’ve done anything. You and Jeb were great together. I wouldn’t have been dumb enough to try to come between you, and I didn’t want to. I just sort of quietly…” Javi grins like he can’t help it. “…had this thing for you.”

Kate returns his grin, amused because it’s easier to feel amused than to feel sad. She wants to be able to talk about Jeb, hasn’t let herself in so long, putting herself more than a thousand miles away from anyone else who knew him. Now, it feels so good to hear Jeb’s name in the mouth of somebody who cared about him too. With Javi, Jeb will never be forgotten. Kate will never lose the opportunity to talk about Jeb, to reminisce. Javi will be as respectful now as he apparently was then, keeping his own wants reined in so Jeb and Kate could be happy with each other. Who should she—should either of them—allow to make her happy now? With his caring, trusting eyes trained on her as the light from the TV flashes and shifts, Javi seems like a pretty good choice.

“It’d be more than practical for you,” she acknowledges.

“It would.” Javi sighs. “I thought you’d better have all the facts.”

“I appreciate that.”

“And now you can admit it,” he prompts.

“What?”

“That you got the hots for me too.”

They share another laugh. But Kate can only laugh so long as a reaction to his teasing tone, because, yeah, she kind of has started to think of him in that way since being back here in Oklahoma. She’s been trying to wait it out a little. Part of that’s fear; Jeb was her last serious attachment. She hasn’t been able to love somebody like that again (she hasn’t even really tried to date), too scared that something awful will happen. With Javi, it’s a real possibility that he could meet Jeb’s exact same fate, and there’s no place in the whole world Kate could move to that could get her far enough away from here if that happened.

The other reason she’s waited is that coming back, coming home, has provoked a swirling mess of feelings in her—an emotional tornado, if she’s honest, and it has taken honesty to let herself be hit by the force of those feelings instead of retreating to the mental bunker where she’s spent the last five years. Those winds are still calming. In the meantime, Kate hasn’t wanted to confuse the feeling of being home with a desire to be more than friends with Javi.

“Not then,” he says kindly, when she doesn’t reply right away. “I know you didn’t then.”

“Coming back,” Kate starts, her gaze drifting, “hasn’t been totally what I thought it would be. I’d be lying if I said you weren’t part of that. You’re the same as you were then, but different too. I’d never seen you lead a team before.”

“You surprised those guys listened to me?”

“No, I guess I just wasn’t expecting the way you made room for me. I saw that you were still on my side…

“I always have been.”

“I know,” she promises, meeting his eye. “And you trusted me again, immediately—”

“No reason not to,” Javi says easily.

“There were reasons not to,” she insists. Does she need to remind him of their first chase after she arrived? How she panicked? How she was the reason they didn’t get the third scanner set up and so couldn’t collect data that day? “But you vouched for me. Last time, with our team, you trusted me because I was the head of the project. It felt like you trusted me just as fully this time, even though it meant committing all those other people and all your resources.”

She’s surprised, while she’s being this sincere, that Javi laughs at her.

“I never trusted you just because you were the head of the project,” he explains. “I trusted you because you were you. You’re still you. You’re so you that Tyler’s ready to marry you too, and you’ve known each other less than a month.”

Kate makes a dismissive sound.

“You know there’s something between you,” Javi says. “That man is crazy about you.”

“I think he might just be crazy. It’s well-documented on the internet.”

“He’s always close to you.”

“So are you.”

“Exactly,” Javi agrees. “So I can speak to his motives.”

“We survived an EF4 together. He sheltered me with his body in the bottom of a swimming pool. Maybe we just shared an intense, near-death experience.”

“Is that all?”

Kate deflates.

“No. He is pretty hot.”

“That’s what I thought,” Javi says triumphantly.

There’s more to it than that, but Javi can obviously tell that already, so it doesn’t seem worth saying. Kate folds her pillow in half so she can sit up a little higher.

“Well, can we talk about the look on your face?”

“When?”

“‘Wouldn’t be my first rodeo,’” Kate quotes, badly mimicking Tyler’s voice.

“As if he meant anything by that.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s Tyler Owens! He just says shit for dramatic effect!”

Kate crosses her arms and stares at her friend with amusement.

“Probably!” Javi adds weakly.

“I could see you two married. Fake-married.”

“He is good at what he does,” Javi concedes, “when he’s not being a total jackass.”

“Is that all?” she teases.

She hears Javi’s deep sigh.

“I’ve watched a few of his YouTube videos,” Javi confesses. “He takes off his shirt sometimes.”

Kate sinks back down into bed after that. At some point, half-asleep, she hears Javi get up to use the bathroom. He switches off the TV on his way past, and the light quits flickering across Kate’s closed eyelids.

—

They aren’t chasing the next day, so they decide to stay in town for breakfast at the little diner. Because they’re together so much—hunched over the same screens, crammed into the same vehicles, bunked in the same motel rooms—it isn’t unusual for them to not eat together. Four of them practically feels like a family reunion, but Kate’s glad of the company. She, Javi, Tyler, and Boone grab a booth and flap open their cracked plastic menus.

Javi, seated opposite her and next to Boone, keeps looking at her. Kate can feel it without returning his gaze. When she relents and looks back at him while they’re eating, she sees (as she suspected she would) that he isn’t making eyes at her over his pancakes—he’s watching her with Tyler. She makes a face at Javi. There’s nothing to see! Tyler might be sitting beside her, but he’s intent on dipping his bacon into the yolks of his eggs, laughing across the table at something Boone’s telling him he captured in recent footage of the crew goofing around. Tyler and Kate aren’t looking at one another. They aren’t even touching. Yeah, maybe she can feel the heat of him because their thighs are almost close enough to touch on the seat, but it doesn’t mean any more today that it did yesterday. Javi’s just trying to make it weird, because of their conversation last night.

I could make it weird too, she threatens with her eyes. That makes Javi smile and go back to his pancakes.

After they’ve finished though, when Boone and Javi get into a discussion that quickly becomes so focused that it shuts out the other side of the table, Tyler nudges Kate’s arm with his elbow and jerks his head towards the door.

Outside, Kate takes a breath that doesn’t feel deep enough. It’s dry today. A field borders one side of the diner parking lot, and the wheat rustles crisply. Taking it all in is second nature, requires no thought at all. There’s the windspeed she can guess at when a breeze strokes across her arm; there’s wind direction, determined when a slightly stronger gush sweeps a strand of hair loose from her ponytail; she judges the atmospheric pressure with her sinuses; and she gathers all of this without even looking at the sky. When she does, it’s cloudless, flat as a blue tablecloth.

She looks at Tyler. He’s studying her.

“Just trying to pick up some tips,” he says, before she can say anything.

“And? What’ve you learned?”

Tyler just smiles mysteriously.

“You guys talk last night?”

“Me and Javi?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure,” Kate says. She knows it’s a vague answer, but Tyler will be bold enough to ask for the information he really wants. She’d bet on it.

She turns to face him fully, crosses her arms expectantly.

“Did you decide anything?” Tyler asks. He has his cowboy hat on, but the morning light slants low, making him squint when he looks at her. She circles him a little so he’s not staring into the sun.

“It shouldn’t really be a unilateral decision, should it?”

“Typically, yeah, it is just one person who decides to propose.”

“This isn’t about just one person,” Kate reminds him. “It’s about the crew.”

“I’m aware.”

“Well…”

“Well. Are you guys waiting on a group vote then?” he inquires facetiously.

“I didn’t say Javi and I agreed to get married,” she says, frowning.

“You didn’t say you didn’t either.”

She sighs at how frustrating Tyler’s being. He shifts his feet, making the gravel crunch under his boots. There’s a grit to him too—in how he only seems like he’s going along with this but obviously has something he feels he still has to say, something he hasn’t yet given up on. But Kate has a hard time with waiting. She likes making decisions quickly. Somehow, this—the prospect of marriage—is an exception. More complicated than it should be, if it’s just about securing the funding.

(It’s not. She knows it’s not, especially after talking to Javi last night.)

“I’m better at running,” Kate says quickly. “Lately.”

“What?”

“Than chasing.” She offers a weak shrug, not sure what to do with herself, with her body. Tyler’s so solid, standing here in front of her. So steady in his eyes.

“Do you wanna chase me?” He doesn’t sound surprised, exactly, but his words are less than a challenge.

“Seems like it’s my turn. You followed me to New York and all.”

“I didn’t follow you. Your flight got delayed and I had time to buy a ticket. I went with you.”

It’s true, he did. First, they waited out the delay together. The weather didn’t turn into what it might’ve, so it was only an extra hour. Tyler had time to call Boone about coming to get the truck, and Kate had time to call Javi about the storm warning. Javi hadn’t left the airport yet. Initially, he came inside. A tornado was about the only thing that could excuse there now being two trucks parked in the Drop-off Only zone outside. (That poor man.) They sat together in the chairs by the check-in desk, Kate and Tyler on either side of Javi as the three of them studied the weather data on his laptop, the hard-edged coloured shapes that scudded across dark county lines. As soon as they knew it was nothing, Javi said he’d drive back to get Boone himself, then bring him to the airport to collect the truck. Tyler said he didn’t have to. When Javi insisted, Tyler gave way. That surprised all of them. It was maybe the start of the new team.

In New York, Kate let Tyler come to work with her. Her coworkers were the weather-geek demographic Tyler appeared to have never even dreamed of; many of them were familiar with his YouTube channel. One of them asked if Dani was single. Kate grinned as she stood back and watched Tyler lean into his persona for the fans, into his accent—just the same as she had leaned away from her accent when she moved up here, not wanting questions about where she was from. Not wanting to think too often of home. She stood and watched, and then she went to her boss’s office and quit with as much grace as she could manage after taking a week off on almost no notice. Tyler urged the whole place into his trademark call and response on their way out the door.

“That’ll numb any hard feelings for a while,” he assured her as they took the elevator down to the lobby.

“What hard feelings?”

Tyler frowned at her.

“About losing you. They’re gonna miss the hell outta you, Sapulpa.”

“Too bad,” she said. She didn’t think it was true.

“Too bad is right. You belong to the South, and we’re takin’ you back.”

She wouldn’t let him help her pack up her apartment. What had once seemed fresh to her—the white walls and clean lines of starting over—now seemed barren and sad. She found she was glad to leave it. She didn’t want Tyler to see.

He spent his time in other ways. Took a ferry out to Liberty Island. Ate pizza in Brooklyn, pastrami on the Lower East Side. He got up to the Bronx to watch a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. Kate didn’t know how he managed it all. They were in New York for three and a half days. Tyler just beamed and told her his feet were killing him. He still helped her carry all her boxes down the stairs of her walk-up while the train rattled by.

They drove back to Oklahoma in a rental truck. Somehow, Tyler made it take four days, when they probably could’ve done it in two. He bought her an ice cream in St. Louis, laughed as it melted so fast that it ran down her hand.

She guesses this, now, standing in a diner parking lot, is overdue. Even though, like Javi said, she and Tyler have known each other less than a month. It doesn’t feel like it.

“What about you and Javi?” she asks bluntly.

“That could be fun,” Tyler allows. “There are a few more buttons there I wouldn’t mind pushing. Think he’d go for ‘Javi Owens’?”

A laugh bursts from Kate.

“I think you’d be taking your life in your hands if you asked him.”

When Tyler smiles at her, pleased but gentle, she gets it. She got it from them both: they’d get married for the application, probably even find it a lark, but it wouldn’t mean much more than that. There’d be less danger in it. That should be a good thing—a reason for Tyler and Javi to be the ones—but Kate knows it’s also the thing that’s making them all hold their breath. They’re used to this type of crossroad, the three of them, used to tilting their faces to the sky to check the conditions. In the end, they’ll always pick the road that leads them into danger, not away from it.

They both want Kate.

“You don’t have to chase me just because you think you should,” Tyler says sternly. “You don’t have to chase me at all.” His face softens. “I’m standing still.”

She laughs and, incredulous, asks, “Since when?”

“You,” he says simply. “I like Javi, Kate. I do.” But I want it to be me, his eyes say when his mouth stops.

“Yeah.” She knows. She can see that he does.

She and Tyler leave it there, because Boone and Javi are coming out of the diner now. They came in two vehicles and Kate goes with Javi because she knows he’ll let her think.

It’s officially not about the grant anymore. It’s not even about getting married. This is bigger and smaller than that. Kate puts the passenger-side window of Javi’s truck down (an older truck, no Storm Par logo) and leans into the onrush of air. The marriage would be strategic, but a relationship with either Tyler or Javi would be completely real. Real feelings, real expectations, real mess if it fell apart and they kept working together. Which they would; they all love this job too much.

For just a second, Kate shuts her eyes and wishes this wasn’t happening to her. Then she feels silly because, after Jeb, ever falling for another human being seemed astronomically unlikely. She stuck to storms. Had crushes on cloud formations. Made lovesick eyes at the sky when it turned a spooky shade of green. That Javi and Tyler are both ready to be with her seems like a miracle. She’s grateful. She just doesn’t know how to choose.

Javi leaves her alone for the entirety of the short drive. They pull into the motel lot behind Tyler and Boone and drive to the end where the doors of the crew’s motel rooms stand in a line. Dexter, Dani, and Lily are there as they pull in. They’re excited about something; Lily’s practically dancing on the sidewalk and Dani says something to Boone that makes him yank her into a hug.

Kate and Javi spill out of his truck.

“What’s going on?” she asks.

Lily springs towards her, raising her hand to show off a ring that’s slightly too big, slipping up and down her finger as Kate tries to look. Kate’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Dani and I got married!”

“Congratulations,” Tyler says, butting in before Kate can blurt out another What? or When?

“It’s just for the grant,” Lily reminds him, laughing and waving off his sincerity.

“Never thought I’d say somebody married me for the money,” Dani remarks wryly. She’s wearing a ring too. Hers fits better. Kate wonders where they got them, and assumes the tiny antique store on the main strip.

Lily blows Dani a kiss.

“I went as a witness,” Dexter says.

“This just happened?” Javi asks, looking at each of the three conspirators in turn.

Lily shrugs and says, “Yeah.”

“You didn’t talk to the rest of us about it,” Tyler says. Kate doesn’t think it’s quite a complaint, but he seems thrown to have been left out of the loop.

“Oh, like the three of you let us in on whatever you’ve been planning?” Dani demands, pointing out Tyler, Kate, and Javi.

Tyler looks a little sheepish after that.

“Haste was the order of the day,” Dexter says. “It seemed efficient. We can move forward with our application now.”

“Yeah,” Kate agrees, still a little stunned. “For sure. Efficient. Thanks for taking one for the team, you guys.”

“No problem,” Lily says, and pulls her into a hug.

It’s not until later, out at a bar to celebrate the wedding (or the marriage, or their hopes to deceive the government for financial gain, or just their crew, really, who delight in one another’s exploits), that Kate, Javi, and Tyler find themselves at the same table. As if it’s a coincidence. Kate presses the rim of her bottle of beer into her smile.

“Lived to fight another day,” Tyler says over the vibrant twang of music, staring at the rest of their crew as they line dance to and fro across the floor.

It’s so typically dramatic of him that Kate and Javi glance at one another, and Kate has to pinch her nose shut so beer doesn’t shoot out of it when she laughs.

“Owens, I saw you talking to Kate outside the diner this morning,” Javi reveals. “Didn’t look like you were pleading to be spared.”

“You were spying on us?” Kate demands, rounding on Javi. She gives his shoulder a half-hearted shove as he laughs.

“Hey! I wanted to see how things were gonna turn out!”

“I’m pretty curious about how things are gonna turn out myself,” Tyler asserts, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. He gives Kate a significant look. She dodges it, ducking her head with a smile. She can feel the both of them watching her.

Javi reads her right:  “Too soon to say, huh, Kate?”

She looks up, letting her eyes slide from one face to the other, incredibly fond of them both. Slowly, she grins.

“Guess you’ll just have to keep watching the weather,” she tells them.

Kate slaps her hands on the table and rises to join the others on the floor.

[bartxnhood]

cowboy casanova | t.o

tyler owens x fem!reader

based on this request: “Omg, how about Tyler Owens comforting reader on their first storm chase, maybe she’s really nervous or scared and he’s like don’t worry I ain’t gonna let anything happen to you… something like that???”

warnings: depictions of a tornado, reader has a panic attack. severe damage to homes and buildings.

w/c: 1.7k

a/n: thank you for the request! i added a touch of a backstory to help the plot go forward. i hope that’s okay!! i’m also currently in the theater about to watch it again (i saw it last night lol) enjoy <3

requests open

not proofread

Copyright © 2024 bartxnhood. All rights reserved. This original work is not allowed to be reposted on any platform in any format.

✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵

you see a man standing in a wide-open field, as the sky above you darkened to a menacing shade of gray. the once-gentle breeze turns into a fierce, howling wind, and you feel a sense of unease settle in the pit of your stomach.

you were assigned to follow him and his crew around while they chased these monstrous tornadoes then went in and dissolved the threat. you worked for a huge journaling company from the north, but you grew up in arkansas and became familiar with these devastating weather patterns.

now, you were in oklahoma where you’d be joining this storm chaser during a week-long chase.

“you ready to chase some storms?” his back was still towards you, and his southern drawl was familiar.

as the man in the maroon shirt and white cowboy hat, spun on his heels to face you, you were taken aback.

tyler owens.

“y/n?”

his blood ran cold, not expecting to see you after all of these years. you laughed in disbelief, “this is crazy..” you shook your head and crossed your arms, shifting your weight to one leg.

“you’re the journalist?”

you and tyler go way back. the two of you were in school together, majoring in meteorology.he started chasing these storms, becoming famous on campus.

but, it all came to a head one day when you got trapped and lost your best friend. that’s when you dropped meteorology and took up journalism. you documented the destruction, the path, how they moved, etc.

and now, you were writing about who was called the tornado wrangler. you should’ve done your research but you didn’t want the assignment.

but, he had become so popular with his crew. they’d go inside the twisters and release a mixture to help dissolve the storm. and it worked.

“you’re the wrangler?” you ask, and tyler laughs. that signature laugh that always made you want to punch him in his pretty little face.

tyler turns around and rests his hands on his hips. “what do you see?”

the wind picks up even further, swirling around you in a dizzying dance, pulling at your clothes and hair. you sigh, taking a few steps closer till you are standing next to him.

“there” you point to the east, the air was thick with an unsettling hum as a dark mass loomed on the horizon. the skies darkened further, and a chilling gust of wind whipped up debris and sent trees bending at unnatural angles.

"another one" he murmured, eyes locked on the clouds as his adrenaline spiked and his lips pulled into a smile that he couldn't help but wear every time a storm was brewing.

glancing over at you he tried to hide the excitement in his chest that he felt when one appeared, but tyler knew hiding your feelings from another storm chaser was like trying to hide a tornado in an open field.

"how much do you wanna bet it'll touch down two miles east of our position" he teased, eyes scanning the clouds for clues.

“mm” you shake your head, even though you hadn’t done it in years you still had it. “three.” you continue, then point to the wind and how it carries against the wheat field.

“look at the way the wind is carrying. it’ll go east and hit north. perfect conditions,” you add crossing your arms

“i think you have yourself a ef5.”

uou had it. the intuition to tell where a storm was going to go by only looking at the clouds, the way the winds were blowing, and the speed at which the storm moved.

tyler had a similar gift, every storm chaser had it, but he had never met someone who could predict the size of a storm, which was a rarity he had never seen before.

“ah EF5, huh? i’ll hold you to that. If you’re wrong, you’re buying me a beer.”

tyler owens would be the death of you.

“i’m not buying you anything, owens.”

you load up into his truck, snapping pictures of forming a storm. he was flooring the red truck in a wheat field right towards the storm so he could get ahead of it.

“ya miss it?” he yells, over the thunder. occasionally turning his head to look at you. you say nothing, continuing to snap pictures.

“sometimes.” you blurt, not looking back at him. “i just don’t miss the destruction” you continue, rolling up the window and reviewing the photos.

“you were good,” he says, one hand on the steering wheel and eyes still taking glances at you. “mm” you just hum in response, not wanting to talk about your storm chasing days.

suddenly, a funnel begins to descend from the clouds, growing larger and more ominous by the second. the air around you crackles with anticipation, and you realize that you are witnessing the terrifying formation of a tornado. an EF5.

this was the second time you had ever seen an EF5 form in front of you, this was frightening.

you held onto your camera tightly as tyler drove right towards the black abyss. “shit..” you mumble quietly.

as the rain beat down on the windshield, the engine's roar could hardly be heard above the gathering storm.

tyler's truck sped through the wide-open fields, creating a trail of dirt and dust in their wake. with his eyes locked on the approaching storm, he clinched his teeth and gripped the steering wheel firmly like a man about to die.

he had chased tornadoes before, but never an EF5. the adrenaline in his veins was making his heart race and his senses heighten as he pushed the truck to drive faster, the roar of the wind and thunder in their ears.

“what a beauty” he muttered, admiring the sheer force and size of the storm in front of them.

as your heart pounded furiously in your chest, you felt a sudden tightening of the breath in your lungs.

your mind raced with panicked thoughts, each one more terrifying than the last. you fought to stay calm, but the fear was overwhelming, like a living entity trying to consume you whole.

sweat beaded on your forehead, and your hands trembled as you held the camera. the world around them seemed to blur and spin out of control, like the tornado in front of them.

"tyler, we should go back," you yelled. tyler smiled, eyes fixed on the whirling green giant in front of him.

he yells, "not a chance, l/n. look at it!" as he maneuvers through the difficult terrain. “we can’t give up now!”

“stop!” you proceeded to yell, flashes of that night you lost your best friend. the way the sky looked, how it sounded, the rain on your skin, how cold you were. it was all flashing in front of you, experiencing the whole thing again.

tears brim your eyes, your body shaking like a leaf. “please! just stop!” you yell over the growl of the thunder clapping.

tyler’s heart sank to his stomach as he heard the raw emotion in your voice. he had teased you and challenged uou, but now it was clear that this was not just another storm for you.

it was a personal struggle that was tearing you apart and he had triggered it with his arrogance.

without a word, he stomped on the brakes and brought the truck to a screeching halt, his own heart racing against his ribs.

"y/n, look at me," he said, voice suddenly hoarse and quiet.

you’re gasping for air, pulling at the collar of your crewneck. the cab of the truck felt like it was closing in on you, you unbuckled the seat belt and tried to unlock the door. “i can’t do this” your bottom lip begins to quiver. “i have to..i gotta get out of here.”

you can’t even bring yourself to look at him. your mind is fogged with the traumatic experience of the last time you were caught in the eye of a storm like this.

tyler’s heart dropped as he saw you struggling, your gasping breaths and trembling body. he reached over to her, gently grabbing your wrist, preventing you from opening the door of the truck.

“hey, hey, whoa. look at me, look at me, please.” he pleaded, his voice firm but surprisingly gentle.

he reached out and took your chin, gently turning your head to face him. his eyes searched yours for a moment before narrowing in concern.

“y/n, listen to me. you need to breathe, sweetheart.”

your breathless, unable to think straight until your eyes meet his sea green orbs. you take in a deep breath and mirror tyler’s breathing.

inhale, exhale.

you repeated this until you eventually calmed down.

your hands continue to tremble as you speak, “tyler, i cannot do this. i just can’t.” hour southern drawl escaping. “it’s too much”

tyler watched as your rapid breathing slowly began to match his own, your hand gripping his tightly. his heart ached as he saw the fear and the anguish in your eyes, and knew that this was not just a simple fear of storms.

it was a trauma, something deeply personal, that had left a permanent mark on your soul.

he gently raised his other hand to your face, gently stroking your cheek with his thumb, trying to soothe you. “i know, i know” he whispered, his own tone gentle and soft.

“ain’t nothin gonna happen to you, kay? i won’t let it.” he assures your worries, wiping away the stray tear that escaped your eyes then tucked some hair behind your ear.

“i’ve got you.” he continues. you watch as his attention goes from you to the tornado in front of you. “if you want me to take you back i need to know, now” he says, looking back at you.

you sniffle, following his gaze to the twister.

if he could stop something like this it would be a huge achievement to the community. no more damage, no more homelessness. it would all be fixed.

“no..” you begin, and find your eyes back on him. “i’ll be fine.”

tyler nods, putting the truck into drive. one hand on the steering wheel and the other reaching for yours, giving you a reassuring squeeze. “you’ll be fine, city girl.”

you choke out a laugh, and shake your head.

“then, let’s chase this beaut!” he yips and slams his foot on the gas and takes off towards the monster of a tower.

[artist-issues]

just convinced my parents to come see Twisters with me (my dad loved the soundtrack) and more Nice Things:

The shot after the tragedy, first shot of Kate since the time skip, and it's a pan from her hand gripping the subway bar. What better way to communicate in a single instant, "it's been five year's but she's still in that moment, hanging on for dear life"

Storm Par's vehicles are all named after the Cast of the Wizard of Oz, but Kate and Javi's vehicle is called "Lion," because she needs courage, hello, but so does Javi. (I think the bad guy's driving Tin Man, who "needs a heart," but I can't confirm.)

When Kate agrees to try her experiment out and Tyler offers to help, she's like, "we're going to drop them right in front, we don't need to go all the way in, that's dangerous" and he's like "that's why we have to go all the way in!" And the whole time he's driving them in and she's panicking he's talking over her panic, describing all the true things about what they're doing: "extra weight on the chassis, augurs ready, etc." because that's what you do when you're trying not to act in fear—you focus on the things that are true instead of on the scary things that might happen. And because he pushes her through that she gets to see something she, the weather-lover, never got to see before—the center of the storm! And come out on the other side okay! That's wonderful! He literally gets her past the moment she'd never been past, in storm chasing.

The part where Kate is trying to get Tyler out from under the debris but she can't and then Javi comes in and uses leverage to get him out—exactly the same thing Jeb did to turn their trailer over before the Tragedynado hit the first time. Except this time, instead of beat-for-beat repeating the tragedy after the leverage-stunt, Kate drives toward the tornado. How great is that??

Javi says "you have a gift, we have to use it to help the people we love" and Tyler says, "figured college would be a better use of my brain [instead of getting stepped on by cows]" but there's this lovely combination of "use what you've got for others, and enjoy that."

Kate lets go of the steering wheel and lets the tornado toss her around only after she gets the barrels to release, and finishes what she started.

Tyler takes her bags out of the airport for her in the last shot. That's all. That's it.

[bobsfic]

summary: tyler’s had an effect on her since the moment they met. it’s not quite the trademark tyler owens’ effect but it consumes her all the same.

or, kate works through her trauma one storm at a time and somehow tyler’s always by her side.

word count: 9,834

------

What she refuses to admit to Javi, to herself—to anyone—is that she's terrified. But he’s encouraging instead of upset, and she swallows her fear and watches dandelion seeds float in the air, trying to ignore that the last time she did this, her friends died. “You know I used to do that too.” The honeyed voice coming from behind her cuts through the memories like a warm knife through butter, and she turns to find Tyler Owens sauntering in her direction. She doesn’t know a thing about him, but he rubs her the wrong way—so cocky and sure of himself, and he definitely thinks she’s some kind of amateur. But she can’t help being intrigued as they talk. Can’t help feeding him false information either, before she goes back to Javi and makes the call with more confidence than she feels.

------

Read more on ao3!!!!!

[jakeotters]

Okay get ready cause I’ve got a TON

1. I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve any of this

2. I like you damnit! Is that what you wanted to hear?

3. You make me want to be better

4. Can you please come and get me

5. “Why didn’t you tell me?” , “I thought you’d bench me”

I have more

thank you so much for sending these!

I Don’t Deserve You (scott miller x reader)

warnings: kissing, scott is NOT a dick (surprise), there’s a thunderstorm

a/n: i apologize for taking so long to get to requests, i’ve been in the process of moving and am still trying to get settled so i haven’t been able to sit down and write :(

my inbox is open for requests! rules for requests are on my pinned post :)

Your passion for weather extended long beyond the confines of your chase vehicle and the stormy skies during the months of April and May. It may have been the offseason, but that didn’t stop you from running outside to stand below the darkening clouds that hung in the sky above you.

And here you were, standing on the concrete pathway that lead up to your front porch, head tilted up, staring at the sky like you’d never seen a storm before. The darkness of the clouds caused a shadow to hang around you, the light fading as the thick blanket of clouds took over the afternoon sunlight.

Scott watched you from the screen door that separated you from the inside of the house. He loved storms just as much as you did, but something about your love for them was so endearing to him. He always watched when you’d stand at the door, watching the towers of cumulonimbus clouds grow into thunderstorms, some of them growing into supercells.

Scott waited for the moment when you’d jump up and pull your shoes on, running out to see what awaited behind the safety of your house. It was almost like you had a sixth sense that told you when storms were coming.

He’d stand at the door and watch when you were outside, you were just as the beautiful as the storms you loved watching. It was one of the only times when his rigid demeanor would melt away and his hard personality would soften.

You watched the clouds, a steady rain beginning to fall from the grey sky above you. Thunder rumbled in the distance, low but clear enough to give a stern warning of what was coming. You didn’t say anything, the twinkle in your eyes was enough to show just how amazed you were.

Scott opened the screen door, stepping out onto the porch. He was quiet, not wanting to disturb you. You looked so peaceful, so relaxed despite the rumble of thunder growing louder and the rain beginning to fall faster. The wind picked up, goosebumps forming on his arms as the cooled air hit his skin.

Lightning began to flash across the sky, illuminating the sky and the ground below. The white flashes shined in your eyes like shooting stars. The rain was starting to soak your hair and your skin, the wind blowing water on you, but you didn’t move. You stood there, eyes focused on the sky like nothing else existed.

Scott stepped off the porch, making his way down the pathway to where you were. The rain immediately hit his skin, the lightning shining in his blue eyes. For the first time, you took your eyes away from the storm. You looked at him, immediately feeling his presence behind you.

Scott didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to, the way his lips met yours was enough to tell you what he felt. The rain dripped down your face and his, but at that moment, nothing mattered. He kissed you long and passionately, wanting to feel your lips on his forever.

When he pulled away, he rested his forehead against yours. The smell of his colgone filled your nose, mixing beautifully with the smell of the rain.

“Scott…”

Your voice was quiet, barely above a whisper.

“I don’t deserve you, I don’t deserve any of this.”

You were taken aback by his words. He wasn’t one to be soft, or express how much something meant to him, but his admission felt so raw, so personal. You met his eyes with yours.

Both of you were soaked, your clothes and skin dripping with rainwater. His eyes were soft, everything about his usual harsh demeanor was gone. You couldn’t wrap your mind around any words to say, all you could do was wrap your arms around him. He responded by holding you to him.

He loved you. The storms were beautiful, but there was no one like you. He didn’t deserve you.

[a-fluffer-nutter]

Certain Conditions

A/N - Day 15 of Tickletober!! Today's prompt is one of my favorites: Are you ticklish? I would like to say: Hey @otomiyaa and @fanficsandfluff I cooked us up some Twisters fluff! I hope you both and everyone else enjoys!!

Word Count: 1,440

            “No way,” Kate perked up from her spot on the bed, sitting up so her head was supported by her arm, elbow pressing into the squeaky mattress as she excitedly eyed Tyler.

            “No way what?” Tyler repeated, turning his head on the pillow so he could see his girlfriend better. He hadn’t expected Kate to break the silence between them, the duo having been quiet as they watched a terrible disaster movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Aside from the occasional “but that could never happen!” the two were silent as they cuddled on the bed of the first Best Western they could find in Kansas that evening.

            The team had been out chasing for the last few days. There hadn’t been many storms with the right conditions to become large tornado producing supercells, which was good for all the towns they drove through, but they had managed to spot a smaller twister just outside of Hays, Kansas, which was where they found refuge for the night. After stopping at Freddy’s for burgers and custard, the team split up into different rooms. Now that Kate had secured funding for their research, they were able to splurge a bit on hotel expenses.

            “Are you ticklish?” Kate mused, unable to bite back her smile. Brows raised in a startled confusion; Tyler just stared at her.

            “Why you think that?” Tyler drawled, smirking up at her.

            “You made a noise,” practically vibrating with excitement, Kate reached out and poked the man’s side. Now expecting it, the tiny twitch his muscles did had been stunted and controlled.

            “You’re making a lot of noises right now,” letting out a small huff from his nostrils, Tyler mimicked her, poking Kate in the ribs. The woman let out a little giggle and smacked his hand away.

            “You’re gaslighting me,” letting out an exaggerated whine, Kate decided she was going to take drastic measures.

            “And why would I do that?” Tyler let out a chuckle as Kate rolled over onto him. With absolutely no resistance from Tyler, Kate was able to hug his waist with her legs, pinning him onto the bed. Both palms pressed into his chest as if she was about to perform CPR, Tyler let out a huff of disbelief. “Why, hello there, love.”

            “Do it again,” Kate said, using both hands to gently tap her fingers on the side of his ribs. Wiggling his torso a bit, Tyler stayed focused on the woman on top, completely fascinated and in awe of her actions. Kate was a scientist; if she had a hypothesis, she was going to certainly experiment to get answers.

            As if to taunt her, Tyler lifted his other arm under his pillow, lifting his head slightly as he intertwined his fingers. Appearing absolutely relaxed; Tyler gave Kate a look that said, “go ahead.” So that’s what she did.

            Tracing each rib slowly, as if to not miss any micro-reaction, Kate felt his skin twitch beneath her fingertips. Her fingers would start at the sternum, select which rib to follow, and slide her fingers as far back as she could reach, then hop up to the next rib. As this went on, Tyler watched her eyes as they were locked onto his skin, meticulously scanning and looking for answers. His breathing remained even and calm, but goosebumps spread across his body as she trailed the pads of her fingers along his pectoral muscles. Next, her fingers journeyed along his collar bone down to his rotator cuff and back to continue against his throat. This touch made him shiver as her soft touch reached the soft scruff on the underside of his chin to his jaw line, following the bone up to his ears, eliciting a sigh of serenity. Nails dragging along the outline of his ears, her exploration led her down the sides of his neck.

            “Feels good,” he whispered, eyes now closed as he focused on the pleasant sensation clouding his brain. Letting out a soft chuckle as Kate’s fingers slid across the base of his neck, Tyler’s chuckle became a bit more sporadic as her nails slid into his armpits. Now grinning wide, Tyler’s shoulders bounced as the sound of his laugh stayed in his throat, the dam not cracked fully.

            “I knew it,” Kate beamed victoriously, her nails skittering across the soft skin quicker.

            “Never said I wasn’t,” Tyler drawled, doing a good job to not lose his composure. “The rest of them don’t think I am.”

            “Have they never tried?” Kate paused; head tilted like a confused puppy. She had seen the others poking each other and giving each other little cheer-up tickles every other day it seemed, so why wouldn’t they do it with Tyler?

            “I can hide really well,” Tyler shrugged, which Kate knew was a fact. With how little he had reacted during her experiment, it was clear that Tyler was likely only reacting at all because it was Kate that was tickling him. “There’s only one spot I think I’m truly ticklish.”

            “And where is that?” interest piqued; Kate reached down to stroke Tyler’s cheek.

            “Had a friend squeeze my knee back in college. Tickled like hell if I remember right,” he replied, running his fingers through her hair. Letting out a soft laugh when Kate’s eyes lit up, Tyler said, “Go ahead and try.”

            Like a child waking up on Christmas morning, Kate was excited as she scooched back enough that she slipped down his legs and was now seated on his shins. Giving him a reconfirming glance, Kate wrapped her hands around the spot just above his knees and squeezed. Jolting, Tyler let out a bark of a laugh, startling them both. Determined to get as much data as she could, Kate continued to squeeze the area, then place her palms on his kneecaps while using her fingers to gently dig into the skin surrounding the patella.

            “Shit!” Tyler’s laugh was deep and came straight from his belly. Nose scrunched; Tyler’s smile framed his face as he let the laughter consume him. Slipping her fingers behind his knees, Tyler’s laugh became a bit higher pitched and wheezy as he hugged himself.

            “I wonder,” Kate pondered aloud, and while she continued to scribble into the back of his left knee, she reached forward with her right hand and skimmed her fingers over his abdomen.

            “Kate!” Tyler squeaked out before slipping into silent laughter, her stubby nails tracing along his lower belly and around his navel. Intrigued by this discovery, Kate let go of his knee and crawled forward. Once she found an opening, Kate’s fingers wormed their way into his armpits once again and provoked a whole different reaction than the low chuckles he let out earlier.

            “You’re wrangling this tornado, that’s for sure,” Tyler managed to joke between peals of wheezy laughter.

            “Interesting,” Kate stated in a scholarly tone as Tyler cackled, pressing his arms into himself in attempts to still Kate’s fingers. “You’re like a tornado! You need conditions to be met to be ticklish, just like how a tornado can only spawn if the pressure and temperature conditions are correct!

            “I am!” Kate exclaimed, her enthusiasm contagious as Tyler laughed a bit harder. “If only it was this easy to wrangle a tornado.”

            “If only,” Tyler panted the moment Kate withdrew her hands and began to run her palms over his torso as if she was smoothing out wrinkles on a shirt.

            “I am definitely going to start tickling you more,” Kate giggled, wiggling a bit like an excited dog. Tyler let out a huff before squeezing her hips, forcing her to let out a squeal.

            “If you tickle me when we’re near a tornado, I will crash into it and we’ll both die,” Tyler teased as he continued to tase her sides.

            “I would never do that,” Kate giggled hysterically, grabbing at his hands to push them away. “Though if you don’t stop being mean, I will definitely tell the crew about your little secret.”

            “Then I’d tell everyone about your little secret,” Tyler warned, both hands kneading into her tummy.

            “Deal,” Kate managed to grab one of Tyler’s hands and shake it as if they had just finished a successful business meeting. As Tyler pulled his hands away, Kate flopped down beside him and resumed her previous position before her experimentation took place, cuddling into his side. Inhaling deeply, Kate became enraptured by Tyler’s natural smell and snuggled closer, resting her head on his chest, an arm draped over his belly. Closing her eyes, Kate did not fight back against the urge to fall asleep, completely comfortable in the arms of her love.